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🎵Piano music plays🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 Good evening, tonight we're in 1 Kings, Chapter 18. 1 Kings, Chapter 18 in the Bible reads, And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him, and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, And he answered him, I am. Go, tell thy Lord, behold, Elijah is here. And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldst deliver thy servant into the hands of Ahab to slay me? And as Lord thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whether my Lord hath not sent to seek thee. And when they said, He is not there, he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not. And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy Lord, behold, Elijah is here. And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee, whether I know not. And so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me, but I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth. Was it not told my Lord that what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, how I hid in a hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water? And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy Lord, behold, Elijah is here, and he shall slay me. And Elijah said, As the Lord of hosts liveth before whom I stand, I will surely show myself unto him today. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Are thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Balaam. Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. And said, Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it into pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under, and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And call ye on the name of your gods, and all call on the name of the Lord. And the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose ye one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first, for ye are many, and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal, from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud, for he is a God. Either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awakened. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner, with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass, when midday was past, that they prophesied until the time of the offering of the eating sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him, and he was repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Till four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. And he said, Do it the second time, and they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time, and they did it the third time. And the water ran round about the altar, and he filled the trench also with water. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and said, The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing, and he said, Go again seven times. And it came to pass that the seventh time that he said, Behold, there arises a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand, and he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel, and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, thank you for the King James Bible, Lord. Thank you for this church you've given us, Lord. We thank you for pastors as well, Lord. We just pray that you bless him right now, and fill him with the Holy Spirit as he preaches unto us, Lord, and us in the congregation are edified by the preaching. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right. We are in 1 Kings, chapter 18, and the title of my sermon this evening is Showdown at Mount Carmel. Showdown at Mount Carmel. Here in 1 Kings 18, herein lies one of the greatest stories, in my opinion, of the Old Testament. And it's a very exciting story. And I think it's a very popular story amongst Christians who actually read throughout the entire Bible because of the fact that it's essentially a story of an underdog, right? Being Elijah, going up against a multitude of individuals who are against him. And it's your classic story of David and Goliath where you have Elijah being one prophet going up against 850 prophets, including governors, including not just false prophets, but politicians who are against him, and just standing strong on the word of God, obeying the Lord, and doing great exploits in light of that. And I love some of these Old Testament stories because of the fact that it's where you see God's power manifest in a very specific way where fire is being called, raining down from heaven, right? And it's not the only instance where we see this. Of course, we have this in the Old Testament with Nadab and Abihu. We have the sacrifice that Solomon offers and the fire consuming it. Even with Elijah, you have an instance where he consumes the captains who are coming to request his presence, and he consumes them with fire as well. And so this is essentially a display of God's power, of God's presence, of God's judgment. And here we're going to look at an instance where that took place. Now I'm going to go through this story and just share some of the principles that we can learn from Elijah and the 850 prophets, not of Baal, you have 450 prophets of Baal, and then 400 prophets of the grove. And the Bible doesn't specifically say who are they worshipping when it comes to the grove. Some have estimated it's possibly Ashtaroth that they're worshipping, but at the end of the day, they're worshipping Satan is what it is, okay? And we're going to go through that in just a bit. Now look at 1 Kings 18. The first point I want to make in regards to this story, or the first thing I want to point out, is that political leaders rarely, if ever, recognize problems as being a spiritual problem. Because look what it says in verse 2, it says, Elijah went to show himself unto Ahab, and there was a sore famine in the land. Now if you're familiar with the story, you know that the reason there's a famine in the land is because Elijah has caused it not to rain, he's petitioned to God for it not to rain because of the fact that Ahab and Jezebel have essentially cursed the land because they're wicked people. And it's not because they weren't doing enough sacrifices, it's not because they're not going about sacrificing people like the Mayans or something like that. It's literally because they have wicked leaders, right? Look at verse 5, it says, And Ahab sent unto Obadiah, go into the land, unto all the fountains of water, and unto all brooks, peradventure we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive, that we lose not all the beasts. So they divided the land between them to pass throughout it, and Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself. So here we have Ahab, who's a wicked political leader, but then we have Obadiah, who isn't wicked, and in fact he's in favor of God's people, he's in favor of those who fear the Lord, and in fact he even claims to fear the Lord as well. But even Obadiah, coupled with Ahab, aren't really getting to the root of the problem now, are they? Because when they look for a solution, they're like, Oh, we just have to go find grass, we have to go find water. They're looking for the solution in all the wrong places. Because really what they should be looking at is looking up unto the Lord, and repenting and getting right with God, and God will heal their land, right? And in fact the Bible says, If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, listen to this, and will heal their land, the Bible says. So the famine is not necessarily a byproduct of the cosmos, and the planets not being in the line, and the perfect constellations being aligned, or whatever. What is it? It's God's judgment because of the fact that Ahab is obviously troubling Israel. They're not getting down to the spiritual matter of the situation. The spiritual matter is the fact that they have wicked leaders. Israel's behaving wickedly, they're worshipping false gods. And when they take care of that, when they repent of that, then the rain will come. And so what is the application that we can gather from that? We need to stop looking to political leaders to fix spiritual problems in America, right? And I know a lot of people don't like to hear that, but this is a Baptist church. This is not a Trump Baptist church, okay? This isn't Trump Baptist church, this is a fundamental Baptist church. And I'm here to remind you that in order to solve the spiritual problems in America, God's people have to get right with God. God's people, those who proclaim the name of Christ, should depart from iniquity. They should call upon the Lord to heal the land, okay? And stop looking to political leaders to solve these problems. Now obviously, you might have a politician, you might have an Obadiah. I don't really know if any of them exist today. Obadiah was a pretty good guy, but I doubt that there's an Obadiah out there. And if there was an Obadiah politician, he would not be voted into office. You know, Ron Paul is not going to be the President of the United States anytime soon, okay? And even him, I don't really know what he's all about. I just know he's like the best out of all of them, okay? But even then, we shouldn't depend on Obadiah, as I'll get into in just a bit. And so, we see that Ahab, instead of really addressing the issue, getting right with God, making sure that he calls out unto the Lord, instead he tries to get practical with it, and seek out food and water, and of course he's telling Obadiah to do so as well. Look at verse number three. Another thing that we can point out here is that the majority of believers will rely on anyone but God for aid sometimes. Especially in a time of need. Look at verse three, it says, Which was the governor of his house. So we see that Obadiah, as I mentioned, is a man who fears God. He is a man who obviously believes on the Lord. And in an era when Jezebel is literally killing believers, because they're believers in the Lord, she's killing prophets of God, he takes a hundred of them and hides them and feeds them with bread and water. He said, what's wrong with that? That sounds like a good deal. Just kind of hide and just eat bread and water and kind of depend on the governor to kind of feed you and protect you. Well, at the end of the day, who would you rather be? The hundred prophets being hidden by Obadiah or Elijah, who's being protected by God. Now, the numbers speak for themselves, because the vast majority will rather go with Obadiah. Let's just be honest. The vast majority of Christians today in 2023, instead of standing for righteousness, instead of just standing on the Word of God, would prefer to be hidden by Obadiah and be fed by the government or be protected by the government to just allow the government to institute laws that favor them. Whereas, we should just be like Elijah and say, you know what, I'll be in the midst of the fight and I know that at the end of the day, God's the one who's protecting me. Now, I'm not here to criticize the hundred, because at the end of the day, they are essentially part of those 7,000 prophets who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Now, where the other ones are at, I have no idea. And the only reason we know of them is because God says it in chapter 19 and then later on in Romans chapter 11, that there were 7,000 prophets, or excuse me, 7,000, not necessarily prophets, but 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal. But notice that he doesn't name them. And it's possible because they're not really doing anything. You know, there's Christians today who may agree with us. There are Christians today that agree with the Word of God. They believe in the doctrines of the Bible, but they're not necessarily going to take an open stand on it for fear of persecution. Right? And so, you have these types of Christians who would rather depend on the governor, Obadiah. Now, today, in the day and age in which we live, we don't really have that choice. And the reality is this, it's good because we have a really wicked governor, Newsom, okay? And I don't know if we have believers who depend on Newsom for religious rights. I mean, there might be, I don't know, okay? If there is, I mean, they have to be a pretty bad Christian to depend on him. You know, when he's inviting the China man, you know what I mean? I don't know, what do they call him? President of China? Dictator of China? What do they call him? What do they call him? President. Whatever. Okay, the President of China. And he's like cleaning up the streets of San Francisco, showing full well that he could have just done that even if the President of China didn't come. He just removed all the bums and got rid of all the needles and got rid of all the trash, all because his guest was going to come to San Francisco. Removed all the sodomites. You know, but obviously he doesn't do it for his own people. Okay? And so, you know, thankfully we don't necessarily have an Obadiah to depend on because you know what, if an Obadiah existed today in 2023, there would be a hundred with him being fed by him rather than depending upon the Lord. And what I'm saying here is that we need to make sure that we as Christians rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ, rely upon God for our needs, for our wants, for our protection, for our provision. There's nothing wrong with Obadiah, but I think the star of the story isn't the hundred prophets. No one leaves chapter 18 saying, man, I want to grow up and be one of the hundred. Right? No one's like, man, I want to be just like one of the hundred being taken care of by Obadiah. Okay, being fed bread and water in a cave. Sounds so exciting. No, they walk away wanting to be like Elijah. Because Elijah is obviously a man of great faith who is depending upon the Lord. It says, Look at verse 13. So he's essentially explaining to them, you know, he's explaining to Elijah, hey, you know, I fear the Lord. I've hidden these prophets. But then simultaneously saying what? That he fears Ahab. Because, you know, later on in the story, he's worried that when Elijah says to him, tell Ahab that I am here, he's like, oh, man, he's going to kill me. Because what's going to happen is the spirit is going to take you away and I'm going to bring Ahab, you're not going to be here, and he's going to kill me. He's like, I'm fearing. But just remember that I fear the Lord. Well, which one is it, Obadiah? Do you fear the Lord or do you fear Ahab? The reality is this, he fears Ahab. Because if he was fearing the Lord, he wouldn't care what Ahab thought. He wouldn't care what they did. He would have obviously done the right thing and not have feared man because the fear of man bringeth a snare, the Bible says. Let me read to you from Isaiah chapter 30. And again, you know, I'm not saying Obadiah is a bad person. I'm just saying he's not the type of person that Christians should rely on. Okay? And that's important because today Christians do put a lot of faith in politics. They put a lot of faith in laws. They hope to maintain their freedoms. But really, we've had these freedoms all along. And you know, who are you going to vote in during the Great Tribulation when all your freedoms are completely stripped away? Not a single one. Okay? And so is that going to impede you from preaching the gospel? Is that going to keep you from going out and witnessing to people and getting people saved and taking a stance for God? Of course not. Why? Because those rights were given to you prior to even your so-called American liberties being provided for you in the first place. Okay? Isaiah 30 verse 1 says, Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel but not of me, and that cover with the covering but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin, that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. What is God saying here? He's basically saying Egypt's going to disappoint you. So you can place your faith and your confidence in Egypt and depend on Egypt to provide for you, to take care of you. And you know what? They might even do it for a season, but ultimately Egypt will be your confusion. Ultimately they are going to disappoint you because at the end of the day God never intended for God's people to rely on governments, to rely on politicians to take care of us. And you know what? That is the sin of the old IFB my friends. Because the old IFB relies on politicians greatly to favor them in all areas of life for their ministry because they want to have it easy. They want to be able to preach whatever they want. Not like they preach anything controversial anyways. But in order for them to say gay or something, in order for them to say Trump and not Biden or something they feel like they have to be careful every time they speak and so they want a Republican, they want a right wing conservative in the White House for their protection. And you know I don't really care who gets voted into office because it doesn't really affect me at all. You know next year you say who are you hoping gets into the office next year? Well just for entertainment sake I would say Trump. You know it's just more entertaining, it's just a lot more fun. You know he's a little wild and who doesn't like an entertaining person to watch? Not to say that Biden isn't entertaining though. He's very entertaining, very meme worthy and you know he's created a lot of you know just a lot of fun for us as far as he's almost not a real person. Some of the things that he's done these last four years is just incredible. You just kind of wonder like is this real? Or is this person made up? But here's the thing is that you know there's Christians out there who you know they're depending on 2024. These last four years have been hell for them. But I'll be honest with you these last four years have not been hell for me at all. He said but didn't you get bombed at the beginning of Biden's term? Yeah and our church grew because of it. We take that as a blessing. God takes a curse and turns it into a blessing. And our church was bigger, it's bigger now than it was during Trump's administration. You know and so I don't really care what happens, I don't care if Ahab takes over and I don't really care if Obadiah takes over. Because at the end of the day my king is God Almighty. He's the one that's going to take care of us. And you know if Biden remains in office or something happens to him and Kamala takes over or something, Jezebel takes over. You see those parallels that God makes there? You know let's say she just takes over. Well you know what? Praise God because it's going to cause right wing conservatives to wake up to get into church. It's good when just God removes the confidence of this world, the shadow of Egypt from God's people so they can put it back on God. And stop depending on the orange man. You're like, oh man what do you think of DeSantis? DeSantis needs to stop wearing heels. Stop trying to be taller and just be content being Zacchaeus, amen? And so you know but you know if Biden stays in office I think it'll be great because of the fact that Christians will start placing their trust in the Lord. So what if Trump takes over? I think that's great too. Because yeah then you know you have a Republican in office. He does favor Christians. And the thing is what I'm saying here is that we basically win no matter what. Because ministry just continues as it was. It doesn't affect our soul winning. Oh yeah but you're in California man. You got you know you got the Chinaman coming over there. I didn't see him. I was like in the north. You know and people have this delusion my friends. And it is a delusion. Christians across the nation have this delusion about California that is just a complete hell hole. And everywhere you turn it's just homos and roaches and needles. It's just like commie-fornia or something. As they're sweating like five pounds of sweat every single day because of the weather that they're in. You know hiding from gators and all this other stuff. But they're under that delusion and it's just not true. And you know I have people contacting me all the time criticizing California. And you know they tell me these things just like but at the end of the day I tell them like how does how has that affected me though? Like in what way has this negatively affected me, my family, or my church? In no way. It hasn't affected us at all. Anything that they change, anything that they do only affects the political parties. It only affects those who pay attention to the news. You know I put out a meme about these right wing conservatives and it was like a costume meme. It was like what does it come with and some of the statements that they make. And it was just like yeah I saw that on the news the other day. It was like oh yeah there's those people there or something you know. Because they automatically think that it's just like wicked people are just rampant throughout these streets or whatever. And I'll tell them like well I'll just be honest with you like I hardly see sodomites where I'm at. Even in June I hardly see sodomites. I don't even see pride flags. And I promise you they do not believe me. Like that's not true. I'm like I live here. And they're like on the other side of the world or the other side of the country and I'm like I live here I promise you I haven't seen it. And they're like no no I saw it on the news. And it's just like well why are you just adhering to the propaganda? And so a lot of that stuff is nonsense. And in my opinion and I'm not into politics at all. But in my opinion if we're to just talk about politics I would say that California is probably secretly red. I'll be honest with you. There's probably a lot more people who are conservative and Republican in California than people who think that there's just a bunch of – Yeah but what about L.A.? Well duh Hollywood. Yeah of course San Francisco. Yeah of course Dallas and Houston. All the major metropolitan areas, cities will always have liberals and sodomites and weirdos in those cities. But what about outside of those cities? I mean Orange County is not necessarily like that. What I'm saying is you can avoid all that by just not going with Ahab or Obadiah. Just go with God. Go with the third party. It's like are you right wing Obadiah or are you left wing Ahab? And it's just like I'm with the third party which is God. It was the only party that really matters anyways. And you know again Obadiah might be a good guy. But at the end of the day you know he is a politician and he's not necessarily getting his orders from God because he's still fearing. He's still afraid. He's hiding the prophets of God which is really weird if you think about it. You know like if I was one of those hundred and you know by fifties in a cave I would sit there and be like this is not God's will for my life. What am I doing? I'm a prophet of God and I'm hiding in a cave. You know let's go join Elijah out there and make it count. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17 verse 5, You know when you depend on man no matter how good that man is you're still going to find something to complain about. Because you're not going to see when good cometh. And whereas when we depend on the Lord everything is always good. We're just always enjoying whatever season we're in because we're involved in the spiritual battle. We're not necessarily concerned with who's in office, who's the governor. It doesn't really affect us at all. And so don't be like the man, the cursed man who's trusting in man. He's making flesh his arm. And the Bible says who's hard departed from the Lord. And I would see that in the old IFP where it was such a big issue to make sure you're voting in the right person. But simultaneously just like Obadiah they would also say the hope for America is not in the White House it's in the church house. It's like then why are you making such a big deal about who's getting voted in? I'll tell you why because a lot of these times these churches are filled with Obadiahs. Look at verse 16. Another point that we can make here is that the world will always push the narrative that God is the problem. Look what it says in verse 16. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him and Ahab went to meet Elijah. And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him, look at this, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? It's like what? Elijah's not the one troubling Israel. Ahab and Jezebel are the ones troubling Israel. He answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou in thy father's house, and that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Balaam. Oh it's always these fundamentalists. These fundamentalists pushing their Bibles and their Bible doctrines. And you know that's the problem with America today. They're trying to push their morality down our throats. You know what? The last time I checked we weren't holding Bible studies at public libraries. Right? Whereas you have these drag queens doing that. You have Sodomites trying to push their disgusting filth down people's throats day in and day out. The last time I checked Christians weren't trying to take over Disney. And trying to Christianize all the Disney movies. You know let's change, you know, what Disney movie, give me a Disney movie. Let's change The Lion King into being, let's call it The Lion of Judah instead. Since he's the real king. The last time I checked, you know, Christians aren't just at the front door of Disney just trying to change Disney to Christianize it. But you know what? Sodomites do that. So what are you talking about? You know the problem is thou. You're the problem. Not us. Christians in fact are the ones who should be accredited for preserving this land. We're the ones who are keeping God from judging this place. From destroying America, from destroying California and the rest of the other states. Because of the fact that we're starting churches, we're preaching the gospel, we're getting people saved. We're not at the doorstep telling you to accept our lifestyle or death style. We're not at the doorstep trying to convince people to see things our way. We're at the doorstep trying to get them to get saved. And once they refuse that, we move on to the next. We're not at public schools. You know, I know there's people who want to get God back into the public schools, but these institutions are of the devil and they started off that way. That was the intention to begin with. To create laborers for the factories. That's what it was for. And you know what? Christians aren't necessarily at the public schools trying to Christianize the public schools. Yeah, but you're out there preaching the gospel. Yeah, you know what? When you don't want it, we go somewhere else. Whereas you, if we don't like what you say, you bomb us. You protest. You throw lawsuits. You know why? Because of the fact that you're wicked and you're the one who's troubling Israel, that's why. And so what we see here is that the world will always push this narrative that God is the problem. It's these fundamental Christians that are the issue. They're the problem. Pushing down their morality down our throats. Oh, sorry for bringing morality to a nation. Sorry, but not sorry. Sorry for pushing godly marriages to have children, to love your wife as Christ also loved the church, to obey your husband, to raise up godly children, to have functioning members of society who improve a society. Sorry, but not sorry. How has sodomy improved the nation? Other than by bringing AIDS into it and destroying it. I mean, think about that, folks. It's not us who's troubling the nation. We've never been the problem, but that's the narrative they're constantly pushing. And obviously Elijah's not falling for it. He's not like double, you know, oh man, am I the issue? You know, obviously he's Ahab's problem. But, if anything, it really depends on if Elijah wants the rain to come or not. Because he can pray and ask God to keep the rain or to bring the rain. But, you know what? This is the narrative that's always going to be pushed. And it's important for Christians to recognize that and not be delusional into thinking that the world and our country and our nation will ever be in favor of Christians. We're always going to be the enemy of the state. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 10 says this. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 4, if you would. And then we're going to go to the book of John. But hold your place there in 1 Kings. If you have a pen or a piece of paper, go to these pertinent scriptures so you can look at it for yourself. You can wake up a little bit. I know it's getting darker later. So, you know, you get a little sleepy. So, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse number 10. The Apostle Paul speaking here in verse number 10 says, We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ. We are weak, but ye are strong. Ye are honorable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. And labor, working with our hands, being reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we suffer it. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made, listen to this, as the filth of the world. What does that mean? The world looks at us and says, you're disgusting. You know that blue hair thing? The overweight blue hair thing with the stuff on her face, with the puberty blockers and, you know, the testosterone razors. I don't know what they call them. They look at you and your marriage and the fact that you're living a godly life and they say to you that you're disgusting. And why is he saying this? He doesn't think he's the filth of this world. He's just saying, what is the narrative of the world? The narrative of the world when it comes to Christians is that we are the filth of this world. And are the off scouring of all things unto this day. What is the Apostle Paul saying? You know, it's a little reality check here folks that the world is never going to be in favor of Christians. They're always going to think the worst of us. They're going to think, oh man, oh you're getting married at 19? What are you crazy? Go fornicate. Have children everywhere. Live your best life now. And maybe when you're 40, maybe, then start settling down. But no, you try to have a godly marriage at the age of 19, it's just like, oh you're like the filth of this world. You're one of those fundamentalists. Oh, you're trying to have more than 2.5 children? You're like the filth of this world. You're like the off scouring of this world. And what's funny is that, you know, and let me say this, is that the people who believe this narrative aren't necessarily the problem. Because obviously they're just deceived. But you know, they believe that narrative and they'll look at people like me for example. I've got five kids. And they're just like, oh man, you're just, that's too many. How many of you have been ever told that? It's just like, that's just too many kids. But when they see us in public, they're just like, wow. What a beautiful family. What well behaved children. Or they just honor us for having just a lot of kids. And you know, if ever we go to a restaurant or go to the grocery store together, we're kind of like a site. Because we go somewhere and they're just like, first of all they look at the babies, then they go through the older kids. And then they look at my wife, and you know, not right now, but typically they look at me and they're like, oh she's pregnant so there's another one coming. And then they kind of scour at me, they're just like, this Mexican. Can't believe this Mexican, you know. But then they see how well behaved the kids are, how respectable they are, how I don't treat my wife like trash. How we actually enjoy each other. How we like, you know, hold hands and do things that like married people do. And then they're just like, actually that's pretty nice. And they start realizing that the narrative that the world pushes is actually stupid. Because of the fact that, you know, the woman who's 39, 40 years old, the cat woman. Right, who's not married, she's just still clubbing, going out, clubbing, going to Egypt, taking a picture in front of the pyramids. Of whoever's like walking behind her with a camera, with some cheesy song in the background, you know. Some reel so she can get like 100,000 views on a reel or something, because she's traveling the world. That reel is not going to count for eternity. And in fact if you just turn the camera just slightly to the left or slightly to the right, it looks like trash. And you don't know how many times they had to take that picture or that video, because that's not reality. You know there's women online that are just like, you know, all people criticizing me because I'm 39 without kids, I'm still living my best life now. No you're not, you're miserable. You are miserable. You're a miserable woman because you know that no man wants you. And the older you get, no man's going to want to marry you. So you know what, you have to push that narrative. You have to push this narrative that you're happy and that you don't need a husband. You don't need no man, you don't need any kids, because no one's going to want to marry you. No one's going to want to have kids with you. So you're kind of forced into that narrative. That's why you own like six cats. Marry young, my friends. Why not? Marry young, have a bunch of kids. Spend your life serving God. And you're like, well you know we can't have kids. Well you're married though. And you have a wife, you're in church. What you have is still better than the 39 year old cat woman. The cat woman. Okay. Because that's the narrative that they push. And they look at us like, oh that's disgusting. Oh your wife stays home? Oh she cooks for you? Not just because she does everything. She cleans my laundry. She even like rolls up my socks, like all of them. She folds my shirts. She cleans my laundry and my kids' laundry. She makes all the meals. And she cleans the house. And when I get home, Hey, just so I can be more of an off scouring to this world. Just so I can be more filthy to you. When I get home, you know what my wife does? She makes sure that the kids are ready and prepared to receive dad when I come through the door. And you know what I get received when I come in? With a big old kiss. And they take my bags and they hang them. And my daughters come to take off my shoes. You know they have me sit down and sit on my lap to give me hugs and kisses. Oh that's filthy. Yeah to you, you 39 year old childless woman. Who nobody wants. You know you just want to fornicate all the days of your life. But you know what, once you hit 50 you're going to regret it. You're going to regret it. And I'm not talking to people who can't have kids. I'm talking to people who choose not to. Who choose not to get married and choose not to have kids. Because they just want to, you know, sow their wild oats and live a wild life. You're going to regret it later on. It's a stupid thing to do. Don't believe that narrative. The world's always going to say, oh it's you guys who trouble society. What do you mean we're keeping society alive by having kids? You're killing society. With your negative zero children, you're destroying our society. Because if we followed your way of doing things, our country would not exist in the coming decades. Because you're not having any kids. So us Christian Mexicans are trying to help that by having a lot of kids. We're the reason why this society is going to live. Not just live physically but spiritually because we're also getting people saved. And so don't believe the narrative that Ahab is pushing. Oh you're troubling Israel. Be like Elijah is like, no you're troubling Israel. The fact that you're pushing this fornicating lifestyle. This MGTOW lifestyle. Because the 39 year old cat woman, the antithesis to that is the 39 year old dude as well. Who also refuses to get married. And also refuses to have kids because he just wants to live a party life as well. He thinks he's going to be on a yacht at the age of whatever. With a bunch of playboy bunnies or something like that. Living with champagne bottles. No you're going to be on the street. You're going to be living with your mom. That's what you're going to be doing. That's going to be you. Get married at a young age. Amen. Gio get married. He's going to be married at 19. In his teens. I mean if I had my choice I would have done that for sure. I think that's great. But you know the world's going to tell you that that's wrong. I'm sure you've had people who you know personally that have told you you're crazy. Because that's how the world is. They see it as a filthy thing to do. But it's not a filthy thing to do. It's a blessing. And you know what? When people get older. And let me say this. My wife has run into people like at the grocery store. Different shops. And they'll often express. They'll look at her kids and they'll admire them. They'll often express. They'll say, the only regret that I had is that I didn't have more kids. That's what they'll say. Because when you get older you get wiser. And you realize you know what I made some mistakes when I was younger. And so we see that there. Let's go back to 1 Kings chapter 18. Look at verse 19. We're going to look at Elijah drawing the line here. It says in verse 19, Now therefore, send and gather to me all Israel and to Mount Carmel. Now that's so funny about Mount Carmel. It's like I've literally seen two churches. One here by Newport Beach and the other one in Belize. Of Catholic churches called Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Which is the only so-called lady of Mount Carmel is Jezebel. But you know Catholics they just... That's definitely a Catholic thing to do. Saint Bael. Saint Beelzebub. I wouldn't doubt that that would exist for sure. Now therefore, send and gather to me all Israel and to Mount Carmel. And the prophets of Bel are 450 and the prophets of the groves are 400. These are the weenies here which eat at Jezebel's table. 450 are prophets of Baal but then you have these prophets of the grove who are 400 who distinctly are referred to as those who eat at Jezebel's table. Now this is all speculation but I would say these are probably apostate Israelites who were won over by Jezebel. Because I think there's a connection here between this and Revelation chapter 2 where the Bible talks about Jezebel, at Thyatira. And it says that she calls herself a prophetess and she has taught her servants to commit fornication and eat things sacrificed unto idols. So I think there's a connection with this and obviously there's an end times connection to that that I can talk about after the service but it's outside of the scope of the sermon. But we see here that there's 850 total, 450 prophets of Baal and then those of the grove. And one thing that we can learn from this because these are two separate groups. You have the prophets of Baal and the prophets of the grove. And one thing that we can extrapolate from this verse is that all religions agreed together except for Christianity. So what is the difference between Orthodox and Catholics? There is no difference. Just in the name. They're the exact same thing. Orthodoxy and Catholicism are exactly the same. They wear the same gay dresses, the weird looking hats. They worship false idols or icons or whatever you want to call it. The difference is between the prophets of Baal and the prophets of the grove. But they basically are both worshipping Satan. And the third one of course is Christianity which is what essentially Elijah represents. Obviously the term Christian or Christianity wasn't used in the Old Testament. But it's the religion of God's people of the Old Testament is obviously the true religion in the Bible. He says in verse 20, So let me make one more statement regarding verse 19. Is that Elijah is obviously outnumbered. Right? You have 850 false prophets and he's the only one. So according to the world standards it would be like oh Elijah you're wrong then. Because look at all these people who agree. Together are they 850? Oh look at all these people in your comments section that are telling you you're wrong. Look at all these criticisms that you're getting. But hold on a second Elijah is right and the 850 are wrong. So what that tells us is that the majority is not always right. The majority is not always right. And it doesn't matter if you have 850, 1,000 or 5,000, 10,000 people who are against you. At the end of the day if you're siding with the Bible you're right and they're wrong. Because the majority of the time is wrong. They're the multitude who have deviated from the way. They're just kind of going along to get along. And so just because there's 850 and there's one of Elijah doesn't mean that they're right. It just kind of shows that the majority of people just kind of go along with whatever narrative is being pushed. And that's who they'll follow. So you have 850 false prophets but then you also have just Israelites who are following them. So these Israelites are just, they don't really know what to believe. They're kind of going along with what the 850 are doing. And so this is why Elijah comes and says, Why halt you between two opinions? He says, If the Lord be God, verse 21, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. You know why? Because they don't really know what to believe. They're just kind of like, I don't know. And this is how the majority of Americans are. They don't really know what to believe. See what they've got to do? They need someone to tell them what to believe. And they need someone to show them the truth of the word of God, to tell them what is right, what is true. And basically tell them, look, here's the two religions, God's religion and everything else. What about Buddhism? Buddhism is basically Catholicism because both of them will take you to hell. What about Mormonism? Jehovah's Witnesses is the same thing. Same dumb religion. It's just that that one is more readily accepted as being a cult. Like even unsaved people know Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult. You know what I mean? Unsaved people will get deceived by Catholicism. They won't necessarily label it as a cult. We know it's a cult. But if you were to talk to them about Mormonism, they're like, Oh yeah, for sure that's a cult. Because there's certain cults out there that just don't even do a good job. At, you know, trying to essentially display themselves as a Christian sect or something. You know, they're just obviously a cult. They're false. And so when we talk to people, we're essentially helping them to make a decision based upon those two. Christianity or everything else, right? Now look at verse 22. So he draws the line and he tells them, don't halt between two opinions. Choose who you're going to serve. Choose who you're going to believe in. And I love how he says that because he's basically not necessarily giving them a whole lot of options. And you know, there's Christians out there that do that and most of them are apostate. You know, you have people who, for example, elevate and command Billy Graham. And they think he's a man of God, but Billy Graham said that even Muslims, if they don't believe in Jesus, are still going to go to heaven. You know, obviously that guy's a false prophet. Anybody who says that salvation is through anything else other than believing on Jesus Christ is a false prophet. Now we can get into the degrees of whether they're doing it on purpose or not or they're deceived. But if you're at a level like Billy Graham, you're majorly a false prophet. Okay, he's a prophet of Baal. Billy Baal, right? Now when you're in Elijah's position, he obviously knows that he's taking a strong stance for God. He's doing something great here. He also has a tendency to embellish just a little bit too. He has a tendency to exaggerate just a tad. Look at verse 22. Then he said, Elijah, unto the people, I only remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. So he's exaggerating just a little bit. Because later on in chapter 19, we'll see that there's 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. It doesn't say 7,000 prophets, just 7,000 people, 7,000 men. And then we see that there's 100 that are being hid in a cave by Obadiah. So this isn't necessarily an accurate statement, right? But you can see why he would make such a statement because he's the only one out there kind of taking a stance. So he kind of feels alone. He's like, I'm the only one. I'm the only one of the prophets of the Lord that remain. You know, if I was in that cave, I would take offense to that and be like, screw this cave. I'm going out there. You know what I mean? Because he's not the only one. I'm here too. I believe in the Lord, right? They're just like, well, what did he say? Oh, dang. He said that? Man. You know? Now, here's an important point, okay? Because if we're not careful, we as a church can have this attitude too. Or it's just like, oh, our church, only our church, you know, are the prophets of the Lord. And every other church is just a reprobate church or something. Now, there's definitely reprobate churches out there. And when I say reprobate churches, I mean reprobate as in like homo churches. Okay? And in fact, you know, this happened about a year ago, right? Was it about a year ago? You know, Central Baptist Church, now they took care of this, as far as I know. But Central Baptist Church, which is in Santa Ana, I think, you know, they had a pastor named Pastor Gelkin. And this guy came out as being a sodomite. Full-blown sodomite. Now, they ended up replacing him and then someone else. I don't know who took over, as long as it's not him, you know what I mean? Just staying there. But you know what? That guy is a reprobate. He's a wicked individual. He's going to split a little wide open. He can no longer be saved. He's beyond the hope of salvation. He's using the office of a bishop to essentially, you know, take advantage of people. And so, obviously, that is the case. But you know what? There's other fundamental Baptist churches in our area, I'm sure, in California, I don't know of many, that are good churches and we're not the only ones. Okay? Never have this attitude like, we're the only ones with the right doctrine, with the right gospel, with the right end times prophecy. Folks, I guarantee you, there's probably some church in Southern California run by an old timer who doesn't use social media. He doesn't even know what Facebook is. He doesn't use Instagram or TikTok. And I guarantee he's probably preaching hell, fire, and damnation. He might even have beliefs that are just like ours, but we wouldn't know it because he's not on social media. But he probably thinks he's like the only prophet of the Lord. You know? But I guarantee you, there's other pastors in Southern California that are doing a great work as well because God is capable of working through other people as well. We're not the only ones. We never want to have this Elijah mentality that, you know, all other churches are terrible. This is the only great church. It's not true. Now, obviously, if I wasn't the pastor here, this is the church that I would want to go to, okay? I personally think it is the best church, but I have a bias, obviously, okay? But what I'm not saying is that this isn't the only great church. There are probably other churches out there who may not take a strong stance. You know, yeah, okay, they're probably hiding in the cave somewhere. Yeah, they're probably not bowing their knees to bail, but hey, at least they're prophets, okay? And so Elijah's embellishing just a bit. And in fact, you know what? If Elijah went to those caves and talked to those hundred prophets, they would probably say, yeah, Ahab is troubling Israel. They would agree with Elijah on like 99% of whatever he was saying. And you know what? If we talked to any of these pastors here, they would probably agree with us behind closed doors on 99% of the things that we talk about. You know, I had a pastor come recently within the last few months, starting a church nearby, and he started, I guess, what we would consider to be an old IFP church, but he said he agreed with us on pretty much everything. Now, he's probably not going to say that behind the pulpit, nor is he going to upload any of that. He's not going to upload a video talking about how he's in favor of us, but he told me he listens to the rod of iron. He says he's heard the preaching. He really likes the church, and he knew me by name, you know, and so, you know, he's a great, that's a prophet of the Lord, okay? And so what I'm saying is that, you know, we're not the only ones. There's some in the cave somewhere. There's other 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal, and in fact, when God talks about those 7,000 prophets, go to chapter 19, if you would, chapter 19, next page over, depending on how small font you have. Look at verse 14, it says, And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword, and I even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. So he's painting Israel with a broad brush. He's saying all of Israel has done this. Verse 15, The Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu, the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel. And Elisha, the son of Shaphat, of Abel Meholah, shalt thou anoint to be a prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass that him, listen to this, him that escaped the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him that escaped from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. What is he saying? I know you feel this way, but I'm just letting you know that I'm working on people behind the scenes. And in fact, these guys are gangster. Like these guys are down. They're down for the set, for sure. And look, we know for sure Jehu is one of them. Jehu, once his story rolls around, it's like one of the best stories ever. I mean, Elijah took out 450 prophets of Baal, but Jehu, like, I think it was more than that that he ended up killing, you know, when he brought them into, he's like, Ahab, serve Baal little, I shall serve him much, and then he gathers them all in there and he's just like, kill them all, and they just slay them all. And what is God telling him? I have these guys already set up in the background who are going to do just as great as works as you, if not better. They have not bowed the knee to Baal. And we will not say that Jehu is the guy who is hiding in a cave. Elisha is not hiding in a cave. Hazael is not hiding in a cave. These are guys who are going to do great exploits. So what does that teach us? It teaches us that somewhere here in California, God is also raising up another prophet. He's working through someone in someone's life right now. Right now, God is working through someone. It could be in this room. A great prophet of God who's going to do a great Jehu, the son of Nimshi, who's going to do something great. So never feel like, oh, I'm the only one. Don't say that because God's working and raising up other prophets as well. And for you to say you're the only one, you're basically saying that God can't work through anyone but you. Never think that. You know, one of your children might be a great prophet who will exist during the Great Tribulation. We don't know. What God is trying to tell Elijah here is just like, I'm working through other people as well. And just as much as you have a close relationship with the Lord via the Word of God and you're zealous for the Lord, you know what? God is also raising up another zealous servant for him in a generation to come as well. They will always exist. There's always going to be servants zealous for the Lord in every generation. Go back to chapter 18. Now Elijah is going to call their bluff. He says in verse 23, well, I won't read through all of this here, but basically what he tells them is like, you know, you take a bullock, I'll take a bullock. Set it up on your altar. And he tells them, you know, call on the name of your God and I'll call on the name of my God. And here's how we can tell which one is the right God. Whoever rains down fire from heaven. Now that's a tall order. Right? He's like, don't put any fire under the sacrifice. The true God will rain down fire from heaven. Now at this point, the prophets of Bel are probably, you know, super nervous. I was going to say something else, but you know, they're probably very nervous. Because they're just like, oh man, they've probably never done something like that before. But you know, Elijah, even though he's never done something like that before, he has a powerful God and he knows that God can make it happen. Okay? Now here's one of my favorite parts of this story. Look at verse 27. And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them. Now, what's going on here? Well, the prophets are just like, you know, they're calling upon... They're just crying out for Baal to answer them. And from morning up until noon, I mean, that's a lot of crying out. And at the end of verse 26 it says, but there was no voice, nor any that answered. They're like, Baal! It's just like crickets. 850 of them. Is my mic going out? There's like 850 prophets and just like crickets. And they leaped upon the altar which was made and they're just doing everything they possibly can to try to get Baal's attention. It's not happening. So verse 27, it came to pass that Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud, for he is a god. He is either talking or he's pursuing or he's in a journey or prayer or adventure. He's sleeping and must be awake. So what is he doing? He's just like, hey, maybe you need to do it a little louder. Maybe he's taking a nap. Maybe he's taking a vacation. Now he said, why do you like this? Because this is justification for mocking false prophets today. I don't care what anybody says. That's not very Christ-like. Are you kidding me? I mean, I don't see anywhere in this narrative, in this narration here where the Holy Spirit is like, but the Lord disapproved of Elisha's mocking. Because there is instances in the Bible where the Bible will say something like that. You think of when David committed adultery and he murdered Uriah. It said at the end of the chapter, but the thing which David did greatly displeased the Lord. So it's not like God is just kind of restrained from saying anything here. He put that in David's story because he wants us to know that he doesn't approve of that. But he put this here as well because you know what? It is a mockery. Because worshipping false gods is stupid. It's clowns. They're all clowns. You look like clowns on that altar. You guys look stupid. Why don't you cry a little louder? Maybe your God's taking a nap. Maybe he's taking a vacation. And I'm sure that just really pissed off the prophets of Baal, too. And he's provoking them. He said, what is the modern version of this? Memes, amen? Memes, my friend, is the great way to mock the false prophets. You say, oh, that's not very Christ-like. No, you're not Christ-like. You're not Christ-like because you don't win people to the Lord. You don't know the word of God. You probably reject 1 Kings 18. We come in the spirit of Elijah, amen? And you know what? If Elijah was here, he'd be laughing at our memes. He'd be hearting my memes. And he would be putting an emoji of a skull. Because we both agree, both Elijah and I both agree, that Joel Osteen's a false prophet. And so we come in the spirit of Elijah. He's like mocking them. Look at verse 28. And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets until the blood gushed out upon them. Now, false prophets are often known for cutting themselves in the Bible. This is why the Bible forbids tattoos, markings of the body. This is a heathen practice that those who are pagan worshippers would often do. So, I mean, think about this. From morning till noon, all the way up until the evening, and they're cutting themselves, blood is going all over the place, and just crickets the entire time. I mean, what do you think Israel's thinking at this point? Like, this looks really bad for Baal. It came to pass, verse 29, when midday was passed, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice nor any answer, nor any that regarded. Let me read to you from Psalm 135, verse 15. I love this passage when dealing with idols that says, The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes they have, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not. Neither is there any breath in their mouths. Listen to this verse right here. They that make them are like unto them. So is everyone that trusteth in them. What does that mean? Well, you know, basically it's saying that these idols are dumb. And, you know, they that make them are just as dumb. Spiritually and physically dumb. And so, how stupid do these false prophets look, jumping on the altar, cutting themselves, and just nothing's happening. Okay. Let me read to you another passage here. Jeremiah chapter 10 does not talk about Christmas trees. People will use Jeremiah 10 to talk, to say, Oh, you know, that's wicked, using Christmas trees. There's nothing about Christmas trees here. Just because a sentence uses the word deck. All of a sudden it's just like, oh, Christmas tree. Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain. For one cutteth the tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workmen, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold, they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not. They must needs be born, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. For as much as there is none like unto thee, O Lord, thou art great, and thy name is great in might. In other words, he's saying these idols are lame, because they have to be, when he says they must be born, he's saying like someone has to carry them. One of the funniest memes that I've ever seen is like, you know, a Roman Catholic carrying the Virgin Mary during a flood. It's like, isn't this your, this is, isn't your God supposed to bear you, not the other way around? You know, but that's how idols are, they must be born, they must be held, they cannot do evil, they cannot do good, they are dumb. Okay, look at verse 30. Actually, let's see here, let me skip some parts here. So, let me skip a couple of these verses here, because I'm out of time. What happens obviously is that he calls down fire from heaven, and obviously he douses, he saturates the sacrifice and the altar with four pots of water, basically twelve times. Okay, and so he's basically trying to make it physically impossible for it to be lit on fire, essentially proving that it's just a miracle of God, that it's even being lit up, right? So then the fire comes down, he prays unto the Lord, the fire comes down from heaven, it definitely proves that God is the one true God of Israel. Once he calls out unto the Lord, he calls down fire, and when the people see it, they fall on their faces and they say, the Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. It's like, well, duh. I mean, you should have known that before the fire came down. But, you know, thankfully God answered that prayer. Now, what's the principle that we can learn there? The principle of this is that, you know, we think of a man like Elijah and like, wow, what a great man of God. What powerful prayer. This guy just must be like a really great Christian, really great believer. But the Bible says that he's a man of like passions. He's a man just like you and me. And according to the Bible, you know, the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And the reason God even gave us that example of Elijah in the Old Testament calling down fire from heaven is to show us in the New Testament that you and I both have access to that same God through that same prayer. There's nothing necessarily special about Elijah because it says that he is of like passions with us. In other words, he's just like us. He suffers just like we do. And in fact, when you read the rest of the story, you see that he has some relapse in faith in God because he's running from Jezebel. You know, he's a man who struggled in his faith and failed in some areas. But at the end of the day, he definitely had belief in prayer. He had faith in his prayer, which is why God answered him in the first place. And so we should take a story like this to encourage us to pray and to pray consistently because the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. In other words, passionate prayer, asking God to answer your prayer fervently, works. Now, I don't think we should be calling down fire from heaven. Because we're in the New Testament, God didn't, you know, he's not here to destroy men's lives but to save them. And our job at this point in time is to save men's lives by preaching the gospel unto them, getting people saved. But you know, we have plenty of needs in this world that we need to pray for. And then lastly is this, is that the curse is removed when those who are cursing the land are removed. Look at verse 40. And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the Brook of Kishon and slew them there. And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up and eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain, the Bible says. So what did he do? As soon as he proved himself to be God's man and that God is the one true God, he had all the prophets killed. And as soon as they were all slain, according to Exodus 22 verse 20, where the Bible talks about, any false prophet who makes a sacrifice unto a false god should be destroyed, that's what the Bible says, then the rain could come. And so, you know, what's the principle there? The principle is simply this. Take away the dross from the silver and it shall come forth the vessel for the finer. And it's important that in order for God to bless our nation, we need to remove sinfulness from our nation. Obviously we can't do it in this manner as much as many, some of you would like to. You know, the way we do it is by getting people saved. And teaching them the ways of God, teaching them the ways of the Lord. What an incredible story. I love the story of Elijah that really at the end of the day shows us how powerful prayer actually is. And it's not a story that's in there by accident, it's trying to encourage us to say, Hey, you know what, I can call down fire from heaven if I wanted to, or I can just rain down blessings upon you if I wanted to. But it's all based upon what? Your fervent prayer. Okay, don't lose faith in prayer. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word and thank you so much for the story, Lord. And we're so thankful for the prophet Elijah and all that he did, Lord, his example. And we're so thankful how real the story is because we know later on he has a lapse of faith, Lord. And we know that as Christians we can also have lapses of faith where we are not as spiritual as we should be. But, Lord, help us to maintain the discipline of prayer and fervency in prayer as well. And, Lord, may we have the spirit of Elijah upon us where we do not succumb to the false prophets of this world and try to make excuses for them, Lord. Lord, they're serving false gods and we need to call it as it is. And you've commanded us, Lord, to not have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them. And so, Lord, bless us as we go on our way. Give us a great week to follow. We love you and we thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.