This sermon emphasizes the power and presence of God through the stories of Apostle Paul and Elijah, showcasing how their unwavering faith and obedience to God led to miraculous interventions and displays of divine power. It highlights the contrast between worldly possessions and true spiritual wealth, urging believers to prioritize their relationship with God above all else. The narrative of Elijah challenging the false prophets on Mount Carmel serves as a powerful example of trusting in God's promises and standing firm in faith, even in the face of overwhelming odds and opposition.

Do you think a gripper ever invited Apostle Paul to dinner at the royal palace? Did Herod invite John Baptist to dinner, or Jesus? The very presence of the man of God scared them. Immediately he came in their presence, he diffused something of the Almighty God, the eternal God, and immediately they sensed their own corruption and failure. Now listen, do you remember that wonderful story in the Bible where Paul gets on board a ship and everybody laughed and said, who's that guy, who, he's a preacher, in chains? Yes. Yeah, where's he going? He just told me he's going to have his head chopped off when he gets off the boat. What? And he's not crying about it? No, no. He says, I'm going to, I'm going to do the greatest job I've ever done for my master. And he got on board the ship as a passenger and he got off as the pilot. The ship went to pieces, typical of the day in which we're living. Is the world going to end with a bang or a whimper? Is it going to end up in the hands of communism or the hands of capitalism? No, it's going to end up in the hand of preachers. That ship tossing and twirling, the sails are ripping and the spars are breaking and the seas are boiling and the people are screaming and everybody's terrified. And up comes a little man up from down the cheapest quarters on the boat and he comes up with a big smile and says, what's wrong with you? He says, was it a terrible night, didn't you think you were going to sink? He said, no, there stood by me this night an angel of God. A what? An angel of God. What cabin does he sleep in? Oh, he just comes down to visit me. He came in the middle of the night and he says, Paul, give me a hand, old boy. Remember this, this ship's not going to sink and you're going to make it and you're going to be the means of saving everybody on board this ship, not the captain. They threw all the furniture overboard, they threw all the baggage overboard. They threw everything they could overboard to lighten the ship and Paul says, why don't you quit and just let me take charge? It's the same thing here. Art thou he that troubleth Israel? Verse 18. He answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, because you forsaken his commandments and you followed Bailyn. Now listen, here's the little guy, here's the king in his beautiful uniform with all his servants around him in a house full of antiques and what in the world have you got? And here's a little rugged man that doesn't even have a penny in his pocket and he has no home. Should I tell you what the situation was? Poor guy. He got nothing but God. Isn't it terrible? I mean, when you have nothing but God. Do you remember what the apostle Paul said? He says, I have nothing and I possess all things. Now the church has everything including computers and instead of saying I have nothing and possess all things, now we possess all things and have nothing. I'd love to draw a picture of this if I could draw. Elijah with his leather girdle and his big hairy chest and he's standing before the king in his glorious robes and his wonderful crown and the little prophet says, hey boy, look, you get all Israel to Mount Carmel and bring all your false prophets, 400 from Baal and 400 from the groves that eat at Jezebel's table, that old witch. Somebody called her a toad. I think that's an insult to the toad. And then when you've gathered them, gathered all the children of Israel, now would you like to stand up against this mob? It's estimated there were 2 million children of Israel and 850 false priests there from false religions. And what does this man of God do? Well, he delivers the word that God has given to him, that's all he has to do. I was trying to find it, I've lost the marking here, but a bit later on, do you remember there were 50 sons of the prophets came up to him and they said, who are you? He said, do you want me to prove it? He said, yes. Okay, well, if I'm the true God, he said, let fire fall from heaven and burn you all up. But that's what happened. And he roasted 50 of the false prophets on the spot. Now, wouldn't you think they'd learn the lesson? But what did the wicked people do? They sent 50 more and he roasted them. And they hadn't learned the lesson, they sent 50 more and he roasted them. So you've got 2 million people, 3 times 50, 150 of the super high priests of false religion and 2 million maybe of Israel and 850 false prophets. The dice was pretty loaded against him, wasn't it? But he says, let's build an altar and you put your sacrifice on it. And at the end of verse 25 he says, you call on the name of your God but put no fire on the altar. And they went on crying and cried and cried and no God answered. And verse 27, it came to pass that Elijah mocked them and said as he cried aloud that he is God, either he's talking or pursuing. If you've got one of those horrible living Bibles, this isn't written very well at all. I always read out to the living Bible, the King James Version. But there's some rough language there. But cry aloud, your God's on a journey, he's gone shopping. He mocked them. The God that answers by fire. But notice in verse 30, Elijah said to all the people, come near unto me. And all the people came and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. Do you know why a lot of our prayers are not answered? Because we've got broken altars in our lives. Vows that we made to God and we never kept them. But first of all he built the old altar, repaired it. Now come on, let's be realistic about this. What do you think those 850 false prophets were doing while he was building that altar? Don't you think they were saying, look at the old clown. What's he going to do? Why doesn't he give up? I mean, he's stupid. I mean, there's 850 of us against him, plus all this crowd. Now, was it right for Elijah to put God to the test like this? Why should a little man take it upon him to say, I'll build an altar and then the God that answers by fire, he's the real God. How does he have the audacity to do it? I'll tell you why he has the audacity to do it, because he said, the word of the Lord came unto me to do it. And come hell or high water, you can multiply the false prophets by a million, but I have the word of God. And I'm only obeying God. And because I'm obeying God, God will come through and God will answer by fire. We don't have time to go through this in the way that I like, but...