1 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:43,960 Well, good morning everyone. It's great to be back with you 2 00:00:43,960 --> 00:00:45,600 today. Take your Bibles, turn to the 3 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:49,880 Book of First Kings chapter 18. First Kings chapter 18. 4 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:52,280 That's page 310. If you're using one of the 5 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:56,560 Bibles in the seat around you. A couple of quick things before 6 00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:59,200 we get into the message today. First of all, we will be 7 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,000 celebrating Communion a little bit later on in the service. 8 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:05,160 If you did not receive your Communion cups when you came in 9 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:07,680 today, would you just raise your hand and we're going to make 10 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:11,560 sure that some of our team gets a Communion cup into your hand 11 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:13,720 right now. We got some down here at the 12 00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:17,320 front, if we can just make sure and some back here in the back 13 00:01:17,320 --> 00:01:20,480 corner, that would be great. Thank you very much. 14 00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:23,560 And then second, want to welcome some new members to our church 15 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:27,280 family, people who've been part of our church for a little bit, 16 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:29,560 but they are now members of the church family. 17 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:32,760 So would you join me in welcoming Greg and Margaret, 18 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:37,880 Ronald and Micah so Farley for joining membership here at 19 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:43,480 Forward? I just want to say I just 20 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:46,920 appreciate all three of them and the gifts that they bring, how 21 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:48,880 God is using them in our church family. 22 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,400 And if you call Forward your church home and you are not yet 23 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:55,880 a member, I want to encourage you to consider taking that step 24 00:01:56,120 --> 00:02:00,360 and make that covenant to each other as a church family as we 25 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:04,680 serve the Lord together. All right, I want to ask you a 26 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:08,160 Captain Obvious question when we start the message today. 27 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,440 Have you ever looked at the world around you and thought to 28 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:14,440 yourself, something just isn't right here, right? 29 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:16,080 It's just literally the most obvious thing. 30 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:20,000 You look all around you and you see things that are just wrong, 31 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:22,560 that are broken. You see things that need to be 32 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:24,720 fixed. You see injustices that are 33 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:27,360 happening. You just know something isn't 34 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:29,800 right. And one of the things that you 35 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:34,520 will learn as you follow Jesus is this, that the more you learn 36 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:39,040 to see life through God's eyes, the more you are going to see 37 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:45,000 just how broken the world is and how far away from God we can 38 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:50,280 get. For example, have you ever 39 00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:53,400 looked at the political world and felt like man? 40 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:56,800 There is a big disconnect between what is honoring to God 41 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:02,080 and what is happening or or maybe in the culture that you 42 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:04,480 find ourselves, that we find ourselves living in. 43 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:08,800 I I think we could spend hours and hours and hours talking 44 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:12,880 about things in our culture where we go that just somehow 45 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:17,240 doesn't line up with what God says is right and good. 46 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:23,240 At worst or at best, there's a disconnect, and at worst there's 47 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:28,080 outright rebellion against God. Even on a more personal level, 48 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,640 like when you move it down into your own life, so many of us 49 00:03:31,640 --> 00:03:36,560 have friends or family who don't follow Jesus. 50 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:39,120 Many of you in this room, you've got children, you've got 51 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:42,520 grandchildren, you've got people who are important to you in your 52 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:46,920 life and they are not following Jesus and your heart aches. 53 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:49,880 So when you think about all those situations, what's your 54 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:52,280 normal reaction like? When you think about broader 55 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:55,040 culture and all the things that are wrong in the broader 56 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:56,920 culture, what's your normal reactor? 57 00:03:56,920 --> 00:03:59,760 Do you just get angry all the time at everything that's going 58 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:01,640 on? Are you frustrated? 59 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:05,160 Are you feeling it like you just want to shake somebody? 60 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,120 Maybe you just want to fight a culture war and set everything 61 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:11,040 right. Or maybe you're way over on the 62 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:15,720 opposite end and you just don't care anymore because you've just 63 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:18,600 gotten so used to it being this way. 64 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:21,560 You think this is just normal in the way things should be. 65 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:26,400 Maybe in your own personal life, if it's someone you know and 66 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:30,360 love who wants nothing to do with God, maybe you've got fears 67 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:35,080 or worries. Maybe you're stressed out about 68 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:37,040 it. Or maybe you're on the opposite 69 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:39,040 end and you just go, there's nothing I can do about it. 70 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:42,400 Let them make their own personal decisions. 71 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,520 Well, today I want to present this idea to you. 72 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:52,600 When other people don't live like God is God, your best 73 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:57,440 response is to pray. Today we're going to look at 74 00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:00,520 what is a familiar story to many of us if we've been around 75 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:02,760 church for any length of time. But for some of you, it might be 76 00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:04,680 brand new. So I want to give us a bit of 77 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,680 context that's going to help us better understand the prayer 78 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:09,480 that we're going to look at this morning. 79 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:13,520 Ahab has just become king of Israel. 80 00:05:13,760 --> 00:05:17,200 Now history tells us that Ahab was actually an amazing king. 81 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:20,800 Israel is living in incredible economic prosperity. 82 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:23,840 They are a regional superpower there. 83 00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:27,800 There are all kinds of reasons to look at Ahab and go man, he 84 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:30,200 is doing an amazing job as leader. 85 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:35,120 But what looks good on the surface is not always good in 86 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:38,680 the eyes of God. God's view of Ahab was very 87 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:40,360 different than what everybody else would have been 88 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:41,960 experiencing. On the surface. 89 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:47,080 The Bible says that Ahab did what was evil in the Lord's 90 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:50,680 sight. Listen to this more than all who 91 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:54,600 were before him. Like, you have to work really 92 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:58,440 hard to be worse than everybody else who's ever lived. 93 00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:04,200 But that's what Ahab is described as in this passage. 94 00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:09,840 Ahab continues the practice of a previous king named Jeroboam who 95 00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:13,120 created idols that were worshipped other than God. 96 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:16,600 But Ahab added to it he he marries a woman by the name of 97 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:20,320 Jezebel. Jezebel worships a God named 98 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:23,480 Bale. Now Bale was a God who was said 99 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:27,200 to control the rain and the wind and the clouds and all those 100 00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:30,440 things are essential elements for an Agricultural Society. 101 00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:34,520 They would have felt there is important value in worshipping 102 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:39,760 Bale, and Jezebel wants to use her influence to make Baal 103 00:06:39,840 --> 00:06:42,160 worship the primary religion of Israel. 104 00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:45,720 So she works to squash anyone who's loyal to God. 105 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:48,960 She orders the killing of prophets of God. 106 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:53,440 Anything she can do to diminish people who want to worship God 107 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:56,640 and raise up the worship of Baal, she's all for it. 108 00:06:57,200 --> 00:07:01,240 But that's not where it ended. Ahab also brings in Asherapols, 109 00:07:01,840 --> 00:07:03,400 not sure is the goddess of fertility. 110 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:06,280 She was also associated with sexuality. 111 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:11,160 So in short, what Ahab has done, he has brought polytheism to 112 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:12,920 Israel. Now if you don't know what 113 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:16,960 polytheism is, it just means the worship of many gods. 114 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:22,600 The idea that there was one true God alone was being replaced by 115 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:27,040 the idea that all of these gods are worth being worshipped and 116 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:32,200 followed to varying degrees, that we should find the gods who 117 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:34,320 are going to suit the needs of the people. 118 00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:39,040 And, and this idea and this reality kind of seeped into the 119 00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:42,680 culture all the way to the point where in chapter 18, verse 21, 120 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:47,200 we discover that the people are wavering between two opinions. 121 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:51,000 Should I worship Baal or should I worship God? 122 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:54,200 There are some people who are kind of even in between both 123 00:07:54,200 --> 00:07:55,640 opinions. They're they're landing in the 124 00:07:55,640 --> 00:07:57,760 space of maybe do I worship both of them? 125 00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:00,000 Do I worship Baal and I worship God? 126 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:04,040 Any of us sound familiar to you? It, it, it is not a whole lot 127 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:06,400 different than the world we actually live in today. 128 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:09,800 We, we've just accepted it as normal. 129 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:15,080 But we, we live in a time where whatever path you take to God, 130 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:18,920 it doesn't really matter what path you take as long as you're 131 00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:23,920 just spiritual. We, we've got all kinds of idols 132 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:29,360 that we turn to today. Some of us even in this room or 133 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:33,360 watching online, we can become functional polytheists. 134 00:08:34,039 --> 00:08:38,080 You, you could have just had an incredible time of worshipping 135 00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:42,960 God, celebrating who he is and, and just enjoying the singing 136 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:45,080 together. But then this afternoon you're 137 00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:47,720 going to go home and you're going to start to count on your 138 00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:52,800 bank account or your job or your family or whoever else to give 139 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:55,040 you meaning and direction and purpose in life. 140 00:08:56,880 --> 00:09:02,080 That's functional polytheism. You are worshipping multiple 141 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:05,720 gods to give you meaning and direction for your life. 142 00:09:07,960 --> 00:09:12,520 We put our faith in things like our sex life, our identity, 143 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:15,360 whatever it is, whatever is in our heart, to guide us through 144 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:17,720 life. To some degree. 145 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:22,840 We've turned ourselves into idols as well, hundreds of 146 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:26,080 millions of people. We all have our own little 147 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:28,680 platform where we just want people to pay attention to us, 148 00:09:30,840 --> 00:09:33,760 or we just do life however we want to do life. 149 00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:37,280 We live how we want to live. We have a motto in our culture 150 00:09:37,280 --> 00:09:40,800 that says you do you. We've turned ourselves into 151 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:46,480 idols, and at its core, our culture, our moment in time is 152 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:49,200 not any different than other cultures through human history. 153 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:52,680 And then along comes a guy named Elijah. 154 00:09:52,680 --> 00:09:56,000 Elijah is a prophet of God who announces that there's a famine 155 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,840 coming to the land because of the decisions that Ahab has 156 00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:01,880 made. After three years of famine in 157 00:10:01,880 --> 00:10:05,880 the land, Elijah calls for a showdown between himself and the 158 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:11,400 prophets of Bail and Asherah. 450 prophets of Bail, 400 159 00:10:11,400 --> 00:10:14,760 prophets of Asherah are in the land, 850 to one. 160 00:10:14,760 --> 00:10:19,080 Those are not good odds. And he says, OK, we're going to 161 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:24,080 make 2 sacrifices, but no fire. Nobody gets to start a fire. 162 00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:30,880 Instead, each would call on the name of their God to start the 163 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:34,240 fire. And the God who answers is the 164 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:37,440 one true God. But Elijah takes it to another 165 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:40,560 level. He puts 12 Stones around the 166 00:10:40,560 --> 00:10:43,240 sacrifice. He builds A trench around it 167 00:10:43,240 --> 00:10:46,320 that's big enough to hold 15 liters of water. 168 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:50,440 He pours water all over the sacrifice, all over the wood, 169 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:52,840 all over the stones, three times. 170 00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:56,240 Everything is completely drenched. 171 00:10:57,280 --> 00:10:59,680 The prophets of Baal get up and they start praying. 172 00:10:59,880 --> 00:11:02,600 They pray all afternoon. They're shouting loudly and 173 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:05,040 they're cutting themselves and they're doing everything they 174 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:08,840 can to get his attention that he would respond and start the fire 175 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:11,760 of their sacrifice a lot to even let them go 1st. 176 00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:17,360 And they get no response. Elijah prays. 177 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:19,520 And this is the best part of the whole story. 178 00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:24,600 Fire comes down from heaven and consumes the entire sacrifice 179 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:27,760 that is drenched in water. Now, how cool would it be to 180 00:11:27,760 --> 00:11:29,600 pray a prayer and fire comes down from heaven? 181 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:32,880 Like, who doesn't want that to happen sometime? 182 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:36,440 I was trying to get our tech team to rig something that I 183 00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:39,160 could pray and like, something would come down on the stage 184 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:43,760 today. Like sometimes, isn't that just 185 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:47,480 what you want to do? Be be honest. 186 00:11:47,840 --> 00:11:50,960 Don't you sometimes just feel like you would like to call down 187 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:52,640 fire from heaven on certain people? 188 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:02,800 When you experience those moments when there is something 189 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:09,440 uneasy inside of you about people or culture around you, I 190 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:11,920 want you to pay attention. That is the Holy Spirit calling 191 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:16,040 you to action. And while there's a whole lot 192 00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:20,400 that's gone on in this story, the most important action you 193 00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:24,000 can take is pray, because nothing changes in this story 194 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:27,800 until Elijah prays. And that's where we pick up in 195 00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:34,480 verse 36 of chapter 18. At the time for offering the 196 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:37,640 evening sacrifice, the prophet Elijah approached the altar and 197 00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:41,080 said, Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. 198 00:12:41,440 --> 00:12:45,800 Today let it be known that you are God in Israel and I am your 199 00:12:45,800 --> 00:12:50,280 servant, and that at your word I have done all of these things. 200 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:55,880 Answer me Lord, answer me so that this people will know that 201 00:12:55,880 --> 00:13:02,400 you, the Lord are God and that you have turned their hearts 202 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:06,400 back. Elijah's prayer begins by 203 00:13:06,400 --> 00:13:10,600 teaching us this that when you pray you should be confident 204 00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:15,520 that you are talking to the one faithful, all powerful and 205 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:20,800 living God. There are times if we are 206 00:13:20,800 --> 00:13:24,240 honest, when we are really agitated, frustrated, concerned 207 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:29,040 about something in culture or in other people's lives that we 208 00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:31,200 think prayer is the weak thing to do. 209 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:35,480 We do everything possible to go and fix the solution or be a 210 00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:37,360 part of the solution and fix the problem. 211 00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:42,240 But we don't pray. We we think we just need to take 212 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:44,680 a stand and fix the wrong ourselves. 213 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:50,360 But when you start to act to fix something that is wrong without 214 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:54,840 praying, then you are making yourself the all powerful person 215 00:13:54,840 --> 00:14:00,080 in the equation. Sometimes we pray just to check 216 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:02,120 a box and say, Oh yeah, I prayed about that. 217 00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:06,280 I said my prayers before bed. I said my prayers before eating. 218 00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:11,240 But I want you to understand every single time you pray, it 219 00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:14,200 is not just a spiritual exercise to go through for the sake of 220 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:18,000 checking a box. You are coming into the presence 221 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:22,040 of the one true, faithful, all powerful and living God. 222 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:26,960 That's what Elijah is declaring at the beginning of his prayer 223 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:30,600 here when he says, Lord the God of Abraham and Isaac and Israel, 224 00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:35,760 he's going back to generations worth of covenants and promises 225 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,120 that God has made to the Jewish people. 226 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:42,400 He's highlighting the faithfulness that God has shown 227 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:45,680 over and over again. And by doing this, he's saying, 228 00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:48,160 God, you are the God who has kept your promises in the past 229 00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:51,320 and shown yourself powerful and faithful and loving in the past. 230 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:55,000 And I have every confidence you are going to continue to do that 231 00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:59,720 going into the future. You know, I, I forget where I 232 00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:02,320 read this, but one of the most transformational things that I 233 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:07,680 ever learned about prayer early in my adult life came in a book. 234 00:15:07,680 --> 00:15:11,440 And again, forgive me, I forget where the what the book was, but 235 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:17,440 the author of this book said when you pray, you need to pause 236 00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:22,240 long enough to get your heart and mind centered on the reality 237 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:24,240 of who exactly it is you're talking to. 238 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:30,560 That that you don't just come in flippantly into prayer and you 239 00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:33,680 don't just come in like I'm just doing this because I have to do 240 00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:36,280 this. But you center your heart and 241 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:40,240 mind you, you take a breath even if you have to and remind 242 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:43,960 yourself, I'm not just talking for the sake of talking. 243 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:49,080 I am talking to the one true living God. 244 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:54,000 Is there anybody better to talk to? 245 00:15:56,200 --> 00:15:58,400 Like God is not in your imagination. 246 00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:03,400 He's real. God is here right now, whether 247 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:05,200 you feel him or you don't feel him. 248 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:06,520 We live in a culture that talks all the time. 249 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:12,120 I don't feel God. Your feeling of God does not 250 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:14,440 influence whether or not God is here. 251 00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:18,760 The Bible tells us God is omnipresent. 252 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:21,760 You cannot run from the presence of God. 253 00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:27,920 He is everywhere. He is all powerful. 254 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:32,080 You are talking to someone who has no limitations on their 255 00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:37,440 resources and he's faithful. He's a God who has kept his 256 00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:40,720 promises in the past and he's going to continue to keep those 257 00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:44,080 promises in the future, which means you can completely depend 258 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:49,320 on him. And there is no other God. 259 00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:54,280 He is the only true God. He is not like anyone else you 260 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:59,720 might trust in or talk to. You know Webster's Dictionary 261 00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:03,160 even recognizes this. Webster's Dictionary defines God 262 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:07,599 this way. The supreme or ultimate reality, 263 00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:14,480 the very definition of God, does not allow anything else to be 264 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,720 God. There is no room. 265 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:21,000 There can only ultimately be one God. 266 00:17:21,760 --> 00:17:24,040 I say this with the utmost of respect. 267 00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:30,360 Allah is not God. There is only one God. 268 00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:36,320 The God of the Bible claims himself to be the one true God, 269 00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:38,640 and that's who you're talking to when you pray. 270 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:43,120 Now, when you think of it that way, it's really easy to get 271 00:17:43,120 --> 00:17:46,040 inside your own head. Like if you've ever had a 272 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:48,960 conversation with someone who is smarter than you, more powerful 273 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:53,320 than you, more influential than you, who knows everything, you 274 00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:56,400 can get nervous and wonder, what is it I need to do to impress 275 00:17:56,400 --> 00:17:58,000 this person that I'm coming to talk to. 276 00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:02,920 We, we live in a culture where we constantly feel the need to 277 00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:07,600 impress other people. Like when you are in a dating 278 00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:10,080 relationship, you are trying to impress other people. 279 00:18:10,120 --> 00:18:11,480 You're trying to impress that person. 280 00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:14,640 I tried to impress my wife on our very first date. 281 00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:17,480 I picked up a dozen long stand roses. 282 00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:19,200 I'm like, I'm going to make a good first impression. 283 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:20,600 Why? Because you never get a second 284 00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:22,040 chance to make a good first impression. 285 00:18:22,280 --> 00:18:25,840 It was all great until I was 45 minutes late for the date 286 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:31,080 because I got lost in the thriving metropolis of Paris ON 287 00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:35,160 This is way back before Google Maps. 288 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:40,640 Everybody OK, so like it. It is wild the things that we 289 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:43,040 will do to try to impress other people. 290 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:47,560 We try to impress our boss at work, we try to impress our 291 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:51,520 friends. We we post on social media. 292 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:54,440 Every time you post on social media, whether you say it or 293 00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:56,880 not, you're trying to impress other people. 294 00:18:56,880 --> 00:19:00,240 Why? Because you love it when someone 295 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:04,480 likes your post and you get depressed when they don't like 296 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:08,560 your post. You're trying to impress all the 297 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:11,960 time. And we can get the same way with 298 00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:15,160 God. If I'm going to pray, what do I 299 00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:17,560 need to say and do that's going to impress Him? 300 00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:23,960 And the truth is, nothing, nothing. 301 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:28,120 You don't need to try and impress God with your prayers. 302 00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:34,480 I've heard people who use incredibly eloquent words in 303 00:19:34,480 --> 00:19:37,280 their prayers. One of the very first services 304 00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:40,560 we ever attended here at Forward many years, even before we 305 00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:44,840 started attending regularly, there was a man that many of you 306 00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:47,120 will know. His name is Gordon Phillips. 307 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:51,200 Gordon Phillips was praying during the service that Sunday. 308 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:57,720 And I listened to Gordon pray and I thought, Oh my goodness, I 309 00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:03,640 have just touched heaven. And then I thought, Oh my 310 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:09,280 goodness, I can never pray again because he's the only one who 311 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:11,440 can pray like that. I've never met anybody that 312 00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:13,880 could pray like him. It was incredible. 313 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:19,240 Now on the opposite end, my posture before I, we started 314 00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:23,080 attending forward, my posture. Early on in his Christian life, 315 00:20:23,360 --> 00:20:26,120 he had a huge stuttering problem. 316 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:29,800 Like he could not talk without stuttering. 317 00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:33,560 It was just automatic. He was a brand new Christian. 318 00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:36,840 He's sitting at church one Sunday and his pastor says 319 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:40,640 during communion, Hey, Ray, I want you to pray for communion 320 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:46,640 today. Now imagine being poor Ray, who 321 00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:51,320 is just stuttering and mumbling and bumbling his way through a 322 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:54,600 prayer. And I want you to know 323 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:58,160 something. God is equally honored by both 324 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:04,720 prayers. It's not about the eloquence of 325 00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:08,000 words. It's not about the abundance of 326 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:11,720 words in your prayer that makes your prayer powerful. 327 00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:17,240 Both types of prayers can be equally honoring to God. 328 00:21:18,120 --> 00:21:21,560 The prophets of Baal, they spent half a day trying to get Bale's 329 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:23,600 attention to respond to their prayers. 330 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:28,360 Elijah prays in about two sentences, and God sends down 331 00:21:28,360 --> 00:21:34,800 fire from heaven. Church, Jesus died on a cross to 332 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:40,600 reconcile you to God and give you access at any moment to come 333 00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:45,120 boldly into the presence of your heavenly Father who loves you. 334 00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:51,200 And he wants to hear from you, not because you've got all the 335 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,600 right words to say, but because you're his child. 336 00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:58,080 Don't overthink your prayers. Just pray. 337 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:03,080 Now, that doesn't mean you can't grow in learning different ways 338 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:07,000 to pray and helping you to connect with Him, but it doesn't 339 00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:08,520 mean we don't need to overthink it. 340 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:13,240 One of the ways we can all grow in prayers to understand that 341 00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:16,080 prayer is a place to check your attitudes and actions. 342 00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:20,600 In the very first part of Elijah's prayer in verse 36, 343 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,680 before we ever get to the part of fire coming down from heaven, 344 00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:25,400 Elijah asks God for something else. 345 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:30,160 He says let it be known that you are God and that I am your 346 00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:36,040 servant and that at your word I have done all these things. 347 00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:42,000 Here's what Elijah's praying. Hey, God, would you just please 348 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,680 have my back and show these people that I'm not a crazy man? 349 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:48,320 That's what he's praying, basically. 350 00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:54,400 I've called for this, this day, this moment of this challenge, 351 00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:58,560 and it looks ridiculous. What I've called for here, The 352 00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:02,120 odds are against me. I've drenched this this thing in 353 00:23:02,120 --> 00:23:05,680 water. It doesn't make any sense. 354 00:23:06,120 --> 00:23:09,240 Would you come and just have my back and show me, Show everybody 355 00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:14,880 else I'm not crazy? And the reason he prays that is 356 00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:18,280 because Elijah says I've just simply done what you've told me 357 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:22,360 to do. God, I've done all these things 358 00:23:22,360 --> 00:23:25,440 that don't make any sense to anybody else, but I'm doing them 359 00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:29,480 because you've told me to call for this challenge. 360 00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:33,680 You've told me to put water on the sacrifice like this. 361 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:43,080 You cannot expect God to show up in a powerful way if you're not 362 00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:44,920 living in obedience to God yourself. 363 00:23:48,360 --> 00:23:51,920 Like Elijah makes this incredibly bold prayer, but it's 364 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:54,840 a prayer that's based on an assumption that he's living in 365 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:58,320 obedience to God. You know what obedience is? 366 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:03,280 Obedience just means faith in action means I trust God so much 367 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:07,920 I'm going to do what God says. I have faith in God and I'm 368 00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:12,400 living it out in the everyday of my life, whatever He says to do. 369 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,320 Now I want to be clear because some of us may not totally 370 00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:20,920 understand the difference between these two meanings of 371 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:23,560 the word faith. So there's a difference between 372 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:29,320 saving faith and living faith. Saving faith is the idea of 373 00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:31,160 this. The Bible says that every single 374 00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:35,920 human is a Sinner, and every single one of us is in danger of 375 00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:37,760 the judgement of God for our sins. 376 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:43,760 And the Bible says that none of us can be rescued or saved from 377 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:47,840 that judgement by our obedience, by our own good works. 378 00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:51,120 Doing good things will not make you right with God. 379 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:54,840 We are saved. We are made right with God, 380 00:24:54,840 --> 00:25:00,360 first by his grace, his unmerited favor towards us, and 381 00:25:00,360 --> 00:25:05,520 second, by our faith in Jesus and the reality that Jesus took 382 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:09,480 our place on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins. 383 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:15,240 That's saving faith. And saving faith leads us to 384 00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:18,680 living faith. Living faith is where we 385 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:23,800 continue to choose to have faith that there is only one God and 386 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:26,240 that one God rules over everything. 387 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:30,920 Living faith manifests itself by living in obedience to God. 388 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:34,440 Here's how the preacher chapter Spurgeon described it. 389 00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:40,520 Because we have faith in God as Lord of all, we gladly pay him 390 00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:43,720 our homage and desire in all things. 391 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:48,320 To say Thy will be done in earth as it is done in heaven. 392 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:53,240 You must have a priority faith in God or else the will of God 393 00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:55,880 will not be a priority rule to you. 394 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:01,760 Obedience means just doing what God says to do, even when it 395 00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:06,760 doesn't make sense. And before you ever start to 396 00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:10,680 pray for God to change the way that other people are living or 397 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:15,400 to change the environment around you, ask God to search you and 398 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:18,520 show show you if you're honoring God yourself. 399 00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,400 Like let me give you a couple of quick examples from the Bible. 400 00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:25,360 Men, let's say you're in a marriage relationship. 401 00:26:25,360 --> 00:26:29,520 You're frustrated with your wife for whatever reason. 402 00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:33,760 So you're asking God, God, would you please just change her? 403 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:39,560 Would you just work in her life? And maybe sometimes you get so 404 00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:42,480 frustrated with her, you're getting angry, you're talking 405 00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:44,720 down to her, you're ignoring her. 406 00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,840 Here's what the Bible says in first Peter chapter 3. 407 00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:51,880 Husbands, show your wife honor as Co heirs of the grace of life 408 00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:56,040 so that your prayers will not be hindered. 409 00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:02,280 Your obedience to God men in honoring your wife is directly 410 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:04,040 connected to God hearing your prayers. 411 00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:10,960 Let me give you another example. I I know this never happens in 412 00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:14,200 our culture, but let's just say you're frustrated, maybe even 413 00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:18,320 angry with leaders. You just want them to be better 414 00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:21,720 and do better. The Bible has a lot to say about 415 00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:24,360 honouring, respecting, and praying for those who are in 416 00:27:24,360 --> 00:27:27,880 authority. What would make you think God's 417 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:31,520 going to respond favorably to you if you aren't saying yes to 418 00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:38,120 what He wants from you? Sometimes we pray and nothing 419 00:27:38,120 --> 00:27:39,680 happens. And part of the reason nothing 420 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:43,200 happens is because we're praying with the wrong motives. 421 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:45,760 That's what James chapter 4, verse 3 tells us. 422 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:49,320 And so here's what I want to do. I want to take a minute. 423 00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:51,560 We're going to have a silent prayer. 424 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:54,120 And I want to ask you just to think about this, everybody 425 00:27:54,120 --> 00:27:57,960 close your eyes. I want you to come before God, 426 00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:02,320 Say God in the places of life that concern me or frustrate me. 427 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:07,400 Please show me if I'm honoring you with my actions and 428 00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:44,070 attitudes. It's important to keep coming 429 00:28:44,070 --> 00:28:47,350 back to that over and over again, asking God to show you 430 00:28:47,950 --> 00:28:51,110 your own heart and the way you're living in obedience to 431 00:28:51,110 --> 00:28:53,830 God yourself. That's just the first part of 432 00:28:53,830 --> 00:28:56,070 Elijah's prayer. The second part goes further. 433 00:28:56,070 --> 00:29:00,190 Let me ask you this. What's your greatest desire? 434 00:29:00,790 --> 00:29:04,560 When you pray for other people, especially people who want 435 00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:09,040 nothing to do with God, when you look at the culture around us, 436 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:12,000 when you look at all the things that frustrate you, what's your 437 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,600 greatest desire? Here's what Elijah's prayer 438 00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:19,040 teaches us. Prayers that honor God are 439 00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:21,720 primarily concerned with the state of people's souls. 440 00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:29,000 Look at verse 37 for a minute. I want you to notice something 441 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,480 that never once shows up in Elijah's prayer. 442 00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:38,720 Elijah never actually prays for fire from heaven, never shows 443 00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,120 up. Elijah doesn't say, God, would 444 00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:45,240 you send down fire from heaven? The fire that comes down is 445 00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:49,320 simply God doing what God was always going to do in response 446 00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:54,680 to Elijah's obedience. Elijah's prayer, his greatest 447 00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:59,880 desire is for people to see God for who he is. 448 00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:05,440 That people would know God and all of his glory and all of his 449 00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:08,960 power, and that their hearts would be turned back to him. 450 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:14,840 That people would want to love God and honor him with their 451 00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:18,360 life. You know, so many times we go 452 00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:23,080 looking for the fire to fall from heaven, when what matters 453 00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:27,480 most is that all of humanity has a clear vision of who God really 454 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:31,800 is. In this culture where people 455 00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:36,480 denied God, where there were servants of God who were being 456 00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:41,720 killed, where Ahab himself could, where Elijah himself 457 00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:47,840 could possibly be killed, his primary concern are the souls of 458 00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:53,880 people who are angry with God or who are confused about which God 459 00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:57,400 they should trust. Let's be honest, that's not 460 00:30:57,400 --> 00:30:59,200 always what we're most concerned about. 461 00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:03,760 There's just something inside of us that always gets caught up in 462 00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:08,000 the morality of the situation. We want everything that we're 463 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,000 seeing on the surface to be fixed and changed. 464 00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:13,320 That's the kind of stuff we usually pray for. 465 00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:18,320 Like when someone else's actions make your life more difficult. 466 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:21,840 What do you pray for? Hey God, just get me through 467 00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:23,760 this. Help me not to kill this person, 468 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,160 right? Those are OK prayers but not 469 00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:35,520 ultimate When when the culture around you seems like it's just 470 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:39,680 going crazy sometimes celebrating things that just are 471 00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:42,800 so obviously against what God says. 472 00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:47,120 If you even pray about it, what do you pray for? 473 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:52,840 Like God, would you just stop this madness when when someone 474 00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:56,280 you love is getting in some kind of trouble? 475 00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:57,840 What? What do you pray for? 476 00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:01,800 Hey God, would you just help them to stop gambling or 477 00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:06,080 drinking or taking drugs? Again, not bad things to pray 478 00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:13,160 for, but but not ultimate things for for those of you who have 479 00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:17,360 children or grandchildren or friends who are caught up in a 480 00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:22,480 world where they ignore God or where maybe God is just one of 481 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:25,240 many other gods that they're kind of serving and worshiping 482 00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:29,200 in their life. The single greatest prayer that 483 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:33,640 you can give is that those people you love will see God for 484 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:37,240 who He is and we'll have their hearts turn back to Him. 485 00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:46,240 You see, the truth is nothing changes unless hearts change. 486 00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:51,800 Nothing changes in the culture once the hearts of our culture 487 00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:55,840 change. Nothing changes in our marriages 488 00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:59,040 and in our families unless hearts change. 489 00:32:59,960 --> 00:33:03,960 Nothing changes in the priorities of people until 490 00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:09,480 something changes in our hearts. That that is exactly what Jesus 491 00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:13,440 teaches us, that what we most often pay attention to are the 492 00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:16,120 things that are at the surface, the things that we can touch and 493 00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:21,600 see. But everything that is broken in 494 00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:25,160 this world and in this culture, everything that is broken in our 495 00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:29,240 lives, everything that is wrong and living in rebellion against 496 00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:33,360 God, everything that tries to make God one of many gods that 497 00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:38,200 we serve, it's all because of what is in our hearts. 498 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:45,120 And what we need to see is the majesty and the glory of God and 499 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:49,560 to have our hearts turn to Him. So I want to give you a minute 500 00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:53,600 to pray. close your eyes again. I want you to think about all 501 00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:57,440 those people that frustrate you, those people that you're 502 00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:00,320 concerned with, the culture around you. 503 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:05,440 I want you to pray for them to see God and to have their hearts 504 00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:45,880 turned to Him. You know, the the reason I know 505 00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:49,880 that this prayer is so important is because this is what God's 506 00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:55,280 heart is for you. If you're here today and this 507 00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:58,640 whole idea of Christianity is foreign to you, or you're just 508 00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,440 checking it out, here's what I want you to know. 509 00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:07,160 There is only one God. There can only be one God by 510 00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:09,440 very nature of the definition of God. 511 00:35:11,240 --> 00:35:16,920 And that God is greater than your mind can possibly fathom. 512 00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:23,360 And for whatever reason, amongst all the billions of people on 513 00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:32,840 this planet who have ever lived, that God loves you, no matter 514 00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:36,640 how much brokenness you have in your life, no matter how many 515 00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:41,400 times you have failed or done something wrong, That God says 516 00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,720 the sin in your life is not primarily a behavior problem, 517 00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:51,240 it's a heart problem. Ezekiel chapter 36 says this. 518 00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:55,360 I will cleanse you from all of your impurities. 519 00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:02,240 That God stands ready to forgive you of your sin if you just call 520 00:36:02,240 --> 00:36:05,280 out to Him. But there's more. 521 00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:11,960 He also says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit 522 00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:16,720 in you. That that God is alive and ready 523 00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:21,120 to radically alter the course of your life by giving you a heart 524 00:36:21,120 --> 00:36:26,720 transplant so that you could know Him and know His love for 525 00:36:26,720 --> 00:36:29,680 you and that you could love Him in return. 526 00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:39,560 And he's just inviting you to pray and call out to Jesus and 527 00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:43,320 say, forgive me of my sin and come and give me a new heart. 528 00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:51,000 God, I surrender my life to you. For those of us who do follow 529 00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:57,280 Jesus, you know, it's so easy for us to get worried or 530 00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:02,040 frustrated or even stop caring about the actions and decisions 531 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:07,560 of people who don't follow God. And what we need to remember is 532 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:15,760 we were just once like them. We needed to see God in all of 533 00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:18,960 his glory. We needed to experience the 534 00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:22,400 grace and the forgiveness of God in our own lives. 535 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:28,320 That's what God has done for us at the cross. 536 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:33,040 The sacrifice of Elijah in First Kings 18, the sacrifice that he 537 00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:36,120 makes is just a temporary sacrifice. 538 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:41,960 But at the cross, Jesus dies and he is the sacrifice once and for 539 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:47,920 all time that says your sins can be totally forgiven. 540 00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:52,560 You can be made new. You can see God in all of his 541 00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:57,000 glory, the sacrifice of Jesus and the life and the death and 542 00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:02,720 the resurrection of Jesus. We see the glory and the majesty 543 00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:06,080 and the love that God has for you. 544 00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:13,480 But sometimes in the chaos of the world we live in, we lose 545 00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:17,720 sight of that. We lose sight of what God's done 546 00:38:17,720 --> 00:38:19,960 for us. And so that's one of the reasons 547 00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:23,160 why we need to take Communion together on a regular basis. 548 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:28,000 So I want to invite you to pull your Communion Cup out right 549 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:32,920 now. See, what Communion does is 550 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:38,680 Communion brings us back. It pulls us out of all the 551 00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:43,280 things in the world that are distracting us and annoying us 552 00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:47,960 and frustrating us and pulls us back into what ultimately 553 00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:53,640 matters most, that there is one God who is great and he who 554 00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:58,800 loves me so much that he would send his Son to die on a cross 555 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:03,080 for my sins. When we take communion, we're 556 00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:08,360 reminding each other, reminding ourselves of how Jesus points us 557 00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:13,520 to the glory of God. So I want to invite you to pull 558 00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:16,640 the wafer out of the top of your communion cup. 559 00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:26,920 This represents the reality that God became flesh, He came to 560 00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:30,880 dwell amongst us. His name is Jesus, the Son of 561 00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:34,240 God. That instead of us as humans 562 00:39:34,240 --> 00:39:38,680 having to pay the price, the judgement of God, the Son of 563 00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:42,360 God, God in the flesh. What a merciful, gracious God. 564 00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:50,880 He would go and die on a cross so that we would not have to. 565 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:57,240 And we take this, this wafer and remembrance of the body of Jesus 566 00:39:57,760 --> 00:39:59,600 that took our place on the cross. 567 00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:02,700 Eat all of it. If you 568 00:40:18,790 --> 00:40:23,750 open up the juice, the juice represents the blood of Jesus 569 00:40:24,150 --> 00:40:26,110 that was shed on the cross for us. 570 00:40:29,070 --> 00:40:32,030 And that blood that was shed, the Bible tells us, was shed so 571 00:40:32,030 --> 00:40:35,750 that you and I could be forgiven, fully reconciled to 572 00:40:35,750 --> 00:40:40,840 God. Able to enjoy fellowship, 573 00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:45,080 relationship with him, the ability to be called a child of 574 00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:52,120 God because you are forgiven. So we take this juice and we 575 00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:56,760 drink it in remembrance of the blood of Jesus that was shed, 576 00:40:56,760 --> 00:41:00,840 not only for you, but for every person in this world who needs 577 00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:02,960 to still see that God loves them. 578 00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:05,960 Let's take this in remembrance of him. 579 00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:26,960 And the story with Elijah verse 39, after he had prayed and the 580 00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:32,480 fire came down, it says when all the people saw it, they fell 581 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:42,000 face down and said the Lord he is God, the Lord he is God. 582 00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:46,200 I want to invite you just take a moment, close your eyes. 583 00:41:48,520 --> 00:41:51,280 For those of us who are God's children, I want you just to 584 00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:55,080 take a moment and center your heart and reflect on just how 585 00:41:55,080 --> 00:42:26,520 awesome God is. Church, let's stand together. 586 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:29,360 Let's celebrate our awesome God.