How to Have Peace Under Fire

Introduction

Tonight we continue our series on Elijah and Elisha. We began this series:

How God Sustains His People (1Ki. 17:1-6)

We saw the manner in which God mightily supplied the needs of Elijah in the midst of a drought in the land.

How God Uses His People (1Ki. 17:8-24)

We examined how God used the widow woman to supply Elijah’s need, as well as how Elijah supplied her need. Reminding us of Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

How the Fire Falls (1Ki. 18)

During a Feeble time w/ Depraved leadership & Divided people

God provided a Faithful man, who challenged his people; chastised false worship; Corrected the Basis of Worship; who had Confidence in God & Called upon the same

A Falling Fire

Came Powerfully; Sufficiently; Convincingly & Effectively.

How to Get Back in the Saddle

I. The Immorality of the Enemy (v1-4)

Unmistakable; Unconverted; Unsettling

II. The Indulgence of the LORD (v5-8)

Elijah Retreated; God allowed him Rest (v5-6b); God provided Refreshment for the Moment (v5b-6a); God gave Resources for the Journey (v7)

III. The Insight of the LORD (v9-12)

A Prophet Disheartened; God’s Power was Demonstrated; God’s Presence was Discovered

IV. The Instruction of the LORD (v13-18)

Get Back Where you Belong (v15a); Bless the Next Generation (v15b-16)

Be Encouraged

I Have a Plan (v17)

You are Not Alone (v18)

Today we are continuing both our series and our theme with the message titled “How to Have Peace Under Fire”

In other words, when the arrows are being shot your way, when you are suffering persecution - this is the way you handle it.

You might say ‘Well, I don’t suffer any persecution, everyone loves me’ - if people have no reason to hate you, then your light is not shining as brightly as it should.

John 15:19–20 “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a little bit. In this message titled ‘How to Have Peace Under Fire’, we see that…

Elijah at this point in his ministry, he’s at peace. He’s suffered persecution before and didn’t handle it well, but now, he’s got people out for his life, and he’s at perfect peace.

The Chapter begins with showing us ‘The Reason for the Fire’

I. The Reason for the Fire

Why did Elijah have people out to get him?

For Following the Spirit’s Lead (v3)

We see that Elijah at the beginning of the book is fine. No one is looking to get him, until the Spirit of the LORD tells Elijah to go give the king a message.

Church, the Bible tells us in Galatians 5:16–17 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

Now two things that I want us to consider here:

First the battle of the inward man

You and I (if you’ve been born again) have the opportunity to be guided by one of two forces within us: The Spirit or the Flesh. (If you’re lost, you don’t have that option). And each and every day we make decisions on whether we’re going to follow the influence of the one or the other.

Christians who follow the leading of the Spirit will experience push back from this world - which leads me to my second consideration:

The Battle on the outward man

There are two great forces within this world: That which is Christ, and that which is anti-Christ.

Our flesh church is anti-Christ. Our flesh doesn’t lead us to higher ground, our flesh drags us to the gutters of life!

So OUTWARDLY if you follow the leading of the Spirit, what you’ll encounter in a fallen world is the majority of people are being led by the flesh or Satan Himself. THIS WILL UNDOUBTEDLY LEAD TO CONFLICT!

The Reason for the Fire is for Following the Spirit’s Lead

For Declaring the Word of the LORD (v4)

THE thing that will alienate you from the world is the Word of God.

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The Word of God Divides - that’s what it does! It divides - It separates:

Wickedness from Righteousness

Truth from Lies

That which is of the World and that which is of God

It also separates:

A man from the power and penalty of his sin

A man’s destiny of Hell to one of Heaven!

If you use words such as:

Thus Saith the LORD…

The Bible says…

God’s Word declares…

Jesus said…

When you use those words, you are demonstrating a power and authority from on High - and that authority is at adds with a fallen world!

The Fire will come for Declaring the Word

For Having a Familiar a Description (v7-8)

This is an interesting point… we see that when this word came unto the ears of the kings, he asked in essence ‘Well, what did he look like?’ To which the man answered 2 Kings 1:8 “And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.”

In other words, Elijah had a specific look about him.

Now I’m not saying that in order to be identified with God we must be hairy and wear a leather girdle… but what I am saying is that those that are closely associated with God should dress different than the world. And when you do dress differently, it will (for some) bring persecution.

(Ill.) Let me say this: I’ve heard of Christians making fun of the way apostolic women dress. Make no mistake - I have big problems with some of their doctriine, but I think it silly and ungodly to make fun of their attire. I’d rather Christian women wear too much and be too different than wear too little and be just like the world!

Some Christians I see ought to be ashamed of the way they dress. Wearing clothes with their cracks showing… Let me say this: LulaRoe is an UNDERGARMENT not an outer garment.

There will be fire if you have a Familiar Description

The Reason for the Fire

II. The Right Way to Handle It

So when persecution comes your way, it’s important that we handle it appropriately

Be Situated Properly (v9b)

Where was Elijah when the first 50 came? “On the top of the hill”.

This is a picture church, it’s a picture of Elijah being close to God.

Remember, Elijah had a great victory, only to when Jezebel’s persecution came, Elijah fainted and fled. But not this time! Elijah isn’t fleeing, he’s staying strong and night unto God.

The best way that you can withstand persecution is to be nigh unto God. We have both positive and negative examples of this for us:

Negative would be Peter:

Remember Peter when Jesus is being tried that night after they took him in the garden, the Bible says that Matthew 26:58 “But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest’s palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end.”

Then while Jesus is inside being persecuted, Peter is outside warming himself by the fire. When they began accusing him, what did he do? Deny, deny, deny witch led to Luke 22:62 “And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.”

That’s what happens when you’re far from God and persecution comes

Positive would be Jesus:

Just prior to this Jesus was in the garden. Jesus knew that persecution was coming, so what was He doing? PRAYING. He was nigh unto His Father! Luke 22:42 “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

If you’re going to handle persecution the right way, you must be situated the right way - nigh unto God

Stand Fast in your Heritage (v10a)

Next we see that when Elijah approached, he was called something ‘Thou man of God…’. He then proceeded to say ‘If I’m a man of God…”.

Not know this: Elijah wasn’t questioning whether he was or not, he was following up on the statement of the captain. The captain called him a man of God, but apparently didn’t actually believe that he was one, else he wouldn’t have thought he and his 50 could overpower him.

The point is, Elijah wasn’t shying away from who he was - he was a man of God!

Church, when we suffer persecution, we must remember who we are and who we belong to!

The apostles prior to the Cross all fled from the LORD in the garden. But after the Cross, they all wen to their deaths suffering persecution with gladness!

When persecution comes, we need to remember who our refuge is & turn unto Him! As Job said: Job 19:25 “For I know that my redeemer liveth, And that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:”

Stand fast in your heritage & trust that God will take your part!

Stay Firm in Your Position (v9-12)

Next we see that this trial didn’t just come once… it came again in like manner.

It would’ve been easy for Elijah to have seen what would become of this decision and change his mind.

Often times it’s not only difficult to stand for that which is right once, but even more so as time goes on.

We must be consistent and stay firm as we face persecution.

(Ill.) Back at the onset of Covid, I faced some pushback for the decisions that I made. At first it wasn’t great, but as time went on, and people got angry, and some laughed, the pushback in persecution got more difficult as time went on. However, if we stay firm in our position and nigh unto to God, And stand fast in the heritage in which we have been born unto, God will certainly show up as he did for Elijah.

Stay Firm in your Position

Be Perceptive to the Spirit (v13-15)

Lastly, here we see some things changing. The last captain did not approach Elijah in the same fashion. It was the end that the Spirit of God spoke unto Elijah, and directed him in a different path & different response.

We need to make sure and be sensitive to the leading of the spirit of God, as while we may initially suffer persecution, it may also lead us to opportunities to witness unto others.

Be Perceptive to the Spirit

The Reason for the Fire & the Right Way to Handle It

III. The Rest of the Story

As Paul Harvey would say…

We’ve looked at the WHY it happens, and WHAT TO DO WHEN it happens, lastly we’ll look at WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

God Protected (v15)

As we see here, God protected Elijah. He let no harm come to him, even when he approached the king!

This is a lesson that Elijah learned late, but it was a lesson he learned nonetheless.

This is an important point, God gives us experiences in life, and whether we make the right or wrong decisions it matters not, for there’s always lessons to be learned from it.

Elijah thought it best to protect himself when Jezebel came after him. But he has learned, that if he will simply be nigh unto God, God would fight his battles! Aren’t you thankful for that!

God protected Elijah

God’s Word was Proclaimed (v16)

BECAUSE Elijah was:

Following the Spirit’s Lead

Declaring the Word of God

Being Recognized as a Man of God

Being Close unto God

Trusting his position as a man of God

Staying Firm in his position

And being Perceptive to the Spirit

God’s Word went forth right unto the King of the Land!

Now, some of you might wonder what good that did, seeing as how all he did was tell the king he was going to die. But the word being proclaimed was not necessarily for the king, it was for everyone else that they would know that God’s word is true!

It was for his family

It was for his friends

It was for future generations

Church as we have said time and time again, God’s word changes things! And our number one goal is Christians should be to make sure that God’s word is spread abroad as best as we possibly can!

God’s Word was proclaimed

God’s Will was Performed (v17)

Maybe the only thing more that we should be concerned about is Christians than God’s word going forth, is that God’s will is performed.

Now we know that the only way for God’s will to be performed is by God’s word going forth, In God’s word going forth is what is within our control, And from there, we simply trust that God will bring his will to pass by the word of his mouth.

God’s Will is Performed. And this is how you have Peace Under Fire

Conclusion

This brought to mind one of the greatest military men that has ever lived - Thomas J. ‘Stonewall’ Jackson. He earned his name in the midst of the battle of First Manassas as a commanding general with bullets and bombs going off around him - he stayed steady in the midst of it all - even after being shot in the hand. General Bee as the confederate line began to waver, proclaimed “Look at Jackson standing like a stone wall, let us determine to die here, and we will conquer!” AND THEY DID!

The point of the story is this… IF ONE MAN CAN DISPLAY PEACE UNDER FIRE, IT CAN INSPIRE A VICTORY FOR AN ENTIRE ARMY!

If YOU will be that one displaying Peace under fire:

Nigh unto God

Trusting in your Relationship with God

Staying firm in your position

Being Sensitive to the Spirit

You can ‘Rally the Troops’ and be an inspiration to a mulitude!