New!

 

New. We don’t always like that word because it means change. New and change have always been hard for the church. We, as the church, have never embraced change very easily. That always seemed strange to me since when Jesus came, He brought and establish something new, a new covenant established by His blood. And in the Bible, there are over 200 references to “new”.

 

So, as we are about to enter a new year, let’s look at a new thing God did in the life of Elijah and in the life of His people.

 

1 Kings 18:17-19

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, troubler of Israel?” And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is having the courage to confront false belief.

 

God moves to have Elijah challenge Ahab and 850 false prophets to meet with him on Mount Carmel.

 

In 1 Kings 18:21 Elijah asks the people gathered on Mount Carmel to not try to go back and forth between Baal and God but to decide who is really God and serve that God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls being willing to challenge others to really believe and follow God.

 

Then in 1 Kings 18:23-24 Elijah set the rules for the contest. The false prophets would build an altar and put an animal sacrifice on it and pray to their gods. Elijah would build an altar and put an animal sacrifice on it and pray to God. The winner would be the God who sent fire to burn up the sacrifice.

 

Then in 1 Kings 18:25 Elijah lets the false prophets go first. This on the surface is a risky thing. What if Baal sets fire before Elijah and God even get a chance? Well, Elijah knew a truth, Baal does not exist and God is real. Elijah also knew that this whole contest was God’s idea.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting God enough to do the risky.

 

The outcome of the contest comes in 1 Kings 18:26-40. The false prophets try for hours to get Baal to bring fire and he doesn’t. Then Elijah sets up his altar and sacrifice and then three times pours water on it and then prays and God sends fire that burns up the sacrifice and the altar and licks up all the water. Then Elijah has all the false prophets killed. God removes the false influence that was separating His people from Him.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting God to be faithful to what He says.

 

There is never another time in all the Bible where God tells another person to have a contest like this. God uses Elijah to do something new that draws His people back to Him.

 

New is never easy or comfortable but it is always an adventure.

 

I have always been a little bit of a rebel and always a proponent of change, but this year has stretched me in the area of letting God do new things.

 

Early in the pandemic it was a question of whether we were to meet live or not. We chose to not meet live for seven weeks. It was the hardest seven weeks of all my years in local church ministry. We did it not because we were afraid or because a governor was telling us to or to please our people. We did it so that, like Jesus, we would enter into the suffering of our community. We had people who had no jobs to go to. We had people who could not operate their businesses. We had children who could not go to school. We had parents who had to figure what to do with their children. We wanted to say to them by our actions, “We are suffering with you.”

 

So, by not meeting live, that meant we had to learn how to do online worship and Bible studies. We had to learn how to do all of our ministries in a new way.

 

So, what did God do in our faith family with all the new? Grew our worship attendance by 100 with our online people. Grew our Bible studies attendance by over 300 with our online people. Grew the effectiveness of our benevolence and outreach ministries. He even added new people to our faith family with new people coming live to our worship times and our live Bible studies.

 

The new was not our idea. The contest on Mount Carmel was not Elijah’s idea.

The new was not comfortable for us. The contest was not comfortable for Elijah.

The new resulted in greater honor for God. The contest resulted in greater honor for God.

 

New is not always comfortable and it is never easy.

New when initiated by God will always result in greater honor for Him when we as His people obey.

 

Have a Jesus joyful new year.

 

In the Newness of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                             Joe