“Stressed but Still Chosen: The Elijah Blueprint for Survival”

Family, listen to me. I just sat down with Minister Donnie Denmark on The Gathering of the Lions. And let me tell you, this podcast is a movement. This isn't just conversation. This is transformation. This episode was directed by Brother Brian Christopher. Brian is the owner of Train to Catch Planes.

And the way these 2 brothers are building Inspiring and pushing the envelope and sharpening men.

It's the future of hope for men all around the world. Minister Denmark, this brother is a brain trust. He's a national treasure. This man of God is on a mission, a man of God with a heart to restore men and heal men, challenge men, and call men into greatness. He's giving brothers a mic, a moment, and a mission. A place to be honest, to be vulnerable, to break generational cycles, to dream again, and telling men that they have multimillionaire status on the inside of them and to rise as leaders, as husbands, as fathers, as entrepreneurs and world changers. And your boy was sitting on the platform on this podcast. Do me a favor, go and support your boy Pastor Harry Pitts. Let Brian know, let Minister Denmark know we support our boy. Go over to YouTube, the podcast is dropping this Friday. It's going to be on his YouTube page, Gathering of the Lions. Gathering of the Lions. Go and support your boy Pastor Harry Pitts. Go over to Instagram and let Brian Christopher know, the owner of Train to Catch Planes. We support our boy.

Love you guys.

Thank you. Be blessed.

Family, let me remind you of something powerful today. We're looking at the life of the prophet Elijah, a man who obeyed God, walked with God, and still faced real-life challenges. This is the life of Elijah. Elijah's tests and trials teaches us— it teaches us something we all need to hear. Obedience does not exempt you from difficulty. Obedience prepares you for destiny. Elijah obeyed God, yet Jezebel threatened him. The brook dried up, the nation turned corrupt, and fear tried to grip his heart. But hear me, difficulty is not a sign that God abandoned you. Difficulty is evidence that you are a prime candidate for God's manifested power. When Elijah was at his lowest, he was tired, overwhelmed, ready to give up. God met him not with judgment, not with disappointment, but with reassurance. Get up, Elijah. You still have a future. When life gets intense, when the pressure rises, When people threaten you and they threaten your peace, don't run. Don't give up, because the enemy always fights hardest where God has already declared your victory. The battle you're facing is not proof that you'll lose. It's proof that God has already determined the end from the beginning, and the end He wrote for you is victory. The end He wrote is breakthrough. The end He wrote is your standing in power while the enemy realizes he cannot defeat what God has already ordained. So lift your head, strengthen your heart. Just like Elijah, you'll rise again because God says you win. No matter what it looks like, you win.

If Elijah were alive today, I imagine we might find him sitting, sitting on a therapist's couch, hands probably shaking. I imagine we might see him probably beating his hands. on his leg or on his chest. His heart will probably be racing, his eyes tired from carrying too much for too long. I think sometimes we look at men of God or women of God and don't think they're human. But Elijah was human because prophets hurt too. Leaders feel pressure too. Strong people break too. And sometimes the ones who look the most powerful are the ones fighting the hardest battles. Inside their mind, they deal with stress and perplexities. I can only imagine what Elijah dealt with living there in his particular age where there was idolatry and the people not desirous to serve God at all. I'm looking at this Bible because this Bible means everything to me. And I want you to do something with me. Imagine Elijah's sitting before his counselor. Imagine the counselor asking Elijah, Tell me what's going on inside of you. And I could imagine Elijah would sigh. He would probably say something like, I obeyed God. I did what he asked. I stood up against darkness. I carried the weight of his word, this Bible. I carried the weight of this word. But now I'm tired, threatened, haunted, misunderstood, And I don't know how much more I can take. That's probably many of us. He's thinking, I ran not because I didn't love God, but because I felt pressure. I didn't know how to carry this type of pressure that I was going to be dealing with. And, and right there, Elijah sounds— He sounds like a lot of us. So just think about it. Maybe it's not Jezebel chasing. Think about that.

So let's do this.

Let's cut to a modern-day view of what Elijah dealt with. Maybe, maybe it's not Jezebel chasing you, but bills are chasing you. Deadlines are depression is, loneliness is, expectation, the pressure to be strong for everyone else when you're barely holding yourself together. I know how that feels. I've dealt with that in my own personal life when I lost more than 50% of my family. My father and my siblings passed, and shortly after that, I lost my mother. And the pressure that comes with that. And when you're barely holding on yourself, you're wondering, God, where are you? Maybe your prayer is Elijah's prayer. God, I'm doing everything I know how to do. Why does it feel like life is chasing me? Adults today feel the same fear the same exhaustion, the same loneliness, the same desire to please God while battling the pressure of the world. Now let's do this. Let's switch the roles. Let's cut to youth who may be sitting on the couch of that therapist as well. Now imagine one of our own teenagers on the couch. They may be facing a queen, this Queen Jezebel, but they're facing anxiety, identity confusion, peer pressure. We have to talk about these because they're real. Social media comparison, where they are comparing themselves to imagery that they're seeing on social media. We have to talk about this. Particularly in a world that's telling them to perform nonstop, to constantly try to perform and be something that they know that they were never called to be. Think about that. And they're thinking in their mind, I want to make God proud, but I'm scared I'm not enough. I'm scared to fail. I'm scared of disappointing everyone. They may not say it out loud, but inside, listen to me, they're running the same mental marathon Elijah ran. I'm doing my best, but is my best enough? Now let's go back and switch back to the role of Elijah, to where Elijah may be Facing his breaking point, when Elijah finally says, "Lord, I've had enough." He wasn't quitting; he was just overwhelmed. Let's be honest: many of us we've dealt with those type of pressures to where we've been overwhelmed. We wanted to throw in the towel. We wanted to give up. We asked God, "God, this is enough. I just can't take anymore." And God said, just like he told Elijah in that still small voice, God speaks to us calmly, very calmly. Elijah was so overwhelmed, and God didn't scold him. So don't scold your children when they're going through the ebbs and flows of life. Don't scold them. God didn't punish him. God didn't say, get it together, Elijah. But you know what our Father did? God sent an angel. He sent food. He sent rest. And his presence, his abiding presence was there with Elijah. God gave him silence so that he could calm his spirit. And then this small whisper, God speaks to him. Because sometimes the strongest thing God can do for you is not give you a miracle, but give you a moment, a moment just to breathe. I think about my wife and, you know, some days I work, come home and, just from the long drive and the stress at the office and the stress driving. And she's so kind, and sometimes I'm just wound up. And, and she was correcting me the other day about, um, just being patient. She, she knew that I was wound up, but she was kind about it, much like our Heavenly Father. She spoke calmly. with patience. And you know, that really— that meant a lot to me. And that's how God is. We should take a moment to breathe. This is what God was saying to Elijah. Elijah, take a moment to breathe, a moment to rest, a moment to remember that you're not alone. You're not alone. And just like Elijah, many of us are facing the pressure of the age that we live in. So many people love themselves more than they love God, and that is almost unfathomable. You wonder what is going on, but God knows what's best for every single one of us. And I want to say this to those leaders, those pastors, believers, man, don't give up. Don't give up. God called, called you, called me. He called all of us. It's not going to be easy. Elijah knew that it wasn't going to be easy, but God still encouraged him. And I need to do this. I need to bring, I need to bring them back to the main point. Everybody The adults, the young adults. Let me bring them back to the main point. If I was the therapist or the psychiatrist, I would say to them, Elijah's story isn't ancient history. I would sit them down in front of me and say, Elijah's story isn't ancient history. It's our couch story. It's my couch story. It's your couch story. It's our living room story, our midnight tears story, our pressure story, our survival story. This Bible, man, it is full of mysteries, full of power, full of encouragement, but it has everything we need. Because our survival story is not over. Because Elijah teaches us this: obedience to God does not remove pressure, but pressure is often the sign that God has marked you for power. Difficulty is not a death sentence. You said that's easy for you to say. Well, Well, you know, I've been there. I think we all have been there. Difficulty is not a death sentence. It's a divine signal, a signal that God is about to reveal the part of you that pressure could not break. Tried to break you in half, tried to break me in half, but it could not break you. And the enemy could not stop you because God had already determined the end. from the beginning, and he already declared over your life and over my life and over my wife Tracy's life that we win. Not eventually, not someday. We win right now. The Bible says now faith is— God doesn't put it on layaway. God gives us our victory right now. Right now, in the middle of the pressure, someone may watch this and you're experiencing pressure right now. You want to throw in the towel. You said, I'm done with church. I'm done with, with Christianity. I'm done. Don't do it. Elijah wanted to do the same thing. He ran from Jezebel. God had to call him out. He was in the cave, in the darkness. God understood pressure will do that to you sometimes. There's this old adage, you— many of you probably already heard of it: pressure bursts pipes. And it does. It doesn't mean that you're weak or defeated. It just means that you're human. That's all it is. You're human and you need a God that is supernatural. That's a wonder of the God that we serve. God says You know what, I'm gonna give you a secret. I was— I remember a conversation that Pastor Keith and I had. It was, uh, he's associate pastor at our church, 514 Grace Church, wonderful man of God. And we were talking about being weak, and he brought up a point that Paul made. Paul said, when I'm weak, then you are strong. Paul even went even further to say, I rejoice in my weakness, because rejoicing in the weakness that you have empowers you with great anointing and God's presence. So in the middle of the threat, don't throw in the towel. In the middle of the fear, don't quit. You win because God already decided the the outcome before the battle even began. So whether you're Elijah on the couch, an adult on the couch, or a teenager on the couch, hear this: God sees your pressure. Every answer is in the Word. God knows your fear. God understands your exhaustion. And God is not disappointed. He is present. And just like Elijah, you're not running toward defeat. You're running toward revelation because the pressure you feel is the birthplace of the power of God. And when you meet this pressure, pressure only reveals the value of what an object is, and you are a diamond. Pressure is the birthplace of power. The power of God is about to reveal in your life. Don't lose. You don't lose. And don't quit. You're gonna win. Just endure hardness of That is a good soldier. Because you don't lose. This word doesn't lie.

You rise.

You don't break. You become. You don't fail. Guess what? You transform. Because before the threat ever spoke, I need you to hear this. The Bible says God already declared that you win.

Amen.

And remember, Elijah is a pure example of how we win through yielding to God and trusting his word. Be blessed in Jesus' name.