Out of the Cave: Stepping Into the Light | Pastor Chris Hodges
Out of the Cave
Stepping into the Light…
1 Kings 19:5-8 (NIV) Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So, he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
1. Stepping into a needed recovery.
- If I don’t prioritize my life, someone else will.
- Psalm 90:12 (LB) Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.
- 1 Kings 19:9-12 (NIV) There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
2. Stepping into a God encounter.
- We look for the dynamic, but God is in the intimate.
- Psalm 46:10 (NIV) Be still, and know that I am God.
- Psalm 73:16-17 (NIV) When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God.
- 1 Kings 19:13-14 (NIV) When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
3. Stepping into a true identity.
- “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt
- 1 Kings 19:15-18 (NIV) The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”
4. Stepping into a new assignment.
- Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) Where there is no vision, the people perish.
- “People have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning.” ~Viktor Frankl
- 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV) Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
- 1 Kings 19:19 (NIV) So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him.
5. Stepping into a relational strength.
- “Look carefully at the closest associations in your life, for that is the direction you are headed.” ~Kevin Eikenberry