It is wonderful how God brings his brightest light into the darkest places at the hardest times. And if you find yourself in a dark place in a hard time and you are a Christian believer do not be surprised because it is the way of God that he puts his bright light in dark places at hard times. Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I am David Pick and Colin it sounds like for someone today who is listening in a dark place in a dark time this is going to be a message of encouragement. You are listening to the right program today because we are into a passage of scripture in the story of Elijah that speaks directly to the circumstance that you are finding yourself in. You know we looked last time at how Ahab’s path is really a picture of what is happening in our culture, just moving away from the commandments of God, the worship of God, moving away from what the Bible calls the fear of God and ultimately his word just having no weight in this man’s life at all. And so what God does is he raises up Elijah. And here is this man who is given immense courage to stand for truth and to stand for the name of God at a time when the whole culture has really gone so far from the moorings of truth. And my prayer in this series is that God will be raising up courageous Elijah’s in this generation and we are going to look at what that looks like together and how God can give us courage when it is pretty tough and pretty dark. Well we are going to find that in the first book of Kings chapter 16 so I hope you will be able to join us as we continue the message Courage When You Need It. Here is Colin. Let me introduce you to Elijah chapter 17 and verse 1. Now Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbe in Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand there shall be neither Jew nor rain these years except by my word. This is astonishing. Elijah just sort of appears on the scene. We are not told anything about his father or his mother or his background or his particular interests or anything of that sort that might intrigue us. We know very little about Tishbe, the place where he is from, not even certain where that would have been. But Elijah is God’s man and God brings him on the scene at this moment. It is wonderful how God brings his brightest light into the darkest places at the hardest times. And if you find yourself in a dark place in a hard time and you are a Christian believer, do not be surprised because it is the way of God that he puts his bright light in dark places at hard times. One writer says, to see Elijah appear like this unexpected and unheralded reminds us that we need not despair when we see great movements of evil achieving spectacular success on this earth. We can be sure that God has already secretly prepared his counter-movement. Therefore the situation is never hopeless where God is concerned. At the height of the triumph of evil, God is there ready with his man and his movement and his plans to ensure that his own cause will never fail. Now I want you to try and imagine the scene. We are not told specifically that Elijah spoke to Ahab at the palace, but it seems more than reasonable that that would be the natural place for this to take place. So I wonder in my mind, how did he even get in there? I mean, palaces have security, right? And I don’t suppose for one minute that Ahab was sitting in his throne room just kind of, you know, waiting to see if any visitors happened to drop by with a word from the Lord for him. Can you imagine what it was for Elijah to get up one morning and say, today’s the day that I’m going to give the truth to Ahab? Can you imagine that? I ask in my mind, where did he get the courage to do this? How could this have happened? Up he comes to Samaria, and he goes through the courtyards of the palace, amazingly gets direct access to the king, says a single sentence, as the Lord the God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except for my word. He leaves the palace and he’s gone. People are saying, who is that guy? What’s he talking about? One man who is going in a different direction from a darkening culture. How did he find the courage? Follow me in these steps in Elijah’s journey. Notice what he says first, that he stood in the presence of God. I want to invite you to make that commitment today, to be a person who stands in the presence of God. You say, what does that mean? What does it mean to stand before the Lord? Well, picture the palace as Elijah walks up to Ahab. Around the room there are servants and they are waiting. It would always have been like that in the presence of the king, waiting to do whatever the king commands. There’s Ahab’s chariot driver and he’s standing there near to the door, ready to move at Ahab’s simple word. There’s a waiter and he’s standing there by another door and he’s ready to serve food and drink at the very moment that Ahab just moves a beckoning finger. All around the room there are the king’s servants and they’re before him and they’re ready at a moment’s notice to respond to his direction. That’s what it means. Elijah walks into the throne room and there are all these folks standing around there and they’re all before Ahab. Elijah says, I stand before the Lord. To stand before the Lord means that you come to a place where you are ready and available and responsive to whatever he commands you to do. Surrounded by the darkness, as all of us are, we need women and men who are in that place, standing before the Lord. Is that you? Second, he believed the word of God. Not only did he stand before the Lord, he believed the word of God. You say, what can a man like Elijah do? What can one person do? What can I do when there’s so much darkness all around me? What difference can I make? Well, you can stand before the Lord and be ready and available to him. You can believe his word. Now folks, if you have your Bible in your hand, just take it in your hand. Elijah did not have the Bible, of course, as we have it today. What he would have had would have been the five books of Moses together with Joshua and Judges and the books of Samuel. He would have had access to that history. When I hold that in my hand, that’s about a quarter, about a quarter of the Bible that we have today. So he didn’t have as much Scripture to read, but he had access at least to the truth that was contained in the very first part of the Scripture. And within that first part of the Scripture, which he must have searched, he would have found this promise in Deuteronomy chapter 11 and verse 16. It is very important for understanding the story of Elijah. Deuteronomy chapter 11 verse 16 says this, God says, take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside to serve other gods and worship them. That, of course, was what was happening in the time of Ahab. Take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them because then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain. Deuteronomy chapter 11. This is the Word of God, a part of Scripture to which Elijah would have had access. If God’s people turned aside to other gods and served them and worshipped them, God said, there will be no rain. And, under Ahab, it had happened. Not just a few altars to Baal, but a house of Baal, a state-recognized, sponsored Baalism, constructed, dedicated by the king himself, God’s own people worshipping idols. And so Elijah began to pray. Oh God, what you warned about is everywhere. Oh God, do what you said. Nobody cares about your word, Lord. They think your words are only talk. They’ve come to the conclusion that there is no living God, that it’s all sociology, that it’s personal piety or spirituality, that it’s the way that particular communities express themselves in religion. Nobody believes in you. Oh God, do what you said. Do it. Now, we know that Elijah prayed like this from the New Testament because we’re told specifically in James chapter 5 and verse 17. Elijah prayed fervently that it might not rain. In other words, he prayed into the particular Scripture that was given in relation to God’s Old Testament people. He prayed into Deuteronomy chapter 11 and verses 16 and 17, and he prayed it fervently that it might not rain, and James says, and for three years and for six months it did not rain on the earth. Elijah not only said that it would not rain, but before he went and he said it, he prayed that it would not rain. Friends, what a prayer. I mean, you think what that’s asking for. If there’s no rain for three and a half years, cattle die. People die. Three years later, the rain of famine would ruin the economy. Here’s a man who’s prepared to pray that God would wreck the economy of his own country in order that there should be a spiritual change that comes about. What kind of prayer is that? Think about it. And Elijah himself would personally share in the suffering, but he prayed that it would happen. He prayed for something that would bring his own suffering. Why? There can only be one answer. Here is a man who cares more about God’s glory than he cares about his own comfort. Oh, the economy’s booming under Ahab. There has been political stability for 22 years, but my heart, Elijah is saying, is breaking because of something much bigger than that. People have forgotten the living God. Here is a man who genuinely cares more about the eternal destiny of people than he does even about physical well-being. Wow. Eternal destiny mattering even more than the physical well-being. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, and we’re taking a look at Elijah and how he found the courage to stand against a darkening culture, seeing what he did and how we can apply those truths to our lives. And if you ever miss one of our messages, you can always go online to openthebible.org.uk. There you can catch up or go back and listen again to any of our previous messages. You can download an MP3 for free or stream the messages from the website. Open the Bible is supported by our listeners, and this month, if you’re able to begin a new donation to the work of Open the Bible, we’d love to send you a copy of a book. It’s called The Fight, and it’s a practical book about how we grow in the Christian life. We’d like to invite you to support the ministry of Open the Bible, and if you start to do that with a donation of five pounds or more each month, we’d love to send you a copy of this book. Details on our website. Back to the message now. Here’s Colin. Elijah himself would personally share in the suffering, but he prayed that it would happen. He prayed for something that would bring his own suffering. Why? There can only be one answer. Here is a man who cares more about God’s glory than he cares about his own comfort. Oh, the economy’s booming under Ahab. There has been political stability for 22 years, but my heart, Elijah is saying, is breaking because of something much bigger than that. People have forgotten the living God. Here is a man who genuinely cares more about the eternal destiny of people than he does even about physical well-being. I read a fascinating piece just this week about two very great men from different centuries who moved in opposite directions, Albert Schweitzer and D. M. Lloyd-Jones. Albert Schweitzer began life as a preacher, but lost confidence in the truthfulness of the words of Jesus. He wrote a book that became very famous called The Quest for the Historical Jesus, and he moved away from that, and he retrained and became a medical doctor because he felt he wanted to give people real help. Dr. Lloyd-Jones moved in precisely the opposite direction. He was trained and was very distinguished in his career in Harley Street in London as a medic, assistant to Lord Hoarder, physician to the Queen. Lloyd-Jones left being a medical doctor in order to become a preacher, and this is what he said. He said, I have become tired of stitching people up so that they can go out and carry on sinning. What do you think ultimately matters? Well, there was no doubt in regards to what matters most in Elijah’s mind, Lord, people need to know who you are. They’ve got the money. They need to know who you are, and whatever it takes, whatever the cost, let your people know that you are God. Do it, so that whatever we suffer in this world, we will not perish in the next. Friend, better to endure any suffering in this world and to turn to God than to enjoy any comfort in this world and to live without him. So here’s Elijah. He stands before the Lord like the servant who’s ready to go wherever God goes. I’m yours. I want to be available to you. He comes to believe the word of God. He comes even when it’s going to be costly for himself to pray into the will of God, and fourth and last step in Elijah’s journey, he spoke in the name of God, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand. There shall be neither June or rain these years except by my word. See, it was standing before the Lord that gave him courage to stand before the king. It’s the engagement in worship and the submission to his word here today that’s going to give you courage in the darkness of this world that you’re facing in the coming week. It was his prayer in private that gave him power in public, one writer says. The Lord, the God of Israel lives, he says, and Ahab had really never thought about that. He had just settled into his mind that religion was a branch of sociology to be manipulated by a politician at will, an expression of human spirituality, a force in the community that could be used for good social purposes. He had never really seriously thought that there might be a God who lives, and here’s a man talking about God as if he would do something that actually makes a difference to our lives in this world. Never thought about that before. You know, reading the story of Elijah standing before the Lord makes me think about Jesus, Jesus who said, the gate is wide and the way is easy, but the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who are on this broad road to destruction are many, but then he says to us, he invites us to join Elijah on a different path. He says there is a gate that is narrow, there’s a way that is hard, and it leads to life. There are not many on it, but he says, enter by the narrow gate. And to all who will walk the narrow way of faith and obedience towards God, there is good news for us today, and it is this, that Jesus stands before the Father for us, and he is the Word of God to us, and he opens the seals we see in the book of Revelation to enact the will of God for us, and he speaks to us a better word than Elijah did. Elijah speaks a word of judgment so that people would seek mercy, but listen to this, Jesus speaks a word of mercy to people who deserve judgment. That’s the gospel. And thank God, friends, and hear this clearly from me tonight, thank God that we are not called to go out and somehow pray for or call down judgment on this world, but here is what we are to do, in Christ’s name we are to call people to repentance, and we are to offer the grace that is in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in this darkening world, God is looking for people who will stand with Elijah on the narrow road, people who in the mercy of God will say, here I am, Lord, and I am available, I stand before you. And I’m going to put down deep roots as one who truly believes your word and gives it weight in my life, that’s the man, the woman I want to be. I’m going to be praying for your will to be done, even when that is costly in my own life, and out of what it means to stand before you I’m asking that you will give me courage to be like a light in this dark world in which you have placed me. That’s a great challenge to us today, to step out of the crowd and take our stand with Elijah. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, and the message Courage When You Need It, part of our series, The Surprising Influence of a Godly Life. And if you ever miss any of our messages, you can always go online and catch up, or go back and listen again. Go to openthebible.org.uk, there you can download an MP3 for free, or stream the messages directly from the website. Also on the website, and now available as a podcast, you’ll find Open the Bible Daily. Open the Bible Daily is a series of short two to three minute reflections, written by Pastor Colin Smith and read by Sue McLeish. Sue was in the studio recently, and I asked what people were saying to her about Open the Bible Daily. Well, it’s early days, but several comments I’ve received are encouraging. One came from a young mother who’d recently given birth to her second child. She’d been worried that she wasn’t finding time for her normal Bible reading and study, but Open the Bible Daily had proved to be just the right length and content for her at this time. Oh yes, and then I received an email a few weeks back from a much older person, who’d started listening regularly to Open the Bible Daily, and had already recommended it to several of her friends. So David, how can people find the podcast? Well Sue, you can find the podcast on any of the regular podcasting sites. Just search for Open the Bible UK, and look for the purple banner. Subscribe to the podcast, and you’ll receive Open the Bible Daily every day on your device. You can also find a link to the podcast on the Open the Bible website. And from the beginning of August, you’ll be able to hear Pastor Colin Smith’s messages five days of the week as a podcast. If you subscribe to the podcast, you’ll receive notification of every new podcast, and you’ll be able to listen to it any time that suits you. Keep an eye on our website, openthebible.org.uk. In the near future, we’ll be posting full details. For Pastor Colin Smith and Open the Bible, I’m David Pick, and I very much hope you’ll be able to join us again soon. Have you ever had the experience when God closes the door on the one thing you most wanted? Find out why next time on Open the Bible.