Drought or Dinner | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter

you have your Bibles there in your homes and return with me to the first book of Kings chapter 17 we begin reading at verse number 1 we'll read down through verse number 6 again the last few days over time I begin to prepare to preach two words faith preach faith and preach hope first King 17 verse number one and Elijah the Tishbite who was of the inhabitant of Gilead said and they have as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand there shall not be Dew or rain these years but according to my word and the word of the Lord came unto him saying give me hints turn the eastward hide thyself by the brook cherith that is before Jordan and it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook and I have commanded the Ravens to feed be there so he went and did according unto the word of the Lord for he and for he went and dwelt by the brook cherith that is before Jordan and the Ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening and he drink of the brook would you join me in prayer precious God thank you for your word thank you Lord that your word is a lamp your word is a light your word is a comfort sweeter than the honeycomb thank you Lord that your word is what we build our lives around and we thank you we thank you God that we have this in time such as this now father annoying your servant tonight let the anointing of your spirit be upon my lips and god may my heart burn with faith and hope tonight in Jesus name we pray amen amen you may be seated as we look at these few verses of Scripture here we see how the characters are poles apart Elijah was a god-fearing worshiper of Jehovah a hab was a worshipper of the false gods of bale it is now that Elijah steps forth and in an attempt to turn a nation back to God Elijah begins to foretell that there will not be any dude on the ground or any rain these years according to my word we understand that this no do in the rain was going to lead the nation into a tremendous drought but tremendous drought but when God told Elijah to prophesy a drought God also told Elijah how he would sustain him with dinner during the drought matter of fact that's what I want to preach about for a few moments tonight drought or dinner a drought or dinner because they have and his followers are going to live in a drought while Elijah has been told that God would provide him with dinner he told me my job as you have prophesied a drought that I want you to go and I want you to hide yourself I want you to sound like sound like he's getting quarantine said I've matter of fact the word Cherith the brook Cherith means to be cut off it means to be cut off sounds like to me that God is telling Elijah I want to wake up a nation and want to wake them up with a drought but in the midst of the drought I know that you're going to need dinner and so the way that I'm going to sustain you is I want you to go down to the dry I want you to go down and shut yourself in in the brook of sheriff and said you'll drink of this brook you will drink of this brook and then he said I have commanded the Raven the Ravens I've commanded these unclean birds and they're going to bring you you're going to get you're gonna get two meals a day that sound like a pretty good and it sounds like a pretty good diet you're you're gonna get two meals a day here you're going to get bread and flesh in the morning and you're going to get bread and flesh to eat I began to look at this and we understand we'll read a little bit later that the Bible says that the brook dried up it dried up well it dried up because Elijah prophesied that there'd be no do no rain and so his preaching alone was a little bit do with the brook drying up I begin to look at its some things here the the brook was a natural source that God was going to take care of Elijah God was going to use a natural resource but God knew that this natural resource was going to run dry now I'm here to diminish the faith and hope tonight and and it's not God might take care of us nearing Kobe 19 as a matter of fact I'm kind of keeping track I want to make sure that I say the name of Jesus at least a dozen or more times and I say the covert Kovach 19 I want to make sure that I'm talking about Jesus more than I'm talking about Kovac 19 but God's gonna tell you I'm not God might take care of the church God will take care of the church God will take care now if the church head he'll take care of the church by several means he'll take care of the church by a natural way just like you took care of Elijah by the water from the brook but then God said I'm going to I'm going to take care of you by using something that will be unnatural using something that will be against the nature of I'm going to take an unclean bird I'm going to take my itch of nature by its nature if the Raven bird finds something to eat it eats it that's its nature it is not the nature of that radio to go pick up a piece of bread and fly to where the Prophet was at and drop the piece of bread on the ground from the Prophet it's not his teacher to get a piece of me and take it down and drop it where the profits at so God says I'm not only going to use a natural source but I'm even going to use things that it's not their nature I believe that during Kovach 19 that God is going to move on men and women that it is not their natural tendency to think about God I believe that God is going to use people it's not their natural tendency to think about the house of God the Word of God and the things of God but just like God put it in the mind of that Raven to pick up that bread and go against its nature and take it down to the Prophet you hear me tonight Church of the Living God God is going to use people in the days to come and they're going to do things that they don't naturally do and we the church are going to be the beneficiaries we're going to receive great blessings because God is going to take care of us naturally and God is going to take care of us through an unnatural way it's a matter of fact in Ezra chapter 1 verses number 1 the people of God needed the temple to be rebuild they don't have the money they don't have the resources that's no problem for God in Ezra chapter 1 verse number 1 listen to this now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia that the word of the lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing saying thus saith Cyrus king of Persia the god of the Lord God of heaven have given me had given me all the kingdoms of the earth and hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem which is in Geneva Judah can you imagine this a heathen pagan King wakes up one morning and something so unnatural comes to his mind I mean he's a he's a man that's wealthy beyond words he's got kingdoms he's got all these things but he begins to think about a small despised group of people whose cities lay in a rubbish and he begins to say I need to rebuild that city I need to rebuild Jerusalem and Cyrus missmiss wicked pagan King makes a proclamation to rebuild Jerusalem I'd used something God used the man that was against his nature Nehemiah chapter 2 verse number 4 the same thing happened again the King said for what does that make that request so I prayed Nehemiah Nehemiah was praying to go back and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem how about John the Baptist well I would hear it take care of a man that called him out I mean it was John the Baptist it called hearing out harridan married his brother Philips wife Karen was living in in sin and it was job he called him out it was John called him out but the Bible says in mark 624 Herod feared John knowing that he was a just man and holy and observed him and when he heard him he did many things I believe here just like John I believe that Herod was so like John that he'd stand there by the jail cell and look through the bars at John I don't know why I really like you I don't know why I want to do so many good things for you I know why Herod because God is able to take a raven and cost it to do something that's not that's against its its nature Paul in the last chapter the great book of Acts Paul is a prisoner on a ship but look what happens to him in Acts chapter 28 verse number 16 and when we came to Rome the cinterion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier the kiss only that's cinterion had any idea when he looked at all the prisoners it was one that stuck out there was one that he said III all 275 bubble give him a ball of chain put him on the road game huh all these 275 send them there but said that one man right there Paul said put him over here gave him special treatment I believe once again that God as he used this as he used the Raven bird against his nature touch the hard-hearted that's interior matter of fact the book of Acts comes to a close in verse number 30 says in Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which can serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence no man forbidden although he was a prisoner of Rome they let him go ahead and rent his own apartment said just stay right there in that own apartment take care of yourself Paul opened him up a Bible College Paul talked Paul taught them there see God is able to take care of us through the natural way we have preached the coming of the Lord we if we have preached it tribulation troubles the world and we the church tonight maybe even suffering a little bit for my brother drying up but I don't want the church to despair I don't want the people of God to get into depression because when the brook brazo God can cause people that naturally would not care for the house of God God can cause I believe in the days to come that we're going to have people baptized they didn't get naturally chunk of their mind to be baptized I believe we're going to have people reading their Bible I believe we have people receiving the Holy Ghost it comes to their mind to seek to seek God well the Bible says going back to my opening scripture in first Kings chapter number seven or verse number seven see it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land and the word of the Lord came unto him saying arise and give me to Zarephath which belongeth desire them and dwell there behold I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain these are amazing what God uses how that God can use and God God has the ability to speak to people he spoke to the widow woman so the Prophet arose in verse 10 with is Arafat and when he came to the gate of the city behold the widow woman was there gathering of sticks and he called her her and said fetch me I pray thee a little water in the vessel that I'm a dream and as she was going to fetch it he called her her and said bring me I pray thee a morsel of bread in my in 9 hand in other words he said how I'm thirsting and she went to get water and then he said well I would you bring me just a morsel just a little bit a little bit of bread and I watched what's this now and she said as the Lord thy God little now notice she didn't say as the Lord our God Lilith she didn't have that faith she said as the Lord your God liveth I have not a case but a handful of meal in a barrel on a little oil Kruse and behold I'm gathering two sticks we're gonna be a much of a fire I'm gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it from me and my son then we may eat it and die well I guess she has to ask yourself the question do I want a funeral or do I want to feasts because what you decide to do with your last meal can either determine if you're going to die or you're going to have your first miracle meal hear me now Church what we decide in the days to come can determine whether we're living in the drought or we're living on dinner it can determine whether we are attending our spiritual funeral or we're having a feast he said now let me say this to you number 1 verse 13 fear not in those two words we need to get in our minds is fear not fear not fear paralyzes us but faith energizes us he said I want you to fear not go and do as thou has said but make me there of a little cake first oh if there's ever something we need to be reminded of in the days to come God first God first God first lady be the first thought in our mind God first he said ma'am with a woman don't do like you said but make me make a little cake first and bring it unto me and after mate for the end I said now I want to say because on the surface this can look like an insensitive preacher here this can look like the audacity of this prophet to take bread out of a widowed woman's mouth to take bread out of a her son to take bread out of that mouth if it can it can look like oh how did this man of God tell them the widow woman to make me a cake first but get your mind off the man and get your mind on the message because if there's something that we've got to keep alive in the days to come keep the Word of God alive because it's only by the Word of God that we're going to come out of this when we come out of Kovach 19 we're going to stand back and say God it was your word that brought us out of this Lord it was listening to the Word of God I was a little bit amazed today as I was watching nationally Walker closing alright and in watching what they're not closing the things that are going to stay open the things that they deem essential for us to stay open grocery stores and hospitals job understanding but it come all the way down to one and brother Hammond it just blows my mind you know what they say is he sent you to stay open liquor stores liquor stores are essential to stay open all yeah if we don't have people going down and giving their alcohol will i but have mass suicide going on in this time well I understand it but I don't agree with it but yet that they're frowning on the weekend have public worship now we can't have let me tell you something it's going to be the Word of God that's going to see through the Word of God oh it I just listen to that all day long I'll begin to lose faith I'll begin to get into a spirit of fear I begin to believe that there's no hope I begin to believe that we're fighting Cobin 19 means per man but if I can believe in the Word of God for the Word of God is my entry for the Word of God is my foundation I'm gonna tell you what's going to get us through covin 19 he's going to be the Word of God go ahead and rejoice right there in your home maybe even maybe even weighed your Bible around because the Bible is going to be the thing that's going to get us through Oh hallelujah oh it wasn't a cold-hearted prophet he was saying to the woman ma'am you need to keep the Word of God alive in your life make me a cake first and after that make for thee of thy son but thus saith the Lord God of Israel the barrel of meal shall not West neither shall the cruse of oil fail until the day the Lord said to fling upon the earth and she went and did according to the saying of Elijah and she and he in her house did eat many days and the barrel of meal wasted not neither did the crease of oil fail according to the word of the Lord which respect by the mouth of Elijah now you don't understand what just happened Elijah got the natural meal and the natural oil out of the trees the brother Noland the little cake that Elijah the word I was a natural that was said that's what the widow woman had that's what she was going to eat and died but when she scraped took her fingers and got the last little bit of me allow the barrel and turned the bottle down down and hit and got the last drop of oil out of and she made the Word of God first then he said go back and the first meal that she got was a miracle meal and from that day on until the rain came she ate from the miracle middle barrel and the oil church keep the Word of God alive and well stopped in your home if there's one thing we're seeing empty on the shelves of our grocery stores men there's no bread I mean it's just is just all the bread has gone but one thing in our homes we need to keep well stocked let's keep well stopped with the Word of God such as a weapon formed against you will prosper I will never leave you nor forsake you she began to have a miracle daily in her house but the Bible said in verse number 17 and it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman the mistress of the house fell sick his sickness was so sewer that there was no breath left in him sounds like a respiratory issue here sounds like she's got some problems breathing does that sound familiar sound like you've got some issues breathing sounds like he needs one of them middle he needs he's having some hard time breathing in and he dies he dies and the woman came to him and look at verse number 18 and she said unto Elisha what have I done we've done what I wouldn't use me what have I to do with thee Ohio man of God are that come to call unto me come unto me to call my sins to remembrance and to slay my son can I tell you please whatever happens during Kovach 19 don't get a bad attitude toward God his word his man or his people whatever happens to us for God's sake don't get a bad attitude toward God if they lay you off don't leave their grumbling ha been paying my time even they do this to do that don't leave complaining boy this is how God is going to treat me she came to him and she said with that dead boy she said old man of God is this the reason is this why that you come to call my sin the remembrance and slay my son he said unto her give me thy son he took him out of her bosom carried him up to the loft where he abode and laid him upon his own bed and he cried unto the Lord can I tell you when saints start getting laid off their job we're not going to start crying and complaining we're gonna start crying to the Lord he never promised us that things wouldn't get upside down but he did promise us that he would never leave us nor ever forsake us he didn't promise us that life would be a bed of roses that we would never have things come to our life that he lied to begin to cry out he began to cry he began to cry out to the Lord and he said Lord my God has now also brought evil upon this widow with whom I soldier and my slang her son he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord and said O Lord my god I pray thee let this child so come into him and the Lord heard the voice of Elijah come the Lord heard the voice of Elijah church in the day that we're living in you listen to me tonight God is going to hear the prayers of those that pray in the mighty name of Jesus God heard the prayers of Elijah and the soul of the child came into him again and he revived and he lied you took the child and brought him down into the out of the chamber into the house and delivered him into his mother and said see not so limit make me share this with you what if that with a woman would have said to Elijah I'm not feeding you first I'm not making a place for you in my life there have been no man of God there with that boy begin enough to be able to breathe can I tell you we serve God in bad time we serve God in good times so that when bad times come we don't have to go out and get the remedy praise God we've got the remedy living right in our home she brought him down and he brought him down and said she is yourself listen to verse 24 and the woman said unto Elisha now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is true it's amazing that you would have a kitchen producing miracle meal and miracle oil and not have a full understanding of who God is but when God resurrects our children when God resurrects our future she then says now I know that the Lord is with you I came across this Avery T Willis jr. wrote this and it describes the spirit that I feel bubbling boiling up in my soul for God's people he says I am a part of the Fellowship of the unashamed I have a Holy Ghost power the die has been cast I have stepped over the line the decision has been made I am a disciple of Jesus Christ I won't look back let up slow down back away or be still my past is redeemed my present makes sense my future is secure I'm finished and down with low living sight walking small planning smooth knees telling us dreams Tang visions mundane talking cheap living and to work goes I no longer need prominence prosperity position promotions or popularity I don't have to be right first tops recognized praised regarded or rewarded I'm now live by faith lean on his presence walk by patience live by prayer and labor by power my face is set my gait is fast my goal is heaven my road is narrow my way is rough my companions are few my god is reliable my mission is clear I cannot be bought compromised deterred a turn back deluded or delayed I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice hesitate in the presence of the adversary negotiate at the table of the enemy pounder at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocracy I will give up shut up let up and kill us data stored up prayed up Peter preached up I am a disciple of Jesus Christ I must go till he comes give till I drop preach to all no work till he stops me and when he comes for his own he'll have no problem recognizing me my banner will be clear I thought about reading it but there's nobody that does this better than the man who preached we normally hear this on Easter but who knows the beast you will come this year but I want you to listen and rejoice with me Oh hallelujah because we serve an awesome God we serve a faithful God we serve the loving Lord I want to say to have a pastor that's listening to me tonight I want to tell you fear not man of God for you have a message that this world needs to hear don't fear that that you're going to have to close down your church don't clear this knot no no don't fear this we worship worship there's nobody better than the author dr. king of righteousness king of the ages he's the king of King of Kings the savior of civilization he's a highway that's my key praise God that's my key first step was stolen Maryville that's my key first apostolic Sevierville that's my key all of you that are watching tonight that's my key let's worship them right now let's give Him praise right now let's worship Him together hallelujah nobody gonna pray right now god I pray right now over all your people in the name of Jesus have prayed tonight God that you would touch those in the grip of fear I pray tonight several requested come in today hi prema sister Sara second tonight in the name of Jesus Lord let your sweet spirit go to her right now lord I pray tonight from North Carolina to California from Texas to Kat Canadian border I pray over the United States of America I live that manner of Prayer and I believe for miracles signs and wonders go ahead right here in your home let the Holy Ghost begin to move you're feeling it you're meeting the power of God right now go ahead and just begin to worship right now father's lead the way there in your home father's reach over and get the hand of your wife but begin to lift up the name of Jesus there in your home I'm believing for miracles right now the mighty name of Jesus sickness be healed the mighty name of Jesus let them be away nay have Jesus pray all together right now let's pray all together father Oh glory to God glory to God glory to God ah ha ha ha pray for sister Evelyn crap - right there now ask you our attention to capture hard move alone her tonight heal their mark God touch her right now in the name of Jesus God one last act of worship and we're feeling the mighty presence of God in this house I told you tonight that a scripture came to my mind Hebrews 13:8 for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever more I would have pray tonight God is still a healer still the way man God is still the Almighty the all-powerful God I love the city of Maryville Tennessee God has planted me here for some 36 years my lovely wife which I'd like to ask her to join me right now for 36 years we have been privileged to Pastor this wonderful church but not only pass through this church for the city of Maryville the city of Alcoa Swedish people citizens good people I want to pray for us tonight I want to pray for our County and when I asked God to let there be a holy blood edge around our County I want to ask God tonight to let there be a Holy Blood hedge around this County that when kovin 19 is coming going and we have some unbelievable statistics of how he was so small the infection here I want us to know that by the name of Jesus this Worcester by the name of Jesus father I pray tonight for the city of Maryville Tennessee I pray tonight for the city of F cool I pray tonight for Princeville I pray the Louisville come I pray for greenback I pray for Township I pray receive our Father I pray a holy Glen hedge around our County Jesus you heard a man pray Joshua prayed the Sun Stood Still god I pray tonight in the name of Jesus that I magnify I pray there be a holy blood hedge around a County tonight father I pray for all of the workers at blood Memorial Hospital I pray for every doctor I pray for every nurse I pray for every employee of blender boy Hospital tonight Jesus let your spirit sweep over that Hospital let that hospital be covered with a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud but then Jesus I ask you tonight that your presence being ever clinic God in this city be a moon every health worker father God of heaven I pray to you tonight God that your hand would be upon us I give you praise I believe you God that you heard our prayer tonight keep our children safe keep our home safe keep our child care centers safe keep us safe God in this county you're no respecter of persons I love and I honor you Lord Jesus I ask all of these things tonight in the mighty matchless name of Jesus amen and amen god bless you for being with us tonight online join us tomorrow night at 7:30 online as we enter into a week of revival tomorrow JDH osburgh god bless you good night in Jesus name