Elijahsha: Showdown

If you're just joining us, we are in a series right now called Elijah Sha.

What we've done is we've taken the names Elijah and Elisha and we've smushed them together.

Thought that was kind of clever, but whatever.

Elijah and Elisha are these two prophets in the Old Testament.

They lived about 3,000 years ago, and we're studying their lives, we're studying their stories.

And it's so interesting because you would imagine that two people living 3,000 years ago in a very distant place in a very different culture would have very little to speak into our lives today.

But that's the beauty of God's word.

The beauty of God's word is that it speaks, is that it's living and it's breathing and it's active.

And whenever we open up God's word and we mainly open up our hearts and our minds and we say, hey God, you teach me what you want to teach me.

I'll take all my preconceived notions and I'll throw them out the window, and I just want to be open to what you have to say.

When we do that, God speaks.

And we learn and we grow.

And that's why we get together, that's why we study God's Word, is that we want to grow.

But when someone gives their life to Jesus, we don't just check the box and move on.

No, we're we're committed to your growth.

We're committed to our growth as a family.

We want to experience all that God has.

All that God has for us.

And if there's one thing that I've learned over the last 10 years, it's that anytime I feel like maybe I've reached the summit, I find out that I am nowhere close.

That if you hunger for more of God, there is always more of God.

There's always more that God wants to do in you, there's always more that God wants to teach you.

We can always grow.

And so we're committed to growing together.

And even if you're here and you haven't given your life to Jesus yet, when that happens, we we pray that happens today because we want you to experience the love that we've experienced.

We want you to experience the freedom and the joy that we've experienced.

But when that happens, we will celebrate with you, but we'll not treat that like you're done because you're just getting started on this beautiful journey.

And to have all that God has for you, you've got to grow.

We want to grow together.

That's why we study the Bible.

And I believe today we're gonna grow.

In fact, today we come to a point in Elijah's story.

We haven't gotten to Elisha yet, but that's coming pretty soon.

But today we get to a point in Elijah's story that's very climactic.

It might be the most famous story associated with Elijah when people tell his story.

This is often the story that they they go to first.

And it's a story that I believe God intends to use today to remind us of something very, very important, to remind us of some very important things about him.

Sometimes the most powerful things we can have in life are simply reminders.

I don't know about you, but I'm a very forgetful person.

I might be the most forgetful person I have ever met.

If I've met someone more forgetful, I've forgotten who they are.

Like I am, I am, I am a super forgetful person.

And I've talked about this before.

I forget my wallet like every day.

I forget, like actually, I have my wallet, it's black leather, and it's the exact same color as all of the couches we have in our house.

And so I keep telling myself, buy a wallet that's just a different shade of black or brown, something crazy, orange, I don't know, just something that won't blend in with our furniture.

And I keep telling myself to do that, but then I forget.

Because I'm forgetful.

I forget my keys in all kinds of places.

In fact, a few months ago, I hit a new low, which is saying a lot for me, uh, in terms of forgetting my keys somewhere.

I've never known another human being to do this.

I I I'm ashamed to even admit it slightly.

Um, but I was here at the building.

I know that I had my keys when I got here because they're what I used to drive with and get in the door, but then it was time to leave and I could not find my keys.

And I looked in the few spots that I typically put my keys, you know, I'll drop them in the sound booth sometimes.

There's a few other places that I might put them.

I'm I'm just kind of absent-minded that way.

Uh, but I couldn't find them in those spots, and so I started to do what you do when you lose things.

You retrace your steps.

And so I'm walking all throughout the building, and I'm going to every place I had been that morning, and I cannot find my keys anywhere.

I cannot find them on any shelves, on any tables, nowhere to be found.

And I'm kind of getting frantic at this point because I've got to be somewhere, and so I'm just doing this over and over again.

I'm just walking in circles around the building, and I'm walking really fast, and people are saying hi, and I'm just like, hey, and I'm going, I'm not trying to be rude.

And finally I see my keys.

And here's where they were.

Here's where I had forgotten them at.

Um, I had used my keys to open a door.

I had put my keys in the door, I had turned the handle, and then I had just forgotten to take them out of the door and put them in my pocket.

There's my keys hanging, hanging in a door.

The reason I hadn't seen them up to that point is because that door was open and someone had shut the door, and there are my keys.

Like, who does that?

Raise your hand if you have ever forgotten.

Are you serious?

I'm not alone?

Are you kidding me?

No, hold on.

Are you are you like I expected no person, are you serious that you have left keys in a door before?

Raise your hand again if that's you.

Praise God, I'm not like this is awesome.

I am so excited that you are as messed up as me.

What a g- whoa, I love you guys.

Wow.

Welcome to his hands.

We are scary people.

What in the world?

That's good to know.

So I just I forget things.

And I live, I live with reminders.

I need people to remind me of things.

My wife reminds me of things all the time.

I have reminders on my phone.

If I don't set an appointment on my phone and set at least two reminders, I will forget.

I need to be reminded of things often.

And the truth is, I need to be reminded of things that have to do with God all the time.

I have seen God do so many miraculous things in my life and in other people's lives.

I've seen God do so many miracles in the lives of people in this church, but but I'll still have these moments where something happens, I get stressed out, I'm freaking out about something in life.

And it's like I've forgotten all that God has done.

I need to be reminded of who God is.

I want to read something from Psalm, Psalm 77, starting in verse 7.

It's a lot of sevens.

Says, has the Lord rejected me forever?

Have you ever felt that way?

Will he never again be kind to me?

Is his unfailing love gone forever?

Have his promises permanently failed?

Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has he slammed the door on his compassion?

And I said, This is my fate.

The Most High has turned his hand against me.

The author of this psalm, this song, is basically saying, I feel like God has abandoned me.

But then I recall all you have done, O Lord.

I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.

They are constantly in my thoughts.

I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.

What turns this person's outlook on life around is simply remembering who God is and what God has done.

And I believe that's what God wants to happen this morning for all of us.

I believe that you're here today because God wants you to remember who he is, and what he does.

That's what this story that we're about to jump into speaks to us today.

It speaks a lot of different things.

And the Holy Spirit may share something with you that isn't even in the message today, and that's awesome if that happens, because this is a big story.

We're going to cover a lot of ground.

Before we jump in, though, I want to make sure we're all kind of up to speed.

So here's what's happened so far Elijah is a prophet.

He first shows up in the Bible by confronting a king named Ahab.

Ahab is the king of Israel, and he's he's awful.

He's terrible.

He marries a woman named Jezebel, she is also terrible.

Jezebel's from a place called Phoenicia, and she brings with her the worship of a false god named Baal, who was a god worshipped in Phoenicia.

And, you know, Jezebel has a big impact on Ahab.

He begins to worship Baal as well.

And in fact, he builds an altar and a temple to Baal in the capital city of Samaria, of Israel, at this point in time.

And when he does that, that's not just that's not just Ahab doing something personally.

When the king builds a temple to a God, that is the king declaring that God is the official God of the nation.

And so what Ahab has done is he has actually set up Baal worship as the official worship of Israel.

And so Elijah shows up, this prophet from God, this person who hears from God, he's God's mouthpiece to the world at that time.

And Elijah says to King Ahab, hey, God wants you to know that it's not going to rain for a very long time until I give the word.

And this wasn't just some random thing.

Baal was the Phoenician god of rain.

So Israel is now praying to Baal to make it rain.

Because he was the God of the storms.

He was called the storm king, the rider of the clouds.

And so they're praying to Baal for rain, and Elijah shows up and he says, Hey, it's not gonna rain.

It's not gonna rain.

God needs you, Ahab, to know who really makes it rain.

And so keep praying to Baal if you want to, but it's not going to rain until I give the word.

And then immediately after that, Elijah runs for his life.

Because Ahab wants him dead.

And today we pick up the story three years later.

So Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace.

Obadiah was a devoted follower of the Lord.

Once, when Jezebel had tried to kill all the Lord's prophets, Obadiah had hidden one hundred of them in two caves.

He put fifty prophets in each cave, he supplied them with food and water.

So Obadiah is a good guy.

Ahab said to Obadiah, We must check every spring and valley in the land to see if we can find enough grass to save at least some of my horses and mules.

Notice that he does not care about people.

He's not saying, Let's see if we can find some water, let's see if we can find something, some food, so that we can save some people's lives.

All he cares about is what he owns.

Some horses and some mules.

It says, So they divided the land between them, and Ahab went one way by himself, Obadiah went another way by himself.

As Obadiah was walking alone, he suddenly saw Elijah coming toward him.

Obadiah recognized him at once and bowed low to the ground before him.

Is it really you, my lord, Elijah?

He asked.

Yes, it is, Elijah replied.

Now go and tell your master, Elijah is here.

And I love Obadiah's response.

He says, Oh sir, what harm have I done to you that you're sending me to my death at the hands of Ahab?

For I swear by the Lord your God that the king has searched every nation and kingdom on earth from end to end to find you, and each time he was told Elijah isn't here, King Ahab forced the king of that nation to swear to the truth of this claim.

And now you say, Go tell your master Elijah is here.

But as soon as I leave you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you away to who knows where.

And when Ahab comes and cannot find you, he will kill me.

Yet I have been a true servant of the Lord all my life, like as no one told you, my Lord, about the time when Jezebel was trying to kill the Lord's prophets.

I hit a hundred of them in two caves, I supplied them with food and water, and now you say, Go and tell your masters Elijah's here, sir.

If I do that, Ahab will kill me.

He's like freaking out.

He needed to listen to Elon's message from last week about not freaking out.

If you weren't here, listen to that message.

It would have done Obadiah some good.

But Elijah said, I swear by the Lord Almighty, in whose presence I stand, that I will present myself to Ahab this very day.

And so we'll continue in verse 16.

So Obadiah went to tell Ahab that Elijah had come, and Ahab went out to meet Elijah.

And when Ahab saw him, he exclaimed, So is it really you, you troublemaker of Israel?

I have not made trouble for Israel, Elijah replied.

You and your family are the troublemakers, for you have refused to obey the commands of the Lord and have worshipped the images of Baal instead.

Now summon all Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, along with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who are supported by Jezebel.

So Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel, and then Elijah stood in front of them and said, How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions?

If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal is God, then follow him.

But the people were completely silent.

So what we have here is a showdown.

A showdown between God and Baal, a showdown between God's prophet Elijah and all the prophets of Baal.

The very next verse, verse 22, says, Then Elijah said to them, I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left.

But Baal has 450 prophets.

So here's this crowd of people, thousands, and they're there to witness this showdown.

And you've got Elijah, the prophet of God, and you've got 450 the prophets of Baal.

One versus 450.

I don't know if you've ever been in a situation in life, if you've ever had an experience where you see something that's about to happen, and you just tell yourself, this may not go well.

Like this is this looks like it might get kind of ugly.

I can think of a few times I've had that experience in life.

It both proved true.

One was last year.

My son was playing basketball for the first time, first grade basketball.

Basketball is a very fast-paced sport, high-scoring sport, games in the pros, and in college we'll get to 100 points or more fairly often.

So it's an exciting sport for that reason.

Um his very first game, first grade basketball, game one, the score was six to two.

Each time you score, it's worth two points.

Okay?

They played for 40 minutes.

40 minutes, six to two.

Game two, right?

Similar score was like eight to four or something like that.

Game three was riveting, like we lost by one point, but it was riveting because the score was like 11 to 10.

We're like, whoa, double digits, you know?

But these are kids, they're first graders, and they're they're just learning like half the kids are coming in, never having dribbled a ball or anything like that, and so it's it's kind of cute.

It's hard because half the time the kids dribble the wrong direction to score on the other team's goal, and all the parents, even the opposing parents, are like, no, go the other way.

It's just chaos.

And then game four happened.

And I'll never forget game four of my son's first grade basketball year.

Uh they played Avery Elementary.

Anyone have kids that go to Avery Elementary?

Anyone here?

That's like a basketball factory, that school, okay?

Because our boys show up, it's like eight in the morning on a Saturday, and and they're all laughing and giggling like they do.

They've got their uniforms, because when you play for, you know, the Youth Basketball League, they give you uniforms, and they're laughing together, they're shooting, they're kind of just playing around before the game, and you know, I'm sitting in the stands watching them, and then the other team arrives.

And they arrive, and I notice first and foremost that they arrive like in unison.

Okay?

And they're wearing matching warmups.

Now, we did not get matching warmups, those are not issued by the league.

This is something that they went out and did independently.

They've got matching warmups on, they've got a slogan on the front of their warm-ups, like they have a slogan.

They're a first-grade basketball team, and they have a motto.

Our boys are laughing and giggling and occasionally shooting the back the ball at the basket.

Their boys are running extremely organized drills, like their coach isn't even saying a word.

He's just standing in there with his hands behind his back and just like nodding his head, and they're doing things.

They have a surprising amount of testosterone for first-grade boys.

They're punching each other in the face just to get jacked up for the game.

That last part is not true, but the rest is.

I promise you.

Like, and I remember watching warmups and thinking to myself, this may not go well for us.

And it did not.

We lost 26 to 2.

And uh, and our two points, our lone basket, was a as lucky of a shot as a kid could have, with about 30 seconds left from the game.

It was 26 to nothing.

I remember at one point my son just looked up at me and just went, like, and in my sage wisdom, I was like, I don't know.

That's all I got.

Like, I'm sure you've had moments like that.

I can think of another time I was in high school, early high school, and I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I was in a room watching TV, and my sister, who was in college, was there.

My father was also there, and my sister and my father began to have a conversation about my sister's grades in college.

My sister is very smart, my older sister, and she uh I don't have a younger sister.

The way I said that made it seem like my younger sister's not, but my older sister is.

There's only one sister.

So my older sister, very, very smart, but she was she was doing really poorly in school.

Her grades were very, very bad, and my dad wanted to talk to her because you know he was paying for college, he was, you know, helping her out with other things, and and there was an agreement that she would do well in school, that she would apply herself.

And I'm just sitting there watching TV, and my dad begins this conversation, and my sister says, Well, dad, the reason I'm not doing well is because my classes are too easy.

They don't challenge me.

If they challenge me, I do better, but because I'm not challenged, I'm just not very motivated.

And I remember thinking, that may have not been the right thing to say.

Like, this may not go well.

And it did not.

And my dad proceeded to take the opportunity to motivate her, and if she felt underchallenged, he added some challenges to her and said, you know, a variety of things that you could basically boil down to say, oh, you don't feel challenged.

Well, allow me to challenge you.

And I just I was sat there.

You know how you've been in a room and you can't escape?

Like it's super awkward, and you're like, I shouldn't be here, but you can't, you can't get up, you can't leave, you just sit there, and that was me.

I imagine that the people watching Elijah and these prophets prepare for this showdown felt about the same way.

You know, they're looking at the prophets of Baal, there's 450 of them.

Not only are there 450 of them, they have the support of King Ahab, they have the support of the queen.

Most of Israel is following them right now.

The people who stayed truthful to God were persecuted and killed, so there's not many of them left.

And the people are watching them, and then they're watching Elijah, and they had to have been thinking, poor guy, this may not go very well for him.

And then we'll read on in verse 23.

Elijah is speaking, he says, Now bring two bulls.

The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it.

I'll prepare the other bull, I'll lay it on the wood on the altar, but not set fire to it.

Then call in the name of your God, and I will call on the name of the Lord.

The God who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God, and all the people agreed.

And then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, You go first, for there are many of you.

Choose one of the bulls, prepare it, call in the name of your God, but do not set fire to the wood.

And so they prepared one of the bulls, they placed it on the altar, and then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting, O Baal, answer us.

But there was no reply of any kind.

And then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made.

About noontime, Elijah began mocking them.

This is like trash talk.

He'll have to shout louder.

He scoffed, for surely he's a god.

Perhaps he's daydreaming, or I don't know, relieving himself.

Or maybe, maybe he's away on a trip, or he's asleep and he needs to be wakened.

And so they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out.

And they raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound, no reply, no response.

And now it's Elijah's turn.

Then Elijah called to the people, Come over here.

And they all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord they had torn down.

He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to rebuild the altar in the name of the Lord.

And then he dug a trench around the altar, large enough to hold about three gallons.

And he piled wood on the altar, he cut the bull into pieces, he laid the pieces on the wood, and then he said, Fill four large jars with water and pour the water over the offering and the wood.

Now remember, they're in a drought.

Water is very scarce.

It's a big deal that Elijah is asking them to do this.

After they had done this, he said, Do the same thing again.

And when they were finished, he said, Do it a third time.

So they did as he said, and the water ran around the altar and even filled the trench.

At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and he prayed, O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant.

Prove that I have done all this at your command.

O Lord, answer me, answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have brought them back to yourself.

That was always God's heart to bring the people back to himself, back into a relationship with him.

And immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven, and it burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust.

It even licked up all the water in the trench.

And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, The Lord, He is God.

Yes, the Lord is God.

And then Elijah commanded, seize all the prophets of Baal, don't let a single one escape.

And so the people seized them all, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon Valley and he killed them there.

Woo, right?

You know, I'll say this really quickly.

Um, sometimes we'll read stories like this in the Old Testament, and when we get to a part like that, like, oh, a lot of people died.

It can be a difficult thing for us to come to terms with.

We're going, oh, how does I wish I wish that the prophets would have just been like, we're wrong, we're we're gonna follow God now.

And he's like, yay, and they all hug.

They hug it out.

That would have been a better end, right?

Then they hugged it out together, but it says they died.

And so I just want to say this um if that's if that's like a holdup for you, which is totally understandable.

By the way, once in Jesus' ministry, his disciples got got offended because some people kind of took them off and they were rejecting them and probably mocking them.

And so these two disciples, James and John, go up to Jesus and they say, Hey, uh, Jesus, do you want us to like, I don't know, call fire down from heaven, burn them up?

And they were serious.

And they kind of had a precedent for this.

And Jesus goes, What?

No, like no.

What would have given you any idea that that's something I would want you to do?

And so there is this sort of disconnect here, and it can be challenging for us to come to terms with.

Here's what I want to say.

I could talk about it right now and go into a lot of details about how this doesn't, like, this isn't a disconnect between Jesus and it but that would take some time, and I do value your time.

But I know that some of us here are maybe struggling with things like that.

So here's all I'm gonna say.

On Tuesday, we're gonna upload an explanation of this.

Go into some detail on our podcast.

You can listen to that on our website, on our mobile app.

You can just listen if you want to, if you're interested in going, hey, I want to understand that whole dynamic, just listen on Tuesday, and hopefully that will explain it.

But I I wanted to save you the 20 minutes that it would take to go down that rabbit trail this morning.

Because I love you.

Okay?

And what I really someone just went, oh, what I really want to, what I want to focus on isn't so much that, even though that's important, so listen on Tuesday if you want to, but I want us to focus on what I believe is the main takeaway for us today from this story.

You know, what looked like it would be an absolute embarrassment for Elijah turned out to be nothing more than an amazing display of God's power.

That's really all this story is.

It's a display of the power of God.

The Bible speaks so much to the power of God.

Isaiah 40, 28 says, Have you never heard?

Have you never understood?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of all the earth.

He never grows weak or weary.

No one can measure the depths of his understanding.

Job 26, 7 says, God stretches the northern sky over empty space, and he hangs the earth on nothing.

He wraps the rain in his thick clouds, and the clouds don't burst with the weight.

He covers the face of the moon, shrouding it with his clouds.

He created the horizon when he separated the waters.

He set the boundary between day and night.

The foundations of heaven tremble, they shudder at his rebuke.

By his power the sea grew calm.

By his skill he crushed the great sea monster, his spirit made the heavens beautiful, and his power pierced the gliding serpent.

This is like a metaphor, a poem.

These are just the beginning of all that he does, merely a whisper of his power.

Who then can comprehend the thunder of his power?

Psalm 147, 5 says, How great is our Lord, his power is absolute, his understanding is beyond comprehension.

God is powerful.

God is powerful.

And this story shows us just how powerful he is, and it reminds us of his power.

You know, if you if you picture yourself as Elijah on this day, if you picture yourself being in the position that Elijah was in, this very vulnerable position where Elijah put himself at the mercy of the people, he's putting himself at the mercy of King Ahab.

He's basically saying, God, if you don't show up, and God, if you don't show up in a way that is undeniable, in a way that is absolutely undeniable, I'm finished.

So I need you to show up, God.

I need you to do something, I need you to show the people who you are.

Imagine how it must have felt for Elijah to see that fire come down from heaven.

See, God was telling Elijah something that day.

He's telling the same thing to us today.

It's actually three things that I want us to focus on, to be reminded of today as we as we wrap up.

And worship team, you guys can actually come out at any point in time and get us ready to send us out.

Because we're gonna finish today with a song that's just gonna be an outcry of exactly what God wants us to remember today.

Number one, our God is with us.

Okay?

God is with us.

We have this tendency to think God is distant, to feel like God is out there somewhere, but He's He's far away.

And so, in fact, when we read in the Bible and it says something like, and God spoke from the heavens, we tend to picture in our minds that God is speaking from heaven, which must be at the very outskirts of outer space, and so he must have a megaphone or something, and it's this distant, loud voice.

But but that's not the concept that the people in ancient Israel had of the heavens.

And when it says in the Bible that God spoke from the heavens, you could just as accurately say that God spoke out of thin air.

That they heard a voice just out of the thin air, right next to them, close to them.

God is not distant.

God is with us.

1 Corinthians 3.16 says, Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

Ephesians 2.20 says, Together we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, and the cornerstone is Christ, Jesus Himself.

We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.

Through him, you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his spirit.

The very spirit that raised Jesus from the grave lives in you.

If you have given your life to Jesus, that spirit has like come alive in you.

It's the same spirit, it's the same power.

Sometimes we wonder where God is.

Wherever you are, God is.

Because you are the temple of God.

And he chose you to be his dwelling place.

He chose you to be the place that he calls home.

So God is not distant, he is with you.

Our God is with us.

Number two, our God is for us.

He's not just with us, he's with us.

He's for you.

He loves you.

He's your father.

He's your father.

I mean, think about how excited he gets when he looks at you.

Think about how he delights in you.

Those of you who are parents with children, you know how your kid is the most attractive and most intelligent and most talented child in the universe?

Because obviously they are to you.

But not to me, that's my kid.

Right?

Did you ever stop to realize that maybe God feels the same way about you?

That maybe God beams over you.

That maybe God elbows the angels every once in a while and says, hey, hey, watch.

That's mine.

That's my daughter.

That's my son.

That God roots for you.

That God roots for you.

That he wants to see you succeed.

That he wants to see you grow.

That he's proud of you.

God is not just with you, he is for you.

He is completely and totally for you.

Listen to what the Bible says on this very same thing.

Romans 8 31.

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Hebrews 7.25 says about Jesus.

Therefore, he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him.

He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

This is talking about what Jesus is doing right now, right now, in this moment, interceding for you.

The message version puts it this way He's there from now to eternity to save everyone who comes to God through him, always on the job to speak up for them.

Is that Jesus is forever in your service.

Right now, he is in heaven and he is talking to Father God and He is telling Father God about who you are.

Like he's talking you up to God, interceding on your behalf.

He's not just with you, he's for you.

And one final thing our God is not just with us, and our God is not just for us, but our God cannot be stopped.

Like He is He is unstoppable.

Okay?

I had a friend of mine call me this last week, and he was struggling.

He he lives out of state, and he was dealing with a lot.

And he he was talking to me and he says something that I hear a lot of people say sometimes, even when they're talking to a fellow believer and you know, pastor or whatever, is like, hey, I don't want to sound like I'm crazy.

Sometimes people will preface a statement, you know, like I don't want to sound like some nut job.

But he said, I just almost feel like there's something demonic working against me.

And you know, it is possible to become superstitious, to not just believe in the supernatural, but to become superstitious.

That that does happen.

But look, I we believe in a supernatural God.

And if you read scripture, there are supernatural forces that are good, there are supernatural forces that are not.

And so my friend was just telling me, hey, I don't want to sound like some some crazy person, but I even think that this is so intense what I'm feeling that maybe there's there's like like a demon or something, you know?

And he was very ginger in his statement of that.

And I said, well, let's say that there is.

Let's just say that, let's just say you've got a real problem, dude.

You've got a demon after you.

I'm gonna read a story.

And worship team.

If you guys want to start playing, you even can.

I say that, assuming that you would know how to do that.

I wouldn't.

You know, just hit the thing.

Um Mark chapter 5.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

He says, so they arrived at the other side of the lake in the region of the Garasenes.

When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him.

And this man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain.

Whenever he was put into chains and shackles, as he often was, he snapped the chains from his wrists and he smashed the shackles.

No one was strong enough to subdue him.

Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself to sharp stones.

Kind of sounds like the Baal worshippers, doesn't it?

When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him.

With a shriek, with a shriek, he screamed, Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, son of the most high God?

In the name of God I beg you, don't torture me.

For Jesus had already said to the spirit, Come out of the man, you evil spirit.

And then Jesus demanded, He demanded, What is your name?

And he replied, My name is Legion, because there are many of us inside this man.

A Roman legion was at minimum one thousand soldiers.

Then the evil spirits begged him again and again not to send them to some distant place.

There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby.

Send us into those pigs, the spirits begged.

Let us enter them.

And so Jesus gave them permission.

And the evil spirits came out of the man and they entered the pigs, and the entire herd of about 2,000 pigs plunged down into the steep hillside, into the lake, and drowned in the water.

So my friend's talking to me about this possibility that there's even something demonic going on, and I said, Hey, okay, man, let's say there is.

Let's say you've got one demon like giving you fits.

Two thousand demons in the very presence of Jesus begged for mercy.

Two thousand demons.

And even if you're here and that that's like, I don't believe that, okay, just suspend disbelief for a moment.

2,000 evil forces, demons, whatever you call it, just in the presence of Jesus fell to the ground and begged for mercy because they recognized the power of the one who stood before them.

So I told my friend, like, dude, you've got nothing to worry about.

Because you know Jesus.

And when you know Jesus, you have authority because you can call on the name of Jesus.

And so whatever's messing with you, demon or not, you just have the ability to say, look, you do not understand who you're talking to.

Because I am the child of the Most High.

I'm the son of God, I'm the daughter of God, and my God is with me, and my God is for me, and my God, He cannot be stopped.

So you need to leave, you need to go away, stop messing with me.

That's who our God is.

That's that's our God, that's my God, that's your God, his name is Jesus, and he is powerful.

If you're here today and and you don't you don't know Jesus, in the sense that you just haven't had that moment yet where you've decided.

I want you to know today that he's already decided with you, that he has decided that you are enough, that he has decided to love you, to give himself for you.

That's already done.

You can't change that.

I've had people tell me before that they wish that Jesus had not died for them, and I'm like, too late.

A couple thousand years late on having that conversation.

He has decided to love you, to choose you.

And you have an open invitation to receive him in your life.

And when you receive him, you're receiving the God of this very universe, the one who will always be with you, who will always be for you, and who cannot be stopped.

And sometimes in church we get so fixated on having a practical takeaway, you know, some life hack that we can leave with and go, now I have the secret to life.

Look, what is more practical than a God who is always with you, who is always for you, and who cannot be stopped?

There's nothing more practical than that.

And I just ask you this morning to take that invitation.

And if you're here today and you do know Jesus, be reminded.

Remember who your God is.

Your problems, your issues, your struggles, they don't compare to Him.

Remember who He is.

Remember the power of your God.

We're gonna pray, we're gonna worship, we're gonna spend three minutes singing out together how powerful our God is.

This is an outcry of our hearts.

This is a chance for us right now to say, yes, I'm planting my foot on the very ground I stand on, and I am saying out loud with all that I have, my God is real, my God is powerful, my God is Jesus, and he cannot and will not be stopped.

And his love for me cannot be contained.

That is worth celebrating, that is worth singing about.

So pray with me and let's do that together.

Jesus, we love you, we love you, we love you, we believe in you, we need you.

And we pray right now that you would remind every single one of us that there is nothing greater than you.

Because we're all coming here today, we're all bringing burdens, we're all bringing struggles, we're all bringing insecurities and pain and hurt, we're all bringing problems and pain.

We're just bringing so much in, but but we're bringing them to your feet right now, and we're recognizing that in the presence of you, Jesus, there is no such thing as something great.

In the presence of you, Jesus, there is no such thing as something something big because in your presence everything is small.

In your presence, everything is conquerable.

And we just want to recognize and remember who you are, how great you are.

And we pray all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.