Emotions Must Not Win

Introduction

A. God created us with emotions. We feel things in this world. We experience happiness, sadness, fatigue, euphoria—we might say that we have lots of emotional experiences in life. In fact, in our culture much of life is experienced through the lens of our emotions. We talk about being “in love” as an emotional experience never realizing that love is more of a decision and what we are feeling are natural hormonal response to external stimuli. We say about major decisions “what does your gut tell you to do” meaning how do you feel about this decision and make that decision based on whether it will make you feel good. Even more directly we say we acknowledge that there is a difference between the heart and the head with the heart being the seat of emotions and the head the seat of knowledge. We prefer many times to talk with those who are able to listen with their heart instead of their head. Emotions are a major part of our culture and consequently our lifestyle.

B. We cannot get rid of emotions. Those who seem to be devoid of emotions still feel things from time to time. And those who seem to be nothing but emotion still have moments of thinking. We have seen in our time the swinging of the pendulum from rational thinking to emotional feeling. So much of our culture exalts the emotional over the rational. We don’t think, we feel. We don’t use logic, we use what tingles and tantalizes. This has led to the advent of what is known in philosophical terms as relativism (everything is relative; what is right today may be wrong tomorrow; it really depends on the situation or in most cases how I feel) and existentialism (decisions are made based completely on what benefits me). God has another word for it—selfishness. I’m not interested in getting into a philosophical sermon, but I am interested in helping us to see the truth that part of our makeup as human beings is emotional. If we deny emotions we become legalistic. If we are driven by emotions we become sentimentalists with no real focus. We need both the rational and emotional.

C. I say all this to prepare us for 1 Kings 19. It is an intriguing text. Emotions are easily seen here. But the conclusion of the matter is that as real as emotions are they must not win. They must not be the final word in determining our lifestyle, our actions, or our marching order from God. Tonight we are going to delve into the life of Elijah and try to come to a better understanding of what is going on in his life. We will learn that emotions can’t always be trusted. We will also learn that God’s call to walk with him goes beyond emotions. God’s call takes precedence over emotions. As the story is divided into two sections, so we will look at the each part separately. Let’s begin with some singing.

The Story

A. The great battle between good and evil has taken place. God took on Baal. God soundly defeated Baal in head to head competition. When it was all said, 450 prophets of Baal were dead. God’s prophet remained alive. There was a great victory party. Rain fell on the parched earth. Elijah got into a foot race with a chariot and won. It was about 16 miles from Mt. Carmel to Jezreel. At the end of chapter 18, Elijah is racing Ahab and his chariot to Jezreel. Elijah won the race. In every way, Baal and Ahab were defeated. So Ahab goes home and tells his wife, Jezebel, about the day’s events. Jezebel remember is the one who brought Baal worship to Israel. Those 450 prophets were here prophets. She is not too pleased with the results.

B. She threatens Elijah’s life. Elijah takes her threat seriously. 19:3 says Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. The southern most city of Beersheba, Elijah sends his servant away. This would have been a sign of giving up. Elijah goes another day’s journey into the desert and asks God to take his life. That is an interesting twist. He leaves in order to preserve his life, but a couple of days later asks God to kill him. One day he wants to live the next day he wants to die. Emotions do that to us. On one day we have an emotion to flee and preserve ourselves and our sanity. The next day our emotions jumbled as they are don’t even care to live. Just take the pain away. God sends an angel who provides for Elijah physically giving him something to eat and drink. Strengthened Elijah travels to the mountain of God. Called Mt. Horeb here; it is called Mt. Sinai in Exodus.

C. Elijah then has a conversation with God. God asks the question “why are you here?” to give Elijah time to reflect on his purpose and direction. Elijah gives the reasons why he is not back in Israel. It is too hard there, he explains. He feels alone and isolated. God tells Elijah that he is going to pass by the cave where Elijah is staying. Elijah is to go out and meet God. A powerful wind, earthquake and fire take place, but God is not present in any of these phenomena. Instead, God appears with the sound of a whispered voice. Elijah is again asked “why are you here?” And although the same answer is given, God issues new commands. Elijah still has work to do and it will not get done with Elijah staying at Sinai. He must return to Israel.

Lessons

A. Who hasn’t been in Elijah’s shoes. Coming off an spiritual mountain top experience, Elijah finds himself suddenly in the deepest of pits emotionally. A time of real conquest and victory gives way so quickly to despair and defeat. How does that happen? Can you explain how it happened in your life? One day you are up and the next day the rug has been pulled out from under you. There are some lessons to learn.

B. First, emotional highs cannot prevent emotional lows. One would think that Elijah’s victory on Mt. Carmel would have been enough to prevent any kind of doubt or fear. But the truth is we aren’t any different. Israel comes out of Egypt with God’s great display of faith. They leave Egypt with their pockets literally overflowing with the wealth of the strongest nation on earth and within three days they think God is going to destroy them as they are surrounded by the sea and they see the dust from chariots heading toward them. Where is their faith? Are we much different? Emotions change as quickly as situations change. Circumstances can leave us deflated or inflated.

C. Second, the goal then is not to achieve a great emotional high. Some spend their lives searching for the next mountaintop experience. When they begin to feel bad emotionally they search for some kind of spiritual boost. But the problem is the boost will not last. Pursuing one boost after another will result only in frustration and a roller coaster spiritual ride. Even Elijah expects the presence of God in some spectacular display of power. Instead, God’s presence is a whisper. Emotionally, we look for the big event; we look for the sure sign; we look for something which will say “here is God.” But God doesn’t deal in emotional highs. Instead he deals in truth and reality.

D. Third, emotions cause us to miss the truth. Notice in 19:10 and 19:14, Elijah declares that he is the only one who is faithful to God. He sees himself as alone and isolated. But this isn’t the first time, Elijah has missed the truth. Look in 18:22. Here he says he is the only one left. Really? In 18:13, Obadiah, one of God’s prophets tells him that he personally has been preserving the lives of 100 prophets. I don’t think Elijah is thick-headed or arrogant. Emotions cause us to fail to see the truth. We distort truth because of emotions. “Everyone hates me. No one like me. I can’t do anything right. I always mess up.” Emotions leave us isolated. We have a tendency with emotions to believe that somehow we are the only one to be going through the difficulty. In 19:18, God tells Elijah the truth. 7000 have not bowed to Baal. Elijah is far from alone.

E. Fourth, we need a direction to keep our emotions in check. There is nothing in this text which leads us to believe that Elijah’s emotions changed. What changed was Elijah’s sense of direction and purpose. He was reminded that the work he was called to do was above him and his emotions. We must not let our emotions win. That is not to say that we are to be devoid of emotion, but we must keep our direction and focus clear. God gives us a purpose which far exceeds the negative feelings we will have. Elijah had to be reminded that there was still much for him to do. God was still in control. God wanted Elijah’s life to be spent in his service. If we can keep our focus on the purpose which God gives us it will go a long way in keeping our emotions in check.

F. I am not anti-emotions. As a disclaimer, I understand a bit about the psychological nature of emotions. I am talking about day to day emotions not those caused by chemical imbalance or mental illness. But emotions cannot be trusted. They are fickle. Emotions change from day to day. If we make our decisions in life based on how we feel at the moment, most of us will quit a job at the wrong time, kill our children, leave our spouse, jump into bed with just about anyone, and give up on God. It is only when we stay in tune with God that we see beyond the immediate and hear the truth. ILL. “Following God: Staying in tune.” Let’s not allow our emotions set the tone and agenda for our lives. Let’s instead stay focused on the plans and purposes of God and allow him to set the agenda for our lives. Invitation.

Follow Jesus

If you’d like to respond to this message or learn more about following Jesus, please reach out.