The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: Mt Carmel

Episode Date: March 24, 2019

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

Intense, isn't it? If you just go and casually come to church today, you're in the wrong place. We're going to get after it. All right, grab your Bibles. We're in first kings, chapter 18. We're in the third week of this series called Mountains, and we're just walking through some stuff God did on mountains. It's going to lead us to Mount Calvary, which we'll talk about on Easter Sunday. But today we're on this mountain called Mount Carmel, First Kings, chapter 18.

But in order to kind of get a little context of what's going to happen there, we've got to first go to First King, Chapter 7. Because we're going to be studying this guy named Elijah like you saw in that video. So I'm going to pick it up in verse 17, beginning of verse 1, just says this. Now Elijah, the Tishbite of Tishby, because that's where Tishbites are from, I guess. In Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall be neither do nor reign in these years except by my word. So what's going on here is Elijah, he means the Lord is God. That's what his name means, and he is a prophet of God. And he goes up to Ahab, and Ahab is the king.

And Ahab essentially he's got his foot in one of two camps. He's got one foot kind of in the God, Jehovah camp, and he's got one foot in the world idol-worshipping kind of camp, all right? And so the Bible says that King Ahab is the most evil king up to this point in Israel's history, that he does more evil than anybody else that all the other kings added together. Now somehow in the beginning of Ahab's life and reign, he was a Jehovah follower. He was a Godfather follower. He was end of the Lord.

And we know this because he names his kids a Haziah, which means owned by Jehovah, and Jehoram, which means Jehovah's exalted. And he employs this guy named Obadiah. And Obadiah is a godly man, a faithful man. And Obadiah is kind of an unsung hero in these accounts. Obadiah, when we'll find out in a little while, Ahab marries this crazy lady named Jezebel. By the way, if you're looking for a baby name, don't go with Jezebel. She turns out to be real bad. And so she wants all the prophets of God to be killed, and Obadiah runs this little like underground railroad thing for all the prophets.

He hides them in the caves and stuff by the 50s. So there's some things that Ahab's got going on, names his kids, good God names, and, you know, he's got Obadiah on his side. but when he marries this girl and this lady named Jezebel, which by the way her name means worshipper of bail, this false god, that when she moves into his home, then apparently evil moves in with her.

And so, in fact, some theologians say that the last decision that he ever made is, I do, and then she kind of took over the reins from there. And so he did very, very evil things. He built temples to this false god's bail and he built temples to Asherah. And so

God is going to send Elijah to Ahab and say, I'm about to turn the water off. You're going to have a drought until I say the water is turn it back on. And this would be devastating to an agricultural society. Everything that makes you comfortable, I'm going to take away from you. By the way, just so you know how God works, God would love us enough to strip away anything comfortable so that we could look to him and him alone.

This is what God is doing. God is setting the stage for Ahab and all of Israel to make a decision on what God they are going to follow. Now we've called this series Mountains, but I think every week I've said, how many of you know that God does some of his best work down in the valleys, down in the darkest places, down in some of the places where you are wondering, where are you God? And really what God is doing is he's just setting the table for him to do something extraordinary. That's what he's doing here. In fact, J. I. Packer says it this way, and still he seeks the fellowship of his people, and he sends them both sorrow and joys in order to detach our hands from the things of this world and attach it to himself.

And so Elijah shows up, turns off the water, and then God tells Elijah, you go lay by the brook. Brooks have water, so there he is. He's hanging out by the brook. And the Bible says that birds bring him bread and meat every morning for breakfast. So he's hanging out. Everybody else is starving to death. He got Chick-fil-A biscuits on their delivery, all right? A little grub from the ravens. It's pretty cool.

Well, eventually the brook dries up because sometimes they do that, and then he goes and stays with this lady. and she's barely got enough food to feed her and her only son. And Elijah, he's like, I'm the man of God. And he didn't cook me some dinner. She's like, I don't have enough. He's like, I promise, if you cook me dinner, you'll have enough forever. So he's hanging out in this house. I got like this endless buffet, even though the supplies never go away.

It's crazy. And then the boy dies, and then he resurrects the boy from the grave. All right, it's crazy. That's what's happened to him in chapter 17. So then in chapter 18, he shows up three and a half years later. God tells Elijah, now it's time to go, and we're going to have this showdown with King Ahab and all these false prophets that he's been employed. And so Elijah shows up and he bumps into Obadiah,

and you remember kind of the unsung hero? By the way, man, I should probably spend a whole sermon on that. There's a whole lot more Obadiahs in the church than Elijah's. You know what I mean? People always want to be the one that stands up in front of everybody and calls down the fire, but God needs a whole lot of Obadiahs to, like, set up the meeting. But that's a whole different sermon. I thought maybe I'd get one amen for an a minute, but that's the heart.

Go back to sleep. I'll be fine. And so he bumps into Obadiahia and he goes, Obadiah, why don't you go to Ahab, it's on. I'm about to meet with him, and Obadiah's like, bro, I ain't telling Ahab nothing. Because we've been looking for you for three and a half years and shown up. As soon as I go tell Ahab, I found Elijah, and we go look for you and you ain't here, he'll kill me. You'd be sitting by the brook getting your chick-fil-a delivered to you by the Ravens every day.

And my ministry is with the crazy king, all right? I'm just trying to tell you, give you some context. It's in the Bible. Read for yourself and you get home, all right? And so he says, no, no, no, no, I'll be here, I promise. And this is where we pick it up in 1st, chapter 8. We'll pick it up in verse 17. And it says, and when Ahab saw Elijah,

again, Elijah's name means the Lord is God. You see, by the way, in the Old Testament, they would name people, it would have meaning to it. It was almost prophetic. This was his mission, that people would declare that the Lord is God. Elijah means the Lord is God. See, today we just name people dumb stuff. My name's Jobi.

You know what it means? Afflicted. Maybe my dad should have read his Bible a little bit before he just started naming people, but whatever. Hopefully it's not prophetic, but it is my name. All right. So, when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, it is you, you troubler of Israel. Now, here's what Ahab is saying. Listen, the reason we're in this mess is your fault.

You turned off the water. Now, let's be honest. In a second, Elijah is going to say, hey, I'm not just troubled you are, which is absolutely true. But when he calls him this troubler, he means this. Like, dude, everything was going fine. fine until you showed up. You're aggravating is what the Hebrew word means. You're a pestilence is what the Hebrew word means. How many of you believers can just admit this that the Holy Spirit is quite a troubler? Is he not? You ever just been minding your own business? I'm talking about just

comfortable in your, you know, Christianity, come to church several times a quarter, slightly read the Bible when it's on the screen in front of you, and just comfortable in your own sin. I'm not talking about like life-changing, devastating sin. I'm talking about sin that's, you know, kind of, it's fine. You know, there's that sin that God doesn't like, then your sin. And he's kind of okay with it. Just wasting all your time on Netflix and treating people poor. You know what I'm talking about.

Just feeling fine. And then the spirit of God, uninvited by you, begins to noodle around in places in your own personal life that you did not even invite in. Isn't he a troubler? Or how many of you have people in your life? And you don't even like to see them that much. Because every time they speak to you,

They speak truth into you, and it's troubling. Anybody got that person? Okay? How many of you, I'm that person? That's why you get mad at me, send me an email. I don't come for three weeks. But you're back. Don't worry about it, okay?

Look. So this is what's going on with Ahab. He sees Elijah, and he says, is it you, you troubler of Israel? How many of you know that God is a good dad and he would love you enough to convict you of sin? That that's how much he loves you. He does not want you to be comfortable in your own sin, that he wants to get in there and cause you trouble.

My favorite seminary professor, the only one that I like said that my job as the pastor is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. That's what I'm supposed to do. You see, in the Old Testament, every believer did not have access to the Holy Spirit like we do in the New Covenant. And so the role of the Prophet in the Old Testament was to get in there and stir it up so that you would be convicted of sin. I can't convict you of anything. my job through the power of the word is to just stir up the spirit of God and every believer so that he would speak to you and convict you of sin so that you would be troubled enough that you would choose the one true God and stop serving the bales and the astros of this world.

You're in trouble this day. I've been praying for you more than normal. Turkey season started, so I've been in the woods more. I smoked one yesterday, literally and figuratively. But that's what I've been praying. that this day you would be troubled. I'm praying that God will crush you or comfort you whatever you need so that you would begin to see the idols in your life and you would choose this day

whom you would serve. This is what Elijah is doing when he's showing up to Ahab. He's saying, it's about to go down. In verse 18, he answers him, I have not troubled Israel, but you have, you and your father's house because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the bales. He's saying, Ahab, when times got tough like this draft. you did not turn to the one true God, but you turned to the little G gods of this world. You see, in this time, there was a little G God for every need that they had.

If you needed to rain, there was a rain God. If you needed the flowers a girl, there was a flower God. If you needed a baby, there was a fertility God. There was a little God for all of this. And the problem with all of these little G gods is the problem with every idol in every day and age. That these idols make promises that they have the inability to keep. But man, the promises are big. And oftentimes we, in the 21st century, can have what C.S. Lewis calls like a generational snobbery or arrogance that we look down our nose on men and women of the past and say, how in the world could they worship idols like that?

Little carved images that were powerless. Well, let me ask you, what do you do when God doesn't do what you want him to do? Like you're praying for rain, but then ain't raining. Do you turn to money for security? Do you turn to a pill to take away the pain? Do you turn to a bottle to try to forget what's going on in your life? Do you turn to that girl at work who is not your wife to validate you because you don't feel validated at home? Do you turn to one more Netflix show to just put off reality?

Do you turn to Facebook so that someone will like you? I mean, what is wrong with us? Why are we so prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. And listen, man, I'm talking to the Christians here. Notice, he's talking to God's people. He's talking to the Israelites. These are people, they're not anti-God. They know better.

And yet there's something in us when things don't go our way and when they do, we are prone to wonder and turn away from the ultimate source of peace and joy and love and comfort and turn to the temporary things of this world that led us down over and over and over. You see, the real question is this, is he enough for you in the drought? When you've got nothing else, is he enough? Calvin says this And by the way, that's John Calvin, not like Ann Hobbs, all right, I know we've got a diverse group here. He says, idolatry is worshiping the gift over the giver. And so Elijah shows up, and he said, it's go time.

This is about to happen, verse 19, now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel. There's our mountain. And the 450 prophets of bail and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table, which it makes me ask, how big is that table? That's a big old table, get 850 people. Now, the reason this matters is the reason he's saying this is during this time, the one thing false God, the one thing an idol couldn't do was feed itself.

So to show your allegiance, you would like cook dinner for it, and then you got all the leftovers. This is why in the New Testament they would argue about food sacrifice to idols. Now here's the thing. If you were in Elijah's spot, would you do this? I mean, if you were convinced that God told you to go on a showdown with 850 prophets of false gods, by the way, we find out a little bit later that Jezebel has already murdered all of the other prophets. Would you do, if God called you to do something that you thought was crazy,

but you knew without a shadow of a doubt that God had called you to do it, would you do this? Would you be able to step out in the faith that Elijah has? People ask me all the time. how come God doesn't do something big in my life? How come God doesn't do a big miracle in my life? How come we see all these miracles in the pages of scripture, but we don't see really any miracles in our life?

And what if I were to tell you, what if God's big miracle for you is on the other side of a step of faith that you have yet to take? What if the big miracle of reconciliation in your family, you just wait for him to sprinkle some reconciliation dust on your family and then you see each other at Thanksgiving and just love each other? But what if instead of, he's not calling you to call,

down fire from heaven, he's calling you to call him on the phone and extend forgiveness. What if this revival, you're like, Lord, I just, would you bring a revival? And he's like, if you just open your mouth at work and start talking to people, then maybe I would. What if the thing that you're looking for God to do in a miraculous way is just on the other side of a step of obedience that you've been afraid to take? And he calls him out on Mount Carmel. You see, if you'd have read this back in the day, you'd be like, ooh, Mount Carmel, man, that's like God's giving away home field advantage. This was the epicenter of pagan worship just outside of Jezebel's house.

You know how confident our God is? He don't mind being the visitor at all. And you know what good news this is for you and me? That God pursues his people into these pagan places to capture and redeem their hearts. No matter who we are, how lost we have been, he meets us right where we are. And so he says, call bail. By the way, bail was not like one God. It was a title.

It kind of represented a bunch of gods. He was kind of like the granddaddy God. And then Asherah was the mother goddess. So essentially, Elijah is saying, go get your mom and daddy gods and meet me out Mount Carmel. Verse 20. And so Ahab sent to all the people of Israel, and he gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel.

And Elijah came near to all the people and said, how long will you go limping between two different opinions? Underline those words. This is the key question that I hope and pray that you would have the guts to deal with in your life. How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if bail, then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word.

Kind of like you. Look at me. I'm freaking out right now. You see, again, he's not talking to people that are anti-God, anti-Jhovah. Okay? He's not. In our context, he's talking to church. church people. He's talking to a group of people that come to church several times a month,

that know the songs, that know when to raise their hand at the right time, that know when I say something awesome to move. So good, all right. They know how to send a little tweet with a fire, fire, hands up, hands up. You know all that stuff. Sponsored a kid in a disciple group, signed up and go on a mission trip. Not actually going to go. You're going to back out two weeks before we get there. But during the sermon on signing up, you were moved to sign up. Sign up for serve staff, never showed up to serve, whatever. But you're in. emotionally. That's what he's talking about. He's talking about good old church people here, because what they did is they treated God like you would treat a buffet. They were not anti-God,

anti-Jahova. They're like, I appreciate the salvation. Appreciate you getting us out of Egypt. Appreciate the promises. But then they step on down. I'd be like, oh, but we need the crops to grow, so we're going to worship bail because he makes it rain and stuff. And we need some babies, so we're going to worship Asherah. You see, there's a lot of people. This is modern Christianity, by the way. Believe Jesus a lot on Sunday. Got your hands up and into it, feeling all good. But then by Tuesday, when the God thing getting working for you in your dating life,

then you just start swiping all over the place looking for it instead of trusting him. This is what we do. Or God, you can have this part. Like, listen, I hear that hell is hot and forever's a long time, so I'll trust you for the salvation thing, but you don't get to tell me what to do sexually or get to do what I get to do with my money. This is the group of people he is talking to. Which means then he is talking to us.

Jesus says no one can serve two masters. He will hate one and be devoted to the other. Church of 1122, there will be thousands of people this weekend that show up in that condition. It's like you got one foot in the God camp and you got one foot in your own camp. And it's like getting out of a boat. You ever seen somebody get out of a boat? Put one foot on the dock, one foot on the boat, that is not the time for indecision. Because very soon, see, those two things are heading in different directions, and by definition, you either make a decision or you will be torn apart.

This is what Elijah is saying. And I'm telling you, I've been praying for you this weekend, been praying for you that today you would make a decision. That you would make a decision. And just like he says, if the Lord is God, then follow it. But if bail is God, then follow him. So if money is your God, then serve it with everything you're made of. And quit blaming your idolatry of money on your family. You neglect your family to make more money and the excuse you give is to provide nice things for your family.

That don't cut it. Just tell them. You guys are all right, but you're slowing me down because I've got to have more from me. Or if comfort is your idol, then just serve it. Don't even get dressed. Just wear PJs, get a big screen Netflix. Just serve it with everything you made of. If love and romance is your idol, then just serve it.

Abuse whoever you need to to get what you want. If approval is your God, then take a selfie every minute and put all the filters on it, and everybody will like you. Nobody actually likes you because that's not you, but that's okay. Worship that idol. But if Jesus Christ is who he says he is, and you believe that he is the Christ, the son of the living God, who came to do for you and me what we could not do for ourselves,

then serve him and serve him only. Because listen, we are all, man, I'm the worst in the room, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Like get in here and get all stirred up for the Lord, and then by Tuesday take our eye off of the one that has everything for us and put our eyes on some temporary shiny stuff of this world. C.S. Lewis in his book, mere Christianity. I reread it every year. I'm a little late this year because I got hung up on Bonhoeffer,

but at the end of Section 1 where he talks about the claims of Jesus, this is how he closes it. He says, I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish things that people often say about Jesus, that 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 that 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 patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. This is what Elijah is saying to Ahab. Choose for this day, Ahab, who you will serve.

If it's God, then serve him. Listen, Jesus says something very similar in Revelation chapter 3 to the church at Laodicea. It was a church where everybody on that inside looked great. The only promise is Jesus on the outside knocking on the door, say, hey, you don't want to let me in the church. Let me just tell you, I don't know how much you know about running a church. if Jesus ain't there, it ain't going good.

Okay? And he said, here's your problem. I know your deeds. You're neither hot or cold. You're lukewarm. And it makes me sick. I'm going to spit you out of my mouth. This is what is happening here.

I'm praying that the Spirit of God would do a thing in you that you would not even be able to explain. You just wouldn't be able to deny that he would make so clear to us our idols that we would throw them away and we would pursue the one and only God. And so this is what he's going to do. He's going to have a big show day. Yeah. Verse 22, Elijah says to the people, I even I, I only am left a prophet of the Lord. And it's kind of like, Ahab, because your wife killed all my coworkers. But Bail's profit are 450 men. And now he's going to set up the rules of engagement, all right? For those of you people from Dillon South Carolina, this is like, WrestleMania.

All right, it's a big showdown of their best versus God's best. Verse 23. He says, let two bulls be given to us. By the way, the symbol of Bail was a bull. so I think Elijah was kind of poking at him a little bit there. He said, 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 on 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 they finally speak up, and all the people answered, it is well spoken. The reason they're saying this is because this bail of that region was the God of lightning. He was the God of thunderstorms. And so they are thinking, you dummy, this is like the briar rabbit thing. Like don't throw me in the thicket, right? That you just set up this big event where our God is in charge of lightning, and what's your God in charge of? And so they think they've got this thing. Verse 25.

And then Elijah said to the prophets of bail, choose for yourself one bull. Prepare it first, for you or many. call upon the name of your God and put no fire to it and they took the bull that was given to them and they prepared it and they called upon the name of bail from morning until noon saying, oh, bail, answer us

but there was no voice and no one answered. And they, notice the terminology here and they leant around. This was like a pagan worship dance. But listen, man, if you're watching them, they are totally into it, okay? And they leant around

the altar that they had made. Verse 27. I love that this is in the Bible. It makes me feel better about being a human. Check what Elijah does. And at noon, Elijah mocked them. He openly made fun

of them and their foolishness. At noon, Elijah mocked them saying, cry aloud, for he is a God. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep, And he must be awakened.

Now, listen, in today's culture, the prophets of bail be like, oh, my God, you hurt my feelings. I need a safe place. Stop. Not all viewpoints and cultures are equal. There are some that are just dumb, but there are some that are dangerous and destructive and they deserve to be mocked. Now, imagine this. The commentators of the Bible are brilliant theologians and linguists, but I don't believe

they're good mockers, okay? because he starts out with this, cry aloud for he is a God, either he is musing, that means like maybe he's not paying attention because he's daydreaming. Or the translation is, he is relieving himself. But that's too tame. I mean, Elijah is this Old Testament prophet. He's sitting there in his lawn chair. They're building this thing.

He's got this big Duck Dynasty beard. And he's mocking him. Here's what he's saying. Maybe he's in the toilet. Maybe he went in and turned a fan on. Maybe he's got a meeting at the Oval Office. Maybe he's dropping the kids off. Maybe he's not finished with his paperwork.

You understand? Like he is ridiculing them, making fun of them. But notice what happens. There is no answer, even though they are crying out to their God with a whole bunch of intensity. And do you know why he's not answering? Because he's not there. There is no bail. This is this made-up thing.

And if you worship nothing, then in return, you will only get nothing. and the danger is that every single one of us have a tendency to worship the little G idols offered to us in this world. And we live in a world that spends billions of dollars a day to say this little thing, if you will just put your hope in it, if you'll just put your trust in it, if you'll just put your faith in it, it will do for you what you've always hoped and dreamed. But it lets us down over and over and over. And the reason it lets us down is it cannot do what it promises, that idols always break their promise.

The Bible says there is one name under heaven whereby we must be saved. 1 Kings 860 says that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no one else. Jesus says in John 173, and this is eternal life, that they know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. That we have been studying the Shumah. Shumah Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. and yet every single one of us had this tendency to look to our idols and cry out to our idols to do something for us and they remain silent because they just can't provide it for us. It's like when we look towards our stuff for ultimate satisfaction and it just doesn't satisfy

and we go back to it over and over again. This is why around here we lovingly call it the cul-de-sac of stupidity. Why? Because stuff is stupid? No, because you were stupid. me too man me too you think a new shirt a new truck a new shotgun a new whatever you're into like you i mean it's crazy isn't it you you have a kitchen but you think if i can just tear these appliances out that work and replace them with other ones that work oh then granite countertops and a new half bath it's crazy and then we're

we do it again. Think of the feeling you get when you get on Amazon. Isn't this feeling of like hope? You're just looking through, you ever just get bored, like not on the tech fast, but you're just sitting in there bored and like, what am I going to do? I don't know. I'll look to buy some crap. That's what it is. I'm trying to mature. I'm over it. I'm not doing it anymore. I'm calling it what it is. It's scubilant. It's rubbish, okay? But you're just looking through and you're like, oh, this will, no. It'll, it's going to end up in Hope's closet with all your other junk too. And yet here we go. Another lap. The last stuff didn't do it.

I got an idea. More stuff. Newer. No. But that's what they do. Or you look, you try to find security in a bank account? I mean, literally, you're logging on to something, and if it's over this number, you feel good in here and safe and secure. And if it's under this number, you feel insecure, insecure.

And here's the thing, man. Ain't nothing wrong with money. The Bible said you should store it really, really well. You should be really generous and you should plan in such a way that you accrue enough to bless your children's children. But the problem is, is when you look for those little, now it's not even like dollars. It's a number on a screen to do something in your soul. It just doesn't have the ability to provide that. One call from the doctor and all the security is gone.

Or you look for your self-worth and the opinions of other people. And no matter how many likes you get, no matter how many comments you get, it just doesn't feel. it up because other people don't have the ability for you to understand that you were created in the image of God and that God loved you so much that he gave his son that your body is not your own. It was bought with a price. Let me be real specific. Girls, this is why you've had three boyfriends in the last six months you gave yourself to all of them and you feel more alone now than you did before. They just can't give you what you're looking for. And men, it's why you thought if you could take, take, take from a girl, treat her like a commodity, that you'd be more of a

a man and now you feel like more of a little boy. You're not ready to be with one of God's daughters yet until you know what it's like to lay down your life or somebody and quit taking and start sacrificing. You see, you just can't find it there. And yet like these fools running around screaming at bail, we do the same thing. Now here's the crazy part. Okay, here's the crazy part. So he doesn't say anything. He does not respond. He doesn't show up. So they think, I got an idea. let's just turn up the volume, that'll work. Let's do more of the same dumb stuff. Listen, man, I'm talking about us more than even these folks.

And so they cried aloud and they cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on. Literally in Hebrew, that word means strenuous dancing. Maybe that's where we get the word wave from. I don't know. I've ever been. It looks dumb.

Whatever. And as midday passed, they raved on until. the time of the offering of the oblation. That's just like a regular offering time. But there was no voice. There was no voice. Now listen. And Elijah's there with his ducked down and his beard going,

are y'all, what are you doing? Your God's on the throne, not of heaven, but in the men's room. And that's why he's not answering you. He's literally mocking it. Now, we live in a world. We live in a world that would call. what he is doing bigotry because he's saying you are wrong.

But listen, they are wrong. We live in a world that says, that's not what bigotry means. You see, when a Christian looks at somebody else that has a different worldview and says, you're wrong. If you're putting your faith in anything other than Jesus Christ, it leads somewhere that is not good. It is from a place of love. I'm not saying people have it done it in a dumb way, but it comes from a place of love. I would love you enough to tell you the truth.

and you see what they are doing here is they are doing what every idol worshiper does. Today we live in a world that says if you believe in something intently and intensely, that's all that matters. That is not true. No matter how hard you believe in something that does not make it true, there is no your truth, there is just truth. And the reality is that every religion outside of the gospel calls people to do. do what these people are doing here. It says dance harder, dance harder, dance harder. Perform, perform, perform. And if you perform good enough, then maybe you will be acceptable to this little G God. And every other religion will call you to mutilate yourself or cut yourself. You want to know how to

recognize a false God? Here's a false God. It requires more dancing and more performance and it's never enough. And not just like, I'm not just talking about major religions and cults and things like that. I'm talking about every secular God that exists too. There'll never be enough money, there'll never be enough promotion, there'll never be enough attention. And it says, just keep dancing, keep dancing, keep dancing. And it causes you to cut yourself or mutilate yourself, sometimes literally in our world. But usually the way it plays out is this, is that you cut your time with your family for the sake of your career and money. Or you cut your morality for the sake of advancing. Or you cut your relationships with people that matter so that you can

spend all your time cutting your calories and in the gym, because you don't care about those people, you just care about what they think about you. You see, God is the opposite of this. Where an idol makes promises that it cannot keep, and it says, come on, more, more, more, more. than God, the gospel, tells us that God sends Jesus, his only begotten son, to put away the performing trap. That God, Jesus Christ, performs perfectly on our behalf. He fulfills the law. He is tempted in every way that you and I are. And he goes to the cross in our place, pushes up on his nail-pierce feet, and says,

Teletestai, it is finished. I have done for you what you can never do for yourself. And the gospel does not say that our God asks us to mutilate ourselves for him, but the gospel tells us that he has sent his son to be mutilated on our behalf. These things are fundamentally different. In Luke chapter 9, in Luke chapter 9, Jesus and the disciples, they go into Samaria and they share the gospel and they're rejected. And the disciples referencing First Kings 18 says Jesus,

how about call down fire from heaven, the fire of judgment, on to these people who have rejected you? They were talking about this very account right here. And Jesus rebukes them and it's like, you totally missed the point. You see, the fire of God's judgment is coming, but it is not just going to come down on people that have rejected me. The fire of God's judgment is going to come down on me so that your blood will not be shed because mine will be. That is the fundamental difference in the gospel in every other false religion or every other idol. that we chase.

If you chase after an idol, I'm telling you, it just sings a Billy Idol song, more, more, more, over and over and over. I always send out my notes to all the folks on staff, and Pastor Adam Flint sent this back to me this week. It's such a blessing to have so many talented people and godly people on our team. And so, I don't know if he made it up,

but I'm going to give him credit this time. And then next time I'll say, you've heard it said, and then the third time I'll say you've always heard me say. So this is going to be mine. in six months. Pastor Flint said this. You know idols are false hope because when things fall apart,

you never cry out to money or to a house or to a job or to whatever the idol is. You cry out to God. Tim Keller says it this way. Jesus is the only God that if you find him will satisfy you and if you fail him will forgive you.

And so there they are. Crying out and cutting themselves and the Bible says, no one answered no one paid attention because a false god will never answer you he will just let you down verse 50 this is when everything changes if there's the soundtrack to this movie man it's it's getting better here and then elijah said to all the people come near to me that's Hebrew where i'm from for hold my beer watch this okay and if that offends you just pray something and all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the lord that had been

thrown down and Elijah took the 12 stones. Basically what he's saying is, hey, what I'm doing ain't new. This is my turn. He took the 12 stones according to the number of the tribes, the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying Israel shall be your name. And with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two sias of seed. That just means a bunch. And he put the wood in order, and he cut the bull into pieces, and he laid it on the wood, and he said, fill four jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood. And he said, do it a second of time. And they did it a second time. And he said, do it a third time. And they did it a third time. And the water ran around the

author and he filled the trench also with water. Now remember, they are in a drought. And he has used 12 jars of water to pour on this thing. And you would look at this thing and go, what are you doing, Elijah? That's going to be impossible. You've created an impossible situation here. How many of you know that when your situation seems impossible, then you are perfectly positioned to see God moving away that only he can move? I mean, some of you are coming here and you're like, hey man, I appreciate your Old Testament stories about the bearded God and the fire from heaven and stuff, but I'm in an

impossible marriage right now. I mean, I'm in a marriage where there's no way in my mind I can conceive of us submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. or some of you've been praying for a prodigal son or daughter for so long that it seems impossible. You've prayed and you prayed and you've sent them messages and you've begged them to come with you. And yet they're still in the pig style. And you hate when we go to Luke 15 and talk about the prodigal son. Because your kid has yet to come to their senses.

Or you look at your financial situation and you know, and maybe it wasn't even your fault. Maybe something happened to you that was outside of your control. And you're like, if God doesn't move in a major way, a miraculous way right now, then I am in trouble. Or some of you are in this health situation and you're like, God, if you don't show up, do you realize that when you're at the end of your rope, when you're at rock bottom and you can only look up, that you are perfectly positioned for God to do his best work? That he is the God of miracles. I mean, you think about this. The disciples are gathered together. You want to think, it seemed impossible to them. Jesus was dead and in a grave. He showed up. He said he was the son

of God. He said the kingdom of God is at hand. And they're thinking, the kingdom of God ain't in hand the kingdom of God is in a tomb what are we going to do now and if they were to look at god and go god what are you doing he would say I'm redeeming the world just hang in there for about three days and it's going to get way way way better if you find yourself in an impossible situation man I'm telling you it's like a bottom of the night hanging curveball it's the perfect spot for God to just jack the thing out of the stadium and even all of those situations are but temporary you know what your only impossible situation is, your sin. It is the only thing you can't do anything about it to fix, anything. And yet, even in that situation, God does for us what we could never do for

ourselves. He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to live the perfect life, to die the sinner's death, to take the judgment of God upon him that we could get the righteousness of God and be reconciled to the one true God. You know, we say this around here all the time. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And if God can breathe life into his dead son, then I promise you he can breathe life in your marriage. And if God can speak into existence, everything that is, then I promise he can take care of his kids. And I'm telling you, if he could resurrect us into the newness of life, that if he wants you to be healed, I promise, whether it's through people, pills, or prayer, whatever it might, whatever it is, then God can heal you.

you, and if it is your sin that is the impossible situation, I'm telling you in one word from you, if you cry out to him as your Lord, then he can make miracles happen. Sometimes people will say, how come miracles don't happen? Bro, miracles happen in here all the time. People go from death to life that is the only eternal miracle. I'd take that over any other miracle any day. And so he finds himself in this impossible situation. Then the next verse 36, he says, and at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet,

came near and he said, oh 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. So listen, people ask me, should I do something crazy like this? Like, meet at the break room and say, all right, everybody bring your reports. I'm going to put them in the middle. We're going to call and fire down. If God tells you to do that, then yes, you absolutely should. If you don't know with 100% certainty, it lines up perfectly with his word, then come see an elder. Because you might just be crazy. Which is fine. God uses crazy people all the time.

We're a movement for all people, even crazies. And if you're crazy, you probably don't even realize it. So you think I'm talking to somebody else. So no problem. Verse 37, he says, answer me, O Lord. Answer me. That this people may know that you, oh Lord, are God. I dare you to add that phrase to all of your prayer requests this week and watch how your prayer

life changes. If you're praying for healing, which you should, what if you pray for healing, that all may know that the Lord is God. If you're praying for some kind of financial breakthrough, fine, he's a good dad, just cast it on him. What if at the end of it, it's not so that I could have more of what I want, but so that all people would know that you are the Lord. And so, he says, answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, oh 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 mean the fire is burning dust. I didn't even know what did that and licked up the water and that was in the trench. Now God is just

showing off. God is just showing out. He's just showing that he doesn't give like just enough to cover the situation but it's spilling out all over the place. I don't know if you know this, but our Bible in the book of Ephesians says this, that our God is the kind of God that does exceedingly more than we ever hoped or imagined. You've got to keep going, though, in the church. So listen, man, if your prayers are not intimidating to you, they very well could be insulting to God. I mean, Elijah is asking for something impossible.

And when God answers the prayer, he doesn't just kind of sort of answer it over time. It's not like just one little fire dripped on to the head of the bull, and it just sort of roasted him like a pig rose over 36 hours. It consumed it all. because he was just showing off and showing out. And listen, man, it's like when Jesus came out of the grave, you realize, like, he wasn't just sort of dead.

I know there's not levels of dead, but he did not just pass away in his sleep one night, and then three days later, oh, I'm back, and that's not how it happened. He was beaten and flogged and mutilated. They stabbed a spear in his heart. They put him in a cave and put a multi-toned stone in front of him, and then there's a garrison of Roman soldiers. They're tough. They took over the world. Tough. And yet, God breathes life into his son.

He resurrects from the grave. He puts death to death. The stone rolls away. He walks out with such glory that the soldiers who, again, are men of war. They freak out, panic, fall into a coma. And then he jogs seven miles to amazes. Just to show you, man, he is showing up and showing out. This is the God we serve. I can tell you from personal experience seven years ago, I'm standing in that parking lot here at our San Pablo campus, before this place was all renovated, nice,

it looked like the end of a Terminator 2 movie. And I didn't know if anybody'd show up. I just beg God, Lord, please let enough people come so that we can have a second service. I don't mean in the same day. I'm talking about ever. Like, let you come this week, and enough of them come back to next week

that we can kind of be a church. Okay. Now, we're in our fifth campus. We're about to go to our sixth campus in Fleming Island in the summer. And our fifth campus that is in Baker Correctional has so many brothers at the Baker Correctional that they're showing up

that we couldn't fit them all, so we had to go to two services. says just that Baker correctional. And you understand? I just got another letter, amen. I got another letter from Baker, and it just said, it just said, behold. That's how it started.

Then early on, I would just pray, God, would you just please, would you please save 365 people? And the reason I pray that specific number is because in Acts chapter 2, the Bible says, and believers were added to their number day by day. And I thought, all right, if we could run 365 in a year, that'd be day by day, we'd be biblical. So far this year, in three months, God has saved 486 people. And we're not even to Easter yet.

So he calls down the fire and it wipes out everything, verse 39. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their face and they said, the Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. You know how you say that? In Hebrew, Eli Jha. Eli Jha. Here's the point.

A mustard seed size faith in an infinitely powerful promise-keeping God is infinitely more powerful than putting all of your faith in temporary promise-breaking idols. You get this? That's why Jesus says, if you just got the fate the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move, and it's got no choice. Because a tiny little bit, it's not the amount of fate that you have, but it's the object of your faith that matters. They believed intently cutting themselves and raving on.

See, I was doing sermon research on YouTube. Okay, I'm tech fasting, but I had to watch it for sermon research. In 1912, there was this French man. I don't know how to say his name. Franz Reck. I don't know. I can't speak French. Frank Reckult or something like that.

He's a tailor. And he built this suit that he believed he could fly in, or at least parachute, kind of glide down. And so he was into it. He believed it 100%. He got all his friends together. He goes to the Eiffel Tower, 1912. They climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower. And when they got up there, he was so convinced in his own handiwork.

that he said, I don't need a dummy, I'll be the dummy. He gets in the suit. His friends are begging him. No, no, no, no, no, no. Let's run a couple trial runs. He's like, I don't think you understand. I believe, I understand. I have great confidence that this thing is going to work.

He steps off the tower, two seconds later, smacks the ground. He did. All the way. End of the story. And he had huge faith in his suit. Also sermon research. Have you seen these glass bridges that they are building in China? Have you seen these things?

All right. After the Tech Fast, endowls, but until then, don't. So, I don't know why they do it. They do what they won't, I guess, whatever, okay? But there's this bridge built out of glass. So when you get out there, you can just see right through it. 1,100 feet over this canyon in China. And people walk across. And some of the people, when they get on it, they see through, they see the bottom, and they just panic and they freak out. And you can waste hours of your life watching these Chinese people fall all around and just screaming expletives. At least I guess it is. Sounds like it.

I mean, freaking, and then their loved ones dragging them across as they are sure they're going to die falling through the thing. Now here's the thing, man. You know how much confidence they had in the bridge? They have no confidence. They had barely just enough confidence

to step from the land onto the glass bridge. That's all they have. But it was not the amount of confidence that they could muster up. It was the thing they put their confidence in that holds them up. That's what faith is. Now, some of you're like, well, hold on. Why are you talking about a mustard seed side of fate with Elijah?

He's a boss, man. He rolls up in there calling out fire from heaven against 850 prophets of bail. I mean, he looks like his faith is huge. In fact, the story keeps going, where after he burnt, by the way, all the prophets of bail get burned up. And then he says, he prays for rain seven times. Remember, it ain't rained in three and a half years. say seven times and then sure enough a cloud shows up and he goes over to ahab and he's like hey boss you might want to hop on your chariot and head to the house because you're about to get rained out

sure enough the whole sky turns black and the chariot's heading to the house and then the bible says that elijah hikes up his robe and outruns the chariot think about that you're riding the chair and then there's elijah like roadrunner what what's that guy doing and you wonder why in the world would that be in the bible does you remember his first question How long you're going to limp between two opinions? You know what it looks like for somebody that puts their faith in God, man? You ain't limping or wrong. You can outrun chariots.

You can run and not go weary. You can rise up on eagle's wings. And then you think, so at this point, after Jezebel finds out that all her prophets have been killed, she puts out an idiot and she's like, all right, kill Elijah. Now, you would think, after what we just read, is that Elijah would stand up like a boss. He'd be like, come on and get some of this, all right? I'll call down fire on you, you loud-mouthed woman. Whatever he would do, you would think that he'd be the hero.

You know what the hero does? He's afraid. So he runs, and he hides himself in a cave, and he asks God to kill him. Because he's so intimidated about the situation that he's in, even though he just came off of this big mountain. As I began to look through the scripture, I thought, you know what? Who's a hero in the Bible? I mean, Elijah is a coward. Some people would say Moses, he was a murderer. Some people would say Abraham,

we found out two weeks ago, he pimped his wife out twice. You ain't a hero. Some people would say David, he's a murderer and an adulterer. Actually, he's a murderer because of his adultery. Some people might go Paul. He was a religious terrorist. Some people would say the apostle Peter. Not only did Peter deny his faith three times after being warned he would do it. At one point, Matthew chapter 16, after he rebukes Jesus, Jesus calls him, Satan. Think about how much counseling you would have to go through for God so love the world. That brother called me the devil, okay? So, listen, the only hero in the Bible is Jesus. Everybody else is a piece of Elijah, man. Everybody else is just a failure like me and you. And so what Elijah does coming off of this great faith victory when he finds out Jezboe wants to kill him,

he runs and he hides in this little cave and he's like, God, would you just please kill me? and then in first gaitings chapter 19 you get another picture of the gospel god doesn't give up on him because of his lack of faiths he chases him down he meets him in the k and he's like bro what are you doing here what are you doing here and Elijah goes on to say I'm afraid I'm scared I'm scared and so God says I have a word for you and Elijah essentially says if you just speak to me, then I'd be okay. And so the Bible says that as he's in this cave, this firestorm passes by the cave. And Elijah's thinking, well, that must be God, right? He moves in the miraculous and in the big, and then he checks the thing out, and the Bible says, but God's not in the

firestorm. And then there's this windstorm. This wind comes ripping through outside the cave to the point where pieces of the mountain are falling off. And you know he's thinking that that must be him because he moves in the big and the miraculous and he kind of sticks his head out there and he's not in the great windstorm. And then there's this. great earthquake. The Bible says, but God is not in the earthquake. Then it says there is this gentle ruach, which means breeze, wind, but it also means whisper. And God speaks to Elijah, one of the lowest points in his life coming off of one of the highest victories of his day. And he speaks to him, not in the fire and not in the earthquake, and not in the wind, but he speaks to

to him in what the Bible calls a still small voice. Listen, I know there's a bunch of you, man. And you say you love Jesus and you want to love Jesus, but you get a little Jesus amnesia, right? Like on Sunday, man, we get in here and we sing and we go for it and it's awesome. And you stirred up ready to call fire down on the false prophets that you weren't with. And then by Tuesday you're just coupled up on a beanbag wondering if there is a guy. And the good news is that he pursues you. He pursues you.

And I know every single one of us, man, like John Calvin said, our hearts are eyes. title making factories and every single one of us have a tendency to take our eye off of the one true God and fix it on something that is telling us lies and today I'm asking you choose the God that you serve that once again this is not a one-time event this is why Jesus says you got to take up your cross daily you got to do this every single day of your life and in just a second the band's going to come we are going to sing we're going to declare the Lord our God the Lord is one because there is only one true God and I'm going to invite you to leave the safe space where you are.

Now listen, God is everywhere, but I dare you to step out of the safe row that you're in, and you step on down here to these prayer authors, and you just move into what God would have for you, and maybe, maybe, maybe the still small voice of God would speak to you in your darkest places, and the places where you need chains to be broken, where you need the spirit of God to trouble you

so that you could do away with the idols. in your world. And I'm not talking about the surface idols like sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I'm talking about those deep idols like comfort and security. And maybe God would do a miracle, not fire from heaven, but even better than that, that the grace of God would wash over you and wash those idols away. Would you please stand and let me pray for you? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father God, I thank you that you sent your son on our behalf. to take the fire of your judgment on the cross. And God, the valley of Mount Carmel was filled with the blood of false prophets on that day.

I thank you that by the life, death, and resurrection, God, because of the shedding of Jesus' blood, that we are forgiven. Lord, I pray if there's anybody here and they don't know you that in this moment, they would cry out to you. They'd put their faith in you right now. They'd call on the name of the Lord. They'd be saved. But God, I pray for the man.

I pray for the woman. I pray for the student. that has known you for a while. But today, Spirit of God, you would overflow us in such a way that you would speak to our souls with that still small voice that beckons us unto you. And that we would know that you and you alone, that you are God. We prayed in Jesus' name.

Amen.