Silence and Solitude FMC 2025

Scripture and introduction

Mark 1:9–13 NIV

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

Pray.

There is a question we ask in Wesleyan small groups…. How is it with your soul? How is your life in God? 99% of the time when people are presented with this question for the first time, they are a deer in headlights. Why? This is probably the most basic question to ask a Christian. The basic premise is what is important about God right now and what do you know about yourself right now.

Ungodliness….

Jerry Bridges has a great book titled Respectable Sins where he makes the case that one of our most perplexing attitudes is ungodliness:

“Ungodliness may be defined as living one’s everyday life with little or no thought of God, or of God’s will, or of God’s glory, or of one’s dependence on God.”

2. Self-unawareness

We do not know ourselves because we live in shallow waters.

Why?

Our lives are all noise with little to no silence and solitude.

Truth is we are busy and we are distracted.

Sermon from DR AJ Swoboda a professor and scholar at fuller seminary sharing about the differences between WW2 and Vietnam. Drug abuse and spousal abuse difference

WW2: yes there was this victory over the evils of the world but they had time to wait and space to process

Vietnam: from the battlefield to the living room in 48 hours.

They had space to stop and process. Our culture, Swoboda claims, has done away with “space”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, famous poet:

“Earth is crammed with heaven and every common bush a fire with God. But only he who sees will take off his shoes. The rest will just pick blackberries.” -Elizabeth Barrett Browning

We have so many distractions in our life. So many things we balance, so many demands, but also so many wastes.

Cell Phone Usage:

The typical cellphone user touches his or her phone 2,617 time every day, according to a study by research firm Dscout. But that's just the average user: The study found that extreme cellphone users — meaning the top 10% — touch their phones more than 5,400 times daily.

Over 2.5 hours and an average of 75 sessions.

In his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, John Mark Comer talks about the dangerous cycle of being too busy:

It may be the case that

(1) Christians are assimilating to a culture of busyness, hurry and overload, which leads to

(2) God becoming more marginalized in Christians’ lives, which leads to

(3) a deteriorating relationship with God, which leads to

(4) Christians becoming even more vulnerable to adopting secular assumptions about how to live, which leads to

(5) more conformity to a culture of busyness, hurry and overload. And then the cycle begins again.

The Wilderness

I want you to see something in scripture that is blowing me away that John Mark Comer helped me see.

Look at Mark 1 again....

Read Mark 1:12

Mark 1:12 NIV

At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness,

We know from Matthew a little more detail about this journey into the wilderness:

Spirit leads him into wilderness, after 40 days and nights of fasting, he is hungry….uh yeah. By this point I would be hangry. That is when the Tempter shows up. How convenient.

Often thought this is exactly when the devil would show up, right?! When youre hungry, tired, and in the wilderness.

Show picture

However the word used there for wilderness is not what we think. It is not even desert in the way we think of it. See the wilderness, or greek word, Eremos, The word could mean quiet place, deserted place, it could mean the lonely place.

Uh it is the quiet and Solitude place.

Silence and Solitude

Friends, I need you to see something....Eremos is actually a place of strength. Jesus is stronger there. More Dependent on God, isolated from distractions, no one to pull him in other directions. He is focused after fasting and praying with God. This is where he is most powerful.

Jesus Returns to the Wilderness Continually

Ok back to Mark 1, let me drive this home....I want you to see Jesus actions in the gospels.

Jesus has been in this super ministry day. Crazy stuff going on. It is a marathon day. Call his disciples and brings them on board, he drives out an impure spirit. Then verse 29…. Read about the Crazy day.

Mark 1:29–34 NIV

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

Now look at verse 35….

Mark 1:35 NIV

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

He did not sleep in and recover. He did not grab brunch with disciples. He did not wake up early cause there was still sooooooooo much to do. But he got up and went to a solitary place.

Do you know what that word is for solitary here? Eremos. The place of power. He just came out of 40 days of this. His tank should still be full but he still went back there. Why?

3 Things from the wilderness:

1. Power in the Wilderness

Don’t think of Satan being in the Wilderness…think of the power to fight Satan coming from time in the wilderness. The solitary place is where power for spiritual warfare comes from. The solitary place is where the ability for ministry comes from. The solitary place is the anointing of the Holy Spirit activated in your life.

2. Identity is found in the wilderness

First, Identity, the grand entrance of the mission of God in Jesus, in Mark’s gospel it begins at baptism there. We know that God’s mission is at work long before this moment but in Mark it starts right here. Identity is proclaimed in the baptism....

Mark 1:11 NIV

And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

But it is in the wilderness with the Father that those words change from proclamation to acclimation. Head knowledge to heart knowledge.

In silence and solitude, it is where Jesus takes on the mantle of his calling.

3. Mission is found in the wilderness

If you read on the disciples find him after that morning alone…hey man everyone is still looking for you!!!!! What you did was awesome. Jesus, reply, let us go somewhere else.

Out of the quiet place comes identity. Awareness of who he is. When you abide in God, It becomes more clear who you are

Ok, let’s get real practical here...

Silence and Solitude

Let’s talk about Silence and Solitude. Throughout the history of the church, leaders have pointed to the importance of this.

Silence:

External silence and internal silence.

External silence is obvious:

stopping the noise

tv

podcasts

audio books

NPR radio

can’t run or excercise without music.

I was leaving for a roadtrip this week and I needed a podcast to entertain me.

Here is the thing, we use external noise to cover up the internal noise.

the list of things to do

worry

fear

replaying that conversation over with your spouse or some friend

or still worse, insecurity....all of the ways your mind convinces you that you are not good enough

Some of us feel trapped in our cluttered and toxic minds....so we turn up the external noise.

silencing both is the silence we are talking about. It begins with intentionally turning off the external noise and then slowly decluttering and sifting through the internal noise.

Solitude:

Solitude is not isolation. Comer is helpful here to differentiate...

Solitude is engagement and isolation is escape

Solitude is safety; isolation danger

Solitude is when you set aside time to feed and water and nourish your soul. To let it grow into health and maturity. Isolation is what you crave when you neglect solitude.

Henri Nouwen:

Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life… We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and to listen to him.

I try to avoid too many marriage examples because single persons have the same issue here but if you are single think about any important relationship in your life, family or close friend....

If you spend no time quietly listening and talking with your spouse....what do you think happens? You drift apart. Even if the other wants to be close to you. For me, in this seasons that I have retreated to distraction I am absolutely unable to recognize what Lauren is feeling and what she is saying. She does not stop communicating but I miss it. She has to throw a book at me and say words explicitly for me to get it.

That is the case with God…we spend no time.

Closing:

Henri Nouwen once asked Mother Teresa for spiritual direction...

Well, when you spend one hour a day adoring your Lord and never do anything which you know is wrong…you will be fine!

I know what its like to live in a house with littles, or to have your calendar smoked full with appointments and demands.

When we dont practice this we find ourselves:

distant from God and end up living off somebody else’s spirituality. We slam a quick one page devotional and hope something catches or listen to a podcast, or worse you depend on my spirituality to carry you. My spirituality is barely enough at times for me.....

We lose sight of our identities. We never work through the myriad of voices in our head. We do no self awareness practice. We find ourselves unable to express to our partner or friends what we need or want....because we dont know it ourselves

Anxiety, exhaustion

Then we escape. And usually it is a bad place there.

What if the wilderness is finding silence and solitude?

And If in fact, the wilderness is a place a power. A place of identity. A place of mission (or purpose). Then this is quite literally a life and death situation.

The desert is not silence and solitude....the desert is the state of our hearts when we do not go to the quiet place.