The Great God of Revival Part 2

Pray isn't just talking to God. Pray is talking to God based on His Word having completed the process He's asked you to do. Dr. Tony Evans says the key to answered prayer is the daily decision to be a disciple.

Prayer without the process doesn't get the provision. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. Do you belong to the living God or to some random little g-god? Today, Dr. Evans explains that the easiest way to tell is to check out who you're following.

Let's join him. Now, the problem in chapter 18 of 1 Kings is that there is a famine in the land because it has not rained for three and a half years. So for three and a half years, they're in an economic downturn and a major crisis because we're talking about no rain for three and a half years. In chapter 18 verse 1, God appears after many days, the word of the Lord comes to Elijah in the third year saying, go show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the face of the earth. God says, I want you to go show yourself to the king.

He was over the government. And I want you to go let him see you and hear from you. And then I'm going to send rain. Verse 20, Ahab sent the message, they came, and then verse 21, I want to talk about verse 21. Somebody say verse 21.

All right. Elijah came near to all the people and said, how long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him.

And if Baal is God, follow him. But the people did not answer him a word. It says they were silent. Now the question is, why are they silent? Why don't they make a choice?

Two answers. They thought it was too risky to go all the way with God like that. They wanted to have this other God over here in case this God didn't like fully work out. I got this other God, I got an in case situation. I've got some extra bonus gods over here to help a brother, help a sister out.

Over here, I've got Asherah and Baal. The Bible calls that in the New Testament worldliness, calls it worldliness. It is looking to this world order to supply your needs independently of God. There's a second reason they didn't want to answer. The second reason they didn't want to answer is because to agree with Elijah about the true God wants to go against the government.

Remember? Ahab and Jezebel have the prophets eaten with them. If they go to the true God and a Ganks turn their backs on Baal and Asherah, they are now turning their backs on Ahab and Jezebel. So they are functioning non-governmentally. So the question now is, do we want to risk taking Ahab off?

Do we want to risk the governmental system that has bought in to the idolatry getting mad at us because we no longer buy it? It's better to just be quiet because it's safe. So they say absolutely nothing. They have no commitment. They're like jellyfish, jellyfish, you know, jellyfish, some of them are very colorful, very colorful. Let me tell you something about jellyfish.

They have no spine. They have no skeletal frame. Now they can be pretty and all that, but you'll notice something always about a jellyfish. It goes wherever the current is moving. The current moving this way, the jellyfish is going to be floating this way. The current moving that way because it doesn't have any backbone and it doesn't have any spine and it doesn't have a skeletal frame.

It can't even swim against the current because it doesn't have fins and it doesn't have a tail. All it does is move where everything else is moving. So if stuff is moving left, jellyfish moving left. Stuff moving right, jellyfish moving right. It's going to go wherever the flow is.

So when flows change, they change because they go with the flow. Now something else you need to know about a jellyfish, it will sting you. Jellyfish is pretty, but it will hurt you. It's spineless. It's without a skeleton, but get too close and it will sting you.

It has very little benefit to offer than just to see it show up. And a lot of Christians are jellyfish. People show up, but then they float from experience to experience, sermon to sermon, preacher to preacher, church to church, conference to conference. But when it comes to making a decision, you can't find a spine. You can't find any substance there because they haven't made a choice. They haven't made a selection or they've calculated their choice to include another God because they do not have full confidence in the true God.

So they have these extra gods on the side. Making a choice is like somebody jumping out of a plane with a parachute. You don't have intentions on returning. You jump out of a plane with a parachute, you got a one way direction. Now you can haul between two pinions when you on the plane, but once you jump off that plane, now the issue is, do I really believe this chute one will open and this chute two doesn't have holes in it and this chute three will take me safely to the ground?

If you don't have confidence, you're not going to jump. See that's why you really need to know the God of the Bible so that you know this chute does open, it doesn't have holes, and it will carry me safely to my destination. He says, why do you haul between two opinions?

Why do you keep going back and forth and back and forth without a firm decision to follow the true and living God? Well, he says in verse 23, let's take two oxen and let's let the prophets of Baal cut it up and put it on the altar. Then we'll take another oxen and we'll cut it up and I'll put it on the altar and we'll see which god answers and sends fire. Now the reason he picks fire is because Baal was also the fire god. So he says, why don't we choose Baal's strength? He's the fire god.

He should be able to come up with a little smoke. He's the fire god. So why don't we just let the fire god send some fire and then we'll call him the true god and let's see which god responds.

Now watch this, man. So the prophets of Baal cut their oxen open and they start. They cry out with a loud voice, they're leaping, verse 26, about the altar.

They're calling on him from morning till noon, oh Baal, answer us. So they have a long worship service, shouting, getting happy, because they're leaping and stuff. It came about at noon, morning to noon, four or five hour early morning worship service. So in other words, you can have a long worship service and shout and nothing happened.

Okay, verse 27, and it came about at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, call out with a loud voice, for he is a god. Either he is occupied, he's got some other appointments, he tied up, or he is gone aside. Gone aside means gone to the john. Maybe god is in the bathroom.

Maybe that's why he can't, he's mocking him. Maybe god got some stomach troubles and he had to relieve himself, or maybe he's taking a vacation. He says, maybe he's on a journey, gone on a trip, taking a cruise, you know, because obviously he's doing something, he's not here.

Or maybe the problem is it's nap time, after all it's noon, so maybe he's asleep and somebody needs to wake god up. So they cry out with a loud voice, and now they want to show they're serious. They cut themselves, verse 28 says, they cut themselves until the blood gushed out of them. So I think these guys are serious, and we're not talking about, this is some serious church here. They're cutting themselves, you're in some serious religion now. So they're cutting themselves, abusing themselves. When the midday was past, they raved until the evening sacrifice. So now they've gone from noon to six o'clock. They've turned this into an all-day church service, because they're desperate for god to respond, their god, okay? But there was no answer. Then, Elijah said to all the people, watch this now, I'm going somewhere, come near to me, so all the people came near to him, come near to me, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. I don't want you to miss that.

Y'all come close, there's real crowds around him. First of all, he says, let me fix this altar, which had been torn down. In other words, Israel was having church without an altar.

It said the altar had been torn down. What's on the altar? A sacrifice. Why is there a sacrifice to be put on the altar? To deal with sin. Why is there a sacrifice to deal with sin? To free God up to respond to his people, because God couldn't respond to his people if there was unaddressed sin in the nation. Because there was no altar, they didn't feel they had to address sin. They were still having church, they were still carrying on their Jewish religion, but they were still without rain, and he says, because there's no altar.

Let me explain. Before Adam and Eve sinned, they had immediate, direct access to God, okay, before they sinned. Once they sinned, and from then on, they could not have direct access, they had to have mediated access. In other words, there had to be something between sinful men and a holy God to address the sin so that a holy God could then receive the sinner. There had to be something that addressed sin, because once sin entered in, the access to God had to come through an in-between process.

So this in-between process would be a sacrifice that would satisfy God in the Old Testament temporarily in order to free God up to hear from his people and his people to hear back from him. But there was no altar. The altar had been torn down, so guess what? There was no relationship and there was no communication, even though they were still having church. They were still having church, but they were having church without an altar. The Bible says that there is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus.

In the New Testament, Jesus did what the sacrifices did in the Old Testament. He is your point of contact with a holy God, but there's got to be something in between sinful men and a holy God, and that is the man Christ Jesus. With one hand he touches God, with another hand he touches us, since he is the sacrifice for sin, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, you and I have a point of contact. But if the altar is torn down and you're not using the point of contact, you have no contact, even though you're still having church. So how do we restore that lost point of contact?

Dr. Evans will have the answer for us when he returns in just a moment. First, I want to remind you that Tony has just released a new book, an in-depth study of the attributes and characteristics that make the Lord who He is. It's called God Himself. The more you learn about God, the more there is to worship, so this book will deepen your sense of awe as well as your understanding of God's nature, His values, and His heart. It's yours as our thank you gift when you make a contribution in support of Tony's ministry. As a special bonus, it'll come to you bundled with all 14 messages in our current teaching series called Revive Us Again.

If you've ever felt like your faith is about to flicker out, this collection of messages will teach you how to rekindle trust and devotion to God, not just in your own life, but in your family, your church, and even our country. This special resource package is only available for a limited time, so be sure to contact us today and make the arrangements to get it. To do that, visit tonyevans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222. I'll have our contact information for you again after part two of today's message and this. Have you ever done a connect the dots puzzle?

You draw lines from one numbered dot to another, and before you know it, a picture appears you didn't even know was there. Well, Tony wants you to have that same experience with the Bible. Through the Tony Evans Training Center, he'll help you connect the dots of Scripture and discover the big picture of God's kingdom agenda, all at your own pace, anywhere, anytime, on your computer or mobile device. There are courses on a wide range of topics and texts. Each one includes exclusive, in-depth content from Tony, probing discussion questions, access to full-length messages, and an online discussion forum where you can ask specific questions and get detailed answers. Visit tonyevans.org today and connect with the Tony Evans Training Center, where you can explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere.

So they were carrying on religion with no point of contact. He says, first of all, let's rebuild the altar. Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Elijah. Why don't you just get God to make it rain? I want my blessing. I want heaven to open up and shower blessings on me. Let me get rain of blessings on me, because God can't respond if there is no altar.

If there is nothing to address the issue of sin, then there can be no response to sinful people by a holy God. First of all, let's get an altar built. On the altar, they slew the ox.

The ox shed its blood. And so now there is a sacrifice on the altar. So he put the stones around the altar. By the way, let me tell you, he put 12 stones, verse 31, on the altar. It says the 12 stones were for the 12 tribes of Israel.

There's a problem here. The nation Israel has been divided now. Ten tribes are in the north. Two tribes are in the south. The 12 tribes are not together. But around the altar, he put all 12 stones to represent all 12 tribes, because it's around that altar that unity would occur where division was ruling. It would be around the altar that there would be harmony where there had been conflict. It would be around the altar there would be oneness where there had been division.

So even though they were divided 10 and 2, he puts all 12 around so he can say, look, let's get this thing right. Let's get this thing back together again, but we can only pull it off at the altar. That's why whenever there's a problem, you need to learn to come to the altar in order to see God pull that thing together, but it has to be around a sacrifice. The altar can't be torn down.

Now watch this. He pours water, verse 34 says, on the offering a first time, a second time, and a third time, and he poured so much water, verse 35, that it filled the trench around the altar. Now, if you're trying to set something on fire, you don't soak it with water. You don't soak it with water. Water is supposed to put fire out.

Fire is not supposed to put water out. He soaks this thing. In other words, why don't we make it hard for God? Let's do a little something. Let's make it hard so that it will be clear only God could do this.

Now watch this now, watch this now. Verse 36, and the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, oh Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, oh Lord, answer me that this people may know that you, oh Lord, are God and that you have turned their heart back again. Look at that, turned their heart back again. That's called revival. When God returns your heart back to Him and He to you, that's called revival. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stone, the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. No you didn't. When He prayed, fire came from heaven and soaked up the sacrifice, soaked up the stone, soaked up the dust, and then went around the trench, said lick it up, licked up all the water in the trench.

All right, watch this now. God, God, why don't you just let it rain? He says in verse 36, you did this according to your word.

The word was given in chapter 18 verse 1. I'm going to make it rain. But there's a gap between verse 1 when He said it was going to rain and verse 36 when it really rained. He promised rain in verse 1. He doesn't show up with rain until verse 36 after Elijah prays.

Watch this now. You say, but I've been praying and I don't see any rain. But before Elijah prayed, he had to confront Ahab, who was the cause of the sin. He had to confront the people who were participating in the sin. He had to confront the altar that had been torn down so it wasn't dealing with the sin. Then he had to place order to sacrifice so the sin could be dealt with, and then he prayed. See, maybe your heaven is still closed because you're praying too early. So you're praying before you've confronted it and looked at it as a sin, treated it as a sin, addressed it spiritually as a sin, but you're calling on God, I need my blessing.

I need it to rain. God says, I have you a promise and I am waiting for a prayer, but between the promise and the prayer, there's a process. And the process means you will both identify and address the sin. If you're not willing to identify and address the sin, then it won't even happen in verse 36.

You may be in second Kings, first Chronicles, second Chronicles. You might be in Revelation for something to happen because you've not done the process between the promise and the prayer. All you're doing is saying, I prayed, pray for me, nothing's happening. But between the promise and the prayer was a process to address the spiritual cause so that there might be a cure. Let me say one thing about the prayer. He says, answer me, O Lord, so that people will know you are God. In other words, this is your name on the line, and I want you to glorify your name. God has already made precious promises to you.

He's already decided when he going to let it rain in your life, how he's going to let it rain in your life, and what he's going to let it rain in your life. It's on deposit, but you got to draw it down. Prayer is saying, God, I need to make a draw right now because I have a need right now, and I want to draw down from my account what you have deposited in my account for the need that I have right now. But you can't draw it down unless the paperwork has been filled out. Every time there is a draw, there is paperwork, and the paperwork says that the work that has been done or the need that exists is valid. Paperwork gives you validity to make the draw. A lot of us go to God and say, answer me, O Lord, I want to draw, and God is looking for the paperwork.

He says, I don't see any confronting Ahab, I don't see where you've made a choice, I don't see where you fixed the altar, I don't see where you put on the sacrifice, I don't see where you've dealt with your sin, I don't see any signed paperwork, and you can't make a draw unless the paperwork is there. It's not because the bank hasn't made the provision, it's just that you haven't done what is necessary to be able to close the deal and to pull down a draw. You've got people in churches everywhere wanting to make a draw from heaven with no paperwork. God is saying there is a process needed for the draw to occur. And when you complete the process, I'm glad to give you the draw if it was a deposit I made in your account. Somebody ought to be glad that it's already there, but you need to know you need to make a draw.

What happened in closing? There's a closing verse. It happened, 39, when the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord He is God, the Lord He is God. In other words, God has now been validated and vindicated because somebody drew it down. Prayer isn't just talking to God, prayer is talking to God based on His word having completed the process He's asked you to do.

Prayer without the process doesn't get the provision. Dr. Tony Evans, talking today about the great God of revival. Now the perfect way to build on today's teaching is to request the entire two-volume 14-message series called Revive Us Again. As I mentioned earlier, you can get all these lessons on CD and digital download, as well as a copy of Tony's powerful and insightful new book, God Himself. All these resources are yours as our thank you gift when you contribute toward the work of the Urban Alternative.

You can make all the arrangements by calling our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 or visit us online at tonyevans.org. When a rocket shoots up into the sky, you know there's something powerful going on inside of it. Tomorrow Dr. Evans will explain that the same is true when a believer is lit up by the fire of revival. I hope you'll be back for that. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.