In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of relying on the word of God as our sustenance. He encourages the congregation to prioritize the word of God over worldly distractions such as newspapers, television, and even friends and family. The preacher references the story of Elijah in the Bible, where God provides him with food and water during a time of discouragement and fear. He highlights the significance of seeking God's face and kneeling before Him as a way to find strength and renewal when we feel overwhelmed.

First Kings 19, the Bible says, And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with a sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was a cake made upon the coals, and a cruise of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the streets of that meet forty days and forty nights, on the whore of the mount of God. Go back to verse number four, if you would, please. 1 Kings 19, 4, it will be our text. The Bible says, But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. And tonight in 1 Kings 19, we'll preach on this simple subject. What do you do when you've had enough? Thank you very much. You may be seated. Let's bow our heads in hearts and pray, and ask the Lord to bless our time together tonight. What do you do when you've had enough? Now, my father, I do pray that you would help me tonight as I preach the word of God. I pray that you would help these, my friends in this congregation as they listen. Give us attentive hearts and listening ears to the precious word of God tonight. And I pray, Lord, that you would do something in our hearts that my sermon cannot do. Thank you, Lord, for the good music tonight. Thank you, Lord, for the fun that we can have, for the fellowship that you've blessed us with. We've had many activities throughout the day. And, Lord, we still have a good bit of an evening before us. But remove all that from our mind at this time and help us to focus in to the blessed word of God. Speak to us now, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. In 1 Kings 19, we have an unusual portion of Scripture simply because it follows one of the greatest revivals in all of the Bible in 1 Kings 18. Now, I'm sure you'll remember 1 Kings 18, because as a Bible college student, you have heard many, many sermons on 1 Kings 18, on Elijah, when the fire of God fell there atop of Mount Carmel. Matter of fact, when I was in Bible college, we had a Levangel come through, and he preached one day on the hot, caramel Sunday. And so I've heard probably just about every title of every sermon that could be preached from the text of 1 Kings 18. But one thing's evident. No matter who preaches it, how it's preached, and what they title their message, I'll tell you one thing. It was a wonderful revival that turned the hearts of an entire nation of people back to the God of the Bible. I want you to notice, if you would please, the very last verse of 1 Kings 18, verse 46. 1 Kings 18, verse 46, the Bible says, And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah. Now, that's the prophet we're going to be dealing with tonight. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his reins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. So it doesn't take somebody who is an A-plus student in a Bible college to figure out that here's a man who had the power of God. How do you know that, Brother Locke? I'll tell you how I know that, because the Bible said that he did. It said that the hand of the Lord was upon him. Now, it doesn't say that simply because God ran out of words. It says that because here's a man who believed God. It says that because here's a man who spit in the eye of the world, spit in the eye of the devil. He turned his back on sin, and with all of heaven behind him, he stood in front of 850 prophets and said, Now, let me show you, good boys, what my God can do. And here is a man who performed miracles because he had the power of God. But I'd like to remind you, no matter how old we've been saved, no matter how spiritual we may think that we are, no matter how much Bible knowledge we have, and no matter how full our heart is of the Word of God, there are going to be discouraging times in our life. And here is a man that the Bible arrogantly says in chapter 18 and verse 46 that the hand of God was upon him. He had just been removed from an old-fashioned, heaven-sent, heartfelt, holy-ghost, sin-killing revival, and all of a sudden, because of one wicked woman by the name of Jezebel, he gets upset, he closes his Bible, he packs his dirty duds, he throws them over his shoulder, and he had closed it out of town, and he stared to death over one wicked woman. And I believe I've met a few women like that in some of my meetings. But nonetheless, here is a man who had the hand of God upon him, had the power of God upon him, but we find him sitting under a juniper tree, sucking his thumb, wishing that God would kill him. Now, you may tell me, how in the wide world can a man go from chapter 18 to chapter 19 so quickly? I believe I'll show you tonight. Look, if you would, please, at verse number 1 of 1 Kings chapter 19. Several thoughts tonight, and we'll be through and be done. The Bible says, And Ahab told Jezebel. That was the queen of Iran, by the way. Ahab and Jezebel were the most wicked king and queen that Israel ever had known, and they are the ones that took them back in to idolatry and spiritual bondage. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and with all, how he had slain all the prophets with a sword. Then, when she heard this, then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods, notice he's a pagan, that's a little god, so let the gods do to me and more also, if I make not my life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. So he's sitting down by a brook, having himself a good time, a little Bible study, and all of a sudden, across his little PDA, all of a sudden, he gets this little email. And the email says that Jezebel is going to chop your head off. He is upset at what you have done to all of the prophets of the grove and the prophets of Baal. He fed those prophets, the Bible said. They ate at her table. They were her friends. He paid them high dollars to be a bunch of liberals and god-kickers and Christ-injectors and Bible-kickers. They didn't care anything about the God of the Bible, but she loved them. And now she found out that they're all dead. They were all taken down to the Brook Kishon. The Bible said that he slew them there. He chopped their heads off and the blood was flowing. And by the way, Lester Orloff said, that's the first non-profit organization you'll ever read about in the Bible, amen. He took them down there and he killed every single one of them. And the Bible says that when Jezebel found out about it, she got in a tither and she got in a fancy. She started batting them little Max Factor eyelashes. And she said, I'll tell you one thing, I'm going to kill him. He's dead. I can't believe he has done this to our nation. And so she emailed him, sent a messenger. You understand the context. And he finds out that this lady wants to kill him by that very same time the next day. And if she doesn't succeed, she is so much against him that she said, I made a little pact with the gods of the land and the gods of the world that I serve. I'll let them do to me and more also what you did to these prophets if you're not dead and I don't have your head on a platter by this time tomorrow afternoon. Now notice what your Bible says, please, in verse 3. Don't miss it. Very important. The Bible says in 1 Kings 19, 3, notice the first little phrase, and when he saw that. I want to give you three simple problems tonight that Elijah had that caused him to be in the discouragement and the despair and the bondage that he found himself in. I want you to write down number one. Elijah had a problem with his faith. Elijah had a problem with his faith. Now that may sound funny to you, and honestly it sounds very funny to me because in the chapter before, he had all the faith in the world. You remember, ladies and gentlemen, that Ahab said, okay, we're going to have ourselves a little contest. Now you talk about home court advantage. He was on their turf. He let them go first. He had a king and a queen against him, an entire group of rebellious Israelites against him, and 850 Satan worshipers against him. Now friend, he had all of those folks against him, but he knew God was on his side, and that's all that mattered. And you and God are a majority, and the Apostle Paul said, if God be for us, who can be against us? And the obvious biblical answer is no one at all. And so he stood there at the base of that mountain, and he said, you fellas can go first. And the Bible says that from early in the morning until midday, probably about 6 to 12, something like that, these fellas were crying, oh bell, hear us. Oh bell, hear us. And the Bible says, but there was no answer. I'll tell you why. Because there was no bell. And so they were hollering, hear us please, hear us please, hear us please. Now here's what your Bible says. Man, I love this. I like Elijah. He had a backbone. He wasn't one of these, you know, jellyfish type of a preacher that was scared to preach on sin. You know what the Bible says? And at midday, Elijah mocked them. Man, I like that. I mean, he mocked them. He put a little straw in his mouth. He looked at them fellas and said, hey, what's wrong with your God? Is he sleeping? Is he on a journey? Is he getting something to eat? Maybe his beeper went off. Maybe he's on the other line and he's not paying attention. Hey, where's your God? And that made them even more angry. And the Bible says that they began to pray and they began to prophesy. I mean, they were screaming and hollering, the Bible says, until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. That's 6 o'clock in the evening. And these people had been screaming like a bunch of wild banshees and running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. And they were screaming and hollering and yelling for 12 solid hours. And the Bible says that they cut themselves with stones. They cut themselves with knives. They cut themselves with lancets. They jumped around. The blood was gushing out. They were babbling and hollering and yelling and acting crazy and foolish like a bunch of little nursery babies. And nothing happened. Well, you know what the contest was all about. They cut up the bullets. They put the wood there on and put no fire under. And the God that answers by fire, let Him be God. And all the people shook their fists in the air and said, it is well said. It is well said. And so they prayed, they prophesied, they preached, they hollered, they yelled, they did everything they could for 12 hours and there was no answer. And all of a sudden, Elijah said, now let me show you what my God can do and you believe anything you want to about that Bible sitting in your lap tonight. I don't think he doubted Jehovah God for one moment. He knew God could send fire anytime He wanted to. And so he got down. And what 12 hours of praying could not do for a false God, 64 words to the thrice holy God of the Bible got done just like that. And the Bible says the fire of God fell out of the sky. It licked up the sacrifice. It licked up the bricks. It licked up all of the water. You study your Bible, you will find there was 12 gills of water that was poured over that thing. And there had been a drought for three years and water was the most precious commodity of the day. And so here this water was all licked up. It was licked up in the trench. Everything was burnt up. And more than that stuff being burnt up, the hearts of the people melted. And they fell on their faces and they had a revival and they said, The Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is the God. And those people were revived and they saw God as they had never seen Him before. As the God that can send fire. The true God of the universe. And that's when He took those prophets down there and killed every one of them. And you'll be hard pressed. You'll be hard pressed to show me anywhere in 1 Kings chapter number 18 that is faith wavered. He was a man who believed God to the fullest in chapter number 18. But he finds out that one wicked woman is out to get him. He finds out that one crazy lady by the name of Jezebel wants his head on a platter and the Bible says right here in verse number 3, And when he saw that... Now wait a minute. In chapter number 18 he did not live by his sight. He lived by faith. He believed God. He trusted God. He relied on God. But the moment things got fixed and the moment the money ran out of the bank, if you will, and the moment it seemed like God was hiding Himself, he went from living by faith to living by sight. He took his eyes off the God of the Bible and put them on his circumstances. And that was his first problem. And the Bible does not say that he trusted in God and he fell on his face and said, Lord, deliver me from these circumstances. The Bible emphatically says, When he saw that, he had a problem with his faith. He began to be a man. He was a prophet. A man with a power of God who began to live by sight and not by faith. Now here's what the world says. The world says, Seeing is believing. But that's not biblical. The biblical mindset is this. Believing is seeing. We do not understand and then obey. We obey so that we may scripturally understand. That's why the Bible says in Hebrews 11, 6, For without faith it is impossible. Not improbable. Not some can, some can't. It is impossible to please God. For him that cometh to God must first believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. The book of Habakkuk, the book of Galatians, and the book of Romans all say three times in the Word of God that the just shall live by faith. And here's a man in chapter 18 who believed God. I mean, he had faith. I mean, I'm not talking about mustard seed faith either. I mean, this guy had watermelon faith. He believed God. He said God's going to send the fire. There's no doubt about it. I'm not going to doubt. I'm not going to waver. The fire is on its way. I can feel it burning my brow right now. And guess what? The fire came and God was glorified. God was uplifted and God was honored. But in the very next chapter, when one little thing went wrong in Elijah's life, he stopped living by faith and began living by sight. You know, it's a very easy thing to do as a child of God. The problems get against you. You look at the newspaper. You go to your box and maybe you're expecting some money when you're in Bible college and then you've got a bill that seems to be just insurmountable. There's no way you can get through this year. There's no way you can get through this semester. And a lot of times we're just like the children of Israel. You know how I know that? Because God pays every bill right on time. And by the way, you won't have an unpaid bill that belongs to God. He takes care of your bills. He takes care of your health. He takes care of your family. He takes care of every little incidental need. And the very next month when the bills come and the school bills do and you've got to put gas in the car and groceries in your belly, we're just like the children of Israel and we forget all about the blessings of the month before and we fall out of pieces and we quit living by faith and we begin to live by sight. When I was coming up here today from the airport and I was listening on the radio and this guy was talking about Noah's Ark. And you know, out in Turkey and the mountains, Turkish mountains, wherever it is, whatever it is. And here's what he said. He said, you know, he was a liberal, he was a skeptic. He said, you know, he said, I would believe the Bible if they actually found that big wooden boat. Well, that's what the man said. I would believe the Bible if they would actually find that big wooden boat. Now, I'm going to tell you something. They could find the big wooden boat and they could park it over in a trailer park behind my trailer and it would not increase my faith one bit. Because I don't have to have the boat to believe God. I've got a Bible to believe God. And if the Bible says God will take care of me, then I promise you God will take care of me. Now, by the way, if they ever did find Noah's Ark, I thought about this too. Then Benny Hinn and one of these other crooked birds on television would get a couple of splinters of it and try to sell them for about $25 a piece. I've got a splinter of Noah's Ark. It will be your point of contact for the floods and the storms of life. And if you send me $29.99, I'll send you a splinter of Noah's Ark. Hey! I don't need a splinter of Noah's Ark. I need to get my nose out of the newspaper and put it in the Word of God and learn to trust and believe and rely on Almighty God. And here's a man who began to look at his circumstances through freshly eyes, through human eyes, rather than through the all-seeing eye of the God of the Bible. And his first problem was a problem with his faith. Now, if you want to have a miserable summer, if you want to have a horrible, wretched summer, you just look at all the circumstances, you just look at all the problems, and you just look at everything in life through your eyes rather than simply trusting in God. Hey, if God said He'll take care of you, I promise you, friend, God will take care of you. Both physically, financially, emotionally, spiritually. When are we going to learn as God's people to simply trust in God? I said that one night in the church. Matter of fact, I thought maybe I was even preaching this message. And I preached, and all I said was this, God's people need to learn to simply trust God. And a man came to me after the service, and he said, Brother Locke, I understand what you mean. He said that that sounds just real simple and real generic. Duh! It's supposed to be real simple and real generic. It doesn't have to be hard to believe God. God promised in His Word that He would meet our every need, and therefore, He'd be a liar if He did not. And I know what my Bible says in Titus 1-2. God cannot. It's not that He will not. It's that His character will not allow Him to. God can not allow Him Therefore, I do not need to go through life with the bifocal problems and circumstances on, but I need to not see the problem. I need to believe God in the problem. So His first problem was the problem of faith. But go back in your Bible if you would please. I want to show you something else in verse 3. And when He saw that, that was His faith wavering, He arose, now notice this, and went for His life and came to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and left His servants there. You probably know the outline already. Number one, He had a problem with His faith. Number two, He had a problem with fear. He was afraid. I mean, He was afraid of Jezebel. And you can imagine. I mean, here's a lady who had a lot of gun power, if you will. Here's a lady who had armies and militaries and tanks and the whole nine yards. Here was a lady that could annihilate Him. But yet, in the chapter before, when He was right with God, when He was filled with the Spirit, if you will, when the hand of God was pressing mighty upon Him, He was not afraid of anything. He wasn't afraid of eight hundred and fifty wicked satanic prophets. He wasn't afraid of Ahab. He wasn't even afraid of Jezebel. He wasn't afraid of all those Israelites that could have run His scrawny little neck. He was not afraid because He knew God was on His side. But the moment things began to fall apart in His life, and the moment He quit believing God, which, by the way, was the main reason He had to destroy all of our discouragement because He quit living by faith, and that's where all of our discouragement stems from, when we stop trusting God and we get out of the Word of God and we begin to see our problems ourselves rather than believe in God. That was His first problem. And because He had a problem with His faith, He now has a problem with fear. He's scared to death, and the Bible says He gets Himself up and He runs out into the wilderness afraid that Jezebel is hot on His trail and she's going to kill Him. Dr. John R. Rice told a book one time, obviously for the story of the Lord and here's what he said. And I've never been to the Bible in Canada, but I trust what the man said. God be there. He said there are three hundred and sixty-six fear not in the Bible. Now, that's a lot of fear nots. Three hundred and sixty-six fear nots in the Bible. That's right, sometimes thirty-nine count. He said the reason there are three hundred and sixty-six is because there is one fear not for God's people for every day of the year and God's doing an extra one for leap year just in case. And I'm going to tell you some friends, we don't have to fear. You think I'm going to live in constant fear of the liberals and the modernists and the ACLU? I'm not worried about that crowd. I'm not worried about what that crowd thinks about me. I can care less what anybody thinks about me, much less the liberals and the modernists and the devil's crowd. And we get so uptight about the things of life. We fear so many things. We fear that, you know, we're not going to be accepted by certain people. You know, we fear that God's just not going to come through as if he's come to the place where he's failed us and left us hanging and dry before. And here's a man who had some fear. God's people need not fear. God's people, the Bible says, have not been given the spirit of fear but of awe and of power and of a sound mind according to the Bible in 1 Timothy. And we do not have to fear the storms of life and the hardships and when the bottom falls out and when the trials and the temptations come, there's no need to fear and there's no need to waver or faint just simply believe God. You remember the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 27? Here he was out on a boat being tossed around like a toothpick in a bathtub. I mean, this guy had some problems. By the way, one of the big reasons they had those problems and one of the big reasons that they were in that storm is because the Apostle Paul jumped up on the deck of that ship and said, fellas, I told you you should have never loosed from creep. And their first problem was they wouldn't listen to the admonition of the man of God and oh, how many times I've talked to people in churches who get in the shipwreck of life because they won't listen to the old fuddy-duddy preacher in the pool pit because they think they know more than the preacher and they think they know more about the Bible than God did when he wrote it. But the Apostle Paul said you should have listened to me but since you didn't I'm going to teach you a little lesson. He got out there and I mean, he was trying to encourage those people. They were just about jumping off the sides of the ship. They were scared to death. All the prisoners were going to have to be set free. And the Apostle Paul stood up and bowed his back and said, fellas, just quiet and I'll teach them. He said, there stood by me this night an angel of God whose I am and whose I serve. And he told me that there'll be no loss of any man's life on this ship only of the cargo. And here's what the Apostle Paul said. Brethren, men, I believe God. You know, if we could live by those words right there, we'd have a whole lot of our problems licked hands down. You'd have a whole lot better summer, mister, ma'am, if you would just live by those few words, I believe God. By the way, people that believe God, people that are Bible believers are the outcasts of society. You believe what you want to but the farther we get into this thing as far as serving the Lord and the deeper in the cesspool and the tides of iniquity that America goes, we're going to look more and more like the oddball every day, every hour, every week, every month, and every year. And they're doing their dead level best to shut us up every single day. But I'm not who I want to be. I believe God. And as Peter said, hey, we're going to obey God rather than man. And here was a guy who had a problem with his faith. He just didn't believe God the way that he should because of problems. And because he didn't believe God, now he's fearful. But he's scared. He's like a little boy huddled up under that juniper tree and he's shaken and he wants to die. Now notice what he says. Here's an interesting thing in verse 4. But he himself went a day's journey. So he left his servant and he said, you've got to stay here. I've got some business to do. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree and requested for himself that he might die. And said, it is enough now, oh Lord. Take away my life for I am not better than my father's. Number three, he had problems with failure. Elijah honestly believed he was a big fat failure. I mean, just a complete zero with a circle rubbed out. He thought he was a nobody. He said, Lord, I'm going to tell you something. He said, the generation before me was a bunch of losers. He said, He said, And he said, I'm no better than the losers before me. He said, my father's didn't accomplish anything for God. And he said, I am no better than my father's. Now, here's an interesting study for you sometime. There are four men in the Bible. I'm not going to have time to preach on them. There are four men in the Word of God that sat down under a tree. And several of those, I believe, if my memory and Bible study serves me correct, were juniper trees. Now, I want you to study this sometime. It's interesting. The four men who sat down under a tree were all discouraged for several reasons, but all four of them had one thing in common. They were physically worn out. Now, I know we all think we're peripheral super people sometimes, and I'm bad about that. Like, I can just go, go, go, go, go, and never ever stop. But I'm going to tell you something. The time the devil is going to hit you most this summer is when you're physically worn out. When you're tired. Now, I know we like to have fun, and I know we like to fellowship, and I know you spiritual folks like to play all night and read your Bible all night and stuff like that, but you're going to have to have some rest this summer. You're going to have to learn to sleep and learn to regulate your time, and you're going to have to be disciplined, have some character, and get on a schedule because the devil will not shoot at you when you are doing your best and your finest and you're at your strongest hour for Christ. He's going to get you when you're under the juniper tree. He's going to get you when you get a phone call or an email or a letter. He's going to get you when something goes wrong, when your chappers won't listen, when the teens are just eating on your nerves so bad you just want to beat them all up. And I mean, he's going to get you when you're tired. So get your rest. We're not super people. God doesn't expect us to be super people. I know these folks, they say, well, I'll tell you one thing, I just never sleep. I always live for God. Well, the Bible says the Lord gives us beloved sleep. And I want to be one of His beloved, and I like to think that I am, and so I need some sleep every night. And I know when my body gets physically tired and I get mentally worn out, that is when the devil fights me the most, and that's when the temptations come down the bowling alley, friend. And so be careful because here's a man who began to struggle with his faith. He began to struggle with fear and struggle with feelings of failure because he was physically worn out. He had been in a revival meeting that exhausted him. He had run for a couple of days, then left his service, ran for several more days into the week, and he sat down and he said, God, I'm so tired, I don't even want a love offering this week. Just heal me and take me to the kingdom of God. And he got to the place where honestly, Elijah, honestly believed that he had never accomplished anything for God. Now, I do not believe that God wants us to go around with our, you know, lips dragging. He doesn't want us to go around with our mouth hung over like a bunch of old dirty shoelaces and be mean and sour and look like we've been sucking on lemons and sour persimmons and drinking vinegar through a PVC pipe and stuff like that. He doesn't want us to be like that. He wants us to enjoy Him. He wants us to be excited. But you know, sometimes God does put us in a corner and He gets us to the place where He heats up the fiery furnace hotter than it's ever been heated before. He puts us in the mouth of the lion's den with a starving, hungry lion. And sometimes He gets us to a place where we're backed in a corner, our hands go up, and we have to realize before we can ever be used of God that we are nothing and without Him we are big failures. And we need the power of God that I preached on the other night. And we need the Word of God. And we need our rest. And we need the times when God breathes upon us and we need and gives us seemingly new life and revival. That's what revival's all about. That's what my ministry is all about. Not going around selling a bunch of Bibles and selling a bunch of tapes. Whoopee! Big deal. You know, they're going to all burn up. No big deal about selling tapes. My ministry is to go around the country and see people saved by the grace of God and those that are saved see them revived and see them encouraged. Man, I was reading the other day with a good pastor friend of mine a couple of weeks ago in our tent meeting. We got up one morning and we decided we were going to read the story of Joseph. And we were reading about Joseph and things like that and the Bible says that when Isaac found out well, found out that Joseph was still living. You know what the Bible says? And his spirit revived within him. That is what my ministry is consumed with. That last week that this week and that all summer long your spirit would be revived within you. Hey, for without me Jesus says John 15, 5 the end of the verse you can do nothing. And it means just as much that tonight as it did when the ink pen of inspiration ran out at the end of that verse. We need him or we are failures. You're not going to be able to lead all of your campers to Christ this summer. You're not going to be able to meet all of their needs and answer all of their questions and counsel them all hours of the night. And there may be times when you get to the place where you throb your hands and say there's no way I can do this. You're exactly right. But the God who is in you can give you the answers can give you the strength can give you the help. And Elijah was backed into a corner and he realized that he could do nothing without God. And back when there was a turn in the story and when God put Elijah in that spot and when God showed Elijah how feeble he was and how great the God of the Bible is he then and only then could restore him and begin to use him in a wonderful way. And there's two things that God did for Elijah. I want to show them to you quickly. Look in your Bibles if you would please at verse number 5. In verse number 5 the Bible says and as he lay and slept under a juniper tree behold then an angel touched him and said unto him arise and eat. And he looked and behold there was a cake baking on the coals and a cruise of water at his head and he did eat and drink and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him and said arise and eat because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose and did eat and drink. Now notice this. And when the strength of that meet forty days and forty nights under Horeb the mount of God. Here he is sleeping under a juniper tree and an angel from heaven flutters down out of the heavenlies wakes him up and says you're tired you're weary you're exhausted physically, emotionally, spiritually mentally the whole nine yards you need something to eat. And so the Bible says that there was a cruise of water at his head and there was a cake baking on the coals by an angel. Now I suppose it was heavenly spring water angel food cake I don't know but it was from God and the Bible says that he ate that food that he took a great big gulp of that water now here's what the word of God says man I love this and he wept in the strength of that meet for forty days and forty nights. Now I'll tell you something some of your mothers and grandmothers can cook and it may be a heavy meal but I ain't never pardon the English had a meal that stuck with me for forty days and forty nights. I've not had meat that stuck with me for forty five minutes ladies and gentlemen I'm going to be honest with you here's a man who was fed by God he had problems number one with his faith he had problems number two with fear he struggled with problems of failure but God did two things to revive his spirit number one very simply he gave him some food God gave Elijah some food he fed him with a substance that God knew would get him forty more days and forty more nights down the spiritual journey God gave him met him exactly where he was he took him just like he was and in the midst of his feelings of failure in the midst of his lack of faith in the midst of his fearfulness and frustration God gave him some food for the journey and I will tell you this summer and I preached on it already this week a little bit or this past week and so I'm not going to belabor the point but I'm telling you you know exactly where I'm going tonight you've got one thing that is your substance this summer you've got one thing that's your substance 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year I'm telling you that substance is not the newspaper that substance is not a television set that substance is not your friends it's not your family that substance is the food of the word of God and if we're going to go forty more days and forty more nights and if we're going to go forty more years and on and on and on and serve the Lord then when we get discouraged and when we do have a lack of faith and when we do have much fear and when we do struggle with frustration and failure and soul and so forth and the world the flesh and the devil is beating and knocking down our door we need to be fed with the food of the precious word of God and oh how sometimes we neglect the very thing that can bring us another day and another night on the journey I mean we substitute everything for the one thing that can really help us and there's nothing wrong with fellowship and with your friends and there's nothing wrong with getting counsel from Brother Duffy from some other preacher from a family member from mom or dad there's nothing wrong with wanting help from other folks but I tell you we have a world that is overrun with psychology pills pain panic and counseling simply because we have neglected the blessed food of the word of God I quoted the verse the other night I'll give it to you again it might help you to write it down Job 23 12 Job said I have esteemed that means I love respect, reverence I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more he said not on the same playing field but more than my necessary food and God gave him Elijah the food that he needed and every day of our life we have the food that we need to continue on the journey but I want to show you something interesting last year I think it was last year yeah matter of fact the Robertsons and I were in a round robin missions conference up in Michigan and I was kind of just going through a little bit of a personal trial myself and I was reading my bible and I came across this chapter and this was a message that was developed out of a burden on my heart and I had never seen this before brother Duffy and I tell you it just really really spoke to my heart and my favorite sermons that I'm privileged to preach are those that the Lord first really does something in my heart and just steps all over my toes about and then I'm able to get in the pulpit and preach not from knowledge not from memory but just from a burden and I tell you this portion of scripture right here really picked me up in a down time emotionally in my life and I want to show you what the God of the bible showed me look at verse number 9 would you the bible says 1st Kings 19 9 and he came thither unto a cane that's Elijah and he lodged there and behold the word of the Lord came to him and said unto him what doest thou here Elijah and he said I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts for the children of Israel have forsaken thine covenant thrown down on thine altars and slain by prophets with a sword and I even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away it was a little bit of an exaggeration because we'll not have time to get there but in verse 17 we find out there were 7000 people that had not bowed the knee and so he's having a bit of a pity party notice what the bible says in verse 11 and he said go forth and stand upon the mountain before the Lord and behold the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and breaking pieces the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind and after the wind an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice now here's Elijah you've got to imagine something dear friend here's Elijah who had just come out of a red hot revival meeting got discouraged ran was just all discombobulated in his heart God fed him God took care of him he wanted to get right and God says go to this cave he goes to this cave he spends the night in this cave and the morning rises and at about dawn God says get up and go to the top of the mountain I'll show you something so he gets up he gets all ready he shaves he goes up on top of the mountain has his coffee and his devotions and all of a sudden the bible says that a great wind passed by the mountain now we're not talking about just a little little breeze just blowing across Lake Chautauqua we're talking about locomotive power wind I mean ripping the trees over and rending the rocks just about to blow him off his foundation about to blow his toupee right off his head and he's up there and he's just blowing back and forth and the bible says that the Lord was not in the wind and so after the wind the bible says there was an earthquake I mean things begin to quake and things begin to shake all over the place and I mean he's standing there in the very hill that he's standing on and the wind is about to split wide open and the trees that were being bent and blown over by the wind are now being sucked up by the ground and the rocks are cracking all over the place and then the sky is turning a different color and everything is getting sucked into the earth and he's getting a little bit scared and he's thinking this is the great power of God but the Lord was not in the earthquake no wind no earthquake the presence of God was nowhere to be found and then the bible says there was a fire now I don't know about you but if in chapter number 18 just a month or so earlier in my life I came out of a holy ghost revival meeting where God came down in great consuming fire I would then think this must be the great power of God and it licked up the rocks it began to shoot through the sky with like lightning bolts of fire it began to burn up the cedar trees and he said surely this is the great magnificent power of God but the Lord was not in the fire and after the wind and after the earthquake and after the fire the bible says and then there was a still small voice write this down number two as we close you see he struggled with faith with fear with feelings of failure so God gave him some food to help him go on we've got the food of the word of God but number two God gave him some fellowship you see here's what I had to learn the hard way you see whenever I came across 1st Kings chapter 19 a lot of times we look for God to do the magnificent in our life we look for the supernatural phenomena and we look for the fire for the earthquake for the floods and for the wind we look for everything to be all discombobulated and torn to pieces that's how we believe God works but you know I've learned something the devil can imitate wind the devil can imitate an earthquake the devil can he can make a lot of noise he can start a pretty big ruckus in a lot of churches I've preached in and the devil can even imitate fire but dear neighbor you hear me and never forget I told you there's one thing the devil old slew foot himself can never imitate and that's the still small voice of your God and there's going to be times when fellowship with family just won't cut it friend when fellowship with a friend fellowship with a spouse just won't cut it you're going to have to have fellowship with a king of kings and lord of lords and that's why your bible says in James 4 draw a line to God and he will draw a line to you and God didn't have to scream at him God didn't have to yell at him he just kind of got down beside him put his arm around him and whispered in his ear in a still small voice listen I'm through there was a man who visited years ago in Florida a very very large church it was around Easter time resurrection Sunday and they were having a large large Easter type of a resurrection passion play whatever you call it and they had went to great expense and they had done this for several years they had went to great expense with all of the lights and the fog and all of the script all of the actors and everything but the main part of the program was religious if you will wax artifacts wax statues wax little things that almost look like a wax museum on the platform and the wax figurines depicted the birth through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus oh it was a phenomenal program I mean people sat on the edge of their pews on the edge of their seats with bated breath I mean just a couple of thousand people packed in this great big Coliseum like church and they just sat there and they listened and they watched as the lights would come off and it almost seemed to make the wax figurines come to life they had one of the birth of the Lord Jesus one of his early miracles then they had when the Lord Jesus was rejected by Pilate and the rest of the crowd being scourged and then they had one of him on the cross and oh what a gruesome depiction it was and then they had one of just a tomb all by itself with a stone all over it and then the next one was a light and a strobe light that was blinking on the inside of the tomb and the Lord arisen again and then it was a very moving moving program well after it this guy stood around for a while and he just kind of wanted to see how things were run he wanted to look at the wax figurines and so after about an hour after the service was over everyone had just about dissipated everyone was just about to go home and he was there and the pastor was leaving and the janitor was there locking up waxing the floors mopping getting cobwebs and things like that well this gentleman decided to walk up front and just kind of stand at the bottom of the platform as a large building kind of wrapped around he was just looking at all the wax figurines and boy he was just amazed but he was really drawn in to the one of the crucifixion oh what a gruesome picture what a gruesome wax sculpture it was of the Lord Jesus with a crown of thorns upon his head and the blood just trickling down his face and his body was opened and bloodied and bruised and raw and it was quite obvious that he had gone through great torture and his head was bowed and the way that most of the lights were off in the auditorium it cast a shadow across the face of the Lord Jesus and this man went around to this side and boy he got up on his tiptoes and bending around and looking all over the place trying to see what the facial expression was like he just wanted to see what this wax sculpture man had created for a face of the Lord Jesus there on the cross and he went over to this side and he looked he just looked all over the place and by this time the janitor had walked up close behind him and as this man was trying to see the expression on the face of the Lord Jesus the janitor snickered and walked up behind him tapped him on the shoulder and said sir if you want to see the face of the Savior you're going to have to kneel before him I'll tell you something friend if you want to know God if you want to fellowship with God and if you want to see the face of your Savior you're going to have to kneel before him and that's what you do when you've had enough every head bowed please every eye closed