Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Sunday May 24, 2015
This past week we have been noting how Job glorified God by waiting on Him even though God was silent toward Job.
There are times that God will keep things secret from us so that we will search for Him with all of our Heart and soul.
MAT 11:28-30, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy‑laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light. Cast all your worries or anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you."
PSA 55:22 Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.
That’s what happens when you wait, you experience a shift in the load, from your shoulders, to the shoulders that were designed to bear these things - or Lord's.
Sometimes to just experience the unseen power of God as opposed to the seen weakness of man, is a magnificent experience.
The terrain of triumph = some of the WAITERS in the spiritual life.
Noah, who was told of God to build an ark and to keep the faith knowing that rain was coming, though there had never been such a thing as a rainstorm from the sky before, GEN 2:5.
How long did he wait; he waited 120 yrs, and then it came.
Job, who after experiencing the soars from his head all the way down to his feet, the boils, the loss of family, the loss of his friends, his wealth and his prosperity, he had to learn how to wait upon God when God was being silent.
Abraham - he left his hometown of Ur at the age of 75. He died according to the scriptures at the age of 175 and still didn’t find the city that he left to find, whose builder and maker was God.
Joseph, whose life was marked by waiting for a decade and a half in prison, unfairly, and unjustly.
Potiphar's wife lied upon him and said that he made sexual advances toward her, he was mistreated, released from slavery only to be put back into prison again, and then he had to wait for 13 years before he was relieved and finally promoted to the prime-minister of Egypt.
Moses, who at the age of 40, was at the prime of manhood, he was the brightest star of Egypt, he was the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
He tried to do God’s will his way, he committed murder, and Moses ended up in the desert and there is stayed for 40 years.
In the prime of manhood, greatly qualified, but he was completely useless, even though he was highly educated and had prestige, a great reputation and he was the military leader.
EXO 14:13-14, But Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent."
We know nothing scripturally, nothing was written, for 400 years between those two great covenants, the OT and the NT.
The ministry of Jesus Christ whose life could epitomized or personified by wisdom and waiting.
He nurtured 12 men, 11 of whom succeeded, and He told them when He left the earth you wait in the upper room and they waited, for ten days.
Waiting for Peter to be sprung from prison.
PHI 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
Waiting is the rule, rather than the exception.
In a period of waiting, when the door is closed, it doesn’t mean you are out of the will of God, it means you are right in the will of God, as a matter of fact you're in the rule.
The open door is the exception, there are bursts of green lights that happen just a few seconds in life, the rest is filled with red lights that flash, wait, wait, wait.
The second thing about this principle is that waiting on God is resting, instead of worrying.
We can fret down inside and put that plastic front on that says were really at peace when we are not and we try to fool others but really only end up fooling ourselves.
Elisha was the Prophet of Peace while to Elijah was the Prophet of Fire.
A letter from a woman can be more powerful, at times, then 450 men or prophets who have to be dealt with!
She would have sent an assassin with a dagger instead of a servant with a message.
Jezebel’s objective was simply to frighten Elijah into running out on the revival, which was threatening her pagan religion.
Elijah’s life had become so important to him that he drove himself beyond normal endurance until he considered himself to be safe from his enemies.
Instead of realizing that no one was pursuing him and that as long as he was alive, the Lord still had a purpose for him, this great spiritual giant became a carnal weakling moping under the juniper tree, totally discouraged.
The inevitable outcome of focusing our eyes on things or people is that we eventually get our eyes on self.
If you wish you were dead, why not fulfill the desire of your wishes?
"I hate myself," they don't really mean it because if they hated themselves, they would be happy that they hate themselves!
Elijah had been used of the Lord because of grace, not because he was anyone special.
He had his eyes on himself and had fallen into the trap of self-pity; he believed he had failed in every possible way.
It is a soul kink to feel sorry for self, and it is one of the worst expressions of carnality.
Sooner or later it happens to all members of the human race — “sitting under the juniper tree” = the tree of self-pity!
He had neither earned nor deserved the right to have food or any other blessing; but because of God's perfect character, God, in His grace always provides.
In verse 5, it was the Lord Jesus Christ, the Angel of Jehovah. who came to Elijah because the Lord Jesus Christ always comes to us in our hour of difficulty and trial.
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (ISA 41:10).
Prin: God’s provision is always the best — in fact, it is perfect!
Where DO YOU “DWELL”?
"lun" = to move into some spot with the idea of spending the night and then staying a long time.
The great spiritual giant who had just killed 450 prophets of Baal, had allowed himself to be reduced to a heap of gloom and depression.
The Lord had broken the silence, to teach Elijah a lesson of spirituality.
The key point in his answer is the personal pronoun, “I.”
Because the Lord is omniscient, He knew billions of years ago that Elijah was “jealous,” or literally, “zealous for the Lord.” He also knew that the children of Israel had been out of line.
Notice the emphasis: it is “I, I, I and my.” Poor, carnal Elijah, with his eyes on himself!
Yet because the Lord is very gracious, He was not willing to put one of his well-trained servants on the shelf.
KJ's translation = 1KI 19:12, And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
The wind and the earthquake were a great manifestation of nature: they represented the power of human ability and naturalistic phenomena.
The LORD was not in the wind … the LORD was not in the earthquake.” God does not operate through the energy of the flesh, through human power; God operates through divine power!
The fire was a terrifying representation of natural, human power, but “the LORD was not in the fire.”
The Hebrew says, “a voice of silence, meaning atomic or gigantic!”
ZEC 4:6 summarizes the lesson when it says “ Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”
Elijah did not learn his lesson, and he had to be set aside for several years until he woke up to the importance of the power of the Spirit-the control of the “still small voice.”