06/18/2019 DAB Transcript

1 Kings 19:1-21, Acts 12:1-23, Psalms 136:1-26, Proverbs 17:14-15

Today is the 18th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it’s a joy to be here with you today, settling into the new week and moving our way through the story of the prophet Elijah as we move our way through the book of first Kings. We’re reading from the Amplified Bible this week. Today first Kings chapter 19.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we’re moving through the story of Elijah, the prophet, and we’re actually kind of coming to the to the end of his story and his protégé, Elisha, will take over and we briefly met Elisha today. So, I mean, what happened here right is that Elijah proclaims that there would be no more rain which lasted for several years, bringing about famine. Nobody could find Elijah and God tells him to show himself. He does to King Ahab and then subsequently there’s this showdown between the prophets of Baal and Ashera and Elijah. And God answers with fire and all of these false prophets are executed, and then Elijah tells Ahab rain is coming and a cloud comes up out of the ocean and sure enough rain comes. But Ahab tells his wife Jezebel what Elijah did and she sent him a note, right? In this modern era it would be a text, but she sent him a note that basically said, “may God judge me severely if you’re alive tomorrow.” So, I mean we can understand, right? We get a nasty text or whatever. Something happens. We hear about something. Word gets to us that just ruins our day, right? It just puts ice in our veins and we can’t really function through the rest of the day because we’re obsessing about the message that we received. This is basically what happened to Elijah. On the one hand, having the knowledge of what just happened on Mount Caramel we could expect Elijah would be like, “yeah, yeah, whatever. Bring it on”, but that’s not what he did. What he did was run away. And he ran all the way to Beersheba. That’s pretty far. Like, understanding the geography of Israel, at this point, Mount Carmel to Beersheba is over 100 miles. So, he booked it. He didn’t have a car or a motorcycle or anything. He just ran down to Beersheba, which is a long way. And then he went a day more into the wilderness and then he rested and rested because he was going to Mount Sinai. So, he’s so far, like he’s way down in the Sinai Peninsula, hundreds of miles from Mount Carmel and he’s complaining that he’s the only one left, right? We can find ourselves here because on both counts we’ve probably had these experiences. One we see God move in a mighty way then something happens, and we get a nasty message and rather than going, “yeah, whatever, my God is an awesome God” we go on the run. And when we get to the end of our running our complaint is that we’re the only one that understands us, we’re the only one left. So, let’s look at that for just a second. What if you were the only one left? What if that was true? In Elijah’s case that’s how he felt. It wasn’t true, but it’s how he felt. But what if it were true? What if you were the only one left? What God told him to do was come out on the mountain to meet Him and there’s this fantastic display of signs, powerful, powerful signs like wind and earthquake and fire. But God was not in any of that. God was found in the silence, the still, small voice. And he told Elijah to go back the way he came because he needed to anoint two kings and he needed to anoint the one that would follow him. So, Elijah’s out in the wilderness begging from God to let him die because he’s the only one left and nobody cares anymore, and God’s like, “basically, even if you were the only one left why would I do that? You need to go make more if you’re the only one left before you can check out a here. The mission is not accomplished.” But he did give Elijah advance words about who would come after him. So, he could see that his journey wasn’t over but where it was leading. We have to think about this in our own lives because we find ourselves hiding out in a cave saying we’re the only one. Why are we hiding in a cave if we’re the only one? If we’re the only one then we’re the only hope. As we will see Elijah obeys God and we’ll follow that story and move into the story of Elisha, but for us today let’s remember the words of the Lord to the prophet Elijah in the cave on Mount Sinai, “what are you doing here?” And may we follow the Lord back out into the world where we carry the hope of the world along with us and may we remember what the Psalm told us over and over today, “His loving kindness endures forever.”

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. We do believe that Your graciousness and Your mercy and Your compassion and Your long-suffering and Your loving kindness do indoor forever. For some reason we just choose not to participate, not to come close to Your lovingkindness. Rather, we find ourselves in a cave on the run saying, “we’re the only one”. Come to us Holy Spirit, bring Your comfort, bring Your still small voice of direction, and may we follow You on the path that You lead us. Come Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi DAB family, my name is Bella and ‘m calling from England as I’ve got a praise report. I got a fellowship to the…for an executive MBA at Cambridge University. And it’s a massive, massive deal. I mean, just getting to Cambridge has it’s own challenges itself but __ it has to be God, it has to be God’s favor. So, I’m really excited and I’m very grateful to God. And, so, I just wanted to raise all the glory to Him and I’d like you to pray for me and that course __ and it starts in September, just for God’s grace and favor to follow me through. And I’d also like to encourage anyone who’s praying for something like this or anything to do with education, just to say God is still in the business of doing miracles and He will see through whatever desire is put on your heart. And very quickly I’d like to give a shout out to my prayer accountability partner, Kat. Thank you so much for all that you do to me. And thank you Brian, thank you Jill and the entire DAB family. Love you guys. Take care. Bye-bye

Hello, it’s Kelly from Australia, I just wanted to check in and just let you know that I’m thinking of you all. Just a shout out to Margot and Uganda. I am praying for you every day. Mark Street, my Aussie friend, I am praying for you every day as well and your son and your family. Victoria Soldier, I’m praying for you. Blind Tony, I’m praying for you. Abiding in Him, I’m praying for you. I’m praying for all of you. I just wanted to give you guys a shout out and just let you know that I’m thinking of you. Jamie with the…I think it’s Jamie in Canada…with cancer, I just…I’m lifting you up to the Lord and praying for your health. So, I’m just praying that God would inspire courage in your heart to fight this and to keep going. Brian, who is deaf and blind I believe, I am praying for you every day as well. You must be so frightened, and I just pray God would just bring peace into your heart and into the hearts of your family as well. I’m thinking of you. I am celebrating seven days sober today. I am very excited. It’s a massive…I mean hold the applause…it’s only been seven days but I am quietly confident that this is…this is the time…this is the moment. So, anyway I am praying for you all and I love you and I will check in again soon. Okay, by friends.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family it’s Jay from Nashville. I know it’s been a while guys. I’m so sorry. I’m listening every day, praying every day. I’m so excited about the Family Reunion. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it this year. You know, finances are really tight. So, pray for me there, that I’ll be able to discipline myself enough so that I can save up to come because I know that it fills up fast. So, listen, so this is, you know, just my advice to you if you haven’t been to the Family Reunion yet. If there’s a possible way that you can make it, I strongly suggest that you do everything you can to get there. It is really an amazing experience that you just won’t get anywhere else. Remember, I love you guys and yes I promise I will call in more often. Love you, bye.

Hi, this is Living in Hope and I’m calling in, I’ve been a listener for many years and I’m calling in because I desperately need to break through. My husband recently had an emotional affair with someone at work that he works closely with and we’ve been working through that. Unfortunately, she still works for us. He and her husband and herself all seem to think that’s fine and refuse to move on even though they know that it’s very, very painful to me. And he still has the freedom to call her and text her supposedly about work things, but I have no idea what they’re saying to each other or what’s in the texts. He says he’ll show me, but, you know, he can delete anything, and her husband doesn’t really pay attention. So, our relationship is going good. I just know what’s real and, you know, what’s really happening between them. And he says she works for us week by week, you know, just for now to see how things are going because she’s a very important part of our company, but I recently found out that she is scheduling herself for something months away. So, I feel very…I feel like God has been asking me to let Him move this mountain and fight this battle for me, but I just don’t know how to handle the daily anxiety and stress. I believe my husband’s sincere, but I believed he was sincere before too when it was all going on. So, it’s hard to know and I’m just really desperately asking for your prayers for real breakthrough. I just want freedom from this thank you.