SEP 6 2026 | Elijah: From Drought to Downpour S2E3 | Come Out of the Cave

Sea Change Church · Elijah: From Drought to Downpour S2E3 · "Come Out of the Cave" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · September 6, 2026 1 Kings 19:9–18 Let me set the passage up again. We've been following the life of Elijah, an incredible prophet of God, a mover, a culture changer, sent to a divided northern kingdom of Israel ruled by Ahab and his wife Jezebel, both evil, both following false gods. As you read the history of Israel, it's a cycle: follow God, get prosperous, start worshiping God less, move away, fall into despair, judgment comes, then hearts reset, over and over. It's a little bit the story of our lives too.

It's easier for me personally to follow God in crisis than in prosperity. COVID was actually great for our church in that sense, not because people were sick, but because we bound together and grew more unified than we'd been in years, while so much of the world was pulling apart. I'm trying to become a person who draws closer to Jesus in the middle of blessing and abundance too, not just crisis. Elijah had this huge victory over four hundred prophets of Baal, dispersed them, rid Israel of them, and then Jezebel put a hit on him. He didn't run from Ahab. He didn't run from four hundred prophets or the demon of Baal, who had far more actual power to affect his life than Jezebel did.

He ran from the wrong thing. He ends up in the wilderness, in a cave, on the mountain of God. Last week we talked about how when he got fearful, at least he knew where to run to. He ran to Mount Sinai, the same place Moses had been with God before. Even when you're emotionally distraught, lost in your emotions, lost in your spirituality, you don't have to be lost in where you put yourself geographically. Showing up on Sunday morning, opening your Bible daily, those are still good things to do even when everything else feels uncertain. I want to challenge you to have your own seven, nine, twelve geographic spots, a friend's house, a phone call with a parent who loves the Lord, places you know are safe.

Where you travel will affect your trajectory. So he's ended up here in a cave, and God shows up. Right now he's not in a good place. The mountain represents a good place he went to, and we often hide in the cleft of the rock as a place of shelter. But the cave in this portion of the story represents something darker, a place where he's hiding, surrounded by partial truth. Satan is the master of the partial truth. And what God does by the end of this passage is give him a truth download. With God there is no partial truth. There is only truth. Today I want you to walk away thinking about two things: the presence of God, dwelling in his presence, and your perspective on truth, learning to sit and tease out this is true, this is true, that's not true.

If Satan can hand you nine truths and one lie, where does your mind go? Straight to the lie every time. "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?'" What a question. Grace right there, that the word of God even comes to him at all. He said, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away." And God said to him, "Go out and stand on the mount 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. 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 again and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" And he said the same thing again: "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away." Verse fifteen, and I love this reply: "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.

And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha 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 Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes 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." Just a little addendum on verse nine. Is there a cave emotionally you're just lodging in?

Full of lies, full of discouragement, full of doubt. It's dark, but it kind of feels safe, this little place where we get inculcated in a certain way of thinking. I love how God calls him out of that cave and says, come stand out here, because not just my word, but my presence is going to pass by you. This happened before, with Moses, same mountain. You can actually go look at Mount Sinai. There's still burn marks on top of it, onyx formed from extreme heat. God has beaten that mountain like nothing else. And I don't think this question, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" is a question of guilt.

It's just a question, and it's actually been really good for me personally this week. Whenever a certain thought pattern crept up, I'd stop and ask myself, "What am I doing here, Adam?" It's a good question to ask yourself regularly. Here's your big idea for the day: God's presence calls us out of our caves of deception, and God's Word replaces the lies that keep us hiding. Lies about yourself will keep you hiding from the person God has called you to be. Lies about your future will keep you from moving into the trajectory God has for you. You might have gotten some piece of information recently that you've decided determines the rest of your story, even though you have no idea what God is actually going to do with it.

Romans 8 says all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. You have no idea what God has, yet you end up in a cave thinking, this is my story, this is my future. And what God does is show up and change the perspective. Two key words today: perspective and presence. Perspective, because Elijah has got a lot right and a lot wrong, and we're going to see that Satan is lying to him. Presence, because a lot of Christians only really have one of these two things going, not both. One is that God's Word comes to him, seeks him out.

I love this book. It has changed my life. But experiencing the presence of God has changed it even more. Some traditions are all about the Word, and that's true, you need this book. But you also need his presence. Unlike Elijah, we don't have to wait to be called out to the edge of a mountain for God's presence to pass by every so often. We have an indwelling Holy Spirit now, and we can practice getting in touch with that presence constantly. I'd recommend a book by Brother Lawrence called "Practicing the Presence of God." It's that one-two punch: not only the word, but the presence too. When was the last time you experienced the presence of God, not just the word of God?

Think of a marriage where the only contact is a phone call, like someone on military deployment overseas. There's a real relationship there, a real presence even, but it's not the same as when they get off the boat and run into their spouse's arms. I want us to be a church that uses the word of God, because the word opens up the way for the presence, and then God bookends it again by speaking a second time. He speaks to Elijah, gives him the word, and then he experiences the presence, which is different, because when the presence comes, there's a whisper, and in that whisper the perspective changes.

Then God speaks again, and this time he doesn't even answer Elijah's complaint directly. He says, this is your next assignment. Point number one: hearing the word of God is not the same as encountering God's presence. Elijah answers from his pain in verse ten, and I love that you can be completely honest with God. It's really hard for us sometimes, like, "Oh, I'm not going to say that to God." That's ridiculous. He already knows. If you have a sin you love, an addiction, whatever it is, thirty percent of all men in America deal daily with either a gambling addiction, a porn addiction, or a marijuana or drug addiction.

Thirty percent. I'm finding more and more men coming to us for help, wanting to change, which is part of why men are entering the church at a higher rate than women right now for the first time. So say to God what Elijah said: God, I love my sin, and I want to speak to you from my pain. I don't want to be here anymore. I don't know how to get out. Help. So he answers from his pain, but his pain is filled with lies he's unaware of. "I have been very zealous for the LORD." True. "The people of Israel have forsaken your covenant." True. "Thrown down your altars." True.

"Killed your prophets with the sword." True. "And I, even I, am the only one left." Not true. That's a lie. God has seven thousand who have not bowed the knee. But I'm all alone, I'm broken, we haven't even gotten to that part yet. Answer from your pain. It's okay. Elijah essentially asked God to kill him. I won't do it myself, but God, take me out, I've done enough, I can't handle this anymore. A lot of us identify with that more than we'd like to admit. God doesn't answer him right away. He says, come out into my presence. The word of God comes first, asks a question, and the word of God is incredible at asking us questions we should take seriously.

Then it ushers us into his presence. I've been working on sitting grounded for multiple hours a week now, just letting my mind know he is God, focusing in silence. It's been amazing. Then there's all this bombastic display, fire, earthquake, wind, and God's not in that, God's not in that, God's not in that. In the past, at this very mountain with Moses, God was in that. God speaks in different ways. But when he spoke in a whisper here, there's something worth noticing. It doesn't even say what the whisper said. Some Jewish commentators think it was less about content and more like this comforting presence, closer to the Greek word Logos, God as Word himself, rather than Rhema, an actual spoken word.

It's like a baby who doesn't understand a word their mother says for months, but when Mom whispers, that baby gets something. That's what's happening here. Whispers have to do with proximity. An earthquake, you can feel from far away. Smoke from a fire, you can smell it from miles off. But a whisper, you have to be close. So how comfortable are you with actual intimacy with God? It's so much easier for me to handle the word of God than the presence of God. The word tells me stuff, A plus B equals C, it's hard hitting and comforting in its own way. But presence is different. I grew up in a German family without a lot of physical affection.

We had a good verbal relationship, but I never crawled up on my dad's lap. That's the difference between word and presence. You can have one without the other, and I want to encourage you to be the kind of people who get called into that whisper. Here's the second point, and it's key: Elijah heard God, but he didn't walk out of the cave until the whisper. God told him in verse eleven, "Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD." What would you do if God told you that directly? You'd probably just walk out. But we have three events, an earthquake, fire, wind, and Elijah, according to the text, is still in the cave through all of it.

I don't know exactly why. But when that whisper comes, he walks out. There was something in that whisper, something in that presence, that drew him out in a way the loud things never did. Sometimes I can have a million things in my life as loud as earthquakes and storms, and they don't call me out of my caves of darkness the way intimacy with God's presence does. Elijah did not immediately come out. He remained in the cave through the wind, the earthquake, and the fire. He came out only after hearing the gentle whisper. The whisper was the moment he recognized God's presence. After that whisper, the word of God comes to him again, and I love this, because it gives him a directive.

God asks him a second time, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" A great question after all of that. I'm wondering if the perspective has changed by now. Here's what's odd though: even Elijah, even a man who later stands with Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration, gives basically the same answer again. Verse fourteen, this time with his face wrapped in his cloak, some kind of humility there. "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, killed your prophets with the sword, and I, only I, am left, and they seek to take my life too." Same lie, still in the cave of it.

Verse fifteen is when God gets down to business, starts telling him the plan. "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria." Why does that matter? Because God is going to use Syria to eventually judge and displace Ahab and Jezebel. That big problem in his life, Jezebel, gets solved, and Elijah gets to be part of the solution, but only if he's not stuck in the cave. "Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel." Who's currently king? Ahab. Who's queen? Jezebel. God's saying, I'm going to anoint someone else to displace that kingship entirely.

Is there something you've let become king over your life? Fear, worry, doubt, sickness, lack of hope? It might be time to anoint a new king over whatever has been ruling you. Verse sixteen, God basically tells him, I'm going to let you retire too, eventually. "Elisha the son of Shaphat you shall anoint to be prophet in your place." You're going to anoint your own successor. And then, this is what I love most: "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." You are not alone. One of the main lies I hear from people is, you are alone, no one understands what you're going through.

I could name a hundred people who are for me. Fifty who pray for me every week that I know of. I am not alone. But even with all that truth, there are still moments, middle of the night, middle of the afternoon, where you feel completely alone anyway. God has reserved seven thousand for you too, metaphorically. People you don't even know about yet, layers of his work in your life you haven't seen. That is the truth, if we can get out of the cave long enough to receive it. Physically, Elijah wasn't hiding in a cave. Internally, he was hiding inside a false story: I am the only one left.

You are not the only one left. Others have gone through what you're going through, all over the world, right now. Before we take communion, here's your practical takeaway. The whisper called Elijah out. The word corrected his perspective. The assignment restored his direction. You might need all three. Get the word, get the presence, get the word again, and then get back to business. Get back to loving your spouse. Get back to caring for others. Get back to the things you know bring health and vibrance and life. Don't build your life around a story fear is telling you. Come out of the cave and let God tell you what is true.

This week, ask yourself, "What am I doing here?" Some of you need to ask that about an addiction. Reach out, get out of the cave, do whatever it takes. Identify the lies that have kept you there, and lean back into the assignment.