The Cave | Pastor Dave Pretlove | April 27, 2025

by | Apr 27, 2025 | Digging Deeper | 0 comments


Series: The Cave
Sermon Title: Despair in the Wilderness
Passage: 1 Kings 19:1-4

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Series: The Cave
Sermon Title: Despair in the Wilderness
Passage: 1 Kings 19:1-4

SERMON POINTS: 

  1. No One Is Untouchable
  2. The Crash Often Comes After the Climb 
  3. Bring It All to God

 

GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

How does Elijah’s despair in 1 Kings 19:1–4 challenge the idea that spiritual strength makes us immune to emotional distress? How have you seen this in your own life or others’ lives?

  • Supporting Scripture: Psalm 34:18
  • Follow-Up Question: What does it mean to you that God is near in your moments of emotional brokenness, and how can you lean into His presence during those times?

The sermon notes that “the crash often comes after the climb.” How have you experienced a low point after a spiritual or personal high, and what might God be inviting you to learn in those moments?

  • Supporting Scripture: Matthew 11:28–30
  • Follow-Up Question: How can you practically “come to Jesus” for rest when you’re emotionally or spiritually exhausted?

Elijah openly expresses his despair to God, even asking to die. Why is it important to bring our raw, unfiltered emotions to God, and what holds you back from doing this?

  • Supporting Scripture: Lamentations 3:55–57
  • Follow-Up Question: What is one emotion or struggle you’ve been hesitant to share with God, and how might you begin to offer it to Him this week?

The sermon highlights that Elijah’s surrender to God (asking God to take his life) is different from taking his own life. How does surrendering our pain to God reflect trust in His goodness, even when we can’t see it?

  • Supporting Scripture: Romans 8:28
  • Follow-Up Question: What is one area of your life where you need to surrender control to God, and what might that surrender look like practically?

The sermon emphasizes that God is a safe place for complete honesty. How does Elijah’s example encourage you to be more authentic with God about your struggles, and what does that authenticity look like for you?

  • Supporting Scripture: Psalm 62:8
  • Follow-Up Question: How can you create space in your daily life to “pour out your heart” to God with honesty?

What deeper needs might God have been pointing Elijah toward in his wilderness moment?

  • Supporting Scripture: Matthew 4:1–4, Isaiah 40:29–31
  • Follow-up: When you feel emotional or spiritual distress, what deeper needs or longings might God be inviting you to address?

How does acknowledging and processing emotional distress, like Elijah’s, contribute to your spiritual maturity? What barriers do you face in integrating emotional health with your faith?

  • Supporting Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:9–10
  • Follow-Up Question: What is one step you can take to embrace your emotional weaknesses as an opportunity for God’s grace to work in you?

How does Elijah’s story (and the fact that he never dies, see 2 Kings 2:11) point to God’s bigger plan for us, even in our darkest moments? How can this shape your perspective on your own struggles?

  • Supporting Scripture: Jeremiah 29:11
  • Follow-Up Question: What hope or desire is God stirring in your heart, even in a season of despair, and how can you hold onto that vision?

How might sitting with God in the “cave” of your emotional distress lead to a deeper experience of His presence? What practices could help you encounter God in those moments?

  • Supporting Scripture: Psalm 46:10
  • Follow-Up Question: What is one contemplative practice (e.g., silence, journaling, or breath prayer) you could try this week to be still with God in your struggles?

Author and pastor Pete Scazzero reminds us, “You can’t be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.” How do you see Elijah’s emotional vulnerability as a sign of his spiritual maturity?

 

DAILY REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

Day 1: Recognizing My Limits
  • Reflective Question: Where have I been pushing myself beyond my emotional or spiritual limits, ignoring warning signs of burnout?
  • Scripture: Matthew 11:28–30
  • Follow-up Question: What specific changes can I make this week to honor my emotional and spiritual boundaries more intentionally?
  • Meditative Prompt: Spend a few moments in silence, releasing your striving, and allow God to meet you in your weariness.
Day 2: Honest Before God
  • Reflective Question: What thoughts or feelings have I been hesitant to openly share with God?
  • Scripture: Psalm 62:8 
  • Follow-up Question: How might fully sharing my honest emotions with God reshape the way I experience His presence in prayer?
  • Meditative Prompt: Imagine God sitting across from you, inviting you with gentleness and compassion: “Tell me everything.”

Day 3: Understanding My Valleys

  • Reflective Question: Can I identify any patterns where emotional lows follow times of spiritual highs or achievements?
  • Scripture: Psalm 42:5
  • Follow-up Question: What practical rhythms or practices might help me better navigate emotional valleys after significant high moments?
  • Meditative Prompt: Prayerfully consider how these cycles might invite you toward greater dependence on God rather than self-sufficiency.
Day 4: Letting Go of False Strength
  • Reflective Question: In what areas of my life am I pretending to be stronger or more resilient than I really feel?
  • Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:9
  • Follow-up Question: How could acknowledging my weaknesses openly with someone trusted help me experience more genuine emotional freedom?
  • Meditative Prompt: Visualize yourself placing these false strengths at the feet of Jesus, receiving in exchange His grace and strength.
Day 5: Surrendering Control
  • Reflective Question: What burden or emotional pain do I need to surrender fully into God’s care today?
  • Scripture: 1 Peter 5:7
  • Follow-up Question: What fears or beliefs have kept me from fully releasing control of my burdens to God?
  • Meditative Prompt: Open your hands as a symbolic gesture of releasing control to God, trusting He cares deeply for your wellbeing.
Day 6: Listening for Deeper Needs
  • Reflective Question: What deeper emotional or spiritual need might God be uncovering through my current distress?
  • Scripture: Isaiah 40:29–31
  • Follow-up Question: What step could I take today to actively address or care for the deeper emotional or spiritual need God is highlighting?
  • Meditative Prompt: Quiet your mind and ask, “God, what deeper longing or need are you revealing to me through this struggle?”
Day 7: Growing Toward Maturity
  • Reflective Question: How might embracing my emotional vulnerability lead me into deeper spiritual maturity?
  • Scripture: Romans 8:26–27 
  • Follow-up Question: What aspect of emotional vulnerability do I find most challenging, and how can embracing it help me grow closer to God and others?
  • Meditative Prompt: Thank God for using even your struggles to gently shape you into someone more emotionally whole and spiritually mature.

 

SCRIPTURES TO MEDITATE ON:

 

RESOURCES:

 

MONTHLY SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE: False Self | Rob Hans, Spiritual Formation Pastor

One of the most profound aspects of being human is our capacity for deep friendships and meaningful relationships. These connections can bring immense joy and fulfillment, yet they can also be sources of significant pain and disappointment. This tension highlights the necessity of exploring and shedding our false self—the persona we construct as protection against emotional hurt. The more honestly we know ourselves, embracing both strengths and vulnerabilities, the more genuine we become in our relationships. Doing this deep inner work equips us to love others more authentically and effectively.

Each of us lives simultaneously in two worlds: the external, physical world we engage daily, and our internal, spiritual world—the realm of our thoughts, emotions, and deepest truths. Often, these worlds collide, prompting us to create protective measures or masks that distort our true identity. These masks—our false selves—are defenses we build to manage perceptions and avoid vulnerability. Yet, as our relationship with the Lord deepens, He lovingly calls us to dismantle these false selves. God sees beyond our projections; He knows and loves the authentic version of who we are beneath our defenses. He invites us into a safe and transformative journey of discovering and embracing our true identity—the one He joyfully intended from the very beginning.

So how do we practically move toward recognizing and living as our true self? It begins with becoming comfortable simply being with Jesus. Pete Scazzero wisely emphasizes this practice: “Being with God precedes doing for God.” It is in this quiet, intentional presence with Christ that our false identities lose their power, allowing our true selves to emerge and thrive.

Step 1: Be With God in Stillness
  • Purpose: Cultivate comfort in God’s presence to create a safe space for self-discovery, as Pete Scazzero emphasizes “being with God before doing for God.”
  • Exercise: Spend 5–10 minutes in silence with God each day for a week. Use a breath prayer: inhale, “I am Yours,” exhale, “You know me.” Focus on resting in His love without performing or proving anything.
  • Reflection: What feelings or resistances arise when you sit quietly with God? How might these point to false selves (e.g., the need to perform or hide) you’ve built to protect your inner world?
  • Scripture: Psalm 46:10 – “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
Step 2: Name Your False Self
  • Purpose: Identify the protective, false versions of yourself that conflict with your true, God-given identity.
  • Exercise: Journal about a recent moment when you felt inauthentic in a relationship or situation (e.g., people-pleasing, hiding emotions). Ask: “What was I trying to protect? What false self (e.g., the ‘perfect’ self, the ‘strong’ self) was I projecting?” Write down 1–2 false selves you notice.
  • Reflection: How have these false selves impacted your relationships or emotional health? What fears keep you clinging to them instead of trusting God’s love for your true self?
  • Scripture: Psalm 139:14 – “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Step 3: Surrender the False Self to God
  • Purpose: Release false selves through surrender, trusting God’s love for your true self, Slowly trust your heart to God and embrace God’s deeper desires for you.
  • Exercise: In prayer, visualize bringing one false self to Jesus (e.g., imagine handing Him a mask labeled “the fixer”). Say, “Jesus, I surrender this false self to You. Show me who You created me to be.” Then, listen for His gentle response in your heart or through Scripture.
  • Reflection: What does it feel like to let go of this false self, even a little? How might surrendering it open you to love others more authentically?
    Scripture: Romans 12:2 – “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”
Step 4: Embrace Your True Self in Community
  • Purpose: Live out your true self in relationships, fostering emotional and spiritual health, begin to embody authenticity in the world.
  • Exercise: Share one insight about your true self (e.g., a God-given strength or vulnerability) with a trusted friend or small group. Practice being honest without projecting a false self. Ask for their encouragement to keep growing in authenticity.
  • Reflection: How did it feel to be seen as your true self? How can living authentically in community help you stay rooted in God’s love and avoid slipping back into false selves?
  • Scripture: 1 John 4:16 – “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

You don’t have to hide your true self from God. He sees the real you—the one He created with love—and invites you to shed the false selves that weigh you down. As you practice these steps, you’ll find freedom to love God, yourself, and others more deeply, growing in emotional and spiritual health.

 

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: In the Wilderness, You’re Not Alone
By Rob Hans, Spiritual Formation Pastor, LifeChurchNV

This week, I’ve been chewing on the wilderness—those raw, disorienting places where life feels heavy and hope seems distant. Dave’s sermon on Elijah in 1 Kings 19:1–4 hit home: after the mountaintop victory at Carmel, Elijah crashes hard, fleeing to the wilderness, overwhelmed by despair. I see myself in him—maybe you do too. One minute, I’m riding a spiritual high; the next, I’m lost in dark thoughts, feeling trapped in my own mind.

In my time with Scripture, I’ve been diving into Mark 1, where the wilderness shows up again and again. John the Baptist preaches there, preparing the way. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, facing temptation. The wilderness isn’t just a place; it’s a crucible. It’s where we’re crushed and reshaped, deepened and strengthened. Elijah’s story, like Jesus’, shows us that the wilderness is holy ground—a place where God meets us in our brokenness.

Pete Scazzero would say we’ve got to name those wilderness emotions—fear, exhaustion, despair—to grow. Our healing begins when we bring our pain to Jesus. That’s what Elijah did—he poured out his anguish, and God didn’t turn away. Instead, He sent provision, rest, and a gentle whisper.

Mark 1:13 tells us angels attended Jesus in the wilderness. That’s our story too. You’re not alone in your despair. God is near, just as He was for Elijah and Jesus. Romans 12:2 urges us to renew our minds, to shift our focus from the darkness to the One who holds us. The wilderness can feel crushing, but it’s also where trust grows and faith deepens.

So, if you’re in a wilderness moment, take a deep breath. Feel God’s presence. You don’t have to fix it all today—just let Him sit with you in the cave of your soul. He’s got you, and He’s leading you toward hope.