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Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR001811A
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00:01 Welcome to a new Carter Report series,
00:03 The Game Changers. 00:05 These rare individuals appear once in a lifetime 00:09 like a blazing meteor across the night sky, 00:12 they change the course of history, 00:15 they show us the way forward. 00:18 Welcome to The Game Changers. 00:26 I just want to give you warmest welcome today. 00:29 This program is called... you know what it is? 00:32 The Game Changers. 00:34 Yeah, this is one of the Game Changers series. 00:37 History tells the story of a few good men and women 00:44 who've stood out against the crowd 00:46 for a good reason, for high good, 00:49 we call them the game changers. 00:52 Martin Luther, 00:54 Protestant reformer was a game changer. 00:57 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor 01:00 who stood out against Hitler was a game changer. 01:03 He said, "We are not to simply bandage 01:07 the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice." 01:12 We are to drive a spoke into the will itself. 01:16 Pretty good, aye? 01:18 Winston Churchill, 01:20 the great leader of Great Britain 01:21 during the dark days was a game changer. 01:24 Desmond Doss, 01:27 who refused to carry a gun. 01:32 I don't agree with that, 01:33 doesn't fit into our society and doesn't matter 01:36 what we think about it, 01:37 but he was a man of principle, 01:40 he's the hero of Hacksaw Ridge, a game changer. 01:45 Florence Nightingale, the British nurse, 01:49 who brought help and nursing to the battlefield 01:54 was a game changer. 01:56 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Russian 02:00 who stood out against the communists 02:03 who was thrown into the concentration camps, 02:07 was a game changer. 02:12 These people are a rare breed, 02:15 they've escaped the herd mentality 02:18 that was so eloquently described by Nietzsche, 02:24 the game changers. 02:26 I would like to be, God helping me, 02:29 a game changer, wouldn't you? 02:32 Yeah. 02:33 Today, we're going to talk about 02:35 one of the most extraordinary 02:36 but least known characters in history, Elijah. 02:43 Elijah, the Tishbite. 02:44 Take your Bible please and turn to James 5:17. 02:49 James 5:17. 02:54 But I'm going to take it today from the NIV. 02:57 It says, "Elijah was a man..." 03:00 He was a man. "Just like us. 03:05 He prayed earnestly that it would not rain 03:08 and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years." 03:12 The Bible says 03:13 he was not an extraordinary man, 03:16 he was an ordinary man 03:19 who did extraordinary things. 03:24 The name Elijah means my God is Yahweh the Lord. 03:30 It took a lot of courage to say that you stood for God. 03:34 There are some reasons 03:35 why we include Elijah in our top game changers. 03:39 He's mentioned by Christ in the New Testament. 03:43 He raised a dead person to life, extraordinary. 03:47 He stood for Yahweh the Lord 03:50 when Baal worship had taken over Israel. 03:53 It was like a Christian today living in the land of ISIS. 03:59 He called down fire from God out of heaven, 04:02 he predicted the deaths of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, 04:07 and it came to pass. 04:10 He escaped death. 04:12 That makes him a game changer. 04:14 He was caught up by a fiery chariot 04:17 and travelled through space, never died. 04:20 Now 1 Kings 17:1, he is introduced to history. 04:26 Now this of course is in the Old Testament. 04:31 And we will stay for a bit today in the Book of Kings. 04:36 And I'm going to read 04:37 from the Bible a great deal today, 04:40 1 Kings 17:1. 04:43 "Then Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, 04:49 said to Ahab, 04:51 'As the Lord God of Israel stands 04:55 before whom I stand, 04:57 there shall not be dew no rain these years, 05:01 except at my word.'" 05:03 He appears out of nowhere. 05:06 Moses doesn't appear out of nowhere. 05:08 But Elijah, he is out of nowhere, 05:10 he's called the Tishbite, 05:12 we're not even quite sure where that town is, 05:14 the town of Tishbe, 05:16 but he comes from the land of Gilead. 05:19 And you'll notice it's east of the Jordan. 05:24 He doesn't come from Jerusalem or Samaria 05:27 but Gilead, the hill country. 05:30 It was a land of forest 05:32 and a land of little streams. 05:37 This man, Elijah, 05:40 was what we would call a mountain man. 05:45 Apparently, with God, stuff doesn't make us strong, 05:50 virtuous, intelligent, or wise. 05:53 We are into the stuff society 05:56 where a golden Rolex 05:59 or something like this, this is terribly important. 06:02 God often sends his man or woman into the wilderness. 06:05 Moses for 40 years, Jesus into the wilderness, 06:10 John the Baptist came from the desert, 06:13 Luther came from a Roman Catholic priest 06:17 because apparently stuff doesn't matter, terribly. 06:21 Elijah was a man from the wild mountains 06:23 and the lonely desert. 06:24 He was not from the seminary or the theological cemetery. 06:30 I was attending a, little while ago, 06:32 a meeting in my homeland of Australia. 06:35 I was at a college. 06:37 A professor said 06:38 when I was called to work at the cemetery... 06:41 Oops he said, "I mean the seminary." 06:47 Maybe he should not have corrected himself, 06:49 maybe he was right. 06:50 Elijah came from the desert 06:52 where the sky was his ceiling, the earth was his table, 06:56 and God was his teacher. 06:59 His mind was not polluted with garbage 07:04 like ours so often. 07:07 He had a direct link to the creator of the universe, 07:10 he was ordained by man, 07:13 and he never worked for a church organization. 07:17 So what do you say about that? Boy, fancy that... 07:23 In fact, we would not have given him a job today 07:26 in any church. 07:28 Look at 1 Kings 17:1 again, 07:32 "And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, 07:35 said to Ahab, 07:37 'As the Lord God of Israel lives 07:39 before whom I stand, 07:40 there shall not be dewn or rain these years, 07:43 except at my word.'" 07:45 Who was Ahab? 07:49 Ahab was the corrupt king of Israel 07:51 married to the voluptuous, 07:54 the beautiful Jezebel, high priestess of Baal. 07:59 And he goes in before the king of Israel, this man, 08:03 and he says, "God has had enough of you and your filth. 08:09 No rain except at my word, 08:14 until I say so." 08:16 How old was Elijah? 08:17 There's no evidence to say that 08:19 he was an old man as all the pictures say, 08:22 you see a picture of Elijah, he's an old fogy. 08:26 John the Baptist was like Elijah. 08:30 And Elijah was around 30 years of age 08:33 as was our Lord. 08:36 God can use old men with white hair, 08:41 but he can doubly use young men. 08:45 Don't forget it. 08:47 God is looking for men who are strong whom he can use. 08:53 Now look at 1 Kings 17:2 and 3, 08:57 "Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 08:59 'Get away from here and turn eastward, 09:01 and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.'" 09:07 We're not quite sure 09:08 where it was, it's hard to identify, 09:10 just a little trickle. 09:13 So God sends him to the Brook Cherith 09:16 to get out of harm's way for the time being. 09:19 And if you look at verses 4 and 5, 09:25 "And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, 09:29 and I have commanded the ravens 09:32 to feed you there. 09:36 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, 09:39 for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, 09:42 which flows into the Jordan." 09:49 This is quite an extraordinary thing 09:52 because God says 09:54 I'm going to take care of you in an extraordinary way. 09:58 And if you notice I think it is... 10:02 I think verses 6 and 7, 10:07 "The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, 10:10 and bread and meat in the evening, 10:12 and he drank from the brook. 10:15 And then the brook dried up 10:17 because there had been no rain." 10:22 God says to this man, 10:25 "Even though there is a famine, 10:28 there's no water, and everything's dying. 10:32 I will take care of you." 10:34 And God says, 10:36 "In the time of trouble, I will take care of you." 10:43 You see, even if the economy collapses, 10:48 which it will do, 10:51 it cannot in America continue 10:54 on this suicide right of uncontrolled deficits, you see. 11:01 But even if the economy collapses, 11:05 God says, "I will take care of you." 11:07 There are two philosophies, 11:10 number one naturalism and number two supernaturalism. 11:15 Now you're going to believe one of the two. 11:19 Naturalism says that nature is God, 11:22 everything that happens, 11:25 even the emergence of the human species 11:29 is simply by nature, nature becomes the God. 11:33 And the other philosophy says, 11:35 there is a self-existent creator 11:38 who controls nature 11:41 and everything is in the hands of Almighty God, you see. 11:46 Elijah believed in God, I believe in God. 11:51 Now look at 1 Kings 17:8 and 9 I think, 11:58 "Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 12:00 'Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, 12:04 up on the Mediterranean coast, and dwell there. 12:07 See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.'" 12:13 And so he gets up, 12:14 and he walks over the dust and the dirt 12:19 and the dead vegetation, 12:20 and he comes to the Mediterranean coast, 12:23 and he comes to this little town. 12:26 And here comes a woman, 12:29 and she's in great distress, she has a son. 12:34 And he says to her, and this seems absurd, he says, 12:40 "Can you give me something to eat, please. 12:44 I'm really hungry. I could have a good meal now." 12:48 And she says, "I'm just getting some sticks 12:52 and I'm going to anoint the sticks. 12:55 I've got a little bit of flour 12:57 and I've got a few drops of oil. 13:01 And we're going to eat this and we're going to die." 13:07 But she didn't realize that 13:09 because there is a God in heaven 13:13 that her night was passing 13:15 and the sun was going to rise up on her. 13:19 So when things look worse, 13:22 it is because God is preparing us, 13:25 you know, for the best, don't forget this, you see. 13:30 The worst moment 13:31 but God had a great blessing, unexpected. 13:33 Never, never, never, never, Churchill said, 13:37 give up because your sun is about to rise and shine. 13:43 Don't listen to the pessimists, 13:46 don't listen to the naysayers, 13:50 don't listen to the defeaters, for the child of God, 13:54 the best is still to come, you see. 13:58 Now look at chapter 17:13 and 14. 14:02 "Now Elijah said to her, 'Do not fear, 14:05 go and do as you have said 14:07 but make me a small cake from it first 14:10 and bring it to me, 14:11 and afterward make some for yourself and your son. 14:17 Verse 14, "For thus says the Lord God of Israel..." 14:21 Put this down in the molecules of your mind. 14:25 "The bin of flour shall not be used up, 14:28 nor shall the jar of oil run dry, 14:31 until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth." 14:35 God says there will always be enough. 14:39 You'll never run out. 14:41 Always enough oil. 14:44 Always enough meal. 14:46 It doesn't matter how bad things get, 14:49 it doesn't matter how much you use it, 14:51 there will always be enough left over, you see. 14:56 This is the difference between naturalism and supernaturalism, 15:00 always enough oil and flour. 15:02 There's a text in the New Testament 15:04 Philippians 4, it says, 15:06 "My God shall supply all your needs 15:10 according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." 15:16 And listen to this, 15:18 if you believe in the God of Elijah, 15:21 then you will never come to the place 15:23 where there is not enough, you see. 15:28 I can remember years ago, 15:32 when we're on the Broadway 15:33 in Glendale in Southern California, 15:35 we came to the place, 15:37 this happened quite a few times. 15:40 We didn't have enough money to make payroll. 15:44 What are we going to do? 15:45 We believe God has called us, 15:48 we don't have enough money to pay our bills. 15:52 But let me tell you folks something, 15:55 God said to us, "Just hold on and keep trusting." 15:59 That's what I say to you 16:02 because on every occasion 16:04 when it appeared to us 16:06 that the barrel had no food left in it, 16:10 no grain left in it. 16:13 And the little pot had no oil left in it. 16:17 God was ready to do something great for us. 16:22 And so there are two types of people in this world, 16:25 people who are naturalists and who don't have faith, 16:30 and there are people 16:31 who believe in a supernatural God. 16:34 Now look at 1 King 17: 15 and 16, 16:38 "So she went away and did 16:39 according to the word of Elijah, 16:42 and she and he and her household ate 16:45 for many days." 16:47 Now this is a great, great text, 16:50 get it down into your mind. 16:52 "The bin of flour was not used up 16:57 nor did the jar of oil run dry, 17:02 according to the word of the Lord 17:04 which He spoke to Elijah." 17:10 God will take care of you. 17:12 There will always, always be enough. 17:17 And then when things were looking bright and cheery 17:22 as often happens, 17:23 when things seem to be going so good all of a sudden, 17:27 the bottom fell out. 17:30 And you can read the story in verses 17 and 18, 17:34 "Now it happened after these things of the son of the woman 17:37 who owned the house became sick. 17:39 And his sickness was so serious 17:42 that there was no breath left in him." 17:43 He died. 17:45 "So she said to Elijah, 17:46 'What have I to do with you, O man of God? 17:48 Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance 17:52 and to kill my son?" 17:54 So this is a terrible tragedy. They got enough food. 17:58 Widow had got nobody else in the world, 18:01 and she's got a boy. 18:04 What good of feeding a boy if he dies. 18:08 And the boy dies. 18:09 Verses 18 and 19, 18:11 "And he said to her, 'Give me your son.' 18:16 So he took him out of her arms 18:18 and carried him to the upper room 18:21 where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.'" 18:27 Verse 20, "And he cried out to the Lord and said, 18:31 'O, Lord my God, 18:33 have you also brought tragedy on the widow 18:36 with whom I lodge, by killing her son?" 18:41 And verse 21 and 22, 18:45 "And he stretched himself out on the child three times, 18:49 and cried out to the Lord and said, 18:52 'O Lord my God, I pray, 18:54 let this child's soul come back to him.'" 18:58 Let it come back into him. 19:01 And then if you look at verse 22, 19:04 "Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, 19:07 and the soul of the child came back to him, 19:13 and he revived." 19:18 Almost too hard to believe, isn't it? 19:22 He thought the boy was dead. 19:24 But you've got to think too 19:25 we believe it's supernaturalism but just naturalism. 19:28 If we go just by naturalism, the boy is dead 19:31 and he's finished and so are you. 19:34 So when we die like Richard Dawkins, 19:36 somebody said, "What are you going to do?" 19:38 Dr. Dawkins, the most famous atheist in the world, 19:41 "What are you going to do, Dr. Dawkins, when you die? 19:44 He said, "I'm going to stand 19:46 on the deck of the ship and salute." 19:52 What's the good of saluting 19:53 when you're going down to nothingness? 19:58 But here is a boy who dies, 20:01 and the Bible tells us that the supernatural God 20:05 who is over all things over nature 20:11 brings the boy back again. 20:15 It's extraordinary. 20:17 We see the promise of resurrection every spring. 20:22 I've been in Siberia in winter 20:23 when it is so extraordinarily cold, 20:26 a white freezing wilderness, spring comes 20:30 and that which was dead comes to life again. 20:32 God has given us images in nature 20:35 so that you and I will not be in despair, 20:39 but we believe in the God who raises the dead. 20:43 This is the teaching in the Bible, 20:44 and verses 23 and 24, 20:47 "And Elijah took the child and brought him down 20:50 from the upper room into the house, 20:52 and gave him to his mother. 20:53 And Elijah said, 'See, your son lives!' 20:56 Then the woman said to Elijah, 20:58 "Now by this I know that you are a man of God, 21:01 and that the word of the Lord in your mouth 21:05 is the truth." 21:08 So here today as we talk about the game changers, 21:13 we're talking about a man 21:15 who is in touch 21:16 with the Almighty God of the universe. 21:19 And when you are in touch 21:20 with the Almighty God of the universe, 21:22 nothing is too hard for you. 21:24 Believe it, believe it, 21:27 step out of the darkness, step into the light. 21:35 Now the great confrontation, 21:40 look at 1 Kings 18:7 and 8. 21:47 1 Kings 18:7 and 8, 21:49 "Now as Obadiah, 21:51 servant of God was on his way, suddenly Elijah met him, 21:54 after three years, he recognized him, 21:56 and fell on his face, and said, 'Is that you, my lord Elijah?' 21:59 And he answered, 'It is I. Go, tell your master.'" 22:03 Tell Ahab Elijah is here. 22:07 Ahab wants to kill him. 22:10 Now Elijah goes to Obadiah, 22:12 who is the man of God, who works for the king. 22:14 He says, "Go and tell the king Elijah is here". 22:20 Now this Obadiah had been hiding the servants of God 22:26 from the wraths of the king and his wife. 22:30 Look at verse 1 Kings 18:13, 22:36 "Was it not reported to my Lord 22:39 what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord..." 22:43 Jezebel was murdering the prophets of God. 22:49 "How I hid one hundred men of the Lord's prophets, 22:53 fifty to a cave, and fed them with bread and water?" 23:01 Here's a man, 23:04 and he's living in a time 23:08 of the greatest apostasy in the church. 23:13 I want you to notice now, 23:17 this is most important that you see this 23:18 because we're going to call, 23:20 we're going to bring a better parallel 23:22 between those days and the days 23:25 in which we live now in America. 23:28 I want to talk now about the times 23:31 and the prevailing sentiment. 23:35 Before the great confrontation, 23:37 I want to just have a look at 23:38 Ahab and Jezebel and Baal. 23:45 Ahab was the king of Israel and the leader of the church. 23:52 It was around 60 years since Solomon, son of David 23:56 and each successive King 23:59 had been worse than his predecessor. 24:03 Ahab was a weak man, 24:09 ruled by a strong woman. 24:13 He was not the first, and he will not be the last. 24:16 Look at 1 Kings 16:30 and 31. 24:21 1 King 16:30 and 31, 24:23 "Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, 24:28 more than all of whom were before him. 24:30 And it came to pass, 24:32 as though it had been a trivial thing 24:34 for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the sons of Nebat 24:39 that he took his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, 24:45 king of the Sidonians, 24:48 and went and served Baal and worshipped him." 24:52 So the king of Israel marries 24:57 the high priestess of the god Baal. 25:03 And I wonder what they did. 25:07 Would you please notice verse 32 and 33, 25:10 "Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, 25:13 which he had built in Samaria. 25:15 And Ahab made a wooden image. 25:22 Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger 25:26 than all the kings of Israel who were before him." 25:37 In the second part of this presentation, 25:40 I'm going to talk to you about 25:43 the degrading practices of Baal worship, 25:48 perverted sex, violence, 25:52 and the murder of babies. 25:56 And we're going to ask the question, 26:01 "Is there need today for Elijah?" 26:06 More in a moment. 26:20 The reviews for the John Carter biography are in, 26:23 and this is what they say: 26:25 "Anyone who reads this fascinating book 26:27 and is not moved should check to see 26:29 if they still have pulse." 26:33 "I believe this book about God's miracles 26:35 in Russia and Ukraine 26:37 will burn the flame in your heart." 26:40 "This could prove to be one of the most important books 26:42 ever written about public evangelism. 26:45 Make sure you get a copy." 26:49 "I believe this book about John Carter's life 26:51 will help readers grasp a vision for their lives." 27:00 For a donation of $100 or more, 27:03 a signed copy of the John Carter biography 27:05 can be yours by writing to us 27:07 at the address on the screen or visit our website. 27:24 God has got a time and a place for everything, 27:27 nothing happens by chance. 27:31 In spite of the perils of darkness, 27:34 nothing can destroy the church of God. 27:39 And I'm not ashamed of the gospel 27:42 of the Lord Jesus Christ. 27:47 That the gospel is not about you and me, 27:49 it is the good news about the Lord Jesus Christ. 27:56 What and where is heaven? 28:02 This DVD series from John Carter 28:04 will be yours with a gift of US$50 or AU$70. 28:09 Write to us at the address on the screen, 28:11 shipping is free in the US and Australia. 28:13 Visit CarteReport.org, 28:15 your home for inspirational teaching. 28:26 For a copy of today's program, 28:28 please contact us at P.O. 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Revised 2018-05-23