God With Us In Lonely Times

God With Us

In Lonely Times

I Kings 19:1-12

Theme: God demonstrates how He comes to us in lonely times.

Welcome to the Christmas season here at Mountain View Baptist Church. What a privilege it is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are a first-time guest today, welcome! Please be sure to connect with us. It would be an honor to get to know you better and connect with you. Let me encourage you to fill out the connection card.

Our Christmas series is entitled: God with Us. If you were not here last week, let me catch you up. We learned last week everyone has storms that come into our lives. Some storms may be big, some small, some may be long or short, but we all have storms. As a believer we have been given the promise of God’s presence in the storms of life.

This week: God is with us in the lonely times.

Loneliness is an unpleasant feeling of isolation caused by external factors. It may be a lack of meaningful connections or a social anxiety or a loss of loved one or a lack of interest in hobby or life’s activities. It is not a sin but it is a condition. Sin may cause loneliness but it is not a sin to be lonely.

Comedian and Actor Woody Allen, who is a not a Christian, said in 1975 “Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering, and its all over much too soon.” Here is a man who was the most notable actor in Hollywood in his day and is worth 140 million dollars. He is now 89 and still feels lonely 49 years later.

One website says: “Statistics show one in three people or close to 33 percent of the people in US experience loneliness on a regular basis. Sixty one percent of younger people in the US say they are chronically lonely.”

It doesn’t matter how much money you have, how many positions or degrees you have, or if you live in the desert or a metropolitan city, loneliness happens to all of us. Leadership can be lonely and being a Christian can be lonely as we see here in this passage. Loneliness is a by product of living in a broken world.

I once read that when Elvis Presly was alive, after his concerts, he would come home to his house lonely. Even though he was surrounded by thousands of adoring fans and band members and a host of staff, he would go to his bedroom and sing gospel hymns to avoid the loneliness.

God designed us to be social creatures. Loneliness will come at certain times and God has a solution for loneliness.

“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” (Genesis 2:18)

In chapters 17-18 in our Scriptures, God had sent Elijah to tell wicked and liberal Ahab that God was going to judge him. Ahab had led Israel into pagan idolatry. God publicly defeated the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel before the entire kingdom. This incensed Jezebel, Ahab’s wife because her father was one the prophets for Baal and she must’ve known several of the prophets whom Elijah humiliated in the eyes of the people of Israel. Then Elijah had them destroyed and now Jezebel issues a bounty on the head of Elijah.

Elijah went 90 miles to Beersheba for refuge here in chapter 19. He isolated himself in the fourth most populated city in Israel at the time. It was located in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Please notice he, of his own choice, isolated himself. This was the beginning of his dilemma. Any time you isolate yourself from everyone, you place yourself into a vulnerable situation. This is also true of your spiritual life. You cannnot grow as a Christian in isolation. Your Christian life is designed to mature in community: Connection Groups, church fellowship activities.

In many ways it is natural to be lonely when you come into the holidays if you are away from family or cannot have time off for festivities or do not have people with whom you can share your Christmas. The nature of the world and the perilous times we live in, we can be lonely in the midst of a sinful world.

Elijah has just seen a great victory and here is the warning. Loneliness and difficulties will most often follow a great victory in our lives. In verse 3, notice Elijah runs away trusting in himself. We must guard ourselves following a great victory because Satan will shoot his arrows at us rapidly.

There are three reminders in this account that God teaches.

Reminder 1 . . .

God comes to him

As he was fleeing for his life and hid out in isolation, God comes to him. There is no place you can hide, no activity you can do, and no position you can hold where God does not know where you are.

Many a person has tried to hide from God, but you cannot hide from the all-seeing eye of God. He knows where you are just as He knows where Elijah is.

I do not believe Elijah was running away from God like Jonah, I believe he was just acting in the flesh out of fear. We have all been there where fears and uncertainties are not knowing the end result. Elijah thought if Jezebel could, she would execute him. However, it is noteworthy as seen in v. 4 he is magnifying a discouraged situation to something much bigger than it is. He went a days journey: 20-25 miles into the desert.

Three reasons: 1. He is focusing on himself-notice he is looking at himself and when we do, we will always fail ourselves. God is the only One who knows us better than we know ourselves. Elijah here was only viewing himself and had taken his eyes off of God.

CS Lewis said it best: “Look for yourself and you find loneliness and despair: But look for Christ and you find Him and everything else.”

2. He places value on himself-I am not better than our fathers. As he had known of the highlight reels of his ancestors, during the lowest of times, he thought he was a miserable failure. God had used him to defeat the prophets of Baal and given God glory and honor; yet, Satan had convinced him he was a failure. It is a mistake to place a value on our lives based on our circumstances or station in life.

The value of your life is found in the cross of Jesus Christ. You are so important and so loved that Jesus came to die on the cross for your sins, buried, and rose again. Do not let circumstances and situations define who you are. If you know Christ, you are a child of God. If you do not know Christ, He is coming to your life inviting you to be His child.

3. He considers suicide as a way out. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. The more you look at yourself, the more disappointment you will have in your life. Man’s weaknesses and failures stand out so clearly and since a death threat had been given to him, he contemplated having God take his life. I don’t know how low or far you go, to cause you to contemplate suicide.

God steps into the situation to show Elijah that He has an answer. The Angel who touched him is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. While he thought he was all alone, God was always there. This is a great reminder to us when Satan lies to us and tells us nobody loves us or cares for us, God loves us and comes to us in our time of greatest loneliness.

Lonely times do come and Elijah in one of his loneliest times, God comes to him. This is the starting place of overcoming loneliness. We must seek His presence in our life.

“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” (Joshua 1:9)

As Joshua was leading Israel into the land of Canaan, he wanted them to realize God is with them. In our lonely moments, we must seek the comfort of God’s presence in our lives. The greatest resource we have in our fight against loneliness is having access to God Himself.

“The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.” (Psalm 145:18)

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)

Reminder 2. . .

God encourages us

God provided food and water by the angel of the Lord. This food brought him strength and energy. There will be times during loneliness when we lose our appetite. Food is necessary and good food will strengthen us.

The Bible likens physical food to spiritual food given to us by God’s Word. Job says, “Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” (Job 23:12)

God’s Word gives delight and direction.

“I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.” (Psalm 119:16)

“NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

Elijah needed both just like we do. It is God’s Word that we can rely on to give us direction during those lonely times. Unfortunately, many will go social media or some TV show to get direction. This direction is flawed by the weakness of man.

God brings His Word to us during lonely times to encourage us. Notice here v. 5 & 7, the Angel (Jesus) came to him twice with God’s Word of instruction v. 9 God sends His Word again.

He needed a better perspective on the situation. Because Elijah was just a man and could not see or know what God knows, he thought he was the only one doing right in Israel. He told the angel he was the only one. He did not know that there were seven thousand who have not bowed to Baal. This is where God’s Word encourages us that we are not alone. There are many who either have gone before us or are like us.

Today, you may be alone and God is sending you His Word to encourage you and help you through the loneliness.

The name Elijah means Yahweh is my God. His God was not feelings or circumstances or difficulties or struggles. God is in the heavens and He is well aware of the situation and circumstance you are in. God uses His Word to give you the strength to handle the situation you are in. You must pick it up and open it and let God’s Word speak to your heart. Maybe listen to it would help in those times of loneliness.

It is through God’s Word He encourages us and shows us His presence with us.

Reminder 3. . .

God raises us

In verse 9, God sent His Word to Elijah: What are you doing here? We need to realize and understand our spiritual reality. Where are we spiritually? Are we going through a season? Are we focusing to much on ourselves? Our image? How we are perceived? Sometimes we find ourselves “stuck” in a spiritual rut and God wants to raise us.

God comes to Elijah to raise him up from loneliness and discouragement. He sends a still small voice v. 12 which is the Holy Spirit. God sends Elijah to anoint the king of Syria. God is showing us and Elijah, a way to get out of our loneliness is to let God raise us to service. Helping and being around people is critical to overcome our loneliness. That may seem obvious but it is clear in this passage that during our lonely times we want to avoid contact with people. This is the reason God comes to us and brings people alongside us to help through the difficulties.

This is the reason for our connection groups. Don’t miss the opportunity to spend times with others. These are intended to encourage each other, build relationships, and learn God’s Word together.

If you do not know Jesus as your Savior, you will find many lonely times. However, God has directed you to Mountain View Baptist Church at a time of year where life can be very lonely. Although you may be around many people, deep inside there is a loneliness apart from God Himself.

Jesus understands the loneliness when His Father turned His back on Him, he cried out

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

Hanging there on the cross, He suffered the bitter agony and extreme loneliness of bearing the sin of the world on the cross. When He gave up His life, He was buried and three days later arose from the dead.

All of this so that we don’t have to live in this world alone. We can call upon Jesus and ask Him to be our Savior. By turning from our sin and accepting Him, we are given forgiveness through Him.

If you are a Christian today, God reminds you to seek His presence, rely on His Word, and let God raise us to serve Him. Do you need to seek Him today?