1 Kings 22:25

Speaker 1: And then thank for that rather Mad Men turned to the book of First Kings. First Kings chapter number 20. To. In chapter number twenty two, if you have found your place, once you join me in standing in honor of reading God's Word. First Kings chapter number twenty two. And we'll begin we're just going to read one verse version for twenty five. It's going to seem weird that we're just going to read this verse, but it'll make sense once we get into the message going. Bible says and Makaya said, behold. Thou shalt sin in that day. Now shall go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. Let's pray. Please help us now as we seek to look into your word. Give me the words. You have me to say that the folks that are here to listen. Why were they here to their lives? To Jesus name? I pray.

Unidentified: Amen. Maybe seated.

Speaker 1: Oh, poor Ahab, we got to kill him tonight. You know, it was coming the point of the man once today and tonight is Ahab's pointed out, it was prophesied that it would come and now it has come. I feel bad for Ahab. I really do. I think Ahab gets a bad rap. Ahab's just a normal guy, just like any one of us. He's not, you know, Satan in the flesh or anything like that. He's just a human being created in God's image. One time he was a cute little baby. People looked at him and thought, Oh, look, how sweet. Uh, Ahab even shows flashes glimpses of what could have been if he were to just look the God. Over and over and over throughout our study, we have watched as God spoke to Ahab and Ahab rejected God's message. God spoke to Ahab. Ahab didn't believe it. Over and over and over again, we have seen what God says is the truth. No matter how much Ahab, the King of Israel doesn't like it, what God says is going to happen is going to happen. And what God says is the best way really is the best way. Tonight, we're going to look at how one last time Ahab suffers the consequences of ignoring in his ears off what God has told him. You go back to the beginning of chapter number twenty two in verse number one. We find that it's been three years since Ahab in Syria last went to war with each other. You may remember fact that this was the story of how the Syrians had attacked Israel. How did giving them a miraculous victory? It was in the mountains near Samaria, and so the Syrians had gone back and said, Well, maybe their God is the god of the mountains. Let's attack them in the plains and find that their God can't give them the victory in the plains. And so wouldn't you know it? Our God gave them the victory in the Plains. He's the god of the mountain. He's the guy. The valley doesn't matter where you go. As David said, If I descend into heaven, there you are. If I go down to the depths of hell. Hey, you're there too. And so God is everywhere. There's nothing that is outside of his control. And so here is Ahab. He's been given the gift of victory, been, Hey, dad, the king is within his grasp. And what does good old Ahab do? He hugs a man. And hey, then hey dad, my brother, I love you, man. I can make streets and name them after me and and tell a nice guy I am and and you can live. And of course, there's an unnamed prophet that comes along and says, you were given a prisoner, got it given to you for giving him to you for destruction. You let him go and so your life will be required for his life. And of course, Ahab's upset about that, he goes home, he gets jealous of a vineyard, he kills poor old neighbors and and God says, You know what? I'm going to destroy you, destroy your house, destroy everything you thought you had amassed. That was good in this life and to take it all the way from you. What is they have to? Humbles himself before God. God says to Elijah, look at Ahab, look at how he humbles himself before me. And what if they have would have humbled himself a lot earlier? What if Ahab would have humbled himself a lot more consistently before God? What could Ahab's life have been? God is merciful, and even in this moment, God gives Ahab a reprieve. This is all of these plans that I have, I will not perform during his life afterwards. Judgment will come on the House of Ahab, so in verse number one is three years since that last battle. They have foolishly, I would say, decides it's time to pick a fight with Syria versus number two tells us that the good king that was down in Judah Joshua that has come up to pay a visit to to to Ahab, Josh Fat was a god. It was a righteous king. We could potentially make the message tonight about the dangers of righteous people foolishly associating or getting in league with those that are wicked because that's what Josh Fat does, and it almost cost him his life. We're going to focus on Ahab tonight. So in verse number three, Ahab proposes that the Kings work together to retake a city called Ray Moth, which is there in Gilly. The Bible calls it Ray Moth Gilliard Ramos. Gilliard was one of the Leviticus cities that you may remember from when the Israelites came into the Land of Canaan. God did not give invites a region. He gave them cities throughout Israel for them to inhabit. And so it was situated in what became the land of the car. But Syria had taken control of it from the Israelites. And so you've got this divided kingdom, Israel and Judah, and they are uniting over this shared interest in the city of Ramadi. Now, just so that we're clear. Syria is the same country. Prophesied they would kill Ahab. You remember that, right? I mean, he let Ben hate that go. And God said, Now your life is going to be required because of this. If I was Ahab, I think I'd want to stay away from Syria for the rest of my life. You know, it's like one of those movies where they show you the end at the very beginning of the movie. And so the whole movie, you know, working towards or maybe you've seen the movie before. And so you know, the at the end, this is going to happen. But you keep hoping that perhaps it'll be different this time. If I was Ahab, I would have wanted nothing to do with Syria, but instead he proposes that they try to reclaim the city. And amazingly, in verse number four, Joshua Bhatt says Sure. OK. Sounds like a plan. Actually, he says he says to the King of Israel, I am, is thou art? My people is thy people, my horses as thy horses. Josh fat may have been a good king, but this is one of the dumbest things he probably did in his entire life. Perhaps after the events of Chapter Twenty One, the harsh iPad had heard about how Ahab it humbled himself before God. Maybe there was some semblance of like a revival taking place in Israel. And so perhaps Josh Fat has headed north to try and be a good influence on Ahab to encourage him to continue on this path of serving the Lord. But whatever the Yehoshua that links up with Ahab under one condition. It's in verse number five, it says to the King of Israel, either I pray at the word of the Lord today. Josh, that insists that any salt with the profits concerning this endeavor. A assembles four hundred prophets under prophets to give counsel as to whether or not they should go and continue on in this attack of Iliat. Micah now. There are several things that caused me almost physical pain. One of them is this microphone. Another one is when those slides don't change with the song. Oh, all right, well, I don't move too much anyways. Breathe. It's supposed to be New Year new, you know? OK.

Speaker 2: Hmm.

Speaker 1: I'm just going to turn it off. All right. It's all good. Thanks. All right. So he assembles the 400 profits of the not avail four hundred prophets. Now some have said that these are 400 prophets of Bill. Let me ask you, knowing, Josh, that you think Josh Fattal will have sat for four hundred prophet's bail? No, absolutely not. These were prophets of God, quote unquote. But they were powerless. I would say they were neutered men who were afraid of Ahab and his reaction to negative counsel. These are men who have most likely been burned by the persecution of Ahab and Jezebel. And so they too are trying to capitalize on the half-way revival of the King. Ahab seems to have turned to God, and so these men have stepped forward as prophets of God. They are always representatives, but only so far as Yahweh doesn't anger the king. All right, there, they're wishy washy representatives of God, they're wishy washy prophets, they are. I think the New Testament would call them preachers who are just trying to reach people's ears. They get together and verse number six, and they all agree. Yeah. King, you should go up to that'll go up to Ramos, Juliet, and you are certainly going to receive a victory from the Lord. Is he rather than telling the king what he needed to hear? They told the King what he wanted to hear. I'll be the first to admit to you. There is a certain temptation when it comes to standing up here to just tell you what I think you want to hear. Rather than what I believe God's word says you need to hear. There are certain topics that I know would not be very well accepted. But they need to be dealt with. You see, Ahab really doesn't care if they tell him what he needs to hear, what he wants to hear, he's just looking for affirmation. He's just looking for somebody to confirm what he's already planning to do. And sometimes, maybe not so much with adults. Adults wouldn't do this, but teenagers do it all the time. Teenagers would come in to my office when I was a youth pastor. They tell me what they're are planning on doing, where they're planning on going to college, and then they're really not there to find out what. I think God would have them to do. They just want their youth pastor to say, Yep, that's right. Here's looking for confirmation that's the way Ahab was. And so he's fine with these four hundred telling him what he wants to hear. But if that's not fine with that. Josh about isn't looking just for affirmation. Josh Fat is looking for direction. Josh Van asks in verse number seven, if there is not another prophet of the Lord that they could inquire of. It didn't matter that the 400 prophets were in agreement. He wanted one more now. I doubt we got like a hundred people in here today and maybe a little bit less. I doubt that if I was to ask you what color shirt I was supposed to wear tomorrow, that we could get everyone to agree on that. I bet if I told you I want pizza after church, which would not be a bad deal. You couldn't agree on where I was supposed to get pizza. If I asked you what college football team I should root for. Definitely, no, we wouldn't get a unanimous answer. I think Josh about smelled something fishy with the fact that 400 prophets all agreed. Not one person was saying, you know, maybe that's not what you should do. Isn't it weird that there wouldn't be any body saying no? I mean, I know it's it's weird for me, I'm not saying they should do this, but it's weird for me when we have like a business meeting or something and I'm like, they might get any questions. And there's no question I think surely somebody has a question. I studied for this. Come on, somebody, somebody has a question. Just lob me a softball that I can hit out of the park and everything. Oh, you! But there was just nothing. Rob, brother, Tony, I remember when I was came back for the candidate's visit before you all voted on me and we had the question and answer time after the service and they were all like, You know, where are you going to? Where are your kids going to go to school? And you know, when's your day off going to be just like these easy things and and then returning, says Calvinist. Quo wasn't ready for that one. I was. But, you know, just I'm used to harder questions. My my ordination was four hours long. I mean, that was a lot of hard questions. And so anyways, but Josh Fat says there's got to be somebody else. There's got to be someone that can give us a different opinion. Is there one other prophet of the Lord? What kind of person denies the consensus opinion in a quest for the truth? What kind of person says, you know, I see that everyone else is going this way. But I think there's got to be another way. Surely there's there's there's another option on the table. I'd say it's probably a rare person. Ahab admits that there is another prophet verse number eight. He says, yeah, there's this guy named Makaya, but I hate him. Hate him. Imagine mean that blunt. Have you met that guy over there? Yeah, I hate him. Oh, OK. He says all he ever does is speak evil of me. He never says anything good. It's always bad. Well, Ahab, maybe if you weren't always living contrary to the will of God, the prophet of God would have something good to say about you every once in a while. Instead of always pronouncing judgment on you and your house for your gross wickedness. But Yehoshua wants to hear from somebody else, so to appease Josh Fat Ahab since for Makaya and versus 1914 detail that in the meantime, the two kings of Israel get all dressed up and they're rich in fine apparel and they go out and they sit in the city gates and the the other prophets begin to prophesy, and the Bible talks about how one prophet Zachariah. He goes out and verse number 11 makes some horns of iron and starts doing some play acting. And I was joking with brother ANI in saying next week for Vision Sunday, I'm not going to do a PowerPoint. I'm not just going to tell you the staff and I are actually going to put together an interpretive dance and then it's going to be up to you to determine what the future is for the church that year. You're like, That's what you're doing, and it won't include me, whatever it is. Nobody wants to see that nobody wants to see us dance at all, that's that would be a nightmare. But but that's what they're doing here. He's play acting with horns and running around like he's a bull charging at people, and he says, This is what you're going to do to Syria. Ahab, you're in a you're going to pursue them until you've consumed them. It's just going to be great. I mean, just go out there and and have at it. And in the meantime, the messenger is making his way to Mukalla and and when he gets there, he talks to McGuire and tries to prep him for the meeting. He says in verse number 12. I'm sorry, version 13 says the messenger that was going to call Mickey Spake on him, saying, behold, now the words of the prophets declare good end of the king with one mouth. Let thy word, I pray thee be like the word of one of them and speak that, which is good. I mean, this guy, he's probably been around for a while. I don't know if this messenger is one of the prophets that was sent to get him. I don't know if he was one of the King's Court, a servant, somebody. But he's been there to hear McCain speak before, and he's had to deal with the fallout either from the other prophets or from Ahab of McCain is bad news. And so he's like, Please, Kyra. Just this once, would you go with the flow? Would you just agree with somebody for once why he always had to be so divisive and separatists? Just can't we all get along? I. Says the first number 14. As The Lord Lilith. What the Lord say, if under me, that will I speak? Can't you just see that messenger who rolling his eyes back in his head so far? OK. Ligaya, whatever you say. Let's go. So what kind of comes before the king to deliver his prophecy and verse number 15, the king presents the makaya the situation? Shall we go against Ramos or shall we bear? Should we stay or should we go? OK, I answered him. Go and prosper. Lord, so deliver it into the hand of the king. That wasn't the very sarcastic voice I imagined it was dripping with sarcasm. Go. And prosper. It's it's so obvious that even Ahab. Realizes what's going on. And so he pops off it at Makaya and he says, how many times shall I assure the I'll tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord, because Ahab has always been very concerned about what the Lord says. How many times McCain wants to be, this is the first. Mackay continues with his prophecy. He begins to tell Ahab the truth. He tells the King in verse number 17 that he sees all Israel scattered as a sheep with no shepherd. It's not the first time we've seen that phrase turn up in the Bible, is it? You're familiar with this term. It's the way Jesus saw the people of Israel scattered a sheep having no shepherd. That's why he had compassion on them. Makaya says I see them all returning to their homes because they have no master. Ahab scoffs verse number 18, I can just hear him laughing. You've experienced this. Perhaps if you've dealt with an immature person, you do something that they think is just the most utterly ridiculous thing that you could have done when you're just acting normal in the. You know, I mean, all those different noises. And communicate a lot without saying anything. It looks at Yehoshua faced. Didn't I tell you he wouldn't have anything good to say? Told you he was going to do this. You're always like this, Makaya, always, always. You never, never, never have anything good to say. Mackay continues on version 19. He says, here thou, therefore the word of the Lord. When you listen to this, this is this is a. This is a parabolic prophecy, just like the sheep thing. You know, Ahab is going to die. I already told you, so I'm not spoiling for Abe, is going to die. They're not all soldiers going to turn into like literal sheep right there as sheep with no shepherd. What we see here is a parable of what happened, what has happened to bring this message to him, he says. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left, and the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ray Moth, Gilead? And one said on this manner. Another said, On that manner and there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. The Lord said on him, where with. He said I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets. He said thou shalt persuade him and prevail. Also go forth and do so. Now, therefore, behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these. These thy prophets Lord have spoken evil concerning the. How do you think those profits are going to respond to the fact that he has just called them out as a bunch of liars? As the cause of their king's downfall. They're not going to be happy. I mean, when you're in the wrong and somebody tells the truth about you being in the wrong, we're usually not on board with that. Susanna Kaiya goes over there and smacks Makaya in the face, everyone smacked in the face. You have OK. Wow. It's a big insult in that culture. I mean, it would be like thinking of the most demeaning name you could call somebody in our culture and saying it to their face in front of other people. That's what it's like to be slapped in their culture. It's not so much to cause pain as it is an insult. So that a guy comes over and he smacks Mochi in the face and he he asks Makaya, Where did you get this message from? The words that he uses here say he says this, he says which way when the spirit of the Lord from me to speak under thee. What he's saying is innocently or knowingly, he's trying to say my message is from God. Where where'd you get your message from? Now, we don't know that, Kiah, but I'm doubtful that he was innocently. Giving Ahab a bad message, I think he knew what he was doing. And so here we know that he is he he is insulting him, and he's questioning the authority of his whose message he's saying, Listen, Makaya, what you're saying isn't true. God didn't tell you this. That's not part of his message. That's not God's word. Here's where we come diverse number twenty five. The verse that we read to start, Makaya speaks three words that I believe every preacher has to accept. I say, Preacher, I don't just mean somebody that stands behind the pulpit. I mean, anyone that tries to speak God's word, God's message to others, whether that be in a workplace, in a home, out in society, anyone that will declare God's message has to accept these three words. You've got to get to the point where you can say this and mean it. As you said, Makiya said to Zelikow, behold. Thou shalt see. It's kind of the idea of, you know, the proof is in the pudding. It's all words. You can say you don't believe my message, I'm telling you my messages from God. But the but the reality is going to hit you hard. When we see whether or not I am telling the truth or you are telling the truth. I don't believe McCain is saying that in a haughty spirit. He's not prideful. He takes no joy in his confidence that he is right. That he is delivering a message from God. But he knows that no preacher can force anyone to receive the message. You can believe you can reject. But if the message is from God. Then it is only a matter of time. Until you will see. It makes sense. Well, obviously this doesn't go well for Mukaila. But they have, in his actions, is going to prove Mkhize's message because he has been imprisoned and versus 26 or 28, he rejects Mkhize's message. He accepts the message that he wanted to hear, not the message he needed to hear. And he tells his guards to imprison Makaya until he returns in victory. He says Verse, 27, put this fellow in the prison and feed him with the bread of affliction and the water with water of affliction until I come in peace. Verse 28, Makaya said if they'll return at all in peace, the Lord have thought spoken by me. And you said, Harkin, oh, people, every one of you. This is no less a test of God as Elijah standing on Mount Carmel with the profits of bail on one side and Elijah standing alone on the other. This is a test to see, is God going to do what his prophet, his representative has said that he would do? Because if you return at all. God is not spoken by me. Well. The you could say the board is set. The chess pieces have been arranged, the game has now started. Josh Batt, Ahab joined forces go together to the battle at Ramos version of 30 Ahab convinces Josh Shabbat to let Ahab wear a disguise while Josh Fat wears his royal robes. I'm curious if Ahab did not believe the prophecy. Then why is he trying to conceal his identity on the battlefield? I'm also curious as to why, Josh, if that would be so blind as to agree to this arrangement. The king of Syria, who I believe is still been Hey, dad orders his men before the battle and version number thirty one to go only after the King of Israel. You see, he's still smarting from the last two weapons that Ahab has put on him, and this is his chance for revenge. So he says, don't mess with anybody else. Don't bother with anybody else. You guys go after Ahab and Ahab only. Of course, they get out on the battlefield, verse number thirty two says that the captains of the chariots saw Josh that they said, Surely it is the King of Israel. They turned aside to fight against him and Josh Fat cried out. You know what that sounded like right now? They're after me. And he gets off, he's he's running away. They're chasing him. I wonder how long it took before they realized it was a mistake. How far did they chase Josh Fat before they turned back from chasing him, realizing it wasn't Ahab? I wonder how frustrated they were when they realized that they had been duped. I also wonder, did Ahab feel like he had outsmarted God? With his plan. One of the dangers of young adulthood. Dangers of the teenage years is thinking I'm the one that the rules don't apply to. I can drive one hundred and twenty miles an hour down the road and I won't get in an accident. I can drink and drink and drink and drink and drink, and it won't affect me. I can smoke this, I can swallow this, it's not going to have any effect on me because I am young and invincible. Ahab is suffering from the same mental impairment. He's thinking. You can make all of your pronouncements, you can make all your prophecies, but they don't apply to me. I'm too smart. I believe that he thought he had escaped God's word. God's word had been delivered over and over in his life. There will be no rain. There was no rain. When I call in fire from heaven or fell from heaven. Hey, the rain's coming back, here comes. That hasn't failed yet. Ahab thinks this is the time. This is the exception. And it was. Until it wasn't. Version number 34, it says. A certain man. Drew Bow at Adventure Venture. And smoked King of Israel between the joints of the harness. Here's this Archer out on the field. He draws his bow. Bible says that a venture we would say at random. And some would say that the archer just kind of pulls the string back, closes his eyes, says a prayer to his God and lets it fly. Just wherever it lands, it lands. I suppose that's possible. What I think happened, what I believe this first telling us is that he chose his target adventure. Have you ever tried to make an arrow? Have you. I have, you know, how many arrows I've made in my lifetime. None. I've tried, but that's hard work, it takes a lot of skill. I'd say an arrow is probably a pretty valuable piece of his armament. I don't really see this guy taking an arrow and just. Hope it lands on something. Now he's going to find somebody he doesn't know who this person is. This guy's dressed just like everybody else. He has the same armor as everybody else. He sees this guy. He's like, Oh, well, this guy is as good as any. This guy who is a skilled archer, you don't get to be an archer in the army unless you have some skills. Do you think that we're the first ones who came up with the idea of, you know, maybe we should train our soldiers? Maybe they should practice marksmanship? What a great idea and how they've been doing that forever. Mean this guy is out there at the range, practicing and practicing and practicing? You know, because he never knows when he's going to have to be out on the battlefield against the Israelites. So this guy finds his target, Ahab, he picks him just out of the field. He has no idea who it is and he aims and there is Ahab in his chariot and you know what he's doing. He's hacking away at people up and down and up and down with his sword. And he is just, you know, really happy and contented with himself as he watch all watches, all those chariots chase after Josh Apat, you know, and maybe the maybe the battle's going well. And so he's really feeling that he's getting more and more energized. His swings are getting more pronounced as he goes to town. He raises that arm up to bring it down on the next person, and that arrow comes in. Right in between where the front of his armor and the back of his armor are tied together. You got to get the armor on somehow. Comes down like this and they tie it in and try to get the two pieces as close together as possible, but there is a joint there and that arrow. By coincidence. Right in the Ahab side. After being hit. The Bible says that the king ordered his driver to bring him out of the fray. It's his turn that hand and carry me out of the host for I am wounded. Verse 35 in the battle increase that day, and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians. And did it even? I know we laugh at have we kind of make fun of him? I think unfairly, Abby's not a wimp. He's wounded, but he stays there on the battlefield. He can't do the hacking anymore. So he pulls back. He's there, propped up in his chariot, bleeding out. Bible says that the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot. There on the floor was the king's blood, and eventually he died. From loss of blood. No driver notices it. He tells the guy next to him. That guy tells the guy over there, he tells another, he tells another, he tells another before, you know, at the news of the king's death is washing over the battlefield like ring. As the people of Israel, the soldiers of Israel, hear about the loss of their master. They lose the will to fight, they begin to retreat. They begin to turn away from the battle. Begin to head back every man to his house and his own country. And the prophet's words came true. As he watched Israel as a sheep. Having no shepherd scattered. They're on that battlefield. So the king died. We're sorry, seven, they brought his body back to some area. One of the servants comes and begins to wash out the chair of Ahab. The water flushed the blood out onto the streets. Bible says the dogs came and licked up his blood just as it had been prophesied. Those dogs that lick the blood of neighbor. After Jezebel, it had him stoned. Those dogs came back. To lick the blood of Ahab. Our. I don't like it. But in verse 38. Last phrase after the semicolon. It's pretty fitting end to the life of Ahab. So they washed his armor. According under the word of the Lord, which he spake. That sums up Ahab's life. It happened according to the word of the Lord. According to the word of the Lord, Ahab is one of the best pictures in the Bible is someone who thought they could disregard the word of God, and it would not apply to him. He's the King of Israel, after all, isn't he above all laws? Isn't he above all words of any person? It's not above the words of the Lord. God never lied. He never failed to do what he said he would do, whether it was Elijah, an unnamed prophet or makaya God spoke to Ahab on many occasions. And he never failed to carry through on his word. Over and over. Ahab discounted and rejected the word of God, but not even the unbelief of a king can change the surety of God's word. Tonight. Whether you believe God's word or not. Has no bearing on the veracity, the truthfulness of what God has said. You see the same God that has created us has also given us his word in a book detailing everything we need to know for a successful life. Successful life like money, no. Like spiritual success. Like an abundant life, you know, the one that Jesus came to provide for us. This book, this word, most importantly, tells us how we can be reconciled to our creator. You don't you may run you're the Sunday night crowd. I'm pretty sure you believe it. But maybe you don't. But you'll run into people who who say, no, no, no, there's not one way, there's many ways all religions have some value. All religions are just showing a different path to the same truth. Now, Jesus said, I am the way. He said no man cometh under the father. But by me. You cannot get to God apart from Jesus. So we've accepted that we believe it. But it also speaks to other areas of life. The word of God does the message of God that is delivered to us. It speaks about marriage, God's plan for marriage. It's not a real popular message these days. A lot of people don't believe it. Right. Speaks about parenting. But the responsibility of a mom and a dad to have a child in their home. It speaks about civics, don't you know? Speaks about work. Speaks about religion. God knows what is best for his creation because he made us. He knows every area of our life how it should be orchestrated and how it should be put together, and he knows what is the most fulfilling thing for us. We believe that every believer has the holy spirit of God in them. You don't need someone. To explain the Bible for you, the Holy Spirit has the job of illuminating God's word for you. But God does still use preachers to warn us and instruct us regarding his message for our lives. Nobody forced you to come here today. Well, some of you kids, maybe. But for you, adults, nobody forced you to come here. You came here because you wanted fellowship and you wanted to hear the teaching of God's word. The contents of the message. Are no more the preachers than they were the prophets. That's kind of a confusing way for me to say. Let me try that again. I don't own the message any more than Makaya owned the message. It's God's message. A false preacher today is no better than a false preacher and Ahab's cadre of 400. Unless we judge the false preachers too harshly, can we remember that they were false preachers because they were trying to appeal to the listeners? And what they wanted to hear? You know, if there weren't people in the pews that were stomaching and looking for the false teaching, there wouldn't be a whole lot of false teachers. How many people are willing to pursue the truth, no matter where it leads? How many of us are willing to pursue God's message, even if it means giving up the sin that doth so easily be set us? My son is not probably the same as your son. We accept some sins because they're less icky. But it's still sin. Are you willing to pursue the truth and allow God's message to speak to your heart and your life, no matter what it points out? Are you? Ahab had his heart set on romance Gilliard, the messenger comes and says, If you go, you'll die. But I really want it. So I'm just going to reject your message. Isn't it amazing how sin gets a root in our life and it becomes an appetite that we can't get rid of? And it doesn't matter who tells us, if you keep this in your life, if you keep pursuing this, it will lead to your destruction, we say. But I really want it, so I'll just reject what you say. It's not as bad as you're making it out to be. You're just the little boy that cried wolf. Listen, if you have a preacher of the truth. You would do well to heed not man's message, but God's message. If you don't, then the words of Makaya will apply to you as well. Thou shalt see. I don't think that's a big deal. You'll see. I don't think I think I can let this stay in my life, and it won't, it won't do what you're saying. We'll see. That sounds really cocky. I knew you were cocky, you look at you out, there is power. It's not me. It's God's message. Can a man take fire into his bosom and not be burned? Huh? Can we so and not also reap? You see you get to choose your actions. But you don't get to choose the consequences of your actions. Nobody forced Ahab to go to battle. Once he was in that battle, there was nothing he could do to prevent that archer from picking him out at random. And shooting him right in the side. He tried to hide. He tried to distract them. But it didn't work. Remember, McCain was left in prison. Do you think Mikhail was happy when word got back to him that Ahab was dead?

Unidentified: No. You know, I'm a

Speaker 1: I mean, we're we're an independent Baptist church. You guys knew that, right? Sometimes you don't have the best reputation. Sometimes some of the preachers that have represented our group have almost seemed happy. When people have fallen into the effects of their sin. I don't think a true preacher of God's message is ever happy to see somebody that has to reap the consequences of their actions. What was it, Paul said? You know, those that are spiritual restore such an one, let's you also fall into temptation. I didn't prepare for that, but I think it's something along those lines. I don't think McCain was happy at all. I think Makaya, like Elijah, like the unnamed prophet. They could probably see. The potential. The Ahab had for serving God. They could probably see the opportunity that Ahab had to be used by God as much or more than anyone else. He showed glimpses of what could have been, but ultimately he was overthrown because of his rejection of God and his rejection of God's message. And Ahab's life remains as a warning to you and I. Because if it can happen to Ahab, it can happen to me. And if it can happen to Ahab, it can happen to you. All of us have the propensity for rejecting God's message and going our own way. I don't know what the way is for you. But if you're a child of God and you have the Holy Spirit living inside you. I would bet if I was a betting man. That it was we've been talking about this. God's been speaking to you. And saying, Hey, this right, here is what he's talking about. You've got to get this out of your life. So as we go into this time of invitation. You have to decide no one can make you. You have to decide, do you accept God's message? Or will you ignore it? Do you accept that this is something from God that you need to take care of? Or will you do? Or will you continue to push forward on your own path? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for preserving the warning of Ahab's life for us to learn from here in the modern day. God, I pray that you would use your Holy Spirit during this service to speak to our hearts and to pinpoint for us the. The mess, the parts of your message that we have been ignoring, we've been rejecting denying. Living in unbelief. God, that tonight we would allow your message to speak to our hearts, we would allow you to change us. That we would give up control of the things that we've been holding on to the things that. That are hurting us and our family and leading us down a path of destruction. Or we would just give them to you. God, I pray that you would help us to be bold in dealing with our sin. Give us courage. To say yes to, you know, to our own will in Jesus name, I ask these things. Amen.

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