Finding God in Depressing Times

Context:

1 Kings 19:1–8 ESV

1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 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.” 3 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. 4 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.” 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 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. 7 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.” 8 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.

Elijah has one of the most exciting storylines of any prophet in the bible

God demonstrates great power through him, and we see miraculous event after miraculous event.

The king was Ahab-Morally compromising king. Married Jezebel

Jezebel- “Where is the Baal?”

Elijah- “My God is Yah”

Drought, and great challenge of the Baal Prophets. Brings down a fire and then Elijah himself kills the prophets.

Comes off a great victory! Prays for his people to turn back to God. The king has allied himself with Baal, and Elijah shows the kings God’s power.

So they go back to the capital in Jezreel, where the queen is. Ahab rides his chariot, and it says Elijah in the strength of the Lord runs beside him! Going, and looking forward to see the queen and people turn back to God.

1. Trust God’s Unexpected Plans

1 Kings 19:1–3 ESV

1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 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.” 3 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.

Understand whats going on here, Elijah has prayed for rain to stop and God answered, and it stopped raining for years. He prayed again for it to rain and it did. He prayed for a widows son to come back to life, and God answered Him and he came back to life. He prays for fire to come from heaven, and it does. When other people were starving because of this famine, God commanded ravens to feed him. He has seen God do incredible things, he has had God answer his prayers. And he prays for the people to turn back to God, and runs to the city, to seethe people repent.

1 Kings 19:4–9 ESV

4 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.” 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 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. 7 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.” 8 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. 9 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?”

1Kings 19:4-7

It doesn’t happen though. Not only do the people not repent, and God not answer his prayer, but the queen after hearing what God does doesn’t turn to God, doesn’t receive Elijah, but says “I am going to kill you!”

Elijah expects the people to turn, to be recieved by his nation and people, but they want to kill him. Nothing has changed! And he runs for his life.

God had a plan and idea of what God wanted to do. He asked God to do something, and it was a good thing, but God didn’t do it. And when it doesn’t happen, he fears and runs for his life! Gets depressed.

What do you do when you pray and your pray but God doesn’t answer?

What do you do when life doesn’t go the way you planned it and God has different plans

Better yet, what do you do when God’s plan includes your pain? When you try and live right, and do right, and things still fall apart?

Will you trust God if what you planned for your life isn’t what he planned for you? Has God failed you?

We must learn to Trust in God’s Unexpected Plans.

Sometimes God's plan to save you means to let your own plans fail you.

Elijahs heart broke when the people didn’t turn, and the queen wanted to kill him. To the point that he became depressed, ran afraid, and asked God to take his life. He felt alone, his hope had been shot.

The truth is this, life will not go the way you expect. But it isn’t God that has failed you. It is only your plans

And sometimes God’s plan to save you means to let your own plans fail you.

Some of you need to praise God right now, that some of your plans didn’t work. That what you planned for your life isn’t what God allowed to happen.

Don’t lost heart or hope when life redirects you:

When you suffer, when you go through, it is merely evidence that in God’s infinite wisdom and mercy, he has foreseen something better and more needed.

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Some of you here have turned from God because of some heartache you have experience, some prayer that was not answered, some situation that you felt God needed to step up and fix. Maybe your family, maybe your friend, maybe your job. Listen to me, when I say this, If you only can trust God when He does what you want, Its not Jesus you want,, its a genie. You want to be God, you want to decide.

God has earned the right by now to be trusted. If highs and lows, in good and bad. Whether my life goes the way I planned or not.

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”…”Safe?” said Mr Beaver …”Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

“He's wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”

2. Taste God’s Undeserved Provision

God’s plans are unexpected, but that is God. He doesn’t come how we expect, or do what we think He should do. He does what He wants and can be trusted!

We have no idea tomorrow may hold. We don’t even know if we will be here tomorrow. We are all one phone call away from our life changing forever. And following God doesn’t free us from this. Jesus says he sends us out as sheep among wolves.

Trust in God’s unexpected plans! God’s not done! It isn’t the end, its merely a chapter in the book, a scene in the movie, but the ending is sweet for those who know and rely on Jesus .

2. Taste God’s Undeserved Provision

1 Kings 19:4–8 ESV

4 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.” 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 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. 7 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.” 8 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.

Elijah runs in fear. Is discouraged, and depressed. He has given up. Left his servant, went out in the desert to die.

Elijah has had courage to take down 100’s of prophets, to stand before the king and pray for God to bring fire from heaven. He has stood strong on and in God’s word! But gets a word from the queen and runs.

Notice what God does!

He doesn’t rebuke HIm, strike him with lightning for losing trust. He doesn’t come in anger. He doesn’t even speak at first. He just touches him and gives him some food. He comforts Him.

Praise God that when God would have been just to punish and leave us for our loss of faith, he doesn’t leave us. He doesn’t give us what we deserve He gives us more! He gives Elijah food, angel food, that gives him strength to go 40 days to Mount Sinai. He gives him what he needs, not what he deserves.

Taste of God’s underserved Provision

If you are here today and you are having a hard time trusting what God is doing, trusting his plan, if you feel depressed ready to give up, if you feel like you’ve failed, or maybe you‘ve felt the pain of an aunanswered prayer. There is good news.

When you are too tired to come to Him, he comes to you. When you feel like running he runs to you, and when you mess up and lost trust, he doesn’t give you what you deserve. But something better, something More

You’re here today battling something. Maybe you are in a valley, maybe you have lost faith in God, maybe you have feel like giving up, maybe you just are tired of trying to live right..God offers us refreshment, he has offered us provision, he has offered you a well of which you drink and be satisfied.

nd be satisfied.

Psalm 34:8 ESV

8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Even when we run from Him, he is still running after us. And even when we give up on Him, He hasn’t given up on us. And even when we feel like dieing, and probably deserved to die, he doesn’t kill us but saves us. He dies himself

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God gives something better than bread to strengthen us, something better than even food from angels, He gives us himself!

John 6:35 ESV

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Have you been there? When your plans failed you, and God came and revealed that he was better?

Maybe the storm, the suffering, your failure and fear, is a prelude to God’s entrance.

Because when you can’t see a way out, God will step in!

3. Treasure God’s Unshakable Presence

1 Kings 19:9–12 ESV

9 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?” 10 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.” 11 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. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.

1 Kings 9:9–12 ESV

9 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.’ ” 10 At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king’s house, 11 and Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12 But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him.

He brought Elijah to Mount Horeb (Which was Mount Sinai) to the same place he came to Moses and revealed himself and gave the 10 Commandments. And revealed himself to Elijah in a new and fresh way.

God showed up, and there was a hurricane, an earthquake, and a fire! And then a word!

God showed and the mountain began to crumble, earth began to shake, and fire came from heaven. But then there was a word from God!

Let me tell you something, more powerful than an earthquake, a fire, a hurricane, is the word of God. You don’t need to see God part the heaven, or sea, you don’t need a new job, or relationship, what you most need is just a word from God.

Matthew 24:35 ESV

35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Matthew 24:25 ESV

25 See, I have told you beforehand.

1 Peter 1:24–25 ESV

24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

You are

Everything around Elijah began to shake and crumble, but Elijah stood firm in the presence of God.

Psalm 46:1–3 ESV

1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

Everything without Him will crumble, shake and fall. Everyobe that is with Him will stand and rest in His unshakable presence.

Trust in Gods Unexpected Plans

Taste of God’s Undeserved Provision

Treasure God’s Unshakable Presence

Its not over! God is not done with you. In your brokenness, weakness, God will meet you. In your despair God hasn’t left you there alone, He has walked in.

You can trust in God’s unexpected plans because He has proven himself. When he came as a man, Jesus to this world, nobody expected him to come like He did. They rejected Him, killed him. Said can anything good come from Bethlehem.

When I say trust in God’s unexpected plans, I don’t just mean when the pain and troubles of this life, I mean the plan that nobody expected in Jesus dying for the sins of humanity. When I say taste of God’s underserved Provision, I don’t just mean kind words from friends or family, or when Jesus helps us with financial, emotional problems, I mean the provision God made for the most serious problem which was spiritual! When I say treasure God’s unshakable presense, I don’t just mean coming to church, and praying some, I mean standing, depending, loving, holding Jesus and king and master

God is not done with you yet! If you are alive it is because He has given you another day, another breath, to recieve Him! Elijah met God in a new way on the Mountain, but even Elijah didn’t have this oppotunity. To hear of the coming savior, and recieve Him, not just on a mountain, but in our hearts to help us in any and every storm and valley!

Trust in Jesus!

Taste of Jesus!

Treasure Jesus!