“What Doest Thou Here?” By Parrish Lee November 1st,
2009 1
Kings 19:1-13
Elijah hides
from Jezebel Our text today is about the prophet Elijah and the king Ahab, and, to give a little background, Ahab was king of Israel, and the Bible says he was a wicked king—in fact, it says that there was none like him who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, and, if that wasn’t enough, he took to wife Jezebel who taught people how to be wicked. Chapter 18 shows how Elijah withstood 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the groves, 850 total, and God answered with fire from Heaven and Elijah killed all the prophets of Baal. In 1 Kings 19:2, Jezebel says that she’ll kill Elijah for that, and he fled to the desert. Many of us can identify here—you’re just trying to do the right thing, and somebody’s out to get you.
As
he fled, God took care of him and he went to Mount
Horeb. We see in 1 Kings 19:10, Elijah explains how he feels, “Everybody’s doing what they want to do; they want me out of the picture, and I feel alone.” Then God told him to come and stand before Him—not go read a book, or see a therapist, but come before Me. Nothing wrong with books or therapists, but there are times when God wants us to come alone to Him. Any parent will tell you that there are times when they want to be alone with their child. God desires the same from us. He wants us not to settle for anything other than His voice. So, how do hear the voice of the Lord? #1, prepare your heart, and, #2, get familiar with His Word. Did you ever have a sibling say mom wanted you to do something, but it didn’t sound like something mom would say? You knew that because you were familiar with the way mom talks. #3, When there is a distance between you and someone talking to you and you can’t hear them, what do you do? You move closer . Some might say, that’s not fair; why should you have to put forth so much effort? There’s an answer for that: Is it fair that God would create the Garden of Eden (a perfect garden) and man would foul it up? Or that God would give man the 10 Commandments, and man would break every one? Or that He would give His only begotten Son to die for sinners? When you think about it from God’s perspective, we definitely got the better end of the deal.
Chris
Ulrich shared something in his message;
he said that Christians give out far
more compliments than we will ever get.
We follow the path of the One we love and
serve—He gives far more to us
than He will ever receive from us.
What
do you mean receive, Brother Parrish? Does God want things from us? Why, yes, He does. 2
Chronicles 16:9 God
looks to show
Himself strong for those whose hearts are perfect. So
we see that He’s looking for
us to have our hearts perfect before Him. John
4:23
…the Father seeketh such
to worship Him. We see that our Heavenly Father seeks us to worship Him. But, I think a more evident example is what He’s given to everyone of us from the time that He created us. Society has jumbled this all up, but when God first created us, He gave us husbands and wives, and from them, children, and then we got aunts and uncles and friends. In every one of those relationships we see something stand out that is special and beautiful, and that’s LOVE. There are many kinds of love: 1. Maternal love 2. Paternal love 3. Philio love (platonic; friendship) 4. Eros love (the love between lovers) 5. Mania love (manic, selfish, obsessive) 6. Ludus love (love as a game) 7. Pragma (pragmatic or practical)
8.
Agape
(selfless, unconditional—the love that God has) So which type are you talking about? Love is not a happenstance or an accident. The Bible says that God is love—so those relationships that we feel as we love our mother and father, brothers and sisters, friends, strangers, cars, houses, and even a good meal; if we feel the sensation of love, it’s given from God to touch us and draw us closer to Him, the giver of all good and perfect gifts. I really need to speak to some of us here who have made mistakes—the kind that separate us from God—something that I can talk about because I’ve been there. Whether they are from last week, last month, last year, or many years ago, or this morning—I come boldly to say that the same God who healed ten lepers in a shot desires to heal our lives with that love that only he can give and to bring His will there. The other question God is asking us is, “Will we let Him be Lord in our lives?” It has occurred to me that sometimes I get to talking and I give the impression that I’m talking about someone else’s God: I love to talk about the God of Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Paul, Dorcas, Ruth, and Miriam—because that God is amazing—but let me be clear who I’m talking about today: I’m talking about the God of Parrish Lee, the God who washed away my sins, who had mercy on me, who came through for me over and over again. I know what that God has done. We need to have the attitude of Jehoshaphat who, when Ahab asked if he should go and take Ramothgilead, asked for a prophet of the Lord. 1
Kings 22:7
…Is there
not here a
prophet of the LORD besides?... Or, lastly, the attitude of Zacchaeus: Luke
19:1-6
Zacchaeus climbed a
sycamore tree to see the Lord When Zaccheaus found out the Jesus was coming by that way, but that he couldn’t see him, he changed his position so that he could see and hear the precious Word of the Lord. Often we see in the Word, God either calling His people to separate themselves so that they could have some uninterrupted time together, or God waiting on them to separate themselves. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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