ELIJAH: The Summary (9-14)
The
churches of
Christ Greet You (Romans
Lesson 9: The
First Kings chapter 18 is the famous story of
Elijah's
confrontation with the Baal priests on
Elijah was a tool in God’s hand, but it is no different for us - if we are available to be sharpened and used. God is always at work to test, train, and prepare us for other things. We need to learn the importance of being faithful in the smaller responsibilities of life. If we will watch and listen, we will see God at work preparing us for the ministries He has for us in dozens of ways. How we need to learn to see the hand of God bringing things to pass in our lives according to His timing and purposes. As His thoughts are not ours, so it is that His timing is often not ours as well
(cf. Isa. 55:8-11).
God deals with us on a day‑by‑day, day‑at‑a‑time basis. Every day of the Christian’s life is important to God and should be so for us. Why? Because no day for a child of the King is unimportant to God. God cares for us and for all the details of our lives (1 Pet. 5:7). This means we need to carefully watch how we are walking day-by-day. Each day is to be redeemed by walking circumspectly and wisely. Each day is to be reckoned as important in view of the shortness of life (Ps. 90:12; 39:4‑5). Each day is to be viewed in the light of eternity
(cf. Heb. 9:27; Rev. 2:10).
Life is full of changes and uncertainties and times that often seem like "many days." Conditions change, times change, people change, needs change. However, God never changes. As the everlasting God, He is one who can always be counted on. "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8). In contrast to the world that is running down like a clock, we read, "But Thou art the same, and Thy years will not come to an end" (Ps. 102:26‑27). That means God is there for us day after day through the ups and downs and through those days that seem like many days. We therefore need to wait on the Lord and seek our strength in His care. God knows what He is doing and what He is doing is best regardless of how it appears to us.
Christian character, Christ‑filled living, means obedience to God. It means faith and courage. It means service to others and that means involvement and sacrifice. For people of faith, spiritual integrity and character, for people who love God and people, the blessing is in the privilege of serving the Lord and people, in seeing God's name vindicated and Satan defeated. Here is the ultimate goal of the Word - love for God and love for others (Mark 12:29‑34). This is the heart of ministry - Service and Sacrifice.
Lesson 10: The
First Kings 18 is the famous story of Elijah's
confrontation
with the priests of Baal on
God is in the business of stretching us to become
more
effective vessels for His purposes. We, however, like to stay within
the
comfort zones of our little routines. Even there, God will use us. This
is
where the tests of obedience and challenges come - while we are out
involved in
the everyday affairs of life. Here is where we meet people and needs
and here
is where God wants to work to stretch our faith. Though we are not to
be of the
world, God has called us to go out into the world and into the work
place to
demonstrate God's love and the new life we have in the Savior (cf. John
17:14-18).
When God sends us to do a job, He will provide the resources we need
(Phil.
We all face the problem of fear at times. For most of us, our fears generally fall into three categories: (1) fear of failure, (2) fear of rejection, and (3) fear of loss, i.e., of what it may cost us; fear we might have to give up something we think we must have to be happy. Fear can paralyze and thus neutralize us. Fear can keep us from venturing out and being available to the Lord. In times of real persecution, serving the Lord can be life threatening. But we have a mighty God who has promised to stand with us so we can overcome our fears. We are told in 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity (fear), but of power and love and discipline (a sound mind)."
When we fail to focus on God's person and claim God's promises we start assuming all kinds of things about what can or is happening. We become rather paranoid and begin to worry (NOTE: worry is when you hold mental pictures of things you don’t want to happen). When we do not control our minds with the principles and promises of God's Word, our imaginations will paralyze us with fear and worry. We need to bring every thought into captivity and to think with the perspective of the promises and principles of God's Word (cf. 2 Cor. 10:4-5; Phil. 4:8).
The true Christian must be firmly convinced of the aliveness of Yahweh and His mighty power as the Lord of Hosts (or Armies), the Lord who has all of heavens mighty and holy angels at His command. We need to help others see the majesty of the Lord and see that our lives are ordered and directed by that same majesty. We must act like we are God's children by serving the Lord and not ourselves. We need to give evidence we are under God's orders, at God's disposal, and truly His representatives governed by the eternal truths of God and thereby reliable. People should be able to count on us because we are counting on the Lord.
Lesson 11: The
Like
the story of Elijah and the battle at
The
Lord compares the thoughts we harbor in our hearts to treasure. We
store and
keep them in our minds because we value them and put our trust in them.
The
treasure of the heart can be good. On the other hand, it is obvious
some
treasures of the heart or mind are evil. The mouth speaks out the
corruption
that has been smoldering and festering within the heart
(cf.
Matt. 15:19). A heart filled with resentment or any kind of "stinking
thinking" is like a volcano ready to erupt. All it needs is the right
situation - and bang! Such thoughts are equivalent to "vain thinking.”
Vain thinking is faith in ourselves and unbelief in God and His
solutions. That
which is without faith in the right object, God, is sin (Rom.
First
Kings 18:16-24 presents us with confrontation and conflict. We simply
do not
like that. Our natural tendency is to avoid confrontation and conflict.
Confrontation is rarely painless, never easy, often rejected, and
always risky.
We usually avoid it for selfish reasons - out of fear of the
consequences to
ourselves. When necessary, confrontation needs to be done according to
biblical
principles, in a biblical way, for biblical reasons, and out of right
motives.
Obviously we must deal with people differently and one of our tasks in
ministering to others is to be discerning, to listen, and seek to
understand
the needs of the other person.
Elijah
had the boldness to confront King Ahab because his confidence was in
the Lord.
As God's ambassador and servant, he knew the truth of Psalm 118:6, "The
Lord is for me; I will not fear; what can man do to me?" Or as Hebrews
13:6 puts it, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what shall
man
do to me?" Elijah was counting on the fact no one could touch his life
unless the Lord willed it and then, his loss would really be his gain
(cf.
Phil.
Elijah
indicted Ahab and his father's house for two things that stand to each
other as
root and fruit or cause and effect. Ahab had ignored and rejected the
Word of
God, thus seeking to live independently of God's wisdom. This is always
the
root problem, the cause of all else - trusting in one's own resources.
The
effect of turning away from the Word is turning to idols. Idolatry
represents
the substitutes of man's empty imagination when he attempts to live
apart from
God. When we turn away from the Word we turn to our own solutions in an
attempt
to handle our fears, our loneliness, and our pain. When we turn away
from a
personal relationship with the Lord, from depending on Him through His
Word, we
naturally turn to what we think will make us happy, secure, and
significant.
The Bible defines this as vain imaginations or futile speculations of
the heart
(Rom.
Lesson
12: The
One
of the great needs at all times in a society, but especially in times
of great
apostasy, is for God's people to step forward for God and His truth.
While God
always has His people, they are, as they are described in the Bible, a
remnant
or a minority. Taking a stand for the truth and facing a majority who
stand
against the truth often leaves us feeling lonely. Humanly speaking it
very
often appears we are alone. We must remember, however, when we stand
for the
Lord we are in the majority because standing with us is the Infinite
Almighty
and His myriad of hosts. When we stand for the Lord of the Bible, we
stand in
the sovereign strength and majority of the true God of the universe who
surrounds us with His hosts.
God
is calling out from among His people those who will stand in the gap
and count
for the Lord (cf. Ezek.
There
is always a great pull for people to lead lives of duplicity to some
degree.
They may go to the church building on Sunday, but the rest of the week
they are
dominated by other loves, concerns, and commitments (cf. Luke
The
reality of God, who is the Creator and Sovereign, demands that mankind,
the
creature, trust Him and then follow Him. Anything else is logically
absurd; it
is pure madness. We need to acknowledge the futility of all false gods.
Once we
know who the true God is, it's absurd to follow the false gods of our
own
making. Our false gods cannot save us nor deliver us from the pain of
this
life. They only distract, destroy, and deter us from the blessings of
the true
God. If God is God (and He is), follow Him. When the reality of the
true God
and His claims on our lives grip us, we find we have no logical or
sensible
choice but to trust Him to the degree that we then commit our lives
totally to
Him. Perhaps nothing is more pathetic than to see a child of the living
God
tottering between two opinions, torn between a vital commitment to the
Lord,
and seeking happiness in the gods of this world. We were created to
have one
center. To have two is to be miserable and to enjoy neither spiritual
things
nor material.
Lesson
13: The
This
lesson deals with the test proposed to prove who the true God really
is. The
principle is simply once the true God has manifested Himself and is
known, it
is foolish, indeed it is absurd to follow the false man-made gods of
idolatry.
Anything mankind worships or depends on for security, significance, or
happiness, other than the Lord, becomes a form of idolatry. They are
the
workings of our own blindness to provide substitutes to fill the void
in our
lives and are substitutes for God's plan for life (Rom. 1:18ff; Eph.
4:17ff).
These idols may be religious, philosophical, or materialistic. They may
be any
of the strategies by which people seek to meet their needs as they
envision
them. Standing boldly for the true God is Elijah, a man of God who
uncompromisingly believed God's Word. As a representative person in
heroic
narrative, the test illustrates the testimonial effect and power any
child of
God can have when they, like Elijah, become confident of their mighty
resources
in the Lord and stop operating by their own idolatrous solutions.
Our
tendency is to be either people-oriented or problem-oriented, or both.
We tend
to gather all the data we can on the problems, and then start telling
ourselves
how this or that is simply not going to work. We back off because our
lack of
faith views the problems as too great for God to handle. The Prophet
was
neither people-oriented, nor problem-oriented. He knew there was no
problem too
big for the Lord. The issue is never the size of the problem - never.
The issue
is knowing and acting in faith on God's will regardless of the outcome.
A child
of God, a true believer in the person and work of Christ, can fail to
experience God's power in his or her life in authentic, transformed
living.
This occurs when we fail to walk with the Lord in the light of His Word
by
faith in His provision and power.
False
religious systems are futile. They are futile because they cannot give
access
to God. They reject the person and work of Christ as God's one and only
means
of reconciliation and salvation (John 14:6). They tend to be
ecumenical. They
readily combine and accept many beliefs as legitimate means of access
to God.
They may accept Jesus as one of the great religious leaders or
prophets, but
not as the Son of God and the one and only Savior of the World. False
religious
systems are also futile to meet man's needs. They can't save from
either the
penalty or power of sin. They can't deliver from the power and darkness
of
Satan. They can't give the Holy Spirit (the earnest of our salvation –
Eph.
Lesson
14: The
The
People
need to see there is a true God, know who the true God is, and know He
is alive
and well and involved with their lives and nation. As God's servants,
our lives
are to be ordered and directed by the Word of God, and not by the whims
and
caprice of people. Though we serve people, we are not a servant of
people or a
people-pleaser (1 Thess. 2:4-5). The world is full of religious phonies
that
worship and serve their own appetites (Phil.
We
all have our own areas of influence and places of impact. This varies
with each
one of us, but faith, faithfulness, integrity, and effectual prayer can
tremendously increase our capacity for influence. When we pray in
public, we
should never pray pretentiously, to be heard and seen of people in
order to
gain their approval. Still, public prayer is a means not only of
exalting the
Lord and seeking His grace, but also of providing encouragement and a
blessing
to people (cf. 1 Cor. 14:15-17). For God to hear our prayer, we need to
repair
or correct those things in our lives that hinder fellowship with Him.
One of
the things that always hinders the impact of God's people in the world
is
disunity. God wants His people united and working together (John
17:20-24; 1
Cor. 1:10-13).
Public
prayers should usually be brief, clear, and to the point. The Lord does
not
hear us for our many words (Matt. 6:7). Very often, long prayers are
pretentious (Mark
Our
prayer life and our hunger for the Word are clear barometers of the
condition
of our heart. When we continue to ignore God's revelation and pursue
our own
desires and plans, it has a hardening effect on the heart (Heb. 3:7-13;
Mark
Be
sure your prayer is grounded in the Word. This gives confidence. Be
sure your
prayer is not from carnal or wrong motives, but directed by biblical
principles. Keep on asking, looking, and knocking in a faith that rests
in
God's Fatherly care, love, and timing (Matt. 7:7-8). Above all, ask the
Lord to
teach you what He wants to do in you and through you during this period
of
waiting. The Lord often waits to answer our prayers for physical needs
in order
to deal with our spiritual needs. It becomes the means of ending the
spiritual
drought in our own souls and then in our community.
Satan
doesn't mind if we teach and preach near as much as he minds if we pray
because
he knows it is far more important to talk to God about people, than to
talk to
people about God. It's when we start talking to God about people that
our
preaching and teaching becomes most effective. If Satan can keep
Christians off
their knees very little of the Word will really take hold. Prayer is a
very
important dimension in the life of every child of the King. May the
Lord enable
us to keep the dimension of the power of prayer in focus.
All
must come to God through faith in the person and work of Christ who
died in our
place to bear our sin (John 14:6). We are to pray in the Spirit to the
Father
in the Name of the Son (Eph.