Stand In the Rain

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Wasn't it a beautiful thing to watch the baptism this morning?

Great job by the worship team.

And uh, if you didn't see me in the lobby this morning, it's because of how I sound.

Um, I feel fine, but I didn't want to pass along anything that is unwanted, which is anything.

Um so, anyhow, I will not be in the lobby afterwards because we all hug around here, and um I saw a couple people coming and I had to stop them at their tracks.

But anyhow, I love you, and uh I'm sure this will pass soon.

Turn your Bible to 1 Kings 18.

As Pastor Dave said, the rain is coming.

I'm so excited for Elijah and the people in this story.

Three and a half years of no rain, can you imagine?

We get in a drought, and people say there's burn bands and all this stuff, and you know, we get upset we can't wash our car.

Three and a half years, God sends the fire first, and it's almost time for the drought to end.

Pray with me.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for the sound of abundant rain on a metal roof right now.

And we know, God, that you are in charge of all the weather.

And God, we thank you for this story, and God, for your care for the people of God.

We pray that today, during the sermon, you would open our hearts and our eyes and our minds to the things that you want to speak to us.

Lord, I pray for a few minutes that everything will be moved out of the way, and you would have space in this church.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Point number one this morning is this Elijah showed value to authority.

I want you to go back to verse number 40.

And uh some folks were wondering why I stopped last week just short of that verse, and uh it would be anticlimactic a little bit for the summary of the fire falling to dig into this, but I don't want to skip scripture, so let's read it and we'll give uh a summary and then we'll kind of jump into what's going on further.

And Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal, do not let one of them escape.

So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and executed them there.

To understand this for us, and by the way, I've had a lot of conversations where people have pulled things from Scripture out of context and said, Your God is a murderer.

And this is the type of scripture where people and atheists might use, and I want you to understand the context and how to fight that battle.

And here's how it goes: one thing that you have to understand God is God, and humans are human.

Humans are flawed by disease, sin, pollution, all that we have coming into this world.

God has no disease, sickness, pollution.

He is completely right.

And so God, in being God, is just.

But God's justice is not served on a human scale.

Stay with me.

God is not just because he bases justice on humanity.

What do you mean, Pastor?

Well, let me give you an example.

My mom had her purse stolen from a Cole's parking lot once.

She was punched in the face.

When she got home, I got in my car and I was ready to serve up some 16-year-old justice on somebody.

I'm sure they were just sitting around waiting for 30 minutes.

But I was ready to hurt somebody because mama got hurt.

Y'all know what I'm saying.

I rode around a parking lot like I was gonna find somebody or purse something.

Okay?

I wanted justice for a wrong that was done.

That was justice, right?

Pastor Rick has many speeding tickets.

And everyone, when I go before a judge, I really want mercy.

Because doesn't he know after all, I'm a pastor.

I serve the people.

And so I went the last time I went, he wouldn't even let me speak.

I couldn't even get out the words.

I serve like you.

Nothing.

He said, You were in a school zone, you're done.

Injustice, right?

Or so y'all see in the picture I'm giving.

Justice is not determined by my or your idea of what it is.

It's determined by a ruler which is God and his ways, the Bible says, here's the end all to all of it.

When you get confused on a passage, it says his ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts.

When you don't understand something, I want you to know not everything you're going to understand.

But let me give you just a little bit of the context.

They made the temple a brothel.

A hundred and twenty years have passed since Solomon became king, and he took a turn towards compromise.

So I want to say that his mercy was really long-suffering.

Solomon made a compromise, and Solomon had 700 plus concubines.

Well, there's a lot of wickedness happening with the first king after David.

And then it goes down a list.

He's Ahab is the eighth since Solomon.

120 years of debauchery, lewdness, the temple is gone, all of this serving idolatry.

So I would say, in truth, if somebody said, your God is a murderer, I said, He was really merciful for a really long time.

And he got to a point in God's timing, he is love, he is mercy, but God's wrath is white hot against sin.

And so after time, God brought punishment.

And I would say to you today, that is just.

And God is just.

And so when someone throws that at you, you need to understand context and see God's loving mercy.

And I promise you this, I believe this with all my heart.

Had that fire fallen, and those prophets said he is the real God, and they repented in that moment of their sin, I believe God would have withheld that punishment because that's who he is.

But that's not what happened.

A.W.

Pink said this: God's judgment prepares the way for blessing.

After the fire falls, welcome is the incoming rain.

So Elijah kills 850 prophets of Baal at the brook.

The brook's important.

If you turn to Numbers 35, this is just one last thing on this.

Numbers 35 and verse 33.

I want you to see what their laws were in the land about bloodshed.

Why did he take them to that place?

Numbers 35, verse 33.

Numbers 35:33

It says, So you shall not pollute the land where you are, for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.

So it's just an important little note why he would take them to a brook.

The brook waters ran into the Dead Sea.

And so when he executed these prophets, it was done in a legal manner so that the land would not be polluted.

But so that's all done, but what about Ahab?

What about the troubler?

What about the roiler?

He was called, the one that muddied up things.

Well, letter A is this.

Look at verse 41.

We see care for Ahab's physiological needs.

Let's read verse 41.

Interesting.

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

This seems puzzling, but the king he says to him, Go eat and drink.

Now this battle lasted for several hours.

They'd been up on that mountain.

All the prophets of Baal now have been executed, but not King Ahab, the troubler, the royaler, the one who had authority and who had muddied and stirred the pot, the problem, you would say.

Why didn't Elijah light this boy up?

I'm like, at least one holy uppercut, right?

I know Elijah had to want to punch him.

But Romans 13 later says this, and the Bible is consistent through and through.

It says, Let every soul be subject to the governing authority.

Hebrews 13 says, Submit to them who have the rule over you, obey those who have rule over you.

So Elijah, a man of principle, a man who is following after God, doesn't get rid of Ahab.

And he gives, not only does he not get rid of him, a kind gesture.

He says, Go eat and drink.

I want you to think about that.

Do you remember some kind gestures that's touched you in your life?

I left them out here, but I have a handful of items I was going to show you that are just things sitting in my office.

I have a note from a little boy from King's Camp that said, You are a wonderful pastor.

And that little note from that little boy meant a whole lot.

I've had some people in the church here.

I have something from Miss Iris.

She made me this picture with a cross on it.

And I've got a picture from Callie that says daddy and daughter and Scrabble and all these things, these gestures that took somebody some time to think on you.

Do you remember the kind gesture that touched you?

Have you ever thought to yourself, nobody really notices, Pastor, the kind gestures that I'm doing?

Nobody really notices the ride that I gave.

Nobody has noticed the money that I've gave, or nobody has noticed the coffee that I'm pouring into for Sunday mornings.

Nobody's noticed.

And I want to tell you, church, God noticed.

God's never not noticed.

There's never been one time that he wasn't pleased with the way that you gave.

In Scripture in Corinthians, it says it's like a sweet smelling aroma when we sacrifice.

So when you do something kind, God in heaven goes, hmm, you smell that?

Oh, that's my children.

The kindness is such a sweet smell.

Aesop said, every act of kindness, no matter how small, will ever be forgotten.

But kind to Ahab?

Right?

The trouble.

Have you ever had an enemy do something kind for you?

What you think about that?

Proverbs 25, 21, and 22 says, if your enemy is hungry, give him bread.

If he's thirsty, give him drink.

And in so doing, you will heap burning coals upon his head.

Now, some of you are like, that's the part I like, preacher.

Let's get to talking about putting some coals on their head.

Fire them up.

That's what Ahab deserves, right?

I want to burn him.

That's not the interpretation, by the way, of the coal.

The word coal there is galet.

And it is a live coal.

A live coal is different from a black coal in that a live coal is used to light things.

When you do right, even when you've been wronged, you light something.

That is to enlighten something.

That is to bring an illumination to the conscience of the one that has wronged.

I know some of you are saying, Pastor Rick, I'm a church guard.

I really don't have any enemies.

How about someone who agitates you?

Do you have any of those?

Somebody who annoys you.

Somebody that you just don't get along with.

Scripture here says, have you been kind to them?

Have you given grace?

Have you given the benefit of the doubt?

By the way, if you have a problem, this is the formula.

We're going to hear it 10,000 more times if I preach that many.

Matthew 18 is your formula.

It says, if you have aught against your brother or your sister, you and you alone go to them with that ought and figure it out with the purpose of restoration of the friendship of the brother.

That's the biblical formula for conflict.

Do you have an enemy?

But I want you to realize even deeper, I want you to think about something with me.

There's a reason.

There's a reason.

Now they might just be given to anger and evil and wickedness.

That might be the reason.

And by the way, we're all in a sin-filled world, and we're all that possibility lies there.

But most of the time, there is another reason that a person got to the place they are.

They're hard to deal with.

That you and them have this tension.

So what was Ahab's story?

He got there some way, right?

There was sin and pain and struggle.

And so he was hurting people.

And I want you to hear this.

I've heard this quote for a long time.

Hurting people hurt people.

Hurting people hurt people.

Elijah is trying to be a testimony to a hurt person.

But why?

Imagine who at this point in time has the opportunity to be an influence over Israel like Ahab.

If Ahab's heart had been captured, if he would have righted his life at this point, imagine how he could have changed things.

And I want you to think about the influence of the people that may be your enemy or your annoyance or the person that you have a hard time with.

You know, they probably got there for a reason.

Why is it?

I want you to try something sort of difficult today.

And up and down the aisles, there should be a three by five card at the end, uh one end or the other of your row.

And I want you to pass them around.

This is what I want you to think on through the sermon.

Okay?

If we're wanting the blessing of God, I believe this is a part of it.

If you have pens or can share, it's okay, you don't have to do it right now.

But this is what I want you to try to do.

This is difficult.

If you have an enemy, if you have an annoyance, if you have an agitator, I want you to begin to pray their name.

Okay?

If they're next to you, I want you to write initials.

Or just write initials, that might be healthier.

But I want you to hold on to those because I want to make a challenge at the end of the sermon about that.

If you've had a relationship in the past, but you don't have that relationship now, and it comes up in your mind and it hurts your heart, maybe that's a name for restitution.

And I want you to pray for them.

I don't only want you to pray for them, I want you to pray good for them.

It says, Bless those that persecute me.

And then I want you to pray for a chance like Elijah had to be a testimony.

Second part to that, keep your card.

Have you hurt someone yourself?

And you're aware of it.

If you've heard someone, that's the second part of Matthew 18.

If you have ought, if it was you that did it or they that did it, the Bible says that we're responsible to fix it.

So I want you to think about that.

Is there a person that you've hurt?

And I want you to pray for an opportunity to fix it.

By the way, if the church isn't gonna do this type of thing, if the church of God isn't gonna do these type of spiritual things, who in the world is gonna do this kind of thing?

Elijah said, get some food, king.

Maybe you need to have them over for dinner.

Nah, you nah, Pastor?

Here's an important spiritual principle I want everyone to get out of this.

This is very important if you want to write this down.

Everyone needs to see it is not good for your leader to be hungry.

We have a lot of open dates on the calendar.

Just feed them.

Let her be, care for his protection needs.

We're gonna look at the end of verse 41 and then 44.

So it's his physiological needs and now his protection.

Look at verse 41, the second part of it.

It says, There is a sound of abundance of rain.

And verse 44.

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

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

That word abundance, abundance of rain, that word abundance is Haman.

And it's the sound of a tumult, tumult, a roar.

This was not an afternoon shower.

This is a three and a half year drought that God was getting ready to show himself again.

And I bet Elijah said something like this, King, you better respect the polygon.

You better get yourself to a safe place.

Jeremiah 14, 22 says this.

Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain?

Or can the heavens give showers?

Are you not he, O Lord our God?

Therefore we will wait for you, since you have made all of these.

Our God is the one who controls the weather.

I've got a picture I want you to see of a rainbow.

Look at this perfectly placed rainbow.

You know what a rainbow is a picture of?

The promises of God, his blessings after he brings the rain.

And do you see the building that that rainbow falls over?

I mean, it's like somebody perfectly made this.

It's like it was photoshopped.

I promise it was not.

So when you hear and think about the rain and the things that only come, listen, we may know a weatherman, but we know the weather man.

And our hope is in the is in the one who is in control of our care.

He wanted Ahab to get that.

Who is in control of your care, Ahab?

Your real care.

You can't really control that much in this life.

A lot of people get tied up about control.

We become inflexible because we have control issues.

And the truth of the matter is, it's a myth for you to believe you have a whole lot of control.

There wasn't a Baal who gave control.

There is one giver and protector of life.

1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20 says, What know ye not that your body is temple of the Holy Spirit?

You are not your own.

You were bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God with your body.

Even this body is not mine.

I can't control the next breath.

You can try to be in control, but I don't suggest it, church.

He said, Ahab, for your safety, you better prepare the chariot because the rain is coming.

And it got me thinking about what Jesus has done for me and what he's done for you.

And Jesus has so protected you.

If you're here today, it's not an accident.

If you're saved today, he protected you from sin.

He protected you from the hold of Satan.

If you're living in his purpose, he protected you from vain living, worthless, and useless life.

A life of purpose.

He cares about your protection.

Jesus cared so much about your protection that he was willing to give all of who he was so that one day your eternal protection is taken care of.

Throughout all eternity, we can be with God in heaven, praising and worshiping him.

He cares for your protection needs.

The second point is this we see after this, this promise of rain, that Elijah was vehement in appeal.

Look at verse 42 and 43.

The sound of abundance rain, he said to Ahab.

So Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah, look at what he does.

He went up to the top of Caramel, then he bowed down on the ground, and he put his face between his knees, and he said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea.

So he went and he looked and said, There's nothing.

And seven times he said, Go again.

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

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

We see that Elijah, three and a half years have passed.

He tends to Ahab, and then he sets himself to prayer, because the overwhelming need Of everyone for three and a half years is rain.

And he's seen the fire of God fall.

So letter A is this.

He took a posture in prayer.

Notice first about his posture where Elijah went.

He went back to carmal.

He went back to the place that the fire of God, the miraculous move of God, the hand of God fell.

He went to that place where fire fell and he said, You know what?

I'm going to pray in this place.

I'm going to pray where I know God was.

So notice about his posture, the place where he went.

The glorious and breathtaking crest of karma.

The place where the glory and touch of God fell.

I have a question.

Do you have a place?

Do you have a place that motivates your worship?

More than Sunday and Wednesday, do you have a place?

A place that inspires and evokes spiritual decisions and movement?

Elijah goes back to the place where fire fell.

Are you in a spiritually dry place, church?

And you need God?

Because Revelation's a challenge to one of the churches, he says, You know, you're doing a lot of good things, but I have this against you.

You have left your first love.

He said, if you want to get that fire back, you have to repent and remember what you did before.

And so Elijah remembered the place where that fire fell and he went back up.

Blackabee had a book that the whole idea of his book was find where God's at work and join him in it.

God was in that place, so Elijah said, you know what?

I'm going back to that prayer room.

I'm going back to that place.

Well, his literal, that was a place he went, but his literal prayer posture, I want you to see in James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

We've referenced James 1 and 5 a little bit, but I want you to see it.

And almost every week about Elijah.

Something you see, I said he's one of the greatest men that's walked together.

Almost every week, we cannot get through a chapter without mentioning the way he prays.

You want to see a correlation to why somebody's a good man.

He's a man who prays.

But James 1, 6 through 8.

Listen what it says.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He's a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

So first I want you to see the man came back, and the man came back, and the man came back, and the man came back, and Elijah said, Keep going, go back again, go back again.

You see, his prayer was a prayer belief.

Do you pray believing that God can?

Look at James 5.

16 through 18.

It says, Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

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

Elijah, verse 17, 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, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruits.

So it talks about Elijah getting down, and it says that he got on his knees and he put his head at his knees and he had this prayer posture, and the man came back, and Elijah said, Go back.

And he said, God, do it.

It's gotta rain, God.

This whole place needs rain.

And the man came and he said, Go back, go look again.

There's a thunder, there's an abundance, there's a sound.

And he came back and he said, Go back.

And he labored in prayer.

How many of you can say, Pastor, I'm laboring in prayer?

It's interesting.

The number seven of the times, because we all know letter B is this the persistence of prayer, but we see in Scripture over and over this being God's number of perfection, it was God's number for creation, and it can't be overlooked.

Joshua marched seven times, there were seven blasts.

Uh, Jesus on the cross had seven statements that he made.

He said, Forgive seven times seven.

Don't let me even get into revelations, seven stars and crest and candles, and seven is his thing.

But when he uses it, he wants attention.

And Elijah persists and he said, Go back.

Believing, he said, go back.

There are things that need your persistent prayer.

You say, Well, I I I prayed to God twice, Pastor.

He said, Go back.

Let me ask you, husbands, are you laboring in prayer over your spouse?

Parents, are you laboring in prayer?

Are you just God?

I believe.

Yes, God, for my child, for that prodigal, God, bring them back.

Are you laboring?

Are you striving in prayer?

Have you prayed seven times?

So, my challenge on your card, just so happens, there's seven weeks left to our series.

I want us to bring these cards at the end of service up here.

Okay, you can fold it up, we don't need to see it.

But I want to give an opportunity, a reminder, every time that you look, are you praying over that need?

Am I praying for something to change?

Am I being persistent in prayer?

We're going to be a church of prayer.

The third thing is this.

Elijah's vision was accomplished.

Look down at verse 44 and 45.

It came to pass a seventh time.

He said, There is a cloud, as small as a man's hand rising out of the sea.

So he said, Go up, prepare your chariot.

Verse 45.

Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain.

So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.

Letter A is this, it went from concept, a prayer concept to a cloud.

Married people and driving is kind of a funny thing, right?

There's two types of us.

I won't mention which type I am or anything, but I don't grab the Jesus bar in the car.

I don't gasp.

I don't, you know, do a lot of things.

I just if I'm the passenger, I try to relax.

And I it's probably, honestly, it's probably more relaxing.

It's probably a safer ride.

Uh, but there is another type of passenger, and I'll say this, Heather, she's great with navigation.

I can remember back before we had phone navigation and GPS navigation.

Like, she got out paper maps and got us back on course.

Um, very good with that.

But after 20 years, something's happened.

I can't park.

I don't really understand.

Um, but I can.

I have mirrors and I see the lines.

If there's another car there, I'm fine.

I can use the car, but this keeps on happening, right?

Heather will go, mmm, you're over the line, and this happens and happens, and I'm like, oh, I can't believe this.

But this is what I learned.

I have the equipment, but it takes too long to be checking the mirrors.

Man, are you with me?

That's too much time.

I have what I need to see, but I'm just not seeing.

The light is shining, but vision is lacking.

Vision is the word chazon.

And it's the ability to see or perceive with intelligence.

I want you to hear a quote from Helen Keller.

She said, The only thing worse than being blind is having sight with no vision.

If God gives you a vision, church, it's your vision.

And real vision comes with a passion and a belief that it can be done.

Elijah said, a cloud is coming, go back.

He just believed that God would do it.

And we say here at CCW, we're a byproduct of the passions of our people.

Leah Leitner has a vision.

I've had several people come up to me over the years that we've been here and say, you know, the way that the world is moving, we want to have a safe church.

Yes, I am on board.

I want a safe church.

I don't know how to make a safe church.

But Leah Leitner jumped on board with this staff, and let me tell you, we got a safe church because concept went to cloud.

Are you with me?

They were able to take it and move it somewhere.

Amy had a vision for a hospitality ministry.

And it wasn't like just drop it at the pastor's desk, this is an idea.

She came with papers and an idea of grids and all this stuff, and I said, Amy, that sounds like God's giving you that vision for you.

She said, I was afraid you'd say that.

But it didn't take her but a week before she jumped right in.

You see, it was more than just a concept.

I've got a vision of this soccer field having paved walking paths.

Every day I'm at Chelsea Park, somebody is walking nonstop all day long.

We've got Lamb back here for the woods being cleared out.

Why?

There's a vision, not just because of having those things.

The vision, the cloud is I want gospel conversations every day of the week in these buildings, on this land.

How do we see that come to fruition?

It's believing and then putting feet to it.

You see, you remember at the Mount Transfiguration, a cloud came?

It overshadowed them.

That word was espiazo, and it meant it tabernacled them.

Once the cloud got into them, they got absorbed in it.

Are you absorbed in the idea that God can do something in you and use you to do it?

Elijah had a vision and he began to act like it was going to happen.

It's key.

Mark Heard said, Without execution, vision is just a hallucination.

Without steps, it's just a concept.

James said, faith without works is dead.

Elijah prayed.

And the seventh time the man said, I see a cloud coming.

Elijah said, I knew it was coming already.

He said, Ahab, get your rubber boots, get the poncho.

It's time to get out of here.

If he'd have been a song leader like mine growing up, I bet he'd said, Let's sing a little verse.

Turn to number 467 in the hymnal.

There shall be showers of blessings.

Showers of blessing we need.

Mercy drops around us are falling, but for the showers we plead.

And the showers begin to fall and fall.

Look at verse 46 and see what happens.

Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Let it be as this.

It went from rain to erase.

This is interesting.

See why this is important.

The hand of Jehovah touches Ahab.

I'm sorry, Elijah.

And the Supreme God, it says he girded.

That word is Shannas.

Girded is Shannas.

And that is to bind together like a girdle.

This is important.

There's only one use of this word in all of Scripture, the Hebrew word, and it's right here, Shannas.

And it is a picture girding of how things work better when they are bound together by the Lord in unity.

What you think on that?

The hand of God binds things together for the race.

Hebrews 12 said, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, we run the race that is set before us.

There will be unity in the hearts of a people whose hearts are bound together in one accord.

Do you find unity in the church body?

Are you finding unity amongst yourselves and others?

Do you find any sign of disunity?

There's a horse.

I had to check this out because you might just read passage and say, oh, okay, Elijah ran fast and went down the hill.

Beat Ahab.

But it said Ahab was in a chariot, folks.

A two-horse chariot.

So I needed to know what is the fastest horse?

Winning brew has the record for fastest horse that ever run, 45 miles per hour.

Well, what is the distance from Carmel to Jezreel?

This is 25 miles.

So he ran a marathon.

It wasn't like he just sprinted from here to the end of the hall and beat a two-horse chariot.

Elijah takes off, and here he is going.

And Ahab's in a cart with two horses.

Well, I had to make sense of it for us with humanity.

There's a man named Eliad Kipchob.

I think we have a picture of Eliad, the fastest ever marathon runner.

He ran a 26.2 mile marathon, and he did it in just under two hours.

That's 13.2 miles per hour, he was running.

He was getting it.

Okay.

Elijah, God touches him, and Ahab is in a two-horse chariot.

The estimate of that is 35 miles per hour.

Okay, Eliad, the fastest ever.

13.

Elijah went from seeing, hear this.

He went from seeing the miracle of fire.

He went from seeing it to being it.

There's a difference, church.

Hear me, stay with me.

He went from seeing the fire fall and seeing that God can do something amazing to God touching him and him being the miracle.

Historians compiled some information that uh show a photo of what it might have looked like, this race.

I want you to see the photo.

Elijah passed Ahab and he said, Meet, meet.

So, what's the point of this?

That unity.

You see, Psalms 37:4 says this the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

Psalms 37:4

Elijah's steps are ordered by the Lord.

I used to have in youth ministry parents that every year it would just break my heart, but they would send their kids to every manner of sport camp and then tell me teen camp was too much money.

Even though we were church camp, teen church camp.

And we would we would do everything to sponsor them.

$700 cheer camp, this can't, and our camp was$280.

And I'm like, and it and it broke my heart one that that thing was that, but just the steps were in disorder.

We care about so many things before God things.

I was thinking over the 21 days.

This is me, God speaking to me.

I love to go to the gym.

I love the outlet, but I thought to myself, do I need to take 21 days off from the gym?

You say, Oh, that's funny, Pastor Rick.

You're gonna fast from exercise.

What a big fast.

But I thought, I don't want my steps to be out of order.

God things are the most important things in my life.

And I want you to hear this.

If you can justify missing God things, God opportunities, then you better be ready to justify the absence of rain.

If you're gonna justify lots of God things and put other things in their place, you better be ready for a three and a half dry season.

Three and a half year.

And this is the plight of compromise.

This is what Israel had done, it had taken precedence.

All of their dreams and hopes got put into idolatry, and all that they were doing became more important than God things over time before you get to the point where they almost can't even recognize Jehovah anymore.

And I think this is a challenge in 24 church.

It's not just people are the church is just running around in sinful behavior stuck in it, it's good things.

Good things that are not God things.

Our steps are in disorder.

So I have to ask myself, well, how make this practical, Pastor?

I have to ask myself this.

What is my priority of my God time?

Number one.

This is number one.

My time in his word, my time in spiritual opportunities, number one, God time.

Am I doing something in place of God time things that are keeping me from growing even deeper?

Number two, my family.

And listen, it's every member within.

I've got to ask God, is my time with Heather productive?

Is my time with Heather?

Are we dating?

My time with Callie, my daughter.

Am I spending time with her, with Wyatt and Weston, not just the family in general?

Oh, we're together.

Am I putting time in each member of my family, or am I doing something in place of those things that's got my priorities, my steps out of order?

And then my church, and then my church people, and then my hobbies, and then my career, and then my money.

What is my order though?

You can get by, it's your choice, but you can also have three and a half years of a spiritual dry desert.

Joshua 24, 15.

He said, Hey, forsake God, forsake idols, follow God.

As for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord.

What about you, church?

Another verse and just another idea, and we'll be done.

Matthew 6, 33.

Many of you know it.

It says, but seek ye second the kingdom of God.

No, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

It says, seek first, and all of that other stuff shall be added unto you.

It says seek first, first, not second or third or fifth, first, the kingdom of God.

Because Elijah sought God first, God heard and answered, and he went from seeing firefall to being the miracle of God.

Many of you are seeing God at work at CCW, and you're going, Yes, look at God go, look at him go, but you're not experiencing it.

Do you want to be a spectator of revival or a participator?

I want to see him.

Well, three practical quick things would I see out of Elijah in this and we have invitation.

What brought the showers of blessing?

One, he was a caring testimony to his troubler.

God did something different in Elijah because he was willing to love people that nobody would love, even his enemy.

Two, he prayed until God moved.

And the third thing Elijah does, his priority is God first, God second, God third, God in all.

And my challenge this morning is this, church, to go from seeing God at work to being with God at work.

We have to do those things for the glory, voice, and touch of God.

Heads bowed and eyes closed.

Church, this morning, if God's spoken to you, I want to invite you.

I want to invite you to come and pray.

I want to invite you.

If you're able to write something down on your card, I want to invite you for seven weeks.

We're not gonna clean this altar area up that's gonna sit on this stage as a reminder to us.

We're going to pray.

If you have an initial, if you have something there, if you have a family member or friend, something that needs writing, I can promise you this.

The fire and revival of God doesn't fall apart from confession and writing of things.

Things have to be right.

We can't be unified and also simultaneously be disunified.

And so I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna ask you to stand to your feet as I do.

And when I'm finished praying, this altar is gonna be open.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for your word today.

We thank you for your blessings.

God, we thank you for the rain.

God, we thank you that you care about our needs.

And God, I pray today that you would dig even deeper into our hearts.

God, I pray that you would help us to love our enemy, love the thing that is hard to love.

God, care for the for them and understand the reason.

Lord, and I pray that you would bring back relationships, restore things, write things.

God, I pray for God, our church, that we would be a praying people with our steps in order.

And Lord, I pray that you would fall during this time of invitation on our hearts.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

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