Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel: Finding Strength in God’s Rule
1 Kings 18: 20-46
INTRO
- Dark times for Israel
- Ahab and Jezebel rule
- Ahab done more evil than ALL before him (16.30, 33)
- There has been no rain in the land for 3 years (1 Kings 17:1) – Famine rages
THE PROBLEM
- Ahab blamed Elijah (18.17)
- Isn’t that often the problem – we want to blame everyone but ourselves
i. Saul in 1 Samuel 13 and 15
- Elijah tells him who is really to blame (18.18)
THE CHALLENGE
- HOW LONG WILL YOU HESITATE BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS?
- Choose who you are going to follow
- Joshua’s charge to Israel - Joshua 24:15
- Christ’s charge against Laodicea - Revelation 3:16
- We have to decide
- There is no spiritual Switzerland – there is no neutral ground
i. Matthew 12:30
ii. We sit here and think that we can just bide our time until He gets here….
- SEEK FIRST…
- MUST DO the will of the Father (Matthew 7:21)
- MUST WALK in the Light (1 John 1.7)
- It doesn’t say SIT in the Light!!!
- If everyone did what I did…?
THE SHOWDOWN
- Elijah challenges the 450 prophets of Baal (+400 prophets of the Asherah) (18.19)
- Elijah is hopelessly outnumbered
- Not quantity, but quality
- Where did Elijah get the strength/confidence?
i. David RAN to the battle (1 Samuel 17.48)
ii. Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 13)
- Why don’t we run to the battle?
i. We are not dressed for the fight (Ephesians 6:10-17)
1. The strength is in the armor
a. We don’t believe God
b. We haven’t put the armor on
ii. We are like grasshoppers in our own eyes (Numbers 13:33)
- Sincerity does not make it true…(18.28) #. Test your idols?
- What are some of our idols?
i. Sports
1. The Broncos come before worship
ii. Movie Stars
1. Envy their lifestyle, wealth and fame
2. Recognize their spiritual condition
iii. Money
1. What can it buy you?
iv. Lifestyle
1. So locked in that we become slaves to the schedule and jobs
v. Children
1. What if they are good enough?
vi. Ourselves –
1. we trust ourselves first, God second
2. I have done everything I can do…now it is up to God
- When you call on them for truth, what will the answer be?
- When you call on them for spiritual growth…
1 PETER 1:10-12
We know what the Old Testament prophets didn’t know
We know things that the angels longed to look into
Therefore…
PREPARE YOUR MIND FOR ACTION (1 Peter 1.13)
- keep sober in spirit (v13)
- Be clear headed about these things #. What does the evidence show
- fix your hope completely on the grace to be revealed (v13)
- set your focus
- do not be conformed to the former lusts (v14)
- these earthly idols cannot save you
- be holy in all your behavior (v15)
- set yourself apart
- conduct yourself in fear (v17)
- recognize the power of God
- don’t fear men more than God
- fervently love one another from the heart (v22)
- find strength in numbers
- be one that people find strength in
6288 Secret Of Swimming
I learned to swim in boyhood, but it was only this summer that I achieved complete mastery of myself in the water. For 30 years I had assumed that I must constantly struggle to keep from sinking.
One day an expert swimmer watched me for a few minutes and then cried: “Stop fighting the water and trust it to hold you up. Use your strength and get somewhere.”
Under his direction a few moments suffficed to convince me he was right. I lay flat in the water without moving hands or feet and to my delight, it held me up. Then I struck out, using my strength to forge ahead. What a revelation! Why did not someone tell me that years ago?
So many constantly struggle to be Christians, when if they would only trust Christ they would be kept.
[1]
Do we look at the pattern in Scripture and trust that God knows best…or do we look for was to do it our way.
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[1]Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations : A Treasury of Illustrations, Anecdotes, Facts and Quotations for Pastors, Teachers and Christian Workers (Garland TX: Bible Communications, 1996, c1979).
