"Free to Rest" - Lesson 8 - Pastor Doug Batchelor

[Music] oh brother be faithful soon jesus will come for whom we have waited so [Music] oh brother be faithful for why should we prove unfaithful to him such deep such [Music] [Music] is [Music] not long shall we stay in us here [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] amen i love that song oh brother be faithful i'd like to invite you now for a moment a moment of prayer your father in heaven thank you so much for your love for us thank you so much for your guidance and thank you so much for your rest thank you for giving us the sabbath where we can truly stop in this temple in time and dedicate this time to our relationship with you father lord as pastor doug leads out this morning please imbue him with your spirit father may all the words that come from his lips come from the throne above i ask these things in the name and the power of jesus amen pastor doug god bless [Music] thank you pastor lucas good morning friends i want to especially welcome those that are here at the granite bay hilltop church we've had an exciting week here at the time of this recording we're just concluding a week of a vbs a live amazing adventure program pastor lucas has been leading out we've had a wonderful crop of young people and you can probably tell if they take a wide shot of the stage here if you wonder why things are looking a little different it's because we're all set up for this amazing adventure the young people have been enjoying and and that's that's been just great we're continuing in our lesson dealing today well the whole lesson is about rest in christ you know the two great utterances of jesus you can find in matthew matthew chapter 11 and matthew chapter 28 and one says come unto me and i will give you rest and then as a result of that he then says go and tell all nations all authority has been given unto me go and tell all nations so salvation is a continual coming to the lord finding that rest and then going for the lord and telling other people about that rest in our study today we're going to be talking about two case studies of people who were restless that found rest and we have a memory verse the memory verse is from psalm 27 verse 1 this is in the new king james version psalm 27 verse 1 for those of you here at hilltop church you can say it out loud with me if you've got that you ready the lord is my light and my salvation whom shall i fear the lord is the strength of my life of whom shall i be afraid well we've got a couple of cases here of people that were living in fear now i'll tell you what the two studies are one from the old testament one from the new we'll start with the new testament and go to the old the new testament study you can find in mark chapter 2. if you have your bibles you may want to turn there this is the story of jesus healing the paralytic in mark chapter 2 and you'll not only find this here in mark chapter 2 but you can find this in luke chapter 5 verse 17 and matthew 9 verse 1-8 it was a remarkable experience in jesus healing ministry that's recorded by three of the four gospel writers so i'm going to read through verses 1 through 12 with you just so you know because it's going to kind of run from one study heading page to another the study headings are healing rest the root treatment running away too tired to run rest and more but basically we're studying two bible stories today all right so let's read mark chapter 2 verses 1 to 12 and again he entered capernaum he's probably living at this point at the house of simon peter and it says that he returned to his city capernaum was considered jesus city in galilee and after some days it was heard that he was in the house probably probably simon peter's house immediately many gather together so there was no longer room to receive them no not even near the door and he preached the word to them i wondered did people come because he preached the word or did he preach the word because people came i know some pastors whenever they saw a crowd they preached the word but i think jesus had a crowd because he did preach the word and many were gathered together and then by the way that's one of the simplest methods for church growth there's all kinds of seminars and science and training that people go through to grow churches you know what jesus did he preached the word if you preach the word many will gather together people are hungering for the bread of life and there wasn't even room near the door then verse 3 they came to him bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men all right let me just give you a little insight into this this man he could not come to jesus without some outside help i forget the ratio but i think it's like 40 of the people that jesus heals in the bible were either brought by someone else or someone else brought their case to jesus and jesus healed them remotely but so many people that were healed were healed because of the intercession or the efforts of someone else to bring them there's a lot of people that will never find jesus unless other people bring them to christ for healing now this man he was paralyzed he's not an old man because jesus refers to him as son jesus is only 30 33 and you know if you call someone's son you probably want to you know i would not call a 65 year old say well son yeah just it would not sound right of course i'm about that age now anyway so but i mean jesus is 33 so this is a young man who's been afflicted with this paralysis you can read in the book desire of ages page 267 this paralytic had lost all hope of recovery his disease was the result of a life of sin and his sufferings were embittered by remorse he's not only physically suffering he's remorseful that he's suffering because of his life of sin he had long before appealed to the pharisees and the doctors hoping for relief from the mental suffering and the physical pain but they coldly pronounced him incurable and abandoned him to the wrath of god this man had been looking for mercy and looking for healing and they said no you're suffering for your sins you are abandoned by god the pharisees regarded the affliction as an evidence of divine displeasure and they held themselves aloof from the sick and the needy yet often these very ones who exalted themselves as holy were more guilty than the sufferers they condemned so this man what's one of the principal concerns in his life is it physical healing or spiritual forgiveness either way i think we'll agree he has no rest he is very restless in his heart he's physically suffering and he is tormented because he's suffering because of bad choices that he made now that's often true that we sometimes suffer with physical problems because of bad choices that we make it might be lifestyle choices or health and eating choices and then we're twice as restless because we're thinking i brought this on myself it's like a person you know they've got a drinking problem and they have a car accident someone else is hurt and they crippled up for life and they're thinking look what my sin has done so this man is struggling with that but he has some friends and his friends they hear about jesus and they notice that jesus heals everybody that comes and so they say look if we could bring you to jesus we believe he can heal you and he thinks oh that'd be wonderful but if i could just know he's a spiritual teacher if i could just know that i could be helped by god now it says there they brought unto him one carried by four this one man ends up being healed i hope that's not a spoiler for you that he gets healed you know that born of four you know i think that four is sort of a number in the bible that represents something universal for is also the gospels matthew mark luke and john around the throne of god there are four creatures you remember what the different creatures looked like one had a face like a lion one like a face of an eagle one like a man one like a calf and some bible scholars say these are different attributes of christ and they're also telling us they kind of describe the gospels matthew is thought of as the messianic gospel the jesus is the lion of the tribe of judah mark is the gospel that appeals to the romans jesus the roman standard was the eagle and it's a very fast you read through mark and it is rapid it's a quick gospel luke is the physician he shows jesus the man and then you've got john who shows jesus as the sacrifice he's the calf and so i like to think these four men that brought their friend to jesus represent the gospel that brings people to christ i remember hearing an amazing fact that really got my attention it was about someone named russian jack he is better known as his nickname was russian jack his real name is ivan fredericks he lived between 1864 and 1904 in australia he was a gold miner in the western fields when they had a gold rush you know after the california gold rush they also had a gold rush in australia and but it was very hard to get to there it wasn't like the sierras they were in what they call the great sandy desert and it was terrible terrain well jack and a friend of his had run short on food while they're out there mining in this remote area and they decided to shoot a kangaroo and his friend in running after the kangaroo fell and broke his leg that's a bad place to broke break your leg out there in the western bush of australia and ivan put him russian jack put him in a wheelbarrow and the wheelbarrows back then were not like the you know fiberglass wheel barrels today with the pneumatic tire they were wooden they were clunky heavy steel tire and he put his friend a wheelbarrow and he pushed him to win them which was the nearest town 100 miles away now that's a friend you ever push 150 pounds a mile going down the road it'd be tough i've pushed a lot of concrete in a wheelbarrow before and to push it over un charted rough terrain like that when he got into town people said where'd you come from and he said well i just pushed this guy a hundred miles and they couldn't believe it they all came out and said no way that's impossible and his friend in the wheelbarrow said it's true and he never missed a rock along the way it takes a friend to do something like that amen and sometimes it takes friends to bring others to jesus so they couldn't get near the door they said we're going to bring you to christ and as they get to the house they say it's crowded i mean it's just they couldn't receive him at the door jesus is inside teaching they can't hear through the windows and there's a crowd there so they try to press through the door they push them all back they said you got here late forget about it they tried to get through the window they said forget about it they completely circled the house and it's just completely jammed with people great multitude of people that are there and i don't know maybe the poor looked up at his friends and said thanks guys for trying sure appreciate it you can just take me back and i just imagine one of them saying no way we carried you here you're walking home and so they would not give up now when you run out of horizontal options what do you do you go vertical so often whenever i run into a problem happened yesterday encountered a problem i start to try and think i think i'm pretty smart so i start thinking what are the solutions and the first thing i should have thought of was looking up but so often we think horizontally they tried all the horizontal options that didn't work then they decide we better look at the vertical options and someone maybe it was the uh a matter of fact i think in the desire of ages it says it was a man because from his perspective laying down where could he look he could just look up and he said maybe the roof now keep in mind in bible times you just need to know a little bit about the architecture in the buildings back then it was a hot climate something like a matter of fact a very similar climate to northern california there around israel and it gets very hot in the summer they still cook their food but it's so hot they have to let the heat out and they have roof tiles the houses were like a mud straw stucco they had wood railings across the roof but they usually left us a hole in the middle of the roof and the rooms would be formed around the outside of the wall kitchen area was in the middle when they cooked then the smoke could go up and they would pull aside some tiles they had these tiles that would keep the sun out and keep the rain out but when they were cooking they could pull them aside in the warmer weather and it created conviction so i don't want you to think that they climbed up on this poor guy's roof peter's roof and took a fireman's axe and started hacking through the guy's roof that would not be a very christian thing to do but what they did is they got around back and they found a ladder that went up and they hoisted their friend up on the roof and then they began to pull aside the tiles well let's look in the bible here and we'll read about it and it tells us when they couldn't get near because of the crowd they uncovered the roof where he was so when they had broken through you know sometimes we need a breakthrough they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying now you can imagine this jesus is in there and he's teaching and if you read the story he's not only has disciples there peter's there probably peter's family peter may have had a larger house you got peter and his wife and his mother-in-law you got andrew and maybe his wife they often had big family dwellings a little tribe would live together the apostles were there there's scribes and pharisees there because you can hear them in the story criticizing jesus so there's all these people gathered in this house also they hear a clamor up on the roof they're also already hearing the clamor through the windows and the doors and sunlight begins to pierce through and all this dust begins to fall down and they look up and there's a big commotion on the roof and these guys are lowering this man down on this rough hammock that they use to carry him and scribes and pharisees are no doubt thinking within themselves these uneducated rough masses how rude what is jesus thinking how does jesus respond and it says when he saw their faith this is verse 5. it says so they they broken through they let down the man the bed on which the paralytic was lying when jesus saw their faith was it his faith when you bring your friends to christ it requires faith when jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic son your sins are forgiven you now this is a wonderful passage if you read this actually in in matthew it adds a little more to it in mark he says son your sins are forgiven you in matthew chapter 9 verse 2 same story he says son be of good cheer your sins are forgiven you now if you saw that man come to jesus and he's paralyzed he's you know probably limbs are atrophied he's gnarled up he can't do anything and he's lowered down in front of jesus who is known to be a great healer what would you think his problem was you would normally think his problem was paralysis right he's sick but what's the first thing that jesus addresses the big problem which is sin what is the big problem that we all have would there be any sickness in the world if it wasn't for sin all the thorns and thistles and all all the problems in the world today are the fallout of sin and so ultimately you have to deal with the sin problem you know i i believe in the health message and i've prayed many times and god has healed me from you know various things but i realize that any physical healing is temporary the most amazing healing would be like if jesus should raise the dead right i mean do you get any sicker than being dead yeah you do actually you can be dead and saved and you can be dead and lost so worst conditions be dead and lost the bible says a living dog is better than a dead lion and where there's life there's hope but uh when jesus healed lazarus do you realize that lazarus eventually got old and got sick and died or he had an accident and died or he got martyred and died but that healing was temporary any physical healing in this world is temporary you know one of the most important reasons for the health message it's not just to make you feel better the most important reason for the health message is so that other people can live longer eternally the lord wants to heal us so that we can serve him and our fellow man in telling them about eternal life because flesh and blood your bodies that you're wearing right now are not going to inherit the kingdom of god that's what the bible says right now i believe in the health message everyone clear on that i believe in exercise but if all you emphasize is the health message and you don't emphasize the sin problem then what good does it do us when jesus comes we're going to say look i'm in perfect health and then he throws us in the lake of fire jesus said what prophet is it if you've got your eyes and your hands and your feet and your whole and you go to the lake of fire he said you're better off going into heaven missing an eye and that's not going to happen or missing a hand or a foot he uses that as a metaphor it's like i know some people that they run christian schools and they think the most important thing is the academics academics academics and i think academics are important but i heard a pastor at a school board say one time we're not interested in having intelligent sinners so the kids are not learning the gospel in the school then what good are we doing we're going to have them be very smart and lost when jesus comes so the most important thing has to be the priority this man lowered into the presence of jesus what was his big problem everyone there would have thought it was paralysis but christ was looking on the inside man looks on the outward appearance and he said son be of good cheer now that's the part you find in in matthew chapter nine verse two what's the gospel what does the word gospel mean evangel it means good news when you talk about an evangelist he's someone who's bringing the good news the gospel is good news jesus tells this man i have good news son what does the word sun mean adoption what did jesus say i'm sorry what did god say after christ was baptized behold thou art my son in whom i am well pleased and when a person is baptized god declares they are his son or his daughter they are adopted into the family paul talks about us being adopted folks say well we're all children of god and i know that sounds nice but technically jesus said to the religious ladies you are not children of abraham you're children of your father the devil you're not technically really children of god until you are adopted by surrendering to the lord this man came to jesus for mercy jesus called him son that's what happened to zacchaeus after zacchaeus came to jesus he says this is a son of abraham is adopted into the family so this man in that one little statement son be a good cheer your sins will be forgiven are forgiven how long did he have to wait for forgiveness as soon as he came to jesus the prayer of his heart was from mercy jesus forgave him isn't that good news now that man had a shriveled body but a perfect soul when jesus said your sins are forgiven his body was a mess but he had eternal life so he had a down payment he had a guarantee of a brand new body isn't that right if you're saved but jesus wasn't going to leave him like that it says here in the book desire of ages page 268 christ makes that statement son be of good share your sins are forgiven now in words that fell like music on the sufferer's ear the savior said son be of good shear thy sins are forgiven me the burden of despair rolls from the sick man's soul the peace of forgiveness rests upon his spirit and shines out on his countenance his face goes through a noticeable change his physical pain is gone his whole being is transformed the helpless paralytic is healed the guilty sinner is pardoned in simple faith he accepts the words of jesus as the boon of new life he urges no further requests but he lays there he i mean he's been forgiven and healed but he doesn't even know he's healed yet he lays there in blissful silence too happy for words the light of heaven irradiated his countenance and the people with all look upon the scene everyone saw something happen they saw his face and he went from restless to peaceful and what made the difference you know our study is about how you find freedom and rest forgiveness most important thing is forgiveness for sin when jesus says all you who are weary and heavy laden weary burdened by what heavy laden burden by what it's sin you've read the book pilgrim's progress about christian he's on that journey and he's carrying this burden on his back and he can't wait to set the burden down this man when he heard jesus say son your sins are forgiven his burden is rolled away and does he care about the people looking on no he's uh he's happy son your sins are forgiven but there's a problem he says some of the scribes were sitting there and they're reasoning in their hearts why does this man speak blasphemies like this who can forgive sin but god alone were they correct can anyone forgive sin i'm talking not talking about now if you step on my toe i can say you're forgiven right that's but that's not forgiving sin you know when joseph was tempted to sin he said how can i sin against god it wasn't a sin against potiphar or his wife he saw it was a sin against god when david sinned with uriah and bathsheba he said against thee and the only have i done this sin all sin is ultimately against god so who is the only one that can forgive sin god they were right they knew their bibles let me read to you from isaiah 43 i this is verse 25 i even i am he who blots out thy transgressions for my own sake i will not remember your sins by the way in the previous verses he says i am the lord i am jehovah i even i am the one who blots out your transgressions you can also read in isaiah 44 22 i have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions god is the only one who can forgive sin so they thought who is this that is forgiving sin god and god only can forgive sin by the way were they right only god can forgive sin did jesus forgive sin what does that tell us about jesus is jesus god you know the bible says you're only to worship god but do the angels worship jesus you with me the bible says in the beginning god created all things but the bible says all things that were made were made by jesus so what does that tell us about jesus god was on earth in christ and only god can forgive your sins now has he changed i am the lord i change not so if you come to jesus crippled in body and sick with sin will he forgive your sin he does if we come in faith christ is still the great forgiver so they they're wondering how in the world he thinks that he can forgive sin and he knew what they were thinking immediately when jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves did they say out loud who can forgive sin but god alone or did they think it says jesus perceived in his spirit they didn't say it they thought it you know another definition for god it says god and god only knows the thoughts of men's hearts it says jesus knew what was in man can the devil put a temptation in your mind but can the devil read your mind the devil cannot read your mind he can take a pretty good educated guess based on your expression and body language but if you're married you can do that with your spouse so you can kind of look at your kids and tell what they're thinking sometimes the devil can do that and he's very good at it but he can't read your heart god and god only knows the thoughts of men's hearts jesus knew what they were thinking and so he answers the thoughts in their hearts why do you reason these things in your hearts there you have it which is easier to say to the paralytic your sins are forgiven or to say arise take up your bed and walk all right let's stop and ask the question which is easier which is easier to heal a paralytic or to say arise take up your bed and walk i'm sorry are you forgive sin or to heal a paralytic physical healing is easier it's a it's a physical problem spiritual healing is uh is something that only god can do it's a power of god the power of a changed heart you know i i need to tell you i am impressed that um you know some of these billionaires are now getting where they're taking ships into space you heard of course um brampton was it uh took virgin atlantic he actually they went sub-orbital so they got weightless they went up to what you would technically call space for about five minutes and after he did it that was sir richard branson is that his name and then jeff bezos did it with his space company and tesla's not content to just go to space he's still trying to get to mars tesla's already putting taking rockets up to the international space station he said his goal is to die on mars and i i boy if i had all you need is about two hundred thousand dollars and you can take a trip to space for five minutes but you know how much power it takes to break the gravitational pull of earth that's a lot of power but you know that's not enough power to forgive sin it's not enough power to change your heart the only one who has the power to change your heart is god and when that man heard those words from christ so whenever god is forgiving sin the devil is angry spurgeon used to ask his sons they'd come back from a revival and he said how'd the revival go and they'd say good well he want more information he'd say well were many converted i said not many said well did the people get angry no they were rather pleasant spurgeon said well if no one was converted nobody got angry you probably didn't do anything because when you're doing the work of god the devil doesn't like him so he's got these accusers which is easier he says but that you might know that the son of man has power on earth to forgive sin he then says to the paralyzed man i say to you and this is in verse 10 i say to you i'm sorry verse 11 arise take up your bed and go to your house and immediately he arose and took up his bed and went out in the presence of them all so they were all amazed there's an amazing fact and they glorified god saying we never saw anything like this this man who was considered to be a hopeless case spiritually and physically he could do nothing to save himself others had to bring him to jesus he comes to christ carried by the bed he leaves christ carrying the bed now the bible a bed sometimes might be compared to like the symbol of the carnal nature paul talking about marriage he says the married bed is undefiled and the man when he came to christ was carried by the bed you know so many people everyone's got a spiritual side we've got a carnal sight you get physical desires and it's perfectly normal you know people get hungry and they get tired and they there's all kinds of different passions and god gave us most of these desires but people typically prove and corrupt them and abuse them and we suffer the results of that but if you're controlled by the flesh the carnal side you will die but if through the power of the spirit i'm quoting romans 8 now you subdue the flesh and you're controlled by the spirit you will live when that man came to jesus he was carried by the bed when jesus healed him did he still own his bed yes but now who carries who is the bed carrying him or is he carrying it after you come to christ you will still have a carnal side after you come to christ you will still have a fleshly nature but it is not to have dominion over you it does not carry you you are not to be controlled by that you are to be led by the spirit now you see the difference between when that man came to christ and when he left he left free he was no longer a slave of his bed it now is a slave to him after you come to christ you will still get hungry you will still get tired you may still get lonely you can have all of those same natural desires that are normal to humanity but you are not ruled by that anymore you are ruled by the spirit and that's the difference between a person before and after encountering jesus and they saw that and they were all amazed all right well this is one story of a person who finds rest in jesus and he's brought to christ by others and you know they made a movie out of he was my friend before they made a movie out of him desmond doss you know his first wife died his second wife was from the little town her family lived in kovalev where i pastored and so they would come up and we got a chance to become friends with desmond dawson i was so proud when they made this movie of them you know why they made a movie of them because he carried sick people to safety he was a stretcher bearer these guys who brought that man in mark chapter 2 they are the heroes of the story in one sense because that man never would have got to jesus without them how many people are there that will never get to church unless you bring them they brought this man to the house where jesus was teaching the word isn't that right that's sort of an analogy of us bringing people to where the word is proclaimed and how easy was it probably it took some effort that's why they were the last ones there and they couldn't get in so it's a good good story for us that man found rest and the root problem of course was the sin problem all right now we're going to look at the next story which is the story of running away go with me to first kings 19 and we're going to go to the first book of kings 19 starting with the first verse this story comes on the heels of one of the greatest stories in scripture the story of the showdown of elijah on mount carmel and you remember i mean the nations just experienced three and a half years of famine severe famine and there's like nothing even for the horses to eat and then elijah tells they have to call all of israel together and the prophets of baal and the prophets of the grove and they all dance around carry on all day trying to bring fire down from heaven nothing happens but at the end of the day about the time of the evening sacrifice which is when jesus died by the way on the cross he builds the i should say he repairs the altar of the lord he prays a 19 second prayer fire comes down from heaven and the whole nation just goes through this radical change they fall on their faces they say the lord he is god the lord he is god earlier that day they would not speak up and even say who god was so this is dramatic change then elijah prays not only fire comes down then the rain comes down fire and rain in one day in a miraculous way and then he kills all the prophets of baal of course he kills them after the fire then the rain comes at the end of the day he runs before the chariot of ahab now he's been fasting all day long he told ahab arise to eat and drink but i went up the mountain and he goes up and he prays the carnal king goes to eat and drink and elijah goes to pray then he tells the king there's a sound of an abundance of rain you better make your way to jezreel quickly you're going to get caught chariot wheel's going to get stuck in the mud like pharaoh and so he elijah is filled with the spirit of the lord he runs before the king's chariot and they he leads the king all the way into the gates of jezreel king does not invite him to the house he knows jezebel's not going to be happy about all of her prophets being dead elijah's got to sleep with the servants at the king's gate he's out on a a damp bench somewhere sleeping and he gets a message he's awakened from his sleep and he gets a message from jezebel this wicked queen the bible says the worst king that ever reigned was ahab who his wife jezebel she was the daughter of the king of the zydonians and worshipped baal and she turned the kingdom to baal worship and she said she sends this message well let me read it to you and ahab told jezebel this is again first kings 19 verse 1 ahab told jezebel all that elijah had done and how he had executed all the prophets with the sword and then jezebel sent a messenger to elijah saying so let the gods do to me and more also notice she says the gods she is polytheistic she doesn't believe in jehovah if i do not make your life like the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time she even sets it on her calendar she says by tomorrow this time you're going to be dead and when he saw that elijah inquired of the lord what he would have him to do he didn't he was tired he was hungry he was exhausted and instead of praying every other time in elijah's life the word of the lord came to elijah and said go to ahab the word of the lord came to elijah and said go to the brook cherith the word of the lord came to elijah and said go to zion i've got a widow there that's going to feed thee the word of the lord came to elijah and said go show yourself to ahab now he does not wait for the word of the lord he jumps and he bolts he panics he's tired he's exhausted he thinks you know after everything i did to kill off all the prophets and turn the people back to god jezebel is still telling the king what to do and all that i've done is a waste the devil starts to give him words of discouragement isn't that amazing this is amazing you would think that a guy that has just experienced something like this is going to be on cloud nine that his faith is going to be unshakable but sometimes after our greatest victories we experience our lowest defeats and uh it's not long after david kills goliath that he's running for his life from his own king sometimes it's after the high point it's after david conquered all the other nations that uh then he falls with bathsheba so you got to watch out you know after these high points after the mountain sometimes he hit the valley he went from mount carmel to the valley of jezreel and he got discouraged he does not inquire of the lord he panics and he saw that he arose and he ran for his life i also think it's interesting peter said lord though all men forsake thee i'll not forsake thee and they come to arrest jesus in the garden of gethsemane peter pulls out a sword you remember peter was not afraid to die for christ at first he pulled out a sword to fight the men the soldiers that came to arrest jesus but a little while later a girl starts to make fun of peter and he cannot stand that intimidation and he denies christ elijah was not afraid of 450 you know there's actually altogether there was about 850 false prophets they're the prophets of the grove prophets of the baal so it's like 850 to one elijah's not afraid one woman sends him running what is it about men that they are so intimidated by women and he gets up and he runs he was not afraid to stand up to the king he got in ahab's face and said it is you and your father's house that have sinned he arose and he ran for his life and he went to beersheba which belongs to judah he left a servant there he had a servant just like you know elisha had gehesi but he himself you want a day's journey into the wilderness he's just heading off into the desert where there's this trackless wilderness and he can't be found and he came and he sits down under a broom tree and that tree is kind of what it sounds like it's a tree that when it was dried they would make him into brooms and he prayed that he might die now is that the only time that god's people have gotten so discouraged that they wish they were dead i won't ask for a show of hands but have you ever despaired of life i have if you know my testimony jonah prophet of god does miracles for him and he says in jonah chapter 4 verse 3 therefore now oh lord take away my life from me for it's better for me to die prophet of god thinking suicidal thoughts actually it's not suicide he's asking god to do it job six verse eight oh that i might have my request that god would grant me the thing that i longed for that he would be pleased to crush me that he would lose his hand for me that he would cut me off that means that he would slay me job wanted to die number 11 moses is speaking if you treat me like this then please kill me here and now moses is praying to die jeremiah 2014 curse be the day in which i was born let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me i remember one of the few times i was bold enough to talk back to my father i was exasperated a teenager and having a hard time and he was mad at me and i said well it's your fault that i'm here he didn't know quite what to say because it was true so it's all your fault that i'm here have you ever said lord just take my life i don't want to live anymore but elijah got so discouraged then he runs well now wait a second he he he falls asleep exhausted as he lay he slept under the broom tree and suddenly an angel touched him god had not forgotten him arise and eat and he looked there and by his head was a cake baked on coals in a jar of water and he ate and drank and then he laid down again he just exhausted he ate he was sometimes after a meal retired again and the second time the angel came back and touched him he said arise and eat because the journey is too great for you so he arose and he ate and he drank and he went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights as far as the mountain of god when we are discouraged and ready to die you need angel's food there's the lesson sometimes you just need to claim the promises of god what is that bread that comes from angels it's the word of god man doesn't live by bread alone but by every word of god amen elijah was exhausted he needed rest he needed peace and he went up and he went in the strength of that meat 40 days and 40 nights does the bible talk about others who fasted 40 days and 40 nights moses fasted 40 days 40 nights moses did it twice actually but moses did not eat or drink 40 days for 40 nights elijah went in the strength of that food and water 40 days and 40 nights telling us how you can be sustained by god excuse me and then who is the other one that went 40 days and 40 nights jesus right and was jesus ministered to by angels you know it doesn't say it in every gospel it says and angels came and ministered to him how do you think the angels took care of jesus after he'd fasted 40 days and 40 nights they fed him took care of him so what happened to elijah as a reminder to us and he went to mount sinai which is where moses fasted 40 days and 40 nights and jesus went into the wilderness 40 days and 40 nights and there god spoke to elijah in a still small voice god was not in the wind he was not in the fire he was not in the earthquake he was in the still small voice and that's when he found rest after eating god's food and drinking the living water is talking about through taking christ in he finally found rest you can tell i've run out of time i want to remind our friends that are watching we do have a special free offer this is a premium offer it's a beautiful magazine on amazing health facts bible secrets the longer stronger life well i'd like to send this to you for free and you'll see the information there on the screen how you can obtain that god bless you friends lord willing we'll study his word together again next week

Channel: Daily Hymns

Views: 20,945

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Id: 9dysVLQt0N4

Length: 47min 29sec (2849 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 12 2021