Pastor Dale Tunnell: It has become a story because it happened so long ago.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Some of you may remember though when the Soviet Union fell
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Nikita Hershoff was giving a major address to the Soviet affairs and the body there in Moscow.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He stood up and he was proclaiming many of the atrocities that had taken place during the age of Stalin.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: His speech was was breaking new ground as he was was admitting what had happened
Pastor Dale Tunnell: during those years.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: While he was speaking those, someone in the audience wrote him a note and sent it forward.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The note read Premier Herschel
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What were you doing when Stalin committed all these atrocities?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When he received the note, he was rather upset.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He shouted at everyone, Who wrote this?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: There was silence
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said again, if you don't have the nerve to admit that you wrote this, then I don't have to answer.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I will give you one minute to stand up and say, who wrote this?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And there was silence.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: As a minute concluded
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said, I was doing exactly what the author of this note was doing while Stalin committed these atrocities.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I did nothing.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I watched.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I observed.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But I did not stand up and I was not recognized.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm going to tell you, we've been looking at the life of Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah was not that way.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: If we have learned anything in the days of Elijah, we have learned that Elijah was a person who stood up and he was counted.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We started a few weeks ago talking about Elijah shows up there in front of Ahab.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He stands there in the gap.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We we talked about a few weeks ago is that he was was even before he stood in front of Ahab, he was was praying about the state of of the state of his country
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The things that were happening in the world around him, how bad it had gotten, how evil it was.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God, how could your people have wandered so far away from you?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And we get to the place where we are today, still talking about the days of Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Thinking about how I could have titled this sermon.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The message that I have today is I thought about a prayer for fire.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Have you ever prayed for fire?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I thought about titling The Battle of the Gods
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or the greatest conflict of the century.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That was that century back then, but it it could have made the headlines.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The God Who Answers by Fire
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But I decided to title it No Rain, No Rain, No Rain.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you like that name rain the word rain?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Interesting word, isn't it?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I spent too many years as an English teacher, I guess.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Trying to explain those kind of words.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When we're talking about Elijah,
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We see that Elijah is willing to stand up.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He is willing to be counted.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We don't see him as being terrified.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We see Elijah as being confident.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We see him as being determined.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We see him as a person that is doing everything he can to glorify God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wants to bring honor and glory to God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wants to stand up for God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wants to stand up for the character of God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wants to stand up for the Ten Commandments of God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is a bold message that Elijah came before Ahab to proclaim.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: In 1 Kings 17, where we started.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But in 1 Kings chapter 18, the message is no less bold.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You have your Bibles open.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They were there for the scripture reading.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: 1 Kings 18.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice it says in verse one, and it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go present yourself to Ahab.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I will send rain on the earth.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So Elijah went
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Well, those last three words, or the first three words of verse two, those are pretty strong words, aren't they?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So Elijah went.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Where has Elijah been for the last several months?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Zarephath.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Where was he before that?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The Brookshire.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Where was he before that?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was praying, right?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Where does it say he is from in chapter 17?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The Tishbite from Gilead.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now we know all we know about Elijah's history, right?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: For the last three and a half years, there have been wanted posters everywhere for Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, we're out here in the Wild West, aren't we?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We know a little bit about wanted posters.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Can you imagine wanted posters for Elijah everywhere around the country?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was a wanted man.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And it says, God said to him, Go and show yourself to Ahab.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And it says, Elijah went.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What would you have been tempted to do?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Stay.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now remember where he was staying.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was in the
Pastor Dale Tunnell: House with the widow.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He had been there for we don't know how many months now.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But this was the seat of Baal worship.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you think he might have gotten comfortable there?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Eating
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What God was providing every day?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Every day the food was a miracle for him.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God was taking care of him.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God was sustaining him.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He could have said, God, it it's working.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The snow rain thing, you're getting their attention.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Just keep going, Lord.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I I'm gonna stay here.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It seems rather safe.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They don't they don't haven't figured out where I am net.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But it says Elijah went
Pastor Dale Tunnell: to present himself to Ahab, and there was a severe famine in Samaria, and Ahab had called Obadiah, who was in charge of his house, and Obadiah filled the Lord feared the Lord greatly
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm reading Obadiah again and I'm just remembering all this this this story here.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Someday I may preach a sermon about Obadiah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He he deserves
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, this man, Obadiah, deserves a sermon.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He deserves to be to be remembered.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice what verse 4 says.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: For so it was while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: hidden them fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Come on.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Amen.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, can you imagine what Obadiah was doing for those prophets of God for those three and a half years?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Obadiah was in charge of Ahab's house, and yet he had taken
Pastor Dale Tunnell: A hundred prophets of God and had them hidden in the caves, and he was feeding them.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, just the things that go through my mind when I think about this.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was taking care of them off Ahab's table.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, praise the Lord.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That there was an individual like Obadiah who feared the Lord so greatly
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That he was willing.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, what would have happened if he had gotten caught?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How fast do you think it'd take for them to kill him?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It happened pretty quickly, wouldn't it?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But he was willing to put himself in that place
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Okay, I gotta move on.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Someday whole sermon.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm gonna have you jump down here to ver 16.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And then it happened when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said to him, Is that you, O troubler of Israel?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, can you imagine those words coming out of Ahab's mouth?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Well, what was Ahab thinking as he was on the way to see
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or what was he thinking when Obadiah said, Elijah wants to meet you?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, the thoughts that must have gone through through Ahab's mind
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you think he was afraid to meet Elijah?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you think he was worried about what Elijah was going to do?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean he had put out one it posters.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wanted this man dead or alive.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you think he was afraid that Elijah was going to do something to
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The crops?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: To the cattle?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: To the rest of their food?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The rest of their livelihood?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, as it was, everything was in ruins.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you think as Ahab was going to meet Elijah that he remembered the story in first Kings chapter thirteen of one of his predecessors who had stretched out his hand against the servant of the Lord, and as he stretched it out his hand had
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Withered.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you think that had gone through the mind of Ahab?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How many soldiers do you think he had with him?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sometimes I wish the Bible had given us a few more details.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How thick do you think this would have been if he had if all the details you wanted to know were in here?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How many books would it have taken
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you the you are the one that is troubling Israel
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ahab says.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And that word troubling Israel, that's a word that that many commentators think that that's not strong enough.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: In fact, one commentator says that the word there really should be translated, are you the one that has put a hex on Israel?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know, that's a that's a curse.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because that's the kind of terminology that the people that worship Baal would have used
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you the kind of person?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you the person that has put the curse on us?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you the one that has put the hex on us?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you the one that has caused all of our problems?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah hears that
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And verse 18 says, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: In that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the bales.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you ever play these scenes through in your in in your head and you wonder what it was like?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean if you could be the director for for for
Pastor Dale Tunnell: you know, the movie as it's portraying this.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What what what do you have Elijah doing when he says that?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, do you picture Elijah when he's when when when
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ahab accuses him, you troubler of Israel.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And when when Elijah responds, do you have Elijah kind of, no, you are the one that's troubling Israel
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You and your father as you worship Baals.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you have him looking down at the ground?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you have him kicking at the dust around there?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you have him, you know, trying to dig up one of the the the tumbleweeds that are there?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What do you have of Elijah doing?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean if I'm directing it
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The way I picture it, the Elijah that I have come to know through the stories that we have, I have Elijah looking right at Ahab, looking him in the eye, confronting him face to face.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't want to say he's pointing his finger at him, but he's making it clear that Ahab knows that he's talking to him and says, No, you are the one who has brought this.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You and your family, you are the one that has caused this catastrophe to come on Israel
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah wants to make it very clear.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He is not going to mince words.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He is going to let the Ahab know who is responsible.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You see, Elijah was jealous for the character of God
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He knew what was going on in Israel at this time.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He understood what was taking place.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God's character, the Ten Commandments had been trampled, were being trampled on.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Commandment number one, no other gods before me.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Did they have other gods?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They did.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Number two, no graven images.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: At this time, did they have graven images?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Number three, not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Were they taking God's name in vain?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Number four, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Were they remembering the Sabbath day?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Number five, honor the parents.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Were they honoring parents?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You were quieter on that one.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Have you forgotten some of the history of how these kings were coming into power?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And how some of them were killing their parents in order to come into power and making sure that the whole family was annihilated.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Just reminder there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Number six, you shall not murder.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Where is that taking place?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, I just gave you the answer to that.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Number seven, you shall not steal.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Was that taking place?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you get the picture of what is taking place?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Not lie, not covet.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Those things are taking place.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The Ten Commandments are are are being eroded in the days of Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is this this is causing his is his consternation.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is what is driving his prayer life
Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is what is motivating him with standing there and being willing to stand there in front of Ahab.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is part of what's giving him the courage to say what he is saying.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's because he realizes what is happening to the name of God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we see it happening in our society today?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Where is Elijah?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we need an Elijah today?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is there a need for rebuke to take place today?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh my, oh my.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Got so much stuff written here.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want to make sure that I don't uh skip anything.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When God sends you and me on a mission, do we have the nerves of Elijah?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or do we just kinda scratch the dirt around us and hem and haw and
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are we unmovable?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are we unshakable?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You see, Elijah was he was unashamed.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was unterrified.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I imagine him looking Ahab straight in the eye.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sometimes I I I don't want people to get upset at me
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't want to give the harsh message.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't want to come across so hard and strong.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I like people to like me.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you think Ahab liked Elijah at this point in time?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Whose fault was that?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You see, sometimes we're worried about the wrong things.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Prophets and Kings, page 140, says, today there is a need of the voice of stern reboot rebo
Pastor Dale Tunnell: for grievous sins have separated the people from God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Infidelity is fast becoming fashionable.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When does she write Prophets and Kings?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That was just a just just a few years ago, wasn't it?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That that last sent that last line there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Infidelity is fast becoming fashionable.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I think if she were alive and well today, and if she were to write it today, she would write, infidelity is the fashion of the day.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Infidelity is popular today.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Infidelity is the way people are living today.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: In fact, it has become so popular that we lift it up.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And we as a nation have become proud of it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Look how bold they are.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Look how much courage it it takes to be to have that kind of infidelity.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we need Elijah today?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, do we understand what infidelity is?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm going to give you some other words for that, okay?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Infidelity, that is adultery towards God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Adultery, that's a the children went to children's church, right?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because I have some words here that
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Adultery is a sexual sin.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We live in our world today that sexuality has become and become
Pastor Dale Tunnell: commonplace.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It is it is on T V, it's on all our devices, it's on all the ads, all the commercials.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You can it is difficult.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: to hide yourself from it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We some used to, you know, watch some TV shows or watch some
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I remember uh at summer camp, you know, where they would show the videos and they would put their hand up over the the projector and they didn't want us to see
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Was it kissing scenes or, you know, something like that?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh man, kissing scenes is the mild thing today on TV.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You wish you could put your hand over the screen of some things that people are watching today.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I remember when I used to fly, when I got started flying, they had the movies there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And they would say things like, This has been altered
Pastor Dale Tunnell: For a general audience.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know what that means?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They've cut some things out
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm gonna tell you you fly today, they have not cut anything out.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They may say they have, but it's the language is there, the scenes are there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It the and it's as if they are flaunting and people g going to the movies.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They are making more and more in the movies.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We wear their their their t-shirts.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We we go to the the the concerts.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: People are are are standing and and in front of them and they're they're they're waving the hands as if they're they're they're praising them
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And we hold these people up as our as our our heroes, our our our idols
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you embarrassed at our society today?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you just want to hide your face in shame?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I wish I could say there was no baal worship in America today.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But I think it's gone past that.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We used to talk about couples.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You guys know what I mean by a couple, but do you know what a thruple is?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or a triad?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or if I said a Quora or a Quad.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, those are relationships with three people or relationships with four people or a morsel.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, that's when the number gets bigger and you can't qualify it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And you can mix and match genders with it like you do Lego sets.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you realise what our society is today
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And you you you get on your your phone and you get some of these things Instagram and and TikTok and the and the the just the advertisements
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are embarrassing sometimes.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean sometimes it
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know, I I I may be looking at something that I I thought was okay and an advertisement pops up and then I'm embarrassed because Cheryl sees the advertisement and she thinks that's what I'm looking at.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Am I the only one?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I have to show her and prove to her.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm not watching that that that's a commercial
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because the commercials have gotten so bad that they are embarrassing.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, this is the kind of things that are being pumped out for our children.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sure, I'm glad we don't sacrifice our children today, aren't you?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Patriarchs and Prophets, page 142.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Says God is calling for men like Elijah, Nathan, and John the Baptist.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you realize who Nathan was?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was a prophet of God that went before King David and had to stand before King David and said, You are that man.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says we we need prophets like John the Baptist.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we realize who John the Baptist was?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was the one that was talking to the Pharisees, and he says, You Pharisees, you are a bunch of kittens.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is that what he said?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: No, he called them vipers.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: John the Baptist stood before King Herod, and to King Herod he said.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You are a sinner because you have your brother's wife.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And today we say, oh, that's just commonplace.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But John the Baptist lost his head because he was
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Willing to stand before King Herod.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And now we see Elijah standing before Abraham, I mean Ahab, and saying,
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You are the reason that this land is so dry.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You are the reason that we have not seen rain for three and a half years.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You and your fathers are the reason.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That there are no leaves on the tree, that the streams have dried up.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because you have gone worshiping the bales.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: First Kings chapter eighteen
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Come down to verse nineteen, he says, Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of Assarh who eat at Jezebel's.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Table.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Who's the king in this picture?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Come on, you're the movie director.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Who's the king?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ahab's the king.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Who's giving the orders?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What's switched here?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah is standing here in front of the king and he's giving the orders because
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He is at this point in time the voice of God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He is saying to Ahab what needs to be said.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And he tells Ahab, I want you to bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and I want you to bring the four hundred prophets of Asherah, and I want to meet you on Mount Carmel, and you bring the rest of Israel with you.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we understand what it meant, 400 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That means they were eating at the king's table.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh now we have a little bit greater understanding of how Obadiah was able to do what he did.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: If Ahab and Jezebel were feeding eight hundred and fifty, ooh, nine hundred and fifty
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, okay.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Just wanted to make sure that Mount Carmel, that was a uh uh a mountain.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: 1,500 feet high, not a big mountain.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: At that point in time, it was in disputed territory.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It was between Israel and the Phoenicians.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It often had oak trees, olive trees, would have been a beautiful place, except for it had not had rain for how long?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Keep reading.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says, so Ahab sent for the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ahab's the king, but he's doing what Elijah has asked for.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because the nerve of Elijah, because Elijah had said it with such conviction.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Such urgency.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ahab went ahead and and acted as if Elijah was the king
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I wonder what it was like as the people came and gathered there on Mount Carmel.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What do you think they dress like?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Prophets of Baal, prophets of Asherah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Think they wore the common garb of the people?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I doubt it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They probably wanted to dress as if nothing had changed.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They dressed in their their stately apparel.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They wanted to make sure everybody knew who they were.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So it is in society, isn't it?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I remember when when Cheryl and I took
Pastor Dale Tunnell: took language classes.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We were studying Mongolian.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The the guy that was sitting there teaching us how to speak Mongolian.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was telling us about it when what it was going to be like when we got to the he said, the ladies there know how to dress
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They dress nice all the time, even on the special days when they go out to the horse races.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And you know, when I thought about the ladies dressing nice to go out to the horse races, I thought about here in the United States when we go and we see horse race I haven't been to a horse race, so I don't know what I'm talking about.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: when I s watch it on TV or the news or whatever and I I see them dressed and I see the horses run.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Let me tell you, it is not that way in Mongolia.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When you go to the horse races, you are out there walking across the pastures
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You're walking in the fields.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I'm gonna tell you the ladies were out there dressed in their their their four or five inch heels walking across, trying to walk across the pastures.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because that's the way society had told them was the right way to dress.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: My guess is there were people dressed in these national costumes going up on Mount Carmel.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verse twenty one
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Says and Elijah came to all the people and said, How long will you falter between two opinions?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, follow him.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But the people answered him what?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Nothing.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Not a word.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They were
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Afraid.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Not one stood up and said, I'm worshiping Yahweh.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They were quiet.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, this is a a trait of Elijah that's worth emulating.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He had undivided allegiance.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was asking the people, who is on the Lord's side?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you willing to say I'm on the Lord's side?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Who's going to stand up for the Ten Commandments?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Who will stand up and call sin by its right name?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Who's going to let people know that the great controversy is closing?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Who's going to tell the world that the Ten Commandments are going to become more and more important in our society?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because people are going to abolish them to a greater and greater degree.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or how many of us are intoxicated with the wine of Babylon?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, I've moved now to Revelation, haven't I?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But do you see that's that's the way we get sometimes
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah's trying to say, how long you going to try and and sit on the fence?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Be on both sides.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or I I have a better visual aid for you.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How long are you going to try to have your your foot on the docks or and on the boat?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know how that works, don't you?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know what happens if you're standing on the dock and you're standing on the boat and you're hoping that your your leg power is powerful enough to to keep the the boat from moving away from the dock.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Friends, I'm gonna tell you the boat is moving away from the dock.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And if you don't choose where you're going to serve, which one you're going to serve
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we understand the day and age in which we live, the times in which we are living?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The days of Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The message that goes to the church of Laodicea, Jesus said, I wish that you were either hot or cold.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But because you're lukewarm trying to ride the fence, because you have a foot on the dock and on the boat, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or the more technical word, I'm going to vomit.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: How long are we going to halt between two opinions?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah is asking the people, What are you waiting for?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verse 22: Elijah says to the people, I alone am left a prophet of the Lord.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But Baal's prophets are 450 men.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Just a minute.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I know what you're thinking.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Obadiah had told him, hadn't he?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That there were a hundred prophets to put away.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Evidently, those hundred prophets didn't show up on Carmel.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So I imagine Elijah is saying, I'm the only one present here now.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He may have heard about those others, but I'm the ones that are present now.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: 450.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Therefore, let them give us two bulls.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it, and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, put no fire under it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Then you call on the name of your God
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I will call on the name of the Lord.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the God who answers by fire, he is God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the people answered and said, It is well spoken.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They found their tongue.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Previously they were silent.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When he asked them, Are you on the Lord's side?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: There was silence.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now they said, This is a good idea.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And so they proceed to to carry out this idea
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, we know how it goes.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's not a pretty picture.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Prophets and Kings talking about this, it says
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah was not alone.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Above and around him are the protecting hosts of heaven
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Angels that excel in strength.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah may have felt alone.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah may have been using those words because he was expressing something to the congregation that was there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Maybe it didn't have anything to do with his feelings at all.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Maybe he felt invincible.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Maybe he understood.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That one person with God is a majority
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Maybe he wasn't afraid of the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Prophets and Kings continues.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: 174, to wait patiently, to trust when everything looks dark is a lesson that leaders in God's work need to learn.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Here is the patience of the saints.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Here are they that are faithful to God, that keep the Ten Commandments and the testimony of Jesus Christ, to wait patiently, to trust.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When everything looks dark is a lesson that leaders in God's work need to learn.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Heaven will not fail them in their day of adversity.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Nothing is apparently more helpless.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yet, really more invincible than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly on God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Friends, when you and I feel our lowliness, when we feel like we are nothing and we rely totally on God, that is when we are invincible.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It goes on, prophets in Kings 147, unashamed, unterrified, the prophet stands before the multitude, fully aware of his commission.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sometimes we wonder, how am I supposed to know what God wants me to do?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Has God told you what He wants you to do?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Has he revealed himself to you?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Has he told you what his will for you is?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why are sometimes we're we're what we're not so sure
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, if I were to ask you what is God's will for your life, what what is his plan for you, his ultimate plan, his big plan, I mean, you probably have an idea what God's will for you is because you've read it in Scripture.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know what he wants out of you because you've read it in Scripture.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The problem is not that we do not know what he wants us to do.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The problem is
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's hard.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're we're a little bit afraid
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Well we're shy.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We like to be liked.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you think Elijah liked to be liked?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, do you think he wanted people to love him?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Come on, you guys know the answer to that.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why are you you keeping quiet?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, the desire on Elijah's heart was for people to love him because he knows that love is the character of God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Right?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The problem is the people are not acting according to God's character.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And when the people are not acting according to God's character, they don't like Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah's desire, the desire of his heart, is for everyone to love him.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because he knows that if everyone loves him
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That everyone is in love with God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do do we do we catch that?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't think we catch that sometimes.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't think I catch that sometimes.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sometimes I'm living more in the in the moment.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: My shyness.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's what I call it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Cheryl just says, I thought you were a sanguine.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And and she tries to push me out.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Not now.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's not the right time.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's not the right
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because for years I've always been the one pushing her.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now when I'm shy, she's kind of surprised.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Continue on in the story.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm gonna jump down to uh verse twenty-five, that's where we were
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one wool for yourselves, prepare it first.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You are many.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Call on the name of God, but put no fire under it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So they took the bull which was given them.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They prepared it, gave it called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us but there was no voice, no one answered.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So it was at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for he is a God, either he is meditating or he's busy
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or he's on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping, and must be awakened.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So they cried aloud, they cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out of them.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention, no one sent fire down from heaven
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you think Elijah was keeping an eye on them?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Were they leaping about to try and distract him?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: No, I think that was just part of their worship service.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you think the drums were beating?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You can almost hear the drums, you can almost hear the music, you can almost hear the chanting.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Some of you that have been to some of those countries where they do that kind of thing, you can almost see them cutting themselves and bleeding.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And at that time
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, I think Elijah was mocking them because if he hadn't done that, he would have been crying for them.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: As he saw what was taking place.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Worshiping the false God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The frenzy that was taking place, the cultic activity, the chaos.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's one of those scenes that we would probably be putting our hand over the projector so that our kids couldn't watch it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But it was our scene that our kids would say, Oh Mom, oh Dad, I've seen it all before.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Prophets and Kings, page one fifty
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Gladly would Satan have come to the help of those who he had deceived, who were devoted to his service.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Gladly would he have sent lightning to kindle their sacrifice.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But Jehovah had set Satan's bounds.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: God, the Jehovah God, had restrained Satan's powers.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Not any of his scheming, not any of his devices, would God allow him to put a spark on that altar?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now we can say hallelujah and praise the Lord for that time, but you know in Revelation chapter 13 there's another altar, there's another image, there's another
Pastor Dale Tunnell: There's another opportunity for fire to come down from heaven.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And you know at that time the fire is going to come down
Pastor Dale Tunnell: On the wrong altar.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So friends, I just want you to be aware you cannot
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Set your idea, your your your your thoughts on fire coming down, that that's going to prove which altar, which gods you need to worship at.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You need to know what God's Word says.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Which one is preaching, thus saith the Lord?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Which one is holding up the Ten Commandments of God?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, come down, let's see, verse 30.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So Elijah said to the people, Come near to me.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, Israel shall be your name
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Then the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seeds of seed.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And he put the wood on order, cut the bull in pieces, laid it on the wood, and said, Fill four water pots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice on the wood.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Then he said, Do it a second time.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And they did it a second time.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said, Do it a third time.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And they did it a third time.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So the water ran down all around the altar and were filled with the trench with water
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I know what you're thinking.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Where do they get all the water?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Friends, the the Mount Carmel is right there on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: My guess is he had someone hike down 1,500 feet and get some seawater and bring it back up there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And then he sent them down to get it again.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why would Elijah do such a thing?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because he wanted to remove all doubt.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wanted everyone to understand that what was going to take place was going to be a miracle of Jehovah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He didn't want anybody saying this was a trick of some kind
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So he sent them to to get the the water to pour it over the the altar
Pastor Dale Tunnell: 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
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God of Israel, and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things
Pastor Dale Tunnell: At your word.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that the people may know that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their hearts back to you again.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Did you see it?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the wood and the stones and the dust, it licked up the water that was in the trench.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Did you see the fire?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: My guess is, friends, that the people there on Mount Carmel, they saw the fire.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But it w not just the people on Mount Carmel.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: My guess is the people on the Phoenician side of the mountain, the one that's that that were worshiping Baal.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They may have not been up on the mountain, but my guess is they saw the fire.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And there were parts of Israel on the other side that did not climb up the mountain.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They were not part of the congregation.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But my guess is
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They saw the fire.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And they looked at their watches.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, I'm sorry.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: They looked at the sun and they knew what time it was.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And they could imagine that this was the Creator God that had brought fire down from heaven.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now, when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The Lord He is God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The Lord He is God
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Hallelujah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean you talk about a miracle.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What's the better bigger miracle?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Fire coming down and consuming the altar, the sacrifice, the wood, the water, and everything.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is that the bigger miracle?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or are people's hearts being changed?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Friends, people are always asking me, Pastor, why do we not see miracles today
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why don't we see more healings?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why don't we see fire coming down from heaven?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why don't we see?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And my response is because the miracles we do see we're not appreciating.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Friends, when a heart is changed, that's bigger than fire coming down from heaven.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When a heart is changed, that's bigger than someone being healed
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When a heart is changed, that's bigger than when we go out and anoint someone and they're on their deathbed and we anoint them.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And they get up and they begin to walk and live.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We say hallelujah for those things, but let me tell you, when a heart is changed.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's a miracle.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says the people fell on their faces and they said, The Lord, He is God, the Lord He is God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The problem is I don't think their heart was changed.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I think they were just giving lip service
Pastor Dale Tunnell: To what they had seen in the fire.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We often skip the next verse when we're telling the children's story
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Don't we?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verse 40, and Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of Baal, do not let one of them escape.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Kishon and executed them there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why do we skip that part of the story?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's gruesome.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What was Elisha doing there?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, I said Elisha.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Elijah doing there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was performing surgery.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He had opened up the body of Israel.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And now he was trying to get the cancer out of the body.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was trying to eradicate the problem.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was trying to cut out the prophets of Baal, the prophets of Asherah, and he was trying to take that out of the body.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: So it would not cause problems inside of the body of Israel any longer.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know, when we talk about it in surgical terms, we don't have a problem with it.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Why is it we have a problem with it when we talk about it in the in in the in the body of Israel?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When God has to take care of some of these issues that are taking place within his people
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's what God was doing when God brought the children of Israel to Canaan.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's what he was doing.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was eradicating the sin problem that was there in Canaan.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's what God does on a on a not a regular basis, but occasionally those those Old Testament stories that we don't like, that we're we're uncomfortable with, we think it's it's not showing the
Pastor Dale Tunnell: true character of God that we see in the New Testament.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Friends, that's a loving God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's a God that cares for his people.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's a God that loves his people.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's a God that is trying to eradicate the cancer that has caught
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Caused problems for his people Israel.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: He's trying to take care of that that sin problem, that cancer that needs to be eradicated.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's why Elijah said, seize them.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's why he called them forward to execute them.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Friends, I'm going to tell you, we're living in the days of Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Wickedness is permeated, has permeated our land.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're naive when we think that it's not in our church.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're told that the two, the wheat and the tares, grow together until the end, when the judgment will come.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But we, the followers of Jehovah, the followers of God, need to be calling sin by its right name.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Unashamed and unterrified.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We need to be calling people
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Whose side are you on?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you on God's side or are you on Satan's side?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you on God's side?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you on the world's side?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is God number one in your life?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or do you have a divided allegiance?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The best way for us to do this is through prayer.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: What do we see Elijah doing over and over and over and over and over again?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Praying, praying, praying, praying.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Before this began, he was praying.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: During the process, he is praying.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: When he's calling fire down from heaven, he is praying.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, many people say to me, Pastor, I I I I I I can't give a Bible study
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I can't sing.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I can't preach.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I can't teach a Sabbath school class.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: My question is, can you pray?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Can you pray?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Start there.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Start with the broken heart that you have for the world that you live in.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Start with the broken heart that you have.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: For the family that you have.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Start with the broken heart that you have for your co-workers.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Start with that and pray.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you start with that and pray, you may be surprised
Pastor Dale Tunnell: what God can give you the conviction to do
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Okay, I gotta stop.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: But with a message like that today, I have to ask
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Whose side are you on?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you on the Lord side 100%, or is your your foot still on the dock and the boat?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Have you decided whose side you want to live on for good?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now is the time to decide.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're going to sing, we could call our singers up here.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're going to sing the days of Elijah.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: As our closing hymn.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Well, while we sing the days of Elijah, we're going to sing the first verse.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And during the first verse, if you are an individual that
Pastor Dale Tunnell: You have not been baptized and you would like to be baptized.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you would like to be baptized, I invite you to come forward during the first verse.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Okay?
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm asking you to come forward during the first verse.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And if we have an elder or two that came forward at that time, they might meet you up here and pray with you.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's a clue to the elders, what I'm asking.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you're an elder, I want you to come forward during the first verse and meet individuals that are coming forward because they are are wanting to be baptized.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: During the second verse.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: The second verse is when we get to talking about Ezekiel and the dry bones.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: In the second verse, that is for anyone who needs to rededicate their life to Jesus.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: And you said, hey, I've been getting caught up in the world just too much.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want to rededicate myself for Yahweh, for Jehovah, for the Creator God.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm asking you to come forward during the second verse.
Pastor Dale Tunnell: Let us stand as we sing the days of Elijah.