Face the Giant: When you lose heart

I have a joke for you: Eleanor and Herman interrupted their vacation to go to the dentist. “I want a tooth pulled, and I don’t want any Novocain because I’m in a big hurry,” Eleanor said. “Just extract the tooth as quickly as possible, and we’ll be on our way.” 

The dentist was really impressed. “You’re certainly a courageous woman,” he said. “Which tooth is it?” 

Eleanor turned to her husband Herman and said, “Show him your tooth, dear.” 

It’s easy to be brave when someone else feels the pain! 

Have you ever faced something big, and felt afraid? And there are other people who might face the same big thing, but they aren’t so intimidated? Well today we are starting a message series called “Face the Giant,” about what do you do when you just lose heart? When you feel defeated? When something you’ve got to do battle with shakes you, how do you get past it? How do you face the giant? 

I try to be a person of faith. I do my best. But sometimes I lose heart. For instance, I like to run, and I try to run three days a week. It is my happy pill. Running makes me feel good. It’s important to me. I have a little asthma in cold weather. So I like to run inside in the winter. We have a YMCA in Tamaqua, and Kevin and I have a membership for the Tamaqua Y; we’ve had it for 10 years. Well, this week my husband told me, “It sounds like the Y is closing for good.” I didn’t like that. Our Y is located in a strip mall, and they rent, they don’t own the building. The rent is really expensive, and the Y has to pay rent even during this shutdown. The reality is, who knows when the public can get back to going to gyms? The Y can’t hold out, with that high of rent.  And I was looking forward to when it would open up again! 

I have been trying since March, to forge ahead, with the attitude: we don’t give up. When we can’t do what we usually do, we just do it differently. When we get thrown curveballs, we try to keep up my hope.  But when I hear the Y is closing, I want to cry.  

Bad news seems to be plentiful now. I hear about residents of nursing homes getting COVID 19, and that is heartbreaking. I think of people dying in nursing homes without their friends and family there to comfort them, and that also makes me want to cry. That’s a giant problem. 

We all come face to face with giants. We all have times when our courage shrinks, and doubts grow. Times when we feel defeated. Times when we lose heart. 

Elijah was a prophet. You could say he was giant of a prophet. He was the first person in the Bible to bring someone back from the dead! He could send fire down from heaven and kill a person, he did that! He is considered the greatest prophet. When Elijah prays, stuff happens. He prays it won’t rain, and it doesn’t rain for three years. Then he prays for it to rain, and a little cloud appears out of nowhere, and there is a downpour! 

In Israel a prophet’s job was to tell the people what God wanted them to do. Because the king of Israel had so much power, a prophet especially had to tell the king what God wanted him to do. Kings don’t like criticism, and they have a way of squashing people in their way. So being a prophet was dangerous, since you had to stand up to the king.  

The people of Israel had been worshipping a false god, Baal. Elijah wants to show the people the power of God. He says, let’s see if these idols of this false god you worship can live up to the faith you’ve placed in them. So he picks a fight with the priests of Baal and says, “Meet me on the mountain. You build an altar to your god, and I’ll build an altar to my God. You pray to your god, and I’ll pray to my God, and whichever one answers by sending  fire down from heaven, that’s the one true God. The priests of Baal go first, and Elijah makes fun of them: “Hey, your god isn’t answering you, maybe he’s on vacation!” Then he says, “Hey, scream a little louder. Maybe your god’s asleep and he’s a real heavy sleeper.” The priests of Baal just can’t get fire to come down from heaven. “You’re done? You’re good,” Elijah asks? Then he takes his turn. He drenches his altar and the sacrifice on it with water, all around. Elijah prays, and fire falls from heaven and burns the sacrifice up and the water is gone! Elijah showed ‘em that God is the only God! 

I’m so glad when I was a kid I didn’t have the ability to pray down fire from Heaven. I might’ve singed all kinds of people in junior high school, or a brother of mine. 

Elijah had great success there. But he really upset the Queen, Queen Jezebel. She worshipped the false god, Baal. She said, ”So help me I’m going to kill that Elijah.” 

And it spooked him! Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He is this great prophet, the greatest, but he lost heart. Now let me tell you, there will be a happy ending to this story. Because even when you doubt, God shows up. 

Then Elijah left his servant and went out in the wilderness alone. That’s the problem. He went on alone. When we lose heart, we need to reach out to the people around us. We’re the body of Christ together and we pick one another up. In Genesis it says, “It’s not good for man to be alone.” We need each other in the body of Christ.  

So Elijah sits down and prays, “I’ve had enough Lord, Take my Life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Elijah had major depression.  

God sends an angel to make sure he eats enough. Then Elijah keeps walking, and finally goes to a cave.. God shows up. First there is a powerful wind, then an earthquake, then fire. Then there was a whisper. And when he heard that whisper, Elijah knew, God had just showed up. Even when Elijah doubted, God showed up. 

God says, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” You’ve got a job to do, to speak my word to the king.”  

Elijah said, “I have been working really hard, but I’m the only prophet left, and they want to kill me!” 

God said, “Ok.” God listened with compassion to Elijah’s troubles. Then he gave Elijah some things to do: “Get back to work. And make Elisha a prophet, so he can fill in for you.” 

And Elijah did that. He got back to work. He made Elisha a prophet. Now he had a co-worker, a buddy. He wasn’t alone anymore.  

When you face the giant, when you lose heart and have doubts, God doesn’t reject you. Even when you doubt, God shows up. God is with you. When you read the Bible you see God loves people through their pain, through their mess ups, through their failures, and through their doubts.  

This week some of the ministers and lay leaders in the Williams Valley made a video for the National Day of Prayer. We all prayed, and when we finished one of the ministers said, “I needed that!” Praying with others lifted me up to. We need to reach up and out when we lose heart.  

My homework for you this week, is, if you face the giant; if you face a big disappointment or worry, reach up to God, and reach out to God’s people. Reach up: pray to God, and reach out: tell someone your trouble, what is making you lose heart. 

We all have times where we face the giant and lose heart. It happened to even the greatest prophet in Israel. He thought he was alone. But he wasn’t. You’re not alone either. Because we have a mighty, loving God, who, whether we have faith, or whether we doubt, shows up. Amen.