God Will Sustain You // Priscilla Shirer

hey there it's a privilege to have an opportunity to be with you again today thank you so much for including me in your service i hope you're encouraged uh the last time we were together it was mother's day and i felt especially grateful to be able to share that holiday with you and now to be invited to to do it again is something i'm very grateful for thank you to your pastors leaders um and to you for allowing me to sort of come into your spiritual life in this way i'm praying that the word of

god is rich for you today that god speaks to you he always does right he speaks to us through the scriptures so i've already been praying that and now i want to open us up in a word of prayer together and let's see what god has to say to us lord jesus i thank you so much for lake point i thank you for the work that you are not only doing through their church but the work you're doing in them in us lord thank you that as the family of god we can know that you

are not bound by space you're not bound by time you don't have to be in one building father you can be with each of us equally right now in this moment wherever we are so would you take this one message would you divide it up multiply it several thousand different ways so that every single one of us right now will hear the voice of god in jesus name amen so here in dallas where i am there is a little half marathon that takes place once a year it takes place around the holiday time frame so

it's in december and it's called appropriately so the hot chocolate run the hot chocolate run is just fun you know folks come with christmas lights around their hair and or on their heads and they've got light up shoes you know it's fun it's in the dark and the run whether you do a mile or three miles or i think there's a five mile track as well the run goes through an area of town known as the design district when you get to the end of your run you get a bunch of sweets hot chocolate being

one of those so i enjoyed doing this for several years along with my sister and her children we'd bring out all our kids and we'd do the run together we'd walk it or run it either way we just have a good time one of the things that most that i most remember about this run is that it took place in an area of dallas called the design district now i have known about the design district my entire life i've borne and raised here in the city and so i have seen a huge billboard off of

one of the major freeways in dallas highway 35 and that freeway says or that billboard says divine design district so i've known that that is where the designers are it's for people who are artists or craftsmen interior designers and decorators people who are artisans they've got cute little shops down there and i've seen it and known about it from afar have you been known people that have worked there and people who the regular rhythms of their life are in the design district but i'm always just on highway 35 headed from one side of town racing

past to the other side of town so the run the hot chocolate run was the very first time that i ever went through it and when i went through it by foot walking through jogging through interacting with others and enjoying myself through it i saw some details about dallas i'd never seen before there were some cute little shops and restaurants that i took note of places that i made note of their address so that i could come back later and really engage and see what they had inside their stores man i really grew a greater

appreciation for the design district not when i saw it from afar but when i had to go through it right now god is allowing many of us to go through it didn't he we've been through some stuff not only individually we're going through some stuff in whole communities whole churches are going through some stuff whole nations the globe is going through some stuff but i found that it is not until i go through something that i actually see nuances about god about his character about my relationship with him it's actually not until i go through

something that i discover more completely his promises and not only seeing them outworked in other people's life where i come to actually expect his truths to be applicable in my own life it's when i go through something that i actually develop character and have some frame of reference for what it means to have endurance and a life of faith it's when i go through something that i become better acquainted with the holy spirit now he's not just a theoretical being but now i recognize the fruit of god's spirit effervescent in my life i see the

patience outwork the self-discipline the kindness i learned what it's like to walk in the rhythms of grace i don't know all that from a billboard just experiencing god far away seeing his name and and maybe experiencing religious activity far away i don't get to know god intimately i don't get to have a friendship with him like that but man when we go through stuff all of a sudden there is a friendship that developed with that develops with god that carries us over the long haul so if today meets you at a time where you're going

through some stuff would you know that this is an opportunity for you to have your eyes your spiritual eyes wide open to learn and to see and to engage in every opportunity to get to know god in a way you otherwise would not have opportunity this is one of the main things that drew me to a study of elijah elijah is really the premier prophet of the old testament his story sort of begins in the book of first kings if you have your bible and you want to turn there with me you can you know

if you actually still use a bible with paper pages like i do or your iphone your ipad any manner of eyeness will get you to first kings because in this particular book of the bible we get to see elijah emerge onto the scene now this is a guy who really has some highlights in his life that we all recognize just like the heroes of scripture that we really admire you know like moses and the whole red sea business or like joshua and the walls of jericho coming tumbling down the highlights that we remember in regards

to gideon or jonah all of these heroes of the scripture esther and ruth we remember the highlights for elijah the mount carmels of their experience and what i've discovered is that when i'm reading in the pages of scripture and admiring folks whose faith is worthy to be admired and to be gleaned from what i've noticed is that oftentimes it's the mount carmels that dazzle us it's the flashy display of god's glory the unforgettable big stage experience of god's presence and power that really does draw us to people and oftentimes it will blind us to what

they went through to get there it will blind us to the things that they had to navigate the roads they had to walk down the journey that they went on with god to get them to the place where in elijah's example he will stand flat-footed on mount carmel just a couple of chapters after he is first introduced and he will say to his own countrymen and to those that were supposed to be in covenant relationship with yahweh he will look at them squarely in their eyes and unapologetically challenge them he's going to say make a

decision choose who you're going to follow stop having one foot over here in the world of idolatry and another foot over here in the worship of yahweh if you're going to be loyal to him then be loyal to him and him alone and he will stand flat-footed in the face of those who were worshiping idols those who were antagonistic to the one true god and he will challenge them and he says build your sacrifice and i'm going to build mine and then we're both going to pray and the god who answers by fire he's the

one who is god what kind of courage and boldness do you have to have to be the only one willing to stand up in the midst of hundreds and even thousands of people surrounding you and be unapologetic and unashamed about what you believe i don't know if you notice or not but we're living in a day and a time now more than ever then it's going to take a lot of courage and boldness to be unapologetic and unshifting and unwavering in what we believe as followers of jesus christ and when elijah was committed to yahweh

even in the face of so much adversity fire fell from heaven god's presence and power was seen in an unforgettable way so when we think about elijah most of the time that's what we think about but i don't want to talk to you about mount carmel i want to talk to you about what elijah went through before he ever got there because that's how his character was built that's how he garnered the kind of faith that could allow him to stand on mount carmel that's how he developed the kind of prayer life that garnered the

attention and the favor of god that the sheer discipline and consistency of praying of believing god of trusting he went through some stuff to develop that kind of relationship with the lord and it all begins in first kings chapter 17 after he has shown up on the scene and appeared to the king of the land to declare the judgment the drought that was coming to the nation of israel first kings chapter 17 verse 2 says the word of the lord came to elijah saying go away from here now turn eastward hide yourself by the brook

cherith which is east of the jordan stop right there sometimes the journey that god takes us through it begins in the place of separation not in public but in private here is elijah who is arguably the the most important figure in history at this moment without him the worship of yahweh is going to fizzle and it's going to die underneath the legislation of an evil king and his wife jezebel who have now legislated the worship of idolatry without this lone voice calling people back to the worship of god that it could completely be lost he

is arguably the most important person in regards to the agenda of yahweh in this moment and god speaks to him and said where i need you is not in public where i need you is not in what you would consider to be the place of most significance and notoriety i need to relocate you and re-situate you to a private place to an unexpected place where i can develop you i need to separate you elijah from the place of power and so he says i'm going to prepare you by separating you i'm going to prepare you

by taking you to a little lone brook where you won't be found and for about 18 months scholars say he is separated to this lone little brook of water where he sits alone with god and the development that we often need for god to do things in us requires a separation it requires a severing a walking away from certain things here we find elijah sheltered in place for 18 months quarantined for 18 months just him alone with god some of us lost our cool after about 18 days of this shelter-in-place business right well here we

find him for a year and a half separated away from the habits the patterns the experiences that would have been the normal of his life he is separated and shut aside at at cherith and there he has an opportunity to experience god in a way he would otherwise not have now here's what's interesting the root word that is used in scripture to derive the name of this brook which is cherith or it is often pronounced kirith depending upon how you're pronouncing it the original word is a verb that verb i want to tell you what

it means it actually means to sever it means to eliminate listen it means to cut off a part of the body think about how violent that sounds even gruesome at least painful he's calling elijah to walk away knowing that the severing is actually going to be painful and sometimes when god calls us away to himself it feels painful for many of us this separation from the normal rhythm of our life that we've been required to all of us undergo in some form or fashion the pulling away from the daily routine the pulling away from relationships

and not being able to see people face to face as we once did the pulling away from the normal rhythm of our everyday life it has felt like severing for many of us it's felt painful because we were used to gaining our sense of significance or acceptance or approval in that particular way and now because of realities that many times are outside of our control god has caused us to have to sever our relationship to certain things sometimes going to the brook that god is calling you to requires a separation that feels like cutting off

a part of the body where a relationship we are severed from feels so difficult to pull ourselves away but if you will yield to the separation if you will honors honor god's conviction in your life because see sometimes it's not that god mandates it it's just a whisper of the holy spirit that says separate yourself come away from here for just a little while those habits those patterns those relationships those places where you have rooted your significance those ambitions those goals come away from here and in separating yourself you will find that there are some

things that are going to happen at this brook cherith that you would miss out on if you didn't come away and obey and surrender to this particular season that i have called you to elijah's journey to mount carmel begins in private it begins separated from all of the things that he has once known how is god calling you to separate yourself clearly there are some things that all of us have been mandated to shake some habits and patterns and routines and busyness some relationships that have had to go as the world starts to open up

again the question is are you going to just go right back to normal or will we take the opportunity to seek god and ask him how is he calling us to maintain some of these distances some of these separations so that we can remain consecrated and set apart unto him god says to elijah and he says to many of us separate yourself it's here at this brook that i'm going to prepare you for the mount carmels that are coming that original word that i told you about um that verb is also found in genesis 15.

the reason why i want you to know this is because it's one of the most vibrant um and beautiful times that it's used in the old testament and it was used in regards to abraham ancient abraham and his relationship to yahweh that verb that means to cut or sever hang with me here because i want you to see how it's used here it shows us how god shows up in our lives when we are willing to yield to the separation in genesis chapter 15 abraham is saying to god listen you've promised me so many things

you have said that my descendants are going to be as numerous as the the stars that are in the sky and he says how will i know that what you've promised me will come to pass how am i gonna know and god speaks to abraham in a language he'll understand he says i'm gonna cut a covenant with you back in the ancient world when two people or two nations would make an agreement with each other they would cut a covenant that's what they would call it not just making a covenant or making an agreement they

would call it the cutting of an incu of a covenant the reason why is because they would sacrifice an animal to seal the covenant and what they would do kind of gruesome really gruesome really is take this animal they would dismember they would sever the parts of the animal and they would lay the pieces out strategically on the floor and then one of the parties that was making the promise that was going to have to follow through on the agreement that party would then walk between the pieces of the severed animal and as they walked

through they were basically saying may my life be is the life of this animal if i don't make good on this covenant that we are cutting one with the other well in genesis 15 god says abraham i'll make a covenant with you so you'll know i am who i say i am and that i'll do everything that i say that i will do he says to abraham get the animal prepare the animal and abraham does that he lays the animal out and then in one of the most beautiful theophanies that is a god sighting in

all of the old testament he says that a deep sleep falls over abraham god causes this human to fall asleep so that it will be not by works but only by grace and while abraham is asleep the scripture says that god himself shows up and he moves between the pieces sealing the covenant with abraham do you see that abraham is the one that did the separating the severing the violent gruesome cutting but in doing it god showed up and he moved in the pieces if you and i will yield to the separation if we'll sever

the things god's asking us to sever walk away from the things god's asking us to walk away from if we will trust him with the separation he will come down and move within the pieces we'll experience him in a way we've never experienced him before we'll see him in a way we'll never ex see we've never seen him before if we like elijah will come away to the brook cherith we will discover new aspects of god that we've never experienced before elijah's about to see that happen and so are you and so am i because

it says that when elijah goes to the brook cherith god says to him verse 4 it shall be that you shall drink from this brook now let me tell you why this is important because you remember there's a famine in the land the drought is going to cause a famine and for three years people are going to be doing everything that they can to find water to be able to sustain them and in this aggregate society agrarian society rather they were going to need to be able to sustain their their livestock it was their livelihood

without rain the harvest would not grow and in amidst all of this judgment and amidst all of this drought and famine god says to his servant if you separate yourself you need to know that in the place of separation i have already made plans to sustain you do you know why you want to yield to the separation do you know why even though it feels hard to sever that relationship you ain't got no business being in or severing that um that interest in that ambition or that endeavor that you know is the wrong road that

you've been walking down the reason why you do it is because in the place of separation god has already made plans to sustain you he has already made plans to make sure that even if everybody else is thirsty in that place you will know what it's like to be sustained by the hands of your great god and you're gonna need that because listen mount carmel is coming it's coming for you and it's coming for me where we're going to be called to a position where we're surrounded by people but actually we're all alone because we're

the only ones that are willing to stand for righteousness in the midst of the darkness you're going to have a need to have a track record of what it's like to be sustained by the hands of god so that you can have confidence when you're on the mount carmel of your experience god says to elijah i got your back i've already made plans to sustain you so yeah you might be a little bit lonely in the place of separation but it's when you're lonely you see what it's like to have god as your friend it's

when you are tired that he becomes your strength it's when you are hungry that you experience the bread of life it's when you are insecure you discover what it's like for him to sustain you as your security when you are empty you realize what it's like for him to fill you up you learn what it's like to trust in the sustaining power of your great god he becomes your provision and your provision alone and in this increasingly post-christian culture you're gonna have to have some backbone that draws on the power and the strength and the

sustaining power of your god he teaches you that in the place of separation he assures you of that in the place of separation not only do you want to go ahead and go to the brook where he will sustain you but even more than that god says to him in verse 4 i have commanded the ravens to provide for you there in the place of separation he says now everybody else is going to be scavenging for food but not you elijah if you will in if you will trust me and entrust yourself to the place

that i have called you to severed away from things and it makes you particularly uncomfortable because you're away from habits and patterns and peoples and perceptions of what you thought your ministry and life would look like elijah if you will separate yourself not only will i sustain you there but i'm going to do something more than that i'm going to flat out surprise you with how i'm going to bring bread and meat to you in the morning he says and bread and meat to you in the evening i'm going to make sure that not only

is your thirst quenched but i'm going to make sure that you are thoroughly nourished with everything that you need to be able to keep you strong even while you're in the place of separation so he says i've commanded ravens to bring meat to you bring bread to you and to take care of you now let me tell you why this is so surprising because he said a raven could have been any old kind of bird you know a dove would have made more sense you remember back when noah was wondering whether or not the floods

had receded he sent out birds several times the doves returned but when he sent out the ravens the ravens didn't come back because ravens don't come back ravens are restless they're unsettled species of animals and not only that they're ravenous that's where we get the term from they're greedy birds they will literally take prey out of an unsuspecting bird's mouth another bird they will literally steal food from others because they are ravis and will eat anything at any time any place anywhere so what makes yahweh's sustaining power so surprising and so miraculous is that he

didn't use any old kind of bird where maybe someone could explain this miracle away but he used the most unsuspecting unreasonable surprising species of bird to make this point that when you and i will yield to the place of separation not only will he sustain us there but y'all he's going to surprise you there he's going to bring in resources to take care of you from means and from resources that you never even considered you never even thought possible when you were praying that prayer asking god for that miracle asking him for a solution for

a remedy for the difficulty that you're having in your parenting or raising your children or in your marriage or on your job or in that classroom or that courtroom or that struggle that you're having in your own health you never even prayed a prayer like that because you had no way of knowing that god could do something so unbelievably miraculous as that but in the place of separation not only does he sustain you but he starts surprising you he starts showing you ephesians 3 20 and 21 now unto him who is able to do exceedingly

abundantly above and beyond anything that he can ask that you can ask or that i could ask or think to him be the glory in christ jesus and in the church he surprises you you're going to need to know what it's like to be surprised by god to have some things that were so unthinkable happen in your life that now you have a track record with god you've got some history with god you've written down a couple of things that you saw god do that you can tell your children about and your children's children about

about the time your god just plain old flat out surprised you did something for you in a way that you never even considered you need some history with your god that history comes in the place of separation where you watch god sustain you and where you watch god surprise you but not only that we find out a couple of chapters later that for these 18 months that elijah is tucked away at the brook we find out that king ahab has sent a search party all throughout israel he's been looking for him he's so mad at

this prophet for pronouncing this judgment that he set out a search party searching the kingdom every which way that he can to find elijah and hopefully put him to death him thinking that elijah's life was specifically connected to the to the drought and to the famine so he thinks if i kill him then this judgment will be over but what can only be described as a supernatural hedge of protection is over elijah so that he is so tucked away in the place of separation that he doesn't even realize that while he is there not only

is he being sustained and not only is he being surprised but he is being shielded from dangers he does not even know exists it's not until three years later that he'll meet a guy named obadiah who will tell him the king has been looking for you for three solid years sometimes we don't even know until hindsight when we look back that we recognize god was protecting us from dangers we didn't even know existed that we realized the prayers that he didn't answer and the way we wanted that we realized that when we didn't come out

of that place of obscurity as quickly as we would have preferred to actually the reason why he left us there is because if he let us out too soon there would have been ahab's we would have run into and so he protects us he shields us he puts a supernatural covering over us so that we are protected and shielded in the place of separation i want to encourage you that if you feel like you are ready to come out from the brook chair ready to get away ready to be further exposed rather ready for this

anonymity or excu obscurity to go away so that you can come out into the full expression of what you feel like your ministry is supposed to look like or the the revenue your business is supposed to yield or the way that your family dynamic is supposed to look if everything in your mind is supposed to look different than it does right now but because of this pandemic or because of the unrest that we've seen or just because of the dynamics you're facing in your own life you can clearly see that the holy spirit is still

calling you to this place of either mandated separation or just the clear conviction of the holy spirit to separate you unto himself for a specific reason remain there until he releases you because it's in that place he's gonna surprise you in a way you will never forget it's in that place that you were gonna be able to eat from his hand and drink from the water that he provides for you there and it's in that place that in hindsight you will look back and realize your god was protecting you all along be encouraged let's pray

lord jesus i thank you for elijah's example i thank you father for the opportunity that we have to know that you are preparing us even right now for the mount carmel's yet to come help us not to devalue the significance of this part of our journey but help us to honor you with every single day every single peace every single opportunity that we have to see you more clearly and to experience you more fully in jesus name amen