Elements of Biblical Servanthood
1 Kings 19:9-18 ~ Ted phillips
March 17, 2019
Elements of Biblical Servanthood
In our study of the life of Elijah, we have been looking, at this point, at the lovingkindness of the Lord that He showed to His wayward servant after the threat that Jezebel made in the lip-service that Israel had given to the Lord on Mount Carmel. Really, in fear and discouragement, Elijah had turned his eyes from the Lord and he followed after his own fleshly and natural tendency. And, of course, this is not something that is unique to Elijah. One of the greatest dangers that God's people face is to look at the circumstances around us; the constant and ongoing war that we see against righteousness to see unrighteousness and degradation of the worst kind, and to see it actually held up as something of honor. We see that today more and more, and it can be overwhelming at times, and I think it can oftentimes lead us to discouragement, and fear, and even cause us to question Who is on the throne. It can cause us to waiver in our trust and to waiver in our commitment to the Lord. This is what we see here in Elijah, is not an uncommon temptation. But in spite of this, as we have seen, the Lord did not forsake Elijah. As irrational and unfounded as Elijah's fears were, Lord did not turn His back on His servant, and He does not forsake any who belong to Him. Even though, in our weakness, our faith may waiver at times, the Lord's lovingkindness is from everlasting to everlasting. Instead of abandoning Elijah, the Lord really did the exact opposite. He pursued after him. He sought him out. He did not allow him just to sit there and to wallow in his despair, or to continue to indulge himself in pity. We also saw that the Lord continued to care for Elijah. There was no mistaking the hand of the Lord as He sent His angel to provide food and strength for him. After that the Lord Himself spoke to Elijah. He challenged him and He exhorted him. And if you remember the question that He asked Elijah, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” as he was there on Mount Horeb. And of course. This was a very searching question penetrating the mind and the heart of Elijah.
As we saw a few weeks ago, the Lord then revealed Himself to His prophet, and particularly revealed that He alone is sovereign. Lamenting the fact that he had failed to bring about repentance in Israel, that he was really no better than his forefathers, Elijah is brought face-to-face with the fact that the work of service to the Lord is not about us. It was not about him. In His wisdom and grace the Lord works through his people to bring about the obedience of faith, but the changing of one's heart, the changing of the heart of a sinful man, that alone was accomplished by His hand. It's accomplished in His own time, it's accomplished by His own means. And as we noted before, the Lord is not dependent on man. He’s not dependent, certainly, on any one man. And the ones that He does use, those whom he does use, He alone is their adequacy. Their adequacy comes from Him. In showing his sovereignty to Elijah, the Lord also revealed that the greatest display of his infinite power is not through His miraculous signs and wonders, it is through the still small voice of His Holy Spirit. And it was that small voice to which Elijah responded. He responded in reverence as he covered his face.
What has always been true, it is still--- it is that still small voice of the Spirit of God that changes the hearts of sinful men. All that the Lord did for Elijah, all that He revealed to him, and He did this out of His love for him, And, what is a great comfort, He does the same for you and I, He does the same for all those who belong to Him by grace and through faith. I think, as we look into God's word, we must always come back to this very thing; how the Lord deals with one of His children, is the way that He deals with all of them. He is the same, as we are reminded, He's the same yesterday today and forever. His love does not fail, in fact His love and His mercy, we are told, is new every morning.
This morning I want for us to consider another way in which the Lord showed lovingkindness to Elijah. And again, it's important for us to see, because we can expect--- in fact we can even anticipate, that He will demonstrate His love to us in the very same way. Follow along with me as I read from verses nine down through verse 18 in first Kings chapter 19. Speaking of Elijah here, it says,
“…he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
So, He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the LORD. And behold, the LORD was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind and earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and he went out and he stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
The LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram; and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of his Hazael, Jehu will put to death, and the one who escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. Yet I will leave 7000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
I want us to see from these verses this morning, that according to the Lord's lovingkindness, the Lord calls Elijah once again to useful service. If you are counting, this is the fifth act of lovingkindness that the Lord shows to Elijah in the midst of his failure. In verse 13, the Lord, as you see here, for the second time, asked Elijah what are you doing here And Elijah gives his response in verse 14, also, for the second time. And I want you to notice the next thing that the Lord says to Elijah, He says, “Go,” He says, “Go.” This is only a small two letter word, but it’s a very significant thing I think that the Lord says to Elijah, especially at this time and in this place, and under these circumstances, Lord says to Elijah, “Elijah, Go---go.”
As I been meditating on this and am praying about it, seems to me there are number of things that are implied by this one word that the Lord speaks to Elijah. The first is that the Lord is addressing Elijah as His servant. This short statement that the Lord makes here, it is assertive. It's an assertive statement. He was not giving Elijah a suggestion. He was not offering an option for Elijah to consider. “Elijah, you are My servant, go!” This kind of address would certainly not have been something new to Elijah. As we have seen before, this is how Elijah saw himself. In fact, this is how he desired to be seen by those---by the people who are on Mount Carmel if you remember. You remember his prayer, he said, “Oh Lord.” Elijah prayed, “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Today, let it be known that You are God in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and I have done all of these things at Your word.” This is really an amazing statement that Elijah makes here. It was a genuine desire of his and it was certainly a proper desire. It’s a great example. But sad to say, shortly after Mount Carmel, this ‘servant’s mindset’ changed in Elijah. Mount Carmel did not turn out how he thought it would. It did not turn out how he thought it should. In Elijah's mind, everything that he had been working towards for the last 3 1/2 years had come to naught. It was not at all what he anticipated. And so, he quit---he quit. He ceased from serving the Lord. He literally ran away. But once again, according to the lovingkindness of the Lord, the Lord did not quit on Elijah. The Lord God tells Elijah to ‘go.’ And what I want us to see here is that by commanding Elijah to ‘go,’ the Lord was reminding him, in fact, he was affirming to Elijah, you are the servant of the living God. You have been, you are, and will continue to be My servant. In effect, He is saying to Elijah, “Elijah, I have useful service for you, go!” So often the commandments of the Lord are seen as negative. People do not like to be told what to do or what not to do. There are, in fact, a growing number of people in the church who---who see them as repressive. They talk about focusing only on the positive things in God's word, focusing only on the grace of God. But we must understand something I think important about this, in no uncertain terms---in no uncertain terms, the Lord's commandments, His instructions and His expectations, they are the grace of God. They are the very power of His grace to sanctify them, to set apart His people. This truth needs to take hold of God's people, just as it did Elijah on the mountain there. The commandments we are given in God's word, whether they are positive or negative, they are for our good. They lead us into the path of righteousness. They allow us to share in His holiness. That is to say, the instructions that the Lord gives us in His word, they are a demonstration and a reminder that we are servants of the King. They are an affirmation that we belong to Him. Sinful though we were, we are now His treasured possessions. He instructs us that we might be able to proclaim the excellencies of the very God of glory. The Lord's instruction to Elijah, to go and to serve the Lord, this was a gift of grace, if you think about it. This was a gift of grace. Elijah did not deserve this. You and I do not deserve this as well. Elijah could not have expressed it better as he prayed to the Lord, “Let it be known, O Lord, that I am Your servant.” He had forgotten this. Let me ask you this morning. Do you consider yourself to be a servant of the Lord? Is that your mindset? Is that how you think? Is that how you and I live our lives? Is that the---the moving force behind the decisions we make, the things that we will do and will not do with the time and the resources that the Lord is given to us? In other words, do you and I desire what Elijah desired, ‘O Lord, let it be known that I am Your servant.’
There's another element to biblical servant hood and I think it is most relevant also in this passage. Servants of the Lord are not just people who obey what they are told to do. When the Lord instructed Elijah to ‘go,’ He was entrusting him with His eternal work. In other words, servant hood involves stewardship. Now we know through the Scripture, we come to understand that stewardship has to do with the responsibility of properly caring for both the possessions and the affairs of another. This arrangement was quite common in that time. It was quite common in a culture. A steward actually had no wealth of his own, he had no property of his own, but instead he was entrusted with the possessions and the concerns of another. They were placed in his hands. They were placed in his---into his responsibility. This is what the Lord God was doing with Elijah when He instructed him to ‘go.’ He was entrusting him and committing to him, His work and His people into the hands of Elijah. If you look at verses 15 through 17, it gives us an outline of how the Lord would continue His eternal work with the nation of Israel. In particular, Elijah was instructed to anoint three men. He was first to anoint his Hazael king over Aram. He was then to anoint Jehu king over Israel. And last of all he was to anoint Elisha to be his own successor. Through these three men God would then complete the removal of Baal worship that had---that Elijah had begun. Through Elijah and these three men, the Lord would further sanctify His people. Not only did the Lord not abandon Elijah but He conferred on him, a precious responsibility, really a special privilege. He allowed him once again to invest his time in his energy and his heart into God's eternal work. He allowed Elijah to become once again a useful tool in His hands. You know that same privilege and responsibility is made available to each one of God's people. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 10 deals with this very thing. Over the course of our study of the life of Elijah, I have mentioned a number of times the fact that God enters His people into His work. And this passage here in 1 Peter chapter 4 in verse 10 it gets to the very heart of this wonderful truth. Listen to what the Lord tells us in this passage, He says,
“As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
Let me read that one more time. He says,
“As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
That’s quite a statement. The full magnitude of it really, in some respects, is overwhelming. You would expect a statement like this to be made to someone such as the apostle Paul, or perhaps even Peter or any of the spiritual giants in Scripture, but this statement is made to each and every one who belong to the Lord. We see here, first of all, that every person who has been made a child of God is a steward. Each one has been placed into the position of a steward. What this means is that each and every believer has been given the privilege and the responsibility to be the caretaker of a portion of what belongs to God. That alone should cause us to take notice of what is being said here.
Second of all, and I think this is where it gets very profound, that over which each of us are to be stewards is none other than the grace of God! That’s what we’re told in this passage, that's what it says. Each one of us is to be a good steward of the manifold grace of God. The God of all creation is the God of all grace, He is the God of all of abundant grace and He has chosen to bestow that grace upon the church through its own members! Think about that! In the context of this verse, this special gift that is given to each refers to spiritual gifts or spiritual enablements. And of course, they’re given by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of edifying and building up the body. There are a variety of these gifts, and these gifts are a very part of the grace of God. They are a part of God's power given to those who believe. The thrust of this passage, it is that the power---that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to develop the grace that is given to us in the form of spiritual gifts and then we are to dispense that very grace, that we are given. That is what good stewards do. In other words, we are to become channels, each one of us. We are to become channels of the grace of God. I think the significance of this is that the church, each individual local church depends upon that, let me say it this way, the health and the vitality of the local church, it can be measured by the degree to which its members dispense the grace of God to one another. Let me repeat that. It’s a very important---a very important truth. The health and the vitality of any local church, it can be measured by the degree to which its members dispense the grace of God to one another. And of course, the question that we must ask ourselves, “Are we being good stewards?” Are you and I being good stewards? Am I being a good steward of the grace of God that He has entrusted to me? Am I ministering to my brothers and sisters in Christ as God has enabled me to? You know, as you think about this, there are so many excuses that we come up with when it comes to stewardship, when it comes to servant hood. If you remember the conversation of the Lord had with a number of men who said that they wanted to follow Him, that they wanted to be His servants, that they wanted to be stewards of the Lord. And every one of them have had an excuse. The first one was not willing to endure the hardship of being a servant, that was the implication. The second man had first going to bury his father knew. And you remember, the Lord answered him, and He said, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, g,” there we have that word go again, “and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God” The third man said to the Lord, “I will follow you, Lord. But first,” here comes the excuse, “permit me to say goodbye to those at home.” You know, all of these as you look at them, they seem like valid reasons, but the Lord made it very clear that they were nothing but excuses. They all had good intentions and usually that's the easy part. Good intentions left to themselves than ever last, they never follow through. Their excuses were born out of misplaced priorities. They were made by those whose hearts really were someplace else. And of course, we are no different than these men. We are no different. We are tempted in the same way. The excuses we often make may also seem to be very reasonable to us, but if we give into them, no matter how reasonable or even how necessary that they may seem, in the end we are putting temporal things in place of eternal things. I want you to look with me once again at the reasons that Elijah gives to the Lord for running away to Mount Horeb. We find here really, perhaps the greatest reason God's people fail in serving Him. Elijah again responds to the Lord in verse 14, “I've been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. The sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, they torn down Your altars, that killed Your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left.” “I'm the only one and they seek my life. They seek to kill me.” As I mentioned before, the reasons that Elijah gives here, These are real. These things were true in his life. They were a reality in his life, and they literally had crippled him. I think one of the things that we need to learn here is this, there are always obstacles when it comes to serving the Lord. There are always going to be obstacles when it comes to serving Him. And this is not unique with Elijah. All those who seek to serve the Lord will be faced with obstacles. They can be great obstacles are they can be small/little obstacles. They may come from pressure that people put on us, people from this world, or maybe perhaps people even from within the church. Or they may come from the attacks of Satan himself, and that certainly is a guarantee that we will be attacked in this way. But there'll always be something that is standing in the way of serving the Lord. There'll always be something that tests our faith when it comes to service, comes to this matter of service. I think what it comes down to, ultimately, it is that unbelief is the greatest obstacle to being servants of the Lord and stewards of his grace. This is what we learn from Elijah's example. Walking by sight never results in useful service to the Lord. That's the example we have here with---with Elijah. Walking by sight never will---will never result in useful service to the Lord and that course is what was keeping Elijah from serving the Lord. It was this fear that was brought on by unbelief and it literally had paralyzed him. The Lord knew the nature of Elijah's struggle. He knew the weakness of his faith. He knew that he was fixated on things that he could see, rather than on the Lord Himself. And once again, in His lovingkindness, the Lord is not doesn't rebuke Elijah. Instead, what we see here is that He undergirds Elijah's faith. He places a firm foundation under it right there on Mount Horeb. Just as we saw before, the Lord reveals to Elijah His sovereign power and His sovereign authority. Elijah stands on the mountain as he is told, and we read once again,
“And behold the LORD was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking 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 an earthquake a fire,” once again, “the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire…” the Lord then speaks to His servant. He speaks to His servant’s heart in a still small voice, by His Holy Spirit.
I would venture to say that although Elijah's response to this was the same as it was in verse 14, it was not spoken with the same desperation and distraught tone as it was before. He once again states what is true, and in verse 14---verse 15 the Lord's response to him is. “Elijah, go!” and he does. He goes. One of things that I find very encouraging is that the Lord calls you and I to be His servants, to be His stewards in the very same way that He called Elijah, the very same way. Turn with me if you will, the book of Matthew that in chapter 28 verses 16 through 20. This passage, of course, is also often referred to as “the great commission.” And of course, this is a time just before the Lord ascended into heaven, when His disciples would no longer see Him. And it is here that He commissions them to be servants. It is here when He commissions them to be stewards, to be the very stewards of His grace, and not only them, but you and I as well. Notice what we find here and in Matthew chapter 28 starting in verse 16. It says,
“But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him;”
But notice here, some were doubtful, some were doubtful. Perhaps that same kind of fear that Elijah experienced had gripped a few of them as well. But I want you to notice how the Lord comforts them, and I want to notice how He prepares them for service. In verse 18, “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” “All authority has been given to Me on have in heaven and on earth.” You see, just as with Elijah, the Lord discloses to them His sovereignty. “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” He quells their doubts and their fears. Just as He did with Elijah, He girds up their faith, He lays a firm foundation underneath it…the sovereign authority and power of God! That was the foundation that He laid under their faith. And then notice verse 19, “Go,” once again, “go.” It’s interesting He says, “Go therefore.” Go in light of what I have just disclosed to you that I am sovereign, that I am the living God, that I am the great I Am, I’m the self-existent, One and I am your God. I am your God. Therefore, go and be stewards of the manifold grace of God, “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.” Notice how He ends this, “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” That's the promise from a sovereign God. What possible excuse could we have? What possible excuse could you and I come up with? What possible fear could keep us from being with the Lord has called us to be, servants and stewards of the Most High God?
One last thought I want to share with you this morning, on Mount Horeb, the Lord asks Elijah that very important question, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” What the Lord is obviously implying is that Elijah is in the wrong place, he’s in the wrong place. He is not in the place where he can be of service to the Lord and the truth of the matter is there is no better place to be than to be in that place where you can be serving the Lord. That is what God has called us to be. That is what He has called us to do, to be servants of the Most High God. Let’s bow our heads in prayer.
In our study of the life of Elijah, we have been looking, at this point, at the lovingkindness of the Lord that He showed to His wayward servant after the threat that Jezebel made in the lip-service that Israel had given to the Lord on Mount Carmel. Really, in fear and discouragement, Elijah had turned his eyes from the Lord and he followed after his own fleshly and natural tendency. And, of course, this is not something that is unique to Elijah. One of the greatest dangers that God's people face is to look at the circumstances around us; the constant and ongoing war that we see against righteousness to see unrighteousness and degradation of the worst kind, and to see it actually held up as something of honor. We see that today more and more, and it can be overwhelming at times, and I think it can oftentimes lead us to discouragement, and fear, and even cause us to question Who is on the throne. It can cause us to waiver in our trust and to waiver in our commitment to the Lord. This is what we see here in Elijah, is not an uncommon temptation. But in spite of this, as we have seen, the Lord did not forsake Elijah. As irrational and unfounded as Elijah's fears were, Lord did not turn His back on His servant, and He does not forsake any who belong to Him. Even though, in our weakness, our faith may waiver at times, the Lord's lovingkindness is from everlasting to everlasting. Instead of abandoning Elijah, the Lord really did the exact opposite. He pursued after him. He sought him out. He did not allow him just to sit there and to wallow in his despair, or to continue to indulge himself in pity. We also saw that the Lord continued to care for Elijah. There was no mistaking the hand of the Lord as He sent His angel to provide food and strength for him. After that the Lord Himself spoke to Elijah. He challenged him and He exhorted him. And if you remember the question that He asked Elijah, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” as he was there on Mount Horeb. And of course. This was a very searching question penetrating the mind and the heart of Elijah.
As we saw a few weeks ago, the Lord then revealed Himself to His prophet, and particularly revealed that He alone is sovereign. Lamenting the fact that he had failed to bring about repentance in Israel, that he was really no better than his forefathers, Elijah is brought face-to-face with the fact that the work of service to the Lord is not about us. It was not about him. In His wisdom and grace the Lord works through his people to bring about the obedience of faith, but the changing of one's heart, the changing of the heart of a sinful man, that alone was accomplished by His hand. It's accomplished in His own time, it's accomplished by His own means. And as we noted before, the Lord is not dependent on man. He’s not dependent, certainly, on any one man. And the ones that He does use, those whom he does use, He alone is their adequacy. Their adequacy comes from Him. In showing his sovereignty to Elijah, the Lord also revealed that the greatest display of his infinite power is not through His miraculous signs and wonders, it is through the still small voice of His Holy Spirit. And it was that small voice to which Elijah responded. He responded in reverence as he covered his face.
What has always been true, it is still--- it is that still small voice of the Spirit of God that changes the hearts of sinful men. All that the Lord did for Elijah, all that He revealed to him, and He did this out of His love for him, And, what is a great comfort, He does the same for you and I, He does the same for all those who belong to Him by grace and through faith. I think, as we look into God's word, we must always come back to this very thing; how the Lord deals with one of His children, is the way that He deals with all of them. He is the same, as we are reminded, He's the same yesterday today and forever. His love does not fail, in fact His love and His mercy, we are told, is new every morning.
This morning I want for us to consider another way in which the Lord showed lovingkindness to Elijah. And again, it's important for us to see, because we can expect--- in fact we can even anticipate, that He will demonstrate His love to us in the very same way. Follow along with me as I read from verses nine down through verse 18 in first Kings chapter 19. Speaking of Elijah here, it says,
“…he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
So, He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the LORD. And behold, the LORD was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind and earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and he went out and he stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
The LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram; and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of his Hazael, Jehu will put to death, and the one who escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. Yet I will leave 7000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
I want us to see from these verses this morning, that according to the Lord's lovingkindness, the Lord calls Elijah once again to useful service. If you are counting, this is the fifth act of lovingkindness that the Lord shows to Elijah in the midst of his failure. In verse 13, the Lord, as you see here, for the second time, asked Elijah what are you doing here And Elijah gives his response in verse 14, also, for the second time. And I want you to notice the next thing that the Lord says to Elijah, He says, “Go,” He says, “Go.” This is only a small two letter word, but it’s a very significant thing I think that the Lord says to Elijah, especially at this time and in this place, and under these circumstances, Lord says to Elijah, “Elijah, Go---go.”
As I been meditating on this and am praying about it, seems to me there are number of things that are implied by this one word that the Lord speaks to Elijah. The first is that the Lord is addressing Elijah as His servant. This short statement that the Lord makes here, it is assertive. It's an assertive statement. He was not giving Elijah a suggestion. He was not offering an option for Elijah to consider. “Elijah, you are My servant, go!” This kind of address would certainly not have been something new to Elijah. As we have seen before, this is how Elijah saw himself. In fact, this is how he desired to be seen by those---by the people who are on Mount Carmel if you remember. You remember his prayer, he said, “Oh Lord.” Elijah prayed, “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Today, let it be known that You are God in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and I have done all of these things at Your word.” This is really an amazing statement that Elijah makes here. It was a genuine desire of his and it was certainly a proper desire. It’s a great example. But sad to say, shortly after Mount Carmel, this ‘servant’s mindset’ changed in Elijah. Mount Carmel did not turn out how he thought it would. It did not turn out how he thought it should. In Elijah's mind, everything that he had been working towards for the last 3 1/2 years had come to naught. It was not at all what he anticipated. And so, he quit---he quit. He ceased from serving the Lord. He literally ran away. But once again, according to the lovingkindness of the Lord, the Lord did not quit on Elijah. The Lord God tells Elijah to ‘go.’ And what I want us to see here is that by commanding Elijah to ‘go,’ the Lord was reminding him, in fact, he was affirming to Elijah, you are the servant of the living God. You have been, you are, and will continue to be My servant. In effect, He is saying to Elijah, “Elijah, I have useful service for you, go!” So often the commandments of the Lord are seen as negative. People do not like to be told what to do or what not to do. There are, in fact, a growing number of people in the church who---who see them as repressive. They talk about focusing only on the positive things in God's word, focusing only on the grace of God. But we must understand something I think important about this, in no uncertain terms---in no uncertain terms, the Lord's commandments, His instructions and His expectations, they are the grace of God. They are the very power of His grace to sanctify them, to set apart His people. This truth needs to take hold of God's people, just as it did Elijah on the mountain there. The commandments we are given in God's word, whether they are positive or negative, they are for our good. They lead us into the path of righteousness. They allow us to share in His holiness. That is to say, the instructions that the Lord gives us in His word, they are a demonstration and a reminder that we are servants of the King. They are an affirmation that we belong to Him. Sinful though we were, we are now His treasured possessions. He instructs us that we might be able to proclaim the excellencies of the very God of glory. The Lord's instruction to Elijah, to go and to serve the Lord, this was a gift of grace, if you think about it. This was a gift of grace. Elijah did not deserve this. You and I do not deserve this as well. Elijah could not have expressed it better as he prayed to the Lord, “Let it be known, O Lord, that I am Your servant.” He had forgotten this. Let me ask you this morning. Do you consider yourself to be a servant of the Lord? Is that your mindset? Is that how you think? Is that how you and I live our lives? Is that the---the moving force behind the decisions we make, the things that we will do and will not do with the time and the resources that the Lord is given to us? In other words, do you and I desire what Elijah desired, ‘O Lord, let it be known that I am Your servant.’
There's another element to biblical servant hood and I think it is most relevant also in this passage. Servants of the Lord are not just people who obey what they are told to do. When the Lord instructed Elijah to ‘go,’ He was entrusting him with His eternal work. In other words, servant hood involves stewardship. Now we know through the Scripture, we come to understand that stewardship has to do with the responsibility of properly caring for both the possessions and the affairs of another. This arrangement was quite common in that time. It was quite common in a culture. A steward actually had no wealth of his own, he had no property of his own, but instead he was entrusted with the possessions and the concerns of another. They were placed in his hands. They were placed in his---into his responsibility. This is what the Lord God was doing with Elijah when He instructed him to ‘go.’ He was entrusting him and committing to him, His work and His people into the hands of Elijah. If you look at verses 15 through 17, it gives us an outline of how the Lord would continue His eternal work with the nation of Israel. In particular, Elijah was instructed to anoint three men. He was first to anoint his Hazael king over Aram. He was then to anoint Jehu king over Israel. And last of all he was to anoint Elisha to be his own successor. Through these three men God would then complete the removal of Baal worship that had---that Elijah had begun. Through Elijah and these three men, the Lord would further sanctify His people. Not only did the Lord not abandon Elijah but He conferred on him, a precious responsibility, really a special privilege. He allowed him once again to invest his time in his energy and his heart into God's eternal work. He allowed Elijah to become once again a useful tool in His hands. You know that same privilege and responsibility is made available to each one of God's people. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 10 deals with this very thing. Over the course of our study of the life of Elijah, I have mentioned a number of times the fact that God enters His people into His work. And this passage here in 1 Peter chapter 4 in verse 10 it gets to the very heart of this wonderful truth. Listen to what the Lord tells us in this passage, He says,
“As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
Let me read that one more time. He says,
“As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
That’s quite a statement. The full magnitude of it really, in some respects, is overwhelming. You would expect a statement like this to be made to someone such as the apostle Paul, or perhaps even Peter or any of the spiritual giants in Scripture, but this statement is made to each and every one who belong to the Lord. We see here, first of all, that every person who has been made a child of God is a steward. Each one has been placed into the position of a steward. What this means is that each and every believer has been given the privilege and the responsibility to be the caretaker of a portion of what belongs to God. That alone should cause us to take notice of what is being said here.
Second of all, and I think this is where it gets very profound, that over which each of us are to be stewards is none other than the grace of God! That’s what we’re told in this passage, that's what it says. Each one of us is to be a good steward of the manifold grace of God. The God of all creation is the God of all grace, He is the God of all of abundant grace and He has chosen to bestow that grace upon the church through its own members! Think about that! In the context of this verse, this special gift that is given to each refers to spiritual gifts or spiritual enablements. And of course, they’re given by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of edifying and building up the body. There are a variety of these gifts, and these gifts are a very part of the grace of God. They are a part of God's power given to those who believe. The thrust of this passage, it is that the power---that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to develop the grace that is given to us in the form of spiritual gifts and then we are to dispense that very grace, that we are given. That is what good stewards do. In other words, we are to become channels, each one of us. We are to become channels of the grace of God. I think the significance of this is that the church, each individual local church depends upon that, let me say it this way, the health and the vitality of the local church, it can be measured by the degree to which its members dispense the grace of God to one another. Let me repeat that. It’s a very important---a very important truth. The health and the vitality of any local church, it can be measured by the degree to which its members dispense the grace of God to one another. And of course, the question that we must ask ourselves, “Are we being good stewards?” Are you and I being good stewards? Am I being a good steward of the grace of God that He has entrusted to me? Am I ministering to my brothers and sisters in Christ as God has enabled me to? You know, as you think about this, there are so many excuses that we come up with when it comes to stewardship, when it comes to servant hood. If you remember the conversation of the Lord had with a number of men who said that they wanted to follow Him, that they wanted to be His servants, that they wanted to be stewards of the Lord. And every one of them have had an excuse. The first one was not willing to endure the hardship of being a servant, that was the implication. The second man had first going to bury his father knew. And you remember, the Lord answered him, and He said, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, g,” there we have that word go again, “and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God” The third man said to the Lord, “I will follow you, Lord. But first,” here comes the excuse, “permit me to say goodbye to those at home.” You know, all of these as you look at them, they seem like valid reasons, but the Lord made it very clear that they were nothing but excuses. They all had good intentions and usually that's the easy part. Good intentions left to themselves than ever last, they never follow through. Their excuses were born out of misplaced priorities. They were made by those whose hearts really were someplace else. And of course, we are no different than these men. We are no different. We are tempted in the same way. The excuses we often make may also seem to be very reasonable to us, but if we give into them, no matter how reasonable or even how necessary that they may seem, in the end we are putting temporal things in place of eternal things. I want you to look with me once again at the reasons that Elijah gives to the Lord for running away to Mount Horeb. We find here really, perhaps the greatest reason God's people fail in serving Him. Elijah again responds to the Lord in verse 14, “I've been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. The sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, they torn down Your altars, that killed Your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left.” “I'm the only one and they seek my life. They seek to kill me.” As I mentioned before, the reasons that Elijah gives here, These are real. These things were true in his life. They were a reality in his life, and they literally had crippled him. I think one of the things that we need to learn here is this, there are always obstacles when it comes to serving the Lord. There are always going to be obstacles when it comes to serving Him. And this is not unique with Elijah. All those who seek to serve the Lord will be faced with obstacles. They can be great obstacles are they can be small/little obstacles. They may come from pressure that people put on us, people from this world, or maybe perhaps people even from within the church. Or they may come from the attacks of Satan himself, and that certainly is a guarantee that we will be attacked in this way. But there'll always be something that is standing in the way of serving the Lord. There'll always be something that tests our faith when it comes to service, comes to this matter of service. I think what it comes down to, ultimately, it is that unbelief is the greatest obstacle to being servants of the Lord and stewards of his grace. This is what we learn from Elijah's example. Walking by sight never results in useful service to the Lord. That's the example we have here with---with Elijah. Walking by sight never will---will never result in useful service to the Lord and that course is what was keeping Elijah from serving the Lord. It was this fear that was brought on by unbelief and it literally had paralyzed him. The Lord knew the nature of Elijah's struggle. He knew the weakness of his faith. He knew that he was fixated on things that he could see, rather than on the Lord Himself. And once again, in His lovingkindness, the Lord is not doesn't rebuke Elijah. Instead, what we see here is that He undergirds Elijah's faith. He places a firm foundation under it right there on Mount Horeb. Just as we saw before, the Lord reveals to Elijah His sovereign power and His sovereign authority. Elijah stands on the mountain as he is told, and we read once again,
“And behold the LORD was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking 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 an earthquake a fire,” once again, “the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire…” the Lord then speaks to His servant. He speaks to His servant’s heart in a still small voice, by His Holy Spirit.
I would venture to say that although Elijah's response to this was the same as it was in verse 14, it was not spoken with the same desperation and distraught tone as it was before. He once again states what is true, and in verse 14---verse 15 the Lord's response to him is. “Elijah, go!” and he does. He goes. One of things that I find very encouraging is that the Lord calls you and I to be His servants, to be His stewards in the very same way that He called Elijah, the very same way. Turn with me if you will, the book of Matthew that in chapter 28 verses 16 through 20. This passage, of course, is also often referred to as “the great commission.” And of course, this is a time just before the Lord ascended into heaven, when His disciples would no longer see Him. And it is here that He commissions them to be servants. It is here when He commissions them to be stewards, to be the very stewards of His grace, and not only them, but you and I as well. Notice what we find here and in Matthew chapter 28 starting in verse 16. It says,
“But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him;”
But notice here, some were doubtful, some were doubtful. Perhaps that same kind of fear that Elijah experienced had gripped a few of them as well. But I want you to notice how the Lord comforts them, and I want to notice how He prepares them for service. In verse 18, “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” “All authority has been given to Me on have in heaven and on earth.” You see, just as with Elijah, the Lord discloses to them His sovereignty. “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” He quells their doubts and their fears. Just as He did with Elijah, He girds up their faith, He lays a firm foundation underneath it…the sovereign authority and power of God! That was the foundation that He laid under their faith. And then notice verse 19, “Go,” once again, “go.” It’s interesting He says, “Go therefore.” Go in light of what I have just disclosed to you that I am sovereign, that I am the living God, that I am the great I Am, I’m the self-existent, One and I am your God. I am your God. Therefore, go and be stewards of the manifold grace of God, “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.” Notice how He ends this, “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” That's the promise from a sovereign God. What possible excuse could we have? What possible excuse could you and I come up with? What possible fear could keep us from being with the Lord has called us to be, servants and stewards of the Most High God?
One last thought I want to share with you this morning, on Mount Horeb, the Lord asks Elijah that very important question, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” What the Lord is obviously implying is that Elijah is in the wrong place, he’s in the wrong place. He is not in the place where he can be of service to the Lord and the truth of the matter is there is no better place to be than to be in that place where you can be serving the Lord. That is what God has called us to be. That is what He has called us to do, to be servants of the Most High God. Let’s bow our heads in prayer.
