So I'm going to start out right with the last of the armor of God that we're going to cover in these Sabbath talks, and that is the shield of faith. It says in Ephesians 6 and verse 16, it says, Above all, take up the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. Take up the shield of faith. Of course we should do that above all. We know that without faith it is impossible to please God. And everybody in here, even probably the youngest people, kind of know that a little bit academically. But knowing that and doing that, those are two different things. Very different things. Because here's the thing, that shield that Paul's talking about, it's heavy. It took effort and strength to lift it. And as I look out over the audience here today, and the heavy weight that this society around us just dumps on all of us, some of you are saying, man, I want to take up that shield of faith. I want to take it up so badly. But I just can't. I'm too weak. I don't want anyone in here to know. But I feel lost and distraught, beaten down. I feel like I'm at rock bottom. But I'm going to walk around here with a smile. And people in here say, I know I should have hope. I'm hearing all these messages that I know I should have that. But I feel hopeless. I'm overcome by anxiety and depression. Something's wrong with me. And I know it. And it shouldn't be this way in the church. I'm ashamed. And I want to change it. But I feel paralyzed. I have a secret to confess. If I would have been in this audience 17 years ago, I would have been like that. Just internally screaming out all those things I just described. Now, I don't have time to tell my whole story. But until I was about 28, I'll tell you what, I had a life paved in gold. I had every blessing you could count. And then there was a series of events that happened in my life that weren't absolutely tragic. But they weren't ideal. They weren't good. There was a bunch of them together. And somehow this poisonous dart of anxiety and depression, it hit me without warning.
And for three and a half years, I was overcome. I was overcome by feelings of, you know, my heart beating fast. Feelings of, you know, fear, unexplainable fear. It was like somebody was driving a car. It wasn't me driving the car, but it was my car. And every day I got up and my whole goal was just to get to the next day.
And I was numb and it felt like something was just like eating my soul.
For three and a half years, that's how I was. The question I had a lot was, why was I feeling this failure so much when I had been given everything? Maybe you feel like that. There's people in this audience that feel like that. I know there are. Did I have zero faith? How can I not enjoy anything in life anymore? Because I knew everything we're hearing here. I knew the purpose to life, but I'd lost the feeling for it, the passion for it, the energy for it. And I still, I don't really want to talk about this, but I still feel shame and embarrassment about that. But I'm here to tell you today that if this is you, if you're out there saying, you know, I'm hiding it, Ben, this is me too. If that's you right now, do not ever give up. Do not surrender, because God can take the weakness, this weakness that you have, this weakness that I had, and He can turn it into strength, and He can turn it into glory. According to the National Alliance of Mental Health, one in every five Americans has severe anxiety or depression. One in every three late teen and young adults has this utter disease. I mean, that's shocking! One in three late teens and young adults?
When we say we're so beaten down that we can't pick up that shield, it's usually the anxiety and depression that's the culprit in this day and age. It's just a disease. And you know, we in the church are not only not immune to it, we're actually targets for it. We're targets for it. That dart is coming for us.
It's one of those fiery darts. Now, sometimes I worry about talking about this, because some people say, like, you know, you know, I get worried, and I've tested school, I get stressed.
That's normal. What I'm talking about here, if you have what I'm talking about, you know it. You're not guessing at it.
Because it utterly consumes you. The best way I can describe it is it's soul eating.
Which is exactly why our enemy will want to plague us with this disease. This is why it's a it's a weapon he uses against us, because it consumes at our soul who we are.
Anxiety is fear. Fear is an enemy. It consumes us. It weakens us. It separates us from God. It tells you, you are alone. Surrender. There's no point. So today, my purpose is to talk to those sitting out there who say, I so badly want to take up that shield of faith. But what if I'm too weak to lift that shield? To show you that in Paul's writings, the one we just looked at here, he left a little clue, a powerful clue, one that points us to an incredibly encouraging truth about the power of God. Now, when we looked at Ephesians 6 and verse 16, there's one word in there that I think is just a little odd. Can you spot which word? I just it just almost doesn't seem to fit. Quench. There's quench in there. Odd word. There's Greek word for that. I won't try to pronounce it, but that word is only used three times in the whole all the New Testament and the epistles. You know what one other place it's used?
The faith. The faith chapter. Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11. And I love how Paul uses this this word and whether Paul wrote Hebrews, but this word is embedded right here in Ephesians 6 in the arm of God, and then we take it to the faith chapter. So Hebrews 11 in verse 32 and verse 34. Paul here, if you know Hebrews 11, it's the faith chapter. It's talking about all the greatest of faith. It's all the people we aspire to be just like next to Jesus Christ. And as he's starting to wrap that up and he's going through kind of the you can't even mention all in the faith hall of fame, look what it says in Hebrews 11 and verse 32 and verse 34. He says, in what more shall I say? I don't have time to tell about, you know, all the other heroes in the prophets. And in verse 34 it says, who quenched? The fury of the flames and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength. What? This is the faith chapter! Why is it talking about weakness?
Wait, why is weakness in here? This is the faith hall of fame! For those of you who feel overcome with weakness, who can't lift that shield because you feel weak, is it not incredible that God is telling us that those who are the greatest of faith of all time were once weak, but God took that weakness and He turned it into strength. And that's what I want to do now with the rest of this talk. I want to look at an incredible story of one of the greatest heroes of the Bible who thought that He had accomplished His purpose. He thought He'd done His whole meaning in life, everything He was supposed to do. And instead He hit rock bottom to the point where He basically said, God take my life. And we'll see how God deals with them. How does God deal with somebody when they're rock bottom weak? We're going to look at that. Because in this story, there's deep moving personal lessons that we each can take away. And there's also an incredible example of someone whose weakness was turned to strength in like epically glorious fashion. That's what we're going to look at. So today I want to look at the story of Elijah.
Now I'm going to start a little bit. You know, you probably know the story of Elijah. I'm not going to talk about the whole story of Elijah. But you know, Elijah was there and it was the reign of Ahab and Jezebel. They're evil. They're killing the prophets of God. They turned the nation to idolatry. And for, you know, Elijah was on the run most of the time. And for three and a half years there was a severe drought. And there was no rain. And the nation suffered. Still they wouldn't turn.
So finally, there's this contest. And you probably know the story. This is a contest. And a lot of times people are going to say, you know, this is the greatest moment of Elijah's whole ministry. And he has this contest and all the prophets of Baal, 450 prophets of Baal come and just him. And they show up and they're going to say, let's see who's the real God. And they build these altars. And the prophets of Baal build their altar. And they dance around. They cut themselves all day long. And no fire comes down from heaven to set the altar aflame.
Elijah, he takes, I don't know, he found water somewhere. He douses his altar with water. He puts water around it. He prays to God. Boom! Fire comes down. The altar catches fire. It is so obvious who's God is the God that all the soldiers, there's like thousand soldiers there, they turn and kill the 450 prophets of Baal. Ahab's there. He's the king. He sees what has just happened. But not enough. He hasn't rained for three and a half years. The same day, Elijah prays to God, bring the rain.
Storm clouds come and it begins to rain. And that's not enough. Not only that, Elijah, like, and this is where random part of scripture, he like, he's like becomes like flash and sprints back to just real ahead of Ahab.
All three happening in the same day. Now, if you know the story, what happened next? All Ahab saw what had happened, repented. The whole nation repented what they'd done and they turned. And this great revival and rejuvenation of the nation of Israel happened. No! Not at all! Like 180 degrees! How is that possible? And if you, if you, if you, shockingly, a matter of hours, what happens is, Jezebel basically says, I'm killing that guy and Elijah goes on the run.
Let's read that here in 1 Kings 19. And I'm just gonna read the scripture because it's very well told and there's a lot in here. And look for some clues as we go along here. In verse 1 it says, when Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he'd killed all the prophets of Baal.
So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah, may the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you, just as you killed them. And Elijah was afraid and he fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and left his servant there. Then he went on alone in the wilderness, traveling all day, and he sat down under a solitary broom tree and he prayed that he might die.
He said, I've had enough, Lord! Take my life! I don't want it anymore! For I'm no better than my ancestors who have already died. We've got one of the greatest heroes of the Bible, basically at the point where he doesn't want his life anymore.
And he lay down and he slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, get up and eat. And he looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and he drank and lay down again. Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, get up and eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you.
Verse 8, look for some clues here. So he got up and ate and drank and the food gave him enough strength to travel 40 days and 40 nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. And there he came to a grave where he spent the night and the Lord said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? What are you doing here? Elijah said, I've zealously served the Lord God Almighty, but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you. They've torn down the elders. They killed every one of your prophets. I'm the only one left and now they're trying to kill me too. God replied and said, go and stand before me on the mountain.
And so Elijah stood there and the Lord passed by and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. This is just beautiful scripture here. And a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were cut loose. You can picture this in your mind. Rocks blossom out, this wind is blowing, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earthquake. The Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire there was the sound of a still, small voice. In other translations it says, a gentle whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he walked out on the mountain. He wrapped his face to his cloak and stood at the entrance of the cave. Now this story should be personal to every person in here. You know, what does rock bottom look like? And how does God deal with it? You know, we might read this and say, Elijah, how could this be like, man? You just, just the prior day, all the miracles that just had happened. How is it possible that you lost all your faith and were so weak you couldn't lift your shield? How's that possible?
This is the thing I love about God's revelation in the Bible. It's real. These people are real people. Like us. I think after all the happen of Mount Carmel, Elijah expected kind of the logical thing, that the undeniable power of God would just turn everything around. That this was his whole point of his life. This is why God had created him and given him a mission. And it was done and this was what was going to happen next was everybody was going to turn around. And it didn't happen. And instead nothing changed except he got a death sentence. Now have you ever gone through life doing everything God asked you to do? Or at least mostly?
Everything you put your heart and soul into. And you were so sure you were doing things with purpose towards his will. And then instead of everything you would have expected, you're greeted with some like enormous trial suffering. Something that breaks your will. And you say, I have done all I can't do anymore. I tried. I am done. Maybe you feel like that right now. I think in the human experience, every single one of us is going to have that. I've had it. I'll probably have it again.
But the thing is, God gives us one of the greatest heroes of the entire Bible and shares him raw, weak, overwhelmed, depressed, rock bottom.
And then it also shows us something else. It shows us how God deals with someone who is that weak.
Does God chastise him or shame him or lecture him or punish him?
Does God abandon him because of his weakness of faith? No. Rather, we see God is gentle and is patient. He provides him with a physical meal and some rest. Then God himself asks Elijah to talk to him. Because you see, the best medicine that you have, if you've got this depression and severe anxiety, is prayer. It is the best medicine you can take. And if you're dealing with it right now, that's the thing you can do. Lean on God. Pray to him.
Pour your anxieties out to him.
You know, we saw this here with Elijah. God was coaxing him to pour out his anxieties. He says to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? And then Elijah tells him. And then God answers Elijah.
Not by telling him he's disappointed or ashamed. No, instead God shows Elijah his power with the windstorm and the earthquake and the fire.
But those are not his real power. It's the beauty of how that scripture is written. Those are power, but that is not his real power.
His real power is the still, small voice, the gentle whisper.
What is that? It's God's personal connection in relationship with Elijah.
And it isn't that unbelievable. It's actually counter to what you would think. Our God is so awesome and so powerful that the way he shows himself to us, the way he can comfort us with the peace that passes all understanding, which if you have that, this disease, that's what you want.
The way he does that is not a grand display. It's his still, small voice. It's his personal connection to talk to us individually, to be with us, to have his very presence live in us.
And for every single person in this room who feels the weight of the world on them right now, the God who created the entire universe, he offers to you these same two things that he gave to Elijah. He offers to listen to you when you come and pray to him. And you can pray to him as much as you want, as often as you want. He wants you to pour out his anxieties on him. He offers that to you. And if you take him up on that, you'll eventually hear his still, small voice because you'll develop a personal connection and relationship with him. He can take this weakness you have right now and turn it into an opportunity to connect with him personally. And if you do that, it will turn this weakness into strength.
And he might be saying, we have it, but you know, you told me that the story of Elijah, where God takes his weakest moment, turns it into a glorious moment. The most glorious moment. Did you see it? Did you notice it? Maybe you missed it.
A lot of people would say, oh no, the contest at Baal in Mount Carmel, that was the most glorious moment. No, it wasn't. Because right here in this chapter, there's these little amazing symbols that maybe you missed. And what we just read here is an incredibly crucial moment in God's entire plan. Did you notice that Elijah ate bread and water and then fasted as he journeyed for 40 days? Who else in Scripture fasted for 40 days? Anybody we know? Moses and Jesus.
What happened to Moses when he fasted for 40 days? Does anybody remember that story? Well, he was on Mount Sinai. Where was Elijah when we just read where he fasted for 40 days? Exact same place. And then what happened? God showed himself to Moses, just like we saw here with Elijah. Those parallels are not an accident. God planted those there for a reason. Who else fasted for 40 days? Jesus, right after the temptation of Satan. And then God declared him, this is my Son of God. Now, if you were going to look at our Scripture here that you might be familiar with. There's a couple times in the Gospels, but Mark 9, verse 1 through 8. And it says Jesus, and he said to them, Surely I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power. They're going to see the kingdom of God present with power. Now, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining exceedingly white like snow such as no launder on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter answered and said, Jesus, Rabbi, it's good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid. And a cloud came and overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved son. Hear him. And suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves. It is Elijah and Moses, shown in a vision of the kingdom of God with Jesus in his magnificent glory, where God fully declares his son. Two men who were shown God in their earthly lives on Mount Sinai after fasting for 40 days, which is referring to the story we just read in 1 Kings 19 about Elijah. Where Elijah's weakest moment to the point of saying he doesn't want a life anymore was turned into literally a vision of one of the most glorious moments of all human history that's ever going to be.
And at this time, Elijah wouldn't even have known it.
He couldn't have seen all that. He didn't know it.
Perhaps it's the same with us. Perhaps it's the same with you.
We're at our weakest moments, and while we cannot see it now, God is taking our weakest personal trials, your rock-bottom weakness, and will turn it into a glorious outcome.
Maybe more glorious than we can even imagine.
So, take up the shield of faith. If you're too weak to do it, remember Elijah, when he was so weak that he asked God to take his life and know four things. The first thing you should know is know that God does not condemn you for that weakness. Two, instead, he gently invites you to come.
Pour out your anxieties on him. Ask for peace. Ask for him to be with you. Lean on him. And if you diligently seek him, he will show himself to you. Likely not in some spectacular fashion, but know something even better than that. A still, small voice. His own personal relationship with you. And then fourth, when you want to take up your two-week-to-the shield, he promises us that he can take that weakness that you have right now, and he can turn it into strength. Let me close by sharing with you, for three and a half years, I was literally paralyzed by depression and anxiety. I barely, I functioned, but kind of just to get by. I was absent for a lot of those years with my wife and my kids.
I was at rock bottom, and I suffered. I was weak, and I was like, maybe some of you, ashamed of that weakness. But every day I prayed to God, and I saw them more than I'd ever had before.
And eventually, I heard his still, small voice. And through that, God actually used that to build faith, an empathy for other people, which I didn't have before, a humility which I needed to learn. He took my weakness, and the fact that I'm right now even sharing it with you, he took it and turned it into a strength. I promise you, he can and will do the same with each of you. So above all, take up the shield of faith.
