God brings about different opportunities for us to serve him if only we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Sermon Title: OBADIAH: FROM FEARFUL TO FAITHFUL
Sermon Text: 1 KINGS 18:1-16 (NIV)
Sermon Series: MORE BEYOND
By: PTR NIC SY
Sermon Notes:
1 KINGS 18:1-16 NIV
1 After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”
2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria, 3 and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of his palace. (Obadiah was a devout believer in the LORD.
4 While Jezebel was killing off the LORD’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.)
5 Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs and valleys. Maybe we can find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive so we will not have to kill any of our animals.”
6 So they divided the land they were to cover, Ahab going in one direction and Obadiah in another.
7 As Obadiah was walking along, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down to the ground, and said, “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?”
8 “Yes,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’”
9 “What have I done wrong,” asked Obadiah, “that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death?
10 As surely as the LORD your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you.
11 But now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’
12 I don’t know where the Spirit of the LORD may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the LORD since my youth.
13 Haven’t you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred of the LORD’s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water.
14 And now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ He will kill me!”
15 Elijah said, “As the LORD Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.”
16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
I. OBADIAH IS COURAGEOUS
PHILIPPIANS 4:22 NIV
22 All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.
God places his people in surprising spheres of influence and he does it for his purposes.
“What is the best that I can do for my God (right here where I am)?”
II. OBADIAH IS CAUTIOUS
For every Elijah, there are a dozen Obadiahs.
It’s faithfulness that counts with God.
Takeaway 1.
GOD HAS PLACED YOU WHERE YOU ARE.
God puts his light into some dark places because that is where the light is needed most.
Takeaway 2.
EXPECT TO BE MISUNDERSTOOD.
Your accountability is ultimately unto God and not to man.
Takeaway 3.
TRUST GOD TO KEEP YOU.
The call of God will never take you where the grace of God will not sustain you.
Why not the best?