Who is Your God?

1 & 2 Kings: The King of Redemption History

Pastor Jim Thomas

1 Kings 17

Old Testament Prophets after Divided Kingdom:

Elijah – Israel, 9th century BCE
Elisha – Israel, 9th century BCE
Jonah – Nineveh, 8th century BCE
Isaiah – Judah, 8th century BCE
Hosea – Israel, 8th century BCE
Micah – Judah/Israel, 8th century BCE
Amos – Judah/Israel, 8th century BCE
Zephaniah – Judah, 7th century BCE
Jeremiah – Judah, 7th-6th century BCE
Habakkuk – Judah, 7th-6th century BCE
Obadiah – Edom?, 6th century
Ezekiel – Babylon, 6th-5th century BCE
Daniel – Babylon, 6th-5th century BCE

The name Elijah means “Yahweh is my God”

YHWH is:

The God who speaks
The God who guides
The God who hears
The God who provides

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”
John 1:1-4

Am I listening for the word of the LORD?
Am I following the word of the LORD?
Am I obeying the word of the LORD?
Am I speaking the word of the LORD?

Discussion Questions

Referencing the four questions from the sermon “Am I listening for, following, obeying and speaking the word of the LORD?”—which of these are you currently doing best, and which should you work on to improve?
Compare and contrast times in your life where you’ve felt “sent away to the wilderness”—perhaps in preparation versus. being in the middle of the action and story. Were the periods of isolation and rest beneficial to prepare you for the other times? Where are you today?
Ponder Tozer’s statement that “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Share what comes into your mind—and if/how you’d like to adjust this.

“Even while Israel rejects God, he continues to work beyond her borders with unexpected people in unexpected places in completely unexpected and unprecedented ways.”
J. Gary Millar, ESV Expository Commentary

“Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle (as in a real friendship or marriage!) will you know that you have gotten hold of a real God and not a figment of your own imagination. So an authoritative Bible is not the enemy of a personal relationship with God. It is the precondition for it.”
Timothy Keller, The Reason for God

“Scripture is far more than a collection of ancient documents in which the words of God are preserved. It is not a kind of museum in which God’s Word is exhibited behind glass like a relic or fossil. On the contrary, it is a living word to living people from the living God, a contemporary message for the contemporary world.”
John Stott