From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: In this situation with Elijah, we're going to see depression take over in his life. You say, what were his debilitating circumstances? He just won a great victory on Mount Carmel, and God showed up and showed out on Mount Carmel.

But we don't get to stay on the mountaintop. You have to come down, and when Elijah came down, he came down hard. He came down with a thud.

Guest (Male): What do we learn about depression from the life of Elijah? Depression can come upon anyone, even a powerful prophet like Elijah. But what causes depression, and is there any way we can escape it? Absolutely.

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, and in today's message, you'll learn how to pinpoint the probable causes of depression in your life and how to get your eyes off yourself and your problems and escape what many feel is the cave of depression. This lesson is from Pastor Jeff's eight-message series this month entitled Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah, the Prophet of Fire.

This series and the companion booklet, Unveiling the Mystery of Prayer, are our two thank-you gifts for your support of any amount this month. Just go to fromhisheart.org for details. But right now, turn to 1 Kings chapter 19 as Pastor Jeff explains how you can escape the cave of depression.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Depression. It has hit some great men. Elijah, obviously a great man, was so depressed that he asked God to kill him. Sir Isaac Newton, a great man, suffered from depression. Abraham Lincoln, 16th president, great man, suffered from depression.

Hollywood stars, Robin Williams, who ended up taking his own life, and Owen Wilson, struggling with depression. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great preacher of the 1800s, struggled with depression. He would be out of the pulpit sometimes for two to three months because of depression. He said these words, "There are dungeons beneath the castles of despair." It is so descriptive.

What is depression? Someone has described it this way: Depression is a feeling of hopelessness that is not consistent with reality, an emotional state of extreme sadness and intense discouragement that causes negative circumstances to overwhelm and debilitate a person's life.

In this situation with Elijah, we're going to see depression take over in his life. You say, what were his debilitating circumstances? He just won a great victory on Mount Carmel. God showed up in mighty power, and the people said, "The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!" They slew the 450 prophets of Baal. Then he prayed for rain, and there was rain. The Lord just showed up and showed out on Mount Carmel, and Elijah should just be singing the Hallelujah Chorus. There shouldn't be any room for depression.

But so often when you're on a mountaintop experience, you can't stay on the mountaintop. When Peter and James and John were with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, they wanted to stay there. "Lord, it's good for us to be here. We'll put up three tents, one for You, one for Moses, one for Elijah." They wanted to stay on the mountaintop. Who wouldn't want that?

But we don't get to stay on the mountaintop. You have to come down, and when Elijah came down, he came down hard. He came down with a thud. He thought that what happened on Mount Carmel was going to bring about a great revival in Israel, that it was going to change Ahab, that it was going to change his wicked wife, Jezebel. But he found that that wasn't the case.

1 Kings chapter 19, beginning in verse one. Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and even more if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time." In 24 hours, Elijah, you are dead.

And he was afraid and rose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, that's the southern part of Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, about 15 miles, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. He requested for himself that he might die and said, "It is enough now, Oh Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers."

And he lay down and slept under a juniper tree and behold, there was an angel touching him and he said to him, "Arise, eat." Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.

Then the angel of the Lord came a second time and touched him and said, "Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you." So he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. Horeb, or Sinai, the mountain of God, the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

What do we learn about depression from the life of Elijah? There are four lessons that I want to share with you today. Lesson number one: Depression often comes when we're physically worn out. Physically, emotionally just spent, worn out, wrung out. That describes Elijah.

You have to remember what happened. Obviously, he had this high point. There wasn't a higher point in his life, in his ministry, except when God took him to heaven in a whirlwind. It's interesting, he was the prophet who prayed to die, and he was one of two people who never died. Elijah and Enoch, neither one of those guys ever died. They were taken to heaven.

Here he is, so depressed and discouraged that he's asking for death. He's wanting to die. He was physically worn out, emotionally wrung out. First, he went from Mount Carmel, which is right at that corner point by the Mediterranean Sea. That's a 15-mile trip from Mount Carmel all the way down to Jezreel.

Remember the Spirit of the Lord was upon him and he outran Ahab in his chariot to Jezreel. Jezreel is the capital. That's where Ahab and Jezebel resided. Jezebel didn't go to Mount Carmel, but Ahab did. So he outran the chariot. Then he finds out from a messenger of Jezebel that Jezebel's going to kill him.

Once she found out he killed all the prophets with the sword, she said, "I'm going to kill you, Elijah." It didn't matter to her that God had showed who was God and Baal has no power and Baal is a nothing and "The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!" That didn't matter to her. She said, "I'm going to kill you, Elijah."

What did Elijah do? He went from Jezreel all the way down to Beersheba. That's the southern part of Judah. That's 105 miles to get to Beersheba. Then he went a day's journey from that, which is 15 miles. From there, he was under the juniper tree and he asked to die. Then from there, he's going to end up going to Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb, the mountain of God.

That is another 263 miles. In total, he has traveled 398 miles on foot in a very short period of time. It is safe to say he's exhausted. He's totally exhausted. He's in the cave of depression and he is totally physically exhausted.

The Lord comes to him in his exhaustion as he's there a day's journey away from Beersheba. He's already traveled the 120 miles and just tired as can be, running for his life. Does the Lord give him a Bible study? No, He ministers to his physical needs. He says, "You're worn out, Elijah."

Think about Elijah almost like a little kid. You moms and dads know when your kids are little, if they don't get a nap, they're really cranky and they can cry very easily when they don't get a nap. Some men are like that. They need their nap or they can start crying very easily.

But here he is, just tired and he's saying things. Aren't you glad God doesn't answer every prayer that we pray? The Lord would have killed him. He didn't do that. What He did was He met his physical needs and He gave him sleep under the juniper tree and then He woke him up to feed him.

It says the angel of the Lord, which anytime you read about the angel of the Lord, that's a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came to him and He fed him and He gave him bread cake baked on hot coals and a jar of water. He fed him twice. He lets him sleep, wakes him up, "Time to eat." He eats. He lets him go to sleep again, wakes him up, "Time to eat again and now you can take your journey to the mountain of God."

What's the first thing that we need to look at when we start feeling down and discouraged and depressed and overwhelmed? Check your physical well-being. Go to the doctor. See if there's something wrong with you, something off with you.

Check your sleep schedules, check your diet, make them check your chemical balance. All that stuff is important because if you're off physically, you're going to have difficulty getting a grip on the negative circumstances in your life that are causing you to feel so down and so depressed and so discouraged.

Wayne Cordeiro is pastor in Hawaii. Great pastor, great church, in high demand. He wrote a book called Leading on Empty. In that book, he shares a story about how his church was growing and his schedule was filling up and everybody wanted Wayne Cordeiro to come and preach and come and share.

He's preaching all the time and he's leading his church and he is running out of gas. He said that he was at an event and he was getting ready to speak that evening. He put on a pair of shorts and his jogging shoes and he was going to jog around the hotel area just to let off some steam and hopefully just prepare himself.

He said, "I found myself sitting on the street corner and I couldn't stop crying." He said, "I was just so totally depleted. I just couldn't go anymore." He had been leading on empty. What did he need? He needed rest. He needed refreshment. That's what God gave to Elijah. God's answer right off the bat for His depressed prophet is to give him rest and to give him refreshment.

Guest (Male): Pastor Jeff will return in just a moment to continue providing the message The Cave of Depression, revealing some very practical ways of dealing with depression. One of the things that depression can do is cause us to go into a shell, to feel isolated from God. To some, then, not to be able to sense the presence of God in our lives. What a lonely place to feel that way. Of course, He is not the invisible God. He is there for you and me at all times.

The prophet Elijah knew that and even in his depression, he waited on God's provision and obeyed His voice, and he saw God work miracles through his lonely days. You can learn to do that too. It starts with prayer.

That's why we'd like to get a copy of Pastor Jeff's booklet to you called Unveiling the Mystery of Prayer. It's our gift of thanks for your support of any amount this month to From His Heart. With that same gift, we'll also send you the eight-message series Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah, the Prophet of Fire.

Today's message, In the Cave of Depression, is one of those powerful lessons. The series is available in the format of your choice, and you can get these resources when you call 866-40-BIBLE. That's 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org.

Pastor Jeff receives no income from this ministry and we simply could not be on the air around the world and into your home without the support of our listeners. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for joining with us to help us tell the world about our great encourager, Jesus. God bless you. Now let's continue with part one of the message In the Cave of Depression.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: In our struggles with discouragement that can lead to depression, we don't need to blow off the physical and say, "That's not a very spiritual thing. I need to just focus on spiritual things." You do need to focus on spiritual things, but the very first thing that the Lord does is He deals with the physical.

Lesson number two: Depression not only does it often come when we're physically worn out, but it often comes when we are spiritually fouled up. Spiritually fouled up. That's what happened to Elijah.

It says in verse nine, "Then he came there to a cave." He's at Horeb. He went the 263 miles all the way down south to Horeb. To give you an idea of what this looks like. Sometimes we romanticize these pictures in the Bible, what this was like. He's out in the desert. Anytime you read about being in the wilderness, that's the biblical word for desert.

It's not like he's in a forest. This is what it looked like when he went to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, Mount Sinai. It's just desolate out there. That's where he is and he ends up in a cave. Now he came there to a cave and lodged there. Behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

And he said, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away." And He said, "Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord." And behold, the Lord was passing by.

And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks 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 sound of a gentle blowing, a still small voice. And it came about when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

Then he repeated himself, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away." Depression comes not only when you're physically worn out, but when you're spiritually fouled up.

Elijah, the great man of faith, the great man of prayer, the great man of God, he's spiritually messed up right now because he had been living his life listening to God, walking with God, focused on God. Now he is filled with not faith, he's filled with fear.

Jezebel told him she was going to kill him. He took his eyes off Jehovah and put his eyes on Jezebel and he was filled with fear and he began to run. He ran as far as he could get from Jezreel. The Lord asks him twice, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

I want us to think about three questions from the Lord's dealing there with Elijah and ask ourselves these questions. First of all, are you found in the wrong place? When you're down and discouraged and depression is setting in, the very first question: Are you in the wrong place? Is the Lord saying to you, "What are you doing here?"

It is safe to say that the prodigal son, when he had nothing to eat and was longing to eat the pig slop and came to his senses, he no doubt said to himself, "What am I doing here? Why am I here? Do not my father's hired men have food to eat? They don't eat pig slop. Why am I here?"

The Lord says to us, "What are you doing here?" Is He finding you in the wrong place because you've strayed from the will of God, you've strayed from the plan of God? You're not walking by faith anymore, you're walking by sight, and when you walk by sight, you get yourself in trouble and you come to a place where I'm not where I'm supposed to be.

I have a good friend who's been at our church several times, one of the greatest guitar players that has ever lived, Doyle Dykes. Doyle and I have gotten to be good friends. We communicate quite often and I just love to listen to his music. More than that, I just love Doyle. He's got such a heart for the Lord.

He told me about a story when he was 18 years old. Some 42 years ago, 43 years ago. He's 18 years old and God gave him a gift to play the guitar when he was just about 11 or 12. He's just a phenomenal player from the time he was just even before he was a teen.

Well, that got noticed and he got a big break when he was 18. Elvis Presley and his group said, "We want this guy to be in our backup band to play the guitar." Doyle was so excited to be able to see Elvis and meet Elvis and be on the team with Elvis.

He said he went to his first concert and Elvis was there and he said it was great. After the concert, they were going to the hotel and he was going to meet Elvis. He really wanted to do that because at that time Elvis, they called him the King and he was everything.

Doyle is there and Doyle's a godly guy. His church had been praying for him, "Lord, when Doyle goes out, keep him from making bad decisions." Here is Doyle and he's in this hotel room and they're waiting for Elvis to come down or for Doyle to go up, whatever it was going to be, but he was going to meet Elvis Presley. He said while he was there, things started happening.

Alcohol, drugs, women. They started to come into the room and come into the picture. Doyle was getting more and more uncomfortable. It was as if the Lord said to him, "What are you doing here, Doyle?" Doyle was arguing with the Lord. He said, "Lord, You know, this isn't my scene. This isn't what I'm all about, but I want to meet Elvis."

He said God kept convicting him. "What are you doing here? What are you doing here? What are you doing here?" He said, "Lord, I'm going to meet Elvis and then I'm going to leave because this is not for me." The Lord said this to him, "You need to choose which King you're going to follow."

Man, Doyle said, "Am I selling out for Elvis the King or am I sold out to Jesus the King of kings?" He told those guys in that room as they were waiting to meet Elvis, he said, "I've got to get out of here."

They said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "I can't be here. I wasn't raised this way. This isn't right for me." He got ready to leave and they said, "You can't leave. We stuck our necks out to get Elvis to pick you up and to have you on the team."

He said, "I'm sorry. I can't be here." They said, "You'll never work again in music." He said, "So be it. I have to follow the Lord." He left. And you know what? God blessed him and God used him in music. He chose the King of kings, not Elvis the king.

I'll never forget that because he found himself in a place and he heard the Lord's voice saying, in effect, to him, "What are you doing here, Doyle?" Maybe you're at a place and the Lord's saying, "What are you doing here? What are you doing here? Why are you so far away? You've traveled hundreds of miles outside of where I wanted you to be. What are you doing here, Elijah?" Are you found in the wrong place?

Guest (Male): Pastor Jeff Schreve has laid out for us today some key points to never forget if we want to avoid the pitfalls of depression. We've only heard half of this inspiring message from Pastor Jeff called In the Cave of Depression.

It's from the eight-message series Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah, the Prophet of Fire, and we'll have part two on Friday. So we hope that you'll join us then. If you'd like to be prayed for by Christians around the world, then we invite you to go to fromhisheart.org, click the prayer link, and there you can leave an anonymous prayer request.

You can say you'd like to be notified when somebody prays for you. If you do that, you'll receive an anonymous email alert notifying that people have joined with you in prayer. It's all at fromhisheart.org, click the prayer link.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Depression comes when we are mentally beaten down. The devil moves in when life starts to engulf you. He comes at you when everything is going terrible and he starts to pump out the lies. "God doesn't love you. God doesn't listen to you. God doesn't care about you. Your deliverance is not going to come. You might as well curse God and die." We have to recognize those lies and reject those lies and reassure ourselves with the truth.

Guest (Male): Join us on Friday right here on From His Heart.