Hey man, this is Pastor Darrell Bailey coming to you this Sunday. I hope and pray that this finds each and every one of you well. It's good to come into your homes and I hope and pray that as we get a little bit closer to Mother's Day, I look over to my calendar over here because Next Sunday, if the Lord doesn't come back, it'll be Mother's Day. And I'm looking forward to that. Many of you don't have your mothers, and I want to encourage you to continue lifting up Sister Sheila, Sr. As last Friday, we went in the service for Mrs. Jones, Helen Jones. The Lord was there, she had peace, and she's where we want to be, Amen. But we physically, that family's going to miss Mrs. Helen Jones, all of her family. So I want to encourage you to keep them lifted up. And we're going to have just a word of prayer here shortly. And I want to remind you, many of us, we need to count our blessings each and every day, because sometimes we've got to name them. We don't realize how truly blessed we are. even when things are coming down at a hard time. And so I wanna encourage you there. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for being with us each and every day. I ask you, Lord, to continue forgiving us of our many sins. And Lord, I ask that you'll just use us today as we speak to all of our church family, those on Facebook, People's Valley Baptist Church, Lord, thank you so much for them and what a blessing they've been to Lita and I over the last many years, Father, that we've been there. And Lord, I pray God that you'll just use us to help those that are depressed, that are discouraged today, as we look back on this message, Father, that Lord, that it'll help us as we give courage over fear. And Lord, in this series, I ask you, Lord, right now, Lord, that you'll be with the many that are lost. that needs salvation. And Lord, I ask you, Lord, that you'll just take this message and let it be an encouragement. Be with the many, Lord, that are in Bartow County, those that are in government, our governor, Kemp, that we lift him up in the mighty name of Jesus and all of our brothers and sisters in Christ, our fellow pastors. Lord, I pray that you'll use them all mightily today as well. And Lord, I pray that you'll knock at a lost sinner's heart. Save them by your marvelous grace before it's too late before you come back and Lord Thank you for this great opportunity in Jesus's marvelous name. Amen Thank you. I thank God is it's good to be here with each and every one of you and Today as we pick back up on our serious courage over fear today. We're talking about recharging your spirit It's about Elijah and how that he got down and out after one of the greatest miracles of all time of the altar that he had. And I thank God as we are reminded sometimes of some of those things. It was one of the greatest and the most powerful times in his life. But you know many of us when we come up on the holidays, especially Mother's Day, the holidays magnify our emotions. During the holidays, The good is good, but also the bad is bad. More people get engaged during the holidays more than any other time of the year. More families fight more than any other time of the year as well. So some people are really going through an agony right now when holidays come up. Probably about 17.5 million people face depression. and emotions every year. And so it's sad that most people are affected by depression. It's no respect to a person. And so every one of us can fall into that category at one time or another. And so I want you to realize that this is going to be a very painful topic for some people that go through and experience this. And so it's sad that today that many people, as we talk about depression, it's going to affect them tremendously, whether through a heartbreak of either chemical or chronical or clinical depression. Many many people are going through this and are experiencing and I thank God one of the biblical stories out of first Kings 18 and 19 Elijah is a preacher in the Old Testament, and he had an enormous task as a preacher to go to the king Ahab who was a very wicked king and his Queen Jezebel and tell them how wicked they really were because of their wickedness and their poor leadership and That it was on a national level that God was going to bring a drought on the land And it was not going to rain for a good number of years And it's every bit of your fault Ahab and Jezebel your leadership has brought this upon Now Ahab and Jezebel they didn't like Elijah very much after this and part of the problem of the monarchy was the atrocious practice of Baal worship some of the things that they had done and so I thank God as we look in this series, Courage Over Fear, May the 3rd, 2020, the 9th of our 5780, according to the Jewish calendar, amen. We're gonna be talking about Recharge Your Spirit, amen. Thank God as we look and put the Word of God up, many of you may not be able to see that, but I hope and pray that as you do, That you're able to follow along with us But the Bible says but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and this is in first Kings chapter 19 verse 4 The Bible tells us 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 and Elijah walked a whole day into the wilderness. He stopped. He sat down in the shade of a tree and he wished that he would die. You know, it's too much, Lord, is what he was saying. He prayed. He said, take away my life that I might as well be dead. Now, you know, that's the thing that he was going through. And the question is, many of us find ourselves in these same situations. What are we doing here? What's happening in our life, ape man? And so I thank God, on this particular day, hundreds of prophets of Baal had gathered on a hillside called Mount Carmel, and they were standing against them, this lonely preacher, Elijah. There was a showdown of sorts that was kind of like in the Old West, that they were gonna face off, and they were clearly gonna establish once and for all who the one true God is. And so Elijah said, you know, let's build two altars. I'm going to build one to my God over here, and you build one to your God over there. And we'll put meat on those altars, kind of like a sacrifice, and we'll each pray. And we'll see which God sends fire from heaven and burns up the barbecue, amen. And we'll see who the true God is. And he tells the prophets of Baal, hey, you go first. You know, so they built their altar, they stacked the meat on top of it, and all day long they prayed, they cried, they pleaded at the day's end, and of course, the rock was what they made their idol out of, of Baal. And so all of a sudden, here comes Elijah's moment. He says, just before I pray, there's a couple of things that I want to do. I want you to get some barrels of water and pour it all over my altar. And I don't want anybody to think that it's an accidental spark that's lit this sacrifice of this altar. And there's going to be a fire. And so he said, just to make sure that there's no question in anybody's mind, at the end of the day, I want a trench dug around my altar and I want you to fill it full of water. Once the whole deal had been doused sufficiently Elijah prayed to the one true God and immediately The fire fell from heaven, consuming the sacrifice and drying up all the water that was in the trench. And beyond that, God signaled that the drought was going to be over because his power had already clearly been seen, amen. And the practice of Baal worship had been soundly defeated. And so Elijah looked in the sky and here came a rain cloud. He began to look up and Elijah says to King Ahab, Ahab it's going to rain. You know, you came up on this mountain in your chariot, and the ground's gonna get pretty muddy. If you want to get back to town without your chariot wheels getting stuck and bogged down, you better start right now. And so, he took off flying in his chariot, and there was an unusual thing. The Bible says that the power of God came upon Elijah, and he outran Ahab's chariot all the way back to town. If you was to look on a map, it'd be about 18 miles away. You know, as you look at this, Elijah found out that, a short time later, that here he came to a tree, sat down under it, and he prayed that he might die. You know, I've had enough, Lord, he said. I want you to take my life. You know, is this incredible to you? Because, you know, this is a momentous experience. And I think God, the headlines the next day probably said, the king of the hill is now in the dumps. Can you imagine? You know, of all the things that we look, in verse 1, 1 Kings chapter 19, verse 1, the Bible says, and Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and with all how that he had slain all the prophets with a sword. Now Jezebel, she was at President Mount Carmel when Ahab returned to Jezreel and he began to talk with his queen and imagine the thing of the conversation that was taking place. Jezebel says something like this. Well, how did it go today? What happened? Did the fire consume all of the altar? And Ahab says, yes, Jezebel. Way to go, honey. You know, that will show that the prophet, who basically all the Jehovah whispers are out there, you know, hey, did you get rid of that nut? And Ahab says, no. no I didn't you know and Jezebel says well why not Ahab begins to tell the story says well the fire fell Jezebel you know but it was the God of heaven that did it not Baal and I also I want to tell you that all the 450 prophets of Baal they're dead Jezebel Elijah had the people execute every one of them and there's nothing that I could do about it and then here comes Jezebel again they're all dead And Ahab says, yes, they're all wiped out. And at this point, Jezebel's face may have become flushed with anger. Perhaps she begins to pace back and forth. with her fist clenched, and she screams for Jezebel's Federal Express man. You know what? In verses two and three of 1 Kings chapter 19, the Bible says, 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 one of them, by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that he arose and he went for his life, he came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. Now you know what? What in the world is going on? You see, here is a mighty man of God. He runs to Beersheba in an isolated cave, away from everything. And you know, all because of the response of what Jezebel had said when she sent word to him, Amen. She put out a warn on Elijah, decreeing that his destruction would come within the next 24 hours, and she calls for his death from her gods, and if she doesn't kill Elijah, this is easy for her to say, considering the fact that her gods do not exist. They ain't nothing but a stone of nothing. And so, here we begin to realize that she's doing nothing but bluffing the mighty man of Elijah, amen, and he takes off and runs off, amen. And all of a sudden, she's giving him a warning about all of the things that's taking place, Amen. And so we see his response. He flees for his life. Here is all the things that he does. He's known for a great character. This is Elijah, Amen. I tell you, I don't understand. He's known for his boldness. He's known for his courage, especially a series that we're calling Courage Over Fear. And this man went to the king, he told him that it would not rain until he said so, amen. This is the kind of a man of God who returned to the king and he said, behold Elijah is here, amen. And so this is one of the one that withstood from the 450 prophets of Baal. He boldly ordered the execution of every one of these false prophets. And here's the question that arises at this point. Why is Elijah running from Jezebel? He's a mighty man of God. I want to ask you the same thing. Why are you running and why are you afraid and what is happening in your life right now? Because many of you have a fear and you need to have courage. Everything that's transpiring in America today, you don't need to be afraid because there will be a resolve. it is going to come to an end. Don't know when, but I know that it will, because we all have courage and we have faith over fear, and especially in times like this. The best of men are only men at best. Elijah was human, and God shows both sides of this great man. He shows his weaknesses, and he also shows his strength, a man. Elijah's running from Jezebel, and that wasn't a part of God's will. running off to where he did, that wasn't a part of God's will. That wasn't in God's plan. Sometimes you're doing some things that's not in God's plan. And so many of us today as we go through life, we're going to realize that Beersheba was in the boonies. And it was in a wilderness. And he leaves his servant behind. And I thank God he's quitting. Why? All of a sudden he's focusing on the wrong things. Elijah goes another 15-20 miles into the desert. He's all alone. His attitude is, Lord, I've had enough. You know, it's not worth it. I just want to die. And you know, have you ever been there? You know, this is really not a very wise prayer, is it? You know, ain't you glad that God doesn't always answer all the foolish prayers that we pray a lot of times? Lord, I just want you to take my life. Many of God's men have been deeply depressed many a time. Elijah's under a juniper tree, which grows to be about 12 feet. It's got small leaves and fragrant flowers. He's all alone in the desert under this tree and he wants to die. And this happened after a great victory. You know, we're vulnerable after victories a lot of times. So what is he doing here, Amen? I thank God we've got to be able to beware of the potential problems. We've got to be proactive in the steps that we take, Amen. And so I thank God every one of us as we look and realize of all the things The problem spot for him was just physical fatigue. You know, in my past I've done some things that really gets me in trouble, but I thank God every one of us, all of us, go through problems at some time of another eight man. And the factor here that's a constant problem is, and every one of us, is sometimes we run into pressure One pressure after the next hey man you ever notice that small problems look like big problems when you're having a lot of problems Somebody wrote it this way even shadows of short people look long when the Sun's going down and so it wasn't that Jezebel was so tough and She just happened to come along in a long line of other pressures that Elijah had faced. And to him, Jezebel looked like a giant, but she wasn't. I'll tell you, Elijah was alone. He thought that he was alone. I don't know how many of you are anticipating being alone during the Mother's Day. Probably all of us because we have to stay confined to a certain amount of length from each other. But I'm going to tell you something. Each one of us, as we look and realize, Elijah felt far from God because he was so tired. And within him, there was a despairing spirit, Amen. You know, I tell you, one of the things that we see today is the beware of potential problems, but I thank God there's factors of Elijah's depression. Factor number one was he had fatigue. Factor number two was he had floundering feelings. Factor number three is he focused on the trials and the troubles that were happening. And factor number four, he was flourishing with so much pride. And then factor number five, he had fellowship that was lacking as well. And so I thank God many of us as we go through the same things in our life today. You know every one of us when you look and realize the same thing happened to Jonah Because he just experienced one of the greatest revivals in world history amen, but in jonah chapter 4 verses 3 and verse 8 uh, we realize that uh, all of a sudden the east wind come upon him and the sun beat upon the head of jonah that he fainted and he wished in himself to die and he said it is better for me to die than to live And so this happened to Jonah. This happened to Moses. Because Moses became so depressed from the complaints of the people, amen, in Numbers chapter 11, verses 13, 14, 15, that it said in verse 15, And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in thy sight, and let me not see my wretchedness. And so Jonah got depressed. Moses got depressed, amen. Job got depressed and drained physically and emotionally. In Job chapter 6, verses 8 and 9, Job chapter 10, verse 1, David's troubles, especially with King Saul, depressed him, amen. In Psalms 42, 6, Jeremiah struggled with depression to the point that he wished that he had never been born in Jeremiah 20, verses 14 through 18, amen. And so every one of us have experienced going through major depressions and especially what we're dealing with right now. And so of all these factors, the fatigue, Elijah was drained physically. He had went through Mount Carmel's conflict, he ran 20 miles, and he had little food intake, and when you're weak or sick, it's easy to become depressed, Abe man, and vulnerable. Satan tempted Jesus after 40 days of 40-day fast, Abe man. And so we see the factor of fatigue, the second factor of floundering feelings, amen. Elijah was emotionally drained, amen. Extreme emotional highs lead to deep lows, amen. You know, sometimes women that have the beautifullest babies after birth, they begin to get all of a sudden down and out and depressed with floundering feelings, amen. And so I thank God. Go rest so that you don't become so emotionally drained. Take a break and collect your wits, Amen. Listen to some soothing music, Amen. Have a special quiet time with the Lord in the Word and in prayer and planned times like these often, Amen. And so I thank God. Focus sometimes on our trials and our troubles was the third factor that was happening to him. And Elijah forgot the blessings of the past, amen. He forgot about God and he did not dwell upon the promises of God, but upon the promises of Jezebel to kill him. And so, you know what, do we remember Peter? The disciples saw Jesus walking upon the water toward their ship, but Peter wanted to walk on the water too. And the Lord told him to come out, and he did. And when Peter began to focus on the wind and on the storm, he began to sink and the Lord saved him in Matthew chapter 14, verses 22 and 23. If you're not careful, your problems will get you down. And if you take your eyes off your source of courage, You begin to lose it. And remember what Paul said in Philippians, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Hey, do you remember where Paul said this? It was from a prison cell. That's right. He was in a prison cell when he wrote that in Philippians 4.4, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Paul rejoiced through all things, even though they were not always going his way. And we need to trust the Lord with our lives. Now, thank God, we look and we realize how much pride that Elijah had. Pride can lead to depression. Pride stalks a person after they have won a victory or attained an accomplishment. And so pride makes us think that we're something or somebody when we're not. And you know what? When we've deceived ourselves, then we realize our deception and we get depressed. And so Proverbs 29, 23 says, a man's pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. Jezebel popped Elijah's bubble and Elijah's negative evaluation of himself made him feel like a failure and he got depressed, amen. You've got to trust the Lord with your life, your goals and your work, amen. And then fellowship is always lacking, amen. You know, depression feeds on loneliness and Elijah had been alone through so much of the ordeal He had left his servant behind in this situation. This reminds us of the importance of church family. And it plays a very important role of having fellowship. You know what? When was the last time you checked on somebody else that's going through some of the lows, Amen? We've got it. When you get depressed, there's a tendency to evade people. That's when you need them the most, Amen. You're dealing with depression right now, somebody. And I'm going to tell you something, you need to get some rest and evaluate your priorities. Don't neglect your walk with the Lord, Amen. Invest your life in others. Commit your goals in life and expectations to the Lord. Keep your focus upon the Lord, Amen, and not your problems. And I thank God, every one of us, if you'll prepare for those times of vulnerability, especially after victories, you'll be ready for it, Amen. And so I thank God. How did Elijah get to this point? He's physically, he's emotionally drained. He's focused upon his own circumstances. He has forgotten about God's promises and the element of pride and unfulfillment, expectations led him to believe that he was a failure. And finally he's on the run and he says, I'm ready to quit. I'm just gonna give up. And so every one of us, have you ever gone somewhere to a place that you didn't really frequently visit? And all of a sudden, maybe it was a visit back home. And during the visit, you ran into some old friends, man. who when they saw you, they, hey, what are you doing here? You know what? They asked the question because your appearance is out of the ordinary. And it's not the normal that you're known for usually being somewhere else, Abe man. And so I thank God we find Elijah in a place where he doesn't belong, Abe man. He's doing something that's out of the ordinary for him. He's doing something that he shouldn't be doing He's supposed to be somewhere else because the Lord our Savior told him where he's to be amen It is the Lord who asked him the question twice. What are you doing here? You don't belong over here in Beersheba in a cave hiding amen and You're the man of God. You're the champion. Hallelujah. I'm going to tell you what are you doing here church folks? What's happening to you with this depression? Huh? What's caused it? How did Elijah get to this point? Amen. He's physically, he's emotionally drained. Amen. He's focused upon his own circumstances. He's forgotten about God's promises and the element of pride and unfulfilled expectations have led him to believe that he's a failure. He's on the run. That he needs to quit a man, and so I'm gonna tell you something. You know what he's requesting to die It's sad that many of us, and I'm gonna tell you something this message title is about recharging Recharging your spirit, and I thank God every one of us as we look and realize The Bible tells us in verses five through eight in 1 Kings 19, and as he lay and he slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said unto him, arise and eat. And he looked and behold, there was a cake baking on the coals and a cruise of water at his head. And he did eat and drink and he laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time and he touched him and he said, arise and eat because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose and he did eat and drink and he went in the strength of the meat 40 days in 40 nights under a Horeb the mount of God now. Thank God, you know what? Somebody said a quarantines 40 days I'm going to tell you, he got a recharging of his spirit. I thank God. You know what? During this time that many of you are with your families, you need to get a recharging in the Lord. You need to get re-equipped, a man. The Lord wants to do so much. There are proactive steps that you need to take. The first one is you need to be aware of the potential problems. But the second one is keep a proper perspective on your past. And I thank God, every one of us, you look over the chronicles of Elijah's past and there were problems there. He had to run from the king and announce the drought, to live through the drought and face 400 angry men and flee from Jezebel. And that seems to be the story, Eggman. But you know what? Every one of us, the problems, as we look at all the things that Elijah had been involved in, There's some good stuff that were going on. After fleeing from the king, God sent ravens with food in their mouth to drop to Elijah so that he was sustained during his exile. And when the drought came, Elijah, he grew hungry. One day he happened upon a widow's house and she barely had enough food for herself and for her son, but she offered a little. that she had to the preacher, to Elijah. And God met Elijah's needs once again. Now thank God, God never allowed that woman's pantry to be empty all during the drought because she shared the little that she had with somebody else. On Mount Carmel, God showed himself strong. The prophets of Baal prayed to the rock That was nothing. It was a bale was just carved old big rock that they called bale and they used as a fertility God and for their crops, amen. But nothing happened. They cut themselves. They cried, they cried, they cried, but nothing happened because it was a nothing God. We have a God that is somebody that cares about every one of us, amen. But when Elijah prayed to the one true God, God answered. It's a blessing. In the race back to town, God gave Elijah physical strength so that he could do that task. Amen. And then when he's out in the desert, very depressed, hiding out in a cave, God meets him there. God ministers to them even in that depression. Here's the truth. God's all around you all the time. Some of you haven't acknowledged that. You know what? He's been there the whole time. He'll never leave you nor forsake you. Some of you haven't even been aware of that. You need to make yourself aware of that. Some of you haven't even believed that you needed God's help. For those of us who've trusted Him, we've been through some pain. We've been honest with ourselves, amen. And we've seen God's fingerprints all over the place, meeting us, showing up just in time, carrying us when we couldn't carry on, amen. When we look at our problems of our past, we need to also make sure that we include the blessings that's been there. I thank God every one of them. There's something about saying thanks when you feel bad that helps, amen. We need to count our blessings, amen, one by one, amen. As we look back over our past, you see, and if God was a part of that, he didn't do a good job, amen. I look at my past and I feel sometimes maybe there's things that I should have done more, that I should have trusted God more, amen. I don't think God dealt with me in a kind of a loving way is what some people are saying, amen. It may even be a level of resentment between you and God. God loves you so much for you to even say that, to feel that way and to act that way. i tell you i've got some good news for you folks i tell you every one of us you don't have to miss out but i thank god you need to get a clear perspective on on your past amen because god wants to do so much for you amen remember how elijah had prayed to die amen but i thank god everyone god wants us to walk with him and for him walk by faith for we walk by faith and not by sight amen we need to be walking in love and walk as ephesians says and walk in love as christ also loved us and have given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to god for a sweet smelling savior amen we've got to walk in the spirit amen This I say, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And we've got to walk cautiously as well, because the Bible says, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. You know, I thank God every one of us, as we look and realize that we've got to walk with a consistency. The Bible tells us, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherein you were called. And I thank God, we've got to walk with Christ-likeness as well, amen. I thank God, 1 John 2, 6 says, he that saith he abideth in himself also to walk even as he walked. Elijah heads toward Mount Horeb, and notice carefully that God did not tell him to go there. He chose to go there. You know what the word Horeb means? It means to dry up. into lying waste. I tell you, when you're depressed, when you begin to dry up spiritually and waste your life, this is describing every one of you right there. You're out of the will of God because you're somewheres where God don't want you to be. Let me get you back in the word of God, amen. Let me get you back in the walk with God, amen. If you have fallen down, you need to get back up spiritually, amen. Why is Elijah heading toward Mount Horeb? That is not where God wants him. Why are you where you are? You don't belong there. You need to keep a proper perspective on your past, amen. And so I thank God, every one of us, we notice that in 1 Kings chapter 19, verses nine and 10, the Bible begins to tell every one of us, amen, that we look and realize that he wants to do some great things for all of us in our lives today, amen. And I tell you, you've been missing out on all the things that the Lord wants to do, but I thank God he wants to do something fantastic in your life, amen. If you just let him recharge your spirit, amen. I thank God Elijah looked in the sky and all of a sudden, man, one of the things that he began to realize, extraordinary things, just like what happened to Moses, just what happened to Jonah, amen, can happen to each and every one of us as we feel so helpless in our victories and all the things that we're going through each and every day of our life, amen. And I hope and pray that as we look and realize that there's so many things that God wants to do in your life, Amen. And I thank God that if you'll just look to Him in those times that we're going through right now, God will begin to bless you like you've never been blessed before, Amen. And so there's some great insights that he wants to do for you. Does this describe you? I thank God we look and the Bible says, and he came further unto a cave and lodged there and behold the word of the Lord came unto him and he said unto him, what doest thou hear Elijah? What are you doing here? Huh? Listen, you know what he does? He has a lot of eye problems because listen to what I'm fixing to read in first Kings 19 verse 10. Look how many times Elijah uses the personal pronoun eye. And he says, I have been very jealous of the Lord God of hosts. For the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with a sword. And I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. Boy, I'm going to tell you, every one of us have been in situations like that. Every one of us has felt like we're the only one there. Elijah has gone from prophet to caveman. The Lord speaks to him and he hits him in the bullseye and he gets right to the point. What are you doing here? A person can get out of church, and of course now we're not able to meet right now. They can run away from home. They can divorce their spouse. God did not want Elijah in this cave. And remember now, he's been led by the Lord up to this point, but Elijah begins to give his credentials. He begins to give his excuses and his accomplishments of the past. And I'm going to tell you what, Elijah begins to tell us some things, you know, that why Elijah says that Israel forsook the word of the God, which is the covenant. When you forsook the word, it leads to the next point. Then, not only from the word of God, of the covenant, but the worship of God, the altars. And when people leave God's will, they blame their problems on the third point, and that is the workers of God, the prophets. The pastors or the other Christians are blamed for problems when the real problem is found in point one and two. The word of God of the covenant that people have forsaken it and the worship of the altar of God to get down and to be in God's will and they blame all their problems on everyone else. And that is the problem that's happening in America today. Every one of us or what we're facing is the thing that Elijah begins to bring back up and he begins to report. And he goes on and he says in 1 Kings 19, 11 and 14. And he said, go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by in a great and strong wind, ripped the mountains and breaking in pieces the rock 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. And after the fire, a still, small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and he went out, and he stood in the entering in of the cave. And behold, there came a voice unto him, saying, What doest thou hear, Elijah?" Folks, What are you doing? What are you doing here in this depression? God says, you don't belong there. You're one of mine. I'm gonna tell you. He says, what doest thou hear Elijah? And he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts because the children of Israel has forsaken thy covenant. They have thrown down the altars and slain the prophets with a sword. And I, even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away. Did I not read that in verse 10? Here he is, he's repeating himself. The earthquake, but the Lord was not in it. The fire, or the lightning, falls, but the Lord is not in it either, amen. He's in a still, small voice. God speaks to Elijah in this voice, and Elijah is humbled before God. In a still, small voice, the whisper of a wondrous God asks, what are you doing here, Elijah? You know, I thank God every one of us when we look and realize that the voice of the Lord quietly whispers and it brings conviction. The Holy Spirit continues quietly to speak to every one of you today as Christians, and especially when he or she is out of position from where they should be. And he's asking, what are you doing here, huh? When they're out of the place, they're out in wickedness, what are you doing here? Is the Holy Spirit speaking to you about your life? Are you going so fast and making so much noise that you cannot hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit in your life? I'm going to tell you, the Lord has spoke, amen, and I thank God just because something is small and quiet does not mean that God's not in it. Bigness does not necessarily mean God's presence. It's not the criteria by which we are to judge a work whether it is of God or not. A work is not to be measured by wind, earthquake, fire, or by anything sensational. It is to be measured by the Word of God. And God's not interested in turning heads, but He's interested in turning hearts. God can use a small church yielded to Him and His Word, and He can use a small, quiet Christian who speaks up for God when it's time to speak. Boy, I thank God every one of us when we go through life today. and realize, beware of these proactive steps that you can take. Beware of potential problems. Keep a proper perspective on your past. Be proactive in your present, ape man. Boy, I thank God, every one of us. When you're depressed, you don't feel like doing much, but there's things that you can do and should do that will help you immediately, ape man. And I thank God, stuff that you can do. I thank God. Look at Elijah's experience. One of the first things he did was rest. He rested. Maybe this was a good time to reassure a type A personality, a driven person among us, that God did not condemn Elijah for taking rest. Amen. We're living in a culture where we're just worn out. as the normal a man in our culture we take work home with us and I thank God cell phones are chirping instantly digital voice recorders stay beside us and our brains all the time we don't know how to stop a man it's like holding a wolf by the ears a man you want to let go but you're afraid what will happen if you do and so I'm going to tell you every one of us when we go through life today and begin to realize all the things that are happening we need a physical renewal Now thank God, something else that we can do right now in the present. Elijah got connected. He got a relationship renewal, amen. During his depression, Elijah starts moaning to God. A lot of whining, amen. There's no one in a predicament like I'm in. Nobody understands. Nobody's been through what I'm going through. Oh yes, they have. Everybody's been through exactly what you're going through. You're not alone. There's been others that have experienced death. and grief and sadness and horrible things in their health and their finances. He says, I want you to hold on, Abe man. God says, I'll get you through this no matter what it is, Abe man. Now thank God. What are you doing here? That's the problem. The problems that you're going through, Abe man. God has already showed up, Abe man. Now thank God. One of the greatest things that people that are self-absorbed people, they're never happy people. One of the best exercises you can do if you're depressed is Get involved with some lift-ups. What is lift-ups? You look for somebody that's lower than you are, because there are so many others, and you lift them up, ape man. That's what you need to do. Be proactive in the present, ape man. You need to lift them up. Someone facing something that's worse, what do you do is identify those people, ape man. Those that are low, those that are worst off, I'm so low that I can't imagine how low I am. You go find those people, amen. Someone that's lower, amen. And you give them a hand. You reach down and you lift them up, hallelujah, amen. And I thank God someone will reach out to you and they will do some lift ups and they'll take you up to the next level that you need to be, praise God. It goes on and on, amen. Lots of people feel their spirits are being lifted. They feel themselves being helped, amen. We get ourselves back in the game and we get ourselves back involved in the lives of other people. We start living out Our God giving purpose in this world, hallelujah. And here's the cool thing that happens. Our tank will be able to be filled up because my tank will fill as I do God's will, amen. As you do God's will, your spiritual gas tank will be filled right back up. We may easily be too big for God to use, but you're never too small. We are never too broken. Offer all the pieces that you've got, no matter what they are, all of your heart, everything that you have, no matter how little that you think it is, and you'll be amazed at what God wants to do as he begins doing things with your life, even if they're little insignificant things. God can do great things with you and with those things. Now, thank God, not only we need to be aware of all of these things, of being aware of our potential problems. Keep a proper perspective on your past. Be proactive in your present. But lastly, in closing, be positive about God's promises. Amen. I thank God. Every one of us, when you get depressed, I want to ask you a question. Would you rather live with optimism? Oh, I thank God. Or would you rather stay a pessimist? You know, every one of us, you know, there's a lot of us go through life today. But I thank God as we look at each and every one of the things that we're going through, many of us can be an optimist or we can be a pessimist. But I thank God we go through all of the negative gloom and doom or we can be an optimist of confidence and positive things. Amen. Hope equals optimism. Optimism equals hope. And the way that we find hope is we look in God's word and we see what he assures us of, amen. What is there that can make us have hope for? What is there that can move me from a hopelessness to a hopefulness? Now thank God, it's the promises of God that does it each and every time in our life, amen. I hope and pray that as you go through life today, each one of us We can go and have some of the greatest blessings of life that we've ever experienced, Amen. And so I hope and pray as I close out from cover to cover in the Bible, God gives an assurance after assurance and promise after promise that he will be with us in the dark and the difficult days of life. And we can trust him to be faithful, Amen. And so I thank God he gives us these great promises that we have. Decades ago, I thank God, what was the happiest hour of your life that you can ever remember. One of the great preachers of all old time was telling a story, Amen. And thank God as he was telling that story, an old Tennessee preacher, he lived to be an old man and he died decades ago. His name was R.G. Lee. He told a great story that happened to him when he was just a little boy. And he said on an old farm, he was down on his tummy lying on the front porch. of the house and his face was in his hands and his feet was kicked up behind him. And his mom was there in a rocking chair on the porch. And he said, the thought came to him as just a little boy, and he looked up at his mom and he said, I want to ask you a question. What was the happiest hour of your life? And she said she told him, but it was not what he wanted to hear, what he expected to hear. And I thought that she would talk about the day that when her father was a young man, and dark hair, dark eyes, and started speaking about love, other words, her husband. when she first met him, how beautiful and how great that loving relationship was, but she said nothing about that. I thought she would talk about the time by the gate on the very farm when my father proposed marriage to her under a full moon, vows that kept for 50 years until he died, but that's not what she told me. Rather, she looked at me and she says, R.G., you asked a very hard question. I guess the happiest hour of my life happened when I was a little girl just about your age. It was back when the war was still going on between the North and the South. Those were some hard, difficult days, and my father, your grandfather, he had went off to fight in the war, and within months we got news that he had been killed. You know, I tell you, my mother, your grandmother, R.G., was so depressed, so sad, that I would hear her cry in her pillar at night. And one day, when I was a little girl, just about your age, R.G., I was on the front porch with my mother, and she was so sad. I was down on my tummy, my face was in my hands, my feet were kicked up in the air, and my mom, sitting in a rocking chair, had her lap filled with beans, stringing them and snapping them. And my mom, as she was sitting back in a rocking chair there, all of a sudden, she said, Elizabeth, honey, look down the lane, down the road there. There's a man coming this way. And then my mom leaned forward and she said, Elizabeth, honey, that looks like your father. And I said to her, mom, you're so sad, dad's dead. Right then my mother, your mother, RG, jumped up, beans spilling all over the place, leapt off the porch and she ran down the road and she said, Elizabeth, it's your father, it's your father. And she ran up to the man who was my father and there he stood. An empty sleeve was hanging down one side, but with that other arm, he grabbed my mother and they hugged and they laughed and they cried. And then my little girlish legs picked me up and I ran down the road lane and I jumped in my daddy's one good arm that he had left. And she said, I guess that had to be the happiest moment of my life. Then the preacher, he finished telling his story. That would be R.G. Lee. My mother's happiest hour is but a small joy compared to the day when we will see the face of Jesus and we will see his outstretched arms opening the gate of heaven Well, he will get to where every one of us will get to be with him forever and ever. That was R.G. Lee. I thank God every one of us as we look and realize how truly blessed that we are today. I hope and pray that you get a recharge in your spirit and courage over fear through all the things that we're going through today, because I thank God. Every one of us, God can bless us tremendously if we'll just let him, because my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness, amen. Boy, I thank God. later on in first kings 19 verse 15 the lord said unto elijah go return on thy way to the wilderness of damascus and when thou comest anoint haziel to be king over syria god used haziel to do a great work over the defeat of ahab and jezebel now thank god he put him back to work you need to get back to work the spirit helps us in our weaknesses and we do not know that when we ought to pray for but the spirit itself intercedes for us in romans 8 26 father right now lord lord i want to lord receive that encouragement to those ones that are out there listening to this message father lord i pray god that you'll help them to be strong. Recharge their spirit, Father. Bring them back and remind them that you're always with them no matter what. They're never by themselves. You're always close by. Father, bless our church family, Peoples Valley Baptists. Be with all of our leaders and be with the many, Lord, that are struggling right now. Be with those that are working in the hospitals. Be with the sinners that need salvation. Lord, I pray that you will knock upon their heart with the convicting power of the Word of God. And be with the many that we read the question, what are you doing here? What are you doing in depression when you belong to me? I will take care of you. Father, thank you for this message in Jesus' marvelous mighty name. Amen. Well, I thank God for this great privilege that all of us have. I thank God as we get ready to go our separate ways. The Lord knows exactly what we need in the time that we need it. I hope and pray that God blesses you this coming Sunday. May the Lord go with you and give you the strength. Get refocused. Get back on. the will of God and get back into what He wants you to be doing in His place. May God bless you, Pastor Darrell Bailey, as we send our encouragement to those that are depressed, that are down and out, because you need to recharge your spirit. May God bless you.