Author Archives: pastorjeremyhelmuth

When God Gives You a Moment…

There are some stories that just grip our hearts and imaginations at the majesty and power of God.  One of my favorite stories is found in 1 Kings 18.  The prophet Elijah confronts King Ahab, an evil king of Israel, and challenges him to a contest.  Elijah wanted to show everyone who the true God was for Israel.  So, two supernatural powers would be on display that day: Yahweh versus Baal.  One would be proven true, while the other would be shown to be a fraud.  Even though Elijah was outnumbered (one prophet of Yahweh versus 450 prophets of Baal), he was still convinced that his God was the true God to be followed.  The objective was simple: each side would be given a bull and they would put it on an altar and pray to their supernatural power to strike their bull with fire.  If Baal answered with fire, then Baal is the true God.  If Yahweh answered with fire, then Yahweh is the true God.  “The god who answers by fire—he is God” (1 Kings 18:24).

 Everyone agreed to the rules.  Elijah allowed the 450 prophets of Baal to go first.  The prophets of Baal cut up the bull and placed it on the altar and started to call on the name of Baal.  They did this for hours.  We are told that from morning until noon, they cried out in prayers to Baal.  They danced around the altar to get Baal’s attention.  But there was no response.  There was no answer.

 Around noon, Elijah started to taunt them.  He told them to shout louder…maybe Baal can’t hear them.  Then Elijah really got into it and suggested four other reasons why Baal was not responding: (1) deep in thought; (2) busy; (3) traveling; (4) sleeping.  One of the Hebrew words here in this section suggests that Elijah said something like, “Maybe he is going to the bathroom to relieve himself.”  I can just picture Elijah mocking them.  He knew that Baal was fake.  He knew that the true God would come through for him.  That is why he was so sarcastic with them.

 The prophets of Baal became so desperate that they started to slash themselves with swords.  Blood flowed from their bodies.  They were shouting at the top of their lungs, but Baal was not responding.  Maybe Baal wasn’t an actual god after all.

 After several hours of trying to get Baal to respond, it was now Elijah’s turn.  Elijah took twelve stones and repaired the altar that had been neglected for quite some time.  He then cut up his bull and placed it on the altar.  He arranged some wood along with the bull.  But then he did something odd.  He dug a trench around the altar.  He told the people to fill four large jars with water and pour it on the bull and the wood.  We all know that water puts out fire.  Ask any fireman.  As the people poured water on the bull and the wood, Elijah told them to do it a second time.  They did it a second time.  Then he told them to do it a third time.  The bull, wood, and trench were completely soaked with water.  The offering was now ready.

 Elijah stepped close to the bull and prayed a simple prayer.  There was no shouting in desperation.  The time Elijah needed to get Yahweh’s attention was not measured in hours.  It was measured in faith.  There was no cutting with swords.  Here are the words to the prayer:

 “Let it be known today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and have done all these things at Your command.  Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that You, O Lord, are God, and that You are turning their hearts back again” (1 Kings 18:36-37). 

 This prayer took no more than thirty seconds!  As soon as Elijah finished this simple prayer, fire from heaven burned up the bull, the wood, the twelve stones, the soil, and even the water in the trench!  That is supernatural power!  Science teaches us that fire is always extinguished by water.  But when a supernatural being is involved, the laws of nature can be reversed.

 The people’s response was exactly what Elijah was looking for: “When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, ‘The Lord—He is God!  The Lord—He is God’” (1 Kings 18:39)!

Baal had lost.  He was fake.  Yahweh had won.  He is a living God!  The 450 prophets of Baal were all executed that day because they had been leading people away from the true God.  What a great victory for God and for His prophet Elijah!

 What does this story teach us?  Read Elijah’s prayer again.  The lesson for us is found in this phrase: “answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God.”  Elijah stuck his neck out for God.  He needed God to respond so that the people could see Yahweh as alive.  There were other prophets at the time, but they were hiding in caves (1 Kings 18:4).  Elijah was the only prophet who would stand up with such courage for Yahweh.  He faced ridicule.  He faced rejection.  He faced death.  But through his brave act, he showed the people that “The Lord is God!”  God looked mighty and powerful on this day because one faithful servant was willing to stand up to the false belief system of the day that Baal was the true God.

 When you are given your moment to stand up for the true God, will you courageously show others that God is real?  I believe that God gives all of us moments in our life to show the world that He is real.  Some of us get really grand moments, like Elijah did.  Other times, the moments seem ordinary, like when you are talking with an agnostic coworker over lunch about your faith.  When the moment arrives, is it your prayer to show others that the God you serve is alive?

 What if Elijah would have been hiding in a cave?  He would have missed this moment.  I wouldn’t be writing about it.  It wouldn’t be one of the great stories of the Christian faith.  It would have never happened.  Make sure your life is not filled with “moments that never happen” because you keep silent about your faith.  Take a hold of the moment when it arrives, and ask for the power of God to overwhelm those who are in your midst so that they walk away saying,    “The Lord—He is God!”   

The Need for Speed (or so I thought)

About a decade ago I was traveling alone and driving down the interstate.  I am the kind of person who wants to get from point A to point B as soon as humanly possible, and so that means that I will go a little over the speed limit in order to get to my destination a little faster.  By my wife’s confession, I am not as “speedy” of a driver as I used to be, although I still enjoy going a few miles over the speed limit (i.e. 70 in a 65).  I write this knowing that there will be some police officers reading this.  So I admit, I do speed.  But for some reason I justify it, just like millions of other people do every day.

As I was driving I noticed a car pass me that was going a little faster than me (note that I was already speeding).  And then I noticed another car right behind it also going about the same speed.  And when I looked into my rear view mirror I noticed another car approaching quickly at about the same speed.  This thought went directly to my brain and then to my right foot which then pressed down on the accelerator: “Jump into this group of three cars and you can ride with them and if you are in the middle you will not be caught.”  I switched lanes and sped up about eight more miles per hour.  I was the third car in a group of four cars that were all speeding at approximately thirteen miles over the speed limit.

I have never been comfortable going thirteen miles over the speed limit, but I felt protected by the other three cars in my group.  Honestly, I felt invincible.  All four vehicles were together and all four vehicles felt protected by what I call “the mob mentality.”  It is so much easier to do something that is wrong when you are doing it with a group.  It doesn’t feel so unethical.  I was driving with this group for about fifteen minutes and enjoying the benefit of going seventy-three miles per hour in a sixty mile per hour zone when I saw flashing red and blue lights.  Immediately all four of us dropped down to the speed limit.  We had fought the law and the law won.  But my thinking was: “Only one of us will get stopped.  There is no way that it will be me.  I am in the middle.  Either the first car or the last car will be stopped.  That is just how it works on the highway.”

The police car drove past the fourth car in the group and so I figured that he would just go on to the first car in our group.  But he got right behind me and remained there for several seconds.  I knew what this meant.  He had chosen me.  I pulled over, but I was angry.  I was angry at the police for pulling me over.  I was angry at the other three cars for getting away with speeding.  They are the ones who got me into this in the first place.  The police officer asked me if I knew why he pulled me over.  I remember stumbling around with my words, and this is the essence of what I said to him: “Sir (I always call officers this because they deserve respect), are you sure that you didn’t clock the two cars in front of me?  They were going just as fast if not faster?”

His answer was vintage police: “No, I clocked you speeding.  You were going thirteen over.”  My response: “I was just trying to keep up with traffic.  It felt like everyone on the road was going that speed and I guess I just lost track of how fast I was going.”  And then the dreaded “Can I have your license and registration?”  He spent a few minutes back at his car and my mind was flooded with all kinds of thoughts about whether or not he will be giving me a speeding ticket.  If you have ever had to sit and wait for the verdict in your car, then you know the emotions that flow through you.  You have several reasons why he might not give you one and let you off with a warning.  But then you go back to the truth that you were speeding and you will most likely get a ticket.  When the officer walks back to your car you know the verdict is in.  Is he letting me off on a warning or does he have a ticket for me?

Once the officer got back to my car, he explained to me that he was giving me a ticket for speeding.  And he started to explain all the options of paying the ticket or contesting the ticket, but I was too angry to listen carefully.  As he walked away from my car, I drove off just fuming about getting a ticket.  I kept trying to justify why I didn’t deserve one.  Everyone else was doing it.  I wasn’t driving wreckless.  I wasn’t hurting anyone.  I look back on that experience and I now realize how much this situation applies to real life.  I was going thirteen miles over the speed limit.  I deserved a ticket.  Plain and simple.  Here is a life lesson from this story: Never allow others to dictate your ethical behavior.  Know your standards and stick to them no matter what others do.  I learned my lesson that day.  I refuse to join a group of speeding cars!  I might go a few miles an hour over the speed limit in my older age, but never again will I try to convince myself that there is security in a group that is doing wrong!

This story will be told during this weekend’s sermon.  Come and join me at Central Ministries this weekend (Friday night: 6:30 p.m. and Sunday: 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.)

After this weekend, you can check out the “sermons” tab under the “media” page on www.centralministries.com to watch the whole sermon.