The series is entitled Emotions. Navigating our feelings with biblical truth. And over the next six or seven weeks, we are going to, and by the way, if you have a kid watching today, you got to probably do that. I probably just engage the young people in the room. But we're going to look at some rather internal personal emotions that all of us, and I want to stress that, all of us experience from time to time.
And we are going to look at those through a biblical perspective. You say, what type of emotions are we going to look at? We're going to look at things like anger. and bitterness and depression. And anxiety and fear and things like that.
Some of those internal emotions that I think every single one of us would say, I felt that, or I've been through a season of my life where I've experienced maybe one of those things. And I think, if we're honest, the church has done a poor job at really addressing these, or might I say, creating a space to where these internal emotions can be discussed or even talked about. And so we are going to tackle each one of those from a biblical perspective. And so today's emotion that we are going to look at here this morning is depression. depression.
And depression is a real emotion. uh that people face Uh Christians included. Uh I recognize today that Depression is a complex emotion that many people face. I do want to say up front that I am not a doctor or medical professional, and I do not claim to be. And so, if you're listening to this and you are going through a season of depression in your life, we are going to look from a biblical perspective of what I can give you for that.
But here's what I'm going to tell you: there could be biological causes to your depression, and you might need to leave after this and reach out to your doctor or reach out to a full-time licensed counselor and try to get some additional help with your feelings of depression. You may have a chemical imbalance that you need to see a doctor for. And so, I want to say up front, as we look to these emotions that many of us face from time to time, that I'm not claiming to be a doctor here today, but I am claiming to be your pastor and a shepherd to try to help you from scripture with some of these emotions. that we face from time to time. Depression's a real thing.
And depression is not something that is just unique to non-believers. Believers go through periods of depression. I have a friend of mine who is a youth pastor, and his wife went through a bout of depression and ended up taking her own life as a result of that. And here's a family in ministry, and they battled this idea of. Of depression for so long.
And many times it was a private struggle because it is hard as a believer, as a follower of Christ, to talk about the seasons that we go through behind closed doors, these silent, internal battles that we face from time to time. You might be in one of those battles right now where nobody knows about it, and you show up to church and you act like everything's okay, and you greet people, and you talk to people, and you serve, and you lift a hand of praise, and you sing, and you study. And then, when you leave and you go home, you just enter into a dark, dark state of depression. And I want you to know that this is not something that unbelievers don't face with. They are faced with, and they go through seasons.
like this.
Well, in 1 Kings chapter 19, and if you have your Bible, I encourage you to get that here today and follow along with us. But in 1 Kings 19, here's what I'm going to tell you. That there was a prophet. Elijah. That went through a season of of depression.
Now some background that'll lead us up to chapter number 19 to help you out here today. Elijah had just come through the showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. The prophets of Baal, there were over 450 of them, and these prophets got together, and there was just Elijah.
So he was outnumbered 450 to 1, and he challenges them, saying that if the prophets of Baal, if Baal is real, then he will rain down fire from heaven and all this kind of stuff. And he said he knew he had full confidence that Baal was not real and that this false God was not real and that his God, the one true God of Israel, was the only God that is real. And so he had all confidence in the world that God would come through and actually be the one that would rain down fire from heaven. And so there was all this like, you know, trash talking, this religious trash talking, if you would, from Elijah to the prophets of Baal. And eventually you know the story and you remember it.
It's in 1 Kings 18. And after all of this, the prophets of Baal, they call on Baal and nothing happens because he's not real. They begin renting their clothes and cutting themselves and different things like that. And then. Elijah calls on the God of heaven, the one true God of Israel, and fire rains down, and all the prophets of Baal.
They started just renting their clothes and different things like this.
Well, listen, you would think this, what I would call drop the mic type of moment for Elijah. He's on Mount Carmel. He's on this mountaintop. Everybody, all the Israelites saw this and they threw away their idolatry and they, in that moment, turned to the one true God of Israel. And everyone was praising God.
And you think, man, revival is kind of taking place right after this incredible showdown. Elijah's on a mountaintop. You would think like he would just live there. He would stay there. This is the best thing ever.
But what I'll tell you is that his high on Mount Carmel. led him to a very spiritual state of depression shortly. after. And isn't that how life works from time to time? You go through a season where you're up on the mountaintop, and then next thing you know, life hits.
Or something happens in your family, maybe a circumstance happens in your family, or a physical thing happens in your family, or a spiritual problem happens in your family, and all of a sudden you go from Mount Carmel and you find yourself in a Jezreel Valley the way that Elijah did. And today, what I want to show you today is that the God on Mount Carmel. is still the same God. in ma in the valley of Jezreel. And that's what we're going to see here from 1 Kings 19.
So let's read it together. This is right after this showdown that I just described to you. It says this: verse 1, and Ahab. He told Jezebel all that Elijah had done. and withal how he had slain all the prophets with The sword.
And then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also if I make not thy life as thy life one of them by tomorrow about this time.
So Jezebel and Ahab, some of the most wicked people that have ever led in Israel's history. And Jezebel's all upset that this happened, and all of Baal's followers have now turned to the one true God of Israel.
So she issues that Elijah be killed.
So she really puts out this, you know, this warrant, if you would, saying, hey, we're killing Elijah, which, as you can imagine, would send him into an element or an emotion of fear. And that's exactly what happens. Verse 3. And when he saw that. He arose and went for his life.
And he came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and he left his servant there.
So Elijah, out of fear for his life, he flees. And the reason why he fled was because what he had hoped would happen, that this would turn Ahab and this would turn Jezebel over to the one true God of Israel and that everybody would just follow them and everyone would live in peace, what he had hoped would happen didn't happen. And sometimes that's why we get led into a state of depression because what we hope would happen, or the way that we hoped God would work, ends up not being the way that God would work. And so we go into this state of depression. That's exactly what happened.
Verse 4: But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and he came and sat down under a juniper tree. And he requested for himself that he might die. And he said, It's enough now, O Lord. Take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said unto him, Arise and eat.
And he looked, and behold, there was a cake bacon on the coals and a cruise of water at his head. And he did eat and drink and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord, verse 7, he came again the second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. Isn't that true, by the way? Listen, you can't walk through life alone.
That's why here at Union Grove, and I don't want to get off topic, but I think the Lord wants you to hear this today. That's why we ask every single one of you to step out of your rows in church and into a smaller group of people, like a Bible fellowship class and things like that, so that you can actually be known, loved, and held accountable in your life. Because the journey of life is too great for you and I to bear alone. And that's what Elijah is experiencing. He's running for his life.
He's fleeing for his life. And he says, God, this is not worth it. You have to be done with me. I just want to be out of here. Take my life.
And then he goes on in verse number eight, And he arose and he did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights into Horeb, which is also Mount Sinai. The Mount of God. And he came thither unto a cave and he lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. And he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
Now, let me remind you: this is God, the God of heaven. He knows all things, he's sovereign over all things. This is a rhetorical guy. He already knew the answer. What are you doing here, Elijah?
What he was given was Elijah, he was given him a chance. to share his heart and to respond. And that's what God wants to do. He wants to hear from you.
So when you're going through depression and with these internal emotions, he wants to hear from you. He wants a relationship. Verse 10. And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant. thrown down thine altars and slain thy prophets with the sword.
and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away. This is him sharing his heart. And he said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by in a great strong and wind, rent the mountains and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and he went out, and he stood in the entering in of the cave, and behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? Verse 14, and he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword, and I even I only am left. And they seek my life to take it away.
Verse 15, and we'll stop here. And the LORD said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when thou comest, anoint Hazel to be king. Over Syria. Can we pray together? And then I want to give you a few thoughts here this morning.
Father, Bless your word. Bless every person that's watching here today. Lord, only these homes know the state of depression that so many people can uh can find themselves in. Lord, we all go through seasons of discouragement. seasons of darkness, seasons of dark depression.
And God, I know in a church our size, there's homes that are going through that. There's individuals that are going through it. God, I pray that you would speak to them. That your presence would be felt like never before in homes throughout our community and ultimately around the world this morning. God, speak to our hearts.
Bless the reading and study of your word today, for it's in your name we pray. And everybody in every home that's watching, can we say amen together? Amen. Listen, I want to give you just a few things today about this. First, I want you to see the nature of Elijah's depression.
Three things about his depression that I think applies to a lot of times our depression in life. First, What you see in verse three. is that Elijah was emotionally Depressed. He was emotionally depressed. Because he was afraid.
In verse 3, we saw he was afraid, so he ran for his life. He feared for his life. Let me tell you this, that fear... can lead to depression. Fear of of the unknown.
Fear of the future. fear over worry about if you measure up. Or if you are accomplishing what you want to accomplish, or if you're a good spouse, or fear over if you're a good parent, or fear over the direction of your children, or over the direction of your grandchildren. You see, there's a healthy fear that the scripture tells us to have, and that's the fear of the Lord. But I'll tell you this: there's an unhealthy fear as well in life.
And if we allow our spirit and our soul to have an unhealthy fear over things and circumstances and people and situations around us and the future and the unknown and all these different things, I'll tell you this: an unhealthy fear. It can take and shift your focus from God. and put it onto earthly things. And here's what you find, because he started fearing for his life. He it entered into a A dark state of depression.
You see, the Bible has a lot to say about fear. And fear leads to depression. And here, you know, the Bible it says, you know, perfect love, that's the gospel, cast out all fear. Right? In 2 Timothy 1:7, God has not given you or I the spirit of fear.
I like what Oswald Chambers said. He said it this way: if you fear God, You need not fear anything else. You see, we have to have a healthy, reverent Fear of God and God alone. Because when we have a fear over the unknown and over different things that this world throws at us. It leads us into an unhealthy fear, and therefore it takes our eyes off of God and onto these temporal, these earthly things.
And so we have to have a healthy fear. But what you learn here is Elijah was emotionally depressed. And that might be where you're at today. You're emotionally depressed because you fear things and you worry and it's led to anxiety and things like that. But number two, you see this, Elijah was depressed spiritually.
He was depressed spiritually. Verse 4, he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. He came and sat down under a juniper tree. He requested for himself that he might die. And he said, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I'm not better than my father's.
There's two things here that I want to point out in that verse that I think we can resonate with or resonate with today. First, Elijah was empty. He was empty. He had crashed. Comes off the mountaintop and Mount Carmel, and he finds himself in a valley.
He's convinced that his work for God, that we had just read about in chapter 18, was completely worthless. It doesn't matter. I don't matter. What I'm doing doesn't matter. I have no purpose in life.
I don't know where I'm going. I don't know what I'm doing. Does that describe us from time to time? You ever felt like, man, I've lost my purpose? I've lost my reason for why I exist.
And so a lot of times we will lead ourselves into this empty state. You see, there's a spiritual element to what is happening here. And Elijah had just been pouring out everything. To in chapter eighteen against these prophets of Baal. And he was pouring out so much as a prophet that what we realize is that if we continue to pour out, we'll eventually find ourselves running on empty if we are not allowing the Lord to pour back into us.
Let me say this: if you're a leader, maybe a teacher in our church or whatever, here's what I'll tell you: if you're not daily. allowing the Lord to pour into you. Through devotions and through preaching and allowing that to happen in your life, and you're just giving out so much. Here's what I'm going to tell you: you're headed for an empty state the way that Elijah did. That's not the way that God intended for us to live.
Listen, I'm glad you're pouring into people and being used by God, but I'll tell you this: there's nothing more frustrating than trying to pour into people from an empty vessel. You have to be poured into yourself. And so it's important, that's what he's learning here. But not only that, I think he was under spiritual attack. I think he was under spiritual attack.
You know, Ephesians 6, the New Testament says we wrestle not against flesh and blood. I think he was under a spiritual attack here. And a lot of times, the enemy hates you and I serving the Lord.
So, what he's going to do is he's going to attack us. Spiritually, emotionally, and he's going to attack us in these different ways and make us feel like God doesn't want to use us, that we're unworthy. And that we feel like God doesn't want us, and that we're unlovable, and all these different things. And so, but we know God is a God of life. I mean, he's come so that you can have life.
and life more abundantly. And so he has come for life, and so he's not wanting us to take our life. He's not wanting us to live a life the way described in chapter number 19. And so we see that he was under spiritual attack. He was empty.
So he was depressed emotionally. He was depressed spiritually. But number three, he was depressed physically. physically. Verses 5 and 6, I don't want to take the time to read them again, but here's what I'll tell you.
He falls asleep. Listen, I'm just going to be honest with you. This is probably a little too practical for some of you theologians that are watching here today. But here's what I want you to know: is that. Um He almost had this idea: like, hey, leave me alone.
I just need to rest. Leave me alone. I just need to sleep. And here's what I want you to know.
Sometimes a contributing factor to depression can be just physical exhaustion. Have you ever been there? You know, it's like you just are exhausted. You run from one thing to the next. Listen, families today are more busy than they've ever been.
We find one open slot in our schedule and we fill it. One open moment in our day and we feel it. And we go from one thing to the next, and what we're doing is we're running exhausted and running on empty constantly. And here's what I want you to know: that's kind of the idea here. It looks like Elijah, he needed rest.
Rest is a healthy thing, and I'm speaking to the choir because, truthfully, I'm a workaholic. I will work tooth and nail, and if I ever go home, my laptop's open, I'm doing something, there's always more to be done. And if I'm not careful, I will not get the rest that God has intended for me to have. You see, rest is biblical. God Himself, through Jesus, showed us that.
And that rest is helpful. A Sabbath is helpful. And if you don't get the rest that your body needs, I'm telling you, you'll head into a place of depression just the way that Elijah did.
So we see that he was emotionally depressed. He was spiritually. depressed. He was physically depressed.
So you say, Pastor, okay, I get it. Those are the causes and that's what maybe you're feeling exactly. Maybe you identify yourself with one of those areas of depression in the way that it's hitting you.
So what's the solution? What do we do?
Well, I want to see the solution here today, and there's two things real quickly as we wrap our time up here together. First, Elijah found strength in the provision of God. By the way, can we say that out loud today in all your homes? Elijah found strength in the provision of God.
Some of you need to hear this. But what you see here in verses 4 through 8. is that God sends an angel. The angel didn't just happen to be there, just kind of, oh, Elijah, what are you? No, no, no.
The angel was dispatched from heaven. The angels are under the sound of our Father's voice. and God sent an angel to minister to Elijah. Here's what I want you to understand is that that angel showed up. He touched him.
He he gave him food. He gave him rest. And then he sends him up to a mountain. to see and to hear from God. In other words, you get this idea that he got away.
I'll just be honest with you. I know this is super practical for us, but maybe that's what you need. You need some time away. And don't disconnect from everything, but what I am saying, or from like your church community and stuff like that, but what I'm saying is, maybe you need a break. Breaks are healthy.
Listen, if you're running on empty and you feel exhausted and you have no time to breathe, breaks and Sabbaths are healthy. And God might be sending a voice directly into your heart today that you need to trust and find strength in what He's trying to provide and encourage you to do. Maybe you need to limit the amount of activities you're involved in, extracurricular. You see, what we learn here is that Elijah, the solution that got him out of his state of depression, was he realized and he trusted in all this provision that God was sending his way. You see, you will be encouraged if you realize that God has already provided a way for you to escape.
What you need is to find your strength, your security, your stability. In who God is and God alone. Because when you take your eyes off of God and His provision for you, and you place it on your own abilities, like, am I good enough? And do I have the ability to do whatever it is that he's calling me to do? When you place your confidence in yourself and you take your eyes off of him and place them onto you or the circumstances or the situations around you trying to control everything, I'm telling you, you're headed for a state of depression the same way that Elijah was.
So, what we have to do, the solution, find strength in the provision of God, and then find Elijah found peace. in the voice of God. I love Verse 11 and 12. And might I remind you that Elijah would have known the stories from Moses, right? Moses, years before this, went up to Mount Sinai, which is exactly where this happened, Mount Horeb, same place.
And he went up to Mount Sinai, and God came down through earthquakes and thundering, spoke the law to Moses. And no doubt that had been passed through the Israelite camp. Elijah had heard what an incredible thing that was. And in the same place, Elijah, who knew God spoke through thunderings and lightnings and different things. in that same place.
God, He passed through, but He wasn't in the wind. He wasn't in the thunderings the way that Elijah assumed he would be. He wasn't in the earthquake. But he was. in the still small voice.
You know, I think sometimes we think that God only speaks. In the thundering voice He only speaks in the big things. That's what I think Elijah was thinking here. That's the lesson. I think he was thinking, like, okay, God only speaks in the earthquake.
He only speaks on the mountaintop. He only speaks through the thunderings and the lightnings. And yes, in Scripture, those things always indicate and represent the presence of God. But sometimes what I want you to know is that he speaks in the valley. You see, the same God that is in Mount Carmel, that is God of Mount Carmel, is the God here in the Jezreel Valley where Elijah cried out, God, take my life.
And for some of you that feel that, and maybe you have prayed that, let's just be honest today and transparent. Maybe you've been praying that, God, take my life. I'm done. I don't matter. Nobody cares about me.
Nobody loves me. And maybe that's where you are here today. Let me tell you this: Elijah, the prophet of God, the one represented, who represented God to man during this day, he felt the same way. And let me tell you this: if you're in the valley this morning, You can trust that the God of Mount Carmel is still the God in the valley that you find yourself in here today. God listens to him.
God gives him a word. Hear to him. Listen, let me just say a couple things in closing. God's voice doesn't always come in the ways we expect him to. But that doesn't mean he's not speaking.
He might not be speaking the way that you just assume, or in the ways that you just see sometimes in Scripture, but let me tell you this: that doesn't mean he's not speaking to you. Just because he isn't working the way that we expect for him to work doesn't mean he is less at work. Let me say that again. Just because he isn't working the way you want. him to work.
doesn't mean he is less at work. And so church, let me just tell you this as we kind of wrap this thing up. I don't know where you're at today. I get it. The church has been a bad place to talk about these things.
And truthfully, the church would be the safest place for us to talk about our internal emotions as followers of Christ. If you're feeling a state of depression, maybe you're in darkness. Maybe you feel this, or maybe you've been praying similar prayers. God, take my life. I don't need to be here.
God am not worthy God I don't measure up. Whatever, if you're in a dark place here today, let me encourage you with this. You might need some extra help, a counselor or whatever, but your church community is here for you. And there is a God. in heaven the one true God of Israel.
You're God if you're a follower of Jesus. And today, he is speaking to you. He is providing for you. He is giving you the strength. and to trust him.
The God of Mount Carmel. is still the god. in the Jezreel. Valley.
