title: choose to follow the one true god text: i kings 18 theme: a right commitment to follow god...

TITLE: Choose to Follow the One True God

• TEXT: I Kings 18

• THEME: A right commitment to follow God will help you experience a purposeful life.

At graduation some choices are forced upon

• We are transitioning from childhood to adulthood



• We are transitioning from dependence to independence



• We are transitioning from dependence to independence

• We are transition from having many decisions decided for us by parents to having to make these same decisions on our own.

We have to decide

• what I will do with my life

We have to decide


• what career should I pursue

We have to decide


• what career should I pursue

• who I will marry

I Kings 18

• The story is about a religious shootout on the slopes of Mt. Carmel. A confrontation took place between Ahab, the evil king of Israel and Elijah, one of a few surviving prophets of God. The men and the moment merged for a momentous decision.

Elijah had already said three years earlier

• "There will be no more rain until I say so

Elijah had already said three years earlier

• "There will be no more rain until I say so."

• God disciplined Israel for their idolatry by withholding rain.

Elijah said to the king

• "I have some good news. The rains will come again."

Ahab said to Elijah

• "There is famine and drought in this land, and you, Elijah, are the man who brought this upon Israel."

Elijah was quick to point out the real source of the drought.

• It was not him but it was Ahab and his defiance of God and his destruction of God’s prophet.

Elijah to the People of Israel

• 21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

• But the people said nothing.

The terms

• Two bulls were to be placed on separate alters to be sacrificed. Whichever god sent the flash of fire to consume the sacrifice was the true god of Israel

Elijah taunted all the priests of the pagan gods

• Your God is on vacation


• Your God is on vacation.

• He’s on the toilet




• He's hard of hearing




• He's hard of hearing

• He's not listening

Elijah prayed.

• “LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”

God responds

• “Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.”

• For water, stone and soil to burn requires a supernatural intervention. God wanted it to be clear this is not a normal event- He was involved.

The Peoples Response

• “39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!”

The central question in this story is this:

• How long are you going to waver between two opinions?

The Hebrew behind the words

• The Hebrew word for opinion speaks of branches or forks in a tree limb or a road.

• The words "falter" or "waver" mean "to limp, to halt, to hop, to dance, or to leap."

Literal Translation

• How long will you keep dancing on one foot and then on the other while trying to straddle a widening branch or to take both forks of a road at the same time?

Jesus

• No one can serve two masters.

Yogi Berra

• "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

God convincingly demonstrated He was the true God removing any

cause for doubt.

God convincingly demonstrated He was the true God removing any

cause for doubt.

• Yet, the same is true for us today. There is more than amble evidence to support the existence of God. Yet, many live and act as though the evidence is vague or unconvincing. Then we try to walk the fence.

What are some of the reasons people waver between two opinions

about God?

I. Mere intentions are not enough.

"I meant to do better. Doesn't that count for something?"

Response

• "No, not really. Meaning to do something and intending to do something is far different from doing something.

Old Adage

• “The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

The Message Read

• "To the only girl I ever loved."

The Message Read

• "To the only girl I ever loved."

• He said, "Give me six of these."

Mere intentions are not enough.

• A life is built on the foundation of right commitments that lead us to act.

Confucius

• "To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice."

Unknown writer

• "Silence is not always golden. Sometimes it's just plain yellow."


about God?

II. Procrastination: We put things off.

We put things off.

• "There will be another day.

We put things off.


• There will be a better time

We put things off.


• There will be a better time

• Not here, not now, not me, not us.

Great cathedral in Milan

• Right Side "All that pleases us is only for a moment."

• Left Side: "All that troubles us is only for a moment."

• Top of the door. "Nothing is important but that which is eternal."



• Left Side: "All that troubles us is only for a moment."

James 4.

• "What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."

Augustine

• "God has promised forgiveness to our repentance. But he has not promised tomorrow to our procrastination."

Marine said

• "I doubt whether there are two or three of you in this room who could even cut it in the Marine Corps. I want to see those two or three immediately in the dining hall when we are dismissed."


about God?

III. We are caught up in "denial / avoidance syndrome."

Common Alcoholic Response

• "I don't drink very much, Preacher, just a nip here and a nip there."

• "I can quit drinking any time I want to."

The avoidance/denial reality is rooted in the mistaken belief that we do not have to decide anything today

for sure. Nothing could be further from the truth. No decision is a

decision. By not practicing our faith, we contribute to those forces that

would, in fact, deny the faith

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions."


about God?

IV. We Must Fully and Finally Choose


• It is placing our hopes in something that we believe will endure while the world around us is on a path to destruction, when the pain and the violence and chaos of our time occupy center stage, dominate the news, disturb the sleep.


• It is acting upon the conviction that God will ultimately prevail and keep us keeping on.


• It's not hopping on this foot for a while and that foot a little while, in church every once in a while, there for the high holy days

Frederick Buechner

• "Even in the wilderness, especially in the wilderness, you shall love him."

The question that Elijah asked

• "How long are you going to waver between two opinions?"

The question that Elijah asked

• "How long are you going to waver between two opinions?"

• It is a relevant question. If God is God, then serve him. If Baal is God, then serve him. Which will it be?

Neutral

• Our English word neutral comes from two roots, "na" and "uta," meaning "not either."

Times for Decision

• In the heat of business

Times for Decision

• In the heat of business

• You're dating someone.

T.S. Eliot

• "In a world of fugitives the person taking the opposite direction will appear to run away

Key Question:

• When you think about your life, how are you spending your time, your talent, and your treasure?

Peter Marshall

• "The measure of life, after all, is not its duration but its donation."

H.G. Wells

• "At times in the silence of the night and in rare lonely moments I experience a sort of communion with something great that is not myself." He had arrived at a moment of choice and did not know it.

Graduation is a time when certain decisions are forced upon us.

• Ultimately, the most important decision of all is this. “Am I willing to follow today the only true God?”

title: choose to follow the one true god text: i kings 18 theme: a right commitment to follow god...

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