I Kings 8:1-40
In life we need the connection with the only power that enables us to face our fears and enemies. The message found in the scripture is that power belongs to God. It is the power that enables us to face our fears. In Peanuts, Marcie is talking with Charlie Brown about her fears. Marcie says to Charlie, “The years are going by fast. I’m scared Chuck. What if I grow up and no one ever loves me? We people with big noses are very insecure. Do you think I have a big nose, Chuck? Do you think someone will love me someday?”
Charlie’s response is, “Sure.”
Marcie says, “Sure, sure what? Sure, I have a big nose or sure someone will love me someday?”
Charlie says, “Maybe someday the rest of your face will catch up with your nose and then someone will love you.”
Marcie goes home and looks into a mirror and says, “Hurry up face!”
We seek help with our fears and enemies. Some times we are our own worst enemy.
John Wesley had a fear for the church he had started. Wesley said, “I am not afraid that the people called Methodist should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit and discipline with which they first set out with.”
The American Methodist church has become what Wesley was afraid that it would become. It exists as a dead sect having the form of religion without the power. The rejection of God’s word has produced the dead sect for a large segment of our church in America.
In the scripture lesson from I Kings we meet Obadiah, the person in charge of King Ahab’s palace. Obadiah is working for the very evil King Ahab. Obadiah was a devoted follower of the Lord. Israel was in the third year of the drought that the Lord had told Elijah what would happen because of the wicked leadership of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. Ahab sent Obadiah out to find a source of water for his horses. In his search Obadiah encounters the prophet Elijah and Elijah tells Obadiah “Now go and tell you master Elijah is here.” Obadiah protested, “What harm have I done to you that you are 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.”
Elijah told Obadiah, “You can trust me, for God is sending me to meet Ahab.” Elijah said, “I swear by the Lord Almighty in whose presence I stand, that I will present myself to Ahab this very day.” Elijah trusted God and he confronted this evil king. “When Ahab saw him he exclaimed, ‘So, is it really you, you troublemaker of Israel?’ Elijah responded to the King, ‘I have not made trouble for Israel. You are the troublemaker, for you have refused to obey the commands of the Lord and have worshipped the image of Baal instead. Now summon all Israel to join me at Mount Carmel along with the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah who are supported by Jezebel.’
So Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel. 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.”
We that belong to the church today must decide if the God we meet in the Scriptures is God or that the god in humanism is god. Which will have the power to change a life of evil and sin to a life of hope, joy and peace? Humanist gods come in many forms.
Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal and Asherah with the power of God that has the power to change life. Elijah told the false prophets that the god who answers our prayers will be the true God and all the people agreed. The only God that can answer prayer is the God we meet in Jesus. “Elijah said, ‘I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but Baal has 450 prophets. 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 will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood on the altar, but not set fire to it. Then call on 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.”
The God we meet in Jesus Christ answers our prayers. The god of humanism will not answer your prayers. The god we see in humanism offers us no salvation to sin. We can read the outcome between a faithful prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal and Asherah. Elijah makes fun of these phony prophets when their phony gods can’t respond to their call for help. “The Baal prophets called, ‘O Baal answer us?’ But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made. About noontime Elijah began mocking them. ‘You’ll have to shout louder,’ he scoffed, ‘for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip or asleep and needs to be awakened.’
So they shouted louder and following their normal custom they cut themselves with knives and swords until blood gushed out. They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice but there was no sound, no reply, no response.
Then Elijah called the people to join him. At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and 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 of 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.’
Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! The people of Israel fell face down on the ground and cried out, ‘The Lord, he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!”
When the gods of humanism and politically correct ideas cause the collapse of the so-called church, wrecked by the actions of a people saying that we can believe what we want and do what we want with our lives because this is all that there is to life, the downfall will be sad. In the death of the humanist so-called church, God will give life to the true church. The true church is born out of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The believers in Jesus will face God’s judgment and in repentance receive forgiveness, grace and mercy that produces new life in God’s holy and living church. Which church do you belong?
