Children ask the most penetrating questions

• “Mummy – what does God do all day”
• (wise mother) “I think God spends most of his day mending broken things”

Today we’ll look at a man being renewed by God.

5 arenas of the Christian life

Physical

what does physical renewal look like?

Our bodies are the temple of HS

• if you were building a temple you’d want it to be aesthetically pleasing and functionally efficient >>>
• Our bodies are not merely vehicles of the spirit (or the brain) they are the places where god lives – they have his image stamped on them!
• Maybe – it’s OK to spend time and effort and appropriate money in looking good!

Intellectual

What does intellectual renewal look like?

in the intellectual arena we seek rational answers to problems and use our cognitive capacity to be a disciple.

Intellectual renewal – we need to give some time to thinking about the Bible and it’s message

Encourage ‘For God’s eyes only’

Spiritual

What does spiritual renewal look like?

An re-awakened love for the Lord, a deeper devotion to him.

It’s easy for our affection for Christ to be diluted byt the drain of working for Him – we give out.

E.g. Jesus and the woman who touched his garment “power has gone out of me”

Social

We were made for relationships

The one thing God disapproved of in creation was loneliness “It is not good that man is alone”

So social renewal might mean forging deeper friendships or new ones that will be a vehicle of God’s blessing

Emotional

This is the one that is most often ignored. (that’s why it’s in a slightly out-of-the-way place in my graphic.)

A model some of us will have been brought up on uses the picture of a train pictured like this: Facts – faith – feeling

While it’s a helpful model in some circumstances, it’s not the whole truth.

Drawbacks of F-F-F- model:

• Stuffing feelings >>>
• Losing an emotional vocabulary – especially attaching moral qualities to feelings – A tell-tale sign in pastoral encounters – “I ought not to feel like this”
• The word ought is the red flag here.

>>>

Explain context – spiritual dual on mount Carmel – 1 Kings 18 >>>

Read 1 Kings 19:1-18

Today we’re looking at an example of a man who found himself at rock bottom.

But – you may say – wasn’t Elijah a mighty prophet?

• didn’t he pray the rain would stop – and it did?
• didn’t he pray for fire from heaven – and it came?

Yet here we see a man experiencing burn-out.

• a man who has nothing more to give
• a man at the very end of his resources

But we also see what God can do with such a person

Important principle embedded in this story – you don’t have to be on a spiritual high to meet with God

• God doesn’t only speak to us when we’re on a mountain top

Let’s diagnose his condition

running on empty

Thankfully, I’ve never been drunk, but I do understand hangovers!

• They are an occupational hazard with pastors on a Monday morning.
• On Sunday you give yourself, emotionally, spiritually and spiritually.
• You pour your heart out to people by worship leading (if you’re a musician) and especially in preaching and it leaves you depleted.

When you’re young you can get by through sheer brute strength but you’ll soon realise that this constant giving out can’t go on for ever.

One friend in particular comes to mind

• He was a talented preacher and leader in a church of about 100 people. He was bright, enthusiastic vivacious, everyone wanted a slice of Pete (not his real name)
• He was spotted by a lager church up north – at the other end of the country – who were looking for a new senior pastor.
• Pastor Pete was flattered to be asked, convinced himself this was God’s call on his life and accepted their invitation
• But within months he was out of his depth. He ended up a broken man and is only now beginning to recover.

We all have a psycho-spiritual tank. And that tank needs to be replenished if we are to survive in almost any form of giving-out Christian ministry.

• And it’s not just the pressure of preaching – it’s the research, prayer, writing, delivery cycle
• It’s the leadership burdens that pastoral ministry brings your way – and many other jobs too.

Pastor Pete – became a broken man because he honestly tried to do the right things and act honourably

And no-one was more surprised that Pastor Pete himself. “What is happening to me?” he would say to himself (and a few trusted friends)

Put simply (and a tad harshly) Pete gave out more than he was taking in

• there was a psycho-spiritual deficit which nearly caused him to leave the ministry and from which my friend has not yet fully recovered.
• He was utterly drained, and that’s where we find Elijah in 1 Kings 19

For our diagnosis of his condition we can look at four key domains:

Spiritually drained

By victory on Carmel [describe it] >>>

The same true for anyone who is involved in spiritual ministry, especially preaching, leading, prayer ministry

• there are sound physiological reasons for this

Ministry (or any job with an high degree of people-contact) puts us on a state of high alert. The same is true of athletes who have to fight (Boxing, fencing, taekwondo, wrestling etc) who are constantly on a state of high alert. The brain triggers the release of the hormone adrenaline to maintain that alertness – and it works!

BUT we pay a price for these periods of high effectiveness. The adrenal system demands time for recovery, and it creates a state of reduced energy, irritability, and low mood.

• Sometimes called “postadrenaline depression”, Any of us who have periods of peak demand, for instance, pastors over the weekend when most of their public ministry takes place, succumb to postadrenaline depression on Mondays when their adrenal system crashes and demands time for recovery. You may feel depressed, irritable, and negative about everything.

And it doesn’t have to be pastors. Some teachers get this on Saturdays. So if that’s you, you may need to learn to ‘ride the trough’ (as opposed to ride the wave!)

This is not the normal physical effort, it’s spiritual effort that has biochemical implications.

• Incidentally, these symptoms of grumpiness, low frustration tolerance, and inflated negativity are typical of the withdrawal symptoms we see in several substance addictions.
• Some experts see it as a form of adrenaline addiction.

When the adrenaline level drops, withdrawal symptoms kick in as the body complains about its loss of the high octane “juice.”

I have heard of pastors’ wives who leave their house as early as possible on Monday mornings to get away from their husbands’ irritability!

The same can happen for any regular week workers. CEOs, lawyers mission workers – especially if you have high people contact in a second language – and people who have to give emotionally in their work may find that postadrenaline depression strikes on Saturday mornings.

Jesus himself experienced this:

• crowd pressing in on him
• woman with blood condition thinks ‘if only I can touch his coat – I’ll be healed!’
• she squeezes through, touches and is healed
• Jesus “Someone touched me”
• Disciples “Don’t be daft, they’re all jostling you! …” >>>

Jesus “There was one touch that was different – because power has gone out of me“. Jesus is here – is your touch going to be the one that’s different?

Physically drained

The nation of Israel had been in a state of drought for 3.5 years and Elijah believed that the victory on Mount Carmel would herald the end of the water shortage.

1 Kings 18:41And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” 42 So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah … [climbed to the top of Carmel, to watch the thunder clouds roll in] – no!

He “bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.

A classic posture of exhaustion.

• Could this exhaustion be the reason Elijah sent his servant to go and look for signs of rain instead of going himself. He’s shattered!

Sure enough the rain clouds can be seen on the horizon so look at v44

running ahead of Ahab’s chariot

I Kings 18:44 “… Elijah said to his servant ‘go and tell Ahab – Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you’. Meanwhile [as Elijah sat exhausted on the top of Carmel] the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel”

It is, of course, true that the power of the Lord enabled Elijah to run all those miles ahead of Ahab’s chariot, but he was still burning the calories in the effort!

RSPCA = Royal society for prevention of cruelty to animals promo?

• I am told this is a training video?

running away from Jezebel

Now Jezebel, whose prophets have just been dessimated by Elijah and his men gets to hear of this and she issues a threat.

“May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like one of those Baal prophets you slaughtered.

1Kings 19:3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah,

All the way through this narrative we see physical effort being expended. 2 marathons in 2 days

This gives rise to another domain of exhaustion:

Socially isolated

1Kings 19:3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert.

His servant is the man who has stuck with him throughout his ministry – become his right-hand man.

• Scrawled on a desk in Reading University Physics department “Why am I so lonely when there are 3,000 people on this campus?”

Elijah was finding that leadership and ministry can be lonely places.

• We might ask why – because on the surface a leader or a person ministering or a mission worker is a popular and effective person.

Here’s a letter from a mission worker, written to a lady (actually a counsellor) who showed her friendship

“Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me the freedom to talk about my emotional needs as a missionary. I can’t begin to tell you how utterly therapeutic this has been for me. Somehow there always seems to be the unspoken idea that missionaries aren’t supposed to have emotional needs, BUT I DO!! Or somehow we’re supposed to live above our needs, as if we weren’t quite human. But the truth is I have more needs than what I typically care to acknowledge, and often I just downright don’t know what to do with them!”

Emotionally drained

Jezebel, a woman of unparalleled power, had issued a death threat.

19:2 “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 one of the prophets that were massacred on Carmel”

Listen carefully to the wording. We sometimes hear the saying “sticks and stoned may hurt my bones but words will never harm me” – nonsense!

We see here something of how malicious Jezebel was – she sent a messenger!

• If she wanted Elijah out of the way, why not just send in some troops and have done with it?
• This is the mentality of the torturer.
• she doesn’t want her victim to die – she wants him to suffer

After all – a dead man can’t feel pain – but a living one (even if only barely alive) can writhe in agony as pain screams from every fibre of his being.

• The torturer wants power (of life or death) over his victim – and that was Jezebel.

So here’s a man in desperate need, Deeply drained and no one to share is soul with

• he needed someone to put his arm round him and pray with him
• Instead he felt utterly alone

19:4b “He came to a broom tree and sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I’ve had enough, Lord” he said “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors” Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.”

this was a perfect storm of exhaustion

Spiritual, physical and emotional all coming together!

2 ironies here

(a) At the very time Elijah needed fellowship, he sought isolation

‘he left his servant in Beersheba and went on alone’

(b) Jezebel’s threat would have given him what he wanted

All he had to do was to stay put and her henchmen would have found him . Then bingo – off with this head (or probably something far more barbaric)

I think he could have written song like this:

Take my life and let it be

a million miles away from thee

Take my moments and my days

fill them with a misty haze

Am I talking to someone who has seriously contemplated suicide?

Eastbourne was one of two ‘suicide capitals’ of GB (the other being the Clifton Suspension bridge in Bristol)

For some, Beachy head seems a good way out?

• One of the ministries we support as a church seeks to remedy this >>>

… Elijah cried “Lord, take away my life – it’s better for me to die than to live”

Of the two options, to-be or not-to-be, not-to-be feels like the better of the two.

• If that’s ever been you, you’re in good company – that’s where Elijah was
• He had concluded that his work was fruitless and therefore his life was not worth living, And he found himself on a downward vortex of despair

Does that sound familiar?

• Am I speaking to any Elijah’s?
• because if I am, the same God that renewed Elijah can renew you.

let’s see how He did it

God’s work in Elijah’s life …

the divine engineer

Rebuilding

It’s as if God took the broken shards of a shattered life and meticulously reassembled them –

• like a wall that has collapsed has to be rebuilt brick by brick, so God is rebuilding Elijah’s life

cf. Altar in 18: – As Elijah rebuilt the broken altar – so God rebuild a broken life.

One of his needs was a physical one

• 19:5 “All at once and angel touched him and said ‘Get up and eat’ He looked round and there by his head, there was a cake of bread, baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again”

How practical the Lord is!

• Elijah had been bombing around, living on junk food, so the first the Lord gives him is a good meal

19:7 “The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said ‘Get up and eat for the journey is too much for you’ SO he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food he travelled for 40 days”

We have a God who is tenderly practical about the rebuilding of a broken life, or a broken fellowship.

• He can take the broken pieces and rebuild
• love
• acceptance
• bring new vision

Redirecting

19:8 “.. he travelled for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God”

God takes him to Horeb

• the place of the burning bush
• the pace where the law was given
• the place where Elijah knew God had spoken in the past

But that’s the problem – it’s all in the past!

Am I speaking to someone for whom thriving spiritual life is all in the rear view mirror? To be sure, you know how to keep up appearances – and you have to because your work or your reputation.

• So you make very sure that the ‘front-of-house’ operation is pretty good and that the appearances are up to scratch
• But since the Lord last worked in your life in a profound way a lot of water has flowed under the bridge!

God took Elijah to a special place

Don’t despise the value of special places

• there are certain places where God speaks to you
• you enter them with a sense of expectation because of what has happened in the past

If you want to be right with God, spiritually He will see to it that you are right with Him geographically.

How did God get the message across?

by asking diagnostic questions

God spoke

Here is a theological principle that we neglect at our peril: The voice of God and power of God are inseparably linked linked in Bible

• When god speaks, the voice has the power to bring about what he speaks.
• God said “let there be light” – and there was!

The diagnostic question: “What are you doing here Elijah?

Exactly what did God mean by that question?

Did God mean geographically? no! because it was God who had sent him to Horeb

Therefore he meant spiritually. Elijah! – why have you come to this point? why have you let yourself get so low?

by using dramatic events?

Wind >>>

earthquake >>>

fire >>>

We sometimes fall into the error of thinking that the more dramatic an event, the more likely it is to be God speaking through it.

God here is letting Elijah know that his faith is not going to rest on drama, excitement, sense of danger

• But instead on God’s still small voice, His gentle whisper

Principle: When it comes to God speaking to us, He chooses the means that is most appropriate at the time.

E.g. Lady we were trying to help

• severely wronged by a man
• we had dealt with feelings of guilt, dirtiness,
• but bitterness still remained – she was still very angry
• She had never divulged who it was.
• This was her way of saying “God, you’re not having this bit of information – I want to hold on to it!”
• We wrote a prayer – left a gap for the name
• She just couldn’t say it at first

But when she prayed it again and inserted his name there was a breakthrough

• She had nothing else to hide!
• She had let God into the deepest part of her and began the road to recovery.

Elijah let God get through to the deepest part of his being

• If God asked you the same question tonight “What are you doing here?”
• Are there hurts or resentment or bitterness that you’re hanging on to?
• He brings healing where there is hurt and joy where there is sadness.

God’s promise in Isaiah was to reclothed with “a garment of praise in exchange for the spirit of despair”

turning the corner

What did God say to Elijah that turned to corner?

Elijah you’re not alone – v18

Buddy, there are 7000 more! >>>

Satan wants us to think we are alone

God’s word to Paul “keep on preaching because I have many men in this city!”

Elijah – you’re not finished

I have a ministry for you

go and anoint other leaders v15

The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came,

The route to recovery was the same as the route into exhaustion, except in reverse! What did I do to get worn out? Understand that deeply, then do your best to do the opposite!

and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram.

Elijah – you will leave a legacy

your work won’t stop with you

Appoint a successor v16

Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.

If you’re a leader – who is going to follow you?

Application

Are you hurting because of what other people have said to you

• for Elijah – this was Jezebel’s threat
• for you it may be the hurtful remarks of someone else – even someone close to you?

And you’re on the run – carefully avoiding them

the Lord knows where you are – spiritually as well as geographically

are you at the end of your tether – approaching burn-out

• The Lord hasn’t given up on you

He will still speak to you – maybe not through the dramatic signs but the gentle whisper

With God there are no scrap heaps

Pray >>>