God Doesn’t Quit

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My family and I were laughing this morning about something that happened last summer, an incident where my dad had taken my older two children to the grocery store, a crowded grocery store, on a Saturday afternoon, something I’m not brave enough to attempt. But they were standing in line, waiting to check out, and my son saw a tabloid there that was rating best and worst presidents. And my son has no inside voice.

Some of you know that about him already. And so he looks at my dad and says, Poppy, who do you think was the worst president in history? And my dad’s trying everything to get him to shh.

Because, you know, the country’s on a powder keg right now. We’ll talk about it later. Well, Poppy, I’ll tell you who the worst president is.

My dad immediately began fasting and praying that he was not going to name somebody who was living. Because dad knew, dad said if he had said Trump or Obama, there was going to be a riot starting that grocery store line. Dad’s trying everything he can to get Benjamin to be quiet.

And much to my dad’s relief, Benjamin then blurted out the name of a president who’s been gone for over a hundred years. And thank you, crisis averted. And then dad came to where I was and said, you owe me for for taking him to the grocery store.

If he had said a name of a living then current or former president, it would have been ugly because there’s so much disagreement over it. But when you come to lists of the greatest or the most admired presidents, there’s been a lot of consensus on it. The public being polled, historians alike, Democrats, Republicans, everybody across the aisle pretty well have historically agreed George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are in the top two.

Sometimes that list is reversed, but they’re right up there. Abraham Lincoln has widely been regarded as one of our greatest presidents in history, but in 1864, not everybody was in as much agreement. As he was going in to face re-election, the war was going badly, the campaign was going badly, And even some in his own party were urging him to drop out to quit the race, if not quit the presidency before he came up for re-election.

They urged him to quit. And there’s some evidence that he himself had to stop and think about it, thought long and hard about dropping out of the 1864 re-election bid. Now, it’s inconceivable to us that he would have quit.

You know, we look back on it now and think, of course he was going to be re-elected. But it wasn’t so sure then. So he considered quitting, but he decided to stay in.

And by the fall, Union troops under General Sherman had captured Atlanta. Farragut’s Navy had captured Mobile. The war started to turn around and he was reelected solidly.

And like I said, it’s inconceivable now to us looking back in history to think that Abraham Lincoln might have quit before the Civil War was over. We can’t imagine what things would have looked like if he had just quit, if he had just given up and gone back to Illinois. when there were still things in motion that were going to turn around.

And I think we all face the temptation to quit too soon. I think all of us have probably had those conversations with ourselves, whether it’s about spiritual things, whether it’s about things at work, whatever it is, we’ve all had those conversations with ourselves that maybe I ought to just take my toys and go home. You know, we are all tempted at times to quit too soon.

I’ve been tempted to quit too soon. Several years ago, man, I tried to quit ministry. I had several, several conversations with God, saying, I’ll step out and I’ll do something else.

I’ll go dig ditches. I’ll even go into politics, if that’s what you want. God, just show me.

I’ll go do something else. Because I was convinced my usefulness to God is over at this point. But God showed me He was still working.

As I was trying to quit, as I was trying to step out and do something else, God just kept opening doors that I wasn’t pushing those doors to open. They were just opening. God was providing.

I resigned my church in Arkansas, came back to Oklahoma, not sure what I was going to do. And God opened a church at random. And I wasn’t out of Sunday to Sunday.

I was in another church. And it was God just opening doors. He wasn’t through.

And here I was trying to quit, and God wasn’t finished. We can’t always see God’s work because we’re looking for something spectacular. You know, we’re looking for that Elijah on Mount Carmel experience every day that we talked about last week, the fire coming down from heaven.

We expect that to be how God works every day, and that’s not necessarily the case. And we get into a situation where we don’t see that fire coming down from heaven every day, and we assume God’s no longer working. God’s done with us, and we’re tempted to quit.

But the work of God is a lot like. . .

There’s a town, if you want to call it a town, it’s a little village in southern Australia that is a lot like the will of God. Because this place, I’m given to understand, at one point was a center of opal mining in Australia. Lots of stuff, lots of activity going on there.

There’s a village called Coober Pedy. You can even look up pictures of it on Google later on. You would never know that there was this mining town, that there was all this activity going on there because the town was built underground.

and so you can go today and there are some houses I looked at it on Google Satellite the other day there are some houses and buildings there now but you wouldn’t necessarily know now or a hundred years ago that there is a town of almost 2,000 people there and there’s all this economic activity going on because it’s so hot there that they built almost everything underground saw an entrance to a hotel saw a sign and then you go underground into the hotel it’s crazy I think it was best western or something like that and you go underground god’s will is a lot like that god’s will is a lot like that we can look at it and we see there’s there’s nothing spectacular going on here there’s nothing big going on here nothing that I can see and we miss what’s going on under the surface we miss that god can still be at work just because it’s not big and spectacular and above ground and when we we don’t see god at work because it’s not obvious to us and then we’re tempted to quit before we ought to.

Well, Elijah was in the same situation. We’ve been looking at the story of Elijah for the last few weeks. How do we navigate a world that’s gone crazy?

Because we’re in a place right now in our country that looks a lot like where Elijah was in Israel in the 860s BC. There’s a lot of similarities there. And so we can look to this man’s example as somebody who served God and learn from his example, mostly good, but also some of the things that he did wrong, and some of the things that he thought were wrong, and see how God corrected him.

And we can learn from his example as we try to navigate the craziness of the world around us. So if you haven’t turned with me there, I’m going to ask you to turn to 1 Kings chapter 19. 1 Kings chapter 19.

And we’re going to look at most of the chapter this morning, first 18 verses. Once you get there, if you’d stand with me, we’ll look at this together. 1 Kings chapter 19.

And Ahab told Jezebel, all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. So Jezebel finds out that the false prophets had been executed there on Mount Carmel.

She sends a threat and said, may my gods do to me what you did to them if I don’t make you like them by this time tomorrow. She said, I’m going to have you slaughtered or the gods are going to strike me dead. So Jezebel’s mad.

Verse 3, and when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree, and he prayed that he might die and said, It is enough. Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father’s.

He has fled to Beersheba, which is the farthest south you can get. It’s not the southern end of Israel, but it’s the southern end of civilization in Israel. You can look at it on Google Satellites.

I did a lot of that this week. You can look at it on Google Satellites still today. There’s the town of Beersheba, and then there’s just straight desert all the way to the Red Sea.

So he’s gone out to the far end of civilization, and then went another further day out into the desert. And he’s prayed to God, take my life, kill me, because I’m no better off than those who went before. Verse 5, then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, arise and eat.

Then he looked and there by his head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him and said, arise and eat because the journey is too great for you.

So he arose and ate and drank and he went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. And there he went into a cave and spent the night in that place. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him.

And he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? So he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts. For the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, killed your prophets with the sword.

I alone am left, and they seek to take my life. Then he said, Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains, and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small voice.

So it was when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, Because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.

Then the Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, announce Haziel as king over Syria. Also you shall anoint Jehu, the son of Nimshi, as king over Israel, and Elisha, the son of Shaphat, of Abel-Meholah, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. And it shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Haziel, Jehu will kill.

And whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Yet I have reserved 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him. And you may be seated.

So Jezebel’s threat to Elijah in verses 1 and 2 made Elijah realize that not everything had changed. See, there had been this outpouring of repentance on Mount Carmel as the people, or the seeming outpouring of repentance on Mount Carmel. as the people realized, wait, God really is God.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob really is the one true God. These Baals and these Asherah poles that we’ve been worshiping are false idols because God was able to answer with fire. And they realized this and they cried out, the Lord, he is God.

And so I think Elijah thought, as we sometimes will think, well, everything’s just supposed to turn around overnight. Everything’s just supposed to turn on a dime and when it doesn’t, we get disappointed. And we think, well, maybe God’s not at work after all.

So he gets this threat from Jezebel and he realizes not everything has changed. And certainly it hasn’t changed in my timing. He’s still outnumbered.

And so he fled in despair. As I said, he went as far away from Jezebel as he could get and still be in Israel. And then he went beyond that.

He continued on out into the desert. He asked God to take his life. He said, I’m through with this.

I’m through with all of this. That’s a great place of despair. That’s a place of tremendous despair where you’re not just saying, I’m done with this job, Lord.

he’s saying I’m done with this planet Lord I’m done with this life just take me I’m done that’s how upset he was Elijah wanted to quit he wanted to quit everything he wanted to quit but God was still working and I think the reason he wanted to quit is because he didn’t realize that God was still working and so he needed God to show him that he wasn’t finished and that’s exactly what God did in this passage that we’ve that we’ve just read that story of the the still small voice You know, we could go through that and pick it apart and the meaning of the wind and the fire and the earthquake. And I’ve heard messages on that. I’ve done messages on that.

But I want to cut to the chase real quick with that this morning and talk about the overall meaning of that story. When God takes Elijah and has him walk to the edge of the mountain and he shows him all these things, there was a mighty gust of wind come through and Elijah realized God wasn’t in the wind. Now, I’m sure God sent that wind, but the presence of God, the work of God was not in that wind.

So then there was a great earthquake. Earthquakes are pretty terrifying. I never thought here in Oklahoma that I would live through earthquakes, but one shook me out of bed a few years ago.

It was crazy. Happened early in the morning. That was a terrifying experience.

I can’t imagine being in a massive one like they have sometimes in California. But there was this mighty earthquake, and we’ve seen the power of these things, what they can do. And Elijah realized God’s power was not in the earthquake.

Then there was the raging fire. And we’ve seen too on television, some of you maybe in person, what a fire can do. And Elijah realized the work of God wasn’t in the fire.

And after the fire, there was the still small voice where God spoke to Elijah in a whisper. Now what was the point of all that? Like I said, we could pick apart the fire and the wind and the earthquake and the meaning of all of those.

Here’s the point of it though. Elijah was looking for God to work in some cataclysmic event. He was looking for God.

He was expecting God to work, to make some big statement. He had just come down off Mount Carmel where God had showed his power through this mighty act of sending down the fire, not only to burn the sacrifice, but to vaporize the rock and everything else around it. He was looking for God to work in some incredible earth-shaking way.

And when God didn’t show up and do exactly what Elijah thought God ought to do, Elijah just assumed God’s no longer working here. And Elijah had a pity party about it. I don’t say this to criticize Elijah because I’m the same way a lot of the times.

But he was thinking, if God’s not doing miracles and signs and wonders, if God’s not doing things that are obvious that I can point at and say, see, look at this big change, look at this massive event. If God’s not doing that, then God’s not at work. Well, God sent him the wind and the fire and the earthquake, and God wasn’t in that.

God was in the still small voice. See, God can work in subtle ways as well. Just because we don’t see it, just because it doesn’t make the front page, just because it doesn’t appear on the Richter scale, it doesn’t mean that God’s not at work, because God was completely in the still small voice.

Same thing is true in your life and in my life. God isn’t just working in the big cataclysmic events. God is also working on a day-to-day basis in the subtle ways, in the whisper.

God works that way in our lives. God works that way in our church. God works that way in our community.

God works that way in our nation. Now, it’s amazing. Don’t get me wrong.

It’s amazing when God shows up in these incredible earth-shaking ways. But don’t put God in the box of thinking that’s all he can do. As God showed Elijah, he’s just as present in the whisper as he is in the shout.

He’s just as present in the valley, in the desert, as he was there on Mount Carmel. We see that God still had plans in place. When you get to verses 15 through 17, there’s a lot of names that he mentioned there.

He said, go anoint Hazael to be king of Syria. Go anoint Jehu to be king of Israel. Go anoint Elisha as your successor.

God still had plans. And we see throughout the Old Testament that these things continue. In Elijah’s day and then in Elisha’s day, God was continuing to move the nations around like pawns on a chessboard.

God was not through. And even here he’s saying, I’ve got plans. You may not see it, you may not understand it, but go do what I’ve told you to.

Go anoint Haziel, a pagan. Go anoint him to be king of Syria. Jehu, not a great guy either, but go anoint him to go take Ahab’s place.

God still had plans. God was still working. And we see in this closing verse, verse 18, where he says, I’ve reserved 7,000 in Israel.

Don’t forget, Elijah kept saying, his big thing was, I’m all alone. I’m all alone. Remember, they took the prophets and they killed them, the prophets of the Lord.

The only ones that had escaped, as far as Elijah knew, were the 100 that were being hidden in caves by Obadiah. They weren’t out being able to do any kind of ministry on the Lord’s behalf. They were in hiding.

Elijah’s big thing is, I’m alone. God said, I’ve got 7,000 people right now in Israel ready to go who have not bowed the knee to Baal. I’ve got 7,000. I’m not done with Israel.

Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean I’m done. Just because you don’t see everything I’m working on doesn’t mean I’ve quit. God still had plans for Israel.

He had 7,000 of his people ready to go. And God’s work would proceed with or without Elijah. I don’t know if you picked up on that or not, but he said, go and anoint Elisha as your successor.

Because there is going to come a day, there was going to come a day when God was going to take Elijah. That day was coming when Elijah’s work would be over. Today wasn’t that day, but God said, go anoint Elisha as your successor and begin training him for when that day comes.

Because even when you’ve quit, even when you’re done, my work’s not over. And we see throughout this that God provided, because God didn’t want to let Elijah quit yet. God provided so that Elijah could keep going.

You see in verse 5 how he fed him, sent the angel to, starting in verse 5, how he sent the angel to feed him. He wakes up and there’s just miraculously bread and water there in the middle of the desert. He didn’t order that from Walmart.

com and it’d show up two hours later on his doorstep. God did that. They didn’t have that back then.

God provided food and water for the journey. Even that broom tree that he went out in the desert, and there’s a broom tree there that he could take shelter under. God was providing so that Elijah could continue his service.

And God chastened him so he would keep going so that he would continue his service. That’s what the whole thing was about taking him out to the edge of the mountain and showing him the wind and showing him the fire and showing him the earthquake was so that he could get his head on right and realize that just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean God’s done. They said, Elijah needed an attitude adjustment.

And so God chastened him. God brought him back into line so that he would keep going. And then in telling him, go and anoint these people and train Elisha, God instructed him that he should keep going.

Here’s what you do next. God didn’t just say, keep going. God said, I’ve given you instructions.

You specifically need to go do this because God wasn’t finished. And while I look at Elijah usually as a good example of what we ought to do in trying to navigate the world we find ourselves in, in this case, Elijah is an example of what not to do. And we learn from what God did to correct him.

And we learn from the message that God gave him what we ought to do. We cannot act like the battle’s over when God is just getting started. That was his big mistake.

After Mount Carmel, when things didn’t change immediately and there was no more fire from heaven in that moment, he assumed God was done. We cannot act like the battle is over when God is just getting started. And I know because I’ve talked to some of you about it.

I know because I’ve had these thoughts myself. We look at the growing darkness in our community. We look at it in our country, and sometimes we think the easiest thing is just to hunker down in the church and wait until Jesus comes.

Just give it up. The battle’s over. Let’s just wait here.

Let’s just wait. Folks, the battle’s not over until God says it’s over. Listen, He’s explained.

Look at the book of Revelation sometime. He’s explained what His end plans are until He starts ending the battle. The battle’s not over.

He’s told us what it’s going to look like when he’s done. We’re not there yet. Until then, God is just getting started.

Our nation, folks, our nation is not irretrievably lost. Hear people on the radio talk, America’s over. No, America’s not over until God says America’s over. Spiritually, politically, economically, it’s not over until God says it’s over.

Our community is not irretrievably lost. And listen to me on this. Our loved ones are not irretrievably lost. As long as life continues, God is still giving people an opportunity to repent and turn to him. God is still in the business of drawing people to himself.

He’s still in the business of saving people. He’s still in the business of changing people. And I think about the verse in 2 Peter, where Peter wrote, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

And the context of that passage is saying, how long will God let things go on? And people thinking, well, if God hasn’t stepped in and ended all this by now and hasn’t brought the hammer of judgment down by now, then he’s never going to. And the world gets that attitude.

Well, God hasn’t judged us by now. This judgment’s all in our imagination. And sometimes we as believers think, why hasn’t God stepped in and fixed this yet?

Listen, God’s not slack, meaning God isn’t negligent here. God hasn’t forgotten that he’s just. God hasn’t forgotten that he’s in control. Why hasn’t he stepped in and judge the world?

Why hasn’t he stepped in and put all these things right? It’s not because God forgot what he’s doing or God fell off his throne. It’s because God is gracious and God is giving one more day, one more opportunity, one more hearing of the gospel.

God is merciful. He’s long-suffering toward us and not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. If God hasn’t wrapped all this up yet, it’s because he’s not through working among us, working among our friends and neighbors working within our nation to give us one more opportunity, one more opportunity, one more opportunity to turn to him.

Not a time for us to act like the battle’s over. Just because of the things we see at work in our culture and see sin run rampant and see things turning hostile toward Christianity. It’s not time to act like the battle’s over.

Not time to go and hide in the wilderness. It’s time for us to engage. Time for us to recognize that God is still at work and he’s still giving us things to do.

I knew a man years ago in my first pastorate. We asked him to do something. We asked him to help out with something in the church.

He said, no, I’m not going to do that. Okay. Well, why is that?

Why not? Well, I worked 40 years in the bus ministry. I’ve done my time.

I asked him when God gave him his retirement notice. I was younger and less diplomatic then, but I told him, I told him when God’s through with you, when God’s through with you on this planet, he’ll let you know because he’ll take you off of it. If God’s still giving you breath, he’s still got something for you to do.

I don’t ever want you to think, well, I’m too old, I’m too sick, I’m too frail, I’m too forgetful, I’m too whatever to serve the Lord. Listen, as long as he’s giving you breath, he’s giving you something to do. I’ve heard people say, well, all I can do is pray.

That’s incredible. Do that. That’s not all you can do.

That’s the best thing you can do. Well, all I can do is send cards to encourage people. Great, do that.

If God is still giving you breath, if He’s still making this part of yours beat, then He’s still got something for you to do. And folks, for those of us who aren’t facing that, where we have to say, well, I can’t get out much, I can’t do anything. All I can do is pray, all I can do is send cards.

It’s even more true for us that if God still left you here, if God still left us here, it’s because He’s still got something for us to do. And He’s called us in His Word to speak the truth in love. Tell people the truth in a loving way about God’s holiness and our sin.

Not in a way to beat them over the head about it, but to warn them and plead with them to seek His forgiveness while there’s still time. Speak the truth in love. Glorify Him through our lives.

Every day you wake up and are around somebody where you have the opportunity to bring glory to Jesus Christ just by the way you live and by the way you react to things. He’s still giving us the opportunity to proclaim the message of hope and forgiveness that we have in Jesus Christ. Why has He left us here? Why is this continuing?

Because God’s given somebody another chance to repent. And by the way, that’s not just me reading New Testament things into Old Testament things. Why was God moving kings around and prophets around in Elijah’s day?

Trying to get Israel to repent. Giving Israel opportunities to repent. He was chastening them and disciplining them when they got out of line so that they would repent.

What our country needs, what our community needs, what our loved ones need is not for the church to retreat and hide in fear and hunker down and just wait for the rapture. What they need is for us to stand up in love with a clear and bold witness of the gospel because God is giving opportunities today to repent, to change our mind about this sin that we cling to, to change our mind about the idea that, well, God will just accept whatever I want to bring him. God will accept me if I’m just good enough.

I can be good enough for God. To repent of all of that and realize that our only hope, our only hope, any of us in this world, is the fact that Jesus Christ died to pay for our sins in full. He rose again to prove it.

We can have forgiveness and salvation as a free gift of God simply because Jesus died to pay for it. We’ll take Him at His word and we’ll believe Him and we’ll ask Him for it.

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