Take your Bibles, if you would, and let's open the Word of God this morning to the book of 1 Kings in the Old Testament. 1 Kings chapter 18. 1 Kings chapter 18, we're going to do a little reading about Elijah this morning. that great Old Testament prophet of God, Elijah, and how he confronted the prophets of Baal and set things right in the land of Israel. 1 Kings 18, and we're going to begin reading in verse 36. All right, once you've found your place, if you would stand with us for the reading of God's Word. We'll begin reading in verse 36, and we'll read down through verse 39. 1 Kings chapter 18. All right, let's pray together, and then we'll begin. Father, how would you thank you for your word this morning? We thank you for the privilege to gather, Lord, to hold the word of God in our hands and to hear it. We pray, Lord, that you'd speak to our hearts, that you'd bless the reading of your word today, or that you'll challenge us and speak to us clearly. Show us the things you'd have us do in our lives. Lord, just as Elijah was used of God to set things right in Israel, that your blessing might be outpoured to them. Lord, I pray that you will do the same in our lives today, in our hearts, and that you'll help us be that instrument, Lord, to set things right in our life, in our land, Lord, so that you might also pour out your blessing. And so we ask that you do your work in our hearts today. Lord, speak to us as only you can. In Jesus' name we ask, amen. Verse 36 says, And it 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 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. Hear me, O Lord, hear me. that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Verse 38 says, then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. What a powerful conclusion. If you know the story, this is Elijah confronting the prophets of Baal and his prayer was responded to by God, sending fire from heaven to consume the altar, the sacrifice on the altar that Elijah had made. Verse 38 says, then the fire of the Lord fell. And when I read it that way, that word then just makes me wonder. Maybe you've wondered this as you've read this story in the Bible. Then, why did the fire fall? What made it fall? Why did he say, then the fire fell? And I want to speak on that thought today. Why did the fire fall? Thank you so much. You may be seated. In order to kind of understand fully our story for those that maybe aren't familiar, as familiar with it, I want to back up and read a little bit of the context, the background of the story. I want to see and set the stage for this event so that we can remember what exactly is God doing in this moment when he responded to Elijah's prayer with fire from heaven. What was all this about? The Bible says in verse 1 of 1st Kings 18, Now this is kind of in the middle of God working in the midst of His nation. Ahab was a wicked king that had gotten away from God and had led Israel in the worship of Baal. Because of that, God had used Elijah to confront Ahab and to bring about a drought in the land. There had been no rain up to this time for the period, the Bible says now, of three years. No rain. In this chapter, Elijah and Obadiah are going through the wilderness and they're gonna be searching for grass so they can feed what's left of their horses and cattle so they won't die. The land has been without rain for three years. God told Elijah and sent him to King Ahab to pronounce this judgment on the land. There will be no rain. Elijah did that. And for three years, it has not rained. And Ahab's been on a search for Elijah, but God hid Elijah. And now in verse 1 of chapter 18, Elijah is going to come out of hiding at the bidding of God. God is now going to send him back to confront Ahab once again. So he says to Elijah in verse 1, he says to him, Go, show thyself to Ahab. Verse two, and Elijah went to show himself unto Ahab, and there was a sore famine in Samaria. Now let's skip down to verse 17. We're skipping the part where Ahab and Obadiah are searching the land for grass. All right, and we're going down to verse 17. And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Balaam. Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal 450, and the prophets of the groves 400, which eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered all the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. 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. 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. And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us! But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for He is a God! Either He is talking, or He is pursuing, or He is in a journey, or peradventure He sleepeth and must be awaked.' And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manor with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass, When the 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. And Elijah said unto all the people, come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And with the stones 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 seed. And he put the wood in order and cut the bullock in pieces and laid him on the wood and said, fill four barrels with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. And he said, do it the second time. 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 round about the altar, and he filled the trench also with water. And it 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. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and Thou hast turned their heart back again.' Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. Isn't that interesting? After this we find verse 40 says, Elijah had the people round up the prophets of Baal and they executed them. Elijah rid the land of those false prophets. And then he pronounced rain in Israel. He told Ahab, hurry up and get home. so that the rain doesn't stop you. Isn't that something? In verse 38 it says, "...then the fire of the Lord fell." The fire of God fell on the altar. It consumed the sacrifice, the Bible says, the wood, the stones, all of it, and even dried up all the water in the trench. Why did the fire of God fall? What had to happen so that fire could fall from heaven in this way? There are some ingredients in this story. They're not only true for Israel, but could be true for us as well. First of all, I want to say that fire falling from heaven is a very spectacular event. And before you ever pronounce something like that on this kind of a scale, I need to let you know that the reason Elijah came up with this plan is because God told him to do it. And there are things on this level, there are things of this kind that you and I best not pronounce unless we know God has spoken to do it this way. It would be like Peter stepping out of the boat and walking on the water. Hey, look, you don't do something like that unless the Lord bids you come. No other disciple tried that. Isn't that right? I have to say that because there's a lot of people who seem to go about and very casually say, the Lord told me this and the Lord told me that. And they're very overwilling to pronounce what God's going to be doing all the time. You know, the Bible had a test. for a prophet back in those days. If the prophecy of the prophet ever fails, even once, God said, you mark that person and know they are not a prophet of God. Amen? So when Elijah set all this up, he knew what was going to happen because God told him to do it like this. It was God's idea to have a contest by fire. But why did God send the fire? Was it a special occasion? Was it because Elijah was doing the praying? Why did God do this so willingly? Well, I see some of the actions of Elijah and I think sometimes in our lives we ask a similar question. Why won't God do this? And we wonder why wouldn't God work in our life in some victorious way like He did in people's lives in the Bible? Why doesn't God answer my prayer? Why doesn't God solve this problem? Why doesn't God act on my behalf? Well, let's see what Elijah did before he prayed, and let's see if you and I could employ these ingredients into our life, and see this morning if maybe it would invite the blessing of God upon us as it did on Elijah. Let's learn from this Old Testament story that the Apostle Paul would later say was written for our admonition. And so we see the events of this story take place. First of all, in verse 1, we see that God gave His Word. Hey, I want you to know this morning, it's a privilege for God to speak to you. It's a privilege for God to be at work in your life. It's a privilege to hear from God in a personal way. And when you do, don't ever take it for granted. If you were here on Wednesday night, you know that we were talking about the practicalities of living the Christian life. And one of the things that we got into Wednesday night was we were talking about that one little page between the Old and New Testament. The one that divides them. You know, mine is an introductory page. It says the New Testament. But otherwise, it's blank. And you know what that page represents? We were talking about this Wednesday night. It represents the silent years between the times of the Old Testament and the times of the New Testament. Do you know that time period was 400 years long? Now, I'm not talking about 400 years of God not speaking to the world. I'm talking about 400 years of God not speaking to His people. No prophecy, no prophet for 400 years. Hey, listen, that should just remind us how important and how special it is when God does speak. We need to take notice. When God does speak, we need to listen. We need to hear. You see, all of this that we're reading about this morning, it really wasn't about Elijah. It was about the Lord. It was not about Israel. It was about the God of Israel. The Bible is not a book about people so much as it is a book about God and how He interacted with those people. God's Word had to come into the picture in order for this fire to fall. And I want you to know if you want to have a Mount Carmel type Christian life, if you want to have victory over things that conflict with you, and if you want to see God answer great prayers and do mighty things, then I want you to know the Word of God has to come into your life. If you want to be the kind of Christian that is close to God, who knows the will of God, then you have to be close to His Word. This brought change to Israel. Has God's Word brought change to you? Has it brought about things in your life that God wants to change? If it has, you're on the threshold of being a victorious Christian. When God is at work in your life, take note, something good is about to happen. None of us can be victorious without God and His Word. God is making an effort to reach out to you, to speak to you about your life, about your plans. It's because He's got something in mind that He wants to do. When that happens, you are standing at the beginning of a fire-falling experience when God's Word comes to you. You know, this story begins with God's word coming to Elijah. But what happened? What did he do? Well, here's the first thing Elijah did. This is what we can learn from him because you and I have to do this also if we really want God to do special things in our life. Number one, Elijah heard and received the word of the Lord. Elijah heard and received the word of the Lord. I'm breaking it down for you this morning. Basically, we would say Elijah obeyed the Lord. But if you look at a little more detail, if you get your microscope out a little bit, dig down into obedience a little bit, you'll find that it involves both hearing and accepting in your heart, receiving the Word of the Lord. Hearing the Word of God with every intention to do what it says. You know, I'm telling you this morning, we've talked about this before, but how you hear the Word of God determines what you get out of it. Are you listening to the Word of God with the attitude of, well, I might consider that? Are you listening to God speak to you with the attitude of, well, I'll pray about that? If that's your attitude, if that's the way you receive the Word of God, you might not get very much that way. Why would God reveal things to you if He knows you're not going to do it? Sometimes people get in a quandary about doing the will of God in their life. Man, they want to know the will of God. Well, maybe the reason God hasn't revealed the will of God to you yet is because you're not ready to do it yet. Because He already knows that when you hear the Word of God, you're not willing to receive it. Then why should He reveal it? heard and received. He obeyed the word of the Lord. Now, you might want to think, how did Elijah do that? What all did that involve? Well, it's as simple as this. The Bible says in verse 1 of 1 Kings 18, it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, go show thyself unto Ahab. What happened? Verse 2, and Elijah went. That's how fast, that's how powerful it was. Listen, God didn't stutter, and Elijah didn't hesitate. God said, go show yourself to Ahab, and Elijah went, it says. It doesn't say he debated it, he didn't negotiate with God, he didn't have to spend a season of prayer thinking about, should I do this? It says Elijah went. You know, you and I should be that eager to follow the Lord. Now, I know some things in the Christian life are hard. I know some things catch us off guard. I know sometimes God asks us to do some things that maybe we're not quite ready for yet, or at least we think we're not ready. I know some of the ideas are far off from what we were expecting. And sometimes an adjustment of our expectations has to be made. I get that. We are human and God understands. But if underneath all of that chaos and confusion, there is a determination and a willingness ultimately to do what God says, He will give you those instructions if He knows you're willing to follow. Elijah obviously was willing to follow the Lord. After what he had been through for the last three years, standing before Ahab was easy. And you know, he arose to the occasion, the Bible says, and he went. This had to happen for the fire to fall. God says in verse 1 that he sent Elijah to Ahab. In verse 2 it says Elijah went. He did not choose based on what was convenient or comfortable. He recognized that this was God talking to him. So he did. Some people have simply not decided that they will wholly follow the Lord. If that is the case, do not be surprised when you pray and the fire doesn't fall. Elijah got to be involved when the fire fell because he was at God's disposal. He was willing to follow the Lord. We need to be connecting the dots between our sermons and our life, the things that we're learning and the things that we're living. It's good to agree with the pastor when he preaches, but do we do what he preaches when we go home from church? We must remember to connect our learning and our living in order for the fire to fall. So Elijah was willing to hear and receive the word of the Lord. He was willing to obey. How about you this morning? You know, we all want God to do great things in our lives and save our family members and all this kind of stuff. But are we willing to just obey the Lord, to just hear what he says and then go do it? Hey, that's really where it breaks down into everyday life. And if we would be that kind of Christian, then we would be the kind of Christian that God would hear and answer prayers for. How about this? Elijah did something else. Now, this one was a little bit harder. The next thing that we see happening is that Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal and Ahab. Now, I put them both in this point. We could say it like this. Elijah confronted what was wrong in Israel. The prophets of Baal represent what was doctrinally wrong. And Ahab represents what's spiritually wrong. Ahab was the leader of Israel, but he was a rebel at heart. Ahab grew up in the land of God's people, but he didn't live like it at all. He followed and led in the worship of Baal. He allowed Baal worship to flourish under his leadership. He was in direct rebellion of the commandments of God and everything he was taught as a Jewish boy. You know, you and I are going to have to look in the mirror. If we want God to answer our prayers and do special things in our life, if we want to have a special fire falling kind of experience with God, then listen to me. We're gonna have to deal with false things in our life and we're gonna have to deal with the attitude of rebellion that sometimes comes over us. The flesh rising up, the world and the devil all encouraging us not to follow the Lord and not to obey Him. Hey look, you can't be against God and disobedient to His word and then expect Him to just cause fire to fall out of heaven for you. It doesn't work like that. We need to be willing to follow God and serve God and do what God says. And in order to do that, we have to clean house sometimes. Israel had gotten to such a state where the wrong things had crept in. And they were worshiping false gods. And they had a rebel for a leader who was spiritually AWOL in his place, in his office. If you want to be victorious in your Christian life, you will have to confront some things in your life that are contrary to what God wants. If you're thinking of them right now, the Lord put them there in your thoughts. He's speaking to you to deal with those things. God's word will come to you on occasion and bring those things to your heart and to your mind so that you know exactly what it is that he wants you to do. Has God ever said, what about this? You cannot ignore things that are contrary to the will of God in your life and expect to be close to God. Elijah was at a moment in Israel's history when they needed him to be close to God so they could get help from heaven. Israel had been taken captive spiritually by this rebellious leader. And the false prophets of Baal, they were all headed in the wrong direction. Hey, I wonder, are there people in our lives that need us to be close to God? Perhaps their salvation or their future direction depends on it. Would it not be sad if you were not close enough to God to give them what they needed? You know, in this day in Israel's history, it took an Elijah to stand up against the majority. Hey, by the way, you know, the majority is not always right. There were several times in Bible times and in Israel's history, there were several times when the majority was wrong. Since our founding fathers as Americans were believers of some kind, Not perfect men, but they at least believed in God and recognized His word. They were familiar with what the Bible taught. Maybe that's why they didn't give us a simple democracy, majority rules. They gave us instead a republic, a representative form of government. And they balanced the powers of government in many ways, having three branches of government, having representation in both houses of Congress, giving a voice to the states as well as the federal government. Again, another balance of powers. Why was all that necessary? Because the majority is not always right, that's why. And Israel was in a place in their history where the majority was wrong. They were going the wrong direction. They were going away from God. They were worshiping false gods. And it took somebody being willing to confront that. It took an Elijah to stand up and say, hey, what are y'all doing? How long halt you between two opinions, he said. Is Baal God or is God God? And Elijah had to challenge their thinking and confront their behavior and call them back to the Lord. And you know, you can't call somebody back to a place where you're not. Elijah was walking with God. Elijah had been close to the Lord. He heard his voice and he obeyed it. And now he's asking Israel to do the same. Elijah had credibility in their mind and in their hearts. He had their ear because he walked what he was talking, because he lived what he was teaching them, because he practiced what he was preaching. You know, we need to be the same way. And in order to do that, we have to be willing to confront what is not right on occasion in our lives. He confronted that which was contrary to the word of God. Hey, let me ask you this morning, Christian, you want to be a successful Christian? You want to walk with God? You want God to do special things in your life? Hey, are you willing to do hard things? Because it's going to require that. You have to be willing to confront some things in your life to be close to God. You know what that meant? That meant the people had to make a decision. That's why Elijah said, how long halt you between two opinions? What are you going to do? Hey, folks, who are you going to listen to? Hey, they knew he was right. But they had to make a decision to listen and do what Elijah was saying. Hey, are you willing to change? Are you willing to allow God to change your direction or your behavior or your vocabulary? When you reject godly advice, you are endangering your own future. You cannot make the wrong decision and have the right outcome. People had to come face to face with the truth and be willing to accept the challenge. This is the challenge before you. Make the right decisions if you want the fire to fall in your life. I want to show you the third thing that Elijah did. Elijah then repaired the altar. He repaired the altar of God. The Bible says in verse 30, that Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down." You see, over the process of time, Israel shifted into Baal worship and they totally neglected God. And you know, it's true in our life sometimes, we get caught up with other things, we get distracted, we find ourselves at times when we love other things and we're paying attention to other things, and we totally neglect our relationship with the Lord. And it said the altar was broken down. You know, that's how people get out of sorts with God. That's how they do what we call backsliding. What does that mean? It just means you fall back, you fall away. You're not as close to God as you were before or at one time. Now, don't get me wrong, there's mountaintop experiences in the Christian life, and then there's valley experiences, right? I get that. But there are times when we just neglect being with God. speaking to him, letting him speak to us. There are times when we just don't obey him like we should. There's times when we just don't spend time. We don't talk to him like we should. Israel was in one of those times. In order for God to fix things, in order for the fire to fall and then to have victory, that relationship had to be repaired and restored. And so Elijah, look it's no accident, Elijah went and repaired the altar and that represents the relationship, the communication lines that we have with our God. We have to make sure that they remain open. Now you and I, we don't have a literal altar that we worship at. And there's a theological reason for that because Jesus became our altar. The sacrifice, if you will, has been made. But when we look back to these Old Testament stories, as the Apostle Paul said we should, we are admonished to remember that our relationship, we call it our devotional life. You know, the time we spend reading the Bible so that God can speak to us. And the time we spend in prayer so that we can speak to God. That's our connection. But sometimes our devotional life is like this old broken down altar. It's just out of sorts. It's just not what it used to be. We've just neglected it too long. And if we're gonna be victorious in the Christian life, guess what? We gotta go back and we gotta rebuild that altar. Hey, it's no accident. Go back to Genesis and check it out. The Bible says about Abraham that when God called him out of his place, everywhere Abraham went, the Bible says he built an altar to the Lord. He built an altar to the Lord. Why is that? Because Abraham loved God, that's why. And every place he went, he wanted to maintain that connection with God. And look, he put in the work. No wonder later the Bible says Abraham was the friend of God. No wonder when God was gonna destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he said to the angels, can I hide what I'm about to do from Abraham? Can't hide that from him, hey, we're close. And so God took Abraham aside and said, here's the plan. And that gave Abraham an opportunity to intercede on behalf of Lot and his family. A prayer that needed to be made and Lot was in no condition to make it. God, knowing that, gave Abraham the opportunity. And you know, if you and I don't repair the altars, if we don't rebuild our connection with God and maintain our devotional life, you know, we're just going to be given opportunities to other Christians who are. And there are some things that God will pass you by because He's not going to use you to do this because the altars are broken down in your life. Hey look, I'm just telling you, we can't expect to have a victorious Christian life and everything to be hunky-dory and God to do special fire-falling kind of things for us when the altars are all broken down. When our connection with God's not, it's not even there. It's not what it should be. We've neglected it long ago. And it's in disrepair. What is God saying? Revisit that. Rebuild that. Hey, do you know that's part of the recipe for revival? If you go to the book of Revelation, he talks about the three things you have to do for revival. And that fits right in with 2 Chronicles 7.14, you know, the revival passage. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and then turn from their wicked ways. You got the same ingredients there as you do in Revelation. And we're seeing some of it right here in Elijah's life. This is not new. It's part of the way God works. It's what God wants to see when he goes to work. Just recently, we read a verse in one of the messages where it talks about God runs to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward him. Well, hey, you gotta get your heart with him first. And in order to do that, you gotta rebuild the altar, you gotta rebuild your devotional life, and you gotta reconnect with God. Get right with him. Re-establish your connection and your devotions. Talk to him again. Let him talk to you again. Hey, did you notice he confronted the prophets of Baal and dealt with them first? He exposed them as being false. And then he rebuilt the altars. Isn't that something? Look what he's doing. Piece by piece, Elijah is following God's recipe for revival. When you and I let spiritual things go to shambles in our life and crumble around us, we cannot expect to thrive spiritually. In this story, it is said that the altar is in shambles and it's torn down and Elijah has to rebuild them. No wonder God was not there in Israel. No wonder he sent the judgment of the drought upon them. Elijah had to repair the altar of the Lord. Hey, let me ask you this morning, what needs to be put back in its rightful condition in your life for things to be right with the Lord again, like they should? What is it? Elijah knew exactly what it was. He knew exactly what was broken, and he rebuilt the altar. Elijah's actions to do these three things, to hear and receive the Word of God, to obey it, to confront what was wrong in Israel, and to rebuild the altar, to reestablish the connection with God, that's what it took to make the fire fall. Hey, did you notice? The prophets of Baal spent all day long jumping, chomping, leaping on the altar, crying aloud, even cutting themselves, trying to get some fire to fall. Nothing happened. But Elijah does these three things, and when these ingredients, when these three things are done, look what Elijah did to get fire to fall. The Bible says in verse 36, and it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, he spoke this simple prayer, 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. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and Thou hast turned their heart back again.' Then the fire of the Lord fell." Isn't that something? Wow! All he did was say a humble, quiet little prayer. Wait a minute. It wasn't the prayer that made the fire fall. It's what he did before the prayer. It's what he did leading up to that moment. By the time the evening sacrifice rolls around, everything now has been checked off of God's requirement list for revival. Elijah knows the Word of God and he knew how to reconnect with God. All he had to do was do it. And he did. You know, when you and I find ourselves away from the Lord, we have the same challenge and the same question. Will we do what God demands, what he expects? If we're willing to do what God says, then we can have the victory. It really is that simple. But you notice it was not easy. It never is. It's not always easy to obey the Lord because some things he asks us to do is challenging. It's not always easy to confront things that are wrong in our life. Elijah had to be willing to confront the prophets of Baal. Somebody had to. It's not always easy to put in the time to rebuild a connection with God, to put in the work that it takes to do that. Because if you've ever been away from the Lord and tried to get back, you know the road to get back seems longer than the road that left out of here. You know that it's easier to get away from the Lord than it is to get back. And it certainly takes some work to rebuild that connection. But Elijah put in the work. And when you do, that is when God wants to show up and do something special. That is when God wants to be there. He wants to do His will. He wants to help you be victorious. God wants to answer that prayer. All of that. We think about the victorious Christian life and sometimes we just tell ourselves, well, you know, that's for heaven. No, it isn't. It's for down here. The promised land in the Old Testament represented the life that God wanted us to live. The life where we overcome the enemies and cast them out of the land. The life where we inherit the blessings and the promises of God right now. But we can't experience the victorious Christian life unless we do the things God wants us to do first. And that's it. Just three things. Simple things. not always easy things. The question is, are you willing to do it? Hey, that's why I get excited when I get to verse 38 because it says, then the fire of the Lord fell. Hey, you know what? Israel had never seen anything like that before. Fire of God falling from heaven. and at the request of a man, even. This was a big show for men. To God, this wasn't any big deal. God can do anything. But this is what God chose to do. to show himself strong on behalf of Israel, once certain things were done and set in place, God drew his people back. You know, because that's really where God wants us, close to him, connected to him, serving him, obeying him. That's where God wants. And you know, that's where we're happiest. That's how our Christian lives were meant to be lived. That's why the psalmist said, make me to go in the paths of thy commandments, for therein, he said, do I delight. You know, the best life there is, is the Christian life. And when we live it the way God prescribed, it's a blessing. There's nothing better. Hey, that's the challenge this morning. Then the fire of the Lord fell. When these things were accomplished, Elijah had only to kneel by the altar and pray a simple prayer for the fire to fall. It was not the prayer that brought the fire. It was the purpose. And the purpose was wrapped up in each one of these principles, these ingredients. If you become a victorious Christian person, it will have to happen on purpose. It's certainly not going to happen by accident. It's not about us doing things our way and then asking God to bless it and get in on it. It's about us learning to do things His way. When you do things His way, amazing things happen. The people went away from there saying, wow, let me tell you what happened. Did you see that? The same will be true in your life if you're willing to follow God and just do what he says. Let's bow for prayer. Father, how we love you tonight, this morning, how we thank you for your goodness to us in our lives. We thank you, Lord, for the hope, for the prospect, for the power of a victorious Christian life. Lord, the idea that we could conquer our enemies The idea that we could see God do special things in our life. Lord, these things intrigue us. They give us hope. They fill us with confidence, Lord. They help us. Then, Lord, in light of these things, may we be willing to humble ourselves and do the simple things, not always easy, but the simple things you ask us to do. May we, like Elijah, Lord, may we obey you, may we confront the things that are wrong in our lives, and may we keep the communication lines open. May our devotions and our worship of you be uninterrupted. Lord, so that when we need you to act on our behalf, the way is clear and there's nothing between. Oh, help us, Lord. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.