1 Kings 19:1-18 "A Man With A Nature Like Ours"

1:01And I ask you to give all of us ears to hear it rightly. We are dependent totally upon you. So we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me ask a question real quick. How many of you, and the kids, you guys can raise your hands if you want to. How many of you enjoy roller coaster rides? I see adult kids as well. Raise your hands if you enjoy a good roller coaster. Many of you are terrified of roller coasters. You can't stand roller coasters. We got a pretty even splitting here. I'm kind of surprised. Let me tell you, tell a story of a roller coaster ride that I went on once. On the screen behind me, that's the picture of the Goliath.

1:48The Goliath is a roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia. When it was built years ago, it was at that time, if not the highest, one of the highest roller coasters in the world. Well, a few years back, when my daughter, I think she was about 13, when we were at Six Flags Over Georgia, I convinced her to go on this roller coaster ride with me. She had never been on a roller coaster before. So I thought Goliath would be a great way to break her in.

2:20And she didn't really want to go, and I said, you know, Olivia, come on. Just go with me. It's not that big of a deal. It's a whole lot of fun. You'll enjoy it. And, you know, I cajoled her and forced her to get on the ride with me. And, of course, she was nervous, and we got on that ride. And if you've ever been on a big roller coaster, the first part of the roller coaster is this little click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click part. You know, that part of the ride? That's the part that gives my wife tremendous anxiety. And knowing that, well, my daughter was the offspring of my wife and me, I should have anticipated that it might have given her some anxiety as well. So sure enough, we're going up this click, click, click, click, click. And now, at first, I looked over. And she's she's kind of smiling. She's enjoying it because it's a beautiful view.

3:04I mean, we can see all of Atlanta. We can see all the way to Stone Mountain. I think we can see into Alabama from the top of that roller coaster. And you get to the top and it kind of slows down, the clicks stop. And on that particular roller coaster, it just kind of has this nice gradual turn. And then all of a sudden, there's a drop. You go back down to the exact point you came from, but in milliseconds, all right? You are dropped back down. And that whole ride, the Goliath, is just a series of these really, really high highs and these really, really low lows. Now, I, on that roller coaster ride, my arms were up, I'm screaming, I'm having a blast. I wasn't even really paying attention to Olivia.

3:51Well, when the ride is done, we get off and I look over at her and I say, wasn't that great? And she said, Dad, I passed out. To which I said, oh, stop it. You did not. And she said, yes, I passed out. I said, quit exaggerating. You didn't pass out. Well, I don't know if you're familiar with rides like that, especially on the ones that are the real big attractions at these parks. They have a little booth where they take pictures of you on the ride. And we walk over past this booth, and I decide, hey, let's just look and see. What our picture looks like. And sure enough, there I am with my arms up screaming, and Olivia is sitting beside me, her head's cocked back. She's out cold.

4:42I'm just very glad at that moment the Department of Children's Services wasn't nearby, or I may have been taken in for some questioning. You see, for my daughter, those drops were terrifying. They were so terrifying that it literally incapacitated her. She couldn't do anything. She passed out. The fear gripped her so much. Now, you've heard it referred to, or you've heard the illustration before of life being like a roller coaster. We have ups and we have downs in life.

5:22The problem is, when those downs come, sometimes it's so difficult, it's so scary that we become incapacitated, that we don't even know what to do next. And that's exactly what we see in the life of Elijah. In the passage that we just read, we see the lowest of lows in Elijah's life and his ministry. It is such a disorienting experience for him. It is such a fearful experience for him that he basically becomes incapacitated. He doesn't know what to do. He just wants to give up. He wants it all to end. He even wants his life to end.

6:07You see, just before this passage, Elijah had experienced the high. The click, click, click, click, click, right? If you know the context here, back in chapter 17 of 1 Kings, Elijah had originally pronounced a drought upon Israel that would result in a famine because God was bringing judgment upon Israel. Now, Elijah was the prophet, because you know, prophets in the Old Testament are usually sort of God's prosecuting attorneys. And Israel had been sinning and going far away from the Lord. And so Elijah comes to be this prosecuting attorney and he pronounces God's judgment upon those northern tribes. And then shortly after that, we see Elijah being given such spiritual power that he actually brings back a widow's child from the dead. Such is the power of his ministry. And then in chapter 18, we have probably the most famous aspect of Elijah's life, that confrontation with the false prophets on Mount Carmel.

7:08If you know the story, Israel was steeped in the worship of Baal. And so Elijah puts out a challenge. Say, bring your prophets. Bring them. The prophets of Baal, 450 prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of Asherah. So these false prophets come. It's 850 against one. And the challenge was, all right, we're both going to make an altar. Elijah says, I'm going to make one. I'm going to put my offering on the altar, and you're going to make yours and put your offering on it. Whichever God responds with fire is the one true God.

7:39And of course, the prophets of Baal, they make their little altar and they dance around. They act like morons and they start cutting themselves, and nothing happens. So Elijah then assembles his altar with the wood and the rocks and puts the offering on it. He actually wants to make sure they know what's going to happen is from God and not some sort of fluke. And so he actually tells them to pour water on top of the sacrifice, and they even dig a trench around it, and it's filled with water. It's overflowing with water. And Elijah prays. He says, This, O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel. At that moment, fire comes down, such a consuming fire that it not only eats up the sacrifice, but the wood and the rocks and the water, it's all vaporized instantly.

8:30And of course, after that dramatic encounter, Elijah, when we see the people of Israel that were witnessing this, fall on their face, and Elijah commands them to take these false prophets and put them to death. And after this dramatic encounter, Elijah then goes and prays for rain, that rain would return to Israel. And sure enough, God answers that prayer. And Ahab, the evil king of Israel at that time, he sees this and what all happens, and he decides to get in his chariot and head back. To Jezreel, and Jezreel was the capital, the royal city of Israel at that time.

9:06But Elijah, in the power of the Spirit, runs, outruns Ahab's chariot, and gets to Jezreel before Ahab does. And victory is at hand, right? All these amazing things that happen, victory is at hand. Click, click, click, click, click. And then 1 Kings 19. And Elijah enters into a devastatingly incapacitating descent of disappointment, disillusionment, despondency, despair, and even depression. Now, why did I choose this passage of scripture to preach this morning? First of all, because there's not one single person in here who has not experienced the ups and downs of life. And if you're in ministry here, there's not one single person involved in ministry that has not experienced the ups and downs of ministry.

10:12The scriptures say in James chapter 5, verse 17, that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. We're all just like Elijah, just as susceptible to the ups and downs of life. And this passage has also been on my mind. Recently, over the past few years, to be honest with you, because of the place our nation finds itself right now with an unprecedented mental and emotional health crisis that is particularly affecting the younger generations. It seems like many in the younger generations are in a constant state of that downward, that downward thrust, that downward fall, in constant anxiety.

11:03And also, I desperately want us to see this morning this truth. If you don't get anything else out of this passage, get this truth: that God meets his people in their weakness to renew, restore, and recommission them for his purpose. God meets his people in their weakness to renew, restore, and recommission them for his purpose. So, as we jump into the text this morning, I want us to see first of all how Elijah ended up in this emotional, spiritual pit that he needed to be lifted out of. And as we walk through the text, I want you to see that a lot of this happens in Elijah's life largely because God is choosing to work in a way that was different than what Elijah had expected. In other words, God was not working on Elijah's terms, and I can guarantee you that 90% of the time that we follow. Into a spiritual depression and into spiritual despair. It has to do with the fact that God is working in a way that's not on our terms. We want God to do A, and He's choosing to do B or maybe Z.

12:18And that puts us in a bit of a tailspin sometimes. So let's walk with Elijah this morning. And in doing so, I want us to see three things. Number one, I'm going to go ahead and give you all three points of the sermon up front here. Number one, the circumstances that rattled Elijah's mind. That's what we're going to look at first. And then the compassion that renewed Elijah's strength. And then thirdly, the confrontation that restored Elijah's ministry. So first, the circumstances that rattled Elijah's mind. I need you to back up with me real briefly and just glance at the very end of chapter 18 in verse 46. And as I alluded to earlier, we see Elijah, empowered by the Spirit, running ahead of Ahab to Jezreel. Now, Jezreel is the city where the royal palace was. It's where Ahab, the king, the seat of his governance, was situated. And it was the place where, if you know Ahab, he was also married, right? It was where that wickedest of all the women in the scripture lived. Okay, and her name was Jezebel. It's where Jezebel was. Still waiting to hear the news of what happened at Carmel. Now, the question I have, though, is why would Elijah run to Jezreel? After everything that happened, why is he going to the place where Jezebel is? And I believe that he's running there because he's expecting some sort of final victory. Okay, he's just seen these pagan prophets annihilated. He's seen the people of Israel even fall on their faces and worship Yahweh. God answered his prayer, and rain had returned. And by the way, in the scriptures, rain equals blessing. Where there's no rain, there's no blessing. So the rain has returned, so he's assuming God's blessing is returning upon the land. So what were his expectations coming to Jezreel? Well, we can only speculate.

14:18Maybe he was expecting there to be some sort of repentance. That Jezebel was going to come out of the palace and say, yes, I'm repenting. I'm turning away from Baal, and I'm turning to the one true God. Maybe that's what he was expecting. I think more likely he was expecting revolution. The people were going to rise up and cast this woman out, throw her down. Or maybe he was expecting some other demonstration of God's judgment, some sort of way that God's wrath would come upon this woman. But as he arrives in Jezreel, he doesn't see any of those things. Instead, verse 2 of the text we're looking at this morning, it says, Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so may the gods. Do to me and more also if I do not make your life as a life of one of them, referring to the dead prophets of Baal, by this time tomorrow. So she has set the clock. You got 24 hours, bud.

15:16How many of you grew up watching, or you enjoyed watching the show? It's kind of an old show now, and I feel old saying it's an old show, but the show 24. Remember 24? Okay, and there's that little clock in between each little section of the show. That's in Elijah's mind now. Beep, boop, beep, boop. The time, within 24 hours, you're dead. Elijah's first response to these circumstances is to succumb to fear. Look at verse 3. It simply says, he was afraid.

15:50And all throughout this story, we see some stark contrast between the Elijah of chapter 18 and the Elijah of chapter 19. And here's the first one. Think about it. Earlier, he was giving ultimatums to King Ahab. He was rebuking the crowds. If you look back in chapter 18, he's even taunting the false prophets. He had no fear. But now he's running in fear the moment he gets Jezebel's message. Now, what has changed? Well, the circumstances have changed. There was no spectacular, victorious exclamation point. That woman was still. And power. God was not working in the way that Elijah had expected. The late Tim Keller said this: Often our greatest discouragements come when we make our plans God. And then, when our plans fail, we feel as though God has failed. God hasn't failed us, our plans have failed us.

16:57I don't know if that's anything you guys struggle with. I know it is for me. How many times have I made my plans God? And when my plans fall to the ground in ashes, I think that God has failed me. Friends, God doesn't work on our terms. How often have we made good plans and even set up good and set up our expectations only for God to chart a different course? And as a result, faith and courage get replaced with fear and discouragement. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. I've been there. I know you have as well.

17:43And when we're rattled, we often run. So you see, first of all, Elijah's response was to these circumstances was fear. His second response is to flee. Okay, so look again at the contrast. When things went as expected on Mount Carmel, Elijah was ready to fight. But when things fall free, Don't go as expected in Jezreel. Elijah is quick to take flight. Verse 3, then he was afraid and he arose and he ran for his life and came to Beersheba. He ran for his life. Where is the bravery of this man from chapter 18? A man who seemingly didn't fear death. And now he's running to Beersheba. Now, why Beersheba?

18:25Well, there's nine different places in the Old Testament where the promised land is referred to as the land of Dan to Beersheba. In other words, those were sort of the boundaries. From Dan to Beersheba. In other words, he's running to the very boundary, the very border of the promised land. He's running to the southernmost border. Dan was in the north. Beersheba was in the south. Now, you may not have heard me mention it earlier, but I did. Elijah was commissioned to what? The northern tribes of Israel. So he has run away from his commission. He's running south to the farthestmost point of the promised land. And then we read this. Very interesting. It says he left his servant there. Now, what is Elijah doing by leaving his servant? Well, first of all, he's isolating himself.

19:22How many of you in here struggle with that? When those moments of fear come, the first thing you do is isolate yourself. My wife has a word for it. She calls it turtling. She gets in her shell. And she knows it's not the right place to be. But that's her struggle. When fearful circumstances come, she just wants to hide away in her shell. She isolates herself. But more importantly, and I'll explain why here in a second, he's leaving the ministry.

19:57You see, it wasn't just that there happened to be some dude who was helping out Elijah. This servant refers to someone who was actually in a position of being a servant to a prophet. It was actually something, every prophet, Old Testament prophet, had a servant who helped him, sort of like the deacon, right? Okay, he was the deacon to the pastor, if you will. And by leaving his servant, it's sort of like he's letting his deacon go. He's letting his staff go. If he's a pastor, he's firing the staff at this point. He's getting rid of his servant. What he is saying is, we're done. We have nothing else to do here. You don't need to serve me anymore. I don't need you anymore. God's not using us anymore. We're leaving the ministry. We're out. And that's what he does. He says he's done. So not only does Elijah respond to these circumstances with fear, and not only does that fear lead him to flee, we also see that Elijah's response was to forfeit his ministry. He was forfeiting his ministry. Look at verse 4.

21:00But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. So now he don't only go to the edge of the land of the promised land, he now goes out into the wilderness. He actually leaves God's covenant promised land. He leaves the land of God's blessing. He leaves the land of God's protection and he walks into the wilderness. And in doing so, he is walking away from his calling. He's giving up. And this is where we see the lowest point in Elijah's life. Look at the rest of verse 4. It says, And he asked that he might die, saying, It is enough. That could also be translated, I'm done. I'm finished. Have you ever had a moment in your life where you've said that? I'm done.

21:56Maybe it's in the ministry context. I'm done. Maybe it's been in a marriage context. I'm done. Maybe it's school not going the way you had hoped. I'm done. That's where he is. I'm done. He says, Now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father's. Again, notice the contrast between chapter 18 and 19. In chapter 18, he literally prayed fire and rain down from heaven. Now he's praying for divine euthanasia. Look at the contrast.

22:37And in his despondency, he lost his purpose. He lost his why. And this isn't the first time we see someone like this in the scriptures lose their focus and lose their why. It happened to Moses. Moses asked for his life to be taken away as well. Remember Jonah? If there's any example of God working in a way that the prophet or the person of the Lord didn't want him to work, it's Jonah. And Jonah also asked for his life to be taken away. But underneath all of this disappointment and despair is something it may be hard to see at first, but I want us to see it this morning. Underneath all of this is pride.

23:17Pride. Notice Elijah's focus of his prayer. For I am no better than my fathers. Friends, pride is the enemy of grace, and it masquerades as self-pity. Let me say that again. Pride is the enemy of grace, and it masquerades as self-pity. I could imagine the Lord saying, of course, you're no better than your father's. I didn't choose you because you were better than your fathers. Your hope has never been in how good you are, but in how good I am. Your hope is in my steadfast love. My strength, my deliverance, my grace. It's never been about you, Elijah.

24:09You see, when we're in the pit, usually our eyes are only focused on us. I don't know about you, but in my heart, too many times, and I'm ashamed to say this, pride has disguised itself as self-pity, drawing my eyes to me instead of to God's grace. Friends, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. If it happened to him, it can happen to us. And so now at this lowest point, God's grace is going to show up. So after seeing, first of all, the circumstances that rattled Elijah's mind, I now want us to see the compassion that renewed Elijah's strength. And the first way we see God's compassion manifested is, first of all, in God's gracious presence. Verse 5, and he lay down and slept under a broom tree, and behold, an angel touched him. Now we know from verse 7 that this is the angel of the Lord.

25:10And many scholars, and I would agree, believe that most of the places you see the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is a manifestation of a pre-incarnate Christ. This is the second person of the Godhead. So God's messenger touches him. There's no stern rebuke. There's no coarse correction. Just a simple touch. You see, at that moment, Elijah actually deserved a kick in the pants. He deserved a knock on the head. But God gave him a gracious touch. Just a touch. Elijah had tried to flee. But he wasn't just fleeing Jezebel, was he? By wandering into the wilderness, he was fleeing from God. I want to remind you what David had instructed Israel many years before this in Psalm 139.

26:02Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. Friends, wherever you are this morning, whatever dark hole you might find yourself in, the good news is this, that the hound of heaven will hunt you down with a never-giving up, never-stopping, unbreaking, always and forever love. Because that's the love he has for his people.

26:46So we see God's gracious presence, but secondly, we see God's gracious provision. Look at verse 5 again. And behold, an angel touched him and asked him, or said to him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was at his... Head a cake baked on hot stones in a jar of water. And he ate and he drank and he lay down again. Again, just want to draw your attention to the contrast here. In chapter 18, this man actually outran a chariot.

27:17And now he can't even hardly lift his head. Friends, we are holistic beings. When we go through emotional strain and spiritual anxiety and severe stress, we go through that dark night of the soul, our bodies react. Or, as one author put it, our bodies keep the score. And sometimes the best thing we need is simply to eat, to drink, and take a nap. Have you ever been there before? I have. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.

27:59Have you ever been there where your body is sending warning signs that something's wrong here? I did sitting in an ER after years of strain and stress in ministry where I did not handle things well is with doctors coming and telling me your body's mimicking a heart attack. And if you don't make some changes, it's going to be a real one soon. And most of those changes was me getting my eyes off of myself and my self-pity and my wallowing because God wasn't working the way I wanted him to work.

28:46Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Let me encourage you that, friends, when you're being used, let me just encourage you with this as a simple way of putting some practical application behind this. If you're being used by God to counsel someone who is in a place of despair, just like I want you to begin where the angel began here. It's not wrong to give them some biblical counseling resources. It's not wrong to give them some scripture to read. You can do that, but you may want to start with asking them, Are you getting enough sleep, brother?

29:21Are you eating right, sister? Are you exercising? Are you taking care of yourself? So when we see here the compassion of God that renewed Elijah's strength, first of all, manifested in God's presence and then God's gracious provision. Now I want us to see God's gracious patience. Look at verse 7. And the angel of the Lord came again, a second time, and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you. And he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mount of God. God doesn't. Give up on Elijah. He doesn't just leave him in the pit. He patiently renews his servant.

30:07And are you not thankful for that? Are you not thankful for God's gentle presence, his gracious provision, and his generous patience? I don't know about you, but I'm so thankful that God has been patient with me because I fall into these pits more frequently than I should. And my God is always there to say, hey, get up, eat something, come on. There's still a journey ahead. God doesn't give up on Elijah. Perhaps you feel broken down this morning, distraught, physically exhausted, and you're worried that God's given up on you. Friends, I want to remind you, I want to encourage you to cast yourself on the one who said these words in Matthew 11: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

31:19That invitation is always open to us. Come, find in Christ your rest. Your provision and everything you need. We read on in today's text in verse 8: it says, He arose and he ate and he drank and he went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to the Mount of God. Now, 40 days and 40 nights, as you'd probably know, that's not just some coincidental number, like, oh, it just so happened that he got there in 40 days. That's a symbolic number in the scriptures. Of course, where is he at this point? He's in the wilderness. This is like a reverse Exodus, isn't it? He has left the promised land, gone into the wilderness for a period of 40 days and 40 nights, representative of the 40 years that Israel spent in the wilderness. And he goes and he heads to a mountain, Mount Horeb. Or maybe you know the mountain by another name, Mount Sinai.

32:19It's a reverse Exodus. And it's out Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb where we see the final piece of our story coming together this morning. So we've seen the circumstances that rattled his mind, the compassion that renewed his strength, and now I want us to see the confrontation that restored Elijah's ministry, the confrontation that restored Elijah's ministry. Verse 9. There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah?

32:53The first thing I want us to see is God confronting Elijah's actions with that question. What are you doing here? Now, obviously, God's not asking that for his own sake. It's not like that God is like, whoa, how'd you get here, Elijah? He's asking, he's trying to help Elijah understand what's going on. What are you doing here? He had given him a commission to be preaching the word, to proclaiming God's prophetic word to the people of Israel, to those northern tribes. And here he is at Mount Horeb.

33:29And so, Elijah, God asks the question, and then God gives Elijah a moment here to vent. Look at verse 10. I've been very jealous for you, for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. And I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away. In a way, this is sort of a gracious ministry as well. God lets him just get it all out. Okay? Sometimes when we're ministering to those who are hurting, we just need to let them have an emotional vomit session. All right? Get it all out. Just say what you need to say. But God's not going to let him wallow in his misery. God's ready to teach him. So not only is he confronting Elijah's actions, now he's going to confront Elijah's attitude. Look at verse 11. He says, he said, the Lord said, go out and stand on the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by. And a great and strong wind tore the mountain. Mountains and broke it in pieces, the rocks, before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper. Or maybe you're more familiar with it being called the still, small voice, or literally in the Hebrew, a thin silence. A thin silence. Now, what is God doing here? Why the wind and the earthquake and the fire? The text says that God was not in these things, meaning he was not speaking or working in Elijah's life through these things.

35:14He was not working in these ways at this time. Of course, we know that God is the sustainer of the universe and he controls all these things. But when it says he's not in them, it's meaning the sense that he's not working in and communicating through these things at this time. And I think what God is trying to do here is trying to expose Elijah's faulty expectations. And why do I say this? Well, I want to consider a few details. What mountain is he at again? This is Mount Sinai. The very mountain where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Notice also in today's text that it says the Lord passed by Elijah. That's a draw your mind to Exodus 33, where the Lord passes by Moses. You also know. To something else. That Elijah is in a cave.

36:05What did God do when Moses asked to see God's presence? He put him in a cleft of the rock. Now, an interesting thing here in the Hebrew, there's actually in the Hebrew here a definite article before this word cave. So it could be translated when Elijah goes to Mount Horeb. He went to the cave at Mount Horeb. Now, we don't know for sure, but this very well may be the exact same spot where Moses was. And here comes the wind and the fire, the earthquake.

36:41What's he communicating to Elijah when he's not in those things? You see, God had been in those things before on that very same mountain with Moses. He worked in that kind of way. God had been in those very same things at Mount Carmel. Fire, boom, rocks getting evaporated. I think what God is showing Elijah is: Elijah, I'm not working in the way I've worked in the past. I'm not going to do what you expect me to do. You want me to come with the power. You want me to bring the boom on Jezebel. I'm not doing that.

37:22I'm going to work in a very different way. So, Elijah, you need to be still and hear. My voice, you need to be still. Let me work through a thin silence. Elijah's attitude needed correction. He expected God to work in the same way he had before, but again, God's not going to work on Elijah's terms. God is not going to work on my terms. God is not going to work on, despite how much you love your pastor, on Alan's terms. And he's not going to work on your terms. He's only going to work on his terms.

38:02He's only going to work in the way that he knows in his sovereign grace is right. So God is correcting Elijah's attitude. I don't know about you guys. How many of you guys in here have seen God do some amazing things in your life in the past? Wow. How many of you have seen God do some amazing things in this church? Yes. Friends, there's no guarantee God's going to do that again. He may choose to work in a completely different way in the future.

38:41I don't know where, just from talking to your pastor, I think your church is in a season of a click, click, click, click, click right now. Things are going great. But things don't always go great in churches. I don't know if y'all know that or not. I work with a lot of churches that are in the bottom of their downward sword. Right now. And we need to praise God for how he's worked in the past, but we need to trust God for whatever he wants to do in the future. That this ministry isn't in our hands, Lord. It's in yours. We need to hold on to our plans very, very loosely. So when Elijah hears this thin silence, it says in verse 13, he wrapped his face in a cloak. So he recognizes that God is in the silence, in this small whisper, and he stands at the entrance of the cave. And so God asks him the question again: What are you doing here, Elijah? And Elijah stubbornly gives the exact same answer. I'm not going to read it again, but I do want to focus on the last words he says. He says, I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away. So now we see the final confrontation. God confronts his actions, his attitudes, and now we see God confront his assumptions. Elijah assumed that he was forsaken. He was all alone. I, even I, only am left. But Elijah should have known this was wrong. Back in chapter 18, verse 13, Obadiah had told him there were a hundred prophets hidden away. He should have known. And also at Mount Carmel, there were a bunch of people who fell on their faces and began to worship God again. It was a false assumption. How many times in our lives do we have false assumptions about the way things are going? Because our focus is so narrow on what we want. And secondly, he assumes that he was finished. They seek my life to take it away. That's why he was walking away from his ministry. He assumed he was done. God's done with me. God, he might as well get rid of me. And now we see God dispel those assumptions and put Elijah back on track in these last few verses. And the Lord said to him, Go. So get off your rear end, get off that pillow of self-pity, go. Return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. So what's God saying? I'm still sovereign over the nations, Elijah. So go anoint Hazael king. I still rule the nations.

41:14And Jehu, son of Nemshe, you shall anoint king over Israel. God is saying, Elijah, I'm still in control of my people. I'm in control of this world. I'm in control of the nation of Israel. So go anoint the new king. And then he's also supposed to go anoint Elisha, the son of Japheth, of Abel-Nekolah, you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. He's saying, Elijah, I'm also still sovereign over your ministry. Guess what, Elijah? I'm still in control.

41:48There was more for Elijah to do. There was a new ministry partner in place. And then God says this in verse 18: 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. God is still sovereign over his elect. God is still sovereign over his people. And you're not alone, then neither am I. Elijah's actions were foolish, his attitude was wrong, his assumptions were false. But I don't want to pick on Elijah because he was a man with a nature like ours, and I've been there.

42:31So, where are you this morning in this story? Are you on the click, click, click, click, click, or are you passed out on the way down? The good news is this: that God graciously meets his people in their weakness to renew, restore, and recommission them for his purpose. Elijah would be restored, he would continue his fruitful ministry, and one day he would be taken to heaven in a chariot of fire. And then, even beyond that, one day Elijah would see the whole picture on another mountain. Elijah would be standing with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration with our Lord Jesus Christ, and he would fully understand at that point how God was working all things together, bringing all the perfect circumstances together to bring his son to this world to take on a nature like ours, to stand in our place, the place of sinners like you and me. The Son of God. Took on flesh, and he would also go into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. He was tempted to doubt God. He was tempted to give in to disappointment, disillusionment, despondency, despair, and depression. But he, unlike Elijah and unlike us, did not fail. He perfectly trusted his heavenly Father, and he did that in our place. He lived the unwavering life of faith that we could not live. But what's more, he also died the death that doubting, foolish, prideful people like us deserve.

44:05You see, unlike Elijah, who in disobedience and unbelief asked God to take his life, Jesus, in perfect obedience and faith, laid down his life, dying the death we deserved. He was our substitute in every way. And that's my only hope. And that's your only hope when you're in the season. When you're in the highs of highs, don't take your eyes off the Lord. But especially when you're in those lows, don't forget that you have a Savior who went before you and He secured your pardon.

44:52And He's there with you. He's the angel touching you on the shoulder, saying, Hey, get up. Get something to eat. Take care of yourself. He's the one telling you, hey, there's still a journey. He's the one bringing you back to the Father so that you can bow your knees and say, God, you can work however you want to work in my life. Praise God. If you're a believer here this morning as I close in prayer and you're in a season of discouragement, maybe a season of disappointment, I encourage you to ask God to show you your pride.

45:30Show you your pride and repent of that pride this morning. And ask Him to restore you, strengthen you. And if you're an unbeliever here this morning, I know you're like the rest of us. You can see the hopelessness of our world. You can see the despair and the anxiety. You can see the result of people trying to do things on their own terms. I encourage you to repent. Stop living your life on your own terms. Confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Turn to Him. Ask for forgiveness. And let Him have His way with you. Whatever He wants to do in your life. Just trust Him and put your faith in Him. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. Father, as we continue to worship this morning with music and through the table, I pray, Father, that as we sing, as we pray, as we. Take the elements, Lord, that you would just do a work in our hearts.

46:38Remind us, Lord, that you're in control. Give us grace to repent of our pride. And, Father, help us just to hold on to you, to trust in you, no matter what's going on in our lives. Unlike me, I was not a very faithful father, forgetting about my daughter in that seat beside me. Unlike me, Lord, you are a faithful father. And you carry us through the ups and the downs of this life. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

47:19Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.