When God Dries Your Brook

I want to talk [music] to you about when God dries your brook. Okay, I'm going to take this passage from uh First Kings 17 1-16. This is when we see the entrance of Elijah onto the scene in the Old Testament. Elijah was one of the um the biggies of the Old Testament.

Okay. Um one of two people in all of the Old Testament to get raptured up. Um he was also there when Jesus got transfigured on the mount of transfiguration. It was him and Moses who came.

So Elijah was a biggie. Okay. And so in in chapter 17 of First Kings, he gets introduced. The thing is we're all on a journey.

Okay? We're all on our own journey. Okay? And there are highs, there are lows, and there are in between times.

All right? We're going to learn that Elijah wasn't exempt from that either. And we're going to learn from this, I hope, how we should be, not just when things are high, not just when things are low, but but how we should be at each time during this journey that each of us is on. And each of us are on different paths in that journey.

And so you never want to be when things are going your way too cocky, okay? Um, and looking down on others that's not because hey, a few months from now, they can be up here and you can be down there and that's just how it rolls. So, all right. So, I'm going to read first Kings 17:1-16.

Right? Amen. All right. And Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, "As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be due nor rain these years except at my word."

I I find it interesting. This isn't part of the passage, but I find it interesting that, [clears throat] you know, this guy's a major player, and the only entrance to him is, hey, he's from Gilead, and that's it. We don't know anything about what God did in the past to prepare him for this time. But we know that God does prepare us in private for what he has for us when the public comes, right?

We know very little about Jesus's first 30 years, right? When he was a kid, other than he got lost at 12 or actually he wasn't lost, his parents were lost. Lost him, but you know what I mean. Um, so anyway, I find that interesting.

Side note, then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "Get away from here and turn east and hide by the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan, and it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. For he went and stayed by the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him saying, "Arise, go to Zerapath, which belongs to Siden, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you." So he arose and went to Zerapath.

And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called her and said, "Please bring me a little water in a cup that I may drink." And as she was going to get it, he called her and said, "Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." So she said to him, "As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar.

and see I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in prepare it for myself and my son that we may eat it and die. Pretty pretty depressed she was. And Elijah said to her, "Do not fear. Go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first and bring it to me and afterward make some for yourself and your son."

That's that's pretty bold, right? For thus says the Lord God of Israel, "The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth." So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah. And she and he and her household ate for many days.

The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry according to the word of the Lord which he spoke to Elijah. All right, [sighs and gasps] so some things from this. Okay, first off, when God gives you direction, always obey what he tells you to do. Okay, that's kind of a gimme, but but Elijah here.

So, he went and did according to the word of the Lord. May that be said of all of us that we went and did according to the word of the Lord. Okay? And I mean, you got to just understand that God's big.

I mean, this is pretty it's pretty crazy. Birds are flying in and dropping bread and meat, okay, down into the sky. like there's a there's a famine going through the land because there's been no rain and God's sending ravens to drop down. Basically, Jersey Mike subs are dropping down on the guy, right?

I mean, crazy. And so, never underestimate God when he tells you to do something. But I want you to notice something here. God can dry the brook.

Okay? And it says here in verse 7, it happened after a while that the brook dried up. It happens. Okay?

It's a lie of the world that once you ask Jesus, everything goes hunky dory and you know, everything's just perfect the rest of your life. That's just not realistic. Okay? We never had to preach about that aundred years ago, but today because there's so much preaching that's similar to that, we've got to understand that there will be dry times.

Okay? We actually grow more in those dry times. But remember, when God is drying your brook, don't sulk because he's getting ready to move you somewhere. Okay?

It's really important. The start of the year, I did not have starting a church in my thing at all. It wasn't wasn't on my thing. I was going to publish the book, but I wasn't going to start a church.

And then we had a slow January and then a slow February and then slow month March. God was drying my book. like like I lost money three months in a row, okay? And I'm self-employed, so if I lose money, I don't make money, right?

And um so God dried my brook rather than worry though because I know God is faithful. I knew from experience that that means he's getting ready for something. So I was attentive and I was looking around. When God drives your book, be looking for what God is telling you to do next because he's getting ready to move you somewhere.

Okay? I don't know where, but he's getting ready to move you.

because I was looking around for it when I got that email to to from uh free chapel actually saying hey there's a free pastor's conference you can come you know to go there I'd have to take at least one day off work but we were slow and and and normally if I was busy I would have probably moved that over to the side and not dealt with that email at all but because God had dried my brook and I was actively looking for something I went ahead and answered that email and said yes. Okay.

And it was there at that conference that I got the vision for this church. It was a Charlie Kirk pastor's conference and I went there and and I got the vision for this church. So why is God drawing your brook? Okay, if you're in this time, what lesson is there for it?

Okay, be on the lookout getting ready to move because you won't stay there forever either. There's going to be time where he says go to Zerapath. So then the word of the Lord came to him saying, "Arise, go to Zerapath, which belongs to Siden. See, I've commanded a widow there to provide for you."

So he arose and went to Zarapath. And when he got there, sure enough, there was a widow there gathering sticks. Okay? In the same spirit that God sent him to Zerapath, he went and told the widow, "Get ready.

There's a preacher man coming, and he's going to be how you're going to be fed." Okay? God took care of it. When I got that vision to do the church, the first call I made was to Glenn.

Okay? I don't know why I called him first. I I wanted to I was thinking about this place and I said, "Hey, Glenn, do you use your facility on Sunday mornings?" And he goes, "No, why, Brian?

You want to start a church?" And I'm like, "That's exactly what I think God wants me to do." Right? And so four months later, we we started the church.

Okay. Um that's that's just that's just when God gets ready to move you, don't worry. He's already providing for it. He gave me that vision and now I had a free place to already open the church.

Right? That's amazing. Like I couldn't have planned that. That wasn't planned.

That was super super neat. Four, I want you to realize that no matter what, your situation is never hopeless. Okay, we read here that she was making one piece of bread left for her son and then they were going to die. Back then, in those days, the widows didn't couldn't couldn't have jobs.

Okay? Okay, widows were unable to to work, right? That's why it was so big for the Jewish people to take care of the widows and the orphans because they had no means to take care of themselves. It wasn't like today where women can work.

They couldn't do it back then. Okay? So, it was very important. But everyone was po everyone was hurting.

Everyone was starving from the there was no one who had money to help the widows and orphans. So, they were struggling mightily. Okay? She was very depressed, very down.

and she was getting ready to make a cake for herself and die. Provision is right around the corner. Okay, it's always right around the corner. God will never leave you or forsake you, but you may have to stay in a time until you learn the lesson of that time.

There is a path and a process to everything. Okay? Let God lead you through it step by step. Don't try to outrun him.

Don't try to fix it all yourself. Remember, he's interested in your holiness, not your happiness. And you learn more in those times that are rough and the dry times, etc. than you do on the mountain tops.

Okay? And and again, she did the same thing as Elijah. We see here, very key, obedience. So, she went away and did according to the word of Elijah.

Can you imagine? She must have been like, "This guy's nuts. I got no nothing left. I can't even make any bread.

And this guy's telling me to use the last that I have to give it to him first before I get any. You know, right today, you know, they look at you like you got bats crawling out of yours. But but she went away and did according to the word of Elijah and she obeyed the word of the Lord which was spoken by Elijah. Okay?

Again, obedience is key when you're on this journey. So, life is a journey. We're all on it. We're all at different points, okay?

We should never judge someone when we're things are going good. Never judge someone because we're all on our unique journeys. Okay? So, let's break down how we should be in each one of these phases.

Okay? And let's see what we can learn. I'm no better than anyone on here. Okay?

I'm on a journey of my own, okay? Just like you all are. And the question is, where are you in your journey? Okay, I want you to think on that for a minute.

Where are you in your journey? Maybe things are just going your way. Maybe you're sitting well. Maybe you're in a a brook chair at time where Jersey Mike's just popping down on you.

Okay. Um where things are going well. The lines have fallen for you in pleasant places. Guess what?

That sometimes happens. God does bless us sometimes, okay? Above and beyond what we deserve. Okay?

I have been the recipient of unmmerited favor from the Lord time and time again. Okay? He's blessed me in ways that I can't even really comprehend. Okay?

And I see so often when people get blessed because deep down they never really understood. They they've not grasped the fact that God loves them. Okay? They still have a piece of them that doesn't feel like they deserve good stuff deep down inside.

Okay? And so when good stuff comes their way, they tend to not embrace it. They tend to run from it. They tend to sabotage it.

Okay? It is good to enjoy the blessings and the favor of the Lord when he chooses to bless you. Man, I don't know a parent that doesn't occasionally plush their kids, you know, whether they deserve it or not. I've had times where kid was disobedient, but we still took him to Disney, right?

I mean like like they didn't deserve it technically, right? I should have I should have kept them home. God does bless us sometimes. And you have to believe it.

Paul addresses this, I think, beautifully in Philippians 4:es 11 through13. He says here, and I'm reading, not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am in to be content. to be content. I know how to be abased, meaning I know how to be content when the things are bad.

And I know how to abound. Okay? Everywhere and in all things, I've learned both to be full and to be hungry. Both to abound and to suffer need.

I am I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Isn't that interesting? We need Christ's help to to to enjoy the good times. Yeah.

because it goes against maybe our natural thing. God, I I I feel him smile on me when I'm sitting there enjoying the sun on the water or something like that. I know he's happy. Okay.

So, I want to challenge you to enjoy those times. Don't sabotage it. Appreciate it. Because when you do do nice things for your kids, don't you love it when they're thankful?

If they if they treat it like it's just whatever or even worse, they reject the good thing. That's what we're doing when good times come our way. and we're rejecting it or or or we're sabotaging it. Okay?

Don't do that. Embrace it. Okay? So, maybe you're in that time that what you do when things are going your way is appreciate it.

Just be thankful because it won't last forever. Okay? There's going to be another time when it goes down. So, enjoy the time now.

You know, um but there are time maybe you're in a place where God's dried the brook. Okay? That happens. We grow the most in our dry times.

God's highest purpose is to grow you. It's not to make you happy. Okay? There will be dry times.

It's a lie of the success theology that it's always going to go good when you ask Jesus in your heart. It's just not true. In John 16:33, Jesus said, "In this world, you will have tribulation." Tribulation isn't like, "Oh, the AC's too too high."

Tribulation is like real struggle. Okay? In this world, you'll have real struggle, but take heart. I have overcome the world.

He will get you through it. But you have to be looking for him. You have to be looking for what he's doing in that dry brook time. Seek God's direction.

Okay? And it's going to be different for all of us. Okay? You may have a time where maybe you lost your job and and things are tight.

For me, the the we started losing money, right? By the way, as soon as I stepped out and did it, May and June were huge months. So God just he just dried the brook enough for me to do the thing that he wanted me to do to be aware and then he took me right back out of it. Okay, that's really cool.

Um, so seek God's direction, be attentive the word of the Lord. And when the word of the Lord comes, obey. Okay, be on the lookout and obey. And it may not be you're going to start a church.

It may just be something simple. Okay?

you're gonna you're gonna bless someone in your family or you have to change a routine or you know it could be anything but be looking for the word but be careful okay be careful because the algorithms today are watching okay make sure that what God's telling you to do is biblical okay if you're in a marriage that's tough and you're not happy in it and you're beginning to look online for different things the algorithms are seeing that okay and then you're going to sitting there after a fight saying, "Oh," and up pops on the screen that old girlfriend from wherever.

Why? Because you've been looking for it. Okay? It's not that's not of God.

God's not going to tell you to commit adultery. Okay? He's not going to violate his own word. Okay?

It's never God's way to violate his own word. So, keep that in mind. But don't worry, if he calls you to go somewhere, he's already provided the means by which he's going to take care of you. Okay.

Always. Okay. Things can just happen. It's crazy.

Um and then you step out and you're in your zarapath time. He tells you to go. Finally, he tells you to go somewhere to the next thing and you just step out in faith. Okay?

It can be scary in zerapath. Okay? Because you have to start learning how to to handle every day with the Lord. Note something.

He said the bin of flour would not be used up or the jar of oil run dry. Did he pour a ton of flour and oil into the house? No. Each day he gave them just enough.

They made their bread. They went to bed. There was nothing in the thing. They woke up the next day.

There's enough oil and bread just for that day. Jesus said, "What? Sufficient for the day is don't worry about tomorrow. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof."

Right? So just worry about today. But but Zerapath is about getting to a place of trust that's so tight with God that you just know it's going to be okay. that you're in this place where it's just that you know your daily needs are going to be met and you're not worried about it.

You don't have fear. So, so I start the church and and all this and um and then the government goes on shutdown. Okay. That hit me out of left field because I do SBA loans.

So, I had no money coming in now. And it it was the longest shutdown on record of course. So, it's six weeks of of of no revenue. Never worried about it.

I I knew God was going to provide and he did. My son booked a couple uh things that he hadn't booked in that we hadn't something that's different than a loan and it's a another way of revenue come in but we hadn't booked one all year and he booked a couple of those and and then someone who owed me money started paying me back and all of a sudden everything was met enough to pay everything, you know, and it's just from unique things and now the government's open. I can start closing loans again finally.

Um so so we're in good place, right? But what was he doing there? He was just testing to see if I was still going to stay comfortably confident in him. Okay, that's the place we want to be.

It's the daytoday and just watch. So nail those dailies. This air path time is doing your Bible study each morning, learning to pray each morning and just getting those daily things, getting God in your day so that you're obeying him, not running around trying to do things yourself, you know, but actually obeying him. Okay.

The temptation we have is to rush out when things aren't going exactly how we want and try to fix everything. I'm I'm so guilty of that. Okay. I've been doing that most of my life.

You've got to learn how to have a slow, easy pace and not outrun God. Okay? And it's for truth. So, it's not a journey.

It's an it's it is a journey. It's an absolute lie of the devil that everything's always going to be good. Okay? You are going to have dry times.

You're going to have in the middle times and you will have abundantly blessed times too. Okay? All of them is good. So when you're in your brook chair time, you appreciate it.

You embrace it. You give thanks. Okay? But know that he will dry the brook at some point.

And don't be mad when he does. Don't be sitting there saying, "God, why is this happening to me?" All right? We should be very careful to um I don't know if the words judge but just be critical of God when he's in this time that because we don't really know the plan, right?

He is preparing us now for heaven. He's preparing us for what he has for us and we don't know what what our jobs are going to be up there. We just don't. But he does.

So he knows what he's doing in every in every aspect. You can really trust him with your life. If you can really trust him with your direction, okay? Embrace the good times when you're in your brook chair at times.

When he dries a brook, don't worry. Just obey him. Be on the lookout for what he's got for you. He's got something.

He's got a plan for your life. What is it? Plans to prosper you, not to harm you, right? To to do good things for you.

He's got those plans. All right? And so you're going to be told at some point the next direction to go. And when you get that direction from him, just obeail.

Okay? And then when you're in Zerapath, just learn the daily consistent faithfulness. Okay? Getting him into your into your daily self so that you're you're you're just solid.

Okay? Maybe you're you're in a place where maybe you're trying to get clean, sober. Just take each day. Just take each day.

Okay? and and and God's gonna going to work. I I read this in utmost for his highest. I I really like the way it sounds.

Learn how to be God's man or woman of great worth and excellence in the midst of a multitude of meager and worthless things. How much is how much of our life is meager and worthless things now? You know, from from all the ads and all the stuff all the stuff on the on the wherever my cell phone is. [snorts] Um, it's it's there's just so much stuff and with AI you don't know what's true, what's not.

I mean, it's just I don't know if we've ever had a time where there's just so much Can I say this? Crap. Just, you know, crap and and and it's everywhere. And so, and so what are we called to do?

We're called to get into this word. Okay. This is truth. This is something we can count on.

This is not meager and worthless. This gives us direction. This gives us stuff. You may find when you're in that time that it's through reading this one morning that God tells you what you're supposed to do next.

Okay? That's where he's a lot of times you're going to find it. So don't don't sherk this. Okay?

It's very important. And enjoy each phase. Okay? Paul talked about being content whether he was down or not.

when they were in prison, he was singing praise songs. So was Peter. Okay, they they they were praising and a Roman prison had to be a very deep and dark place, right? Built out of a you know cave or something and probably dungey, moldy and what wasn't fun.

You know, remember there's always someone who's worse off than you. All right? So we should be content with whatever God chooses to give us. When he gives us good, be happy about it.

when he gives us a rough time, when he dries the brook, be ready for him to move you somewhere else. Okay? And when you're in that time, just get ready to just be obedient and be thankful even in the desert time. Be content.

There's always someone worse off. The key is obedience. Over and over again, we saw here he did according to the word of the Lord. Okay?

You want to be obedient in your walk, okay? and obedient to what God says and be faithful and thank you and and thankful and watch God work. Okay? Because he's a good good God.

Um he's good. That's all I got. Gabe, you ready? Amen.

He's good. He's a good God, right? All right. Listen, while they come up, I want you guys to think about All right.

As we go into a time of reflection, I want you to think about where you are in your journey. Okay? Think about if you're in one phase or another, what you can do to to be more obedient in that phase. Okay?

And if you've been a little bit testy to God, okay, because you're not happy with the phase you're in, I want to encourage you to to repent of that, okay? Lay that down because guess what? He's doing it for your good. He's not doing it to hurt you, okay?

He's doing it for your good. [music] So, you need this time whether you know it or not. Even if it's not a time you're happy with, okay? [music] So, repent of that attitude where you think you know better than him or whatever.

That's craziness. Okay? You can't possibly know. Um, [music] so use this time to reflect.

If [music] you don't know Jesus, if you haven't asked him into your heart, I'll be right there. You know, lay that down. Today is the day of [music] salvation. Let's let's get that nailed down.

Okay. But if you you're saved and you're on this journey, I just want to encourage you to be contemplative of where you're at right now and what you what God is telling you to do that's a little bit different, you know, going forward from here so that you leave here doing something different. Okay. All right.

Amen.