When The Righteous Fail (April 29th, 2018) - Jason Lock

Good morning, everybody.

You can open your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 19 today.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

And as you're doing that, let's uh take a moment to start our time in God's Word with prayer.

Our Father in Heaven, we need to hear your voice today.

Thank you for the inspired and inerrant word which we hold in our hands, which we know the Spirit of Christ has breathed into and carried men to right and preserved so that we might have it today.

Thank you that by it we can know you, we can know ourselves, we can know this world.

Lord, you are glorious and you are mighty.

You are the King of glory.

And we desire that this King of Glory would come to us today, would meet with us today, would attend to us today, would reveal Himself in His majesty today.

Lord, please do this.

Show us your magnitude, show us our weakness, Lord God.

And in our weakness, minister to us by your grace and your love and all that we need today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, I thought it was spring, and then I drove 30 minutes north to Newmarket and saw some snow on the ground.

Man, we've been waiting a long time for spring, haven't we, this year?

It's been a long time.

I know you, but I've uh waiting.

Uh I've recognized in my own life uh that waiting can either create one of two responses in me.

Uh it can create uh anticipation, or it can create frustration.

Maybe you're waiting on news from the bank or the doctor.

Maybe you're waiting on news from a teacher.

Maybe you're waiting on news from a friend.

Maybe you're waiting for a spouse to change, a child to come back.

Waiting can create both either frustration or anticipation.

And I think it often causes frustration because in waiting, there's a measure of change that we want that we know we can't control, and is beyond our control.

Today we're looking into the life, part of the life of the prophet Elijah.

According to even Jesus Himself in the Gospels, the three greatest men who lived were John the Baptist, Moses, and Elijah.

Elijah is one of the greatest men who have faith who ever lived, yet today we're looking into a part of his life where he does not show faith but fear.

And so desperately fails that he actually wished that he was dead.

Thankfully, though, for Elijah, God proved himself faithful and he had a better solution for Elijah.

One of renewal and restoration.

But for Elijah to receive change, renewal and restoration in the midst of his failures required that he must wait.

And even in the worst of our failures, even in the worst of your failures and my failures, God's heart for all of his children, God's heart for you, is to not let you linger in your fear and in your failure, but to lead you towards renewal and restoration.

And I hope that you will find this if you need it today, or will be girded up with this truth so that you will need it in that day when fear and failure comes.

And I hope the story of Elijah today will convince us of this in particular.

If you're taking notes, this is the first thing I think we could all write down.

When the righteous fail, God remains faithful.

When the righteous fail, God remains faithful.

And change will come when we wait on the Lord.

So let's read our passage today.

The text at hand is 1 Kings chapter 19, verse 1 to 8.

1 Kings 19:1–8

We're going to start a little before that, 1 Kings 18, verse 45.

1 Kings 18:45

This is God's word.

It speaks to us today, and this is what it says.

And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.

And Ahab, that's the king of Israel at the time, rode and went to Jezreel, a city.

And the hand of the Lord was with Elijah, and he gathered up his garments and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Chapter 19.

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets, false prophets, false prophets of Baal, how he, Elijah, had killed all the false prophets with the swords.

Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, So may the gods, notice little G, false gods, so may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them, the dead prophets, by this time tomorrow.

Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and 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 is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father's.

And he lay down and slept under a broom tree.

And behold, an angel touched him and said, 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.

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 in that of that food forty days and forty now to Horeb, the mountain of God.

So this is what I hope God's Word will teach us today.

When the righteous fail, God remains faithful, and change will come when we wait on the Lord.

In what way did Elijah fail?

Well, in this way, Elijah failed though success was at hand.

You see, at this time in the nation of Israel, the spiritual climate of that nation was wicked.

And God considered that the only solution for change was revolution.

And finally, success was at hand.

The evil king would be overthrown, his wicked false prophets would be overthrown by God's chosen prophet.

You see, this passage just follows a very famous passage at the mountain of Carmel, where Elijah calls fire down from heaven to prove that Yahweh is the one true God.

And then the people of Israel gathered together, realize we've been following these false prophets because our evil king Ahab has been telling us to.

And Elijah's been telling us to turn back, and it's just he's proven it.

So the people turned back to God.

850 false prophets are righteously and justly slaughtered at God's word.

But the king was still alive.

And the king ran away to a city called Jezreel to go and whine with his tail between his legs to the woman who has him whipped, Jezebel.

And Elijah follows him to Jezreel, and it appears that maybe finally God is going to finish the revolution.

The prophets are done, maybe now the king's gonna be overthrown.

And it's at this crucial moment when success was at hand that Elijah failed.

He ran away and hoped to die.

How is it possible for one of the three greatest men of faith who ever lived to respond like this?

Well, write this down.

Elijah failed when the wicked pushed back.

Jezebel pushed back.

She was the wicked one.

Now, when I was growing up, my mom and dad had this Bible, really big Bible, really pretty Bible.

On the front, maybe you've heard this before.

It said, Precious Moments Bible.

By raise of hand, any of you heard of precious moments before?

Maybe you've seen them in like little, cute little nativity figurines.

These porcelain, fluff, cute little uh images of Bible characters.

A lot of stories in the Bible are precious moments stories.

This isn't one of them.

A lot of stories in the Bible are like R-rated movie stories.

This is one of those.

Jezebel was wicked.

How wicked.

So wicked that God prophesied that she would die.

And what was the death that God believed she deserved?

The death that God believed Jezebel deserved was so brutal that after she died, her corpse was so mangled there wasn't enough of it to find so they could bury her.

And God believed she deserved that kind of death.

Why?

Because she systematically hunted down the prophets of the living God and personally financed the prophets of false gods.

Prophets of a false God whose prophets encouraged the people of the living God to sacrifice their own children.

That's how wicked this woman was.

And so wicked that when she found out that her personal prophets were slaughtered, she wanted to kill Elijah and put out a threat on her own life that she would kill him within 24 hours.

But did Elijah really have to run?

He just proved at Mount Carmel that all the false prophets were liars.

And the people were now on his side, not her side.

And 850 false prophets were just slaughtered.

What reason did Elijah have to run?

Everything was going his way.

But he did.

Elijah failed.

And imagine how this leaves the people of Israel.

Their leader is gone.

They're ready to follow God, and the man who's supposed to tell them to follow God runs away.

How could a leader like this fail?

What can the people of God do when their leader fails?

At 99 years old, this past February, one of the greatest and most influential leaders of the evangelical church in the 20 and 21st century died.

Maybe some of you have been impacted by Billy Graham's ministry.

That's a name you might recognize.

Billy Graham is one of the greatest, most influentially used by God preachers of the Christian history of the church.

In the 1940s, Billy Graham started his traveling ministry.

The size of Billy Graham's audience was often as big as the size of the entire population of this city at one time, week after week after week.

Yet there was another preacher in Billy's Graham Time who shared the pulpit with Billy Graham, who you probably haven't heard of before.

His name is Charles Templeton.

Billy is an American.

Charles grew up in Toronto.

In 1941, Charles Templeton founded Avenue Road Church just up the street from U of T.

In 1945, Charles helped Billy found Youth for Christ.

Charles and Billy traveled together all across Europe preaching.

Some considered Charles a more talented communicator than Billy.

One journalist called him the babe roof of evangelism.

Templeton even had his own evangelistic TV show that aired nationally on CBS in the 1950s.

So why are so many of us familiar with Billy Graham and not Charles Templet?

Because in 1957, the babe Ruth of evangelism left the faith.

How could a leader like this fail?

What can the people who depended on his leadership do when the one they trust to leads them fails?

Maybe the church needs to start by asking ourselves, where do we put our trust?

Maybe you came to this church because you've been in another church where leadership failed.

I read an article by a uh gentleman named Ed Stetzer, well-known author, who said that a couple years ago he was sharing the pulpit with eight conference speakers, very well prominent known pastors, and a year later, 50% of those speakers all were disqualified from the ministry for either abusing their power, abusing substances, or sexual immorality.

Unfortunately, a lot of Christians in North America put our trust in the wrong place.

We put our trust in the leader first before God.

We trust their charisma.

We trust the leader's marriage.

We we trust the leader's reputation, we we trust the leader's vision.

The best of men are still only men at best.

And the best of men that stand behind a pulpit, or the best of men that would write a book, or the best of men that would speak at a conference, are all sinners, just like everyone else, who would listen and be influenced by their ministry.

And the best that men can do who lead can have this would be to have the same attitude that the greatest man whom Jesus had lived had.

That attitude that says he must increase and I must decrease.

Elijah failed, but when leaders failed, the work of God does not fail.

Elijah failed, but the failure of Israel's leaders allowed them to anticipate the greatest leaders.

The best of Israel's prophets failed.

The best of Israel's priests failed.

The best of Israel's kings, even David, the man after God's own heart, failed.

Yet Jesus did not say to the church, leaders will build my church.

He did not say authors will build my church.

He did not say conference speakers will build my church.

He did not say TV preachers will build my church.

Jesus said, I will build my church.

And the gates of hell will not stand against it.

Israel was looking to that final king who would rule forever, the faithful prophet who would speak with divine authority, and the last priest who would offer a sacrifice once for all.

And just like Israel looked for that same leader, we have that one leader too.

His name is Jesus.

And he alone is the head of this church.

And if you are here today and you are looking for some kind of leadership, look to Jesus alone.

If you're looking to some kind of authority, look to Christ's word.

If you are looking to some kind of king, look to the rule of the righteous, humble servant Jesus.

If you are looking for some kind of forgiveness, look to the one who died in your place for your sins, and you will be forgiven.

And he will not leave you.

He will not forsake you.

He is your good shepherd who will lead you in paths of righteousness for his namesake.

I hope you pray for Pastor Mike.

I'm thankful for the godly, humble leadership that he offers to you as a church.

But Pastor Mike and John, these men are men just like you.

Sinners just like you.

But I know what Pastor Mike wants.

I know he wants your faith to rest not in his wisdom, but in God's power.

And because I know what he wants, they know what he does.

He does what 1 Corinthians chapter 2 says leader should do.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

He's not gonna preach his own wisdom, he's gonna preach Christ crucified.

Because if we depend on the wisdom of man and our faith depends on the wisdom of man, it will fail.

But our faith, our faith depends on the preaching of Christ crucified and is anchored in the message of Christ crucified, then our faith rests not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.

Let it be that in a harvest new market.

That is where you put your trust.

We must start by asking when we see leaders fail, where do we put our trust?

But when leaders fail, we can also ask ourselves this question: What can we learn from their failures?

And this is what we're gonna ask now.

And I'd like to say before we look at the specific way that Elijah failed, that I'm very thankful for the Word of God.

Because the Word of God, from cover to cover, through explanation, instruction, or through narrative stories, gives an accurate depiction of the entire human experience.

Nothing needs to be taboo in the church.

I'm thankful that the word of God is comprehensively instructive, and that this is a place where you can be honest with the sincere dark struggles you may have in your life.

Because Elijah certainly did.

Let's look back at the book.

Why when the righteous fail, God remains faithful.

And write this down.

Elijah failed primarily because he feared.

Let's look into the book and what happened when he feared.

Alright, verse 3.

How did his fear manifest himself?

First, uh, write this down before we read God's word.

He feared because his focus was wrong.

Our senior pastor in Harvest Markham, Harvest York Region, says this.

Verse 3 says, Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life.

He was focused not on what God just did at Mount Carmel, but on just Threat.

And here's the four ways that here's fear manifested itself.

Number one, he failed because he feared, and because of fear, he abandoned God's calling.

Every single change of direction that Elijah took in this account between him and Ahab, where he's trying to overthrow the king, every single decision that he made was between because of one of two things.

Number one, the word of God instructed him to do something.

Number two, the hand of God directed him to go to a certain place.

This decision that he made to run away to Bersheba, neither the word of God told him, nor did the hand of God direct him.

He abandoned his calling as a prophet.

Also, this, Elijah failed because he feared, and because of his fear, he chose isolation.

Look of the book again with me.

Look down to the scriptures.

This is the word of God, verse 4.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, but he himself, he had a servant, a friend, a companion with him, but he foolishly decided to go off alone.

It's not the first time we've seen Elijah choose to isolate himself.

Previously, God told him to go by himself and live at a brook called the Brook Kareth.

At that time, God told him to go by himself.

God did not tell him to go by himself here.

He abandoned God's calling, he chose isolation, then this.

Elijah failed because he feared, and because of fear, he was crippled with guilt.

Look at with me in verse 4.

He says, it says, He asked that he might die.

Why?

Saying, It is enough, O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father's.

I'm no better than my father's.

Twice previously he knew his sense of self, and he was secure in his sense of self, and said that he was one who stood before God.

He had known who he was before God, and that he stood with God, but now he was saying, I'm no better than my sinful idol worshiping fathers.

He was crippled with guilt.

Write this down also.

Elijah failed because he feared.

Because of fear, he was hopelessly suicidal.

Look at verse 4 and 5 again.

He says, It is enough, O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father's, verse 5.

And he laid down and slept under a broom tree.

Do you think that when Elijah laid his eyes down to sleep after asking that God would take his life, he just hoped that he would never wake up again.

That when he put his head on the pillow, he wouldn't wake them up in the morning.

What a sorrowful change in this prophet's life.

The book of James says that Elijah is one of the greatest men of prayer.

We have four recorded prayers of Elijah.

The first prayer he says, God, don't let it rain.

It didn't rain.

Three years.

The second prayer Elijah prayed, he said, God, send something else down from heaven.

Send fire down from heaven.

Fire came down from heaven.

Third prayer that God that Elijah prayed.

God, it's been three years, send rain.

Rain came.

The fourth prayer he prayed.

Take my life.

I want to die.

What a sorrowful change.

So one day in grade four, my teacher looked at me with a very perplexed expression on her face, which I didn't understand, and which led to a couple of very interesting dialogues.

My teacher looked at me and asked me, Are you fine?

And I said, Yeah, I'm fine.

And she said, You don't look fine.

And told her, I feel like I'm fine.

And she said, You should go down to the office and maybe talk to our nurse.

Okay.

So I went down to the office and talked to the nurse, and the nurse immediately looked at me and said, Are you fine?

I said, I'm fine.

What's wrong?

She said, Look in the mirror.

And I looked over in the mirror and thought I was fine.

But my neck and my back were cranked up like this.

Yeah, I'm fine.

What's wrong?

I'm okay.

So shocker, when I was in grade four, I was about the size of whatever of grade four is in grade four.

But I carried books in my bag that probably was too heavy for a high schooler to carry.

And thought I was really cool and made the the straps really long and held them on one side.

And I didn't recognize it.

But the weight of the bag on my neck had completely mangled my neck and my back.

And that's what fear can do to our hearts.

Lingering fear can mangle your heart so desperately that you don't recognize that it's mangled.

Maybe you've been crippled with fear from a challenging trial and it's starting to cripple your faith.

And you think this is the new normal.

Maybe at least in your thoughts, if not already in your actions, you're thinking, I'm done with this job.

I'm done with this marriage.

I'm done with this family.

I'm done with this church.

I'm done with this faith.

Maybe your fear has convinced you that isolation is the solution and that taking a break from church will solve your depression.

Maybe you've lost sight of your standing with Christ like Elijah, and you're crippled with guilt, and you forget God's love and grace.

Maybe you've given up hope, or you've thought in your mind, or maybe actually physically tried to harm yourself.

Maybe you wish you could put your head down at a pillow at night.

Close your eyes and never open them again.

The weight of carrying fear lingering in our hearts can be unbearable and can mangle us.

My wife has seen me carry fear like this.

I've seen my wife carry fear like this.

What about you?

Fear reigns when your focus is on the wrong thing or in the wrong direction.

Friend, I would tell you today, if you feel mangled in your heart because of the weight of fear, faith will reign when your focus is not on the wrong thing or the wrong direction, but when your faith is focused on God.

Now understand that when the Word of God tells you, when you hear that the solution to your fear is believe in God, you're not being offered some cookie cutter, sugar pill, quick fix solution.

Believing in God is not a simple solution because we don't have simple problems and we are not simple people, we are complex people.

You might think you're a simple guy.

Yeah, I'm just a meat and potatoes guy.

I'm just a steak and potatoes guy.

Well, maybe if I cooked steak and potatoes and I bought the potatoes and I bought the steak and I seasoned the potatoes and seasoned the steak, you could know simply, yes, what I'm eating is steak and potatoes.

But our lives are more like steak and potatoes that you get out of a hungry man meal in a box out of the freezer.

And you think what you're eating is just steak and potatoes, but you look at the back of the box and you read all those ingredients and preservatives that you can't actually pronounce, and you realize, wow, this is a lot more than just steak and potatoes.

And that's the same thing with your trials.

Faith in God is not a simple solution.

Because we are not simple people, we're complex key people.

Because we are complexly created in the image of God.

In the image of God, you are created as a rational person.

And because of your rationality, the way you think is complex.

The way you think about how you relate to God is complex.

The way you think about how you relate to your environment is complex, how you relate to others, how you relate to your inner self.

And when sin gets a hold of those things, everything is mangled.

Creating the image of God, you're not just a rational being, you're an emotional being and you have desires.

And when sin gets a hold of our desires, they go away from God and towards idolatry and selfishness.

And they mangle our hearts.

You're not just a rational being and an emotional being, you're a volitional being.

You make decisions.

But when sin gets a hold of our decision-making capacities, we start making decisions according to our own will, not according to our God's will.

Your trial is not a simple problem, and the solution is not simple.

So when I tell you, believe in God, turn your focus away from things and away from the wrong direction and put it on faith in God.

What happens in the complexity of our trials when you put your faith towards God is that you begin to think according to God's thoughts in God's word and not according to your selfish ways.

You start to relate to God in His Word a way that he wants you to.

You relate to others the way that God wants you to.

You relate to your environment, you relate to yourself in the way that God wants you to.

Your emotions start to change when your faith is focused on God.

You don't desire selfishly, you desire what God desires.

Your thinking and decision making starts to change.

You don't follow your own will, you follow God's will.

Believe in Jesus.

Turn away from what is causing you fear and focus your eyes on Christ.

Elijah didn't do that.

And it lingered.

And he wanted to die.

Are you despairing like that?

Elijah failed because he feared.

God offers you relief today.

What should you believe right now?

If you need to believe and turn away from fear and towards faith, what can you believe now?

Believe that God cares.

First Peter chapter 5 says that we should cast all our anxieties on him because he cares for us.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

Believe that he cares.

And believe that he's able to change.

Hebrews chapter 4 says that we should go to him in prayer in our time of need, because he will provide grace and mercy to help.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

Start with that faith today.

Change will come.

When the righteous fails, God remains faithful.

And thankfully, in Elijah's life, God faithfully intervened.

Let's look back at the scriptures again.

First Kings chapter 19, verse 5 and verse 6.

1 Kings 19:5

God faithfully intervened, and he intervened in four unique ways.

First, in verse 6, or excuse me, verse 5, as he lay down and slept, and he laid down and slept under a broom tree.

And behold, an angel touched him and said, Arise and eat.

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

First, write this down.

God faithfully intervened in an unexpected way.

This was the first instance in Elijah's life that God ministered to him by an angel.

This isn't the first time God fed him, but the first time God fed him, it was like fast food.

He was sitting at the brook of Careth, and day by day ravens would come and bring him meat.

Fast food raven feeding.

That's pretty cool.

But uniquely, and maybe also kindly and gently, this isn't fast food raiden feeding.

Like an angel baking a cake, an angel starting a fire, getting coals.

This is like a divine bed and breakfast.

It's so there's a tenderness to the way that God intervened.

God physically intervened in an unexpected way.

Write this down.

God intervened in a kind and gracious way.

Notice what's not there.

What's not there is an answer to his prayer.

For the first time, God didn't answer Elijah's prayer.

God considered that there was a better solution to his trial than dying.

God had a plan for renewal and restoration, and he has that same plan for all of his children.

God faithfully intervened.

Why?

In order to enable simple obedience.

Look back at the book with me.

Verse 6.

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 drank and lay down again, verse 7.

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

Yes, God wanted to enable simple obedience.

And God had a long-term plan for renewal and restoration.

But Elijah needed to recognize something.

Simple obedience was just get up from this place.

Receive the strength I want to give you.

And follow me to the place I want to take you.

And then fourth, write this down.

God faithfully intervened, yet Elijah had to wait for renewal and restoration.

Never been a fan of putting together IKEA furniture.

I don't know if you have.

If you are, I don't know what's wrong with you, but you're better than the rest of us.

Yet you no matter what weird Swedish name on the box of that IKEA furniture you buy, it always starts with the same process.

I know it's gonna be a long process.

I know it's gonna be a headache, but the process is still always the same.

Open the box, find the instruction, get the Allen key.

Once you've gotten the Allen key, then you can start the process to build.

Is your heart mangled today, friends?

By believing in Jesus, God wants to intervene in your life today, but He's not asking you to change your mangled heart today.

Your heart might be so mangled that it feels like it's some used IKEA furniture that you got off Khajiji and it's wrecked, and you try to fix it, but it's so mangled that you think the solution is just to throw it out and start over.

God's not asking you to fix your marriage today.

God's not asking you to fix your finances because of your foolish spending habits today.

God's not asking you to completely fix your mangled sexual purity today.

God's not asking you to fix your reckless gossiping today, but he wants to intervene today, and he wants you to believe that change is possible today, and he wants you to wait on him in this process of renewal and restoration.

Let me leave you with this one Bible verse that will close our time together.

And I want you to turn in your Bible with me to Psalm 103, verse 5 and 6.

Psalms 103:5

Psalm 103 verse 5 and 6 will close our time together.

Psalms 103:5

God faithfully intervened with Elijah in an unexpected way.

He intervened with kindness and grace and tenderness.

He intervened to enable simple obedience.

Church, when the righteous fails, and certainly we fail, I fail, God remains faithful.

And change will come when you wait on the Lord.

Look with me at this passage together, Psalm 130, verse 5 and 6.

Psalms 130:5

The psalmist says, I will wait for the Lord.

My soul waits, and in his word I hope.

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

You see, in Israel's habits for their military, around their cities where there was a fortress, they would have soldiers posted as watchmen.

And watchmen's job was to stand on the walls and see if there was danger coming.

And one of the watches of the night, a period in which they needed to stand guard, was between 2 a.m.

and 6 a.m.

This passage is saying that if we need change, we need to wait on the Lord more than the watchman waits for the morning.

When the watchman stands watch at 2 a.m., it is pitch black.

And as much as they hope for the morning to come, and as dark as it is, there's nothing they can do to make the darkness flee quicker.

There's nothing they can do to more the morning come quicker.

All they can do is wait on the Lord.

And you might feel now that your soul rests in darkness, and you long for the light of God to lift upon you and bring some relief, and you want some change.

Children of God, God has change for you.

Believe on him, but change will come as you wait on him.

But it's so dark, yes, but the Lord is with you through the valley of the shadow of death.

But but I don't I feel alone today.

No that surely goodness and mercy will follow you every day as you wait on the Lord to bring change to your mangled heart.

God's plan for you is renewal and restoration.

Believe it today and wait on it today.