Noah Day, the Children's Pastor, delivers a compelling message centered around the profound lessons found in the story of Elijah from First Kings. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing God's power, the decisions Christians face in times of loneliness, and the divine plan that unfolds even in difficult circumstances. Noah draws parallels between Elijah's struggles and the current challenges faced by believers, encouraging listeners to stand firm in their faith despite feelings of isolation or despair. He highlights that, like Elijah, many may feel alone in their journey, but there remains a remnant of faithful believers. The episode serves as a reminder that God is not finished with anyone, and He continues to have a purpose for each individual's life.

Noah Day, serving as the Children's Pastor, conveys a profound message about faith and resilience through the lens of the biblical story of Elijah. He opens with personal reflections on his journey within the church community, expressing gratitude for the mutual ministry shared with those who have influenced his life. Noah skillfully navigates the narrative in First Kings, detailing the dramatic confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, illustrating not only the power of God but also the vulnerability of His prophet. He highlights the duality of Elijah's experience—celebrating a monumental victory on Mount Carmel followed by a crippling fear of Jezebel's threats, which leads him to flee into the wilderness. Through this lens, Noah draws attention to the modern Christian's struggle with feelings of isolation and despair. He outlines three significant lessons that emerge from Elijah's experience: the recognition of God's power, the importance of making a conscious decision to remain faithful amidst trials, and the assurance that God has a purposeful plan for each believer's life. Noah's message is an invitation to reflect on personal faith journeys and the choices that shape them, encouraging individuals to embrace their identity as part of God's remnant. With clarity and conviction, he reassures his audience that they are not alone, invoking a sense of communal strength and purpose among believers, and ultimately urging them to actively engage with their faith in a world that often feels hostile.

Takeaways:

• Noah emphasizes the importance of recognizing God's power in challenging times, as demonstrated through Elijah's experiences.
• Elijah's story illustrates that even after great victories, feelings of loneliness and doubt can arise among believers.
• Noah discusses the significance of decision-making in faith, encouraging listeners to stand firm in their beliefs despite adversity.
• The podcast highlights that God has a plan for each individual, even when they feel alone or defeated in their spiritual journey.
• Noah challenges listeners to reflect on their own lives and the decisions they make regarding their faith and commitment to God.
• The episode serves as a reminder that, like Elijah, believers may feel isolated, but they must remember that they are not alone in their faith.

Well, praise the Lord for that song. Amen. Well, good evening. Good to be with you tonight. Most of you know me. I'm Noah. I'm the children's pastor here.

Most of y' all know me my whole life, which that's awesome. And it's been a pleasure to be able to serve you guys here at my home church.

I think it's just a really unique thing how there's many people in this room that have ministered to me my whole life, and now I get to minister back to them. And I think it's a very cool experience. And by the way, you guys are still ministering to me as I'm ministering to you.

And it's just a blessing to be here tonight with you. If you have your bibles, turn to First Kings, chapter 19 and hold your place there.

We're going to jump back to chapter 18 to get a little bit of context, but our main text tonight will be in chapter 19 of First Kings.

To set the stage here, if you don't, if you're not familiar with this passage, this is the passage of the fire coming down on Mount Carmel when Elijah challenges the prophets of baal. And it's such a great victory. And we'll see that here in a moment of how great of a victory it is during a time of really a heavy darkness on Israel.

And you'll see how far the people have come that there's lots of them that have turned to worshiping baal, but also worshiping God at the same time. And it's just kind of how in Revelation chapter 3, Just God describes as very lukewarm and just.

It's more gross that they're just in this in between, this in between status, right, of worshiping BAAL and worshiping God at the same time. And, and Elijah kind of challenges this. And we'll see here in a moment. Let's just go ahead and read in verse number.

Let's look at verse number one of chapter 18 of First Kings.

It says, and it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, go show thyself unto Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth. And Elijah went to show himself unto Ahab, and there was a sore famine in Samaria. So this, these two verses really set the scene here, right?

And we know that there's a famine in the land. And God's been saying here, I'm about to bring land or about to bring rain back to the land. And this is what you gotta do first Elijah, go see Ahab.

And this is gonna kinda get the ball rolling here, right? Jump now to verse number 17. It says, and it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, art thou he that troubleth Israel?

And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but they thou and thy father's house in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and thou hast followed Balaam.

Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal 450 and the prophets of the Groves 400, which eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto unto Mount Carmel.

So we're about to see here this challenge, right?

If this is, if you kind of look into this text, if this does not remind you of what has happened to our nation the past, I don't know, 20 years, this constant back and forth battle between, oh no, you're the problem with the nation, oh no, you're the problem with America right now. And it's just this constant bickering back and forth. And now we see, we can see the parallel here, that it's.

Now Christians are really starting to challenge this idea and putting it to the test. And we see here in verse number, verse number 29. Let's jump down here to verse number 29.

It says, and Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it for ye are many. And call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.

And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it and called the name of BAAL from morning even until noon, saying, oh, baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any, I'm sorry, nor nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. And that didn't work either.

Look at verse number 27. It came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud, for he is a God.

Either he is talking or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey or peradventure, he's. He sleepeth, it must be awake. And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them.

And it came to pass when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that there was neither voice nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. Now let's jump down real fast to verse number, verse number 36. Real fast.

And it came to pass at the time of the offering of evening time of the offering of eating sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord. Hear me that this. That this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou has turned their heart back again.

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord he is the God. The Lord he is the God.

And Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of baal, Let not one of them escape. And they took them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook, Kishon, and slew them there. Now jump now to verse number 45.

And it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah. And he.

And he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab and to the entrance of Jezreel. Now, just to kind of. This is just kind of introduction because our main. Pat. Our main texture is in chapter 19.

But I wanted you all to see this because we see such a great victory that Elijah has in his life, in his ministry right here. This is probably one of the biggest victories you could ever find in the Bible.

If you really go back and look at the passage, Elijah made this impossible, for this to be some sort of magic trick, this to be some sort of illusion. They poured several barrels onto the altar, and it was soaked full of water. And that trench that was.

That they dug around, it was even full of water, just to show how much water had been poured onto this altar. And the fire that God sent down from heaven came down and it just. Just engulfed that whole altar. Nothing was left.

Even the dust around it was taken up. And everyone in Israel then knew that. That God was the true God of Israel. This great victory that you see.

And then you kind of read in the passage that Elijah basically says, all right, Ahab, go tell Jezebel about what just happened. Because rain's coming, and it's gonna be a lot of rain, so it may slow you down, so you better get going. Right?

Of course, the rain comes and Then Elijah kind of runs after Ahab and he's expecting Jezebel to be surrendering at this point, right? He thinks that this, this is. This is the turning point of Israel. It is time to for revival in Israel. The people are on board with me now.

And Jezebel is about to go down, right? We see here in verse number 19 how things happen a little bit differently. Look at chapter 19, verse number one.

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and with all he had slain all the prophets with the sword.

Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, so let the gods do to me, and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself that he might die and said, it is enough now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my father's. Let's pray real fast. Lord, I want to thank you again for allowing me to preach tonight, Lord, to my home church.

It's just such a great honor and privilege, Lord. I know that you've laid this message on my heart tonight, Lord, and I know this is the one you want me to preach.

Lord, I pray that you'd hide me behind your cross and that you'd speak through me and that it would be the words that you wanted to say and not the words that I want to say. Lord, we love you, Lord. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Going to public school growing up, I'll kind of give you a little context there. Going.

I started out in homeschool, and I was homeschooled up till about third grade. And then we had our first kind of trial run, first little trial run of the academy in fourth grade.

So I went to Heritage Christian Academy when it first started in fourth through fifth grade. And then the academy had to shut down. We just weren't ready for it yet.

And then in sixth through ninth grade, I actually went to public school before I went back to Heritage Christian Academy, of course, graduated from here as well.

But that time of being in public school was a very detrimental time to my life because this was the time of my life where I started to slowly become a man. I, you know, I started maturing physically and mentally.

This is the time that I started to get involved with the youth department and get more involved with the church. And I remember going to public school and I went to Boyd public school system out there in Boyd. I lived out there during the time at time.

And I remember feeling like I was the only Christian there. Now that was not true. It wasn't. There were several other Christians that were there that went to school with me. They may have not been of the same.

The same color or banner, I should say, maybe not quite a Baptist or something like that, but they were a Christian, right? I do believe that they were a saved individual, but. So there were some differences there.

But I really did feel like I was the only one that strived to live right. And it really waned on me. And I felt so alone that I kind of started giving up on it.

And I regret to say that I did not live a Christian life like I wish I did, especially during my junior high years. I did not live the life that I wish I would have lived. I was not the witness that I was supposed to be.

And my classmates, some of their names still ring in my head of going, man, what would have happened if I told them about Jesus? And I never did. And that regret has always lived there.

But I draw attention to I felt so alone that I felt like I had to fit in, or I felt so alone that I almost felt like an outcast. Have you ever felt like an outcast at this time in our nation in regards to the.

The terrible things that have just happened in the past few weeks, and specifically what happened last week with the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a great Christian man, by the way, Christians are now faced with a choice. Those choices are to run and hide or to stand and shine brighter. Right now, Christians cannot help but feel alone at times like this.

Some may even get discouraged and some begin to fill up with fear. However, there are still many Christians in this nation that are choosing to stand.

And in times of persecution and loneliness, what choice are you making? Tonight I would like to bring up the three lessons of the alone Christians.

And we will see here in chapter 19 of the lesson that Elijah is about to learn. Here, let's jump down to verse number nine of chapter 19. It says, and he came thither unto a cave and lodged there.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. And he said unto him, what doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous.

For the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenants, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword And I, even I only am left. And they seek my life to take it away. The first lesson I'd like us to see is lesson one. Recognize the power of God. Recognize the power of God.

Look at this in verse number 11. It's. This is what the Bible says, right? And he said, go forth, this is God speaking. And stand upon the mount before the Lord.

And behold, the Lord passed by. And a great strong wind rent the mountains and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.

And after the wind an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. Verse number 12. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire a still small voice. And it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering in of the cave.

And behold, there came a voice unto him and said, what doest thou here, Elijah? The power of God is unmeasurable. You look throughout the entire Bible and it's just story after story. And this isn't just fairy tales.

This is actual history of the power of God being displayed time after time after time. Again, just a few things that I think, I think of in Genesis chapter 6, verses 6 through 8.

I can think of the flood in Exodus 7, I can think of the 10 plagues, Exodus 7 through 11. I can think of the parting of the Red Sea that's found in Exodus 14. Just now we just read the fire from heaven. I think of the virgin birth.

I think of the. The miracles of Jesus. I think of the miracle of his resurrection. I think of Peter being set free from prison.

I think of Paul escaping death time and time after again.

And throughout the whole word of God we can just see the power and the power and the power of God showing once again, once again to remind his people that he's still in control and he's still on the throne. Why does God do these things? It's to show us how great he really is. There's nothing that can match it. There's no rival.

God has is in this passage was showing Elijah once again his great power. Elijah just witnessed this great victory. He saw the fire from heaven come down and engulf that altar.

And he slain the 450 prophets of Baal by his own sword. And he sees this great victory in his life.

And then you finally see he's come to this point now where now he's cowering in a cave because now he's fearful of his life. Even after seeing the power of God. God was once again, he was trying to get the attention of Elijah. You know what happened?

I see right here at the beginning of chapter 19, Elijah got his eyes off the Lord and started looking at himself and started thinking pity upon himself because they were seeking his life. He was in a place of discouragement and loneliness. But may I just remind you tonight we could sit here and point the figure back at Elijah.

But can I just remind you, he is human. And I probably would do the same exact thing right here. After the display of power, God speaks to Elijah in this still, small voice.

You know, God shows all his power. He sends this wind that's able to just destroy mountains. He sends this mighty earthquake. It's probably so intense. It's so. It's so.

It's so almost unfathomable that Elijah's now probably. He's fled back into the cave. It seems like then this great fire comes, and it's just kind of out of nowhere.

And then all of a sudden, it all just stops. And then God speaks to him. The still, small voice. God understood what Elijah was feeling at the moment.

Not necessarily that he was excusing it, but God's being sensitive to Elijah right here.

He's saying, elijah, I know that you are getting discouraged and you feel lonely, but we're about to see right here that God's about to ask Elijah one more time, what are you doing here? Are you not my servant? Are my powers not good enough for you? It's kind of what he's showing Elijah right here.

The Lord was trying to set Elijah back on his feet, saying, hey, it's okay. I got you.

If I can control the wind, if I can control the earthquakes, if I can control fire and still speak to you in that still small voice that just touches your heart, and you can still do this. Elijah, get back up on your feet. He gave him time to rest. You can see right here in this verses six through eight.

You'll see that Elijah actually took some time to rest, and the Lord allowed him to do that. And may I just remind you, Christians do need a time of rest. Don't ever think that Christians don't need time of rest.

He gave him time to process the situation. God comes to Elijah. He's asking, Elijah, hey, Elijah, what's going on? Why are you here? Why are you cowering this cave?

And Elijah is, of course, he's lonely. He's distraught right now.

And he's given Elijah time to process what Elijah just asked from him a few verses earlier, saying that God Just kill me now, because I'm done, right? I'm done with doing all this. It was a false victory. I. I don't care if I solve the fire on the mountain. I'm just done. I give up.

I don't wanna do this more. I don't wanna live here anymore. And God's going back to Elijah saying, okay, I'm gonna let you process your emotions for a second.

I'm gonna show you my power, and then I'm gonna come back to you again and we're gonna talk about this. He's about to give Elijah a choice. God wants your attention tonight.

His word, the word of God is designed to get our attention and show us the victory that God has already given us. If you are waiting or looking for some great sign in the sky for God to give you, to move in your place, you are looking in the wrong place.

What you are truly looking for is what is found in between these leather bindings. And it's not the pages. It's not the paper, it's. It's not the ink, but it's the very words of God that you need in your life right now.

That's what you're searching for. He is giving you the decision. You have a decision tonight. He is giving you a decision. He is speaking to you in a still, small voice.

And here's the question. Are you listening? You know, the times where I find it's maybe tough to hear from God.

And I feel like, man, the Lord's not really speaking to me like I thought he would. He's not really. I don't feel like he's leading me right now. I don't know what's going on.

I have to remind myself that I shouldn't be looking for some weird miracle in the sky. I don't need some message written in the clouds. I don't need a certain writing on the wall, a physical writing on the wall.

I need to go back to the word of God and search the scriptures of. Of what God wants from me. Lesson one. We must recognize the power of God in lesson two. We must recognize the decision in chapter 19. I'm going to call.

I'm going to call you to the attention of verse number four one more time.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself that he might die and said, it is enough. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers. Let me remind you, Elijah just saw the victory on the Mount Carmel, right?

We just looked at that. We kind of skipped through it a little bit. I just wanted to set that stage for you a little bit.

But we just saw this amazing victory that God brought to Elijah's life. And. And he has now come to the point where he's like, you know, I'm just done. And how often do we sit here and do the same thing?

How often do we do we wake up in the morning, we look in the mirror and just say, oh, Lord, I'm just done with life like this. I don't know what you're trying to do. I don't know what you want from me, but Lord, I don't care anymore. I'm done. Elijah truly did feel alone.

Look at verse number 14. Remember, God asks Him a second time. This is the second time God asked him, what doest thou here, Elijah? Verse number 14.

And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword. And, and I, even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.

And the Lord said unto him, go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel.

And Elisha the son of Shaphat, of Abel, Meholah, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay. And him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay.

We're going to pause right there for a moment. Elijah made the choice. God asked him the first time, and he recognized that. Elijah's probably a little emotional at this point.

And God's going to give him a second chance here. God's saying, all right, Elijah, are you sure this is what you want? What are you doing here? I'm giving you a second chance to answer this.

And you know what Elijah said? He stuck to it and said, nope, I told you before God, I'm done.

How often has God come to us, the third, fourth or fifth time and asked us, when are you gonna start serving me? When are you gonna go back to serving me? Are you done throwing the pity party or are you still wanna lie here in your self pity?

And how often do we look at God in the face and say, say, nope. I'm still done. God, it's not worth it anymore. Elijah chose to give up.

After all the victories, after witnessing the great wonders of God, after being given a second chance, he chose defeat. God is giving you a decision. Here are the two decisions that God has given you. You can either live and stand for him. And guess what that brings.

That brings blessing. We'll see that here in a moment. Protection. Reward. But here's your second choice. You can deny and run from him. And guess what?

Here's what you get from this. You can avoid persecution. You get to live your life the way you want to live It Sounds pretty good. But guess what? You'll wind up feeling all alone.

Look around you tonight. Look at our nation right now. Look at everything that's transpiring in the world right now. It's time to decide what you're going to do.

The time is up for being lukewarm Christians. The time is now to take a stand for what you believe and to speak out against the evil that's against you.

It's time to stand and speak against the sin that is plaguing not just our nation, but our world tonight. I'm not saying go out and pick fights, but I am saying you.

You should know what you believe, and you should be willing to give an answer to everyone that asks a question. And even I'm preaching to myself tonight. So, lesson one. We see that we must recognize God's power in lesson two.

We must recognize the decision that must be made. But here's the third lesson. We must recognize the plan that God has. Let's look back in verse number 19 or, sorry, chapter 19.

And verse number 18, it says, yet I have left me 7,000 Israel. This is God speaking. All the knees which have not bowed unto BAAL, and every mouth hath not kissed him. So he departed thence and found.

So this is Elijah. See, he departed thence and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him. And he with the 12th of.

And Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, let me, I pray thee, kiss my Father and my mother, and then I will follow thee.

And he said unto him, go back again, for what have I done to thee.

And he returned back forth from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slew them and boiled their flesh with the instruments of of the oxen and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose and went after Elijah and ministered unto him. You see, God was not done with Elijah.

Elijah may have been done, but God wasn't done with Elijah. God still had a plan, as you can see.

After Elijah gave the answer, God said, okay, if that's your decision, Elijah, I've got a couple more tasks for you to do. I want you to go down, and I want you to anoint Hazael to be the king, right, of Syria.

And I want you to go down, and I want you to go to Jehu, and I want you to anoint him to be king over Israel. And then I want you to go to Elisha, and Elisha is going to take your place, Elijah. And guess what?

No one's going to escape the sword of Hazael, Jehu, or Elisha. That's what God says. If they escape Hazael, they will not escape Jehu. And they escape Jehu, they won't escape Elisha. You know why?

Because that was God's plan. That's God saying, they're not going to escape me. But, Elijah, I have this one thing for you.

There are still 7,000 knees in Israel that have not bowed the knee to baal.

And you're telling me right now, Elijah, that you're the only one left, when I have three other people that are about to take a place of leadership that you're supposed to be fulfilling right now. And they're gonna take your place because you're the only one saying that you're the only one left.

And how often do we look at our own lives and we say, God, I'm the only one left. If I'm the only one left, I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to be a Christian anymore.

I just want to live my life the way I want to live it. I want you to get out of my life, God. Because I'm done. I'm done with all the defeats. I'm done with all. All the verses. I'm done with the word of God.

I'm done with all the hymns. I'm done with church. I'm done with all this. Because it seems like I'm the only one that's left, and it's not making a difference.

How often do we say that to God? God is not done with you. He has a plan for you. I don't care if you're 10 years old.

I don't care if you're 15, if you're 25, if you're 30, if you're 130 years old. I don't care. God still has a plan for your life.

If you still draw breath here tonight as a Christian, God still has a plan and a purpose for your life. He's not done with you. He still has a remnant on this earth.

Even in the darkest parts of this earth, there is still revival breaking out in the Philippines. There's still underground Christians over there in China. There's still missionaries going to the Middle East. Are you sure we're the only ones left?

Are we the only ones that can sit here and have the right to say it's all doom and gloom? As my friend, persecution hasn't come yet. We haven't seen half of it. And guess what? If you are done, it's okay.

God still has the next generation in mind. I get the privilege of preaching to your kiddos every single Sunday and saying good morning to them every single Sunday. And I love hearing from them.

I love hearing about their. What's going on in their life.

A lot of them are telling me about their baseball games or their volleyball games or their soccer games, and I love hearing about it. By the way, do not tell your kids any secrets, because they'll probably tell them to me. Okay? I just want to let you know.

But I look at each and every one of those children and I say, lord, just let me have. Just let me influence them just a little bit that they would stay and that after I'm gone, there's still someone here preaching the word of God.

I'm not trying to draw attention to myself. I'm not a great preacher. I'm not one at all. But God has a plan for the next generation.

And the way I look at it, as we can set them up for failure, we can set them up for even more success. And Elijah right here is giving the opportunity. He does spend a little bit of time with Elisha.

But if Elijah didn't tell say to God that he was done, there's a good chance that Elijah probably could have done more. He could have done it alongside Elisha. And Elisha's going to see a lot more victories in his life than Elijah never did.

I'm going to have you turn with me with a moment to Matthew, chapter five. Matthew, chapter five. I didn't mark it down, so let me get there, too. Matthew, chapter five. Look at verse number one.

And seeing the multitudes, this is Jesus. He went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And they opened his mouth and Sorry.

And he opened his mouth and taught them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they, the prophets which were before you.

You say, brother Noah, how do I not feel so alone? How do I take a stand for the glory of God? How do I give the answers?

How do I live the life that I'm supposed to live, that I don't fall into this trap that Elijah fell into and give up on everything? The answer is Christ. Look to Christ. We just read here, they call this the Beatitudes. This is basically God's welcome letter to the Christian life.

If you want a welcome letter to the Christian life, here it is. You will be blessed if you are poor in spirit, recognizing that you have a need for spiritual food. Blessed are they that mourn. It's okay to mourn.

You're going to be comforted. Blessed are the meek. That's humility. Blessed are those who stay humble because they shall inherit more than what their humility might show.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. I mean, it just goes on and on. And what Jesus trying to get across is saying what the world tells you to do.

I. I am telling you to do the exact opposite. And guess what? If you do these things, blessing is on your life.

And Jesus says right here in the last couple of verses, he says, you will be persecuted. It will happen. You'll be made fun of. You'll be looked at.

In a weird way, as we saw last week, someone was killed for taking a stand for conservative beliefs and for Christian beliefs. Christ is not done with you. Christ has the power. Christ should be your decision, but he gives you that decision to make.

And Christ has and always will be the plan. You are not alone. The Lord is with you. And he promised that.

I think it's been long enough that many Christians in our nation have just sat on the sidelines and said, I'm good with where I'm at. In fact, I tried the whole living for God thing. This just didn't work out for me. I'm done.

How many victories does God have to bring your life for you to recognize that he's not done with you? This lost world needs to see the Christians stand up. Right now. Especially in this time in our nation, they need to see the Christians stand.

So let me ask you, what will you decide? I'm not trying to make put myself on a pedestal. That is not my heart at all. In fact, I would say, do not look at me. I'm the worst example to look at.

What I am calling you to do is I'm calling you to stand with God as he will stand with you. And that if you look at the victories that God has brought in your very life, why would you quit? There still is.

There's still a church in Haslett, Texas that I hope will still stand for the word of God. We haven't seen persecution yet. But let me ask you this. When it does come, and it will, what decision will you be making?

With every head bowed, every eyes closed, as the musicians get ready to do the invitation, I wonder tonight if anyone's in here who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Maybe they don't have that comfort because they have never accepted Christ.

Maybe that's you and I that feel so alone because you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior. He died on the cross for your sins so that you could live a life that's worth the living, a life that's more abundant living.

And that you could spend an eternity with him when you pass on or when he calls you home. I wonder tonight if there's hearts that are full of loneliness because they just. All they see is the defeat.

But if they just take a step back and look at what God is trying to do in our world today and they will see that revival is right around the corner. And it starts with me.

My prayer is that tonight you make that decision to stand with God and that you won't look at him in the face and say, I'm done. But you say, God, I'm still right here with you. Keep using me. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you again for this sermon. Lord.

Lord, this is a message I've wanted to preach for quite some time now. And you laid it on my heart last night. Lord. Lord, I pray that I said every word that you'd want me to say, God, that I did not speak. No.

A day's message, Lord. I spoke your message, Lord.

Lord, I pray if there's any heart that's in here tonight that just needs to go to the altar and needs to get something right with you, I pray that they'd get that settled tonight, Lord. Whether that's salvation or some other issue, Lord, whether they just want to praise you for who you are. God. Lord, we love you. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen.