Prelude
Call to Worship Romans 10:17
Hymn JBC # 33 Lord, the light of Your love is shining
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 538 A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
Offering
Scripture 1 Kings 19:1～18
Prayer
Sermon “Take my life”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 504 My faith looks up to Thee
Doxology JBC # 673
Benediction
Postlude
The Old Testament book of Kings (1 & 2) mainly contains records of the kings of Israel.
The first king of Israel was Saul. Saul was found out by the prophet Samuel and became the first king of Israel.
After Saul, the throne was passed down to David and then to David's son Solomon. Affer Solomon's death, however, the nation of Israel was divided into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.
Records of the both kings of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah are recorded in the books of ‘Kings’ and also in the books of ‘Chronicles’.
In these records, we find not so much the good things that these kings did, but rather their disobedience to the will of God and their sin against Him.
Solomon, David's son, succeeded David as king, but his heart eventually abandoned the Lord God.
In Kings Ch.11, we read that Solomon had many foreign wives and that their influence caused Solomon's heart astray and turned his heart to other gods.
In Kings 11:6-7, we read:
6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.
7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites.
Also, in verses 9-11:
9 The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command.11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.
The Lord God said that He would divide the kingdom of Israel because Solomon's heart had turned away from the Lord God and he had betrayed Him.
The reason the nation of Israel, God's chosen people, was divided was because the kings of Israel, as well as the people, were attracted to things that were not God and bowed down to them.
If their hearts turn away from the true God, from the love and sincerity of the Lord God, such a nation will end up with nothing but to be divided.
And that shows that if even we believers as individuals, worship what is not God as if it were God, then each of our heart will also be in such an unstable state of being divided in two.
Psalm 119:113 states:
I hate double-minded people,
but I love your law.
The Bible tells us that there is only one God. And that God is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us pray and ask through prayer and the Word that only the one true God, the God of Jesus Christ, will always rule our hearts.
Let Jesus alone rule in our hearts and in our church, and let us be careful that anything that is not God may never occupy the important place in our hearts or in our church (lest our hearts and faith become divided).
Today's scripture is from the book of 1 Kings, chapter 19. A man named Elijah appears here. Elijah was not a king, but a prophet who took the word of God and delivered it to the people.
The books of Kings are mainly the record of the kings of Israel (up to the destruction of the kingdom), but they were not the center of Israel's history.
The center of Israel's history was not the kings, but the Lord God Himself. And the Bible records the important work of the prophets as well, who were entrusted with the word of God and delivered it to the kings and the people.
In today's scripture, Kings 19, King Ahab of Northern Israel appears. King Ahab was a man who became king in the 9th century B.C. He was king of Israel for 22 years.
In Kings 16:29-30, we read the following.
29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. 30 Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him.
It clearly states, "Ahab did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him”.
And Ahab had a wife named Jezebel. This Jezebel appears in today's passage as the central figure confronting the prophet Elijah.
Jezebel had defied the Lord God, served the pagan god Baal, and she persecuted and killed many of the prophets who served the God of Israel (I Kings 18:4).
The prophet Elijah, however, did not yield to Ahab or to Jezebel, and in Kings 18, the chapter before today's passage, we read of Elijah's confrontation with the prophets of Baal.
Elijah assembled a total of 850 prophets who served the pagan gods Baal and Asherah. These prophets served Ahab's wife, Jezebel.
Elijah won the confrontation with them. They (Elijah and false prophets) called on each other's gods and played a game: the God who answers by a fire on the offered bull would be the true god.
No matter how much the prophets of Baal cried out, no fire fell. On the other hand, the Lord God responded to Elijah's call, and fire fell on Elijah's offering, showing that the true God had responded to Elijah.
But all this did not change the hearts of King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, who served pagan gods.
And at the beginning of today's passage, we read that Jezebel sent a messenger to tell Elijah that:
19 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”
When Elijah heard those words of Jezebel, he was so afraid that he immediately fled (verse 3). Elijah walked for a day and sat down under a broom bush, and he prayed to God that he might die.
Elijah said, “I have had enough, Lord,” he said “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” (verse 4)
What was Elijah so afraid (or despaired) of that he wished the Lord would end his life?
Rather than fearing the strong power of Jezebel and Ahab or their threats, Elijah may have feared and despaired more of seeing Jezebel's hatred toward Elijah had grown to that extent.
Elijah may have believed that if only the true God could be shown in their eyes, then surely a person's heart would change and that person would repent and accept the true God.
But Queen Jezebel's mind didn’t change. Her heart became more stubborn, and her hatred for Elijah grew, until she said, "I will surely kill you by this time tomorrow.”
Elijah, who had believed in God and served the Lord passionately, now had his own life threatened.
He had been desperately trying to get by, but suddenly he felt like he had lost his way and was in despair.
We may find ourselves in similar situations. We might have worked hard for God, but one day, we suddenly feel like we have reached our limit even thinking “I can’t do it anymore. I'm at my limit.”
There may be times in our lives of faith when the circumstances and environment around us seem tougher and tougher for us.
When Elijah was feeling this way, the Lord spoke to him through His angel: "Get up and eat" (verse 5).
The second time the angel said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you" (verse 7).
Elijah was given bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. Elijah ate the bread and drank the water.
Before that, Elijah had been tired of it all and had no energy left. “I have had enough. Take my life" he had so asked of the Lord.
But the Lord told Elijah, "Get up and eat," and gave him food and water to drink.
When we, too, feel tired and overwhelmed, perhaps we, like Elijah, can say, "I have had enough”. And we may even think, like Elijah, "Take my life.”
The Lord is saying to Elijah and to us today, "Get up and eat," which means, "Live. You live.”
God is telling us “I will give you the food (daily bread) you need. Live your life to the fullest. I will give you what you really need, I will sustain you, and I will be with you.”
We hope to walk through the journey of life (the journey of faith), listening to His voice, which gently encourages us and heals us when we are tired.
In verse 11, the Lord told Elijah, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord”
There a powerful wind shattered the rocks. But the Lord was not in the wind.
After the wind came an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake either. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire either.
After the fire, Elijah heard a gentle whisper. That quiet whispering voice was the voice of the Lord God “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Elijah thought that when he confronted the prophets of Baal, the power of the Lord God was clearly demonstrated by the force of the fire that fell from heaven.
And Elijah would have thought he had overcome the prophets of Baal with the overwhelming power of God so clearly demonstrated.
But now Elijah realized that the true power of God is not found in fire, or violent winds, or earthquakes, or anything else that overwhelms people by its fearful appearance or literal power.
God's voice (God’s power) can only be heard (found) out of the stillness, when we listen with the eyes and ears of our hearts. From within the stillness, God's voice may speak softly (but surely) to us.
When we despair and think, "I am no good anymore, I have no strength left.” God gives us the strength by telling us to "get up and eat".
God's voice tells us that He gives us the daily bread we need and that we, as people, never live this life on our own.
God’s voice tells that our Savior, Jesus Christ, gave His life for us and is still with us and helping us to live.
Because Jesus still lives and is with us now, we too can always live in the life of Jesus Christ.
I will close today's message by reading Jesus' words from the second half of John 14:19.
Because I live, you also will live.
Remembering that we are blessed to be alive in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, let us live our days of faith this week and every day thereafter, listening the voice of the Lord in silence.
