INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• At some point in your life, you will be hit with one of those WHY ME moments.
• There will be times when these moments come out of nowhere, such as the case for Stephen and David.
• There will be other times when you kind of do something that causes the WHY ME moment, such as was the case with Jonah.
• Then there are cases such as the one we will examine today where we sort of set up our own WHY ME moment because of something not meeting our expectations.
• Today we will examine a slice of the life of the prophet Elijah.
• Elijah was a great servant of the Lord.
• Elijah was a Prophet of God from the ninth century BC. His ministry is covered in 1 Kings 17-2 Kings 2.
• Elijah was a crucial player in a critical time in the nation of Israel's history.
• Baal worship had taken over the Northern Kingdom (Israel), and this effort was spearheaded by the wife of King Ahab, Jezebel.
• God had pronounced a famine, a drought to the nation through Elijah, during this drought, God had taken care of Elijah’s needs.
• In the 3rd year of the drought, God told Elijah to present himself to Ahab.
• Elijah told Ahab to gather all of Israel and all of the prophets of Baal to meet him at Mt. Carmel. There were 450 prophets of Baal!
• When they gathered Elijah chastised the nation asking when they were going to get back in line with God, the people said nothing.
• Elijah told the people he was the last prophet of the Lord remaining and then he challenged the prophets of Baal.
• Elijah wanted to show the people of Israel that there was a God in heaven and it was not Baal!
• Elijah asked that each side be given one bull and some wood to prepare for a burnt offering.
• Each side was to call on their God/god to light the fire for the burnt offering.
• Long story short, the prophets of Baal went; first, they cried out all day, they cut themselves, Elijah made fun of them, nothing happened, no fire.
• Elijah then took his turn, he built an altar, filled it with a bunch of water, then called out to God.
• The Lord sent fire from heaven which consumed the water, the altar, and the bull.
• Then Elijah slaughters all 450 prophets of Baal!
• This is where we pick of the story, after this momentous event!
• SLIDE #2
• 1 Kings 19:1–2 (CSB) — 1 Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 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!”
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. Elijah’s disappointment.
• When we encounter a WHY ME moment, we have to make sure our own disappointment is not the cause of the moment.
• Can you imagine the high that Elijah must have been on after his encounter with the 450 prophets of Baal?
• Elijah just had a mountaintop experience, yet he is disappointed.
• He just cleared Israel of all of the prophets of Ball, and I am sure he was exhausted!
• You ever been on a mountaintop high over something great that just happened?
• Elijah was a great servant for the Lord, he had done excellent service for both God and the nation of Israel!
• One would think NOTHING could bring Elijah down, nothing could cause him to have a WHY ME moment?
• Elijah just called on the Lord, and the Lord stopped the drought, and the Lord sent some wicked flames from heaven to consume the altar, the water, and the bull.
• On top of that, God empowered Elijah to whack all of the evil prophets of Baal!
• God showed the nation who the true God was, and Elijah was His man!
• So, what happened?
• How many times in life have you found yourself in a WHY ME moment because you had certain expectations concerning a situation or another person?
• Look at verse one again.
• When the torrential rain began to fall, Jezebel was in Jezreel and may have thought that Baal the storm god had triumphed on Mount Carmel.
• However, when Ahab arrived home, he told her a much different story. Ahab was a weak man, but he should have stood with Elijah and honored the Lord who had so dramatically demonstrated His power.
• Chicken husband, Ahab, goes to his wife, Queen Jezebel, to tell her everything that Elijah had done, how Elijah slaughtered all of her beloved Baal prophets.
• Honey, you know those remarkable prophets of Baal, you know those guys who promote your religion, well, they are all GONE!
• Elijah took them all out!
• So, Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah and said, “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!”
• The message was, Elijah, when I get ahold of you, you are dead meat!
• Now let me ask you, why is Elijah phased by this?
• Look at what God had done through him!
• Here is the problem, Elijah is disappointed.
• Although Ahab had witnessed God's power in the famine and in the consuming of the sacrifice and the sending of the rain, before the imposing presence of Jezebel, he could but attribute it all to Elijah, even blaming him for the death of the prophets of Baal. Her reaction was predictable. (ECB)
• Elijah also had a problem with pride. He thought too highly of himself.
• God’s subsequent tender dealings with his prophet were to bring his spiritual problem to light.
• His God-given successes had fostered an inordinate pride (cf. vv.4, 10, 14) that had made him take his own importance too seriously.
• Moreover, Elijah had come to bask in the glow of the spectacular. He may have fully expected that because of what had been accomplished at Mount Carmel, Jezebel would capitulate, and pagan worship would come to an end in Israel—all through his influence! (ECB)
• When Jezebel’s heart failed to melt, and she doubled down by telling Elijah he was dead meat, Elijah’s pride was shattered, he felt like a failure, which leads to our next observation.
• SLIDE #4
II. Elijah’s despair.
• When our WHY ME moment is driven by disappointment, we have to guard against DESPAIR!
• Look at verses 3-5 with me.
• SLIDE #5
• 1 Kings 19:3–5 (CSB) — 3 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, 4 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 fathers.” 5 Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree…”
• When we are overwhelmed by disappointment, it will lead to despair, and despair will lead us down a bad path.
• Elijah’s disappointment drove him to be fearful of Jezebel. Here he just wiped out all of the prophets of Baal, and he is afraid of one woman, although that one woman was a pretty terrible person.
• When we are driven to despair, we make bad choices.
• What did Elijah do when he received Jezebel’s love note?
• He prayed to God and asked God for direction, right? NO, Elijah immediately ran for his life!
• Another thing Elijah did by allowing despair to guide him, is he played right into the hand of Jezebel.
• Had she wanted to kill Elijah, she could have quickly done so; however, she wanted both Elijah and God to be discredited before those who helped Elijah wipe out the Baal prophets could come after her.
• When you are driven by despair, the whole world looks a lot worse.
• Elijah runs for his life because he does not want to die, then when he got to the wilderness past Beer-sheba, he sat under d broom tree HOPING to DIE!
• Seems a little inconsistent doesn’t it? If he wanted to die, why not stay and allow Jezebel to do the deed?
• When one is driven by despair, one’s thinking is not right.
• Elijah forgets all that God had done for him, he now is exhausted and wants to die.
• He even asks God to take his life, Elijah says he is no better than his ancestors who are dead.
• Then Elijah falls asleep under the tree, waiting to die.
• When WHY ME moments are triggered by disappointment leading to despair, we make the WHY Me moment even worse than it is.
• All Elijah had to do is to focus on God, ask God to protect him in this case and he would have been fine.
• One thing about our God is that we even when are in the throes of despair, God is still with us.
• SLIDE #6
• 1 Kings 19:5–7 (CSB) — 5 Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. Suddenly, an angel touched him. The angel told him, “Get up and eat.” 6 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. 7 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.”
• SLIDE #7
• When disappointment and despair seem to reign as king, God can bring something we need to pull us up.
III. God’s nourishment.
• God knows when to answer laments and when not to—sometimes, all we need is a good nap and some food.
• When God called down the famine on Israel, according to 1 Kings 17:1-7, God fed Elijah with food brought by ravens. God nourished Elijah during the famine, and now God sees Elijah giving up so what does God do?
• An Angel of the Lord wakes up Elijah and tells him to eat.
• Elijah looks and sees some fresh bread and a jug of water!
• When you are at your low point, if you will wake up you will see that God will bring you nourishment!
• When all looks lost, God is there, and He still cares.
• Now we have to guard against being disappointed when God may not act the way we want Him to when we want Him to act.
• Even when we lose a loved one, as hard as that is, we have to know God is there.
• Once Elijah eats, he goes back to sleep. So, the Angel touches him as second time and encourages him to get up and eat because Elijah needed strength for the journey that God in store for him.
• Even though Elijah is depressed, God sends him encouragement, God still has a lot for Elijah to do, it is time to get over yourself and get to work.
• Disappointment many times is a self-centered reaction to things not working out the way WE want them to work out!
• God is always there to nourish us and to nourish us with encouragement!
CONCLUSION
• Elijah’s disappointment led him to his WHY ME moment, this threat did not have to be a WHY ME moment, it should have been an opportunity for God to do more work.
• Do not let disappointment lead you to a WHY ME moment.
• When you do, your moment is more self-made than actual.
• We set ourselves up for a great deal of unnecessary suffering and pain.
