All right, let's get in, let's jump in the Word, jump in the Word. We said we was gonna continue on with a thought, didn't we? On Sunday night, we're looking at this idea with Elijah how even these great servants who are used in significant great ways can find themselves down. can find themselves in despair. And he's reaping what he's been sowing. He's allowed his circumstances. He's allowed the time of being isolated. He's let these thoughts work on him. And I'll show you a couple of things just to bring that out. Go back over to 1 Kings, look in 19. And the reason we're looking at these things, the main reason is because you want to have something to help our little ones in the back because they've been looking at him. And they of course not getting into the things that we're talking about. From that perspective. This is really what I've been doing or attempting to do is giving y'all some meat To have something more to be able to talk with them through the week on to help them go a little bit further and what they've been learning and Seven is not going to get in to some of the things that we are are going to get in and hear With them. She's gonna lay that foundation and then let y'all take it and run with it from there. So But remember, what did Elijah, what did he do when God gave him that assignment? He went immediately to go find who? his replacement. Man, he was ready to throw in the towel. And we even get a picture of it of when he walked by Elisha. What did he do? He threw the mantle on him. He threw the mantle on him. We see that in verse number 19. It says at the very tail end of that verse, then Elisha passed by him and threw his mantle on him. No talking, it doesn't appear, not to say that it didn't happen, but the scripture doesn't give us the entire dialogue, or it may. To me, I think it does express what was happening at that time, and immediately he left the oxen and Elijah unaware. He didn't know this was coming. He called him off guard, Elisha, and he said to him, please let me go kiss my father and my mother and I will follow you. And he told him to go on back again for what have I done to you? It's a picture of, I've done put you in the same position. This is 19, chapter 19 of 1 Kings and verse number 20. Go back again for what have I done to you? Now, how does some of the other translations read? What does the King James say, Ms. Pat? Verse 20. Same, all right. Stephanie, what does the living say? Elijah replied, go on back, but think about what I have done to you. Think about what I've done to you. You see the idea because you can't get away from it. The living translation does its best to make it easy to embrace. But even in light of that, it's saying that that was the spirit of Elijah. I've done something to you that is irreversible. What have I done? I put you in the same position that I've been in, and man, I don't want that on nobody. That's the last thing in the world I want on anybody. See, that's a man in a bad position because Elijah's in a great place with God. Not everybody was put in that place. And he's ungrateful for it because he's let himself slip. Now, we got to be cautious because we'll get to the same place. a lot of times, a small portion of what God has given us to do, and we're still complaining about what we're doing. Are you with me? When you really consider that. And so, when we go on and continue to look at it, we see Elisha's gonna be a different dude, though. Elisha's gonna be a whole different guy. Man, when he goes back, first thing he does is he is gonna sacrifice His stuff, he's burning it. I'm not coming back to it. I'm leaving this. And he sacrificed his stuff, look in verse 21. So Elisha turned back from him and he took a yoke of oxen, slaughtered them and boiled their flesh using the oxen's equipment and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah and became his servant. That's a man who just celebrated what had just taken place in his life, though he's green, he don't know what he's fixing to encounter, but at the same time, he was delighted, he was humble. And the difference in that is that we don't see a hard heart, what do we see? A sensitive heart. And that's where we wanna stay. That's where we wanna live. No matter how long you'll walk with the Lord, you want your heart sensitive to the things of God. You wanna be sensitive. Now this week, the kids are gonna talk about, and we too, are gonna look at Josiah. And one of the earmarks of Josiah's life is that God says, because your heart was tender before me. It was moved, it was touched. when I spoke because of that God says I got plans to bring judgment but I'm going to hold back my judgment as long as you live because your heart was tender in my sight and not only that he says Josiah you'll never have to fight a day in your life you'll never have to fight a war now Josiah is going to get out of God's will He's gonna get out of God's will and he's gonna go defend his nation when a king comes by when God didn't tell him to and Josiah's gonna die as a result of that because God had already told him he wouldn't have to fight. Now that's where we go back to and this is what we're gonna learn about this drifting is that there's always an element of disbelief that gets in there. Elijah is in that place of disbelief. That's why he's having a hard time with it. Josiah, a man that believed God, walked with God, but he's going to get to a place when circumstances come against him, he's going to operate in unbelief or disbelief and it's going to cost his life. So we're always prone to operate in disbelief ourselves. Not that we don't trust Jesus and his sufficient grace in that sense but God gives us something and we think we know better and we do it our way rather than his way you operating or I'm operating in what? Disbelief. I'm simply leaning on my own understanding and that can be costly, more costly than we think when it comes to it. And that's what Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews all talks about, how you get to that place. So, now watch what happens. We're not gonna read the whole chapter, but I would encourage you to go take a look at it. In chapter 20, we're gonna see some significant events come up. Look in verse number 13 to 20. It's gonna say, suddenly a prophet approached Ahab, king of Israel. That prophet is not Elijah. Now Elijah, remember, when he kept rehearsing in his mind, he was what? There was nobody out there but him. But did God have other people? Yes. Did God have other prophets? Yes. They were always at his disposal. They were always ready. Here's another, suddenly a prophet appeared Approached Ahab, king of Israel, saying, thus says the Lord, have you seen all the great multitude? Behold, I will deliver into your hand today, and you shall know that I am the Lord. He didn't need Elijah, he chose to use Elijah. He don't need you and me, but he chooses to use us, and that's the blessing, amen. Now look in verse 22. And the prophet came to the king of Israel and said to him, go strengthen yourself, take note, see what you should do, for in the springtime, the king of Assyria will come up against you again. Now, it's not Elijah, it's somebody else. Now Elijah was intimately personable with Ahab. When God had a word for Ahab, he used Elijah to do it. But now Elijah's operating in this disbelief and this drifting spirit, so God uses someone else. All right, now he's gonna teach Ahab, excuse me, he's gonna teach Elijah about this. And that's that great passage where the king said, look, God is the God of the mountains, but he's not the God of the valley. So God says, hi, you wanna discredit me like that? I'm gonna show you, I'm not only the God of the mountain, but I'm also the God of the valley. And God took it personal, and God did this great work. Look in verse number 28. Here's somebody else. of the same chapter, 20. Then a man of God came and spoke to the king of Israel and said, thus says the Lord, because the Syrians had said, the Lord is God of the hills, the mountains, but he's not the God of the valleys, therefore I will deliver all his great multitude in your hand and you shall know that I am who? Now this is another guy. Not Elijah, not the other prophet, but another man of God that God is using. Okay, so then we go a little bit further. You keep reading, we're gonna continue to see this happen. And God just works this out, don't he? They've done some killing. I'll tell you what, the Bible ain't afraid to tell you there was some killing got done. One day. So I'm saying things that happen and you see things and hear things. That's why when you hear stuff mentioned in commentary on modern day, they call it biblical proportion. They calling it that because when the Bible reports a lot of these things, a biblical proportion is what you just read there. And this is again and again and again and again. Now, if you keep looking, There's gonna be other times he uses other people. I'm not gonna get in all those. Look, if you would, God's gonna now bring Elijah back on the scene in chapter 21 again, but he doesn't work with Ahab. Now, watch what God tells him in chapter 21 in verse number 28. This is gonna be a teachable moment for Elijah. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, verse 29, behold or see how Ahab has done what? Oh, wait a minute. You're talking about wicked Ahab. Ain't nobody been as wicked as Ahab has been wicked. Ain't nobody done what Abahab done, him and Jezebel. But notice how God in his gentleness and his patience, Pam, brings Elijah back on the scene again, gives him a word, tells him what to do, he does it, and it's toward Ahab, and Ahab is going to respond in a humble way to the word that God gives him, and then God's gonna use that, though, as a teachable moment for the prophet. Look at what he says, verse 29. See how Ahab has humbled himself before me. Because he's humbled himself before me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son, I will bring the calamity on his house. Now, why in the world, if a man is right and been walking right with God, that man would have recognized what God was doing and that Ahab had humbled himself before God, but God wants to reiterate it, not only Ahab and Elijah, but also for you and me, that when people will humble themselves and submit to God, God is faithful to forgive and to do what he always promised he would do, amen? And I think he's teaching Elijah something here. that Elijah, that here's a wicked king whom you have been put before, you have proclaimed the word to, you thought you was all by yourself, you was upset with me and everybody else in the world, you thought your life was wrecked and ruined, and you hung on to that and walked in it, but look what I've done with a wicked man like Ahab when he humbled himself of teaching him, you could have humbled yourself a long time ago before me. I think that's the reason why it's reiterated why God had to come to him and say Elijah you more than anybody ought to know this already But I just want to reiterate to you what I've just done what they had because he humbled himself Now you have a responsibility to teach this other prophet on how to walk with me You humble yourself, I'm gonna use you to do that. And Elijah does, and God uses him, and he trains him, and he prepares him, and he puts his mantle upon him. You know, when Elijah's taken up into heaven, God comes, gets him, and the royal wind, you find all that in 2 Kings. But just notice that, just notice that. See how Ahab has humbled himself before me. Boy, that's like a kind, open rebuke before the Lord to say, look, you could have done this a long time ago of humbling yourself before me and just being humble before me. Now, Elijah was a great man of God who was used in significant ways that the New Testament reiterates to us again and again. But remember, even great men and women can get to a place where they get frustrated with the work, and they get frustrated with the people, and they get frustrated with everything that they're going through, and the frustrations come because they don't remain humble, they get prideful. And that's where Elijah kept saying, I'm all by myself. And even when God came to him and spoke to him, he tells God he's by, you don't have to tell God you're by yourself, amen? If you were by yourself, do you think God would know it? You don't have to turn around and say, there's nobody there like me. Not when you're talking with God, amen? You see, but he had done played it over in his mind so much, but you and I do the same thing. Telling God how he ought to do what he does and who he does it with and how we should do it. Are you with me? And that's not being what? Humble before him. And I think that's one of the teachable moments that we all glean from the graciousness of God. So what's the point? The point is we want to remain fresh. We wanna be fresh. You know, what the scriptures talk about, how David keeps reiterating in the Psalms, talk about saying a new song unto the Lord. What is a new song? A new song is a new witness of a new testimony of a fresh work, of a fresh work of grace of what God's doing. You know, God's message is unchanging. We're not looking for a fresh message. We're looking at a fresh work with the same message and the same mission and the same ministries that we do again and again and again. We're just doing them in fresh ways. You know, being married for 40 years or 30 years or whatever it is, to cultivate a freshness in that, that's the lifeline in a relationship is listening and communication that keeps it fresh, that you hear it all the time. You know, you still need to, you date, you still need to keep a fresh vibrance in that relationship, that freshness that's creative and thinks and ponders, and that's what was missing with Elijah, that sense of freshness was missing. Why? Because he allowed himself to drift in his focus. And he began to look inward and not upward. And as a result, he got to a bad place along the journey. And we can all, if he can get there, can you get there? Can we get there? Yes. So let's go to Hebrews for a moment. Hebrews for a moment. Yeah, the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews. Look in Hebrews chapter number two. Freshness. We wanna have a sense of fresh song, fresh praises because of a fresh work with fresh ideas of an eternal message and mission. Creative ways that fit you to bring the message in a fresh and exciting way to a world that still delights and finds life in lifeless things. That's what we wanna be fresh. You wanna be, and you can't fabricate this. This is something you gotta cultivate from just walking with the Lord from day to day. As Keith was praying, Lord, we wanna walk with you. We wanna spend time with you. We wanna walk with you to be fresh and vibrant We want to be filled with fresh fruit from the Lord, flowing out of our life, amen? So look in Hebrews chapter two, look in verse number one. He says, therefore, as a result of what? That we've got Jesus, and Jesus is better and superior to all of God's speaking. He's speaking through Jesus today. Therefore, we must give the more earnest The more earnest heed to the things we've heard, least we what? Slip, drift. What's some of the translations used? What's some of the words? Drift away, what's the New Living say, Stephanie? Drift, what's the, slip away. That's the idea, to slip, to slip away, to be unanchored. and to slip away aimlessly. That's the idea. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we, we, the brethren, how shall we escape the reward, what comes to us? If we neglect so great a deliverance, a salvation which is at first was to begin spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. We have everything we need to have a fresh word from God. I need it, I am as useless and ugly and could be mean-spirited if I ain't hearing fresh from the Lord on a regular basis. I'm telling you, I can tell if I ain't hearing, if I start neglecting my time seeking the Lord from day to day, it's gonna show up in my life. It's gonna show up in the, the lifeline's been cut. I'm not listening. That's the solution. How do you don't slip? You listen. You give the more earnest teat. If there's anything in your life you wanna fight for, you fight for hearing. You fight for listening to the Lord, amen? You gotta fight for it. That's the solution to slipping, to drifting away. What happens though is this. How do you know you've been slipping or drifting? You become undisciplined and sluggish. You get slothful and lazy in your seeking the Lord. and hearing from Him. You get sluggish and lazy and taking every thought captive unto the obedience of Jesus. It's not that you necessarily got to be like with your nose in this book. Remember, this is a living Word. It's alive. We hide this Word where? in our heart, the spirit of God. God lives within us and we take the word of God and hide it in our heart because we put ourselves in position to be fed by this word and when we meditating upon it, considering it, thinking about it, asking God to help us take captive every thought, everything you hear me say, you gotta be processing it to the obedience of Jesus. Everything you hear somebody else say, every thought, that goes on in your mind, you gotta take it captive. And if you get lazy in that, you get undisciplined in that, you get slothful in that, that is an evidence you're what? You're aimless, you become aimless, and you're anchorless. You start slipping away from the docks of faith. And before you know it, you'll drift so far out, you get so far before you even realize how far away you got. And now you out in, because the waves and the winds are constantly blowing on you as you docked and moored to Jesus. And if you don't have an anchor set down in him, those waves, what will they do, Keith? Man, they gonna carry you off. And we live in a world that the waves are always tossing. and they'll carry you off. And the thing is, if you get slothful and lazy, you don't even recognize it. And before you know it, you've done drifted way off and you out in a place you didn't want to be. That's where, see, it didn't happen instantly. It was what? It's just a slow process. Before you know it, you ain't even paying attention, you done fell asleep in the work, you done fell asleep in it, and when you fall asleep, you wake up and you out halfway in the, a mile or two out in the Gulf of Mexico before you even realize it, because you done fell asleep down in the hull of a boat and you didn't even realize you was drifting off, you done got used to the waves taking you. And you just slipped off. But it took a while to get there. You just didn't get there overnight. That's what Elijah did. It didn't happen to him overnight. He drifted to that place. And all of a sudden you wake up and you say, what's wrong with everybody? Why nobody's like me? Where's everybody at? I'm all by myself in this. God, what are you doing? You can't do anything with anybody else. And you see, you start looking at everything what? The wrong way. And you get slothful or lazy. I get lazy and I just doubt it down a load. You get undisciplined or sluggish. You ever so slightly begin to slip at taking every thought captive. And you started leaning on your own understanding. Little by little, you stop acknowledging the importance of feeding on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Isn't that what Jesus taught us? Man's not to live on what? Bread alone. But every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord, and I start neglecting that daily manner. And before I realize it, I get lazily and neglectful, and the evidence is I'm lazy in what? Reaching people and teaching people and equipping people and mobilizing people. Because that's the assignment that we've been given, but we are not being properly fed, and we start slipping and drifting. But what's the solution? Listening. Seeking. Hearing. Having what? A fresh lifeline of a word from day to day that does something in me that keeps me fresh before the Lord. Fresh to talk about the things. You've heard me say this a thousand times in the last 14 years. What, man, if you wanna keep something, you need to what? Talk about it. You gotta go give it away. You gotta talk about it. You gotta have something fresh to talk about of what God's doing in you and what God's doing with you, something fresh to go give away. The second thing, and that's where we're looking at in this idea, you're gonna start lacking this freshness, meaning you're gonna start lacking zeal and a sense of awe and this purpose and you start overthinking life, but you're not caught up with the mission that God's given you. not caught up with the mission, you start overthinking things that you missed opportunities or mishaps and what you don't have or what you wanna have and all those things, but there's a lack of fresh zeal and purpose of the God-given mission that God has given to us to operate in. And You're only reminded of that mission when you get around the brethren who are on mission, moving toward the direction that God's given. You see, when you're moving in a certain direction with the Lord, the Lord will direct you. He'll guide you. But if you're not moving, it's hard to guide that which ain't moving. Are you with me? As long as you're moving in the right direction, the Lord shepherds you. in that, that's what he says, my sheep hear my voice and they what? Follow me, and we follow him, he's got an assignment, he's got a mission for us. But you see, if I'm not listening, and that's why that first dynamic is so important, because if I stop hearing, if I stop listening, I start neglecting that, I'm gonna what? Eventually stop moving in his direction. And that stagnant lack of fresh zeal and awe is gonna be evident in my life. And this is where he says in verse, go over to chapter number three. Go to chapter number three. Notice this warning here. Chapter three and verse number 12, beware. Y'all's translations say that, what does it say? Beware. Take heed, what does yours say, Steph? Be careful, brethren, that's who, who's he talking to? Brethren, us, for fear, that word less, you know I always say for fear when I read that, that's the idea. Beware, brethren, for fear there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. That is, you start living life without him. Jesus said, unless you are what? Abide in the vine, you can do nothing of any eternal value. And the idea is in this evil heart of unbelief, because that's the idea, it's bad not to put trust in the Lord. That's an evil thing not to put trust in the Lord. And when you're not putting trust in the Lord, what are you doing? You're departing doing your thing and not his thing. You've departed. You're out of the school of grace because grace is gonna teach you how what? To deny yourself. and take up your cross and what? Follow him. That's what grace teaches us. Titus 2 11 through 14 teaches us that grace teaches us to say no to us and say yes to Jesus. And if we're not saying yes to Jesus, what are we doing? We're departing, we're doing our thing. And that the Bible describes as we gotta be what? We gotta be careful with that. Gotta be aware that's a possibility. Because we're not what? We're not listening. We're not giving the earnest heed to it, so we're what? We're drifting, now we're operating in disbelief, and the evidence is we're not even taking those thoughts captive any longer, we're just doing our thing, and we think everything's okay with it. That's why it's a bad thing. And now we're a misrepresentation of God. We're misrepresenting him, that's why it's a bad thing. Because we're not operating in faith, what are we operating in? Unbelief. And unbelief is a misrepresentation of Jesus because Jesus never operated in unbelief. Jesus always operated in faith. He always trusted his Father. So if I'm not living by faith, I'm not adequately and authentically representing him in my walk. And he's, I've been reborn, I've been made a new creature to be a representation and an ambassador of him, amen? And if I'm not representing the kingdom that I'm from, I'm a misrepresentation of that kingdom. And remember, my citizenship is not here anymore, where's my citizenship? That's right. So if I'm not hearing fresh from heaven, walking in what is fresh from heaven, I'm operating in an area that is in unbelief and that's a misrepresentation of him because I've departed from the agenda of the kingdom. That's what that is, that's that what? That's where Elijah was operating in. He was a misrepresentation of the kingdom of God in what he was doing. And God was gonna use these things to humble him and then give him a replacement, somebody in his life that he was gonna get to invest in and that investment would continue on for the glory of God. You lack that freshness. Okay, let me give you, and I'll give you at least a couple of things that I wrote down. When our attention, because this is what it boils down to, our attention is not heavenly minded. Our attention is hijacked. The freshness of our focus will decline. Freshness in a relationship keeps the relationship vibrant. looking for ways to express your fresh or active attention and affectionate love alive. You keep that alive, but you gotta remember Hebrews 4, look in Hebrews 4. What does it say about the word of God? Look in verse number 11. Yeah, chapter 4, 11. Let us, therefore, be diligent to enter in that rest, that pause of trusting Lord, for fear anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience, or what? Unbelief. For the word of God is what? It's quick. What does the word quick mean? It's living. It's alive. God's word is what? Alive. Not only is it alive, but it is? Powerful, that means the word is able. It's able. And the word is, Brother Shannon? Sharper, that means, Keith, it's active. It's active, it's keen. So the word of God is alive, able, and active. Now the question is, is it alive, able, and active in me? It is what it is, but is it alive, able, and active in me? when it's alive and able and active in me, the result will be that a living, able, active Word is transferring its life to me. I'm operating in the life of the Word. And that's what we need, Pam. The life-transforming work of the Word operating in our life with the power of God's Spirit at work in our life. So when we think about that, see, that's where that freshness of that active, able, and alive word is vibrantly working within us. Now, if you look back in chapter three, notice what the solution to this idea of disbelief is. What's the solution? It's gonna tell us. Verse 12 says, beware, brethren, lest there be any of you with an evil heart of unbelief or disbelief and departing from the living God. And here's the solution, verse 13. But exhort one another daily while it is called what? Today, for fear any of you be what? What is a hardened heart? It's a calloused heart. A calloused heart is no longer sensitive to the message. It's just like a calloused hand that has been day by day, little by little, been working with a tool, whether it be a shovel or a hoe or a hammer or whatever it is, little by little, brother Shannon, it's built calluses on your hand. At first, it turned into blisters. It was painful, it hurt. But over a period of time, that hand becomes calloused and now it can endure. It can endure whatever that tool is because it's done got hard to it. You see, but you don't want your heart hard. Neither do you want your brother's heart hard. So what's the solution? The solution is being an encouragement and an edifier to those around you. How do you wanna know if you're walking in the active, able, alive word of God? You're paying attention to your brethren. because you are watching them or their hearts. You don't want their hearts to become calloused. So you're paying attention to where they are. You want them to walk in the freshness of God's word. So you're giving attention to those around you and their walk. And that is, you are aware of the people around you, whether they are walking with God or not. and you want them to walk with him because you're walking with him and you know the best thing in the world for them to walk is to walk with him, so you become an exhorter, you become an encourager. That is you in tune with the work that God is doing, not only in your life, but in the other people around your life. And if you wanna find a fellowship that is vibrant, they're paying attention to the people around them. and they're encouraging the people around. That's how you get away from that disbelief and drifting. You're paying attention to the people that you live life with of where they are and that is saying you're no longer just doing your own thing and you can care less about them though you're in tune with what Jesus is in tune with and he's in tune with people. and he doesn't want them to be calloused in their hearts. So you paying attention and therefore you exhorting them, you encouraging them, you edifying them, you checking on them, you asking them where they are in their walk. Man, is there a sense of freshness or do you see a sense of dullness coming upon them? Are they drifting? Well, if they're drifting, you're throwing a lifeline out to them to bring them back. You see, that's Jesus' business, amen? And if you're not doing that, that would be evident that you most likely are drifting. Are you with me? Where, and a lot of times that's what people do in churches all over. They just gather, they do their thing, they go home and they do their business and they come back again a week later and they go home and they do their business, but they're not really actively with the ableness of the power of God and the sharpness and the keenness of God's wisdom, looking into the lives of their neighbor and their friend and their brother and their sister, saying, man, we love you, we care for you, we want God's best for you. Man, Jesus has got more for you, and you're helping them out. That's evident of a heart that's not drifting. That's a heart that's in tune with the kingdom of God, amen? Because that's the business that Jesus is involved in. So, he goes on to say, let's take it just a step further. Look over in chapter number, let's see, look in chapter number five, let's just jump there real quick, chapter five. look in five and then we'll see it in chapter number six as well. Paul is teaching them some, when I say Paul, the Spirit is teaching them some great things. And he's talking about Melchizedek in relationship to the divine order of Jesus, because remember Jesus is superior to everything, that's why we want to listen to Jesus, that's why we want to trust Jesus and follow him. In verse 11 he says, of whom, talking about Melchizedek, we have much to say and things that are hard to explain since you have become what? Dull of hearing. Dull of hearing. Verse 12, for though by this time, you ought to be teachers. You still need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God and you have come to need milk. You gotta be force-fed. You gotta be fed with a bottle because you lack discipline to get in yourself. That's a what? That's a drifter. They're drifting. You have come to need milk and not solid food, for everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is yet a, that's carnality. Shouldn't be a babe, but is a babe. That's a callous, carnal, drifting believer. A babe that shouldn't be a babe, but still needs to be fed by other people. Verse 14, solid food belongs to those who are of what? Mature, full age, in comparison to a babe and a growing child or a growing adult, who are by full age, those who have reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. That is simply saying, they putting these truths to work in everyday life. They living it out, Brother Shannon. You take it, you go give it away, you go talk about it, you go live it out, you go apply it, and you grow. But if you're not doing that, it's year after year, month after month, decade upon decade, somebody's putting a bottle in your mouth. And the result is, You're what? You're dull. You're dull of hearing. Sluggish. And I jot it down a note. That is because what happens, you get unsettled, you get discontented. There's no vision except what you no longer have. You're living in your past, not the glory of the faithfulness of God. You're past feeling. You're living in that futility that consumes your present. and you just keep revisiting missed opportunities. Why? Because you're not hearing fresh. It's just, it's always looking backward because you have nothing to look ahead to in this great walk that we have because you don't. That's why Paul or this writer was saying, we can't tell you about these things because they're too much for you to handle right now, but we're gonna depend on God to help us go a little bit further in it. And God's gotta be the one to permit it. But it goes along with, look over in chapter six and verse number 11. Chapter six and verse number 11. And we desire that each of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. You see how that word diligence and earnestness keeps coming up? That's the opposite of being what? Sluggish and dull. You gotta put effort in it, amen. It ain't just gonna happen. It's something you gotta put effort into. Verse 12, that you do not become what? Sloth or sluggish, dull, but you imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. who believe and walk in what they believe. That's the people you want to put your eye on. That's the people you want to surround yourself with. If your examples are those who are sluggish and not living right, you know they're the drifter, they're dull, they're not growing, and that's who you're constantly watching, but you're not imitating those who trusting and treasuring and walking in these things. He says you're looking at the wrong people. Make sure you get your eyes on the right one, amen? Get your eyes on the right people and follow those because what'll happen is you're gonna get bored with this stuff. And there's gonna be a sense of boredom with it. and there's gonna be no creativity of asking God, well, God, how can you use me and my personality to go share with somebody else today of what you've done for me and how you work in this? And what you'll do is you'll start watching those around you that never do it, then you don't do it because you lose a sense of freshness and you're not vibrant in this because you don't have a fresh word and you're not asking God to help you be creative and vibrant in it. It's a picture of what? drifting. So we gotta look at good examples, and we gotta look at our brothers who are drifting, and we gotta make sure we listen and seek in the Lord. Man, all these things, and you can't just accidentally do this. It's gotta be what? Intentional. You've heard me say before, you can't accidentally obey Jesus, can you? Faith cometh by what? Hearing, and hearing by the word of God. You gotta seek him, and you gotta pursue him. So we'll stop there tonight. We got a few more we'll go through that Hebrews and other places that'll bring it out. All these things is what was happening to Elijah. But Elijah hadn't been by himself. How many of you been through the same stuff? Was Jonah there? Did King Saul get there? Remember that other brother? That prodigal? That when he showed, when his brother came back home and he said, what are y'all doing? He said, we having a celebration. Your brother's come back home. Man, it, he said, wait a minute. That rascal, he ain't nothing but, he's sorry. What y'all doing? Y'all never done that before. Oh. Now he's questioning his father, and his father's trustworthiness, and his father's graciousness, and he's questioning everything about him, and he's discrediting the fact that his brothers come home. You see, this is where you get all these pictures that the scripture gives to us, or evidences for us. Remember, what was written was written for our learning, that through the patience and the comfort of scriptures, we might have hope. These prophets prophesied, not knowing when all these things would come, but they anticipated when it would come and the glories that will follow. He said, they were writing it for us. So when we read about those, I wrote a little list of people like Nick Holden and Jonah and Elijah. Remember Amnon? I mentioned him, one of David's sons, when he wanted something that he couldn't get, found him in the bed, he wouldn't eat, he looked sickly. His friend came, said, look, man, you do what you want. You're the king's son. You can have whatever you want. Take it. You see, that's where it goes if it's not dealt with. You start including other people in that sense of murmuring and mockery that, hey, it's okay to go do your own thing. preaching people and teaching people and equipping people and mobilizing people to go for Jesus. That's for some folks, but not everybody's gotta do that. We ain't all gotta be. See, you get other people called up in, and that's where you get, and we gotta be careful with that. Thankfully, God in his gentleness, like with Elijah, we see him being gentle with him, amen? He was gentle with him. And he said, look, you see what I just did with that wicked man Ahab? Because he humbled himself. We just humble ourself and say, Lord, I don't wanna drill. Boy, put a zeal in me, Lord, to seek you. And nobody can seek you on my behalf. Nobody can hear from you on my behalf. Nobody can listen to your voice on my behalf. Nobody can be diligent on my behalf. I'm the one is either gonna be sluggish, apathetic, or earnest in seeking you. And I want you to find me seeking you with all my heart. And let God do what God wants to do, amen, in our life. So these are a lot of great things, you know, when we look, You could easily bypass and look at some of these things on Elijah and never pick it up. And just think, man, he was doing everything in the will of God. Well, God had a work still yet to do with the man. And praise God for it. Is he still working on you and me? Yes, yes. So I encourage you. Seek him, seek him, seek him. Seek him first. and his righteousness. Let him unfold everything else in your life. Make it a passion, amen? Amen. Y'all know somebody drifting right now? I'd imagine you do, I'd imagine. Somebody's dull, sluggish, slothful, lazy, apathetic, numb, Disillusioned, I'd imagine. Hey, may God use us to go help them, amen? Amen. Ask him to use you to be a blessing to him. To help recover from fear, anybody walk about with a heart of disbelief before the Lord, amen? Amen. Father, we bless you, we thank you. Thank you for our time tonight. Thank you that we can praise you. Thank you that we can talk to you and hear from you and walk with you. For that's the testimony of faith, that all these great people we see that walked with you in the past, it wasn't necessarily that you walked with them, though you did. It is the fact that they walked with you. That was the testimony, that they walked with you. And we praise you. We thank you. That we can, you make it possible through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're gonna give you glory for it. So I pray that we would embrace it and that we would enjoy the privilege of bringing glory and honor to your name. In Jesus' name, amen. Love y'all, y'all have a good night. Lord willing, Carolyn. Lord willing, amen. I love gathering together when we get together, amen.