Central Community Church

God uses Ahab’s disobedience, and his condemnation, to show His true heart for sinners and warn of the dire consequences of getting this truth wrong.

We hear lots about grace in the Christian circles. In the reformed tradition grace is our banner as we proclaim salvation in Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone. But sometimes grace is a concept hard to comprehend in its full depth and maybe that’s why the Bible gives us tons of illustrations about grace, perhaps more than anything else. It's like talking to someone who has gone through the horrible loss of a son or their spouse, and while we can empathize and assume it must be a horrible pain what they’re going through, we could never understand the emotions, sadness, and despair that they are actually living. But with grace it’s a little different because while we may get to experience it in person, the noise of our desires, and the pollution of our wants fog our perspective and we end up with an underrated view of grace. My prayer is that as we take a look at the circumstances in Ahab’s life, we’ll be able to see how God gives His Grace to the most undeserving.

The wars between King Ahab and Ben-Hadad are both a victory and defeat. Through it, we learn about spiritual defeat. When we use God, limit his power and refuse his word, we can expect defeat. God ultimately wants us to know him, trust him and obey his word. When we know and trust Jesus, he comes to us not as a lion of judgment but as the lion of Judah who died like a lamb for our sins. He will be with us in every hill and valley of life.

After leading an incredible, public, mountain top victory for the LORD on Mt. Carmel, Elijah quickly falls from the peak of his career to the lowest point of his career. In the three stories contained in 1 Kings 19 we observe Elijah despair of life itself, surrender to feelings of defeat and even disobey God. Nevertheless, despite Elijah’s sour mood and misgivings, we learn that God’s purposes still prevail.

There are moments of great triumph and moments of great sorrow in the Christian life.  This is a moment of despair and seeming failure in Elijah’s life, yet it is also a time when God meets with him most powerfully.  While things may look bleak in our eyes, God reminds us that he is still in control of the future and we can have hope in Him.

In Elijah’s despairing over unmet expectations we discover a prophet who is very much like we are. Yet, in the midst of his despair we uncover the biblical antidote and are exposed to God’s impossible grace towards us.

In our lives, we all have things that we prioritize over certain things. Sometimes we can hold those as a priority over God. But today, we’ll see in 1 Kings 18 that the Israelites had their idols and the fake god of Baal as a priority over God. What we see today is that Elijah calls them out on it and tells them that they have to choose what God they want to follow. Is it the fake gods of this world or the idols, or is it God.

Daily we are faced with the decision and choices to either worship God with our heart, soul, mind and strength or to cave into the worship of false god’s who we think offer us life, hope and love, but in reality they only offer us death. 

People have preferences, we all do, some people enjoy the hot weather, the sun shining on their face, their skin changing colours… while others prefer an overcast day, gloomy, cold, and rainy. There’s nothing wrong with preferring a chocolate ice cream over vanilla, or even liquorice over cotton candy… things that have to do with our own taste or comfort. But it gets tricky when the choices are life and death; it would be silly at best to have a preference of sky diving without a parachute. The same when it comes to our spiritual life, which God should we follow? Or do we prefer to think we are not following any god and thus making ourselves our own gods? Chapter 18 of 1 Kings will bring us to the crossroads where we must choose which God to follow, but it will also give us great reasons why we should follow the God of the Bible.

Do we really believe that God is able to provide for us?  God shows us a powerful picture of how he is able to provide despite the appearances with Elijah and a widow.  God is in control of all life, from our physical needs to our spiritual life.

1 Kings 17:8-24 contains a couple incredible stories of God’s miraculous provision for Elijah, a widow and her son. These stories teach us that despite how difficult our circumstances might look, God alone is powerfully able to provide everything we need for this life and the next.

God has called some to shepherd the flock, and others to follow. Submission and Obedience to spiritual leadership is necessary for the believer’s growth and flourishing in the faith.

What culture says a man is, and what God’s Word says a man is, are drastically different. Paul’s exhortation to the church in Corinth gives us a snapshot of biblical manhood and the characteristics that men in the church are to strive for.

What does it mean to be a man?  That question alone is difficult to answer from our cultural narrative but the Bible helps us define what manhood looks like and how we are to relate to one another in the church.

While today's young people are leaving the church at an alarming rate studies are indicating that parents and mentors have an important role in passing on faith to the next generation.

Pentecost Sunday is the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the church.  It is a celebration that we often forget and yet it is the reason that the church exists today.  We celebrate the gift of God’s presence dwelling powerfully among us to build up the church and glorify God.

Pentecost Sunday is a Christian celebration commemorating the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Jesus’ disciples after He died, rose from the dead and ascended back to heaven, thereby establishing the church. We continue to celebrate and remember this critical event because it reminds us of God’s powerful, indwelling presence among us, which is necessary to build up the church, glorify God and make Him known in the world.

The story of salvation impacts every believer and calls them to share their faith with the next generation.

There are often two extreme reactions to sin in the church: [1] Harsh legalism (putting everything under the microscope); or [2] Overlooking everything (using grace as a license to sin). Neither are helpful. Rather, when Christians sin the church should engage in a loving process of confronting and correcting that brother or sister in the Lord with the hope of gaining them back and restoring them to full fellowship with God and the church family. This is the way of Jesus.