We're taking our Bibles and turning, please, to 1 Kings. The book of 1 Kings, the 17th chapter. 1 Kings chapter 17. As we look at the life of Elijah, we find in 1 Kings chapter 17 the prophet of God walking faithfully when in verse 2, the word of the Lord came unto him saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, that I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.' So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening. They drank of the brook. It came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongs to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, as the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruz. Behold, I'm gathering two sticks that I may go and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. Elijah said unto her, fear not. Go and do as thou has said, but make me thereof a little cake first and bring it unto me and after and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord of Israel, the God of Israel, the barrel of meals shall not waste, neither shall the crews of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. She and he and her house did eat many days. Most of us. have not considered what Elijah had to consider in the passage to which we turn this evening. What do we do when our brook dries up? Garlock, California is an interesting place. Garlock, California is east of Bakersfield, California in the El Paso mountain range. The town of Garlock has no one living there. It's a ghost town. They once had a school. They once had a church. They once even boasted of a literary club. But they lacked one thing. There was no water. William Henry Smith, nicknamed by the town's residents, The Burrow, is probably the most famous person ever to live in Garlock, California. The Burrow actually worked eight years to dig a half-mile tunnel through a mountain near Garlock His name is in the Guinness Book of World Records for digging Solo, the largest tunnel through any mountain. He found very little gold and something else he didn't find. He never found any water at all. Reality is, on a spiritual level, all of us from time to time find ourselves subjected to drought. Now I'm not talking, of course, this evening of a physical drought. We're blessed in America to have an abundance of resources. But all of us have, from time to time, known the drought that comes when fellowship seems to be denied, when peace doesn't seem to come to us along the way, when we lack wisdom or we're hurting in a thirst for love. Droughts. How do we handle our spiritual droughts? So we open our Bibles to 1 Kings 17. Elijah has a problem. The seventh verse says, the brook dried up. I've underlined that in my Bible because there have been times in my life when it seems the brook has dried up. We discover in this passage that Elijah the Tishbite had obeyed God and moved to Cherith because that's where God promised to keep him. It's where God promised to feed him. It's where God promised to allow him to enjoy the water that was necessary for life. And when he moved to Cherith, the brook was flowing. Everything was good. The ravens were coming. And then he watched the brook as it slowly dissipated. It became a little trickle. Then it became just a few mud puddles. Then it was just some clay on the ground reminding him of where that brook used to be. Elijah's facing a problem of monumental proportions. And God wants us to realize Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. What would you do if your brook was drying up? Can't you imagine that there by that place where water once sustained him, Elijah's mind began to wrestle with God and perhaps he blamed God. God, you're failing me. God, you promised, in fact, verse 4, God said, it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook. I heard you say it. Where's the water, God? Elijah was facing innumerable dangers, not just the danger of perishing for lack of water. But Elijah had stood before Ahab and claimed that he was responsible for this drought, making him less than a popular person in Israel at the time. I think God has placed this passage before us so that we can learn from Elijah's example when our brook dries up. The details of Elijah's life are important to us so that we can learn to respond in a biblical fashion in trials. Many people here, if they were polled, would answer, I don't like change. I won't ask you for a polling tonight because I'm a pastor and I've heard that from people for many years. I just know it's true. I'm not comfortable with change. You know, the book of Hebrews says we have no continuing city here. The idea is things are going to change. There are times when our brooks are going to dry up. How do we respond? What should I do when my brook dries up? Let me recommend that we respond like Elijah. First, rely on the Word of God. Rely on the Word of God. Without question, Elijah was a man whose steps were ordered by the Lord. He'd been taken from his family. He'd been taken from his friends. He'd been taken from his home. He'd been taken from his comforts. He'd been told by God to live here at the brook Cherith, and now Cherith has dried up. The water that has supplied Elijah's physical needs have now failed, and it would seem that God, with the water, has failed Elijah. But then I read verse 8. and the word of the Lord came unto him saying." What a blessing to see Elijah's reliance on God's word. There are some things I learn as I watch Elijah in this passage moving from place to place by the counsel of the word of God. First, I discover that the pathway of obedience can often be unappealing. When Elijah moved to Cherith, he was not moving to a five-star resort. There would be no massage therapist there to help him with his headache. There'd be no one there with sweet oils to place upon his head. He was living in a humble place by the brook Cherith. He was learning that God has promised to supply all of his needs, and as it's well said, not all of his greeds, that God was providing. 1 Timothy 6 says in verse 8, having food and raiment, therewith let us be content. This morning we heard a wonderful testimony in song by those who testified of the grace of God that we shall not want. God sent Elijah to Cherith. The word Cherith means to separate. God had separated His obedient prophet from the disobedient Israelites. Amos chapter 8 is being fulfilled in Elijah's time. It will be fulfilled again. There was a famine in the land, not just a famine of bread, but a famine of the Word of God. And so this man of God with the Word of God was separated from the people of God so that they might experience a terrible famine, not just of water, but of the Word. But he was separated from fellowship, separated from people. God has a way of separating his servants, separating them from temptations and distractions. He's near the Jordan River Valley. He's trusting God for provisions. He's in a place that he would have never chosen to be. And now, verse eight, the word of the Lord came to him and said, verse nine, arise, get thee to Zarephath. Obedience to God's Word is sometimes unappealing, and obedience to God's Word is sometimes unusual. Zarephath, why would he want to go to Zarephath, this place that belonged to Zidon? Zarephath means a furnace. This was a city that was known for its smelting. It was a place where metallurgy was practiced. Zarephath would have been the last place in the mind of Elijah that he'd wanted to go. Zarephath was eight miles away from Jezebel's hometown. Elijah had faced off with Ahab. Until I pray again, there will be no rain. Ahab was married to Jezebel. Jezebel was the leader of the Baal cult. And God is saying, Elijah, I'm gonna move you real close to the place where Jezebel feels most at home, and I'm gonna take care of you there. Oh, by the way, Elijah, it's a hundred mile journey, on foot, during a drought, and don't forget, everybody in this country blames you for this drought. Oh, and did I mention that King Ahab wants to kill you? and He's been sending people to look for you? God has a marvelous way of protecting His servants. Sometimes His protection seems to us very unusual, but the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And we trust the Lord with all our heart. We neatly not on our own understanding and all our ways acknowledging him. And he directs our path. You can rely on the word of God to give you wisdom in the time when you're asking, where should I be? What should my next step be? And step by step, God's word becomes our guide as God's spirit empowers our understanding. He recognized in this journey the ways of God. I find embedded in this familiar story of the trials of Elijah the fingerprints of omnipotence. Elijah's being led one step at a time And as Elijah is being led, he's being led to see the Lord in ways that otherwise he would have never seen. God knows that when he puts us through trials and moves us one step at a time along the way, that trials have an amazing way of adjusting our focus. None of us like to volunteer for trials. Now, we're told that the triangle of our faith is much more precious than gold. But for Elijah to hear a rise and go to Zarephath, Suddenly Cherith would have looked good. And especially when the Lord gave the rest of the council that he'd be cared for by a widow. For this period of time, most believe about a year, God has been miraculously providing. Ravens have come in in the morning and ravens have come in in the evening and there's water for him to drink. and his peace and solitude with the Lord has not been disturbed and God's promises have been known. But you know, there's something true about all of us. Miracles over time tend to become mundane and almost unappreciated. Like the children of Israel when we're being fed from manna, suddenly we feel like we're entitled to manna. And we begin to murmur, even when God has been providing for us along the pathway. And so the Lord has a wonderful way of adjusting our focus, adjusting that focus upward. God wants us to glorify him for his provision, not to simply be glorifying the provision. We have the capacity, every one of us, to rejoice in what God has created and fail to see the creator who gave it to us. And so there are times along our pathway when trials come, and when the trials come, suddenly our focus upward becomes very real and very necessary, and that's a good thing. It's interesting when you study the account of creation in the book of Genesis. Many people become puzzled when they see that God created the sun on the fourth day. So we go through the days of creation. He created the night and the day. He created the sky and the sea. On the third day, he created the dry land and the vegetation. And we puzzle and we say, wait, how could there be vegetation without the sun? Because the sun is necessary for the vegetation to grow. Creationists who look at this problem are heard to say, God did this purposely. Do you know how many pagan religions around the world have worshipped the sun? And so to keep us from worshipping the sun and believing it to be the source of life, God created vegetation on the third day and the sun on the fourth so that we glorify the creator rather than the creation. Because this is a problem we have. Romans chapter 1 addresses the problem when it says in verse 25, God looked down on those who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever. And even so with us, we become fixated on our creature comforts. Yes, we're thankful for what we have, but somehow we become more fixated on what we have than on the One who gives us what we have. And so it is along the way that God says, Elijah, you know what? I'm going to dry that brook up and I'm going to send you on to a place called Zarephath. Your focus could become on the ravens and on the water rather than on the one who promises to take care of you. And you know what? It happens to us in our community of Christians even in 2018. God takes away a job. and suddenly our eyes are on heaven and our focus has been redirected. God takes away a friend, one that we thought we could count on, and suddenly we're looking to the one who's a friend that sticks closer than a brother. God takes away a family member. We wonder how we can go on. God has amazing ways of showing us his ways in the lives of his people. These things happen to them for our example. Look at Elijah and realize the ways of the Lord's can be recognized here. For the trials of our faith will affect our fellowship. In verse 10, he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering the sticks. Now, I don't know how he recognized that this was the woman. But as I look at this story, I discover along the way that this man who must have been hesitant to travel 100 miles incognito to go to a place ever so close to the powerful forces of Jezebel, leaving that place of tranquility, coming down to this place of Zarephath, as he travels along the way, the Lord is humbling him. He's gonna let a widow woman, verse nine, sustain him. For the Jewish people, the widow women were held in regard and ministered to carefully for no one was more dependent than a widow woman. And this strong prophet who is soon going to stand before the prophets of Baal and take a sword and destroy them, what a humbling experience as he walks close to the Mediterranean Sea And he settles in with this widow woman and her son. He's no longer in that place of solitude. Now his influence of ministry is going to be expanded. And this happens in 2018. You say, Pastor, how does that happen? The doctor says, I'm sorry to inform you of this, but your kidney malfunction means that you're going to have dialysis. And suddenly you find yourself in a place where the word of God is going to be ministered from you to others, a place that you would have never elected. You're going to visit the cancer center. You think those two words put together are probably the scariest words I've ever heard. Xerophath. A furnace. God puts you in that place. God puts you in that place so that an opportunity can arise. The axle of your car all of a sudden has a grinding noise and you pull into a garage and you've never met the mechanic before. That's a scary proposition. And as you pray and wonder along the way, the Lord gives you an opportunity to share the gospel with someone that you've never met before. It's interesting how the widow woman begins her conversation with Elijah. She said, as the Lord, by God, live at first 12. I have not a cake." Elijah had stood before Ahab and said, the Lord my God lives. And as the Lord my God lives, there'll not be rain. Perhaps God, through the conversation with his widow woman, was bringing Elijah back to those places of spiritual commitment. But I know this, Elijah is showing to us the ways of God in our lives. Often when those adversities come and our brook dries up, those trials adjust our focus, those trials affect our fellowship, and those trials come to affirm our faith along the way. Elijah said unto her, Fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me. What a selfish prophet. I used to think that when I was a Sunday school child and the Sunday school teacher was teaching this lesson. I can't imagine asking a widow woman to feed me first. Her faith was being tested as well as his. Whether it be at Cherith or Zarephath, God always supplies for his servant. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, verse 14, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth. Elijah is going to see a brook sustain him, ravens feed him, a widow's vessels continue to be filled, as he starts to realize that God keeps His promises, God answers prayer, the invisible fingerprints of God are present in the time of my trials. The psalmist said in Psalm 34 and verse 9, O fear the Lord, ye his saints. For there is no want to them that fear Him. Psalm 119 verse 67, Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I have kept Thy word. So what do you do when your brook dries up? You rely on the Word and you recognize the ways of God and you become a ready witness along the way. You become a ready witness. Listen to Psalm 50 and verse 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me. Trials become more precious than gold because we're able to witness to others through them. Just this evening in our men's prayer time, we paused to go around the circle and just thank the Lord for something. It was a precious time. We paused to thank the Lord because a man trusted Christ this past week because someone that he knew had died, and one of our good members was able to say, someday you're going to die and you need to be ready. And he shared the gospel with him. A gospel opportunity came out of a trial. I received a phone call this week. The person on the other end of the phone call said, I would have never selected this. This has been an awful trial, but I know that I've been able to witness to at least three people through it. These are the ways the Lord works. Our adversity becomes our opportunity, and our extremity becomes an opportunity for bringing testimony to others. None of us would choose it, but the Bible tells us in verse 16 that that barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail. We ask the question, were there lessons being learned? Oh, yes. God's servant was being prepared at Cherith and at Zarephath for Mount Carmel. Through the trials, great lessons are learned. So the psalmist would say in Psalm 119 and verse 71, it's good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. Isaiah 41 and verse 10 says, fear thou not, for I am with thee, be thou not dismayed, for I am thy God, I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. I love the passage in Isaiah 46. or 49 rather, verse 15, that says, can a woman forget her sucking child? That she should not have compassion on the son of her womb, yea, she may forget, yet I will not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. You see, tomorrow's trials, tomorrow's trials will be accompanied by tomorrow's God. And in your journey of faith, you're gonna see some brooks dry up. You'll have a job loss along the way, a relationship fail, a health report that's not exactly what you'd expected. Your brook will dry up and God will lead through his word and by his ways to new opportunities, so be ready because those opportunities to witness are always around us to see God's power. The Lord would say in Luke chapter four, as he talked to the children of Israel who thought that their position before God was something special. He said, were there not many widows in Israel in the times of Elijah? And yet he would take Elijah to this widow woman in the area of Lebanon, north of Israel, a widow of Sidon. Who could imagine? God could imagine. We focus our attention on Elijah in this passage. I wonder what the day will be like when we meet the widow woman of Zidon and hear the story of how God kept bringing the meal that was necessary. Yes, our brook will dry up, but the psalmist has said in Psalm 34 and verse 10, the young lions do lack and suffer hunger. that they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. What a blessing to know we can trust in the Lord, even when our brook dries up. Let's stand together, please, as we pray. Father, this evening, may we be refreshed from your word and ready to face the trials tomorrow, remembering that the steps of a good man are indeed ordered by the Lord. Oh, God, I pray that you'd help us this evening to rely on you in the trials to show forth your grace to others, to be refreshed by your word and led by your spirit. Lord, this this week, things will happen in the lives of those who have gathered here. Totally unexpected circumstances that they would they would never have desired. Lord, you will be using those, so I pray you'd make us sensitive servants. Help us in the midst of the trials to listen for your word, and help us to encounter the God of Israel and be led by your grace. Help us to see the crews of oil in the meal ever being sustained. And Lord, along the way, give us a widow woman to speak to. Give us someone to share the gospel with, that some other heart that's been discouraged would be encouraged by seeing the promises of God as shared through your people. Lord, help us when our brooks dry up to realize that You've given to us ever-sustaining water of the Spirit that never runs dry. So, Lord, use Your Word in our lives, and may our steps know Your direction. In Christ's name we pray, amen.