Elijah - Down But Not Out Series

Series...

People Like YOU & ME

ELIJAH...RemindS ME of a "WORD" – TIRED.

Today – Look at ELIJAH

a MAN Greatly Used of God – Who Ran into a Dark Time in LIFE...

We can Learn from Him what to do & not to do – When You’re Down – Not Out

Read

I Kings 19:1-10

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. 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." 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. 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!" Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, "Arise and eat." 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. 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." 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. 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?" 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."

Verse 7 is key

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."

Today – We’ll Look at a Range of Mental/Emotional Conditions that Any of us CAN or Will Find ourselves in sometime in life.

Going from a 1-11

1 = Doubt in life...

11 = Not wanting to Do Life Any Longer...

Most of us will relate to Some part of this Message –

However, there’s 1 Part I Personally can’t relate to – not Wanting to Live.

This Sermon IS NOT ABOUT SUICIDE

YET

I Have Seen Suicide

I have LOST Family...Friends...Secular Co-Workers to Suicide...

Without Exception – Like Elijah – They Isolated themselves MENTALLY from ALL Potential Help.

DOUBT – As Little as it seems – Can Stand Between VICTORY or Depression

Mk. 11:23 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed, and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

STATS

Depression is something that nearly everyone battles with in life.

According to Psychiatrists Frank Minirth & Paul Meier, the majority of Americans suffer from a serious, clinical depression at some time during their lives. Most of these people never get help....they just fight this battle on their own.

And....fighting depression can be an incredibly painful thing. In fact recent studies of more than 11,000 individuals found depression to be more physically and socially disabling that arthritis, diabetes, lung disease, chronic back problems, hypertension, and gastrointestinal illnesses. The only more disabling medical problem was advanced coronary heart disease.

Symptoms of depression:

Weight loss or weight gain...Loss of sleep and energy...Lose interest in most or all pleasurable activities...Reduced ability to concentrate...Overcome with feelings of hopelessness or uselessness.

Sometimes the Solution is a Simple as Identifying it in your life & Getting away...BEFORE it Takes greater Grips on you...

The STORY

Elijah – is the MAN of the HOUR...

Elijah

Just killed 450 false prophets. Prayed intensely for rain, and then in the power of the Holy Spirit ran for over 20 miles. If you could ask Elijah on this day what he had been up to. He would’ve told you; “Well I confronted the idolatry of an entire nation, challenged and entire cult and it’s leaders and killed them, fasted and prayed down fire from heaven, called on God intensely until it rained, then ran 20 miles ahead of a man in a chariot. Do you think Elijah was tired? The truth for us is sometimes after we’ve put too much into work, family, church, and recreation we try to white knuckle it, grit our teeth and get everything done.