Number 18, I want you to turn in your Bibles if you would. First Kings chapter number 18. This passage of scripture will be looking to give you a little background and we'll be picking up with verse 25, but Elijah was in exile. He was living in the wilderness, living in different places God told him to go to. God was providing for him in miraculous ways. The ravens bringing food to him, a widow that was without food really and about to starve to death herself. The Lord used Elijah there in that ministry with them and then of course Ahab the king hated him and Obadiah the prophet was trying to help people and Elijah was kind of away. He had pronounced and God told him to tell the king that it was not going to rain for three and a half years. So for three and a half years they had a drought which caused a lot of trouble. You know, that's where famines begin and all those things and not raining. And they began to really blame Elijah. And they blamed, you know, him because God, you know, led him to pray that and to prophesy that. And so, it comes a showdown here in this chapter where the prophets of Baal, who Jezebel, who Jezebel was leading that and these prophets would sacrifice on the mountains and they were worshipping Baal, worshipping other gods as well. And it has come down to a showdown to where Elijah says this in verse 25. And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullet for yourselves and dress it first, for ye are many, and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. Now back up to verse 24. He says, And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. So the prophets of Baal now, they're gonna get their time, they'll get the opportunity to build their sacrifice, and they get the opportunity to pray to their God, and their God gets an opportunity to answer by fire. And according to Scripture here, verse 26, they took the bullet, which was given them, and they dressed it, which means they cut it up, organized it how they wanted it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon. saying, O Baal, hear us, but there was no voice. I have never prayed that long and never not heard from God. It might take me an hour to get my sin, get it all sorted out and get my heart right, but I have never prayed from morning to noon and not heard a voice from my God. I am so glad I do not serve a false idol or a false God. The Bible says, nor any that answered, and they leaped up upon the altar which was made. So they were jumping up and down on it, and it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them, And I think I like Elijah because I'm not saying that he was, you know, that he should mock people, but he just had a little bit of a saltiness to him. Mr. Virginia's over there snickering and laughing, you know, because he started mocking them. You know, they're jumping up and down and screaming and hollering for several hours and nothing's happening. And he says, cry aloud for he is a God. Notice what he spelled it, G-O-D. Little G-O-D. He's a little God. He's not a God. He's not God Almighty. He's a little God. Either he is talking. Maybe he's talking to someone and he couldn't hear you. He's too busy. He's talking and he couldn't be interrupted. And he says, or he's pursuing. Maybe he's chasing somebody. Maybe he's going somewhere. He's on a journey or a pair adventure. he sleepeth. Maybe he's just taking a nap and he cannot hear you. and must be awake. And in verse 28 it says, And they cried aloud and cut themselves. Now see, the sacrifice and the blood was supposed to draw attention to her God. And so now they go further and begin to cut themselves with lancets to cause piercing in their body and bleeding upon the altar, leaping up and down. And it says, They did it till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass that when midday was passed, And they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that there was neither voice nor any to answer nor any that regarded. I believe with all my heart, even if a little God, even if Satan himself obviously is the God of this world, I'm sure he wanted to answer that day, but apparently something was going on that would not allow any voice to regard. I'm sure Satan tried to answer that day to steal God's glory, but God tied him up, bound him down. He could not even interfere this day. There would be nothing but silence and silliness from these false prophets. And this would be a day that God Almighty could answer by fire. And so in verse number 30, where we'll pick up, we're going to go to the Lord in prayer. And that's where I'm going to get the meat of my message here tonight. I'm going to talk about what brought the fire down. Now, fire can be used in bad terms. You ever been burned in a fire? It hurts. But fire can cauterize and cleanse. But in the symbol of spiritual things, fire can purge and it can warm and comfort, and it's also an idea of revival, a time where God's power is displayed and demonstrated, and that's what this story is about. What brought that fire down? What brought that fire back? Father, we pray you'll help us, Lord, look at these thoughts tonight and help us, Lord, to get our minds upon these scriptures and help us, Lord, in the challenge of your word. And Lord, I pray that we could glean something from this tonight and be able to see fruit from it in our lives and in our church. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Verse number 30, the Bible said, Elijah said unto all the people, come near unto me, And all the people came near unto him. And then the Bible says, y'all looking at verse 30 with me here. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. Number one, I want to mention to you, the altar was repaired and that implies that it was broken. And symbolism here is, you know, prayer is going to come in just a little while. But there's an altar of time, of preparation, of submission, and yielding, and looking, and seeking. And here, this submission and disobedience to this offering from God, this altar has been broken. And what a thought to say, is my altar, is there a broken altar in my life? Is prayer broken in my life? to where I don't approach God in an altar of prayer. I don't approach God in this manner. The heart of the matter is you cannot sacrifice properly and obey in obedience properly and connect to this when your altar is broken down. Elijah could have said, all right, well we'll make do with what we can and I know the boards are broken and the rocks are all messed up and there's blood everywhere from animals and blood from the false prophets. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want their stinking blood on that altar. And there's preparation here of preparing this altar. It's not open or available for sacrifice when it's all broken and beat all up and beat all together. And it's amazing that Brother Carl, in the process of this, he decided, yes, we want God to answer by fire, but we got to take time to fix what is broken. And the altar, in his opinion, was broken. and it needed to be repaired. Think about this, this altar was the altar of the Lord and it has been abused. and it has been misused as the world always does. The world tolerates Christianity and the things of God, and even Hollywood and some of that, they'll use that, they'll use scripture, they'll talk about this or that and other, but boy, when it comes down to it, they don't love God, they do not look to God, they do not long for God like we do, and these were false prophets, and when it come down to it, this is the showdown now, and if there's Any God that answers by fire, He is going to be God. Is that what it says? The God that answers by fire, let Him be God. And guess what? Baal goes first, and if Baal would have answered by fire first, do you think those false prophets would have ever given Elijah the time of day after that? They would have celebrated. They would have rejoiced. It would have proven to them that their God was just as real. In fact, it would settle the whole case that we're going to now allow and let that God answer by fire and let him be that God. And they all agreed and they said it was well spoken. And the altar was broken in the world around us. They do not honor. They do not care. about the broken altar, the brokenness of prayer, the things that are gone or messed up spiritually in our lives. And the thought here is like, you know, this altar is broken. The world's messed it all up. My life's all messed up by the world or whatever. And I'm going to take time to prove to God that I'm serious about this. And I really want him to answer me. I really want him to answer here. This is a serious matter. Understand. As the challenge comes, Elijah says, we're in 1 Kings 18, the Bible says that the God that answereth by fire, let Him be God. Let's just put it to bed, let it be proven that He is God. So Elijah believes that God Almighty, Jehovah God is God. He has proven to him that he is God over and over. He's provided for him to prove that he was God. And on this day, there's going to be not only an individual personal revelation and proof, but it's going to be a public display where fire will come down out of heaven and prove who God is. That's why I believe, as I mentioned a while ago, I believe that God hogtied the devil. Tied him up, bound him where he could not speak. He could not demonstrate any power that he has. He was not able to do anything this day. You know, on the cross of Calvary, I believe he fanned the flames of Jesus' death. I'm sure he longed and looked for that day to see what he thought was a defeat. But on that day of the resurrection, he was bound. He couldn't have kept that stone over that grave. There was no power in this world that would have kept Jesus from being resurrected. I'm glad to see that God can bind those powers and prove himself to us. That altar needed to be repaired. So I ask you again, is your altar broken? Does it need to be repaired? Are there other things in your life that need to be repaired? Would you show that demonstration in your life symbolically telling God I'm serious. I need to hear from you. I need the symbolism of that fire falling is power. I need your power in my life. I need you to I need your power to answer prayer here. I need some things shaken up in my life. it would seem to begin, well, let's rebuild that altar. Let's repair that place where you'll be willing to sacrifice your life, you will be willing to submit yourself to God, that you would hear Him and follow Him. Verse number 33. Well, let me go ahead and read the rest here. I don't want to skip the whole part of the story. We read the whole story about the crazy nuts jumping up and down. We might as well talk about the good people, amen? Verse 31, Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, under whom the word of the Lord came, connecting back to the origins of the word of God and the covenants of God's people, of Israel shall be thy name. And with the stones in verse 32, he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two measures of seeds. So this is gonna contain several gallons of water here, The Bible said he put them in order and he cut the bullocks in pieces so he's got to sacrifice the bullock, the ram and he laid them on the wood and then he said fill four barrels with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. So in verse number 33, we find that sacrifices were made. He's willing now to interact in this covenant and do things the right way, the right sacrifice to surrender to the right way. And he wants God to answer by fire and the things of obedience that are connected to sacrifice and the scripture that goes bigger than that, because the Bible says that even obedience is better than sacrifice. The understanding, unless you don't have an altar where you can make that decision as Isaac and Abraham proved that Abraham was willing, willing to sacrifice Isaac, but he did not have to sacrifice Isaac. It was the willing and the obedience in his heart. And God provided himself a lamb called in the thicket. First Samuel 5, 22, the Bible says Samuel mentions, he said, have the Lord as a great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Does the Lord have great, does the Lord have great delight in the burnt offering, laying the ram down, burning it, catching it on fire and allowing it to be killed and burnt, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? He said, behold, to obey. This is Samuel, the prophet. He said, obey is better and sacrifice and to hearken, to listen, to hear than the fat of rams. It would be better than to sacrifice the rams and all the things you could put on that altar. It's better to prepare that altar and be willing to put yourself into that, amen, and obedient unto God. God wants obedience more than he wants sacrifice. And these sacrifices were made in verse number 33. And then the Bible says the water was poured. Now, some debate whether or not the water here was precious water, drinking water, what little was left, and that Elijah commanded to get all that water source that they could and pour it in the trench. and that maybe the prophets of Baal allowed him to kind of hang himself, that he is using what little water they have left. He's going to now prove himself. God will not answer. The sacrifice will be soaking wet. Whoever, who pours water on something you're trying to catch on fire? And go ahead and let him just kill himself here because he's going to waste water. And some say, no, he probably had seawater there where they were close on the mountain, had it brought up. Now, I don't know if he had already prepared this. We don't have the scripture to know if earlier that day he said, I need to get these barrels of water, but it would have took a long time to gather the water, bring it up. But here's what he did. Whatever happened, he did pour barrels of water on this water. He tells him, fill four barrels, this is verse 33, with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. So the animal's laying on the wood and they're just pouring water all over it. And the whole idea is that somehow fire's gotta come down from heaven, proving it is God, and that God's gonna be the God, and he's pouring water on his sacrifice. Then in verse 34, he said, do it the second. And then it says, and they did it the second time. And he said, do it the third time. And they did it the third time. And the water ran about the altar and filled the trench also with water. Now I want to mention a couple of things here to you. The Bible says in Ephesians 5 26 that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word. That emphasis comes that water is a type of the word of God. There is other cleansing scriptures given in Psalms, whereby shall a young man cleanse his ways by hearing to the Word of God. So you practice the Word of God, you believe the Word of God, and it will cleanse you, and you can seek in forgiveness, you seek righteous walk. Here the scripture says, the washing of the water by the Word. It is a type here in this scripture. Think about that, that typology given, and this trench was made in anticipation that water would soak the wood, soak the sacrifice, run off the side, and begin to fill the trench about it. And the Bible says He filled the trench also with the water. And again, don't forget, this thing's supposed to catch on fire. I don't know if you've ever been camping or ever tried to burn any brush, but it's hard to get it to light. When the paper's wet and the match is almost wet, everything's soaked. It's hard to get a fire to burn normally, naturally. But we're not dealing with normal here, and we're dealing with the supernatural. And I believe it is something we could learn that this is a trench made in a commitment to the Word of God. That God is who He says He is. A commitment to following God's Word as let this be the day to prove it and then from that time forward you say let Him be God and you go follow that God. This is a type of being rehydrated by the Word of God. As I remind, and I'll just go back a couple seconds, that altar needed to be repaired. I believe some Bible reading needs to be rehydrated in our lives. to wonder how much Bible reading the average church member does. It's the Word of God, yes. It's that living water because Jesus is the word that became flesh. There's a hydration, a rehydration idea there, a saturation of that word. You think about the cells of your physical being, we're made up mostly of water, but our spiritual beating needs to be rehydrated, needs the water of the word in our life to bring life to you and I. And if that altar is broken and need to be repaired, I wonder about the symbolism here of the Word of God needing to be poured on and poured into our life. You pour water in your life, it'll cleanse your heart and your life, and it'll keep you hydrated spiritually. I don't know too many people that really read their Bible a good deal and really focus and dedicate it. I'm not talking about, boy, I'm gonna read the whole Bible every morning. That's impossible, that's ridiculous. Unless you're just gonna make a full-time job, and you're just going to read the Bible. I don't know that a person could physically possibly read the whole Bible the whole day. I guess it might be physical. I don't know. I know about my fatigue in my body when I start reading the Begats and Chronicles. I start taking naps. They start fading out a little bit. And I said, Lord, I need to help here. I need to stay focused. I need to stay awake. And I dedicate and I plow through. Then God will show me some little nugget. He'll show me some little oasis within the Word of God. Encourage me. We need the Word of God to fill the trench around the altar. The world says it's strange that you're putting water on what you need fire on. But this is God saying, no, this is my order of obedience. Put that water in here, amen? Focus, make it a symbol. Understand that the picture of the Word here, the water here, is the Word of God. So put that priority around the altar. Put that priority around the Word or the Word of God. And let that God answer by fire, even though it might be covered with the sacrifice's wit. All these things are foolishness to the world, but God loves to to prove to this world by that foolishness of preaching, the foolishness of the word of God. He likes to use those things to confound this world. Many times he uses the foolish and the small things to this world. And I no doubt, as they jumped up and down on the altar, I had a moment where I wanted to jump up here, but I'm glad I restrained myself. I really am glad I did that. They jump up and down on the altar, and they scream and call, Obel, Obel, Obel. And Elijah mocks him. He must be on a trip. He must be on a journey. He must can't hear. He must be talking to somebody. Maybe he's asleep. And boy, they begin to cut themselves. He rebuilds, and he prepares, and he makes an altar dedicated to God alone. And then he pours water all over it. Can you imagine those prophets binding up their cuts and wounds on their body, self-inflicted, probably worn out from screaming all day long? No voice, no answer, no regard. And Elijah, they say, I'm going to see what Elijah does here. He pours water on it. Man, those people of God are so weird, so backwards, so strange, so odd. That makes no sense at all. God wants us to understand that the sensibility of human nature is not what he's looking for here. He's looking for obedience and trust and dedication to him. That dry heart that we might have because there's no word coming into it. Listen. Dryness is not gonna spark the fire spiritually that we're talking about here. You don't need dry conditions for the spiritual fire. You need wet conditions. You need to be anointed. You need to be saturated in word. You need to be able to absorb and soak in, as I talked about that fullness of God the other night, that fullness of God in our lives, and let God do a spiritual work. It is a miracle of the scripture. It's a miracle of the spirit of God working in us to use water to bring fire. Four barrels, three times, that's 12 barrels, maybe even one to represent every stone. It represented the 12 tribes. It represented all the covenant connections to God. But I'm gonna tell you one thing for sure, this allowed for no tricks. No magic trick is going to overpower 4 for 12 barrels of water. It had to be God. Church, if the fire is going to fall in our life, we're going to have revival, you're going to have a spiritual awakening in your individual life and in your family, in this county, in this nation. It's going to have to come from God. And it's not going to come from some other book or inspiration for some movie. It's going to come from the Word of God. Now other things can enhance, but it can only be enhanced because this is the true power behind those things. If our appetite for other things in this world is not fanned and helped by this, by the word of God and the spiritual things, we're not going to have a real fire fall from heaven. His word and our faith in it, understanding it is not of ourselves. Elijah put himself and really everybody who really wanted to believe that God could answer by fire that day, God put all of them at risk when he began to pour all this water on there. In the eyes of many it was a great step of faith. are a great step of foolishness. Isn't it? Reading our Bible and practicing it and putting it to use in our life. I mean, not just reading, but you go out in this world tomorrow and throughout the rest of the week and say, why do you do that? Why don't you do that? And you've got scriptural things that you have to do and do not in the Word of God. And many times the world thinks it's foolish that we practice, that we believe it. That's Old Testament. That's gone. Nobody does that anymore. That doesn't matter anymore. Everybody's thinking a new way now. Let's stick to the Word of God. If it was right, I mean really right, I'm not talking about traditions of men and some kind of opinion. I'm talking about it was biblical doctrine. It still is today. Now I know there are dispensations people argue about that God treated different people in different ways especially in the Old Testament. I believe it's really easy to clear up is that it's either before the law or it's because of Christ. He fulfilled the law. Amen. And I'm not under law. I've got grace. I live by grace. I deserve nothing and God has given me everything. He has put me into his family and made me a child of God. I'm not trying to earn or keep my salvation. There's not anything I've ever done and I could live a million lifetimes and never earn the grace of God. And he bestowed it upon you and I as believers. So he puts himself in this position that I've got to depend on God to send that fire. And he puts that symbolism of that water at the top of the word, the living water, the cleansing of the word of God, the washing of the water by the word, the reliance of it. And he uses that here to say we're not looking for some kind of trick. There's not going to be anybody to be able to say, oh, I saw Elijah throw some kind of a piece of rag on fire. They didn't have matches back then. I was getting ready to say matches. Amen. Some kind of way, some kind of ulterior way to send that fire. And church, we strive a lot. But at the end of the day, it's not music. our special messages, our preachers that come in and out, we need revival, the fire of God to come from above, to come down from Him. And I believe if the altar gets repaired and there is a reliance upon the Word, a refreshing, a rehydration of the Word of God, the top here of this water in our lives, I believe that's the process of seeing that take place. Look at verse 36, God has sought Sincerely, God is sought in prayer. The altar's been repaired, that water's been poured on it, and Elijah technically gives a 50-something word, a 40-something word prayer here. Came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. poured all this water on at Your Word. I did all this, repaired the altar at Your Word. I challenged these people at Your Word. We challenged this day that the God that answers by fire, I did it because You led me to do this. You told me and led me to say that it's not going to rain for three and a half years. All of this was being led by God. Hear me, O Lord, verse 37. Hear me that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou has turned their heart back again. Notice in this prayer, 40 something words, I've counted it and I've gotten confused many times looking at some of the words. Acknowledging sin, confessing their dependence on God, acknowledging who God is, His position, God's position, the connection to the covenants. He's going back to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Doesn't call him Jacob. Jacob's name was changed to Israel. God changed his name. There's a whole new foundation and a new life of covenants connected to him being Israel. And he calls and he connects to these things. And as he prays, to the eternal God of all generations, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He cries out and he says here, thou art God. He wants them to know that he's God. He wants them to know that he's a servant of God, nothing wrong with that. And he wants this God to answer by fire. Now notice how his motive is revealed here in verse 37. Hear me, O Lord, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and thou hast turned their heart back again. That God would be known and Baal would be forgotten, amen, and that in the process of that, their heart would be turned back. to following God. I'm gonna tell you, I think that's the greatest symbolism of the fire falling. When that fire falls, God is acknowledged and people's hearts turn back to him. They're drawn, people are drawn to fires. I mean, you hear a fire truck going down the street, some people used to follow them around. Y'all might not have been weird like that. Some people, they see a fire in a neighborhood, they walk down the street. I mean, if it was real close, probably worry, concern, but it's just something about that fire. You have a campfire, people draw around. Fires are tension grabbers. His motive was right. He went, oh, they'll know Elijah is a prophet in Israel. That wasn't his motive. They would know that the Lord is the God in Israel, that there is a God in Israel. and that he has turned their heart back again. Elijah wanted to see the people's heart turned back because it had gone in the wrong direction. They were following Baal. They were influenced by him. There was great drought in the land physically and spiritually. And he wanted God to be known. He wanted them to be turned back. And if there's no answer this day by Baal and Jehovah God, then there is no God. It's all fake. Nothing's real. It's all religion. All man-made. All parlor tricks. That this people may know that thou art the Lord God. If God would have been silent this day, just like the God of Baal, boy, that would have been great. The devil would have loved it. The devil would have loved that. Hear me, O Lord, he prays, that this people may know Verse 38, then the fire of the Lord, Jehovah God, amen, fell. The word fell means it come from up above. It fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice. So he prays, turn their heart back again. Like my sound effects. I think this fire had some sound effects, I might be wrong. You ever see something that maybe was silent, but you heard it in your soul? You heard the noise or you saw it, it's like something could fall, you could just almost in your mind, there's still a sound connected with it. Well, whatever happened, that fire fell down from heaven. And the Bible says, it consumed the burnt sacrifice. So the bullocks that he, the rams he had up there, the fire consumed it. That means it was gone. And the Bible says in the wood, so all the wood that Elijah put and put together for the sacrifice, God used that fire. This is an intense fire. This is a holy, intense fire. Wood is a type of humanity. But when God gets in a place of revival, God begins to do a great work in your life, he'll begin to consume things and burn off all the dross and make everything left be more like him, to be glorifying to him. He takes this fire and burns the sacrifice, burns the wood, and man, I love this, look at this, and the stones. Boy, that's a hot fire. He melted, consumed the stones. If you ever see the old movie, I hate to even admit this is an old movie, The Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was a teenage movie for me. Now it's a Turner classic film probably. But the fire falls in that movie and all the Nazi soldiers there technically are consumed. They're gone. There are none of them left. Now the director of that movie, Spielberg, is a Jew. He gets Old Testament view of God. He does not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He does not believe Jesus is God in the flesh. So I have a better vision than he does as the greatest producer, director of our day. I have a better vision of that because I know that Jesus is God in the flesh. He's the word that became flesh and dwelt amongst us. But in my imagination, I see a similarity that when I think of this fire falling from heaven, It consumed the rocks. In that movie, it wasn't necessarily that the heat melted everything, because many times if something is burned, the matter changes from one thing to the other. It might change from wood to ashes or whatever. The stones could be melted and they would turn into some other formation once it cooled. That's not what happened here. It was consumed, completely consumed by God. Our God is a consuming fire. and he consumed it, took it up, completely annihilated or took it away, however he did it, it was gone. Notice this, and the dust. He swept it all up with this fire, licked up the water that was in the trench. I almost could see somebody taking the finger and just licking out the last of the bowl. This fire swept all the dust, got all the water out of the trench. The phrase is used, licked it up. I love that. I mean, God completely, wholly consumed this whole thing with his fire. There was nobody could say, well, you missed a spot. No, he did not. He got it all. And the Bible says, since there's no question here, the people saw it, verse 39, And they fell on their faces. The real fire of God. There won't be too many people standing up in their own pride or their rebellion. They will submit, surrender, or be submitted. I'll tell you, I'd much rather bow the knee before Him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I've already bowed before Him as my personal Savior. I'll have no problem bowing before Him when I get to heaven. And may God help me to continually bow before Him. Help me to see the fire of God fall in my life. To sweep up what needs to be swept up. Every sacrifice I give to Him, every commitment that I give, and all that I pour myself into it, that I might hear from Him, that He might be glorified, and that others might know that He is God. That's where my life really ought to be wrapped up in, every one of us individually. As Elijah is performing this, he's looking to God to do this so that God will be glorified. They saw it, fell on their faces, and they said, The Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is the God. No question. Now, I don't believe Bel is real. But if Bel was a real God on this day, he would have been in the corner with duct tape wrapped around his face. His hands would have been tied. His feet would have been bound. Because the Bible says, no voice, no one regarded. But I know that Baal's not real, but I believe Satan is real, and he's the power behind all the false gods of the world. In essence, God ductates Satan. God silenced him. I believe with all my heart he wanted to answer this day and he could do nothing. And God displayed with such power and consummation. He consumed it all, took it all up, cleaned it up, swept it up, licked out the trench. The water was gone and everyone fell down to the ground and they glorified him without any question that he was the God. And Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of Baal. He's going to take this revival fire a little bit further. He's going to get rid of these false prophets, these that have caused and caused a poisonous thing in the hearts of the people where they did not know who God was. Church, if there's a prophet or a book or anything that's confusing us, are you about who God is and how he works? And you need to get rid of that book. You need to quit listening to that preacher. You need to get in the word of God and find a Bible preacher that will teach and preach the scriptures. Thus says the Lord. So there'll be no more confusion or clutter on who God is. I've talked to, well Jared and Micah, Will Mitchell too, they all work at the same place. There's some guys that talk with Micah and probably all of them, but you know, our testimony is so important there, but a lot of people there say they're Christians and they're debating scriptural things in the Bible. Micah's been talking to one of those guys. He doesn't believe in the Trinity and then there'll be something else that comes up. Man, I'm going to tell you what. I want a fire to fall in my life where I have no doubt. I'm just like, nope, nope, nope, nope. The Lord, He is the God. He's the way, the truth, the life. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. These three are one, the Father, the Spirit, and the Word. And all these things, I don't have to worry. They all agree, as 1 John chapter 5 says. And I don't have to be in disagreement or disunity. I can know the truth, and the truth can make me free. This fire fell. And what a phrase the fire falling is. The prophets of Baal at this story are taken and annihilated and gotten rid of. Elijah said unto him that he have get thee up and drink for there is a sound of abundance of rain. He said it's gonna rain now. Now that everybody knows that God is the Lord. Listen, the drought of water for three and a half years could not get people to depend upon God. They weren't rebuilding altars. They weren't praying. They weren't looking to him. They were sacrificing, following Bill for three and a half years. A drought didn't get their attention. But on this day, the God that answered by fire got everybody's attention. We need the fire to fall in our lives spiritually. It's got to come down from heaven, from the Lord. We need it in our individual lives. We were talking in the prayer room a while ago. Brother Jamie Murphy has that proactive parenting initiative. He talked about, you know, when a child gets saved, like VBS or something like that, the chance of them leading their mom or dad to the Lord, there's a, you know, there's a small percentage that they'll do that, obviously more than them not getting saved. If a mom gets saved in the home, you know, there's a A higher percentage of influence, the children can get saved, maybe the husband gets saved, but it goes up multiple times higher when the man gets saved. The dad gets saved. He gets on fire. He spiritually has changed. He wins his wife. He household salvation. The children get saved. And then, listen, when the man gets right spiritually and he decides, I'm going to church whether my wife or my children go or not. What do you think usually happens there? Usually it all starts lining up. The wife will start going. Not all the time. Now, it's not in every case. I know some scenarios where it's not that way, but there's also some other things going on behind the scenes that have caused it to be where it doesn't go that smooth. And you know I know the Bible says that a woman, a wife, can by her conversation win the husband? Not by her words, but her whole manner of walking for God. It comes down to it is the walking for God, the dedication, knowing who he is and following him with all our heart. When the fire of God falls in our life, man, it resets all of that. This whole story just puts me in awe of who God is. Melted, I mean, whatever he did, the stones are consumed. Can you imagine after the fire fell and then all the smoke and the dust didn't get to settle because he got rid of the dust. And when they looked there, that thing is consumed and clean. And there was no doubt God was real. And they fell on the ground. Man, we need that in our lives. I wish we could see men, husbands, Fire fall in their lives. Get on fire for the Lord. Wives and children. Listen, I don't know what the percentages are on everything, but I'll take anything I can get. If the husbands won't do it and the men won't do it, praise God, hope we have a revival of all women in the church. And if they won't do it, may God spark some child, some youth. We could see a real revival start where someone would say, Lord, let us see the fire fall. Maybe the rest of us will comply and fall on our faces before God and that he would be Lord again. He would be God again. There'd be no question because the fire of God fell and consumed so many things to prove to us that he is real. There was a Nazarene preacher. How Nazarene your family Nazarene? Gypsy Smith was his name. And somebody asked him, how do you have revival? And Gypsy Smith said, you draw a circle on the floor, on the ground, and you get inside of it. Anybody still awake? OK. You get inside that circle and then he said, you ask God to set everything in that circle on fire. Everything in that circle. Hopefully there's nothing in there but you, amen. What a simple little truth that this man of God had spent some powerful time with God. And he believed real revival comes by completely saying, Lord, it's all about me. Listen, you know the reason why I'm not having revival maybe in my life? It's not my wife's fault, it's mine. It's not you as the church, it's me. And we can't blame it on everybody else, amen? And when God sends real fire like this typology here, nobody was looking around anymore. I don't know, let's give Bell one more shot. Nobody was even thinking that. He proved it. That there was no question anymore. The Lord was God in their life. And they bowed before him. Oh, I wish we could see real revival. Our church needs it desperately. But I can't keep saying the church needs it or this one needs it or that needs it. Until I get in the circle and I say I need it, I need God to set me on fire and that God will do a spiritual work in my life. You know, God is, it's a strange thing going on the last couple of years here. We've had some good services up now. Once in a while we have somebody say, we've had so much financial blessings. It's hard. It makes me scratch my head. Got a new sound system, new video system, got a new digital display back there. We got money in the bank. I remember being here. Many of you been here when we years ago, we didn't have no money in the bank. You barely could get bills paid. Barely could get missionaries handled. And I'm thankful for that, but I'd much rather have people in the pews that are on fire for God. I don't know what psychological, psychosis, whatever it is, but it depresses me when the pews are empty. And it encourages me when they're full. He said, what if we're full and a lot of people are not saved? A lot of potential there, isn't there? They could get saved. I know everybody that comes on Sunday mornings is not saved. There's a lot of them I know need the Lord. I was preaching this morning. I saw some people that are not members here. They usually come on Sunday morning if they come. And they're coming with other family members, both sides of the church. I saw them paying attention. I saw them looking up here and weren't looking at their phone. They went bouncing back and forth to their tunes with their earbuds and weren't cutting their toenails. They were looking at me, listening to the word of God. There's hope for those people. And I got to pray to that one girl over here this morning. I was, man, she was, she was looking, she was listening. that person can get saved. God can save them at home, they don't have to be in church. But when a person really gets born again by the power of God, they fall in love with Jesus. They fall in love with His Word. They want to start walking for God or living for God. They want to enjoy the fellowship with other believers. Start going to church, that's what happens. Everybody that's fallen out of church, there's some kind of spiritual problem because when you get saved and you get right, you fall in the church. You fall in love with it again. There's no question who's God. It makes things so much simpler. If I'm going to ask, no piano, nothing, come up here and draw a little circle. Put yourself in it, if you're willing, and ask God to set it on fire. the Lord to answer by fire, to bring the fire back in your life. Some of you might remember a time when you first got saved. You know what I mean? You were on fire. You could describe that. I was on fire when I first got saved. Now, there's a certain time back here, a certain decade or a certain time frame. Man, I was so on fire, closer to God than ever was in my life. But what about now? You say, well, I'm as close as I've ever been. And pray for the rest of the empty circles. So heads bowed, eyes closed, you can get your circle back there in your pew, or you can come up here. If you think it's silly to pour the word on, rebuild an altar to get fire, or would you say, Lord, please send the fire back in my life. I hope you come and pray. Seek revival for your life, for this church, for your children. Those others are right.