From the Cave to Calling: God’s Grace in Our Lowest Moments

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You are worthy.

You're worthy of our praise.

You're worthy of a blessing and honor and glory.

And that's why we're here this morning, Lord.

I pray as we come to your word this morning, the living and active word of God that speaks truths of who you are and how you operate in this world.

Would you come and would you speak to us from it, Lord?

We need to hear from you.

Encourage us where we need encourage, challenge us where we need challenge, Lord.

We want to hear from you this morning.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

All right, my name's Brent.

I'm the teaching pastor here.

We're going to be in 1 Kings chapter 19.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

If you want to go ahead and turn there, it's uh it's a story from Elijah's life, is what we're gonna be looking at.

And uh we're gonna be looking at a time in his life that's actually the low point of his life.

And we're gonna be looking at what happens when anxiety and depression starts to affect us and gets into our lives.

What does God have to say to us in the middle of that kind of situation, right?

So as you're turning there, let me kind of give you the background.

He'd actually just had one of the most amazing experiences with God previous to this really bad time.

And what had happened was, first of all, uh about three and a half years before this, he'd gone to the king who was Ahab at the time, and this is the northern kingdom of Israel, and he'd gone to him and he'd said, You guys are worshiping so many idols.

God's gonna come and he's gonna bring judgment on you, and judgment's gonna look like it's not gonna rain for the next three years.

And so it's now been three and a half years that it hasn't rained.

And uh Elijah decides he's gonna confront, well, I think God tells him to, he's gonna confront the prophets of Baal.

Baal was the God of fire and uh and and uh lightning, I believe.

So he's the god of fire and lightning.

And Elijah says, here's what we're gonna do.

You guys get a bull to sacrifice, I'll get a bull to sacrifice, and we're gonna see whose God comes and burns up our sacrifice, right?

So let me, I just want you to see the confidence that Elijah has as a as a minister of God in this passage.

In 1821, he says this.

He comes near to all the people and he says, How long will you go limping between two different opinions?

If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him.

And the people did not answer him a word.

So he gets all 450 prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of Asherah, and he says, Have at it, guys.

Try to get, try to have your God come and just burn that bull up.

And they do.

They're cutting themselves, they're doing all these incantations, they're doing everything they can to get their God to come and burn this bull up on the altar.

It doesn't happen.

In the text it says there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention.

Twice that happens.

And Elijah mocks them during it.

I mean, he he's he's a confident minister, he's he's mocking them, he's like, Come on, guys, what's wrong with you?

And so then Elijah says, It's my turn now.

He gets his bull and he says, I want to kind of stack the deck against me.

Get water.

I don't know where they're getting water because they're in the middle of a drought, but they find water, and he gets this water, and he has them dig a moat around the altar, and they fill the moat with water and they they completely soak his sacrifice, right?

And then he prays and he says, God, come burn this thing up.

And fire falls from heaven and burns up every piece of it.

There is nothing left of that bull.

It is completely burnt up.

And the people of Israel, they fall on their faces and they say this, they say, The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.

Elijah then seizes all 450 prophets of Baal and he puts them to death.

And then he does one more thing.

He goes to Ahab and he says, The drought's gonna end.

And sure enough, the droughts and the drought ends and it starts just pouring down rain.

So Elijah in this moment, he has some expectations of what God's gonna do next.

And his expectations are this he is expecting national revival.

He's expecting that Ahab the king and Jezebel, Ahab's wife, are gonna see what has happened and they're gonna say, well, we need to follow God because he's clearly the true God.

I mean, Elijah has proved that, right?

Like Elijah's a prophet, and the way Elijah's the way a prophet's brain works is they're very black and white.

This is right and that's wrong.

I mean, you heard that in that little speech he gave.

I mean, if if God's true, follow him, and if not, let's follow Baal.

And he just proved God to be true, and he is expecting that people are gonna repent.

And he even is expecting that Ahab and Jezebel, as evil as they have been so far, that for sure they're gonna repent as well.

And look at verse 46 of chapter 18.

It says the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment, and he ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

So, Jezreel, that is the capital city.

And he's so he runs there so he can get ahead of Ahab, and Ahab is going there to tell his wife what just happened.

And Elijah's expecting when he tells his wife, they're both gonna want to turn to God, and I need to be there to help walk them to Jesus, really.

Like that is what he is expecting is gonna happen.

Here's my question this morning.

Have you ever had expectations of God and what you thought he would do, and he didn't do what you thought he'd do?

Has that ever happened to you in your life?

You had an expectation of him, and he didn't do what you expected him to do.

Um, at my last church I was at, um, I came there off the mission field, and when I came, I was full of vision and zeal, and I just believed God was gonna move.

And I and it was because of my experience previously.

I had seen God move in the past, I'd seen him bring lost people to him, I had seen him heal people, I'd seen him provide financially miraculously for people.

I'd seen God do all kinds of things on the mission field.

And so I accepted, I thought, you know, God's the same God here in America as he was on the mission field, he's gonna move.

Let me let me give you an example of how much faith I had.

Our vision for our church was that we were gonna plant 500 churches in 50 cities and five nations.

That was our vision.

That's bold, right?

I I remember when I was first at the church, I was praying one day, and God kind of gave me a vision of this huge angel over the church.

I interpreted that dream to mean, well, if there's a huge angel over our church, God's gonna send revival to this town.

That's definitely gonna happen.

That's not what happened.

God did not do what I expected him to do.

When that happens, when God doesn't do what we expect him to do, what do we do with that?

Let's look at Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 and 9.

Isaiah 55:8

See, I think we often think that our thoughts are a lot like God's thoughts, and we think that God thinks like us, and he doesn't.

55, 8, and 9, it says, My thoughts aren't your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

That's what Elijah's about to find out here.

That his thoughts aren't God's thoughts.

That God's gonna do something far different in the nation of Israel than what he wants to happen in the nation of Israel.

Um, and so let's read chapter 19, verses 1 to 8, and this is gonna be our text for today.

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he killed all the prophets with the sword.

And this is we're expecting we're expecting things to go well now.

Verse 2.

Then 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 like as like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.

Then he was afraid, and he arose and he ran for his life, and he came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree, and he asked that he might die, saying, It's enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I'm no better than my father's.

And he lay down and he slept under a broom tree, and behold, an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat.

And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water, and he ate and drank, and lay down again.

And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the journey's too great for you.

And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

So Elijah's expecting that Jezebel's gonna repent, and Ahab's gonna repent, and that is not what happened.

It's actually quite the opposite.

There's a pretty big plot twist here, right?

We expect Elijah's gonna be leading revival.

There's gonna be people praying and weeping and falling on their knees before God and getting healed and salvations.

That's what we expect to happen.

But instead, the queen of the land says, You're I want to kill you.

That's a pretty big twist.

And I think Elijah feels that twist.

Um Jezreel to Jezebel, I'll put a map up here, that's 80 to 90 miles that he ran.

Jezreel, capital city of Israel, the northern kingdom, to Beersheba, that is the southern kingdom.

That's the clear south end of the southern kingdom.

So he's in one nation, he runs the whole way through another nation down to Beersheba.

I'm not sure how fast he did this.

It doesn't say he did it in a day, but it seems like it's something that happens in like a day or two because he's running and he's terrified.

And as he's running, when you're running and you're scared somebody's gonna kill you, you're seeing things like you're just you're scared, and you're seeing something around every corner and you're going as fast as you can.

I think he's running on pure adrenaline at this point.

Um have any of you ever been in the spot that Elijah's in?

Have you ever been in the spot where your anxiety levels go up and you kind of get to the point where you just run and hide?

Has has what's been happening in the last year, has it raised your anxiety level at all?

Like what happened just a few weeks ago with Afghanistan?

Um, what's going on with COVID in our nation?

Um, you you might have, we probably have all kinds of different opinions about COVID in this room.

But that's it's made us worried, right?

Like, is it safe for you to travel?

Should you get vaccinated or not?

Do mask work?

Do they not work?

Are you gonna die?

Are your loved ones gonna die?

All of that has just raised our anxiety levels, right?

I I think our politicians, both Republican and Democrat, they're not helping us with this.

In fact, I would say that a lot of our politicians are actually preying on our fears.

And they're trying to stir up our anxiety because it gets them votes.

I'll give I'll give you an example.

So basically, what will happen is either the Republican or Democrat Party will get a win.

Something will go well for them.

The other party's response will be this.

They'll say something like, Do you see what happened over there?

If this continues, our nation's gonna be destroyed.

That's basically what they say.

And when you hear them say that, that if this continues, our nation will be destroyed, what happens in your heart?

Anxiety, right?

You start to get very nervous and very worried, and that's what they want you to do, because then they think you're gonna vote for them.

But both parties have been doing this.

And our anxiety levels just keep going up.

And so I think the first thing that we need to see as we're looking at this text is that Elijah is actually us.

We've all been there.

We've been really afraid, we've been anxious, we've been stressed out, or our anxiety is through the roof right now.

And some of us are in hiding right now, and we don't want to re-enter back into society.

Some of us we've been vulnerable before, and we've got hurt because of it, and we don't really want to be vulnerable again.

Elijah also leaves his servant behind.

He came to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and he left his servant there.

I think him leaving his servant there is him saying, God, I'm done with ministry.

I don't want to be a minister for you anymore.

And I think he's doing this because he expected a different response.

He's like, God, do you not know how much I've done for you?

Do you not understand what I just did with the prophets of Baal?

Like, I deserve a vacation right now.

I deserve a beach and a pina colada in my hand.

That's what should be happening here.

Shouldn't some people from my church maybe do something nice for me?

Don't I deserve a random act of kindness at the least?

And instead, the queen of his country wants to kill him.

He's like, no, I didn't sign up for this.

I'm not doing this anymore, God.

I think for us, you know, I don't know that we often run off into the wilderness, but um, for us, I think running off into the wilderness, it looks like us going to the store and getting some ice cream and just sitting and watching Netflix for hours.

Or it looks like us getting our phone out and just surfing social media for hours on end, thinking we're gonna find hope in life as we search social media for hours on end and afterwards feeling worse than when we started.

It looks like us not connecting with our kids, not connecting with our wife, not connecting with our family, not talking to our friends.

It looks like us just allowing anxiety to rule our hearts.

That's that's what's happened to him in this moment.

He's he's letting anxiety rule his heart.

And so in verse 4, it says he goes a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree.

So so he's already in Beersheba and he's like, he's he's already a whole nation away, and he's like, I'm gonna go another day and clear out into the wilderness, and then there's no way she's gonna find me out there.

And so that's where he is, and he goes under this broom tree and he asks that he might die, saying, It's enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I'm no better than my father's.

And I think Elijah, he he thinks this has happened because he's a failure.

He thinks he's he's sinned in some way.

He he he thought he was God's special person, and now he's thinking, I don't know that I am.

I don't know that I am anymore.

Because what he wanted to happen didn't happen.

Um and I think for most of us, we think that we'll never have a moment like this in our life, right?

Until we have a moment like this in our life.

Like I used to think, uh, you know, I'm never gonna get depressed.

Like what when I would see somebody depressed, previous me, I would see it and I'd be like, what's wrong with them?

Like they're a follower of Jesus.

We have Jesus in our life.

We're to be full of joy and happiness.

Like, they need to toughen up.

Like, what's wrong with them?

And then one day, I realized, actually, I'm full of anxiety.

I'm kind of depressed right now.

I think I'm in the middle of depression.

What like I need to get some help.

And, you know, I was talking to some guys last week, and they said, you know, what are you what are you gonna be preaching on this week?

I said, I think I'm gonna preach about anxiety and depression.

And each of these three guys start sharing with me.

They said, you know, I thought that would never happen to me, but then they each tell me a story of when it happened to them.

And if it hasn't happened to you yet, what I'm telling you is probably at some point it will happen to you.

And I think it's God, he's sending us through this this training academy and this testing process.

You know, this past week for me, I've struggled with anxiety.

Um, I found out that my whole family up in Pennsylvania, they all got COVID-19.

And it's kind of my nightmare because it's the oldest, I want to be there for them.

I'm the oldest in my family, I want to be there for them.

It's also my nightmare because of my dad.

My dad's 70 years old, he's overweight, he has diabetes, and he's had heart issues in the past.

None of those are things that help you do better if you get COVID.

And my dad had COVID.

So I'm calling him every day.

I was thinking about going up there, but it it never got that bad.

And uh, he's probably gonna be released from the hospital on Monday or Tuesday.

He he's fine, but it sent my anxiety through the roof.

I think for all of us, we've had some situations in the last year that it sent our anxiety through the roof.

So Elijah's in this place and and he he wants to die.

Like he he prays and he asks God to take him out.

Now, God, in his graciousness, does not answer that prayer.

But I think we've been in this place before.

I think I think we've been so stressed out that we've been asking God sometimes for some things that really aren't what we really want, but we pray it anyhow.

And here's what I'd say to that.

I think God will give you, he will answer your prayers exactly the way you would answer them if you knew everything he knew and were as wise as him.

Let me say that again.

God will answer your prayers exactly the way you would answer them, answer your prayer, if you knew as much as he knew and you were as wise as he is, right?

But we're not.

And so he'll often you'll be asking for stuff when you're in one of these seasons, and he's not gonna give you, like you, you might think, man, if I just had a vacation or if I got a new house or if I had a new car or a new phone, you'll you'll think that's gonna solve it, and he won't give it to you because it's not actually what's gonna solve it.

He's after something deeper, right?

You actually need a touch from God.

And so the story continues.

This angel comes up, and and when an angel shows up in scripture, we expect something miraculous to happen, right?

Like if an angel's on the scene, like he needs to do something amazing, give him a word from God, like that's what we expect to happen.

But that's not what happens.

The angel touched him, said to him, Arise and eat.

He looked, and behold, there's there's this at his head, there's a cake with hot stones and a jar of water.

And he ate and drank and he lay down again.

And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, touched him, and said, Arise and eat, for the journey's too great for you.

I think sometimes God, he's gonna take care of you physically before he's able to help you spiritually.

And sometimes when you're in depression or your anxiety is through the roof, you tend to get things out of whack in the physical realm, and that then affects the spiritual realm.

They're connected, right?

And and so uh if you're struggling with this right now, how are you eating right now?

Like, are you are you going to McDonald's all the time and drinking coke and candy and ice cream?

And are you just eating really unhealthy?

Is that how you're dealing with your stress?

Or are you somebody, when I get stressed, I tend not to eat and I start losing weight?

Is that you?

And neither of those are good.

Like, you need to, one of the first steps you need to do is you need to eat healthy.

You need to eat your vegetables and your fruits and get some meat in there.

Like, you need to eat healthy.

The second thing is he sleeps.

Like when you're going through a hard time, you need to make sure you get enough rest.

You need to get your eight hours a night.

You need to not be in your bed scrolling on your cell phone for an hour or two before you go to sleep.

You know, scrolling on your cell phone before you go to bed, that's not gonna help you sleep.

It'll make it harder to get to sleep.

They say you need actually a half an hour with no screen time before you can go to sleep.

Are you getting the sleep that you need?

Do you see how gracious and kind and loving God is?

God's meeting him in his actual needs.

It's not some amazing spiritual answer.

It's like, hey man, you need to eat and you need to sleep.

And that's that's what this angel is doing for him.

And they say he's doing it for him because the journey is too great for him.

I think for all of us, our journey, it's it's too much for us.

God gives all of us more than we can handle because he wants to get us to a point where we have to fully depend on him, right?

And and I think he's got Elijah at that point now.

And and so Elijah's dependent on God, and and so he arose, he ate, and he drank, and he went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

So he's heading to this mount of God.

So this mount is actually about a 14-day journey, and it's gonna take him 40 days to get there.

The mountain that he's going toward is actually Mount Horeb is Mount Sinai.

Mount Sinai is where Moses received the Ten Commandments, pretty famous place in Israel's history.

It's over a hundred miles south of Beersheba.

So it's it's a long journey, but it's not that long.

This is the same area.

So when Israel got released from Egypt, they were slaves in Egypt back in the day, and then the Red Sea happened, the Red Sea parted, and then they go and they wander in the wilderness for 40 years.

It's that area right there where Mount Sinai is.

They could have actually made it in 14 days, but they didn't make it in 14 days because they they'd kind of entered into God's training academy.

He wanted them to learn how to follow him, and so it took 40 years.

And I think for uh for Elijah, the same thing's happening.

He thought he was just gonna walk to Mount Sinai, but he's actually just entered into God's training academy, and it's gonna take him 40 days, not 14.

So, what do you think is going on in Elijah's head and in his heart as he's on this walk?

I mean, we there there's no evidence in the text.

We don't know.

I don't think he's fasting.

It doesn't say that he fasted for these 40 days.

I think he's probably eating nuts and berries as he walks.

But I don't think he's talking to God, because I think he's angry with God.

I think he's I think he's probably crying some.

He's probably he he's probably having moments where he gets upset and anger is coming out of his heart.

Um but I think probably the more interesting question is why is he going to Mount Sinai?

I mean, he was the whole way up in Jezreel.

Why Mount Sinai?

Why Mount Sinai?

And I think the only answer that I've been able to come to is he wants to go and confront God.

I think he's very upset with God and he wants to confront him.

Um, this is a place where he knows people in the past have met with God, and he expects that God's gonna be there, and he's gonna go there and he's gonna confront God for what happened because he feels that this situation is very unfair and he's upset with God.

And so as he's walking, I think he's getting more and more upset.

You know, when somebody gossips about you at work or betrays you, that conversation that you have with them, you end up playing that over and over and over again in your mind, right?

And every time you replay it, you tend to get a little angrier.

I think that's probably what happened is happening as he's walking.

So let's read 9 to uh 14.

Then he came to a cave and lodged in it, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah?

And he said, I've been very jealous 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.

And he said, Go out and stand on the mount before before the Lord.

And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper.

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in a cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of a cave.

And behold, there came a voice to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

He said, I've been very jealous 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.

So in verse one, or verse nine, it says he came to a cave and lodged in it.

In the Hebrew, it doesn't say a cave, it says the cave.

I think it's saying that because I think he goes to the exact same cave that Moses went to back in the day when Moses said, I want to see your glory, Lord, without your presence, I don't want to go on.

And God said, Okay, go to this rock and go in the cleft of the rock and hide there, and I'll pass by.

I think this is the exact same cave.

And the Lord comes to him and he says, What are you doing here, Elijah?

And I think the Lord's come to a lot of us this morning as well.

And I think he's asking, What are you doing here?

Because Elijah's not where God wants him to be.

Like he's supposed to be up in Jezreel, right?

And he's the whole way down at Mount Sinai.

He's not really walking in God's will right now.

And I think for some of us, if we're struggling with anxiety and depression, God doesn't want you to be anxious.

He doesn't want you to be depressed.

You're somewhere where God doesn't really want you to be.

And he's asking you, what are you doing here?

What are you doing here?

And so Elijah's response, it's it's very victim mentality, right?

Like he's, it's very, woe is me.

You know, they've forsaken the prophets, it's they've forsaken your covenant, they've thrown down your office, they've killed the prophet.

And he says, you know, I, even I am the I'm the only one left.

Is that actually true?

It's not.

If you look at 1 Kings chapter 18, verse 13, it says this.

1 Kings 18:13

It says, It's not, has it not been told, my Lord, what I did when Jezebel, this is somebody speaking to Elijah, another prophet speaking to him.

When Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifties in a cave, and I fed them bread and water.

So when she killed the prophets back in the day, there was this other prophet that hid a hundred of them by fifties in a cave.

And so there, at the minimum, there's at least a hundred other prophets still left in Israel.

And I think Elijah's probably aware of this, but in this moment, he doesn't, I think he doesn't feel like there's anybody else with him, right?

Like when we get into anxiety and depression and it starts to take over our mind, we can get our anxiety and depression goggles on.

And we can start to see everything through the lens of that anxiety and depression.

Like you could have a friend that you say, hey, can we go and get lunch tomorrow?

And they say, Yeah, sure, let's grab lunch.

And then two hours tomorrow, two hours before you're gonna get lunch, they text you and say, sorry, I'm not gonna be able to make it.

And normally you'd be fine with that.

But if you got the depression and the anxiety goggles on, that's not what's gonna happen.

You're gonna be like, I knew they'd cancel.

I'm not, they're not even friends with me.

They've probably been gossiping about me with someone else.

And you just you just start to go down that road, right?

And it's because it's not really because of them, it's because you're struggling with anxiety and with stress, and you're you're really you're allowing Satan to lie to you.

You're allowing Satan to lie to you.

And so God tells him in verse 11, he says, Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.

Um, this is interesting.

If you go back to Exodus chapter 33, uh Moses does something very, very similar.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

And I think there's something going on here that I want to catch.

So Exodus chapter 33, verse 22, while my glory passes, I'll put you in the cleft of the rock, I'll cover you with my hand until I pass by, and then I'll take away my hand and you'll see my back, but not my face.

Exodus 33:22

And the whole thing is if you fully see God's glory, you're gonna get killed.

And so God is protecting Moses by putting his hand over him so he can't fully see him, and he's only gonna see his back.

So just keep that in mind.

Elijah goes out and God tells him, Go and stand on the mountain before the Lord, and we don't see any evidence that he's in any way covered his face, right?

And I think the reason that Elijah has done this is because he wants to die.

We saw that earlier.

He doesn't want to go on.

He wants to die.

And so he's just kind of standing there, like, take me out, God.

This is, if you've ever seen Forrest Gump, this is his Lieutenant Dan moment, right?

You remember that scene where Lieutenant Dan's on a boat and he's screaming at God, he's like, try to kill me, God, you can never get me.

That whole scene.

This is kind of what Elijah's doing in this moment.

He's like, God, come and get me.

I don't care.

I don't want to live anymore.

And so he's standing there, I think his arms just crossed, and and the first thing that comes through is a strong wind.

And the wind's so strong that it breaks rocks and pieces.

That's a that's a very strong wind to be able to break rocks and pieces.

And he's just still just standing there, angry at God.

And then uh an earthquake.

I mean, it's just he he's he's probably stumbling, barely staying up, but he's still just holding on.

And and then not not only that, but a fire comes, right?

And and and just I guess it's consuming things all around him, and he's still just standing firm.

And then it says a low whisper.

One of the commentators says it's it's as if silence became audible.

And there's something in this whisper that I think pierces his heart.

Because I think everything that God's shown him so far, he actually knew about God already.

He knows that God's sovereign, he knows God's in control, he knows God can do anything he wants whenever he wants.

I don't think that Elijah really questions that.

I think he's questioning his relationship with God.

Are you still do you still love me, God?

Am I still your son?

Like, have you still called me?

That these are the kind of questions I think that are really in his heart.

And I think for us, we're asking some of those same questions, right?

Like some of us we're we're asking, you know, God, like, are you just?

Are you actually in control?

And I think what we're assuming sometimes is, God, do you know what's going on in Afghanistan?

Why don't you do something about it?

So what we're assuming is that God's up in heaven and he finds out about what happened in Afghanistan, and he's like, I never suspected this was gonna happen.

This is terrible.

And so he starts scrambling the angel armies.

He's like, Michael, Gabriel, let's get them all together.

We gotta do something about this.

This is terrible.

I never would have expected this.

But that's not what scripture says.

It says that God is seated on his throne and he is in control, and he knew hundreds of years before that something was gonna happen in Afghanistan.

And actually, this is his perfect will being worked out.

I know that's hard for us to hear, but that's what's happening.

Or whatever happens with coronavirus, like he's not like, I can't believe Biden did this.

This is so terrible.

I never planned for it.

He knew exactly what Biden was gonna do hundreds of years ago, and he's fine.

He he's still in control.

And I think the big question for us is do you trust him?

Now we see here, Elijah, some humility enters into his heart.

So I think when that low whisper comes, I just imagine that Elijah, he just tears start coming down his face.

And he finally breaks.

And I think that because it says here, it says Elijah heard it and he wrapped his face in a cloak.

I think Elijah actually valued his life again.

And he said, I need to protect myself because God's so powerful that he he could take me out right now if he wanted to.

And I think this is him saying, I'm gonna submit myself to God.

I'm gonna submit myself to his will for my life.

Now God then asked him, and he gives the same lame answer, but I gotta imagine that when he gives this answer, it's through tears.

Because I think his heart submitted at this point.

You know, I think Elijah had some of the same struggles we have.

I don't think he thought it was really unjust what happened to Ahab and Jezebel, how they didn't respond to the gospel, and he thinks they deserve to be judged, and they're not being judged.

They're eventually gonna get judged.

Like if you read your Bible, Ahab ends up getting killed in battle, and Jezebel is up in a tower with a bunch of her servants, and some guys down below say, throw her out, and we'll let you guys live.

And her servants throw her out onto the ground and she dies and she's eaten by dogs.

And none of their children end up ever serving on the throne.

They all die before it happens.

But you know, Ahab and Jezebel, they both die after Elijah dies.

He never got to see God's justice.

He had to trust in God's justice, but he didn't get to see it in his lifetime.

Would we be able to do the same?

Amy Carmichael, she said that God always answers us in the deeps and never in the shallows of our soul.

He always answers us in the deeps and never in the shallows of our soul.

God's not after what's going on on the surface with Elijah, he's after a place deep in his heart.

Right?

And so God responds.

If you look at verse 15.

And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Maloah, you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.

And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazel shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death.

Here's what God's saying to him I'm not done with you, Elijah.

You're still called to be a prophet.

Because prophets anoint kings.

And he's saying, you need to go and start anointing kings again.

And for us this morning, for those of you that feel like you failed, you feel like you're you're just you're in the pit right now.

And you don't feel like you're much worth to God.

He's not done with you.

He still has a calling on your life this morning, just like he did for Elijah.

And I know we look at this story and we're like, man, Elijah, man, it's like he he was really down and he gets out of this in like two days.

Not actually.

This is actually about two months of time, all of this takes.

And and and that only happened because the Spirit of God broke in, right?

Like for you, it might not be a two-month process.

You might need to go to a counselor, you might need to go and talk to a pastor.

First step for you might look like you're just going to a friend and saying, hey, I'm struggling.

Would you pray for me?

But it it might be a process of you walking out of this pit that you have yourself in.

But God is not done with you.

And you've got to let that hope get into your heart this morning.

Um, I don't care how fierce the depression is or how fierce the anxiety is, there's hope, and I know that there's hope because Jesus really did rise from the dead.

That's a historical fact.

And if God can make his son rise from the dead, he can get you out of the pit.

It's possible.

It might take some time, but it's possible.

The second thing he tells Elijah to do here, he tells him he needs to make a disciple.

He says, Go and anoint Elijah, and you're gonna go and you're gonna disciple him.

And I think for some of us, maybe it's time for us to begin making disciples.

I know this is my first sermon I preached on.

I preached on discipleship.

I love discipleship, but I love discipleship because it's like if you don't know what God's calling you to, this is something he's calling you to.

Like the it's the great commission, not the great suggestion.

Matthew 28, 19 says, go into all the world and make disciples.

That's not just the suggestion, it's a command of God.

And so if you're not walking in that, you're actually walking in disobedience.

Have you ever thought about that?

And so I think something that you could begin to do is begin to make disciples.

You don't have to be perfect, you just got to be a step ahead of them.

And so Elisha does, or Elijah does this, he goes and he makes a disciple of Elisha, and Elisha ends up, you know, he does twice as many miracles as Elijah, and he is, he's he's in ministry five times longer than Elijah was.

So God kind of uses Elijah to break up the hard ground, and then Elisha is able to come in and have a pretty successful ministry.

Elijah did a very good job discipling Elisha.

God's still calling you guys, his calling is irrevocable.

Coronavirus can't kill it, a politician can't kill it.

Even America, if America just ended tomorrow, you're you would still be called by God to do whatever it is that He has called you to do.

I can still look back to when God called me.

I was in a I was in a village in Thailand and He called me to Christian ministry.

And I don't always feel like doing Christian ministry, but I know that he called me.

What has he called you to, and what's it look like for you to begin to obey that calling again?

There's another interesting thing here in verse 18.

He says, I will leave 7,000 in Israel on all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.

I thought there wasn't anybody else in Israel that was following Jesus but Elijah.

And God's kind of saying here, there's some people now, but there's also going to be 7,000 total in the future that are going to be followers of me.

I think what he's saying to Elijah is, Elijah, you've actually been quite successful in ministry.

I mean, even today, if you have a church of 7,000 people, that's a mega church, right?

Like you're a very successful minister if you have a church of 7,000 people.

Back then, when the population was much less, that's amazing success.

But Elijah feels like all he's done is fail, like he hasn't done anything right.

And God's saying, actually, you've done a lot of things right.

A lot of people are gonna come to Jesus because of you.

How many of us just feel like we're a failure this morning?

You know, I think sanctification, it often feels like we're we're we're just falling over and over again and putting in the ditch over and over again and just getting back up and trying again.

And it doesn't feel like we're getting anywhere.

I have a I have a video that's kind of an illustration of this.

So let's watch the video.

It's just 15 seconds long.

And this is this is sanctification.

This is us growing in Jesus.

This is what it looks like.

So I show you that video not to make fun of that guy, but to say that I'm that guy.

That's what it looks like for me to grow in Jesus.

I'm often falling and I'm failing, but somehow, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm actually growing in Christ.

And he's actually doing things through me.

And it's not just me, you're growing in Christ too.

And he's doing things through you.

And you need to just, I think the key thing is when you fall, you have to get back up.

Do you get back up?

Will you get back up?

The final thing here Elijah, he repents.

Verse 19.

So he departed from there and he found Elijah the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth.

Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him.

This is Elijah beginning the discipleship process with Elisha.

And this is Elijah repenting.

Yeah, he didn't verbally say, I'm so sorry, God, I messed up.

But I think what's actually more important with repenting, you can say, I'm so sorry, and not actually change your life.

Elijah's actually going and he's obeying.

Like he's actually going and he's making a disciple.

He hasn't given up on ministry anymore.

He's getting back in the game.

Has this ever happened to you?

Have you ever had a point in your life where you're walking this way and you're like, this is not working, I keep putting it in the ditch, it's a mess, and you realize this isn't working for me.

I think I want to try God's way instead.

Has that ever happened to you in your life?

Because, in my opinion, that is the key point where you become a follower of Jesus.

Like you realize your ways aren't working and you say, I want to try his way instead.

And you say you're sorry and you start to follow Jesus.

Has that ever happened for you?

So we talked about a lot this morning.

For some of you, your first step, it might look like you're just eating properly and sleeping properly.

That might be, you might need to get yourself right physically before you're even ready to start to wrestle against some of the battles that you need to fight spiritually.

For some of you, it might look like you're just submitting and saying, God, like I trust, you're you're more powerful than I am.

You're in control, you're on the throne.

I'm not.

I don't think you're doing things right sometimes, but I'm gonna choose to trust you anyhow.

So I have some questions here for you to think about.

Let's let's pray, and I want to give you a little time to just process.

Lord Jesus, thank you.

I I don't in any way think a sermon like this can suddenly just somebody that's in the pit can lift them the whole way out.

It's a process, Lord.

But I pray this morning for some of us, it would be step one to get us out of our anxiety and depression and getting us back into serving you, God.

Because that's where the life and the joy and the hope is.

It's when we're we're running with you, God.

That's where we want to be.

Would you come and would you begin to pull us up out of the pit and get us running with you again, Lord?

Your name I pray.

Amen.

So just take a little time, engage with the Holy Spirit and look at these questions.

So, Lord, I think there's a simple question that should be going through our mind right now.

What are you saying to me?

And I pray that as you answer that, that we would respond with action.

Just like Elijah did.

We wouldn't just hear the truth, but we'd be doers of your word this week, God.

Help us to do what you're calling us to do.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

So community groups are starting next week, and we have a short video here to tell you a little bit more about the community groups here at our church.

My name is uh Brett Daniels.

I've been a member here at Grand Parkway for about five years.

My wife and I, Morgan, have been attending Community Group for about four.

Uh we've been married for about 10 years.

We have two kids, uh Kelsey and Owen, aged six and four.

Yeah, so I want to kind of share an experience we had with with community group that I think is uh is important.

My mom passed away from COVID earlier this year in January.

It's pretty sudden and obviously pretty pretty hard for all of us.

Um, our community group loved on us uh big time through the whole thing, um, from the moment that we found out my mom had COVID till the moment she passed away and even after that.

Um one part that we that we didn't expect was uh the first time we came back to church, some of our some of our best friends who were the Jeters, um they they obviously knew what we were going through.

And uh my wife went and my wife Morgan went and talked to Cynthia outside, and and I was running behind, and we I got out to the parking lot, and um, and Cynthia said, Hey, can we can we take your kids for the rest of the afternoon?

That act of kindness in and of itself was just uh just pure love, it's pure friendship.

Um and I think what meant the most to us though was was not that they they took our kids for the afternoon and gave us some space to do what we wanted, but um it gave my wife and up my wife and I the opportunity to literally get in our car, sat in a church parking lot for the next 10 minutes and just cried.

Um because we had not had an opportunity to do that uh together.

And so looking back on that, that was that was that was amazing because we we needed that.

Um we wanted that, but we didn't know how to express to other people um to give us that.

Some of our best friends have been growing out of a community group, and I think now I truly know and realize what it means to have a best friend.

Not just the Jews, but a lot of folks in our community group, people that just love on us.

I mean, gosh, the the group of men that came over to my house um the day before I left to go say goodbye to my mom just out of nowhere, just told me to show up outside, and they were there to pray over me, to love on me.

Um people ask me why do I come every week that we have community group?

Because if I didn't, I wouldn't experience what I did um you know six or seven months ago.

I wouldn't have friends in my life that um not only say they love me, but they show me how much they love me without asking for it.

So if you're in a place where you're uh you're thinking about community group, I would encourage you to just try it out.

Um because I promise you that you will be in friendships that will genuinely last a lifetime.

Um and not just those cool friendships, but those friendships that are grounded in faith in Jesus.

Um that people that want to love on you just as just as Jesus would and does.

Um so yeah, if you if you have questions about community groups, reach out to our pastors, reach out to our staff.

I'd highly encourage you to do so.

So our community groups, they meet in homes, usually there's a meal, and then we we spend a bit of time discussing the sermon, and really it's it's where things, where you can really get things down into your life, right?

And you can start to be encouraged, you can be challenged by them, and they're gonna they're gonna be the kind of place where they're gonna challenge you to go out and live it.

Like we don't think that Sunday's the game.

This is if if our Christian life is is a is like a football game, this is just the halftime speech, right?

We're encouraging you to go out and get them, and then during the week, that's the game.

While you're at work, while you're at school, while you're in your your third places, you know, baseball courts and or basketball courts and football fields and coffee shops, that's the game, right?

And they're gonna encourage you to do that.

Um, one more announcement.

Tomorrow is the last day to sign up our midweeks.

If you want a meal, you need to sign up by lunchtime tomorrow if you want a meal for that.

There are connect cards in the back of your pews.

If you want to fill one out, if you're new here, we'd love to get to know you, have a meal with you.

Uh you can put them in the boxes.

That's also, if you want to, if you want to worship this morning by giving, that's also where you would put that.

Would you guys all rise with me?

I want to I want to pray a blessing over you.

Lord Jesus.

Thank you that you're you're so gracious and kind.

You come and you meet us in the middle of our dark times, and you lift us up out of that.

So I pray this morning, would you come and would you lift our spirits to see your face?

And I pray that as we begin to connect with you, Lord, that you begin to heal our hearts and and you get us back on the path to following you, to making disciples, to running together with you, Lord.

But I thank you that as we're going up that escalator, Lord, if we trip and we fall and we we struggle, you you're you're you're the escalator, Lord.

You you just keep us going up.

I pray you do that for us this week as we go out and we apply your word.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

Thanks, guys.