Committing to the True God - Tony Evans Sermon on Elijah

what depression discouragement despair often brings is distorted information Elijah is by himself depression gets worse if there's nobody in your life to change your thinking see if you feeling sorry for yourself and you're talking to yourself that's a bad conversation for yourself you already feeling sorry and there's nobody to talk to but you about you regarding you to tell you what you ought to do and you aren't in a place to even hear you correctly then your discussion with yourself is helping yourself to become worse off about you so God then it does the picture and tells him Elijah tell me how you feel stop talking self did you talk to yourself you were getting depressed or suicidal start talking to me okay now I'm gonna show you the wind in the rain ball that stops now y'all talk to me cuz you talking to you it's giving you to kill you stop talking you to you and y'all talk to me God has an angel for you he's got a person for you he has himself for you he gave realize you all three of those to give him a supernatural experience to lift him out of his depression and one of the reasons that the church exists is to have people available in your life when you are down who can embrace you minister to you lift you up and he can use you to do the same thing for somebody else because when we are depressed we need another perspective that doesn't deny the reality of how we feel but what it does is definitely let you live [Music] Israel is dealing with a problem that brought the prophet Elijah on the scene in the first place and that is their attraction to idols they were attracted to bale and Asherah bales girlfriend the idols that had now consumed the culture even those who name the name of God we've defined an idol already but just so that we review an idol is an unauthorized now person place or thing that you look to to get a need met it's an unauthorized person place or thing and unauthorized now that you look to for that thing to be the source of a need being met something God has not approved but you're looking to it to be the source of your provision that's an idol granted we over here don't worship trees by and large or the moon or the Stars well I can't really say that because folks are still checking their horoscopes as an unauthorized source because the Bible says when you when you check astrology to find your source in your direction based on the movement of the stars or the month you were born or any of the like you have appealed to an unauthorized source to be the definition of your needs being met and the definition of your identity so that is idolatry so you may not do any of the things people may do with you justice you just have an American Idol just look at what's happening in the culture and you gravitate to that whether it's people or power or possessions or whether it's prestige whatever it is are looking to that thing as the source of your provision now when you understand that is the biblical definition of idolatry then you understand that you can be right here right now today and be an idol worshiper because while you're sitting in church God is not your source he's a point of reference but he's not your source and so we have seen some of the supernatural activity of elijah and we've tried to say this transfer is over to you today the principle of God's supernatural work that we're discovering in his life relates to your life we come in chapter 18 and we come to a place where now the prophet Elijah confronts King Ahab he confronts King Ahab and he confronts him in chapter 18 verse 17 and when Ahab saw Elijah he had said to him is this you you troubler of Israel in other words you getting on my nerves mayhap says is this you Elijah you bring it all this trouble to Israel Elijah responds in verse 18 I have not troubled Israel but you and your father's house have because you have forsaken the commandment of the Lord and you have followed the bails you followed the idols Elisha is not concerned about being politically correct so he refuses to be politically correct he says they have you have brought this about because of your pursuit of idolatry you've caused the heavens to shut up it's no longer raining the cultures in trouble because you have pursued another God one of the reasons you're seeing all of this chaos around us even in our culture and in our country is because we have forsaken the Lord our God and what you and I are experiencing the day is God saying you know want me let me get out of the way and let me show you life without me and so you have the consequence of the removal of God God is being removed from government God is being removed from schools God is being removed from the biblical definition of marriage God is being removed from the Civic's God can't even open up a prio football game when God is being removed from the culture that means idolatry has automatically set in which means there are consequences that accrue in the environment where God has been removed and that is what was happening in Israel they're experiencing life without the one true God so Elijah says now send and gather to me all of Israel at Mount Carmel verse 19 together with 450 prophets of Bale and 400 prophets of Asherah that's 850 who eat at Jezebel's table he says uh okay let's have let's have a fight at the okay Corral okay you bring your people and your God and I'll be there at high noon okay okay let's settle this once and for all let's go let's go confuse people let's let's put this thing out on the table so hey AB says okay you got a deal let's go forth so absent verse 20 a message among all the sons of Israel and brought the prophets together at Mount Carmel now watch this because this is where we start verse 21 Elijah came near to all the people and said how long will you hesitate between two opinions if the Lord is God follow him but if BHEL follow him but the people did not answer him a word Elijah says I folk how long you gonna keep dancing how long will you hesitate between two opinions the word hesitate means Vassily how long you gonna dance this God owns Sunday and another God on Monday how long you will go back and forth follow how long you go you gonna dance around this thing how long you gonna move back and forth how long and we gonna have to keep doing this how long are you gonna have to keep hearing the same sermon every week calling you the full commitment before you make one see a lot of folk what a worship God on Sunday and then hugging Idol on Monday [Applause] he says how long how many more years how many more months how many more services how long were you gonna dance before you decide that's his question it says the people were silent why would they silent simple they weren't ready to commit they weren't ready to commit they weren't ready that well you know you know you too serious yo you you been too serious about this Christian thing just let me get little Church give me a little music preach me a little sermon then leave me alone says the people were silent they were not ready to commit borussia they were always ready for a miracle they were always looking for a blessing they were always looking for God to do something while they were silent so let me state my position as coming from this passage if you are not ready to commit and to stop dancing stop looking for a miracle and searching for a blessing they said nothing because they weren't ready to make a full commitment and yet he's calling on them just do that so now Elijah says I alone verse 22 and left the prophet of the Lord but bales profits of 450 men Elijah says I'm outnumbered 450 to one since this is not to see what the heart of numbers fare in my favor I'm ready to take my stand God is looking for some folk who even though outnumbered are willing to take that stand who even though the other side has more than you even though it looks like you're outnumbered and you're among your friends among your co-workers or what have you he said this is how the numbers shape up but in spite of that we're gonna put the true God to the test he says why don't you bring verse 23 to auxin and let the 450 choose one oxen and I'll take whichever one they don't choose put it on the wood put it on the altar but don't put a fire under it and then you for 50 you call on the name of your God and tell your God light the fire okay tell your God be the Ohio players fire hey tell your God to light it up and then i'ma call oh my god and let's see whose God is the god of fire now unless you understand bad lism you can't appreciate this but Bale was the god of fire the god of the Sun so you figure if Bale is in charge of the Sun he can lay something up so he's challenging him at the very core of the greatness of their God so let's see what your God can do so they agree he is so confident in his commitment to God that he will challenge the mahjongg Oh do we need some committee Christians today who are so committed and so confident in their God they don't mind being outnumbered because they understand that once God the true God is in the equation the number shift so he says come on let's so talk let's do this thing let's do this thing and so here's what they do the 450 agree and so they chose the Ox and verse 26 they took the arts and prepared it in the name of bail and from warning the two evening they were saying all bail answer us but there was no voice no one answered and they leaped about the altar which they made so they're in there with their God Oh bail Oh bail let's have some fire like them light the altar Oh bail hold great bail they jumping around the altar they getting their praise alone around the idol and and it says and nothing happened and there was no voice now this is where we get to a little humorous part in the Bible gets a little humorous here in verse 27 cuz it says at about noon that Elijah mocked them okay now it's 450 them and it's one of you this ain't the time to be making fun of hope but he lied you just standing there and he mocks them and look at how much he says why don't you why don't you call out louder call ours 27 what allowable y'all ain't screaming loud enough he can't hear you he says but he is the god maybe he's occupied he's got another meeting going on and he can't get the y'all right now so maybe that's why nothing happened or maybe he's going aside now gone aside means maybe in the bathroom guard aside me and he doing number 2 that's what gonna side means or maybe he hadn't gone aside maybe he's on a journey he's on a trip you know he's taking a vacation or perhaps he's snoring he says maybe he's asleep and you need to wake him up so why don't you sing a little louder prays a little louder pray a little louder and wake up your God well all he did was ticked him off cuz at verse 28 he says they crowd out with a loud voice and they cut themselves according to the custom with swords and Lance's until the blood gushed out of them when midday was passed verse 29 they raved and tell the evening sacrifice there was no voice no one answered no one paid attention did he Liza said that all the people come close come close so all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been torn down okay let me stop there let me stop there it says he repaired the altar which had been torn down that means they had religion without commitment because the altar hadn't been used now what would they do on the altar sacrifices why would they make sacrifices to deal with sin so what they were doing was having religion without dealing with sin they did not want to deal with the spiritual realities in their lives because they'll let them go where they wanted to go do what they wanted to do act what they wanted to pack bail did not put any boundaries or restrictions on them and that's not the God they wanted all week that's a good enough for Sunday now give me my six days but they wanted that God to be the god of the supernatural so the altar was left unattended the spiritual issues would not address but yet they had enough religion to clean God you ought to be tired of religion by now religion can't change you religion can't help you and religion certainly won't bring heaven down to earth what you need and I need and we need is a relationship but you can only have a relationship on God's terms and you can't have a relationship on God's terms if you got another God waiting for you tomorrow that is another source of your identity and your reality and so Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom the word of the Lord had come saying Israel shall be your name so the Prophet comes along and here's what happens he took the twelve stones verse 32 so with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord he got the spiritual priority back in water and unless we do that as a church unless that's the main thing every other thing is a waste of time he got the altar back the spiritual part back the confession of sin and the pursuit of righteousness back the altar represented all that and then he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two measures of seed so he digs this hole around the altar now that's what he does him he arranges the would verse 33 cuts the axe in the pieces lays it on the wood and he said fill four pitches with water and pour it on the burnt offering no wait a minute if you trying to light up something you don't pour water on it you're not trying to put water on it you want to keep it dry so the it lights quickly but he pulls water on it oh but that's the holidays cut the cord verse 24 it says he says do it a second time so they put water on it they wet the wood wet the axe with everything he says pour four more pitches on it so whoa okay he does it again oh but if he finished no do it a third time and they did it a third time so he prays and he prays at the evening sacrifice O Lord verse 36 the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the covenant-keeping god today let it be known that you are God in Israel I am your servant and notices I have done all the things that your word let it be known what you will do when people are committed to you and your word in other words I'm not like y'all I ain't dancing I'm not like y'all I'm not going back and forth I am totally committed to his word that's how you know if you dancing tonight he says let it be known that I'm for real because I obey your word in other words God your word has the final say-so over my decisions until you get to that place you're not fully committed if you're not fully committed you have limited or lost access to the miraculous so he says I have kept your word answer me O Lord verse 37 that this people may know that you O Lord our God and that you have turned their hearts back again and the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering the wood the stones the dust and lick up the water in the trench now this is one of the scenes I want to see on instant replay when I get to heaven because it not only said the fire fell but it says it consumed the stones the wood and the stone but here's the part I like it said it looked up the water around the trench oh and when you see God show off and show out for you when you see him do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask for faith when you see because you've rebuilt the altar a full commitment he says saw it and then the people saw it they fell on their faces and said the Lord he is God the Lord he is God does anybody here know what am hillbilly road bump is a hillbilly road bump is an armadillo dead in the middle of a roof that's what's called a hillbilly I mean country people call it a hillbilly road bump okay now let me explain one half a million armadillos every year are killed in the middle of the road every time I've seen an armadillo is on his back and his legs is sticking up in the air every time I see an armadillo it's dead in the middle of the road because here's what they do they start crossing the road they stop in the middle of the road they stop in the middle of the road with cars coming they stop him in the middle of the road with cars coming and they get run over they get run over because they get comfortable in the middle of the road does God have any hillbilly Road bump Christians in this place does God have been a hillbilly Roebuck you come to church and you stay in the middle you like malcolm in the middle' you stay in the middle you want to be able to step over here to the God of the Bible but you want to stay over here to the world you stay in the middle only to be run over by his glory when he moves down the center but if he can ever get you to go all the way heaven will open up you will see heaven open jesus said you will see the angels of God going up and down the Son of Man and you will see what God can do because you've given him all you have God is looking for some folk who gonna leave the middle and go all the way the dominant sin spoken of in the Bible is idolatry all through Scripture you see God's hatred of idolatry idolatry is any unauthorized now person place thing or thought that you look to as your source because that means you're committed to a false god there's only one true God the God of the Holy Scriptures who's revealed himself both in creation and in his word and he does not want any competing loyalties in our lives he wants us totally committed to the one true God the moment you bring another God another now person place thing or thought that you look to as your ultimate source you created divine competition you've created a deity competitor and nothing will drive God from you in terms of you experiencing his presence in your life like you inviting another God into the vicinity whether that God is money whether that God is even religion whether that God is education whether that God is Korea but you can name it but once that thing or person becomes your source size God is angry with that and will display the weakness of your God because he'll he'll interrupt your God they'll let you know that God wasn't as big powerful as authoritative as you thought it was when you put your whole life into that God's hands so there must be a decision that we must all make even as Christians that there will be no other God before us you know that goes back to the Ten Commandments thou shall have no other God before me in fact God wants to be so alone is God he won't even let you take a picture of himself creating it because he does not want us to dumb down how awesome a god he is stay committed to the one true God because there's only one true God who deserves that commitment [Music] [Music] the Bible certainly is the most life-changing book of all time but it's not always the easiest book to understand the Tony Evans Study Bible changes that Tony is added extensive study notes features maps doctrinal charts links to 150 videos and more to this experiential Study Bible the historic Tony Evans 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Length: 27min 41sec (1661 seconds)

Published: Wed May 13 2020