You know, there are, um, there are many of us who believe that, right? We can say that from the deep places. Uh, there's some of us, it's really hard right now. We're crying from the deep places 'cause things don't seem to be lining up the way we thought they were going to. And then there's some of us in, in our, in each of our sites who just don't believe at all. Right? But we're all here. And today we're gonna look at the second part of a story from Elijah. I mean, last week, these last few weeks, what God has been doing in our midst, he is so, so good, preach. But this week, no matter where you are, this one's gonna sound familiar. This one's gonna sound familiar. So I wanna pray for us that we would hear God through his word. But I'm gonna pray for the last five minutes of our time together. You see, I know sometimes those last five minutes are, uh, I know some of us, all sorts of reasons I'm sure sneak out right? Or at least we check out some of you. It's like, when I'm done, you're done. But there's like that extra five minutes at the end where powerful things begin to happen. I'm gonna ask now for God to prepare us for a moment. Watch this, where maybe at the end we take a stand against evil for God and with each other. Wouldn't that be something? So Father, we come before you now and we're asking, uh, Lord, that you would, that you would help each of us. Lord, there are many of us who are willing to testify that you're good. You're so good. There's some of us who are struggling today, and there are others who just don't believe, but they're here, would speak to us now through your word. Prepare us for the coming minutes. Push darkness away. We're asking you to do a mighty thing now for your glory. Lord, we need this, But we're praying this for your glory. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Alright, now, here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna, I'm gonna give you something to think about. Talk about, you're just gonna kind of, what does this mean? I'll give that to you in just a second. You're gonna hang out, you're gonna talk to some people. I would ask you if you would, no matter where you are, uh, would you just turn around and say hi to some folks? Invite them into the conversation. Actually talk about this. But here it is. Invite people in around you. 'cause there's somebody near you who like you don't know. And if they don't want to join, they'll let you know. But you know what they won't do? They won't let you know what it feels like when nobody invites 'em in. So how about we just invite each other in? Here's the thing I want you to talk about. You ready? Here it is. The most dangerous part of the climb is the descent. Hmm. What could that mean? Go ahead. Have a seat. Talk to each other, Stan. I don't care. Just talk to each other. Okay? All right. Okay. We're gonna come back to this one in just a second. Um, anybody who's ever watched a a, a documentary on Everest knows that most people die after they summit. Right? That's a cheery thought, but it's true. It's true, it's true. Uh, there is something about the, the what happens after the, the peak experience. And we wanna, we wanna actually pay attention to that today. Um, if you were with us last week, Elijah definitely experienced a peak moment, right? Because he's the one prophet of God who stands against the 450 prophets of Paal, this lifeless empty idol from Canaan that has a such an ugly religion built around it, with temple prostitution and child sacrifice. And there's a big showdown on Mount Carmel. And God wins this, this empty lifeless, uh, uh, cult is exposed. The king sees it all happen. A three year drought ends. I mean, that's, that's a good day. That was last week. In fact, just, just look at this. Let's just read the end of One Kings, uh, chapter 18. Lemme just read this for you. The sky grew black with clouds, the windrose, a heavy rain started falling in. Ahab rode off to Jezreel. That's the king. Jezreel is where the palace is. The power of the Lord came on Elijah and tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. So here's what's going on. I mean, uh, Ahab is going back to his queen. It's pouring down rain. The power of the Lord overtakes the prophet. He's got a long robe on 18 miles to Jezreel. He's gonna have to like, pick up his robe and tuck it into his belt so that he can run the 18 miles to Jezreel. It's raining for the first time in three years. What do you think he felt like? It's like, God, you did it. This is hallelujah. Ye ha revival is coming. What could go wrong? First Kings chapter 19, verse one. Now, Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Now, we talked about this dark, dark practice. We talked about this last week. If you have questions, you can, you can go back and hear the whole kind of teach on it. But at this moment, Ahab tells his queen. Now, Jezebel came from a different culture. She's the one that brought in the worship of the Baals. She's really upset. I mean, she's been killing the prophets of Yahweh for years now. She wants to stamp it out. And here she gets word that a whole bunch of her pagan priests are gone like that. What's her reaction? She sends a messenger to Elijah that messenger says, oh, hey, by this time tomorrow you'll be dead. What's his reaction? Now, if you were with us, what's the reaction of this bold and outrageous and courageous, smack talking prophet Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to be Sheba and Judah, he left his servant there. While he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, he came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. I've had enough Lord take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors. And then he laid down under the bush and fell asleep. Now, to just give you kind of the, the, the, the geography of all this, um, Jezreel is where the, is where the, uh, the, the, the northern kingdom had its palace. If you remember from last week, Israel has now split into a divided kingdom. So he's up north. What he does is he goes as far south as possible in the southern kingdom. Beersheba is on the southern edge of the southern kingdom. So he's getting as far from her as he can. Oh, and then once he says goodbye to a friend, he goes a day further into the desert. He is running from this. What happened? Well, I, I think we should talk about that in just a second and maybe kind of build that out. But can we just say that, um, sometimes we are most prone to one of those, uh, let down fall down, smack down moments right after the pinnacle. You with me? Anybody ever been there before where it's kinda like, Ooh, and we're back to what we were just talking about you. It's like, oh, yeah, it happened, but we forget that the hard part's not over. So Robin and I, uh, four years ago are with some friends. We're in Utah. Uh, we're all hanging out together. You're in the mountains. It's gorgeous. It's beautiful. Somebody said, we should go on a hike. Yeah, let's go on, on a hike. So everybody's looking up online. We find this place. You can go to this lake and you hike, and it's great. Everybody's got their shoes. Let's go shorts. Couple of hours, three hours. It's beautiful. You get up there to this lake, it's gorgeous. A high altitude lake. Not too hard. Most everybody was with us. And you know, we just kind of pushed through it. It was great. It was great. It was great. There's more to the hike if you want it. In fact, in the guidebook, what it says is for the highly motivated hiker, you can continue. Oh, go on now. What I didn't know until later is that the, the rest of this hike to get up to this peak, it's classified as moderate to difficult, except in the really touristic, like you don't live in the mountain guidebook. And it says really difficult, hike, steep terrain, not marked well loose. You'll be doing some boulder to boulder jumping really difficult. It's like, okay, what did, we didn't know that. So a few people said, well, let's go, let's keep going. I'm like, yeah, let's, let's, yeah, sure, let's keep going. So we go and there's a bunch of people that it's steep. It's really steep, and you start to make, make your way through it. And you're feeling it a little bit if you're not in the altitude. I mean, I love the mountains. And so we're, we're, we're there and we're, we're kind of making it. And then everybody kind of spreads out according to their pace. And some people are like, yeah, I think I'm done. I'm going back. And there's five of us that are continuing on. My son-in-law, Jeremy is, is taking the lead, or as I like to call him, Thor. So Thor is just, you know, he's doing his thing and a couple of other people, and Robin and I, and it's steep. Did I mention that? It's steep. And so you're feeling it, you get to this one place where like, you could, like, you, like you're just looking straight up at this thing. You're going, okay, okay, okay. And, uh, we get like, maybe just a little bit of the ways up. We look down and we see some of the folks who had had already said, we're done. And you can just kinda see 'em at the distance going, good luck. Right? So we're hiking. We're hiking. These guys are making it much faster than Robin and I. And every now and then, I'm like, Ronnie, we need to stop. I, I I'm concerned about you. I just want you to catch your breath. So, so, so, oh, you good? She's like, I think I'm not, I don't think you are not yet. Oh, we kinda hear them. You can't see 'em up in the distance. They're like calling. It's echoing up. It's great up here, here, here. It's tricky, tricky, tricky. You'll have to crawl up on your hands and knees, knees. We make it up to the top. And it was great. It's gorgeous. Took pictures. You could see all sorts of things up there. It's just awesome, right? Hallelujah. Yeha. And then we start down and you know, it's steep and you're going down. You gotta be careful loose. You're going, it takes hours to get down. And I'm not gonna bore you with all of it, but it's just like, okay, I'm starting to feel it. Like, I'm like, it's, it's a pretty good work workout. You're feeling it in your, you're feeling it here. Your lungs are burning. It's like, okay, man, I wish I had more water. I really pounded that water. I could use more water. I think I'm bonking. Well, I, I ate that protein bar. What else I got? Nothing. We're going, going, going down. You get down below the lake like we're mere mortals hike, you know? So you're trying not to look down on 'em too much. But it's like, yeah, we just did that, but everybody's, you know, I'm trying to make it back down 'cause I'm not feeling like the greatest. This is before I had some work done. I don't mean this work. I mean this work. All right, you people. So, so I'm just kind of feeling it and I wanna get down, right? And there's a place there where it's like, everybody's like, oh, there's a, there's a moose right around the corner. And everybody's kind of clumped up. Just be okay. He's right there. And I'm like, I don't care. Unless he's gonna let me ride him the rest of the way down. I gotta go. That water and the protein bar there, there I, uh, I, I, I recycled some things in Utah, right there on the side of the hill. Yeah. Yeah. That's how that works. Uh, what's your point, captain? Dramatic. My point is, after the adrenaline, after the rush, after you accomplish something that's really cool, glad I did it. That won't exactly carry you through when reality hits on the other side of the peak and you're puking your socks up. You ever been there? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe not exactly there, but you ever been there where it's like, Ooh, ooh, this turned out to be harder than I thought. After the peak, one guy wrote that it's, it's kind of like the, after the confetti falls, um, after the applause, eyes down, there's like this strange emptiness that can creep in. And when he said, I this, find this interesting, he said, it's kinda like somebody pulled the plug on your happiness hot tub. I'm not even sure I know what that means, but I think I've been there before. Elijah could relate. You see all of this stuff happens. And now he's in the desert. He's in the wilderness. He said goodbye to the one guy that was there with him. He's under a tree. He said some heartbreakingly sad things. And I want you to begin to figure out what got him to this place. But first I wanna just continue the story just a little bit further. And, and here it is. Uh, so he's asleep all at once. An angel wakes him up, touches him, says, get up, get up and eat. He looked around and there by his head with some bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then laid down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and, and touched him. Woke him up, said, get up, get up, eat for the journey is too much for you. So he got up and ate and drank, strengthened by that food. He traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached hob the mountain of God. There he went into a cave. Or the Hebrew actually says the cave. We'll come back to that and spent the night. Now what I want you to do is to just go back to those folks that you were talking with. 'cause we're talking about somebody who's on the descent now. He's on the other side of the peak. What do you think got Elijah to this moment? Because it feels pretty sudden. What do you think? What are you seeing? What can you imagine that was going on in his life? Go ahead, talk to each other here. Online, uh, mid Rivers, grants Trail, Fenton Overflow here at Chesterfield. I want you guys just to talk to each other. Now, what do you think Got Elijah to this place? Go ahead. We'll get back together in just a second. Okay. Alright. Anybody here? I I, I noticed a few things. Anybody here like, like what? Uh, and let's see if it matches up with what you guys are, are, are thinking at the site. Uh, like what got him to this place just in a general way. Anybody got a thought he was tired? I'll even go like maybe exhausted, right? Okay, let's come back to that one. Fear. Fear. He was afraid. Yeah. David, was that yours? No, I was gonna say Pinnacle. Nothing else is Okay. So he's at that pinnacle and nothing else is gonna match that. I'm gonna SI don't wanna put words in your mouth, but it's like, almost like his expectations there. There was an expectation there of something I want to come back to. Yeah. Anybody over in these sections? Were you guys talking about it at all? Let me be honest. It happens, right? There's a lot going on. How about this? I think there was a spiritual attack happening. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but I will tell you, flesh and blood cooperates with the demonic from time to time, and he's under attack. I think, I think the expectations were probably unrealistic. I, I I'm, I I'm just wondering if he wasn't thinking, I'm wondering if one of the reasons he wasn't hightailing it to Jezreel was, I can't wait. I can't wait. Ahab saw all of this. We cleared it all up. He's gonna tell her this is gonna be the end of the worship of the bas. Or at the very least she's gonna leave town. This is it. There's gonna be revival. Not only did that not happen, but now she turns it around and wants him dead. Did anybody talk about him being isolated? I mean, he says goodbye to the one friend. He has this assistant that was probably with him through it all about the time that he needs a friend. I think you could make the case that there's a kind of, ah, I don't wanna get all clinical, but a kind of depression that's kind of settling in on him. And you see when that begins to happen, that, that that's when we go, yeah. No, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't wanna be around you. I I, I don't, I I'll do this on my own. By the way, that works really well with those numbing strategies that we talked about last week. The addiction, the abuse stuff, the substance abuse stuff, pornography, the endless scroll on TikTok. I don't need anybody else, man. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna numb out. It could be going down a rabbit hole on Reddit and all of a sudden now you're worried about all sorts of things. It could be the newsfeed, it could be any number of things that you're just like, I'm distracted, I'm numb and I'm isolated. When you said tired, uh, who said tired? Okay, so, so your wife, is that what you said? Yeah. So that'd be you. Okay, cool. Um, I think it's an exhaustion thing. Remember three years that, uh, Jezebel was hunting down the prophets of Baal and killing them. So he's in hiding for three years. The whole big thing at Carmel, I mean, that was a physical thing. Spiritual battle. He's exhausted. Quick show of hands. Everywhere. Anybody here ever been really, really, really tired? Some of you're so tired you couldn't raise your hand right then. No, no, no. It may not have happened to you. You may be like, you may like, like you may just have woken up this morning so full of life and energy and hope that you thought, you know what? A cup of coffee would give me an unfair advantage over the world. How many of you woke up this morning, looked into the mirror and went, I am so full of energy and life, I scare myself? How many of you just looked in the mirror this morning and scared yourself? Because that happens. There's a physical, spiritual, emotional fatigue. It sets in. And before you know it, you're really cranky. You don't focus very well. You're really negative. I say this like it's always you. I've been there, uh, anxious and sometimes you get to a place where I'm just so tired, I can't, IIII don't even care. I want you to notice what God doesn't do here. God doesn't look at this worn out, burned out prophet and say, buck up cowboy. Get back on the horse. He doesn't say, you cute little meatball. You stay right here. I'm gonna go fight the bad guys and I'll let you know when it's safe. He restores him. You know, the first thing he does, he lets him rest. He sends a messenger, second messenger. First messenger has really bad news. Second messenger. What does he do? This is an angel of God. What does he do? He bakes bread. Can the preacher get it carb love and amen from somebody? He bakes bread and then, and then he gently wakes him up, feeds him, he gives him a snack and a cool drink, and then tells him to take another nap. It's like preschool. It's awesome. But I want you to think about this. Just kind of put yourself in this story. Like we're feeling this after warm bread and cool water. How deeply do you think Elijah rested that second time when he knew an angel of God Almighty was watching over him? You're picking up on the tenderness of God in this story. You're picking up on the fact that God comes to him. God finds him in the wasteland. God's gonna do that for you. I, I don't know it. It's gonna look different. It's gonna be different. But God's not gonna leave you in that desolation that you think you're in right now. God comes for you. So after he's got this, uh, some semblance of stability in his life now, uh, and, and he's got enough energy, he goes on a trip like God sends him on this trip. Do you remember how a few weeks ago I said that there are Easter eggs or uh, like hyperlinks in the story that remind us of other parts of the story? This part of the story is full of it because the first thing it is, is that he goes on a, it's 40 days and 40 nights. Anytime you hear that, you ought to be going. Well, that sounds familiar. Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights on a certain mountain. I could also show you that the same word for cake of bread is the word that's used for manna. It's the way God fed the Israelites when they were in the wilderness. Hmm, where are we? That whole the cave thing. I'll come back to that. But when it says he went to horrib, horrib means desert. So it's Mount Hob, you know it by a different name. He takes him to Mount Sinai. We're in the Moses story again on Sinai. God has a back and forth conversation with Moses. It says in Exodus 13, like Moses talked to him like they were friends. It was a back and forth thing. That's what's about to happen. God looks at Elijah says, what are you doing here? He doesn't like, he doesn't need the information. He knows what he's doing there. What are you doing there? I think he's inviting him to unload a little bit. And so what we read is that Elijah does just exactly that. I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, put your prophets to death with the sword. I'm the only one left. And now they are trying to kill me too. Y'all. That was a great victory last week. But you wouldn't know it by this response. And that whole business of being the only one turns out not accurate. If you go to the previous chapter, there was an assistant to the king that had hidden like a hundred of, of God's prophets away. They're being protected. Now, I don't know if Elijah knew that or not. I don't know if he's keeping score 'cause they're hiding and he's not. And we do that, don't we? You get really bad off and you're like, nobody's, nobody has it as bad as me. Nobody understands me. I get it. I see what he's doing there. Why wouldn't he feel that I'm not minimizing the fact that there's a contract out on his life? I'm just saying that I think he's putting unhealthy expectations on himself. Like this was all gonna be up to him. Maybe he's underestimating what God's gonna do and overestimating what he's supposed to do. You see, sometimes when we get into these false assumptions about ourself, they push us deeper into the spiral. And maybe now for a second, we should go back to that heartbreaking phrase that we just barely skimmed over. It says that he, he, he wanted to die. Now he didn't act on anything, but I wanna talk to you for just a second. And if this is too close to home and some of you go, I gotta get outta here. I understand that. But if you do, get up and leave, go talk to a pastor. They're ready right now in the lobbies, we've talked about this. But you see, Elijah is at a place where he's saying, I I I, I, I, I don't, I don't think I can go any further. I don't think I can bear the weight of this any longer. I want y'all to hear me. I have. There's no way I can imagine what some of you have had to bear in this life, but no one was meant to bear that weight along. No one. You see, I think it's alive from hell. That that sounds like, you know what? You can't even admit that you're thinking or having these struggles. That's a lie somehow that it's shameful to say, man, I am. I'm like at the end of me. And that's a lie to admit that we need help. That's a, that's a lie. No, we, we are to turn, we are to look for help. God tells us all the time, look for help. Just look in the right direction when there's a lawsuit right now that is aimed at chat GPT because someone was struggling and chat. GPT advised them to end it all. And this person did. Guys, you call it ai, it is artificial. But this is not intelligence. It is not wisdom to live by. And I'm telling you, we need to push against the lies of hell. At every turn. Elijah is making absolutely wrong assumptions about himself, about God, and about his legacy. But I'll tell you what he did. He poured his heart out. Thank God he poured his heart out. Thank God that I see all the way through the scriptures, people who are pouring their hearts out and God receives and hears it all. Yes, yes. For those of you who are in these peak experience small groups, write this one down. If you've got your journal, I want you to write this one down. Psalm 34 18. The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves who those who are crushed in spirit. You know what that means? That means he's close to you right now. Yes. Yes, Greg. He didn't feel like it. Well, lemme just tell you I'm so grateful that my feelings are not facts. 'cause I have felt some pretty lousy feelings that turned out to not be true. And I'm telling you, even if you don't feel it, God is close and God is inviting you to pour your heart. God is inviting you to pray as one person said, what's in you? Not what ought to be in you. Okay? That's the privilege of having relationship with him. That's the privilege of God's grace of saying, uh, I don't come to you out of my own performance. I come to you because of what Jesus has done for me on the cross. That's the relationship we're inviting you into. And you go into this back and forth relationship with the God of all things. And, and some of you're like, well, how does that even work? Well, when you begin to walk with God at that level, there's no formula. I'm just telling you the, the the the spiritual presence of God is real. I'm telling you that he'll walk with you. And so you, you cry out and you pray and you ask and you wrestle and you struggle and you look and you listen and you lean in and you clinging to the hope that God is with you, but you don't isolate. This is when the evil one does his best work. Don't isolate. This is when we start to believe all of the stories that we write about ourselves and about others. Don't. Let's, let's, let's say these things out loud. Let's ask for help. Talk to your counselor. Talk to a friend. Talk to a pastor here. Keep praying, find scriptures. We'll help you find those scriptures that you can, you can soak your thoughts in. But if you are at a place right now, right now where you were saying, Greg, this whole thing is overwhelming me and I am at a place where I I am having self-destructive thoughts, then you ask for help Now, not later. Now you can text or call 9, 8, 8 right now. It is a 24 hour hotline. It is there it is. Mental health counselors don't, just don't wait. If you're going, I don't even know that I can do that. Walk out of the room right now and somebody will walk with you through it. Or maybe right after the service, come and find a pastor and say, I need help. 'cause we will connect you to a Christian counselor if need be. We will, we will point you to to, to medical help if you need that to climb out of the depression. But we will begin to form a network around you that reminds you that you are not alone. No one was meant to bear this weight alone. That's what Elijah was about to find out. You see, he pours his heart out and now it's God's turn. So, so God just gives him an instruction here and says, and says, uh, go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord. For the Lord is about to pass by. God is saying, son, I'm gonna let you know who I am and who I say that you are. But that another Easter egg, the Lord is about to pass by. That's the same phrase that's used in the Moses story. You see, there's a moment when Moses is struggling with his assignment, with the difficult people and he's like, God, are you going with me on this thing? 'cause I need you to go with me. And in fact, at one point I think what he's really saying is, I just need you to show me what you got. Show me God, I wanna see your glory. And God says you can't handle it. But what I'll do is I'll tuck you in a cleft like a, a, a cutout, a a gash, maybe even a cave. I'll, I'll, I'll tuck you in on the side of the mountain and I'll, I'll cover you over with my hand and I'll pass by because my glory is too much about all you can hope to see is the fading glimpse of my glory after it's passed. This is God Almighty, by the way. You know, that's where that song comes from, that old hymn. We don't, we don't sing that hymn. But you know, the one I'm talking about. It's, uh, rock of age cleft for me. Let hide myself. I hit that D seven a little early. Let me hide myself. There it is. Indie. Some of you're like, you know, that's the way they used to write songs back when I was a kid. Careful. Now that was written in the 17 hundreds. Rock of age is cleft for me. Let me hide myself in the, if you read all of the, the, the, what the hymn writer is saying there, he's referencing the story of Moses, but what he really does is he connects it to Jesus. Because the whole song is about Jesus, let me hide myself in thee. Like when, when, when, when there's trouble. I wanna hide myself in thee. When I'm faced with my sin, I want to hide myself in thee. When I get to the end of my days and I stand before you, God almighty, let my hide myself in thee. You see, it's Jesus. By the time you get to the the New Testament, it's Jesus. He's the rock. He is our refuge. He's the one that we hide in. You get to first Peter, uh, chapter five, and at one point it says, submit yourself under the mighty hand of God. And then like right after that, it says, and in due time he will lift you up. You know what? That's a picture of man. You are in the hands of God Almighty. Do you know what I think he was saying to to, to Moses? You know what I think he's about to say to Elijah, I see you. I've got you. I'm God, you are not. And I've got you. So there's this huge wind storm, like a hurricane that happens on the side of the mountain. The glory of God is now passing by, but God wasn't in the windstorm. There's an earthquake. God wasn't in the earthquake. There's a firestorm. God wasn't in the firestorm. It's really interesting. All three of those are ways that God sort of speaks to people in the Old Testament. He speaks to Moses through a burning bush. He speaks to job through a whirlwind. When the children of Israel were at the base of Mount Sinai, the ground shook with the power of the creator. But that's not how it works This time. You see, we love the spectacular man. We preached it last week, but here's the rest of the story. You see, God can do all of that. God can still deliver. God can bring fire. God's got that kind of game. But that's not how God speaks to this burned out prophet. Look at what happens next. After the fire came, a gentle whisper. Now in some of your old translations, you get the phrase that now this is where it comes from. God spoke to him in a still small voice in the Hebrew called, it means a kind of silence. Like you, it's like the sound of like quiet. It's so thin, it's so fine, but it's so powerful in this moment, after all of the special effects, God speaks to him, not in a blaring horn, not with big, but with a whisper. You see, I wonder if God isn't speaking to us in the aching silence through a whisper. It's one of the reasons I love this story. It's more personal. It's more attainable to me. I don't often see the pyrotechnics, but God, I need you to whisper that. I'm not alone. This story's so realistic, y'all. If you read the rest of it, like after all of this, he asks him again, Elijah, why are you here? Elijah gives him the exact same answer like, no progress yet. He doesn't immediately go, oh, I'm all better. And so then God says one more thing. What God is saying here is, I'm God. You are not. I've got you. Oh yeah. And you're not alone. The rest of the message is there are 7,000 people who have not bowed to the Baal. You think you're the only one. I got people all over Israel that are ready to join with you. I never expected you to carry this alone. I've got people you need to meet. I've got people you need to hand things off to. I've got you. I saw all this coming, and that's the end of the story. I'm telling you, if you read it, you can't even get a read on on like how, like, how Elijah reacts to these things. But that's okay. 'cause he's not the hero of the story. God is, it's God's plan. So here at the end, the question is this, what is God saying to us in the aching silence? I'm God, you are not. I've got you. You're not alone. You, y'all. This is how we face our struggles. This is how we face the battles. This is how we do it. I don't know what battles you're facing these days. I don't know. I I, I don't know what awesome opportunities God has laid before you. There's some things right now in some of your lives, you're like, oh man, I think I'm about to get to the pinnacle. I want to bring God with me. I want to be, I want to, I wanna be resilient. I want to keep his perspective all the way through. I don't know what you're facing right now. I just know that Jesus is our rock and our refuge. And I think he's telling us that this is our moment. Like this is our moment together collectively. But this is your moment. Like you could know. You're not gonna know everything. I don't know everything, but I know that I know that I know that I belong to him. This could be your moment when you know that you know, that you know that you were forgiven. And some of you're like, yeah, man, that happened a long time ago. Well then maybe this could be the moment that you know, that you know, that you know that he's got you and that you're not alone. So here we are now to the last five minutes. I don't know. I mean, this is outrageous Last night. It was, uh, so powerful and so, uh, good. Um, I don't know. Let's try it again. Um, what if we like physically made a statement about some things, like maybe the fact that we need him, like maybe the fact that we're saying, IIII need help. I don't wanna do this alone. Or maybe it's a I just wanna stand against evil and I don't wanna do it alone. See, in just a second, I'm gonna ask you here and at the sites and those of you, uh, who are in the hub, I want you to feel free to come join us if you just come on over. But I'm thinking this could be a moment where we together, because we'll go into worship here in just a second at each of our sides. But I'm thinking this is a moment for us. Like when you stand, it could be that you come down front here and you join us. I'm gonna read some scriptures over the people that are here. I want you to hear the, the word of God. We're gonna clinging to the word of God around here. For some of you, it's gonna be like, man, I don't even know if I can go. But then all of a sudden there's a hand that's says, you're not gonna do this alone. Or maybe, maybe you don't go anywhere. You just right where you are. You just say, I need help. Will you walk with me? I don't know what it is, but I'm gonna ask you if you would, to stand now. And I'm just saying, this is me talking. I'm done with the lies of the serpent. I'm done seeing evil take another headline and another life and another bit of ground. Jesus is Lord. And I'm gonna ask you now, if you would, to take a stand for God, take a stand against evil and maybe take a stand for each other if you want. Then, then at each of our sites, just come forward. Because what I'm gonna do now is just, just read these scriptures over you because these are words for us. Yeah, come on. Let all who take refuge in you. Be glad. Let them ever sing for joy. Here it is. Spread over your protection so that those who love your name will rejoice in you. That's Psalm five. The Lord is my strength and my shield and my heart trusts in him. He helps me. My heart leaps for joy. And with my song, I praise him truly. He is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress. I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God. He is my mighty rock. He is my refuge. You see, I think this is a moment for us Now, whether you're here or whether you are there, this is a moment for us to, to have like a quiet, defiant, hopeful stand with God. This isn't gonna be big. This is gonna be really quiet. Last verse, Psalm 18, verse two. The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust.