Where Is The God Of Elijah, Part 5:
God’s Troublemakers 1 Kings 18:15-19
Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- September 10, 2006
15But Elijah said, “I swear by the LORD Almighty, in whose presence I stand, that I will present myself to Ahab today.”
16So Obadiah went to tell Ahab that Elijah had come, and Ahab went out to meet him. 17“So it’s you, is it—
18“I have made no trouble for
Our focus this morning is the fact that God always raises up “troublemakers” who challenge those in authority who no longer obey his commands or live by the principles of His Word and have lost their way in sin and sinfulness. At the same time there are those who “make trouble” because of that sin and sinfulness. We need to understand the difference between these two things. To begin with, let me share this illustration with you:
Veteran American League baseball umpire Bill Guthrie was working behind the plate one afternoon and the catcher for the visiting team was repeatedly protesting his calls. Guthrie endured this for a number of innings, and then called a halt. "Son," he said softly, "you've been a big help to me in calling balls and strikes today, and I appreciate it. But I think I've got the hang of it now, so I'm going to ask you to go to the clubhouse and show whoever's there how to take a shower."
We chuckle over this illustration because it is such a good picture of human nature. But we have to realize that this is pretty much the perspective of King Ahab as he is confronted by Elijah, God’s prophet. He sees Elijah as a troublemaker. Elijah is interfering with his kingdom. If it were not for Elijah, King Ahab would not have the problems of drought, famine and difficulties with the people of his kingdom to deal with. Elijah is the source of all their problems. And Ahab truly believes that if they could just get rid of Elijah, their problems would be over.
Ahab uses a Hebrew word for “troublemaker” that means to “roil the water”. In English to roil water means to stir it up and make it muddy. If “roil” means to muddy the waters then when it is used figuratively: it has the meaning of: “ to disturb or irritate”. The Hebrew meaning of the word “trouble” figuratively means to: “disturb or afflict”.
Elijah is disturbing the peace of his kingdom. Elijah is afflicting Ahab, Jezebel and all
As I said earlier, God is always seeking to raise up “troublemakers” to challenge those who have gone astray. The purpose is always to bring people back to righteousness and godliness. God always seeks to restore people to a right relationship with himself.
In the Old Testament, we usually see the troublemakers as Prophets. Look at Moses before Pharoah. Could you ever have a better picture of one of God’s troublemakers? Time and again Moses calls Pharoah to heed God command to let the people of
God calls a man to take a stand with God for truth and righteousness. He is given the responsibility to call
In the New Testament, we find that it was the disciples first of all who stood with Jesus against the religious establishment. They learned from the example of Jesus and when Jesus was gone and the Chruch began they withstood the pressures of sinful men to conform to the perverted worship of
What does one of God’s troublemakers do? He forces us to reconsider God, God’s will and His ways when we are tempted to go our own way. We considered the challenge of standing in the gap for God and others a couple of weeks ago. One of God’s troublemakers will force us to consider what Jesus would do in a particular situation. He makes things uncomfortable or difficult for us. He becomes an irritation to us when we are not what we ought to be spiritually or we are caught up in or are trapped by some sin. The point of it all is to call us back to the place in Christ in which we ought to be.
There are also people in the Church who are makers of trouble. Now, this is quite different from being one of God’s troublemakers. A maker of trouble is someone who has an ungodly agenda of some sort. They want their own way about something. They are adept at ignoring the commands and Word of God in their own lives. They are usually immune to preaching or the teaching of the Word because they have quit paying attention to it some time ago.
One church I served as an Associate Pastor years ago was “run” – controlled by seven families. If you did things their way, you could have a reasonably good ministry in that church. Cross them or suggest that spiritual changes needed to be made and there was nothing but trouble. They could make life miserable for you. And they did. How they missed the real spirit of what Christians should be is a mystery, but it was quite evident that there were some real spiritual deficiencies there.
The tolerance of evil or a lack of true spirituality in a church is devastating to the testimony of Christ in that community. People know what you and I are spiritually. We can hide many things about ourselves from others but people know what we are as Christians. If we are what we ought to be, fine. They know it and even if they do not believe themselves, they respect us for the practice of our own faith. However, if we are hypocrites, they know and we become a byword to them and our faith means nothing to them. Don’t bother trying to witness to them, because it will have no appeal at all.
As Dorothy Sayers observed, "In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair, the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die." Charles Colson, Against the Night, p. 93.
Many churches are filled with people who are tolerant of carnal Christianity.
I remember a tape given to me a number of years ago about a District Superintendent of a Pentecostal or Charismatic group. I don’t remember all the particulars, but I do remember the gist of the man’s presentation. He had a church that was full of makers of trouble. He would send a young pastor to the church and in a matter of months there was trouble. He wasn’t preaching right. The sermons were too short or too long. He wasn’t calling on the people as they wanted. He couldn’t do anything right. Basically, they got chewed up. Many left the ministry as a result of that experience.
So one day as the Superintendent was praying, he told the Lord that he was going to close that church. Things had gotten so bad that it was the only solution he could see to the problem. But the Lord told him, “Don’t close that church. It is my
God’s response to him was that he had placed all his rotten eggs into one basket. “I send young pastors there to be seasoned. If they can survive that experience, then they will make good ministers and will serve me well for many years. If they cannot survive the experience there, they will not make it anywhere else. If you close that church, you will spread those rotten eggs all over and it will destroy any number of churches. So leave the church alone. Don’t close it.”
Elijah’s response to King Ahab was this: “You are
People cause trouble in the Church and
We need to understand something Sidney Sheldon says in his book In His Steps, p. 112. Sheldon writes this:
“Truly a man’s foes are they of his own household when the rule of Jesus is obeyed by some and disobeyed by others. Jesus is a great divider of life. One must walk parallel with Him or directly across His path.”
Makers of trouble will eventually walk directly across His path. The result is always unpleasant when we go our own way. That is what Ahab has done. He has embraced false worship and evil of all kinds and the result is that he is now confronted by God’s troublemaker. God’s man will call him to account and work to set things right in the
When it comes to being one of God’s troublemakers, one must be sure that God is in it. I am reminded of the old Black Preacher confronting a young pastor who wasn’t doing very well. He asked the young man: “Was you called or did you just went?” One can only be one of God’s troublemakers if he has been called to it. Being one on your own will only result in your becoming a maker of trouble. But if God has called you to be one of His Troublemakers in a particular situation, you will have exactly what you need as you need it and you will have the ability to stand where God wants you to stand. As with everything else in the
The question is always this: Did God send us or did we just went? The answer to that question gives us the key to God’s response. If he sends us then the results will eventually be positive. We will see the power of God there as the Spirit of God works to accomplish God’s will in that situation. However, if we go out on our own we will do it in our own strength and understanding and the results will be defeat of some sort.
That thought leads me to share this with you:
A farmer went into his banker and announced that he had bad news and good news. "First, the bad news...""Well," said the farmer, "I can't make my mortgage payments. And that crop loan I've taken out for the past 10 years -- I can't pay that off, either. Not only that, I won't be able to pay you the couple of hundred thousand I still have outstanding on my tractors and other equipment. So I'm going to have to give up the farm and turn it all over to you for whatever you can salvage out of it. "Silence prevailed for a minute and then the banker said ,"What's the good news?" "The good news is that I'm going to keep on banking with you," said the farmer.
Not much to look forward to by the banker, right? That is about the way it is when makers of trouble refuse to heed God’s Word or maintain a right relationship with the Lord. Bankruptcy is the result. And it must be the result, because one of the Principles of the Kingdom of God is when anyone, person or nation, knows what is right and refuses to do it the result will be suffering. One cannot ignore the good will of God with impunity. Disaster of some sort will be the “natural” result. It is not that God is vindictive or cruel. It is simply how the universe is made. Violate the law of God and you will pay for it…now or later. When we break the law of God, we are the ones who get broken. This is the picture of Ahab you get in 1 Kings. He is a man being broken by the very law of God he has violated.
Ahab has gone his own way. God would not let him continue on that path without calling him back because he loved him. So he raises up Elijah as one of His troublemakers to challenge Ahab to come back to a right relationship with God.
Now, what on earth are we to do with all of this?
The profound truth is this: Every law, every command, every guideline God has given us for proper and appropriate behavior has been given to us by God for our own well being. He has always had our best interests in mind.
To willfully reject God and His laws will simply result in disaster. In
When God’s people begin to willfully reject Him and His Word, he will raise up “troublemakers” to call his people back into fellowship with himself. He does that because he loves us. God’s “troublemakers” are not concerned about anything but doing what God has called them to do. They have God’s special provision for making the stand he has given them.
The goal God has in mind is always to restore us to fellowship when we have gone our own way.
Praise God that he cares enough to send us His “troublemakers” when we are struggling with makers of trouble.
--Dennis Gleason
