<inaudible>. Good morning. We have a few announcements this morning. I want to say good morning to everyone that is watching. We are still in our quarantine time, but uh, we thankfully we can still listen to one another or hear this live stream online because of technology. So it’s great. The announcements we have this morning is we need to remember Ruby Brad, she has stage four, uh, neuroblastoma and remember her, we need to remember Joan Springer, Louis Rushmore, Dawn Robertson and Evelyn Apple.

She is recovering from a mild heart attack. And then unfortunately this morning we heard that Rebecca Rushmore’s grandfather has passed away. We also have a few cards here to read. This is thank you all for the beautiful card and for your prayers during this difficult time. This is from Mary Dino’s so thankful for that. And this card here says, dear church family, we appreciate every expression of love and concern during Julia’s illness and passing the calls. Cars and especially the prayers meant so much. The floral arrangement at the,

her service was beautiful. Thank you for all your kindness and Christian Love the Joe Case and family. And Carolyn the start this morning, we will scene number 851 eight five one.<inaudible> trying to get our technology here organized. I had something going on back with my computer. 851 we’ll start with, I’m glad.<inaudible> uh, hello.<inaudible> to a home on God. So last show, show a fly, eh, uh,<inaudible> uh, hello.<inaudible> Oh, Alan Lou. Yeah. Uh,<inaudible> when sh a dose of this life Agra,

uh, hello. Like a boot from breads and bars. Epsilon uh,<inaudible><inaudible> uh,<inaudible> uh, hello. Hello. When I had blue. Yeah, I am uh, uh, just a few<inaudible> hello to a<inaudible> and uh, uh,<inaudible> uh, for the IO. Ah, yeah, I and uh,<inaudible> what’s that word? Prayer. My father in heaven. We are thankful for you. We are thankful for what you do for us each day. We are thankful at this time as we can.

We can come to you in prayer and we are reminded of your care and your love for us, especially through this hard time our country is going through. We know that those that are following you, that you take care of them and we see that in our life every day and we are thankful and love you for that at this time. As we come to you in prayer, we want to remember Rebecca’s family at this time. The Rushmore family is, they’re struggling with the loss of Rebecca’s grandfather and pray that they look to you for guidance and comfort and pray that you watch over their family.

Be with the many others that, that are on our minds that are needed for your help. Be with our country and those that are struggling with this virus and pray that things will be able to get back to normal soon and be with our leaders of our country, our president, our congressmen, and the healthcare workers, the many people that are working day in and day out through this time that you watch over them and guide them and be with them. Thank you so much for always loving us and taking care of us and Jesus.

Semi-new pray. Amen. To repair. So the Lord’s supper, we’ll sing number four, seven number 47. Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy.<inaudible> LA God a see<inaudible><inaudible> a song shallower. A nice dude. Oh, Holly hall.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> I see. Okay. Yeah.<inaudible> uh, bill, uh, Steve, no. Oh, Hallie. Ah.<inaudible> uh, the cat seeing that down there. Golden crowns around the crest.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> and uh,<inaudible><inaudible> Oh,<inaudible> eh,

nah.<inaudible> the<inaudible> I uh,<inaudible> nah.<inaudible> Mmm.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> the<inaudible><inaudible> uh, love and Pew<inaudible> Oh,<inaudible><inaudible> um, a see, Oh.<inaudible><inaudible> I see. Oh, Holy, Holy<inaudible><inaudible> four aye. I see. Yeah.<inaudible><inaudible> I want to read from Isaiah chapter 53 this morning as we think about the sacrifice that our Lord made. Isaiah 53, I don’t want to start in verse four. Isaiah 53 and verse four, surely he has born our griefs and has carried our sorrows,

yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it sheers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment and who will declare his generation for he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people.

He was stricken and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death because he had done no violence nor was any deceit found in his mouth.

When we think about that sacrifice that Christ made, he did not have to do it. We should have been the ones on that cross,

not Christ. He never had any deceit in his mouth. He never sinned. Yet we have sin and we think about that sacrifice.

Think about how we should have been there on that cross, not him and how he had such a great love for us to come down to earth,

to live as a man, to be tempted like us and to die on the cross for us and we think about that sacrifice as we go through and partake of the the loaf which represents his body,

the fruit of the vine which represents his blood. Let us think about where we were and what Christ’s sacrifice means to us and how that we have that hope of eternal life through him.

Let us pray. A father in heaven, we are thankful for you. We are thankful for. We’re thankful for his love,

his sacrifice, all that he went through. He did not have to do, but he did because he loves us and as we partake of this loaf which represents his body,

we pray that we think about what it means to us and how that we have that hope of eternal life because of him and Jesus.

Somebody pray. Amen.<inaudible> let us pray for the fruit of the vine as we continue for our father in heaven.

As we continue at this time, we were reminded of Christ and his love and his care for us.

We are thankful for his love and going through that pain, that suffering of being on the cross being beaten,

all that he did for us. We know that we should have been there. We should have been the one on the cross,

not him. As we partake of this through the vine which represents his blood, we pray that we think about his sacrifice and we think about what it means to us and then we pray that we get partake of it and worthy manner to you and do you seem to pray man<inaudible> at this time we’ll have a prayer for the offering.

Thinking about what Christ or what God has blessed us with this week. Let us pray. A father in heaven,

we are always thankful for you and we’re reminded during this time where many of us are not at work.

Many have are struggling through this hard time that you still take care of us and you watch over us and we know that you constantly care for us and we pray as we have prosper this week,

that we give back a portion of that and we give back with a cheerful heart. And Jesus said,

we do pray. Amen.<inaudible> before a lesson, we’ll sing number 385<inaudible> or three 95 follow me.

395<inaudible> I traveled down a long road and no one seems to, uh, the burden on my who married a black ass man.

Me too. To this, uh, I have complaints, jeez. Uh,<inaudible> and then I heard him say,

so tin<inaudible> my<inaudible> uh, up on the Calvary road cross me. I came so heavy, I fab Burnie and be faithful,

wary Pilgrim the morning. I can see, just lift your cross and follow<inaudible><inaudible> uh, he works for jeans,

a S a yacht and a stance. Eh, I sacrificed a lot of things to walk the<inaudible>.

I gave a fame and fortune. I’m worth a lot.<inaudible> and then I hear him gently saying,<inaudible> I let the<inaudible> my hands<inaudible> button,

make a journey with and save my time. So lift your cross and follow<inaudible><inaudible> Oh Jesus. If I die up on a four,

um, um, eh,<inaudible> eh, no greater love Atmore man. And for a friend’s suit,

uh, these, uh, the<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> I place him<inaudible> then just a cup of water is all that,

uh,<inaudible> but if my dad’s<inaudible> and uh, I go rec, uh, let’s say my cross and follow<inaudible><inaudible> now we are in<inaudible>.<inaudible> sure.<inaudible> I want to begin by thanking you for joining with us this morning.

We are attempting some, some new things even as we continue to press forward through the technological means that we have to reach people.

Uh, through a conversation I had with someone this Mo, uh, this last week we realized that there were those who were in need of,

uh, additional aid through technology because of being hearing impaired. And so that’s the reason for having the caption scrolling on the screen.

Now want to mention that those are automated. That’s a computer transcribing those and so they are a little bit behind the actual words that we’re saying and they will not always be perfect,

especially during the singing. So during the singing time, the words were on the screen. Try your best to ignore what’s happening at the bottom of the screen.<inaudible> three years in first Kings chapter 18 and in verse one we read that three years had gone by in the Northern kingdom of Israel since the last time that it rained.

We read in first Kings chapter 18 and it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to align Jah in the third year saying,

go present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth. God says, it’s time. Enough time has transpired,

Elijah, the point has been made. Now you go to Ahab and we’re going to go back where you get the backstory of all of this.

We’re going to see why we’re at this point, but God tells his prophet, you go show yourself to the King.

You go present yourself before the King and he will have learned the lesson. Because for three years there was no Dew,

there was no rain in all the land of the Northern kingdom of Israel. Let’s go back to first Kings chapter 16 and let’s see a little bit about why this is the case.

We begin in first Kings chapter 16 beginning of verse 29 with a word that we’ve all heard far too many times recently unprecedented in Israel.

At that time, there was an unprecedented situation. Notice what we read in first Kings chapter 16 verse 29 in the 38th year of EISA,

King of Judah a ham, the son of Omri came, became King over Israel and Ahab, the son of Omri reigned over Israel in some area.

22 years. Now, Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord.

And notice this phrase more than all who? So Joshua, okay. God told Israel after Jericho was destroyed,

after God leveled that city and tore down its walls and all that was part of Jericho remained there as a,

uh, as that which belonged to the Lord as the first fruits of the land. God said, if someone comes and rebuilds this city,

okay, they’ll lose their firstborn and they’ll lose their last born child because this doesn’t belong to you anymore.

And because of the wickedness that was here in this place, and yet knowing that condemnation Aberam, we’ll build it anyway.

You’re seeing a picture of one who says, what is here and what is in this place and the gain and the profit I can get from this is more important to than my own children.

And the word of the Lord didn’t matter at all. Unprecedented evil in the days of Ahab. But then as you go into chapter 17,

you’ll also notice that there is desolation and preservation in the first seven verses of chapter 17 we see the beginning of the events that we just mentioned in chapter 18,

we have our first introduction to the prophet of God, Elijah, chapter 17 verse one. Elijah, the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Abraham as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand.

There shall not be do nor rain these years except at my word. Here comes the prophet Alijah some interesting background to Elijah and it’s interesting because there’s so little background to Elijah.

He’s known as aligned to the Tisch bike. He’s known as one who came from the region of uh,

of Gilliad. And yet there’s a good indication in the original language because of the wording here doesn’t translate well that the literal wording in the original language says the Sojourner of the sojourners of Gilliad.

It’s describing Elijah as one who is perhaps not even an Israelite. We’ll see some more details as we go into this text as to what might be another indication of that.

There’s a, there’s a chance that it aligns you, isn’t even from the nation of Israel. And yet,

here’s what he is. He is the prophet of God. He is the spokesperson for the Lord and he is going to declare the word of the Lord.

He comes on the scene as it were just out of nowhere. He comes on the scene out of nowhere and says a ham.

There will be no Dew. There will be no rain until I say so. Now, wait just a minute.

Don’t you think that’s a little bit haughty? Don’t you think that that’s just a little bit audacious for a prophet to say,

I’m going to control the rain? Oh no, not at all. Because remember, he’s not just speaking his words,

he’s speaking the Lord’s words, and where is it that God had already told Israel? When you turn away from me,

when you begin serving idols, when you go after the sins of the people of this land and I destroyed them for those sins I’m going to do to you what I did to them.

Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 28 in Deuteronomy chapter 28 before Israel ever even came into the land, God told Israel this was going to happen.

Deuteronomy chapter 28 and in verse 15 but it shall come to pass. Don’t notice that. Don’t mistake that they had a choice,

but God knew what they would choose. God knew this was going to come about. Eventually they would persist in sin until they went this far,

but it shall come to pass if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes,

which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you, cursed you shall be in the city and cursed you shall be in the country.

It doesn’t matter if you’re rural, doesn’t matter if you’re in the city, you’re going to fall under this curse.

Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bull cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land,

the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks, cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be.

When you go out, the Lord will send on you, cursing, confusion, and rebuke in you in all that you set your hand to do,

until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly. Because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken me,

the Lord will make the plague cling to you until he has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess.

The Lord will strike you with consul consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with sir severe burning fever,

and with the sword, with scorching and with mildew, and they shall pursue you until you perish. Now notice this next phrase and your heaven,

okay, which are over your head shall be bronze and the earth which is under you shall be iron.

The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and does from the heaven. It shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

God said, when you turn your back on me and when you depart into this sin and this wickedness and this iniquity that I’ve destroyed,

the people of came in for here’s what’s coming. There’s coming a day when the rain will stop. There’s coming a day when the sky will be like bronze.

It won’t allow the rain. It will not bring any Dew. There will be nothing to saturate the ground and that ground that you have that remember this is the land flowing with milk and honey.

This is the land of bounty. This is the land that the spies went into and they brought back uh,

clusters of grapes so large that it took two men to carry them and God says, I’m going to turn your ground in the iron.

Go ahead, try and plow iron. Go ahead, try and plow the land when God keeps the rain from falling for three years.

When Elijah speaks to Ahab, when Alijah comes on the scene, this is Deuteronomy 28 coming about. This isn’t the words of Elijah.

These aren’t the words of a prophet who’s too big for his own, for his own message. No,

this is God saying, I warned you and I told you and now you’re going to get exactly what I said.

But then we go back to chapter 17. We read verse two then the word of the Lord came to him.

That is came to Alijah saying, get away from here and turn eastward and hide by the Brook Cherith which flows into the Jordan and it will be that you shall drink from the Rook and I have commanded the Ravens to feed you there.

So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith which flows into the Jordan.

Okay, so God tells a aligned you, you now need to leave. He knows what a Hamm’s reaction is going to be.

Just think about this. A Solomon who was nothing like a Hab in his sins and his iniquity, yet he was imperfect and yet he sin when God said,

I’m going to take your thrown away and I’m going to give it to Jeroboam, Solomon salt, the life of Jeroboam.

When Saul was told that I’m going to take the kingdom from you and I’m going to give it to David,

and David is going to be the one who’s going to take the throne, David’s life would be threatened.

How much more do you think the life of a prophet who says to the King, there’s not going to be any more rain.

There’s not going to be any more do until I say so. His life was in jeopardy. He was being sought after and God said,

you escape. You go to this book and and you quite literally, you go off the map, you go off the grid,

you’re not going to go into to buy food in a marketplace. You’re not going to go in to buy something to drink in a marketplace.

You’re not. You’re going to go away and no one will know where you’ve gone. But I’m going to preserve you.

I’m going to provide for you. And so in this time where there is no rain, as this begins to take place within the nation is the nation begins to dissolve into a place that can grow.

No food that has no rain, where the rivers begin to dry up, Alijah is safe. And now it might be tempting to say,

well, wait a minute. Alijah needs to be out there converting the nation. Elijah needs to be changing the hearts and the minds of the people.

No. Elijah needs to be right where the Lord told him to be. There will be a time for the people to hear the message,

but the people aren’t ready for the message yet the people have not yet learned their lesson. It would be as if to say that we need to go out and we need to go into Egypt after plague five and just go out of the land.

No, God wasn’t done yet. God’s not done with this nation. It’s not time for preaching. It’s time for learning and they’re still learning through suffering.

And so Elijah goes to the Brook and he remains there, but then notice what happens as you would expect desolation from no rain doesn’t just affect the cities all.

They might be hit first because they may not have the water supply that some rural places do, but it doesn’t just affect the cities.

It begins to move out and pretty soon the rivers dry up to notice what happens after. And it happened verse seven after a while that the Brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land,

then the word of the Lord came to him saying, arise, go to Zara fifth which belongs to Sidon and dwell there.

See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. Okay, so we see the desolation and the preservation of the Lord in verses one through seven.

But then notice we find Providence. Now, sometimes we use this word Providence and new Testament reference to mean God working through natural means to provide for his people.

And I think that’s an accurate sense in which God works today. That’s not what I’m using it here for.

I am using it here to indicate God, providing for bringing supply out of nothing God’s Providence given to aligned you.

Chapter 17 verse eight God tells Elijah of all the places you need to go Alijah of all the places you might go to escape to,

you’re going to the country of Jezza bell. You’re going to the land where this wicked woman came from because there’s a Gentile there who’s going to provide for you.

So he goes into the land of the<inaudible>, he goes to Xero fifth and he finds there a widow.

So he arose and went to Xero fifth verse 10 and when he came to the gate of the city,

indeed a woman was there gathering sticks and he called to her and said, please bring me a little water in a cup that I may drink.

And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.

So he goes to this place and he asked for something that he could not have gotten any longer at the Brook,

a cup of water. Okay. He asked for a provision that in much of Israel would have been something impossible to do,

just get me a drink. And so she goes, because you’ll notice she at the time has that ability.

She has water. By the way, Sidon is up, up near the Mediterranean sea. There’s going to be access to some water and some things there that would not have been available in the Northern kingdom of Israel.

Once the rivers dried up, once the rain continued to to or or ceased, and that problem continued.

So as she goes to get him water, he says and bring me food, bring me a morsel of bread.

As she was going to get it, he called her and said, please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.

So she said, as the Lord, you’re gone lives. I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar and see I am gathering a couple of sticks.

Then I may go in and prepare it for myself and for my son that we may eat it and die.

The famine, the cause of the lack of rain didn’t just affect the Northern kingdom of Israel. It affected the regions around them.

And here’s this woman in a city of the<inaudible>. She says, I’m on my last meal. Yeah,

I’m going to take the last little bit we have and I’m going to prepare it for me and my son and we’re going to eat it and then we’re going to be out of food and we don’t have the ability to get anymore.

There’s desperation and there’s resignation. The realization that this is it. After this, we’re going to starve to death.

And again, we’re given a picture of Elijah saying, just do what the Lord says. Notice what happens.

Elijah said to her, verse 13 do not fear. Go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first and bring it to me and afterward.

Make some for yourself and your son. For thus as the Lord God of Israel, the bin of flour shall not be used up,

nor shall the jar of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth. You have Providence given to supply this woman’s needs.

If she puts the Lord first, notice something. As we go back just a few verses, she already knows who the Lord is.

She is already familiar with Jehovah, the God of Israel. Yeah. You might go back in your mind to a time when those cities of tire and Scion were closely aligned with Solomon back during his reign and they knew who the Lord was and they had heard about who Jehovah was and there were some who even worship Jehovah and here’s this woman.

She knows who the God of Israel is. She may not be fully cognizant and fully understanding who he is and that he is the only God,

but she knows who he is and she said, as your God lives, I’m out of food. I have one meal left and then we’re going to die.

But Elijah tells her, no, you go provide for me first you said God’s word above your own beliefs,

your own opinions, your own thoughts on the matter and we’ll see if God provides for you because here’s what he’s going to do.

Now, if you step back and think about this for just a moment, you would think you know what the best solution to this is?

God just gives her three year supply all at once. I mean just think about it. How much easier is that all at once?

Here comes everything that she needs, it’s there in the house, and suddenly instead of just a morsel of bread left in the bowl and just a little oil left in the jar,

now it’s full. It’s overflowing and it’s constantly there and it’s abundance. Well, you know what we do with abundance?

Pretty soon with abundance, we forget where it came from, and yet in the scarcity of every day,

the the text indicates she would go and she’d get all that remained and she’d make that day’s bread. And then the next day she’d go back to the bowl and back to the jar and she’d get all that remained and she’d make that day’s bread.

And the next day and the next day, and the next day, all that remained and every day trusting in God that the next day’s food would be there.

There’s a lesson there that Jesus talks about. You remember when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he said to his disciples,

to pray to God, give us this day our daily bread. God says you don’t trust in your ability to provide.

Jesus says, you don’t trust that you’re going to know where your next meal comes from. You trust that God will give it to you if you’re faithful to him.

So then notice what we read. She went away, verse 15 and did according to the word of Elijah and she and he and her household ate for many days.

The bin of flour was not used up nor did the jar of oil run dry according to the word of the Lord,

which he spoke by Elijah. Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick and his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him.

So she said to Alijah, what have I to do with you? Oh man of God. Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son?

What Cindy thinks she’s talking about. I’m not certain what it is, but I think there might be some indication,

there might be some aspect of this text that reminds us. There was a point in time where she wasn’t serving the Lord and that was a time of the past and now she knows who’s providing for her every single day.

But now this provision of food is still there, but what’s most precious to her? Her son has died and she doesn’t know where to turn to or who to blame other than herself and her sins.

She said, why are my sins being brought to my remembrance this way? But she lays it at the feet of Elijah’s is what have I to do with you.

Oh man of God. But then notice what occurs. He said to her, give me your son,

and he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed.

Then he cried out to the Lord and said, Oh Lord, my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodged by killing her son and he stretched himself out on the child three times and cried out to the Lord and said,

Oh Lord my God, I pray. Let this child soul come back to him. Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the soul of the child came back to him and he revived and Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room to into the housing,

gave him to his mother and Elijah said, see your son lives. Yeah, Elijah, just like the woman is without recourse.

He has no way to just bring the child back to life, but he can plead with the one who does.

He can trust in God to do this and God hears him. I don’t want to leave the indication that when we trust in God,

miracles are going to happen as they did here. What I do want us to understand is the new Testament teaches very clearly the effectual,

fervent prayer of a righteous man changes things. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much and we can trust in that.

But then consider this verse 24 then the woman said to Elijah, now buying this, I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.

You think maybe there’s some thought in her mind. The rain’s never coming back. You think maybe there’s some thought in her mind that maybe this man who’s living upstairs in my house doesn’t really have the ability to speak and have the rain begin again.

But when her child comes back to her alive, when the child who was dead is alive again, she says,

I know your words are the truth. So it’s just interesting. We proceed right from that to, okay Elijah,

it’s time to go. Chapter 18 verse one it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying,

go present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth. So Alijah went to present himself to Ahab and there was a severe famine in some area.

Whole big surprise. There’s no water, there’s no food. And so verse three and have called Obadiah who was in charge of his house.

Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly for. So it was while Jezza bell massacred the prophets of the Lord that Obadiah had taken 100 profits,

hidden them 50 to a cave and fed them with bread and water in a time where there’s no provisions in that time where there’s no rain.

This man who’s close to the King, who’s in his very house is hiding profits of the Lord and feeding them and giving them something to drink.

By the way, you see here, one of the indications of the evil that was unprecedented because here we find that Obadiah is hiding the prophets of the Lord because Jessebelle wasn’t just an idolatry.

She wanted the profits of the Lord dead. She wanted Jehovah wiped off the map in Israel. She wanted bale and her idols to be the only gods in Israel.

So where Jeroboam had set up aisles for Israel to worship and they still believed in Jehovah. Jessebelle said,

no, no, no, no. We’re getting rid of this. We’re getting rid of these profits.

We’re killing them. But think about what you just read. Yeah. In the Northern kingdom of Israel,

that’s turned away from the Lord that is not following God and hasn’t been for generations. There are still hundreds of prophets of the Lord,

hundreds of prophets of the Lord, but the people are refusing to hear them. They might be preaching,

they might be teaching, they might be proclaiming the word of the Lord, but the people are following after idols.

Sometimes we need to remember that all the preaching and all the teaching that a person might do might avail very little outside of a few personal relationships because the people’s hearts are so set on sin,

and yet that’s no reason for those who are faithful to the Lord to stop preaching. That’s no reason for those who were faithful,

Lord to turn about and turn away from the Lord. That’s every reason to remain faithful, even in the face of persecution.

So Albany hides these profits and so it was, excuse me in verse five and Ahab said to Obadiah,

go into the land, to all the Springs of water to the all the Brooks, perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive so that we will not have to kill any livestock.

The famine is so great, the, the grass has run out. All of the planes are dry,

they’re desert there, there’s nothing left. It’s landline iron. And he says, we’ve got to go to the underground sources of water.

We’ve got to find someplace in the land of Israel where they’re still grass growing so we can feed these livestock.

Yeah. So he sends over, die out. Obadiah goes one way and Abraham goes, the other,

verse six they divided the land between them to explore it. A have went one way by himself in Obadiah went another way by himself.

Now as Obadiah was on his way, suddenly Alijah met him and he recognized him and fell on his face and said,

is that you? My Lord Elijah? And he answered him. It is. I go tell your master Alijah is here.

And so he said, have I or how have I sin that you are delivering your servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me as the Lord your God lives.

There is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to hunt for you. And when they said he is not here,

he took an oath from the kingdom or nation that they could not find you. A Hab hasn’t just sought out his land.

He’s been sending out messengers, searchers to go to the nations around them and told those Kings, you better swear to me.

You ma, you better swear to me that aligned just not in your land and you can’t find them or else that’s how bad a Hab wants Elijah.

Well then notice, so he said, uh, or verse 10 as the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master is not sent someone to hunt for you.

And when they said he is not here, he took an oath from the kingdom or a nation that they could not find you.

And now you say, go tell your master Elijah’s here. Oh, but I was like, wait,

what have I done? Why are you going to get me killed this way? And it shall come to pass.

Verse 12 as soon as I am gone from you that the spirit of the Lord will carry you to a place I do not know,

and when I go and tell it, Hey Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me.

But I your servant, the fear of the Lord from my youth, Obadiah is afraid that he’s going to leave Elijah.

He’s going to go tell a how that aligns his bag, and he’s going to bring a hound to Elijah and then Elijah is going to be gone and Ahab’s going to kill him.

Was it not reported? Verse 13 to my Lord, what I did when Jess bell killed the prophets of the Lord,

how I hid 100 men of the Lord’s profits, 52 a and fed them with bread and water, and now you say,

go. Tell your master Elijah is here. He will kill me. Then Elijah said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand,

I will surely present myself to him today. So Obadiah went to meet a ham and told him and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

Then it happened when they have saw Elijah that Abraham said to him, is that you? Oh, troubler of Israel.

A ham sees Elijah for the first time in three years, and a halves only conclusion over three years of famine,

three years of desolation, three years of a destroyed nation and a destroyed economy. Three years of struggle,

scrounging just to find enough food that Elijah’s the problem. But Elijah’s not the problem. Elijah’s not the troubler of Israel.

Hey, have believes that he is, but the reality is a Hab is the troubler of Israel, a have and his wife and wickedness and their deeds and their idolatry and their sins.

They’re the trouble are in Israel. But how often is it true that we look at the solution and we call it the problem.

We look at the solution. We look at the one who’s telling us the truth, and we accused them of being the problem.

That’s how sin deceives us and the believing that we are not the one who’s the problem. So then Elijah responds,

he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the bales.

Now therefore sending gather all Israel to me on mountain caramel, the 450 prophets of bale and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Joseph Bell’s table.

Now we don’t have time because of the events, uh, that are recorded here to go into detail on what occurs.

But we’ll summarize it to say this. Elijah tells a, have you bring me the prophets of bale and the prophets of Asherah.

You bring them to Mount Carmel and we’ll find out who the real God is. Then Jezza bell won’t allow the profits of Asheboro to go,

but a Hab will bring the profits of bale and they will come and there will be a contest set up to find out who’s the real God.

And Elijah will allow the prophets of bale to go first and they’ll cry out to bail the God of,

of lightening, the God of storms, the God of thunder, and they’ll cry out to bail too,

to bring a bout a storm to bring about this sacrifice turning into a burning sacrifice. They’re allowed to set up the sacrifice.

They’re allowed to do everything, but they can’t bring the fire. That’s gotta be bales job. They cry out and they cry out and they cry out to no avail.

Finally, it’s Elijah’s turn, and Elijah takes not only the sacrifice and puts it on the alter, but then he begins to pour water on the alter.

That precious substance water, he’s pouring water, water that people can drink. He’s pouring it on the alter and he’s pouring it on the ground and he fills the trawl for around in the moat around the altar.

He’s pouring water on it.<inaudible> and then fire comes from heaven and lights that sacrifice as nothing else could have.

We pick up here in the text and notice we find verse 37 okay, hear me. Oh Lord,

hear me that this people may know that you are the Lord gone and the you have turned their hearts to you again.

As a result of the things that will occur. The profits of V of will be destroyed. Verse 38 then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and it licked up the water that was in the trench.

Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, he is gone.

The Lord, he is God and Elijah said to them, seize the profits of bale. Do not let one of them has hae escape.

So they seized them and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Keshawn and executed them there. Then Alijah said they have go up,

eat and drink for there is the sound of abundance of rain. Elijah tells Ahab you go home, you go back to your place,

you leave this place and you go home because of the rain coming. The people have been reminded who God is.

So do you hear it? Do you hear the sound of the rain? Elijah says to Ahab, it’s coming.

Notice what occurs. So I have went up to eat and drink and Elijah went up to the top of mountain car of caramel.

Then he bound down on the ground and put his face between his knees and said to his servant, go up.

Now look toward the sea. So he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. And seven times he said,

go again. Elijah goes and he bows himself down and he sends his servant to go look at the sea.

First time, nothing. Second time, nothing. Third time, fourth time, fifth time, six time,

seven time. Nothing. Sky’s still bronze. But then we read. Then it came to pass the seventh time that he said there is a cloud,

a small as small as a man’s hand rising out of the sea. So he said, go up,

say day, have, prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you. Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black and with clouds and when and there was a heavy rain.

So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Three years, three years in an agrarian culture, okay? Where the majority of the jobs and the plenty and the land are in the prosperity came from the land.

Three years of no rain and then all of a sudden it comes back. We need to learn that when God says something will happen,

it will happen. When God says, when you turn away from me, I’ll destroy you. That’s exactly what will occur.

When God says, when you turn your back on me, you will be judged. That’s exactly what will occur and when God says,

if you return to me, if you come back, if you repent, if you are willing to be one who is humbled and returned to the Lord,

I’ll forgive you. Okay, I’ll bring you back. I will wipe your sin away and remember it no more.

We need to learn that what he says is true. Three years, not a drop of rain, but when God said it was time and when the people had learned through suffering that Jehovah is the Lord God brought back the rain in your life.

Are you in a place of desolation and despair because of sin? Are you separated from God and an alien from hope because of iniquity?

Because if you are, there’s hope. If you are, there is salvation. There is preservation. There is that which is provided by the Lord.

You can become a Christian. Now what I want you want us to be clear about is a Christian is not one who will undergo no suffering in this life,

although they’ll certainly suffer and Elijah wood, but in the end they serve the Lord who is the true and living God.

If you’re outside the body of Christ, you enter into the body of Christ by old obeying the plan of salvation set forth in the new Testament.

The steps are simple. You hear the gospel because the gospel produces faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God and the gospel is the power of God to salvation.

That faith being produced in your life by the word of God brings them out a belief and an acknowledging,

a recognition and an understanding and an obedience of the fact that Jesus Christ is son of God. Except you believe that I am he,

Jesus said, you’ll die in your sins, John eight verse 24 well then you have to repent. It wasn’t enough for Israel to just decide,

you know what? That’s fine. We’ll just continue to serve bail and Jehovah. No, that wasn’t gonna work.

Something had to change and the people had to put away the sin and the iniquity in their lives and that included the destruction of the profits of bail.

We have to repent. We have to change our mind and bring about a change of action. Acts chapter two verses 37 and 38 where Peter told those people who had put to death the son of God.

You have to repent. We also have to confess Christ as Lord and savior. Romans chapter 10 verses nine and 10 speaks of confession leading up to salvation.

Then we have to be buried in water. We have to die. We have to die to ourselves in a burial,

in a grave of water, to rise up, to walk in newness of life because it is in that grave of water that we come into contact with the blood of Christ that cleanses us of all sins and we rise up out of baptism.

Newness of life. Are you like the Northern kingdom of Israel suffering in desolation and iniquity and sin that you could never get yourself out of even if you tried?

Because if so, there’s hope and salvation brings that hope because God is faithful to his words of judgment and he’s faithful to his words of redemption.

Where do you stand today? If you’re one who likes some in the nation of Israel, had followed the Lord before and have turned away to sin,

you can come back. If you’re a Christian who’s turned your back on God, you can come home,

you can repent and you can pray and you can be forgiven. If you have need of any of those things,

contact us. We’ll be happy to study with you. We’d be happy to help you learn what the new Testament says about salvation,

because it’s not what most of the world says. Okay. We’d be happy to help you begin a relationship with the Lord,

your God in newness of life through baptism. If you have need of any of those things, let us know.

We thank you for your time and we thank you for your attention.<inaudible> thank Aaron for that sermon this morning,

and we thank each one of you for being with us this morning and worshiping with us. We pray that we get to see everybody soon back together in one place,

but, uh, we are glad that you’re with us this morning. We will close with number 869,

869 and then we’ll have a closing prayer. Eight, six, nine.<inaudible><inaudible> join in us with weed,

uh, and uh, uh,<inaudible><inaudible>,<inaudible><inaudible> beautiful city, uh, uh, that,

uh,<inaudible>, uh, uh, uh,<inaudible>, eh, ah, and uh, uh,<inaudible> Mary speak the<inaudible><inaudible>.

Uh, I uh, mute if a, if, uh, uh, when, uh, Jean upwards first city,

uh, uh,<inaudible>, uh, uh,<inaudible>, uh,<inaudible> yours were marching through away man,

yours ground too fat<inaudible>, uh,<inaudible>, uh, uh, Munich<inaudible> beautiful city, uh,

uh, let us pray. Our gracious father in heaven, we bow before you at this time grateful for the day that you’ve given to us for the life that we have and the that we have.

And we’re mindful of those who are struggling with the crown of Iris and with many, many other illnesses and diseases and things going on in this world.

Mindful of, uh, Riley and pray that uh, she just has a simple fever and that she will recover quickly.

We pray for all those who are dealing with the loss of loved ones. Pray for the Rushmore family.

Pray that you give them comfort and strength through your word. Help us to daily walk before you in spirit and in truth serving you each and every day.

Forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory and help us to remain faithful walking in the light throughout our days.

Pray for this congregation here in Collierville, and we pray for the church throughout the world. May doors of opportunity throughout this time be available to us to teach the gospel,

to reach those who never before have fought about being obedient to the gospel and being obedient to a God who is alive and is great.

All this we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

<inaudible>. Good afternoon. Welcome to the Collierville church Christ Sunday afternoon service. It’s good to see each and every one of you and it’s great to see our visitors here in SAFT noon. Thank you for coming this afternoon to worship God, uh, our sick list. Uh, Rudel Wilson, please keep him your thoughts and prayers. Dorothy is able to make it out this afternoon to join us. So that is great to see. Dorothy, Betty Lou Hanks is a recovering from her carpal tunnel surgery and like I said this morning,

her and lucky are still working to find a neurologist to see if they can’t get some further testing and further insight into what’s still causing her continued problems with their carpal tunnel that she’s having. Joan Springer is home from the hospital, but she has to go for a daily infusion every day at around 11 o’clock. So that’s why Marie was not here this morning and I do not see Marie here yet this afternoon, but we might see him yet afternoon. But please keep Joan and your thoughts and prayers. Marvin man,

Beverly’s father. His health is kind of up and down depending on what they have done for them and what they do for them. So please continue to pray for him. He is scheduled for another treatment for his cancer on the 23rd so please continue to pray for him. Beverly herself. She’s still working with her heart rate and her blood pressure issues. She has some good days and some bad days. So please continue to pray for Beverly. Uh, remember to keep the entire case and family in your thoughts and prayers as they uh,

continue to work through the loss of their sister Julia on other uh, announcements here at the cares will not meet tomorrow night. The area wide Bible bowl for next Saturday as of everything we know right now is still on the schedule and if that changes we will let everyone know as soon as possible. But right now that is next Saturday at 4:00 PM. And if we have that, we need as many of the people here that we can possibly get to come out and support the kids in that endeavor. On that area wide Bible ball,

a ladies Bible class will be suspended until further notice than that’s due to the Corona virus and the concerns there with the people that do attend that because there’s susceptible at their age for being a more likely candidate for the Corona virus. So the decision has been made to suspend it ladies Bible class until further notice and then the men. As soon as second service is over today we will meet to discuss the Corona virus and our services and gathering schedule for here for the Collierville church of Christ and the decision that we make this afternoon that will be put out to everybody as soon as possible.

So a song’s service this afternoon, song leader B, Eric Richardson, opening prayer will be Joe caisson sermon is Aaron coats, art and closing prayer is Tommy Lasser. Thank you<inaudible>. Good afternoon number 291 please use your book. 291, two nine one a great position. Yeah.<inaudible> Oh, man. A voice. Uh, jeez. Uh,<inaudible> song.<inaudible> song. Jeez. Jeez. Uh,<inaudible> hi. Nappie leave Angie’s us<inaudible> I love, uh, name. Uh, jeez.

Uh,<inaudible><inaudible> jeez. Uh, jeez. Uh, Hey.<inaudible> uh, geez. Who else sing, uh, around the throne of his name? A name? Uh, jeez. Uh,<inaudible> uh, jeez. Uh, jeez. Uh, number 666, 666. Ah,<inaudible> and it’s, uh, to me, but I LA<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> man.<inaudible><inaudible> near bus.<inaudible> said Coreg mean, uh, to, so my, the, or, uh, grey.

Steve. Uh huh<inaudible>.<inaudible> God with us that fast. So, and my well, uh, Stan, it’s, I mean<inaudible><inaudible> yeah. Uh huh<inaudible>.<inaudible> near bus.<inaudible><inaudible> uh, Oh, the up. Yeah.<inaudible> that’d be for a throne. Uh, uh, when I need you in prayer and with the, Oh my God.<inaudible><inaudible> sure.

I mean,<inaudible> near bus.<inaudible><inaudible> uh, Jerome, uh, uh, near blast.<inaudible><inaudible> uh,<inaudible> uh,

I can, uh, no to like Ross, uh, naira hoes. I see. Okay.<inaudible> IRS<inaudible><inaudible> you were all mean<inaudible><inaudible> yeah.

Uh huh. Jerome<inaudible> newer blast to the opera.<inaudible> uh, right. Dear God, our father in heaven,

we truly are thankful for the privilege that we have to come together this afternoon. We’re thankful, dear father,

that you loved us so much that your son came and died on the cross of Calvary. We’re so grateful for that sacrifice that was made and we pray father,

that would not take that lightly in our lives, that we strive to do our very best to serve and glorify you.

That we might bring honor and glory to your name. Father, we’re mindful of those that are not part of the kingdom of heaven.

We pray father that as we as good stewards of the church and those that are striving to reach out to the lost in this area,

that we are conscious of those that are not members of the body of Christ that we’re willing to give of ourselves and the abilities that we have to share the gospel with them in this area.

We’re thankful father for the Bible and for your word that it can direct our steps and we pray father,

that we look to them daily, that we are are drawn closer to you and closer to one another.

Dear God with our mind for those that are having problems with various illnesses and we pray that you be with Holly and the children as they travel back to check on her mother.

We pray father that the doctors and nurses might be able to attend to her and try to relieve her of her health issue.

We pray father, that you be with uh, Beverly’s they add and the ones that are tending to him pray you’ll be with lucky and Betty Lou especially be with Betty Lee.

She continues to have problems with her hands. We pray that they might do something that might relieve her of that pain.

How so? Be with Joan as she’s having these infusions each day that they might help relieve her of the problems with the pneumonia that it might not return.

Again, we pray father that you bless them and watch over them. We pray father that you always help us each day to remember one another and we’re so grateful and thankful for the church here and for the members of her that that love and care about each other so much and we pray that we not ever take that lightly,

that we’d be grateful for it and continue to do that. Be that blessing to one another here. Father,

we are mindful of those that are teaching and preaching your word and other lands, the DePalma’s and Rushmore’s.

We pray that you be with them and bless them and keep them safe and watch over them. Help us to be an encouragement to them and try to help them in whatever way we can bother.

We’re mindful of our widows and probably that we might always be attentive to their needs. Where mindful father Potter children’s home and the orphans there help us always to reach out to them and help encourage them.

And those that are shut ins. Father, help us not forget about them, but encourage them as we have the opportunity.

Father, be with us this afternoon as we look to another portion of your word that we might have attentive hearts and minds to listen to those things that are presented to us,

that we let them become a part of our lives and want to be a better person. We pray that we will always remain faithful to you.

That when this life is over with me, I might have that home in heaven. And Jesus, we pray.

Amen.<inaudible> we’re 639, six, three, nine. Rescue the perishing care for that. Uh,

he snatched<inaudible> from sin and a gray<inaudible> Jesus says mercy for jeez.<inaudible><inaudible> with Amgen. Me,

he will<inaudible> jeez. Smells<inaudible> nah, and a human. Uh,<inaudible><inaudible> to<inaudible>. Uh,<inaudible> jeez us his mercy for,

jeez. If I ask you the parish, she knit amens and Sheree<inaudible>, bro. Uh, Matt to the narrow way.

Hey, shot Lee went to the<inaudible>, uh,<inaudible> for that. Jeez. Serious mercy for jeez.<inaudible> our invitation song be number 904 nine zero four.

Okay, good afternoon. Take your Bibles if you will, and open them to the book of second Chronicles.

Second Chronicles rolling to begin around chapter 11 and our study this this afternoon, wanting to take the moment,

take a moment in our study this afternoon to consider the life of rehabilitation. Now someone might say, well,

Erin, Erin, uh, we, we just studied Ray bone this morning. Why, why do we need to study him again?

Well, the answer is because the majority of the acts of Rehoboam, the majority of the life of Rehoboam,

uh, are not in our study on Sunday morning because they’re not in the book of Kings. And,

uh, our study and the material that we’re going through, we’ll focus on the book of Kings, but the remainder of the actual,

you’ll read this in chapter 12. The remainder of the acts of Rehoboam were recorded in the book of Chronicles and wanting to notice some interesting tidbits here because there are some details in the recording in Chronicles that actually shed light on a number of very specific things throughout the rest of the old Testament history as well as some important lessons to be learned and gleaned from this passage.

So we’re going to begin in second Chronicles chapter 11 and notice the reign of Rehoboam. Now in chapter 10,

you have the revolt of Jeroboam. We’ve discussed that to some detail or to some small detail. We’ll discuss it more at another time.

But in chapter 11, we read now when Rhea Bolton came to Jerusalem, he assembled, uh, from the house of Judah and Benjamin,

180,000 chosen men who were warriors to fight against Israel that he might the kingdom to reimburse them. We read this morning in class that Rehoboam gathered this army together and as will also be recorded here,

they will receive word from the man of God to disperse. But notice something significant here. Rehoboam gathers these men together,

not just to go to war, but he gathers them together to restore the kingdom. He, in his mind,

will accomplish by power and by might what he could not accomplish through force of will. And so Rehoboam will bring together this army.

He will bring together these hundred and 80,000 men to go to battle against their brethren, okay. And unfortunately,

so many times even in the world today, we have brothers fighting against brothers. We have men fighting with one another and doing damage to one another who are supposed to be brethren.

And sadly, even within the body of Christ, we have those who fight and do devour one another.

And yet they claim to be brethren. We read in verse two, but the word of the Lord came to shimmy I the son,

the man of God saying, speak to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, King of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah.

And Benjamin saying, thus says the Lord, you shall not go up or fight against your brethren. Let every man returned to his house for this thing is from me.

Therefore they obeyed the words of the Lord and turned back from attacking Jeroboam. God sends word to Rehoboam.

God sends word to the army. You’re not to go to battle. He sends word by this prophet,

by this man of God as he is described here to go into tell them you will not go to battle against your brethren.

Yeah, but notice here that the reason why they would not go to battle, the reason why they were not to take this action was not because there was not a legal right.

It was not because the authority of the King wasn’t sufficient over the army. It was not because they wouldn’t have won.

It was because God had done this thing. There’s a principle laid in this passage that what God does,

man has no business on doing. God said, this is buying judgment. God said, this is my action and you have no business doing anything that opposes my action.

Now had the nation wanted to restore itself, they had the opportunity. Had the nation wanted to fix the problem and bring the entirety of the nation back together.

They could have done it, but not this way. Yeah. They couldn’t by force of mite, they couldn’t,

by power of military. They could not through their own volition bring about a restoration without God. But there’s an interesting point here in this perspective of God having done this and separated this nation,

and that is that the nation will never be restored until, yeah, the nation will never be restored until the end of the Babylonian captivity.

Now, some would suggest that the only ones who ever came back from captivity after the days of the Babylonian captivity were those from the tribe of Judah.

But the reality is that’s not the case. What you might remember is that in the, uh, 700 BC,

uh, century, the Assyrian army came in and defeated the Northern 10 tribes of Israel. They didn’t kill everybody that was there.

What they did and what the Assyrians would do is they would come in and they would conquer people and then they would disperse them far and wide and they would remove them from their land and then they’d take other peoples and place them in that land.

The idea being that if a people was not in their home land, if a people was removed from their Homeland,

their motivation to fight against the Assyrians and to war against them would be diminished because they wouldn’t be at home.

They wouldn’t be protecting their home, they wouldn’t have the motivation of freedom in their own home. And so a Syria would come and they would destroy and kill many of those in the Northern kingdom.

But some number of those people were scattered throughout the Assyrian nation. Well, after the Assyrian empire had come to power and come to glory and then began to diminish,

the Babylonians began to rise. No. And in the 600 BC point in time, the Babylonians grew to power and they came against the and they overtook the entire Assyrian empire.

And when you begin to read and you begin to delve more deeply into the return from captivity, what you will find is there is a good indication that there were those from every tribe of Israel that would ultimately make it back to Israel.

And they would again, now they be known as Jews. From that point forward, they would be known as those who had part in Judah.

But from that point forward, there would have been a restoration of the nation of Israel from that moment forward,

there weren’t two kingdoms. There was one. And what is it that was corrected? What is it that changed during that Babylonian captivity and after the Assyrian defeat of the Northern kingdom?

What changed in the nation to bring about restoration? After all of these hundreds of years, idolatry was gone.

Babylonian captivity and the Assyrian captivity removed idolatry from the Israelite culture and it removed them from worshiping idols. Now,

were they sinless? No. Were they perfect? No. Did they have many, many other problems?

Deal to deal with? Yes. Read the minor prophets for that. But the reality is, God said you will not be one nation until the primary issue in your nation is restored.

And that was idolatry. But go on in verse five. So Rhea boned Welton Jerusalem and built cities for defense in Judah.

What? He’s building cities for defense. But why would he be building cities for defense in Judah? Warned their already defensive cities.

Didn’t David build defensive cities? Well, he did, but he didn’t build any of them on the border between Israel and Judah.

These new defensive cities are to defend against their brethren in Israel. So he begins to build defensive cities.

He built Bethlehem ITAM to Koa, Beth Xer, Zaka, Adullam, GAF, Marsha Ziff, Zuora at,

uh, age, Alon and Hebrew, which are in Judah and Benjamin fortified cities. And he fortified the strongholds and put captains in them and stores of food or oil and wine.

And in every city he put shields and Spears. And he made them very strong having Judah and Benjamin on every,

on his side. So he’s got Judah, he’s got Benjamin, and he begins to strengthen his nation.

It’s now much smaller. It’s a smaller population. It’s a smaller army. He no longer has Eve freedom in the North to be able to help protect him from what comes from the North.

And so now he begins to fortify himself and he puts defenses in the city who puts Spears and shields in the cities and from all their territories.

The priests and the Levis who were in all Israel took their stand with him. An interesting detail that is recorded alone here is that the Levi needs in all Israel speaking concerning the Northern tribes.

When Jeroboam departs from the law, when Jeroboam departs from worshiping according to God’s commandments, when Jeroboam sets up the idols in Dan and bear Shiva,

and when Jeroboam replaces the priesthood of Aaron with anyone in the Northern kingdom of Israel who wants to be a priest,

the Levi rights stand with Rehoboam. You might remember that the Levi’s did not have a single land section.

That was their inheritance. The Levi’s had cities within all the different Israelite tribes and so these Levi’s are scattered throughout the entire nation and they’re standing with Rehoboam.

Beginning of verse 14 we read for the Levis, left their common lands in their possessions and came to Judah and Jerusalem for Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them from serving as priest to the Lord.

Now let’s not get the egg and the chicken in the wrong order. The, the Levis didn’t leave leaving Jeroboam,

defying new priests. Jeroboam bone rejected them as priests and replaced them and then they departed. So the Levis left.

They went down to Jerusalem and Judea and or Judah, and they departed from their cities. They, as it were,

walked out on Israel to stand with Rehoboam and to stand with the Lord because of the departures of Jeroboam.

Then verse 15 he appointed for himself priests for the high places, for the demons and the calf idols which he had made.

Jeroboam will continue his progression into idolatry. He will continue down this path, not only with the golden calves,

but also with demon worship. And the Levis left those from all the tribes of Israel, such as set their heart to seek the law.

The Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers. So the Levi’s,

it’s that left. There’s an indication that not all, not a hundred percent of the population, but what category of them,

what group of Levi’s left the Northern 10 tribes and came down to the Southern two tribes? And the answer is those who set their face to seek the Lord,

those who were still faithful in their heart to seeking the Lord departed from their brethren. They departed from the Northern 10 tribes because the Northern 10 tribes departed from the Lord.

Now is there a lesson here for us? I think there is. There are those who face difficulties at times there are Christians who face difficulties because at times they find themselves in a congregation that is departing from the truth.

They find themselves in a predicament where they’re facing a congregation and they’re part of a congregation that is the partying from God and beginning to teach error.

And it is often the question in the discussion of when is enough enough, when is it that a person should leave in some maybe might have the mindset,

well you should just stay there. You should just stay in fight. You should be a voice for good.

And to a degree that’s true, but there’s a line. That line is not always clearly defined, but there’s a line where someone has to say,

you’ve departed and I can’t go with you. And so the Levi’s make that declaration as it were. They say,

you’ve departed from the Lord, you’re sacrificing to these idols, you’re doing these things and we can not abide by this.

Yes, and so they move from their homes and their inheritance and their location and they leave because serving the Lord was more important than their inheritance.

There’s a lesson that we need to learn about being willing to sacrifice for faithfulness to the Lord, so they strengthened the the kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong for three years because they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.

As the influx of Levis comes down into the Southern tribes. Now bear in mind, Solomon wasn’t always faithful to the Lord Solomon and build the temples in Jerusalem.

Solomon had set up the high places. Rehoboam hasn’t removed them. Rehoboam hasn’t taken these temples to these idols out.

Rehoboam has continued in the practices of his father, but for three years, the influence of these Levi’s is so strong.

How many of them are there? We’re not told, but it’s the, and almost the entire tribe.

There were already some that were in Judah. The Levites that were there already were, were there, but almost the re,

the entirety of the tribe comes down and their influence changes the direction of Judah. For three years, for three years,

Judah returns to faithfulness for three years. Judah is made strong for three years. They shift the balance of power toward serving the Lord,

but the wickedness that was a part of Rehoboam was strong enough that he eventually won out. Then Rehoboam took for himself as wife.

May her laugh, the daughter of moth, the son of David, and of Abba hail, the daughter of Aliah,

the son of Jesse, and she bore him children jus sham, Mariah and Zima or Zhihan. After he took her,

after her, he took make-a, the granddaughter of Absalom, and she bore him Abijah, uh, Thai,

Zaza and Shalimar. Now Rehoboam loved makeup, the granddaughter of Absalom more than all his wives and his concubines four,

he took 18 wives and 60 concubines and the God, 28 sons and 60 daughters. One of the problems you have with Rehoboam is the same problem Solomon had.

And the same problem David had. He didn’t follow the law. He did not return to the law and the commandments of Moses to observe that the Kings had been commanded not to multiply unto themselves wives.

And so he as well will continue in this sin of his fathers. But notice in chapter 12 it came to pass when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself,

that he first took the law of the Lord and all Israel along with him. This influx of the Levi’s strengthened Rehoboam for three years.

It brought strength to the nation for three years and they were serving the Lord for three years. But when he became strong,

when everything was going well, when he realized that that he was going to be fine and the nation was going to continue,

even though the Northern 10 tribes had left, he forced hook the Lord with 1200, uh sorry in,

in verse two. And it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that shack King of Egypt came up against Jerusalem because he had transgressed against the Lord.

In Solomon’s day, Solomon is going to find out, God tells Jeroboam, I’m taking the Northern 10 tribes away from you because you have departed from me and instead of correcting his situation,

Solomon seeks to kill Jeroboam. Now his son is on the throne and the 10 tribes are taken away and for a little bit of time he follows the Lord and the nation follows the Lord,

but now he’s departing from the Lord. He’s for sagging Lord and God is going to send a nation against him.

God is going to send the Egyptians up to bring judgment on Rehoboam and on the nation of Israel because all Israel along with him for Sug the Lord.

Then notice in verse three with 12,000 chariots or shooting be 1200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen and people without number who came with him out of Egypt,

the lube them and the<inaudible> and the Ethiopians. He took the fortified cities of Judah and came to Jerusalem.

Then shimmy IAH, the prophet came to Rhea balm and the leaders of Judah who were gathered together in Jerusalem because of shack and said to them,

thus says the Lord, you have forsaken me and therefore I also have left you in the hand of shack.

So the leaders of Israel and the King humbled themselves and they said, the Lord is righteous. God sends his prophet to them.

He sends his profit to them because they’re all huddled in Jerusalem. These were probably leaders that normally would have been throughout the land,

but Egypt’s been coming in 40 cities have already fallen and Egypt is still coming in. They’re huddled inside the walls of Jerusalem and the prophet of God comes to them and says,

this is the Lord. This is the doing of God because you have departed from me. I am bringing shisha back against you,

but it’s an interesting statement that we read there. He says there in verse five you have forsaken me.

Therefore, I have also left you<inaudible> over in second Timothy chapter two Paul writes to the young preacher Timothy,

and he says to him in second Timothy chapter two around verse 13<inaudible> actually let’s go back to verse 10 verse 10 therefore,

I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

This is a faithful saying for if we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure,

we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are faithless,

he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. Remind them of these things. Paul tells Timothy, you remind the church these things are true.

He says, remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord, not to strive about words to no profit to the ruin of the hearers.

Timothy, you remind your brethren, you remind your congregation, the Lord will be faithful if you’re faithless.

Now, someone might look at that and say, Oh, that’s great. The Lord’s going to be on my side.

Doesn’t matter what I do. No, no, no, no. That’s not what Paul means. Yeah.

Paul means the exact opposite. The Lord will be faithful to his word if you are faithless to him,

okay? And you go back into the old Testament and you go back into those principles of what a person sows,

that will he also reap. You go into those laws and those statements and those testimonies in those blessings and cursings that God gave Israel where God said,

if you depart from me, this is what’s going to happen to you. And what Paul is telling Timothy is the Lord’s faithful to his word.

If you depart from him, judgment will come. And so when God sends his prophet to Rehoboam and to the leaders in Judah,

he sends it to them and says, I’m taking my hands off. I’m leaving you alone. Wishes.

Shack. I’m not going to protect you this time. I’m not going to defend the city. I’m not going to fight your battles for you because I made you a promise when you were faithful me,

I go out and fight before you. When you are faithful to me, I would destroy your enemies for you,

but now you get to stand on your own. Good luck. As it were, have fun. Shear shack was,

or they were no competition for shisha ex army and they knew it, which is why 40 cities had already fallen,

and so God says, you’re on your own, and they declare in verse six the Lord is righteous.

Now they’re not saying with this phrase, the Lord is Holy. It’s not what righteous means. Here,

the idea of righteous is the Lord has judged and his declaration is justified. The Lord is justified and right in this judgment.

In other words, they’re acknowledging, yes, we have departed and forsaken the Lord. Now when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves,

the word of the Lord came to shimmy. I saying they have humbled themselves, therefore I will not destroy them,

but I will grant them some deliverance. Emphasis on some. He says, I will grant them some deliverance.

My rash shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of shack. Nevertheless, they will be his servants.

Sorry about that. I have a tickle in my throat. Nevertheless, they will be his servants that they may distinguish my service from the service of the kingdoms of the nations.

God says, I’m going to let them be brought into subjugation. I’m going to let my people be brought into tribute.

I’m going to allow shisha to dominate over them so that they learn that they can either choose between serving me or they can learn what it’s like to serve other nations.

They can find out what it’s like to be under the thumb of a King, like shake shack or they can serve me and they’re going to learn by experience.

So shisha King of Egypt came up against her Islam and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the King’s house.

So he took everything. He also carried away the gold shield, which Solomon had made. Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard who guarded the doorway to the King’s house.

And whenever the King entered the house of the Lord, the guards would go and bring them out. Then he would take,

then they would take them back into the guard. When he humbled himself, verse 12 the wrath of the Lord turned from him so as not to destroy him completely and the things also went well in Judah.

Shisha comes in and God as shish act by all indications is around the city, maybe in, in siege around Jerusalem.

God sends the prophet in and says, you’re going to be destroyed. I’m not going to defend against you.

They humble themselves. They admit we forsaken the Lord. They repent of their wrongdoing, but God says,

you’re still going to experience the pain of being under the thumb of shack, and so she, Shaq is not kept from entering Jerusalem.

He comes in, he comes into the city because he goes into the house of the Lord and he removes all the gold.

He removes all the shields that Solomon made. He removes all the gold out of the house of the King,

but he doesn’t completely annihilate the nation. Step back and think about what we studied. Concerning the abundance of gold and silver in the nation of Israel in the time of Solomon and then one fail swoop,

it’s all gone. It’s all gone. There was so much gold that they had that they had beaten it into shields,

that they kept in the temple and it’s all gone. Oh, by the way, is there any irony that can be found in the fact that when Israel left Egypt,

they took all of Egypt’s treasures with them and now when they depart from the Lord, Egypt just came and got them all back.<inaudible> God says,

you’ll find out what the difference is between being faithful to me and serving yourself. Then King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and rained.

Now Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became King and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem. Just the thought there.

How long did Solomon reign? 40 years. And Rehoboam was alive for all of it. He was 41 when he came to the throne.

He witnessed the time when his father was faithful and he witnessed the time when he wasn’t. But notice what else we read.

He became, uh, he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there.

His mother’s name was Naima and AMA Natus. And he did evil because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord.

Here’s the conclusion. The con the Chronicles writer gives us, here’s what he says was the problem with Rehoboam before Rehoboam came to the throne is when the problem started.

Rio Boehm didn’t go bad, and when he got to the throne, Rehoboam became evil because he neglected to prepare himself to serve God.

Now, it doesn’t say that he neglected to learn how to lead the nation. It doesn’t say that he neglected to study,

uh, what his father wrote about how to make decisions or wisdom or understanding, but he pro did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord.

There’s an accusation here against Solomon. There’s an accusation against every parent who prepares their child for an occupation and a job and a career,

and not to seek the Lord. We need to be those who are diligent to teach our children to seek God.

The acts of Rehoboam, verse 15 first and last, are they not written in the book of shimmy?

I the prophet and of this year concerning genealogies, and there were Wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.

So Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David than Abijah. His son reigned in his place.

The Chronicles of the life of Rehoboam tell a telling tale about a nation that just wouldn’t stay faithful and Israel would begin their journey into the depths of sin in the rain of Rehoboam by departing from the Lord.

It would be staved off for a time because of God’s judgment, but there’s that one last lesson. It is with judgment that God quite often restores the hearts of men.

We need to not be afraid of pain. We need to not be afraid of God’s judgment at times coming upon maybe even our own nation because the reality is when times are hard,

when judgment comes, when persecution is on top of us, it is then there is an option tunity to change the hearts and minds of men.

God does it time and time and time again with Israel in the old Testament, and it is ultimately when the nation is demolished as a nation,

that out of that is rebirthed a remnant faithful to the Lord. We need to learn the lessons of the old Testament and we need to make sure that we always remain faithful to the Lord.

If you’re here this afternoon and you’re a member of the body of Christ and you’ve departed from God like Judah did,

God will accept your repentance as well, but not as long as you’re insisting on being in charge. God made it clear to Judah,

you are not in charge. I am, and if you think that you’re in charge, I’ll put someone else in charge to show you you’re not in charge.

God said, I’m in control and you need to be faithful to me. We are those who need to be faithful to him.

Even today, if you’re a member of the body of Christ and you’ve departed from the truth, why not come home?

Why not repent of that sin? Repent, humble yourself before the Lord and pray for his forgiveness because he will forgive.

He’ll forgive a person, he’ll forgive a family. He’ll forgive a congregation and he’ll forgive a nation, but not if they don’t humble themselves before him.

If you’re outside the body of Christ, you can enter into the body of Christ by hearing the word of God and believing that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

By confessing the name of Christ and being immersed in water for the remission of your sins. You can do that today if you have need of the invitation,

the invitation of God is open. He wants you to be faithful to him. Will you do that today?

If you have needed the invitation, why not come as we stand and as we sing?<inaudible> Oh,

are you a, yeah. Uh, and uh, so cleansing<inaudible> Oh yeah.<inaudible> they wide ass.

No. Oh, are you a stint?<inaudible> thank Aaron for that lesson. Is there anyone here that needs partake of the Lord’s supper?

Okay, let’s please be seated. Yeah, let us pray. Father in heaven at this time, as we take our minds back to the scene of the cross where Christ shed his blood for our sins and gave his body for us,

for us, and instead of us being there, we pray that we think about what he did, that sacrifice.

And as we partake of this fruit, this loaf which represents his body, that those things will be on our mind as you said,

we pray. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your love. We thank you for Christ’s love and his willingness to to go to the cross instead of us and for us.

And we pray that you be with the ones we’re taking this fruit vine, which represents his blood. We’ll think about what it means to them and what Christ went,

went through and did somebody pray? Man, let us pray. Father in heaven. We thank you so much for your blessings.

We know that everything we have is from you, and we know that with of being in you and being a,

being a Christian, that you have blessed us and you continue to bless us. Each day. We pray that we give back a portion we received with a cheerful,

cheerful heart. And at the money we use to spread your word throughout this community and throughout the world.

In Jesus name, we pray. Thank everyone for making their way out today to worship God. And we encourage everyone to come back to see on Wednesday,

seven o’clock, a member of the men need to get together afterwards. So please stick around for that for short.

If there’s nothing else, let us stand for closing. Song number 650 number 650 Oh con’s ringing. You know,<inaudible> saying,

uh,<inaudible> uh, though.<inaudible><inaudible> yeah.<inaudible><inaudible> Oh, let us not grow weary in though a bla sin.

Uh huh. Uh,<inaudible><inaudible> uh, sin, uh,<inaudible> God bless.<inaudible> uh,<inaudible> gospel.

Let him for ever God our father in heaven. We come to you this time, thanking you for another opportunity to assemble here and sing songs of praise instead of another portion of your word.

And God, we ask you to help each and every one of us be diligent in our faith, to you and our service to you as we proceed amongst our everyday lives here on earth.

And God, we are so thankful that you sent your son Jesus, to live amongst us and teach us and provide us with your word.

So we would have a true life to live by and faithful service to you. We ask God that as we prepare to do part here in Garth,

separate ways that you stay with each and every one of us, those that are traveling, we ask that you be with them and uh,

provide them secure to their destination and returned to here so that they can assemble with us again to worship you.

We know that we occasionally fall short and we ask when we do fall short, that you help us see our airways and forgive us of our sins.

We pray all this through you son Jesus’ name. Amen.