The Other Side of Nothing

“The Other Side of Nothing”
I Kings 18:41-46

Look at verse 43. There are three words in that verse that I want us to look at. Elijah’s servant said, “There is NOTHING.”

I. Elijah and Israel find themselves in a 3 ˝ year drought.
* We have never experienced anything like that. We’ve had a few days, even a few weeks with no rain, but never 3 ˝ years. Can you imagine that?
* There are little children in Israel that have never made a mud pie. There a little children who have never played in the rain. They don’t know what it is like to enjoy wollering in a mud hole after a good rain.
* All they have ever known are the dry, arid, barren conditions that they were born into and have been raised in.
* We as Christians know what it is like to sometimes go through a drought. How many know what I am talking about?
* I have been there. I have prayed for a message from God and seemingly no message can be found. We know what it means to go to church and get into a rut and a routine. There is no spontaneous praise, no rain from heaven, and like David said our moisture has turned into the drought of summer.
* And consequently, there are some of God’s little children who have never played in the rain, never wallowed in the watershed of heaven and in His almighty presence.
* There are people in Pentecostal churches who have never felt the goose bumps, never had tears flow down their cheeks. They have never been in an atmosphere Heaven came down and kissed the earth and man was right in the center of the smack. They have never been in a service where people run, shout, and praise God. Because now we just sit and stare and leave the same way we came.
* But Elijah knew what we must know and that is that a drought has a beginning and it has an ending. It won’t always be dry. It won’t always be dusty and barren.
* God has a front that is going to move into the house. God has moisture that is going to move into the building and permeate that which has been dusty and dry. And that which is barren and desolate is going to bloom again and blossom!
* The river is going to flow. The wind is going to blow, and the presence of God is going to move in your drought.
* There are droughts that come to us as individuals, as a church, or even in our ministries. Droughts come to all of us.
* And in this drought, Elijah suffered like everyone else. I Kings 17:7 tells us that his brook dried up. He suffered the consequences of the drought like everyone else, but he knew it would not last forever.
* What I am trying to tell you tonight is that you may be in a drought. Your spiritual man may be thirst and dry. You may be barren spiritually. But there is a day on God’s calendar that a hurricane from heaven is going to blow your way and the rain of heaven will flood your soul and your drought will be broken.


II. Verse 41. “ …for there is a sound of abundance of rain.”
* It had to be hot in that desert where Elijah and his servant were. Over 100 degrees. You could hear the crunch of dead grass with every step. Dust flies up into the air with every step because it is so dry. The cattle have died. The sheep are dead. The camels are gone. There are one or two animals here and there leaning up against a fence post. They are so skinny you can count every rib.
* It’s bad to be in a drought. You