We have too much distracting us from God and not enough attracting us to God.
We often speak of all the worldly distractions we face as believers, but let me tell you about the greatest distraction I ever faced. This distraction kept me from truly knowing God and loving God for the first 10 years of my Christian life. The distraction was church! For the fist 10 years of my Christian life I didn’t grow spiritually because all I did was go to church on Sunday morning. I didn’t read my Bible apart from church, didn’t really know how to pray, much less pray effectively. I thought as long as I showed up at church on Sunday morning or at lest Sunday school I was fulfilling my duty to God. It wasn’t until I became an adult and moved to a small country church that I really began to fall in love with God. At this small country church the focus was on a personal relationship with Christ, not religion or duty to God. When I learned of God’s great love for me and began to understand the great lengths He went through to have a relationship with me it radically changed my life. Our goal as a church is not to just sing the songs and preach the sermon and go home unchanged and unchallenged. It’s to come together and worship God and have our spiritual perspective radically changed so we can face the world with the challenge of living for God and sharing the gospel with those around us.
Everybody worships something. God has placed a seed of faith in everyone, everywhere in the world. Many people around us today are worshiping false God’s. When the atheist is thankful for what he has whom does he thank? He has no one to thank, but himself and he becomes his own god.
Ahab was the most wicked king to ever-ruled Israel. From the time of David to Ahab the family in Israel had gone down hill fast. David’s son Solomon took many foreign wives that worshiped false gods and this had an impact on the kings of Israel that followed. So Ahab thought it was just a good political move to marry Jezebel who was a Baal worshiper. So when she came to Israel and married the king guess what she brought with her. Baal was considered to be the god of rain.
HIS PROFESSION: “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives”
Elijah’s name means my God is Lord. A prophet from Tishbe has no clout in Samaria, and especially to the king and queen and king of Israel.
Illustration: It would be like me going to Washington D.C. to visit George W. Bush. I would make it only as far as the front gate. Could you image me telling the security person, I’m David Yarbrough pastor of Sand Flat Baptist Church here with a message from God to the President? There is no way I would get in, because I have no clout in the White House. So how did Elijah a small town prophet get an audience with the king of Israel?
He was sent from God, he was called and ordained of God, that’s how he made it to the king’s presence. When we follow God’s will for our life he will do extraordinary things with our life to prove Himself.
Elijah was a man of God, with a message from God, who was on a mission with God, who went in the might of God.
Illustration: When the infidel Robert G. Ingersoll was delivering his lectures against Christ and the Bible, his oratorical ability usually assured him of a large crowd. One night after an inflammatory speech in which he severely attacked man’s faith in the Savior, he dramatically took out his watch and said, "I’ll give God a chance to prove that He exists and is almighty. I challenge Him to strike me dead within 5 minutes!" First there was silence, then people became uneasy. Some left the hall, unable to take the nervous strain of the occasion, and one woman fainted. At the end of the allotted time, the atheist exclaimed derisively, "See! There is no God. I am still very much alive!" After the lecture a young fellow said to a Christian lady, "Well, Ingersoll certainly proved something tonight!" Her reply was memorable. " Yes he did," she said. "He proved God isn’t taking orders from atheists tonight."...
“The Lord God of Israel, lives” if God is alive Ahab is in trouble.
FAITH – the world needs to see a change in our lives. A lasting character change in our life, attitude and direction.
HIS POSSITION: “Whom I serve”
Elijah had a burden. He was a servant, in order to be a servant we must have a burden. If we have no burden for the things of God we will not serve God. It’s like when a person looses a loved one to a disease or something and they will join are start a campaign to raise money or awareness and or both for their cause. Because of their loss and pain they have a burden to help others and try and prevent others from going through what they or their loved one endured. It’s too easy for us as Christians to forget what God has done for us and not consider what those around us without Christ are going through and are going to go through in eternity. We lose focus and perspective on eternal things and we don’t have a burden and without a burden we have a weak position spiritually.
Humor: In his book Fuzzy Memories, Jack Handey writes: There used to be this bully who would demand my lunch money every day. Since I was smaller, I would give it to him. Then I decided to fight back. I started taking karate lessons. But then the karate lesson guy said I had to start paying him five dollars a lesson. So I just went back to paying the bully.
Too many people feel it is easier just to pay the bully than it is to learn how to defeat him.
Elijah didn’t go to Samaria to Ahab and Jezebel because he bored. Oh, I think I’ll go down and deeply offend the king and queen today and try to live to see another day. Yea that will be exciting - won’t be bored after that! Elijah left his home, his community, and his comfortable life because he had a burden for God. He had watched his country turn to false gods to the point that it turned his stomach. Then he heard the call of God to go do something about it.
THE BEST ABILITY IS AVAILABILITY.
We always hear people say they’re going to live a silent Christian witness. Now I believe we do need to live out our faith with everything we do. But a person can carry that to an extreme and not back up their life with a verbal testimony, to be a true witness to the world you need both credibility and accountability. An effective witness in a court of law is going to speak what they have seen and heard. Jesus wasn’t crucified off in a corner somewhere were no one could see, He was crucified out in public for everyone to see and know what He had done for us. He spoke the truth not only to his disciples in private, but also to the masses in public.
Matt 16:24
24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
To take up your cross is a public demonstration of our allegiance to Christ.
HIS PRAYER “there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
James 5:17
17Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
Elijah was putting not only his life on the line as he went up against the gods of Jezebel but he was putting his faith on the line as well. Elijah didn’t have control of the weather, but the One who controlled the weather was controlling Elijah at this time. Elijah’s willingness to confront King Ahab was a by-product of his prayer life. He was praying for national disaster. Could you imagine it not raining for three and a half years? If we just go a few months without rain it’s devastating. Elijah was praying that everyone would become as uncomfortable physically as he was spiritually. Have you ever noticed how much we pray for our comforts? Home, health, and wealth dominate our prayer life. When these things dominate our prayer life our focus is off God and it’s on us. That’s what the enemy wants – he wants you to focus squarely on self, for self to become your number one concern. Because when you do that you’re suddenly being mistreated by everyone including God. Then the world becomes a miserable place and your life becomes a painful existence.
God wants us to place all our faith in Him. It’s not necessarily how much faith we have, it’s how much of our faith we’re placing in God.
What kind of people does God use?
1. People who are obedient. It’s too easy to make excuses for why we don’t serve God.
2. Those who are involved.
3. Those who pray beyond their convenience.
Less than 10% of all Christians are committed to the point that they actively serve their church and daily study their Bibles and pray. And of these that are committed they where also found to be the happiest.
