8.28.22 Sermon Notes - The Power & Presence of God

Intro/Welcome

Have you ever read some of the stories in the Bible and wondered…

“is this true?”

“did this stuff really happen?”

“Is this all real?”

“If it is, then what relevance does it have for my life?”

Young parents

New Student at UCF

Just entering the Workforce — trying to figure out life

What we believe about God and the Bible deeply impacts how we live our life.

Hook Illustration

I don’t know if any of you remember the movie Hook.

The idea is that Peter Pan has grown up and had kids and forgotten all about neverland

Well neverland shows up in his life and he goes on a journey remembering who he is

There’s this powerful point in the movie when Wendy (now an aged grandma) says to Peter “Peter, don’t you know who you are? These stories are true”

He would then go on to remember and recover and even get to fly again with pixie dust.

The point us — if the stories of the Bible are true — then they have implications and applications for our life.

This is what Paul taught

Romans 15:4 (ESV)

4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

1 Corinthians 10:6–7 (ESV)

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were…

1 Corinthians 10:11–14 (ESV)

11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

Today

Today we are going to look at one of those fantastical stories

A story, that almost exactly a year a go changed by walk

I believe that God spoke to me through this story about my walk with him and about the Church

The Story of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal.

It is recorded in the 18th Chapter of 1 Kings

It is a story of a dramatic confrontation between

the true worshippers of God/Yahweh

and the false god of Baal

Text

We are going to think about the reality of it

We are going to ask, if this is true, if this really happened

What are the implications and applications for my life?

What might God be wanting to do right here in our midst as One Hope Church?

Big Idea:

Unless God shows up in our life we cannot become the people God has called us to be individually or corporately as the Church.

How to we get God to show up?

We must realize and REPENT of any false Gods

We must KNOW the God of the Bible

We must PRAY in Faith to God / for God to show up

Welcome

1 Kings 18 — go there in your Bible

Name & Welcome + ONLINE

Let’s Pray

Pray

Isaiah 61:1–3 (ESV)

1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Acts 4:29–31 (ESV)

29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Context

(6 min)

Let me orient us a little bit to what is happening in this text.

At this point in Israel’s History the Kingdom has been split into a Northern Kingdom (Israel) and a Southern Kingdom (Judah)

It’s roughly 850 BC — Before Christ

The people have been in rebellion.

God sends His prophets to call them back to Him

Ahab

1 Kings 16:29–33 (ESV)

29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah (Southern Kingdom), Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel (Northern Kingdom), and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.

Economically and politically the northern kingdom was in its strongest position since its separation from the southern kingdom. Omri (885–874 bc) had initiated a policy of trade and friendly relations with the Phoenicians. (BEB)

30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him.

31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.

No more notorious husband-and-wife team than Ahab and Jezebel is known in all the sacred Scriptures (EBC)

32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah.

Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

Not a good resume for a King of God’s People

Ahab’s leadership plunges the people into further darkness and rebellion

Leadership really matters

As the leader goes, so goes the people — at least the majority.

BUT — Since God cares about his people he sends a prophet names Elijah

Elijah

Elijah means “my God is the Lord”

1 Kings 17:1 (ESV)

1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab,

“As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

Elijah a prophet from a no-name town (sound familiar)

Comes to the King of Israel and prophesies a drought by the Word of the Lord

Talk about a challenge.

Needless to say this doesn’t make Elijah very popular in Ahab’s sight.

Water — especially in the region of the world, is vital to everything.

Miracles for Elijah

If you keep reading 1 Kings 17 — the drought is going on in the region

1. Fed by Ravens

Elijah is fed by ravens — kind a weird right? miraculous

1 Kings 17:6 (ESV)

6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

2. Miraculously feeds the Widow at Zarephath

1 Kings 17:8-24.

She and her son are fed by miraculous provision for presumably the remainder of the drought

1 Kings 17:16 (ESV)

16 The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

An event that Jesus refers to in his opening sermon in Nazareth in Luke 4 that nearly gets him killed.

Luke 4:25–26 ESV

25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

Luke 4:28–30 ESV

28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.

Evidently Jesus believed taht these stories actually happened.

3. Miraculously Raises the Widow’s Son from death

her son dies

Elijah prays for him and he comes back to life.

1 Kings 17:21–22 (ESV)

21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” 22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.

Her response:

1 Kings 17:24 (ESV)

24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

Like Jesus

Just a comment here — that this sounds a lot like Jesus

He miraculously fed 5000 people

He raised people from the dead.

It’s all leading up 18, our text.

Elijah and the Prophets of Baal (16min)

1 Kings 18:1–2 (ESV)

1 After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.” 2 So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria.

Just pause — 3 years of famine.

Three years have passed in just 24 verses of Chapter 17

It’s good to remember in our fast paced society.

Elijah and Obadiah

1 Kings 18:3-16.

Ahab and Obadiah are out looking for water

Obadiah runs into Elijah

We find Obadiah — fears the Lord and had hidden prophets for Jezebel’s rage

We find that Elijah is a wanted man

Obadiah is afraid for his life if Elijah disappears again.

Finally Ahab meets Elijah

Elijah & Ahab

1 Kings 18:17–18 (ESV)

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

Typical — Ahab accuses Elijah of bringing on all this trouble, when Ahab is at fault

18 And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.

Elijah sets the record strait

The trouble has come from Ahab’s idolatrous and disastrous leadership

He has led the nation away from God and His purposes and towards the worship of a false God.

Who is Baal?

In Canaanite religion, Baal had authority over rain and fertility.

He was seen as a storm god; the fertility of the land depends on his sending rain.

The absence of rain meant the absence of Baal, who must periodically submit to the god of death Mot (during the dry season), only to be revived at a later date and once again water the earth (during the rainy season).

This cyclical and polytheistic view of reality is the focus of Elijah’s challenges.

Crudely it was believed that Baal had to impregnate the land so that it would bear fruit — bring vegetation.

He is son of the high god El and husband of the goddess Anat;

his enemies are Yam (“Sea”) and Mot (“Death”); his weapons are thunder and lightning; (Zeus?)

and his symbolic representation is the bull.

Elijah worships a single God who lives and yet, while living, can deny both dew and rain to the land.

The Lord, not Baal, brings fertility; and the Lord’s presence in judgment, not his absence in death, leads to infertility.

So this ‘drought and famine’ is a direct challenge to Baal who supposedly had power over the rain.

So this is a direct challenge between Yahweh and False Gods

The Challenge

1 Kings 18:19–20 (ESV)

19 Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

20 So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel.

What is about to happen?

A show down between the One True God and the false God of Baal.

Elijah addresses the People

Elijah turns and addresses the people

This is really the important question there.

1 Kings 18:21 (ESV)

21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said,

“How long will you go limping between two different opinions?

If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

And the people did not answer him a word.

Elijah says — who is the Lord — the True God?

Yahweh — The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?

The God who rescued you from Egypt

Who gave you the promised land?

Who established David on the throne?

They are not following the Lord — they have been seduced and deceived by their King and by False religions and false Gods

This language of limping between two pinions brings to mind James 1:5-8

James 1:5–8 (ESV)

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

We’ll come back to James in a bit, b/c he has something really powerful to say about Elijah’s ministry

The Contest (8min)

1 Kings 18:22–25 (ESV)

22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. {Rom 11:1-6}

23 Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it.

24 And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.”

And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.”

25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put no fire to it.”

Bulls — the symbol for Baal

This is all very intentional

Elijah says, you guys go first.

You win the coin toss / You receive the kickoff

The Prophets of Baal (3 min)

1 Kings 18:26–29 (ESV)

9am-12pm

26 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!”

But there was no voice, and no one answered.

Intensifies

And they limped around the altar that they had made.

The begin some sort of ritual to draw attention to themselves

To get Baal’s attention

So their calling out intensifies

12pm-3pm

27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying,

“Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”

28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them.

Notice the intensification

When our false God’s don’t answer us — we tend to intensify our crying out

That’s not the God of the Bible.

3pm-6pm

29 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice.

No one answered; no one paid attention.

False gods are no gods

Have no real power

Cannot ANSWER you in times of need

Typically when our false Gods don’t answer us we become all the more intense and perhaps even enraged

This is true in our ay as well.

False gods in our day

What do we need to do?

Realize and Repent of false Gods

1. No Spirituality

Secularism

Trust in our ability, our technology, our ingenuity, our intelligence

none of these are bad things — just need to be properly ordered

When the lights go out — electricity goes out

Wifi goes down

is your phone going to talk to you?

Is it going to meet your needs?

No — it’s a false God

2. False Spirituality

New Age Spiritually

STATS: PEW - 2018

Most American adults self-identify as Christians. But many Christians also hold...“New Age” beliefs – including belief in reincarnation, astrology, psychics and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects like mountains or trees.

78% of those who held at least one New Age belief said they did not affiliate with any particular religion.

61% of respondents who identified as Christian said they held at least one New Age belief,

compared with 22 percent of atheists and 56 percent of agnostics who said the same.

67% of mainline Protestants, 47% of evangelicals and 70 % of Catholics said they believed in a New Age belief

Overall, roughly six-in-ten American adults accept at least one of these New Age beliefs.

Specifically, four-in-ten believe in psychics and that spiritual energy can be found in physical objects, while somewhat smaller shares express belief in reincarnation (33%) and astrology (29%).

The survey also found that those who identify as Christian were more likely than atheists and agnostics to hold at least one New Age belief.

All kings of practices that get you in touch with the Spiritual Realm

Spirit Guides, channeling, astral projection

This is akin to Baal worship — Worshipping false Gods

New Age is on the rise

and it has infiltrated the Church

As we see in this text, all of these false spirits have no power under the Sovereign Power of God

When He shuts them up — they cannot speak.

False Christianity / False Religions

Liberal Christianity — teaches a False Jesus

One who didn’t die on a Cross for Sin

One who just wants to be your friend

Christ - Consciousness — Universalism

If you remove the meaning of the cross and resurrection from Christianity there is nothing left.

Transition

But there is the True God

The God of the Bible

Our Response:

How to we get God to show up?

We must realize and REPENT of any false Gods

We must KNOW the God of the Bible

We must PRAY in Faith to God / for God to show up

Elijah’s God (3min)

1 Kings 18:30–35 (ESV)

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down.

31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” 32 and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord.

And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs of seed.

33 And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.”

34 And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time.

And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time.

35 And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.

Elijah makes it even more impossible

dousing everything in water

which is even more dramatic given they have been in a 3 year drought

= FAITH

4 Jars — 3x = 12 jars that coincides with the 12 stones.

God Answers

1 Kings 18:36–39 (ESV)

36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, (sunset)

Elijah the prophet came near and said, [Prayed]

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

37 ANSWER me, O Lord, answer me,

that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God,

and that you have turned their hearts back.”

38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said,

“The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”

This dramatic encounter

God shows up visibly and powerfully

he is the REAL GOD

the only True God

He ANSWERS his people.

In Hebrew, repetition, especially is important.

This word ‘answer’ show sup all over this passage indicating it is a main theme.

Rain Comes

1 Kings 18:41–45 (ESV)

41 And Elijah said to Ahab,

“Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain.”

42 So Ahab went up to eat and to drink.

And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel.

And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. [he prayed]

43 And he said to his servant,

“Go up now, look toward the sea.”

And he went up and looked and said,

“There is nothing.”

And he said, “Go again,” seven times.

44 And at the seventh time he said,

“Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”

And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.’ ”

45 And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.

Elijah then prays and the rains come

The drought is over.

How to we get God to show up?

We must realize and REPENT of any false Gods

We must KNOW the God of the Bible

We must PRAY in Faith to God / for God to show up

Implications and Applications

Wow that was a cool story

But what does it have to do with me?

#1 It points to Jesus

Elijah is a type of Jesus

A man send from God

A man attested as a prophet and rejected by his own people.

A man who was in the wilderness for a time being fed by the Word of God

A man who did miracles by the power of God

feeding the widow and son for years

raising the widow from death

A man that not only called down fire from heaven to be consume a sacrifice

but was himself the sacrifice from heaven in place of his people.

Jesus who revealed the power and the presence of God

His mercy and judgment — his love and grace.

A man who would end the spiritual drought of God’s people by giving the Living Water of the Holy Spirit

#2 Elijah is like us

But it not only points us to Jesus

It teaches us about the power of God in prayer.

Look at what James says about this passage.

James 5:13–20 (ESV)

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Now let this sink in.

This is a fantastical story — that is hard to believe really happened.

but James seems to think it really happened.

James who saw Jesus do similar things

James who saw the apostles and others perform miraculous deeds

James is saying — Elijah — was no different than us.

he says ‘the prayer of a righteous person has great power”

he says the ‘prayer of faith’ will save the one who is sick.

James is exhorting us to pray with the kind of faith that Elijah had

He assumes that this kind of power and presence of God is just as available to day as it was in Elijah’s day.

John Piper in commenting on this text says:

Now what's the point of saying, "Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves"?

The point is to block the objection that says he was somehow extraordinary and cannot serve as a model for our praying.

The point is just the opposite of those who say Elijah and Elisha experienced miracles because they were unique spokesmen for God.

The point is: Elijah was just like you so that you can be encouraged that YOUR prayers will have great effect—like stopping the rain for three and a half years…It encourages us…to think of our praying in the same category with a great miracle worker of the Bible

Implications

Do you realize what this is saying?

How we are to read the Bible and these fantastical stories?

The implications are staggering

And have the power to change your life.

Last Year

Friends it was a year ago that the Lord rocked me with this story.

I was just in my normal devotional reading last August

When i came across this story.

And I feel that God spoke to me.

He said, that’s what my church should look like.

That, unless God shows up in his presence and power, then it is not truly the church.

That I can do a lot of ‘church’ things without really needing God to show up.

I wanted God to show up.

I want to look back at my life in 5 years and say…no way that happened without God in my life.

I want to look back at One Hope in 5 years and say…no way that happened unless God showed up.

The Journey

To be honest, it launched me on a journey that I have been on for the last year.

Studying, praying, reading, learning, struggling, wrestling God on the nature of the Church

Wrestling with Acts 1:8 and the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

On being a naturally supernatural Church.

Inviting the presence of God to be with us, in us, and working through us.

Conclusion

God is real.

He is more real to me now than ever.

He is moving all over the world today.

I’m asking him to more move powerfully in One Hope.

The Bible is True and it has implications and applications for our life.

Application

My focus:

Ministry of the Word

Prayer

Equipping the Saints

Classes / equip nights / training

Doing the stuff

One of the Applications of this will be our Fall Sermon Series.

We are going to take an in depth look at the Final Teaching Of Jesus on the night of his arrest.

What is it that Jesus would leave with his disciples before his death?

We will be looking at John 13-17 in what is known as the upper room discourse.

The last, and perhaps greatest teaching of Jesus.

We are going to look at some of the most profound truths of our relationship with God

I want to begin regular prayer times this Fall

to come together and call upon the Lord

Just as Elijah did. Just as James tells us to

And watch God work

Closing Exhortation

I’m inviting you to join me on this journey

I’m inviting you to invest to the Kingdom of God in our midst

I’m praying that God will raise up a new generation of Leaders to carry on the work of ministry in a dark and broken world.

Let’s pray.

Closing Prayer

Extra

SELF-REFLECTION

Discuss this passage for me last year

The Elijah Plan

Longing for God to show up

John Piper

John Piper, Sermon “The Elders, the People, and the Prayer of Faith”

MARCH 11, 1990

Now what's the point of saying, "Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves"?

The point is to block the objection that says he was somehow extraordinary and cannot serve as a model for our praying.

The point is just the opposite of those who say Elijah and Elisha experienced miracles because they were unique spokesmen for God.

The point is: Elijah was just like you so that you can be encouraged that YOUR prayers will have great effect—like stopping the rain for three and a half years. and it encourages us rather than discouraging us to think of our praying in the same category with a great miracle worker of the Bible.

Now notice that the example of Elijah was brought in by James to encourage all of us who are referred to in verse 16 to pray for each other that we may be healed.

After he says,

"Pray for each other that you may be healed," he says,

"The prayer of a righteous person has great power in its effects."

Then he gives Elijah as the example and stresses that he is not in a class by himself when he prays for a three-year drought.

The logic of the passage seems pretty plain:

All of us should be praying for each other and our goal in praying should be to live and pray in a way that would have the same kind of healing effects as Elijah had when he prayed for rain after a three- year drought.

In other words, this text does not limit powerful praying for divine healing to the elders, and it encourages us rather than discouraging us to think of our praying in the same category with a great miracle worker of the Bible.

Jesus

prayer of faith — that is a prayer of trusting — trusting in the God who has all the power.

John Piper says that most likely what is in view here is the gift of faith — as in Spiritual Gifts

That God gives someone faith to prayer a prayer of faith over someone.

But what about righteousness?

No one is truly righteous — well except one.

but what does Paul say, quoting Habbakuuk

Romans 1:17 (ESV)

17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Habakkuk 2:4 (ESV)

4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

the righteous shall live by faith / by trust

Trusting in God’s provision in Jesus Christ

God’s power and presence in the Holy Spirit.