Our Source Part 2
Scripture: 1 Kings 18:19-21; Rev. 2:20; John 17:16; Isaiah 29:13
Introduction
This is part two of my series “Our Source.” Last week I shared with you what Jesus said to John pertaining to the church of Laodicea. Jesus did not commend that prosperous church on anything because they had become lukewarm. If you recall, I shared with you the Laodiceans did not have neither cold nor hot water so they understood what Jesus was saying to them when He said they were lukewarm and neither hot nor cold. Remember, being hot or cold related to purpose, not that one was better than the other. If hot water is needed, lukewarm water will not serve the same purpose. The same with cold water. So being hot or cold in the example would have been preferred versus being lukewarm. In my message last week I used the analogy of two cups of water. One was ice cold and the other boiling hot when I started the message. By the end of the message, the boiling hot water had become warm while the ice cold water had become cool. If we had the time and we let the water stay there longer, both the hot and cold water would eventually reach the same temperature, the temperature of the room. Please keep this in mind as I will come back to this analogy later.
Last week I shared with you that each person must judge themselves as it relates to where they are with being lukewarm towards the things of God. I gave you two examples on last week with the first being your love of God and the second being whether you are serving Him or money (the things of this world.) These are the first two indicators of our becoming lukewarm. Even though we may be attending Church faithfully and going through all of the religious motions of our service, we could still be lukewarm based on where we are internally, within our hearts. This morning I want to share with you the third indicator – hesitating between two opinions. When you examine our love for God and Whom/what we choose to worship, it can be traced back to what we believe. The core of our lukewarmness starts with what we believe. What we believe about God directly impacts our love for Him just as our love for others is impacted by what we believe about them. What we believe about God and ultimately money directly impacts our choice to serve either. For example, if we believe God is our source, we by default understand that money is not. If we are unsure if God will provide for us (as our source) then by default we must provide for ourselves and then money becomes our source to do that. In my opinion, the first two indicators (our love for God and whether we are serving Him or money) can be traced back to the third indication – having two opposing opinions and hesitating between the two.
For the purposes of my visual this morning, I have again placed two cups of water on the table. Unlike last week, instead of the water being in cups, they are in insulated containers. Again, one contains boiling hot water while the other contains ice cold water. I will come back to these at the conclusion of the message this morning. So let’s begin with First Kings chapter eighteen.
I. Being Connected To Our Source (cont.)
Hesitating Between Two Opinions. The third measure of our lukewarmness towards God pertains to what we believe. Again, people are good at expressing what people want to hear, but God knows what we truly believe within our hearts. It is hard to be settled on one belief if we believe everything about everything! Let’s begin reading at verse nineteen. “Now then send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent a message among all the sons of Israel and brought the prophets together at Mount Carmel. Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.’ But the people did not answer him a word.” (1 Kings 18:19-21)
When you read this story in its entirety you will discover that King Ahab and Queen Jezebel served as leaders of the northern kingdom of Israel. During their time of reign, there was much evil in the land. King Ahab was a Jewish king who married Jezebel, a Sidonian woman. The Bible tells us that Ahab was an evil king even before he married Jezebel. 1 Kings 16:30-31 tell us the following: “Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethball, king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him.” Please understand that he was evil before he married Jezebel and his marriage to her enhanced the rebellion against God that already existed within him. The real issue here, (beyond his personal rebellion) was the effect his rebellion, as a leader, had on the Israelite people. The Israelites became indecisive as it related to who was the one true God. Initially they believed in the one true God, but after Ahab built a house to Baal in the capital city of Samaria and made an Asherah pole as a tool of pagan worship they began to shift. (An Asherah pole was a sacred pole (or sometimes a tree) that was used in the worship of the pagan goddess Asherah. The Asherah pole was often mentioned in the Old Testament as one of the ways the Israelites sinned against the Lord and worshiped other gods. The first mention of the Asherah pole is in Exodus 34:13 where God instructs the Israelites to destroy any Asherah pole they found among the other people in the land. In Deuteronomy 16:21, the Lord commanded the people of Israel to not make Asherah poles of their own. Although God had given a commandment pertaining to these pagan worship symbols, King Ahab ignored them.)
The Children of Israel followed Ahab and began to worship both God and Baal. It appears that they did not start worshipping Baal because they no longer wanted to serve God because they continued to do so. What happened was they became like many Christians today, lukewarm, not hot or cold on any one belief or issue. The easy way out for them was to serve both God and Baal. Sounds familiar? If we take the easy way out we do not risk offending anyone who does not believe what we believe. They were literally caught between two choices and in choosing to serve God and Baal they did not have to make the unpopular decision of standing for God alone. So enters Elijah to settle this issue once and for all (at least as it pertained to Ahab and Jezebel.) Although Satan had his couple on the throne, God had His man (Elijah) in the field leading a revival against Baal-worship. The three-and-a-half-year drought that Elijah prayed for was part of God’s judgment on the wickedness of the nation and its leaders. Towards the end of the drought Elijah confronted Ahab. The king accused Elijah of being the troubler of Israel which was totally backwards. He failed to see the impact of his own action. We often blame God and others for things that are totally our responsibility. If I become lukewarm it’s not because I want to be lukewarm, it’s because of the people around me or the things happening to me. We all have our excuses but one of them is not “It’s me!” Elijah was not the one bringing trouble to the land, he would be the one God used to cure the land.
Elijah calls for all of Israel and all of the prophets of Baal and Asherah (850 prophets in all) to be gathered at Mount Carmel. When they were gathered together, he asked the people of Israel how long would they hesitate between two opinions. Now we need to understand the state of the people.
They dreaded Jehovah, and therefore could not totally abandon Him. They also feared the king and queen, and therefore thought they must embrace the religion of the state. Their conscience forbade them to do the former while their fear of man persuaded them to do the latter. However, in neither were they heartily engaged (thus lukewarm) and at this juncture their minds seemed to be waiting for a favorable opportunity to make their decision. Understand, even though they were chosen by God, they still refused to support Elijah publicly until it was to their benefit. Such an opportunity now, through the mercy of God, presented itself. Elijah told them if the LORD was God then serve Him. If Baal was God then serve him. This would effectively solve their issue – they had a reasonable out. Truly if it was proven that the LORD was God they could get fully behind Him. Likewise if it turned out that Baal was the true God, they could just as easily get fully behind him. For them this would be a win-win situation.
After making this statement Elijah set forth to prove That God was the one and only true God. You know the rest of the story. He set up a contest between himself and the prophets of Baal. The test was whichever God rained down fire on their sacrifice would be deemed the one true God. The prophets of Baal cut themselves and bled all over the altar as they cried out to their god all day and yet they did not receive an answer. When Elijah’s turn came, he soaked his offering with water and then spoke to God. The Bible does not say that he shouted or cried out with a loud voice, but simply that he spoke to God. As soon as Elijah finished speaking fire came down from heaven and consumed everything. When the people saw it they shifted from being between two opinions to being of one. They were no longer lukewarm or indecisive but were now fully convinced that God was truly the one true God.
Today, many of us are like the Children of Israel. We’re not convinced that God is truly who He says He is. We have not drawn a line in the sand where we say “This is what the Bible says….” So what will it take for us to be of one opinion as we are in a similar position as the Children of Israel was at this time? While the names of the other “gods” are different, the indecisiveness and lukewarmness is ever present among Christians. If you read what Jesus told John about the church at Thyatira in Revelations 2:20 He speaks of Jezebel. Her reputation lives on as Jesus speaks against the church when He says: “But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.” The woman’s name in Thyatira was not literally the “Jezebel,” as we know she had been long dead, but her immorality and idolatry in preying upon God’s people was very Jezebel-like. This spirit is very present in our world today and is very subtle as to how it is impacting and influencing all of us. Our political leaders are not the ones who are providing us with spiritual direction. Just as the Children of Israel lost sight of God as the followed their “political” leaders, so are we. It took the prophet Elijah to get them back on track.
As I said last week, the discernment around whether or not we are lukewarm is individualized. I cannot speak for anyone other than myself but if I am unsure as to what I believe about God, it directly affects my love and worship for Him as it does yours. If I am confused about Who the one true God is and His requirements of me, I can easily allow the world to make that determination for me as the world becomes more important, God decreases in my life and thus I become lukewarm.
Conclusion – Hot Or Cold
On the table before you there are two containers of water. One is hot and one is cold. Now you may be wondering why I put them in insulated containers which would ensure that when they are opened they will still be hot and cold. Well, that is your answer – so that when they are opened they will still be hot or cold. They will not become lukewarm as the cups did last week. With my example last week there was nothing to protect the hot water from getting cold or the cold water from getting warm. The longer they were exposed to room temperature, they began to shift their purpose and become like their environment. Room temperature was the standard so if they were too hot or too cold they would have to shift in order to fit in and meet the standard. Are you seeing where I am going with this?
These two containers before us are insulated from the effects of the air temperature of this room. They are able to maintain their purpose. If I were to take a tea bag and place it in the hot water I would still be able to drink hot tea. If I was hot and needed a cold drink, I could take a sip from the other container and be refreshed with cold water. Why? Because both have been insulated from their surrounding environment and thus are able to fulfil their purpose even though they are semi-separated from their source. I use the word semi-separated because when they were removed from their source they were place in containers that would protect them until they fulfill their purpose.
I want to close with these Scriptures to prove this point as you think about whether or not you are becoming lukewarm:
#1. The containers before us are in this room yet the water within them are not being influenced by the room. Jesus said in John 17:16 “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” We are in the world but we are not of this world. This world does not set the standard for which we are to live.
#2. The containers before us act as a seal for the water they are holding. The insulation protects and preserved what has been placed with in. Well we have also been sealed just like the water in the cups. Consider what Paul stresses in these two verses: “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.” (Ephesians 1:13) Also note 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 which states “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.” We have been sealed so we are always able to fulfill our purpose when we choose to do so.
#3. When we begin to come out to begin to fulfil our purposes, we must also remain connected to a power source. We have three on this earth. The first is the Holy Spirit as I have already mentioned. The second is the Bible, the Word of God. Consider what is said in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” Finally, the third is the Church itself (if that Church is doing the things of God.) Consider what Hebrews 10:23-25 states: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
So, are you lukewarm? Here what the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah: “Then the Lord said, ‘because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote.” (Isaiah 29:13) Now, does this sound familiar? If you are, and only you know for sure, you can make a change. It’s not too late. We all experience life changes that shake us to our core and can cause us to wonder if it is all worth it. We wonder why we are suffering or continuing to do what we do when we see no change. We evaluate our lives by the world’s standard and then become frustrated when we are not meeting that standard. We witness the sufferings of those around us and never see anything positive come across the news channels. Our focus remains on how bad things are which forces us inward to securing our own happiness and security from trouble. In this process we fulfil what Jesus said about the love of many running cold (cold not being good in this example.) We have been hurt to the point that it is easier to believe a lie than continue to worship a God that allowed so much pain in my life.
Only you know where you are today. Are you lukewarm? If you are, when you get home today, get on your knees and ask God to forgive you. Tell Him that you want your love for Him to burn as hot or be as refreshingly cold as your love is for your spouse, children or other family member. And please let Him know that when you arrive in Heaven, you want Him to be able to say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant!” This will start and end with your action – not God’s!
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
