Training is Required
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1 Kings 17:1-7
Have you ever noticed – God has a tendency of us away when He wants to train us?
God’s goal is to teach us to our . (1 Kings 17:2-5)
God’s goal is always the life of His disciple.
A true disciple’s motto is: “ is a !”
Names of places in the Bible often have .
“Cherith” = means to be off – to down.
Elijah was one of God’s children, but he was not yet a of .
Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall certainly be neither dew nor rain during these years, except by my word.”
1 Kings 17:1
Then 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.”
1 Kings 24
Did you notice the word “ ” in verse 1?
Was that word for King Ahab or ?
“ ” – is part of God’s .
“Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.”
1 Kings 17:3
Two reasons for ! 1st To 2nd To
The Agenda!
“And it shall be that you will drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide food for you there.”
1 Kings 17:4
Can you trust God?
- Is He ?
- Do you have the ?
Trusting God is not – we want quick .
Accept the way God does things, for who can straighten what he has made crooked?
Ecclesiastes 7:13 NLT
When we fail to , we doubt His and question His .
To trust God we must view our circumstances through the eyes of , not of
To believe “God is able” we must accept:
God is sovereign. God is . God is .
God in His always wills what is best for us. In His He always knows what is best and in His sovereignty He has the to bring it about.
Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?
Lamentations 3:37-38 NIV
“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.
John 19:10-11a NIV
Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
Psalm 9:10 NIV
If we are to trust God:
- We must learn to see that He is continuously at in every and every of our lives.
Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?
Lamentations 3:37 NIV
All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven
and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”
Daniel 4:35 NIV
St. Augustine said, “Nothing, therefore, happens unless the Omnipotent wills it to happen: He either it to happen, or He it about Himself.”
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:9 NIV
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
Romans 11:33 NIV
Mankind questions these because we don’t understand what God is . We strive to make God and as we do.
God Or !
Non-Christians and Christians alike have ruled out the act of God and His providence.
Most believe are in the hands of or .
Randomness, , , , – are modern answers to “Why” – thus dismissing .
Many say they believe in God, but a god of their own .
Seventeenth-century constructed a god who created and then left it to run according to its own natural laws and devices.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Matthew 10:29-31 NIV
God does not away and us to the mercy of uncontrolled or events.
Three things to embrace:
- God is and .
- He what He is doing.
- He is an artist a person of God.
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands...
Isaiah 16a NIV