The Mess of Fear.

Remember this foundation.

2 Corinthians 12:9 CSB

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.

I had this whole other sermon..Still have it..it’s filed away ready to be preached when God opens that door up…but yesterday as I was walking Goliath I realized that the sermon I had was the wrong one. That it was time to move into this space that I have been wrestling with for a while. The idea of where we minster from and how much it matters.

We can and do live life and as followers of Jesus, tasked with spreading the gospel find ourselves sharing that gospel from many different places. We minister out of our experiences, our emotions, our feelings. For the next few weeks we are going to explore what it means to minister out of.

The story so far

Elijah has just come off the mountain where God showed up big time.

1 Kings 18:46 CSB

The power of the Lord was on Elijah, and he tucked his mantle under his belt and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Talk about what has been happening so far. The power of God shown to Elijah and all the people, God’s promise of Rain. The Spirit letting Elijah win a footrace against a chariot. God has shown up time and again in Elijah’s life. Sustaining him with food brought by ravens. Bringing him to a Widow and her son letting one small bottle of oil and a bit of flour for days. Using him in the miracle of raising that same widows son.

God gives Elijah a boldness that he uses to confront the king himself.

I love this verse.

1 Kings 18:16–18 CSB

Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him. Then Ahab went to meet Elijah. When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is that you, the one ruining Israel?” He replied, “I have not ruined Israel, but you and your father’s family have, because you have abandoned the Lord’s commands and followed the Baals.

It’s after this that they all see fire fall from heaven in what can arguably be considered one of the biggest showdowns between God and powerless statues.

So what’ happened to Elijah?

Momentary lapse of reason.

Elijah forgot.

1 Kings 19:1–3 CSB

Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods punish me and do so severely if I don’t make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow!” Then Elijah became afraid and immediately ran for his life. When he came to Beer-sheba that belonged to Judah, he left his servant there,

Elijah got into his own head. He forgot even for a moment all that God had done in him and through him. He forgot the scene of power he had just witnessed, he forgot that the one who sustained him with food and used him for miracles and told him when it would stop raining and when it would rain had his back. Once he forgot that once he lost sight of that, fear crept in and he was faced with being the prophet of God for an entire nation living in fear instead of power and while we know that scripture tells us that God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind we have to remember that it’s not our spirit that has all those thing’s It’t God’s spirit in us that gives us those things, which means that there are times that i’m going to be afraid. There are instances in my life where i’m going to have to decide what I do. I will have to decide what happens when I’m afraid, what spirit am I going to operate in.

At this point Elijah is not operating in the spirit of God. His spirit is the only one that he can seem to lean into.

Throwing in the towel

1 Kings 19:4–5 CSB

but he went on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. He said, “I have had enough! Lord, take my life, for I’m no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. Suddenly, an angel touched him. The angel told him, “Get up and eat.”

How many times have you thrown in the towel. Notice i didn’t say wanted to throw in the towel, but actively went on ahead and did it? Let’s be clear, that’s what Elijah is doing here. He’s done. He has confronted, he has called out sin, he has shown who God is, he has followed every directive that God has given him. He has been THE PROPHET in Israel for a long time. He is in fact going to be woven into the story of the Messiah as the one that comes before. When we look at what happens when Jesus is transfigured in the gospels Elijah is there along with Moses. All of this is true and yet Elijah decided he was done. He is afraid for his life and he just quits.

Pursued by God

Which brings us to what God does and how we can minister out of the place we are instead of the place we are supposed to be.

1 Kings 19:6–9 CSB

Then he looked, and there at his head was a loaf of bread baked over hot stones, and a jug of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. Then the angel of the Lord returned for a second time and touched him. He said, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.” So he got up, ate, and drank. Then on the strength from that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. He entered a cave there and spent the night. Suddenly, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

God does something in these verses and the next few that offer us a hope that is beyond imagining if we are honest. He spends time one on one with Elijah. He doesn’t yell at him. He doesn’t berate him. He doesn’t make him feel at all insignificant. God doesn’t hold Elijah’s fear and fatigue against him. He simply sits down and talks to him, he asks him, “What are you doing here Elijah.”

The question is great but the thing that really strikes me is what’s next. God listens to Elijah and then God does all sorts of freaky scary things. Wind, Fire, an Earth Quake all of those things but the big scary things were not where God was he was in that still small voice and when Elijah hears that still small voice what does he do.

1 Kings 19:13 CSB

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

and of course God repeats his question, and Elijah repeats his answer and then God gives Elijah some instructions and some knowledge, and sends him out to anoint a new king and his own replacement, and no where does it say that suddenly Elijah’s fear is gone. God knows that Elijah is human, he understands that there will be times when that human part will be there and instead of telling Elijah how bad it is that he is experiencing the emotion of fear, instead of trying get him through it with some plan of beating the fear. Instead of going in and removing it completely, God is there through it. God says, even though you are afraid, after all you’ve seen, I’m still going to use you as my chosen vessel in Israel at this time, and I’m going to let you be a part of what happens next.

(expound a bit on our human faults and frailties do not surprise God nor do they disqualify us from service and being used by God etc.)

This Week’s Challenge

What are you afraid of? Think about the thing that has you afraid to step out into what God has been doing through you and wants to do more of in your life. Now talk to him about it. Just like Elijah talked to God. Lay it out for him and then just sit and listen for that still small voice.