Life is a highway full of flat squirrels that made the wrong choice.

Have you ever been driving down the road and suddenly encounter a frantic squirrel trying to decide which direction to go?

Many times those squirrels make the wrong decision, and as a result, there are flat squirrels strewn all over the roads of West Tennessee.

We are much like those wayward squirrels. They meet their demise because they either freeze at the moment of decision or because they made the wrong choice.

Today, my prayer is that you do not get squashed flat on the highway of life, and you will not if you make the right choice.

1 Kings 18:17–18 “Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?” And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals.”

1 Kings 18:19–21 “Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.”

My question to you is this.

How long are you going to falter between two opinions? Are you going to choose the fires of revival, or are you going to choose to be squashed flat by the world?

The answer to that question will be found as we look at the enemies, that will squash any squirrel, of revival.

1. Enemies of Revival.

Francis Shaeffer, an American theologian, said this:

“One day we are going to wake up and find that the America we once knew is gone.”

That was definitely a prophetic statement by one who died in 1984. The same was true regarding Israel. Israel was blessed more than any other nation. Israel was given more opportunities than any other nation, yet at the point in time of our Scripture, Israel had become pagan, it had not rained for 3 1/2 years, the altar was in disarray, and only Elijah, or so it seemed, was left to face the enemies of revival.

Israel was not making the right decisions, and it was getting squashed as a nation as if it were a wayward squirrel. Israel needed revival, but there were enemies lurking trying to prevent it. Who were and who are those enemies?

A. The Compromisers.

1 Kings 18:1–3 “And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.” So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab; and there was a severe famine in Samaria. And Ahab had called Obadiah, who was in charge of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly.”

1 Kings 18:4–6 “For so it was, while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.) And Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go into the land to all the springs of water and to all the brooks; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, so that we will not have to kill any livestock.” So they divided the land between them to explore it; Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.”

Obadiah was a saved man. He feared God greatly, but he also feared Ahab and Jezebel. He was saved, but he did not know what to do. He was like a squirrel who starts going in one direction just to turn around and go in the opposite direction.

Obadiah was saved but had no spiritual power.

There are some here today in the same boat. You are a compromiser. You are saved but powerless. Obadiah feared God, but he was in league with Ahab and Jezebel, two of the most wicked people this world has ever known.

How powerless was Obadiah? He was out looking for grass instead of praying for rain.

There are many here today that do the same thing. They go looking for answers instead of praying to the One who can give them the answers for which they are looking.

Too many Christians are in league with the world rather than standing with God, and if that is you, I promise you that you will never have power.

Your life is a lot like Lot’s life. Lot was living in Sodom, and the Bible says his righteous soul was vexed and grieved by the way the Sodomites were living, but he continued to live with them.

When judgment came, Lot tried to save his sons-in-law but they mocked and laughed at him because he had lost his testimony.

Are you like Lot? If you went to someone in your family trying to win him or her to the Lord, would he or she laugh at you because of your testimony?

The church has too many Obadiahs. Too many are “backslidden” compromisers.

Too many in the church are the alibi for the lost, stumblingblocks to a lost world.

If you are a child of God in league with the world, you are the problem and not the world. Listen to me, and I believe this wholeheartedly.

There is nothing wrong in America that cannot be radically and swiftly changed if all of God’s people would stand and speak and if our pulpits were on fire with the power of God.

The problem is that we have too many compromisers.

B. The Corrupters.

Not only are the compromisers a problem but so are the corrupters.

1 Kings 18:17–18 “Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?” And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals.”

Ahab accused Elijah of troubling Israel, but it was Ahab who was the troubler.

Ahab was king and his lovely bride was Jezebel. Ahab was the epitome of evil, and his lovely bride was not any less evil.

Now, what made Ahab so dangerous was the fact that he used religious talk all the time. He talked like he was saved, but he was not, but God knew who and what Ahab really was.

1 Kings 16:30–31 “Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him.”

Most of us here do not fully understand how dangerous Baal was and is. Baal was a fertility god. Jezebel taught Ahab how to worship Baal just like many here today are teaching their wives, children, and husbands how to serve the world.

Ahab was the national leader. He used religious language, but he was mastered by his lust, his pride, and his wife.

Ahab sounds like every presidential candidate that has run over the last 50 years. They talk religious talk, but they are mastered by their own agendas.

I know we just finished an election cycle, and I want you to know this, and maybe I should not say it, but somebody needs to say it.

If you can vote for a candidate or a party that openly defends homosexuality, that openly sanctions abortion on demand, and that openly embraces transgenderism, you voted for someone just like Ahab, and I do not care how many times that candidate spoke at a church, and a church is a compromising church that will allow a candidate that sanctions those things to even speak in the church.

Ahab was never saved. He talked the talk, but he did not walk the walk. Too many in the church are corrupters instead of converts.

C. The Confused.

There are those trying to decide which direction to go who just do not understand the situation.

1 Kings 18:19–21 “Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.”

Some people are on the fence just like a squirrel that stops in the middle of the road. There are those that do not have enough faith to serve God, and they do not have enough courage to serve the Devil, and they make God sick.

Revelation 3:15–16 ““I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

Church people wonder why we have a generation or two that does not have a desire for the church or for spiritual things. Can I tell you why that is the case?

Because too many of us older ones were Obadiahs instead of Elijahs. Our kids grew, and we compromised church and serving Christ for everything under the sun-baseball, softball, cheerleading, marketing, band, and FFA, and then as they mature, they do not know what to do just as a squirrel in the middle of the road has no clue regarding the direction he should go.

Those generations have not seen enough from the Church of the Living God to convince them one way or the other as to which way to go.

It is as if they are spectators watching from the stands as we play on the field, but they do not see anything in us that gives them any direction as to which way to go.

We have a generation today that just does not have a clue. They are neither for us nor against us. They are sitting on the fence. They are like squirrels stopping in the middle of road trying to decide which direction to go.

How long are you going to falter between opinions?

D. The Competitors.

The competitors are those that compete against the Gospel.

1 Kings 18:22–24 “Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it.

“Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.” So all the people answered and said, “It is well spoken.””

Elijah, the man of God, competing against his demon-inspired opposition. Elijah was in the minority, and dear friend, so are you and I. The truly saved are a minority in this world, and I really do not know why that shocks us. The Bible never says that God’s people will be in the majority.

Elijah was confronted by 450 prophets of Baal. Just as Elijah was surrounded by unbelief, so are we.

It is an amazing thing, but today, it is true. You can write down anything you want to believe and behave any way you want to behave, and you can find some church or some group that practices that in America, but dear friend, none of those competitors can stop us or revival.

1 John 4:4 “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

People in the church fear the world, but the world has no power over the church. Yes, 1/3 of the angels fell, but 2/3 did not, and I read in the Bible where one angel killed 185,000 Assyrians in one night.

The competition is fierce, but God will give you the power to face that competition eye-to-eye. God in you will allow you to resist anything the Devil puts in your way. If you are saved, the Devil has no control over you.

James 4:7 “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

Dear friend, there are 2 angels for every demon, and you have the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, who can stand against you?

It is time for us to decide which way we are going to go so that we do not get flattened by the world.

The truth of the matter is this.

Do you want your indecisiveness to cause your child to falter between two opinions?

Don’t you think it is time for us to show the world the Great I AM?

Do you know if you are saved? If you can so easily melt into and be molded by the world,, are you sure you are saved?

Romans 10:9–10 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Are you like that squirrel, frantically trying to decide which way to go? Dear friend, I can help you with that decision. Go the direction Jesus takes you, and the first step in that direction is to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior.