Choices, Choices, Choices
1 Kings, 19-39
Intro. A boy told his father, "Dad, if three frogs were sitting on a limb that hung over a pool, and one frog decided to jump off into the pool, how many frogs would be left on the limb?"
The dad replied, "Two."
"No," the son replied. "There’s three frogs and one decides to jump, how many are left?"
The dad said, "Oh, I get it, if one decides to jump, the others would too. So there are none left."
The boy said, "No dad, the answer is three. The frog only DECIDED to jump."
Does that sound like last year’s resolution? Great inspiration and great resolutions, but often times we only decide, and months later we are still on the same limb of do-nothing.
. I went back and looked at last years sermon from the first Sunday of the new year. What I realized was that this time last year we were starting our vision casting.
. During the year we went through this process and found our core values and defined them.
. We looked to the future and developed a vision statement. We have worked toward some things with this vision statement as our guide. We are on our way toward this vision.
. We also developed our mission statement.
. Do you remember what it is?
. Our mission is to encourage and develop those we meet into committed followers of Christ
.
.I thought then as I do now that this mission statement encompassed everything that Jesus commands us to do as a church.
. My question this morning is, have you as individual church members claimed this mission statement.
. Do you encourage those that you meet to become committed followers of Jesus.
. The very least we should be doing is inviting everyone we meet to come and worship with us.
. Are you doing that?
. How many people have you shared your faith with this past year.
. We are not unique in our complacency in growing God’s kingdom. This land is filled with small churches that say they want to grow God’s kingdom but for a multitude of reasons, can’t seem to follow through.
. It all comes down to choices folks.
. What choices do we make in our lives.
. What’s important.
. If you ask most Christians to prioritize what’s important in their lives, they will say God, Family, and job, etc.
. We say that but do the choices we make show these priorities.
. The bible is full of examples of God telling people to make a choice.
. I want us to look at one of those examples this morning.
. It comes to us in the form of a story found in 1 Kings Chapter 18. It’s the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal.
. Elijah was a prophet of God who just appeared out of nowhere and told King Ahab that there would be a drought and it wouldn’t end until he said otherwise. Of course God had sent him with this message.
. You probably don’t recognize King Ahab’s name but I’m sure you have heard of his wife. Her name was Jezebel.
. Her name is still used to describe an evil plotting woman even today.
. When she married Ahab, she brought with her a culture of idol worship and she and the king were leading the people of Israel down a path away from God.
. Our story picks up when there has been 3,1/2 years drought.
. Elijah is ready to ask the people to make a choice in who they will serve.
. 1 Kings 18: 19-39:
. 19Now summon all Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 of Asherah who are supported by Jezebel.”
20So Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel.
21Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” But the people were completely silent.
22Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only prophet of the LORD who is left, but Baal has 450 prophets.
23Now bring two bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood on the altar, but not set fire to it
24Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!” And all the people agreed.
25Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “You go first, for there are many of you. Choose one of the bulls, and prepare it and call on the name of your god. But do not set fire to the wood.”
26So they prepared one of the bulls and placed it on the altar. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made.
27About noontime Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!”
28So they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out.
29They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound, no reply, no response.
30Then Elijah called to the people, “Come over here!” They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down.
31He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel,
32and he used the stones to rebuild the altar in the name of the LORD. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold about three gallons.
33He piled wood on the altar, cut the bull into pieces, and laid the pieces on the wood. Then he said, “Fill four large jars with water, and pour the water over the offering and the wood.”
34After they had done this, he said, “Do the same thing again!” And when they were finished, he said, “Now do it a third time!” So they did as he said,
35and the water ran around the altar and even filled the trench.
36At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command.
37O LORD, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.”
38Immediately the fire of the LORD flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench!
39And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The LORD—he is God! Yes, the LORD is God!”
. God had sent Elijah to call the people back into His service. Back into the worship of the true God.
. They had a choice to make.
. They had gotten into the habit of trying to live in two worlds.
. When it was convenient, they would worship God. They would pray to Yahweh but in order to worship in the temple, they would have to go to Jerusalem and it wasn’t convenient.
. It was easier to worship the pagan gods because the altars of Baal were everywhere.
. Elijah called out the priests of the pagan god’s and challenged them
. He told the prophets to bring two bulls for sacrifice. They could choose the one they wanted. Then they were to build a wood alter and place the slaughtered bull on the altar and pray to their god for fire from heaven to burn up the sacrifice.
. He said that he would take the other one and do the same thing.
. He even allowed them to go first.
. For me, this is one of the more comical stories in the bible.
. They built their alter and put the bull on and danced around doing all sorts of crazy stuff.
. As I was reading this, the image of the old cowboy and Indian movies came to mind. The ones where it showed the Indians dancing around the campfire. All they were missing was the fire.
. The spectacle got very intense and eventually they started cutting themselves. This didn’t work either.
. Elijah started mocking them and telling them to shout louder, maybe their god was asleep.
. This reminds me of a bunch of kids gathered around and they all start making fun of something or someone calling out goody, goody, goody. I told you so.
. Elijah had seen enough and called everybody over to his alter and had them drench the wood with water three times and then he prayed to God and He sent fire down from Heaven consuming the sacrifice that Elijah had placed on the altar.
. The people saw this and proclaimed that Yahweh was the one true God.
. What I want to point out is that God had Elijah go through this show of His power in order for the people to make a choice.
. God had grown weary of the people straddling a fence so to speak.
. He said it was time to make a choice. Me or all these other gods that you are worshipping.
. They were like the woman in a story about a sky lift.
. A woman getting onto a sky lift was given instructions that the moment the lift’s chair touched her backside she was to sit down and lift her feet from off the ground. Instead when the chair came against her she sat down but was nervous about the height of the lift. Her hesitation caused her to keep her feet firmly planted on the platform. She wanted to see the magnificent view from the top of the lift but also wanted to be firmly attached to the ground. With her feet on the platform, the seat began to wind back and then like a slingshot hurled her off the platform causing severe injury to her legs and back. Indecision is a dangerous thing. Straddling between two positions can be hazardous to your health.
. Look with me again at verse 21:
. 21Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions?
. God was saying make a choice.
. Choose to serve me or all these other things. You can’t do both.
. Folks, this time of year is all about choices or resolutions as we like to call them.
. We see things that we know we need to correct and we resolve or make a choice to change them.
. We here at the Creek are at a crossroads.
. We have a choice to make. We must resolve ourselves to follow God and the instructions of Jesus.
. Those instructions are encompassed in our mission statement.
. We are to make disciples by teaching them to become followers of Jesus and baptizing them.
. Jesus gave us two commands, Love God, Love each other.
. Our instructions are to make disciples.
. Are you truly responding to Jesus instructions?
. Do you believe this mission statement?
. We affirmed it through the church body.
. We must choose to follow through on this mission statement.
. We must choose to follow the instructions of our master, our King, our deliverer, our Savior.
. I Pledge to you this morning that I will choose, I will resolve to follow Jesus’ instruction and Make disciples.
. I resolve to tell others about Jesus and what He has done for me.
. I resolve to tell all that I can about our church and the excitement that is building here.
. I resolve to invite them to come and worship with us.
. I resolve to share with them where they can come and hear about my Savior if they don’t know Him.
. I choose not to straddle a fence this year and to take our mission statement to heart and share the good news about Jesus Christ and The Creek.
. I ask you this first Sunday in this New Year to stand with me and resolve to make the Creek a beacon of faith and love in our community.
. Have you chosen to follow Jesus?
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Make A Choice, Jeff Strite
Warning! Straddling Can Be Hazardous To Your Health, Gerald Flury
