Navigating Normal: The Way Back | Part 4

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

We're continuing our series.

We're actually completing our series.

We're finishing up our series called Navigating Normal.

We've been wrestling with this.

How do we navigate the normal that we now find ourselves in, a normal we never expected to be in?

And we said this that no one prepared us for the last 18 months for a pandemic and all that we've gone through.

And chances are no one has actually taught you how to navigate the normal we now find ourselves in.

And then to compound the problem is this that we have come to believe, because it's been spoken so many times, that we are living in unprecedented times.

Unprecedented meaning it's you new or unique.

And the truth is these are not unprecedented times.

They are new to us, but they're not new to history, nor are they new to the pages of God's word and how he's worked.

And so as a result, we can go to God's word and discover and learn how do we navigate the world we find ourselves in.

And so we've been studying the life of the prophet Elijah for the last three, now four weeks.

And the prophet Elijah, I just want to do a big recap.

And so if you're brand new, kind of catch you up to where we've been, uh he's an incredibly important figure in the Old Testament.

You find a story in 1 Kings.

We've been uh in 1 Kings chapter 18 and 19.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

And the prophet Elijah lived in a time that's not too dissimilar to the time and age that we are living in.

Uh in fact, uh he lived in a time where there was incredible uh political corruption.

King Ahab, it says that he was uh did more evil in the eyes of God than any other king before him, and the other kings before him were bad news.

And then he married a gal named Jezebel, who was really, really bad news.

And so there's this political corruption, there's spiritual and moral decay.

Jezebel brought in the prophets of Baal and uh and really instituted this worship that was contrary to the ways of Yahweh, uh, that then began to how do you please and appease the God so that he'll work on your behalf?

And you had uh temple prostitution and really in our day we would call it human trafficking, and to the point of how do you appease the gods if you're not getting rain and some of these sort of things, even to the point of child sacrifice, it was getting very, very dark, and not only political corruption, spiritual moral decay, but then you also at the same time uh had a severe persecution that broke out on anyone who followed the ways of Yahweh.

Uh, and so the prophets were being killed by Jezebel and her prophets of Baal.

There's 450 that she imported from her country where she was from, 400 prophetess of Ashrah, a counterpart to Baal, God there.

And then he had a national disaster, a drought.

We know about droughts here, but it was a three-year drought with no rain that impacted the socioeconomic life of the people there.

This is the context that Elijah is trying to navigate, and God tells him it's gonna rain like it's raining today.

And I want you to go and tell Ahab, because I don't want them to mistake that somehow the gods did this.

No, the one true God did this.

And so uh Elijah sets up this contest, if you will, between the one true God and the gods of Bel up on Mount Carmel.

And he says, Hey, whatever God that calls down fire is the one true God.

So let's set up a sacrifice, and you guys go first, and you call on your God.

We won't light a match, and the God that responds by fire, that's God.

And so they are chanting and praying.

Uh Elijah's mocking them.

God's, their gods are not responding.

Um, he's saying, you know, maybe your God's asleep, maybe he's gone on vacation.

Uh they get worked up, they begin to cut themselves, and they start early in the morning till late in the day, and eventually they give up.

And Elijah prays, and God answers by fire in that moment, and he completely uh takes up the sacrifice there that they had set up.

And then um Elijah calls for justice on the prophets Abel, and the people seize them, uh these prophets, and they kill them.

And it's just this incredible scene of uh national revival and turning to Yahweh, uh, those that had been murdering the people of Yahweh.

And then Elijah tells Ahab it's gonna rain.

You better get home.

And Elijah runs 17 miles ahead of him because he's so excited, and he has this.

Think about this, think about Elijah.

He started that day standing alone on Mount Carmel against 450 prophets of Bel, the king, and all the people gathered around.

He ended the day, the king standing alone, and all the people with him.

And then the text says that when Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, Jezebel threatened his life, and Elijah ran and was afraid.

And you just wonder, what happened?

Why how how could a man of God, how could a prophet, how could someone who saw God show up so dramatically, literally by fire and rain, and deliver and see a national revival break out in the same day.

We're not talking days later.

We're talking hours later.

And we've been wrestling with, okay, what do we do when we find ourselves in?

One of my favorite uh scriptures that talks about Elijah is found in James, James chapter 5, verse 16.

James 5:16

It says, and Elijah was a human being just as we are.

Isn't that good?

To know that as you're walking and as you're struggling, as you're navigating this life, that even the people that you think are most spiritual and have it together, that if they, if, if you know, you kind of wrestle like if I only prayed more, if I if I really had faith, I wouldn't.

No, no, no.

Elijah, the great prophet at all, wrestled and struggled.

And he ended up going into a deep depression, ran into the wilderness, wanted to die, and God met him on the mountain of God in a cave.

That's where we left off last week.

And God met him in this mountain.

I just want to give you just a quick uh kind of overview of the last several weeks.

Week one, we talked about just like us, why is it that working hard in the areas that matter most hardly work?

And we said, after you've poured everything out, notice this, moms, dads, singles, after you've poured everything out, there's nothing left to pour.

And you work hard trying to pour out, and really it's less about what you're pouring out and more about what you're allowing to pour in.

And the practice is guard your heart, watch over, pay attention to the streams of influence.

See, Elijah was just like us.

Week two, we talked about running on empty.

What do you do when you run on empty?

And how many of us feel and have felt completely on e.

And the principle was you're a human doing, not a human being.

Accept your limitations and then God's invitation to rest.

And last week we talked about and the sermon title was Into the Cave.

I shared very personally just about my own struggle and journey with depression.

And what do you feel do when the fog of depression settles over your life?

And I encourage you, if you didn't hear that sermon, please go back and listen to last week's.

And we have to recognize and understand what you feel is real, but not necessarily true.

So overcoming depression is a process, and you have to be proactive.

And we left Elijah in the cave, and he had just met and experienced the presence of God, even though he ran away from what God was doing, and God shows up, and this is where we pick up the story today.

And the sermon title today is called The Way Back.

Why don't you go ahead and just uh I gave you a lot of info right at the beginning.

You're like, hello, Ryan.

I'd I'd just love like a you know, an introduction, a handshake before you dive all the way into all of that.

And why don't you go ahead and just say to the person next to you, the way back?

Go for it.

The way back.

The way back.

There you go.

There you go.

All right.

Now, when we think about the way back, here's what we think about the way back to normal, don't we?

How do I get back to normal?

And what we mean by normal generally is the way life was or once was.

We're looking back, and that's actually one of the challenges, one of the disorienting realities, isn't it, for you and for me?

Is like there's semblance of normalcy.

Kids are back in school, but that's not quite normal.

It doesn't quite feel right.

Things are just off just a little bit.

And I'd like to suggest the way back and what God has for us in navigating these days isn't the way back to normal, but the way back to meaning and purpose and significance.

See, it's not so much getting back to normal, it's more about how do I embrace and live out a life that's filled with meaning in the days and places where God has me and where God has you.

You know, when I was um a kid, I was about six or seven, it was in Texas, and at our church, um they had built a play structure.

And it wasn't like one of those professional ones that you get, it was someone made it, and and someone that was ambitious made this one.

Um, you know, must have really loved to build.

I swear that, you know, you had one kind of structure.

I think it was like 10 feet tall.

Now it was six years old, I could be off on the size.

It felt so enormous and so high, like you get up there and you're like a little freight.

And the monkey bars went from that over to another platform and structure there.

Uh, and it just was this incredible place to run and play.

Well, we're we're there on a on a Sunday evening, as it kind of often did back in the days in Church World Land.

It happened to be raining, it was dark and stormy, literally, uh, that day.

And I don't really know what was going on.

I'm six or seven, I don't have to.

I don't know where adults are.

All I know is there's about eight of us running around playing tag in the rain.

That's every like seven-year-old's dream, right?

We're running around playing tag, going from here to there, and I'm climbing up that big tower, and I go to reach for the monkey bar, and I slip.

And I began to fall, and I I mean, I still remember this moment like it was yesterday.

I begin to fall, and I look up and see the monkey bars just slowly go away from me, and then I just slam into the ground on my back, and I'm like, and guy, all the kids like circle around me, and they're like, Ryan, you okay?

And my eyes are like bulging out, and I'm like, oh and and they're like, What do we do?

So they went and ran and got an adult, and that was the first time that I can remember ever uh having the wind knocked out of me.

You ever had the wind knocked out of you?

Isn't it awful?

Like, like it's all right, okay, fine.

Whatever, superhuman, it was awful for me, okay?

And since I'm on stage, it's about me right now.

All right.

I got the wind completely knocked out of me in that moment.

I at seven years of age, I thought I was gonna die.

I thought I had breath, breathe my last breath.

It was just like, oh, and I had this adult sitting over me, it's gonna be okay.

I'm like, oh, and then all of a sudden, oh.

And I think that's how many of us maybe feel when it comes to meaning and purpose.

That the last 18 months or so just knock the wind out of us.

That you just feel like you got hit and you're going, like, I don't even know if I can get back up.

I'm just laid out flat on my back.

And so, how do you find meaning in the midst of the messiness of life?

How do we begin to navigate the world we in, we are in?

We're not going back to normal the way life once was, but that's not even the goal.

How do we go back to living out a meaning-filled life?

I like how Gail Hyatt once said, people lose their way when they lose their why.

And for many of us, we felt like meaning or significance was on pause or just completely lost.

The way the author of Proverbs says it, this King James Version says, where there is no vision, the people perish.

I closed last week letting you know about one of the turning points in my journey with depression.

And it was actually in a family crisis at the end of about 18 months, and where all of a sudden I realized that my life mattered.

Friends, if I can say nothing to you today, but just one simple thing is your life matters.

You're needed.

God longs to use you in significant ways.

And yes, though, you may feel like the wind's gotten knocked out of you, and you may feel knocked down, but God is not done with you yet.

And God wasn't done with Elijah because he was knocked down and out and running from his calling.

And I want you to see how God responds to him.

We pick up the story in 1 Kings chapter 18.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

If you have your Bible, would you open there?

1 Kings 18, verse 15.

1 Kings 18:15

As he's hiding in a cave away from his purpose, the Lord said to him, Elijah, go back the way you came and go to the desert of Damascus where you once were.

Go back the way you came.

I love this, by the way, because God's saying to Elijah, the cave is not your new home.

And for some, you feel knocked down, you feel knocked out, and you're like, maybe this is just the new reality, and he's going, no, no, no.

Go back the way you came.

I have a purpose.

You know, you ran from that, but I have a purpose for you.

Go back the way you came.

The cave's not your new home.

In fact, he's then gonna give uh Elijah a new assignment.

When you get there, anoint Hazel, king over Aram, anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, king over Israel, anoint Elisha, son of Japhat, uh, from Abel Meholah, to succeed you as prophet.

And so he's then to begin to raise up and anoint godly leadership and a predecessor.

And then you're wrestling with the question that Elijah's wrestling with, what about justice?

See, I can I can anoint people, but what's gonna happen to the to the unjust uh rulers and powers that are corrupting and that are killing and that are uh doing all of this evil?

And he says, the people that are raised up into new leadership that are gonna address the corrupt power, Jehu will put to death any who escaped the sword of Hazel, and Elisha will put to death any who escaped the sword of Jehu.

Speaking of corrupt leaders, not speaking of everyone, speaking of bringing about ultimate justice.

And Elisha's struggle, if you remember last week, was I'm I'm all on my own.

I'm just I'm trying to parent all on my own.

I'm single, I'm just trying to navigate this moment all on my own.

I'm at Google, I'm at Facebook, I'm at Netflix, and there is not another believer there.

I'm all on my own.

And God says, yet I reserve 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.

You are not all on your own.

How do you find meaning in the midst of the messiness of life?

I want to give you yet again a principle and then a practice this morning as we conclude our series.

The principle is this no matter how far you've wandered, there's always a way back with God.

No matter how far you've wandered in life, there's always a way back from God with God.

Elijah wandered.

He was in the northern part of uh Israel in Damascus.

He ran to the southern part of Judah and then wanders in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights.

He was wandering and he ended up on the mountain of God, far from where God had called him.

And God says, There is a way back.

You may have wandered over here, but I have a way back with you.

And I think for some, maybe you feel like over the season you've wandered spiritually.

Whether it's doubt, whether it's just feeling apathetic, maybe you've been dis deconstructing your faith or wrestling with thoughts.

Maybe you feel like you've wandered emotionally, whether it's depression like we were talking about last week, or anxiety, or just feeling kind of blah.

I think for some we're wandering internally.

And what I mean by that is I think we were afraid to ever speak it out and ever sit vocalize it to somebody else.

And so from the outside, and even from those closest to us, they think we're doing well.

But inside there is this wandering and this wandering, and you're just you're afraid if you vocalize it, you're not even sure how people would respond.

Or maybe wandered relationally, not only with God, but with others, and through this season, you've just kind of distanced yourself from others, or maybe it's a key relationship that has broken down.

And here's what the principle is: no matter how far you have wandered, there's always a way back with God.

There may not be a way back to normal, but there's always a way back to meaning.

The wonderful and beautiful reality of the gospel is this.

There are consequences to sin.

There are relational consequences to things.

For some, and I've unfortunately walked with people whose marriages are crumbling and decisions being made that undermine even a way back in that marriage.

You cannot go so far that God doesn't say, Come on home.

Or welcome home.

See, we tend to believe the lie that I'm so far down the road, there is no hope, and there's no way back.

I love how what God says to him.

He says, Go back the way you came.

Often for many of us, the way forward is going backwards.

Go back the way you came.

You know what that is in the Bible?

It's repentance.

It's the word repent.

Repent means to change one's mind, and so as a result, to change one's direction.

It's to change one's mind about yourself and about life and about reality, so you change your direction.

You realize you're headed in the wrong direction and you turn around and go in a new direction.

This is what God is saying to Elijah hey, you're in the cave.

The cave is not your new home, the way forward is actually the way back.

You need to change directions.

What do you need to change your mind about?

I think we sometimes believe the lie that I'm hopeless.

That I'm a lost cause.

That I'm no good.

Change your mind.

That is not true.

What do we need to change our mind?

I'm useless.

God doesn't want me.

That is not true.

God could never use me.

That is not true.

Those are lies.

No matter how far you've wandered, I've wandered, wherever you've been, there's always a way back with God.

And so what do I do, Ryan?

How do I begin to make those steps?

The practice then is get moving in the direction God's leading.

Get moving.

Now, if you are, if I am in a place of wandering, here's the way we tend to think about this.

I need to get my act together before I get moving in the direction of God.

Right?

I need to fix up my life before.

That is not the gospel.

God says, I'm coming to you to meet you right where you are at, so that you can get moving in the direction.

Actively pursue God before you get your act together.

And as you pursue the things of God, you'll just notice those things begin to change in your life along the way.

Get moving in the direction that God's leading first.

How do we do that?

You got to embrace that you're called by God.

I am looking, and those watching, I'm looking at called ones by God.

God showed up to Elijah when he was complaining about his circumstances, and he reminds them that he has a calling on his life.

Anybody been complaining about their circumstances?

Okay, you were lively earlier.

Now you're like, I ain't gonna, I ain't gonna admit that.

Thank you.

One of you is honest, and I am too.

Isn't it such an encouraging thing that when Elijah's complaining about his circumstances, God doesn't put him in his place.

He says, I have a calling for you.

See, what you need in this moment is you lost sight of your why, you lost sight of your purpose, you lost sight of your meaning, and so you're looking at the circumstances through the lens that you do not matter and your life is a waste.

And here's the reality: if you get your calling clear, then your circumstances don't change, your perspective does, and so your direction does.

See, I'm looking at people, we've all complained about our circumstances, but you're a called one by God.

You're a called one by God.

You have been called by God.

There's a calling on your life.

I like how the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians, Ephesians 2, 8 through 10.

He says, For it is by grace you've been saved, not by works, so that no one can boast.

This is a gift of God.

Like our salvation isn't that we fixed our lives up, it's that he came and did the work for us.

And then it goes on to say this, and you are God's workmanship, his poem, his masterpiece, his work of art, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which he prepared in advance.

Did you know that you are his masterpiece created in Christ Jesus, and he has a good work for you to do?

Yes, now, in the normal we find ourselves, yes, at your workplace, yes, at your home, yes, at the baseball field, the football field, the basketball court.

I don't know where you're playing sports, maybe you're not playing sports, at the coffee shop, wherever you are at, he has a good work for you to do, and do not believe the lie otherwise.

You are a called one by God, and he prepared in advance for you.

You matter.

Your life has meaning.

You're called by God.

Secondly, then embrace your new assignment.

Embrace your new assignment.

God gave Elijah a brand new assignment.

It was an assignment, by the way, if you're wondering, hey, what's my new assignment?

One of the things that I think is so amazing is his assignment was towards people, not away from people.

So your new assignment is towards people, towards community.

His new assignment, by the way, was speaking life over people.

If you just embraced that assignment right there alone, you would see that you would be the breather of life and hope in every environment, and God would use you in drastic ways, dramatic ways.

I'm gonna be a speaker of life, not death.

He invested what he had and passed it on to others.

The little that you feel like you have, I'm just gonna give to those around me.

I'm gonna invest in the next generation of people.

Embrace your new assignments.

You know, for those who have wandered, those who feel like damaged goods or useless, your greatest failure, surrender to Jesus is the opportunity for your greatest ministry.

Your greatest failure, surrender to Jesus, is often where he wants to do the greatest ministry through you.

Where he will not waste that pain and he will use it about his purposes.

Maybe your new assignment for all of us love Jesus, love others, be faithful, what's in front of you, what's in front of you.

There are some deeds, by the way, only you can do.

Some hands, only you can hold.

Some wounds only you can heal.

Because of the person God is making you to be.

Embrace your assignment to love others well in your life.

And finally, remember you're not alone.

Those who are watching online and who have felt alone, you're not alone.

You have a community here, I know you haven't got to be with us, but you have a community here that's with you.

Those that are working in a place where it just feels like you're alone.

You're not alone.

And by the way, there's more people there than you know that actually love Jesus.

For some, you're in a marriage that you're struggling, you just feel all on your own, and you're not alone.

God says, I'm with you.

I'm with you.

And the people of God are with you.

How do you find meaning in the messiness of life?

No matter how far you've wandered, there's always a way back with God.

But we have to get moving in the direction God's leading.

We've been talking for the last four weeks, and I know this has been one of those series for some that has really resonated, and this is the call of, okay, we gotta apply it.

We got to get moving.

God, where are you leading?

Would you have the courage to just start asking God, what are you saying to me?

What are you showing me?

What are the things over the past few weeks that you've been showing to me, and I'm going to take a step in that direction?

You know, in the Silicon Valley, isn't it interesting that we're so busy?

We run at such a hard pace, and yet when you stop, you kind of realize it's unfulfilling.

We live unfulfilled lives because we fill our lives with that which is unfulfilling.

You are a workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus.

That's your position in him, and he longs to use you in significant and meaningful ways.

I want you to stand as we close.

And I just want to pray a prayer.

It's a prayer I've prayed over our church many, many times.

But I'm just thinking about those that came in today that the wind's been knocked out of you, that you're wrestling and talking about speaking life.

A blessing is powerful, and I want to bless you.

And so if you would take your hands and just hold them out in front of you, I want to bless you right now.

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

Why?

Because there's some deeds only you can do, some hands only you can hold, some hurts only you can heal because of the person God is making you to be.

You matter, you matter, you matter.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

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