Amen. Well, you know what? I praise the Lord for good health. And what I mean by that is the measure of health that God has given to us. We may not be 100% healthy, which probably most of us aren't, but aren't you thankful for the measure of health that God has allowed us to have? To be able to continue to serve him and to get up and move about. You know, as we get older, my brain is not as old as my body is. Just, you know, how do you know that? My body just can't catch up with my brain. But I'm so thankful that God has truly allowed us to continue to serve him. And as I was thinking a while back over the 41 years that IPM has been in existence, and something truly to praise the Lord for, and to be in prayer about it as well, is in all of the 41 years, and in all of the air travel, and the ground travel, there's never been a major incident. That's something to be thankful for. with our missionaries, with us as staff traveling overseas or here in the States or wherever we go. God is good, isn't he? He is very good. And we are so thankful for that. Everybody else is the crazy driver out there, it's not me. Don't talk to my wife, okay? But anyway, the Lord has, been so good to us, and we're privileged people to be able to be His child, number one, and then to be able to serve Him. We are so undeserving, and as the songwriter would say, unworthy, that old song, but we are blessed in Christ. Well, let's go to 1 Kings tonight, chapter 17. And we're gonna look at verses one through seven, if we might please. 1 Kings chapter 17, and the first seven verses. Familiar story, familiar account. And this truly happened in the Old Testament. You listen to some of these people that are asked questions about the Bible and different characters in the Bible, and it's all fables. It's all myth. No, it's not. It's a direct account from God in His word of direct accounts that took place both in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. And this is one of them in 1 Kings chapter 17. And so God has given us in preserved for us His word that we might read it, understand it, learn from it and go forward. 1 Kings 17 verse one. And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, talking to Elijah, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith. That is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook. And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up, Because there had been no rain in the land and it goes on and and the Word of God comes to him later But we'll look at that in a little bit, but in verses 1 through 7, let's pray together Shall we father we come to you tonight thanking you for the day you've given to us Thanking you for giving us the privilege once again of being here in your house tonight Thanking you for the fellowship between believers. I thank you for the praises that have been voiced here tonight and And Lord, we can praise you constantly and always, and we should, for everything that you have provided, for the grace and for the mercy that you have given to us, for your long suffering, for your love, for your salvation, and on and on we could go. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God, for being our Heavenly Father. And Lord, tonight we come to you and we ask once again that you might meet with us in this service Grant a blessing, grant direction and wisdom, Lord. We pray as we look into the scriptures tonight. Father, help us to see Jesus whenever we search the scriptures. This book is your love book to us. And Father, so when we read it, help us not to read it as we would read a novel. or as we would read a magazine or any other type of literature, but help us to always keep in the forefront of our mind that we're reading God's holy word. For it is alive and quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts because this book is alive. Bless our time, we pray. Bless these dear folks, Pastor and Cindy. Refresh them, bring them back safely. But Father, just energize Faith Chapel. And we ask these things in Christ's name, amen. So in 1 Kings chapter 17, we see the account taking place here in the first seven verses. Elijah just announces that there was to be no rain for three years. Now, I wonder how King Ahab took that. One of two ways. It either would have scared him or he could have cared less. You know? I'm kind of inclined to think that he could have cared less what Elijah said. But if you know Elijah, as we look at him in the scripture, Elijah's not a fella to mess with, you know? I like the way that his name is there, Elijah the Tishbite. And it's almost like, you know, I kind of, you see, Elijah the fighter, you know, or something like that. A gritty man. And so here he says in verse one, as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand. So Elijah is saying, this is not from me. This is not my message, Ahab. This is what Jehovah God is saying. And I'm standing here in front of him. And I'm delivering to you his message. There shall not be, look at that next word, it interests me, dew nor rain. Now we know what dew is, don't we? That little glistening of water that's on the grass of the morning, right? There's not even gonna be dew. There's gonna be no water three years, but according to my word. And after he makes that statement then, King Ahab, who had just married Jezebel, how that all worked out, I don't know. But anyway, he had put out a contract, she had put out a contract on Elijah's life. She hated Elijah. Why? Because Elijah was God's man. By the way, why do you think believers are hated around the world today? Because we're God's people. And we stand for God. That's why we're hated. And yes, we are in the minority in the world's eyes, but we're in the majority in God's eyes, right? You and God make a majority. Can't get it any better than that, you know? It's like, come on, try. You and God make a majority. And so here she was, she'd put a contract out on his life. But the question is, how would we feel? How would you feel if you were Elijah? Yes, he's the man of God. Yes, he's the staunch prophet. But wait a minute. Elijah was just like you and me. He had feelings like you and me. He was made like you and me. He had emotions like us. How would we feel if we were in Elijah's sandals? Let's put it that way. I think we would be a little apprehensive, wouldn't you? A little scared or much scared. A contract has been put on you. So everybody's out looking for Elijah. Everybody would be out looking for us. But here he is. And God says, okay Elijah, you've just pronounced this on Ahab and Jezebel. No dew, no rain. You've given them my message exactly like I've told you to. Now Jezebel turns around and puts a contract on your life. So God says in the next verse, In verse 2, the word of the Lord comes to him again saying, here's what I want you to do. I want you to get out of here. Get the hints. Get out of here. And I want you to turn eastward and go hide thyself by the brook Cherith. That is before Jordan. Now, the word Cherith means a cutting. or a separation or a gorge, like where a winter stream would run around and kind of cut out the bank. Okay, so it's kind of like something like that. And he said, I want you to hide yourself there by the brook chair. So it could have been back in like a cutting end of a bank. When you have flooding and it has to make the turn, but as it makes the turn, it cuts out the bank as it goes and makes a cave back in there. And so the water now was lower, but that may have been something like what he's talking about. And so God says, that's where I want you to go. In other words, God's saying, you go where I send you and nobody's gonna find you. Right? It's better to be in the center of God's will, anywhere, than to be anywhere out of the center of God's will. Does that make sense? Okay, so most definitely, and if that were me, as it was Elijah, I would definitely want to remain in the center of God's will. I mean, Elijah may have thought of other places he could go, maybe not, but Elijah was saying, okay Lord, this is where you want me to go, that's where I'm gonna go. And so he does that. Now what does God do? So first of all, what we see God doing is simply preparing a special place for his servant. God prepared Cherith. You say, oh, well that was just a coincidence that God sent him to this place where this cutout was. No, it wasn't. I don't believe in coincidences when it comes to God. Do you? We're here for this period in this time for such a time as this in 2023 to be the Christians that we ought to be and are supposed to be for God Almighty and to spread the gospel and lead others to Christ and disciple believers and so forth because Jesus is coming. And that's what we're here for. So God prepares this special place for his servant, a brook. I want you to go and hide there. before you get to Jordan, but that's where I want you to go. Now it's interesting that God made the reservation for him at the Hotel Cherith. We've stayed in a lot of hotels or motels or whatever, which I don't know whether it's the M or the H or how you're supposed to tell which is which. We've gone to, have stayed in many motels. We've never stayed in the Hotel Cherith though. I've not found that one yet. But Elijah knows where it's at, or knew where it was at. God knew where it was at. But I think the interesting thing is, is that God prepared this for him. Stay with me. He not only calls him to the Motel Cherith, he fully furnishes it. You with me? He fully furnishes his motel stay, his reservation, if you will. You say, well, what in the world are you talking about? When he gets there, the water is already supplied. He has plenty of water, all that he needs, an overabundance of what he needs. When no one else has water, Elijah has plenty. You know the Lord also in some of these motels you know where you can get up in the morning and they serve breakfast or so what they call breakfast. God in his reservation at Motel Cherith already had his meals prepared for him and reserved for him. God supplies food. Now look at the scripture here in verse 4. And it shall be Get what God says? And it what? Shall be. In other words, when God says it, it will happen. Okay? And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook. There you go. He even had a cup that said Motel Cherith on it. No, I'm kidding. And he says, I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. I've commanded the ravens to feed it. I don't know about you, but a raven's a pretty dirty bird, isn't it? I'm not so sure I'd want to be fed by a raven, Gary. I mean, they zoom in and drop, I guess they would just zoom in and drop off his meal, you know. But do you realize that those ravens, dirty though they may be, were what God chose to use to service his apostle, his prophet. And God uses the evil things in the world for his own purpose, and for his own will, to accomplish his purpose. Isn't that interesting? So the ravens come, alright, so they're gonna feed him. Now look at the next thing in verse 5. So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord. For he went and dwelt by the book Cherith. He obeyed God that is before Jordan. Verse 6. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning. I mean these were busy birds. Bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening. And he drank of the brook. It was completely furnished. Now, it doesn't say that he had a king-sized bed, but Elijah had probably his own bedroll, which was fine. He probably used maybe a rock for a pillow, whatever. The point is this, this is where God put him, and where God put him, God fully furnished everything for him. In other words, God completely took care of him. Nobody else had water. Food was now becoming scarce because of the lack of water, but Elijah had food and all the food that he needed. The bread and the flesh in the morning and in the evening when it was scarce. Elijah was probably having a good old time. I mean, why wouldn't you? Center of God's will God's protecting him. He's hitting him here at Cherith and his food and his meals and his Drink is taken care of for him. You know, everything's going. Okay. All right. Sounds good, right? Yeah God prepared because this was a place that was prepared by God But we have to go on And as we look at verse 7, it says, and it came to pass after a while, after a period of time, in the end of days, in the Hebrew, in the end of days of that time, that the brook, what? Dried up. Man, everything was going great. I had everything. He probably, maybe even, you know, I can't believe, you know, So now, I think I'll just grape and complain and become miserable because everything's right. God's not taking care of me now, right? But look what it says. The brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Okay? Now remember, Elijah had worked hard for God. serving the Lord, and he was enjoying the fruit of his labor, I believe, and he was enjoying the result of his faithfulness to God. Be not dismayed, the songwriter says, whatever be tied, God will, what? Take care of you. Are there things that come into our lives that We're just, you know, major events, minor events, but events nonetheless that cause anxiety in our life, and we're not sure what's gonna happen. We have decisions that have to be made, and we don't know, we literally don't know what decisions to make. Well, who do we call upon? We call upon God. Why? Because God will take care of us. Elijah didn't know where he was going from place to place because God told him after he told Eli told Ahab and Jezebel that there wasn't going to be any rain. Where was he going to go? Elijah hadn't thought about the brook Cherith. God is the one who brought that into the mind of Elijah. And so God sent him there. And now the thing dries up. He's been enjoying that. But the time comes when the brook dries up. The birds stop bringing him food and bread and flesh in the morning and the evening. And now here he is in another predicament, right? Well, what do I do now? And we have those times in our lives, right? What do I do now? We lose something. We may lose a job, or we may lose insurance, or we may lose this, or we may lose that. And we say, well, what do I do now? I don't know sometimes what I have to do or what I must do, but God knows. So our next step should be what? Lord? You know our needs. You know the anxiety that I'm having as a result of whatever event is taking place. I need your direction. I need your help. And where do we go? We go to His Word. Why? Because God is the one who can give us and does give us the peace that passes all understanding in Him. He's promised to take care of us. Do we believe, do we take him at his word? The gospel of Matthew tells us, Matthew chapter six and verse 33 says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. That's not all our wants and desires. God says he has promised to take care of us. He'll provide our needs. He provided for Elijah. So he's enjoying this. Everyone else was having a hard time. But one day, the brook dries up now, we see in scripture. The ravens didn't show up. And God never told. Now, this is interesting as we kind of think through some of these scenarios in scripture. God didn't tell Elijah that the ravens weren't going to show up. They just didn't show up. What do you think Elijah thought the first morning when the birds didn't show up? Well, maybe. Maybe they overslept. Maybe they couldn't find bread or flesh. I don't know. It didn't come that evening. Well, we get kind of nervous a little bit. I think I would start getting nervous because you're going to start getting hungry. And then the brook dried up. Now you're going to get thirsty. The ravens didn't come the next day. Well, then the word of the Lord comes to him again. Okay. The bird dries up. Everything that Elijah had relied upon was gone. What do I do now? I seek God. Lord, what do I do? Show me what I'm going to do. Show me what I must do. And we have to talk to him in prayer. And we have to get into his word and seek his face to show us. And you know what? He will, and He does. And so, of course, we know the next part that goes on in verse 9, and God sends him to another place that he was not planning to go. He says, Arise and go to Zarephath. which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there." Now, this is not our text for our message, but he tells them to go there. He says, behold, I have commanded. I have commanded. Now, wait a minute. If you back up in where we just were in the account with Elijah and the brook Cherith, if you look at verse four, God says, I have commanded the ravens to feed you. In verse nine, he has commanded a widow woman there to feed him, to sustain him, scripture says. We know that account, too. All she had was a little bit of meal left to be able to make a little ball for her and her son, and that was it. They were going to die. We know the rest of that story. She believed God. She took the prophet at his word that he was a prophet of God, and she believed God. And the oil and the crew and the flowers did not fail until the end of the famine. God took care of her because she took care of God's man. And in return, God took care of Elijah, right? I don't want to go any farther in that one. I want to come back up to where we were here at the brook Cherith, because secondly, we see that God gives several truths to apply at our Cheriths. Okay? And God may take and put us at a Cherith. And so what are we going to do when we're at our cherith? There may be good times, but there also may be trials as there were with Elijah. We live, as you know, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 45, we live in a world of sin, do we not? It's full of it. And we're a part of it. We live in the world. This is not our home, of course. We're in the world, but we're not to be of the world, of the world's system, and of the world's sins. But do we not have a sinful nature? Sure we do. And so God gives us truth. And we see in Matthew 545, he talks about them, the fact that you may be the children of your father, which is in heaven, or evidence of a believer is what he's talking about. For he maketh his son, S-U-N, to rise on the evil and on the good, and sin doth reign on the just and the unjust." So we live in a world of sin. And the point is this. Elijah was not going to be spared from the drought forever. Okay? You ever wondered why bad things happen to good people? Yeah, that goes around all the time, you know. If he was a good God, he wouldn't be doing, you know, good people wouldn't be having problems. I don't know anywhere in Scripture where God said that when I get saved, everything was going to be peaches and cream from then on. Have you? If you ever find that book in verse, would you please let me know where it's at? He doesn't. What does he say? Quite the contrary. If they've hated me, they're gonna hate you. If they persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you. If they reviled and mocked me, they're gonna do the same thing to us as his children. But he sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. And we all having a human nature fall in the same way in the categories of disease and so on in our lives. But here's the key. God may not withhold us from the disease, or from whatever else our anxieties are. But the promise is, is that he'll go through them with us. He'll hold our hand if we'll let him. And he's there and walks with us all the way. And he'll carry us if need be. Remember the poem about the footprints in the sand? For a long time, there were two sets of footprints walking along. And after a while, there was only one set of footprints. And the guy said to him, Lord, why did you leave me after so long of a period of time? And there was only one set of foot. Now, I'm just kind of summarizing here. I'm not quoting anything. Why did you leave me? And there was a point, he said, listen, he said, God said, that's when I was carrying you. In other words, those would not have been My footprints, or the man's footprints, they were God's. Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, what? Thou art with me. He walks with us. He walked with Elijah. But Elijah wasn't going to be spared from the drought forever. And truly, we live in a world full of sin, but therefore, we have to realize that we're not immune to the effects of it. Cheriths don't last forever. Okay? Do good times last forever? Anybody ever have their vehicle break down in the last year? Nobody? Okay. One, thank you, brother. I was getting kind of nervous there. I was beginning to wonder what kind of vehicle I had. But they break down, don't they? Dishwasher break down. Other things break down. All kinds of things happen, don't they? We're not immune to the effects of this world. One day, we've all experienced a mountaintop experience in our Christian lives at some point, I'm sure. But after the mountaintop comes the what? The valley. So it's the mountaintop experiences that prepare us for the valley ahead. And we rejoice when we get to the mountaintops, right? But as we see there, one day, what I'm saying is, is one day our brick will dry up. Maybe our charioth is a special friend. Maybe our charioth is a bank account. Maybe our charioth is a job that provides security. Maybe it's insurance. Maybe it's whatever. All of Elijah's security vanished in a day's time. By the way, so did Job's and so did Jonah's. A couple other examples. So now what do we do? Well, let's look and see. I think it's an important lesson for us to see that Elijah didn't pout about it when the brook dried up. He didn't cry. He didn't pout about it. He didn't take anything out on others because he didn't get his way. You see, I think Elijah knew there was something better to come. And by the way, folks, for you and me, there is definitely something better coming. What is the old song? This world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door. And I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Have we ever felt at home in this world? Maybe at times, maybe before we were saved. I don't feel at home here. Because folks, in all reality, there's not anything here for me. The world doesn't offer me what I can get in Christ and what I need through Christ. But we're here, aren't we? And we're here on purpose by God, and we're here for a purpose, to serve him. And so, as we think about it, see, Elijah knew, I firmly believe Elijah knew there was something better to come. And I'm sure that he might have, you know, maybe for a little while he missed his vacation spot there at the brook. I don't know. But it was, the point was, is it was time to move on. You remember Philip in the book of Acts? Philip was ministering. I forget what city he was in. He was ministering and souls were being saved and things were going great. And all of a sudden said, God said, Philip, I want you to go down to the desert. There's an Ethiopian eunuch down there that needs God. But Lord, look what's going on. Look at all the fun I'm having. Look at the people that are getting saved. Look at the great time that we're having here. But God said, no, I have another job for you. And he turned the focus of Philip to go down and win the Ethiopian unit to Christ. One person from all the others that he was witnessing to and that were coming to Christ, is one person not worth it? Sure, they are. And I'm sure that made Philip's day when that person came to Christ. So he had to leave what was going on in the city. I mean, he was having a great time. And God took him down to meet the eunuch. And he had a great time there once he got there. And you know what? Wherever we are in the will of God, we can rejoice and be happy in Christ. And by the way, we need to let that joy be evidence of our salvation and of our love for Christ before others. That's why in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 16, we have the verse there that says, let your light so shine before men that they, and our light is our life, our Christian life. Let our testimony shine before others that they may see our good works, our good works of service, our love for God. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, but what? Glorify God who's in heaven. Not us. So it was time to move on. The thing I think about, Cherith, sometimes is that you can get real comfortable. I think God doesn't want us to get too comfortable sometimes, you know? Because when we get too comfortable, you know, when I pull that recliner back out, I don't want to get out of it for a while, you know? I need something to drink. I'll just say, Mandy, go get me something to drink. I don't want to get out of the recliner, right? And she'll say, go get it yourself. We can become too comfortable. We could stay by the brook too long and maybe love the brook more than the God who gave us the brook. From time to time, God has to give us a gentle nudge, I think, to get us back into the work that God's called us to do. And we need that, don't we? We need that nudge. What would have happened if Elijah had stayed there and cried in self-pity? Well, he would have died. He didn't have food or water. Others would have suffered as well. In 1 Kings chapter 17 verses 8 through 16, the widow woman would have died as well as her son. Baal worship would have flourished in 1 Kings 18. Remember Elijah took on, can you imagine a guy taking on 450 prophets of Baal? By the way, one of our men, real quick, one of our men up in, I can't remember where it's at, if it's up in Bangladesh or where, but one of our men led to the Lord a Buddhist priest. And what a blessing to see the change in that man's life. God is real. And God is still doing a great work. And God is still in the saving business. But Elijah took on 450 prophets of Baal, devil worshipers, up on Mount Carmel. And you know what happened? He won. Why? Because actually it wasn't him that won, it was God that won, right? But Elijah was the instrument that God used to prove to the Baal worshippers that Jehovah God was for real and was sovereign. 1 Kings 18 verse 21. So the question then is tonight is lastly, what happens when our brook dries up? What happens when all of our security is gone? Yes, there are things in our human nature that are going to rise up, our uncertainty, our worry, our concern, different things of that nature that may come up. But we have to remember, we have to look beyond that to God. And people will say, well, that's easier said than done. That's true. But the closer relationship we have to God, I believe, the easier it is to do. And so we may cry, and there's nothing wrong with that. Our Lord wept. By the way, the Lord wept more than once. We have a sampling in the Gospel of John. The Lord wept many times. But don't cry too long. But thank God for the wonderful times that we've had at the brook, sure. But just remember this also. We follow where God points us because we know that there are better times coming. God is looking out for us. Folks, listen, God has our best interest at heart, and our new course will move us from a valley up to the mountain. All right, I think of Job. Can you imagine Job lost everything? All of his cattle, all of his servants, all of his children, everything, except his honorary wife. Anyway, but what did he do? The Bible says he never cursed God with his mouth. Satan even used his wife to try to get Job to do that, to turn. Job said no. What did Job say? God gives life, God takes life, basically, and it's all in God's hands. We will have a cherith, but then God must move us on from those as well. He'll give us others. He'll give us other good times, but we move from one. We learn in the mountaintop and have the ability then to go through the valley, but not to go through the valley alone, but to go through the valley with the Lord. You know, I love the passage of scripture, just a simple verse in the New Testament where God says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And in the Greek, it's a double negative, and it's for emphasis. So in other words, basically he's saying, I will never leave you, no at any time will I leave you. That's God saying that. That ought to be so precious to us that God has made those promises to you and me, and they'll never be broken. What does he tell us in John? Go with me to John as we finish the gospel of John very quickly, and I'm done. John chapter 14, and when I say that, you know exactly where I'm going. John 14 and verse one, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, look at the next part. I will come again. It's not maybe. It's not sometime. There is no doubt. He says, I will come again. And what? Visit you? No. I will receive you unto myself. That where I am, there you may be with me also for eternity. Can I say this? The best cherith is yet to come. The everlasting cherith, if you will. with Christ. Father tonight, thank you so much for your word. Thank you that you love us. You're concerned about each and every one of us. And Lord, that even as we're here tonight, looking into your word, you know exactly what we need. You know how much we need. You know the exact type of need that we have. And Lord, we just pray that we might just stay with you, put our spiritual blinders on, and as you move us from charioth to charioth, that we might be willing to follow you. A dried up brook, but yet Lord, as we look farther, we see the living water. in Christ the Lord. Encourage us tonight, Father, I pray through your word. In Jesus' name we pray and ask these things. Amen.