Rick Warren - The Incredible Story of Elijah: The Man Who Trusted God for a Miracle

You don't know God is all you need until God

is all you've got. And that's why God often allows

a shortage, a deficiency, a lack in your life. If

I were to ask you, what are you lacking today?

You might say, well, you know, I need more energy.

I need more money. I need more emotional support. I

need more creativity. I need more opportunity. I need a job.

I need a job. All of those things that happen

in your life happen really for a reason. Today we're

gonna look at three incidents in the life of a

man named Elijah. Elijah was about 900 years before Jesus Christ.

And he went through three experiences, they're all in 1

1 Kings 17 · chapter mention

Kings chapter 17, that teach us lessons on how God

wants to do miracles when there are things that are

happening in our lives that cause us to lack what

we need. Now let me give you a little background

of this story. The worst king and queen in Israel's

history were named Ahab and Jezebel. You've heard of her probably.

Ahab and Jezebel. They were the worst king and queen

in all of Israel's history. And the reason why they

were so bad is not only were they terrible leaders politically, economically,

but spiritually they got rid of the worship of God

and they brought in a false god, a pagan god,

an idol called Baal. And they established Baal as the

official religion of Israel, the Jewish nation. So God sends

Elijah as a spokesman, as a prophet to go confront

King Ahab. And Elijah says to Ahab and to Jezebel,

Because of your wickedness and because you've led the nation

to worship false gods, it's not gonna rain anymore in

this country until I, the prophet of God, say so.

Now we later find out this actually ended up being

three and a half years. Three and a half years

without rain in the nation of Israel, which meant they

were in terrible drought, terrible dryness, terrible famine. But Elijah says,

because of your sin, leader, the nation's gonna suffer for

three and a half years. This message did not sit

well with Ahab. In fact, he and his wife Jezebel

were furious. They were ticked and they put a price

on Elijah's head. They said, we're gonna kill you. And

they authorized bounty hunters and assassins to find Elijah and

kill him. The Bible says in 1 Kings chapter 17,

1 Kings 17 · chapter mention

Now Elijah confronted King Ahab, as surely as God lives,

the God of Israel whom I worship and serve, there

will be no dew or rain until the next few years,

during the next few years, unless I give the word.

Now as I said, the Bible says everything in the

country dried up for three and a half years. Maybe

you feel that way in your life. Maybe you feel

like the joys dried up in your life, Your savings

have dried up. During this time of spiritual and emotional

and economic dryness, God did some miracles for Elijah and

he taught some lessons to Elijah that you and I need.

God wants us to learn the same things. So my

question for you is, are you ready for a miracle? Now,

during this time of dry period, which maybe you're going

through right now, God took Elijah to three different places,

and they represent three different phases that you go through

in your life. You'll go through them over and over again.

For the first year of the three and a half

years of drought, God took Elijah to a place called Kerith.

And Kerith was a place and a time of obscurity.

The Bible says, verse two of 1 Kings 17, then

the Lord said to Elijah, this is after Ahab had said,

I'm gonna kill you. Go east and hide in the

Kerith ravine, east of the Jordan, Jordan River. The Kerith

brook will give you fresh water to drink, and I've

commanded ravens to bring you food there every day. That's unusual.

So Elijah obeyed what the Lord said to do. He

moved to the Kerith ravine, and he lived there. And

the birds brought him food each morning and evening, and

he drank from the brook. But after a while, the

brook dried up because there was no rain. Now the

first stop in Elijah's journey of faith is the ravine.

A ravine is dark, it's narrow, it's cold, and it's lonely.

Some of you are in an emotional carith right now.

You're going through a time that seems dark and cold

and deep and lonely. Now, Elijah is an extrovert. He's

not used to being alone. And God says, I'm going

to put you in a ravine for a year. I

want you to hide there. And Elijah is cut off

from everything. Cut off from all of his friends, cut

off from social interaction, cut off from what's happening in

the world. He's cut off from the limelight, he's cut

off from attention. He is literally all by himself. What

is going on here? God takes an extrovert and makes

him a hermit for a year. What's happening here? God

had great plans for Elijah. But first he said, you

need time alone with me. I need to narrow your focus.

You need to focus on me. You need to develop

your inner life. You need time alone with me and

nobody else. I want your undivided attention for a year. Now,

during this time that he's in this rut, and some

of you are in a rut right now, God supernaturally

provided for him in a very unusual way. He has ravens, birds,

bring food over the top of the ravine and drop it. Now,

this is not exactly gourmet food, friends. Because where do

birds get their food? Off of other people's plates. But

he's in this pit, and his only support is from God.

There's no food there, and so the birds have to

bring it, and he's got water that God has provided

in this brook. His only support is from God. Remember,

you don't know God's all you need. Until God is

all you've got. And then in chapter 17, verse seven,

it says, the brook dried up. Now this is such

an important concept, an important principle in your life. The

brook's gonna dry up in your life many, many times.

Some of you right now are in a situation where

the brook has dried up in your life. The brook

has dried up in your life. The money's not there.

The friend isn't there. The support isn't there. The energy

isn't there. Your health isn't there. What do you do

when the brook dries up in your life? Relationally, emotionally, economically,

or whatever. You do three things. You remember three things.

Number one, brooks dry up to keep me from depending

on the brook. That's the first reason. Brooks dry up

in your life to keep me from depending on the

brook instead of God. You see, Elijah was in this ravine,

in this rut for a year and it would have

been very easy for him to just forget God and

focus on the birds and the brook because they are

supplying his need. Some of you, the bird is late

in your life right now and you got a pile

of bills at home like this and you think the

bird's late. And if the water's coming down the brook,

you might just start to assume it's always gonna be there.

And so God says, whatever you're trusting in that's not me,

I'm gonna turn it off. I've been trusting in my

job for my security. Well, we'll just turn that off.

I've been trusting in my health. Well, we'll just turn

that off. I've been trusting in this friend of mine. Well,

we'll just turn that off. God says, you must trust

in me. Anything you put before me is a false god,

it's an idol. And God has a right to take

it away if he thinks you're depending on it for

your source of joy instead of him. There's a second

reason the book dries up. And the second reason is

to move me to a better place. God had no

intention of leaving Elijah in the ravine in that rut

for the rest of his life. It was simply a

one-year temporary retreat for reflection. He was protecting Elijah while

there's a bounty on his head and the assassins are

out to get him. But God didn't intend for Elijah

to be born to live in a rut the rest

of his life. And God doesn't intend for you to

live in the rut you're in the rest of your life.

Sometimes God dries up stuff in your life to move you.

God wants to move you to a new place in

your life. Often what we think is bad, the brook

dried up, I lost my job. Could be the best

thing that happened to you. How many times has something

you thought was bad actually turned out for the good

in your life? God often dries up the brook in

your life to keep you from depending on the brook

instead of him to move you to a better place

And number three, to prove that he has not forgotten you.

To prove that God has not forgotten me, God often

dries up the brook. Why? See, God could have left

Elijah in that rut. He could have left him there.

If God didn't care, he could have put Elijah in

that rut. and left him there the rest of his life.

But God did care about Elijah. And for that reason,

he dried up the brook so that Elijah could have

something better. It proves, you see, when things go wrong

in our lives, we often think God's forgotten me. No,

it means God is paying attention to you. He's paying

attention to you. He's paying attention because he wants to

move you to a new place. And that brings us

to the second place. First, he's in the ravine, in

the rut. The second place we see Elijah is in

the next verse. He's on the road. And the second

test of Elijah's faith is a dangerous journey. I call

this a time of insecurity. 1 Kings 17, 8 and

9 says, so then the Lord said to Elijah, now

get up. out of that rut you're in, that ravine,

and go to Zarephath and live there. I've prepared a

widow there in Zarephath to take care of you. So Elijah,

he obeys, he went to Zarephath. Now I want you

to circle, get up and go, and circle the word prepared.

God had prepared in advance a widow where he was

gonna take him next. Now what's happening here? God says,

I want you to move. Get ready to go on

a journey, Elijah. There's a number of problems with this journey.

Number one, it's over 100 miles. It's gonna take him

days to walk. And remember, he's a marked man. There

are wanted signs for Elijah all over Israel. He's gonna

have to walk right through the heartland of Baal worship

where everybody there wants to kill him. It's in the

middle of a drought so there's no water and he's

gonna walk for days without water. Zarephath is not even

a Jewish town, it's a pagan town, false worship. In fact, Zarephath,

just so happens, was the hometown of Jezebel. And Elijah says,

you're sending me to Jezebel's hometown? You've got to be kidding, Lord.

All of her friends are there. I'll be a sitting duck.

And then he says, oh, and when you get to Zarephath,

I'm going to have a very poor widow take care

of you. The least likely person to take care of Elijah,

a poor widow. She couldn't defend him or protect him,

much less even feed him, likely. She's a poor widow.

of all the people, he says, I'm sending you to

Jezebel's hometown to a poor widow. Now he's going from

bad to worse. What do you do when you're on

a journey in life and you're scared to death? You

do the three things and remember the three things that

Elijah did. You need to write these down. Three things

to remember when you're on the road. Number one, the

path to a miracle is always through uncomfortable territory. The

path to a miracle is always through uncomfortable territory. Elijah's

gonna have to walk through right through the area of

Samaria and Medigo, which is where we get the word

Armageddon from Medigo, the valley there. And he's gonna have

to go through all that, people wanting to kill him,

in order to get to where God wants him to go.

Are you at a place right now in your life

where things are a little uncomfortable, financially, sexually, emotionally, relationally, physically,

you're just a little nervous, a little on the edge,

a little insecure, congratulations. You're on the path to a miracle.

Second thing you need to remember when you're on the

journey and it's a little scary, the source of a

miracle is always unexpected. In your life, the source of

a miracle, where it comes from, will not be where

you think it's gonna come from. It's always unexpected. Why

does he do it that way? So God gets the glory.

That's why you can't figure it out. So stop trying.

Some of you, you're out of work. You're unmarried. You

got a major need. You got some need in your

life that you want met. Whatever it is, I don't know.

And you're trying to figure it out. And you're looking

all around saying, well, maybe God could do it that way,

and maybe God could do it that way, and maybe

God could do it that way. And maybe I could

help God a little along with this. Maybe I could

drop a few hints. Maybe I could manipulate the situation.

Maybe I could get a suggestion here. And what you're

trying to do is you're trying to manipulate God. It

doesn't work. Isaiah 55, the Bible says, My thoughts, God says,

are completely different from yours. And my ways are far

beyond anything you can imagine. The way you want to

meet the need in your life is not the way

God wants to meet the need in your life. Your

way is second best. God's way is best. Third thing

you need to remember on the journey. The pattern for

a miracle is always CPR. The pattern for a miracle

is always CPR. C-P-R. Command, promise, risk. And this CPR

will really get your heart going. Command, promise, risk. You

need to realize that every time God does a miracle, anywhere,

it always comes in this format. God gives you a command,

tells you to do something, and then he gives a

promise and says, if you do it, here's what I'll do.

There's a command, and then there's a promise. And then

you take the risk. You step out in faith. This

does not make sense. This is illogical. I can't afford

to do this. It doesn't make sense at all. But

God says, here's the command. Here's the promise. Now you

take the risk. And then comes the miracle. Then comes

the fulfillment. Then comes the answer. God always works with CPR.

It's how he starts your heart spiritually. Now we come

to the third place of Elijah in the test of

his faith. First he's in the rut, then the ravine,

then he's on the road, and now he comes to Zarephath.

And Zarephath, when he arrives at the city, this is

a time of scarcity. Notice what the Bible says. When

he reached the town gate, Elijah saw a widow. Now

he's thinking, oh, widow, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Elijah

saw a widow gathering firewood. So he asked her, would

you please bring me a drink of water? And as

she was going to get it, Elijah added, and please

bring me a small piece of bread too. Why would

Elijah do that? Because God did CPR. I'm going to

command you to do this, and I promise if you

do it, it's going to work out. I'll take care

of you. So Elijah takes the risk. It did not

make sense for him to say to like a homeless,

she wasn't homeless, but a poor widow, can you help me?

Can you do something for me? That just did not

make sense. But now he's in the place of scarcity. Now,

the woman answered, as surely as your God lives, notice

she says your God, it wasn't her God, because she

wasn't Jewish. She was an idol worshiper. She says, as

surely as your God lives, I swear I have no bread.

I only have a handful of flour left in a

small jar and a little olive oil left in a jug.

She said, you know, all I've got is just a

little handful of flour and a handful of oil. I

don't even have any bread at home. She said, I

came out here to gather some wood so I could

go home and cook our last meal and My son

and I will eat it and then we're gonna die

of hunger. Now Elijah's thinking, this is who you sent

me to? God, you're sending me to a woman who

doesn't even have food for her own family? She's got

one meal left and you're asking me to ask her

for it? This is illogical. This is a test. And

the test is do you believe God or do you

believe yourself? And here's what Elijah says. Don't be afraid.

Go home and first make a small loaf of bread

from what you have. Whatever you got, you make a

loaf of bread and bring it to me. Then cook

something for yourself and your son. Hello? Hello? This does

not sound right, does it? It just does not sound right.

It says, okay, this is a test of your faith.

You go home, you take whatever you got, and you

don't have much left. I want you to give it

to me. In fact, God wants you to give it

to me. He says, then cook something for yourself and

your son. God says, here's the promise. I assure you

that a jar of flour, that jar of flour will

never be empty and the jug of oil will never

run out until the day I send rain to the land.

He said God will supernaturally replenish it. And in that

little bowl and in that jar, you're gonna make stuff

out of it and supernaturally it's gonna fill up again.

And you make some more and it's gonna supernaturally fill

up again and you're never gonna run out and you'll

always have reserve. If you'll do what I tell you

to do on the promise of God, You'll never run

out until the day I send the rain to the land. So,

now what is Elijah doing here? He's doing the very

thing God did with him, CPR. You see, God didn't

just want to bless Elijah. He wanted to bless this

widow too. So she had to go through the same

steps of faith he did. He's giving the widow a

chance for a miracle. He gives her a command that

seems impossible. So the widow did what Elijah told her

to do. and she and her son and Elijah had

enough food every day. Elijah went ahead and lived with

her for the next couple years. The jar of flour

and the jug of oil never ran out just as

God promised. Now this is the third place, Zarephath. Do

you know what Zarephath means in Hebrew? It means the refinery.

God is refining his faith, Elijah's, and her faith, the widow,

and the son's faith, the refinery. What is a refinery?

A refinery is a place where they take heat and

pressure to purify and shape raw metal into something useful.

Some of you are in the refinery phase right now.

You're in where the pressure's on in your life. the

heat's on in your life to purify your motives and

to shape you to be used by God in ways

you cannot even imagine. Now the refinery is the exact

opposite of the ravine rut. In the ravine rut, it's cold,

it's dark, it's lonely, it's freezing. Because in the ravine,

you only see the sun at the middle of the day.

You don't see the sun in the morning. You don't

see the sun in the afternoon or in the evening,

you only see it when the sun's straight overhead. And

when you're going through a rut in life, everything seems dark.

You get up in the morning, you feel bad. You

go to bed at night, you feel bad. Maybe in

the middle of the day you might feel okay, but

the other times you don't, you're in the ravine. Now

he's gone from the cold place to the exact opposite,

where it's extremely hot. In the refinery of life, the

heat's on and the pressure's on. And you're going, where

am I gonna get the money? Where am I gonna

get the time? Where am I going to get the energy?

Where am I going to get the health? Where am

I going to get the creativity? Where am I going

to get the support? And the pressure's on. God had

prepared a widow. Now, it's interesting that when God plans

a miracle in your life, he works both ends at

the same time. He was working on Elijah's end, but

he was also already working up in Zarephath on the

widow's end. Because she had to be out there picking

up sticks at the exact time Elijah arrived. God's timing

is perfect. Now, what do you need to remember when

you've run out of resources? What do you remember when

you run out of resources? You need to remember three things.

Write these down. Number one, whatever I need more of,

give what I have to God. In fact, give it all.

She didn't just give a little, she gave it all.

Whatever I need more of, give what I have, all

I have, to God. She needed more flour and oil,

so what'd she do? She gave flour and oil to God. Now,

from a human standpoint, we would've said, woman, you're poor,

keep your oil, keep your flour. You can't afford to

give it. There is a myth that there are some

times I cannot afford to be generous. Wrong. You can

always afford to be generous. You can always give something.

It may be your last meal, but you can give something.

It is a myth that says, I cannot afford to give.

You can't afford not to give. God wants to teach

you to be generous because it teaches you faith. God

doesn't need anything from you. He doesn't need your time.

He doesn't need your money. He doesn't need your effort.

God has everything. So he doesn't need it. He wants

to teach you to be like him and he wants

to teach you to trust him. And that's in God saying,

I want your heart. So whatever I need more of,

I give it to God. She needed more oil and

more flour. Number two, second thing, whatever I have the

least of, I give to God. Whatever I have the

least of, I give that to God. Why? It's a test.

We are taught, whatever you have extra of, give it away.

That's the world's way of thinking. But God says, if

you want a miracle, you give what you don't have

to give. You give when you really need to hold

on to it. This is what the Bible teaches us.

Whatever I have the least of, I give it to God.

Number three, the third thing I need to remember is

I don't give to get a blessing, but to be

a blessing. I don't give to get a blessing, but

to be a blessing. If I am generous, will God

bless me? Of course he will. There's more promises in

the Bible about giving than anything else, but that's not

why I do it. I don't give to get a blessing,

I give to be a blessing. If I am generous

with my time, with my money, with my energy, with

my tithe, with everything, if I become a generous person,

I'm a giver instead of a taker in life. Will

God bless me? Absolutely, but that's not why I do it.

I do it in order to be a blessing. Now,

let's go to these three. Which of these three are

you in right now? Some of you are in the

rut and it's cold and dark and lonely. And some

of you are on the road and it's scary and

insecure and you have no idea where you're going and

you don't know how long the journey's gonna take. And

some of you are at the refinery and the heat's

on and the pressure's on. Here are some things you

need to remember. Number one, God is all I need.

My trust is in God, God is all I need.

And I need to draw close to him. Maybe I

need that private time with God and alone time with

God and focus on him. Number two, where God guides,

God provides. God won't send you to a place he's

not gonna provide for you. Where God guides, God provides.

Number three, the third thing you need to remember is

I must trust him one day at a time. I

must trust him one day at a time. Number four,

the last thing you need to remember. God's promises hinge

on my obedience. God's promises hinge on my obedience. Command, promise, risk.

Take that step of faith. It doesn't seem logical, but

you do what seems illogical, and you follow God, and

God says, I'll take care of you. CPR. Why? Last

verse on the outline. The Bible says this. My God

will meet all your needs. Now notice, it doesn't say

God might, God hopes, God maybe. God will, will meet all,

not some, all your needs. This is a promise from God.

God does not lie. Here's the promise, command, promise, risk.

My God will meet all your needs according to his

glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Now notice he doesn't say

God will meet all your greeds. God has not promised

you a Bentley and a $ 9 million home. God has said,

I will meet all your needs, all your needs in

Christ Jesus. Do you know Christ Jesus? If you don't,

you need to get to know him right now. Let's

bow our heads. Would you pray this prayer in your heart?

Dear God, today I've learned that the things that I'm

lacking in my life, the deficiencies, the shortages, are really

proof that you love me, that you care, that you're

paying attention to my life. I thank you. Thank you

that you wanna keep me from depending on the brook.

Forgive me for when I've depended on my job and

other people instead of you. Thank you that when the

brook dries up, you wanna move me to a better place.

Thank you that you haven't forgotten me. And Lord, In

the days ahead, which may seem a little scary sometimes,

help me to realize that the path to a miracle

is through uncomfortable territory. That you're stretching my faith. And

that the source of a miracle will be unexpected, so

I shouldn't try to figure it out. I should just

trust you. And that the pattern of a miracle is

always CPR. You've told me what to do. And it

doesn't always make sense, it sometimes seems illogical to give

away what little I've got. But help me to take

the risks. Help me to give away whatever I need

more of, whatever I have the least of. Lord, I

don't wanna give just to get a blessing, I wanna

give to be a blessing. Help me to remember that

you're all I need, and that where you provide, Where

you guide, you'll provide. Jesus Christ, I wanna open my

life to you. I wanna learn to trust you one

day at a time. I wanna go your way, not

my way. I wanna follow you. I ask you to

save me and come into my life. And I want

to claim the promises that you've given, that if I

trust you, you'll meet my needs. I pray this in

your name. Amen.