Life Under the Tree

If you were here last week you will remember that we were looking at how Elijah was all in for God and how he ended up challenging this massive group of false prophets to prove that the Lord is the real God not baal.

And hopefully you remember how even though Elijah had all of the odds stocked up against him he still managed to trust God and God was able to defeat the false prophets

However in the passage we are in today we see that Jezebel, who was the woman who actually led all of Israel to worship baal found out what Elijah had done and she was not very happy with Elijah.

Because Elijah got rid of every single false prophet.

So today we are going to jump right into the passage which is 1 kings 19:1-9

Because this passage is really where this story picks up today

So once again it is 1 kings 19:1-9

The New International Version Chapter 19

19 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”

3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

7 The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.

So in this passage we see that Jezebel is so upset with Elijah that she is actually saying I am going to take his life and if I do not take his life let this god that I worship take care of me.

Basically she is saying if I do not take Elijah’s life by this time tomorrow then my god can take mine.

So I dont know about you guys but if someone said that about me I would be a little scared.

So naturally Elijah was scared and he actually runs for his life to Beersheba

and he actually left his servant at a certain point probably because he was so scared that one of Jezebels spies would find him that way.

So he actually ends up in the middle of no where under a broom tree

and I found this tree in my office so I had to break it out but he is just sitting there and I get this picture of a ton of anxiety.

And finally he ask God just to end his life.

and he says I am not better then any of my forefathers.

And you know when Elijah says this he actually is saying that his forefathers couldn't remove baal from the land

Because baal, this false god has been awhile and so many people of God have tried to get rid of it but they haven't been able to.

And even though Elijah had this amazing victory that we talked about last week he considers that he completely failed and now is asking God to take his life.

(Pause)

Have you ever felt like you failed like that before?

where you just go wow I really messed up.

I remember when I was an admissions counselor with Olivet I was working with a student who wanted to go through our nursing program.

and this program had all of these different classes you had to take before actually enrolling in the program

And I was speaking with this student and I was going over the courses she needed to take with us before she can be accepted into the program

And as I was talking with her I told her she needed to take a course that she already took.

And this mistake didn't get caught until she was almost done with the course.

So I remember I had to give her a call letting her know she devoted all of this time and possibly money on a course that she already took.

And college courses are not cheap.

But I remember just barely wanting to do anything for the rest of the day.

Because I was just mad at myself

I was anxious now because l had to call her and tell her all of this

And luckily Olivet did not make her pay for the course and she was gracias when I was speaking with her.

But I felt like I failed in a huge area and it was a terrible feeling

And failure often times brings out terrible things.

I remember being anxious that the $700 would be taken from my pay

Like I said I remember feeling just down.

And what bad is this 100% is not even the worst mistake I have made.

As I am sure some of you guys know and if you do not know you will probably start to know I make a ton of mistakes.

But that feeling of failure is awful.

Have you ever felt like you failed in area in your life where you just felt defeated?

For some of us we might feel like we failed as parents

For some of us we might feel like we failed because we couldn’t get a job we were trying for.

For some we might just honestly go what have I done with my life?

Failing is never fun

And failing causes us to experience all sorts of issues mentally.

because first it causes him to go under the tree.

I mean look at what it did to Elijah.

He actually forgets this amazing victory that God just gave him and he begins to focus on his circumstance.

basically he goes into solitude.

Like I said He leaves his servant and heads to the middle of no where to get away.

How often do we do that?

God does something amazing for us and then something goes wrong and we end up forgetting what God did and even completely take our eyes off Him.

We are like Peter when Jesus calls him to walk on water and Peter looses focus on Jesus and focuses on the storm and sinks.

And we do that in our life we focus on this circumstance instead of focusing on how big our God is.

and that is really the first big point that I want you to get.

When we are in some sort of issue of have some sort of failure what do we focus on.

The circumstance

Or how big our God is who can control the circumstance.

Because look what Elijah does once he is focusing on the circumstance instead of God.

We see him fleeing and giving up on the area God has called him to as a prophet.

The he actually goes into solitude by like I said going to the middle of nowhere.

and he just lays under the tree

and you really get this image where he is so focused on his failure and his circumstance that his anxiety has now turned into depression

So much that he gets to the point where he says God just take my life.

I am done being a prophet and I have failed so bad I do not even deserve to live.

Have you ever been in a place like that where you feel that depressed or down because of something and you feel like Elijah just wanting to get far away and even possibly having some sort of suicidal thought?

I had a friend who I went to college with who was actually majoring in youth ministry.

And my friend had a ton of potential to do a lot of good things for God but his senior year it came out that he got a girl pregnant who he was not married to.

And you know especially if you are majoring in youth ministry it causes some issues.

But he felt like this failure of his ruined his future he had.

and because of it he struggled with depression, anxiety and even suiciedal thoughts.

And while this is a very different situation from Elijah he felt similar feeling because of something he felt like was a huge failure.

So how do we respond to failure?

Do we focus on God

Or do we dig deeper into our failure and dwell on the circumstance.

Obviously it is important to focus on God but look what happens in this story.

Because it says at the bottom of verse 5 it tells how an angel comes to Elijah in the middle of his depression with food and water for him to nourish him.

In the midst of Elijah focusing on the circumstance God sends an angel to nourish Elijah in the midst of his depression.

isn't it great to know that God in the midst of us running, in the midst of us having anxiety, in the midst of depression he is not just going “I don’t want to be in that mess” but he is saying I want to be in the middle of that and I will pursue you and pull you back to me until you are back on your feet.

First off it is great that we have a God who comes to us when we have some sort of need in our life and he actively pursues us

But second off what would happen if we as a church reflected that characteristic of God where we decided that we were going to be a church that pursues people who are going through hard times.

Because its seems glamorous to be a church that reflects this but a lot of times it ends up being a journey.

And look what happens next because Elijah lays back down and the angel comes back to him and says look eat and drink this food because you have a long journey ahead.

And whats amazing about this God saying this is that Elijah originally got to where he was from running for his life from Jezebel which like I said she was this really just wicked and evil women

But a journey that was really began from the sin of one lady and the anxiety, depression and fear of Elijah ended up being something that God used.

We see that God reshapes this journey to become something not sinful but glorifying to God and to empower Elijah.

If you look at the bottom of the passage we are in it says how Elijah actually now goes on the 40 day and 40 night journey to Horeb which was also known as the mount of God.

And on this 40 day and 40 night journey I just imagine him being able to recall all the ways that God has moved in the past.

Because where he was was the same place where the Israelites would have wondered in the desert.

And then Horeb or the Mount of God was the place where God spoke powerfully to Moses and the Isralites.

And I just imagine Moses recalling all of this and going wow God has moved so powerfully in the past and I am worried about being my failures and God taking care of me?

Have any of you seen the new Christopher Robins Movie yet?

Well either have I

and to tell you the truth I am not sure what the movie is about.

But I was watching the trailer and Winnie the Pooh says one thing that catches my attention.

I believe he says something close to “I always find my way back by seeing where I have come from.”

But how true is it that when we are down as Christians and struggling we are able to look at all of the ways that God has been faithful in our life and realize that he is still here with us.

You know we can journal the ways that God has moved in our lives and that way we can remember how he has been faithful in the past.

And really that is one of the functions of the Bible

Yes it also tells us how we can be in a relationship with God and how to live

But it also is a written testimony of what God has done for His people throughout time.

And we can realize how faithful God was and how faithful he will be.

You know it is so easy to get to a place like Elijah where you are caught under a tree.

You get paralyzed by fear

Caught in depression,

And you get stuck under the tree.

But what is great is that we do not have to be caught under the tree.

So why in your life are you under the tree?

Because we have a God who is constintley pursuing us.

Is it work? Is it alcohol? Is is school? Drugs? Money?

Is it alchohol? Drugs? Money?

What is it?

And what would happen if we let God turn this journey that was brought on by something negative into something that God is going to use?

Because we have an unstoppable God where even when we are just running to get away from where he has called us he is pursuing us.

and he is pursuing you.

I want to pray for us this morning. but after I pray we are going to playing a song called “I will look up”

And listen to these lyrics because the lyrics say “I will look back and see that you are faithful, I look ahead and see that you are able”

How true is that in our life where when we have this giant monster in our life and we are stuck under the tree

But we remember how faithful God has been in the past and we just go God you are faithful and we trust you.

So will you pray with me.