QUIET ENOUGH TO LISTEN
I Kings 19.1-18
S: Depression
C: Listening to God
Th: Life Can Be Hard
Pr: GOD SPEAKS, EVEN IN OUR DARKEST MOMENTS.
TS: We will find in our study of I Kings 19 how God graciously dealt with and healed the depression of Elijah.
Type: Inductive
I. TREPIDATION (1-3)
II. EXHAUSTION (4-8)
III. PRESCRIPTION (9-19)
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• God is speaking, so be quiet and listen.
• When you are feeling down, look up and see God (get perspective).
Version: ESV
RMBC 19 November 06 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Depression
In the beginning of the movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo Baggins the hobbit describes to the wizard, Gandalf, his need to move away from his home in the Shire. Before he gets any older, he desires to get out and see the world one more time.
He describes himself this way, “I am feeling thin – stretched really – like butter scraped on too many pieces of bread.”
When I was recently reminded of that line, I identified with that feeling.
It is an apt description of what has happened to me over the past month.
When I was growing up in the church, there was a debate being waged.
The question that was being asked was…
1. Can a Christian be depressed?
Through my years of pastoral counseling, I have found that I spend time helping people in three major areas: premarital counseling, marital counseling and counseling for depression.
It has been hard for me to not accept the notion that, yes, a Christian can be depressed.
ILL Depression
In a book entitled Happiness Is a Choice, the authors share these statistics: "the majority of people suffer from depression at one time or another. One in twenty is presently experiencing it. Depression is a leading cause of suicide. Depression occurs two times as often in women as in men. Depression occurs three times as often in people in higher socio-economic groups. Depression occurs more often in the fourth and fifth decades of life, although it may occur at any stressful period. . ."
It may surprise you, but one of the professions that depression has skyrocketed during the past twenty-five years is the pastorate.
It is those same twenty-five years that I have professionally served in the church and I have seen many of my friends burnout in ministry, being either fired because they could no longer function at a high level or leaving the pastorate altogether and permanently because the stress was too much.
The horror stories happen with surprising and alarming frequency.
So, what causes depression to happen?
Usually, there are multiple reasons.
ILL Expect
After reading a book called Man of the House during his commute home from work, the enlightened husband stormed into the house to confront his wife. Pointing his finger in her face, he said, "From now on, I want you to know that I am the man of this house, and my word is law. Tonight you are to prepare me a gourmet meal and a sumptuous dessert. Then, when I’m done eating, you’re going to draw me a bath so I can have a relaxing soak. And when I’m finished with my bath, guess who’s going to dress me and comb my hair?"
His wife responded, "My guess is the funeral director."
Have you ever noticed that life does not always work out the way we want it to…
2. When life is not turning out as expected, it can lead to a chronic sadness.
That chronic sadness would be another way to describe depression.
But thankfully, it does not have to be the end of the story.
ILL Depression
Many years ago a young Midwestern lawyer suffered from such deep depression that his friends thought it best to keep all knives and razors out of his reach. He questioned his life’s calling and the prudence of even attempting to follow it through. During this time he wrote, "I am now the most miserable man living. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell. I awfully forebode I shall not."
But somehow, from somewhere, Abraham Lincoln received the encouragement he needed, and the achievements of his life thoroughly vindicated his bout with discouragement.
Swindoll, You and Your Problems Transformed by Thorns, p. 58.
One of England’s finest preachers was C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892). Frequently during his ministry he was plunged into severe depression, due in part to gout but also for other reasons. Sometimes he would be out of the pulpit for two to three months at a time. In a biography of the "prince of preachers", Arnold Dallimore wrote, "What he suffered in those times of darkness we may not know...even his desperate calling on God brought no relief. ’There are dungeons’, he said, ’beneath the castles of despair.’"
Today in the Word, MBI, December, 1989, p. 20
I mentioned to you two weeks ago, that I felt directed by the Lord to do this series on Elijah, shortly before the storm hit.
What I did not realize is that the study of these three chapters and the subsequent messages had a direct target – it was me!
So, I have been taking you on my spiritual journey.
The word that we have not used to describe my condition up to this point is the word depression, but that very word was the doctor’s diagnosis.
I can’t tell you how difficult it was for me to accept that diagnosis, and as I mentioned before, I fought with the physician about it, all the while realizing that I was showing a lot of classic symptoms.
It was not that hard of a diagnosis.
Yes, I am improving.
I am laughing again, which was absent for a few weeks.
But I must also confess the positive steps are smaller than what I hope for, but I have to be patient.
The physical symptoms of dizziness remain, along with fatigue and a lack of concentration, and these symptoms are the body’s way of demanding a person slow down, which I have been doing.
That being said, let me take you on my most recent journey, so…
3. We will find in our study of I Kings 19 how God graciously dealt with and healed the depression of Elijah.
As we said two weeks ago, we called Elijah the greatest prophet for the worst age.
Here was a man who was sustained in the desert by God sending food by ravens, who experienced miracles in the home of the widow of Zarephath, experiencing the replenishment of the food supply and making her son raise from the dead.
Surely a man who walked that close with God and was used so powerfully by Him, surely a man like this, would not get depressed – but he did.
Last week, we studied how Elijah challenged the 850 false prophets on Mt Carmel to a contest, a contest to prove whose God was real.
Elijah taunted the prophets as they called to their god in an all morning frantic frenzy.
Then after preparing his altar, trench and sacrifice – soaking it with water – he prayed – and the fire came immediately consuming everything.
You wouldn’t expect a man who experienced a dramatic and total victory like this over his enemies to get depressed, but he did.
Then he prayed for rain – a cloud came, the sky grew dark, and the rain came.
The power of the Lord came upon Elijah, and he tucked his coat into his belt and started running – all the way to Jezreel – eighteen miles away, beating Ahab there in his chariot.
You wouldn’t expect a man who just outran a horse and chariot to get depressed, but he did.
(Malone)
As great as Elijah was, he was still just a man, subject to human condition
Years he had stood strong amidst and against almost insurmountable odds and circumstances.
(Swindoll)
But now he was discouraged and in despair.
How did this happen?
Well, first, he is overcome with…
OUR STUDY:
I. TREPIDATION (1-3)
(1) Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. (2) Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow." (3) Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
Remember a few moments ago when I said that a chronic sadness can happen when life does not turn out the way you expect it to.
This is exactly what I believe happened to Elijah.
I think Elijah hustled back to Jezreel to see all the good things that were going to happen when Ahab told Jezebel about the contest on Mt. Carmel.
You see…
4. Elijah was expecting revival.
Things were now were going to change.
The reformation was coming.
Spiritual renewal was on the way.
But Elijah was in for a rude awakening, for when Ahab had gone home to tell Jezebel, she saw a husband falling apart under the pressure.
So she took matters into her own hands.
“Tomorrow, Elijah, you’re a dead man.”
This was not the response Elijah hoped for or expected.
In fact, it knocked him flat and sent him into an emotional tailspin.
Despair replaced faith.
We can see this by the fact that…
5. When his life is threatened, Elijah’s thinking becomes unclear.
Here is our hero of the faith, who has faced down the prophets and called down fire from heaven, on the run.
He takes off.
One word from Jezebel, and he is gone.
He heads south.
He goes as far south as he can go into Judah, and then begins to wander about in the wilderness.
Had he been thinking clearly, he would not have given Jezebel a second thought.
He would have trusted God as he had been doing all along.
There was a reason, though.
It was…
II. EXHAUSTION (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 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.
Here Eilijah had experienced this great victory, but the dark side was that it was emotionally draining.
As a result, he was physically and mentally exhausted, wandering in the wilderness, under a broom tree.
He is there because…
6. Elijah possesses a sense of futility.
In his mind, he is saying, “I just can’t go on.”
“This is more than I can handle.”
“I can’t live this way.”
“Death would be better.”
When one is depressed, it is easy to fall into self-pity.
And it is dangerous.
For self-pity lies, exaggerates and makes us think like a victim.
Charles Swindoll describes it this way: “Self-pity mauls its way inside our minds like a beast and claws us to shreds.”
Fortunately, the Lord knew exactly what Elijah needed.
7. He needed rest and food.
I get so excited in this passage because of what God does and what He does not do.
God allows time for rest and refreshment.
His orders are sleep and eat, sleep and eat, and sleep and eat.
And notice what God does not do.
He doesn’t give Elijah a sermon.
He does not rebuke him.
He does not shame him for his lack of trust.
He doesn’t hit him with a lightning bolt.
He doesn’t say, “Get back on the job, you dolt.”
He doesn’t say, “Snap out of it and get going.”
Then, when the fatigue has been taken care of, it is time for the next step…
8. It was time to meet God.
God sends Elijah even further away.
It was time for Elijah to get his perspective back.
It was time to go where he could be alone with God and get what he needed in terms of his call and mission.
It was time to go to Mt. Horeb, also known as Mt. Sinai.
It seems another great prophet named Moses had also gotten some perspective there as well.
So here comes Elijah’s…
III. PRESCRIPTION (9-19)
(9) There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (10) He said, "I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away." (11) And he said, "Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks 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 the sound of a low whisper. (13) And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (14) He said, "I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away." (15) And the LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. (16) And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. (17) And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. (18) Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him."
Elijah arrives at Horeb.
Again, note that God doesn’t slap Elijah across the face and say, “Snap out of it.”
Instead…
9. The Lord allows Elijah to complain.
He doesn’t condemn him.
The Lord asks the question, “What are you doing here, Elijah” to allow him to assess his situation.
And God listens.
There is no interruption.
Elijah complains that he has been zealous for God, that he has been enthusiastic and exclusively devoted to Him, and now, he says, “I am alone and they are trying to kill me.”
Now God gives a very special gift to Elijah at this point.
It was time for Elijah to experience God’s presence in a way he had never experienced Him before.
What God does at this point is give the physical, and perhaps even expected manifestations of His being on earth: wind, earthquake and fire.
But the Lord was not in those.
This time it was different because…
10. The Lord desires to speak to quieted hearts.
ILL Listen
Before refrigerators, people used ice houses to preserve their food. Ice houses had thick walls, no windows, and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the ice houses, and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer.
One man lost a valuable watch while working in an ice house. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn’t find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too, proved futile. A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the ice house during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch.
Amazed, the men asked him how he found it.
"I closed the door," the boy replied, "lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking."
Often the question is not whether God is speaking, but whether we are being still enough, and quiet enough, to hear.
Phillip Gunter in Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker), from the editors of Leadership.
Finally, through all Elijah has been through, he is quiet enough to listen.
God really has his attention.
And though God graciously allows him to complain one more time, Elijah’s perspective has changed.
He is ready to hear what God has to say in response.
And here is what he learned…
11. Until we die, we have purpose.
God gives Elijah a new assignment.
He still has prophet work to do.
He has people to anoint.
Then God clues him on this important truth: “You are not as alone as you think.”
There were thousands of people that had remained faithful to Him.
“You are not alone, Elijah; you are not alone.”
APPLICATION:
Well, what do we need to learn and apply from today’s passage.
First…
12. GOD SPEAKS, EVEN IN OUR DARKEST MOMENTS.
What we need to remember in all of this is not whether God is speaking, but whether we will be quiet enough to listen?
We live in a world that is full of noise and clutter, much more than Elijah had.
We are constantly inundated with matters that are not spiritual.
So, we need to learn new disciplines.
We need to be still and know that God is God.
You see…
13. When we are most inclined to look down, that is the time we must look up.
When we can’t get our eyes off of our circumstances, we need to deliberately move our eyes away from them and get the perspective we need.
I must admit, I have been getting some wonderful words of encouragement through this process.
Here is what was printed on one card I received last week:
ILL God
When you are the neediest, He is the most sufficient.
When you are completely helpless, He is the most helpful.
When you feel totally dependent, He is absolutely dependable.
When you are the weakest, He is the most able.
When you are the most alone, He is intimately present.
When you feel you are the least, He is the greatest.
When you feel the most useless, He is preparing you.
When it is the darkest, He is the only Light you need.
When you feel the least secure, He is your Rock and fortress.
When you are the most humble, He is most gracious.
I have been finding out over and over through this dark time that I have been experiencing that God is always looking out for us, even if it does not initially seem that way.
He uses every circumstance, including the painful and exhausting experieinces, to grow us.
He is, in every way, worthy of our trust.
Nevertheless, the beauty of all this, is that…
14. God would not have us go it alone.
For Elijah, God gives Elisha.
There was more work for him to do and He sends him off to do discipleship.
Elijah has to train his replacement.
ILL Community
Businessman and author, Max DePree, tells this story:
Esther, my wife, and I have a granddaughter named Zoe, the Greek word for life. She was born prematurely and weighed one pound, seven ounces, so small that my wedding ring could slide up her arm to her shoulder. The neonatologist who first examined her told us that she had a five to ten percent chance of living three days. When Esther and I scrubbed up for our first visit and saw Zoe in her isolette in the neonatal intensive care unit, she had two IVs in her navel, one in her foot, a monitor on each side of her chest, and a respirator tube and a feeding tube in her mouth.
To complicate matters, Zoe’s biological father had jumped ship the month before Zoe was born. Realizing this, a wise and caring nurse named Ruth gave me my instructions.
"For the next several months, at least, you’re the surrogate father. I want you to come to the hospital every day to visit Zoe, and when you come, I want you to rub her body and her legs and arms with the tip of your finger. While you’re caressing her, you should tell her over and over how much you love her, because she has to be able to connect your voice to your touch."
God knew that we also needed both his voice and his touch. So he gave us not only the Word but also his Son. And he gave us not only Jesus Christ but also his body, the church where we become God’s voice and touch to say, "I love you."
Ed Rotz in Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker), from the editors of Leadership.
When you are depressed, it is hard to not think the worst.
It is, in part, what characterizes the experience, and it is both, I believe, a physical and spiritual matter.
It is both.
This is why saying, “Snap out of it does not work.”
It is bigger than that – much bigger.
But here is what I must tell you, I have been shocked by how many of you have been saying to me and to the family, “I love you.”
When you are depressed, you believe you are going to lose everything.
Instead, we have found that the Lord is alive and well in this place, offering a hedge of protection, words of encouragement and an opportunity to heal.
For this, I am most grateful to you for truly being the body of Christ.
BENEDICTION:
As last week, I will be available for prayer after the service is finished up here on the platform. If you have any kind of spiritual or physical need, I would be happy to pray with you.
Now may the God of peace equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
RESOURCES:
Sermoncentral
Decker, Paul Showdown
Harlow, Dale Man Enough to Stand Alone
Morris, William It’s Show Time
Files
Carlisle, Paul A Look at Pastoral Depression www.pastors.com/article.asp?ArtID=1677&printerfriendly=1, 13 Nov 06
Croucher, Rowland Stress and Burnout in Ministry www.churchlink.com.au/churchlink/forum/r_croucher/stress_burnout.html, 13 Nov 06
Goodall, Wayde I and E. Glenn Wagner Coming Out of the Dark: Two Pastors’ Journey Out of Depression www.ag.org/enrichmentjournal/200603/200603_040_journey_pastors.cfm, 13 Nov 06
Books
Swindoll, Charles R. Elijah: A Man of Heroism and Humility. Great Lives from God’s Word, vol. 5. Nashville: Word Publishing, 2000.
Wiseman, D. J. 1 & 2 Kings. 24 vols. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, ed. D. J. Wiseman, vol. 9. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
