1 Kings 19:14-21

¹⁴He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” ¹⁵The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. ¹⁶Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. ¹⁷Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. ¹⁸Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.”

¹⁹So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. ²⁰Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” ²¹So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.

Dear children of our Heavenly Father

How many of us can relate to this scenario? There is something that needs to be fixed or improved. You decide that you are going to tackle the project by yourself. You size up the project and buy all the things you need. You even buy some books and watch the DIY channel on cable. About half way into the project you realize that you are in over your head. The project is taking much too long and things are getting more and more frustrating by the minute. You have reached the point where frustration has taken over and you are ready to throw your hands in the air and say I quit. As a last resort, you end up calling in the expert who finishes the project and things are done well and you are only slightly embarrassed.

There are many events in the history of this world and of God’s Church on this earth, where things have looked quite bleak or at the very least things looked out of control. During times like this, there have been many Christians who have thrown up their arms and said, I quit. The despair and frustration has become too much. That is when we need to call in the “expert” who of course is our heavenly Father who has all things under control. That is what God is going to bring home to us today as we use the theme:

Sermon Theme: Remember That God Is In Control

1. He judges perfectly

2. His Word works

3. He takes care of his Church

As we look at these words from 1 Kings, it would help to bring us up to speed on the background of this text. Elijah had been called by God to preach to the wicked and stubborn people of Israel. His calling was very difficult in that fact that he was the prophet who was to deal with the very wicked king Ahab and his even more wicked wife Jezebel. Since his message was the very harsh law of God, he was in direct opposition to the false god, Baal. To see when the hatred and animosity that Ahab and Jezebel had towards Elijah reached its peak, we need to look at what had just happened before the words of our text. Elijah had challenged Ahab and his prophets of Baal to a duel. He challenged them to see if their god Baal could overcome the power and might of the all-powerful God of heaven. They set up two altars, and they were to pray to their gods to bring fire on their sacrifice. As the story goes the Baal prophets could do nothing, while Elijah prayed and God consumed his sacrifice and the whole altar of the Baal prophets. The Baal prophets were put to death, and Jezebel was not happy and threatened to kill Elijah. At this point Elijah fled for his life. He traveled almost 300 miles, and he came to Mt Horeb or Mt Sinai as many know it. Here begins our text for this morning.

Elijah was now hiding out in a cave. God came to him and asked Elijah a question. "What are you doing here Elijah?" Elijah saw this as his chance to vent his frustration and misery. Elijah told God what he thought of the work he was called to do. As Elijah explains, he had been very zealous in doing God's work. Through trials and misfortune he had still preached God's Word, but as Elijah says, "The Israelites have rejected your covenant....I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me." Elijah was full of despair and frustration. Elijah had a good point, didn't he? What would we have said in the same position? How would we have reacted, if we had been put through this same situation? Most likely everyone one of us would have answered in a very similar fashion. Most likely we too would have vented our anger and disgust with Israel. Most likely we too would have been very depressed.

But let's transfer this story from the time of Elijah to today. Let's take Elijah out of the picture and insert ourselves. Let's think of the many ways that our lives are similar to that of Elijah's. When times have gotten rough, we may have thought being a Christian is not worth it or maybe even worse that it is better to not be a Christian. We may think that St. Luke’s is doing something wrong, because it has spiritual problems or financial problems. We may think that the WELS is maybe not right because it is going through all of these problems. We become full of despair and frustrations and think that God doesn’t really know what is going on. But God really does know what is going on. Before we get to this point, we need to talk to God.

Sounds like this is a very good time to call in to the “expert”, and that is what happens in our text. God steps in. After looking at all the bad that is happening and that had happened to Elijah, let's see exactly what God does to build him up. As we look at what God does for Elijah, the thing we need to remember is that it is what God did for Elijah that helped him. It is not what Elijah did for himself. It was not Elijah who comforted himself. It was God who gave Elijah the power and courage to continue in the calling of preaching God's Word. It is exactly the same for us. God alone works in us.

In our text, we see three different ways that god shows Elijah and all Christians that he is always in control. The first thing we see is that God gave Elijah some words to remind him who is in control by telling him, “The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. ¹⁶Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. ¹⁷Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. ¹⁸Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.” God told Elijah that he would now go and designate three people to continue the work of God. The first people we see are Hazael and Jehu. They would be kings and rulers in their countries. Hazael wasn’t even a Christian, but God would use him to bring judgment on those who have sinned. The judgment that we see was when Hazael and his wicked armies came and caused troubles for the northern tribes of Israel. You can read through the book of 2 Kings chapter 8 and read all about how much God controls justice and judgment on those who sin. God wasn’t letting sin go unchecked, but he always judges sin perfectly. God also had Jehu become the next king over his people who would rid the country of Jezebel and the Baal prophets and bring the true God back into the picture. He killed off the whole family of Ahab, including Jezebel and the Baal prophets, which shows that justice was under control.

The second way that we see that shows us God is in complete control is by seeing how God’s Word is all-powerful. We see how God’s Word is at work. Sometimes we get the feeling that God's Word not doing the job, so we rely very heavily on the our thinking and planning. But we cannot and will not be able to change anyone or lead them to believe in Christ by ourselves. That is why we will always need to look to God's Word, when we are having rough times. This is why we will always look to God's Word, as we go and spread his Word. This is why we will always look to God's Word to find the strength and confidence to live in this sinful and wicked world. Is God’s Word powerful? Some would say no. They point to all the wicked people in this world and all the bad things that are happening, just like Elijah did. But should we doubt God’s Word?

Elijah doubted God’s powerful Word and thought that he was the only person in all Israel who followed God, but God reassures him that there are still 7000 people who have not bowed their knees to Baal. In this instance we can see that God's Word is working, even when we do not see direct results. How do we measure the success of God’s Word? By outward numbers like how many members we have or by how many people come to church as a result of our efforts? That is a human way of measuring, but God doesn’t always look at things from our point of view. God alone can see the complete results of our preaching his saving message. Just as he reassured Elijah that there are still 7000 believers, we can be reassured that our efforts are not in vain. We can know and believe that God is working in his Word, and that he will bless the fruits of our labors, whether we see them or not.

The final way that we see God is still in control is by looking at how God controls the things in his Church on this earth. He knows what is going on and who is going to be used to spread his Word in his Church. Elijah was nearing the end of his ministry, and he was now passing the torch on. “So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. ²⁰Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” ²¹So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.”

God was letting Elijah see that his work was not in vain, but it would be continued by Elisha. He was to go and anoint Elisha to succeed him as the next prophet. The work of Elijah was not useless, but God would have another person come and continue this wonderful public ministry for God. We think of the different Pastors and teachers, which have passed through St. Luke’s and TSL. We can see that God is in control. We have had just the right people here at just the right times with the right gifts and abilities to accomplish the work that God wants done.

God is control, and he knows when and how to accomplish the things necessary for the salvation of his people. He controls our every action and the world’s every action. We may plan and we may think that we have done everything in the perfect way, but it is finally God working in and through his Word that matters. This doesn't mean we can sit on our duffs using the excuse God will do what he wants anyway. This doesn't mean that we should not plan a way to reach as many people as we can, but this does show us that the God’s Word will work and that God will bless our efforts and our lives on this earth. Our ministry is not in vain, and if there are days when we wonder how we can go on, let us look to this wonderful encouragement that God gave to his servant Elijah. In a way we are like Elijah, and these words of God will help us tremendously as face the tasks in front of us with the powerful Word of God leading us every step of the way. Amen