Introduction

Psalm 51 is a famous psalm from an infamous historical context. This is David’s prayer of repentance after he committed adultery with Bathsheba, tried to cover it up when she became pregnant, and when that didn’t work, murdered Uriah and took his wife for himself [2 Sam 11]. Uriah wasn’t just any man. He was one of David’s mighty men, a man of extraordinary loyalty, integrity, and self-control [2 Sam 23:39]. When David called him back from battle and told him to go home, Uriah refused to enjoy the comforts of his home while his fellow soldiers were still out in the field [2 Sam 11:8–11].

What’s shocking is that David did this. David, whom God anointed king, who defeated Goliath, who experienced God’s presence, favour, and victory, a man after God’s heart [1 Sam 13:14]. Yet in 2 Samuel 11, we see a murderer with the blood of a righteous man on his hands. What this shows us is that even the best of us can fall into temptation and sin.

Introduction

We’ve been going through our series on spiritual recovery as we looked at spiritual dryness, burnout, weariness, and burdens. All of which can lead us into today’s spiritual condition called Spiritual Resignation, meaning you resign from something, you quit. As you experience spiritual dryness and burdens, as your heart over time takes a beating and breaks, you may feel that following Christ is too difficult, too costly, too painful. You get to a point where you feel like putting down your cross and stop following Jesus.

The Christian life is likened to a race. While this race is a marathon, many Christians run it like a 100m dash. They start out really fast, with passion, intensity, and strength, but soon they’re gasping for air, their legs feel like jelly, and the only thing they want to do is stop and fall to the ground. The author of Hebrews is writing to such people who have been following Jesus, but now their hearts feel so battered, so defeated that they want to stop.

Introduction

We are continuing in our series on Spiritual Recovery. We’ve looked at spiritual dryness, burnout, and weariness, which are all pieces of the same pie of our spiritual struggles. Today we’re going to look at a condition called spiritual faltering. It is when everything in your life feels like a burden, causing you to falter as the burdens you carry begin to overwhelm you. This is not simply about exhaustion of the body, but exhaustion of your spirit and soul. And no amount of sleep, relaxation, or time off seems to help.

When everything feels like a burden, it can begin to change you. There is a loss of joy and thanksgiving, patience with other people, and relationships become strained. You become increasingly irritated, frustrated, and short-tempered over small things. Kindness and grace in your words and actions become less frequent. You withdraw from people, from church, you talk less, laugh less, and even smiling feels like a burden. You become increasingly critical of others, bitter, resentful, judgmental, and unforgiving. You find more and more things to be dissatisfied with in your life.

And this affects our spiritual lives as well. Prayer and reading the Bible become another burdensome chore. Worship feels mechanical and emotionally detached. Growing in faith, fellowship, and being part of the life of the church no longer hold interest. Walking in obedience to God’s Word, living holy and righteously, becomes a suffocating obligation. Doing what is good and right becomes exhausting, so you begin to distance yourself from God. We no longer respond in gratitude to the blessings we have been given, and our hearts no longer respond to the grace we have received from Christ on the cross.

Introduction

We’re continuing our series on Spiritual Recovery, and two weeks ago, we looked at Elijah when he was struggling spiritually, being burnt out, running into the wilderness wanting to die. And it was the Lord who came to revive Elijah through His presence and providence and gave him renewed purpose.

Today, we’re going to look at another piece of the pie of our spiritual condition called Spiritual Weariness. In other words, it’s the state of spiritual exhaustion that sometimes occurs when we get tired of waiting. It’s when you need that providence and strengthening that Elijah received, but no matter how long you wait, it doesn’t seem to be coming. You’ve prayed for so long, you’ve been patient for so long, holding on with no sign of hope. You’ve been running for so long, telling yourself just a little longer, just a little more, but time keeps going with no relief, no fruit in your life, no evidence of anything happening or getting better. And slowly, hope fades into disappointment, discouragement, and then hopelessness and despair.

This was exactly the kind of context in which the Lord speaks to Israel through Isaiah 40. Although scholars debate when exactly Isaiah 40 was written, what we know is that God is speaking prophetically to a people dwelling in exile, whose view of God was changing because of their circumstances. They had been waiting to be saved for a long time, and now they were tired of waiting.

Introduction

We’re continuing our series on Spiritual Recovery. The condition we’ll be looking at is called spiritual exhaustion or burnout, that feeling of running on empty until you feel like there’s nothing more to squeeze out of you, or like you’re burning the candle on both ends.

This is something experienced in all walks of life and not just in the church. But this is particularly true of anyone serving in ministry and in each person’s faith journey.

Spiritual burnout is not about not loving Jesus anymore, it’s about having poured out your own without properly being replenished. My prayer is that if you are feeling spiritually burnt out, that the Lord would heal you as we spiritually diagnose the life of the Prophet Elijah and recognize this condition in our lives and how God heals and restores us.

Introduction

In our new sermon series on Spiritual Recovery, we’ll be looking at Psalm 42 which is a maskil. A maskil is a song that gives instructions and Psalm 42 gives us instructions on how God helps us to recover from the times and seasons of spiritual dryness when we don’t feel God anymore in our life.

Introduction

Today’s passage picks up the story after the consequences of the spiritual darkness in Isaac and his family. At the same time, we saw the grace of God that is committed and faithful to His chosen people. You may remember from Isaac’s life that God never condones sin, however, God can still use the messiness of our brokenness to accomplish His perfect will and sometimes He will allow us to make those mistakes and sins so that we may know there is no true solution without God.

This is a truth that follows as the story transitions over to Jacob. In Chapter 28, we begin to see Isaac truly coming around after God broke his spiritual darkness. Things are off to a good start with Isaac calling Jacob and blessing him. Isaac doesn’t scold Jacob but properly blesses Jacob as Jacob, and we see Isaac sending Jacob away to Rebekah’s hometown and instructing him to find a wife from their kin, just as Abraham had done for Isaac all those years ago. Isaac did stumble, but now he is realigned with God’s Will and His Word. Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife from among Rebekah’s family (Genesis 28:1–5).

Introduction

Have you ever wondered what our lives may have been like if the Fall never happened? I find myself asking this question often whenever I go through the OT because there are so many cases where the Bible shows us that “this is not the way things were supposed to be.” Our passage today in Genesis 27 is one of those places. Today, as we look into the life of Isaac and his family, we will see something that plagues us as a result of the Fall.

The first two verses begin by saying: “When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see... He said, ‘Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.’” (Genesis 27:1–2) In light of the following context of chapter 27, Isaac’s physical blindness introduces us to the spiritual blindness of Isaac’s family.

Introduction

There was a famine, and it seems Isaac planned to go down to Egypt because Egypt was more plentiful since it surrounds the Nile River while Canaan depends on its seasonal rainfall. However, that’s not God’s plan. When Isaac stops in Gerar, the land of Abimelech, King of the Philistines, God commands Isaac not to go to Egypt. Furthermore, in verses 3–4, God re-establishes the covenant that He made with Abraham, but now with Isaac. It is a reminder that God is with him.

Introduction

Today’s passage in Genesis 25 is often preached as a sermon on good parenting. While that is a valid application of the text, there’s something the text shows us before even getting into the topic of parenting. The most important question when we engage with Scripture is: what does the text tell us about God?

Reading through today’s passage reminded me of a jingle from a sitcom from the 90s and early 2000s. Some of you in your early 20s may not know it, but the jingle went like this:

“No one told me life was gonna be this way~”

And our walk with the Lord can sometimes feel exactly like that.

Introduction

Genesis 25 is not about missions; the interpretation of this chapter is about God’s covenant and His faithfulness to His people as His covenant people. Genesis 25 begins with a bit of a surprise. Abraham takes another woman as his wife named Keturah. We know that she used to be one of his concubines, but other than that we don’t know much else. We actually don’t even know whether or not this was before or after Sarah’s death. Although Genesis is for the most part written chronologically, there are places like genealogies where it is written thematically and not chronologically.

Introduction

When you look at the Greek language, the Greek language is satisfied with the concept and idea of things. Hebrew is slightly different in that, while concept and idea is very important, those concepts and ideas needed to be tangible and experiential in life. This is why we see a lot of stuff happening and people doing things in the stories. These are not simply stories; they are messages that God has placed within the stories. However, many Christians look at what people in the Bible do prescriptively, as though God is telling us to do exactly the same thing. While there may be some truth to that, these stories function descriptively, and we have to ask what the Lord is revealing about Himself through the events as they unfold.

What this means for Genesis 24 is that although we see prayer, discernment, marriage, and finding a spouse, this chapter is not ultimately about any of those things. If we make it about them, we risk making ourselves the main character. The main character of Scripture is always God. Genesis 24 continues to reveal God's faithfulness to His covenant, His commitment to His promises, and His sovereign work of preparing the way for His people.