Of course, we are continuing in our series that we started last week on the character of Elijah. It's not a book of the Bible, Elijah. Actually, you'll find Elijah's story in the book of 1 Kings, and we are gonna be in chapter 18. So if you have your Bibles, you wanna grab them, open them up in the Old Testament to 1 Kings chapter 18 is where we're gonna be picking up today. Again, if you're using the Bible in the seat back in front of you, that'll be page 322. Or if you want to use your digital device, you can download the YouVersion app. That's the one we kind of recommend. Lots of different study tools in that as well. And as we get going here, I just need to make a confession to all of you that I am a nerd. Actually, technically, I guess I'm a geek. There is a big difference, apparently, which we will not go into. But I am a geek because I really like superheroes. Growing up, I loved superheroes. Anybody else with me love superheroes growing up? Many of these superheroes that we have come to love today were actually born out of a time between the Great Depression and World War II because people needed a message of hope. They needed to know that the world could be okay, and to do that, writers created sort of people with these amazing powers, superpowers, but what about folks who maybe didn't even have necessarily superpowers but were doing incredible things? And so like, some of you right now are trying to figure out, who are these characters? These don't look like anybody I know. They are not anybody you know, but let's have a little fun this morning. Can we have a little fun? Is that okay? All right, my fellow geeks, I need you to participate with me. Which superhero, and it's just, you just shout it out, all right, if you know the answer, except a couple of you. I know you already know the answer, so give everybody else a chance, all right? So here we go. Number one, who is this? There we go, that's like a gimme, isn't it? That's like the test. Does anybody actually, if you didn't know that was Superman, I don't know what to tell you. I just don't know what to tell you. All right, now you can probably already guess the next one I'm gonna show you. Oh yeah, the Batman. Again, just a normal guy with a lot of trauma and a lot of money. I'm just saying, you can be a superhero that way. All right, how about this one? Yep, there you go. Some of you got that, Wonder Woman. How about this one? I love you people. Oh, some of you are my fellow nerds and geeks. That's the Green Lantern. He has a ring, it's charged up, he can create things with his imagination, the power of will. That was one of my favorites growing up. Okay, so I'm gonna switch genres. Some of you don't even know what that means, but go with me on this one. Whose symbol is that? Okay, a little more zealous on that one. Another favorite of mine growing up, loved that he could do that. I wasn't quite sure, but there was a lot of debate as to can he shoot it out of his actual arm or does he have to have the little mechanisms? Anyway, we won't go into that debate. And here's our last one for this morning. Captain America. So, and what I meant when I said we changed genres, if you noted the first four are DC and the last two are Marvel characters, and some of you have no idea what that means, and that's okay. Geek, all right? Love superheroes. Why? Because superheroes Again, they give hope. They tell us what's possible, right? We like to imagine. In fact, these superhero movies, right as of recently, have made blockbuster films. People love these super, not just action, but the storyline behind them. Marvel did a great job sort of incorporating a running theme through a lot of their stories. They're gonna try and do that again. The MCU, it's called, the Marvel Comic Universe, or Cinematic Universe, I should say. So, we love stories about this because there are certain traits that we see in superheroes that we either wish were possible in ourselves or that we would like to develop. Again, just because you didn't come from another planet. Doesn't mean you can't be a superhero. We see a couple of them right there. We got Batman, we got Captain America. I mean, there was a serum involved, but we'll go with it, all right? Let's talk about a superhero that we see in 1 Kings, and his simply, it is the name Elijah. And as we have this hero idea, is he really super powered? Yes, supernaturally powered, but as a hero, he is a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, and noble qualities, okay? If we can all just agree on that, and we're gonna kind of put that as a covering over our character today of Elijah. We are gonna be discovering some things that he did, three particular traits of heroes that I see that Elijah demonstrates. But here's kind of my big idea as we get started here. Everybody in this room, we're not all going to be an Elijah. In fact, there's a reason we're not all Elijahs. Elijah, while he's an amazing story in the Old Testament here in 1 Kings, we also see him referred to several different times in Old Testament passages. And Elijah's name even comes up into the New Testament. Every year that the Jewish people celebrate Passover, there's something called the Elijah Cup, so they are constantly reminded of who Elijah is, what Elijah did for God, but Elijah is a superpower to the people, right? That's typically what we see in these films, in the comic books, is that a superhero stands out among the people, but is always for the people, to protect them, to help guide them, kind of get them back on course or to defend them, as it were, from a supervillain, typically, right? Or at least the bad guys. So let's take a look at our story here as we have this. 1 Kings chapter 18, verse one. After many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, our main character that we started with last year. And in the third year of this drought, he says, go show yourself to Ahab. And here's what God says, I will send rain upon the earth. Let's stop there for a quick second. Just quick review from last week. Our main characters, Elijah, the prophet of God, and we looked last week, if you missed that, you can go on Facebook, see the video there, or go on to Sermon Audio, and you can listen to it as a podcast. We talked about total dependence, we talked about obedience. What is it that was the calling of a man of God? What's interesting to me about this is that what Elijah did as sort of our hero, our protagonist, he shows up to talk to Ahab. Ahab is going to be our villain in the story. We know that because back in chapter 16, it says that Ahab, who was like the 19th king in succession for Israel, this is a northern kingdom. I'm giving you a lot. This is like seminary level stuff, right? The nation of Israel is now divided into two kingdoms. There's Judah in the south and Israel in the north. Ahab is the 19th king and the Bible literally says that he did more to incite the anger of the Lord than any other king before him. Super villain. He has an associate with him. Her name is his wife, the Queen Jezebel. And Jezebel's the one that's sort of always whispering in Ahab's ear and getting things to go the wrong way. How do we know that she's bad? Because she's literally killing off the prophets of God, the prophets of Yehovah. She comes from sort of a Babylonian, Phoenician background, and she has incorporated the worship of other gods in Israel. So the people are allowed to certainly celebrate if they want. They can worship Yehovah, but they're also encouraged to worship, at this point, Baal and Asherah. They call them categorically the Baals, or Baal, and then the Asherahs. These are two categories, if you will. The Baals are the lords and the Asherahs are the goddesses. So gods and goddesses that she has used and influenced into the nation of Israel, the kingdom of Israel, into their place of worship. This is bad. This is causing compromise. And what's interesting is that, as we were talking about last week, when Elijah showed up He was not prompted by the Lord to begin with to speak to Ahab. He simply saw what was going on, and as a man of God, showed up and said, no rain. You're in disobedience to God, and there's a consequence for that, no rain. It's going to affect the economy. What's also interesting about this is now the Lord says, I will send rain, but here's what you need to understand. The gods that Jezebel had introduced to Israel, Specifically, one of them was Baal Hadad, the god of rain. And when Elijah shows up and says, no rain, and you have 450 prophets of Baal, Baal Hadad, they're trying to undo what one man of God has said. One man of God said, no rain, and the 450 of them, no doubt, were given instructions, but I'm just kinda filling in the blanks of the story, is that Ahab and Jezebel are going, you gotta make it rain. You gotta somehow get it to rain. Pray, pray, pray, make sacrifices. It needs to rain to show that Elijah is wrong, and to show that our gods are real. And this is where we're gonna pick up our story, because there is about to be a major confrontation. This is like the Old West. Right? My God versus your God. Let's see how it turns out. So Elijah is sent by the Lord after three years, it goes about three and a half, for the drought. I'm going to send rain. So Ahab saw Elijah as he's approaching and he says to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel? I love this idea, Elijah, who has no doubt, he's been hiding, we already looked at that, he was in this ravine and he was fed by ravens, he was drinking out of a brook, but now the brook has dried up and God has said, go, talk to Ahab. Ahab, our super villain, right? So just imagine him in all of those characteristics, right? The really needly nose, I don't know what he looked like, but really needly nose, the pointy chin. We have a way that we draw that makes him look sinister, so put that in your head, sinister Ahab, Well, if it isn't the Troubler of Israel. Right? Yucky. Oozy gross. He's calling Elijah the Troubler of Israel. And Elijah, I'm sure, is scratching his head going, wait, who's causing trouble for Israel? I'm pretty sure that was you and your wife have created the trouble for Israel. So Ahab calls him out as the troubler of Israel. And note what Elijah says, he answered, I'm not troubled Israel, but you have and your father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. You're following the wrong things. You have the wrong priorities. You have put this instead of. When we, as a nation of people, have known from the very beginning, we followed God. We followed Yahweh, Yehovah, however you're gonna pronounce that. We're not entirely sure, but I'm gonna go with Yehovah. All right, because we don't have the vows. That's a bigger topic. So we're going to follow Yehovah. In fact, he led us out of Egypt, out of slavery with a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud. He parted the Red Sea. Have you forgotten all of these things? Because you and your father, you started allowing things to come in and you're like the worst of the worst. Scripture records it. I'm not the troublemaker, you're the supervillain in the story. You're the one that's making it difficult for the people, but there is freedom to be had. Simply change your mind. Change your mind, which will change your attitude, which will change your actions. He's giving the King Ahab a chance. Change, be a good king, rise up and turn Israel back to God. Stop following these other things. It's interesting as we're gonna unpack this story, how Elijah will do that in this confrontation. And here's what I know is that every hero, including Elijah, they have a purpose, right? They know what their purpose is. And in this day and age and in this culture, we see a lot of folks who have sort of lost their purpose. They don't know what the meaning is for their life. They're simply... showing up to work to get a paycheck, to live for the weekend, they don't know what their real purpose is. Or some people have defined their purpose with other things. For instance, I want the purpose of my life to get more money, right? Fame and fortune become their purpose. That is not what Elijah's purpose is. And we see that here in 1 Kings chapter 18, starting in verse 19. Now therefore, send, this is Elijah giving instructions to Ahab, he says, send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, those are probably more like prophetesses, but anyway, that's the goddesses, who all eat at Jezebel's table. That's a lot of people at a party. That's 850 people who are consuming as religious leaders at the table of Jezebel, the queen. You see that this is becoming sort of the government, the state religion, as it were. They're allowing this to go on. So Ahab sent, this is interesting to me, the supervillain agrees, he sends all the people of Israel, gathered the prophets, and together they went to Mount Carmel. He knows what he has to do. Elijah has to prove that there is a God in Israel. And here's what he does, as he gathers the people up, Elijah came near to all the people and said, how long will you go, what does he say, what's the word there? Limping between. Wavering between undecided. There's an old saying about if you try to ride the fence too long, you get hurt because you didn't choose one side or the other, you just landed on the fence. That's what's happening is, oh, you can worship Yehovah if you want, but we're also gonna be actively worshiping these other things. And he's saying, how long are you gonna keep doing this? How long are you gonna be limping along? Because you're not really just pursuing passionately any one thing. So you're limping between these two opinions. So he offers this contest. If the Lord, that is Yahweh, if Yahweh is Elohim, that is high God, right? If he's the king of heaven as he says he is, if there is a God in Israel, if the Lord is God, then follow him. And then he does something interesting. He says, or, or in this case, but, If Baal Hadad is Elohim, if he's supposed to be the high king of heaven, then follow him. Which one are you going to put your faith into? Which one are you gonna passionately pursue? Which one are you gonna lead with your life? Which one is gonna give you purpose? Which one are you going to passionately demonstrate to the legacy that follows you? Are you gonna talk to them about how this Whatever you choose meant everything to you. And I want you to imagine for a moment, like, what your life is like. Because again, not all of us are gonna be the Elijah, but all of us fall into the category of Israel, standing at the base of Mount Carmel and going, oh, is God truly the Elijah? My king of heaven, is he the one I'm following? Or have I let other things sort of creep in? Have I allowed other interests, like coming this summer, right? Because I'm just talking about movie trailers, right? Coming this summer, Bob is looking for a brand new job. He's hoping to get more money, more money, more money. Climbing the corporate ladder, will he sacrifice his family, or will he make a different choice? Find out this July, right? Or how about coming this summer? Sheila wants to know if she can get a brand new car. Yes, this one's paid off, but she's got her eye on something sportier. Will she get it? Okay, we have an answer, yeah. Appreciate the feedback, thank you. Sorry, Sheila, that's not your movie trailer. What are you pursuing? What are you investing in? What are you sharing with those around you? Is this the biggest thing that you're pursuing? Is it outside of God? And there's nothing wrong with a good job and a nice car. There's nothing wrong with those things. But when those become the pursuits, when I'm investing in just always trying to get more fame, more fortune, all of the little things that are sort of inconsequential to life, I have lost my first love. This is what Israel was always told and taught by God was to follow the path of righteousness. And that was what they had in mind is that righteousness meant following the right way. That is toward God, pursuing in all things. If I have to make sacrifice, but I never compromise. Everything should be in the framework of what is God's best for my life. And Elijah is calling out the people saying, we are the people of Jehovah. We are not the people of Baal Hadad. We are not the people of Asherah. This is our God to whom we owe everything. He created us. He called us out as his people. He brought us out of slavery. He gave us a land. He has given us kings, good or bad, but he gave us King David, yay. But everything else you're doing right now, you're pursuing all the wrong things. He's approaching that to the people of Israel. And no doubt, King Ahab and Jezebel are going, you don't like this. I don't like his narrative. It doesn't fit with the state-sponsored religion. Here's what also I know about heroes, and Elijah's no different. They face incredible odds. Incredible odds. It would seem, and it's always one of those things, as you watch those films, or you read through the comic books, or you're reading even the story, the protagonist, it just keeps escalating until you hit the climax of the story, where it's just this war, right? It's the face-off between good and evil. And that's the story that we see here with Elijah on Mount Carmel. He and the prophets are all there, so you got 450 prophets of Baal. They've got their altar set up, and Elijah's gonna set up his altar. So here's what he says, let two bulls be given to us. So this is the sacrifice, one for you, one for me, two bulls. Let them choose one bull for themselves, which is interesting to me that Elijah's allowing them. You're gonna bring two bulls, I'll let you pick. I'll let you pick first. All right, so they pick, they get to pick their bull first, and they cut it into pieces, lay it on the wood, but do not put fire to it. I will prepare the other bull, lay it on the wood, and put no fire to it. Then you call upon the name of your God, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire He wins. He's God. That's it. I'm going to help you to decide. No, not just about, you know, you're limping along. I'm going to help prove it. Oh, if only this were like a thing that we could do today, right? Because if you know how the story ends, wow, that would be cool. And we're going to, we're going to gather over at McCurdy Park and we're going to make a sacrifice. And I'm just saying, it's going to be amazing. Everybody in Watson's going to go. There is a God in Owosso. Yes, there is. He is God. And all the people said, or answered, well-spoken, like as in agreed, that's fine, because that sounds weird, right? They're gonna have, okay, it's a face-off. Who's gonna get their altar, or their sacrifice consumed by fire? That sounds pretty cool. So here's what happens. In verse 26, they took the bull. This is the prophets of Baal. They took the bull that was given to them, prepared it, called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, or Baal, answer us. And there was no voice and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. So they're crying out. This is hours and hours and hours that they are crying out, crying out, crying out, and it's crickets. And the people who are watching this have to begin to wonder, well, that's not good. I wonder how Elijah's gonna fare. So at noon, Elijah, I love this, the ESV says, mocked them. King James doesn't say it quite as mean. Elijah starts mocking them, cry out louder, cry aloud, cry aloud for he is a God. Either he is musing, that is, he's thinking about something else, he's distracted, he can't hear you, or he is, I love this part, relieving himself. Maybe your God is in the bathroom. Needs a little private moment, right? Close the door, don't let the cat underneath the door, you know, all that kind of stuff, right? He's relieving himself or he's maybe on a journey. He's just not even around. You got to wait for him to get back. If you send him an email, you're getting an automatic response. Sorry, I'm not available. Please check in. Call the zero for the operator. Right? There's none of that. Or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened. This seems to be the one that really got them riled up. Because if Baal is asleep, which we love what scripture says, that our God never sleeps. His eye is always on us. He's not one you have to wake up. And you don't ever have to fear that I'm praying to the Lord at night. Oh, am I infringing on his nap time? No, you don't ever have to worry about that. This is the one that seems to kind of rouse them up. So they start really getting into it. They start dancing around even stronger. They actually start to cut themselves. They're mutilating themselves. This is part of the Baal Hadad worship, is if you really wanted to show your sincerity, then it required blood from you. So they would cut themselves, they're dancing around, all the rest of it, and nothing happens to their altar. There is no fire. So Elijah says, well, my turn. I'm going to put my altar together. So he literally rebuilds. There was an altar there previously. He rebuilds with 12 stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel. He builds an altar. He puts the wood on it like you would expect. And while he puts the bull that has been cut up and ready to go, he puts that on top. Pretty standard sacrifice, right? Okay, you guys have the same thing. He says, hang on a second. I wanna just, I don't know, push it a little bit further. Let's bonus level this. Let's take this to the boss level. Here we go. I'm also gonna put some water on it. This is in the middle of a drought! He takes a jar, probably like you would see it here, about this big. He wants this jar of water taken from a spring that's nearby. It's not coming from a brook, it's coming from a spring. In this area, Mount Carmel's too far for them to walk from Israel to get water all the time, but it is a water source. He's like, I need you to get water and I want you to pour that over my sacrifice. With a bucket of water, saturate the bull and the wood, the stones, all the rest of that, right? They're like, oh, okay, that seems fair. Oh, yeah, by the way, I also want you to dig a trench around my sacrifice, around the altar. Just dig a big moat so the water, if it runs off, has some place to collect. Okay, fine, okay, but also I want you to do that with four barrels, not just one. What? Okay, that's a lot of water, bro. Yeah, I know, you know what, I kind of changed my mind. Do it three times. 12 canisters of water. So he's got these people working, hauling water up from the spring, dumping it on there. It is just splashing everywhere. Water has filled this moat around the altar. And that is when he says, yep, I think we're ready. Notice what he does here in verse 36. And at the time of the offering of oblation, that is the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, Oh Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, the other name for Jacob. Let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me that the people may know. This isn't just for me, this is for everybody else. I know your God. I'm the one who's challenging these prophets of Baal so that the people might stop limping along, might stop investing their best efforts and all their resources into the wrong things and to call you God, that they may know, oh Lord, our God, that you have turned their hearts back. This is amazing, he's got this dripping wet sacrifice ready to go. He says this prayer, and I want you to note, it says that he was answered immediately. I'm showing you this picture because the trustees voted down on my pyrotechnics. They're laughing back there, because we had the whole thing about, well, what if I'm in budget? They said, no, no fire on the stage. It would have been cool, I'm just saying. So I have to show you a picture. Yeah. So imagine the same God who led Israel through the wilderness with a pillar of fire at night. There's like this aerial orbital strike from heaven. Elijah's like, I pray that the people would know. And I'm just gonna walk over here. Okay, God, do it. That quickly, not from morning till noon, but in the evening sacrifice, Consumed and note what it says here. This is all of this the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood that makes sense Keep in mind. It's soaking wet it also Consumed the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench everything That's how hot the fire of the Lord is. It came down, consumed everything. Scorched earth is the only thing left. You got a big black crater and Elijah goes, ba-da. Who is God in heaven? And when the people saw it, because they have been forgetful. They know the story of their coming out of Egypt. They know what God has done in providing for them. They know the stories. And he says, the people saw it, they fell on their faces, that's repentance, that's humbling themselves. And they say, they agree with Elijah, the Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God. What does that God mean? We lose that because in our language, we just use that for like a capital G, it's just the divine, right? It literally is the Lord. Adonai or Yahweh, Yehovah, there's different translations. He is Elohim. He is, He is, He is, He is. He's the answer for everything. When he talked to Abraham or Moses, I'm sorry, in the wilderness and said, this is my name, I am, dot, dot, dot. I'm everything you're ever gonna need. I'm everything that you could ever hope or want or dream of. I got it covered. You are my people. I am your spiritual heavenly father. I will guide you, I will direct you. But if you disobey, there's gonna be consequences because that's what happens with parents. When we choose to go the wrong direction, parents sometimes have to come along and lovingly put us back on track so that we know what we're supposed to do, how we're supposed to live, so that we might have, as Jesus said, abundant life. He is God of heaven. He is High King, all of creation. And the third thing I know about superheroes is not only are they facing those incredible odds, but they are part of a great cause. Every hero knows I have a responsibility because as Uncle Ben told Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility. I love you guys, we're so nerdy. Great responsibility. And Elijah is saying, I'm a man of God and I have access to the high power king of heaven. With that comes responsibility to help people understand who He is, why He loves them, and how we then should live. That is a great cause. We today are part of a great cause. This is what Elijah knew from back in the Old Testament before he arrived on the scene. Deuteronomy, this is the the book of the law in Deuteronomy chapter 13. If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, let us then go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. This is Deuteronomy, this is the law being given to the people that even if they do miraculous looking things in the name of a false god, Don't follow the God. In fact, he goes on to say, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him. And that's not just, I mean, I often hear it said, well, fear is just like a healthy respect. Yeah, he can send fire from heaven. I'd be afraid. I mean, you think about in terms of scripture, every time an angel of the Lord shows up, what's like the first thing that they say? Don't be afraid. Why? Because they're freaky weird. Okay. Here we go. You walk with the Lord, you fear him, and you keep his commandments and obey his voice. You shall serve him and hold fast to him. Elijah, it's challenging. Please come back. Stop limping along. This is what we need to do. We come back to God. You've seen his power, and what's wonderful about this is it raises up the people. They see that Yahweh is High King of Heaven, and they take the prophets of Baal, 450 of them, and the prophets of Asherah, and they are eliminated. Big victory. And yet, as we're going to see in the next couple of weeks, Elijah struggles with that. There's so much that he puts out, so much emotional energy that he puts out, that he actually falls into depression. We're not going to talk about that this week. We're going to talk about that in a couple of weeks. But here's our bottom line today. is that when it comes to Elijah, he is standing on a platform before all of these people and he is boldly proclaiming, this is what it's all about. Bob Conway says it this way, you may be the only Bible that some people read. They will never, maybe yet, have not ever broken open the binding of Scripture. They might know a couple of Bible verses. We talked about this in the very beginning, that most of our country, we're running into that over 50% consider themselves to be post-Christian. They maybe know a couple of Bible stories. If you say, do you believe in God? Well, I know about him. But that's about it. They're not living for him. And our lives, like Elijah, are before the people and saying, look, I know there's a God in Israel, and I know that lots of people are following all the wrong things. They're investing their time, talents, and energies into things that will burn up in the end. They are not worth it. The only thing that we can take with us into the next life are the other relationships that we have. inviting them to know who God is. Sometimes your life is the only Bible that some people will read. And then to comment on that, I thought this was nice, Gypsy Smith said, you are the fifth gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and you. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Tim. I know there's already a book of the Bible called Timothy, I get that. You are a fifth gospel person. Are we living as fifth gospel Christ followers? Do we stand up and let our story be one that talks about and shows the very power of God? Yes, but also shows His love, His forgiveness, His mercy. His compassion, His joy, His understanding. We demonstrate in our very own lives all of the wonderful traits that God is and brings up in us as we follow after Him. So that's my challenge for us today, is that while Elijah was a superhero for God, he stood against those incredible odds, and maybe you will have that opportunity someday to stand before others, but bottom line it, let's look at all the people of Israel who saw what the king was doing, who saw what Elijah was doing, and decided, you know what, I'm gonna stop limping along between two opinions. I decide today, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. If you are chasing after anything else, my friend, I am gonna tell you that you will find it to be empty. You can have some of those things as you pursue God first because it will help you to prioritize. And then it brings real meaning to that. And if you're here today and you've never made a decision to follow after Jesus, you don't necessarily live as a Christ follower, meaning that I say, I confess with my mouth, Jesus is Lord, I believe that he was the one and only begotten son of God who died on the cross in my place to pay for my sin so that I might be reconnected with God the Father in family, that I might be adopted and sealed. If you've never made that decision, then I would love to show you how you can know from the word of God that you have a brand new transforming opportunity today. Not something you have to wait on, not something you have to be on your deathbed to make that confession of faith, you can do it today and put your life on a brand new trajectory. It will make all the difference in the world and then we begin to live lives like Elijah. There is a God in Israel. His name is Yehovah. His name is Jesus. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for guiding and directing us by guiding and directing Elijah. Father, he became so notable that his name is constantly mentioned throughout your Word. And Father, while we might not have opportunity to do what he did, We can make the decision like the people did and say, you are God, you are my God, and I will forever follow you. We ask that you would just bless us today in that, that you would lean into us so that we might know your presence by your Holy Spirit. And we ask it in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen.