Living in the Days of Elijah Part 2 - Living in the Days of Elijah

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Like Elijah, the true church will learn to war in prayer.

We have to be a warring church.

It's Jesus who said, Ask and you shall receive.

Seek and you shall find.

Knock, and the door shall be open.

Prayer is about asking, seeking, and knocking.

There's a place for meditative prayer.

There's a place for contemplative prayer.

But I'm telling you, the main purpose of prayer is moving the ball down the field for the kingdom of God.

That's what it's about.

So prayer is about miracles.

Prayer is about breakthrough.

Prayer is about breaking and moving mountains out of the way so that God's kingdom can come.

And the church is way too passive.

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We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

So, what we're looking at here is turn your Bibles to 1 Kings 18.

And I want to pick up from last week.

And if you missed last week, I'd encourage you just to go online.

I think it's thero.org slash sermons, and it's in one or two categories.

It's Kingdom of God Revolution.

I think it would be part three, or it's under living in the days of Elijah.

And so I want to just quickly summarize last week.

Elijah is a type of church God is raising up.

Number one, we talked about like Elijah, the true church will speak for God with authority.

Number two, like in the time of Elijah, the true church is a courageous remnant that will not bow down.

Number three, like Elijah, the true church will be fearless in declaring truth.

And then I wanted to just quickly summarize the last two points again because I felt like I was rushed last week.

So look at 1 Kings 18, and we're going to start at 38.

So here's the scenario.

If you're a guest with us today, you may not know the story, but Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to come up to Mount Carmel in the northern part of Israel.

And so there's 450 prophets of Baal.

There may have been the 400 prophets that ate at the table of Jezebel who worshipped Asherah, but the focus is Baal.

He challenges them to kind of a showdown.

And it's an interesting scenario because he says to Israel, he says to the people of Israel, whom are you going to follow?

And they answer him not.

They don't say anything.

But then you're going to see there's a switch when the power of God comes.

And that's the way it always is, gang.

More people are willing to follow the Lord when there's power behind the message.

And we have a powerless church.

We tend to have a powerless church.

We have a lot of talk, we have a lot of teaching, but we don't have a lot of power.

And so Elijah challenges Ahab.

Jezebel's not there, which is important because she's going to come up later.

But Ahab is there, and he calls down fire from heaven.

And that's where we're going to pick it up.

So remember the first part the the prophets of Baal, they cut themselves, they chant, they dance, and they can't get fire from heaven.

And then Elijah kind of mocks them.

He just mocks them because he knows there's no one true God.

They know it's just an idol.

And so finally it's his turn.

So in verse 38, he goes to work.

Well, let's start at 37.

Hear me, O Lord, hear me that this people may know that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their hearts back to you again.

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

Now, when all the people saw it, so this is the people, if you go back to verse 21, where he said, How long will you falter between two opinions?

If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, follow him, but the people answered him not a word.

That's verse 21.

But now in 39, they shout out, The Lord is God, the Lord He is God.

And so here's my point.

My point for the church is not we're gonna be calling down fire from heaven.

Okay, let's make that clear.

All right.

Um by the way, we have some fiery intercessors in this church, and they call down fire from God upon our body to be what I'm gonna say next.

Number four, the true church will be a people on fire.

We don't, we're not calling down fire.

Remember the disciples even saying to Jesus, should we call down fire on them?

And he goes, You don't even know the spirit that's within you.

And so we don't do that.

We we ask for the fire of God to fall on us.

That's where we need the fire.

You guys need to be more fired up.

I need to be more fired, right?

Yeah.

And so we're always asking for more fire.

And so, you know, it's not really that we want more of the Holy Spirit, it's that the Holy Spirit wants more of you.

And so we become the dry kindling for the Holy Spirit.

And so when you spend time in God's Word each day, you should be praying, God, fire me up.

God, I need the fire from heaven.

I'm telling you, people in this world are looking for a fiery church.

They really are.

And you guys are that.

I mean, I just hang out in the lobby, I go to meetings that we have during the week, and you men and women are fired up.

Our young people that meet on Wednesday night are fired up.

What Ryan and Mandy are doing is awesome.

What Liz, and this is Liz's last Sunday as our children's director.

And so she's resigning because God's got other things for her.

So thank you, Liz, for this is my beautiful wife, Liz.

Me, she has really built a really strong children's ministry, and we love it.

And you guys, we've been in this whole sort of in-between thing with COVID and what to open up and all.

But as the days go ahead, as more of if the culture opens up more, and we we can, we will open up more of the children's ministry, but not sure who the next director will be.

Um, if you are someone who has a heart for that, uh check with Pastor Ryan or Pastor Vince about that.

But thank you, Liz, for pouring your life into our children.

We love what you've done.

So they're fired up.

And so, and so you guys, now look up, look up on the screen.

You don't have to look it up, but Malachi 4 is really interesting.

It says, the last two verses of the Old Testament.

I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.

He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.

As we are in the last days, and I believe we don't know if we're in the capital L, capital D last days, but they're definitely the laster days than yesterday.

So as we're in the last days, God wants fired up families.

God wants fired up marriages.

Liz and I are gonna focus on that in our two messages at the couples conference.

How do we have how do we have relationships in a marriage that bring the fire of God into our homes?

That's what Liz and I are gonna talk about because so important, you guys.

And so if you're not signed up for the couples conference, come to the couples conference.

We're gonna we're gonna get you fired up.

And if you've got someone you're dating and you're thinking about marriage, you guys come.

We're three for three.

We're batting a thousand.

So last year, three couples came that were dating and then they got married, so it's really awesome.

But it says that in the last days, God's gonna put his spirit in the hearts of fathers.

You know why it says that?

It's because usually the heart for children is already in the mothers.

It is.

But fathers are most of the time the problem, in my opinion.

How does a father start really turning his heart to his children?

Only happens through the fire of God.

You don't, we are not naturally wired with that kind of connection, but God is putting it in you guys.

He is putting it in you in a new way.

And if you don't know how to do that, it's okay because none of us do.

We're not wired that way, but God wants to rewire you.

He wants to rewire you toward your children.

And then when the father's heart is turned toward the children, guess what?

The children's heart gets turned to the father's, but it starts with dad.

It starts with dad in his life.

So God's building a fire in families.

Look at verse 41 again.

Then Elijah said to Ahab, Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain.

That's super interesting.

How this prophetic word from Elijah comes to him.

There's no rain, there's been a drought for three and a half years, but now he senses God's about to move.

So Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel.

Then he bowed down on the ground, he put his face between his knees.

And to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea, he said.

So he went up and looked.

He said, There's nothing.

Now underlying this, it's underlying my Bible.

Seven times he said, Go again.

So seven times, go again, go again.

I know it's coming.

I know it's coming.

And then it came to pass a seventh time that he said, There's a cloud as small as a man's hand rising up out of the sea.

So he said, Go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.

And then in their black clouds, the rain started to pour.

Here's the fifth point I talked about last week.

Let me say it again.

Like Elijah, the true church will learn to war in prayer.

We have to be a warring church.

It's Jesus who said, Ask and you shall receive.

Seek and you shall find.

Knock and the door shall be open.

Prayer is about asking, seeking, and knocking.

There's a place for meditative prayer.

There's a place for contemplative prayer.

But I'm telling you, the main purpose of prayer is moving the ball down the field for the kingdom of God.

That's what it's about.

So prayer is about miracles.

Prayer is about breakthrough.

Prayer is about breaking and moving mountains out of the way so that God's kingdom can come.

And the church is way too passive.

In the name of being nice.

I'm kind of tired of nice churches.

We need warring churches.

We need churches that battle in love.

Don't misunderstand me.

I'm not talking about some kind of a medieval crusade.

I'm talking about love through the kingdom of God, through a love for Jesus Christ, of loving him with all of our heart and loving our neighbors ourselves.

But I'm talking about intentionality.

Strategic, tactical intentionality.

And so for some 126 days, we've had noonday war room prayer.

Sometimes we're in here, sometimes we're in the chapel, and dozens come out.

Usually it's about a dozen each each uh noon.

It's noon to one.

And if you haven't joined us, you should join us.

And I'll just warn you.

It's it's it's not Baptist church prayer.

Nothing, it's it's not Methodist church prayer.

It's not Lord, would you help my grandmother's ingrown toenail?

Help her to feel better.

No, we war.

We want to see change.

We want to see transformation in Colorado Springs, in El Paso County.

And the only way I know to do that is a war.

We have children that are not walking with God.

We cry out for our children.

We have marriages that are breaking up.

We cry out for our marriage.

We come to cry out to God because he told us to.

He wants us to.

He's waiting for a church, not unlike Elijah, that won't quit even seven times.

I mean, seven times he calls for rain.

And he cries out.

Remember back in chapter 17, he cries out three times for the widow's son to be resurrected.

Didn't happen the first time.

Didn't happen second time.

Happened the third time.

He's up on Mount Carmel.

Didn't happen the first time.

Nothing happened second time.

Nothing happened third time.

Nothing happened fourth time.

Nothing happened fifth time.

Nothing happened sixth time.

Seventh time.

We remember Daniel chapter 10, where Daniel cries out and fasts and prays for 21 days.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

And the archangel comes to him and he says, Look, for 21 days I've heard your prayer, but the prince of Persia held me back.

But I broke through today, 21 days.

Some of you have been praying for years about stuff.

Don't quit.

You come to the right church.

We don't quit.

And so, well, we do quit.

But then the next day we start up again.

Because everybody's a quitter.

Just don't stay a quitter.

Pick it back up.

Here's what it's the phrase God gave me this week.

God shows up in power when you don't give up in prayer.

God shows up in power when you don't give up in prayer.

Look at Paul in Romans 15.

He says, Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me.

So he's actually challenging them to pray for him by striving.

Strive in prayer.

And then Paul is writing about Epiphras in Colossians.

And this is what he says.

Fervently praying.

And so we know from James 5, James 5, 16 through 18, it's talking about Elijah.

And I think it's speaking of these situations with the widow's son as well as the rain coming back.

He says this in James 5.

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.

And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.

And he prayed again seven times.

And the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

Now write this down.

Don't miss this.

I said it last week.

If you didn't get it, write it down.

Effectual fervent is two words for one word in Greek.

Effectual that when they were when they were translating this passage, that one of these words wasn't strong enough for what they wanted to say.

Effectual fervent is the word in Greek energy, where we get the word energy.

We need and God calls us to energetic prayer.

It means another way to put to define it is to put forth in power.

Another way I would say it is contending prayer.

Contend in prayer.

And if you don't know how to pray this way, just keep hanging out with us and we'll show you how.

Come to noonday prayer once a week.

Just come once a week.

Just hang out and you'll be unnerved sometimes.

Sometimes we scream.

Sometimes we shout before the Lord.

I don't think we've had anybody cutting themselves.

We don't allow that here.

Don't do any of that stuff.

But we shout before the Lord sometimes we cry out to God.

And so noonday war room.

Now look at 19, chapter 19.

And Ahab told Jezebel, now it's really getting weird for Elijah.

Told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he executed all the prophets with the sword.

Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow, about this time.

And when he saw that, he arose and he ran for his life.

He went to Beersheba, which is way down the southernmost part of Judah, which is southern to even Israel.

And he went into a day's journey into the wilderness, verse 4.

And he came and sat down under a broom tree, and he prayed that he might die.

And he said, It is enough.

I'm the only one left.

Take my life.

I'm no better than my father's.

And so Elijah is full of anxiety and depression.

To me, this is a picture oftentimes of the church in America.

That as soon as someone comes against it, as soon as someone in the church says they don't like something, the pastor said he gets all fearful, he goes under a broom tree, and he gets scared, and he gets depressed, and we get anxious.

And you do it, you do it too.

As soon as someone at work says something and it's like somewhat negative, oh, we because we like to be liked so much.

We're so infatuated with being liked that we can't speak for truth.

And sometimes, I mean, I'm talking about being unnice, I'm not talking about being mean-spirited, but I am saying, guys, have confidence.

And so Elijah, and this actually, this is kind of exciting.

Elijah, who could come against the prophets of Baal, who could come against Ahab and Jezebel, get scared.

How many of you have struggled with fear over the last six months with COVID and all this stuff?

I don't see many hands raised.

Man, you guys are liars.

You know you've struggled, right?

Yeah, we have.

Elijah was a man with the same passions and the same weaknesses as us, and yet he cried out for this young widow's son to be resurrected, and he was.

And he cried out for no rain and then for the rain to come, and it happened.

That's the point James is bringing out in chapter 5.

He had a passion like us.

And this is actually to me really encouraging because I can relate to that.

Liz knows.

You know, there have been times where I just feel like, oh, I'm such a loser.

You know, I can't believe I said that, or I can't believe I did that, or I can't believe this person believes that.

And then I get down and I start spinning out of control, and she has to speak into my life, or I have to go spend time with God in God's word.

Well, we all have those passions.

It isn't exciting that God can use a man like Elijah, he can use you.

He can use you in this room in a mighty and powerful way.

But let's let's just take a second here.

This is in the charismatic churches, this idea of the Jezebel spirit is a pervasive, almost like it's a doctrine or something.

And it and it comes partly out of this passage, but then it also comes out of Revelation 2.

And I thought I should at least touch on this issue of the Jezebel spirit, because I believe that what Elijah is dealing with, church, is not just that he's discouraged, but there's actually a demonic spirit on Jezebel that's being pressed into the heart of Elijah.

It's a Jezebel spirit.

So what is it?

Well, let me let me just say Revelation 2, where it comes up again.

It speaks to the church in Thyretira, and it speaks of a woman named Jezebel.

So let me just read the first three verses of that passage.

And in this, this is um Jesus speaking to the seven churches in Asia Minor.

He says, Nevertheless, I have a few things against you.

So he's speaking to the church at Thyatira, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants, to commit sexual immorality, eat things sacrificed to idols, and I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.

So, what is this Jezebel spirit?

Let me just give you some thoughts on that.

So jot these down.

This is my perspective on the Jezebel spirit as it is in the church.

First of all, it's usually a person in leadership.

It's someone in leadership that is promoting destructive heresies.

They're using their leadership position in the church to promote destructive heresies and leading men or women into moral compromise.

Leading men or women into moral compromise.

I believe the Jezebel's spirit is not gender exclusive.

I believe it's gender inclusive.

In other words, I would consider the Jezebel spirit to each.

Even be a male pastor who is leading his church in a direction of idolatry, immorality, and idols.

I believe they always go hand in hand because they're always idols and sexual immorality are both in the arena of breaking an oath.

That's why it's so huge.

In other words, sexual immorality is always a breaking of an oath, either of purity in your life or to your spouse.

And that's on the level of idolatry.

So anyone who's in sex, if anyone in this room, you're involved in sexual immorality, you are worshiping an idol.

You're worshiping either someone's body or relationship that you know is wrong.

So idolatry and sexual immorality always go together.

And so a Jezebel spirit is actually using religion or even using Christianity to promote heresies, to promote a way of thinking that's leading to manipulation of others for your purposes.

That's what I believe it is.

So I don't believe this woman was in Revelation 2.

I'm not even sure her name was Jezebel.

When you look at the commentaries, most believe that they're just calling her.

I mean, who would name their kid Jezebel?

Especially during that time.

Everybody knew about Ahab and Jezebel.

So I think they're calling her Jezebel because of what she was doing.

Now listen to this, it's really important.

A lot of the time the Jezebel's spirit is through the spiritual gift of prophecy.

Okay?

I do believe in the spiritual gift of prophecy today.

We see it all the time.

Matter of fact, Pastor Al's gonna come up because he felt like he had a word from the Lord about worship today, so he's gonna come give that word.

So there's a difference between prophecy and scripture and the gift of prophecy.

Now, let me explain this, and I don't have time to go into all the details.

Wayne Grudham does the best analysis of this in his book called The Gift of Prophecy, which I would highly recommend written some 20 years ago.

But there's kind of a capital P prophetic and there's a small P prophetic.

Capital P prophetic would be in the Old Testament.

That's what we're looking at because the capital P prophet in the Old Testament actually literally wrote scripture.

All of our scriptures written by what I would consider capital P prophetic.

In the New Testament, I would call a small P prophetic, prophetically gifted people who gave words like words of knowledge that sometimes were true of the future, sometimes they were, but they were always, they were always shaded by the fact that there's a personality involved, and what we what is it, what we see in part, we prophesy in part.

So it's never perfect.

Whereas in the Old Testament, it was, you were stoned if it wasn't perfect.

And in the New Testament, it's slightly different.

But the point is, is that Jezebel's spirit, and it's so easy, you guys, and I've seen it in churches, to use prophecy to manipulate people.

We've seen it in the election.

So be careful.

Be careful with this stuff.

Always go back to the truth of God's word.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

So I could say more, but let's just stop it there.

Um, look at verse 5.

Verse 5.

So, this is what's cool is that Elijah.

Again, I think it's cool.

It's kind of weird that I say that, but I find it actually encouraging that Elijah struggles here.

Verse 5.

Then as he lay and he slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat.

Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals.

I guess this is angel food cake, and a jar of water.

So he ate and drank and lay down again.

And the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.

So he arose and ate and drank, and he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

That's also Mount Sinai, you guys.

And there he went into a cave, and he spent the night in that place.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah?

So he said to him, I've been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel, forsaken your covenant.

They've torn down your altars, killed your prophets with the sword.

I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.

Elijah has a martyr complex.

Elijah has a martyr complex.

Two big issues.

Here's two big issues with Elijah.

Number one, he's got a martyr complex.

That's kind of an issue.

But the reason he does is number two, he doesn't have any blood-stained allies.

He is alone.

Elijah has made a tactical, huge mistake in his prophetic gifting.

He's doing it alone.

Men and women, that is a big mistake.

There are prophets out there online, all over the place.

I don't know if they're connected to a local church.

I don't know who they're submitted to.

I don't know if they're part of any kind of a community of men and women, but they've got the following online.

And I'll tell you what, they're going to be susceptible to an Elijah complex if they don't have some blood-stained allies.

And so, guys, have blood-stained allies.

Have other people in your life.

You need perspective.

I need perspective all the time.

And that's what blood-stained allies are.

That's why we have the church.

That's why we're called the ecclesia.

That's why we pray together.

That's why we go to women's events together.

It's why we do school in a box with others in our community for our families.

We need each other.

We need connection.

That's why you're in this room.

Because we're hungry for that.

And Elijah doesn't have that.

And he's getting into some real trouble here.

Then he said, God said, go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.

And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

Interesting.

And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake, a fire.

The Lord was not in the fire.

After the fire, a still small voice.

Now here's what's happening.

I believe that Elijah goes to Mount Hored or Mount Sinai.

Remember where Mount Sinai is?

So Mount Sinai is where Abraham had the burning bush.

Mount Sinai is where Moses had the burning bush.

It's on Mount Sinai that Moses got the Ten Commandments.

Guys, they said that Israel looked up and there was fire coming down on Mount Horeb.

And I believe that's what Elijah's after.

He wants an experience with God with fire and an earthquake and a storm and wind and God's usually not doing his best work that way.

We want the spectacular.

We want the revival.

We want to come and experience God on these grandiose ways.

And let me tell you, we've had a lot of that around here, and I love it.

It's fantastic.

But where the rubber really meets the road of your heart, and jot this down.

Number six.

The true church must find God in the quiet place.

The true church must find God in the quiet place.

We want the spectacular, and God wants silence.

We want the big event, and God says, Will you just not seek me each day and wait on me and let me speak to you from my word with my spirit?

I love Psalm 91.

He who dwells in a secret place, the most high, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge in my fortress, my God in whom I will trust.

Surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.

He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you shall take refuge.

His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

Men and women, we wait on the Lord.

We cry out to God, but then we wait on the Lord.

And it's oftentimes in that quiet place of just being alone with Him on a daily basis that He speaks his greatest truths into our life.

And so as much as I talk about contending and battling and warring and prayer, there's also another side of that, and that is that we need to wait on God, and there's something about solitude that's beautiful and powerful and builds up your spirit man, your spirit woman in an amazing way.

And so that's what Elijah needs.

That's what the church needs.

That's what we all need.

And so then he speaks to him.

And it's in that quiet time that God says some very interesting things to him.

He says this.

We'll skip his uh complaining again.

Verse 15.

And the Lord said to him, Go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, anoint Hazel as king over Syria.

And also you shall anoint Jehu, the son of Nimshe as king over Israel, and Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel Mahallah, you shall anoint as a prophet in your place.

And then look at 18.

I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.

Lastly and seventhly, the true church will call out and develop a new breed of leader.

The true church will call out and develop a new breed of leader.

I want to talk about that next week.

I want to talk about the next generation.

I want to talk about a new breed of leader that God's raising up.

It's not going to be exactly the same as we've known before.

Within this millennial generation, even with us that are here today, baby boomers, whatever our background, baby busters, God is raising up a new kind of leader.

And listen, it's going to have a double anointing.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

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