In May of 2011, Dr. Phil Reichen came to Woodruff Road and spoke at our Spring Bible Conference, delivering the finest sermons on 1 Corinthians 13 I've ever heard. When he came, Phil had just left the pulpit of the historic 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia to become the president of Wheaton College, the leading Christian liberal arts university in America. As we talked, Over that weekend, Phil was hopeful and encouraged about the future. He was brimming with excitement about his new calling. And it wasn't long after that weekend that the darkness began to descend upon him. First, he had close family members who had serious, life-threatening health issues. Then he had serious health issues. Then the ministry conflicts begin to pile up. Broken relationships, personal attacks, he couldn't sleep, he lost weight, he was constantly exhausted. Phil has documented this period in his life with an outstanding book, I cannot commend it strongly to you enough, entitled, When Trouble Comes. Phil carefully examines his own experience and he lays it next to the trials of the men and women in scripture. And he finds that in every case, what brings healing and hope to those who are discouraged, even depressed, are the ordinary means of grace. Public worship, the fellowship of the saints, prayer, and especially drinking in the word of God and its promises to the believer. Throughout this wonderful book, Phil quotes Charles Spurgeon. The great London preacher who struggled throughout his ministry was serious depression, probably brought on by burnout. As Spurgeon always stated, any form of spiritual discouragement is cured when we believe the promises of God's Word. Tonight, in 1 Kings 19, we're going to look square in the face of a mature godly man. It has to be said over and over again. We're not looking at somebody who's immature. We're looking at a mature godly man, and we are going to watch him fade to black and slide down into the abyss of depression. And what I want you to watch carefully is how the Lord ministers to him in that season of darkness. So we prepare to open this word. Let's seek the Lord's help. Oh, sovereign Lord, you've given us this text by divine inspiration, and you've promised that it will be profitable for us. profitable for doctrine, profitable for reproof, profitable for correction, and profitable for instruction in righteousness, that we might be complete, mature, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So take this word tonight and press it home to our minds and hearts, deepen our trust in Christ as King, strengthen our love to Him. We pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. You will need your copy of God's Word at the ready. We are going to be studying the text tonight, and you'll want to see, especially the transitions in our text, because this is almost like a travelogue. It's fast moving, and some action happens here, and then some action happens there, here, and then some more happens in another place. And so you don't get lost in all of the travels and the moving about. You'll want to have your copy of God's Word at the ready. Just to remind you, we first met Elijah when he delivered a prophetic word to King Ahab, when Elijah shows up on his doorstep back in 1st Kings 17, 1. And he informed him of the coming drought. Within five minutes, he told him what the prophecy was, and he turned and disappeared. Elijah disappeared to a spot by a brook, Cherith, for over three years. where he was fed by ravens. He then moves, Elijah does, to the town of Zarephath, near Queen Jezebel's home. And even though he resided with a poor widow and her son, their provisions miraculously, supernaturally, never ran out. When the widow's son died, Elijah prayed and saw him raised from the dead. Elijah was drawn from his obscurity by the call of God to meet with King Ahab. And when they met, Elijah called for a national gathering around Mount Carmel, a showdown of the gods, Baal versus Jehovah. And after giving the prophets of Baal, hundreds of thousands of Israelites gathered to watch, after giving the prophets of Baal several hours to call down fire from their God, Elijah offered the proper sacrifice on the proper altar at the proper time of day, namely when the evening sacrifice is being offered in the real temple down in Jerusalem in the southern kingdom, to the living God. Jehovah answered with fire from heaven. All hundreds of thousands of watchers saw it and acclaimed Jehovah, He is God. They killed the 450 prophets of Baal in keeping with the provisions of the Old Testament civil law. that mandated the death penalty for all who would lead Israel astray and idolatry. After the great event, Elijah prayed and the rains finally came. Elijah ran on that evening, 17 miles back to King Ahab's palace, even outrunning Ahab's chariots to arrive there. As we pick up the narrative in 19 one, Elijah is standing outside the palace in the rain. Get that picture. Here's Elijah. He's run the 17 miles from Mount Carmel. He's standing outside the king's palace. The rain is pouring down. He stands outside. King Ahab goes in, dries off, and begins telling his wife, Queen Jezebel, what occurred during that day. Look at the report in verse one and two. Ahab's report to his wife, it's been a long day, completely omits what the sovereign Lord had done just earlier that day. Look what he says. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done. Also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. Nothing you'll notice, Ahab tells Jezebel nothing about the wonders Jehovah did. How he sent fire from heaven that consumed the sacrifice and the stones on the altar and even licked up the water around the altar. And how in response to the prayer of his servant, he sent much needed rain to their drought stricken country. This proves again, look at verse one, that God has no place in the thoughts of the wicked. The unbeliever is a full-time professional truth suppressor. The unbeliever can see God's mighty works in front of their eyes, and by the end of the day, have nothing to say about them. Look at verse one. Ahab doesn't mention the name of God to his wife. He's just seen the mighty works of God. All that Ahab saw, all that retains in his mind, look at verse one, was Elijah. what he had done, how he had executed the prophets of Baal. Ahab focuses on, he obsesses with the human instrument, the secondary cause, not the power, the primary cause, the living God. This is typical of the unbeliever. Whether he acts in judgment or blessing, God himself is lost sight of and the means or the instrument are focused upon. So if a George Whitfield or Jonathan Edwards or a Billy Graham are raised up to preach and thousands are converted, the man is interviewed, marveled at, analyzed. Not the Lord, who is the one who takes out hearts of stone and gives hearts of flesh. So King Ahab relates to Queen Jezebel, look at verse one, how Elijah had mocked her prophets of Baal, how Elijah had put them all to shame by his rules for the contest. And to really stir her anger, Ahab describes in great detail how Elijah had ordered the immediate execution of all the attending prophets of Baal. Ahab throughout the scriptures is portrayed as wicked but weak, but Jezebel is no such thing. Ahab is driven by temporal desires. As long as he has plenty to eat and drink and his horses are cared for, he's content. But Jezebel's different, resolute, unscrupulous. devious. She is so wicked that John, writing in the book of Revelation hundreds of years after this historical incident, twice in Revelation 2 and Revelation 17, uses her as the figure of ultimate wickedness, speaking of the spread of wickedness. So listen to Jezebel's response to Ahab's play-by-play. She hears it all, look at verse 1, she takes it in, Then she responds. You can imagine what's happening as Ahab starts telling her about the day. Her arms cross. Her face gets redder and redder as Ahab tells the story. And she finally takes a self-imprecatory oath. It's a formal oath. Look at verse 2. where Jezebel says, so let the gods do to me and more also, she's speaking to Elijah, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them, that is the prophets of Baal who were killed by tomorrow about this time. So she's taking this self-imprecatory oath, making a vow to kill Elijah, just like he had executed the prophets of Baal. She is still, now don't you find this interesting? Ahab has just told her, you know, all the prophets of Baal were discredited today. Baal never showed up. Here was Elijah and he called on the power of God and his God answered, but Baal never answered. So here's Jezebel, even though Baal has been thoroughly discredited, who does she swear by? Look at verse two, by the gods, meaning Baal and the rest of the pagan pantheon. Now, isn't this fascinating? She has just heard all the evidence she would ever need from the mouth of her own husband, that Baal is a non-entity. And you know what she does with that? Hmm. Okay. So, may Baal do to me... But I thought he was a non-entity. So, may Baal do to me... Many Christians persist in thinking that what sinners need is more evidence. If we can just wear them down and pour out the evidence, we can expect them to wave the white flag and say, okay, I'll embrace your gospel. This fails to understand the nature of unbelief. Pharaoh, for example, saw a string of direct evidences of God's power in the plagues, yet he continued to be hardened. He saw evidence every day. And even after letting Israel go, he pursued them again, thinking he would thwart God's purposes of deliverance. People don't merely reject the gospel because they regard it as untrue. They reject it because they don't want it to be true. They reject it so they can give themselves to a worldview that makes them feel good and places no demands on them. As livid as Jezebel is, she doesn't lose all her political savvy. She knows, think of it, it's still the same day. It's the late in the evening, the same day that the contest happened atop Mount Carmel. She knows that to have Elijah killed right then, which she could have done, he's waiting right outside the door. He's just run from Mount Carmel out to the door of her palace. He's standing out there in the rain. She could have had him killed right then, but that would have put her life in danger. Earlier that day, the people of Israel had risen up and slain the prophets of Baal. She knew she had to proceed cautiously. Emotions were running high. So Jezebel gives Elijah a way out. This gets him out of her hair and out of the public eye. Look what she does in verse 2. She threatens death in 24 hours. She's telling him to get out of the country and stay out. She wants him gone. So look at Elijah's flight and his depression in verses three and four. When Elijah hears it, we see that in verse three, the word is communicated out the front door to him. Now remember, Jezebel and Ahab in the palace, Elijah standing out in the rain. They're just a few yards apart right there. But when Elijah hears of Jezebel's threat, he's caught off guard. He's thinking, well, today after Mount Carmel, shouldn't the nation have turned back to Jehovah in mass? Even Jezebel standing right there in the palace, shouldn't she have abandoned her pagan deities and turned to Jehovah? Or at least shouldn't the people have risen up and removed Ahab and Jezebel from ruling? The display of God's power didn't produce repentance in Jezebel. It only hardened her resolve to kill him. Now what this does, let me step back for just a moment and point this out. What this does is, is it prepares us for the ministry of the greater Elijah. When Jesus comes, the crowds do the same thing. They see his miracles. They even hear the thunderous voice of God from heaven in texts like John 12. But even after Jesus does all the miraculous signs in their presence, they still refuse to believe in Him. You see, miracles of themselves cannot soften hard hearts or open blind eyes. Only God can sovereignly, directly, mercifully do that. So in fear and confusion, Elijah runs. Look at verse 3. This is not his finest hour. He knows Jezebel has killed the prophets of Jehovah before. You remember back in 1 Kings 18, we're told that. So Elijah has no reason to doubt her threats. And in a moment of fear, Elijah forgets, because that's what fear does, it makes you forgetful. Elijah forgets how God had protected him and preserved him for these last four years. He forgets how just that day earlier that day, God had empowered him to face down 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah is running from a beaten enemy. So Elijah starts running. Now I want you to act like an Uber driver with me for a minute or a taxi driver if you're over about 40. And I want you to start the mileage meter running because one of the interesting things this text does is is Elijah is just running, he's frenetic, he's just running. This is what fear and depression do to you. He's just run 17 miles in the rain that day from Mount Carmel to Jezreel. Now, look at 19.3, we are told that he runs for his life and goes to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah. Now, let me give you a quick geography lesson here. Elijah is in the Northern Kingdom. Remember, Israel had split in half. And he has the sad task of prophesying to the Northern Kingdom. The temple and anything good is happening down in the Southern Kingdom. And so Elijah thinks, I'm going to run away from my problems. So he runs to the Southern Kingdom. In fact, he doesn't just run to the Southern Kingdom. He runs to the southern most city in the Southern Kingdom. It'd be like running to Key West, Florida. He runs as far south as he can go to Beersheba. Beersheba of course has deep associations with every Israelite because it plays a role in the life of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who all dwelled there, lodged there. Perhaps Elijah is unaware. Now you're going to see the irony here. That when he runs from the Northern kingdom because there's a wicked king and queen there, Ahab and Jezebel, and runs to the Southern kingdom, He's unaware that Jehoram is the king over the southern kingdom. Jehoram is married to Ahab and Jezebel's daughter, Athaliah. This is what's known as running from the frying pan into the fire. This is the same Athaliah who will try later to exterminate all of David's heirs to the throne. She is her mother Jezebel's daughter. After the lengthy journey, now remember, he ran, first of all, 17 miles to Jezreel, then he runs 95 miles to Beersheba. So our Uber meter has him up about 212 miles. Elijah's getting in shape. After the lengthy journey south to the wilderness outside of Beersheba, Elijah props down under a broom tree. Do you see it there in verse four? This is a shrub that grows wild in Israel and provide some shade. Elijah prays and he begins with an assertion to God. Now, some of you have probably said these words or something very similar to it in the past week. I want you to look carefully at how Elijah prays. He begins this way. It is enough. You know this moment. When you've said to the Lord or to others these false statements, Have you ever said things like this? I don't deserve this. I can't take this anymore. My problems can't be solved. And then Elijah does something breathtaking. He asked to die in verse 4. Do you think he's depressed and confused? The man who was, think about how how wrong-headed Elijah is. The man who runs because he's afraid to die at the hand of Jezebel now asked to die at the hand of the Lord. By the way, other Christian men have done the same thing. Moses asked God to kill him in Numbers 11. Jonah asked God to take away his life in Jonah chapter four. But interestingly, look at verse four. The man who asked God to end his life never dies. He's taken up to heaven, skipping death, if you'll remember in 2 Kings 2. But let me say this again. When you see this activity in 1 Kings 19, this is Elijah at his worst. Each of you in this room at some point, and perhaps this has been your life already, but each of you will have bitter trials, disappointments, pain, and crushed hopes. How are you to respond? Is it to say to the Lord, it's enough, I'm tired of this life, I wanna die now? No. Take courage, the Lord has work for you still to do. It is for him to say when your life is to end and not you to ordain your minutes and your hours. Well, I wanna analyze some of the reasons for Elijah's depression. First of all, he's physically tired. He's tired from all his travels and all his running and he needs rest. Remember, he ran 17 miles ahead of Ahab. Then he's run over 90 miles south, hiding from Jezebel's agents all the way. Now he's hiked, look at verse four, he's hiked a day's journey out into the wilderness, probably another 10, 15 miles, and not on paved trails. He's frantic, he just keeps running. He needs rest. God's going to supply it. Another reason why he's depressed is he's lonely. Look at verse four, or end of verse three. He's even left his servant behind. He's alone. Depression often stems from cutting oneself off from fellow believers. Elijah needs fellowship, so the Lord is sending him to Elisha. He's also hungry and thirsty, and the Lord's going to feed him in verses six through eight. He's also, these are some of his other reasons for depression, he's also fearful, and so the Lord's going to strengthen him and reassure him. He's also, he's got all of the classic cases, all the classic reasons for being depressed, he's also engaged in a great deal of self-pity. Now I have to tell you, self-pity is never an attractive practice for a Christian. He's also engaged in a deep amount of pride since he doesn't think he deserves such things. That's why he says in verse 3 or in verse 4, it's enough. He thought Ahab and Jezebel would repent after Mount Carmel and all would live happily thereafter and his picture would be put up in the prophet's hall of fame. So now he's grown disillusioned. the Lord is going to tell Elijah, Elijah, I'm really at work. I have thousands of other regenerate believers around. Don't think you're the only one fighting against evil. But really at the core of his depression is he slipped into some faulty views of God. Elijah thinks he's indispensable. And so the Lord is about to clarify Elijah's theology and show Elijah that he, Jehovah, is firmly in control. He's sovereign over the nations. It's amazing how often That is the cure for the depressed believer. It's astounding how often in Scripture, when people are depressed, what cures them, what brings them hope, is the sovereignty of God. Well, look at verses 5-8, at God's provision for Elijah. First of all, we see in verse 5, he lay down and slept under the brim tree. God, we are told in Psalm 127, 2, God grants his beloved sleep. Those of you who struggle with chronic pain or fears and worries and insomnia, you know what a gift a good night's sleep is. And so first thing God does is, beginning in verse 5, God begins to lift Elijah up. And the first thing he does is give him rest. And then he provides him, look at verse 6, he provides him daily bread and water. Isn't this interesting? This is the exact same food, same Hebrew word for the food provided by the widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings 17. The psalmist had said in Psalm 23 and Psalm 78, God can prepare a table in the wilderness for his people. And here's an example of that provision. Out in the middle of nowhere, the Lord waits on Elijah and feeds him a good meal. And doesn't this tell us something? God cares about your physical needs and mine. Even when you're pouting and depressed, God knows your frames. He made you this way. He knows you have bodily needs such as food and water and sleep, and that we are not just disembodied souls. And so one of the things you see happening in verses five through eight is God caring for Elijah's body. That's why I'm always a little creeped out when people say Jesus died to save our souls. No, that's an incomplete statement. Christ died to save our bodies and souls. He will raise up our body on the last day in the resurrection. Christ deeply cares about your body and your soul. And this is proof of it. By the way, look at verse 7. We are told that Elijah's cook and waiter was the angel of the Lord. This is an Old Testament title for the Lord Jesus Christ, for a theophany. So when somebody asks, where is Christ in this text? Because the interpreter, the preacher's task is always to find Christ in the text and preach Him. Where is Christ in this text? He's right there in verse 7, do you see it? The angel of the Lord. He's the one, Christ is the one who provides daily bread for His people and even serves them. This is a theophany, a temporary appearance of the second person of the Trinity in the Old Testament. Think of how the Lord Jesus does the exact same thing after His own resurrection. He had much to teach His disciples before He ascended, but He knew they were hungry since they'd been fishing all night. And so in John chapter 21, here's the Lord Jesus risen from the dead, and what do we find Him doing in John 21? Fixing breakfast on the seashore and serving it to His disciples. Because He cares about our bodies. This meal that the Lord prepares for Elijah suffices supernaturally for six weeks. Look at it in verse 8. We read, So He arose, ate and drank, and He went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. So now Elijah, road weary, goes on another journey. He goes now 200 more miles. So add that to the 17 miles, the 95 miles, the 10 or 15 miles outside, and our meter in our Uber taxi has Elijah well over 300 miles now. wandering in the wilderness, look how far he goes, 40 days, 40 nights, going to verse eight, as far as Mount Horeb. This is also Mount Sinai. I don't have the time tonight to unpack all the symbolism for you, but Elijah is doing something that the very savvy Old Testament scholar picks up on. He is symbolically replaying Israel's history and their desert wanderings. That's why he moves around 40 days and 40 nights. He's traveling in the same wilderness that the Exodus generation wandered and died. And as he walks past their graves, that generation who fell in the wilderness, he would be reminded of the futility of rebellion against God. He's going to Mount Horeb. Again, another name for Mount Sinai. It's where God met Moses at the burning bush and where God gave Israel the tablets of the law. When we come to verse 9-17, this is where the real confrontation happens. The discussion between the Lord and Elijah. I want you to notice carefully what the Lord says to Elijah. This is where you really need to have your red pen out and watch the dialogue carefully. So first of all, you see a pattern repeated. The Lord has to say things a couple times to Elijah because he doesn't get it the first time. He's so deeply immersed in looking at his own navel and so depressed that the Lord has to repeat some things to draw his head up and get him to look around. So the Lord asks Elijah twice. Look at it in verse 9 and then in verse 13, what are you doing here? The answer is nothing. He's just engaging in a pity party of fear. So Elijah, twice, look what he pleads in verse 10 and then again in verse 14. He has this little set speech. You see it? Because he says the exact same thing twice. No doubt as he's running, as he's running down to Beersheba, as he's running to Horeb, he's rehearsing this speech of why he deserves to be depressed. Look at it there in verse 10. When the Lord asks him what he's doing here. Here it comes. I've been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel, forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life." And so listen to what Elijah's pleading. His zeal, Israel's apostasy, and his aloneness and danger. Each time the Lord responds to him by telling him to go, in verse 11 and 12 and verses 15 through 18. So after the first go, in verse 11, the Lord tells him to go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. Now, this is one of the most compelling scenes. This is something Cecil B. DeMille can't recreate in a movie. Cecil B. DeMille, by the way, will be known by those of you who know what taxis are and not those of you who know what Ubers are. So he, Elijah, is told to go, and look at the scene beginning in verse 11. And it looks just like what the Lord showed the nation of Israel right there at Horeb and Sinai when he gave the law to Moses. So look at the sequence. This is an astounding. I don't think you and I even have the mental capacities to get a full grip on the sequence of mightiness. First of all, there's a strong wind in verse 11. The wind's so strong that it breaks rocks. Now remember Elijah's up on a mountain. And so Elijah would be clinging there to a ledge to keep from toppling into the ravine, because the wind that's coming, it's so strong, the rocks are breaking, they would be falling down the mountain, catapulting into a landslide. Sandy and I, because we are Okies, we've been in tornadoes, and we've seen strong wind. But I've never seen a wind so strong that it shatters boulders and pulls them off a mountain. But that's just the beginning of this fearsome display. Look at verse 11 as well. It's followed by an earthquake, ground shaking, earth opening earthquake. Then in verse 12, a fire, a fire that scorches all the vegetation off of the top of Mount Horeb. Then in the eerie stillness, after the wind and the quake and the fire, Elijah could faintly hear a soft sound. Nothing spectacular about it. Look what we read in verse 13. Suddenly a voice came to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? After the second go, the Lord tasked Elijah with ministry duties. In both cases, the Lord takes Elijah's mind off himself. Now, you will notice at the end of verse 12, we read, after the earthquake of fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire, a still small voice. This is one of those yanked out of context, folk religion, verses that people will use. I can't tell you as a new Christian how many people, when I'd go to them seeking counsel for guidance, they would say things like this, listen to the still small voice. Mystics, listen to the still small voice and think, I never hear any still small voices. I can read my Bible. I know what God says there. No, Carl, you need to listen for the still small voice. Do you know what the still small voice says in this text? Look at verse 12. For those of you who like folk religions, stuff like this, and don't read the context of Scripture too carefully, do you know what the still small voice says? It's God's word of judgment. Because in the context, in the still small voice, after the wind, the earthquake, and the fire, God speaks in this very quiet voice. That is His word of judgment. So pick up God's word of judgment. Look at verses 15 through 17. These are the Lord's new ministry instructions for Elijah. First of all in verse 15, Go anoint Hazael as king over Syria. God is saying, I'm the sovereign Lord over non-Israelite countries, so I'm sending you there. Then in verse 16, Anoint Jehu as the new king over the northern kingdom in place of Ahab. Then in verse 16, Elijah anoint Elisha as prophet in your place, as your successor, since Elijah's days are obviously now short. This interesting triumvirate will take care of Ahab and Jezebel. And here, what we're going to see is these three men who Elijah is going to has a role in each of their life, Hazael, Jehu and Elisha. They will take care of Ahab and Jezebel. Here, we're going to see how God can use a variety of tools in his hands, believers and unbelievers. Incidentally, Elijah only got around to doing one of the three tasks God gives him, the anointing of Elisha. And Elisha acted as his representative with the other two. Look at verse 17. The Lord informs Elijah of the protocol of judgment. will be the first line of judgment upon Ahab and Jezebel, followed by Jehu, who'll be the second line of judgment upon Ahab and Jezebel, and Elisha the prophet will clean up the remains and kill the rest. And what the Lord is telling Elijah is, he's in control of the nations and he has a plan to bring Ahab and Jezebel down. It involves foreign kings, wicked kings, but he has it under control. He's not the least bit upset by Ahab and Jezebel. And the reason why the Lord showed Elijah this magnificent display of power, the wind, the earthquake, the fire, was to demonstrate he's not bothered by the wicked rule of Ahab and Jezebel. And if he can send a tornado-style cyclone that can peel rocks off a mountain, if he can follow that up with an earthquake that registers over an 8 on the Richter scale, and if he can follow that up with a fire that scorches every plant off of Mount Horeb, he can dethrone one wicked king and his idolatrous wife. But the Lord has one more thing to teach Elijah. Look at verses 10 and verse 14. Elijah makes this assertion, and whenever you make this, you're in big trouble. I alone am left. And then again in verse 14. I alone am left. Elijah asserts that he's the church. The church is him. He's the remnant. Do you think that there's just a little bit of self-importance at work here? This is the subset of the person who says, no one understands. No one has ever gone through what I'm going through. You can't understand my trials. I have a right to be depressed and self-pitying because no one has ever had the kind of problems I'm having. Apparently Elijah had not been listening to Obadiah in 1 Kings 18. When Obadiah clearly told him there were 150 other prophets alive and well. God can't let this statement pass unchallenged. When Elijah says, I alone am left, I'm it. Lord, your purposes on earth depend on me. I alone am left. So look at what the Lord says to him in verse 18. He says, Elijah, I reserved 7,000 in Israel. all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him." This is the Old Testament equivalent to Christ saying in Matthew 16, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And what God is teaching Elijah is he always has a people and that people we now know in the new covenant will always be an expanding people. All the persecution from all the Jezebels in the world cannot stop God from saving and sanctifying the people and causing them to persevere in faithfulness. Elijah needed to stop thinking that he was the whole plan of God and everything in the kingdom of God revolved around him and recognize God is at work all over the place with many others. He was important certainly, but not indispensable. All of God's servants, especially you and I, are expendable. And there is always someone else God can raise up to serve him. So let me show you how erroneous Elijah's calculations are. Look at verse 14. I alone am left. Here's what depression and self-pity can do. Do you know how right he was? He was one 7,000th right. He was only off by 6,999. That's what depression does. It completely shakes your focus up. You don't have a grasp on reality. Elijah is so delusional. He thinks, well, the real number is 7,000, but I think there's one believer. The Lord says, no, there's 7,000. His calculations were off. How do we apply this word? Let me make three brief applications of this text tonight. First of all, I remember when we were preaching through the life of David a couple of years ago, and more than once people would come up to me and say, Carl, this is depressing. I loved David until we began to really dig into the text, and now I see, boy, this guy's got problems coming out of his ears. When we see the feet of clay of Elijah, doesn't this remind us, when we see the self-pity, the fear, the depression? It reminds us that every child of Adam is fallen, weak, and in need of grace. Only the God-man, Jesus Christ, has no failings. He is the only hero of the story. Look at him there in verse 7. This is the hero. When you're looking and thinking, where are the heroics? There it is. When the hero of the story comes and serves his people, feeds them bread and water. That's the hero. the only one who is never self-pitying, the only one who never has a false view of reality, the only one who always thinks of others and not himself. Remember that. The only hero of the story through the whole biblical narrative is the God-man Jesus Christ. Second application. This text shows you the truth of 1 Corinthians 10, 13. There is no temptation which is overtaking you, but such as is common to man. I'm not much of a counselor. That's why we have Pastor Dodds and Pastor Anderson to cover all of my weaknesses and them some. But I know a few things about depression over the last 30 years, having counseled a few folks. The temptation to fear, and be depressed is nothing new or special. And the person who's depressed usually wants to trot that out and say, you don't understand. You don't understand how unique my situation is. I have a right to be self-focused and not to serve and not to be others focused and to give up on the means of grace and to basically just wallow in my belly button. You're not unique. The scripture says so. There is no temptation which is overtaking you, but such as is common to man. You're not unique, you're like Elijah. And just as God provided a way out of fear and depression for him, he will do so for you. And as our friend, Phil Reichen said, it will largely be through the ordinary means of grace. not neglecting the fellowship of the saints, diving deep into the word, engaging in biblical prayer, and focusing on service to others. Do you notice what God does to pull Elijah up out of his depression? He gives him a task. He sends him to go to this king, that king, and that prophet. He gets him busy instead of curled up in a fetal position in a cave atop Mount Horeb. Finally, We do it often, but let me plead with you tonight to mortify and repent of all gloomy views of the strength and number of God's elect. God's people are legendary for underselling what God is doing in the world. He is sovereign. He's gathering a massive church of worshipers from every nation, tribe, and tongue. Do not insult His power by saying, I alone am the faithful one. Just because you don't know them or see them, don't demean God's global work. Right now, today, today on this day, January 15, 2017, close to two billion, with a B, not an M, billion people met in the name of Jesus Christ to worship Him. And His church is growing so rapidly, the church growth theorists can't even keep track. And remember, our God can keep and even increase His church even during the most severe times of persecution. If Elijah doesn't convince you, then the church in China and North Korea today should convince you of that. Our God has a church, and he is building it for his own glory. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray for our hearts as we receive this word, that you would take away all dreariness and fear and worry and sadness and depression, and you would replace it with a settled trust in you and your purposes to build your church. Strengthen us now through this word, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.