Men's Luncheon - Pastor Greg Addison - October 21, 2025

All right, let's uh let's pray.

We'll get started.

Lord, thank you for today.

Thank you for these men.

Thank you for a chance we have to encourage each other.

What a great thing it is when men come together, spend time together, encourage one another, especially in your presence, and allow you to be that uh great spiritual force that bonds us together and encourages us.

We pray that you'll teach us from today.

I thank you for our crew that made lunch for us.

What a blessing it is every week that they do that for us.

And we pray your blessings on them for their service for us.

We thank you most of all for the gift of salvation that we have in Jesus.

In His name we pray.

And all the guys said, Amen.

I love doing that because it reminds everybody, hey, we're all praying together.

Y'all are praying with us, right?

I love, I get these stories since we're telling stories about kids.

I'll get these stories where people will tell me, okay, Pastor, last night at supper we were taking, we take turns to say the blessing.

And last night one of our kids said, Lord, thank you for this food and our family, and all God's people said.

And I said, Hey, they learn, right?

They listen in church and they learn.

And so it was great.

So I love that story.

I periodically get that.

Uh well, it's uh it is fun and uh it's great.

Life is good, God is good, filled with joy.

But sometimes you get a little, life gets a little dry, right?

Sometimes uh we get in a spot where we just think, you know, either I'm tired or exhausted, or I'm thinking, you know, what am I gonna do?

I'm kind of tired of this.

I've been in this root routine long enough.

And there are times in life when we just get dry, it's just part of the human experience.

And I think by using that word dry, you kind of know what we're talking about.

And uh and it happens to preachers, it happens to uh Sunday school teachers, it happens to regular folks, it happens to teenagers, it's just a part of life, and so you're just going and it kind of happens.

I think it especially happens spiritually for believers, especially if you're serving people, if you're teaching Sunday school, if you're preaching, if you're ministering to people, if you're a deacon in your church and you are spending a lot of time serving and doing those things that you do, I think the more we give out spiritual energy, the more likely we are to become spiritually dry.

Again, it's just an experience.

Elijah, and we're gonna look at him in a moment, that's fairly common.

It's it's pretty well known as a story, but Elijah's one of my heroes in uh in Scripture.

Uh we were talking yesterday in our staff meeting, somebody brought up about the challenge at Mount Carmel, and they described Elijah as one of the great trash talkers of all time.

And if you know that story, uh, you know, they have this challenge against the priests of Baal.

And so the priests of Baal are cutting themselves and dancing, and they're trying to get, you know, Baal to burn up their you know offering and make it a burnt offering.

And Elijah literally tells them, Hey, where's your God?

Is he off in the bathroom?

Going to the bathroom, in a little less elegant language than that.

And I told him, I said, Yeah, he was a Larry Bird level trash talker, right?

I mean, you just gotta love a guy like that, call fire down from heaven, stop the rain, bring the rain, the whole deal.

But even Elijah got at a point where he just was sort of run out and he was just sort of dry.

And I think for us spiritually, that's even more apt to happen at times because we are not naturally spiritual as humans.

We're not naturally that.

We are naturally lost and in a place of rebellion against the Lord.

And when we come to know Jesus as our Savior, we have repented of our sin and we are giving ourselves to him.

And he begins a transformation process because we're not like him.

And the whole Christian journey is a time of him transforming us and changing us into the image of Jesus.

And so that that shows that we're not naturally spiritual.

It is a process that happens as a matter of faith when we give our lives to Christ.

And some of us are even less naturally spiritual than others.

My inclination is really not spiritual at all.

It is not natural for me at all.

I am naturally a competitive guy.

I was raised playing sports, everything was a competition.

Uh, school was a competition.

The all I hated school every day of my life, I hated school.

I can literally tell you and remember moments in kindergarten when I knew I hate this.

I do not want to be here.

I hated school every day I was in school from kindergarten through when I got my uh doctor of jurisprudence from the University of Tennessee.

I hated every day I was in school.

I just despised it.

Now I was a good student because they kept score.

And if somebody keeps score, then it's an inherent truth that you have to win.

And so I went out and chased grades because I had to win, but I did not enjoy it.

I hated every day that I was in school.

At one point, I'm telling you, it's awful.

School for me was one of those deals where I thought, you know, if I don't study and I make really good grades, I can prove how stupid this process is.

That's kind of how my brain worked as a student.

It was it was really bad.

Uh and I've just had that uh, you know, sports, and I was competitive and everything's competitive.

I've told the story before, but when I went home and told my parents that um that I was going to go from being a lawyer to being a pastor and that God had called me into ministry, I went through this whole thing.

My wife and I met with my parents, and then we later met with her parents.

We were trying to tell them, and this is what God said, and this is what God did, and all that.

And my mom, I mean, I finished and she didn't take a breath.

She didn't miss a beat.

My parents love the Lord, they love church, they're supportive of pastors, everything was good.

I thought this was gonna be an easy conversation.

I finish, and my mom looks at me, does not miss a beat, and immediately says, Well, you miss God.

You don't have the personality to be a pastor, you're not wired to be a pastor, so you need to go back and pray about what he really wants you to do.

So when I tell you, yeah, that's mom, right?

I thought, mom, that's harsh.

That's my mom telling me that.

That's terrible.

It's probably true, but it's it's terrible.

And so, I mean, I'm just not wired that way, and most of us are not.

Um, a lot of people are wired more openly than that, but many of us, you know, it's a transformation process.

So there are times when we just we're just not feeling it, and we're just dry spiritually.

And so uh Elijah reaches that point, and I hope this will be an encouragement to you.

I just want to give you a couple of principles from this passage.

This is after that Mount Carmel victory, and God's brought down fire from heaven, and then the evil queen, she's gonna go kill him and all the priests of God and this whole thing, and he just kind of runs from everything.

He runs and he runs so long until he's just exhausted.

God puts him in a nap, sends an angel to feed him, he gets up, and then that's where we find himself.

Uh he went into a cave and he spent the night there in that cave.

And the word of the Lord came to him saying, What are you doing here, Elijah?

Why are you here?

Like, what are you doing here?

He replies, I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.

And I want you to, as this story unfolds, I want you to kind of get this picture.

So I'm going to kind of use a little sanctified imagination and walk through this with you.

God says, Why are you here?

And he replies, Well, Dad Gummet, I've been very jealous for the Lord God Almighty.

And these stinking Israelites have rejected your covenant.

They've torn down the altars.

Your prophets, they put to death with the sword, and I'm the only one left.

And now they're trying to kill me too.

The Lord said, Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

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

After the earthquake came, there was a fire, and like we're talking about forest fire kind of a thing.

We're talking about on the same level of these other things.

But the Lord was not in the fire.

And that's really interesting because he's just come from this deal where he called down fire from heaven on the burnt offering.

And so that's a pretty powerful thing there at the moment that the last one of these elements that God sends through this is the fire that just days before was the victory that led him to this time where he's now exhausted.

When Elijah, after the fire, came a gentle whisper.

God speaks.

When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face, went out, stood at the mouth of the cave, and the voice, this gentle whisper, says, What are you doing here, Elijah?

Elijah says the same thing, but I think it's different now.

Well, God, I've been very jealous for you, Lord God Almighty.

Israelites.

They rejected your covenant and they torn down your altars.

They put your prophets to death with the sword, and I'm the only one left.

And now they're trying to kill me too.

See the difference?

I think there's been a change there in Elijah's mind as all this begins to unfold.

And the Lord said to him, Go back the way you came and go to the desert of Damascus.

When you get there, anoint Hazael, king over Aram.

Also anoint Jehu, son of Nimshe, king over Israel, and anoint Elisha, son of Saphat from Abel Maholaih, to succeed you as a prophet.

Jehu will put to death any who escape, the horde, the sword of Hazael.

And Elisha will put to death anyone who escapes the sword of Jehu.

Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel.

Now remember, Elijah said, I'm the only one left.

And God says, I will reserve seven thousand in Israel.

All those whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.

And so God tells him, I am going to take care of this.

So just a couple of thoughts I want to give you when we're dry, what to do when you're dry.

I want you to know that God always sees us.

He knows where we are.

God is always involved in our lives, even when we may not think He is, or we may not feel His presence, or we may be in a time where we just are maybe not rebelliously pulling back, but we're just kind of drifting, or we're just kind of in a rut and settled.

In all those moments, one of the things that you need to know and understand, we may be dry, but God is not.

And we may feel like there's separation, but God is right there speaking to us.

He is calling us.

He is reaching out to us.

God is always working.

Here is Elijah.

He's run, and even in the midst of running, God gives him a rest.

God feeds him.

He runs to this cave.

He lands in that cave, and God knows exactly where he is.

And I love this.

God calls him by name.

It is personal.

What are you doing here, Elijah?

He knows and he's always there.

And when you hit that time where you're thinking, man, I'm just not feeling it.

I'm just going to sleep later or have another cup of coffee and not have my quiet time or whatever.

God, I just, I don't, I don't get it right now.

I don't know what's happening.

I don't know what I'm supposed to teach my Sunday school class.

I don't know what I'm supposed to preach.

I don't know what I'm supposed to tell my kids.

They're struggling with whatever.

Man, I just don't want to go to the office.

I'm just tired.

Those people are driving me up the wall, and my patience is out, and I just want to let them all have it, and I'm just not feeling it.

I'm just not here.

All these things we can relate to, right?

Just not feeling it.

And I want you to be encouraged.

It's okay.

God knows where you are, and he knows your name, and he is calling out to you, and he is speaking to you.

God is always involved in our lives.

As his children, he never leaves us or forsakes us.

He is always there.

And wherever we are is where we are, and he is there.

And I love this picture because God, he can run as far as he wants, but he cannot run away from the presence of God.

And God is there speaking in his life and speaking into his life.

God doesn't get on to him about it.

God doesn't ridicule him about it.

God doesn't slap him for it.

He knows where Elijah is.

The Bible tells us often when God does some form of discipline on us as his children, right?

There are times where we are sinning and we are in rebellion, we're pushing back, and he will discipline us in those times.

And in fact, the book of Hebrews says, do not despise the disciplining of the Lord, because that's how you know he's your father.

Because he's going to discipline you.

But in times like this, when you're just dry and you're just struggling, God knows that too, and he doesn't discipline us for struggling.

He is there and he is in the midst and he is calling our name.

He is calling you by name and speaking into your life.

He is always there.

Number two, what does he say to us?

He calls us to his presence.

He doesn't give him any instructions yet.

He doesn't tell him what to do.

He doesn't lecture him.

There's not some big theological deal going here.

God speaks to Elijah, and after he says, Hey, I know where you are, then he says, This, I want you to come out and stand in my presence.

And when you're dry, you don't have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

You don't have to manufacture some kind of whatever.

You just have to go stand in the presence of God.

He is inviting you to be in his presence.

He is calling to us to be in his presence.

And he says, Come stand out here with me, Elijah.

Come stand out here.

And there's two ways we're in God's presence.

And they're both biblical.

One of them is exactly this moment here where Elijah is by himself and he calls him to present himself to the Lord in just his individual time and life.

And so there are times, very often in our lives, where we need to be able to just sit down and say, okay, Lord, I'm here.

Here I am.

I got nothing to give you, but you asked me to be here.

Here I am.

I'm just going to present myself to you.

And you just sit in the presence of God.

Well, I'm not really feeling a Bible reading.

Well, then read your Bible.

Don't worry about it in that moment.

You read your Bible all the time, you're going to read it again in this moment.

The first step you have to make is to present yourself to the presence of God.

He will bring you back to his scripture.

You do not have to manufacture some long homework kind of a thing.

The first step is always, in fact, when you come to the Word, if you have not presented yourself to the presence of the Lord first, it isn't going to do you any good.

Right?

And so what happens is you just come to the presence of the Lord and you just say, I'm just here.

Sometimes you just sit and listen.

Sometimes you just need to sit and listen.

Sometimes you need to sit and you need to be in the presence of the Lord, and if you'll just be quiet, but you will intentionally present yourself to him.

You're not just sitting there going to sleep in a chair.

You are presenting yourself to him.

He will wrap himself around you.

He will speak to you.

He will encourage you.

He will draw you to a scripture.

Or maybe he'll draw you to a song and you pull up on your phone some worship song or hymn that you love or whatever.

And you just sit there with that and you let it play and point your eyes back to Jesus.

If you are in the presence of God and you have surrendered yourself to his presence, he will get you where he wants you to be.

That is a matter of faith and a matter of trust.

Come to the Lord.

If he prompts you to get your Bible out, then get it out.

Because he will bring you to his word.

That is going to happen, right?

So you want to be willing to do that.

But if you have presented yourself to his presence, then you will be able to respond when he calls you to the scripture.

Or he calls you to, hey, I just need you to worship in my presence.

Be reconnected with me as God.

There have been times in my life when I just needed a song and a particular song that I knew that had a spiritual message that brought me to him, that spoke into the moment that I was in.

And I will just play it over and over.

I'll sing it to the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

You don't have to listen to me sing it to you.

But God is always blessed by my voice when I sing to him.

Isn't that true for you?

And so you just sing it to the Lord and you present yourself in his presence.

I just, I love this picture.

I can't tell you how much it is a blessing to think through.

God knows where I am, he knows my name, and he calls me to be in his presence.

This is not being called to the throne of judgment.

This is not one of those moments.

This is my son needs me.

Come here and be in my presence.

It's an incredible thing.

And then the third thing here is God shares himself with us when we present ourselves to him.

Again, God has called him into his presence because he loves his son Elijah.

He loves his servant Elijah.

The first thing he does is he reminds Elijah that this is a relationship.

Elijah, this is not about the show and the caramel and the other stuff.

The reason that that whole Baal thing is bad and all of that is because it's pulling people away from knowing that I love them and I have promised a redeemer and plan of salvation for them.

And the reason that Baal is evil, and the reason that Ahab and Jezebel are evil, and the reason all that stuff is evil is because it's pulling people away from the message that I love them and I am bringing a redeemer to them.

Because I love.

That's who he is.

In fact, Jesus said not just that for God so loved the world, but he says God is love.

His character and nature is love.

Yes, it is holy, and yes, he has to condemn sin because of his holiness, but that's why Jesus said, God so loved you that he died on the, he sent me to die on the cross to pay the price for your sin so you could be in his presence.

There was an incredible book written by a couple of the professors at Washita a few years ago, and it's just kind of an it's just kind of a almost like an encyclopedia kind of a thing.

It just goes through each book and it just lists all these places, but the theme of the book is God's desire to bring us into his presence.

And it's incredible when you start taking every book of the Bible and all the prophecies of redemption and all the ways that God reached out to his people and all the stories like this, where God reaches into someone's life, and in every book of the Bible, all the way through, the theme is always God trying to bring people into his presence.

The whole point of Jesus redeeming is to bring us into his presence.

And God is trying to tell us look, I love you as a person.

This is a relationship.

And that's when you get all this the fire and the earthquake and the and the storm and all this stuff.

God speaks and he says, just listen.

And he sees all this deal, this whole storm.

It all blows by and God's not in the storm.

And there's an earthquake, and he's not in the earthquake.

And there's the fire, literally.

He's saying, When I burned up that ram on Mount Carmel, that was what I did.

It's not who I am.

I am there.

I did that, but I did that to show you I'm here.

And so he goes through the fire, and he's not in the fire.

He creates the fire.

He creates the earthquake.

He creates the storm, but he's not in that.

That gentle voice.

God speaks and he is telling Elijah, I love you, and we are in a relationship.

I've asked you into my presence so I can speak to you, my son.

And so it is, he reminds him, before he gives him anything else, he reminds him, this is a relationship, and I love you.

Then he gives him direction.

I know you're dry, son.

I know you've been struggling, but hey, now you know I love you and we're together.

And so here's what we're going to do.

And he just gives him some direction on where to go.

And again, whatever it is that you need, God knows what you need.

And if you present yourself to his presence, he will, as it is time and as he speaks to you and reaffirms your relationship with you, he will give you direction.

Don't go until he does.

He will.

And when it's time, he will give you direction.

And then he reminds Elijah that he's still at work.

He hasn't stopped working.

God is always at work.

And so Elijah has this perspective man, I did all this and it was a failure.

I did all this and they still won.

There's nobody out there.

Everybody rejected you.

All this kind of stuff.

And all this emotion that comes and this negativity from being dry and nothing happening, God just gently reminds him, look, I got all these people still serving.

I got a plan here.

I got these three kings.

They're going to exact my judgment for the things that are frustrating you.

And that judgment is going to happen.

And not only is it these three kings, but I've layered this strategy.

This king is going to do this, and whoever he doesn't kill, Jehu's going to get, and whoever Jehu doesn't get.

And then this, you know, Elisha's going to get them all.

Look, I got a plan.

And I've saved 7,000 people.

You have 7,000 brothers in ministry out there who have not surrendered to Baal.

You are not the only one.

I am at work and I have a plan and I am going to continue this plan.

And I know you're struggling, and I want to encourage you that I'm bringing you back into my plan.

Because, son, I'm always at work.

And when you see that and you feel that and you hear from the Lord, it fills us up and it draws us back into the race.

And Elijah gets up and he's ready to go and he follows the Lord.

Because the Lord met him when he was dry.

When he was dry.

So I hope those principles are an encouragement to you.

If not today, then there will be a day.

And I hope that God seals that to your heart.

Let me pray for us.

Lord, we thank you for today, and I thank you for this passage of Scripture.

I just, Lord, continue to be in awe about how you've constructed so many times in Scripture where you give us a real person in a real situation, and you show in a tangible, real way how you step in relationally and you deal with people in real life situations.

I thank you for what that means to us because we know that you are active in our lives.

And just as you showed in this time with Elijah's life in our lives, you are active in those times as well.

I pray that you'll encourage these men, letting them know.

I pray that the Holy Spirit will speak through your word so much better than I ever could that you really are active in their life and you love them and you see and you know and you call them by name.

So I pray, Father, for their quiet time with you that they will present themselves to your presence.

Pray that they'll be able to hear your voice as you speak relationally to them, fill them up and guide them in their life.

We thank you most of all for salvation in Jesus and how that really is a relationship with our Savior.

It is an act of love that he stepped out of heaven.

It is an act of love that he took our sin and gave up his righteousness just for us.

That he paid the full price for our sin as an act of love.

And that he rose again conquering death and sin.

And now, as a matter of mercy, grace, and love, he offers us the opportunity to be in relationship with you when we know him as our Savior.

We pray these things in the loving name of Jesus.

And everybody said, Hey, great to see you guys today.

Y'all have a great rest of the week.