Elijah message
I’ve had a very interesting month. The pastors in the church I work at during the week, led a 67 team missions’ trip to Ghana, in West Africa. The Business Manager went with them. She was the project director. That means she that booked the flights, made the reservations, helped secure passports, visas and immunizations for the group. She also coordinated the gathering and shipment of 6 tons of donations: clothes, shoes, toys, medical and school supplies. She did all this while continuing to work her usual 16-hour days running the church. It’s important for you to know that she is not the pastor. She manages the day-to-day operations of the church.
Now I love the Business Manager. But I think she works too hard. The main reason she works 16-hour days is because she doesn’t trust anyone but herself. She will give people a task to perform, and then send them emails or voice mails until the job gets done. then when the job is done she will inspect it. if it is not to her satisfaction, she will do the job over herself. And while she’s doing it over she will complain about the incompetence of the person originally assigned to the job.
Some of you may have supervisors like this and know what I’m talking about. Having a supervisor who doesn’t trust other people opens the door for offence.
· Why are you checking up on me?
· Don’t you trust me?
· I did this job just fine before you got here!
· What do you mean you want me to change this?
We all know that after the offence door is open, other things come through: resentment, anger, strife, sabotage…
Sabotage? Yes, sabotage.
· They never like anything I do,
· What’s the use of trying?
· She’s only going to do it over herself anyway.
· If I mess this up. They won’t ask me to do it again.
Do you know people like that? Those who give up and walk away from responsibility?
My husband and I have had numerous conversations over the years about bad supervisors who turn good employees into bad ones. They suck the joy out of life. The work place becomes one you dread. You hate to get up in the morning. You hate to go to work. The job you were so excited to have has become your worst nightmare. It makes you sick: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Spiritually? Yes, spiritually. Your spirit man is crushed.
· All you can think about is how miserable you are.
· All you can talk about is how rotten your job is.
· You’re burned out. You have nothing left to give.
And then of course its God’s fault. After all He put you there. He opened the door, you just walked through it.
Open your Bibles to 1 Kings 19, we meet Elijah following what is probably the greatest day in his ministry. He had called forth fire from heaven to consume a sacrifice on Mt. Carmel. He had also personally killed all the prophets of Baal who challenged him.
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.
What? The man who called fire down from heaven and single handedly killed 450 prophets is afraid of a threat? Something’s not right in his thinking.
When he came to Beersheba in Judah,
Judah? Where did Elijah do his ministry? Isreal. We will soon see that Elijah’s journey took him beyond the borders of Israel through Judah and even beyond its southern boundary.
he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert.
Notice, he abandoned his servant and isolated himself, going into the wilderness.
He came to a broom tree,
Remember, he’s in the desert. The route from Beer-sheba to Horeb—is comprised mainly of sand dunes, but Elijah still manages to come upon a broom tree. Broom trees have tall spreading branches and white leaves, which provides refreshing shade. Now you tell me that wasn’t God providing for his fugitive servant.
4b He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said.
Elijah is burned out. He’s not going any further.
“Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”
Elijah was depressed.
5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once,
The man couldn’t even take a nap!
an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
He just didn’t have the energy to do anything more.
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.”
This is our first indication that Elijah is not running away, but rather running to somewhere even if he didn’t know it.
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.
He traveled for 40 days & nights, to the holy place – Mt. Horeb where God commissioned Moses and gave him the 10 Commandments.
Don’t miss the significance of this. This is God’s prophet, God’s instrument of judgment against the prophets of Baal, God’s representative on earth, one of the greatest superheroes of the Bible, and he had to travel for 40 days and nights to get to the place where he could hear from God?
Do you ever feel that way? You’re praying, and fasting, and studying your Bible. You come to church on Sunday and prayer on Wednesday, and come to revival and yet you feel like God is miles and miles away?
9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.
And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Have you ever wondered why God asked that question? God did not tell Elijah to come here. If you read chapters 17 & 18, you’ll see 3 instances where God actually used the words “go to” (1 Kings 17:3, 9; 18:1). Elijah chose to come to Mt. Horeb. Why?
Vs. 3 tells us Elijah had come out of fear. But notice how Elijah answers God:
10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
I love this passage, because I can see myself boohooing and whining in my prayer time. “You called me into the ministry and then sent me to work among these heathens!” “I’m tired”. “They don’t want me here”. “I’m doing my best, and its just not good enough.”
11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
You’ll remember that only one time before this had God revealed his glory and that was to Moses in this same place. (Ex. 19:16-18)
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. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
Now these were spectacular demonstrations of God’s power: gale force winds, an earthquake, and fire. But the Lord wasn’t in any of these. None of these were his usual method of making contact with Elijah.
12b And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
The translators do not do justice to this verse. It should read ‘a brief sound of silence’. This implies that God was passing by in the silence which followed the storm. You know what that feels like. The moment when you realize that despite everything that is going on around you, God is still in control.
13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
waiting for God.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Can you feel a parent’s frustration in that question?
14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
Still whining, still bruised and burned out.
Of course he knew that he was not the only one left of the remnant. If you jump up to Chapter 18:13 you will see that Obadiah hid 100 prophets of the Lord in 2 caves. Yet that doesn’t change the fact that Elijah felt all alone. Even the spectacular demonstration of God’s power couldn’t pull him out of his pity party.
His perspective was skewed. Burnout and depression caused him to see only the dark side. It didn’t matter what he had done, or what others had done, or even what God had done. He needed his eyes opened to see things from God’s perspective.
Now we, in our flesh, would expect God to rebuke Elijah. After all, when we have our own little pity parties, well meaning people are quick to say that we are the ones who got ourselves into this mess.
· You’re not working hard enough
· You’re not praying enough
· You’re not giving enough
And our response is, “Look, I’m fried, I have nothing more to give. I will never please you enough. I quit.”
But God did not rebuke Elijah.
15 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. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.
God did not lecture Elijah or chasten His burned out prophet. He simply told him to get back to work. He also provided him with a helper, a protégé who would for a time work along side of him, and then take over his responsibilities, AND
18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.”
Not only were there were more than 100 of them, but God had preserved them. Would he do anything less for Elijah? Will he do anything less for you?
What can we take home from today’s lesson?
Unlike Elijah, we are New Testament saints. We have the atonement. Jesus paid the price for our sins and redeemed us from the law. If we say that we have to pray 6 hours a day, or fast every week, or read our Bibles every night before we go to bed in order to earn God’s favor than we are not only acting as Pharisees but more importantly we are denying the atonement. We are saying that the price Jesus paid was not enough.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pray or fast or read your Bible or come to church or attend revival. I’m saying that you should want to do these things. They are resources God has made available to you. You don’t have to use them. They are not mandates. You will not go to hell if you miss your daily devotions. God is not going to strike you dead because you missed prayer on Wednesday night. Salvation is not about what you do, it’s about what Jesus did.
We need to stop measuring Christianity by our efforts and put the focus back where it belongs. Elijah believed he was the only one doing the work of the ministry. He was mad that he was the only one out on the front line against the prophets of Baal. After all the other prophets were hiding in a caves. But they weren’t just hiding. They were fasting and praying and studying scriptures. But Elijah didn’t want to think about that.
Sometimes we feel that way too. We’re offended by the way our brothers & sisters in Christ practice their faith. We think of them as fanatics. OR we become Pharisees and think we are better than them because we pray more, or attend more services. Either way, we are judging them or ourselves.
Let me leave you with the answer for spiritual burnout
(1) Put your confidence in the atonement. Jesus paid the price once and for all. There is nothing you can do to earn God’s favor.
(2) Recognize that condemnation is a work of the enemy. God didn’t condemn Elijah, he even provided nourishment so His prophet could run away (vv. 7–8). And Get off the performance treadmill. Don’t measure yourself against the achievements of another person.
(3) Express your feelings. Elijah needed to talk, even though what he said was triggered by fear & depression. You can always express your feelings freely to the Lord. Or find a mature believer to share your feelings with. Sometime we need to say things out loud to actually hear what we’re saying. (v. 10).
(4) Remember God speaks to the discouraged, depressed and burned-out in gentle whispers. And don’t even imagine that God is angry or disgusted with you (vv. 11–14). You are his child and He loves you.
(5) Step back and look at the big picture. Anyone can have his or her view of things colored by the emotion. Elijah felt alone, but God told him he was one of thousands who worship Him. Let facts shape your feelings, rather than letting your feelings distort the facts (v. 18).
(6) Recognize that prayer, fasting, studying scripture, and fellowship with believers are tools God has given the church for the edification of the saints. How often and when you make use of them is a matter of choice and not regulation.
(7) Finally, Get back to work. Inactivity feeds depression. God had a task for Elijah – one job - anoint Elisha and oversee him anointing Hazael & Jehu. With a renewed sense of purpose and his eyes back on God Elijah could complete the work God called him to do (vv. 15–17).