What Is Your Opinion?

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?

By Pastor Jim May

One of the greatest prophets who ever lived was Elijah. Here was a real man of God. Not much is known of Elijah’s family roots. We know that he came from the land of the Tishbite’s in Gilead, which was a wild mountainous land bordering on Arabia. Some scholars have tried to make the case that Elijah was more than just a man; that he was actually an angel of the Lord united in a human body. His name, “Elijah” is translated to mean, “Yahweh is my God!”

Now I don’t subscribe to that opinion for the Word of God says in James 5:17, "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months."

If the Bible says he was a man, then he was a man, but he was an extraordinary man to say the least. It is not likely that any angelic being would have the spiritual valleys that Elijah faced from time to time. What angel would run from an earthly queen called Jezebel? Would an angel be afraid of death, or get discouraged enough to want to die while he sat pouting under a juniper tree, or want to just quit when he thought that he was the only prophet left in the land? That doesn’t sound like any angel of the Lord to me. It sounds like a man with the same spiritual highs and lows that all of us have. And yet, there is no doubt that God used Elijah to do some mighty miracles on behalf of Israel.

In this message today I believe that God has given me a word for you who are here right now. God is going to speak to your heart, and to your life, and he is going to get right into your business this morning. And before this message is through, you will have to make some decisions. God’s Word is quick (alive and relevant all the time) and powerful (accomplishing what it sets out to do) and sharper than any two-edged sword (cutting right to the source of our need and our problem) and that’s just what this Word is going to do right now, so get ready for what it has to say to you and hear what the Spirit is saying to you this morning.

All of us have opinions. In fact you have probably heard the saying that says, “Opinions are like noses, we all have one.” I might add that not only do we have noses, but often stick those noses into places where we shouldn’t and it’s the same with our opinions.

If you were to look up the word “opinion” in the dictionary you would find that there are several definitions to let you know the meaning. Here are some of those definitions:

1. A belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof:

2. A judgment based on special knowledge and given by an expert: a medical opinion.

3. A judgment or estimation of the merit of a person or thing: has a low opinion of braggarts.

4. The prevailing view: public opinion.

How many of you are opinionated this morning? Come on, raise your hand, every one of us are opinionated whether we want to admit it or not! I know, because I’ve tried to discuss my own opinions with some of you that I know don’t know what in the world you’re talking about. I know that you think you know all there is to know but you really don’t know what I know and I know that I know what I’m talking about, so I know that you are absolutely opinionated. Did you get all that? Let me say it again. (Read it once again, and then add -) And don’t call me opinionated just because I’m convinced I’m right. I’m not just convinced I’m right – I KNOW THAT I’M RIGHT AND THAT’S IT! I don’t need your opinion to mess with my opinion because I’m not opinionated, I’m right!

Now, if that doesn’t sound like all of us then I’ve certainly missed the mark this morning in this message. Some of you will probably think to yourself that you are like that and you will come to me at some time and say, “Brother May, I am not opinionated like that!” Well, my friend, if you come tell me that, then you will have proven my point because your opinion is that you are not opinionated and no one can convince you that you are! Do you get my point? We are all in that boat together. The only difference is not whether we are opinionated, but how outspoken are we in our opinions?