1 Kings 18:41-46 – Go Get God – Bible study

1Kings 18:41-46 Go Get God This is the ending of a great account in the Bible. 1. \#1Kings 17:1\ Elijah stepped onto the pages of Scripture with a message for the wicked King, Ahab. "There shall be neither rain nor dew until I say so." 2. That was three years past and not one drop of water had fallen in Israel since. Crops had failed, livestock had died, and I am certain, people had as well. 3. The king sought high and low for Elijah but could not find him. He had even sought for him in other countries, but God was taking care of Elijah. 4. Then, Elijah stepped into plain view again. He told the king that it was time for the nation to decide what God they would worship and he challenged the prophets of Baal. 5. The challenge was to prepare a sacrifice and have the living God consume it with fire from heaven. 6. Elijah let the prophets of Baal go first. They prayed and cried and cut themselves for hours. Nothing happened. 7. Elijah prepared his sacrifice, then had barrels of water poured on it. Barrel after barrel until 12 barrels of precious water soaked the sacrifice, the altar, and even the ground. 8. Then Elijah prayed and God answered, consuming the sacrifice, the water, the altar, even licking clean the dirt the altar was on. 9. Then Elijah had the false prophets killed and now turns to pray for rain. It is time for someone to go get God. Israel was ruinednot just be the drought but by the sin Israel was committing. God was needed to bring water and life back to a parched people. There will come a time when in every life where everyone is going to want to get God. Death guarantees that so that it is without question. The question will be, how do you get God. Three thoughts this morning. I. Israels drought was a picture of their spiritual condition. A. The Bible is filled with miracles. 1. Blind men receiving their sight, lame men walking, deaf men hearing, sick souls being made well, and dead bodies receiving life again. 2. Every one of those is a physical picture of our spiritual condition. a. The blind picture those who cant see sin, God, and their condition. b. The deaf picture those who cannot hear and understand truth. c. The lame and sick picture those who have been broken and left helpless by sin. d. The dead picture those who are dead in their sins, bound for hell. B. This drought in this account pictured those who were spiritually thirsty but had gone to an empty well for drink. 1. The king had gathered hundreds of Baal prophets and probably Baal worshippers to the top of Mount Carmel to see this epic show down, but as far as we know, Elijah stood alone to represent God. 2. One man in a nation to represent God. Indeed, this land was dry and thirsty. 3. Elijah was to demonstrate to this dry land that there was a living God. He was to go get God and to get Him in such a way that even the blind could see and the deaf would hear. C. Consider two truths: 1. Elijah did not need to get God. Elijah already had God. a. For the last three years, while the nation was in a drought, Elijah had had both water and food. b. Why? Because God was taking care of Elijah. c. Elijah is not going to get God because HE needs God. d. Elijah is going to get God because THEY need God. e. Remember, those who need God gotten for them are the blind, the deaf, the sick, the lame, and the dead. f. They wont know to go get God for themselves. g. Someone who has God will have to go get God for them. h. That is what Elijah was going to do. 2. Elijah followed a pattern. a. He did not create the pattern. b. Others had gone to get God before him and after him, using the same pattern. c. The pattern that Elijah used worked then and will work now. II. Notice how Elijah got God. What was the pattern? A. Elijah humbled himself. 1Kings 18:42 he cast himself upon the earth, and but his face between his knees," 1. That is a physical position of humility. 2. People today think it does not matter how you pray as long as you pray. They believe that not because the Bible teaches it, but because that is what their logic has lead them to believe. a. Logic says prayer is me talking and God listening. b. If I talking, God can listen no matter what position I am in and no matter what I am doing. (1) Logically, that is all true. (2) However, Biblically, when a saint prayed, he or she would humbled themselves. (3) They would bow, or fall before God, usually on an altar. (4) Why? (a) Because prayer is not just getting God to hear you. (b) Prayer is getting God to answer you. (c) And humility increases the chances that God will answer you! 3. Take note – Getting down on your knees while still standing up in your heart will do not good. a. The first kind of humility some of us need is to see ourselves as sinnersboth the saved and the lost. b. Some need to see how spiritually dry they are and to turn from it! 4. Humility starts in the heart! B. Elijah prayed. 1. The Bible does not record Elijahs prayer, but as Elijah is following a patter, I think we can figure out what he prayed by looking at the prayers of others who went to find God. a. Nehemiah Neh 1:4 And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, 5 And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: 6 Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my fathers house have sinned. 7 We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. (1) Notice that Nehemiah, a just man, is confessing sin. (2) Probably not his personal sin, but the nations sins. b. Daniel Dan 9:4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: 6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. (1) Daniel, another righteous man, followed the same pattern. (2) Why are men who probably did not commit sin confessing sin? Because before you can go get God, something is going to have to be done about the sin that has been committed. (3) Elijah was going to go get God and then cut a path through the weeds of sin for Him to meet with Israel that day! 2. Sin is what makes God hard to find. It does not matter whether it is your sin, mine sin, or our sin. God does not stay long in the midst of sin. 3. I do not know what Elijah prayed but I suspect he confessed to God some of the sins of Israel. C. Elijah kept on praying. 1Kings 18:43 And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. 1. The Bible does not tell us how long Elijah prayed before he sent his servant to look the first time; but when he did, there was nothing to see. 2. So Elijah went back to praying. 3. This happened seven times. Someone asks, "How long would Elijah have prayed?" He would have prayed until God came because that is what he was seeking. 4. This is the pattern. Daniel 9:3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: Neh 1:4 And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, 5. Sometimes I fear that we pray not for the results but only so that we can say that we prayed. a. That is not the type of prayer that finds God. b. We must pray and keep on praying! 1. Elijah believed that God was going to come. That is what he was seeking for and that is what he expected. 2. Faith has always been an important part of the "getting God" pattern as so many Bible verses tell us. 3. Four things demonstrate Elijahs faith: a. Elijah did not look to see what his prayers were accomplishing. He knew what they would accomplish so he kept praying. The only reason he sent the servant to look was to see if it was time to start moving before the rain came. b. Elijah did not quit praying. He knew God was going to come and would not stop until He did. c. Elijah did not doubt. Though the circumstances of that day were tense and what he was seeking was physically impossible, not one word of doubt is uttered. d. Elijah did not wait. When he heard there was a cloud the size of a mans hand, he started heading down the mountain. (If you are going to pray for rain, at least bring an umbrella!) E. Elijah offered a sacrifice. 1. We are only reading the end of the account but the whole chapter goes together. Elijah had offered a sacrifice. 2. I do not believe that we Christians, myself included, have the right perspective of the Old Testament sacrifices. a. We think of them only as a payment for sinwhich they were a picture of Jesus death so that is correct in part. b. However, they were also a sacrifice to the person, a sacrifice which always cost the worshipper. 2Sam 24:24 And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. c. The Old Testament saints never worshipped God when it DID NOT cost them something. d. While we can meet together to worship for free, I am not sure that God will ever be in a place where someone did not sacrifice to get Him there. III. When God showed up, it was small at first. 1Kings 18:44 And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a mans hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. A. We dont know how long Elijah prayed for a cloud no bigger than a mans hand! 1. Another man might have said, "Thats not it." 2. Elijah knew it was. Indeed, he was not surprised by the smallness of what God did at all. B. Elijah had learned that God not only works in the big things but in the small things as well. 1. In fact, for the last three years, small birds had feed him beside a small stream. 2. When that stopped, a widow woman living in a small house fed him with a small barrel of flour. 3. I have said before, "God never works the way you think He will, but God always works." C. The key is to respond correctly to the small things God does. 1. As God starts to work in small ways, have faith and obey. 2. Elijah knew that small cloud would neither blow away nor blow by. 3. He had seen God work before so he sent word to the king that that cloud was about to blow up! There is a pattern for getting God. Someone needs to go get Him. It works best when someone who already has Him goes to get Him for those who do not. Will you go get God for someone today?