What Are You Doing Here Elijah 1984

What I'd like to share today applies surely to all of us here without any exception, but also I believe will apply to many people who aren't here, people who we know and have been praying for or are concerned about, and just a prayer that somehow or other, whatever is true in this message which I feel applies to the body and is given to us, will find its way to each of them too, wherever they may be today. I'd like to begin by reading from Matthew chapter 20, verse 1. For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard, and going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace and said to them, you go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.

So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing idle and said to them, why do you stand here idle all day? They said to him, because no one has hired us.

He said to them, you go into the vineyard too. Now, remember, it's the eleventh hour, and it's only one hour left until quitting time. And let's suppose that the householder leaves the marketplace, goes back to the vineyard, and there in the vineyard he sees a man whom he had hired early in the morning, sitting on a rock with his chin on his knees, staring into space, all bummed out.

And he says to him, what are you doing here? And he says, I can't get along with those laborers. They're all hypocrites, deadbeats. Besides, it's been a hot day.

You don't know how hot it was out here in this vineyard, and I'm burned out. And so the householder beckons one of the servants to go to the house and bring some wine and some bread. And from the tray, the householder feeds this man with his own hands and says, now, you're strengthened.

Rise up. Get back to work. And the man finds that when he stands up, he has 10 times the strength he had when he began the day.

And he has within him now the power to accomplish more in this final hour than he did during the whole day of labor. Or if he wants to, he can get up and walk away from that vineyard and never come back. When the spirit of the Lord visits this earth and brings an awakening to it, as he is doing now, the easiest people to arouse are always the ones who are standing idle in the marketplace who've never really been exposed to the realities of the kingdom of heaven, have never seen God's glory.

For them, this is such a wonderful and blessed and new thing they rise up and respond with tremendous joy. The hardest people to reach and to arouse are the ones who at some point in their lives knew the glory of God. See, but now their vision is dull.

Their joy is gone. They've stepped away from the ministry God gave them to perform. They continue to hang around the courts of the kingdom of God, but no clear purpose, no life, no power.

Now, what a wonderful thing it is that God has not abandoned us in our stagnation, but he still cares about us and he comes to us and he gives us the power to come back to life if we will. Another example would be Elijah. Remember after Elijah won the battle up there on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal, calling down fire from heaven and bringing the people of Israel and their faces before God in repentance and having the prophets of Baal eliminated.

After this victory, Elijah experiences, as so often is the case after a spiritual victory, satanic attack, and it comes to him through Jezebel the queen. Reading from 1 Kings 19, verse 1, Ahab the king told Jezebel the queen all that Elijah had done and how he had slain all the prophets of Baal with a sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.

Then he was afraid and he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die.

It is enough. Now, O Lord, take away my life. I am no better than my fathers.

And he lay down and slept under a broom tree and behold, an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat. And he looked and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again.

The angel of the Lord came to him a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you. And he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the Mount of God. There's this mighty prophet of God who's acting like a child now.

He's all depressed. I don't want to live anymore. Take my life away.

What's the use? And when Elijah begins to think like that and talk like that, he begins to stagnate. The beautiful thing is that God does not turn his back on Elijah and say, Okay, if that's how you feel, go to hell. But instead sends an angel to succor him, feed him, help him.

Does Elijah say, Thanks a lot? No. He takes what comes his way and still keeps feeling sorry for himself. God continues to care for him.

Now the Lord God allows Elijah, this mighty prophet, to wallow in this self-pity for a certain length of time. But he brings him to a point. There comes a point where Elijah is going to hear a word from God that's either going to wake him up or send him away.

One or the other. And so we read in verse 9 of that 19th chapter of 1st Kings. And there he came to a cave and lodged there.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? What are you doing here, Elijah? Why are you running away? Elijah has been called to be a prophet, to stand before God, stand before the people in the name of God and give them a living word. But now this man isn't doing any of that. He's running.

He's all wrapped up in himself. He's bummed out. He's enjoying really wallowing in the self-pity that he has.

And so God has to wake him up. Now let's get it you know, understand that God is not standing behind Elijah with a whip and saying get going. What's the matter with you? Like a tyrant.

No, no. All through Elijah's ministry, the Lord was leading him and encouraging him. And there was no nervousness.

There was no frenzy. He was never in a hurry. He could sit down and have a meal.

He could cool his feet in the Jordan River. He could look up and enjoy the clouds racing across the sky. But not now.

What he's doing now, he's hiding in his cave. And so for his own good, God speaks to him and says, what are you doing here? What are you doing here? And Elijah answers, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, slain thy prophets with a sword, and I, even I only have left, and they seek my life to take it away. And he said, go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord.

And behold, the Lord passed by in a great and strong wind, rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind and 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, the voice of a gentle stillness.

And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and it said, what are you doing here, Elijah? What are you doing here? I called you to be my prophet. I've anointed you with my spirit.

Why, I even sent fire from heaven and answer to your prayers. Don't you think I can protect you from Jezebel? Don't you think I can provide for your needs? Have I ever let you down? And then comes the command. Get up and go back to the work that I gave you to do.

And so we read on in this passage. Verse 15, And the Lord said, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.

And Jehu, the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint to be king over Israel. And Elisha, the son of Shaphat, of Abel, Mahola, shall you anoint to be prophet in your place. And him who escapes the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay.

And him who escapes the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, every mouth that has not kissed him. And as Elijah now begins to do these specific things that he's commanded to do as he goes back, he revives.

And the brief time left to him before he's taken into heaven becomes the most fruitful period of his whole life. And these acts which he performs during this time are the most far-reaching, mighty, and powerful things he ever did. And so the revival that comes to him out there in Horeb, in the wilderness, is the thing that makes him far more fruitful than he ever was before.

Now as the Spirit of the Lord searches the earth and revives and quickens wherever people respond in any way, he finds most of us or many of us here in the kind of shape that Elijah was in. He finds us running away or sleeping under the broom tree or hiding in some emotional cave. Now, he called us to be his witnesses.

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you're going to be my witnesses. The choir is saying that.

You should be my witnesses. Go into all the world. And every time we hear that in the church, and every time we say it or sing it in the church, if we don't do it, we bring judgment on ourselves.

It's not a matter of sending a few more missionaries. It's a matter of every one of us being a missionary. Everyone.

And we know this. We know that when the Spirit of God came to us, he anointed us to proclaim the name of Jesus beyond the walls of the church. And when we do it, we experience life.

And when we don't do it, we experience stagnation. And again, it's not as if the Lord has a whip behind us and he's trying to make us do it. Come on.

What's the matter with you, Lois? But it's rather that he encourages us. He leads us. Look at our Lord Jesus as an example.

Jesus was never in a frenzy, never in a hurry. He had time to sit down and talk to the woman at the well. He had time to go to a wedding feast.

He didn't say, no, I got to save souls. I can't go to this weird wedding feast. He would eat with the publicans.

He would eat with the tax collectors. He would eat with the Pharisees. You know, he lived a life that was, you know, was not bound and tight and tense.

But he never lost sight of what his purpose was. And he kept pushing forward, driving toward it. Never lost that.

Every place he was, he saw as a moment given to him by the Father to manifest the kingdom of God. Every moment. And he did it.

We, on the other hand, tend to retreat into our cave. Many times it's a religious cave. And here we sit in our religious cave and we sit, sing hymns, and say prayers.

Or we retreat into the cave, which happens to be our favorite hobby or our favorite doctrinal position or whatever else we find as a sidetrack in our own lives. Until the Lord brings revival by saying to us, what are you doing here? What are you doing here? I called you to be my prophet, my prophetess. I have given you a message to proclaim to the world.

What are you doing here? And we say, but Lord, I've been your servant. And what good has it done? While your people have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, killed your prophets with a sword, I'm the only good Christian left. And they're out to get me.

Besides, Lord, I'm tired. I'm weary. I'm burnt out.

I deserve a break today. I'll tell you something else, Lord. I'm hurt.

I mean, you sent me to those people and I poured my life out for them and they never said thanks. All they do is insult me, gossip about me, misconstrue my motives. They don't appreciate me.

I'm fed up! And when we get through ranting and raging, the Lord says, go stand on the mount before the Lord. The first step to revival for those of us who have in any way stagnated is to go stand on the mount before the Lord. You know, we've been sitting instead of standing.

The Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, Elijah used to say, until he starts sitting down all the time and lying around all the time under the broom tree and hunched over in that trapezoid. Go out there and stand up. And we need to do the same.

The beginning of revival for us is to stand before the Lord with our eyes open, our heart open, our ears open, and our mouth shut. Listen! Wait there until you hear a word from me. You'll get a word.

And that word will bring you to life. And it may not come in five minutes. You may have to wait a while, but it will come.

It may be that there will first have to be a mighty rushing wind to blow the cobwebs out of your brains. It may be that there will have to be an earthquake to shake the clutter out of our lives and a fire to burn up the troughs. But there will be a word.

And when that word comes in the voice of a gentle stillness, he will say to us once more, what are you doing here? And when we get through making all our excuses, he will say to us, go on back to the work to which I called you. And when you begin to do it, the anointing of my spirit will absolutely flood your life and you will bear fruit. I've called you.

I've anointed you. I've sent you. Go.

Be my witnesses in all the earth, starting in Detroit. And as you do, you'll come to life. You know, it's a strange thing how many of us, not just the older ones among us, but the very young among us, seem to have in the back of our minds this idea that the best years of our life are behind us.

The glory years are back there. We remember when we first came to life, that honeymoon with the Lord, but now it's downhill. And we believe that.

And that's a lot. You know, first of all, how long do we think we have? Who knows? Maybe we only have two more years. But whether we have two years, 50, 70 years, or only two weeks, the time left for each of us here to complete the work we've been given to do, brief as it is, can absolutely be the most glorious, the most fruitful, the most powerful, the most wonderful season of all our days, if we will respond to the one who is saying to us what he said to Elijah.

What are you doing here? Come on, wake up. Let's go. Jesus had to do that with Peter.

After the resurrection, Peter got itchy. He says, I'm going fishing. Enough of this.

So a bunch of them say, okay, we'll go too. And you remember, they're out there in the lake, don't catch a thing. In the morning, standing on the edge of the Sea of Galilee, in the mist is this stranger who says, have you caught anything? No.

Cast the net on the right side of the ship and you'll get something. Up comes this net loaded with fish, and as soon as Peter sees that, a bell goes off in his head. He remembers the day he was called to discipleship, and he hears in the ringing of the bell, what are you doing here, Peter? Jesus doesn't beat him over the head with a club.

He says, come and dine. Have breakfast. After breakfast, he tells him again, what are you doing here, Peter? Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these fish? Yes, Lord.

You know that I love you. Feed my sheep. Get back to the work to which I called you.

And for many of us, the revival we're sitting around, wringing our hands, waiting for will begin when we respond to the voice of the Spirit of God already now saying to us, what are you doing here? Feed my sheep. Go and work the works of him who sent you while it is day before the night comes when no one can work. Let's take some time in silence.

Thank you.