In this week’s teaching, you’ll hear how God wants to assist you in having a deeper relationship with Him. This relationship will transform every area of life.

We have seen a broken heart healed and given its’ deepest desire.  We have seen Jesus answer questions of who He is with words that have feed hearts and minds for two thousand years.  We have also seen Jesus say ‘No’ to a request and a woman fight her way through opposition to get the healing she desired.  We have seen God test a man’s faith with trials and tribulations for no other apparent reason than He wanted to see that faith grow.  We have seen God give strength for the mundane and every day challenges of life.

All in all, it is very difficult to put all the ways that God has helped people into a nice, neat little box that we can get our heads around and announce that we understand just how and why God gives people His Assistance.  Yet it is undeniable that He does give His Assistance to people and that He gives it in the mundane day-to-day, in the absolutely miraculously unbelievable and all the points in between.  It is also undeniable that some kind of connection exists between God and those whom He assists.  Each one of these people had something going on within them that lead them to turn to God for what they needed or at least to recognize God’s Hand when it moved.

So, the question is, ‘What is going on within you?’  What is it that you need God’s Assistance with?  What are the Jericho’s that need conquered within your life?  What are the physical needs that you need to have met and can only be met by God and God alone?  What are the desires of your heart?  What are the questions that you have that can only be answered by God?  What are the every day challenges that you face that you don’t seem to be able to conquer?  Who are the pain-in-the-neck bosses, co-workers and neighbors that you need God to help you to love as only He can?  Are you willing to let Him Assist you?  Are you willing to let Him Assist you in the ways that He sees as best?  Are you willing to let Him change your life through His Assistance?

The final answer to the question of God’s Assistance is that He wants you to become His Assistant.  He wants you to become a willing and obedient partner in His Work as a result of His Assistance to you.  Whatever the needs and challenges that face you today, right now, God wants to meet them but He will only meet them on His Terms and for His Purpose.

So, the final question becomes ‘Are you willing to take the leap of faith and become His partner, His servant and let Him do what He wills rather than what you will?’  Take some time right now to ask God for what it is that you need.  Come to the Oasis tonight to worship, to get into the presence of God and wrestle with whatever it is that you are facing, with people who are willing to stand beside you and wrestle along with you.  Do whatever it is that you need to do to turn that ‘something’ that is going on inside of you into a connection with the Holy Spirit that He can use to bring you, and the world around you, the Assistance that you need.

It is Passover in Jerusalem, which in many ways is similar to Christmas for our culture.  There was traveling to be done, religious observances to make, meals and celebrations to be had with friends and family, all with the city itself crowded to overflowing.  Passover was a busy, crazy time for most any Jew by any definition.

Jesus has had a particularly eventful Passover week.  It began with an entry into Jerusalem as the coming king, the promised son of David where the people paved the road with their cloaks and palm branches and shouted ‘Hosanna’ in a royal welcome.  He has cleansed the Temple, single handedly overturning the tables of the merchants and money changers and driving out those who had set up shop to take advantage of the crowds who would be coming to worship and pray.  He has had a running battle with the religious authorities, answering their charges, confronting them with their sin and behavior and dealing with their traps and plots to somehow catch Him in His words.  He has taught the people in the Temple, He has taught his disciples in private and He has spent time with friends at dinner parties and in their homes.

The Passover meal itself is far from normal.  This is Jesus’ last Passover, His last night with His disciples, and His last night on earth, so there are final instructions and teaching.  There are feet to wash. There is a traitor in their midst that needs to be dealt with and dealt with in a gentle and quiet way.  Jesus has to ‘break up the band’ by telling His disciples that the time has come when they can no longer follow Him and then deal with the emotional fall out from that announcement.

And dominating all of these events, conflicts and activities, at least from Jesus’ perspective, is His impending execution and death.  He leads the disciples out to the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing full well that this was it, that His time had finally come.  Jesus also knows that He doesn’t want to go through with it.  The prospect of the Crucifixion overwhelms Jesus in the Garden and in the middle of that very personal and emotional crisis, He goes to His Father in prayer, asking that ‘this cup be taken from Me’.  Yet even here, He attaches the provision to His request that Father’s Will, not His own be done.  Three times He falls to the ground to ask the same thing.
When Jesus gets up from praying, He finds His disciples asleep and the crisis upon them.  Judas Iscariot, the one who was the traitor in their midst, is leading the chief priests and elders along with a large number of armed troops into the Garden to arrest Jesus.  Jesus wakes up the disciples and then takes charge of His own execution.  After all, with so much at stake, it wouldn’t do for that execution not to be done in accordance with all that had been laid out for it in Scripture.

Thinking
What strikes me about the Garden of Gethsemane and the events leading up to it is how utterly foreign it is to us and yet, at the same time, so utterly familiar.  For good reason Jesus told the disciples they could no longer follow Him because He was going to a place where only He could go.  Of all the people who have ever walked the earth, only He could enter into the events that led to His crucifixion, death and resurrection and emerge with the eternal salvation of mankind in hand.

The Garden is so utterly familiar because at it’s heart is the same fundamental call that every follower of Christ has heard, that of dying to one’s self, that of laying down your own desires and ‘kingdom’ in order to walk in obedience to the call and requirements of our heavenly Father’s Kingdom.  Who among us hasn’t heard the call and conviction to do something that they absolutely did not want to do?

The difference lays in our response to that call.  We tend to hedge and squirm and look for an out and grab the first excuse that offers it’s self to not do what we are called to do.  Jesus entered into the events of Passion Week with a full knowledge of not only of what was about to happen (Matthew 20:17-19; 26:1-2), but in full knowledge of the fact that the eternal fate of mankind lay with Him.  Very few of us can say what is going to happen to us today beyond a few broad generalities of a planned agenda and hoped for results.  Jesus came to Jerusalem knowing exactly what was going to happen to Him and just what rode on His performance.  It is little wonder that as He prayed, He prayed in anguish and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22:44).

And yet, after a time of such physical and emotional agony, Jesus gets up and unquestionably takes charge of His own execution.  He isn’t looking for an out, an excuse to not go through with it or anything else but exactly what had been predicted for Him in Scripture.  Peter draws a sword and tries to initiate a ‘last stand’; a glorious fight to the death but Jesus ends it with a word.  He watches the religious authorities fumble through a sham of a trial and when given the opportunity, gives those authorities exactly what they need to convict and condemn Him to death.  He embraces the Cross and the task lain before Him with an enthusiasm that is just as deep and real as the agony He went through in the Garden.

So what set Jesus apart?  On the one hand, that is a silly question.  He was the Messiah, the Son of God, Incarnate God walking the earth.  But on the other hand, He was also the Son of Man and very much just like us.

What stands out to me is the fact that none of this was new to Jesus in the sense that He spent every day preparing for this one.  He spent time in prayer.  He spent time studying the Word of God.  He spent time worshiping, learning and listening to His Father’s Voice and then walking in obedience to that Voice in real world situations.  In that everyday process of spending time with God, He learned that His Father could be trusted no matter what.  When The Crisis came, He was prepared and did what He always did.  He poured His heart out to Father, He listened for that Voice that He knew and then got up and walked in trusting obedience to what He heard.

Questions:

1. What are your preparations for the crisis?  Are you intentionally spending time getting to know your Heavenly Father?  Do you regularly spend time in prayer, worship and His Word or are there more important things to be done?
2. What is your attitude towards obedience?  Is it something distasteful and to be avoided at all costs or do you see it as another opportunity for God to prove Himself faithful and trustworthy?
3. Where do you value your will in relation to God’s Will?  Are you willing to tell God ‘yet not as I will, but as You will’?

Meanwhile, out on the boat, things are not so peaceful and quiet.  The wind is against them, so instead of sailing, they are rowing against the wind and through the waves to make it to the other side.  Around three or four in the morning, they see what looks like someone or something heading towards them on the water and it terrifies them.  They come to the conclusion that it is a ghost and really begin to panic.

What they have concluded is a ghost is really Jesus walking towards them on the water.  He speaks to them to calm their fears; ‘Take courage!  It is I; don’t be afraid’.

Peter takes the bull by the horns and asks ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water’ (Matthew 14:28 NASB) and Jesus gives him what he asks for, saying ‘Come!’  Peter jumps out of the boat onto the water (Did he splash as he jumped from the gunwale to the sea?) and begins to walk towards Jesus.  But the wind distracts Peter and he becomes frightened and he begins to sink, and he calls out to Jesus ‘Save me!’  And Jesus reaches out to Peter and takes hold of him with a rebuke; ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’

Thinking
I see four things in these verses: First, Jesus values time alone with His Father very highly and that time alone in prayer energized Him.  He is willing to climb a mountain after a long day in order to be alone and pray when most people would have been looking for the easy chair and bed and ends up taking a five mile hike across a lake at three in the morning.

Second, Peter asks for the impossible.  Everyone knows that you can’t walk on water, yet with only the witness of his Lord and Master standing before him, Peter says, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water’ (Matthew 14:28 NASB).

Third, Peter finds himself in a jam that is a direct result of his literal steps of faith.  He has jumped out of a perfectly good boat and is standing on a lake in the middle of the night and sinking, a situation that no sensible person, let alone fisherman would have ever allowed to happen.  In the middle of this impossible situation, every instinct and nerve within Peter must have been screaming ‘Run for the boat!’, but he does the only really sensible thing, he calls out to Jesus, ‘Save me!’

Fourth, Jesus answers both of Peters’ requests without hesitation, whether it was ‘impossible’ or not.

Questions:

1. What is your attitude towards prayer, to time alone with Father?  Is it nap time or a time to be revitalized?  Do you think that there may have been a connection between the time that Jesus spent alone on the mountain with His Heavenly Father and the fact that He ends up walking on water to catch up with the disciples?
2. Can you put yourself in Peter’s shoes as he stands at the side of that boat and contemplates jumping out onto a windy lake?  What would your reaction have been?  What would it have taken to convince you to go over the side?
3. What is your reaction to when you have taken that ‘step of faith’ that you know that you have been called to take and then things don’t go according to your plan?
4. What are the impossible situations in your life that are calling for you to jump out of the boat?  What are your expectations for any answers you might get?

The famine is severe in Israel.  Three years of drought has made food scarce for everyone, and Ahab is out with Obadiah, the man in charge of his palace and a devout believer in the Lord, looking for grass for Ahab’s horses.  Obadiah and Ahab have separated in order to cover more ground and it is Obadiah who runs into Elijah.  Elijah commands Obadiah to tell his master that ‘Elijah is here’.  After a quick debate over whether or not Elijah will still be there when Obadiah returns with Ahab, Obadiah obediently fetches his master.

The meeting between Elijah and Ahab does not get off to a smooth start.  Ahab accuses Elijah of being the ‘troubler of Israel’ to which Elijah responds that the true source of the troubles of Israel is Ahab’s abandoning the Lord’s commands and instead following the Baals (1Kings 18:16-18).  At this point Elijah proposes a challenge for Ahab summon the people to Mt. Carmel and for Ahab to meet Elijah there with the prophets of Baal and Asherah and let the people decide who is truly God.

Ahab, the people, the prophets of Baal and Elijah all gather on Mt. Carmel.  The specifics of Elijah’s challenge are for two sacrifices to be prepared and placed on altars to their respective gods but to leave the burning of those sacrifices to the gods themselves.  The prophets will call on Baal, Elijah will call on God and the one who answers by fire will prove that He is God.

The prophets of Baal go first.  They prepare their sacrifice in the morning and call on Baal all morning to answer them.  At noon, Elijah begins to mock them, asking them where their God could possible be?  Is he out of town?  Is he deep in thought?  Maybe they need to shout louder as he is asleep and needs to be woken up.  All of which inspires the prophets to greater efforts.  They pull out their swords and spears and begin to slash themselves, hoping that the blood will prove to Baal how serious they are, but it is all to no purpose as Baal does not answer at all.

Elijah takes his turn at three in the afternoon, the time of the evening sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem.  He rebuilds the altar of God with twelve stones, arranges the wood and sacrifice on it and then commands that the whole thing be doused in water repeatedly so there will be no doubt as to any tricks or slight of hand.  If God answers by fire, there will be no doubt as to the reality of that answer.  Then Elijah prays a short and simple prayer, the point of which is that God would answer him in order to turn the peoples’ hearts back to Him.

And the fire of the Lord falls.  Not only is the wood and sacrifice burnt, but the stones of the altar, the ground and the water in the trench around the altar are all consumed.  The people fall to the ground crying ‘The Lord - He is God!’  Elijah orders the people to seize the prophets of Baal, take them to into the valley and execute them there, which they apparently do.  Elijah climbs to the top of Carmel after telling Ahab to eat and drink for there is the sound of heavy.  There he puts his face between his knees and waits for the promised rain.  When the rain cloud appears in the distance, he tells Ahab to hitch up his chariot as it is time to go before the rain hits and runs all the way back to Jezreel in front of Ahab’s chariot.

Thinking
I notice three things in this story.  The first is the nature and character of Ahab.  He is the king of Israel, with all of the responsibility for ten of the tribes of Israel, the Lord’s people.  In the midst of the famine, with his people dying of starvation, his main concern appears to be for finding food for his horses rather than his people.  How often do we, in the middle of a crisis, let our own personal concerns drive our behavior rather than the responsibilities we have been given by God Himself?

The second is that Elijah does not let himself be drawn into an argument over who is at fault and respond to Ahab’s accusations personally.  He goes directly to the point of conflict and proposes a solution that lets God, not Elijah, conclusively settle the matter.  We, as believers, are in continual conflict with our culture over the fundamental nature of God and we take the argument personally, seeing the attacks on who God really is as attacks on ourselves and end up getting involved in petty arguments rather than letting God be God and use us for His purposes.  If Elijah had responded in a similar manner, the chances of Ahab’s going along with God’s Plan on Mt. Carmel would have been nil.

The third is the difference in the prophets and Elijah’s attitude towards prayer.  The prophets were convinced that the only way that Baal would answer them was if the proved themselves by praying long and noisy prayers, by cutting themselves and shedding their blood in order to make Baal answer.  Elijah, on the other hand, knew exactly where he stood with God.  He knew he didn’t have to prove anything and that all that was required was to ask in obedience for what he had already been shown needed to be asked for.

Questions:

1. How do you respond in a crisis?  What are the concerns and priorities that you allow to drive your behavior?  What are the responsibilities that you have been given by God and how highly do you value them?
2. Are you willing to let God be God and prove Himself through you?  What would your response have been in Elijah’s shoes to the Challenge on Mt. Carmel?  Would you have tried to argue Ahab into understanding or let God do the work?  Could you have trusted God to answer even to the extent of dumping water over the sacrifice that God was supposed to burn?
3. What is your attitude towards prayer?  Is getting an answer to prayer and long, hard and drawn out process?  Do you need to convince God to listen in the first place?  Does He need to be woken up by your sincerity to even listen?
4. Why do you think that Elijah knew that such a short and simple prayer could get such an immense answer?  Read Elijah’s prayer (1Kings 18:36-37).  What do you see as being the important parts of what Elijah is asking for?