Great things going on in our kids and youth ministries.

God is faithful. Welcome to Spring House. Are you glad to be here this morning?

Glad to see you. If you're joining us on Livestream. Thank you for joining us

today. I just got back from a

trip to Seattle. This is Shari and me in Seattle. And

yes, we are wearing hoodies and coats, but because it was a

nice 65 degrees in Seattle, which caused

me to go, somebody here today needs to repent. So the Lord will open

the windows of cool air in Smyrna, Tennessee.

But the weather was fabulous. Well, why were you in Seattle, Kevin? Well, we were

there celebrating Shari's mom and dad's 50th anniversary.

50 years is something to celebrate because

it has all the markings of faithfulness. And Rich and Robin

have moved to Tennessee and they are now part of our Spring House body

here. So I do encourage you to get to know them. Very dear,

sweet people. And we just celebrate them

in their 50 years together.

Today we're gonna talk about a real wonderful character

in scripture. His name is Elijah. And actually

we're gonna talk about Elijah today, next week, and the

going to take three weeks. And this probably is one of the more

familiar passages of scripture, if

you know the Old Testament. And so we're going to see what the Lord has

to speak to us through this story. Do

not mind the man with the bandana on his head as he

rolls the. Oh, it's not a bandana, it's a hat.

The flame on your shirt, that's how I feel. And

Smyrna heat. We're

going to read one verse of Scripture today, and it is not from 1st Kings

17 through 19. Would you stand with me and would you read as if

you're so thankful? We're only reading one short verse today

together. Here we go. Let's read. Without faith,

it is impossible to please God because

anyone who comes to him must believe that he

exists and. And he rewards those who earnestly

seek him. Father, I thank you for your word. It brings us life.

And Lord, I pray that your word would come to life today in us. Lord,

it's not happenstance that we are here. Lord, I pray that you would

move, that you would give us boldness and faith, Lord, today to

believe you are who you say you are in Jesus name. And everyone

said, amen. You may be seated.

Well, today, next week and the week after, we're going to talk about Elijah. And

for the next two weeks, or for today and next week, we're going to talk

about faith and fear. Faith and fear we're going to

major a little bit more today on faith. But the bulk of the teaching is

actually going to happen next Sunday because we're going to do something a little unique

and interesting here in just a little while. So the bulk

of it will be next week. But over the next two weeks, we're going to

be taking the story of Elijah. Today we're going to take it

from his introduction through the encounter at Mount Carmel.

And then next week we'll go beyond that.

So our story in First Kings starts with. Actually

starts in the middle of a narrative about

a man named Ahab. Ahab was the king of

Israel. Not just any king. He was a bad king. Everybody say bad

king. He was a bad king. And he was not just a bad king, but

the Bible tells us that he did more evil in the eyes of the Lord

than any other king in Israel. So this was a really bad

dude. But as I've unpackaged the story and I've

studied King Ahab, what I've come to realize is

Ahab, yeah, he was certainly an evil king, but I think it was because he

was a very insecure king. If you read Ahab and you

look at his interactions with everybody, he tends to just do whatever

everybody else tells him to do. And so, you know, I'll tell you, the

one thing you don't want in leadership is somebody who's insecure.

Especially in Christian leadership. In Christian leadership, you gotta be secure.

Because guess what? Lord is the one who appoints you. And the people when

they come against you, especially those of the world, you gotta have your strength and

know your call. Is that true? Cause that thing, well, that booger will chase you

away. But if you're in Ahab's case, he was connected to a

lady named Jezebel. Now, Jezebel, I'll tell you, she was not insecure. She was

actually over secure. She was very confident. And in fact, if you crossed her,

she'd kill you. She was a

force to be reckoned with. And these two together were leading

Israel. And Jezebel was somebody that he could

sic on people that he didn't want anything to do with. And she would certainly

take care of them because she was a ruthless warrior

and she worshiped false gods. So you have this powerhouse couple

here who everyone fears, and God raises

up a man by the name of Elijah.

Now, Elijah means the Lord is my God. Would you say that

the Lord is my God? Elijah means the Lord is my

God. And would you not just know it would be just Like

God, to raise up someone whose name is the Lord. Lord is my

God. To go and tell somebody who the real living, true God

is. And so he raises up Elijah, and he

commissions Elijah to go and share with

King Ahab. Now, here's the thing. I want to

look at the introduction to Elijah, because, you know, typically you would think, okay,

if you're going to raise somebody up to go to the most evil king, you

probably are going to get some backstory on this dude. You're going to probably get

some information. But guess what? We don't get any information

on Elijah. He just shows up in the middle of passage. The Lord

says, now, Elijah, the Tishbite in Gilead said

to Ahab, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, whom I

serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years, except

at my word. This is the first introduction we get to this man named

Elijah. Now, that may not really. That really may not

matter in your mind if you're just reading the story for the first time. But

when you see what Elijah is about to do in the next few chapters and

beyond, you'll go, man, what? This guy must have some type

of backstory. Now, we don't have a backstory on Elijah, but I love this

introduction. I love that we don't have the backstory. Because here's the

thing. So many times when we share our stories, when we share our

testimonies, we share so much more about us than we do

our God. And let me tell you something. The power in your testimony has nothing

to do with you. Has everything to do with what Jesus does in your life.

Here's the point. The greatest part of your story has little to do with you

and a whole lot to do with Him. Amen.

The greatest part of your story has a little to do with you and a

whole lot to do with him. I got an American

Express card a little while ago, and I have just

graduated last night to elite status. Okay?

Now, I don't know exactly what that means, but they notified me that I am

now elite status with American Express. That just means that my

shenanigans are expensive and I still have to pay off the card. But I've

made elite status. Here's the thing. This is what I want to tell

you. God's not waiting for you to climb the ladder and become

elite before he chooses to use you. He

wants to find you right where you are. And if you have a willing

yes on the table and you're willing to believe he is who he says

he is. And he can do what he said he will do. He will use

someone like you. Let me tell you, somebody needs to hear that this morning because

somebody walked in here feeling very insignificant this morning. As if

your story doesn't matter. As if God didn't have a plan for you or knows

your name. But can I tell you, the God who breathes stars knows your name

and he has a plan and purpose for your life. The enemy would be out

to kill and steal. That dream would be out to say, you don't matter. You

don't have a place. You don't have a place in my kingdom. You're

insignificant. Look what they are doing, look what that's going on with their life. But

can I tell you, if you will just lean into the Lord, if you will

believe he is who he says he is, he'll use you. He will use you

in a mighty, mighty way that ripples into all

eternity. Now, we don't know what Elijah's life was before

this point, but what we do know is that Elijah

serves the Lord. That's the first thing he says.

My name means I know the Lord and I serve

the Lord, right? So we know he serves the Lord. And in an act

of faith, Elijah decides to walk in obedience to the

Lord. Can I tell you this morning that obedience requires faith? If

you're going to walk in obedience to the Lord, it's going to require faith.

Well, that makes a whole lot of sense because if God's telling you to do

something, you're probably not going to do something from somebody you don't believe in, right?

So obedience, right, requires a degree of

faith when God asks you to do something.

My best buddy John and I were in a 60 day challenge together. And one

of the things that he prayed over me this past week is he prayed, lord,

allow Kevin to go in and be a conduit of joy when he walks into

different places. And so I'm in Seattle and

that morning I got up and I went to Kroger and I got the cart

out and you know, I'm looking for joy. And how many know that you're not

going to find very much joy at Kroger? I was there. Now, I was

planning on getting up to that elite status that morning, but I was there and

I was joyful. I was smiling, I was pushing my cord, and nobody was

joy. I mean, it literally. Everybody had something, some type of chip on

their shoulder. Something was going on. And I was like, what is going on here?

So I check out and I'm like, lord, there is no joy in this

Kroger. And so I check out and I get my receipt. And

I'm about to walk out the door, and there's a man at the door. He's

the security officer, and he's going to check my receipt to make sure I didn't

steal anything, right? So I'm walking by the door and he says, come here. And

I was like, me? Yeah. Okay. So I put my card over there. And he

said, sir, do you know what today is? And I said, no, sir, I do

not. He said, today is Happy Face Friday.

And I just said, yes, sir, it is. And here's my happy face.

And he said, and here's mine. You have a great day. And as I walked

out, the Holy Spirit said, it is so simple. It

is so simple to render the joy of the

Lord to people. See, some people think you gotta have a soapbox, a platform, a

microphone. Microphone. You can render the good news of Jesus

Christ in a simple interaction that has no words.

And so I went to the coffee shop right after that, and it's a small

little coffee shop. There's 25 people or so in there. And I walk in,

and I walk in, and as soon as I walk in, there's these two guys,

I presume they're maybe pastors or some type of leaders of church. And they've got

this big white book, both of them, and it says, by Tim Keller,

jesus is King. I walked right in there and I looked across the

25 people are sitting there, and not one ounce of joy in that room,

including the two fellas who have this big book that they're proud to be talking

about. So I walk up to the counter and I order my coffee and order

some avocado toast. It was great avocado toast, by the way. And I

order my avocado toast, and I go over and I stand by there and I'm

thinking, lord, do you want me to engage these fellows who have this book, Jesus

is King? What do you want me to do here? And he says to me,

I want you to wait. Okay? So I'm just waiting right there. And I'm

overhearing these fellows conversations, and can I tell you,

their conversation was absolutely nothing about Jesus

being king. They were talking about so and so, did so and so and

did so and so. To so and so and so and so was not going

to get so and so. And it was not a very pretty conversation laden with

gossip, fueled with frustration whilst

holding a book called Jesus is King. I said,

Lord, man, I wish they would turn that book over so people wouldn't be around

them seeing that and watching Jesus as king at the same time. And the

Holy Spirit said, just wait. I said, okay, well, in walks

this lady and this man, and this lady and this man had these yellow fluorescent

vests on, tattered, messed up, got oil stains on them. And they worked at

the train depot right down the road. And they come in and can I tell

you, they walked in and all 25 people in that store, in

that coffee shop got a smile from that lady, said, hey, how you doing? It's

good to see you today. Hey, I love that shirt that you're wearing. And she

went around to every single table and just spread

joy. The atmosphere changed. Do you know your actions

can change the atmosphere? Your actions, the joy of the

Lord will change the atmosphere. While I'm standing there and I'm looking at this

stark contrast as I'm staring at Jesus as king and I'm

seeing this lady parade around with such joy and the Holy Spirit said, get in

front of her and pay for her coffee. So I went up there, I took

out my American Express and I paid and I paid and I paid

for her coffee. And she had the best smile. And you know

what, she said, my name is Andy, it's great to meet you. And so I

paid for a coffee. And I said, my name's Kevin. She said, why are you

here? And I said, well, we're celebrating my wife's parents anniversary. And

she said, do you know what? My husband died

seven years ago this month after 25 years of

marriage. And I felt that my role

was to spread the joy, spread cheer to everyone I

meet after my husband's death. And I said, andy, you are

absolutely doing that. You changed the atmosphere of this coffee

shop. Do you know, because of my obedience

by faith, I was able to encourage Andy in her walk

despite other people being in the room. Over. Here's the thing, just because

somebody has Jesus on their T shirt does not mean that they

know the Lord Jesus Christ. Just because they're carrying a

billboard or a book does not mean that they've got a relationship with the

Creator. Andy had been through some stuff, let me tell you, and the Lord

God had touched her life. Now, we didn't have an overt conversation about the Lord

there, but it was very apparent who was in the middle of that conversation.

Obedience requires faith. So you may not know how it's

going to turn out, but know that the outcome is

God's responsibility. Obedience is yours.

Obedience Is yours. Elijah goes before Ahab and tells him about

the coming drought. And then the Lord instructs Elijah to go

into hiding. To go into hiding.

Have you ever had a situation where God calls you out, calls you up, and

then he says, now go sit down. That's just like

God. Let me give you the T shirt. I'll give you the position.

I'll give you the title. I'll give you the accolade. Now get out of the

way. That's just like the character of God. Let's look at David. David's

life. David, he knows he's king. Now go back into the field and tend the

sheep. Let me tell you something. God is not

about the business of elevating you. He's in the business of elevating himself.

And everything that you're about and everything that you're doing in your life is

supposed to be about elevating the name of the Lord.

Amen. So the word of the Lord tells us

that Elijah obeyed and he drank from a brook,

and the Lord commanded ravens to bring him

food. What kind of God do we serve that birds obey

his command? He tells the

ravens to come and bring him food. Now,

here's the thing. I want you to picture this. Elijah did

announce the drought to Ahab. But Elijah is also

succumbing to the drought. He's also in the middle of this drought.

And can I tell you that his environment around

him was everything that the Lord said. But the Lord will provide for

you when you are obedient. And so in the

midst of this drought, the Lord provides a brook and he provides the

ravens to bring him food. Can I tell you something? You

may be in a dry season of your life right now. You may be in

a place where you have not heard the voice of the Lord. You may be

in a place of questioning this morning. What is my purpose? What is his plan

for my life? Can I tell you? Look for the ravens. Stop looking at the

environment around you. Stop looking at the drought around you. Stop looking at

what everybody else is pointing out to you. But look at. Look for how he

provides the ravens. If you lean into the Lord. If you know the

Lord God, he will always provide a raven to come and sustain you

in the middle of the drought. Lean into him. It is the time to

build your trust in the Lord, to build your faith in the Lord so that

he. When he was ready to call you up and out, you'll be ready to

go. The greatest development

of your faith actually will happen in private places.

The greatest Development of your faith happens in private places.

We tend to see the ravens and want to stand up and shout and tell

everybody, you need to have a raven, and you need to have a raven. But

here's the thing. There's so many things that happen in your life, in your

private life with the Lord that is between you and the Lord. It's not

made. Guess what? He's building a case for himself. He's building a foundation. But

there's so many little things that happen that he wants you to focus in on

him. He's doing in your private interactions with him,

your private interactions in your home, the way your attitude. Here's

the thing. You know, there are times when I wake up and I don't want

to be joyful to Shari. I choose

joy. But how inauthentic would it be if I

choose joy? And then I tell Shari, I just chose joy? There. I just want

you to know, I just chose to be joyful. I chose to

listen to you listen. I chose to. I just want you to know. I chose

to serve you in this moment. Just want you to know. Okay, no, The

Lord's doing that work on the inside. He's doing it. He's calling

less. It's less of Kevin and more

of him. So Elijah is fed by the ravens daily,

quietly hidden. In Romans 12, it

says, Take your ordinary, everyday sleeping, eating, going to work life and place

it before God as an offering. Why do we do that? Because it is

in the mundane, ordinary things that God cultivates

his reality in your life so that your faith can be built and be

used everyday life. You don't need to

wait till a moment that you need a miracle to begin to lead in. In

fact, those are the moments when you're drawing on the bank that you've already stored

up in those mundane moments. So we need

to have an everyday lifestyle that

leans in to the Holy Spirit. What God

had for Elijah at this season, at this moment in his life,

was not fire. See, we know the story because we have the privilege of knowing

the end from the beginning. But at this point in his life, he didn't have

fire. He didn't have crowds. It was just Elijah, God,

and some birds. And some birds.

Some of us are way too focused on the environment he's placed us in to

recognize and acknowledge his powerful move. What ravens is

he sending? In your life right now? God is

preparing Elijah for something huge. And can I tell you, he's also

preparing you for something huge. Now, huge is a

relative subjective statement, because huge in My eyes is different than huge in his

eyes. So when I say he's

preparing you for something huge, it may not look like your neighbor, it may

not look like the other huge moves of people that you saw in your life.

But in the Lord's eyes, in the kingdom's eyes, it's huge.

And the ripples go through eternity. And your

quiet seasons, in your quiet seasons, the Lord preparing

you. Because here's the thing. Public faith is built on quiet

private trust. Public faith is built on

quiet private trust. We rolled out on January

1st the greatest stories ever told. We put a booklet together for a

Bible reading plan. And so many of you have been faithful to that reading

plan all the way through this time. But somewhere around March, April,

February, some of you threw in the towel because you gave up reading or you,

you've skipped a few days or you didn't get in the groove. And you said,

man, I just have to toss in the towel because I have now lost the

momentum. July 1st is on Tuesday. Can

I tell you, it is never too late to start reading the Word of God.

And let me tell you, as you cultivate this private trust, it

takes soaking hours in His Word. Soaking time

in His Word. And let me tell you, if you've given up, you've thrown in

the towel, you say, I don't. Kevin, I don't have an active relationship with the

Word of God. Can I tell you, you are missing out on one of the

most fundamental, incredible experiences of your

Christian journey. It is time to pick up the Word of God and

know the Word of God. It's time to pick up and dive in. Guys.

If you've been journeying, if you've been with us over the last six months and

you've been faithful to read that one chapter a day, let me tell you, let

me encourage you. It's time to ante up. Let's go to two chapters.

Let's add to it. Let's continue to move forward. Let's lean in

deeper because he has more for us. Us. Let's

be a Bible reading, Bible believing church. Amen.

Amen. We have to know the Word in order to believe it. We have to

know the Word in order to live it. And so the brook dries

up and there's no more water. But God

has a plan. And isn't that just like God? Sometimes he sends us right to

an area he begins to provide for us. And then the brook dries up and

there we are and we go. Lord, you told me to come here and

now look what's going on. And all of a sudden, instead of crying out

to the same God who sustained you with the ravens, you begin to

complain about your circumstance and your situation. And instead

of complaining, I believe that the God is wooing us to say, draw

deeper into me. See, here's the thing. In the 60 day challenge, I'm doing 50

pushups every day. Can I tell you, the first day I did those push ups,

that next day, my arms were on fire. They were

killing me. Okay. But, you know, as I continue to do those

push ups, each day, it gets. Can

I tell you, as you flex the muscle of faith and trust in the Lord,

it gets easier and easier. As you. As you. And he begins

to be able to put more weight, he begins to trust you with

more. You begin able to lift more. You become a warrior in the

kingdom. See, here's the thing. Elijah, he had a story before he was raised up

in that moment to go to king. King Ahab was the evilest king in

Israel. Elijah had a backstory.

I don't know what it is, but he had a backstory. And he was lifting

those faith muscles. Muscles. In order to be called up and raised up by God.

Are you lifting your muscles of faith?

So God leads Elijah to a woman, a widow with a son, who

has nothing to give. Seems like the situation is worse than it was

before, initially, because she's got some flour and some oil and she's cooking her

last meal. How many

know that we serve a God who can make something out of nothing?

Nothing. He knows how to make something out of nothing.

She's gathering sticks for a final meal, but Elijah says to her,

feed me first. Some of you may be the person who

has just a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil,

and you're not willing to relinquish it for the Lord. Can I tell

you? God can take what little you have, and he can make it explode

into extraordinary, extravagant things if you're willing to let

it go. Landon and Kaylan were just up here talking about offerings. Some of you

get that bank account and you're looking at the number and you say, no, I'm

going to hold on. I'm going to control it myself, God,

because my plan is better than yours. Now, we don't say that out loud, but

our actions say that very loudly. And God is saying, let me tell you

something. If you give me that negative bank account, I'll do some things in your

life that only I can do. Do you

trust me? Do you trust me? Because I got A raven

that's going to come and save you. I got a brook

for you to drink from. It feels outrageous unless you're

walking by faith. And so the flour and the oil for the bread, they don't

run out. Not because she could afford it, but because she trusted

the Lord. You see, faith begets faith. And when you see faith in

action, it spurs others on in their faith. When I was

in third grade, I rode a church bus to Sunday school at a

Baptist church. And there was the kid living next to me. His name was Brian.

And I so wanted Brian to go to church with me on Sunday. I wanted

him to get on that bus with me. And he didn't want anything to do

with. So, you know, I would ask him week after week to ride the bus.

Well, there was this one day he wanted. One Saturday, he wanted to go fishing

with his dad. And it was raining outside. It was pouring. I mean, it was

really, really raining outside. And he stormed out of the house so fast. And I

was like, what's going on, Brian? He said, I want to go fishing with my

dad and that stupid rain is stopping us. And I said, well, why don't you

pray and ask that, Ask God for the rain to stop or

whatever. And he said, I tell you what, you pray to God and ask him

to stop the rain, and if he does, I'll go to church with you. Well,

I took my King James Bible and I went, right now I'm a Baptist boy.

I don't believe in the whole. This all woohoo stuff, you know, at this point.

And so I go over there and I'm just. I get in the middle of

the road, drench the rain, and I hold this King James Bible up to the

sky and I say, lord, make the rain

stop so my friend Brian will go to church with me.

Thirty seconds later, the sky looked like that.

I was shocked. I was like, what?

Whoa, whoa. Now, Brian never went to church with me, but.

But I guarantee you he remembers that

moment. Cause we made a big deal out of it.

God can do extraordinary things with a little bit of faith.

But can I tell you, in that moment, that moment

wasn't about. Listen to this, this is important. That moment

wasn't about let the rain let up so fishing can happen. Happen.

The reason God answered that prayer was somebody needed

to believe. Someone needed to believe.

And God answered this. The, the, the prayer.

The widow's son dies in the middle of this. And Elijah calls

out to the Lord and the Word tells us that the Lord uses Elijah

to Bring this boy back to life. Do you see this small

faith getting bigger? And he's seeing God is moving

in Elijah's life. And supernatural, incredible things are happening because of

Elijah's faith to go to the Lord. With every circumstance and

situation. God was building Elijah's trust. So by the

time he got to Mount Carmel, he knew God would come

through. Isaiah 55 says this. For my

thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the

Lord. And many times we say, lord, my thoughts are better than your thoughts, and

my ways are better than your ways. So get out of my way, Lord. But

the Word tells us that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

And let me tell you, if Jesus is the way, I don't want to be

in his way, because it is only through him

that we can go to the Father. We don't want to be in the way.

We want to be a conduit of grace. We want to be a conduit and

an example. We want to be able to see God's display in our life

so that others may come to know him. That is the point,

fellow believers, when I often. When. We often think

that the fight is between. Listen to this. We often think

that the fight is between radical faith and radical

fear. We got radical faith over here, and here's the fight. Lord, I can't get

over here where I'm just believing you wholeheartedly, or

it's radical fear. I'm over here shuddering in my bones and so scared.

I don't think the fight is between radical faith and radical fear. For

most of us, the real battle is between faith and doing nothing at all.

It's not that we're paralyzed by fear. It's that we're comfortable

with our circumstances and just want to see how everything

plays out.

God hasn't called you to passively exist.

He's invited you to actively believe.

The greatest enemy of your faith may not be fear. It

may be that you are spiritually neutral,

that you just stand idly by and you say, I believe in this God, but

I'm not leaning in. We'll just see what happens.

And therefore you are utterly. Listen to this, friends. This is harsh.

You are utterly useless in the Kingdom

because without faith it is. Say it again.

Impossible to do what? Who wants to please the Lord in this

place? I want to be a church full of people who want to please the

Lord. It's impossible to please him without faith. Faith requires

action. Faith requires action.

You're not shaking in a corner, but you're also not building any altars.

You're just letting life play out. And that's not faith.

John and I were on the way to see Sam Strong this past

week. Philip Strong went into. Philip went into

the hospital because he had a heat, something like a heat

stroke. Brain activity was gone. And in

the car on our ride up there, John and I just began to pray

out loud. Boldly, we said, lord Jesus,

we believe for Philip. We believe that he is your.

We believe that you will do a testimony and a work in his

life and in his father's life and in his mother's life. Through this, we began

to proclaim. Before we even got to the hospital, we were proclaiming

victory. And we walked in there and we looked at the vitals and I looked

Sam right in the eye and Lark in the eye, and I said, hey. We

were praying before we got here that we believe that your son's going to be

okay. He's going to be released this coming week, I'm sure. Is that true? He's

going to be released this coming week. The Lord's touched him. Of course he did,

because that's the kind of God we saw.

The truth is, passive waiting is often disguised

as disobedience. Passive waiting is

often disguised as disobedience. God is not asking you to figure it

all out. He's asking you to take a step.

When was the last time you took a step of faith?

I'm going to ask that again. When was the last time

you took a step of faith? I'm taking

a step of faith and trusting you, Lord, in this new relationship.

I'm taking a step of faith on the job front. I'm taking a

step of faith, though things around me don't seem the way I want them to

seem. I'm taking a step of faith that you have me right where I am.

I'm taking a step of faith in that bank account that seems to dry up.

I'm taking a step of faith for that healing in my body

that you would cure me. I'm taking a step of faith of that prodigal son

that he or she would come home. I'm taking a step

of faith, God, I'm believing what I say. I believe because you

are the God who breathes stars. And I can't trust you with my life.

I can trust you with my circumstances because I don't belong to this world.

I belong to the kingdom and I have a God who loves me.

God hasn't called you to passively exist. He's

invited you to actively believe

you have access to the King of the universe, access to the God who

breathes stars. So why would you be content standing on the sideline?

And so the time has come for God to use Elijah in a

powerful way. A servant of the Lord by the name of

Obadiah, who's working for King Abel, King Ahab comes

and meets Elijah. And Elijah says to Obadiah, go tell

Ahab I am ready to meet with him. I've got a word for him.

Obadiah replies, oh, Lord, please don't send me to King Ahab,

because if I go to King Ahab and say your name, he surely will

kill me. What do you think Elijah's thinking?

His faith muscles are so flexed at this point. But

can you imagine? Some of us get a situation like that. The messenger

comes, and then we say to the messenger, go deliver the message for me.

God didn't tell Obadiah to go. He told Elijah to go.

And he said to Obadiah, tell Ahab I sure will meet with him

today. So the two fellows meet up. Ahab, evil King

Elijah, the man of the Lord, and they have this discourse with

one another. And Elijah says, here, let's do this. Let's go to Mount

Carmel. Now, here's the thing. Ahab's gonna do everything that Elijah says.

Because Ahab's an insecure king. He does. He just. Whatever, that's fine. Yes, let's do

it. Okay. But he says, okay, Elijah says, let's have the

450 prophets of Baal come to Mount Carmel, and I'll come

as well. And we're gonna build an altar, and we're gonna put

a sacrifice on the altar, and we're gonna cry out 450

prophets. You cry out to your God and see if fire comes down

and burns this altar up. And then after you get done, I'll cry out

to my God and we'll see if fire comes down. And whosever God answers the

prayer, that's the one true God. They say, oh, that sounds good. Let's do that.

Yay. Okay. So

he says, be my guest. You start. So they build the altar, and they

start crying out, 450 prophets of Baal. Start crying out,

crying out, crying out, Baal, Baal, come down.

Send fire. It's not working. So they thought, oh, well, if we start

cutting ourselves and we start dancing, we start doing all these religious

exercises, maybe that will help. Help. It doesn't work.

See, you can start getting real confident in the Lord. You start to get real

excited. Because you know the real God. Elijah starts to taunt them.

He starts to say, where is your God? What's going on?

Where's he at? Maybe he's sleeping. Maybe he's having

breakfast. Maybe he's getting the elite status with the credit card. Something's

going on, but he's not here. And then he

says, okay, my turn. Not only am I going to call fire

down from heaven, but let's take some water and

let's pour it on this trench once. Let's pour it on this

trench twice. Let's pour it on this trench three times.

As if to say, I am so confident that my Lord is going

to move. We're going to make it nearly impossible for it to be

anything else but him. And he calls out on the

name of the Lord and he says this incredible Praise,

Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Let it be known today that you are

God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things

at your command. Answer me, Lord. Answer me. Listen to this

so that these people will know that you, Lord, are God

and that you are turning their hearts back again.

Guys, the powerful move of God. The purpose of God's power is

his glory, not our relief. The reason he called down

fire, the reason God answered that fire, was so that 450

people would see his power on display and that they would believe that all of

Israel would see what was going on and they would believe. Hearts

were being turned back to the Lord because of this display

of God. It wasn't to elevate Elijah. It wasn't so

that Elijah could be like, look what I've done. I'm the king. I'm a pyro.

I'm the king. Pyro. I do all the fire. No, no. It was so

that God Almighty could be on display, so that people would believe. And

you know what they did? As soon as the fire came down, they all fell

down in reverence to the one sovereign, true God.

God is faithful,

and so it's for his glory. Psalm says

this, not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory

because of your love and your faithfulness. Guys, this should be our cry

when God's moving in our life. This should be our prayer, our cry to

your name be the glory. Elijah didn't ask for

fire so that he could win a debate or feel vindicated or validated.

His prayer wasn't about him. It was about people. It was about revival. It was

about glory returning to its rightful place. He

doesn't answer for our comfort. He moves for his glory so

people will believe. We also see this in the heart of Jesus. Remember the story

in John 11 where he raises Lazarus from the dead? What does

he say out loud? He says all of the things about why

he's there and Lazarus to come forth. And he says out loud, I said

this for the benefit of what? The people standing here. Why?

So that they may believe that you sent me.

God's power on display is about people coming to know

him, that their faith may be increased in the one true living

God. The miracle wasn't for Mary and Martha. It was for the people in the

group. God moves publicly so people will publicly

believe. So Elijah prays not to

prove his reputation, but to turn hearts back.

And the fire falls. It consumes the sacrifice, the stones it licks up,

the water, it ignites. And God was proven faithful.

And when it comes to faith, our brother James says to us, faith by

itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is

dead. Guys, we do not want to be a people whose faith is

dead. He invites us to take a step. And today

I'm going to invite you to take a step. I got some instructions that I'm

going to give. We're going to do some movement here. It's going to get messy.

And what I need, because you guys are so excellent, you're such great listeners, we're

going to be moving quickly, and we're going to do exactly what I need you

to do to make this work. Capiche? Yes, sir. Got it. Okay, here we go.

All right. If you have a testimony,

if you have a story, everybody here has a testimony. Let me qualify that if

you have a fire falling from heaven story,

you have seen firsthand the miraculous power of God in your life

in some way, shape or form, any way, shape, or form that you could

easily tell somebody about this morning. I want you to come up right now and

I want you to go to that tub and grab a lighter. I

have seen. I firsthand could tell this morning of a fire moment

in my life where fire fell from heaven. In this situation,

grab a lighter and you can go back to your seat

quickly once you get your lighter.

Okay. Behind them. Everybody listen. Everybody listen.

Because those of you with lighters may qualify for this second thing as well.

If you are here and you are believing

God for anything, you're believing for the prodigal son, a healing, a

job situation, finance. You are believing God for something. You need

to have faith, to believe God to do something. I want you to come up

here and grab A bottle of water, it's over. In that case, over there to

the left or to your right, rather, grab a bottle of water. Now, if you

got a lighter, you can also get a bottle of water if you need that.

But if you are believing God for anything, I need God to move in this

way. Anything at all. Grab the bottle of water.

Thank you guys for being so quick.

Now we've got good insurance. I pray that you won't burn our church down.

Okay, thank you so much for doing that so, so

swiftly. Here's what we're going to do.

I'm going to ask for you all

to gather in groups of 10.

Gather in groups of 10. And every group, I need

at least one person with a bottle of water and one person

with a lighter. You can have multiple people with lighters, multiple people with bottles

of water, but I need. In every group, I need at least one person who

has a lighter and one person who has a bottle of water. Would you

stand? And on the count of 10, can we be in groups of. Of 10?

I believe we can do this very quickly. You can be in these groups all

around the room. You don't have to come down front necessarily. So

find your group of 10. I'm going to count to 10, and we're all going

to be in groups of 10. Somebody in your group has a

lighter. Somebody has a water.

1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

6. If you see somebody around you not

standing, it's because they don't know where to go. So help them. Invite them along.

7,

8,

9,

and 10. Okay, if you have a lighter,

would you hold it up with the flame up high?

We have lighters in every group? Yes.

Excellent. If you have a bottle of water, would you hold your bottle of water

up, please? Perfect. Okay, you may put all that down.

Okay. When Elijah, before

the fire came, Elijah took water and

he poured it on the trench the water represents.

I am confident that God will meet me where I am.

I'm confident that he will answer this prayer. The

fire represents the answered prayer, the fire

of God, the testimony of his faithfulness. We're going to take 12 minutes.

I need everyone right now to nominate a timekeeper. Raise your hand if you're the

timekeeper in your group. That means you have a cell phone or a watch.

Timekeeper,

Timekeeper, raise your hand. Okay, everyone in

your group is going to have one minute to share either their

fire testimony or the prayer that they're believing God

for. Why one minute? Because you got groups of 10. I'm giving you 12

minutes. But I want everyone to have an opportunity to share. So the

timekeeper has got to be able to say, I'm sorry, your time is up. Let's

move on to the next person. You understand? Okay, go ahead. You have 12 minutes.

Let's share. The

fire is the testimony of God's movement.

We are supposed to be fire starters. When we share

our stories with one another, it sets things ablaze in

the kingdom. But there's also a time

and a season where we have water, where

we're in the position of saying, I believe God. You are who you say

you are, and I want to believe with confidence you're going to

answer my prayer. Three months ago, I was

struggling with a nerve

in my back that was being pinched. And I didn't think much of it because

it was controllable with my neck. And

about four weeks ago, my jaw started hurting and I started having chest

pains. So I thought, well, I probably need to go get this checked out. So

I went to see a cardiologist. She said my heart was

inflamed and I needed to get a CT scan. And so I went in and

got a CT scan. And real

positive testimony from that is. You know, I've

struggled thinking there's things wrong with my heart for a very long time because

of, you know, my dad's side of family. There's a lot of heart issues and

things like that, but my heart is completely fine. It's zero calcium. I mean,

it's great, strong heart. But when I was in the

CT scan, the cardiologist looking at the radiologist

found a spot on my liver, 3.8

centimeter mass. And so

they said I needed to follow up with my pcp. And so I

did. And, you know, the PCP said, we

probably need to look at this specifically. So I did

another CT that was specific for that region,

and that result came back this past week. And it seems that the mass has

grown a little bit. Bit. And so they're needing me to go in and do

some more tests on it this week. And

so I want to proclaim that I'm pouring water on this

trench and I'm believing

in the sovereign God who has sustained my

life and given me testimony after

testimony of his faithfulness in my life that I can

draw from and know that if he's been good, then he'll be good

now. But here's the step of faith.

Even if this God of the universe chooses not to touch

me, he is still sovereign and he is still good.

And when you get to a place where you know he's good no matter what.

You lean into the faith of eternity because our stint

here on earth is so short, but we have an eternity

with a God who's gonna split the sky. And the word says, in revolution,

he's gonna wipe every tear. There's gonna be no. No more death, no

more suffering. How many are waiting and excited about that day?

And so whatever it is you're believing in, he can take

that water and he can burn it up. He can cause

a flame and a testimony. Do you believe it? Today let's

be a church who exercises faith in

this sovereign God. Would you stand with me? We're gonna sing this song. If you

have something you were believing for, if you had a bottle of water this

morning, said I'm believing for something, I want you to come down. Want all

of our fire blazers behind them to lay hands and just begin to

proclaim victory, Provision, healing,

whatever it is. So if you have a bottle of water, come on down. If

you have fire, come on behind them. Don't burn anybody up for real, but lay

some hands on them and let's proclaim this God we

say we believe in. Yes. Can we do it? Let's sing. Come on. Come on,

team. Let's go.