So a question for you is, who are you? When you
think of yourself, when other people think about
you, what do they picture? What's your personality?
What's your reputation? When you're at work,
Are you the hard worker? Are you the jokester?
Are you the one that just wants to be quiet and
get everything done? When you're in class, when
you're at school, are you the one that sits on
the front row? Are you the one that sits on the
back row and maybe pays attention some of the
time? When you're at a family reunion, who are
you? What's your reputation? Or maybe different
than a family reunion is a class reunion. When
you get back together with your friends that
you haven't seen in a long time, and sometimes
we revert back to maybe that high school personality,
who are you? What's your reputation? Is it something
that you're proud of, or is it something that
maybe we sometimes wish we could change? When
I was a student at Southern, just up the road
here, taking theology classes, there was one
day that one of my fellow students had someone
sitting next to him, a younger lady, a younger
girl, and I thought she looked familiar. And
so after class, I went up and I said, didn't
you go to Ozark Academy? That's where I went
to school. And she said, I did. But I'm surprised
that you would remember me. You only spoke to
me one time when we were at school together.
And she told the story that she was a freshman
and I was a cool senior. And the one year of
school together, I only spoke to her one time,
apparently. Now, this is a boarding school, so
we're living in dorms, eating in a cafeteria.
And this was the story that she said. She had
received a check from her parents in the mail.
And she had it on her tray in the cafeteria.
And she accidentally, when she was throwing away
her trash, she'd thrown away this important check
from her parents. And so I don't know if she
realized it immediately or later she came back.
And so she's standing over the trash can, you
know, with discarded milk cartons and leftover
lasagna and green beans and whatever it was.
And she's looking for this important check. And
here comes Greg Hudson walking by, and the one
word that she remembers I ever said to her as
she's digging through the trash can was, are
you hungry? I didn't say, hey, what happened?
Could I help you? Did you lose something? Do
you need some assistance? I didn't say, oh, I'm
sorry that you're digging through the trash can.
I had a smart aleck remark and said, are you
hungry? And that's what she remembered. about
me. That was my reputation several years later
as I bumped into this former classmate. That
was all that I had ever said to her. What's your
reputation? Do you ever wish you could change
your reputation? Are you ever challenged to change?
What if God challenges you to change something
in your life? We're going to jump back into our
series that we started a couple weeks ago about
the prophet Elijah. And we're going to actually,
we're going to get to 1 Kings 18 in just a moment,
but we're going to start in James chapter 5 in
the New Testament. We read this verse the last
time we were together, but I just want to remind
us of something here. James chapter 5 and verse
17. We're talking about the prophet Elijah in
the Old Testament. But James says, Elijah was
a man, was a person with a nature like ours.
And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain,
and it did not rain on the land for three years
and six months. And he prayed again, and the
heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its
fruit. The thing I want to bring out about that
verse is that Elijah was a person just like us.
He wasn't a superhero. He wasn't some sort of
spiritual giant. He didn't have anything else
than we could have. But what we know about Elijah
is that whenever he heard God talking to him,
whenever he saw God's instruction, that's what
he did. He followed through. He did exactly what
God wanted him to do. So with that in mind, let's
go to 1 Kings chapter 18. Our last time together,
we were in 1 Kings 17, but we're going to continue
the story of Elijah today, and the next couple
times that I'm here with us, we'll continue to
talk about Elijah. But in 1 Kings 18, verse 1,
the story of Elijah continues like this. It says,
that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the
third year saying, go present yourself to King
Ahab and I will send rain on the earth. And so
Elijah went to present himself to Ahab and there
was a severe famine in the land. Now we have
to review just a little bit because it's been
two weeks and there's probably some folks here
that weren't here two weeks ago. So in 1 Kings
17, the word of the Lord came to Elijah and he
went before King Ahab and he said, it is not
going to rain because King Ahab had led the people
away from God. And so God was going to pronounce
a judgment upon the land and it was not going
to rain. And then after Elijah boldly went before
the king, the voice of God came and sent him
across to another place where he was going to
be provided for. And if you remember, he was
going to be fed by some unique animals. And I
wanted to put this picture that Bethany drew
for us up one more time. What kind of animals
fed Elijah? Ravens, birds who would normally
eat whatever food they got. And yet these ravens
went out of their way to bring this food to Elijah.
And then he was drinking water from the brook.
But even though he was exactly where God wanted
him to be, Eventually, the brook dried up, and
the word of God came to Elijah again, and he
went off in another direction, and he went all
the way to the area of Sidon, which is a pagan
nation close by, and he met a widow there, and
she was about to eat the very last of her food,
and yet she offered it to Elijah, and because
she offered it to Elijah, God provided for the
widow, and the widow provided for Elijah during
this time of famine. But now for three years,
Elijah's been there, and this lack of rain has
been taking a toll on the land. And I imagine
as we see tragedies in the world, whether it's
a plane crash or a forest fire, it often breaks
our heart. I imagine Elijah, as he sees this
national tragedy, this judgment of God being
poured out, I imagine his heart was broken as
the land continued to get drier and drier, as
things continued to die and less and less happened.
But now the word of God came to Elijah, and he's
supposed to go back to King Ahab and tell him
that it's going to rain again. And so he makes
his way to where the king is. We're not going
to look at the story, but he bumps into a gentleman
named Obadiah who worked for the king. but also
worked for God. Really cool story. Read that.
He tells Obadiah to go and tell the king that
Elijah is back. And so we're going to pick up
the story in verse 17. It says, Then it happened
when Ahab, King Ahab, saw Elijah, that Ahab said
to him, Is that you, O troubler of Israel? You're
the one that caused all this. You're the one
that came in and said it wasn't going to rain,
and now you're back. You are the one that caused
all this. But I love the way that Elijah responds.
It says in verse 18, he answered, I have not
troubled Israel, but you, King Ahab, and your
father's house have, in that you have forsaken
the commandments of the Lord and have followed
the Baals. So Elijah, once again, is speaking
to the king and he says, I'm not the cause of
this, but you are, King Ahab. So one more review,
our second review. King Ahab was the king of
the blue kingdom there, the kingdom of Israel,
the northern kingdom. After Solomon's son, the
kingdom divided, King Solomon's son, the nation
divided. So there was Israel in the north and
Judah in the south. And in the south was Jerusalem.
And so they continued worshiping in the temple
and serving off and on, serving God. But in the
northern kingdom, they set up a false system
of worship. In Samaria, they had their own idols,
bulls and other things that they would pray to,
that they would worship to. And almost every
king in the northern kingdom was leading the
people away from God. And so when Elijah says,
it's your fault, Ahab, And your fathers, notice
we read this last time, but chapter 16 and verse
30, it says, now Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil
in the sight of the Lord more than all who were
before him. He was more evil than all of these
wicked kings. And it goes on and talks about
how he married Queen Jezebel, who was the daughter
of a priest of Baal, and they set up places of
worship to these false gods and so forth. And
so Elijah was able and willing and bold enough
to speak truth to this person, even though he
was a king. Sometimes it's hard to speak truth
to power. Because power doesn't always want to
hear the truth because they're going to think
whatever they're doing is right. Sometimes it's
hard to speak to a king or a leader or a president
about mercy or whatever it is because sometimes
people don't want to hear things. But Elijah
was bold enough to speak truth to this king and
say, you are the one that has caused this challenge.
You are the one that has done all these things.
And so, They set up a challenge here. Notice
what Elijah tells the king in verse 19. He says,
now therefore, king, send and gather all of Israel
to me on Mount Carmel. We're going to gather
on this mountain that overlooks the Mediterranean
Sea. Bring all the people, bring 450 prophets
of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at
Queen Jezebel's table. And so that's exactly
what was going to happen. How long did that take
to gather these people from the corners of the
nation? It must have been a few days, a week.
I don't know the timetable here, but eventually
they gathered together and Elijah stands before
the people in verse 21. And Elijah came to all
the people and said, here's the challenge. How
long will you falter between two opinions? If
the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, follow
him. But the people answered him not a word.
This was the call. This was the challenge. People
had to make a choice. Elijah challenged the people
of God, the people of the northern kingdom, to
make a choice, decide. who you're going to follow.
And I think that this is a word not just to them,
but I think it can be a word to our generation
as well. Because too many times we want to, as
churchgoers, we want to look godly, we want to
sit in the right place, and yet we also want
to dabble with the world just a little bit. We
want to say the right things, we want to sing
the right songs, and yet we want to get as close
as we can to the excitement of the world at the
same time. I mentioned in the children's story
that Jolie and I were able to go to Egypt just
a few days ago, and we were able to see incredible
sights. One of the ancient wonders of the world,
the pyramids and the Sphinx. That's a tomb and
then a human -headed lion and all this artwork
of different things and depictions of gods that
they worshipped. The jackal -headed god or the
crocodile -headed god or the hawk -headed god.
All these different gods. that they were worshiping
incredible architecture, incredible displays.
And yet all of this was about leading people
away from the true God. In fact, this was a tomb
here to a particular pharaoh because the pharaoh
was a god as well. And on two days of the year,
the sun would shine through this opening and
it would... go all the way to the back of this
temple at a particular time to illuminate the
Pharaoh, to illuminate this false god. And everywhere
you looked, you could see these idols, these
false gods, just like in the land of Israel.
At that time, they were worshiping the different
Baals. Now, I don't think that very many of us
here in North Georgia, I don't think that many
of us set up idols. We don't have physical graven
images that we're tempted to bow down before,
that we're tempted to worship. But do we have
other kinds of idols that may distract us, that
may pull our attention, that may pull our focus
away from God? Maybe it's our job and the hours
that we put in to make sure we have enough money
to provide for our family. That's a good thing.
But could that dedication to one thing be harming
us in our devotion to God? Or could it be our
media use? We carry these little devices around,
and how easy is it to lose time, to lose an hour?
scrolling through something or watching some
silly video, which in and of itself is not necessarily
a bad thing, but can it be absorbing our time?
What about sports? Have mercy. I know there's
a big game tomorrow, but we need to make sure
that whatever we're doing, we're not distracted
from serving the true God of heaven and distracted
by these little things. We're challenged to make
a choice. And so Elijah sets up a duel, you could
say, a contest, a confrontation between two sides.
And you can read through those verses, and it
talks about there's going to be two altars, there's
going to be two bulls, a livestock placed upon
them. There's going to be two opportunities,
and then notice what it says in verse 24. 1 Kings
18, verse 24, it says, Then you call on the name
of your gods, with a little g, and I will call
on the name of the Lord, and the God who answers
by fire, he is God. So all the people answered
and said, That sounds good. It is well spoken.
That's the challenge. That's the duel that we're
going to have. And this should have been the
perfect test for Baal. If Baal was ever going
to pass a test like this, this would have been
the one. Because Baal was the god of fertility.
And so part of that was that the crops would
grow. And what do the crops need in order to
grow? They need rain. So he's the God of rain.
And along with that, the God of thunder and the
God of lightning. This was the perfect test for
Baal to prove that he was a true God, which he's
not. But it was the perfect opportunity. And
so we see that's exactly what happened. And the
prophets of Baal got to go first. And notice
what happens in verse 26. It says, And they prepared
it, and they called on the name of Baal for morning,
even until noon, saying, oh, Baal, hear us. But
there was no voice. No one answered. And then
it says they leaped about the altar, which they
had made. Oh, Baal, hear us, send fire down.
And it says they leaped about, and some versions
even say they leaped, leapt, leaped, I don't
know. They jumped. onto the altar. If this bull,
if this livestock isn't enough, God, send fire,
consume me. That's some dedication that these
prophets had to this false God. Consume me. And
I wonder, what are we willing to sacrifice for
our God, for our true God that we follow? They're
like, God, you can kill me. If you want to, I
think of Romans chapter 12, verse 1, where Paul
writes, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your reasonable service. It's one thing.
It's an incredible thing when people give their
life and die a death for God. That's a one -time
thing. But God says, I need you to be a living
sacrifice, a commitment that we make not just
one time, but that we're able to make day by
day and week by week as we choose, as we're challenged
to make a choice and to follow God. But in this
case, they cry out to Baal and nothing happens.
You go on to verse 27. It says, and so it was
at noon. So they started in the morning. Now
it's noontime. that Elijah, now we read before
that Elijah was a person just like us. And sometimes
we like to say, I told you so, or different things
like that. And it says, Elijah mocked them. I
think this is some righteous mockery, some trash
talking, if you will. And it says, cry aloud.
Maybe you need to shout a little bit louder.
He's a God. He's busy. Shout a little bit louder.
And then it says maybe either he's meditating.
You know, you got to stir him out of his meditation
chamber. You got to shout a little bit louder.
Or it says he is busy. And this is actually an
interesting euphemism here. And what it's referring
to is someone going to the bathroom. Maybe you
need to shout a little bit louder because he's
in the outhouse. I can think, you know, of...
mothers when the children are very small, and
maybe they think that there's one room in the
house that they can have just a moment or two
by themselves, but inevitably, mama, mama, mama,
mama. And he's kind of, you know, maybe you need
to shout a little bit louder to stir him out
of this place. Or he's on a journey. He's further
away. Yell just a bit louder. Or maybe he's asleep.
You just got to wake him up. come on guys, yell
louder, wake him up. And Elijah is sitting back
as these guys are jumping and screaming and yelling.
And that's not all. Notice verse 28. It says,
they cried aloud and they cut themselves as was
their custom with knives and lances until the
blood gushed out on them. They were actually
harming themselves. seeking to appease an angry
God that wasn't even real. Sometimes people in
our society, they cause harm to themselves seeking
to escape from something. Harm themselves, whether
it's through some kind of addiction to drugs
or to alcohol, and they're doing all these different
things seeking to escape. Or maybe it's whatever
kind of media that they're binging. And unfortunately,
even in this world, there's some who actually,
like these people, actually physically harm themselves
and physically cut themselves seeking to escape
from something. But all that they did, still,
there was nothing. Because verse 29 goes on and
says, They prophesied until the time of the offering
of the evening sacrifice, but there was no voice.
No one answered. No one paid attention. They
tried everything they could, but nothing was
working. Still, there was nothing. And finally,
Elijah's like, okay, it's my turn now. It's my
time. Verse 30. It says, Elijah said to all the
people, come. near to me. So all the people came
near to him. He didn't want to yell. He didn't
want to have to shout. Just press in. Come close.
And then it says he repaired the altar of the
Lord that was broken down. I love that picture
because that shows that there had been a place
where the worship of the true God had happened
in that very place, but it had been neglected.
It had been forgotten. It had been abandoned.
And so Elijah takes the time, it says he took
12 stones to represent the 12 tribes of Israel,
and he built this altar. And it says he repaired
the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And
it says in verse 32, with the stones he built
an altar in the name of the Lord. And so these
people had gathered around. And Elijah was repairing
that which was broken. And I wonder about our
personal spiritual walks. How is your altar of
worship in your life? Are you taking time to
open up your Bible? Are you taking time to pray?
Is your spiritual altar neglected? Is it broken
down? Is your Bible dusty? Are you taking time
to truly explore and get to know the true God
so that you can avoid these little gods in your
life? So as Elijah had challenged these individuals
to make a choice, to make a change, we see that
they're beginning to respond in worship. They're
beginning to respond in worship. If I can tell
one more story from high school. I was at Ozark
Academy in a boarding school, and it was my senior
year. And I don't know why, but I decided that
I was going to start reading my Bible. I'd grown
up going to church. I'd been baptized, gone to
Sabbath school, all the works. But I decided
I wanted to make sure that this God was for real
and was for me. And so I decided I was going
to start reading my Bible. And we were in a dorm,
so there was a certain time that there was lights
out, but I would turn on the light in the closet.
and I would crack the door just a tiny little
bit so that one sliver of light shined out of
the closet, and I would put my Bible in front
of that sliver of light, and I would read one
page and two pages. That was my Bible reading
plan. And as I read, I was looking for at least
one verse that I could underline, one verse that
I could see that perhaps God was talking to me.
Now, that was the same year that apparently I
told a young girl, why are you eating out of
the trash? Are you hungry? So things don't change
immediately. Things don't change all the time.
But I begin to recognize that, yes, God is for
real and God is for me. And so Elijah rebuilt
this altar. And notice it says in verse 36, it
came to pass at the time of the offering of the
evening sacrifice. Remember that time that Elijah
the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that
you are God in Israel and that I am your servant
and that I have done all these things at your
word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people
may know that you are the Lord God and that you
have turned their hearts back to you. So these
people are gathered in close. The altar is repaired
and Elijah prays. And he says, let it be known
that you are God. Let it be known that I am your
servant. And God, let it be known that you are
drawing the hearts of all these people back.
This is what it's all about. This is what the
drought was about. This is what Elijah's ministry
was all about. This is what this challenge was
all about, that God wanted everyone to know that
he was God. God wanted everyone to know that
he was drawing them back to where he was. God
was drawing him back to follow him. Now, it was
several years ago that I was in a group setting,
and there was a challenge thrown out to come
up with a one -word goal for the year that was
ahead, for the school year that was ahead. goal.
And as I was pondering that, this verse is where
I landed. This verse is what I came up with,
and I have it written in the margin of my Bible.
In the year 2016, my one word goal for the year,
and I want to make it my goal for every year,
is known. Let it be known that God is God. Let
it be known that I am a servant of God. And let
the people I come in contact with through my
words and through my interactions, may they know
that God is reaching out to them, that God is
drawing them back. And so as Elijah challenges
these people to make a choice, as they're beginning
to respond in worship, now we see that there's
a third thing here that we can make God known.
And so Elijah prays this simple prayer. Let it
be known that you are God. And then boom! The
fire fell from heaven. And some of you jumped
just a little bit, but imagine if you were in
that place. Have you ever been somewhere where
lightning has struck close by? And your ears
are booming, your eyes are from the brightness,
the hair on your arms is standing up. Sometimes
you can even almost taste it. It's like metallic
when you're that close. to a lightning strike.
And that is what happened in this situation,
in this circumstance. Let it be known. And God
reached down and sent fire from heaven. And it
says, the fire of the Lord fell and consumed
the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones
and the dust, and it licked up the water that
was in the trench. You know what? I didn't even
mention that. After Elijah had taken his turn,
he built this altar. He had told the people to
pour water upon the sacrifice. How was God to
be known? By fire. You wouldn't pour water on
it. And it says they took 12 jars of water, four
jars, three times, and it filled up this trench.
And when the fire fell from heaven, it consumed
the sacrifice. It consumed the wood. It consumed
the stones and it even evaporated, burned up
the water. And the people could respond in only
one way. They saw it, they fell on their face
and they said, the Lord, he is God. The Lord,
he is God. That was the only response that they
could have because they saw this fire fall from
heaven and they recognized that this was the
true God, that Baal was a false God. and they
had to make a change. Now, is that what we need?
Do we need fire to come down from heaven daily
to remind us who the true God is? Do you remember
what time this was? When did this take place?
It said the time of the evening. sacrifice. So
in the temple in Jerusalem, there's a morning
sacrifice, there's an evening sacrifice. And
the evening sacrifice was about three o 'clock
in the afternoon. But here in this northern kingdom,
they didn't follow that anymore. And yet those
sacrifices that took place day by day, week by
week, those sacrifices, those lambs were pointing
forward to something else. We're pointing down
through the pages of salvation history. down
to the time when John the Baptist could say,
behold, look, the Lamb of God who takes away
the sins of the world. And then it was on Mount
Calvary, not Mount Carmel, at the time of the
evening sacrifice, as Jesus was hung upon a cross,
that he could proclaim, it is finished. And all
of those sacrifices that were pointing to that
moment at the time of the evening sacrifice,
was completed. And the veil of the temple was
torn in two. And Jesus could say, it is finished.
And that is the sign for us today. We don't need
lightning to strike each and every day because
we have the opportunity to look back and to see
that Jesus died on the cross. And Jesus said
in John 12, he said, if I am lifted up, I will
draw all people unto myself. And so as we look
upon the cross of Calvary, we can be reminded
of what Jesus has done. And we can hear that
challenge. What choice are you going to make?
And we can respond in worship. And we can, in
all of our life, make God known. I want to close
with a couple more pictures here. This is in
a tomb. You can see the amazing... hieroglyphics
and artwork and so forth. And this is a place
called the Temple of Karnak, which is like 60
acres, hieroglyphics everywhere. And as we're
looking at these amazing structures, our tour
guide said, look up on that wall. You see way
up high on that wall? He said, this temple used
to be full of sand. Time went on for a while.
It kind of filled up with sand. And right there
in that middle opening, you can kind of see a
gap. Right next to that opening, there's a small
carving of a shell, of a seashell. That used
to be where the floor was because the sand was
up higher. And so he said that shell was marked
a meeting place where after this worship of Egyptian
gods fell by the wayside, as the people of Egypt
became Christian and were persecuted in different
ways, that they carved a marking spot as a place
where they could gather in this pagan temple
and they could worship the true God of heaven.
That was in Karnak. And on the island of Philae,
you can see a pillar covered in hieroglyphics.
And yet... There's a cross that has been carved
there as well. And just around the corner from
that is another little nook there. And you can
see the hieroglyphics there have been chipped
away, chiseled away. Because again, as later
years, as Christians, as people were becoming
Christians, they came to this place and they
said, we want to worship the true God of heaven
here. And so even in a world surrounded by falsehood,
They're like, we're going to worship truth. And
as Christians today in a world surrounded so
often by falsehood, we can make a choice and
we can stand with the true God. We can hear that
challenge of Elijah. How long are you going to
falter between two opinions? Follow the true
God. We can follow the action. of Elijah, if
we need to, to repair that altar of personal
worship or family worship in our life. We can
respond to that prayer of Elijah. Let it be known
in my words and in my actions that there is one
God in heaven and I am going to serve him. So
I don't know where you are in your life, which
challenge you hear. Maybe you need to accept
Jesus for the first time. Maybe you need to rededicate
yourself. to his word, to serving him, to worshiping
him. Maybe you need to decide that whether you're
in Columbia or Ringgold, you're going to let
it be known that you're a follower of God. Whatever
your challenge is, be ready to take that next
step with Jesus. Let's bow our heads for prayer.
Dear God, what an incredible story of a testimony
that takes place that you reveal yourself. to
individuals through history. You reveal yourself
to us. And Lord, may each one of us from this
day forward make you known to everybody we come
in contact with. In your name we pray. Amen.