Sermon Tone Analysis

11.25

The Story: Elijah

We are all learning and growing.

Open: Great people who are still learning

Build common ground: Do you ever have mountain top experiences in your Christian walk, and imagine yourself remaining there forever, then life happens and your spiritual buzz is gone, and you find yourself confused and frustrated?

We aren’t alone with those feelings, God’s most renown servants experienced this stuff as well.

Do you ever look at someone, maybe someone in scripture, or someone around you and think, “Do they ever have struggles?”

The story:

The story:

Today we come this chapter in 1 Kings.

There is this incredible guy in scripture who is used by God in very powerful ways, Elijah the prophet.

And as we’ll see here, Elijah was still learning, still growing, no matter where we are in our walk, God is still revealing things about himself to us, and we have to be ready to admit our need of him, humble ourselves, and continue to be taught by the scriptures and the Holy Spirit.

In the book of James, James is talking about the prayer of faith.

He talks about us praying for one another for healing, confessing to one another for healing, and tells us that the prayer of a righteous man is effective as it is working, then he points us to Elijah and says, - “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours...” and then recounts how his prayers had been answered.

Today, we will see Elijah after God came through in a powerful way on MT.

Caramel, wrestling with his flesh.

There are a number of valuable things here that we can take and apply to our lives.

1. “Even Elijah had bad days”(19:1-8)

As we walk through the story of scripture, and the story of our lives, a vital truth to our lives is understanding our humanness and God’s power.

God worked through ordinary people in scripture.

We see people to amazing things, but it is the power of God working in their lives and the same is true today.

This is shown very clearly in this portion of 1 Kings.

Elijah was a prophet who experienced some amazing things, yet, he had his struggles as we will see.

- Elijah was a man.

God used him in powerful ways, but as we’ll see today, he had his struggles, his fears, and his doubts.

Even though we struggle with the same stuff, God wants us to trust and lay down our lives that we may be used by him.

(Elisha and his plows)

As we walk through the story of scripture, and the story of our lives, a vital truth to our lives is understanding our humanness and God’s power.

God worked through ordinary people in scripture.

We see people to amazing things, but it is the power of God working in their lives and the same is true today.

This is shown very clearly in this portion of 1 Kings.

Elijah was a prophet who experienced some amazing things, yet, he had his struggles as we will see.

- Elijah was a man.

God used him in powerful ways, but as we’ll see today, he had his struggles, his fears, and his doubts.

Even though we struggle with the same stuff, God wants us to trust and lay down our lives that we may be used by him.

(Elisha and his plows)

1. God’s Servant On the Run (19:1-8)

1.

In spite of a mountain top experience, Elijah finds himself in a spiritual valley.

(19:1-8) or “Even Elijah is still learning” “Even Elijah had bad days” “Elijah is still learning brokenness”

Summarize 1-3 Read - (ESV)

2. The Lord Speaks to Elijah (19: 9-18) - “ God makes himself known”

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.

Feelings of discouragement and defeated often follow great victories.

i.e. after Jesus was baptised, it says, ( “Then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil....”

-Why?

Think about the story, the prophets of Baal have just been defeated, Elijah runs back ahead of chariots with horses, he has to be thinking, “this is it, the Lord has just showed himself, there will be revival in the nation of Israel, the King and Queen will repent, etc.” But, he is met with a death threat from Jezebel.

Elijah is feeling defeated and depressed, yet God ministers to him.

Timothy Keller points out that the angel ministers to Elijah in three ways - 1 Physically; The angel touches him (“you’re not alone”), feeds him, lets him take a nap. 2 Psychologically; God listens to him.

3 Spiritually; gives God’s word.

What pulls Elijah out of his mood?

Hearing and obeying the word from the Lord.

-Why?

Think about the story, the prophets of Baal have just been defeated, Elijah runs back ahead of chariots with horses, he has to be thinking, “this is it, the Lord has just showed himself, there will be revival in the nation of Israel, the King and Queen will repent, etc.” But, he is met with a death threat from Jezebel.

Elijah is feeling defeated and depressed, yet God ministers to him.

Timothy Keller points out that the angel ministers to Elijah in three ways - 1 Physically; The angel touches him (“you’re not alone”), feeds him, lets him take a nap. 2 Psychologically; God listens to him.

3 Spiritually; gives God’s word.

What pulls Elijah out of his mood?

Hearing and obeying the word from the Lord.

-He leaves his servant (a prophet in training) behind because he is done.

He is quitting, he wants out.

A new sense of direction

APP: How often have you seen the hand of God move and then God doesn’t have it turn out quite how you had it drawn up in your mind?

-When we are wore down and not spending time in God’s presence we don’t see things clearly and we tend to focus on ourselves, “poor me, poor me.”-He leaves his servant (a prophet in training) behind because he is done.

He is quitting, he wants out.

“Elijah thinks that God has let him down, but God has not let Elijah down.

Elijah’s limited view of God and how God works has let Elijah.” - J.D. Greear

God is working, and still has work for us to do in spite of how we feel.

Elijah obeys the Lord’s command instead of his flesh.

“Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.”

Elijah obeys the Lord’s command instead of his flesh.

“Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.”

- God is working, and still has work for us to do in spite of how we feel.

- The Lord allowed His servant to pass through this conflict, that he might not exalt himself, but, being mindful of his own impotence, might rest content with the grace of his God, whose strength is mighty in the weak (, ), and who would refine and strengthen him for the further fulfilment of his calling.

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The Lord Speaks to Elijah (19: 9-18) - “ God makes himself known”

ILL:

- Elijah is commanded to go to Horeb (Sinai), where Moses had ministered.

Elijah needs to be reminded that he is serving the Lord in the fellowship of the patriarchs and Moses.

Their cause for the Lord is his cause.

He stands and works in a line of heroes of faith and service.

- The distance from Beersheba to Horeb is about 200 miles.

Consequently Elijah would not have required forty days to travel there, if the intention of God had been nothing more than to cause him to reach the mountain, or “to help him on his say” (Thenius).

But in the strength of the food provided by the angel Elijah was not only to perform the journey to Horeb, but to wander in the desert for forty days and forty nights, i.e., forty whole days, as Moses had formerly wandered with all Israel for forty years; that he might know that the Lord was still the same God who had nourished and sustained His whole nation in the desert with manna from heaven for forty years.

And just as the forty years’ sojourn in the desert had been to Moses a time for the trial of faith and for exercise in humility and meekness (), so was the strength of Elijah’s faith to be tried by the forty days’ wandering in the same desert, and to be purified from all carnal zeal for the further fulfilment of His calling, in accordance with the divine will.

What follows shows very clearly that this was the object of the divine guidance of Elijah (cf.

Hengstenberg, Diss. on the Pentateuch, vol.

i. 171, 172).

ILL: As a ten year old boy there was a charismatic revival in my home town.

There was some really amazing things that happened.

God did great things there, no theological position or argument will convince me otherwise.

But the test of what was authentic and what wasn’t came in the years that followed.

People who where just chasing experience became disillusioned when the season of outpouring was over.