The Church of Eleven22 - Running on Empty - Elijah: Wk 1

Episode Date: July 20, 2025

What if your calling didn’t depend on your résumé but your obedience? In a time of political chaos and spiritual darkness, Elijah enters the biblical narrative from the hills of Tishbe with no credentials, no intro, and no pedigree—but full of the power of God. In this first message from our new series, Pastor Joby walks us through the moment Elijah enters the biblical story and reminds us: God often chooses the overlooked and underqualified to speak His Word and change the world. If you've ever wondered whether God could use someone like you, Elijah's story is just the beginning. 📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week: Justin's Story Deepen Podcast Episode Elijah Sermon Series The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://coe22.com/donate 

Amen and amen. That was Pastor Justin Todd. He is the campus pastor at our Mandarin campus, and though I'm very sorry, you felt like you had to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I don't care because it landed you here, and that is a man of God, and he is doing a wonderful job,

and we should give him honor, especially those of you at Mandarin. Amen? All right, let's go. Hey, if you got your Bibles, I hope you do, First King, Chapter 17. Go ahead and start looking there now. We're going to be there for many, many, many weeks.

So it might take it two or three weeks to find it. It's in the Old Testament. If you get to Second Kings, you've gone too far, back up one. We're going to study this man named Elijah. We're going to study the life of a prophet. This is big P. Prophet. This is an office given by God. And if you're called a prophet in the Bible, that means that these big P.

prophets spoke the words of God. Now, we don't have these kind of prophets these days. Now we have the gift from God that is a little P. prophet, which means we speak from the word of God. There's a difference. I'd be really careful. If anybody ascribes to themselves this kind of title. Amen? Oh, you don't even know. Okay? You're like, really? Really? We're going to pick it up in 1st King chapter 17. It starts out this way. This makes me laugh so much. Elijah, the Tishbite from Tishby, because that's where Tishbites are from. I don't know. Why would you say that? But it did.

Now Elijah, the Tishbite from Tishby in Gilead said to Ahab. Okay, so who are we talking about here? Elijah. This is the first time the Bible ever mentions Elijah, and Elijah is going to come up for the first time in 1 King 17, and he's mentioned all the way through virtually into the New Testament. He's a really big deal. He is a prophet of God, but he just kind of comes walking out of nowhere from this little tiny nowhere town. Nobody knew anything about Tishby. It was like Dylan or Palacca, okay? There's just nobody there. And he just shows up. And in fact, in the New Testament, He's compared to John the Baptist. John the Baptist comes in the spirit of Elijah.

And we know some stuff about John the Baptist. We know he yells a lot. We know he's got a big beard. We know he like wears camel hair. Not like he saw the camel, killed it, ate it, and then wore it. That's the kind of camel he's wearing. He eats bugs, locusts, all right? He lived on the land.

This means that Elijah just kind of comes walking out of the woods. And a lot of people would think, this man might be crazy. but in actuality what's happening is he's stepping into crazy times and sometimes in crazy times you need a man of God that will stand up to evil you'll stand up to the crazy a man that cares more about what God thinks and what people thinks later he's going to be called a troubler but ultimately what he is is a man of God now what's going to be crazy is I'm about to describe to you what was happening during this time and if you fall asleep for just a second You're going to be thinking I'm talking about the last few years of our own country.

And this man walks into crazy and he puts his finger in the chest of the king and he's saying, I'm here to speak on behalf of God. He wasn't there to be popular. He didn't care how many people liked them. He didn't care if his videos went viral. He wasn't there to get a blue check. He was simply there to be obedient to God. I have one verse on my desk and it is Galatians 110.

I look at it every week before I finish up my sermon and walk out here. And before I walk out, it says this, Galatians 110, for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God, or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. So there may be some things that offend you. Neat. Ready? So he goes to talk to Ahab.

Ahab is the king. Ahab is no bueno. Don't name you a kid at Ahab. If you're pregnant with a boy, skip Ahab. It's not a good name. And it goes really, really bad. But it doesn't start with Ahab. It starts all the way back in 1st Kings chapter 11.

In 1st Kings chapter 11, King Solomon, the son of David, starts out good. He's doing great, writes Bible verses and stuff. And then he takes his eye off the Lord, puts it on some chicks, and it goes real bad. You ever know a guy like that? Solomon. 111 says, now the King of Solomon loved many foreign women along with a daughter of Pharaoh. And the reason God said don't love these women is because they love the wrong gods. That was the problem.

So when you go down a little bit to the end of verse 2, it says Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines. Fellas. This man is an idiot. Or an absolute idiot. And his wives turned away. away his heart. Get down to verse six and it says, so Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow of the Lord. And then if you keep reading for the next few chapters,

you've got five generations of evil kings. So sometimes you're going to see God get angry and pour out his wrath on the nation of Israel and people are like, why is God so mean and mad? Oh my goodness, how gracious is he that for five generations, remember last week, He's slow to anger. He's long of nose towards the people who do everything to make him angry. I mean, listen, boss, is anybody a CEO in the house? Would you give your employees five generations to get it right? I don't think so.

God does. And then what we're going to see here is that Ahab is a weak and passive man. He's going to marry an overbearing woman that worships demons. And instead of standing up and acting like a man, he lays down. acts like a dormant. That's what he's going to do. It's not going to go good. And in fact, I heard one pastor say it this way. It's just the same demons new days. By the time you get to 1st King 16, which precedes 1st King 17, so a little bit of background, here's to the description of King Ahab, beginning of verse 29. In the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah, Ahab,

the son of Omri, began to reign over Israel. And Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel. in Samaria, 22 years. God is a patient God. He gives him 22 years to tighten up. And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. This is the worst king in all of Israel. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, he took for his wife, Jezabel.

If you're looking for girl names, don't go Jezebel. This is not a good name. She's the daughter of Ifbel, king of the Sedonians, and went and served Bail. That's a false God and worshipped him. And he, King Ahab, erected an altar for Bail in the house of Bail, which he built in Samaria and Ahab made an Asherah, that's a big phallic symbol, that's what that is, that they would worship around. And Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel to anger, than all the kings of Israel

who were before him. This is not good, man. So he marries this evil woman. By the way, she shows up all the way to the end of the Bible. In the book of Revelation, Jesus talks to this church called the church at Thyatira, and he goes, here's your problem. You put up with the spirit of Jezebel. Now, this can't be the same Jezebel, which has got a birthday cake with 3,000 candles on it.

That means the same spirit of sexual immorality, sexual confusion, weak men, and her movement. moving in to take over, this is what was happening. And one of the questions, as I asked, the Bible is silent on is, so where are the believers? Like at what point do the believers in God, the believers in Yahweh, the people that read the Torah

that made sacrifice to God, where are they? They're just silent. They're just going with the flow. They see some shady stuff happen for their leaders, but you know what they do? They don't necessarily start out doing anything wrong. like Adam, they just don't do anything at all.

They want to do something, but they got a boat. And they're lolled to sleep by the comforts of the nation of Israel at that part, so they don't do anything. Here's what they were. They were tolerant. Jot this down. It's going to hurt your feelings a little bit. Tolerance is not a biblical value.

Love is. If you tolerate a wolf, you're not a shepherd, you're a hireling, and you don't love shepherds. cheap, you love you. That's what happens. If you tolerate sin, God hates sin and sin is such a big deal that Jesus, the son of God, had to come and give his life on a cross to forgive sinners like me and you. This is not something that we tolerate. Tolerance is not a biblical value. I have a possum that lives in the ditch in my backyard. As long as he doesn't mess with my house, I tolerate him. we are called to love

not tolerate we love people we do not tolerate sin some of you all have heard this a long time ago I told this I was hunting in Georgia one time I was bow hunting sitting up there in the tree and right when it gets gray light those you hunters

you know everything looks like a deer oh no it's just a bush what is that oh is that oh it's the same bush that's what happens for like 30 minutes And then this owl flies under me. Oh, ooh, ooh. And I'm like, oh, that's cool. That's neat.

And then I kind of forgot for a second. And then all of a sudden I was reminded because that owl attacked the back of my head. I don't mean like graze me on the way by. It wasn't like permission to buzz the tower, negative ghost rider. That thing smacked me right in the back of the head. And its claws are trying to grab my neck meat because it looks like a pack of hot dogs back there. you understand? And the wings are about this long, and those things are going, shoo, shoo, in my face. And I said, remember last week? I said, nothing slips out of the overflow of the heart. The mouth

speaks. Well, I still got a potty heart because something said that came out of my mouth that the elders would have a quick meeting if I said it right now. And then that joker landed about six feet away from me. And I got a bow and arrow. And that joker's got his leg up and he's doing that little owl thing. and he's thinking, what in the heck just happened? I thought I had me a squirrel by the neck and it's still there. And then I'm thinking, oh, my God, it's thing going to attack me in the face. Now, do you think in that moment I tolerated it? Like, well, that's just what owls do.

Negative. That thing is trying to get me. And so my Bible says, his divine power has given us everything we need for life of godliness. And that day, the Lord gave me a Glock 45. And I'm not going to tell you the rest of it. Allegedly what may or may not have happened, I'm going to plead the fifth on that one. Okay. Well, Ahab's tolerating Jesbel.

You know what Jezebel means? Unhitched and devoted to bail. Her name literally, she gets married to Ahab, and her name means, I am not connected to you. My allegiance is to this demyke fertility God. He was in charge of rain and babies. That's what he was in charge of. And so he begins to worship male and Asherah. This is a female fertility god, a male god of sex and a female god of sex.

And then they put this Ashera pole right in the middle of the place. And there's all this sexual perversion and confusion. There were orgies with animals and virgin sacrifice. There were what the Bible would call eunuchs. In other words, there were men and women that were very, very confused about how they have been created. You see, the reality is that when you, anytime in any society where they worship a goddess, the men will be castrated. You can just do a little bit of religious history, and they worship this God called Mollick. He was an offspring of Bail and Asherah.

And the way that they worship Mollick was by child sacrifice. Now let's put this together real quick. When you worship at the altar of sex, worship always demands a sacrifice, and if you worship sex, you will sacrifice babies. That's what was happening. Sound familiar? That the king, who was supposed to serve the people and point them to God, what their church was is they had a strip club with a Planned Parenthood smashed right together, and that's where they would go to worship.

And what was crazy, they didn't even necessarily outright reject the God of the God of Israel, they just add it all in these pagan gods and these worldly gods, and they thought they could just do it all together. And it made God more mad than any other king in Israel. And if you begin to think, wow, sounds familiar. Yeah, man, same demons, different day. And Elijah the prophet steps into a sick time to point people back to the word of God. In Ahab and Jezebel, they had money and they had power, and they had power, and they

They had armies and they had influence and they had clout and they had popularity. And the news would say whatever they wanted to say. And they thought they were in charge. They had it all. And Elijah stood on the truth of the word of God. And he said, you may have all of those things, but I have the God of the armies of Israel. And I would rather have nothing in this world and God than everything in this world but without him. You understand?

We might need some Elijah's in our day. Amen? So now Elijah, the Tishbite of Tishby in Gilead says to Ahab. He doesn't make an appointment. He goes straight to the king. And again, we're going to find out one of the ways to understand Ahab throughout this deal is he is a passive man that will not stand up and act like a man. And so he just gets run over. Like Adam, it's not just what he did. It's what he allowed that was a problem.

In fact, passive men in our day right now, I believe, is our number one. problem. You want to fix this world? Here it is right here. What if men just acting like men? What if we just fixed fatherlessness? What if, what if very, listen man, I know there's cancer and car accidents and sometimes things happen, okay? But what if just the deadbeat dads, the one that are nothing more than sperm donors, what if they actually took responsibility and showed up and acted like a man and raised up the generation? I'm telling you, virtually every nonprofit that functions right now in our country is because some man was an Ahab and did not do what he is supposed to do. I'm telling you, you read any sociological study, and finally it catches back up with the Bible again.

And this is what Ahab is doing. And so here's what Ahab says. He says, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall be neither due nor reign these years except by my word. Ahab is sitting there listening and Elijah says, I'm about to turn the water off of the name of God. Now why is this a big deal? Here's why he caused a drought. Because it is a direct attack on bail.

When I was little, we used to play the game like, my dad can beat up your dad. You ever do that? I know y'all don't do it today because, you know, you might go to prison for hate speech, but that's what we did. This is what Elijah's doing. Oh, you think you're tough, you worship bail?

Cute. My God's about to shut down all of his power. Verse two, and the word of the Lord came to Elijah, and God kind of tells him, just think about it, he's standing in front of the king, punches him in the chest, and says, I'm about to shut down the rain. You're in agricultural society. If it's raining for a while, everything's about to shrink up for you. Everything's about to go bad for you. And so God's like, all right, you might want to duck out of there. Verse three, depart from here and turn eastward and hide. That hide, the word hide, it doesn't mean like to hide from an enemy. It means to get alone. Like, I'm going to put you in a place alone with me because I'm about to prepare you to do some things that you never imagine.

This is very similar to what we talked about in the last series. Remember when David was in the pasture and he could have seen it as punishment, but it wasn't punishment. It was preparation because one day he was going to take down a giant. This is what happens with Ahab. He does what God tells him. do and then God says, all right, I'm going to make provision for you. I want you to go and hide, get away from all of this, and it's just going to be me and you for a season, for preparation. He says, so depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Sharif. That

word means to cut off or to cut down. He's like, I want to cut out every distraction in your life. I want you to turn down the noise of this world because I am going to speak to you and I need you to hear very, very clearly exactly what I'm telling you because what I tell you has a lot to do with the future of my people. Listen, some of your problems is not that you're bad. You're just busy. And it's not that God's not speaking. Your world's just so loud.

And you can't go to the toilet without taking your phone to like do this. And God's screaming your name and you can't hear him over all the scrolling and all the TV and the noise all the time. And God wants you to get away to cut some things out. so that you can turn down the noise of this world, so you can tune your ear into the good shepherd. And he promised my sheep hear my voice. Have you heard his voice lately?

Well, you think that's on him? So he says, all right, I'm going to put you by the brook. And so he does. He does what he says. I love it so much. He says, which is east of Jordan, and you shall drink from the brook. And I have commanded the ravens to feed you.

This is the original DoorDash. This brother is just chilling by the brook. And then in the morning, you see these two little black dots out there. And it's like, gawk, here they come, man. And they've got Chick-fil-A chicken biscuits, I think, is what they have. You'll see why. And he says, I'm going to have the ravens to feed you. Verse five.

You need to underline this. If you got one of our, even if you're not reading your Bible, get that one in front of you. I need you to underline this. Because the person that sits in your seat next week, and they grab that Bible, they need to understand. If you don't get this verse, you'll never understand the life of Elijah. This is the core foundational verse on how to understand Elijah. So, verse 5, so he went and did according to the word of the Lord.

Got it? So, God told him to do something. And this is so important. He says, I need you to go there and I'm going to take care of you. You know what that means? My provision might not be here. My provision might be over there. So if you don't go there, my provision won't be there for you.

And so what does he do? He went and did according to the Word of the Lord. And here's the thing. Elijah obeys God. Why? Because he trusts God. Why? Because he knows God.

Some of you don't obey God because you don't trust God because you don't know God. Because if you knew him, you would know that everything he says is for your good. That the enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy. And what he wants from you is an abundant life. And just thinking about these things that's right and wrong will never sustain you. Every single time the good shepherd speaks to his sheep. And you take a step of obedience in the direction of the good shepherd, especially when it doesn't make any sense to you.

You know what? Every single time it leads to abundant life. And every single time, we're like, forget you, God. You don't know about this. I'm going to do this thing my way. It's not just that it's bad. It's not just that it's wrong. It's not just that it's dumb.

It leads to death every single time. And so he trusts him because he knows him, so he obeys him. And he went and lived by the brook, Sharith, that is east of the Jordan. And the ravens? By the way, this is great, man. In Deuteronomy and Leviticus, we find out that a raven is an unclean animal. Literally, the Bible calls it filthy. Any ravens in the house?

fans? Shouldn't be. Don't do it, man. A bunch of filthy, dirty animals is what they are. I love this, though. God can use whoever or whatever he wants. I don't care what labels get slapped on you. If God wants to use you for the glory of God,

then you are prime picking. Exhibit A right here, okay, because I'm pretty dirty and filthy myself, and yet he chose me and saved me, and here I am. Bringing you some choice morsels in this time together. And the ravens, look at what he brought him, bro. He brought him bread,

and meat. He didn't bring a vegetable among him. Ha! I'm telling you, any vegans here, huh? Any Vegetarians? Not for long. Ain't a portobello mushroom up there in heaven, man. We eat choice meat. I'm telling you. You don't, we know who you are. We can tell from here, all right? You look sad. And the Ravens brought him bread and meat, chick-fil-a sandwiches, all right? Chicken minis in the morning and bread and meat in the evening. And he drank from the brook. So, so good. Life is good. So how did we get here? From Solomon to Ahab to Jezebel, this is what happened, man. Solomon was just a little bit off. And then you go five generations and you're, you're just worshiping demons. Do you ever cite a gun in? You're going to need to know how to do this if you go to 1122.

You won't get any of the illustrations if you don't know how to cite a gun in. Here's the thing, man, when I'm sighting in a new gun, okay, and I shoot. If I'm just a little bit off, like at 50 yards, okay, everybody knows this, a 300 win mag at 50 and 200. are the same. So all you got to do is cite it in at 50 and you're good at 200. That's just true. And if you shoot it at 50 and you're just a little bit off and you go, that's close enough. The problem is when you stretch that thing out to like a 600-yard shot, you're not even in the same county. And here's the truth. Bullets don't lie. They go exactly where they're pointed. Same thing is true with people. They don't lie. I heard this pastor at this conference the other day

say when you were a baby, you look like your parents. When you're old, you look like your decisions. That's a fact, Jack. And so you got this Ahab. He's a weak man. Did more evil than anybody before him. He's got Jezebel in his house. They're worshiping bail and Ashtra and Molek and their sexual immorality is all over the place and they're sacrificing babies and they're surrounded by eunuchs and their sexual confusion and perversion. And let me just say this. If you're you used about your sexuality or gender. We love you so much. And Jesus loves you so much.

And God is not the God of confusion. And we are not here to beat you up. We are here to try to lift you up for you to be who God has called you to be. And you live in a world that's going to tell you what you want to hear because they don't love you. And the moment that you were on the wrong side of what they think, they are going to abandon you in one second. And I love you enough to tell you that God is the God of truth. And I know this is not popular, but whatever, dude, okay?

God is a binary God. There's heaven and hell. There's death and life. There's up and down. They're saved and not saved. There's male and there's female. There's unrighteous and there's righteous. And God would love you so much that he died on the cross for you.

And he's not waiting you for get your life right or tighten something up. in order for him to show that love to you, but he's already demonstrated his love for you in this. In whatever situation you are, as we are sinners, Christ has already gone to the cross and say, anyone who believes in me receives the right to become a son of God. That's what he says. So Ahab's world's crazy, man.

And again, if it sounds like I'm describing America, it's because it's the same demonic forces, just different days. Now in the coming weeks I'm going to show you how the spirit of Jezeppel and Ahab and Elijah play all the way through. Spirits can only come from one of two places. The Bible will use a language like John the Baptist walked in the spirit of Elijah. This is the Holy Spirit that point people to the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And any other spirit is a spirit that comes from the demonic. And so Elijah stands in front of Ahab, says, I'm about to turn the water off.

It ain't going to rain until I turn it back on. And then God provides for him, right? And he says, I want you to go by that brook, and I got you, dude. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to take care of you. And life is good. And quite honestly, life tends to go better when you do life God's way. I don't know if you've picked up on this.

Now let me say two things that are both true. Okay, we don't follow Jesus because he means. makes our life better. We follow Jesus because he is better than life. And there are many, many, many places right now that the moment you put your faith in Jesus, it goes real bad for you, because your family rejects you or you're arrested or you're killed. In America, honestly, not a perfect country by any stretch of the imagination, but it was founded on this idea of the Bible, and therefore, at least up to this point, we can gather freely and worship Jesus and preach from this book. There may be a day where we won't, but that's all right.

I'll miss my ministry. We'll be in prison because I ain't stopping, all right? And if you do life God's way, it tends to go better. Like, let me, okay, listen, if you had just obeyed the Ten Commandments, like if you just didn't steal and lie, and the only person you had sex with was your wife, going to go better. If you don't murder people, life goes better. For a while, for Elijah, this is what happens, man.

So what do you do or how do you live when you were surrounded by a world that's lost its ever-loving mind? I mean, when you live in a world where grown men are beating up little girls and getting awards for it, what? You can't figure out what bathroom to go for. What? When people have lost their mind, what do you do? Here's what you do. You do what Elijah did. It says, so he went and did according to the.

the Word of the Lord. You got one of two options when it comes to this world that we live in, because we live in here. You can be directed by the Word of God, or you can be directed by the world. We have an enemy who's trying to steal, kill, and destroy. And he's tricky, man, he's so tricky. Oh my gosh, he's tricky. That's one of his names, trickster. You know that? He's a deceiver. He's been doing this for a long time. And he's been watching film on you. He doesn't know your heart. He's not omniscient. He doesn't know your brain. He doesn't, okay? But he's got all the tape on you. He's got all the film on you. And he knows how to get you. And the big three in our world where the world tries to lie to us, let's talk about these real quick, just case you're

not offended yet. Sex, power, and money. You want to talk about that? That'll be fun. If you just come to church just to hear a talk, but don't want the word of God to see deep into your soul, you might be the wrong place. Okay. If it's just your first time, I know it's a little intense, going to get worse. So I hope you'll keep coming back. When it comes to say, the world just says your desires are ultimate regardless of what it does to your future or anybody else in their future. The world says that you determine who you are based on your feelings and your feelings are ultimate and it doesn't matter what theology or biology says you do you boo. That's what it says. The Bible says that sex is a gift from God for married people. Not married in your heart,

that's not a thing, but a covenant with God. This sex is not gross and sex is not God. Sex is a gift from God. and that babies are a blessing. Can I get a witness? Babies are a blessing. I love to see me a young couple around here and they'd be like, yeah, we're 22, been married for two months and now we're expecting. Praise God for you. You know what that's called?

I know your mama's like, you're crazy. No, you'd be like, I'm biblical. That's what the Bible says do. Get married, make babies. Repeat, praise God. But it's powerful, man. It's a gift like a gun. Is a gun a good thing or a bad thing?

It depends on whose hands it's in. It's very, very powerful. Therefore, the Bible is going to say, flee sexual immorality. That I am who God tells me I am, and that God's word is ultimate. The world says that selfishness through self-expression will satisfy you. That's a lie. That's a lie. And the Bible says selflessness by serving, that's what will sustain you.

and I know if you stand in authority listen in the progressive church it's not really a church by the way those are called lost people they stand in authority over the word of God and they're like who is God to tell me how to do sex he don't even know he didn't have a dating app when the Bible was written all right then you're just the Lord of your own life if Jesus is your Lord that means you've turned the range of your life over to him especially the parts you don't like. It's not lordship until you don't like it. But just like when you were a little kid, you were a dummy, you're still a dummy. Me too. And our flesh rises up and screams at us, but instead, what we're saying is I'm submitting to the Word of God because he's the good shepherd and what he wants for

me is abundant life and what the enemy wants is to steal, kill, and destroy. Power and popularity. The world says it's a dog-eat-dog world. You do whatever it takes to get to the top. title equals power. And you point people to the name tag, and they are here to serve you. The world is watching when it comes to popularity, so you better show them what you got. It doesn't count if it's not on Instagram, right? That's what the world says. The world says you're only worth your latest performance in your latest post.

And the Bible says, you want to be great? Serve. You want to be first, go last. That we should humble ourselves before the Lord and trust him. And if he decides to elevate us, then glory to God. And God says there is nothing you can do to earn his approval. It has already been done at the cross. It is finished.

And then my favorite one to talk about, and some of your least favorite, and money. The world lies to us. The world says, more is mine. Socialists say yours is mine. That's from the hell too, okay? The biggest lie is this. So you hadn't thought about it, unless you've listened to me, talk about it this way. Here's the lie, money says, because she's so sweet.

Oh, my gosh. She's like golf. You ever play golf and hit a good one? It's because golf is a liar. It's that, oh, come on, come on back. I'll take care of you. She'll steal all of your money and make you a liar, too. Can I get a witness from the golfers in the house?

That's a fact, Jack. I've played golf with you. You're not as good as you say because you're a liar, all right? So. But money doesn't. money says, come here, come here, come here, come here. If you love me, I'll love you back. Like, will you money? Mm-hmm. I'll satisfy you. Really? Yeah, I'll get you a boat. If you get you a boat. And listen, man, I'm not anti-boat. Jesus did a lot of ministry on a boat until you

start loving it. Then all of a sudden it takes over. And then you've got to make boat payments. No, if you know this, boats break down. Trust me on this one. Don't get a boat. Get a friend with a boat. Let them be an idiot. Praise God. You can pray for them a lot because they'll be full of anxiety and worry because they've got a boat. And it just won't satisfy. Your dream house all of a sudden one day won't be in your dream house anymore. It'll be your old house and your dream house will be that next dream house, right? Because it will never fully and finally satisfy. It just doesn't have the ability to do what it promises. And then the other way it lies to you, if it can't satisfy you, I'll give you security. I'll take care of you. I promise. And when you log on to your account and you see that

number, I'm going to give you a little peaceful, easy feeling inside. You ever met a rich, miserable person? 1122 is full of them. Big, fat houses, real nice yards, right? Letters from your HOA because your hedges are six inches too high. Great clothes, great vacations. Yeah, man. Then you let a kid go prodigal. What happened to the security? You let somebody get sick. What's you going to do? You're going to write a check to cancer? I'm telling you, man. You see, it's just a liar. It can't do what it promise you. Nothing wrong with money. It's just a tool that God gives us to love him and love people. You start loving money. You'll begin to use God and use people to try to get you some money. The Bible says it's all his. The moment you realize that the death rate in America hovers right around

100% and it's all staying here and we're nothing but like a middle management for a season. And then you begin to leverage it for him and then you get an eternal reward. And all you can do to take, all you can do in heaven is take people in praises. You realize that? So you ought to invest it in such a way where you can take as many people as you can. And because he is first, should we bring him our first and our best? And Jesus has the audacity to say that wherever your money goes, it aims your heart and it follows. So if you love God the most, then you bring him first and best and you'll have a freedom that you have never experienced. So what do you do when you live in a crazy world that's lying to you every day? Here's what you do. You do what Elijah did.

So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. And dude, it goes great for like a verse. Verse six is cool. Bringing meat and bread. Okay. All you gluten people in here. Don't know what's wrong with that. Verse seven. If you're not careful, you read over this so quick. And after a while, the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. Never have a brook dry up? Here's the hard part. Elijah was obedient to God and called the drought.

And it's because of Elijah's obedience that the brook dried up, not in spite of it. I'm not talking about self-inflicted wounds. Some of you, like, my brook dried up. That's because you drained the water about eight years ago because you're dumb. Okay? That's not what I'm talking about. We have sermons for that. Come back.

We'll talk to the dumb at some other point. But sometimes you're just, you're walking, you're trying to do, fill with the spirit, and accordance with your word to the best of your ability and your marriage dried up. Like you stood an altar and you made a promise and you meant it till death due us part. But they didn't mean it. And they left you. And you prayed and you chased and you. and you tried and you sought cow, you did beyond what you ought to do and they're gone.

And every single time we talk about marriage right here, you've got an empty place. Or you started a business, man. And for a while it was going so good. And you were praying and you were tithing on your business. And you thought that was going to bulletproof you. And then inflation hits and your business dried up. And you're like, God, what are we doing? Or this one, this is one that we're going to talk about it at length in a few weeks.

but you're struggling with depression and you don't as a Christian you don't even have a category for that because you put your faith in Jesus and you read the book of Philippians and says rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice and you can't hardly get out of the bed in the morning

but you do believe that Jesus died on the cross from you and resurrected from the grave and he is your Lord and you look at your own soul and like God the brook that dried up is me what is wrong or a friend that you love to hear ghost you? I mean, they were your mat carrier. And then when you needed them and you reached out

to them and said, hey man, I'm on the mat. I'm on the mat. Hey, dude, I'm on the mat. And nothing comes back. And it just dries up. Or infertility. I'm telling you, man, I probably shouldn't confess this kind of week. That's the theological one. I get it. All things are broken. I don't understand this one, man. If you were walking through infertility, my heart hurts so bad for you, I still cannot understand the people that I know at our church, all he want to do is raise little disciples. And the most unfit humans seem to be the most fertile. And these Christians that want to raise little disciples can't have a baby.

Saved yourself for marriage and you married a believer and you got married in the church and people have prayed and anointed. And all of a sudden it's like your hope dried up or you got cancer. Why so many Christians got cancer? Listen, man, if I'm God, I would make terrorists get cancer. That's what I would do. The moment you said, like, let's get him, you're like, that's what I would do. Or you got a prodigal son, daughter, no pain like kid pain, right?

And what begins to happen there? Listen, man, if you've ever been there there, the first thing parents do, I know you could have all the right theology, and it just goes right out of the window. And you look up at God and go, what do we do wrong? What did we do wrong? I thought we did it right. We took it to VBS. We prayed prayers over them.

We had the Jesus story of the Bible. My kid had a drug problem. I drug him to church every dang time. The doors were open. And now, and we weren't crazy parents. We didn't not let them watch, you know, tournament. I can't even think of a normal movie today. The ones we couldn't watch were foot loose.

So you let them watch Harry Potter. You didn't think it was all demonic, right? Now they are running, running, running, and you would give anything. thing. Would you not? Would you impede your bank account for your son or daughter to come home and come to the Lord? Right, right, right. And that brook dries up. Or maybe something happened to you and you were abused and molested or rape and it's just haunting you. And you try to forgive and forgive and forgive. Some of you, it's your walk with the Lord. Like your life's not on fire. In fact, you might

take a little bit of a fire right now because you feel like your spirit. spiritually just dry in a desert place, which is, by the way, we prepare ourselves for saturated every single year. Because what you need more than anything is you need an encounter with the living God to not put your hope and your faith in your circumstances, but you consistently look back to the cross because it's on the cross where he ultimately, fully, and finally demonstrates his love for you. So if you wonder if God loves you, don't look in the dried up creek, look to the cross because his arms are wide open when I love you this much. Listen, man, if you ever had a brook

dry up, for me, I'm going to tell you in a couple of weeks, I'm going to tell you about in ministry one time where I thought, well, the brook did dry up. I thought I was done. But years before that, when I was a teenager, the brook dried up for me when my parents got divorced. I was a high schooler. And listen, as I share some of this, here's what I want you to know. I love my mom. I love my daddy. And my mom and daddy love me and Russ so, so, so, so much, okay? And I am not here to shame them. I am not here to dishonor them.

And if I were in their circumstances, I might have made many of the same decisions that they did. And Russ and I are the men we are because my mama and daddy raised us. They loved us a ton. They just didn't love each other real good. But when you're in high school, when you come home and there's a note says, I'm out, it'll shake you up. And to make it worse is I got saved that summer before. And I'm telling you, nobody ever said this, but when I prayed to ask Jesus into my heart, I thought when I got home later that summer that he was going to fix everything around me.

And when I got home that summer, it was kind of, it was a mess. But then by the time school started, it was over. And the brook tried up. And when the brook dries up on you, you got one or two options. You can either run to him or run from him. That's it, man. It's your only options. You can run to him.

or you can run from him. If you run from him, you're not going to find what you're looking for. You're only going to get more scars and more pain and more wounds. And then one day when you finally come running back, you'll still come back. You might not have any more answers. You'll just have a lot of scars and wounds to show for it. I mean, this is what happens in John chapter 6 when Jesus has a hard teaching and the disciples begin to leave. And then he looks at Peter and says, you want to leave to?

And the reason he thought it because Peter is thinking, I don't think I've made a poor career choice because everybody was leaving because Jesus said he had to drink his blood and eat his flesh. And he's like, oh, I'm going to do that. I mean, I'm Jewish. I can't eat pork, much less the prophet, you understand? And Peter says, where else we're going to go?

You're the only one that offers eternal life. So what do you do? What do you do? Amen, what do you do? On that bed that day? There was this girl from Clemson who was a counselor at that camp named Beverly. And she had given me a Bible when I got saved,

because mine was written in King James, right? The deeds before thine, except after thou, right? I couldn't understand what. So she gave me a little student Bible. And she had marked some verses. And I read it for several days in a row when I got home. But it had been sitting on my shelf, and I did not know what to do.

And so I went and I opened that Bible up, and she had marked it to Jeremiah 29-11. No, see, that's the gifted. You already know it, okay? Now, all the commentators like to tell me that that verse isn't for me, that you take it out of context and it's not for you. Well, you'd have a hard time explaining it to me that day when I'm a teenager and my world just fell apart and I busted open my Bible to Jeremiah 29,

and she had highlighted and marked it. And it said, for I know the plans I have for you to, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. So, when you're living in a crazy world, what do you do? You do what he did. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. And when the brook dries up, what do you do? You do the same thing. He went and he did according to the word of the Lord. Well, what does the word of the Lord say to do? You know, you can go almost anywhere in the Bible and find instruction on what to do, on what to do when the brook dries up. Psalm 42 says, as the deer pants from flowing streams, so pants my soul for you.

That verse doesn't mean what you think it means. This isn't that, that, as the deer, that's not that, man. This deer's brook dried up, get it? You can go days without food. Or you can go weeks without food. only go a couple days without water. And a painting deer is a running deer. He's being chased, something trying to kill him. And he's running, and he's running, and he's desperate to stay alive. If I could just get one more little drink of water, then I'll make it. And the psalmist is saying,

God, like a deer running for his life, it just needs one little sip of water to make it another day. I just need an encounter with you. My soul just longs for you. My circumstances have gone to hell, but I know you are going to take me to heaven so God can I just get some of you that's what it is that's what the word says he says my soul thirst for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God my tears have been my food day and night while they say all the day long where is your God this is a lie from the enemy when things aren't going your way you're going get these whispers, the enemy always wants you to question at least three things. The word of God. Did God actually say? He wants you to question the work of God. You're probably not even a Christian.

When he said it is finished, it probably didn't count for you. It probably counted for your disciple group, but not you. That's a lie from the enemy. And he wants you to question the worth of God. If he really loved you, wouldn't he take better care of you? Why would you worship him when he's not even answering your prayers? That's what he's saying. And look at what he does. He goes, these things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and leave them in possession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of parade and multitude keeping festival.

In other words, he's like, hey, listen, when I can't see God in front of me, I just got to look over my shoulder because my whole life he's been faithful to me. Listen, I don't need some kind of revelation from God right now for me to know that he's that he's good to me. All I have to do is think about what he saved me from. This is what I mean when I say, I can't get over the gospel, man. I can't get over it. I know me. I know who I am. I know how simple I have been. I know my current struggles. There's no way in the world that the Lord should have saved me and then drafted me in to be a part of any church, especially this church where he is on the move. And all I have to do is just remember that God demonstrated

his love for us in this that while we were yet still sinners Christ died for you and for me. And then when the brook dries up, you know, and the scan comes back negative, or you prayed for your husband to come home and he didn't, or your prodigal is still prodigal. The psalmist said, why are you cast down on my soul? Listen, when you find yourself in this place, the word of God has got to be louder than your own words. You got to quit listening to yourself so much. You got to start talking to yourself because you lie to you. Nobody talks to you like you do. You realize that? Nobody talks junk to you like you do. Like how dare you stand in the mirror and curse God's creation? What are you

talking about, man? You're fearfully and wonderfully made. His works are wonderful. You better know that full well. You might not feel it. It doesn't say feel it. It says know it. You understand. You lie to yourself. God couldn't love me. The word says he does. we're going to look at Jesus on the cross and be like almost yeah you better have you you you better start talking to yourself if I talk to you the way you talk to you you would not let me be your friend you got to take control and you got to start telling us all right soul get up wake up look up why are you cast down on my soul you know we sing that song come on soul, don't you get shy on me. Lift up your song because you got a lion inside of those lungs

to get up and praise the Lord. A part of the way we make it through when the brook dries up, sometimes you just got to worship through it. You got to worship through it. And then he says, and why are you in turmoil within me? And then he tells himself. He's talking to himself. Look what he tells himself. Ready? Hope in God. Well, I'm in a hopeless situation. Good news. You're not going to what you hope in your situation. He's still got the whole world in his hands. If the tomb is empty, anything as possible, including a wretch like me and you being saved.

And one day, one day, one day, he's going to wipe away every tear you're going to be crying anymore. And if you're sick, you ain't ever going to be sick again. And if you get nowhere to live, I got good news. He's got a mansion waiting for you. And if you're hungry, he's got more meat and bread. Doesn't say anything about vegetables, but it is there at the wedding table, bro.

that that's the front hope in God for I shall again praise in my salvation and my God. Sometimes you just got to worship the way through it. James 4.8 says this. This is the biggest promise maybe in the whole Bible. James, the brother of Jesus, speaking on behalf of God, says this, draw near to me and I will draw near to you. So listen, man, we live in a world of crazy right now. I mean, a world of absolute crazy. It's not getting better.

It's getting way worse. and will until Jesus returns. And so what are you doing this crazy world? We need some Elijahs. We need some troublers. We need some people that are going to stand on the Word of God and are more concerned about what God says and thinks than what anybody else says in things.

And when the brook dries up, you got to trust God. You got to worship your way through it. You got to stand on the Word of God. And I don't want to give away the life of Elijah. You gifted people already know how it's going to go. But if the brook didn't drive, eye up. I don't think Elijah would have ever left his little comfortable place by the brook

with the filthy ravens bringing him chick-fil-a every single day. He'd be like, this is neat. I just did my quiet time, put my picture on Instagram with my big cup of coffee and just feel all the feels. But God does not mind making you very, very uncomfortable so you can get up and go do the next thing and the entire nation of Israel was hanging in the balance at that moment. So you have no idea what he has in store for you. And the water in the brook will never sustain you. So sometimes he lets it dry up so that you can take a sip of the living water and then you'll never thirst again. So what do we do?

I've told you before. I'm not trying to beat you up. I'm trying to disciple you and shepherd you. You don't need information about a guy named Elijah that lived almost 4,000 years ago. you need an encounter with the living God. And so we reserve this time at the end of the service because now you have heard the word of God. So now what you need to do is go and do

what the word of the Lord tells you to do. So we sing. We're going to sing that he's a waymaker and we're going to sing, come on my soul, don't you get shy on me. And some of you don't feel like singing right now. And you just got to worship your way through it. Worship is war. Worship is looking at your circumstances and be like, I know she left, and I know he's not coming back, and I know I'm sick, but that's not the Lord of my life. And the only one worthy of my praise is the king of the

universe, and I'm just going to worship my way through it. And we bring our tides and our offerings. Why? Because it's what the scripture tells us to do. Because where your treasury is there, your heart will be also and he don't need your money. He wants your heart and what you're saying is take my heart God. Take my heart. I want you to be first in my life because you are first in this world. And we pray. We come and we get on our face. So whether you feel like you're staring down the king because at work, they're getting on you because you're living like a Christian, you're getting beaten up by this world, you need to come and pray for strength. And for some of you, the brook has dried up And you need to be the first one down here on your face and just say, God, I need, I need a fresh

wind from you. I just need to taste and see that you are good. And I just need to be reminded that you love me and may you point me to the cross and may you not let my eyes get so fixated on my circumstances. And I dare you. And some of you, I mean, the spirit of God has got you on a tug of war rope right now going, all right, this is your time. First time you've ever been to the altar.

And you've got a voice going, eh, if I go down there, what's my wife going to think? What's my husband going to think? What are my friends going to think? You think that's God telling you you not to come? So you decide who you're going to listen to.

As for me and my house, we'll go serve the Lord. Would you please stand? Let me pray for you. Our good and gracious heavenly father. God, we repent. As the American church, we repent. when we just go to service and laugh and take a note, don't do a thing about it, hurry up, get out of here, go to a little of food.

Come back in two or three weeks and still don't do anything about it. And yet you, the God of the universe, set your son, Jesus Christ on a rescue mission for us, not because you want begrudging obedience, but because you want us as a demonstration that we trust you because we know you. And God, I pray for every man, woman, and suited in this place right now. and they feel like there's something in their life and the brook has dried up. And Lord, I pray that you would pour your spirit out in this place and you would meet them right where they are. And that they would know more than they need water and more than they need meat and bread.

They need you. They need to stand on your word because you fill us in a way that no thing of this world can. Spirit of God, I pray that you would do what Jesus said you would do it, and you would comfort those who are in a place of affliction right now. And Spirit of God, I pray that you would afflict those that are in a place of comfort right now. And Lord, I pray that you would give us the Spirit of Elijah, the Holy Spirit, that you would guide us to just do whatever it is that you have called us to do. I prayed in Jesus' name. Amen.

We're going to sing, we're going to bring, we're going to pray. I ain't got time to play church. So if you need to scoop, God bless you. Okay, God bless you. You want to do some work with the Lord? Let's go. Let's go. Let's respond.