July 9, 2023, Glynwood Baptist Church, Prattville, Alabama. James Jackson, Pastor. Text: 1 Kings 18:30-40
Before the Fire Falls, Part 2 (1 Kings 18) Good morning! Please turn to 1 Kings 18. We are actually doing part 2 of a teaching I started last week about the things we need to be doing if we hope to see revival. We emphasized that revival isn’t something that can be forced or manufactured. You can’t schedule a revival. But what is revival? A lot of us probably only associate the word with an event, where a church has nightly services for a week or more, and often brings in a guest preacher or gospel quartet. These are usually planned months in advance. Lots of churches have an annual spring or fall revival. Other times revival is spontaneous. Back in February, students gathered at the Hughes Auditorium at Asbury College in Kentucky for their mandatory weekly chapel. A handful of students stayed after chapel to pray and worship—and never left. Others soon joined them, and for the next two weeks, the chapel was open around the clock for prayer, worship, repentance, and Scripture reading. More than 50,000 people came to the campus in those two weeks to experience what God was doing for themselves. That wasn’t something they could plan for. True revival never is. But while we can’t schedule a movement of the Holy Spirit, we can create the conditions that would make it more likely. But what is revival? I looked up several definitions of the word from throughout church history, and most of them have some elements in common.
- an extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit producing extraordinary results.” Richard Owen Roberts “
- “the sovereign act of God, in which He restores His own backsliding people to repentance, faith and obedience.” Stephen Olford
- “making alive again those who have been alive but have. fallen into what is called a cold, or dead, state.
- “God’s quickening visitation of his people, touching their hearts and deepening his work of grace in their lives.” J. I. Packer
- “the awakening or quickening of God’s people to their true nature and purpose.” Robert Coleman
It’s extraordinary—Revival is not normal. It’s up to God’s sovereign activity Revival is making alive that which is dead. So of course it can’t be something manufactured. A dead person or a dead church or a dead heart can’t revive itself. It has to be acted upon. It always involves repentance and obedience. And in 1 Kings 18, we see all of those things. We read the whole passage last week, so I won’t (or maybe I can’t)read the whole thing again, but I do want to re-read the last part of the story. to recap, this episode takes place in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, during the reign of King Ahab, the most evil king in Israel’s history. 1 Kings 16:33 says he did more to provoke the Lord to anger than all the kings who were before him put together. If you were here last week, you’ll remember the Kingdom Shuffle, right? The kingdom shuffle helps us remember that during the 350 year period between the death of Solomon and the Babylonian exile, Israel had 19 kings, all bad. Judah had 20 kings, 8 good. Let’s review: DIVIDED KINGDOM 350 YEARS NORTH – SOUTH ISRAEL – JUDAH 19 – 20 0 – 8 Awesome! Now, looking ahead in the reading plan, we are getting into a point where we are going back and forth between books of history and books of prophecy. It will be confusing, so hang on to your bulleting insert to help you keep it straight. We have four prophetic books from prophets who were active in Israel (northern kingdom) before the Assyrian invasion—the Ha Ha’s (Hosea/Amos) and the Nah-Nah’s (JoNAH, NAHum). In the Southern Kingdom of Judah, we have at least six (maybe seven) books of the Bible from prophets who were active up to the Babylonian exile in 586. They were Habakkuk, Isaiah, Jeremiah, maybe Joel, Micah, and Zephaniah. And Jeremiah also wrote Lamentations. That’s a little overwhelming, but you can remember them if you sing the alphabet song in your head: H, I, J, J, M, Z, L / I know Judah’s prophets well. Is it important to know all of this? Not really. It isn’t going to impact your salvation if you forget that Habbakuk was south and Hosea was north. But it will hopefully help you track with the reading plan. In 1 Kings 18, there had been three years of drought in the land of Israel. Ahab blames Elijah for it, and Elijah challenges Ahab and the prophets of Baal to a showdown on top of Mount Carmel, one for Baal, one for Yahweh. And whichever God answers by fire, that’s the true God. The prophets of Baal do their thing, and Baal doesn’t answer. Then Elijah does his thing. Let’s look at this part again. Beginning in verse 30: 30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” 32 and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs[a] of seed. 33 And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” 34 And 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. 35 And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water. 36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.” 40 And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there. May God bless the reading of his word. Let’s pray together. [pray] We began last week talking about creating the right conditions for a revival. First, Elijah repaired what was broken. Look at verses 30-32: And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” 32 and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. So the first step in creating a revival watch is to repair what’s broken. I asked you to think about whether there are spiritual disciplines you need to get back to? Or relationships you need to repair? Is there someone you need to reconcile with? We also talked last week about how Elijah’s actions were calling the people of Israel to repentance of their sin. Repentance happens when we are aware of our sin, we acknowledge our sin before God, we confess it (that means we agree with God that it is sinful), and we repent. Confession and repentance are actually not the same thing. Confession is telling God you know you’ve disobeyed him. Repentance is an active turning away and rejecting those sinful behaviors. Now, let’s look at the next four factors that create the right conditions for a revival: Number three, Elijah risked making a big statement. This is honestly one of my favorite parts of the story. Elijah turns to some of the bystanders and tells them to go fill four jars of water and pour it on the offering. Then Elijah had them do it again. And then a third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench with water. What’s been going on for three years at this time? That’s right. A drought. So not only is Elijah making it really, really hard for the wood to catch fire, he is also “wasting” a huge amount of water. If God didn’t come through, Elijah was going to look really dumb. More than that, he would probably be put to death on the spot for wasting so much water. Here’s how this applies. Before the fire fell, Elijah took a risk. He put his reputation on the line. Before the fire fell, Elijah risked something big for something good. After the first night of worship this past week, a kid named Carson came up to me. Carson was a sixth grader. He said, “Old Guy,” (that’s my name at camp) “Are you going to have an invitation this week?” Now, we have a response time at the end of every worship service at camp, but i realized when he said this that I had not made the call to surrender your life to Jesus very clear. So I said, “Yes, I will.” But what happened next blew me away. See, I thought Carson was asking for himself. So I said, “Dude, you can give your heart to Jesus right now! You don’t have to wait for tomorrow night. You can give your life to Jesus right now!” And Carson said, “Oh no. It’s not for me. See, I have four friends here at camp with me, and I think they are really close to becoming Christians. So maybe if you explained it a little better tomorrow night, it would help them.” Now, what kind of courage does it take for a six year old kid to come up to the camp pastor and basically say, “You didn’t explain this very well?” Would I rebuke him and put him in his place? Would I tell him he needed to be more respectful? Carson was willing to risk that because he wanted to see his friends come to Jesus. That was more important than the anxiety he might have felt in coming to me in the first place. Well, of course Carson and I prayed on the spot for his friends. And that night, around 11:00, two of the four friends got saved after talking with one of their group leaders. I wish you could have seen Carson the next morning as he came up to me and introduced me to two new brothers in Christ! What about you? What would you put on the line in order for there to be revival in our country? Would you sacrifice some of your time praying for it? Would you risk your reputation on inviting someone to church? William Carey, considered by many to be the father of modern missions, said this in a 1791 sermon. He said, “If you expect little, you will receive little. If you attempt little things, you will accomplish little things. Therefore, Expect great things from God; Attempt Great Things for God.” Are you expecting great things in your life? Church, do we expect God to bless Glynwood? Maybe it is time to try something that, if it succeeded, could only be because of the power of God. What would that be, Glynwood? What would it be for you, Christian? I think one of the things that hold us back from going all in with God is that we are afraid we will look bad if it doesn’t happen. So it is helpful to remember whose reputation is really on the line here. Look again at Elijah’s prayer in verses 36-37. After he repaired the altar, put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the altar, and finally soaked it with so much water that it filled the trench he had dug around the altar, he prayed: “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Elijah doesn’t pray for himself. He doesn’t say, God, make me look better than these prophets of Baal. He doesn’t say get me out of this mess. He doesn’t even pray for rain, which was what started all this to begin with. No. He says, “Let it be known that you are God in Israel. Answer me so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back. It’s a prayer that God will be glorified, not Elijah. And if we want to make the conditions right for revival, we have to make much about Jesus. In our preaching, teaching, planning, leading, giving, sending, we make much of Jesus. Isaiah 26:8 says, “Your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. That has to be our motivation. And when the desire of our hearts is to make much of Jesus, we can trust him for the results. Remember that we can’t guarantee revival. That is up to God. But what we can guarantee is that God will be exalted. When we are focused on repairing what we’ve neglected, when we repent of our sin, when we are willing to risk our own reputations and be zealous for God’s reputation, God will be exalted. What is your motivation for praying for revival? There are a lot of great things that could happen as a result of a revival. People might get saved. Our church might grow. Abortion might be made illegal on a federal level. All of the gender confusion might be resolved, and the far left agenda might be neutralized. And all those are good things. Even great things. But none of them are reasons we pray and prepare for revival. Look again at Elijah’s prayer: let it be known that you are God. Answer me that this people may know that you are God. We aren’t coming to God with any preconceived ideas about what “let it be known that you are God” is going to look like in any given situation. We just pray, and trust God for the results. When Elijah prayed for God to make himself known, the fire fell. And boy, did it ever! Verse 38 says, 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. What hit me about this verse that I hadn’t paid much attention to before is that the fire “consumed the stones.” Let’s think about this. The fire consumed the burnt offering. Anyone who grills knows that steaks are going to be cooked when they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees. But it also licked up the water. Water boils at 212 degrees. But it also ignited the wood. The combustion point for wood to instantly combust is 700 degrees. But it also consumed the stones. Do you know how hot a fire has to be to melt rock? 2,400 degrees. I love these pictures, but I think they got this one wrong. If the fire is hot enough to consume stones, there’s no way Elijah is standing that close to it! So what was the result? God was exalted. Verse 38 says, When all the people saw it, they fell facedown and said, “Yahweh, He is God! Yahweh, He is God!” I want to close with one more challenge for us. Let’s say God does begin a season of revival in your life. You make a commitment right here and right now that you’re going to take these action steps. And you start to notice that you are more focused. You are more aware of God’s activity in your life. What if it happens at Glynwood? What if God sends such a revival to this place that when people talk about Glynwood here in Prattville, they say, “That church is on fire! People are coming to know the Lord left and right. They are baptizing people every Sunday! You can just feel the presence of the Lord the minute you set foot in that church!” When that happens, we have to remember the last part of this story. When the altar was repaired, and the people repented, and the fire fell, and everybody was praising God, Elijah turned to them and said, 40 And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there. Now there’s a buzzkill! What a way to end a worship service. But here is the lesson: When we experience revival, we have to Remove all those things which led us astray in the first place. We have to identify those idols we’ve been worshiping and those secret sins we’ve been indulging, and those old habits we’ve fallen into, and we have to remove them. Unless we do that, then revival is going to be short-lived. We can’t do this on our own. Revival can’t just be an external event. It has to be an internal transformation. INVITATION. MAKE MUCH OF JESUS!!!!
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