How to Be Bold in Your Faith- Elijah’s Courage: 2 Kings 1:1-18

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Yeah, this is good.

Wait, today we are wrapping up our week.

Because it is Friday, and we are going to launch

into a very familiar segment.

But before we get into that, segment or before we

get into the big story today, because this is Elijah

confronting a king. Yes, right, and but before we do that,

we need you to confront all of the societal problems

in our lives. What you're doing the transition, I know,

I'm becoming an expert at this man.

Wow.

And so this is everybody's favorite segment because on behalf

of all of us, you let us know what made

Chris mad this week?

Yes, well I'm mad for the world, Jeff, Yes, thank you.

I'm not just thank you me.

You're good to us, Chris. That's what I'm trying to say,

thank you, And I think you'll agree with So what

made Chris mad this week? By the way, I said,

Oh hey, by the way, the next segment is what

made Chris mad this week? He didn't even look up

from his page. He goes, already know what that is? Yeah,

So you didn't even have to think. You didn't think

for a second about it. You didn't have to look up.

You just went, I know what it is?

Yes, okay, yes, And here's what it is. And it's

in one one phrase. Somehow, the new telemarketers are finding

ways for your phone to ring and it says a name,

a random name.

Oh did you know that?

I didn't know that.

So so instead of it saying like potential spam, which

thank goodness for those calls, right, we just hit you know,

decline or whatever. Now the last thirty calls that have

come in because my name must be on a list, right, I.

Bet your name's on a lot of lists, Chris.

There's Billy Madison where there's a list of people. He

wanted to kill the kid who in front of him.

Anyway, the point is is that sorry, my random brand,

but anyway, Yeah, so now the last thirty calls I

must be on a list have come up and they

just say a name, and sometimes you look at the

area code and you're like, oh, is this a person?

I know? You know, they must be my contacts whatever

it is, but they have now found out a way

to attach it to this. Well, here's what made me Matt.

I was on a very very important call. I was

on a call about with the bank.

And because you do wheels and deals all the time,

right at that time, yeah, you're talking to one of

your bankers, Yeah, one of my bankers.

And I'm on the phone call. But then what ends

up happening.

Is this random uh uh, you know, telemarketing call comes

in and it says a name and just coincidentally happened

to be the last name of a funeral that I'm doing,

And so I thought to myself, oh no, did I

get the funeral time wrong?

Is this a family saying where are you?

Like?

Which you know, of course it wasn't.

And so I'm on the phone with this bank talking

about opening up this account and all these different kinds

of things, and I said, I'm so sorry, but I

have to put you on hold. And this lady on

the other end is like, I'm sorry. What I'm like,

I I'm so sorry, I have to put you on hold,

And so I put her on hold. I click over,

and then you know, it just doesn't say anything for

a minute, you know, and I'm like hello, Hello, and

then just waits like ten seconds. They goes all of

a sudden, you know, clicks, and all of a sudden

you hear all the tele you know, and it's and

it's usually somebody who lives across the world, right, And

they goes somebody in India air or something, and and

hello is this mister? And of course they came from

Assal Hell is this mister z click? You know, I

just click immediately, right, and I go back, and I'm like,

I'm so angry.

Oh and then I lost the call. I go to

click back.

Yeah, and then it was just a big thing, right,

and so anyway, it was just terrible, and I just

thought to myself, I am so angry that now telemarkers

have found a way to ruin my life again, you know,

for a while, until I can figure out how to

just ignore everybody miss important calls.

I don't know what to do.

Do you just, yeah, you just miss everything.

I don't answer anything. I don't recognize. Yeah that it's

off the top of my head.

So that's what some people do. But in the case

of the funeral, I was afraid it was also.

Means I missthinks sometimes. Yeah, I feel bad about.

That, Yeah for sure.

But anyway, that's but I'm not walking around raging either, right,

So there's it. Yeah, So anyway, how do you know

that that guy that called you though, wasn't from a

bigger bank offering you a better deal from India? Yeah,

I don't.

I don't think so, you.

Know, Actually I think they were connected to King that

they wanted me to email toll.

Just just in Amazon carts.

Right yeah, anyway, okay, anyway.

That's so, that's what made you mad, is that the

telemarketers are finding a way around the thing.

Yeah.

And what's what's ironic about that statement is I when

telemarketing very first came out.

You were in nineteen ninety, I.

Was I was making a ton of money, the most

money I've ever made by far during that time, because

I was a great telemarketer. Ye.

So but now you hate them, Well, it's what comes

what goes around comes around, Chris. This is a lord

just repaying you.

You're paying your dues, buddy. Yeah, yeah, that's right, the fiddler.

Right, you planted a seed and now you're reaping a whirlwind.

Right yeah, you plant a wind and reap a whirlwind.

Isn't that what God said? So you know, when you

plant one colonel of corn, you end up getting a

six foot stock with two or three ears of corn,

with hundreds of kernels of corn on it. Listen, so

you know what's coming.

I am mad.

I think of the think of the thousands of telemarketing

phone calls you've planted. All those little seeds are kind

of gone back in the hundreds of thousands.

It's everybody.

There are people out there that are experiencing what I'm experiencing.

Those of us that know that you were a successful

telemarketer are struggling to feel compassion for you. There's no

compassion for there's no compassion because you're the one that

the problem. You're the one who refined the system. Hey,

you're the one who made it better, and it came to.

Un I did it at a time where everybody actually listened.

Remember when Jesus to Peter, if you live by the sword,

you'll die by the swords.

It's true. It's true. That's true.

Fine, No, I'm gonna laugh. I'm laughing with you, not

at you.

Okay, No, I'm laughing at you.

Should be honest.

Hey, I almost feel like I have no defense.

You don't have any defense.

You have no defense, right because I I did build

a living off of really destroying the concept of people.

Call the sanctity of your own home the sanctity back

when people only had one phone, back when they had

one phone. Right, it's the only thing you had to

get up out of your chair and run over because

it might be Grandma, it might be you know, some

big news. It might be art link letter telling you

that you want a million dollars, right, and instead it

was our boss selling you beds.

Or long distance or discover cards or all sorts of things.

So anyway, it's good for you, Chris, okay. Speaking of

good for you and being confronted by telemarketers, Elijah has

to confront King a Haziah confrontations. Confrontations, that's right. Yeah,

So in Second King's chapter one, verse eighteen.

Well, you already you already preemptively did the transition. You

just did two transmits.

I know I gave you two. I'm feeling particularly generous

with transitions today.

You're so generous today.

So uh, well, I gave you a million points yesterday

for every correct answer. You know what, I'm just telling you.

I am feeling so unbelievably generous.

I think it's about time we acknowledge your generosity. I'm

a good guy.

You are a good young Speaking of good guys, Elijah confronted.

Wow, that's my third transition.

He goes. After King Ahab's death, the land of Moab

rebelled against Israel. One day, Israel's new King a Haziah

fell through the lattice work of an upper room at

his palace in Samaria, and was seriously injured. So he

sent messengers to the temple of bailz Abub, the god

of Ekron, to ask whether he would recover. I don't

think I'd be checking out Belzebub's answers about anything, doubt.

Why would he be named that, because yeah, all false

gods come from the devil. Anyways, But the Angel the

Lord told Elijah, who was from Tishba, go and confront

the messengers of the King of SAMERI and ask them,

is there no god in Israel? Why are you going

to belz Abub, the God of Ekron, to ask whether

the king will recover? Now, therefore, this is what the

Lord says. You will never leave the bed you're lying on.

You will surely die. So Elijah went to deliver the message.

When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them,

why have you returned so soon? And they replied, A

man came up to us and told us to go

back to the king and given this message. This is

what the Lord says, There's no is there no god

in Israel? Why are you sending men to bales abub

the god of Achron, to ask whether you recover. Therefore,

because you've done this, you will never leave the bed

you are lying on. You will surely die. What sort

of man was he? The king demanded, what do you

look like? And they replied he was a hairy man

and he wore a leather belt around his waist. Elijah

from Tishpa, the king explained, exclaimed that.

Maybe that's where we get the rugged description. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

there it is right there. Yeah, he saw.

Then he sent an army captain with fifty soldiers to

arrest him. They found him sitting on top of a hill,

and the captain said to him, man of God, the

king has commanded you to come down with us. But

Elijah applied to the captain, if I'm a man of God,

let fire come down from heaven and destroy you and

your fifty men. Then fire fell from heaven and killed

them all.

Wow.

So the king sent another captain with fifty men, and

the captain said, of the man of God, the king

demands that you come down at once. Elijah applied, if

I'm a man of God, let fire come from heaven

and destroy you and your fifty men. And again the

fire of God fell from heaven and killed them all

once more. Not learning his lesson, the king sent a

third captain with fifty men. But this time the captain

went up the hill and fell to his knees before Elijah.

He pleaded with him, Oh, Man of God, please spare

my life and the life of these your fifty servants.

See how the fire from heaven came down and destroyed

the first two groups. But please now spare my life.

Then the angel Lord said to Elijah, go down with him,

and don't be afraid of him. So Elijah got up

and went with him to the king. Elijah said to

the king, this is what the Lord says. Why did

you send messengers to bales above the God of Ekron

to ask whether you recover? Is there no God in

Israel to answer your question. Therefore, because you've done this,

you will never leave the bed you're lying on, and

you will surely die. So a Haziah died, just as

the Lord had promised through Elijah. Since Aziah did not

have a son to succeed him, his brother Joram became

the next king. This took place in the second year

of the reign of Jehoram. Son of Jehashaphat, king of Judah.

The rest of the events in a Haziah's reign are

recorded in the Book of the History of the Kings

of Israel.

Yikes, so, yikes, in that whole story.

Yeah, yeah, I think this calling down fire from heaven

things becoming a habit for Elijah.

Well, he knows it'll happen.

Yeah, rightly, you have pretty.

Much confidence, right, I mean, so Johasaphat apparently is no

longer king, and now Jehoram No, no, no, no. I was

gonna say, Jehoram is the king in Judah. Yeah, and

Joram is the king, yes of the Yeah, thanks for that.

Let's just make it confusing. It's it's consistently like that.

Remember it was Jereboam and Raya Boham. Now it's Joram

and Jehoram.

Right, Yeah, anyway, people need to work on their names.

So uh so poor as a Hyah was only king

for less than two years and uh and he has

a terrible injury and he fell through lattice, right, and

he's seriously injury and uh. And he sent messengers to

the Temple of Beelzebub, Temple of beelz isn't that crazy?

Yeah? Yeah, it says here Bail's abub Bail. It's not

bl zebub. Its bail ubb bail zubub. Yeah. With another

popular god whose temple is located in the city of Akron.

Because this god was thought to have the power of prophecy,

King a Hasah sent his messengers to Akron to learn

his fate. Supernatural power and mystery were associated with Bail's above.

A Hasiah's action showed the king's disrespect for God. So

this isn't the same god as the god.

Bail, right, it's bail Zubub.

It's above related to Bail.

I have a random comment.

Okay, back in the seventies there was a show called

Morkan Mindy.

I remember Mark Mindi.

And uh uh he he would grab his ears and he.

Would go h he would do that. Oh, which which

is which.

I always thought, even back then it was bad that.

I was like, I was like, why would you say that?

Well, yeah, back then, will I just remember now, no, Nana? Yeah, right,

that's right, yeah, right, so I remember. Okay, So anyways,

you know we're old, no doubt. Yeah. The next thing

it is, you start talking about Ponderosa.

By the way, I was gonna say, we've we lost

like three.

Quarters our young demographic was growing, and we just wiped

the whole thing out with that one thing.

We're sorry, hey, Charlie, sorry about that.

Exactly right. So it says that Elijah was a hairy

man and he wore a leather belt around his waist.

I love it when he goes, Okay, what kind of guy?

What he looked like? Oh, he was a hairy man

and he wore a and he.

Goes, elijahja tis belt.

He knew immediately, man. Yeah, remember on another old show,

remember Seinfeld, Yes, where he goes, right, that's newman, right,

that's it right there, So he knew it. Well, what

an amazing phrase. One of the things I love about this,

by the way, is Elijah's consistency. So he, you know,

the angel says, is there no God in Israel? Why

are you going to bails above the God of Ekron

to ask whether the king will recover? Go and challenge

them he's and tell him he's never gonna leave his bed.

You will surely die. So Elijah goes and says those

exact words, is there no God in Israel? Why are

you sending men to bales above the God of Ekron

to ask whether you recover. Therefore, because you've done this,

you will never leave the bed you're lying on. You

will surely die. It's easy to tell other people a

thing like that. But then the king finally goes, Okay,

bring you in. He comes in and he looks at

King Rate in the eye and says, this is what

the Lord said. Why did you send messengers to bails

above the God of Achron to ask whether you recover?

Is there no God in Israel to answer your question. Therefore,

because you've done this, you will never leave the bed

you're lying on. You will surely die. He never changed

his message.

Right, Yeah, well you read it literally three times.

He gave it exactly the way that God said it.

He didn't change it, he didn't soften it. He didn't.

He just said. And I think that there's a tremendous

amount of power of not trying to explain away what

God says to just come in and go listen. This

isn't me, this is God, and God is saying, Thus

saith the Lord. And this was going to happen because

I think I would be tempted to soften it when

I come and talk to the king. Maybe it's easier

to talk to the messengers because they're just messengers. But

when you when you're talking up to somebody bigger and more,

what you feel like is more powerful than you. Although

I don't know that this king has called dow on

fire from heaven a few times, so maybe Elijah had

a different view of this king. But he came in

and spoke directly and exactly without altering God's words. And

I would always caution anybody to be careful about listening

to what they read on the internet or listening to

somebody who changes the meaning. Well, God didn't really mean

it that way. Those were the old days, those were

the old times. That was a cultural thing, you know.

There's all these kind of phrases. If the Bible says that,

you can believe it, and then the Bible will correct

itself need people to correct it, so the Bible will

be its own best commentary. And so if the Bible

is consistent and continues to carry the same consistent phraseology

and the same consistent things from Moses to Jesus to Paul, Okay,

then guess what I don't need to change it, and

I don't need to find some loophole to get around it.

It's what God said, right, and then we just stick

with that. And this is one of the things I

loved about Elijah is you never find Elijah saying anything

different than what God said exactly the way that God

said it. And I think that might be part of

the big power that Elijah seems to have. Right.

Yeah, and you know what, it's I just talked about

this the other day. There was somebody that came in

one that meet with me and and he's he married

into a Greek family, so we had a connection because

my daughter's dating and yeah, and we talked about just

the idea that sometimes there are topics where they're they're uncomfortable,

they're hot topics, they're controversial, it'll split a crowd immediately,

and it's uh, you know. And we talked about how,

well we're just gonna we're just gonna unapologetically say what

the Bible says.

That's it.

And then if people get really really mad, you can say, well,

don't get mad at me.

Yeah, I didn't write it.

I didn't write it right, Right, this is what the

Bible says.

And there are times but you know, you got to

choose those times, and you got to you got to

choose when and where you say those things. But when

you say them, you say them unapologetically.

Right, Yeah, you speak the truth in love, that's right.

So there's been many times where somebody wanted to confront

me about, you know, what does hair to Church believe about?

You know, some major social issue. And I will say,

listen the way you're asking the question, this is a

really big deal to you. And I know that there's

a lot of emotion and feelings in this, and so

I recognize that I see that, And before I answer

your question, the first thing I feel like what you're

really asking me is do I accept you? And do

I love you? And the answer unequivocally is yes, I

love you? Right, I said. But then, if you're coming

to me as a pastor saying what does God say? Right,

if you're saying what is hair to church? Say hair

to church? As I love you, you're saying what does

God say about this? Then, as a representative of God

and God's word, this is what God says? And then

so I can express love and at the same time

speak the truth, right, Right, And I found myself doing

that many many times. Well that that precursor statement is

it oftentimes softens people because what they're coming in is,

am I welcome here? Are you going to tolerate me?

Here?

Are you going to treat me as a second class

citizen here? Or whatever? And when you say, hey, listen,

love is love is the core of what we're about.

But also thus say it the Lord. Those two things together, sure,

and I love you enough to tell you the truth.

Well, it's neither do I condemn you, Now go and

send no more right, right, So it's it's looking at

the rich and ruler and loving him and then saying,

now go sell all your possessions. So it's the same

thing where you know, we took this course that talked

about they give it weird names. They talked about invitation

and challenge. How Jesus would always have the inviting part

of himself, the love part, right, and then the challenge

was the uncompromising, hard truth of God. So Jesus would

often express complete love and then here's the truth, and

uh and so and I love how you know you

could you can also say truth and grace, right, truth

and grace. And I always liked how Andy Stanley praised it.

He said, when you dumb you have to have truth

and grace.

Right.

So like John one seventeen.

Jesus said, Moses can't bring you the law, but I've

come to bring you truth and grace.

It brings both dynamics. And so when you the way Andy.

Stanley says it is, if you dumb down one, you

miss out on the other. So when you dumb down

truth and you say, well, I'm really a good person,

I don't need God that much as much as other

people to get into heaven. So you're dumbing down truth,

and what you're gonna do is you're gonna miss out

on all the grace that is required because because actually

the truth is, no matter how.

Good you are, you fall just as short of.

Heaven as everybody else you need.

And they say hard truth, right, so you know what

that means.

That means now you're in the position, once you receive

the hard truth, you're in the position to receive all

the grace that God has for you.

Right.

And so, well, that's a powerful statement that you made

right there. It doesn't matter how good you are. You

would you say it doesn't it matter how good you

are you're as short.

Yeah, you fall just as short.

You fall just as short. Everybody else, yeah, everybody else.

Because we tend to measure ourselves by well, I didn't

do as many bad things as right, because we know

bad people exist on the planet, right, we read on

a correct yeah, Hitler right. I can't tell you. I

bet you. I've had a dozen times where somebody says,

you know, I'm not perfect, but I'm not hitler. I've

had that phrase so many times. So my answer always is, well,

your mom must be so proud.

Right, if that's the threshold, right, the threshold of whether

I'm a good person a bad person is Hitler right,

that's how bad it is, right.

And so we tend to do that. We tend to go, well,

I know that worse people have existed, and it's really

surprising to relatively good people. It's surprising to find out

that we are in every bit as need of God's

grace as the worst human on the planet. That's right, right,

all of us need God's grace that much. And yeah,

it's just it's a funny thing. It's a surprising thing.

I think the Christians on that. Yeah.

And then and then one thing that you just quoted

last Sunday. Is that famous quote by Tim Keller. Oh yeah,

who's a former pastor and he's deceased, but he say,

he said, the definition of the Gospel is that you

are far worse off than you ever imagined. But the

good news is you are far more love than.

You ever dreamed, you ever dared to dream.

Ever dared to dream. Right, So it's just there's something

close to that. Yeah, But it's just it's realizing our

complete and utter depravity and then being in position then

to receive God's amazing love. And so all of that

we went down the rabbit hole of saying it's always

truth and love, which is why Jesus said, he said,

this is a brand new commandment that that I bring

you love one another. You've heard it said love your

friends and hate your enemies, but I tell you love

your enemies. And so he says, love one another, and

he says, this is how people will know you're my

disciples if you love. And so it's a good reminder

for all of us Christians, for those of us who

follow God, is that we could bring the hard truth

of God, but we have to know when to deliver

it and how to deliver it, and it has to

be delivered in love.

That's what Jesus say, is right. So hey, that looks

like our time.

Yeah, I would just say that. One other thing that

I was just kind of reserving and I throw it

out there is the frustration that God seems to have

and that Elijah is bringing to him, is why are

you going for mystical solutions and information about the future.

Is there not a God in heaven? Right? Is there

not a God in Israel? You know what? You threw

off the God of Israel. And now you've got to

go to go find what the star to say, or

what some mystic says or somebody sees in a crystal

ball or some palm reader or some astrologist. That's what

you're gonna do. There's no God in heaven that can

provide answers for you. You've got to go and find

some mystical solution. And God responds very strongly to that

throughout the Bible oftentimes, and so I think it's a caution.

Sometimes Christians can kind of get caught up and playing

around with some of those things just as silly or whatever.

God doesn't consider it a silly thing. It's a big deal,

and it's almost always rooted in some kind of it's

a pathway towards evil, and in this situation, it was

Biales above.

So that's great.

Yeah, So I just cautioned all of our listeners on

that one piece as well.

That's all right.

Well, that's our time and hopefully we will see you

on Monday on the Bible Gush