Jesus Sustains Us For His Glory (1 Kings 19:1-18) | Worship Service

Will you please turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 for the Scripture reading?

2 Corinthians chapter 4, and we're going to begin reading at verse 7 and read through the end of that chapter.

2 Corinthians 4, verse 7.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God

and not from ourselves.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not

forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying

of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus

also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

So death works in us, but life in you.

But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believe, therefore I spoke, we also believe, therefore

we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will

present us with you.

For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the

giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all

comparison.

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Let's pray together.

Our Father, we thank you for your grace and for the salvation that we celebrate each and every Lord's Day when we gather together.

As your people who have been called out of darkness and into light, it is our joy, it is our glory to rejoice in your goodness

and to thank you for your great mercies.

The mercy of salvation, the mercy of your sustaining grace.

We thank you that the same Christ who has saved us also sanctifies us and has secured us for himself.

And we pray that you would confirm and strengthen and encourage our hearts together today that as we reflect upon your goodness and as

we adore you for the great God and Savior that you are, that you would strengthen our hearts and encourage them in your word,

that you would be honored and glorified amongst and in and through your people, both now and forever, we pray in Christ's

name.

Amen.

Good morning, church.

Let's stand and sing alive.

You

became

my all of

death.

Now I

renew.

I blame you, Señor.

Our Father welcomes me with joy.

Your spirit makes me know.

Your grace is sure, my all.

Is sure, my all.

Not be measured.

Chosen before all time.

Jesus, you are my love.

You call.

Four through seven, it says.

But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were

dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places

in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his

grace in kindness towards us in Jesus Christ.

Let's sing as we end our music service this morning.

Oh, great God.

Just

a couple of brief announcements before I introduce our guest speaker for this morning.

First, there is evangelism class that's going to be starting up in the weeks ahead.

It's a way of the master style evangelism.

So if you would like to be part of that, learning how to share your faith and even possibly going out in the streets and

interacting with unbelievers and doing so, this is the class for you.

So there is a sign -up sheet in the foyer.

So please take an opportunity to put your name down on that so that we know how many people to expect for that.

And then there was a baby shower that was scheduled for Tuesday for Ellen Dickman.

She had her baby this morning, so that has been postponed.

Apparently, mothers are not up to going to baby showers two days after they give birth.

I guess that's a thing.

So that has been postponed indefinitely.

Well, not indefinitely.

It will happen at some point.

Maybe before the next baby.

Our guest speaker today is named Evan Burns, E .D. Burns.

He is a scholar.

He is an author.

He is a long -term missionary in the Middle East, East Asia, Alaska, and Southeast Asia.

He is married to Christy, and they have twin sons, Elijah and Isaiah.

From his international location, he directs the Master of Arts in Global Leadership at Western Seminary.

He is a linguist and a ordained minister.

He develops theological resources and trains indigenous pastors and missionaries to the least reached.

He directs a Bible -teaching ministry to Alaska natives and teaches at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary.

He has written four books.

One of them is called The Missionary Theologian.

I'm almost done with that.

I think I've got one chapter left in that and a couple of appendixes.

I've been reading it the last few weeks.

It's an excellent book, and his writing style is very readable.

Some of his books, all of his books are on the table that is out in the foyer.

I would encourage you to stop and take a look at them.

They're not for sale, but at least you can see what he has written out there and also sign up if you'd like to receive his email newsletter.

I think Evan speaks something like 14 different languages.

You can correct me if that's wrong.

Please welcome E .D. Burns.

Just 13.

It was great to be here for Sunday school.

As I said at the beginning of Sunday school, if you want to receive our prayer updates, we send one out about every quarter or so just through email.

There's a sheet in the back next to the books.

You can put your name and email.

We'd love for you to be praying for us.

There's a couple of books back there I brought to give away.

They're the stack of blue books.

If there's any left, you can be sure to grab one.

I always have a complication when I come speak

at a new place where I don't know the people, but I do know a few things about people in general.

I speak all over the world in different languages, in different bush villages or big seminaries.

The common thing about all of us is we're all descendants of Adam, and we all are looking

for forgiveness, and we all want to be secured in

covenantal, persistent, steadfast love.

It's written on every human heart.

We're all broken by sin, condemned, and corrupt in Adam.

I do know that there is one message that speaks to everybody anywhere, and it's that

in Christ, God loves people.

He has sent forth his Son in the fullness of time as the

mediator between God and man.

No matter what your view of Jesus Christ is, if he is not a mediator, he's not the Christ of the Bible.

I do hope this morning that you would walk away with this stamped

upon your soul, that Jesus secures you and sustains you for a great salvation.

I hope you're encouraged this morning to rest in Christ and to rest in God's love for you in Christ.

Let me pray, and we'll look at our text.

Our Father in heaven, you're great and greatly to be praised.

You sit high enthroned above the earth,

and we ask, who may ascend the hill of the Lord?

Who may ascend into Mount Zion?

And your answer is, he who has clean hands and a pure heart.

Well, Lord, our hearts are not pure, and our hands are not clean, but there is one who goes before us,

the Son of God, the Son of man, and the Son of David.

He has pure hands and a pure heart, and it's in him that we trust, and it's with his robes of

righteousness we enter your presence, and we ask that you would open your word and show us

wonderful things in your law and enlarge our hearts to run in the way of your commandments.

And be pleased in us this morning, in Jesus' name, amen.

It was the best of times.

It was the worst of times.

It was the age of wisdom.

It was the age of foolishness.

It was the epoch of belief, and it was the epoch of incredulity.

It was the season of light and the season of darkness, the spring of hope and the winter of despair.

So read the opening lines to A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

It could well describe 9th century BC in the land of Israel, and indeed probably our own time.

In the era of 9th century BC, we see in 1st Kings 16,

there are two anti -Yahweh antagonists in the story.

Ahab is king over Israel, and his reign is the turning point in Israel's history,

which is clear from the fact that six chapters at the end of 1st Kings are

dedicated to his reign alone.

And this transitional moment in Israel's history is by far the lowest point of the period since the Judges.

One writer says this,

But if your main concerns in life were for the economy, prosperity, and overall social stability,

these days didn't seem so bad.

Ahab had reigned for 22 years.

No coups, no assassination attempts, no insurrections.

And then there is this shrewd marriage alliance with the ambitious Phoenician princess

Jezebel, which secured unlimited access to the world -famous

seaports in Phoenicia, which meant that business was booming.

They had an economy making record strides.

There is no felt need for the old -school god of their forefathers.

It was the age of progress, of human flourishing.

And then the Bible says,

Ahab's obsession with bowel worship, serving and worshiping bowel, building an altar and a temple to bowel,

building a huge idol of bowel, angered the Lord more than any other king had.

And then his marriage alliance to the bowel mistress herself, Jezebel, was a major

headlong leap into uninhibited rebellion to God.

Moreover, he builds Jericho, which is not insignificant trivia at the end of

1 Kings 16.

So why is it important that Ahab has built Jericho?

It's a seemingly minor detail, but it's indicative of how dark this time was because after the destruction of Jericho,

Joshua had declared a curse over anyone who would endeavor to rebuild the city.

And the curse forbade anybody from rebuilding the city, which Ahab certainly, with the best historians

and educated advisors in the land, would have known.

And he willfully rebels against God.

There is no fear of Yahweh in Ahab.

And it's upon this dark backdrop, since Ahab and Jezebel are the evil

antagonists, that a righteous protagonist enters the scene.

So who is this pro -Yahweh protagonist?

Well, the very next verse in 1 Kings 17, 1, abruptly

introduces an obscure prophet of whom we have never

heard before.

His name is Elijah.

My God is Yahweh is what Elijah means.

Unlike the scriptural introductions of other major characters, the details of his resume, his pedigree, his

family of origin, are withheld in order to focus on his prophetic message to

Ahab.

One writer pastorally fleshes out the significance of the suddenness of

Elijah's appearing in 1 Kings 17, 1.

The writer says this, For to see him, that is Elijah, appear so suddenly reminds us

that we need not despair when we see great movements of evil achieving

spectacular success on this earth.

For we may be sure that God, in unexpected places, has already secretly

prepared his counter -movement.

God has always his ways of working underground to undermine the stability of

evil.

God can raise up men for his service from nowhere.

Therefore, the situation is never hopeless where God is concerned.

Whenever evil flourishes, it is always a superficial flourish.

For at the height of the triumph of evil, God will be there, ready with his

man and his movement and his plans to ensure that his own cause will never fail.

In other words, there's a man in Israel and his name is

Eliyah.

My God is Yah.

And his message is what marks him.

His message is what distinguishes him from the prophets of Baal.

And what is the first mention of his message?

Well, it's in rebuke to Ahab's covenant breaking.

It's a pronouncement of the covenant curses from Deuteronomy.

Elijah shows himself to be a true prophet of God because his prediction of drought is

based upon God's covenant curses that are threatened to come to pass for rebellion.

And Elijah surges with Yahweh passion, with Yahweh worship.

So what's so special about Elijah?

Well, he's recorded as a transitional figure in the history of the kings and the prophets.

And one reason you know he's transitional is because like Moses before,

Elijah's ministry is marked by signs and wonders.

In redemptive history, when God's purposes experience a major shift, typically they're

accompanied by a series of miraculous events.

So consider Moses' miracles in Exodus, Jesus' miraculous three -year ministry,

the apostles' miraculous ministry in establishing the New Testament church in Acts.

And in this instance in Israel's history, the prophetic office is being inaugurated through Elijah

and ramping up.

As Moses represents the law to the people, Elijah represents the prophets to the people.

The law is like the covenant contract, so to speak, between God and the people.

And the prophets are like the legal attorneys that are applying the law and the stipulations of the law to

the context of God's people making charges, making warnings, accusations, and promises in

order to turn them back to the God of the covenant, the covenant contract.

And some of those miraculous records in the life of Elijah on numerous occasions entail things like

hearing the voice of God, miraculous provisions of bread, just like the manna in the wilderness under Moses,

miraculous provisions of meat, just like quail in the wilderness under Moses, of water, just like the

rock that split open in the wilderness.

God provides food through a widow.

And then through Elijah, God provides food for the widow in the famine.

God even uses Elijah to raise to life the widow's dead son.

And then three years later, after the famine is ending, Elijah boldly goes to meet

Ahab.

And during the famine, apparently, Jezebel's killed all the prophets of God that she could find,

though about 100 are safely hiding away from her wrath.

And Jezebel and Ahab are like the classic political crime family,

the Clintons, you might say.

Okay, I'm in Idaho, I know I can say this.

So not every church I can say that.

So everybody just is like suiciding themselves, you know.

An Old Testament foreshadow of the beast and the false prophet.

Knowing that his career, his life, is in danger, he

knows he is the most wanted man in Israel.

He is a national security threat.

He is Ahab's fall guy, his patsy, his scapegoat.

The nation hates Elijah's name because the word on the street is that Elijah brought about this famine.

And you can hear Ahab's hatred for Elijah and Elijah's boldness in their interactions in 1 Kings 18.

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of

Israel?

And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have, you and your father's house, because you have

abandoned the commandments of the Lord and follow the balls.

Now therefore, go and send and gather all of Israel before me at Mount Carmel and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400

prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table.

And then as the prophets of Baal gather at Mount Carmel, Elijah instructs them, and you call upon the name of your

God, and I'll call upon the name of Yahweh, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.

And so this is the Old Testament version of Doc Holliday at the gunfight of O .K. Carmel.

Okay, so the prophets of Baal, they cry out, hours and hours, and Elijah just sits back and he mocks them and

he teases them.

And after most of the day has passed, Elijah takes his turn.

He pours jars of water over the altar so that it's running over and spilling with, saturated

with water.

And Elijah calls upon the name of the Lord to make his name known, and God sends fire from heaven,

consumes the sacrifice, burning up the water, and the people who saw it fall on their faces and

declare that the Lord is God, and Elijah seizes and he slaughters all the prophets.

So what happens to Elijah?

After this savage massacre, he is a force to be reckoned with.

He makes David's mighty men look like junior varsity.

This massive victory, however, does not turn out the way that he had hoped.

In 1 Kings 19, 1 -3, Ahab tells Jezebel, and she's so mad,

and she swears she's gonna kill Elijah by the next day.

And so what does Elijah do?

Does he stand up to her?

I mean, he's just slaughtered 850 priests by himself.

He takes off for the wilderness.

Verse 4 of chapter 19.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree, and he asked

that he might die, saying, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my

father's.

And he laid down and slept under a broom tree, and behold, an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat.

And he looked, and behold, there was at his head bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water, and he ate and drank and lay

down again.

And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the

journey is too great for you.

And he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food for 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

And there he came to a cave and lodged in it, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said to him,

What are you doing here, Elijah?

And he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars

and killed your prophets with a sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it

away.

And he said, Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.

And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great strong wind tore the mountains and

broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord.

But the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind, an earthquake.

But the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake, a fire.

But the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire, the sound of a low whisper.

And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave, and behold,

there came a voice to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

He said, I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars and

killed your prophets with a sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away.

And the Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, you shall anoint

Hazael to be king over Syria, Jehu the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaffa of

Abel -Necholah, you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.

And the one who escapes the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes the sword of Jehu shall Elijah put to death.

Yet I will leave 7 ,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal,

and every mouth that has not kissed him.

All right, a couple questions.

What is so amazing about this account?

Is it amazing that this mighty man of God, this prophet of prophets, who has

slaughtered all the prophets of Baal by himself, cowers in fear of

Jezebel?

That Elijah runs from Jezebel is quite out of character, especially after

confronting Ahab to his face, after raising a child from the dead, after

predicting a famine and seeing it come to pass, after seeing God provide food for him through birds,

after calling down fire out of heaven, after slaughtering the 850 priests of Baal, praying

for rain and outrunning Ahab's chariot.

So instead of writing him off as some sort of manic depressive prophet,

which, of course, we're complicated people and

there's always complexities to imbalances in our bodies.

That's not the point of the text.

That's not even remotely the point of the text.

The text gives us clues that he is driven way more by convictions than chemistry.

Something deeper is going on in Elijah.

There's a theological crisis.

He's wrestling with God's purposes, Elijah's noble expectations of turning Israel back to

Yahweh don't fit God's plan and God's timing.

After Elijah flees to the wilderness, he comes to rest under a tree.

There in the wilderness, the angel of the Lord ministers to him.

We know from the rest of the Bible that the angel of the Lord with a definite article is the pre -incarnate Messiah.

So isn't it interesting?

Isn't it interesting that he didn't just send one of his myriads of angels to go serve Elijah?

It's a beautiful picture.

It's a lovely picture of the divine angel of the Lord himself stooping down to

serve Elijah by preparing for him hot bread and cool water as he sleeps

under the shade of a tree.

You know what?

In redemptive history, God does some of his greatest works for his people when they're asleep.

Abraham is asleep with a covenant.

Elijah is asleep.

Jesus' disciples are asleep in a garden as he is in his agony.

When we are at our biggest points of rest, God is in his biggest movements on

our behalf.

It's as if this is a picture of the angel of the Lord foreshadowing the

servant of God coming to serve, not to be served.

To serve his people with living bread and water as they rest under the shade of his

tree.

And after the angel of the Lord, this Christophany revives Elijah's depleted health with bread and water

under the shade of a tree.

Where does he go?

He goes to Mount Horeb.

So why is that significant?

Mount Horeb has another name.

Its name is Mount Sinai, the place where the covenant was both given and broken in

Exodus 32 and 33.

And 40 days and 40 nights are the times of Israel's unfaithfulness in

Exodus 24 and Moses' intercession in Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 9.

Moreover, what other prophet would spend 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness?

And in showing his glory to Moses in Exodus 33, 19,

just as Yahweh passed by Moses, he now passes by

Elijah in verse 11.

It's the same exact Hebrew word on the same mountain.

Elijah knows he is God's man in God's holy mountain.

He has just spent 40 days and 40 nights at Sinai, which echoes the ministry of Moses.

He is so passionate for the covenant law of God in Yahweh's honor that he goes back to the most

holy place that he can think of, the sacred place that maybe

Jezebel's whoring religion had not yet defiled.

He goes there because his passion for Yahweh dominates his soul

and he is jealous for Yahweh's name to be honored in Israel and he's afraid that if Jezebel kills

him, the light of Israel will be snuffed out.

And the Lord asks him why he's at Sinai and you can hear his passion.

In verses 10 and 14, he says the same thing.

I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel, have forsaken your covenant, they've

thrown down your altars and killed your prophets with a sword and I, even I, only am left and they seek

my life to take it away.

From the start, Elijah is portrayed as this great man of God in Israel, the only one

who stands for Yahweh even in the literal face of death, in the literal face of the most powerful man in Israel.

He has a holy passion.

The name of Yahweh, just like John Knox said, give me Scotland or I die, or

even Rachel, who wanted to extend the Messianic line, said give me children or I die.

Elijah's mantra or his slogan would be give me national revival or I die.

His motives are righteous, they're good, they're noble, they're pleasing.

Indeed, his self -denying passion to glorify Yahweh through bringing about God -centered revival in Israel

was probably, let's just be honest, far superior to most of our life's goals, many ministries' mission

statements.

And though grateful for the very few people that turned to Yahweh at Mount Carmel, Elijah is despairing,

he's discouraged because national revival didn't break out the way that he had hoped and prayed, that the royal

family never repented.

For such an astonishing miracle, calling down fire from heaven,

such a minuscule return on investment.

Only a few turned to Yahweh.

After this thrilling climax of his ministry, truly maybe the height of his

ministry, God doesn't come through on his end of the bargain, as Elijah

perceives it.

So what's the point of trying, God?

I just want to die, I just want to die, I'm the only one left.

And instead of rebuking Elijah for being a whiny, emotional prophet who just can't get his act together,

the Lord who previously provides food and water while he sleeps serving him, that same merciful Lord, now

shows Elijah his power in a tornado, an earthquake, and fire, and he speaks to him in a low voice.

Unless you think I commit the unpardonable sin and say that God can whisper to us, I know there's a good book called God Doesn't Whisper,

I've heard of it, I recommend it to you.

I knew if I was going to do this passage I had to at least say I knew about the book.

The Lord gave Elijah instructions to anoint Jehu as king, Elisha as his

successor, and the Lord gives Elijah fresh courage to press on, guaranteeing that there are

7 ,000 people among the faithful, unknown remnant who refuse to

bow to the wicked culture.

Elijah really isn't alone.

The Messiah secures and sustains us for a glorious salvation.

Now fast forward eight and a half centuries, knowing the deepest desires of his servant's hearts.

God, let's just imagine this scenario with me, this is just me fleshing out this scenario in my mind.

God says to Elijah in heaven, hey, Elijah, I want you to meet somebody.

Take Moses and go down to that mountain.

So Moses and Elijah, two servants passionate for Yahweh, the

Old Testament representative mediator and the Old Testament representative prophet, they go down and they wait on a high mountain.

And suddenly, in their midst, the angel of the Lord shows up,

but in a man's body, with a bearded face of a Jewish rabbi.

His glory that they knew as the second person of the Trinity in heaven 30 years earlier is now revealed in the gritty face of a man.

He looks like one of Adam.

He's an Adamic descendant.

He's like one of them.

And with him, Peter, James, and John, who have only seen the human face

of this Jewish rabbi, and now they see the radiance of the divine glory that he had before the

foundation of the world, the glory that passed by Moses and Elijah on Mount Sinai.

For the first time, Elijah meets the better prophet who

speaks a better word that turns the hearts of his people to Yahweh, and who writes his law on their hearts

and Elijah's hopes and prayers are finally realized in the

face of Yeshua, Mashiach, Jesus, Messiah, God's Plan

A all along, and still is today.

And here's the application for us.

The Lord knows our deepest, truest desires, those good desires, those dreams that we've always wanted for his glory.

There are some of us who, you know, we observe Christians who go from one victory to

another, never struggling, seemingly, never grieving where maybe you secretly battle.

Maybe that family whose children grew up loving the Lord, marrying wisely, finding good jobs, and living nearby with great

-grandchildren.

That friend who has just so much health and energy, has no health problems, or that missionary biography that everybody

loves to read about a life that is truly surrendered to the Lord.

Or those Christians who talk about how well things are going in ministry, how great ministry is, how

enjoyable it is.

Or that relative that just always talks about how good God is all the time.

God is good.

God is good all the time.

Just, God has blessed me with amazing marriage, amazing vacations, amazing health, amazing devotions, amazing

kids, amazing job, amazing food.

Everything is amazing all the time.

And then there's you.

Maybe you struggle.

Maybe you struggle with secret addictions.

Maybe you wonder if your kids will ever respect you again.

Maybe you wish you could have spent your life differently in the Lord's service.

Maybe you.

Think you missed something that the Lord, an opportunity the Lord had given you, and now you're paying for it the rest of your life.

You just, sometimes, you just want to give up because you feel like you've spent yourself in service to the church, and all you get is

slander and backstabbing in return.

There is no tangible return on investment in your service to the Lord.

Most of your efforts to serve the Lord's people have amounted to lots of years of broken relationships, departed church

members, for no particular reason.

You're jealous for God and His glory, but He just doesn't seem to come through on His end of the bargain

in your life.

When Jesus called you to pick up your cross and follow Him, you had no idea how tedious and inglorious and

ordinary and discouraging that calling could be.

You'd never say this to anybody, but maybe you secretly wish that God would just take you home and free you of this hard

and hellish life.

As Paul says in Romans 8 .22, he says,.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning in the pains of child birth

until now.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly

for adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies, for in this hope we are saved.

And hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

I mean, if that's you, that inner groaning for final deliverance, you're not alone.

This is the normal Christian life.

Knowing that we'd be tempted to give up and give in from constant stress and anxiety and pressure and discouragement in this life.

Paul calls Christians to look beyond the pain to where the hope is pointing

to the dawning glory of God, to the resurrection glory of God.

He says in Romans 8 .18, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not

worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

So what does that mean?

How is that possible?

Because we can often talk about our problems and our pains and our sufferings, but how can you not even compare it when it's so heavy?

Well, he answers it in 2 Corinthians 4 .16.

For we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away.

Our inner self is being renewed day by day for this light and momentary affliction is

preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

As we look not to the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

So by faith, we look back and trust in the things that Christ has done for us, and then by faith we look forward

to those things that God has promised and hope in his faithfulness to fulfill those promises.

And as good children of Abraham who trust in the promises just as Abraham, he sojourned in the land of

promise and he refused to build the city himself, but he looked to God who is a city builder.

So we don't build the kingdom, we live in light of the coming kingdom and we testify to the king and his kingdom.

It's not our job to manufacture the promises that God has promised to give to us.

It is the Father's good pleasure, little flock, to give you the kingdom.

And that is that forward -looking faith.

That is what it means to walk as nomads in this life, as sojourners and pilgrims who look to the king

and his coming kingdom, to the city and the city builder that is ours to be given by inheritance, not

by earning.

We don't earn it.

It has been earned for us and we just receive it through faith alone.

And it's for that glorious salvation that Jesus secures you and sustains you through faith alone.

And like Elijah, the reason you do not lose heart is because God loves

you and wields all his might for you to save

you and secure you for himself.

You are owned by God and no one can deliver out of his hand.

You are saved by Christ, in Christ, for God,

from God.

His enduring love and kingly power to save are overflows of who he is.

They are infinite, eternal, and unchanging and immutable.

And I love this in Malachi 3 .6, for I, the Lord, do not change.

I love this.

Therefore,.

You are not consumed.

I do not change.

So you're not consumed.

God never changes.

He never goes back and revisits his promises.

If he has covenanted himself to you through the butchering of his son, you can take it to the bank.

He'll finish it, and he'll take you home.

Consider the experiences of those devastating darknesses, those merciless disappointments, those

nightmarish sadnesses, those unremitting pains, and maybe the burden you describe as

heavy, unbearable, maybe even crushing.

The Bible validates the human experience of pain, to be sure, but it describes it as what?

Light and momentary affliction.

So how is that possible?

It's because the glory of the resurrection is not even worth comparing

to our sufferings.

And it's beyond all comparison, according to 2 Corinthians 4 .17.

So what does that mean?

What is this weight of glory that today Elijah and the great cloud of witnesses who have died in

faith now enjoy in part before the resurrection?

Well, 1 Peter 1 .4 describes it as an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and

unfading, kept, guarded, secured in heaven for you.

In heaven, and then in the resurrection,.

There will.

Never, never, never, never be one moment of regret,

remorse, discontentment, envy, jealousy, discouragement, trauma,

addiction, slander, struggle, or anything else that crushes you in this life.

Indeed, the Bible teaches that we will not likely even recall to mind the things of this

life.

Isaiah 65 .17 says this.

This is so liberating to me.

I love this.

Isaiah 65 .17.

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and

the former things shall not be remembered

or come to mind.

Isn't that good news?

Isn't that good news for those of us who struggle with bad dreams, sad memories,.

PTSD,.

Something from your previous life that you just wish would be erased from your memory bank?

God says elsewhere in Isaiah 54 .4, Fear not, fear not, for you will

not be ashamed.

Be done with this fear that you're going to stand before God and feel ashamed someday.

You're justified, and you'll be welcomed into his presence.

He's not going to air all your dirty laundry.

It's been done.

It's taken away.

You will enter into the joy of your master.

There will be no shame and no guilt on that day, nothing but celebration and joy, if you're

in Christ.

Fear not, you will not be ashamed.

Be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced, for you will forget the shame of your

youth and the reproach of your widowhood.

You will remember no more.

Any recollection of this life will probably be something like a fading dream.

Waking up after a dream, we go through the day, and what happens?

The dream fades.

That memory of that dream just kind of disappears.

We have some maybe hint that we had a dream, but it doesn't dominate our consciousness.

In light of reality, our daily living, that reminiscence of that dream is kind of trivial,

and it's insignificant.

And so, the love of God for us in Christ will dominate and exhaust and

swallow up all that is momentary and transient in this life, and God

lovingly leverages all that He is for us and our good in the resurrection, and that weight that feels

so burdensome and so crushing in this momentary life will be translated into heavy

weights of eternal, immeasurable, unchanging glory.

And in Hebrew, the word for glory is literally weight or heavy, and so Paul's translating a common

Hebrew theological word into Greek, basically saying our heavy pains in this life should point us away

from them to look forward to those unseen promises of heaven, the weight of glory, or the

heaviness of glory, or like literally the weight of weight, so

that when we get to heaven, never will we fully fathom the depths of God's

wisdom and goodness and holiness and love and benevolence and power for us and

His grace.

Every day will get better and better and better and better because you can

never fully exhaust the goodness of God if He's infinite.

Never, never will you fully come to a full knowledge and comprehension and enjoyment of

God's love for you.

Never.

And so if there's days in heaven at the end of every day, you will say, that was the best day of my

life.

God loves even me.

I can't wait for tomorrow.

And for the Christian, the best is always yet to come.

And in 10 billion years from now, on the new earth, the best is always yet to come.

You see, heaven is the presence of the Father and the Son and the Spirit, holy and infinite and eternal love.

A land of heavy,.

Glorious.

Love in Christ so that day after day, age after age, you will

be weighed down with wave after wave of benevolence

and kindness and happiness and love of the triune God so much so that if you were to experience it in this

life, you would say with heaving gasps, I can't

take it anymore.

Lord, stay your hand.

You are beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words, too wonderful for comprehension like nothing

ever seen or heard.

Who can grasp your infinite wisdom?

Who can fathom the depths of your love?

You are beautiful beyond description, majesty enthroned above.

And in heaven and on the new earth, that is our inheritance.

And all of this life is going to be inconsequential.

You know, we know what that's like in part, don't we?

Because you know what it's like to be caught up in a moment, a moment of something sublime, something that you just love so much where you lose

track of time?

It's the picture of timelessness in heaven when this happens.

We all know what it's like that maybe winning or watching your team, your favorite team win the Super Bowl

or the World Series, the year you fell in love, the day you got engaged, your wedding day, your honeymoon, the birth

of your first child or grandchild, scoring the winning points in a championship game, performing flawlessly at your senior recital,

running across a finish line, enjoying Christmas Eve and morning with your grandkids all under your roof.

In those blissful moments, time ceases to exist, doesn't it?

In those sublime moments, nobody worries about what happens tomorrow.

Nobody cares to recall what happened yesterday.

Nobody's bored and nobody checks their watch.

It's because those heavenly moments swallow us up and remind us that we were made for something

and someone far better, otherworldly, pure, perfect,

holy, joyful, timeless, unchanging so that in heaven, nobody will say to C .S. Lewis or J

.R .R. Tolkien, you had a better imagination than God does.

Not going to happen.

Never will you be tired or bored, in pain or discouraged,

irritated, but the sounds of heaven and the new earth will be sounds of laughter and

singing, energy and discovery, joy and peace, and on the new earth

you'll have a reputation and a job that you love, but isn't it interesting?

Think about what a resurrected humanity is going to look like.

There's going to be things that we just don't have to do.

There's going to be jobs that will be non -existent.

There'll be no pastors, there'll be no counselors, there'll be no pharmacists, no mechanics, no

policemen, no firemen.

Moreover,.

The arts, the sciences, the humanities, engineering, space exploration, agriculture, and

the like will abound and resound to the glory of Christ.

Like Elijah, we can get up in the morning and endure another day in the thanklessness and

the mundane, discouraging world in which we are assigned and live as exiles and sojourners

like the children of Abraham.

How do we.

Keep going when our prayers and God's promises rarely seem to match?

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15 -58, Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding

in the work of the Lord.

How?

Knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

It's what you know and who you trust that makes all the difference.

Knowing that in the Lord, in your union with Christ, your labor is not in vain.

Resurrection is coming.

It's coming with all the rewards and then some, more than you could ever ask or imagine.

He will not let us go.

He will hold us fast.

He will secure and sustain us for a great salvation and he will safely bring us home to glory.

And I love this, 1 Thessalonians 5 -23, Now may the God of peace himself, this is kind of like

the benediction, sanctify you completely.

And.

May your whole spirit and soul and body be kept, guarded, blameless

at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And just in case you think this is partly on you to do this, in your faithfulness,

verse 24, he who calls you is.

Faithful.

He will surely.

Do it.

God will secure you and sustain you for a great salvation.

The ending of the last battle by C .S. Lewis, it says this, and as he spoke he no longer looked to them

like a lion.

But the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.

And for us this is the end of all the stories.

And we can mostly, we can most truly say that they lived happily ever after.

But for them, it was only the beginning of the real story.

All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page.

Now at last, they are beginning chapter one of the great story, which no one on earth has

ever read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the

one before.

Let's pray.

Thank you God for your great promises.

Would you help us to have faith like Elijah, to look forward to the

final fulfillment of your promises, that you have validated in the cross and resurrection

of Jesus.

Father would you please, in Christ, secure us and sustain us for a great salvation so that

we can say in the last we will see our Redeemer standing

upon the earth and we will see him with our eyes.

Oh God, keep us faithful until that day and encourage our hearts this morning.

We pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

That was a great reminder of what it is that we have been saved from and for.

We are reminded that the sacrifice that has saved us is the same sacrifice and grace that sustains us and keeps us

for his eternal glory and for our eternal good.

So we're going to observe communion here and I would ask the ushers to come forward to help serve that now.

There's been a great cost that has been paid for our salvation and we remember that when we observe communion.

That a body was broken and blood was shed so that we might be redeemed and that we might experience and know God's covenant love for

us and his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you're not a believer, I would encourage you not to partake of communion but to let the elements pass from before you because scripture warns

that if you partake as an unbeliever you are eating and drinking judgment to yourself.

And if you are a Christian who is living in unrepentant sin and you're not dealing with that sin before the Lord, you're not ready to take communion either.

You need to repent of that sin, confess it to the Lord, or let the elements pass from before you.

So I would just encourage you to those two warnings.

We're going to have a moment of quiet prayer and then I will lead us in prayer of repentance and confession.

Our

great Father, we acknowledge our sin and iniquity before you that we are unworthy of your blessings or your grace.

You did not send your son to redeem a people worthy of your love or worthy of your grace at all.

But we were lost in Adam, hopeless, helpless, and undone and we deserved only your wrath.

We thank you that you have sent your son to atone for our sin and to bear the full price and the payment for our sins

so that we may have eternal life and the forgiveness of sins.

We acknowledge before you our weakness and our frailty, our sinful proclivities, our iniquity.

We are aware of certain sins in our lives and there are many more that do not even come to our mind because we do not have the

illumination that we should and we don't walk with you as we should.

So we just confess to you those sins and pray that you would be glorified through our forgiveness and through

our restoration to fellowship and that you would be honored here as we contemplate the great price that was paid so that we might not only be

forgiven but righteous in your sight.

We praise you in the name of Christ our Lord, the great sacrifice and our soon and coming King.

Amen.

On the night that our Lord was betrayed he took the bread and when he had broke it he said take, eat.

This is my body which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance.

Of

me.

Sorry

we

ran

out

when we

got.

To the back.

They're just going to fill in the holes here.

Did anybody not get one?

Wanted one?

In the same manner after supper the Lord took the cup and when he had in the same manner after supper the Lord took the cup and said,

drink this in remembrance of me.

This is my blood which is shed for you, the blood of the new covenant.

Do this in remembrance of me.

I apologize for that.

Running out of communion just threw me off.

Simon, will you pray?

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your gift of grace to us.

Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, his death, burial and resurrection on our behalf and thank you for the hope that we

heard about this morning.

I pray that as we take these promises and live this week that you would help us to do away with defilements of the

flesh and perfect holiness and fear and that you would protect the unity of this body.

I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's stand together and sing.

His mercy is more.

The

grace

of

the

Lord

Jesus

Christ.

And the love of God and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all.

Have a great week.

Let our songs ring out. Let our hearts be glad.

Love has banished doubt.

See the empty cross

is streaming.

Down.