IF GOD IS GOD, THEN SERVE HIM!
1 Kgs 18:21-29, 36-39
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: Watch your CHOICE OF WORDS
1. A doctor was called and asked to visit a sick home-bound man way out in the country. The wife, who made the call, said, “Doctor, I’m sorry to ask you to come so far, but he’s really sick!”
2. The doctor said, “Oh, that’s quite all right. I have another patient in the neighborhood, so I’ll come out and kill two birds with one stone!”
B. TEXT
21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing. 22 Then Elijah said to them….23 “Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire—he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.” 26 Then they [the prophets of Baal] called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. 27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!... Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. 36 [Next Elijah prepared his sacrifice.] At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!” 1 Kgs 18:21-29; 36-39.
C. THESIS & TITLE
1. It was a day to be remembered, when the multitudes of Israel were assembled at the foot of Carmel and when the solitary prophet of the Lord came forth to defy the 450 priests of the false god.
2. Upon that hill of Carmel, and along the plain, were three kinds of persons. First, the devoted servant of Jehovah. Second, the decided servants of evil (450 prophets of Baal); but the vast majority on that day belonged to a third class—those who were wavering between two opinions.
3. Now, we have these three classes here this morning. So I’m speaking to the issue of “If God be God, then Serve Him!”
I. THE SITUATION LOOKS BLEAK!
A. BLEAK IN ISRAEL
1. Israel had come out of Egypt and experienced transformation by the presence of God in the wilderness for 40 years. Things went well until the times of the Judges, where “another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel” Judges 2:10. It was a national backsliding.
2. The situation became much worse under the evil King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, who forced idolatry on Israel and murdered almost all the prophets of the Lord.
3. But no country and no individual is past being reclaimed by God. If God can save Nineveh and Saul of Tarsus, God can save anyone!
B. OUR CURRENT PARALLEL SITUATION
1. Before the Coronavirus hit, America had dropped from 70% church attendance in the 1970’s to only 18% last year, and only 3% of those 18-25 went to church.
2. Under Coronavirus the picture got much worse. All American churches were forcibly closed for 2 months and some states have hindered their reopening since. 1/3 of former members who’d been watching online services quit after 6 weeks, meaning they effectively backslid.
3. God sent a message to Israel through the prophet Elijah to kickstart revival and we need a message like that too, since the majority of Americans would also find themselves in the class of “wavering between two opinions!”
II. ELIJAH’S QUESTION: 3 OBSERVATIONS
“How long will you waver between two opinions?”
A. “2 OPINIONS:” JEHOVAH VS. BAAL
1. POLYTHEISM. They weren’t rejecting Baal or Jehovah wholly; but as polytheists, they believed that both Gods might be worshiped, and each deity could have a share in their hearts. To this idea Elijah answered, “No!”
2. If God is the Creator, the Life-giver, is eternal, immortal, invisible, omnipresent & omnipotent – then God deserves our whole devotion. Will God be satisfied with half our devotion? Can we tell the Almighty that areas of our lives are off limits to Him? Of course not!
3. “IF JEHOVAH IS GOD, THEN SERVE HIM!” God is a Jealous God. He wants all our love or none of it; He won't take only part. The Lord Jesus said, “You can't serve two masters.” We’ve got to pick whom we’re going to serve.
B. “WAVER”
1. The prophet doesn’t stop there, but paints a picture of the absurdity of their present condition. While they’re NOT making up their minds, they are staggering back and forth. The word translated “waver” is used of a cripple (KJV – “halt”)-- a man whose legs are entirely out of joint. He can’t walk straight, so he first staggers to the left and then to the right and in neither direction can stagger far.
2. The prophet asks, "How long will you limp between opinions?" The prophet used satire to prod the people into a decision. Certainly Satan laughs at weak-minded people. The saddest person in the world is the man who has too much of God to enjoy the world, but too much of the world to enjoy the pleasures of God. Isaiah said, “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
C. “HOW LONG?”
1. Elijah’s question of “How long?” indicates that the Israelites had already taken too long to make their decision for God. 3½ years without rain had passed and they still hadn’t decided to repent of Baal worship!
2. I might ask the church in 2020; “What’s it going to take to get you to seek the Lord with all your hearts? Isn’t it bad enough yet? A worldwide disease like one of the plagues of Revelation has struck us. Hordes of locusts are devouring many countries in Africa and Asia. Economic collapse is in every country. Riots are in the cities, political turmoil and racial hatred abound – yet you still haven’t made up your mind to serve the Lord!
3. Some of you have been wavering until your hair has grown gray. Others have been churchgoers for years! How many more Sundays must roll by without your surrender? How many warnings, how many more funerals will pass you by?
4. Elijah indicated this choice CAN be made in a moment. We shouldn’t put off choosing Christ one more day.
a. You don’t know if you’ll have another day to decide.
b. God says, “Today is the day of salvation.”
c. To delay making a decision for God now, is to reject Him.
D. ISRAEL’S RESPONSE – “SILENCE”
1. The Prophet asks who’s on the Lord’s side, and NOBODY ANSWERS! It reminds me of a Hagar the Horrible comic:
2. Hagar was pumping up the troops. "This is the moment we've been waiting for men! The moment we do battle with the enemy! Is everyone here?" They shout: "YES!"
3. Hagar continues: "Okay men -- repeat after me. 'I am a Viking Warrior!'" "I AM A VIKING WARRIOR!" they shout. "And I will fight to the death for what I believe!" (silence in the next frame) (silence again in a second frame).
4. In the third frame Hagar asks: "Okay, why aren't you repeating after me?!" One meek Viking speaks for them all: "Hagar, the men would like to change that to 'and I will fight hard until it's time for dinner.'"
5. We don’t mind giving God a “little,” but not our ALL!
III. ELIJAH CONFRONTS COMPROMISE
A. VERY BAD ODDS & THE PROPOSAL
1. Anyway, back to the UNDERDOG Elijah who is badly outnumbered 450 to 1.
2. In our naturalist way of thinking, that’s not good odds. But Elijah has - what we would call - an Ace in the hole; he has God in his corner.
B. ELIJAH HECKLES THE IDOLATERS
1. So Elijah tells the prophets of Baal, “There’s a lot of ya’ll, you go first.” They prepare the altar, place the ox on it, and start to dance around and call upon Baal.
2. They dance around hopping and hollering till about lunch and then Elijah comes out and says “What’s wrong? Yell a little louder! Maybe he’s taking a nap, or on a trip. Who knows, maybe he had to go to the bathroom, call louder.”
3. Well those prophets of Baal began to call louder and even cut themselves and whip themselves, but to no avail. They continued until the evening offering, at 3 p.m., and there was no answer, no voice, and no fire from heaven.
C. ELIJAH’S LOOKS LIKE A FOOL
1. Then it was Elijah’s turn. He called everyone to him and rebuilt the alter of the Lord with 12 stones, one for each tribe of Israel.
2. Then he dug a trench around it, he placed the wood and cut up the oxen then said “bring 4 barrels of water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.” He did this 3X. The water flowed around the alter and even filled the trench up.
3. 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 on fire! This is never going to burn with all that H2O.”
4. God doesn’t mind it if you make it hard for Him to do something! Gideon asked for the fleece to be wet, and then to be dry! God waited until it was just Jonathan (son of King Saul) and his servant to defeat the whole army of the Philistines! Only 2 swords.
D. ELIJAH’S ATTITUDE TOWARD GOD’S FIRE
1. Elijah anticipated the fire
Elijah expected the fire
Elijah wanted the fire. We need to want it.
2. When you get that fire in you, it’ll transform you. You’ll start to think differently, and start to walk differently. When the fire of the Holy Spirit gets into you things become kingdom-oriented.
3. 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 expecting an encounter with God every time we go to prayer or church.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: THE CONFISCATED BOOK
1. A young Colombian girl received a New Testament at school. She read the New Testament until one day her father caught her reading it... and told her not to read it again because it was full of lies and fantasy.
2. But the girl kept on reading until one day her father came home unexpectedly and found her with the New Testament. He grabbed it from her hands and put it in his pocket.
3. The father went off to work the next morning where he was a mining engineer. Several hours later, sirens went off in the community; there had been a cave-in at the mine.
4. The father was trapped in the mine. The rescue workers took five days to finally reach the men, but it was too late. All 31 men died, including the father of the little girl.
5. Curiously, the workers found the man clutching the New Testament between his praying hands. When they opened the front cover they read a note; "To my daughter; keep reading this New Testament, it is true and right, and I will see you one day in heaven."
6. Then they turned to the back page where the father had signed the commitment card after having said the sinner’s prayer. But that was not the end of the story; turning the page, there were signed the names of the other 30 workers! (Gideon’s Int’l). Thank God for changes of heart!
B. THE CALL
1. Have you been wavering in your dedication to Christ?
2. How many of you want God’s fire to fall on your life?
3. Jesus is calling you into relationship. How many will say “Yes” and say the “Sinner’s Prayer?” Let’s Pray.
[Some parts are adapted from Charles Spurgeon’s, “Elijah's Appeal to the Undecided.”]
