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Focus: Seeing God More Clearly I Kings 19:9

A man stopped to watch a Little League baseball game. He asked one of the youngsters what the score was.
"We're losing 18-0," was the answer.
"Well," said the man. "I must say you don't look discouraged."
"Discouraged?" the boy said, puzzled. "Why should we be discouraged? We haven't come to bat yet."

Citation: Stan Toler, God Has Never Failed Me, but He's Sure Scared Me to Death a Few Times (Honor Books, 1995)

Is it possible that you feel like your score is about eighteen to nothing? Have you ever wondered what your life means and why you are sometimes feel alone and discouraged?

Once again we are examining a classic question from the Bible. Last week we looked at an event from the life of Elijah the prophet of God. What an incredible day it was as Elijah called out the false prophets of Baal to Mt. Carmel and challenged them to prove their God was alive. They failed after a daylong attempt to get their God to answer their prayers by fire. Elijah stepped forward and within seconds God had answered and consumed the sacrifice, altar and the water he had poured over the altar. It was a stunning moment of God’s presence. As a last act on that day Elijah personally killed 450 false teachers. They were the false prophets of Baal who had led the people of Israel to serve the made up god Baal. It was an incredible victory.

When King Ahab went home and told his wife Jezebel what Elijah had done she put out a threat on his life and promised to kill him. (I Kings 19:2) He went on the run and into hiding a day’s journey into the wilderness. In the middle of this experience, Elijah encounters God and God asks him a question. It is the question of the morning:

“What are you doing here Elijah?”

Sometimes we find ourselves in places that we never envisioned being in. We’re not sure how we got there and we are not sure how we are going to get out. This story relates Elijah’s experience after one of the most dramatic “wins” or miracles that God ever did through him.

I want to make a couple of Biblical observations from I Kings 19 where this story is found:

1. It is not unusual for great challenges to come after a great victory.

You just need to be aware of this. Some of you have not been a Christian or Christ follower very long. What happened to Elijah can happen to you and me. It is not unusual when you experience some great spiritual victory to face a spiritual challenge right after it.

Serving God is sometimes like taking a walk through the mountains. Sometimes you are on the top of the mountain and enjoying the view but more often than not you are enduring the journey that takes you up or down the side of the mountain. Mountain climbers will spend days or even weeks climbing to the top of a mountain only to spend a few moments at the top enjoying the view. It is a metaphor for our lives. You can’t live on top of the mountain. Life is a journey and you need to keep moving. Because we are on a journey life is full of ups and downs. Elijah had an incredible God encounter on the top of Mt. Carmel and within twenty-four hours he was in hiding and running for his life. The day before he was the man in every sense of the word and now he facing a life-threatening challenge.

2. God didn’t keep him from the problem but He did keep him through the problem.

The Bible says that he finally lay down out of sheer exhaustion, no doubt, under a broom tree and fell asleep. Before he fell asleep he had something to say to God. He prayed that he might die. The Bible says in verse four of I Kings, that Elijah said, “It is enough! Now Lord, take my life...”

Have you ever been there? Have you ever found yourself in such a state as this? One day life seems pretty normal maybe even great and the next day you just feel like dying? What a picture of life.

God didn’t keep him from the problem but He did keep him through the problem.

Look at verse five. “Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.”

It has been awhile since I touched on this subject but let me remind us again: Serving God does not mean that we will escape problems in our lives. We will escape the problems that are caused by willful disobedience to God’s laws when we quit breaking them but even the most holy of people have not escaped personal challenges and setbacks. What you have to realize is that God will take care of you during your time of challenge.

Wang Ming Dao served as the pastor of Peking’s largest church. During Communistic persecution, he was thrown into prison because of his testimony and ministry. At the hands of his perpetrators, he was tortured for his faith. Fearing even greater suffering, Dao recanted his belief in Christ and was released by the authorities. He quickly regretted his decision and was seen walking the streets of the city weeping and mumbling, “I am Judas! I have betrayed my Lord!” Within a few weeks, he was unable to bear the guilt and shame any longer. He returned to the Communist authorities, confessed his faith in Christ, and asked to be put back in prison. For the next twenty-seven years he suffered the abuse of prison life, but never again entertained the thought of denying his Lord. When Dao was released at the end of his life, the Chinese church considered him a hero who had given strength and assurance to the many who faced the perpetual threat of persecution and imprisonment. Enduring faith will experience doubts, struggles, and disappointment. It happened to John the Baptist (Matthew 11:2–3) and it will happen to every person who seeks to walk in Christ-like obedience. In times of spiritual crisis, may we be inspired by both the success and failure of people like Wang Ming Dao (1 Peter 5:9). The Vision of His Glory, Anne Graham Lotz, 1996, p. 81

In this story from Elijah’s life the Bible says that when he ate the second time this food that God had miraculously prepared that he, “went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights. . .”

Remember and hear it again:

God didn’t keep him from the problem but He did keep him through the problem.

You might think that Elijah is getting some help here from his depressive state but the Bible says that he went into a cave and spent the night. It is while he was in this cave that God came to him and ask him our question that we are considering today:

“What are you doing here, Elijah?” (I Kings 19:9)

That is the question that we believe God is asking you today. What are you doing there? What are you doing being in the place that you find yourself in today? You need to answer that question to be able to move on with your life.

Now let me give you two reasons we get in the caves of our lives:

1. Elijah focused on himself. Verse 10, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God...”

Elijah responds to God’s question by pointing to himself and trying to impress God with all the stuff he has done or not done. He ends his little statement or declaration to God by saying that he is the only person in Israel who is left that is really following God.

2. Elijah focuses on his circumstances. Verse 10, “they seek to take my life.”

I understand and I’m not trying to pick on Elijah but you will never get out of the cave of your life if all you do is focus on your circumstances. Now I know that I used this story a couple of years ago but it fit here so well I decided a few of you could stand to hear it again.

At the age of thirty-eight, Bonnie Booth may have taken extreme measures to solve one of her problems. In February of 1996, the Muncie, Indiana, resident had unsuccessfully tried to remove a callous from her foot with a razor so she resorted to more drastic measures. She drank a bottle of vodka and had two or three beers before doing “surgery” in her backyard with a .410 shotgun. She was afraid the callous was getting infected because of some severe pain so she opted to try shooting it off with a shotgun. Needless to say, she not only ended up in the medical hospital, but in the psychiatric center as well. Booth’s attempt at a solution is no doubt strange, but it might not be that very different from our own approach to problems. How many times have we exaggerated our troubles and sought to solve them through extreme measures? Regardless of the size or complexity of our problems, we can remember God’s request for us to give them to him (1 Peter 5:7). Houston Chronicle, Dec. 29, 1996, p. 21A

Somehow we need to have a better perspective on our problems.

Action steps:

1. Focus on God (Ver. 11) “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.”

We must focus our sight on God instead of our circumstances or ourselves. God was pursuing Elijah even as he was trying his best to disappear from everything and everybody.

When Elijah went out and stood on the mountain at the entrance of the cave God began to put on a show of his incredible strength. The bible says in verses 11 and 12 that, “the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind: and 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...” God wants you to see Him. He wants you to open your eyes and focus on Him.

2. Follow His voice. Ver. 12 “a still small voice”

After all the light and effects show that God put on He shows up Himself in the form of a still small voice. You would think that Elijah was getting it by now wouldn’t you? But it wasn’t the case. God had said to him, “Go out and stand. . . .” but Elijah was still in the back of the cave during all the shaking and fire because verse 13 says that, “when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.

God repeats that classic question, What are you doing here, Elijah? Elijah responds with the same exact words he used before in verse 10. He now repeats them in verse 14.

You know what that suggests to me? It suggests that Elijah had his little pity party down pat and that he was telling himself this stuff over and over. Wrong focus wouldn’t you say?

Listen to God. Let Him speak to you. Not in an audible voice but through the Word of God or a song or a sermon. God will find a way to communicate with you if you will just listen.

3. Find His will for you. Ver. 15 “Go, return on your way...”

4. Finish God’s way. Ver. 16 “you shall anoint as prophet in your place.” ( God told him he had a replacement to invest his life in.)

5. Face the facts. Verse 18 “Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (Elijah told God twice that he was the only God-follower left and God ignored him until he got his head on straight. God then just sort of drops this fact on Elijah, sort of a by the way kind of comment.)

To really appreciate this story you need to hear the first five words of chapter 20. “So he departed from there. . .”

What do you want to do about your situation? May I just speak for God a moment in your life? If you would listen real closely this morning it may be that you hear God asking you the same question. Why are you here? Why have you allowed yourself to get in this position? What are you going to do about it? When are you going to do it?

A. W. Tozer eloquently described the unusual characteristics of a Christian who lives by faith. “A real Christian is an odd number anyway. He feels supreme love for one whom he has never seen, talks familiarly every day to someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another, empties himself in order to be full, admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, goes down in order to get up, is strongest when he is weakest, richest when he is poorest, and happiest when he feels the worst. He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows that which passes knowledge.” To live by faith means embracing a lifestyle that contradicts most of life. The Root of the Righteous, A.W. Tozer, 1986, p. 156

Dr. Tony Evans recently shared the experience of a seasoned chess champion touring an art museum. While passing through the gallery, his attention was drawn to a painting that involved chess. The artist had painted a match between Satan and an outwitted young man. The picture frozen on canvas showed the two engaged in a chess game being played out for the man’s soul. The man was in obvious panic as the adversary’s hand is shown making his final move. The artist’s work is simply titled Checkmate. The chess champion stood and observed the painting for a long time. His scowl of concentration was finally softened by a slight smile. He turned to the curator and said, “I’ve got good news for the man in that picture. He still has a move.” The father of lies has convinced far too many people that he has placed them in checkmate, but the grace of God has provided every man with the hope that “he still has a move.” “Passion of the Gospel,” Tony Evans, Sept. 1999

2004/07/25