Introduction:
Prayer is our way of communicating to God. This is a privilege that was given to us by the Trinity (God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit).
We often times take prayer for granted, but it is our only resource to having peace in the midst of a storm, or having shelter in the time trouble because He will hide me, or finding refuge when all hell is braking out around you. Prayer is our way of going back to the power source.
God expects us to seek Him. God expects us to worship and praise Him. If we would only seek the face of God, things would work out so much better in our lives.
2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Stopping with that scripture, that brings me to my first point.
Development:
Point #1: Get to Know Him
In this Christian walk, you must get to know Jesus the Christ for yourself. You can make it on your father’s coat tail, you can’t make it on your mother’s coat tail, and you can’t een hitch a ride on your grand momma or grand daddy’s coat tail. You must have that relationship with Jesus the Christ for yourself.
Elijah was a man that had a deep and committed relationship with God. I’m not saying that he was perfect, but he was committed to serving, worshipping and praising God.
I know that Elijah had a relationship with God because of how God operated through him. In your leisure you can read in 1 Kings 17:17-24 how this prophet with the help of God raised a child up from death.
This little boy was from the widow of Zarephat and he had died from some unknown illness. Elijah was summoned to see this boy and to see what he could do.
While Elijah was there with the boy he died. The widow accused Elijah for his death. In her small mind she came to the conclusion that God had sent Elijah there to bring judgment against her for some past sin. But God was using this situation for a higher purpose.
I know this is true because Romans 8:28 tells me so.
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
God used Elijah to bring this boy back to life. God was still in the proving business. He was still proving that He is God and God alone. Elijah took the boy back up stairs to his room, prayed and laid himself on the boy three times and a miracle took place. God sent the living spirit back into the dead boy’s body.
That’s why the song wrote the song, “There is No Secret To What God Can Do. What He’s Done for Others He Will Do for You.”
All of this was possible because His prophet Elijah had a relationship with Him.
God had gotten sick and tired of the rebellious nature of His people. He was sick and tired of their idolatrous nature (serving and worshipping false gods). They were trying to serve two Gods. They were serving Baal and attempting to serve God. He sent Elijah to stand before Ahab and his crew.
But on the way to face Ahab and his false prophets, he ran into Obadiah who also was also a strong believer in the Lord (1 Kings 18:2-6). Elijah told Obadiah that he wanted him to go tell King Ahab that he wanted to confront him and to put his false god to test against the one and only true living God which is Jehovah Yahweh.
Obadiah pled with Elijah to excuse him from the dangerous task (1 Kings 18:13-16). He informed Elijah that he had already risked his life enough by saving the prophets from Jezebel’s bloody purge. Pleading with all his heart, he told Elijah that if he reported the prophet’s whereabouts to Ahab then failed to produce him, it would mean certain death for him (Obadiah).
Elijah assured Obadiah by swearing an oath that he would remain there to confront King Ahab that very day (1 Kings 18:15). Being assured, Obadiah carried the challenge to Ahab and the king accepted the challenge. He immediately went to confront Elijah, the LORD’s prophet (1 Kings 18:16).
Because of Elijah’s relationship with God, He was able to stand against Ahab and his false prophets.
This confrontation took place at Mount Carmel. Elijah’s confrontation with Ahab paints a clear picture of judgment due to sin (1 Kings 18:18-20).
As the two men face off, Ahab angrily accuses Elijah for being a trouble maker. He accused him of being responsible for the sever drought and famine sweeping the land.
Elijah not taking what was said, he strongly told Ahab that the reason of the drought and the severe famine was because of him and his descendants who had sinned, turning their backs on the commandments of God and committing idolatry and false worship.
Elijah challenged the king to summon the people to a contest on Mt. Carmel, a contest between himself and the 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah (1 Kings 18:19). 450 of the prophets served the false god Baal and the other 400 prophets served the false god Asherah. Ahab accepted the challenge thinking this would be the one way he could get rid of the troublesome prophet and eliminate the worship of the LORD once and for all (1 Kings 18:20).
Completely deceived by his faith in and worship of the false god Baal, Ahab excitedly sent word of the contest throughout all the Northern Kingdom, summoning the people to attend. Obviously, there were multiplied thousands who gathered together to witness the contest.
Elijah jumped on the people big time. He got into their case because they were wavering between two opinions. No longer could they debate who the true and living God was. No longer could they claim that all gods were equal, that all gods represented the one true and living God.
No longer could they serve both the LORD and Baal. It was time to make a decision, time to make a forceful and conclusive declaration that the LORD (Jehovah, Yahweh) was the only living and true God. All other so-called gods were false, just the creation of man’s imagination.
The people could no longer straddle the fence, engaging in the worship of both Jehovah and false gods, no longer limp along between two opinions. They must now decide, take a stand for the LORD and declare the truth, that He and He alone was the true and living God.
James 1:8 says, "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."
Luke 16:13 says, "No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon"
Elijah told King Ahab to have his servants bring two bulls for sacrifice. He told the king and his false prophets to only prepare one of the two bulls for sacrifice but not to light any fire. He wanted them to call on their false gods to light the fire for the sacrifice themselves.
Calling on their false god Baal to light the fire, they danced around the altar from morning until noon (1 Kings 18:25-26). But there was no answer, no response to their prayers. The false god Baal was silent.
Sometime around noon, Elijah began to mock and taunt the false prophets. He suggested they shout louder, for perhaps Baal was meditating, busy at some task, traveling, or off sleeping someplace and needed to be awakened (1 Kings 18:27).
The false prophets were getting irritated and began their false worship even louder. It had gotten so bad, that they followed the ritual custom of cutting themselves and letting their blood flow. This was a symbol of self-sacrifice, which they hoped would arouse their false god Baal to take action. Note that the mutilation of the body, cutting oneself to let the blood flow, was prohibited by the LORD (Leviticus 19:28; Deut. 14:1).
This false worship went on until just before nightfall, the priests of the false god Baal stepped aside and allowed Elijah to come forth to make his approach to the LORD.
Walking to center stage before the massive crowd, Elijah gave a stunning, dramatic vindication of the LORD. He proved that the LORD alone is the living and true God.
Calling the people to come as close as they could, Elijah rebuilt an altar on Mt. Carmel that had been lying in ruins (1 Kings 18:30-35). Elijah chose twelve stones to represent or symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to build the altar. He dug a large trench all the way around the altar (1 Kings 18:32).
He then piled wood on the altar and cut up the bull and laid it on the wood. With this, the sacrifice would normally have been ready to present to the LORD. But in this case, Elijah surprised the crowd by ordering some men to fill four large water pots and then pour out the water over the offering and the wood. Then, when the men had finished, Elijah instructed them to repeat the procedure.
And as if that were not enough, he had them do the same thing a third time. All together, twelve large pots of water had been poured out on the offering and on the wood (1 Kings 18:33-34). So much water had been poured that the entire altar was soaked and the trench was completely filled with water (1 Kings 18:35).
Once the men had completely doused the sacrifice with water, Elijah knew that he had to go back to the power source.
Elijah stepped forward and began to pray to the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (or Israel); that is, he prayed to the God who had given the covenant to the patriarchs of old (1 Kings 18:36-37).
Suddenly, dramatically, fire fell and consumed not only the sacrifice but also the entire altar, lapping up even the water in the trench. In the most dramatic way possible, the LORD had heard Elijah’s prayer and was proving that He and He alone was the living and true God.
Conclusion:
Just before I take my seat, I have some good news. Whenever we get into a bind, we need to make our way back to the power source.
§ When we are in a tight situation, we need to go back to the power source.
§ When our money is acting funny, and we don’t have two nickels to rub together to make a dime, we need to go back to the power source.
§ When our health begins to fail us, we need to go back to the power source.
§ When the hellhounds are all around us and they are getting on our last nerves, we need to go back to the power source.
§ When we have messed up and we are worried on how to fix it, we need to go back to the power source.
§ When we loose our fathers and the tears begin to fall, we need to go back to the power source.
§ When we loose our mothers and grief covers our hearts, we need to go back to the power source.
§ When we loose our children to the gangs and drugs, we need to go back to the power source.
§ When we loose our spouses to death, we need to go back to the power source.
§ When we get the pick slips on our jobs that tell us we have two weeks, we need to go back to the power source.
§ When we don’t have the money to make our bills, we need to go back to the power source.
§ When we don’t have the money to pay for our prescriptions, we need to go back to the power source.
§ When the doctors give us bad news and we don’t know what to do, we need to go back to the power source.
The proof is in the pudding. Like the Brillcream commercial, “Just a little dab will do you.” There is power when you go back to the power source.
If you look at Psalm 103 verses 1-2 it says, “Bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all of His benefits.
The benefit is Jesus the Christ
