SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to take the gospel from the upper peninsula to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy our Elijah series, where we learn truths from the story of Elijah in 1st and 2nd Kings.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: My family, glad you're here.
SPEAKER_01: Glad you're a part of North Iron Church.
SPEAKER_01: Would you welcome everyone, all of our campuses, everyone online that's watching us this morning?
SPEAKER_01: We're excited that you're here.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna dive right into our sermon series in 1 Kings chapter 19.
SPEAKER_01: We're excited to kind of wrap up our series about the prophet Elijah this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And if you need a Bible, raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: We have a great Bible for you.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna find uh 1 Kings chapter 19, kind of in the front of your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new to God's word, we believe everyone needs to have a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is free to you.
SPEAKER_01: Take it home, give it away.
SPEAKER_01: We give thousands of these away.
SPEAKER_01: This is uh a very uh important thing for you to have, a physical Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I keep on, I keep on kind of hammering this as we live in a digital world that you would have a physical Bible, that you would use it as a tool.
SPEAKER_01: It holds God's plan and purpose and promises for you, and that is super important.
SPEAKER_01: Happy Mother's Day, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: That was a little awkward as I said it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_01: I just have to click off the boxes, hey.
SPEAKER_01: And mothers, we honor you.
SPEAKER_01: You are so much to us leaders, lovers, nurturers, healers, all incredible, incredible things.
SPEAKER_01: We wouldn't be able to be in the positions we are without you.
SPEAKER_01: The endless conversations at nighttime, at bedtime for some of you, right?
SPEAKER_01: If it was anything like our house, you know, as Jennifer finally, you know we get two minutes away from these children, they're all in bed, and we would hear, you know, almost every night, Mom, right, y'all, I'm I'm thirsty.
SPEAKER_01: I need something to drink.
SPEAKER_01: And and Jen would say, no, no, no, no, listen, you had your chance before you went to bed.
SPEAKER_01: I you need to go to sleep, you don't need a drink.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to go back to bed.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh just you know, five minutes later, mom, I'm I'm thirsty.
SPEAKER_01: And Jen would get up and say, Listen, if you don't go to bed, I'm gonna come in there and give you a spanking.
SPEAKER_01: And uh a few minutes later, uh, we would hear, Mom, when you come in to give me a spanking, will you bring some water?
SPEAKER_01: Tenacity.
SPEAKER_01: Tenacity over pain.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's a thing.
SPEAKER_01: That's probably a good quality.
SPEAKER_01: I would I personally think all mothers would be incredible lawyers.
SPEAKER_01: Always advocating, always protecting, always watchful, like the uh the mother of James and John advocating for their their their their her children, her sons, to sit at the right hand of Jesus in his kingdom, to uh Moses's mother who broke the law, who broke the law to make sure, or the the woman who stands before King Solomon, willing to give up her son to protect her the life of the son, or even the mother of the king in Proverbs 31, who gives good advice on what kind of woman to pick out.
SPEAKER_01: All those attributes of motherhood are what we honor.
SPEAKER_01: They are God-given, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: They're God-given, and so we honor you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And so hopefully all of you don't go to the same restaurant Jennifer and I are going to afterwards.
SPEAKER_01: The UP can't handle it.
SPEAKER_01: Americans love movies.
SPEAKER_01: It's a deep part of our our culture for probably close to a hundred years, if not over a hundred years.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm not quite up on that, but I'm just my opinion.
SPEAKER_01: For over a hundred years, movies have been a part of the culture of America.
SPEAKER_01: And what maybe you don't, because you're in the middle of that culture, what you may not understand is the deeply rooted gospel that is in the American movie culture.
SPEAKER_01: You would probably not hear that very often today because we complain about that.
SPEAKER_01: But you understand that as you boil down most of the American movies, that it's rooted in redemption.
SPEAKER_01: It's rooted in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't know if you've been overseas or you've watched foreign films, but they tend to be nihilistic, fatalistic.
SPEAKER_01: We love the broken underdog.
SPEAKER_01: I I I just recently watched a movie that I I I kind of put up with.
SPEAKER_01: It got a lot of, I kind of feel like I grew up at the apex of movie making uh as I grew up in the 70s and the 80s.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I I grew up in the era of John Wayne.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying in any way that John Wayne is a great movie star.
SPEAKER_01: Don't come talk to me about true grit.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, uh, but he did make a movie called The Searchers.
SPEAKER_01: If some of you remember this, it was a very uh critically acclaimed movie, probably one of John Wayne's best movie that he was recognized as, okay, this guy can actually act instead of just punching people and killing people on screen.
SPEAKER_01: But in the movie The Searchers, at the very end, John Wayne just kind of walks away from the camera into the desert, the the door is shut, there's no conclusion, there's no redemption, there's no happy ending, and I really dislike that.
SPEAKER_01: I want Rocky Rob uh Rocky Boboa, right?
SPEAKER_01: The underdog who goes in to fight and he wins and there's victory and and he gets the girl or the princess bride.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's a lot different than maybe uh European or or even uh I'll say it like Russian.
SPEAKER_01: They they they they think it's uh inappropriate to tell a fantasy story about redemption.
SPEAKER_01: They want real life which is fatalistic and nihilistic.
SPEAKER_01: There's something deeply rooted in the idea that us as either Americans or we're we're our our nation is deeply rooted in God's word and the gospel and what Jesus did on the cross, where he takes broken people and he redeems them and sets them back up, where there's victory in their lives, and they're able to accomplish uh what God has called us to accomplish.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's really strictly even American concept because we're rooted so deeply in our gossip.
SPEAKER_01: We are in the gospel, we all see ourselves in the movies, the underdog, the broken and in need of repair, destined to fulfill what God wants and has planned for us.
SPEAKER_01: We want to ride away with our woman into the sunset.
SPEAKER_01: Victorious.
SPEAKER_01: It's a part of who we are.
SPEAKER_01: And in the story of Elijah, that we find this incredible victory in chapter 18, we're gonna be in the story after this incredible victory in chapter 19.
SPEAKER_01: We would assume that after this incredible victory, that there would be some kind of victory march, a hero's return of Elijah running into, as we know at the end of 18, running past the king's chariot through the power of the Holy Spirit, like he's a superhero, to get to the capital city of northern uh Israel.
SPEAKER_01: You would think there would be this incredible parade and cafeti as Elijah comes through the city gates and everyone would be chanting his name, Elijah, Elijah, Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not what's taken place.
SPEAKER_01: And we find that in chapter 18, Elijah's kind of on this spiritual high on the mountain, but it's followed by a spiritual low in the valley.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna dive into that today because it's it's a human experience that I think we all experience at one level or another.
SPEAKER_01: And isn't that true about your life?
SPEAKER_01: Can I just take a break?
SPEAKER_01: That that when we have these victories or spiritual highs in our life, there always seemed to be followed by a spiritual low in a valley.
SPEAKER_01: Where I thought, man, I was I was just hitting it, hitting it, hitting, God was blessing me, and then bam, something happens.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe sin temptation comes into your life, maybe something physical uh is going on that you just never anticipated.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe, maybe your marriage falls apart.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you thought, maybe you thought you were you were hitting it, the nail on the on the head, and yet something comes in and shakes you to the core.
SPEAKER_01: And really, chapter 19 of Elijah's story is our story, which is godly people getting depressed.
SPEAKER_01: Godly people getting depressed.
SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of a loaded statement.
SPEAKER_01: And I and in no way am I uh a doctor, as most of you know.
SPEAKER_01: I can bandage you with duct tape, though, it'll save you a lot of money.
SPEAKER_01: But this is something deeper, and uh there's a lot of things going on, not only spiritual depression, but clinical depression, chemical compression.
SPEAKER_01: And in no way am I in any way probably qualified unless we're talking about spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: But um, and that's what I'm gonna push on mostly today.
SPEAKER_01: But I I recognize that all of us have seasons maybe of depression.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've experienced that in one way or another.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're you're you're you've gotten beyond maybe an episode that you have, but I think we all come to a place where we're depressed at some point.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's not only spiritual, it's physical, it's psychological.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not giving you a remedy for any of them, and except that I'm showing you how God takes care of this in Elijah's life that I think will speak to you, and you'll you'll maybe find some answers in the way that you are.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to turn to chapter 19 of 1 Kings.
SPEAKER_01: Again, you're gonna find that probably in the five page 500.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, there's some Bibles that are different with pages.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, chapter 19.
SPEAKER_01: This is the last part of, in a way, uh Elijah's life.
SPEAKER_01: He's about to move into another season with another prophet, Elisha.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, forgive me if I accidentally use the word Elisha instead of Elijah today.
SPEAKER_01: I'll try to hold, uh try to control myself a little bit in that.
SPEAKER_01: And yet we we we find Elijah running ahead, three incredible miracles that he just comes out of.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, he overtakes the prophets of Baal, 850 prophets of Baal, a big test on the top of a mountain that is going to reveal that God is the only God against all of the pagan gods that the northern tribe were worshiping at the time.
SPEAKER_01: Fire comes down from uh from heaven, destroys the altar.
SPEAKER_01: That's an incredible victory.
SPEAKER_01: All the people's hearts turn towards God in this incredible miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the the drought that was going on as justice or judgment towards the people of Israel is pulled back and water has come back.
SPEAKER_01: And then we find through the power of the Holy Spirit that as uh Ahab, uh uh Ahab's going back to his capital city, he outruns the chariot and meets the king there.
SPEAKER_01: Three very powerful things happening all at once in Elijah's life, and you would think he's coming into a revolution where this wimp uh this weak king.
SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say something I shouldn't say.
SPEAKER_01: This weak spiritual, weak physical, weak leadership king, and his white pagan, white witch, Jezebel, you would think there would be an incredible resurrec revolution where the people of Israel will would rise up and and there would be some kind of coup, and and they would they would or there would be repentance from the king and his his witch of a wife, literal, pagan witch.
SPEAKER_01: And yet there's not, there's not a hero's welcome, no one is is chanting his name.
SPEAKER_01: You would think that he would come in and they would set up a little house next to the to the to the temple, and he could he could he could have wisdom classes, I don't know, do all kinds of things out of there that he would have the king's ear or whatever, and and or maybe even get a syndicated TV show like um the prodigy prophets or or or Israel idols or Elijah's Got Talent or Drought Dynasty or something.
SPEAKER_01: That would happen today, right?
SPEAKER_01: But that's that's not what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's worse.
SPEAKER_01: There's no repentance.
SPEAKER_01: It's almost like the flame has been turned up when it comes to Jezebel.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jezebel makes this right at the beginning, she makes this statement about the life of Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: And we find this that Jezebel says, Listen, I know that you put my prophets to death.
SPEAKER_01: I'll talk about that in a moment.
SPEAKER_01: And if I don't kill you, may the gods that I serve take me out.
SPEAKER_01: But by this time tomorrow, you're a walking dead man.
SPEAKER_01: You're a walking dead man, which is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Again, because after the test of who God is, we find that in the the heightened moment of that, that Elijah says, take the prophets of Baal, all over 800 of them, seize them, don't let any of them get away, bring them down to the river, and we're gonna bring God's judgment on them, and he executes all 800 false pagan prophets.
SPEAKER_01: And now we have this witch threatening him, and something goes on, and there's a shift.
SPEAKER_01: There's a shift.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture says that Elijah was afraid, and he got up and he ran to his life, he ran to the southern kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: More than likely, he ran to Jerusalem for safety, and when he's at Jerusalem, it says that he left his servant, that's important, you need to understand that, and by himself alone leaves his servant more than likely in Jerusalem and goes out to the wilderness a day's walk and finds a tree, a broom tree.
SPEAKER_01: Don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_01: And he lays down and he says, Lord, I'm tired.
SPEAKER_01: I've had enough.
SPEAKER_01: Something's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: This is not the Elijah we saw in verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: And it goes on.
SPEAKER_01: And it says that he laid down and slept under a broom tree, and behold, an angel, God sends an angel to him.
SPEAKER_01: There's a depression that's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: It reminds me of a story of Charles Spurgeon, who was probably one of the greatest preachers of all times in the 1800s.
SPEAKER_01: An on-fire Methodist gospel preaching man who went into London, started preaching, started a church.
SPEAKER_01: And um, at the time, there was probably 10,000 people that would come to his service.
SPEAKER_01: This is this is the 1800s, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: This is unheard of.
SPEAKER_01: This is an incredible revival that's going on.
SPEAKER_01: And and and and and Charles was just um over his head with people and preaching the gospel and and and all these pastors that were uh and and and and of course when you have 10,000 people, even at this time, this is unheard of.
SPEAKER_01: People started saying, well, he's a cult leader, and they started hating on him, and he wanted, he didn't know how to facilitate all these people.
SPEAKER_01: He wanted to go to multi-site and video, but his his elders were too backwards, they were still using flip-phones, and they didn't want to do that at the time.
SPEAKER_01: And then in one of his Sunday morning sermons, someone in the congregation yelled out, Fire! And it put everyone in a panic, and everyone rushed out of the building that they had, and seven people were trampled to death in his church.
SPEAKER_01: And Charles writes about this that he went into a deep, deep depression, and even from his many, many writings, a lot of people said he never ever quite got over that.
SPEAKER_01: And this is a pastor that's pastoring at the time 10,000 people.
SPEAKER_01: Depression is a real thing, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: This is where Elijah is, and so God sends an angel to him.
SPEAKER_01: It's important for you to understand.
SPEAKER_01: And the angel comes.
SPEAKER_01: Can you go back?
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: The angel comes and the angel touches him, he wakes him from a nap and says, Arise and eat.
SPEAKER_01: And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.
SPEAKER_01: And he ate and drank, and he laid down again for a nap.
SPEAKER_01: And then a second time the angel arrives.
SPEAKER_01: And the angel comes for a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, Elijah, for I'm gonna send you on a journey that's too great for you.
SPEAKER_01: And he rose and ate and drank and went in the strength of the food for 40 days and 40 nights to Mount Sinai, the mount of God.
SPEAKER_01: Those were protein pancakes that he ate, obviously.
SPEAKER_01: All right, and something very important happens there.
SPEAKER_01: It says this that the word of the Lord came to him.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah?
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing here, Elijah?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Man, I've been very jealous, or maybe yours will say zealous, but I've been very jealous for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: There's really three things or four things he's saying here.
SPEAKER_01: Three of them are true, one of them's a lie.
SPEAKER_01: That's important for you to know.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I've been very zealous for you, Lord, that's true.
SPEAKER_01: For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, that is also true.
SPEAKER_01: And they've thrown down your altars, this is also true, and they've killed your prophets with a sword.
SPEAKER_01: Again, this is true.
SPEAKER_01: And even I, Lord, I'm the I'm the only one left.
SPEAKER_01: This is not true, and that's important for you to know as you walk in to this story.
SPEAKER_01: And three things that the Lord approaches Elijah with in this depressive state.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is he always will send help your way.
SPEAKER_01: God sends an angel of rest.
SPEAKER_01: And it's important for you to understand that he touches Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: You see that twice, right?
SPEAKER_01: We're not sure what that means.
SPEAKER_01: We don't think it's just a hey, get up.
SPEAKER_01: We think he comes in and he comforts Elijah through touch.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's just putting his arm around him, maybe it's giving him a shoulder, maybe it's giving a back rud, but he's ministering.
SPEAKER_01: Angels just don't kind of move around.
SPEAKER_01: They're on assignment.
SPEAKER_01: To protect a multitude of things.
SPEAKER_01: I won't get into that.
SPEAKER_01: But he here we find we have an angel of rest on assignment to bring rest, to touch, to bring food, and to take a nap.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the most godly thing you can do, everyone, is take a nap.
SPEAKER_01: You notice he doesn't come in and say, What's your problem, buddy?
SPEAKER_01: Just get up, put your boots on, grab your hammer, let's go do something.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: He comes in, he touches, he feeds him, and Elijah takes a nap, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you don't need another sermon, you just need a nap.
SPEAKER_01: Don't start right now.
SPEAKER_01: But when you get home, secondly, God twice asks Elijah questions.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not because God doesn't know, He wants Elijah to talk, to share his feelings as he does, even if they're not correct.
SPEAKER_01: This is why the word of the Lord even comes, because there's some things, some thinking and some beliefs about himself, or maybe beliefs in God that aren't correct, and God sends his word to correct that thinking in his life.
SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting that God here is just simply listening.
SPEAKER_01: He's being a friend.
SPEAKER_01: I don't, did you notice that that I marked there that he left his friend in Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_01: That most of the people that have moments of depression isolate themselves to be in their pain?
SPEAKER_01: And that pain just ruminates?
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to be, you're not created to ever be alone.
SPEAKER_01: Ever.
SPEAKER_01: And yet we that's what we find here.
SPEAKER_01: And so God sends and he listens and he's a friend as Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: He just allows Elijah to complain.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not, it's not ungodly to doubt God or to be angry of God.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, all of Psalms is about David and others complaining to God.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you just got to speak out your feelings.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean that your feelings are truth.
SPEAKER_01: More times than not, your feelings will lie to you.
SPEAKER_01: This is why King Solomon says, your heart is a deceptive device in your life.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you need God's word in your life.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you don't need to be isolated in your life.
SPEAKER_01: I love what a very prominent uh speaker said.
SPEAKER_01: The things in a secret garden always grow mutant.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't, if you're not a part of that friend group, if you're not a part of that small group, if you're a part of a large church and you're not a part of a small church within the large church, like we have that system here, you all need to be a part of a small group.
SPEAKER_01: We call those branches this afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: We have something, a class called Rooted, that'll help you get involved in it.
SPEAKER_01: We have a multitude.
SPEAKER_01: Can I say we have almost 30, 40 across all of our campuses?
SPEAKER_01: You need to be a part of people who can listen to you and love you and correct you.
SPEAKER_01: Isolation does nothing for you.
SPEAKER_01: Isolation does nothing.
SPEAKER_01: And again, we find that God brings his word to Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: Again, this is super important.
SPEAKER_01: I rely on God's word, not my feelings.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that my feelings are wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying I don't rely on them because they change all the time.
SPEAKER_01: It's a crazy chain chain, a crazy train I don't want to be on.
SPEAKER_01: You all shouldn't be on.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I say every decision, every conversation, every step in life is a gospel step, is a gospel decision.
SPEAKER_01: I base everything on God's word and what he says about me and who I am in him and his plan and his destiny and his redemption and his healing and his power and his presence and his future for me, my children, and everyone around me.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't know about it, if you don't understand it, then you're gonna have, you're gonna struggle in life.
SPEAKER_01: You might even make decisions that are not godly decisions or gospel decisions that will lead you to a place of depression.
SPEAKER_01: Not all the time, but sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: So we find that God reacts to Elijah's depression in three ways.
SPEAKER_01: We find that he physically, spiritually, and psychologically.
SPEAKER_01: Now, a lot of times, even in the world, there are people who will say, Well, there everything's physical, there's nothing really spiritual going on.
SPEAKER_01: And so they deal with depression just only physical.
SPEAKER_01: Like here's a pill.
SPEAKER_01: Or, or there are people who say, Well, this is this is only a spiritual decision.
SPEAKER_01: You know, stop sinning, uh, get over it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, uh let's lay hands on you, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's your only problem, is a spiritual problem, not a physical problem.
SPEAKER_01: That's also wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Or they're just psychological, where you just need to come in and let's just talk this thing out.
SPEAKER_01: But you understand that all three of them, separate from each other, are damaging.
SPEAKER_01: God uses all three.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason that is, is because God has made you a psychosomatic being.
SPEAKER_01: A psychosomatic being.
SPEAKER_01: You are spirit and body.
SPEAKER_01: You're just not this spirit or this soul floating around doing your thing, and you're just not this body separate from the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, you cannot separate them.
SPEAKER_01: You're psychosomatic being.
SPEAKER_01: And so God approaches, he approaches him, Elijah, in spirit and in body.
SPEAKER_01: He goes and touches him, he feeds him, he takes a nap, and then spiritually, he brings God's word to him.
SPEAKER_01: Important, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we don't know what's going on in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't know how God is working around us.
SPEAKER_01: It reminds me, hey, when Elijah says, I'm the only one left, God.
SPEAKER_01: So just kill me and send a flood or send fire and wipe.
SPEAKER_01: Let's start all over again.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying to God.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not true.
SPEAKER_01: You find this in verse, I believe it's uh uh uh verse 15 through 19 or 18.
SPEAKER_01: God is working behind the scenes, uh, even with a pagan king, to bring justice to the northern tribe of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And in scripture it says that there are 7,000 faithful Israelites that didn't bow and worship the Baal, who are ready to go.
SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, Elijah didn't know that, but you need to understand that no matter what you're going through in life, God is doing something behind the scenes that you may not know.
SPEAKER_01: He is constantly working towards your favor.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, the gospel, if anything else, the gospel proves that he's for you and not against you.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we just can't see, we just don't understand.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 55, I believe it says this, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: We don't always understand what's going on in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: When Jennifer and I were in Russia, we went through some very, very difficult, difficult times.
SPEAKER_01: It was grow or burn kind of situations for us.
SPEAKER_01: The government was hassling us uh as foreigners in in the country of Russia.
SPEAKER_01: We're having very difficult times even being there.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we were we we were in the country, not as missionaries, uh, but as business, as a businessman.
SPEAKER_01: And so I was always having hassles with the KGB.
SPEAKER_01: They were always calling me in, interrogating me.
SPEAKER_01: There's a very specific time, it was kind of at the edge of Jennifer and I never being able to come back into Russia or they were gonna gather us together.
SPEAKER_01: This is how I imagined it, that when they brought me in and they interrogated me, I'm almost sure that they knew who I was, that I was there under false pretenses.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't really a businessman, but that I was a missionary working with uh the church that was actually having troubles uh in the area that we were in.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember just I was dreading walking into that office and um because I I couldn't control.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't control the destiny that God had placed on Jennifer and I to be missionaries to the people of uh to the people of Russia.
SPEAKER_01: And I I remember distinctly walking into that that office, and they put me in a room, put me on a steel chair, cement cell, and they walked in and they took a big old folder and they slapped it on the ground.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, on the table, and um the KGB agent sat at the chair and looked at me, was silent for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: They're masters and manipulation and intensity, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Um and they said, Mark, and he touched the folder, it was thick.
SPEAKER_01: He said, This is not good.
SPEAKER_01: This is not good.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, Jesus, what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: And for whatever reason, I can't even remember, but he had this keychain, his keys, he put his keys down, and I could see that he had a Toyota Land Cruiser key on his keychain.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I don't know why, I said, Man, you have a Toyota Land Cruiser.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Yes.
SPEAKER_01: It kind of broke whatever.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I have a Nissan Speed Delight, Nissan Patrol, which is like a land cruiser, and the whole atmosphere changed.
SPEAKER_01: And we for the next half an hour talked about our two vehicles.
SPEAKER_01: I know nothing about vehicles, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Zero.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about my tires, I don't know about my engine, I just know about a key, you turn it and you stick gas in somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus shifted that whole conversation.
SPEAKER_01: And afterwards, we didn't even talk about my folder.
SPEAKER_01: My folder went back into the filing system.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to me as I'm leaving, Mark, you're okay.
SPEAKER_01: We should go out one weekend driving our vehicles, our families.
SPEAKER_01: I was like Elijah in chapter 18.
SPEAKER_01: Kicking doors open.
SPEAKER_01: I even screeched my tires when I left the parking lot.
SPEAKER_01: But you don't know what God's doing behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_01: You don't.
SPEAKER_01: So let me give you a word to those who maybe you're just discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: That's all.
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't deal with your discouragement and understanding who God is and what he's done for you in your life, you may walk into depression.
SPEAKER_01: So let me give you a God's word to the discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: And really, I'm talking about spiritual discouragement because we all live in the physical world and it's discouraging here, is it not?
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: God's word to discourage.
SPEAKER_01: We find that the mountain that God wants Elijah to run to is Mount.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_01: I can't remember.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: I'm getting my mountains mixed up.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I want you to go out, he's at the mountain, that's where he's running to.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to go, Talbor, that's the one.
SPEAKER_01: Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord and behold the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now you need to understand that this is related to Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: There's something going on here, and this is kind of how the gospel gospel is going to show up in Elijah's life, even almost thousands of years before Jesus comes.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, I want you to go out and stand on the mount before the Lord and behold the Lord pass by.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this you need to understand that at Mount Sinai with Moses, it's the same kind of story here.
SPEAKER_01: Where God calls Moses to the top, gives him the law.
SPEAKER_01: God actually physically shows up.
SPEAKER_01: There's lightning, there's earthquakes, there's fire, there's smoke, there's lightning, loud trumpet blasts.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, Elijah is called to the mountain.
SPEAKER_01: Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord, and behold, the Lord pass by, and a great and strong wind tore through the mountain and broke it into pieces and the rocks before the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But look at this: the Lord wasn't in the wind.
SPEAKER_01: And after the wind, an earthquake happened on the mountain.
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord wasn't in the earthquake.
SPEAKER_01: And after the earthquake subsided, we find that the Lord came in fire.
SPEAKER_01: And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper came.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord wasn't even in the fire.
SPEAKER_01: But after those three things that often represent the presence of God, they did in Moses' time.
SPEAKER_01: God's judgment comes that way: earthquakes, fires, strong winds.
SPEAKER_01: And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper.
SPEAKER_01: And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, there came a voice to him, a quiet, intimate voice, that said, Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing here, buddy?
SPEAKER_01: That's important.
SPEAKER_01: Let me show you that in four ways.
SPEAKER_01: You must defer to the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first one.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah kind of had God in a box, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: And yet God shows himself differently to Elijah here than he showed himself to Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Same situation, but different.
SPEAKER_01: And you always have to defer to what God is doing, though you may see it.
SPEAKER_01: More importantly, if you don't.
SPEAKER_01: And the response to whatever God's doing, though you see it or not, in every circumstance and situation, is God, I'm not in control, but you are.
SPEAKER_01: God, I'm not in control, but you are.
SPEAKER_01: God's responsibility is in the outcome.
SPEAKER_01: My responsibility is to obey.
SPEAKER_01: And we need to embrace the love and the grace of God in that situation.
SPEAKER_01: We find that Moses and Elijah both find themselves in a cave or the cleft of the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And yet we find here that the wind comes in and is destroying, but the mountain, the rock, the cave that Elijah is in takes the blunt of that or sucks in the power of that wind, and the earthquake comes, and the mountain sucks up and doesn't dam and damage damages Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: And then the fire comes in, and God's not even in the fire, but the mountain takes the fire, and it's not till all those things pass that Elijah comes out and he hears the grace and intimacy of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That Jesus went to the cross and the tornado of God's judgment, the earthquake of God's judgment, the fire of God's judgment comes on the cross, and Jesus takes that in.
SPEAKER_01: And what we receive is just the intimate worship.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, intimate whisper of God.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew chapter 17, we see something really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the Mount of Transfiguration.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus calls a couple of his disciples to go with him up to a mountaintop.
SPEAKER_01: And there we find that Jesus, now you need to understand that Jesus is oftentimes, more times than not, his power and presence and who he is is actually veiled.
SPEAKER_01: It's veiled.
SPEAKER_01: And yet he is fully revealed at the Mount of Transfiguration, where he he goes up off the mount, and we find that Moses and Elijah show up.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
SPEAKER_01: And for the I don't want to say the first time, but Jesus is revealed fully in all of his glory and redemption and power.
SPEAKER_01: And we find that Moses and Elijah experience Jesus in all of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: What Elijah and Moses got to see in a shadow, we see in substance.
SPEAKER_01: What they experience in mystery, we get to see in clarity.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful for this.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times we read the Old Testament and we think people understood exactly what God was doing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just telling them they didn't.
SPEAKER_01: But aren't you thankful that we can look back and see truly who Jesus is?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the mountain that took all that judgment for us.
SPEAKER_01: And because of it, we received that quiet whisper, that grace, that tenderness of God.
SPEAKER_01: God's goodness towards us.
SPEAKER_01: God's goodness towards me was forever demonstrated on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: He prayed for my forgiveness even when I was pounding nails in his hands.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, you have to confront the lie in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Depression is a liar, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Because we we ruminate with things that are not true.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason we know they're not true is because of what God says about us: the hope, the future, the present, the past, the redemption, the salvation, the restoration, the new creation.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times we say things like, It's it's all lost, Pastor Mark.
SPEAKER_01: It's never gonna change.
SPEAKER_01: My family will never change, my friends will never listen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm never going to get any better.
SPEAKER_01: There's no one who cares about me.
SPEAKER_01: And what you need to do is you need to stop ruminating and you need to start preaching to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Preach God's promises to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Be long-winded.
SPEAKER_01: I shouldn't be the only one.
SPEAKER_01: But oftentimes we don't because we're we're so fixated on our pain that we're not preaching the gospel to ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: I know I feel this, but this is what God.
SPEAKER_01: Says about me, I'm gonna walk over here.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just show you quickly.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not alone.
SPEAKER_01: The cross proves that.
SPEAKER_01: My future is not dim.
SPEAKER_01: The resurrection declares it.
SPEAKER_01: I have I will have joy again.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel proves it.
SPEAKER_01: Love how Paul says that in 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: He says this.
SPEAKER_01: So therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the works of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
SPEAKER_01: And then listen, you need to get back to your assignment.
SPEAKER_01: After you have that good meal, after you read that good book, after you take that nap.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe a vacation.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe hang out with your friends.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe hang out with your wife.
SPEAKER_01: Get back to what he's called you to do.
SPEAKER_01: He's always working, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: He's always working.
SPEAKER_01: There's a something I came across the other day that I kind of looked into.
SPEAKER_01: There's a Japanese repair artistry that takes broken teapots and teacups ceramics that have dropped and broken.
SPEAKER_01: And the artists, instead of just tossing them and going to IKEA and getting another one, the Japanese will take those broken vessels and they'll start a process of repairing that tea bowl or that teapot.
SPEAKER_01: It's called, I'll probably get this wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Don't come up to me and try to tell me how to pronounce things.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna get them wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: Keep your pronunciations to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: It's called uh Kushgini.
SPEAKER_01: I said it wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: Look it up.
SPEAKER_01: The the the man who repairs an artist, he'll even, here's the interesting, he'll let that bowl sit for a while.
SPEAKER_01: Broken.
SPEAKER_01: He'll start to look how it gets pieced together.
SPEAKER_01: Then he'll start at the foundation and he'll mend it with gold or silver or platinum.
SPEAKER_01: And it becomes this in the process of him finishing that or her finishing it, it becomes this incredible valuable thing.
SPEAKER_01: That no one would anticipate.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you look at a regular bowl, you're like, eh.
SPEAKER_01: But this mended bowl, if you look it up on the internet, you just stare at it.
SPEAKER_01: Like, this is the most precious, beautiful piece of art I've ever seen.
SPEAKER_01: The person that was writing about this, he was actually writing about faith and art.
SPEAKER_01: He says, We kind of have a misconception in the Christian world.
SPEAKER_01: We often see the pattern of the world like this, where creation happened, then sin came into the world, then Jesus bought redemption, and now we have restoration.
SPEAKER_01: He would say, no, that's that's that's probably not right by scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It's creation, the fall, redemption, and you're a new creation.
SPEAKER_01: You're actually more valuable than just someone who's been mended.
SPEAKER_01: You have a new beauty, a new power, a new destiny.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter what your emotions or your body or your spirit is is saying, you're you're a new creation.
SPEAKER_01: You're a new creation.
SPEAKER_01: That you would move, get back to what God has called you to do.
SPEAKER_01: Elisha, I want you to get out there and be a prophet again.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of good things happening, though you may not see them.
SPEAKER_01: I'm about to have you go and anoint another prophet called Elisha, who's going to be more powerful than you.
SPEAKER_01: And though you don't understand and see it, when Elijah came, and now Elisha comes, scripturally, we know eventually Jesus comes because of that and brings in a whole new beauty of broken vessels, that he's created something powerful and new in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You're you're a new creation.
SPEAKER_01: And we see this again and again and again and again through scripture.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what your mom and dad say, I don't care what your peer says, I don't care what your your boss says or your parents say, you're a new creation.
SPEAKER_01: And that happens when we get up.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you need to eat a little bit, take a nap, get back to what God's called you to do.
SPEAKER_01: Get into his word.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you need to go see a doctor.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you need some help.
SPEAKER_01: I'll help you do that.
SPEAKER_01: But there's hope, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to stand with me.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna ask for you to come down front.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just telling you, prayer does an amazing thing in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you feel like you're out of control and you're just not sure what God's going to do.
SPEAKER_01: Your responsibility is to move towards his presence and his redemption and his salvation and his word.
SPEAKER_01: You can do that this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, worship heals everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Spend some time in worship.
SPEAKER_01: Come down front.
SPEAKER_01: Get some prayer.
SPEAKER_01: We have people just come down front, all the way down the front in the row.
SPEAKER_01: Just raise your hands and start worshiping the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Someone will eventually come and lay hands on you.
SPEAKER_01: We have people who will do that and pray with you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, you can leave different.
SPEAKER_01: You can leave with different circumstances, a different future.
SPEAKER_01: There's hope.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have not decided to serve the King of Kings.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is King and He'll rule in your life one way or another.
SPEAKER_01: I promise you, you need to walk towards His presence and His power this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I want to encourage you to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to pray over you, Father.
SPEAKER_01: Your spirit of healing is here this morning, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Where you see you said in scripture, where broken people gather, you're close to the brokenhearted, Father.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, we may not even know what's wrong with us, but Lord, we're going to walk towards your presence and your power and your redemption and my future and my hope this morning, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I ask for heaven's will in my life on earth, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's my prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, I ask all of this in your mighty name.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this message.
SPEAKER_00: For past sermons, a giving link, and more, check out the footnotes below or visit our website at northiron.church.
SPEAKER_00: We hope to see you soon.