Well, at least I know they were listening

Yesterday was Fathers day and it was my turn to preach.  Ken had just started a series the week before on Elijah, and so I spent the week trying to figure out how to connect Elijah to a Fathers day message.  My text was 1 Kings 17:7-24, where Elijah is fed by Ravens, drinks from a brook, then is sent to the widow of Zarephath.  While there he performs a couple of cool miracles, he (by the power of God) provides a jar of flour and jug of oil that won’t run dry throughout the entire famine.  Then when the ladies son dies, Elijah (Once again by the power of God) raises this young man back to life.  Some of those “WOW” miracles of the Bible.  But yet hardly “Father’s day” material.  So I looked deeper – then I found two passages that make it preach-able for Fathers day - Malachi 4:5-6 (NIV) ⁵ “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. ⁶ He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”  and also James 5:17 (NIV) ¹⁷ Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
That’s it, Elijah did all this miracles, even though he was a man just like us, an ordinary man, with extraordinary faith and moldable by the Living God.  That will preach, let me see, what great lessons can I learn from Elijah’s life that will challenge Fathers -

1.  Elijah was a man who Depended on God!  Just look at his life – everything he did from standing toe to toe with Ahab and telling him it wouldn’t rain till the day he was taken up, Elijah trusted the Lord with all his heart.

2. Elijah was a man who never compromised his faith!  In the day he lived, Ahab and the people of Israel could never decide who they wanted to serve, the Lord Jehovah or Baal – until Finally on Mt. Carmel Elijah shouted, “How long will you waver between two decision,  If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”  and then in a demonstration of great power Elijah called down fire from heaven.  It would have been easy for him to blend into the crowd and go about his business, but Elijah never compromised, and stood strong for the truth. 

3.  Elijah didn’t conform to His world but brought transformation – Rom 12:1-2 – Elijah because of his great faith and confidence in his God and his unwillingness to compromise his faith, brought radical change in Israel, the prophets of Baal were killed and God’s name was proclaimed.

Somewhere in the midst of this sermon though I used a quote by Harmon Killebrew – who played for the Minnesota twins back a few years ago – “My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass.’ ‘We’re not raising grass,’ Dad would reply. ‘We’re raising boys.’ “  I just happened to mention that Harmon was a pitcher for the Twins years ago.  Well my info was a little off, as my memory failed me “I know, I Know, he was a Home Run Hitter.  I know because before my Sunday school lesson got started my class had quite a  time ribbing me about my mistake.  And then after lunch, my good brother in law informed me, and then Monday morning comes, the phone rings, “Hey I want to know more about this old time pitcher, named Harmon Killebrew”  

Oh Well, at least I know they were listning.