Children’s Sermon

1 Kings 18:20-39

Elijah and the Prophets of Baal

1 Kings 18:20-39

Have any of you children ever heard of the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal?

Let me tell you the story.

The prophet Elijah believed in God. He was a good man.

But he was challenged by 450 false prophets who served the false god Baal––and there were 400 more false prophets who served the false god Asherah (v. 19). That’s 950 false prophets. That’s a lot.

How would you like to go up against that many bad men by yourself? Elijah must have felt kind of lonely, don’t you think.

But Elijah wasn’t afraid, because he served the true God––and he believed that God would help him.

So Elijah, all by himself, challenged the 950 false prophets to a test––to see whose god was real and whose was not real.

He took the false prophets to the top of a mountain and said, “Let’s have a contest. We will prepare sacrifices on an altar. Then you can ask your god to set fire to your sacrifice. Then I’ll ask the real God to set fire to my sacrifice––and we’ll see who wins.”

The false prophets called on their false god for hour after hour. The longer they did that, the crazier they acted. But nothing happened. Nothing! Because they were praying to a god who didn’t exist.

But then Elijah stepped up. He had people bring great big jars of water–––many such jars––and Elijah poured the water over the sacrifice. Elijah wanted to prove that his God was real. If the sacrifice was swimming in water, there wouldn’t be any way to set it on fire, would there––unless God did it.

Then Elijah called out to the true God, and God sent fire from heaven that went WOOSH!––burning the sacrifice and the altar. The Bible says that the fire burnt even the stones and dust. That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it!

When the people saw that, they knew that Elijah’s God was the true God––that his God was really real––so they bowed down and worshiped God.

We should worship God, too, shouldn’t we? But we need to be sure to serve the real God, don’t we?