One Sunday morning, a priest wakes up and decides to go golfing. He calls his boss and says that he feels very sick, and won't be able to go to work.
Way up in heaven, Saint Peter sees all this and asks God, ''Are you really going to let him get away with this?''
''No, I guess not,'' says God.
The priest drives about five to six hours away, so he doesn't bump into anyone he knows. The golf course is empty when he gets there. So he takes his first swing, drives the ball 495 yards away and gets a hole in one.
Saint Peter watches in disbelief and asks, '' Why did you let him do that?''
To this God says, ''Who's he going to tell?''
We all go through those periods of life where things just don’t go the way that we think they should. Life can get pretty dark, and if feels like we are all alone in the world. Intellectually we know that God is always there but since we can’t see Him, it can feel like He is distant and sometimes if we’re honest we’re wondering who’s side He’s on. The economy slows and jobs with it. The news from the doctor is bad. Your family is struggling. Life seems to be tougher then you are and it doesn’t seem like there’s anyone around who can help you. You feel lost and alone. Today we are going to talk about three men who God used when they seemed to be alone.
The first is Elijah. Elijah is one of those guys in the Bible I mean God did amazing and powerful things through him. I mean where we’re going to pick up the story he has just called fire down from heaven, essentially to win a bet, that our God is real and that no other god is.
The very first time we hear of Elijah is chapter 17:1, “And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.” He was a Tishbite, from Tishbe this was a remote region, it was mountainous, it had bad weather, the people from there were few and they were rugged. The first appearance we have of this mountain man is to walk up to the king, surrounded by his guards and he tells him, God has declared a drought and I’m in charge of it. That takes guts this was a tough man.
He and the king and the king’s wife they squared off for years, and the climax of this part of the story, not the whole story, just this chapter was that the Elijah dares Ahab, the King, to call all of the prophets of Baal together. Baal was the false god that they were worshiping, for a contest, whose God would send down fire from heaven. There were 450 prophets of Baal, and just Elijah. They invited all of Israel to watch, the nation that at this point followed their king, and supported 450 prophets of Baal and 400 more prophets of Asherah. This is a hostile crowd, you probably know the story, Elijah gives them all day and nothing happens, then he prays one time, and bam fire from heaven. Complete victory, but he doesn’t stop there then he tells the people to seize the prophets that they had been following and he personally puts them to death. I guess he wasn’t feeling very ecumenical. After that then he sees one cloud the size of a fist and tells everyone to go home to get out of the rain storm that’s coming. Picture it, there’s been a drought for years, he sees one tiny cloud and calls for a massive storm…and it comes.
This is one of the great victory stories of the Bible. This is one that we preach on to tell people to that we are more than conquerors. But look at what happens next, Ahab goes and tells his wife Jezebel what happened and she swears to kill Elijah that day. And what happens, Elijah the mighty man of God, the man who could call fire down from heaven, a man who prayed and saw God raise the dead, chapter 19 verse three says, “when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life.’ He ran like a scared little girl. So many times we focus on the victories of the people in the Bible and we miss the times that they were scared. That there were times when even the mightiest people of God were at the end of their rope, the end of their faith, the journey seemed too hard and they didn’t know if they could go on.
Elijah runs away and the temptation is to say that his faith failed, but notice what God does. God sustains him, verse 7 “And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, ‘Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” God knows that every situation is different, instead of telling Elijah to turn around immediately and get back in the fight, He gives him a break. He gives him the food to sustain him, He guides him to a mountain where they can talk. In short God gives Elijah a break. He knew that the road had been tough. So when Elijah gets to the mountain God asks him, “What are you doing here Elijah?” So Elijah answers, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”
He felt isolated. He had fought so long, so hard, so well, and yet the battle was being lost. Everyone who used to be with him was gone. Let me ask, “Do you ever feel this way?” If we’re honest the answer for everyone in this room is yes. We all get lonely. Friends and family either move or pass away. We look at our country, they now talk about “one nation” they leave off the “under God”. It’s “happy holidays’ not “Merry Christmas”, but “please spend your money here.” So many good people so closed to what they need the most. It gets frustrating, we wonder how we can turn it around, we wonder if we’re all alone.
It’s okay, Jesus felt the same way. In Luke 18 He tells a parable about on the injustice in the world, and the promise that it will be avenged. But then He asks this question, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Even Jesus, knowing the hardships of life, wondered if He would be all alone. Even Jesus knew what it was to feel isolated.
As we think about that I want us to think about another man who was all alone. I know Bob just got done looking at the book of Job, but there’s something in the book I think we missed. We know that Job was another guy who had to wonder if he was all alone.
Look at the scene that unfolds in God’s throne room, God calls everyone, including Satan into His throne room. There, at the very seat of the power of God this exchange takes place. Job 1:7, “And the LORD said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ So Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.’” Understand the nerve that Satan was showing here, he’s standing before God, and when ask where he been he let’s God know that he’s been walking over the entire earth, back and forth, anyplace he wants to go. Satan was claiming dominion over the earth. He was saying God, you made it, but it’s all mine, all of the earth and all its people, I can go where ever I want, and there no one to stop me, no one follows you.
God’s response was so simple, God mentions one name. Job 1:8, “Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” It’s a ridiculous answer, even if all of that were true, in human terms so what? I mean really, if you’re Satan, “I’ve got the whole earth everybody follows me, no body follows you except one guy? Fine 100 million for me 1 for you, scoreboard, conversation over. This is a ridiculous answer from our perspective. One guy and he’s all alone. Andy by the way, it wasn’t blameless and righteous really, no one except God is, God was just stating how He saw Job through His glasses of grace.
Here’s what’s interesting Satan doesn’t dismiss Job he tries to deny the legitimacy of Job’s faith. Satan can’t even admit that there is one person who is willing to follow God because he knows that God plus one person can change the world. You may feel alone, you may feel powerless, and you may be, but God never is. My favorite thing about Luke 18:8 is what is unsaid, it doesn’t matter if there is faith on earth, Jesus Christ is coming back because our God is in control. And our God, the author of life itself wants to work within us, even when we feel all alone. Job may have felt alone in his trial, but God plus Job could change the world.
That is the power of one, one person who will believe in God. You’ve probably seen the following quote before. “It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him. Well, I will be that man.” D.L. Moody. The past couple of weeks I’ve talked to a few people about D.L. Moody, I asked if they knew who he was and they were honest they know the name and that’s it. He lived from 1837 to 1899, he was considered to be perhaps the finest pastor, and evangelist of his era. If you research him that is what other famous pastors of his era say about him. Looked up to him, they asked his advice. Tens of thousands of people accepted Christ as a result of his preaching both here in America and also in Europe. His legacy endures in the school that he founded in Chicago.
We see this quote and we know the passion of his heart, but did he know what it was to feel alone? Did he know what it was to feel rejected? Well consider this, this quote comes from a conversation. He was talking to another leading Christian pastor of the time, and he said, “It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him. Then there was a pause, and then he said, “Well I will be that man.” The quote is shared by the pastor he was talking with but notice what’s missing, the man didn’t say me too. He said, “Good luck with that.” Moody wanted to be completely sold out to God.
Was he an unlikely candidate to change the world and reach tens of thousands of people? Did he know failure? Look at the next quote that was made about him, “You are doing more harm then good, you have got zeal without knowledge.” That’s not the review of your work most people want to hear. This was a man who started his career as a shoe salesmen who taught Sunday School on the side. He didn’t seem to be a world changing pastor. But if he was alone, it was him and God and then was enough to change the world.
The power to change the world and to reach people for Christ comes from God. The power of one is one person plus God and do anything, can achieve anything, can overcome anything. This was a man who early in his career was ridiculed because his sermons seemed to simple and at the end of his life was renown because his sermons were so simple that people could understand them and find Jesus. The power comes form God. Psalm 62:11 says, “God has spoken once, Twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God.” The psalms is written the way it is, God has spoken once, Twice of have heard, it is the author’s way of saying to his Jewish audience I know this to be true, power belongs to God. It didn’t matter how Moody spoke it mattered who He spoke of. In your life when you feel all alone, it doesn’t matter how big the obstacle you face it, how long the battle has been what matters is who gives you the power to over come. You plus God can overcome anything. You may need a break, Elijah did, Job reached his breaking point, but the power of ultimate victory lies in our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
How do we get it? Well we must be fully surrendered to God. The first thing Elijah does that scripture worthy is confront his king, he does it. Job loses every thing and almost everyone and says, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away” then he makes the decision to say, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” D.L. Moody once said, “I believe if God asked me to jump out of this window, I would do it.” The key to accessing the power of God is to be fully surrendered to Him, whatever He asks, you do.
The next step is to be a people of prayer. Moody at the end of his life was giving a person a tour of his church before a Sunday service that asked him what the secret of his success was. He took them to a room in the back of the sanctuary, and there, in that small back room were people gathering to pray for the salvation of lost people. If we want to reach our community, we must pray for the lost. At home, as a body, always, we must ask God to use us to reach lost people.
Those two we talk about often in church, but the next one, not so much. But this was absolutely vital to Moody. He was so passionate about how many people were lacking this aspect of their Christian walk that he wrote a book about it, he called it the secret power. He was fully dependant on the Spirit of God. I am talking specifically about the Holy Spirit, I think as Baptists we get very reserved and intellectual and we over look this part of God. And he is part of God. 1 John 5:7, “for there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one.”
We spend a lot of time talking about God the Father, and Jesus Christ, and that’s good, but the Bible tells us that the Spirit is how He works in the world today, the spirit is our source. Source of what? Well here’s a brief list.
The Spirit is the source of love. “Galatians 5:22-23, “but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” We talk about the fruit of the Spirit and how we want those things in our live, but He is the source of those things. If we dwell with Him then we will have those things in our lives. Not might, will because He is the one who is the source, the Spirit is the one who will transform us in this way. If we don’t allow Him access to our lives we close of the source of love, joy peace, and so many good things.
More than that, He is the source of hope. Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Hope, we need it. When thing are dark, when we’re tired, hope is what God gives us to carry us through and the source of hope is the Holy Spirit.
And yes, He is the source of power. All power comes from God, but the Holy Spirit is God. 2 Peter 2:21, “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. When God sends us the words that He wants us to say, it’s through the Holy Spirit. He is the source, Peter says that even for the prophets of old, they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
The point is that we spend a lot of time praying to God for things, and that’s great He is the source. But some of those prayers, need to be addressed to the personality or aspect of God named the Holy Spirit. We are told to pray specifically and I believe that we need to pray specifically for God’s Spirit to move in us, for God’s Spirit to move in us, for God’s to give us power. It is the Spirit of God that is with us and it is through the Spirit of God that we can access the power to change the world. He is that secret power that most Christians know about but we rarely think about.
How powerful is He? Let me tell you the rest of the story about that statement about D. L. Moody, let me share with you the entire story. One night Mr. Moody was going home from his place of business. It was very late, and it suddenly occurred to him that he had not spoken to one single person that day about accepting Christ. He said to himself: "Here's a day lost. I have not spoken to anyone today and I shall not see anybody at this late hour." But as he walked up the street he saw a man standing under a lamppost. The man was a perfect stranger to him, though it turned out afterwards the man knew who Mr. Moody was. He stepped up to this stranger and said: "Are you a Christian?" The man replied: "That is none of your business, whether I am a Christian or not. If you were not a sort of a preacher I would knock you into the gutter for your impertinence." Mr. Moody said a few earnest words and passed on.
The next day that man called upon one of Mr. Moody's prominent business friends and said to him: "That man Moody of yours over on the North Side is doing more harm than he is good. He has got zeal without knowledge. He stepped up to me last night, a perfect stranger, and insulted me. He asked me if I were a Christian, and I told him it was none of his business and if he were not a sort of a preacher I would knock him into the gutter for his impertinence. He is doing more harm than he is good. He has got zeal without knowledge." Mr. Moody's friend sent for him and said: "Moody, you are doing more harm than you are good; you've got zeal without knowledge: you insulted a friend of mine on the street last night. You went up to him, a perfect stranger, and asked him if he were a Christian, and he tells me if you had not been a sort of a preacher he would have knocked you into the gutter for your impertinence. You are doing more harm than you are good; you have got zeal without knowledge."
Mr. Moody went out of that man's office somewhat crestfallen. He wondered if he were not doing more harm than he was good, if he really had zeal without knowledge. (Let me say, in passing, it is far better to have zeal without knowledge than it is to have knowledge without zeal. Some men and women are as full of knowledge as an egg is of meat; they are so deeply versed in Bible truth that they can sit in criticism on the preachers and give the preachers pointers, but they have so little zeal that they do not lead one soul to Christ in a whole year.)
Weeks passed by. One night Mr. Moody was in bed when he heard a tremendous pounding at his front door. He jumped out of bed and rushed to the door. He thought the house was on fire. He thought the man would break down the door. He opened the door and there stood this man. He said: "Mr. Moody, I have not had a good night's sleep since that night you spoke to me under the lamppost, and I have come around at this unearthly hour of the night for you to tell me what I have to do to be saved." Mr. Moody took him in and told him what to do to be saved. Then he accepted Christ, and when the Civil War broke out, he went to the front and laid down his life fighting for his country.
It wasn’t the words that he spoke to that man, it was the Spirit behind the words, the Spirit that kept working in that man’s life until he needed to accept Christ. The Spirit is the power of God in the world. And He is the one who can help us find the truth.
See at the end of the day, no matter how dark it was for Job, Job wasn’t alone, he may have wished he was, but he was never alone, God was always there. That is why at the end of that book everything is alright. God could allow Job to go through such hardship because God knew that there was never anything that God couldn’t guide Job through.
Elijah wasn’t alone. After he tells God how alone he feels, God responds by giving him some instructions on what to do next. It would be nice if when we didn’t know where to start God would tell us. Elijah got that privilege and then God adds this at the end, “Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth has not kissed him.” Elijah only felt alone, God still have seven thousand people.
And you, you are never alone. Things may be dark, you may be surrounded by bad news, you may have been struggling for so long that you feel that you can’t go on, you may feel alone, but you’re not, you are never alone. Satan may try and tell you, you’re alone, but he’s a liar. Every time he tells you you’re alone, he’s lying, you are never alone God is always there. God is there with power that nothing can overcome. No circumstance is to great, no sickness beyond hope, even in death God is there.
In this world, no matter how many people may deny Him, He is still God. And understand this, God plus any committed believer is the power of multiplication. That’s why Satan couldn’t admit that God had even one person committed to him, because God plus one person can change the world. D.L. Moody was a shoe salesman in Chicago. Elijah was worn down and beaten by life, but he didn’t stay there. Yes it may be tough, yes the road gets long and darkness seems to fall. But we have the power of God. That is our hope for the future.
