A Place Called There: Why the Ravens Won't Feed You Anywhere Else

Sermon outline

God has a specific place for you, a place called there, and his provision, guidance and miracles are found there and not in a place called anywhere.

1. A place called there is not everywhere

   God did not send Elijah to a place of his own choosing: he named the brook and commanded the ravens to feed him there, and later commanded a widow to feed him there. Peter found his place called there in the house of Cornelius, a Gentile home his upbringing would never have chosen. There is where the greatest hunger is, and where God guides he provides. When you decide for yourself where to be, God has no obligation to sustain you in a place called anywhere.

   Illustration: A woman told him that week that she had decided it was time to move from her church and had decided to be in another. He took note of the words 'I decided' each time. Others tell him they are in a church for the fellowship or because it is near home, and he asks himself whether God sent them there.

   “Where God does not send you, there is no responsibility on Him to feed you or sustain you.”

   • 1 Kings 17:3-4
   • 1 Kings 17:9
   • Acts 10

2. God is a God of specifics

   God named the brook so that there could be no misunderstanding, just as he gave Noah the exact measurements and the type of wood for the ark and gave Moses every detail of the tabernacle. He has a corporate plan and a specific plan for each person, and he speaks to you individually when you are in your corporate place. Many are not hearing God, not because he is angry, but because they did not obey his last instruction. Jesus himself prayed not my will but yours, and learned obedience.

   “We do not move from a place called there, because there is a place of provision.”

   • Genesis 6:14-16
   • Exodus 25:8-9
   • Matthew 26:39
   • Hebrews 5:8
   • 1 Samuel 15:22

3. 1. Be assured that God does have a place where he wants you to be

   Many people cry out for God to take care of them while living outside the place he named, and if Elijah had gone to some other brook the ravens would not have been there. God led many to FCI in Greenwood Park even though it is out of their way. When you are where God told you to be, you can stop being so concerned about tomorrow, because his peace and his hand are there.

   Illustration: When he lived in Johannesburg, God told him to drive to a church 50 kilometres away, and he made that trip week after week for seven or eight years, past many good churches closer to home.

   “While I was in a place called there, God was preparing me for here.”

   • 1 Kings 17:4

4. 2. Be willing to go there when God tells you to go there

   People come and people go, some without the courtesy of telling him they are leaving, and some change churches only to appease their conscience and put a tick in the box. His counsel is simple: if God called you to be there, be there, and if here is your there, do not move, because you would be moving out of the blessings of God.

   Illustration: A young man in the church works as far away as Newcastle and travels back every weekend to be in church, because that is where his sustenance and his miracles are.

   “If God called you to be here, which is there for you, then don't move.”

5. 3. Forget about the mistakes of the past

   A place called there is under the blood, so you do not have to walk in condemnation or drag yesterday in with you. If you do not understand why God is calling you, do not resort to human reasoning. When the devil tells you that you are not worthy to be there, talk back to him and put him in his place, because he is under your feet.

   Illustration: He mentions the book he wrote some years before, Talk Back to the Devil.

   “The chapter of yesterday is over. The pages of yesterday have been turned.”

6. 4. Dwell where God tells you to go

   God told Jacob to go up to Bethel and dwell there, not just anywhere. If God tells you to change, he trusts that God will confirm it to him as their leader, because everyone who will ever be affected by your life is waiting for you to respond to the perfect will of God. Jesus was always in a place called there and had to go through Samaria to meet one person. Even a workplace you dislike may be your there for now, a training ground like Moses' forty years on the back side of the desert.

   Illustration: He asks people to change the personalised number plate in their minds from 'anywhere' to 'there'. Moses argued that he stammered, and God let Aaron be his spokesman, but the rod stayed in Moses' hand.

   “It might not be a place called there for all time, but it's a place called there for now.”

   • Genesis 35:1
   • Colossians 4:12
   • John 17:4
   • John 4:4
   • Isaiah 46:10
   • Exodus 3:1-10
   • Exodus 4:10-16

7. 5. Expect the provision of God in a place called there

   When you are in the place God wants you to be, you are in tune with him: increase comes, you meet the right people, and the right resources arrive at the right moment. If you settle in a place called anywhere, your brook will dry up until you repent and go back. Never leave a church or a job unless it is God's voice that moves you, no matter how much you are offered.

   Illustration: Elijah had all the pure water he wanted without buying bottled water from a shop. Even if another company doubles your package, out of God's will you will still be in want.

   “It's too expensive to be out of the will of God.”

8. 6. Don't quit in the face of hard circumstances

   God's place for you is a place of divine appointment, and offences and circumstances will make it easy to leave. There is where God deals with your fears, insecurities and weaknesses, as he did with Moses, and trains you for bigger fights ahead. He knows people get cross at pledges and at preaching on tithes, because he sat where they sit. Cry, pray, argue or voice your opinion if you must, but get back on track and do not take offence.

   Illustration: When he was serving in a church, his job was to see to the cinema seats and pick off the bubble gum stuck under them. With no money in his pocket he would stand when his pastor took a pledge, and Pastor Zubeda's first words in the car were to ask where the money would come from, yet within a week or two God put it in his hands. He also tells how, the day before, he visited another church and was brusquely handled by the head of security in the car park, and drove off without saying that he was a pastor.

   “When you get offended, you cut off the will of God.”

   • Isaiah 55:10
   • Hebrews 12:1

9. You must make a decision

   God gives the summation, but you are the jury and you must bring the verdict on whether you will go where he tells you to go and do what he tells you to do. Do not make a career choice, leave your workplace, move from your church or make any sudden decision if God is not in it.

   “You are the jury. You'll have to bring the verdict.”