20th Century Idols

October 13th 2024

Series: Days of Elijah

Sermon Title: Elijah – 20th Century Idols

Topic:Journey through the life of Elijah to learn how he became an incredible man of God.

Key Passages: 1 Kings 18: 1-39

Topic: Elijah, Idols, Miracle

Sermon Blurb: In today’s message, we will see how Elijah delt with people worshiping idols.

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Sermon:

Hello Family Church!

Family Moment –

Start with something personal from your family life recently to help people get to know you.

Celebrate salvation / re-dedications / baptisms last week.

Welcome back to week #2 in our Bible study of the prophet Elijah.

Last week, we unpacked 1 Kings Chapter 17 and saw how God prepared Elijah to become a man of God.

Open your Bibles to

1 Kings 18

, and we will pick up where we left off.

As you’re getting there….

Let me make sure we all understand something we said in passing last week…

God does not want to be second place to anything in your life.

God should be #1 in your life.

We know that from things in the Old Testament and New.

Think about the 10 Commandments.

Command #1 is what, who remembers?

You will have NO god before our God.

If you want to read that later, it is in Exodus 20.

And Commandments #2 & #3 are along the same lines…

#2 “Don’t make any idols or worship idols.”

#3 “Don’t misuse God’s name.”

In the New Testament, Jesus was questioned about what is the most important commandment, and Jesus said, “Above all else, we are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.”

The Bible is abundantly clear that our primary focus in life should be God!

God wants all our hearts, not just part of our hearts.

PAUSE

Let me bring up something I have learned about sin over the years.

Sin is like a snowball coming down a mountain.

It starts small, and it seems like it is no big deal.

We think we can control it.

BUT as it keeps rolling…as we keep sinning…it gets bigger and bigger.

And by the time a small snowball gets to the bottom of a mountain, or a small sin goes on for YEARS…

We realize we CANNOT control it, and it can kill.

Teens and young adults, that is why you need to be really careful what you do with your boyfriends and girlfriends….

It might seem like nothing today….but if you’re not careful, you might find yourself somewhere you don’t want to be.

Business people, that is why you need to be careful what you do at work…

It might seem like nothing to compromise a LITTLE bit…

But over time, you can look back at all these LITTLE compromises and find yourself in a place you NEVER expected to be!!!

PAUSE

Sin is a slippery slope…

Once you're deep into sin, you often start thinking you’re so bad there is no hope for you with God.

And if you keep going down that road…

You have no idea what kind of idols might creep into your life.

PAUSE

And you might be thinking…

WHOA I do NOT worship idols…I just have a little sin issue.

Well, let’s be clear.

An idol is ANYTHING that comes before God in your life.

Putting anything before God is called idolatry, and that is a sin.

I know when you think about worshiping Idols, you think about people in other countries worshiping totem poles or weird statues and things like that.

Maybe you think there is no idol worship in America…..

Well, let me show you a clip that might get us thinking today that maybe we are just as deep into idol worship in the USA as anywhere else.

IDOL VIDEO

Idol worship….it’s not just about golden calves anymore….

Now some of the Men in the room are so mad at me because that video showed how Sports and concerts are modern Idols for many people!

And some women are so happy because they have been trying to tell their husbands that for years!

But Ladies….we could do the same video and change it to your boy band concerts…or shopping…

Idolatry is VERY alive in our country.

PAUSE

If you are taking notes, here is a key thought for today.

False gods promise what only the true God can provide.

Repeat

Let me give you some examples.

Does anyone want to guess what America’s biggest idol is?

MONEY

Money is a popular false god.

What does money do?

Money promises what only God can provide.

Money says if you have enough, then you’ll be happy and secure.

That’s why so many people believe in MONEY for true happiness and security!

But the reality is, once you get enough money and someone says, “You have cancer, and you are going to die in thirty days,” you realize it doesn’t matter how much money you have.

It doesn’t make you secure.

It’s a false promise.

Money promises something that it cannot provide.

I researched this subject and found some things that will help show you why I believe MONEY is a major idol in our lives.

Does anyone want to guess how much the average sports fan spends per year to be a fan?

You know what I found?

I found some statistics companies that said it is $2-3,000 on average.

Jerseys, tickets, flags, cards…and so on…$2-3,000

I read some surveys that women spent 76% more than men on clothing! Averaging $1,800 to $5,000+ PER year!

Now let’s compare that to something Biblical….

Christians are called by God to give 10% of their income back to Him.

God gives us everything we have, but he only asks us to give Him the first 10%.

The national philanthropic trust reported that giving has declined 64% since 2022.

Statistics show only 5-10% of people in a church tithe and give God 10% or more.

Remember, on sports and clothing, we average 2K on the low end….

Over 50% of American Christians give LESS than $1,000 a year to their church!

We live in a nation where our money has become an idol.

We live in a nation where the MAJORITY of Christians, according to studies….spend more on sports or clothing than they give to God any given year…..

PAUSE

In Elijah's life, many people live idolatrous lives.

They were worshipping all kinds of false gods.

Let’s see how Elijah responded to this in his country.

1 Kings 18 lets start at verse 1.

After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”

2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria,

So, remember last week…

Elijah pronounced this drought to this king because he is SO EVIL!

The nation has been in a drought for three years, and now God says to go back to the SAME EVIL KING and tell him it is over.

Does anyone besides me think that would be hard to do?

I would think the king would kill me!

3 and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, his palace administrator. Obadiah was a devout believer in the Lord.

4 While Jezebel was killing off the Lord’s prophets,

That was his wife…

His wife was a BAD lady!

Super evil!

Super wicked!

While she is off killing God’s people Obadiah who loves God…

Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.

5 Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs and valleys.

Maybe we can find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive so we will not have to kill any of our animals.”

6 So they divided the land they were to cover, Ahab going in one direction and Obadiah in another.

7 As Obadiah was walking along, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down to the ground, and said, “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?”

8 “Yes,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’”

Now listen to Obadiah’s response!

9 “What have I done wrong,” asked Obadiah, “that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death?

10 As surely as the Lord your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you.

And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you.

11 But now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’

12 I don’t know where the Spirit of the Lord may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me.

Yet I your servant have worshiped the Lord since my youth.

13 Haven’t you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord?

I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water.

14 And now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ He will kill me!”

Do you see the fear?

This man loves God, yet he fears his king more!

It's kind of like how we can love God…but we are not going to follow the lifestyle he calls us to in the Bible….

Because our culture says something else.

Kind of how we when we are with our friends, and they say, let’s do this, and you know you should not…. And we still do….

Kind of like when we cut corners on that business deal because our boss wants us to….

We say we love God…

But do our actions show we love God and place him first?

15 Elijah said, “As the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.”

16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”

The evil king is saying…..

ITS YOUR FAULT ELIJAH!!!

This drought is all your fault!

All these people are dying because of you, Elijah.

Doesn’t that sound like us sometimes?

We are in a place where things are not going how WE want them to.

And what do we do?

We blame everyone else!

Elijah says,

18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals.

Elijah says, “NOPE!!!! Your messed up idol-worshipping family caused this!

You are putting false gods ahead of the one true God.”

PAUSE

Today, we do not worship Baal or Asherah, but we have all kinds of false idols we look to for security…

Let’s be real.

A lot of people worship the false gods of money.

Or the false gods of material possessions. You know, your house, your car.

It could be you, your image, you know, your look.

It could be your favorite sport.

It could be your career.

It could be your, your hobby.

It could be your children.

You might say, “Well, how in the world could our children be a false god?” I have seen plenty of people with shrines to their kids in their houses.

Shrines with their trophies, jerseys, awards…

I mean, think about how many families prioritize sports over church and youth group…

This reminds me of a sign I saw at a church!!!

So here is the question I want all of you to REALLY ask yourself this week.

What are the false gods that you serve?

And if you are offended that I would say that, please stop….pause….and realize we are all guilty of placing things before God at points in our life.

None of us are perfect.

Not one person in this room is perfect; including me.

We all have different things that hold power over us in our life.

What are the false gods that you put ahead of the one true God?

So, let’s be real. (share person examples)

I’ll tell you a few I have had to call out as idols in my life and remove before God could keep working through me.

I’m not proud of these, but if I want you to be real I need to lead by example…..

1st for me, was a worldly success when I was in construction.

You can ask my wife or my parents.

My goal was to be UBER successful.

And I got worse as I became more successful!

Success was an idol.

I had this false belief that as I became more successful, I would be happier, and my family would be happier….and that is just not true!

`2nd for me was money.

I grew up in what most people would call a wealthy family.

My brothers and I would talk about things like……if we played our cards right, the next generation could be set for life!

Money was an Idol.

And one more….that might surprise you was Ministry….

When I first went into ministry, it was the #1 most important thing in my life.

I am confused between serving God and serving in His church!

I made serving at church my number one.

And forgot that life is not about the church. It is about God!

So please be honest and ask yourself…

What are some of the false gods in your life?

Where do you spend most of your time?

Where do you spend most of your money?

What occupies your thoughts most of the time?

Where is your true trust placed?

In God or your retirement fund?

Where is your hope placed?

In a better job or God’s future for you?

Church, if we are going to grow, we have to ask ourselves the HARD questions…and allow God to change us.

PAUSE

So, Elijah, the prophet, steps into this crazy culture and he makes a very prophetic and very strong statement.

He says in verse 19.

19 Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel.

And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

20 So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.

21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions?

He looks at them and he says with all the authority of God, “People, it is time to quit wavering.

It’s time.

Quit wavering between the gods.

Quit going back and forth.

Then he says, If…what…what does is say…..

If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.

Can I just say….Please don’t do anything this week.

Please don’t be like these people.

Ask yourself the hard questions and listen to God!

If Elijah were here today, I fear he would say the same thing to us. “Quit wavering.”

Stop saying,

God, keep me out of Hell and get me into Heaven, but I still want to do whatever I want.

God, hear my prayer and bless me, but I don’t want to obey your commands.

God, I want all of Your good things but don’t ask me to stop sinning.

Quit wavering.

Quit being a Christian on Sunday and a heathen on Monday.

Quit claiming Christ and living like you don’t know him.

Quit wanting the benefits of Jesus and not be willing to serve others like Jesus did.

What Elijah just said is to pick a side and go ALL IN!

Let me bring that into terms today in what he is saying….

If material possessions are the most important thing in life….

Then quit just accumulating possessions, but go for it. I mean, get into massive debt.

I’m not joking because if the point of life is accumulating stuff, and if the greatest thing is accumulation, then everything should be justified, and stealing would be justified.

If it is your image, if that’s truly God, then don’t just do it.

I mean, get in the gym 4 hours a day. Tan it, tweak it, tat it, puff it, tuck it, lift it, twist it, curl it, color it, and so on.

But!

But!

If Jesus, the Son of God, is the one true God, then quit your wavering.

Serve Him with all of your heart!

Don’t just claim Him and live as if He doesn’t exist.

Elijah would say with passion, “QUIT WAVERING!!!!”

Verse 22.

22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.

23 Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it.

I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it.

24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord.

The god who answers by fire—he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”

Now, at this point, the people thought Elijah was really dumb.

Why, you might ask….

Well, because Baal was the sun god…the god of heat…the god of fire. So, no wonder they thought they had this in the bag!

25 Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.”

26 So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted.

But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

I did a little research on this dance, and I would actually do it for you, but then, you might not come back.

It was a full body, jumping up and down.

It was this twisting around.

It was shouts of joy and shrieks.

Nobody dances like that today, do they?

Unless you go to a concert and your favorite artist walks out and you LOOSE IT…..

Or men when your team wins the BIG game and you bust out moves you would NEVER do in any other setting!!!

They are dancing, screaming, worshipping, saying, “Baal, send fire.”

And Nothing happened.

So, I love this: Elijah starts acting like my little brother… taunting…

This is funny.

This is a man of God, and he will mess with them.

Here’s what he does.

27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god!

Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”

He’s messing with them.

Now, I have to pause here because there is something hilarious that I wish the NIV translation had kept.

If you look at several other Biblical translations, you will see many that include him saying, “Maybe your god is relieving himself!”

The most literal translation from Hebrew is, “Maybe he’s busy. Maybe he’s relieving himself.”

Picturing this.

You’ve got Elijah, the man of God, and these people all hate him because they think he is serving a false God!

And now he is taunting them…

He says, “Maybe your god is on vacation.

Maybe he’s in deep thought.

Maybe he is dropping a…can I say that in church?

Let’s see what happens…..

28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed.

29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice.

But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

So finally, at the end of the day, they danced and cut themselves, and nothing happened.

So…

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down.

See, he starts by building on the foundation of what God had already done with prior men of God.

31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying,

“Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord,

and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed.

That means the trench could have gallons of water.

33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood.

Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”

34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time.

35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.

Remember, at this point, they are on the top of the mountain.

He has the bull on this pile of wood.

He says run down the mountain and fill these jars with water…..

Now, do it again!.....

Now, do it again!

Can you see the suspense building? Can you see the people thinking at the moment that Elijah is crazy?

Once they have covered the wood, the bull and the trench is filled with water.

Verse 36

36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed:

He didn’t dance, shout, cut himself, or do the things other prophets to false gods do….

He simply prayed.

Next week, we are going to look at the faith and the prayer life of this awesome man of God in great detail.

Make sure you are here next week.

Let’s read his prayer….it is quite simple…

“Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.

37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”

“And that you are turning their hearts back again.”

Can you see the power and the beauty in those words?

Answer me, Lord.

Reveal yourself.

Show us who You are.

Let us see You.

Reveal Yourself by fire so we can feel the heat of Your love.

Show us who You are.

Why?

So that You may turn the hearts of the people back again,

because they used to know You.

They used to walk with You.

They, they used to serve You.

They used to worship You,

But these false gods have taken Your place, Oh God.

Turn their hearts back again!

As I read this, I know this describes some of you.

Some of you have walked away from God.

Some of you have put some false god on the throne of your life.

And today, God is trying to reveal Himself to you.

Why?

So you can turn your hearts back to Him again.

And there are those of you that are here because God has been working in your heart, and you know it.

That’s why you are here.

Turn your hearts to Him!

PAUSE

Verse 38, watch what happens. He prays and watch what happens.

38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

Imagine fire coming straight down over this spot!

Bull GONE

Stones GONE

Soil GONE

Water GONE!

39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”

And that would be my prayer for our church, that we would so see Him for who He is that all the false gods would fall far away in comparison to the one true God, and our hearts would be turned back to Him and we would say, “Lord, He is God. He, He is God!”

Now, I’ll be honest.

We can read this story and think, “Well, yeah, that would be impressive, and I sure would believe it if that happened…..”

Why doesn’t God do that today?

Why doesn’t God show Himself like that?

And when I think that….I have to remember God has shown himself in an infinitely more beautiful way!

Jesus showed up on earth.

God showed up in human flesh.

God left Heaven and became one of us in the person of Jesus.

He lived a perfect and sinless life so that He could die for us on the cross and be raised again so that we could know Him.

And when you recognize the reality of that….then all the false gods seem to fall away.

So, if Elijah were living today, I think he’d say, “Quit wavering. If you know God for who He is, don’t give into the temptation to serve these false gods, because the one true God is so much greater.”

Life Application: What are the false gods do you need to remove in your life? As a result of today’s message, I will _________________________.

Prayer:

Make sure to do salvation call!

Offering:

Thank you all for being here today!

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***Each week we want to highlight a different way to give.

Week #1 –

If you did not know you can set up Family Church in your online bank bill pay.

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Have a great week!!!

Week #2 –

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Just open our app.

Click the give icon in the bottom right corner and it will walk you through the process.

It is super secure, and hundreds of people are already giving to us on a scheduled basis that way!

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It is as simple as texting FamilyChurchGive to 888-364-4483

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If you want to do that just email [e-mail] and she will help you out!

Have a great week!!!

Week #5 -

Did you know you can add Family Church into your end-of-life planning?

We have lots of people who have added Family Church to their will to leave 10% to their church.

It is a great way to show your family that leaving a Godly legacy was important to you.

Have a great week!!!

25 - Let’s Pray…..