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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eric Walsh

Elijah: Part 2

And we'll go right into this message this afternoon.

Our second part on Elijah, if you have your Bibles, turn to me to 1 Kings 19 and verse 1.

And if you don't you can follow along on the screen.

And the Bible says in 1 Kings 19 and verse 1, And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and with all, how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.

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 the life of 1 of them by tomorrow about this time.

Verse 3 says, and when he saw that, he arose and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree.

And he requested for himself that he might die and said, it is enough now, oh Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's.

Take away my life, for I am not better than my father's.

A message this Sabbath afternoon is entitled Elijah, Part 2, Facing Fear.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity, Lord, to study your word.

I ask now, Father God, that Lord, you make me just a nail upon the wall, a rusty, sorry, seemingly useless nail, Lord.

But upon that nail, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Instead, Father God, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

This is our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name.

So We left off from this morning where Elijah had just gained this incredible victory.

And not only had he shown Ahab and all of the nation of Israel that Baal was not God because Gael is supposed, Baal is supposed to bring the rain and instead of there being rain when Elijah spoke for 3 years there was absolutely no rain.

Showing that the God Baal was a false god and that the real God was the God Jehovah.

On top of that when he gets to Mount Carmel and he brings all of Israel together, when Elijah prays a simple prayer, fire comes down from heaven and not only consumes the sacrifice and the wood, it burns up the stones, the dust, the water, and even the water entrenched around the altar.

The prophets of Baal have spent the morning jumping up and down, sweating, cutting themselves, carrying on crazy, hoping that in that process they would gain favor with their God and fire would come from heaven and nothing happens.

The children of Israel recognize quickly that yes, the God of heaven is God.

The small black cloud, the size of a man's hand, is on its way.

The sky goes black and rain is about to fall.

And you can tell at the end of the story, at that part of the story, that Elijah really thinks that now everybody's going to turn their hearts and turn their minds, and they're going to come to God.

All of a sudden, overnight, there's going to be this radical transformation in Israel.

Instead, we go to the second part of the two-part message, and we get to 1 Kings 19 and verse 1.

And the scripture says, Ahab doesn't run back to Jezebel and say, we are serving the wrong god.

We need to make a change in our lives and in our home and for this nation.

Instead Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.

This kind of tells you who's in control in their house.

Now, you know, I joke when I say this, but Jezebel has a gangster's mentality.

And I say that because when you read this verse, literally she has like a gangster's mentality that if you hurt 1 of our people, we're gonna whack 1 of yours.

And she says, then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, so let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not your life as the life of 1 of them by tomorrow about this time.

In response to what happens, Jezebel is not saying, maybe this is the true God, maybe we have it wrong.

She becomes more convinced in the way she's going and decides to send a messenger to warn Elijah that she's gonna kill him.

Now this is where it shows that she really isn't that sure because if he really wanted to kill Elijah you'd send an assassin and not a messenger.

So it shows you that she's She's not quite there because in fact she has respect for Elijah.

I mean after all that's told to her she must have respect for Elijah but she now wants to defend her God.

Verse 3 says, and when he saw that he arose and went for his life.

Elijah the man of God who just took down 450 prophets of Baal, facedown 850, called fire from heaven.

When the queen sends a message saying I'm going to kill you he takes off running and he went and he went when he saw that he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah.

So he runs out of the whole nation of Israel into the nation of Judah and left his servant there.

Then his only companion he leaves behind.

Verse 4, He said, but he himself went another day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree And he requested for himself that he might die So he goes from afraid to alone to where now he would rather not live.

The transformation of this man, once standing in front of the whole congregation of Israel, bold and proud, calling down fire from heaven, looking Ahab down, And now he's cowering alone under a juniper tree because the queen says she's going to get him.

Now, Oh Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's.

He begins to doubt who he is, maybe doubt his mission.

In fact, it seems as if some form of depression begins to take over Elijah, and he gives up on everything, despite all of the evidence of what God has done for him, he begins to give up.

We live in a country where this is commonplace.

More than 1 in 20 Americans age 12 and over have depression.

More than 1 in 7 poor Americans have depression.

Rates of depression were higher in 40 to 59 year olds, women and non-Hispanic black persons, than in any other demographic group.

We live in a nation that is alone, under the juniper tree, and asking, why should I live?

This is the reality of what has happened to our world.

As God has been extracted from the schools, as immorality is on the rise, as we have situations like Columbine and Sandy Hook in Connecticut, and most recently what happened in Santa Monica.

People begin to be afraid, and fear grips them, and depression takes over.

And their hearts are empty because there is no true abiding presence of God and they're poor and they're struggling and they can't live like they wanna live.

And 1 of the things that happens in the United States is we are watched as we have an epidemic of drug addiction.

You know, people talk about the war on drugs.

And when I do public health talks, I always say the war on drugs is really a misnomer.

The war on drugs is really more an issue of simple economics.

If there was no demand, there'd be no supply.

The drugs exist in America because people will do anything to buy it and use it.

And as long as there's that kind of a demand, somebody will figure out a way to supply it.

We live in a country where people live with this God-sized hole that if you hear me preach, you hear me talk about all the time, that I found out about doing my addiction medicine rotation at the Veterans Hospital, when after the end of 1 of their group sessions, they hold hands and they said, God made the human heart so big that only he can fill it.

If you try and fill the God-sized hole in your heart with marijuana or cigarettes or alcohol or sex or pornography, you'll become an addict because it isn't going to fulfill you.

You see, what you don't need, I heard this at a recent Adventist conference.

Neil Nedley or which 1 of them that said it, but it was a great statement.

It was a statement that said, what you don't need will never satisfy you.

Because what you don't need can never fill that hole.

What you don't need will never make you fulfilled.

It just won't because what you don't need, you don't need.

And often what happens is people are filling themselves with what they don't need and not getting what they do need That's right an incredible book recent just like a couple weeks ago Joe Furman's book eat to live if you haven't read it It's a profound amazing book that you'd think he read The Spirit of Prophecy first and then read the book on health and things.

And he makes this amazing point of why many of us who are vegetarians don't reach optimal health.

It's because we don't give up eating meat and replace it with fresh raw vegetables and fruits So we don't go from we go from a meat we go from a meat diet to a meat-free diet But we still have a processed food filled diet a dairy filled diet.

And the problem is you still don't need that stuff.

Ultimately, spiritually, it works the same way.

We're not getting our spiritual roughage.

We're not getting the organic, whole grain plant foods that we need.

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Elijah: Part 2

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