The last few weeks we have been in the series: Good song, bad theology!
We’ve covered:
I’m gonna miss her
Mmm bop
Carry on my wayward son
Driver’s license

This week we are covering the song: last kiss by Pearl Jam.

The Big Idea:
Godly people stand in the strength of God and say enough is enough and they do the things that build the kingdom and lay down the things that build our castle.

We are all about kingdom building here at Freedom. You can see this reflected in our core values, here are a few examples:

People Are Our Priority – People are God’s greatest treasure, and if God thinks that, we do too. People matter and that means we value them, love them, serve them, and invest in them, no matter what. John 3:16, Luke 15, Luke 19:10

Development is our Focus – God created you with a purpose for a purpose, and we believe that if you are breathing air, then you still have something great to do to move the Kingdom forward. One of our main roles is to do everything we can to help you reach your highest potential in Christ Jesus. Even Jesus was in a development process, and he engaged in developing every person he came in contact with. We want to do the same. Jeremiah 29:11, Luke 2:52

Unity Is Our Pursuit – When unity happens, God commands a blessing. Unity is more than getting along. It is linking arms and moving the Kingdom forward, in our lives and in our city. But unity is not natural. It is something we have to collectively go after, which is why at Freedom, we pursue it. Our pursuit is to build bridges, not walls, and that is done through unity. John 17:9-11, 23, Psalm 133:1-3, Revelation 7:9-12

These values are important to keep in mind when we start talking about kingdom building. Because something that I think has happened in the American church is that there is a subtle deception that building your church the way you think church should be run and making it bigger, better, and flashier is equal to building the kingdom. But the fact of the matter is that they are not synonymous.

Most of the people that are focused on castle building instead of kingdom building are usually the people that buck at a direction of the church that doesn’t line up with what makes their castle look better. You become what Ahab called Elijah, a troubler.

Scripture: 1 Kings 18:17-18 ESV
“When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.”

But before we get into the song and message I have a question I want you to keep in mind: what are you building? The kingdom or a castle?

All of Ahab’s decisions were about building his kingdom. From marrying the enemy for peace with a country that lead to deep corruption of Gods people to wanting a vineyard so bad that he allowed his wife to stir strife around the mans name that lead to the people stoning him.

We don’t want to run with Ahab, we want to run from Him. We run with Ahab when we are so focused on building our castle the way we want it that we forget that their is something greater out there to sell our castle for.

I believe that God has put phenomenal potential to aid in growing the kingdom!

Last Kiss - lyrics
Oh, where oh where can my baby be?
The Lord took her away from me
She's gone to heaven, so I got to be good
So I can see my baby when I leave this world
We were out on a date in my daddy's car
We hadn't driven very far
There in the road, straight ahead
A car was stalled, the engine was dead
I couldn't stop, so I swerved to the right
I'll never forget, the sound that night
The screamin' tires, the bustin' glass
The painful scream, that I heard last
Oh, where oh where can my baby be?
The Lord took her away from me
She's gone to heaven, so I got to be good
So I can see my baby when I leave this world

What do we think the singer is saying here?

He is blaming God for his love dying.
Well let's review here. Did God take her or was it a course of decision making that lead to a consequence?

Now I know that there are situations that God comes in a changes things but we also need to realize that we have to take responsibility for putting ourselves in a situation that we aren’t designed for

How can we make sure that we are building the Kingdom?

Point 1: Take Responsibility

Ahab calls Elijah a troubler not because he is actually troubling Gods people but because he is troubling Ahabs castle.

Elijah desire for the people to restore relationship with God outweighed whatever other desire Elijah may have had.

Are you willing to trouble your castle to build Gods kingdom?

Repenting means taking responsibility. If you can’t take responsibility of the sin how can you correct it?

How do you fix your car? You diagnose what the problem is. How do you confront the sin? You define it.

Craig Groeschel says it this way: “You can’t defeat what you don’t define.”

So lets define Ahabs problems:
Gods said that he was doing worse than any other king before him. And he acted like it was something that was easy to do.

He married the enemy to create “peace,” but that “peace" led to a false God becoming predominant with Israel at the time.

What thing have you allowed in for the sake of building your castle that in the process of doing those things you have given up God’s kingdom?

So who did Ahab try to replace God with?

Who is Baal

As such, Baal designated the universal god of fertility, and in that capacity his title was Prince, Lord of the Earth. He was also called the Lord of Rain and Dew, the two forms of moisture that were indispensable for fertile soil in Canaan.

Looking back at the song we see that the same attitude is present within the story, He was driving the car, he made the decision yet God took the girl, and he is okay because she is going to heaven.

How many times have we been in a situation of our own doing and blamed God? Yet the reality God takes the situations that we turn bad and turns them into something amazing. God wants to do more with us. God has designed us to do more than what our limited understanding thinks we can do. God has designed us to do more but we’re the ones that cause the lack of room which causes us to walk in less than what God designed for us.

Our ability to take take responsibility will allow us to walk closer and more consistently with God.

God isn’t trying to micromanage when or where you take a step, instead he is proactively beaconing us so we don’t go down paths that we don’t need to.

Taking responsibility helps drive us to the right path but leaning on Gods strength keeps us there.

Point 2: Lean on Him

We have to lean into to God and His strength.

This what Elijah did to confront Ahab.
When Elijah confronts Ahab what does he say?

“Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe[a] in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

The one thing that he says isn’t going to happen is the primary thing Baal was worshipped for.

God won’t just destroy the false God’s in your life, he will make sure that there aren’t even roads that lead to them.

From there Elijah gets word from God that he is going to send rain but before Elijah prays for the rain he brings the prophets of Baal together to have a challenge: first God to bring Fire wins.

You have to love the audacity of Elijah. Go pray for rain and he brings alll the prophets to have a show down of fire.
He says “How long will will you go on limping between two different options?”

How long are we going to limp between pleasing God and pleasing ourselves?

Then he in the challenge he explains first God to rain down fire wins. They tried for a while and the Elijah starts talking smack. This is why I love Elijah. “Oh maybe your god has gone on a journey, or maybe he is asleep.

Finally this is what we see Elijah do:
1st Kings 18:30-40
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” 32 and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs[a] of seed. 33 And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” 34 And 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. 35 And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.

36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.” 40 And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.

Elijah leaned into God by reestablishing Gods ways amongst his people.
He reestablished the altar of God.

Where can we reestablished the altar of God in our lives?

The altar is the first place we go after we take responsibility. The altar is where we repent and start the process of change. Elijah had to start with the altar because before the promise can be fulfilled the altar has to be established. After the fire came Elijah then left and started to pray for the thing that God had promised, the rain. But the funny thing is, it took one simple prayer to bring the people back to God, but it took a series of prayer to birth the promise. It said he put put his face between his knees as he prayed. There is some studies that show that the traditional Israeli birth position is your head between your knees. So as Elijah prayed he was positioned for birth. He had to push into Gods strength to make this happen.

Have we sacrificed the promise to make life easier? Praying for the promise isn’t easy, that is why we need to embrace the strength of God. Have you allowed little thongs to sit in the place that Sid built for God in your heart?

Have you allowed:
Pride
Money
Kids
Work
Health
Spouse
To sit in the place of God?

The Challenge:

Take Responsibility Daily
Spend time reviewing where you could have been more faithful to God the day before

Lean on His strength.
We have to acknowledge our weakness to embrace Gods strength.

Rebuild the altar
We need to run to the altar. The place of refuge where we can find the grace and mercies of God.

Pray for the promise
What has God promised you? Pray for it.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?