How Long Will You Keep Limping? Let Go of Your Crutch

Introduction

This message was given at Église SOS Lyon by Matt Marvane, at the start of 2026, as part of a Bible study series called "On the Worshiper's Path." The starting point is simple: God is looking for worshipers (John 4). He isn't first looking for beautiful voices or good intentions, but for hearts that gather for his glory alone.

To talk about this, the preacher takes us three thousand years back, to the time of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, to the moment when the prophet Elijah steps forward before the whole people gathered on Mount Carmel and asks a single question: "How long will you waver between two opinions?" (1 Kings 18:21). A question that, he says, is also addressed to you today.

Sermon Outline

1. The Context: A King Who Provokes God and a People Led Astray

At that time, Israel was governed by a succession of kings whose hearts were not in the right place. Among them, the best known is probably Ahab. He reigned twenty-two years, and married Jezebel, a Phoenician princess who poured her life and personality into establishing the worship of Baal and making it dominant in Israel. Ahab himself built a temple and an altar to Baal in the capital, and set up an Asherah pole to promote this worship.

Scripture itself gives the verdict: "Ahab did more to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him" (1 Kings 16:33). The preacher pauses on this word: it's astonishing that a man can provoke God to anger. And yet we all carry this capacity within us. The source of this provocation here is that a man and his wife turned an entire people away from the exclusive worship that belongs to God alone. Never in its history had Israel known such a spiritual low point. It was total spiritual chaos.

2. The Good News: God Never Abandons His People

In this particularly dark period, God raised up a man. Just one. Why? Because God never abandons his people. He placed in another man's heart the urgency and the desire to reconcile his people with their God.

This man, the prophet Elijah, was going to dare. He dared to confront King Ahab, and not just face to face: he summoned the king, the whole people, and all the prophets the royal couple had installed, to Mount Carmel. A public confrontation, in front of the whole people. At least 450 prophets of Baal were there; the 400 prophets of Asherah had also been called, though it isn't clear whether they came. Elijah found himself alone against them all. A man of conviction, a man of truth, a man after God's own heart.

3. "How Long Will You Waver Between Two Opinions?"

Elijah approached the whole people. No "hello, how are you." He went straight to the point: "How long will you waver between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him!" And the people answered him nothing.

The root of the people's and the king's problem was that they wanted it all: God's blessing, while also continuing to trust in other gods, bowing down before Baal and the Asherah poles. They didn't want to choose. The prophet came to say that this destructive dance had to stop: a step left, a step right. It was shameful and disrespectful toward God.

The word translated "waver" means to hop, to jump from branch to branch, to limp along on one foot. And the preacher knows what he's talking about: after a surgery two and a half years ago, he developed a condition around his meniscus and limped for two years. Pain that was sometimes unbearable, sleepless nights, difficulty getting out of bed in the morning, crutches when it started. When you see someone limping, you ask, "What happened to you?" Because we weren't made to limp. He himself asked his surgeon, "How long?" The answer: between 12 and 24 months. Why does that question matter? Because we're made to walk straight, in one direction only, the direction called truth in Jesus Christ.

What if there were more limping people in the church than we imagine? What if we were all a little bit limping? Then the real question isn't "am I limping?" but "how long?"

4. Compromise Makes You Blind and Lame

The people's problem was that they no longer even asked themselves the question. They had accepted something that had blinded them: compromise. An arrangement, a concession, an accommodation. Compromise had made them blind and lame, to the point where they no longer even saw that they were limping. Too many people, in their Christian lives, have grown comfortable with this crutch they lean on. And with a crutch, it's hard to walk straight, firmly, in the right direction.

"What crutch? I don't see any. I worship God, the proof is I'm at church." Yes, but what about tomorrow? And Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday? And since you're not even sure you'll come next Sunday… Have we become a bit like that people? "We believe in the God of Israel." Yes, but you also believe in the god of prosperity, the god of fertility, and you bow down before it.

But here is the good news: Jesus came to give sight to the blind and to make the lame walk. We often read this as physical healing only, and of course God does heal those who suffer in their bodies. But there's also a spiritual dimension: God wants to open our eyes and make us walk straight starting today.

5. Today, Not Tomorrow

There is urgency for this dance to stop. God is slow to anger, but when anger comes, it comes. And that's exactly where the devil steps in: "Tomorrow, not now. You still have time, you're so young." God, on the other hand, tells you: it's for today.

The preacher reminds us that everything can change very quickly. The day before, his father had a car accident and crashed into a tree trunk; thank God, he came out of it fine, but it could have been his last day. A few weeks earlier, a tragedy in Switzerland took the lives of more than forty young people in a matter of moments. The devil says "tomorrow"; the Lord says, "today is the day of salvation, today is the day of grace, today I am speaking to you." Will you agree to open your eyes and recognize that you may be a little bit limping, and that you need to let go of your crutch?

The longer you keep the crutch, the more damage it does to the rest of your body. After two years of compensating, the preacher started having back pain, and pain on the other side too. Why wait and damage yourself further? That is not what God wants for you. He wants to restore you in your whole being: spirit, soul, and body. If our relationship with God isn't being built up, it's deteriorating. And the biggest lie the enemy can get you to believe is that everything's fine, that you'll manage on your own, that you'll ask for forgiveness tomorrow. This strategy led an entire people astray, and it still works remarkably well three thousand years later, because human beings quickly become blind.

6. A Demanding, Jealous God Who Has Not Changed

Since the people couldn't manage to choose between God and Baal, Elijah came to choose for them, right there, on that mountain. And the preacher believes there is the same urgency in God's heart for each of us today: that you would become aware of what's at stake in your life, that your destiny, your path, your spiritual, emotional, and physical health matter to him.

Our God is compassionate, loving, just, and upright. But he is also demanding, down to the smallest detail; nothing escapes him. He requires undivided devotion, not a half-hearted zeal. He himself said: "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourselves an idol... you shall not bow yourself down to them... for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God" (Exodus 20:3-5). Good news: he hasn't changed. His love is exclusive; it cannot be shared.

The same sin of compromise is condemned at the very end of the Bible: "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot" (Revelation 3:15). Be cold or be hot, but don't dance between the two, because the verse goes on to say that God will vomit the lukewarm out of his mouth. You vomit something that disturbs you and needs to come out. Being vomited from God's mouth is not the position you want to be in.

So there are only two options. Either you are hot: a heart full of enthusiasm, zeal, joy, and love for him and for his word, loving him with all your heart, all your strength, all your mind. Or, as the preacher puts it bluntly, go taste the world to the full: sex, drugs, alcohol, power, money, but don't do things halfway. Not because he's encouraging you toward that, but because that's what the text says: if you want to keep dancing, God will have no choice but to vomit you out of his mouth. And "I know your works": he knows everything you do and think in secret. Stop hiding from him. The enemy's great trap is to make us believe that a little salt of religion and a little pepper of spirituality make a satisfying dish for God.

We were created for one thing only: to worship him, him alone, and to live in his presence. That is why God is jealous. It isn't a self-centered jealousy: he knows you were designed for this, and that you cannot survive outside of this purpose; the world would only lead you to your ruin.

7. Jesus Didn't Mince Words Either

Elijah was uncompromising, but so was Jesus. "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). Not "one day with me, one day without me, do as you please." It's actually quite radical.

And again: "No one can serve two masters... You cannot serve God and Mammon" (Matthew 6:24). We can convince ourselves that we're serving God, but God says it isn't possible if you're still attached to your money and your possessions: then it isn't him you're serving. If you truly are his disciple, his apprentice, the only condition is that you give up everything; once nothing belongs to you anymore, you can follow him. We want to be soldiers of the King of kings, and there's no such thing as a limping soldier: you stand tall, you look forward, you move ahead. The Christian walk isn't a limping walk, but a straight one.

As for what happened next on Mount Carmel, the preacher doesn't tell it yet: he sets a date two weeks out for the rest of the story and invites everyone to first read the account at home (preferably in the morning rather than before bed, since it's so gripping), reflecting during those two weeks on this question: how long will you keep limping?

In conclusion: let go of your cane, open your eyes, and put the word before your eyes, it is a lamp to your path (Psalm 119:105). Start walking, one step after another, believing, lifting up your voice, declaring who God is, and putting all your trust in the Lord: his word promises you will never be put to shame. And it starts today, not tomorrow.

Key Takeaways

• God is looking for worshipers, not just worship: hearts that gather for his glory alone.
• We were not created to limp, but to walk straight, in one direction only: the truth found in Jesus Christ.
• Compromise makes you blind and lame, to the point where you no longer even see that you're limping.
• If your relationship with God isn't being built up, it's deteriorating. God is looking for undivided devotion, not a half-hearted zeal.
• The devil says "tomorrow"; God says "today." Following Christ isn't a one-time feeling, it's a daily decision.

Personal Application

1. What crutch are you leaning on without even realizing it? What compromise have you ended up treating as normal?
2. Is your relationship with God being built up right now, or is it deteriorating? What concretely shows you this?
3. Is there a decision you keep putting off until "tomorrow" even though God is speaking to you today?
4. Between cold and hot, where are you honestly right now? What would it take for your heart to become hot for him again?
5. Each morning over the next few days, declare: "I let go of my cane and I open my eyes." Then read all of 1 Kings 18 before the next part of this message.

Scriptures Cited

• 1 Kings 18:21 (WEB)
• 1 Kings 16:30-33 (WEB)
• John 4:23-24 (WEB)
• Exodus 20:3-5 (WEB)
• Revelation 3:15-16 (WEB)
• Matthew 16:24 (WEB)
• Matthew 6:24 (WEB)
• Psalm 119:105 (WEB)

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to "waver between two opinions" in 1 Kings 18:21?

The word translated "waver" means to hop, to jump from branch to branch, or to limp along on one foot. Elijah rebukes the people for wanting both the Lord's blessing and the security of other gods, without ever choosing. This dance between two supports is destructive, shameful, and disrespectful toward God.

Why does God call himself "jealous"?

Because we were created to worship him alone and to live in his presence. This isn't a self-centered jealousy: God knows we cannot survive outside of this purpose, and that the world would lead us to ruin. His love is exclusive and he has not changed.

Is the preacher really encouraging people to "taste the world"?

No. He's following the logic of Revelation 3:15-16: God prefers a cold or hot heart to a lukewarm one, which he will vomit out of his mouth. Saying "go all the way" is meant to expose the absurdity of a half-hearted life: the only real option is a hot heart, undividedly attached to God.