My Favorite Story, June 28th, 2026

I wanna pray. 1 John chapter 12 verse 10, now do you realize what I do because I've been praying God, if God's blessing is the strength Welcome, morning fellowship. I wanna enjoy this to be here with you all today as we do gather together as a church family to sing praises to the one who's truly magnificent, who is truly all powerful, who has the power to crush the entire earth between his forefinger and his thumb if he wanted to. And yet loves every single one of us made in his image with compassion and grace and mercy is just a blessing to be here today to celebrate him. And for any of you who are relatively new to this today, my name is Ben Parkinson and I'm one of four we call teaching pastors here at fellowship who do have the privilege of teaching and leading the church and the team or in a way that we do alongside Justin and Brandon and Mark. And so if I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, maybe it's one of your first Sundays or you've come a couple of times but I've been on another campus teaching somewhere and you have some time after the service I would love to say hi to you. That'd be a huge blessing to me. So please come and do that today. And today I am excited to share with you one of my favorite stories. That's a sermon series that we're in, right?

Going around sharing our favorite stories with all the campuses in our church. Beginning in 1 Kings chapter 16, if you wanna join me there this morning. That's 1 Kings chapter 16. We're gonna look at the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Elijah and the prophets of Baal. As you're making your way there, as we get into it today, let me just ask real quick, show of hands, how many people have heard this story before? Yeah, quite a few. It's kind of a popular one, right? That gets taught in a lot of Sunday school curriculums if you've been around church growing up as a kid or maybe in student ministry messages or maybe you've heard sermons on it before. It's one of those stories that gets preached and gets told because it's pretty preachable, isn't it? I mean, you've got one prophet of God standing up against 450 false prophets of Baal, 400 more false prophets of Asherah. And you have the power of God show up in these miraculous, powerful ways to defend the reality of his power over their false gods. I mean, as those that believe that this is the true word of God, as those that believe that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the one true God, it's a pretty wonderful story.

It's a great one for us. Who wouldn't love a story like that? And yet the more time I've spent in it and the more that I've kind of read on it and even heard other teachers teach things about it, as I've looked through the scriptures and other passages that may allude to some similar things in similar ways, it's actually come to become one of my stories, favorite stories, for a different reason than it used to be that I'm excited to share with us all today. So let's read it together, right? Because it wouldn't make sense to preach a series called My Favorite Story and then not read the story. So we're gonna do that. But it is a longer chunk, okay? This is a pretty significant story. In fact, I'm gonna have to skip two really even great parts of it, where Elijah goes to live with the widow and her son, and then the other part where Elijah goes to talk to Obadiah about showing himself to Ahab, just to condense it down a little bit for the sake of time. We'll talk about some of those parts of it in the message, but I wanna do that. But we're gonna have a little story time with Pastor Ben here, okay? It's gonna take a minute. So settle in and follow along if you want to.

We'll have the verses on the screen. We're gonna start in 1 Kings 16, verse 29 is where we'll start and then we'll read all the way through 1 Kings 19, verse 18 with a couple of breaks here. The story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Said in the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah, Ahab, the son of Omri, began to reign over Israel. And Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel and Samaria 22 years. And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord. And listen to this, more than all who were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, he took for his wife, Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. And he went and served Baal and worshiped him. And he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab made an Asherah. And then listen to this, Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days, Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid his foundation at the cost of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son, Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua, the son of Nun.

Now Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbi and Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall neither be dew nor rain these years except by my word. And the word of the Lord came to him, depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook and I've command the ravens to feed you there. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan and the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening and he drank from the brook. But after a while, the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him and said, arise and go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and dwell there. Behold, I've commanded a widow to feed you. And that's the part we won't read, okay? We'll go down to chapter 18, verses one and two. After Elijah's been there with the widow and her son and a number of miraculous things that happened, it says, and after many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, go show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth.

So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. And then we'll skip down a little to chapter 18, verse 17 and then read on to the end from there. It says, and when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel? And he answered, I haven't troubled Israel, you have and your father's house because you've abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asher who eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, how long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, I, even I only am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Let two bulls be given to us and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I'll prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. And you call upon the name of your God

and I'll call upon the name of the Lord and the God who answers by fire. He is God. And all the people answered, it is well spoken. Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, choose for yourself one bull and prepare it first for you are many and call upon the name of your God and put no fire to it. They took a bull that was given to them and they prepared it and they called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, oh, Baal, answer us. But there was no voice and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. And at noon, Elijah mocked them saying, cry aloud, meaning cry a little louder. For if he's a God, either he's musing or maybe he's relieving himself. Maybe he's on some kind of a journey or perhaps he's asleep and it must be awakened. So they cried aloud and they cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention. Then Elijah said to all the people, come near to me. And all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down.

And Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom the word of the Lord came saying, Israel shall be your name. And with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two seas of seed. And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. But then listen, he didn't stop there, right? He wants to really make a point. So he said, fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood. And he said, do it a second time. And they did it a second time. And he didn't stop there, he said, do it a third time. And they did it a third time. And water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water. And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, oh 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've done all these things at your word. Answer me, oh Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, oh Lord, are God and that you've turned their hearts back. And then the fire of the Lord.

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. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, the Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. And Elijah said to them, now seize the prophets of Baal, and let not one of them escape. And they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and slaughtered them there. And Elijah said to Ahab, now go up and eat and drink, for there's a sound of rushing of rain. And Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel, and he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. And he went and looked and said, there's nothing. And so he said, go again, seven times, says they did this. And at the seventh time he said, behold, a little cloud like a man's hand is rising from the sea. And he said, go up and say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you. And in a little while, the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel, and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah. And he gathered up his garment,

and he ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he'd killed all the prophets with the sword. So then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so may the gods do to me and more also, if I would not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow. Then he was afraid, and he arose, and he ran for his life. And he came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die saying, it is enough now, O Lord, take my life away, for I'm no better than my father's. And he laid down and he slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, arise and eat. And he looked and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones in a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you. And he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the Mount of God. And there he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him and he said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah?

And he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant and thrown down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. And I, even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away. And he said, go out and stand on the Mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and he went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? And he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. And I, even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away. And the Lord said to him, go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.

And Jehu, the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint to be king over Israel. And Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah, you shall anoint to be a prophet in your place. And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death. And the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. Yet I'll leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him. Very words of God, amen. Isn't that a great story? Man, teaches us and shows us so many incredible things about our God. It's an inspirational story. It's the reason why we love it so much. Because one of the things on the surface that it does show us is how God loves to see people on the earth be passionate about his message. that Elijah is. And he loves to support people on the earth who are clinging to his words as the very word and promise of God. And so one of the main things you should take away from this story this morning, is it's important that we are passionate about God's message. It's important that we're passionate about God's message.

And Elijah is passionate about God's message. You cannot deny that. He knows he's on the right side of the truth. He believes that whatever God has promised to do, he will do. And he knows what Ahab is doing is against the will of God. I mean, look back at the beginning of our story in chapter 16, verse 33 again, at how God describes what Ahab is doing. He says, and Ahab made an Asherah, and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. Now there's no doubt Ahab's doing evil in the sight of the Lord. And Elijah knows that. And Elijah has the faith and the courage to stand up and do something about it, doesn't he? In fact, what Elijah does when he calls on this drought to come into the land is he's actually quoting back to God, God's promise in Deuteronomy 11, verses 16 through 17, that Moses gave the people when he was reading the law to them. It's what Old Testament rabbis, it's what the Jewish scholars called binding God to his word. He knew God's word backwards and forwards. And he said, God, you promised to do this in this instance. I'm calling on you to do what you said you would do.

Look at it, back in Deuteronomy 11, what Moses said to the people, he said, take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain. And the land will yield no fruit. And you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you. No, God back in Deuteronomy 11 said, listen, if you turn aside from me and if you serve other gods and worship them, I will shut the heavens and send no rain. And then here in our story, we have a king over Israel of all people, and Ahab, who's promoting the worship of other gods more than any other king before him. Elijah cares about the word of God. He knows the word of God. He's willing to take bold steps to defend the word of God against anyone who would lead others away from it. And that's basically what we focus on in our Sunday school stories, isn't it? And that's the heartbeat of what we usually preach when we come to this passage, that we should have the kind of faith in God that Elijah does and be willing to stand up to those who are against the Lord like Elijah did

and let God use us to glorify himself in these grand ways like Elijah did against the prophets of Baal, where the world sees on a grand stage that we're right and they're wrong, and God's powerful, and can use even just one true prophet against 450 false ones. And let me say this morning, anyone that has preached that emphasis about this passage and this story has preached the truth. That is absolutely true. And any time that you've heard this story preached this way and this passage preached this way and nothing else, you've heard a true telling of God's word, and that's an important thing to take away from it. And I wanna say this this morning, Elijah is one of the greatest prophets in the entire scripture and in the Old Testament, okay? I'm sharing that because I'm actually gonna look at some things in this story that maybe we don't look at a whole lot, that maybe Elijah didn't do absolutely perfectly, that I think God wants to show us something through. But in doing that, I don't by any means want you to think that I don't think Elijah is one of the greatest prophets in the entire Bible. Elijah's on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses encouraging Jesus in his life. Elijah is taken up in a chariot of fire,

doesn't even have to experience physical death because his relationship with God is what it is. John the Baptist is prophesied as coming in the spirit of Elijah to do his pre-messianic ministry of being the foreshadowing of Jesus Christ coming to the earth. No, Elijah is, I mean, I wish I had a relationship with God like Elijah does. He's one of the greatest prophets in the entire scripture. And the way he follows God with zeal and with passion and with power and the ways that he does is overwhelmingly awe-inspiring, incredible. But because of that, because he's such an amazing prophet, because he's one of the two greatest prophets in the Old Testament before Jesus shows up, because he's so incredible, sometimes we forget Elijah is human. He's a picture of Jesus to come in a lot of ways, but he's not Jesus. He is fallen. He does have flaws in certain ways. And I think God wants us to learn something from him in even his flaws. pause in this story. Because another part of this story we don't talk about enough. The part that maybe Elijah didn't do exactly the way that God wanted. Because although it's important to be passionate about God's message like Elijah was,

I think it's important for us if there's one other big takeaway I'd want us to walk away from the story with this morning, it's also important for us to make sure that when we're sharing God's message, we're using the specific methods God's asking us to use in any given situation. He wants us to be passionate about his message, but he also wants us to use his methods in a given situation the way that he's asking us to. And a lot of times we can miss this point because we can assume, and I think probably unrightly, if you will, that every prophet of God is always only doing and only saying exactly what God told them to do and to say. If we don't see it in the passage, we assume it's in some kind of off-book private conversation that this happened, whether it's recorded or not. But if you go back and look at 1 Kings 17, verse one, where Elijah tells Ahab that a drought is coming because of Ahab's disobedience, if you look there, God didn't actually tell Elijah to say that, did he? At least not in our story, we can't find it in there. The first time the word actually says that the word of God came to Elijah, so it does tell us specifically what God says and when he says it to Elijah, but the first time you see that is in verse two, the verse right after Elijah calls on the drought.

And what does God specifically say to Elijah about this declaration that he just made about Ahab and about God sending this drought from Deuteronomy 11? Look at it again. It says, and the word of the Lord came to him and said, depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan, and you shall drink from the brook, and I've commanded the ravens to feed you there. Now, why would God say that specifically to him after he says, God's gonna do Deuteronomy 11 on you, Ahab? Here it comes. Well, it's interesting that God says, hey, go down by this brook, I'm gonna take care of you there and let you drink, even though a drought's coming on the earth, and I'm gonna feed you by the ravens. I mean, God could have fed Elijah any way he wanted to, couldn't he? He could have brought food down from heaven, just like he did with the people of Israel when they were wandering through the desert with Moses. He could have baked him a cake on a stone like we see an angel do later in this very story. He just wakes up and there's cake on a stone for him to eat and to nourish himself. He could have done that. Why ravens here? Well, I think God's doing something interesting

in sending him food by ravens, because ravens are scavengers, aren't they? Ravens don't kill their own food. For a raven to bring you food that you can eat means they got it from somewhere else and from someone else. And I think God's subtly starting to make a point to Elijah, even in the way that he's bringing him food, someone else is gonna have to go hungry for you to be taken care of because of this drought you've called on the earth. See, we look at what Elijah does in this story, and calling out Ahab's evil ways and declaring a drought based on God's promises and then mocking the prophets of Baal the way that he does at that great scene, and then rallying the people to help him slaughter them. And a lot of us say, yes, that's how you do it. That's how you stand up for God. That's how you call out evil with confidence. That's how you declare God's judgment on the earth and you threaten evil people and you set up a standoff and you trust God to come through. And yes, maybe even mock the other side a little bit when you see their way failing because you need everyone to know how ridiculous they are. And then you destroy them all when public sentiment turns to your side like it did to him when the people said,

the Lord's God, look at his power. Let's go kill all the prophets. Yeah, let's get them. We look at that and we say, yes, that's how you do it. And I wanna say this this morning, I need you to hear this. There are times in the Old Testament that we see very clearly where God commands his people to do something this dramatic. There are. There are times where God commands his people to judge wickedness on the earth in the kinds of ways we see in this story. There are times where God calls his people to go to war against nations who are oppressing others and hurting others in terrible ways. So it's not out of God's character to do something like that. When he needs to, he will call his people to do that. What's interesting is in this particular incident, right off the bat, God starts to show Elijah something that even though he's gonna honor Deuteronomy 11 and the promise that he made, even though he's gonna bring the drought that Elijah calls for, I think because he does wanna judge Ahab and Jezebel, I think he does wanna show the people something and turn their hearts back to him,

but he also wants to show Elijah something about his heart, right? In the midst of this, God starts to show Elijah that even though he... He loves Elijah's passion and he does. And even though he loves Elijah's heart for his word and he does, and even though he's gonna use Elijah to glorify himself in more amazing ways than I could ever imagine in my relationship with God and he does. Think God wants him and us to see there is a cost to invoking God's judgment and God's power when God's not necessarily asking you to do it yet. And how God's asking you to do it. See, when we're passionate about God's message but we don't use the specific methods he's asking us to in each situation, we don't listen to the still small voice that God shows Elijah that he's trying to speak to him through in the cave later, right? When we don't do that, God says there can be a downside that many of us don't consider. Many of us assume as long as I'm standing for the right things in our culture and hating the right people, then God's always gonna come through because I'm standing for the right things. The ends justify the means so many times in our minds and our hearts as believers. I think this story has something to say to us particularly in our culture today,

where so many of us are getting angrier and angrier and angrier and more and more zealous against the evil we see in the world and we're calling on God to judge and to show that his way is right and that their way is wrong. And this kind of seems something we would love to see God do in our day today. And it's not that he can't do it and it's not that he won't do it. He might do it. It's in his character to do it. But we need to make sure he's the one asking us to do that. We're not trying to force him to do that in our timing, in our way. Incidentally, we also see the same kind of struggle that Elijah's having in his zeal and his zealousness and his anger against sin in the other greatest prophet that we mentioned in the Old Testament. Moses actually goes through a similar thing in his relationship with God in Numbers 20, doesn't he? Does anyone remember the story of Moses striking the rock, right? What did God tell Moses in Numbers 20 to do when it came to bringing water out of the rock for the people? Do you remember? He said, speak to the rock, Moses. Just tell it to bring forth water for the people and that's how I wanna bring forth water for the people.

What Moses does that's interesting is he's so angry with the people for their sin. He's so zealous for God and for his righteousness. He's so frustrated with the people at this point. He lines them all up in a line and he says, you wicked, evil people. And then he says, behold, you want water from the rock? Here's your water from the rock. And he strikes the rock twice with his staff. I think there's actually a lot more going on there in the reason why God does what he does with Moses when it comes to that. You can take me to lunch sometime. I can't preach that message today. Can barely preach this message today, I gotta hurry. It's fascinating what he does there. But even in that moment, you see one of the greatest prophets. I mean, a prophet who told God over and over again, when God threatened to destroy the people, God, take my life instead of theirs. He's a picture of Jesus' mercy and sacrificial love. Moses is so many times over and over and over. And yet, because his heart had grown to this place of bitterness and frustration and anger, and God said, do it this way. And he said, I'm gonna do it this way, God. God sends the water from the rock. That's what's interesting. That's what he told Moses he would do.

But then he says, but you're not gonna get to enter into the promised land with the people, doesn't he? Because you didn't do it how I told you to do it. You didn't do it in the way I told you to do it. You didn't do it with the heart I told you to do it, Moses. Again, Moses is the greatest prophet ever before Jesus comes along. So it's not to disparage Moses, but I think God's showing us something here in these two men, in the way they go about their ministry that he wants us to learn from and to grow from. There's a way that we incite certain problems in our relationship with others and with God when we step outside of his will in some ways to accomplish his will. And one of the first problems we see in Elijah's story here is that when we don't follow God's specific methods in a given situation, we can actually hurt the people that God loves in his name. We do things in the name of God that actually hurt people that he loves. Like we said, Elijah's only thinking about this epic battle for good over evil between him and Ahab, between God and Baal as if no one else matters, not thinking about all the innocent people in Israel that a drought is gonna hurt. First of all, Elijah hurts himself. God sends him to a brook to take care of him for a while and brings the ravens to bring him food, but eventually the brook dries up.

Now he's starving. Now he's gonna die of thirst. And what's fascinating is, and I think God, to drive this point home even firmer with him, says, you know where I'm gonna send you to get your next meal, Elijah? I'm gonna send you to a widow and her child, the two most vulnerable people in that culture in that day. You don't get more vulnerable than a widow who doesn't have a husband. to help provide for her, which in that culture was almost a death sentence. And she has a dependent child on her. And when he shows up at their house, it's not like they have two months worth of food or even two weeks worth of food. They're making their last meal. Don't think that's a mistake. They show up and God brings them to this house where this drought that Elijah's called on to do battle with the forces of evil has caused this widow and her child to come down to the, they're like, we're gonna cook it and we're gonna die. This is it. Now God does something miraculous with Elijah, right? Because he wants to sustain Elijah's life. Like he wants to show him something about God. He wants to teach him in this moment. So he keeps the food going day after day.

The oil never runs out. It's a miraculous thing. Some of you know the story there. And what's interesting is Elijah experiences in that moment, what a lot of us do. A lot of us have this kind of zeal and this anger and this hatred of evil on the earth and of the people that are perpetuating it. And we can kind of yell at the group from afar with lots of anger and zeal. But then when God puts us in a specific relationship with a specific person who's doing some of those things or struggling to believe God in some of those ways, it's interesting how in a relationship we can have a totally different perspective, can't we? When you get up close and personal with someone made in God's image who's struggling to believe him the way that they should, man, we get more compassionate in that moment. We bring more understanding to the table. We reflect Christ in so many ways. And then we back up and yell back at the group again. What's interesting is when this widow's son dies while Elijah's there, he gets mad at God. God, how could you let this widow who's been taking care of me, sustaining me and feeding me, doing these miracles through us together, how can you let her child die in this way? And he lays on me, prays and he prays and he prays and God resurrects the child.

I think trying to show Elijah, right, Elijah, you care about the individual with my heart. Now I need you to listen to my voice when it comes to the bigger picture as well in these ways. Fascinating what we see him do, right? Fascinating what we see God do. But make no mistake, I think God sends him there to show Elijah that God cares about good and evil, right? He brings the drought, he honors his word. God cares about idol worship and bad kings. And God has a plan, I think, to deal with it in his timing and in his way, if Elijah would have waited for God to say, now you go call, I'm telling you now to do this, Elijah. I think God would have done that at some point or would have done it in some other way if Elijah would have listened and waited for that still small voice. See, God may not always do the things the way we want in our timing because God's fulfilling his promises, thinking about everyone that his judgment and justice affects, not just Elijah. But not only that, we see when we're passionate about God's message, but we don't follow his specific methods in a given situation, not only can we hurt ourselves and others, but we can also stir up the anger of those God's trying to save possibly in the name of God. Listen, Ahab's a bad king, he's a bad king.

When he marries Jezebel, who by the way, wasn't just a believer in Baal, she was a high priestess in the house in the temple of Baal. She's just as bad, if not worse. But if we look back at the story, all God told Elijah to do to break the drought and to bring relief to the people was to go and show himself to Ahab. That's what God told him to do. Said, I want you to go and show yourself to Ahab. Look at it again, he says, after many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, go and show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth. Did God tell Elijah to make a big show of it? I don't see that here. Did God tell Elijah to set up these altars and to call down fire and to slaughter all these prophets? I don't see that in what he tells them to do. He just says, go show yourself to Ahab, please. At least not in this story, we don't see it. It makes me wonder, what if God had had a plan, if Elijah just shown up and showed himself to Ahab and said, behold, the prophet of the one true God and the rain had come, what if Ahab had fallen on his face and repented and said, oh my gosh, look at the glory of God. What if Jezebel had said, that is the one true God? What if those 450 prophets who he slaughtered had fallen on their faces and said,

look, the one true God? We don't know. God said, go show yourself. Elijah said, well, I'm gonna show myself. And we're gonna do something that's gonna blow the people away, right? That's gonna blow everyone away. Because Elijah stands up for God in a way that's bold to be sure, but notice in the story, it's also mocking, specifically it says, he's mocking Baal, mocking them. There's a part of us that's like, yeah, man, isn't that great? I'm not sure. I'm not sure making fun of the way that everyone around us is. struggling to trust the one true God, the one true God, and mocking them, and prodding at them, and pointing the finger at them, and slaughtering their, I'm not sure that really is what God's asking us to do, to call people to himself. Now does he do that at times in the scriptures? He does, and again, he's God and I'm not. That's the amazing thing about our God, is he is the only one who knows how to hold the tension of justice and judgment, which he brings when he needs to. Because there are people hurting innocent people all the time that need justice brought on them, amen? Amen.

There are people that are doing terrible things like Ahab and Jezebel that need justice brought on them, and God will do that in his timing, I believe he does that. At the same time, though, God's balancing that with his patience and his mercy with all sinners who are not walking with him the way that he wants to. And he's constantly balancing mercy and justice, and mercy and judgment, and patience, and kindness, and justice on the earth. He's doing that in an Isaiah 55 way, his ways are not our ways. He's the only one that knows how to do that in complete righteousness. I don't, you don't, I don't think Elijah does in this point either. So I think God's saying, listen, I need you to listen to that still small voice in how I'm asking you to go about this, to go about what I'm asking you to do. I know it can be a little confusing, because we can look at this story and we can say, well, gee, if God's not asking Elijah to bring a drought, then why did God send the drought? If God's not asking Elijah to call on fire from heaven, then why did God send the fire from heaven? That's how amazing I think our God is. In the same way that I would say, God just told Moses to call water from the rock, but when he struck it, God still sent the water from the rock.

That's how incredible God is. We can call on a drought to punish people, and God can say, you know what? I'm gonna send this drought, because I do wanna call people back to me. I do want Ahab and Jezebel to experience some things, but I also wanna teach Elijah something about his heart. He can do all that multitasking in the same way, in ways that blow my mind. I think he brought the fire from heaven in that moment on the prophets of Baal and their offering, or on Elijah's offering, because I think God does want the people to see that he's the one true God and Baal's a false God. I think he does want them to see that he's the only one that can do that, and that Baal can't. And I think he wants Elijah to see something about this powerful moment that happens and what it doesn't produce that Elijah thinks it's gonna produce. I think he's doing all of that together, because he is truly amazing. Because you see, when Elijah brings this on the earth, all the mocking and all the sarcasm and all the violence that we see, man, that feels great when you're winning, doesn't it? That feels great when things are going your way. We love striking fear in the heart of our enemies when God's doing miraculous things

and all the momentum is in our favor, but we gotta remember, it can change like that. If it's just about power, that's all it's about, it can change like that. And even though God's always more powerful than any other being in the universe or on the earth, I think he shows them that, he shows Elijah that in this story. Listen, yes, when people see my power, they fall down, they say, the Lord is God, the Lord is God, we see the people change their tune from Baal to God, the Lord is God. And he says, let's kill the prophets. And they're like, and they go down there and they kill them all and they're all on his side. And I think Elijah thought, like in the story of Gideon, and now we're all gonna go march on Jezreel and we're gonna take out Jezebel and this thing's gonna be over. But that doesn't happen, does it? He runs to Jezreel, he beats Ahab's chariot. I don't get how that happened while he's running, right? God says, the Lord was with him, he did this amazing thing. He shows up there at the gates, where are the people? All of a sudden Jezebel says, oh, you're gonna kill my prophets like that in some grand display of power? I'm not sleeping until you're dead, Elijah. And what's interesting is Elijah looks around and for all the power and for all the display

and for all the kind of, man, look at how grand and great this is, there's nobody. I think that's why in one moment, he's bold with Ahab, you trouble of Israel, you trouble of Israel. And then in two seconds, it says, and Elijah was afraid. And he bolted for the hills, right? Because when it's just about power and when we poke and prod the people that we think that God's angry at and hates, man, just know that can flip really quick if that's how we're going about trying to deliver the message of grace to people and love to people and God's glory to people in the midst of that. We need to ask and listen to his voice and follow his lead, not demand that he follows ours. And I wanna say this when I'm talking about this, just because I think that Elijah does prod Jezebel's anger and Ahab's anger and kind of provokes them in certain ways. I'm not saying we need to be afraid of sharing the gospel or the good news with people just because it might be offensive to them. The gospel's offensive. It's gonna offend people. There are gonna be people who will be offended by the gospel no matter how you share it, no matter how you say it. And there are times where God says, hey, enough. is enough in history and destroys evil kings when he's been patient, like we've talked about. But here's what I wanna say this morning.

There's a difference between people getting offended by the message of the gospel and being offensive in how you share the gospel. Those are two different things. Jesus, people were offended by Jesus left and right, but I don't think Jesus was offensive in how he went about his ministry. I hope we're hearing what God's trying to say to us through this story today, okay? I want you to hear this loud and clear. It's not that God would never do the kind of thing Elijah does here. We see God do this kind of thing in other places in scripture, in his timing and for his glory. The point I think God's making in this story for us to see is just because God does this kind of thing sometimes in his wisdom and his timing, we need to be careful about going around assuming he wants to do this all the time in every situation and not ask him and not listen to his voice and not follow his lead. Because not only can we frustrate others when we don't use God's specific methods in a given situation to deliver his message to the world, but we can also get frustrated ourselves with God, can't we? We can feel like he's letting us down somehow as we lay it all on the line for him if things don't turn out like we expect. See, if we're not careful,

when we try to accomplish God's will our own way, it can begin to affect our relationship with him. We see that happen in Elijah and his relationship with God. Look back at chapter 18, verse 22 with me. It says, then Elijah said to the people, I, even I only am left a prophet of the Lord. But Baal's prophets are 450 men. Elijah says, I'm the only one that cares about the things of God like this. I'm the only one willing to stand up to evil. And Elijah assumes that God's show of God's power against the prophets of Baal is gonna start this revolution among the people of Israel and turn their hearts back to him. What's interesting is it does for a second, right? People love to be on the winning side of anything. So it does change them for a second, but it doesn't change their hearts for the long haul. They go right back to cowering under whoever seems most powerful in the moment. There's a huge difference between putting our confidence in God, no matter what's going on around us and only doing it when he shows up in these miraculous, powerful ways. Now, the people do declare the Lord, he's God. But then as soon as Jezebel shows up and flexes her military might, they're nowhere to be found. But because Elijah was so convinced

that he was on the right side of God's word and that God would do whatever Elijah wanted, no matter how he went about it, man, when Jezebel threatens him and the people scatter, he goes on the run. Look at how depressed he gets. Chapter 19, verse four, but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree and he asked that he might die, saying, is it enough now, Lord? Take away my life for I'm no better than my father's. And again, in chapter 19, verses nine and 10, then he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. And God said, Elijah, why are you here? What are you doing here? And he said, I've been jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, killed your prophets at the sword, and only I am left. And now they seek my life to take it away. He says, I'm doing the right thing, God. I'm standing for the right thing. I'm hating the right people. I'm taking bold steps to antagonize your enemies and even mock them and even destroy them if I have to, to take them down in your name. And I'm the only one who has the faith to do it and the bravery to do it and the courage to do it.

So why would you leave me out to dry like this? Why wouldn't you do what I thought you were gonna do? I love God's answer. Man, he brings this massive wind, tears the rocks from the mountain. I mean, the kind of wind that Elijah would be all about, the kind of wind that people would be all in awe of, right? It's the kind of thing Elijah would love. And yet it says God wasn't in the wind. The story specifically is making a point here. God's not in the wind. And then he brings an earthquake, the ground shaking beneath his feet, the entire foundations of the earth shaking, the kind of thing that would make the people fall on their face and say, you're God and no one else is. And Elijah could stand up and say, behold, you're God. He would love this kind of thing. And yet it says God wasn't in the earthquake. And then, and I don't think this is coincidence at all. He brings fire, the very fire that God called down to consume his offering at the altar against the prophets of Baal. The very thing Elijah was trying to build this revolution, this spiritual revolution on, and yet it says, but God wasn't in the fire. Where was God in the story? He was in the still, small voice, wasn't he? He was whispering to Elijah saying, listen, it's not that I never do that kind of thing, Elijah,

and it's not that I'm never gonna use you to do that kind of thing. In fact, it's interesting the way he tells Elijah he's gonna do right after this little conversation he has with him, he's like, listen, you need to go and anoint. You need to go and anoint this guy as king over Samaria. You need to go and anoint this guy as king over Israel. You need to go and find Elisha to replace you. And then what does God say? And he says, and by the way, whatever the Samarian king, whoever the Samarian king doesn't kill, Jehu's gonna kill. And whoever Jehu doesn't kill, Elisha. God says, I don't mind bringing judgment on evil people when I need to. That's not the point God's making to Elijah here. He's saying, I need you to do things my way and my timing the way I'm asking you to, just like Moses. I gotta have you in that way, Elijah. If you're gonna deliver my message to my people and to the world around me in the way that I'm asking you to. Because in this story, God says, where I've been, where have I been in this story? Man, I've been taking care of widows and their children that you would have wanted me to. I've been sending rain on people after you called for a drought for three and a half years

to bless them, to sustain their life, to keep them alive. I've been sending angels to you, Elijah, to make cake for you so you can eat and sustain your life. That's what I've been doing. I've been protecting you from Ahab finding you for three and a half years during the drought. And I've been protecting Jezebel from finding you and killing you, even in this conversation. God's begging Elijah to listen for his voice and tell him when to do what God's asking him to do. And as for Elijah being the only one that cares, right? Because that's kind of how he's getting, that's how we can get when we feel like we're standing up for God, that's how he feels and we get real kind of prideful in that, a little bit like I'm the only one. What does God say to him? He says, Elijah, I'm gonna leave 7,000 in Israel. All the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that's not kissed him. God says, I love you, I love you, I love you. You're not the only one that cares. You're one of 7,000. But I do love you. I love your faithfulness. I love your passion. I love your zeal. I love your incredible faith in me as the one true God. I love that when I say something, you know that is absolutely true, it's gonna happen

and I can bank on it. I love that about you, Elijah. You're gonna be one of the greatest prophets in the entire scripture, in the entire history of the world. But if you wanna change the world and rally the people to me and bring about spiritual revolution, you're gonna have to show me when to tell you that I wanna bring a drought. You're gonna have to let me tell you when I'm trying to help a widow instead. You're gonna have to let me show you what I'm asking you to do in each and every situation. When I'm asking you to bring fire from heaven and when I'm asking you just to show yourself to someone like Ahab. I'm glorifying myself both through my judgment of sin and sinners, and I am, and my patience with sin and sinners all the time. And I think this is part of what God's trying to show all of us in this story and Elijah. It's not our job to tell him when to act, it's his job to tell us how to act on those things. See, we're passionate about God's message. We can see God do amazing things because he is faithful to his word. He is faithful to his promises. But we're also just as passionate about delivering God's message, using God's methods with his heart and his timing.

Here's the beauty of that. Then we don't miss the glory of all God can do when we let him do things his way through us instead of trying to force him to do things our way in his name. And when we follow his voice, we don't hurt people that God loves just because we want to do what we want to do our way. We have more of a chance to reach people and save people God wants to save because we're not necessarily provoking them to anger on our own with our own flesh and how we're trying to tell them Jesus loves them. We don't make ourselves more important than we are in a prideful way that frustrates us in our relationship with God. I love this story. I used to love it because of how great Show Me Elijah is, and he is. But I love it now, I think, because of what it's showing me about God's character. Would you pray with me? Hey, Father, we come before you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the story of Elijah and all that it has to teach us about our relationship with you. God, may we be courageous and zealous and passionate for your word and for your truth. And may we stand for the right things on the earth

because you love the people you've made in your image and your word is there because you love us. May we believe that, be convicted about that, and stand on it in the face of all opposition. And Lord, at the same time, I beg you that we would be a church and we would be a people that would so be attuned to your still small voice that we would know when to call about something in a harder way and when to call about something in a gentle way, when to reach out in love to someone, when to show them why what they're doing is hurting others around them and God's gonna stop it. God, help us to be your vessels for truth the way that you wanna share it around us. We ask in your name, amen. Thanks again for listening to the Word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipar.com slash contact. Have a great week.