I think it's a reality that when things go wrong, we have that deep need to ascribe blame. I think actually in theory, it's reasonable for us to ascribe blame at times because it means that we believe that we are moral agents who ought to be held accountable for our actions and when appropriate, for the damaging circumstances, right? If no one's accountable, then there's no law. If no one's held accountable, there's no reason to hold anything as being a problem. The drunk driver. who causes an accident ought to pay for the damage caused. The careless builder who doesn't build correctly should pay for the repair to make it right. The drug dealer ought to be punished for the ruined lives that he has brought about. A civil society has to have a system of accountability for irresponsible behavior. I think that's a principle of just being created in the image of God. But have you noticed how quickly we let that get out of hand? No one wants to take responsibility when things go wrong. If it appears that I am in some measure to blame, what do I do? That's been happening since the Garden of Eden, right? The woman you gave me, she made me do it. We shift blame. We want to throw it off on somebody else and that's what we've heard this entire political season. Blame shifting left and right, doesn't matter red or blue, doesn't matter what party you are. It's just been off the chart all the time. Responsibilities for life in this world are not things we want to take sometimes when things go wrong. The drunk driver will have an excuse. The crummy builder will blame his workers. The drug dealer will insist that if the users, it was the users who ruined their lives, not them. They just provide what they ask for. Think about it. Responsibilities for the troubles in life are usually complicated, and it also usually involves more than one party. I think we need to be aware of those things. In our litigious age, by the way, that has given rise to a wonderful legal profession, right? They can make a lot of money. It's also given rise to political parties and political candidates who live off the tax dollar as they throw rocks at the other party and the other candidate. We've just endured a long season of that. We're going to have about an 18-month, two-year respite, and it's going to start all over I love our system of government. I hate our political process. But I will tell you this too, my cousin makes his living off of that. My cousin works for the GOP and he makes his living by sponsoring candidates and by advising candidates and does that on a national level. So, you know, I kind of have mixed feelings about that myself personally. I guess if you were to think about it in a real way, there's an extreme version of the blame game and that's really where I'm headed this morning. Frequently, you and I blame God for our troubles, don't we? When it gets down to the truth, when it gets down to the core issues, we don't want to take responsibility. We don't really even want to necessarily throw responsibility on someone else. We want to say that if there's a God and He's all-powerful, and if that God is all-loving and all-knowing, then we kind of think He's accountable. He's got a lot to answer for, doesn't he? I mean, we simply think that sometimes it's impossible to argue that God is good. And in our view, that if God is good, then we can blame him. We can't blame him for the bad that happens. But if he isn't good, we can. Belief in God sometimes is seen as a reason for the atrocities that take place in life. I bring all that up, I talk about all that this morning with you because it's really what was happening in Israel. In the days of King Ahab, who was king of Israel, who was one of the descendants of David, that's exactly what was happening. They were blaming God for what was going on. God doesn't care. God's not engaged with us. God doesn't provide for us. God is... That's where we enter into the text this morning. There's a terrible drought that's taken place. The word of the Lord has been removed from the people of Israel and they are under God's judgment. Ahab has been a wicked king. He has done whatever he could do to deny Yahweh the living God. He's allowed his wife to bring in We account for 850 Baal prophets right here in the text. Prophets of Baal, prophets of Asherah. So they've brought in a new religion, if you will, a new secular age, if you will, into the society of the covenant people of God, and they've shoved the Word of God aside. That's where the society and the world was in King Ahab's day and in Elijah's day. And because the word of God had been removed, what did God do? God pronounced a famine on the land until Elijah prayed for rain. At the point we pick up chapter 18, we are three and a half years into that famine. Okay, so where we pick up reading this morning, it's dry, it's dusty, the world is shriveling, it is brown, it is miserable, there is death around everywhere you look. The streams and the lakes and the rivers and everything else have gone dry. The situation is desperate, people are dying, and King Ahab has a plan to save the livestock. Let's read the first 19 verses of chapter 18. This is the Word of God. 1 Kings chapter 18. This is the inspired Word of God. In other words, what I mean when I say that is that God breathed these words and because God breathed them out they have life for us. It is inerrant. It is true. And it is for us today. It speaks where we are. Let's give careful attention to the word. 1 Kings 18, 1. After many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth. And so Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. And now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. And when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water. And Ahab said to Obadiah, Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive and not lose some of the animals. So they divided the land between them to pass through it. Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself. And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. And Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, is it you, my lord, Elijah? And he answered, it is I. Go, tell your lord. Behold, Elijah is here. And he said, Have I sinned that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me? And as the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my Lord has not sent to seek you. And when they would say he is not here, he would take an oath of the kingdom or the nation that they had not found you. And now you say, go tell your Lord, behold, Elijah is here. As soon as I have gone from you the Spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where. So when I come and tell Ahab that he cannot find you he will kill me although I your servant have feared the Lord from my youth. Has it not been told my Lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord? How I hid a hundred men of the Lord's prophets by the fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water? And now you say Go tell your Lord, behold, Elijah's here, and he will kill me.' And Elijah said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.' So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. And when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. Let's pray. Father God, I ask you this day that you would, by the work of your Spirit, help us to hear what Jesus is teaching us today. Oh, Father, help us to see Christ in this text. Help us, Father, to understand the events And not just to see and to hear and to learn, but Father to take to heart and to take home with us the lessons of grace that are in this text. I pray in Jesus' name and for His sake, amen. So when we dropped off in chapter 17 last week, we left Elijah having healed the widow of Zarephath's son. Now the son was probably a little one, probably a, you know, one-year-old, two-year-old, probably a little more than a little, you know, not a kindergartner yet, we'll put it that way. Day by day, since we picked up in chapter 17, God has provided that miracle of grace day after day after day. The flour, there's been just enough. The oil, there's been just enough. Every day God has provided for their physical needs. And life's kind of rocked along. It's kind of almost, I'm going to say, gotten to be mundane, gotten to be the regular thing that happens all the time. A little boy that Elijah prayed over, bowed his body over three times on the bed in that upper chamber in the widow's house has grown up a little bit. He's at least a kindergartner age, OK? He's three years older. He's two and a half years older than he was when we dropped off the page last time. So there's a little gap here is what I'm telling you between chapter 17 and 18. The widow had been convinced that Elijah was a man of God. She had seen her son healed. She had seen her son brought back to life. She was convinced that Elijah was trustworthy and that Elijah carried the word of the Lord. Now you need to understand something here. What's Elijah doing with the widow at Zarephath? Why is he with her? Why is he living in her house? Well, because he'd gone to Ahab at this point where we pick him at 18, three and a half years before. And he said, because you have denied God, God is going to remove His Word from Israel. And Elijah being the very representation of the Word of God had gone and hidden himself. First he hid at the brook in Cherith and now he's gone into Baal land, 90 miles away from where he'd been in the first place for the first probably six months, maybe a year. and he's living in Zarephath in this widow's household hiding from Ahab because he represents the Word of God. It means that God has taken his word, his prophet out of Israel and removed him into a pagan land because Israel has been disobedient. God is working and he's removed the Word of the Lord from the people of Israel and now here we are three years later there's drought. God's punishment, God is showing that He is God. And the text says, after many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year. And he says to Elijah, go. Put yourself, place yourself before Ahab. Three years, six months have taken place, and we know that because Jesus and James both make reference to that idea in Luke 4, 25, and then in James 5, 17. Three years of drought. Three years of drought of the Word of God. The Word of God is like rain in a very real sense, but this is a very real physical drought that's going on. No dew. No morning moisture. You know, when you get up in the morning to come to church on Sunday mornings, the window on your vehicles, the exterior of your vehicle is covered with dew, isn't it? You actually think to yourself, well, I guess I'll run the windshield wiper so I can see the back out of the driveway so that I can, you know. We get used to that every day. No dew. No rain. Well, we in Florida, we see rain, don't we? We see a lot of rain this year. I love that Thrill Hill has a new lake down at the bottom of the hill. I don't know if you've noticed that. The lakes and the water table is pretty high right now. Three and a half years. Not a drop. No moisture. No rain. Daily Grace has continued to provide for the widow, for her son, and for Elijah. Elijah's remained hidden from Ahab, but everywhere else in the world was in major disaster. These are dire days in the land of Israel, in the land of Canaan where the false gods of Baal and Asherah rule, where they reign. You see what God is doing is with that massive drought He is pronouncing Baal impotence. Asherah, who is supposedly the mother of Baal, who was supposedly the fertility god. Basically God is saying Baal is incapable, he is impotent. He cannot do for you what you expect. No fertility, no rain. You know, and if Yahweh, if God, if the Lord had given rain again, just simply given rain then what would have happened in the land of Israel? What would have happened in the land of Canaan? Can you just imagine? Put it in the context of our nation, okay? If suddenly there was a major change in our world today, what would everybody just in culture generally say? Oh, well, you know, things have just recovered. Things have been rejuvenated. Things have just returned to normal. You know, it's just a cycle of events and just a normal thing. Well, that's really part of what's happening here, I think, in our text. If Yahweh had simply given rain again, they would have blabbered about Baal, and they would have said, well, Baal just got over it, you know. Maybe Baal had a sinus infection for a while or something, you know. Maybe we've just been rejuvenated. So before I think it's safe for Yahweh to send rain, Baal has to be clearly has to be publicly, has to be obviously, decisively, in living color on national prime time has to be discredited. Bail has to be shown for who he was not. That's really what's happening in our text here. And so extreme measures. Yahweh sets the stage for Baal's exposure as a non-god so that no one with a clear head would think that rain comes from Baal. Or so that no one with a clear head would believe that Baal is actually a god. Yahweh has to make it painfully obvious for human beings They're probably not that much different than me and you. God's at work. The word of the Lord directs Elijah back to the land of Israel toward a climactic, not climactic, but climactic, gotta get the right syllables and the right vowels in the right places for a major confrontation. The word of the Lord takes the form of a command and a promise to Elijah. The command, go show yourself. We haven't heard anything from Ahab since, in the text, since Elijah announced the drought in 17-1. We've not been told how he responded to the catastrophe, but we get it here, a little bit of it here in chapter 18. So there's a command, and then there's also a promise. I will send rain upon the earth. That's what the Lord says. A momentous promise. In other words, God's going to give life, God's going to save from death, He's going to send rain. Things are about to change. It's been clear from the beginning that the drought one day would end. Elijah, when he first spoke about the drought, had said that the Lord would end the drought. But what's Ahab been doing since day one, three and a half years ago? What's he been up to since then? Well, the text gives us a little insight into that, doesn't it? It says that Ahab has been sending out emissaries all over the world looking for the prophet Elijah. Because he's got plans for Elijah. He's got an intention for Elijah. He is going to squeeze out of Elijah the promise that rain will come again if he can find him. And so Ahab sends out emissaries to all the other nations and he makes the nations tell him, no he's not here, we've not seen him, we don't know who he is, we don't know where he is, and he has sworn himself against them. He's organized an international manhunt for Elijah. It's been on APB, an all points bulletin, and he's not been anywhere to be found because God has hidden his word from his covenant people. Now God's sending Elijah back into that scenario. Obadiah, by the way this Obadiah in our text here is not the same one who is the prophet. This Obadiah is a man who lived in the days of the kings, who lived under Ahab's rule. He was Ahab's number two guy I guess you could say. He was like Jacob to Pharaoh in so many ways. He was number two in the kingdom. Ahab wanted to make sure that none of the nations had given Elijah asylum. You've got to know Ahab's plan was — I know Ahab had ideas in his head. He's going to wring that commitment to reign out of Elijah and then he's going to kill him. That's the plan. It's got to be his plan. He's going to put him to death. But the Lord didn't give Ahab that satisfaction. It wasn't going to be on Ahab's terms that Elijah came back. In fact, it was going to be on God's terms, Yahweh's terms only, and Elijah would show himself to Ahab. And there's an importance in that difference there. And it's also important that he chose to use Obadiah to be his emissary, if you will, to reintroduce Elijah to Ahab or to present Elijah to Ahab. And we'll get to a little bit more of that. I'll try to unpack that a little bit for you in just a moment here. But we need to understand that it's going to be on God's terms, not on King Ahab's terms. The prophet is not going to answer the summon of the king who so despised the word of God. Instead, it would be Ahab who answers to the summons of the word of God. be delivered through a believer who was a political aid in Ahab's kingdom. I love the discussions that I read the last couple of weeks as they talked about Obadiah and who Obadiah was, and it's really the second point in my outline, if you will. There's a lot of discussion about Obadiah. He's kind of the the enigma of the Bible in so many ways. He was an overseer in King Ahab's household, but he was a believer. He was actually a prophet in his own right I think. He was at least a believer we can say. And what happened he had done is he took great risk for himself working for a wicked king who was known to be a murderer of God's people and anyone who followed after Yahweh. Known to be married to Jezebel who had murdered all the prophets that she could find. He had secreted away a seminary load of prophets in two caves. He had a cave full of 50 over here, and a cave full of 50 prophets tucked away, so there were 100 prophets tucked away, and he provided for them daily bread and water. He's meeting their needs just like in a very real way God was meeting Elijah's needs, just like God provided at the brook Cherith, just as God has provided in the widow's home there. Obadiah is an enigma. He works for this wicked king but He provides for these prophets. He's hiding these prophets and yet He works for the most vile king that Israel has ever known. And the question was asked as I read all the commentaries and everything I read this last few days. How can a genuine saint of God be so closely associated with a wicked man like that? You know It was really kind of fun to read. And some of them wrote him off. They said, look, this Obadiah guy, he's just a compromiser. He's a poser. He's not the real thing, you know. And others call him courageous. This guy's a hero. This guy understands what his calling was. And I think there's something of truth in both of those things. And I think Obadiah actually is a character that we can kind of understand a little bit because it's more like we are. I think, first of all, you need to understand that he was a politician, but he was also a believer. He was serving in a very strategic place, and he was using the best that he had in a dangerous job to honor God and to be a strategic voice in a wicked household and kingship, to the point that he even put his life on the line. He knew that Jezebel of Killie, if she found out, that he had tucked away a hundred, now think about that, a hundred prophets. You have to expect, if you think about it, if you know the context of things, that when Obadiah meets Elijah on this road as they come face to face with one another, you would have thought Obadiah would be happy to see Elijah. But that's really not the case here in the text. And I think Obadiah's protests really reveal a lot to us here. Obadiah had to know that only the appearance of Elijah could bring about water, could bring about rain, could bring about the return of the word of God to the people of God and end the suffering that was caused by the drought. Obadiah had to know those things were true, were real. And yet, when Elijah comes, not happy to see Elijah at all. In fact in verse 8 he protests pretty greatly here. You know, it is I, go tell your Lord, behold Elijah is here. And he said, how have I sinned? What did I do? Why? Why are you picking on me? You know, why do I have to do this? He launches his protest. Ahab will most certainly kill me. Ahab has looked for Elijah and if Obadiah suddenly announces that Elijah's here, Ahab's going to think that Obadiah's been hiding Elijah with those other prophets in one of those caves somewhere and he just hadn't been coming clean. And Obadiah's life is over. That's what Obadiah's thinking. Obadiah's thinking, you have got to be kidding me. I am not going to do that. How have I sinned that I should give your servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me?" And then he's saying, not only do I think you're joking, you just don't know Ahab like I know Ahab. You don't know Jezebel. You've never seen Jezebel before like I've seen Jezebel. Have you seen her when she's angry? You better look out. Obadiah tried to protest Elijah out of using him. He reminded him that he had done all that he had done for hiding the prophets, but Elijah was undeterred. Elijah was speaking the word of the Lord. Elijah was the Lord's prophet. Elijah had the authority of the living God upon himself. Obadiah was to be the means to the end of presenting Elijah to Ahab. And so when Obadiah saw that Elijah was not going to budge, he went, put Obadiah's sandals on for a minute. You know you're going to die. But you also know that you've got to go to Ahab the king and you've got to tell him that Elijah's over here. And you can see him here. You can meet him here. He goes with dread. He goes with fear. I'll bet he's broken out in a sweat. I'll bet he is trembling. I'll bet he's thinking to himself, well, this is it. I am done. So he went and he told Ahab. This is where Elijah was. And by the way, part of the objection was, Elijah, if I tell Ahab you're here and then you don't show up, then, you know, it's curtains for me again that way too. And Elijah reassures him that he will not go away. Obadiah actually became the representative of the believing remnant that was left in Israel, I think, in a very real way. I think that's theologically what's going on. That's why Elijah considered it so important that Obadiah be the one to introduce him to Ahab. I think Obadiah represents us in a very real way. The summons to Ahab through Obadiah, the Word of God, pressed the believing remnant into service. I think there's a lesson to be learned in that. Let me just make the quick application out of that. Secret discipleship will not avail in the struggle against sin in this world. Secret discipleship. Oh, I'm a believer, but I don't talk about my faith. It won't cut it. That's not who we are called to be. Maybe you have an area where you need to make application in your own life with that. I don't know whether it's in your family, I don't know whether it's where you work, I don't know whether it's in your neighborhood, I don't know where those applications might be for you, but secret discipleship is no discipleship. So I think Obadiah represents the believing remnant. I think Obadiah is a great model for us in many ways, and also he's a positive and a negative, OK? That's what I'm saying to you this morning. So, all right, let's move through the text quickly. In verses 17 to 19, the gauntlet hits the dust. I mean, the gauntlet is thrown down. Soon after, trembling Obadiah goes to deliver Elijah's message to blustery Ahab, they encounter one another. OK, the first words out of Ahab's mouth are what? They show the condition of his heart. Is that you, O troubler of Israel? Blameshifter, right there. There it is. There's where the Word of God shows a blameshifter again. Elijah, we wouldn't be in drought if you weren't the troubler of Israel. Ahab was correct on one point, there was trouble in Israel, but it wasn't Elijah's fault. It was him. Ahab was the source of the problem. Ahab had led to a removal of the Word of God, a denial of the Word of God, and because of that they are under judgment under God. Elijah let him know that in no certain terms he was responsible. The king was to lead the people in covenant faithfulness to God. Covenant faithfulness is the way to prosperity for a nation. Learn the application here. As we are faithful to our covenant God, God blesses our nation. I don't care who's in the White House. I want someone who reflects my views and my morality and my ethics and values for sure. But you know what? Covenant faithfulness is what I want more than anything else. Elijah let him know. The stupidity of Abraham's idolatry was so apparent. they are out looking for little trickles of water because Ahab's sin has left the nation in such a terrible place that all the donkeys and horses and mules and everything else that they own livestock wise was about to die. Ahab cared more about the livestock than he did about the people of Israel. Do you hear that out of the text here? He was more worried about providing water for the stock than he was for the nation. Sin always does that to us, doesn't it? It leads us in the wrong direction. We reach the wrong conclusion. It takes us places where we shouldn't go. Well, there it is again. That's what happened. Even with that abundant evidence in place, Elijah proposed something even further. The hardness of Ahab's heart was such that even more evidence of Baal's impotence was needed. I mean, it's like Elijah has to take a two by four and slug Ahab in the head. He has to do something to get his attention. The evidence is so unspeakably clear It just couldn't be denied or explained away. And so with that in mind, what does Elijah do? Here's where we get set up for the great contest, OK? And I'm looking forward to next week because it's such a wonderful text. But he says, OK, Ahab, let's have a meeting. Let's have a campfire, Ahab. You bring everybody here. You bring all your priests. You bring it. You bring all your religious leaders. Bring them all. 850 of them. Baal prophets and Asherah prophets, OK? Let them do their thing. And I, representing the power of Yahweh, the power of the Word of the Lord, will meet them at Mount Carmel. And we'll have a showdown. We'll have a barbecue. And that's what happens. Elijah didn't go into detail about his plans, but he called for the meeting. You know the story. We'll get to it next week. We'll leave it hanging there. That's mean, I know. But I want to make a couple of applications real quick. I think some important things that may be easy to overlook if we're not careful — and I think, first of all, Obadiah is important for us to understand, OK? He was a secular saint. He was in the world, but he wasn't entirely of the world. I think that's where we need to come down on Obadiah. Now, there are other commentators, other good men who think, you know, he was a poser, others who say, oh, he was a hero. I don't think that's really the case here. I think he was a secular saint. And the reason I think that is, remember Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17? I've given them your word, Jesus says, and the world has hated them because they're not of the world. yet just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. So I think very truly Obadiah was not as courageous as Elijah, but I think Obadiah was a believer in the God of Israel and that he was serving God in the place where God had called him to serve. I don't think he's a bad guy. I think he's doing — he was not just a nominal believer. Obadiah is not just a — well, in name only, you know, believer. He's not just a marginal church attender. He's not just one of those — he's not a Chriester, you know, the ones that show up on Easter and Christmas. He's not just a once-a-month-er. Eli, I think Obadiah was a real guy. He was godly, he was devout, he was committed to the Lord, and so his actions I think need to be interpreted in light of that. That's why I want to give Obadiah a little bit of a pass here. I can just imagine, just use your creativity for just a minute, imagine yourself being Obadiah in that difficult place. How does a strong believer remain faithful to God in a secular marketplace? questions you ought to be asking yourself on a regular basis actually. Obadiah faced strong temptation to compromise. A strong temptation you know. Obadiah's boss was not a believer. Ahab was an evil man. He was hostile to Biblical faith. He was hostile to God honoring discipleship. You can almost imagine him filling out his yellow card on Sunday morning. You know Obadiah going to fill out his yellow card and his prayer request would be, I'm asking for prayer that my work situation, especially my boss who doesn't know the Lord in a personal way would be gentle with me or would repent or would come to faith. He would go to his Bible study group and ask for support and for prayer. You know he prayed. Yet Obadiah didn't use Ahab's wickedness as an excuse to do secondhand work. Remember where he was in Ahab's kingdom? He was the number two guy. Ahab said, I'll go this way, you go that way, and we will find water somewhere. Obadiah is placed in charge of the palace. one of his trusted advisors, and in the midst of a national crisis, Ahab had turned to him. So he was a faithful servant to his master, a loyal subject, not because Ahab was righteous, but because he knew the king's authority was ordained by God. Obadiah was no coward. He took a stand for God. He did something that only a devout believer would have done at great risk, personally and career-wise, personal health, life, and career. Every Christian ought to do the same kind of work, secular job, first-rate work, respect, We're called to show the same kind of courage when we're confronted with moral dilemmas at work, to stand up for what's right, to speak up for what's right. Even if someone tries to compromise and cover a mistake with a white lie or blame shift or something else, even if the boss pressures you, you're called to stand up and do what is right. We simply must obey God rather than men. There it is. Pretty easy, not too hard to know, hard to live out. No secret disciples in a very real way. Your coworkers ought to know that you know the living Savior. Another application, I think when God told Elijah to go show yourself to Ahab, did you see Elijah's response to that? I mean we don't read Elijah quaking in his boots. We don't see Elijah showing any fear or any questioning. He didn't go, you know, how far? Do you really want me to go? Do I have to do this? He certainly didn't respond like Obadiah did, there's no doubt about that. He went. He did what he was called to do. I think Elijah, because he had seen God's provision for him day after day after day after day after day for so many years. was able to say, I trust you, Lord, and I'm gonna walk in faith. I've experienced your grace. I'm gonna live in light of the grace that I've experienced. There's your application right there. I've experienced your grace. I'm gonna live in light of the grace I've experienced. I can look forward to the future because I know, God, that you are a faithful God who has been faithful to me over the years. That's true trust in the living God, doing what He calls us to do without conditions or without stalling. Elijah hadn't lost his theological bearings at all. He knew that he served the living God. He had to, he had to serve. He had to keep on doing what God had called him to do. And look, third application, I guess the third one. In verse 17, When Ahab sees Elijah and calls Elijah the troubler of Israel, I was thinking about that, reflecting on that verse, isn't that exactly what they call Jesus? No one ever caused more trouble than Jesus did, and that's a beautiful thing. You know, when Jesus was brought to trial before Pilate, his accusers said, we found this man misleading the nation. He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee, even to this place. The preaching of the gospel draws some men to God in faith and in repentance, but at the same time, it makes other men and women hostile to the message and the messengers of God. It causes trouble. The coming of Jesus into the world had and continues to have that troubling effect in our world, and that's a good thing. That is how we are sought. That is how we are light. For those who don't accept it, the rule of Jesus brings nothing but trouble. But for those who accept it, we live in light of grace. It brings peace. Those examples ought to remind us, I think, not to be surprised. When the world attacks, when there are troubles, when there are struggles, I think most Western Christians don't know what that's all about. You know, there's more persecution of believers in this world today than there's ever been. And I could have Googled it online to see how many, you know. But you know, the truth of the matter is, it's real. But we don't experience like a lot of the rest of the world does. The church is facing persecution. The hatred of the world ought not discourage us. It ought not frighten us. It ought to cause us like Elijah to look back to the grace of God, to be fearless in the face of an evil king. Jesus offers this kind of encouragement. If the world hates you, you know that it's hated me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. That's John 15. It's the vine and the branches passage. Abiding in Jesus. One last application this morning. I think this is number four. I want you to really consider carefully today this idea. If you're honest with yourself, if you're honest with God, I think that you'll see that we, just like Ahab, just like Jezebel, are often the cause of our own spiritual difficulties. Right? Jezebel and Ahab brought the Baal prophets, brought false worship, brought a denial of the Word of God into the land of Israel. If that's the case, just like them, then our situation is not going to get resolved by blaming other people. Ahab tried to blame Elijah. It's not going to fix it. that doesn't solve the problem. It is only by confessing our own sin, it is only by taking responsibility for our sin before God and offering repentance that we can break that cycle of sin. You know, aren't you thankful that Jesus is the kind of King that we truly need? Think about it. Jesus displayed the best kind of leadership of all when He took our sins upon Himself. He went to the cross bearing the penalty for your sin and mine. He knew every wrong, every sin, every transgression, everything that you would do in rebellion and alienation against the living God. He said to God the Father, he said to our Heavenly Father, let your hand be against me. Not against, not against me and you, but against Jesus as our substitute. Jesus was no troublemaker, but he invited trouble on himself in order to save his people. Sooner or later, most people do what Ahab did. They look for somebody to blame for their troubles. Jesus did just the opposite. Though blameless himself, he nevertheless took the blame for your sin. He took God's anger for you. He took God's just and right punishment for your sin upon himself in order to save us." You know, we know the story here in 1 Kings 18. We know the rest of the story about Ahab probably. You know, sadly, Ahab never did accept responsibility for Israel's drought. More trouble is going to But soon, the grace of God is going to bring the long, hot, dry, three-and-a-half-year-long, blazing summer to an end. What God said to Elijah at the beginning of the passage is full of promise. Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth, but not until Baal is shown to be completely powerless. What a great God we serve.