Intro:

Opening Illustration — Long Rope (Invite all the kids up for a tug of war) Start with 2, then invite 3, and then all the kids… But in the back room have a surprise hidden army of men to help me.

Point: Sometimes the battle looks completely unmatched… One against 80! He’s going to get creamed! But friends, when God is on your side it isn’t 1 against 80… You have the host of heaven fighting with you…  

[Mat 26:53 NKJV] 53 “Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?

A Legion in the Roman Army = 6,000 soldiers armed for war… So 12 Legions from heaven = 72,000 Angels ready to fight in ANSWER TO PRAYER!

We must always remember that when we are fighting God’s battles, we never fight alone! When we bow our heads and pray, mighty armies are sent to the side of those trembling souls. And we have promises guaranteeing us this very truth:

[Psa 34:7 NKJV] 7 The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.

[Psa 91:11 NKJV] 11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.

We should have greater faith in the providence and ability and might and power of God to deliver and save — and friends greater faith will lead every Christian to greater reliance on God in prayer — and greater reliance on God in prayer will lead to greater boldness in the battlefield with Satan. Right here is where we find out bible hero — His name is Elijah.

and in 1 Kings 18, Elijah isn’t facing a tug of war with 80. Elijah is a single prophet of God standing against over 800 prophets of idolatry. Elijah says to Ahab:

[1Ki 18:19 NKJV] 19 “Now therefore, send [and] gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at

Jezebel’s table.”

What was the purpose of this gathering? Elijah makes it clear, this showdown was meant to be a defining moment for all of Israel. This was to be the moment when Israel chose sides — I’d like to suggest that after this moment in time, the line would be drawn between the followers of God and the follower of God’s enemies— in prophecy we would call the moment after this decision  the closing of probation! Here it is:

[1Ki 18:21 NKJV] 21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD [is] God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.

Now what led up to this showdown, why were the people being brought to a position where they had to decide whose side they were on? Let’s travel back in time 33 years to the king of Israel named Baasha… The Bible says about Baasha:

[1Ki 16:1-2 NKJV] 1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani, against

Baasha, saying: 2 “Inasmuch as I lifted you out of the dust and made you ruler over My people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made My people Israel sin, to provoke Me to anger with their sins,

How did Baasha make the people of Israel sin? He set up idolatry in the land… And these filthy idols were focused on fertility and connected with them was immorality… If you’ve seen the goddess Asherah in ancient times, you can see what is accentuated in her statue!

Now Baasha reined 23 yrs beginning in 900BC — and the king that followed him was Elah, and

Elah seemed to be an ok king, but he was murdered by Zimri after reigning about a year, and Zimri reigned seven days as king of Israel (One week) and in that one week the Bible says he did evil in the sight of the Lord and the commander of the army named Omri besieged the city that the king was in and the king burned his own house down with himself in it. Then Omri reigned in Israel seven years. And notice what it says of Omri:

[1Ki 16:25-26 NKJV] 25 Omri did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all who [were] before him. 26 For he walked in all the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin, provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their idols.

and Omri dies, we don’t know how, but we know that Ahab was Omni’s son and took the throne after his father dies and the Bible then says:

[1Ki 16:30 NKJV] 30 Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who [were] before him.

In the span for 31 years you have five different kings, and each one does more evil than all the kings before them. If you were to put this on a line graph showing the precipitous fall of Israel into worse and worse sin, the graph would be pointing straight down… Every year it’s getting worse, every year the sin is growing, every year men were becoming bolder in their defiance of God….

Spiritual Lesson: When you do nothing to check sin in your own life — when you make no effort to resist evil — when you know that something is wrong in your family and you as father and husband, or mother and wife do nothing to change the direction. You can guarantee that next week, next month, next year you will be in a worse condition spiritually than you are now… Today it is neglecting family worship, Tomorrow it is compromising the Sabbath, Next month it allowing the slow slip of inappropriate content into the home, before you know it you have drifted completely out of fellowship with Christ and His people.

The Christian life requires constant effort to maintain the bar — when we give up and give in, like Israel our line graph pulls down — Sin is like gravity, if you don’t make an effort to stand, you will always fall!

Here is where Israel is — Fallen so far into sin that there is barely a resemblance of the worship of God in Israel at all… It is when Israel is at it’s lowest point, that God commands Elijah the prophet of God to proclaim a drought! Let me tell you this drought served several purposes:

1. It was symbolic of the spiritual drought of Israel (Sometimes God gets our attention through physical interventions in our life — Pain, Hunger, Thirst — These are strong motivations to re-evaluate your position and reassess how you got to where you are)
2. The drought was a direct attack by the God of heaven on Baal who was the ancient Canaanite Storm God — he was thought to be the one who controlled the weather and brought rain for the crops. His name meant “Lord or owner” and he was often referred to in ancient times as “rider of the clouds”. For God to shut the heavens so that they would not rain for 3.5 years, revealed the utter powerlessness of Baal.

[1Ki 17:1 NKJV] 1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “[As] the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”

THE PERIOD OF NO RAIN / 3.5 YEARS

How long was the drought?

[Luk 4:25 NKJV] 25 “But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land;

[Jas 5:17 NKJV] 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.

Where was Elijah, the prophet and voice of God, during this 3.5 year period?

[1Ki 17:2-3 NKJV] 2 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 3 “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.

and then I want you to notice what was happening while Elijah was in hiding during this 3.5 years — what was Jezebel doing?

[1Ki 18:4 NKJV] 4 For so it was, while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.)

Are you catching the historical and prophetic scene of God’s people:


• The Church of God is in Apostasy for 3.5 years
• The True Followers of God have fled to the wilderness for 3.5 years 3) The religious/political leader is persecuting God’s people for 3.5 years

and the reason this should stick out to you is because this is the exact picture repeated in the book of Revelation:

[Rev 13:4-8 NKJV] 4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who [is] like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” 5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. 6 Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

#1 — The Beast leads the world, which includes the church, into apostasy against God #2 — The Beast, a Religious/Political Power, persecutes the true followers of God for 42 months (There are twelve months in a year, divide 42 / 12 = 3.5 years)

That 3.5 year period, or 42 month period, can also be written in days — and in a Hebrew year with 360 days in a year, this time period comes out to 1,260 days — and if you look in the prophecies of Revelation and also Daniel, you find that this time period is mentioned again and again. Now I want to do something that may be strange to those who have never dug very deep into Bible prophecy, but I’m going to take this time period and put it through the prophetic calculator of the Bible:

What is the prophetic calculator of the Bible = It’s basically a formula you use to decode time prophecy in Revelation and Daniel…. Here is the decoder: For EVERY day you read in Revelation, it equals one literal year…. Now that prophetic calculator actually comes from the Bible: (Numbers 14:34, Ezekiel 4:6)

If you plug 1,260 days into our prophetic calculator it will spit out a day for each year — and so the time period that the Bible mentions is an over 1,200 year time period that actually existed in history:

Many protestant scholars when looking at this time period have pinpointed it to the Dark Ages between the years 538 AD – 1798 AD. What happened during this time?

• All Political powers gave their authority to the Church
• The Church falls deeply into apostasy: which includes praying to statues of saints, changing the day of worship to Sunday, Baptism for infants through sprinkling begins, the doctrine of death opens up communication with the dead, traditions take the place of faith, church teachings replace the Bible, Prayer & forgiveness of sins is redirected from Jesus to a priest, the supreme church leader takes on the title of God “Holy Father, His Holiness, His Most Holiness”, etc.
• True followers of Christ during this time who dared to do such things as — read their bibles in their own language without the interpretations of a priest, confess their sins directly to God, refuse to partake of the churches communion, or worse “teach others to read the

Bible and follow God” are hung, burned, massacred in their homes or in open squares.— Read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, written in 1563 [while these atrocities are happening to Christians all over Europe] and you will read story after story after story of the true persecutions that fell upon thousands of Christians at the hands of apostate christian church.

Where were God’s people during this entire time? If they weren’t being murdered, the Bible tells us where they were:

[Rev 12:14-16 NKJV] 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent

That time period that she is in the wilderness is 3.5 years — The same time that the beast power reigns — the same time that there is a global apostasy going on in the world — and a drought for God’s Word and truth… It is also the same literal time period that God’s prophet Elijah is hiding, along with all the prophets of God who were hid in caves during this time.

3. The drought during Elijah’s time was also prophetic of a future time when God’s people would face a similar situation.

and I want you to see this prophetic connection because the stories of the Bible were not just meant to be historical facts written an a sterile book that we are far removed from. The Bible is a living book! When you read the stories of the Bible, you are reading history but often times these same stories are written to teach us lesson we need to learn for the future — because history repeats itself! How God led in the past, He leads again in the future.

I Love this quote: “We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.”

Just as Elijah was led into the wilderness to avoid persecution — The Bible tells us that in the last days there will be Great Tribulation and many Christians will need to flee into the wilderness.

But what did God do for Elijah? — He led him to a broke and commanded Ravens to bring bread to Elijah

[1Ki 17:6 NKJV] 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.

So also God will provide Bread and water for His people at the end of time:

[Isa 33:16 NKJV] 16 He will dwell on high; His place of defense [will be] the fortress of rocks;

Bread will be given him, His water [will be] sure.

Jesus gives us this same encouragement:

[Mat 6:25-26 NKJV] 25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Now we turn our attention back to the showdown — All of Israel is in Apostasy, The Servant of God have been persecuted or have been in hiding, All seems hopeless — and who would appear. ELIJAH!!!

[1Ki 18:1 NKJV] 1 And it came to pass [after] many days that the word of the LORD came to

Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.”

Now remember, this story has a future application right? The prophetic 3.5 years ended when

1798!!! So what should we look for coming after 1798? The coming Elijah, because in the story Elijah comes out of hiding at the end of 3.5 years. is there an actual prophecy for that?

[Mal 4:5 NKJV] 5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

Now one of the applications for this verse was the prophet John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the Jesus first coming — Jesus said this. But notice what Jesus also alluded to when he labeled John the Baptist as one of the Elijah’s to come:

[Mat 17:10-13 NKJV] 10 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” 11 Jesus answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. 12 “But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.

Yes, John the Baptist fit the prophecy — and the way he fit it is that he arrived on the scene and called all Israel to repent of their sin, and receive the Savior… But in Malachi it says that Elijah would come “before” the “great and dreadful day of the Lord” which is always an allusion to the Last Days — God’s final Judgment! Elijah would come right before then!

And Jesus said “Elijah is coming” that’s future, and when he come “will restore all things” that’s future — John the Baptist didn’t fill that role! So who will fill that role and what does it mean for

Elijah to restore all things?

Back to our story — Elijah meets Ahab and Says:

[1Ki 18:18 NKJV] 18 And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house [have], in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and have followed the Baals.

What had Ahab and all Israel forsaken? — THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD

What was Elijah looking to restore? — Elijah would restore that which had been abandoned… The True Worship of God, The Keeping His Commandments of the LORD — Do you know what we call the restoration of the true worship of God and the keeping of His commandments?

It’s called of REVIVAL — When men and women who once were in darkness are called by the Savior out of darkness and back to the worship of their Creator.  

The last Elijah that is prophesied to come the Bible calls God’s Remnant Church — It’s the people of God who call for men and women to come back to God at the end of time.

[Rev 14:12 NKJV] 12 Here is the patience of the saints; here [are] those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

How would this global revival happen?

Ahhhh, that brings us to the last scene in the Elijah saga! Mt Carmel & The final showdown between the lone prophet of God and the 850 prophets of the apostasy!  

[1Ki 18:20-21 NKJV] 20 So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. 21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD [is] God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.

The hebrew here is rich — Elijah asks “How long will you “falter” — that word right there in Hebrew is “Pasah” which means to limp — how long will you limp along in your religion! but this word does have a literal meaning… To Pasah, literally means to “Dance” — The image is of Israel dancing with one partner and then switching over to another partner to dance with… How long will you dance with God and then dance with the devil? How long will you proclaim your devotion to God, and then demonstrate your devotion to the enemy?

It’s time to lay it all down on the altar!

So what would be the test? It’s amazing the test that is chosen by the prophet of God… Do you know what it is? — The test of who the true God is, the test that would restore revival in

Israel and bring the people back to true worship was simply PRAYER.

[1Ki 18:24 NKJV] 24 “Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.” So all the people answered and said,

“It is well spoken.”

Describe Prophets of Baal — dancing until Noon! They chanted! They Danced! The Cut Themselves — They tried to Cheat — They did everything they could to get their god to answer them.

But God doesn’t answer because we pray long prayers or repetitious prayers

[Mat 6:7 NKJV] 7 “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen [do]. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

God does not require you to pray the rosary! No great sacrifices in order to pray!

[Luk 18:9-14 NKJV] 9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men–extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 ‘I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise [his] eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified [rather] than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

[Mat 6:6 NKJV] 6 “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who [is] in the secret [place]; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Elijah’s prayer was simple, it was humble, it was directed to God, and it was sincere

Describe Elijah’s Sacrifice — Natural stone altar — wood neatly laid — sacrifice neatly cut — trench dug around it —  

[1Ki 18:36-39 NKJV] 36 And it came to pass, at [the time of] the offering of the [evening] sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You [are] God in Israel and I [am] Your servant, and [that] I have done all these things at Your word. 37 “Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You [are] the LORD God, and [that] You have turned their hearts back [to You] again.” 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that [was] in the trench. 39 Now when all the people saw [it], they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He [is] God! The LORD, He

[is] God!”

[2Ch 7:14 NKJV] 14 “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

The final Elijah will bring about the final revival at the end of time in the same way — Some call it a return to PRIMITIVE GODLINESS! When God’s people PRAY! I mean really PRAY! Depending on God like they’ve never depended upon Him before — fire will fall from heaven in the greatest revival ever to hit this planet since the day of Pentecost… God is waiting, God is ready! Are you wanting the fire to fall in your life?