OUR GOD IS SELF-EXISTENT WHILE THEIRS IS NON-EXISTENT-BEFORE TIME WAS HE WAS

Transcription

1 1 KINGS 18:23-39 NKJV Now let them give us two oxen, and let them choose one ox for themselves and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. I will prepare the other ox and lay it on the wood, and I will not put a fire under it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the god who answers by fire, He is God. And all the people answered, It is well spoken. Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, since there are many of you; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it. So they took the bull that was given to them and prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, hear and answer us. But there was no voice and no one answered. And they leaped about the altar which they had made. At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, Cry out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied, or he is out at the moment, or he is on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened! So they cried out with a loud voice to get Baal s attention and cut themselves with swords and lances in accordance with their custom, until the blood flowed out on them. As midday passed, they played the part of prophets and raved dramatically until the time for offering the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention. WHAT AN ABSOLUTE SPECTACLE IS BEING SEEN HERE! WHAT A DEMONSTRATION OF A OF A GODLESS PEOPLE PRAYING TO A WEAK ENEMIC POWERLESS GOD, BECAUSE HE WAS NO GOD AT ALL! NOTHING HAPPENED BECAUSE NO ONE WAS THERE TO ANSWER! So they took the ox he had given them, prepared it for the altar, then prayed to Baal. They prayed all morning long, O Baal, answer us! But nothing happened not so much as a whisper of breeze. Desperate, they jumped and stomped on the altar they had made. By noon, Elijah had started making fun of them, taunting, Call a little louder he is a god, after all. Maybe he s off meditating somewhere or other, or maybe he s gotten involved in a project, or maybe he s on vacation. You don t suppose he s overslept, do you, and needs to be waked up? They prayed louder and louder, cutting themselves with swords and knives a ritual common to them until they were covered with blood. This went on until well past noon. They used every religious trick and strategy they knew to make something happen on the altar, but nothing happened not so much as a whisper, not a flicker of response. THE GOD THAT THEY WERE PRAYING TO WAS NON-EXISTENT; HE IS NO GOD AT ALL. THEY GOT NO ANSWER BECAUSE THEY WERE PRAYING TO NOTHING! THEIR GOD IS A FIGMENT OF THEIR IMAGINATION. THEIR GOD IS A FANTASY GOD MADE UP IN THEIR OWN HUMAN MINDS OUR GOD IS SELF-EXISTENT WHILE THEIRS IS NON-EXISTENT-BEFORE TIME WAS HE WAS WHEN MOSES ASKED GOD WHO SHOULD HE SAY HAS SENT HIM TO THEM, THE ANSWER WAS TELL THEM I AM HAS SENT YOU Then Moses said to God, Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What is His name? what shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. Moreover God said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, JESUS IDENTIFIES HIMSELF ALSO BY USING THIS TERMINOLOGY OF I AM 1. I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE 2. I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD 3. I AM THE GATE FOR THE SHEEP

2 4. I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD 5. I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE 6. I AM THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE 7. I AM THE TRUE VINE 8. I AM THE SON OF GOD 9. I AM THE FIRST AND THE LAST, THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA 10. I AM THE ROOT AND THE OFFSPRING OF DAVID, THE BRIGHT AND MORNING SATR Children sometimes ask, Who made God? The clearest answer is that God never needed to be made, because he was always there. He exists in a different way from us: we, his creatures, exist in a dependent, finite, fragile way, but our Maker exists in an eternal, self-sustaining, way. God does not have it in him to go out of existence, just as we do not have it in us to live forever. We necessarily age and die, because it is our present nature to do that; God necessarily continues as He was and is and shall be forever unchanged, because it is his eternal nature to be that. THERE IS NO GOD WHO CAN COMPARE TO OUR GOD! ELIJAH IS ABOUT TO HELP ISRAEL SEE A GREAT DISTINCTION, AN ENORMOUS DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MAN MADE FALSE GOD AND THE ONE TRUE ETERNAL LIVING GOD!, THAT THEY HAVE CHOSEN TO WORSHIP AN IMPOTENT, WEAK, FEEBLE, INCAPABLE, POWERLESS GOD. ELIJAH WAS SAYING TO THEM, THIS GOD OF BAAL, THIS GOD OF ASHERAH IS ONLY SOMETHING YOU HAVE CONJURED UP IN YOUR MINDS. YOU CAN TAKE ALL OF THE FASLE RELIGIONS OF OUR DAY AND NONE OF THEM, NONE OF THEM WORSHIP THE TRUE AND LIVING GOD! THEY ARE LEADING COUNTELSS MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ASTRAY INTO AN ETERNITY WITHOUT GOD TODAY BY A MANMADE, MAN CREATED GOD THAT IS NOT AND NEVER WAS. NOTICE THAT ELIJAH DOES NOT TRY TO GO INTO SOME LONG DRAWN OUT THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE OR DISCUSSION AND DIALOGUE TO TRY TO SUBSTANTIATE, VALIDATE, AUTHENTICATE AND PROVE WHO THE ONE TRUE GOD IS. Then Elijah said to all the people, COME NEAR TO ME. SO ALL THE PEOPLE CAME NEAR TO HIM. AND And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, Israel shall be your name. around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. and he made a trench

3 THE VERY FIRST THING THAT ELIJAH HAS TO DO IS TO REPAIR THE ALTAR. YOU CAN SEE THAT FOR ELIJAH THIS HAS TOP PRIORITY. THAT BEFORE ANYTHING IS TO BE DONE THIS ALTAR NEEDS TO BE REPAIRED! OVER TIME OUR ALTARS HAVE SLOWLY, STEADILY AND GRADUALLY BEEN TORN DOWN THROUGH NEGLECT, THROUGH CARELESSNESS, AND THROUGH REJECTION, IN FAVOR OF A MORE COMFORTABLE AND LESS PAINFUL AND LESS HUMILIATING WAY TO GOD! BUT THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS, IT ISN T WORKING. WE NEED THE ALTAR RESTORE AGAIN TO THERE RIGHTFUL PLACE IN OUR CHURCHES. ONCE HAD SIGNIFICANCE, THEY ONCE HAD GREAT WORTH AND WERE FREQUENTED OFTEN BY THE PEOPLE OF GOD. SUNDAY NIGHTS TENDED TO BE THE TIME WHERE THE ALTARS WERE VISITED THE MOST. HOWEVER, IN TODAY THE SUNDAY NIGHT SERVICE FOR THE MOST PART DOESN T EXIST IN MANY OF OUR CHURCHES THEREFORE IT HAS PLAYED A PART IN THE ABANDONMENT OF THE ALTAR. I DON T THINK WE PURPOSELY SET OUT TO WALK AWAY FROM THE ALTAR, BUT THE DEVIL HAS DECEITFULLY OVER TIME GOTTEN US ALL SO BUSY WITH JUST LIVING LIFE WE NO LONGER HAVE TIME FOR THE ALTAR. FOR THE MOST PART VIEW THE ALTAR AS A BIT ANTIQUATED, TO OLD FASHION TO BE THE PLACE WHERE PEOPLE CAN HAVE THE NEEDS OF THEIR LIVES MET ANYMORE. WE THINK IT OUTDATED, OBSOLETE, UNNECESSARY, AND POINTLESS AND SO FOR THE MOST PART WE HAVE ABANDONED THEM.

4 WE HAVE FORSAKEN OUR ALTARS WHERE TEARS USED TO BE SHED, REPENTANCE USE TO TAKE PLACE, DELIVERANCE USED TO BE COMMON PLACE AND THE SEEKING OF GOD USE TO HAPPEN ON A REGULAR BASIS, WHERE LIVES WERE CHANGED BY THE POWER OF GOD.! A BROKEN LIFE NEEDS A RESTORED ALTAR TO BE A PLACE WHERE BROKENESS CAN BE RESTORED AND HEALED IN THAT ONCE BROKEN LIFE. THE ALAR IS STILL THE PLACE WHERE GOD WANTS TO COME AND TOUCH PEOPLE, CHANGE PEOPLE, CONSUME PEOPLE WITH HIS PRESENCE! THE ALTAR IS THE PLACE WHERE HIS ALL CONSUMING FIRE WILL FALL TO IGNITE US AND DEAL WITH OUR FLESH NATURE! IS FOR MEN AND WOMEN WHO WILL REBUILD THE ALTAR. THE ALTAR IS THE MEETING PLACE WITH GOD WHERE WE PRESENT OURSELVES, OFFER OURSELVES TO GOD AND HIS SERVICE TO OTHERS. WHERE WE COMMITT OUR LIVES TO HIS SERVICE. WHERE WE PRAY THAT HE WILL BRING OUR THOUGHTS, OUR AFFECTIONS AND OUR ACTIONS IN COMPLETE ALIGNMENT WITH HIS WORD AND HIS WILL ROMANS 12:1-2 MESSAGE So here s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life, your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life AND PLACE IT BEFORE GOD AS AN OFFERING. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

5 and said, Fill four water pots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. Then he said, Do it a second time, and they did it a second time; and he said, Do it a third time, and they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water. And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. was what moved him to call down the fire of God, DECISIVELY, CONCLUSIVELY, CONVINCINGLY, AND COMPELLINGLY AND THEREBY DEFEATING THE FALSE PROPHETS OF BAAL AND DYNAMICALLY TURNING THE HEARTS OF HIS OWN PEOPLE BACK TO THEIR GOD!

6 When I talk about the fire of God I am referring to the fire of His Holy Spirit that sets our hearts on fire! Listen it is not just some emotional response, though it will affect you emotionally, but it is more consuming in its nature! Most of the issues that we face in life that try to defeat us would be defeated themselves by God s consuming presence touching them! WHAT ABOUT YOU TODAY? WHAT ABOUT THE OFFERING OF YOUR LIFE AS A LIVING SACRIFICE ON THE ALTAR FOR GOD S FIRE TO BURN IN? MAYBE THERE IS SOMEONE HERE THIS MORNING THAT JUST WANTS TO PRESENT THEIR LIFE TO GOD! MAYBE THERE IS SOMEONE HERE THAT JUST WANTS GOD S FIRE TO TOUCH THEM! I DON T KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT I WANT, AND I NEED GOD TO TOUCH MY LIFE. LIFE WITHOUT HIS TOUCH HOLDS NO MEANING, NO JOY, AND NO CONTENMENT! WE NEED THE FIRE OF GOD S SPIRIT TO TOUCH US! WHAT ABOUT YOU TODAY? CAN YOU SAY THAT YOU NEED TO RESTORE THE ALTAR- GIVE HIM THE SACRIFICE OF YOUR LIFE-AND SAY, SEND THE FIRE, SEND THE FIRE! PLACE ON THE ALTAR AS A SACRICE FOR GOD TO TOUCH WITH A FIRE, A HEAVEN SENT FIRE THAT WILL CONSUME THE DROSS, PURIFY THE HEART, AND MAKE YOUR LIFE TO BE ABLAZE WITH THE LIGHT OF GOD S GLORY!

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