Oct 7, 2012 from Richard Waldschmidt on Vimeo.
October October 6/7/8, 2012 Pentecost 19Sermon on 1 Kings 18:21 and other texts by Pastor Paul Eckert
Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver
between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if
Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.
Have you ever wondered how your pastors choose the Bible texts
they use for their sermons? I’ll tell you one way we don’t choose
them. We don’t just take our Bibles, lift them up a bit, drop them
onto our desks, see where the Bible opens up, and then pick our
sermon text from one of the two pages lying open.
So how do we do it? Ordinarily we choose one of the Scripture
readings used in our regular church services for that week. That means
we usually use the Old Testament reading, the New Testament epistle,
the Gospel reading, or the Psalm of the day.
What about other services than our regular weekly services, services
like Thanksgiving or Advent or New Year or Lent and so on? We
don’t drop the Bible on our desks there either. Instead, we choose
from our experience what we feel would fit in well for the occasion.
It also happens at times that a thought or idea comes to us that we
think is worth pursuing. That happened to me in choosing this week’s
texts. The idea came when I thought about this service falling between
two special occasions or events. What are they? Last week we were
finally able to dedicate our organ. Next week we are going to take
note of Mission Festival. The service this week is between the two,
between organ dedication and Mission Festival. That made me think
of a “between” situation in 1 Kings chapter 18 where Elijah asked,
“How long will you waver between two opinions?” I’m going to use
that, plus quite a number of other Scripture portions, under the theme:
BETWEEN TWO EVENTS OR CHOICES.
I’ll start out with the passage from 1 Kings 18. The prophet Elijah
was talking to the people of Israel who were going along with the
worship of Baal, a false God. This is what we are told in verse 21:
Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver
between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if
Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.
Those last words are striking, aren’t they. “But the people said
nothing.” Will we be “nothing people” when we are between two
events or choices? Let’s look at quite a few other Scripture passages
that can make us think of being between two events or choices.
I THERE WAS AN EVENT WHEN IT ALL STARTED.
Genesis 3:1-6. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the
wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman,
“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the
garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit
from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat
fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you
must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not surely die,” the
serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of
it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing
good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree
was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for
gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to
her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
1. God had given a perfect Adam and Eve His Word to guide them.
Then the devil stepped in between and gave them another choice.
2. Eve listened and wavered; Adam listened and did the same.
3. And sin came into the world, and with it sorrow and death. They
had wavered, changed their “between” to an “after” that was terrible.
II THEN THERE WAS AN ONGOING PROBLEM.
Genesis 19:15-17,26 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged
Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who
are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”
When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his
wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city,
for the LORD was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought
them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back,
and don’t stop anywhere in the plain!” --- But Lot’s wife looked
back, and she became a pillar of salt.
1. Sodom and Gomorrah, with its perversion of marriage, with its
rejection of God, was more appealing to Lot’s wife than safety ahead.
2. She started out leaving sin behind, but then wavered, and lost.
3. How often do we look back at sin with all of its appealing sinful
life style, then move out of the between spot and make the choice to
go along with what sin offers and not what God has promised?
III LISTEN TO ENCOURAGEMENT NOT TO WAVER.
Psalm 34:14 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and
pursue it. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 Test everything. Hold on to the
good. Avoid every kind of evil. 1 Peter 3:11 He must turn from
evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.
1. As Christians we don’t want to waver between good and evil.
2. But let’s be honest. We often are weak. We often have to say
with the Apostle Paul, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I
cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:18)
3. We waver. In spite of the best of intentions we too easily fall into
sin. And you know what that means: The wages of sin is death.
IV NOW LISTEN TO WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT SINNERS.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1. Adam and Eve, you and I, could never overcome the
consequences of our sin, not even of one sin.
2. But God in His love could and did. He gave His Son to die on
the cross as our substitute so that our sins could be forgiven, canceled.
3. But this also involved a between for Jesus. On Friday He was
dead. Then Saturday came between - had He lost His battle? But the
between time ended with Sunday when an “angel said to the women,
‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who
was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come
and see the place where he lay.’” (Matthew 28:5-6) Jesus had not
wavered at all in carrying out His saving mission. For you and for me
He resolutely went to the cross, then victoriously arose, the Victorious
One, to be our forgiveness and our resurrection and our life.
V SO WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the
gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many
enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that
leads to life, and only a few find it.”
1. The wide gate, everything the world offers - it leads to hell.
2. The narrow gate - Jesus said, “I am the Way and the Truth and
the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John
14:6)
3. Don’t waver! Believe in Jesus, your Way and Truth and Life!
Joshua 24:20-21 “If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods,
he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you,
after he has been good to you.” But the people said to Joshua,
“No! We will serve the LORD.”
1. The people didn’t waver. They plainly said they would serve
God, as we in faith want to say the same thing, “We will serve the
LORD.”
2. But the Israelites were weak and fell into sin again and again.
And we too are weak, waver, fall and don’t stop needing our Savior.
3. So let us keep fighting the good fight of faith, turning for
forgiveness to the Savior whom we need each and every day of our
lives, knowing that is an ongoing struggle, as it was for Moses.
Hebrews 11:24-26 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused
to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be
mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the
sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt,
because he was looking ahead to his reward.
1. The pleasures of sin tempt us too, not just Moses.
2. Also our feelings don’t like disgrace, rejection from the world.
3. But fight the fight of faith, be strengthened by God’s Word.
Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in
the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the
more as you see the Day approaching.
1. As our bodies need food to stay physically strong, so our faith
needs feeding with God’s Word, with the Lord’s Supper.
2. Worshiping at church with your fellow believers or staying away
from church and worship - don’t waver between them.
3. Worship faithfully, and encourage others to do the same.
VI AND DON’T WAVER AT ALL ABOUT WHAT WILL BE.
John 3:16 “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life.”
Matthew 25:33 “He will put the sheep on his right and the goats
on his left.”
1. Something most definite will be - perish or live. So don’t waver.
Revelation 2:10 “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will
give you the crown of life.”
2. In faith be able to say what the Apostle Paul said in his second
letter to Timothy (4:7-8), “I have fought the good fight, I have
finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for
me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also
to all who have longed for his appearing.”
3. Look at what is coming! Yes, this life has its difficulties. But
don’t waver. God’s promises stand sure, as the psalmist says, “Those
who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.” (Psalm 126:5)
I have used quite a few passages to talk about wavering Between
Two Events Or Choices. Just about all of them have been about
wavering between something good and something bad.
That, however, was not the case with what I mentioned in the
introduction about this week being between last week’s organ
dedication and next week’s Mission Festival. Both of those - organ
dedication and Mission Festival - are good, no choosing or wavering
necessary.
Looking back, let us thank God for the organ we can now enjoy as
it leads us in our worship. And looking ahead, let that thanks be
evident as we show with our Mission Festival worship and offerings
that we want to praise God, and that we want to share with others the
truth of salvation, the truth of our Savior who wavered not at all in
going to the cross and coming out of the tomb so that each of us might
have a crown of life.
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