Plainfield Christian Church
06-30-24 | Elijah: Don’t Panic
Welcome to the Plainfield Christian Church podcast. We hope that this message encourages you today. For additional resources to learn about what it looks like to be fully alive with Jesus, visit our website at plainfieldchristian.com. Enjoy the podcast. My name's Luke. I get to serve as one of the ministers here and I read recently about a manual supposedly used by the United States Peace Corps to train workers that they were getting ready to send to the jungles of South America on what to do if they were attacked by an anaconda. Now an anaconda you'll remember is the largest snake in the world they can grow to be up to 35 feet long and anaconda can swallow a 350 pound animal whole and so I thought we can't be too careful even here in Hendricks County just to be safe because I love you. Here are the Peace Corps nine steps for what to do if you get attacked by an anaconda this week. Step number one if you are attacked by an anaconda do not run the snake is faster than you are. Don't try to outrun it. Now pause right there. That's what the manual says. I say let the snake prove it and if you and I are together remember I don't have to be faster than the snake. I just have to be faster than you. Okay all right step number two step number two lie flat on the ground put your arms tight against your sides and your legs tight against one another okay I can do that step number three tuck in your chin okay here we go step number four the snake will come and begin to nudge and climb about your body step number five do not panic now pause right there again I'm not an expert on the jungles of South America I am just a pastor but it seems that if God invented the panic reflex for anything it was for this moment right and yet step number five says do not panic okay step number six after the snake has examined you it will begin to swallow you from your feet always the feet permit the snake to swallow your feet and your ankles again do not panic now again if you're anything like me at this point you're wondering who wrote these instructions it sounds like an anaconda may have written these instructions step number four the snake will begin to suck your legs into its body you must lie perfectly still this will take a long time again do not panic step number eight when the snake has reached your knees slowly reach down take your knife and gently slide it into the sides of the snake's mouth then suddenly rip upwards severing the snake through the top of its head okay and then I love this here's my favorite step number nine be sure you have your knife do not panic you know the cultural moment that you and I find ourselves in today is a tough one sometimes isn't it and I don't need to explain it to you we look around we see the same things and you and I are probably asking some of the same questions like in a world like this how do we be faithful where do we draw the line how do we balance grace and truth how in the world do we raise our children and our grandchildren to face a society that will often hate them for what they believe what kind of chaos are our kids and grandkids gonna spend the next few decades trying to navigate sometimes if we look around the world if you're anything like me it feels like the snake is already wrapped around our ankles doesn't it and what do we do next because we know where this thing is headed and it doesn't look very good and even in the middle of that I'm here to say to you this morning do not panic don't panic because if the Bible says anything it says that in every generation this is the truth and and that God has raised us up that God has raised up us and our children and our grandchildren for this specific time and he has given us absolutely everything we need to do and be everything that he has called us to do and to be we're in a series like Riley said this summer through the life of the prophet Elijah from the Old Testament and and just like us God raised Elijah up for his time it was also a time of chaos and compromise and yet he stood tall for God and Elijah remember James chapter five we've been going back over and over again like we saw in the video just a second ago Elijah was not a spiritual superhero he did not wear a cape he didn't have a special red phone hotline to God he was a person like us and so then if God can use Elijah maybe God can use us too so do not panic but also don't forget step number nine be sure you have your knife so let's ask the question today what what is the knife that we need for this cultural moment as the enemies jaws are wrapping around our feet what is the weapon that will be key to our survival it must be a unique weapon it must be sharp and effective and accessible one preacher coined a phrase that I really like and so I just decided to steal it for this week he calls it moral courage moral courage as much as anything this cultural moment demands that the people of God be people of moral courage now what is moral courage what picture does it bring to your mind I can tell you a few things I think moral courage is not moral courage is not the rage of a gladiator in the ring maximus decimus meridius it's it's not quite that moral courage is not even the quiet resolve of a soldier on the front lines getting ready to walk into battle moral courage is not the determination of a swimmer at the olympic trials getting ready to give it her all no moral courage isn't quite that it's hard to define but I think as christians and dwelt by the holy spirit I think I think you'll know it when you see it and we're going to see it today if you open up your Bibles with me we're going to be in first king's chapter 22 first king's chapter 22 we're going to look at a story of moral courage and as we do I want to ask the question alongside you where does moral courage come from where does moral courage come from first king's chapter 22 let me set the scene for you as you're turning there you'll remember that we are in the nation of ancient israel we have this altar on stage because god's people have been building altars to all these other gods running after all kinds of other things for hope and meaning and security and purpose and peace and evil king ahab is on the throne and so far we've mostly been following the life of Elijah because that's where the text follows but here in first king's chapter 22 we're not going to see Elijah it's like we push pause on Elijah's story for just a minute and the author gives us a snapshot of somebody else to show us that Elijah was not the only person god used today we're going to see the brief story of a prophet named mikea his name is mikea and if god can use mikea then maybe god can use us too now remember king ahab he's evil he's been on the throne for 22 years let's pick up the story starting in verse one it says for three years there was no war between a ram and israel so hey pretty cool we've had three years of peace in the land i bet the people like that but evil king ahab did not like that the text continues it says but in the third year jahasha fat king of juda went down to see the king of israel that's ahab ahab the king of israel said to his officials don't you know that ramoth gillyad belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of a ram so ahab asked jahasha fat will you go with me to fight against ramoth gillyad jahasha fat replied to the king of israel i am as you are my people as your people my horses as your horses but jahasha fat also said to the king of israel first seek the counsel of the lord now if you remember your bible history you might remember that god's people started out as one kingdom but eventually they split into two kingdoms there was juda in the south and israel in the north two different nations most of them had just pretty much evil kings all along and ahab is the evil king of israel up north and he's wanting to make an alliance with the nation of juda down south the king of juda at the time is jahasha fat and jahasha fat is actually one of the few decent kings like he's all right if you go read his story in the bible he actually did love god and he actually did serve god and so when ahab has says hey let's buddy up and go to ward jahasha fat's response is a good one he says well ahab before we go to war together let's ask god look what happens next so the king of israel brought together the prophets about four hundred men and ask them shall i go to war against ramoth gillyad or shall i refrain go they answered for the lord will give it into the king's hand but jahasha fat asked is there no longer a prophet of the lord here whom we can inquire of jahasha fat can already tell that when four hundred people are speaking in unison it probably means only one out of two of them are actually doing the thinking and the rest are just going along and he can tell these these aren't god's prophets they're ahab's prophets they're on his payroll is there anybody else who could actually give us the truth from god ahab the king of israel answered jahasha fat well there is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the lord but i hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me but always bad he is mikeya son of imla the king should not say such a thing jahasha fat replied so the king of israel called one of his officials and said bring mikeya son of imla at once dressed in their royal robes the king of israel and jahasha fat king of juda were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of samaria with all the prophets prophesying before them now zedakiah son of kennana had made iron horns and he declared this is what the lord says with these you will gore the aramians until they are destroyed now that sounds like a pretty convincing prophecy from god right except the only problem is it's totally and completely bogus and if you flip back to the previous two chapters you'll see two separate prophets from god who have already told king ahab king ahab because of your sin you are doomed you are going to die and yet hear these four hundred other guys are saying no no no and they're just telling ahab what he wants to hear the story continues all the other prophets were prophesying the same thing attack raymond gilead they said be victorious for the lord will give it into the king's hand the messenger who had gone to summon mikeya said to him look the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king let your word agree with theirs and speak favorably let's pause the story right there remember we're asking our question where does moral courage come from and here's my first hunch from this story maybe moral courage comes from a connection to community does it come from a connection to community because after all think of Elijah's story that we just read a couple chapters ago Elijah had gotten very scared because he'd isolated himself and so god gave Elijah the gift of community he said no i've got more faithful prophets go call this guy maybe lysha to buddy up with you and god uses community to restore Elijah's courage maybe that's what's happening here with mikeya too maybe moral courage comes from being connected in community with other people that seems biblical i've heard preachers talk before about the concept of a king's table specifically when talking to men they'll say men you need to have a king's table and they use the example of king david and think about the men the king david had around him in his life at king david's table he had his general joeb and joeb was the guy who'd say you know what where's the battle david you named the hill and i'll climb it for you you name the person and i'll fight him for you i'm all in ride or die i've got your back you need a joeb at your table at king david's table he also had the prophet nathan nathan was the one who would look him in the eyes and call him out on his sin and call him to a higher standard of holiness you need a nathan at your table somebody who will do that for you and at david's table he also had jonathan he had the deep friend the deep connection the lover of his soul not in some kind of romantic or sexual way but a really deep soul level friend and you need a jonathan at your table too and you'll notice in the life of david it's only after jonathan dies after that seat at his table is unfilled that david then becomes a dummy who lusted after other men's wives and committed murder because he was scared and bored you need a king's table you need a joeb you need a nathan you need a jonathan maybe maybe moral courage comes from a connection to community the prophet mikea we just saw here he is connected to community right there's 400 other prophets too there's this guy who comes to give a message to mikea he appears to be somewhat of a friend but but maybe that's not it maybe moral courage does not actually come from a connection to community because mikea's community failed him here all 400 of those prophets sided with king ahab the messenger just said hey mikea just man give it a rest buddy just go along to get along this one time don't make any waves after all what difference could one person possibly make you remember what happened to nayboth right in fact being a person of moral courage might mean that your connection to your community gets a little bit awkward sometimes that you've experienced awkward moments in life haven't you that awkward moment when somebody calls the preacher and then they think they hung up after they were leaving a voicemail but they didn't actually hang up and the line kept going and then they said some things they probably didn't want the preacher to hear that's happened before that awkward moment when i texted a rebecca in my context who was not my wife that awkward moment i've i've been there before you've experienced awkward moments in life haven't you you know that awkward moment when you tell a joke and nobody laughs the awkward moment when let's be honest you're in an argument for you with your spouse and then there's that awkward moment in the argument where you realize they're right and what do you do in that moment and a lot of the time sometimes you might buckle down and keep arguing anyway because you don't want to give up your ground do you and there's that awkward moment when somebody has something in their teeth and they're talking to you and you don't know whether you should tell them or not or when somebody waves at you and you wave back and then you realize that they weren't actually waving at you after all you know those kinds of awkward moments in life and being a person of moral courage will mean your life is full of more awkward moments there's going to be awkward moments in your community where the people around you are laughing at things you know you shouldn't laugh at there's going to be awkward moments when they're talking about somebody in a way that's pretty poisonous and then they look to you and they expect you to affirm what they are saying there's going to be that awkward moment when do you know that somebody is keeping a secret from their spouse and you're not exactly sure how should i confront this person about it there's going to be those awkward moments where it becomes evident that you are spending your money differently and handling your weekends differently and training your kids and grandkids to talk and to dress differently you're handling your time and your media consumption differently than the people around you and they're going to think you're just a little bit weird because of it and in those awkward moments my encouragement to you is don't panic because in this story 400 prophets said to king ahab sure buddy do whatever you want but mikeia was willing to embrace the awkward moment and to stand alone and say no that's not what god said you know as christians we will never win anybody to christ by how cool we are by how much we look and live and think like everybody else but we might just win some people the christ with how weird we are with the moral courage we display by being willing to stand true to our kingdom convictions even when it's awkward so no maybe moral courage doesn't necessarily come from a connection to community maybe it's somewhere else let's keep looking in this story maybe maybe here's my next theory maybe moral courage comes from a clear conviction of the truth maybe that's where moral courage comes from pick it up in verse 14 this guy has just said hey man just go along say what everybody else is saying but verse 14 but my chaos said no as surely as the lord lives i can tell him only what the lord tells me my chaos says no i will only say what god says you see king ahab you remember he'd just been throwing a fit because he says mikeia never prophesies anything good about me king ahab was under the mistaken impression that the prophet couldn't make up the message instead of just reporting the message but my chaos says that's not how it works i don't write the mail i just deliver the mail in the year 1633 it was the scientist gallileo gallileo came out and he said you know what maybe kapurnicus was right maybe everything is not revolving around the earth maybe we're not actually the center of the universe maybe we on earth are actually orbiting around the sun and yet the powers that be in a religion and science they didn't really like that idea that they weren't the center of the universe and so they tortured gallileo until he took it all back and that night when they all went to bed the earth continued to revolve around the sun he didn't make up the truth he just reported it and that's what my chaos says here he says i'm just the messenger i'm i'm i'm captive to the word of god i can only say what he says so look what happens verse 15 says when he arrived the king asked him mikeya shall we go to war against flame off giliad or not oh attack be victorious he answered for the lord will give it into the king's hand now if you just read this text at face value you'll notice mikeya gives the exact same answer initially that all the four hundred other prophets did but my guess is he probably delivered that answer with a different tone of voice i think he's testing to see how much ahab really wants the truth and ahab catches on immediately verse 16 says the king said to him how many times must i make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the lord then mikeya answered i saw all israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd and the lord said these people have no master let each one go home in peace the king of israel said to jahoshaphat didn't i tell you he never prophesied anything good about me but only bad mikeya continued therefore here the word of the lord i saw the lord sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing him around him on his right and on his left and the lord said who will entice ahab into attacking ramoff giliad and going to his death there one suggested this and another that finally a spirit came forward stood before the lord and said i will entice him by what means the lord asked i will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets he said you will succeed in enticing him said the lord go and do it so now the lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours the lord has decreed disaster for you prophecies prophetic sarcasm deceiving spirits a council in heaven there's a whole lot going on here isn't there it begs the underlying question though how exactly does god work in the world because sometimes it seems like the world is all a play and god has written the play he's typed out the script he's built the set he's scheduled the performances and he is the one directing the whole thing and your only part to play in the play is to get up on stage and perform your lines that god has written in advance for you you don't even get the pick which part you play because god has scripted out this story all ahead of time that's over here on one end of the spectrum and then there's other times when it seems like yeah the world is a play but what is god's role in the play maybe maybe god just raises the curtain and then he goes and gets a coffee while the performance is going on and then he only comes back just in time to lower the curtain when the show is over how exactly does god work in the world and i think there's enough texts of scripture to say that the truth is somewhere in the middle and i won't proclaim to know all the mysteries of exactly how god works but i do know that scripture is clear about a few things that appear contradictory but are actually simultaneously true god is sovereign and we are responsible god is king over at all and he is actively involved in our lives and in the affairs of our world and yet we also have the freedom to choose and there are consequences for our actions and we are ultimately held responsible for them and both things are true here in this scenario with king ahab ahab has chosen to reject god over and over and over again and so god then speaks through the prophet mikeya and he says all right shows over you're done now of course king ahab doesn't like what mikeya has to say but it's not mikeya's fault ahab has made his choices if all you ever eat is sour patch kids you're not going to like what the dentist tells you and maybe that's what gives mikeya his moral courage if we're asking our question where does it come from maybe moral courage comes from confidence in what god has spoken maybe moral comes moral courage comes from a clear conviction of the truth that he said what god wanted him to say and there's going to be a lot of voices whispering to you and most of them are only going to tell you what you want to hear so how will you discern the voice of god this clear conviction of the truth over and over again scripture warns us about listening to teachers and influencers and loud voices who only tell us what we want to hear geremaa chapter 23 god warns his people by this he says this is what the lord almighty says do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you they fill you with false hopes they speak visions from their own minds not from the mouth of the lord they keep saying to those who despise me the lord says you'll have peace and all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say no harm will come to you but which of them has stood in the council of the lord to see or to hear his word who has listened and heard his word my hope is it's us maybe moral courage comes from that from a clear conviction of the truth having heard from god standing upon the foundation of god's word listen if i stand up here and i never say anything that makes you uncomfortable if every word i ever say up here matches your opinion and never chafes against you and always makes you feel warm and cuddly inside and confirms all of your preconceived ideas then you should run and find another church you should not trust me nor anyone who always makes you feel that because the difference between an idol and the living god is that an idol will never contradict you then idol will always confirm what you are always thinking and feeling but the living god will often contradict you you'll remember maybe perhaps it was big in the christian news that a couple years ago kanye west the famous rapper he had this remarkable conversion to christianity a couple of years ago but if you've kept up with the news you'll see that kanye west now says that he is no longer a christian anymore and if you asked kanye why or you can go look at the interviews he said it's because he prayed some prayers that god didn't answer the way he wanted him to he said jesus just doesn't work for me well no joke brother take a ticket and hop in line jesus doesn't work for you and he doesn't work for me either he's the king and his will is so much higher than yours or mine and his word will often contradict us maybe moral courage comes from that clear conviction of the rock solid truth but maybe it's not just that because if we look at our story today jahosa fat had the truth my kayas friend had some of the truth and they still didn't display much moral courage so maybe there's something else maybe moral courage comes from a willingness to suffer a willingness to suffer look at verse 24 it says then zedekiah son of kanana went up and slapped my kaya in the face which waited the spirit from the lord go when he went from me to speak to you he asked my kaya replied you will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room the king of israel then ordered take my kaya and send him back to amon the ruler of the city and to joe ash the king's son and say this is what the king says put this fellow in prison give him nothing but bread and water till i return safely my kaya declared if you ever return safely the lord has not spoken through me then he added mark my words all you people so my kaya stands alone he proclaims the word of god with moral courage and as his reward he gets thrown in prison and if you are a person of moral courage here's the truth for you today god can do more with your life than you think he can but it's gonna hurt more than you think it will so he can do more with your life than you think he can the horizon of possibility for what god wants to do through you yes you is wider than you had any idea but it's gonna hurt throughout scripture the price of spiritual leadership is suffering it's pain eternal impact and sorrow go hand-in-hand suffering and glory are inseparable jay oswald sanders he says it like this he says no one need aspire to leadership in the work of god who's not prepared to pay a price greater than his contemporaries and colleagues are willing to pay true leadership always exacts a heavy toll on the whole man and the more effective the leadership is the higher the price to be paid are you willing to suffer because if you want to be used by god you will maybe that's where moral courage comes from you know in the christian life as we follow Jesus there's different kinds of sin there are sins of commission and sins of omission maybe you've heard that distinction before sins of commission are doing things that you should not do and sins of omission are not doing things that you should do and we see here in this story there's some sins of omission there's some sins of omission it's not doing what you know to be right there's a holocaust survivor named ellie viesel he says it like this the opposite of love is not hate it's indifference the sin of omission just not caring in 1961 john f Kennedy said the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing sin of omission and we see that sin of omission here in this text we see king ahab we see the 400 prophets we see my k his friend we see even good king jahoshaphat all heard the truth but did nothing only my kaya was willing to suffer for it are you willing to suffer for what's right if it costs you your job if it costs you your friends if it casts you into financial uncertainty if god calls you to move away if your parents look down on you if you have to downsize your house if you lose your reputation if your kids don't get to play on that travel team if you are viewed as backwards out of touch old school and uncool are you willing to suffer and my kaya had the moral courage to say yes and he was proven right you can go read the rest of the story this afternoon ahab kind of gives my k the hand he goes off to war anyway he disguises himself thinking that will protect him but you can't hide from the judgment of god and sure enough ahab died in that battle and dogs licked the blood of a man who chose to believe a lie so where did my kaya's moral courage come from his connection to community maybe his clear conviction of the truth maybe his willingness to suffer maybe but maybe there was something deeper here's my hypothesis i think moral courage comes from an audience of one moral courage comes from an audience of one that general george patin once said that courage is fear that has said its prayers now before you get up and do any public speaking as they train you to be a speaker some of you've been through this before they teach you how to do an audience analysis that before you ever write your message you got to think about who am i talking to what are these people like where they from what do they care about what do they want and before my kaya walked in to speak he did an audience analysis and he remembered that his primary audience was not those four hundred false prophets his primary audience was not even a murderously evil pagan king his primary audience was the high king of heaven himself and i think that's where moral courage comes from remembering that whatever you do and whatever you say you do and say before him moral courage comes from an audience of one five hundred years ago there was a preacher in england by the name of hugh latimer hugh latimer was one of the great preachers of his day and he preached to nobility during his time king edward the sixth loved to listen to hugh latimer preach hugh latimer would use stories and object lessons but eventually king henry the eighth came to the throne and if you remember your history lessons henry the eighth was a different story henry the eighth it was said never spared a woman in his lust or a man in his anger he was king a ham and if you got in king henry the eighth's way he could have you killed and he often did and so when you latimer was called to come preach before king henry the eighth latimer walked in and he started his sermon by saying latimer remember before whom you speak the mighty king henry and if he chooses to do it he can have your head cut off but then he paused and he said latimer remember before whom you speak it is the living god the king of kings who can throw you in hell and at whose throne king henry will stand and to whom one day you will give an account and sure enough with moral courage latimer preached and i have stood in the very spot in oxford where hugh latimer was burned at the stake if you and i are going to be people of moral courage if we're going to be people who don't panic when the snakes around our ankles then we must remember that god is the one to whom we will give an account that he's our king that he's the one who's listening that he's the one who's watching that he is the ever-present audience of your life that you have never gone into a moment where he was not there and his opinion of us is the one that matters most and in this of course i'm thankful today that we have the example of jesus you might remember when mikeia was prophesying to king ahab he said he saw a vision he saw a vision of the people without a king and he said without a king they're like sheep without a shepherd that was the phrase he used sheep without a shepherd and it's interesting that hundreds of years later when jesus shows up on the scene jesus used that exact same phrase in matthew chapter nine it says that jesus had compassion on the people because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd in other words they still didn't have a king they still couldn't find a leader with the kind of moral courage to lead them we still have that problem don't we and yet it was jesus who showed them what kind of king they needed it was jesus the man of moral courage who was willing to stand alone disconnected from his community when all his friends abandoned him it was jesus who brought that clear conviction of the truth telling you and me and everybody around him that our sin has separated us from god but that he has made a way back to the father on our behalf and it was jesus who was willing to suffer for that truth going all the way to the cross to be tortured for you and to me and it was jesus who knew that the only audience that mattered was his father was the high king of heaven and so jesus obeyed the father even when the whole world was against him and jesus had the moral courage to be faithful even when you and i were faithless to die and to rise again from the dead now and forever to crush the head of that snake and so because of him today don't panic if you got your communion elements when you walked in let's take him out now and i'm reminded of how on the last night of jesus's life he didn't panic he saw the schemes of the serpent around him but he didn't run rather jesus looked around the table to his friends knowing he was headed for the cross passed around the bread he said this is my body it's for you do this in remembrance of me and he passed around the cup and he said this is my blood for the forgiveness of all of your sins do this in remembrance of me and so with holy confidence we are going to remember our king of moral courage and we're going to do this now in remembrance of him i'm going to give you a few moments on your own to receive the bread the body of jesus and would you tell him thank you and ask him to instill within your heart the courage that you need this week and then i'll pray and we'll receive the cup together so so king jesus um you know us completely you have been the audience of our life from before we were born and so you have seen lord every time that we've been faithless every time that we have known the right thing to do and we've said no thanks every time we felt the pressure and we turned around and ran every time we compromised every time we rebelled every time we listened to the lies of the evil when you were there and yet even when we were faithless you have been faithful every moment and we praise you god that you knew all of that when you went to the cross you knew exactly what you were purchasing a bunch of weak cowardly wimpy fickle up and down people who'd have a lot of good days and a lot of bad and we praise you that because of your holy spirit in us you are now calling us to walk forward full of faith as the people of moral courage that the world gets to see you through we want to be those people help us thank you for your blood that washes us clean it's in jesus name that all god's people said amen this is the blood of Christ let's stay in now and worship our good king together thank you for listening to the podcast today it is our deepest desire here at playing field christian church that you would experience the joy of being fully alive in jesus if you have any questions about our church or would like a plan to visit with us go to playingfieldchristian.com if you'd like to receive our podcast every week we encourage you to subscribe to the playing field christian church podcast on whatever podcasting platform you prefer have a great week