The Chatterbox - Week 3 Series

Crash the Chatterbox - 3

May 11, 2014

What are your afraid of? I’m not talking about some of the stuff out there that scares us. If I had to admit it, I would say I’m afraid of heights. I could say I don’t like heights, but honestly, I have a fear of heights. I’m not sure about snakes and other things I would consider creepy crawly creations. And I assume I could add a few other things.

But, I’m really not talking about those types of fears. If you look it up, there are literally 100's of fears or phobias. What I want to talk about today are the fears we experience on a more regular basis. After all, I don’t come across snakes and heights everyday. But in living life, there are fears that can stop us in our tracks ...

Maybe it’s the fear of —

Life death

success failure

loneliness germs

crowds intimacy

Rejection

Now, I’m not here to analyze and give you the one secret of overcoming all of your fears, but I believe after looking at today’s passage and story from the Bible, maybe we will have a better clue on how to handle those fears and see how God is with us.

Too often we allow the chatter all around us to influence us in negative ways, so that we miss out on hearing God’s Word which breathes life into our heart and soul. So, with that in mind, if you have your Bible, would you please turn to the book of 1 Kings. This book is found in the Old Testament.

We’re going to look at part of the story of Elijah. Elijah was a prophet who had an amazing faith. In fact, only Elijah and Enoch didn’t die. God took Elijah to heaven on a chariot in a whirlwind. Elijah was a great and powerful prophet, but something happened along his journey. Something absolutely devastated him, as we read ~

SLIDE3 Then Elijah was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life.

WOW!! Something really freaked out Elijah. Let’s look at the background to this story and see what was happening. This would make a great movie!

Elijah was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. Remember the kingdom split in two, there was the southern kingdom, called Judah, and there was the northern kingdom, called Israel or Samaria. The northern kingdom never fully worshiped God. So, God brought judgement upon the people and in 1 Kings 17, Elijah said there would be no rain, a drought for 3 ½ years. During the drought, this is what God did for Elijah ~ 6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. Then Elijah lived with a widow and her son and they never ran out of food. Elijah even brought her son back to life after he became ill and died. So, we see God’s presence was very evident to Elijah and those he was with.

Now, in 1 Kings 18, it still hasn’t rained and Elijah is out to prove to the Israelites and their King, Ahab, that God is real and powerful. Elijah calls for a contest between the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob vs. the gods of baal (the false gods the Israelites were worshiping).

This is the game plan. Each side gets a bull to sacrifice to put on an altar. Each side will pray to their gods, for fire to consume their offering. The god who consumes the bull is declared the real God. Elijah has the king call all the people of Israel to be witness to this. The gather all 450 prophets of baal. And the contest begins. The prophets of baal go first.

26 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made.

27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”

28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them.

29 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.

Now it was Elijah’s turn. He had his bull prepared, put wood on the altar, then they filled jars with water and poured it over the bull. Then they did it again, and then they did it a 3rd time. So much water that the people were thirsting for the water as the water flooded the trenches. Then Elijah prayed to God ~