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Today, guest speaker and principal of Trinity Theological College, the Reverend Dr. Edwin Tay, preaches on the frailty of Elijah and the grace of God. May God speak a strengthening word to you today.

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Morning, brothers and sisters. This morning's scripture reading will be taken from the Old Testament. 1 Kings chapter 19. I'll be reading from verses 9 through to 18. The Lord speaks to Elijah. Verse 9. There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. And he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. And I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And he said, Go out and stand on the mound before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke 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 the sound of a low whisper. Verse 13. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold there came a voice to him and said, Well, what are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with a sword. And I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And the Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive you shall anoint Hazia to be king over Israel of Syria, and Jehu, the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elijah, the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah, you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazel shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escaped from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

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Well, a very good morning to you, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I bring you greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I also bring you greetings on behalf of Trinity Theological College. Thank you for remembering the ministry of TDC. It is a blessing and a real joy for me to be invited by Pastor Daniel to serve among you this morning and to worship the Lord together. I think it must have been more than I suppose six years now since I last preached here. I recall coming here with my wife and my second daughter previously, when the Reverend William Chi was still your vicar, and it was wonderful worshiping together with you. I'd like to begin today's message by sharing with you some history surrounding the founding of Trinity Theological College. Some of the information has already been shared through the slides earlier, but there are some details which are important for you to appreciate that I would like to share with you. The vision of establishing TTC was conceived in the worst of times. Missionaries who had given their lives to serve Christ in this part of the world were interned in Changgi prison during the Japanese occupation. And while in prison, they came together to worship the Lord transdenominationally across denominations. Some of these missionaries were church leaders from various denominations. United in the gospel, they worshiped God not separately, but together as the one body of Jesus Christ, regardless of the denominations they came from. And so there were Anglicans, there were Methodists, there were Presbyterians, brethren, and there were a few officers from the Salvation Army. They were removed from their families, they were cut off from their congregations and their friends, they suffered the deprivations of war, and some suffered terribly under the hands of the Japanese. But as it has sometimes been said, men's extremity is God's opportunity. In the sovereignty of God, imprisonment became the opportunity for common worship. Faith was deepened through suffering. And suffering was also the context that gave birth to the hope of a transdenominational partnership among these leaders. Amid the fires of suffering, leaders of the Anglican, the Methodist, and the Presbyterian churches were given a vision. It was a vision of gospel partnership to establish a Union Theological College. And thanks be to God, this is how the vision of TTC came about in prison. TTC was born through gospel partnership in the context of suffering. From the human standpoint, TTC should not even exist today. There was every possibility that the leaders who conceive of the vision would have died during the war. And yet, in the abundant mercy and grace of God, our college was birthed by God from the ashes of war. The grace of God is God's undeserved favor given out of the sheer kindness and goodness of our merciful God. And until today, this historical experience of God's grace is part of TDC's mindset, regardless of how reputable or how much we have grown in our ministry. Our history keeps us humbled and grateful before our God who calls us to serve Him. Our sermon topic today is Elijah and the grace of God. And I hope to show that Elijah too received the undeserved favor of God, just like TDC. And this is despite his frailties and his failures. And so shall we bow for a moment of prayer as we come now to receive from God his holy word? Let us pray. Amen. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. So writes John Newton. And this phrase, through many dangers, toils, and snares, is taken from his famous hymn, Amazing Grace. The verse is meant to capture the harsh realities of the Christian life. Perhaps for some of us, danger may not yet apply as it did for Newton. But certainly toils and snares ring true in our Christian experience. Isn't it true that there are moments in our Christian life and service where our toils and our labors just seem so overwhelming? Are there not times of disappointment where we come so close to the point of giving up? Have there not been occasions when, after all our labors for the Lord, evil still seems to be triumphing over good, while God appears to remain inactive and silent? One preacher has suggested that it would still be true to the experience of Christians if Newton had written his verse like this. Now, what a depressing description. But this can be the harsh reality of Christian service. The Anglican pastor and writer, John Stott, puts it like this. He says, the occupational hazard of Christian discipleship and ministry is discouragement. The occupational hazard of Christian discipleship and ministry is discouragement. There are moments in our Christian life where we may be tempted to despair even of life itself. And this is precisely the experience of Elijah the prophet in 1 Kings chapter 19 that was read to us a while ago. I want to consider with you just two simple points this morning. Two simple points from the life of Elijah. Firstly, I would like to consider with you the frailty of Elijah. And then secondly, the grace of God for Elijah. Okay, just two simple points: the frailty of Elijah and the grace of God for Elijah. So let's begin with the first: the frailty of Elijah. Having received news that Queen Jezebel had sworn to kill him, we are told in verse 3 that Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. His escape route took him down south to the town of Beersheba, and there he left his servant. And then he ventured alone into the wilderness, and he sat down under a broom tree and cried out to God. In verse 4, he says, It is enough. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for I'm no better than my father's. This was Elijah's request. He wanted to die. Now, do you find it shocking? Is it possible with the great Elijah that he should even contemplate death? We are not just talking about any man on the street in Israel. I mean, this is the great Elijah. This is that man of faith who prayed for the heavens to shut and to pour, and he did on both occasions. This is the prophet warrior of the Lord who battled 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. For all his faith and boldness, Elijah now finds himself alone in the desert filled with fear and despondency. But why? It doesn't seem to make sense if we read the narrative in 1 Kings. If Elijah can face 450 prophets who were against him and who could have killed him, why was he so afraid of the threat of one single woman? Jezebel. You know, I sometimes think that it would be quite an interesting exercise to do a Bible study on the effect of women on men. Think about it. Potiphar's wife made Joseph flee. Delilah made Samson sleep and then shaved off his hair. And Jezebel made Elijah run for his life. But seriously, can a man fall so easily and so quickly from spiritual victory to defeat? If there's one thing we must realize from the biblical records, is its brutal honesty with our frailties and our failings. Think about the victory of faith expressed in Noah's life as he continued to build the ark without even a drop of rain. And then think about the sorry description of Noah after the flood in his drunkenness. Or think about Abraham as he sets out on the journey of faith, and then think of how he lied about his wife to save his own skin in Egypt. Or think about David's victory over Goliath. And then think about David at the time when kings go to war. Well, he finds himself embroiled in murder and adultery. The fact of the matter is that the best of men are but men at best. All of us here are no different. And so was Elijah. He was afraid of Queen Jezebel's threat to his life. But this was not all that brought him to despair. It was also because of his perception of the whole situation in Israel at that time. Now, some translations of verse 3 go like this. Instead of translating the verse as he was afraid and ran for his life, some versions prefer the translation. He saw or he perceived and went for his life. Now the question that is begging is, of course, what did Elijah see? Or what did he perceive? Now Elijah certainly saw Jezebel's plan to kill him. But he also saw or he realized that Jezebel is really the one who is in charge of royal policy and not King Ahab. Elijah had hoped that his ministry would turn the house of Ahab and Israel back to the Lord. The battle in Mount Carmel certainly seemed like a decisive victory. After all, the battle concluded with the people confessing in unison, the Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. This was a confession, not of any God in general, but specifically of the God who had revealed himself to Moses and the patriarchs. The people confessed the covenant name of God. The Lord, capital L-O-R-D, He is God and not Baal. Is this not clear evidence that finally Israel has rejected Baal and is returning to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Is this not the turning point for Israel? Is this not God's vindication of Elijah's vocation as prophet? With the death threat, Elijah realized that the victory at Mount Carmel actually amounted to nothing at all. God's awesome display of power did nothing for the king. And even if it did, it made no difference at all when it came to Queen Jezebel. Ahab's report to Jezebel was not about what God had done, but about what Elijah had done to the prophets of Baal. Whether the king's report was motivated by fear of his wife or by anger against Elijah was irrelevant. The fact remains that with Ahab and Jezebel unmoved by God's power and unrepentant, the worship of Ba is here to stay. And this realization was a huge blow to Elijah. After all that he has done, after laboring and risking his life for the restoration of Israel, nothing seemed to have been accomplished. Isn't this how we feel sometimes in Christian service and ministry? Things don't seem to be getting anywhere. Now, a friend of mine who sits on the leadership team in his church once shared with me about how disappointed he was with a fellow leader in the church. Don't worry, this is not the Anglican church. Now, this leader has been serving for more than 15 years. He first served as a member of the church and later he took on office as a leader. He had listened to countless sermons in church. He has received ministry from the pastor in different ways, and yet there doesn't seem to have been any change over the years in his powers of self-control. You see, this brother has lost his temper so frequently at leadership meetings that the ministry has been brought to almost a standstill because he's one of the leading leaders. The pastor of this church has spoken quite honestly with this brother who has lost his temper time and again. In fact, the minister has prayed for him to the point of tears. Now, if you are serving in that committee, you'll feel extremely frustrated. Because you want to serve God and his people, but after all that you have done, things don't seem to be moving at all. The transformation in people's lives that ought to happen does not seem to be happening. And in such situations, it is tempting to allow our circumstances to become the ultimate reference point for our lives rather than the purposes of God. Listen to how Elijah puts it when he appears before God at Mount Horeb. I'm reading from verse 10 of 1 Kings 19. Elijah says, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with a sword. And I, even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. This was Elijah's assessment of the whole situation in Israel. But is it true? Yes and no. It is true that Elijah has been very jealous for the Lord. There is no doubt that Israel had forsaken the covenant, and it is true that the altars of God had been thrown down and God's prophets killed. But it is not true that Elijah was the only one left. One chapter earlier, the prophet Obadiah had told Elijah of how he had hidden 100 prophets of the Lord in caves while Queen Jezebel massacred the rest. You can read about it in 1 Kings chapter 18, verse 13. Did Elijah not remember the words of Obadiah? And what about the battle at Mount Carmel? God was with Elijah, and God answered his prayers by fire. It may not have made a difference to the king, but did it not make a difference to Elijah? In the weakness of the prophet, all he could see was himself and his failures despite having tried his best. I have been jealous for the Lord. I, even I only am left. Now, when our perspective of ministry ends up with the threefold I instead of the threefold Amen, we are in danger of a very skewed perspective about our ministry. Ironically, like Ahab's report to Jezebel, Elijah's report to God at Horeb had entirely ignored God's revelation of his power and presence on Mount Cairo. So, what does God do with his servant who has lost his spiritual bearings? What does God do with his prophet who is exhausted and possibly depressed? God pours out his grace with generosity and with gentleness. And this is my second point in the sermon. God's grace for Elijah. We see this in a number of ways. The first thing God does with Elijah was to refresh him. God gave him rest and he fed him through an angel. Verse 5 to verse 7. I have two daughters, as uh Pastor Daniel has shared earlier. This year, they are 24 years old and 19 years old. In other words, I've been a father for around 24 years now. And one of the things that I had to learn early on in my fatherhood is how to deal with my daughters when they are throwing their tantrums. There were times when I needed to come down hard on them with the firm hand of a disciplinarian. But there were times when I learned to not even bother with them. Don't bother to reason with them at all. And the reason for this is simple. You cannot reason with a hungry and exhausted child. I mean, try sorting out the mind of an eight-year-old child who is pouting away at six in the evening, claiming that life is unfair. And I'm referring to my second daughter when she was eight years old. When you ask her what exactly is unfair, she says, it's unfair that Chiachia is older than me. I think the best theologians at TDC will have trouble with this ethical problem. No amount of reasoning is going to put her right because she's been up since six in the morning. It's now six in the evening, and she is hungry and tired. What she needs is not some long and engaged conversation about the justice system at home. What she needs is food and rest. Depressed and exhausted, Elijah prays that he might die. And the last thing he needed was a lecture on the physiology of depression. Like a loving father who knows his child so well, God did not reason with Elijah. God answered Elijah, not with what he asked for, but what he truly needed. God sent an angel to him. Verses 5 and 6. The angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water, and he ate and drank and lay down again. You see, God's grace is God pouring out his goodness upon us when we don't deserve it. Even when Elijah's prayers were wrong-headed and filled with self-pity, God answered him with his goodness. Is this not the grace of God? God came to refresh Elijah. This is the first thing God does for his tired and exhausted servant. The second thing God does is to reveal himself to Elijah. Verses 9 to 14. Having slept and eaten and drank, Elijah made his way to Mount Horeb and he hid in a cave. And there the word of the Lord came to him. Twice the Lord confronted Elijah with a question, What are you doing here? And twice Elijah makes his complaint to the Lord. But this time there was a change in Elijah's disposition as he spoke with God. And how do we know that? That's obvious from the text. Second, there was a deep sense of reverence. The Lord said, Go out and stand on the mound before the Lord. And then there was a great wind, but the Lord was not in the wind. And then came an earthquake and a fire, but the Lord was not there. And then came a gentle whisper. Verse 13. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, went out, and stood at the entrance to the cave. Now, why did Elijah cover his face with his cloak? Because Elijah knew that he could not bear to look upon the glory of the Lord. When Moses asked to see God's glory at Horeb, God told him, No man may see me and live. And so Elijah covered his face. There was a sense of reverence in the presence of the living God. As Elijah stood there in the very presence of God, he must have been moved to the core of his being when he heard what the Lord had to say to him. The Lord said, I reserve seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal, and all whose mouths have not kissed him. Elijah would have realized how mistaken he was about being the only one left. He would also have realized how gracious the Lord had been to him all this while when he was weak and frail. God refreshed him, God revealed himself anew to him, and then finally God reinstated Elijah. Verse 15 to 18. The Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazel to be king over Syria. And then God continues to give him a list of duties to perform. Elijah may think that he's come to the end of his usefulness, but God doesn't think so. Now, what seems so striking to me in the life of Elijah is the truth that with God, failure is never final because of the grace of God. Failure is never final because of the grace of God. Elijah lived before the time of Jesus, before the cross of Calvary. If Elijah was a recipient of God's grace in all his frailties and failings, how much more we who are in Christ and living in the light of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Apostle Paul spoke of being burdened excessively beyond his strength, so that he despaired even of life itself. But he also spoke of the immeasurable riches of God's grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. I don't know about your situation this morning as you came into the sanctuary. It might be that for some of us here, we've come to the point in our Christian journey where, like Elijah, we've ended up sitting under the broom tree feeling exhausted and sorry for ourselves. Maybe if truth be told, what we really want to do in our life and ministry now is to call it quits. Now, if you are in this situation, I simply want to say to you that the God whom we worship is the God who will complete what he has begun in you. As he has called you to himself and to ministry in Ishun Christian church, he will supply the grace that is sufficient for you as he did for Elijah. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. How would you end this verse in this service today? Will you leave this sanctuary thinking that all is hopeless? That there's nothing more that you can do, and the only way forward is to give up everything, to give up your service, to give up your faith and even give up your life? Is that what you're thinking? If you're such a person, I simply want to urge you to take a good look at the life of Elijah. Look at the grace of God that was given to him. That same grace is available for you and in greater abundance because of Jesus Christ, who died for your sins and who was raised for your justification. He is our great shepherd, he is our advocate, he's our great high priest who is interceding on our behalf before the throne of grace as we sang earlier. And his intercession for us will never fail. So, how would you end Newton's verse in the service today? May God help us all this morning to say and to sing with Newton. And grace will lead me forward. May God help us and strengthen us.

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We pray that you've administered to by the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about Ishmael Christian Church, please visit our website at ycanglican.com. Have a blessed day.