Based on 1 Kings 19:1-8. Jesus meets you in the darkest moments when you wonder if you are forgotten. Elijah ran in the darkness and discovered God was closer than He thought!

AMEN Conference 2025: Touched By Grace

<p>Based on 1 Kings 19:1-8. Jesus meets you in the darkest moments when you wonder if you are forgotten. Elijah ran in the darkness and discovered God was closer than He thought!</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Morning Devotionals

Don MacLafferty

Grace in the Darkness

If you're not seated beside someone, then look around and please team up with another person.

And let's stand up together just for a moment.

Quick activity to Get us ready for the Word of God look around you if someone's beside or by themselves Please invite them over to you look around you Okay In teams of twos, please ask each other the simple question Say in all your lifetime.

When have you experienced physical darkness in the deepest way like were you caving or spelunking if you're serious about it but you know what was your what was what was the place on the planet where you experienced like physical darkness you could almost feel it it was so so perfectly dark Just ask each other that question real quick.

When you've answered that question, if you could thank your neighbor and have a seat right beside them.

Do you have access to the best book in all the world?

I'm going to give you a short passage to read.

If you came here hoping for a passive experience, I'm sorry you're in the wrong room, but the word of God is to do something with right now just only listen to so I invite you to enjoy it I'm gonna give you just a couple of moments please read first Kings 7 pardon me 19 first Kings 19 and verses 1 through 8 first Kings 19 1 through 8 with your friend and It's not a it's not a a time to comment on it But just to read it let the Word of God just settle in our hearts this morning as you're reading it Here's the question to be pondering Be thinking how does this show me the grace of God in a very dark time in Elijah's life How do I see the grace of God?

Let's go just for a moment When you finish reading it just take a moment and ask your neighbor, where do you see the grace of God in this part of Elijah's story?

I'll give you just a moment to share that in twos.

Alright, If there's anyone who's willing to answer that question, where do you see the grace of God in this part of Elijah's story?

Just so that you know that's a friendly way to say, unstop.

So who has something you're willing to share just in a line or 2?

That God didn't condemn him or the angel didn't condemn him at all for running away or for his fear.

Amen someone else Something specific that touches your heart right over here.

Thank you so much And thank you for those of both of both of you for having grace for me because I didn't warn you I needed roving Mike.

So thank you Elijah was physically in a dark dark place and God came and touched him like showing he that he is not alone and God is next to him.

Yes by the way how many of you noticed that there's physical touch there?

Is that important when you're going through a discouraging time to have safe physical touch?

Way back here and there's a hand here as well.

God had such compassion on him because he had a work for Elijah to do but he saw that Elijah needed to reconnect with him and to heal and and to see him and so he he let him come for a time away to be restored.

Yes amen amen There's a hand over here and then we'll come up here.

So God's grace recognized for Elijah the fact that this was too much for him.

Right over here and then right over here.

The same thing, just the fact that God acknowledged that the journey was great for him.

It's touching that a mighty God also knows what is too much for us to handle.

It starts out with Ahab telling Jezebel what happened and this was an opportunity for Jezebel.

We know what eventually happened to Jezebel, but right here Jezebel was experiencing grace.

By the way, this is why the body of believers needs to do what we're doing right now.

I've never had that insight shared with me and I've been teaching and preaching this all over the planet.

Because Grace shows up where you're least expecting it.

Is there 1 more somebody out here over here okay poor Jezebel but that's right she had quite a space of grace I think several years there okay right over here okay I see the grace of God revealed through the broom tree that he hid under yeah just like the tree that was given during Jonah's time that is a shelter protection amen amen Did I see 1 more hand over here?

Okay well Elijah was in a episode of major depression And God is inspiring him to walk and to eat his food because depression could be also reversed as we have seen so by guess by God's grace we have seen by science also confirm that God is calling us to invite people by healthy food doing exercise to reverse the difficulties as leaders as well that they can face these kind of situations.

Now by the way, I love it that it says 000 here.

That means either I'm done already or I have all the time in the world.

I'm not, I, it's up to open to interpretation, but, but I did notice that you prayed several times about just a few moments.

So I'm going to, I'm going to disregard that, that graceful note right there.

The doesn't have like 5 minutes, 4 minutes left, okay?

My friends, I read this story and I'm thankful it's there.

I love reading in God's word about what Elijah did up on the mountain.

There's such a dark time recorded and Elijah by the way, if you do the work on the map then if you like maps like biblical maps, it's very interesting he went hundreds of miles the wrong way at a critical time and if you look at at prophets and kings it was at a pivotal time like God had set the the whole table for a massive revival it was all set like all it needed is a match to just go.

Well, the match had happened up on top of the mountain, but it was ready to spread.

And in the most pivotal time, he ran the wrong way.

Before we're too hard on him, sometimes I get discouraged.

Sometimes it's after seeing God do a mighty thing and I'm expecting everything to just go whoosh like a gasoline fire And sometimes it doesn't go whoosh.

Sometimes it goes splat Can you imagine as as he's up against Jezreel and the rain is dripping off of his nose and he's cold and shivering and I'm imagining hungry not a good combination right cold wet hungry Wow and then he gets this messenger from the palace oh good maybe Jezebel is calling me to come and testify to her personally.

You know, I don't know what was going on in his mind, but maybe.

And the messenger comes up and it doesn't, it's not a summons to come to the palace and have a revival there.

It's I'm gonna do to you what you did to my prophets and so he runs and he runs and he doesn't just run a little bit he runs far far away and sometimes my brothers and sisters we have discouraging times too and we don't know what to do with it And the beautiful thing in this story is, is who runs with him?

Because as soon as he stops right there, an angel comes down while he's ready to take his own life which we also don't like to talk about in the Seventh-day Adventist Church sometimes godly people are even suicidal sometimes godly people are absolutely depressed and discouraged right it's good to talk about and to know if there's anybody here that's discouraged going through a rough time you're not alone Elijah had that time we have those times and right when he stopped God wasn't confused about where he was he wasn't uncaring he sent an angel right then Wow to show Elijah I'm still with you I am running with you Somebody here this morning needs to know that God is right there with you.

I'll share a story and then and then my friends Mark and Susan, they have a song.

I don't know if they're singing together or just Mark.

So they have a ministry called His Call Ministry and you have to get to know them as well.

My friends, I was in Africa, deep in Africa, and when this story happened, I went to this university, and then I went to a high school.

And in that setting, I met a man 1 morning, on a Sabbath morning, and I was so hungry, and I was looking for where the cafeteria was on a Sabbath morning I was supposed to speak in their church and I was looking around I was walking along I was way out by the way that's a huge campus at Seleucia That's where I was in Zimbabwe and I'm walking along and there's no signs anywhere And so I see a house and so I do a dangerous thing early Sabbath morning.

I said good morning to you Well, there was nobody at first I said happy Sabbath to you And then a face appeared and a man came out and he said, happy Sabbath to you.

Grace for the Wounded

First Kings 19 did any of you read it in preparation for this morning?

I see some hands and some of you of course weren't here yesterday morning So you didn't have a fair chance, but I invite you to look around and everybody needs a partner So look around this is not partners for life.

So look around and team up with somebody.

If someone's sitting by themselves, invite them to come and sit with you.

Now, in all your stories of healing, because Amen is celebrating all the ministry of healing, right?

That physicians get to be a part of, and nurses, and all kinds of medical personnel, and their spouses.

I invite you to turn to the person next to you and ask this question.

In all the different healing stories that you have seen as a part of your life, which 1 makes you most in awe of our Father God, the Master Healer.

You can take all the time in the world as long as this 1 minute or less, starting right now.

If we can have 2 roving mics available okay we have 1 here do we have someone over here thank you so much if you can tell a super short story in 15 seconds or so something Sometime where you saw God just heal somebody of something super fast, please raise your hand.

And on this side, if someone can be ready.

When have you seen the healing power of Jesus?

I'm a podiatrist and I had a patient came in.

He's diabetic and he's had a podiatrist, he's been following for months, almost 6 months and he came to me and he said I don't know what to do anymore I've had this for a long time and I'm worried I might lose my foot.

And I told him, I'm going to try something.

I said, please Lord, guide my hand, show me what to do because he's tried everything.

And within a week, the skin started to close.

I said try this another week every week will follow up.

So I give God the glory because I myself didn't know and he gave me the idea what to try New and it worked.

Thank you for sharing and if it makes anybody curious you'll have to ask her about that afterwards.

Is there 1 person on this side, somebody they can just share something that God did, helped you do to see healing with anybody?

You're always talking about fresh bread that just occurred Thursday.

I had a man who had a very poor heart condition, so bad that we thought He was too ill to have an endoscopy, but he was actively bleeding from having to be on anticoagulation because of his heart disease, DVT, and that type of thing.

There was a big clot overlying a blood vessel that he had been bleeding from.

Third, second 1 didn't go in the right place.

Third 1, we got right on it, got out and we're praising the Lord.

So this happened in April of this year when I went on a prayer walking trip with Jesus for Asia in Japan.

1 of our team members had right lower quadrant pain pretty severe right before we were going to go out prayer walking and he was a young fellow and As a nurse practitioner, I was like, well this might be in an acute appendicitis attack Well the rest of our group we were like, but we're just going out to prayer walk.

So we laid our hands on him and prayed healing over him and immediately he was 90% better.

And he had a choice to make whether he was going to stay behind and nurse his wounds to see if the prayer worked or to get up and walk in faith and go with us and he got up and walked in faith and he said with each step that he took he got to a hundred percent healing Wow praise the Lord can we say praise God he is good his mercy endures forever do you have Bibles with you and some short some some shape okay then let's open our Bibles to first Kings chapter 19 if you're here yesterday morning we zeroed in on Elijah not up on the mountaintop calling for fire from heaven, but when he ran the wrong way, right?

He was in a dark time in his life, a discouraging time in his life, and the bottom line was, who ran with him?

And So that was the the punchline of yesterday if you're going through a discouraging time Just remember that God still loves you and he still runs with you I love that story and I'm glad it's there.

Not just the high point of his life, but the lowest point.

But we're still in that point in the story.

In verses 9 all the way down through verse 16, would you please turn to someone next to you at maximum 3, so twos or threes, would you read again 1 Kings 19, 9, through all the way down to 16, and just read it rapidly, And then turn to each other and ask this 1 question.

Because you know, Jesus is the highlight, not just in the New Testament, but from Genesis to Revelation.

So when you see the Lord in there, Think of Jesus Christ himself.

Where do you see Jesus in this part of the story?

If our people with the roving mics can be ready, We'll take just 2 responses this morning on the Sabbath morning of how do we see Jesus in this part of the story?

There's anybody willing to answer that just in a line or 2 just raise your hand We have somebody with a mic over here and someone over on this side Anybody on this side?

How do you see Jesus in this story is he there any response or is it too early going once going twice okay don't worry, you can be peaceful now.

My friends, he starts out with a question.

He'd been watching him all the way along, not just watching, but he had been running with him, right?

Even when he's running the wrong way now he sees us this prophet running all the way up to him in the mountain what are you doing here Elijah and how does he respond he gives a long list of what would we call it today excuses you know I'm only 1 he setters and stammers and this is wrong and this is wrong and and basically he's condemning who?

And He says go stand out by the mountain and all these things go by right fire and wind and earthquake and all these things and it's only when that still small voice comes that Elijah does this right he takes his mantle and he puts it over his head and he comes out with reverence I want to ask you on the Sabbath morning are you going slow enough with Jesus that you have time to hear that still small voice because sometimes we run so fast in pastoral or in missionary ministry or in medical ministry and I hope they all are combined but we can go so fast my friends that we go faster than that still small voice can be heard.

We move quick quick quick here and there caring for many people do we not but are we taking time for him to care for us?

Grace for Your Elisha

Are you willing to do something a little bit out of your comfort zone?

And can we actually sit up here as if it's our last day to have freedom to meet.

You know how people meet together, by the way, when I go underground for Jesus in this world church?

But in North America, we usually spread out together.

So I'm inviting you to come come on up and let's pack up the front rows and let's actually sit together like we're going to do in heaven.

Still stay standing though, just keep on coming up and let's pack in tight as family of God.

Sit beside someone that you want to be in heaven with for a long, long time.

Look to the person to your left and your right and tell them that God loves them way more than they think he does.

Brothers and sisters, now please, everybody needs a team mate.

But please, turn to someone next to you, and if it's an odd number, it doesn't mean you're odd, just be in threes then.

But turn to someone next to you and say, who mentored you to do something valuable to your life in the past?

So say who it is and what did they mentor you to do?

Please smile at your neighbor and have a seat.

On my tie, does this show up on the screen?

The first strata is baby, and then kindergarten, elementary school, high school, college, and then of course, what you absolutely expect of every child, president of the United States of America.

We need to be investing in the new generations.

We can move anywhere we want to in this country still.

Well my friends, around the planet freedoms are going rapidly and they're also going rapidly here.

I don't know if you agree or not, but things are changing rapidly.

I'm thankful for all the men and women who died so that you and I can have freedom here.

But now is the time to pour our lives into the new generations right now because very shortly we're gonna have a hard time operating.

We're gonna have a hard time going places and coming alongside of people as freely as we have access to now.

In the book of 2 Kings chapter 2 we have a marvelous story.

I gave you a challenge to read it in preparation for this morning.

In 2 Kings 2, you have an opportunity right now to turn to someone next to you and to read verses 1-8 and to answer this question.

What does this tell you about Jesus Christ because remember he is the star of every chapter in the Bible okay, so what does it tell us about Jesus Christ and Secondly, what does it tell us about?

Mentoring an Elisha Okay, I'll give you just like a couple minutes.

If you're by yourself, go join someone else and let's read this and answer those 2 questions.

What does it tell us about mentoring our Elisha?

Again, if you finish reading it, please just turn to your neighbor and say, what does this tell us about Jesus?

And what does it tell us about mentoring our Elisha?

First of all, if you could have a short to the point response What do we see of Jesus in this short passage this story?

Okay, if you are willing to answer that please raise your hand.

If you can have somebody over here ready to go next.

Just as the, just as Elijah said that he would not leave Elijah, Jesus will not leave us.

They kept reminding him that, did you know that the Lord will the mass will take away the master today many times we worry and the Lord will say stay still be still and that he is there thank you anybody else on this side anything else you see about Jesus Christ in this story there's something that it's not overstated it just is laced into the story.

We'll go here and then we'll go in the back.

Yeah, so in Jesus' ministry, there were times when he put his followers to the test and said, will you also leave me?

And so I see that Christ is more exemplified by Elijah in this story and Elisha is representing more our response.

And right here in the back, did you have another person?

I see in this story where Jesus is preparing Elijah before Elijah is taken away he's preparing him before he's actually taken away just like he does for each 1 of us when it says before you call I will answer Jesus is preparing us before the experience occurs.

Series

Morning Devotionals

Grace in the Darkness

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

From Laodicea to the 144,000

45m

Something Bettering

41m

Beginning with Eternity in Mind

53m

The Prodigal Son

Not Enough to Be Religious

44m

Reflections on the Seventh-day Sabbath

Reflections on the Seventh-day Sabbath - Part 2

28m

The Summer Of Me

The Summer Of Me- Part 2

42m

Plenary

The Secret

22m

Luke-- Jesus, Our Savior and Friend

13. Luke: Crucified and Risen

55m

GYC SE 2012 Plenary Sessions

Where Am I Going?

1h

Preparing the Church for the Last Hour Mission

Preparing the Church for the Last Hour Mission Part - 2

1h 4m

Unveiling the Ultimate Love Triangle

46m

His Way is in the Sanctuary

13. The Sanctuary Shall Be Cleansed (Part 2)

57m

Sound Doctrine