Longing For Water But Settling For... Bro Aaron Wood 01-04-2026

And I definitely want to go on record as saying

we do terribly, terribly miss our pastor. And it is

no insult to me if you say you would much

rather hear him. That makes two of us, or however,

when he's here tonight of us sixty five fifty, whatever

it is that makes us all in agreement, praise God.

We can definitely agree on that. I do appreciate the pastor.

Let me get behind his pulpit. I do give him

glory and honor. He is definitely my absolute favorite preacher.

No slight to the rest of you guys. You guys

are awesome too, but he is number one, and y'all

can take number two. The rest of you can praise God.

Everybody else is at number two, Pastor number one. That's

all I can do for you. We do appreciate God,

do thank him for how he has moved today. I

do covet your prayers that I can get this thought

out the way the Lord is trying to give it

to me. We'll be in First Kings chapter eighteen, and

then we'll go from there to James chapter one, and

with God's help, we can tie these two together. I

hope and pray First Kings chapter eighteen, verse number five,

and we'll read five and six. And Ahab said, unto Obadiah,

go into the land, unto all fountains of water, and

unto all brooks paradventure, we may find grass to save

the horses and mules alive that we lose, not all

the beasts. So they divided the lamb between them to

pass throughout it. Ahab went one way by himself, and

Obadiah went another way by himself. And we'll flip over

to James chapter one, verse number eight, just another short scripture.

James one and eight says, a double minded man is

unstable in all his ways. We're gonna ask God to

help us. You can be seated and we'll pray the

Lord God.

You know.

God, you know how desperately we need you.

We don't give us ears to hear.

Speak you Jesus name. It gave me a little bit

of a start. Whenever Brother Philip said turn to First

Kings chapter eighteen, I was almost hoping he'd go ahead

and preach it and get it out of the way,

and I'd say, amen, phrase the Lord. He didn't, So

we do know the story here in First Kings, very

familiar to us should be. I believe we've all heard

this story, probably since we were in the primary class.

It's a story of a confrontation that starts off really

in chapter seventeen. The story really does with Elijah. He

just suddenly pops up. You going along, going along. You

hear about Ahab, hear about AB's daddy, hear about the

kings before Ahab's dad. You hear about all this, and

then suddenly, boom, here's Elijah. I mean, he's a full

grown man, he's a full grown prophet. He's just a

man of God. And suddenly he's on the scene and

he's walking up to Ahab saying, look, enough of your nonsense,

enough of leading my people. Thus, saith God, it's not

gonna rain. You're in trouble now. There's a drought coming

and there's no way you're gonna do anything about it

until God tells me. And then he turns and disappears again,

just that quick. One moment he's not there, next moment

he is, next moment he's gone again. And I feel

like Ahab's a little bit dumbfounded. Where this camel skin

we're in, rough looking man. They just comes strolling up

in my presence, puts his finger like Moses, look at here,

You're dead wrong. God don't like it. God's judging you. Goodbye.

That's the extent of what Ahab gets. And immediately, no

more rain, immediately, not even the dew. And that was

one of the things that the land of Israel is

known for, is it's do and it's rain. That's what

makes it a profitable land to live in. That's what

makes it fruitful. That's what makes it what it is.

That's what makes it flow with milk and honey. Is

the rain and the dew. And now it's gone. And

so Elijah we find him next. He's at the brook Sheriff.

He's hanging out there. The ravens are feeding him. He's

not missing meals, he's not getting thirsty, he's not drying up.

He's enjoying a little bit of peace, a little bit

of security, a little bit of R and R. I

feel like reading, praying, getting in touch with this God.

Brook dries up though. God sends him to Zeraphath. We

know the story. He goes there, and a's interesting as

I was reading it, it seems that the very first person,

just as a side note, he walks up to the

gate of the city and there's the widow. He's not

there for hours searching for her. He walks up there.

She is right in the middle of grabbing this few sticks.

She's thinking the last one she's ever going to have together.

But God shows up and a man of God, like

he always does, and so we see that he sustains

her her son. We see the son dies and Elijah

raises him back by the power of God, showing and

proving that truly he really was the man of God

that he claimed to be, that God put him up

to be he was. And so then that brings us

down to Elijah leaves the widow because God tells him

I'm going to send rain, so you need to go

show up in front of the cab. Again, that brings

us down to the difference between Ahab and Obadiah. We

see Obadiah. Now I don't remember if he was even

in that very first part. It doesn't look like Obadiah

was mentioned at first. But now suddenly we see that

Ahab has a governor of his house named Obadiah, and

we see that immediately there's a difference. As soon as

Obadiah is mentioned it's also mentioned that he feared the

Lord greatly. Ahab didn't fear God, Obadiah did. And in

that difference, we see that they go on goes one

way by himself, and another goes the other way by himself,

and they're looking for a little bit of water. It's

been three and a half years. Nothing, nothing fell from heaven,

nothing came down. There's no grass, just dirt, big dust bowl,

and so they go looking for water and looking for pastor.

It's kind of telling a little bit to me to

see that Ahab's concerned about his horses, He's concerned about

his mules, He's concerned about his if you will, physical wealth.

There's no mention of the people. What kind of king

is not concerned a little bit about his people? What

about what about your servants? What about the people that

look to you as a leader? What about everybody that's

depending on what you're doing? And you just want to

save a horse and a mule. What about my son

that's dying of hunger? What about my daughter that's dying

of thirst? What about them? Why don't you care about them?

Why isn't there a little bit of humanity that would say,

you know what, We've got to do something. Maybe we

could go to the King of Judah and ask them

to turn a river our way, Moab, maybe they can

turn some water our way. Maybe we can figure out

something to help my people. Forget the horses and the mules,

what about your people? But we see it's actually worse

than that because the people don't really care. And here's

where I throwed my title out there. I feel like

the Lord. He woke me up this morning with half

of it longing for water, but settling for and only

you can put an end to that longing for water.

They were looking for water Ahab was Ahab knew he

needed it. Oba Diah knew he needed it. The people

knew they needed it. That's why they showed up on

Mount Carmel. They knew this is the guy that said

it's over. And hopefully this is the guy sticks and

say the drowse now over. But as they show up,

Elijah has just one question, a very simple one. How

long haughty? Between two opinions three and a half years,

we look at Pharaoh and I appreciate Brother Jesse. This

morning was awesome. Lesson this morning, Brother Samuel's message this

morning awesome as well, I'll give you guys great props.

Y'all wonderful. But we saw Pharaoh time after time after time.

But it wasn't three and a half years. I don't

know how long it was. I less than a year.

I feel like I could be wrong. I'd have to

go back, and maybe there's internal a timeline we could

look at, but I feel like it was less than

a year, probably less than six months, three and a

half years. No crops. You heard slowly dying, one at

a time, maybe two at a time, your family getting slimmer, skinnier,

more sickly, and you can't tell Elijah who God is.

Elijah told you, thus saith God, there will not be rained.

Obviously that's God because he said no, and it's been

no ever since. But the people answered him, not a word, nothing,

just out there looking at him like bumps on a log.

And yet they're in the middle of something that God

has done. And yet you can't tell me who God is,

even though you're suffering because of his punishment. How how

do we? How do we? How do we get to

that place? And then all that we're concerned about that

they have seemed to be concerned about, was himself. Well,

that's my favorite mule. I sure hate to lose him,

but you don't hated enough to quit following bail. That's

your best war horse, and you hate to lose him,

but you don't hate it enough to quit serving bail.

You don't hate it enough to say, you know what

Jehovah really is, God, let's serve him. You don't hate

it enough to be the man. That's what it boils

down to. Ahab didn't hate it enough to be the man.

He knew where Jerusalem was, if I'm not mistaken, Samaria,

which was the capital of Israel, was about forty miles

plus or minus from Jerusalem. That's a little bit of

a ways if you're running horses or walking. I get that.

But in three and a half years, I'm pretty sure

you could have made it crawling backwards. But you don't

see him going. You know where it is. Surely, somehow

throughout the years, the prayer of Solomon made it to

your ears. Surely you knew that if you would humble

yourself at the temple that things would change. Surely the

people knew. Surely they did that. If you go to

the temple and you beg God and you offer sacrifices

according to his will, to his law, to his way,

surely something will happen. But the Bible does not record

any of that happening. The Bible doesn't record ahabs thought

process ever, turning towards Jerusalem, ever saying you know what,

it's just across the border. He made an affinity with

Jehosaphat for goodness sake. Now maybe it was after this point,

but he was in affinity with Jehosaphat, who was a

man of God, who was a king after David's heart,

who was a king that served God, that believed in Jehovah.

And yet somehow it never enters into Ahab's mind to repent.

How was that even possible? But it is. And the

people knowing that the judgment of God was upon them

for three and a half year, that's a long time

we've seen, how dry it just this past year? Was

it five months that we went without any noticeable reign

and it got bad? That's not even a drop in

the bucket to three and a half years. And yet

nobody changed their heart, nobody said, you know what. As

soon as Elijah shows up, you would have thought there

had been at least one one guy, maybe one old

grandma that said, you know what, I remember when and

I still believe Jehovah really truly is God. I feel

like that'll have been all it would have taken for

everybody else to say, you know what, you're right, you're right.

Sometimes it takes just one and will be unto us

if we're not committed enough to be that one. But

then we go through the whole rig more of the

prophets of Belle doing their song and dance routine and

just getting nothing done. And then we have the real

Man of God. Thank you, brother Philip for exhorting on

that repairs, does it right, puts it in order, and

prays to who he knows is God. Elijah knew before

all this, whenever God send him from the widow, Elijah

knew fire was coming. I believe Elijah knew. I'm going

and I'm going to call fire down, and then God's

gonna let it rain. Period. I'm not sure what's going

to happen after all that, but I'm going and fire's

gonna fall, and then after the fire falls, God's going

to send the rain. After the demonstration, finally the people realize,

you know, God is God. He really is God. But

as soon as the rain comes back, they go. There's

no that I see recorded in God's word. There's no

lasting revival. They're double minded, They're unstable. That's why they

can't answer Elijah. Well on this side, well, yeah, he

did send all this, but we've done this for years.

Well I know I've seen my pastor do this, and

I've heard him preach this and he's testified about that.

But this is the way I've done it for years.

I know this is what the Bible says, and this

is how it's supposed to be done. But this is

what I've always done for years and years. Are we

are we like that? Are we halted? And? I hope

to God were not? But I don't know why else

God would put this. When the fire's falling, people are shouting,

sister wooting, speaking in tongues. Are we all on board?

Oh yeah, God, God, hallelujah. Bible believers here, whoo, glory, glory, glory.

And then Monday rolls around and when well, we take

it off the gospel station and we put it back.

You know, we restore our Instagram account, we restore our

Facebook account for Monday through Friday, because well, just in case,

you know, the Lord needs to use me Saturday and Sunday.

I want to be pure. Are we kidding ourselves? Are

we really really kidding ourselves that we're actually gonna make

it into heaven like that? That's not how it works.

The soul longs for living water. I firmly believe just

like God put a god's size hole in our heart,

he put a thirst in our heart for living water.

And if we're not getting that living water that brother

Caleb talked about to the young people this app this morning,

what are we putting in there? What are we settling for?

Are we settling for a really neat post on Facebook? Boy,

that was a great one, and yet we're missing out

on true salvation. We're missing out on that secret of

intimate relationship with God. We're missing that. And what about

the you know, maybe it's not country music, Maybe it's

not any kind of a whatever media account. Maybe it's

just a poor attitude. Maybe it's a little bit of jealousy.

Any jealousy is too much jealousy. Maybe it's just a

little bit too much pride, which any pride is too

much pride. Maybe it's something like that. Maybe it's not.

Maybe it's a friend. Maybe it's a relative that you

let influence you, that talks to you on Mondays and

Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays and Saturdays, instead

of you talking to God, instead of you reading his

Holy Word. Maybe that's what it is, something that interferes

between you and your God. Maybe you have set up

a relative or a child hope, not as a little

God that you worship. It'll let you down. It will

let you down. That country song will let you down.

Facebook will let you down. Your mother will let you down.

Mine has They will let you down. You cannot depend

on them for your soul salvation. You cannot depend on

anything outside of the ruby red blood of Jesus. You cannot.

And when your child is sick, you can play all

the country music you want to and they'll still be sick.

You can scroll through every Facebook post there is or

ever has been, and your child will still be sick.

You can call your mama, you can call your brother,

you can call your sister, you can call whoever you

want to, and that child will still be sick. You

can watch all the YouTube videos that have ever been

posted that child will still be sick. You cannot depend

on anything but God. And until we put Him as

God in our life, we're double minded. And I feel

like it goes even farther than just salvation. What have

we settled for instead of sanctification? What have we settled

for instead of the baptism of the Holy Ghost? What

have we settled for? Instead of healing? Instead of a

move of God? What have we settled for? That's what's

the happening with the other churches out there in this world.

They have settled for something else besides living water. They said,

this is enough, this is okay, it's it's it's not

living water, but it's it's like gospel gatorade, and it's

the same thing. Almost no soul needs living water. There

is no substitute. There's nothing else but the living water.

That's the only thing. We know that If I was

talking to Heathens, that'd be one thing. But we know,

we know, even if we've only been here six months,

we know, we know this is where living water is.

But a drink of living water here it's not going

to last through Wednesday. You've got to drink it Monday,

Tuesday and Wednesday on your own. We've got to do

it on our own. That's why I feel like the

Lord said that to use this scripture, because they went

to all the fountains, they were searching everywhere. We know

where to search. We don't have to search everywhere. We

don't have to run through all the different sermon libraries

out there. We don't have to run to all the

different perversions of the Bible out there. We know King James,

we know Spreaker. We know that getting along with God

at fire Forest, that's where it's at. We know we

can reach on and get ahold of God at our home.

We can. We have to. It is absolutely vital. I

feel like that if we do not that white horse,

if we don't, if we don't say, you know what,

enough being wishy washy enough of God on Sunday and

then the world on Monday, settle it tewod Peter one

in ten I believe there. Toward the end, he says,

making your call and election sure, make it sure, a

not like pilot with the tomb. Make it as sure

as you can, but no, make it sure, making it

an assured, settled, no doubt about it, thing in your

life that you will serve God. Roma six and one.

What shall we say, then, shall we continue in sin

that grace may abound? God forbid? God forbid that we

continue being double minded. God forbid that we settle for

anything less than God's promises. God has promised to save

those that will repent and seek His face and believe

in him. God has promised to sanctify those that earnestly

seek for it. And God has promised to baptize with

the Holy Ghost. There is zero reason for settling for

anything less than the absolute, glorious promises of God. Leave

you with one more thing Philippians two and twelve. The

latter portion, Paul was actually commending the Philippians because he

was telling them, You've done what I've asked you to do.

You've lived it right while I've been there. You've lived

it right since I've been gone. You've done it right still.

But he told them to work out your own salvation

with fear and trembling. Not a trembling that you would

be caught unaware, Not a trembling that you would be

in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's not

the trembling he's talking about, and that that's not the

fear he's talking about, either the fear of being come

upone where you shouldn't be by someone that you don't

want want to see you there. That's not the fear

he's talking about. It's that reverential all that God is holy,

that God is pure, and yet he still looked at me,

a righteous, a holy, a magnificent God, purer than the

driven snow, looked at dirty, nasty, filthy me and said,

I want to do something with that. That's the fear,

that's the trembling that should put us on our knees

and say, Oh God, why would you do that? Why

would you come so low from so high and speak

more than more once and ask would you like to

follow me? Would you like to be free? Would you

like that joy unspeakable? Would you like peace? Would you

like to be pure? Would you like to be something

that you're not, something you can't do for yourself? Would

you like to do that? If you would, he said,

I've got a proposition for you. If when I knock,

you'll open, I'll come in and it doesn't matter how

nasty it is, because I'll help you clean it up.

Doesn't matter how many times you've fallen in the mud.

I'll pick you up if you want to be picked up.

If you're tired of being double minded, if you're tired

of falling on Tuesday after you just got back up Sunday.

Would you come to the altar? Would you let him

do a true work? Would you let him do something magnificent?

Would you let him do something that only he can

do and only he will do. Just lay it all

at his feet and let him be God.