Pastor Joe Fuiten, May 4, 2003

 

Scripture Reading:  I King 19:1-15 Page 255

1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 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." 3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 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 have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors."  5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." 6 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. 7 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." 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. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 10 He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God 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 are trying to kill me too." 11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 14 He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God 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 are trying to kill me too." 15 The LORD said to him, "Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. (NIV)

 

            In this passage, Elijah is not in the best of shape.  He has given up all hope.  Maybe he had one miserable ray of hope.  He hoped that God would kill him and be done with it all.  I don’t think a person can get any lower than what Elijah was in that moment.

            I am choosing this text for my sermon because I know that those who are terminally ill are very often in a very similar place.  When we are in pain, or if there is no apparent way out of the difficulty, we reach a very low point.  A few months ago we had a special service to pray for infertile couples.  Many of them were at a similar point.  After spending tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes even over $100,000, they still had no answer and nothing left but a prayer.  They often come so weakened by the burdens of their lives that they cannot carry their burden another step.  When they come to this church, they have come to the end of the line.  It seemed to help them when they came to the altar and laid their unsolvable burden there before the Lord.

            What I hope for in this message is that you who are terminally ill and others who are suffering greatly in some aspect of your lives, will find in Elijah an example and a hope for your own situation.  We are not really expecting anything out of you today except to give us the opportunity to pray with you.  We hope to lift your burden today with a day devoted to Love, Prayer, and Support.

First, if you are not winning a victory today doesn’t mean you have never won a victory.  That would be the case with Elijah in this very low point in his life.  Not long before Elijah had been incredible!  He was fearless.  He really believed in God.  His name (El Jah) means, “The Lord, He is God.”  Here are just a few highlights of his past:

• He told the king it would not rain for three years, and it didn’t. 
• He said there would be famine, and there was.
• He went to the Jordan River and was fed daily by Ravens. (In those days that was considered a cool thing)
• When he returned to Israel (or Lebanon) God miraculously fed him at the hand of a widow.
• When the widow’s son died, Elijah raised the boy from the dead.

He single-handedly faced 750 priests and called down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice.  When he left the crowd on Carmel, they were chanting his name like some rock star.  I Kings 18:38-39 “Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The LORD-- he is God! The LORD-- he is God!"  The phrase, ‘the Lord he is God” is his name.   It was El-Jah, El-Jah, El-Jah.

In today’s text, Elijah is no longer winning the victory.  He is feeling the pains of internal defeat.  Today’s condition is not the measure of who we are.

Second, today’s condition of difficulty doesn’t mean we have no more wins in our future.  In fact, Elijah would go on to have great encounters with God and to achieve things no other man has ever achieved.  There are three great constellations of miracles in the Bible.  They would be the life of Jesus, the miracles of the Exodus, and the third is the life of Elijah.

Third, my attitude toward myself today is not what governs my situation.  Elijah was under the broom tree calling it quits.  Verses 4 and 5 tell that story.  “He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors."  5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.”  When we deal with God it is not some sort of attitude deal.  A terminal illness is not cured by positive mental attitude (although it doesn’t hurt to have one.)  One of the typical symptoms of severe illness is depression.  We have been through so much, we can’t really bring much energy to the battle at this moment.  In the case of Elijah, the great man of God, he had given up.  He had had enough and couldn’t take any more.

Fourth, God respects us when we don’t respect ourselves.  In verse 5 it reads, “All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat."   David Davis, an author who is familiar with the Hebrew says that the touch was one of respect.[1]  God’s angelic messenger does not berate Elijah or condemn him for his attitude or lack of faith.  He respectfully, maybe even tenderly touches him.

A couple of years ago a man was brought by his daughter to this service for prayer for his cancer.  He had never really gone to church.  In my prayer for him, I asked God to forgive him all of his sins, even the sins of his youth.  I do this because of how James taught us[2] in James 5 when he said, “if he has sinned, he will be forgiven.”  I did not know until later his story. 

He had been a glider pilot in the D-Day attack in WWII.  At age 19, he apparently had done some things which were terrible.  For the rest of his life, he believed he could not go to church because he was not good enough.  What he had done was too terrible.  He lived his whole life with that feeling until that day as he stood at this altar, a man dying of cancer.  When he heard the prayer of forgiveness for the sins of his youth, he knew that God had forgiven him and he was able to open his heart to the Lord.  God respected that old soldier even though he didn’t respect himself.  James went on to write, “Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”

Fifth, God strengthens us for the journey, even when we aren’t entirely headed in the right direction.  God wanted Elijah to go north to Aram (Syria) instead of south to Mt. Sinai (Horeb).  No matter which way he was supposed to go, Elijah was just plain done.  He was without strength.  God used very simple means to help him.  It wasn’t magic.  Just a “cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water.” (V6)    In Verse 7 this is repeated.  “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." 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.”

The method that God used to strengthen him is surprising.  It was just food, rest, exercise and water.  That was what he needed. 

God does not always use spectacular means when he helps us.  God extended the life of Hezekiah 15 years beyond the time he should have died by having Isaiah apply a fig poultice.[3]  For us our prayers might be supplemented by diet, doctors, or drugs but we thank God for them all if they are the common means that God uses in our healing.

 

Testimony by Gretchen Ostrom

Testimony by Tammy Keith

 

Dear Suffering Savior, we come to you in prayer because you know what it feels like to be where we are.  You are our High Priest who has been touched by the feeling of our infirmity.  We thank you that the price has been paid.  Forgive us our sins.  We pray for your gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ in whom we now place our trust.  We ask that the power of Jesus would flow into these bodies today and that they would be made whole.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 

 

 

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My name is Tammy Keith and I received prayer at this prayer service 4 years ago.  I first battled breast cancer 6 years ago, and was treated with surgery and chemotherapy.  The doctors gave me a 70% chance that it wouldn’t come back, but unfortunately it did.  So 3 years ago, I found myself in the middle of simultaneous chemotherapy and radiation treatment for cancer that was diagnosed as Stage 4, a stage reserved for cancer that has spread to other places and is a stage usually given to those who have terminal cancer. Since there was some hope of treatment, my situation was considered serious but not yet terminal because it had not spread to vital organs.

 

So 4 years ago, when I was prayed for during this service, I had a lot of questions.  Of course I knew intellectually that God cared for me and had a plan for my life and that I’d go to heaven when I died.  But going through cancer forced me to directly face these and other issues in a very relevant way. 

 

I knew my husband had a strong faith in the Lord and would be okay, but what about my children?  Would they prosper without a mother?  I spent my whole Christian life preparing to serve the Lord, and felt like I was on the verge of using my gifts in a new way for the Lord.  Would it all be for naught?  What about treatment plans?  Simultaneous chemotherapy and radiation is overwhelming.  Was it the right choice, or should I be using my limited time and energy to increase the quality of life for myself and family?  With my now diminished set of options, would I make the very best choices? Did God even care about the details?  Of course He did, and I knew that, but did I really know that?

 

Through my questions, I discovered in a very real way just how much God really cares.  Yes, he cares about the details.  He cared when I was totally exhausted from chemo and radiation, but still had to take my daughter to soccer practice.  While others searched and searched for parking, I pulled right in.  He cared about me through provided meals, timely phone calls, even flowers at the doorstep on a particularly trying day.

 

He also reminded me that He is familiar with suffering.  I suffered because I had no choice, but he chose to suffer for me.  He chose to suffer so that I would have a present and future hope and an intimate and lasting relationship with Him.  Just as raising kids gives us a new and deeper appreciation for our parents, my suffering made very real for me just what it means when the Bible calls Jesus the “suffering servant”.

 

So now I’m grateful.  I’m grateful for that close relationship I can have with God everyday.  I’m grateful that to the amazement of my doctor, I’m still here and remain cancer free.  I have been able to be a mother to my kids, a wife to my husband, and a servant to my Lord.  I’m grateful for the newfound confidence that He really does hear my prayers, and I can walk boldly with Him and trust in Him for all things, great and small.