Why Me? Elijah Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• At some point in your life, you will be hit with one of those WHY ME moments.

• There will be times when these moments come out of nowhere, such as the case for Stephen and David.

• There will be other times when you kind of do something that causes the WHY ME moment, such as was the case with Jonah.

• Then there are cases such as the one we will examine today where we sort of set up our own WHY ME moment because of something not meeting our expectations.

• Today we will examine a slice of the life of the prophet Elijah.

• Elijah was a great servant of the Lord.

• Elijah was a Prophet of God from the ninth century BC. His ministry is covered in 1 Kings 17-2 Kings 2.

• Elijah was a crucial player in a critical time in the nation of Israel's history.

• Baal worship had taken over the Northern Kingdom (Israel), and this effort was spearheaded by the wife of King Ahab, Jezebel.

• God had pronounced a famine, a drought to the nation through Elijah, during this drought, God had taken care of Elijah’s needs.

• In the 3rd year of the drought, God told Elijah to present himself to Ahab.

• Elijah told Ahab to gather all of Israel and all of the prophets of Baal to meet him at Mt. Carmel. There were 450 prophets of Baal!

• When they gathered Elijah chastised the nation asking when they were going to get back in line with God, the people said nothing.

• Elijah told the people he was the last prophet of the Lord remaining and then he challenged the prophets of Baal.

• Elijah wanted to show the people of Israel that there was a God in heaven and it was not Baal!

• Elijah asked that each side be given one bull and some wood to prepare for a burnt offering.

• Each side was to call on their God/god to light the fire for the burnt offering.

• Long story short, the prophets of Baal went; first, they cried out all day, they cut themselves, Elijah made fun of them, nothing happened, no fire.

• Elijah then took his turn, he built an altar, filled it with a bunch of water, then called out to God.

• The Lord sent fire from heaven which consumed the water, the altar, and the bull.

• Then Elijah slaughters all 450 prophets of Baal!

• This is where we pick of the story, after this momentous event!

• SLIDE #2

• 1 Kings 19:1–2 (CSB) — 1 Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods punish me and do so severely if I don’t make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow!”

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. Elijah’s disappointment.

• When we encounter a WHY ME moment, we have to make sure our own disappointment is not the cause of the moment.

• Can you imagine the high that Elijah must have been on after his encounter with the 450 prophets of Baal?

• Elijah just had a mountaintop experience, yet he is disappointed.

• He just cleared Israel of all of the prophets of Ball, and I am sure he was exhausted!

• You ever been on a mountaintop high over something great that just happened?

• Elijah was a great servant for the Lord, he had done excellent service for both God and the nation of Israel!

• One would think NOTHING could bring Elijah down, nothing could cause him to have a WHY ME moment?

• Elijah just called on the Lord, and the Lord stopped the drought, and the Lord sent some wicked flames from heaven to consume the altar, the water, and the bull.

• On top of that, God empowered Elijah to whack all of the evil prophets of Baal!

• God showed the nation who the true God was, and Elijah was His man!

• So, what happened?

• How many times in life have you found yourself in a WHY ME moment because you had certain expectations concerning a situation or another person?

• Look at verse one again.

• When the torrential rain began to fall, Jezebel was in Jezreel and may have thought that Baal the storm god had triumphed on Mount Carmel.

• However, when Ahab arrived home, he told her a much different story. Ahab was a weak man, but he should have stood with Elijah and honored the Lord who had so dramatically demonstrated His power.

• Chicken husband, Ahab, goes to his wife, Queen Jezebel, to tell her everything that Elijah had done, how Elijah slaughtered all of her beloved Baal prophets.