Key Lesson: Faith is believing what God said He would do.

Ahab is Unmoved

Evidently unmoved by God sending fire from heaven, wicked King Ahab showed no sign or personal repentance. Instead of joining his people in shouting, “the LORD He is the God”, he was just a silent bystander. Even when Elijah and the spiritually revived people killed his 450 prophets of Baal, as, he just watched without comment.

If we are not careful, we too can respond nonchalantly when God does something great in our midst. Often, we are slow to praise God for His provisions and answers to prayer, soon to forget, and quick to complain or worry when the next challenge comes up. Perhaps Ahab had been grumbling to Elijah during the long prayers and dances of his prophets, that he was hungry and thirsty. If not, Elijah knew that this weak and selfish monarch expressed no concern for his suffering people. He had no empathy. He thought only of himself. He still had food and water and that was most important to him. He was a lousy leader. Now that the excitement had settled a bit, Elijah said to Ahab, “Get thee up, eat and drink” (v.41). Ah! That is what he had been waiting to hear!

Folks, selfishness is a terrible sin, yet one that we often fail to see in ourselves. It is valuing self more than others. It has caused conflict in countless families and divided myriads of marriages. The Bible gives us valuable counsel on selfishness. (Luke 9:23) “And he [Jesus] said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Acts 20:35) “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Romans 15:1-2) “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.” (1 Corinthians 10:24) “Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.” (Galatians 6:2) “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” (Ephesians 5:21) “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” (Philippians 2:4) “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”

Pastor Alan Carr notes, “Those who live in the flesh may talk big and act strong, but they are, in fact, the weakest of men. The true strong man is one who rules, not is ruled by, his passions. Like so many who attend church, their bodies are there, but their hearts and minds are thousands of miles away. You see, our hearts are revealed by what we think about during service, where we rush off to after service and by what we get the most excited about. Some can’t even sit through an entire service! By the way, your attention span for spiritual things is a barometer of your spiritual growth! Some folks can’t seem to sit still through a 45 minute sermon, but they can sit for hours and watch a ball game or a race. It’s all a matter of your priorities! This sad state of affairs is seen clearly when one compares the interest in prayer meeting as opposed to an eating
meeting!”1

Please see attached pdf for more notes