This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to our study of First and Second Kings. This is the fourth week of our study through those two books. We're in First Kings, Chapter 19, the first few days of this week. And we've been walking through, we started last week walking through with Elijah some lessons on how to be a significant servant. The greatest life of significance you can lead is the life of a servant. So how do you live a life as a significant servant? We learned the lesson last week that God is willing and able to meet all of my needs. That's a lesson that significant servants live by. We also learned the lesson that personal faith requires personal risk. First few days of this week we're going to talk about this difficult lesson that Elijah had to learn that we all have to learn if we're going to be a significant servant. And that is, outer victories mean nothing if I don't win the inner battle. Outer victories mean nothing if I don't win the inner battle to significantly serve Christ. It's not just about the things that are happening on the outside or the victories on the outside, how things are built, how big things are. It's about what's happening on the inside, how close you are to him, how your life is being transformed by him. And in First Kings 19, Elijah has one of the great inner battles of all time. You'd think that Chapter 18 contained the biggest battles of Elijah's life. He battled Ahab, he battled 450 false prophets, but in Chapter 19 he actually faces a bigger battle, the battle with himself. He won the battles of Chapter 18 fairly easily. We saw that this last week, but he almost lost his life in this battle with himself. So we're going to look at the inner battle and also God's plan for inner victory in the midst of that battle. Today we're going to focus on the battle. At the beginning of the chapter you read about this battle, Elijah in this chapter gives a clear expression of the kinds of inner battles which God's servants are going to inevitably face. You can't escape these battles. We're all going to face these inner battles. Let me put them in terms of things that we feel. How do we feel when we're facing this inner battle? First way we feel is, "I want to run. I just want to get away. " Listen to what happened beginning in Verse 1 of Chapter 19, "Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with a sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, 'May the God's 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 he ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba and Judah, he left his servant there. " So here's Elijah. After his victories we learn that he had on Mount Carmel, he ran six miles into the city and then he hears this from Jezebel. He's defeated 450 prophets, but from one powerful woman he hears, "I'm going to take your life," and now he flees. He flees towards Mount Horeb is where he's going eventually, 200 miles from Jezreel. He's headed as far away as he can from the situation at the threat of this single powerful woman. In one sense it wasn't a matter of the person, although Jezebel was very powerful and very evil. It was the timing. You see, we often feel like running after a great victory. The combination of physical and emotional fatigue make us feel like escaping when everybody else is celebrating. We're run down and so we want to run away. I can look at many times of victory in my life, spiritual victory, and I didn't understand this at the beginning. I remember as a young pastor building a new building, moving into a new building, and everybody else was celebrating that day that we were moving in, and I was depressed on that day. Why? Because I was physically and emotionally tired. I didn't understand it at that time. Why do I feel this way? It's the way that God's servants are going to feel sometimes, but if you don't understand that you run away because you feel that way. You don't have to run just because you feel that you have to run. You don't have to run just because you feel that you have to run. Servants are going to face wanting to escape from life's responsibilities, and the truth of the matter is we're often never closer to defeat than in our moments of greatest victory. We have to understand we're going to have these feelings. We're human beings. Part of understanding what it means to significantly serve God is understanding you're not God, that you're a human being. You're going to have these feelings. You're going to have this feeling of, "I want to run sometimes. " Elijah also gives us the example of a second feeling we've all had, and that is, "I've had enough. I've just had enough. " Listen to what happens beginning in verse 4, "While he himself went a day's journey into the desert, he came to a broom tree. He sat down under it, and he prayed that he might die. 'I have had enough, Lord,' he said, 'take my life. I am no better than my ancestors. '" Why is it that sometimes we stop trying? We just want to give up, or as Elijah prays, "Just take me to heaven, God. That's it. There's nothing more I can do good on this earth. You may as well just take me to heaven. " We have this feeling that I've reached my limit, and in that we feel like, "Just let me die. " Now, if that sounds familiar to you, it should, because you see it all through the Bible. Moses expressed those kinds of feelings. Paul expressed those kinds of feelings. We want to grow. We want to feel great as we grow. We want to have victories for God and have the best feeling all the way through. But the truth of the matter is, sometimes in the growth there are challenges. Sometimes in the victories there's weariness, and we're going to have these feelings of, "I've had enough sometimes. " And then the third feeling that significant servants are going to face, the third battle that we're going to face, and their feelings inside is this feeling, "I'm all alone. " And Elijah says it very clearly. First Kings 19, 10, he replied, "I have been very zealous for the Lord Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me too. " So Elijah has this strong feeling, "I'm all alone. " He has this pity party over it with God. God says what's wrong, and he has this pity party, "I'm the only one left, they're trying to kill me too. " You know a pity party. You get all alone, you pull the shades, you make it dark, you bask in your misery, usually some chocolates involve somehow, and it's always done alone. The greatest inner battle is the battle of loneliness. When you decide that you are all alone, the inner battle is lost because you can't fight the battles alone. You have to fight them with God and with others. But loneliness can be an occupational hazard of Christ's servants because everyone doesn't always understand. Everyone isn't always going along with you. Sometimes God's revealed something to you that's not revealed to somebody else. So the question is, is there an answer? Is there a victory? And the answer is, of course there is. God has some answers for this. Some of them are going to surprise you, and we're going to look at those tomorrow. But for today, I know that you may very well be going through one of these battles we just talked about right now. You may be facing a time of discouragement right now. If you're not facing it now, I hate to tell you, part of life is that we face these times. You are going to be facing it probably sooner than you'd like. So I want to pray for you and ask God to encourage you, to help you to sense His presence even as you're going through this battle. Lord, I pray right now for all who are battling these inner battles, these feelings of, "I just want to get away. I've had enough. I'm all alone. " I pray, God, that first of all, we would know that we're not alone, that there's others who have felt and have faced these same things. In fact, all of God's significant servants have faced these same feelings. Lord, that doesn't give us all the answers, but it does give us a measure of hope because we know other people have seen a way out. Lord, in all of it, we need to know that you're with us. We need to know that you're going to walk alongside of us in our discouragement, and we know that you will. Right now, help us to sense your presence. Lord, we pray for ourselves, and we also pray for friends, for family, others that we know that are discouraged right now, that are facing these feelings. God, would you let them know that you're near? Would you let them know that you're not going to let them down? You'd never let us down, God. You are trustworthy, and we praise you for this. In Jesus' name, amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to take a look at God's answer for these inner battles.