Okay, I want you guys to turn to each other. Now. What was the last victory you celebrated? Now this could be, oh, my team won the Natty. It could be, uh, it could be, you know, uh, uh, she said yes, it could be. I rang the bell. It could be, it could be. There's lots of ways you could go with this. What was the last time you celebrated a victory? Go ahead, talk to each other. Okay. Anybody got anything here in this room? A hundred days of sobriety. Yeah, man, that's awesome. That's awesome. Somebody, uh, from, from Grant's Trail said, uh, my daughter-in-law is cancer free. Somebody. Yeah. Man, these are good things, right? My team won, you know, awesome. Uh, no, I mean, I, I, I get that, uh, uh, somebody from Fenton. My, my daughter is exploring her faith and going deeper. Somebody said, uh, I received a hard truth and committed towards reconciliation, and the church and leadership rallied around me, and I'm now experiencing victory on the other end. Come on. Uh, somebody else said, uh, uh, my wife and I are growing closer in our marriage. I mean, these are real victories, right? And we can talk about the other victories, and those are fun. But whenever God is involved with a victory, whenever you get to a place where you're like, whew, that just didn't happen without him intervening, man, you're gonna remember that. So what if there was a story in the Old Testament that was so big, so powerful, so difficult, so shocking, disturbing, and still so important that it could actually like, change us today? What if there was something that even as, as, as raw and as real as it is, what if the power of God was so evident that by the time we left here, we could go, wait, I want that same God to join me in my life. That'd be something, wouldn't it? You ready for that? Because that's where we're going. We're gonna hit another peak experience. We've been in these moments where we're exploring the mountains of scripture, and what we've seen on many of these mountains is that it's a, it's a moment of decision where God is saying, you're gonna trust me or not. Now, before we get into what I'm gonna tell you upfront is a little bit of a freaky story, okay? But before we get into that, let's pray. Let's ask for God's help. Uh, I'm so grateful for those of you who are joining us around the world, those of you who are joining us, uh, here in, at, at the Crossing, that's, that's a grants trail in Mid Rivers and Fenton. Those of you who are in, in overflow here, uh, right now with us in the Hub, I just let, let's, let's ask God to help us now. Father, we come before you. And I'm grateful. I'm grateful for the story that we've already told through worship, through the experiencing of communion. What we, we, we are grateful for your love. Jesus. We are thankful for your sacrifice and spirit. We are longing for your influence in our lives. So I pray now, as we open the word and go to a story that has a lot in it, may we now begin to move towards you in each of our lives. I ask this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. There's how your Bible starts. That's, that's, that's it in the beginning, God, Elohim. Now, we've already learned Elohim. It's the first name of God that we come across in scripture. It's, it's kind of a title. It's God, Elohim. Now El you see it all over the place. And, and we sometimes talk about these names of God. It's the same God, one God. But Elohim, interestingly enough, is plural. Oh, well, there's one God, but almost like right at the beginning, there's a, hmm, is there more to the, well, anyway, that's a different talk. In the second chapter, we hear, uh, the sacred name of God, his personal name, and we know how much he wants to be next to us. It is the name y it's Ywe who breathes life into man. In the third chapter, our first parents reject all of this, the love, the care, the protection, the guidance of God. Now, we'll do it ourselves will be the boss of us. And that's when sin just pollutes the story. That's when this garden, this space, Eden, it was called that God had created this sanctuary, maybe on a mountain, this sanctuary. We couldn't live there anymore with God. And so now, forever, we have been longing for a way back to that kind of relationship, that kind of closeness to be with God in that way. And even in that moment of failure, God promised, I'll make a way back. Now, the promise is kept alive with a fellow named Abraham. Now, we're much deeper into the story. It's, it's a promise that was made to him and to his son, and to his son. So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you'll hear these names over and over and over again. The promise is kept again with a fellow named Moses who rescues the people. God through him rescues the people. If out of slavery in Egypt, Moses takes them to the edge of the land that was promised to Abraham all those years ago. It's Joshua who takes them into the land. The land is called Canaan. Now, what I want you to understand about Canaan is it was a bunch of city states and kings and kingdoms, but it was a culture that was very, very dark. There was bad stuff going on. In fact, in Leviticus chapter 18, uh, there's a listing of it. And God says, like he says, don't be like the Canaanites. Like they've had years, centuries to turn to me. And they didn't. They didn't. But there's a listing of some of the things that were going on in the Canaanite culture, like, uh, bestiality and incest and child sacrifice. I mean, it's dark, dark stuff. Now, some of this will come back to a little bit later, so you've got that to look forward to. But, but, but, but this was a dark, dark time. And God says, that's it. And so 700 years after a promise is made, the people now live in the land. But even then, they have a hard time trusting God. We learned last week that they still wanted to be like everyone else. We want a king. Everybody else has a king. That wasn't God's plan. But Israel gets a king. Now, most of 'em are not so good. Some of 'em are a piece of work. One of the good ones is still flawed. We talked about him last week. This is David. That's around 1000 bc David's son, Solomon starts off great. We know about Solomon ends terribly because of, of, of, of his obsession with wealth and possessions and wives. And yes, I said plural, wives. It just gets him into trouble. These wives begin to bring back these pagan religions that were polluting the land. And even Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord to pay for all of this and to pay for his wives and for all that he was doing. He overtaxed the people, breaking their backs. His son makes the same mistake. They revolt against him. There's a civil war. They break apart. Now, 10 of these 12 tribes go to the north, start their own kingdom to the north with their own king. Two of them to the south. The north is called Israel. The south is called Judah. They're never united again. We are now in the realm of the divided kingdom. Let's say we're around eight 70 bc. There is a king that you will now meet. His name is Ahab. Look at how he's described in the scripture when we meet Ahab. So Ahab did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. Y'all we're hitting a new low. Here, Ahab marries a, a, a princess from the kingdom to the north. Her name is Jezebel. Now Jezebel, her dad was a Pagan priest. His name was Ash, Baal. And she now wants to bring in this pagan religion and make it sort of the state religion of Israel. In fact, she wants to, she wants to squash. She wants to kill all of the prophets of Yahweh. So that's where we are. That's the backstory. And now I want you to meet our principle character in, uh, one King, 17. These two words. Now, Elijah. Now what y'all need to know about Elijah is he was a lot. I mean, he was a lot. He's the prophet that's mentioned more than any other in the New Testament. His name in Hebrew, Ali means Yahweh is my God. Even his name's a little in your face. But this Elijah comes out of nowhere. God sends him to the palace. And so he goes in front of this king who wants the prophets of Yahweh dead. And he announces a drought. There's a drought coming. There's not even gonna be dew on the grass because of everything that's happening. You see, Israel was to be a light into the darkness, but the darkness was seeping into the land and seeping into their hearts. And it was dark after this really bold pronouncement. God essentially puts him in the witness protection program. So for the next three years, really interesting stories. Only thing I'll tell you about that is I, I love the word play in the Hebrew, uh, two of the places where he ends up mean whittled down in the refinery for the next three years. He gets sharpened and refined. And then he's ready. Because three years later, God says, now you gotta go stand in front of this guy. The queen has been executing prophets right and left, but you gotta go stand up to him. So now that's where we're gonna pick it up in, uh, one Kings, uh, 18. What we see here is that he, when the king saw him, he said, is that you, you Troubler of Israel, you know, you are the one who's stirring things up. That's what it means in the Hebrew, uh, Elijah's response was, I know you are, but what am I? I don't, I don't think that's technically what it says in the Hebrew, but it's pretty close because he says, I haven't made trouble for Israel. It's you. You are the ones who who has abandoned the Lord's commands. You are the one who was followed after the Baals. Now you can say Baal. You can say Baal, you know, tomato, tomato. I don't care. But, uh, I just want you to know who, who, Baal was kind of a generic term that meant, um, well, in those ancient Semitic languages, Baal meant, and I'm gonna say little L Lord. So you'll see in the Canaanite cultures all of these different Baals, but they're all, they're very similar. The worship is very similar. Remember, he's married to this woman who's from a, just a little bit north of, of, of where, uh, he was, where this king was. And so the Baal that they were probably worshiping was Baal Hadad. And hadad means thunder. So this Baal was like the storm God. Okay, that'll come up in just a minute. But there were many different Baals. Uh, a little bit later you'll see a confrontation with a, uh, one. And this one might, you, you, you might start to, that might start to sound familiar, Baal. And what that means, he is the Lord of the Flies. You didn't know that. That's where they came from. Now you get to the New Testament, and this term has evolved to the point where they refer to the prince of demons. See if you've heard of this one, Beal Ziba. Anybody ever heard that Alba? It goes right back to this word. Baal. Jesus himself refers to Satan as Alba. Jesus is connecting the worship of Baal with the demonic. I want you to know what we're dealing with here. So now Elijah goes to the king and says, uh, we're gonna deal with some things. In fact, here's what I'm suggesting, uh, summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel and bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asra who eat at Jezebel's table. Now, I know Westerns are the thing anymore, it wasn't even really my favorite genre. But if you ever watched a western and you're reading this line, listen real carefully. And you might just hear like the wind blowing through the street, you know, with a little tumbleweed falling. And if you listen real carefully, you could even hear a whistle. Wah, You know what that means? It means I'm crazy. No, some of you go, well, it means it means you're old. 'cause I don't get it. Well, lemme tell you what it means. It means that we're heading for a showdown. We're heading for a showdown between the prophet of Yahweh and the prophets of Baal and Asra. Now, Baal was the principle. God, ASRA was his mistress. And in some of these stories, also his mother, I know creepy, I told you it was dark. But what he's now proposing here, lemme just show you a picture of this God of fertility. 'cause the God of fertility is in charge of the weather. He's in charge of the crops. He's supposed to be in charge of life. So Baal da, this is one of the oldest depictions we have. You can see he's got that sharp dagger coming off of his, off of his waist. He's got a sword that he's holding up that little figure out down below. That's just one of the mere kings of earth because he is Baal hadad. But what I want you to see mostly is what's in his other hand. It's a lightning bolt. Remember? He is the storm God. Okay? So what's going on here now is that, uh, uh, uh, if he's over the wind in the rain, if he's over the crops, then he is the Lord of life. And what, what Elijah's doing is saying, I think we should have a showdown. I'm gonna pick another mountain. So here it is, it's Mount Carmel. Now we've seen some of these mountains and and we've talked about them from Sinai to Zion, to Mariah to Nebo. But now we're at Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel is on the coast. You can see it right there next to the Mediterranean Sea. It's in what we would now call Northern Israel. It's where the showdown will occur. It's actually the place where we're gonna learn who's God, who's in charge of the weather, who's in charge of life, who deserves to be worshiped. That's where we're heading. This is a picture of what Mount Carmel looks like today. It's about 1500 feet in elevation. It's a big limestone formation. That's where all of this is going to happen. Word gets out, everybody shows up. I mean, this is gonna be something. Let's all get there. So everybody gathers now. And what we see is that Elijah now asks the people, how long will you waver between two opinions? That word waver there in the Hebrew can mean, uh, it can mean like limp or stumble like awkwardly. It can even mean like dance awkwardly. How long are you gonna go back and forth between these two options? Pick who your God is. Is it ywe or is it Baal? You can't have it both ways. That's literally what he's saying there. No one says a word, like just awkward glances and crickets. Who knew I was doing sound effects today? Right? He proposes that this one little, uh, prophet of Yahweh would stand against the 450 prophets of Baal. Now, where these prophets of ASRA are, we don't know. Some people speculate that maybe they stayed back at the palace with Jezebel. All we know is that there's 450 of these prophets there with Ahab. And so now Elijah lays out the contest. The way it's gonna work is we're gonna build two altars. Nobody's lighting their altar. We've got two bulls, two stacks of wood. You do yours, I'll do mine. And then whoever's God will actually light that altar. That's the real God. Now remember, he's a storm. God, this Baal. So Elijah is willing to even play into his strength. You know, lightning man, that's one of his things. So I'm just gonna give it to you. So we'll do that. He's also giving them a home field advantage because part Mount Carmel was a place where BA was worshiped. Not to mention the fact there's 450 of these prophets that can pray and and carry on. So he's really just, just kinda laying it all out there in their favor. The people think this is fair, the prophets agree. And so the contest begins. They invoked the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, Baal, answer us. That word answer comes up over and over in this story. Answer us. Answer us. But there was no sound and no answer. They jumped around on the altar, they'd made at noon. Elijah mocked them. Yell louder. After all, he is, he is God. Maybe he's in deep thought or perhaps he stepped out for a moment, or he is taking a trip. Perhaps he's sleeping and he needs to be awakened. I mean, he is taunting them, but he's actually painting Baal as very human-like. 'cause he's just saying, is he kind of confused? Is he kind of thinking of what he should do next? Some of your Bibles, if you have an ESV Bible, an English standard version Bible, it will render the Hebrew differently than this many scholars think when it says he went away for a moment. Your your ESV Bible will say is, is he relieving himself? A lot of Hebrew scholars think that's what's happening here. So he's going, Hey, is he busy? Did he forget about you? Is he thinking about things? Is he using the toilet? How come he's not calling you back? Maybe he doesn't like a call. You should text him. Whatever you need to do. If he's asleep, yell louder. So they start yelling louder. And now they're getting into this frenzy, which would happen in pagan cultures where they're cutting each other, they're slashing, there's blood, there's chanting. I mean, they are in a chaotic, almost zombie-like frenzy. There are many, uh, records of how this would work. And yet nothing, no answer, no response. Now let's hit pause for just a second. I want you to talk to each other. And first you, you're gonna go, well, so far I'm not really surprised. It's weird, but I didn't expect Baal to answer. Okay? Fair enough. What I want you to do is talk to some people around you. Maybe two questions. What are you noticing? What on earth could this possibly have to do with us? You see, we don't just want to go through something for information. We're here for transformation. So what is it that could just go ahead, talk to each other for just a minute. We'll get back up in a second. Okay? Uh, Liz, I just got a late breaking word of another victory that came from one of the sites. It just said this, my child is potty trained. Exclamation point. So that's a victory, man. That's a victory. So we're gonna celebrate that. Um, uh, so, so, so just here, like what, what would you notice? What does this have to do with us? Anything? We had some really interesting discussions last night. Anybody? He was confident. Say it again. He was confident. So Elijah was confident. Yeah. I always want to remember that he was whittled down and refined too. 'cause if I'm not careful, I can just parachute into this part of the story and go, man, I wish I was Elijah. He went through some stuff to get there. But I love that. I love that. What else? What are you noticing? Yeah, It doesn't matter how much faith or actions you put into something, um, you have no control over that. And if it's not the one true God, it does No good. Okay? So you can get, you can put all of your action and all of your stuff in something. And if it's not the one true God, you're getting nothing back. Yeah. Anybody else? Do you see anything there when we start talking about idols? Lots of distractions. Lots of distractions there. Lots of idols. Can we, okay, here, let, let's try it this way. Um, it makes me think about Oreo cookies. No, the Thanksgiving edition. Anyone? Do you see those special Thanksgiving Oreo cookies? They're Thanksgiving flavored. So you've got pumpkin pie flavored Oreos covered in fudge. It's a lot. Uh, caramel apple pie, uh, Oreos covered in fudge. This. That's a lot of sugar creamed corn covered in fudge Sweet potato Oreo covered in fudge. My favorite Turkey and stuffing Oreo covered in fudge. That's wrong. What's the point? What's the point? What's the point? Oh, by the way, they cost a lot. So they cost way more than a cookie is worth and they're not at all satisfying. Maybe we could just hang on to that for just a second. Things that cost so much and never deliver. Remember that Baal means little l Lord. How about if we ask it this way? Would anybody here agree with me that there are a bunch of little L lords in this world? See, what, what about, what about i, I put mine over there, but what is the, what, what did you call it? The little rectangle? Yes. Yeah. What about that thing? What about the messages and the ads and the stuff that comes from our news feeds and it just continues to form and deform us because it, we've talked about the algorithm before. The algorithm is real. And when it's like, oh, so this is what you want. Oh, oh, so this is what you want. Oh, so this is what you want and it ushers you into a little echo chamber where all you get is what? And, and it begins to form and deform us. What happens to a society when young women swim in an ocean of airbrushed and unrealistic images that say, oh, this is what beautiful is. This is what you have to live up to. And it's all a lie and it's not real. But now you tell me what happens to an 8-year-old and a 48-year-old When, when people begin to bow down to that little l lord. What happens when young men and women begin to see the new metric for success? And start to say, some of them, even to me, Greg, I'm almost 30 and I still haven't started and sold my own company. No guys, this is real. Please do not think I'm being funny about this. This is real. There is something that is piling on top of a younger generation. I mean, I'm telling you, there's a survey last year that said, uh, uh, 46% of of millennials, 44% of Gen Z are obsessed with wealth. Now, before you think I'm swinging at those, uh, uh, generations, so are the rest of us. But it's so unfair. What is being piled on top of them at the beginning of their adulthood, at the beginning of their careers? I gotta measure up to that. Oh, I gotta go on that vacation even though I can't afford it because I gotta take that selfie. I gotta wear that handbag, drive that car. We gotta have that appliance in our HGTV kitchen, y'all. It's a lie. It's not fair, it's not realistic. And it generates a kind of anxiety, a kind of fear. I'm not matching up, I'm not keeping up, I'm missing out. It is all a lie. People start to say, well, how could I ever be attractive enough for somebody to want to be next to me? 'cause I don't think I'm a success. These are demonic lies from the Baals of our day. Our listen to me, listen to me. Big money's working against you on this. It's monetizing your fear and your rage and your dissatisfaction. Who cares that you're isolated? Who cares that you're beaten down? Just keep clicking and scrolling. Clicking and scrolling. 'cause that's how we make our money. And then people start to believe, well, I must be the only one. Nobody's gonna understand me. Nobody. I must be the only one feeling this way. I'll never have relief. I'll never have joy. I'll never have freedom from anxiety. And these are the lies. When we bow down to little l Lords in our land, some people are being sucked into a new kind of pornography with all the latest technologies. It promises you access to a sex like experience. But it's not sex. It's not real, it's not intimate and it's not satisfying. It will destroy you from the inside out. It is not the way of the one true God. Some of you're like, man, I don't do any of that stuff. I'm just trying to stay chill in a freaked out world. And sometimes that leads to just one more cocktail. Or you know, that gummy every night that takes just enough of the edge off that I'm sort of deadened to the world. Or maybe it's a Netflix binge or I'm keeping the Amazon delivery guy busy. Anything to stay numb. These two are little l lords. Or maybe, maybe it's power, man. I just want power. I wanna be in charge. I want everybody to know my opinion. 'cause everybody else is shouting theirs. Or maybe our little l Lord is busy. I just gotta prove to everybody how important I am, how busy I'm, or maybe it's, you know, I just, I just, I I gotta let the world know how cool, how funny, how spiritual, how fit, how put together I am. Because when they like what I posted, it's like a dopamine it to my system. Or maybe it's the reverse. And my head is just full of podcasts and news feeds, but not human voices. Like I don't even see or hear my neighbor anymore. The one who says, Hey, will you celebrate with me? Hey, will you help me? Lemme just say this out loud in these coming days, let's not assume too much about our neighbors. Well, can, can we just agree that we'll check in on our neighbors that we'll just say, how are you doing? Now, some of you at this point are going lighten up, man. Like so much of what you said is as harmless as a goofy new version of an Oreo cookie. And maybe, maybe some of it, but some of it's flat out evil and all of it can turn into a little l Lord. It's a trap that delivers less and demands more. Psalm one 15, uh, in the middle verses there, it's talking about those who make idols. And it says, you know, these idols, they have hands and feet and eyes and mouths, but they can't talk, they can't hear, they can't see, they didn't walk around. They're lifeless. And then I think it's verse seven says, and those who make them are like the gods they make. They're lifeless. But then here's what haunts me. And so are those who worship them. You see, when you and I chase after little l lords and the baals of our day, it'll suck the life right outta you. And I'm telling you, God loves you so much and you were made for so much more. The Lord of the universe loves you. He has made you for more. He's calling you to his side. He's calling you to be in relationship with other people. I'm talking about in person life-giving joyful relationships, not perfect, just life-giving relationships. Lemme just say it one more time. You were made for more because you were made by the living God of the universe. So Elijah now is looking at a whole bunch of people who just, they, they got taken. And so he draws them all. And y'all just get in close, get in close, get in close, and he starts to teach them. And the first thing he does is he starts rebuilding an altar that had once been there for Yahweh. And it says he takes 12 stones. 12. How many tribes were there in Israel? 12. You know what he's saying here? He's taken them back through their heritage. Guys, we gotta do better than this. We're not 10 and two, we're 12. God's called us to do this together. He's building this out of the ruins. He continues to stack the deck against himself. He digs this huge trench around they altar. Everything's there, everything's ready to go. Uh, and and then he says, oh yeah. So let's, let's soak this thing. Somebody go get four large containers of water and we're gonna soak this thing. Now, he's not showing off here. This isn't like a magician when he goes, please make sure that the handcuffs are secure. No, it's not that because it's four big containers, right? Three times. I know math is hard, but four times three is what? 12. He's still teaching them. Y'all. Do you see, God has called us to this. God has called us to this. He's got that. He's got that alter, thoroughly soaked. And then we see that, that it's even like, it's, it even filled up the trench around it. Now, let's go back to the sound. 'cause nobody's saying anything. It's this one guy just by himself. I think if you got close enough, the sound you would've heard next would just be the drip, drip, drip off of the altar into that trench. What's he gonna do? He prays, not out of superstition, not out of fear. He prays. He doesn't go on and on and on. He doesn't drone for hours. He doesn't beat himself up, cut himself. He doesn't work himself up into a lather. He prays in English. It's like 60 or so words in Hebrew. It's even less. He prays with a faith that some of us can't even understand. But he prays. And the prayer ends up this way. Answer me. There it is again. Answer me. Oh Lord, answer me. So these people will know that you oh Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again. You know what he's saying here, God come through. You put me in this spot for a reason, but it's not about me. I go find him. God, go bring him back to you. That's what he's, that's what he's praying here. And God almost immediately answers the prayer. Something happens, y'all. This is supernatural. I mean, everything is consumed. The the altar, the the, the sacrifice, the whole thing, the dirt around it, the stones, the water. It was dramatic. Now, some people think it was a lightning bolt. We don't know, right? I mean, if it was, it was a lightning bolt like nobody else had ever seen. But if you're trying to prove who's in control of the weather, kind of makes sense to me. Whatever it is that people get it and they begin to chant. Now, what our uh, Bibles would say is, is the Lord is God, right? Ahu Elohim. But I think what you would've heard bouncing and echoing off of that mountain y who Elohim y who him? Yahweh is God. Y'all want a victory. There's your victory. God wins. The people win. The prophets of Baal are defeated. Oh yeah. And then Elijah orders all 450 of 'em executed. Wait, what if you show up here? If you're new here, we will never tell you that we have all the answers, but we're not gonna back away from the tough parts of the story. And this is what the text says. So before you write Elijah, and more importantly God off at the end of this story, I want you to hear one more time, forgive me for just explaining it directly. Baal and Asra were fertility gods. Every spring what people believed was the crops come back, the spring comes back, the livestock reproduces because Baal and Asra are having sex. And the way you got Baal and Ashra to have sex was that the men would go into these Canaanite temples and have sex with the women who were in the temples. All in the name of worship. By the way, this is one of the reasons why it was so hard to get Israel to turn away from this. I'm not trying to be funny here. I'm just telling you men would go, well, you know, it's, it's worship. And then they're going doing that. Well wait, there's even more. These women, sex workers really in these temples were often taken against their will as children. We would say they were trafficked and now they're being abused and demeaned in the name of worshiping some demonic deity. If that weren't enough, history tells us the archeology is there. People really get nervous and don't want to talk about this. But in those Canaanite cultures, children were sacrificed to the Baals. I'm not gonna describe what those ceremonies were like. Even the Romans would come in and the no friend to the Bible story, even the Romans came in and said, y'all gotta stop that. What happens to a heart? What happens to a people when that kind of darkness is allowed to continue? This is one of those unique moments in history where God said Enough. Now that doesn't mean that that's our formula. Now, for every time somebody disagrees with us, Jesus actually clears that up. And Luke chapter nine, they're trying to make their way through Samaria, some disagreements there. In faith, these Samaritans don't allow him to cut through. His disciples are just upset. In fact, two of them now, they're walking along 'cause they didn't get entrance into this place. Two of 'em are walking along and going, uh, Lord, you want, we should call down fire from heaven and uh, lay waste to this place. Like in the days of Elijah. I mean, who knew James and John talked that way, but they did. What I love in Luke chapter nine is Jesus' response. It is so direct and so it's, there's nothing there. It just says, and he turned. So he's leading them and he turned and rebuked them and then they kept walking. It's like Jesus turns around. Really? How long have you been with me? The kingdom isn't about coercing people into faith. The kingdom is a choice. The kingdom is faith. The kingdom is love. Do you even understand that story of Elijah? Do you even understand what my father had to do in that dark book? Real? Let's keep going. So some of this story applies directly and some of it doesn't. But I am wondering about those little l lords that hold sway over us. Lewis said, once that idols will always break the heart of the worshiper, always. So you chase after these little g gods and they rob you of life and joy and happiness and freedom. But Jesus brings you life and joy and happiness and freedom. And he does it without you having to earn it. There's no beating yourself up. There's no proving your worth. There's no getting his attention through going through some weird ritual. Can I just explain to some of you why these hallways are full of, of, of, of things that are going to take care of people. We're not doing this outta guilt. We're doing this outta gratitude. There's an all doing awareness that God sees us, hears us and get this. He loves us. You see the God of mercy says, I I I'm offering you a relationship that is so much deeper than mere religion. The gospels tell us that when you turn to Jesus and you accept him as the, the answer to your sin, God immediately and forever forgives you. God accepts you into the kingdom. That's it permanently you're in and the spirit of God descends right then into your life. Now, there's some who see a parallel there. It's like when Elijah prayed, there was an immediate Woo Theresa of Avila, 15 hundreds, uh, Carmelite, none, interestingly enough said that when she began to experience the love of Jesus, it was like fire in her heart. I'm not saying that every time you turn to Jesus that it's lightning strikes. But I'm saying there comes a moment where you go, God, I for me. Yes, yes. I mean that's what we celebrated in communion, isn't it? It's not because of our work, it's because of what he did on the cross for me. Whew. Hey, what about the rain? You guys forgot after all of this that there was a drought going on. You got this big drama. And now, now, uh, Elijah says to Ahab, you and your your entourage, you need to eat and drink. 'cause I hear the sound of rushing rain. Everybody's going, I don't see it, man. He goes back up to the top of the mountain. He's at Mount Carmel. Now, it doesn't say he prays, but it sure looks like he's praying because what it says is he gets to the top of the mountain and he's on his knees with his head down. God, please, you said you would please. He tells his assistant. Go like, go to the edge there and check. You seen any clouds on the horizon. Assistant comes back, I got nothing. Okay, God, please. He goes back again. He's praying like he does this again and again and again. You ever prayed for victory? And you're like, how long? Oh, Lord, how long at at, at the services last Sunday here? There were so many people up front praying and being prayed for and being prayed over that it's stacked up into the aisles. And some of you announcement a week later and you're going, man, I'm weary. I'm wondering, is God hearing my prayer? I say, let's keep praying because what Elijah was doing in this moment was, God, please. He kept praying and praying seven times. He sends his assistant seven times. It's not, honestly, it's not until the seventh time that his assistant comes back and says, Hey, uh, it's not a lot, but I see a cloud the size of a man's hand, like his fist. It's out over the sea. Maybe Elijah goes, that's it. That's it. He goes to Ahab and says, you better get in your chariot or you're gonna get stuck in the mud. And everybody heads back home. The skies get dark, everything starts to fall. There's rain. The drought is broken, the people are blessed. They turn back to God. And on that day, the demonic was defeated. Yes. That's a cool end to a story, don't you think? So here's the takeaway. Sometimes you'll be on a mountain, literal or figurative, and God's gonna say, so what's it gonna be? You trust in me or something else? Now I know, I know some of you are stuck back 10 minutes ago and you're going, man, I don't know who you are, but you were meddling back then. Who do you think you are? Oh, I don't, I don't. I'm I'm nobody. I'm just looking at God's word and asking questions and thinking and praying about us. That's, that's what I'm doing. I don't know what victory you need. I'm gonna say probably for some of you that victory is the forgiveness that we were talking about. You need the the, you need the spirit of God to land in your life. You need the presence of God. You need forgiveness. That happens when, when you turn to Jesus. And I'm just saying today could be your day. You need something that's not intellectual. You need something that is supernatural, that is spiritual. Let's keep talking about your questions. But you need God in your life. Today could be your day. And if you make that decision, then come find us because we wanna celebrate with you. But if we're gonna be really honest, for some it's uh, whew. It's not, it's the rain that sounds better. 'cause like some of you're like, man, I need yeah, fire to fall and others it's like, nah. I think it's more I'm interested in the rain. 'cause I've known Jesus a long time. I don't admit it to anybody, but these days it's dry. I hear it in my voice. I hear it in my prayers. I hear it in my words. I don't know if it's something crept in. I don't know if you're facing a challenge. I dunno if it just feels like the world's crashing in evil, is trying to choke out the joy and the life and the hope of your life. And you're like, Ugh, come on rain. I just need you to hear. Doesn't matter who you are. The same God of this dramatic story is here right now. Anybody else longing for victory? Anybody else say, man, I got, I got a couple of things I am praying big prayers for. I want you to remember that Elijah didn't storm into that story without having been whittled down and refined. Sometimes it takes a while. So let's keep praying. God, please, how long, God please, I need just a sign. Just a little. Just show me a cloud on the horizon, Lord. That's what I need. You see, I'd rather navigate this life within them. Without him. I got questions, but I'd rather do it within than without him. So I say we keep praying. I say we keep seeking, we keep surrendering. We keep trusting. We keep looking to the God who is in charge. This story is not about Elijah. This story is about the God who made you. You're made for more. But it's about the God who made you. Hear me now. Hear me now. You were created by Elohim Em. He is the living God of the universe. Amen. Amen.