Lord I Think I've Had Enough

1st Kings 19:4 – LORD I THINK I’VE HAD ENOUGH

It is enough; now, 0 LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.

Life is composed of experiences and encounters that provide challenge to one’s character and testing to one’s spirit. Life’s greatest wars are never fought on a physical battlefield. Life’s greatest wars are fought on the battlefield of the mind. Life’s most serious conflict is inner conflict, and the scars that inflict the most permanent wound are not found on the skin but in the soul.

And my brothers and sisters not only is life composed of experiences and encounters; it is also composed of question marks. In every life there are questions. "Who am I?" “What am I here for?” "What am I living for?" These are some of the normal questions of life, but when you have lived a little bit; when you have reached a certain level of maturity, when experiences and encounters have led to ups and downs, joy and sadness, friends and enemies, another question arises: “How did I get where I am which is so far from where I am supposed to be?"

This matter of life’s encounters and questions summarizes the prophetic career of Elijah. Elijah was the prophet who had conflict with King Ahab and his Queen Jezebel. Their godless reign brought the nation to an era of immorality that had never been seen in Israel’s history.

Let me remind you that when you do wrong it’s not just you who suffers; others have to unwilling suffer along with you.

So if you can’t do right for yourself, you ought at least do right for the sake of not dragging somebody along with you.

By various means God tried to send a message to Ahab and Jezebel. For three years there was no rain or dew on the earth and still they would not repent. God taught Ahab a lesson when he tried to execute a quitclaim deed on somebody else’s property. I’m not gone tell you the story cause I don’t want to make you lazy. Go read I Kings 21st chapter sometime this week.

By the way you do know that if you’re relying on the person behind the pulpit to get you into heaven you ain’t gon’ make it? Jesus must be known individually. You need to know the word for yourself. And a problem with believers today is they know the God in this book, but they don’t know the book. It shows in their speech, actions. Jesus said you know a tree by the fruit it bears and a whole lot of us are illustrating that we saved but we ain’t sanctified.

We’ve let God saved us but we haven’t allowed his word to change us. And that’s why we give in to sin so much. The psalmist declared, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might sin against thee.” But if the word is not in me I’ll say what I want, I’ll do what I want and all while being a child of God. Because I let God save me but I’m not allowing his word to change me.

But listen, God didn’t save you just so you could go to heaven. That’s cute and all and it is true but that’s not his complete plan. His complete plan for your salvation is that you be a living witness – that you would live his word in your life.

So you need to know the word for yourself cause when you stand before God on judgment day you can’t stand with the preacher; as matter of fact there’s some preacher’s you may not want to stand with. You got to face God by yourself so you better get to know him and his word for yourself.

On Mount Carmel it was Elijah against 450 prophets of the idol god Baal. God was so powerful on Mount Carmel that fire fell from heaven, burned up the false prophets, burned up the altar built for their false god, and still the Ahab & Jezebel would not repent.

It was in the midst of this victory that Jezebel sent word to Elijah telling him by this same time tomorrow I’m going to make sure your dead. And the word says Elijah ran into the wilderness. Let me pause here and say there are three kinds of people in the world: those who are in the wilderness, those who have just come out of the wilderness, and those who are headed into the wilderness.

Every life spends sometime in the wilderness. You may be alright today, but there is some wilderness time waiting on you. And in the wilderness Elijah sat down under a juniper tree and told God to kill him. It is enough, 0 Lord, take away my life.