I want to read a story that I just read
recently. There was a church service that was going on. All of a sudden there
was a bolt of lightning and after the smoke cleared there was Satan himself
standing at the pulpit. Everyone got scared and started running out of the hall
except for an old woman who was sitting calmly. Satan looks at the woman
surprised and asks her, “Aren’t you scared of me?” The woman replies, “Not at
all.” Satan asks her, “How come?” She replied, “How can I be scared of you?
I’ve been married to your brother for the last 30 years!”
Are we ready? Turn to the person next to
you and tell him or her that you’re ready!
I want to start by reading the text
today and then we will pray.
1
Kings 19:1-4, “1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had
executed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to
Elijah, saying, "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make
your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time." 3 And
when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went 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
prayed that he might die, and said, "It is enough! Now, Lord, take
my life, for I am no better than my fathers!" NKJV
I have titled today’s message as “It is enough”.
Elijah was a great prophet. When we read
about his story, we know that he is the one who appeared before King Ahab who
was king of Israel at the time and declared that there would be no rain. Ahab
and his wife Jezebel were wicked and did not walk in the ways of the Lord. The
next three years there was no rain. There was also a severe famine where the
Lord miraculously provided for Elijah first sending ravens and then from a
widow. Elijah goes back to Ahab and takes all of them to Mount Carmel and in
front of the king and all the Israelites calls down fire from heaven and burns
up all the offering. He even kills 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah. Then he
calls upon the Lord and the Lord even sent rain.
Here is a man who experienced great
things from God and did great things for God but now he’s come to a place where
he’s depressed. Just as the nation of Israel is coming out of a drought, he is
entering into one. IT’s not a drought which someone can see. IT is something
internal which many of us are living in where no one can see it. Here’s where we
pick up reading about Elijah, he is in that place where internally he’s broken
down and feels that he can’t go forward anymore. He tells the Lord that it’s
enough!
Have we ever been in a place where we’ve
told the Lord that it is enough? That you can’t take it anymore? We’ve been at
the same thing for so long but now we’ve come into that place where we just
feel that we don’t have the strength to fight through it anymore.
Now the traditional interpretation is
that Elijah ran away because he was afraid. There are some translations that
read that way too. But Elijah was a courageous man and if we were to speak on
his courage then that would be another message by in itself. Elijah wasn’t
afraid to call all the people onto the mountain and challenge all the prophets
of Baal. He wasn’t afraid to go to Ahab and tell him that it won’t rain. He
wasn’t afraid to kill 850 false prophets! So now when Jezebel tells him that
she’s going to kill him, he gets afraid and just runs? He runs so much that he
collapses and asks God to take his life? No, there has to be something more. If
Elijah has to tell God that it is enough then I am thinking maybe there is
something more.
Usually when we talk about
disappointment, we talk about the disappointment of defeat. We would’ve
expected Elijah to run of course if he had stood upon Mt. Carmel and God didn’t
show up. If God had not shown up there on Mt. Carmel then his disappointment
would’ve made sense because his faith would’ve been shaken up and he would not
really know what to do. We would run if we were standing up in front of the
false prophets of Baal and taunting them that our God would do something and
that theirs wouldn’t then yes, we would run. IT’s understandable for us to go
through disappointment when we pray all that we can and as hard as we can and
God doesn’t do what we want Him to do for us. We become disappointed with God.
We become disappointed with life as a whole.
But some of the most disappointed people
today are not the ones who haven’t seen results. They are not the ones whose
prayers God did not answer. If we look, God has answered all of their prayers.
IT’s just that something didn’t match. Let me see if I can explain this:
Now, I know I might offend some on what
I am just about to say especially from the young people. I know I am going to
break the hearts of some. In fact, some of the young people are going to go out
from here and say that what I am saying is absolutely wrong. But here’s what I
want to say. I am a BIG believer in arranged marriages. I am not against love
marriages but it’s just that I prefer arranged maybe because my marriage was an
arranged one. I met my wife Anu just twice before marriage. Yes, that’s right,
just twice. One was for the first time in what you would call a traditional
pennu kannal and one was for our engagement. That’s it.
Surveys say that arranged marriages last
longer than love marriages. They say that love marriages have a higher ratio of
divorce compared to arranged marriages. They believe the number one reason is
because of this one word: ‘Expectation’.
People who get married in arranged
marriages have generally lower expectations from each other compared to love
marriages whose expectations from each other are very high. So there are
couples who have been in love for years together and then finally get married. Then
they are shocked to find out that the person they thought they knew for years
together is not the same person after marriage! Here’s what I’ve heard from
some: “I never knew this part of that person existed!” In arranged marriages
however, because they don’t know each other that well, they go into the
marriage not expecting too much. The bar on their expectations is much lower
because they go into it not knowing what to really expect.
Here’s a truth about disappointments! Disappointment is the gap between
expectation and reality.
There is a certain expectation we all
have about various things in our lives but reality turns out to be quite
another and what we are left is or with is in between that gap with our
disappointment!
So here’s a question for all of us
today: What are you expecting? Turn to someone and ask them that.
That’s what happened to John the
Baptist. You see, Jesus compares John the Baptist to Elijah and both John and
Elijah had one thing in common. Both had an idea of what the kingdom of God
looked like but when God starting establishing it, it happened in a way that
they were not expecting. John was doing all these great things for God, asking
people to repent and turn from their ways. John got arrested and was in prison.
Meanwhile Jesus was out there preaching the Kingdom. John was not expecting to
be in prison. He was not expecting it to be this way. Maybe he was asking God
that why he was there? He was doing what God had asked him to do and still he
ends up being in prison. We know that disobedience to God can lead us to bad
places but sometimes obedience can do so too! He was hurting and from prison
sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus whether Jesus was the One to expect or
whether they should expect someone else.
Matthew
11:2-6, “2 John, meanwhile, had been locked up in prison. When he got wind of
what Jesus was doing, he sent his own disciples 3 to ask, "Are you the One
we've been expecting, or are we still waiting?" 4 Jesus told them,
"Go back and tell John what's going on: 5 The blind see, The lame walk,
Lepers are cleansed, The deaf hear, The dead are raised, The wretched of the
earth learn that God is on their side. 6 "Is this what you were
expecting? Then count yourselves most blessed!" (The Message)
That’s good right? Jesus is asking
John’s disciples to look at what’s going on now. Yes, John obeyed God and now
all of these things are happening. But John was not expecting this. He was
expecting the judgment of God to fall upon all those who didn’t listen! He was
preaching repentance and therefore expected judgment on those who didn’t. But
now in verse 5, the wretched are learning that God is on their side! John is
disappointed.
Isn’t it true that many times we expect
God to do something for us but He does things in a way that we don’t expect? Then
we get disappointed. God is working but because we want Him to do things our
way we get disappointed. We get disappointed with God and disappointed with
life.
Coming back to the story of Elijah, Elijah
was disappointed. Three years he was
running, waiting on
God to give the Word to release the rain. He thought that
after the powerful Mt. Carmel victory that the people would repent and turn
back to God. It didn’t happen. Then he thought that when the rain came and the
drought was over, the nation would atleast now turn back to God. Nothing
happened and nothing changed. When it was finally proven to be true that He is
God, then the nation’s heart will be turned back. You see because Elijah’s goal
was never rain, it was repentance. So when Jezebel who was running the nation,
sent word that he would die, I believe that Elijah’s fear was not that he would
die, but that nothing would change.
It’s not difficult to do certain things
when you know that results will follow. When we study for our exams and give it
our all expecting that we will get good results but somehow when the results
comes, we find that we’ve failed, it gets difficult. When we go to work every
day, do things that are more than expected at our workplace and find that our
salaries are still the same, we get disappointed. When we’ve done all that we
know how to raise up our children and find that they are still not right and
doing all the wrong things; we even think as to who taught them this? We get
disappointed! When we’ve prayed for healing and find that the medical reports
are still the same, we get disappointed.
And Elijah said it’s enough! I’m done,
I’m out, and I can’t anymore! But take a look at what God does!
1
Kings 19:4-8, “4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and
came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and
said, "It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my
fathers!" 5 Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel
touched him, and said to him, "Arise and eat." 6 Then he looked, and
there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and
drank, and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the Lord came back the second
time, and touched him, and said, "Arise and eat, because the journey is
too great for you." 8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the
strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain
of God. NKJV
Until this point in the story, Elijah
only went to places where God had asked him to go and God provided for him
everywhere he went. God sent ravens to feed him in the brook. He gets a widow
to feed him. Here he is now running away and not in a place where God has asked
him to be in and God still provides for him here. Isn’t it amazing to know that
sometimes we may not be doing what God has asked us to do but He cares for us
so much and loves us so much that even in those moments and those places, He
cares enough to provide for us? Amen!
2. Opposition
Elijah had to face a lot of opposition.
I mean he had opposition from the king, and then he had opposition from the
prophets of Baal. But I don’t think any of that got him down so much that he
said it’s enough. He took on all that opposition and that’s why I think even
Jezebel’s threat wasn’t really much of a threat! I think what broke his heart
was when the opposition came from a place he least expected it to come from!
1
Kings 19:9-10, “9 And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that
place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him,
"What are you doing here, Elijah?" 10 So he said, "I have been
very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have
forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with
the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life." NKJV
Elijah’s response tells us why he said
it was enough for him. HE was saying that I’ve done all of my responsibility!
I’ve been zealous for you! I’ve done all that You’ve asked me to but these
people, the Israelites! Notice he’s
already separated himself from his own people. Elijah was an Israelite too! You
know how sometimes, married people complain about the children, “See what your
son is doing! See what your daughter is doing!” Elijah says they tore down your
altars, killed your prophets and now they are trying to kill me too!
It’s alright to fight with an opponent
that is not of you. But what do you when the opposition comes from your own.
See that’s how the enemy operates! He knows that it’s easy for the church to
stand up and fight against opposition that comes from the outside. But what
will the church do when the opposition comes from the inside. He creates
division inside the church so that the church will not be able to stand when
the attack comes from inside. That’s the easiest way to break through
opposition. So he brings in un forgiveness, jealousy, bitterness etc.
A few days ago, we had a discussion on
our youth whatsapp group on forgiveness where I asked them a question as to when
would we be most hurt? Would we be hurt by some random bus conductor who shouts
as us or some professor who scolds us whom we barely know? Or would we be hurt
by someone who is very close to us, whom we thought was on our side? The
obvious answer was the ones who were close. This is also why it is most
difficult to forgive them because we never expected them to hurt us of all the
people!
I expected to have to fight Jezebel, I
expected to have to fight those who didn’t believe in God what I didn’t expect
was to fight the inner me. That’s how the enemy is breaking down marriages
today. He won’t come and attack a marriage through various trials because in
trials the husband and wife will mostly stick together and will make them only
stronger! He will attack by bringing in division amongst the husband and wife
because then they can’t stand up strong!
Elijah is hurt. He doesn’t have the strength
to fight his own people. So he says that it is enough.
God provides food for him and in its
strength he goes as far as the mountain of God and gets into a cave. That’s
where we all go isn’t it? We don’t want to meet anyone and we don’t want to
talk to anyone and here is God who comes looking for him because He doesn’t
want him to be there.
But here’s how God has been working
right through out and I don’t know if Elijah was even aware of it. God gives
him enough food that he can keep going till he reaches the mountain of God and
what do you expect to find on the mountain of God: The presence of God.
God doesn’t want him to end his life
after coming this far. See this is the thing about this cave. It’s in the
mountain of God where Elijah is in now. It’s in the presence of God where
Elijah is in now. That is why God asked him a strategic question as to where
are you Elijah…because I believe God wanted him to notice where he had reached.
God wanted him in His presence because that’s where the change was going to
come.
1
Kings 19:11-12, “11 Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain
before the Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong
wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces 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 a still small voice. NKJV
The still small voice was that of the
Lord. Suddenly Elijah is back in the place where he is supposed to be. That’s
in the presence of God.
You see, many times we go through life’s
situations and difficult circumstances and are disappointed and have lots of
opposition that we have to face. So we think that it’s impossible and that we
have no strength and we are wondering how things will ever work out. We wonder
what we can do to get out of this place where we are. We wonder if anything can
be done. But that’s just the problem. We are so consumed by us that our focus
is on the problems and what we can do about it.
This is what the enemy wants us to do.
He wants us to lift our eyes off God and shift our eyes on to ourselves and our
problems!
But God wants us to run back into His
presence. That is where everything changes. Because when we are in God’s
presence, our focus is no longer on us, our focus is no longer on the problems
that we are facing, and our focus is shifted back on to the Creator who made
us. Our focus is back on God.
They say that the number 1 disease that
used to exist a few years ago was myocardial infarction that is your regular
heart attack. But since the last 5 years or so it has been replaced with
something else. Do you know what that is? It is Depression. People who are depressed have a sense of hopelessness
and are very negative towards life. They feel like their life is useless and
many times feel like ending their lives.
Let me put up those faces on the screen
and let’s see if we can recognize them.
US president Abraham Lincoln was
probably one of the greatest presidents ever lived. He was responsible largely
for abolishing slavery.
Actress Angelina Jolie is probably one of
the most accomplished actresses today. She has many hit movies to her name and
was cited as Hollywood’s highest paid actresses.
‘Prince of Preachers’ Charles Spurgeon
is a man who has been dead for over 100 years is still one of the revered
preachers who ever lived in England. He reversed the course of history for the
church.
Each of these three people, well known
in their own fields had one thing in common. Each of them suffered from
depression.
Abraham Lincoln was known for removing
slavery and yet he suffered from depression. There was a movie that was based
on his life. You should see it, when you know more about Lincoln’s wife; you
will know why he suffered from depression!
Charles Spurgeon the great preacher was
preaching one day in his church which had over 6000 people. One day a man from
the balcony screamed, “Fire!” and in midst of the panic and people running, 4
people were trampled over and died. The mind of this young gifted preacher
broke and Spurgeon went into depression. Over the next several weeks, the
elders and the members of the church prayed round the clock for their pastor
until the peace of God came over him. He walked back into the pulpit with the
double portion anointing and shook the world with his preaching.
The number one reason for depression is
thinking about yourself.
That is why God doesn’t want us focused
on ourselves. He doesn’t want us to be focused on our problems. He wants us to
focus in on Him.
This is why worship is so important. We
have these worship sessions every month so that we can come into His presence
and focus in on Him.
Here’s what it says about Jesus in Isaiah
61:3, “3 To console those who mourn in
Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called
trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be
glorified." NKJV
Hear this: He gives us the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness. He gives us a garment of praise for the
spirit of depression.
Heaviness or depression is not an
emotion. It’s a spirit. We’ve heard of the fact that God has not given us a
spirit of fear, fear is not an emotion, and it’s a spirit. If we treat fear as
an emotion, we’ll never overcome it. It’s a spirit that attacks our emotions. The
only way to overcome the spirit of fear is to take authority over it and cast
it out. Fear comes so that we end up making a wrong decision.
The enemy doesn’t
want us to make faith based decisions but fear based ones.
Depression comes to swallow us in a
blanket of self and negativity. God has given us a garment of praise for the
spirit of depression. This means that I don’t come with it every day; I have to
consciously make a choice to wear that garment.
God is enthroned on the praises of His
people. God and the devil cannot co-exist together. When we are facing a lot of
problems and all we can think of is ourselves and our problems, we need to lift
our focus off ourselves and put on the garment of praise. We have to praise Him
in the midst of our problems. We are not praising Him for our problems but we
are praising Him in the midst of it. When we start praising Him, the spirit of
heaviness leaves us.
Listen to what David says here. Psalms 16:8-9, “8 I have set the Lord
always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. 9
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in
hope. NKJV
David is saying that he has made a
conscious choice to set the Lord before Him and therefore his heart is glad.
What I do in the midst of my problems, I keep thinking about Him. If I think
about me and my problems then I get depressed. When I put on the garment of
praise, I begin to praise Him.
David says in Psalms 34:1-3, “1 I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall
continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The
humble shall hear of it and be glad. 3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And
let us exalt His name together. NKJV
What is David saying here? When we
praise Him, does God get any bigger? No, He doesn’t. When we worship, we
magnify the Lord. He gets bigger in us. When we use a magnifying glass, the
object doesn’t increase in size, it increases in size to us. That’s what
happens when we worship. God gets bigger to us.
When we don’t worship, God becomes
smaller in us and our problems becomes bigger and we become obsessed with
ourselves. This is why it’s so important to worship the Lord in midst of our
problems.
Elijah finally focused in on God. It’s
not that his problems had been solved. But his perspective changed. God told
him to go back to the place of his calling and he went back with a renewed
strength and passion.
Today as we leave, I want each of us to
ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us. Whatever are the problems that are there,
whatever are the disappointments that we are carrying today, whatever are the
oppositions we are facing today, let’s not let the enemy to swallow us in
depression but let’s wear the garment of praise and magnify Him in our lives!
