The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: Mount Carmel – Why Are You Still Holding On to That Idol?

Episode Date: March 20, 2022

A mustard seed-size faith in the infinitely powerful, promise-keeping God, is infinitely more powerful than putting all your faith in temporary, promise-breaking idols.

Well, amen and amen. Church, if you got your Bibles, and I hope you do, grab them. We're going to be in First Kings, chapter 18, for the most part. And we are in week three of this series if the tomb is empty. And each week, we've been coming back to this question, what do you do when you find yourself in an impossible situation? And week after week after week, we have not been studying characters in a story because this is not just a story.

These are actual people, these are actual events, these things actually happen. And if God can do miracles in the lives of these men and women that are recorded in our scriptures, then surely he can do miracles in our life too. And what we're pointing to is resurrection weekend, resurrection Sunday. That we're studying how God moved in these men and women's lives. But ultimately what we're looking at is that if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And once again, in First Kings, chapter 18, we're going to find a seemingly impossible situation.

So if you got your Bible, go there, but I'm going to back up to First King 17. We're going to do three chapters, so just hang in there. That's all right. Only take three, four hours, but it would be a good time. I just want to give you a little context of what's happening. The question that we're going to be asking and answering is this. Why are you still holding on to an idol? Why are you still holding on to an idol?

The prophet that we're looking at is named Elijah. First King, Chapter 17, verse 1, says this. Now, Elijah, this is our prophet, the Tishbite from Tishby, because that's where we're or tish bites are from, I guess. In Gilead says to Ahab. Ahab is the king of Israel, and Ahab is an evil, evil king. He has a pretty good start, apparently,

but he makes this fatal flaw. He marries wrong, and then it all goes downhill. Don't say amen. Said to Ahab, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither due nor reign these years except by my word. Because the people of Israel were worshiped.

false gods, worshiping other gods, God's, God decided through Elijah that he was going to turn off the water until he said it was time to be turned back on. Now, if you've ever been without water, you realize it's kind of a pain for us, but in this society, it meant everything. Everything that they lived for was based on the rain

because it had to do with their crops, it had to do with their livelihood, and God says, I don't mind disrupting your life to get your attention. You hear that? It bothers God none to strip away all of our comforts, to strip away all the things that we think matter most to us to get our attention so that we will realize that he is the one true God

and the only source of hope and peace. J.I. Packer says it this way, and still he seeks the fellowship of his people, and he sends them both sorrows and joys and always. to detach their love from the things of this world and attach it to himself. You see, God is going to use Elijah to draw a line in the sand with the people of Israel to ultimately say this,

choose for yourself this day whom you're going to serve. And if you're going to serve the idols, you might as well just go down that road, but it's going to leave you bankrupt. But if you were claiming me as your God, then you got to put the idols down because they're killing you. This is what he's doing.

And you see, when Elijah comes up to Ahab, the crazy thing about Ahab's story is the Bible says that up to this point in Israel's history, he's the most evil king they've had, but that's not how he started. He started out a Jehovah worshiper. He started out a God worshiper, and we know this to be true because of what he names his kids. In the Bible, names meant a lot. Like the name Elijah means the Lord is God. He names his kids. Ahaziah, which means owned by Jehovah. And he names another one, Jehoram, which means Jehovah is exalted. And he also, he made a good decision early on. He hires this guy named Obadiah. Obadiah is kind of the unsung hero of this event that happened in 1st, 18, 18, and 19.

And then he makes a very critical mistake. He marries a girl named Jezebel. If you're looking for baby names, don't go Jezebel. She ain't that good, okay? She murders all of the prophets of God. And what Obadiah does is Obadiah runs this little like underground railroad deal where 50 at a time he takes these prophets of God and he goes and he hides them into the caves and stuff. So he's a really, really good do. And then God sends Elijah, go to Hahab, say, famine's coming, drought's coming, I'm turning off the water.

And then God sends Elijah to a brook. And while all of Israel is going through it, Elijah's fine, man. The Bible says that ravens bring him bread and meat every morning. brother's got chick-fil-a on grubhub just chilling by the brook and then there's this real short line in in first king 17 and the bible says and the brook dries up hmm sometimes the brook just dries up not even because you did anything wrong Elijah did exactly what god had told him to do and sometimes folks the ministry just dries up sometimes the relationship dries up sometimes the business dries up just because sometimes that's what Brooks do.

And then where do you turn when the brook dries up? And so God tells Elijah, after three and a half years of the brook being fine and then eventually driving up, he says, all right, I want you to go talk to the king. And so Elijah's just doing what God told him to do. He's on his way to see the king. And then crazy thing, he bumps into this widow. And she's got one son. And he says, widow, I'm a little hungry. Why don't you make me something to eat?

And she said, I ain't got nothing. I got a little bit of flour. I got a little bit of oil. I got enough. I'm gathering up some sticks, and I'm going to cook me a meal for me and my only son, and then we're going to die.

And Elijah says, tell you what, won't you make me some cake and give it to me first? Which is crazy, which is crazy. You see, if you'll put on your preeminence lenses right here, what you'll see, once again, is this principle of preeminence,

that when we bring God first and best, that we can trust him with everything. This is what he is saying to her. And think about this. the reason that God sends Elijah to this poor woman is not because he needs help, not because Elijah needs his needs met, because if that were the case, he could have gone and found a rich person. But God sends Elijah to this woman because she needs help.

And so she trusts God, she makes this cake, and then they got food for days and food for days. They're never running out of food. Long story short, her son has a terminal illness. She doesn't even know about. He's going to die, and then God's going to use Elijah to resurrect that son. Why? Because if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And this is just set up for where we're going.

And so three years later, Elijah's going to show up on the scene, and he's going to go and see King Ahab. And on the way, he bumps into Obadiah. And by the way, we need a whole lot. We have a whole bunch of Obadiahs in the church. Everybody wants to be Elijah, the one standing up on stage with the microphone calling down fire. But we need a whole bunch of Obadiah setting up the meeting.

Can I get an amen? Amen, right? And so he bumps into Obediah. Obadiah, and he's like, all right, go tell your boss, let's meet right here. And Obadiah's like, I ain't telling him nothing, man. Because sure enough, I'm going to go talk to King Ahab, and I'm going to come back. We've been looking for you for three and a half years, and if you ain't here, he's going to kill me. Because I know you got this sweet little resurrection sitting by the brook, eating your Chick-fil-A ministry.

I got the ministry with the crazy king. He just kills random people, and I don't want to be one of them people. And so Elijah's like, well, just trust me, I will be here. And so all of that happens, which gives us the First Kings chapter 18, verse 17, and now we're going to have this showdown, this meeting between this evil king and our prophet Elijah. Verse 17, when Ahab saw Elijah. Again, by the way, just a reminder, Elijah's name means the Lord is God, which is his mission. Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel? That word troubler means like aggravating.

or pestilence. And what he's saying is, you know what, Elijah, everything in my life was going fine until you showed up. And then you showed up and you turned the water off and you have jacked everything up. By the way, anybody got some troublers in their life? Like the kind of people where you just smoothing along in your life, everything's fine with the casual Christianity.

You go to church several times a quarter, you know, kind of hum along to the songs, but everything's good. But then there's some people in your life. life that would have the audacity to aggravate you and talk to you about you and the things that matter in you. And so you just want to avoid those people. Anybody got those people in their life? Am I those people for any of you?

Some of you is true. That's why you haven't been here for a month. Welcome back. Glad you're back. Okay. Don't worry about it. Anybody ever notice what a troubler, the Holy Spirit is? You're just minding your business, right?

Just doing your thing, living like that. the world. You know, I'm not talking about these evil sins that God hates. I'm talking about your sins that he's pretty cool with. And then all of a sudden, you're just sitting here in church or reading your Bible, just driving around randomly, and the Holy Spirit of God begins to trouble you and stir up something in you. Yeah, pay attention to that. That's God's grace in your life. I was at the gym the other day. Obviously. And it's bad, but whatever. So I was working out and this dude comes to our church man great guy I love him and he just walks up to me takes his AirPods out and he just goes hey bro why is it so hard and I was like working out because

we old he's like no no no no following Jesus and he just begins confess to me some things and dude I'm talking about he's all in man he's he's us he's all in and he goes why is it so hard all right I just went on a retreat fell all close to Jesus and then all week long I spend more time trying to improve my golf game, then I do in his word. And then, you know, a month ago, two months ago, whatever it was, you preached about money as an idol, and I don't know what's wrong with me. I want to love Jesus, but I just, oh, this money thing. Why is it so hard? And what I had to do for my brother is being like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on, don't beat yourself up over this. How good is God that the Holy Spirit in you would trouble you

about all the things in you that don't look like Jesus. It's evidence that you love him, not evidence that you don't. He's a troubler, man. The Spirit of God. Praise God when he troubles us. By the way, anytime some famous Christian fails and falls, and some folks on our staff come to me and say, what happened?

I can tell you what happened. They began to walk down a path, and the Spirit of God began to trouble them. And that person said, stop. It is God's grace when the Spirit of God, God convicts us of sin. That's what's happening right here. He's a troubler.

He's a troubler. One of my seminary professors, the only one I like. He said that my job as a preacher is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. You see, do you realize I can't convict you of anything? My job is actually not to stir you up. My job is to open up the Word of God, preach it in such a way that the Spirit of God is stirred up in every believer. And then we praise God when he troubles our spirit and gets us to repent and walk in a different direction. So he calls him a troubler.

Is it you, you troubler of Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have in your father's house because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Bales. The Bail was not just one God, Bail was a bunch of gods. And in this culture, there was a God for everything. And here's what Elijah is saying. Your problem, A-Hab is when times got tough, when it didn't rain, instead of turning to the one true God,

you turn to the little G-gods of this world. Because it's okay, man. You're like, cool, I believe in God. I mean, think about this. He's going to be talking to the Israelites, two Jehovah Worshippers who have just added on, grafted on idolatry in their life. And they're saying, yeah, okay, look,

man, we appreciate you getting us out of Egypt, and we appreciate the promise of a promised land, but we need babies. So we're going to go to Asherah, the fertility god and we need crops so we're going to go to bail to make it rain for our crops and we need security so we're going to go to the god of victory and c s louis says we have what is called generational snobbery where we will have a tendency to look down our nose at generations like this like what kind of people would look to other like carved images for these kinds of things

well let me ask you church what do you do when god doesn't do what you want him to do like what do you do when you're praying for rain, but it ain't raining. Do you turn to money for security? Do you turn to a pill to make the pain go away? Do you turn to a bottle to just forget about it? Do you turn to a bomb? Because it's legal now, so that's okay, right? Uh-uh.

Do you turn to that girl at work that's not your wife to get some affirmation that you don't feel like you're getting at home? Do you turn to one more Netflix show? If you say, is Netflix a sin? It can be. Do you turn to Facebook? so somebody will like you? You see, the crazy thing is,

is you can never simultaneously turn away from the prince and source of peace and then find peace. That's what the idols tempt us to do. The question is this, is he enough for you in the drought? John Calvin says that idolatry is worshiping the gift over the giver.

And every single one of us have a tendency to do that. And once again, God does not mind sin. sending the storm into your life. And sometimes storm comes into your life, not to disrupt your life, but to clear the way so you can see him clearly. Verse 19.

Now, therefore, sin and gather all Israel to meet me at Mount Carmel. By the way, if we would have heard this 3,000 years ago, we'd be like, Mount Carmel. That was like the epicenter of pagan worship. Come on, Elijah, what you're doing? You're giving up home-filled advantage. Do this thing in Jerusalem.

Do this thing in the Holy City. He's like, no, don't worry about it. Mount Carmel. and the 450 prophets of Bail and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. By the way, that's a big old table, and 850 seats. You see, here's what would happen then. The way that you would worship a false God, and you'll see this in the New Testament too, is you would cook them meals, and then you would offer up the meal to your false God,

and whatever they didn't eat, you got to keep. Pretty good system, isn't it? Yeah. This is why in the New Testament they're always fighting over, can you eat food sacrifice to idols? And so that's what they would do. Now, let me ask you this. So here's what he's going to do.

Pay attention here. Elijah, the sole prophet, is going to go to the king and Jezebel and say, bring your 850 prophets and we about to have a showdown. Now, let me just ask you, okay? Don't think Sunday school, don't think flannelgraph. Think this week. Would you do this? Like if God called you to do something that doesn't make sense in your brain

and you think it could come at great cost to you, would you do that? Would you do that? Because there's a lot of people, man, that'll ask, how come God doesn't do miracles today? Where do you been? He does miracles all the time. But the question is,

what if the miracle is on the other side of a chain of events that require small steps of obedience in the direction that he has called us to go? Don't you remember Mary's advice at the wedding at Cana when the servants gather around? We talk about this all the time now.

The service get there, and she just says this, best advice on the planet, bar none, do whatever he tells you to do. So would you do this? If he tells you to do it, you should do it. Are you called to do something crazy like this? I don't know. If you don't know, if you're not 100,

like if you think God might be calling you to gather everybody in the break room, all right, bring your reports. We're going to put them all here. We're going to call fire down from heaven. Just check with an elder before you go after it just because you might be crazy. Now, no problem.

We're a movement for all people. crazy people too. And God uses crazy people all the time. But the hard thing is, is if you're crazy, you don't even know I'm talking to you. But just make sure whatever you think he's called you to do lines up with his word. That's what he's doing here. That's what he's doing here. He is going to, he's going to draw a line in the sand. And he's going to say, go get the prophets of bail. Bayal was like, not just one God. Bayal was like the granddaddy of all gods. And Asherah was the mother goddess. So Elijah says, go get this guy, go get mama and daddy of all the gods you and worshiping and bring them here on Mount Carmel.

Verse 20. And so Ahad sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel and Elijah came near to all the people and said, underline this in your Bible, please. How long will you go limping between two different opinions? Pay attention to this. How long will you go limping between two different opinions?

And then here's the line in the sand. If the Lord is God, follow him. But if bail, then follow him. And the people did not answer a word. Now again, man, again, these are not anti-God people, right? These are God's children. In our current context, this would be church folk. This would be church folk.

And there's a whole bunch of people that go to church. We'll be here this weekend. Thousands and thousands and thousands. And tens of thousands of people watching online. and you try to live with your foot in the God camp and your foot in the world camp. And God's saying, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve.

You see, a lot of people like to treat Jesus like a buffet, man. Like to treat Christianity like a buffet. Ooh, salvation, I'll take some of that. Yep, because hell is hot forever's a long time. Let me get me some of this. And then you go, oh, but sex, whoa. No, pass, please. I'll be the Lord of my own life on what I do.

with my body. Money? I can forget that. Oh, friends. Give me some of that. Be careful, man. If he's not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all. You see, Jesus says no one can serve two masters. No one can serve two masters. And an idol, oh my goodness, an idol will just lie to you and an idol will bait you down a road and then leave you alone when you're at the dead end of it and make fun of you for it. And when we, I use this illustration all the time, man, when we try to live with a foot in either world, it's like getting off the boat too slow onto the dock. Those things are heading in opposite direction,

and that is not the time for indecision. You see, if I could translate Elijah's words into today, if you're serving an idol, just serve it, man. If money is your idol, why don't you just tell people? Some of our world does, all right? get rich or die trying. Just tell your family, hey, I appreciate you when you're convenient, but you're not my highest source of satisfaction. Money is. So if it's convenient, I'll spend time with you, but if not, I'm going to neglect you so that I can go get mine. And if romance is

your idol, then go for it with all you're made of. Just use her, use him like a commodity to try to fill yourself up because you don't actually love that person. You love how that person and makes you feel. And if approval is your God, then selfie it up, man. Put every filter you can and take selfies. Just turn your whole living room into a studio whereby you can put this false self over out and in the world so everybody will like you. They don't actually like you because that's not you, but that doesn't matter.

Serve that idol. But if Christ is God, then serve him and serve him only. You see, every year I reread mere Christianity. I'm a little late this year, but I read it. And at the end of Section 1, C.S. Lewis says it this way, to people that are trying to kind of believe in a little bit of Jesus but not believe he is who he says he is. C.S. Lewis says this.

Very famous quote. I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with a man who says he's a poached egg

or he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronize. nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us, and he did not intend to. Choose for yourself this day whom you will serve. Jesus says something very similar.

In Revelation chapter 3, there's a church called Laotica, and it looks like almost every American church. Everybody's fine in there. I got plenty money. Everybody looks good, hair all did, the whole thing, man, just sitting in church. But Jesus says, I know your deeds, and they're neither hot nor cold. In other words, you've got a little bit of me and a little bit of this world, and it makes you lukewarm, and he says, I'm about to spew you out of my mouth because you make me sick. And then he gives this invitation to that church. He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. Now, I don't know how much you know about running churches, but just put it on the bottom shelf. If Jesus ain't in it, it ain't going good. And he is on the outside of that church.

This is what is happening right now on Mount Carmel. choose for yourself this day. And then here's the setup. And then Elijah said to the people, I even I only am left a prophet of the Lord, and it's kind of like, Ahab, because your wife killed all my co-workers. But Bail's prophets are 450 men.

Let two bulls be given to us. This is the showdown. By the way, the mascot for Bail was a bull, so I think he's kind of like jabbing at him a little bit there. 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 and 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 God

and I will call upon the name of the Lord and the God who answers by fire he is God and check this out and all the people answered it is well spoken you know why because they're like Elijah do you have any idea what you're doing do you know what bail is in charge of in this region, bail was in charge of thunderstorms. Bail was in charge of the lightning. He's like, what are your God in charge of? Circumcision and singing. What's that going to do for you right now?

This is kind of like the lulloch, brayer rabbit thing, right? No, don't throw me in the thicket. Don't throw me in the thicket. They think, man, this thing is setting up perfectly for us. And so Elijah said to the prophets of bail, choose for yourself one bull and prepare it first, for you are many. and call upon the name of your God, but put no fire to it. And they took the bull that was given to them, and they prepared it,

and called upon the name of Bail from morning until noon, saying, Oh, bail, answer us. But there was no voice, and no one answered, and they limped around the altar. There's that word again. They limped around. This was a worship dance. I think it's called the Gritty. Is that how you say it?

I'm not sure. But that's what they were doing back in the day. No voice, no one answered, and they leant around the altar that they had made. From morning until noon. Now, I love that this is in the Bible. It makes me feel better about me being a human. It makes me feel better about 80% of the things I say up here. And at noon, Elijah mocked them, made fun of them,

some righteous smack talk from our prophet brother Elijah. He mocked them saying, cry aloud, for he is God. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened. Now, here's the thing. I think the people that translate the scriptures are brilliant human beings. I mean, just some of the smartest men and women on the planet.

There's a lot of pleaded dockers and languages they know, all this. I don't think they're very good smack talkers, though. I'm just going to be honest. Think about what he's at, what Elijah's actually saying. I mean, dude, this is a prophet of old. That brother's walking out there with like a lawn chair and a big duck dynasty beer, and he is mocking them. He's like, where's your God, man?

Maybe he's asleep. Maybe he's relieving himself? No, he's like, I think he's taking a doozy of a Tuesday. What do you think? All right? I think he had to go in and turn the fan on. Maybe he's got a meeting in the Oval Office. Maybe he's dropping the kids off.

Maybe he's not done with the paperwork. This is just going on and on and on. And here's what's crazy, though. If this were to happen in our day, everybody would be like, oh, no, I'm so triggered. I need a safe space. Oh, my God. So offended. He's offended me.

Some people should be offended. Some things are worth offending people over. And the truth, the truth, there isn't my truth. There's my experience. There's my opinion. For sure, man. But the truth can be very, very offensive. and all cultures and all belief systems are not equal.

Some are dumb and some are damnable and need to be pointed out. And so he does. He does. He, and listen, they keep crying, they keep dancing and no one answers. There was no voice in return. Why? Because they're crying out to nothing. And we worship what we become.

and when we worship nothing, we in essence will become nothing. The Bible says in 1st Kings chapter 8, verse 60, that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God and there is none else. John 173, and this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. We spent two years studying the Shema, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is one name under heaven whereby we must be safe. That's it.

no other. And so when it's not going your way, where do you turn? Do you turn to the one true God, or do you turn to the temporary idols of this world that the enemy tries so hard to get us to buy into and then leaves us bankrupt when we do?

Do you turn to money for satisfaction? Do you turn to money for your security? Do you turn to yourself, for your own self-worth? for the applause of man, let me get real practical. Ladies, this is why you've had three boyfriends in the last six months. You gave yourself to every single one of them,

and you were looking for companionship, and now there's the level of loneliness that you just can't understand. Or fellas, maybe you thought, I know what I'll do, I'll be a man, and I'll go get a girl, and you treated her like a commodity, and you thought you were a man, and now you know deep in your soul,

you're like a little boy, because you don't have what it takes, because you're not ready to date one of God's daughters until you know how to lay your life down for one. That's what we're talking about. I'm telling you, man, the enemy says, come on down this road, come on down this road. And the only thing at the end of this road

is depression and loneliness and bankruptcy. And it's a dead end road, and that's exactly where idols leave us. There is no voice. There is no response. Now, if you think we're just talking about Israel, lights from thousands of years ago, you might want to wake up for this part. So here's what they do. They cry out to their idol, no response. They cry out to their idol, no voice. They cry out to their idol,

and it does not give them what it promises. And so what's their solution? I got an idea. And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on. That word in Hebrew means strenuous dancing until the time of the offering of the oblation. That was the normal offering time, but there was no voice. What happened? The idol let them down like it always does, and you know what they thought, we just need to work harder.

We just need to try harder. We just need to do more and put more of our faith in these idols, and maybe that will get this thing going. You see, and sitting over there in his lawn chair, Elijah mocks this. By the way, in our world, this will be called bigotry. If you look at anybody else that is putting their hope and faith in anything of this world, whether it's some major world religion or some demonic movement or the temporary things of this world, and we, hopefully from a place of love, I know the church has messed this up,

but it is a place of love when you look at somebody enough to say the things that you think are going to bring your life are actually the things that are killing you here. Can I offer you true life? You see, it's called bigotry. today. But as long as somebody thinks that life is found in anything but Jesus Christ, it would be nothing but hatred for us to let them continue down that road and us not say, please God, might you use me to share the good news of Jesus Christ with these folks? And no one answered, no one paid attention. You see, here's evidence of a false God. Here's evidence of an idol.

It will always require more performance, more dancing, and it will mutilate you. Idols always require a sacrifice. And the way it plays out in our life is this. You will mutilate yourself to serve your idol. You will cut yourself to serve your idol. And what this means is, if money is your actual idol, then you might cut the relationships that mean the most of you

to make sure you can get the money. You might cut time with your family and not tuck those babies in very much so that you can go and get you more money. Or you might cut your morality so that you can take that next step up the corporate ladder only to find out when you get to the top of it one day, it was leaning against nothing,

and there you are all by yourself and nothing. This is what the enemy does. And what's crazy is you can give yourself to an idol, you give yourself to an idol, give yourself to an idol, and it will never be enough. You have to keep dancing and keep performing and keep cutting and keep mutilating yourself. And deep in the background, you'll hear Billy Idol say,

singing in the midnight hour, I want more, more. If you don't know who he is, he was a worship leader back in the 80s. But that's all that the idol can say is more, more, more. And the reality is the one true God never looks at us and says, dance harder, perform better, mutilate yourself. Actually, what happened is the one true God sent his only begotten son to be mutilated on the cross on our behalf and that whoever believes in him, the God of heaven dances over his children does not require us to be dancing for him. You see, in fact, in Luke chapter 9, Jesus and the disciples go to Samaria and they share

the gospel and they're rejected and the disciples refer back to First Kings and they're like, Jesus, why don't you call fire down on them? And ultimately Jesus is saying, you're missing the whole point, bro. The fire of heaven of God's judgment will be seen. but it will be sent upon me on the cross and whoever believes in me will not be burnt up but I will be made sin on your behalf that you will be made the righteousness of God. See, you know idols are false because when things begin to fail you in your life, you know what you never cry out to?

You never cry out to money. You never cry out to your house. You never cry out to your job or whatever your idol is. You cry out to the one true God even if you don't know them yet. Tim Keller says, Jesus is the only God that if you find him will satisfy you, and if you fail him, will forgive you. So now it's Elijah's turn. Verse 30, then Elijah said to all the people, come near to me. In Hebrew, where I'm from, this means, hold my beer, watch this. All right, that's about what's happening, okay? Now, if that offends you, just pray about it. Okay, you're going to be

all right. Just relax. He says, come to me, 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 12 stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. In other words, Elijah, even though God was going to use him in a mighty way, he knew that he was not standing on his own. He was standing on the shoulders of the faithful men and women that had come before him. And what he was doing was not new. It was just his turn. That's our story, church. and he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two sea us, that's a bunch,

a bunch of seed. And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood, and he said, fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood. And he said, do it a second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, do it a third time. And they did it a third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench.

also with water. Now remember, what is happening in regards to the weather during this time? It's a drought. That means they ain't got no water. And the little bit of water they have that is the most valuable thing to them in their world right there, he says, take what is most valuable and you pour it out on the altar. Do it again, do it again. And if you were standing there watching Elijah, you'd think, uh, Elijah, brother, you have created an impossible sense. You have created an impossible situation. I mean, what are you going to do now? But how many of you know if the tomb is empty? Anything is possible. See, that's why I need you to see this and understand that part of the reason I believe God gives us these events that happen in human history through Elijah, that what

are you going to do when you find yourself in an impossible situation? Are you going to turn to the idols of this world to do for you, what you expect God to do for you, or are you going to trust that he's always working? And even when I can't. can't see him, he's working. And even when I can't feel him, he's working. Because some of you find yourself in what you think is an impossible marriage. And you've been praying and you've been praying and you've been praying and you've been praying. And you see the videos we show of marriages that get restored. And you're like, come on Lord, why not me? Or some of you have a prodigal son, prodigal daughter. And look, man, no pain like kid pain, right? And the brook dried up. And every parent in here, if you're honest, the first thing you do is hold up the mirror and say, what did I do wrong?

Some of you find yourself in an impossible financial situation. And for some of you, it was your own doing, but for lots of folks, it wasn't. A medical thing happened to you, and you find yourself in this situation with your finances. You know, like, God, I need a miracle. Or if it's a health thing, and you think, God, I need a miracle. Or it's an addiction thing, and you've been to meetings and meetings and meetings, and you try to let it go, but it seems like this thing has a grip on you that you have a hard time describing. Or here's a really tough one, especially in the Christian,

man. It's a mental health thing. You look around the circumstances of your life and it all should indicate happy as compared to what everybody else on this planet has to go through and you can't turn on happy and you go, what's wrong with me? And it feels impossible or it's an infertility thing. And it makes you scratch your head and say, God, I just don't get it. I will confess to you. Something doesn't sound very spiritual. I've asked God many times, Lord, I don't understand. Why does it seem like some of the people that would be the best parents? on the planet, you won't give them a baby, and the least qualified humans who have ever lived

in the history of humanity just cranking them jokers out all over the place. Put that one together for me. Impossible. So what do you do when you find yourself in that impossible situation? I imagine the disciples thought the very same thing. Like, on what we call Good Friday,

can you imagine them standing at the foot of the cross? I imagine they're going, What are you doing? God, what are you doing? We believe that he is the Son of God, the Christ. What are you doing? And then especially, I'm sure, maybe they were waiting for any moment

for God to do it the way they thought he ought to do it, rip the heavens down and send the angels down and wipe out the Romans or whatever they thought. And then he died, and some brave soul, closed the eyes of the dead son of God and laid him in a tomb. And what are the disciples doing? They're hiding, man.

they don't know what's going on they don't understand and they're thinking i thought you said the kingdom of heaven is at hand the kingdom of heaven is dead in a tomb god what are you doing and little did they know just give me three days boys i'm making all things new i am redeeming the world when you find yourself in an impossible situation what the tomb tells us is this if the tomb is empty then anything is possible if God can breathe new life into his dead son, for sure he can breathe new life into your marriage. If God can reconcile sinners like us with a holy God like him, surely he can reconcile whatever relationship that you need to be reconciled. If he can speak into existence all thing and he owns the cattle on a thousand heels,

then surely he can take care of your financial situation if you'll just trust him. Whatever it may be, and it may not go the way you think it ought to go, but thank God you're not in charge of all things. but he is at work in all things for the good of those that love him and are caught according to his purpose. Because let me tell you the only impossible, truly impossible situation. I know all those situations feel impossible, but they're all temporary. You got a health situation?

If you know Jesus, I guarantee you 100 years, you're cured. No problem, okay? Guarantee you. You need more money? 100 years, you're going to need no money, okay? They've got so much gold in heaven, they use it as asphalt. All the things that we worry about mostly are temporary. impossible situation? Your sin, because you can't do anything about it. It is impossible for you to do

anything about it. And yet, God did for you and me what we could not do for ourselves. He sent his son, he lived a perfect life. He completed, fulfilled every promise, every law. He lived a righteous life, right standing before the Father went into the Garden of Gassimini. He said, not my will, your will be done. He went to the cross. And he did not. not just take our sin upon him. He became our sin. He endured the full wrath of God. The fire of the wrath of God was poured out on him and God was pleased to crush his very own son. And then three days later he comes walking out of the tomb. And if he walked out of the tomb, we can walk out of that grave too. And he reconciled a traitor's race unto himself. And so he says,

set it all up, pour out the water. Verse 36, and at the time of the offering of the ablation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, God of Abraham and 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. In other words, this ain't about me, this is all about you.

Verse 37, answer me, O Lord, answer me that this people may know that you, oh Lord or God. Underline that. If you need a miracle in your life, you should pray for that miracle. You have not because you ask not. He's a good dad. He wants to bless you. I promise.

But what if you added those lines to the end of your prayer? Dear God, please heal my marriage, not for my sake, that this people may know that you, oh, Lord, our God. God, help me in my finances, not so I can get some more stuff that I don't need, but so that this people may know that you were Lord and God. God heal my body, not just because I want to heal body, but that this people may know, O Lord, that you are God.

He says, 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. And then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust. I didn't even know dust could burn. Do you know that? I didn't know that.

apparently he can, and lit up the water that was in the trench. You see, now God's not just showing up, he's showing out, man. He didn't, like, drop one little fire and slow roast the bull for, like, 36 hours into a barbecue. He sends down the fire and it wipes out, I mean, down to even the dust. Why? Because our God does exceedingly more than any of us ever in hope or imagine. When Jesus came out of the tomb, he wasn't kind of dead. He wasn't sort of dead.

He wasn't like Princess Bride dead. he was three days mutilated, stabbed in the heart with a spear, dead, dead. And then when he rolls away the tomb, he doesn't just sort of creep up out of the tomb. I mean, listen, I've told you before, 48 years old man getting up out of bed, I've got to have an Advil smoothie just to make it into word. Jesus jogs seven miles to Amas and then begins to appear all over the place. Why? Because he is showing up and showing out.

And so he licks it all up that God is the, the kind of God that does immeasurably more than any of us ever ask or imagine. If God asked you to do something that seems impossible in your mind, what's gonna do? 10, 11 years ago, I'm standing in the parking lot here at San Pablo, looking at an old Walmart.

It wasn't awesome. A regular Walmart ain't too awesome. This one had been abandoned for like five years, all right? It was, Lord, it stunketh. That's what I'm saying, all right? And yet God told us the plan of church. And you know what I asked for? I only ask, dear God, would you just please let enough people show up that we could have two services?

Not on one Sunday. I meant two weeks apart. Like, can we just survive one week? I began to pray that God would save 365 people a year. And the reason I do that is because in Acts 2, in the early church, the Bible says, and they were added to their number daily. So I thought if we get 365, that's one a day. Boo, we're like the early church, okay?

Did you know last year God saved over 2,000 people here through the ministry of 1122, and I wasn't even here for a bunch of it. You know what's great about that? Because it ain't about me. There is one name under heaven whereby we must be saved. So God is in the miracle business. And I just want to let you know, if you ever find your self in an impossible situation, I hope you know that God could be setting your whole life up, that others may know him through your life. your impossible situation. Because oftentimes it's when we land flat on our back

that we're perfectly positioned to look up to him. Because when you look around and things seem impossible, just don't you know, it's like the bottom of the knife. Base is loaded two out and Jesus is at the plate. And these impossible circumstances are like a hanging curveball and he can yank it out of the stadium for his own glory and our own good. This is the God we serve, a God of miracles.

And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, The Lord, He is God, the Lord He is God. You know how you say that in Hebrew? Eli Jai. Eli Jai. This is what this man was created for. Here's the point.

A mustard seed-sized faith in the infinitely powerful promise-keeping God is infinitely more powerful than putting all of your faith in the temporary promises. The idols lie to us. Idols break their promises over and over and over. And what God is calling us to do to take our itty-bitty, just mustard-seast, God's faith, and put it in the infinitely powerful God. See, we live in a world that says, as long as you believe intensely and intently, that's all it matters.

That is a lie. I found this great video on YouTube. I think my son showed it to me. There was this French man years ago. He was a tailor. I don't know how to speak French. Can you imagine me speaking French? Franz, I don't know.

I'll call him Frank Reckle. That's not how you say it in French, but it's something. Fraun, rah, okay, that's it. And he built this suit that was a parachute, and he believed that he couldn't fly, but if he jumped off of the Eiffel Tower, that this suit would fill up with air and he would float right down to the earth,

and he would be fine. And so he threw this big party on the Eiffel Tower. He climbs up there. There's like a restaurant up there. You can hang out. And his original plan, he was going to, like, put a dummy in there and throw it off and show everybody.

Then he thought, I'll be the dummy, and he puts his suit on and he stands. You can watch it on YouTube, okay? And he gets up on the edge and his friends are trying to trouble him. Hey, Frank, don't do this. And he's like, don't worry about me. I got this.

Three of the most dangerous words you'll ever say in your life. I got this. And he believed. He had faith. He pastuo. He trusted in this suit. His truth was that this suit would help him live.

He stepped off. Hunk dead. They measured the divot. It's kind of funny. you two. Two guys carry him off, everybody else, measures the divot. And it's like six inches. He made a six inch divot in France, and he died immediately, even though he had enormous faith in this suit. You can take an infinite amount of faith, and you put it in the temporary promise of breaking idols of this world, and you will die. You want to waste some more time on

YouTube? I'm here to help, okay? They're building glass bridges in China. Have you seen these things? We don't know what's happening in China. I know one thing. They're building glass bridges. Okay? All right, not glass, glass, but whatever. You can see through it. And here's what happens, man. I can waste many, many hours. My son showed me this, of these people in China that are walking out and they feel okay. But when they can see, I think it's 1,100 feet down into this ravine, they're overcome with fear, and fear paralyzes, and they fall on the thing, and they just scream Chinese expletives. I don't know if they're expletives, but it sounds like it's real intense. And I'm not going to do a voice or anything. but they're just like, and their friends and family are like dragging them. They think to their death, but here's the thing.

They barely, they just had a teeny, teeny little mustard seed, enough faith to just get onto the bridge. But it wasn't the amount of faith that they have. It's what they put their faith in, this bridge that can hold them up. You see, that's what Elijah's doing here. Now, then what happens next is awesome, man. And then God sends the rain. You ever consider maybe the reason God, God, wouldn't send the rain for three and a half years,

it's because he had to take care of this idolatry problem before he put the blessing on them. But once the idolatry was taken care of, then they were positioned to receive the rain. And so Elijah goes up to Ahab. It's cool. I'll just tell you, I can't read it. It takes too long.

And he's like, hey man, he prays seven times, the number of completion, seven times. And he looks out and there's this little cloud. He's like, see that cloud? I don't even see it, the size of a hand. And it starts growing, growing, growing. Then he says, Ahab, you might want to get on your chariot and hop up out because we're about to get rained out.

Hadn't been rained in three and a half years. Sure enough, Ahab gets on his chariot and takes off, and then the Bible says that Elijah hikes up his robe and goes running past the chariot. Why is that in the Bible? There's Ahab and there's Elijah. Just road running. What happened to him?

Where do you go? Why? Because he was not limping between two opinions. And when you don't limp between two opinions, but you serve the one true God, those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not grow faint. We were not created to limp between two idols. We were created for this

abundant life where we run after God's what we were created for. And then, and you might say, well, Pastor, why do you call it mustard seed size faith? Elijah's got big old faith. Let me call call down 850 prophets and said, let's go. Here's why. You know what happens next? One of the things that you'll notice in the Bible and your own life. Oftentimes, the deepest, darkest valleys of the shadow of death come right on the heels of these mountaintop experiences with the Lord. Jesus was baptized. Next page in the Bible, he's in the wilderness being tempted. Elijah's on the mountain calling down fire, and then he gets word that Jezebel says, I'm going to kill you. And you would think, based on what has happened, you would think, to hear you be like,

well, bring it on, loud mouth woman, I'm going to call down some fire on you, but he doesn't. He's afraid, and fear is not a feeling. Fear is a spirit. And that spirit is a liar. And he runs and he hides. Because what do you do when it's not the circumstances out there that you can't get under control? It's the circumstances in here that are driving you crazy.

That's what's going home with him. And he gets under a broom tree and he wants to die. Our hero is having suicidal thoughts. I honestly don't think we should call anybody in the Bible a hero. Save Jesus. Why? Because they're all jacked up. Every single one of us. Moses is a murder. Abraham pempt out his wife. David was a murder and an adulterer. Paul was a religious terrorist. Peter was a Jesus denier. There's only one hero in the Bible in his name is Jesus. And then what happens next is a picture of the gospel. God does not look at Elijah hiding under a broom tree

and say to him, well, you really let me down now, Elijah. Had big plans for you. Dance harder. That's not what he does. He sends an angel to wake him up. And he gives him provision and protection for 40 days. And then Elijah describes out, Lord, I need you. Lord, I need you. And God says, I'll meet you in this cave.

And so he goes into a cave to hide because he's afraid. And God does not stand in the holy city and beckon Elijah to him. Hear that church. God does not stand up in heaven and beckon Elijah. Elijah to him, he steps off of his throne and comes to Elijah right where he is, regardless of his past. And so Elijah's in this cave and this windstorm comes through. And Elijah thought, surely God's in the windstorm. And it's breaking rocks off of the mountain, according to the Bible.

And Elijah's thinking, surely, surely he's in that because God's in the big and God's in the miraculous, right? Surely he's in the windstorm and he walks out and the Bible says, God's not in the windstorm. He goes back in and there's an earthquake. The whole mountain starts shaking. I'm sure fear gripped him. And so he goes and he checks the earthquake and the Bible says God's not in the earthquake. And then there's a fire. Well, we already know God's got to be in the fire, right?

Because that's what God does. God works in the fire. And the Bible says that God's not in the fire. You see, sometimes we try to fit God in these boxes that he just won't fit in. And then the Bible says this time, here's how God showed up. Some translations say in the still small voice. The ESV says a gentle whisper. Literally in Hebrew, God shows up in a quiet ruah breath.

And he meets him right in that place. And he breathes into him. See, church, here's why I share the way this ends because it's real easy for us to get some Jesus amnesia, ain't it? I mean, listen, man, we can get in our campuses, and especially on one like this, where Elijah's calling down fire and you walk out of here, I'm about to call down some fire this week. And you feel all emboldened, and you feel like I will do whatever he tells me to do. And then by Tuesday you got Jesus amnesia and you're cuddled up in a fetal position and a futon going,

I don't know if there is a God. And it's even in those moments where God shows up, maybe not in the miraculous, but he shows up in that still. small voice and he still claims us as his own. So here's how I want to close. Here's how I want to close. If you find yourself in an impossible situation, I want you to come and I want you to kneel before your maker and your king. And I want you to lay it before him.

So God, I need you. I need you to do for me what I cannot do for myself. And there is no problem with you laying out, at least in your own, hopefully being sanctified mind, how you hope it will go. But then I would lay it before them, but not my will, but your will be done. Because you have no idea what he may be using these circumstances for in your life. And I would add to it, God, would you move in these ways? Would you make a way so that these people may know that you are Lord and you are God?

And we're going to join our voices together and we are going to sing Waymaker. Why? Because I'm telling you When ways seem impossible He is the one that can make the way And when we get to this part Where we say even when I don't see it, he's working And even when I don't feel it, he's working

If you believe it, I want you to lift your hands to him And I want you to claim it I want you to claim it And even if you don't use this thing, I need you to sing it out loud Because I need your ears to tell your brain That will leak into your heart That you were putting your faith in him and not in the temporary circumstances that you find yourself in.

Why? Is he going to change things? I don't know, but here's what I guarantee you. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. Would you please stand? And may you no longer limp between these two ideologies. May you trust, may we trust the one true God. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you love us first.

Lord, I thank you. And I praise you that your righteous fire is sent to burn away all the things in our life that don't look like you. Jesus, I thank you that at the cross, when you said, it is finished, you took the full and final payment that we deserve because of our idolatry. And Lord, I pray that you will give us eyes to see you as so beautiful that all of the idols of this world would grow strangely dim. And that we, we would no longer limp between two opinions. But if we claim Jesus as Lord, then we would invite you to trouble us and show us all the areas in our life where we are the Lord of our life. And God, through the fire of your righteousness, would you just burn those things out? Would you sanctify us?

Would you help us to be more and more and more like you? And God, I pray for every man, every woman, every student in this place. and right now they feel like they are in impossible situations. And Lord, I would just remind us, please remind us that you are at work in all things for the good of those that love you and are called according to your purpose. And you would remind us when we don't see and we don't feel and we can't tell you're working, you're always at work because your ways are so much bigger than our ways. God, we love you.

We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. So let's sing. Let's bring. Let's pray. Let's respond.