Keith Battle - A Faith Workout

First Kings chapter 17 is where the message will come from today. First Kings chapter 17. If you have a Bible, or if you have a phone with a Bible app on it, or you have an iPad with you, or some kind of device, you can look it up. There’s a free Bible app available, so pull it up. If they have translation options, you can follow along with me. I’m using the New Living Translation; I like that translation because I think it’s both accurate in scholarship and contemporary, making it easier to understand. Why complicate things? Some people think the King James Version is the only Bible; that’s just not true. It’s merely the oldest translation, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only one. The word of God is alive. If you really want the original translation, get a Hebrew Old Testament and a Greek New Testament, and bring that to church. Now you’re doing something! Even that isn’t exactly what they originally wrote on; they originally wrote on papyrus sheets. You’d have to get the scrolls if you want the real thing. Just imagine bringing some scrolls in here and pulling them out! You wouldn’t be able to read much of it, but it’s the Word right here—the Word of God, everlasting and eternal!

Verse 1: If you don’t have a Bible on your phone, on your electronic device, or in your hand on your lap, then watch the screen. Verse 1 says, «Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, ‘As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word.’» It’s not going to rain! Then the Lord said to Elijah, «Go to the east and hide by the Kerith Brook near where it enters the Jordan River. Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food.» So Elijah did as the Lord told him. I assure you, he did as the Lord instructed him. Elijah followed what the Lord told him. When the Lord told him to go to Ahab and say what he said, he complied. When the Lord told him to go to the Kerith Brook, he went.

Verse 5: «So Elijah did as the Lord instructed and camped beside the Kerith Brook, east of the Jordan.» Verse 6: «The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook.» But after a while, the brook dried up because there was no rainfall anywhere in the land.

Then the Lord said to Elijah, «Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.» Verse 10: «So he went to Zarephath.» He went to Zarephath as the Lord told him to do; that’s where he went. The Lord told Elijah to say something, and he said it. The Lord told him to go somewhere, and he went. The Lord told him to do something, and he did it. It’s called obedience. It’s a walk of faith. He went to Zarephath in faith.

As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks. He asked her, «Would you please bring me a little water in a cup?» As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, «Bring me a bite of bread.» But she said, «I swear by the Lord your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die.»

But Elijah said to her, «Don’t be afraid; go ahead and do what you just said. But make a little bread for me first, then use what’s left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘There will always be flour and olive oil in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again.’» So she did as Elijah said. She did as Elijah instructed, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah.

My subject today is a faith workout. Everybody say, «A faith workout.» Faith workout! In the world of fitness, physical fitness, muscles are developed through exercise. Muscles are strengthened through exercise. Strength training, resistance training, develops muscles, and if a person wants to get stronger and have more developed muscles, they must exercise and regularly strengthen their muscles. They have to do regular workouts. When workouts cease happening…