Next Mountain [Part 2]

Alan Wright, pastor, Bible teacher, and author of his latest book, The Power to Bless. God has put within us authentic hope because He has grace for us.

And so our minds have to think not just in the reality of the circumstances, but our minds have to think according to the reality of God in His Word and His grace. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Second Wind as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now, a copy of Pastor Alan's book, Lover of My Soul. This can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org. That's pastoralan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. The mind that gets depressed, it gets really focused on the part that's the detour part. It gets focused on the part that's off the main road. It gets focused on the part that feels hard so that in the end, the world to the depressed person looks like half the sign is gone and you can't see the arrow anymore. It feels like there's no point anymore.

That's what Elijah was feeling. Beloved, in 2019, 2019, there were one out of 10 people who reported that they were either depressed or anxious. In 2020, our pandemic year, four out of 10. That's why I'm pausing here. Nearly half of all people during pandemic reported that they were either depressed and or anxious. It's so interesting.

I want to talk about something. It is interesting that we experience life as it comes at us and we see what's happening and we see the challenges. And in one sense, the most real thing is look how hard it is and look at the pandemic, right? Look at the possibilities. There could be another, there could be another virus next year. There could be another, all of these things. There could be a worse virus, all those things in a sense that is true. But see, when we're healthy mentally, we're not thinking about that.

We're living instead with a sense of faith that we will be able to endure and hope that things will be better. It's interesting. They've done studies to see do depressed people or mentally healthy people, how do they perceive reality? In a 1970s study, participants were given a button and a green light and they were told that to some extent the way and number of times that they pushed the button would determine whether the green light came on. So they're pushing this button and then the green light's coming on. Later, they quizzed the participants and asked, how much did you feel like you were controlling the green light coming on? And what they found was interesting. Depressed participants were actually much more accurate and realistic about the amount of influence that they had. Whereas people who were mentally healthy tended to be more, exaggerate how much influence they had.

Here's another one that might even be clear. Another study, researchers had participants play a video game. And in the video game, you shoot these little monsters that are coming down the screen. And afterwards, they asked the participants, both a depressed group and those that were mentally healthy, and they asked them, what percentage, I mean, how many monsters did you kill in the game? And it was very interesting. The ones that were suffering with depression thought that they'd killed a few of them, which was about accurate.

But the ones who weren't depressed or mentally healthy thought that they'd killed 15 to 20 more times monsters than they actually had. What in the world's the point that I'm trying to make with this? It's strange. I'm talking about something that in one sense is hard to wrap your mind around. It's a paradox in a sense. It is to say that on something like just being realistic about how much influence they had or how well they did on a little video game, people who were suffering with some form of depression in one sense were more accurate to that reality.

What does that say? It says that something happens in the brain when we get focused even on what is the real possibilities of negative things. What happens is that we can be experiencing the detour in life and we can go, yeah, that is real.

I mean, on one sense, you're in a traffic jam, you're off the road, things don't look as good. And if that's what you think about, which is a real thing, it can become very depressing. But what happens when we're healthy mentally is that we have what the Bible calls faith. I mean, God made us to live like this. He made us to live with a sense that, yeah, we know about the harsh realities. And I know that this pandemic's been terrible and I know that people suffer and I've experienced, I've seen it firsthand and I know how bad it is and I know there could be other viruses and all that, but that's not the way I'm thinking about life. And it's not that it's pie in the sky, it's that God has put within us authentic hope because He has grace for us. And so our minds have to think not just in the reality of the circumstances, but our minds have to think according to the reality of God in His word and His grace.

Let me say a little bit more about this. I won't spend much longer on this because I want to draw some important conclusions from Elijah's story and see how it is that he gets healed. But let me just say this a little bit more about depression because again, nearly half of all people during pandemic have said they're either depressed or anxious. So it's worth taking a moment on this.

And if it's not you, then you know somebody. And a couple of problems here with depression that psychologists have taught us about that I want to highlight just real quickly. And the first and all these you see in Elijah, the first is a focus on the negative. Psychologists call it selective abstraction. And selective abstraction is to focus on a single negative event or condition to the exclusion of others.

It is possible that you can have a Mount Carmel and then you have a Jezebel and you just get focused on Jezebel as if you've forgotten all the other. The negative becomes the focal point of life. It becomes so central that the positive isn't even acknowledged. It can happen in our relationships.

It can be focused just on something negative. And the people of God, they have this happen over and over in the story of the scripture. There'll be a Red Sea that parts and then they get just so focused on the fact that Pharaoh's armies after them again that it's as if they've forgotten that. If there ever was a time that Elijah needed to say to himself and to his servant, we're tired and Jezebel might be formidable, but let's talk about what God did at Mount Carmel. Let's talk about the bigger scope of what we've seen God do. Let's see the miracles. Let's talk about them. Let's remember them.

Let's give them thanks. But the mind that's focused on the negative, it struggles to get there. Here's a second thing that often contributes to depression. It's this all or none mentality. Psychologists call it dichotomous thinking. This is the thing.

It's like they see commonly hospitalized patients. It's like, well, you know, if so and so doesn't come and visit me today, then it just means he doesn't love me. Or if we had a marital fight, then we just must not be made for each other.

So we might as well call it quit. Or a student who says, I failed the test in the chemistry class, so I might as well drop out because I've just done it. So if somebody struggles with dichotomous thinking and they start a new job, they might go, oh, it's fantastic, it's wonderful, everything is going great.

And then they make a mistake and they get some criticism from the boss and they just go to the other extreme, oh, it's a dead end job, it's terrible, I hate it. That's not — in reality what God does is He takes us through mountains and valleys and difficult times and by His grace we keep moving on and it's not all or none. It is Elijah, you've had a mountaintop and now you've got a Jezebel and just because you've got a Jezebel, that doesn't mean you're doomed. It doesn't mean that just because you had the biggest victory of your life that now one more means that you might as well give up because you're never going to win. That's not what it means. You see, it's not all or none thinking. And let me mention one third — a third way that it contributes to our depression and that's exaggerated, negative thinking about possibilities. It's doomed type thinking. The psychologists call it catastrophic thinking. It exaggerates the possible consequences of an event. It is like, OK, my knee hurts, I might have to go into a wheelchair, I might not be able to work, I won't be able to pay my bills, we'll have to go bankrupt, I'll end up living on the street. Or a woman who calls her husband, he doesn't answer, she calls again and doesn't answer, she thinks about the fact that he's been a little bit odd later and then she thinks he's having an affair and soon that's all she can think about.

Well, it was none of that. So there are many other things that can be said about this, but I think that you see what's happening inside the mind of this great man of God, Elijah, and he's just flat out depressed. And what does God do? What does God do when we've had a mountaintop and now we're on something that looks different than the way we thought, the arrow doesn't seem straight anymore and now there's a Jezebel after us and we thought it was over and the finish line seemed like it got moved, we thought we'd had the big victory to end all victories and now we've got another battle to fight. What does God do?

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. God's love. You've heard about it with your ears.

You've believed it in your mind. Now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you, and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like. For any woman who has searched for true love, what you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of the five love languages says, the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal, enjoy His embrace, revel in His love.

After all, it's a match made in heaven. It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Today is the final day we're offering this special product. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. If you misunderstood God, you might think He would come with judgment and speak against the prophet. You might bully Him back into His senses, but you know what? That never works with a depressed person. He doesn't say you ought not feel that way.

That doesn't work either. And God doesn't come and lecture Him. He doesn't even come and just quote Bible verses to Him. Here's what happened at verse five. Behold, an angel touched Him and said to Him, Arise and eat. He touched Him. The power of the presence of God.

The power of a loving touch. We have been so isolated for so long. And now that we've got more freedom and the numbers seem to be going in the right direction in our area of the country and I was with a men's group this week and I was just shaking hands. I just feel so good. Just people shaking hands.

Just touch. We're made for that. Don't be surprised that the devil has just been feasting on all this isolation. I'm not condemning the practices of being careful about our eyes. I'm just saying it has been the delight of hell to have us be apart from one another.

We need connection. This is a God who when we're at our lowest comes near and He touches. You might would hope that what He does is comes and removes Jezebel. Sometimes He does, but not in this instance.

He doesn't remove Paul's thorn. He doesn't just always make the bad feeling go away. He's not like a bottle of alcohol.

He's not like a drug. He's not there just to mask over. He is there to be present so you can relate to the living God. He touches Him. The healing journey begins with the promise of Him being with you. And then He says, the angel says to Elijah, arise and eat.

Get up and eat. It was a command and as my mentor Dudley Hall has taught me inside every command is a promise. Because if God tells someone with a disability in their wrist and hand to stretch forth their hand, then what He's saying is that there's a promise of healing in the command. And if the angel says take nourishment, there must be something worth living for or else there's no reason to eat. Feed, take nourishment.

Maybe God's got a word for just someone right now. Take nourishment from the word of God. Receive. Let your soul, maybe you're one who's always giving and you've been through so much and maybe the angel of the Lord is just saying to you, arise and eat. Take on some spiritual food. Take on some real nourishment physically, mentally, spiritually. Feed your mind, feed your body, feed your soul. Arise and eat. And verse 6 and 7, He looked and behold there was at His head a cake baked on hot stones, a jar of water. It almost sounds like communion doesn't it? And He ate and drank and He lay down again.

He was nourished but He's still depressed. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched Him. Don't you love the persistence of God? Such a sweet, persistent God who pursues a prophet that doesn't have the energy to pursue God.

The second touch. And then verse 7, here comes the healing power. Verse 7, the angel of the Lord came again a second time, touched Him and said, arise and eat for the journey is too great for you. And there in that strange statement is the very power of the gospel. Energy in our lives comes from hope and hope comes from a positive vision of a blessed future. And so if we don't get a word about a great journey in front of us, then there'll be no hope.

And if there's no hope, there is no energy. And so the angel is essentially saying, God's not finished with you yet. This journey is continuing. I always laugh at the old story of a seminarian who would go around telling all the other fellow students, I will go far in the ministry. And they would hear him say, I'll go far in the ministry.

I'll go far in the ministry. And it just sounded arrogant. And finally, another student said, why do you say that?

Do you really believe God's got some kind of special purpose for you or you're just plain arrogant? And the students said, I don't know. I'm just telling you what all my professors say. They always tell me you got a long way to go. If someone says you got a long way to go, it can mean you're going to go a long way.

And Elijah, verse eight, arose, ate and drank and went in the strength of that food for 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mount of God. He's going from Mount Carmel, but there's a next mountain for him to climb. And I think that's a word of the Lord as we are learning from a pandemic. There's another mountain in front of you. Your soul might feel a little weary, but take this away from it.

Number one, to say you have a long way to go is to say that you will go far. Elijah isn't through with God and God isn't through with Elijah. There'll still be a still small voice on Mount Horeb in a cave. There'll be intimacy with God that he's never known. There'll be the passing of the mantle, the prophetic mantle to a man, Elisha, that will do twice as many miracles as Elijah. He is leaving a legacy. He's passing on his anointing.

There will be a whirlwind and an ascension, and then there will be a transfiguration. Elijah is not finished and God is not finished with him. And so to say, arise and eat for the journey is too great for you is to say, yes, there is a big journey in front of you and that's why you're going to need God. And I think the other thing I take from this and I want to leave with you is that when you have been on a journey and you have had some mountain top experiences and maybe you get on the other side and you feel a little exhausted by it, and then here comes the Jezebel after you and you just feel like giving up. Remember this, you aren't in a worse place, you're in a better place. You're in a better place for what you've experienced. Remember everything that we've learned about perseverance, that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character produces hope. If you've been through some things, some mountain tops and some valleys, if you've arrived at this place and maybe you're not yet where you want to be, maybe you thought you'd be further down the road, maybe you've hit the construction site, maybe traffic is just inching along, maybe you're seeing a little detour sign, maybe all of that is leaving you very frustrated, but I invite you to remember what has God done in your life to this point? If you look at your life, I'm sure that you look at it, you would realize you have learned along the way even from your worst mistakes that has positioned you now into a better place for the next mountain than you've ever been before.

You're not further behind, it just feels that way sometimes. And here's the third thing to say we learned from this story, you aren't limited by your own energy. The battle belongs to the Lord. God's Holy Spirit is what really feeds Elijah.

He goes miraculously in the strength of a meal for 40 days and 40 nights. Just when you think that you might want to give up because it just feels like you'll never have energy again, I'm telling you, draw near unto the Lord. He draws near unto you and He's about to pour out His Holy Spirit into you for in our weakness His strength is perfected. When our lives feel like that they're empty, He comes and fills us. Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. This particular valley that you might face has served to make you hungry for God and so feed on Him and expect that when you feed on God what happens is supernatural. He is filling you so that you're going to move on. So Mount Carmel was fantastic and Elijah is the great prophet and then there's a valley and one woman's threat feels like too much.

It feels like the straw that breaks the camel's back and he wants to give up but God hasn't given up on him. Beloved, you can have a detour without being deterred. You can come through a valley and remember the valley is not a destination.

It's not a detour. It is a place you're traveling through because God's taking you to the next mountain and that's the gospel. Start with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. Gary Chapman, renowned author of the five love languages says, the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal and joy his embrace, revel in his love.

After all, it's a match made in heaven. It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. Today is the final day we're offering this special product. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. We're back now in the studio with Pastor Alan, our parting good news thought for the day, really putting the book in here, the conclusion to the series Second Wind and it's been a good one. I just think it's been so, so important to me, Daniel.

And I know it has been to many that I've spoken to that as we emerge from a very trying time, we've overused the word unprecedented, but we don't have another way to describe what we've been through in this season of history. And I'm so eager for Christians, especially for the body of Christ, to experience this joy that can come, this strength that can come simply for having persevered. And to have a second wind means that God has something great for the body of Christ. And so if He has something great for the body of Christ, I think there's a move of God and it's going to begin with us individually. So I'm blessing our listeners that you would be like Elijah and that you'd see that there's another mountain in front of you. There's another great destination, a great journey in front of you. And may God give you, as He did Elijah, a second wind. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.