The Church of Eleven22 - What Kind of Man Are You? - Elijah: Wk 4

Episode Date: August 10, 2025

What kind of man—or woman—are you becoming? In a time of compromise, corruption, and fear, Elijah stood firm. Confronting kings, resisting evil, and obeying God no matter the cost, he shows us what strong and good leadership looks like — for both men and women. In this week’s message from 1 Kings 18, Pastor Joby Martin challenges us to reject fear, refuse passivity, and live with the courage that comes from the Spirit of God. Whether you’re leading in your home, workplace, or church, Elijah’s life reminds us that saved doesn’t mean soft — and faith means standing firm on the Word of the Lord. 📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week: The Gospel Has No Walls – Warden Paul Kish's Story Comfort Is Not Your Calling - Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin S22E3 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, amen, amen. Church of 1122, would you join me in welcoming the self-appointed campus pastor of Mary and also the warden, Paul Kish, and his family are right here, brother. I love you. I'm proud of you. Way to go, man. Way to go. Way to go. Yeah, that's it. Way to go. Come on. Come on. Cry you, sissy. All right, let's go. We got church to do. Come on. All right. My daddy said, If that don't light your fire, your woods wet. So pray about that. We'd also like to welcome every single week, every single week. Union Maine, Columbia Maine, Duval Women's Correctional, Union Work Camp, Baker Reentry, Columbia Annex, Marion Main, Marion Work Camp, Loyal Women's Annex, Loyal Women's Maine, Butler, RMC, and the thousands of men and women around the country through the Pando app that worship with us.

We're a movement for all people, including you. Welcome, welcome, welcome. All right, if you got your Bibles, and I hope you do, we are going to be in First Kings chapter 18. We've been studying the life of Elijah, and the reason that we're studying the life of Elijah is because this is the year that we're calling men to stand firm and act like men.

And I've got to tell you where we're going here so you don't miss it, okay? I don't typically tell you the name of the title of sermon, because it typically doesn't matter, but it doesn't matter today. Today it's called, what kind of man are you? Now, ladies, this is for you too, but you're smart enough to make the connection. You are.

And what we're going to do is we're going to look at 1st Kings 18, and we're going to see four actual human beings here. Okay? We're going to see Elijah, Jezabel, Obadiah, and Ahab. And what we're going to do is we're going to talk about the type of people they are and the type of people we have a tendency to be. Now, one of the things I just kind of got a warning about a little bit, especially when we get to Jezebel, is some churches will use this phrase, the spirit of Jezebel. It's kind of a popular phrase these days. That phrase, the spirit of Jezebel, is not actually in the Bible, though I understand and agree with the idea, because what we're going to see in a little while in Revelation chapter 2, there's a lady named Jezebel in Revelation 2 at the church of Thyatira.

So she's not a thousand years old. There's this spirit that are pushing people in different directions. But I just want to be really, really careful with that phrase, Spirit of Jezebel, because it is ripe with potential for spiritual abuse. And so I don't think you have their credentials to be telling people what kind of spirit they have. You understand? Just like, I'm not a doctor, so I can't diagnose somebody with cancer. And so typically what happens is some 22-year-old boy gets,

broken up with by a girl that she's just better than him, quite honestly, and he sees the clip on YouTube, and he's like, you've got the spirit of Jezbel. No, bro, you're just a wuss. Shut out. You know what I mean? But what we want to do here is we want to look at these folks, and I will say there are spirits. There's no doubt about it. That the Bible says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, and there are only two sources of spirits. They either come from God or they come from the devil. The Bible does talk about the spirit of Elijah, that John the Baptist walks in the spirit of Elijah, that a bunch of people thought Jesus may have been Elijah because of the spirit that he walked in. And again, Jezebel in Revelation 2 is being tolerated.

And so she's a type of spirit. I mean, the whole, the underlying theme of this whole series has been same demons different days. So what we want to do is whether you have these characteristics or it's the way you were raised or you were born this way or maybe there are demonic spirits pushing us towards these kind of things. I'm going to ask you what kind of man are you? Are you a strong good man, a strong bad man, a weak good man if there is such a thing or a weak bad man? Now a warning, okay, if we get into this, especially when we get to the Jezebel part and you're like, boy, I can't wait to forward this to my mother-in-law, then you're not you're not, you're not reading it right, okay? The worst way to read the Bible is like this. When you get it out and be like,

oh, I see one right there. Look at that Jezebel spirit. Nah, man, no. We're going to hold this thing up like a mirror and say, God, would you reveal in me all the things that my own life do not conform to the image and likeness of your son? And by the power of the spirit of God inside of me and me under the authority of the Word of God, would you use that like a hammer and chisel to chisel out everything in me that doesn't conform to the image and likeness of Christ. This is how we come to this text. Chapter 18, verse 1, says this, okay? It says after many days, and the many days that happened before this event that we're going to get into is what we talked about last week, the miraculous, is that Elijah prays for this widow's dead son and God brings him back to life,

and it's a miracle. And last week, man, there was miracles in our church. I mean, we prayed and anointed and said, I believe, help me overcome my unbelief. I just want to report to you that we have had four families give a praise report that they had battled with infertility for years, and then they found out this week they're pregnant. Praise God. Praise God. Now, here's what's great. They were already pregnant before they came to the prayer service.

They didn't get pregnant here. We're not that kind of church. You know what I mean? It's not like to be ashamed to waste this semi-private family. bathroom. That's not what happened. But God, who was outside of time, knew that they were going to humble themselves and pray on Thursday. And before that, he answered the prayers that haven't even even been prayed yet because he's outside of time. And they move the heart of God, and he answered. So praise God. Okay. So after many, many, many, many, I added some minis. After a bunch of

days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year. Anybody ever noticed God's timing and in our time and ain't the same. The Bible's going to say that the Lord is not slow, but he ain't in a hurry either, is he? Yeah. You know why? He's on his own time because he's patient. 2. Peter 3.9 says the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, that all should reach repentance. The reason that the Lord has not returned yet, if he wants to give enough time for every tribe tongue in nation to hear the gospel and have a chance to. to receive the gospel so God can take all his people home.

And the Bible says that the word of the Lord came to Elijah. How does the word of the Lord come to us? Well, I got some really good news. Some people are like, I haven't heard from the Lord. You want to hear from the Lord? Open your Bible and read out loud. This is the word of the Lord. This is the revealed word of God.

It is supernatural. It's not just a book. It is the revealed word of God to his people. You want to hear the voice of God? I'm telling you, read the Bible out loud. but that's not the only way that the Word of the Lord comes to us. This is the primary way for sure. But sometimes God speaks to you through people, through sermons, through preachers.

Praise God. Sometimes you pray. You're like, Lord, what do you want me to do? And God just kind of speaks to you in that still small voice. We'll talk about that in a few weeks. But if you get the Word of the Lord from a person or a prayer or a preacher, it is always subject to the Word of God. because God's never going to tell us generally one thing and then tell you something different because God's not a liar and God's not a God of confusion.

So if you think God says one thing and his word says something else, guess who's wrong? It ain't God. So the Word of the Lord comes to Elijah and here's what the word says. Go and show yourself to Ahab. Ahab is the king. Ahab is the worst. Literally the worst. First King 16 says that Ahab was worse than all the other kings all put together.

So go show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth. The word that God is giving Elijah to go tell Ahab is that repentance must proceed the blessing. That's the message he's going to bring. That he turned the rain off to say, my God's bigger than your bail God. And God is going to shame these prophets of bail. God does not cozy up to idols. He smashes them. Don't miss next week.

It's going to be awesome. There's going to be fights and fire and smack talk. and body parts and blood, don't miss next week. You're going to love it. This is what's going to happen. And so Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now, if you were consulting Ahab, you'd be like, ooh, Ahab, are you sure? I mean, this might be dangerous, right?

He'd go, yep, because he's the king, and he's got the army, and he controls the media, and he'll get you deplatformed, might get you dead. And be like, well, Ahab, then why are you going to do it? And Ahab would just say, well, it's dangerous, but this is what God has called me to do, period. Listen, Ahab is living out what I have told you is the best advice in the whole Bible if you consider yourself a Christian. John 2.5 says, do whatever he tells you to do. The context is that Mary and Jesus and the disciples were at the wedding at Cana, they run out of wine. Mary comes up to Jesus and says, because she knows she's treasured these things in her heart,

she knows that she gave birth to the Messiah, the son of God. and so she comes up to him and she says son they're out of wine and then jesus said don't ever quote this verse out of context woman what does this have to do with me don't ever say that fellows all right but he's saying my time is not yet come i came to save sinners i didn't come to refresh the keg that's not what i came for and then she gets the disciples she gets the servants together she just says this do whatever he tells you to do this is what elijah is doing he's doing whatever god tells him to do But what if it's dangerous? Safety and comfort are not the highest value for the Christian.

Let me say it again. Safety and comfort are not the highest value for the Christian. One of the things I've tried to stop telling my children is I quit trying to tell them, be careful. I don't want them to be careless, but careful is not the highest value. Wise, obedient, brave, these are biblical values. Listen, man, if you want to be comfortable and safe, don't be a comfortable. Christian, if you want to make people happy with your life, good Lord, don't follow Jesus, sell ice cream for a living or something.

Because he calls us to be countercultural. He calls us to reject the lives of the hell, which lead to death and destruction. This whole world's going to hell, and we're saying, I'm not going with you. We are called to hear the voice of the good shepherd and march in that direction and walk towards the abundant life. And so Elijah just does what he's told to do. So let me ask you this, what's God telling you to do? Well, I can tell you.

Do you know what God's plan for your life is? I know. Do you? Uh-huh. It's called the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. That's it. The Great Commission and the Great Commandment. That you are to make disciples everywhere you go and you're to love God and love people.

Go do that. That's what we have been called to do. Here's a question, a mentor of mine, Doug Fields, he's a pastor out on the left coast, asked me a bunch of years ago. He said, ask yourself this question, what would you do for the glory of God if you knew it wouldn't fail? What would you do? And you got to add the glory of God, because if I just asked, what would you do if it wouldn't fail? You'd be like lottery tickets. That reveals your God.

But what would you do for the glory of God if you knew it wouldn't fail? And the moment you think you know what that is, the next question is, so why aren't you doing it? Why aren't you doing it? And I would answer that question this way. I would lead a movement for all people to discover a deep in a relationship with Jesus. And everybody goes, well, that's easy because that's what you're doing. Didn't seem easy in 2012. But we just pushed our chips in and said, all right, Lord, if this is you, the world can't stop it.

If it's not you, I need to figure out what else to do with my life. So this is what Elijah does. Elijah does what God tells him to do. What's God telling you to do? Now, the famine was severe in Samaria. And Ahab, okay, this is the problem king. He's weak and bad. He's no good.

He called Obadiah. Now this is confusing. There's a book in the Bible called Obadiah. This is not this prophet. This guy works for the king. And he called Obadiah, who was over the household. All right. So what we're going to see here is Ahab is weak and bad.

For the sake of my sermon, I'm going to say Obadiah was good, but he's weak. If you can be good and weak. I don't know if that's possible, okay? But you'll see what I mean. Now here's the thing. If you read through the commentaries and stuff about the Bible, then there's mixed reviews on Obadiah. And what most commentators will say, most seminarians will say, it's like, no, no, no, no. He's good.

He just had a different way of serving the Lord. I'm not in that camp at all. I think he was weak. And weakness is not a virtue. If you are nice to people, because you don't have another option, that is not a virtue. If you can't push back darkness because you can't push anything, that is not a virtue. Strength under control is a virtue. Weakness is not a virtue.

And if you, when you see the people that write commentary, you'd be like, oh, no wonder you would see it that way. If you've been to seminary, you would see, we're in trouble. We are in trouble. It's not oozing with strength. If we go to war, they ain't sending seminarians to the front line. You hear what I'm saying? And so what happens here is Obadiah is honestly like the modern Christian.

He's just kind of the go-al-al-along-to-get-al-go-one guy. He doesn't want to say anything to ruffle feathers. And what I see here with what Obadiah does is he just agrees with whatever the last audience he has. So he gets with Elijah, says the right things. Ahab says, hey, let's go murder babies and worship demons. He's like, okay, whatever, you're in charge. That's what Obadiah does. So Obadiah is over the household.

And then parenthetically, it says, now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. And this is where my detractors is like, see, he fears God. So that are the demons. They just don't obey. And when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, so at this point, imagine this, there was a government led by a weak man and an evil overbearing woman, and they shut down churches, and they shut down schools, and they deplored platformed and arrested the preachers, and they killed kids and they worshipped demons. Can you believe there would be a government that would do such a thing? And in case you're not picking up on what I'm laying down here, same demons different days, I hope you understand.

And Obadiah took 100 prophets, and he hid them by the 50s in a cave, and he fed them with bread and water. So he has the capability of doing some good stuff, but he also compilates to the evil that the evil government is telling him to do. He just bends to the last person that he talked to. And my real question is this, if there were actually 100 prophets, then how come they don't ever show up? Elijah's going to say, I'm the only prophet left. You know why? Because all the other self-appointed prophets are in the cave of their mom's basement, writing blogs about what everybody's doing instead of actually doing ministry. So I'm not a big Obadiah fan in case you haven't picked it up, okay?

In verse 5 and Ahab said to Obadiah, here's our plan, ready? Go through the land to all the springs of the water and to all the valleys, and perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive and not lose some of the animals. And Obadiah's going to be like, okay. Or if he was actually a prophet of God, he could look at Ahab and say, you know there's another option, Ahab. you could repent to the God of the universe and quit sacrificing babies and sleeping with temple prostitutes

and you could tear those pagan idols outside of the temple and you could repent before the Lord of your God but he keeps his mouth shut because he's weak because he's weak he's more scared of Ahab and Jezebel than he is of the Lord

and Ahab's posture is I got this and so he capitulates is what he does so they divided the land between them to pass through it. And Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself. You see, he's just kind of a go-along-along to get-along guy. Now, to the people that give him a pass, here's what I would say, listen, do you think that Shadrach-Mishak Abedigo's story in the Bible is just a kid's story for children? These were young men that stood up against the government, and they were willing to pay the price. Do you think the Daniel and the lion's den is just a veggie-tells thing?

Or is this an actual thing? Do you do what's right and trust God with the consequences? Obadiah just goes along to get along. Verse 7, and as Obadiah was on the way, Behold, Elijah met him. Now Elijah's our guy. What we're going to see from Elijah is he's assertive, he's never abusive.

He's direct, he's clear, he's aggressive, but he's never toxic. Obadiah was on his way, and behold, Elijah met him, and Obadiah recognized him. He's going to say all the right thing. He fell on his face and he says, It is you, my Lord Elijah. And he answered him, it is I. Go and tell your Lord, behold, Elijah is here.

This is neat. In Hebrew, Elijah is here and Yahweh is God is the same words. And look how he replies. You see, Elijah at great risk to himself is gonna do what the word of God says. Because he's not trying to protect his own skin, he's trying to be obedient to what God tells him to do. That's who Elijah is.

And here's how Obadiaheus, verse 9. how have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab and kill me? Who's Obadiah focused on? Me. He's not saying my yes is on the table. He's like, oh man, I might get in trouble. How does this impact me? Verse 10, as the Lord of your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my Lord has not sent to seek you.

There has been a hit out against Elijah for three years. That's what he's saying. And when they would say, he is not here, he, talking about King Ahed, would take an oath of the kingdom of nation that they had not found you and now you say, go tell your Lord, behold Elijah is here, and as soon as I have gone from you,

the spirit of the Lord will carry you, I know not where. And so when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have feared the Lord from your youth. Sounds like you fear Ahab.

That's what it sounds like to me. You see, he has good feelings. Okay, so what? Here's the difference. I've told you this, I've taught this so many times. The most commanded thing in all the Bible is don't fear. Fear not. Be anxious from nothing.

A bunch of 366 different ways the Bible says don't fear. And the opposite of faith is not doubt. If you've got some doubts, cool. You could be a great disciple. Pick them up, follow after Jesus. Eventually all your doubts go away. Not a couple weeks at like elder-led prayer, you know, but one day, if you put your faith in Jesus,

one day you go to heaven. No doubts in heaven. Nobody's going to come up to you in heaven be like, Do you really believe in Jesus? You'd be like, what do you mean believe? He's the shiny one sitting on the throne. Ask him yourself, okay? The opposite of faith is not doubt.

The opposite of faith is fear. Because faith produces action, fear, paralyzes. Here's the difference between faith and fear. When you look into the future, who do you think is in control? If you believe that God is in control, then that is why you have faith. You're going to do what he says and you're going to trust him with the consequences. But if you look into the future and you're going to trust him with the consequences. But if you look into the future and you're going to you think, you're going to you're in,

you think yourself or the enemy or your circumstances are in control, you are going to be gripped with fear and you are going to be paralyzed. And when Obadiah looks into the future, all he can see is himself and what might happen to him. And fear is not a feeling. Fear is a spirit that does not come from God. Where do you get that, pastor? Second Timothy, one seven, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, of self-control. You see, God gives us power, that kind of spirit. He is gripped by fear. Obadiah is looking out for himself.

Obadiah is like trying to do the bare minimum to stay in the good graces of both the king and God. That's trouble, man. No one can serve two masters. And what he should be doing is the moment Elijah shows up, if he's actually a man of God, he would say, I'm here to serve. How can I help? What can I do? Might cost my life?

That's okay. Because I serve the king of the universe. It's not what he does. He's a whim. Now watch. He's going to try to make his case. He says, again, Obediah is talking to Elijah. Has it not been told, my Lord?

What I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord and how I hear it, a hundred men of the Lord's prophets by the 50s in a cave and I fed them with bread and water. Neat. You don't get credit for your past good works. That's what he's doing. He's trying to make a deal. And again, if they were real prophets while they hiding in the cave, how come they're not out here doing something.

Here's what I'm going to tell you. All right, buckle over this. I think we live in a time where we need less politicians and more profits. We live in a time where we need less people trying to garner support for themselves and raise opinions about themselves and more people that are willing to stand on the truth of the Word of God and just do what's right regardless of the consequences. This is a very famous quote. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

So for the sake of the sermon, I'm saying that he's got good intentions, but he's weak. I don't know if you can be weak and good. We need brave. We need courageous. And he's like, yeah, but, you know, this one time I felt things. And the brother of Jesus James, he'd be like, so? Faith without works is dead. It's like a screen door on a submarine.

That's about how useful that is. I didn't make that up. That's Rich Mullins. you old heads, you know that one, right? So that's Obadiah, verse 14. And now you say, he says, and now you say, go tell your Lord, behold Elijah is here, and he will kill me.

He looks into the future, and he looks, he's looking out for himself. Verse 15, and Elijah said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him. Listen, a real man of God keeps his word. A real man of God does what he says, says what he means.

a real man of God, his word can be trusted. If he says he's going to do something, he doesn't. He doesn't need all these complicated contracts. He just says, my word is true. Verse 16. And so Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab, remember the weak, evil king, went to meet with Elijah, the strong good man of God. I wish I could have seen this.

Ahab's this little spineless jellyfish of a man, scared of Jezbollah, scared of everybody. and then here comes Elijah. Remember Elijah lived in the woods, man. He came out of nowhere. Elijah comes walking up, camel hair, leathered belt, big beard, bald, I'm sure. Man of God. Standing on the truth of God's word. Hey, if you read Second Kings.

Elisha, the next guy, he was bald, and these youth made fun of him. They said, going up your bald head, he called out two she bears and he killed the 42 youth. So you can take that. All you people make fun of me and my bald head. Here we go. So here to go, toe to toe to man. Elijah's talking to the most powerful man in the country. And when Ahab saw Elijah, he's right where he said it would be,

Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel? Listen, when you were walking in disobedience, the truth of the Word of God will trouble you. So let me ask you this, you got any troublers in your life? You need some troublers in your life. Do you have some people that love you more than they love what you think about then? Do you have people that love you enough to tell the truth and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, bro, you're out of step. I love you.

You invited me into this. You're out of step. And if you go, yeah, pastor, you, about every five or six weeks when I show up, you trouble my whole life. Okay, that ain't enough. I can't follow you around all your life and point out all the sin in your life. You got to have some people in your life that you invite in and deputize them and say, hey, listen, if you see me acting a fool, I need you to love me enough to stand in the way and go,

whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this path leads somewhere, and you don't want to go where it leads. You know, what's interesting here is we live in a sick world. I mean, think about this, man. Think about this. Ahab is the problem. This is like, this is ultimate gas lighting. Elijah walks up on the scene, does what the Lord says, turns the water off, and then Ahab is like, hey man, this is your fault. It's like, you dummy, this is your fault. This is what's happening here. See, a couple weeks ago, I prayed, maybe it's last week, it all runs together. 1122 years like dog years man it's just like you know and I prayed that God would comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable so people didn't like that so they email me so I prayed it twice as much

God has not called us to be comfortable oh that he would bring us either joy or pain whatever it takes for us to detach our hands from the things of his world and grab on to him and him alone but we're leaving in a society that has shifted significantly in the last few decades You see, when I was, you know, back in the 1900s when I was in college, the world just thought we were silly. If you were a Christian, you were just kind of silly, you know? Like you really believe that stuff. You're just kind of silly. So go to church, keep it to yourself, that's fine.

But now they don't think we're silly. They think we're dangerous. And so the world won't tolerate dangerous. And so the world thinks if you stand on the Word of God, they think you're a troubler. What are you talking about, pastor? Well, let me give you a couple of examples. You think the baby in the womb has the right to life, you're a troubler. You think that as a parent you should be in the loop if your teenage daughter is thinking about abortion?

You're a troubler. You think that we should get kids with gender confusion help and not life-altering puberty blockers in surgery, then you're a troubler. And in some states right now, they will take your children from you if you stand on the truth of the Word of God, because you're a troubler. You think parents should decide what their kids are taught, and not the good children. government, you're a troubler. You think God's word defines marriage? You're a troubler. You think that we should prosecute any person that abuses or trafficked children? You're a troubler. This is what's happening here. Same demons, new days. And I don't know if you're quiet because you agree with me or disagree

with me. But I'm just telling you this, man, the enemy, here's the thing. These days, from the very beginning to today, the enemy has always been trying to take out our kids. It's the same demons, it's new days, and we're going to stand on the Word of God. The enemy tries to target our kids, target our children. Look how the whole thing started. There's a marriage between Adam and Eve, and immediately there's a war, and what the enemy was trying to take out was the kids. He infiltrated Kane to kill Abel. Three chapters later, you get to Genesis 6. There's these weird kind of angelic demonic beings that are trying to sleep with the human race to stop the bloodline so that so that the Messiah can't show up.

When Moses is going to show up on the scene, the enemy tries to take out a generation of boys. When Jesus shows up on the scene, the government tries to take out a generation of boys. We live in a world today that's trying to take out a generation of boys. And I'm so glad that we highlighted what God is doing in our student ministry because, listen, we don't have a, we're not a church with a youth group. We're in a movement for all people, including students, but we got to be the adults.

And when the enemy comes and tries to take the Lord's kids, take the our kids, we say, not on our watch, you're not getting past this wall. And the reason I wore these shoes, I know they're not my style, but this was the theme of our student ministry. They gave them to me. And I'm going to look at our students and say, we ain't talking down to you.

We're going to lift you up. We're going to protect you. We're going to fight against the devil of hell. Romans chapter 16 says, and soon the God of Peace will soon crush Satan underneath my feet. So when that spirit of depression comes, and that spirit of addiction, and that spirit of entitlement,

that spirit of confusion begin sniffing around our kids, we're going to stomp the devil of hell back to hell and say, not on my watch. We need some Elijah's in this world. That's who we are. That's who we are. And that's what Elijah's doing. You troubler.

He's, oh, I got you some trouble. 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 debate. You see, there were five generations that led to Ahab. And I've told you before, man, like if you're sighting in a rifle and you're a little bit off at 50, you ain't in the same county at 500. That's what's happening.

You ignore sin, it doesn't go away. It gets bigger. You ignore that little lizard sneaking around in your closet, turns to do a dragon. It torches your whole place. That's what happened. Verse 19. So he says, now therefore sin and gather all Israel, two. me at Mount Carmel and the 450 prophets of bail and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at

Jezebel's table. Do not miss next week. I'm telling you. There's going to be a showdown. There's going to be smack talk. Soft people going to get triggered. It's going to be so good. Be here.

Why? Because sometimes you've got to fight when you're a man. Kish knows this. Kenny Rogers. Coward of the county. You youngans. Google. Kenny Rogers.

He was an evangelist back in the 1900s. Him and Dolly. The coward of the county. Sometimes you've got to fight when you're a man. What kind of man are you? What kind of man are you? I got babies crying. This is great.

I love it. Keep that baby in here. I love it. This is really going to get me canceled. Ready? If I'm still on the internet, I don't know if I still am. I don't care. Honestly, if God's in on it, you can't cancel it.

You can't cancel the Word of God. So here's the thing, man. The church has not been very helpful to help men be men. Listen, we're saved, not soft. We're saved, not soft. And the church has not been helpful because the Bible says, stand firm and act like men. We're going to do a whole series on it this fall.

And most of the time, the church has said, actually, settle down, men. Why don't you just come in, sit down, be nice, and act like women? We're going to sit in circles. We're going to talk about our feelings. Here's a robe. We'll sing. I ain't doing it.

I ain't doing that. Here's the example I use. This is what's going to get killed. Pray for me this week. All right. I almost always wear like a button snap button down flannel. Okay? And when I wear one of my shirts, I look fine.

I don't look great. I can't do great. I can do fine, but I look fine. If Gretchen wears her shirts, she looks great. She puts on a blouse. She looks great. What's cool is if I come home and she's got one of my shirts on, she looks great.

If I got on one of her blouses, it's not great. It's not great. The American church for the last hundred years has been a blouse. It's only fit the women. And listen, man, women, the women of 1122, I know Jesus is the head. You have been the backbone, okay? One of my favorite things about you is I have gotten zero complaints all year that this is the year for men to stand firm and down like, man. I've been flooded with emails of nothing but encouragement for your dad, your husband,

your cousin, your sons. So you're awesome, dude. I mean, prayer meetings, all the women show up. Mission trips, all the women go. So I'm not busting on you. I'm saying the church has men to not be men. And if you think in order to be a Christian, what that means is you just got to sit down

and be quiet and be compliant. And listen, how about this? To follow Jesus, you do not have to check your testicles at the door. You don't. They were his idea, grow a pair, stand up, stand firm, act like men, this is what he's called us to do. If you don't like it, it's getting worse, so just pray about that, okay? All right, so you've got to listen faster.

So here are the four types of people or spirits that we're looking at. One is Jezebel. This could be men or women, all right? It could be men or women. But you ever seen a weak man with an overbearing woman? It happens. In Revelation chapter two, this is where you get the idea of the Jezabel. Spirit. This is a thousand years, over a thousand years later. And to the church at Thyra-Tyra, Jesus says

these words, Revelation 218, to the angel of the church of Thyat-Tyra, write, the words of the Son of God who has eyes like flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your work. I know your love and faith and service and patient endurance that your later work succeeded in the first, but I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She's inside the church and is teaching and seducing my service to practice. sexual immorality just like First Kings and to eat food sacrifice to idols like First Kings. I gave her time to repent just like First Kings, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality like First Kings. Behold, I will throw her into a sick bed.

Fellas, some of you are dating a Jezebel because you're like, she's good in bed. It's a sick bed, bro. I'm telling you, you're like, nah, she's crazy hot. Okay, crazy in bed and crazy at Walmart for the rest of your life? Ain't the same crazy. And those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works. I will strike her children. These are like her spiritual, her disciples. I will strike her children dead and all the churches will know, I am he who searches minds and hearts, and I will give each of you according to your works. You see, in First King, she led a movement. Her and her king husband, and they led the government to shut down churches,

censor and deep platform prophets, and they took pride in sexual perversion. Sound familiar? The person that walks in the step of Jezebel is controlling. They thrive in the presence of weak and passive leaders. Because what Ahab tolerates, Jezebel dominates. It's like Adam and Eve.

The devil is talking to Eve. It's not that Adam did anything wrong. He didn't do anything at all. Passive men are a problem. The pastors at Thyatira are tolerated. her because they're afraid. The Jezebel spirit is subversive, not submissive to authority. They manipulate to get their own way.

She commodifies herself. She didn't value herself. And if you knew her backstory, hurt people, hurt people, man. Her dad's name is F. Bail, means connected to bail. He introduced child sacrifice, bail worship, and he killed his way to power. She got some serious daddy wounds. Again, this can be men or women. These are folks that are overbearing.

they're sexually abusive or seductive. When women act this way, they're typically sexually and emotionally manipulative. They weaponize sex for selfishness. They'll cut you off and beat you down emotionally until they get what they want. When men walk in this way, they're abusive. Let me talk to the men of 1122.

This is happening and this has to stop. Men, especially husbands, if you are quoting verses from the Bible to manipulate your wife, to get what you, want, stop it. You're walking in the spirit of Jezebel. And if you quote me, won't you come see me face to face and I'll make sure this thing stops right now. When we walk into the room, peace is supposed to walk in with us. Here's a little Bible hack. If the verse starts wives, that's not for us to quote. Unless you're preaching a sermon, you're the pastor

of a church and you've got to disciple a bunch of people. But if it starts wives, then you let the spirit of God handle that with her and you focus on the one that stops with husbands love your wife is Christ, love the church. If you are manipulating your seat as the head and Bible verses to get what you want, you're acting like Jezebel, not Jesus. My friend Josh Howardson at Lake Point Church, dear friend of mine, he wrote a sermon. You go look it up. It's how to spot a Jesus woman versus the Jezebel spirit. And listen, man, there's so many pastors that are afraid to lean in on the women at church, but not here. And girls, you receive it so well. But it would be malpractice for me to not, because I love to beat up the guys, and they kind of like it, you know. They're like,

yeah, okay, I'm an idiot, all right. But I refuse to stand up here every day and just call you the B word. And the B word I mean is we're not just going to be, you're beautiful. No, well, you are, but you're a wretched, blackhearted sinner. And we need to repent every single one of us. It is the love of God. It is the kindness of God that he would convict us so that we would see sinful ways. and repent of them. So, Pastor Josh wrote this. If you don't like it, email him. I'm sure he won't read it either. All right. Here's what he said. Here's how you spot a Jesus woman versus a Jezebel spirit. Jesus women honor and build up godly men. Jezebel women look for passive men to control. Jesus women are submissive and support godly authority.

Jezebel women are subversive towards authority. Jesus women are noble, honest, and they use their power to build and bless others. Their inner worth is unfading because it comes from Christ. Jezebel women control with sexual and emotional manipulation. Jesus women, unify families, unified churches, unify communities. Jezebel women divide people everywhere they go. 1122 is full of some Jesus women. If you have tendencies to be like Jezebel, repent.

So what kind of man are you? Like Jezebel? Do you have to be in control? Second, are you like Ahab? Ahab is weak and evil. He's got no spine, he's got no backbone. There is no Jezab without Ahab allowing it. Again, this is generational sin.

He's five generations in, and his problem is that he tolerates evil. He gives end to demonic worship. He goes from weak to woke to wicked. That's the pathway. He abdicates responsibility like Pilot does. If you read, if you do a deep dive on Pilot, pilot ascertains, pilot deduces that Jesus is innocent, And he wants to let him go, but he's more interested in being a political figure,

and he lets the crowd tell him what to do. And so he says, crucified Jesus. He allows or even creates the environment for Jezebel. He's a counterfeit king. He's a counterfeit priest. He puts up with crazy because he's scared. Are you weak? And allow bail worship.

Then there's Obadiah. This is quote-unquote good, but weak. I don't think he can be, but you know what I mean. He's got good intentions. He's got a good heart. He serves on church committees all over the place. His number one commandment is not be faithful and be obedient. It's be nice.

Don't ruffle any feathers. He's got fish stickers all over the back of his minivan. That's this guy, okay? Now there's lights and shadows. He fears God, great, so are the demons. He protects prophets. Neat. He has a good day sometimes.

But his ultimate allegiance is to King Ahab because he's afraid. He says the right thing to Ahab until Elijah shows up. Until Elijah shows up. Then he says the thing to Elijah until Ahab shows back up. Then he dissipates God again. And here's the thing. Here's what an Obadiah spirit is the king of. Is that they will do some linguistic gymnastics with the mental health language to pursue their own safety and comfort.

Listen, mental health does not mean you avoid hard things. You talk to any therapist that is rooted in the scripture like Rebecca Maxwell, who I'm going to bring up here in two or three weeks. I can't remember. and she will co-sign this, that a strong mental health is not that you avoid hard things, it's that you have the tenacity and that you have the resilience to be able to walk through hard things. If all you're ever doing is triggered and looking for safe spaces and you blame it on mental health, it's because you're walking in the spirit of Obadiah because you are weak.

And that's not what God has called us to do. If you have to cut people off because they didn't vote the way you did, then what are you talking about? That's who this is. You see, Obadiah, again, man, they go to church and they sing the songs and they do some stuff. And they've got too much Romans 13 and not enough for Revelation 13. Let me explain. Revelation 13, I mean, Romans 13 is a legit, man. God has instituted governments.

We partnered with our first responders. They all over here right now. Love you, love you, love you, love you. And God has given you the sword to enact justice. But then there's also Revelation 13, which says the government is like a beast trying to do. to kill the believers. You get to Revelation 17, read it in the King James. It's a whore on the back of a dragon. That's the government. So what does that mean together? That means that we are to be good citizens until it means you can't be a good Christian. And if the government

tells you to do something that the Bible tells you not to do or not to do something that the Bible tells you to do, then you say, my allegiance is to Jesus, not you. That's it, man. Saved, not soft. I mean, Paul says we should honor the emperor. He writes it from jail. You know what that means? When they told him, you can't talk about Jesus. He's like, that's adorable. Watch this.

That's Obadiah. Let me tell you, one other trait of Obadiah. You sit on your lazy boy all day, and you got all kind of opinions and you cuss your cable news because you got all sort of opinions about, you know, whatever. Ukraine and Russia and the southern border. Meanwhile, you don't protect the borders of your own house and demons are discipling your children. because it's easier to yell with Sean Hannity than it is to actually disciple your kids. That's Obadiah. You can know, I'm in the camp, he ain't good.

And then there's Elijah. He's good and strong. Listen, man, saved, not soft. Here's one I love about 1122. We are saved, not soft. If UFC starts a church division, we're going to wipe the mat in that thing. Tell Dana that. You got it?

But we're not just strong to be strong. that our strength was given for a reason, that we're meek, we're like a bit bridled horse, you turn the reins of your life over to Jesus and say, I can't control this, I'm putting this in your hand. This is Elijah. Elijah walks in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible does say that there is the spirit of Elijah. Notice that he's tender. Here's what, fellas, are you supposed to be tough? Yes. But you're supposed to be tender. You've got to be tough for and tender with. Don't ever get those things confused. What's the first thing that he does after he puts his finger in the chest of Ahab and says, I'm about to turn the water off. The last two weeks we talked about this, he uses his strength to protect widows and children.

That's what he does. Listen, when you are strong, when you were a godly man and you were strong, the weak don't feel scared, the weak feel safe. When you walk into the Spirit of Elijah, which is the Holy Spirit, when you walk in the Holy Spirit, then when you walk in the room, does peace walk? in with you. That's what it ought to be like. And one of the enemy's number one tactics is to take out dad. Why? Because if you can take out dad who is supposed to provide and protect, then by definition, the people that need provision and protection will be defenseless. A couple weeks ago, I'm up here yelling at you, also known as preaching, by the way. It's called exhorting. That's what I was doing. And we have a team of people. I don't know if you realize how this works.

but if you look at YouTube shorts and reels and Instagram all those things I don't do those things I hope you realize that you think I'm in my office looks at clips of my sermon but oh that's what we need more of me no no no we have a team of people that takes whoever declares the word of God chops it up in the little segments and sends it out to the world so you can share it with your friends so the good news of the gospel can go to the four corners of the earth that's the plan okay and they put a little clip out there where I'm saying the number one problem in our culture is fatherlessness and if men would stand up and stand up and stand and act like a man, it would solve every other problem. And I decided one day, I'm saying, I'm going to look at the comments. I never look at the comments. I decided to look at the comments. And the number of dudes that were like, eh, but she was mean. And the court wasn't fair. I was like, just sign your name Ahab, bro.

You got to take responsibility and stand up and act like men because the enemy is trying to take the man out. But the reason that God has given us this position of authority and this power and this, and the strength is not for us. It's not so we can beat our chest, be like, look at me, I'm so strong. For what? That we, like Jesus,

who knowing all authority in heaven and earth, had been given to him, John 13. He shows his disciples the full extent of his love, and he does it stand up and go, you see my name tag, King of King's Lord of Lords. It's not what he does. He dresses himself as a servant.

He washes his disciples' feet, even the ones that we're going to betray him. He says, fellas, I have set for you an example. This is for you too. I have set for you an example. You'll be blessed if you do likewise. This is what Elijah does. He's tough.

He calls down fire. He's tender. He takes care of widows. He tells the truth no matter what. Because he's guided by the Word of God, not self-protection. He obeys the Word of God, especially when it doesn't make sense. He's tough. Lives out in the woods, man.

Listen, there has never, ever, ever in the history of humanity been a culture that survives when it begins to elevate effeminate weak men ever once in all of human history. We currently live in a culture where men are just trying to be men. They call that abusive and toxic and they elevate effeminate men. We have to put away the ways of this world and the lives of this enemy and repent if you have been over aggressive or abusive and walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's aggressive. He's never abusive.

He does the will of God. And, by the way, when you get to the New Testament, it says that John the Baptist walks in the spirit of Elijah. And he was tough. Also, big beard, probably bald. Out in the Jordan, baptizing people saying, repent. You're going the wrong way. And people are like, are you him?

He's like, no, dude, I ain't him. He's like, I can't tie the laces of the Jordans of the ones coming after me. Very loose interpretation. But that's what he says. And then one day Jesus shows up and he goes, boom. there he is. Behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the world. He baptizes him. Then just a few weeks later, the disciples of John the

Baptist come up to him who's walking in the spirit of Elijah. And they're like, hey, boss, Jesus has more disciples than we do. We're losing market share. And John the Baptist is like, right? It's the whole point. He said the point of my whole life was the point to Jesus. John the Baptist says, this is the Spirit of Elijah. Man, when you're strong and you're good, you point to Jesus. John the Baptist says, has he ever been to a wedding? I'm not the point.

I'm like a groomsman way over here at the end, you know, with a flower on my chest. And all I do is fix my attention on the bride and groom. Can you imagine if a groomsman would be like, hey, everybody look at me for a second. I wouldn't be a good groomsman. Then he says, I must decrease. He must increase. That's what it means to walk in the spirit of Elijah, that the point of our lives is the point to Jesus. Let me put this way down here on the bottom shelf 1122, okay?

If you walk out of this place and you talk more about Joby than Jesus, we have screwed this whole thing up. The reason we exist is not for our, we have the dumbest church name of the world, thank God. I got a dumb name. I'm grateful for that dumb name too, okay? The only name that is worthy of our praise is the name of Jesus. And that's what the Holy Spirit does, points everything to Jesus. You see, here's what's just real.

When men of God lead and love well, everyone, flourishes. Your home, our cities, our churches, our communities. When Elijah shows up on the scene, the pagans might be nervous, the idol worshippers might be nervous, but the people of God, they feel the calm that walks in with them. Part of the secret sauce of 1122 is because we have a godly group of men called our elders, and they are strong, and they are good. And they sit in provision and protection over us and we get to flourish under their protection. Now, I know what some of you are saying. Well, this would have been cool 20 years ago.

Could have used it then. Maybe I wouldn't have torched my family and torch my life and torch my reputation. Okay. One of my mentors, Jim Bergen, was here last year at Saturating. Saturated. And he said this. This is so good. He said, in the kingdom of God, there are an earth.

second chances. There's just the blood of Jesus and from now on. Because you don't need a second chance. Because the problem, you didn't have enough chances. The problem is you and me. We would just screw up again. But in the kingdom of God, there's the blood of Jesus and from now on. So what kind of manner do you? And the reality is we can all be, all of these. Nobody's born good and strong. What's crazy? Confession. Don't use this against me. I can go Jezebel so quick. I can be controlling. I can be manipulative. I can use God's word to get what I want. You know how bad that is? And what's really crazy is in the same day, I can go from Jezebel to Ahab at about one second. I can be around here, barking orders at everybody so they do it my way and then get home and be afraid to confront

anything because I just want to sit on the couch and watch the Braves lose. So I'm not here yelling at you because you're not getting it right. I'm just saying, hey man, follow me as I follow Christ. We need to repent of anything in us that doesn't look like Jesus. And the truth of it is the only way you can be the strong, good man God has called you to be is to bend your knee to the only good man who has ever lived and the strongest man who has ever lived. And his name is Jesus Christ. And if you hear this message and you think, well, I can't do this. Perfect.

That's so perfect. If you think, I got this, you're in trouble, man. But if you begin to realize there's some significant areas of repentance that I need to say, I am sorry, and I need help. Jesus started the longest, most famous sermon he ever preached called the sermon on the Mount. He started it this way. Blessed, he didn't say blessed or the good, and he didn't say blessed or the good.

He said, blessed or the poor and spirit. When you realize your spiritually bankrupt, you are perfectly positioned. He says, the kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God is within reach. And the better news is he's the one reaching for you. So you want to be the good, strong person God intended when he came up with the idea of you? There's only one way to do it. You want to stand up and act like a man?

You've got to bend your knee to the God man, Jesus Christ. And like Elijah, you just got, God, I got to have help. My way's not working. I can fall into these ditches over and over and over. And God, I need you to pour your spirit in me. And the only way that happens is when you submit and surrender your life, life through the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And so some of you, for the very first time, I want to invite you to do it.

Everybody else that's been walking with the Lord, I want you to say, Lord, search me, show me, where am I out of alignment with you? And God, would you lead me to be in alignment with you so that I could walk by the power of the Holy Spirit? But there are some of you, for the very first time, I want to give you the opportunity to put your faith in Jesus, because Jesus is like the greater Elijah. He didn't just come to confront sin. He came to pay for it.

He's not just going to call fire from heaven. He's going to send the fire of revival through the power of the Holy Spirit. He's not just going to take a chariot of fire and go up to heaven. He's going to come back and take all who believe on him for salvation to be with God forever and ever and ever. Have you ever surrendered your life to him, the Lordship of Jesus Christ? I want to give you the chance to do that right now. Would you bow your head? Would you close your eyes?

And the only reason I ask you to do that. is so that you won't be distracted, because this is between you and the Lord. And if you have gotten to the place in your life where you know that you've never put your faith in Christ for your salvation, and you've been trying to do it your own way. But today, for the very first time, you believe that when Christ died on the cross, somehow it counted for you. And in this moment, you were ready to cry out and pray a prayer that the Bible says gets answered 100% of the time. The Bible says all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. and if you are here and you were ready to surrender your life to Christ, save, not soft,

then I want you to lift your hand as high as you can and you simply confess, Jesus, Lord Jesus, save me. Put your hand as high as you can and you just say it, Lord Jesus, save me. And God answers, hears that prayer. Good and gracious heavenly, Father God, I thank you and I praise you for the men and the women right now with their hands in the air. And God, we know it's not a hand in the air that saves us. It's your finished work on the cross that does. And God, I thank you that you are faithful to your promise,

and you promise that every single person that surrenders their life to you, that calls on the name of the Lord, they will be saved. And Spirit of God, would you fill up the men and women in this place? God, would you fill us up that we would walk like Elijah, that we would stand on the truth of your word against this evil, crooked and depraved world. God, would you call us to fight for one more Jesus? generation, God, to fight for those that you came and bled and died for. And God, I thank you. It's not our past that defines us. It's the blood of Jesus and from now on. We pray this in the good, strong name

of Jesus Christ. Amen. Church, I want to invite you to stand and we're going to respond. We're going to sing like my favorite worship song because it is, it's what his thing is all about, that we were made for more. You see, a lot of us think that we're messed up because of what we've done in a past and you think the rest of your life, you're just going to tend to grave. You were made for more. We think we were defined by our past, but Jesus has put our past in the grave, and he gets to tell us who we are. And so if you felt that little, ugh, I got to do some stuff. Why don't you start by doing the thing that matters most?

Why don't you sprint down here, get on your face and say, Lord, I repent. And one of the things that we could do, husbands, is when we get home is not just feel something in church. But go home and look at our wives in the eyeballs and say, I am so, so, so sorry. Please pray for me. So we're going to pray, we're going to sing, we're going to bring. Let's do some work. Let's respond.