This was written as a sermon for a revival but was also modified for Sunday Morning.
What is Revival? Well the dictionary defines it as:
1. An awakening, in a church or community, of interest in and care for matters relating to personal religion.
2. an evangelistic service or a series of services for the purpose of effecting a religious awakening
I look at Revival as a time to look toward spiritual renewal and purpose in the lives of Christians. It’s a time that we can come together and be encouraged and uplifted so that we may be able to go out into the world and boldly proclaim, Jesus is Lord.
Now if you went to annual conference or you have been looking at statistics for the United Methodist Church, you know that we are declining in numbers. We have all heard the doom and gloom report that by 2050 the numbers say that the United Methodist Church could very likely, cease to exist.
Let me tell you what I think about that, I think they’re wrong, I think we are poised for another Great Awakening, not just in The United Methodist Church, but in churches all around the world. But to turn this thing around we need get on Fire for God. We need that all-consuming Fire of the Lord to take hold of our churches and our lives, Church folk have got to quit playing church and start living Jesus.
You ever heard the saying “If that don’t light your fire your wood’s to wet?” Today I want you to know that your wood don’t ever get to wet, God can light a fire in you no matter how wet you think you are.
In the text tonight we find the people of Israel straddling a fence of worshiping Yahweh and worshiping Baal, they aren’t completely rejecting God they are just trying to incorporate a little pagan worship into what they were already doing. Elijah comes out of hiding and confronts the people of Israel. He also challenges The 450 prophets of Baal who are in King Ahab’s court, and also the 400 prophets in Jezebels court who worship Ashura to a showdown.
Let’s look verse 21 (read text) the people of God didn’t say a word.
Are things any different today? People go to church on Sunday and act like the rest of the world Monday through Saturday. We don’t want to state how we really believe in fear of not being politically correct. It seems that people of God are not much different than the ones that Elijah was talking to. We stand in silence while people call wrong right and right wrong, 3700 babies are aborted every day in the United States, we live in a country where a Man can marry a man , a woman can marry a women, people live together instead of getting married, divorce has become an epidemic, people are being shot and killed every day.
People ask where God is. And we stand silent. I think we stand silent because we ask the same question ourselves. Our fire has all but gone out our wood has become so wet that we can’t even see a spark or a flicker. We are scared to tell people where we stand for fear of exposing ourselves as politically incorrect. Wake up people, we gotta start acting like people of God. Sadly we are in a position much like the people of Israel we need to speak up for what we believe.
Anyway back to the underdog Elijah who is badly outnumbered in our natural way of thinking its 850 to 1 not good odds if you’re a spectator, but Elijah has what we would call an Ace in the hole, he has God in his corner.
Elijah says give us 2 oxen and some wood ya’ll pick your ox first cut it up place it on the wood for sacrifice and then I’ll do the same but neither of us will light fire to the wood.
And Elijah says tell you what ya’ll call on your god and I’ll call on the name of Yahweh and whichever God answers by fire , he is God, well all the people thought that was a great idea.
So Elijah tells the prophets of Baal, it’s a lot of ya’ll you go first. Well they prepare the alter place the ox upon it and start to dance around and call upon Baal well they dance around hopping and hollering till about lunch and then Elijah comes out and says “ what’s wrong holler a little louder he’s a god isn’t he? Maybe he’s taking a nap, or on a trip. Who knows maybe he had to go to the bathroom, call louder.” Well those prophets of Baal began to call louder and even cut themselves and whipped themselves but to no avail. The scripture said they did this till the time of the evening offering which would be around 3 p.m. and received no answer, no voice, and no fire.
Then it was Elijah’s turn he called everyone near and prepared an alter with 12 stones, one for each tribe of Israel, then dug a trench around it, he placed the wood and cut up the oxen then said “bring 4 pitchers of water and pour it on the offering and on the wood, then he said do it again, and then he said do it one more time and the water flowed around the alter and even filled the trench up. (Now mind you they were in a three year drought because of Elijah’s so water was probably a precious commodity)
Now put yourself in the shoes of the spectators , they are probably thinking what is this dude doing , he’s just making a fool of himself, wasting water , nobody wets the wood down before you light it afire this is never going to burn with all that H2O . Let’s look at what happens (read verse 36 -39)
The fire of the Lord came down and consumed everything, including the water. The people of Israel had an encounter with God and started to worship Him.
That’s what we need in our churches today we need to have an encounter with God, we as Christians need to be filled with that all-consuming fire of the Lord and become contagious.
We listen to all these statistics that the church is declining , we look around and see our pews empty and we start having a little pity party and we begin to go with the flow and just remain silent, trying to survive. When what we really need to be doing is calling on the Fire, we need to be seeking an encounter with Jesus Christ in order to regain that all-consuming fire that takes hold of us and can’t be contained within us.
If we are to have revival and renewal in our churches today, if we are going to receive the fire of God we have got to have Faith, We may feel like we are outnumbered and out flanked. We make think the woods to wet, but the word assures us this, nothing is impossible for God.
Friends we need to realize that we can’t do it on our own, Elijah wasn’t by himself he had God on his side.
Elijah built the offer and prayed expecting something supernatural. Elijah prayed expecting God to show up and show out.
How long has it been since you’ve showed up at a worship service expecting God to ignite a flame in your heart, how long has it been since you asked God to consume your heart with a burning fire for those that are lost and seeking?
Elijah anticipated the fire
Elijah expected the fire
Elijah wanted the fire
When you get that fire in you it transforms you, you start to think differently, you start to talk differently, and you start to walk differently. When the fire of the Holy Spirit gets in your things become kingdom oriented. You get a yearning to witness to the lost, you begin to love others more deeply, and people start to notice. They want to know what you got and where to get it.
Jesus gives us this type of fire Luke 3:16 & Matthew 3:11 John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire
We have got to quit playing church and get serious about what God would have us do. Revival starts with each individual person. In order to be consumed by the fire we must have an encounter with Jesus Christ. We need to start showing up expecting an encounter with God every time we enter the doors of our churches.
We can look at all these statistics and numbers and let it discourage us. But they are dealing in the natural.
The great thing is this, we don’t deal in the natural, and we have a God that allows us to expect the supernatural. It’s time that we show up anticipating the fire, it’s time we start expecting the fire, and it’s time that we start wanting the fire.
It’s time for us to be on fire with love and compassion for others and meet them wherever they are with that all-consuming love that only Christ can give us.
