Refreshment for the Weary

Welcome to Living in the Light with Bible teacher Anne Graham Lotz in today's message from The Life of Elijah. The world is attracted to the light, not just more darkness.

So how are you trying to attract the world? In this week's Living in the Light, Anne turns our attention to Elijah in 1 Kings chapter 18. Elijah is feeling the pressure of a people who can't make up their minds who to follow, a pressure you may be sensing in your own life.

Here's Anne with today's message. In verse 21, he went before the people and he said, How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal is God, follow him.

But the people said nothing. Then he had to confront the religious leaders. He's still trying to reach the people, by the way, but he can't wake them up. So he's trying now to reach the religious leaders. In this confrontation with the religious leaders, he's after the hearts of the people. And the way he goes after them is so interesting to me. He draws a sharp contrast between himself and these hypocritical, counterfeit religious leaders, these frauds. They're religious frauds, these priests of Baal and priests of Asheroth.

They're not worshiping anything but rocks and stones, but they hold enormous emotional control over the people. So Elijah's going to draw a contrast and I want to apply this in two different ways. One, just within the church, because I think sometimes when we're trying to attract people and get them to come into the church and we want them to be saved and there I use this term, and I'm not really against seeker-friendly churches, but to be seeker-friendly, to be so much like the world and to attract them by being what's around them all day every day anyway? Where is the contrast? That I don't believe that we attract the world by trying to be like the world. We attract the world by drawing a contrast. The world is attracted to the light, not just more darkness.

So how are you trying to attract the world? And the second way I'd like to apply this is that I think personally God can help us in this when he allows suffering to come into our lives. And the Apostle Peter said that don't be surprised when this fiery trial comes because it's come that your faith would be revealed. Because you know something, when everything's going well in your life and you talk about Jesus and you witness for Jesus and you're always praising Jesus and nobody pays any attention because anybody can do that. It's when your kids are rebelling and it's when people are talking about you behind your back and you've just run out of the money in the bank and maybe you've gotten fired and your health has deteriorated and you're praising Jesus and telling people about Jesus then you know something?

The world sits up and takes notice. They want your Jesus. And it's the difference that they see in your life that attracts them to him.

And sometimes they don't see the difference until we're in a hard place. It's the contrast of the suffering in our lives with the way we handle it that displays the glory of Jesus and causes other people to see his beauty in our lives. So Elijah's going to draw a contrast and what he does, he tells these religious frauds we're going to have a contest. And you build an altar, I'll build an altar, okay? And you slaughter a bull in many little pieces and put it on top of the altar and the wood on the altar and, okay, and I'll do the same.

He did. And then you're going to call on your gods and I'll call on my gods. And the first god who sends down the fire will be God, except that I'm going to let you go first. So the prophets agreed and they built their altar and they put the wood on the top and they cut up the bull and put it on top and then they began to call on Baal. And they called on him and they called on him and about noon, still calling on him, so Elijah, he must have been a character, you know, but he started mocking them and maybe he's hard of hearing, maybe he's taking a vacation, maybe he's indisposed, you know, call a little bit louder. So they started to dance. Then they started to slash themselves going into this frenzy. And finally, they were so exhausted, they collapsed in a heap because their god is not God.

It was just a bunch of rituals, traditions, ceremonies, just an institution, organization that enabled them to keep hold of those people, all the things about religion that everybody hates. And so they're collapsed in a heap and Elijah says, okay, are you finished? And they're finished. And he said, now it's my turn. And he rebuilds the altar, puts the wood on the top, chops up the bull, puts it on top and then he does something so interesting. He tells the people to get some water.

He has them dig a trench around the altar. Then he says, get some water and pour it on the bull over the wood so it goes down the rocks and goes into the trench. So they did. And he said, now do it again. And they did. And he said, now do it again.

And they did. Until the water filled the trench around that altar. And what was Elijah doing? Elijah was making it very clear that if that bull was even singed, it was because God had done it. He was just drawing such a contrast that everybody would see the glory of God when the fire came down. What's the water on your altar? So people can see the glory of God.

So stop complaining about the things you don't have or you know the inadequacies or whatever. God puts his glory in clay pots, doesn't he? So they go through this confrontation. And Elijah, let me read you what he says because I want to put it in his words. Verse 36. At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and he prayed, O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord. Answer me. So these people will know that you, O Lord, are God.

That you're turning their hearts back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the soil and licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, the Lord, he is God.

The Lord, he is God. And there's tremendous victory. He had confronted the political leaders, the religious leaders, the people and they had all seen when he drew the contrast that our God is God and God received all the glory.

And then Elijah got the people together and they slaughtered all those priests, just such a gory end to it, but they had to be eradicated to free up these people so that they could serve the living God. Tremendous victory. And I didn't make that as a pressure point, but sometimes it is, isn't it? And I'll just tell you this, watch out when you've had tremendous victory. Because after victory, almost always comes a battle. So Elijah tells Ahab in verse 41, go get something to eat. Ahab, I'm assuming, did and Elijah went up on Mount Carmel and here we see the eighth pressure point, which is separation because Elijah, everybody else, I don't know if they're in a victory celebration, if they're praising God, what they're doing, I know Ahab is eating and Elijah is fasting. He's going without so that he can make time to pray because his work's not finished. There are times when you have to separate from everybody else. And everybody else maybe has gone out to dinner, everybody else went to get pizza, everybody else went shopping, everybody else is meeting for golf, everybody else is, you know, whatever they do. And you have to get along.

Fasting is not just going without food, it's going without anything and everything to make the time to get along with God and pray. That kind of separation. While everybody else, people that you love or want to be with or you want to enjoy, you want to relax but you can't because your work isn't finished. Elijah had called down the fire but the rains hadn't come. And so he hasn't finished work and he has to separate in order to do it.

Ninth pressure point, I put the termination or exertion. Verse 43, seven times he told the servant to go back and look for a cloud. And I just felt like Elijah was praying and nothing happened. Praying and nothing happened.

Praying and nothing. And he was pushing himself to the limits of his faith. And just with such intensity and fervency, praying that God would open up the heavens and send the rain.

And just to push yourself to the limits. Like after you've just had a confrontation like with a priest of Baal, and after all the things that Elijah's done, then to have your faith pushed to the limits, that's a pressure, isn't it? Praying and praying and praying and finally, the servant came back and said, I see a cloud the size of a man's hand. And Elijah says, that's it.

Run, the rains are coming. So they take off and the tenth pressure point is in verse 46. The power of the Lord came upon Elijah and tucking his cloak in his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. Seventeen miles he ran. So the pressure point is exhaustion. Even if he's running in the strength of the Lord, he's still tired. Are you physically exhausted? And you may also be running in the strength of the Lord. But we're still little dust people and we still have our human frailties.

And we get tired. And he was exhausted. Eleventh pressure point, persecution. Nineteen one, now Ahab told Jezebel everything. Such a little snitch. What a little tattle tale. He is the most miserable person but he has power. He's the king and he's gossiping. Telling Jezebel, who's gossiping about you? Telling tales behind your back. And it would be bad enough except the person has power and influence and people believe what he says.

And of course what Ahab was saying was true. He told her that he had killed all the prophets with his sword so Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, may the gods deal with me be it ever so severely if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like you did the prophets. Somebody threatened you? Somebody threatened to fire you?

Somebody rejected you? Maybe it's your entire church. Did they remove you from the church? My husband and I at one point were removed from a church. They say that's one of the three top pressure points in your life. Your house burned down and a suicide in your family and being removed from a church. Have you had that experience?

Someone rejected you because you did the right thing. That's pressure. And that leads to the twelfth point, depression. Verse three, Elijah was afraid. I mean he could stand up to all those priests of Baal, stand up to Ahab but this one angry woman did him in and it's because he had been set up. Twelve points. It wasn't just one.

All of these things compressed over a period of time. The stress that was day after day after day, three and a half years, he was afraid and he ran for his life and he came to a broom tree and he sat down under it and prayed that he might die. I've had enough, Lord, he said. Take my life.

I'm no better than my ancestors. And he lay down and went to sleep. Depression. Somebody here, depressed. And I pray nobody here is suicidal. But if you wanted to quit, just hang it all up.

People seem to be looking at you blankly anyway. Very stressful. So many things happening, you feel oppressed in your spirit.

So many priests of Baal out there. Remember when within 18 month period in my life I had pressure after pressure after pressure. My three children got married within eight months of each other and so suddenly I had an empty nest. Four weeks before my son got married he was diagnosed with major cancer, went through surgery, follow up radiation.

My mother had five life threatening hospitalizations within a ten month period and I'd come up here, spend the night in the hospital, take care of her, rush back. My husband's dental office burned to the ground. Hurricane hit our state, devastated our property. We lost 102 trees just around our house. Took us a year to dig out.

And stress and pressure. And I cried out to God. And I said, you know, I don't want to quit.

I was in ministry, I was traveling and writing and speaking. I said, I really don't want to quit. I don't want to escape through taking drugs.

I want a doctor to offer me some things to give me tranquility and put me to sleep at night and all that kind of stuff. I don't want to drink alcohol. I don't want to escape that way.

And I don't want a vacation where you go away physically rested but you come back, hit the same circumstances and go right back into it. And I'm not even asking you for a miracle. God, the cry of my heart. Just give me Jesus.

I want a fresh touch from heaven. And that's what God did for Elijah. So he was set up for burnout.

But then he got up from burnout by three things that I see. One, he needed to feel the love of God. And God expressed his love to him through physical refreshment. In verse 5, when he lay down under the tree and fell asleep, all at once an angel touched him and said, get up and eat.

And he looked around and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. Just physical refreshment. Sometimes we make our problems just too spiritual, don't we?

What we need is something good to eat and a good night's sleep. And then he needed spiritual refreshment. He needed a fresh touch. In verse 7, the angel of the Lord.

My understanding is that's the pre-incarnate Son of God. Jesus coming down out of heaven to touch his weary prophet. And he came back a second time and he touched him. Fresh touch from heaven and he said, get up and eat.

For the journey is too much for you. Jesus didn't say it's your fault if you had done this and this and this. It was just like Jesus put his arms around him and said, you know Elijah, I understand.

This is too much for you. And I pray Jesus will do that for you. That he will just wrap his arms of love around you and that you'll have a fresh touch from heaven. And you'll know he's not blaming you, he doesn't find fault with you. He knows that we are frail human flesh. A bruised reed, he doesn't break.

Smoking flax, he doesn't quench. He's so tender with his pooped prophets. And physically refreshed and spiritually refreshed. He needed to feel the love of God. Secondly, he needed to hear the voice of God. And the strength of that food, he traveled 40 days and nights to Horeb and he went into a cave and the word of God came to him. And the word of God did three things. It's evaluated him, verse 9. The word of the Lord came to him and said, what are you doing here Elijah?

I've been reading the Mount of Prophets and God has said in Haggai, and consider your ways. Just take stock of yourself. Evaluate yourself. How did you get here?

What were the pressure points that brought you to burnout? Hebrews 4-12 says, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even the dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.

It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. There's nothing like the word of God as you take it and you take it into your heart and you listen to what God has to say to just let him help you evaluate your spiritual condition. And then look at Elijah's reply. He says, I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.

The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars and put your prophets to death. I'm the only one that's left and when he says I'm zealous, do you see how much he cares? Elijah ministers from the heart. He cares about the people. He cares about God's name. He wants to bring God glory. I mean, he's all out there. He's just abandoned to God. And that's one reason he's set up for burnout.

If he didn't care, it wouldn't make such a difference. But he just says, I've done it all and now they're trying to kill me. And the Lord says, go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord for the Lord is about to pass by. Would you underline that verse? That's the verse I put your date beside.

That's God's word to you. Go out and stand on this mountain. You're going to be here in the presence of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is about to pass by to give you a fresh touch.

Open up your ears to listen. Elijah needed to hear the voice of God and it gave him a revelation in verse 11 And a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earthquake but the Lord wasn't in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire but the Lord wasn't in the fire and after the fire came a gentle whisper. It's the voice of God. Not the thunder of Mount Sinai or the ear-splitting word in the Genesis chapter 1 or just the gentle whisper in his spirit. Revelation of God. He speaks to us through the word. And Elijah got up. I don't exactly know why he pulled his cloak over his face.

Maybe it's sort of like going back to bed and pulling the covers up over your head. Or maybe he's just afraid to look at God and he knows God is speaking to him. I've felt that sometimes when God speaks to him. He's like very overwhelmed with his presence. He goes out and he stands at the mouth of the cave and the Lord said to him again What are you doing here Elijah?

Second time. And Elijah replied exactly the same way. I've been zealous for you. The Israelites have rejected your covenant. Broken down your altars. Put your prophets to death. I'm the only one left.

Now they're trying to kill me too. And so to me it just seems like he was just stuck in his burnouts. Instead of getting up from it.

He was planted in it like quicksand or like concretes. So God does one more thing for him. He tells him down in verse 18 just giving an affirmation for his ministry encouragement. I reserve seven thousand in Israel all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.

Elijah you're not the only one. Just to encourage this prophet. And through the word God gave him an evaluation and a revelation, an affirmation.

Just that encouragement. And Elijah heard the voice of God and then he needed to know the will of God. He needed to know God's purpose for the rest of his life.

I don't think he needed to be recalled. Called back into ministry and so in verse 15 the Lord said to him Go back the way you came. I've got work for you to do Elijah. And I believe God will say that to you. We want you to rest, be refreshed, feel the fresh touch, know the love of God, hear his voice.

But you know there's going to come a time when we go back down the mountain. He still has work for you to do. And he says I want you to anoint Hazael king over Aram and Jehu over Israel and anoint Elijah. You're not going to be alone anymore Elijah.

I'm going to give you an aid and he'll be your successor. And God recalled him to ministry and look at Elijah verse 19. So Elijah went. He recommitted himself to serving God. He got up out of that depression, in that place of burnouts. And he continued for the rest of his life until God just took him up to heaven. So let me ask you, what are you doing here? Have you been set up for burnouts? Which one of these pressure points have you experienced? I pray nobody here has all twelve.

But do you have one or two or a combination or maybe you can make your own list. Elijah had oppression, isolation, deprivation, transition or relocation, compassion, opposition, confrontation, separation, determination or that exertion in prayer, exhaustion, rejection or persecution leading to depression. So would you ask God, if you're being set up for burnouts, then would you ask God to get you up from it? Ask him to give you a fresh touch from heaven that you might feel his love and his arms wrapped around you, drawing you close to him. And would you ask God to speak to you through his words so when the messages are given out and you would open your ears, listen for the still gentle whisper of the Spirit in your heart. And then would you ask God to reveal to you at least the next step, maybe not his purpose for the rest of your life, but the next step when you go down the mountain, that you would be recalled and recommitted to serve the Lord until our faith becomes sight.

Now here's Anne with this final word. What are your pressure points? In what way are you serving God inside or outside of your home? Are you so emotionally spent, so spiritually depleted, so physically tired that you feel you can't continue in serving for one more moment?

Even now, are you in danger of burning out? Elijah is referred to more often in the New Testament than any other Old Testament prophet, and he appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Malachi prophesied that Elijah would thunder onto the world scene immediately preceding the coming of Jesus Christ. Without question, Elijah was one of the greatest of the prophets, yet as you've heard in today's message, at one point in his service, he suffered from burnout. Listen to me. Ask God to open your heart to receive his solutions. Open your heart. Make yourself available to be recalled and recommitted in service. Don't burn out. Burn on.