Choosing Paths: Ahab and Elijah's Leadership Lessons

"Ahab took a journey of rebellion against God in his own life and took thousands of people down that road with him he really shaped a culture for a generation we're going to look at his journey Elijah a leader who took a very different path he took a journey of obedience to God of faith in God he found himself therefore out of line with his culture you found that he was swimming against the tide and after years of doing that it felt exhausting to him he felt that he was in an uphill struggle trying to live the way that he was living and to believe what he was believing um in the culture in which God had set him uh he often felt very lonely as you may sometimes experience that today also so Ahab and Elijah two leaders vast influence different paths different directions very very different destinations." [00:36:56]

"Now you remember that our lord Jesus spoke on one occasion um about two roads he said there is a broad Road and it leads to destruction and there are many many people on it then he said there is also a narrow way and it leads to life and there are a few people on it and Jesus said enter on the narrow way now when we look at Ahab and when we look at Elijah we're looking at two leaders on different roads beyond all question Ahab is on the broad Road and a whole culture is charging down that road behind him and under his leadership so I want us today to begin here by charting the steps that an individual or indeed a culture can take in moving down the Broad Road and then we're going to ask the question what does God do when that happens so I'm going to give to you straight from the Bible here I'm just reading it off from the Bible what the four steps look like uh for an individual or for a culture moving down the wrong Broad Road here's ahab's Journey it begins here he broke the Commandment of God." [00:54:21]

"Now when you check out um Deuteronomy 7 and verse 3 the command about intermarriage it is very important to understand that the issue at stake in the scriptures is not interracial marriage and I say that because we know from the Old Testament that Ruth who was a moabites married into the line of promise when she married Boaz she was someone who had taken Refuge under the wings of God she had faith in the Redeemer and God blessed that wonderfully interracial marriage he smiled upon it and it was part of the line of descent into which Jesus Christ was born so we know from that story and should be clear about this that God Smiles on the marriage of a man or a woman of different race who marry in the Lord but God speaks very clearly against one of his own people entering marriage with someone who does not submit to him with someone who does not honor his name now Ahab paid no attention to that here he is he's a king and he is appointed to this responsibility within the Covenant people of God he's supposed to live under the commands of God his first responsibility is to write out the entire book of Deuteronomy but he pays no attention to that he's a man dealing with political reality that's what he would have said and the political reality was that Assyria the great power of the north was just rising and looking to be an an increasing Menace and a threat and here's this man and he's King over were a relatively small area with just 10 tribes and he thinks well now what I need to do as a political leader is to cement an alliance with a much stronger power who can bolster our defense and he looks around and what are the options there there are the sidonians and the sidonians seem to be the answer and what better way to bolster defenses against Assyria than to have a wonderful alliance with the sidonians and what better way to cement an alliance with the sidonians than to to marry the Crown Princess the daughter of ethal whose name was Jezebel and so that is what Ahab did and he takes a first step down the broad Road when he assumes the position of saying I know what the word of God says but that doesn't apply to me he breaks the command of God in fact he did it in multiple ways you notice in verse 31 it says to Ahab it seemed like a light thing to walk in the sins of jeroboam jeroboam was the first king of Israel after that division um about 60 years earlier and here you see the progress of evil from one generation to the next over 60 years just over half a century sins that would have been shocking in the time of jeroboam to God's people I just seemed like a very light thing 60 years later and some of you will immediately relate to that some of you who are older and you will look back and you will say you know things that were just shocking um when I was growing up are just this just common place that's like nothing to my grandchildren and and how the world has changed in in just over half a century and to Ahab the things that were the Great sins of jeroboam well they just seemed like nothing vast vast vast changes that have taken place in a very short time so here's a society that's moving very fast down um this path of the broad road and it begins where uh people think well now it's up to us to shape our own morality we we don't live under authority of um Commandments from God that doesn't carry weight in our lives we decide what's good and right for us that's what Ahab did that's the first step down the broad Road moving away from the Commandments of God." [00:59:39]

"Now it is only 60 years since Solomon built a temple in Jerusalem for the glory of God and now you have Ahab building a temple in Samaria that is devoted to the worship of Baal that is a vast vast movement in a short space of time by the way nobody who takes the Bible seriously can say all religions are basically the same or that all religions are basically ways of getting to the same God but they're just coming by different Roots you cannot take seriously the story that we're looking at over these weeks about Elijah and Ahab and Baal and God and you cannot take this story seriously and and go on saying that and so you will find that this is a point at which we are at difference with our culture that just loves to say that whatever religious expression is it basically all boils down to the same thing now this is what you find in the Bible there is one God and ba is not God there is one God and Bale is not God it's interesting how M how people's understanding moves as a society goes further down the broad Road um if you go back to the time of jeroboam the first king after the great split between the North and and the South um Jobo was very anxious to make sure that people in the north did not go back to Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem for worship as they had done before because of course that would bring them into touch with their brothers and sisters in the South and would tend to bring the country back together again and he wanted his own kingdom so in order to prevent them from going down to Jerusalem to worship he set up his own alternative um uh worship centers uh in a town called Dan uh in the north and another town called bethl in the South and in order to give some Focus to that Jobo made two golden calves that reminds you of another story from earlier in the Old Testament he made two do golden calves and he put one in uh the uh Worship Center at Dan and one in his new Worship Center at uh bethl and you can check this out in 1 Kings 12 and: 28 but he said these are your Gods he said to the people who brought you out of Egypt now that's very significant because you see what he's saying he's saying we're worshiping the same God we're worshiping the God who brought us out of Egypt but of course we're doing it in our own way and we're doing it in our own place we're all worshiping the same God but we're doing it in our own way and we're doing it in our own place that's in the time of jeroboam but now move just a half century on from that and you find that that Ahab has gone a step further he's not even suggesting that they're worshiping the God who brought them out of Egypt he's saying no we're worshiping baale we're worshiping baale so jeroboam breaks the second commandment with making these golden calves he breaks the Commandment that says you shall not carve for yourself an image or an idol he breaks the second commandment trying to redefine the God who brought them out of Egypt but Ahab goes a step further he breaks the first commandment which is you shall have no other gods before me and Ahab says well you know political reality is that we need the help of the sidonians and they worship bail so that's what we're going to do too so here's this man and he leading a whole culture down the broad road and it begins with I Define my own morality I decide what is right and wrong for me but friends when people begin to say I Define my unre morality I Define what is right and what is wrong for me it is not long before people have then to say and I Define who God is too I can no longer worship the god who is who he says he is I have to now have a God say he is who we say he is to conform him to what it is that we want to do and how it is that we want to live so you can see the Echoes of that in our culture um he broke the Commandment of God he subverted the worship of God third step down this Broad Road he provoked the anger of God verse 33 Ahab did more to provoke the Lord to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him now friends this word provoke is very important and there's something here that I don't want you to miss anger is not God's Natural State it is not his nature the pagans you see believed in God that were perp Gods who were perpetually angry Gods who were just always in a state of fuming Gods who were perpetually needing to be plated and so forth and so on always needing to be appeased because they always were angry they were just angry by Nature they were angry Gods the Bible tells us that God is love that love is his nature God never needs to be provoked to love you do not need to do something in order that God will love you God is love but God hates evil and when men pursue evil he is notice the word provoked to anger and even when he is provoked to anger the Bible tells us that he is slow to anger but Ahab now over years has been leading a charge down the broad Road a sustained assault of on anything that reflects the glory of God Among The Covenant people of God and so we read that he did more to provoke the anger of the Lord than all the kings of Israel who were before him so now we're three steps down the broad Road begins with I decide what's right for me breaking the Commandments of God it progresses with I I decide the kind of God that I want I I I I have the opportunity to choose not only my morality but also my god um and then step three the anger of God is provoked here's step four and here's what it ends up he ignored the warning of God and that's in verse 34 in his days that is in the days of Ahab heel of bethl built Jericho now you say what is the significance of that well here's what it is you remember when God's people came into the land of Canaan we have the story in the Book of Joshua of how they marched around Jericho and you remember how the walls of Jer came tumbling down anyone who's been in Sunday school remembers that story and uh probably sang a good song about it as well now when Jericho had been uh destroyed you can read this in Joshua chap 6 and verse 26 God said that city is never to be rebuilt and it was very clear here here's what God says cursed before the Lord be the man who Rises up and rebuilds the the City Jericho at the cost of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its Gates now that could hardly be clearer it's in the scriptures Joshua chapter 6 and verse 26 God says no one under any circumstance at any time is ever to rebuild this city of Jericho it's collapsed walls are to remain forever as a memorial um to the mighty work of God um who brought these walls down now nothing could be clearer but what does a man like Ahab care about that old words from an old book years and years and years ago who cares about that there was a reason why that city was built there there's money to be made in the location of enough Jericho we need a guy who's got a vision for going out and there is a guy who's got a vision for going to do it and he doesn't care anything about the word of God either his name is he he's from bethl he says I got a construction company I can do it give me the contract and enough he goes and can you imagine the trucks arriving I'm jumping Generations here and they pour the foundation and guess what heal's oldest son dies you would think they would stop wouldn't you but no just coincidence so they set up the walls they hang the gates and he's youngest son dies a tragedy what a tragedy you can read later by the way in the Bible story about how God redeemed this city and that is why you can visit it and uh see it today but you see where the culture had come the Books of Moses the word that they call the scripture who gives any weight to that who really lives by that today who really takes that seriously it's just words it's God talk it's old stories and they had come to believe with all their hearts that God was passive that they could do what they wanted and that nothing would ever come of it so do you see the story of the progress of evil in a culture do you see what it looks like to go down the broad Road it begins with disobeying the command of God I decide how I live it continues with subverting the worship of God I choose uh the God that I worship I like to think of God like this it intensifies by provoking the anger of God and it ends up with men and women who completely and utterly ignore the word the warnings of God and surely surely um as we Ponder these things we are thinking about vast changes that are taking place in in our own beloved Nation how in 50 years there has just been the surging tide of we Define our own morality that's up to us and we choose our own Gods The God Who says I am who I am well you know um we can't go with him being who he says he is it has to be who we say he is and and in choosing our own morality and in choosing our own Gods we increasingly provoke the anger of God and we ignore the warnings of God so I hope you see straight away that when we come into this part of the Bible it's just speaking right into the world in which we live right into the world in which we live in which people no longer give weight to the word of God now what does God do at such a time what could to do at such a Time the answer is when people are charging down the broad Road God raises up men and women who will walk the Narrow Path and so let me introduce you to Elijah chapter 17 and verse 1 now Elijah the tishbite from tishby in Gilead said to Ahab as the Lord the god of Israel lives before whom I stand there shall be neither due nor rain these years except by my word it's amazing Elijah just seems to appear on the scene we're not told about his father or his mother we hardly know anything about the location of Tish wherever that was but here he is and the one thing that we need to know about him is that he's God's man and God brings out his brightest light at the darkest of times and here is one man who is walking on a different path one writer says to see Elijah appear like this unexpected unheralded reminds us that we need not despair when we see great M movements of evil achieving spectacular success on this Earth we can be sure that God has already secretly prepared his counter movement therefore the situation is never hopeless where God is concerned at the height of the Triumph of evil God is there he is ready with his man and with his movement and his plans to ensure that his own cause will never fail we're told in this one verse as we're introduced to this man that he speaks to Elijah speaks to Ahab I just wonder how did Elijah manage to even get into the palace you know I mean there are security guards you don't just walk into a palace and uh the king isn't exactly sitting there in an afternoon saying well I wonder who's going to drop by and give me a prophetic word from the scriptures um he's not looking for visitors but somehow in the protection of God it so happens that this man is able to get access to the king and to speak a single sentence to him as the Lord the god of Israel lives before whom I stand there shall be neither due nor rain except by my word extraordinary where did he get the courage for that this is a man who's walking a different path his feet are set on a narrow road a Road of Faith and of obedience to the Living God and what does that look like what would it look like for God to raise up a thousand lights to shine in the darkness well look at Elijah's Journey that's going in a very very different direction first he stood in the presence of God as the Lord the god of Israel lives verse one before whom I stand what does it mean to stand before the Lord well picture Elijah as he comes into ahab's throne room there in the palace and around the throne room there are people standing there's the driver of ahab's Chariot and he's standing there by the door at the ready uh to move whenever Ahab indicates he wants to go someplace there is there are a couple of guys over here by another door and they're just standing um because they are waiters uh and they are ready to bring food or drink uh to the king at any moment he just needs to move his finger and indicate to them and thereof what he wants they're standing before Ahab that's that's their life they're they're Servants of this King and they're standing before him they're ready they're available and they're there to do whatever he asked them to do and Elijah walks right into the presence of The King and I wonder if he looked around at those who stood before Ahab and he says I stand before the Lord It's so first step on a path of faith and obedience my friend to come to the place today where you will say Lord I am ready I am available I am willing I am your servant I am in the place today where I am ready to do whatever you have for me me to do by the way that is a great place to be on barefruit Sunday I'm ready to do whatever you have for me to do that's what Elijah was I stand before the Lord that's what it means there's a word that you want me to speak this week to someone I don't even know I'm going to meet them this week but I want you to know today Lord that I'm ready to do whatever you prompt whatever you lead I I'm available to you I'm offering myself to you without conditions I stand before the Lord and when a culture is charging down the broad road that leads to destruction what does God do he raises up men and women who take the first step on the narrow way and that first step on the narrow way is to come to this place of standing before the Lord availability with the commitment of full obedience is that you you ready to say God make me that man make me that woman today make us that congregation Second Step he believed the word of God now you see he comes to Ahab and he says um there is not going to be either Jew or rain where did he get that from and the answer is he got it from the Bible now remember that um Elijah did not have nearly as much Bible as we have today this is early on in the Bible story uh he would not have had all of the 1200 or so pages of scripture that we have in our Bibles here today what he would have had access to would have been the five books of Moses and he would have had access to the history that is in Joshua and is in judges and perhaps in the first books of Samuel that uh described the early period um of uh the Kings uh of Israel that's what he would have had access to but he was clearly a man who searched the scriptures and as he did he would have found this in the book of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 11 and: 16 says take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside to serve other gods and worship them that's what happened in the time of Ahab then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain and Elijah searches the scriptures and he says when idolatry sweeps the land of the Covenant people of God God has said that the rain will be turned off over his Covenant people it says that in the scripture in relation to God's covenant People Israel and Elijah believes it unlike Ahab who sees it all as just old words and yeah yeah yeah nice to preserve these traditions and so forth and so on Elijah is a person who gives weight to the word of God in his own life and I'm suggesting to you today that that what God does when a culture is is charging down the broad road is he raises up people who take the steps on the narrow way and one of the distinguishing steps on the narrow way is that these people really believe the word of God they they they read it they believe it they apply it they speak it in to the lives of others they obey it they become a community of people who feel themselves to be living under the authority of the word of God that they're like the servants to whom Mary said in the New Testament whatever he says to you do it and and Friends our culture desperately needs to see Christian believers who take the word of God seriously and give it weight in their lives the culture doesn't give weight to the word of God it's only words to them they have to see people who actually believe that this that God means what he says and that he does what he says and therefore that we're we we we're standing under it and and we're believing it and we're applying it and we're obeying it and that's the commitment of our lives whatever he says to you do it and when a culture goes down the broad Road God raises up people on the narrow way there say I'm going to be a woman I'm going to be a man who takes this word seriously as the word of God and believes it and lives it and then there's a third step he prayed it not only does Elijah stand before the Lord not only does he believe the word of God but he is one who prays for the will of God God now we know this from the New Testament from James in chapter 5 and verse 17 we're told this Elijah prayed fervently that it would not rain he prayed that it would not rain that means that he not only believed the word of God but he prayed the word of God he prayed the promises of God and lifted them up before the Lord in his prayers he prayed fervently that it might not reain now you see what's happening here he's he's discerned the promise of God that he would have found in Deuteronomy in chapter 11 God you said that if your own people turn to Idols this is what you do and we're now into state sponsored bism amongst the cant people of God and nobody is taking your word seriously or giving it any weight people think that you're just an old tradition nobody sees the weight of your glory oh God do it do what you said shut the heavens and stop the rain now what a prayer that was think about it 3 years of no rain that brings famine and in famine cattle die and in famine people die and three years of famine ruins the economy and Elijah prays fervently that God would wreck the economy of his own people people in order to establish his own Glory wow but different from what you normally hear in a prayer meeting don't you think Elijah would personally share in the suffering so here is a man who is prepared to pray for the accomplishing of the will of God in his particular setting even when it's going to be incredibly costly for him personally and when a culture is charging down on the broad road that leads to destruction what God does is he raises up some people who are wholly available to God stand before him who really believe in his word and are seeking to give it weight in their own lives and are prepared to pray that the will of God will be done even when it's costly for us which is so far from a culture in which we've come to see God even within the churches as there to make our lives comfortable and happy Elijah prays the opposite oh God whatever it's going to take what kind of man prays a prayer like this a man who cares more about God's glory than he cares about his own Comfort a man who cares more about the advance of the gospel than he cares about his 401k a man who sees that the Eternal Destiny to which vast numbers of people are going matters infinitely more than any level of discomfort that happens in this life better to endure any suffering in this world and turn to God than to enjoy any comfort in this world and go without him into the next that's Elijah's position I read a fascinating piece just this week in which Mark deor a pastor in Washington DC draws a contrast between two very two remarkable men two very great men who took Journeys in opposite directions in their career that reflected some deep things that were going on in their soul one was they were both doctors one was Dr Albert schwitzer the other was Dr Martin Lloyd Jones Albert schwitzer began Life as a preacher um he was a theologian who raised great questions about whether we could actually know Jesus could we actually know what Jesus said he wrote a book called The Quest for the historical Jesus can we really find find out about Jesus can we really know Jesus that that perplexed him it's very interesting that having started out as a preacher as a a theologian he then at uh in his life moved and he decided that he wanted to become a medical doctor he retrained as a medic and then went out to Africa did remarkable work amazing work as a medical doctor in Africa and why did he make that change he made that change he would have put it like this I'm summarizing uh he wanted to meet the real needs of people and how can you meet the real needs of people you say trying to work out what Jesus may or may or not have said and and so his questions about all of this led him to say well let's do something that will really make a difference Dr Martin Lloyd Jones moved in precis ly the opposite direction he began as a medical doctor very very distinguished career he trained in Harley Street he was the assistant to Lord hoer uh physician to the queen no less very distinguished medic L Jones in his own right Stellar career in development and he he moved away from that and became a preacher in a church in Wales and then then later in London and on one occasion he was being interviewed um and he was asked why he would make that transition and this is what he said he said I got tired of stitching people up just so they could go back out and continue to sin and what like Jones is saying there is that he too made a decision that was motivated by wanting to meet the real needs of people what is the greatest need of a human being well Elijah had no doubt about that the economy was booming but that's not where the real needs of people are who are on the road to destruction there's something that matters infinitely more than that and oh God if it takes a famine I'm prepared to pray for that and to live through it because better to endure any suffering in this world and turn to God than to enjoy any comfort in this world and go out into the next without him and so when the culture is charging down this road the broad road to destruction what God does is he raises up men and women who say I'm wholly available to you I deeply believe your word and I want to live under its Authority and give weight to it in my life which is totally different from what most people are doing and and I I'm ready to pray that your will be done in my life and through my life even if that means all kinds of suffering that I I I I may not even understand because I'm not here for my comfort my convenience I I I I want oh God to make a difference I oh God I long for the glory of your name and this man then spoke in the name of the Lord that's the last step here he comes before Ahab and he says as the Lord the god of Israel lives there will not be jew or Reign except by my word it was standing before the Lord surely that gave him courage to stand before the king that's why our worship will help you in the pressures you face in the secular world this week it is prayer in private that gave him power in public the Lord God of Israel lives and Ahab had never thought about that as far as he was concerned religion was a branch of Sociology an expression of human spirituality a force in the community that could be regard manipulated for for social purposes and so forth and so on and here now is one man who is talking about God as if he might actually do something that would make a difference in our lives here and now and ahab's thinking to himself hey that's out of old story books God talk Traditions who cares about that in our Brave New World today God's not going to shut off the rain or do anything like that there isn't actually a living God is there perhaps for the first time in his life there's just a little of the beginning of the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of all wisdom sudden is confronted by one person who so lives so prays and so speaks that this man would say what if God really is what if there really is a living God who has a will and a what if the god of Israel lives well friends here are two roads and you don't need me to be describing so much where our culture is going on a very Broad Road at a very fast pace what we need to be taking in is that what God does when that happens is he raises up men and women who set their feet to the narrow road on which not so many are found but it is a road that leads to life and by your setting out on that in the mercy of God there may be others who come with you and for all of us who set out on that road today there is this wonderful good news that Jesus stands for us before the father that Jesus is the word of God that Jesus is the one who opens the seals and at immense cost to himself brings the will of God into effect and that Jesus speaks in the presence of the father and the word that he speaks is not a word of judgment it is a word of Grace Jesus speaks a better word than Elijah did Elijah spoke a word of judgment in order that people would seek Mercy that was his motivation but Jesus speaks a word of Mercy to people who deserve judgment thank God and notice this clearly thank God it is not our calling to summon judgment on the Nation or to summon judgment on the word on the world but in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ as we step out onto that narrow path it is for us to call men and women everywhere to repentance and to receive the grace and mercy that is offered through Jesus Christ at the very cost of his own death and Resurrection so where are you today we're all going to go out into a world this week where thousands and thousands of people are on the broad road with Ahab choosing their own morality choosing their own God provoking the Lord's anger ignoring the Lord's warning are you ready to be one of those who will step out today and say oh God make me one of those who you are raising up a man or a woman who is before you and available to you who really believes and gives weight to and lives under the authority of your word who's prepared to pray for your will to be done in me and through me irrespective of what it will cost me and to therefore will find courage to be able to speak a word as from the Lord into the life of someone who has never really seriously considered before that the Lord lives let's pray together father I pray today that you would raise up a thousand men and women from this place who are off the spirit of Elijah and that in your mercy as we find ourselves in a culture that is going very fast now down a very Broad Road indeed that you would give to us a new sense of the seriousness and the significance of our calling oh God make me some someone who really stands before you and is available to you without conditions make me a person who believes your word such that it carries weight in my life as one who reads it and believes it and applies it and obeys it make me dear Lord a person who's ready to pray your will be done irrespective of what it and make me therefore a person in your mercy and in your grace who so is before you the Living God that someone who has never really taken you as more than a tradition of History might come to ponder that the Lord lives hear our prayers and receive our thanks in jesus' name." [01:02:12]