Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2003 : August 31, 2003
God's Soul Repair
Pentecost 12
If any of you has recently moved, you know that it takes a while to get used to your new surroundings. It's a time of discovery. You have to get your lay of the land to be able to find your way around town. You soon need to find out where the best store is for groceries, household supplies, gasoline, and everything else you need. Another thing you should do soon is find a reputable and trustworthy car mechanic. Should you go with the cheapest price in town at a place called Bob's Auto Repair or go somewhere else more nationally known? Could you trust Bob? Would he have all the necessary equipment? Many questions come into play when trying to find a good mechanic.
In today's lesson from the Old Testament, we see the prophet Elijah with some exhaust problems, but not on his car -- he was exhausted as God's prophet. He was ready to give up, and even die. The Prophet Elijah didn't need exhaust work done on his car; he needed repair work done on his soul. He didn't need to go to Bob's Auto Repair; he needed to go to God's Soul Repair. And that's exactly where he went. God was and is the only reputable and trustworthy soul mechanic that there ever was or will be. Elijah learned that even though our exhaust problems are guaranteed through life, at God's Soul Repair God's cure is warrantied forever.
First, let's see how Elijah's exhaust problem began. He was a prophet. Whenever you think of a prophet, you usually associate one or two Bible stories with the prophet. With the prophet Moses we usually think of the parting of the Red Sea or the giving of the Ten Commandments. With Daniel we think of Daniel in the Lion's Den. With Elijah we probably think of the fiery chariot that took Elijah to heaven before he even died. But as glorious as that picture is, most of Elijah's ministry was anything but glorious. The main reason Elijah was feeling exhausted was because of the spiritual condition of the people of Israel during his life. It was an abomination. Ahab and Jezebel were king and queen. Ahab's reign is summarized a few chapters before our text. It says that "Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him." Ahab and Jezebel led the people away from God and into idolatry, worshiping Baal and Ashtoreth, the gods of the Canaanites. They had almost 1000 false prophets promoting this idol worship, and Jezebel was busy slaughtering the prophets of the LORD. This isn't happening in Edom or in Moab or Assyria -- these things were taking place in the nation of Israel -- God's chosen people. The landscape was filled with shrines to Ashtoreth and Baal. And we think things are bad in our day when a monument of the Ten Commandments is removed from a courthouse in Alabama! Things got so bad in Israel that Elijah eventually thought that he was the only faithful follower of the LORD left in the whole land. And now Jezebel had set her sights on Elijah, swearing that he would be dead within 24 hours. So Elijah fled from Jezebel. He thought all was lost.
Elijah fled 100 miles to the southernmost city in Judah -- Beer Sheba. After he left his servant there, he went for another day into the desert. When he stumbled upon a tree, he sat down and prayed that he would die: " 'I have had enough, LORD,' he said. 'Take my life.' " Elijah was physically exhausted. More importantly, he was spiritually exhausted. He wanted to die. He hadn't lost his faith, but he had lost his will to fight against Ahab and Jezebel and Baal and Ashtoreth.
Does that sound familiar at all? How many times have you told others about your faith in the Triune God, and no one has listened to you? How many times have you witnessed to others about things God hates, like abortion, sex outside marriage, doing drugs, getting drunk -- only to be ridiculed to your face and then ignored? Certainly Elijah is not the only one with exhaustion problems. We would love to see everyone we know and even those we don't know come to church, but after days and months and years of patiently telling them to come they still never make it. How easy is it to stand up for our moral convictions in this depraved world? Certainly it's easy to lose patience for the work to which God has called us; even the great prophet Elijah got depressed about it after he was rejected not for days but for years and nothing seemed to work.
Now look at it from God's perspective. Think how God feels when he sees some of his own children going after the desires of this world instead of going after him and his Word. We are guilty of that, aren't we? We don't worship Baal. We don't worship Ashtoreth. But there are times when we fall down and worship the things of this world. The god of raunchy TV or movies, the god of getting drunk, the god of centering on ourselves instead of serving God and others -- we have brought our offerings to these gods any number of times in our lives. We need God's Soul Repair. When we are following the true God's will and living as he wants us, telling a neighbor about him, warning a friend who's caught in a sin just how dangerous their life has become spiritually, we can sometimes wonder, "What's the use? Nobody listens. I give up." We might even hit rock bottom and ask God to end our lives because they are that miserable. If even the great prophet Elijah would want to give up at this low point in his ministry, how can we hope to continue ourselves?
We need God's soul repair. We don't need it once in a while -- we need it everyday. Why? Because while we live in this world, we are guaranteed of having spiritual exhaust problems our whole lives. If Satan isn't attacking us head on, trying to get us to fall into sin ourselves, he's coming at us from the side, getting us to think our work in God's kingdom is meaningless because we only get ridiculed and we often don't see any results. That's why we need God's soul repair, because your spiritual exhaust problems are guaranteed for life. But listen to what God tells you -- his cure is warrantied forever.
Elijah thought that he was at the end of his rope when he went into God's Soul Repair, but God showed him not only that Elijah wasn't through yet, but also that God was not through with Elijah yet. God brought Elijah's soul into his Soul Repair shop. Elijah had things all backwards. What was he focusing on? He was focusing on his own inadequacies as God's prophet and seeming lack of results of his message. Elijah needed to stop focusing on himself and start focusing on God. Later God encouraged Elijah by showing him how his Word works. It doesn't work often with a fiery display of power (although God has done that at times -- fire coming from heaven, feeding the 5000, etc.). The Holy Spirit works powerfully through his Word. Listen to what Isaiah says: "My word...will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11) Sometimes it might not seem like the Word we are using is doing anything, but it is -- it is working on hearts. The Apostle Paul says about the gospel message that it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Jesus used the wind to tell us how the Holy Spirit works through his Word. You don't know where the wind comes from or where it's going, yet it is there. The same with the Spirit -- he works on people hearts when and where he wills. But we know that it is always in connection to God's Word -- "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ." (Romans 10:17).
Does it make sense that God became a human being like you and me, but without sin, so he could save us from sin? Does it make sense that by suffering and dying on a device of torture 2000 years ago Jesus was able to pay for your sins and give you life, and that simply by believing in him as your Savior you have eternal life? No! That makes no sense to us. It's foolish to us. But not to God. That's how God saves us from all our sins. That's how God saved the whole world from sin. That's how sinners like you and me get to heaven and into God's family right here on earth -- simply by believing it. People will ridicule that message of the gospel. People will ridicule us for telling them how God wants them to live, just as they ridiculed Jesus and the prophets and apostles also. But most importantly, remember that when we are proclaiming God's Word, the Holy Spirit is working to convict souls of sin and lead them to repentance and into the light of God's forgiveness through Christ.
What happened to Elijah? After Elijah lay down to sleep under the tree, "All at once an angel touched him and said, 'Get up and eat.' " Twice Elijah ate. Then we are told what Elijah was able to do. "Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God." There God showed him that his Word was working, that 7000 hadn't worshiped Baal, that Elijah still had work to do. God was certainly not done with Elijah. David Livingstone, the famous Scottish missionary and African explorer, can teach us much in this regard. When he was asked once if he feared the dangers of the unexplored African continent, he answered, "I am immortal until the will of God for me is accomplished."
Do you think God's will is through with you yet? Don't count on it. You are alive at this time in history in this nation in this state in this city in your subdivision surrounded by neighbors and friends for a reason. You are to be lights in the darkness reflecting the light of your Savior to the sin-darkened world. You are to proclaim the praises of him who called you out of that darkness and into his wonderful light. God has given you the lasting cure to your exhaust problems -- warrantied forever -- just as he did for Elijah: he gave you salvation for free through Jesus Christ. Usually when you go to a mechanic, you assume that you will have to pay through the nose for their labor that they put into the car. But not in God's Soul Repair Shop. God takes all the labor cost on himself. In order to give you repair for your soul, God's own Son lived and died for you. Your bill is paid in full. How could we ever tire of proclaiming to the world what God has done for us!
When you have exhaust problems, you can always go to God's Soul Repair -- it is the message of forgiveness and power for living that we find in the Bible. It is backed by a warranty that lasts forever because heaven is our forever through Christ. Then refer others to the only reputable and trustworthy and merciful spiritual mechanic around. Send them to God's Soul Repair Shop. Amen.
