Wanderlust: Not Done Yet

I want to ask everyone to buy your heads, close your eyes, repeat

this prayer after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus, speak to my heart,

change my life in Jesus's name. Amen, go ahead and grab a

seat if you would. Pelosie don't know who I am. I'm Brandon,

I pastor the church. I haven't been around for a little bit. I

do work here. The great thing for you guys when I am traveling like

this is he got a great opportunity to see how gifted and anointed my pastoral

staff is. I heard nothing but amazing testimony is about Johnny's message from last

week, Pastor Seawan's message the week before, Pastor Morgan's the week before that.

Let's just be honest. He didn't need me here. I'm just kidding.

That song that we just did with worship, I heard that song for

the very first time last week speaking at a church in Las Vegas. I

made a commitment at the beginning of this year. I went away on my

prayer retreat and one of the things that the Lord spoke to me, and

I hope you make a habit of doing this too, getting away on prayer

retreats, asking the Lord what the purpose for your next year is supposed to

be, and then set goals and come up with themes for the year.

But one of the things that the Lord told me to do was to start

saying yes. I get lots of opportunities to speak, teach, to conferences,

whatever it is, and I usually say no because I've got a lot

of things going on and I value my free time, and I normally say

no. But this year, the Lord told me to say yes. And

so any request if it fit in my schedule and didn't conflict with something that

I had gone on with the church, I said yes to it. And

I have been at some crazy places in the last six months, and it

took me to where I was this past week. And honestly, I would

not have been there if I hadn't made the commitment to say yes if I

was available. And here's the story from that church. It was the church

it was started about eight years ago, and their pastor got COVID so bad.

And I know we don't talk about COVID. It's the thing we don't

speak of anymore. But I can't not tell the story without mentioning it.

He got COVID so bad that he had neurological issues, and he still struggles

with them three years later. Today, after about six o'clock at night,

he gets super sick. It happens every single night. He uncontrollably vomits.

He can't be around loud noises, so he is not been able to minister

at his church for years. To the church that he's the founding pastor,

and he started and he was a dynamic preacher, dynamic leader, traveled around

the nation preaching, spoke a huge conferences and huge churches, and he was

struggling with such bad neurological issues that had affected his short term memory. So

for him to teach, he would have to write down word for word what

he was going to say, because he would forget what he had written down

an hour later, so he would have to like to this day, he

has to hold his notes like this and read them word for word to speak

well. There was hope for the church after COVID because his associate pastor was

young and incredibly dynamic and had done a great job leading the church in his

absence. And three months ago his associate pastor almost died because he got the

Gillian bar syndrome. It was bedridden hospitalized, couldn't walk, paralyzed, couldn't

speak, was intubated with a tube. This is as bad as could possibly

be. And I get invited to speak at this church in the middle of

the summer in Las Vegas. They're having a record heat wave. Their entire

pastoral staff has almost died in the last six months. I expected eleven people

at the service. I was backstage praying before I went out to speak,

and the worship team kind of ran into the back and I heard them say

things like, I haven't seen so and so in two years. You haven't

seen these people for a year. They started talking about these people they hadn't

seen forever in their church. This Sunday that I spoke was the first Sunday

that all of the pastoral staff was healthy enough to actually attend the service.

It was the first time. So I first song happens and they bring me

into the front and place with standing room only. I expected eleven people and

it was packed. And then they got to that song, He's not done

with me yet. Have you ever been in that moment where you just needed

a miracle and you cried to God for a miracle. You know he works

miracles, but everything is going wrong, everything is bad. It seems as

low as it could possibly be, and you just needed that reminder that He's

not done with you, that there's more to the story. And so it

was such an honor and privilege to be the person that God brought to that

church to remind them that God wasn't done with them yet, that there is

more to the story. So I'm gonna tell you up front how the service

is going to end today. The band is going to come back, We're

going to do that song. I'm going to invite you to come forward,

and we are going to pray for you because there's more to your story too,

because God has not done with you yet. We're in the middle of

this Wanderlust series. We're talking about God's will for your life. It's important.

It's one of the number one questions that ministers get asked is how do

I figure out what God's will is? And we're trying our best to help

you hear God's voice to help you determine what God's will is. I want

to talk to you about today. What do you do when everything's fallen apart,

everything is crashed, and it looks like it's over. How do you

pick yourself up, not quit, but move forward. There is an amazing

story in the Bible that is a description of someone who was at his lowest

moment though no one cared, felt totally alone, and was about to quit,

but didn't. And we see it in First King's Chapter nineteen. I'm

gonna start reading from verse two. This is the story from the life of

Elijah. Elijah is one of my favorite characters in the entire Bible. In

fact, I love the person of Elijah so much that I named one of

my sons Elijah. Elijah was a powerhouse for God, was a prophet,

a spokesman. He is fearless, courageous, bold. Right before First King's

nineteen begins, Elijah just had the single greatest supernatural victory of his entire ministry

had just happened. You see, Elijah lived in a day and age where

persecution was legit. Like I hear Christians in America wine all the time about

how hard it is to be a Christian. Well, back when Elijah lived,

the king Ahab and his wife Jezebel were having preachers, worship leaders,

pastors, evangelists, christians murdered. They were being executed, so All the

ministers that were still alive were off hiding in other countries and hiding in caves,

and Elijah was one of them. Well, Elijah heard from God that

enough was enough and it was time for him to confess runt the evil that

was taking place in Israel. And it leads to this huge battle on top

of Mount Carmel. There were eight hundred and fifty false prophets of bail In

Ashurrah and there was Elijah, and he challenges them to a battle of the

gods. He said, you, guys, pray to your God, and

all pray to my God. And whichever God answers by fire, he is

God. Well, many of you know the story. If you don't,

you can find it in many of our sermon archives because I preached it thirty

times easily. Well, God answers Elijah's prayer fire false from heaven. The

craziest thing happens. It turns the nation upside down. Revival sweeps through the

nation of Israel. He was like, twenty four hours ago they were worshiping

bail in Ashra, and twenty four hours later, because of the powerful ministry

of Elijah, revival is sweeping through Israel. So Elijah just came off of

the greatest moment of his entire ministry career. And it leads to this verse

two. So Jezebel the Queen 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 one of those, because the

eight hundred and fifty false prophets had been killed. So Jezebel, here's what

Elijah's done. And she sends him a death threat, sends him a telegram

that says, by tomorrow morning, I'm gonna have you killed. Remember,

he'd just come off the greatest victory of his entire life. And how does

the man of God, the man of courage, the man who's fearless and

bold, how does he respond to the threat from this woman. Elijah was

afraid, and he ran for his life. When he came to Beersheva in

Judah, he left his servant there while he himself went another day's journey into

the wilderness. He came to a broom bush your version may say tree.

He sat down under it and he prayed that he might die. He prayed

this, I've had enough Lord, anybody been there before. I've had enough,

Lord take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors. Then held

down under the bush and he fell asleep. So he goes from the greatest

victory to the worst week of his entire life. It's crazy for me to

think about it, because for this moment, Elijah lost all common sense.

He lost his sense of memory. He forgot what God had done yesterday,

and now he does all of these irrational, illogical He makes terrible decisions,

and he heaps one bad decision on top of another bad decision, and it

brings him to this point where he's full on suicidal. I have a saying

that I teach people whenever I get an opportunity to mentor young leaders. I

share this and I didn't come up with it. I don't know who who

came up with it. So if you're listening to this podcast, I don't

even know who to give credit to. Since I don't know give me the

credit. There it is. I call it when not to make a decision,

and I call it when you should halt. Never make a decision when

you're hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. If you make a decision,

when you're hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, you will make

a decision you will regret. It will be bad. So Elijah, this

incredible man of God, is in this moment where he is hungry, he's

really alone, he's angry, and he's tired, and he makes this terrible

decision. So I'm gonna pop up a map. This will give you an

idea what he's done. He gets this threat from Jezebel. Remember think of

this. Logically, if Elijah truly wanted to die, he didn't need to

leave. Jess About would have killed him right there. So he didn't really

want to die. He was having a pity party. He wanted some sympathy.

And then he lays down under his broom tree and he praised the most

pathetic prayer, the most honest prayer, the most broken prayer. Have you

ever done that? One? Before? His prayer was I have nothing left.

It was the I don't know what else to do prayer. He was

the Lord, I can't handle it anymore. I give up prayer. But

it starts in Jezreel and the Bible tells us that he just runs. He

runs all the way to bear Shaba. This is ninety five miles away from

Jezreel. He runs a full on ultra marathon. There were no roads,

he's climbing over mountains, he's running over rivers. To this day, it

takes by bus on paved roads three hours to get from here to there,

but he runs it the whole way. And then once he gets here,

the Bible tells us that he tells his servant to stay here. Does that

mean? I don't know if I found it humorous. The actually made somebody

go with him. So a servants running along with him, and he says,

hey, dude, you hang out here. And he travels another day's

journey into the wilderness because he just wanted to be all alone. And then

he came to a tree like this. This is a broom tree. If

you've ever gone in the Middle East, you've gone to Africa. The trees

pop up in the middle of nowhere. They're broom trees. They're they're very

fascinating trees. They're trees that I believe are the greatest reminder that God is

in your desert. You can be in a place that is rough terrain,

it seems like there's nothing there, and you will come upon this random broom

tree, showing you how amazing God is. These trees are extraordinary. There's

no water anywhere, but the bark from these trees accumulates water. So you

can pull a piece of the bark off and you can drink water from the

bark. Did you know that the bark is also edible and nutritious. One

of the things that people that are indigenous to these areas where these trees are

found. They will tell you that in the sun it might be one hundred

and ten degrees, but you come underneath the broom tree and it's anywhere from

twenty to thirty degrees cooler. Underneath this broom to this tree is a miracle

in the middle of a desert. And God provide a broom tree in the

middle of a desert to help Elijah. So Elijah lays down under. Let's

just for argument's sake, pretend it's that exact tree. Not really. Elijah

lays down under a broom tree, and he praised this prayer and he gives

up. If Elijah would have quit right, then first Kings would have ended

in chapter nineteen. There would be no second Kings. There would be no

reference to what an amazing prophet Elijah was in the New Testament. If Elijah

would have truly give up right then, he would not have been next to

Jesus in the transfiguration. The story would have ended. But God was not

done with him yet. There was more to his story. So for me

and for you, we should ask ourselves why didn't Elijah quit right then?

Because we've all been at this point. We've been at the point where we've

made a bunch of bad decisions. It's like we stacked on one bad choice

after another. We've laid down underneath our own version of a broom tree,

through our hairs, our hands, prayed the pathetic prayer, and just wanted

to be done. We were done. But why didn't Elijah quit? Well,

it's the same ways that you and I can pick ourselves up and not

quit too. The first thing that Elijah did is he got some rest.

It tells us that he laid down under the bush and he fell asleep.

I've said for years and years and years that the most spiritual thing you can

do oftentimes is take a nap. Sometimes my boys will be on utter meltdown

with all the stuff going on in their life, and I'll just simply tell

them get a good night's sleep. They wake up the next morning and their

whole life is new and fresh. It's amazing what happens when you get some

rest. You are not like showing off at how great of an employee you

are by never taking vacation. It is not a that badge of honor to

not take time off. You are not employee of the year because you never

take your allotted fifteen minute break. All you're doing is killing yourself. You

and I have to have rest. At five of our staff are away on

sabbatical. Lad people come up when they heard about this, They're like,

I don't get sabbaticals where I work. Well, I'm sorry, go find

a new job, find a better boss like me. But don't like try

and like make people feel bad that they are taking advantage of rest that they're

given. You give people rest because they come back and they're better because you

and I were not made to just work. There's something called the sabbath.

God did not make the sabbath part of the Ten Commandments because we needed to

honor it to go to church so he could get more worship. He gave

us the sabbath because he knew if we didn't take days off, our bodies

would break down. And if our bodies didn't break down, we'd break down

emotionally, mentally, spiritually. God created the Sabbath for you because you and

I need rest. If you feel like you want to quit, maybe what

you need is a nap. Maybe what you don't need to do is quit.

Maybe you need just to get away for a couple of days. Go

hike up into the woods, pitch a tent, and just sleep for two

straight days. So Elijah falls asleep. Here's the crazy thing. Elijah falls

asleep all at once. An angel touched him and said, it up and

eat. Laja gets up, He looks around, and thereby his head with

some bread baked over hot coals in a jar of water. He ate and

drank, and then he went back and took another nap. The Angel of

the Lord came back a second time, touched him again and said, get

up, Elijah and eat, for this journey is going to be too much

for you. So Elijah got up and he ate again, and he drank

and strengthened by that food. He traveled forty days and forty nights until he

reached horeb the Mountain of God. Now Mount Horeb is also Mount Sinai.

Mount Sinai is that place where Moses encountered God, where God spoke to Moses

and he got the Ten Commandments, and he got the law that he shared

with the people. So, if you were in Israelite, traveling to Mount

Horeb was a spiritual pilgrimage. You did this because you expected to hear from

God. You expected to encounter God. You were gonna have this deep moment.

It's like when people like you and I, when we go on an

israel trip. We go on this spiritual pilgrimage, not knowing what to expect,

but hoping there's gonna be a greater dynamic in our life spiritually as a

result of this pilgrimage. So Elijah travels forty days, forty nights, ends

up at Mount Horeb, hoping that he's gonna hear from God. Number one,

how do you get up not quit? You need some rest. Number

two, You need someone who asks you honest questions that you will give honest

answers to someone who asks you the hard things, that asks you the truth,

that doesn't let you give away just your Sunday school answers or you're I'm

fine answer, but digs deep. For Elijah, it just happened to be

God. So he finally gets him out horror, and the first thing that

God says to him is, Elijah, what are you doing here? When

God says Elijah, what are you doing here? It wasn't saying Elijah,

why did you just randomly show up in this place? It was God saying,

Elijah, you know better. You're better than this. You didn't have

to run away. Look back at your life and all the times that I

protected you, all the times that I provided for you. Why are you

afraid? Why do you feel lonely? I've always been there for you.

Elijah? Why are you here? Why did you do this? What God

was trying to do is to bring Elijah to that point that he would accept

responsibility that he was in this place by his own choosing. Sometimes that's all

that God wants us to do. God wants us to stop making all the

excuses. Well these I feel alone, and these people are trying to kill

me, and these people are against me, and I don't have any friends,

and we have to stop making all the excuses and just accept Now I'm

here because I ran ninety five miles. And then when another day's journey into

the wilderness, I am here because in a moment, I didn't really trust

God in that moment. So then a little bit later, God speaks to

him again. And what does he say when he speaks to him again?

In verse thirteen, he says, Elijah, what are you doing here?

It's the Elijah. You know better. You know that that's the truth.

And most of the time when you and I do something dumb, afterwards we're

like, I knew better. I shouldn't have talked to that person that way.

I knew that when I did this, I knew there was a chance

this was going to go bad. I knew better. You gotta get some

rest. You have to have somebody who asks you honest questions that you're willing

to give honest answers to. And number three, how do you pick yourself

up and not quit? You need to stop only looking for God in the

spectacular. Most Christians get addicted to the spectacular, and we tell those stories.

Those are what people write books about. It's the books about the miraculous

healing or the moment where God spoke to them and it was undeniable, and

when we are really down and out, we are praying and hoping God shows

up in the spectacular. But the problem is, when all you do is

look for God in the spectacular, you miss him in the every day.

And more often than not, God is speaking to you in everyday circumstances,

and if you only look for it in the spectacular, you miss him.

So we need to stop only seeking God in the spectacular. I mean,

there's nobody that could have expected God to speak more in the spectacular than Elijah.

He'd seen people risen from the dad, he'd prayed down fire from heaven

multiple times. But this is what happens. He climbs up to this mountain.

He's on his spiritual pilgrim as he's expecting to meet God, and the

Bible says this is how God shows up. It says there was a great

and powerful wind that tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks. Most of

us, you would say, there's God. That's the That's what I was

waiting for. Now I need to tear mountains apart. I need rocks to

be crushed. Then I'll know it's God. Then I'll know God cares about

me. But it says, but the Lord was not in the wind.

I can't imagine how confusing that was. It says, after the wind there

was an earthquake. Oh, there's God, He's in this shaking. And

then all of a sudden, it says, but the Lord was not in

the earthquake. And after the earthquake came a fire. Elijah just prayed fire

down from heaven, the whole burning bush thing. Fire's God's way. But

it says, but the Lord was not in the fire. We get in

this habit of only thinking God speaks in the spectacular, and he will on

occasion, but most of the time he speaks to you in your everyday life.

You need to look closer, You need to listen more intently. But

if you look and you listen close and intent, you will see him and

you will hear him in your every day And then here's what happened. It

was not in the fire. But after the fire came a gentle whisper.

When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face. He went

out of the cave, and he stood at the mouth of it, and

the voice said to him, Elijah, what are you doing here? If

you only expect to see God in the spectacular. If you are addicted to

the spectacular, you will miss God in the whisper. And more often than

not, He's going to speak to you in a gentle whisper, not in

some spectacular moment. Honestly, r If God only spoke to us in the

spectacular, it would take no faith to follow him. It'd be so easy

to be a Christian, like we'd be one miracle after another. But most

of the time God speaks in the general whisper. You want to get up

out of your situation, stop only expecting Him to help you in the spectacular.

Number four, What are Elijah do? Next? Elijah went back and

he did what he had been doing before. I watch people when they're at

the lowest moment. They make extreme decisions. They quit things, they change

careers, they get up and they move. But what is Elijah do?

Elijah is told by God to go back where he came from. He's like,

you know how far I went the day in the wilderness, ninety five

miles up, and God says, go back to where you were and go

back to what you were doing before. So what is Elijah do? He

goes back to cities and countries, and he annoints kings, because that's the

role of a prophet. He goes to cities and countries and he calls up

and he raises up new prophets. He literally goes back to doing everything that

he'd been doing before. There's this line that I have used when I mentor

young people forever, when I teach people about determining God's will for your life,

and it goes something like this, if God isn't saying anything new,

go back to the last thing that God said and do that. Dian,

I were on this trip with Convoy of Hope. We were there with pastors

from all around the country, and I was sitting at a table with a

pastor who subsequently since then has become He and his wife had become great friends

of mine and dies. But I didn't know him before, and he asked

about our journey. Now, he himself had been pastoring the same church for

thirty years, was a church that he took over, and I shared with

him the venture journey, and he made this statement to me. He said,

I'd never hear stories like this. He goes, there were three moments

where most pastors would have quit and gone on to another church because he knows

all the stats. He's been doing what he's been doing for years. He's

a denominational leader. And he said, most founding pastors leave after year five.

He goes, why didn't you leave? And I said, because God

didn't say anything new. And he said, seventy percent of pastors resigned.

And this is a true stat after a major building project. And I've shared

with you how difficult building this building was and all it took out of me

physically, emotionally, everything said, seventy percent of pastors quit within a year

after their building project. Said why didn't you quit? And I said,

God didn't say anything new. And then he said and then COVID. Another

thirty percent of ministers quit the ministry of left their church after COVID. Why

didn't you quit then? And I said. I kept praying that God would

say, Brandon, go pastor in Hawaii, but he never did. So

I always went back to the last thing that God said, and I faithfully

and obediently did that. And the last thing that God said is, Brandon,

I've called you and your wife to start a church and to lead that

church for the rest of your lives. So you go back to the last

thing that God said, and you do that, and finally, how do

you keep going? Elijah stopped doing it alone. First King's nineteen nineteen.

We see that he finally, after all these years, got a partner.

He raised up a guy by the name of Elisha. It's confusing because there's

two major prophets in the Old Testament. There's Elijah and Ali Shah. I

actually preached a sermon series on Elisha a few years ago. If you ever

want to listen to it, it's called Supernatural. You can go back in

our sermon archives and listen to it. But Elijah raises up Elisha, and

for the remainder of his life and ministry, he ministers with Elisha. And

he doesn't do it alone. He has a partner. I know many of

you. I've had moments where I've been the Elijah in the story. Some

of you, you're the Elijah in the story right now, and you are

on your ninety five mile running away from Jezreel all the way to bear Sheheba.

For some of you, you've been there, you left everyone else behind,

and now you're wandering a day's journey in the wilderness because others of you.

You're literally laying down underneath the broom tree, praying the pathetic prayers,

and you're wondering, does anybody care? Does anybody know what's going on?

It was so cool to be at that church last week and to know that

God brought me there to be the gentle whisper that speaks to them and reminds

them God's not done with you yet. Church, He ain't done with you.

I'm here to tell you today there's more to your story. Everybody,

stand up on your feet. The band is going to come out. David

and the girls are coming in just a moment. They're gonna lead us in

that song again, and we want to pray for you. We're here because

we want you to know God is able, He's not done with you yet.

There's more to the story. So as we begin to worship, I

want to invite you if you want someone to pray for you, you want

someone to stand next to you, you want someone to believe with you.

As we begin to worship, I want you to leave your seat and I

want you to come worship up towards the front. And then our prayer team

and our altar workers and our staff We're gonna take some time and we're gonna

pray for you, but it's gonna take some courage. You're gonna have to

leave where you are and say I don't want to do this alone. David

will lead us.