When God Lets You Down

Life of the church

Good morning everyone, and happy Sunday to you all. It’s good to see everyone here after another busy week.

I’d like to draw your attention to a few items listed in your bulletin. First, I’d like to welcome the newest members of our church family, Glen and Brenda Burtner. We’re so happy to have you be a part of our fellowship in Christ, and Sue is so happy that you’re both musicians.

The men’s ministry will meet tonight at 6:30 down at the pavilion. All men are invited to attend.

Please keep in mind that we’re collecting for the Alma Hunt offering for Virginia Missions. We’re getting close to our goal of $2,500, so please give as you are led.

We’re still collecting items for Stump’s WRE program. You’ll see what’s needed listed in your bulletins.

Cathy told me this morning that Brenda Johnson is home, and hopefully that’s where she’ll stay.

And finally, Ann, so good to see you here today along with your family. The church is here for you all, and we’re all praying for you. We’ll miss Ken a great deal, but we know he’s just up there making sure everything’s ready for us, and we’ll see him again soon.

Sue, do you have anything?

Opening prayer

Lord God, in a universe that seems so immense it is easy to feel insignificant as we stand here today. Yet we know that we are precious in your sight - unique individuals loved and blessed in so many ways. We stand in awe of the one who has created all things and dedicate this time and all our days to your service.

Bless us as we meet together, bless the singing of your praise, the reading of your Word, the sharing of our fellowship, the prayers that will be heard. Bless us as we meet together, in Jesus’s name,

Amen

Sermon

We all feel like God lets us down sometimes, don’t we? We look to Him for an answer but get only silence. We depend on Him to show us the way but find ourselves stuck in darkness. We trust Him to make things better and instead things just get worse.

For a lot of us, the result of that is a loss of hope and courage. People used to call that despondency. It’s better known today as depression, and none of us, Christians included, are immune.

The best definition I’ve ever heard of a Christian is someone who is completely fearless, continually cheerful, and constantly in trouble.

That pretty well sums it up, doesn’t it? The problem we face is that sometimes the “constantly in trouble” part can overwhelm the fearlessness and cheerful part. We get tired. Discouraged. Despondent.

Where’s God when everything falls apart? Why does it feel like He sometimes let us down?

No matter how much faith we have, every one of us asks those questions at some point — one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament.

That brings us to the prophet Elijah. Turn in your Bibles to today’s scripture, taken from the book of 1 Kings, chapter 19, verses 1-18:

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them 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 fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree.

And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again.

And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.

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

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

He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

And the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.

And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

And this is God’s word.

There is so much for us in these 18 verses, but first we need to understand what happened to Elijah that got him into this mess.

Israel had a king named Ahab, and Ahab was married to a woman named Jezebel, who was one of the most wicked people in the entire Bible. Just a truly awful person, conniving and evil and rotten to the core.

Jezebel had brought the worship of the pagan god Baal into the nation, and that was now the official religion of Israel. And so God called Elijah to confront Ahab and warn him and Jezebel both that their destruction would surely come if they didn’t repent.

This all comes to a head a chapter before, in 1 Kings 18. Elijah tells Ahab to gather all of Israel and all the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel for a final showdown. One prophet of the Lord, Elijah, against 450 prophets of Baal.

Each group, Elijah and the false prophets, had a bull prepared as a sacrifice. And when Baal’s prophets called up to heaven for fire to rain down and consume their bull, nothing happened.

But when it was Elijah’s turn, the Lord sent down fire that consumed the bull Elijah had laid out, and then the very ground beneath, and even the rocks and the dust.

And when all the people saw it, they seized the prophets of Baal. Elijah brought them all down to the river and slaughtered them.

We see four points to this scripture in chapter 19 that form a kind of roadmap that we all follow when we think that God lets us down, four stages. They are Presumption, Perception, Preparation, and Purpose.

We see that Presumption beginning with this showdown on top of Mount Carmel. It’s the classic scene of good verses evil, Elijah saying, “My God can beat up your god.” But here’s the thing: God never told Elijah to do that.

There was a terrible famine in the land, and back in the first verse of chapter 18, God tells Elijah, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.” That’s all.

And yet Elijah turns what God told him to do into this confrontation on Mount Carmel, and why does Elijah do that? Because he presumes this is what God wants him to do, that this is God’s plan.

It’s not — and this is the heart of everything Elijah suffers in chapter 19 — but we see here that on the face of things, it still looks to be a huge win for the people of Israel.

It certainly looks that way to Elijah, because in the last verse of chapter 18 we see him gathering up his garment and running to the city of Jezreel.

And this is where Elijah’s presumption starts causing trouble. Elijah is a wanted man. Ahab and Jezebel want nothing more than to see him dead. And Jezreel was at that time Israel’s capitol, home of the king and queen.

So why in the world would Elijah run right to the place where it was most dangerous for him to be?

There’s only one answer. Elijah thought he’d won. He thought this was the end of Ahab and Jezebel’s rule. It was over.

Elijah had presumed God wanted him to perform this miracle on Mount Carmel and kill the prophets of Baal, and now he expects that either the people will overthrow their government, or Ahab and Jezebel would repent.

But now it all starts falling apart, because in verse 2, Jezebel the queen sends a message to Elijah, and she doesn’t say she’s repenting. She doesn’t say she and Ahab are giving up the throne. Instead she says, “Elijah, may I be struck dead if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you.”

So what does Elijah do, this brave and bold prophet of the Lord? This miracle worker of Jehovah? This man of faith? He runs away. And worse than that, verse 3 says that he was afraid and ran for his life.

What’s happening here? There’s a whole world between the end of chapter 18, when Elijah’s running toward the capitol convinced that he’s about to win his greatest victory, and verse 3 of chapter 19. In just 55 words, he’s gone from feeling like he’s invincible to running in fear for his life.

That’s a mile of difference, isn’t it? So much so that a lot of commentators are convinced that this has to be a case of bad editing. Some ancient scribe copied down the wrong scripture in the wrong place.

There can be no other explanation for how quickly Elijah goes from feeling on top of the world to finding himself in the pit of depression.

But we know differently, don’t we? This isn’t bad editing, this is life. We all know that our biggest trials often come right after our biggest victories. That’s what Elijah is facing here.

He’d presumed that God wanted him to perform this miracle on top of Mount Carmel, and then he had presumed that because of that miracle, Israel would finally be rid of Ahab and Jezebel.

And now Elijah is really in trouble, because all of those things he presumed that God would do but didn’t has now affected his perception of what God’s done. Elijah thinks God has let him down.

So he runs. He runs from Jezebel, but Elijah is also running because he’s in absolute despair. Things haven’t worked out the way they were supposed to. Elijah had done everything he thought was right, but not only weren’t the king and queen shaken, the people of Israel didn’t really seem to care much.

He’s out of ideas. He’s out of miracles. Elijah’s out of strength. He’s done.

Look at the end of verse 3. He runs from Jezreel and comes to Beersheba, and notice that last little phrase at the end where it says that Elijah “left his servant there.”

Everything you need to know about the state that Elijah is in, about how much his heart is broken, can be found right there in those four words. Because what’s Elijah doing with a servant?

He’s not rich enough to have a servant. But he does have a servant because of his position. Elijah is a prophet of the Lord, so he gets a servant.

So when verse 3 says that he left his servant behind, what’s Elijah really doing? He’s firing his staff. He’s saying, “You let me down, God. I don’t understand a single thing you’re doing, so I quit. I quit the ministry. I’m done.”

Elijah’s a great prophet, but he’s still a person. And he’s made quite a few mistakes here, hasn’t he? He’s presumed to know exactly what God was going to do, and when God didn’t, Elijah’s perception of God, of who God was, became flawed.

But he does do one thing right, starting in verse 4. He runs away from Jezebel, but he also runs into the wilderness looking God.

He’s saying, “I don’t know who You are anymore, Lord. I’m so confused and upset, and all I want is some answers. But I’m not going to run away from You. I’m going to find You again.”

He’s so broken that he sits under a broom tree in the middle of the wilderness and asks God to take his life. Elijah wouldn’t let Jezebel kill him, but he will let God.

He is utterly defeated, discouraged, depressed, doubtful. But still he’s looking for the Lord, and that single choice to turn toward God even when God made no sense makes all the difference.

That’s the first step in Elijah being moved away from his false presumptions and his false perception of God to being prepared, because that’s when the angel comes.

Verses 5-8 is one of the most remarkable passages in the Bible, because it shows how God tends to each of us when we’re discouraged.

Notice first who this visitor to Elijah is. Verse 5 says it’s an angel. But down in verse 7, things get a little more specific — it’s “the angel of the Lord.” That’s very different.

Angels are everywhere in scripture, but the angel of the Lord is only present in the Old Testament because the angel of the Lord is a pre-incarnate Christ. It’s Jesus before he was born into the world. That means it’s not just an angel sitting here with Elijah, it’s God himself.

Second, notice what this angel doesn’t say. This is one of the very few times in scripture when an angel appears to someone and the first words aren’t, “Fear not.”

What’s the angel of the Lord say instead? “Get up and eat” in verse 5, and in verse 7 he says the same thing, and there’s a deep sense of sympathy and care when the angel says, “for the journey is too great for you.”

Isn’t that amazing? What’s the angel do? Verses 5 and 7 say that the angel touches Elijah. He remains there, sitting right beside Elijah, just listening.

Human beings are made up of four natures: physical, spiritual, psychological, and relational. Discouragement and depression attacks all four of those, and what’s so great about verses 5-8 is that God shows up to repair them all.

God takes care of Elijah’s physical nature by baking him bread and telling him to rest, because God knows that sometimes all we need to feel better is a good meal and a nice nap.

He takes care of Elijah’s spiritual nature by being present with him, and takes care of Elijah’s psychological nature by listening and being sympathetic — “Eat, rest. I know this is a hard journey for you.” He takes care of Elijah’s relational nature by touching him and staying close.

The world says that everything is physical, so the best thing to do when you feel down is have fun and indulge yourself. Eat, drink, and be merry.

Or it says that everything is spiritual, so the cure for when you feel down is having more faith.

Or everything is psychological, and you just need to talk it out.

God says it’s not one of those things, it’s all of those things, and when we turn to Him in those moments when all seems lost, the help He sends will always satisfy all of those natures, not just one.

Elijah wants answers. God doesn’t give any here, because He knows Elijah’s not ready for them. Elijah has to be prepared to hear them first. That’s what verses 5-8 are all about.

That time when the angel of the Lord is caring for him and the long journey of 40 days and nights that follows is God preparing Elijah for answers.

God is doing the same thing with Elijah that He does with us. He’s getting rid of Elijah’s presumptions. He’s fixing Elijah’s perception. He’s preparing Elijah to hear the truth.

And that truth starts in verse 9, when Elijah arrives at Mount Horeb. Notice that the angel didn’t tell him to go there. Elijah does this on his own. So why there? Why does Elijah go to a mountain so far away to look for answers from God?

Well, you can see in verse 8 that Mount Horeb was also known as the mount of God. There was also another name for that mountain — Mount Sinai, the place where Moses went when he wanted to know God, to see God’s glory, and where God gave him the Ten Commandments.

And in verse 9 it says that Elijah came to a cave and lodged in it. The Hebrew word there is the same word used back in Exodus to describe the place where Moses hid as God passed him by, and in fact a lot of scholars say that Elijah is standing in the very place where Moses once stood.

And in that place, the word of the Lord comes to Elijah not in a statement, but in a question: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Now, does God know what Elijah is doing there? Of course He does. Whenever God asks a question, it’s never so He can get an answer from us, it’s always so we can receive wisdom from Him.

Elijah thinks this is his chance. This moment is all he’s been waiting for. This moment is what he’s trudged 40 days and nights through the wilderness to get. He’s going to lay out his case. Elijah’s going to show God how he was right and God was wrong.

And it’s a great case he makes there in verse 10. He’s done all the right things and said all the right things and stood up for God when no one else did.

The prophets have been killed and the people have forsaken the covenant and now, God, because you let me down, it’s just me who’s left. I’m it, and I don’t even know how much longer I have, because Jezebel is going to kill me.

Elijah is asking the same question we all ask God: Why did You do this to me? Why did You let this happen? I loved you. I did everything you asked, and everything still fell apart. I trusted You, and it wasn’t supposed to turn out this way.

And so how does God reply? Does He yell? Judge? Does He reach down from heaven and zap Elijah to dust?

No. He tells Elijah instead to go out and stand on the mount, and an amazing thing happens in verses 11 and 12. Nowhere else in scripture does God show up in so many different ways. Look at what happens here.

He showed up first back in verse 5 as the angel of the Lord. Now God comes as a great wind. Then an earthquake. Then a fire. And finally at the end of verse 12, a sound of a low whisper, or as the King James puts it, “a still small voice.”

And what does the voice say? That same question: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

And it’s so funny how Elijah responds in verse 14, because it’s the very same words he used back in verse 10. He’s practiced this speech. He’s got it down. He’s been practicing it over and over all the way from Beersheba.

God is in that voice, because that was the best way for Him to reach Elijah. Verses 11 and 12 say that the Lord was not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire.

That would lead some people to believe that God is never in the wind or earthquake or fire, but then what is that? That’s another presumption, isn’t it?

We’ve already seen how much trouble we can get into when we start assuming what God’s going to do and how he’ll show up. If we start thinking that God can only show up in one way, we make the same mistake as Elijah did. So what’s the point God is making in verses 11 and 12 to Elijah and to us?

It’s this: How did God come to Job and then later to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost? As a wind. When He showed up to the Israelites on Mount Sinai, what was it? An earthquake. When Moses first met him, what form did God take? The fire of a burning bush.

God’s saying, “I didn’t let you down, Elijah. Your plan let your down. That’s your whole problem. That’s our whole problem. We confuse God’s plans with our own. We think God doesn’t have a plan because it’s not the same plan we have. We say, “Well if I do this and this, then God has to do this.”

And God says “No — no, don’t think that way, because every time you think I’m going to show up as fire, I’ll show up as wind. And every time you think I’ll show up as wind, I’ll show up in an earthquake, and every time you think I’ll show up in an earthquake, I’ll show up in a still small voice.

“And do you know why that is? Because I’m God, and you can’t tame Me.”

Elijah’s problem and our problem is that we’re always trying to put God into a box when the entire universe can’t hold Him. We’re always trying to limit a God who is limitless.

God tells Elijah, Just because you can’t see Me working doesn’t mean I’m not. That’s what verses 15-18 are all about.

He says, “You don’t think I have a plan? You think I’m caught by surprise by anything that happens in your life? Everything follows my will, Elijah. Even the tough things. Especially the tough things.

“Your problem is you just can’t see them. Some of it is because you presume too much of what I’m doing, some of it is because you have the wrong perception of who I am, and some of it is just because you’re human and can’t see things through My eyes. But that’s where trust comes in. That’s where faith grows.”

All of this, all of what Elijah’s done ever since he left his servant back in Beersheba, from wandering in the wilderness to being fed and rested to walking up Mount Horeb, was all preparation.

It was God fixing the bruised places in Elijah’s heart, getting him ready for a truth that Elijah doesn’t just get to hear, but gets to see. God says, “I won’t ever let you down, Elijah, but if you try to fit me into your box, you’ll let yourself down every time.”

And now because Elijah has been prepared, he reaches the final stage of what we all go through if we run to God whenever we think God lets us down. Purpose. Elijah ran from Jezebel because he thought it was finished. His life, his ministry, his hope.

But what God tells Elijah is the same thing that he tells us: “I’m not done with you yet. Not even close. There’s work to be done. Go back and anoint Jehu to be king, and Elisha a prophet. You think this is over, Elijah. It’s not over. It’s just starting. I’m never going to give up on you. Don’t you ever give up on Me.”

How often do we all act like Elijah, and follow along with God so long as God is doing what we expect Him to do? Isn’t that the cause of so many of our doubts and worries? So many of our fears? Isn’t that the root of so much of our discouragement in life?

There’s an old story about the devil putting his tools up for sale. He laid them all out in front of the demons: hatred, envy, jealousy, lying, pride, doubt, all the rest. And they all had price tags on them.

But there was one tool that was more expensive than all the others, which was strange because it was more worn out than all the others too.

One of the demons asked him what the name of that tool was. And the devil said, “Oh, that one? That one’s discouragement.”

And the demon asked, “Why is the price so high?”

The devil answered, “Because it’s more valuable to me than all the others. I can use that tool to pry open the heart of anyone, and then when I get inside, I can convince them to do all sorts of horrible things.

“That’s why it’s so worn, because I use it on everyone, and the best thing is that hardly anyone realizes it belongs to me.”

That’s true, isn’t it? Because we all suffer through discouragement. We all get depressed at some point. There’s no escaping those things in life, because life is just so hard.

We don’t always see God working, but God is. We’re always looking for activity, we’re always waiting for God to move in our lives, but what we often forget is that God is always moving, we just can’t see it.

And a lot of times we can’t see it because God’s not moving outside of us, He’s moving inside, He’s changing our attitudes, because He knows that a changed attitude leads to a transformed life. That’s exactly what happened with Elijah on top of that mountain.

Here’s what I want you to do the next time you think God has let you down. I want you to find a mirror, and I want you to stand in front of that mirror and say out loud what Elijah said to himself:

“God, you see that person in there? That person is beyond Your help. That person is too much for You to handle. That person is too big of a problem for You. That person doesn’t think You know what You’re doing.”

Try it. I have. And you know what? Sometimes if you watch yourself speak the thoughts that you’re carrying around in your head, you realize just how ridiculous and wrong those thoughts are.

Don’t be like Elijah and try to put God in a box. Don’t start presuming that God has to do it your way, because as smart and wise as you might be, He’s smarter and wiser. And when you get discouraged, when you feel like He’s let you down, don’t give up. Run. Run like Elijah did — not away from God, but right to Him.

And as we close our service with prayer and song, if you haven't taken those first steps toward God, then I invite you to do so this morning.

Let's pray:

Father, You are such a mighty and loving God. Your thoughts are far above our thoughts, as Your ways are far above our ways. Help us to find the faith to run to You in our discouraging times. Give us the eyes to always see your whirlwind, the ears to always hear your earthquake, and the heart to always be attuned to your still small voice. Give us the wisdom to know You won’t fit in our boxes. Lift us up, Father, so we can better see You. In Jesus’s name, amen.