Good morning, everyone. Our scripture reading today is from 1 Kings chapter 18. It is page 380, if you're using the Pew Bible, 380. Today we pick up again with the prophet Elijah. It's been a few weeks, so just to remind us about the context here, Ahab, son of Omri, is the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, and he, along with his foreign-born wife, Jezebel, have promoted bale worship in the land. In response to this, God withholds rain for three and a half years, causing severe drought But now God sends Elijah to meet Ahab, and Elijah sends a man named Obadiah to announce to Abraham that he's coming. So I've decided to shorten the scripture reading that's printed in your bulletin. We'll do half of it today and the other half next time. So, let's hear from God's word. This is 1 Kings chapter 18, and I'll be reading verses 16 through 21. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah. 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 400 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to the people and said, how long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people did not answer a word. May God add his blessing to this reading of his word. A fallacy is a false belief that comes from incorrect information or from faulty reasoning. For example, often we can believe something to be true simply because it sounds plausible or because a lot of other people are saying it. But then as more evidence is uncovered, we come to see that what we thought was true was in fact false. Well in this encounter between Elijah, Ahab, and the people, we can see at least four, as I'm calling them, spiritual fallacies. Four false beliefs that keep us from the truth of God. And the remedy for these fallacies is the word, or the wisdom of God, as it's spoken to us through Jesus Christ. So today we'll look at the first two of these four fallacies. The next time, the second two. Fallacy number one is that my self-assessment is true. My self-assessment is true. And the second fallacy is that two are better than one. So let's look at the first one. My self-assessment is true. Studies have shown that while self-assessment or self-evaluation of our own performance has some value, it's often less accurate than when we are reviewed by someone else, by a teacher or a boss or even our peers. The Bible is full of exhortations to examine ourselves, to inquire into our hearts, to take stock of our actions, Before coming to the Lord's table, the Apostle Paul says, let a person examine himself, because as he goes on to say, if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. Paul also calls us to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. That's 2 Corinthians 13, verse five. But while God calls us to search our hearts and to examine our actions, we have to recognize also that our hearts, still tainted by sin, can be deceitful. Scripture tells us that the heart is deceitful above anything else. And as a result, it can move us to draw wrong conclusions about ourselves. That's why Paul warns us in Romans 12, three, to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, but rather to think, he says, with sober judgment. And that's why Jesus criticizes the Pharisees who think they see when in fact they're really blind to their own sin. And because of their false assessment, Jesus tells them that their guilt remains. And we see this kind of false self-evaluation in this passage when Ahab meets Elijah. They see each other for the first time in three and a half years. And the first words out of Ahab's mouth are not, hi, how are you? Or, it's been a long time. But rather, it's you, you troubler of Israel. Now this is what we commonly refer to as blame shifting. When we're at fault in some way, our tendency is to shift the blame to someone else. When God confronted Adam with his sin in the garden, Adam shifts the blame to his wife, and when God confronts Eve, she shifts the blame to the serpent. The devil made me do it. No one takes responsibility here. It's all someone else's fault. The land of Israel had been without rain for more than three years, and instead of Ahab recognizing that his sin of bringing Baal worship into the land was the reason for it, instead of recognizing that, he blames Elijah. But Elijah sets the record straight and says, I haven't troubled Israel. You have, and your father's house, because you've abandoned the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals." Now Ahab needed to hear these words. I'm sure they were not easy for Elijah to speak. Think about it. Think about what it would be like to stand before a king or someone in great authority who had the power to throw you in prison or even to take your life. That would be intimidating enough, but then you had to tell them that they were wrong or at fault in something. That's not a position I'd want to be in. It would have been much easier for Elijah to forget the criticism and simply announce the good news that rain was about to come again. But that would not have been the faithful thing to do, nor would it have done Ahab and Israel any good. God's purpose in all of this is to move his people to repentance, to help them see the foolishness, the futility, and the ultimate disaster of their idol worship. Elijah's rebuke to Ahab was not a condemnation. It was a wake-up call. It was a call of repentance to return to God. Proverbs 27 verse six says, faithful are the wounds of a friend. Proverbs 28 verse 23 says, whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue. Despite Ahab's great sin, a sin that had impacted an entire nation, God still had his good in view and the good of the people. And so he sends Elijah to shake them out of their false thinking, their false self-evaluation. In the New Testament, Jesus, like Elijah, comes as a prophet to exhort, to call, to invite. He tells us that he has come to seek and to save the lost. He said, I have come to call sinners to repentance. Jesus came to confront people in their pride and their presumption. He came to shake up our self-satisfied self-evaluations. He comes bringing an outside perspective on things, God's perspective. And he would often point out hypocrisies and deficiencies in those who were falsely satisfied with themselves. He pronounced woe on whole towns of people who rejected his words, warning them of a coming judgment if they did not listen and repent. But as with Elijah, he doesn't come to pronounce judgment. There will be a day when he will do that, as we say in the Apostles' Creed, that he will come again to judge the living and the dead. But at the present time, he withholds that judgment and instead graciously urges and invites and calls to us to recognize our sin, to renounce the fallacy of our flawed and failed self-evaluations, and to hear the charge that he graciously lays before us and the call to turn and follow him. He calls us to a change of mind, change of orientation, change of values, a change of priorities, all of which leads to a change of life. That's what Ahab needed to do. He needed to own his sin and not try to push it off onto someone else. He needed to set aside his false thinking and listen to Elijah. And for all who do listen, who own their sin, who pursue repentance, for these there's pardon, there's forgiveness, there is joyful acceptance by God. I love the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin and the lost son. Jesus tells us there that there's joy and celebration in heaven over just one center who repents. Are we listening to Jesus? Are we listening to his challenge to own our sin? His words can be found in this book. In the Old Testament prophets, his words can be heard. Prophets who spoke centuries before he was born. His words are recorded in the gospels where we find his teaching during his earthly ministry. And his words can be found in the mouths of the apostles who spoke and wrote after Jesus ascended into heaven. And his words are faithful and true. Let me encourage you today. Read them. Listen to them. Let them speak to your heart. Let them scrutinize you. and move you beyond mere self-evaluation to right thinking about what he's calling you to believe and to do. And as I say that to you, I'm saying it to myself as well. That brings us to the second fallacy, that two are better than one. Now, I know that many of you are asking yourselves, why is that a fallacy? Isn't it true that two are better than one and get a better return for their labor and one can help out the other when he falls? That's what the Book of Ecclesiastes says. In fact, Kathy and I had that passage read at our wedding and we often quote it to each other. So yes, sometimes two are better than one. So that's not what I'm talking about here. Sometimes having two of something can be unhelpful or even dangerous. One dose of medication can cure sickness while twice the dose can cause harm. Or Jesus tells us that it's not possible to serve two masters. It just doesn't work. Well, King Ahab and many of the people were under the impression that they could serve two gods and that this was a wise and a good thing to do. But Elijah confronts their fallacy in verse 21 and says, how long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him. To use a common expression, Ahab and the people were hedging their bet. And that means to choose more than one option to minimize the possibility of loss. So in this instance, the thinking is that if one god doesn't come through, well then there's always another one to look to. This was the common practice of the day when people worshipped many gods. We see this later on as well with the Greeks and with the Romans. There was a god for just about everything. In our day, the Hindu religion continues to follow this practice and teaches that there are 33 different gods. But in contrast to this, the Bible consistently tells us that there is only one true and living God. There is no other. And so if we are true followers of this God and really believe that he's the one who he says he is, then we can have no other gods in our lives. That's the very first of the Ten Commandments. You shall have no other gods. But Ahab really didn't believe this. For him, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was not sufficient, or at least might not be sufficient. And so just in case, it's good to have another God in your pocket. Ahab and the Israelites weren't convinced that the God of Israel was the God of the universe, who made the heavens and the earth and everything in them, who gives life to every living thing, who gives rain and sunshine, who governs the course of history, who raises up nations and leaders and casts them down. If they had believed this, they wouldn't need another God. but they didn't believe it. And so for them, two gods were better than one. And of course, we're tempted to follow this very same fallacy, to hedge our bet on God. What if we're wrong, we say? What if God doesn't love me or care about me? What if he won't or can't come through for me? What if he won't give me the husband or wife I want? What if he won't give me the job or the possessions I want or the popularity and status I need? What if he won't give me the kind of body or gender I want? What if he won't give me the sort of country and leaders that I should have? What if he won't give me the happiness I long for? God might not come through, we think. After all, there are things I prayed for, but I haven't received them. So maybe I need to take matters into my own hands. Maybe I need to marry an unbeliever, or leave my present spouse, for someone who better suits my needs. Perhaps someone of the same sex. Maybe I should hoard my wealth and not give to the poor. Or maybe I should take from the rich who really don't need their wealth anyway. Maybe I should start living as someone of the opposite sex and alter my body. Maybe I should disobey the laws of my civil leaders and do as I please. Maybe I'll just do what makes me happy and not worry about following God's commands because I'm just not sure that I can count on him to come through for me. Have you ever thought that way? Maybe you're thinking that way right now because for whatever reason you're deeply unhappy and you're struggling with your faith. Well, I want you to know that you're not alone. All of us struggle with this to some degree. I know that for some it's more intense than for others and I don't want to minimize that. But no matter how intense your struggle is, you don't have to struggle alone. In fact, you should not struggle alone. You should be talking to someone. You should have others praying for you and encouraging you. Maybe they're not going to solve your problem, but they can help you bear the burden. But the one you need most is God. Not some petty, limited, local God, but the God of all creation who made you and gave you life. The God who loves you and who wants you to have an abundant life. King Ahab and these people, and too often we, are unbelieving, short-sighted, and impatient. I know I am. God promises to be with us and to provide for us and help us in this world, but he does not promise to live every burden that we carry, at least not in this present time. He promises to do that when Jesus returns to take us out of this world, but until then he calls us to trust him to serve him and to wait for him, wait for him patiently. Sometimes he gives us relief here and now, and it's okay to ask for that. Sometimes God gives us the ability to change things ourselves by making wise and godly choices, and when we have that opportunity, we should do it. But then, in this present world, there will be some things that we cannot change, and we must look to God for his grace to help us bear up under the fallenness of this present world, a world in which we daily experience frustration, difficulty, struggle, and weariness. Right? God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Jesus invites the weary and burdened to come to him to find rest. He promises an abundant life. He promises resurrection and eternal life. He gave his life on the cross to accomplish this for us. He himself rose from the dead. And so it gives us reason to hope in God, to trust him. to not divide our loyalties or hedge our bets. Jesus demonstrates to us that we have no reason to limp between two different opinions, no reason to try to serve two masters, no reason to share God's unique place in our hearts with others, others who in the end can do nothing for us. If God is not for us, then really we have nothing. But if He is for us, then no one and nothing can stand against us. If God did not withhold His own Son from us, then we can be sure, the Bible tells us, that He will give us all things. And if Jesus has risen from the dead, then all of our labors and patient waiting for the Lord will not be in vain. That's what's assured to us in Jesus Christ. Self-assessments are not always true. And two are not always better than one. So go to the scriptures, the word of Christ, and ask God to reveal your heart to you. And when you do that, if you find any false gods, if you find yourself hedging your bet, then put all that out of your life, as we'll see as we move through this passage. These petty gods are impotent. They can't do anything for us. Instead, listen to Jesus, follow him. He alone is Lord, and he alone can bring us joy and salvation. Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you for your grace to us. How you, despite our sin, are so willing to come to us and to draw us back to you to offer us forgiveness and eternal life. Lord, our God, we pray for years that here for eyes that see for hearts that are willing to embrace your truth, willing to embrace you. We thank you for the love that you have shown to us in your son, Jesus. We ask, Lord, that this would move us to be those people that you call us to be, that you've saved us to be through your son. And we ask this in his name. Amen.