TRANSCRIPTION | Sunday, November 14, 2021 | Upon Further Review Series | Something Good is About to Happen

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Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I love you, babe. Last week we closed out our series that we had entitled God In It. And today I get to launch a two-week series that we're simply referring to as Upon Further Review. I want to take a look at a storyline that comes to us from the life of Elijah and an event that happened on Mount Carmel, when fire came from heaven to earth. It's one of my favorite stories in all of the Bible. I'm really privileged to get to preach it today.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Want you to look with me 1 Kings, chapter 18, verse 30. "And then Elijah said to all the people, 'Come near to me,' and so all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar that was broken down." You drop down eight verses, verse 38 says, "And then the fire of the Lord fell and it consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. And now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, 'The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God." Sounds like revival to me.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I'd like to share a message entitled Something Good is About to Happen. Father, help me preach, help me teach, help me share your word, put an anointing and an unction on me. God, that could come only from heaven. Let the Holy Spirit helped me today in Jesus' name, this church said...

Group:

Amen.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Amen. I believe that one of the most powerful nights that we've had in our church in a number of years took place just a few weeks ago in what we referred to as worship night, it was a central gathering that took place between all of our locations and we were just there to worship, and there was not even the typical message and standard alter call that was given, and yet people began to be saved all over the room, and multiple people went public with their faith, through the decision spontaneously to be baptized. Many of them didn't even have clothes to change into, and yet they were saying, "I want to go public with my faith."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

In case you're wondering, that's what revival looks like. And I think that we're going to begin to see more and more of that take place. One of the reasons that our church is so intentional about trying to have central gatherings is because we are one church with multiple locations and we believe that we're going to get the privilege to be one church with many locations. I think sometimes the reason there's such a special grace on those moments, when we gather for a central worship gathering, or even revive tonight, where we'll have youth from all across the different locations, God likes his people to be unified. God likes his people to be in one place, in one mind. We even and see that one of the greatest moves of God that takes place in the entire New Testament is in Acts chapter two and it's a, "Suddenly a sound from heaven came and there was fire that fell." It came right after people were seen to be unified in their faith and in their spiritual journey.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

So I'm believing for something significant to happen in the earth, I'm believing, alongside you, that something good is about to happen on a large scale. I think we're going to see more and more of it. But it reminds me of something that happened in my life in regards to a relationship that I've had for a number of years. So during big Wednesday, this last week, one of my really good friends was here to preach. His name is Pastor Barry Smith. He leads a church called GC Church in Nashville, Tennessee.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I met Barry a number of years ago through his father. His dad is a man that I refer to affectionately as Bishop Smith. I don't know, maybe 18, 19, 20 years old, God brought Bishop into my life, and I got the privilege to travel with him and get to see him minister and have a ringside seat for where he would facilitate church business and bring resolution and reconciliation sometimes to very difficult situations. He was so wise, he was so gifted. He was a phenomenal preacher. And at the time he was in Kentucky, he was in charge of somewhere between 75 and 80 churches, and he just traveled the state from one side to the other. I had the privilege of seeing him preach to hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of people. I've seen him in large convention centers and even on the stage of Freedom Hall preaching the gospel.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

So several years into my relationship with him, when he shared with me that he was going to be leaving Kentucky, I was heartbroken and I had trouble processing that Bishop was no longer going to be in this state. He shared with me that he was going to be relocating to Nashville, and that the reason he was going to be relocating to Nashville is because God was assembling his family there, and it was clear to tell that all of his daughters had arrived there and his son was there, and now he was filling a call. And they felt like that they were supposed to go to Nashville and they were supposed to be a part of raising up a church.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

His son, Barry had originally arrived in Nashville to be a part of the country music scene, and then over time, God began to deal with his heart. He's a phenomenal musician. He's an unbelievable vocalist. And he had become a prominent worship leader there in Nashville, a part of a very successful church. Now, Bishop felt like that there was to be a marriage of worship and word, and that he was going to go there, join his son, his daughters, and this church was going to be planted.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Well, I waited a few months and Bishop relocated and I went to see him. I knew Bishop to be a man of great success and significance. I knew his family to own multiple very successful businesses. I was accustomed to seeing Bishop with nice things. Yet, when I pulled into the facility where he was going to be launching this church, I was nothing short of bewildered. It was over on a part of town in Nashville called Donelson, and around Stewarts Ferry. I drove up this hill and I pulled into this little bitty church building. It couldn't have been even 10,000 square feet. Really looked quite disheveled from the outside and maybe even a little bit run down.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I went inside and things got worse. The kids' area was the equivalent to just a bunch of closets in a row, and the facility where they would host their worship gatherings was very small and very cramped. Then even going to the place where he would call his office, I remember as he showed it to me, we opened the door and there were dog feces in the carpet of the floor, where the previous administration had not properly cared for the building, they had not treated it like a place where people were gathering to worship.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

There was such a stench. I don't think I'll ever forget that smell. It was something between mildew and sewage, and it was through the whole building. Yet, while Bishop is standing one foot in the door of this stinky office, one foot out, you need to know this about Bishop, when he really starts to feel the Lord, he'll lean over and he'll go... And he turned around and he leaned over and he said, "Eric, something good is about to happen."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And I thought, "Where?" My mind was blown. And I thought, "I respect you and I value your voice, but I just don't know about this." But as I would go back a few months later, that little building would be filled to overflowing multiple times on a Sunday with people gathering to worship. And as I would go back a few months after that, I would discover that they were breaking ground on a multimillion dollar facility. If then, just a few years, they would go across town and put in a second location with interstate frontage. And eventually, their church would grow to the point that when they were trying to find a place to host their Easter gatherings, they had to settle up on the Grand Ole Opry. Something good happened. But I remember in those initial stages, it just looked so bad and it was hard to even comprehend that something good could happen in that setting.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I want you to go with me again to 1 Kings, chapter 18, and I want you to ponder with me what is happening in the life of Elijah. Elijah is in a nation that is very far from God. There is basically no God consciousness left. People are serving false Gods, they are embracing paganism openly, they're in the middle of a drought and a famine that has lasted north of three years. They are overwhelmed with circumstance and trouble and problems, and so much of it has to do with the fact that they're distant from God. But it seems that no one really wants to change that.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Even Elijah, who is a preacher and a prophet, he gets to the point where he's so depressed and discouraged, he feels like he's the only guy left in the whole nation that's actually trying to preach the true word of God. And yet, one day, while he's praying, he's trying to figure out how to lead his nation back into revival, back into an encounter with God, and he feels like what he's supposed to do, he's supposed to go to Mount Carmel, he's supposed to invite all the prophets of the false God, he's supposed to get everybody up on top of this mountain at the same time. And the deal is whoever's God answers by fire will be the God for that nation.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Well, when Elijah showed up, he's one guy. When the other team showed up, they brought 450 profits. He is overwhelmingly outnumbered. It feels like he's by himself. And yet, the other bunch, they concoct their little altar and they start their seas and they start their incantations and they begin conjuring up their darkness, and after an extended period of time, there is still no fire that has fallen. And then it's Elijah's turn, and as we saw just a moment ago, when you read the end of it, something good happened. But I want to know by evaluating Elijah's experience, how can we get from something good is about to happen to something good did happen?

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I think when you begin to look at your life, there are some real markers that can show you something good is about to happen, and we can see it even from Elijah's experience. Something good is about to happen. Number one way you can tell something good is about to happen is that God is requiring you to put something meaningful on the altar. If God's been dealing with you about putting something on the altar that you never thought he would ask for, there is a high likelihood that he is trying to set you up for something good. If there's been something that's happening in your life, where you just sense that God is asking you for something of value, something that means something, pay attention to that, don't ignore that, and respond properly to that and obediently to that because it means something good is about to happen.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I want to show 1 Kings, chapter 18, verse 31, "And Elijah took 12 stones, one for each tribe, and then with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord. He made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold 14 quarts of dry seed. And then he put in the wood in order, he cut the bull in pieces, he laid it on the wood and he said, 'Fill four water pots with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.'" Now, if you've been following along, then you remember we are in the middle of a famine and we are in the middle of a drought, and now as the altar is being constructed, God said, "I want some beef on the altar. I want a bull on the altar."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

There's a famine in the land. Where are we going to get a bull? People are starving to death. In order to find a bull, it's going to be something that is going to be of incredibly great value. It's going to be something you got to search for. You got to look for it. It's going to cost you something. And when you put it on the altar, it's going to have meaning because it was intended to be dinner, instead it's being given to God. But even more valuable than the bull was the water, because it's not just a little bit of water, it's a lot of water. And they have not had rain in three years. These people do not have any clue where they're going to get their next drink from, and now they have had to travel, I'm telling how far to try to gather all of this water.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

It's amazing to even contemplate what it may have financially cost them to acquire this water, and now they're bringing it, they're traveling with it, they're trying to not spill it, they're trying to make sure they don't lose it. And now they got to take it up a mountain that is incredibly steep and incredibly treacherous and they get it up, and now they're going to pour it out on the altar. Listen, when you bring water to an altar in the middle of a drought, it means something.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

You ever noticed how there are moments when God begins to deal with you about something meaningful, and you begin to feel this internal conviction that it's something that's supposed to go on the altar? But there's something else that's happening that also helps us understand that something good is is about to happen. And that is this. God is removing the opportunity for coincidence to take the credit.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Look at it again. 1 Kings 18, "He put the wood in order, he cut the bull in pieces, he laid it on the wood and he said, 'Fill four water pots with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.'" Now, the way this happens is whichever God answers by fire will reveal himself to be the true God. And now Elijah says, "Take the water and pour it on the wood."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Now, when's the last time that you went out to your fire pit and in the attempts to start a fire said, "I'm going to baptize it with water first"? It doesn't make any sense, but sometimes when you're giving God that thing that's meaningful, it doesn't make sense. But in the same time that you are giving him the thing that is of value, the thing that is meaningful, God is also simultaneously removing the ability for coincidence to take the credit. So I came to tell somebody, if you've been feeling a little bit foolish, it means God's removing the coincidence option of taking that credit. If you've been feeling a little bit weak, it probably means that something good is about to happen.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

There's meaningfulness put on the altar. There's value put on the altar, and simultaneously, God is orchestrating a setting that where when fire falls, it will not be able in any way, shape, form, or fashion to be explained. The only way that this will be able to have happened will be that God will have had to have done it. The thing that I love is that as this stage is being set, one of the things that scripture points out is it literally says the fact that there was water all around the altar. If there's something meaningful that's getting all around the altar, you're in a near phase of something good happening. But what happens next is it says in 1 Kings 18:38, "Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the sacrifice." Everybody say, "Then."

Group:

Then.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

So the fire did not fall until something meaningful was on the altar and coincidence couldn't take the credit. So the question becomes, were they waiting on God or was God waiting on them? So sometimes, I feel like we get really frustrated with God because he doesn't work in our timing. And yet at the same time, we're not doing any self-evaluation to figure out what we might be doing that is delaying the move of God, because that's the third thing you see when you can know that something good is about to happen is God is leading you to review your relationship with him.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

1 Kings, chapter 18, verse 30, "And then Elijah said to the people, 'Come near to me.' All the people came near to him and he repaired the altar that was broken down." You can't repair it until you've reviewed it. You don't know there is a problem until you are willing to review the situation that may house the problem. So what I want to point out to you is that none of this happens if the altar isn't repaired. You can't put something meaningful on the altar until you repair the altar. The altar can't be the place where that God is going to take his glory for himself unless the altar has been repaired. So at some point you have to be willing to review a relationship with God. So if God's been dealing with you about reviewing some things in your life, it's a very good possibility that he may be getting ready to point out to you a place in your life, where there needs to be some repair.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

The thing that I look at in this passage, and I see unfolding 1 Kings, 18. It's there. Do you see it? 1 Kings, 18:30, it says, "He repaired the altar because it was broken down." There's been a drought for three years. There's been a famine as a result of that drought for three years. It's dry, it's parched, people are starving to death. There is circumstance absolutely abounding, and God has allowed every bit of that circumstance to try to reveal to these people that their relationship with him is not where it should be.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And no one ever has the thought to go review the altar. No one has the thought that maybe they should go check and see if there is something about the relationship with God that is broken down. Instead, they just keep focusing on what their flesh wants and what their flesh doesn't have, and they keep murmuring, and they keep complaining, and they keep seeking after things in the world that they think is going to be able to provide their answer and provide their solution, and ultimately, finally, a spiritual leader shows up and says, "There's only one thing that's going to fix this and it's repairing our relationship with God, and that means we got to get ourselves back to the altar."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

So if God's been dealing with you, if he's been convicting you, if he's been speaking to you about some review that needs to take place of your prayer life, of your praise, of your worship, of your relationship with him, it probably means something good's about to happen. So don't take it personal, don't get offended, just realize something good is going to happen on the other side of me allowing God to bring review into my life, to look around and figure out what might be broken down.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I'm going to give you one more thing. How you can know that something good is about to happen. We've talked about it. There's going to have to be something meaningful on the altar. If God's dealing with you about that, something good it's going to happen. If it feels like some things have been stripped of you, some things have been removed from you, some things have been taken away, don't freak out. God's just taken out the opportunity for coincidence to steal the credit. Something good is about to happen. If you've been feeling a new level of conviction, it's been waking you up at night, you've been a little restless even about the fact, "I got to make sure I'm right with God. I got to make sure I'm right with God. I got to make sure I'm right with God," that's a good thing. Something good is about to happen.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

But the fourth thing, the fourth way that you can know that something good is about to happen is that you will hear it before you see it. 1 Kings, 18:41, "And then Elijah said to the king, 'I want you to go up, I want you to eat, and I want you to drink, for there is the sound of an abundance of rain.' And he said to his servant, 'Go up now, look towards the sea.' And so he went up and he looked and he said, 'There is nothing.'"

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

So what we know is that God has responded with fire from heaven, and now the people are turning to the Lord as a result of what they're seeing happen through Elijah's ministry. It's revival. And God says, "Now you're going to get the rain you've been waiting for. You're going to get the rain that you've been looking for, you've been searching for." And what Elijah says is, "I hear it. I hear rain. I hear it like the sound of an abundance of rain." Then he tells his servant. He says, "I want you to go and look, and I want you to tell me how far away the rain is."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And the servant goes to look and he comes back and he's like, "Elijah, there's nothing. There's nothing." You ever had a moment like that, where you could hear it, but you couldn't see it? That's called faith. The Bible declares in the book of Romans, chapter 10, verse 17, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." Sometimes you're going to hear it before you see it. Sometimes it's going to be preached to you before it's made manifest in your life. Sometimes it's going to leap off the page and get in your heart before you see it down the hallway in your situation. Sometimes you hear it before you see it. That's what makes it faith.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

That's why 2 Corinthians 5:7 says that, "We walk by faith, not by sight." That's why Hebrews 11 says that, "Faith is the evidence of things not seen." The fact that I can't see it doesn't mean anything other than the fact that it hasn't showed up yet, because as long as I can hear it, my God is still on the throne, he is still the author, he is still the finisher, he is still the alpha, he is still the omega, he is still the first, he is still the last, sometimes you'll hear it before you see it. Sometimes you just can't see what you hear.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

You heard, "By his stripes, you were healed," and yet all you can see is a horrible doctor's report. Sometimes you got to hear it before you see it. That's what salvation is. You hear that you can be saved on judgment day and by faith, you believe that a born again experience is possible, and before you even get to see yourself stepping through the pearly gates, you by faith know that you're as sure heaven as if you were already there because you heard what God wants to do in your life. Sometimes you hear it before you see it.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

There's this moment that happens in our lives. Sometimes where we're trying to raise and we've heard, "Raise them in the way that they shall go, and in the end, they will not depart from it," and yet it's not what you're seeing in your kids' lives. It can be challenging because you hear it, but you don't see it. Well, that's why you got to build a culture of looking again. The way that it unfolds for Elijah is 1 Kings, 18:43, "And his servant said, 'Go up now, and I want you to look at the sea.'" And so he went up and he looked and he said, "There is nothing."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And seven times Elijah said to him, "Then you better go again." See, that's how you can know that faith's really kicking on the inside, is that even when you don't see it, you're willing to look again. Maybe one of the things that aborts the miraculous in our life and keeps us from the good thing happening is that too often, we're not willing to look again because when it didn't happen on the first time we felt failure and defeat and we just quit, and some of us, we can get to the second or the third time, but God says, "Sometimes you may have to go multiple times, more times than you ever expected, and keep looking until what you hear has finally shown up on the horizon of your life." Sometimes you hear it before you see it, create a culture that looks again. You heard that kid wasn't going to depart from it it, sometimes you got to walk down the hallway, peek in their bedroom and just believe it, "Okay. I'm going to look again."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I was thinking through how our family, I heard something a couple years ago that we were supposed to do, and there were parts of our house that received it okay, and there were other parts of our house that didn't receive it well at all. We sat down at the table, we talked about it multiple times of, "I hear this." But as members of the family started trying to look, it's like, "It doesn't make sense, it doesn't add up, I can't see how any of that's going to be a positive." And I got one dude in my house, he's 14 years old and he's very opinionative. And I love him and he loves me and we have a great relationship, and he's always fairly honorable when he talks to me, we can discuss things. But he began to express some frustration of, "This is not a good decision for me. There are going to be things that happen very negative for me as a result of what you're saying we're supposed to do."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And I continued to communicate, "But I've heard God."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

"Yeah, but Dad, if you look at this, this isn't going to line up right. And if you look at that, this isn't going to look all right. And then I'm going to have to lay this down, and I'm going to lose this, and I'm going to not have this."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And I'm like, "But I've heard God, and this isn't up for discussion or conversation. I know what I heard, and we're not looking at that, and we're not having this conversation, and we're not surveying this other to make sure it works out right for us. We're going to lay everything meaningful on the altar. And we're going to so set ourselves up that coincidence will never be able to take the credit for anything that God does on the other side of this. And while we're at it, we're going to look around our lives and see if there's anything broken down that needs to be repaired."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

So multiple months past, and there were some very frustrated moments regarding what I had heard. A lot of confusion some days. Some days it looked like things were going really, really bad as a result of what I had heard, and I'd even get a little side eye. Then just a couple weeks ago, we were driving home from somewhere and my son's sitting in the backseat, he said, "You know, Dad. This is the best my life has ever been." He said, "I am living my best life now." He said, "Dad, there's not another thing in my life that I think could happen to make it any better than it is right now. Everything I've wanted, everything I've dreamed of, it's all happening right now." And I about wrecked. I turned around, I had to make sure the words were actually coming out of his mouth. And when we eyeballed, I realized, "He's really saying it."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Sometimes you got to look again. And I ask him, I said, Dawes, what'd you learn from all this?"

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And in his own way, what he said was, "You got to listen to God." And sometimes it takes a while and sometimes it doesn't line up like you thought it would line up immediately, but you just keep trusting God. I don't know what God's saying to you. I don't know what God's dealing with you about, but I came to tell somebody this morning, "You'll always hear it before you see it."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Sometimes you may have to look for two years before you see what you heard. Sometimes even longer, according to scriptural example. But the thing that I encourage you with is you can't go wrong putting something meaningful on the altar. You can't go wrong trust in God when it looks like things are getting worse instead of better. That's just God getting rid of coincidence. You can't go wrong. Responding to the conviction of the Holy Spirit that says, "I got to review the broken down places in my life." And I came to tell somebody in finality this morning, "You will hear it before you see it."

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

So they're going to play some music. And I take you back to a hillside in Nashville. Bishop Smith, standing in the doorway of that stinky, smelly dilapidated building. And he turns around and he says, "Something good is about to happen." And I must have looked utterly confused because following that statement from him, he led me down the hallway into the auditorium that would become his house of worship.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

And he pointed over in the altar area. He said, "Eric, I heard it right there, something good is about to happen." I pray this morning you hear it, something good is about to happen. Every head bowed, every eye closed, the best thing that can ever happen in your life is that you go all in with Jesus. Right now, maybe God's dealing with you about returning to a relationship with him. You feel it, you sense it. There's a tug. The most meaningful thing you'll ever put on the altar is your time, your energy, your heart, your life, your moment to just say, "God, here I am. I'm done running. I'm done arguing. I'm done negotiating. God, you want my life, you could have it." He was willing to give his own life so that he could have a relationship with your life. He put his life on an altar called a cross so that you could have this moment to now experience all the good stuff that heaven's got to offer, but it starts with you putting your life on the altar.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

There's somebody here and it's a first time to come I'm to Jesus, but maybe there's somebody else that it's like a moment of rededication. It's like when I started talking about that thing of review the broken down places, like something started to turn over inside of your soul and you realize that is me. That's exactly what God's dealing with me about. I'll take this moment, and I would challenge you to just put a hand in the air and just say, "God, I surrender. I surrender to the good news that you got for me." That old things can pass away and everything can become new again.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Even right now, start confessing sin. If there's anything in your life, whether people know about it, or nobody knows about it, if it's sin, if it's not what God has for you, confess it. And scripture tells us that, "On the other side of repentance, there are times of refreshing." That means something good. So just begin to repent in your heart and in your life and anything that even right now, the Holy Spirit's just showing you that that's a broken down place. That's a place that needs to be repaired.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Let God go to work. Let God go to work. His blood is as real today as it was 2000 years ago, to take your sins, your shame, your guilt, your condemnation, and let it become like a mighty eraser and take it out of the record books of heaven. Receive what he's got for you in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. Thank you, father that you reach further down than we can reach up.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

Listen, if you prayed that prayer and you're giving your life to Jesus, you're ready to serve him as your savior, you're ready to serve him as your Lord, you need to let somebody know. And if nothing else go to 3trees.com today and communicate it to us because you need to go public with your faith through baptism. You need to put the world on notice. Old man, old woman passed away, I'm a new creature in Christ, Jesus. And heaven says that angels in heaven rejoice when somebody gives their life to the Lord. I saw multiple people a moment ago give their life to Jesus, so I want you all across this room to give God praise. Come on. Can you do that? Give him praise. Give him praise. Give him praise. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

Pastor Eric Gilbert:

I want you to stand with me to your feet this morning and here's what we're going to do. We're going to just begin to sing about the good things that are going to happen. And if God's dealing with your life and you want to come and spend some time bowed in an altar, then I would challenge you, step out of your seat. If you got to ask somebody to step back, do that. Get down that aisle, come down to this altar and just spend some time letting God work on the broken things, letting God fix some stuff that needs to get fixed. Maybe it's a moment where something meaningful goes on the altar. Come on, we're going to sing it out. He is good.