Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
New Covenant Presbyterian Church
Sermon 1 Kings 18 “A Wonderful Life”
May 19, 2019
Listen to this sermon.
I am beginning today a three-part sermon series on the life of the prophet Elijah.
Earlier this week I received an email from the Trump campaign asking me to support them by purchasing a MAGA hat. MAGA stands for Make America Great Again, this is the slogan for the Trump campaign. If you wear a MAGA hat in public you are making a political statement that you support the president. But be warned that if you do this, other people who do not support Trump may be offended by your hat. And this can cause problems for you.
We see this sort of thing going all the way back to the ninth century before Christ. The people of Israel had abandoned the God of their ancestors. Instead, they worshiped the gods of nature and sexuality. A prophet came forward to challenge them. And his name produced the same reaction a MAGA hat might produce today. The prophet’s name was Elijah. This is a Hebrew name meaning “Yahweh is God”. So every time his name was spoken he challenged the worship of nature and sexuality and called people back to worship Yahweh, the God of Israel. Some people, especially the king and queen, were offended by Elijah’s name. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
I would like to talk about two movies which I think will illustrate an important change that has taken place in Western culture.
The movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, came out in 1946. The lead character was George Bailey played by Jimmy Stewart. George had a life-long dream to travel the world. But time and again circumstances, including the divine interruption by an angel, blocked his ability to travel. The caused great distress in George. But by the end of the movie, George realized that he had been richly blessed by God with faith, family, and friends. He truly had A Wonderful Life.
Now let’s fast forward to 2010 and the movie Eat Pray and Love. This movie was based on the memoirs of the author Elizabeth Gilbert. The lead character, Liz, was played by Julia Roberts. Liz, like George Bailey, had a life-long dream to travel the world. And like George Bailey, she had a husband, a home, and a career that prevented her from traveling. But unlike George Bailey, Liz Gilbert decided that nothing could stop her. So she divorced her husband, quit her job, left her home, and began world travel. As the title suggests, she ate exotic foods, sampled the spiritual practices of the world’s religions, and fell in love with several different men. I wouldn’t call this a wonderful life.
What happened between 1946 and 2010? Our culture changed. We abandoned the institutional church. We abandoned the Christian faith. We abandoned Judeo-Christian morality. And we have begun worshiping nature and sexuality. So let’s hear from the prophet Elijah.
1 Kings 18:21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
But the people said nothing.
The people of Elijah’s day had no answer to his question. They had no idea why they had abandoned the God of their ancestors. They couldn’t explain why they worshiped Baal, the god of nature. And they didn’t know why they worshiped Asherah, the goddess of sexuality.
And we don’t know either. Why do we value material things so intensely? Why do we engage in unlimited sexual activity with anyone, anywhere at any time? Why have we let our culture abandon God? We can’t answer this. So let’s go back to Elijah.
23 Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.”
Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”
Elijah has proposed a test. They will set up an altar to worship the gods of nature and sexuality. Elijah will set up an altar to worship God. And we will see which one works.
I suggest that this sounds like a pretty good test. We, the church, will worship God and obey what God tells us to do in scripture. Everyone else can worship nature and sexuality all they want. Then we will see who lives a wonderful life.
We will live lives full of faith, family, and friends. They will live a life of things and casual sexual experiences. Who will have a better life? We will see.
Let’s get back to our story.
25 Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” 26 So they took the bull given them and prepared it.
Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered.
They tried. They asked the god of nature to send the lightning they needed to start the fire. But there was no response, no answer.
That’s what happens when we turn to the gods of nature and sexuality. They destroy our faith, family, and friendships. They are powerless to give us what we really need. What we need is a God that will answer us when we call. We need a God who, if we follow, will bless us richly. Let’s go back to our story.
And they danced around the altar they had made. 27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.
The gods of nature and sexuality don’t care about you. They don’t want you to have a good life. They are offering you fools gold. They are trying to trick you into giving up your blessings. They want you to worry that if we don’t do something the world will die in twelve years. They want you to give up the blessing of marriage and family and engage in mindless sex. They have no answers to the problems you face. Why would you follow them? Let’s see what Elijah has to say.
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs[a] of seed. 33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”
34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again.
“Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.
36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
Elijah is calling the people back to worship the one true God, the God of their ancestors, the God who answers our prayers. Elijah has asked God to demonstrate his faithfulness to people again. And he has asked God to fill his people with faith so that they will turn away from the gods of nature and sexuality and return to faith, family, and friends. He wants God to give them a wonderful life.
This is my prayer for you today, that God will demonstrate his love for you and give you a wonderful life. Let’s see if the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob answers Elijah’s prayer.
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”
They cried out Elijah, Elijah, Yahweh is God! Yahweh is God! Oh, that all of us would experience this, that we would see God working in our lives, that we would turn away from the gods of nature and sexuality, and embrace the true God who made us and wants us to have the blessings of faith, family and friends, a wonderful life. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we confess that you are God. We have turned from you to worship nature and sexuality. We now desire to return to you. And we ask for blessings of faith, family, and friends. We ask for a wonderful life. In your son’s name. Amen.
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