The Church's Battle

Services

Saturday 6:30PM, Sunday 9:15AM & 11:00AM in Worship Center. Wednesday - Community Groups and Teaching in the Worship Center @ 6:30 pm.

Aug. 30, 2020

 N/A
 N/A
 N/A

The Church’s Battle

 Primary Text:  Revelation 2:18-22               August 29 & 30, 2020

 1)  Royal Apostasy

 1 Kings 11:4-6:  As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.  He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites.  So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.

 2 Kings 21:1-3:  Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years….   He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.  He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done.  

 DQ 1) Why were the sins of Solomon and Manasseh particularly grievous to God?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 2)  False American Deities

 DQ 2) What are the respective characteristics of the false gods Baal, Asherah, and Molech?  Why are they very dangerous?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 3)  Ahab’s Queen

 1 Kings 16:29-33:  In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years.  Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him.  He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.  He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria.  Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him. 

 1 Kings 18:4:  While Jezebel was killing off the LORD's prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.

 1 Kings 18:19:  Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel.  And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table. 

 1 Kings 19:1-3:  Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.  So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them."  Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. 

 1 Kings 21:7-15:  Jezebel his wife said, "Is this how you act as king over Israel?  Get up and eat!  Cheer up.  I'll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite."  So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth's city with him.  In those letters she wrote: "Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people.  But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king.  Then take him out and stone him to death."…  As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, "Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you.  He is no longer alive, but dead." 

 DQ 3) Why did Elijah run in fear from Jezebel when he did not run from a confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 4)  The Church of Jezebel

 Revelation 2:18-22:  "To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.  I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.  Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess.  By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.  I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.  So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 

 DQ 4) What are indications a spirit of Jezebel has infiltrated a church body?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 5)  Jezebel’s Demise 

 2 Kings 9:30-36:  Then Jehu went to Jezreel.  When Jezebel heard about it, she painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked out of a window.  As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, "Have you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?"  He looked up at the window and called out, "Who is on my side?  Who?"  Two or three eunuchs looked down at him.  "Throw her down!" Jehu said.  So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot….  They went back and told Jehu, who said, "This is the word of the LORD that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel's flesh."

 DQ 5) Under what circumstances are spirits of evil rendered powerless?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________