Breaking with Ahab
Warfare in the Church • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewBreaking with the Ahab Spirit means we not only put on the priestly garments we walk in the authority and power of Jesus Christ
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The Church Under Siege
In the opening chapters of the Gospel of Matthew we are made aware that the Kingdom of Heaven is suffering violence and the violent take it by force.
Somewhere along the way the church in America has become so soft its scared of its own shadow.
Today the church is for sale and it is being sold to the lowest bidder. The leaders have become cowards to which the enemy no longer has to fight…
1. No longer is there the way there is a way
2. No longer is there an absolute there is a relative
3. No longer is there a heart for God’s people there is a heart to fill buildings
4. No longer is there a fight with the enemy we compromise to match the enemy.
Truthfully, what is there to fear when we look just like the world around us… The battle is at a stalemate and the enemy has the upper hand so long as the church does not wake up there is no need to harass it.
What we know to be true as Jesus describes the good shepherd is that we were not called into a posture of cowardice but to a posture of power and authority found in the Holy Spirit.
Breaking with the Ahab Spirit means we not only put on the priestly garments we walk in the authority and power of Jesus Christ
Breaking with the Ahab Spirit means we not only put on the priestly garments we walk in the authority and power of Jesus Christ
The Ahab Church
The Ahab Church
There are those who are so concerned and scared of a Jezebel Spirit they have forgotten that for Jezebel to an actual threat Ahab must first be in place.
Given to Sin and Idolatry
Given to Sin and Idolatry
Unconcerned with their own sin and passive about the sin of others
And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him.
And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.
He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria.
And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
He did what the Lord found detestable so much that it is not all written in
He brought in pragmatism mixing secular with the things of the Lord
He taught the people how to worship false idols
Given to the Influence of Jezebel
Given to the Influence of Jezebel
(There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited.
He acted very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord cast out before the people of Israel.)
He literally is sold to doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord
not in the people or even his own eyes but those of the Lord
Jezebel provoked him to act this way
Steals the land of Naboth and breaks covenant with the Lord
Given to contention with the anointed
Given to contention with the anointed
Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord.
Behold, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel.
Instead of receiving the anointed one sent by the Lord they become contentious
(Why does everyone leave me?)The anointed ones and the Ahabs cannot walk together
Given to shutout the influence of Godly Council
Given to shutout the influence of Godly Council
And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly,
and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.)
Ahab had those who could guide him but he did not heed their council
Jezebel cut off the prophets… What did Ahab do?
Ahab goes one way but does not go the way of the council
Given to Faux Humility
Given to Faux Humility
And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly.
He knew what God was calling him to do
Puts on repentance but quickly turns to what he was doing previously
22:8 he knows the man of God will speak truth but it will not align so he’d rather not hear of it
Given to blame shifting and fault finding
Given to blame shifting and fault finding
Its not me its you
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.
Unwilling to accept his behavior has led to the condition of the nation
Blame others so long as its not him
Does not accept he has abandoned the commandments
Cause a Double Mind in the People
Cause a Double Mind in the People
So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel.
And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.
The people caused to be confused
The people no longer had a voice, decision, or opinion
The people are unable to choose who they will follow
King Ahab had all the makings of a king… wore the kingly garments but had no authority… more over provokes to the people to act like he does and is leading them to their silent death
He does not escape… the death that was promised to him and stayed in his faux repentance is reinstated as he is struck by an errant error as he hid behind his cowardice and dies a cowards death trying to hid in battle…
Promise to the one that Overcomes
Promise to the one that Overcomes
Church in Thyatira admonished for being an Ahab and tolerating Jezebel
Promise given for not being an Ahab
The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations,
and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.
And I will give him the morning star.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
Authority over the nations
Ability to rule with the rod to defend the church
Gives the morning star… gives of Himself