AUG 24 2025 | Elijah: From Drought to Downpour S1E2 | Elijah Hides

Sea Change Church · Elijah: From Drought to Downpour · "Elijah Hides" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · August 24, 2025
1 Kings 17:1-7
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

that transform our lives. For we thank you. And we praise you for in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. The book of First Kings chapter 17 verses one through seven. Now, Elijah, the tibit of tis be, and Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall be neither due nor reign these years except by my word. And the word of the Lord came to him, depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook careth, which is east of the Jordan.

You shall drink from the brook. And I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. So he went and did, according to the word of the Lord, he went and lived by the brook careth that is east of the Jordan. And the Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening. And he drank from the brook. And after a while, the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. This is the word of the Lord.

Good morning church, standing room only today. Welcome back from vacation. Good to see y'all. If you have your Bibles open up to first Kings. We're using the, uh, ESV, which English standard version you have, I vs. Those are great as well. The, uh, 1984 in your Bible, we're in your pew. We're gonna be changing those over soon. And last week we began a new series on one of God's prophets, God's change maker. It was called last week, who went, uh, into Israel, the northern part of a divided kingdom.

There was Judah in Israel and spoke to Ahab. The first time he shows up on the scene. He's not announced, he's not prophesied. Elijah just shows up. God sent him into a confrontation, sent him into a place to speak the word of the Lord. And now God's telling him to hide. It's interesting conversation. Does God ever tell us to run? Does God ever tell us to flee? Does God ever tell us to hide? Sometimes he does. And I would say that some of you, just as I've been praying this week and just, uh, um, dealing with this sermon and looking at it, uh, that one of the words the Lord has for some of you is he wants you to do a strategic spiritual retreat.

God calls us to hide for different reasons. He pulls us away from certain communities for different reasons and for his reasons. Usually, usually we're gonna look at Elijah, dive into this passage, but I wanna introduce you to a, uh, spiritual hero of mine. And he's from, uh, 250 around AD after Jesus died. His name is Anthony of the Desert. And if you've never heard of Anthony of the desert, he's, he's known as a saint.

People have called him a saint. And he was the, they would say the father of the monastic movement. There was a picture of him right here out in the desert. And uh, when he was 19, he inherited a ton of money, a ton of money. He was super wealthy. And he went to church one day, and as he was sitting there, they read out of the gospel that said, if you wanna follow me, just give up all your possessions to the poor and follow me.

And he thought, at 19 years old, that's a good idea. So he took all of his money, gave it away, and he tried to live a really, um, acetic life in community. Uh, he tried to do that and he began just making a rule for his life. He began to stay outta public spaces a little bit, just less involved in the politics of the day and just really committed himself to prayer. And in this, and that's Anthony of the desert. And God pulled him away for a reason.

The maj, the, the, the modern monastic movement looks to him as the Father. Now, I gotta tell you, when he went away, he felt like God called him away into this place of solitude not to start the modern monastic movement. Uh, he didn't go away thinking, you know, I got a great idea. I'm gonna go get, move away. And we'll talk a little bit more about Anthony in a second as his story continues throughout this sermon. But he didn't think, I'm gonna go start something.

He thought this, I wanna be with Jesus. I want to be with Jesus. I'm gonna have three words today that are in your notes, that I think are words that are not in vogue in our society today. And they're words that are mature believers, understand and incorporate to their lives. These are the three words, separation, solitude, and sustenance. One, separating yourself from the things of this world. Separating yourself for the purpose of God. Separation.

Where do we separate? Would there been a world where we have a shiny object in our pocket that is oftentimes a gateway to hell that'll constantly be, uh, filling up your time? If your phone is near you, you're never alone. You're just never alone. Uh, solitude is one thing that is as a separation, excuse me, is one thing that believers aren't encouraged to do as much. You're encouraged to grow your platform. You're encouraged to have your voice out there.

I'm not saying that these things aren't right. Uh, Elijah has just gone and had his voice out there, right? He's in front of Ahab. He goes to Ahab and the court, and he speaks to Ahab and gives him this word. It's not gonna rain. It's, you will not have due on the land. And basically because you're serving the bales, and I want you to serve God, but then God tells him to separate himself. The other word is solitude. Solitude is being alone.

And like I said, if you have this in your pocket, if you have this in your bedroom, God forbid you take it into the bathroom with you. You are never, everybody says, oh, but everyone does it. Ooh, you're never alone. When are you alone? The next is sustenance. And that's depending upon God to sustain you. We all have things that sustain us, right? It's a relationship. It's the things that we, we reach out to. And, and God puts those things in our life.

But ultimately, at the end of the day, like Chris had in her first song, where does, where do we find our ultimate sustenance? When push comes to shove, those are three words. Separation, solitude, sustenance. You see that in the life of Anthony. We'll talk more about him in a moment. Moment. But here God is calling Elijah away from the hustle, away from the bustle, away from the maddening crowd and into the desert, to a place that Jesus knew well.

And he's doing so in a way that is an archetype of something that I believe that really is rich for us as believers today. If, uh, there's two things we're gonna look at today. One, God sets Elijah apart. Elijah didn't decide on his own. I'm just heck with it all. I'm gonna run away. God sets him apart. It's a big difference hearing from the Lord and knowing the rhythm of your life. When do I engage? When do I disengage?

Husbands, this is really smart for you. Okay, when do I engage or when do I say I'm gonna back off that conversation? I need to back it off a little bit. This is wise following the Lord and knowing that God sets Elijah apart. And the next thing is God sustains Elijah, we see these ravens coming last week. I mentioned that my wife feeds the ravens here. She says, there are no ravens in La Jolla. I feed the crows. And so I apologize for anybody who heard that there are, maybe there's ravens, but she was feeding the crows.

So if you see crows rather here, those are the ones that he was feeding. God calls him apart and and separates. And the next thing is God sustains Elijah with these ravens he bring. He says, go to this brook. I'm gonna, you, you will drink from the brook. I love that. I'm gonna send you someplace and where I'm sending you, where I guide I. That's right. You've heard that? Say that again. Where I guide, I provide. That's right.

And so do we believe that God will provide when he calls us to, or too often, are we living with a poverty mentality? If I leave that relationship, God, what will I ever do if I leave that job, that source of income that you feel like God is probably calling you away from? What will I ever do? How will I make it? How will I survive? Look, I'm tempted by those thoughts as well. What? How am I gonna survive? You get used to something and God's saying, I maybe I'm calling you into a new normal of sustenance.

So maybe those words speak to you today. We're gonna look quickly at Elijah. Go to verse two. God separates Elijah and the word of the Lord came to him. Depart from here. Turn eastward, hide yourself. Circle hide yourself by the Brooke Keth, which is east of the Jordan. Important that it's east of the Jordan. First thing that we see here in figuring out the pace of your life, in figuring out where you engage, where you would disengage, where you will work, where you will live, the relationships you'll be a part of.

Is that the word of the Lord came to Elijah? How often are we and I say we, 'cause I do the same thing, basing our decisions on our faulty opinions, basing our decisions on our faulty emotions. God gave us emotions for a reason. But ultimately, Elijah is someone, as are the heroes of the New Testament that makes his decisions based on the word of the Lord. It means that back then, obviously, that you didn't need enough Bible, right?

He wasn't able to figure out his favorite, you know, version of the Bible or, you know, get e Bible or Bible gateway on his phone. He was waiting for the word of the Lord. And we know now we live in a place where the Holy Spirit's been released and the word of God has been released to us. And we're blessed to be able to actually have the word of God before us. But he was in person that depended, that was sustained by the Word of the Lord.

So the first question, if you're in a place and you don't know what to do right now, if you're in a place you're trying to make some decisions, let me ask you, where are you being sustained? Where are your decisions being sustained? Are you being sustained by your emotions, by the words of other people, by the expectations of other people? Or are you being sustained by the word of the Lord? Only you know that. And how do you be sustained by the word of the Lord?

You actually inculcate yourself. You insulate yourself with the word of the Lord. So that's the first thing when God tells him to hide, which is interesting because why would God ever tell us to run away? He tells him to hide and he actually, it is a command from the word of the Lord. I will say that there's probably some of you who God has said to you, I need a season of rest for you. There's a word Sabbath in the Bible.

Maybe you've heard it, and there's a season of rest and I'm calling you away into a season of rest, into a season where we can be together to, um, together away from all of the noise. So he was commanded to hide. That's interesting. Now, is God calling him away because God's afraid of Ahab? Absolutely not. Why is he telling him to hide? He's telling him to hide because God wants to be his hiding place. You are my hiding place.

You know the song, you are my hiding place. When God calls you to hide, when he calls you to hide between the cleft of the rock, as it says in the, in the scriptures, or when he calls you away strategically, like he called David away, and David would go to the stronghold. He is obviously putting you in a place that has a strategic, you know, earthly value to being high, to being hidden. He was taking him away. He was removing the voice of the Lord from Ahab.

This was, um, symbolic as well. The voice of the Lord is leaving Israel went to the east of the Jordan. The voice of the Lord is leaving Ahab. So he said, you are leaving and I'm gonna have you hide there strategically. But ultimately I want to be your hiding place. When God calls you away, when he calls you to hide, when he calls you into a place that is away from the hustle and bustle, where all the madness, you know, where your neurological system is just tapped in a world like this.

He's not just calling you away so you can put your feet up, although that is part of it, that's part of Sabbath. He's calling you to hide in him. I felt like the Lord spoke to me as I was in this, I was two weeks earlier, I was in this passage and I was reading it, and we've been very active here. And there's a balance that you can have. And I felt like the Lord say in, there's certain moments in your day, there's certain moments in your week, there's strategic places in your life wherein I'm wanting you to hide, wanting you not to answer your phone.

I'm wanting you to have these moments, but don't we get into this rhythm where we have to always be available. We have to always be on, always thinking God has called him away because God wants to hide with you. He wants to spend time with you, and he wants to be your hiding place. So he sends into this place called Kath, Kath the root word of careth. It's a Hebrew verb. It means to cut off or to separate. It means to cut off or to separate.

I'll ask you, when are you, when are you cut off from the world? You know, it's okay to be cut off from the world. It's okay to not constantly be on. I grew up, uh, anybody who is probably under 45 doesn't remember or hasn't experienced what it means like to live disconnected from communication. My father, I've told this story before, my father had a a a jar of quarters, right? This is how my father worked. I watched him work many times.

He'd get up in the morning and he would go into his office because that's where his message machine is, because his work message machine was not at his house. So he'd go to the office, he'd listen to the message machine, and then he would call people back. And then if he had to go out on the road, he had quarters on him and he'd go out on the road, do do whatever he had to do, pull over to a payphone. Now, if you don't know what a payphone is, and I remember he was standing there, make a couple phone calls, then he'd go back to the office around three in the afternoon or be in the office, he'd check his message machine again.

He would get his messages, call everyone back, and then he'd go home. And then he never ca I never once saw him take a business call from home, ever on the weekend. All he did was paint hang out. I'm like, oh my gosh. I, I was raised maybe, I don't know if he even remembers that model besides me, but that was a model in an age which feels like prehistoric at the time, that knew how to separate themselves. Let me ask you this. When are you doing that?

When are you hiding with God? And are you pulling away with God? He is desperate. If God can be desperate, he is desperate for your presence. He's desperate to spend time with you. He is desperate to bring his word to you. He is desperate to sit with you, to tell you everything's okay. To tell you how much I love you. Sit with me and rest. This is a word I felt like the Lord told me. I needed to give you The next thing that we, we see in, in Psalm 32, 7, it says, you are my hiding place.

You'll protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Lemme just read that again because if you're like me, soon as things get quiet, start getting twitchy. Now maybe there's some of you that just were born with that personality. You can just sit by the river. You can go zen. I mean, I don't know what, you can just chill. The, the pigeons come and the doves and they land on your hands and the butterflies, or maybe that's you.

God, love you. You have other problems. That'll be a different sermon. You are my hiding place. Psalm 32, I believe it's David, you are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. The protection comes when you hide in him. And the songs of deliverance come when you are with him, hiding with him because he wants to spend time with you. God doesn't only appoint, anoint us to speak, which we saw in verse one of chapter 17.

When he comes onto the scene, sometimes he appoints us to be silent. Elijah's heising place was not abandonment, it was alignment, it was preparation. God was preparing him. Saint Anthony of the desert, after 10 years of trying to live in the city, thought, I can't do this no more. I'm moving to the desert. There was persecution before the edict of Milan was put out, which allowed Christianity to kind of flourish and bloom.

But before that, there was persecution and he fled into the desert and he lived in a cave for 20 years. People began to realize that there was a holy man living in the desert. And if you haven't read about St. Anthony, I wanna encourage you to read about him because it's really inspiring. These other people said, we wanna, you know, we see what he's doing. We, we wanna live. So all of a sudden, all these other people started like going into caves near him.

And I bet that was a bummer for him, right? He's just like, ah. Then they started coming and knocking on his cave and they'd be like, Hey, can we get a little, like, you know, sustenance from you? You're a holy man. It said in this cave, I think we might have a picture of it, that there's all these stories. You don't have to believe them or not. But where Satan was tempting him, Satan had said, would come to him specifically, and he would come as an angel of light.

He would come in these different forms. You could read the stories. You can believe them or not believe them. Martin Luther, uh, in the 15th century said that Satan visited him, uh, one time. But it said he would actually wrestle with demons in the demons would beat him up. Now, you don't have to believe it, this is not biblical, it's just a story of Saint Anthony. But it would, they they would find him and he would be bruised after just wrestling in prayer.

20 years he does that. He's seeking God and he's battling temptation over and over again. And all he wants to do is spend time with God. And more and more people keep coming and knocking on his door. Get back to him in just a second. I want you to go to, to, uh, verse two. And the word of the Lord came to him. Verse three, depart from here, turn eastward, circle eastward, hide yourself by the brook keth, which is east of the Jordan.

You shall drink from the brook as I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. I think this interesting, this is symbolic. There's something symbolic happening here. There's two things that are happening. One, Israel's being judged. And so you have a sense of judgment. This is this east, this go east goes back to the genesis passage where they are kicked. Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden in Genesis 3 24. And it says they are driven east of the garden.

So there is a symbolic idea of the word of the Lord, the place Israel that is supposed to be the home of God. God is saying, I'm taking my spokesperson, I'm taking the word of the Lord and it's leaving Israel. And so there is a sense of judgment, right? And so sometimes we separate ourselves from evil places. Sometimes there's places that we should not be involved in. There's relationships. We, we should not be involved in.

Things that we put our mind on, thoughts that we should not be involved in. And God is saying, I want to send you to careth. I want to separate you from this place. Do you have any thoughts in your mind right now where you're thinking, I need to get away, I need to get on up out of this place and in this area of my life, I need to go hide with the Lord. I need to no longer be in this relationship. I need to no longer be in this conversation.

I don't need to be on the message boards anymore. I was tempted yesterday to answer. I was just looking some stuff and I was gonna comment on, no, I'm done not commenting. I was, listen to Keanu Reeves this week. He had a great comedy. He says, I to the age point in my life where I don't have time for oral arguments with people that are just gonna disagree with me, one plus five equals nine. Sure, go ahead. So what he said, I like Keanu Reeves.

He says some cool stuff. Sometimes we just need to separate ourselves. Separate ourselves. When God, the word of the Lord comes to you and tells you to separate yourself, some of you need to stay there in the court of Ahab right now. He's saying, no stick and stay, stick and stay. That's the word of the Lord. But it says he will separate you. And so we see the judgment because we want to be separated from the things that are under God's judgment and under God's wrath, don't be involved in things that you know are under God's wrath and God's judgment.

Separate yourself from them. Unless you're gonna be like the, uh, you know, William Booth who started the Salvation Army that said, I'm gonna set up a rescue station. A rescue center at the gates of hell. If you're gonna be at the gates winning people over and God set you the Lord, then God bless you. You go do it. Otherwise, separate yourself. Go to Kieth be his hiding place. He will sustain you with songs of deliverance.

He will protect you. You do not need to run and go mad trying to protect yourself. God will be your sustenance and protect you. The other thing that we see that's symbolic here is when he goes is once again, Elijah is pointing towards the New Testament in the, the Christ-like life. Now we see Elijah in the New Testament. I mentioned it last week. He shows up with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration, and they're up in the hill.

They're up on the Mount with Jesus. And so Elijah's a pretty powerful figure. I think of all the people who could have been there from the Old Testament on the mountain with Jesus. You could have, it could have been Adam, he could have gotten a reboot, you know, brought Adam in. But God's like, well not him. It could have been, you know, Abraham. It could have been all these, but it was, it was Moses. It was Moses and it was Elijah that was there with him at that place, all the different places he could have been.

So this is looking forward to the New Testament. And we see that this was a pattern of Jesus, the separation, the solitude that we see that is happening. And we see Christ going into the wilderness. In Luke five 15 through 16. It says, Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed this really ticked off Jesus handlers. Few people were as upset about Jesus commitment to solitude and rest and Sabbath as his disciples.

They were constantly trying to build his brand. One time he, in the New Testament, Jesus had all these miracles he was doing. He was really good at it. Jesus was super good at miracles. And all these people are getting healed, right? It's just like Pau, if I was Jesus, I would've said things like that. I would've been like p bam, I would've just thrown some style into it, you know? But nonetheless, he probably didn't.

And it says that his disciples come, they, they start looking for him because another crowd had shown up and he was gonna get some more, you know, just, uh, some, some more accolades. And they start looking for him and Jesus isn't there. So they have to go start looking for him. Oh, he's probably out in the desert again. Oh my goodness. Do we have to go that there's no water out there? Do we have to go back out? So they go search for him and they're like, Jesus, yo, they find him.

How annoying, right? Like St. Anthony in the desert, Jesus, get back here. People are waiting for you to heal him. You know what Jesus says? Pack your bags. There's another city we're going to. You see, Jesus doesn't care about maintaining his followers. He doesn't care about maintaining his brand. His brand is the father. His brand is the father's love. His brand is obedience. I'm not saying that if you have a social media platform and you're growing it, God, God bless you.

And maybe God's blessing that, I'm not saying that you need to run away from all those things, but just know if you should listen to the word of the Lord and be willing to have the time. Jesus regularly did this. If you want to be like the Messiah, if you wanna be like Jesus, you will regularly draw away and you will regularly frustrate people when you draw away. If you're always available and you're always on for everyone else, you're not always available for Jesus.

And you're not always on for him because you have no time and you're saving the world real quick. You do not need to save the world. It is not up to you. Jesus died on the cross. You know, I know it looks like you could do it too. You could probably, you know, save the world yourself. We all think that it's not true. He would rather call you away. This is a tough word. Some people really dislike monasticism because people were called away and some people were called away for years to live behind a wall.

You're thinking, you know, we should just be out there. And I get that. But God is God and he can call nine people away and send 15 out. He knows what he's doing. If you're never alone with Jesus, if no one's ever disappointed with you because you've missed a, not missed a meeting, but you've declined a meeting because you're gonna be meeting with Jesus, or this is my Sabbath day, I just don't take calls on my Sabbath.

Let me encourage you to look at the way of your savior and begin to follow him. We see this here in Elijah's life. Well, why don't we do that? Oftentimes we don't want to do that because we fear our sustenance. We fear our emotional sustenance will diminish. We fear our physical sustenance will be diminished. We feel if we don't show up, we might miss that thing. We might lose that clout, might lose that opportunity.

There is no rest in that. And, and I gotta tell you, hey, guilty as charged. Right? Guilty as charged. Okay? As I look back at my schedule, I just think, wow, I'm just so often people pleasing when God is like, Hey, I would love to have you some rest. That's okay. The the world, the world was here a long time before I got here. It'll go on without me. If I'm spending time with God, go to verse four. God sustains Elijah, you shall circle, shall drink from the brook that I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.

So he went and did according circle, did according to the word of the Lord, he went and lived by the brook of Kieth that is east of the Jordan. It is believed he lived there between six months and a year and a half. Long enough for the brook to dry up. We see that. The first thing that we see is this really interesting, is that God, and I don't know, I couldn't find this answer. You can work on it your own. I don't know.

God sent an unclean animal because the ravens are unclean. You're not allowed if, if, if you're under Jewish law to eat a raven. But he sent an unclean animal to be the one that would sustain Elijah. Just interesting point. I asked multiple people, no one had an answer. Maybe, uh, I I couldn't find it. But it doesn't really matter. God sustained him. Do you believe that God can sustain you? Supernaturally God is not just God.

God is not just in creation. He is the king over creation. Now, after this, Elijah in our next week, is gonna be sent to this widow who is dying because of the drought, because of the famine. And he uses her provision. So he's, he brings him into community. So God says, the first time that Elijah is sustained, God is saying, I am king over, over all creation. I am king over it all. And I can send the ravens if I want to. I will have you.

I will provide a brook. You shall drink from the Brooke, and please drink from the thing that I provide for you next week that dries up. 'cause God's free to dry up whatever he wants and send you into community to be sustained by community. So first he pulls him away, then he sustains him through community. I was listening to a podcast, this woman of a woman who left the church. And she said, you know, I just found out I just didn't, I didn't need to be in church.

I don't like organized religion. I don't need to be with all those people. Yeah, religion's super easy When you're by yourself, it's so easy. Trust me, I got halfway through the interview. I'm like, it boring. And I just turned it off because some, we need to be, we are sustained. We saw that on the men's hike. You're gonna see that next weekend at the parenting thing. You see it today. We are sustained by Christ. And when he fills us, we fill one another.

We pray for each other. We, we care for another. We'll see that next week. But this week I wanna say that God says to you, if you are in a pinch, you're in a bind. You're way behind. You're willing to make a deal according to Charlie Daniels. If you're in that place, God, to sustain you. I'm going, I'm not saying you have to give here, but I'm gonna, if you say I'm gonna draw back, I'm gonna pull back on my generosity.

I don't, I don't have any time for people. I'm gonna pull back on my time. Sometimes you need to do that. That's what the sermon's about. But sometimes we just do those things 'cause we don't think we can. We can. God will provide, or we don't have the energy, the ability God can provide for you. Don't pull back on the things that God has called you to. Now, once again, if God says, I need you to pull back, pull back.

This is why you need to listen to the word of the Lord. Not just your emotions, but on other things. He can sustain you. Let me just say the word of the God can sustain you. You will be sustained. I have to say to this point in my life, he's never let me down. I'm I, I, I don't know if most of you can say that as well. I've been disappointed. I'm not saying I'm not disappointed with some of his decisions. Disappointment doesn't mean he let me down.

He has always sustained me. He has always been there. He has always provided, even in the most difficult times he has been there. And in those difficult dry seasons where I'm just drinking from that brook. 'cause you got to realize that Brook's getting smaller and smaller every day. For, for Elijah, he sees the provision leaving. He continued to trust in God until God said, this is dried up. We're finishing right now.

It says, go to verse seven or verse uh, five. I said, I put six in my notes that they might have changed it. It's verse five actually. So he went and did, according to the word of the Lord, you know what the important word there is? Three letters. Starts with the D, ends with a D did. He did. He was obedient. He did according to what God had called him to. Obedience is a bummer till you do it and you find out it strengthens me.

He did according to the word of the Lord. Has God laid anything on your heart where you said, I'm just, I'm, I'm not gonna go back to that old way. We talked about that last week. Rebuilding that old wall at Jericho. We don't build that. There's a curse on that. Not rebuilding the old ways we're going forward and we're believing in God's sustenance. And he did, according to the word, to the Lord. He did what God told him to.

And then verse seven, final one. And after a while, the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. Sometimes God calls you someplace and then that brook dries up and that brook drying up doesn't mean that you're in disobedience. Sometimes we think that or God's upset with you sometimes God's just, I'm moving you on that. Brook has dried up. We have to be wise in how we apply that word. Okay? If you're married, I'm not telling you that Brooks dried up.

Okay? I'm not saying that Twist my words. I'm just saying sometimes it's time to move on. And the Lord says, I have a new sustenance and we see next week. And God takes Elijah from this hiding place, this place in the desert, and he moves him back into relationship. And that's an awesome word for us. Saint Anthony of the desert. Final picture. Eventually after 20 years of people coming to him and he decided to come outta the cave, I'm sure God had told him.

It says when he came out, he, he actually lived to be 105. And the, and the, and the story is, I encourage you to, to study the story. He's one of the most well-known saints that there are is said. When he came out, he just looked incredibly young. You know, like the angels had botoxed him up or something. I don't know what it is. He would just spent so much time with the Lord. It just beautified him. And angry spirit can make you ugly.

You ever know that? My mom always says that, does ever see people just ugly on the inside, makes you ugly on the outside. So the easiest thing you can do is smile, keep a good attitude and smile. So then he came outta there. He finally came out and he began to talk to other people about how to follow Jesus. And for the rest of his life, he lived to be 105. At that point, he did something he didn't want to do. You know what he wanted to do?

He wanted to live in the cave. He liked the cave. The cave was where the worship was. There was no stress in the cave. He liked the cave. God said, leave the cave. Go back into community. The exact same thing that happens with Elijah. And I want you to make a difference in people's lives. And you can follow the stories. The modern monastic, um, that became just massive, that changed the world. Much of, of human, of history of the last 2000 years was kept by monks that were keeping books and libraries.

And you don't need to go into all that. That was my monasticism was, uh, one of my emphasis in my graduate degree. So I'm into it. Um, obviously I'm not a monk, but he went and he made a difference. I wanna say oftentimes until you go to the alone place, you don't know how to be in the communal space until you go to the alone place. You don't know how to live in the communal space. This world is crazy now. It is wacko.

It is complete bonkers. People are nuts. Have you driven? I wanna make you, I make you happy all week. Let everyone go in front of you all week. Now, do it. It can make you happy. The only problem is, is when you let somebody go by and then they cut you off anyways. You're like, you didn't even get to accept my grace. But nonetheless, All week, just let everyone go in front of you. It's gonna piece you out. Trust me. This world's crazy.

It is crazy. I've been around. I've been around. I was 56 last week, okay? I was, I I've been around a a little while now, right? Longer than most people in human history. I've been around long enough. I know I'm not with you all your 70 year olds. I'm not there yet. I'm just a young pup. I get it. It's crazy. Get away. You are not gonna know how to live in this chaotic war zone of emotions and lies and whatever, unless you're away with Jesus.

Come away with me. He says, come away. I'm gonna prob the worship team and Pastor Joshua, let's stand if you guys would. Amen. Here we go. Man, what a powerful word. Um, I never heard it put like that, how you could be anointed to go to a silent place and, um, sometimes life gets busy for sure. But I, I do think this is a word for every single person here. Like, what is God trying to prepare you for? And, and that takes some self-reflection that, um, sometimes want to avoid.

We don't want to go to that, that silent place where God could actually speak to us, because now we gotta deal with some of our issues. And, uh, we would rather just like push him off to the side and, you know, ah, I'm good. I look at that another day. Or I keep it in this little room right here and never bring it out. But, uh, today's word and as the prayer team starts to come forward right now, I I I want us to really search our hearts.

The Bible talks about creating a clean heart within me, renewing me a right spirit. And that sometimes takes silence. So as the prayer team comes forward and standing right here, up, up, up front, I, I want you to, um, ask yourself, God, what do I need to hand over to you? And as we, uh, go into this time of worship and, uh, sing songs, just come forward and get prayer. I don't care what the issue is. I I don't care what, you know, struggling with. I care.

But I I I don't want you to try to hide it. Lemme say that. 'cause sometimes we do, like we know, we know we're going through a lot and we like, I don't know, they gonna judge me. No, not up here. Not at sea. Change church. Bring it to the altar and watch God work. Amen. I've seen you breathe. Pour again, worthy God, your promises never fail. Your promise. I've got stories. I've got, I witness, I, This is one of our resting places here at the front for prayer.

If you need prayer, as of some things I've been really praying for you as a congregation. I've been praying for fertility. I know there's some couples that have shared that. If you, if you just, you know, there's no embarrassment in that. If you want to be prayed for, for that, come forward. Uh, if you have nerve issues that was on my heart. I felt like God spoke to me about that. So you just have nerve pain come forward.

We believe in prayer if you have, uh, gastrointestinal stuff. These are just things when I was praying that just came really strong. I don't know how they do. Uh, but I just began to pray. We wanna pray for you. We wanna pray for you at the front. So we believe in, we're a healing church. We believe in God's healing. Believe that he can do it. This is a place, uh, upfront. Or if you just need an anointing, we have anointing oil just to, to anoint you to that, that calling to go away and that sustenance.

Or you need God's provision come forward for God's provision. There's a huge prayer team here today. I didn't even know where y'all came from, so I figure y'all must need some prayer. Uh, but I'm gonna just pray for you right now. Extend your hands and then we'll open up that and we'll close the surface. Lord Jesus, bless your people. Bless your church. We thank you God for all of them.