Coping with Depression

Let your praises ring. Hark, the herald angels sing. Let your praises ring.

to the King of kings, to the God in me, to his majesty, to the King of kings. Spirit of God, show me Jesus. Remove the darkness, let truth shine through.

Spirit of God, show me Jesus. Reveal the fullness of his love to me. Spirit of God, show me Jesus.

Remove the darkness, let truth shine through. So let us turn for the reading tonight to 1 Kings chapter 18, reading from verse 41. And Elijah said to Ahab, go eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.

So Ahab went off to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. Go and look towards the sea, he told his servant.

And he went up and looked. There is nothing there, he said. Seven times Elijah said, go back.

The seventh time the servant reported, a cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea. So Elijah said, go and tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you. Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on, and Ahab rode off to Jezreel.

The power of the Lord came upon Elijah. And tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, may the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them. Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there while he himself went a day's journey into the desert.

He came to a broom tree, sat down under it, and prayed that he might die. I've had enough, Lord, he said. Take my life.

I am no better than my ancestors. Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, get up and eat.

He looked around and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.

So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled for 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night.

And the Lord will bless to us the reading of his word. Be seated and have your Bibles open at 1 Kings chapter 19. Where in the third verse you read Elijah saying, or rather the fourth verse, I have had enough, Lord.

I have had enough, Lord. Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors.

Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. Scripture brings together contrasting characters. And one of the best ways to teach Scripture is by highlighting the personalities that you find within the Bible because we can identify with character perhaps more easily than we can identify with doctrine.

Now many of you have an advantage over some newcomers to the tab because you've got information about not only the content of the Scripture that John read to us but also the preceding verses. You know that Israel had hit an all-time low spiritually. As I think, without wanting just to be depressing, this country here has hit an all-time low.

But there was hope on the horizon, not just in terms of physical relief for a drought that had spanned three and a half years but also it looked as though as a consequence of the remarkable ministry of Elijah, a knock-on effect. Reformation, revival was breaking out in the land as I believe that the only answer for our country is the breaking out of revival. Now after God had vindicated the prophecy, the prediction, the hope of his servant Elijah on top of Carmel by belching out from heaven holy fire which consumed his water-drenched offering, his water-drenched sacrifice and after God caused the prayer of Elijah for rain to be responded to we find that the king of Israel makes haste back to his own palace at Jezreel to have further fellowship if that's the right word with a wife that he selected with great ignorance of scripture and disobedience to God.

Verse 1, Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. There are some people who it doesn't really matter how much they envision how much they not just predict but how much they experience of God's power. There are some people who remain utterly insensitive to the fact that God is trying to talk to the nation.

In the most remarkable fashion fire had come down from heaven and consumed this baptized sacrifice. There had been this deluge of rain and when Ahab goes back to Jezebel instead of saying what God has done he says what Elijah has done. How often we will put the blessings of God down to human agencies whereas God speaks to his people dynamically himself through his servants and the servants of God really want to hide behind the message.

But as far as Ahab is concerned it's not God that's in his mind but strange phenomenon or strange phenomena that Elijah has caused to come about. You can imagine the jaw dropping on the part of his wife Jezebel as she listens to what her husband has to say as he tells of the way that Elijah has butchered her prophets. Sin was endemic in Israel in those days and the person who was basically responsible was none other than Jezebel and all the Baal prophets were so to speak her servants who were purveying, who were spreading a permissiveness around the country that was alien to the law of God.

And when she hears that her prophets, her men have been cut down by Elijah when she hears that the people have in ecstasy said Jehovah is God she knows that her crusade against the truth of God's word against the religion of the Hebrews is very much in the balance. And just like a tigress when her cubs have been taken away from her so Jezebel releases all her venom and invective against Ahab, against Elijah the servant of the Lord. May the gods deal with me be it ever so severely if by this time tomorrow I do not make your Elijah's life like one of those men who were slain on Carmel.

How many times hear me have some of you been brought face to face with the message of God and responded like Ahab. You've known what is the truth. You've seen the display of God's dynamic in the lives of people who have testified to the redeeming grace of God in their own circumstances.

The change in them is inexplicable but you respond like Ahab and you turn a deaf ear. Your heart is hardened. It's possible you see and can you understand this from a preacher it's possible that being under the sound of the gospel can make your position worse.

When time after time you're confronted with the truth as Ahab was confronted with the truth but you do not respond to what is being said or you put it down to some wrong agency as Ahab spoke about Elijah but not Elijah's God because a man with the mentality of Ahab does not really want God in his reckoning. And he's like a pawn in the hands of his wife and Jezebel puts out this particular warning to Elijah. And you come across one of the most incredible scriptures in the third verse of this chapter.

Elijah was afraid. Do you feel sometimes that pastors, preachers, vicars, evangelists call them what you will are a sort of rare breed who never are deflected from achieving God's purposes. They're men, they're women of iron.

You can't in any way make an incursion into their lives and get through the armor of their defenses. Nothing was more than the truth in Elijah's day. Nor today.

Elijah was afraid when he hears what Jezebel has in mind for him. How is it that just a few verses earlier on when Elijah comes down from Carmel he is so possessed by the spirit of God that his speed of running accelerates and he is able to make the 18 miles between Carmel and Jezreel the palace in such a fashion that he arrives in front of Ahab who's being pulled along by horses as he stands in his chariot. Isn't it incredible how circumstances can change? There you were in the heights of spiritual expectancy.

You went to some particular convention. You were in at some meeting. They sang jolly songs.

Nothing the matter with that. I'm all for jolly singing. But I'm not all for the emotional effect of jolly songs that really is just at superficial level that doesn't do anything for you in the depths of your personality.

If sometimes you find yourself in that situation then remember that it is the weakness of the human frame to buckle under pressure when you've moved out of the dramatic when you've moved out of a corporate expression of worship and you're on your own. Elijah ran in front of the chariot. Now we discover Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.

How extraordinary. He'd taken on all the prophets of Baal. He who had done so well on his own on previous occasions.

You remember the time that he was at Cherith and Zarephath? And now he buckles under the threat of a scheming woman. Elijah was afraid. The bottom of the NIV page the page of the text if you're reading the NIV gives the optional translation Elijah saw.

Maybe it was a servant that Jezebel sent along that is being referred to. Maybe it was the enormous problems that were confronting him. The fact is that he took his eyes off God and he placed his eyes on his difficulty.

When my eyes were fixed on Jesus I lost sight of all beside. What causes spiritual depression? It's taking your eyes off the answer to your problem and placing your eyes specifically on your difficulty. The church where I was brought up didn't go in for all the theological hymns that there are in our singing that's available but sometimes it's the simple stuff that stays on in the mind of a naive chap like myself.

And I remember one song about an Old Testament incident. Twelve men went to spy in Canaan. Ten were bad.

Two were good. Some saw the giants great and tall. Some saw that God was in it all.

Ten were bad. Two were good. What the spies saw was either the problem, the giants, the overgrown men on the southern fringe of the land of promise or God who was able to do for the Israelites exceedingly abundantly above all that they could ever ask or think.

Your problems in terms of depression start to come the moment you take your eyes. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter saw the waves.

He hears the wind. And he starts to think. Remember my address? Candy floss? Faith? It's all there you see.

The same problem as dogged Peter is discovered, illustrated here in the Old Testament. Elijah, the champion of Carmel who ran in front of the chariot is afraid. And now he runs.

But not for God. Not for the benefit of his people. Not for the divine call that's part of being a prophet.

He runs for his life. You see, he's full of apoplexy. He's lost his direction as far as his spiritual pilgrimage is concerned.

No longer can this prophet sing the Lord is my shepherd. Because when the Lord is your shepherd he'll take you by green pastures and still waters. Not literally so but in the rough and tumble of life's experience however difficult it may be at the circumference in the center you will have the equivalent of those green pastures and the still waters.

But you can't know that if you are running away from your circumstances. And your objective is not God nor his glory but your life. You see, Elijah has moved from the divine computer so to speak and he's taking guidance from his own.

And the software is pretty lousy. He was afraid and ran. He ran for his life.

You perhaps, some who come along here just occasionally wonder why a person who you might think to be reasonably intelligent believes in the authority of scripture. That is the inspiration of the Bible. Can I give you one though there are many, many other evidences that would illustrate and defend my position on scripture from this incident here.

To err is human, right? But to publicize your error that is not human. When you write your personal diary you tend to go a little bit soft on the things that you have done that you ought not to have done. That's human nature.

But when the Bible talks about its giants in the faith the writers who have been inspired by the Holy Spirit do not blush to show us as they really were what and all. Abraham, a man of faith is seen as a liar on some occasions. Moses, the meek man defaulted in the purposes of God and didn't enter Palestine, the promised land because of his anger.

Noah, a man of peace was found on one occasion drunk. David, you know of his adultery. I don't give you these examples to hide behind compromise in our days but to make it very, very clear that the men of the Old Testament and the men of the New Testament though they be the best of men were men at best.

And within every choice leader be he ever so great and ever so noble and ever so powerful there is a seed of weakness that sometimes can fruit and bring failure in his life. Now you need to know that. You need to know it for this reason.

It's possible for the evangelical pulpit to put up such a high standard that you feel you back out immediately because you can't possibly attain to it. But the ideal that we preach is an ideal that is illustrated only adequately by the Lord Jesus Christ. The rest of us are struggling towards reaching that ideal not in our own strength but by the power of the Holy Spirit because we appreciate that in our strength we can't make the grade.

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. He comes to Beersheba that's in the southern extreme of Judah where the fertile terrain runs out into the desert a place where Abraham visited during his pilgrimage. Elijah leaves his servant there and he starts off on his own.

Can you imagine it? Verse 4 While he himself went a day's journey into the desert he's 90 miles away from his problem or so he thinks 90 miles distance from Jezebel. Matthew Henry was a great preacher of yesteryear and he said this and hear me carefully it is rare that a man improves his circumstances by moving from them. You have to meet the particular difficulty that's causing your depression where you are because if you've tried geographically to distance yourself from it you take it with you because you're part of the problem as well as part of the solution.

So Elijah goes on his own there's no widow to join him his servant has been left behind. There is none of the refreshments that Cherith brought for him there is none of the succor that he received at Zarephath. Mile after mile under the hot Middle Eastern sun he is in the company of himself and he's through.

He came to a broom tree sat down under it and prayed that he might die. I've had enough Lord. Now don't you immediately identify with him at that point be honest.

And you're not the first one. Moses told God that he was through. Jonah told God that he was through.

And I've walked on the beach between Worthing and Bognor many times and told him I'm through. But the interesting thing is that when you're through with God he's not through with you. He doesn't reward you according to your faithfulness but he rewards you according to his character which is one of utter fidelity.

Aren't you glad that there were some prayers that were never answered some vows that you made that were never fleshed out like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pities those who love him. What did Elijah need more than anything else? Jezebel dealt with Ahab dealt with the practicality is this what Elijah required was a good sleep. That's another contributory factor to get out of depression.

He lay down under the tree and fell asleep. See the Bible says the Lord gives his beloved one sleep. If you can sleep tonight thank God for that and pray for others who can't.

Now Elijah doesn't have he doesn't have an alarm clock does he? And yet in one sense he does all at once suddenly I think the authorised version says suddenly something happens which is quite extraordinary the last part of verse 5. What do you think might have happened? I mean here is the billigram of the day. Here's a man whose reputation is known from down to the southern extremity of Beersheba and he's blown it. They know back in Jezreel that he's shown a clean pair of heels.

He has anticipated Peter. Peter melts like chocolate but when a woman comes alongside and says you were one of Jesus' disciples and Elijah has come into trouble because of the threats of Jezebel. So what do you think might happen if there's a divine encounter between him and the messenger of the Lord? You're sacked, you're defrocked do you defrock prophets? You're deprophetised.

Let's make up our own word. You're through with the ministry. You know it's an incredible thing about God that he doesn't just pardon he abundantly pardons.

Have you worked that one through? If you are a sinner as we all are but you have at this moment not confessed your sin the Bible tells us this that if you mean business if you ask God to forgive you he will abundantly pardon. He won't just pardon to 90% he will pardon to 110%. He will abundantly pardon.

And here is the prophet Elijah and he's so desperately in need and so what does the Lord do? He shows his uncommon love towards his servant by sending an angel to come to his relief. Now he was in difficulty in Jerus, not so? I mean the brook was shrinking and God sent him ravens who had ferreted out food and they sort of dropped it in his lap. I don't really want ravens to serve me food they're unclean birds.

And at Zarephath there had been the divine multiplication you remember of meal and oil. But on neither occasions did God send an angel to help this man who is so chronically depressed. But on this instance he does.

How marvelous are the ways of God. You see he has a particular soft spot for those who are going through self-caused problems. It was self-caused wasn't it? I mean nobody told Elijah to be here.

Incidentally have you ever thought that when you're depressed your logic goes out of the window? I mean here was Elijah and he was running for his life and if not so he was scared of the painted up queen. And now he's asking for his life to be taken from him. I mean there does seem to be some tortuous breakdown in his own mental abilities at that point, not so? But that happens when you're depressed.

But God sends an angel. An angel who with celestial fingers has cooked bread in the ovens of heaven. And his servant eats and his servant drinks.

And then lays down again. And then the angel of the Lord comes back a second time and touches him and says get up and eat for the journey is too much for you. Now there's an uncommon mercy of our God once more illustrated.

The journey is too much for you. He shouldn't have been on that journey in any case, should he? But God does not back off from his prodigal son simply because the prodigal in this case a prophet has started to act in a bizarre fashion. Father remains father even when you're in a prodigal state.

Isn't that marvelous? He does not reward us according to our doings but according to his character. He will abundantly pardon. When general methods fail God uses extraordinary ones to bring his people back to themselves.

Back to himself. My time has gone. Let me try to nail my point.

Just once again and maybe as far as you're concerned forever. The man of God the woman of God who is in the tab at the moment lying amongst the wrecks of what might have been take heart hope in the love of God and you will yet praise him who is your health and your countenance and your God. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man as illustrated by Elijah.

But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able. And at the end he will draw alongside you and lift you out of whatever situation that was self-caused that you got therefore yourself into. Ahab insensitive to God.

Jezebel couldn't care a fig. Elijah could care did care got himself into a mess but the Lord stepped in and though Elijah does not recognize at this point the gravity of his misjudgments God shows that he still has an interest in the prophet's life as he has one in your life. Let's pray.

We sang earlier thy loving kindness is better than life. That's illustrated by Elijah isn't it? He loved him with an everlasting love and he loves you really he does and can meet you at your need cleansing you from your sins if you've never asked for forgiveness lifting you from your depression even though it's been self-caused. So let me pray.

Let me pray for everyone in this congregation. Let's do what the Hebrews would do when they prayed. They didn't crouch.

They either knelt or they stood before the Lord. Let's stand before him right now. Your touch is still its ancient power no word from you can fruitless fall so in this solemn evening hour in your goodness heal us all.

Amen. Amen.