Ready, Reset, Go Part 2

hello everyone and thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Roderick caesar the third on the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle in Jamaica queens new york. And I’m so excited that you decided to join me for the full Gospel hour right here on Global seven my prayers that you will be blessed, you’ll be encouraged and inspired by this message. Thank you so much for joining and God bless, I’m just gonna recap a little bit of where we were last week, we talked about ready, set, ready reset, go, ready reset, go. We looked at Elijah in first kings chapter 19 uh, we realized that Israel had turned their back on God. They had some kings that led them astray that led them into idolatry. And uh, in the midst of that, there’s always a remnant, there’s always the people that are pointing them back to God and this Elijah is that person for this season. He rises up and he says listen uh, as long as as the Lord God lives, he says this that there will be no rain until I say so it’s not gonna rain anymore until I say so he does this decree does this command and then God says go to the brook here, I’ll command the birds to feed you. God provides for Elijah takes care of Elijah and there is no rain. He’s the prophet that is the thorn in the side of the kings, the king that is leading Israel astray. There’s this, this showdown that ends up taking place between the prophets of bail and uh Elijah and they’re basically saying okay whichever god will send down fire and and and consume these offerings, that’s the true and living god. And so the prophets of bail go about their ritual, they go about doing what they do and Elijah prays and and seeks the God of heaven and fire rains from heaven consumes this offering. Elijah says I’m the victor, I win because God is on my side, I serve the true and living god and the people that are there, Elijah commands them to kill these false prophets of bail. He does this, he celebrates this great victory and and gives praise and honor to the Lord and then he hears there’s a hit out on his head at the moment of triumph, he hears that Jezebel the queen uh here’s what Elijah has done to her false gods to the profits of her false gods and she says may those gods do uh do to me what you did to the profit of bail If Elijah is not dead, puts a hit out on his head and elijah that victory. Uh some, some scholars say that the victory seems to be transformed into defeat and the brave prophet that once stood and said I am with the armies of the living God and He’s going to make this happen. That brave prophet is now a cowering refugee because Elijah turns and runs away and the victory over death and bell is, is, is now is now taking a back seat because this Queen Jezebel has now taken on this oath to kill Elijah and the victory that Elijah held on to slip through his fingers and now he’s running away. The text says Elijah hears of this and he flees, He hears of this and he turns and runs. Apparently, he thought that this victory at Mount Carmel, this victory with this showdown between the prophets of bail and Elijah, he thought that this victory would produce a final victory over idol worship over the worship of bail, he says Finally, because now Israel sees that there is one true god, they’re going to stop worshiping these false gods. But we see that that does not happen. And Elijah is growing depressed, growing weary and a theme throughout the text says, is how will God prove himself to be God now. Mhm. Throughout this story, that that’s something that Elijah, it seems to be wrestling with. Last week we looked and we realized that in his running, he became, he became fatigued, he became tired, he said, God, I am no better than my fathers Take me now kill me. Uh now take me away from this situation and in his weariness in his fatigue, he lays down and he falls asleep and the angel of the Lord taps him and wakes him up and says Elijah, you need to wake up and eat and he eats his food. But then he goes right back to sleep. He’s in a season uh, that some scholars would say of depression. A season of some, some scholars would say of a deep sadness, a deep sorrow. I’m no better than my fathers. He had expectation that he did not meet. And as a result now he is sad. He’s also afraid because there’s a hit out on his life and he’s running. And the angel taps him on the shoulder again is he’s asleep and wakes him up and says, wake up and eat because what you’ve already eaten is not enough to sustain you on your journey. You have to eat again. So he does this, he eats again and we see that what takes place in his life is, uh, this meal is now enough to sustain him because the angel says, you’re not finished yet, you have to, you have a journey to move on to, you have a place that you have to go to meet with God. The angel says basically what got you here won’t get you there. What got you to that victory won’t get you to the victory that I’m calling you to a head. And so that’s what we looked at for our lives. Really said, okay, God, you’re not finished with us yet. There’s so many things that we have to overcome and maybe we’re upset. Maybe we’re frustrated, but we don’t want to, maybe we’ve wanted to throw in the towel and quit like Elijah. But God speaks to us and says, I’m not done with you yet. There are still more for you to accomplish. Stay in the race. God speaks to us and says, what got you here. Won’t get you there. Yeah, sure. You may have had this sustenance in this season, but you may praise God for that. But what got you here. Won’t get you there. You need to reset third. And finally, as we, we looked at last week, we said that people need what you have. Elijah is resetting didn’t just affect him. But as we’ll see today, it affected other people because there were individuals waiting on him and his inability to move forward. It would have affected more than just him. There are those that are waiting for us to reset. So let’s take a look today at our text. First Kings. Chapter 19, verses 11 through 13. First Kings chapter 1911 through 13. And it reads and he said, go out and stand on the mount before the Lord. And behold the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke into 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 the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave and behold there came a voice that said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah, you’re gonna thank you so much for this time. I thank you for this word. Thank you for this word for this season. For these your people, Father that are listening. I pray Lord that you would be glorified as speak father that you would be seen heard and felt thank you and praise you for your goodness. Thank you and praise you for your love. I thank you and praise you for the fact that you are with us in the midst of the storms. I pray father that we would have the strength to reset, have the strength to do what you’ve called us to do. Thank you. We praise you, we give you glory. We ask these things in jesus name, Amen Amen Amen. We realized that it’s important to reset especially as we begin a new year. Often many of us said you know you new year, new me. I feel like because 2020 was what 2020 was. We kind of walked into 2021 like just see how it goes. Just walk in slowly, sit down slowly, not touch anything, not make any huge declarations. Just gonna see how this one goes. And if within these first seven days 2021 showed us here I am what’s up And you know, many of us are having some flashbacks to a week. It was all good. It wasn’t all good just a week ago. But having some flashbacks to 2020 And saying, Wow, this is 2021 is looking real 2020 right now. But I believe that even in the midst of us being in this similar season, at least for this, this first week and seeing how things progress, we can still press reset. We can still press reset throughout the turmoil that’s going on in our lives. If this text shows us something, it’s that in the midst of difficulty in the midst of turmoil, in the midst of frustration, in the midst of pain, in the midst of uncertainty, we can still press reset. We see this happening in the life of Elijah. He’s in a season of uncertainty in a season of fear, in a season of frustration, in a season of of of feeling like he’s depressed in a season of sorrow, in a season of not knowing what’s next. And God puts him in a position to be able to press reset to be able to press reset. That’s why this is called ready reset go because you have to be ready for that season. You have to be ready for that confrontation. Pressing reset is not an easy task, but it’s one that must be done. You have to be ready for it. Then you have to reset and then you go then you move. What we realized here is that Elijah was in a position to hear from and meet with God. We’re all on a journey in this season. A journey of resetting in the process of resetting and many of us, we just think, oh it takes just the press of a button, boom, I’m done reset. Oh just a prayer. Alright God, you know, reset my heart, my mind, jesus name, amen, good reset. Everything is good. Oh Lord, you know, reset my eyes and my ears, you know reset my, my patterns and my habits. I’m good. I prayed it, I’m good. I’m reset. I’m good now. But you know like I know that it’s a process of shifts and adjustments. A process of daily habit changes, a process of oftentimes accountability and walking uh with uh someone through a process, a process of consistently surrendering each and every day and denying self a process of staying committed to growth and excellence. It’s a process of resetting that really make the difference and often times more often than not it takes time. It’s not an overnight process. It’s not, I go to sleep and wake up, wake up process. Yeah, sure. Salvation can be that way if we come to christ and we pray the prayer of of of Lord for giving me from my sins and cleansing me from in righteousness and we believe in the shed blood of jesus christ and are committed to walking in the ways of the Holy Spirit. Yes, sure being saved and having salvation is an instant uh, a moment that takes place, but sanctification and walking it out is another story that’s that process and oftentimes that’s where the reset gets a little, a little a uh that’s where the rubber meets the road and Elijah needed to reset because in this moment we see that he’s out of alignment with where God would have him to be and oftentimes our emotions get in the way the bible shows us this, that he’s out of alignment with where God would have him to be and often times in scripture. We read about other people, especially in the narratives because there are different types of scriptures and this is a narrative about someone’s life, a story about what Elijah went through a documentation of his season of of his situation of uh this story in his life and we read about the lives of others and scriptures, but like we’ve often said, the bible isn’t just a book that we read, it’s a book that reads us. So we see what takes place in the lives of others, but often we find ourselves in the text in the process. We find ourselves in the text in the process. When we pick up and read this text, we realized that Elijah is afraid. Elijah is depressed and he sat, Elijah is ready to give up and wants it to be over, not it being oh his his mission and what God has called them to it being his life, he’s ready to die under the broom tree when he sits and says, Lord take me now, I’m no better than my fathers in his pain, he runs from his problems, in his pain, he runs from his problem, in his fear, he runs away and does not face it, in his fear, he runs away and does not face it. It’s almost like uh we see this in scripture, we see him running from his fear. We see Elijah saying, yo if Elijah isn’t dead by this time on this day, then may the gods do to me what he did to what he did to them. And Elijah then panics and runs away and he’s fleeing the scene, he is fleeing where he’s called to going to somewhere else in his life. And Runnin Runnin and Runnin. Runnin and Runnin Runnin And he’s just out, he’s just gone. He’s fleeing. It’s almost like every uh movie that Tom Cruise is ever in, There’s always like this epic running scene and he’s just gone, he’s out, it’s time to run again. And often times in our lives, that’s what happens, it’s like, okay, a situation arises that doesn’t sit well with us. I’m running ah we we have an opportunity to uh confront something that makes us uncomfortable, new, I’m running, we have a uh in order to grow, you mean we have to actually do this this thing that that that is different from what we’ve always done. No, it doesn’t sound good. I’m running. And oftentimes, God is calling us higher or calling us to face something. Or oftentimes, even if something arises or comes up, that makes us afraid we can turn around and run. The question is, where do we run to or what do we run to? Or who do we run to? Because we’re all we all can run from something. Run from something. But where do we run to? Elijah was running from Jezebel because he was fearful for his life in pain. He ran from his problem. And now there’s a difference between running, because we see that joseph ran from potter’s wife, right? But there’s a difference between fleeing from temptation and fleeing from responsibility and joseph, joseph was running from temptation, as the scriptures say, we should flee temptation flea uh temptation. But Elijah had a responsibility as a prophet of God to confront and deal with sin. But when Sin came after him wholeheartedly in a different way after he had just uh exerted all of this energy to bring about this great victory. Uh Jezebel comes at him in full strength with full force of fresh enemy saying, listen, I’m gonna I’m gonna wipe you out, I’m gonna knock you out. I’m gonna kill you, Elijah now flees the scene and runs away. And oftentimes, what we need to understand is there’s a difference between when we run or if we run, not all running is bad, but there is a difference between your gps, God, God’s positioning system. Remember we talked about that last week? Your Gps and your Gps, your emotional positioning system. You can run and be guided by God. Or you can run and be guided by your emotions where you’ll end up, you’ll end up in two different places. Oftentimes if you’re guided by your emotions you’ll go somewhere that that makes you feel safe. But it often may not accomplish the will of God for your life. Mhm. But when you’re guided by God, even in the midst of difficulty, he can shape you. He can refine you and he can allow you to be in a position to conquer the issue that is in front of you. Elijah. What we realize is in his running, God met him and steered him in the direction to run towards God. So elijah goes to uh to Mount Horeb. Right, he goes to this place, he goes to uh Mount Horeb and he comes to a cave that’s there and lodged in it. The Lord met him out at Mount Horeb. And what takes place here in Mount Horeb is the mount where moses first saw the burning bush moses first had a powerful miraculous encounter with God here at mountain or and then also later we see that in exodus. But later in Deuteronomy we see that a mount Horeb is the place where the Lord revealed the 10 commandments to moses. So Mount Horeb is a place an important spot where revelation was received, where revelation was received, revelation was received. And now we see Elijah in that same spot, in that same position. Some uh methods are tried and true. Some methods are tried and true and they’ll lead you to specific destinations where revelation is received. Right now tomorrow we’re going to be engaging in a time of prayer and a time of fasting. A time of prayer and the time of fasting. If you are a believer prayer and fasting should not be something that is foreign to you. It should be something that we engage in on a regular basis as believers engaging in spiritual disciplines. But even in this season there are certain things that we know okay, some things can only be done can only be broken, can only be shifted, can only be moved, can only be reset through prayer and through fasting. So we engage in these disciplines to draw nearer to God to make a fresh start to draw closer to God in the midst of all that is going on in our lives. And so we realized that if revelation was received before doing it, we can also receive revelation again. Same way moses received revelation at Mount Horeb. Elijah said. All right, let me make my way over here and make this thing happen and hear from the Lord. And oftentimes to reset, we must reroute so reset, we must reroute reroute from your E. P. S. Your emotional positioning system to your gps, God’s positioning system. And God put Elijah in this specific place in this cave in Mount Horeb to hear from God, he finally hears from God. He’s in a position to hear from God verse nine of First Kings chapter 19 says there, he came to a cave and he lodged in it. It wasn’t just there standing around, but he got comfortable in this place. Got comfortable in this location. And oftentimes we we just, you know, take a little gander into what prayer and fasting is, or take a little gander into where our prayer closet is, or take a little gander into, you know, something that we should make a fixture in our lives, wondering why the revelation hasn’t come yet. It says he came to the cave and he lodged in it. He got comfortable in it. He made himself at home in it for a little bit of time. And when this happens, the word of the Lord comes to him and he said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? He lodged in this cave, made himself comfortable in this cage. Excuse me, cave! Many of us, we just we just glaze over the things that God has called us to lodge in. You just take a quick peek into the seasons that God calls us to to lodge in but make yourself comfortable in prayer, make yourself comfortable with fasting, make yourself comfortable with engaging in God, make yourself comfortable in listening for his voice. So he lodged in this cave and the voice speaks the word of the Lord comes to him and says what are you doing here, Elijah Now God asks questions often throughout scripture. We see this, we know this. God asked questions that he often already knows the answers to Adam. Where art thou cain, where is thy brother Elijah? What are you doing here? So it was no surprise to to God. Elijah’s response was not a surprise to God, it was more so elijah to check where you are. God’s all about gps, location, location, location, Elijah, why are you here? Know where you are? I know why you are, where you are. So Elijah does some inventory and he shares this with God. He says I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel, they have forsaken your covenant, they have thrown down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword and I even, I only am left and they seek my life to take it away. Elijah no doubt is fearful and he expresses his fear before the Lord Elijah no doubt is upset and he expresses his frustration before the Lord, he makes his complaint known, he makes his pain known. He makes his problem known to God. He’s overwhelmed by his situation and he lets God know he invests his life to the true and living God. I have been jealous for you. Oh God, I have spoken out against idolatry for you. Oh God, I’ve done so much for you miracles here, miracles there. I’ve stood alone for you Lord and Israel, they have forsaken the covenant they made with you. They’ve turned their back on your ways. They’ve killed your prophets with the sword. I’m a prophet to and I’m the only one that’s left. Where are you God? And now they’re after me. I just was doing what you were asking and now my life is in jeopardy. My life is in danger. They seek my life to take it away just like they did the other prophets, just like they did those that came before me. I’m the only one left. He’s overwhelmed by his issue and they seek my life to take it away. He answers God. Honestly, he answers God, focused on his problem. He answers God and says, look, this is my situation, this is what I’m going through. This is my difficulty. He’s overwhelmed and it’s ironic because the God who is outside of time knows that Elijah is not going to die, not just not going to die in this situation. He’s not going to die at all right chariots of fire. This is a, this goes way way later, but the horsemen, uh they come and they whisk up Elijah and we realized that this man is afraid of something that he’s not going to experience. And oftentimes because the situation is looming and the walls seem like they’re closing in, we can grow fearful of something that God has not intended for us to even pass through or walk through. We can grow fearful of something as if God is going to forsake us once that something confronts us. But God is going to be with us with us enough so that we can sometimes even bypassed that situation and that’s what we see in Elijah’s case. That may not be the case for us all the time. Sometimes we’ll have to go through it, but God will be with us as we go through it. But other times God can cause us to bypass the situation and he’s glorified. Either way, he’s glorified if we go through and he’s glorified if we go around either way, God gets the glory. So Israel has rejected the covenant, Israel has become idolatrous, jezebel plans to kill him and he’s expressing serious doubts saying, look God, where are you now? What’s going on now? I’m in this, this, this cave and I have fear I’m in this cave and I’m depressed, I’m in this cave and I don’t know what to do. Oftentimes we can grow so focused on our problems, so focused on how things are out of whack? So focused on how difficult things are on or how uh, where the next check is going to come from or how we’re going to be provided for or how we’re going to be healed or delivered or were focused so much on our problem. And it becomes, all we see becomes, all we think about. It comes all we meditate on and oftentimes if we can focus on the problem so much, all we end up speaking is the negativity that comes with the problem. So elijah goes before God, God says, why are you here? And there’s not one positive in that sentence. You gotta love that. Elijah is real to reset. You’ve got to be real. You gotta love that. Elijah is real. Even in his difficulty, even in his, in his pain, he doesn’t put on a facade before God, I didn’t say, oh yeah, I’m good. You know, I’ve got this, everything’s under control. He comes to God, even out of alignment, he can still speak and say this is what’s going on and this is how I’m feeling. Where are you, what’s going on? What’s happening here? And the voice God says to him go out and stand on the mount before the Lord Elijah obeys. He goes out of the cave and stands on the mountain before the Lord there was a step to him resetting. There was a step too Elijah resetting many of us we want to reset, but are we willing to take the steps, Are we willing to do what God has called us to do to be obedient and step out in faith. And I just said God you’re talking to me right here. Why can’t you do it right here? You asked me, why am I here? I’m telling you why I’m here. I’m comfortable in this cage. This cave, I’ve lodged in this cave. Why are you telling me to step out there when you can just speak to me here? Just like you’ve been speaking. But in order to reset sometimes God has to reposition us. And so he tells Elijah to go and stand before the mount of the Lord. Elijah obeys. There’s a process what happens when God gives you another step to take. That wasn’t in your plant, that wasn’t in your layout, that wasn’t in your agenda. That wasn’t in your timeline. God, God gives you another step to take. He obeys. He exits the cave and he stands before the Mt of the Lord. And what we realized is it says that behold the Lord passed by and a great strong wind tore the mountains and broke into 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. God was not in earth, Wind and fire. I had to write, oh dad joke, I’m a dad now it’s official. I can get away with that kind of stuff. But what we realize is Elijah was was a prophet of action. God spoke to him and he was a man of action. He said go to king, go to the king of Israel and say there will be no rain and he deals with them through in nature. He says, look, there will be no rain until my word until God tells me to tell you there’s gonna be rain, there’s gonna be no rain. Men of action when he’s going against the prophets of bail. He says God’s going to rain down fire and whichever fire consumes this altar, that’s the one whose God is true is true and they got the one whose God is real. And so Elijah is accustomed to dealing with God throughout the, throughout these uh, these, in these ways of nature throughout the earth. Uh, he’s dealing with God throughout the rain that that stops up. He’s dealing with God and this fire that’s calling down from heaven. He’s dealing with God. But God is not in what Elijah is accustomed to, he’s not in what Elijah is accustomed to God is not where you think he’d be, he’s not in the familiar in this particular instance. He’s not in the familiar where Elijah is concerned and this is difficult. It’s difficult for Elijah, but it’s also difficult for us because it says after the fire, there was the sound of a low whisper and that’s where God’s voice was. That’s where he heard God’s voice in the, in the waiting, in the quiet, in the whisper. I had some difficulty when I first went to college my freshman year, I was engaging in uh some church and trying to hear from God and things got things were difficult for me because it was a different environment from what I was accustomed to here at Bethel. And uh, I remember really feeling disconnected. Uh, it was a different uh, there were just different environments and the way that uh, everyone else heard from God wasn’t what I was accustomed to during the service. And I remember feeling like man like what am I going to do to stay, to stay connected out here. Uh and I called my father bishop caesar and I was like, look dad, man like this is this is rough, like what’s, what’s going on here? Why aren’t I connecting with God? The worship is different. You know, everything is just different. It’s out of what I’m accustomed to. And he said, God is stretching you. He’s pulling you. He used this exact read this verse uh mentioned it, why when he was talking to me and said, you know, sometimes God wants you to hear him differently. I want you to hear him differently and get used to hearing his voice in different settings. Get used to hearing his voice uh as you’re navigating through life because it won’t always be like how it is here with Bethel it won’t always you don’t always hear him in the loud aspects of worship or you won’t always hear him. Uh how you’re accustomed to God wants you to hear him in different settings in different ways and the same applies for us. Even today, you need to re train your ear to hear God, especially when he is not where you thought he would be. If you go through this time of prayer and time of fasting And you know, you realize it’s you know two weeks in it’s it’s weak to 14th day and you’ve heard nothing. I’m not saying you stop praying and fasting. That’s something that we’re called to do and we want to continue to do. But think outside the box and don’t box got in. There may be some other ways that God wants to hear to speak to you, slow it down a little bit. There may be some other ways that God wants to speak to you. The sound of a low whisper. God is not where we’d expect. And so we need to retrain our ear, same goes for us. We need to adjust and take God out of these boxes that we’ve placed him and all I do. This is my Formula One plus one equals two. I hear God all the time I do this. What about when you do it in silent it’s like, oh hello, anybody, anybody here? And God is saying I want you to continue to seek me, continue to press. But I’m going to be speaking in a different way. Are we still in tune enough to hear his voice even when it doesn’t look like or sound like what we’re accustomed to. And that’s all part of the reset as well. It’s all part of the reset. God wants to speak to us differently. Use a different tone of voice. Use a different way and show us that we have him in a box in the first place because many of us don’t think we’ve placed God in a box. But God needs to show us. Hey, maybe if I speak to you from here, you’ll realize, oh wait a minute. There’s more than one way to hear God. It’s more more than one way to hear his voice. So he comes in this whisper and speaks to God speaks to Elijah, we need to take God out of the place of the boxes that we’ve pushed, put him in. And when the text says, when Elijah heard this voice, he wraps his face in his cloak and he stands at the entrance of the cave and behold there came a voice to him and said, what are you doing here Elijah sounds like what we already read, right? But God asked the same question again because this is reset. So with reset. Some things will look similar but they will be different. Some things will look similar. But I believe that when Elijah heard this question again, even though he gave the same response, the heart behind it came from a different place. He heard the voice of God in this whisper and he’s turning around to go back to this cave and God says, Elijah, what are you doing here? Let’s revisit this time to reset. Gives him an opportunity to reset. And he says I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, the people of Israel. They forsaken your covenant, they’ve thrown down your altars, they’ve killed your prophets with the sword. And I even only I am left and they seek my life to take it away. It’s the same reason I’m here. My reason hasn’t changed same words. My word hasn’t changed. My words have not changed. The pain that I feel has not changed. But I believe that Elijah said it with a different heart. I believe that now he’s looking for a way out. He’s in need of direction, in need of direction. And he says, look what’s going on here, He repeats himself. He says why he’s there, he c he says what is needed to be fixed? He says, look this is what’s going on. This is the problem. I feel this is the situation that is looming around me. But the voice of God has now caused him to ask for the different intent and we see that God wants to work it out his way. Elijah gives him the problem gives him the circumstance. But what we realized is we can’t forget that God isn’t just going to solve the problem and send Elijah back any old way. He sends him back and commissions Elijah with some next steps and resets him in his ministry. Let’s not forget Elijah was a prophet, excuse me, was a prophet. He was a person that was set apart to be the mouthpiece of God and he had to be steered back in a positive direction due to a lot of the fear that he embraced, Fear can stop us in our tracks, fear can freeze us and stop us from moving forward. Fear can cause us to think irrationally and doubt the truth that God has spoken over our lives and what we realized is God had to give Elijah in his midst of doubt, in the midst of pain, in the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of him being real, but also being out of alignment in his real nous, God had to lovingly steer him back and give him some things to bring him back in alignment so he can go out and fulfill what God has called him to do and the same thing goes for us in our situations, in our seasons, when we’re upset, when we’re angry, when we’re feeling betrayed, when we may be afraid of what’s going on, we can come to God in honesty and God can give us some tools. Give us some things maybe give us some assignments that bring us back into alignment with him. God says to him in verse 15, he says, go and return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. Go back the way you came, go back the way you came. Sometimes to reset. We must retrace sometimes to reset. We must retrace, we must go back. You must look back. We must do the work in counseling, in therapy. In dealing with some past things to reset. We must retrace, we must go back in order to move forward effectively. Many of us, we must reset. He says, we must go back says, go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you get there, I’m going to give you some things to do. He gives them some instructions. He says, When you arrive, you shall anoint has a L to be king over Syria and jay hue the son of Nimh. She you shall anoint to be king over Israel and Alicia, the son of Shea Fat of Abel Mehola. You shall anoint to be prophet in your place and the one who escapes from the sword of hazel, Shall J who put to death and the one who escapes from the Sword of J Who shall Alicia put to death, you have an assignment earlier in in last week’s verse. The first couple verses of the chapter We realized that Elijah left his assistant to go on this journey. He had an assistant that was with him that helped him that assisted him. But in this season the assistant could not go with him. He left his assistant. But what we realized now is in leaving his assistant, he found his assignment in leaving his assistant. He found his assignment. And many of us we are unwilling to leave. Some things that maybe have helped us maybe have benefited us, maybe have blessed us. Maybe it were good for us in one particular season. But as we’re resetting, God is trying to align us with where he’s assigning us. So we have to let that thing go in order to receive the new. We have to reset. We have to reset. It’s been good for you this far. But what’s gotten you here will not get you there. He had to let go of his assistant to find his assignment. Sometimes there are things that were once good for us. But now God is trying to get us to what’s best for us. Many of us. I don’t know what that is. But there may be some things that are assistance in our lives, good things, wonderful things, things that aren’t bad or a detriment to us. But God is calling us higher and then doing that. Maybe we have to let that thing go in order to embrace the assignment that God has for us. What I want us to notice here is it says anoint J who to be king over, Israel now anoint hazel to be king over Syria and anoint Alicia to be prophet in your place. And then he says, the one who escapes from the sword of hazel shall jake you put to death and the one who escapes from the sword of jay hue, shall Alicia excuse me? Yes, shall Alicia put to death. You are going to anoint and appoint people to take care of your problem. You are going to anoint and appoint people to take care of your problem. God is saying, look, the people you’re concerned about the jezebel’s, the Ahab is the people that are are are destroying uh Israel Israel that you love so much and tearing down my altars and erecting these idols, all these people, they will not go unpunished. I am a just God. They will not go without seeing uh My hand of judgment and my hand of judgment is going to be initiated through you. You are going to lay your hand on the people who are going to execute my hand of judgment. You may not be here to see it. But know that it’s going to happen. You may not be here to see it. But know that the things that are on your plate. The things that you’re concerned about, the things that you’re are weighing you down. I’ve got it under control. I’ve got it under control. You just got to trust me. I’ve got it under control. You’ve just got to trust me. And you also have to understand that you are not alone. You’re not alone, Elijah, you’re not alone. You’re not alone. I’ve got people around you, people that I’m calling you to people that I’m calling you to anoint that are waiting on you to reset that are waiting on you ticket out of this cave. And many of us are depression or sadness. Our sickness or sorrow or woe is me mindset has stopped us from impacting the people that will bless us because them taking care of those, those people and says uh these people will put other people to death by the sword. The people that are gonna be put to death. They were Elijah’s problem. And many of us, God has called to step out. God has called to raise up other people. God has called to invest in other people. God has called us to shine a light and to be the person that others can come behind and follow. But we’re stuck in this cave and we’re saying, oh what was me? What was me? We’re stuck looking at our problems. But God calls us to reset so that we can bless others. That will in turn bless us. And then when we realized in verse 18 God says, look, I haven’t just called you to anoint these people but realized that I will leave 7000 people in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to bail and every uh mouth that has not kissed him and idolatry, we realized uh in job specifically dealing with idolatry, we realized that it wasn’t a strange thing to uh to show affection or kiss the idol to show some allegiance to it. And oftentimes with idols as well, we realize they bow down to idols and God says I have 7000 in Israel knees that have not bowed to bail or lips that have not kissed him. There are people that are loyal to me that are on your same side. And so what we realize is there are people that has stood firm that are lifting up the standard that Elijah wants to be lifted up and in the same way we’re not fighting this fight alone. It’s very easy to see now that we’re not the only believers were not the only one standing for what God is standing for, especially in this day and age when we can connect so easily with individuals online or on social media. But what we have to understand in this particular situation is what God was doing was resetting Elijah’s perspective, he said, look, he’s resetting his perspective and for us as well, our perspective needs to be reset. We need to take our eyes off of just focusing on our problem and focus on what God has for us focus on God’s best for us focus on the fact that we’re not alone in this, but God is with us in the midst of it, but also God has given others the ability to help us in it content to Elijah, look, you’re not alone. God said to Elijah, look from here, after you reset from here and move forward, I’ve called you to anoint this person, anoint that person, anoint that person and they will be the ones to help you with this problem. It’s going to be taken care of, I hear what’s on your heart and everything that you’ve addressed is going to be taken care of God in his response in him telling elijah what to do. Oftentimes we realize we oftentimes we think, okay God uh take care of my problem fix this. Lord do what only you can work a miracle. And yes, there are seasons and times when God has to lay his hand and work a miracle, something that only God can do. But often times we are the ones that will bring out the answers to the to the issue. Elijah was praying through something saying God this is the problem, this is the problem, this is the problem and the very things and people that God told Elijah to go anoint would take care of his problem, but Elijah had to be in a position to hear God Elijah had to be in a position to step out in boldness Elijah had to be in a position to not just be led by his E. P. S. And and be navigated wrongly but be led by his God positioning system and do what God has called him to do. Elijah had to be in a position to go through the process and press reset. So he was ready. He reset and now we see in the text that he can go and the very next thing he does is anoint Elijah Elisha and moved forward uh in their prophetic work together as I close and as the team comes up, I think it’s important for us to look at the power of resetting and why. It’s important to reset to research and what we need to do. Excuse me to reset? To reset. We must reroute reroute reroute reroute following the Gps versus the E. P. S. Your emotions are great indicators but the terrible drivers right there, they’re like the signs on on on on your dashboard in your car that maybe pop up. Oh I need an oil change. Oh you know I I, you know there’s a tire, low tire pressure. Oh you know there’s something wrong. Those are your emotions, their indicators. But you don’t want those to be in the driver’s seat because they’re always going to steer you in in the wrong direction. They’re not always Excuse me. But oftentimes uh they will lead you to do things their way instead of God’s way, if you’re angry and you respond in your anger leading only with your anger and not submitting that anger to God. As you, as you respond, there could be some catastrophic results and we see that taking place this week, you need to be guided by God and many of the people at that engaged in what was engaged in this week. I feel like they were on God, the God was on their side. Yet they’re tearing down the, they’re doing some deplorable and despicable acts. Yeah. Yet they feel like, alright, God is with us. Let’s go. Let’s make this happen because this is what this is what was supposed to happen in the first place. But that’s not the way to, to engage in it and we need to be led by the right things, especially in our, our own personal lives. We realize that our emotions while they are good indicators. If we put them in the driver’s seat, we’ve seen in our lives where this leads, let’s submit our emotions to the Lord to reset. We must reroute and then rerouting. We must realize we have to be led by God. Those that are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God. Many of us we lead. Oftentimes by flesh, lead by all. I feel like this is how I feel. But yes, that’s fine, you can feel that way, but submit that to God, filter that through God. If it comes out the other side, that’s fine. Let’s move in that direction. Must be prayerful and reroute led by our gps. God’s positioning system to reset. We must reroute secondly to reset. We must repeat. Go back the way you came. We’ll have a new experience with God after the fact. But often we’re scared to revisit. We’re scared to repeat. Revisit would probably be a better term there to reset. We must revisit mm we visit go back the way you came. We must revisit many of us. We have some work to do. We want to reset. We want to be better. We want to grow. We want to be stronger in God. But maybe there’s some things that we keep tripping up over and we’re wondering why be prayerful and ask God to show you some things that are maybe in your heart, Some steps maybe you’ve taken in years past. If you can with therapy, counseling, whatever the situation may be, you can maybe hope to unpack some of the emotional things. Maybe some hidden trauma or some difficulties that you had to overcome that you haven’t necessarily addressed in some time that’s still lingering there and causing you to behave or act in a way that you want to grow out of. Take the necessary work, do the necessary, do the necessary, take the necessary steps to do the necessary work to reset. We must revisit 3rd. And finally to reset. We must be real. Can’t hear what you want reveal. God can’t hear what we won’t reveal. And we bring I said this last week. But we bring our masks to God expecting God to deliver, expecting God to heal, expecting God to set free. But if God would have set free the mask, the real you is behind they’re still in bondage. If God were to do the work that you want him to do on the mask is fruitless. The real you were still stuck while the real You were still bitter angry frustrated. Why not be real before God? Because he sees it anyway. He sees behind the mask. He sees behind the facade. So to reset we must reveal. You don’t want God to heal your false yourself. You want God to heal your true self, your real self. The power of reset. Ready reset. Go God. We thank you so much for your people. Thank you for who you are, Father, for who you’ve called us to be pray Lord that as we surrender to you to who you called us to be. That you would be glorified. That you would get all the glory, all the honor and all the praise And I pray Lord that as we surrender to you, father that we would reset. Surrender to your process. Surrender to your process. God surrender to your process. God surrender to your process. Your ways are not our ways, your thoughts are not our thoughts. I pray Lord that we would not box you in. That we would not box you in Lord, but that we would take you out of the box. For that. We would understand that you want to see your best for us. So I pray that we wouldn’t settle on our assistance when you’ve called us to our assignment. I pray Lord that we would surrender to who you, who you are, your will your way. I pray Lord that as we go forth from here, father and uh reset you would be glorified and all that. We do. We thank you. We praise you. We give you glory. We ask these things in jesus name. Amen, Amen and Amen. God bless you and thank you so much. If you’re here, you’ve heard this message. You realize, look, I don’t know jesus, I don’t have a relationship with him, but I want one. If that’s you, I’m going to ask you to uh text saved to this number across the bottom of the screen here. And I’m just going to pray with you there. God, I thank you so much for those that are listening that maybe do not know you. I pray that they would come to know you as Lord come to know you a savior and the father, you would be glorified and all that they do. I thank you for your shed blood. Uh, and I thank you father that you rose again so that we could have life and life abundantly. I thank you Lord for those that are coming out of darkness and stepping into life, you won’t fail to give you the praise in jesus name. We pray these things. Amen and amen. God bless you. Let’s stand on the firm foundation today. God bless Hello again and thank you so much for tuning into the message at Global Seven. Once again, my name is Roderick CAesar the third, the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle. My prayer is that you were blessed and encouraged by the message. And if you want to contribute and give to the ministry, you can text B G T F I 277977. Again, you can text B G T F I 277977. We’re so thankful for you and my prayer is that God will continue to strengthen and empower and encourage you as you listen to this message, we hope you tune again later and God bless you. Thank you so much.