This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you back to day two of week five of our look through 1 and 2
Kings. We're in 1 Kings chapter 19 these first few days. Yesterday we looked at
the inner battles that God's significant servants always face.

The physical and emotional, even sometimes spiritual weariness that comes upon
us causes us to feel I'm all alone, I've had enough, I want to run. What do you
do when you have those feelings? Well there's no better example than Elijah.

It's one of the great stories in all of scripture that give us the example, the
things that we need to do, that God has for us to do when we face these inner
battles. The inner victory for Elijah was won on six different fronts. And I
want to take the next couple of days to talk together about six things that the
Lord says to you when you feel like you're losing that inner battle.

If you feel that way now, here's what God has to say to you. The next time you
feel that way, here's what God has to say to you. The first thing he has to say
to you, it might surprise you because it's so practical.

First thing he says is you need rest. You need rest. Beginning in verse five,
down through verse seven, "Then he, Elijah, laid down under a tree and he 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 a hot coals and a jar of
water. He ate and he drank and then he 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. '" One of the reasons we lose this
inner battle, the battle with ourselves, is we begin to act like our physical
bodies and our spiritual health have nothing to do with each other. Elijah
certainly did that.

He has this day of battle. He runs ahead of Ahab to get to the city. He's just
plain worn out.

And you and I have to watch out for that. When you begin to think that your
Christianity paints a big red C on your chest, like you're super Christian
somehow, watch out. Watch out.

So God in a very practical way, Elijah's going through this time of
discouragement, says first rest, then eat, and then decide. So you may need a
good night's sleep. You may need a week's vacation.

You may need a month away. There's a lot of actual research on the value of rest
in our lives, that just being able to get away for a day, a day of quiet and a
comfortable bed and a dark soundproof room, people often emerge from that
refreshed with new self-control, a new look at life. This is true whether you're
a follower of Jesus or not.

The truth is our bodies speak to us in ways that we don't understand. But when
you're following Christ and you have these feelings, you begin to sense, "Well,
I'm a Christian. I don't have to get that rest in order to feel a different way.

I can just pray. " No. God tells us in a very practical way, you need rest.

That's why there's a Sabbath. That's why Elijah's encouraged to get rest here.
The first practical thing to do before you do anything else is get the rest that
you need.

Nothing else is going to make sense before you get the rest. So number one, you
need rest. Second thing that Elijah learns that day, and you and I learned with
him, is you must worship.

You must worship. Verse 8, "So he got up and ate and drank, strengthened by that
food. He traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the
mountain of God.

" So he goes to this place, Horeb, the mountain of God. This is a place where he
knew he could meet God. This is a place of worship.

When you're having this inner battle, you're exhausted, you're discouraged
inside, one of the things you need is you need a place of worship. A place of
worship where you can see, you can sense that God is in control. Many times it
is going to be a physical place.

Some place you've gone to before. Some place that you regularly go to. Do you
have a special place where you regularly worship?

Jesus did. The Bible tells us that he regularly went to the Garden of
Gethsemane. He regularly went to the Mount of Olives.

Then that place was a special place of worship for him. What are your special
places of worship where you go and you worship him? My wife, Shondell, was
telling me that she recently read that some people build a place in their minds.

They may not be able to get away, but they have a place where they sense God's
presence. In thinking even about God, they think of themselves in that place
being in God's presence. There's something very powerful about places of
worship.

When you put yourself physically in a place of worship, you're ready to see God
work in your life. Especially when you're weary. You need to be in a familiar
place of worship.

It's important for God to be able to work in your heart to change your life. So
you've got to get in that place of worship, and then you have to do the next
thing. You rest.

You worship. Number three. The third thing that God tells Elijah is you can
talk.

You can tell someone. Beginning in verse 9 down to verse 10, "There Elijah went
into a cave, and he spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him, 'What
are you doing here, Elijah?

' He replied, 'I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The
Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, put your
prophets to death with a sword. I'm the only one left, and now they're trying to
kill me too.

'" Now this complaint that I just read from Elijah, why did he say it? Because
God invited him to say it. God invited Elijah to voice his complaint.

What's wrong? Why are you here? What are you doing here, God asks.

And then God just listens. One of the reasons that you lose the inner battle is
you never tell anybody else about the battle that you're facing, that you're
going through. And it starts with God.

First you tell God. Twice, God invites Elijah to tell what's going on. And
Elijah, in fact, repeats the exact same complaint both times.

We're going to see that in a moment. He's obviously rehearsed this in his mind.
He thought it through again and again and again.

So when God says what's wrong, he has the answer. And you may have that in your
life. There's something you've rehearsed in your mind again and again and again,
but you've never even voiced it to God.

Start there. Tell God. Tell someone else.

You need to tell. If you're going to walk through, walk out of this time of
discouragement, this time of spiritual, physical, emotional weariness, you need
rest. You need worship.

You need to tell someone. Now tomorrow we're going to look at three additional
things that you and I need to do. But as we end today, let's ask together for
God's strength to start where he tells us to start.

Would you pray with me? Lord, as we think about the needs in our lives, we pray
that you'd help us to see that it begins very practically. Help us to get the
rest that we need, not to treat ourselves as if we're superhuman somehow.

There's pride in that, that whether we can see it or not is there. So Lord, if
you're telling us the thing that we need to do is rest, help us to listen to
you. If we think there's no space in our lives to rest, I pray that you would
provide that space through the wisdom of our friends, through the direction you
give in our lives.

God, help us to find places of physical rest. And then Lord, help us to find
places where we can worship. And Lord, would you bring to our mind right now a
place of worship, some place of worship that's special to us, some place in our
house, some place out in nature, some place we've been in the past, some place
that we're going in a regular way now, bring that to our minds.

And Lord, help us to make the decision to go to that place. And then God, help
us to tell. First you, this complaint, this problem, this hurt that we've been
rehearsing in our mind, help us to voice those words to you and then to find a
trusted Christian friend and voice those words to them.

Lord, as we do that, we pray that you'd begin to bring your healing, your
strength into our lives and pray it in Jesus name, amen.