It's now time for Children's Church. If we got any little tykes, I don't think we do,
but sometimes I miss them. So if you're hiding somewhere, now is the time. For the rest of
you little tykes, we're going to hang out in here in Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter
11, verses 3 and 4. And we're actually going to look kind of at two sections of scripture
today and we're really not going to look at either of them in the context necessarily.
You can read Romans 9 through 11 this week if you'd like to if you want to get a little
more of the context about what's going on there. But there's one little part in Romans
chapter 11 that's going to take us back to a story from 1 Kings chapter 18 and 19, which
you guys have heard me preach probably ten times. I probably preach it at least once
a year. And we'll hit it today kind of along the same lines that I've preached it in the
past, but really focusing on one little part of this passage, which I will admit is somewhat
out of context, but I don't think it's irrelevant. And so we'll look at Romans chapter 11 and
then we'll talk about 1 Kings 18 and 19. You can make a mark or a note of that and I encourage
you this week to go back and read the story. I won't go through it verse by verse just
for time's sake, but we will talk about it. But those are some good homework for you this
week, 1 Kings 18 and 19 and Romans 9, 10, and 11, so you can kind of understand the
context a little better. So Romans chapter 11 verses 3 and 4. This is Elijah speaking
here that it's referencing in this verse. Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn
down your altars. I am the only one left and they are trying to take my life. But what
was God's reply to him? I have left 7,000 men for myself who have not bowed down to
Baal. Let's pray. God, we come to you. We thank you for being good to us. We thank you
for the freedom we have in this country to come and to hear your word. And I pray, dear
Lord, that your Holy Spirit would be among us today. I pray that you would help us to
listen to your word. I pray that you would meet us where we are, dear Lord. There are
days that we feel like Elijah does in this story. And so I pray that as we look at this
story and see what happened and see how you responded and see how he responded, dear Lord,
that we can make some connections in our own life and that we can be strengthened in this.
So I pray, God, that you would keep me humble today. I pray that you would take away any
fear that I have, that you would let your words come into my mind and out of my mouth,
dear Lord, that today we hear from you because, God, there is no good words that I can say
unless they come from you. So, dear Lord, I pray that you'd help us to be free of our
worries and distractions today and that we know that there is nothing else that matters
more than your word and drawing closer to you today. So I pray that your Spirit would
work. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
In Romans chapter 11 here, there is a brief reference to the story of Elijah when he took
on the prophets of Baal. Now, Baal was a false god that some of the people had begun to worship.
Now, they certainly should have worshiped God, Yahweh, as he's often referred to in
the Old Testament. That's the God that we come to worship today. And they should have
been worshiping Yahweh. And God gave them lots of instructions through the years from
Exodus onwards. And they would hear those commands and instructions. And they would
say, God, we're going to do what you tell us to do. And much like you and I, when we
say that, it doesn't take long until we fail. And they had failed pretty greatly. There
were a lot of people that had begun to worship Baal. And Elijah was kind of a lone ranger.
There really weren't a lot of other prophets. There wasn't really anybody standing up for
the Lord there. And Elijah, this was going to be his calling. This is what the Lord wants
him to do, is to stand up against these false prophets, the prophets of Baal, and this false
god. And so, in 1 Kings chapter 18, we see Elijah do just that. Now, the scripture tells
us that there are 450 of these false prophets. So here's this one man, Elijah, by himself.
And here are these 450 men. And Elijah challenges them. He says, here's what we're going to
do. We will determine today whose God is real and whose God is fake. He said, what I challenge
you to is let's both take us a bull and we'll get it all cut up. We'll get it the way it
needs to be. We'll get some wood laid out. We'll make a little bit of an altar here.
And you can call out to your God, and I will call out to my God. And whosoever God answers,
we'll know once and for all that that is the true God. And this seemed like a good idea
to them. They said, this is good. We can agree to these terms. And so, they both began to
prepare their animal for the sacrifice, and they got their wood ready. And Elijah said,
you guys go first. And so, these 450 prophets of Baal and all these people were gathered
around that were worshiping these false gods. Obviously, they want to see what's going to
happen. And Elijah said, we're going to get all of our stuff ready, and we're going to
call for our God. And whichever God comes down and sends fire from heaven and consumes
this altar we've made, we'll know that that's the true God. They say, sounds good to us.
Works for me. So, he says, y'all go first. They get everything ready. And they start,
oh, Baal, we call out to you. Come on and light our fire. We call out to you. And nothing
happened. And they kept going. And they kept going. Hour after hour. They kept going through
all this stuff and praying and all this hollering out. And Baal did not do a single thing. And
so, Elijah, having a little sense of humor, begins to mock them a little bit. He says,
well, just talk a little louder. Maybe he can't hear you. He might be out on the road
traveling. He might be asleep. He might be busy doing something else. Maybe he stepped
away for a while. Just keep on calling out. So, he's kind of poking fun out. Well, you
know that's probably got to get them a little upset. But they keep on, oh, Baal, we praise
you. Come on, hear our calls. Oh. And he don't listen. And so, they start dancing around.
They dancing around. They shaking their hands. They getting their knives and their spears.
And they start cutting themselves. Oh, Baal, listen to us. And blood's running down from
them. And for hours and hours and hours, they jump around and they scream like a bunch of
fools and nothing happens. Because there ain't no God that they're praying to. They praying
to nothing. Because there ain't no other God. There's one God. Well, evening comes and ain't
nothing happened. So, Elijah says, it's my turn now. So, Elijah, he dug him a little
trench around where he had his animal there and he had his wood. Everything was chopped
up and poured about, scripture says, approximately four gallons of water all over the top of
it. It was soaked and wet. And the water run down and filled a little trench around it.
And Elijah says, y'all watch this. And he calls to Yahweh. He calls to God. And as soon
as he does, guess what happens? Boom! This fire comes down and consumes everything. The
animal, the water, the wood, the rocks, everything there, it says, was consumed in an instant.
Now, all the people saw that. And then Elijah said, all these frost prophets need to be
killed. What a powerful story. What a wonderful story. It's one of my favorite stories in
all scripture. And then you flip the page. Now, Elijah has just experienced the power
of God. Could you imagine today that if you said, God, would you rain fire from heaven
to show me your power so that everyone can see that you are real and you exist and God
does that in an instant? Could you imagine what that feeling must feel like? Holy smokes.
Even if you trust God and know God could do it and believe God could do it, that would
probably be so... I'd be left standing still like, oh, wow. God has just shown up in a
powerful way because I called on him. God called me to serve. I was obedient to him
and I called out to God and God responded to me. Now, this would have been, I would
assume, a powerful moment in the life of Elijah. And you turn the page and, well, King Ahab's
wife Jezebel is not really happy with this. Not happy that these prophets of Baal had
been killed. Not happy with what Elijah had done. And so she sends word, I want Elijah
dead. I want him dead. Now, Elijah becomes afraid, which is pretty normal, I guess, when
somebody's trying to kill you. And after all that God has done, after he's seen the power
of God, he goes and he wants to give up. He goes and he's ready to give up and he lays
down under a tree and says, God, I just want to die. I just want to give up, God. Well,
God doesn't let him give up. God sends an angel and gives him some bread, gives him
some water, lets him rest up, ministers to him, and begins to speak to him. And he speaks
to him in a still, small voice. And Elijah says to him, and that's what we just saw in
Romans chapter 11, and we see it also in 1 Kings chapter 19, Elijah says to him, he says,
God, I've done everything you have asked, but I alone am left. I'm the only one. God,
I am alone and I am afraid. I am by myself. And God responds and we see God's response
in Romans chapter 11. He says, not so Elijah. There's a remnant. There's 7,000 more. You're
not alone. There are other people other than you who want to stand up for me and who are
willing to stand beside me. Now here's where we're going to get a little out of the context
of what the passage says. Now I told you the story. We kind of understand what the story
says, but there was one part of that when I was reading through Romans this week, there
was one part of that when I read that verse that made me think, do we ever feel like Elijah?
Do we ever feel like we are alone? There are days in our life that we feel that we are
alone and maybe we have experienced the power of God in a mighty way like Elijah did, but
there are things in our life, there are days in our life that it is hard and that we feel
like we are alone and that nobody understands what we are going through and nobody can relate
to us and nobody can help us and we are ready to give up. Sometimes even when we sit in
a room like this full of people, we still feel alone, surrounded by people. There are
days in our life that we are not so unlike Elijah, that we feel alone. Maybe you felt
that way, maybe there are some in here today and you feel that way, maybe there are a couple,
maybe there are ten of us, maybe there are half of us that came in here today and there
is something you are going through in your life and for whatever reason you believe God,
you trust in God, you know that there are people here that love you, but there are days
that we just feel that we are alone. Well I want to tell you today that you are not
alone. God told his people as he was getting ready to lead them into the promised land,
he told them, I will never leave you or forsake you. God cares about you today. He cares about
you and sometimes we need to be reminded of that, sometimes it is hard for us to see God,
sometimes we are overwhelmed with the things that are going on around us in the same way
that Elijah was, his life was in jeopardy, he was overwhelmed by the threat, whatever
it may be there are things in our life that sometimes are so overwhelming to us that even
if we have just experienced the power of God and know the power of God, that in our feeling
of being alone that that kind of depresses us and draws us into our self and away from
the power of God and away from the people of God who love us and I think that that is
a great tactic of the enemy that he tries to make us feel alone, that he tries to make
us afraid, that he tries to make us believe that nobody else understands, that nobody
else will understand, that nobody else cares, that God himself doesn't care and I will tell
you today that that is a lie from the devil. He is a liar and he desires to steal your
joy and to steal your hope and so if you come into this building today and you feel alone,
I want to tell you today that you are not alone, that God has not left you. Oftentimes
when we feel alone we probably really don't feel like seeking out to God, it is kind of
weird at least in my life, maybe in yours too, I don't know but sometimes it seems as
though the times that I need to call out to the Lord the most, it is like there is something
there, it is like that is what I should be doing but I am so kind of caught up in myself
and I just feel so alone and I feel so depressed and I feel like God doesn't care and nobody
else cares and it seems like in those times it might be harder to pray to God but what
I find and maybe what you will find too is that this, is that the times that we are most
alone are the times that we need to seek God the most, that we need to seek brothers and
sisters in Christ. One of the best things we can do is read God's word when we feel
alone or when we feel afraid. There is a good passage in Psalm 25, Psalm 25 verse 16 and
17 says this, it is a good prayer, maybe you say I don't know what to pray, well these
words might sound pretty good to you. Turn to me and be gracious to me for I am alone
and afflicted. Anybody ever felt like that before? Have you ever felt alone and afflicted?
Have you ever wanted the grace of God to be showered upon you? Then that is our prayer,
God be gracious to me because God I am in a mess. I feel alone, I am afflicted God and
I need your help and it goes on to say the distresses of my heart increase bring me out
of my sufferings. What a powerful simple couple of sentences that is. Maybe we need to make
a mark of that verse. Maybe we say I don't know the words to pray, maybe we can say the
same words that David said, God be gracious to me for I am alone and afflicted God in
my distress, I need you to deliver me. Don't let the devil get the best of you. Don't let
the devil convince you to fight your battles alone. First and foremost seek the Lord. Secondly,
seek other people. That is sometimes hard for us to do. It is hard for us to do because
maybe we say I don't want to tell anybody what I am going through, they are probably
not going to have anything good to tell me, I don't want to be a burden. Because here
is the thing, a lot of times when these things hit us the most, it is at night, right? It
gets dark, there is nobody else around, the TV is off, it gets quiet and then our brains
begin to work and then the stresses of our life begin to play into our head and we begin
to play out the situation and it always ends, the worst it possibly could, very seldom do
we lay there and say everything is great, tomorrow is going to be a good day, we lay
there and we say man I am alone and I am hopeless and I am afraid and this is never going to
get any better. And we feel like Elijah and we say I am just ready to give up. But sometimes
we just need to pick up the phone and we need to call a brother or sister and say look I
am having a tough night, could we talk for a second? Would you pray for me? It is a bad
feeling when you feel alone. Some of you may have felt it, I would venture to say maybe
that everybody has felt that. You feel alone, that is a bad feeling. But the cure often
times for feeling alone is feeling the presence of a friend, it is feeling the presence of
the Lord, it is seeking the word of the Lord and letting God speak to you through his word.
There is no shame in calling up a friend and saying look I am having a bad day, I am having
a bad night, I need a little help. Praise the Lord that God gives us community. That
is one of the greatest blessings that I think God gives us is he gives us one another. Yeah
we go straight to God, praise the Lord. We seek God, we know he is in control but he
gives us one another I believe as a community of brothers and sisters in Christ so that
we can be there for one another. And we need to make sure that we do that. There are a
lot of people in this world that feel alone, maybe you do not, maybe you are doing pretty
good, praise the Lord that is good, maybe you will one day, maybe you will not. But
I go see a lot of people and it happens a lot of times that when I go see older people
the story is the same. Usually they are shut up in a room or in their home and they get
very little company and often times they feel alone because the world has passed them by.
They used to live a life like you do. They used to get up and go to work, they used to
go on vacations, they used to get in the car and go wherever they wanted to go and do whatever
they wanted to do and there comes a point in your life and you will get there should
you live long enough that life is going to get hard. And one day you are going to be
in a room by yourself looking at four walls and is anybody going to come see you? Is anybody
going to care about you? Are you going to spend your years feeling alone and forgotten
and afraid and depressed? Is anybody going to come see you? Well let me ask you this
question, do you go see anybody? There is a lot of people out there that are alone,
do you go see anybody? I challenge you church this year, I challenge you to go see some
folks because a lot of us probably are at a point where we do not really know what it
is like to be alone in that way because we all come here today, we got in our car, we
drove today. But there is a lot of people in this world that may go days at a time,
weeks at a time, months at a time and do not see a soul and they are alone and afraid at
the end of their life. We need to go see those people. We come up with a lot of excuses why
we do not want to, I do not want to hear your excuses, they are not good enough. You say
well you do not even know what they are, no I do not, but they are not good enough, I
do not have time, wrong, that is a lie. You make time for whatever you want to do, every
one of us do, every one of us make time to do whatever we want to do. So do not tell
me you do not have time. Do not say well they would not come see me or they never come see
me, I am not going to see them, well who cares? Maybe they did not come see you, maybe they
are an old curmudgeon and they are not worthy of a visit, but you know what, I have seen
it, old curmudgeons get lonely, they feel alone, they feel afraid when life is drawing
to a close. Go see them anyway, because maybe one day you are going to be an old curmudgeon
and people are not going to want to come see you, but maybe they will. Do not say I cannot
go see them because they are not in good shape, I just cannot stand to see them like that.
No you have got to be tougher than that, you have got to be tougher than that. We cannot
say of our loved ones that are in their worst shape, that are alone and afraid and feel
abandoned, we cannot say, oh I just cannot bear to see them, it hurts me too much. Well
you do not think that it hurts them to lay there day after day and week after week and
no one pay them attention? You do not think that they are hurting? You do not think that
they are lonely? You say well their minds gone, they are not even going to remember
me, I do not even need to go see them. Wrong. Yeah people's minds, they decline, they deteriorate.
You might have the same conversation with some people a thousand times in the visits
you go see them. But you know what I believe? I am not a doctor, I am just some country
preacher. But here is what I think, I think that somewhere in there, there is probably
a part of them that knows what is going on. And they may not be able to tell you and show
you that they remember that you came five minutes before, but I think that there is
a part of them that in that moment that knows that you love them, that knows that you came
to see them, that they know that they are not alone. So there are days in our life that
we feel alone, that we need to call on the Lord, that we need to call on a friend and
praise God if we do that. Praise God and consider it a blessing if somebody in this church calls
you at two o'clock in the morning and says brother, sister, I am having a bad night.
Could you just talk to me for a moment? Could you just pray for me? I feel alone and afraid.
We should praise God if somebody would call us and need us in a time of feeling alone.
And we should not be too proud to allow the devil to attack us night after night in the
darkness and in the quiet when we feel alone. Because often times just hearing the voice
of a friend is enough to restore our souls. So there are days that we are those who are
alone and there are days that we feel like Elijah and we may say God, I alone am left.
And maybe in this story and in these passages we looked at today, God can remind us you
are not alone. There are thousands of other brothers and sisters in Christ that love me
and that love you. You are not alone in your struggles. You are not alone in your pain.
You are not alone in your suffering because I, the Lord your God, will never leave you
or forsake you. And may it be said of us, as children of God, that we would not leave
and forsake those whom we love. That we would not leave them alone and afraid. That we would
reach out to those who are lonely. That we would reach out when we need help and that
we would reach out to help others in their loneliness. You can throw your excuses out
the window today. They are not sufficient. There is a community of people who need you.
If you do not go visit people who aren't able to get out, then you need to start going to
visit people. You can pick one person a month. Start out simple. Pick one person that is
shut up that is not able to get out. It is probably somebody that already came to your
mind that you had not seen in six months and in two years and you asked me how so and so
doing. Well here is what I tell you. Next time you want to ask me how so and so doing
because I had not seen them in a while, go see them. Get in the car and go see them.
And I guarantee you, I guarantee you, they will be glad to see you. You know why? Because
nobody goes to see them. You know how you know that. Because I go see them and they
say nobody comes to see me. That is not a good thing. That is not a good thing that
there are family members and that there are church members that some of you have not seen
in years. And all they see are four walls. And very seldom get a call and very seldom
get a visit and they feel alone and afraid and many of them are at the end of their life
and they need the love of a friend. So pick somebody. Pray about it. Say God put somebody
in my path. Maybe somebody we have forgotten about. Even those old cranky curmudgeons that
aint done you right. They are alone and afraid to. And ask God to give you the courage to
go and to visit with them. You say I do not know what to say. You do not got to say nothing.
You say well that will be awkward. Well maybe it will be awkward but I guarantee you this.
They will not care. It aint about what you say. It is not about what you say. It is about
that you take the time and the effort to go. Do not just do it once. You go see them. You
check on them. You tell them you love them. Ask them if you can do anything for them.
You know it is something we take for granted. We can do stuff for ourselves. Most of us
in here can do everything we want to do. Anything we want to do. We get a little older. We kind
of slow down. But for the most part we can do what we want to do. Some people can. Ask
people how you can help them. Pray for them. Now I know I am a long way. I would probably
get a failing grade for this sermon and seminary because I am a long way from the context of
what these passages are talking about. But maybe not. The point is this. Or at least
this is what the Lord spoke to me. And that is there are days that we feel alone like
Elijah. And God reminds Elijah in this passage, you are not alone. If we take nothing else
from this today, let us remember that. You are not alone today. And maybe, just maybe,
God can use you to encourage somebody else with that same message. There are plenty of
people around here that feel alone. You say, I don't know who they are. Well come ask me.
I can tell you some people. I can tell you somebody to go visit. But you don't need me
to. You know people. You already know people. So we have got to do a better job. If we don't,
go check on those who are alone. We have got to do a better job. We have got to take the
encouragement we get from God's word in our life and take that encouragement to others.
Let's pray. God we come to you. We thank you for your good word. And I pray dear Lord that
you would help anyone in this place today that is coming here and they feel alone dear
Lord. There may be some sitting on the pews this morning that feel that way. Even right
now as I pray. God even right now surrounded by these brothers and sisters in Christ, they
just have a loneliness that they feel. And God I pray. I don't have any magic words to
tell them. I can only tell them God that you have not forgotten them. And I pray that they
would find hope in that today. That you have not abandoned them in their time of distress.
That you have not abandoned them in their pain and in their struggles. I pray God that
they would know that you are with them. To walk with them every step of the way. And
they may not always feel it. They may not feel it today God. But you are there. God
I pray that you would meet us in our loneliness. God sometimes those attacks are serious. Sometimes
they are serious God and they hit us at the worst times. And God it's just tough when
we go through those feelings of being alone. But I pray that we find comfort in you. And
I pray that we find comfort in one another dear Lord. I pray that as a church family
we would go stronger in sharing in our sufferings dear Lord. That we would call out to our brothers
and sisters in Christ to help us on the days that we feel alone. God I pray that you would
help us to be able to help others. Dear Lord there are a lot of people in this world that
feel alone. Many of which are stuck in a room somewhere in a nursing home or confined to
their home dear Lord with very little attention given to them. And in a world that they believe
it's forgotten them. And maybe God if we're honest a lot of times that's the case dear
Lord. But God let us be those that change that. That we can go to those dear Lord who
feel alone and let them know that they are not forgotten. That you are with them and
that there are people in this world that care about them. That just in the few moments we
can sit down and just talk with them and visit with them dear Lord. That they would experience
your love and your joy. That would give them that little bit of glimmer of hope dear Lord.
That little extra boost. So God I pray for those that feel alone today. Those that are
not here. Those that are struggling. I pray God that we would be a light to this world.
Dear Lord I thank you for these words. I thank you for this story of Elijah. Dear Lord maybe
some days come in our life that we feel kind of like him. We know you and we've seen your
power and we've experienced it. And maybe there's some in here today and they came in
here kind of with the same attitude of Elijah and just ready to give up dear Lord. They're
just tired and they're ready to give up and they just feel alone. But I pray God that
just as you met the needs of Elijah you restored him and you encouraged him to let him know
that he wasn't alone. God I pray that those who might have come into this place today
with that feeling would have that same experience. That you would restore them. That you meet
them where they are. That you give them some encouragement today and that you remind them
God that you are with them and that they are not alone. That there are brothers and sisters
in Christ in this room to care for them. And I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.