It's Show Time

It’s Show Time

Introduction: Ever feel like God has left you fighting alone? Ever wonder why God allows so many battles and struggles into your life? Ever wonder if God really even cares about you? God does care - that’s the reason for your battles and struggles. God allows these things into our lives in order to bring us to a place of total dependence on His power and provision. Trials and testings are really times of teaching. When these times come, we must learn to turn our trust and dependence totally upon God. God prepares and equips us for these battles! We must learn to rely completely on Him.

I’m reminded of a character in the Bible by the name of Elijah. God brought Elijah on the scene from nowhere. God took this man and trained him. Training came in the form of trials and testings. He trained him to to quit relying on his own power and might and learn to trust completely upon God’s power. Understand, we as humans are hardheaded; we don’t pick up on new things real fast. It takes some of us even longer than others. But after a while we begin to see the light. I just can’t do this in my own power and might. Whatever you are facing in your life right now, you can’t defeat it under your own power. You need God’s power to become a complete overcomer!

God had a purpose and plan for this man Elijah. God has a purpose and plan for everyone of you. God spent a great deal of time bringing Elijah to where he needed to be. God eventually took this nobody and made a somebody out of him. God sent Elijah to a face-off with a corrupt king and used him to strike fear in the hearts of a godless people. This is where we pick up our story. It’s show time!!!

Text: I Kings 18:16-40

All the training, all the trial, and all the trusting now bring Elijah to the place where he can stand in the pure power of God and show this lost nation that God Almighty, not Baal or any other false god, was the Lord of all. I Kings 19:18 tells us that the entire nation of Israel, with the exception of 7000 faithful people had given themselves over to the worship of Baal. The royal family had given themselves over to worshipping these false gods. But God did not forget His investment in this people. He did not forget how He had selected them out of all the other peoples of the world and set them apart as His people. He didn’t forget how He brought them out of Egypt and led them through the wilderness. He didn’t forget the land He gave them. He didn’t forget the Law and the promises He gave them. He never forgot for an instant that they were His people and that He had a special plan for them.

God never forgets the investment He made in you. He gave His Son, Jesus, for you. It cost God everything to bring you back to Him. He will never give up on you. Don’t ever accuse God of walking off and leaving you behind. God never does such a thing. If anyone walked off, it was you and me!

God called Elijah, He trained Him, and groomed Him, all in preparation for this moment. This moment when God would call a nation back to Himself. A moment when God would prove beyond all question that He was the Lord God Almighty! For Elijah this was an event that required great faith and courage, but he had been adequately prepared by the Lord for this very task. In fact it was time for Elijah to prove that he was who he was rumored to be. It was time for him to put up or shut up. In other words, It’s Show Time!

This passage has a tremendous message for you and me today. We live in a day of half-hearted service - people serve the gods of self, materialism, recreation and pleasure more than they serve the God of Heaven! It’s time we all wake-up and get back to the great ask at hand. God wants us to know today that He is still God! He hasn’t forgotten the investment He has made in us, and like He called Israel back to Himself on Mt Carmel, He wants to call His people back to Himself today!

Let’s look deeper into this story.

I. The Challenge Extended (17-24)

A. Elijah challenges the royal family.

- The king accuses Elijah of being a trouble maker.

- Elijah looks Ahab in the eye and tells him the truth.

- Elijah challenges Ahab to send for all the people including the false prophets and allow them to decide for themselves once and for all who is really God.