Standing On Absolutes

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Man, I want to share some praises this morning as we jump in.

I'm just delighted.

I opened up um for just a moment Facebook this morning.

I and got to see a new baby.

And so we want to celebrate.

They're not here this morning, but Bradley and Ashley Thomas gave birth three weeks early to little Adeline.

And uh so he said, I talked to Bradley on the phone this morning, was very excited, and I will share as a way for prayer.

It was three weeks early, so that comes with its own sort of complications.

But mom is good.

She had lost a lot of blood, but she's doing fine.

And um baby will have about 10 to 14 days in NICU, so be praying for that.

But uh if you know the Thomases, this has been a huge answer to prayer.

So we're praising God that this baby was born.

And you probably saw I sent I uh shared in memory, but about a year ago we brought the Landreth family up here to share Eli's story.

Eli was born sort of with a half an ear, and they worked through some um skin surgery, and this past week they were able to put the final the ending to this story.

They put the hearing aid in, they got it in, and he can hear now out of that ear.

So we just want to praise God for that and uh the way he's worked in that life.

Um this Friday, Saturday, um, myself and the part of the worship team from CCW got to minister um to a bunch of students at a D Now conference, and uh we had three students come to know Christ as Savior on Friday night, so we praise God for that.

And so it's been busy, and that's there was people in here for a talent show Friday night.

The CYC was in here Friday night, Saturday.

There was a hockey game for couples, and 30-something went to that, and then there were kids going to Winter Jam.

We just we were somewhere in Birmingham this weekend.

Take your Bibles and turn to 1 Kings 21.

We're continuing on our series, Standing on the Mountain.

Today's title is Standing on Absolutes.

Once you turn to 1 Kings 21.

If you're visiting, again, we're honored to have you, and I want to explain that we're not dirty people.

If you have a prayer concern, we said for the next several weeks that we would commit those to God.

So if you got a little card before you leave and you want to put it up here, we just believe in the power of prayer.

And so if you want to put that up here with us, we would be glad to remember that in prayer.

1 Kings 21.

And the title this morning is Standing on Absolutes.

Well, we have to understand what that even means.

What is an absolute?

An absolute defined as a value or principle universally regarded as true.

An example, there are no round squares.

Are you with me?

God is the ultimate measure of an absolute.

God in Scripture says, it says that he is immutable.

He is the same today, yesterday, and forever.

He changes not.

And it says that he is not a man that can lie.

So God cannot lie, he cannot change part of his attributes.

He's always the same.

John 14, 6 says that Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

He is the absolute of truth.

But herein lies the conflict of our world that we live in today.

Because people don't want laws that are universally true.

They want a morality that allows them to be relative to how we feel.

And a scary thing in our world today is a term, if you're writing things down, called relativism.

Relativism, conflictually from absolute, says that the teaching that truth and morality only exists in relation to how we feel in culture.

Relativism would want you to believe that there are no absolutes.

Which is funny because that's to say an absolute.

Right?

One person got it.

That's good.

Appreciate that.

It's an old dangerous tool of Satan, relativism.

If it feels good to you, then it's okay for you.

And if it's true for you, then that's okay for you.

I am to accept your truth for you, but it's not my truth.

And if you compare relativism and absolutes on the understanding of the house built on rock and the house built on sand, relativism is the shiftiest sand of all.

If it feels okay, then you're okay to do it.

I wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

I don't want to offend, is what relativism says.

When do we get so scared of offending?

People are offensive, and some people offend me.

And I'm not allowed to offend them when they tell me things like I can't say Christmas?

What day, what holiday am I celebrating on December 25th when I say happy holidays if I don't say Christmas?

Who am I offending to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on Christ month?

What day is it?

What am I celebrating?

What holiday?

Please tell me if I'm not celebrating that.

But I'm just supposed to be happily quiet and shut my mouth and not offend.

Well, that offends me.

So if they're offending me, why can't I just offend back?

My Bible says that the truth shall set you free.

And my political science teacher said over and over, truth never fears a challenge.

John Piper said the most perilous threat to a free society is neither political nor economic, but the infiltration of relativism.

Ahab and Jezebel were people in this scripture with no absolutes.

They were relativists.

Pray with me.

Father, we love you and we thank you for the opportunity to look in your word, the guideline of truth.

God, I'm thankful that I don't have to stand in shifting sand through life.

God, I pray that as we look through your word today, that we would be encouraged.

God, that you will give us some markers on our life.

God, some things to stand and fight for the hill for.

God, that we would leave today having met with you and having to be revitalized in our faith.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Look at verses 1 through 3 in 1 Kings 21.

And the first point as we look at that is Naboth's family custom.

It says, And it came to pass after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel, next to the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria.

So Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near, next to my house, and for it I will give you a vineyard.

Better than it, or if it seems good to you, I'll give you its worth in money.

But Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord, forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.

And so we see, letter A, Naboth was a man of heritage this morning, a man of deep-rooted heritage.

I want to ask you, do you respect the way that has gone before you, that has built what you've become?

Do you understand it?

Do you look to continue that way or a way of heritage after you're long gone?

When we think of heritage, what does it mean for us?

For Naboth, this land was an inheritance.

And for Ahab, it was another possession.

An inheritance.

When you think of inheritance, when you think of certain things for you that really means something, it's not about a money value.

There was an offer put on the table, and Naboth said, Lord forbid it.

And I got to think about just a few things that I have in my life that mean something to me.

This sits in my office.

It is a Boy Scout field book.

And it's not because I was a Boy Scout, because some of y'all are like, well, that doesn't seem right.

I want to see what knot you can tie, Pastor.

When I think and look on this book, there was a man named Frank Andrews.

He was married to my mother-in-law, and Frank was quadriplegic.

And we were out camping the one time.

Camping.

And Frank was trying desperately to teach me how to build a fire.

And Frank, as he had ALS, and as it progressed, Frank started to lose the power of his voice box, and he was trying so hard.

And a lot of things just got comical.

We understood it with each other.

We didn't always, and Frank was going, he was saying, TP or log cabin.

And I'm like, what?

TP or log cabin.

Any Boy Scouts here?

You're already getting it.

For the rest of you like me, I was like, I do not know what he is talking about.

I'm trying to, so I just continue on on the fire.

It's not getting started.

He's like, teepee or log cabin.

I'm like, what is he talking about?

And finally, it dawns on me, he wants me to build the wood to look like a teepee or a log cabin.

And that will start and keep a fire.

He taught me something that I can listen, I can build a fire now.

So when I look at this book, somebody may say, hey, Pastor, I'll give you 20 bucks for that.

I don't want your 20 bucks.

50 bucks.

I don't want your 50 bucks.

I don't want a hundred bucks.

You know why this book?

It makes me think of Frank.

It makes me think of a person.

It means more to me.

There's a lesson, there's a history there, there's something important that it's brought out in my life.

Oh, what about this beauty?

Right here.

Ladies and gentlemen, I know for some of you you're like, that is high fashion.

There is some paint stains on this baby.

Look, I'm not taking 20.

I'm not taking a hundred.

Some of you are like, are you serious?

I'm not taking five.

When I see this shirt, this makes me think of age 15 to 22.

Hundreds of memories of working and what work began to mean for me as I lifted heavy furniture day after day and worked with the craziest and weirdest people I'd ever met in my life.

But you can't buy this.

I wear this proudly.

If you need to be moved, I promise I'm coming in this shirt.

And some of you have been moved by me, and I have worn the shirt.

Okay, it just has a meaning that's deeper to me.

It won't mean it's not very valuable to you.

I've got this little pocket knife, and um my grandfather passed when he was 62.

We were getting closer at that part of life.

He had rededicated his heart to Jesus the last seven years of his life.

And I was in Christian college a few hours away, so I would get to see my grandparents when nobody else from Delaware would get to see them close because they lived in Mountain City, Tennessee.

And when he passed, I don't even use a pocket knife, but my grandmother said, Is there anything that you would want of your grandfathers?

And so there's not a dollar amount somebody can hand me for this knife.

Because when I look at this, I think of my grandfather.

And it just means something to me.

Are you with me?

Naboth was a man of heritage.

It's about a relationship, not a price.

It's about a story, not a price.

It's about a person, not a price.

And Satan would infiltrate our ears with all kinds of things so that we look at possessions and power and moving up a ladder instead of people and heritage.

Remember what the million-dollar man said?

Everybody's got a price.

I don't believe that has to be true.

Well, let's see what Naboth, why he said what he says.

In Numbers 36, there's a reason for it.

Numbers 36, verse 7, it says this so the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe.

Numbers 36:7

Every one of the children of Israel shall keep the inheritance of his own father.

So for generations the family of Naboth sat under these trees and had eaten of these plants and these vines, and all of these memories of Naboth and his family's childhood were in these gardens, and it was brought to life every time he walked back on that parcel of ground.

He remembered growing up.

Anybody here ever seen the movie Meet Me in St.

Louis?

Another musical Heather makes me watch.

And I can tell you about she's very proud of this, right?

But in the musical Meet Me in St.

Louis, the synopsis of the movie is that Alonzo, the family patriarch, is offered this just glamorous deal to move his family, I believe it's New York City, where they can go and be afforded all kinds of great opportunities through the job and money and new home and all of this stuff.

And encircling that ensues all kinds of tensions within the family because a lot of love is blossoming between Esther Smith and John Truett and Esther's older sister.

And it's real, you know what's a really bad thing for love?

Long distance.

And so as the movie continues, you get to this climax at the end when Alonzo, the family patriarch, becomes the hero because he pushes aside the offer for the glitz and the glamour and decides we need to stay right here in St.

Louis, where our home is, with our family, with our heritage.

What is a heritage to you?

For the person of God, what is a heritage?

Well, I found this verse this week in my studies.

Hear this about heritage.

No weapon, Isaiah 54, 17, no weapon formed against you, talking about Christians, shall prosper.

And any which rises against you in judgment, he shall condemn.

This is the heritage of the servant of the Lord.

We've got a rich, deep heritage.

Church.

One piece of you that will last when you're gone is what you've put into your children.

Listen, parents.

You're not taking anything else that you leave isn't gonna leave much of a legacy.

Not the business, not the money, but what you put into your family will leave a mark.

And by the way, it's the only thing that you can take with you when you go.

The way that you've impacted people for the kingdom of God.

Are you building into that heritage?

There should be traditions.

There should be passing on of value, family legacy.

Proverbs 22, 1 says, A good name is better than great riches.

What's your family name?

When people hear that name, what do they think?

Well, Naboth was a man of heritage, but let her be.

Ahab was a man of haughtiness.

Let's look at verse 4.

He gave him this offer.

Naboth said, Lord forbid it.

Look at verse 4.

So Ahab went into his house, sullen and displeased because of the word which Naboth at Jezreli had spoken to him, for he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.

And he lay down on his bed, and he turned away his face, and he would not eat food.

Ahab was full of a lot of things, possessions, and himself to top the list, neither of which were very satisfying.

And he has this offer, and Naboth's offer is like a small child.

If you read it, what it said, he says, Gimme.

That was his intro.

Gimme your garden.

Gimme what I want.

You want to see a small child lose its mind?

Play gimme.

Gimme.

You take something away from the small child and they say, Give me that.

That's mine.

You will hear a mother and another, give that child his toy.

Give me, he says, give me.

You want to watch an adult look like a small child?

Take their phone.

They'll reach, they'll grab, they may chase you.

Give me.

Ahab's offer was give me your vineyard.

And he says, I'll trade you or give you money.

Imagine someone comes to your house with this offer.

Believing you can be bought.

Satan has been using this ploy to infiltrate our world for years and years.

Offering compromise.

That word haughty, it's the Hebrew word kum, k-o-o-m.

And it means, this is interesting because we're going to see it again, it means to lift oneself up.

To lift oneself up to arise to exalt.

Proverbs 16 says that pride comes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

Well, Pastor, help me with this.

Make it practical.

Eight signs.

Found this on the internet, so it must be true.

Of a haughty spirit.

Okay?

I thought some of these, they kind of hurt my feelings a little bit, but.

Number one, if you're constantly late, it's because you don't value others' time.

You might have a haughty spirit.

Number two, if you interrupt others in conversation often, you probably have a problem with haughtiness.

Number three, if you have to be right, you might have a problem with a haughty spirit.

Arguing about things, little things that don't matter, just to be right.

Number four, if you believe your way is better, it's getting quiet around here.

Go ahead and poke your neighbor or something.

Make me feel awkward up here.

Number five, if you love to be talked about, probably all of us struggle in some way.

Number six, if you have issues building deep relationships, you may have a haughtiness problem.

Number seven, the people that you struggle with are more than just a bother.

They seem like threats to you.

And number eight, you shield an inferiority complex with a superiority complex.

You're shielding inadequacies.

Ahab was a haughty person.

Ahab said, gimme, give me that garden, and just believed that he should get it just because he was Ahab and he wanted it.

Now he made an offer, but it was more, listen to me, it was more than just some old vineyard to Naboth.

Point number two this morning is this.

We see Naboth's fearless conviction.

Fearless conviction.

Again in verse 3, he says to his face, the Lord forbid that I should give my inheritance from my father.

So Lord forbid it.

Letter A this morning under that is fearless in his rejection.

Said the Lord forbid it.

I want you to know this morning, and I hope this gives some freedom to some people here.

Lisa Turkhurst said this find that courageous yes and fight for the confident no.

There's been times in my life I should have said no.

Any mischievous teenage, anybody?

There's been times you should have said no.

My friends wanted to take a Ride and people were jogging and riding bikes, and my friend said, Rick, we need to take some M80s fireworks and throw them at people jogging and riding bikes and watch this fun ensue, right?

And I'm like, that sounds awesome.

And so people are jogging along, boom, and you watch somebody.

It was good fun.

Until I got a taste of my medicine, lit the firework, and I went to throw out the window.

Boom! The thing blew up in my face.

And I'm like, I see them laughing, but I can't hear it.

And I'm like, I just went deaf.

No.

Right?

Thank God I'm not here today.

I can hear.

Thank God.

But I should have said no.

He said, the Lord forbid it.

I want you to know that Naboth had some absolutes.

Now I'm not sure even if Ahab knew the customs, the Hebrew customs, but if he did, we can make an argument there, but we can say this for sure, he didn't care.

He didn't care.

And conversely, Naboth, who was given an offer from the wicked king, understanding, turning down the wicked king's offer, what kind of weight that carried, and how wicked this king was, what was on the line, no hesitation.

He says, the Lord forbid it.

The Lord forbid it.

That's my father's, that's my family's.

The Lord forbid it.

He stood to a wicked king, just Lord forbid it.

No.

It's an absolute.

If I asked some people today in this battle between absolute and relativism, do you believe in the Ten Commandments?

If I said, We should not murder, everybody here would say, Yes.

That's right, Pastor.

We agree.

That's an absolute.

If I said, remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, Pastor?

No, hold on.

Is that really a commandment?

Did God command that?

That's an absolute, folks.

Either there's absolutes in your life or there isn't.

You say, what?

Hey! We can do anything we want and justify.

I'm just saying the word.

If we said, thou shalt not steal, we would say, yes, Pastor, we agree with that.

If I said, Thou shalt not covet or just be jealous about people's stuff, Pastor! I'm not supposed to want any, I'm just supposed to be happy for them and all their stuff.

But Pastor Rick, I feel, I feel, is relativism.

I feel.

The Lord forbid is what Naboth said.

The Lord forbid.

Let me tell you some teenagers.

Hear me.

1 Corinthians 6.18.

Here's a Lord forbid.

It says to flee from fornication, any kind of sexual immorality.

It says flee.

It doesn't say, well, I feel pretty good.

I feel.

No, it says flee from it.

Let me tell you, young lady, I got something for you right here.

All the young ladies, listen, if you're in that dating mode.

If a guy begins getting a little handsy with you, I'm gonna tell you exactly what you need to do, okay?

If he starts, listen, y'all know what handsy it is.

All the parents, are you with me?

Okay, thank God.

Y'all quiet.

Listen.

If he's getting handsy with you, this is what you need to do.

You look him straight in his eye and scream, the Lord forbid it! I bet you won't have that problem twice.

There are many times when the right answer is no.

And Naboth was fearless.

2 Timothy 1:7 said, We're not given to the spirit of fear, but a power, love, and a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7

We're to be fearless.

Let her be fearless because of his resolve.

You know, resolve is more than a new year's term, it's more than a 21 days of prayer term.

Resolve doesn't happen in an instant.

Resolve is happening in you right now.

Resolve happens over a lifetime.

I'm resolved, listen to me, I'm resolved to do what the Bible says to do.

It's an absolute, and when you have an absolute, you are freed from fear.

Because all you have to do is say, Well, I'm gonna have to see what the Bible says about that.

And I'm freed.

I don't have to worry about your feelings.

I'm not in it for the feelings, and this is gonna bother or offend you because this is my absolute.

This is my truth.

And by the way, it is truth.

It's not my truth, it is truth.

And either you believe that fully or you don't.

You don't get to, the Bible says you're you're for me or against me.

There's not some middle ground where I get to kind of be in the world and I get to kind of obey commands, and I get to kind of, but then we live in a world trying desperately to stretch absolutes to their advantage.

He was fearless because of his resolve.

The world is trying to get an advantage.

Satan's trying to get a compromise, an advantage.

It's like the little boy.

He was sent to the store to buy a 65 cent loaf of bread.

And he got in there and the baker started putting the bag or the bread in the bag, and the little boy was savvy enough, he said, sir, that looks awful small for a 65-cent loaf.

And the baker said to him, Yeah, it'll be uh less weight for you to carry on the way home, son.

And the boy said, Okay.

And he pulled 50 cents out and put it on the counter.

And he said, Son, you're 15 cents short.

He said, That'll be less for you to count, sir.

Ahab was a haughty man.

Therefore, right and wrong was only filtered through his lens of feelings.

He didn't have an absolute, it was all about how I feel.

And some people sometimes feel good about church.

Sometimes they feel good about worship, sometimes they feel good about this and that, and sometimes they don't feel like that.

What are your feelings?

Naboth had no fear because he believed that he knew what the law was regarding the land of his fathers.

He vetted it through God.

What you are today is a reflection of your resolve in the past.

What you are right now.

And what you are in the future is a reflection of what you're resolved to right now.

Do you have resolve?

It's a manifestation of your resolve today.

When we're focused and resolved, we can become fearless in the face of all kinds of dangers.

Naboth said, more than the vineyard that's not for sale.

He in essence is saying, I am not for sale.

I can't be bought, and my family can't be bought.

Well, let's see.

Point number three this morning.

Ahab's fatal covetousness.

Let's see what happens.

Verse 6 through 13.

He said to her, talking to Jezebel.

Oh, we need to read verse 5.

It's a funny back and forth.

You gotta.

But Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said to him, Why is your spirit so sullen that you eat no food?

And he said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, Give me your vineyard for money, or else if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it.

And he answered, I will not give you the vineyard.

Then Jezebel, his wife, said to him, rubbing his hair, You now exercise authority over Israel.

Arise, eat food, and let your heart be cheerful.

I will give you the vineyard of Naboth's.

And she wrote letters in Ahab's name, sealed them with a seal, and sent the letters to the elders and nobles who were dwelling in the city with Naboth.

She wrote in the letter saying, Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth with high honor among the people, and seat two men, scoundrels, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, You have blasphemed God and the king.

Then take him out and stone him that he may die.

It's a selfish letter A, a selfish conspiring.

Ahab we see here, like a big baby, right?

He doesn't get his way, he lays down, head turned away.

I don't want anybody to see him.

And he's just pouting.

Do you see that?

He's pouting.

I mean, if this isn't the biggest temper tantrum in history, I feel like Ahab should surely have been wearing diapers.

Like, he's just whining, got his thumb in his mouth.

Okay, what a divine.

She won't let me have it.

I mean, boo-hoo, he's just crying.

Have you ever seen a good temper tantrum?

Have you ever been out to a place in public and you knew the people were questioning whether or not they could spank the child?

And the kid knew, the kid knew his power, and they're in the Walmart, and I want something to you're like, woo! Well, that kid's gonna get it.

And they just scream and live on, and the person is turning red.

Boy, it's a beautiful, I love to see a good-tempered tantrum out in public.

It's awesome.

This is Ahab literally having a tantrum, and she's just caressing.

She says, Why won't you eat?

Now, I don't want to agree with Jezebel, but there is no reason why you can't be eaten.

We've been we've discussed that throughout this series.

Okay.

But listen, he's selfish.

I want you to look at a verse in James.

James 4.

Selfish.

James 4 says, verse 1 through 3.

Where do wars and fights come from among you?

Do they not come from your desires for pleasure?

That war in your members?

You lust and do not have.

You murder and covet and cannot obtain.

You fight in war, yet you have not because you ask not, or you ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on pleasures.

Wars and fighting come from our desires for pleasures.

Our desire, that word lust there for pleasures is hedon, like the word hedonism, and that means to live for what pleases the senses.

Let me welcome you to America in 2024.

We live for what pleases the senses.

And James said your desire to please you puts you at war.

Your more, your want for more brings you to a war.

And God created us humans to live in a relationship with unity and to live in one accord, but King Ahab has a more monster.

It puts him in a war because the more monster, when you feed it, it can't understand why everyone doesn't want to get on the same page that what Ahab wants is to have more, and you need to be on that same page.

Conversely, one biblical key to happiness, happy living, is not in getting, but in giving.

Proverbs 11, 24 through 25 talks about that.

Listen to this.

It says, for the one who gives yet increases more.

And the one who withholds to him it leads to poverty.

A generous soul is rich, and he who waters will also be watered.

I want you to see in Malachi.

Listen, church, this isn't a message about giving, but when the text brings up a point, we need to hear it.

Malachi 3.8 says, Will a man rob God?

In what ways have we robbed you?

In tithes and offerings, it says.

You're cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me.

Malachi 3.10 says, Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.

And try me now, says the Lord.

If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing, that you there will not even be room enough to receive it.

And then I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes.

I don't have to go any further.

This world teaches us that getting, getting, is the way that we need to pursue life.

Getting.

It's all in the getting.

When the Bible says, in absolute, to be happy, to be watered yourself, is to give.

I was thinking about that.

I wore, I know some of y'all was checking out my blue shoes.

And I haven't got to share with you the story about my blue shoes.

So Wyatt had been given a challenge, my son Wyatt, who's 15, he had been given a challenge by our children's pastor, Eli, to read the Bible for one full year, 365 days, and to journal about his devotion every day.

And so Wyatt, it's a tall task.

I mean, it's tall tasks for a lot of adults.

But Wyatt took him up on it, and he told him if he did that, he would take him.

I can't think of the name of the place.

There's a place downtown that is this nice shoe store.

So if Wyatt would do that for 365 days, he was going to take him to a shoe store and he would let him pick out any pair of shoes he wanted.

And so Wyatt's trucking along, he's journaling, he's doing this, and uh, he's he's getting through it, and and I'm watching in the morning, he's doing his devotion, he's journaling, and you know, some some of the craziest writing you ever seen, but he's doing it, right?

And so around a couple of months before Christmas comes, Wyatt talks to Heather.

I have no idea that any of this is going on, other than I knew the challenge.

And he tells mom, he says, When Eli takes me and I finish the 365 days, I want to take and use the money that he gives me, and I want to get dad shoes for Christmas.

I'm like, the shoes are great.

I love Jordan's, okay?

But that my kid would use 365 days and think of me and want to give me what he worked 365 days for, there's no value.

You can't give me$10,000 for these shoes.

You think you're crazy.

I don't care.

Somebody cared enough to give in a way like that.

I want to tell you, church, it's a wrong mentality to think about getting.

It's all about giving.

Well, Jezebel comes up with a plan for the vineyard.

Verse 8 through 10, we read about it.

It's interesting that an avid idol worshiper, an obvious enemy of God, makes a plan to claim that Naboth blasphemes God.

She says, You want a vineyard?

It's easy.

Just kill him.

On the claims of blasphemy, her own sin.

Let her be, I want you to see this a sovereign calamity.

And we're gonna read verse 15 through 19.

And it came to pass when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, interesting, highlight that word, you're gonna see it again.

We've seen it once.

Take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money.

For Naboth is not alive, but dead.

So it was when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab got up, went down to take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

Then the word of the Lord came, here we go, to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, What did he say?

Arise! Go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who lives in Samaria.

There he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it.

You shall speak to him, saying, Thus says the Lord, have you murdered and also taken possession?

And you shall speak to him, saying, Thus says the Lord, in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood.

It's strong.

A sovereign calamity.

Jezebel said, Arise.

That word arise is a word we already used for haughty Hebrew word, kum.

That is arise from a word meaning to stand in hostility.

It says, Arise and go, stand in your vineyard, Naboth.

We have the vineyard.

You can take possession.

We got what we wanted.

And verse 17, immediately after they got what they wanted, then the word of the Lord came to Elijah.

You know what it said to Elijah?

Arise.

The word coon, which means to stand in hostility.

Now, Jezebel and Ahab can stand in hostility, but if God tells you to go stand in hostility, I'm a little more on that side of things.

Have you ever felt like, I know I have, no matter what you did wrong, it was found out.

Man, growing up, I'm telling you, that is me to a T.

No matter what I did wrong, it was found out.

And when I think about it now, I'm thankful that God was like.

Numbers 33.23 says, be sure your sin will find you out.

My sin would find me.

I'd be right on the fence, about to jump over, never gonna live a Christian life, and it would yank me back and throw me into being grounded.

Okay?

I just couldn't get over.

I'm so thankful for God's sovereign hand now.

Just the nap of the neck.

Just it's funny though.

Ahab can't grow one plant, can't water one seed.

He doesn't get hardly a moment to enjoy his fresh vineyard.

And here comes the preacher, right?

Elijah skirts around the corner.

The last person you want to see when you just murdered and stole, the preacher who can't keep his mouth shut.

And he says to him in verse 20, Have you found me, O enemy?

And Elijah goes off.

He said, I found you because you have sold yourself to do evil.

He said, You're a sellout.

Now, when I was growing up, those were fighting words.

If you called somebody a sellout, it meant you wanted a sore jaw.

Y'all with me?

You didn't call somebody a sellout.

Somebody was some a sellout was somebody who didn't have a code, somebody that didn't care about his friends.

They would lie, they would cheat, they would do whatever to sell their own hide, save their own hide, but they would lie on you.

You didn't want to be a sellout.

There's two types there's a sellout and a not for sale in this story.

And he says, You're a sellout.

You have sold yourself for evil.

And that's why it's so easy to find you.

Because evil always gets found out.

And then he says to him, The dogs are gonna lick your blood.

You're done.

When I thought about Ahab's story, I got two quick illustrations, I'm done.

Ahab's story, the sellout story is a lot like the captured wolf story.

Eskimos will take a knife blade and lap it in blood.

And they will lap it over and over and over in blood, and then once it's totally coated, they will sit it outside in the snow or the ice so that it is frozen outside and sit it, seeding.

And a wolf, because of its insatiable desire and keen senses, cannot keep itself from running after fresh blood.

And so a wolf will come to a knife, a blade in the ground, and it will begin to consume blood on a knife.

And it will lick and lick and lick at the blood on this knife, and it in the process will slice open its own tug and feverishly continue to go after that blood, which now is its own blood.

And when the dawn comes, a wolf is lying dead in a pool of its own self.

Because of the craving of its own desire, its own appetite.

Ahab and Naboth both died.

Their lives came to an end.

Hebrews 9 27 says, It's appointed unto man once to die.

But I want you to think about this.

On their way out, who really lived?

Ahab was a sin sellout, ultimately taking him to death where.

Dogs lapped his blood.

But Naboth was never for sale.

And he might have died early, it might have been unjust.

But he stood there fighting for his family.

I believe Naboth entered heaven and he felt good about his last breath.

There was a letter written from the desk of a pastor who was martyred in Zimbabwe.

And I want to finish and share what this pastor said.

You see, Ahab was a sellout, and his life to me looked like the insatiable wolf.

When I hear about Naboth, this letter is entitled The Fellowship of the Unashamed.

It says this I'm part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed.

I have Holy Spirit power.

The die has been cast and I have stepped over the line.

The decision has been made.

I'm a disciple of His.

I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.

My past is redeemed.

My present makes sense.

My future is secure.

I'm finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and small goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, possessions, positions, promotions, or popularity.

I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded.

I now live by faith.

I lean on his presence.

I walk by patience.

I'm uplifted by prayer and I labor by power.

My pace is set, my gate is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few.

My guide, though, he is reliable, and my mission is clear.

I cannot be bought.

I cannot be compromised.

I cannot be detorred, lowered away, turned back, deluded, or delayed.

I'm not gonna flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy.

I'm not gonna pander at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up until I've stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up.

I'm a disciple of Jesus.

I must go till he comes.

I must give till I drop.

I must preach till I'll know and work till he stops me.

And when he comes for me, he'll have no problem recognizing me because my banner's gonna be clear.

I am unashamed.

I am not for sale.

My family's not for sale.

My church is not for sale.

Church, can you say with me today, I'm not for sale.

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