Well, as I mentioned tonight, we continue in our preaching through the book of 1 Kings.
! And tonight we'll be in 1 Kings chapter 19.
!
This challenge is to see who is the true God.
And so the prophets of Baal, they summon up their call to their God to see if He will rain down fire on their altar.
And we see it's this vain pursuit.
They call, they scream, they cut themselves and nothing happens.
In fact, Elijah kind of mocks them that their God does not answer.
And so then it's Elijah's turn and he has the prophets pour water again and again and again on the altar
before he calls to the one true God who does send down fire, who consumes this burnt offering
and the wood and the stone and the dust and the water.
And so we see this mountaintop experience for Elijah.
This highest hour perhaps of his where God's sovereignty and His power shines through.
And then we very quickly transition to this new chapter, chapter 19.
And we see what seems to be the spiritual giant having his greatest hour now experiencing perhaps his darkest hour.
And so that's going to be a focus of what we think about tonight, this pain of discouragement, this pain of despair that happens.
That can happen often in ministry.
It can happen in life in general.
And how do we deal with this despair?
What happens when we're depressed and we're disappointed by how life is going?
Where do we turn to for comfort?
And I think it can be a temptation.
It was for me, in fact, when I read this passage for the first time earlier this week,
when we see this transition from what Elijah was to what he becomes in this chapter,
and we can easily judge him to say, how did you lose your faith so quickly?
But I hope what we see actually is Elijah's status of despair can serve as a comfort for us.
Because we see this man of God struggling under hardship and we recognize he's just like us.
And we are just like him.
And in our frailty and in our fear, we have a God who still loves us.
And a God who protects us.
And a God who gives us hope even in our darkest hour.
And so let's turn to the reading of God's word.
1 Kings chapter 19, starting in verse 1.
Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
And so Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say,
May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.
And when he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,
while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness.
And he came to a broom bush and sat down under it and prayed that he might die.
I have had enough, Lord, he said.
Take my life.
I am no better than my ancestors.
Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.
All at once an angel touched him and said,
Get up and eat.
He looked around and there at his head was some bread,
baked over hot coals and a jar of water.
And he ate and he drank and then lay down again.
The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said,
Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.
And so he got up and ate and drank.
Strengthened by the food, he traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
And there he went to a cave and spent the night.
And the word of the Lord came to him,
What are you doing, Elijah?
And he replied,
I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.
The Israelites have rejected your covenant,
tore down your altars and put your prophets to death with the sword.
I am the only one left.
And now they are trying to kill me too.
The Lord said,
Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord,
for the Lord is about to pass by.
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart
and shattered the rocks before the Lord.
But the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind there was an earthquake.
But the Lord was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake came a fire,
but the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
When Elijah heard it,
he pulled his cloak over his face
and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then the voice said to him,
What are you doing here, Elijah?
And he replied,
I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.
The Israelites have rejected your covenant,
tore down your altars,
and put your prophets to death with the sword.
I am the only one left,
and now they are trying to kill me too.
The Lord said to him,
Go back the way you came,
and go to the desert of Damascus.
And when you get there,
anoint Hazael, king over Aram.
Also anoint Jehu, the son of Nimshi, king over Israel.
And anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat,
from Abel-Meholah,
to succeed you as a prophet.
And Jehu will put to death
any who escape the sword of Hazael.
And Elijah will put to death
any who escape the sword of Jehu.
Yet I reserve 7,000 in Israel,
all who knees have not bowed to Baal,
whose mouths have not kissed him.
This is the word of God.
Pray with me again.
Gracious God, we do not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from your mouth.
And so we ask, Lord,
that you send your Holy Spirit
that in the preaching of your word
our eyes may be opened,
our hearts may be softened,
and that our wills may be renewed.
Lord, we ask that we may receive your truth
and be comforted by your provinces this evening.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Now, I'm sure many of you know
the book Pilgrim's Progress.
Actually, James referenced it this morning
in his sermon.
And if you know,
it's written by a man named John Bunyan.
This was a preacher and a writer
back from the 1600s.
And this book, Pilgrim's Progress,
it's an allegory of the Christian life.
And so there's this main character, Christian,
who's moving from the city of destruction
on his way to the celestial city.
And so it tracks his journey
through different trials and temptations
and struggles.
He encounters different people along his path,
some who carry on with him.
And there's at one point in this story
where he meets a friend,
a man named Hopeful,
and they begin to travel together.
And as they begin to walk, though,
the path gets a little stony and difficult.
And off in the distance,
though, they see this other path.
It's green pasture.
This green meadow.
And they decide, you know what?
If we were to turn off there
and take this slight detour,
we can avoid this rocky patch.
And so they decide together to do so.
And as they walk through this meadow,
night begins to fall.
And a storm comes up.
And we realize the rains come and the winds.
And they realize they've made a horrible mistake.
But as the floodwaters rise,
they realize they can't turn around.
And now that it's too dark to see where they're going,
and so they decide to find shelter for the night,
thinking that at daybreak,
they'll return to the path.
But when day comes,
they see that we realize
this land is the land of a giant,
a giant named Despair.
And he captures them.
And he takes them to his castle,
Doubting Castle.
And he throws them in prison there
and says, you've been trespassing.
Now you will pay the penalty in this dungeon.
And so they survive in this dungeon
without food or water for days and days.
And each day this giant Despair comes
and he beats them and he beats them.
And he encourages them to take their own life
because they'll never escape.
And so after many days of this happening,
Christian, he's ready to take this advice
and end his own life.
And at this point in the story,
we see Christian in his journey.
It mirrors very much the journey of Elijah here,
this prophet in a very similar state of hopelessness.
He's been portrayed as this faithful man
and now he seems to be without hope at all.
And so that's what I want us to focus on tonight.
As we think about discouragement
and we think about being depressed,
when we feel like we're at the end of the rope,
what are we to do?
And so I think from our passage in 1 Kings here,
there's really three things I want us to focus on
in regards to discouragement.
First, the cause of discouragement.
Second, the characteristics of discouragement.
And third, the cure for discouragement.
The cause, the characteristics,
and the cure for discouragement.
And so let's first consider the cause of discouragement.
Now I think we can think about cause in two ways here.
We can think about it circumstantially
and we can also think about it spiritually.
Again, if we think to the very end of chapter 18,
what's just happened here?
There's been this great victory.
The prophets of Baal have been defeated.
The rain comes.
The drought has been lifted.
And it says that Ahab,
he's hurrying home to tell Jezebel what's happened.
And it's interesting here
because Elijah could have stayed on that mountain,
but instead he chooses to go see Jezebel as well.
Ahab, it actually says he's on a chariot.
But somehow Elijah on foot beats the chariot to Jezebel.
And we see, obviously,
he's probably anticipating some sort of fantastic result here.
That finally Jezebel's heart of stone will crumble.
That she'll finally submit herself to the one true God.
That she'll turn from her wickedness
when she hears what the true God has done.
But in fact, she does the exact opposite, right?
She threatens to kill him.
And so we see circumstances like this
that can reasonably think will lead us to despair.
But the thing is,
it's not simply circumstances that guarantee us
to go into despair
because Elijah's faced hardship before, right?
We see this in the passages previous.
He was no stranger to hardship.
He had, in fact, told Ahab to his face,
you're a troubler of Israel,
risking death at the very least.
He's endured drought.
He's raised the dead.
He's defeated these prophets.
And so it's not simply circumstances for Elijah
that caused him to fall into despair.
I think oftentimes we like to blame our circumstances
for our condition of despair or for discouragement.
But the reality is that oftentimes our discouragement,
it reveals more about our spiritual condition
than our circumstances.
You know, all that I mentioned before
that happened to Elijah,
he does so in reliance on God.
But here we see a change in his attitude,
a change in his outlook
because instead of focusing on God and what he has done,
he begins to focus on self.
And so we see this play out
when he's at Mount Horeb.
He's asked twice,
why are you here?
And he gives the same answer twice.
He says, I've been very zealous for the Lord.
Everyone else has rejected you.
I alone have left.
Everyone's trying to kill me.
And so he's not really trying to speak at all
about what God has done.
He's speaking about what he's done.
He's a concern for his own life.
It seems as though he's relying on his own work,
his own merit,
as being the foundation for why he should be saved.
And we see some discouragement here too, right?
He's seen success in his ministry up to this point.
And now that success doesn't come,
he begins to question the Lord.
As if success in and of itself has been his God,
and that's almost been more important
than serving the one true God.
And so instead of trusting in God
and relying on his promises,
he begins to listen to the threats of man
and rely on his own strength.
And so I wonder, do we do the same thing?
I mean, there's certainly many in this room
who face hardships of various kinds, right?
Many who have lost loved ones.
Many who have maybe not been as successful
in your career as you might have hoped.
You face financial uncertainty.
You have troubles in your family.
You're battling illness.
Battling depression.
You seem to, as though you can't find stability
in your life.
And I think we can experience this too,
not only in the individual sense,
but also in the corporate sense.
As we think about this church.
Maybe you've been at this church for a long time.
And you think maybe we're in a hard spot.
Maybe the church isn't as well off as it used to be.
Maybe membership is low.
Maybe families are few.
Maybe our impact has begun to be limited.
And how do we respond spiritually
when we face that kind of discouragement?
I think oftentimes we do what Elijah does
and we turn our eyes off from God
and we begin to think about ourselves
and our own need for success
to turn to our own path
as we seek our own solution to our problems.
Because this is what Christian does here
in our book, right?
He turns off.
The reason he gets captured by this giant despair
is because he's turned off the king's path.
He's turned off the king's road to his own way.
When difficulty comes,
he chooses his own path to solve his own problems.
I think that often happens when
we probably think incorrectly
about the Christian life at times.
We expect it to be easy perhaps.
We fail to recognize
the hardship that we should expect.
We fail to recognize
that the cross of Christ is a sign to us
that we share in the sufferings of Jesus,
not that it's a guarantee
to remove us from all hardship.
And so the disappointment,
it may be sparked by our circumstances at times.
Oftentimes it's perpetuated
by the spiritual state
that we're in
when we choose to turn from God
and rely on self.
And so that's the reason
that we see for Elijah's discouragement here.
I want to look,
take a little bit deeper look
at the characteristics
of his discouragement now.
Because I think what Elijah's experienced,
I think we all can experience this at times.
So practically,
what does it look like
when we experience disappointment and despair?
Well, I think first of all,
we often experience fear.
This is exactly what Elijah experiences
from the very beginning.
He had been portrayed
as this figure of bravery
and now he's running for his life.
And I think the same thing can happen to us.
When hardship comes,
we feel as though we need to question God
or question our future.
What's going to happen?
What does my future hold?
And I think we see this
in the people of Israel too.
When finally they make it
through the promised land
and through the wilderness,
they're making their way
into the promised land.
Joshua is now their leader.
What is,
what's the command
and the instruction
that God gives Joshua
over and over again?
This encouragement
of don't be afraid.
Be strong.
Be courageous.
Do not fear.
And he gives reason
for why we're not to be afraid
because the Lord your God
will be with you
wherever you go.
And so I think we see here
that fear comes
when we choose
to forget God's power
and forget his presence.
I think we can often
kind of slide
into spiritual amnesia
at times.
When trials come,
we forget how God
has provided for us
in the past.
And just like the people
of Israel,
it's easy to trust God
when things are going well.
But when hardship comes,
we begin to question,
is God really there?
We begin to question
his track record
and we become crippled
with fear.
Will this hardship
ever end?
And so we need
to be reminded
as the people of Israel
were over and over again,
when God gives new command
to them,
he reminds them
of how he's been faithful
to them.
I am the Lord your God
who has brought you
out of the land of Egypt.
He's telling us,
I know you become fearful
when you forget.
So don't forget
that I am your sovereign,
all-powerful,
loving Savior.
Another characteristic
that I think also follows
very closely to fear
is this feeling
of loneliness
and isolation.
Think about verse 10 again.
How does Elijah answer God?
He says,
look,
all of Israel's rejected you.
I alone have left.
Everyone's trying
to kill me now.
And when we face hardship,
I think we can feel
very, very alone.
We can often experience,
well,
I'm the only one
who has ever experienced this.
No one knows
what I'm going through
because it's a unique situation.
This is what we sang about
in Psalm 88.
This is what the psalmist is saying.
He feels that he's set apart
with the dead.
That God remembers him no more.
That he's been cut off.
That he alone is left.
And is it true
that when we feel
this loneliness and despair,
oftentimes we make it
all the worse
because we choose
to deprive ourselves
from company?
This is what Elijah does here.
He flees to Beersheba,
but he leaves his servant
and then he keeps traveling on.
No doubt,
the servant was a companion of his,
a friend,
someone who knew him,
and yet he decides
to leave him behind
in his despair.
And so why do we do this sometimes?
When we experience hardship
or difficulty,
why do we isolate ourselves?
It may be because
we like to wallow
in our sorrow.
It may be because
we want to be justified
in the way that we feel.
We don't want to share
our burdens with others.
We don't trust
that they maybe have
our best intentions,
that they can provide
help for us.
We don't want to be
encouraged sometimes.
And I think we can see
this play out
in the church even.
I had the opportunity
to share a little bit
this morning
about community groups
and the value
of community groups
and how we're looking
to build community
and unity
as we come together
midweek.
But no doubt
there are some
in the church
who have always
avoided community groups
because you just,
maybe you don't trust
those in the church.
Maybe you have issue
with something
about the church
or in your life
that you just
don't want to share.
And you certainly
don't want to be bothered
by other people's problems.
And so you isolate yourself.
And in your isolation
we can begin
to perpetuate
these feelings
of despair
rather than seek others
to bear our burdens.
Another characteristic
I think we see
in Elijah
in regards to his despair
is one of exhaustion.
Right?
He's had this
mountaintop experience
and now is fleeing
for his life.
He runs into the wilderness.
He asks God to die
and he falls asleep.
And even when he's
awoken by an angel
you think,
okay,
that's something
that's going to
wake him up,
right?
He wakes up enough
to eat a little food
and then go back
to bed again.
Many of you know
Charles Spurgeon
who was a minister
down in London
in the 1800s
known as the
Prince of Preachers.
Someone who preached
for almost 40 years.
Prolific preacher.
Often preached
10 sermons a week
to thousands of people.
His own sanctuary
holding 5,000 to 6,000 people.
But yet he had
a very public
battle with depression.
At age 22
when he was preaching
to thousands
in this big music hall,
someone yelled out
fire.
And though there
wasn't any fire
in the building
it caused a panic
and people got up
and started running out
and in the chaos
seven people
were trampled to death.
And this was an episode
that never left him.
He was devastated
by the screams
of the crowd,
by the weight
of his own responsibility
and that tragedy
scarred him for life.
But on top of that
he battled
multiple chronic illnesses.
He was often overworked
by his preaching,
by his counseling,
by his caring for the poor,
by his writing
and he was often left
utterly exhausted.
And he would describe
these bouts
of darkness
and depression
as the dark night
of the soul.
And I wonder
if we ever feel that way.
as if we're trying
to keep all these
plates spinning
and we have family
and we have friends
and we have church
and we have other
responsibilities,
we have activities,
we have our own health
and we feel like
we're trying the best
we can but
maybe we're failing
at everything.
And so maybe like Elijah
we just want to cry out
and call enough,
enough God,
I'm ready to call it quits.
I'm at the end
of the rope,
I'm sick of trying,
take my life.
And we can actually reach
a point of being irrational.
I think that's the point
that Elijah ends up here
because he's praying
out to God
that God may take his life
while he's actually
running for his life.
If he truly wanted
to lose his life,
stop running.
Jezebel will certainly
kill you.
But we see he's in
this downward spiral
of fear
and loneliness
and isolation
and exhaustion.
And perhaps we felt
that same way
and so we ask
what are we to do?
Well that brings us
to our third
and final point
because we see here
a cure.
A cure for our despair
it's revealed
in the tenderness
of God.
And we see this
both in word
and in deed here.
When Elijah runs
into the wilderness
what does God do?
Does he yell at him?
Does he chastise him?
Does he reprimand him
or punish him?
No.
He offers him
nourishment and rest.
If you're a parent
in the room
certainly you've
experienced this before
when you've had
a young child
an infant
a toddler
who is just
they're starting
to crumble
and they're crying
and they're screaming
and they're inconsolable
and they don't want
to be held
and they don't want
to be put down
and you realize
what they need
is what?
They need sleep.
And it's amazing
the transformation
that occurs
when they wake up.
You put them down
a little devil
and they wake up
a little angel.
My own boy
Crawford
our youngest
he was at nursery
this week
and took a fall
and bumped his head
and the nursery
called Rachel
to come pick him up
and he had this
cut on his head
that wasn't stopping
bleeding
as Rachel was
consoling him
and asking him
how he was doing
he answered
and said
I could really
use a cup of tea.
Now if anyone's
doubting that I'm
raising a Scottish child
there's your answer
right there
and he got his
cup of tea
when he got home
and he was feeling
a lot better.
And so I don't mean
to trivialize this point
but honestly
sometimes
when we are
at our lowest
even as adults
what we really need
is a snack
and a nap.
That seems
very simple
but this is
what we see
in God's kindness
to Elijah here
because what we see
is we are human
our strength
and our energy
is finite
and our God
is not a slave
master
he is a good
father
who gives
good gifts.
And I think
often times
in our despair
we often
neglect to see
the love
and the goodness
of God
and it can come
in many forms
and we can receive
it in many
different ways.
It may be time
with a good friend
who makes you laugh.
It may be the flowers
in your garden.
It may be a beautiful
sunrise or sunset.
It may be the cool breeze
when you're walking
to church this evening.
It may be a cup of tea
by the fire.
See God gives us
our senses
so that we can see
and smell
and hear
and taste
and touch
that he is good
and that he cares.
Secondly
we see here
that God
not only provides
nourishment
but he listens
to Elijah here.
Elijah
is asked twice
by God
what are you doing here?
Now I think
you could say
well is God
being harsh here?
I don't really think
he is.
I think he's not
speaking in a
condescending way
but he's really
permitting Elijah
to vocalize
his grief.
Because we see here
Elijah
he really doesn't
give a good answer.
He's perhaps
expressing a bit
of frustration
or pride
but we still
see God
listens to him.
He allows him
to pour out
his heart
and to be
honest with
his feelings.
And I think
this is something
that we often
fear to do
ourselves
when we pray
because we
want to
keep up
appearances.
We want
to appear
as though
we're spiritual
and say
the right
thing.
But in fact
I think
what we see
here is that
venting our
frustration
through prayer
can be
a wonderful
starting point
for the God
to start working
at our hearts
and to align
our wills
with his.
And so we
can say to
God
I hate
my job.
We can
say to
God
I'm sick
of my
family.
We can
say to
God
I'm sick
of not
having a
family.
You can
say to
God
I'm sick
of the
people in
this church.
You can
say to
God
I'm sick
of my
illness.
I'm sick
of being
sick and
tired.
And he
welcomes
that.
You know
why?
Because he's
willing and
ready to
answer.
And that's
what he
does here
to Elijah.
We read
that Elijah
comes to
Mount Horeb
here.
This is
Mount Sinai
by a
different name.
And so
this is the
same mountain
that the
people of
Israel came
and received
the Ten
Commandments
from God.
The same
mountain
where God
revealed himself
to Moses.
And so we
see here
almost Elijah
is mirroring
a lot of
his activities.
He travels
for 40 days
and 40 nights
to come to
Mount Horeb.
It kind
of mirrors
the people
of Israel
spending 40
years in
the wilderness
before coming
to the
promised land.
And here
he too
meets with
God in
the same
way that
Moses does.
We see
here that it
says that
when God
appeared to
Elijah it
says there
was a
strong wind
that came
and an
earthquake
and fire
but God
wasn't in
those elements.
We had
seen his
power and
his might
up on
Mount Carmel
to the
prophets
of Baal.
But right
here to
Elijah he
comes in
a still
small voice.
He comes
with a
message of
hope and
a plan of
victory.
Again God
could have
been angry
Elijah for
his actions
for his
attitudes but
instead he
calls him
back to
action like a
general summoning a
soldier.
Don't be a
deserter.
Come back to
the front lines.
You are needed
here.
You have
duties to
fulfill.
And of
course God
doesn't need
Elijah to
complete his
task here but
we see that.
And when he
is welcoming
Elijah back
into his
mission he's
actually pulling
him from that
well of
despair.
And I think
he does the
same for us.
And he does
so by announcing
good news.
You're not
alone.
I'm raising
up another
king.
I'm raising
up another
prophet.
There are
7,000 other
faithful Israelites
when you think
you're all
alone.
He's saying
my plan will
not fail.
My timing may
not be what
you think it
should be.
It may not
occur in a
dramatic fashion
that you were
expecting.
But I am in
sovereign control
of this
situation and
I have a
wonderful rescue
plan to save
my people.
And he
says I will
send another
who will
suffer in
your place.
My son
Jesus will
conquer death
and fully and
finally defeat
the enemy
forever.
So God is
reminding Elijah
to take heart
that this is
his promise.
God is
so if we
think back
to Pilgrim's
progress again
as Christian
is kept
in this
castle of
doubt
by this
giant despair
and he's
being beaten
daily.
There comes
one last
night where
the giant
comes to
him and
beats him
and advises
him again
once again
to kill
himself and
if he
doesn't he
promises that
he will come
in the morning
to kill him
personally.
And I'll
read to you
what happens
at that
point.
Because
Christian
and hopeful
they begin
to pray.
It says
well on
Saturday
about midnight
they began
to pray
and continued
in prayer
till almost
daybreak.
And now
a little
before it
was day
good Christian
as one
half amazed
break out
into a
passionate
speech
what a
fool am
I
thus to
lie in
a stinking
dungeon
when I
have well
to walk
at liberty
I have a
key in my
bosom
called
promise
that will
I am
persuaded
open
any
lock
in
doubting
castle
then
said
hopeful
that's
good
news
good
brother
pluck
it
from
your
bosom
and try
and then
Christian
pulled it
out of
his bosom
and began
to try
the dungeon
door
whose bolt
as he
turned
the key
gave back
and the
door
flew open
with ease
and Christian
and hopeful
both came
out
and then
he went
out to
the outward
door
that led
to the
castle
yard
and with
his key
opened
that door
also
and after
that went
to the
iron gate
for that
must be
open
too
but the
lock
went
desperately
hard
yet the
key
did
open it
and then
they
thrust
open
the gate
to make
their
escape
with
speed
but that
gate
as it
opened
made
much
of a
cracking
that it
waked
the giant
despair
who hastily
rising
to pursue
his prisoners
felt his
limbs too
frail
for his
fits
took him
again
and so
he could
by no
means
go after
them
and then
they went
on
and came
to the
king's
highway
and so
were safe
because they
were out
of the
giant's
jurisdiction
we see
here that
Christian and
hopeful are
saved by the
promise
of the
savior
and this
is the
same
promise
that was
given to
Elijah
it's funny
when you
think that
Elijah here
is pleading
with God
to take
his life
but in
fact
we read
that Elijah
never
actually
experiences
physical
death
he is
taken up
in a
chariot
with
God
and we
wonder
we can
wonder
if this
episode
of fear
and disappointment
and despair
if Elijah
looked back
and thought
just how
foolish
he was
to forsake
the promises
of God
and the
reality is
that we
experience
those promises
too
and it's
not promises
that we
will not
face
hardship
but when
we do
we have
an ever
present
loving
sovereign
God
whose
plan
is
perfect
and whose
victory
is sure
and so
we can
be assured
of this
that when
we fall
into despair
we fall
into the
arms
of loving
and gracious
God
who is
willing
and able
to raise
us up
again
let's pray
and