Elijah - His Contest on Carmel

We thank you for a chance to be in your word and we pray that you'd encourage us tonight And that you'd motivate us through this prophet Elijah that we might know how to live for the glory and honor of your kingdom We thank you father for your word that speaks to us and pray that Lord We would be listening to all that you say in Jesus name. We pray. Amen First Kings chapter 18 is where we're at first Kings chapter 18 and we're gonna look at Elijah's Contest with the false prophets of Baal on top of Mount Carmel I love to go through the scriptures and read about the different Contests in the scripture and the way not contest because God really always wins because God's a victor and he wins everything But that way back with it was Moses and and Pharaoh God told Moses you go and tell Pharaoh let my people go Because I need to go and they need to serve me in the wilderness And if you don't let them go I'm going to kill your firstborn child and you know about the the plagues in Egypt and how Pharaoh Capitulated finally and they let the nation go And then you have David and Goliath and Goliath and come out and he would he would taunt the armies of Israel And nobody was able to stand against Goliath.

They were all afraid except for separate David he was about 16 years of age and he wasn't afraid at all and He came out he went against Goliath he went against him in the name the Lord of hosts and said to Goliath that he would cut off his head and surely He did cut off the Giants head You have Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and they were threatened if they don't bow down to worship the golden image That they'd be thrown to a fiery furnace But they said Oh King we hear what you say But we're not going to obey What you have said because we know that our God is able to deliver us and sure enough God delivered them from the fiery Furnace, then of course you have Peter and you have John the Apostles in Acts chapter 5 where they were beaten because they would stand true for the word of the Lord and they would Say we're here to obey God not man and they would stand against the religious leaders of Israel.

And then you have of course The Apostle Paul who would stand against Festus and against Agrippa and against Everybody who came against him because he stood in the name of the Lord his God and of course you have Jesus before Caiaphas and before Annas and before Pilate and Pilate says don't you know that I have the authority to kill you and Jesus says No, you have no authority over me unless it's been granted to you from above And so you as you go through the scriptures, you realize that God's people just never lose They always win because God's their leader.

God is their their King Well the same is true with Elijah on this day. God has been preparing Elijah for three and a half years for this particular event And so we've taken you from first Kings 17 verse number one to where we are now in first Kings chapter 18 to help you understand that all the while God has taken this man and Prepared him he began with the confrontation With Ahab and first Kings 17 verse number one, then he went to camp at Kareth He was there for about a year and then there was a crisis in Zarephath He was there for about two and a half years.

And then there was that Contention again with Ahab where God said to him now you go and you meet Ahab Because I'm going to cause it to rain again and so Elijah got up and he left the widow's home in Zarephath and Found the king and to the king. He said these words Or a have said to Elijah is this you you troubler of Israel verse 18 at first Kings 18 Well, I just said I have not troubled Israel But you and your father's house have because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and you have followed The bales Elijah was uninhibited in his calling He was unparalleled in his commitment.

He was uncompromising in his convictions He was unyielding in his creed He was undaunted in his course He was a man of God He could not be stopped Because God had moved him and empowered him the question is How do we get to that point in first Kings 18 gives us?

Some insight that we might understand exactly what's going on Elijah has put forth a challenge to Ahab to gather all the prophets of Baal a location called Mount Carmel Now if you were to go to Carmel today, you could overlook the Ezra on Valley or the Jezreel Valley and see how luscious and in green it is and you can look to the north and see Mount Hermon on a clear day and you see the Mount mountaintop and covered with snow If you look to the right you see Mount Megiddo if you look right in front of you You see the Ridge of Nazareth if you look to your left the Mediterranean Sea So on this day in first Kings 18 The the land is not luscious green.

It's barren. It's dry. It's brown Because there has been a famine in the land a severe famine according to first Kings 18 verse number two and so we know it's affected everybody in the land and So Ahab is going to have to send out an invitation to everybody to gather them together How long does it take we don't know the Bible didn't tell us this take three days does it take a week Didn't tell us how many people are there?

We know there's 450 prophets of Baal on top of Mount Carmel, but we don't know how many people are there My guess would be that there would be a lot of people. I mean after all they're in the middle of a Severe drought they want to have a solution. They're coming. They want to come to an end of This huge famine and so my guess is when the invitation went out there would be thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Israelites Who would show up and if you were to sit at the base of the mountain you could look up?

On top of Mount Carmel, which is a which is a mountain ridge that runs somewhere between 12 and 18 miles It ends in the Mediterranean Sea Which by the way is your answer as to where they get the barrels of water? In the middle of a drought by the way And so Elijah would have to bring that water from the Mediterranean Sea. It would take him a while to get There and get back again So we don't know how long it was between the time Elijah met Ahab and Ahab called him the troubler of Israel and he said no you're the troubler You have disobeyed the commands of God to the actual moment on top of Mount Carmel Needless to say that's where we find ourselves on this day.

And this is the most famous story surrounding the Prophet Elijah But remember it's been three and a half years God has prepared him for this day. God just didn't say go tell Ahab It's not gonna rain and then we're gonna do something really really great. No, it took three and a half years Because the judgment of God had come down upon the nation of Israel and so we're gonna pick up the narrative 1st Kings 18 verse number 20 read down to verse number 40 So I have sent a message among the sons of Israel and brought the prophets together at Mount Carmel Elijah came near to all the people and said how long will you hesitate between two opinions if the Lord is God Follow him but of Baal Follow him But the people did not answer him a word Then Elijah said to the people I alone am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men Now let them give us two oxen and let them choose one ox for themselves and cut it up and placed on the wood But put no fire under it and I will prepare the other ox and lay it on the wood And I will not put a fire under it Then you call on the name of your God and I will call on the name of the Lord and the God who answers by Fire he is God and all the people said that is a good idea So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first For you are many and call on the name of your God and put no fire under it Then they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon saying Oh Baal answer us, but there was no voice and no one answered and he leaped about the altar which they made It came about at noon that Elijah mocked them and said call out with a loud voice for he is the God Either he is occupied or gone aside or is on a journey or perhaps He is asleep and needs to be awakened So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves According to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them When midday was passed they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice But there was no voice No one answered and no one paid attention Then Elijah said to all the people come near to me So all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been torn down Elijah took 12 stones According to the number of the tribes the sons of Jacob to whom the Word of the Lord had come saying Israel shall be your name So with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two measures of seed They arranged the wood and cut the oxen pieces and laid it on the wood And he said fill four pitchers with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood They said do it a second time and they did it a second time He said do it a third time and they did it a third time The water flowed around the altar and he also filled the trench with water at the time of the offering of the even sacrifice Elijah the Prophet came near and said O Lord the God of Abraham Isaac and Israel today Let it be known that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and I have done all these things at your word Answer me O Lord answer me that this people may know that you O Lord our God and that you have turned their heart back again then the fire of the Lord fell and Consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench When all the people saw it they fell on their faces and they said the Lord he is God the Lord he is God Then Elijah said to them seize the prophets of Baal do not let one of them escape So they seized them and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slew them there Thus the story of Elijah and his contest on Mount Carmel several things I want you to see the first thing are the preliminaries to the contest and then the proclamation at the contest and then the Persuasion surrounding that contest and then three principles that come about because of that contest Okay, first of all some preliminaries Two things you need to know first of all Elijah indicted the crowd before he introduced the contest The first thing he did was indict the crowd The people had gathered together How long did it take them to get there?

We don't know but evidently they were somewhere on top of Mount Carmel And we have an idea as to where this place might be because they always sacrificed on the highest places And there is a ridge that rises about 1700 feet above the Jezreel Valley Which is more than likely the place. It's a definite. Maybe we're not sure exactly where it is but it's probably in that area someplace because everybody in the surrounding area would be able to see the fire come down and the sacrifice that would take place and so The people had gathered together and listen to what?

Elijah says to them he says He came here to all the people verse 21. I said, how long will you hesitate? between two opinions In other words, how long are you going to waiver? Now you have to ask yourself this question If everybody was into Baal worship except for Elijah and the other 7,000 prophets according to first Kings that tell us had not bowed their knee to Baal All right, and if everybody had already bowed to Baal Why is he asking them to make a decision about who they're going to follow?

And it could be the very fact that after three and a half years of drought They were coming to ask some questions as to whether their worship of Baal was the right thing or not and maybe they were confused and maybe they had some questions and they were Hesitating between who they should worship and so Elijah calls them into account How long will you waiver? How long will you remain in a double-minded? Condition how long will you hesitate to worship the true God? Make a decision Come to a conclusion Today is that day you must make a choice The question goes, how do they get here?

What had happened as to how it is they came to this place. How long are you going to continue? Elijah says in this present state. We know that James says that a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways All of his ways. They could not make a decision. I love what the book of Proverbs says The book of Proverbs says this my son feared the Lord and the king Do not ever associate with people who are given to change I love that verse Don't associate with people can't make up their minds. Don't do that.

It's a very dangerous place to be Because they always waffle you can't trust them. You never know. What side of the fence are going to come up on Don't associate with people who are given to change Because it says their calamity will rise suddenly and so Elijah calls them into question Who are you going to say is the true God? How long will you hesitate? How long will you waiver? You see Elijah? Was not double-minded Elijah knew who the true God was his name means Jehovah is my God He was convinced of the reality of God.

He was convinced of the authenticity of God He was convinced as to who the God of Israel was there was no question in Elijah's mind But evidently there was question in Israel's mind And so he calls him into account And he wants them to make sure that they make the right choice You see they had compromised tremendously and all this began way back When the first king of Israel compromised King Saul He had compromised the Word of the Lord Did not destroy all the Amalekites did not destroy all the animals of the Amalekites as the Word of the Lord said He lost his kingdom So there came another king his name was King David and David too Compromised the Word of the Lord because he had an affair with Bathsheba.

He murdered Uriah Therefore he lost not just his infant son But he lost the ability to rule his own family Then came King Solomon the son of David and He compromised the Word of the Lord and he would set up idols for his wives hundreds of his wives and Where he would rule and reign in the city of David there would be a a valley called the valley of decision Okay, and in that valley decision or the valley of judgment Jehoshaphat Okay, you'd have to cross that valley to go up on the next hill where he allowed all of his wives to set up their idols Because he compromised the Word of the Lord God said do not marry foreign women But Solomon compromised the Word of the Lord and God said if you do they're gonna turn your heart away from me and they did They did the first three kings of Israel Compromised the Word of God and So as a result of that the kingdom was divided The kingdom was divided and now Ahab is the seventh king of the northern kingdom There are 19 all together and they are all evil And so this is the seventh king of the northern kingdom under Ahab's rule Who also had compromised the Word of God and it was a continual compromise one after another and everyone Was worse than the one before Folks don't compromise Just don't compromise the Word of the Lord It's gonna affect your family It's gonna affect generation at the generation at the generation You can't afford to compromise the Word of the Lord But we so easily Take little steps away From the Lord and we'll compromise a little bit here because it's not that big a deal anyway But what isn't a big deal today?

Because a huge disaster down the road in Israel was in a disastrous state Because they simply had compromised everything that God had said Saul had just compromised a little and He thought really that he obeyed the Lord David Compromised a little bit more Solomon even more in the kings of Israel even more And now they're in this huge mess So God sends a prophet his name is Elijah Because he's got to turn the nation back To the one true God And all I can say is that as a father you can't compromise the Word of God and effectively lead Your family you cannot The two do not go together you must stand strong on the Word of the Lord and If you do the effects of that are great you see whenever you follow God as word, it's gonna cost you, right?

When you don't follow God in the word it's gonna Cost you as well, but not immediately. That's the problem with compromise. It doesn't cost you necessarily immediately But down the road the consequences are devastating Because now there's a famine in the land there's been no rain people have died people are emaciated people are dying And it's a mess Because The compromise of the Word of God And so you must send a true prophet who will not compromise Who will lead the people in the right direction and that's where Elijah comes in Because they need to follow the Lord and so he comes and says how long you hesitate Make a choice Take a stand Make a strong stand be decisive.

Oh, by the way, one of the key characters characteristics of any leader Is that he makes? Decisions He's decisive about those decisions He doesn't waver and he sets the course and Here was a nation Who had wavered and who'd hesitated but knows their response says But the people did not answer him a word Why not Because you see they can't They have no Foundation to make the decision if we say we're gonna follow the God of Israel they risk They risk losing their life To Ahab and Jezebel because they've already killed so many people who would not bow they need a bail So it's a risk.

I might lose my life They can't say we're gonna serve bail and not your God Elijah because Because Elijah was the one who told them and warned them about the drought and the drought was there there might be further judgment if they make the wrong choice So they're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place What decision are we going to make are we gonna? Decide for the Lord God of Israel Elijah's God and risk our lives or we will we decide against Elijah's God and risk a further famine or more devastating consequences So they didn't say anything Wow Talk about no leadership Talk about no direction nobody said anything and So Elijah Introduces to them What's going to happen?

He tells them This is what we're going to do because Elijah's the leader, right? He's already been told what to do by God. He knows the direction. He knows what to say And so he introduces to them this contest Each of you will each of us will have a have a bullock and and what will sacrifice that bullock and we'll place it on The altar and and you call out to your God and all caught to my God and we're gonna call out in and whoever's whatever whichever God Brings fire down out of heaven. That will be the one true God Everybody say that's a good idea.

That's a great idea Why not that'll give us a clear distinction as to who is true and who is false The contest is this listen, there's one true God and there are many false gods, but there's only one true God And the true God always stands always rises Because you can trust him Why not why not bring down rain Well number one because God didn't say that Well, I just doing what God says why fire?

Well fire number one will be seen by all and fires a form of judgment and Baal was the fire God So Elijah gives them the advantage in their mind if he's the fire God if he's the body of the Sun He can cause there to be Fire right but for Israel, they would know that their God is a God of fire as well because he would lead them by a pillar of fire by night He would speak to Moses out of a fiery bush so they would know about their God being a God of fire and They would know about Baal being the fire God and yet fire always represents judgment and God would bring down judgment Upon his people and judgment upon all those who would not side with the Lord God of Israel So he introduces to them this contest And they all agree the people agree.

I think it's a great idea Of course they do They have no direction. They had no leadership So anybody who gives them any form of leadership is gonna allow them to have some kind of excitement about what to do next Point number two is a proclamation at the contest.

The proclamation is simply this that Jehovah was God He was God Now Elijah says there are 450 of you. There's one of me So he was outnumbered, right? 450 prophets of Baal they were all there and there's just him and Nobody of Israel sided with him not even Obadiah We talked about Obadiah last time because Obadiah he too had compromised the truth of God's Word So no one was going to stand with Elijah. He was all by his little lonesome Remember we told you if you if you stand alone You will stand apart if you stand apart, you'll always stand above and Here was a man who would stand above everybody else heads and tails above everybody else because he stood on the principles of God's Holy Word and So you have to realize that?

Elijah was outnumbered. I was have to realize this there's a little phrase that's mentioned here It says in verse number 23, but put no fire under it. I will put I Will not put fire under it either and then again, he says to them But put no fire under it verse number 25 why because false teachers and false prophets always deceive and See what they would do is they would set this altar up But there would be a secret location for one of the false prophets to go underneath the altar to start a fire So everybody would be convinced that whenever there was a fiery altar.

It was because the fire God had caused it and So Elijah as smart as he was says look you will put no fire under it. You're not gonna get a head start You're not gonna put somebody down there. I will put no fire under mine I'm not gonna go in there. I'm not gonna deceive anybody I'm not gonna cheat, but you can't cheat either This has got to be above board Integrity must rule here. If your God is real fire will come down out of heaven The Lord God of Israel is real and true Fire will come down in heaven when I call upon Him and so he presents to them this contest And so they go to work They cut up the bullet.

They put them on the altar. They got the wood there They're ready to go to begin to dance around they begin to rant and rave. They begin to sing songs They do whatever they can and nothing is happening From 9 a.m. To noon. Nothing is happening absolutely, nothing's going on and so Elijah sarcastically mocks them And it might seem like it's kind of a nasty thing for him to do. But remember they all agree to do what he says He says maybe you need to let you out a little louder. Maybe he's asleep It's we need to wake him up Or maybe he's on a journey someplace and if he's on a journey, you need to let you know a little louder so that he can hear you and come back and That's exactly what they do They take Elijah at face value and say well, maybe we should yell a little louder Maybe we should scream some more so they do they jump on the altar to your both the author they see and now they begin to Cut themselves they begin to slice themselves the blood's flowing everywhere anything they can do to get their God to respond And and nothing's happening This goes on for six hours Six hours and The people are getting bored Look what it says And when midday was passed for 29, they raid into the time of the offering of Eden sacrifice, but there was no voice No one answered and no one paid attention.

That is no one's paying attention anymore They're like wow, this is this is getting to be too much But you see it missed all of their zeal and they had zeal they had passion it was without true knowledge a Lot like Paul says about the Jewish nation They do what they do out of great zeal, but not according to the knowledge of the truth So the Jewish people were very zealous about what they did, but it wasn't according to truth So it is false prophets and false religion is based on Great zeal and is based on the praise of the people in order for false Prophets to continue there must be the praise of the people they oversee and there is no praise There's no there's no excitement among the people.

They're not following their even questioning now Wow, it's nothing's happening These guys up there minutes 450 of them and they're all dancing. They're all yelling. They're all screaming. They're all cutting themselves Blood is everywhere and there's no fire So what does Elijah do Elijah says come Come to me He gives an open invitation Because you see the truth has nothing to hide you come I Want to show you what the true God Does I want to show you who the true God is you see in Christianity? We had nothing to hide We say behold the empty tomb This is where He was laid to rest, but he's not there behold come examine we have nothing to hide and truth is open to scrutiny and Those listen who live according to truth want to be scrutinized Why they had nothing to hide Nothing to hide Elijah has nothing to hide His God certainly has nothing to hide So you come you come to me and the people came and they gathered around the altar there on that mountain range of Mount Carmel and And he was going to do something out of this world something supernatural False gods can't do but the one true God of Israel can do see So he gathers them around And he builds up the altar that had been torn down the altar built of God and he puts 12 stones on it to represent the 12 tribes of Israel Why he wants to take them back the reason we're in this mess is because of Solomon and what Solomon did some 60 years ago.

We got to turn things around so he puts 12 stones around representing the unity of the nation of Israel itself and God being the God of all 12 tribes The nation of Israel and God was going to do a great Work. It was a rebuke of their division Based on their idolatry He says in verse 32 So with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord It was all done in the name of the Lord It wasn't about Elijah's name It was all about the name of the Lord beware of any ministry that has the man's name describing the ministry Beware of that ministry This is all about the Lord all about his honor So it gathers them together They arranged the wood and they cut off the oxen pieces and laid it on the wood Fill four pitchers.

He said douse this thing with water Do it again do it again And water filled the trench He does it at the evening sacrifice to be at three o'clock in the afternoon So the Sun is starting to go down They had the opportunity to do theirs during the heat of the day when the Sun was that its peak When it was hot as it possibly could be there in the Jezreel Valley But here he was as the Sun was going down in the evening dousing the altar with water to show That no matter how much water is there the true God of Israel Will consume it This is exactly what happened so says at the time of the Offering of the evening sacrifice Elijah prophet came near and said O Lord the God of Abraham Isaac in Israel Today, let it be known that you are God in Israel Now I'm your servant and I've done all these things at your word Answer me O Lord answer me that this people may know that you O Lord Are God and that you have turned their heart back again?

Sure enough the fire of the Lord fell Consumed the burnt offering and the wood And the stones and the dust picked up the water that was in the trench and when the people saw it They fell on their faces and they said the Lord he is God the Lord he is God Wow Which leads us to the persuasion of The contest It persuaded them in two areas number one to exalt the Lord God of Israel and to execute those who opposed it and They exalted God the Lord.

He is God the Lord. He is God Because he is the true God They had put off obedience for so long You would think that in the midst of a three-and-a-half-year drought Someone's attention would have would have been perked and Said that themselves, you know, what are we doing here? I mean Maybe we're doing the wrong thing Maybe because of our disobedience we find ourselves in the middle of this famine in the middle of this drought amidst all these problems Maybe maybe Bale isn't right. Maybe Elijah's God is right.

No one said anything and their Procrastination led to further disobedience Which led to further devastation of their families and other nation So Elijah calls them back Do not hesitate anymore Make a choice Who will you serve in? The Lord God of Israel answered in a supernatural kind of way and they said the Lord He is God the Lord. He is God now Now they must put those words into practice if you believe that the Lord He is God you seize The 450 prophets of Baal you seize them all and you take them down the mount to the Brook Kishon and there they will be executed If you believe he's the Lord God They got to go See that sounds a little harsh doesn't it Isn't God a little bit more graceful than that a little bit more merciful than that Well, if you read Deuteronomy chapter 13 Bible says this if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder and The sign of the wonder comes true.

Whoa Concerning what she spoke to you saying let us go after other gods whom you have not known and let us serve them So here's a dreamer. Here's the false prophet who comes as look. I got a sign. I got a word I've got a wonder and He proclaims it and it comes true You should not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams For the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul You shall follow the Lord your God and fear him and you shall keep his commandments Listen to his voice serve him cling to him But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death You've got to go.

He's got to die He says because he has counseled rebellion Against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery To seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk So you shall purge the evil from among you. This is a cancer. It's got to go Listen in your physical body. If you have cancer, you got to get it out And if there's an operation that takes it out guess what you're doing the operation get it out of there False prophets are a malignancy They got to go You can't let them hang around Because they lead the people away So if you believe and exalt the Lord God as your God Then you must put that profession in the action Now you seize them take them down they've got to go so they did They did Did you imagine the prophets?

What must have been going through their mind as? Elijah would slay all of them and kill them all But he did So what got Elijah to this place what was it about this guy that made him so Uninhibited so So committed so courageous What was it that got into this place that allowed him to not compromise? And for three and a half years remained true to the Lord So when the Lord spoke he moved when the Lord moved him he went he did exactly what God what made him that way Three principles. Okay. Here they are three principles out of one verse first Kings 1836 Here they are once you apply them you two Can be just like Elijah because Elijah remember is the man with a nature just like yours just like mine Listen, Elijah is no superhero Okay Elijah is not one of the Avengers Elijah is not one of the superheroes.

Elijah is a man with a nature just like yours and mine yet Prince 101 he was passionately consumed with the glory of God He was passionately consumed with the glory of God, how do we know that because he says this Oh Lord The God of Abraham Isaac in Israel today. Let it be known that you are God in Israel you are God and that everybody will know that Lord you turn these people. I didn't turn them I didn't convince them you did it. It's all about you. It's all about your honor. It's all about your glory It's all about who you are.

It's not about me. It's not about my altar. It's not about my prayer It's not about what I did has nothing to do with me Fact he doesn't even care about getting any recognition Because it's all about the Lord God of Israel You see there was a passion about his life and that was that God be put on display not him See one of the problems that we have is that we can't stand that Because we want to be seen and put on display We want to be recognized Elijah wasn't concerned about being recognized He wants God to be seen.

He wants God to be honored. He wants God to be to be glorified and Therefore that was his soul Passion He did not know or did he care? What was going to happen? To him that was truly Irrelevant It truly wasn't about Elijah's work It wasn't about Elijah's prayer. It wasn't about Elijah's altar. It wasn't about Elijah's ministry It was only about the Lord God of Israel. That's why the Bible says That the Lord will not give his glory to another and so on Psalm 115 verse number one The cry comes unto you O Lord unto your name be all the glory It's all about the glory of the Lord The Bible says That whatever you do and whether you need a dream do all for the glory of the king All for the glory of the king I Love what it says over in the book of Ephesians The third chapter in verse number 21 Paul says to him be the glory To him be the glory in the church To him be the glory in the church in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever Excuse me to him be the glory in you individually To him be the glory in the church corporately and to him be the glory forever and ever perpetually But to him be the glory To give glory to God is to elevate him above you So he is seen and you are not That his attributes that his essence and that his nature be seen that God be put on display and That was Elijah's consuming passion That somehow the God of Israel will be seen by everybody here on Mount Carmel and whoever knows about the story from here on out That God be seen It's all about the glory and honor of the king You know, would it be that that's the way it'd be for our lives That everything that we do would be about the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus It can be what Jesus said in John chapter 17 He said in this high priestly prayer the glory which you have given me I have given to them whoa The beauty you have given me I have given to them The brightness that you have given to me I've given to them The essence of who I am I've given to them Then he says this That they may be one just as we are one I and them and you and me that they may be perfected in unity So the world may know that you sent me and love them See it's possible because of what Jesus did I Have given them the glory That they might glorify me That they may be one in us and through that oneness Glorify the Son glorify the Father Put them on display You see if you don't do that, let me show you how dangerous it is turn me to book of Malachi Last book in our Old Testament.

I Say our Old Testament because it's not the last book in the in the Jewish Bible 2nd Chronicles is but in our Bible, it's Malachi. Okay God is speaking Malachi 1 verse number 6 a son honors his father and a servant is master Then if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my respect says the Lord of hosts Oh priest Who despised my name? But you say how have we despised your name? Jesus says look You deserve honor from your son You deserve respect from your son and you get it, but I am your father You are my sons and I get no respect I get no honor In fact, you have despised my name and you want to ask me how have we done that?

And so he tells them He tells them He says you are presenting defiled food upon my altar But you say how have we defiled you in that you say the table of the Lord is to be despised But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil and when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you or would he receive you kindly says the Lord of hosts Listen, you have despised my name because you have given me Not even second best or third best you've given me your worst When it comes to worship when it comes to sacrifice you give me the leftovers.

I'm your God. I'm you can't give me leftovers Because if you give me your leftovers you despise my name Wow How many people give leftovers to God? And you're the priests and You lead my people in worship and yet you've defiled my name you despise my name you blaspheme my name He says my name my name my name over and over and over again He says in verse 2 chapter 2 verse number 1 and now this commandment is for you a priest if you do not listen if You do not take it to heart to give glory to my name Says the Lord of hosts that I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings Indeed I've cursed him already because you are not taking it to heart Now listen to this he says Behold I am going to rebuke your offering offspring and I will spread refuse on your faces The refuse of your feasts and you will be taken away with it God says let me tell you something.

You are the priest who lead my people. I'm going to take the refuse I'm gonna take the dung of your sacrifices and I'm gonna smear it on your faces That's what God thinks of people who give him second best or leftovers.

Oh by the way We are the priesthood Because first Peter 2 9 says that we are a priesthood So can't say well, it's just Old Testament stuff because we're not priests.

Oh, yeah you are The Old Testament they had a priesthood in the New Testament. You are the priesthood and God demands Demands we give him the best He goes on to say this in verse number 8 of chapter 2 But as for you you have turned aside from the way you've caused many to stumble by the instruction you have corrupted The Covenant of Levi says the Lord of hosts you have corrupted everything You have led my people away from the instruction of the law. You have led them down the wrong path See whenever you are the quote leader and you defile and despise the name of God you cause others to do the same and God is not pleased with that and so He produced pronounces an indictment against the priest of Israel Listen, our Lord God is to be Honored a simple way is this if God is disobeyed He cannot be displayed If God is disobeyed he cannot be displayed in other words the way we display God is to giving him the glory by representing him effectively and When we glorify his name when we exalt him when we reflect his nature everybody sees him but when we disobey God, then we can't display God because we are living opposed to God So in the Old Testament when the glory of the Lord departed from the temple It wasn't that God's presence wasn't there.

It was so nobody saw God because you couldn't be seen And sometimes the glory of the Lord departs from our families Because we have lived in such disobedience That he is no longer being displayed to those in our family or to those in our neighborhood or to those we work with Elijah was passionately consumed with the glory of God This is what set him apart This is what made him different the prophets of Baal. They were concerned with consumed with their glory their honor their applause They wanted to be seen that wasn't Elijah He wanted God to be glorified.

So everyone there he was passionately consumed with the glory of God number two number two Elijah Was one who is profoundly convinced of his identity in God Profoundly convinced of his identity in God.

What does he say first Kings 18 36 he says Oh Lord the God of Abraham Isaac in Israel today. Let it be known that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant That's his identity I'm you sir. I'm the tool in the carpenters hand I'm the clay in the hand of the Potter. I'm the instrument in the hand of the musician I'm just a servant. That's all I am He began first Kings 17 verse number one by telling Ahab Simply these words first Kings 17 number one.

He says as the Lord the God of Israel is before whom I serve Surely there shall be neither drew nor rain these years except by my word. I Serve him. He knows that he's been bought with the price. He knows that God owns him He knows that he is a servant he's a slave of the Living God He is a spokesperson for that God for that God. Yes, but he is a servant of that God and he was Profoundly convinced of that Are you? Do you ever say that you've been bought with the price that you are no longer your own But you are a slave of the Living God Paul knew that He referred to himself as a slave in the letters that he wrote So people would know that he is a bond slave a bond servant an under rower.

He is just a man To be used by God But see we don't like the word servant because it just puts us in the background It makes us subservient to others Doesn't give us what we need But for Elijah Serving the Lord was all he wanted that's it And he was profoundly convinced of his identity because that was his identity that's your identity as well We are servants in God's kingdom Until we see ourselves as that we cannot be like Elijah We cannot stand courageously stand boldly Stand uninhibited because you see if you're a servant, what do you care about?

What happens to you, right? Who cares? That's what Elijah was So he was passionately consumed with the glory of God Profoundly convinced of his identity in God and Thirdly he was powerfully confident In the authority of God He was Powerfully confident in the authority of God For he says in first Kings 18 verse number 36 these simple words he says I'm your servant and I have done all these things at your Word Wow Boy I tell you that's that's where it's at right there.

I've done exactly what you said. I just followed directions I'm a servant. I'm waiting. I'm waiting my orders Whatever you say, I'm going to do I didn't change the orders. I didn't embellish the orders Lord I did everything according to your word everything that you said I did I did He understood his authority and his accountability that authority and that's what gained a victory Your victory is always dependent on your accountability to God's authority And that's why he was victorious That's why he was strong.

How about you? Those three principles are what marked Elijah's life For three and a half years he lived them Passionately consumed with the glory of God Profoundly Profoundly convinced of his identity in God and powerfully confident In the authority of God, are you? if so He'd give me a man or woman just like Elijah major nature just like his And you can be undaunted in your course of action You can be unparalleled in your commitment uncompromising in your convictions Uninhibited in your calling unyielding in your creed Because you know who you are and who you serve Let me pray with you Father we thank you for today.

We thank you for your word. It's so powerful. It's so clear. It's so precise We pray Lord that you work in all of us that we would see All that you are And respond to you appropriately that you might be pleased with your children In Jesus name you pray. Amen