Choose God: Courage, Testimony, and Fire at Carmel

Aug 09, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Rebuilding Altars in the Midst of Drought

Elijah gathered twelve stones to repair the broken altar, a symbol of Israel’s fractured devotion. The act wasn’t about ritual but restoring intentional worship. Drought had exposed their divided hearts, yet God met them where they faltered. Rebuilding requires confronting what we’ve neglected—personal prayer, corporate worship, daily surrender. Like Elijah, we’re called to mend what’s broken, stone by stone, until God’s presence ignites fresh fire. The question isn’t whether God will respond, but whether we’ll repair the altars we’ve abandoned. [03:33:17]

“Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, ‘Israel shall be your name,’ and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord.”
(1 Kings 18:31-32, ESV)

Reflection: What “altar” in your life needs rebuilding—a habit, relationship, or commitment to prayer? How might restoring it create space for God’s fire to fall?

Day 2: Leaping Without Seeing the Net

A child leaps into trusted arms, unbothered by storms or bills. Faith thrives not in certainty but in reckless trust, like the grandson who jumped without hesitation. God invites us to abandon calculated safety and embrace dependence. When the brook dries up or the path steepens, leaping becomes worship. His arms are wider than our worst-case scenarios. [02:45:50]

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
(Matthew 18:3-4, ESV)

Reflection: Where are you clinging to control instead of leaping? What would childlike trust look like in your current uncertainty?

Day 3: Fire That Licks Up the Water

God’s answer to Elijah’s prayer didn’t just burn the sacrifice—it devoured every doubt. The flames consumed water, wood, and stone, leaving no room for debate. Our God doesn’t do half-measures. He ignites soaked altars to prove His supremacy. When we surrender our “what-ifs,” He responds with holy fire that rewrites narratives. [03:31:56]

“Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.”
(1 Kings 18:38, ESV)

Reflection: What doubt-soaked situation are you holding back from God? How might His fire transform it if you let go?

Day 4: Testimony Stronger Than Sermons

The thief on the cross didn’t preach a sermon—he confessed a truth. His raw, last-minute testimony moved Jesus to promise paradise. Our stories of grace, not theological expertise, disarm hearts. Silence isn’t an option when someone’s eternity hinges on hearing how Christ rewrote our endings. [03:41:09]

“And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’”
(Luke 23:42-43, ESV)

Reflection: Who in your life needs to hear your story of redemption? What one sentence could you share today that points to Christ’s work in you?

Day 5: Courage to Say “Enough”

Elijah confronted Israel’s wavering with a prophet’s grit: “How long will you limp between two opinions?” Courage isn’t the absence of fear but obedience despite it. It’s naming compromise and choosing allegiance. God doesn’t need perfect warriors—just willing ones who’ll stand when others retreat. [03:13:22]

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
(Joshua 1:9, ESV)

Reflection: Where is God calling you to confront compromise—in your choices, relationships, or silence? What first step requires holy courage today?

Sermon Summary

God is truly amazing in the highs and the lows, the ups and the downs, through storms and in calm. Life, like a mosaic, must not be viewed as broken pieces scattered everywhere, because God has promised that all things work together for good and for his glory. First Kings 18 sets Israel in a hard place, not because God had stopped loving Israel, but because God loved Israel too much to let them go, too much to let them down, and too much to let them off.

Israel had started believing “a little bit of everything.” Ahab, the most wicked king in Israel’s history, had helped drag the nation away from its spiritual moorings. Jezebel had brought Baal worship, with all its immorality, perversion, and false promises of rain and fertility. Baal had claimed to be the god of rain, but for three years there had been no rain at the word of the Lord through Elijah.

God used Elijah in dangerous business. Elijah announced drought, hid by the brook, watched the brook dry up, and then moved when God said move. The dried-up brook did not mean God had abandoned him. The dried-up brook meant God was keeping him from comfort becoming complacency, and complacency becoming complicity in his own demise.

Elijah stood before Ahab with courage, and Ahab tried to project the trouble of Israel onto him. Elijah did not hold his tongue, because silence was not an option. Mount Carmel became the day of reckoning, the place where Elijah asked, “How long halt ye between two opinions?” Israel had not fully disowned God, but Israel liked hanging out in Baal’s camp.

Elijah’s protest called the people to examine the record. God had opened the Red Sea, opened Jordan, fed Israel with manna, guided by cloud and fire, and brought down Jericho’s walls. Baal had produced nothing. Elijah’s posture stayed calm, because Elijah did not just know about God, Elijah knew God.

The broken altar exposed the real problem. Worship had broken down, both corporate worship and personal devotion. Elijah rebuilt the altar stone by stone, all twelve stones together, and then he prayed a simple prayer. When Elijah prayed, the fire fell, the people fell, and the false prophets fell. Silence is still not an option, because God uses testimony, the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony, to reach people who may never be reached any other way.

Key Takeaways

1. God sees the whole mosaic [02:47:08] Life often arrives as fragments, and some of those fragments look sharp enough to wound permanently. Romans 8:28 does not flatten pain into something cute or easy, but it teaches that God sees the totality when human sight only sees pieces. The believer’s confidence rests not in understanding every piece, but in trusting the God who works the whole thing together for good and for his glory. [167:08]
2. Dried brooks can be mercy [03:00:09] The dried-up brook did not mean Elijah had missed God. Sometimes the place of provision dries up because God is moving his servant before comfort becomes complacency. A closed spigot may be the Lord’s way of guarding the soul from settling in a place that was only meant to sustain for a season. [180:09]
3. Courage obeys while afraid [03:05:05] Courage is not the absence of fear, because fear can still be present when obedience is required. Elijah’s courage came from depending on God rather than trusting himself to manage the danger. Faithfulness often looks like standing still long enough for Ahab to arrive, simply because God gave the word. [185:05]
4. Broken worship breaks the witness [03:33:17] The broken altar was not a side detail, but the visible sign of Israel’s deeper sickness. Public compromise had roots in neglected devotion, because worship of Jehovah had ceased at the center. Elijah rebuilt the altar before fire fell, showing that spiritual power is not restored by noise, but by returning to God stone by stone. [213:17]
5. Testimony breaks secret-agent faith [03:39:06] Satan fears the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony, because testimony names what Christ has actually done in a life. God is not asking every believer to explain every prophecy with technical precision before speaking. A redeemed life, honestly told, can carry the kind of witness that reaches people a polished argument may never touch. [219:06]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[164:02] - A Powerful God in Every Season
[167:08] - Life Viewed Like a Mosaic
[168:22] - First Kings 18 and Mount Carmel
[170:18] - The Monroe Doctrine and Relativism
[173:03] - Ahab, Jezebel, and Baal Worship
[176:03] - God Loves Too Much to Let Go
[177:01] - Elijah Announces the Drought
[180:09] - When the Brook Dries Up
[183:02] - Obedience Before Understanding
[185:05] - Courage in Dangerous Business
[186:01] - Ahab Projects Blame onto Elijah
[189:36] - How Long Between Two Opinions
[193:22] - Elijah’s Protest, Posture, and Prayer
[213:17] - Rebuilding the Broken Altar
[216:24] - Fire Falls and False Prophets Fall
[218:09] - Silence Is Not an Option

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

1 Kings 18:20-21
“So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” [02:48:47]

Romans 8:28
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” [02:46:46]

Revelation 12:11
“And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

Observation questions

In 1 Kings 18:20-21, what two choices did Elijah place before the people, and how did the people respond? [02:49:11]
What details show how far Israel had drifted, especially under Ahab and Jezebel and through Baal worship? [02:53:03]
What happened when the brook dried up for Elijah, and what did God tell him to do next? [03:00:03]
Before the fire fell, what did Elijah do with the broken altar, and why did that matter? [03:33:17]

Interpretation questions

Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for good. How does the picture of life as a mosaic help explain that promise without pretending pain is small or easy? [02:47:08]
Elijah asked, “How long halt ye between two opinions?” What does that question reveal about divided loyalty, especially when people still want some connection to God while also staying comfortable with other influences? [03:09:36]
The dried-up brook did not mean Elijah was abandoned. How might a closed door, a loss, or a sudden change sometimes be God’s way of moving a person before comfort turns into complacency? [03:00:22]
Revelation 12:11 joins the blood of the Lamb with the word of testimony. Why is personal testimony such a powerful part of spiritual victory and witness? [03:39:13]

Application questions

Where does life feel like scattered pieces right now? What would it look like to trust God with the whole mosaic instead of judging everything by one painful fragment? [02:47:27]
Has there been a “dried brook” season recently—a place where something that once sustained life suddenly dried up? Looking back, does it seem more like punishment, or could it have been mercy that kept comfort from becoming complacency? [03:01:00]
Elijah’s courage did not mean he felt no fear. Where is obedience being held back by fear right now, and what might depending on God look like in that situation? [03:05:05]
A broken altar points to broken worship. What has helped or weakened personal devotion lately? If the altar needs rebuilding, what is one “stone” that could be put back in place this week? [03:34:12]
Israel had not fully rejected God, but still liked being near Baal’s camp. What divided loyalties are most tempting right now—approval, comfort, entertainment, ambition, control, or something else? [03:11:43]
Silence is not an option. Who in the workplace, neighborhood, family, or circle of friends may need to hear a simple and honest word about what Christ has done? What makes that hard? [03:38:21]
Not everyone is called to give a polished explanation of everything, but every believer can tell what the Lord has done. What part of personal testimony feels ready to share now—what life was like before, how Christ met the need, or how life is different today? [03:39:45]

Sermon Clips

66s

#AvoidComplacency

“What God tries to guard against is what I often would refer to as the three step process. Number one, if God allows us to stay in a position of blessings eternally, we become comfortable. And when we become too comfortable, we become what? Complacent. And then if we are complacent long enough, we become complicit in our own demise. So sometimes, God has to let the brooks of our lives, of our our our blessings dry up so that we do not take God for granted or we do not settle in a place that God has not determined that that's where we ought to be at a given point in time. And so the bible tells us that after three years, Elijah is in a place of safety and a place of provision, hello, in the midst of a drought.”

83s

#RebuildDevotion

“Worship of Jehovah had ceased. Corporate worship and personal devotion. And what did Elijah do? Stone by stone, he put all 12 together. Israel was now divided. Two tribes here, 10 tribes here, but he put them all together in one place. That's your problem. You wanna know what the real issue that plagues us? It's a breakdown of our personal devotion with God. Folks, y'all ain't got to agree with me, but what I'm telling you is what I know. You cannot and fellowship and worship God in the morning before you step out the door and get on I 20 and give people the half the peace sign. Impossible. Impossible. Said it's impossible. Hello?”

66s

#TrustWhenStreamsDry

“the brook had dried up where God had pointed Elijah to go and just stay for a while. And then God had already prepared a widow in Zerephath, a city in a foreign land, and God says, leave here and go there. I've prepared someone who will receive you. have to understand that even when God is leading us and we are following God, the brook sometimes dries up. Amen? It doesn't mean that we have done something wrong where the blessing and favor of God has been turned off, the the spigot, the faucet has been turned not at all. Sometimes, God has to move us, and the only way that he can get us to move is to shut off.”

53s

#CourageToObey

“There's a lesson there for us that if we're gonna serve God, we first have to be people of courage. That is not a quality that is naturally inherent in all of us. But courage can be cultivated. Courage can be gained through prayer and through depending and relying upon God, not upon ourselves. And courage is not the absence of fear, courage is obeying God in spite of our fears. Courage is following God's lead and saying, let the chips fall wherever it may. And”

67s

#SeeLifeAsMosaic

“All things. that is what makes a mosaic such a powerful instrument when we observe because we do not look at it from a fragmented perspective. do not view it through the prism of its individual pieces and components, but we look at it as a whole. And that is how we are called to view life, that is how we are called to see the things that comes into our life as a totality. And the God that we serve, he has promised that it will work together for our good, and may I add his glory always.”

31s

#SpeakUpForSouls

“Silence is not an option. There are people on your job, in your neighborhood, in your home, They're waiting for you. There are people who won't make it to heaven if you continue to be silent. Because pastor Montgomery and pastor Saunders and myself and pastor Stone and the other pastors, god ain't gonna use us to reach them. He's gonna use you.”

49s

#LiveFaithEveryday

“Jesus comes along and says the same thing. You cannot serve God and mammon. can't just be a seventh day. You've gotta love the Lord and represent the Lord and worship the Lord and serve the Lord every day of your life. We can't just be nice on Sabbath, but during the rest of the week, we're hell raisers. We've gotta let our relationship with God flow through our hearts, our minds, our words, our deeds, our actions, our attitudes throughout the week, every day.”

68s

#ObeyToUnderstand

“But I love the way that Elijah and God was so in sync and in tune. I love the way that Elijah was open and always attuned to the voice of God and that he was able to discern and distinguish that this voice was the voice of God. You see, I know most of us here and those of us worshiping online, we are sort of, been acculturated by the by the western mindset, you know, the which was greatly influenced by Greek philosophy, and and and so it goes like this. We we must first understand before we obey. That's the Hellenistic mind. That's the Greek inspired mind. The Hebrew mind says, we will obey and we will understand it by and by.”

55s

#ShareYourTestimonyNow

“Friends, silence is no longer an option. God is calling us, and God will enable us and equip us to tell our story, to share our testimony, to tell people what you used to be and what you now are as a result of having encountered Christ. All that other stuff, it'll come. I got bible because I know some of y'all were gonna doubt me. I got bible. So Jesus is hanging on the cross in those final moments of his life. The preachers that he trained for three years are cowering in fear.”

80s

#RestoreTheAltar

“So when Elijah had gathered the people together, and in his protest, he says, how long? Hold he between two opinions. was the next thing he did? If you answer, pastor Montgomery got $20. Hello? So here's what he did. Here's what he did. No chastisement, no fuss. Tico, you know what he did? He walked away and he went a few steps and he picked up the 12 stones. El Adlai? And he started to rebuild the altar. I almost forgot the probably the most important part of the story. Brother Webb, the broken altar that was left in this repair was a visible, visceral of the root of the problem.”

51s

#SimpleSincerePrayer

“His prayer. simple prayer. Not an ostentatious prayer. He didn't have time to assume the right body posture and the right intonation in his voice. You you ever heard of folk who prayed, the real super saints? Almighty loving. Their voice goes on about four octaves. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. When Peter was going on in that water, he didn't have time for all of that. Lord, save me.”

57s

#SpeakTruthNotProject

“From a psychological perspective, that is called projection. He is projecting onto Elijah what he was responsible for. It was his household. It was his example. It was his wife and his influence that had led Israel to disobey God and for God to respond by sending drought with the purpose of bringing them back to where they ought to be. So the bible tells us Elijah did not hold his tongue. Elijah was not quiet because Elijah recognized at that moment silence was not an option.”

59s

#CheckTheEvidence

“So examine the evidence. Baal is the god of what? Rain. Hasn't working for you the last three years. Baal is the god of fertility? How how is that working out? Examine God's record. This is the Lord God that brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of this is the same when you came to the Red Sea, God directed Moses to stretch out his rod and Highway 20 just appeared. I'm saying God is saying, examine my record.”

58s

#PressureRevealsUs

“when you read your bible and a bit of history, we discover that this fall this this this drought that ensued at the word of Elijah was so devastating that the things that transpired, it almost defies human logic to believe that people can sink as low as they did in the midst of this crisis. That's why we ought to be careful never to say what we ain't gonna do. All we can say, but by the grace of God, because we will be amazed at what we are capable of if enough pressure is applied to us in a particular circumstance and situation.”

56s

#LayItAllAtTheAltar

“what we're gonna do in the next two minutes is tantamount to what Elijah did. When the appeal goes out, it's a moment for us to come to the altar and slay The hindrances, the encumbrances. a time for us to come and leave the besetting sins at the altar. The word has come. The fire of the Lord has fallen. it's time for whatever encumbers to fall.”

42s

#HoldLeadersAccountable

“Elijah says, it's not me. It's you and your house. It's you who have led Israel down a path of disobedience and rebellion. It is you, king, that have caused the people of God to falter and fail in their walk and in their witness and in their worship and in their work for God. No scapegoating here today, said Elijah. I'm gonna tell it like it is. I'm gonna call it the way I see it.”

37s

#FaithOverFear

“And friends of mine, put aside your fear. God is not asking you to preach a sermon. He's not asking you to break down the intricacies of the twenty three hundred day prophecy. He's not asking you to identify correctly the beast of Revelation 13 and all that stuff. It is important. But you know what's more important? And I'm done with I'm I'm I'm truly done at this point. Here's what's important. Revelation 12. The two things that the devil fears the most.”

34s

#SerenityInFaith

“You see, when you know God, you're gonna be like that little girl. I told you that story two or three times, but you're be like that little girl who's sitting on the plane and missing a storm. Everybody else is panicking and frightened and scared, and she's sitting there playing with her dog, looking at the rain outside the window, and one lady came and said, little girl, woah woah woah woah. What's up here? There's a storm. Right? She said, ain't worried about why. My daddy's flying this plane. I'm talking about that serenity. Yeah. Come on. That peace.”

71s

#FaithWithEvidence

“Through all of this engagement, Elijah maintained a posture of serenity and calm. Elijah wasn't biting his nails. Elijah was not in a place and in a position of fear and trepidation. Outnumbered by 850 prophets of Baal and Jezebel, he's still alone. God is God y'all understand the question? Here's what he here's what he's saying. Examine God's record and Baal's record. He said, I'm I'm not asking you to make a decision in a vacuum. See, the one thing we have to understand and declare in our minds that God never asked us to believe and behave in a vacuum. He gives us evidence”

50s

#NoMoreFenceSitting

“And so the Bible tells us, Elijah said to them, how long? You see, at this moment, Israel was in a posture, in a place where they believed a little bit of everything. They didn't fully disown God, but they liked to hang out in the camp of Baal. They were fascinated and tantalized and mesmerized with the worship of Baal and with the all the the the the sexual immoralities and engagements on the mountain, in the high places.”

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