SPEAKER_00: Our first reading today is taken from the book of Kings, first book, and it is about Elijah facing the prophets of Baal.
SPEAKER_00: Now there was a great famine in the land, and the Israelites had turned to Baal, another god to worship.
SPEAKER_00: And they would go back and forth between worshiping the Lord and worshiping Baal.
SPEAKER_00: And finally Elijah comes along and says, Let's see who God really is.
SPEAKER_00: We'll have a showdown, and we will see.
SPEAKER_00: Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first.
SPEAKER_00: For you are many, and call on the name of your God, but put no fire under it.
SPEAKER_00: The whole idea was that they would build these altars and call upon their God to bring that fire down and light the altar.
SPEAKER_00: So they took the bowl which was given them, and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, O Baal, hear us, O Baal, hear us.
SPEAKER_00: But there was no voice, no one answered.
SPEAKER_00: Then they leaped around the altar which they had made.
SPEAKER_00: And so it was at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for he is a god.
SPEAKER_00: Either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is even sleeping and must be awakened.
SPEAKER_00: So they cried aloud and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances.
SPEAKER_00: And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: But there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention.
SPEAKER_00: Then Elijah said to the people, Come near to me.
SPEAKER_00: So all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the Lord's word had said, Israel shall be my your name.
SPEAKER_00: Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and made a trench all around the altar large enough to hold two saws of seed, about four gallons.
SPEAKER_00: And he put the word the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, Fill four water pots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said, Do it a second time.
SPEAKER_00: And they did so a second time.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Do it a third time, and they did it a third time.
SPEAKER_00: So the water ran all around the altar, and it also filled up the trench with water.
SPEAKER_00: And it came to pass at that 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 you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word.
SPEAKER_00: Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their hearts back to you again.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of Baal, do not let one of them escape.
SPEAKER_00: So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and executed them there.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And our reading from the New Testament is taken from Matthew chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
SPEAKER_00: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
SPEAKER_00: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, from the heavenly doctrines, Apocalypse explained a portion of paragraph number seven thirty, explaining, I will punish her for the days of Baal when she went after her lovers.
SPEAKER_00: The Baals and the lovers whom she chased signify the things of the natural man or person that are loved selfishly, specifically lusts and cupidities from falsehoods that come with them.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Here end our lessons.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: What is the first commandment?
SPEAKER_00: You shall have no other gods before my face.
SPEAKER_00: And this was exactly what was happening in the time of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites had turned away from the Lord, and they were worshiping Baal, a sky god that brought rain and fertility to the land.
SPEAKER_00: Interestingly enough, as soon as they started to worship this rain god, the rain stopped.
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah warned them there would be no rain until they turned back to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So as this was happening, Elijah decided, let's show them who the real God is.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Elijah was pointing something out that we know today here, something that they didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people thought maybe the Lord was the greatest God, but there were a lot of gods.
SPEAKER_00: What Elijah was showing them today is there was no one else out there.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other God except the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So you heard he started a contest.
SPEAKER_00: He told them to build an altar, put a bowl on it, which was the sacrifice, and call fire down on that altar.
SPEAKER_00: And then on the other side, after you're done, I will do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Whichever God answers by fire, that is God.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what happened.
SPEAKER_00: But let's stop for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we even have that commandment, worship other gods?
SPEAKER_00: Do we?
SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
SPEAKER_00: We can worship other gods.
SPEAKER_00: If you think about it, when we love ourselves more than the Lord, we are worshiping another God.
SPEAKER_00: We're worshiping our own love of self.
SPEAKER_00: When we love things in the world more than God, let's say if it's money or pleasure, or even things like being very popular, and that's more important to us than worshiping the Lord or being right all the time, even when we hurt people, we're putting something bigger and higher up there than the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Baal, hear us.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Baal represents for us.
SPEAKER_00: Anything that we do that we worship that we believe is more important than the Lord, and follow that instead of the Lord is worshiping Baal.
SPEAKER_00: And so now we see what happens.
SPEAKER_00: So the Baals or the prophets of Baal start to dance around the altar.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Baal, hear us.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, it's O Baal, answer us, answer us.
SPEAKER_00: Because Baal could hear, but they went, no, bring that fire down.
SPEAKER_00: Answer us.
SPEAKER_00: Let us see that you are real.
SPEAKER_00: We know you are.
SPEAKER_00: So they danced and they danced and they shouted and they shouted.
SPEAKER_00: And nothing happened.
SPEAKER_00: It says there was no voice.
SPEAKER_00: No one answered.
SPEAKER_00: So they danced and they danced and they shouted more.
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah started to make fun of them.
SPEAKER_00: He really did make fun of them.
SPEAKER_00: He was like, Perhaps your God is meditating.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's busy.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's on a journey.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, perhaps he's asleep and must be awakened.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_00: There they are, they're hearing this happening.
SPEAKER_00: Why did Elijah do that?
SPEAKER_00: He was a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: He was trying to show them without a doubt.
SPEAKER_00: Your God is absent.
SPEAKER_00: He's not here.
SPEAKER_00: He's not on a journey.
SPEAKER_00: He's not over there.
SPEAKER_00: He's not taking care of himself.
SPEAKER_00: He's He doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_00: There was no voice.
SPEAKER_00: No one answered.
SPEAKER_00: No one paid attention.
SPEAKER_00: For those who would like to go a little deeper, you could say there was no truth in it in what they were saying.
SPEAKER_00: No one answered.
SPEAKER_00: There was no good that came forth from those prayers.
SPEAKER_00: No one paid attention.
SPEAKER_00: No one attended to them.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing useful comes out of us worshiping the love of self.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the Lord wants us to see in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: There are things as you grow up, and some of us who are a lot older know this well.
SPEAKER_00: There are things that we'll be tempted to do that make us think we'll be happy.
SPEAKER_00: We'll think we'll be happy and we'll do them again and again.
SPEAKER_00: Keep worshiping, keep praying, O Baal, hear us.
SPEAKER_00: And yet there's something deep and empty inside of us at that time.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever finally got something that you really wanted?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe it was fun for a little while, but not as fun as you thought it was going to be.
SPEAKER_00: Well, think about when you do something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: When we do something wrong, we can think this is going to be delightful for us.
SPEAKER_00: This is going to help us.
SPEAKER_00: If I yell at that person, I'm going to feel so good.
SPEAKER_00: If I take that thing that doesn't belong to me, it's going to make me happy they didn't deserve it anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it may be that we're going through.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we do that and immediately we feel empty inside.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing there.
SPEAKER_00: There's no good in it.
SPEAKER_00: We don't learn anything.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing happens that helps us.
SPEAKER_00: And so they started at the very end.
SPEAKER_00: They started to hurt themselves.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's like, why?
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: That was, did you read that?
SPEAKER_00: That was their custom.
SPEAKER_00: They were showing Baal, we're willing to do anything for you.
SPEAKER_00: And again, when someone has really succumbed to evil, really succumbed to the love of self and the love of the world, oftentimes maybe it won't be anything, but we can feel inside, I'll do anything to be right this time.
SPEAKER_00: I'll do anything to get that thing I really want.
SPEAKER_00: I'll do anything, Baal, for you to answer.
SPEAKER_00: And yet there was no voice.
SPEAKER_00: No one answered.
SPEAKER_00: No one paid attention.
SPEAKER_00: So finally they were exhausted, so Elijah says, My turn.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes and he repairs the altar.
SPEAKER_00: They had broken down an altar before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He repairs that altar.
SPEAKER_00: He brings in twelve stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel and places those stones on the ground and builds that altar on top of the stones.
SPEAKER_00: Reminds me of the Lord telling us if we do hear and do what he says, it's like building our house upon what?
SPEAKER_00: The rock.
SPEAKER_00: So we're building this altar here, upon the truths of the Lord's word, all the different teachings that tell us how to live.
SPEAKER_00: And then he ordered the bull on top of this altar, which symbolizes the Lord putting our lives in order.
SPEAKER_00: If we allow the Lord, allow the Lord to guide us, when those things come up and we're tempted to limp over and worship Baal, we take a stand.
SPEAKER_00: I won't do that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to follow the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This time I'm going to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: I really am.
SPEAKER_00: And make a commitment for that to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And so the altar is built.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what did he do next?
SPEAKER_00: He took this, let's say this.
SPEAKER_00: He took a lot of water, a lot of water, and poured, had them pour it on this altar that he was going to lay.
SPEAKER_00: It filled up the trench that he had put around it, soaked, soaked.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the prophets of Baal probably looked at this and went, This isn't going to work.
SPEAKER_00: What is he doing?
SPEAKER_00: That's so foolish.
SPEAKER_00: Fire will never come down.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, he knew something deep inside about the word that they didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: And that is that water signifies, we could all say it at once, truth.
SPEAKER_00: The truth.
SPEAKER_00: And so what he was showing us there in a deeper symbolic level was pour, soak your life with truth.
SPEAKER_00: What do you believe in?
SPEAKER_00: Especially those things you might be tempted to do.
SPEAKER_00: Allow yourself to know fully that's not the right way.
SPEAKER_00: And have that truth be surrounding us, our altar, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: So he does.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, it can look like it's not going to work, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's sayings we have.
SPEAKER_00: If I live a good life, I'll be a wet blanket, right?
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just like life is just going to be so, such a damper on my life to live by what the Lord says.
SPEAKER_00: You could feel that way.
SPEAKER_00: Like so, say somebody who says, I need to get away right now from this group of friends I'm with, because they're going down the wrong path.
SPEAKER_00: And yet you look over and say, but I don't want to stay home all day every day.
SPEAKER_00: It's too hard to make new friends.
SPEAKER_00: And that can happen with so many things.
SPEAKER_00: We think of, if I don't do this thing, if I don't, if I don't want to try to get that thing, I won't be happy.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to go, that's just an appearance.
SPEAKER_00: Follow the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let that water soak the altar.
SPEAKER_00: Something miraculous is going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: So right before anything happens, Elijah does something very important.
SPEAKER_00: What he does is he prays.
SPEAKER_00: In front of all these people, it looked like he was the only one left.
SPEAKER_00: He prays, Lord, please, please.
SPEAKER_00: Let them know this day that there is a God in Israel, and I am your servant, and that you are bringing them back to you.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we can get all set to follow the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We say, okay, I'm gonna stop doing that thing now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm already, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we forgot something.
SPEAKER_00: Please help me, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer to call upon the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And in this story, he does that extra, please.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, Lord, please.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that's what we need to do.
SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe as new church people, sometimes we think, well, the Lord loves us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to only say, please, okay, good.
SPEAKER_00: You know, no, we beg.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't the Lord already know?
SPEAKER_00: Well, when we say, please, please, please, we're opening ourselves up to allow that fire to come down.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine, as soon as he didn't even get a chance to say Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That fire comes down and it just, it, it, it takes everything and burns up everything, even the dust on the ground, it said.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately everybody went, The Lord, the Lord is God, the Lord is God.
SPEAKER_00: And that promise to us is that that Lord's fire, what is actually bringing us happiness in our life, the Lord's love can come in and fill us when we turn to Him.
SPEAKER_00: When we turn to the Lord instead of worshiping other gods and ask the Lord to guide us and take those steps to follow His ways.
SPEAKER_00: We may think that our lives will become boring.
SPEAKER_00: They become filled with joy, filled with happiness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, sometimes it takes time and we do this a lot and it comes, but this story is showing us that the Lord is all powerful.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is all love and mercy, and the Lord can bring fire of love down into our lives if we let him do that.
SPEAKER_00: And so think for yourself, when you go home or sometime today, what's something that I'm wanting and doing that's greater than following the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: See, I'm gonna stop doing that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna follow what the Lord says.
SPEAKER_00: And then Lord, please.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do that anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Please.
SPEAKER_00: And then fire will come down.