I know you're young now, but there will come a time where as a Christian, as a believer, God's going to call on you to trust him in deep, deep ways. And we come to a story today that I've entitled, He Gone. Because from all practical observations, it looked like this boy was dead and yet God used Elijah in an amazing way to show God's own glory. So, let's look at this. It's in 1 Kings chapter 17, actually beginning at verse 17. After this, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. Now, after what? Well, after Elijah had confronted Ahab, after there was no rain, after he was by a brook with birds feeding him, after he had gone and he's spending time with this widow and her son, and basically day by day learning to trust the Lord. We live in a country where we're just blessed, and so we're not necessarily worried about the next meal, but Elijah didn't have that. option. They had to work, they had to look for food, and yet God was providing for them each and every day. He was taking care of that. And so it was after these things that this thing is going to happen. So let me read that again to you. After the son of the woman, the mistress of the house became ill, and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. Well, we don't know exactly what was wrong with the widow's son, but this illness was so bad that the boy eventually died. There was actually no breath left in him, so imagine that. He is dead. Next verse, verse 18. And she said to Elijah, what have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son. Now, Elijah had not done anything wrong, but he was blamed. She's blaming him for the worst thing that's ever happened to her. And I'm telling you, this happens. You may not have seen it over the years, but there will be times where people will react. Friends will even react in ways that you never thought when the pressure hits them hard. So don't be shocked by that and don't think to yourself, well that must not be a friend because of what they're doing. Something's happened that's hurt them. I'm not talking about whack jobs where people are always from day to day you don't know what to think. I'm talking about normal people that when something bad hits them how they respond and she responds with him with complete blame. The new Living Translation says, oh man of God, what have you done to me? Have you come to punish my sins by killing my son? So she's in tears. And I like how Elijah responds to her. He's just quiet about it. And in verse 19, he says this, and he said to her, give me your son. And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged and laid him on his own bed. And so this dead boy is being taken care of gently by this prophet of God. And so there's going to be times where things can be bad for you, and then it almost seems like it gets worse. People that you'd be surprised of how they're responding to you. And if you can, in the power of God, respond in gentleness, toward your friends, toward other people, and just let them vent and just be there for them. It's amazing. Later, it'll hit them. what they said to you, what they did to you. You don't wait for an apology. You don't wait for them to get everything right. Just love them and be a friend to them. And as time goes by, they'll get a clue that you care about them. And so we see Elijah do this. Verse 20 says, and he cried to the Lord, O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn by killing her son? And so where he had spent a lot of time alone with God, this was the place where he stayed and prayed. He now is praying for this son of hers. Lord, what are you doing? What are you trying to tell me? Why would you break the heart of this dear mother? I've obeyed you, I've waited upon you, I've urged her to wait upon you, and now this, and this situation is beyond me. I can't seem to get above it. I can't get relief from it. Lord, what are you doing? What do you mean by this?" And so he's crying out to God, and sometimes we get to the point, you don't know exactly what to say, you don't know exactly what to do. You're just trusting God with this step. And then verse 21, then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, Oh Lord, my God, let this child's life come into him again. And so he's crying out to God. He's saying, please do this. And this three times thing, I don't know where he gets that from. That's between him and the Lord. There's times where we're going to step out in faith and trust God and He's not giving us a pattern here of what to do. This is what Elijah did in our own lives. I don't know how this plays out as we pray for people, as we care about people, as we love people, but this is what happened. Look at that again, verse 21. Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again. So that's some prayer. He's saying, please have this. It's happened to others, and there's no precedence for this miracle. So, God, I'm trusting you for this miracle. And sometimes you're going to have circumstances that are outside your control, but he's pleading to God for this. God, if you can, Would you please do this? And I know you can do it. So God, this is, I turn this over to you and look what God does. And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. So, I don't know what happened up in that little upstairs room, but the corpse begins to stir, and Elijah saw life come back into the Lord's body. And wow, I would be so happy. God, thank you so much for what you've done. Look at verse 23. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, see, your son lives. So it wasn't see what I did. It's not, um, pointing at myself, he said, see, your son is alive. He's giving glory to God. And so when God uses you in whatever way he does that, don't make it about you. Make it about the Lord. Give him the glory for what he's done. And the woman said in verse 24, and the woman said to Elijah, now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth. And so I kind of want to encourage you today that there's times we have people watching us. We have people that are saying, do we believe God? Do we trust God? And sometimes in their greatest crisis is when they need somebody more than anything else. I've had opportunities to spend time with people over the years and what I find is the hospital visit, the funeral visit, when they're going through a hard time, saying kind words to them, coming alongside them and encouraging them. Those are the times that are golden. It's easy to be around people when the party's going on. It's a whole other thing when it's the hard time. So he gone, but he back.