Just do it

Less time than normal.

So turn your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 18 as we jump in.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

Appreciate you guys, your ministry, and uh thankful for all that are here in this last service of the year.

I hope you had a good Christmas.

Pastor Danny and Miss Susan are enjoying the California sunshine.

We say hello to you, and uh he will be back this coming week as we kick off.

God's gonna do it again.

Seems like there's a theme in the air.

Um, the series he's starting, God's gonna do it again, and Satan can't stop it.

So, off of that theme, I thought let's let's try to kick off the new year with this theme.

And so today's message is entitled, Just Do It.

Came up with that all on my own.

Okay.

Um I want you to see a picture.

Maybe you've seen this movie, 127 Hours.

Um, I watched this, it's hard to watch, and if you've seen it, you know that it was hard to watch.

But in the movie, 127 Hours, a depiction of a guy by the name of Aaron Ralston, who is going for a solo descent at the Blue John Canyon in Utah.

And as he's doing his descent, he literally gets pinned.

There's a picture of this, with his arm uh into a boulder.

It gets knocked loose.

And uh, if you've ever seen the movie, it's really difficult to watch all of it.

Um, but in that moment, he gets his arm stuck literally between a rock and a horror place.

And for 127 hours, five days and seven hours, he's pinned there like that.

And I thought about one year ago, um, I preached a message called 2020 Vision.

And uh and I had my plans of how 2020 was gonna go and what I thought God was gonna do, and how exciting it was to be in this landmark year, and then in March, we've already talked about it.

It felt like things just came to a screeching halt, and we were quarantined, a word we've never really used.

And the COVID-19 had everyone in a panic, and it's just been like we've been stuck between a rock and a hard place.

It's just been difficult.

So I wanted to take you to 1 Kings this morning in chapter 18, and in this story, it's the story of Elijah, and the biggest test of faith either God is going to come through or Elijah's through.

And church, what I believe is that hard things are inevitable.

They're okay, they're a part of life.

A teacher once told me the best thing you can learn to do sometimes is to struggle well.

Within your struggle, learn how to deal.

And so we just gotta have our heads down and deal with difficulties.

So I want to say this phrase today: just do it.

Look at your neighbor today and say, just do it.

Look at your second choice neighbor and say, just do it, you too.

Let's pray.

Father, we love you, we love your word, and God, we know that it has something to teach us today.

So, God, help us to get behind it.

Help us shut off our minds for a few moments from all of the things, Lord, that we came in packed with.

And God, let us just unload in your presence.

Teach us, Lord, be our teacher today.

Draw us closer to yourself, and Lord, let us leave here having met with you.

We love you in Jesus' name.

We pray.

Amen.

In 1 Kings chapter 18, I want you to go to verse 17 and 18 as we start.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

And this is what it says.

Then it happened when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, Is that you, O troubler of Israel?

And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed Baal.

So I want you to see, uh, Roman numeral number one this morning is this, there's trouble in the tribe.

And the trouble is this, if you go back to chapter 17 and the beginning of chapter 18, verse 1 and both, we'll look at it.

And Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead, that's chapter 17, said to Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word.

And chapter 18, verse 1 says, And after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go prepare, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain.

So what we have, the trouble is this there's a three-year famine.

There's been a three-year famine in the land.

I want you to see this morning as we kind of build the case for this, turn your Bibles over to Ezekiel chapter 14, what the Bible has to say about famine.

Ezekiel 14 · chapter mention

Ezekiel 14, if you have a second, verse 13.

Listen to these words because what happens during famine is not something unexpected.

This comes from God.

It says, Son of man, Ezekiel 14, 13, when a land sins against me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out my hand against it.

I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it.

Well, turn over to Isaiah chapter 5.

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

Isaiah chapter 5, it says it this way in verses 12 and 13.

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

This is talking about a party, living it up.

The harp and the strings, the tambourine and flute and wine are in their feasts.

Everybody's having a good time, but they do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of his hands.

Therefore, my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge.

Their honorable men are famished, they're in famine, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

There's a famine in the land.

That's the trouble of the tribe.

There's famine, a three-year-year famine has gone on, and Elijah has come as a prophet of God to speak against that.

And so, letter A, what we see under this is there's corruption because of compromise.

There's compromise.

I was thinking about that, and I thought about when I first came on staff here at the church.

Um we had some students from Indiana want to come and visit with us, and uh it was about two months in, and uh, Joe, you weren't a part of that group.

Okay, just saying.

Um, and so two months in, a group came, and uh we had with that group we had some missions trips, and and and that particular group on missions trips, we would go kayaking and we would go down the river.

And uh one year when we were kayaking down the river, we found a pavilion, and the the guys started it, they climbed up a tree, ended up on the roof of the pavilion, jumping off into the water, and we just had a great time.

Well, so they came here on this trip, and Pastor Danny said, Why don't you guys go out to our lake property?

And I'm like, Oh, that sounds awesome.

We'd have a great time out there.

So we're out there, we're jumping off his dock, back and forth, having a good time.

And one of the guys, I see him and I see the wheel spin.

They're looking up at the roof over his pavilion, and I see the wheel spinning, and I'm I kind of had the same thoughts before they did, but I'm like, no, no.

I'm the youth pastor in a new place, you know, we have to let's do things appropriately.

And uh then one of the kids who was part of our youth group here, who is really tall, y'all know Carrie Jr., if you remember him, he's like, I bet, I bet one of you guys could climb up on my shoulders and we could get up there.

And I'm like, that's a great idea.

And so, kid after kid, I got up on his shoulders, I got up there, we're all running, jumping, we had a great time.

We're jumping off of Pastor Danny's roof into the water, okay?

No problems.

Until that night, we were living with uh Christy and David at the time we come back, and everybody came together for dinner.

And uh, I see one of the students has his phone out, and he's like, Pastor Danny, check this out.

And he's showing Pastor Danny a video of me jumping off the roof, and Pastor Danny goes like this, and his eyes are connecting with me, and I'm looking, I'm seeing what's happened to video, and I'm like, and he's like, Rick, what are you doing on my roof, son?

And Andrew says, We all were on your roof.

I'm like, no! What are you doing?

I've been here two months, I'm gonna lose my job.

And like I was sweating it.

I like I had a hard night.

I'm like, oh, he's gonna call me into a meeting the next, oh, this is not gonna be good.

So before he could hit, I, you know, I said, Bastardny, I'm so sorry.

I said, that was really bad judgment.

And he kind of, you know, let me sweat it for a minute and he said, you know, he said, if I was your age, I'd probably done the same thing to him.

Okay, okay, I'm okay.

But what I had done in that moment in my heart, I knew I shouldn't probably do that.

I knew somebody would get hurt, but I compromised because it sounded like fun.

And boy, I sweat it out that night.

I thought, I'm gonna have to pack Heather and the kids up, we're done.

I'm I'm I'm going to be fired.

He's gonna figure out this is not what he thought.

But compromise had come into this land, and let me tell you the ways they had made compromise.

They made compromise number one by forsaking commands, forsaking the commands of God.

From David, King David, to Ahab, which is where we are in the present in this scripture.

Seven kings have become king, and 157 years have passed, and since the end of Solomon David's son's reign, all the way to Ahab, it's a who's who of wickedness in kingdoms.

It's a who's who of the wickedness of the land.

In fact, several times through 1 Kings it says of the next king, and he was evil and did worse in the sight of the Lord than any other before him, all the way up to Ahab.

It says that about Ahab in 1 Kings 16.

If you want to look at it, it says he did more evil than any other king to that point.

So every king had to outdo the last king before him in wickedness.

And if that's not enough, Ahab marries Jezebel, a woman who is steeped in the worship of idolatry.

And so here's the scene they have forsaken the commands of God, and Israel as a nation is filled with compromise.

They compromise by not obeying the commands, and then they compromise by following Baal's.

Let's identify something today.

If you got notes, this would be something good to write down.

What is idolatry?

Idolatry for you and for me is a person, place, or thing that we look to to meet our needs.

Physical needs, spiritual needs, social needs.

It's anything that we look to outside of God to meet our needs.

Well, that's where Ahab and Jezebel were.

They were steeped in Baal and Ashterah.

Baal was the sun god who was responsible for the fertility of crops in the land.

And Ashterah was the goddess of that they worshiped that was given to sex.

And so we have these gods who they believed were together, and the requirements that happened unto these gods were horrifying.

If you worshiped Baal, many sacrificed their children as an offering of incense unto this false deity.

If you worshiped Ashtra, they would come together for lewd, sexual, immoral dances and partying.

And so a horrific time in history is taking place requiring these things.

In 2018, we aborted 615,000 babies.

Baal required child sacrifice.

I don't even want to get into the sexual immorality that is going on today as an Astra's day.

There's 15 terms if you look up what orientation means today.

It's sad.

There's 72 terms that are listed under the word gender.

Are we not sexually confused?

Are we not in a place of immorality?

It's a horrific time.

But my question to you this morning to think about is are we compromisers?

Here's five questions you can write down.

Are we compromisers?

Number one, has there ever been a time that you love Jesus more than right now?

Are we compromisers?

Number two, is there anything about your life that's different from the rest of the world?

Is there anything about your life, your day-to-day, that looks different from the lost?

Number three, on compromise.

Do you turn a blind eye to sin?

Say, well, I live my way, but it's okay for them to live that way.

Do you turn a blind eye?

Is it okay for certain people to do certain things and you just turn your head away from it?

You don't speak into it.

Do we love, number four?

Do we love, do we have a passion for daily digging in God's word?

I mean digging for it in the morning and the evening.

Are we compromised?

And number five, do you get excited to serve others?

Do you get excited about the opportunity to serve?

The question I ask, are we compromisers?

That's the trouble in the tribe.

And Elijah here in chapter 18, verse 17 and 18, as a king, or we could say a president, a high leading official, somebody in charge is walking to him, calls him out for being the troubler of the tribe.

I love what Elijah says.

He refuses compromise.

Charles Swindall said, Nothing intimidates those who know what they believe is based on what God has said.

Nothing intimidates those who know what they have believed, is based on what God has said.

Heather's great-grandmother, it was a great picture of two people living together.

Her great-grandmother, we called her Nanny.

And Mimi was blind, and they lived together, and they were quite the pair.

And Nanny looked me up and down as I was getting ready for church, and she said, Whew, you look good this morning.

I said, Oh, thank you.

She said, Yesterday you looked ugly.

I said, Oh, okay, thank you.

But I was just thinking about that honesty.

If you want honesty, go to the youngest or the oldest in the crowd.

Am I right?

If you want honesty, Elijah sees the king coming and he says, Oh, here comes the troubler, and Elijah says, Oh, no, no, no, King, that's you.

And it's your daddy.

You have caused this famine because you love idols.

And that's number one and number two on the list of don't do's.

He says, You love idols.

The Bible says, Thou shalt not have any other gods before me, and then number two, no graven images.

And so in America today, I think we have a problem that's causing judgment.

If there's a famine in a land, there's a reason in the Bible.

God doesn't work haphazardly.

He's not the author of confusion.

And I read this article this week and it said this six things in America we love more than God.

We love our social identity, was number one.

We love for people to think us something on this thing.

We love to be socially identified as something.

We love our identities today.

Number two was money.

Number three on that list, we love more than God is being entertained.

Man, we live for a vacation.

We live for a movie.

We live for that moment of great entertainment.

And so when 2020 hit us, it was like getting smacked in the face because now we have hardship and persecution and difficulty.

Entertainment.

Number five was sex.

Number six is comfort.

We want to be comfortable.

We want to be on a hammock somewhere, someone fanning us with a leaf.

We want our comforts.

We want our sweatpants and our and our and our you know, being at home and our slippers and comfort.

And then number seven, which I was surprised might not be, or number six, I surprised not number one, was our phones.

We're tied up in these things more than God.

And so is there a compromise?

Well, I need you to see letter B this morning.

What happens after Elijah calls out the compromise?

Verses 19 through 24, we're going to read, but it was a courage and a challenge.

Look at what it says in verse 19.

Now therefore, send and gather all of Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table.

So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel.

And Elijah came to all the people and said, How long will you falter between two opinions?

If the Lord is God, follow him.

But if Baal, then follow him.

But the people answered him not a word.

Then Elijah said to the people, I alone am left a prophet of the Lord.

But Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men.

Therefore, let them give us two bulls, and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it, and I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood.

Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.

The people heard this challenge, and they said, It sounds good, it is well spoken.

And so here we see courage and a challenge.

And you got let's just list how the challenge looks.

There's 900 prophets of Baal and Asherah and a quiet nation who's vacillating back and forth as to what they should do, and one Elijah.

In a fire competition with the sun God.

That's the way Elijah's gonna roll it out.

Let's have a fire competition with obviously a God who should have access to fire.

And then verse 21, he asks this penetrating question.

And in 2020, I want us to think about this question.

He says, How long will you falter?

How long will you vacillate?

How long will you be indecisive?

How long will you have one God on Sunday and then another God the rest of the week?

How long?

And the people are absolutely silent at this question.

They have no response.

It made me think about illustration I read about Ronald Reagan.

And Ronald Reagan, when he was a young man, his mother took him to a shoe cobbler and asked him what kind of shoes he would like.

They were gonna make some shoes for him.

And he said, Young man, do you want round-toed or square-toed shoes?

And he couldn't decide.

He was just back and forth about it.

And uh he asked him again and he said, You're gonna have to come back another day.

So he came back another day and he said, Have you made your decision about these shoes, son?

And he said, I just I like them both.

I don't, I really don't know what to do.

And he was still indecisive.

And he said, Okay, you come back tomorrow and I'll make the choice for you.

So he showed up the next day, and Ronald Reagan got himself one square and one round-toe shoe because of his indecisiveness.

Now, I want you to understand something, church.

People are waiting in this hour to see something from Christians.

They're waiting for you and for me to not be vacillating, to not look like the world one day and be without hope one day, and the next day be clinging to God.

They're looking to Christians for something.

And indifference implies that you and I have a small God.

That's what it implies.

Revelation says it this way that how God feels about that.

I know your deeds.

They were neither hot nor cold, but they're lukewarm.

And because you're lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth.

Neutrality in the hour of decision is a curse that causes famine in the land.

Christian, if you're being neutral in this time of our lives, it causes a famine in the land.

God needs for us to stand on what we believe in 2021.

Look, it's not time to coast.

The world needs to know that you are a Christian and that your God is God.

You see, Jesus.

Didn't coast on you.

In his hour of decision, oh, it was hard, it was difficult, he was pressed.

He went all the way to the cross for you and for me.

Look at verse 26 and 27.

So they took the bull which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, Oh, Baal, hear us.

But there was no voice.

No one answered.

Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.

And so it was at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for he is a God.

Either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.

So they say, Oh Baal, answer us.

And they're leaping and they're jumping and they're screaming out for their God of fire.

And nothing.

By the way, church, activity and enthusiasm are not signs of spirituality.

Activity and enthusiasm are not signs of a God-filling.

The priests of Baal had prayer, but they had no power.

They had fervor, but there was no fire.

They had an altar, but not an almighty.

See, churches today are caught up with a lot of things, and I want you to understand something.

Flashy programs, gimmicks, and trends do not bring down the fire of God.

You and I can't heap or generate enough Holy Spirit to put it on another human through a program.

It's about filling.

It's about this every day.

It's about getting on your knees in prayer.

We just can't generate it in a song up here.

It's about Noah being filled and it coming out of him and you and me being filled and giving it up to the Lord.

It's not about some program, and them men danced and they leaped and they shouted, and nothing happened.

And Elijah's in the background laughing.

This is where I figured out in scripture that I was really going to like Elijah.

Biblically and spiritually, mockery is of limited value in the ministry.

A pastor that specializes in mockery, probably not going to be the best at edifying or encouraging his saints.

Having that said, there is a little place for mockery.

There are moments in your dialogue when people are dragging others down or they're just plain ignorant, and the Holy Spirit needs you to say something that comes with a little bit of bite.

How many of y'all are with me?

Some of you are like, that is my spiritual gift, Pastor Rick.

Me and you right here.

It's not a gift, trust me.

But the scripture says, he who sits in the heaven psalms, laughs and holds them in derision who rage against him.

So God, even at times, looks down and says, No, you got nothing on me.

So Elijah sits back in a cut, he's watching it go down, and he goes, Cry louder.

Your God must be busy.

He must be on a vacation.

A little louder, guys.

Maybe he's on his holy hammock.

He's off somewhere just too busy.

You're not loud enough.

And so he mocks them.

And I want you to understand scripture about our God.

Psalm says, As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord knows our frame.

Scripture tells us where two or more are gathered together in his presence.

He's there.

But 450 of Baal, 450 of Ashra, the most devout people they have are yelling and screaming and dancing, and they go even deeper because they've gone on till noon.

They begin cutting and blood is gushing, and this is some kind of tribal performance, and they're a mess, morning till evening.

And in verse 29, the most sobering of phrases comes out.

But there was no voice.

Nothing.

No voice.

No one listened.

You see, church, it's so sobering because the world today is dancing for a voice.

They're spending for a voice.

They're posting for a voice that something would just come in and fill them.

Something would fill me up.

They're building their lives for a voice.

They're drinking and smoking and popping pills to hear a voice to have filling.

They're having sex for a voice and cheating for a voice to get this filling, and even people are cutting for a voice.

And John 10, 27, church, is so beautifully written says, My sheep know my voice.

And I know them and they follow me.

You see, there is one voice that fills the empty soul.

I love these words from a song.

Are you hurting and broken within?

Overwhelmed by the weight of your sin.

Jesus is calling.

Have you come to the end of yourself?

Do you thirst for a drink from the well?

Jesus is calling.

Oh, come to the altar.

There's a voice today.

That takes us to the second point, the arrangement at the altar.

Look down there to verse 30.

You see, the problem of a lot of churches today is that there's a lot of misconceptions about the altar and its place.

We went on a winter retreat.

Um, it's been about five, six years ago.

We went to Spring Hill Camp in Evark, Michigan.

Heather and I and 60 kids, and we were on this retreat, and the retreat was going great.

Great.

And we kicked things off, and the speaking was great.

And I looked back on the week and I asked students after the retreat was over, what did you think?

It was their first time going on this particular retreat.

And uh kids had a lot of good to say, but I had some of the uh little mature students, they said, Pastor Ritten, you know what was missing?

Why did they never have an altar call?

Teenagers understood the power of a response, and they said, I just felt like I wanted to go down and have have a time with God, and they would preach such a good message, and then it was over.

And listen to me, church, there's nothing magical about this carpet or these stairs, but it's biblical.

It's a place where there's been a lot of tears from the saints of God here.

There's people that have come to a place like this, and their heart has been moved and changed because of what God has done at an altar.

Now, maybe you came today and you you come with a preset mind.

God is not gonna do certain things in my life, that's not how He operates for me.

Does God work within that preconceived context?

There's great men of God today who operate without an altar, and it's so puzzling for me.

This is not magic, but as you orate your heart over God's word, if there's no opportunity for a response, now I'm not saying you can't go home and God, God doesn't need me in this place, but I believe it's biblical.

If you look all throughout scripture, there's altars, there's remembrances, there's places, there's memorial stones, there's places built where God was there and they remember, they made a decision, they dedicated themselves at an altar.

So three things about the altar this morning.

Letter A, it starts with this prepare at the altar.

Verse 30.

Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me.

So all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar.

So, first of all, we see that he says, Come near to me, come look and see what's going to happen.

Psalms 5.3 says this about the altar.

David said, Each and every sunrise, you will hear my voice as I prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you.

Every morning, hear this, please.

Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart.

See, it's so important that the enemy understands.

Turn over to 1 Kings chapter 19.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

The enemy even sees and understands.

1 Kings 19, verse 10 says, So he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts for the children of Israel, have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars.

1 Kings 19:10

Ahab and Jezebel had all the altars of the Lord destroyed.

Listen, church, anytime we allow idolatry in the doorways, the altar of God's gonna suffer lack.

Anytime our hearts are pulled, the altars of God are gonna lack.

If you feel distance today, you can come back to that place where you found God.

Well, there's preparation at the altar.

You see, I want you to understand something about Elijah's story.

If you go back to chapter 17, verse 1, God tells him he's gonna hold off the rain, but God tells him to go to a place.

Look at verse 5 through 8.

God didn't say, I'm gonna have famine, but my prophet's gonna suffer.

Look at what he says.

He says, So he went, verse 5, and did according to the word of the Lord.

He went and stayed by the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.

Verse 6, then the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

And it happened after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain.

Then the word of the Lord, verse 8, says, Go to Zarephath, and God's gonna show himself through some miraculous occasions there.

And so God takes Elijah during this three years on a train of preparation.

He's waiting for three years during this famine, but God is preparing him.

He's showing himself day and night.

You come to me, I'm coming to you.

And day and night he's preparing, and every day he wakes up, can you imagine?

And another raven is coming with meat and bread.

Meat and bread.

God shows himself.

And I know this year has been hard, but God has been coming, and you are okay, and you're gonna get through, and he's bringing meat and bread, and it might not be how you thought it would be, but he's bringing meat and bread, and he's coming through preparation.

And Elijah has been preparing for three years, and he goes to Zarephath and it says this in verse 6, as he's there, that the ravens brought him meat in the morning, or and it happened that the brook dried off.

He goes to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, which is Jezebel's daddy, and dwell there.

I've commanded a widow there to provide for you.

And he says, In Zarephath, you're gonna go there and I'm gonna provide for you.

And God goes there and a boy dies, and Elijah is shown praying over him, and now he gets to see God's miraculous power through prayer, and he prays over a boy, and his life is revived.

God does a work to ready you, he wants to prepare you.

I want you to understand something.

Elijah is a man who knows God, who's praying to a real God, who understood how God was gonna work.

And so I want you to look down at verse 31 and 32.

He says, Prepare at the altar, then he says, Repair.

First, get prepared, then he says, Repair at the altar.

It says at the end of 30, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down, that Ahab and Jezebel had broken down.

And Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, Israel shall be your name.

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

You see, the altars of the Lord had all been broken down.

He was not going to bring a sacrifice and ask for his God to bring down something on a false altar.

And so he begins a repair at the altar because of improper priorities.

Don't you understand something today, church?

God is not in the business of accepting two timing.

These people had improper priorities.

The nation was vacillating.

They wanted the blessing of God, but they had a little problem.

And I had a picture that I want you to see of a younger version of a stud.

Heather probably hates this.

This is a picture of me circa 1992, 93.

Um and very much the ladies' man, as you can see here.

Um and in 1992-93, I had these girls in my class who made a deal with each other unbeknownst to me, but they made a deal that they were both gonna be my girlfriend.

And I was like, that sounds great.

That sounds awesome.

Let's do that.

And so we went on that school year, and uh, nothing that I even can remember remotely happened, you know.

Uh we never went on a date.

I don't remember anything.

I remember one bus ride that I sat next to one of them.

Um, and but as that went on, what I remember by the time the year was over, I had neither.

I started with two, and I don't know if you understand addition, but two minus two, that was a bad end to that year.

And it didn't work out for them.

They probably reconvened, I guess, had a meeting.

We don't like this.

Do you like this?

They didn't talk to me about it.

I just knew I got dumped.

And so, but I was thinking about the priorities of our heart.

You know, when we think about the altar, it's a place where the heart turns back to God in solitude, a pursuit of righteousness.

It's a place for unity.

That's why he stacked up 12 stones.

It was a reminder of a time when the nation was not divided.

The 12 stones was a reminder that we were united on this front of loving and serving God in unity.

And now there was great division.

God cleanses people that were angry and bitter at an altar.

He does reparation at an altar.

This is like holy ground, church.

He does reparation through rededications and recommitments.

Relationships are forgiven because hearts are moved over improper priorities.

Well, the second thing he repairs at the altar is through improbabilities.

Look at verse 34.

Then he said this, do it a second time.

He says, Fill the altar with water.

And he says, fill it over the wood and over the offering.

And then he says, Go back and get more water pots.

He says, Do it a second time, and they did it a second time, and then he says, Do it a third time.

And they come back and he says, Do it again.

So the water ran all around the altar, and he also filled the trench with water.

And so Elijah fills four water spots.

He says, Do it again, do it again, do it again.

And the entire area is doused with water.

In Elijah's mind, God can change any circumstance.

No matter how cold the world has been in 2020.

No matter the obstacle, God can change it.

God can push us through it.

No matter what the virus looks like, no matter who is in charge of the country, God is bigger than human improbability.

And so he says, repair the altar.

And then we see prayer at the altar.

We see him in verse, the verses that follow, that he begins a prayer for the Lord.

And it came to time, verse 36, of the offering of the evening sacrifice, the Elijah prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and I am your servant, and that I have done these things.

That's your word.

So he goes to God in prayer.

I want you to understand that this is not flippant prayer.

Look down at verse 41 and 42.

I want you to understand something about the prayers of this man Elijah.

When that's all done and over with, Elijah in verse 41 and 42 says, Go up, eat and drink.

There is a sound of abundance of rain.

Elijah just so believes the rain is coming.

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

Now listen to this.

Then he bowed down on the ground.

Listen to these words, and put his face between his knees.

And he said to his servant, Go up now and look.

And so this goes back and forth.

But I want you to understand something about the man who understood prayer.

This is a prayer posture.

This is the same as the Hebrew form of giving birth.

Elijah postures down, and when there's no rain here, he postures his head, he puts his head between his legs, and he's laboring to God in prayer.

And he says, Oh God, bring this rain.

And so he prays in a manner consistent with spiritual laboring.

He says, God, do this.

And so Elijah knows how to pray.

He's given to this type of prayer.

And so Elijah says, Oh, God, just do it.

Let them know who you are, and that I am your servant.

Elijah wants God to bring validation to his faith.

He says, God, just do it.

I don't dance.

I don't falter, God.

I know that you are God.

So just do it so that you can save them.

Oh, God in heaven, do it for repentance.

Do it for revival.

And he says, God, just do it.

Elijah prays fervently.

I think today we have to understand the difference in pushing in prayer.

Prayer against our doubts, prayer against our fears, weariness, prayer against our insecurities, prayer against pain.

He says, you can do it.

I want you to turn to James chapter 5 for just a second.

James 5 · chapter mention

And I want you to see something that's going to be encouraging.

James chapter 5.

James 5 · chapter mention

Verse 16.

It says this.

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

The effective, fervent prayer, there's that word fervent, of a righteous man avails much.

Now look at verse 17.

We hear 16 over and over.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.

He was just like you and me.

And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain.

And it did not rain on the land for three years.

And then he prayed again.

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

Elijah knew how to get in connection with his God and he believed in it.

And church, I want you to understand, you can pray.

He says he was a man like you and me.

I think in the year to come we have to understand a fervency in prayer that we can't be a people with vacillating opinions about our God.

We have to go into 2021 believing that God can do it.

Often in the scripture, the problem with people's prayers is that they lack the faith to believe.

He says, if you'll just believe that I can move a mountain, you'll say to that mountain, move, and it will move.

God tells us about our faith and belief.

So we have to learn this posture of really praying.

He's laboring head between his, oh God, I know you can save my lost sibling.

Oh God, I know you can stop this virus.

Oh God, give us revival, bring back my prodigal.

Oh God, you can do it.

But I think oftentimes we say, Oh, God, bless this day.

Give your blessings.

May your blessings fall upon the day and bless the blessings, bless her.

And we don't labor in prayer.

I'm guilty.

But Elijah knew how to pray.

And he knew how to pray at an altar.

Tony Lacone says this get to the altar of God and bring him your coal, and he will set you a blazing fire.

And that takes us to number three.

The falling of fire.

Look, verse 38 and 39.

It says, After he prayed his prayer, he stepped back, and then the fire of the Lord fell, and it 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, they fell on their faces and they said, The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.

God.

And so we see the falling of fire.

Letter A about that is this fire consumes.

Elijah prayed, and then God shows out.

Look at Elijah's mind.

This is what I like here.

Elijah pours out all this water, extra water, didn't need to do, didn't need to soak the sacrifice.

But Elijah's like, My God, your fire God does nothing when you dance and leap and shout and cut and you have your gimmicks and your things, and your God does nothing.

But I'm filled with my God and I feel him and I know my God.

And he says, just pour more water, just pour more water, pour it on, pour it on thick, heavy, water everywhere.

Douse it because you know what doesn't work with fire?

Water.

And so he says, pour it on everywhere.

And so this thing is soaking wet.

And he thinks, I know God's gonna strike his fire and it's gonna go through even a wet sacrifice.

Well, this is the way Elijah's God works.

So he has this prayer, and then a bright glowing shower through the heavens, the sky splits onto the sacrifice.

And like a scene from Castaway, you ever seen this movie of Tom Hanks when he's trying to get it?

Lands onto the altar and it burns up that wet sacrifice.

But my God says, even though you think I can do more, I can do more than the more you think I can do.

And he burns up all the wet, and then it says he licks up the stones, burns the stones to nothing, the dust underneath it to nothing.

And Elijah goes, I know my God can send fire that'll eat up a wet sacrifice.

And God says, I can do even more than that, Elijah.

Just hold on.

And he burns it all up, even the dust, the water in the trench.

When you experience God, church, he will consume you with his fire.

If you really experience God, he'll push out all the corners of idolatry in your life.

If you really experience that real God, you won't be vacillating as to whether or not you gotta watch this thing, or whether or not your kids ought to participate in this thing, or whether or not you might should go to that party, you shouldn't, or should you ingest or do this thing.

You'll say, My God consumes me.

And this is what I know.

And it's all in here.

There's not a question, there's not a gray.

My God is bigger than all of that.

And when you experience that God, you're gonna see the fire and the way that he consumes.

It's a picture of him consuming all earthly things.

That's what all that is.

The wood, the stone, the dust, all this that the earth has, the Bible calls it, it corrupts, it rusts, it breaks through, it's gonna be here, then it's gonna be gone.

And he says, My fire cuts out all earthly things.

When you experience that, God, He consumes you.

Letter B as this.

That fire converts.

Look at what the people say.

And when they saw it, they fell right on their faces.

Just a few hours ago, they were they had nothing.

If God is God, serve him.

They said, I got nothing.

Is he God?

Elijah says.

And they were stone cold silent.

And then God shows himself, and they fell right to their faces, and they said, The Lord, he is God.

And I know for some of you, I wish we all could experience God this way, and I think we can.

A lot of it's that feeling.

What are you doing tomorrow morning to experience God?

Because he doesn't just show up at the church once in a while, he shows up here.

What are you doing daily to experience God?

And so, in one instant, all the false religion that was being worshipped, all of the idolatry that was that was being lifted up in a moment was condemned.

People didn't falter.

It didn't say, now some of the people, all of the nation fell to their face.

Faltering people fell to their faces.

They didn't falter anymore.

It was clear.

No more indecision.

Church, we can't be indecisive.

We can't lead our homes indecisively.

Well, that's okay if she wants to do it.

That's alright if he wants to do that.

There are kids and we we can't sit on the fence.

We can't vacillate.

We have to know that God is God and what he says is real.

Because if we don't, we are promised pending famine.

We may go out of this world in the coronavirus if we don't make a change.

It may be that this is it.

No vacillation.

They said, this indeed is God Almighty.

And the last thing we see about the converting fires is faithful people like Elijah overcome great difficulties being a light to the lost.

And so for you and me, church, if we know Christ, we can be a light when the world is going through famine.

We can be faithful in a world that so desperately needs to be able to say, yes, if their God is God, if what their God is doing in their life when everyone is hopeless, that's the God I need.

Elijah's God is God.

This is something cool about this altercation that happened on Mount Carmel.

Still today, there's a picture standing on Mount Carmel.

Hundreds of years later, today, standing on Mount Carmel, is a picture of Elijah commemorating the way that he came against the prophets of Baal and is standing there today as a memorial that on this place a man of God stood and the prophets of Baal disintegrated.

Today, it's a reminder of during a hard time that there stood a believer.

Church, your neighbor in this hard time needs a believer.

Your coworker needs a believer, someone who can say, I don't know the answers, but I know a God that can give you hope.

I know a God that can help you.

I know someone, can I give you a word?

I don't have all the answers.

But during a hard time there stood a believer.

We opened talking about the movie 127 hours.

And I want you to see this photo of Aaron Ralston.

He spent five days trapped and pinned to that boulder, and he didn't expect to leave with his life.

He had a moment of clarity as he explains it when he saw the decay of his arm creeping up further and further, that if he would use enough torque, if he could just get the momentum going in the right direction, that he could break through the disease crawling up his arm, and he would maybe be able to, with his little army knife, amputate that disease, that arm, freeing himself from that rock.

And if you watch the movie, it is absolutely horrifying.

It's very much depicted.

But I thought about this impactful moment that is happening, and all I could think when I was watching it was just do it, just do it quickly, just get it over, just do it all.

Let him be free, just do it fast, save yourself, just do what you gotta do.

And in a moment, he gets through that arm and he descends down this pit, 65 feet, and he walks out six miles.

But it was a moment he made a choice, I'm not going back.

You don't put something in your arm and say, I'm gonna go halfway.

He says, I'm not going back.

He made his choice and he didn't falter and he didn't waver, he made a choice.

And listen, church, his choice changed everything.

That moment changed everything for him.

Death was creeping up his body, going to take over him.

And now he travels today with this message.

There was a day that I didn't lose my arm, but I gained my life back.

That's his message.

He travels the country shouting.

In 2021, church, if God is God, we have got to stop wavering.

We've got to stop faltering.

We have to cut the literal death that's creeping in, out of us, the sin that does so easily beset us, the word says.

We just gotta cut it out, even if it feels comfortable, even if we know we like it a little bit, we gotta cut it out.

We gotta make a decision, a hard decision to say, this is it, just do it.

Just do it.

You have to cut out all these idols.

Or church, it's famine.

That's what this book says.

It's famine for us.

If we don't, if the church isn't gonna do this, who is going to do this?

If you sitting in church, the last service of 2020, when there's so much other out there pulling for you, isn't gonna do this, who's going to do this?

We have to do a hard thing, an uncomfortable thing.

Do it so you can live.

Aaron Ralston did it so he could live.

The uncomfortable thing, we have to do it so we can live.

Elijah called down the fire of God, and either he was going to come through or Elijah was gonna be done.

Church, thank him.

Serve him in 2021.

Believe in him with all that you are, church.

Love him, live for him, just do it.

Heads bowed and eyes closed this morning.

If you're here this morning and you've never received Jesus as your savior, today, today, this day is the day of salvation.

Just do it.