God, are you there?

me like, what would be the title of what we're

doing tonight? And I didn't really have one,

but it's one that I think is a question that

comes to mind, and maybe many of you have asked

before, and that is, God, are you there? So we'll

be in 1 Kings chapter 19, 4 through 21, the story

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

of Elijah. Sure. Yeah, you go ahead, Greg. First

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

Kings, chapter 19, 4 through 21. Yes, yeah, I'm

not going to typically start off reading all

of it to save us some time. It's quite the story,

so I'll do a little bit of recap and we'll read

it as it applies. And so kind of in that vein

of, God, are you there? One of the openings would

be... Have you ever just been done? And I don't

mean with a situation, you've lost your patience.

I mean to the point of trial after trial and

you cry out, you know what, God, I'm good. Like

if you just take me home right now, then no complaints

from me. I'm content. Just call me home. This

is where we find Elijah here in verse four. He's

exhausted. He's running for his life. He's wishing

that he might die. But as we see he still has

a ways to go Now if this was a film I'd imagine

this would actually be the opening scene if you've

seen the Emperor's New Groove It opens up with

Kuzco the llama right just say oh my goodness.

I'm about to you know just I'm done and so keeping

in that same vein will actually Kind of run through

quick background on how we actually got here

So Israel and Judah at this time they were split

they were warring against each other and in particular

Israel had a lot of infighting people trying

to claim the right to be the king and so Jeroboam

is the first king and then an effort to keep

power and disunity in the people of God he Constructs

two golden calves and so that people of Israel

won't have to travel to Judah into Jerusalem

And he also establishes sort of a counterfeit

law. He establishes a priesthood that aren't

of the Levites as God required Well, he dies

and his son Nadab ascends and it is said of him

in chapter 15 verse 26 He did what was evil in

the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of

his father and in his sin Which he made Israel

to sin Well, not long after Nadab is murdered

and his murder Basha becomes king, and then verse

34, right, just a few verses later it says, he

did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and

walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin

which made Israel to sin. The same goes for the

next two kings, Eli and Zemri. Then Omri who

becomes king, and it said that not only did he

do what was evil, but he actually did more evil

than all that were before him. And then enter

Ahab, the son of Omri, right here to turn this

thing around. Except for not quite right. He's

even worse than his father. It says he did more

evil than all before Him and then the wording

here is interesting in chapter 16 verse 31 and

it gives us a better understanding of how depraved

he was and As if it had been a light thing for

him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of

Nabat He took for his wife Jezebel the daughter

ofeth Baal King of the Sedonians and went and

served Baal and worshiped him So, Baal was considered

a storm god for the Sidonians, which, to be fair,

would have made for quite the attractive option

as far as gods because this was a very dry region

of Israel where they were quite dependent upon

the rain. So, even as many would have still recognized

perhaps God as the one true God, Yahweh, there

would have at least been this pooling to, well,

I better at least maybe sacrifice to Baal just

to cover my bases, just to check my boxes. just

to make sure that the rain is going to come.

And so we see there Ahab leading the people astray

in that regard. Well, he also sets up in Asherah,

which we may know would lead to the sacrificing

of babies and of children. This is the type of

evil ushered in by Ahab. But as the scripture

says, God will not be mocked. So what does he

do? He sends in our main character here, Elijah

the Tishbite. who pronounces a drought on the

land until God speaks through him again. The

Lord then instructs Elijah to go hide out about

20 to 40 miles east. Well, this drought goes

on for about three years before God speaks to

Elijah and he says, go back and find Ahab to

do what Elijah surely would have thought would

be to put this God ball to rest. And so we get

the famous story that we've all have likely heard.

We have a standoff between the gods. We have

450 prophets of Bel, or Baal. And then we have

one prophet of God, Elijah. They each are going

to set up an altar. They're going to cut up a

bull as sacrifice. And they're going to call

upon their gods. And whoever answers wins. Pretty

simple. And as we know, Baal doesn't answer.

God does by sending fire and burning up the sacrifice

the altar and all the water the Elijah had poured

on it just to make a point and In verse 39 of

chapter 18 It says and when all the people saw

it they fell on their faces and said the Lord

He is God the Lord He is God Well, then the drought

ends so but all has been defeated the people

have turned back to God And here comes the rain.

All is good. Not exactly, right? Ahab goes and

he tells his wife, Jezebel, everything that's

happened, one of those things being that Elijah

had slaughtered all the prophets of Baal, right?

And Jezebel is not happy about this, right? She

sends a messenger to Elijah and she said, well,

the gods better slaughter me too or else I'm

gonna see to it that you die by this time tomorrow.

And so Elijah is not sticking out sticking around

to find out if she plans on making good on that

threat So he runs for his life all the way to

Beersheba. In fact verse 3 tells us So that would

have been about a hundred and twenty miles So

for reference like if we ran from George's Creek

down to Williams Bryce Stadium, right? I can't

think of a worse destination myself where the

Gamecocks play football, but that's about a hundred

and twenty miles From where we are right now.

So Elijah runs all the way to Beersheba. And

here he actually, he leaves his servant behind.

So he has a servant who's traveling with him.

He leaves him behind and he goes another 20 miles

or another day's journey into the wilderness

and he crawls up under a tree to sit, to rest.

And so we've made it back now to our opening

scene of our film, right? An exhausted, running

for his life, wishing that he might die. Elijah.

And as we pick up now into the focus of our study

this evening I'll lead with our main point and

that is in times of trial We can be comforted

in God's presence In times of trial we can be

comforted in God's presence Which right that

that sounds good It's cliche enough for us to

maybe see it on a mug or on a t -shirt or on

a picture on Facebook that gets shared. But it

begs the question, how does God make His presence

known to us? Because I know the response. Christian,

I hear you. I want to be comforted. But there's

been times that I've cried out. I've cried out

and I've said, God, are you even there? And so

our text tonight outlines four ways that God

makes His presence known in times of trouble.

So let's begin with today's text in verse four.

or an angel touched him and said to him arise

and eat and he looked and behold there was at

his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar

of water and he ate and drank and lay down again

and the angel of the Lord came again a second

time and touched him and said arise and eat for

the journey is too great for you and he arose

and ate and drank and went in the strength of

that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb the

Mount of God. So what does this text reveal,

right? That nothing quite cures a deep depression

like a nap and a good meal, right? There's certainly

some truth there, but these verses are a bit

richer than that, which gives us our first answer

to our main question today, and that is, God

makes His presence known through His provision.

God makes his presence known through his provision

And we see a few examples of this provision in

these verses Elijah has gone a day's journey

into the wilderness from Beersheba Right a day's

journey would have been about 15 to 20 miles,

right? So Elijah has at least traveled that far

into the wilderness And as we talked about before

in southern Israel, what type of land or our

geological region would that have been? a desert

right And what doesn't really grow in a desert?

Plants, for starters, but especially trees or

large bushes. And yet, Elijah, in fleeing for

his life 20 miles south of the nearest town,

exhausted to the point of saying, God, would

you just kill me, finds refuge under a tree.

And in doing so, God provides Elijah a place

to rest. We are reminded of this in Psalm 127

to when talking about laboring apart from God

It states it is in vain that you rise up early

and go late to rest Eating the bread of anxious

toil for he gives to his beloved sleep So God

knows that we have limitations He often pushes

us beyond those limits so that our reliance on

him grows more and more He actually bakes rest

into the law That the Sabbath should be honored

and it should be kept holy. Jesus says the Sabbath

was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The

Sabbath was made so that man could rest, not

because God needs our worship on a particular

day. Rest is a good thing, and God provides that

for us. And we don't even have to wait until

a special day of the week for these moments,

or these moments of desperation. Rest is available

for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ,

right? And Jesus tells us this much in Matthew

Matthew 11:28–30

chapter 11 verse 28 through 30 He says come to

me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will

give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn

from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and

you will find rest for your souls for my yoke

is easy and my burden is light Dave actually

said this beautifully the other night in gospel

groups as he brought up this verse as we're going

through Colossians and talking about bearing

one another's burdens And he said that something

to the effect of I don't remember for radum But

it was it's not that well we'll somehow have

all of our issues just gone in life But rather

in being yoked to Christ he will a bear the weight

of our burdens While also be keeping us in lockstep

moving forward on mission to our rest is now

fully realized in Christ. How else do we see

God provide in these verses? When Elijah wakes

up, what's waiting on him, right? A hot cake

and a jar of water. And so it's not just our

rest, but also our sustenance. We see in these

verses, God makes himself known through the provision

of food and drink. Elijah wakes up, or I guess

really even cooler, an angel wakes him up and

says, arise and eat. And there's a hotcake and

a jar of water prepared for him. And apparently

he's still so tired that he falls back asleep.

And then the angel of the Lord wakes him up again.

And he says, arise and eat for the journey is

too great for you. So we find out that whatever

he eats next is supposed to serve him for the

next 40 days and nights. So Elijah's gotten a

couple of rounds of hotcakes and water that we

all know is not going to be enough to survive

for 40 days, much, much less in the desert. And

yet through this miracle we see God making his

presence known to Elijah through the provision

of strength. And he completely separates Elijah

from food and drink for 40 days to make sure

that there's no confusion on where his strength

comes from. May we remember the words of Jesus

when he's in the wilderness being tempted with

food from Satan as he's fasting. Jesus actually

calls back a verse from Deuteronomy when he's

being tempted that applies here to Elijah as

well. It's Deuteronomy 8. three and he humbled

you and let you hunger and fed you with manna

which you did not know nor did your fathers know

that he might make you know that man does not

live by bread alone but man lives by every word

that comes from the mouth of the lord right and

so you're starting to probably see a theme form

here because he does that through the person

and work of jesus christ We read in John 6 32

through 35 that Jesus then said to them truly

truly I say to you It was not Moses who gave

you the bread from heaven, but my father gives

you the true bread from heaven For the bread

of God is who comes as he who comes down from

heaven and gives life to the world They said

to him sir give us this bread always And Jesus

said to them I am the bread of life whoever comes

to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in

me Shall never thirst Jesus is the source of

our strength And surely this has been true for

you in your life. You've been through hard times

You've had to care for a loved one who is sick

and then perhaps died you weren't sure if you

had enough money to make it through the week

and the in the pantry was running there and Again,

this is where we meet Elijah On the run in the

middle of the wilderness pleading that God would

just take his life and God reminds him through

his provision Hey, you're here because of me.

You're here for me Therefore you need to look

to me to sustain the very breath in your lungs

and the strength to take the next step So God

provides rest and strength for Elijah, but also

a game plan Let's not let's not miss this the

angel of the Lord says the journey is too great

for you God has a journey planned ahead for Elijah.

We read in the next verse where this journey

will lead, which is Horeb, the Mount of God,

also called Mount Sinai, right where God appears

to Moses through the burning bush, and he also

provides the Ten Commandments here. And so we

have a bit of good news, bad news for Elijah,

right? Good news is Elijah is now rested, he's

now fed, and he's got a purpose and a plan. The

bad news is Mount Sinai is about 180 miles south

of where he is now. So God doesn't just solve

all of his problems. This isn't the part where,

although Elijah's hoping for it, he gets whisked

away in a whirlwind. No, rather, God restores

him and he says, all right, let's go. The next

little bit's gonna be hard too. And so we know

this next bit of the journey is going to be difficult,

as it's signified by the time period it's going

to take them to make this journey of about 40

days and nights. And so for 40 years, the Israelites

wandered around in the desert. It was Jesus who

faced trial in the desert for 40 days and 40

nights and fasted. This number often means a

period of trial. Again, showing Elijah and us

that God has provided for and sustained Elijah

through intense trial. And so Elijah arrives

at Horeb, the mount of God, and we'll pick back

up in our text in verse 9. There he came to a

cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of

the Lord came to him, and he said to him, What

are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I have been

very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts.

for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant.

They've thrown down your altars and killed your

prophets with a sword. And I, even I, only am

left and they seek my life to take it away."

And he said, go out and stand on the mount before

the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by and

a great and strong wind tore the mountains and

broken pieces the rocks before the Lord. But

the Lord was not in the wind. after the wind

and earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake

and after the earthquake a fire but the Lord

was not in the fire and after the fire the sound

of a low whisper if you're familiar with the

story of Moses then this sequence may actually

sound familiar right Moses goes up to Mount Sinai

or like we've mentioned and he gets the Ten Commandments

And then he comes back down. Well, it doesn't

take long for the Israelites, who were just brought

out of Egypt, to turn to idol worship. And God

is angry. And he's about to eliminate them all

and start afresh with Moses. But Moses pleads

with God and he seeks his mercy. Well, God relents

and so he sends Moses down, who then gets angry

at the people and he breaks the tablets. And

he ends up destroying the calf and having the

Levites slaughter about 3 ,000 people. I'm still

talking about Moses. I haven't jumped back to

Elijah. The parallels are very, very similar

here. And yet when Moses ascends back onto the

mountain, what does he do? He seeks atonement

for the people and ultimately sees the back of

God as Moses steps out from hiding in a cleft

or a cave. And here we have Elijah who's climbed

the very same mountain and is in a cave, perhaps

the same exact cave that Moses might have been

in. And God speaks to him and asks, what are

you doing here, Elijah? I think we can all agree

that God wasn't necessarily surprised to see

Elijah at this point. 40 days ago, the angel

of the Lord told Elijah, hey, there's a journey

ahead. You're headed to Horeb. You're headed

to Mount Sinai. So this isn't a surprise. Oh,

what are you doing here, Elijah? No, what God

has done is that he's drawn Elijah near to him

and invited him to speak and to share what's

on his mind. If I'm sitting down or I'm doing

something like yard work and I hear Clara, my

oldest, cry out and I want her to draw near to

me. And God help me that I'm not impatient and

God help me that I'm not surprised when she comes

to me with her problems. God help me that I too

would draw her near to me and ask, hey, what's

going on? What are you doing here? And so what

we see here actually is a a loving God, not a

surprise God, but a loving God, inviting His

child to cast His cares upon Him. And unlike

Moses, Elijah pleads his case. He essentially

says the opposite of Moses here. Elijah isn't

after atonement and God's mercy, rather he's

after his judgment. Elijah's fed up. He says,

God, I've been jealous for you, but everybody

else, they've forsaken your covenants. They've

thrown down your altars. They've killed your

prophets. And all you've got is me. I'm the only

one left." Right? Contrast this again to Moses,

who God says he himself is going to wipe everybody

out and start over with Moses. And Moses says,

no, God, these are your people. Let your name

be made great through them. And so God makes

a point here. He instructs Elijah to stand out

on the mount before him. Now in this sequence

with Moses the Lord says he will make all of

his goodness pass before Moses But what do we

see here starting again in verse 11? And he said

go out and stand on the mount before the Lord

and behold the Lord passed by and a great and

strong wind Tore the mountains and broken pieces

the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not

in the wind and after the wind an earthquake

but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after

the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in

the fire and after the fire the sound of a low

whisper. And at the conclusion of this sequence,

we get our second point, and that is that God

makes his presence known through his word. God

makes his presence known through his word. So

we see three major events right three events

that are actually often ways that God makes the

power of his might known Three natural elements

that God has often used to make his judgment

known to the people But instead we get this little

detail after each one that the Lord was not in

these And one thing that's particularly interesting

here is that the Lord was not in the fire, right?

Do we do we remember the backstory of how Elijah

got here right in competition with hundreds of

prophets? He was in this standoff of whose God

was real, and the Lord makes his presence known

by coming down as fire and burning up the altar.

And yet here on the mount, he's not in the fire.

But what comes next? The sound of a low whisper,

or some translations render this a still small

voice. Voice being the Hebrew word, kol. And

this is significant because we see this same

word appear twice in the previous chapter during

this God standoff. Elijah lets the prophets of

Baal go first, and so they're summoning him.

They're calling on him for hours saying, oh,

Baal, just answer us. And as we see in chapter

18 verse 26, but there was no voice and no one

answered. Well, Elijah mocks them. He says, hey,

keep screaming. I mean, he's a God, right? Perhaps

he's busy or he's relieving himself or perhaps

he's on a trip. Or you know what? He might be

asleep. If you're a little bit louder, scream

for a little bit longer, perhaps he'll wake up.

And so the prophets continue to cry out. They

even start to cut themselves and shed their own

blood. And so we see actually in a few verses

later, verse 29, but there was no voice. No one

answered. No one paid attention Elijah is pleading

for the judgment of God to be made known he wants

to see the power of his might taken out on all

the people who have betrayed the covenant of

God and instead God makes himself known through

his word a still small voice Will God reveals

himself to us in this way still through his word?

We live in a world of people that demand God's

judgment, seeking signs of His power. And instead,

He's mercifully revealed Himself through His

Word that we may better understand His character.

We want to see the winds that tear apart mountains,

earthquakes, and fire. And please hear me, this

isn't a bad thing to desire God's judgment, but

we better be careful what we're asking for. Because

we haven't dodged the bullet here either. We

too often want to apply God's judgment and the

wrath of the wrath on sins of the world that

we hate the most But we need to understand that

God will not judge with partiality right that

our gossip and our covetousness and our gluttony

are as damnable offenses as rape and abortion

and homosexuality and our desire for judgment

will lead to our own condemnation and So God

here to Elijah mercifully and patiently makes

himself known to Elijah through his word. And

as such, we would do well to pursue God's will

and his voice through his written word, where

we would find verses like John 3, 17, where Jesus

says, for God did not send his son into the world

to condemn the world, but in order that the world

might be saved through him. And so let us not

pursue the destruction of others in the name

of God's judgment, but that His Word be a comfort

to all people everywhere. If your heart has been

oriented around the destruction of others and

sin that you hate more than perhaps your own

sin, and it hasn't been oriented around their

salvation, then we've missed the point. And that's

actually what we see here from Elijah. God invites

Elijah to speak. Elijah pleads his case and he

calls for judgment and instead God says you mean

like this the the wind and the earthquake and

the fire I'm not in those Actually, here's what

I'm gonna do instead remember this and I want

you to remember this pattern because we're gonna

jump into verses 13 through 18 here and We see

a very similar pattern even identical at some

points And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his

face in his cloak and went out and stood at the

entrance of the cave. And behold, there came

a voice to him and said, what are you doing here,

Elijah? He said, I have been very jealous for

the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of

Israel have forsaken your covenant. They've thrown

down your altars and killed your prophets with

a sword. And I, even I only, am left. And they

seek my life to take it away. And the Lord said

to him, go, return on your way. to the wilderness

of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint

Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu, the son

of Nimshi, you shall anoint to be king over Israel.

And Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel Mahallah,

you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.

And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael

shall Jehu put to death. And the one who escapes

from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death.

Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel. the

knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every

mouth that has not kissed him." So again, God

invites Elijah to speak, right? And Elijah doubles

down, asking for God's judgment. He says the

exact same thing and calls for judgment. And

we see the pattern from before, do we not? God

responds with three things, right? We get the

anointing of Hazael and Jehu, and then Elijah

to carry out his judgment on the people, right?

Hazael is going to be killing Quite a lot of

people, and whoever escapes Hazael, Jehu's going

to kill. And whoever Jehu doesn't kill, Elisha's

going to put them to death. We actually see this

judgment carried out later in 2 Kings 8 and 9

as Hazael and Jehu are anointed as kings. I'm

convinced that these characters are displays

of his judgment as you look at these accounts.

So Elisha, already anointed by Elijah, Anoints

hazael as king and he actually breaks down into

tears when he when he anoints hazael as king

in second kings 812 he says he being Elisha answered

Because I know the evil that you will do to the

to the people of Israel You will set on fire

their fortresses and you will kill their young

men with a sword and dash and pieces their little

ones and rip open their pregnant women Hazael

goes on to war against Israel and do all of these

things that were prophesied. Jehu actually goes

on to wipe out the rest of the house of Ahab

in 2 Kings 10, as well as all the prophets of

Baal. And so the pattern here is significant

as we see the three natural occurrences of the

wind, the earthquake, and the fire, which God

was not in, paralleled with the rule of Haseel,

Jehu, and Elisha. But after the fire, we get

what? We get that low whisper or that still small

voice. And after these three men are anointed

to lead, we get what? A remnant of 7 ,000 of

God's chosen people. Which brings us to the third

point. God makes His presence known through His

grace. God makes His presence known through His

grace. Great so paralleled with the low whisper

then the is the merciful withholding of his judgment

in the deliverance of seven thousand Israelites

who have not given themselves over to ball right

God is well aware of the sins of the people who

have turned their backs on Turn their backs on

him and have gone after other gods However, we

can be confident that God will not fail in his

mission to rescue his people and to uphold the

promises to his children Right Paul highlights

his exact case in in Romans actually Romans 11

2 through 5 God has not rejected his people whom

he foreknew Do you not know what the scripture

says of Elijah how he appeals to God against

Israel? Lord they have killed your prophets.

They have demolished your altars and I alone

am left and they seek my life But what is God's

reply to him? I have kept for myself seven thousand

men who have not bowed the knee to Baal So too

at the present time there is a remnant chosen

by grace. And it's always been God's grace that

he's maintained his people in times of trial.

Speaking of Paul, he gets a taste of this himself

as he prays for the thorn in the flesh to be

removed. I think we all know God's response to

this when he says, my grace is sufficient for

you for my power is made perfect in your weakness.

it's in these times of trial of affliction of

suffering that we are made even more painfully

aware of our human condition and While like Elijah

we tend to call for the judgment upon the things

that cause these trials and inflicts on us suffering

We say God exercise your might let everybody

see your power He says to both Paul and Elijah

that his power is actually made perfect and understood

properly Not in rescuing them from trials But

by upholding them in the trial his chosen people

in their moments of weakness His presence is

made known through his grace Right. We are pointed

to this point in Romans 3 I think we all may

know Romans 3 23 which is for all have sinned

and fall short of the glory of God and The first

part of Romans 6 23 which is for the wages of

sin is death Right, but there's good news attached

to both of those Romans 3 goes on to read and

are justified by his grace as a gift through

the redemption that is in Christ Jesus and similarly

as you as you can see in Romans 6 it concludes

with but the free gift of God is eternal life

in Christ Jesus our Lord I Would argue that sometimes

we don't sense God's presence through his grace

Because we're out of touch with the severity

of our own sin, but we think that what we've

done is It isn't that bad, right? Our slothfulness,

eh. Our pride, right? We're actually convinced

that sometimes that's a good thing to be prideful.

Right? Our disobedience, right? Well, hey, I

obey sometimes. I'm more obedient than all these

other people and they're doing pretty well. But

our misunderstanding of our own sin prevents

us from being able to fully understand God's

grace. We're getting in our own way. We're suppressing

what is actually true. and is preventing us from

experiencing the goodness and the comfort and

the assurance of God's grace. And so while we

have to wait a bit to see this trial play out

until Hazael and Jehu enter the picture, Elijah's

next stop is to go find Elisha, picking up in

verse 19. So he departed from there and found

Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with

twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was

with the twelfth. Elijah, passed by him and cast

his cloak upon him and he left the oxen and ran

after Elijah and said let me kiss my father and

my mother and then I will follow you and he said

to him go back again for what have I done to

you and he returned from following him and took

the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled

their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave

it to the people and they ate then he arose and

went after Elijah and assisted him. Alright,

so Elijah has called out to God pleading with

him twice saying that he was alone Right. This

is despite the fact that everybody who witnessed

the God standoff fell on their faces at the Lord

He is God right despite the fact that apparently

he had a servant traveling with him the whole

time that he had left behind in Beersheba and

despite the fact that they were actually seven

thousand Israelites who were still faithful to

God and Yet Elijah felt alone And so God gives

him a companion to train and to walk alongside

him And this brings us to our final point this

evening in times of how in times of trouble God

comforts us with his presence and that is that

God makes his presence known through his people

God makes his presence known through his people

right Elisha appears excited right he's out working

in the field and Elijah Comes by him and tosses

his cloak on him, right? It takes him as it takes

him a minute to kind of reorient figure out what

happened because he has to run and catch up to

Elijah and he says hold up let me say goodbye

to my parents and Then what we actually get is

this sort of display of being all -in by Elisha,

right? He's obvious out. He's out working in

the field during this time which would make him

a farmer right a lot of his worldly riches and

and what worldly well -being would have been

tied to the wealth, or sorry, the health of his

oxen. Right, he's obviously doing pretty well

for himself. He has 12 yokes of oxen, right,

so two per yoke, you have 24 oxen, pretty big

field going on. And yet what does he do when

called? He ditches it all. He sacrifices the

oxen. He feeds presumably, you know, the people

of his village or town, and then Elisha spends

the last approximately six years or so alongside

Elijah in his ministry before Elijah finally

gets taken up by that whirlwind. So God makes

his presence known through his people. And we

too are to be reminded of this as we come together

as a church family. God's presence is made known

to us by gifting us the church body, that we

may encourage one another, bearing one another's

burdens, like we read in Colossians, breaking

bread with one another, praying for one another,

loving one another. And this church was exactly

that for my family last summer as we're navigating

some familial health concerns that it took me

away from my home for a week. Naturally, that's

the week before Caroline and I are about to travel

out to Kansas to pick up Cecilia. This was uncharted

territory for us in a time of great stress and

uncertainty and yet a time that I've never been

more sure of God's presence in our life. Because

of the encouragement and the love poured out

by his body for us in that time, whether it was

coming and cutting our grass while we were away

or dropping off meals before and after we were

back. The Lord makes his presence known through

his people. And so as we wrap up here, I think

it's important that we remember these things

practically, right, to help us actually be comforted

in these times of desperation or loneliness.

I think we tend to intellectually understand

that God is omnipresent. He's everywhere, so

He should be here. But it's typically in these

moments of desperation and great stress that

we forget to go to Him. We accept the lie of

our flesh, or Satan, that we are left alone and

to fend for ourselves. But God does not leave

His people. The reminders of His presence are

all around, through His provision, through His

Word, His grace. and through his people. And

the Lord uses these things to bring us great

comfort. Let's pray. Definitely, Father, we thank

you for your word that we get to read it and

study it and to learn more about you and your

character, God, that you do not leave us alone

and that you actually leave several reminders

for us in these times of loneliness and desperation.

That the that the answer to the question God.

Are you there is an overwhelming? Yes And so

God we thank you for that assurance that we have

And we pray that you remind us of that in the

weeks to come and God. We love you. Thank you.

Amen All right Thanks everyone. See you Saturday

if you're coming to heartstrings Mother's Day

tea or Sunday. I will not be at Mother's Day

team surprisingly