Amen.
So before I go into the title of the message, I do want to point out this one thing.
Earlier throughout the week, I had basically an emotional breakdown.
I had a time of weakness in my life and I wanted to point this out specifically to us
here because this story that we just looked at right with King Saul and at that time David
who wasn't king yet.
There was an event where David was being chased down by King Saul, was being tried to be killed.
And look, we all have problems and we all have struggles and we all have issues and
we all are going through trials and tribulations and persecutions and perils and sores and
all these different things and you know what?
I'm not going to have any problems.
We all have problems but here's the thing I want you to know.
The title of this message this morning is even King's Cry.
When I first got here, right, three months ago, I preached a sermon on revival here in
Oahu and I wanted you guys to know the truth of my heart and I wanted you to know that
I care about the people here in Oahu and in these Hawaiian Islands.
That to me, this is not a game and this is not a joke.
And I told you that in the past, I've cried for our people.
I've cried for these people here in these islands.
I've cried for my family.
I've cried for you.
I've cried for others.
And there's an unfortunate stereotype amongst men that because you cry, you're seen as weak.
But the Bible teaches the exact opposite.
I'm here to tell you that even kings cry.
You know, crying is something that, like I mentioned, people will say, oh, if you see
a man cry, he's weak.
He doesn't know how to control himself and all these different matters.
But you know what?
Understand this.
King Saul in this story, right where we are in First Samuel chapter 24 was incorrect in
what he was doing.
He was trying to kill David because he was jealous of David, because he was afraid of
David, because he had problems.
Nevertheless, notice if you would look down at your Bible at verse 15, the Lord therefore
be judge and judge between me and thee and see and plead my cause and deliver me out
of thine hand.
David to Saul.
David had an opportunity to kill Saul.
He had every moment and he didn't seize the moment.
And it's very important that we understand this.
David was known as a man after God's own heart.
And the Bible teaches us to love our enemies.
The enemy of David at this time in his life was the king of Israel, trying to kill him,
though he did nothing wrong.
But what did David, how did David reward Saul's behavior with kindness, with love?
And you know what, look down if you would at verse 16, it says, And it came to pass
when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this my
is this thy voice, my son David?
And Saul lifted up his voice and what?
He wept.
Saul was truly a saved, born again believer on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was saved.
He was a man who was misconstrued, who had fallen into sin, who had done mistakes, who
is messing up.
But he cried for his problems.
He realizes incorrectness.
He realizes issues.
And I want you guys to know that even kings cry.
Look, this is primarily geared towards husbands, fathers and male figures.
But you ladies will be able to take something away from this sermon.
Why?
Because as I mentioned, I had an emotional breakdown this week.
And I'm not going to go into the details of what happened.
Like I had mentioned before, we all got problems.
Do you think I don't have problems?
You don't think I have times in my life of weakness and times in my life of struggles?
When I cry, when your fathers cry, when your husbands, fathers, male figures in your life
cry, that's the time to listen up.
What are they crying about?
And if you young men, you kids, you young boys think that you're afraid to cry in front
of other people because he'd be seen as weak, understand this, that is a lie.
You can find yourself having emotional release.
See, once again, Satan is the author of confusion and he wants to confuse the world on how we
are to act as Christians.
And if we see King Saul crying for his mistake, if we see Jesus Christ himself, the quoted
verse that I wanted you to memorize today, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the
most smallest verse in the whole Bible should resonate in our hearts.
Jesus wept.
Jesus Christ, he who knew no sin, he became sin for us that we may be known as the righteousness
of God in him.
He was tempted in all points, like as we are yet without sin.
So when he cried, he was not in sin and I'm not going to go into that story right now
in the moment, but understand Lazarus died, Mary and Martha and these people are crying
over the death of Lazarus.
Jesus Christ loved Lazarus and he wanted people to know that he cared.
He knew what he was going to do.
He knew he was going to bring him back from the dead.
He knew these things yet to show people his love and compassion for others, he cried.
Even Kings cried, you guys, and we need to remember this and I have a lot of points I
want to go into, but I wanted to start off by asking you guys as a congregation to pray
for me.
And if you want to know specifically, I'll mention it to you and as individuals, it's
nothing sinful.
It's just simply emotional breakdown.
Like I said, we all have struggles.
Today's world is crazy.
Depression skyrocketing, you know, anti-depressants skyrocketing, drug abuse skyrocketing, suicides
skyrocketing.
The rest of the world, they don't know how to handle their emotions, but we as Christians
have the word of God to help navigate us into a world of depression and heaviness and sorrow
for crying out loud, no pun intended.
There's literally a book in the Bible called Lamentations.
What does it mean to lament something?
It means to be sorrowful, to cry.
And that's written by Jeremiah, the prophet.
When people asked, when Peter asked or Jesus asked Peter, whom do men say that I, the son
of man am?
Some confused him to be either Elijah returned, Jeremiah returned and or a prophet.
And why were these men characterized as Jesus?
When he asked the question, whom do men say that I, the son of man am?
And they said, you're either Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
You got to think about those characters.
Who was Elijah?
Who was Jeremiah?
What are their characteristics?
Because they looked to these people and said, that's Christ liked.
That is worthy to be seen as legitimate, as humble, as an attribute of a leader.
And understand this, though I'm leading this church here in Oahu, right?
I don't want you to think for one second that I can't make a mistake.
I can easily make a mistake and I can have a time of weakness.
And I ask that you guys pray for me and outside of the service, I'll tell you if you want
to know what I went through, but I'll pray for you.
We need to pray for each other.
We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and I know it's hard for us men to go up to your
brother or friend and be like, Hey man, I got problems.
You know, like we all got problems, right?
But nevertheless, compounding emotional issues can destroy anyone.
The Bible says very clearly in Proverbs 16 verse 32, he that is slow to anger is better
than the mighty.
And he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh the city.
If I'm not emotionally and spiritually on the right level playing field, I can fail
you guys.
And I need to be in a right spiritual state.
I need to be on a right emotional state so that I can help you guys out.
This is what the Bible means when Jesus says, you know, how canst thou help thy brother
when he has a moat in his eye and you have a beam in your own eye.
First cast out the beam that is in thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly how to
remove the moat out of your brother's eye.
You know, I taught kickboxing for five or so years.
I've done kickboxing for 12 years and I taught it to youth for five years.
And one of the things that all us men and all his fathers and all his husbands can see
in young adolescent men is they don't know how to handle their emotions, don't know how
to control themselves.
They burst out.
They have issues and we all have issues.
But it is our jobs as coaches, you know, whether it's a pastor, an evangelist, your dad.
I've heard this said before, boys aren't just raised by their fathers, but they're raised
by the men of the city or the men of the village.
And I believe that, you know, in the world I grew up, there was a time when if I as a
bad kid went around living my life doing bad things, distributing out my problems in a
negative way, other people's dads would correct me because they loved me and they wanted what's
best for me.
Now, nevertheless, today's world, everyone's afraid to point out a child's problem, like,
hey, let the parent deal with that.
And there's some leveling truth to that.
But nevertheless, I mean, I'm not going to go into so many stories that I have, but like,
you know, if I was going around being a punk or being arrogant or cussing a storm or being
a bad kid and someone's dad walked up to me and said, watch your mouth, there are ladies
present here, watch how you speak, mind your P's and Q's.
I was wise enough to understand like, whoa, there's a time and a place.
And I don't want to go deep into that, but what's the title of this message?
Even kings cry.
And first thing I want to point out is this, back to what I was going to go into with kickboxing.
Because children, young men, adolescent men, pre pubescent men don't know how to control
their emotions.
It is our job as older men to help them, to guide them into how to handle these things.
And one of the biggest things I used to do when I saw a distraught, a frustrated, an
angry teenager kid come into the kickboxing class to learn kickboxing.
You can see that they have a problem.
You know what I would do?
I'd stand them right next to the punching bag and I say, go to town, take half an hour
and do whatever you have to do to that punching bag.
Cause you're not learnable, you're not teachable at this moment.
You can't be taught because your mind is twisted.
Your mind is clouded, you're bitter, you're upset, you're frustrated, you're angry, and
you don't have a natural emotional release.
So go to that punching bag and wail on it for as long as you want.
Let it out, let it go.
Then when you're good and ready, come back and we'll help instruct you to not only control
your physical body, but your mental and spiritual state because you know, like it said right
there in Proverbs, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.
And he that ruleth his spirit, then he that taketh the city.
If you can't control yourself, if you can't realize, how can I help you?
If I'm frustrated, if I'm angry, if I, if I have no release to this problem in my life,
only when you release it, only when you let it go, can you see clearly how to help others.
I went into a little bit of the science behind crying because I think this is good to know.
We could see the lens of the Bible, what it teaches us, but there is some truth to what
I've researched on the subject of crying.
Did you know that there is a physiological difference between emotional crying and physically
crying, meaning like if someone poked you in the eye or you're cutting onions and you
start tearing up, the actual tears that come out of your eye are different.
Let me explain it to you like this.
Emotional tears, also known as psychic tears, have higher concentration of protein based
hormones.
So basically when you cry, when you're sad, when you're upset, when you're depressed,
your tears that come out of your face are filled with proteins and hormones that are
needing to be released.
We have toxins that we build up in our body through our diet and lifestyle.
If you do not release these toxins, you will end up hurting yourself.
And I'm not going to go into a health and wellness sermon.
I'm just explaining to you that when you are frustrated, when you are sad, the Bible says
there is a time to weep.
There's a time in which we need to be sad, when we need to cry, when we need to let it
out and if you don't, you will build up and you're going to blow up on the wrong person.
Someone who's innocent, haven't you heard the saying, don't kick the dog?
Where does that come from?
I mean, it's a silly proverb that the world teaches that makes sense.
You know, you have the husband yelling at the wife, you have the wife yelling at the
son, the son yells at the younger brother and all these older people know how to handle
their emotions.
The younger brother, he yells at the younger brother, the younger brother yells at the
youngest brother, the youngest brother doesn't know how to handle himself and kicks the dog.
What did the dog do?
The dog did nothing wrong.
The problem was the husband yelling at the wife and the stuff went downhill and everyone
had an emotional issue.
And that's an important rule for you guys to know as spiritual leaders in your house
that what you do affects everyone around you, whether you know that or not.
And your kids, your wives, your loved ones need to see you cry.
They need to see it.
Don't think that you're better than this.
Jesus Christ wept.
Saul wept.
He's great.
Saul was a king of Israel.
David wept.
And I'm going to go into that story in just a moment, but do you think Saul who was head
and shoulders above all the people was not a tough cat?
You know we have this thing as men as we want to be seen as tough and mean, have bravado
and be aggressive and people be afraid of us, right?
And don't get me wrong, strength is a godly attribute.
I've preached on the subject of ekaika, having physical strength.
That's important in our life, but Saul who is head and shoulders above all the people,
meaning that if we looked at him, it's like, damn, that's a big cat.
That's a tough guy.
That's a mean mug.
He's a bad mamma jamma.
This guy could take guys, he's mean, yet cried in front of his men, why?
So he can show he has humility and the Bible talks about the latter ending of Saul's life
went bad.
He did wrong things.
This is a story of one, but at that moment in time, he was starting to get right.
Now he ends up, you know, destroying his life and this is a precautionary tale to anyone.
The Bible talks about when you were little in your own sight, God exalted you to great
honor, but because you were arrogant, God humbled you and abased you and actually ended
up dying a gruesome physical death.
And if you think you're big and mean and tough, and let's say you are, let's say you're the
biggest, meanest, toughest guy in the room.
You can take anyone, you're mean, you're nuts, you're intense.
Do you think you've convinced me that you don't have times of weaknesses, times of problems,
times of emotional, look, Annie and everyone here, and this is why it's not necessarily
geared towards you ladies, because a lot of ladies know how to control their emotions
differently.
They don't have this persona on them that it's not wrong, it's not, you shouldn't be
crying as ladies.
We as men are taught, don't go around crying.
Now I'm not saying be a cry baby.
I'm not saying walk around and cry over everything, ah, I spilt the milk, don't cry over spilt
milk.
But like I mentioned earlier, whatever you cry about should matter.
And there are good areas in which we're to cry and bad areas in which we are to cry.
Turn if you would to 1 Samuel 20, 1 Samuel 20 is a story of a good example of what you
cry over, what you are to cry about.
And this is the story of David and Jonathan, 1 Samuel 20, verse 35, let's go ahead and
read in verse 35.
And it came to pass in the morning that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed
with David and a little lad with him.
And he said unto his lad, run, find out now the arrows, which I shot.
And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow behind him.
And when the lad was come to the place of the arrow, which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan
cried after the lad and said, is not the arrow beyond the, let me pause there really quickly
for you guys who don't know for you kids, that word cry there doesn't mean to have tears
in your eye.
It doesn't mean to weep.
That word cry there means to yell.
He yelled, you know, he says, is the arrow beyond you?
He's just yelling.
So just kind of understand when you see that word cry, it doesn't necessarily mean to tear,
but it means to yell.
But let's keep going on and seeing what it says.
And Jonathan cried after the lad, make speed haste, stay not.
And Jonathan's lad gathered up the arrows and came to his master, but the lad knew not
anything only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
And Jonathan gave his artillery unto his lad and said unto him, go carry them to the city.
And as soon as the lad was gone, David arose out of the place toward the South and what
fell on his face to the ground and bowed himself three times and they kissed one another and
what and wept one with another until David exceeding or exceeded and Jonathan said to
David, go in peace for as much as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord saying
the Lord be between me and thee and between my seat and I see forever.
And he arose and departed and Jonathan went into the city.
So what happened before this is that once again, Saul is trying to kill David.
He throws a javelin at David during dinner and trying to kill him in front of everyone.
David is persuaded that he cannot persuade Saul to not kill him.
So he runs away and is trying to avoid conflict.
The Bible says if at all possible that peaceably with all men and if someone's trying to kill
you, see if David is our example here, that doesn't mean you take it upon yourself to
go kill that person, especially a professed brother in Christ.
And I'm not saying, you know, don't defend yourself.
I'm saying that if we see King David here, whose life was just threatened by the King
and he chose to walk away from the situation, there's a good story.
There's a good moral in that.
But not only that, when he runs away, he has a deal with Jonathan and Jonathan's like,
no, no, no, I will persuade my dad.
I'll make sure that he wants peace for you.
He's just upset.
He's just angry.
Apparently, Saul didn't know how to control his emotion.
And this is important.
He didn't know what to do.
He was frustrated.
He was angry.
Tried to kill David.
Right.
So Jonathan, the son of Saul, the prince at that time, is saying, I will help my dad to
calm down and realize what is going on.
Don't worry.
It's going to be fine.
Saul tries to kill Jonathan, his own son, showing the emotional distraught that Saul
had, which was misplaced and misguided.
And David and Jonathan were best friends.
They were very close to each other.
So close to each other that they were so comfortable that they even kissed each other.
Now I know some people misconstrue that story and a lot of sodomites and homosexuals try
to twist this beautiful story of friendship and try to be like, oh, see, they were homosexuals.
And what a sick, twisted interpretation of this passage.
This is genuine.
As the Bible says, you know, meet the brothers with a holy kiss, just kissing innocently
on the cheek, on the forehead.
Look, you go to Italy, they're kissing each other on the cheek.
This is a practice we have here in Hawaii, his kissing each other on the forehead, on
the cheek and so on and so forth.
So I'm going to twist that story of beautiful friendship into something as sick as homosexuality
is way beyond me.
But I'm just trying to get you guys to understand that they loved each other and they loved
each other so much.
And when this incident happened, they cried, they wept, their friendship was going to be
torn apart.
The things of God are going to be hindered in a sense because of this.
Now, once again, this was for other further, greater things to come.
But nevertheless, do you not believe that was hard for David, for Jonathan to go through
to experience?
It's hard.
We have problems.
Every one of us, we have issues.
Cry over it.
Feel bad.
Good type of crying is selfless crying.
Don't cry because you spilt milk.
Don't cry like Saul because you are threatened through your position.
Cry because you love your brother and sister in Christ.
Cry because of the loss in their understanding of the gospel and their lack of it and that
you're trying to help people to get saved.
The Bible says in Jude, and of some have compassion, making a difference, pulling them
out of the fire, hating him in the garbage spotted by the flesh.
Let's care for the loss.
Let's care for our people.
The apostle Paul had a misconstrued understanding of the Jewish ethnic people of his day.
He loved his brother, his biological brothers, but they hated Jesus Christ.
A lot of them, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and he needed to realize that the children
of God were more important than his biological kin.
We need to realize that good type of crying is selfless crying.
Cry for others.
Cry for your nation, your state, your loved ones, your relatives, your neighbors.
When some brother comes to you and asks for a time of need and prayer, the Bible says,
weep with them that weep.
Sleep with them.
They need, you don't always need to show someone what they need to do or how to fix a problem
or to whatever.
Job's friends tried to do that.
Job's friends tried to help Job in a misconstrued way.
They're like, Job, you must have failed.
You must have done something wrong because God is punishing you.
Job needed someone's shoulder to cry on.
He needed someone to help him out in time of need and understand this, Job was truly
in a time of need in that point in his life.
What is incorrect forms of crying is selfish crying.
Crying for yourself.
Crying because you didn't get the promotion.
Crying because you don't have a Lamborghini.
Crying because your house is not big enough.
Crying for something that is selfish in nature.
And don't get me wrong, there's a time to care for yourself, but the Bible says it's
better to give than to receive.
We need to be as Christians selfless.
Care less about ourselves and care more about others.
And when you get this right, it'll help you to understand a true legitimate way to cry
for people.
And I know people are going to hear this sermon and be like, ah, what a weakling, what a stupid,
what a childish, weak, Christian church group of people.
Well that means their heart is not right.
They don't get the bigger picture.
They don't understand because they themselves are twisted and confused on the subject.
Turn if you would to Genesis chapter 21, let me give you an example of someone crying selfishly.
Someone who's crying because of their own issue and problem.
Before I get into that story, let me just explain to you this, didn't Judas who betrayed
Jesus Christ cry when he delivered to Jesus under the Pharisees?
He cried.
He was crying like a baby and realized that he gave up the Messiah.
He was the one that had Jesus Christ put to death.
He was the one who basically killed Jesus and he cried over it.
But that was selfish.
He's crying cause he got caught.
He's crying cause he had an issue.
He was selfish.
Judas didn't understand the gospel.
The Bible makes that very clear.
And what did Jesus say?
Greetest thou the son of man with a kiss?
You think you're my friend?
It would better that you were never born.
But what does it say in Genesis chapter 27?
This is the story of Esau and Jacob.
What happened to him?
Look down at your Bible if you would at Genesis chapter 27 verse one.
And it came to pass that when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not
see, he called Esau his eldest son and said unto him, my son, he said unto him, behold,
here am I.
And he said, behold, now I am old.
I know not the day of my death.
Now therefore take I pray thee thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow and go out to the field
and take some venison and make me savory meat such as I love and bring it to me that I may
eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die.
So get the picture.
Isaac's dying.
He's on his way.
He doesn't know when it's going to happen.
It's going to happen.
And he wants to have this one last intimate thing with his son so he can bless his son.
He wants to bless his son and realize that he's leaving and departing the world knowing
that his son is going to be okay.
And look down in your Bible, if you would, at verse 30, verse 30, the Bible reads, and
it came to pass as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, well, let me give
you context really quickly because I didn't want to go through the whole story, but basically
the younger brother, Jacob, who we all know, went behind Esau and his mother's back while
he did what his mother taught him and pretended to be Esau, killed a goat and fed it to his
dad to receive Esau's blessing.
He did.
Now this is ordained of God.
Understand this.
What he did, it's an interesting story because he messed up.
He did something wrong.
He listened to his mother, which his mother told him to do this, but this was prophesied
of him.
He told his mother from the womb that Jacob is going to be the one that the line of Jesus
Christ comes from, and he did what his mother said, but nevertheless, they may have meant
it for evil, but God meant it for good.
It goes on to read, and it came to pass in verse 30, it came to pass as soon as Isaac
had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence
of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting, and he also made
savory meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise
in need of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me.
And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou?
And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau.
And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who?
Where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me?
And I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him.
Yea, and he shall be blessed.
And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter
cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me, O my father.
And he said, Thy brother came with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing.
And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob?
For he hath supplanted me these two times.
He took away my birthright, and behold, now he hath taken away my blessing.
And he said, Hast thou not reserved blessing for me?
And Isaac answered, and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him my lord, and all his brethren
have I given to him for servants, and with corn and wine have I sustained him.
And what shall I do now unto thee?
My son and Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing?
My father blessed me, even me also.
O my father and Esau lifted up his voice, and what wept.
You can see, you can read it, you can feel it, the agony that he's having in his heart
of Jacob doing him dirty twice.
He took his birthright from him, he's taking his blessing from him, and he's sad.
But once again, he says, my birthright, he says, my blessing, do you have nothing for
me?
He's constantly like, my thing, my thing, you know, the Bible teaches in reference to
Cain and Abel, right?
Remember the story, Cain kills Abel, and he looks at God and says, Am I my brother's keeper?
Now once again, I do believe it was pretty messed up what Jacob did, taking the birthright
and taking the blessing.
This is preordained, and this is from God, nevertheless, what should Esau's attitude
have been?
Praise God, that my brother will be blessed.
And he's not sitting there like, Am I my brother's keeper?
Where's my blessing?
Where's my birthright?
Where's me, my, I, fill in the blank.
And look, it's lame.
It was sad.
It was messed up.
And he cried.
And he tries to kill his brother over this.
And then later on, as the story progresses, he gets right and realizes that he loves his
brother.
And there's actually a great story in that, of forgiveness and having sympathy.
Jacob tries to offer him all these animals and all his wealth, and he's trying to humble
himself inside of Esau.
And Esau is like, What is this to me?
You're my brother.
I love you.
Let bygones be bygones, so to say.
Okay, so we get it.
Even kings cry.
Okay, we get it.
Selfless crying is good.
Selfish crying is bad.
What are our main reason that people would cry?
Because there are lots of reasons why we would cry.
There's lots of reasons why we would weep.
There's lots of reasons why we have sorrow, why we have issues.
But one of the major reasons why people cry, one of the major reasons why people have issues
is because they feel alone.
Loneliness is a big reasoning for people to feel bad, to cry, because they think no
one understands them.
No one gets them.
No one's helping them.
And all these different things.
Loneliness is a big issue.
Look the world that doesn't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, people of the world, they're
alone at the end of the day if you really think about it.
Job said very clearly, Naked came I out of my mother's room, naked shall I return, for
the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.
Look we're outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're all alone.
And we're going to find peace and comfort in that as I show you a couple of things.
Turn if you would to First Kings chapter 19.
First Kings chapter 19 is a story of Elijah the prophet.
Remember I said earlier, two people that Jesus Christ was compared to, one of which was Jeremiah,
the other was Elijah the prophet.
Elijah was a great spiritual giant who did great things for God, but even he had a moment
of weakness.
As we're about to see in First Kings chapter 19, look down at your Bible at verse 1.
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the
prophets with the sword.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying, So let the gods do to me and more
also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.
She's basically trying to kill Elijah.
And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongeth
to Judah, and left his servant there.
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper
tree.
And he requested for himself that he might die and said, It is enough.
Now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers.
And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said
unto him, Arise and eat.
Pause there really quickly.
Notice Elijah is so depressed.
You got to realize, I know like I'm kind of jumping into stories and stuff like that,
but for a lot of us who have run in church in our whole lives, we get this story.
For those of you who have never heard these stories, you've got to realize that at this
time Elijah is helping the nation of Israel get right with God because they had gone astray
and served other gods.
In the midst of this, Elijah made this public event of showing the people of Israel that
Jehovah was the true God of Israel.
And he says, either serve Jehovah or serve Baal, choose you this day whom you'll serve.
Then the fiery altar happens on Mount Carmel, and he shows the people of Israel that Jehovah
is the true God of Israel.
Then they put to death the prophets of Baal, which the Bible teaches is supposed to be
done.
But when he does that Jezebel wants to have Elijah killed.
And in the process of this, he runs away and he's so depressed that he feels alone and
he wants to kill himself.
He just says, just let me die.
You know, he was living in the wilderness, eating flesh brought to him from crows, drinking
water out of a brook.
He was destitute.
He did a great thing for God and people are still trying to kill him and all these things.
And he's still in the midst of all this, though having a time of weakness ends up moving forward.
Let's see what the Bible reads in verse five.
And he, as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and
said unto him, arise and eat.
And he looked and behold, there was a cake, bacon, coals, and a curse of water at his
head.
And he did eat and drink, laid him down again.
And the angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him and said, arise and eat
because the journey is too great for thee.
And he arose and did eat and drink and went and the strength of that meat 40 days and
40 nights unto Horeb, the Mount of God.
So he just went 40 days and 40 nights with no food.
The angel gave him some bread and some water and that sustained him for 40 days.
And he came thither unto a cave and lodged there.
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him.
And he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of
Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets
with the sword.
And I even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it.
So once again, he feels alone.
He feels like he's the only one.
He thinks that outside of him, no one is trying to do the things of God and grow the nation
into a spiritual guidance and in ways that's fairly true.
But God's about to reveal something to him.
Let's go on to read in verse 11.
And he said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord.
And behold, the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and break
in pieces the rocks before the Lord.
But the Lord was not in the wind after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord is not in
the earthquake and after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord is not in the fire.
And after the fire, a still small voice had it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped
his face in a mantle and went out and stood in the entering of the cave.
And behold, there came a voice unto him and said, What doest thou hear Elijah?
And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts.
This is the second time he's mentioning the same thing.
Because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, throw down thine altars and
slain thy prophets with the sword.
And I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it.
And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus.
And when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king of Syria, and Jehu the son of Nimshai,
shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel.
And Elisha the son of Shaphan of Abilhamel, Abil, behold, shalt thou anoint to be prophet
in thy room.
And it shall come to pass that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him
that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha, Elisha slay.
Yet I have left me, notice this verse, yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all
the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
God is telling Elijah, you are not alone.
And the world wants you to feel alone.
The world wants you to think you're by yourself.
The world wants you, I'm sorry, the world wants you to think you're alone.
The world wants you to think you're by yourself.
But understand this.
The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ will never leave us nor forsake us.
Once you believed on Jesus, once you will become a child of God, you are always a child
of God, and you have access to God through prayer, and you have the Holy Spirit dwelling
in you, and you are never alone.
You are never going to be by yourself.
You may have your friends do you dirty.
You may have your loved ones do you dirty.
You may even have your wife, your children, your mother, your father, your boss, everyone
leave you.
But you know who will never leave you?
Jesus Christ, and you're never alone as long as you believe.
If you believe this, we don't see by sight, we see by faith, and the Bible makes that
very clear.
But not only that, you got to realize, let's say there are people who are naturally introverted,
they're naturally isolated, they don't like being around crowds, and that's okay.
There's nothing wrong with being an introvert or being just kind of one that keeps to yourself.
But nevertheless, even introverted people like friendship and people that are around
them.
If you want to be around people, the Bible says, and actually turn if you would to Proverbs,
Proverbs chapter 18, look down if you would at Proverbs chapter 18 verse 24, a man that
has friends must show himself friendly.
There is a friend that's to get closer than a brother.
Look, I have biological siblings that want nothing to do with me.
I'm sure there are some people in here who have biological family members that want nothing
to do with them.
But if you're a brother or sister in Christ, I'm here for you.
All of us are here for each other.
Your uncles, your aunties, your cousins, your friends, your neighbors, we're all brothers
and sisters in Christ.
And you're never alone when you're here.
And you know, Paul experienced in his life that in his suit to preach the gospel to the
rest of the world, a lot of people did him dirty.
A lot of people left and forsook him.
But he realized that at the end of the day that he was never alone.
So that's, that's the main reason why people would cry or why people would weep or why
people would be sad is because they feel alone, but you're never alone.
But not only that, the last thing I want to go into turn if you would to Romans chapter
three, is physical and emotional outlet, physical and emotional outlet to help you
cope with stress, anxiety, sadness, and all these things.
Like I mentioned earlier, right?
With kids, I used to teach kickboxing.
If you need to let it out, let it out.
If you're upset and you're thinking you're going to come into the, you know, kickboxing
class to learn how to beat up someone, you got to twist it.
I'm not going to teach you how to beat someone up.
I'll teach you how to defend yourself.
We'll teach you how to fight, but why would I teach you how to fight and defend yourself
when you're going to take that and abuse it and go out and beat up people and don't get
me wrong.
Like I said, I've had problems in my life and I've done this, but, but he that knows
through to do good and do it the not to him and his sin.
And if you in your life aren't physically active, you're going to find yourself imploding.
Find a sport, go hiking, surfing, hunting, ride a bike.
I skateboarded.
You know what?
And you know, this is a side note, but skateboarding in ways has helped me more than a lot of people
know.
There's a lot of issues that I had in my life and no one guiding me on how to handle these
things.
And I skated.
I took a skateboard and I took all my aggression and anger and stress and anxieties to the
skateboard to get better at skateboarding.
Same thing with surfing and kickboxing.
And you know, like there's a healthy place to take out anger and aggression and understand
this guys, we have anger and aggression and pent up problems, but don't kick the dog.
Don't take it out on your wife.
Don't take it out on your mother's.
Don't take it out on an innocent bystander.
Some guy walking by and he's like, Hey, good morning.
You're like, get out of here.
Get out.
I'm mad.
You know, it's like, relax.
You know, there's a place to do this.
And you know, there are too many examples in the Bible of men taking emotional anger
out in the wrong places, but there are good examples of men taking out anger in right
places.
Think about what we're talking about.
Even Kings cry, right?
David kills Goliath.
That was the right thing to do.
You got to realize Goliath once again, was the toughest cat.
He was a mean mamma jamma, big Soleil, apparently was 11 feet tall.
Who knows how big he was.
He was a huge guy, defying the armies of the living God, defying God himself.
David comes to the scene and looks around and he's like, why is no one shutting him
up?
What's going on here?
I thought we were soldiers.
I thought we were warriors fighting the Lord's battle.
And you know, he says very clearly, is there not a cause?
Why are you upset with me when you guys should, someone should be out there and taking this
guy out?
Saul sees that in him and realizes, you know, you're just a youth and you're just, you know,
zealous in spirit.
But once again, David's spirit was right.
He was emotionally stable.
He had no fear.
The Bible says, God has not given us the mind of fear, but God has not given us the spirit
of fear, but of a sound mind.
And if you are level-headed and you're not emotionally distraught, you can conquer giants.
You could take out you by Jesus says, you know, if you have faith, the size of a mustard
seed, you'd be able to tell this mountain to move and go into the ocean.
And if you can learn to control your spirit, to control your emotions, who knows what God
can do with you.
If you would just, but humble yourself, cry, let it out, beat up the punching bag, skate
your brains out, find a bore and shoot it right between the eyes with a 22, go hiking,
do something physical to let yourself out, then it's going to be healthy for you in the
long haul.
That's just one example.
What about, you know, a bad example would be Moses smiting the rock.
You know, Moses was told from God to speak to the rock and ask it to give the children
of Israel water.
He was upset, frustrated, and angry, arguably so, because the children of Israel were murmuring
in the wilderness for this whole time, arguing, complaining, not trusting that God will do
his part and provide.
And Moses in a misconstrued way of his emotions, took it out on the rock and smote the rock.
And God said, look, I told you to speak to the rock.
I was trying to have you be a good leader and to show the people that you can control
yourself and that you are my steward so that they would listen to you.
Now that you've done this, you will not see the promised land.
Water came out of the rock and the people got to drink, but he was misconstrued on where
he distributed his anger.
God told him clearly a commandment speak to the rock and he was frustrated.
He didn't cry over it.
He didn't, you know, we see other examples of Moses distributing his anger in a right
way when the children of Israel were trying to worship idols.
He took those idols, grounded them up and made them drink it.
That was actually a good thing that he did.
And I understand this, Moses was called the most meekest man on the earth.
So that tells me that if you're called the meekest man on the earth, at least in that
time, and you have people drink gold out of an idol, then that means you're right with
God.
See, the world doesn't tell us what meekness, humility and sorrows are.
God tells us these things and the Bible.
We could go on and on and different examples, but turn, if you would, to Romans 8.
Did I have you go to Romans 8?
Look down if you would at Romans 8 and while you go there, I'm going to quote from you
from a different passage.
This is a very popular passage in the Bible from Jesus Christ himself.
This is the conclusion of the matter.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall
find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Notice it says rest three times, right?
And God, Jesus wants you to know you need to find a time of rest, a time of decompression.
Don't burn the candle on both ends.
Don't take on everyone else's problems.
Don't what David, you just say be selfless.
Yes, you can be selfless and not, you have to learn when to say no.
You have to learn when it's appropriate to tell people like, look, if I can't help myself,
I can't help you.
If I can't release my own problems, how am I going to help your problems?
I got issues.
You've got issues.
If I can't control my spirit, I can't help you with what your problem is.
And Jesus Christ says, come unto me.
All ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Kings feel like they have the burden of the world on their shoulders.
Fathers feel like they have the burden of the world on their shoulders.
Your boss, your husbands, men in your life have issues.
They feel very burdensome, which is given to them from God.
God has given us authority as men, as fathers, as leaders that we need to bear, but we don't
need to bear them alone because it goes on to say, take my yoke upon you and learn of
me.
Read your Bible, pray, memorize the passages.
The word of God will help comfort you.
What is the fruits of the spirit?
Love, joy, peace.
To be carnally minded leads to death, but to be spiritually minded leads to peace and
everlasting life.
You want peace?
You want serenity?
You want to be level-headed?
You want to get your anxieties and your problems out?
Take it to God.
You're never alone.
It's okay to cry.
Let it out.
And in doing this, you'll find yourself being able to help others.
But Romans chapter eight, verse 31, the Bible reads, what shall we then say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us?
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifies.
Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again.
Who is even at the right hand of God?
Who also maketh intercession for us?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or pearls of sword?
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter, nay in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers
nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Bible says that when you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, you become kings and priests
and you ladies become queens.
You're royalty.
You're children of God.
You matter in the sight of God, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges every
son and re-receiveth.
If he offered up Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins, he's going to chasten and chastise
you and correct you for your incorrectness.
Find joy in that.
Find peace in that because God loves you and wants what's best for you.
No person, no pearls, persecution, no issue that anyone does, including your own, can
ever separate you from the love of God.
I'm not going to sit here and say like, oh, I'm the king and I'm Lord over you, but I'm
a king.
You're a king.
You're a queen.
We're kings and priests and queens.
The title of this message this morning is even King's Cry.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Dear God, thank you so much for this day.
Thank you so much for your word and salvation.
Thank you so much for leading us in example, sending Jesus Christ to weep for us, to cry
for us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Thank you so much for leading us these examples.
Help us men to realize that we're not too good for crying and we need to find a place
in our closet to come to you in prayer and ask you to give us strength.
Give us boldness.
Give us, you know, a peace of mind.
Help us to trust and lean on you in everything.
Lean on our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Lean on the church to forget those things which are behind, to press towards the mark
of the high calling and help any person in here, whoever needs prayer.
You know, the Bible says the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
And I ask that people pray for me and I ask that if anyone needs prayer, they come to
me and we just ask that you help us in our time of needs and it's okay for us to cry,
but help strengthen and embolden us in Jesus Christ's name we pray, Amen.
When the night has come and the land is dark and the moon is the only light we'll see.