Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.wartracebaptist.org/sermons/60246/1-kings-1717-24/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] So 1 Kings 17, starting in verse 17, is where we will be. I promise I did not touch the unit. It's cool in here.

[0:11] It feels good, but I didn't touch it. All right, so it's neither me nor Miss Shannon, so we didn't do it. It feels divine in here, but I know some of you are freezing.

[0:22] When I get comfortable, some of you are freezing, but I didn't do it. It just kind of happened that way. So anyway, let's open up with a word of prayer. God, we thank you so much just for the opportunity we have of gathering together.

[0:37] God, we're thankful for the day you've given us. We're thankful for the opportunities that you've bestowed upon us, and we thank you for the grand privilege it is of opening up the word of God with one another.

[0:48] So we pray that you be with us now as we study the pages of Scripture. Lord, that the verses that are read and the truths that are discussed are seen as what they are, that is the very word of God.

[1:01] It would help us to come to a greater understanding of who you are and your dealings with mankind. Lord, also help us to mold and conform our lives to who you are and how you work throughout history for your glory.

[1:17] Lord, we pray that you be with the children, be with those working with them, and the youth, those working with the youth tonight. As always, we just ask that in every way and all manners that Christ be glorified and exalted among all that takes place throughout this place this evening.

[1:32] And we ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. If you remember, we are at a very instrumental time in the nation of Israel. Not only is the kingdom divided, and not only are we now spending the majority of our time as we study through the remainder, except for a few short verses there at the end of 1 Kings, the kings of the northern kingdom that is referred to as Israel, the southern kingdom being Judah, we have also entered into the reign of Ahab.

[2:07] Ahab, who did more evil in the sight of the Lord God than any who went before him, who married that woman Jezebel that will be used throughout the remainder of Scripture as a sign and a name of really harlotry and malpractice and displeasure of the things of the Lord.

[2:25] And with the coming of Ahab, with the coming of the most wicked of the kings, comes this new seizing during the life of God's interaction with his people.

[2:36] That is the introduction of Elijah. We have seen prophets up until this time, but we have not seen prophets who displayed such manners of works and wonders as Elijah and Elisha and those who follow after them will.

[2:51] Elijah comes at a very pivotal time in the history of God's people and he comes with a message and he validates that message through the works that God accomplishes through his hands.

[3:04] Elisha will come in like manner. We looked last time when we came together at the days of Elijah and how God brings the brightest of lights right before the seasons of dark judgment.

[3:18] That is, the northern kingdom is rapidly on the decline and they're very quickly nearing the day of judgment where God will lead them away into the Assyrian empire and God will bring the king of Assyria to pronounce judgment upon them.

[3:36] They will kind of from that point on be dissolved and we don't see really them and their uniqueness much after that because we go into the Babylonian time period and the southern kingdom and then we have the return of the exiles during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, but we don't see this widespread return of those from the northern kingdom.

[3:56] We see this judgment of God being passed. But one of the grandest displays of the grace and mercy of God is that before this judgment comes, though it had been spoken of time and time and time again and they have been called back to faithfulness before the Lord, though God is just in his judgment, he is also merciful in his opportunities.

[4:20] That is, he sends Elijah and Elisha, two individuals that really are prophesying to a kingdom that is rapidly on the decline, but there simply can be no doubting of their message because not only what they hear, but also what they see validates what God is declaring.

[4:42] And just as we see over and over again in scripture, God sends the loudest trumpet right before the darkest day and God gives every opportunity for man, though man quite often rejects it willingly and knowingly, therefore we cannot look to God's judgment and his disciplinary actions as unfair or unfit because man is worthy of the judgment in which they enter into.

[5:12] We have seen that when Elijah pronounced this, and I say all this because it gets us in context, when Elijah went before Ahab, Ahab had introduced the worship of Baal.

[5:26] Baal is seen as a fertility God, a God that supplies the growth and the reproductions of all things and therefore was considered to be in control of the weather.

[5:38] God's judgment upon the nation of Israel is that there would be no rain until the word of Elijah, so therefore he is rendering Baal ineffective. God is clearly showing who is in control of the weather.

[5:52] Elijah delivers the word and then he follows the Lord. He goes to the brook. He is fed by the ravens. He drinks from the brook until the brook runs dry. And then he goes into the very territory of which the worship of Baal originated from, very near Jezebel's hometown, to the widow, the widow that God had appointed, though she didn't know it.

[6:14] And he goes into the town and he sees the widow gathering sticks and he says, go make me some bread. And she says, well, I'm about to die. We don't have any food. We have one small thing of flour and one little bit of oil left.

[6:27] Me and my son are going to eat it and we're going to die. And Elijah says to her, this is the first 16 verses of the 17th chapter, that's all will and good. We go first to make me one, bring it out to me and you will sustain me for the bread or the flour will not run out nor the oil run dry until the rain comes.

[6:45] So God's going to meet that need and does so. She does so. She brings him something to eat and God is faithful to his word, which then brings us to this section of scripture, which shows us that sometimes even in those acts of obedience, some unexpected things, at least to us, seem to happen.

[7:01] So now let's go to verse 17. Now it came about after these things, those things we just talked about. Now it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.

[7:16] So she said to Elijah, what do I have to do with you? Oh, man of God, you have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death. He said to her, give me your son.

[7:29] Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living and laid him on his own bed. He called to the Lord and said, Oh Lord, my God, you have also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying by causing her son to die.

[7:45] Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and called to the Lord and said, Oh Lord, my God, I pray you, let this child's life return to him. The Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the life of the child returned to him and he revived.

[8:00] And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, see, your son is alive. Then the woman said to Elijah, now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.

[8:20] First Kings 17 verses 17 through 24. I want you to see this evening the manifested authority of God. The manifested authority of God.

[8:34] We meet ourselves here in the midst of that situation where Elijah has obeyed the word of the Lord God. Elijah has declared the word of the Lord to Ahab and to those of the nation of Israel.

[8:47] He has seen God stop up the heavens. He has seen God provide for him until the brook chinnereth ran dry. He has seen God lead him to a particular widow. He has seen God be faithful in fulfilling his word and that the bread would not run dry.

[9:01] The oil would be there. The flour would be there. There would be sustenance until the day of the rain would come. We have seen how Elijah's walking in faithfulness and the widow there she at least acknowledges there's something to it because she begins to see that God is keeping his word through what the prophet has declared.

[9:19] It is how we ended in the 16th verse that what she saw and what she heard were lining up. So people receive the message based on what they hear and see. We see that all throughout the book of Acts.

[9:29] It's all throughout scripture, right? The gospel message is not something that is just proclaimed. It is something that is lived out. It's the reality and we'll see it again Sunday morning where we continue just to make our way to the book of 2 Corinthians that you cannot separate life and message from any individual.

[9:46] Elijah is the same way that what she is witnessing with her eyes that is the flower remains in the bowl and oil remains in the jar and what she is seeing before her validates the word that Elijah has declared to her.

[10:00] She has not accepted the Lord as her God because if you remember she says as truly as the Lord your God is alive. So she at least acknowledges that Elijah believes in a Lord God that is alive and she has not accepted that yet.

[10:15] We believe by the end of the passage it seems at least she comes to the realization that he is the true God. But what we're going to witness is the manifested authority of God.

[10:26] And the way this happens really is a way which we wish it didn't happen but again it is something that we understand through scripture and we see repeated to us over and over again and hopefully by the time we get to the end we'll even see kind of parallels to it in the New Testament how God manifests his authority manifests his ability not that he is constrained to do so that is God does not have to but that God can and often does use circumstances such as this to manifest his authority that is to show that he is God.

[10:58] We cannot separate the time from the events that is we cannot separate the reality that the people of God have forsaken the Lord their God not only do they not want to worship him now they want to replace him we cannot separate what is going on historically from what God is declaring to us here scripturally so we need to know the context right that's why we take things in context that's why we want to understand what is going on because to to really gather the reality that this widow's son dies in any other instance would just be like well that was a tragic event but in context of what God is doing at that time during that season not only in the widow's house but also as a display and an authentication of the message of Elijah and also fighting this battle if you will in the heavenlies and declaring who is God this all precedes the showdown on Mount Carmel these things we're saying build on one another we don't have recorded for us I know we often say this especially when we get to the Old Testament we don't have recorded for us the complete history of mankind upon the face of the earth but what we do have recorded for us is the history of God's interaction with mankind upon the face of the earth that is

[12:12] God is up to something so when we read these matters we need to understand not only what is just going on historically that is this tragic event but what is going on spiritually what is God doing and hopefully we come to that reality as we see this that really what is happening here is the manifested authority of God the first thing that we notice is that this manifestation is connected to a problem there is a great problem it is a problem that we wish didn't exist but it is a problem that does exist and the problem is that this widow's son becomes sick and he becomes so sick that he eventually has no breath in him and he dies so this lady it says now after these things after what things after she obeyed Elijah and brought out the cake of bread to him first after God had shown his faithfulness and the flour did not run out and the oil did not run dry after she saw that what Elijah said was also backed up with how Elijah lived after God was meeting all these needs after simple way of saying her obedience her son dies and he doesn't die from starvation as she had expected he is not he does not die as a result of the famine as she had anticipated because the famine has no impact upon that home because Elijah is there and God is providing through her to Elijah and the famine really has no effect upon the house because the one who produces the oil literally and the one who produces the flour literally is producing it in the bowl and in the jar spontaneously it is just happening right really the miracle turning the water into wine was

[13:55] Jesus did what he does naturally that is takes water and waters grape plants or grape vines grape vines bear grapes and turns into wine he just expedited the process and did it supernaturally right that's what God is doing with the flour and the oil those things come from the Lord God anyway he is just doing it in an expedited manner he is bypassing the whole seasons needing rain and sunshine and growing and harvesting he's just doing it so he is doing the natural in a supernatural way after all of this we don't know how he becomes sick we don't even know why he becomes sick we'll get to the why in just a minute we don't know what the cause is but we do know he becomes sick and he becomes so sick that he dies and there lies the problem the problem is she was doing what she was supposed to be doing right she seemingly was walking in obedience nothing in scripture tells us that she was grumbling or mumbling under her breath nothing implies to us that things were happening against her will that she was forced or constrained to do things that she didn't want to do we would love to read in scripture honestly that when people did wrong

[14:58] God brought this judgment and we expect that right we expect that these things happen but yet what we find is that after these things after obedience after some days all of a sudden her son becomes sick and dies and there's a great problem and the problem is it doesn't seem to make sense to us it's much like when Jesus put his disciples in a boat and told them to go to the other side while he himself went upon the mountain to pray remember that after the feeding of the five thousand Jesus put them in a boat and sent them into the middle of the storm because as they were rowing against the waves of the sea and they were pressing hard on and Jesus came to them walking on the water in the middle of the night they were in the middle of a storm or when Jesus got into the boat with them and fell asleep and they were in a storm and they thought they were going to drown Christ often puts his people in uncomfortable circumstances and what we find here is that she was walking faithful in faithfulness God was doing a supernatural work this was a testimony to what God had declared to

[16:01] Elijah I will provide for you through this widow God was keeping his word and then all of a sudden for some unknown reason to us her son dies and it is a problem that is insurmountable and it is a problem that if we're not careful would create doubt in the life of this individual who had seemed to at least have a spark of curiosity because what she is seeing happen before her eyes is taking place and it doesn't make sense to her other than the fact that Elijah had said that it would happen because now she comes to him she says what do I have to do with you that is why did you even come here and it creates what we call this crisis of faith because while things were going well it's easy to say wow this God of Elijah is doing some wonderful things but then all of a sudden when the son dies what do I have to do with you I know I'm cutting it short stay with me she doesn't really want anything to do with Elijah because now we have a crisis of faith because she had expected for herself and her son to die earlier now the expectation was that they would make it through she did not see this coming this is a major problem we didn't see it coming it's a major major problem

[17:18] Elisha will face a similar thing you know that if you know your scripture there will be a lady that ministers to him as well he'll pray for us he'll have a kid and then that kid will end up dying I don't want to tell you the story before we get to the story but it's a similar thing right I mean it's right there you can read ahead and you can see how it all happens because the spirit of Elijah rested upon the prophet Elisha so we should not be surprised by these things but anyway we meet this grand problem and it's an insurmountable problem it's a physical problem it's a literal problem and now it has become a spiritual problem because let's not we have the benefit of reading the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say but she's in the middle of the event so she has to say life hasn't gotten better it seems to have gotten worse because what mother would not have said I would rather myself have died than my son had died in the midst of such tragic circumstances and here's this grand problem but the problem is introduced secondly to the prophet we've said this before don't ever separate the man from the season right the problem came into the presence of the prophet because she comes the very first person as far as we know according to the text the only person that she told was

[18:45] Elijah right she comes to him and at least he's the first she says what do I have to do with you now look at this oh man of God so now there's at least the admittance that he's not just a normal man right he is a man of God the word man of God or the phrase man of God is going to be used throughout the rest of the Old Testament and even as we get into the New Testament to signify the person in the position of a prophet so she's at least acknowledging that he has been a mouthpiece for the Lord God she has not accepted that Lord as her God or that God as her Lord but she's at least acknowledging that he is a man of God so she comes with this problem and she takes it to that prophet and really she makes this astounding statement because when she gets upset and says what do I have to do with you she comes to this what we would call confession because she acknowledges the reality she said what do I have to do with you you have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death so what she's saying literally is the whole reason you have come is to show me how wrong I am and so the judgment would come upon me and my son would die so now she's coming to the recognition of her own faults her own sins her own stumblings and she sees this tragic problem as being the judgment of her problems though we know that that's not it so stay with me and she's at least wrestling with this reality but she brings it to the prophet she brings it to the person that God had put in place so now we have this wonderful thing that there is a grand problem there is this insurmountable problem this problem that doesn't make sense this problem that creates a crisis of faith and the problem takes place in the presence of the prophet that is God has his man in place at the right time as the New Testament reminds us there were many many widows in that region at that time but

[20:34] God sent Elijah but to one the man Elijah the prophet Elijah had a particular ministry to a single person at a right time now that's not saying that every other widow's son lived and there were no other problems again we don't have the all-encompassing history of all of mankind other tragedies we know there were other things that just seem not to make sense that if we were to look at them but we're focused on this one right we're focused on what God is telling us here because God is showing us something about his authority here his ability here and what we notice is that when this problem comes there was someone she could take that problem to and it happened to be the prophet Elijah that Elijah was the man put in place to hear the problem too often we fail to realize that we are the people God puts in place to hear the problem that there are people all around us who have problems that are insurmountable problems that are that create crisis of faith problems that create doubt problems that cause them to even do a little self-inspection and to look at themselves and realize their own weaknesses and their own failings and God often not often God always has people in place to address those problems it's rather not those people are willing to hear those problems because we are Christ's ambassadors and we see this reality that Elijah was not just somewhere accidentally he was somewhere intentionally and God had placed him there and this grand problem now is brought to the prophet and this prophet who thought maybe his ministry was just to the nation of Israel and and kind of rebuking and correcting them now all of a sudden has an extended ministry even into foreign territory by the way everything that's about to be accomplished in the land of the

[22:23] Sidonians will be fully accomplished when he goes back into the land of Israel and they go to Mount Carmel so what God is doing here is a precursor to what he is doing over there just so you read that God is doing something locally that is in one household here he's going to do something nationally that is among the people of God over there on Mount Carmel which is good it's encouraging right because he who is faithful in a little thing will be faithful in many things Elijah found himself faithful in that problem so he can be he can address the major problem right so God is doing something not only with the widow but he's also doing something with the man with the prophet because God often puts us in a position where we can deal with individuals long before he calls us to deal with multitudes sometimes we want the big ministry when God has just called us to have the simple ministry and sometimes that simple ministry is the only ministry we need because here's a problem for an individual and there is the prophet that can handle the problem so we see he says give me your son he takes on her problem and he takes that problem on personally it says he takes the son to the upper room which is where he was living many people would tell you that's the best house the best room in the house it's usually on the rooftop of the house right takes her son to his room so now the prophet has taken on her problem and taken it into his space that is it's all up in his business for lack of better word and he's going to own it which leads us to the third thing there's a problem there's a prophet and then there's the petition

[23:52] Elijah now realizes there's a grand problem in the house and the problem is that there's this crisis that is now prevalent because the son has died the word which Elijah had proclaimed would be that God would be found faithful that if he was fed that the food would not run out God has been faithful but yet this problem has allowed to exist this problem is allowed to come and now Elijah takes this problem into his space into his room and it says and he cries out the word of God tells us here that when he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living and he laid him on his own bed right so I mean you cannot get more related to the problem that and he called to the Lord and said oh Lord my God you have also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying by causing her son to die so the first thing is he just confesses the problem God here's the problem you you are the Lord my God this is where you've told me to go with the widow with whom I'm staying and now here's the grand problem I am obeying you and this seems to be kind of not according to plan her son has died and then it says in verse 21 then he stretched himself upon the child three times and he called to the Lord and said oh Lord my God I pray you let this child's life return to him we see this petition now this isn't Elijah trying to transfer some of his energy into the life of this child this is not that this isn't one of those super spiritual things right the best way to understand it the best way to describe it I believe is the way Warren

[25:24] Wearsby says it Elijah is identifying with this child by getting up close and personal with this grand problem that is he is petitioning the Lord his God and he is identifying as intimately as he knows how with a problem he is putting himself in that position he's not praying kind of a distant prayer God help them over there he's saying God help him who is right here with me and so a problem so near a concern so dear Lord I feel it and it's not just a petition for some absent thing it's a petition for something very real something very near something very close to him so much so that he stretches himself out upon this child to identify with the problem that is going on see he gets all in the mess of the problem because he knows that's where the greatest petition comes from we find ourselves genuinely petitioning for those problems that we're the most intimately aware of that is the things that matter the most and things that are closer to home we can say flippantly I'll pray for that over there but if we never really get close to it or we never get near it or we never understand it then we're really not praying as we should but here we see that he identifies himself and he petitions God and it says it is a repeated petition it says he does it three times he continues the same prayer and it's a cry to God for God to do only what he can do we understand here this problem is bigger than Elijah this problem is bigger than what he can do Elijah knew his place right he knew where his ability started he knew where they stopped but he also knew the source of all of this and we see here that he's crying out to him just repeatedly repeatedly repeatedly it's an ongoing prayer and he wants the Lord his

[27:14] God to hear this and he's identifying and he's he's relating to it now it's this thing that he's taken into his own space and he's crying out and then it says the Lord heard the voice of Elijah it's astounding the Lord heard the voice of Elijah over and over and over again we're told in scripture God hears us quite often if we're to be honest we pray like he might hear us rather than praying like he does hear us I have taken a lot of time I tell you that I tell people that normally don't do this but I can't help it this week the circumstances have kind of dictated it but I have both messages in my mind I've taken a lot of time this week also studying for Sunday and Paul will quote in Sunday's passage a quote from Psalm 116 verse 10 and the quotation that you find in the new you'll hear this again Sunday so you don't have to write it down now the quotation you find this is we have the same faith that says therefore as I believe so I spoke but when you open up

[28:24] Psalm 116 verse 10 you only see half of that therefore I believe and then it says in the 11th verse so I said and when you read Psalm 116 and it's a complete context what you understand is since David believed in prayer so much when he was in the middle of the most tragic of circumstances he had boldness to speak it was a faith that believed and then spoke it believed to the point that the work the word of God had declared over and over again that God hears us when we pray and therefore that belief dictated his actions of praying in the midst of a grand trouble Elijah knew that was not going to rain according to his word he also knew what it was like to walk in obedience and he also knew that in petitioning that God would hear him and says and the Lord heard but now remember what James says Elijah was a man just like us not like he's some kind of super saint he's a man with a nature just like ours it says and the Lord heard that petition which gets us to the last thing and that is power there's a problem there's a prophet there's the petition and there's the power it says that the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the life of the child returned to him and he revived so now all of a sudden the problem has been eradicated Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother and Elijah said see your son is alive so the problem has been addressed right this is by the way you can mark it this is the first resurrection account you have in scripture this is not a resurrection this is a resuscitation because he dies again later right the first resurrection to life eternal is Jesus Christ this is the first one we meet I believe it's eight of them in scripture this one the child Elisha prays for the man who was thrown on Elisha's bones

[30:30] Nicodemus the widow son of Nain there are others scattered throughout scripture there are those in the book of Acts that Peter raises there's just throughout scripture there's hate them this is the first one every one of them ascribe to the power of the Lord God it's the first one we have mentioned in scripture and it's a grand problem in a unique time it was a problem that was brought before a prophet who offered up a petition all of a sudden we see the power that is his life comes back to him and he brings him back and says your son is alive it says and then the woman said to Elijah now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true notice that she does not say that the word of your Lord it is the word of the Lord is truth she becomes realized because God has intervened in that problem something that was insurmountable something that brought a crisis of faith something that was grand in its own design that she now believes that what he says is truly the word of

[31:41] God but that's not all that's taking place that's not all that's happening because there's a grander scheme we've talked about manifesting the authority of God in the Canaanite mentality of false worship okay the Canaanite mentality of false worship let's back up and say this the ten plagues in Egypt were not just ten great signs that God did to show that he is powerful they are intentional displays that God is greater than every deity lowercase d that the Egyptians worship every one of them that's why God did what he did the frogs and the blood and the gnats and the locusts and the bugs and all that stuff God was showing that he was greater than every lowercase g god that the people worshiping the last one being that Pharaoh was the sun god he was the god of all gods of that land and when the firstborn of Pharaoh would be the same thing so when the firstborn of even Pharaoh dies God is showing that I'm greater than even the greatest one that you worship so God is showing his superiority to all that the Egyptians worship God is not just randomly saying let there be frogs and let there be blood and let there be gnats let there be darkness God is doing something intentionally sorry that was a little loud here we know that God is doing something intentional as well in the Canaanite mentality of false worship Baal was the god of fertility since Baal was the god of fertility which by the way Ahab had introduced into the nation of Israel and being the god of fertility he was in charge of the rains because without the rains the crops would not reproduce and without the reproduction of crops the animals would not reproduce and man cannot reproduce so the god of fertility controlled the rains and in Canaanite mentality when the rains quit coming it was because the god of fertility had been held captive and quite often the god of fertility could only be held captive by the god of death so death was holding captive the god of fertility therefore there was a drought Baal had done something wrong and the god that rains over death was holding Baal captive by death so now death had overcome their God God has put on display here that it is not

[34:11] Baal who controls the weather but he does and in just in case the people thought that well Baal was being held captive by death and when Baal could get out of death's grip then he could overcome death and he can make it rain again God shows that he alone is in control of death because here's a child that dies and he brings him back to life so not only is he a god who controls the weather he's also a god who is over death he is the victor of them both because see god is manifesting his authority in a household because he's getting ready to manifest his authority on a mountaintop what he has done privately with an individual will be publicly on display among over 800 false priests he will put himself for all to see he is not only in control of the weather he cannot be held captive by anything else because he is god of gods and lord of lords because we have to assume and we have to realize and we have to recognize that the problem that came was so severe this is the question we have to ask ourselves as individuals and we ask ourselves this on every daily basis whether or not we admit it or not i believe in the sovereignty of god i mean with all of my being i believe in the sovereignty of god that is i believe god is in control of all things of all places of all times of all seasons i believe that god is so sovereign that nothing happens outside of his divine counsel or divine will if we acknowledge the sovereignty of god which i believe is very clearly taught in scripture and ought to be acknowledged then we have to assume that either god allowed or dictated the problem that is god could have kept the son from dying and for reasons unknown to us until we get to the end of the account he didn't but in the death of this son he is manifesting his authority over that which held the greatest concern for every individual that is death here's the connection in the new testament jesus encounters the same thing remember the man who was born blind ends up getting kicked out of the synagogue jesus tells him to go wash in the pool of salome remember that do you remember the question the disciples asked before jesus put mud on his eyes and told him to go wash in the pool of salome who sinned this man or his parents they saw the problem as being a result of sin and jesus says neither this man nor his parents sin but this has happened so that the glory of god may be manifested when lazarus dies jesus says that his death would be so that it would display the glory of god a problem quite often we're not gonna we'll never know why many many problems exist but we do need to come to the reality that problems are one way that god manifest his authority and he is free to manifest his authority even through the greatest of problems that we have one of the things that i have been focusing on this week and i'm wrapping up is the goodness of god that god is good now that's not just a term like that's good or you know i like that's good no the goodness of god literally it's hard to define it is essentially this the very goodness of goodness and all of goodness and everything that can be good is ultimately found in god himself

[38:14]  he is both the center and the author and the originator of all that is good james says be not deceived every good and perfect gift comes from your father which is above right all that is good all that originates good and he is only good it is what is defined as most often as his most central attribute he can be nothing but good but often the thing that causes us to doubt the goodness of god are the problems we experience but if we come to the realization and the acceptation that god is good then problems have a limited scope because those problems must be for the manifestation of his authority and ability because without it quite often my friend the problems are insurmountable and they don't make sense but with it we have to acknowledge god is good we may not understand it we may not see it we may not be like this widow and get to see it answered in a moment or in an instant but we have to by faith acknowledge the reality that god is manifesting himself in the midst of this problem because if not we'll fall away we'll fall away i've told you this before billy graham wasn't the greatest preacher of his time billy graham wasn't even the headline preacher when he started preaching charles templeton was the problem is is during the atrocities of world war ii charles templeton saw a problem that didn't reconcile with his theology and templeton ended up denying the faith and walking away from the faith because the problems seemed bigger than his god which projected billy graham in his 1949 la crusade right before that templeton met with him and told him he needed to make a decision that if he really believed in the goodness of god how could he defend and define the atrocities that were going on around the world billy graham had to come to the realization that while he could not defend it he had to accept by faith that god was good and went from there near the end of his life templeton and it's quoted as saying to lee strobel i wish i could believe but i can't why is because he let the problems have the final word and when the problems have the final word in every one of our hearts and minds it creates doubt but the final word has to be the reality that god is good and he is manifesting himself in some way some form some fashion through that problem whether or not we see it just as he did during the days of elijah first king 17 verses 17 through 24 thank you my brothers so so so