[0:00] Well, let's turn back again to 1 Kings chapter 19 and we can read verse 9 again, but we're really going to think of this chapter as a whole this evening.
[0:16] Then Elijah came to a cave and lodged in it and behold the word of the Lord came to him and said to him, What are you doing here?
[0:26] Now, when we think of the most outstanding servants of God in all of history, when we think of those who are models of faith and service and achievement for the cause of God's kingdom, one of the names that will come into our minds is Elijah.
[0:51] Elijah was outstanding. He was an outstanding prophet. His experiences were absolutely extraordinary. And even though he was faced by some of the most intense opposition that God's people were to encounter, he stood up for God.
[1:07] He was an incredibly loyal, dedicated and bold servant of his Savior. And if you go home tonight and read 1 Kings chapter 18, you will read, as we were saying, one of the most dramatic and yet one of the most incredible triumphs of God's people over false beliefs and indeed over the powers of darkness.
[1:37] So Elijah is an outstanding figure and every one of us would probably say, if only I was just a fraction of what Elijah was.
[1:49] But the wonderful thing about the Bible is that it does not just tell us about the successes and achievements of God's people. It doesn't just tell us about all the wonderful things that they did.
[2:00] The Bible tells us the whole story and indeed the Bible tells us the whole story about Elijah. Because in 1 Kings 18, you will read about a man who triumphed over massive adversity.
[2:17] In verse 19, you read about a man who was struggling desperately. You read about a man who was exhausted and depressed.
[2:33] And that's our focus for tonight because I am quite sure when I say what is our title of our sermon tonight, exhaustion and depression.
[2:46] I don't think there are any of us who do not know what these words mean and do not know how these things feel.
[2:57] And probably the most important question we can ask ourselves is what does God think of the exhausted and the depressed?
[3:09] What does God think of you if that's how you feel? Well this chapter has much to teach us.
[3:19] If we read again at the first verse, we see that despite Elijah's triumph of the previous chapter, he is now very quickly a picture of exhaustion.
[3:30] Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. And Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so may the gods do to me and more also, I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.
[3:45] Then he was afraid and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beishiba, which belongs to Judah and left his servant there. He himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a brim tree and he asked that he might die saying it's enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father and he lay down and slept under a brim tree.
[4:16] Jezebel tells Elijah that she is going to kill him and Elijah takes fright and he flees, he travels south and he wanders all alone into the middle of nowhere, isolated and absolutely exhausted.
[4:34] And so in just a few verses he has gone from one of the greatest triumphs that we read about in scripture to lying under some tree somewhere utterly broken, utterly exhausted.
[4:47] And we know that he was exhausted because we are told that he lay down and he slept and if we read on we see that he got up but then he has to lie down again.
[4:59] And verse 7 tells us that he needs to replenish his strength for what lies ahead. It's absolutely clear that Elijah is exhausted.
[5:11] And I am quite convinced that every single one of us in here can picture Elijah and can picture the fatigue and weirdness that he is feeling and we can all say I know how that feels.
[5:26] I know what that is like. And it's one of the remarkable things about the recent past in our society.
[5:37] If you look over the last 20 years, I suppose I like to think of myself as relatively young at the moment hopefully, but even in the time I can look back over in my life I am convinced that I can see a change taking place in that in the one hand we have so many things that are supposed to make our lives easier, so many advances, so many things have taken place.
[6:06] We can do practically anything that we want them to do. Our TV can be recorded or downloaded to fit in with what we are doing. We don't have to rush home because much of the day is on.
[6:19] We can just record it or whatever else we like to watch. If we want access to information it's at our fingertips. Easy thing. Communication has never ever ever been simpler.
[6:29] So in one sense all these things have made life easier and yet I am convinced that along with these things there is an ever increasing level of exhaustion in people's lives.
[6:44] People as far as I can tell are more tired than ever. Now I don't know why that is but I sometimes wonder whether these technological advances are actually just placing more and more and more pressure on our lives.
[7:03] When you've got your emails and the internet and everything on your phone it means that you can take your office to bed with you. There's no getting away from it. The instantaniousness of modern communication means that people expect a reply like that and if you haven't responded to an email after a day you feel this immense pressure and burden.
[7:26] And even if you have 30 episodes of your favourite TV programme recorded in your SkyPlus the chances are you're thinking when am I going to find the time to do that rather than just missing it and forgetting about it.
[7:39] All of these things are placing more pressure on us and alongside that we are in workplaces and we are in environments where there is more and more scrutiny over every single one of us whereby if something goes wrong everyone looks for someone to blame and the whole world is trying to make sure that they are not the one who gets blamed.
[8:01] The result is that more and more people are absolutely exhausted.
[8:11] The wonderful thing about 1 Kings chapter 9 and the Psalms that we've been singing and many other passages of the Bible remind us that the Bible is not just a book of theology it is not just a book of moral instruction it is not just a book of spiritual guidance.
[8:28] The Bible is also the book for the exhausted. The Bible is the book for the exhausted.
[8:40] Because it never ignores the fact that there are times when we are crippled by fatigue and we are left absolutely worn out.
[8:50] That's why the Bible gives us the testimony of those who say my flesh and my heart faint and fail as we sang in Psalm 73 at the beginning. We are reminded that God knows all too well that even youths shall faint and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted as Isaiah 40 tells us.
[9:12] We have to ask ourselves the question what does God think of the exhausted? Is God disappointed? Is God angry? Is God frustrated? Is God impatient?
[9:26] Is that how God feels about us when we are worn out? Well that's probably how we feel but God is completely different.
[9:41] And when we think of the level of exhaustion that Elijah was suffering here and when we think of the level of exhaustion that maybe you have experienced in your life at times maybe even you feel it right now.
[9:52] That is when we understand Jesus' words when he says come to me all who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
[10:05] Christ does not express his frustration or his disappointment or his anger with those who are labouring and are heavy laden to the point of exhaustion.
[10:19] They are the very ones that he is calling. And part of the reason for that is because Jesus himself was no stranger to exhaustion.
[10:30] He himself knows exactly what it's like. John Ford is an example. Jesus came to Jacob's well and says Jacob's well was there so Jesus weiried as he was from his journey was sitting beside the well.
[10:44] And this is where we have to have an accurate Christology. We are firm in our view that Jesus is God himself but we are also equally firm in the view that Jesus is every bit as human as you and I are.
[11:00] That means that every time, every time without exception that you are absolutely exhausted Jesus knows exactly how you are feeling because he has been there himself.
[11:20] He has been there himself. And that's why the Bible is the place where we should go when we are exhausted.
[11:32] There you will find people who feel exactly how you feel and there you will find the care that God has for those who are worn out.
[11:45] And this is exactly what we see with Elijah. Elijah is exhausted and yet God gives him exactly what he needs. What does Elijah need?
[11:56] He needs rest and he needs nourishment. And God gives it to him. He gives him food and he gives him rest and he does it repeatedly.
[12:08] He gives Elijah what he needs. And this reminds us of a wonderfully simple but wonderfully important biblical truth which is of fundamental importance both theologically and practically.
[12:21] God likes rest. God likes rest. Now when we say that we do not mean laziness and God does not want any of us to be idle or to be lazy or to be inactive.
[12:37] But God does expect us all to maintain a balance between work and activity in our lives and each week of our lives should be punctuated by regular, regular rest.
[12:51] That's one of the great purposes of the Sabbath day which we looked at not that long ago. God firmly, firmly believes in rest. But the problem we have is that the more tired we get and I say this about myself before anybody else, the more tired I get, the more difficult I find it to rest because the more frustrated I become with everything that I'm not managing to do, I get worn out and I think to myself, I'm not getting this done.
[13:16] And the whole reason I'm not getting it done is because I'm too tired. But I can't let myself stop because I think this needs to be done. And it's like you just go down this never ending spiral where the more tired you get, the less you're able to do and the more you worry about the fact that you're not accomplishing anything.
[13:32] And all the time, the simple and wonderful answer is to listen to God.
[13:42] God is telling us to rest. And the truth is that when you and I take rest, we are glorifying and honoring God because we are simply saying, Lord, I need what you have given and I need to listen to what you are saying.
[14:02] I need to follow the pattern that you have instructed for my life. So please, please remember this. If you are exhausted, if you are absolutely exhausted, if you stop and have a rest, you are not letting God down.
[14:18] You are glorifying him because you are doing what he likes us to do. You are doing what he has told us to do. We are honoring him.
[14:32] So if you are exhausted, think about how you can rest. And when you do rest, praise and thank the gracious God who firmly, firmly believes that the exhausted should rest.
[14:53] And we have to remember a fundamental and basic truth about the difference between God and humans. We have to remember that God is the one whose resources are unlimited.
[15:07] We are not like that. God understands that. But all too often, we don't. This is the wonderful balance that we have in Isaiah 40.
[15:18] Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not grove, does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
[15:29] He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might, he increases strength. That's telling us something about God. He has unlimited resources, but we are not like that because from verse 30 it says, even youth shall faint and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted, but they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.
[15:48] They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
[15:59] The Bible is the book for the exhausted. And exhaustion is something that we all feel from time to time, every one of us. And sometimes exhaustion can have, in a way, a sort of feeling of satisfaction about it.
[16:15] Say you go out to the pits all day. You work all day long. When you come home, you are exhausted, but there's an element of satisfaction about it. You feel that you've accomplished something.
[16:27] You can feel good and you can rest well. And that is not the kind of exhaustion that Elijah experienced, and all too often that's not the kind of exhaustion that we experienced because we all know that severe physical exhaustion affects our minds.
[16:47] And Elijah was not just exhausted. He was depressed. He was depressed.
[16:57] And in many ways this is a far, far more serious problem because as hard as physical problems can be, the battles that we face in our minds are the hardest of all.
[17:12] I recently read a quote from Spurgeon who, I didn't realise this, but he suffered from depression a lot in his life. Spurgeon says this, the mind can descend far lower than the body, for in it there are bottomless pits.
[17:28] The flesh can only bear a certain number of wounds and no more, but the soul can bleed in 10,000 ways.
[17:41] And when our exhaustion is combined with depression, it is a horrible, horrible combination. We're there, worn out, exhausted, and then at the same time we are utterly dismayed at all that we are and all that we fail to do and everything that has gone wrong in our lives.
[18:04] And when our minds start turning over these things again and again and again and again, rest no longer becomes a pleasure, it becomes an immense challenge because you cannot get away from your thoughts when they are leaving you internally.
[18:20] And that's where Elijah was. That's where we find him. He is broken and he's depressed. And he's utterly dismayed at his own weaknesses and failings.
[18:30] And he sums it up with that phrase, I am no better than my father. And he looks at his circumstances and he is distraught. I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel.
[18:41] I'm forsaking your covenant, thrown down your altar, curled your prophets with the sword, and I even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away. So Elijah's got this double problem whereby he looks within himself and he feels like he is a complete failure and then he looks around him and he feels like the whole world is against him.
[19:00] And is that not what depression feels like? Where we look without us and we feel that all circumstances are conspiring against us and we look within and we see nothing but inadequacy and failure.
[19:18] And all the time we feel that God must be just disgusted at our behaviour.
[19:29] All the time we feel like that. And yet 1 Kings 19 tells us that that is not God's attitude to the depressed.
[19:46] There's a sort of different approach to 1 Kings 19. Different people approach it in different ways. Some commentators, maybe even the majority of them, come to 1 Kings 19 and they interpret it in a way whereby they are very hard on Elijah.
[20:04] They basically view him as wallowing in self pity, that he's disobedient to God, he's running away as he's an absolute coward in fear of Jezebel.
[20:15] And a lot of people think that the lessons that this chapter are teaching us in regard to depression is how not to experience it. Don't do what Elijah did and you'll be fine.
[20:28] Don't make his mistakes. Don't copy him. He's not a good example in this chapter. A lot of people are very hard on Elijah.
[20:40] And there's probably more than a grain of truth in that. But I am not of that school of thought in terms of interpreting this chapter because I do not think that the primary lessons of 1 Kings 19 are regarding how to avoid depression.
[21:00] I think the primary lessons of 1 Kings 19 regarding depression are what God does when we are there.
[21:10] This chapter is telling us how God responds when our hearts are broken. And I want us just to note three things that God does for Elijah.
[21:28] First of all, it is God who leads Elijah in this chapter. Elijah, as we said, fleed from Jezebel, ran south, travelled all the way down to Horeb, which is another word for Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were given, miles and miles and miles and miles and miles south.
[21:48] But it is God who is leading him there because verse 7 tells us that it was the angel of the Lord and said, Arise and eat for the journey is too great for you.
[21:59] God prepared him for this journey. And I don't think it's a coincidence that God's covenant spokesman, this prophet, arrives at the very place where God's law was given.
[22:13] I don't think that we can say that Elijah was running away from God when the very place he came to was the Mount of God, as verse 8 tells us.
[22:24] And so despite Elijah's frail mental health at this point, God had not abandoned him. God was leading him.
[22:36] And that is a fundamentally important point because it reminds us that God never stops leading his people. And even if you are struggling in the depths of depression or if you have done in your life or if you do in the future, God will never stop leading you.
[22:53] God is not a part-time shepherd. God is not a part-time shepherd. He is there.
[23:04] Every time we wander off, he is there to bring us back. Every time we can't see the way, he will be our guide. Every time our soul sinks into depression, he will be by our side.
[23:20] And although Elijah is in the absolute depths of despair at this point, not for one moment is he outside the care and concern of God.
[23:34] And neither are you. Neither are you. But we have to notice as well though that although God was leading Elijah, he still felt awful.
[23:50] And this brings us to our next point. God leads Elijah. God speaks to Elijah. There are two vital things I want to note about the words, about the conversation that we see between God and Elijah.
[24:06] The first thing that is of fundamental importance is that God repeats himself. There is a constant repetition in this passage.
[24:19] In verse 9 and verse 13, God asks the same question to Elijah and both times Elijah gives exactly the same reply.
[24:30] And if you look over this passage, it's covering a period of at least 40 days because he journeyed 40 days and 40 nights. And at the beginning of that 40 day period and at the end of that 40 day period, Elijah felt exactly the same.
[24:46] Throughout it all, Elijah is broken. He's broken at the start, broken in the middle, broken at the end. God has to say the same things to him over and over and over again because God knows that depression is not fixed overnight.
[25:05] God is well aware that these things are not fixed instantly. And God does not expect you or me to feel better instantly.
[25:18] And when we are struggling with low self-esteem and with a very, very low self-worth, we might get told something again and again and again and again, and yet it struggles to sink in.
[25:31] If you feel a certain way, no matter what you're told, it very often will make no difference even though you hear it again and again.
[25:44] And yet the same things will bother us again and again and again and again. It's funny how a positive comment towards us can bounce off again and again and again and again and again, whereas a negative thought will come straight in and it'll bounce around inside our head coming back again and again and again and again and again.
[26:02] And yet here we see that in that situation, God is patient. And the repetition of God's conversations with Elijah reminds us that God is willing to tell you and me again and again and again and again that he loves you and that he will be with you.
[26:27] You can go back to God with the same worries, the same fears, the same doubts, the same insecurities and as the perfect Father that he is, he will listen again and again and again.
[26:49] Now when we feel negatively about ourselves, it is so easy to conclude that everybody else feels exactly the same. But the Bible reminds us of the wonderful truth that God's opinion of us is not shaped by our opinion of ourselves.
[27:04] And the real truth is the fact that our weaknesses are something that God is well aware of and rather than being a reason to hide from God, they are the very reason why we should run to him.
[27:14] As Hebrews 4 tells us, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses. Now, just let that sentence cement itself in your mind.
[27:28] You do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with your weakness, no matter what it is.
[27:38] But in every way he was tempted as we are, yet without sin, therefore with confidence we can draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
[27:52] God does not expect us to be limited as near resources. God does not expect us to be rocks of strength and self-confidence and assurance at all times. God expects us to need him.
[28:04] And God knows that we are weak. And God does not mind reassuring us again and again and again. That's why the wonderful words of Psalm 42 verse 5, which we sang, why are you cast down, O my soul?
[28:18] Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall praise him, my salvation. These words appear in verse 5 and then they appear again in verse 11 and then they appear in the very next Psalm as well in Psalm 43.
[28:30] Because when it comes to reassuring you, God does not mind repeating himself. Remember what we said from Isaiah 40, God does not grow faint.
[28:41] God does not faint or grow weary. God does not faint or grow weary concerning your worries or your fears or your mistakes or your insecurities.
[28:57] And every time you tell him the same worries and the same concerns that you have, he is not one bit wearied or fed up about hearing that.
[29:11] You can tell God a million times that you are worrying about something or that you are struggling about something and he does not faint and he does not grow weary.
[29:27] God does not grow weary when it comes to reassuring and comforting those who are depressed.
[29:38] So I want you to note the repetition. God does not expect us to recover instantly. God is quite willing, quite ready to repeat himself.
[29:48] But secondly I want you to note where this voice is heard. Note the repetition, note the location. This is where we have the wonderful description where God said to Elijah, Go and stand in the mount before the Lord and behold the Lord passed by in a great and strong wind, tore the mountains and broken pieces of the rocks before the Lord.
[30:07] But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind and 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, the sound of a low whisper.
[30:19] And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave and behold there came a voice to him and said, What are you doing here?
[30:30] Elijah. Now the vital truth that we see in this passage is that so often when we are depressed, when we are low, when we are exhausted, we think that we need an earthquake or a fire or a hurricane or some dramatic event in our lives to sort ourselves out.
[30:50] We think that something massive has to take place if we are in any way going to be sorted out. The truth is what we really need is to listen to the voice of God.
[31:04] Now this is of absolute crucial importance because we need to remember the truth of God's word when we are depressed.
[31:16] Because it's not one of the biggest symptoms of depression that we become absolutely crippled because we are convinced about things that are either false or that are barely true and yet in our minds we magnify them and make them huge.
[31:33] Isn't that what we do? We think things that aren't true or we magnify half truths into things that are utterly overwhelming.
[31:44] That's what Elijah did. He thought he was the only one left. And that's what we do so often when we are depressed. And the only answer to that is to listen to the still, gentle, unchanging truth of God's word.
[32:08] When we are depressed we can feel like we are a waste of space. We can feel absolutely bereft of any self-worth.
[32:19] And we can be crippled by that overwhelming sense of failure and of emptiness.
[32:30] But that is not true of anyone. The truth is that we are the created workmanship of God. We are made in Him in His image and every single person is of the utmost preciousness to Him.
[32:47] As Sam 17.8 says, keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me in the shadow of your wings. Now for those who are depressed and especially for those of God's people who struggle, that is probably not how you feel.
[33:07] But it is the truth because it is what God's word tells us. Likewise when we are depressed we can be full of regret about our mistakes.
[33:17] Maybe you can think of things in your life that just send a cold sweat down your back because you know that and you wish that you hadn't done them. And we can be so conscious of our sin and our feelings.
[33:29] And in many ways that's a good thing because we must be aware of our sin. But we must also remember that God's word says, come now let us reason together says the Lord.
[33:42] Though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson they shall become as wool.
[33:55] We can also be traumatized by what's going on in our lives. We think why is this happening to me? Why did I do that which has led to all of these subsequent events? Why has God allowed these things?
[34:06] Why am I like this? And yet all the time God is reminding us that our times are in his hands. As Psalm 139 says, your eyes saw my unformed substance.
[34:19] In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me when as there were yet none of them.
[34:29] Very often we are depressed because we are convincing ourselves of things that in reality are not true. If that's the case God's word is where we must go.
[34:41] And it's a reminder that it is only in the Gospel that we have a lifeline. It is only in the Gospel that we have hope. It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that we find a real and true answer to all the struggles and battles that we will face.
[35:02] And even if the source of our depression is something that is an indisputable fact, God's word is still the place that we find hope because we are reminded in Isaiah 59 that the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear.
[35:21] We must listen to God's word. We must, must listen. So God leads Elijah, God speaks to Elijah, but last of all God has plans for Elijah.
[35:39] We see that in this passage Elijah's journey is not over. Reading from verse 15, the Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus and when you arrive you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel and Elisha the son of Shafat of Abel Nahala you shall anoint to be prophet in your place and the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death yet I will leave 7000 in Israel all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.
[36:19] Elijah was on a journey that was not over and God had much more that he was going to do and we are so often crippled in depression because we forget that we are part of a bigger picture.
[36:36] Very often we take a screenshot of our lives don't we? With your phone you can take a screenshot which freezes whatever is on your screen and creates a photo of it. We can find ourselves in a certain circumstance in our lives where we think that is it, we freeze the moment and we think that is the whole story.
[36:58] There is nothing else and that is the attitude that ultimately leaves people driven to suicide.
[37:14] That is the attitude that leaves people suicidal. Elijah was suicidal, Elijah said it is better if I die, take my life away.
[37:31] And that is because he had taken a snapshot of his circumstances there and then and he thought that is it. And it is tragic because in a way suicide is this desperately tragic self-confidence in your own judgement.
[37:55] Because there you are in the depths of depression and yet you think that you found the answer and you think that you know the whole story and you think that you can judge what the solution is.
[38:11] That was what Elijah was like, one of the greatest men of God, their suicidal under a tree in the middle of nowhere because he thought he knew the whole story.
[38:24] And that is why we must, must remember that God's plans are bigger than ours.
[38:36] God's ways are not our ways. And this is where we see that God's question to Elijah is absolutely beautiful.
[38:47] What did God say to Elijah? He said, what are you doing here Elijah? Now as I said a lot of people interpret this passage negatively towards Elijah and some people assume that that is God giving Elijah a row.
[39:00] What are you doing here? But I don't actually see it that way myself. I think that this question is absolutely beautiful because when God says, what are you doing here?
[39:17] It reminds us first of all that here is where God will meet us. Here, wherever that is.
[39:30] For Elijah, it was at the lowest point of his life. Elijah was in the depths of depression. Elijah was at the point of wishing that he was dead.
[39:43] Elijah felt that all hope had gone. Elijah felt that he had made an absolute mess of everything. He was no better than his father. All hope and all optimism was gone.
[39:54] Elijah was at rock bottom and God says, what are you doing here? Because that is where God met him.
[40:06] And that is where God will meet you. God will meet you where you are. God does not say, what are you doing there?
[40:17] All the way down there in that depths of sorrow that I don't want anything to do with. Oh, God comes right beside us and says, what are you doing here?
[40:30] But we also see in this question the fact that when God says, what are you doing here? He is revealing a desire that he wants Elijah to talk to him and to tell him about what has left him in that condition.
[40:49] When God says, what are you doing here? He is wanting Elijah to talk and wanting Elijah to tell him.
[41:00] And we must do the same. When God comes to us and says, what are you doing here? He's not saying that to give us a row. He's saying that so we'll actually pour out our hearts to him and tell him what's leaving us in this state.
[41:19] And then God gives this wonderful response to Elijah and says, go. Because the journey wasn't over and much, much more lay ahead.
[41:30] The reason that God meets us here is so that he can show us where to go so he can lead us on. And we must, must remember that as God's people, our journey will only be over when we enter into paradise.
[41:49] That is when the journey will be over. That's when you can take the screenshot. That's where you can stand in judgment over how God has dealt with you. And when you reach that point, depression and exhaustion are one of the many former things that have passed away.
[42:09] God met Elijah where he was and God will do the same for you. So what does God think of the exhausted and the depressed?
[42:23] Are they a waste of space? Are they a bunch of failures? Are they those who have mucked everything up? Well I think we know that that's not how God views them.
[42:39] And so I hope that every one of us takes comfort from what we've seen in this chapter. Maybe this is something that you are experiencing now.
[42:51] Maybe it's something that you experienced in the past. More than likely it's something that every one of us will experience in the future.
[43:02] First Kings 19 reminds us that there is only one place to go. To go to God. To the one who is near to the brokenhearted.
[43:14] To the one who saves the crushed in spirit. But I hope that all of this reminds us what an amazing God we have.
[43:32] Reminding us of the hope that only the Gospel will give. And reminding us that God is willing to meet you wherever you are.
[43:44] And if you are yet to put your faith in Christ. If you are seeking Him. If you are struggling with life. If you have questions. Whatever.
[43:56] He is the only solution to these things. He is the only place that we can go. If you are going to go into the depths of depression like Elijah did without God.
[44:13] Then I have nothing I can offer you. Nothing. But if your faith is in Jesus Christ.
[44:25] Then I can give you an amazing list of abundant promises that God will never let you down.
[44:38] And so may God grant that we all seek Him. Amen. Let us pray. Amen. Let us pray. Amen. Let us pray. Amen.
[44:48] Let us pray. Amen. Let us pray. Amen. Let us pray. Amen.