Participants:
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000684S
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00:01 (Breath of Life Theme Music)
00:06 Sermon #B684 - Call Down Fire 00:20 Dr. Byrd: We want to get right in the word of God. I've been excited all week long, 00:24 ready to preach the word from the Lord. And so we want to get right in 00:27 and I want to invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of 1 Kings 18:20, 00:45 and I am going to read in your hearing from the King James version of the Bible. 00:49 1 Kings 18:20, the word of God says, "So Ahab, second to all the children of Israel, 00:57 gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel". 01:01 Verse 21, "And Elijah came unto all the people and said, 01:04 "How long halt ye between two opinions?". If the Lord be God follow him; but if Baal then follow him. 01:13 And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people. 01:17 I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord but Baal's profits are 450 men". 01:24 Verse 23, "Let them therefore give us to bullocks. Let them choose one bullock for themselves, 01:30 and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood and put no fire under and I will dress the other Bullock 01:35 and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: 01:37 And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord. 01:44 In other words, I will call on my God. And the God that answered my fire, let him be God. 01:50 And all the people answered and said, it is well spoken". 01:53 Verse 25, "And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, "Choose you one bullock for yourselves, 01:58 and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. 02:04 They took the bullock, which was giving them and they dressed it. 02:07 Called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon saying, "Oh Baal, hear us". 02:14 But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. 02:22 And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, "Cry aloud for he is a god. 02:29 Either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, 02:36 and must be awaked. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves. And after their manner with knives 02:42 and lancets, till the blood rushed out upon them. And it came to pass, when midday was past, 02:48 they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, 02:53 that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded". 02:58 Verse 30, "And Elijah said unto all the people, "Come near unto me". 03:06 And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. 03:11 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, 03:18 unto whom the word of the Lord came saying, "Israel shall be thy name". 03:21 And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. 03:25 And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. 03:30 And he put the wood in order, and he cut the bullocks in pieces, 03:33 and laid it down on him on the wood and said, "Fill four barrels with water, 03:38 and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood". And he said, "Do it the second time", 03:42 and they did it the second time. And then he said, "Do it the third time", 03:46 and they did it the third time. And water ran around about the altar; 03:51 and he filled the trench also with water". 03:52 Verse 36, "And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, 03:57 that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 04:05 the God of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, 04:13 and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, 04:17 that this people may know that thou art the Lord God. Thou the Lord God, 04:23 and that thou hast turned their heart back again." 04:26 Verse 38, "Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, 04:33 and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 04:36 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces. And they said, "The Lord, he is the god. 04:46 The Lord, he is the God". 04:50 Today, I just want to praise God and preach the sermon call down fire, call down fire. 04:56 God bless us now as we go into your word, for this with your spirit. Anoint us with your grace. 05:01 O Lord, right now preach, and speak, and teach through the airwaves of the Internet, 05:09 the airwaves of the television. And we give you glory in this place. 05:13 We give you honor in this place. 05:15 We give you praise right now in this place for what you are giving ready to do to your spoken word. 05:21 Hide behind your cross, forgive me of my sins. It is in Jesus name we pray, amen and amen. 05:29 Call down fire. Call down fire. 05:35 As of yesterday, there have been over 26 million coronavirus worldwide, and 870,000 people have died. 05:45 In the United States alone we suffered over 6 million cases 05:49 and 191,000 deaths with an expected 30,000 additional deaths before this month should end. 05:59 Now, we are the most industrialized nation in the world. 06:04 With the most financially prosperous nation in the world. 06:08 But yet we have the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world 06:13 and the highest number of deaths in the world by any country. That is the coronavirus pandemic. 06:21 But there is another pandemic, and this pandemic is the racism pandemic. 06:28 It seems that every other day another injustice comes to the forefront. One day, 06:35 it is Ahmaud Arbery. The next day, it is Breonna Taylor. The next day, it is George Floyd. 06:42 The next day, it is Jacob Blake. And now, it is the new revelation of Daniel Prude, 06:50 a black man who was having a psychotic episode but died after police officers in Rochester, 06:57 New York place a mesh hood over his head back in March. 07:02 When brother Prude tried to rise, the officers forced him face down on the ground. 07:09 One of them was pushing his head to the pavement. He was held down by the police for two minutes 07:15 and he had to be resuscitated. He died one week later at the hospital. 07:19 His death however did not receive widespread attention until this past Wednesday, 07:26 when his family released raw police videos of the encounter from police body cameras, 07:32 which they just obtained through an open records request. 07:37 In the words of Will Smith, "Racism isn't getting worse. It is just being now recorded". 07:46 We are dealing with the coronavirus. We are dealing with racism. 07:51 And God has called me today to call down fire. 07:57 Now, our text is situated at a time when the nation of Israel was also suffering from a pandemic. 08:04 But this pandemic was not the result of some type of virus. This pandemic was because of a drought. 08:11 There was a famine in the land. 08:13 Now, you will remember that Israel had been saved from evil oppressive systems in Egypt. 08:19 After their freedom from Pharaoh in Egypt, after being in the wilderness for 40 years, 08:25 things were going well the Bible says until the times of the judges. 08:29 The Bible says the times of the judges were another generation rose after them who did not know 08:35 the Lord or the work he had done for Israel. 08:39 The situation became worse under a king by the name of Ahab 08:44 and his even more wicked evil wife Jezebel, who force idolatry on God's people 08:51 and murdered almost all of the Lord's prophets. And because of Israel's rebellion, 08:57 this drought had been prophesied by Elijah. God told Elijah to tell Ahab, to tell Jezebel, 09:05 to tell the entire nation of Israel that because of Israel's rebellion to God, 09:12 God was going to stop rain from falling. 09:15 Now in our text, three years had passed since Elijah's first prophetic announcement. 09:21 And for three years, the people had seen lake after lake, creek after creek, stream after stream, 09:29 and well after well dry up until there was hardly any water to be found anywhere in Israel. 09:37 As a result, the people everywhere were hungry, especially those people who lived in rural areas 09:44 and those who did not have enough very much to start with in the first place. 09:50 Farmers who had done their best to make a living in a good year, 09:53 now had to turn to the corrupt government of Ahab for some handouts. 09:59 It was a time of chaos. It was a time of confusion. 10:03 It was a time of violence as landowners were doing their best to keep people from stealing the 10:08 little water that they had left in there creeks and streams. 10:13 It was a time of protests as people all over the nation demanded that something be done. 10:20 And just like most government leaders, Ahab looked for a convenient scapegoat. 10:28 Because when things are going bad, you have to blame somebody. I wish I had time. 10:35 Ahab chooses to blame God. He didn't blame his predecessor. He He blamed God. He didn't believe in God. 10:44 Ahab and his wife Jezebel, believed in Baal and Ashtoreth. So, Ahab instructed the Israelites 10:51 to forsake their God for Baal and Ashtoreth, the gods for rain, blessings, and prosperity. 10:59 But none of their prayers to Baal or Ashtoreth were working. And they would not work 11:05 because Baal and Ashtoreth were not God. Baal and Ashtoreth were fake. They were man-made Gods. 11:15 But I believe I've got a witness in this place that knows God is God. 11:20 And it was God who said in his first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me". 11:27 So, Elijah goes to Ahab and he challenges him and the prophets of Baal 11:34 and Ashtoreth to an all-out spiritual battle. Elijah says, "Your god's against my God". 11:41 I wish I had a witness in his place. The venue for this battle would be Mount Carmel. 11:46 And right in front of Mount Carmel if you study history, 11:49 you will discover there was a wonderful metal with thousands of people could gather 11:53 and look up at the mountain and view the battle that was about to take place. 11:58 When the day for the battle arrived, everyone in the land would come, and they come 12:04 and they show enough came. Now the crowd, you need to understand, 12:08 was made up of three groups of people. Group number one was Elijah 12:13 and he was all by himself in his group. The second group was the 850 prophets, 12:19 450 prophets of Baal and 450 prophets the Bible says of the grove. 12:25 And the third and final group was made up of the majority of the people who were present, 12:30 but they were wavering between two opinions. Now if you were in the crowd on that day, 12:35 you might have felt bad for Elijah. For here is Elijah all by himself going up against 850 prophets. 12:43 All by himself going up against all those other people. In our everyday vernacular, 12:50 Elijah was about to get jumped. One against 850. 12:55 But let me remind somebody today that every mighty move of God that has happened in the 13:00 Bible never started with a committee. It never started with the board, 13:05 but it always started with one person. One person could turn the city upside down. 13:11 And so now, Elijah utters his famous words in verse 21, "How long he halt between two opinions? 13:19 If the Lord be God follow him, but if he be Baal follow him". 13:25 And the Bible says and we often forget this, the people answered him not a word. 13:32 I am going to get to that in a minute. 13:34 Now, Elijah's question, how long indicates that the Israelites had already taken too long to make 13:40 their decision for God? Three years had passed without rain 13:43 and they still had not decided to repent of Baal worship. 13:46 Let me put a kickstand right here and let me ask you today church. 13:49 How much of the coronavirus will we have to experience before we get right with God? 13:54 How many people are going to have to die before we get right with God? 13:57 How much racism will we have to experience before we repent and get right with God? 14:02 Political turmoil, racial hatred, and civic unrest are before us. 14:07 And let me be clear, it is not just black people with the unrest either. 14:11 Stop believing that lie. The man who killed the two people last week in Kenosha, 14:17 Wisconsin was not black. He did not live even in the same city. He did not live in the same state. 14:24 He crossed state lines and it was not to bring about peace. 14:27 Don't you believe that lie because you do not bring about peace with an AR-15 style rifle. 14:33 Peace was not his intent. If he wanted peace he should have stayed home and prayed. 14:37 Are you hearing what I am saying? 14:38 We've got mess in front of our eyes and some of us are still playing church. 14:43 Still not studying the Bible. Still not praying. Still not tithing. 14:48 Still not giving an offering. Still keeping up mess. And I want to know how long? 14:53 How long will you start to speak up your mind to serve the Lord? Don't put off choosing Christ. 14:58 Tomorrow is not promised. You don't know if you have another day to decide. 15:03 Today is the day of your salvation. How long he hope between two opinions? 15:08 If the Lord be God, then follow him. The word halt here is a kin to the word waiver, 15:15 which is a transliteration of the word limp. The people cannot make up their minds. 15:20 So what are they doing? They are limping. They are wavering. They are staggering back and forth. 15:25 They stagger to the left. They stagger to the right. They are wavering. They cannot walk straight. 15:30 How long he halt between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. If he be Baal, follow him. 15:36 But here is the last sentence of that verse: And the people answered him not a word. 15:45 Elijah's asking, "Who is on the Lord's side?", and nobody answers. It was silent. 15:53 Silence suggest complicity. To be silent means you don't disagree with what is going on. 15:59 You are silent. You are complicit. Things can be wrong, but you don't say anything. 16:04 That is why in the times in which we live, the church has got to speak up. 16:08 The church has got to speak up against what is wrong. 16:11 God needs to meet the church to be a voice and not an echo. 16:16 Elijah says, "Okay.Tell you what, your 450 prophets of Baal. 16:23 Your 400 prophets of the Groves. All 850 of you. To end this drought you call on the name of your 16:30 gods, and I will call on my God. And the god that answers by fire, let him be God. 16:42 And the god who wins is the God whom Israel will serve". Everybody agrees. 16:51 Now, let the battle begin. Now let me take you back to our three groups 16:56 and let us do it inductively which means we are not going to one two, three. 17:00 Let us go three two, and one. Remember now in group number three, there are people who are gathered 17:05 on Mount Carmel and some of them do not believe anything is going to happen 17:09 because after all thousands of people have been praying to Baal, Ashtoreth, 17:13 and everything else they could pray to for three years and nothing has happened. 17:17 So in their minds all that was going to happen would be a big show by Ahab 17:22 and Jezebel's 850 prophets that will result in nothing, 17:26 and a big show by Elijah that would also result in nothing 17:30 because of the last three years had taught them anything else. It was that there was no God, 17:35 no savior, no deliver. And so, in a few more months none of this would matter anyway 17:40 because they all would be dead. But then there is group number two. 17:44 These are those who followed Baal and Ashtoreth. 17:47 They were excited because finally they will get a chance to prove to everyone that the God of 17:51 Heaven was a fake. They would finally be able to get rid of this old man Elijah. 17:55 And after this showdown on Mount Carmel, 17:59 no one in Israel would even dare to call upon the name of the God of Heaven. 18:04 Again, this was going to be their moment to shine. 18:10 But here is group one, Elijah by himself. No praise team, no musicians, no choir, 18:24 no pastors, no elders, deacons,deaconesses, no big banners, 18:30 or no large congregation of worshipers following him. Elijah was all by himself. 18:38 But the man of God was not scared. The man of God you see had an ace in the hole. 18:45 He had a secret weapon. He had God in his corner. He had God on his side. 18:53 Don't you ever forget that you plus God are always a majority. 18:57 I wish someone was in this place. Elijah by himself against 850 prophets of Baal 19:03 and Ashtoreth says, "There's a lot of y'all". Excuse my Southern slang. 19:09 So you go first. So they prepare the altar. They place a bullock or an ox on it. 19:17 And they start to dance around it and call upon Baal. 19:21 They began to worship Baal with Ahab and everyone else will gather together. 19:26 They sang. They prayed. They praise. They sang some more. They prayed some more. 19:34 They yelled. They danced. They sang some more. They yelled some more. 19:40 They dance some more but nothing happened. Not a cloud appeared in the sky. 19:46 Not a sound of thunder was heard. Not a drop of rain fell. Nothing happened. 19:53 The only thing that happened was the noise that they were making. 19:57 So at lunch time, Elijah comes out and he says, "Look, what is wrong? 20:04 Maybe Baal's taking a nap. Maybe he is taking a trip. Maybe he is gone to the bathroom. 20:11 Why don't you all yell louder?". 20:13 And so they go and do something outrageous hoping to get Baal's attention. 20:18 They take out some knives and they start cutting themselves trying to show their gods 20:23 that they are 100% committed. They began pouring their own blood, human blood on the altar. 20:29 So now we have singing, we have praising, we have praying, we yelling, we have dancing, 20:35 and we have blood dripping everywhere. It was crazy. It was outrageous. 20:42 Surely, now, Baal and Ashtoreth would come to their rescue, but still nothing. 20:49 The Bible says they continued all day long singing, yelling, praising, jumping up and down, 20:54 cutting themselves for hours, but through it all no clouds, no thunder, no rain, no answer, 20:59 no voice, and no fire from heaven. 21:02 Elijah has had enough of their show. He has allowed them to prove that their gods, 21:08 lower case G, were nothing but stone and wood. He has allowed them to make fools of themselves 21:18 because if you give folk enough rope, they will hang themselves. Are you hearing what I am saying? 21:22 It was time for evening worship. And so, Elijah tells them to stop. They've had enough time. 21:31 It is now his turn. He now begins to set up his altar. He takes twelve stones 21:39 because as he builds his altar, he is reminding the people of Israel of the time when God rescued 21:44 the twelve tribes from Egypt and gave them the promised land. 21:48 He reminds them that all twelve tribes had a commitment on Mount Sinai, 21:53 that they would serve God and God alone. He reminds them that the reason they are in this mess is 21:59 because of Ahab, Jezebel, and the people who have forsaken the God of Heaven and Earth. 22:06 What does he do? He does like we used to do with our ten efforts. He digs a trench around his altar. 22:14 He puts wood down. He cuts up the oxen and then says,"Bring me four barrels of water, 22:21 and pour the water on the offering and pour the water on the wood". He does this three times. 22:26 The Bible says the water flows from around the altar and the water fills up the trench. 22:33 Now imagine if you were there watching all of this. The people were probably thinking, 22:37 what is this man doing? What is this guy doing? He is making a fool out of himself wasting water. 22:46 Nobody wets wood before you light a fire. 22:51 Elijah invites the people to join him now in this worship service. 22:55 It would not be the kind that had been going on for hours, but all that cut and shouting. 23:01 But his service is just a prayer. And he recites his prayer in verses 36 and 37. 23:07 He says, "Oh Lord, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Israel, 23:15 let it be known on this day that thou our God in Israel, and I am thy servants 23:26 and I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord. 23:32 Hear me that this people may know that thou art the Lord God 23:38 and that thou has turned their hearts back again. 23:43 Notice this prayer of Elijah was not a condemning prayer, 23:48 but it is a prayer inviting Israel back to God. It is a prayer for God's grace and mercy. 23:55 It is a prayer asking heaven to invade earth. It is a prayer of salvation. 24:01 And just as soon as Elijah prays his prayer, immediately the Bible says something happens. 24:10 The heavens open up, and the Bible says that fire comes down. 24:15 Now, let me remind you that whenever fire comes from God, you know God means business 24:20 because fire symbolizes the presence, the power, and the glory of God. 24:24 God revealed himself by fire to Moses in a burning bush. 24:28 When the children of Israel were in the wilderness seeking to escape from mean ol' Pharaoh, 24:33 God let them buy a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Fire shows God's presence, 24:40 his power, his protection. When Solomon dedicated the temple in Jerusalem, 24:45 fire fell down from heaven and the glory of God filled the place. 24:49 When John the Baptist testified of Jesus who was to come after him, 24:54 he John said, "I baptize with water unto that repentance, but Jesus is going to come". 25:00 There is a greater one that is going to come, and he is going to baptize with the Holy Ghost 25:05 and with fire. And when Jesus cleanses this Earth at the end of the millennium, 25:09 it won't be by water but by fire. 25:13 God speaks through fire. God makes himself known through fire. God lets his power known by fire. 25:21 God's fire consumed the sacrifice, the water, the stones, and even the dust. 25:30 And I just stopped by to tell somebody that in 2020, we need God's fire. 25:38 We need God's fire to come down. We need God's fire to make God known. 25:46 And in the name of Jesus, through the intercession of the Holy Ghost, 25:51 I am calling God's fire down. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God of Israel, 26:01 come down to this Earth. Come down to Huntsville, Alabama. Come down to New York City. 26:07 Come down to the West Indies. Come down to Africa. Come down to Asia. Come down. I call down fire. 26:17 Stop the coronavirus. Stop evil. Stop racism. Stop police brutality. 26:25 Stop oppression. Stop poverty. Stop injustice. Stop ignorance when it comes to injustice. 26:33 Stop cancer. Stop envy. Stop jealousy. Stop lying. Stop gossip. Stop mess. Stop confusion. 26:44 God send your fire. Let your fire fall. 26:49 I bind every demonic spirits that seeking to gain entrance in somebody's life right now. 26:55 I rebuke every antithetical evil spirit that is warring against God's power in somebody's 27:01 life right now. I rebuke every addiction, every ungodly habits, every alcoholic spirit, 27:08 every drug spirit, every perverted spirit, every suicidal spirit, every depressed spirit. 27:15 I command every foul spirit, in the name of Jesus, to get out. 27:21 And I call fire down, God's fire down in your house, on your top, in your car, in your dorm room, 27:28 in the community, in the church, I call fire down on this campus. 27:36 In the name of Jesus, God send your fire now. 27:40 Thank you very much for tuning in to this week's Breath of Life broadcast. 27:45 We hope and pray that you've been blessed by Dr. Byrd's inspirational message. 27:49 If you would like to hear this sermon in its entirety, 27:52 please feel free to visit us at www.breathoflife.tv. 27:58 Or, call us at (256) 929-6460. 28:11 Dr. Byrd: Pain, loss, trama, 28:20 in life we experience these things. 28:23 My wife and I have a story, 28:26 we have a testimony of how we lost 28:30 our first born daughter in a horrific car accident. 28:37 We have this new sharing book, its en-titled “Gone.” 28:42 And, in it I want to share with you 28:46 how God has helped me, 28:48 how God has helped my wife, how God has helped us, 28:53 as we had to endure the fact that our first born daughter is gone. 29:01 www.breathoflife.tv 29:08 [END] |
Revised 2020-09-10