This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to our last day, day five of week three of our look
through first and second Kings. We're in first Kings 18 today. God tells Elijah
to do something in first Kings 18 one that is startling, it is shocking.

And it tells us, it teaches us a second key principle towards becoming a
significant servant of the Lord. At the Kierith ravine at Zarephath, we learned
that significant servants know that God is willing and able to meet all of my
needs. But then something happens in chapter 18 verses one and two that's going to
teach us this second lesson.

Listen to these verses. After a long time in the third year, the third year of
this time of drought, the word of the Lord came to Elijah. Go and present
yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the land.

So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria.
Present yourself to Ahab.

Why in the world would he go there? That's the last place he wanted to be. Ahab
was his greatest enemy, but God says I want you to go there.

And he starts this process that's going to take him to a place called Mount Carmel
as he presents himself to Ahab. Where he's going to come against 450 prophets of
Baal. And at Mount Carmel and all the way up to it, he's going to learn this next
lesson of significant servants.

Personal faith always demands personal risk. That's what it means to have faith
as a significant servant. And Elijah, again and again, takes the risk to tell
the truth.

Now you can read it all through this chapter. In the beginning of the chapter,
he confronts Obadiah, a fellow prophet, and he told him the truth about his
fear. And then he takes the risk, even as God had told him to do in these first
few verses, to go to Ahab and talk to him.

And he told him the truth about his sin. Listen to what happens beginning in
verse 16. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet
Elijah.

And when he saw Elijah, he said to him, is that you, you troubler of Israel?
I've not made trouble for Israel, Elijah replied. But you and your father's
family have.

You've abandoned the Lord's commands and you've followed the Baals. Now, summon
the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the 450
prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table.

So he took the risk to confront Ahab, but then that leads to a next risk. And
the beginning of that risk is the risk to confront the people. Before he even
confronts the prophets on this day, they're all gathering at Mount Carmel.

The people are there to watch this confrontation. So in 1 Kings 18, 21, Elijah
went before the people and he said, how long will you waver between two
opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him.

But if Baal is God, follow him. But the people said nothing. He took the risk to
tell them the truth about their hypocrisy.

And what could they say? They said nothing. So then it comes to this final risk.

This risk to tell the truth about God. He confronts these 450 prophets of Baal
and these 400 prophets of Asherah. So 850 prophets of a false God against one
prophet of the true God.

And he stands forth and tells the truth about who God really is. They were
proclaiming gods that simply were not real. They were proclaiming nothing but a
lie.

But because they were proclaiming it so often, people began to believe it.
That's what culture does to us. There are things that are said in culture now
because people say it often enough.

Everybody believes it must be right. Well, of course it's not right just because
people say it. That's ridiculous, totally ridiculous.

You can learn that from history if you can learn nothing else from history. But
these false prophets, they had all the people worshiping their gods and they
were eating at the king's palace. They were the most popular in the kingdom.

Elijah took the risk to tell them the truth about God. And then he took the risk
to trust in the truth of what he was telling them. Verse 22, Elijah said to
them, "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, "but Baal has 450
prophets.

" And so he decides this day to provide a test, one of the most famous stories
in the Old Testament. I want to share it with you. It's one of the most dramatic
stories in the Old Testament because what happens this day is a day where the
risk of faith is shown to be a risk worth taking.

Beginning in verse 23, Elijah says, "Get two bowls for us. "Let them choose one
for themselves "and let them cut it into pieces "and put it on the wood, but not
set fire to it. "I will prepare the other bowl "and put it on the wood, but not
set fire to it.

"Then you call on the name of your God "and I will call on the name of the Lord.
"The God who answers by fire, he is God. "Then all the people said, what you say
is good.

"And Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one of the bowls and prepare
it first "since there are so many of you. "Call on the name of your God, but do
not light the fire. "So they took the bowl given to them and they prepared it.

"Then they called on the name of Baal "from morning until noon. "Oh, Baal,
answer us, they shouted. "But there was no response, no one answered.

"And they danced around the altar that they'd made at noon. "Elijah began to
taunt them. "Shout louder, he said.

"Surely he is a God. "Perhaps he's deep in thought or busy or traveling. "Maybe
he's sleeping and must be awakened.

"So they shouted louder and they slashed themselves "with swords and spears as
was their custom "until their blood flowed. "Midday passed and they continued
their frantic prophesying "until the time for the evening sacrifice. "But still
there was no response.

"No one answered, no one paid attention. "Then Elijah said to all the people,
come here to me. "They came to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord "which
was in ruins.

"Elijah took 12 stones, one for each of the tribes "descended from Jacob, of
whom the word of the Lord "had come saying, your name shall be Israel. "With the
stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord "and he dug a trench around it
large enough "to hold two saiyas of seed. "He arranged the wood, cut the bowl
into pieces "and laid it on the wood.

"And then he said to them, "fill four large jars with water "and pour it on the
offering and on the wood. "Do it again, he said and they did it again. "Do it a
third time, he ordered "and they did it a third time.

"The water ran down the altar and even filled the trench. "At the time of the
sacrifice, "the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, "O Lord, God of
Abraham, Israel and Isaac, "let it be known today that you are God in Israel
"and that I am your servant "and have done all these things at your command.
"Answer me, O Lord.

"Answer me so that these people will know "that you, O Lord, are God "and that
you are turning their hearts back again. "And then the fire of the Lord fell
"and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, "the stones and the soil "and also
licked up the water in the trench. "When all the people saw this, "they fell
prostrate and they cried, "the Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.

"I don't need to say much else. "It's all in that story. "Elijah took the risk
to stand alone.

"He took the risk to speak out. "He took the risk to trust God and God showed
up. " Now, you may think, I don't know that I could call fire down from heaven
like Elijah did.

Well, if God put you in a place where fire needed to be brought down from
heaven, that's exactly what would happen. But as you take the risk of faith, it
might be that God would call words into your mouth to share the truth with a
friend. That's the risk you need to take.

Or he would put love into your heart to love your family in a way that you never
had before. That's the risk of faith that you need to take. Or he'd put a sense
of faith into your life so that you would step out into a ministry to serve
people that need to be served, that you're frightened to serve, but you know
it's what God wants you to do.

That's the risk that you need to take. And the fire that falls down from heaven
will be the truth that goes into that friend's life, the love that is seen by
your family, the ministry that happens in this world. That fire will change the
world as much, more even than the fire that fell that day with Elijah.

But it starts with the risk of faith. So as we pray a servant's prayer today,
just ask yourself, what risk of faith do I need to take? And pray this with me.

Oh, Father, you know, it's hard for me to take risks. I'd rather trust in
myself. I'd rather trust in what's familiar.

I'd rather stay where I am. But Lord, I want to live the kind of life that you
have. I want to serve in the way that you want me to serve.

So I pray that you'd show me the risk of faith that you want me to take. Not the
foolish risk that I take to prove something to myself, but the faith risk. That
the only reason I take it is because I trust you.

And God, when I take that risk and I trust you, I know that whether the answer
comes immediately, as it did with Elijah that day, or it comes in a timing of
months and years, I know that the fire will fall. I know that your word will
come true. I know that I can trust you.

So show me what to do. Show me how to risk in faith. Thank you that you are
trustworthy.

In Jesus' name, amen. Well, join us next week. We're going to keep learning how to
serve from this wonderful servant of God, this prophet of God, Elijah.