The Whispering God: Finding the Divine in the Stillness

Reading of the Word

1 Kings 19:9–14 NASB 2020

Then he came there to a cave and spent the night there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of armies; for the sons of Israel have abandoned Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they have sought to take my life.” So He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and powerful wind was tearing out the mountains and breaking the rocks in pieces before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there was 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, a sound of a gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of armies; for the sons of Israel have abandoned Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they have sought to take my life.”

Prayer of Illumination

Gracious God,

As we come to Your Word today, open our hearts and minds to Your truth. Help us hear Your voice in the quiet and recognize Your presence in the stillness. Guide us with Your wisdom and transform us through Your message.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Introduction

I’ve found that it pays to get along with your wife. As an example of this, a man was tired of living with his wife.

There seemed to be no way he could get away from her verbal rants. At last he got so desperate that he decided that he would be happier in jail. He thought, “I’ll rob a bank and they’ll put me in jail.”

So he robbed a bank, was captured by the police, and the Judge gave him 2 years of “House Arrest!”

We’re going to read about a man this morning who might have been better if he’d been in jail. His name is Elijah.

The text prior to this:

Elijah is on the run after the threat of death from Jezebel

Elijah runs for his life into the middle of nowhere, where God sends an angel to encounter him.

He sat under a tree saying he would be better off dead.

God sent an angel to minister to him, feeding him and allowing him to rest.

The angel wakes him and sends him to Horeb.

Looking in All the Wrong Places

A couple of examples from the Bible:

Mary and Joseph experienced this with Jesus as a 12 year old boy.

Thomas wanted to see Jesus before he believed.He looked through sight, not faith.

We look for God in the extraordinary.

Miracles, wonders, religion, divine revelations, nature

We look for life in the dead places.

What is it for you? A good book, food, through our screens, a television show. They can be about God but not OF God.

We want something to get rid of the ache our heart feels because of sin and the fallen nature. We search for God in these things above and he isn’t there. It leads to a dead end that makes us feel dead and empty.

The problem with looking in all the wrong places is that we look to them to provide our source of joy and fulfillment.

God alone remains our source of satisfaction and the greatest motivation in our lives. Wayne Stiles

God Will Meet Us

We need to encounter God.

Deuteronomy 4:29 NASB 2020

But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

In His Word

In prayer

Through the sacraments

Through others

Through our calling in life

Choose the time to do this and make it happen. Don’t let anything get in the way of your time with God.

It has to be a priority.

Even when overloaded with work and drowning with busyness and noise, your day will be much more productive for your employer, your family and for Jesus if you spend time with him daily.

God wants to reveal himself to us.

He is not too busy to meet with us.

He does this not with loud yelling or with things that overwhelm us but rather through a gentle voice that knocks on the door of our heart. The soft whisper or nudge to our soul.

Are we too busy? Do we make it where the only time we meet with him is when we go to church?

Stained glass from prayer room.

Jesus is asking us the question like he did Peter after the resurrection. Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?

Spending time in investing in our relationship is how we show proof of loving God.

Love him before you serve him. Serve him to show your love of God to the world.

Everything we are in Christ is found in relationship with him.

It is the place where God speaks from.

God doesn’t come through the Holy Spirit with threats of doom and destruction.

The Holy Spirit’s function is to convict, not condemn. Jesus came to earth with the same attitude.

John 3:17 NASB 2020

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.

If God doesn’t come in this fashion to us, neither shall we come to others in this way.

I believe hell exists. I believe in a second death after life if we don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior. Hell exists or satan would not have anywhere to rule the world from.

Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames

Church dug grave in their backyard on Halloween.

We don’t showing judge or scare people into believing the Gospel. This is not of God!

Are we like Elijah here, forgetting the power and strength of our God and trying to bring people to Jesus through self instead of God?

He comes with compassion, love, mercy, ready to meet you where you are.

God doesn’t want us to work on perfecting ourselves before we come to him.

God needs to hear from us.

God listened to Elijah.

God asked Elijah a question and nothing else.

He did this two times.

The first time - "Woe is me! I followed Your command but they didn’t listen and everything fell apart. I ran because I tried to rely on my own strength—and I failed. We won the battle but lost the war.“

The second time - a renewed sense of purpose, faith is placed in God that he will overcome the enemy, determination to see God’s plan through.

The difference - encountering the still small voice and the presence of God.

God wants to know what’s going on in our lives.

He cares.

He understands.

He wants us to show trust in him instead of ourselves. We do this through telling God our burdens and cares.

Turn Down the Volume in Your Life

We have so much going on that we cannot recognize his voice.

The world drowns out God. Look at today’s world and it won’t take you very long to see overwhelming proof of this.

At times, the church even drowns out his voice.

This can be a great lesson to people who believe that loud, boisterous, and highly demonstrative worship is the mark of power from God, and that quietness is a sign of a lack of the Spirit. On some occasions, God was revealed in mighty thunderings, but her only in the still small voice. (Dake)

“Divine silence does not mean divine inactivity.” (The Reformation Study Bible)

We mute God because we do not want to hear from him.

We enjoy everything else but we lock God out of the door of our heart.

Get away from the wind, fire and earthquake and listen for God to speak to you in the smallest of ways.

The smallest ways God speaks many times have the biggest impact in our lives and in the lives of others.

Turn down the volume of the world and drown your hearts and minds in the heavenly volume.

We need to fight the good fight of faith, even when we feel like we are the only one doing so.

1 Timothy 6:12 NASB 2020

Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

b. Take a bold stand against the sins of this world, just as Elijah did. The world will place identities upon you, but remember—Jesus is with you, and His opinion is the only one that matters. Let the voices of others fade in the light of His truth.

c. We need God to make it through the challenges of each day.

Don’t live without God’s abiding presence. We need him!

Learn to say no.

d. To truly hear what God is speaking into our lives, we need to intentionally step away from the constant noise of the world.

It's in the quiet, away from distractions, that we gain clarity to see His direction and understand His purpose.

To Sum It Up

We should take time and remove ourselves from our daily grind, get alone in a quiet place, and listen to God speak to us. He should not have to yell for us to be able to hear Him speak.

Conclusion

I pray this series has spoken to your heart. We must be still in this life in order to walk with God. If we aren’t, we need to begin. The world will do everything to drown out God through noise and busyness. We as Christians have the responsibility to drown out the world so that we can walk with God. He is waiting, ready to meet us. He is calling our name and waiting for us to join him in a beautiful relationship.

Hymns will never lose their power! I love what we do here. But the hymns will never be taken from my heart. This hymn is God’s yearning for us and our deep desire for others who don’t know Christ personally.

Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling. Calling for you and for me. See on the portals He is waiting and watching. Watching for you and for me. Come home, come home, ye who are weary come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home” (Jesus Is Tenderly Calling).

Prayer After Sermon

Heavenly Father,

We come before You humbled by the courage of Elijah and strengthened by the presence of Jesus. Help us to stand firm against the pull of this world and the sin that surrounds us. In moments when the world’s voices grow loud, remind us that Your voice is the only one that truly matters. Give us the boldness to walk in Your truth, to honor Your will, and to seek Your approval above all else. Thank You for being with us in every step, even when the world turns against us. Strengthen our hearts and minds as we stand for You.

In the powerful name of Jesus, we pray,

Amen.

Benediction

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May His face shine upon you and give you peace.

As you go out into the world, stand firm in His truth,

knowing that He is with you every step of the way.

May His presence be your strength,

and may you seek His approval above all others.

Go in the peace and power of Jesus Christ. Amen.