The Church of Eleven22 - Fire Fall Down - Elijah: Wk 5

Episode Date: August 17, 2025

Have you ever felt caught between two worlds—longing for God but clinging to idols? In 1 Kings 18, Elijah calls God’s people to stop wavering. On Mount Carmel, the prophets of Baal cried out in vain, but Elijah prayed—and fire fell from heaven. Through this story, Pastor Joby invites us to examine where we place our trust and to remember that our God never fails. Whether in drought, in doubt, or in an impossible situation, He is enough. What step of obedience is God asking you to take today? 📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week: Trusting God in the Midst of Persecution - Tyler's Story The God Who Answers by Fire - Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin S22E5 Elijah Sermon Series About The Church of Eleven22 The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://coe22.com/donate 

Amen and amen and amen. If you got your Bibles, and I hope you do, First King, Chapter 18 is where we're going to be. We're in week five of this series on Elijah, studying the life of a prophet. And I just want to let you know that we basically started new service times at almost all of our campuses.

So if it's a little crowded like it is at San Pablo, or if you had to park over at Publix and don't want to die on the road. By the way, we need our Christians to park in Publix in case you get killed. I see in heaven, you know, on the way over. But we have a 422 service here, and we really aimed it at you, you know,

families with little kids. kids, so it matches nap time and dinner time and all that stuff. So love for you to do that, or if one of our other campuses, check with your campus pastors to see what our new times are, because we got a lot of people showing up. All right, I hope you're excited about this. This is in week five, but you ever binge watch a show and then you kind of get into it, and you still got to watch the recap, you know, because you kind of forget who's doing what. So I'm going to give you a little recap just to catch us up, all right? So previously on Elijah, here's what's happened. If you remember in week one, Elijah is the prophet of God. He comes out of

nowhere. He lives in utter obscurity, and then kind of comes walking out of. of the woods with a leather belt and camel and probably baldheaded with a beard like most godly people are and god's got a call on his life and he goes straight to the king king ahab is no good puts his finger in his chest and it's like because of you and your disobedience and the fact that you married jesabel and you've been worshiping false god god's going to turn off the rain for the next three years and that was a really really really big deal and then god says and i want you go to this this brook called shirith it means cut off but what god was doing is god was was preparing Elijah for the ministry that he had. And the key to understanding all of Elijah's

life is in 1st King 17, it says, so Elijah went and did according to the word of the Lord. What do you do when you find yourself in an impossible situation? That's what we're going to talk about. Well, what Elijah did is he just did whatever it is that the word of the Lord told him to do. And so he goes to this brook, starts out really great. These dirty, nasty, filthy birds called Ravens began to bring him food. By the way, I found out we have Ravens fans here. What is wrong with you people, all right? But it started out good.

They bring him food every morning, every evening, and everything's going great. And then there's this one little verse in 1st King 17. It says, and then the brook dried up. And sometimes the brook dries up. And what's crazy about our sovereign God is he does not mind drying up the brook in our life if it gets us off our blessed assurance to go on to the next thing that God has for us. J.I. Packer says this, and still he seeks the fellowship of his people, and he will bring both joy or pain, whatever it takes to detach our hands from the things of this world that we would grab onto him. And so Elijah gets up, because the brook dried up goes to the next thing. He does what God tells him to do. He bumps into this widow of Zarifath. And because there's been a drought, she's got almost nothing left. She's got a little bit of flour, a little bit of oil, and he says, what are you doing? She's like, I'm about to cook dinner for me. me and my boy, they were going to die.

That's our plan. And he says, but first, why don't you make me some dinner? And what we find out here is that when you trust God with your first and best, then you can trust him to take care of you. And then she's got this miracle whip, not like the fake, whatever that stuff is, dessert stuff, but every time she whips up dinner, it's a miracle. And she's got plenty, plenty, plenty, plenty. And so God is taking care of her through this miracle.

Well, what she doesn't realize is her brook's going to dry up. Her sons, apparently, has this terminal illness. She don't even know about it. And he dies. And instead of running from God, she runs to God. She runs to the man of God, Elijah. She says, explain to me what happened. Help me out with this.

And remember, we did a prayer and anointing service. That it is a okay to come to the sovereign king of the universe and go, God, you got to, I believe, but you got to help me with my unbelief. When we had a prayer and anointing service, and I mean, listen, man, they can. you so much for the testimony after testimony of miracles that you have shared with us. I mean, God has given babies to those that are fighting against infertility. Marriages are being restored. Addictions are being broken. Praise God for that.

That's exactly what began to happen here. And then last week, well, last week was a dozy, right? We said, what kind of man are you? And we looked at the characters in this, I don't like to call it a story because it's not a story. It's an actual event. But we looked at like the main characters of this event that we're studying. And we looked at Ahab, who is evil and weak. And we looked at Jezabel, and she's strong, but she's evil.

Then we looked at Obadiah, who's a wuss. But he goes to church a lot. Don't be like that. And said, we are called to be like Elijah, who is good and strong. But nobody's good and strong on their own. And if you want to be a good and strong man or a woman, then you've got to bend your knee to the only one who was good and made himself weak that we would be made strong.

And last week in all of our services, including prisons and students and all of that, 395 people surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Praise God, man. Listen, man, that's revival stuff. I'm just telling you. God is doing a thing. And so that's where we are.

That's what happened. And now we're getting to the main showdown. Like in the Jesus' story book Bible, what we're going to get to here is what everybody knows about Elijah. This is the main event, okay? All the prelims are over. we're on the main card. This is the main event. This is the showdown where Elijah is going to have a showdown with King Ahab and Jezebel and all of the false gods that they have been worshipping.

So we'll pick it up in verse 17 of chapter 18 and it says this, when Ahab saw Elijah, by the way, I've told you this before. It's going to matter in this sermon. Elijah's name means the Lord is God. That's been his life's mission. And I'm going to reread some verses. that we did last week because I need a little bit of a running start because we just looked at the people now we're going to look at what happens okay so when ahab saw Elijah ahab said to him is it you you troubler of Israel he was like the original gaslighter it's like all of this is your fault i think Elijah was like oh you about to see some trouble all right how many of you know man when you're walking closely with the lord is the holy spirit not a troubler like in the best way

possible. You know what Romans 2 says? Romans 2 says it would be the wrath of God to turn you over to your own desires, but it's his kindness that leads us to repentance. Please don't miss this. Somebody asked me the other day, they're like, why has it been so intense lately? I'm like, that's on you, man. You know why it's felt intense? It's not because I'm yelling at you. I've been yelling at you for 13 years. What's intense is the people of God, it's you. You show up. And guess where the Holy Spirit shows up where he's wanted? And there's a difference between conviction and condemnation. Condemnation is a lie from the pit of hell that says you were unfit for use. Conviction is when you lean into the Lord and say, God, search my heart and show me any way that

does not line up with you. And when that trouble begins to happen, that's because God would love you enough to say, well, whoa, whoa, whoa, if you keep walking down that road, it's going to kill you. But if you follow after me, I have for you life and life abundantly, and this is what he does. He's like, oh, I got some trouble for you. And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Bales. Notice it's plural, Bales.

Bail was not just one false God. Bales was like a series of false God. And listen, there's this idea that C.S. Lewis, one of my favorite thinkers ever talks about, it's called chronological snobbery. You see, a lot of us can have this idea like we're so much smarter than the people back in antiquity. You'd be like, can you believe these dumb people?

They would carve little idols and put it on their fireplace and then they would worship it. Can you believe that people would have the audacity to claim to be God followers and then put their hope and trust in something temporary? Can you believe people would do that? You know who else does it? The person that brushed your teeth this morning. That's who else has a tendency to do it. You see, what do you do when you find yourself in a drought? Bail was in charge of rain, so they were worshiping the rain god.

Asherah, this other false God, was in charge of fertility, so when they needed a baby, they didn't go to the God of the universe, they went to the fertility God. And here's the problem. We all have idols in our life, and an idol makes promises that it cannot keep. Idols lie to us because there's something behind the idol, and the thing behind the idol is the author of lies. His name is the devil, and every time he runs his mouth, he's speaking lies. So let me ask you a question. What do you do when you're not getting with you? what you want. What do you do when you find yourself in a drought? What do you do when you pray

for rain and you don't get rain? Do you turn to money for security? I'm just telling you, it can't give you what you're looking for. Do you turn to a pill to take away the pain? Do you turn to a bottle to try to forget about it? Do you turn to that girl at work to find validation? You're like, oh she gets me. Oh, she's going to get you. But not like you think. Do you turn to more Netflix to just numb yourself? Are you saying, Netflix is a sin? Most of it. Do you turn to Instagram so somebody you'll like you?

Not the real you because, you know, you don't even like the real you, but that fake you that you put up there, listen, you can never simultaneously turn away from the Prince of Peace and find the peace that you're actually looking for. And an idol, every single one of them, whether it's money or fame or whatever it is, likes, new clothes, whatever the thing is, it baits you down a road and then laughs at you when you get to the end of it when it lets you down. whatever you idolize, when it lets you down, you will demonize it. The question is, is He is God enough for you in the drought?

John Calvin says, idolatry is worshiping the gift over the giver. This is what the nation of Israel is doing. So hear this, man, Israel hadn't given up on God. They just tried to add these false gods to the one true God. That's what they did. And so Elijah's showing up. He's going to draw a line in the sand. He says, now therefore sin and gather all of Israel too.

me at Mount Carmel. Now when we hear Mount Carmel, we'd be like, well, who doesn't love caramel, that sticky, sweet goodness? You know, that's fine. But when they heard Mount Carmel, they were like, do what? This was the high place of pagan worship. This is where the nastiest things happened. This is where they bowed down to Asheram, bowed down to bail, and worship demon gods and child sacrifice. This is the grossest, nastiest place they know of. This would be like me going to meet me in Gainesville and watch what happens. Amen, coach, that's right. All right.

So, think about it like that. This giving up home field advantage, man. He says, I want you to meet me at Mount Carmel and the 450 prophets of bail and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. That's a big old table, 450 seats. Here's what it means that Jezebel was paying the bill for all of these false profits.

You see, what would happen is, You would make a big dinner and you would dedicate it to an idol and then say, you eat all you want to, idol, and we're going to get the leftovers. And guess how much is left over? All of it. They ain't got mouths. They don't eat much. This is why the New Testament talks about food sacrifice to idols all the time.

So here's the showdown, okay? Bail is like the big daddy god. Asher is the big mama God. He's like, you go get the mom and daddy of all the false gods that you have been worshiping, and I want you to meet me at Mount Carmel. And if you are advising Elijah in this moment, you're like, bro, what are you doing? I mean, you were setting yourself up to be in an impossible situation. Are you scared?

He's like, yeah, a little bit. Then why are you going to do it? Because I'm just about to do what the word of the Lord has told me to do. Yeah, but Elijah, this seems like it's impossible. Not for the holy God of the universe. Come on, we should know this better than any church on the planet. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. that every single time, it seems like there's an impossible situation.

This is just the perfect setup for God to do the thing that only God can do. So my question to you is, you're not even going to hear it, right? So I'm going to have to yell at you three times, ready? So what is God asking you to do? And you'll answer me, well, I feel like, which is my feeling? I didn't say feel. You feel all kind of stuff. All right, I have a feeling sometimes.

Who cares? Feelings are fine. Feelings make a great navigational tool. they're terrible decision maker. What is God calling you to do? You see, some of you feel like God is calling you to forgive that person and you know what they did to you is unforgivable except for one thing.

You were unforgivable and Christ forgave you. And you can feel all the feels while I'm up here yelling at you, but have you actually done the thing? Or maybe God, this is a really big one around here sometimes, you know that God is calling you to radical generosity and you felt it until I got time to do it and you ain't doing it anymore. Or maybe God has called you to not give up on your one more.

And you're like, you don't understand. I've invited them for over and over and over. Listen, I prayed for my daddy for 30 years and 30 years. Do you realize at that point I had led, I don't know how many, tens of thousand of people to Christ, but the one dude I tried to more than anybody else that wouldn't work. But you just got to keep going and keep going and keep going. Why? Because you don't ever give up on God that's never going to give up on you.

What is he asking you to do? Because if you find yourself in an impossible situation, you have to understand that God is perfectly set up to get all the glory when he comes through. We see this all the time in the scriptures. One of the things I notice when you look at miracles in the scriptures is they're almost always preceded by some obedience in the normative of the people around him. We talk about this one all the time. Wedding at Cana, they run out of wine.

Mary comes to Jesus. Hey, buddy, they're out of wine. And he's like, okay, so what? What does this have to do with me? and then Mary says to the service, do whatever he tells you to do. And the next few things that he tells them to do, they don't make any sense. Go get the water jars everybody's been washing their hands in. Why?

Fill them up. Okay. Now what? Dip some of it out. Take it to the masters of ceremonies. The dude's like, y'all was trying to get us killed. I'm about to get more wine. Trust me on this.

And they simply do whatever it is that he tells them to do, and they have no idea what hangs in the balance. Do you have any idea what hangs in the balance if you would just do the thing he's told you to do? One of my favorite ones is in Acts chapter 3, Peter and John, are on their way to the temple. This is after Pentecost, the Spirit of God has fallen. They're going to the temple. There's a dude there begging for money. Peter, various famously, silver and gold, have I none? But here's what he's saying.

I'm in ministry and I've got no money. But what I have, I give unto you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk. But he doesn't stand up when he says it. The next verse says, and then Peter reaches out his hand and lifts up the man. And it was in the reaching that the man's ankles got. strength and he stood up. Here's what it makes me wonder. I wonder how many miracles are still sitting on the sidewalk because some Christian didn't do what faith demanded of him. What is God calling you to do? This is the showdown that Elijah is calling them to. Verse 20. So Ahab said to all the

people of Israel and he gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel and Elijah came near to all the people and said, how long will you go limping between two different opinions? Listen, if you got your Bible out, because you did what I asked you to do earlier, I said, if you got your Bible, turn two. If you don't have a Bible, there's one in front of you. Please grab it, okay? I want you to open it to 1st Kings 18, okay? And I want you to underline this verse.

Thank you. I actually see men moving. That's a miracle. Last two service, I had to call people out and yell at them because they didn't even move, all right? One dude at nine pointed to his wife. She's got one. Good Lord, dude. Stand up and act like a man.

Quit having your wife read the Bible to you. Anyway. So here's what you don't know. Some dude, in about three years before now when I teach this again, I'm going to go turn to 1st King's 18 and he's going to see an underline. He's going to go, the Lord is speaking to me. Okay, so help me out. Underline this. How long will you go limping between two different opinions?

If the Lord is God, follow him. But if bail, then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word. You see, again, these people are not anti-Johama. They have just, they're just not all in. Like for them, God has not. before all things. He's not the one thing that drives everything. Then what they've tried to do

is they've tried to just add on some false God worldly worship to the things that they already believe in. Jesus makes this very clear. Jesus says no one can serve two masters. Listen, Jesus is not an accessory to your life. No one can serve two masters. You'll hate want to be devoted to the other. I've told you this before.

Trying to serve two masters and the amount of people at our church that will be here this weekend they're trying to do this, it's astounding. It's like getting off of a boat too slow. You ever seen somebody to do that? You got one foot on the boat, you got one foot on the dock. You've got to make a decision or it will be made for you. It will tear you apart, okay?

That's what's going to happen. How long do you go limping between two different opinions? There's some of you, and you got one foot in the Jesus camp and one foot in the world. You got one foot in church and one foot in the party life. And you'd be like, yeah, but Jesus went to parties. He went and got ministry done. You go and get drunk. This ain't the same ministry.

You got one foot in Jesus world and one foot trying to chase money. Jesus specifically says no one can serve both God and money. You got one foot in the Jesus camp and then you got another foot in this secret sin. And literally you're asking God to see and bless this part of my life. I sure hope he can't see this part of my life. It's in the dark. Is that how you're living? Some of you're chasing Christ and stuff.

do it. Some of you're lifting up your hands to the name and renown of Jesus and then just trying to make a name for yourself. Listen, Jesus is not just another option at the buffet of life. This is not how it works. This is the world we live in. It's just a big fat lie. And everybody comes to it like, oh, salvation. Oh, man, I'll take salvation. I mean, because hell is hot and forever is a long time. Who doesn't want to go to heaven? I'll take a little bit of that. Oh, what's that conviction? No, I don't think. Obedience. Oh, oh, sex. Oh, it comes with marriage. I don't know about that. No, no, no, no, no. Listen, Jesus is Lord of all, or he ain't Lord at all. Now, listen, we live in America. You can still do whatever you want to do, kind of. You can do

whatever you want to. You can go to church and you can live however you want to live. You just can't simultaneously do whatever you want to do and call Jesus Christ your Lord. Lord means, I'm doing what you say, not what I want. Now, do we struggle? The struggle is real. But it's a battle in there where our flesh rises up and when we fall, when we stumble, we run to him, we don't run from him. But if we stand in authority over the Word of God, be like, I don't care what you say, then this is what I'm going to do. Then by definition, you are Lord of your own life. That is not what it means to be a Christian. So let me ask you, how long will you go limping between two different opinions?

You see, here's what he says. If bail is your God, just serve him. So let me translate for you. Listen, if money is your God, just serve it. Just be honest about it. Just tell people, I'm greedy. I want money. Quit blaming your family.

Because you know what you do when you're greedy, but you can't admit it. You be like, I'm just doing this for you. The reason I don't go to your ball games or ever tuck you in is because I'm just doing this for you. I've checked with your kids. They want you at your ball games. They'd rather have less money. But at least on it. Or if sex is your God, just serve it, man.

Just have sex with everybody. Start cheating on everybody. Just tell them. Just commodify every other person and say, you're like a commodity to me, okay? I'm just going to use you up to get what I want because I don't love you. I just love the way you make me feel about me.

Just do it, man. Go for it. Maybe you'll be the first person in human history that it works out for. And if pride is your God, if approval is your God, just turn your whole house into an Instagram suite

where you just take pictures of you for the rest of your life. And everybody will love you. Not the actual you. You don't even love the actual you. Just put the fake field through you up there and let everybody chase after it. Just go for it.

But if God is God, quit with that silliness and serve him. You know what happens when we do that when we try to put one foot in the Jesus camp and one foot in the world camp? It makes Jesus sick, like literally. It makes them want to puke. Revelation chapter 3, Jesus writes a letter to this church called the church at Laoticaa. It's basically the church in America. There's one big problem with the church that lay out of see it.

The Bible says in Revelation 320, Jesus, behold, I stand at the door and knock, and anyone that will hear my voice and let me in, I'll come in and sup with him and he with me. Okay, listen, if you're planning on planting a church, hmm, you want Jesus on the inside of your church not out in the parking lot. If Jesus is in the parking lot, not on the inside, church ain't going good, makes sense? And you know what Laotica's problem was? They were neither hot nor cold. They were lukewarm because they were trying to do this casual Christian kind of life thing,

and Jesus says, I'm about to throw you up. Elijah saying, I'm about to draw a line in the sand. You make a decision. You want to worship bail? Go for it. Not going to go good. You want to worship the one true God? He will still receive you.

C.S. Lewis, one of my favorite thinkers on the planet. He says it this way. If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are like half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and saying. sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because we cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea we are

far too easily pleased you see here's what's crazy man the thing that you're actually looking for whether you're looking for it in stuff or status or sex can only be found in the savior you see you're looking to feel a certain way you'll never drink yourself there, dude. You'll never smoke yourself there. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and he gives a peace that transcends understanding. He gives this secret of learning how to be content, no matter the situation. You're looking for safety and security, cash will never do it. It'll just never do it. But when you trust him, you trust that the owner of all things is a good dad and he takes care of his kids. You want to be somebody? How about be known as a co-air with Christ and you

inherit heaven one day, everything you're actually looking for is found in him. And the temporary pursuit of these temporary idols will always let us down. This is what's happening. So here's the showdown. So Elijah said to the people, I, even I only am left a prophet of a Lord. So so much for those hundred hidden prophets, you know, the keyboard warriors in their mom's basements in that cave, they ain't, they ain't helping. But Bail's profits are 450 men. Let two bulls, and this is kind of a jab, because the mascot of bail was a bull, so he's about to burn up some bulls. He says, so let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it, and I will prepare the other bull

and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. And you call upon the name of your little G God, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire, he is God. this is the ultimate showdown. That's what he's doing right now. Praise God. I call upon the name of the Lord, the God who answers by fire, he's God.

And all the people answered, it is well spoken. You know why? You know what Bail's in charge of? Thunderstorms, lightning. They're like, what's your God going to do? Our God's in charge of lightning. Your God's in charge of what?

Circumcision, singing. How much is that going to help you right now? So they think they got this thing made. And Elijah said to the prophets of bail, he's going to repeat himself, choose for yourself, one bull, prepare it first. For you are many, call upon the name of your God, put no fire to it, and they took the bull that was given to them,

and they prepared it, and they called upon the name of bail from morning until noon, saying, oh, bail, answer us. But there was no voice and no one answered. Why? Because there was no God to answer them. because what was behind this false God is nothing but a demon trying to kill, steal, and destroy. There is only one true God. We sang about it.

Psalm 115 says it this way, not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory. For the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness, why should the nation say, where is their God? Our God is in the heavens, and he does all that he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak, eyes but they do not see. They have ears but they do not hear, noses but they do not smell. They have hands but they do not feel. They have feet but they do not walk.

They do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them. That's a scary verse. That we become what we worship. Those who make them become like them. So do all who trust in them. O Israel trust in the Lord, he is their help. and their shield. You see, we become what we worship. And so from morning until noon, with a lot of

passion, they call out to bail, and no one answered. And they look at themselves and they'll be like, you know what we need to do? Try harder. That's what they do. Because that's what idols call you to do. They thought they had an intensity problem. So look at what they do. And they lumped around. Remember, he said, how long are you going to limp between two opinions? And now they've got this worship dance where they cut themselves and they're going to limp around. And they limped around the altar that they had made. You see, they thought they had an intensity problem. They got a theological reality problem.

This is like the dummies these days. They're like, well, that's my truth and that's your truth. No, hold on, man. You're confusing. There's just the truth. There's just the truth. And you can't break it. You just break yourself against it.

And I know you have an opinion, but opinions are like armpits. Everybody's got a couple in your stink. That's just true, all right? And you can believe all you want to. It changes nothing in reality. And so here's what they do, verse 27, put it up on the screen. I want to get, okay, look at this so much. And at noon, Elijah, what did he do?

Mocked them. This makes me feel better about my entire ministry right here. And Elijah mocked them saying, cry aloud, for he is God. Either he is musing or he is relieving himself. We're going to come back to that one. he is on a journey or perhaps he's asleep and must be awakened. All right. This is righteous smack talk. Got it? Now here's the thing. All right. I don't know if you've met a Bible translator. They are very smart. They are very smart. But I don't think they're good at mocking people, right? Because Elijah's like maybe he's

musing. You know, maybe he's scrolling on Instagram and he got lost or maybe he's been on a trip or maybe he's sleeping. Hey, little bail, wake up. Or maybe he's relieving himself. Do you think he actually said relieving himself. Man, the way I see it is here's Elijah bald beard, Big Doug Dynasty beard, he's got his lawn chair. He's sitting there with his Yetty cooler. And he's like, where's your God? Huh?

It's been a long time. Maybe you need to talk louder. I don't think he says, is he relieving himself? He was probably like, maybe he's taking a doozy of a Tuesday. Maybe he's in the Oval Office. Maybe he's got the fan on so he can't hear you. Maybe he's got to do a little paperwork. Maybe there's a cleanup on aisle two, if you understand what I'm saying.

He is mocking him. some things ought to be mocked. Now the lead foot in ministry should be love, not mockery, but it has a significant place going to get an amen, all right? And here's the thing, man, I know some people are like, oh my God, I'm just triggered. I'm so offended. I need a safe place. All right, well, then I don't know what to tell you, cupcake.

Put on a cup and a helmet. Life's hard. And the reason he's not answering is because he's not there. This is a false God. And we become what we worship. And if you worship a false God, your entire life is going to be. be built in a lie, whether it's the God of money or success or fame or your figure. If you build your life on a false God, your whole life will be built on a lie. And there is one name under heaven

whereby we must be saved. That doesn't just mean get to go to heaven when you die. There is one name under heaven whereby we can live the abundant life that Christ has for us. First King 860 says this, that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, that there is no. There is none else. John 73, and this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. And so listen, if you worship idols, they're going to let you down. If you chase stuff to give you satisfaction, it's just never going to do it. I don't care how hard you dance. I don't care how long you yell. It's never going to do it. If you chase security through your finances, it just can't provide you with that. If you're looking for your

self-worth based on how some other person treats you, you're never going to find it's going to let you down. Not easily. And here's how you know it's an idol. Because when it hits the fan, and you know what I'm talking about, no one ever cries out to their idol. They go crying out to God. Nobody runs to their cyber truck and it's like, give me purpose and peace. No. You see, they thought they had an intensity problem. They had a theological reality problem because they're calling out to a thing that cannot give them what they're asking for. And they cried aloud and they cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday past, they raved on. That means strenuous dancing until the time of the offering of the oblation. That means the

regular offering time. But there was no voice. Like all idol worshippers, when it didn't work, they turned up the intensity. And what every idol would say, if you listen closely, they'll sing you a Billy Idol song. In the midnight hour, more, more, more. Dance harder.

Cut yourself more. This is going to mutilate you. That's what they do. And see, we live in a world that says, as long as you believe in something intently and intensely and authentically, then that's your truth. That's just wrong.

And every other world religion and every idol in this world says, cut yourself and dance harder. Cut yourself and dance harder. And no one answered and no one paid attention. You see, they thought more dancing, more performance was going to give them what they wanted. And the false gods of this world will mutilate you and cut you. I mean, think about this. You worship at the idol of money.

It's going to cut into your family so that you can worship the God of money. you won't tuck those babies in you'll be gone all the time to try to worship the god that you love or you'll cut out your morality for the sake of your career or if you're chasing some sort of ideal way to look then what you're going to do is you're going to cut out every relationship that matters so that you can be who you want to be honestly in our culture these days they literally cut innocent babies out of the mother's room or cut on healthy physically healthy boys and girls to worship the demon of confusion. And when an idol let you down, it requires more, more, more. This is the opposite of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God's never going to look at

you and say, dance harder, perform better, cut yourself and bleed. No, no, no, no. Why? Because Jesus Christ stepped off of the throne. He was born as a baby, grew into a man. And his performance is the only performance that we ever need. He lived the life that we could never live. He went to to the cross in our place and when he pushed up only his nail pierce feet he says it is finished which means they're performing and the pretending are over and we could bring the real us to a real cross because the real Jesus died for us and when he says it is finished that means paid in full and he would never ask you he's like you don't have to mutilate yourself the fire of the judgment of God when it came down Jesus was mutilated he was cut in our place so that whoever would believe in him that we would

receive his perfect righteousness. Elijah shows up all over the New Testament. In Luke chapter nine, the disciples don't have their mind around the gospel yet. And so they go take the gospel to Samaria and they're worshiping a false God so they reject them. And the disciples go to Jesus. And they say, should we call down fire on the Samaritans like Elijah did? And Jesus is like, you dummies. Don't you remember? The fire of God came down on the sacrifice, not the people. And the fire of God is going to come. And it's going to come. And it's going to come all. the sacrifice, but I'm gonna be the sacrifice. You see, because God is just, all sin must be paid for.

But because God is merciful and gracious, he is the just and the justifier, and he sent his son to pay the price that we couldn't. So in the gospel, the fire of God does fall, the fire of God's judgment falls upon Jesus on the cross. He endures the full wrath of God that whoever would believe that when Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for me,

the fire of the spirit of God falls and endwerexed. dwells on every single believer of Jesus Christ. This whole thing that we're looking at is a picture of what Christ is going to do. Tim Keller says it this way. Jesus is the only God that if you find him will satisfy you. And if you fail him, we'll forgive you. Let me say it again, man. Because some of you think, well, you don't know what I've done.

God's done with me. Then you don't know what Jesus did on the cross. This isn't like a kid's story. that Jesus would love you so much that he would take on all of your sin and he knew what he was getting when he paid for you and with you in mind to the glory of God. He pushes up on his nail-pierce feet. And for anyone who would believe, he said, it is finished. And then three days later, death couldn't hold him because he had no sin.

And he rolls that stone away. And if Jesus walked out of the tomb, then you and I can walk in that same kind of victory. Jesus is the only God that if you find him will satisfy you. And if you fail him, he will forgive you. And so Elijah said to all the people, come near to me. A few from South Georgia, that's Hebrew for hold my beer and watch this. He says, come near to me. And all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down.

And Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying Israel shall be your name. And with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Here's what he knew. What he was doing, he was standing on the shoulders. of faithful men and women, the tribes of Israel, who had come before him. Listen to 1122, we are walking in some serious, serious revival times of the Lord. And the reason that we get to do this is because faithful men and women, starting at Beach Church, going back for generations right here in Jacksonville,

have been praying for the winds of revival to blow through, and we just get to be the recipients of what God has been doing and things that have been prayed for for a long, long time. and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seas of seed, and he put the wood in order, and he cut the bull into pieces, and he laid it on the wood, and he said, fill four jars with water. Remember we're in a drought? So he takes the most valuable thing, and he's going to put it on the altar, fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burn offering, and on the wood,

and he said, do it a second time, and they did it a second time, and he said, do it a third time, and they did it at third time. and the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water. And I'm telling you, if you're looking at Elijah right there, you're going, Elijah, this is impossible. And he would say, I know, but we serve the God of the impossible. And so listen, if you find yourself in an impossible situation, maybe you're like, well, my marriage is impossible. I hear you. Or I've been praying for my prodigal.

I don't think they're ever going to come home. I hear what you're saying. or I got these financial issues or a health issue or an addiction or a mental health issue, whatever it is, okay? And every single one of those things are temporary. You know what? The most impossible situation of all the situations are? How do you reconcile sinful, unholy people with an almighty, holy, perfect God?

And yet, through the cross and resurrection of Jesus, we know that we, our sin can be covered and we can be reconciled, forgiven. Can you imagine the disciples at the foot of Galgotha Jesus is hanging on the cross and they must have thought, Jesus, what is happening here? Have you lost control? God, what are you doing? You said the kingdom of heaven was at hand. The kingdom of heaven is dying on a cross and he's about to be in a grave. And God's got, hold on man. By the end of the weekend, this whole thing is going to make sense. In every situation that we encounter as post-resurrection believers, we get to see it through the filter of the empty tomb. So if God can breathe new life into his dead son, then he can heal your body, he can

heal your finances, he can heal your marriage, he can bring lost people back home. Why? Because if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And so there's Elijah in the seemingly impossible situation, verse 36. And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, oh Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and that I have done all these things at your word. This is what he did. This is not Elijah's idea. Elijah is just saying, whatever you tell me to do, that's what I'm going to do.

I want to ask you again, what is he telling you today? You should do it and trust him. Verse 37, here's his prayer. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God. and that you have turned their hearts back, I dare you to start adding that to every one of your prayers. God, heal my body, not just so I feel better, but God, would you heal my body that this people may know that you are God

and maybe we'd use this healing to turn people back to you? God, heal my marriage, not just so I can be happy, but God, would you heal my marriage that people would see it and would trust you and you would turn their hearts? God, bring my prodigal home, not just so I can be a happy mama, bring my prodigal home that you would turn his heart back. God, I need a financial miracle in my life, not so I got more folding chains so I could get me some more crap that I don't need, but that the world may know that you are who you say you are.

Elijah's not trying to show off. He's just trying to show that this God is the God of the universe. And then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood. and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. All he asked for was to burn up the bull. God didn't just show up, he's showing out. Because we serve a God that does infinitely more than we can even think or imagine or pray about. Do you realize that?

How you burn up rocks? That's hot. Burn up water. How you even do that? I don't know, but God does it. And see, again, this is a picture. of Christ's substitutionary atonement because the fire did not burn up the people.

The fire burnt up the sacrifice. And listen, because God is just, all sin must be paid for. All sin must be atoned for. You got one of two options. Either you can self-atone. What that means is when we sin against an infinite almighty God, it requires an infinite punishment. We call that hell.

Some of you're like, well, I don't believe in hell. You're going to. And I don't want you to experience it. By faith, I want you to trust Jesus. Or you can take the substitutionary atonement that when Jesus says it is finished, that it counted for you. And I'm telling you, man, God is just showing out, showing out.

Why? Because we follow a mighty, miracle-working, powerful, glory be to his name, kind of God. Listen, in Ephesians, the Bible says that God does exceedingly more than we ever. hope, dreamed, or imagine. Man, when we started this church, I was nervous.

We were out there in the parking lot before he opened up the Walmart next door. And I was there. And here's my prayer. I was like, Lord, can you just send enough people where we can have two services? And I didn't mean two on a Sunday. I meant two Sundays back to back. You understand? We had 31,000 people in the rooms last week and about 65,000 people worship with us online.

There's about 100,000 people a week that worship with us online. Praise God. I would pray, I would pray, God. would you save 365 people in a year? Like, where did you get that? From Acts 2. Acts 2 said, and day by day they were being added to the family of God. And I thought, all right, well, if you saved one person a day, that's 365.

He did more than that just last weekend. Why? Because God doesn't just show up. He shows out, praise God. Praise God. That's what he's doing. We've had 2,189 people surrender their life to the Lordship of Christ this year. And that's impossible, except we served the God of the impossible.

You see, listen. man, when you find yourself in an impossible situation, just hang in there because God loves an impossible situation. Because he knows when he does what we can't do, then he and he alone gets the glory. Jesus doesn't even get nervous. When we're down by three, bottom of the ninth, base is loaded and it's three, two. I don't care if you throw the heat or hanging curveball, bro. He's going turn on that thing because he's the God of the universe and going, going, going to the glory of God. It's not, what you think is a setback is just a setup for God to do what God does. And when all the people saw it, They fell on their faces, and they said, the Lord, he is God.

The Lord, he is God. You know how you say that in Hebrew? Eli Jha. Eli Jha. This is what he had been built for his entire life. Here's the point. A mustard seed size faith in the infinitely powerful promise keeping God is infinitely more powerful than putting all of your faith in temporary promise-breaking idols.

like the false gods they were worshipping. And you may say, well, how did you just talk about, man? Elijah was a stud, he was a hero. There's only one hero in the Bible. His name is Jesus. Everybody else seriously flawed. Come back next week. Elijah's got some serious mental health issues.

He's going to curl up under a broom tree and be like, all right, I'm done. Take me out. I'm going to have Rebecca Maxwell, licensed therapist here to give us free therapy next week to talk about what do you do when it ain't going right up here. He's a man just like us, same nature. hours. And yet in this moment, was that thunder? Praise God. Praise God. This is the only week of the whole year I prayed it would rain. Remember what happened? The rain's been turned off for three and a half years, right? And Elijah believes. He believes. It's not the amount of faith he has. It's the

object of his faith that matters. My son, JP, about to turn 20. He's got the spiritual gift of sending me funny YouTube videos. All right? You need one of these people in your life. So he sends me this video, he sent me this video a few years ago. And there's this guy from France. This is like the early 1900s. And this guy named, I don't know how to say his name, Franz, I'll call him Frank Rekyll.

That ain't how you say it. It's probably like, prong, bra, or however he's free Frank. You know. And this dude lives in Paris, and he builds this suit, and it doubles as a parachute. And so he's got these investors. he has this real hoity-to-dy-dinner on the top of the Eiffel Tower. And he goes up there and he's got this idea.

What he's going to do is he's going to put a dummy in the suit and then throw it off and show how the parachute's going to kick in and it'll float you down the earth. You'll be fine. And then he thinks, maybe I'll be the dummy. And he puts himself in the suit. And to prove to everybody that he knows with 100% certainty that his suit works, that Joker jumps off of the Eiffel Tower and goes, and he gone.

I mean dead dead And then if you watch you watch the video I watched it for about 30 minutes On Thursday night, all right And if you watch it then This is back in the day Nobody got around They moved him out of the way

He didn't even bounce He made a six inch divot Somebody actually They met like there's There's Fronk and a pile of dead Right there and there's a six inch divot And he didn't save him And he believed

And he died Another video The J.P. You know they're making these glass bridges in China. Have you ever seen this? And all these Chinese people, because that's where they're from, they walk across these things. And the only ones that make the videos that I watch are these people that are terrified to be on them. Again, man, if you want to waste your whole afternoon, I can help. Just Chinese glass bridges. Okay. And so there'll be a few family

members that feel okay about it, but you know, this is what your family is here to do is to just drag you into terror, and so they drag some poor Chinese guy out there. And then they've created this new technology. You can see through it. It's 1,100 feet over this canyon. And you're kind of nervous. Then they added this technology where you step on it and it goes like it's breaking. And then they go, rah!

And they just scream Chinese the expletives. I don't know Chinese, but I swear, they're relieving themselves. You know what I mean? And nobody falls to their death. Nobody. Why? Because a tiny little bit of faith, just barely in the way. enough to step out on a bridge that won't fall down will hold you up.

And you put all of your faith on a parachute that don't work, and tell me, you're dead. And we live in a world that says as long as you believe, like, real hard, it's going to work good, not if you're believing in a false God. Because a tiny little bit of faith in an infinitely powerful God is infinitely more powerful than putting all of your trust in faith in something like an idol that you're chasing after that will let you down. And so Elijah says to them, you're not going to like this part, especially if you're real young. Seized the prophets of bail, let not one of them escape, and they seized them, and Elijah brought

them down to the Brook Kashan and slaughtered them. Good news. We're in the new covenant. There's not a slaughter ministry anymore at the church, okay? And then check out this next part. And Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain. It hadn't rained in three and a half years, right? and so ihab went up to eat and to drink and elijah went up to the top of mount carmel and he bowed himself down to the earth and he put his face between his knees he's praying

why is he praying god said it's going to rain so why you got to pray for rain if god said it was going to rain because god said pray dude prayer will make your head explode if you think about it a little bit god is sovereign over all over all things he's outside of time and yet he also asked for his children to pray he says things like you have not because ask not. He says, if my people will humble themselves and pray, I'm going to move in. And so God initiates prayer to move his heart to do what he's already sovereignly decided that he's going to do, but if we don't do our part, then God says, I ain't going to move. So we don't just pray. You know, we end all of our services with prayer because it matters as much as anything. The whole, everything depends on. He's praying. So he's got his head between his things. He's praying hard,

and he said to his servant, go up now and look to the sea. And he went up and he looked at. And he and he said there's nothing. And did he give up? No, no, no, no, no. You don't ever give up on a promised keeping God because he's always faithful. And he said, go again seven times. Listen, don't stop praying.

You're an impossible marriage. Got a sick kid. Got a mental health issue. Got a sick physical body. You keep praying and praying and praying. And you're like, I prayed about it last week. Okay, cool, six more times. it's actually the number of completion.

And at the seventh time he said, behold, a little cloud like a man's hand is rising up from the sea. And he said, you go up and say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down lest the rain stop you. He walked up to that man's chariot and he's like, you got mud tires on that dude

because you're about to get stuck. What you're talking about? We ain't seen mud in three and a half years. I'm just telling you, unless you've got some swamplers on here, dude, you're going to get stuck. And then guess what happens? That's exactly what happens. and in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind

and there was a great rain and Ahab rode and went to Jezreal and then look at this next sentence and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah and he gathered up his garment and he ran before Ahab to the interests of Jezrael. Why is that in there? Think about this there's a lot there's there's there's Ahab he's got his chariot you know with a horse and then all of a sudden there's Elijah showing all that man fire and he's like road to

runner just and he outruns the chariot. Why is that in the Bible? Because he's not limping between two opinions. Because the Bible says, for those who wait upon the Lord, we will mount up with wings like eagle. We will run and not grow weary. We will walk and not grow faint. Do not go on limping between two opinions, church. So maybe you've got some stuff in your life. Maybe you've got some stuff in your life and you need the fire of God to burn it up and you're going to come down and get down on your face and you're going to pray and say, fire God, I need you to take these things away from me. Or maybe he's called you to do a thing where you declare the Lord, the Lord is God. You know what? You know one of the ways you could do that? Saturated Sunday, we're going to do baptisms.

And some of you know right now. I mean, dude, the moment I mentioned baptism, you're like, I'm supposed to do it. And that might be your Mount Carmel moment. But you're not going to stand in front of 850 prophets bail. You're going to stand before a family of believers that are going to cheer you on as you declare Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I can't tell you what to do. I just need you to do what the Spirit of God is calling you to do. And we're going to pray like Elijah. And we're going to pray and pray and if we look up and it ain't started raining yet, we're going to keep on praying. Because a tiny little, itty bitty bit of faith that an almighty, everlasting, powerful God is infinitely more powerful than putting your trust or your hope in all the temporary things of this world.

So I'm going to invite you to stand. I'm going to pray for you. And then I want to pray, I want us to pray with some fire fall down kind of prayer. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we come before you as broken vessels with hearts that are prone to wonder. We have a tendency to worship the temporary things in our life. And God, there's so many times we kind of pray, but it's way more last resort than first response. So Spirit of God, would you move us? Would you move us to seek you, knowing that all things are possible for the one who believes?

And even sometimes we just need to cry out like the man in Mark 9, I believe, help me overcome my unbelief. So God, for the impossible marriage, the prodigal son, the body that needs to be healed, the person in financial straits. God, the person dealing with anxiety and depression or even suicidal thoughts, God, God, may we lay. these things on the altar. And may the fire of God come and consume those things so that we can see you clearly. And God, like Elijah, may we quit limping among two different opinions, like half in the world and half in your church. And God, may we run, may we mount up with wings like eagles.

May we run and not grow weary. May we walk and not grow faint. May we hear the voice of the good shepherd and obey you in whatever it is that you have called us to do that we may take steps towards the abundant life that you have for us. God, we ask that the fire fall down. In such a way that you are the only one that could get credit for the results. We prayed in Jesus' name, amen. So let's call it like Elijah.

We're going to sing. We're going to join our voices together to make much of God. We're going to bring our ties and offerings because we're going to tell this world, you don't get to tell me who I am. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. and my first and best go to him because I'm just bringing it back to him and we're going to pray. If you need God to move in your life, you come down here and you pray and you pray and you pray and then we're going to trust God to answer our prayers.

Let's sing, let's bring, let's pray, let's respond.