Seeking the Divine: Embracing God's Connection Through AI and Exploring the Power of Bold Faith

I love that.

I love Steve and Leanne and their heart for missions, and we're actually going to be hearing more about their work with Samaritan's Purse and some opportunities there in the weeks and months ahead.

So this time, kids, why don't you all go ahead and stand and head out to kids men, let's give it up for our kids as they're rolling out this morning.

Let me say too, it is one of the highest honors of my life and my family's life to be part of what God is doing here.

I'm so grateful for you, so grateful for the chance to be on this journey with you, and I believe with all my heart that God has incredible things in store for our church and for this family as we continue to follow after Him.

We're just getting started, right, we're just getting started.

So thank you for being here today, thanks for being part of this journey with us.

If we haven't had the chance to meet my name's, james, and honored to have you with us today, we're wrapping up our Mountain Men series.

Today We've been looking at some heroic figures from the Old Testament.

We talked about Noah and Abraham and Moses and Elijah, or today we're talking about Elijah.

We talked about David last week and these heroic figures that climb the mountain and meet with God and their lives are changed and they're sent out with a new perspective on life, clarity of mission and purpose.

And what we've seen is that the mountain is the place where God reveals and God informs so that God can transform.

And we believe the same thing is possible for us, that, as God shows us who he is and informs us of what we need to know, god can do a work in our hearts to transform our lives.

And isn't that what we all need?

For God to work on the inside and change us from the inside out.

And so today we're in First Kings, chapter 18.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

We're talking about the story of a prophet named Elijah, and we're going to jump into the scriptures in just a moment, but before we get there, I've got a really important question for you guys this morning how many of y'all are keeping up with the advancements in artificial intelligence?

Some of you are like, well, that just derailed quickly.

I thought we were talking about the Bible and here we go talking about AI.

It's going to connect, and this is why I'm convinced that we, as people, are designed and created and desperate for connection with God, and this is where AI comes into the conversation.

I go back and forth on AI.

I'll be honest.

Some days I'm like this is kind of cool.

Other days I'm like we have plenty of movies that tell us how this goes and we should probably stop now before this stuff takes over the universe.

I was watching a football game the other day and there were AI powered robots in the stands, like interacting with people, and I'm like I don't like this too far, too much.

Somebody needs to get a handle on this, for these things Just take, you know, whatever, like I don't like it, I don't like it.

But then the other day I saw on social media a screenshot from a new AI powered app called Text with Jesus and, as it would, that caught my attention because I'm like I don't know that Jesus has an iPhone.

I don't think he needs an iPhone to communicate, but there's an app for him now, apparently, if he does.

And I just started like reading about this app and it was designed and created to help people connect with God.

And so the premise of this app is it's going to pull scripture and history and theological tradition and, using AI, combine it and answer your questions about faith like you're texting Jesus, or you can text Peter or Paul, and I wish that you could see the faces that y'all are making at me right now.

You're like I don't think this is good and I'm not sure it is either.

I'm not sure if it's funny or sad or somewhere in between, but what struck me is we are so desperate to connect with God, like we're like maybe AI can help us connect with God.

Maybe if I do better, it will help me connect with God.

Maybe if this, this and this all fall into place, then I can connect with God.

We're desperate for connection with God and maybe we don't even put that language to it because, see, people who don't know God are desperate to connect with God, and we might call it the search for meaning or the longing for purpose or the gap on the inside.

But I heard a great story after our first service this morning.

A friend of mine who's been trying to share his faith with a coworker was having a conversation with his coworker the other day in New York and after that his coworker sent him a podcast about the five Fs, and the five Fs for like freedom and family and finances and fitness and faith.

And so my friend sat down with his coworker and said where are you on the five?

And he said four out of five.

I'm crushing it.

There's a gap when it comes to faith and again just reminded like we're desperate to fill that faith gap.

We're designed to worship.

We're wired for connection with God.

It's why the statistics bear this out.

The rise of people who say I'm spiritual but not religious is exponential.

Because we're longing for connection with God.

Whether it's text with Jesus or some new age medium, there's all sorts of options available that promise connection with God.

And what we see in our world today is that we're desperate for connection but we lack confidence and how to foster that connection, and it's why we stumble.

It's why we wonder around from thing to thing, from source to source, from gap filler to gap filler, if you will trying to find something to foster connection with Almighty God or something at the least that will fill the spiritual hole on the inside of us.

My premise, my hypothesis, is this that when our connection with God is off, we lack confidence in life.

When our connection with God is tight and we are walking with God in faith, there's a confidence that comes, that only comes through that connection with God, and that's some of what we're going to see in 1 Kings chapter 18 today.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

I've got good news, by the way.

I've got really good news If you know Jesus, you can live with confidence in God, and if you don't know Jesus, you can know Jesus.

Today, you can leave here full of confidence in Almighty God.

Isn't that good news for all of us in the room?

You don't have to walk out of here with the faith gap still present in your life.

So our passage in 1 Kings 18, this is the story of a man named Elijah.

Elijah is a tishbite.

He shows up on the scene in 1 Kings 17.

And all we know about him is he's a tishbite and he's got a word from God and he's in an interesting day in time.

This is the ninth century BC.

It's a period in the history of Israel that is incredibly challenging.

So little history lesson really quickly, if that's okay.

King David we talked about him last week.

He was a king, a man after God's own heart.

He led and ruled in Israel for 40 years, and it was a beautiful 40 years.

David had his hiccups, he had his moments of failure and sin, but by and large, david ruled well.

Solomon, david's son, takes the throne.

Solomon's the wisest man who's ever lived, right, wrote proverbs and song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes.

He is full of wisdom, but he's also a little bit prideful, and you can see it over the course of his life.

By the end of his life, solomon has disregarded some of God's instruction.

He's married to 700 wives, which just sounds incredibly difficult and complex.

But not only that, he's adopted multiple systems of religious belief, and so you can see the cracks, if you will, beginning to appear.

Solomon dies and two of his sons claim the throne, and it leads to a civil war in the nation, in the nation of Israel, splits kingdom of Israel in the north, kingdom of Judah in the south, and this begins a downhill descent for the kingdom there is.

There are a few bright spots along the way, a few good kings, if you will, that rise up, but by and large things go badly, and if we look at the narratives in the scripture, it goes worse for Israel than it does for Judah.

It's like the kings just get worse and worse and worse.

And where we land in first Kings 18, there's a king by the name of Ahab on the throne.

Ahab's wife is Jezebel.

Ahab is a.

He's a maybe a reluctant king in a little bit of the sense, like he doesn't really want to rule.

He just wants to do whatever Jezebel says, and Jezebel's from a pagan family, and they worship false gods in the worst ways.

And so all of that worship makes its way into the kingdom, and so there's this division in the kingdom.

Israel can't get along with each other.

There's an apostasy in the kingdom, open rebellion against the teachings and the law of God.

But but then, in the midst of the division and the apostasy, there's a remnant.

There's a group of people, in this case led by the prophet Elijah, who were hanging on to faith in God in the midst of dark days, and we read that in first Corinthians 18.

And when we think, wow, what a difficult time in which to live.

Right, division, a turning away from God.

And then we realize, wait a minute, isn't that the pattern for humanity?

Over and over and over and over, isn't that what we see in our world today?

Division, people dividing themselves and picking sides.

And you know us versus theming on every issue imaginable.

We'll divide ourselves over anything Apostasy, a turning away from faith, a trust in self over a trust in God.

But I have good news today that through all of the division and all of the turning from God, god is committed to the preservation of his people and we can live with confidence as the people of God the remnant of God, if you will in the midst of dark days.

And we're going to see that today from 1 Kings, chapter 18.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

So if you're there, say there.

We'll start in verse 20.

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

And Elijah came near to all the people and said how long would you go limping between two different opinions?

If the Lord is God, if Yahweh is God, follow him.

But if Baal, then follow him.

The people did not answer him a word.

Then Elijah said to the people I even I only am left the prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men.

We know from the preceding chapter.

Not only were there 450 prophets of Baal there that day, there are also 400 prophets of Asherah.

Baal was the Canaanite God of fertility, asherah his female counterpart.

There are 850 false prophets gathered on Mount Carmel this day.

Elijah is the one prophet of Yahweh standing there.

And so Elijah proposes this challenge.

He says let two bulls be given to us.

Let's choose one bull.

You choose one bull for yourselves and cut it in pieces, lay it on the wood, put no fire to it.

I'll prepare the other bull, lay it on the wood and put no fire to it.

And you call upon the name of your God and I'll call upon the name of the Lord and the God who answers by fire.

He is God.

And all the prophets of Baal answered.

All the people answered it's well spoken.

And then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first for your many, and call upon the name of your God, but put no fire to it.

And they took the bull that was given them and they prepared it and they called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying oh, baal, answer us.

But there was no voice and no one answered.

And they limped around the altar that they had made and at noon Elijah mocked them saying cry aloud, for he is a God.

Maybe he's thinking, he's musing, or he's relieving himself, or he's on a journey, perhaps he's asleep and must be awakened.

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

And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the ablation, but there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention.

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.

Elijah took 12 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.

And with these stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord.

He made a trench around the altar as great as would contain two saiyahs of seed, and he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces, laid it on the wood and he said fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering in the wood.

He said do it a second time.

They did it a second time.

He said do it a third time.

And they did it a third time.

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

And at the time of the offering of the ablation, elijah the prophet came near and said oh Lord, god of Abraham, isaac and Israel, let it be known this day, this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, that I have done all these things.

That's your word.

Answer me, oh Lord.

Answer me that this people may know that you, oh Lord, are God, that you have turned their hearts back.

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

I took this photo a couple of years ago on Mount Carmel.

This is the statue of Elijah and it's a to me.

It was a beautiful moment, a beautiful day, but a powerful reminder that God is at work for His glory and for the good of humanity.

It's Romans 8.28.

In all things, god's at work for those who love Him and who are called according to His purposes, and I love Elijah's prayer God, let all of Israel know that you alone are Yahweh.

I'm sure you've probably been following along with the news this last couple of days and you've seen the heartache and the violence taking place in Israel right now.

We actually have a group from church that's supposed to be leaving Tuesday to go on a trip to Israel, and all that's up in the air right now.

But I just want us to pray for a moment right now for the peace of Israel, for God to intervene in a way that only he can, that the name of Jesus would be known and that Jesus would bring hope and peace and redemption, reconciliation.

God loves people, all people, and God's heart breaks when God's people, when people that God loves and made in His image, enact brokenness and violence upon the world.

And so I just want us to pause for a moment today and pray for the people, the nation of Israel, for God to bring peace in the Middle East like only he can.

So can we pray together right now, father, like Elijah, we pray today that you would make your name known in Israel.

The God, the name of Jesus, would be lifted high and that, father, as people turn to faith in Christ, that peace would rule and reign.

And, father, we pray for an end to the violence.

We pray for peace to come.

We pray for families today that are hurting because of lost loved ones, because of questions about their future.

Father, we pray for revival in that nation.

Father, we pray for people friends that I'm thinking of right now, god who I know are in the nation of Israel today and who have questions about their future, uncertainty about their safety.

Father, we lift them up to you.

We pray for your hand to be at work like only you can, in Jesus' name, amen.

Thanks for pausing and praying there with me.

You know, as I sit in Red First Kings 18, as I think about you know still the violence and the turning of away from God that's present in that region today.

I couldn't help but wonder would I have had the courage, the confidence of Elijah on that mountain that day, if I'm the only one 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah, a nation in apostasy, if I'm the only one on the mountain that day believing in Almighty God, do I have the courage, the confidence in God that Elijah demonstrates that day?

Do you, do you have the courage, the confidence in God to stand for God, even if you're the only one standing this scene?

I don't know what the narrative, the soundtrack in your mind is.

I go back and forth.

I'm not sure if it should be like old school Western, like na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na na.

You know what I'm saying.

Like I hear that a little bit when I read First Kings 18.

I hear a little bit of like Star Wars, like da ta, ta ta, you know, like big orchestra.

Oh, I don't know.

I don't know which one it is, I just know this is a big moment, is it not?

Like it's a showdown moment?

Elijah has declared that there's gonna be a drought in the land until he lifts the drought by the power of God.

Ahab is ticked at Elijah because there's no rain and food and crops being grown Like.

This is the climax of the movie script, if you will.

This is the showdown moment.

And not only that.

Mount Carmel, it's home turf for the prophets of Baal.

It's where the Canaanites believed that Baal lived, was on the top of Mount Carmel.

And so Elijah goes into Baal's territory, grossly outnumbered, and stands with boldness and confidence.

And the scene as it unfolds, it just gets wilder and wilder.

Elijah's like hey, we're on your home turf.

I'll set the rules of this engagement, but then you get to go first.

You get to pick the bull that you want, I'll take the leftovers.

You get to call on your God's first.

If he comes through, we can just call it a day and go home.

But I love what he says to the people before all this begins.

He says hey, today, if you always Lord, follow him.

But if Baal is God, follow him.

He says how long will you limp between two opinions?

And the English language, our modern day equivalent of that phrase, would be how long are you going to sit on the fence?

How long are you going to straddle the fence?

One foot in, one foot out, one foot in the kingdom of God, one foot building your kingdom on earth?

How long are you going to limp between two opinions?

And so, as the scene unfolds to me, I find it so entertaining.

Honestly, elijah's like hey, y'all go first.

And the prophets of Baal?

They cut up the bull, place the wood on the altar, put the bull on top and they begin to do their thing.

And they rant and rave and call on their God until midday.

And that's when Elijah just can't sit there silently anymore.

He starts talking junk.

I love it.

I love it, and not only that, he actually is using their own expectations against them, because the Canaanites believed that Baal traveled with people when they went out to see Elijah.

He's like maybe he's out on the boat with somebody else today, maybe he's in the bathroom, I don't know.

Maybe just give him a minute, he'll be back in a little while.

Maybe he ate something bad last night for dinner, I don't know, maybe he's asleep.

Cry louder, maybe you'll wake him up.

Can you just imagine Elijah sitting back, feet propped up, just watching this scene unfold and the phrase?

They just kept limping around the altar, but no one answered, no one heard, no voice spoke.

And that's the danger, by the way, of worshiping anything that is not God.

We can limp around and alter all of our lives, but unless God is the center of our worship, we are worshiping something with no power to bring anything to pass in our lives.

How many of us spend too much time limping around an altar of our own creation Worshiping something that is not God, expecting it to come through like only God can?

So it gets to the point they begin to cut themselves with swords, they begin to take lances and draw their own blood, hoping that the sacrifice of blood will cause their God to turn in their direction.

But nothing happens.

And then Elijah is like all right, it's my turn.

This is enough of this, my turn.

Bring the water.

We're in the middle of drought, don't care, pour the water on the altar, let's just soak this thing.

Make sure y'all know it's ain't me right, that's what he's doing.

Make sure you know that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that when God comes through it was Almighty God.

So he soaks the altar.

And then the contrast between the prophets of Baal and their ranting and raving and bloodletting, and Elijah, who just steps up and bows before the altar and prays for God to show up and to reveal himself to the people in a way that turns their hearts back to God.

I love that we don't impress God with our knowledge or our words or our extensive religious activity.

God's just looking for a humble heart to come before him and confess our faith.

And so, as Elijah does, he bows before God and says God, come through, not for me, not on my behalf, not so that I am vindicated, but so in the end people will know that I'm your prophet and that you want to come through for your people.

And what happens?

Fire falls, consumes, not just the burn offering, but the wood and the water and the stone and the dust.

God shows up and leaves no doubt that he is God.

So how did Elijah stand there with such confidence?

That's the question right, like how did he get that much confidence in Almighty God and how do we get a little bit of that.

Right, like we got to go to work tomorrow.

Right, we got to deal with our family, maybe this afternoon, I don't know.

We got to go through life.

How do we get that much confidence in Almighty God?

I'm going to just give us a quick three ideas today.

The first is this Elijah had seen God come through in the past.

If you go back to 1 Kings 17, there's a moment where ravens are bringing Elijah bread and meat.

I've only seen ravens in my life a few times.

They never offered me food.

It's not normal, right, but they're bringing Elijah food.

Who made that happen?

God did, god provided.

There's a moment where he goes to a place called Zeraphath and he goes to a widow and he says, hey, I need you to make me a loaf of bread, a little cake.

And the widow says back to Elijah I don't even have enough for me and my son, like it's almost out, and then we're going to die.

And Elijah's like, ok, go and do as you say, but before you do that, can you please just make me a little bread?

God's going to come through.

And the widow goes back and she makes Elijah some bread.

And what does she find?

That the oil and the flour don't run out.

God provides.

God comes through.

Then fast forward.

The widow's son dies and she comes back to Elijah and she's like, hey, you multiplied the bread and the oil and the flour, but my son died.

Your God, let my son die.

And Elijah's like, hang on a minute, let me pray.

And he prays for the widow's son and what happens?

His breath enters him again, the son is raised back to life and he hands him back to his mom.

Amazing, right, elijah had seen God come through in the past, by the way, y'all.

That's why we read the Old Testament, so that we can see how God has come through on behalf of his people in the past, how God has preserved his people through thick and thin, up and down, high and low.

God will come through.

And maybe that's your story, like you got moments in your life you can go back and say, hey, god came through here.

I changed careers and I didn't know how it was gonna go, but God came through.

Or God did something in my family that I didn't think was ever gonna happen, but God came through.

Or maybe it's like a really personal thing.

It's like, hey, no, I was dead in sin and I had no concept of God, no desire for God, and the light of the gospel broke in and God saved my life and changed my eternity.

Do you have a story in your past where God has come through?

Can I just encourage you to share your story of what God's done in the past, because there might be somebody who's still where you were that needs to know that God can come through for them.

Or there might be somebody that needs to know hey, just if God doesn't come through like you think he should, he's still good and he'll still come through in his way and in his time.

Elijah had seen God come through in the past and it gave him confidence in the moment on Mount Carmel to say I believe that because he's been faithful in the past, he can be faithful today.

I can trust him right now.

But Elijah also, he believed that God was ready, willing and able to answer his prayer.

He prayed for the widow's son.

He prayed for the multiplication of the flour and the oil.

He prayed that it wouldn't rain.

And what happened?

It didn't rain for three and a half years.

Elijah was confident in the connection with God that exists through prayer and, by the way, I love these three words ready, willing and able.

We have a God who's ready to hear our prayers Like he's.

Can you?

I just picture God waiting in heaven to hear from us, and if all eight billion people on the planet decided at the same moment, we're gonna pray to God right now.

At the same time, god is ready to hear the prayers of every single person on the planet.

How beautiful is that.

He's ready to hear from us, but not only that he's also willing to hear from us.

You know I have two boys.

I'm always ready to hear from them.

Sometimes I'm a little less willing.

Now, noah's in this service right now, and there've been times in my life when Noah's trying to talk to my mother.

Noah, give me a minute.

Can I just tell you that God never looks at us and says give me a minute.

And one thing that I'm trying to do in my life was when my boys come to me and say, hey, I need to talk to you.

Or hey dad, hey dad, you know.

Whatever it is, I wanna give them my attention because I want them to know they have a father in heaven.

That when we come to Almighty God and say, hey father, hey God, dear father in heaven, god always is willing to give you his attention.

He's ready, he can hear, but he's willing.

He wants to hear.

He's ready to turn his attention in your direction and he's willing to hear from you, whatever it is you bring before him.

He wants to hear about your best day and he wants to hear about your worst day.

He wants to hear about the pain.

He wants to hear about the failure, the brokenness, the anxiety, the difficulty.

He wants to hear from you.

He's ready, he's willing, but not only that he's also able to respond.

We do not serve a God who is powerless to move and isn't that good news?

Because we are all dependent on Almighty God and he doesn't always come through and answer our prayers like we want, when we want, but he always comes through and answers our prayers in his way and in his time.

And that's a mystery of faith sometimes, and that takes faith sometimes, and sometimes that's difficult, is it not?

But we serve a God who is able to respond to the prayers of his people.

There is no prayer too big for you to pray.

In fact, in a sense, maybe we don't even start praying until we're talking to God about only things he can handle.

He wants to hear about everything, but he wants us to get to the stuff that only he can do.

God, I'm praying for you to save this person, and you gonna have to do it.

God, I'm praying for reconciliation in this relationship, and you gonna have to do it.

God, I'm praying for you to change this on the inside of me, and I've tried to change it, and I can't.

You gonna have to do it.

God is ready, willing and able to respond to the prayers of his people.

And Elijah, he believed that.

So when he steps up to the altar after watching these Canaanite prophets pray to their God for hours with no result, I believe Elijah stepped up, and he stepped up confidently.

He stepped up humbly, but confidently.

He's like y'all, y'all.

I don't know, maybe I just imagine he look at like at the side of his eye, be like watch this.

You know, watch God come through.

And I love what he said.

He says in First Kings, 18, verse 36,.

1 Kings 18:36

He says oh Lord, god of Abraham, isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel.

The Hebrew phrase let it be known can also be translated it will be known.

He steps up and, with confidence says right now, everybody's about to know that God Almighty, y'all way is God.

Because the third thing that gave Elijah confidence he lived with conviction in his calling.

He lived with conviction in his calling.

He was convinced that his calling on the planet was to make known the name of God.

And can I say to you today that we all, as people made in the image of God, with breath in our lungs, we all share in that calling.

You're like, wait a minute.

I thought Elijah was a prophet.

He is.

I'm not a prophet.

I never stopped the rain, never changed the weather.

If you can, if you can do that, pray for cool weather, that this continues, because this is amazing.

We love this.

Right.

More of this, less of the summer, right?

You know?

Hey, wait a minute.

First day of the day, right there.

You know I love that.

I'm not a prophet, but you got a calling.

What's your calling?

To make known the name of God, to tell the story of who God is and what God's done.

Everywhere the soul of your foot treads is an opportunity, a place for you to tell the story of God, to pray the prayer of Elijah, oh Lord, god of Abraham, isaac and Jacob.

Let it be known today through my life that you're God, god.

Let it be known today through my life that Jesus is king, that he's the savior, that salvation is available in no other name, that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.

You've got a calling.

You don't need a microphone and a platform or a keyboard playing behind you or a podcast.

You don't need any of that stuff.

You need to know that you have some conviction on the inside that God has called me to make his name known.

God's called me to make his name known.

God's called you to make his name known.

So, monday, harris, teeter, publix, the ball fields in the afternoon, dance practice, work board meeting I don't know, I don't know what Monday looks like for you, I'm just naming stuff.

But your job in those circles on Monday is to make the name of Jesus known, to live with conviction in your calling that, whether you're a teacher or a lawyer or an entrepreneur or a stay-at-home parent, it doesn't matter what the title is.

The calling is to make much of the name of Jesus.

Make much of the name of Jesus so that people who maybe today are straddling the fence can hear from Almighty God and make the choice.

Hey, I'm not gonna just straddle the fence.

I'm not gonna sit on the fence any longer.

I'm following after Yahweh, I'm chasing after Jesus.

I'm gonna receive the free gift of salvation.

That's gonna change my life and my eternity.

I'm not going halfway in and halfway out.

I'm all in for the name of Jesus.

That's the calling.

It's the calling and y'all.

That calling requires confidence, requires a connection with God.

It requires a courage that is essential for faith.

One day, this day, let it be known that you are God in Israel.

And so the story goes on and it ends.

It says when all the people saw it, when they saw God consume the altar and the offering and they realized Yahweh is the true God, they fell on their faces and they said the Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.

When God shows up, it is undeniable.

When God is at work in a life, it is undeniable.

When it's God and it's not just us, it is undeniable.

And isn't that what we want?

A move of God, not just human emotion or human will or human intellect.

We want to see a move of Almighty God so that some reveal will take notice.

Hey, there is something happening, god.

It must be real.

Those people's lives are being transformed and we want to be part, because he's the God, he's the gap filler, he's the one that we're all longing to know.

As I read the last part of this passage, verse 40, elijah said to them seize the prophets of Baal, Let not one of them escape.

And they seize them.

And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishan and slaughtered them there.

So this passage ends a little bit dark.

Right, prophets of Baal, they're killed and God brings justice.

But here's what's interesting about this.

This passage begins with an invitation Don't straddle a fence, don't sit on the fence.

But the people didn't answer.

Everybody in that moment had a chance to go.

You know what?

Maybe I got this wrong, maybe I've been limping around the wrong altar.

Maybe I should jump on board with Elijah before it's too late.

Maybe I should make my choice now.

Because what happens at the end?

There's a moment where the choice goes out the window, the opportunity to choose is no more.

And Elijah and the prophets of Baal, they go down the side of Mount Carmel to the Kishan brook, and it's over for them.

God's victorious.

He overcomes, he wins out over evil.

And it struck me this week that where this took place Kishan brook, mount Carmel, is the northwestern border of what's called the Jezreel Valley.

This is a picture from I took in Israel a couple of years ago, looking out over the Jezreel Valley.

Napoleon called this the most natural battlefield in the earth in all the world.

Revelation 16 tells us that there is coming a day, one day when, under the power and influence of Satan, all the powers of darkness will gather their forces on this field to stand in opposition one more time to King Jesus.

Then Revelation 20 says that when Jesus shows up that day at the Jezreel Valley, he's not coming as the lamb slain for the sin of the world.

He's coming as the lion to conquer and overcome evil forever.

And at a word from King Jesus, the sound of his voice, evil will be defeated, satan and all of his demons will be thrown into the eternal lake of fire, and judgment will come.

You're like, well, this is a dark ending that I didn't see coming.

I'm not confident in God.

Thank you for this.

Well, here's what I'm saying.

That day, one day is coming, but this day the invitation's open.

One day when evil is defeated and hell is opened and Satan and his demons are vanquished for eternity and Jesus wins.

King of kings, lord of lords, and he ushers in eternity.

That day's coming and for those of us who know Jesus, it's gonna be a good day.

And can I just tell you today, on that day, you can stand with confidence because of the invitation of Jesus.

You don't have to spend eternity separated from God.

You don't have to be afraid of that day.

You can know Jesus today.

The invitation is open today.

So choose today to receive, by grace, through faith, salvation, the free gift of the lamb that was slain for the forgiveness of sin.

Choose today.

So I just wanna ask, right now, in this moment, if you say, hey, today I need to know Jesus, I need that connection to God, I wanna invite you to pray this prayer with me.

Dear God, I turn for my sin, been limping around an altar of my building for far too long.

Today, by grace, through faith, I trust Jesus as my savior, in Jesus' name, amen.

And if that's you and you prayed that prayer this morning, can I just say that's the start of a conversation with God that will last you the rest of your life, but it's the start of a conversation that has eternally connected you to Almighty God and will grow into confidence in God as you walk with Him, so that on the day that Jesus comes back and overcomes evil forever, we stand with confidence in the light, in the shadow of Almighty God, by the shed blood of Jesus.

So, as we stand and sing, this is a moment for us to respond.

If, today, you gave your life to Christ, we'd love to hear about that.

If you wanna join the church maybe you know this is where God's leading you We'd love to celebrate that.

If you just need to pray, that God would give you a depth of confidence that maybe has been lacking the courage to live out your calling with conviction.

This is a moment for you to respond.

As the Spirit leads, let's stand and worship together.