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What a Part-Time Christian Looks Like

Israel had years of testimony about God’s faithfulness, yet still hesitated to serve Him fully. They wanted the benefits of knowing God without bringing their whole life under His leadership.

A part-time Christian often:

• Lives for God in certain spaces and moments
• Prioritizes convenience over obedience
• Talks faith but struggles to surrender decisions
• Wants God’s help without His direction

This mindset keeps believers spiritually stuck and constantly frustrated. Faith that is divided loses clarity, joy, and power.

Today’s Idols Still Promise Life They Cannot Deliver

Israel worshiped Baal believing he controlled storms and provision, while Asherah represented fertility and the continuation of life.

In today’s culture, idols simply look less religious:

• Work and achievement
• Money and status
• Relationships or family identity
• Personal comfort or pleasure
• Self-reliance and control
• Public approval

Anything we depend on to give us life, purpose, or security more than God becomes a modern Baal.

These false sources demand everything yet give nothing of eternal value.

When Worship Exhausts You and Produces Nothing

The prophets of Baal poured all their energy into trying to force a response from a powerless god. They spent the entire day crying out, leaping around, and harming themselves, but there was no movement and no answer.

That scene mirrors the burnout many people face when their hope rests in success, approval, or their own strength. The enemy convinces us to strive harder, chase more, and produce results through sheer effort. This always leads to exhaustion because these pursuits cannot satisfy or sustain the soul.

God Responds to Wholehearted Faith

Elijah rebuilt the altar that had fallen into neglect. He prepared the sacrifice carefully and then simply prayed, placing all trust in the God he served.

God responded instantly and powerfully. The fire consumed the offering and even the water surrounding it. The people witnessed what happens when worship is placed fully in the hands of the true and living God.

God does not require frenzy, performance, or emotional extremes. He responds to humility, relationship, and complete trust.

Rebuilding the Altar in Your Own Life

The altar represents daily fellowship with God. Before Elijah prayed, he restored what had been neglected.

Rebuilding our spiritual altar looks like:

• Putting time with God first
• Prioritizing Scripture
• Simplifying life to reduce spiritual distraction
• Letting God direct decisions rather than our own desires
• Serving God ahead of personal ambition

A neglected altar leads to a drained life. A restored altar leads to peace and fruitfulness.

Choose Today Whom You Will Serve

Divided devotion leaves a believer spiritually lukewarm and torn. When God is first in our choices, priorities, and desires, everything else finds its rightful place.

Serving God wholeheartedly means:

• Trusting Him more than our own effort
• Bringing every area of life under His leadership
• Living consistently in public and private
• Allowing Him to define purpose and identity

God still answers those who seek Him with sincerity.
He gives strength for what He calls us to do and refreshes every weary heart that returns to Him.

A Simple Prayer of Commitment

Father, show me where I have allowed my loyalties to become divided. Restore the altar of my relationship with You. I choose to follow You with my whole heart. Lead me in every decision. Strengthen me to serve You faithfully. My life belongs to You. In Jesus name, Amen.

Where To Dive In

(00:07) Challenging Being a Part-Time Christian
(16:18) The Power and Authority of God
(19:54) The Choice
(29:27) The Sacrificial Worship of False Gods
(37:40) Serving God vs. Baals
(48:45) Fully Surrendered to God’s Will
(57:18) Seeking God’s Manifest Presence

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

00:07 – Jaime Luce (Host)
Welcome to the Jaime Luce Podcast. Thanks for taking time to spend with me today in the Word of God. If you’re new to this podcast, we just love to study the Word of God. We love to know what’s in there. We want to know who he is, his personality, what he thinks, how he feels, how we’re supposed to respond to that, what it looks like to be those who follow Jesus Christ. So today we’re kind of continuing from last week. I’m in 1 Kings, so if you have your Bible, get that out, turn to 1 Kings and we’re looking at chapter 18.

00:45
Last week we discussed how long will we falter between two opinions, and that comes from verse 21, where Elijah the prophet is getting ready to confront the prophets of Baal and he asks the people how long will you falter in between this place? And as I was pondering this, you know I had already planned to sit down and just kind of study up on some notes that I had ready to record something else and still in this chapter, but something else and I will do that next week. But I realized I needed to do this first. As I was rereading this, I was really trying to understand how this group of people the children of Israel, for so many generations, had the knowledge of who God really was, the ways that it was passed down, the prophets who had and the judges who had tried so hard to keep the people serving God. And it just seems like, why is this so hard? Why are people vacillating so much between even if you think, okay, I know who God is, and even if you’ve chosen who your God is because last week we talked about choosing but even if you are someone who has chosen God, why is it so hard to give our lives to him in such a way that I don’t know if you can understand what I’m trying to say.

02:53
Let me say this better this group of people was known to be a stiff-necked people. They were stubborn in nature and even though God would prove himself over and over and over again through mighty signs and wonders, through great deliveries, in battles, things that didn’t make sense, that they would win, god would always show them yes, I am God, that it’s me, and this is the relationship that I want to have with you. And yet the people would, of course, do like we do today. We have people who want God, and they want him because they think he will benefit their life, but they’re not necessarily wanting God where they come up in that relationship so that they live a life in true relationship with him. It’s one-sided. I want to be with you because of what you can do for me, and it’s not that we shouldn’t value and want what he brings into our life, because it’s everything, but at the same time we want to do that without giving ourselves in the same way. Lord, what do you want from me? What is my part in this relationship?

04:13
And it’s a very adult-child dynamic happening. I think I mentioned last week that you can tell if someone is mature in the faith or if they are still a baby in faith. Now there is time to be a baby. If you’re brand new and you are learning and growing, praise God, you’re supposed to be. That’s exactly where you’re supposed to be. But Paul had some strong words for the church that he was at when he said by now you should have been teachers. You’re still babes and you should have basically grown up by now. You should be teaching all of this. You have had enough time and enough availability to have taken what you’ve learned and now be teaching that.

05:02
And we kind of get content or stay content in a place of remaining children in our relationship with the Lord, where this is what it looks like. If you’re a child, you are completely dependent on that parent and you don’t ever ask like what do you want? How are you feeling about this? How can I help you? Instead, it’s a child saying I need this, I want that, give me that, help me with this, do that. And in the parent-child relationship, the parent does do all those things for the child. The parent does respond and help the child, and baby Christians experience this a lot. God just does crazy things for baby Christians because he’s letting them know I am your father, I will take care of you. Let me show you how this works. You can trust me.

05:51
And yet we, as mature adults, if you are in a marriage relationship or a close friendship, you understand that you bring as much to the table of yourself into that relationship where you care about what that other person feels and thinks and how the decision, the decisions that you make, affect that person, and that you, you want to make sure that you are meeting that relationship in an adult manner so we can examine ourselves and think boy, okay, do I ask God? Do I talk to him about what you know, what he’s feeling today, what he’s hoping for me today, how I can serve him better today. You know, it’s kind of a famous saying right now, or knowledge that we now have since the death of Charlie Kirk his wife, erica, has said and I actually saw her post this week, a little handwritten note that he had wrote to her and he was always asking her how can I serve you better as your husband? And I guess that’s what I’m asking of us too, that we should be asking of the Lord, lord, how can I serve you better? Not to earn anything from him, this isn’t to earn salvation, this is just to be in relationship with him. Lord, what do you think, what do you feel, what do you want? What do you need from me so that I can live this life in close relationship, intimate relationship with you, pleasing your heart? There’s a real depth that comes to that relationship when we enter in in that mature fashion. So I wanted to bring that back to our remembrance because it’s interesting to me to think about.

07:51
How could this group of people, knowing what they know about God, experiencing what they’ve experienced with Him, and not understand that he’s God and not be fully living for him, that they are vacillating back and forth in indecision about how they live their life for him. They’re basically part-time Christians. Part-time Christians, if I were to put it in today’s vernacular, our society today, part-time Christians. So really, what I’m going to be talking about today is are you a part-time Christian? And I want to take a few pieces of this same chapter that we’re going over and really show you what these people were believing, what it was costing them and the difference between serving the Baals of the day versus God. And so I thought we should probably talk about what is Baal, who is Baal? And I’m going to do that by first reading you the scripture. So let’s start chapter 18 of 1 Kings. I’m going to start reading at verse 21.

08:56
And Elijah came to all the people and said how long will you falter between two opinions? And if you want if you didn’t listen to last week, you will want to go back. I really dig into that verse. How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. Okay. So I want you to think about this for yourself. Like, really make this personal. If the Lord is God, follow him. If Baal, follow him. But the people answered him not a word. So the people didn’t respond to this question and my hope today is that you will respond and I’m hoping to make some things clear for you today. If you’re wanting a deeper relationship with the Lord, I hope today will be help to you in doing that.

09:55
So who they were serving. He says right here but if Baal, follow him. If it’s Baal you’re going to serve. If Baal is really God, follow him. Now we tend to know who the Lord is. If you’re listening to this podcast, most likely you are a Christian, most likely you’re serving the Lord and you know who he is. But you may not really understand much about Baal. So I wanted to give you some information about who was in competition, so to speak, for the people’s attention, and then I want to make that practical for us today.

10:29
So Baal was this, it was another god, and many times you’ll see the word and it’s actually pronounced Baal, but we don’t use double vowels like that in our language, so it sounds off and we kind of get upset when we hear it because we think that just sounds stupid and it does to the way we speak, but it’s actually Baal, but many times you’ll see Baals plural with an S, and what that represented many times was that you had the Baal and then you had who was supposedly his wife, which was Asherah. Earlier in the chapter, in fact, in verse 19, it says Now, therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table. So they served both of these Baals and just so that you know what they thought of them, so God was proving a point before they ever came to this place of famine, they were literally in a famine. If you go back and read the entire chapter, elijah had already said okay, there’s going to be years of famine, it’s not going to rain.

11:45
Now, why did God choose this particular thing? To be an indictment against King Ahab and Jezebel. And God is very on purpose, very intentional. He doesn’t just do things. There’s a reason he does what he does. He chose this mode of proving himself because this Baal was believed to be able to control the storms and weather that they were serving this God, who they actually depict him sometimes as riding on the clouds, which is a direct insult and infringement upon the authority of God, because we know that our God rides on the clouds. I have several scriptures I will give you regarding that, but let me read to you, if you were just to do an AI lookup on your phone about who this God, baal, was. He was a Canaanite.

12:54
God believed to communicate through lightning. Okay. So when they’re challenged to answer by fire, they’re saying if Baal is God, then he can strike lightning and cause fire. But when do we see lightning? We see lightning when there’s rain and thunder. Okay, so it all goes together with how God had told Elijah I’m going to shut up the heavens. There’s going to be no rain for three years. So if they’re serving this Baal for three years and there’s nothing there’s no rain, there’s no thunder, there’s no lightning he doesn’t answer, he’s not there. God’s making it pretty obvious that Baal isn’t God. He’s challenging Baal for over a three year period to open the eyes of his people, and they’re not getting it yet. They don’t. They’re not understanding yet. You’re wasting your time. All of the effort that you’re putting into serving this Baal is fruitless. It’s not a real God. And then? Okay, let me continue.

14:07
So Baal was believed to communicate through lightning, which was seen as an expression of his power and a key to his identity as rider of the clouds. Ancient texts, including the Baal cycle this is from Ai describe Baal using lightning to show his power and respond to prayers or challenges. His control over lightning and storms was a central part of his worship and he was believed to control rain, fertility now that’s Asherah and the seasons. So what, in essence, they are attributing to Baal and to Asherah is that he has control over life, fertility, birth life and then the sustenance of life, because you need the weather and the seasons to produce crops so that you can eat, prosper and be sustained. So they’re giving the power of life. They’re attributing that to Baal and Asherah, which is a complete affront to God, completely in challenge of God. So God immediately then says I’m going to prove to you who I am, that this Jezebel who is leading you all astray, who tried to slaughter all of the prophets of God and thank goodness because Obadiah served King Ahab and he knew about this. So he went and hid you can read that earlier as well in the same area that he went and hid a hundred prophets of God and fed them with water and bread to keep them sustained while she was doing this crazy thing to keep them alive. But let me show you why this is important. Because of what we’re going to read. Let me look at the symbols Again. I got this from AI. You can do this yourself and look at this yourself.

16:18
A symbol of power. So Baal and lightning. A symbol of power. Baal was frequently depicted holding a lightning bolt, symbolizing his authority over the elements. He was called the rider of the clouds and his connection to thunder and lightning was a central part of his identity, a means of communication. In the Baal cycle, a series of ancient texts, baal’s sister, anat, demands he show his power by flashing his lightning before she will agree to his communication request. This shows that lightning was used as a sign of communication from Baal himself. Then a source of fertility, the storm and lightning brought rain, which was essential for the fertility of the land and the success of crops. Therefore, baal’s communication via lightning was directly linked to the well-being of his people. Then a god of storms and fertility, baal was a major deity worshipped as the god of storms, rain, fertility and kingship. I mean, listen to this. What an affront to God. His association with lightning, thunder and rain made him a vital figure for an agricultural society like the Canaanites, and we know that the Canaanites were who the children of Israel were supposed to drive out and did not completely drive out.

17:33
So then I wanted to show you several verses. Let’s look at Psalm 104, verse 3. It says he makes the clouds. Speaking of God, he makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. Psalm 68, 4, sing to God, sing praises to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds. Deuteronomy 33, 26 says there is no one like the God of Jeshurun I’m not sure who that is, but who rides across the heavens to help you, and on the clouds in his majesty. Then it says in Isaiah 19, the Lord rides on a swift cloud and is coming. And my verse got cut off. Uh-oh, let me look it up. And my verse got cut off. Uh-oh, let me look it up. Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. So this was an explanation at the time of what God was doing. But we see several times in scripture that we know God is the one who rides on the clouds, not Baal God, and it’s God who determines and created the seasons. It’s God who sends the rain, it’s God who replenishes the earth. Everything is sustained by him. So we know this, but you can see how Baal was such an affront to God.

18:57
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19:54
So Elijah says we’re going to deal with this. I’m going to show you who’s God, because if you think it’s Baal, serve him, but if it’s the Lord, serve him, follow him. Live your life according to what God says. Okay, so if Baal is a false God of the weather and Asherah is a false God of fertility I didn’t look up all this stuff on Asherah, but you can Asherah. They would have these Asherah poles and they would really be like obscene images, sexual images of a female body, and I mean the thought of this is in that day. It was like a picture of porn, so it’s going to arouse you. They had temple prostitutes and these people, this was all in order to have fertility. And these people, this was all in order to have fertility.

20:55
The way about it, the way of going about it, is so devoid of real relationship, devoid of the way that God created us to come into a marriage relationship and procreate the earth and to keep it in the confines of the marriage. All of this is so contrary to the way of God. I mean two total opposites. And yet I know we struggle to see how this is seen in our life, because we don’t see ourselves as serving Baals and Asherahs, we don’t see ourselves as idol worshipers. So I’m hoping to make this practical for our life today.

21:35
But their lie then. Together they are a false god of life. The weather controlled the production of crops, which I mentioned, to sustain their life from food and their physical sustenance and strength, longevity, etc. But Asherah was supposed to bring life into the world. So life to be born and life to live A complete robbery of who God is.

22:02
Now. The devil’s deception in life is to get us now hear me on this chasing and serving, sacrificing and wasting ourselves and our resources for fake, empty images, idols, gods, anything that we think gives us life, anything that we think. Now think about that when you think of the word about giving you life. What do you think about Things that make you feel joy, that energize you, that make you feel you have purpose? What does that really mean in our lives? These are the things that the enemy wants us chasing, that are not God, that we think will give us life and sustain us, that we think will bring us blessing, joy and fulfillment. So let’s read the scripture again. Elijah says how long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, follow him. And the people answered not a word. These are part-time Christians. These are part-time Christians.

23:18
I saw it’s real comical, you should, you should look it up. I don’t know the man’s name, he’s a comedian, he’s a Christian. And he tells the joke saying that he needed to call a parishioner in the church. So he calls this woman. He said, and until he called her he had no idea that she was a part-time Christian. And sadly, when he called her he didn’t mean to call her on her day off. So when she answers the phone she says who the blankety blank is this? And how did you, blankety blank, get this number? And he says so. He says to her well, this is brother so-and-so from the church. Well, then her language changed and she says well, god bless you, brother. You know, and that’s sadly what so many times we see in the lives of people who attend church, who call themselves Christians, but if they’re not, you know, at the church in those moments they’re not looking or sounding or living like a Christian. So, for lack of a better term, I’m calling them part-time Christians.

24:28
The sad thing about a part-time Christian is you’re fooling yourself. If we are hearers of the word and not doers of the word, we are only deceiving ourself. That’s what the scripture says. We, sadly, are mistaken. It’s part of the works mentality. We think if we go, do these things and check these boxes, that we’re all good and somehow in our belief system we believe well, there must be a heaven and a hell, and I want to go to heaven. So I’m checking these boxes Because if you don’t think there’s anything after this, why would you bother?

25:07
Why bother If it all just stops? Why would you even care? I mean seriously, why would you? So you must think somewhere that there is the possibility at least that there’s life after death. So, just to make sure to have an insurance policy, I’m going to go to church a few times a month. You know I might show up here or there and kind of talk the talk. We’re fooling ourselves. We’re just fooling ourselves. Don’t even bother. If Baal is God, follow him.

25:44
If you really think that the life you live, aside from what you do for God, is really what will sustain you and take care of you, then do that. Why waste your time? Why split yourself? Why? It’s like I said last week, indecision is a trap. You need to pick, you need to choose. Choose you this day, who you’ll serve. So Elijah asked him what are you going to do? How long are you going to do this? And he wasn’t the only one who was calling them on their part-time Christianity. This isn’t the only time we see this in scripture.

26:21
Jesus himself comes against this very way of living. In Revelation, chapter 3, verses 15 and 16, it says I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I would that you were either cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. It’s detestable to God. He expects us to not be hypocrites in our living for either direction. Live fully what you believe. I hope you’re wise in your choices, but he expects us to live one way or the other, to be people who use our brain. You know, we can’t be living a life like the scarecrow of the Wizard of Oz if I only had a brain. You need to use your faculties and be a wise enough person to do some study and decide for yourself.

27:30
Who’s God Is there a God? Is there not a God? Who’s God Is there a God? Is there not a God? You know it’s actually more pleasant for God to hear about those who are searching. They’re looking because they’re trying to make a decision and so far they may not have chosen God, but at least they’re living true to what they’re saying. They’re not living a hypocritical life.

27:56
It’s like Paul before you know, when he was Saul. Saul was 100% all out against Christianity, against Christians, going after them, helpful in their killings, seeking them out, hunting them down and killing them. And yet when he turned to God, he completely turned to God, giving his life, suffering, doing everything necessary in the complete opposite direction. He made the decision, he saw the truth and the change came. If we need change in our lives, folks, it will never come. When we live the halfway Christian life, a part-time Christian life, you won’t see the things in your life that need to change. Change. It comes from all out choosing and make.

28:48
People who need to lose weight will not lose weight if they do not make the decision to change their eating habits or to exercise or to make sure that you’re. If you’re wanting to build muscle, you’re going to have to lift weights. You’re going to have to exercise. You’re going to have to do something different. You’re going to have to live different. You can’t be a couch potato and a muscle bound person at the same time. You got to choose and a muscle-bound person at the same time. You got to choose and you can’t think that because you want to be something and you think about being something that you are, you’re not. So we have to give ourselves fully.

29:27
God is looking for people who are committed all the way, 100% Christians Committed, not part-time, not part-time. So let’s look at what Baal, or false gods, demand in worship. Again, all you have to do is read this scripture. I’m going to read to you verses 26 through 29. And let’s take a look at what is demanded of the life of somebody who serves a false God Okay, serves a false God and again, make this real and relevant to your own life what it demands from you to give everything in service to something that has no power to give you what you’re really looking for a false God. But this is what false gods demand. This is what living for the devil looks like, this is what not living for God will cost you and demand from you. And look like starting in verse 26.

30:37
So they took the bull which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning, even until noon, saying O Baal, hear us. Now this has got an exclamation point, point, and I’m not going to yell on the mic, but there was no voice and no one answered. Then they leaped about on the altar, which they had made. I mean, they’re leaping on the altar, okay, they’re causing a ruckus, they’re, they’re in a frenzy. And so it was at noon that Elijah mocked them and said cry aloud, for he is a God. Either he is meditating or he is busy, or he’s on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened. The King James, the original King James, actually says that he’s busy relieving himself. He’s going to the bathroom.

31:31
So they cried aloud the more and cut themselves. I mean, they literally cut themselves, as was their custom Meaning. These are the things they regularly did to sacrifice and call on the name of this male With knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday had passed, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. So all day they are giving themselves, sacrificing themselves, cutting their bodies, yelling, leaping, exhausting themselves, giving their energy and their ability to try to demand that this God would hear them and answer them. They prophesied.

32:29
Think about that. I thought about this because I thought you know, if you at all live your life going to church and you at all are familiar with prophecy, the word prophecy, or have seen that used in church. Prophecy is an interesting thing because many times, just the word prophecy not. Even if you’re, not even if you think you’re speaking spiritually, many people nowadays will just say that they’re manifesting and calling things to themselves. Okay, they’ll use terms that help people understand what they believe is possible based off of what they say. So most likely they’re prophesying, meaning that Baal’s gonna answer and Baal’s gonna send rain, and Baal’s gonna answer by fire, and Baal’s gonna do this and Baal’s gonna do that. What do we tend to do? Now? This is kind of a flashlight moment on the inside of our own hearts and minds, but many times not spiritually speaking.

33:44
We will talk about what we expect to happen. We talk about, you know. We know what’s going to happen in an election and we know what’s going to happen in the stock market. And we know what’s going to happen in an election and we know what’s going to happen in the stock market and we know what’s going to happen if we invest over here or invest over there. Or we know what’s going to happen if so-and-so meets so-and-so and we’re trying to make relationships happen and all the things that we say, without recognizing that we are prophesying to speak as if we have that power by our words, without God behind it Okay, without the Lord God behind it, the real, true one, and living God behind it. We say things, we make commitments to people. This is going to happen, that’s going to happen, and this is what they’re doing and they prophesy. This whole process has gone on from morning until evening, nonstop, all day calling and, you know, screaming, hoping that they’re going to get the attention of Baal so that they can have what they’re asking for. So it’s with total abandon, total fervence, total sacrifice, cutting themselves, that these prophets gave their flesh and blood to get an answer from these false gods.

35:13
Now I’ve got some vernacular, some regular vernacular that we speak in, that might sound something just like this have you ever heard the term? Or maybe you yourself have used this term? I have this term that says I gave my you know, blood, sweat and tears for this, and what does that mean? I put everything into it. I gave my time, my energy, my resources, I gave everything that I could. Or maybe the football term If you’re familiar with football.

35:42
There’s a term they use when they say they left it all out on the field. What does that mean? It means they gave their absolute maximum effort, they didn’t hold anything back, so they don’t have any regrets, even if they lost. You can’t say that they didn’t leave it all out on the field. We use these terms in our language to describe ways that we give ourselves to what.

36:10
To what have you ever said I give my blood, sweat and tears to serving Jesus Christ. I give my blood, sweat and tears. I leave it all out on the field for Jesus. Do we really, do we, ever say that? I have never heard somebody say that when they’re talking about God. I’ve heard them say it, talking about their work, talking about what they do for their family and I’m not saying that doing anything for your family or doing something that you need to do for work is bad, but are you giving it all? Are you serving a bale? Are those things in a seat above the Lord? Do you give your blood, sweat and tears to those things? And you find that you don’t give that same energy, that same fervent behavior, the same amount of time, energy to your exhaustion, your blood, sweat and tears. Do you give that to the Lord ever, or maybe here and there, but mostly to others? Do we realize when we give it sometimes to God, but mostly to others? Do we realize when we give it sometimes to God but mostly to others?

37:40
We can put ourselves in that category of part-time Christian. Sometimes I serve God like I really serve him, I make sacrifice to serve him, but sometimes I’m really serving, you know, my kids, or the activities or the vacations or the, you know, whatever it might be, whatever the loves of your life happen to be, we just have to be aware. I’m not saying this to condemn anybody. I’m just hoping that we can open our eyes and see what we, what, what are we expecting from those? See, they were offering all of this. These prophets of Baal were offering all of this, hoping to get an answer from this God to say that it was actually going to be God to be able to do what they were hoping that it would do in their life, to actually provide for them, what they were hoping that it would do in their life, to actually provide for them, to actually give them something that produced life for them, hoping that it would give them some kind of satisfaction, fulfillment.

38:44
You know, are you looking to your job to give you fulfillment? Because if you’re looking for purpose in your job, you won’t find it. Now, if God has called you to your job and there’s purpose there, then what you find is your purpose in serving God through that job, but not because of the job. Your purpose is in serving him. There is a difference. There’s a difference how you approach the job. When you’re serving the Lord in doing the job, versus just doing the job, because you can do the job and not feel any satisfaction from it. Or you can be working so hard to do something and you don’t feel a bit fulfilled by it. It doesn’t satisfy the longing of your soul. It doesn’t Maybe right now you’re doing it, you’re giving it everything and it’s not even providing to take care of the bills. It’s not sustaining you in any way.

39:43
Having a divided heart of service what you truly serve. Now we’re called to serve one another. We are called to serve in capacities, but we are serving him and we are obeying him in doing those things. We aren’t doing those things to earn something from him. We’re not doing those things just because we think that feels good and that satisfies something in us. He has to be first or we are divided. We are serving God and we are serving Baals. I hope you’re getting this. Let’s contrast, okay, the behavior of what it costs to serve Baals versus what it looks like to serve God.

40:41
Okay, so let’s read verse 30 through. Verse 37. Verse 37. So they did all their nonsense all day. Elijah mocks them. Let’s read. I’ll read you 29 to go into 30. And when midday was passed, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention. There was no God. There was no evidence that he was there or heard them or could do anything about it. Verse 30,. Then Elijah said to all the people come near to me. So all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. Now, that’s my little teaser. That’s what next week is about, okay, but we’re going to continue reading.

41:47
And Elijah took 12 stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying Israel shall be your name. He’s saying you were my people, I named you, I chose you and I’m building this altar in the name of what God had done and who you’re supposed to be, the God you’re supposed to be, the God you’re supposed to be serving, he’s rebuilding this altar. Then, with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two sayas of seed, and he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood and said fill the water pots with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. Then he said do it a second time, and they did it a second time. And he said do it a third time, and they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar and he also filled the trench with water.

42:50
And it came to pass that at the end of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said so he’s not jumping around, he’s not frenetically going nuts, he’s not cutting himself, he’s not prophesying to the people, he’s literally built an altar and he’s going to say a prayer, he’s going to talk to the one he has relationship with, the one he serves, the one he speaks on behalf of. This is what he says. This is verse. Let me find my place again.

43:32
Verse 36,. Lord, god of Abraham, isaac and Israel have done all of these things at your word. So he’s saying, lord, this is my request. You asked me to do this. You asked me to challenge all of them, put my life at risk to prove who you are. So I’m asking you to answer me so that they know your God, and you sent me, and everything I’ve said to them today is because these are your words, this is what you said. Verse 37. Hear me, o Lord. Hear me that this people may know that you are the Lord God and that you have turned their hearts back to you again. This is Elijah’s prayer that God will show himself and that these people will choose today to serve God and God alone. That this whole process was to prove to them. Do you see what you’re doing, how you’re living, how this is crazy, what you’re doing, that you’re giving all of your life to nothing, to nothing that will produce nothing in your life that can help you in no way.

45:00
Verse 38,. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood on the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now, when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said the Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. And if you continue to read, you see that rain is going to come. Elijah has to go up and pray for rain. So not only was this miraculous, because you don’t get lightning without rain and thunder, and not only did God prove that Baal has no control over the weather, can’t speak through lightning. If you see lightning, that ain’t Baal talking to you.

45:53
Whatever you think you were attributing to certain things, that’s not who was doing that. You know you can. My husband and I have talked about this a lot when it comes to business, because there were many awesome things that God has done in his business for his business, and the temptation is to kind of think you know, I did that, I made that phone call, I worked that contact, I got that contract signed, I did this, I did that. And we can tend to think that we are the reason for the lightning, so to speak. Or we think a certain relationship, that that person that helped you or something that happened through another individual, somehow that person kind of represents the lightning. But we know that, no matter what we did, it was the Lord who provided. He provided the contact, he provided the favor. When we had the phone call, he provided the means. God opened the door. We knew God was the provider of the lightning.

47:02
Now, when God brings you a work to do, like Elijah, you have to go do the work. So, yes, you are in relationship with the Lord, yes, you are in service to him. He’s provided something. He says go do this. So you go do it in obedience. You do the work, but you weren’t the provider of that. God was the provider of that.

47:24
The scripture tells us that it rains on the just and the unjust, that he shows favor on both, that he is always making it known, even through nature, that he loves and provides. The seasons are supposed to show it’s winter for me, at the same time that it’s winter for somebody who’s not serving the Lord. It’s spring and summer and fall for all of us. I mean there’s possibilities and open doors for all of us to see. And Elijah’s trying to say I need you to see the truth. Do you realize who’s actually God, not what you think you’re serving or what you’re doing. Make sure that your heart is in this because of him, that you are recognizing him, that the service you are giving and the exhaustion you feel and the overwhelm that you might be feeling, let’s make sure we are actually laying all that at his feet and saying, lord, am I even doing what you want me to do? Is all of this effort necessary? And if it is, where do you want me to do? Is all of this effort necessary? And if it is, where do you want me to put it? And if it is, then he will sustain you with the power to do it, the grace to do it.

48:45
So many times we can be, you know, we can have just a crazy busy week and we can think and we’re getting barely any sleep, and how are we going to get it all done? And I don’t know how many times this has happened to me so many times, and I know it’s happened to you too where you just think I don’t know, but I got it done and had the energy to do it Somehow, I wasn’t tired. And then there’s other times when you’re just exhausted and you think you can barely make it through, and so many times I think it’s when we’re looking to ourselves to get it done. Think it’s, when we’re looking to ourselves to get it done or we’re looking to the satisfaction of the praise that will come on the other end of that from whomever we’re hoping will get that praise, that that will satisfy us and that will help, instead of it coming from the Lord the energy, the strength, the want to the desire, the purpose, the strength, the want to the desire, the purpose that the sacrifice that’s made is actually made unto him. If we can get that right, it changes everything. It changes everything that he has our whole heart, not part of us.

49:42
That we aren’t divided in our service to God in our lives. That we are not divided in who we serve. It doesn’t mean that we don’t take care of our families. It doesn’t mean that we don’t do things and don’t serve in the church and don’t have other things to do, but that he’s first, that all of our energy and service truly goes to him, and then he tells us what to do with it, how to disseminate that, how to rightly divide our time and where we’re to give it and how we’re to give it.

50:20
If I’m not having my time with him, I’m not having my altar. If my altar is torn down? Because the Lord’s altar was torn down. Baal’s altar was fully functional, ready to use, been used regularly and it was producing no rain, no clouds, no lightning, nothing, no help. And the Lord’s altar was not built, meaning the place of prayer, where you go to make the sacrifice, where you go to meet with God. Again, that’s next week, but we have to determine where are we going, where are we serving? Am I divided in my service to God or am I 100%, fully His, fully His, fully his, fully, his? Let me ask you a couple questions in closing. What is the condition of your altar? What condition is your altar in the altar of the Lord, the altar of the Lord, the place where you go to meet with the Lord? Is it in good condition? Is it built? Has it ever been built? That prayer life, that time with him, that supersedes every other decision that you make, every other endeavor that you attempt, that you give yourself to.

52:02
We saw the difference. Elijah simply prayed. He rebuilt the altar, he showed them that by sacrifice at this altar, all I have to do is call on the name of the Lord and he answers. He answered by fire, just like that. He immediately proved you are God. Without rain, without thunder, you are God. Now the rain ended up coming. The rain ended up coming and wetting and nurturing the land.

52:38
They were in severe famine. All you have to do is go back and look just a few verses before where we started reading, and King Ahab was worried about this. Samaria was in severe famine and he sent Obadiah one direction and he went the other and said let’s see if we can find any grass anywhere that our horses and cattle and whatever the livestock could eat so we don’t have to kill them. He didn’t want to have to kill them. He was hoping to keep them alive, but he’d have to kill them to eat if they didn’t, if their crops, if there was nothing to eat to keep them, to sustain the animals. And so God was all along preparing the way to show even King Ahab who was God. He was trying to have compassion on all of them, to see the truth.

53:30
And if you look at your life and look at your circumstances, it is God looking for a way to show you that he’s God, and it doesn’t cost you cutting yourself and giving your blood, sweat and tears to get him to hear you, to answer you. He’s as the old song goes he’s as close as the mention of his name that I can go to the altar of the Lord and I can call on God and I can say I need an answer, lord, and I have his word to look at, to guide me. Sometimes I’ll hear him in my spirit. Sometimes I’m reading and I see and the words just jump off the page, they’re answers from God. Now, he will never be contrary to his word. If you have somebody give you a word.

54:22
If you think you’ve heard something and it’s contrary to how God teaches, what he says, what he expects, ditch it, ditch it. It’s not God. He’s never contrary to his word, ever. He’s not divided himself. He doesn’t change the rules for one and not the other. He doesn’t say, okay, I told everybody to live this way, but with you, yeah, I’ll let you do it different.

54:46
We have to abide by God’s word. So make sure that you’re sincere in your hearing. It’s one thing to call on him, but we have to be authentic and so serving him 100%. That we are willing to hear truth from him. That we don’t try to manipulate it, we don’t try to alter it, we don’t try to be God over it, we aren’t divided, that we say, lord, you and you alone are God, and that we want to hear what you have to say. You sustain us. You are the one who gives life. You are our provision. All that we have need of all that we are, is because of you. So we lay our lives down. We say thank you for your sacrifice.

55:39
Is your altar in disrepair today? What is the condition of your altar? Are you divided? Are you serving in a part-time Christian manner, or have you given it all to him? He’s as close as the mention of his name a sincere heart. He will surely answer. He will surely answer. Let me pray for you, father. We’re just so grateful that we can just call on your name. We just call on you right now. Jesus, show yourself strong on our behalf. Show us our hearts. Show us the condition of our altars. Show us if we have been divided, if we are worshiping bales we don’t know we’re worshiping, if we’re expecting substance and life from things that could never give us life. Show us, lord, where the air is in our hearts of service to you, God. Open up our understanding.

56:47
You said that you make the blind to see the deaf to hear the lame to walk. Help us hear you right to hear right. Help us to truly see and not be blind. Help us to walk in the manner of those who actually follow Christ, that if you are God, we follow you. Help us not to be those with a divided heart. Give us the strength we need for today.

57:18
Lord, give answers to those who are seeking you. Father, we ask for your manifest presence. We ask to know you’re there. We maybe don’t need a lightning strike today, we don’t need fire to fall today, but we need to know you’re with us. We need to know that you’re opening doors. We need to know that you have heard. You know what we’re dealing with. You know what we need.

57:42
You said you know what we need before we ask, and you said that you would meet our needs according to your riches and glory. We ask you to meet those needs today. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen, amen. Thank you so much for taking time in the Word. I know this was challenging today, but it’s challenging because it will bring you life. It will take you to a place where everything can change, where the God of the supernatural can show up on the scene for your life. Don’t be discouraged. Be encouraged, know that your God hears and answers prayer. I’d love to hear from you. You can email me at mail at jaimelucecom. You can visit me at my website, jaimelucecom. It’s J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-E. I know that’s different, so I’d love to hear from you. You have praise reports. You have prayer requests. I will pray with you if you send me a prayer request. It was my pleasure to spend this time. If this blessed you. If you know somebody who needs to hear this, do me a favor. Hit that like and share this message If you haven’t yet subscribed.