Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, we are in a sermon series entitled “Unashamed” where we have been talking about our Emotions…

Emotions are essentially to life and are a gift for us to process and to experience life..also as an alert signal to warn us of danger…

So essentially emotions are positive and necessary…When emotions are not misplaced/ disordered, they provide for us information about our circumstances in a simple, quick way that does not involve a lot of thinking…

Our emotions attempt to tell us if a situation is optimal or not… for example if something is going to meeting a need or goal.. or not(Psychology today)

We have been looking at emotion of Shame’s impact on our other emotions.

Shame has been called Silent Emotion because it is the underlying emotion — people see shame as subjective instead of objective.... we don’t recognize he influence of shame.

It is also been called the master emotion because it impacts all the other emotions… that can bind onto other emotions…

The Key difference between guilt and shame is that guilt lets us know that we have offended… where Shame is about blame and Identity… instead of I failed… it says I am a failure...

In order to change anything you have to tag it or recognize it… It takes being aware of your emotion… look at your notes simple Emotion Inventory… you can quickly look at just to become more are of your emotions.

Emotion Inventory -

Sorrowful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Joyful

Anxious 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Content

hopeless 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Hopeful.

Fearful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Secure

T/s This morning we looking at Shames relationship to Hopelessness/ (depression) ---

The first thing to know is that this sense of hopelessness or depression is common…

It has been described as, ‘the common cold of psychiatric medicine’, and, ‘the measles and mumps of the soul’.

Winston Churchill referred to it as his ‘black dog’, and Samuel Johnson called it, ‘this vile melancholy’.

When in its grip, Abraham Lincoln described himself as, ‘the most miserable man living’

Nobody is really immune to depression

Medieval writer Thomas Kempis said

I have never met a man so religious and devout that he has not experienced at some time a withdrawal of grace and felt a lessening of fervor.

Thomas à Kempis

What is Depression?

If you place a heavy weight on a heart shaped foam pillow… the pillow becomes pressed down… “De-pressed” but if you remove the pillow the next day - the pillow returns to its original form or shape…

That is kind mild like depression… having a bad day… feeling a little sad… but you bounce back… However, if you wait 6 months to remove the weight — what happens is the pillow will not return to its original shape it will remain depressed..

A pillow is designed to sustain temporary pressured… it is not designed to hold its shape for a long time under pressure…

This is the way that God has designed the heart… under normal situations we are designed to rebound once the pressure is removed… But if live with that pressure for an extended time we enter into a “state” of depression..

Where we become heavy hearted… So depression --- like an impression means to be ‘pressed down”

In Psychology world - Depression is a Mood disorder…and can range from feeling down in the dumps… to utter disappointment — Range of degrees or types of Depression.. for example there is..

There is Situational Depression - …which is normal depression when we react to life (rejection, failure, illness)..

When we go through change — transitions in life… change in jobs.. stage of life etc..

But then there is Neurotic Disorder - which is more sever and it impacts the normal activity of daily lives…the person can’t function.. struggles to work… get out the house.…

This is also called “Clinical depression” when someone needs outside help… professional counseling… and treatment. .

What we dealing with in this Sermon is normal Depression… when there are emotions at the subconscious level that is triggering feelings of sadness or depression…

We are going to look at a situation in the life of Elijah’s that leads to his Decent into Depression.

First we find Elijah a prophet called by God… walking with confidence and boldness....

1. Bold Elijah - Pressure teams up With Hope

The Bible often teaches us through biographies.

These stories tell us that when God decided to send salvation he didn’t send an airtight argument; he sent an airtight person.

He didn’t send an abstract principle; he sent a human being…

The story of Elijah begins at a time he Israel is ruled by King Ahab and His Wife Jezabel — King Ahab married Jezabel as part of alliance between Israel and Tyre… She was a fanatical worshipper of Baal —the god of Rain.. … Jezebel had an agenda to replace the God of Israel with the Worship of Baal…she was successful.. she had done something that had never happened before in Israel and that was to install Baal as the official national religion of Israel… …

At the hight of this....God raises up Elijah to confront Israel with the problem of their Baal worship.

In chaper 17 we see Elijah arrive on the scene without being announced… and he declares that God is bringing a drought.

This is a time when Israel history where they had basically fallen asleep, they are complacent and God raises up Elijah to shake them awake..

Elijah goes straight to the source King Ahab… and pronounces God’s judgement.

God was going to take on “Baal” the god of rain and fertility …God was going to send a drought …that would last 3 1/2 years.. there will be neither dew nor rain these years, except by Elijah’s word.

If we were to track the emotional life of Elijah — we might say this is the most stressful time of his life…

He is one man standing up to a whole nation…His message is not one of prosperity but of judgement and suffering… He is not influencing people and winning friends.... -

But what we find is Elijah is bold — Boldness is confidence and courage…boldness happens when Pressure teams up With Hope

Paul tells the Corinthians that the reason he is so Bold when he writes to the Church is because he has hope.

Hopefulness - is the reasonable and confident expectation of a future event.

The opposite of Hopefulness is hopelessness

The feeling that things will never change… and so there is no use in even trying…

This feeling has been described like the professor who always gave his students a B- in his class…and so it doesn’t matter how much effort or work the students put in they always end up with the same grade…So what do you conclude --- what is the point... why bother... That’s hopelessness...

What is the Key to Elijah’s Confidence..

We find that Elijah is most confident when he is attentive to God’s word.. Several times we see that He is listening and doing the word..

— He was not merely hearing the word of God… He putting into practice… when God says speak --- he speaks --- when God leads him --- Elijah goes..

5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord.

He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan.

God leads Elijah to the brook of Cherith…and is here that God supply his needs…

The natural brook provides for him water… and then God uses Ravens to miraculously feed him in the morning and the Evening....

God supplies His needs..

Elijah is rested… He has the right ... nutrition....

He is growing in his Spiritual life…and his life is being fueled…

God was preparing Elijah to have take on Baal head to head.... but in the mean time he takes him through a series of test…… We are told that after some time the brook Drys up… When you think about it here is another Situation that could have derailed Elijah… But God is going to use these tests… to build Faith…

From here God lead him to the Widow from Zarepheth…

… … The Widow from Zarephath has been impacted by the drought ---- when Elijah finds her she is gathering sticks for her last meal with her son.. you could say she is in Clinical Depression… she is on the other side of the spectrum....

She is had just enough food for one last meal for her son and herself… She had no supply… nothing left… no fuel....

God had asked her to provide a meal for Elijah… but she had nothing left to give… On top of this her son gets deathly sick and is struggling to breathe… Why bother when the result is always going to be the same…

God uses Elijah’s Bold faith to show this widow that going is faithful…— when she trusts the God of Elijah — not only will not only providing one meal but many meals....

Where Elijah Emotionally at this time… He is under pressure but He has confident Faith…He is being led by Faith and not emotions…

God had been preparing Elijahs Faith to for the Big confrontation with Israel and the worship of Baal…and it’s going to go down on Mt Carmel..

This happen in 1 Kings 18..

Again Elijah is being attentive to the words of God… and he has bold confidence.

Elijah goes and meets Ahab, and he challenges Ahab to send all the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel.

Where he challenges them to a show down.

He says, “I’ll tell you what we’re going to do.

You can bring all of those prophets of Baal up to the mountain, and I will stand as the prophet of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

We will both pray to God to end the drought, pray to God to hear our prayer, and let the true God send rain to Israel.”

The god who first consumes the sacrifice is the true God… Baal was reputed to be the god of storm and therefore should at least have been able to bring down fire (lightning)....

So the Prophets of Baal accept the challenge and 450 Baal prophets show up..

The prophets of Baal go first — they build an altar, and they slew a bull as a sacrifice.

Then they worked.

What did they do?

They began to pray.

Not only did they just begin to pray, but they began to dance.

They danced around the altar, and they began to pray.

It went on for hours.

There was no answer.

The Bible tells us it went on from early in the morning till noon.

They started to get frantic.

After they were dancing and they were running around praying out to Baal to please send rain, they started to cut themselves.

This goes on from morning to noon… nothing...

At noon Elijah began to taunt them.

‘Shout louder!’ he said.

‘Surely he is a god!

Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling.

Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.’

”

Then it is Elijah’s turn.