I’m going to show you how old I am, I remember going out to my uncles house when he bought a colored TV & seeing a show in color for the first time

I remember the milk man delivering milk in bottles to our insulated tin box

a computer was some space age idea

A microwave if it was ever developed, would give you cancer

a cell phone was in a James Bond movie

a rocket with men on it to the moon was some futuristic mad mans idea

if you picked up the phone, you might have to wait until people got done with their conversation & then it would be your turn

when we went to the store, bubble gum was a penny, candy bar was a nickle

I fell out the door of the car as mom went around the corner, because I was playing with the door handle & very few cars had seat belts & if it did, no one wore them

my first car had a 8 track tape but then I updated to a cassette player

times have changed to say the least

fact is, everything we remember has changed, cars, homes, trains, planes, clothing, phones

& there doesn’t seem to be many weeks that go by that we don’t see more changes

& some are so fast that what comes out today can be obsolete with-in a couple of more days

but there are some things that have never changed

God has never changed, he is still pure & holy

Satan has never changed, he is still as wicked & evil as he has ever been

& mankind has never changed, the sin that he chose in the beginning is still the same old sin that he is choosing today

you can read about things man did 100 yrs ago, & today he’s still doing those same things

some say, man has gotten so much smarter, no, not really

same stupid decisions that were made in the garden of Eden are still the same dumb decisions that are being made today

I look at the powers that be who think their so wise & the things their trying to change is some new revolutionary idea

but these ideas are as old as the world is, man has always been on a road to power & control the bible is full of examples of people on power trips

I Kgs 16: 30-33

we always hear about how evil Jezabel was, and we don’t hear much of how doubly evil her husband was also, what Ahab didn’t think of, Jazabel did

but isn’t true many times you have some rotten guy & he’ll meet some rotten girl & they’ll start to date & if they get married they produce rotten children

there have been many evil couples throughout history; Mr & Mrs Haman, Herod & Herodias, Ptolemy Dionysius & Cleopatra; Philip I of Spain & Bloody Mary

there was also several couples where the wife was the dominant one who had diabolical schemes

Catherine de’Medici & Henry – II Lucretia Borgia a daughter of a pope, lady Mcbeth & Marie Antoinette, but none exceed Ahab & Jezabel

Jezabel was the daughter of a king who was also a priest of baal, who murdered his brother

whats interesting about the name of Jezabel = unmarried which represented her marriage which wasn’t a romance, it was more of a business arrangement

same thing has been said about the Clintons, it was an arrangement to get to certain political positions

there are many women of the past and theres even more women of today especially in America who are masculine with strong intellectual powers who have a passion for evil

they are strong willed & have a dominant personality and little if any moral sense

Jezabel was that type of woman, she was hardened into insensibilty, she was the most wicked woman in history, bar none

not only did Ahab build alters to Baal but he set up groves or wooden idols to be worshipped which angered God

just a side note: we get our modern Christmas tree, from the pagan worship of Samarimus, his mother claimed that her son died and then was resurrected & so a pine tree was set up to be worshipped in his honor

Ahab & Jezabel were guilty of pagan worship & causing Israel to worship false gods also

but her & her husband are guilty of something else, that was the last straw for the Lord

Josh. 6:26

then go back to I Kings 16: 32-34

Ahab apparently gave the go ahead to rebuild Jericho, a city that God had commanded not to be rebuilt & so God sends in a prophet to confront this evil couple

God would have to have someone who is courages, it is always a difficult thing for someone to confront evil leadership

evil people are never alone, their empowered by Satan himself who leads them to do his bidding

I Kings 17:1

Elijah was one of the greatest prophets that ever lived, he knew first hand of how difficult and exausting it is to fight against evil people

& Elijah gives Ahab a weather report & says it won’t rain until he says so

can you imagine what Ahab & his evil twin must have thought when Elijah walks in & makes this announcement?

No one would dare talk to them this way, who does he think he is anyhow

but what made Elijah so brave? Was he born that way?

No God had to train him & give him the courage to stand up & speak for God

but God has had to always train his spokesmen, he took Abraham out into the rugged terrain, he took Moses out to the desert as well as John the Baptist

Paul spent at least 2 yrs in the Arabian desert, this has always been Gods way of teaching

he takes them out to the desert, a place where he gets you alone, a place of hardship to where you look up and place your dependance on him

vs;2-3

God sends Elijah out to the desert & he uses 2 methods to care for him, a natural & a supernatural way

but everyday the brook goes down as it begins to dry up

Elijah probly measured that water everyday and figured at this rate he would die of thirst in so many days

this is the sin of statistics, todays church is extremely guilty of committing this sin

most churches measure their success by statistics, if the offerings are good, if they’ve had new members, how many are in attendance, statistically shows if they are healthy or not

but thats not a true picture of a healthy church

a healthy church is measured by how much fire they have in their hearts for the Lord

there was a spiritual lesson here for Elijah, the brook could only give him water for a physical need

but only the real living water could satisfy his spiritual need

Jn. 4: 13-14

All of us have to drink water everyday in order to stay alive physically

but when we drink, or accept as our Savior the living water, we will never thirst again, we are eternally saved

Elijah learned that he was an empty brook, he didn’t have any living water in him, & the living water only flowed through him to be a blessing to others

every pastor should learn that we are an empty vessel and God flows the Word of God through us to bless you

its said that Hudson Taylor told young missionaries that they were nothing, and it is only what God can and will do through you that will be worth anything

all of us are nothing, just dried up brooks unless the Word of God is flowing through us

I Kings 18: 17-18

Elijah says I’m not the one troubling Israel, you are

Elijahs kind of preaching was easily understood, he didn’t mix his words, he said just what he meant, he said it like it is

people today don’t want the preacher to preach like that today, they want him to be politically correct & not political

they want him kind and mushy not truthful and tough

Just talk about Jesus and nothing else

we have a whole bunch of liberals today who are constantly blaming conservatives & Christians for division in our country

• church once held firm fundamental beliefs at one time, but who led the church away from its conservative foundation?

The liberal did

J. Vernon McGee was accused of leaving his denomination & he said he never left his denomination they left him when they left scriptures historic teachings

if you’ve been pating attention it is always the custom of liberals to blame all trouble on conservatives & the church and they are never to be blamed for anything

Ahab had the same liberal cancer flowing through his veins, he built alters and idols and passed laws that brought the morality to a new low and indulgence in sin to a new high

& whose fault was it? Elijahs

Elijah told Ahab you are the one who has forsaken the commandments of God, you are the one who has followed baalim

you are the one Ahab who has brought trouble to Israel because you have stuck your puny fist in the face of God

& isn’t that the same thing the liberals are guilty of today that has led America to the point of destruction?

But who do they blame? People like you and me

18: 29-30

what we need today is preachers who will call the people back to the Lord and rebuild the broken down alter between man & God

• Word of God has been broken down, man has tried to destroy it

our relationship between God and man has been broken down and needs repairing

there was once a measure of unity in our country because our country recognized the fact that there was a living God

it was written in our constitution and thats why liberals are attacking that and trying to rid us of it

there was a measure of unity because this nation believed that the bible was an authority to live by

but liberals began to cut up the pages of scripture and explain it away

I’ve heard all week that we need a new civility and we need to come together

what they mean is, civility will come when conservatives & Christians shut up & agree with us

we can come together as long as we all agree that our agreements are based on nothing

no authority of God, no biblical truth, & no constitution

there was once a man walking through the jungle in Africa when he met an elephant

• elephant said to him, where are you going?

The man said I am not going anywhere

the elephant said i’m not going anywhere either, lets go together

thats the only way you & I are going to get together with todays crowd, we will have to agree with nothing

we can’t get together unless we’ve got something to gather around, something that will hold us together

the alter was a place of unity, Elijah rebuilt it because Israel needed a place to once again to gather

& America needs a place once again to gather & that place is at the cross of Jesus Christ

man hasn’t changed, he’s the same old sinful person that he was from the day of the fall in the garden of Eden he needed a Savior then & he needs a Savior today