HOW LONG
1 Kings 18:21
• The first message today is the first message of the church. “Jesus saves.” The second is likened unto the first, “Jesus and Jesus ONLY – SAVES.” The Bible records the very words of our Lord Jesus (John 3:16 & John 14:6). What does Jesus save us from? He saves us from eternal punishment in a place called hell & He saves us to eternal paradise in a place called heaven. Questions? HOW?
• The Call of Salvation - L. O. V. E. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord, shall be saved!
• With that truth stated & prayerfully, clearly understood, it is time for us to face some Biblical questions. Questions are a part of life. Questions, ask with a right spirit & proper motivation never harm, however – they may hurt! The question which hurt are the questions which dig into our lives to reveal the wickedness of our fallen nature, that root out our self-centeredness, & bring into view our selfishness which so displeases our Heavenly Father.
• At the same time, hearing and responding to Godly questions can & should have a challenging & changing effect in our lives. One of the question (humanly speaking) might be, “Will you marry me?” That question is both challenging and changing. It challenges you because to say ‘yes’ is to give your LIFE to ONE person. It is changing because – well, too many reasons to count. For all those who are unmarried let me simply offer this, “Most of us who have been married for any length of time didn’t realize the challenge & the change of saying YES!”
• Some questions challenge, some change, but almost all confront. This past week I was drawn to some of these questions in God’s word. Five of these questions, we will ask over the next three Sunday. We find our first question in the Old Testament book of 1 Kings 18. Now, the backstory!
• The players in this story are pretty familiar, Elijah (prophet of God), Ahab (weak King of Israel), & Jezebel(wicked Queen of Israel) Okay, they were both wicked because chapter 16 tells us that Ahab was ‘more evil that all who were before Him’ & he had some pretty good competition. Both God & His prophet got tired of the evil among God’s people so, Elijah pronounced a drought on the land. That is to say, no rain – so the land dried up. By the way, when Elijah finished doing what God told him, he left town & where God led him. We know about droughts because out in the Western USA they have been on the verge of rationing water because the reservoirs are drying up due to lack of precipitation. We know a ‘little of it’ around here. BUT DEAR FOLKS, our land is experiencing a drought, the likes of which – as a nation – we have not known. It is a spiritual drought. Our land is dry because it has been so long since God poured out His Spirit on us in a ‘manifest way’ or like at Pentecost. Mouths are dry, souls are parched, & hearts are hard. We need the rain (another sermon for another time). Elijah’s drought lasted approximately 3 years.
• As chapter 18 opens, God tells Elijah to go back to Ahab & end the drought, but that was more. With God there usually is more. I wished time allowed us to work through this story detail by detail because there is much detail to learn from. How about just one thought. Verse 17 reveals to us the bent of fallen man. It was Ahab who was leading Israel astray with his evil antics & it was Ahab who caused the judgment of God to fall on Israel, yet when face to face with the man of God, the trouble-make tried to place the blame on God’s prophet. Elijah didn’t back up from the King (Vs 17-18), but Elijah said, “Let’s get together & allow God to sort it out, on Mt Carmel.”
• So get this picture; there were two groups of people who gathered, 850 false prophets & a HOST of God’s people. So now the stage is set, the King and his false prophets who ate at HIS table were there & then there was the opposition. Those would be the “people of God.” However, those people were the people who had been following their “leader” into all kinds of evil.
• Now it’s time for the question. (READ VERSE 21) PRAYER. How Long? What a great question!
• ONE WORD – to warn you that I’m not losing my mind or notes, this may be the shortest message you have ever heard from me, because my heart is only to offer you the truth, not force it on you.
• Let’s lift out a couple of thoughts which are easy to latch on to:
1. OPINIONS – This is not only a Bible word, we know about opinions – because EVERYBODY has an opinion. If you have 5 Baptist, there may well be 6 or 7 opinions in the group. Baptist churches have opinions about the carpet, the Lord’s Table, the color scheme, the lights, the parking lot, the nursery, and on and on it goes. It you miss this, you will miss God’s message for you today.
• According to what I read in the Bible, there only exist TWO opinions, (God’s & Man’s, God’s & Woman’s, God’s & Student’s, God’s and – well, you get the idea). It is clearly the same as right & wrong, good & bad as well as obedience & disobedience. Whatever is not God’s opinion is….
• The word ‘opinion’ in the Hebrew means ‘divided’ or ‘division’. In other words, trying to play both sides of the fence! This is exactly what these Israelite people were doing, they were claiming to be God’s children while living like the children of the devil & being assimilated into the culture. Elijah rightly asks, “How long are you going to do this?”
• Now look at the picture he paints. The ESV uses the word limp to ask ‘how long will you limp along between these two differing (opposite) opinions?’ The word limp has gone through many variations over the years: KJV – halt, NKJV – falter, NIV – waver, NASV & HCSB – hesitate, Basic English – balancing, Jewish – jumping back & forth, while GWT hits it by asking, “How long will you try to have it both way?” Gene Peterson did a paraphrase for his kids that we know as The Message & His question is penetrating, “How long are you going to sit on the fence?”
• Growing up around country living, I have on more than one occasion, attempted to jump a fence & didn’t make it over. This meant I stopped straddle of the fence & I was afraid to move. Got it?
• The very reason so many of us are so spiritually lethargic could be that we are straddling the fence. On Sundays, we grab our spiritual ‘pom-poms’ & cheer for Team-Jesus who we know will win it all, but during the week we want to fit in, so we keep quiet about our Lord, our Church & His life.
• This morning the question is for every church member, every professing Christian, every deacon, every SS teacher, every student, & every staff member, “How long?”
• Practically speaking, how do we ‘straddle the fence’ or ‘limp between two opinions’ or even ‘try to have it both ways.’ Our culture has done a number on us, telling us that we must be ‘politically correct.’ Now don’t anyone leave this place with the idea that being ‘mean’ is just being truthful. But dear folks, God didn’t call us to be Politically Correct, our call is to Biblically Courageous. Just as these people on Mt Carmel were challenged, so are we.
2. OPTIONS – We like options. We like the Restaurants with big menus, we like churches with mucho activities, & we like communities with a large variety of events, because we want the ability to choose. With much love as I can offer & as much passion as I know, when it comes to life, to eternity, & to our Lord, we have only two options, our His or ours which is right or wrong which translates into life or death. This morning the question is for you - & not from me, “How long will you halt, falter, hesitate, play both sides of the fence, & attempt a balancing act?” This is God’s question for you. Some will sit with pride in their hearts refusing to answer, others may well dismiss this as just another message, but I pray that we will hear God’s voice & heed His call. Only two options are available. What will you do?
3. OUTCOMES – Our outcome is controlled by the option we choose. Here’s the hard truth today: most of us have all we need & most of what we want. We are rich in things which don’t matter nor last!
