This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:19] In case you didn't know, there is a football game today and it's kind of a big deal, at least to some people, at least to the advertisers who pay something like five million dollars for a 30 second spot or something like that.

[00:00:35] I mean, this might be the most watched program in America this year. I mean, it's clearly a big deal in our culture. It's more than just a football game. It's a social event. There's all the commercials. It's a celebrity thing. It's it's become something that almost feels like a national holiday. And it's like, what are we celebrating exactly?

[00:00:57] You know, and you might think, well, that's just the world, those people out there. Now, let me just tell you, last year at this church, the week before the Super Bowl to Super Bowl Sunday, there was a difference of one hundred people in attendance at this church because a football game that starts three hours after work done, OK. So there's something going on here. All right. And usually when America gets all excited, it's like a day of Thanksgiving. Or maybe it's like the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. Or maybe there's something great in our history that happened like our Declaration of Independence.

[00:01:40] But no, today it's just the Panthers and the Broncos and the whole world's caught up in it. See, and this is something else.

[00:01:47] There's nothing wrong with having a football game. But what I think it reveals is how people can get caught up in the things of this world and they can start to lose focus on what the priorities in life really are. If you want to watch a football game, well, hey, more power to you.

[00:02:06] But winds, for some people, the outcome of that football game, therefore determines their entire week afterwards.

[00:02:14] So we might have to start talking about what's really important in life. There's going to be a battle in America today. But really the question is, what are we fighting for? What's the significance behind all of this?

[00:02:27] And there was a time when the nation of Israel gathered around to watch a showdown. Their version of the Super Bowl, I guess you could call it if you wanted to. And it's in First Kings Chapter eight teams all want to encourage you to grab your Bible or go into the pages of the Old Testament where few people dare to go. Page 300. If you got one of our Bibles, in fact, somebody heard the sermon was on First Kings. And their immediate response to me was like.

[00:02:55] That's a rough book. I was there. That was their response at church this morning. Right. They weren't wearing a football jersey, but that's how they felt about first games. Right.

[00:03:05] And what we're going to see here, we're going to see a massive showdown that took place, kind of a throwdown, really, between one prophet Elijah, the prophet of God.

[00:03:16] So gods on one side here in the battle. We're going to read about today and then 450 prophets representing the idol.

[00:03:25] But all and they are going to have on a mountain, Mount Carmel, in Israel with the entire nation watching.

[00:03:34] They are going to have a competition to see whose God is the real god of Israel. And if you were at the men's tree last week, we talked about in the in the Old Testament, one thing you have to understand, if you're going to understand the context of ancient Israel is that when Israel would go and fight another nation, you're always reading about these wars that there's going on between all these different nations. Will is really going on behind this army versus this army. It was really their God versus our God. That's how people thought about it in the Old Testament. And so the reason I thought that my nation could defeat your nation in battle is I actually believe that my God was greater than your God. See? And so that's how it used to be in the context of the Old Testament. The Israelites had your way, their God who delivered them out of Egypt, and they were supposed to be shining a light to the nations and representing the true God, your way to all these other nations that believed in all of these different gods. A lot of them polytheistic, worshiping many gods. And instead of spreading the worship of the true God. What actually ended up happening by the time we get the first kings is that the worship of idols is actually creeping in among God's people in Israel. So that now we're not even fighting another nation to see whose God is better, no.

[00:04:56] Even now within Israel, there's a battle between people who want to worship but all and people who want to worship the God of Israel your way.

[00:05:06] And we have to have like a showdown right here in our own nation. Let's read about it first. Kings' 18. Let's start in verse 17. And it says, here now, Ahab. He's the king of Israel at this time in Alija. He's the famous prophet.

[00:05:22] And even though we don't have a book of the Bible called Alija, even though we don't have a writings from Alija, he's clearly viewed as one of the great Old Testament prophets, if not the greatest Old Testament prophet in the mind of the Jews, even in the New Testament.

[00:05:36] And you'll see why here if you think first King's is boring. Today's sermon is going to be a real challenge for you because you might actually find it interesting. Look at verse 17, first King, chapter 18, verse 17. When Ahab, the king saw Elijah, the Prophet Ahab said to him, Is it you, you troub blur of Israel? And he answered, I am not troubled Israel, but you have and your father's house because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and you have followed the balls.

[00:06:06] Now therefore sending gather all Israel to me. Let's get the whole nation at Mount Carmel and the four hundred fifty prophets of all. And he threw in the four hundred prophets of Ashura who eat at Jezebel's table. Let's all gather together. So Ahab, verse 20, sent to all the people of Israel and they gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. Everybody's uniting here. And Elijah came near to all the people. And this is how he starts the day with this rebuke. This question right here.

[00:06:37] How long will you go limping between two different opinions?

[00:06:43] They if the Lord is God, if your way is God, follow him. But if but all then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word. So here's Alija, the man of God, addressing the issue of the day among the people of Israel. And he's saying, hey, how come we're divided? How come we're a nation divided here? How come we're acting like gods? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the god of the history of Israel. But then now we're mixing in this worship of all. How come you guys are stuck at a fork in the road? You want the best of both worlds. I love the way he puts it. You're limping between two opinions. Who's God? Whoever the real God is, we should be worshiping him with all of our hearts, following him with all of our life. We shouldn't be stuck in the middle.

[00:07:31] And he calls them out.

[00:07:33] And what he's addressing here is this idea. Here's a word I'd like to write down. Maybe it's called syncretism.

[00:07:39] If you want to write that. OK.

[00:07:41] Syncretism get what we're talking about here is not one nation fighting, another nation over over whose God is is better or what we're talking about here is not people who just flat out reject Jesus Christ. Now, we've been going through the Gospel of John here at our church, and we've had some sermons about people who just reject Jesus and they don't even believe in him. While we're here at church on Super Bowl Sunday morning, where you're one of the righteous few who decided to show up here today. Right. So I'm going to think that today maybe you have a positive opinion about Jesus Christ. Like, no, you like this guy Jesus. This all died on the cross for your sin thing. You're for that this whole go into heaven after you die thing like, hey, that sounds really good.

[00:08:24] But that what I'm concerned about this morning, what happens here in Israel is, yeah, we still want our God who saved us and we still want our God who we think can help us sometimes.

[00:08:34] But then we want to mix in some of the ways of the world as well.

[00:08:38] And that's what syncretism ism ism is. All right. If I can say it, it's the attempt to combine different beliefs together.

[00:08:45] It's basically making up your own religion out of a mixture of different things that you like. You take a little bit of this and you take a little bit of that and you put it together and it all syncs up and it somehow is going to work. OK, yeah, I can worship God and still get all the benefits of him being my God. But then I could come over here and worship ball and see there was a lot of incentive in worshiping, but all not only were the other nations doing it. Not only was it the cool thing to do, but but all is the storm, God. But all he has this idea of fertility behind him. And whenever you hear about people worshiping idols in the Bible and you, that feels old fashioned to you and we don't worship idols today. Here's what idol worship is all about. You getting what you want.

[00:09:28] That's what it's all about. That sounds like what we're all about here today in America. Right.

[00:09:34] I mean, we're all basically. But all he he's going to bless you. And so your crops are going to grow. And since we're living in this real agricultural society, man, if the crops don't grow, we don't have any livelihood. We don't survive. So we need him to kind of bless us and makes things grow. And a lot of idols in the Old and New Testament. Titles of fertility, idols of of life. What we're really talking about there is allowing people to engage in sexual immorality and supposedly it's OK because this idol is behind it.

[00:10:02] Say so. Idols are excuses for people to do whatever they want. And so what Israel has done is it's kind of mixed the worship of your way with some of the worldly influence. And now we kind of have this not really wholehearted, pure worship. It's kind of muddied a little bit.

[00:10:22] And does that sound maybe like what's going on in the Church of Jesus Christ right here in America right now?

[00:10:27] Like, if I ask people at church, hey, do you want to go to heaven or hell? Man, that's an easy answer right there. Who wants to go to hell? Let's let's go to heaven. But if I say, hey, what do you want, heaven or this world right now? Which one would you choose?

[00:10:41] Say. What do you want? One hundred percent. Just Jesus or do you want Jesus?

[00:10:48] Plus a little bit of your favorite scent and a little bit of putting other things is more important than Jesus and a little bit of Willow Bay Jesus most of the time, except when it comes to fill in the blank. That is something that kind of competes in my heart with Jesus Christ. I'm not saying, hey, have you rejected Jesus and just thrown him off? No, that's not how most people who go to church go to hell. Most people who go to church go to hell by just mixing in the world with Jesus. Together, they make up their own version of Christianity when they can have their cake and they can eat it too. They can worship Jesus Christ and they can still kind of do the things of this world. Go to Matthew 13 and let's see what Jesus said about limping between two opinions. This was never supposed to be something that Christian people could think or do.

[00:11:40] And Jesus makes it very clear that the only way to be in as a Christian is you have to be all in. And he says it in a parable here in Matthew 13, verse 44, Matthew 13, verse 44, page eight hundred and nineteen. If you got one of our Bibles and he says, the kingdom of heaven, the sphere of salvation here where God reigns, it's like a treasure hidden in a field. And the man found this treasure in this field. And then he covered it up.

[00:12:11] And in his joy over this treasure in the field, he goes and he sells all that he has and he buys that field again. Verse 45. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant.

[00:12:24] And this merchant is in search of fine pearls and who on finding one pearl of great value.

[00:12:33] He went and sold all that he had and bought this one pearl.

[00:12:38] That's how you come to Jesus Christ, the treasure of what we call eternal life here. John, 17, verse three, something we try to talk about a lot.

[00:12:48] Eternal life is knowing God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent the treasure of knowing God is worth selling everything, even if that's the only thing you end up with.

[00:13:00] It's worth it to know God like the joy of this treasure in this field that this man finds he will sell everything he has in this world to buy this treasure of knowing God. Is that what you've done? Is that what you think being Christian is?

[00:13:19] I'm not asking you if you believe in Jesus and want to go to heaven. I'm asking have you sold everything and left everything behind to pursue Jesus as your one heart passion?

[00:13:31] That's what I'm asking. Where he has first place and there's no competition. There's no idols. It's Jesus Christ. And you can say that you have given him your whole heart. This is what our men's retreat was about.

[00:13:42] Can we say that we're men after God's own heart? Looking at the example of David, we've been saying it already here this morning. Did you sing that by heart is yours?

[00:13:52] Well, how much of your heart is Jesus willing to accept? If you give Jesus 70 percent of your heart, is that good enough for Jesus Christ? What if you get an A.? What if you give Jesus 95 percent of your heart? That's in a year. Probably a good Christian, right? Me just tell you right now, Jesus is not settling for anything less than one hundred percent of your heart. All that you are. That's what he wants.

[00:14:18] And if you don't sell everything that you have for the joy of knowing Jesus, then then I mean, that's what the kingdom of heaven is like. He was talking with a man at the men's retreat as we were trying to get across this idea of giving God your whole heart. And some guys took that to mean why? I mean, what are you saying? I have to be 100 percent perfect. Well, let's look at David, a man after God's own heart. Was he 100 percent pure? No, he wasn't. But look what he does when he sings. He confesses his sin. He owns up to it. He repents of it. He puts himself on the mercy of God. And look at how he then renews, giving God his whole heart is broken heart. He brings in he offers it up to God.

[00:14:56] Like who can say there's nothing else I'm holding on to. There's nothing still on the shelf. Like, I sold most of my stuff and I was willing to get rid of most of the stuff in my heart. But I still got this one thing on the shelf. It's just Jesus.

[00:15:09] And this one other thing on this shelf in my heart, I met a guy at the retreat who said A came up to me and he said, you know, I think before this retreat, I was willing to give Jesus.

[00:15:17] About 90 percent of my heart said that there's clearly this one thing. And he told me what it was a particular sin in his life that he was willing to have Jesus.

[00:15:28] And he was willing to go to heaven. But there was just this one thing. He considered it 10 percent that he wasn't willing to give up on.

[00:15:35] And I said, man, you can't have Jesus unless it's a 100 percent. You got to sell everything that you.

[00:15:42] We got a lot of people in Orange County calling themselves Christians, maybe even here at this church this morning, and they're like the rich young ruler and they walk up to Jesus and they know Jesus is the right answer.

[00:15:53] They know being a good person is the right answer. And they come to Jesus and they say, Jesus, how do I get eternal life? And Jesus? If he were here this morning, he would say to rich people like us, you got to sell everything you have.

[00:16:06] And leave it behind. Give it to the poor and then come and follow me. And the man, what does he do? He walks away. How does he walk away? Because he's a rich man.

[00:16:19] Because he's a man who's not willing to be sold out for Jesus Christ. He still wants to hang on to something in this world, to his riches, in his heart. And Jesus wants your whole heart. Look at what it says in Matthew 16, when he puts it in straightforward language.

[00:16:39] Man, a passage that should never be far from our hearts. Matthew 16, verse 24 as Christian people. This is the idea of what it means to be a Christian. He says, you want to come after me. You want to follow me. You want to be one of my disciples. Well, here it is. If anyone would come after me.

[00:16:58] Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever would save his life.

[00:17:05] You want to hang on to your life. Do something about your life here in this world. Well, then you lose your life. But whoever loses his life, he sells it all. He leaves it behind. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

[00:17:27] I'm not asking who wants to go to heaven.

[00:17:30] I'm not asking who wants to have their sins forgiven. No, what we're asking here this morning is who's ready to sell out to the world to stop limping between two opinions and to say with one heart, I will seek after the Lord with a united heart. I will no longer be divided between Jesus and the world. I will leave the world behind. And I will just follow Jesus Christ. Point number one, let's get it down like this. You need to worship with an undivided heart. You can't sync Jesus and the world into your life and hope that it's all going to work out. No. That's what Alija is confronting the people for. Want to mix in a little bit of idolatry and a little bit of your way. No, you need to stop limping between two opinions, he says. So go back. Well, actually, go to Second Chronicles, Chapter 16. OK. Everybody try to find it. Grab your Bible. It's right after first and second Kings is first and second chronicles. And we're going to Second Chronicles. Chapter 16. Verse nine. Page three hundred and seventy.

[00:18:38] If you got one of our Bibles and a lot of people agree with the person who talked to me at church this morning. Oh, first kings were written, first kings this morning. Sermon from First Kings. Oh, man.

[00:18:50] Is going to be rough.

[00:18:52] All right. You ever read through first and second kings before? And the Bible is so excited about all of these kings of Israel and Judah that it not only gives you first and second kings, it tells you the story all over again in first and second chronicles, because it's just that awesome is what the Bible thinks. And here's how they do it. They tell you the king. And remember, there was Saul and David and Solomon, the three kings of Israel, and then Israel was split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom, which was called Judah. And so it just tracks all these different kings in both of these nations. And it tells us the story of what they did and what happened during their reign. And it starts out like this. So and so the son of so-and-so became king and he reign for this many years.

[00:19:40] And it kind of says that about all these different guys. And then it says and he was something blank in the side of the Lord, like right away it says, here was this king and here's how God saw the heart of this king. And it's either like he was evil in the side of the Lord or he did what was right in the side of the Lord.

[00:20:00] Like before it tells you what the king did, his accomplishments and all of that. It tells you, here's what God thought about the king. He either thought he was evil or he thought maybe that he had a good heart. That's what God is looking for. He's looking past the skin, past the bones, past the things that you do on the outside, the external experience of religion in your life. And God is searching right now to your heart.

[00:20:26] Even here today, as you sit here and he sees whether you are offering him your whole heart and undivided heart, no idols, no rivals. You want to worship him and him alone or whether you are still evil in his side.

[00:20:42] And it describes that about the Kings, and here's a great summary statement of all of that in Second Chronicles, Chapter 16, verse nine, a great verse to maybe memorize to maybe put somewhere that you could see it. Here's how God is looking at you and not just the kings of ancient Israel, but how God looks into the souls of men, women and children, it says in Second Chronicles, Chapter 16, verse nine for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro, his eyes are searching throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. And if he got the translation we're reading from this morning, the ESV, there's a little No. One there, and it gives you a little note down at the bottom. And when it says whose heart is blameless, it could also read whose heart is. What does it say?

[00:21:28] They're down at the bottom, whose heart is whole. Here's God's eyes. He's looking to and fro over the people here in this room right now.

[00:21:36] And he can see into your heart and he knows if your heart is whole toward him or if your heart is divided towards him, if there is one hundred percent or if there is ninety percent. And whoever God sees in this room this morning that is offering their whole heart, he's ready to strongly support that person. Like, if God has your heart, then you can know that God has your back. That's what he's looking for. He's looking for the hearts that belong to him. And he loves those hearts and he loves the worship that comes from those hearts. And so that's the criteria that all of these kings that the people of Israel that you hear this morning are being evaluated by by God is are you giving him a divided heart or a whole heart? What are you offering to the Lord? I'm assuming you're for God to some degree. Will anything less than a hundred percent is not gonna work? No. Go back to First Kings Chapter eighteen and let's hear about this guy. A habit, just a few books over here. First Kings, eighteen from where we were in Second Chronicles.

[00:22:42] And actually, let's go back to chapter 16, verse twenty nine, where it introduces us to this guy, Ahab here. OK, now what kind of a king was he?

[00:22:52] He's the king at the middle of the of the Super Bowl. Between your way and by all here.

[00:22:58] What kind of a guy was Ahab on the 38 year of Ossa king of Judah Ahab, the son of Omri, began to reign over Israel and Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel. This is the northern kingdom in some area. Twenty two years, like you thought, Obama has been around for a lot. Twenty two years. This guy was king. Well, what kind of a king was he? Verse thirty. And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the side of the Lord more than all who were before him.

[00:23:38] And if you've read about the Kings before Ahab, they weren't exactly raising the bar. You know what I mean? Like, if you've ever read through these books, most of the Kings that God sees into their heart, what he described them as, having a right heart or an evil heart.

[00:23:55] What would be the answer? Oh, massively evil. And now this guy and I mean, just read that again. How bad was this guy?

[00:24:03] He was more than all who were before him. Add up all the evil kings before Ahab. And they still don't compare with how evil this guy was. Verse 31. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Gera BOEM, the son of Neba, one of the former kings. Here's what Ahab did. He took for his wife. This lady, Jezebel, which is why I know this is the lady why nobody's naming their daughter Jezebel these days. The daughter of F.

[00:24:30] But all so notice here. The king of this. I don't Lien's his name is F but all OK. Well that explains some things and went and served but all and worshiped him.

[00:24:42] So here's the king doing what kings are commanded not to do. Intermarrying with another nation. Why are we against that.

[00:24:50] Because then we bring in their worship of another God into the nation of Israel. And so now when we marry Jezebel of this, I don't ians who worship at all. Guess what? Idol gets brought into now God's people's kingdom by all showing up now.

[00:25:06] In fact, verse 32, he erected an altar for by all in the house of balls halls and there's an altar for ball. We have a house of bill which he built in some area and Ahab.

[00:25:17] He made an Ashara and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

[00:25:27] Wow.

[00:25:28] OK, we've got the most evil king you can imagine reigning over God's people. How does God respond? Chapter 17, verse one. Here's God's response to this guy. Now, Alija, the tissue bite of tissue B in Gilliard said to Ahab. Here comes the prophet. Now, Alija thought by many perhaps to be the greatest Old Testament prophet. And he comes and says to the worst king as the Lord, the God of Israel lives on behalf of your way here, before whom I stand, there shall be neither do nor rain these years except by my word.

[00:26:06] Okay, so. But all is the storm. God. There's this whole element of fertility. There's this whole element of making the crops grow and bringing life and spreading life among the land. And what does God do to show the worthlessness of worshiping ball? No rain. In fact, it's gonna be so dry there's not even going to be due in the morning. I'm going to take away any possibility of a storm so that you will realize all of this worship of all is completely pointless.

[00:26:36] That's God's response to his prophet Allied.

[00:26:40] Now you need to worship me with all your heart if you're going to worship this idol. Well, let me just show you that that's going to get you nowhere because the idol is not real and can do nothing for you for three years. There's no rain proving God's point. And now Alija comes before Ahab and says, enough is enough. Get the four hundred and fifty prophets of ball.

[00:26:59] All represent your way as his one prophet. Let's throw down right now on Mount Carmel.

[00:27:04] Go back to Chapter 18 and let's pick up what happens after he confronts the people for limping between two different opinions, for being divided between your way and ball. Look at verse 22. Now, he's going to start setting up here the competition that's going to take place between these profits, representing the two different duties.

[00:27:26] Then Alija said to the people, I even I only and left the profit of the Lord.

[00:27:31] But Ball's profits are four hundred and fifty men. Let's just point out the two teams here. Here's what we're gonna do. Verse twenty three. Let two bulls be given to us and let them choose one bowl for themselves.

[00:27:43] And they're going to cut it in pieces and they're going to lay it on the wood but put no fire to it. Then all prepare the other bowl and then I'll lay it on the wood and I'll put no fire to it. And you call in the name of your God ball and I will call upon the name of the Lord your way and the God who answers by fire.

[00:28:03] He is God. Hey, guys, let's set up to sacrifice as you give your sacrifice ready. I'll give my sacrifice. Let ready accept. We will not burn the sacrifices.

[00:28:12] We will wait for the fire to show up.

[00:28:15] You call that your God. I mean watching fire fall from the sky. What are the people think about this? Is this a good Super Bowl? And all the people answered it is well-spoken. This is something I will watch. Let's get the veggie platter. Let's get the chips and dips. Invite everybody over. We're going to mount. I like this. I'm glad I came to Mount Carmel. This is interesting to me. I would like to see this throwdown right now. Verse twenty five dental. I just said to the prophets of all Okay guys, let's do it. Choose for yourselves one bull and just make it very clear here. Prepare it, get it ready for sacrifice. In fact you guys are many. Can I just point that out one more time that there's four hundred and fifty of you guys and call upon the name of your God, but guys, no fire to it.

[00:28:59] And so they took the bull that was given them and they prepared it and they called upon the name of it all from morning until noon. So, I mean, this is all day entertainment here. From morning until noon, they're calling upon the name of balls saying, oh, ball answerers.

[00:29:17] But there was no voice and no one answered. And they started doing some kind of limping around the altar that they had made some kind of like dancing, some kind of rhythmic movement. I don't know exactly what it was, but if we're gonna start going around the altar, 450 guys going around an altar, calling upon by all doing some kind of movement and waiting for fire to show right now this is where we get to the most important part of the story.

[00:29:46] This is the part where the trash talk begins. OK, and we talked a little bit about this at the men's retreat. People don't think trash talk is a godly virtue. All of the God, the men in the Bible trash talk. OK, this is just something we got to learn here at the church.

[00:30:03] David, before he kills the giant says, I will feed the bodies of your army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. That, my friends, is how you talk smack right there.

[00:30:20] And the reason now, this wasn't because David was trying to draw attention to himself or thought he was some awesome warrior. So this isn't trash talk, like maybe we've heard it on the basketball court or something like that. No, he says here's why I'm going to kill you, that all the Earth may know there is a God in Israel.

[00:30:37] He's talking trash on behalf of God because he doesn't want the Philistines thinking their gods can save them because there's only one God who saves. That's your way, the God of Israel. That's why God they men talk trash. They are not afraid to mock anything that will set itself up as God.

[00:30:57] Any stronghold that will take people away from worshiping God and obeying Jesus Christ is always mocked by godly men.

[00:31:06] And so as these people do this crazy limping thing around the altar, calling on by all, we are now going to get.

[00:31:14] And this is from the maybe most famous prophet in the history of Israel. Look at my friends with me here at verse twenty seven. Look what Elijah does.

[00:31:22] It's shocking the prophet who did that. And at noon, Elijah, what does it say there? And at noon, Elijah, I mean, you're not what you expect your pastor to do. Starts mocking these guys, starts making fun of them trash talk. This is God, the sarcasm. What we're about to read here, OK? And here's what he says. Cry aloud for he is a God. Oh yeah. But all keep shouting. Guys shouting from morning to noon. Cry out.

[00:31:51] Either he is musing or he is relieving himself or he is on a journey or perhaps he is asleep and must be awake the air.

[00:32:02] Guys, keep shouting. Maybe you just can't hear you shout a little louder.

[00:32:07] A little bit louder now. A little bit louder now.

[00:32:10] That's what he said. Let's do it again.

[00:32:13] Now, if the Hebrew here for relieving himself is exactly what you think it means in English, okay. That's exactly what I mean.

[00:32:21] Like, maybe goes on a trip. Maybe he's in the bathroom.

[00:32:26] Maybe ball is taken like a little siesta. And you guys just gotta get a little bit louder.

[00:32:32] I mean, he is laying it on thick is what he's doing. All right.

[00:32:36] He's trash talking because he is making fun of them because there is no God behind bar all.

[00:32:42] That's the point he's trying to make. And and the sad thing is, you guys verse 28. They actually listen to him and they actually do what he says and they cry aloud. And check this out. They cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the ablazing.

[00:33:11] So this is what religious people do. This is what people looking for love in all the wrong places do. People pursuing well, trying to find satisfaction in sin when they're not getting what they want out of it, when their false religion isn't really saving them, when they're drug or their sin of choice isn't really satisfying them. Here's what they do. They shout louder.

[00:33:30] That's what they do.

[00:33:32] They start actually cutting themselves. They start actually hurting themselves, thinking maybe if I just get more into it. All of a sudden maybe it'll work instead of maybe perhaps realizing ball's not there to answer after three years of no rain. Maybe we should start to consider that there's no bar all to answer no. Instead, we're going to show how devout we are and how religious we are and how into this we are. And we're gonna start cuttin ourselves.

[00:33:58] Now, when I grew up here and my dad read me the Bible, he read me this kid's Bible and you read me the story from First King's 18th. And it had pictures in it. Pictures that I've never forgotten that made this story just kind of leap off the page to me as a young boy in the main picture that I remember.

[00:34:14] Is this one right here of these guys dancing and limping around the altar. And here's Alija mocking them and then they start cutting themselves.

[00:34:23] And the thing I love about this kid's Bible that my dad read me, that I now try to read to my kids is there is real blood in the pictures.

[00:34:30] Like these people don't look animated. They don't look fake. It makes it seem real to a kid.

[00:34:36] And it's like, wait a minute, these guys started cutting themselves. They've got like swords and lances. Like, how did they think that was going to make the fire show? Like, isn't that just heartbreaking? Don't we all know people hear that when they realize their religion is false?

[00:34:52] What they do is they dig down deeper into their false religion when they realize their sin of choice is never going to fill up the emptiness and the brokenness in their heart. What do they do? They take seem to a whole new level.

[00:35:05] As the profits of bull.

[00:35:08] And it's a sad sight to see that these guys are are trying to look for something that's never going to answer. In fact, look at the end there at verse twenty nine. It says, no one answered, no one paid attention. What the answer was never Koman. Then Alija said to all the people, verse 30, hey, come near to me, everybody. You've been watching the the dance show with the profits of all long enough. Gather around. Come near to me. And all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord. That had been thrown down.

[00:35:37] So we've got these altars for all being built. But the altar of the Lord is thrown down. Well, he starts to rebuild it. And Elijah took 12 stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob. To whom the word of the Lord came saying, Israel shall be your name. And with these twelve stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord.

[00:35:54] And in fact, around the altar he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain. To say as of seed. And he put the wood in and cut the in pieces.

[00:36:04] And he laid the bull sacrifice there on the wood. And he said, fill four jars with water and pour it on the burn, offering it on the wood. And he said, do it a second time. And they did it a second time. And he said, do it a third time. And they did it the third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled this trench also with water around the altar. What is the point of this competition? What is the point of the prophetic throwdown on Mount Carmel? Whose sacrifice? Lights up with fire. What is Elijah doing? He's making sure that everybody knows his sacrifice. The altar, a trench around the altar. It's all drenched with water. Like this is not an accident that's about to happen.

[00:36:45] This is not something up my prophetic sleeve here. No, I just want you to know that this thing right now is under water. And remember, water at this time must have been extremely scarce because it hadn't rained for three years to prove that the profitable all was I mean, the idol of ball was no God at all. And so now here we are. We're drenching this sacrifice. And just to make clear what's about to happen, verse 36.

[00:37:13] And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Alija the Prophet came near and said, Oh, Lord, oh, your way, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant.

[00:37:31] And I've done all these things at your word.

[00:37:34] Answer me, O Lord. Answer me that this people may know that you, O Lord, our God and that you have turned their hearts back then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burn offering and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench.

[00:37:57] And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, The Lord, your way. He is God, the Lord Yahweh. He is God. And as I just said to them, seize the profits of all, let not one of them escape and they seize them and Alija brought them down to the brook Keshawn and he slaughtered them there.

[00:38:23] There's one thing that everybody in America that everybody in this church that everybody in your family needs to know and they need to know who God is, they need to know the real God.

[00:38:38] And that's what happened on this day back in Israel. God proved that he was the real God, the prophets of. But all were defeated, killed even, it says, and God was glorified once again among his people.

[00:38:52] And see, the question you got to ask yourself is, you know, people right now who don't believe in God, who don't worship him with all of their heart. Maybe their family members that you love. Maybe they're neighbors, coworkers. Is it okay with you that people don't believe in God? Is it okay with you that people, you know, don't worship God with all of their heart?

[00:39:13] We live in a culture that goes like this. Hey, you believe whatever you want to believe. That's okay for you. As long as I can believe whatever I want to believe, we're gonna somehow all coexist. We can even kind of blend beliefs together and we can kind of all get along. Like whatever anybody wants to believe in is OK. Let me just tell you right now, it's not OK.

[00:39:34] You either believe in God and worship him or you are wrong.

[00:39:37] That's the truth.

[00:39:40] People can't just believe whatever they want. They're going to end up calling out to someone who's never going to answer and cutting themselves for something that's never going to give them life. And I don't know how you feel about it, but I'll tell you for me and for Alija here, our example today, it's not OK for people not to worship God.

[00:39:59] And he wants to do something about it.

[00:40:01] He wants the whole nation to know that what they're putting their hope in is only going to disappoint them. It's never going to save them. And he is boasting about he is bragging about he is doing everything he can to show people who got really is.

[00:40:17] When do you boast about God?

[00:40:19] When do you tell people that the God you worship is better than whatever they worship, whatever they're living for? That there is only one way that life really works, and that is in the worship of God and God alone. OK.

[00:40:33] Point number two, let's get it down like this. We need to boast that God is better. That's what we got to do. We have to have the same passion. And I'm not saying fire is gonna fall from heaven or it's not going to rain for three years. But the end goal here that all the nation would know who God is.

[00:40:52] That has to be our passion here at this church that I want to know who God is and worship him with my heart. I want everybody living in my house to know who God is and worship him with their heart. I want this church to worship God with all of our heart. And then I start praying for Huntington Beach, for Garden Grove, for Westminster. And it spreads out to a.. And we need it in America because we're more interested in football than we are in God in this nation.

[00:41:16] And we need a revival.

[00:41:18] We need a time when people in America fall on their faces and say, yes, there is a God and we should worship him.

[00:41:25] So that's what we got to be looking for and praying for. Go to Psalm 115.

[00:41:30] I want you to see that this kind of trash talk was something they would sing about, something that God would do like this kind of boasting. We think of boasting in in a negative way. And when you hear somebody boasting about how awesome they are, it definitely rubs you the wrong way. But we're talking about boasting in God. We're talking about talking trash against anything that's trying to take God's place. And here's a great example of that. Psalm 115. The goal of Elijah was not to get people looking at him. The goal of Elijah was to get people worshiping God. Here's an example. Psalm one hundred and fifteen. Not to us. So, Lord, not to us. OK. This isn't about us. This isn't about CompassHB Bible Church. It's not about anybody here. No. It's about to your name. Give glory. Why? Because of your steadfast love. Because of your faithfulness. Look at who you are. Look at what you've done for us. You should get the glory. Why should the nation say where is their God? Why should people be looking down and questioning where our God is?

[00:42:32] I'll tell you where our God is. Our God is in the heavens and he does all that he pleases.

[00:42:37] Now they're idols are silver and gold. In fact, their idols were the work of human hands, things that they made. And they have mouths but do not speak. They have eyes but do not see. They have ears but do not hear. They have noses but do not smell. They have hands but do not feel feet, but do not walk. And they do not make a sound in their throat. In fact, those who make the idols become like the idols. So to all who trust in them, not only are these idols from nothing and can do nothing, but people who trust in them end up getting nothing out of it. They become like them. So Israel, please trust in the Lord. It says in verse Aunt Nine. He is their help and their shield. Like here's a song, a song for the nation of Israel to sing. Where they talk about how God is better than all the other idols of all the other nations. Pick what other people are living for. God is better than that. Can I get name man from anybody on that? Are you ready to say here this morning that God is better than the way that you used to live in your life? The idols that used to try to satisfy yourself with. Are you ready to say here this morning that it was worth it for you to completely sell out to this life, to completely leave behind this world and the treasure, the joy of knowing God is so much better to you that if you lose everything in this life. Praise the Lord because you have him and he is better.

[00:44:07] So that's what you got to believe. And you can't be like, well, it's okay if this person doesn't believe they can believe whatever they want. No, they can't.

[00:44:16] Every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess. What a mix of Christianity and other religions.

[00:44:24] Now they're going to say that Jesus Christ is.

[00:44:27] Lord, that he reigns overall, that all those times where I was trying to live for myself and I was believing something else. I was believing a lie. And I was not living in the realm of reality. And Jesus was really the lord of the heavens and the earth the entire time. And I didn't see it. That's what's really happening with the people that don't believe in God. They don't worship him. They don't know him.

[00:44:50] And we've got to start talking about it.

[00:44:53] We've got to be like the nation of Israel was supposed to be the light shining out in the darkness, the city on a hill letting the rest of the world know, knowing God is better. They've got to see that we believe it. By the way that we live. And then they've got to hear us talking about it. And if you're still not buying this trash talk thing. Go to the book of Isaiah. Just a few pages over to the right here in your Bible and your Old Testament. Go to Isaiah 43. And I would encourage you really to read all of Isaiah Chapter 40, where God speaks kind of in Chapter 40 to 49. Like basically the 40s in eyes is what I'm saying. And God speaks a lot in the first person in this section. And what God does in Isaiah, 40, 41, 42, 43 and 44 and so on.

[00:45:38] He is he trash talks and he says, who are you going to compare with me? Who is going to be my rival?

[00:45:46] Like God is all about boasting that there is no one like God and everything else you can set up to be God to get what you want out of life will ultimately disappoint you and won't save you.

[00:45:59] Look in Isaiah, Chapter 43, start with me, maybe in verse eight says bring out the people who are blind.

[00:46:06] And the implication here is the people who are like their idols. They've got eyes, but they can't really see. Bring out the people who are blind yet have eyes who are deaf yet have years. In fact, all the nations. Let's gather together.

[00:46:18] Let's get all the peoples to assemble. Let's get America out on a Sunday. Who among them can declare this and show us the former things? Get everybody else. Bring their witnesses to prove them right. And let them hear and say it is true. No, you are my witnesses, declares the Lord. You, the nation of Israel are my servant, whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he before me. No God was formed. Nobody ever before me, nor shall there be anybody after me. I, I am the Lord and besides me there is no Savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed when there was no strange God among you before all these idols. You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and I am God. Even henceforth even an Angels to come. I am he. There is none who can deliver you from my hand I work and who can turn it back. There is nobody like me. God wants everybody to know that God has no problem saying that no problem boasting about himself. God has no problem with you boasting about God. That there is nobody like words, witnesses. He wants us to let everybody know there is nobody who can save you but God.

[00:47:41] In fact there is no one who can save you from God. But God is really what he's saying that I go to Jeremiah.

[00:47:50] Next book over here, another prophet of the Old Testament, Jeremiah Chapter nine, Lukie versus twenty three and twenty four. Look at how clear these verses are about our boasting, not just an example, not just something gods do one or the Israelites are doing or Elijah's doing. Look at this kind of command.

[00:48:09] Look at how it's stated here. Thus, says the Lord, let not the wise man.

[00:48:14] This is Jeremiah nine twenty three page six hundred thirty eight. If you got one of our Bibles, thus says the Lord or Yahweh, come in straight from him. Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his mind.

[00:48:29] Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him, who boasts, boast in this that he understands and knows me. That I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the Earth.

[00:48:48] For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. Hey, there's something worth boasting about. There's something worth letting everybody know about you that you know God and God is better than everything else.

[00:49:04] And we've heard people boast about how smart they are and we've heard people boast about how strong they are.

[00:49:09] And we've heard people boast about how rich they are saying in America, we like to kind of boast all three of those about ourselves, actually. You know, we got the strongest economy in the world. You know that about us. Last time I checked, we were way in debt. But we've got the strongest economy in the world. We've got the greatest military on planet Earth. I mean, we are so great. Nobody's boasting in the Lord in America anymore. Sorry to hear that these days.

[00:49:39] Somebody starts posting in the Lord.

[00:49:40] You think, oh, maybe this guy is doing it and then you find out more about him and you're like, I don't think he's boaster in the same lord the Bible's dogged about.

[00:49:47] It's disturbing.

[00:49:49] We used to say, God bless America. Now, no, America can bless itself. See?

[00:49:54] We need people to start talking about what God can do once again. We need people who will say, hey, here's something that's great. Here's something that's better than anything else in my life.

[00:50:03] I know God. That's what's great.

[00:50:05] Best thing that ever happened to me was understanding who God is and knowing God. It's eternal life to know God and Jesus Christ, whom we have sent in Psalm 84, verse 10. It's put like this a day in your courts is better than a thousand. Elsewhere, we sing that sometimes here at the church. One of the ancient songs of Israel one day in the courts of God.

[00:50:28] Maybe one day at the men's retreat, like last Saturday for those men who were there. Or one day where we gather together and worship like this, or maybe one day where you just spend a day with God and the word and prayer maybe with your family.

[00:50:40] One day in God's presence is better than a thousand elsewhere. Let's just think about that for a minute, everybody. A thousand days. That's like close to three years. Are we ready to say here this morning? I'd rather spend spend one day in the presence of God worshiping him than live three years out there in the world doing whatever I want.

[00:51:04] Is that really what we're saying here?

[00:51:06] He says he goes on to say, I would rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. I'd rather be just holding the baby out there in the lobby, just kind of hearing a little bit of what's going on in the House of the Lord. I'd rather be just like right outside, just one of the crowd. Just one of the people seeing what's God's doing. Then be like the center of attention out there in the world, then be right there in the middle of the of the tents of wickedness. Then like a celebrity where everybody's kind of looking at me and I've got what the world wants and I've got money and I've got my and I've got wisdom and I feel pretty good in this world. No, I'd rather sell all of that and just be that on the outskirts of what God's doing and to be involved in the world.

[00:51:50] See, that's what that's what the person who worships God with all of their heart, who sold everything that they have for the joy of the treasure of knowing God. That's what that person can say. And they can boast that God is better than anything this world affords us today.

[00:52:06] So yesterday was a day where I kind of think about my life a little bit because yesterday was my my birthday, I turned 36 years old yesterday.

[00:52:13] Thirty 36 years old yesterday. We don't know now when I get to class. And the point is, a lot of people were very kind to me on my birthday.

[00:52:22] People even nice. Any form of technology. I'm getting nice. Encouraging notes from people. Right.

[00:52:28] And just it was a great day to reflect on God's goodness and to think that God's really blessed me with a lot of loving people in my life. But as people started writing on Facebook and started sending text messages, I started to notice this kind of theme that was common through all of the birthday greetings. And maybe you've got some of these same greetings on your day. And it's like Happy Birthday is the main message.

[00:52:50] And the ideas like, I hope you have a good day. Like, I hope you get to do something that you like or I hoped your loved ones actually love you on this day was kind of like the impression like like I hope everything works out like circumstantially so that it ends up being a happy day and you can just kind of get whatever you're hoping for on this day and be happy. That's kind of the vibe that starts to creep through a lot of these things that people say.

[00:53:19] A lot of these greetings. And as army getting all of this, I'm just thinking to myself, you know, I don't need my day to go OK, to be happy. I don't need circumstances to work out to be happy. I don't need, like, some party where everybody appreciates me to be happy. I know God. I live happy. It doesn't matter what happens today. I have eternal life. I know the one who sent his son to die for me. I have a relationship with him that nothing in this world can take away from me. No, I. It's going to be a happy birthday. It's not based on anything else. I can say that I'm not searching for something in my 36 year. I'm not going to ask. I guys like, wow, that's that's young. This guy's pretty young to be the pastor. Well, I feel like an old soul guy because I feel like I've lived some of these days that are as good as three years in the world.

[00:54:17] I feel like I've known God. I've gotten to know who he is. And I'll tell you right now that knowing God is better than any other way that anybody is living on this planet right now.

[00:54:28] That's the truth.

[00:54:30] And I'm not going to be looking for something to fill up my empty heart because I know God and he fills it up. And so I believe that I should talk like that. And if you believe that, you should talk like that, too, and everybody should know, watch out, here comes so-and-so. And so they're going to start talking about God again. Now he's better. And now let's just make sure that when we tell people God is better, which is the truth, OK? We should definitely do it with gentleness and respect. OK, so Christians trash talk a little bit different. They put a smile on it, right? They're polite about it. But we get our point across, which is you need to worship God with all of your heart.

[00:55:10] Go back to First Kings 18 and something else happens in this story that is sometimes overlooked because the fire falls down from heaven and the prophets of bull all are slaughtered.

[00:55:20] And that's a pretty powerful scene.

[00:55:22] Well, that's not the end of the story. It's not even the end of the chapter here in first Kings' 18. Look at verse forty one year and look at what happens. Says Alija. Said that Ahab.

[00:55:34] Now that's this is all done. The battle's been won. Everybody knows who the real God of Israel is now. Well, Alija said they have.

[00:55:42] Go up, eat and drink. For there is a sound Ahab of the rushing of rain. Oh, here it comes. The rain's coming back. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink.

[00:55:52] And Alija, he goes back up now on the top of Mount Carmel. And I've had the privilege of being there and it's kind of near the coast there. And he bowed himself down on the earth and he put his face between his knees. And that's a posture of prayer there. And he said to his servant, hey, go up now and look toward the sea. Look at over there at the Mediterranean Sea. What do you see in the sea? And he went up and he looked and he said, I don't see anything. And he said, we'll go again seven times. This guy went and looked at the Mediterranean Sea. And at the seventh time he said, hey, look, behold, a little cloud like a man's hand is rising from the sea.

[00:56:31] And he said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot, Ahab. Go down. Watch out. The rains come and the floods are coming in. Better get back, Ahab. Get your chariot ready. And in a little while, the heavens grew black with clouds and win. And here comes a storm. And there was a great rain and a half road. And he went to jazz real. And the hand of the Lord was on Alija. And this is amazing. He gathered up his garment. Elijah the prophet. And he ran. And he got before Ahab to the entrance of jazz real. So somehow he keeps telling Ahab to go in his chariot to Jezebel and Elijah without a chariot, is able to outrun Ahab there. But the real miracle here is after three and a half years, the rain has come down once again because now everybody knows it's not ball. And they see that God is the real true God and they should worship him. Well, now the rain can come again, because now Alija has proven the point of who God is. Now go to James Chapter five, because it tells us how you and I should apply that passage right there. It tells us in James Chapter five, an application for every day Christians like us who live in a New Testament kind of thinking, who go to church, not Old Testament people. But now how do we apply the story of Alija on Mount Mount Carmel to people like us in the church today?

[00:57:58] Well, that's what James does here at the end of his letter. James, Chapter five, and he's talking about people who are sick, need to call the elders of the church. They'll pray for them. Maybe they'll be healed. In fact, maybe if you're in sin, you should confess it. Look at James five sixteen. Therefore, confess your sins to one another. Pray for one another so that you may be healed.

[00:58:20] You'll get out of this sin because the prayer of a righteous person, a person who God has their whole heart, a person who really knows God and God hears them and answers them. The prayer of a righteous person has great power.

[00:58:35] There's power. When people pray. People like Alija, a man who can pray, and it seems like the rain shuts down, the rain starts fire balls from heaven. When this guy prays and it's going to bring that up right now.

[00:58:50] Verse 17, Alija, look out, introduces him. Alija was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth for its fruit. And what's the implication here? Alija, a man with a nature like.

[00:59:17] Like, maybe you could tap into the same power of prayer that Alija had. What am I saying? We should all go home and change the weather. Is that is that what I'm saying? That we should all go ask for fire on the barbecue this afternoon? No. One of my saying is we should ask that people would know in our home, in our church and in our nation who God is and they would worship. And we should be praying for that. We should be praying for God to rain.

[00:59:46] Point number three. Let's get it down like this. We need to pray for rain, not RMI. And now we're going r. E. I. G.

[00:59:55] And we want to pray that people will, from their whole hearts, acknowledge who God is and know him and worship him with all of their hearts, their time, their money, their lives, everything they've sold out to this world.

[01:00:12] And they're giving their life completely to God. That's what we're praying for.

[01:00:16] And we want to see that happen. We wanted to start in our hearts. We wanted to start here at our church. And we wanted to just overflow and spread like a fire, like rain, like whatever symbol you want to use.

[01:00:28] We wanted to just sweep through the entire nation of America. We want to see a great revival. We want to see it start here in Huntington Beach. Anybody still praying for that here at this church? And we've talked about praying for that before.

[01:00:39] One person claps when we talk about praying for revival. That's the kind of church you're going to hear. OK, yeah. A few more people now feeling guilty. It's obligatory at this point.

[01:00:52] And we've talked about this before. We did a whole series one time in the summer. God revive America. Anybody remember that?

[01:00:58] Anybody back here. And we said, hey, here's how we got to pray for a revival. We did a whole new nose and a lot of the sermons talk about prayer at this church.

[01:01:06] You notice that.

[01:01:08] It's almost like we're gonna keep talking about prayer until people pray. You know what I mean?

[01:01:14] We said, hey, let's pray for revival, we did this whole sermon. We said, let's start a prayer meeting on Monday night. Who wants to pray for a revival?

[01:01:21] We started on Monday night. A lot of people were showing up. This was back in eyes. A lot of people coming out Monday night prayer, people gathering together to pray. I mean, people like you. We want to see God do something amazing, like something from the Bible times here in America right now here at our church, like what could God do?

[01:01:39] Let's ask him to do some amazing things.

[01:01:41] Let's pray that God will answer us and people will know he's God. And we started praying. And then on Monday nights, the prayer group kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller until there was just a few lonely souls praying for revival.

[01:01:56] Monday night. And they kept praying and I went up to the guy who leads the prayer meeting and I and I was wondering how this was affecting his heart because there was passion going for a while and then it seemed to be dying out. And I asked him, how long you think you're going to keep doing these prayer meetings? And it was open ended. It was kind of a way for him to maybe stop doing them if he wanted to, because at this point, who was really going to notice? Right.

[01:02:24] And he said, well, I think we should keep praying for revival until the revival comes.

[01:02:31] We can't just pray for somebody to get saved and then think, oh, no, I guess they didn't get saved. I guess we'll just stop praying. Does that make sense? Because to stop praying is to basically say that this person does not worship God and therefore what is going to happen to them.

[01:02:47] I gotta keep praying for so-and-so to get saved until they get saved.

[01:02:51] I got to keep praying for revival to happen until revival happens. So are we praying with a passion, expecting God to answer here at this church?

[01:03:02] I want to strongly encourage you to keep praying until you see God answer your prayers.

[01:03:08] You're like a neighbor who will go to his neighbor's house and knock on the door in the middle of the night until your neighbor answers the door and comes and talks to you. You're not gonna stop knocking.

[01:03:20] That's how Jesus teaches us to pray. And Luke eleven. He says, Ask and you will receive seek and you will find Knokke in.

[01:03:29] What maybe. Or wait. Is that what it says? No. You knock. And what's gonna happen?

[01:03:36] Door is gonna be open. We got to pray.

[01:03:40] We got to pray, we we can be Alija all we want, but we can't make any fire fall from heaven.

[01:03:45] We gotta pray and God's got to light the fire.

[01:03:49] Are you praying for that every day, praying for God to do something that will cause people to fall on their faces and worship him? Do you want to see that? Are you knocking on the door until God does it? God, I know you love to boast about yourself. Why don't you just show off for us right now? God, we pray and things like that.

[01:04:12] See, when I was twenty nine on my birthday, I got the best gift I ever got on my birthday. It actually came a day late and that was my daughter, who was born seven years ago on February 7th, the day after my birthday. And so now my daughter and I are like birthday buddies. And see, I grew up with two brothers, which was cool, but it was also lame at the same time, you know what I mean? Because we didn't have that that sister influence in the house. We didn't get to enjoy all the exciting things that come with having a girl growing up in the home. And so when the Lord blessed me with a daughter man, this was something I was excited about. And this girl, Imogene Blakey, she's exceeded all of my expectations. And we're gonna have a birthday party for her today. And it's a very particular kind of party that we're having. It's a pink and orange decorated party and it's Hawaiian themed. See, this has been evolving this theme kind of a thing, but it's very important that we're gonna do some events like Lukow Limbo is gonna be happening at my house today. I guarantee it. Right. And then we're gonna build a sandcastle. We're actually going to have a sandcastle building competition at my house. And I'm not talking about sand from the beach. I'm talking about like ice cream cones and graham crackers and brown sugar, a 100 percent edible sandcastle, which is Emma is adamant that we have to do because she pinned it on Pinterest.

[01:05:30] And so now, of course, this must take place. And see, the truth is about my seven year old daughter. If she doesn't get things that go her way today.

[01:05:44] There will be tears at my house later on.

[01:05:48] There's a chance this could go very badly and the day could not be happy because as much as I'm trying to teacher, my seven year old daughter doesn't know what I know.

[01:06:01] She doesn't know carhop.

[01:06:05] So she is, depending on this world, satisfying her heart, which is only ever going to let her down. Until one day she worships God with all of her heart. You think I'm gonna stop praying for my daughter Emma to get safe? You see, that's why I'm still around. That's why I'm not worshiping God in heaven, where it's surely better because I need to be her dad and I need a teacher who God is. So she will love him and worship him and know him. See, there are many people that you know and they need to know God. And how dare we ever stop praying for these people? How dare we ever give up and doubt God that he could come and save them because there's nobody else who's gonna save them. If he doesn't do it. And so we should be asking him day and night knocking on the door. God save this person. God bring this person to repentance. God do something among us that causes people to know what we know. That there is nothing better than worshiping you with all of our heart. God, we come to you right now and we pray that you will do this kind of work. Now we come to you on behalf of our families. We represent our church. We come to you now, God, even on behalf of our nation and God. We admit that we boast in other things than you here in America, God, that we boast in our own wisdom, our own minds and our own riches. And we don't boast anymore that we know you and God. I pray that you will turn hearts back to yourself once again. I pray that you will prove in our nation once again that you are God and that America will fear you once again and that people will fall on their faces and worship of you. We got to pray that that would start with us. I pray that that would start with our own response to you in our own hearts that we would come to you. And out of the joy of the treasure of knowing you, we would sell everything this world has to offer. We would not look for life in those things where no one is going to answer us. We would look for life only in you and we would worship you and let that spread in our homes. God let it spread here at our church. Let it spread into our communities and do a work. God, we. We are here to be used. We want to be your servants. We want to be the ones that you use to tell others who you are. We want to boast about you, but we need you to send the fire from heaven. We need you to save the souls, because there's no one who can do that but you. So we ask you, God, to glorify yourself right here, right now through us. And we pray this in Jesus name a man.