Pastor Cal Lord's Recent Sermons
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"Running on Empty"
I Kings 19: 1-15 August 9, 2009
I was talking to a man the other day that was facing a medical test and he was nervous. The truth
is that most of us get nervous around doctors.
My father used to say that he didn’t have any problems until he visited his doctor. They he came
away with high blood pressure, prostate problems and had to start watching his sugar. He
suggested he would have been better off not going to see the doctor. He never had any problems
before!
The truth is that we can do everything right and still end up facing problems. Life isn’t always easy.
You can go to church every week, follow the Ten Commandments, profess your love of God and
still lose your job or get sick. We don’t like to hear that. Many of us desperately hold onto the belief
that as Christians we will be exempt from the difficulties that others face.
Sadly, some Christian leaders prey on this belief. I remember watching Oral Roberts on television
years ago. He told his audience that if they sent in $5 to his ministry he would send them a prayer
cloth that would protect them from diseases.
That kind of stuff made me mad then and madder now. The truth is that there has never been that
kind of promise made to the people of faith EVER.
Lori and I used to sing an old Gospel song that says,
• God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
I am not sure when people started believing that God would protect them from every bad thing that
could happen. But I can tell you this: It isn’t Biblical. What God has promised is that he would be
with us. The chorus to that song goes like this.
• But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
There is no better illustration for this than to look at the life of the prophet Elijah. Now there are
several books in the Bible written by Prophets. Yet the man who is called the greatest prophet,
didn’t write one. His story is told in the Book of Kings. His name is Elijah.
James, in his letter, calls Elijah a man just like us. And I think he says that because in his life, we
see the same type of things that happen to us in our lives as we try to be faithful to God.
You remember is story? Let me recap his most famous hour which leads up to our passage. The
theologian, J. Oswald Sanders says, “Elijah appeared at zero hour in Israel’s history…like a meteor,
he flashed across the inky blackness of Israel’s spiritual night.” Chuck Swindoll, the famous
Christian writer describes Elijah as “plunging full-force into the midst of this era of gross evil and
wickedness.”
King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, ruled Israel at this time. They had pretty much left God out of the
picture. They were into zoorastroasim, and Baal worship. They followed the fertility gods and
basically allowed any type of religion to flourish in Israel. It was a dark hour in the history of Israel.
God sent Elijah into this mess to make a statement.
So on this one day Elijah challenged Ahab and all 450 of his priests and prophets to a test. He set up
an offering and put it on an altar and told them to call down fire from heaven. They did everything
and then began to dance around and call on their gods from early in the morning to late in the
evening and nothing happened.
After they were exhausted, Elijah stepped up. He took the bull and doused it with water and then he
called on God. And the offering burst into flames.
King Ahab bowed down and worshipped God and Elijah had claimed a great victory for God. It
was the highlight of highlights and all of the prophets and priests were killed. God’s kingdom was
ready to be put back in order.
But then a strange thing happened. Jezebel and Ahab talked and began to see Elijah as a threat
instead of a blessing. They ordered him to be arrested and killed and so he fled.
Can you imagine that? You garner a victory for God and the next thing you know, you have to run
for your life. The truth is that it happens too often. It happens all over scripture. It also happens in
real life. How many of us have been riding on the rtop of the world, we get baptized, join the
church, get involved and then something happens.
I remember one man saying to me that he wondered if he made a mistake. He couldn’t figure out
what he did wrong. Shortly after giving his life to Christ several bad things happened to him.
This is to be expected. 1 Peter 5:8 says: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls
around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
Someone once explained to me that a roaring lion was generally an older lion that no longer had any
teeth. He would bellow so that his prey would get afraid and run into an ambush made up of lions
with real teeth. Satan does the same to us. He can’t harm us because the blood of Christ protects
us. But he can make us afraid. When we run because of fear we get into trouble. That’s what
happened to Elijah.
Elijah heard the news and got so discouraged and became so afraid that he ran until he was literally
exhausted. Elijah was stuck in emotional overdrive. He was driven, fatigued, tired, exhausted,
weary, burned out, anxious, and running on empty. Compounding his problem, verse 3 tells us that
he left his companion who had always been by his side during the good times. He was all alone and
felt that even God had abandoned him.
Ever been there? Most of us have and I’m sorry to tell you, if you haven’t been there, you will.
That’s part of the package. No matter how high you get, we have an enemy trying to pull us down.
The Bible tells us that God has given him a certain pull right now but that in the end the victory has
already been won. The enemy’s hold on us will be short lived.
The truth is that when we’re hurting, we withdraw from others. Instead of reaching out, we pull
into our shells. And then we wonder why we feel so alone. That is what Elijah did. He was
devastated by self-pity and he ran for an entire day until he saw a small tree and collapsed in its
shade. In his ditch of despair, he prayed that he might die in verse 4: “I have had enough, Lord.
Take my life.” He let self-pity cultivate a “victim mentality” within himself. He had succumbed to
the “poor me” syndrome. Swindoll writes, “Self-pity mauls its way inside our minds like a beast
and claws us to shreds”.
Elijah had completely forgotten that God’s presence was with him under this scraggly desert tree
just as much as it had been on the top of the mountain. In this state of despondency and dismay,
Elijah, utterly exhausted by his own exercise in self-preservation, fell sound asleep.
I know that some of you have been going through some incredibly difficult times. Like Elijah, you
may feel like giving up -- that you have no more to give. You may feel like you’ve tried to do the
right thing but you just don’t get anywhere. Before you throw in the towel, I want to show you the
process that God brought Elijah through to help him regain emotional margin in his life. Burnout is
really a reversible ailment. Elijah was given four prescriptions that have great application to our own
lives -- if we’re willing to take the medicine. Hey my wife’s a pharmacist!
What can I say.
Prescription #1: Rest (5-8a)
The first prescription may surprise you. Instead of telling him to suck it up and snap out of it, God
knew that the most important medicine Elijah needed was rest. God didn’t give him a sermon or
shower him with shame. Because God loves us, He is with us at all times and knows our every
hiding place.
After allowing him to sleep God sent a messenger to give him food and drink. Our bodies were
designed to need rest. You can either wait until you’re totally maxed out like Elijah was and collapse
in total exhaustion, or, you can take the healthier approach and begin to incorporate rest into your
life. Don’t be afraid to slow down the pace of your life. Try to set aside time every day for quiet
and rest.
Prescription #2: Rediscover God (8b-13)
When we’re emotionally strung out, it’s easy to think that everyone is against us. After regaining
his strength, verse 8 tells us that Elijah traveled until he reached Mount Horeb. Once he arrived, he
went into a cave and spent the night. God decided that Elijah needed to rediscover the Divine and
told him to come out of the cave and stand on the mountain because God Himself was about to
pass by him. By the way, this is the same mountain on which God appeared to Moses.
What cave are you in this morning? We all tend to hide once in a while. Maybe you are hiding now.
God wants you to come out.
While Elijah was in his cave, a violent, rushing wind swept across the ridges. It roared through the
canyons and over the top of the mountain. Stones and boulders came loose and crashed down upon
one another. But the Bible says that God was not in the wind. Then an eerie earthquake ripped
through the entire area causing gigantic rockslides and cracks everywhere. But, God didn’t reveal
Himself in the earthquake either. This was followed by a furious fire that consumed everything that
was growing on the mountain. But God wasn’t in the fire either.
And then, it happened. When the wind was gone, when the earth stopped trembling, and when the
fire died out, there was utter stillness on top of that mountain. The contrast between the noise and
the silence was uncanny and unsettling. And, in the intensity of that awesome silence came a
whisper -- it was the voice of God. This reminds me of Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might nor by
power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.”
When Elijah heard the soft voice of God he got out of his cave of self-pity. He was awe-stricken by
the revelation of God’s holy and majestic whisper. The events on the mountain were the catalyst
that brought him back into connection with God.
You see, like us, Elijah needed to come out of his cave in order to rediscover God. He needed to
learn that God was with him when things were going good and that God was with him when things
were tough. God doesn’t always keep us from going through difficult times but He does promise to
walk through them with us. Hearing God’s whisper reminded Elijah that God was still in control of
all the circumstances.
If we want to rediscover God, it’s important to emotionally downshift. We need to remove some of
the noise and clutter from our lives. God is hard to hear when we’re so inundated with other things.
He doesn’t always appear to us with a big display in the sky -- He makes himself real by letting us
know He’s right there. But, we have to be quiet enough to hear Him.
God’s power was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. His power was in His word, the still,
small voice of God. Many of us need to rediscover God through the pages of his Holy Word, where
He speaks with a gentle and quiet voice. If you’re not in a small group, I strongly encourage you to
join one! Read your Bible everyday and listen to God’s voice. It will literally change your life!
Prescription #4: Relationships (19-21)
After prescribing rest so that we can rediscover God, the final prescription has to do with
relationships. Elijah was alone and isolated in his despair. Even though he was rested and had
rediscovered God, he was still alienated from others. God then provided him with a genuine friend
and companion named Elisha. Verse 21 describes Elisha as the personal attendant of Elijah. They
ministered side-by-side from that point on, until Elijah was taken up to heaven.
God has designed all of us with an innate need for relationships and to live in community with
others. Hebrews 10:25 challenges us to not minimize the importance of meeting together with other
Christ-followers on a regular basis: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of
doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
There is perhaps no more effective way to relieve emotional pain than to be in contact with another
human being who understands what you are going through. Just as God led Elijah to a friend, so
too, His desire is for you and I to cultivate some authentic relationships with others.
That’s what the church is all about. Get involved. Get to know people. Start with Bible studies.
Then find ways to work with others. I’ll tell you my life has been changed forever by going on
these mission trips. I’ve have made some new friends and my faith has been renewed. You can’t
go it alone. As imperfect as the church is, because it is made up of frail and fallen people, it is the
best hope for the world. It gives us a place to go when we are running on empty so that we can be
ministered to and loved. It reminds us of the one who is our best friend and companion, the one
who gives us strength for the day. Jesus.
So stop running and come to the one who promises to give us rest for our souls. Jesus. Amen.
I Kings 19: 1-15 August 9, 2009
I was talking to a man the other day that was facing a medical test and he was nervous. The truth
is that most of us get nervous around doctors.
My father used to say that he didn’t have any problems until he visited his doctor. They he came
away with high blood pressure, prostate problems and had to start watching his sugar. He
suggested he would have been better off not going to see the doctor. He never had any problems
before!
The truth is that we can do everything right and still end up facing problems. Life isn’t always easy.
You can go to church every week, follow the Ten Commandments, profess your love of God and
still lose your job or get sick. We don’t like to hear that. Many of us desperately hold onto the belief
that as Christians we will be exempt from the difficulties that others face.
Sadly, some Christian leaders prey on this belief. I remember watching Oral Roberts on television
years ago. He told his audience that if they sent in $5 to his ministry he would send them a prayer
cloth that would protect them from diseases.
That kind of stuff made me mad then and madder now. The truth is that there has never been that
kind of promise made to the people of faith EVER.
Lori and I used to sing an old Gospel song that says,
• God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
I am not sure when people started believing that God would protect them from every bad thing that
could happen. But I can tell you this: It isn’t Biblical. What God has promised is that he would be
with us. The chorus to that song goes like this.
• But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
There is no better illustration for this than to look at the life of the prophet Elijah. Now there are
several books in the Bible written by Prophets. Yet the man who is called the greatest prophet,
didn’t write one. His story is told in the Book of Kings. His name is Elijah.
James, in his letter, calls Elijah a man just like us. And I think he says that because in his life, we
see the same type of things that happen to us in our lives as we try to be faithful to God.
You remember is story? Let me recap his most famous hour which leads up to our passage. The
theologian, J. Oswald Sanders says, “Elijah appeared at zero hour in Israel’s history…like a meteor,
he flashed across the inky blackness of Israel’s spiritual night.” Chuck Swindoll, the famous
Christian writer describes Elijah as “plunging full-force into the midst of this era of gross evil and
wickedness.”
King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, ruled Israel at this time. They had pretty much left God out of the
picture. They were into zoorastroasim, and Baal worship. They followed the fertility gods and
basically allowed any type of religion to flourish in Israel. It was a dark hour in the history of Israel.
God sent Elijah into this mess to make a statement.
So on this one day Elijah challenged Ahab and all 450 of his priests and prophets to a test. He set up
an offering and put it on an altar and told them to call down fire from heaven. They did everything
and then began to dance around and call on their gods from early in the morning to late in the
evening and nothing happened.
After they were exhausted, Elijah stepped up. He took the bull and doused it with water and then he
called on God. And the offering burst into flames.
King Ahab bowed down and worshipped God and Elijah had claimed a great victory for God. It
was the highlight of highlights and all of the prophets and priests were killed. God’s kingdom was
ready to be put back in order.
But then a strange thing happened. Jezebel and Ahab talked and began to see Elijah as a threat
instead of a blessing. They ordered him to be arrested and killed and so he fled.
Can you imagine that? You garner a victory for God and the next thing you know, you have to run
for your life. The truth is that it happens too often. It happens all over scripture. It also happens in
real life. How many of us have been riding on the rtop of the world, we get baptized, join the
church, get involved and then something happens.
I remember one man saying to me that he wondered if he made a mistake. He couldn’t figure out
what he did wrong. Shortly after giving his life to Christ several bad things happened to him.
This is to be expected. 1 Peter 5:8 says: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls
around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
Someone once explained to me that a roaring lion was generally an older lion that no longer had any
teeth. He would bellow so that his prey would get afraid and run into an ambush made up of lions
with real teeth. Satan does the same to us. He can’t harm us because the blood of Christ protects
us. But he can make us afraid. When we run because of fear we get into trouble. That’s what
happened to Elijah.
Elijah heard the news and got so discouraged and became so afraid that he ran until he was literally
exhausted. Elijah was stuck in emotional overdrive. He was driven, fatigued, tired, exhausted,
weary, burned out, anxious, and running on empty. Compounding his problem, verse 3 tells us that
he left his companion who had always been by his side during the good times. He was all alone and
felt that even God had abandoned him.
Ever been there? Most of us have and I’m sorry to tell you, if you haven’t been there, you will.
That’s part of the package. No matter how high you get, we have an enemy trying to pull us down.
The Bible tells us that God has given him a certain pull right now but that in the end the victory has
already been won. The enemy’s hold on us will be short lived.
The truth is that when we’re hurting, we withdraw from others. Instead of reaching out, we pull
into our shells. And then we wonder why we feel so alone. That is what Elijah did. He was
devastated by self-pity and he ran for an entire day until he saw a small tree and collapsed in its
shade. In his ditch of despair, he prayed that he might die in verse 4: “I have had enough, Lord.
Take my life.” He let self-pity cultivate a “victim mentality” within himself. He had succumbed to
the “poor me” syndrome. Swindoll writes, “Self-pity mauls its way inside our minds like a beast
and claws us to shreds”.
Elijah had completely forgotten that God’s presence was with him under this scraggly desert tree
just as much as it had been on the top of the mountain. In this state of despondency and dismay,
Elijah, utterly exhausted by his own exercise in self-preservation, fell sound asleep.
I know that some of you have been going through some incredibly difficult times. Like Elijah, you
may feel like giving up -- that you have no more to give. You may feel like you’ve tried to do the
right thing but you just don’t get anywhere. Before you throw in the towel, I want to show you the
process that God brought Elijah through to help him regain emotional margin in his life. Burnout is
really a reversible ailment. Elijah was given four prescriptions that have great application to our own
lives -- if we’re willing to take the medicine. Hey my wife’s a pharmacist!
What can I say.
Prescription #1: Rest (5-8a)
The first prescription may surprise you. Instead of telling him to suck it up and snap out of it, God
knew that the most important medicine Elijah needed was rest. God didn’t give him a sermon or
shower him with shame. Because God loves us, He is with us at all times and knows our every
hiding place.
After allowing him to sleep God sent a messenger to give him food and drink. Our bodies were
designed to need rest. You can either wait until you’re totally maxed out like Elijah was and collapse
in total exhaustion, or, you can take the healthier approach and begin to incorporate rest into your
life. Don’t be afraid to slow down the pace of your life. Try to set aside time every day for quiet
and rest.
Prescription #2: Rediscover God (8b-13)
When we’re emotionally strung out, it’s easy to think that everyone is against us. After regaining
his strength, verse 8 tells us that Elijah traveled until he reached Mount Horeb. Once he arrived, he
went into a cave and spent the night. God decided that Elijah needed to rediscover the Divine and
told him to come out of the cave and stand on the mountain because God Himself was about to
pass by him. By the way, this is the same mountain on which God appeared to Moses.
What cave are you in this morning? We all tend to hide once in a while. Maybe you are hiding now.
God wants you to come out.
While Elijah was in his cave, a violent, rushing wind swept across the ridges. It roared through the
canyons and over the top of the mountain. Stones and boulders came loose and crashed down upon
one another. But the Bible says that God was not in the wind. Then an eerie earthquake ripped
through the entire area causing gigantic rockslides and cracks everywhere. But, God didn’t reveal
Himself in the earthquake either. This was followed by a furious fire that consumed everything that
was growing on the mountain. But God wasn’t in the fire either.
And then, it happened. When the wind was gone, when the earth stopped trembling, and when the
fire died out, there was utter stillness on top of that mountain. The contrast between the noise and
the silence was uncanny and unsettling. And, in the intensity of that awesome silence came a
whisper -- it was the voice of God. This reminds me of Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might nor by
power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.”
When Elijah heard the soft voice of God he got out of his cave of self-pity. He was awe-stricken by
the revelation of God’s holy and majestic whisper. The events on the mountain were the catalyst
that brought him back into connection with God.
You see, like us, Elijah needed to come out of his cave in order to rediscover God. He needed to
learn that God was with him when things were going good and that God was with him when things
were tough. God doesn’t always keep us from going through difficult times but He does promise to
walk through them with us. Hearing God’s whisper reminded Elijah that God was still in control of
all the circumstances.
If we want to rediscover God, it’s important to emotionally downshift. We need to remove some of
the noise and clutter from our lives. God is hard to hear when we’re so inundated with other things.
He doesn’t always appear to us with a big display in the sky -- He makes himself real by letting us
know He’s right there. But, we have to be quiet enough to hear Him.
God’s power was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. His power was in His word, the still,
small voice of God. Many of us need to rediscover God through the pages of his Holy Word, where
He speaks with a gentle and quiet voice. If you’re not in a small group, I strongly encourage you to
join one! Read your Bible everyday and listen to God’s voice. It will literally change your life!
Prescription #4: Relationships (19-21)
After prescribing rest so that we can rediscover God, the final prescription has to do with
relationships. Elijah was alone and isolated in his despair. Even though he was rested and had
rediscovered God, he was still alienated from others. God then provided him with a genuine friend
and companion named Elisha. Verse 21 describes Elisha as the personal attendant of Elijah. They
ministered side-by-side from that point on, until Elijah was taken up to heaven.
God has designed all of us with an innate need for relationships and to live in community with
others. Hebrews 10:25 challenges us to not minimize the importance of meeting together with other
Christ-followers on a regular basis: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of
doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
There is perhaps no more effective way to relieve emotional pain than to be in contact with another
human being who understands what you are going through. Just as God led Elijah to a friend, so
too, His desire is for you and I to cultivate some authentic relationships with others.
That’s what the church is all about. Get involved. Get to know people. Start with Bible studies.
Then find ways to work with others. I’ll tell you my life has been changed forever by going on
these mission trips. I’ve have made some new friends and my faith has been renewed. You can’t
go it alone. As imperfect as the church is, because it is made up of frail and fallen people, it is the
best hope for the world. It gives us a place to go when we are running on empty so that we can be
ministered to and loved. It reminds us of the one who is our best friend and companion, the one
who gives us strength for the day. Jesus.
So stop running and come to the one who promises to give us rest for our souls. Jesus. Amen.