The guy’s
written me off. He used to reach out to me but no more. You say, “What did you
do to offend him?” It’s simple, I wouldn’t agree with him.
It was a
Saturday afternoon, and the man was on the practice tee hitting a few golf
balls when the pro brought a man out for a lesson. As was his custom, the pro
walked over, grabbed a bag of balls and a large portable mirror. At the same
time, the pro told his pupil to pull out his seven-iron and hit a few shots so
that he could see what he was going to be working with.
After
watching a dozen shots, six to the right and six to the left, the wise old pro
instructed the man to stop and listen to him. For the next five minutes the pro
suggested several key corrections to the man’s technique. But as he began to
demonstrate each of his solutions the man interrupted him, suggesting what he
thought was his problem and ways to fix it.
Finally,
after being interrupted three times, the pro backed away from the hitting area
and began listening intently to his student. Every time the man would offer his
opinion the pro would nod his head in agreement. “Maybe you’ve got something
there,” he’d say. After 20 minutes of agreement the lesson was over. The
student paid the pro, congratulated him on his expertise, and walked away in an
obvious good mood.
Now the man
who had been watching all of this was so astonished that he walked over to the
pro and asked, “Why did you stop trying to teach him and instead agree with his
kooky ideas?” The pro straightened up, and as he carefully pocketed his fee
said, “Son, I learned a long time ago, it’s a waste of time trying to sell
answers to a man who only wants to buy echoes”.
There are a
lot of Christians buying their own echoes. And nowhere is that truer than
around the issues of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the topic before “the house”
this Sunday. But, interestingly, it’s not forgiveness of a person that’s in sight
this week but forgiving God.
Have you
ever been angry with God? Have you ever been so convinced that you were right
and He was wrong that you stayed away from Him? Almost everyone I know who
wants little to do with God began their long walk away from Him because of some
hurt that they blame on Him or His people.
In a message
entitled, “Being Mad at The Maker”, we will not discuss the subject from a smattering
of biblical proof texts, rather we have a great story of it in I Kings 17. Here
in this text we find a woman, who knows God, who has experienced years of His
blessing, and yet, in the face of the death of her son, she’s angry and bitter
at God.
We are going
to dig into this lady’s issues this week. And amazingly we’ll discover that her
issues are our issues. And God’s solutions are exactly what we need!
In
preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:
1. Why does
Elijah pronounce a three-year drought upon Israel and the surrounding
territories?
2. Why would
God send Elijah to Zarephath? What do we know about the place?
3. Why would
God command a widow to feed the prophet instead of the ravens (v. 6)?
4. What do we
know about this widow?
5. What is she
forgetting in verse 18?
6. What is her
fixation?
7. What is her
focus?
8. How does
Elijah answer each of those?
9. What do you
make of her declaration in verse 24?
10. How often do
you see yourself in this woman?
See you
Sunday!
