Breaking Your Spiritual Drought | How To Find God When Your Life Feels Dry

We’ve all felt dry. There’s something about being stuck in the same job, same relationship (or lack thereof), or going back to the same old habits that can have your spiritual life feeling like a mouthful of saltines. This week, Brian Tome unpacks the story of Elijah’s showdown with the prophets of Baal and how it can show us how to stay faithful even when you’ve got spiritual cottonmouth.

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    [music: That's Who My God Is]
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    - Qué pasa, Crossroads, my name is Arturo.
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    I'm on the Reachout Team here
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    and Crossroads is a church for anyone, anywhere.
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    And did you know that whether Spanish
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    is your first language or not, you can watch
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    the message in Spanish by going to Crossroads.net/watch
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    and looking for the ver en Espanol button.
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    In fact, if you want to know any more
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    about the things that we've got going on here in Espanol,
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    you can just go to crossroads.net/Espanol.
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    Today we're looking at another epic wonder in the Bible.
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    Something so epic that it could change how we see God
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    and how we can see ourselves.
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    Come on, make some noise if you've seen Jesus move,
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    if He's saved your heart.
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    - You have all my passion.
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    You have my voice, my heart, my breath.
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    Because in my heart I've seen dead things come alive.
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    Because I've seen friends,
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    I can look at faces throughout this space.
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    I can know people joining us online who have met You
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    and have never been the same.
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    And for every single person
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    who can hear my voice right now,
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    who does not feel that, who has not experienced that,
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    I am so thrilled that they're here today,
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    because that's what I want for them,
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    because it's changed my life.
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    You have changed my life.
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    You are worthy of my attention
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    and my passion and all that I have.
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    And so I praise you and bless you, King Jesus.
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    I do all this because of You. Amen.
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    Man, it's so good to be together.
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    Why don't you turn to somebody in the room
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    and say, "Hey, glad to be here with you."
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    If you're online, glad you're here with us, too.
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    And have a seat.
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    This bald head needs a rag sometimes, you know?
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    Hey, I love singing like that together.
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    I've missed not being here the past few weeks with you all.
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    I was at camp and been away with my family.
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    I love singing together.
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    And you might hear us refer to what we just did in song
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    as a word called worship.
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    You might hear us say we're going to worship
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    or we just worshiped.
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    Worship is just this ascribing worth,
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    ascribing worth, worship, to God
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    for who He is and what He's done.
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    And for me and for us followers of Jesus,
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    that's far more than a melody or a song
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    or empty words on a screen.
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    It's put into action.
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    So one of the ways that we put that into action,
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    one of the ways that's an act of worship for us.
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    We do that at Crossroads.net/give
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    with our finances,
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    with our giving, with the money that God's entrusted to us.
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    We give it back as an act of worship to Him.
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    We try our best and we are at our best
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    when we put our actions where our hearts are.
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    And so in here, we don't stay in this room,
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    and we don't want King Jesus to stay in this room.
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    And in here we try to go and get out
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    and get across the world and get into our cities
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    and take the love of Jesus there.
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    And so right now, I want you to hear an incredible story
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    by a guy named Scott in our community who did just that,
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    put his actions where his heart was.
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    - When I started coming to Crossroads
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    and saw that there were Go Trips to Puerto Rico,
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    that was the impetus.
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    Decided to do that first one, which was March of 2024.
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    We started work on on the house of a lady named Aria.
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    Shortly before we got there,
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    Aria had been sitting and watching TV in the evening,
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    and a dead bird fell from the ceiling and into her lap.
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    What we got to do was change her entire way of living,
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    to give her a true roof over her head.
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    A year and three months, basically later,
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    we got to see the finished product.
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    Hunger Corp came to me and said,
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    "Can you hand over the keys?"
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    And God spoke through me that day, I truly believe that
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    because I have no idea where the words came from,
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    but in that moment, none of it mattered.
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    In the end each trip is going to bring you closer to God.
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    I am 100% a different person in saying yes to these trips.
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    And if I can help somebody else come to God
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    to understand the plan that God has for us,
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    then everything I've ever put into a Go Trip is worth it.
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    - I got to be honest, guys, these trips
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    are pretty near and dear to my [speaking Spanish].
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    And in case it wasn't obvious, let me make sure
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    that you know that these Go Trips are not vacations.
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    These are adventures with purpose.
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    You're going to step out of your comfort zone.
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    You're going to meet new people
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    that you probably otherwise would have never met.
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    And you're going to be joining in on
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    what God is doing in these parts of the world,
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    combating against injustice, poverty, and exploitation
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    with love, hope and, yes, a little bit of hard work.
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    Trips are live, so if you want to find out more,
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    if you want something to supercharge your faith,
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    consider this your invitation.
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    Go ahead and check out crossroads.net/Trips.
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    We're about to hear from Brian Tome, our Senior Pastor,
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    and he's going to be giving us an opportunity
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    to participate in the word today.
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    To do that, you're going to need some water to drink
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    and some salty crackers.
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    The saltier, the drier, the better.
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    I know that's weird, but trust me on that.
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    We're so glad you're here. Let's get started.
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    - Well, it's great to be here today.
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    My name is Brian. I'm what's known as a Senior Pastor,
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    if we haven't met yet.
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    You might not recognize me if you know me
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    because my hair is a little different.
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    In case you're wondering, this was shaved bald not long ago.
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    My wife is going through chemotherapy,
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    and I decided to identify with her.
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    So that's the reason for the the short, short hair.
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    Uh, speaking of that, if you're curious about
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    what's happening with us and her cancer journey.
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    I got a fresh article I put on the Crossroads app called,
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    uh, app called Oh, crap, we're in the crap.
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    Not quite those words, but I didn't want
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    to say those words right now as we start off.
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    But I'll just tell you, if some of you have
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    a problem with bald people just remind you or tell you,
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    today I'm going to talk about Elijah,
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    one of the greatest prophets in history
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    and in the Old Testament.
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    He had an understudy. His name was Elisha, who was bald.
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    And he had all the young people making fun of him one day
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    they said, "Hey, baldy, baldy, baldy!"
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    And he called bears out of the woods and mauled them all.
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    So maybe you give me a hard time with my hair, you know,
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    bad stuff coming your way.
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    Let's pray before we get into
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    one of my favorite stories in the Bible.
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    God, I'm honored to be back doing this thing
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    that's called preaching, communicating.
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    And I'm honored to be able to talk about
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    transcendent things in a public place
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    and to be discounted and invited to be able to do it.
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    So help me to talk about the things
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    that You want Your people to have today
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    or Your future people to have and help me to be clear
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    and most importantly, may You be honored by all that's said.
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    I pray these things according to the character
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    and identity of Jesus. Amen. Amen.
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    2 Kings 16 to 33, we're going to see
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    the prime protagonist, the evil person in this story.
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    His name is Ahab.
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    Before we talk about Ahab, I want you to take out,
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    if you will, those saltine crackers
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    that you got when you came in.
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    Do not touch that water.
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    If you already have, oh, well.
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    Won't work for you the same way as the rest of us today.
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    Take those saltine crackers and put those in your mouth.
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    Just eat them both right now.
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    Eat them both without washing them down.
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    Yep. There you go. That's one.
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    I've never heard 3000 people eating saltines
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    at the same time here in Oakley.
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    Pretty funny. All right. Now you're going to find
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    you have a very dry mouth.
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    I'm going to explain to you why.
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    I want us to experience this story.
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    I'm going to do a bunch of things to help us
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    experience this story, but it's a great story.
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    Book of 1 Kings 16:13.
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    By the way, I alone I'm supposed to talk.
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    So if I have to take a drink, I have to take a drink.
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    Mouth is dry. King Ahab.
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    And Ahab made an Asherah, which is a totem pole.
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    Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel,
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    to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.
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    And that's really saying something,
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    because the kings of Israel, there was a lot of people
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    who just were not good dudes at all.
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    And they're saying Asherah is worse than all of them combined.
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    All of them combined.
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    Perhaps some of you, you may have a third kid,
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    you have a fourth kid, like, you can be honest.
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    Don't raise your hand,
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    especially if your isn't in here.
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    But there's some kids you're like,
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    "You're worse than all my other kids combined.
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    You're more annoying than all of them."
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    Again, don't self disclose that,
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    but you know what I'm talking about. You know exactly.
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    And you know how frustrating it is.
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    That's how frustrating that is with God.
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    King of His people is totally lost the plot.
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    So along comes Elijah, bring a message. Verse 17:1.
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    "And the Lord, the God of Israel, lives,
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    (so says Elijah) before whom I stand,
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    there shall be neither do nor rain these years,
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    except by my word."
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    You're going into a drought.
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    The number of things I read the scriptures from
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    one of my favorite stories I've told my kids
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    again and again and again when they're little kids.
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    And every time I read it, there's new things to pop up.
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    And this time, as I've read it getting ready for today,
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    there's a bunch of things that popped up for me
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    I want to talk about.
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    The first is this: it's a thing that
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    you can all relate to right now, at least in your mouth.
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    It is a drought.
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    Right now I gave you those saltine crackers
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    because I want you to a physical representation
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    of the way many of you feel spiritually right now,
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    or at least have felt.
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    Sometimes you just feel dry, right?
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    There's just not moisture.
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    There's not the suppleness of a spirit
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    that's flexible and open to God.
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    And Elijah says to Ahab, dude, three and a half years.
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    Nothing. Nothing. No, dude. No rain, nothing.
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    A drought is coming."
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    It's a first big piece here is a drought, three and a half years.
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    Some of us, we've lost our moisture.
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    Signs that you've lost your moisture is
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    you've lost your sense of humor,
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    you've become unbelievably cynical,
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    you turn to God at the last possible moment
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    when nothing else is there.
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    You don't operate in joy.
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    There's not a peace that passes understanding.
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    You don't have a positive hope for the future.
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    These are Bible verses I'm quoting, by the way,
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    but we don't feel them.
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    And you know what? It's okay.
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    It doesn't necessarily mean that you're a bad person
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    because there's a lot of people a lot of times
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    we go through a drought and it's just the way it is.
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    Elijah, he talks about there's a drought coming
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    and he's going to go through it as well.
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    But he is not part of the problem,
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    but he's going to go through it.
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    Nation of Israel in the Old Testament
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    went through 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.
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    So it was a dry time. It was a drought for them.
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    And Joshua and Moses, two heroes,
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    they had to go through it too,
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    and they hadn't done anything wrong.
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    Jesus goes through 40 days in the wilderness,
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    a time of trials and temptations.
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    He's fasting from water and food.
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    Only the Son of God could do that for 40 days,
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    but He does it.
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    Again, he hasn't done anything wrong.
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    It's just the plan for Him.
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    So if you're in a drought, if you feel spiritually dry,
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    it may be okay and it may not be your fault.
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    It just what happens sometimes to the best of us.
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    But you have to understand how to get out of it
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    in order to get out of it.
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    And if you're not in one right now, great.
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    But just store this away.
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    And if you've been in one before, you'll go,
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    "Oh yeah, I remember that. Remember what that was like."
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    Let's go to the story, 1 Kings 18:1.
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    Get into the thick of it.
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    Excuse me, when I started, I'll start at 18:17.
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    When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him,
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    "Is it you, the trouble of Israel?"
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    And Elijah answered, "I have not troubled Israel,
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    but you have, you and your father's house,
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    because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord
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    and followed the Baals." (These are the false gods, Baal.)
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    Now, therefore -- I'll stop right there.
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    This is what happens when people are are deluded,
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    deluded, and oftentimes in a drought, they lose their mind.
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    Ahab sees Elijah and he blames the drought on Elijah.
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    Like, dude, you're missing the whole point.
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    This is coming to get your attention spiritually,
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    to get all the nations.
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    I didn't do this. You did this.
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    The most deluded people are the most self-focused people,
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    and it's never their fault.
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    It's always somebody else.
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    Things aren't going well for me,
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    it's just because the government's not doing its job.
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    Things are going well for me
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    because my parents potty trained me wrong
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    when I was growing up.
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    But things aren't going right for me
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    because she said this about me
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    and he posted that and this and that.
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    It's always somebody else.
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    Somebody else has always had the problem
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    because you're too dry to be sane enough
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    to self-assess your life.
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    This is Ahab's thing, and Elijah has had enough of it.
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    It's like you, you you got yourself here.
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    You got a whole country here because of
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    your rebelliousness against the one true God.
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    And now you can't even see it. You're blaming me.
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    So Elijah ups the ante here. Verse 19.
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    "Now therefore, send and gather all Israel
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    to me at Mount Carmel and the 450 prophets of Baal
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    and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table."
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    Well, we haven't talked about Jezebel.
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    She's a piece of work.
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    Ahab's wife. Horrible person.
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    She's not even part of this story.
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    She's a horrible, like, in all likelihood
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    the worst woman who's ever lived, and he's married to her.
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    Yeesh! So this is what's happening
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    is now there's going to be a a showdown.
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    Somebody is going to rise up
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    and see who is the one true God.
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    This is what he's being invited into.
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    Let's keep going here. Verse 21, verse 21.
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    Elijah has all these people here,
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    all the prophets of Baal, all the Nation of Israel,
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    the signs that come out.
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    They're all up in this mount, Mount Carmel, right,
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    which I have behind me, which is
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    a pretty close depiction of it.
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    I've been to Mount Carmel many, many times.
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    It's always meaningful when I've been there.
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    And here's what happens.
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    Elijah says to, all the people who come to gather
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    for the showdown,
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    "How long will you go limping
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    between two different opinions?
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    If the Lord is God, follow him;
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    but if Baal, follow him."
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    And the people do not answer him a word.
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    Why didn't they answer a word?
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    They didn't answer him word
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    because they were spiritually busted.
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    Elijah is saying, "Yeah, you guys are a bunch of limpers.
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    You're limpers. You're like, "I don't know what I believe.
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    I guess I'm here. I'm over --"
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    The idea here in the Hebrew is tottering. Tottering.
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    It's not like you're injured. It's you're tottering.
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    You're you're back and forth.
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    Elijah says, yeah. The whole you're like you.
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    "Who are you? What do you believe?
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    Where are you going? Like, I think Baal, Baal.
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    I believe, no, no, Yahweh God."
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    No, he says how long will you go limping
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    between these false prophets who represent this false God
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    and the one true God?
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    God is really serious on this,
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    and Jesus calls it when He talks about,
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    He talks about again and again.
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    He says, "No one who puts their hand to the plow
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    and looks back as fit for the kingdom of God."
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    Meaning, once you decide to grab on to God,
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    once you decide to grab on to the real true God, you go.
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    You go forward.
  • 00:35:18
    You don't go, "Oh, what would it be like if I didn't do this?
  • 00:35:21
    What would that be like?"
  • 00:35:25
    Some time ago, there was a person
  • 00:35:27
    I wanted to recruit to our staff.
  • 00:35:28
    He had a unique -- he had a unique gift mix and abilities.
  • 00:35:32
    And I thought that we needed some outside help in an area.
  • 00:35:35
    So I went after him and tried to recruit him pretty hard.
  • 00:35:38
    And he was a tough guy because
  • 00:35:40
    he had a really good gig where he was.
  • 00:35:42
    So I thought I'd sweeten the pot
  • 00:35:43
    with something that would be kind of fun.
  • 00:35:45
    I sent him the latest, greatest Apple product
  • 00:35:48
    and I said, "This is yours.
  • 00:35:51
    You can have it if you accept a job.
  • 00:35:54
    So if you open this, if you open this,
  • 00:35:56
    you have accepted this job and welcome.
  • 00:35:58
    It's great to have you."
  • 00:36:00
    He contacted me, he said, "Man, I opened it.
  • 00:36:03
    It's awesome. It's great." I said good, good.
  • 00:36:06
    Before he actually moved up about a week or so later,
  • 00:36:09
    I got in the mail that box
  • 00:36:12
    with the Apple product back inside the box.
  • 00:36:16
    And of course they couldn't wrap the cellophane
  • 00:36:18
    back around it, with a little note
  • 00:36:20
    saying he had changed his mind and he wasn't coming.
  • 00:36:22
    I was, oh gosh, I was really bummed by it.
  • 00:36:25
    And I was processing it with Brian Wells,
  • 00:36:27
    who is one of the founders of Crossroads
  • 00:36:28
    and our board chair, our board chairman of the board.
  • 00:36:33
    And he immediately, immediately said,
  • 00:36:35
    "He's a double minded man. We don't want him."
  • 00:36:38
    That's another New Testament passage. Double minded.
  • 00:36:41
    Where do I want? I want this.
  • 00:36:44
    No, no, no, I want one over here."
  • 00:36:46
    It is really critical for you to come out of
  • 00:36:50
    a spiritual drought, if you're in one,
  • 00:36:52
    to be convinced of who you're in, where you're going.
  • 00:36:58
    Now, this is not --
  • 00:37:00
    For those of us who are who are not ready yet
  • 00:37:02
    to say, "I'm a Christian. I'm a Christ follower.
  • 00:37:04
    I'm seeking, I'm trying to figure out,"
  • 00:37:06
    that's not what I'm talking about here.
  • 00:37:07
    I'm not talking about that.
  • 00:37:08
    There is a natural process when you see,
  • 00:37:10
    like, is Jesus real?
  • 00:37:12
    Yeah. I'm not I'm not sure He is. I'm not.
  • 00:37:15
    Is He different than Buddha?
  • 00:37:17
    Did that story really happen?
  • 00:37:18
    So I believe in the Bible?
  • 00:37:20
    I'm not talking about that',
  • 00:37:21
    that's all counting the cost of.
  • 00:37:24
    But once you give your life to Christ,
  • 00:37:28
    you have to not be a limper.
  • 00:37:31
    "I don't know, there's so many good things out there.
  • 00:37:35
    I don't - I don't."
  • 00:37:37
    You have to put your hand, the plow and go.
  • 00:37:40
    Like, once you once you get baptized,
  • 00:37:43
    once you give your life to Christ.
  • 00:37:44
    By the way, last week we had 607 people get baptized.
  • 00:37:48
    Come on, come on. 607.
  • 00:37:54
    This is why some -- a bit ago,
  • 00:37:57
    when we baptized people now we do
  • 00:37:59
    an old school baptism that's hundreds
  • 00:38:01
    and hundreds of years old, where we don't just say,
  • 00:38:03
    "Who's your Lord and Savior?"
  • 00:38:05
    "Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior." "I'm baptizing you."
  • 00:38:07
    We don't just ask that one question, we ask two now.
  • 00:38:10
    The verse is do you renounce your previous life
  • 00:38:13
    and all allegiance that you had to anything else?
  • 00:38:17
    I renounce.
  • 00:38:19
    And who's your Lord and Savior? The whole thing.
  • 00:38:22
    Because found that people like, "Oh, okay.
  • 00:38:24
    Jesus. Yeah, yeah. Bring Him.
  • 00:38:26
    Just add some new spirituality
  • 00:38:28
    and then I can limp back and forth
  • 00:38:30
    and totter back and forth.
  • 00:38:31
    I just had a good spiritual moment."
  • 00:38:32
    God doesn't want that.
  • 00:38:34
    He wants to know if He has you.
  • 00:38:36
    He wants to know if you are in.
  • 00:38:37
    He wants to know if your hands to the plow.
  • 00:38:39
    He doesn't want, like He doesn't like tetterers.
  • 00:38:41
    He doesn't like people just always
  • 00:38:43
    back and forth, back and forth.
  • 00:38:45
    Not for His people.
  • 00:38:48
    And oftentimes, our spiritual dryness traces only to this,
  • 00:38:54
    that we haven't really been in
  • 00:38:56
    and we're not solidified in that.
  • 00:38:58
    The second thing that pops in this story for me
  • 00:39:02
    is that Elijah has a sense of isolation.
  • 00:39:07
    He says this in verse 22:
  • 00:39:08
    And Elijah said to the people, "I, even I only
  • 00:39:12
    am left of the prophets of the Lord.
  • 00:39:14
    But Baal's prophets are 450 men."
  • 00:39:18
    He's going to go one against 450.
  • 00:39:20
    They're going to have a test to see whose God is the real God.
  • 00:39:24
    And Elijah, I think, he overstates a little bit,
  • 00:39:26
    overstates it a little bit.
  • 00:39:28
    He says, I, only I am left.
  • 00:39:31
    He may be the only prophet.
  • 00:39:32
    He may be the only prophet that's left.
  • 00:39:35
    But he's not the only godly person who's left.
  • 00:39:37
    In the chapter before there's another guy
  • 00:39:39
    who's very, very godly.
  • 00:39:41
    You might have heard of him.
  • 00:39:42
    His name is Obadiah.
  • 00:39:45
    Obadiah had a very famous song written about him, actually.
  • 00:39:49
    You might have heard it.
  • 00:39:51
    It was: [music: Beatles, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da]
  • 00:39:52
    Obadiah. La-la, how their life goes on
  • 00:39:58
    Go ahead, sing along now, if you can with your dry mouth.
  • 00:40:00
    Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, La-la, how their life goes on
  • 00:40:05
    Not quite the same Obadiah, but I had fun doing that.
  • 00:40:10
    This is part of what happens though
  • 00:40:12
    when you're in a drought
  • 00:40:13
    and Elijah is in this drought like it is too.
  • 00:40:16
    You feel isolated.
  • 00:40:17
    You feel like you're the only one.
  • 00:40:21
    You feel like nobody can identify with you.
  • 00:40:24
    You feel like you're the only one that's been doing the thing.
  • 00:40:28
    And he's not the only one.
  • 00:40:29
    There's been other godly people, not a lot,
  • 00:40:31
    but there's other godly people.
  • 00:40:32
    But this is what we -- the way we behave
  • 00:40:34
    when we're in a drought, we think we're the only one.
  • 00:40:36
    No one's like me.
  • 00:40:38
    No one have my family of origin.
  • 00:40:40
    No one knows the challenges I have.
  • 00:40:43
    If only others could have been through what I've been through
  • 00:40:46
    or been dissed the way I've been dissed
  • 00:40:47
    or had the this or that.
  • 00:40:49
    And all that may be true because all of us are unique,
  • 00:40:52
    all of us have unique stuff,
  • 00:40:53
    but we just overplay our hand when we're in a drought
  • 00:40:56
    thinking that no one can deal with me.
  • 00:40:58
    So therefore we don't open up,
  • 00:41:00
    we don't let anybody else in our life.
  • 00:41:01
    And more and more isolation comes
  • 00:41:04
    and we feel like we're just going crazy.
  • 00:41:07
    And in some ways we are, because we're on our own.
  • 00:41:11
    It's a passion of mine because I think that,
  • 00:41:13
    well, statistically speaking, the most isolated
  • 00:41:16
    and lonely people in our country are men.
  • 00:41:20
    It's just the pure statistics.
  • 00:41:23
    These are some of the statistics,
  • 00:41:24
    if you haven't seen some of these,
  • 00:41:26
    these are fresh ones, actually.
  • 00:41:27
    25% of men have no close friends.
  • 00:41:30
    Men represent 79% of all suicides in the last 25 years.
  • 00:41:36
    Because it's the lonely people who have the suicides.
  • 00:41:39
    2/3 of young men say no one really knows me well.
  • 00:41:42
    And there's so many more.
  • 00:41:45
    It's a plague that's in our culture amongst men.
  • 00:41:49
    And women obviously have a lot of difficult things
  • 00:41:52
    you're dealing with and have dealing with.
  • 00:41:54
    I'm not saying it's easier or harder to be a woman, man.
  • 00:41:56
    I'm not. I'm just saying when we talk about isolation,
  • 00:41:59
    men have a corner on the market.
  • 00:42:01
    This is why we as a church take this endangered gender,
  • 00:42:05
    if you will, seriously and we put resources
  • 00:42:08
    into things like Man Camp.
  • 00:42:09
    By the way, I don't know if, you know,
  • 00:42:11
    we are really going for it this year at Man Camp.
  • 00:42:13
    Check this out.
  • 00:42:15
    - Over the past ten years,
  • 00:42:16
    Man Camp has grown into an international movement.
  • 00:42:19
    - Mine and some buddies of mine were in a place just like this.
  • 00:42:21
    They said, we gotta get this to other guys,
  • 00:42:23
    and Man Camp was born.
  • 00:42:25
    - Tens of thousands of men have gotten off the grid,
  • 00:42:28
    pushed themselves and discovered what they're made of.
  • 00:42:31
    Join us this fall for an unforgettable Man Camp
  • 00:42:34
    with adventurer and survival expert Bear Grylls,
  • 00:42:38
    Dante Bove from Maverick City
  • 00:42:41
    and Man Camp founder Brian Tome.
  • 00:42:44
    If you want something different,
  • 00:42:46
    you have to do something different.
  • 00:42:48
    Let this be the year you take the step.
  • 00:42:51
    Claim your spot now at ManCamp.US.
  • 00:42:56
    - Come on. Are you kidding me?
  • 00:42:58
    My gosh. Wow.
  • 00:43:03
    I would count Dante and Bear as recent friends.
  • 00:43:08
    It's going to be amazing. It's going to be.
  • 00:43:09
    I'd say, man, if you're dude,
  • 00:43:11
    I don't know why in the world,
  • 00:43:13
    there's no greater place on God's green earth
  • 00:43:16
    you could be if you're a man than at Man Camp.
  • 00:43:18
    I'm telling you right now.
  • 00:43:19
    God may not meet you, but I'll tell you what,
  • 00:43:21
    you have a greater likelihood of meeting God
  • 00:43:23
    and having a profound spiritual moment there
  • 00:43:25
    than any place else in the world that weekend.
  • 00:43:27
    I have zero doubt about that.
  • 00:43:29
    And why wouldn't you bring somebody? Why?
  • 00:43:33
    You know men feeling isolated,
  • 00:43:34
    they're looking for something to do.
  • 00:43:36
    This is going to be amazing.
  • 00:43:37
    So I encourage you to sign up.
  • 00:43:38
    It's going to be well well worth it.
  • 00:43:40
    Let's keep going on our story, verse 18, verse 18.
  • 00:43:45
    Uh, no, actually what'd I say verse 18 for?
  • 00:43:47
    23, chapter 18, verse 23. Let's keep going. He says this:
  • 00:43:51
    Let two bulls be given to us.
  • 00:43:54
    I'm going to have one. You're going to have one.
  • 00:43:56
    And let us choose one bull for themselves
  • 00:43:58
    and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood,
  • 00:44:02
    but put no fire to it.
  • 00:44:03
    And I will repair the other bull
  • 00:44:05
    and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it.
  • 00:44:07
    And you call upon the name of your God,
  • 00:44:09
    and I will call upon the name of the Lord,
  • 00:44:12
    the God who answers by fire, He is God."
  • 00:44:17
    And all the people answered, "It's well spoken."
  • 00:44:20
    It's well spoken.
  • 00:44:21
    And people are like, "Yeah, I like that,"
  • 00:44:22
    because they're a bunch of limpers, right?
  • 00:44:24
    They're back and forth, and they're like,
  • 00:44:26
    "Hey, I'd kind of like to have this settled
  • 00:44:29
    in my mind too, it seems.
  • 00:44:30
    Let's just have a prayer service
  • 00:44:32
    and whatever prayer actually gets answered with a yes,
  • 00:44:36
    that's the real God. Good. Good idea."
  • 00:44:38
    They're kind of looking forward to this.
  • 00:44:39
    You got all these hyper spiritual Baal prophet people,
  • 00:44:42
    this hyper spiritual Elijah prophet guy.
  • 00:44:45
    "Yeah, yeah. Let's figure this out."
  • 00:44:48
    Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal,
  • 00:44:50
    "Choose yourself one bowl and prepare it first,
  • 00:44:52
    for you are many, and call upon the name of your god,
  • 00:44:55
    but put no fire to it."
  • 00:44:56
    He says, "Okay, you guys, you gotta give me this one.
  • 00:44:58
    You got 450, you dudes. I'm just one, one dude.
  • 00:45:02
    So you go first.
  • 00:45:03
    It's a tall, tall order.
  • 00:45:06
    It's going to be rough. We both know this,
  • 00:45:08
    but just give it to me.
  • 00:45:09
    I'm the only guy, so let me go last. You go first."
  • 00:45:13
    "Well, all right, we'll do it. Fine."
  • 00:45:15
    And they took the bull that was given them,
  • 00:45:17
    and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal
  • 00:45:20
    from morning until noon, saying, "O, Baal, answer us!"
  • 00:45:26
    But there was no voice, and no one answered.
  • 00:45:30
    And they limped around the altar they had made.
  • 00:45:34
    Well, just stop right there for a moment.
  • 00:45:39
    So they they put all this together
  • 00:45:42
    and they start their prayer service
  • 00:45:44
    and nothing happens from morning to noon.
  • 00:45:47
    Noon, we'll just say is 12.
  • 00:45:49
    Is morning 6 a.m. is it 9 a.m.?
  • 00:45:52
    Whatever it is, nothing happens for hours.
  • 00:45:57
    And it goes on and on and on.
  • 00:46:02
    And I find really interesting as they start their prayer,
  • 00:46:06
    they actually start, they start coming around their altar
  • 00:46:10
    and they're limping. Did you pick that up?
  • 00:46:13
    They're limping around the fire.
  • 00:46:16
    It's like, uh, what's it called? Munchausen syndrome.
  • 00:46:20
    You ever heard of Munchausen syndrome?
  • 00:46:21
    It's when you have somebody who attracts
  • 00:46:26
    the physical maladies to them that they see in others.
  • 00:46:29
    Like, they hear somebody is allergic to x, y, z
  • 00:46:31
    and they go, "Yeah, I think I'm --
  • 00:46:35
    I'm allergic to that too. Oh, I am allergic to that."
  • 00:46:39
    It's a real thing. I've known people like that.
  • 00:46:42
    It's like these people, these prophets
  • 00:46:45
    are physically taking on now an attribute
  • 00:46:49
    that's a spiritual attribute
  • 00:46:50
    in the rest of the nation of Israel.
  • 00:46:52
    They're limping around just like people are limping,
  • 00:46:55
    not sure which way to go.
  • 00:46:58
    "Who? Who is God? Believe this. No, I believe.
  • 00:47:01
    Oh, that spirituality here? No, that spirituality there."
  • 00:47:04
    Let's keep going.
  • 00:47:10
    And at noon, Elijah mocked them.
  • 00:47:12
    Now, I don't know what Jesus would say about this,
  • 00:47:15
    but it's pretty fun.
  • 00:47:16
    At noon Elijah mocked them.
  • 00:47:19
    He's watching. Maybe Elijah is thinking to himself,
  • 00:47:22
    "Oh gosh, 450 dudes
  • 00:47:24
    who are very sincere in their spirituality."
  • 00:47:29
    You can be very sincere in your spirituality
  • 00:47:31
    and be sincerely wrong.
  • 00:47:34
    Nonetheless, they are very sincere.
  • 00:47:36
    And maybe Elijah is going, at the very beginning,
  • 00:47:39
    "I hope this works.
  • 00:47:40
    450 dudes are really sincere and committed. Whoo, man!"
  • 00:47:44
    But then after a few hours,
  • 00:47:46
    he starts getting a little punchy.
  • 00:47:48
    He starts going, "This is -- This is ridiculous."
  • 00:47:50
    He says, "Cry loud, cry loud, for he is god.
  • 00:47:55
    Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself,
  • 00:48:01
    or he's on a journey,
  • 00:48:03
    or perhaps he's asleep and must be awakened."
  • 00:48:05
    It's like maybe, maybe he's on some NyQuil.
  • 00:48:09
    You know, the lie down, you know,
  • 00:48:10
    nighttime sneezy coughing, find your ass
  • 00:48:12
    face down the ceramic floor in the morning
  • 00:48:14
    when you wake up medicine. You know, that kind of thing.
  • 00:48:16
    Maybe, maybe he's on that.
  • 00:48:18
    Maybe he's taking a dump. It's in the Bible.
  • 00:48:23
    He relieving himself, see it? Relieving himself.
  • 00:48:25
    He's just -- he's just mocking them.
  • 00:48:27
    He's going like, he's trying to help people see,
  • 00:48:31
    friends, this is the spirituality you're a part of.
  • 00:48:33
    I gotta tell you, man, when I call on God,
  • 00:48:38
    fire doesn't fall from heaven all the time.
  • 00:48:40
    When I call on God, there's a lot of things
  • 00:48:41
    that God doesn't respond, what He doesn't say yes to.
  • 00:48:44
    But I'll tell you what, man,
  • 00:48:47
    there is absolute fruit that He is real
  • 00:48:50
    because of a peace that passes understanding,
  • 00:48:52
    because of a joy, because of how I've seen
  • 00:48:55
    unending marriages restored,
  • 00:48:58
    stories of people who have not committed suicide
  • 00:49:01
    as a result of encountering Jesus.
  • 00:49:03
    Stories of people who could say,
  • 00:49:04
    "This has made a difference in my life."
  • 00:49:06
    This this is what you get when you have a real God.
  • 00:49:08
    There's real things that have happened,
  • 00:49:10
    and many of you are those real things.
  • 00:49:13
    It's a beautiful thing.
  • 00:49:15
    We're not talking here about a spirituality.
  • 00:49:18
    We're not talking about a philosophy.
  • 00:49:20
    We're not talking about a debate.
  • 00:49:22
    Elijah says, "Let's make a real clear,
  • 00:49:23
    it's time for debate. Whatever God brings the fire,
  • 00:49:27
    can we just say that's the one?
  • 00:49:29
    I'll just say, I follow a God
  • 00:49:31
    that's brought the fire of restoration,
  • 00:49:33
    the fire of reconciliation, the fire of healing,
  • 00:49:35
    the fire of purpose, the fire of crazy things
  • 00:49:39
    I could have never seen in my life.
  • 00:49:41
    This isn't a a talk on prayer,
  • 00:49:43
    though I could do that right now.
  • 00:49:46
    It's a beautiful thing.
  • 00:49:47
    Doesn't always have the way you want to, but man,
  • 00:49:49
    there is a God who is powerful.
  • 00:49:51
    And Elijah is is going, this one I'm seeing here,
  • 00:49:54
    this just ain't right.
  • 00:49:55
    So here's what happens here.
  • 00:49:57
    And as their custom was they cried aloud
  • 00:50:01
    and they took swords and lances
  • 00:50:03
    until the blood gushed out from them.
  • 00:50:05
    And as midday passed, they raved on
  • 00:50:08
    until the time of the offering of the oblation,
  • 00:50:11
    but there was no voice.
  • 00:50:14
    No one answered; no one paid attention.
  • 00:50:19
    There's nothing that will frustrate
  • 00:50:21
    your drought-like conditions more than it's not working.
  • 00:50:24
    It isn't. There is no voice.
  • 00:50:27
    No one answered. No one paid attention.
  • 00:50:33
    In spirituality, and this includes
  • 00:50:35
    Christian spirituality too, what --
  • 00:50:38
    We all have our things, our physical externals
  • 00:50:41
    we want to ramp up to try to get God's attention.
  • 00:50:45
    So as these guys are limping around
  • 00:50:48
    and as Elijah is mocking them, they go, "Okay,
  • 00:50:52
    we got to get more spiritual here."
  • 00:50:54
    So they start pulling out lances and knives
  • 00:50:55
    and cutting themselves.
  • 00:50:56
    And and blood's coming all over the place, right?
  • 00:50:59
    And then they're ripping their clothes
  • 00:51:02
    and they're yelling louder.
  • 00:51:03
    All these things to try to get their God's attention.
  • 00:51:06
    We can do this in Christianity, too.
  • 00:51:08
    And these things can all be okay things,
  • 00:51:10
    but we just have to be careful.
  • 00:51:12
    Are we like, are we trying to play the religious game
  • 00:51:15
    or are we really committed to our God?
  • 00:51:17
    I put some Christian bumper stickers on my bumper,
  • 00:51:20
    to just be a little louder with my faith.
  • 00:51:23
    Put on some Christian jewelry,
  • 00:51:24
    make sure people know I'm a Christian.
  • 00:51:26
    I got my jewelry on.
  • 00:51:27
    Get myself a big, fat honkin Bible.
  • 00:51:29
    Amazingly, Bible, physical Bible sales
  • 00:51:33
    are up like 30% this last year amongst young people.
  • 00:51:37
    That's an amazing statistic. It really is.
  • 00:51:39
    It's unbelievable.
  • 00:51:42
    But when I was younger, bought my first Bible,
  • 00:51:45
    I was making sure people saw my Bible.
  • 00:51:47
    I need a big, fat one.
  • 00:51:51
    I need people see it
  • 00:51:52
    And maybe I'll buy a Bible cover, make that thing fatter
  • 00:51:56
    just so they're more impressive than my spirituality.
  • 00:51:59
    You know?
  • 00:52:01
    Fasting, first time I fasted,
  • 00:52:02
    I made sure everybody knew it.
  • 00:52:05
    "Oh, can't. I'm fasting.
  • 00:52:10
    Huh, must be nice to have a lunch meeting, but I'm fasting."
  • 00:52:14
    I make sure everyone, sure, everyone knew it.
  • 00:52:17
    Now all those things can be fine and healthy.
  • 00:52:19
    All of them can, but we cross over
  • 00:52:21
    when we're now using our spirituality to broadcast it,
  • 00:52:25
    to kind of confer some greatness to ourselves.
  • 00:52:28
    And this is what the prophets of Elijah are doing,
  • 00:52:30
    because they have no greatness,
  • 00:52:32
    because they don't know a true God,
  • 00:52:35
    because there is no spiritual power
  • 00:52:37
    in what they're following.
  • 00:52:38
    So all they have is their spiritual rules
  • 00:52:40
    and the mystiques in all that they're doing.
  • 00:52:42
    And Elijah sees right through this
  • 00:52:44
    and calls them out on it.
  • 00:52:47
    Now, this is the one gets really fun for me.
  • 00:52:51
    So as all of this happens, nothing happens.
  • 00:52:56
    Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come near me."
  • 00:52:59
    And all the people came near him.
  • 00:53:00
    So they're out watching, and now they all come near.
  • 00:53:03
    They come near to him.
  • 00:53:04
    And the people came near to him.
  • 00:53:05
    And he repaired the altar of the Lord.
  • 00:53:08
    And he takes 12 stones, the altar of the Lord
  • 00:53:12
    that had been up there, he takes --
  • 00:53:14
    He doesn't rebuild the whole thing,
  • 00:53:16
    but he rebuilds part of it.
  • 00:53:18
    He takes 12 stones.
  • 00:53:21
    And the 12 stones represent the 12 tribes of Israel.
  • 00:53:28
    These were all sons of Jacob.
  • 00:53:31
    Make sure I Don't crush my fingers,
  • 00:53:33
    nor throw my back out.
  • 00:53:37
    He makes his own little altar that's up there.
  • 00:53:43
    Takes the wood, puts the wood in the altar.
  • 00:53:51
    And then it will be a shocking thing for us,
  • 00:53:55
    not so much with them, He takes his bull.
  • 00:53:58
    He slaughters his bull. Dismember it.
  • 00:54:01
    Probably quarters it, lies up here.
  • 00:54:04
    Now it's shocking for us.
  • 00:54:06
    You know, most of us eat meat.
  • 00:54:09
    Those of you are vegetarians, God bless you.
  • 00:54:13
    If God want us all to be vegetarian,
  • 00:54:14
    meat wouldn't taste so good.
  • 00:54:15
    But if you're a vegetarian, great.
  • 00:54:18
    No problem being a vegetarian.
  • 00:54:20
    But I'll tell you why there's a problem with
  • 00:54:21
    is when you eat meat and you think it's gross
  • 00:54:25
    that an animal is killed.
  • 00:54:27
    Someone kills animals for you all the time,
  • 00:54:31
    you just have never killed one.
  • 00:54:33
    And because we're the only culture
  • 00:54:35
    in the history of the world in the last 60 years
  • 00:54:38
    who eats meat regularly, but we've never seen anything die.
  • 00:54:40
    It grosses us out to think we've got bull parts, literally.
  • 00:54:46
    They saw this all time.
  • 00:54:48
    That wasn't a shocker to them, but to us
  • 00:54:50
    I'm trying to paint the scene, like,
  • 00:54:52
    can you paint the scene here?
  • 00:54:53
    All this stuff and blood and legs and a head
  • 00:54:57
    and all and skin, all this stuff around.
  • 00:55:00
    And like, okay, now it's going to happen, he's going to pray,
  • 00:55:02
    we're going to find out who the real God is.
  • 00:55:04
    And then Elijah says something's missing.
  • 00:55:07
    You know what's missing here?
  • 00:55:09
    What do we need to make a great fire?
  • 00:55:12
    I know what we need: water. That's what we need.
  • 00:55:15
    Every great fire needs water.
  • 00:55:18
    Now, this is a new thing that's really, really powerful
  • 00:55:22
    that I've really grabbed on to
  • 00:55:24
    it as I was rustling through this.
  • 00:55:25
    It's the power of community.
  • 00:55:27
    Community, that's in this story. It's community.
  • 00:55:31
    He calls these people to them.
  • 00:55:33
    In 33B, he calls them to them.
  • 00:55:37
    And he said, "Fill four jars with water
  • 00:55:39
    and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood."
  • 00:55:41
    And he said, "Do it a second time."
  • 00:55:43
    And they did it a second time.
  • 00:55:45
    He said, "Do it a third time."
  • 00:55:46
    And they did it a third time.
  • 00:55:47
    And the water ran around the altar
  • 00:55:50
    and filled the the trench also with water.
  • 00:55:56
    I don't know if you've ever met a campfire before,
  • 00:55:58
    but when water meets fire, who do you think wins?
  • 00:56:02
    Water does, water does.
  • 00:56:04
    And they've got these, they call them seas in the Bible.
  • 00:56:07
    These are vessels about this big, held 3 to 5 gallons.
  • 00:56:13
    And he says, "All right, I need somebody.
  • 00:56:15
    I need someone to go and and fill this for me.
  • 00:56:17
    Someone go fill this for me."
  • 00:56:19
    Now, even though Elijah said no one's more faithful than me,
  • 00:56:22
    there's some faithful people there
  • 00:56:25
    because someone's going to carry water.
  • 00:56:28
    They're going to take this
  • 00:56:29
    and they're going to go get water.
  • 00:56:31
    And by the way, if you've forgotten, it's a drought.
  • 00:56:36
    It's a drought, so they've got a couple of options for water.
  • 00:56:39
    The first is to go to a spring that's about a mile away.
  • 00:56:43
    That spring is still there. There's natural springs.
  • 00:56:45
    But this would have been an act of faith
  • 00:56:47
    because while it's a drought
  • 00:56:49
    and maybe it was still producing stuff
  • 00:56:50
    from under the water table,
  • 00:56:52
    this was what they needed for sustenance living.
  • 00:56:55
    It wasn't enough, probably, to water crops,
  • 00:56:58
    but they're now going to sacrifice
  • 00:57:00
    some of their precious water.
  • 00:57:03
    That's a an hour or a mile away, if they did that.
  • 00:57:06
    Or they'd go to a river about two hours away
  • 00:57:09
    or two miles away, or they go to the sea about five miles away,
  • 00:57:14
    the Mediterranean Sea.
  • 00:57:16
    And so they're going and they're carrying their water.
  • 00:57:19
    We call it -- we talk about that, water carriers. Right?
  • 00:57:22
    You might backpack, you might have some weight.
  • 00:57:25
    You all know if you backpack and you have some weight,
  • 00:57:27
    that's a whole different thing having it
  • 00:57:29
    evenly distributed on your back, than carrying water
  • 00:57:32
    that moves and sloshes and is way heavier,
  • 00:57:35
    the same volume, way heavier
  • 00:57:37
    than anything you could put in your backpack,
  • 00:57:38
    except for Mercury, I guess. Very, very heavy.
  • 00:57:42
    So they come and they pour it
  • 00:57:44
    and Elijah says, "Okay, do it again."
  • 00:57:48
    They walk, they bring it back, pour it.
  • 00:57:53
    Do it again.
  • 00:57:54
    The tension, everybody's here waiting for this.
  • 00:57:59
    And now we're going to do it again.
  • 00:58:00
    Comes and does it again.
  • 00:58:02
    What I find powerful about this
  • 00:58:05
    is now this is going to be a communal event
  • 00:58:07
    because now everybody's in.
  • 00:58:10
    Because someone stepped up and said, "Me, I'm in.
  • 00:58:12
    Me. Me, me. I want to be involved in this."
  • 00:58:15
    That's why when you go to a Go Trip,
  • 00:58:17
    you always come back better off than you were spiritually
  • 00:58:19
    because it's a we thing.
  • 00:58:20
    You said, "I'm getting out of my thing.
  • 00:58:22
    I'm going to serve somebody."
  • 00:58:23
    That's why if you go to Woman Camp, Man Camp,
  • 00:58:25
    whatever, you always come back spiritually better off
  • 00:58:28
    than you were because you sat around a campfire.
  • 00:58:30
    You were about somebody else. You were in something.
  • 00:58:33
    It always works that way.
  • 00:58:35
    This isolated just me and my deity spirituality
  • 00:58:40
    has zero power.
  • 00:58:42
    We've got to be around other people.
  • 00:58:47
    I promise, not every illustration I give
  • 00:58:50
    over the next few months is going to be cancer related.
  • 00:58:55
    But since I'm in that right now, this last chemo time
  • 00:58:59
    that Lib had, it was -- you go in this room
  • 00:59:03
    and it's not a bad room.
  • 00:59:05
    You got these recliners all around in the room here,
  • 00:59:08
    and there's a recliner and a hard seat
  • 00:59:10
    for someone who's supporting and accompanying.
  • 00:59:12
    So I get the hard seat. Lib gets a nice little recliner.
  • 00:59:15
    And then you got the IV thing beside her.
  • 00:59:17
    And then the nurses and other as they come in
  • 00:59:19
    and they hook up your chemical concoction
  • 00:59:21
    that's designed for you.
  • 00:59:22
    And they put it in, they're dripping in you.
  • 00:59:24
    And everyone's in there, like, you know,
  • 00:59:27
    and no one wants to be there. Right?
  • 00:59:28
    It's a club no one wants to be in,
  • 00:59:30
    and everyone wants to be kicked out of.
  • 00:59:31
    And you start to see patterns in
  • 00:59:33
    people and everybody's different.
  • 00:59:35
    Everyone's got their own story.
  • 00:59:36
    But this last week was really, really cool.
  • 00:59:39
    There was a woman that comes up,
  • 00:59:41
    and just true confession about me,
  • 00:59:44
    something I don't like about myself.
  • 00:59:46
    When I'm on stage, it's real easy for me
  • 00:59:49
    to be an extrovert because I am an extrovert,
  • 00:59:51
    or if I'm in a variety of places,
  • 00:59:53
    I can do the extrovert thing really well.
  • 00:59:55
    But very frequently when I get off stage,
  • 00:59:57
    my inner introvert really wants to have his time.
  • 01:00:01
    And so when I'm out and about, if you ever come up to me,
  • 01:00:04
    would love to see you. Would love to talk to you.
  • 01:00:06
    It's an honor, really, really, I love it.
  • 01:00:08
    But if you catch you on one of those days
  • 01:00:11
    where I'm just, like, I seem uninterested,
  • 01:00:13
    it's just that, like, I'm peopled out.
  • 01:00:16
    I don't like it. I'm just peopled out.
  • 01:00:18
    And so this was one where it wasn't like I was peopled out,
  • 01:00:21
    but it was like, sometimes I'm out in public
  • 01:00:24
    I don't look at people a lot, because if they look at me,
  • 01:00:26
    then maybe they'll recognize me
  • 01:00:28
    and then I have to have a ten minute Bible study
  • 01:00:30
    with them or something like that. You know what I mean?
  • 01:00:32
    So I'm sitting there and this woman comes up
  • 01:00:34
    and that for whatever reason that part comes out of me.
  • 01:00:37
    She comes up, she goes,
  • 01:00:38
    "Would you like to have some encouragement?"
  • 01:00:41
    And my thought for was is, "No, I wouldn't.
  • 01:00:43
    Just please leave." That's what I was thinking.
  • 01:00:47
    And then I looked at her, I was thinking about that.
  • 01:00:49
    And it was, like, Lib is a hyper introvert,
  • 01:00:52
    so she's not going to talk to anybody, right?
  • 01:00:53
    So she's beside me and I know this is on me to talk to her.
  • 01:00:56
    And so and I looked at her and I,
  • 01:00:58
    it clicked with me who she was.
  • 01:01:02
    This was a there's a short African-American woman.
  • 01:01:06
    And I've been around enough to know,
  • 01:01:07
    like, this woman just came from church.
  • 01:01:11
    She -- this woman is a believer.
  • 01:01:13
    Like, she -- I could just smell it on her.
  • 01:01:15
    There's no, there's no limping in this woman.
  • 01:01:17
    No, no limping.
  • 01:01:20
    I look at her, I go -- I look at her, she says,
  • 01:01:23
    "Hey, I'm fighting cancer too.
  • 01:01:25
    And I just felt the Lord wanted me
  • 01:01:27
    to give some encouragement."
  • 01:01:29
    I'll take some. Take that.
  • 01:01:31
    She's got these greeting cards that she's made.
  • 01:01:35
    There's 20 people and there's like 20 of them,
  • 01:01:37
    so she fans them out like cards.
  • 01:01:39
    Like, which one do you want?
  • 01:01:43
    Which one's most likely going to be the voice of God?
  • 01:01:45
    I don't know. I take one, it was fine.
  • 01:01:48
    It was a sweet card.
  • 01:01:49
    But my point there is this is a spiritually mature woman
  • 01:01:54
    who's going, "I know
  • 01:01:56
    I have every right to be about myself.
  • 01:01:59
    I have cancer, I have every right to be about myself."
  • 01:02:01
    And she said that, "Today I'm going to chemo room
  • 01:02:04
    to bless other people.
  • 01:02:06
    Today I'm going outside of myself
  • 01:02:09
    because I want to be the voice of God.
  • 01:02:12
    I want to be a source of love.
  • 01:02:13
    I want to be a source of encouragement."
  • 01:02:15
    It hit me. Hit me really, really hard.
  • 01:02:17
    Doesn't matter, it doesn't matter
  • 01:02:18
    how much of a drought you're in,
  • 01:02:20
    how difficult things are in,
  • 01:02:21
    man, do not succumb to the lie that it's all about you,
  • 01:02:25
    and you're the only one you seem to focus on yo.
  • 01:02:27
    No, you don't.
  • 01:02:28
    That'll make you only more dry.
  • 01:02:31
    You need to be moist.
  • 01:02:32
    Some of us hate that word. Moist.
  • 01:02:40
    You especially seem to like that word right now, don't you?
  • 01:02:42
    Okay. All right. Back to this.
  • 01:02:45
    So, all this moisture is put on the stuff.
  • 01:02:50
    It's all there.
  • 01:02:51
    And then when I tell the story to my kids,
  • 01:02:54
    my kids were texting me, was like, "Dad,
  • 01:02:57
    make sure you make the dude do the fire sounds."
  • 01:02:59
    All right. Got it, I got it.
  • 01:03:01
    So I tell the story, this is my favorite story
  • 01:03:03
    to tell kids at bedtime, which is really stupid,
  • 01:03:05
    as you'll see in a moment.
  • 01:03:06
    Because I don't know how any kid
  • 01:03:08
    could ever sleep after they hear this story. Right?
  • 01:03:11
    So I tease this story out for them,
  • 01:03:13
    and they'd be sitting there in the bed
  • 01:03:15
    with the covers up over their face, going.
  • 01:03:20
    And instead of reading it, I'll just give you a quote for it.
  • 01:03:26
    And then after all this is done,
  • 01:03:27
    after the waters come up, three trips,
  • 01:03:32
    crazy amounts of gallons of water filling the trench.
  • 01:03:36
    As opposed to Elijah prancing around
  • 01:03:40
    and cutting himself and getting louder and louder,
  • 01:03:42
    he just steps up and says,
  • 01:03:45
    I'll tell it the way I did my kids.
  • 01:03:47
    Steps forward and he says, "God, may this day
  • 01:03:51
    may the people know that you are the one true God."
  • 01:03:57
    And then (sound effects) fire comes down from heaven.
  • 01:04:02
    (sound effects) Fire comes down the sky.
  • 01:04:05
    Come down. (sound effects) Burn down the bull.
  • 01:04:08
    (sound effects) Burns up the wood.
  • 01:04:10
    (sound effects) Burns up the water.
  • 01:04:12
    (sound effects) Burns up the stones.
  • 01:04:14
    And that's our God. [cheers & applause]
  • 01:04:22
    Now, because I'm in a technologically laden,
  • 01:04:26
    richly laden place right now, I don't have to do that.
  • 01:04:29
    So let's do this again.
  • 01:04:34
    God steps forward.
  • 01:04:36
    Elijah steps forward and says, "God,
  • 01:04:38
    on this day in Israel,
  • 01:04:40
    may You let people know that you are God."
  • 01:04:57
    Debate solved.
  • 01:05:04
    I don't know how to rectify, rectum-fy.
  • 01:05:10
    I don't know how to do th
  • 01:05:11
    at with all the things New Testament.
  • 01:05:14
    But now Elijah says God wants this place purified.
  • 01:05:17
    So they chase down the prophets of Baal
  • 01:05:20
    and they kill them all. They're all killed.
  • 01:05:23
    We're not going to risk any more limping
  • 01:05:25
    around here anymore where it kills them all.
  • 01:05:26
    I don't know -- I don't know how we apply that today.
  • 01:05:29
    We don't apply it today.
  • 01:05:30
    Please do not kill anybody
  • 01:05:31
    who has a different spiritual belief than you. Nobody.
  • 01:05:33
    Want to go on record, we're very clear about that.
  • 01:05:35
    And then you got the next part, the next difficult part.
  • 01:05:38
    It's like I have to end the story here
  • 01:05:40
    because we're about out of time.
  • 01:05:42
    But I'll just tease some things for you here.
  • 01:05:43
    Elijah goes from a mountaintop experience.
  • 01:05:47
    I mean, God answers his prayer, and it's an immediate,
  • 01:05:52
    a mountaintop experience to being in a deep depression.
  • 01:05:57
    He leaves here because now Jezebel wants dead
  • 01:06:00
    because he killed all the prophets.
  • 01:06:02
    So they chased him and now he has doubts
  • 01:06:04
    and he ends up living in a cave for a while.
  • 01:06:07
    Hey, good news and bad news.
  • 01:06:09
    Bad news is this: mountains always precede valleys.
  • 01:06:14
    The good news is valleys always precede mountains.
  • 01:06:20
    You know, it's like that's -- that's just what.
  • 01:06:22
    And that's why there's so many of us who are limpers,
  • 01:06:24
    double minded.
  • 01:06:26
    We're thinking it's always about the mountain.
  • 01:06:28
    No, it's it's not always about, it's about life.
  • 01:06:31
    It's about God.
  • 01:06:33
    And whether you're on a mountain or in a valley,
  • 01:06:36
    it's about God and His Word and His will,
  • 01:06:38
    not about me and my comfort and the life that I want.
  • 01:06:42
    That's what we do who are in, who hold on to Him fastly.
  • 01:06:46
    And then you got a whole nother thing that happens.
  • 01:06:48
    That's just the fire, but they're still in drought.
  • 01:06:51
    So he's got a level of stress.
  • 01:06:52
    So he goes out and it says real clear, h
  • 01:06:54
    e goes out and he's praying.
  • 01:06:56
    And this is for like for days he's praying,
  • 01:06:57
    "God, bring the rain, bring the rain, bring the rain."
  • 01:07:00
    And he's got a right hand guy with him.
  • 01:07:01
    He says, "You see any clouds coming anywhere?"
  • 01:07:03
    And the guy goes, "No, man, it's all blue sky.
  • 01:07:06
    All good. We're all bad, you know?"
  • 01:07:07
    He goes back, he's praying, he's praying, he's praying.
  • 01:07:10
    Stops. "Anything yet? Anything coming?"
  • 01:07:12
    "No, no, no."
  • 01:07:15
    Goes back. He's praying, praying.
  • 01:07:16
    "Do you see anything coming?"
  • 01:07:19
    He said, "Well, I see a cloud
  • 01:07:22
    that kind of looks like a hand over the sea.
  • 01:07:27
    I think it's coming this way."
  • 01:07:31
    Prays. And what do you know?
  • 01:07:33
    The rain comes and the drought ends.
  • 01:07:43
    One day, one day, if you're in a drought, it will end.
  • 01:07:49
    And it will end in God's timing.
  • 01:07:52
    And it needs to end while you've been faithful,
  • 01:07:56
    while you've held on, you've put your hand to the plow
  • 01:07:59
    and you've gone forward.
  • 01:08:00
    And when the rain comes, it's almost scary.
  • 01:08:04
    You're paranoid that's going to stop.
  • 01:08:06
    You think it's going to go away quickly,
  • 01:08:08
    but you need to soak it up and enjoy it.
  • 01:08:11
    It's a beautiful thing when the rain is out
  • 01:08:15
    and God is growing new things and you feel refreshed.
  • 01:08:21
    Appropriate moisture. That's who God is.
  • 01:08:25
    That's what He does.
  • 01:08:26
    Whether you're on the mountaintop,
  • 01:08:27
    whether you're on the valley,
  • 01:08:29
    whether you're on a drought,
  • 01:08:30
    whether you're in the rainstorm,
  • 01:08:33
    the key thing is, man, there is a God who is faithful,
  • 01:08:36
    you just have to give Him time,
  • 01:08:38
    and then He'll do what He wants to do when He does it.
  • 01:08:41
    And what needs to be said of you is I walk strong.
  • 01:08:45
    I don't limp, I walk strong.
  • 01:08:47
    God, I thank You for being a God who's patience
  • 01:08:51
    with limping people, who's patient, who's kind
  • 01:08:59
    and who gives nourishment
  • 01:09:01
    in a way that we can't give ourselves.
  • 01:09:03
    You are good to be patient with us.
  • 01:09:05
    I pray these things according to the name of Jesus. Amen.
  • 01:09:10
    - Wow. Absolute fire.
  • 01:09:12
    I mean, literally and figuratively.
  • 01:09:15
    And, you know, isolation, loneliness and community,
  • 01:09:19
    that's things that you found back then
  • 01:09:21
    and you can find today.
  • 01:09:23
    And with so much going on for the Anywhere Community,
  • 01:09:26
    I don't want you to miss it.
  • 01:09:27
    You can find out everything that we've got going on
  • 01:09:30
    by texting Anywhere to 301301.
  • 01:09:33
    You're going to get all the updates,
  • 01:09:35
    all the invitations, everything that's coming up.
  • 01:09:38
    And we don't want you to miss any of it.
  • 01:09:40
    We're so glad you joined us.
  • 01:09:42
    We'll see you in the next one. Adios.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up!

This is content that reflects on the Weekend message and how it can apply to your life. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What’s a favorite memory you have from the past summer?

  2. What stood out to you most from the message?

  3. When was the last time you struggled to make a decision?

  4. When have you felt like you were in a spiritual drought or isolation?

  5. What are the benefits of including community in your life? What might it look like for you to do this right now?

  6. Read 1 Kings 18:36-39. What do you notice about God’s power in these verses?

  7. Where could you use God’s refreshment?

  8. What’s one step you can take this week to trust God and his power in this season?

  9. Let’s end our time praying together. You can say something like, “God, thank you for the story of Elijah and that your power never ends. Please help us to be patient as we wait for your provision. Give us the courage to get involved and trust you. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

__Bonus Questions __

Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • Read 1 Kings 18:28-29. Where in your life have you seen misguided intentions from others fall short?
  • How can you encourage someone who is currently going through a season of spiritual drought?

Aug 17, 2025 1 hr 9 mins 42 sec

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