The Sound of a Whisper

Intro: Loud noises

Have everyone be loud and then cut it when I give the signal

Do you feel that? The weight of silence?

An article titled, “Noise Pollution and its impact on human health.” mentions a handful of studies that show differing effects, both physiological and psychological of excessive noise.

a 2017 study shows that higher noise-pollution is associated with worse mental health

A study on cognitive performance showed that mental workload and cognitive impairment and decline are significantly higher when we’re surrounded by noise.

And, I believe that excess noise hurts relationships.

This is not a measurable fact, but it is much harder to build strong relationships in only loud atmospheres.

You don’t learn about someone’s life at a concert.

A loud party is not the way that people connect.

And, you cannot appreciate the value of someone’s company in constant entertainment and noise like you can when it’s just the two of you.

Students, that’s why a movie is a terrible first date idea. Go to coffee or something where you can talk.

This, I think, is one of the factors that goes into our story today.

You see, Elijah had just come off of a massive win when we approach 1 Kings 19. In chapter 18, he had just seen two incredible miracles. First, in the midst of a three year drought that God had sent on Israel, Elijah got into a contest with 450 priests of Baal, the false god that Israel would often worship. The two sides, the 450 pagans and the one prophet, built two altars and sacrificed a bull on each of them, and then the deal was, whichever god was real would burn up the offering on the altar.

So, the two groups do this, and Elijah let’s the pagans go first. They struggle and cut themselves and do rituals for a few hours while Elijah mocks them. Then, Elijah takes up the job. He has the people around drown the altar with water (keep in mind they’re in a drought) and then prays a simple three sentence prayer.

1 Kings 18:36–37 “And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.””

Then, a fire tornado fell from heaven and consumed the entire altar so that there was nothing left.

At that, the pagan priests are kind of up a creek without a paddle and are shown to be worshipping a false god, so then the Israelites kill those priests.

Then, after all of that, Elijah goes up on Mount Carmel and prays to God to end the drought, which He does!

So, in the course of a day, God miraculously sends fire and ends a three-year drought. Pretty good day!

Then, we get to chapter 19.

1 Kings 19:1–2 “Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.””

So, Elijah has just had this incredible experience with God and then he get’s death threats the next day!

This crushes Elijah. He runs in fear to the wilderness, kneels by a tree, and then prays” It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

Elijah is crushed. He is the prophet to the nation of Israel, the people of God, and they have constantly rejected God! Even after a miracle of immense magnitude, they still follow after false gods and seek for his death. He is destroyed, he feels like a complete failure, and he asks for death.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been at that moment in your life where you feel like a complete and utter failure, but it is crushing.

When I was younger, I was a youth pastor at a really tiny church in Reno that had a lot of problems, but I was doing ministry! It was what I had wanted for so long, and I felt like God was finally moving.

But, the church had a lot of problems, and the congregation didn’t like anyone who hadn’t gone to that church for 20 years, and both my wife and I, after 2 years of slogging through ministry, decided that God wanted us to leave before we gave up on church entirely.

And I cannot tell you how it feels to have what you thought was the calling of God on your life be the thing that was slowly ruining your life, but I was devastated. I felt like a total failure. I was numb to everything. I had given all of my emotions and energy to something, and then what I had to show for it was a resignation letter and a lot of hurt towards church.

Elijah was devastated, and felt like he had no way out. And it was in that moment that God spoke.

So, Elijah flees into the desert and then falls asleep. He wakes up to an angel prodding him with a snack. So, he eats, and then the angel tells him to go back to sleep. He wakes up one more time to the angel with a snack, and then he, by the power of God, goes on a forty day journey into the wilderness to Mount Horeb, which is called the mount of God.

(Picture)

He lodges in a cave in the mountain and God asks him a question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Elijah responds. 1 Kings 19:10 “He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.””

Then, Elijah is told to go out of the cave and wait, and then a massive wind that breaks rocks and mountains goes by, but the LORD was not in it. Then a huge earthquake rolls by, but God was not in the earthquake. Then, a fire (probably not unlike the fire in chapter 18) comes through, but God was not in the fire. Finally, Elijah, faintly, hears a still, small voice. Then, and only then, Elijah could leave, and the voice of the LORD asks him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” to which Elijah responds again

1 Kings 19:14 “He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.””

At which point, the LORD tells Elijah many things.

This story though, shows us something incredible.

In Christ, I have a new relationship with God.

So these next three ideas are things that we can see Elijah himself processing in this passage, and they are things that you and I need to know in our bones if we are to be people of Jesus.

God Saves, Not Me

I want to be clear here; I love Elijah. One of my prayers recently is that I can become more like Elijah. I want to see incredible things, and then I want to pave the way for others to see even more incredible things. BUT, Elijah had too high a view of himself before this mountain.

We see that in what he says to God.

1 Kings 19:10 “He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.””

The focus is on the I. I’ve done this, I’m left, I’m alone!

He has been on his own for so long that he forgot that he was never really on his own!

He was so busy doing the work of God that he forgot to rely fully on the God that he was working for!

And so he’s worn out! Wouldn’t you? If you felt like the world would stop turning if you stop striving? I’m sure there’s many of us that feel that way today!

We need God to save us because we can’t do it on our own.

I’m not strong enough to save myself! I can’t fix my family, I can’t fix my job, and I certainly can’t fix me! I need Christ!

Elijah was broken down and worn out because he had been given a terrible hand and he was trying to make it work off of the sweat of his back and his ability to succeed, which will never work!

And Elijah was MASSIVELY successful! He did and saw more than you and I probably will in our lifetimes! He was so close with God that he DIDN’T DIE! God took him up in a chariot of fire, and still, THAT GUY wasn’t good enough.

We need Someone else.

We need Someone else who took a forty day journey in the wilderness without food. We need Someone else who could stand before the Presence of God. We need the One who brought the still, small voice to each of us.

You and I need Christ! He is the Savior who Elijah needed and who we need now.

In Him, we don’t have to strive anymore!

The world will continue turning if we stop, but the world literally turns because of Him!

Jesus is the One on whom we can place all of our hopes and fears and pains, because it certainly can’t be on us!

Jesus went to the cross so that you and I can hear that small voice and know our Father in heaven.

Interestingly, the saving also seems to include God’s loving care of us as well.

God sends an angel with the sole purpose of making Elijah a lunch and telling him to take a nap. That’s a salvation of it’s own kind!

The word that’s traditionally used for “saving” in the New Testament is the often same as the word that the Bible uses for “healing” or “to be made well”

So, maybe we need to come to the foot of the cross and be made well by the Blood of the Lamb that was slain on the cross and to be redeemed by the cross and the empty tomb. Maybe, for those of us who are followers of Jesus and are just worn out, we just need to be able to receive the kindness of God and take a nap and have a good meal.

God Speaks, I Listen

Something that is essential in this whole discussion though is Elijah’s interaction with God, isn’t it fascinating?

I truly believe that the Bible doesn’t lie or embellish, so I know that Elijah actually heard the voice of God more than one time in this section.

Is that not weird for you??

It is not typical that we would say that we heard God speak and not get funny looks.

And yet, God’s response is essential in the story of Elijah.

If God did not speak in His small voice, then Elijah would have been stuck in vs 10, questioning everything, feeling abandoned and alone.

It is only when God speaks to Elijah that everything changes.

Now, it’s easy to assume that this is a story in the Bible and that God “doesn’t do that type of thing anymore.”

I think that is a fallacy that will hurt our faith. If we believe that God is not speaking regularly anymore, than what has He been doing all this time since Christ ascended into heaven? Did He retreat outside of creation to just let us run our own affairs?

NO! Our God is a triune, loving God that created the universe out of the abundance of love that He had in the community of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He’s not just going to leave His creation in the dust once it got started!

Parents, once your child is born, you don’t leave them to figure out all of life on their own! We’re supposed to always be there, able to teach and guide and SPEAK to them.

God is speaking all the time, we’re just not very good at listening.

This is essential to an understanding of God: HE’S ALWAYS SPEAKING

Even when He created, He did it using speech! He communicated, and so creation came to be, so why would we expect that He stopped just recently?

Notice how God speaks!

It’s not in the whirlwind, it’s not in the earthquake, it’s not in the fire. All of those things are big and loud and expressive.

He speaks in a whisper.

Something barely audible, something that you have to be silent in order to hear.

It’s only when Elijah is quiet that he get’s to hear what the LORD has to say.

Are we quiet enough to hear God speaking?

In our prayer times or our car rides or are Bible reading times, do we actively listen for God, or are we very good at talking, but not very good at listening.

I am someone who spends a whole lot of time talking or trying to start something in my prayer or reading, but I’m not very good at listening.

I’ll pick up my Bible and start trying to force it, writing down something that I think is super great and that is so very wise.

But, in that time, I’ve not taken a moment of that productivity to listen to what God has to say about my reading.

“Generally speaking, God will not compete for our attention. Occasionally, a Saul gets knocked to the ground and so on, but we should expect that in most cases, God will not run over us. We must be open to the possibility of God’s addressing us in whatever way he chooses, or else we may walk right past a burning bush.” Dallas Willard

So, then, how are we to hear God? If He’s talking all of the time, what are we supposed to do?

Do we just go outside and wait for a booming voice to shut down a city block to tell us what to do?

Probably not. I’m not going to try to limit God and say that He can’t, but I’m confident that there is a reason that He hasn’t.

Here are three ways in which we see God speaking regularly.

God speaks through prayer.

All throughout the Scriptures, we get different times in which God provides thoughts, inclinations, pictures, or verses that come to mind when the people of God pray.

So, if you really want to hear from God, start praying!

God speaks through His people.

The people of God are on earth to build God’s kingdom and to grow more into people of Jesus, and that is done communally!

Multiple times in the Book of Acts, the early Christians have questions about the faith, so then they go into times of prayer and discussion and make decisions based off of how God was speaking in their prayers and in the mouths of other believers.

Now, for sure, there are a lot of people who want to be more of a mouthpiece of God than they actually are, and that is it’s own problem.

But, we should all be seeking out older, more mature brothers and sisters in Christ who can be a source of encouragement, wisdom, and challenge so that we might grow more like Jesus.

God speaks in His Scriptures.

This is the biggest, clearest, and most foundational way God speaks.

The Word of God, the Bible, is God communicating and revealing Himself to us. In it, we see the story of God’s creation, we see His character, we see His sacrifice, we see the Person of Jesus, the actions of the Holy Spirit, and the personality of the Father.

The Bible is the PRIMARY authority by which God speaks.

If you are someone who loves Jesus, you need to spend time in the Bible.

There is no substitute, no “quick way” to hearing God better. We need time in the Bible if we want to hear from God.

"If you want to hear from God, read your Bible. If you want to hear Him audibly, read it out loud." -Justin Peters

When the Bible speaks, God speaks.

Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield

And, that must frame every other way in which we hear from God.

He doesn’t change, ever.

And so, if you feel like God is calling you in your prayer time to leave your spouse because you don’t like them anymore, that’s not God, because God has always said He hates divorce.

The Bible is God’s revelation to us, so we must hear Him in Scripture.

In all honesty, it’s pretty rare for God to communicate audibly, or with a hearable voice. I think I’ve heard God communicate somewhat audibly to me one time, and I desperately needed it. The vast majority of the time, it’s been through others or in prayer or in my reading, and every time it has to be tempered with the Spirit and found in the Word of God.

God is speaking, I promise you!

God Has a Plan, I Obey

We get to verse 14 in this chapter, and we see a broken man.

He’s already said this once in verse 10, and Elijah says the exact same thing again, only this is after a miraculous experience.

I can’t guarantee this is how it worked, but it feels to me like vs. 10 is more of an angry or emotional statement, but by vs. 14, you can feel him starting to swell with grief and sadness. He’s not mad anymore, Elijah’s just simply, empty. In his mind, he is a failure before an awesome God, and all that’s left is for him to expire.

And then the LORD speaks.

God gives Elijah a plan. He provides for Elijah in a way that is not typical for the life of the Christian.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been given my whole life plan in a letter from God.

But all of this get’s back to the first point!

See, Elijah seemed to have been doing all of the things that he did out of a belief that Elijah can do it; he can save the people of Israel with God’s help. But now, Elijah is confronted with the awesome truth, he’s just a character in God’s story!

Elijah is going to anoint kings over the people of God, showing that it’s not going to end with Ahab and Jezebel.

And, Elijah is going to pass off the mantle of prophet to a new person, showing that the burden of leadership isn’t only on Elijah.

And finally, God tells Elijah that there will be a remnant of the holy people of God, showing that Elijah is not as alone as he thought.

That answers all of the problems that Elijah has at the moment.

His problem with God was that the Israelites and their monarchs had abandoned the covenant and torn down altars, that all of the prophets had been murdered, and that Elijah is the only one left, and God, in His grace and in His mercy, provides Elijah a new perspective.

God has a plan for you.

This is not the pat answer, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” that we heard about last week, it’s much better than that.

See, Elijah was brought to the brink of destruction for him to see a glimpse of God’s plan, but it’s not like things were easier after that! Elijah still had issues with Ahab, and then the next king wanted Elijah dead too. Israel still largely abandoned God and Elijah still didn’t see that many people turn to the Lord.

But we never see Elijah come to that same place of brokenness again, because he knew the Lord was with him.

Life is not easy, in fact it is very much hard; and in some ways it can be harder for followers of Jesus.

It’s much easier to live a life of sin and contempt like we are sold in every ad and every social media post; it’s difficult to be an active and committed follower of Jesus.

But it’s where life is found!

Life may not be easier with Christ, but a life without Christ is not actually living! Without Jesus, we are functionally dead and enslaved in our sins and the things we sell ourselves to.

But then the Man who is God, Jesus, came and showed a new way to live, a new relationship with God that isn’t based on what I do but on what He’s done, and sacrificed Himself so that I can come and be with God, not just in heaven, but now!

God has a plan for you, , there is a reason that you are here, because if there wasn’t, you wouldn’t!

If you want to be a good Muslim, you follow the Quran and be a good Muslim and pray five times a day and you will be safe. If you want to be a good Mormon, you’ll have a big family and do what the Prophet tells you to do and convince other people to be Mormon. If you want to be a good atheist, try not to hurt other people too much and you’ll probably be ok.

If you want to be a good follower of Jesus, we have to admit our sin and our rebellion from God and believe on the Lord Jesus as our Savior. It’s not based on what I do, it’s not based on who I am, it’s based on Christ and Christ alone. It’s a relationship, not a transaction.

Application: Listen to God and live in the new relationship with the Lord.