Pastor Dale Tunnell: Have you ever been forgotten?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know what it's like to be forgotten?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Maybe you grew up in one of those households that if you were not out at the car at 7 a.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: m.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or maybe you've missed the bus.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is that what happened?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know what it was like to miss the bus
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know what happened when you missed the bus, you saw it going down the road, and you had to turn around and go back and tell your parents that you had missed the bus?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That was not a good day.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm told about a couple that they were traveling across the United States.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And they, as they were traveling, the wife crawled into the back seat, and she lay down on the back seat, had a blanket over her, had a pillow there, and she went to sleep.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: A husband pulled off at the rest area and said, We're stopping here at a rest area.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you need to go to the restroom?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: No comment was made.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: See he was getting out of the car.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He says, we're stopping at the restroom.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you need to go?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: No comment was made
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So he goes in and he goes to the restroom.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: While he is in the restroom, she gets out of the back of the car and goes to the restroom.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He comes out and he looks in the back and the blanket is still there
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The pillow is still there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It still looks like it's wrapped the way it was when he got out.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So he gets into the car and he gets back on the interstate.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, this is pre-sale phones.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How would you feel if you saw your
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Driver getting back on the interstate.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How could he forget about me?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Left behind.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Two weeks ago we started a series talking about Elijah
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We know the story of Elijah fairly well.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's one of those stories Elijah is one of those heroes of faith that we have.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We like the story of Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But as we looked at a couple weeks ago, the parallels, and last week, the parallels between Elijah's time and our time today are striking.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The immorality that was going on in Elijah's time, the immorality that's going on in in in our time, the infiltration of the world, how it had infiltrated God's people, God's church, and how today
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It seems like the world has infiltrated God's people and and God's church.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We looked at the fact that Elijah was that man of prayer.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We read James chapter 5, where we saw that Elijah was that man of prayer.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was a man of prayer and he prayed so much.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was studying scripture so much.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He prayed, God, close the windows of heaven that it will not rain.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was jealous for the cause of God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wanted the people of God to worship the Creator God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And he was jealous because they were they were worshiping Baal and that they thought was the God of rain.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God show them that you are more powerful than this this Baal God that they are worshiping.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And so he prayed, and God said, Okay, I'm going to shut
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The skies.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And when God said that to Elijah, Elijah, this is where we went two weeks ago.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You remember that the one verse that we looked at?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Says, and Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab,
Pastor Dale Tunnell: As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What a pronouncement.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you had been Ahab, if you had been listening to the pronouncement of Elijah, what would you have picked up on?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah said there's not going to be dew or rain for how long?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Did you read what it said?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: These years, plural
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now you know what it's like to be without rain for a week, two weeks, a month?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Years
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What happens?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, you look at the the announcement that Elijah had the
Pastor Dale Tunnell: the boldness, the courage that he had, the audacity that he had to walk right past those guards and to stand before Elijah and to say those words
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And after that big announcement, he exits.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And as he exits, verse 2, we did not look at that last time.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says, Then the word of the Lord came to him saying,
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Get away from here, turn eastward, and hide at the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan, and it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there
Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you had been Elijah, what would you have said?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Excuse me, God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I just came in here and I made a big pronouncement for you.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I thought you had called me to be your spokesperson.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And you want me to do what?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I've been working, Lord, on my courage.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you know how much courage it took to walk and stand before Ahab?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know how much courage it took to go past those security guards?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you know how much I had to muster up, Lord, to make this happen?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And you want me to do what now?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What was God calling Elijah to do?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Hide, go off to the brook cherith in secret
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, to me, that doesn't sound real logical.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Here you have someone that's willing to be a spokesperson for you.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, I would have told Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Go up and down all of Israel, just like Jonah later went up and down Nineveh
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And and and proclaim that the the sky is going to be closed up and that these people need to repent and put on sackcloth and ashes.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, that would have been, excuse me, my logic.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But I know God's ways are not my ways
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean I remember in my homeletics class, my homeletics teacher telling us he was going to take us to downtown Chattanooga and he was going to put us on the corner of a street and he says, I want to see what kind of street preacher you are.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And we'll give you a grade according to the people you can get together.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And we'll give you a grade according to how long they stay.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And we'll give you a grade according to who's still there at the end.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Boy, can you imagine being called to be a street preacher?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Any volunteers
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, Elijah just seems like that kind of person.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It seems like he could have done that.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I am thankful my homiletics teacher did not do that.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because I know at least one person in the class, he'd have failed.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He had trouble just with homiletics.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Getting up there and preaching, boy, it was a short sermon he preached.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I felt sorry for the man.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Uh he's still pastoring today.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He he he learned how to go longer than five minutes.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But Elijah, it it it seems like telling him to go and hide.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Can you imagine what that was like as Elijah, maybe he had a friend that had gone with him there and Elijah said, I'm I'm
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Leaving now and the friend says, Where are you going?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He says, I'm going over to the brook Cherith.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What are you gonna do over there?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do, but I know that I'm going to be drinking water.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Well, what are you going to eat?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to eat, but I know that the birds are going to feed me.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, can you can you fathom that kind of conversation that Elijah has with somebody?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, maybe you've
Pastor Dale Tunnell: had a conversation like that.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Maybe you feel like there's been a time in your life, or maybe you feel like there's a time in your life right now where
Pastor Dale Tunnell: where something like that's going on.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Where it seems like God has has called you to something and he he's told you what he wants you to do and then it's like he
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He left you behind.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He set you aside.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said, Just wait
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You ever like it when God says just wait?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How long was Elijah there by that brook cherith?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What's your Bible say?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Three months?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Six months?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm not hearing anything.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, it's because it doesn't tell us, does it?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It doesn't tell us how long that he was there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But it does tell us that he had water to drink and food to eat.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verse 5 tells us: So he went and he did according to the word of the Lord.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He went and he stayed by the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And our words are hallelujah, God provides
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is this the kind of provision Elijah had in mind?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is this the kind of a provision that that
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God, I mean Elijah had negotiated with God before he stood in front of Ahab
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Scripture doesn't tell us what that conversation was.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It just tells us that after he said this to Ahab, the word of the Lord came to him and told him to go to this brook.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Boy, have you ever gone out and been out in the wilderness?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How long do you last?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know, I have a friend that he he decided he was going to hike the Appalachian Trail and he put on his backpack and he got out there by himself and started hiking.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And he did about two weeks and he says that's all I could handle.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I couldn't handle more than two weeks.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said, it was terrible being out there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I said, you lasted two weeks longer than I would have
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, I I've had days where I said, you know, the been challenged and then they they told me as a you know, as a pastor, you need to get out into the into into nature and you need to have some quiet time communing with God and to
Pastor Dale Tunnell: to read and to write and and not have the distractions of of of phone and and family around or or people able to get a hold of you and and I go out and I I try that and I last until I'm hungry
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It it it's I'm thankful that Elijah at least had the ravens to bring him something to eat.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verse 7 says, and it happened after a while that the brook dried up.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because there was no rain.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It doesn't tell us how long that took took.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It doesn't tell us how many months he was out there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It doesn't tell us how many months he was going through this process, but sometimes we get comfortable even in our quietness
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We get comfortable with the fact that, well, God is providing for me.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm not sure I like this.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: This isn't what I had in mind.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But God provides, God provides, and then when God seems that God's provision dries up, what do we do?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God, you you gave me this job.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How can it dry up?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God, you gave me this spouse.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How could they die?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God, you gave me this
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What's happening?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Think about the emotions.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That Elijah had when he woke up and the brook was dry.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How did he feel?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm gonna tell you, there's been a few times when I thought my brook was dry.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: A couple things I've learned.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: For me, I'm going to share with you when you feel like your brook is dry, when you feel like God has
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Exited and gone back on the interstate and left you at the rest area.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Something that I need to remember, that you may need to remember, God is still alive
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, I should have got more than just three there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God is still alive.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We need to remember that.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: In our darkest hour, in our deepest trial, when it seems like the brook is dry, God is alive.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And secondly, he's still on the throne.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know what that means?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He's still in control of things.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He still has all power.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He can accomplish things.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He knows what's going on.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sometimes I forget that.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know what we do when we forget that
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I complain often loudly.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why me, Lord?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What did I do to deserve a dry brook at this point in time in my life?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Put a bookmark there in 1 Kings 17.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're going to come back to it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Turn over to Isaiah chapter 49.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sometimes we need some promises in times like this.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Isaiah chapter 49
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, let's see.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Come down to verse fourteen.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But Zion said, Who is Zion?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's the people of God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God's people say, The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God replies, verse 15, can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Surely they may forget
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yet I will not forget you.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands, your walls are continually before me.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, we can look at the the hands of Jesus and we can know that he has tattooed, if you will.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Your name there on his hands.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He knows you and he will not forget you
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Hallelujah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We serve a God that's alive.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We serve a God that's that's on the throne, and we serve a God that will not forget us.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's news we need to know.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: There are times when God is going to set us aside and we're going to be at that brook cherith.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We may wonder what's going on, but I'm just letting you know that's going to happen at times
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I remember when I was at Georgia Cumberland Academy.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I was so excited to be at Georgia Cumberland Academy to be
Pastor Dale Tunnell: working as a as a pastor with the young people there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But there was a a man there that at the academy, he had a
Pastor Dale Tunnell: An interesting job.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Made sure the industries that the academy had
Pastor Dale Tunnell: wa had the right people to fill the positions that were needed.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And he was the go-between for the Academy and these industries that the Academy had.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was also the head elder of the the Academy Church.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And as a head elder I had him preach sometimes, and man, that man was a good preacher.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I can remember thinking the first time I heard him
Pastor Dale Tunnell: His skills are just being wasted here as a work coordinator at Georgia Cumberland Academy.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He's got he he he's gifted
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He ought to be doing something other than the work coordinator.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: A few years later, Cheryl and I took a call.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We went to Mongolia
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The next thing I knew, this man had taken a call and he was now the president of a mission field.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Next thing I knew he had left the presidency of the mission field and he had gone to the general conference.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I was thinking, that's more like it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's the kind of character he had.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's the kind of qualities he had.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That that's
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But the time that he was at GC, when I look back at it, I think that must have been his quiet time at the Brook.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know what God does when you're sitting at the brook?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He is developing your character
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The things that are going on inside.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah may have been the spokesperson for God, but he was going to become the man of God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And part of that becoming the man of God took place at the Brook Cherith
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You can praise God and you can thank God for those quiet times.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Those times you don't understand what is happening.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You don't know what is going on or why it's going on.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We need to remember at those times God's direction includes his provisions.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We need to learn to trust God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm going to say this phrase, and you're going to think, oh, I've heard that before.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: One day at a time.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Have you heard that before?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Trust God one day at a time.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because you can't live tomorrow until tomorrow is
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So what do we do worrying about tomorrow?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean Jesus said something.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Don't worry about tomorrow.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When do we need to trust him?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Today.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What has he given you to do today?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sit by the brook cherith, drink, eat what the ravens bring you
Pastor Dale Tunnell: May or may not be pizza.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: May and not may or may not be burritos.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: May or may not be the food that you are in
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Desiring from home.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God will take care of you.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: A dried up brook does not mean that God is displeased with you.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: A dried-up brook does not mean God is displeased with you.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Think about it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Joseph was sold by his brothers because God was displeased with him, correct?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Joseph was thrown into jail because God was displeased with him, correct?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Each one of these, what we think are low points in Joseph's life, at that point it says, and God was with him.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Abraham, God says, go and and and sacrifice your son.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It seems like that's
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That the brook is drying up.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean the sun is supposed to be everything God has promised.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The entire promise that God has given him is through Isaac.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And now God is saying, Go and sacrifice your son just because
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It seems the brook is drying up does not mean God does not have a provision for us
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Chapter 17 of 1 Kings continues.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Arise.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Go to Seraphith, which belongs in Sidon, and dwell there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So he arose and went to where?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Where?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Just because the brook had dried up does not mean that God was not still providing.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God had another plan.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God was moving to phase two.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He had been at Cherith where it was it was quiet.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It was out in in in the woods.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It was out in nature.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was being taken care of by by the brook and by the ravens.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And now he was going to
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Where does it say?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Zareaph.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And where's Zarephith?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And that's up there where we kind of talk about these places together, Tyre and Sidon.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: This this Zarephath, that was the hometown of Jezebel's father.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you remember Jezebel?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The one who had introduced the the the extreme Baal worship to the people of Israel, the one who had enticed Ahab to to to worship the Baals?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The one who has
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The root of the problem.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God is saying to Elijah, I want you to go from this brook here, and I want you to go all the way over here to
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Zarephath.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I know you've been in the country.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I know you've had that country living, but now I want you to go to the inner city.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I want you to go to a widow.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, if you're you're playing this in your head, if you are Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What are you thinking?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God, why in the world would you want me to go to the den of iniquity?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why would you want me to go to a country like that?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why would you want me to go to a city like that?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why would you that's what I'm preaching against, God?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I can't go to a place like that.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's that's that's that's
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We don't stand for that God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's pure paganism.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We can't.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God, what are you doing?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God, isn't there an Adventist family that has like a a a fifty acre farm that I could go and help on the farm with them and
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And you could just provide water for that farm and and they could have a well and and we could just produce crops just just
Pastor Dale Tunnell: A nice advent, I mean Israelite family that that still worship you, that has not been the need to bail.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Can't can't you just provide something like that for me, God?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God I I I've kind of gotten used to the the the the Raven food here.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The ravens is they're they're not so bad.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The the brook is dried up.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I realize that.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But God and the with the the children of Israel in the wilderness, you were able to get water out of a rock.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: There's a a stone here.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's a it's a it's a nice stone
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's uh I know that you can make water come from this rock, Lord.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'll just stay here at Cherith and you bring forth water.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is gonna be like my my canteen rock.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I just drink out of it whenever I'm thirsty, and you can do your miracle, God, but to go to Zarephath, that's that's
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean you start thinking the way Elijah might have been thinking, and he he he starts walking for a hundred miles to get there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You wonder what kind of thoughts were going through his head.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: as he was trying not to get caught, as he was going through parts of Israel, and he was trying not to be seen, because they were looking for him.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He might have heard there were wanted posters out for him.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How does he get from there to there without getting caught and and and and the things that are going through
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God in there, I've read Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers there, God, and you you tell us that we're supposed to be taking care of widows
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Not widows taking care of us.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God surely there's
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, surely there's something else we can do.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't want to go live with the widow.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't want to go to the inner city.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't want to go into the the darkness of of heathenism.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is this is God, do you know what you're doing?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Have you ever asked God that question?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, let me tell you, there are times I've asked God that question
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I think this may have been one of those times where Elijah was talking to God, and God, do you know what you're doing?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because logically, this doesn't make a lot of sense.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah's preaching against this, and yet, and yet God is sending him to the root of this problem where it came from.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Prophets and Kings, page 129, tells us this woman was not an Israelite.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: She had never had the privileges and the blessings that the chosen people of God had enjoyed
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But she was a believer in the true God and had walked in the light that was shining on her pathway.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Think about that.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: She was a believer in the true God that had walked in all the light that was shining on her pathway.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What light had been shining on her pathway?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, yeah
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That territory, Tyre and Sidon, that's that David had a connection with the the the king of Tyre there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He he
Pastor Dale Tunnell: he connected with them and he got he got cedars from there and and brought 'em to to build his palace and and and Solomon connected there and got cedars from there to to build the the
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Temple and oh man, they they must have surely they had seen the truth
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Surely there had been opportunities for David and Solomon to share the truth.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Surely those people had learned about the Creator God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Maybe
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Maybe some of it had trickled down.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean this was was a hundred years past that now
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the people of God, the ones that had the temple in front of them, they were not doing what they were supposed to be doing.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But maybe those heathen out there, maybe they they
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Hmm.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Prophets in Kings 1:29 says, But she was a believer in the true God and had walked in all the light that was shining on her pathway.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Maybe
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You have your finger there, your Bible open to 1 Kings 17.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want you to turn to the New Testament, Luke chapter 4.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus talking about this story, Luke chapter four.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verses twenty-five and twenty-six
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Luke chapter four, verse twenty-five and twenty-six.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But I tell you truly
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout the land.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But to none of them was Elijah sent except to Seraph in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus lifts up this woman, this widow, as more, do I use the word holy?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: As more walking in the in in the sight of God, walking in the pathway of God, walking in the desires of God, living up to all the light that she had, than were the people of Israel.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What is Jesus saying?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He says that there are many widows in Israel, but God passed by them all.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Rather to choose this widow.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: who was living up to the light she had.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Maybe it's not so much that God had passed them by, it's that while God was looking for someone living up to the light they had,
Pastor Dale Tunnell: even though he was going through the people of Israel that had the the the testimonies of God, even though he was looking at the people of Israel that
Pastor Dale Tunnell: were in the proximity of the temple of God, even though he was looking at the people of Israel that had the prophets that had been sent to them, one after another after another, these individuals were not living up to the light they had.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the person that was most living up to the light they had was in Seraph.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You think about that for a moment.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What does this story say to us today?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are we living up to the light they have that we have?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are we listening to the prophets that God gives to us?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are we spending time in God's Word, getting to know Him so that we have an insight and understanding?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Testimonies, Volume 3, page 274, fleshes it out a little bit more.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says, a heathen woman living up to the best light she had was in a more acceptable state with God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: than the widows of Israel, who had been blessed with special privileges and great light, and yet did not live according to the light which God had given them.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So it wasn't so much that God had passed them by, it was that they were not interested in God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's pretty strong, isn't it?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Two weeks ago.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I I went on on Saturday night down to to ASI and and go went through the booth there with my my grandchildren.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That was just a lot of fun.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: to see them get excited about what ASI had to to share.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Uh while I was walking through the booth though, there were lots of people that wanted to talk to me.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: There were individual from the
Pastor Dale Tunnell: the global mission department that wanted to talk with me.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And he he took me aside, he took me back away from the the crowd and and uh he said, Dale, you wouldn't believe what is happening.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: In some of the African countries right now.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said, there are hundreds.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said, I'm using the word hundreds of people.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That are having dreams and visions in Muslim lands
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I was talking to a man yesterday with gospel outreach and he was telling me stories uh about a a different continent, a different place, but about Muslim people.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said, There I can tell you about a a a
Pastor Dale Tunnell: a s a village, over three hundred people in this village.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And on the same night all three hundred people have the same dream.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the next day all three hundred people become Christians.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And my mind is thinking about the
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Dale, I'm God, I'm I'm I'm praying for some people.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I God, I ask you to give them a dream, to give them a vision.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I ask you to send an angel to them, to reveal yourself to them some way.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Lord, I I I beg you, and yet you're sending it to I don't understand, God
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Maybe it's that some people are more willing to follow the light they have.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And some people have rejected it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are we living up to the light we have?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: First Kings chapter seventeen
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When he came, verse nineteen.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sorry about that, ten
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So he arose and went to Zareph, and when he came to the city, the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks, and he called to her and said, Please, bring me a little water and a cup, that I may drink
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And as she was was going to get it, he called out to her, and said, Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You can imagine that he was probably thirsty after walking the hundred miles to get there
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You can imagine that he was probably hungry.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You can imagine that that if God had sent him there, that he had some expectations of the reality of what was going to happen
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And her reply probably probably startled him just a little bit.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says so he she said, as the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: only a handful of flour and a bin, and a little oil in a jar, and see I'm gathering a couple sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Can you imagine what Elijah thought when he heard those words?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God, what are you doing to me here?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I thought she was the one that was going to take care of me.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I thought she was the one that was supposed to provide for me.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And she doesn't even have
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, you'd like to know some of those conversations that are not recorded, wouldn't you?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'd like to know how those prayers went, how how fast Elijah was praying at this time.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But my guess is this was not according to expectation.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But the words that come out of his mouth.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh man, the audacity of Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah said to her, Do not fear, go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me, and afterward make some for yourself and your son.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: For thus says the Lord God of Israel, the bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry until the day of the Lord, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Which one was harder to ask a woman that knew that she was
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Preparing the last meal for herself and her son, and they were going to die, to ask her for food, or to go and stand before Ahab and say, It's not going to rain for years until I say so.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Which one took more courage?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, I think both of them would have been difficult
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The audacity though to say, and make mine first.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want to spin out of this and start my stewardship sermon.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because there is some stewardship here.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we put God first in our life?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm serious.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you put God first in your life?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Matthew 6 there tells us to seek his kingdom what?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: First.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: First twith our tithe, first with our offerings, first
Pastor Dale Tunnell: With our lifestyle first.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Everything in life.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Put his kingdom first.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is that the way we operate?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ah, Pastor, I can't do that.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I got a limited income.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You talk about a limited income here
Pastor Dale Tunnell: This woman's expectations was I'm making our last meal for us.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't know how long it had been since the previous meal, but this meal she knew it was going to be her last, and what she was dreading was going to take place
Pastor Dale Tunnell: She and her son were going to die.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And when this
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Man of God says, Make mine first.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What difference does it make?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Okay, I'll do it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I I I don't know if she did it because of her faith.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't know if she did it because of of his faith.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't know if she did it because
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It didn't matter anyway.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Well, I just have a lot of questions about this.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says, but she went away and did according to the word of Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And she and he and her household ate for many days
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It just says many days.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It doesn't tell us how long he was at the brook.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It doesn't tell us how long he was here in this inner city work that he was doing.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It doesn't say if he was taking care of her or if she was taking care of him or if
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God was taking care of both of them.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But when we put God first, God says
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He will take care of us.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, I like to think that Oh, this this verse here says, so she went away and she did everything according to
Pastor Dale Tunnell: According to the word of Elijah, she and her her household for many days, and the bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run out.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: According to the word of Eli
Pastor Dale Tunnell: the Lord which he spoke by Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: This woman, I believe she met God there in the kitchen.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Day after day after day, my guess is she poured all the oil.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: My guess is
Pastor Dale Tunnell: She shook the bin every day.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: There wasn't a day where she got up and the bin was full.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: There wasn't a day she got up and the oil was full
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But it was an everyday thing for her to meet God there in the kitchen by pouring the oil out all the way, shaking the bin out all the way, and coming and saying to her son and to Elijah, this is all we've got.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And what happened the next day?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Somehow there's a little bit of oil.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Somehow that bin that she had shook all the flour of, she shakes it and bangs on it again, and there's still more flour.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It comes out and she bakes it again and she says, That's all that's in there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't know what we're gonna do tomorrow.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Tomorrow comes and what happens?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, what do you think this did to her faith?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What do you think it did to the faith of Elijah?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Okay, God, if you can do it at the brook.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you can do it with the birds, if you can do it here in Zarephath with the oil, if you can do it with the flower, God, you can do it
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Can God do it for us?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Can God do it for us today?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, let's put God first, and God will take care of you.