Serving God Requires Courage

If you've been with us for the past 7 weeks then you know that we took a journey to visit the seven churches that Jesus wrote letters to in the Book of Revelation. We found that those messages still apply to our individual lives and our churches today.

Now we're going to change gears for the next 6 weeks as we take a look at the life of the prophet Elijah.

No matter who we are or where we are in life, we all have the tendency to choose the path of least resistance. We choose what's easy and comfortable. But serving God is not an easy job. You may have already witnessed that serving God involves opposition, sacrifice, heartache, headache, and struggles.

But still I think we would all agree that serving God is the greatest job we could ever have with the longest lasting reward. When we serve God over the long haul of our life, we find that we have to step outside our comfort zone and sometimes get our hands dirty. As we look at the life of Elijah, I think we will see a resemblance of what he went through and what we go through today as we serve our Savior. Prayer.

Today as we step out of our comfort zone to serve God, we're going to talk about how it takes courage for us to serve Him.

You might remember in 2001 Pat Tillman, the football player for the Arizona Cardinals with a $3.6 million contract. But then on 9/11 Tillman reassessed his priorities. He left his NFL career to enlist in the US army.

Before the terrorist attacks on our country, sports were Tillman's world. But he said that after the attacks he realized how shallow and insignificant his role was. It no longer became important. After several tours of duty as an army ranger, Tillman was killed in Afghanistan on April 22nd 2004. Later, investigations determined that Tillman's death had been a tragic result of friendly fire.

Pat Tillman sacrificed a lot. He gave up a well-paying career and took on the task of serving his country. It took courage for him to do that. In this world that we live in that opposes God, we need to decide: will we have the courage to stand for God and declare his truth? Elijah set an example for us to follow.

The story that we will use today is found in 1 Kings chapters 16 and 17. Under King Solomon, Israel was at the height of her glory. He fulfilled his father David's vision and built a magnificent Temple as the center of worship to God. But at the same time Solomon led the nation into the practice of idolatry by marrying women from foreign lands where idol worship flourished. That failure paved the way for the religious decay and Israel's decline. Let's get into our story.

1 Kings 16: 29-33 – “Ahab son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Judah’s King Asa; Ahab son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. But Ahab son of Omri did what was evil in the Lord’s sight more than all who were before him. Then, as if following the sin of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, were not enough, he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and then proceeded to serve Baal and bow in worship to him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he had built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole. Ahab did more to anger the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.”

After Solomon's death, the nation of Israel split into two monarchies. Israel was the northern kingdom and Judah was the southern kingdom. A whole string of unrighteous Kings led the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Among these Kings who failed to obey God, Ahab distinguished himself as the most wicked and displeasing to God. Verse 33 says that he did more to anger the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

You might remember me talking about Jezebel a few weeks ago. Ahab married Jezebel. Jezebel followed the false god Baal. She fought to completely get rid of the worship of Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel, and replace it with Baal worship. She had hundreds of people assassinated who stood in her way. They joined Jezebel in worshiping Baal and promoted Baal worship as the state religion.

Ahab proceeded to build a temple in Samaria where Jezebel could make sacrifices to her god. Among The Phoenician gods, Baal was revered as the god of fertility. Followers believed Baal controlled fertility of crops and reproduction among animals and people.