Stand Alone: “God’s Word” 1 Kings 22

INTRO> This is a picture of a man named, Francisco Garzon who was a train driver in Spain. He appeared on every major new outlet in 2013, why? Francisco was the driver of the train that was carrying 218 people, the train derailed and crashed going around a turn. Killing 79 people and hospitalizing 66. When he was interview after the crash during the investigation he said these words, “I can’t explain it. I still don’t understand how I didn’t see …. I just don’t know.” He said the journey was “going fine” until the train hit a curve. At that point Garzon said to himself, “Oh my God, the curve, the curve, the curve. I won’t make it.” Why they did a further investigation, the video footage revealed that he was heading into the curve at the speed of 113mph. Francisco was a 30yr employee, how could this happen. He didn’t heed the 4 warning signs before the curve.

APP> Often times when I counsel and meet with people and just live life with other christians, especially christians who have either made poor decisions or are experiencing a season of suffering due to a decision that was made, there are 3 statements I always hear, maybe you have said them yourself:

• • • “ I don’t know how it got to this point….”
    • “ We never saw this coming…”
    • “ I didn’t realize it was this bad….”

APP> There are many times in the NT that it tells us to “be alert, on watch or on the look out.” Jesus himself even tells his own disciples to watch their life:

• • • • “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Mark 14:38

APP> The primary way that we can do that is to “read the warning signs” or better yet, know God’s Word. That’s what we see in today’s passage and our big idea:

Big Idea> God’s word guides us and guards us in life.

Context> In today’s passage we see the end of King Ahab. Here is what you need to know about the context of the passage:

• • • • • Israel is spilt into it’s Northern and Southern Kingdoms.
        • Ahab is king of Israel for 22 years
        • Ahab is a bad king 1Kings 16:30

CONTEXT> What the passage centers on is the “word of the Lord”. If our main thesis is : “God’s Word guides us and guards us in life” Then the question is, what does that look like? We will see that God’s Word is unpopular, uncontrollable and unchanging.

1. God’s Word is unpopular. v1-12

• • • • “Inquire first the word of the LORD” They are getting ready to go into battle and Jehosaphat says, wait lets see what God wants us to do.
      • “four hundred prophets..” Now, the prophet could be used very loosely here, These guys were “yes men” They were probably getting paid well for saying good things.
      • “There is one, Micaiah.. but i hate him, he never prophecies anything good…” Don’t you just love that!

APP> Now there is ALOT here to unpack but think about it. These are suppose to be God’s people here. They are planning on doing something, kinda try to ask for “God’s wisdom” and only go to people who they know will agree with them….

APP> God’s Word is often times the most unpopular with God’s people. We often times bleed this into the church as well, if the word is at the center and the the word is what corrects us.

APP> Correction doesn’t mean condemnation. This happens when we move from ‘true and false’ to ‘supportative and non supportive”

“One sometimes wonders if the church is drifting back to an Ahab mindset, or if not hostile toward the candor of the word and maybe even embarrassed by it. I have received church advertisements in my mail. A new church is forming in our area and it’s going to feature a lot of things to attract me but the main thing is a “non-judgmental atmosphere”. I know, I mustn’t over-interpret. But what does that mean? Likely that the church means to eschew from anything negative, refraining from folks feeling ‘guilty’, or the ultimate contemporary sin- feel bad about themselves. What will the ministry of the word be like in such a church? Will it ever press home the word of God in it’s searing honesty? OR must that be sacrificed lest it destroy the non-judgmental ambiance? Ahab would love such a place.” Dale Ralph Davis, 1 Kings pg 315-316

APP> “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Galatians 4:16

2) God’s Word is uncontrollable. v14

• • • “As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me I will speak.” I really love this guy. He is pressured into saying something positive and goes against 400… 400 other preachers and says… nope, this is the true word of the LORD.

APP> We are not God’s editors. The tension that we have though is that we think that God’s word threatens our joy.

*ILL> Secular psychologist Barry Schwartz, gave a ted talk about “The Paradox of Choice” his whole thesis is, “The way to maximize freedom is to maximize choice.” But he showed a picture of two fish in a fish bowl and said, “The truth of the matter is that if you shatter the fishbowl so that everything is possible, you don’t have freedom. You have paralysis. If you shatter this fishbowl so that everything is possible, you decrease satisfaction … Everybody needs a fishbowl … The absence of some metaphorical fishbowl is a recipe for misery, and, I suspect, disaster.”

APP> True freedom is found in total submission to God’s Word.

3) God’s word is unchanging. v28 & 37-38

• • • • “If you return in peace…” He is basically taking the prophets oath, given by Moses in Deuteronomy, that if a prophet speaks something and it doesn’t come true, then he is false.
      • “So the king died…” Here we see it come true.

APP> Every word from God has either come to pass or will come to pass.

How do we know such a thing… because he has kept his word.

• • • “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Big Idea> God’s word guides us and guards us in life.

Application:

• • • Where is God guiding you to, that you do not want to go?
    • What is God guarding you from, that you do want?