Dealing with Depression – 1 Kings 19

Posted on June 10, 2025 by dkoop

Depression is real, and affects all of us at some point, even godly, committed, faith filled people of God.  We are going to examine depression in the life of a man of God, who just had one of the greatest victories ever on Mount Carmel, and after he saw God work in a supernatural way, he came down to a very low point in his life.  So, we will pick up the story of Elijah in I Kings 19, starting in verse 1.  “Now Ahab and Jezebel, Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he killed all the prophets with the sword.”  If you remember, Ahab was the evil king.  1 Kings 16 tells us “he had done more evil in the eyes of God than any of those before him.”  

1 Kings 19:2, “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 one of them.’ ”   And she’s referring to dead false prophets.  In other words, “I’m going to kill you.  You are going to be a dead man of God by tomorrow.”  In verse 3,  “Elijah was afraid and,” what did he do?  He, “ran for his life.”  Huh?  Now, wait a minute.  When we read this, this is very confusing, if you think back to all that God had done in Elijah’s life.

Week number one, we learned that the king had turned the hearts of the people away from the one true God to these false prophets, so God raises up, out of nowhere, this prophet, Elijah, who confronts the king, and says, “It’s not going to rain until I ask God to cause it to rain.”  He pronounces this huge drought, and, it doesn’t rain at all for three years.  Then, God takes him to this place of brokenness, the Karith Ravine, where he’s humbled in a season of hiding. While the king’s trying to kill him, God sends ravens that drop meat and bread  He drinks at a brook during a middle of a drought, when there is no rain.  He learns to depend on God.  Then, brook dried up, and God let him out of the Karith Ravine to a place called Zarephath, where he met a widow, who had just a little bit of oil, a little bit of flour, and it wasn’t enough.  She thought she was going to die, and God miraculously multiplied that, so that it was enough.  God showed up again.  Then, one day, the widow’s son died, and for the first time ever recorded in scripture, Elijah takes this dead boy up into the upper room, prays, and God raises this boy from the dead!

Then there is a worship showdown. God calls Elijah back to go confront the king, and he says: “Get the four hundred and fifty false prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah.  Bring them up to Mount Carmel, and we are going to see who is the real God.  Is it your god, the storm fertility god, or is it the one true God?”  They built a couple of altars, put some bulls on it, and say, “Fire come down.  May your god send fire”, and all the false prophets do this dance, and they cut themselves, and it goes on all day long, and nothing happens.  And then, Elijah says, “Maybe your god is going to the bathroom.  Then he calls on God, and God sends fire from Heaven.  It burns everything up.  And then, he goes to the mountain and prays, “God, send rain.  God, send rain.   God, send rain.”  Seven times he prays, and off in the distance, he sees a cloud the size of a man’s hand.  And by faith, he believes that is a storm coming, and sure enough, it is.  Miraculous provision, miraculous protection, miraculous God.  Over and over and over again, for years, he’d seen the faithfulness of God.  And then one day, a woman says, “I am going to kill you,” and he freaks out.  He panics, and he runs for his life.

Today, I want us to look at the ways we get depressed and what God does:  “Elijah came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it, and he prayed that he might die.”  Interesting.  He just had this great victory, and now he’s praying that his life would end.  He, he prays, “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”  Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.”  How do you get depressed?

Depression Occurs When…

  1. I Exhaust myself. Wear yourself out. If you will notice, over the past few years, he had been on this massive spiritual battle, trusting God, praying; trusting God, praying, seeking God, praying, trusting God, battle, faith, battle, faith, battle, and then, he runs for his life.  And geographically, he couldn’t have run any farther than he did.  The place that he ran was the very southern tip, and then he leaves his buddy, the servant, and runs another day’s journey out into the desert.  He went as far as he could, and he was totally and physically exhausted … much like many of you.  You wonder, “Why am I depressed?”  Well, you’ve worn yourself out.  Some of you moms, you’re working a full-time job, taking care of the house, putting dinner on the table, carting kids all over the world, involved in PTA, involved in the church, and you’re wondering why. Some of you, you just off a great semester in school and you’re working a full-time job, and you’re, you’re involved in activities and you’re coming off of this time, and you’re going, “Why am I so depressed?”   You’re exhausted.  Some of you, it’s not just a physical exertion, but it’s emotional.  “I’ve got to be there for them, and I’ve to make sure that, that they’re covered.  And I’ve got to be strong for everybody.  And I’ve got to be the provider.  I’ve got to help nurture them,” and it’s all these things going on emotionally. .  You’re totally exhausted.
  2. I Exclude Myself Number one exhaust yourself, number two is to exclude myself and that’s exactly what Elijah did. He abandoned his closest friend, his servant. He said, “You stay here, and I’m going on.”  And, that’s what a lot of us do when we get overwhelmed, “I’m not going to let you in.  I’m not going to tell you what I’m going through.  If I did, you wouldn’t understand, anyway,” so we wall up and we start to push people away.  That’s what I do when I’m worn out, when I’m hurting, I put the wall up.  I think, “I’m going to deal with this myself.  I can get through with it.  I, I, I … You wouldn’t even understand what I’m going through, anyway.”  We start to stiff arm people.  You want to get depressed?  Exhaust yourself and exclude yourself.
  3. I Exaggerate My Problems, which is exactly what our hero, the man of God in great faith did. What did he say? He said this.  He said, “I’ve had enough.  I’m, I’m no better than my ancestors.”  What’s funny is, nobody was asking if he was, but in his mind, this self-pity started to take over.  And what self pity does is, it exaggerates.  “I’m never going to be any good.  I’m always going to be stuck in this life.  My life’s never going to get any better.  I’m never going to get into that school after this grade.  I’m never going to get the promotion.  It’s all the bad things, and none of the good things.  You want to get depressed?  Here it is, right here in scripture, you just exhaust yourself, exclude yourself, and exaggerate your problems.

Let’s talk about the answer, because this is the word that you need to hear from God.

As we look at 1 Kings 19, we will see God’s prescription for our depression.  Elijah, he didn’t have any hope.  He’s hiding out, wanting to die, and I want you to notice.  God sends an angel to represent God, and I want you to notice what God does not do through this angel.  There is no sermon..  There is no rebuke, there’s no shame.  The angel is not saying, “Oh, if you only had more faith, if you only memorized more Bible verses, if you just quoted the Bible verses and quit acting like a baby …” There is no rebuke, nothing negative.  The very first thing that the angel of the Lord says, “Eat and rest.”  The very first part of the prescription for our depression,

  1. God Wants Me to Get Nourished and Rest

Look, look at  verse six, here’s what the Bible says.  “All at once the angel touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat.’ ”  Verse 6 says, “Elijah looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water.”  I love the way God provides food all the time.  “He ate and drank and then lay down again.”  Eat and rest.    Some of you, the most spiritual thing you can do is not go to another meeting, not read another Bible verse, but the most spiritual thing you can do is rest.  In fact, perhaps one of the most disobeyed commands of God in the world we live in is, people don’t rest.  Honor to God with the Sabbath, and yet, we just shake that off like it, like it’s nothing.   “But, I got to do this, and I’ve got to do this, and I got to do that,” and I believe God would say to you, “It does not matter if the clothes are dirty.  It doesn’t matter if the house is not clean.  It does not matter if the yard is not mowed.  It doesn’t matter if a few things go undone, but perhaps the most important thing, the most spiritual thing you could do is rest.”  The angel of the Lord provides food, and lets him take a nap.

Read on in scripture.  Verse 7 and 8,  “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.’  So Elijah got up and ate and drank.”

“Strengthened by the food,” and certainly by the rest, “Strengthened, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.”  This is the same mountain, most scholars believe, where God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses.  Basically, “Eat, rest, and go to church.”  Go to the place where God is.  God’s prescription for, for depression:  Eat and rest, and now, go to the place where you will experience God.  The first thing he does.  He says, “Go, eat, and rest.”

2. God Replaces My Lies with His Truth and Presence

This is going to speak to some of you. God replaces our lies, the lies that we are believing, with His truth.  Look at verse 9 and 10.  Scripture says this. “There Elijah went into a cave and spent the night.  And the word of the LORD came to him: ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ “  Now, let’s just pause there and acknowledge that God already knew what Elijah was doing there.    What God wanted Elijah to do was to voice his problem, to verbalize whatever lies he was believing, so God could correct the lies.  “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  Verse 10, He, “He replied, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty.”  True.  “The Israelites have rejected your covenant,” true.  “broken down your altars,” true.  “and put your prophets to death with the sword.”  True.  “I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”  False.  “I am the only one left.”  False.  “I’ve been doing all the work.”  False.  “I’m the only one who cares.”  False.  “I’m the only one that can get it done.”  False.  He owned more responsibility than was actually his.  He had done what God had asked him to do, and he thought he was supposed to do everything.  “There’s no one who cares like me.  Everybody’s depending on me.  I’m all alone.  Nobody understands.”

God’s actually going to say in verse 18 “Elijah,  there’s seven thousand other Israelites.   Seven thousand others who have not bowed down to the false gods of Baal and Asherah.  There are seven thousands others still seeking Me and praying.”  Don’t believe the lies.  You’re not the only one.”  What is God going to say to so many of us today, when we believe the lies? “My life will never get better.”  Why? With God, all things are possible.  Replace the lie with the truth.  “My kids, they’re never going to come back to Christ.”  Why?  With the faith as small as a mustard seed, God can remove mountains.  “I got this medical report, and I’ve got thirty days to live.”  Is that too hard for God?  And so many of us, we believe the lies.  “My life’s never going to be any better.  I’m never going to have an intimate relationship.  I’m going to be all alone for the rest of my life.  I’m stuck in this dead end job.  I’ve got no real ministry.  I can’t make a difference.  My husband’s never going to believe in Christ.  I’m always going to feel alone.”  God takes those lies and replaces it with truth.  “Take every thought captive,” scripture says, “and make it obedient to Christ.”

The next thing that God does, and this is so meaningful to me, and I hope it is to you, as well. God speaks to me in a whisper. God says, “Eat and rest.”  God replaces our lives with His truth.  God speaks in a still, small voice.  Elijah’s used to dealing with, the God of fire, the God of miraculous provision, and so he goes to meet with God and he’s probably thinking, “God’s going to show up in this big, huge earthquake.  God’s going to send this fire, and be in the fire,” but watch what the Bible says.  Verse 11, “The LORD said to him, ‘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.  And after the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a,” a what? …

“After the fire came a gentle whisper.”  Sometimes, when we are lowest, God seems to speak the softest.  Have you ever noticed that?  Sometimes, it’s just a word.  It may not be much, and it may not be loud, but it’s always exactly enough.  A gentle whisper, not the booming sign that God is capable of doing and done before, but just the voice.  And here’s what I take so much comfort in today, is that I know there are those of you that you’re hurting, and God can and will speak to you.  If you listen closely enough, you may just hear that still, small voice.  “I’m here.  I’m with you.  I’ll never leave you.  You’re not alone.  I am enough.” … The still, small voice of God.

Sometimes, the most spiritual thing you could do is rest.  Other times, you have to capture those lies and replace them with truth.  You listen, and God may speak.  The next thing that God does to Elijah, and I think this is beautiful, is this.

3. God Has Something for Me to Do.

To overcome depression, God says, “Eat and rest. Replace the lies with truth.”  God speaks in whisper, and then God gives us that divine assignment.  Look in verse 15 and 16.  The Lord says to Elijah, “Go back the way you came, and go over to the Desert of Damascus.  When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.”  In other words, “Go back to doing what prophets do.  Go back to doing what prophets do,” and I believe the Spirit of the Lord will speak unto many of you today and say, “There is something yet for you to do.”  You, you feel down.  You feel blue.  You feel hopeless.  You feel afraid.  You’re unsure.  You’ve lost your confidence.  You don’t see it, and God may say, “If you are still alive, you are not done!”  If you are still here, it is because God has something to do.  Go back to doing what prophets do.  You may say, “I am not a prophet.”  What are you?  You’re a mom, go back to doing what moms do.  Are you a business person?  Go back to doing what a business person do … Are, are you a person of prayer?  Go back to praying like people of God pray.  Do you have the gift of serving?  Go back and serve someone.  Do you have the gift of giving?  Go and give something.  Go back and do what God called you to do, and watch as He brings life back out of you!

I find so much comfort in seeing a man of God, Elijah, on the top of the world, and then on the bottom.  Because, in reality, that’s the reflection of the way I live.  After a great accomplishment sometimes I go home and think, “Oh, I just can’t go on,” and that’s when God says, “Rest”.  That’s when God seems to speak, and that’s when God says, “Go back and do what you’re supposed to do,” because He is always, always enough.

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Deciding Who to Worship – 1 Kings 18

Posted on June 9, 2025 by dkoop

Above anything else in our lives, God wants to have all of our hearts, our worship, our focus, our adoration.  God wants to be number one and have all of our hearts.  In fact, the very first of the Ten Commandments God says, “You shall have no other gods before me.  When Jesus was questioned, what is the most important commandment, Jesus said, “Above all else, we are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.”  God wants all of our hearts, not just part of our hearts.  Because this is true, its a good reason, for Satan, the spiritual enemy, to try and hurt God.  To take the hearts of the people away from the one true God and try to get people to worship and serve false gods, is something that Satan’s been doing throughout history.  Putting false gods in the place of the one true God, it is called the sin of idolatry.

False gods promise what only the true God provides.  For example, money is a popular false god. What does money do?  Money promises what only God can provide.  Money says if you have enough money, you’ll be happy and secure.  That’s what many people believe about the false god of money.  But the reality is, once you get enough money and someone says, “You have cancer and you are going to die in thirty days,” you realize it doesn’t matter how much money you have.  It doesn’t make you secure.  It’s a false promise.  Money says if you have enough, you’ll be happy, but it doesn’t matter how money you have.  If one day you find you’ve lost one of your own children, there’s no amount of money that can buy your happiness in that moment.  It’s a false promise.  It’s a false god.  It promises something that it does not provide.

In the life of Elijah, many people were living idolatrous lives.  They were worshipping and serving false gods.    Elijah was called by God to confront a very evil king named King Ahab, who was married to the wicked woman, Jezebel.  Ahab was the seventh consecutive evil king.  Scripture says that he did more evil in the eyes of God than anyone before him, so he was the worst of the worst, and of all his long list of sins and wickedness, the worst thing that he did was, he continued turning the hearts of the people away from the one true God toward the false gods of Baal and Asherah.

Baal was the sun god, Asherah was a fertility goddess.  The people were no longer worshipping the one true God.  Instead, they were worshipping the false gods.  The false gods promised, “If you worship me, we’ll make your crops grow.  If you worship me, then you’ll have a better life.”  False gods promise what only the true God provides.

God raises up Elijah, who confronts the king, and basically says, “Because of your idolatry, God sent me to tell you it’s not going to rain until God tells me to pray and asks it to rain.”   It’s the worst thing you could imagine, and so God sends Elijah into a period of hiding and preparation.  Why?  Because king Ahab wanted him dead.  He said to everybody, “You find him, kill him on the spot.”  God takes Elijah to the place called the Karith Ravine.  Karith means the place of cutting, cutting down.  It’s a place of humbling, where God humbled him and developed him into even a stronger man of God.  God fed him by morning and evening, by ravens who flew in, would drop bread and meat, and then he was, had drink through the brook.  But one day, the brook dried up.  God called him to move on to a place known as Zarephath, where there was a widow, who God used to provide for him with just a little bit of oil and a little bit of flour that never miraculously ran dry.  One day, the widow’s son died.  This growing man of faith took the son up to the upper room, called out to God, and God raise this boy from the dead.  And we see the prophet developing into the man of God that God wants him to become.

Now, our last verse told us that he went into hiding.  We find out now, God wants him to go and confront the evil king, and here’s where we pick up the story.  We are about three years into the drought, and in I Kings 18:17-18, we see them together again.  Scripture says, “When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him.  ‘Is that you, you troubler of Israel?’ ”  Now, the Hebrew word that’s translated as troubler can also be translated as snake, or viper.  In other words “Hey, you no good, low down snake.  I’m, it’s your fault all this is happening.  All these people are dying with this huge draught, because of you, Elijah.  Elijah says, “I’m not taking any of that from you.  He pops back toward the king, verse 18, and says, “No, I’ve not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied, “but you and your father’s family have.  You’ve abandoned the Lord’s command and you have followed the Baal’s.  You are committing the sin of idolatry.  You are putting false gods ahead of the one true God.  And Elijah was confronting the very popular idea that there are many gods.

Monotheism and polytheism.  What is Monotheism?  It’s the belief that there is one God.  As Christians, we are monotheistic in our beliefs.  Polytheism, though, is the belief that there are multiple gods, and Elijah was confronting a very polytheistic culture, where they would worship multiple gods.  Now, those of you who are Christ followers, you would say, “Well, we are monotheistic.  We believe in one true God.”  But even though we believe in one true God, many of us live what I would call polytheistic lives.  We believe in God, but in reality, we worship and serve many false gods.

Most people I know aren’t worshipping the false gods of Baal or Asherah.  In reality, the false gods today that people worship and serve are much more socially acceptable.  People worship the false god of material possessions.  A house, a car.  It could be your image, your look.  It could be your favorite sport.  It could be your career.  It could be your, your hobby.  It could be your children.  You say, “Well, how in the world could our children be a false god?”  When you elevate anything into the rightful place of the one true God and put anything on the throne of your life besides God, that is adultery, even something as good and important as your children.  So, that’s why I would ask the question to all of you today to identify Him.

What are the false gods that you serve?

I’ll tell you a few in my life.  I’m not proud of these, but one is, I’ve made building this church, the ministry, what I do, the number one most important thing in my life.  Serving the church is my calling.  But my calling can’t be above God and my love for Him.  I’ll do it in the name of God, but it becomes my god.  Grow the church.  Serve the church, improve the church, promote the church.  If I’m not careful it can become an idol in my life.  Another thing is that my family has been an idol to me.  Obviously, family is good and I should love my wife and my kids, my parents, my grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, but the truth is, I’ve put them at a too important place in my life sometimes, caring about what they think instead of what God thinks.  I could go on:   seeking too much comfort or ease, status through great vacations, my home,  clothes, vehicles, or maybe too much attention to my hobby of landscaping and buying plants.  What about you?  What gets most of your time, attention, money, effort, thoughts or dreams?

Be honest.  What are some of the false gods you’ve elevated and erected in the place of the one true God?  The sin of idolatry.  Sure, we’re monotheistic in our beliefs, but our practices are often very polytheistic.  So, Elijah, the prophet, steps into this polytheistic culture and he makes a very prophetic and very strong statement.

He looks at them as they are going back and forth, and he says with all the authority of God, he says, “People, it is time to quit wavering.  It’s time.  Quit wavering between the gods.  Quit going back and forth.

 Choose today to follow God

It’s time to quit wavering,” so what he does is, he basically says, “We are going to have a good old-fashioned showdown.”  Watch what he says to the king in verse 19-21.  He says to the king, “King, now summon the people from all over Israel to meet on Mount Carmel.  And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”   May we pause for a moment and say, “That is one big honking table.”  ?  I just had to say it.  , verse 20.  “So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel, and he assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.  Verse 21, here’s where Elijah gets in the people’s face.  “Elijah went before the people”, and he asked this piercing question.  He asked, “How long will you waver between two opinions?  How long will you waver?”  Then he says this, “If the Lord is God,” what do you do?  Say it out loud.  If the Lord is God, follow him.  But if Baal is God,” what do you do?  “Follow him.  But the people said nothing,” and he steps in and says, “How long will you do this?  If God is God, follow him.  If Baal is God, follow him,” and I can guarantee you.  If Elijah were here today, he’d say the same thing to us.  “Quit wavering!  We say, “God, keep me out of Hell and get me into Heaven, but I still want to do whatever I want.  Oh, God, hear my prayer and bless me, but I don’t want to obey your command.  Oh, God, I want all of Your good things, but don’t want to stop my bad things.” Quit wavering!  Quit being a Christian on Sunday and a heathen on Monday.  Quit claiming Christ and living like you don’t know him!  Quit wanting the benefits and being unwilling to sacrifice.  Just quit wavering!

Take a side.  In fact, I’m trying to conceptualize Elijah’s message to today.  And here’s what I honestly think he would say.

“If material possessions, if they’re really the most important thing, then quit just sort of accumulating them, but go for it!   Get into massive debt.  Steal, if you have to. If the greatest thing is accumulation, then everything should be justified, and stealing would be justified.  And don’t ever give again.  Don’t ever do anything generous! That would, then, diminish your ultimate goal of accumulating.  If material possessions, if that is truly God, then go for it.

If your image, if that’s truly God, then, then don’t just kind of do it.  get in the gym three hours a day.  Tan it, tweak it, tat it, puff it, tuck it, lift it, twist it, curl it, color it!  Just ignore the fact that you’re going to die one day.  Don’t even think about that.  That would totally disqualify the god of your appearance.  Buy whatever clothes you need and go for it.

Sexual pleasure?  If that’s your god, go for it.  Go for it. Look at porn, get addicted, get herpes, syphilis, aids.  Don’t let something as small as marriage hold you back.   If you are married and you’re not happy, have an affair.  If you like to play on both sides of the street, do whatever you want.  Go for it.  If that’s your god, go for it.

Your house, is that your god?  Quit doing one little room at a time.  Go into debt.  Hire the best … get that pool, patio and wine cellar.  If those things are your god, then quit playing around and go for it!”

*Wow, that’s why the prophets would often get killed, because their message was offensive!

BUT!  If Christ, the Son of God, is the one true God, then quit your wavering!  Serve Him with all of your hearts!  Don’t just claim Him and then live as if He doesn’t exist.  Serve Him!  I can, I can feel the Spirit of Elijah saying, “, quit wavering,” and I’m saying to our church, ‘Quit wavering.  How long will you waver between two opinions?” Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength!

So, what did he do?  He has a showdown, and he goes and says, “Get two bulls for me, one bull for you, one bull for me.  We are going to build a couple of altars, and we are going to sacrifice these.  And we’re going to call on your god, our God, and we’ll see who really is God.”  So, we’ll pick up the story and see what happens.

Verse 24, he says this.  “Then you call on the name of,” whom?  Help me out.  He says, “You call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the one who answers by,” what?  “The one who answers by fire,” who is he?  Scripture says, “—he is God, and then all the people said, ‘What you say is good.’ “

Verse 26, scripture says, “So they took the bull.  They prepared it.”  These are the prophets.  They, they prepared it, and, “Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon.”  And they’re dancing around, going, ‘O Baal, answer us!’ and they shouted. But,” the Bible says there was what?  The Bible says, “There was no response; no one answered. And so they danced around the altar that they had made.” 

 This was just a worship dance.  It, it was a full body, jumping up and down.  It was this twisting around.  It was this, this shouts of, of joy and shrieks to their false … and nothing happened.  Nobody dances like that today, do they?  Except if you are in a concert with your favorite band or you’re watching your favorite sports team and they score!  I’ve got to be honest.  I get fired up at a football game, I wish it were easier to get fired up like that at EVERY church service!  I don’t want to EVER be more excited about the Aggies than I am about Jesus!

They’re dancing, “Baal, send fire.”  Nothing happened.  I love this, Elijah starts teasing them,  this is funny.  This is a man of God, and he’s going to mess with them.  Here’s what he does.  Verse 27, “At noon Elijah began to taunt them. ‘Why don’t you shout louder!  I don’t think he can hear you.  ?   Surely he is a god!  Perhaps he is deep in thought, or he’s busy, or he’s traveling.  Maybe he’s sleeping and somebody needs to go wake him up.”  What’s he doing?   He’s messing with them.  “I know he’s a god, but maybe he’s on vacation.  Maybe he’s taking a little siesta.  He’s got his milk and cookies.  He’s taking a little nap.”  Now, here’s what’s just funnier than ever.  When he says “maybe he’s busy” what he’s really saying is, look it up.  I studied Hebrew in seminary.  Look it up.  I’m not making this up.  What he’s really saying is, “Maybe he’s going to the bathroom.”  That’s funny!  That’s what he’s say … the most literal translation is, “Maybe he’s busy.  Maybe he’s relieving himself.”

As we read on, verse 28 through 35, what’d they do?  They shouted louder.  They danced around.  They went crazy.  They started to cut themselves, because that’s what they did.  And scripture says they shouted all day long.  Sadly though, many of us, we don’t dance for the false gods all day long, but many of us do it all lifetime long, our whole lifetime.  Dancing, praising, pursuing, serving, and worshipping the false gods that promise, but never deliver all lifetime long.

So finally, at the end of the day, they danced, cut themselves, nothing happened.  Elijah does this.  I Kings 18:36, “At the time of the sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and,” what did he do?  The Bible says he what?  He what?  He prayed:

Choose today to pray to God.

He didn’t dance, shout, cut himself, do everything he could to get God’s attention.  He prayed.  “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and I have done all these things at your command.  Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that these people will know, O Lord, that you are God, and that you are,” what?  “And that you are turning their hearts back again.”   Can you see the power and the beauty in those statements?  “Answer me, Oh, Lord.  Reveal yourself.  Show us who You are.  Let us see You.  Reveal Yourself by fire.  May we feel the heat of Your love.  Show us who You are.  Why?  So that You may turn the hearts of the people back again, because they used to know You.  They used to walk with You.  They, they used to serve You.  They used to worship You, but these false gods have taken Your place, Oh God.  Turn their hearts back again.”

And as I read that, I feel such passion for so many of you, because there are those of you, you walked with Him.  And then you walked away, and you put some false god or any combination of false gods on the throne of your life.  And today, God is trying to reveal Himself to you.  Why?  So you can turn your hearts back to Him again.  And there are those of you, that’s why you’re here, because God has been working.  Why?  So you can turn your hearts back to Him again.  That’s why you are here.  Turn your hearts back to Him, whoever has God revealed yourself by fire.

He prays and verse 38, watch what happens. “Then the fire of the Lord,”   Imagine that.  A lightning rod of fire from Heaven fell, and here’s what scripture says.  “It burned up the sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the soil, and it licked up all the water around that the false prophets had poured on it.  It licked up the water, and when all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord, he is God!  The Lord, he is God!”

Choose today to worship God.

Today, don’t wait until you see God and its too late! They were terrified!  There is a day when we see God for who He really is and we will be terrified. And that would be my prayer for our church, that we would so see Him for who He is that all the false gods would fall far away in comparison to the one true God, and our hearts would be turned back to Him and we would say, “Lord, He is God.  He, He is God!”  Not on the Day of Judgment but today.

 Why didn’t God do that today?  Why doesn’t God show Himself like that?  I question I have asked but I realized in so much of an infinitely more beautiful way, just how God showed Himself when He left Heaven, became one of us in the person of His Son, Jesus, and lived a perfect and sinless life so that He, so that He could die for us on a cross and be raised again, so we could know Him.  And when you do know Him through Christ, then all the false gods just seem to fall away.

The Spirit of Elijah, (the Holy Spirit) would say to us today:  Choose to Follow God, don’t waiver, Choose to Pray to God, don’t hurt yourself or others to get your way, Choose to Worship God, and God alone.  If you know God for who He is, you will never be tempted to serve these false gods, because the one true God is so much greater!

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Mount Carmel – 1 Kings 18

Posted on May 24, 2025 by dkoop

Rather than being a single mountain, Mount Carmel is actually a high, wooded mountain ridge. In the Bible, Mount Carmel is best known as the site of the prophet Elijah’s dramatic showdown with 850 pagan prophets.

Carmel means “vineyard,” “orchard,” or “garden” and reflects the fertile beauty of Mount Carmel’s picturesque slopes. The mountainous ridge starts on the Mediterranean coast in the northwest part of Israel at the south shore of the Bay of Acre. From there, the range runs southeast down to the plain of Dothan. Running along the northeast side of the ridge is the Valley of Jezreel. At its highest point, Mount Carmel reaches over 1,700 feet above sea level.

Most notably, Mount Carmel is the scene of a spectacular head-to-head confrontation between the false prophets of Baal and Asherah and the One True God of Israel. The episode takes place during one of Israel’s worst times of crisis under King Ahab. To please his wife, Jezebel, Ahab set up an altar to Baal at the top of Mount Carmel. Baal, the favorite deity of Jezebel, was reputed to be the god of rain and vegetation.

In 1 Kings 17:1–24, Elijah the Tishbite enters the story as an emissary of the Lord. The prophet confronts Ahab and predicts a drought in response to Ahab and Jezebel’s unholy devotion to Baal. When the end of the drought neared, to prove that the Lord God was the only true God, Elijah proposes a contest. All of Israel was summoned to Mount Carmel to witness the confrontation between Elijah and the false prophets of Baal and Asherah (1 Kings 18:19). The match would show whose god was able to send fire from heaven to consume their offerings. The prophets of Baal prayed all day and cut themselves violently to get Baal’s attention, but no one answered (verses 28–29).

By evening it was Elijah’s turn. He rebuilt the ruined altar of God that existed on Mount Carmel. He set the offering on top of the wood and then drenched the whole thing with water and prayed aloud: “LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again” (1 Kings 18:36–37). God answered with a spectacular display of fire from heaven, consuming the offering, licking up the sodden wood as well as every drop of water that had been poured over the altar. Even the rocks of the altar were consumed. The people fell on their faces, proclaiming, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God” (1 Kings 18:39). Elijah then ordered the people to execute the 850 false prophets according to the Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 13).

It seems that the prophet Elisha later used Mount Carmel as a home base (2 Kings 4:25). From ancient times, Mount Carmel has been regarded as a holy place and a symbol of beauty and fertility. In the tribal divisions, Mount Carmel was part of the territory of (western) Manasseh. Like the region of upper Galilee, Mount Carmel received plentiful rainfall in biblical times, producing lush, beautiful forests and rich grasslands on the lower slopes suitable for grazing. Isaiah associates God’s glorious restoration of redeemed humanity with the “splendor of Carmel” (Isaiah 35:2). Solomon compares the head of his beloved with the beauty and nobility of Mount Carmel (Song of Solomon 7:5).

Hope to see you Sunday for the message on 1 Kings 18!

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Sources: Got Questions, Britannica.
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Becoming a Godly Person – 1 Kings 17

Posted on May 20, 2025 by dkoop

We’re starting a new series on what some would consider one of greatest men of God recorded in all of scripture.  His name is Elijah.  He was like a rock star to the Hebrew people.  James 5:17 reminds us, “Elijah was a man JUST LIKE US.”

Let me give you the context of the time period.  When Elijah was alive, the Northern Kingdom had experienced seven consecutive evil kings, spanning about a hundred year time period.  Now, let me just let this sink in for a minute.

This was a time in which Elijah lived.  In fact, there was a very evil king named Ahab, who was married to a wicked woman named Jezebel, some say the most wicked woman who had ever lived.  And under their reign, the Bible says that “Ahab did more evil in the eyes of God than any of those before him.”

During these times of idolatry, when these evil kings would turn peoples’ hearts away from God and would turn them to the false gods, the god of Baal and the god of Asherah, and people would often sacrifice their children to these false gods.  They would go into the temples and engage in sexual activities with prostitutes and call it worship.  The scripture says under Ahab’s reign, he was more evil than anyone before him.  This is a very dark, dark time of corruption.  We’re talking about major scandals, tremendous idol worship, and God said, “Enough is enough!”  Interestingly, though, God didn’t raise up an army to take a stand against the evil king.  Instead, God does what God often does, and that is, He raised up one person to take a stand, one man.  And I would argue that in today’s world, God may want to do something very similar where you live.  God may raise up one teenage girl to take a stand in her class against all others for sexual purity.  God may raise up a young business leader to take a stand for integrity in a business that’s lacking integrity.   God often raises up one person to make a big difference.

Elijah’s name means,  “The Lord is my God.”  And  immediately, when God raises up this prophet to stand down the king, by his very name alone, he’s making the testimony, “The Lord God is the one true God.”  Let’s pick up the story.  The first time we see Elijah in all of scripture, verse 1 of I Kings, chapter 17.  At the very beginning of this story, we don’t have hardly any background on the prophet.  We simply know him as where he’s from.  That’s how he is identified.  Like “Darrell is from San Antonio TX. ” Verse 1, “Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead,” he’s identified with where he’s from.  That will change soon.  “He said to King Ahab, ‘As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve,’ “ and you can see he’s going straight toward these false gods.  “The Lord who lives, whom I serve,” he says, “there will be neither be dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”  Now, if this was a movie, the music would go, “bum bum bum!,” because what just said was one of the most strategic, prophetic judgments against the land that you could imagine.  He said, “For the next months and years, no rain and no dew.

This would have been an economic shutdown.  In this agriculturally driven economy, no rain shut everything down.  In our world, it would mean you can’t get gas at the gas stations.  The banks are not only lending money, but you can’t get your own money out.  You won’t have electricity at your home.  Life as you know it just ended.  There will be people starving death.  Unemployment will reach record highs.  People are going to be dying all over the place, and  this man of God stands down this evil king and says, “No more rain.” The battle is on.  The man of God stands strong.  Let’s see him fight.”  But instead, God does something different.  He takes Elijah into a season of hiding.  God takes Elijah away, so He can do so much more in him.  Why?  Because there’s so much more God wants to do through him.  And we are going to watch as God shapes this man in a very deep season of preparation. Like Elijah,

GOD IS DOING SOMETHING IN ME SO HE CAN DO SOMETHING THROUGH ME

Many of you, will identify with the preparatory work that God takes Elijah through.  Three seasons of preparations;

  • The first one: ISOLATED PAIN

God takes him through what we will call a season of isolated pain, where he is very alone.    Verses 2 and 3, we pick this up.  Verse 1, he says, “No more rain.”  Verse 2, “Then,” immediately after that, the Bible says, “The word of the LORD came to Elijah: ‘Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of Jordan.’ “   This word in the Hebrew, Kerith, it means, “cut off,” or it means “cut down.”  It means to be cut off from the source, to be cut off from the blessings, or very literally, it means to cut down like you would chop down a tree.  And you could almost sense what God is, is saying here.  It’s as if God is going to say, “I’m going to take you through a season of breaking.  I’m going to cut you down.  I’m going to humble you.  I’m going to teach you to be totally dependent on Me, and I’m going to humble you privately before I use you publicly.  I’m going to do something in you that’s very, very deep, so later on, you can do more than you ever thought possible.  I’m going to take you down privately, so I can use you publicly.”  A lot of times, people are in what I call the Kerith Ravine.  They’re in a season of pain.  They’re going, “Where is God?  Where is God?” and the reality is, oftentimes God is right there doing a deep work in you.

Some of you, you’re there.  You’re there, and you could be there on purpose.  You’re in the Karith Ravine.  You’re in that period … Elijah was there for months, all alone, nobody to talk to.  No one understood the Karith Ravine, where God was breaking him.  A. W. Tozier, the great writer, said this, “It’s doubtful that God can bless a man greatly until He’s hurt him deeply. ”  Those of you who are in the Karith Ravine, be encouraged.  The more that God breaks you, the more that God is preparing you — the isolated pain, the season of the Karith Ravine.

The second thing that we see God take Elijah through as He’s shaping him, molding him into a man of God in power, as He takes him through a season of what we would call:  TOTAL DEPENDENCE

Total and complete dependence, where Elijah cannot depend on anything at all but God, and God alone.  Verses 4, 5, and 6 says this.  God says, “Elijah, you will drink from the brook that I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.  So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of Jordan, and stayed there.  The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.”

We’ve got God’s Heavenly catering service.  These birds go out and find bread and meat, and every morning and every evening, they deliver them straight to the prophet.  What was God doing?  God was very clearly and very distinctly saying that no matter what, and for always, “I will be faithful.  You can count on Me to provide for you.”

Many of you right now, you are in a season where there was something you used to trust in for your security, and it’s been taken away.  And you don’t have anything else to trust in, but the giver life and giver of all good things.  And you are having to learn that when everything else that you used to believe in fades away, God will forever and always be faithful to you.

A single mom knew this well.  She would pray every day, very loudly in her apartment.  She would pray to God and worship Him for His provision, and she lived next door to an atheist, who hated hearing her prayers through the very thin walls.  And she would worship God, and the atheist would come over and say, “Lady, you’re a fool.  There is no God.”  And one week, there was more month left than money, and she was crying out to God, “Oh, God, you’ve always provided for me.  You’ve always been faithful.  I know You’ll come through again.  Oh, God, please provide food for my children.”  And the atheist had had enough, and so he immediately went to the grocery store, bought several bags of food, brought it back over to the woman’s apartment, put it right on the front of her door, knocked on the door, ran and hid in his apartment.  She came out.  She saw the food, “Oh, God in Heaven, You’re so good.  Thank You so much.  Oh, it’s so amazing!”  And he jumped out and said, “You fool!  There is no God.  God didn’t do that.  I did it just to prove to you that there is no God,” and she worshipped God all the more.  “Thank You!  Oooh, God, You provided for my needs, and You made the devil pay the bills!”

Forever and always, God says, “I will be your provider.  When you can’t depend on what you used to be able to depend on, I will deliver what you need.”  Here’s the cool thing about it is, God didn’t give him two days worth of food.  God didn’t give him a weeks’ worth of food.  God didn’t give him a three-month supply.  What did God give him?  Enough for the day, enough for the day.  Some of you, you are going to learn that right now.  You are in a season where you’re hurting and you’re alone and you’re afraid, but guess what?  God delivers enough for the day.  You, you’re uncomfortable, and you’re afraid, but God says, “I will be your comfort for today.”  You don’t have much, but God says, “I will be your provision for today.  You feel very weak, but God says, “I will be your strength for today.”  Your friends leave you, but God says, “I will be your friend for the day.  I may not bring more than you need, but I will bring exactly what you need.  I will be your daily bread.”  And Elijah learns to depend on God for that day.  God is teaching him.  He’s breaking him.  He’s cutting him.  He’s humbling him.  He’s teaching him total dependence.  When he, when he has no ability to provide for himself, God is teaching him, “I will always be your provider.”

And the third thing that God does is, God takes him through a season of what we can call:  COMPLETE OBEDIENCE

 There’s isolated pain.  There’s total dependence, and then, there’s a season of complete obedience.  Verses 7, 8, and 9, the story starts to break down.  “What is God doing?  He told me to go do this, and now, it, it’s all changing.  What’s going on, God?”  Verse 7, the Bible says, “Some time later,” what happened?  Help me out.   “Some time later, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.  Then the word of the LORD came to him:  “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there.”  Now, let’s put ourselves in the prophet’s place.  It’s been months that he’s been by this ravine, and it’s been feeding him daily water.  And God told him to go there, and then the brook dries up, and God says to move on.  In my mind, I’m starting to think, “ Okay God, where are You?  What’s the purpose of being here?  You, gave me water from the brook.  Now, the water dries up.  Did I do something wrong?  You’re telling me to go on.  Did I miss You the first time?  Am I hearing You, God?  I don’t quite understand.  The brook dried up.  Why would the source of what used to feed me dry up?”  And he’s going to learn that the same God who gives water can take water away, because often, God may cause the brook to dry up to give us the courage to leave where we are and to go where we are supposed to be.

You may think,  “Oh, my brook is drying up.  I used to be able to trust in my job, but I’m not so sure I can trust in my job, anymore.  I used to have this nest egg.  I had a 401K.  Now, it’s a 201K.   My brook’s drying up.  I used to be able to trust, and I had all these good friends and then, boom, they turned on me and my friendship brook is drying up.

You’ve heard it said, “God guides by what He provides,” and He does.  But, I believe, God also often guides by what He does NOT provide.  God, the same God who gives water, may cause the brook to dry up to give us the courage to take a step of total obedience.

God says to the prophet Elijah, “Go to the Karith Ravine.”  “Huh?  Why there?”  “And be fed by the ravens.”  “What?”  And the brook dried up.  “Huh?”

Eventually God causes him to go into the region of Sidon. He moves, and then he travels across a barren land.  And he comes to Zarephath,  and sees a widow, who God says is going to provide for him.  And so he humbles himself, and he says, “Mam, I’m really thirsty.  Could, could you give me some water to drink and maybe a little snack, ‘cause I’m kind of hungry?”  And the widow looks at him and goes, “Are you, are you the only guy that doesn’t know, it hasn’t rained!  We’re dying.  There’s a draught here.  I’m a widow.  I’ve got one son.  He’s back at the hut.  I came out here to get some sticks.  I’m going to go make the last meal.  I’ve got a little bit of flour left, and I’ve got a little oil in the jug.  That’s all I’ve got left, enough for one last meal.  We are going to eat, and then we are going to die.”  And because of what God is doing in Elijah’s life, he says, “No, you’re not.”  And he looks at an impossible situation and speaks faith into it.  And he says, “The flour that you have will not run out.  And the jar of oil will not run dry.  Go back and bake me some bread.”  And she does, and they ate the bread, and the flour did not run out and the oil did not run dry.  And, and, and they, they ate, and they ate for weeks and months.  God again, supernaturally provided for Elijah in his unconditional obedience to God.  Then one day, tragedy struck, and the son died mysteriously.  The widow is crushed, as you would expect, and said, “Is this God’s judgment on me because I turned against the one true god, to these false gods?  Elijah, did you come here so this would happen?”  And Elijah, because of all that had happened, because God was shaping him, did something that to our knowledge had never happened before in history.  There’s no record of this in the Bible.  He takes a dead boy, carries him up to the upper room, puts his body on top of him, looks up to Heaven and says, “God, I’m asking You to do it,” and God raises a dead boy to life.

Why did this happen?  Because God took him to the Karith Ravine, where he was cut down.  God took him to a season of total dependence, where he couldn’t depend on anything at all but God, and God alone.  Then, God dried up the brook, so that he would leave where he was, to go to where God ultimately wanted him, so once again, He could perform a miracle and raise the dead back to life.  God used the hard things to shape him into a true man of God.  Next week we’ll see, as God gives him the faith and courage for one man to stand down four hundred and fifty false prophets, and asks God to send fire from Heaven to prove God’s goodness.  Why could Elijah have such faith?  Because he had been through the Karith Ravine, depending on God, obeying God.

Some of you right now, you are in a season of, of deep pain, and God may just say, “I’m doing something in you, because one day, I’m going to do more through you.”  Verse 1, Elijah was described as Elijah the Tishbite.  He was known with where’s he’s from.  Twenty-three verses later, he’s not known for where he’s from, but instead, for Whom he’s from.  And look at how the story changes.  Verse 24, the end of the story.  “The woman, He’d just raised her son.  She, she says to Elijah, “Wow!  Now I know that you are a,” what?  “Now I know you are, you are a man of God and the word of the Lord from your mouth is truth.”  God may allow you to go through the Karith Ravine, so one day, someone could look at you, say, “Now, I know.  I see it.  I see it.  I see. You are a man or woman of God.  Now, I see it.  You are child of God.  Now, I see it.  You are a man of God.” And, I’ll tell you right now, I praise God for all the pain and all the shaping experienced, and all the hurt, and all the brokenness, and all the supernatural provision, and all the unconditional obedience, because I pray that when people look at me they wouldn’t say, “Oh, there’s Darrell , that guy from San Antonio.”  But instead, they say, “Oh, there’s Darrell.  He’s not perfect, but we know he is becoming a godly person.”  In becoming a godly person, God will do something in you before he does something through you.

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