Yielding to and Following God in a Corrupt World
By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© June 12, 2016
• Overwhelming Corruption Engulfing the Land.
What is happening to our world? It seems to be going “downhill” spiritually, so quickly!
• Rejection of God is Rampant.
What will happen to me if I continue to seek God’s will and direction in my life, when everyone else is turning away from and rejecting God?
· How do I keep following God in a corrupt world?
Elijah
Elijah was a unique prophet of the Eternal God, living in corrupt, godless days.
· Deceiving god’s Arise, Stealing Hearts
The nation, whose God was the Creator of the universe (Yaweh [YWHW]-Jehovah), had rejected Him as their God. Instead, the kings and majority of the people had wholeheartedly embraced the deceptive, seductive, self-centered, and very materialistic demonic-spiritistic gods of the nations around them. These gods were much more alluring and appealing to the way they wanted to live.
· A Tiny Remnant Left; Gross Spiritual Pollution Permeated the Land
This once God-fearing nation had become so polluted, only a tiny remnant still followed YWHW, and the vast majority was only a few generations from slipping off a devastating precipice into destruction and eternal judgment, and/or earthly exile and bondage.
· Elijah was a unique man in an age of spiritual darkness for the Jewish nation. He had been anointed as a Prophet of God and was empowered to boldly speak God’s Word, be guided by God’s Spirit, and be empowered to enact miraculous events.
Elijah felt like he was totally alone in following God…
Most of Israel had given themselves over to heathen worship of Baal during Elijah’s lifetime.
Elijah believed that he was the only one who was still worshipping and serving the Creator God YWHW.
Although the passage we will be reviewing today is at the beginning of Elijah’s ministry, for the moment we are going to “fast forward” to near the end of Elijah’s life (in 1 Kings 18) and catch a glimpse of how alone Elijah really felt in his worship of the God of Israel.
See 1 Kings 18:16 - 19:18
· Elijah had just been up on Mt. Carmel where he called fire down on the altar of God consuming its sacrifice, when the followers of Baal could not, demonstrating to all of Israel that Yaweh (YWHW) was God, not Baal.
· Elijah had condemned all the prophets of Baal to be slaughtered
· Elijah had asked God to stop the three and a half year drought and had prayed for rain to come back into the land – which it did in a vengeance.
· Then in 1 Kings 19, Elijah was running from Queen Jezebel, the chief promoter of Baal worship in Israel, who was now threatening his life.
· Elijah was given supernatural strength for 40 days to go to Mt. Horeb.
Elijah had found a cave on Mt. Horeb and waited to hear what God would tell him – after all God had told him to go to Mt. Horeb.
· God revealed Himself to Elijah asking him the question:
“What are you doing here Elijah?”
· Then God blasted Mt. Horeb with torrential wind, but God was not in the wind. A devastating earthquake then rocked the mountain, but God was not in the earthquake. Next a consuming fire raged around him, but God was not in the fire. God finally spoke, but He spoke to Elijah in a still, small voice – “the sound of a low whisper”. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
God asked Elijah again, “What are you doing here Elijah?”
Elijah replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 1 Kings 19:14
Elijah’s response is not only recorded in 1 Kings 19, it is also recorded in Romans 11, also revealing (as in 1 Kings 19:18), that God had reserved for Himself 7,000 others who had refused to bow the knee to Baal, but were instead committed to the God of Israel.
Romans 11:2–5
2 …Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? 4 And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
Sometimes, when we think we are alone, we must remember that God has a remnant that He is preserving for Himself, along with us.
Our Godless Nation
There once was a time when our nation was considered to be Christian.
It is no longer considered to be a country that fears or honors the Judeo-Christian Creator God.
· Is God not really so powerful in the 21st Century as He once was reported to be?
· If God is not what He used to be, what has replaced Him?
Who or what can we in the 21st Century, rely on?
o Material possessions?
o Our own self?
o Our politicians?
o Scientists and academics?
o The rich, famous, or powerful?
o Trending philosophies?
o Religions of the world?
o Other human beings or organizations who promote their Politically correct agendas…
All of these amazing well-connected and powerful people leading these areas with potentially amazing ideas… will die and their agendas, philosophy, power and assets will eventually come to nothing.
· Are dedicated Christians unique in this age – just like Elijah was unique in his day?
· Who are those anointed and empowered to speak the Truth of God Word? Is it not those who are born into God’s family, the temple of whose bodies are filled with God’s Holy Spirit and whose hearts are in tune with God?
· Does God’s Spirit guide us?
· Does God empower us to accomplish things we could not normally accomplish?
· Has God, by His Spirit, transformed our lives to be honorable to Him and complete His purposes?
The verse we are reviewing speaks to this:
Psalm 9:10
10 Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
Let’s begin to look at the life of Elijah from the beginning of his ministry in
1 Kings 17.
1 Kings 17
Elijah was a Voice for God in a Society that would not hear God’s Voice
17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
Elijah Responded to the Leading of the Holy Spirit
1 Kings 17:2 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.”
Elijah Experienced God’s Unique Provision – Can God provide for us?
1 Kings 17:5 So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
The Patience of Waiting and Discernment of Circumstances
1 Kings 17:7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
Acceptance of an Unlikely Source of Provision: The Widow at Zarephath
1 Kings 17:8 Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.”
Jesus Confronted the Religious of His Day with God’s Discerning Plan
Luke 4:25–27
25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
Receiving Provision from Those who seem to need provision themselves
1 Kings 17:10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
Being a Provision for Those from whom a Provision is Received
1 Kings 17:12 “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”
1 Kings 17:13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.’ ”
1 Kings 17:15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.
When you are following God, you will never know who will come in your path and what affect they will have on your life, and what affect your life will have on them.
You may never know why you or others have experienced unusual circumstance, blessing, or pain to bring you both to such a place.
Facing Dilemmas and Possible Devastations in Following God’s Leading
· Does a person following God ever have to worry about adversity, dilemmas or devastations that they may seem to bring on others?
1 Kings 17:17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
· This Sidonian widow had suffered guilt from who knows what happened, from the birth of her son to the death of her husband.
o Had she been under God’s Judgment?
o Was Elijah’s God trustworthy or was He vengeful and out to get her for her past sins?
Elijah’s Response was to Cry Out to God on behalf of this Widow and her Dead Son
1 Kings 17:19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
The Lord Heard the Cry of Elijah and Restored Life to the Boy
1 Kings 17:22 The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
1 Kings 17:24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
Even after many months of seeing the miraculous Hand of God provide for Elijah, herself and her son, she didn’t quite know if it had been the Hand of God, until God’s Power touched her son’s life by raising him from the dead!
God uses Adversity, Miracle or Circumstance to Confirm His Power – unique to each individual
· That which reveals God’s Power to one person, is not normally the same means He uses to reveal His Power to another.
· When God touches our life or family in a profound way – through adversity, miracle, or circumstance, it shakes the skepticism previously blinding our eyes.
· As we observed at the beginning of this message – all Elijah’s ministry life, it seems evident that he felt he was alone in following God, and it wasn’t until an almost final encounter with God, after calling down fire from heaven, his life being threatened by Jezebel and God speaking to him on Mt. Horeb that God told him there were 7,000 others who had not bowed the knee to Baal.
Psalm 9:10
Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
(I am not aware of the author of the following summary of Aggie Hurst’s story. The underlinings, italic and bold are mine. It was interesting that a lady in the congregation, when this was shared today, had attended the college mentioned, and verified the story.)
The Story of David and Svea Flood
2 Cor 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
[The following story can be found detailed in the book, "Aggie; A Girl Without a Country" (previously published under the title, "One Witness"), written by Aggie Hurst and published just after her death in 1981.]
Back in 1921, a missionary couple named David and Svea Flood went with their two-year-old son from Sweden to the heart of Africa-to what was then called the Belgian Congo. They met up with another young Scandinavian couple, the Ericksons, and the four of them sought God for direction. In those days of much tenderness and devotion and sacrifice, they felt led of the Lord to set out from the main mission station and take the gospel to a remote area.
This was a huge step of faith. At the village of N'dolera they were rebuffed by the chief, who would not let them enter his town for fear of alienating the local gods. The two couples opted to go half a mile up the slope and build their own mud huts'.
They prayed for a spiritual breakthrough, but there was none. The only contact with the villagers was a young boy, who was allowed to sell them chickens and eggs twice a week. Svea Flood-a tiny woman only four feet, eight inches tall-decided that if this was the only African she could talk to, she would try to lead the boy to Jesus. And in fact, she succeeded. But there were no other encouragements. Meanwhile, malaria continued to strike one member of the little band after another. In time the Ericksons decided they had had enough suffering and left to return to the central mission station. David and Svea Flood remained near N'dolera to go on alone. Then, of all things, Svea found herself pregnant in the middle of the primitive wilderness. When the time came for her to give birth, the village chief softened enough to allow a midwife to help her. A little girl was born, whom they named Aina. The delivery, however, was exhausting, and Svea Flood was already weak from bouts of malaria. The birth process was a heavy blow to her stamina. She lasted only another seventeen days. Inside David Flood, something snapped in that moment. He dug a crude grave, buried his twenty-seven-year-old wife, and then took his children back down the mountain to the mission station. Giving his newborn daughter to the Ericksons, he snarled, "I'm going back to Sweden. I've lost my wife, and I obviously can't take care of this baby. God has ruined my life." With that, he headed for the port, rejecting not only his calling, but God himself.
Within eight months both the Ericksons were stricken with a mysterious malady and died within days of each other. The baby was then turned over to some American missionaries, who adjusted her Swedish name to "Aggie" and eventually brought her back to the United States at age three.
This family loved the little girl and were afraid that if they tried to return to Africa, some legal obstacle might separate her from them. So they decided to stay in their home country and switch from missionary work to pastoral ministry. And that is how Aggie grew up in South Dakota. As a young woman, she attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis. There she met and married a young man named Dewey Hurst.
Years passed. The Hursts enjoyed a fruitful Ministry. Aggie gave birth first to a daughter, then a son. In time her husband became president of a Christian college in the Seattle area, and Aggie was intrigued to find so much Scandinavian heritage there. One day a Swedish religious magazine appeared in her mailbox. She had no idea who had sent it, and of course she couldn't read the words. But as she turned the pages, all of a sudden a photo stopped her cold. There in a primitive setting was a grave with a white cross-and on the cross were the words SVEA FLOOD. Aggie jumped in her car and went straight for a college faculty member who, she knew, could translate the article. "What does this say?" she demanded. The instructor summarized the story: It was about missionaries who had come to N'dolera long ago ... the birth of a white baby ... the death of the young mother ... the one little African boy who had been led to Christ ... and how, after the whites had all left, the boy had grown up and finally persuaded the chief to let him build a school in the village. The article said that gradually he won all his students to Christ... the children led their parents to Christ... even the chief had become a Christian.
Today there were six hundred Christian believers in that one village.... All because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood. For the Hursts' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, the college presented them with the gift of a vacation to Sweden.
There Aggie sought to find her real father. An old man now, David Flood had remarried, fathered four more children, and generally dissipated his life with alcohol. He had recently suffered a stroke. Still bitter, he had one rule in his family: "Never mention the name of God- because God took everything from me.” After an emotional reunion with her half brothers and half sister, Aggie brought up the subject of seeing her father. The others hesitated. "You can talk to him," they replied, "even though he's very ill now. But you need to know that whenever he hears the name of God, he flies into a rage. Aggie was not to be deterred. She walked into the squalid apartment, with liquor bottles everywhere, and approached the seventy-three-year-old man lying in a rumpled bed.
"Papa~" she said tentatively. He turned and began to cry.
"Aina," he said. "I never meant to give you away."
"It's all right, Papa," she replied, taking him gently in her arms. "God took care of me."
The man instantly stiffened. The tears stopped.
"God forgot all of us. Our lives have been like this because of Him." He turned his face back to the wall. Aggie stroked his face and then continued, undaunted.
"Papa, I've got a little story to tell you, and it's a true one. You didn't go to Africa in vain. Mama didn't die in vain. The little boy you won to the Lord grew up to win that whole village to Jesus Christ. The one seed you planted just kept growing and growing. Today there are six hundred African people serving the Lord because you were faithful to the call of God in your life. ... Papa, Jesus loves you. He has never hated you."
The old man turned back to look into his daughter's eyes. His body relaxed. He began to talk. And by the end of the afternoon, he had come back to the God he had resented for so many decades. Over the next few days, father and daughter enjoyed warm moments together. Aggie and her husband soon had to return to America-and within a few weeks, David Flood had gone into eternity.
A few years later, the Hursts were attending a high-level evangelism conference in London, England, when a report was given from the nation of Zaire (the former Belgian Congo). The superintendent of the national church, representing some 110,000 baptized believers, spoke eloquently of the gospel's spread in his nation. Aggie could not help going to ask him afterward if he had ever heard of David and Svea Flood.
"Yes, madam," the man replied in French, his words then being translated into English. "It was Svea Flood who led me to Jesus Christ. I was the boy who brought food to your parents before you were born. In fact, to this day your mother's grave and her memory are honored by all of us." He embraced her in a long, sobbing hug. Then he continued, "You must come to Africa to see, because your mother is the most famous person in our history." In time that is exactly what Aggie Hurst and her husband did. They were welcomed by cheering throngs of villagers. She even met the man who had been hired by her father many years before to carry her back down the mountain in a hammock-cradle. The most dramatic moment, of course, was when the pastor escorted Aggie to see her mother's white cross for herself. She knelt in the soil to pray and give thanks. Later that day, in the church, the pastor read from John 12:24: "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." He then followed with Psalm 126:5: "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy."
The truth is, even when we give up on God, He never gives up on us.
Much of Elijah’s life he felt like he was very alone in worshipping and serving God…but God had also called 7,000 others to be true to His Name.
Psalm 9:10
Those who know Your Name will trust in You,
for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You.
