“Dealing with Depression” | Sunday Message

Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. So we are wrapping up our Elijah series. We're in 1 Kings chapter 18, and the title of my message is Dealing with Depression. Okay, so I was walking up the stairs in my house with my Yeti cup. Do you know what a Yeti cup is?

One of those metal thermos cups filled with ice and water, and I was putting the finishing touches on my message titled Dealing with Depression. And my toe caught the top of my top stair, and I started to stumble forward. I was trying to regain my footing while keeping my Yeti cup aloft. I didn't want to spill it, right? And so I ran a couple steps, and then I lost my footing again and went face first into a built-in desk. I opened my eyes. There's blood on the floor. I won't give you too many details on that. First thing I checked, are my teeth here?

Yes, they are. But I face planted into this thing hard. My back really hurt. So we went down to the ER, and they said, oh yeah, you split everything open. I had a hole going from the inside of my mouth to the outside of my mouth. So they had to put five stitches on the inside of my mouth, which is a lot of fun. And then another stitch on the outside, and then I hit my nose as well, and then they did x-rays and all this because they wanted to make sure I was okay because my back hurt. And so they said, would you like to get in a wheelchair to go get your x-ray? I said, no, no, I can walk in this.

Bring that wheelchair back. Let's go. So the guy's pushing me along, really nice guy. He bends down. He says, I'm not supposed to say anything, but I'm a Christian, and I listen to you on the radio every day. So let me pray for you. So the whole time, he's praying for me. It's great.

God has his people everywhere, doesn't he? So I got up, and my face was all swollen, and it's still a little swollen in the inside here, but I'm getting better, so thank you for your prayers. So when I hit the ground, I called out to Kathy, I've fallen, and I can't get up. I made fun of that commercial, and it happened to me, and I needed help, and so we're now looking at the last message in this Elijah series, and in a sense, this is where Elijah falls, but he gets up again. We're gonna look at his fall and his recovery, and then of course his big event on Mount Carmel with fire coming down from heaven.

But before the fire felled, something else had to happen, bringing me to point number one if you're taking notes. If you wanna see God work, we must do our part. Again, if we want to see God work, we must do our part. 1 Kings 18, 30. Then Elijah said to all the people, come here to me. They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been torn down.

So we all immediately go right to the story of the fire coming from heaven, but don't miss this point. Before the fire fell, the altar had to be repaired, and I ask you this question. Does the altar of your life need to be repaired? What do I mean by that?

I mean, is there a hole in your foundation? Is there a problem in your spiritual life? You no longer read the scriptures every day as you once did. Prayer is no longer a part of your life as it once was. Your church attendance is erratic at best. Maybe your altar needs repair. We'll say things like, I want the fire of God to fall on me again, but maybe you need to first repair your altar. To the church of Ephesus who Jesus commended and then critiqued.

He said, you know, you guys, you're discerning, you're hardworking, that's great, but I have this against you. You have left your first love. Then he says, remember then from where you have fallen and repent and do the first works quickly. I called it the three R's of getting right with God. Remember, repent, repeat. First remember, was there a time in your life spiritually when you were closer to God than you are right now?

Was there a time where you were more passionate in your faith? So you start by remembering, then you repent, means change your behavior. You know, it's interesting because Jesus says, remember from where you have fallen. We don't think of leaving one's first love as a form of falling, but according to Jesus it is. Remember from where you have fallen and do the first works quickly or repeat. Get back and do those things again. As the apostle Paul said, get back, get back, get back to where you once belonged.

That was Paul McCartney, excuse me, but I knew it was some Paul who said it. It's sort of like a marriage. How many of you are married? Raise your hand. You're married, nice.

How many of you are happily married? Raise your hand. Not as many hands, that's interesting. No, there were. Everyone raise their hand this second time except this couple right here.

Not really. But, you know, if in your marriage you feel like you've lost the romance or that spark and you don't feel the love, you need to just get back and do the right things again. Just do loving things. Don't wait for the emotion of love.

Make the motion and the emotion will catch up. You know, we talk about the need in America for a spiritual awakening. And that's so true. Well, we need to do our part and God will do His part. So what's our part? 2 Chronicles 7, 14, the Lord says, If My people, which are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then the Lord promises, I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. We want the Lord to heal our land.

And doesn't America need to be healed right now? Every time you turn around, there's another one of these tragic shootings like what just happened in Texas and it happens constantly. Acts of violence with guns, with knives, with cars, with you name it, people use these weapons to destroy other people and everyone calls for all these new laws and restrictions. We need more gun control.

We need more self-control. I'll tell you what we really need. We need to get to the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.

Hearts need to change. What have we done? We've pushed God out of everything. Pushed God out of the classrooms. Get those Ten Commandments down from being posted in there. Don't you dare have a prayer before a class. Don't let the kids even pray on their own time. Stop that at all costs.

Don't even teach the Bible as literature. We don't want any of it. We don't want God in our culture, we say.

And then we're shocked when we sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. When we redefine what a man is, what a woman is, what a family is. And the reality is that family is the foundation of our nation. It's been said, a family can survive without a nation, but a nation cannot survive without the family. And you take any of these problems we're having today, 70 or 85% of those that have committed these acts of violence came from broken homes and specifically fatherless homes.

You don't tell me there's not cause and effect there. But when's the last time you heard some politician or anyone get up and say, we need to restore the family again. We need people to stay married and raise their children right and even more in the way of the Lord. You're not going to hear that. You'll just see more laws passed.

Nothing will change. Only God can change the heart. Let's do our part so we can say, amen, that's right. Start with your home. Do you need to repair your altar? Is your home the home it should be?

Men, are you being the spiritual leaders that God has called you to be? Make sure that happens. It starts with us. So back to our story.

They rebuilt the altar. Now the big contest is ready to happen. The shootout at the Carmel Corral.

The battle of the gods. Elijah's come out of hiding. He's hard to miss.

He's a very hairy dude. He chooses off bail. He says to King Ahab, let's have a shootout.

Let's have a contest. Whoever has the right God, let that God answer by fire. Amazingly, Ahab agrees to this agreement. Why? Because as I pointed out, hashtag sin makes you stupid.

And he never should have agreed to this because he was going to lose for sure. And so now Elijah says summon all the prophets of Baal. The 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Ashtoreth who are supported by Jezebel. So there stands Elijah. 850 to one. But we know who's going to win this one.

Now let's see what happens. 1 Kings 18, 27. About noontime Elijah began mocking them saying, you'll have to shout louder. He scoffed for surely he's a god. Maybe he's daydreaming or he's relieving himself.

Or maybe he's away on a trip or is asleep and needs to be wakened. So they shouted louder and following their normal custom they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out. They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice. But still there was no sound, no reply, no response.

We'll stop there. So Elijah's having a little fun at their expense. He mocks them and that's one of the reasons I like Elijah. He was a mocking prophet and I am a mocking preacher. And so he says, hey maybe you're god's asleep. Isn't it great to know god doesn't fall asleep? You ever fall asleep and then someone wakes you up and you deny you were sleeping?

Why do we deny it? You were sleeping. No I wasn't. You were.

Just admit it. Sometimes I get sleepy after I eat something heavy. And I ate this really thick chicken sandwich a while ago and I sat down on my desk and I closed my eyes. And I went into a food coma. And all of a sudden I opened my eyes about 10 minutes later and I literally didn't know where I was. Like where am I? What happened?

Do I need to go into some kind of rehab for this? I don't know. Isn't it great to know god doesn't go into food comas? God is never asleep at the wheel.

He's always paying careful attention to us and what is happening in our world. Psalm 121 4 says, he that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. 2 Chronicles 16 9, the eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. So god's not just awake. God is alert. God is aware. God is omniscient which means all knowing. God is omnipotent which means all powerful. God is omnipresent which means present everywhere. That means that he's watching you and me and us and others simultaneously. How does he do that?

I don't know but he does. He's god. Elijah also yells this and I have to draw attention to it. Maybe your god is daydreaming or is relieving himself.

Yes that's what it meant. Hey maybe your god is sitting on the toilet. He was really mocking them big time. And it says hey maybe you guys should yell louder. Just yell louder. And so they're yelling louder.

They're cutting themselves. And it's so clear that nothing is going to happen because their gods are not real. As that passage says that we already read there was no answer because there were no gods to give an answer.

So here's what was happening. The Lord was going to allow Israel to see the emptiness of their so-called gods so they would turn from those false gods and instead turn to him the true God. For most of us who have given our lives to Jesus Christ it probably was a little bit of process of elimination before we got there. In my book Len and Dylan, Alice and Jesus I talk about all these rock stars that had all this success and climbed to the very top and found out there was nothing there. And many of them came to Christ and I tell their stories. But first they had to come to the end of themselves. They had to see that their gods could not save them. So we make a god out of wealth or a god out of fame or a god out of success and then we get that thing we think will make us happy and it doesn't so we see the emptiness of our gods. The Lord did a similar thing with Egypt. The Egyptians worshiped many gods. They worshiped the Nile River as a god. They worshiped insects as gods. They worshiped frogs as gods. So the Lord said, are you guys like that? I'll give you more gods than you can shake a stick at. He sent a plague of insects. He turned the Nile River to blood. He sent a plague of frogs so they could see the emptiness of all of it and turn to the Lord. And that's the world in all of its glory. It's empty.

And it will leave you wanting more. You know Satan can take things and make them seem appealing but they're just dead on the inside. Sort of like the filters people use on Instagram. It's not real. I read about an Instagram influencer who was only 28 years old that tragically took her own life. In this article about her another influencer wrote these words and I agreed with them. Quote, social media does not bring happiness. It does not bring fulfillment.

It does not bring connection. End quote. Very true.

Yet 69% of adults and 81% of teens use social media. This influencer went on to say quote, it's really just smoke and mirrors. You're showing an edited part of your life that you want others to see. End quote. And that's true. Oh look at my happy life. Look how awesome everything is for me.

Smoke and mirrors, filters, special effects. It's not real and you know it's not real. And other people know it too by the way. So this is the thing that's happening here. The people of Israel are realizing their gods are false.

They're not real. Now it's God's turn. Okay you guys done? Man you made a mess of blood everywhere.

Get out of here. Let's mop this place up. And he says all right now we're gonna let the Lord answer. Let's cover the altar with water. By the way water was scarce.

Don't forget there had been a drought that lasted over three years. Douse the whole altar with water. Yeah do it again. Yeah let's do it one more time.

Why? Because he wanted everyone to realize that when this answer came it was not a trick. It was the Lord. And so everything was now set.

Bringing me to point number two. Our job is to pray. God's job is to answer. Our job is to pray.

God's job is to answer. So what are you facing right now? Do you have a problem?

Do you have a conflict? Do you have a need? Do you need God's provision? Do you need God's healing? Are you looking for a mate to spend the rest of your life with? Are you looking for employment?

Are you looking for something else? Have you prayed about it? You know the Bible says you have not because you ask not. And then Jesus said, Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find.

Knock and the door shall be opened. So there's your part. And there's God's part. Our job is to pray. God's job is to answer. 1 Kings 18, 36.

Look at that with me. At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, Lord the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and I am your servant and I've done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord. Answer me so these people will know that you, Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back again. I love the confidence that Elijah has in God.

No screaming, no yelling, no cutting, no anything. Lord, will you enter this prayer right now? So what happened then? Look at 1 Kings 18, 36.

Excuse me, 38. Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the soil, and then licked up the water in the trench. And when all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, The Lord is God, the Lord is God.

He is God, so hey, the people realize now that God was in control, but the Lord wasn't done. He wasn't gonna just bring fire from heaven in answer to the prayer of the prophet. He was now gonna bring back the rain again.

They'd been in a trot for over three years. And so Elijah says it's going to rain. The Lord revealed that to him, but yet there was not a single cloud in the sky. You know, weathermen get it wrong all the time, don't they? Well, no rain today and it rains. Or it's gonna be rainy today and it's sunny. The best way I've found to get rain is wash my car. By the way, bald men always know when it's raining first.

Think about it. I'll be out walking with my wife. I'll say, it's starting to rain. She says, no, it isn't.

But my wife's hair is so thick. No, it's raining. No, it isn't. Yes, it is, because I feel it on the dome, the weather dome here, see? But Elijah knew it was going to rain because the Lord revealed it to him, bringing me to point number three. God answers prayer the way he wants and when he wants.

God answers prayer the way he wants and when he wants. 1 Kings 18, 43. Go look toward the sea, Elijah says to his servant. He went up and looked.

There's nothing there. Do it again, do it again. Seven times his servant went. Then the seventh time he went and he said, well, there's a cloud as small as a man's hand rising from the sea, so Elijah said, you go tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot and get down before the rain stops you. See, he had insight. And when you are walking in faith, you will see things that other people do not see. You'll see an opportunity when someone else does not see it. You'll see the hand of the Lord leading you when someone else doesn't notice it.

The believer sees invisible things because faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen according to Hebrews 11.1. A storm was coming, Elijah knew it, no one else did. We as Christians know a storm is coming to the world because we're seeing Bible prophecies fulfilled before our very eyes. All these things that are happening in our world, people say, what's going on? It's crazy.

Yeah, it's crazy. It's signs of the times right in front of us to tell us to get ready. We know antichrist is coming. We know a tribulation period is coming. We know judgment is coming. But best of all, we know Jesus is coming.

That's our message. Jesus said in Matthew 16 three, you say today it will be stormy for the sky is red and overcast. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. So this is kind of a funny twist in the story. There's a lot of funny little things in the life of Elijah.

Not just him telling the false prophets that God's sitting on the toilet, but this too. So he says to Ahab, you better get back to the palace. Hurry, get in your chariot. Put your rain tires on. It's gonna be big rain.

There's no rain. Get in the chariot. So off Ahab goes. I'm amazed that Elijah even cares about King Ahab.

I want you to get home safely. And as the king is making his way back to the palace, the scripture tells us that Elijah passes him on foot. How fast do you have to run to beat a chariot pulled by horses? It's like Elijah has become Sonic the Hedgehog. What was that all about?

Amazing. And so when King Ahab gets home, he's gonna now give Queen Jezebel the news. First Kings 19, one. When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he killed all the prophets of Baal. So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah. May the God strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them, referring to the false prophets. And now this verse. Elijah was afraid and fled for his life.

So when Jezebel heard of what happened and how the prophets of Baal had been killed, she put a contract out on him. Hey, whack the hairy guy. His days are numbered.

I want you to do this in 24 hours. Why? Why this wickedness answer? Evil cannot tolerate righteousness. Have you ever noticed that the most intolerant people are the people that talk the most about tolerance? They say Christians are intolerant.

I think that's not true. I think Christians are very tolerant. You can think someone we don't agree with in any way will still show kindness to them, love to them, hear their point of view. Of course, we're gonna try to persuade them to believe what we believe from the scripture, but we're very tolerant in that regard.

That doesn't mean we endorse these things or agree with these things, but we're tolerant in as far as we're willing to engage in conversation, but other people are completely intolerant. Their view is not only can you not oppose my view, you can't even hold a view. I want to silence you. I want to counsel you. I don't even want you to have a voice in this conversation.

Why? Light cannot comprehend darkness. You know, we wonder why don't people come to Jesus Christ? Sometimes people will say, well, it's a science. I just can't resolve the science in the scripture. Another might say, well, there's contradictions in the Bible. You say, show me one.

I can't, but still, they're there. I know, I've heard it. Or someone else might say something, those hypocrites in the church, all the hypocrites, hypocrites. Here's the real reason people don't come to Jesus Christ according to Jesus. People do not come to the light lest their evil deeds be exposed. You see, it's not that they can't believe that Jesus was the Son of God.

It's that they don't want to follow Him because it may mean or it will mean that they have to turn from their sin and they don't want to do that. So Jezebel, so quick to threaten, is gonna face judgment herself. The Bible tells us that she was ultimately eaten by dogs and Elijah predicted this. I told this Bible story to a couple of my grandkids. They were really digging it. You know, fire from heaven, rain, all this cool stuff, and then dogs ate her. Papa, no!

Yeah, this is what happened, okay? Listen, sin will have its pound of flesh. Like Shylock and the merchant of Venice, he wanted his pound of flesh. Satan will get what he wants. He'll give you a few good times, a few pleasures, then payday's coming. And you're gonna pay up if you like it or not. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. Notice it's wages. You worked for it, now you're gonna get paid.

You don't want that payment at all. So Elijah hears this threat from Jezebel. You would think Elijah, the guy who called fire from heaven, the guy who raised a boy from the dead, a guy who stopped the rain, you're afraid of the threat of one woman?

Yes, he was. Why though, why? Simple answer, James 5.17. Because Elijah was as human as we are.

We put spiritual leaders on pedestals, Bible teachers, preachers, others. Oh, they're so spiritual. They never get down. They never get depressed like I do. Every day's great for them.

They're human just like you. And here's a man of God who got really down. 1 Kings 19.4. He went on alone into the wilderness traveling all day, sat down under a solitary broom tree, and prayed he might die. And he said, Lord, I've had enough.

Take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors who have already died. By the way, Elijah was not the first man or woman of God to feel this way. Moses became so blue. He asked God to take his life. Jonah, after the great revival of Nineveh, said the same thing. Even the apostle Paul got so down, he said he despaired of life.

Again, Elijah was human as we are, and emotions can get the best of us. So let me wrap this message up with some ways to deal with depression. And when I say this, I want you to know that I believe there is something called clinical depression.

And you can go to your doctor and you can talk to him or her about that. I'm not talking about clinical depression. I'm talking about the kind of depression we all may face from time to time.

When we get down on the dumps, or down on the doldrums, or whatever it is. So here's some things you can take into your mind as you find depression closing in on you. Number one, times of depression and vulnerability often come after great victories. Times of depression and vulnerability come after great victories. Don't forget Elijah just had the greatest victory of his life. In fact, everything in his life had built to this moment. You know, he goes into the court of Ahab and says, as the Lord God lives, before whom I stand, there will not be rain, but according to my word, great entrance, the Lord calls him into obscurity, first sitting by a little brook called Cherith where the birds brought him food every day, and he drank from the brook, then the brook dried up. Then the Lord led Elijah over to some poor widow woman who cared for him, so he was off the grid. And then the Lord said, okay, you're ready.

And he goes and has this amazing moment on Mount Carmel, and now this threat comes and he goes into depression. Maybe Elijah was hoping that Ahab would come around spiritually. Maybe he even thought that Jezebel would believe, but it was the opposite.

Jezebel was angry and threatened Elijah's life, so he was down. So maybe you took a bold step of faith, bold step of faith for the Lord, to do something for his glory. And it went well, but immediately afterwards, you had the spiritual attack come. Your marriage was unraveling.

Your kids turned from Christ instead of to him. You feel like a failure as a parent or even as a Christian, and you find yourself slumping into depression. I have found this for myself, too, that times of depression can hit me after great victories. I take any crusade we've ever done, and we've had some great ones over the years. And I just know the next day I'm gonna be in the dumps.

It's just kind of this emotional thing. And so I anticipate it now. And I learned how to expect it by spending time around the greatest evangelist of all time, Billy Graham. So as he was wrapping his ministry up, I was just starting my crusade ministry.

He asked me to join him for his events, and I was helping him with sermon preparation, spent a lot of time around him, before, during, and after the crusade. So I think of one crusade in particular in Portland, Oregon. Now think Portland, Oregon. There's more dogs in that city than churches, okay?

So here we are in Portland, Oregon. The stadium is packed. Johnny Cash got up and sang. And then Billy got up and preached. And it was revival-like.

It was like electric. And after Billy was done, we came down from the stage, and he was walking ahead. We were a little bit behind him, and the ushers are kind of holding crowds of people back on both sides. And people are saying, Billy, Billy, we love you, we love you. And Billy's not like, hey, how's it going?

You know, he just kind of has his head down, kind of walking forward. Then we get in the car, and we're driving out. So I'm sitting shotgun next to T.W. Wilson, the longtime friend of Billy Graham who's driving.

In the backseat, Billy and his son, Franklin. So I turned around, facing Billy. I said, Billy, that was a great message tonight.

Amazing. And Billy looked at me with those steely blue eyes and said, it's just gospel. I turned back around. I know. I was trying to compliment him.

What was that all about? It's just gospel, okay? Then I thought of something else. I turned back around. I said, Billy, I loved your point when you said Christ can resensitize your conscience. And Billy said, well, he can. But I learned a lesson. Billy did not want to reflect on the glory of all of it.

He did not want to compliment. So we got back to the hotel, and someone had given us some roast beef sandwiches to eat. They were really good when they were made hours ago. Now they're cold. We get to the hotel. He invites us up to his room. Billy disappears for a few moments and reemerges in his pajamas and his dress shoes.

I think he left his slippers at home. And we sat around and ate cold roast beef sandwiches and just laughed and talked about all kinds of things. In fact, we talked about everything except that crusade. You said, that doesn't make sense to me.

It makes total sense to me. It's like, get back to normal. Don't focus on your emotions. Focus on God. Listen, you're not as good as people think you are, and you're not as bad as people think you are. You're God's servant.

Just do your job, give him the glory, and keep moving. That's it. But we become so focused on these things, you know.

Yes, but, but I feel so depressed. Yeah, well, you know, just press on. I read about a sign at the end of an airport runway that has these words inscribed on it. Quote, keep moving. If you stop, you are in danger, and a danger to those who are flying, end quote.

Right? You can't just keep parked your plane on the runway. We have other planes taking off and landing. Keep moving. And the same is true for each of us. But Elijah stopped moving. And he was paralyzed by fear, discouragement, and depression.

He was not thinking clearly. Bringing me to my next point about dealing with depression. When you are depressed, do not isolate. But surround yourself with friends.

When you are depressed, do not isolate, but surround yourself with friends. 1 Kings 19, four. Then he went on alone in the wilderness, traveling all day. Elijah should have had a trusted friend who could encourage him.

Often when we're down, we separate from people, and we should do the opposite. Even Jesus asked Peter, James, and John to sit with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Reason being, according to the scripture, his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Jesus didn't need a sermon.

You don't need to preach a sermon to Jesus. But he did need a little companionship. And that helps you. People give you perspective, you know.

They tell you the truth. But Elijah was all alone. I read that research reveals that three out of every five Americans feels lonely. Experts have long known that loneliness and isolation of long-ranging effects on the mind and body, ranging from anxiety and depression to vulnerability to illness. Yet, this research revealed one to two friendships can dramatically decrease loneliness. Point number three, don't ignore the practical when you're feeling down.

Don't ignore the practical when you're feeling down. Look at 1 Kings 19, verse four. Elijah sat down under a solitary broom tree, prayed that he might die. I've had enough, Lord. He said, take my life.

I'm no better than my ancestors who have already died. And he lay down and slept under the broom tree. And as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and said, get up and eat. He looked around, and there beside his head was some baked bread and hot stones and a jar of water.

So he ate and drank and sat down again. I love that. Sometimes you don't need a sermon, you need a sandwich. Does this make sense?

And we're looking for spiritual things. Lord, just fill me with the Spirit. Just eat something. And after you eat something, take a nap. And then when you wake up, don't deny you took a nap. It's okay. We give you permission to refresh. We give you permission to recharge, right?

And this was practical. The angel says, yeah, you know what? Here, eat this hot baked bread on stones and some cool water to refresh you right now. And then Elijah left that place, bringing me to point number four, my last point. When you're feeling down, you need perspective from God's Word. When you're feeling down, you need perspective from God's Word. 1 Kings 19, eight. He got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel 40 days and nights to Mount Sinai the mountain of God. There he came to a cave where he spent the night, and the Lord said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? When you're feeling down, you need to look up. And you need to listen to the right voices.

Elijah listened to the wrong voice, the voice and the threat of Jezebel. Are you listening to the wrong voice right now, the voices of social media, the voices of Twitter? Who are these people? Who cares what they think? You know, who is this person? Zero followers. Oh, bought anybody?

Come on, I'm down. Someone criticize me. Stop listening to those voices. Listen to the voice of God. You say, well, how do I hear God's voice?

Open this book. His voice will speak to you. He says, lo, in the volume of the book, I have come, listened to trusted Christian friends, listened to pastors, listened to those who have walked with the Lord for a while.

They'll help you get perspective. The Lord says, what are you doing here? So he's in a cave, and while he's in the cave, a big windstorm comes by blowing. The Bible says the Lord was not in the wind. Then there's fire, fire everywhere, but the Lord was not in the fire. Then there's an earthquake shaking everything.

It says the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after this, a still, small voice. And the Lord said, what are you doing here? So Johnny Cash had a similar experience. Johnny's career was blowing up, traveling all around the country, and he started taking amphetamines to keep them going. But he couldn't get to sleep at night, so he started using barbiturates. So the combination of these two drugs and his lifestyle began to take their effect on his life. He was pulling away from friends and family.

He felt useless, and he said, quote, I never wanted to see another Don. So Johnny Cash went to Nickajack Cave on the Tennessee River. It's a system of caves.

Some are larger than two to three football stadiums. People have lost their lives in these caves over the years because they go in, they become disoriented, and can't find their way out. And that was Johnny's intention, to just get lost in that cave. And as he walked further and further in, it became pitch dark. He couldn't see anything. He didn't know which way was out. He said the lack of light was appropriate, for at that moment, I was as far from God as I've ever been. And then the Lord spoke to Johnny, and guess what he said? What are you doing here? Same thing he said to Elijah. What are you doing here, Johnny? And Johnny realized at that point God still had a plan for his life, and he found his way finally out, and he said God saved me from killing myself. Maybe somebody listening to me right now finds themselves in a cave of sorts.

You know, and maybe you've put yourself in that cave. You've made some bad decisions, and now you're reaping the inevitable consequences of that decision, and you're saying, why did this happen to me, Lord? The Lord's saying, what are you doing here?

Why did you go there? You know what would happen. You knew what would happen, rather, and this surprises you. What are you doing here?

You should not be here. Jesus could have asked that question of Simon Peter when he's warming himself by the enemies of Christ around a fire after he had already denied the Lord once and was gonna do it again. The Lord could have said, what are you doing here? The Lord could have said it to Samson when he laid his head down on the lap of Delilah, who was about to give him a permanent haircut. Samson, what are you doing here?

He could say it to some people right now. You know, I struggle with drinking. I don't know it's such a struggle, and when I was at the bar the other day, wait, why are you at a bar? What are you doing there? In fact, why weren't you at church? You were over here doing the wrong thing, hanging around with the wrong people, and now things are crashing down on you, and you say, why is this happening? What are you doing there?

Get out of that place. Well, I need God to get me out. Well, sometimes there's things that God will do, and there's things that we gotta do. Like Jesus said to that man who was disabled, he asked him, do you wanna be made whole? Why would he ask that?

Do fish swim? Not everybody wants to be whole. Not everybody wants to be free from whatever addiction it is that has them.

Not everybody wants to be free from the lifestyle they've chosen. Not everybody wants to be free from this sin that has a hold of them, but some do, and if you wanna be free, if you wanna be healed, you say, yes, Lord, heal me. Call out to him, and he'll hear your voice. He'll hear your prayer, and just like he helped Johnny, and just like the Lord helped Elijah, he'll help you, but you need to call out to him.

Maybe there's somebody listening to me right now watching wherever you are. You need to call out to the Lord. I can't get out of this cave. I can't get out of this spot I'm in.

Yes, you can. You reach out to Jesus Christ, and he'll save you. So I raised a question earlier, and I asked, do you need to repair your altar? So as you look at your own life, would you say, you know what, I'm kind of in a cave right now. I've gotten myself into a bad situation, a bad relationship, something else.

I just should never have done this, and I wanna get out of this. This is a time to examine yourself and make a decision to do the right thing, or to make sure you're walking with the Lord as you ought to. Have you left your first love? If so, you can return to it, but then there's a person who doesn't even have a relationship with God yet. You know, you think all these things in this world are gonna satisfy you when you've found them empty. Isn't it time for you to see the emptiness of the false gods of this culture and see the true and living God standing right in front of you?

That can happen for you right here, right now. Jesus Christ died on that cross for our sins. He rose again from the dead three days later, and then he says, I stand at the door of your life and I knock, and if you'll hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. Have you asked Jesus to come into your life yet?

If not, you can do it right here, right now. Let's pray. Father, we come before you thankful for everything Jesus did. Lord Jesus, thank you for laying your life down for us. No one took it from you.

You gave it of your own accord. And we pray for any person here watching, listening, wherever they are, if they don't have a relationship with you, let this be the moment they believe. All our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying. Maybe there's someone here that would say, I need Jesus. I need my sin forgiven.

I want to know that when I die, I will go to heaven. I'm tired of chasing after the empty things of this world. I want a relationship with God. I want peace. I want joy. I want purpose. I want happiness. And I want to go to heaven when I die. Pray for me. If that's your need, if you want Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of your sin wherever you are, pray these words after me. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I put my faith in you now, Jesus. I choose to follow you from this moment forward.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to Harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to Harvest.org and click on Know God.