THESIS: To show that compromise and cowardice leads believers into a state of powerlessness.
INTRO.:
A. Let me introduce you to several key characters in Scripture. In 1 Kings 15:11-14 we read about the godly king Asa, king over Judah, the Southern (Confederacy) Kingdom. With him we have Elijah the godly prophet. In 1 Kings 18 we have wicked king Ahab on the throne in Israel, the Northern (Yankee) Kingdom. (Jezebel was the even more wicked Queen!). The governor (steward) of Ahab’s house was Obadiah (more later). The nation was worshipping Baal under Ahab. The people were confused.
NOTE: Baal was the god of nature, esp. of the sun and storms and was portrayed as having lightning in his right hand and thunder in his voice. They had had no rain for 3 1⁄2 years, because the true man-of-God had said so and the true God had shut off heaven’s faucets. They had been worshipping Baal and he hadn’t done much for them. Satan never does! 😈Satan is being worshipped in America. The same crowd who tells you you can’t spank children if you let them be born and live, 👿murders unborn children! Sodomites brazenly flaunt their sin. The 👿new agers have corrupted the very Word of God. Protestants and 👿former “fundamentalists” & neos like Benny Hinn, Rick Warren and Joel Osteen (Mr. Smiley Face”!), and TBN are snuggling up to the Pope and Catholicism, (and the Calvary Chapel crowd and 👿mega-church crowd) are headed to the one world church of the Antichrist.
B. The problem in Elijah’s day was that the “believers” were worshipping God and Baal at the same time! 🔹They were about 80% RIGHT WITH GOD! Most Christians today are about the same. 🔹LikeIsrael, we allow organized religion, the world and the Govt. to intimidate us (even more so since the 2020 COVID Pandemic – pastors and churches have all but closed down their churches. 🔹What ever happened to “We ought to obey God rather than men.” 🔹Didn’t Moses and Daniel disobey the Govt. in spite of the consequences? 🔹What ever happened to not forsaking the assembly? According to 2 Timothy 1:7 “God hath not given to us the spirit of fear...”). 🔹This causes everyone to doubt the power of God. Israel didn’t know who was the true God and neither did the heathen. Elijah was about to force them into a decision and throws down the gauntlet and shouts: “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him, but if Baal, then follow him.” v.21
TRANS.: ❓The question is: how did Israel get this way? ❓Also, how did the Church of Christ go from the power of Pentecost and the mighty revivals in church history to the lukewarm, powerless church of today? To answer the question let’s look at one man named Obadiah...
I. COMPROMISING CHRISTIANS: v.3
A. Ungodly Alliances Produce 80% Saints!
1. Obadiah “feared the Lord greatly...” 2. But – he was “governor (steward) of (Ahab’s) house”!
QUES.: 🔸What is someone who “feared the Lord greatly” doing as the “governor of (wicked king Ahab’s) house”?! 🔸Why would believers who go faithfully to church, carry a KJB and sing the hymns of the faith, compromise with the wicked world and run down to the video store to rent filthy videos or watch them and listen to filth on HBO, SHOWTIME, the internet, etc.????!!! 🔸God stopped using Obadiah and He will stop using us too! 🔸He used Elijah, not Obadiah, to shut off heaven’s faucets, and call down fire from heaven and to slay the false prophets of Baal!
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
II. COWARDLY CHRISTIANS: vv. 7-12
A. The Fear of Man Produces 80% Saints! (act out passage here)
1.“What will the people say? Or think of me?”
ILLUS.: 🙄If we were to start a “Coward’s Club” today, most Christians would be able to become charter members! 👍But convictions, not circumstances, should help us decide right and wrong. 💯Like Daniel who refused to stop praying in spite of the king’s decree and the threat of the lion’s den. 😢But here is Obadiah standing next to God’s man, but fearful of the wicked king Ahab!
2. “What if I foul up?”
ILLUS.: Many are fearful of witnessing. They are afraid to run people off. To where? Hell #2?! They are already lost and can’t get lost-er! The Gospel doesn’t damn, it saves. The Gospel doesn’t send people to hell, it sends them to heaven! But our witness has been neutralized by our compromise, so we become cowards. No power! No fire! No God working in our lives!
III. COMPLACENT CHRISTIANS: vv. 13,14
A. Satisfaction with Past Accomplishments Produces 80% Saints!
1. They brag about what they “used to do” in “the good old days!”
ILLUS.: If you are serving God now – these are your best days! Most folks live in the past because they are doing nothing in the present. The glory has departed. “I used to...” Don’t be a “has been believer” or a “used to be Christian.” It isn’t what God did yesterday, but what He is doing today and what He will do tomorrow.
2. Folks talk about their “glory days” they used to go soul-winning, were a bus capt., teacher, etc.
ILLUS.: 👉Many have a moldy, stagnant testimony about serving God. 👉We shouldn’t be satisfied with 80% RIGHT WITH GOD! 👉How would you like a husband or wife who was only 80% faithful?! 👉Obadiah didn’t get Ahab saved by compromising, and you won’t win your lost loved ones compromising.
3. Folks don’t respond to invitations anymore (make friends w/the altar!). 4. Folks no longer have God’s power in prayer or witnessing.
ILLUS.: People were confused in Elijah’s day because those who claimed to believe in God were powerless. The Baalites (like today’s J/W’s)were more zealous than the believers! It isn’t just a doctrinal statement or zeal, but an absence of God’s power!
5. Their light has gone out!
ILLUS.: Before lights and gates at R.R. crossings, a signal-man would stand at the crossing and wave a lantern at traffic. Several accidents occurred at one crossing and a trial was held. The signalman was asked if he had been sleeping...if he got out of his little shed...if he waved his lantern. He answered yes to all questions. Witnesses were called and they all agreed. As he left the courtroom, he was heard to say: “I’m sure glad they didn’t ask me if my lantern was lit!”
The difference between the false prophets of Baal and Elijah was that Elijah had been with God! His light was still burning!!! 6. Their altar had been broken down: v.30 a. Elijah first repaired the broken down altar! (Do YOU have some broken altars, broken vows, broken promises that need to be rebuilt?!)
b. Elijah then prayed. vv. 36,37 (a 64 word prayer!) c. Then the fire fell! V.38
NOTE: Elijah rebuilt the altar, then prayed and the fire fell. We pray and pray and no fire falls and there is no power because the altars are still broken and there is NO SACRIFICE ON THE ALTAR. As Isaac said to his father Abraham: “Here is the fire...the wood...where is the sacrifice?!"
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
CONCL.: We need the Holy Spirit’s power. The pastor needs it. The people need it. A Spirit-filled church is one that has Spirit-fruit. It is on fire and people will come to watch it burn and cry out: “The Lord, He is the God! The Lord, He is the God!” Using this scale are you 80%, 70%, 50%, 25%, 100% “right with God”? How hungry are you for God’s power? Are you satisfied with 80% RIGHT WITH GOD