Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Ahab is King of Northern Israel and makes very bad decision.
He marries a woman named Jezebel and she introduces idol worship to the nation of Israel.
He is considered to be an evil King
Ahab brought foreign gods to the land of Israel, introducing them to multiple gods they could worship.
Ba’al was one of many gods in the Canaanite pantheon of gods.
He wasn’t just some minion god but he was thee god of the Canaanite religion.
He was the god of fertility and thunder.
He was sacrificed to in order to win favor for childbearing.
He was the god of rain so sacrifices would have been offered for the rain to fall.
They had rejected God’s law and sole authority and so was coming to pass.
This was the punishment for disobedience.
So rather than trusting Yahweh or the one true God to provide life, vegetation and rain, they added another god to the equation.
God sends a famine as judgment, to remind the people who is really in control.
Drought produce massive damage to the economy, ecosystem and lives of those it affects.
The worst drought ever recorded happened in 1941 in China where over 3 million people died.
America has been affected by horrible droughts.
So much so we named a whole decade after it.
“The dirty thirties”
Drought and famine have major impacts because it usually causes sickness and death, especially to the older community as well as the children.
It can lead to war and much suffering.
Farmers around this area, know how much drought affects the day to day lives of people.
This is a death sentence.
Many people will die from this.
Big Faith understands the bigger picture.
Remember drought and famine are given because the people of God turned to Ba’al
Ba’al was often seen as the god of thunder and rain.
We see a natural disaster, but to the ancients it symbolized war.
Jezebel brought in Ba’al worship, but ancient texts tell us something interesting about Ba’al.
The Ugaritic Texts tell us about “the Ba’al cycle”.
It is used to tell the story of drought and how the god Ba’al was fighting for the top spot in the Canaanite pantheon of gods.
He fought the god Mot and Mot killed Ba’al.
When Ba’al died it brought drought to the land.
Baal was miraculously restored to life and brought back the rains.
The ancients saw this cycle as the seasonal summer drought and the fall rains.
Baal was also seen as the god of fertility because life stemmed form the rain.
This story shows us there is a bigger fight than drought.
There is a spiritual war going on in the hearts and minds of men.
They have given themselves to idols and worship of beings that don’t even exist!
Understand there is a war for your worship!
There is a war for your affections.
It can take the form of needs or problems and then offer you solutions to them outside of God.
There is a war for the core of who you are.
God knows this!
God knows that we are, as Tim Keller calls us, “an idol making factory”.
We take the good things in life that God provides and we make them a “god thing”.
The Israelites took the seasons and made them a god thing.
They took trees, that are a good thing and made them into a god thing.
How do we do that in our lives?
We must be able to identify what a god looks like, because sometimes they have worked themselves into our way of life without us even knowing it.
Despair and sorrow.
There is a difference between sorrow and despair.
Sorrow is pain for which there are sources of consolation.
Sorrow comes from losing one good thing among others, so that, if you experience a career reversal, you can find comfort in your family to get you through it.
Despair, however, is inconsolable, because it comes from losing an ultimate thing.
When you lose the ultimate source of your meaning or hope, there are no alternative sources to turn to.
It breaks your spirit.
sorrow is consolable because you lost one good thing among many.
Despair happens when you lost an ultimate thing.
What does Idol worship look like today?
Love
We are looking for something to satisfy our longing and love.
We elevate relationships, lust and even marriages to the place of ultimate significance.
Trust
Idols give us a sense of control
If you are in control, who’s not?
Answer = God
I get really angry when working on cars.
I am sharing with you one of my greatest weaknesses.
I wanted to control the situation but when I realized I couldn’t I freaked out.
Obedience
A god is something you submit to and choose to obey.
they give us meaning when we follow the rules and achieve success.
We create gods we can control, we can manipulate, we can sacrifice too so that we can maintain control of the situation and our lives.
There is a difference between sorrow and despair.
Sorrow is pain for which there are sources of consolation.
Sorrow comes from losing one good thing among others, so that, if you experience a career reversal, you can find comfort in your family to get you through it.
Despair, however, is inconsolable, because it comes from losing an ultimate thing.
When you lose the ultimate source of your meaning or hope, there are no alternative sources to turn to.
It breaks your spirit.
We enter a story where a war is being waged and we understand how God shows himself to be the true God and the only one who can bring life out of death.
Big Faith sees God as the provider.
Elijah is engaged in this war, and his provisions come from God.
He is unable to provide for himself. in the midst of this drought, God provides for Elijah two ways,
He provides by sending him to a creek where God sends ravens to feed him.
Elijah is running for his life after he gives Ahab the news that drought is going to come to the land and
Elijah is sent to a town called Zarepheth to a widow.
The widow provides for Elijah.
Elijah provides for the widow.
Big faith trusts God with our provision
Elijah had no food except for what this widow was willing to share.
Elijah just walked over 100 miles to Zeraphath.
He might be a little hungry.
The widow had no food except for what she has to share with her son.
The widow knows she and her only son are going to die.
She is preparing for death.
Big Faith trusts God with everything.
The famine has run its course.
People are dying and here comes the man who’s God is responsible.
“As the Lord YOUR God lives” (V 12)
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