No Other Gods - 1 Kings 18
Is trust really trust when we’ve got a back-up plan? There was once a young boy who went hiking with his father. The boy was all over the place, climbing ahead of his dad. And the dad heard a voice from above him yell, “Hey Dad! Catch me!” The man turned around to see the boy launching himself off a rock straight at him. The boy had jumped and THEN yelled, “Hey Dad!” Sort of a last minute scramble - the dad barely caught the boy and they fell to the ground in a heap together. And for a moment they lay on the ground, breathless. Relieved. But when the man finally found his voice he got ready to yell, “What were you thinking? Do you have any idea how crazy and dangerous that was? Can you give me one good reason why you would do that?” And the boy was sort of wide eyed, and very calm as he replied, “Well yeah - because you’re my dad.” His confidence, his complete assurance was based on the fact that his father was trustworthy. He’d never let him fall. The young boy could live life to the hilt because he knew his father could be trusted. Is it really trust if you’ve got a back up plan?
Today is the final sermon in our series Fear Over Faith - where we have been exploring how fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, how a proper respect and reclaiming an awe of the Almighty can push us to grow in our faith. Today I am going to tell you two different stories - one about the prophet Elijah, and the other about a man named George Mueller. But by the time we are done with this message what I hope you realize is that I am actually telling a secret, third, story about you and Jesus. Let’s dive in.
So if you want to grab your bible, we are going to be in 1 Kings chapter 18 today, but while you’re looking that up let me set the table for this meal. Elijah was a prophet in Israel during the reign of King Ahab. And you might remember - prophets are the mouthpiece of God. Their job was to tell the king and the people whatever message God tells them to give. Most of the time the prophet’s job was to smack the king upside the head and say, “stop it! That’s called evil.” And King Ahab - hoah, this is a bad dude. He married a woman named Jezebel, and she also was bad news. She’s actually pretty famous for being trouble - and so Elijah spent a lot of his life running and hiding because there was such conflict between the prophets and the kings. Jezebel worshipped these false gods called Baal. And she got King Ahab to worship Baal as well, and soon it was most of the country worshipping this false God. And eventually Elijah was the only prophet left, while Baal had hundreds of prophets. And so Elijah tells the king - hey, there’s going to be a drought, and he was right. There was no rain in Israel for three years. And where there’s drought, there’s famine - so Israel is struggling and the people are angry. Elijah blames Ahab and Ahab blames Elijah and it all comes to a head with this showdown on mount Carmel.
Elijah tells Ahab, “Alright, let’s do this” [read v.19] And as soon as everyone is gathered Elijah starts with this, [read v.21]. How long will you waver? Another translation says, “how long will you limp between two opinions” - and the hebrew text literally means hobbling on two branches. And the hebrew text is designed to bring to mind, like, a little bird hopping between branches, can’t make up his mind which way to go. But there’s another way we could understand it. Hobbling on two branches, crutches were usually made out of branches. There’s this idea in the text that if you can’t make up your mind - if you hobble between two opinions - you will be held back, you’re limping, hobbling. Making a decision one way or the other brings clarity. Elijah says, “look, either you believe this stuff or you don’t.” Way back in 1999 there was this popular action movie called The Mummy, starring Brendan Frasier. It’s your basic action packed historical nonsense - they accidentally bring a mummy back to life and then they need to kill it again. Classic - I loved it as a kid. And there’s this scene in the movie, where this little weasel of a fella bumps into the mummy. And the mummy is terrifying and it’s coming after him, and so he pulls out this stack of necklaces from all the different religions and starts praying in each language.He starts with the cross, and when that doesn’t stop the mummy, he switches to the crescent and star necklace (which is the symbol for Islam), when that doesn’t work, he switches to a buddhist symbol and then to the star of David, (the Jewish symbol). Because this man, he’s hopping from branch to branch, and he’s crippled by it - he doesn’t actually believe in any of it. And guess what? That character’s not in the sequel. Trying to believe it all is the same as believing none of it.
In our lives, we see this. Some of us act like Christians, when we are around Christians - but then we act like non-Christians when we’re with non-Christians. That sort of uncertainty in life - it cripples you, it keeps you from growing. How can you know who you are - how can you know who you trust, if it changes depending on the people around you? And this isn’t just about religion or faith - this is about everything in life! For example, my wife and I, we love watching movies together. You know, it’s in the evening, it’s been a long day, we just enjoy sitting down together to watch a movie every now and then. BUT the worst part about watching a movie is, “Well… what do you want to watch?” I dunno, what do you want to watch?” I dunno, what’re you in the mood for? I don’t really car-have any of you had this conversation? Or maybe it’s what restaurant do you want to go to, or what do you want to eat for dinner? Decision fatigue is a real thing and it shows us that in life and in faith indecision cripples our ability to grow. Sometimes someone just has to take charge and make a decision. Elijah says, “if God is God, follow him, if this other guy is God, then follow him!” Make a decision. This lukewarm, eh - whatever the majority wants - that’s got to stop.
So then Elijah proposes a little test. Let’s set up two altars, exactly the same. You call on your god, I’ll call on mine. Whoever sends fire to light these altars - that’s the real God. Deal? And the 450 prophets of Baal (and their buddies, the four hundred prophets of Asherah) they agree. And so they go first, and they prepare the altar, and they call out to Baal for hours. And Elijah, he’s being kind of a jerk about it. He starts to make fun of them. Check out verse 27, [read v.27]. Maybe your god is taking a smoke break, or he’s in the bathroom, or he’s taking a nap in the back. All day they try, they cut themselves and scream and rave and nothing happens. And now it’s Elijah’s turn. So first he puts the altar together, and then in verse 33. [read v.33] Now I want you to think about this for a second - three years of drought. Think about how precious water is. Think about how angry the crowd would be if he was wasting that water. Verse 34, [read v.34-35]. So this altar is SOAKED wet. Now think about why he is doing that. If he hadn’t poured water all over the altar, maybe they could have said it was a dought, a hot day, maybe the brush just caught fire - maybe it wasn’t God. Maybe if Elijah didn’t trust God, that’s what he would hope would happen. But with the water, Elijah takes away his back up plan. Completely trusts God. There is no back-up plan with God. So Elijah pours water all over that altar and then, verse 36 [read v.36-39]. Turns out - you don’t need a back-up plan if Plan A is God. The fire comes down from heaven. There is no doubt who the real God is, and the people crumple before the altar and call out “The Lord - he is God!” I love that story.
So now, I want you to hold that story of Elijah in your mind - and we’re going to jump over and I want to take a second and tell you the story of George Mueller. Now George Mueller is not really a famous name, but his story is pretty well known. As I talk, you might actually recognize parts of it - even if you didn’t know his name. George Mueller was born in 1805 in Prussia. He became a Christian while he was in school, and he decided to become a missionary to England. BUT - his father didn’t like that. He wanted his son to find a real job that made good money - missionaries don’t make much money, and they have an annoying habit of taking the money they DO have and giving it to those less fortunate. No, he said, I don’t want my son to be a missionary. So he cut his funding, and George didn’t know how he was going to pay for school. So, he had just become a Christian, and he was feeling a little silly, but he gets on his knees in his dorm room and he prays for God’s help. While he was praying, there was a knock at the door. A professor was there to offer him a job as a tutor, which would pay enough to keep him in school. That moment was really formative for George Mueller, and he learned to lean on God in his prayer life. Fast forward 30 years and he is now an missionary living in England. His wife and he felt a call to take care of orphan children, and so he started a small orphanage in his house. They renovated the house and took on thirty girls in that one house. Then he expanded to four homes that were housing 130 children, but it was a bit much for those houses. So then he built five homes in Bristol called “Ashley Down” - it could house 2,050 children. It cost of 100,000 pounds (English currency) to build in the 1800’s. 100,000 pounds two hundred years ago - I can’t imagine what it would cost now. But here’s the crazy part - he did all of this, cared for all those children - and he never asked for a penny, and he never went into debt. He prayed for God to provide, and God provided.
One of the most well known stories was one morning, when the maid informed George that there was no food for breakfast. The pantry was empty - they had nothing to give the children. So George instructed the children to sit down at their seats, and they said grace, and they gave thanks for the food around an empty table. As they were finishing the prayer, there was a knock on the door from the baker who had bread for every single child. On top of that, a milk cart had broken down just up the street and because the milk would spoil before the cart could be fixed - they just gave it to the orphanage. The children had bread AND milk that day. Now, you can call it a coincidence if you want - but this went on for decades, and what’s really cool is that he kept meticulous records of every donation - he gave out receipts, that’s how we know about it today. He didn’t have a back-up plan. No freezer in the basement, no money stashed away. He just trusted GOd would provide what he needed. He passed away in one of the five orphanages he built to help the children. He cared for over 10,000 orphans in his life, and built over 117 schools that gave Christian education to a further 120,000 kids. And one of my favorite parts of George Muller’s life is that the kids in his orphanages were so well educated that he was accused of elevating the poor above their proper station in life. He refused to leave them in the gutter, he educated them and helped them get out of the cycle of poverty - all because he trusted God for everything.
Theology
I told you at the beginning that I would tell you two stories - but all the while what I want you to realize is that I am actually telling you a secret third story - your story. My fear with stories like Elijah is that it’s too far removed. In the modern world we don’t get a lot of burning bushes like Moses or visions from Angels like Isaiah - we don’t see a whole lot of fire coming down from heaven in this day and age. Even Muller’s story is almost 200 years old - and even with well documented receipts of God showing up over and over, still we doubt. We throw it away, “bah, that happened a long time ago - if it happened at all.” To be honest, it’s easier to doubt. To make our lives easier, to take the pressure off, sometimes we elevate people beyond what they really are. We think, “well - of course Elijah trusted God, because he’s ELIJAH, right? I could never do that because I’m not one of those elite. But James chapter 5 verse 17 puts it like this, [read v.17]. Elijah was just as human as we are. George Mueller was just as human as you are. Mother Teresa, the pope, the president, Taylor Swift, your kid’s principle, the governor, me - we’re all just as human. Men and women who God chooses to use. And I’m not saying that to lower them, I’m saying that to elevate you. You have no idea what God could do with your life, if you were to go all in, trust God, make Jesus your savior - no plan B.
My hope and deepest prayer is that you will see through all of this that God really is amazing. God provides in our lives in incredible ways. No, not always in miracle form - but why do we define the miraculous as the thing that is always out of reach? If my car goes into the shop, and a friend offers to let me borrow his car for a weekend - is that not God providing? If a child is hungry, and a stranger from the church up the road puts food in a bag and puts that bag in their locker so they can have food on the table that weekend - is that not a miracle? Is Hand 2 Hand really so different than the milk man who helped George Mueller? If you’re feeling beat up and depressed, down on yourself because your marriage is struggling or your job is crap or your fighting with your family or whatever you’re going through - but someone from your life group sends you a text message that says, “Hey I’m praying for you today” - is that not the voice of God? What I’m trying to show you with all of this is that when your life lines up with the will of God - you ARE the miracle. If you keep your eyes open - you will begin to see it in the everyday life all around you. God provides what we need. God is speaking to us all the time, if we can just learn how to listen for his voice in the midst of all the rest.
Now, I want to be careful with what you hear. I am not advocating that you all go home and make reckless decisions with your money because “hey, God’s got me covered.” No, what we find in scripture is that God provides us with the tools to do what God wants us to do.” The reason we have these amazing stories like Elijah and George Mueller is so that we can trust God in our ordinary day to day lives. Keep your eyes open, and watch how God provides what you need. Another piece I want you to catch is that God provides in incredible ways - but he gives us what we NEED, not maybe what we want. There’s a difference. Trusting God means trusting God to be God. We shouldn’t trust God to give us what us what we want, we trust God to give us what we need. That can be so hard, but sometimes trusting God means letting go of the picture of what we thought was supposed to happen.
Real trust means going all in. You can’t hobble between opinions, that’s called being “luke-warm.” In the book of Revelation it says if we’re luke-warm, if we’re hobbling between opinions, Jesus will spit us out of his mouth. It’s no good. Nobody likes luke-warm. I mean - think about it. There are cold drinks and there are hot drinks, but nobody wants luke-warm. You’ll never overhear this in a coffee shop, “Yeah, can you serve me a nice cup of coffee - but I want you to leave it out for like an hour so it’s just warm enough so that I feel like I’m drinking pneumonia.” Or think about marriage. What are you saying, when a husband marries a wife? When a wife dedicates her life to her husband? Do you get to keep side relationships? Like a back-up plan just in case this whole “husband” or “wife” thing doesn’t work out? Of course not! Can you imagine a man trying to keep a couple of women on the side? Oh, no sweetie - I’m not going to do anything, they’re just there in case… just in case this whole thing doesn’t work. No! A real marriage means you are off the market. No backup plans. That’s what the ring means, I’m showing the world - I’m taken, no thank you. Real trust means going all in with Jesus.
But wait - what if something bad happens? What if God says no to what I ask, and what if I flop? Or fail? I mean, God doesn’t promise that we will never fail. You’ve probably seen it when people only trust God to give them what they want. “Lord, I’m just trusting you to grant me a brand new car.” “Lord, I’m just trusting you to give me a smoking hot wife and a bank account full of money” - and that’s just nonsense. God didn’t promise us any of that. Trusting God means trusting God to be God. What God says is that even when you DO fail - He will still be with you. God can actually use failure for something even better. Romans 8, verse 28 tells us [read it]. Now pay close attention to the word choice. All things. Everything - not just good things, not just victories, not just bad things, not just failures - everything can be used for our God. That’s what it means to trust God. To realize that there is nothing you can do that God cannot get you out of. God provides in incredible ways, and so we can trust God. Real trust means going all in with God, long term trust.
And so that’s my challenge for you this week. That’s what screaming at us off the pages of God’s word. Go all in with God. Lean on God in every area of your life. Stop hobbling between the different gods in your life. Use what God has given you. Let me put it this way - what do you put your trust in? What’s your safety net in life? For most of us, it’s money. Bank accounts, savings, retirement, Roth, 401k - if everything falls apart we wills till have our money. For some others, it’s family. Family is our safety net. When the money runs out, we know someone will be there for us. And those are good things. Please don’t think I’m attacking good financial management or loving your family. There’s a place for those things in our lives. But don’t lean on those things with your soul. Don’t let that be your safety net for eternity. Only God can do that - so go all in with God. Trust Him for everything you need.
Now, I talk about safety nets, where to put our trust when things are falling apart - but it works in the other direction too. Maybe things are really stable in your life. Trusting in God lets us dream a little bigger. To look at what is in front of us, and dream of a better, more perfect world. To realize that with God we can reach heights never imagined. Go all in with God, stop trusting in the world to support the part of you that was designed for something more.
We stand on the shoulders of giants. Whether it’s Elijah calling fire down from heaven, or George Mueller feeding orphans with a coincidence - the thread that connects these men is a healthy fear of God. We’ve talked about a lot of incredible men of God in this series - men who revere God, who have reclaimed their sense of awe. What if, instead of elevating those in the past to legendary status, thinking “Oh, I wish I could be what they were” - what if, instead, we were to climb on their shoulders - learn from their life, the lessons in every breath - climb on their shoulders to reach a world we never even dreamed of. What if we come to God like Isaiah - “Here I am, send me” - and we had zero unfulfilled callings. What if we trusted God to seek and to save - like Moses when Israel was in slavery? What if we had zero lost people, zero left behind. What would it look like if we trusted God to provide all we need, like Abraham did - what if we had zero needs among us? What would it be if we realized how much the people around us influence us - like Jeremiah saw before Jerusalem was destroyed - and we responded by making sure we had zero unconnected in community? Or finally, like Elijah - what if we go all in with Jesus, and have zero gods before God. This is why we call ourselves the Zero Collective. The zeroes paint a picture of what God’s kingdom on earth could look like - and it starts with a healthy fear of God. Like I said in the very first message of this series - the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Let’s pray.
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