First Kings 17 verses 17 through 24. I'll give you a moment more to find that We pick up here with Elijah and he's with this widow often sight on and He provided for her and God provided for him and her and her son During this time of drought Three and a half years we read in scripture of drought and I God provides for Elijah and then provides for Elijah and this woman who's not in Israel like and her She the widow and her and her son now we continue after this provision of bread and and water each day First Kings chapter 17 beginning in verse 17. This is God's word eternally true Sometime later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill He grew worse and worse and finally stopped breathing 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? Give me your son Elijah reply He took him from her arms Carried him to the upper room where he was saying where he was staying and laid him on his bed Then he cried out to the Lord O Lord my God have you brought tragedy upon us also upon this widow I am staying with by causing her son to die 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 Elijah's cry and the boy's life returned to him and he lived a 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 Then the woman said to Elijah now I know that you are man of God and the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth Here ends our reading there's a response of thankfulness that's printed for you in your bulletin's the word of the Lord Thanks indeed let's pray You know when we take prayer requests in the worship service we often hear of circumstances that are that are tough in life And this is not something that surprises us anyone who's honest about life Says life is life is tough Right life is hard then you die And so we know people who who die or in hardship or or lose jobs or lose a boyfriend or a girlfriend or Don't make don't make a team or or poorly perform and something they were practicing for for a long time We know life is is tough and things are as they should not be and as we look at this passage this morning We look at how we respond to things and how we look to God in times that are tough and and that's kind of all this time that we live in One of the reasons I believe the Bible to be true is because it describes life as it is We're not in a religion that says if you believe everything's going to be fine and nothing will ever touch you We're in a religion that says you may die You may die tomorrow and you may die a horrible death But the good news is that Christ is with you and your death And that he holds you through that and he provides for you and that and that this life is not what we're living for And so we don't have to be distraught As we understand these things and then as we understand the character of God this helps orient us So that we're so that we're doing okay in life so we can be of a good cheer as the old King James puts in the On the lips of Jesus That we can rejoice even in the hard things and so this woman this widow hard things A real hard event in her life and so let's look at this and and look at how this teaches us about God and and what got Accomplishes for us in the gospel of Jesus. So introduction there. Just what we've said life can be really tough Life can be really tough with really difficult Circumstances verse 17 her son dies Now get this she's a widow that means her husband had died and We've talked about a little bit before in that time If your husband died that pushing really hard circumstances Probably much harder than today There was no welfare system. You're not yeah, there was no
There were not the opportunities for you to find jobs Especially for a woman Agrarian society you just couldn't haul as much wheat as your male counterparts And so jobs were harder to come by especially he had a child and so she's in real desperate times here Without a husband and then on top of this her son dies Now this relates wise the story told in first Kings I was talking with Matt this week And we're talking about how this King takes a break here. We're going King King King King King King King King and then we get a Elijah and Elijah and this cross is over and it kind of puts all the Kings on hold And the last King we read about in first Kings his story doesn't pick up again until Second Kings after second Kings has started for a while And one of the things that we that we see here is that these stories are included For a particular reason now again who's the writer of Kings writing to where is the writer? Kings he's in exile in Babylon and the people there were suffering They were in hard times As this woman thought you know the God of Elijah has abandoned me and my son is now dead The people in exile they had the question has God abandoned us forever He turned us over to Babylon. He turned our land over to Babylon He turned the temple over to Babylon and here we are. We'll God ever restore us Is he paying attention to us anymore? Does he see our plate? Does he care about our plate? And so the story answers this the those reading this where to see you know, I'm like that widow who's lost her son And there's our connection point two We're people who deal with hardship We get cancer. We know people who have cancer. We experience things like you know my dad died in 2004 so that was you know That was my birthday call for my mom in 2004 Happy birthday John got some bad news for you dad died last night Yeah, and there's my mom she felt sorry for me. She said I'm so sorry to tell you this on the birthday Hard things happened To us We all know this is this is this is obvious. This is obvious force, but but we're to see this We're not unlike the people who received first things We live in hard circumstances Things don't occur for us as we'd like to for them to occur We strive for things work really hard for things and then we're not rewarded when we should be We don't we don't get the job or we don't get the recognition or or we don't get the pay raise or whatever it is and And other people do who don't deserve it sometimes So we deal we we live in difficulty we live in in hardship so this passage addresses this number one When that's your blank when difficulty happens Don't assume wrongly about God Don't assume wrongly about God when difficulty happens look at verse 18 The widow assumes wrong way about God and presumably the people who first read first Kings who were in exile They were presuming wrongly about God too look at her look at her statement It's it's really not a question RC Sproul talks about questions that aren't questioned. They're really accusations You're not going to do that. Are you that's not a question. That's an accusation That's like you're doing this and you're an idiot and I hope by calling you an idiot that you won't do this anymore But look at what her her accusation is what do you have against me man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son? That's assuming wrongly about God the God sent Elijah there to curse her Now we can see in short term here because it's just we talked about this in Sunday school It's just a couple of verses removed from God miraculously providing for her and blessing her by sending this Favorite prophet to her so that she went from expecting to die a long time ago Now she's just getting what she expected a long time ago just half of it 50% of the curse she expected to receive that she and her son would die now. She's just getting her son now dead But she assumes wrongly and makes accusation of this prophet and and have got himself and we don't want to do that when hard things come upon us We don't want to shake our fist at God and that's instructive to us here the exiles in Babylon We're not to shake it. Hey. Wait. Why why should we ever have followed you look? We'll look what good it did for us But we see a little hint of that here that that's a wrong response because she knows her sin doesn't she? Have you come here just to remind me she says verse 18 remind me of my sin and kill my son She knows she's a sinner. She knows she deserves it and her son deserves it So we should keep that in mind as well, but we should keep in mind to this That that's a wrong assumption about God That it comes in his primary the primary reason he comes in the reason that it comes to us is to to curse us Like George Costanza, right, you know, I just can't believe things start to go well for him He says I know something's going to go bad, you know, they get a pilot from NBC You know he and Jerry and he just assume something's gonna go bad with it because you know God God brings in the curses that's his that's what he states his views as To his counselor, but this is a bad assumption That you know, they got it sent his people to exile scatter them, you know, taking them to battle on scatter them throughout the known world And that he had just abandoned them forever and so you in your Difficult circumstances in life with your experiencing now or real experience Evan flow throughout your whole life Don't assume that God has just shown up to say hi. Gotcha Like this woman. This is a wrong response that we're supposed to Shrink from and see as a negative example of what to do of what to do So next line there for you, we can wrongly think that God is is not there We can think God's not there. Well my life isn't good. Maybe God doesn't exist We can wrongly think that God does not care Well, God is there, but this bad thing's happening to me. So he must not care about me That's a wrong assumption about God too. This woman has this God's there But he doesn't care that my son died Um, we can also wrongly think that God is powerless and not in control Well, God sees this. He cares, but he doesn't have the powers to overcome this Or he's not in control to prevent this when bad circumstances Happened to us and then lastly we can wrongly think that God has it in for me There's the George Constance of there that God has it in for you Um, now we'll know if you have a dad that was not good to you Don't push that on God That'll be easy for you to do To say you know what that's the care that's the character of God that he's you know out there to criticize me To say that he's disappointed in me um to underline my faults or my weaknesses um He's glad not to support me Uh, he's taking out the frustrations that are really things that come on him that are his fault that he takes it out on me Um, so if your dad was like that and any of those categories don't push that on to God. That's a wrong that's a wrong assumption Um, God is there just just loving you caring for you and even bringing you through the hardships of life For you're good For your development as a person to prepare you for things going on later that are coming that you don't even know about yet Um So yeah, my dad dies, so you know what I get to do I get to to comfort people who's who's you know fathers dying some of you your moms and dads have died and I know what that's like And so I can be a better help to you so even in that great hardship For me God's goodness was there We have my family. We also know God's goodness was there too because having gone through the aortic aneurism He went through the doctors were saying you'd have to be at home and rest for four months and my dad was a workaholic And so we were just laughing how can my dad do that and if you could have pinned my dad down and said um You know When you think you'll die he'd he'd say I'd never die. I'm never gonna die You know because he's dynamic and energetic and all these kind of things But if you could have asked him a preference he would have said Well, I would I would love to die in the midst of doing my work And that's what happened Um, he's at work monday and collapsed um, but God is good to us Um, he cares. He is there. He's powerful. He is in control And he doesn't have it in force. He has it in for our good actually So that brings us To number two when difficulty happens then the right response the wrong responses have these wrong assumptions that this widow had The right response is to know to have faith that's your blank. Have faith that God is good That faith that God is good and that his promises are true Have faith that God is good and that his promises are true and that he will deliver you Even from desperate situations When difficulty happens have faith that God is good That his promises are true and they will deliver you Even in desperate situations You can see verses 19 through 23 here Desperate situations she lost her her Husband and now she's lost her son and we see that God is good here Uh, God's profit this man of God. That's a term for profit and you'll test it man of God Not like we use it today, but man of God needs a profit and so this man of God is profit Takes care of her son and he's good To this widow who's not even a person of Israel not even in covenant with God Job and chapters Job and chapters one and two You know as all these bad things happen to him You know his wife says you know you should have this response of the widow cursed God and died And he says you know back to her you know should we not We should we receive only good from the Lord and not bad But Job was convinced God was good. He didn't understand what was going on and that's what he questions the rest of the time What's going on God? I know you're good and I know I've been faithful to you So I don't understand my circumstances Would you give me some kind of answer? So I know what's happening here But God is good and uh, he brings this he brings this boy Back to life We know in the story of Job that the end of the book of Job is 42 versus 10 through 17 That he replaces everything that he took away from Job in fact he gives Job more Then he had early on and it wasn't that Job didn't miss his his first wife and his first crop of kids But the Lord gave him these things back and gave him joy So the question for God's people receiving this book is will God ever bring us back to the promised land as he abandoned us forever But in the prophets before the exile he declares over and over and various prophets that God will not abandon them forever And he talks about restoration to the land that God would bring them back after exile I told Jeremiah that it would be not two years, but 70 years But God would bring them back And Daniel refers to that when he prays in Daniel chapter 9 and says God The 70 years have come and we really haven't repented Like we should have seen this covenant first upon us of exile But be gracious and return us anyway to the land And God does But that was that was on later, but during this exile that was the question and and so the question for them was our God's promises to return us from exile true Now last week and weeks before we talked about this that we live our lives in exile When you're out there in the week you're living in exile you're living among unbelievers just like the exiles in battle on You're surrounded by them with foreign they're with their foreign gods their other values Their persecution of you even their desiring your harm because you're a believer Just like the Babylonians taunted the Israelites in their exile for their belief in their One God And so we're like that during the week, but we come together on Sunday mornings and we experience this little respite From exile our little restoration to the promised land today for us, which is the church But we're exiles in life and our true home is in heaven Paul speaks of that in Philippians 1 The true home is in heaven where Jesus is on his throne and that we really that's where our citizenship is Heaven and this life is in exile And eventually Jesus will come back and this earth will be our true home the new heavens And your earth with the original eyes have been promised That they would return to the land and this is a message God will be true to his promises God will take care of you just like God took care of this widow's son The words look at that there the words of the prophet last verse The words of God's prophet are true God's prophets are true That man they would be returned from exile to the promised land because this had been promised by God through through his prophets So for us today knowing that God's promises are true knowing that God is good that his That his desire is to show us his goodness in our lives A in your outline there he will be good to you in life No, this God will be good to you and you're like even though hardships are happening to you God will be good to you We know he'll be good to your soul, but let me get to you and the stuff Of life in the midst of hardship So we see this with Daniel it's not that Daniel is not persecuted He is all six chapters there Daniel won through six all six chapters are persecution And God being good to his people in their exile So that's a message to us we're in exile and God will be good to us in the midst of the persecutions in the midst the hardships We have in our exile just like God was in this text in first king 17 was good to this woman in the midst of her hardship in the midst of her desperate situation of having all her family now wiped out both her husband and her and her son Um, and we see God is faithful to as Esther the whole book of Esther is God God has his people he rescues you shows his goodness to his people as there his people in the foreign land of Persia are aimed at With being wiped out completely In annihilated that's the decree it comes that the Jews are to be annihilated yet God comes through through wonderful circumstances and not a person of Jewish descent in the in the land of Persia dies through that God provides in their lives in the midst of their exile and that's what God does that's what God does for us John 1010 Jesus says I came if you might have life and might have it abundantly Romans 828 you may know You know all things work together for the good as God works them out for you Um, you're called according to his purpose you've been called to him and faith And so all things will work together for you're good. So in the midst of hardship He'll work these things out for you whether you're Daniel and his friends going through hardship after hardship and God teach working things out for you in their lives He'll keep working things out for you in your life for whether you're like Esther in exile They'll keep working things out for you like you did for Esther and Mordecai and the Jews at that time So we had in our declaration the gospel this morning first Peter 5.7 Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares For you God doesn't say you won't have anxieties Right You know Anthony your relatives some friends in Puerto Rico they've got anxieties right now Breeze the nobody so you will have anxieties in this world but cast them on me God says because I care for you So know that in the midst of your exile got cares for you the midst of your hardship when things go wrong And things are hard for you Know that God cares for you in the midst of it in your life now B God will also be good to you in death God will be good to you in death So verse 22 the Lord heard Elijah's cry and the boy's life returned to him and he lived God will be good to you in death So God brought faith to my father when his 45 years old and he died at 65 God was good to him even gave him his preferential death If we could have asked him But we know that God will be good to us in death because that's the promise of the gospel that we're most familiar with If you believe in Jesus when you die your soul will get a heaven and that is his promise And God is true to his promises given through the prophets Jesus being the greatest prophet Of those who wrote the scriptures who were all prophets those wrote the scriptures with prophets And so that's the that's the goodness of God and our death and that's why Paul and Philippians one doesn't care If he dies there in his imprisonment or not He says What do I want? I know he said either. I mean to live as Christ and to die his game Um, so I'd rather die and be with Christ he says Because God is good to believers in their deaths For us death is not the worst thing death is the best thing This is bad for those around us who love us And for a jerk it's good for those who are around us You have an easier screech you know Third the third spirit that comes to him when they're celebrating have an easer's death But of course, we're not like that as believers we've got the through the spirit We're loving people around us and so there's there's more in our death but for us When you die that's a good thing for you That's a relief when God says okay, this is the day I've chosen Um As as David says in Psalm 39 is he's probably hiding in the cave and and his death is is impending because Saul is is chasing him All the days of verse 16 of psalm 139 all the days are dang for me. We're written in your book before one of them came to be God's got every single day mapped out and when it's that last day, that's a good day too um So that's verse 22 Philippians 1 20 through 23 Luke 16 we read that that passage about the poor man the beggar who gets that is probably lame he gets placed At the rich man's house To beg and then they both died the rich man dies and and the beggar dies and that comment there in that last verse And now the beggar is being comforted here and that's death for us That's death for us death for us is comfort We're at the side of Abraham Who is of faith We're comforted by the Lord and death and so God is good for us when you know the non-believers look at death and say this is a curse to make You know, what are you doing? God and and Paul says Actually, no I'd rather die Right now and so we but Paul says but I live on as long as the Lord gives me breath For the sake of others around me You know, that's why we don't commit suicide You know, it's because you know if that if we were no good to the people around us The logical response would be well, I'm gonna take my own life because then I get to be with God Get to be with Jesus but Paul says nope. That's not how we do it. God determines the day of our death He determines that day He knows that last day for me and he takes me at the perfect Time and until that day he takes me I am here to serve And that's what Paul says he says You know what I don't think my imprisonment is gonna end in death For your sake That's what he says to the Philippians Because you need me still I think I perceive he's gonna keep me here for you to serve you to teach you and to train you more and My day will come but I kind of don't think it's at the end of this imprisonment And so it keeps Paul there and he did in fact Paul lived Another 10 years after writing that Okay, and then last I see So God will be good to you in life God will be good to you in death and God will be good to you when Jesus returns And that's what Jim read for us this morning from first us onions for verses 15 through 17 when Jesus returns Yeah, the people who were living there in the church and and thus Thessalonica Um, they were worried about the they're believing friends who had already died They thought well Jesus hasn't come back yet We know if Jesus comes back while we're still living he'll take us with him But what about our friends who have died What of them and so Paul answers that question he says no God has not forgotten them Their souls are with him now and when Jesus comes back when you see him if he comes back during your life Paul says This is first century. This is AD 51 so that was a possibility at that time that God would come back during their lifetimes Paul said here's how it's gonna go Like Trump used to say during the apprentice here's how it's gonna go Yeah, and That he would Bring the souls of those who died who died with him And he would raise them for he would raise their bodies first the souls of those who had died He would raise them first when he returned and then he would raise those who were still alive at Christ's coming But secondly He raises those first raises the bodies of those first and unites their bodies with their souls who have come with him At his second coming and then he raises everybody else And so when Jesus comes we're not like we're told in revelation in those passages that that come to that you know seventh the seventh Seal and the seventh bowl and all these sevens when Jesus comes again His second coming non-believers hide in the caves They say oh no This judgment that I knew deep down in my heart was coming to me that I needed to repent for the sake of As no approach to me so to speak I knew I needed to get on that boat, but now it's too late the door shut and the flood has come And that's the response of people when Jesus comes again. We're told in revelation when Jesus comes again People are like oh, no But not we believers because we Jesus is good to us And so we say you know you've heard the expression maranath that means Lord come That's our perspective as Paul says we we long for the appearing of Jesus because when he appears he'll be good to us In fact, they'll be You'll better For us then because all sin and the consequences of sin our sin and the sins of others will be removed They'll be as we say today super good to us When he returns that we look forward to his return So he good to us in our lives in the midst of our exile and midst of our suffering He'll preserve us and so that last day that he's an oint of appointed for us And then when we die if we die before he returns he'll be good to us then causing us to die at just the right time on just the right day for us One of the one of the Old Testament professors I never had he's at a different seminary But he died I think my first year of seminary and I always kind of thought about him I think they'll and he died early He's a big guy at a heart attack But he's like 46 or 48 or something like that. His name's Ray Dillard And I wrote all this great stuff you guys benefit from stuff he wrote that I read And I just like you know what I bet he was going to be a heretic And God just took him before he was um You know, I don't know and I'm not impugning him at all You know, it's just faithful to the day he died But it was like the Lord had accomplished all this great work through him And he had written all these great helpful things for for people And then the Lord says that's all I had for you to do Finds up time to go and then he got to be with Jesus And so that's a it's a great thing for since the Lord is good to us brings us to that last day and then He'll be good when he returns now So third thing now related to these first two points when difficulty happens treat God's word is truth Okay, so when you're in crisis circumstances Um, the way we respond because we are frail Men of dust as we say as the scriptures say we quit thinking We kept we quit believing as we ought We say I believed all that stuff before when everything was going okay and there wasn't chaos around me now There's chaos and uh And we're supposed to not have that response. We're supposed to say okay. I'm in chaos God told me chaos would be a part of my life and that it would have been flow Throughout my life now I'm in chaos and it's crunch time It's like I love my dad was my greatest coach even in sports where he'd never played But he did play baseball and he told me John when you get up You know the thing about baseball. That's great And especially like with a pinch hitter. I love pinch hitters. I don't like pinch hitters the American League There was these but but in the national league they don't have pinch hitters That's a guy that when you have a pitcher For some reason they don't make pictures practice hitting I don't get that I've got a baseball question for you Bob after the service I just remembered that from a highlight. I saw last night, but um In the Cardinals game no more hints
Now what was I talking about Um what's that pinch hitters There's The great thing about baseball and hitting and about pinch hitters is that they have to go from zero intensity To being all their senses opened and awake Think about like pros. They're sitting on the bench a pinch hitter goes into just a bat For the pitcher That's what pinch hitter is but even if you're playing the game and baseball You know, it's like cherry forest or dig a letterman used to make front of him is a pitcher for that for the Atlanta Braves and yet a belly that was like this big Delivering me but baseball's not a cardio vascular sport Okay, they're chewing tobacco while they're playing Okay, when I was playing little league we were eating now and laders and popcorn between innings and you know It's like oh my turn to bat or my turn to get on deck and we put our popcorn down And out there we literally went to the concession stand during the game and bought now and laders and popcorn and and Tangy taffy. Oh, man that stuff was good and so but But we go from zero intensity to you know think the pros it got 92 out and by 95 mile per hour Hardball coming at them and they got to be ready for it And that's and that's when we get in difficulty. It's like okay wake up Okay, start thinking well Exorcise self-control from the spirit and don't be crazy They now it's okay to emotionally respond David does that joke does that is okay? God's created us with our emotions But once once you're kind of over that or remember Terry trailer once her mother church pastor in the midst of some chaotic circumstances He let me just just vent and emotionally respond that kind of thing They reached across from me and one of those trailers after the old Redeemer and grab my knees and said okay Now where do we go from here? And it's just it was a moment of strength that I needed you know just okay You know, it's okay to respond like that and you know I took a chair and I've been through it down and I've been its leg a little bit We always said I love that about you John your intense
But but it's okay to respond that way but then we get our senses about us because we know what's true You know, it's it's in this book. We got all this stuff to guide and direct us and that's what we're talking about here Don't be like this widow who completely forget that she's not even supposed to be alive And start saying oh God probably doesn't exist or he does and he's just here a curse She is for God to God's blessing her every single day with food and water which knowing around her has Because God is present and providing for her and so when we get in crisis circumstances We do the same. We said God is real. He's present. He cares for me. He's sent his sons to die for me So I had a eternal life. Why would he not care for me now? Of course he does care for me now He is going to get me through this even if it's getting it through you this by dying That's how God gets us through it sometimes sometimes he gets us through it by death and he relieves us From you know 12-year struggle with whatever disease we've had or something like that
Um, but when difficulty happens Keep your head What we mean by keeping your head is remember God's word is truth Verse 24 that's the punchline in all this UXiles don't lose your head because and and they hear from this this even this foreign woman believes this and it's true And you should be rebuked in your exile for not believing what this woman a foreigner has believed and what does she believe Verse 24 I know you're a man of God a prophet and the word of the Lord from your mouth is true. It's the truth And so the exiles were to say you know what? Yep. I'm rebuked by this foreign woman this sideonian I need to believe that God's word is true. He will return us from our exile and it'll be about 70 years I'm just to be faithful until then. I'm not to forget that God's providing for me an exile like he provided for this widow and her son And we in our lives. I'm not to forget that God is providing for me daily with all these things he blesses We with and I'm not to be a spoiled brat so to speak and say you'd never give me anything, right? I just watched a more gym gaffer again It's the comedy monster Seriously talk to you as this brief thing on on kids and and how they say, you know, he says in that weird, you know You care for your kids like 18 years or 22 years to relies and then they just say see you later Never gonna see you again. I'm gonna live over here now
He said then you call him and they say you and you you you cared for him fed I'm changed the diaper lol. It's kind of thing you call him and they say you know dad's really not a good time for me now All your parents are choices laughing there she gets that Yeah, it's the cats and the cradle thing, right? Yeah
But that we're we're to be like this we're to recognize the God's word is truth I'll送 33 for the word of the Lord is right and true or Jesus says it John 17 17 sanctified them by the truth My disciples sanctify them make them more like me by the truth your word is truth He says or or this I think this is the kicker for God's word is what Jim read to us from judur army 32 It's Moses speaking to God's people after he's given him the law the second time They're about to cross over the Jordan. He's about to die So it gives him a law again the second generation and he says to them about all the law all God's word Which is all there was at the time all God's word he says these are not just idle words for you They are your life
This is the perspective of the psalmist too of David these words are my life Boy if I didn't have this I wouldn't know how to handle Things in life. I wouldn't have the perspective of life. I go crazy. I kill myself or whatever if I didn't have The law these words these words are my life. These are words of life for us And so where to remember when difficulty happens God's word is truth and where to anchor ourselves In God's word when difficulty happens and this woman repents right way this way now And she says I didn't anchor myself in that Um, I should have realized God's purposes for me were good So a there what God promises will come to be So God promises that the people return and as for one they do return Um be the bible's not human guesswork This is an important thing for you and me to remember it's not a philosophy that humans came up with Um, and they said we think this is a good idea um second ten three sixteen and seventeen you know all scriptures God breathed Um, whereas Peter says in second Peter v. 1 verses 20 and 21 that this all these words of scripture none of them came about by the will of man But they came about as holy men were carried along by the Holy Spirit These are the words of God and this is why we say before we read the script in the worship service This is God's word eternally true All the other stuff I read Christian books the newspaper. It's not God's word. It's not eternally true But God's word this the bible that's eternally true All right, it's not human guesswork. Let me talk to you about some human guesswork You know, there was something called the markism. There's a scientist named remark and he believed in acquired Like a characteristics being transferred read it terribly as an early form of revelation So like if I develop how to shoot a basketball well then all my kids will be born with that characteristic of being able to shoot a basketball well Well science discarded bad How about in the sixties You know when they were taking all these drugs in the sixties and you know everyone in the sixties took drugs, right? Yeah But you know you you have sympathy for people during this day. This was all new stuff And if you look at musicians today most of them even you know rock and roll musicians They're not on drugs because they know they can't endure very long on that And they can't perform they can't perform on stage like they need to if they're on drugs now back in the sixties and early seventies They didn't know that remember when we were in China for a summer. I was watching this Hong Kong tv station and an interview with James Taylor And James Taylor was writing about a song fire and rain which is one of my favorite all-time pop songs and you know, he says in there um Something like I woke up this morning. I didn't know you were gone or something like that He gets his call and he said I wrote that song when I got yet another call That yet another of my friends had died of a drug overdose You know when people were getting addicted to drugs in the sixties and early seventies. They didn't know heroin equals death LSD equals people jump off balconies and die from that Now we know that but they didn't know that back then such human guesswork You know back then they were saying I mean read some Beatles interviews. It's this expands our minds and helps us be more creative Or look at the moments in the poppas, you know All the leaves are brown and the skies are gray one of one of my other favorite songs California dreaming they had one good album They decided and if you read them and look at their interviews They decided their their drug use had produced creativity in them that produced that one album But then that drug use meant they were good for nothing and they couldn't produce anything else um And so that was a failed human guesswork idea Or in the seventies open marriage the idea that you can just you know be married but continue to date other people You know and then they found out you know that doesn't work so well my emotions my psychology That doesn't work well. It's kind of awkward with the kids too You know, but that was human human guesswork There's socialism Karl Marx in the 1800s and and so you know the Russia tried this and became the Soviet Union in 1917 China tried it in 1948 with Mao Tidong and you know, it sounds great You know just everybody share You know even one of my favorite groups to guess who has that song share the land Take my hand Share the Let me give it away Live together You know, so you know that you know that this Hipping revival so to speak of socialism, but we know now, you know Millions of people died in China because of socialistic economy Millions of people died in the Soviet Union because it's a they're literally starving to death And by the way all socialist economies that we saw communist economies that we saw oppressed people People were in prison. You don't want to give you give away your stuff. Okay. We'll put you in prison and take it But we know we know there are human ideas human guesswork. What if they're just shared What is that what is the brain surgeon made as much as the garbage man You know as a human idea, you know, how would that work in society Um, we think that'll work. Okay, but in fact it ended up with you know, those countries now it's still being backward in their health care You know, don't don't go to North Korea for health care Don't go to China for your health care There's still suffering from the fat fat fat fact that in social the socialist economies that they persecuted intellectuals The persecuted the educated people the doctors the ones with skills and so they have bridges that fall apart and that kind of thing because They put the engineers in prison But it's not like that With the Bible the Bible we have something that's sure Something we can rely on something that's that's true and in as far as the Bible speaks it is it is true And so then number four number four so when difficulty happens one don't make bad assumptions about God That have faith make a good assumption that God is good And believe that part of God's being good is that he gets us a word the Bible that's true That we can rely on that can guide us in times of hardship But then number four in the midst of a life with difficulties whether you're in difficulty now And also when you are in difficulty Honor that's your blank And listen to God's messengers Which today are primarily but not limited to have to use legal language there primarily but not limited to pastors and elders The ones defined as your shepherds in scripture In the midst of your life with difficulties honor and listen to God's messengers pastors and elders They're there to help you And that's the thing to see you know you don't have you know there are some prophets that are living In this time of exile Jeremiah He's living in the time of exile He's still back in the promised land among those who haven't been exiled yet He eventually does experience the final exile and how does he get treated He gets put in a pit to die He gets abused in fact he gets rescued by the Babylonian commander who comes in and wipes out Jerusalem Because the Babylonians are a little bit of faith in Jeremiah because they know God speaks through him And so Nebuchadnezzar says make sure you treat Jeremiah okay And so Jeremiah gets rescued from God's own people Or Ezigio he's a prophet who's off in exile he got exiled in 597 with the main exile of God's people and they didn't treat him well either And so this first king's message here is treat God's people no, sorry treat God's prophets Well Don't assume they're getting joy from Rebuking you from calling you to faith and repentance Don't think they get joy from saying you've got it wrong here the reason they're saying you've got it wrong It's because they care for you Because they want you to return from exile because they want you to experience God's blessing and my mouth God says is in there My words are in their mouths um My words are in their mouths and that's what we see here in this text It's wrong for this widow to come with this question. That's really an accusation You know if What do you have against me man of God? She's yelling at him Why has he ever done for her but make her live and her son live And so that's a message for us today, you know, of course. I like this message um, because I'm in that category of people um, so verse 18 is a real a real whoops there Um, it's telling God's people in exile hey Don't treat as you're bad Lee um Um, don't don't treat Daniel badly um Listen to Mordecai and Esther As you speak to you that would be later a message for them um But honor and listen to God's messengers they're there to help you and so we see that's that's what God's messengers do Elijah doesn't even know that son has died and she says what have you done my son's dead now and he says oh Okay, he just he just ignores the fact that she's being abusive to him and she starts helping her He says give me your son It goes and takes the son and and lays his body on top of this This son here Elijah, Elijah will do the same Paul does it um in when he's in tro-as with With the the boy who falls out of the the window because Paul's preaching too long
But but he he heals this this boy and And he hands he hands the boy back to the mother and I think Elijah was better than I would have been I think I would have been sarcastic and I would say here Here's your son's alive. Thanks for yelling at me Anything else No, but but realize God's prophets are there to help Realize God's people who are who're giving God's word are there to help it as much as they're they're giving it Actually So verse 15 16 has been there had meant her eating and living versus 19 and 23 is being there was to help her with her son's death too What if he weren't there and he had just contracted some illness and died then he would have remained that son would have remained dead So, you know, this is you know, Julia here for you my favorite Elvis song is Treat Me Nice um, and so that that's that's what we do and you know, we've had pastors and and elders visit our church Even to come members of our church, you know, like Monty Kirk is a retired Pastor who's now then again preaching, you know, weekly down in Fayetteville But you know those people come in and I'm I'm honored and you all treat them well too, but we do that We say you know what you're a soldier on the front lines And sometimes people get mad at you because they're in sin This is full secret pastoral sin people get in sin instead of looking at their own hearts and their own action. They blame you as their pastor or their elder Um, and so instead of instead of doing that we treat these folks with honor and we say you know what? I know you've got hardships that I don't quite understand because you're in ministry Um, you're doing this or gain ministry and so you're a target And so people assault you and so we honor we honor those people um, they've got scars. We can't see Um, we listen to them and the reason we listen to them is because there were as if they come from the bible as they come from the bible are there to help us Um, and so you know that it's true for me. It's like when someone corrects me on something. I'm always like thank you Because Fools are wrong And so it's a kindness when someone Rebuke me or correct me on something because now I don't have to keep getting this wrong anymore We're to always be soft and teachable to God's word. It's one of the things I love about preaching and teaching It's like I'm learning stuff and I'm getting more accurate in my understanding and and somebody says something that's helpful You know you guys are good at this you you're very honoring to me and you listen and that kind of thing But that's for you guys to say do this, you know, keep doing this and and and all the more Because God's word comes to you to to help you Um Jim Redford's first Thessalonians 512 Paul tells the church in Thessalonica this Now we ask you brothers. This is Paul and Timothy writing now We ask you brothers there in the church in Thessalonica To respect those who work hard among you who are over you in the Lord and who had managed you Respect those who work hard in the Lord and who had managed you hold them in highest regard in love Because of their work Um So God's redeemed men get treated well even though they're admonishing Even though they're saying Yeah, don't do that again You're right you've come to the right conclusion that that was a wrong step you made Don't don't make that again if they come to you and say hey, I need to talk to you about something I've noticed this Tell me about that and when they're giving you advice for the session, you know, it's just Talks anyone from the session talks to you. They're doing this for your help for your own good and so to listen And treat them with honor because that's not easy for them to do Some of them are non-confrontational like me. You know, I'm a non-confrontational person In fact the to learn and look people in the eyes and say no, we can't do that in this church Um, I'm sorry. Yeah, no Um, and that's not me, but that's just you know Holy spirit inspired and knowing I have to give an account to God for the things we do here Um, so they help you first Peter 5 2 instructs the elders Paul's instructing the elders and he says be shepherds of God's flock that is under your Care That the flock is not for elders to use The flock is there for the elders to care for To shepherd a shepherd is looking for the good of his sheep to protect his sheep Looking look there for the well-being of the sheep and so that's to be you know what the elders what the elders do And that's what our elders are doing. I can happily report to you that you know our elders have that That attitude toward the folks in the church. We're here for your we're here for your good Whether that's a thing that's hard for us to do or easy for us to do Okay, so summary summary um Easy wife will have difficulties wife will have difficulties And the solution is not more cowbell Uh, I have a prescription of the prescription is two things the solution is two things god himself Who's good who cares for you god himself is your solution and his word Go into his word to navigate the difficulties of your life our lives. Let's pray