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.