Wednesday Night Service 7PM - Elijah and Ahab pt 2 - 1 Kings 18-19

Hello, everyone. All right, let's pray. Dear God, thank you for letting us all come together this evening to turn our hearts back to you in the middle of our week and to refocus on what is really important and to leave everything at the door that is not of you. I pray for everyone in this room that as they leave this service and go about their week, that they bring what they learned here with them and that they keep you at the forefront of their minds every single day.

Amen. If you guys will stand for this first song, take the words of that song into our hearts and that no matter what is passed our way, that your will be done. Look to you in every step of our lives and know that we are in your hands and that you'll take care of us. I pray for Pastor Wren as he comes up, that you are with him and that you give him the words to speak and that we all take what he says into our hearts as well. In Jesus' name we pray. Good evening.

If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Kings chapter 18. 1 Kings chapter 18.

So I read this thing the other day. It said, two nights of sleep on a really uncomfortable bed will make you feel four years older. Over the weekend, I slept on a bed that was about that thick with a piece of plywood underneath of it. I think I feel eight years older. Based on how bad that bed was. There's just nothing quite like going to camp for the weekend,

right? Okay. 1 Kings chapter 18. When last we were together in 1 Kings, Elijah had come upon the scene. As a matter of fact, the title for tonight is Elijah and Ahab part two. And we said that really the last portion of 1 Kings is sort of occupied by these two men. We followed the line of kings in the Northern Kingdom, guy named Ahab, who was arguably the worst king the northern kingdom had, actually up to his point

in time. He did more evil than any king that had ever come before him. And it says, if all of the other things in following the sins of Jeroboam wasn't bad enough, he married Jezebel. And so they built altars to Baal. They built astropoles. And so they had established this worship of Baal in the northern kingdom. Well, along comes a guy by the name of Elijah. And Elijah was a prophet.

Sort of just arrives on the scene. And as Elijah arrives on the scene, he proclaims a drought in the land. The reason why he proclaims a drought in the land is because Baal is the god of the crops and the god of the sky, the god that brings the rain. And so he pronounced a drought so that they would understand that this god that they are worshiping actually has no power. Well, throughout

the drought, there's a drought. There's a drought. There's a drought. There's a drought. There's a drought. God miraculously preserved Elijah. And we, of course, are introduced to the widow that God used to provide for him. Well, now it's time for things to get real in his battle with Ahab. And so tonight we pick up in chapter 18, verse 1, and it says this.

Now it happened after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth. So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household, and Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. For when Jezebel destroyed

the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and provided them with bread and water. And Ahab said to Obadiah, Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys. Perhaps we will find grass and keep the horses and mules alive. And Ahab said to Obadiah, Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the mules alive and not have to kill some of the cattle. So they divided the land between them

to survey it. Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself. So God told, we're three years into a drought. Actually, the New Testament tells us we're actually three years, three and a half years into the drought, because it says it was in the third year. So three and a half years into this drought, everything is dead. There's no bread.

Everything has kind of fallen apart in the northern kingdom. And God says, I want you to go talk to Ahab. And I want you to tell him that rain is coming. And so Elijah goes about to go find Ahab. Well, sort of like, meanwhile, back in the northern kingdom, we're introduced to a guy by the name of Obadiah. Now, this is not the same Obadiah that will go on to write the minor prophet book

of Obadiah, but he was a man who loved the Lord. As a matter of fact, he displayed his love for the Lord. And the fact that when Jezebel was going around killing all of the prophets of the Lord, he took a hundred of them and he hid them and so showed himself to be loyal to the Lord. And yet was working in the midst of a very evil kingdom. And that brings me to a very interesting

point. Sometimes we find ourselves in a very evil world. Sometimes you may even find yourself in a job where everything around you is a whole lot of ugliness. And yet you can continue to maintain your witness. You can continue to do what God has called for you to do, even in the most unholy of circumstances, even with the most unholy things going on around you, if your heart is to truly

seek the Lord. And that's where Obadiah finds himself. And he finds himself in a very evil world. He finds himself. And so Ahab comes to Obadiah and says, here's the thing. We're about to start killing cattle. We've got to find some place for these cattle to feed. You go one way, I'll go the other. And let's see if we can't find a spot with a spring and some green grass so that

we can find a place for all of these cattle to eat. And so that's what they do. Verse seven. Now, as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him and he recognized him and he fell on his face and said, is this you, Elijah, my master? He said, it is I. Go say to your master, behold, Elijah is here. He said, what sin have I committed that you're giving your servant into

the hand of Ahab to put me to death? As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent to search for you. And when they said he's not here, he made the kingdom or nation swear that they could not find you. And now you are saying, go say to your master, behold, Elijah is here. It will come about that when I leave you, that the spirit of the Lord

will carry you someplace I don't know. So when I come and tell Ahab and he can't find, he will kill me. Although I, your servant, have feared the Lord from my youth. Hasn't it been told to my master what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord? That I hid a hundred prophets of the Lord by fifties in a cave, provided them with bread and water. And now you're saying,

go say to your master, behold, Elijah is here. And then he will kill me. I like this guy, right? Like he's just, he just does it like it is. First of all, he sees Elijah. And again, I don't know how you picture Elijah. Dude was probably pretty gnarly at this point in time, right? Lots of, lots of beard, leather belt. That's how he's described, right? Guys just living out in the

wilderness, super tan from the sun, a little bit leathery looking, a little gnarly looking, and maybe a little bit of the Holy Spirit crazy in his eyes, right? And so, so he sees Elijah and he's like, whoa, that you, right? Cause it's been a, been a rough three and a half years. He's like, is that you Elijah? He says, yes. Elijah said, I want you to go tell Ahab. I want to come talk to

him. And he's like, why do you hate me? What, you, do you want to see me die? I know what happens. Everybody in the world has been forced to swear this oath that no, you're not hiding there. And I'm going to go be like, Hey, Ahab, I found Elijah. And then the Holy Spirit's going to suck you away somewhere. And no, you're not going to be there. And then I'm going to get killed. Why do you hate

me? Elijah responds. And he says, verse 15, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and he told him and Ahab went to meet Elijah. Like the showdown, right? Like they're both sort of sauntering towards each other. This is how I picture it in my mind. Probably not at all how it happened, but Ahab and Elijah, Ahab, the evil king

and all of his garb, Elijah, the kind of wild eyed guy walking towards him. And they're about to have this meeting. And when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is this you, you troubler of Israel? He said, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord. Now then send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel together with 450 prophets of Baal

and 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. It's interesting to me the way that, the way that Ahab addresses Elijah, because he calls him the troubler of Israel. And isn't that just like the world? Isn't it just like the world to be the ones who brought all of the judgment? And yet the guy who pronounced the judgment, he's the bad guy, right? It's kind of like when you go

to your friends and you talk to them about the judgment, you're the bad guy. And you're the bad guy. And bad things are going on in their life. And they're like, why did you bring all this bad into my life? And it's like, dude, I had nothing to do with that. Okay. God's at work in you. I can't help that. He says, you're the one that's troubled Israel with all of your sin. You brought this on

yourself with all of your sin. You brought this on the nation with all of the sin. But listen, when you're living godly and people see bad things happen, who always gets the blame? God, God gets the blame, right? And so he says, you're the troubler of Israel. And Elijah corrects him. And he says, I have an idea. I want you to gather all of the prophets of Baal and all of the

prophets of Asherah, 850 altogether, 450 of Baal, 400 of Asherah. And I want you to meet me at Mount Carmel. Now you should ask yourself a question. Why does he want him to meet at Mount Carmel? Well, because that's what the Bible says he's going to do. There's a specific reason why he has to meet at Mount Carmel. I actually learned this for the very first time studying at this,

this particular go around. According to Phoenician tradition, Mount Carmel is where Baal resided. So essentially what he says is, I want you to meet me at Baal's house and let's see who's God, right? And so he presents this challenge and we're about to see an epic battle between God and Baal. So it says, verse 20, so Ahab sent a message among all the sons of Israel and he brought the prophets together at Mount Carmel. Elijah came near to

all the people and said, how long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal followed him, but the people did not answer a word. Now before we get into this battle, I find that this statement that Elijah makes is one that we could probably apply to our current church culture today. How long will you waver between two opinions? You see in

the church today, especially in the Western culture, it is so easy to have one foot inside of the church and to have one foot in the church. And so I want you to meet at Mount Carmel. And so I want you to meet at Mount Carmel. And so I want you to meet at Mount Carmel. And so I want you to meet at outside of the church. And really, let me take it even farther than that. To have one half of you

that's following God and one half of you that's following the world. One half of you that says, I love God and his grace. The other half of you that says, praise God for his grace because I'm going to take advantage of it. And too many people are living that way. It's interesting because that was actually one of the things that one of the speakers this weekend at the FCA camp brought up.

He brought that verse out of Romans chapter 6 where he says, shall we continue in sin that grace should abound? May it never be. Don't be stupid. Don't be stupid. Don't be stupid. Don't be stupid. And yet we live in a world where that is probably one of the most important things that needs to be said to the church today. There's great revival taking place in the church today. There's great

revival taking place in the world today. But there's a great need to not just have converts, but to have disciples. Converts decide they want to follow a religion. Disciples decide they want to be like Jesus. And in order to be like Jesus, you cannot waver between two opinions. In order to be like Jesus, you can't have one foot in and one foot out. That was the thing that Jesus got the

most upset about with the churches in the book of Revelation. Because he says, I'm tired of you being this way. I'm tired of you being half in and half out. God would actually rather have you not claim that you're a believer than to be halfway. That's how serious God takes it. And so he looks at these people who were wavering between two opinions. They were like, yeah,

Baal's good when he can do something for me. God's good when he can do something for me. But I'm not right. I'm not right. I'm not right. I'm not right. I'm not right. I'm not right. I'm not willing to make a commitment between the two. There's a fancy theological term for that. It's called syncretism. Syncretism is where you add a little bit of God to whatever else it is that

you want to do. Sometimes that's in religions. Sometimes that's in life. And we say, I'm going to add a little bit of God so that I feel good about me. But I'm going to add a little bit of the world so that I can still enjoy myself. And God says, how long are you going to waver between two opinions? He says, if Baal is God, then follow him. But if Jehovah is God,

then you should follow him. And I want you to notice how the people responded. They didn't say a word. You know why? Because they were not willing to make a choice. And so he's going to show them who the real God is in the house of Baal. There's what it says. Elijah said to the people, verse 22, I alone am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Now, again, we got to pause here real quick because we're going to see the beginning of

an issue that will really rear its ugly head in chapter 19. Elijah thinks he's all alone. What have we just read? What did Obadiah do? He hid how many of the prophets? 100 of the prophets of God. So is Elijah the only prophet? No, but in his mind, he is. Even though Obadiah had just told him, did I not hide 100 of the prophets of God? And yet in this moment, we see the beginnings of

an issue that will ultimately come to a head in chapter 19. God will deal with it in the next chapter. But we see the beginning of it here when he says, I'm the only one that's left. He says, now, verse 23, let them give us two oxen. Let them choose one ox for themselves and cut it up and place it on the wood, but put no fire under it. And I will prepare the other ox and lay it

on the wood, and I will put no fire under it. Then you call on the name of your God, and I will call on the name of the Lord, the God who answers by fire. He is God. And all the people said, that's a good idea, right? Everybody's like, I don't know, it feels fair to me. So that's what he does. So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, you go first. Choose one ox for yourselves and prepare

it first. For you are many, and call on the name of your God and put no fire under it. So that's what they did. They took the ox, which was given them, and they prepared it. They called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us. But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they leaped about the altar which they had made. They came about at

noon. Elijah mocked them and said, Call out with a loud voice, for he is a God. Either he's occupied or gone aside or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened. So they cried with a loud voice, and they cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out. And when midday passed, they raved until the time of the

offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice, and no one answered. And no one paid attention. So the prophets of Baal go first, and they start doing their thing. You can imagine the excitement in their eyes at this point in time. We're going to show him what's up. We're going to show him the real thing. And so they start dancing around, and they start crying out to their God. And they even

go to the point of cutting themselves so that hopefully some sort of a blood sacrifice on their part will be enough to get their God to answer them. And truly, one of my favorite parts in the entire Bible is here, because Elijah talks trash on them, right? He's like a middle-schooler, on a basketball court at this point in time. He says, man, maybe he's asleep, and he needs to be waked up. Or maybe he's on a journey. And my favorite one is maybe he's occupied. Do you know

why that's my favorite one? Because if you really look at that in the Hebrew, do you know what it means by occupied? Maybe he's on the toilet. That's literally what that means. Like maybe he's relieving himself, right? So listen, one of the hardest things for me in going from being a youth pastor to being a senior pastor is that I couldn't make the same jokes anymore. Only in the

Bible, the more I read the Bible, the more I'm like, or can I, right? I'll get myself in trouble. But it is what it is. Elijah made the joke. So he says, maybe he's relieving himself. And of course, we're given the commentary. Nobody heard. Nobody answered. There was no voice from heaven. And so finally, it's the time of the evening sacrifice around three in the afternoon.

And Elijah said to the people, verse 30, come near to me. So all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar. And he made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two measures of seed. He arranged the wood, and he cut the oxen in pieces, and he laid it on the wood. He said, fill four pitchers with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.

Do it a second time. And he did it a third time. And he did it a third time. And he did it a third time. And he did it a third time. And they did it a third time. And the water flowed around the altar, and he also filled the trench with water. There's two or three things I want to point out to you about this. The first thing that I want to point out to you is that he repaired the altar of the

Lord. You see, there had been an altar there. Perhaps this was one of the high places. And while not God's best, it was still where they were sacrificing to the Lord at one point in time. And his goal is to restore the real worship of God in this moment. And so he repairs the altar of the Lord. But then he builds a new altar. And did you notice what he built the new altar out of? Twelve stones. And for some reason, and I just wrote it in the

margin of my Bible, it was simple. It was simple. And I was reminded of that because sometimes I think that we need some sort of, we think we need some sort of an elaborate show. We think we need some sort of elaborate things. We think we need all the pomp and all the circumstances and all the liturgy. Meanwhile, all God wants is something very, very simple. An altar made of earth with 12 stones. And so he builds that altar of 12 stones

and all that altar. He cuts up the sacrifice like he's supposed to, the wood on the altar. And he says, but wait, that's not all. He says, I want you to start filling up some pitchers with water. So three different times he has him fill pitchers with water after he dug a trench around this little altar of 12 stones that he had built. Everything that I've read indicated that it was

probably the altar of the Lord. And so he builds that altar of 12 stones. And so he builds that altar of 13 quarts of water that he poured over this, which really would have been a sacrifice at this point in time. Probably maybe even a little bit hard to find that much water at this point in time, perhaps some sort of a spring nearby that he was able to fill it up with. This would have taken

some time to do. And as he does so, he wants to create the most impossible situation so that when God answers, there is zero question who did the work. There was zero question who sent the fire. And can I just present something to you as something that maybe you should think about? Sometimes that's what God brings into our lives. He brings into our lives impossible situations so that when God moves, we know it was God who did the work.

That he reveals to us that he is the only one that could have done that. And the only way that he can do that is to create an impossible situation in our life. And that's what Elijah does. So he builds this altar, puts the sacrifice on it, covers it with water. And then I love it. At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that you

are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again. And then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, the Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. I love this.

So it's a really simple prayer. Remember what the prophets of Baal were doing? Dancing around, leaping around, cutting themselves, trying to get their God to answer. And I don't know how you picture this, but I picture this. The same way that he built the altar in a very simple way, I picture this as just a simple prayer that he offers to the Lord. Loud enough for the people to hear, but he didn't make a

spectacle of himself. It was just a simple prayer. Lord, you're God. Show that you're God. Show that I am your servant, and make the people know that you are the only God. Would you please answer me? It's just a simple prayer. Now, as we get ready for tomorrow, you know, tomorrow's a national day. You guys know that. You should all join me at Wilson Park at noon. Actually, I'm speaking at

that thing. I don't know if I've told you guys that or not. They give me 15 minutes to talk about prayer. Maybe I'll talk about this. I haven't decided yet. But tomorrow's a national day of prayer. And sometimes I think we feel like we have to have some elaborate, all the right words, pray in King James sort of a prayer. And we forget that God loves the simplicity of just a simple request. It doesn't require gyrations or dancing around or the

right sort of formula or the right sort of setting, the right mood lighting or any of those kinds of things. It's just a simple prayer to the Lord. And I love how God responds because God responded in an incredibly powerful way. He sent down fire from heaven. One commentary that I read said that he sent lightning, that the fire that he sent from heaven was actually lightning. Hard

to say. I'm not willing to go there just yet. I think a great big ball of fire just shot out of heaven. And it consumed everything. Did you notice that? It consumed the sacrifice. It consumed the wood. And what really gets me is it consumed the stones, right? Now, I've been to lots of campsites where, as a matter of fact, I was at one this weekend, where they have a fire in the middle of a firing. You know what the firing's made of?

Stones. I have never in my life seen a fire hot enough to incinerate a stone. That's pretty impressive. And that's what happened. Not only that, it dried up all the water and all of the dirt. And everybody went. I always wonder, was Elijah as shocked as everybody else? I mean, I know he had faith. I'm not trying to say he didn't have faith, but I wonder if he was like, son of a gun. I mean,

that's for real, you know? He probably looked at the prophets of Baal and said, don't you wish your altar was burnt like mine? Right? Don't you? I think that's what he said. It's not in the Bible, but that feels right. It feels like what he probably said at that point in time. A little hip shake. Anyway, so everything's... And I want you to notice how the people respond. The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. Oh my

gosh, it's the revival. Only it really wasn't, because they're going to go right back to worshiping Baal. But in this moment, a great victory took place. I want you to notice what happens. It says, then Elijah said to them, and that's not all, seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let one of them escape. So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon,

and he slew them there. And Elijah said to Ahab, go and eat and drink. For there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower. I love that he takes and kills all the prophets of Baal. And I know in our Western culture minds, we're kind of like, oh, that's so cruel. I can't believe he did that. Do you know what the Bible said? Do you know what the old covenant said to do with those that would lead you into idolatry? It said that they were to be

put to death. And while I do not advocate you going around and putting to death everybody that might lead someone into idolatry, you should certainly cut them out of your life. You should certainly cut that out of anything that you want to be a part of. And then he looks at Ahab and he says, time to go home, son. It's about to rain. Now, I love this because there's not a cloud in the sky. We'll see that in just a minute. Not a cloud in the sky,

but what did God tell him was coming? God told him rain was coming. And he just watched God do something that nobody else had seen before. And he said, better get home. It's going to rain. So he goes on from there. And it says, so Ahab went up to eat and to drink, but Elijah went up to the top of the mountain and said, go and eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of the

mountain and said, go and eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of the mountain and said, go and eat and drink. And he went up to the top of Carmel. He crouched down on the earth, his face between his knees. He said to his servant, go up now and look towards the sea. And he went up and he looked and he said, nothing. He said, go back. He did this seven times.

It came about at the seventh time that he said, behold, a cloud as small as a man's hand is coming up from the sea. And he said, go up. Say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down so that the heavy shower doesn't stop you. In a little while, the sky grew black with clouds and wind. And there was a heavy shower. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord was on Elijah. And he girded up his loins

and he outran Ahab to Jezreel. You know what I love particularly about this last part is, first of all, that he did not give up in prayer. He prayed the first time. He says, go look. And you would think with everything that just happened, and he's praying according to God's promise because God had told him rain was coming. You would think at this point in time, he'd go up and, nope, no clouds. Well, shoot, did I hear God

wrong? Am I not supposed to be praying for rain right now? No, he didn't do that. He's like, if God hasn't answered yet, then I'm going to keep going because this is what God told me to do. I've had people ask me before, how long do you pray for something? How long do you pray for the exact same thing? And I tell them, until God's released you from the burden. Until God says

it's not time to pray any longer. Because you don't know how long God wants you to keep praying because God is not only teaching you. He doesn't want you to do something, but he's working in a way, there's a spiritual battle going on that you can't see. So he does this seven different times. And the seventh time, he goes, he comes back and he says, I mean, there's like, there's like the tiniest cloud

I've ever seen in my entire life. It's like the size of a dude's hand, right? And Elijah's like, that's all I need. Isn't that great? All he needed was that little bit of knowledge that God had heard. He just needed that little bit of knowledge that God was answering the prayer. And he said, better tell him to run. Because it's about to get real. And that's exactly what happened. And then Elijah girded

up his loins. I don't know how old of a dude Elijah was by this point in time, but he just got done killing 450 prophets of Baal. I can't imagine that that was an easy thing to do. Not only that, but he built an altar, cut up an ox, and prayed to God to have that done. Dude had to have been exhausted. Girds up his loins. Basically, he picked up the center part of

his robe, tucked it into his belt, and he ran like fire, right? He ran and he beat Ahab in a chariot. Down to Jezreel, where the winter home was. And you would think at this point in time, Elijah is like superhuman, right? This guy is not real. This guy, this guy isn't human. Until you come to chapter 19. And the beautiful thing about chapter 19 of the book of 1 Kings

is that it reminds us that Elijah is a man of like passions, just like you and I. That's what we're told in James, right? That Elijah is a dude just like we are, and yet he prays, prayed that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain. And then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. And up to this point in time, you're like, this guy's unreal. Like you can't, you can't stop him. He has faith that's unbelievable. He must be superhuman.

But notice what it says in verse 19. I've actually entitled this chapter, Elijah's Depression. It says, now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. And then Jezebel repented of her sins and started following Jesus. No, that's not true. And then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, may the gods do to me and even more if

I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah. He left his servant there. Isn't it amazing that 450 prophets of Baal did not intimidate Elijah, but one woman did. It's kind of like the fact that, you know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't

know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. An entire army didn't, didn't intimidate Peter, but one, one little girl did. It's kind of like the fact that David at a point in time in his life could have slain Saul without anybody even knowing about it. And yet the very next chapter, he says, surely Saul is going to kill me.

It's amazing how we can go from the highest of spiritual highs, seeing God's victory in a way that we didn't even know was possible to the lowest of spiritual lows. And it's so amazing. And it's so amazing. And it's so amazing. And it's so amazing. And it's so amazing. And it's so fear that we don't even know what to do. Brothers and sisters, Elijah's about to go through a time

of deep depression. And that depression is going to come about because of several factors we'll talk about in just a little bit, but the greatest of them is fear. And he took his eyes off of God and he put his eyes on his circumstances. He took his eyes off of the God who consumed the sacrifice, the God who consumed the altar, the God who consumed the water, the God who gave him the strength to proclaim a drought, the God who gave him the strength to pray for rain, the God who gave him the strength to kill all the prophets of Baal. And he looked at one woman who said,

I'm going to kill you. And he said, surely she will. And he ran for his life. I tell you this because I want you to know when that happens to you, you're not alone. You're not the only person that's felt that way. You're not the only person that felt like, well, this is the end for me. And so as he moves on, notice what it says. He went a day's journey, verse four, into the wilderness. He came and sat down under

a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die and said, it's enough now, Lord, take my life for I am not better than my father's. And he laid down and he slept under a juniper tree. Now I find this to be kind of interesting because he sits there and essentially, and I hate to read too much into this, but it certainly feels this way. Elijah was somewhat suicidal at this point in time. I don't know that he was necessarily

considering taking his own life, but he was certainly willing for God to take it from him. And as he sat down underneath of this tree, he said, Lord, take my life. I just want to die because I'm not any better than all of my fathers. What did he mean by that? Does he mean he's worshiped Baal just like all of his fathers? No. He means I couldn't stop the worship of Baal just like all of my fathers couldn't stop the worship of Baal. Let me put it

in our terms. We understand, Lord, all of my work has been useless. Lord, all of my work has been pointless. And I got to tell you, whether you're involved in ministry, whether you're raising kids, whether you're trying to minister to the people around you, everyone at some point in time in their life just says, everything I'm doing is useless. Everything I'm doing is pointless.

It's not making any difference at all. I may as well just quit. As a matter of fact, I think it would be better if I just wasn't here. Well, that's the place that he's in. And so he lays down and he sleeps. And behold, there was an angel touching him. And he said to him, arise and eat. Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread, a bread cake baked on hot stones in a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. The angel of the

Lord came a second time and he touched him. And he said, arise and eat because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate and drank and he went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. I'd sure like to eat a meal like that, wouldn't you? I mean, that's pretty good. I want you to notice something about what God does with Elijah at this point in time,

because this is God at work because he sends an angel to minister to him. God doesn't send an angel to preach a message to him. God doesn't even send an angel to pray for him. God sends him an angel to bring him something. He sends him something to eat. You see, what Elijah needed at this point in time was his physical needs met because sometimes the physical and the spiritual emotional are so closely tied

to each other that one affects the other. Sometimes those two are so closely tied together that if the physical needs aren't being met the way that they should, then your spiritual needs will start to be affected as well. And I know that that sounds super unspiritual, but sometimes the best thing you can do is get a good night's sleep. Sometimes the best thing that you can do is eat a really good meal and take a day off and do nothing but rest. And it will absolutely change your outlook on life. And I don't think we take this

seriously enough in our culture today. As a matter of fact, I feel like we worship busyness in our culture today. I see it happen all the time on social media. I see people post on there all of the things that they do. And everybody's, oh, you're so busy. Look at you. How do you keep up with your life? And you know those people are just eating it up. And if that's you, I'm sorry,

I'm not trying to call you out, but I think you need to hear it. Worship busyness. Because we think that makes us more productive, and we think it makes us better. I had a guy tell me something yesterday. He said, if you're too busy, you're not organized. Something to think about, right? If you're too busy, you're not organized. And sometimes that's what God wants you to do. Sometimes God needs to meet the physical need

in your life so that the spiritual can get addressed after that. And that rest is one of the most important things that we can do. I had some friends that just got done training for a marathon. And if you go online and look up, I can't remember the guy's name right now, but he's the guy that everybody follows his plan. You know what day one of marathon training is? Rest. You're like, well, that's the dumbest thing

in the world. Shouldn't I start running? He says, nope, you've got a lot of running to do. You better rest today. That's day one of marathon training. One of the things, working with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, one of the things that they tell you is that you have to prioritize your Sabbath day. You have to prioritize your day off. As a matter of fact, my supervisor

has told me his job is to make sure that I don't skip my day off. He says, because if you're not physically rested, you are spiritually worthless to me. And I think that that's a pretty interesting thing. We have to prioritize those things in our lives. And we have to be aware of our physical things in our lives. And I talk about this because depression is a real issue that we deal with in

our culture today. And if we don't start paying attention to some of the physical aspects of it, we can never meet the spiritual aspects of it. You know what one of the things I've learned about me is? I'm a sunshine-dependent human being. I get seasonal depression really bad. Weeks like this, these are hard for me. When it's like, oh, look, relentless cloud cover and rain again. I would

never survive in Seattle. I would be like, someone show me the sun, right? And then tomorrow the sun's going to come out and I'm going to be like dancing and singing, right? I'll send videos of it if I can. Because all of a sudden it'll change everything. And I know that about, I've gotten to know that about me. And so I know on days like this when I'm like, like I just gotta wait till

tomorrow. And then I'll be like, here comes the sun. Right? And so that's exactly what God does for Elijah. He says, you need a nap and you need some food. And that food carried him for 40 days. But listen, he hasn't met his spiritual need yet. He just got him to where his mind can take in what God now has to tell him. So that's what happened. So he goes all the way to Mount Horeb. You know what Mount Horeb is? Mount Horeb is Mount

Sinai. Same place where Moses received the law. He runs for 40 days all the way to Mount Horeb. And on Mount Horeb, this is what happens. He came there to a cave, verse 9, and he lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. And he said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I've been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. The sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars,

and killed your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away. He said, go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord. And behold, the Lord was passing by. And a great, strong, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks

before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, there was an earthquake. The Lord wasn't in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord wasn't in the fire. And after the fire, a sound of a gentle blowing. Another translation, and more literally, it says, a soft whisper. Some of your translations say, a still, small voice. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle. And he went out,

and he stood at the entrance of the cave. Behold, a voice came to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I've been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away. A couple of things.

I want to point out to you here. The first is, what does God ask Elijah twice? What are you doing here? Is that because God didn't know what he was doing here? No, it's because God is so faithful in our lives. When we find ourselves in a point like this, to make us stop, to make us think, and to make us examine, how did I end up where I am? Why am I here? He didn't mean, why are you in Horeb? He didn't mean, why are you on top of

Mount Sinai right now? He didn't mean, why are you on top of Mount Sinai right now? He meant emotionally, spiritually. What are you doing here? He said, I want you to go stand on the mountain. So he goes out, and he stands on the mountain, and it's the same mountain where Moses received the law. And I want you to think about the fact that when Moses received the law, there was earthquakes, there was wind, and there was fire,

right? And so that's his past experience with God, because he's probably read all of the law, and he's read the story of when Moses received the law. And so he sees the wind, and God's not in the wind, and he hears the wind, and he hears the wind, and he hears the wind, and he hears the wind, and he hears the wind, and he hears the wind, and he hears the wind, and he hears the wind, and he hears the wind, hears the earthquake and God's not in the earthquake and he sees the fire which he had just seen 40 days before this consume a sacrifice but God wasn't in the fire and finally after all of those magnificent things took place it was a still small voice why because he just needed Elijah

to listen he just needed him to hear the voice of God in a gentle loving sort of way I will tell you again the same thing I said Easter morning sometimes God is right there you're just not listening you're looking for God in the wind you're looking for God in the earthquake you're looking for God in the fire meanwhile God's whispering to you in a still small voice but the noise around you is too great and you can't hear it and God asks him again what are you doing here and Elijah says Lord I'm all alone and they want to kill me I just think there were three reasons three things that had caused Elijah to come to probably the deepest depression he had ever been in his entire life three things and I

think that we should pay attention to them because I think these three things are what often happen to us to lead us into times of spiritual depression number one he felt all alone he felt all alone he didn't think anybody was there with him he thought it's just me and quite frankly I need fellowship I need friends I need someone alongside me but Lord I can't do this by myself and he felt completely all alone truthfully maybe even felt a little bit abandoned by God at this point in time he said it's just me he felt all alone have you ever been there never been in a place where you felt all alone nobody's there with you nobody's on your side and maybe you even feel like God abandoned you

maybe you're like Elijah and that depression has hit because you feel all alone number two he felt like his work was pointless he felt like his work was pointless I gotta tell you there is nothing harder than pouring your heart and soul into something and then going I don't think that I don't think that worked I don't think anybody got anything out of that I don't I don't think anything I'm doing is making any kind of a difference and I'm here to tell you right now raising kids and working with kids will make you spend a lot of your life going I feel like my work is pointless and sometimes you can feel that way in life you feel like what was the point of anything that I've done maybe maybe maybe for you it's that

you've been pouring your heart and soul into your walk with Jesus Christ you're still stumbling in the same sense and you're like what's the point I feel like my work is pointless maybe you've been praying for the same thing for years and years and years and you still haven't seen anything happen yet you're starting to get a little depressed because you're like it feels like my work is pointless Elijah understands because he felt like his work was pointless he says I'm better than my father's then number three he was just scared listen fear leads to depression anxiety which is a lot like fear leads to depression anxiety that is suppressed leads to depression that's what it tells us in the book of proverbs

and he was scared and he didn't know how to deal with it and he was starting to push down all those emotions and now they're all finally starting to come out remember we said that in the previous chapter he said it's just me he forgot that there was already a hundred other prophets now it's all starting to work its way out and now God can deal with it because it's out in the open but make no bones about it this guy was as depressed as they get right now but now that his physical needs were met he could hear the still small voice of God and I want you to notice what God tells him God says verse 15 the Lord said to him go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus and when you have arrived you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram

and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah I think that's how you say it you shall anoint as prophet in your place and it shall come about the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael Jehu shall put to death and the one who escapes the sword of Jehu Elisha shall put to death yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him you know I really appreciate about this God answered all of those three issues and he put him back to work I'm here to tell you right now and I could tell you this from experience the best thing you can do if you're battling depression is to let God

put you back to work wait don't I have to heal first mm-hmm let God put you to work you know what sometimes the best way to overcome depression is ministering to someone else because I'm here to tell you right now it takes your eyes off of you it takes your eyes off of what's going on in your life it takes your eyes off of the the things that are the worst for you at that point in time and it puts them on somebody else and you get to see the power of God take place he says go return Elijah ran a really long ways away from Israel he says I want you to go back and I want you to do some stuff I want you to anoint a king over Aram and I want you to anoint Jehu as King over the northern kingdom and I want you to get yourself

a partner you know why because he did not know you and you decide to do something different you know and I want this superior regard to you that's God's ability to贴 over the northern kingdom and I want you, you know, I'm gonna kick your a** but that is a lot of leadership, but if we do a lot of the research, because he did not need to be alone. He said, I'm going to give you a ministry buddy so you don't have to be all by yourself. I got to tell you, sorry, going back to the you got to get back to work thing. When I went through my hardest time of depression, that was when God put me into ministry.

And I was like, feels like the wrong time. And God was like, nope, this is exactly what I want to have happen. And he put me in charge of a college group up in Kansas City. And I got to tell you, my happiest nights of all of that time were when I got to teach the Bible study to that college group. I didn't feel bad those nights. I wasn't depressed those nights.

You know why? Because I was ministering to the people around me. And we laughed together and we fellowshiped together and we learned together. We hurt together sometimes. But it's absolutely what God did. He said, it's time for you to get to work. And that's what he sends him back to do. It's time to get to work. He says, I know you're scared, but Hazael, he's going to kill some of the prophets of Baal.

Jehu, he's going to kill some of the prophets of Baal. And who those guys don't take care of, Elisha is going to take care of for you. As a matter of fact, Jezebel is going to be dealt with. It's not said here, it will be soon. Because Jezebel is going to get dealt with. He says, you don't need to be scared. I have a plan. And you don't see it right now. But you don't need to be scared.

Because I'm going to take care of all of it. He says, and by the way, you need to go anoint Elisha. Because you're right. You need a ministry partner. And so I want you to notice how Elijah responds. He says, so he departed from there and he found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, while he was plowing with 12 pairs of oxen before him. And he with the 12th. And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him.

And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, let me kiss my father and my mother and I will go back and follow you. And he said, go back again for what have I done to you. So he returned from following him, took the pair of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen. He gave it to the people and they ate. And he arose and he followed Elijah and ministered to him.

I want you to think about the kind of a stud Elisha was. Remember what was there none of up to this point in time? Rain. He is plowing some hard ground, right? And Elisha is out there plowing the ground. And Elisha is out there plowing the ground. And all it says is he ran by and threw his mantle on him. He just throws some portion of his robe over on Elisha.

And Elisha is like, what's going on? And he's like, you're with me. He's like, well, can I say bye to my folks first? And he's like, yep, I don't mind you doing that. But then it's time to get to work. And Elisha is going to be an amazing prophet of God that will have double the portion of spirit that Elijah has on him. And so we see this beautiful ending to what God did here with Elijah.

Aren't you so glad God put stories like this in the Bible? Aren't you so glad that God lets us see the depth of humanity so that we can understand the depth of his divinity? It's pretty cool because we're reminded that God uses everyday people that sometimes struggle with depression, that sometimes struggle with fear, that sometimes feel all alone, like their work is pointless. If that's you this evening, I want to tell you, it's time to get back to work because God's got something for you to do.

Amen? Father, we come to you now, and I thank you so much for what you do in your word. And so, Lord, I pray that if there is anyone that's in here this evening or watching online, Lord, that's battled depression in their life, Lord, may they know that they're not weird, that it doesn't mean that they're not spiritual enough. It doesn't mean that they're not godly enough.

It just means that they're human. And in our humanity, we have to put our eyes back on your divinity. Amen? And so, Lord, give us the grace to do that, to turn our eyes upon Jesus. And, Lord, get back to doing what he's called for us to do. Lord, bring your healing into the lives of those individuals, the healing that only you can do. And we just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name.

Amen? Be blessed.