1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:04,400 I want to begin by speaking about one of the best movies of 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,240 all time. It involves Tom Hanks, so you 3 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:09,360 know it's good. It's the movie Castaway, right? 4 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:13,280 Castaway. It came out and I think 2000, 5 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:16,840 and it was a phenomenon. It's such a good movie. 6 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:21,160 And the story is basically this. There's this overly busy FedEx 7 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:24,200 man named Chuck. He's like either an executive or 8 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:26,840 a manager, and he's all about the clock. 9 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:30,400 He's hustling throughout the entire beginning of this movie, 10 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:36,080 and he eventually gets onto an airplane that crashes into the 11 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,600 Pacific Ocean. He gets stranded on a desert 12 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:42,600 island, and on this island, it's full of challenges. 13 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:46,840 He has to give himself a root canal with an ice skate and a 14 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:48,800 rock. If you remember that scene from 15 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:51,360 the movie, it's the worst. It's terrible. 16 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:54,480 He has to learn how to build a fire by himself. 17 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:56,920 He has to learn how to fish and get food. 18 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:01,840 And we see this incredible transformation take place from 19 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:07,520 this character Chuck. He's there 1500 days. 20 00:01:07,960 --> 00:01:11,960 There's this moment in the movie where he, I think, passes out. 21 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:15,000 And then the movie says four years later. 22 00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:18,880 And the transformation from who he was to this sort of like 23 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:22,680 wilderness man at the end of four years is remarkable. 24 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:25,760 And what we see is that he's all by himself. 25 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:27,720 Well, almost by himself. He had a volleyball named 26 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:30,480 Wilson. If you remember Wilson, if 27 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:33,840 you've never cried over a volleyball, watch that movie and 28 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:34,720 you will. OK. 29 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:39,680 But we see this transformation taking place in in Chuck. 30 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:42,360 And there's this quote where Chuck, after he's rescued, 31 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:46,440 spoiler alert, he says this line after the island, he says, I had 32 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:51,720 power over nothing. And that's when this feeling 33 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:53,520 came over me like a warm blanket. 34 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:57,160 I knew somehow that I had to stay alive. 35 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:00,640 The transformation that took place in Chuck wasn't just 36 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:02,680 physical, it was actually internal. 37 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:06,160 Chuck said this line before the island. 38 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:09,199 He said time rules over us without mercy. 39 00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:14,360 Chuck was constantly on the go. He was glued to his pager on his 40 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:16,680 belt. For the youngins, A pager was 41 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:17,880 like a beeper. It was kind of like a cell 42 00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:19,280 phone. You had to like call it anyway. 43 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:22,000 It's the whole thing. But he was glued to his pager. 44 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:25,680 He didn't even have time to propose to his girlfriend 45 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:29,160 because work called him in and he had to leave his Christmas 46 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:31,720 dinner to get on the fateful plane. 47 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:34,920 The movie is genius because in the beginning it's all 48 00:02:34,920 --> 00:02:36,320 fast-paced. It's go, go, go. 49 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:38,520 We see Chuck's lifestyle. There's quick edits, there's 50 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:42,360 quick motion, but then after he's rescued from the island, 51 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:46,200 the movie just slows way, way, way, way down and we see Chuck, 52 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:50,600 this transformed man. We see him just slowly going 53 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:53,520 through life. Everyone around him is laughing 54 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:56,840 and hurrying still, but he is just slowly going through 55 00:02:56,840 --> 00:03:00,800 because he knows what it's like to have all the time in the 56 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:03,560 world. His fiance eventually got 57 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:06,640 married and moved on. And there's there's this key 58 00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:10,240 indicator, I think to see this inward transformation of Chuck. 59 00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:14,120 You see, before the plane crash, his friend's wife had cancer. 60 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:16,480 And we see this moment where he's clearly uncomfortable 61 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:19,800 dealing with the reality that that his friend's wife may be 62 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:22,520 going through something so tragic and he's uncomfortable 63 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:24,400 with it. And he he says, you know, I know 64 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:27,520 this doctor and he's the best doctor in the world and we're 65 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:29,160 going to get this thing fixed. We're going to beat it. 66 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:34,280 That's his response. But after the island, after the 67 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:38,000 transformation, his friend's wife passes away from cancer. 68 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:39,880 And instead of saying, we're going to fix this thing, we're 69 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:43,200 going to beat it. Instead, he simply says, I'm so 70 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:47,000 sorry I wasn't there for you. The mark of an inner 71 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:49,880 transformation, not having control over anything. 72 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:55,720 You see, the wilderness has a way of transforming us. 73 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:00,520 When we really are stripped away from everything, all power and 74 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:02,840 control that is real. The real, real work of 75 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:06,240 transformation can take place. My question that I want us to 76 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:09,880 think about is, what if Chuck, Tom Hanks's character, What if 77 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:14,600 he had instead intentionally gone into the wilderness, but 78 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:16,240 just under different circumstances? 79 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:20,200 What if instead, he had chose to go on a sort of sabbatical to 80 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:23,360 realize how fast his pace of life had become? 81 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:27,680 What if, instead, he'd realized the preciousness of life in 82 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:30,400 relationships? What if he had married his 83 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,280 girlfriend? What if he had willingly chose 84 00:04:34,280 --> 00:04:38,840 to dip beneath the surface to lift up the hood, check the 85 00:04:38,840 --> 00:04:42,360 engine, and see what was really going on inside? 86 00:04:44,840 --> 00:04:49,560 How many of us know that life has a way of making us go 87 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:54,840 through the wilderness eventually, whether it's job 88 00:04:54,840 --> 00:05:00,960 loss, an unexpected breakup, maybe it's a diagnosis or some 89 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:04,480 kind of sickness, or maybe it's just the economy flinging out of 90 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:06,360 control or an unfair grade on a test. 91 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:09,560 Whatever it is, life has a way of bringing us through the 92 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:11,800 furnace for refinement and for testing. 93 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:15,560 And we're going to talk about that today as we continue our 94 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:19,440 sermon series called Wisdom in the Desert. 95 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:22,640 We're exploring the desert fathers and mothers during this 96 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:25,640 season of of Lent. Lent is traditionally the 40 97 00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:28,960 days leading up to Easter, and traditionally it's a time of 98 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:33,520 fasting, of, of stripping away in a time of seeking God. 99 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:37,560 There are other characters in the Bible who went off to the 100 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:40,920 desert for various reasons. Moses went off in the wilderness 101 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:43,000 because of the rebellion of the Israelites. 102 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:46,080 Paul went into into the deserts of Arabia. 103 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:50,280 Jesus went into the wilderness. And today we're going to be 104 00:05:50,280 --> 00:05:54,880 looking at the prophet Elijah. So if you have your Bibles with 105 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:57,000 you, we always encourage physical Bibles. 106 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:59,880 We're going to be turning to 1st Kings chapter 19. 107 00:05:59,880 --> 00:06:03,640 First Kings 19, If you didn't bring your Bible, that's OK, you 108 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:06,040 can look up on your phone. Otherwise it'll be on the 109 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:08,520 screens as well. But we love getting our physical 110 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:10,560 Bibles in front of us as much as we can. 111 00:06:11,280 --> 00:06:15,760 First Kings 19, it's in the Old Testament, maybe about 1/4 of 112 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:20,480 the way in on your Bible. What we're going to be reading 113 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:24,520 about is the story of Elijah, who was a prophet, and he was a 114 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:28,920 prophet during the time of the the evil king Ahab and his wife 115 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:32,640 Jezebel. Now, the prophet's role in the 116 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:36,680 Old Testament was basically to to speak on behalf of God in 117 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:41,000 order to hold the kings accountable to the covenant that 118 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,640 the people had made with God. OK, so it's kind of like a 119 00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:45,520 wedding vows. The prophets would have been the 120 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:48,080 people who would have, you know, approached your marriage and 121 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:51,760 said, hey, you said for sickness and in health. 122 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:56,840 You said better or worse. The prophets were the one that 123 00:06:56,840 --> 00:06:58,600 would actually hold you to those vows. 124 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:02,040 And so their role was to speak on behalf of God to the kings 125 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:05,920 and hold them to the covenant that God's people had made with 126 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:06,680 him. Does that make sense? 127 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:09,200 The laws and making sure they weren't, you know, neglecting 128 00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:12,000 the oppressed and the poor and so on. 129 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:15,520 So Elijah was speaking to the evil king Ahab and his wife, 130 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,720 Jezebel. Abab and Jezebel, their dynamic 131 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:22,640 is basically it's, it's an exploration of what happens when 132 00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:27,720 you have a weak man who is abdicating and neglecting his 133 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:31,240 responsibility. So a controlling woman sweeps in 134 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:33,320 and and calls the shots from behind the scenes. 135 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:35,880 That's a sermon for another time, by the way. 136 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:37,600 We're not going there today. OK? 137 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:39,280 So breathe. We're we're fine. 138 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:43,360 But the dynamic here is that they are turning the people's 139 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:46,400 hearts back to idol worship with Bale. 140 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:52,320 Now Elijah, his career, if you would call it that, his career 141 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:56,160 was enormously successful. He did things like predicted to 142 00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:58,600 drought. There was a miraculous 143 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:01,520 multiplication of oil and flour for a widow. 144 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:05,120 He even brought someone back to life through God's mighty power. 145 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:10,200 Unbelievable. His story climaxes with a 146 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:13,760 showdown between the prophets of the false God Bale. 147 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:17,800 And basically there's this showdown and on the on the Mount 148 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:20,160 Carmel. And basically the the false 149 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:24,120 prophets are like screaming and crying and trying to get Baal to 150 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:26,880 answer their prayers, but he doesn't. 151 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:30,400 And then Elijah prays this prayer and God's fire rains 152 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:32,440 down. It's this incredible victory. 153 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:37,480 So if Elijah had like a theme song at this point, the theme 154 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:40,080 song would be all I do is win, win, win no matter what. 155 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:45,800 OK, that's basically Elijah's story here up until this point 156 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:51,960 until chapter 19 something happens. 157 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:57,440 Let's take a look. Verse one it says now Ahab told 158 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:01,240 Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all 159 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:06,040 the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel, remember she's she's 160 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,640 no good. She is not not a good person. 161 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:14,480 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, may the gods deal 162 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:19,600 with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do 163 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:24,680 not make your life like that of one of them, meaning the 164 00:09:24,680 --> 00:09:26,080 prophets that had just been killed. 165 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:31,560 Jezebel speaking a death threat over Elijah. 166 00:09:31,560 --> 00:09:35,840 Here in this moment Elijah is being confronted. 167 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:39,160 After all the victory, after God's mighty power, he once 168 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:44,040 again is being confronted by evil and he begins to spiral. 169 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:49,280 Can anyone relate? Ever been confronted and had it 170 00:09:49,280 --> 00:09:54,280 lead to a spiraling moment? I definitely have verse 3. 171 00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:58,160 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. 172 00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:02,160 When he came to Beersheba and Judah, he left his servant there 173 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:08,120 while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. 174 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:12,080 It's an important theme. He came to a broom Bush, sat 175 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:15,080 down under it, and prayed that night that he might die. 176 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:19,600 I have had enough, Lord, he said. 177 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:23,480 Take my life. I am no better than my 178 00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:27,120 ancestors. Then he lay down under the Bush 179 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:31,280 and fell asleep. What a radical shift from where 180 00:10:31,280 --> 00:10:34,720 Elijah once was. He had this incredible victory 181 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:38,600 over the false prophets of Baal, but then he's confronted by 182 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:43,000 evil, and this confrontation leads him to fear depression. 183 00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:46,720 We see Elijah dealing with exhaustion. 184 00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:51,840 Many scholars believe he's dealing with just severe burnout 185 00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:54,560 in life. You ever been there? 186 00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:57,840 So what does he do? He flees for his life and he 187 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:03,040 goes into the wilderness. Two weeks ago we talked about 188 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:06,680 how in Scripture, whenever you hear about the wilderness, it's 189 00:11:06,680 --> 00:11:10,800 often times symbolic for a time of testing and a time of 190 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:13,560 temptation and a time of preparation. 191 00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:16,480 The wilderness is a place of refinement. 192 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:20,120 It's a it's a way of of drawing out what's really inside of you. 193 00:11:21,880 --> 00:11:24,200 What we see in the story of Elijah that many of us have 194 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:29,080 experienced as well is this. Some of the hardest battles come 195 00:11:29,080 --> 00:11:33,840 after the greatest victories. You can be on cloud 9 with God. 196 00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:36,280 You can be jiving with him. You can see his miracles take 197 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:38,640 place, right? But if you don't lose sight, or 198 00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:41,720 if you lose sight, if you, if you misstep, you realize, man, 199 00:11:41,920 --> 00:11:45,480 Satan comes after you hard. Life can come after you hard. 200 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:51,440 People can come after you hard. What we see is that God was 201 00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:54,960 still willing to meet him in this place of despair and this 202 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:58,480 place of self pity. God provides him food, rest and 203 00:11:58,480 --> 00:11:59,720 presence. Verse 7. 204 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:04,280 Verse 7. The Angel of the Lord came back 205 00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:08,840 a second time and touched him and said, get up and eat for the 206 00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:13,840 journey is too much for you. So he got up, he ate and he 207 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:16,720 drank. Strengthened by that food, he 208 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:21,040 travelled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the 209 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:23,760 mountain of God. There he went to a cave and 210 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:27,880 spent the night. So the Lord restores him, gives 211 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:32,280 him food, nourishment for the 40 day journey. 40 days is usually 212 00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:35,000 significant in in the scripture for the same reason. 213 00:12:35,040 --> 00:12:37,040 Jesus fasted for 40 days a night. 214 00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:40,720 Moses on Sinai was there 40 days and nights as well. 215 00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:44,360 So same mountain as Moses and what we see is he's about to 216 00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:47,600 have an encounter with God, but not in the way that we might 217 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:51,120 think. Verse 9 says, and the word of 218 00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:54,280 the Lord came to him and I love this question. 219 00:12:54,280 --> 00:12:57,240 Don't miss this question, such a critical question. 220 00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:03,240 The Lord asks Eliza, Elijah, what are you doing here? 221 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:11,360 Elijah, such a good question of God, what are you doing here? 222 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:15,840 It's a question when we're in moments of despair, when we're 223 00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:18,680 in moments in places where we're not meant to be, when our 224 00:13:18,680 --> 00:13:21,840 emotions have burned out and LED us to a place of desperation. 225 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:23,960 Sometimes God asks us the same question. 226 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:29,640 He says, how'd you get here? What led you here? 227 00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:34,640 What's going on? Do you even know? 228 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:37,240 This is a question of of probing. 229 00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:40,800 It's a question of revealing what's in Elijah's heart. 230 00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:45,560 What are you doing here? We see what's going on with 231 00:13:45,560 --> 00:13:48,840 Elijah with his response. It tells a lot about where his 232 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:50,640 his head is AT and where his heart is AT. 233 00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:57,600 In verse 10, he replied, I have been very zealous for the Lord 234 00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:00,920 God Almighty. The, the Israelites have have 235 00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:06,680 rejected your covenant, torn down your altars and put your 236 00:14:06,680 --> 00:14:08,280 prophets to death with the sword. 237 00:14:09,800 --> 00:14:15,240 This next line, he says I am the only one left and now they're 238 00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:21,320 trying to kill me too. Can you hear the desperation? 239 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:26,440 He those Israelites, the people who are supposed to be following 240 00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:31,360 you God and obeying your your your covenant laws, they've 241 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:33,640 rejected you. I'm he says I'm the only one 242 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:34,800 left. I'm the only one who actually 243 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:37,080 cares about you God. I'm the only one who cares about 244 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:38,440 your mission. Here I am, and now they're 245 00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:41,640 trying to kill me too. Can you hear the self pity? 246 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:47,160 Can you hear the hurt? You see, Elijah has lost sight 247 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:50,640 of God's plan for his people. He's lost sight of the bigger 248 00:14:50,640 --> 00:14:52,400 picture in this moment. And what he's done is he's 249 00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:55,560 fallen into the despair trap. You ever been there? 250 00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:59,240 It's just this cycle of despair. There's this chart. 251 00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:02,160 It's called the emotional cycle of change. 252 00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:05,680 Whenever you go through or going through some sort of change in 253 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:09,520 life, whether it's starting up a business or making a move, and 254 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:12,720 the cycle is this, Basically, first you start off with what's 255 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:15,080 called uninformed optimism, right? 256 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:19,680 This is going to be great. This new venture, this thing 257 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:22,120 that we're kicking off, it's all dreams, it's all aspirations. 258 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:24,800 It's all rosy, right? This is kind of where Elijah 259 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:26,400 started off. He's like, all I'm doing is 260 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:28,240 winning, winning, winning. God is great. 261 00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:30,640 He's on the move. Israel's going to be restored. 262 00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:34,680 Here we go, right? But then Step 2 informed 263 00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:35,920 pessimism. OK. 264 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:39,760 Oh, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be. 265 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:43,200 Oh, my goodness. Not everyone's on my side. 266 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:47,160 Wow. We're reaching some obstacles 267 00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:49,080 that I never thought I would encounter. 268 00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:52,320 I'm not sure I have what it takes. 269 00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:54,800 Ever been there? And where does that lead? 270 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:57,560 It leads to the valley of despair. 271 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:01,720 This is where we see Elijah finding himself. 272 00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:05,560 He's in a valley of despair. He he was maybe hoping that God 273 00:16:05,560 --> 00:16:07,120 would bring restoration to Israel. 274 00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:10,360 He runs back to to town and expecting this and he's 275 00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:12,560 immediately confronted with evil. 276 00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:17,320 Not everything has changed. And so he's in this pit of 277 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:19,960 despair and most people find themselves in the loop between 278 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:24,480 1-2 and three, 1-2 and three, 1-2 and three on repeat over and 279 00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:29,760 over and over in life. But but God's goal here is to to 280 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:35,160 bring him out of the valley. Verse 11 The Lord said, Go out 281 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:37,520 and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the 282 00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:42,720 Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind 283 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:45,680 tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the 284 00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:49,480 Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. 285 00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:53,320 After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not 286 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:56,200 in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a 287 00:16:56,200 --> 00:16:58,600 fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. 288 00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:03,320 So here, in a similar way, just like God put Moses in the cleft 289 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:06,599 of a rock in order to to show him his presence as he passed by 290 00:17:06,599 --> 00:17:09,599 and revealed his name, here we see a very similar almost 291 00:17:09,599 --> 00:17:13,680 mirrored interaction happening. But unlike Moses's interaction 292 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:16,680 where there was a cloud and fire and earthquake, unlike that, 293 00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:20,040 what we see is that God is showing up in a new way. 294 00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:24,599 He's teaching Elijah a new way to interact with, not with, not 295 00:17:24,599 --> 00:17:27,640 just with fanfare and victory and fire falling down in front 296 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:30,640 of the prophets of Baal. There is a new interaction here, 297 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:32,520 and this is what it says in verse 12. 298 00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:40,440 After the fire came a gentle whisper. 299 00:17:43,160 --> 00:17:53,040 A gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled 300 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:58,720 his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of 301 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:03,400 The Cave. God didn't display himself in 302 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:05,880 this mighty earthquake or fire or wind. 303 00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:09,920 Instead, he knew Elijah needed a whisper. 304 00:18:12,080 --> 00:18:16,080 The KJV calls this a still small voice. 305 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:19,760 And the Hebrew? It's the closest thing you can 306 00:18:19,760 --> 00:18:23,440 get to silence without it quite being silence. 307 00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:29,720 And that's where God speaks. It's in the quiet. 308 00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:42,280 God still speaks in the quiet and the stillness and his 309 00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:47,880 presence. Our culture has a really hard 310 00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:51,720 time with silence, really hard time with silence. 311 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:53,920 We are a busy, busy, busy people. 312 00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:58,400 Studies show that we touch our phones over 2000 times a day. 313 00:18:59,920 --> 00:19:02,680 Power users, it's like 5000 or something like it's a ridiculous 314 00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:05,680 amount, right? You and I, we are in a hurried 315 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,640 life cycle lifestyle, right? We, we feel every free moment we 316 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:11,160 can. I'm, I'm, I was literally 317 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:14,520 preparing a message on silence and solitude and the still small 318 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:16,800 voice of God. And as I was trying to, you 319 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:18,840 know, fast this week and I was like, oh, I'm going to take my 320 00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:21,600 lunch breaks and instead of eating, I'm just going to like 321 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:23,600 have quiet and silence and solitude. 322 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:26,800 You know what I did? Filled them full of more work. 323 00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:31,080 And I'm like, what am I doing? I'm about to preach on this and 324 00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:33,960 I can't even live it out, right? We are hurried people. 325 00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:36,880 We are prone to ignore the issues that are going on inside 326 00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:39,320 to distract ourselves with entertainment around them. 327 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:42,240 And we are self medicating ourselves to avoid the pain 328 00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:45,680 that's going on inside. We go, go, go all the time. 329 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:48,680 We don't have time to listen to a still small voice. 330 00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:54,640 There's this book by Kasuke Kuyama called The Three Mile an 331 00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:57,960 Hour God. And his basic premise is this, 332 00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:02,240 that the pace at which God moves is just three miles an hour. 333 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:05,200 It's about the about the pace that we walk. 334 00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:08,560 And he says the reason for this is that this is the pace of 335 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:11,960 relationships. And basically his premise is 336 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:14,640 that love moves at 3 miles an hour. 337 00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:17,920 God is never rushed. God has never hurried. 338 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:21,360 God is never sprinting. God is never surprised. 339 00:20:21,360 --> 00:20:27,040 He moves at 3 miles an hour. What we see here in this moment 340 00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:30,600 with Elijah is that God is using the wilderness in The Cave to 341 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:36,320 help Elijah come face to face with the truth of his distorted 342 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:41,600 beliefs. He's checking Elijah's motives 343 00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:43,600 on the inside. God is exposing what's really 344 00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:45,280 going on. Elijah's over here and he's 345 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:50,320 saying I am the only one left. God, everyone else has abandoned 346 00:20:50,320 --> 00:20:52,280 you. I'm the only one with zeal and 347 00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:53,800 now they're probably going to kill me too. 348 00:20:56,040 --> 00:20:58,720 And God's like you sure about that. 349 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:08,080 Verse 18 God says, yet I I reserve 7000 in Israel, all 350 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:11,560 whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have 351 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:15,480 not kissed him. God saying, Elijah, my boy, 352 00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:22,360 you've done great work. I'm proud of you, but you're not 353 00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:27,920 the only one. I've got 7007 thousand people 354 00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:30,920 who still worship me 7000 who haven't bowed down to idle 7000, 355 00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:32,960 who are standing firm for what's right and what's true and what's 356 00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:35,320 good. Elijah, you're doing great, but 357 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:37,960 you're not alone. You're not alone. 358 00:21:41,120 --> 00:21:45,840 You see, even though Elijah's failure led him to despair, God 359 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:49,640 still met him with care. James reminds us that Elijah was 360 00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:51,480 just a human, like every single one of us. 361 00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:55,640 And here's the point, guys. God is happy to use us, but He 362 00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:59,960 does not rely on us. God is very happy to partner 363 00:21:59,960 --> 00:22:01,920 with us and use us for His Kingdom advancement. 364 00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:04,600 Advancement. But in no way does it all depend 365 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:08,040 on us, and no way is He relying on us to get it done right. 366 00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:13,760 He's happy to use His children in partnership, but he's got so 367 00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:17,240 many plans. His plans are always good, and 368 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:19,120 there's always a remnant of people who are still going to 369 00:22:19,120 --> 00:22:20,920 worship him and see those plans through. 370 00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:26,920 It does not all rely on us. So what God does here is He 371 00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:31,160 begins to restore Elijah with the truth, revealing the 372 00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:34,360 disordered, disordered desires and the disordered thoughts that 373 00:22:34,360 --> 00:22:35,840 Elijah had, and he corrects them. 374 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:38,800 And then he begins to put a plan back in place. 375 00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:40,720 And he says, hey, Elijah, get up from this place. 376 00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:42,520 You're going to go, you're going to meet Elijah. 377 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:46,040 He's going to apprentice under you, and my plan will continue 378 00:22:46,360 --> 00:22:50,600 forward. God takes him from that valley 379 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:54,320 of despair and he brings him out of it, and Elijah's transformed 380 00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:58,640 in that place. Here's a hypothetical question. 381 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,120 This is not not necessarily from the Bible, but my question that 382 00:23:02,120 --> 00:23:04,080 I'm wondering as I'm reading this story is this. 383 00:23:05,480 --> 00:23:07,680 What if Elijah had done something a little bit 384 00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:10,520 different? Like what if after that 385 00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:16,000 incredible victory on the top of the mountain where fire came 386 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:17,560 down and his enemies were destroyed? 387 00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:23,120 What if instead of of running back to town, what if instead 388 00:23:23,120 --> 00:23:26,720 Elijah had just paused? What if he had gone into the 389 00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:29,320 wilderness intentionally to go meet with God first? 390 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:34,880 In other words, what if Jezebel couldn't even find him to 391 00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:38,680 breathe death threats at him? What if he was nowhere to be 392 00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:40,640 found because he was being found by God? 393 00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:45,720 What could have happened? Would this story have turned out 394 00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:48,160 differently? We don't exactly know. 395 00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:50,440 It could have been God's plan for him to go back to Jezreel 396 00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:51,920 right away. But I just got to wonder. 397 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:55,080 Like, what if he had taken time to process what was really going 398 00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:57,400 on inside with the Lord and hear his voice? 399 00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:04,240 Makes you wonder, what if he had taken a little bit of time for 400 00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:09,400 solitude and silence? What if you and I had taken a 401 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:13,160 little bit of time? What if we choose to take time 402 00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:16,160 for silence and solitude to hear God's still small voice as well? 403 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:22,160 Henry now and describes describes silence and solitude 404 00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:27,000 this way now and writes Solitude is the furnace of transformation 405 00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:29,440 when we're actually alone with God. 406 00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:31,200 That's where God does some of his best work. 407 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:33,480 He speaks to us and reveal the intentions of our heart. 408 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:39,320 So one of the points is this, guys, we can either meet God in 409 00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:42,760 the wilderness by invitation or by interruption. 410 00:24:44,360 --> 00:24:46,840 But life has a way of bringing us in the wilderness one way or 411 00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:52,320 the other by a show of hands. How many of you would say, yeah, 412 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:54,840 I've been through some wilderness seasons in life, 413 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:57,960 Yeah, put your hands down. And if you haven't yet, you're 414 00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:01,680 very likely will someday. And how many of us know that, 415 00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:03,480 that life has a way of bringing us there? 416 00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:05,920 So we can either choose to go there by invitation, by 417 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:08,720 listening to the Spirit, by choosing to go in and have 418 00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:12,640 solitude with God, or life will interrupt us. 419 00:25:13,120 --> 00:25:15,720 In other words, if God, if we don't let God lead us into the 420 00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:18,120 wilderness, life just might force you there. 421 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:22,560 If we don't slow down long enough to meet God in solitude, 422 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:27,040 burnout will slow us down for us. 423 00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:34,840 We must choose to willingly and proactively like Jesus, go into 424 00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:38,080 the wilderness by God's leading and allow the silence and 425 00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:41,200 solitude to work out our hearts before the Lord. 426 00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:45,640 Jesus willingly went off often times to go be alone with the 427 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:49,720 Father and pray. And you and I are called to to 428 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:54,520 become like Jesus and to do what Jesus did. 429 00:25:55,600 --> 00:25:59,880 There was a moment where I was at Christian college and 430 00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:04,400 preparing to become a pastor and private Christian college has a 431 00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:09,240 way of of squeezing a lot of church into a very short amount 432 00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:11,760 of time. So I would have multiple Chapel 433 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:14,160 services during the week that were mandatory. 434 00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:16,880 I had a volunteer Chapel service on Sunday nights. 435 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,040 I would volunteer on the youth on Wednesdays. 436 00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:21,480 Every single one of my classes involved the Bible. 437 00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:24,720 I would have just like student LED Bible studies in the dorms, 438 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:26,400 on and on and on. That's just like a taste. 439 00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:32,520 My life was full of godly stuff. It was full of the Bible, and by 440 00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:34,840 and large, that was awesome. Very grateful for that. 441 00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:37,880 But there became a point during my senior year where I started 442 00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:39,640 to get a little burnt out of it all. 443 00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:44,680 A lot of really good content, a lot of really good worship 444 00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:50,160 services. But at some point my, my, my 445 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:55,480 soul began to disengage from what my head was learning. 446 00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:01,280 And at just the right time, God had me in what was called the 447 00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:06,160 spiritual formation class. And one of the assignments was 448 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:10,240 to basically not read as much Bible. 449 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:17,040 So there I was in Bible in Bible college, getting told to not 450 00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:21,160 read my Bible so much. And the point was to to just not 451 00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:23,160 read the Bible. The point was to read the Bible 452 00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:26,720 and actually engage with it. The point was to read the Bible 453 00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:31,440 slowly and allow the Holy Spirit to actually speak to me in it. 454 00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:36,480 You see, I was reading the Bible, but I wasn't allowing the 455 00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:40,880 Bible to read me. You can go through the Bible, 456 00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:45,320 but the point is you need to let the Bible go through you. 457 00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:48,680 And so in this moment, I remember it was, it was painful 458 00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:50,640 at first, you know, because I'm used to just studying and 459 00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:52,640 absorbing and getting through the content and doing all the 460 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:54,320 things right. And so instead it was like one 461 00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:57,920 verse, one verse at a time, actually starting with just some 462 00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:00,640 breathing, starting with some paying attention to God and just 463 00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:04,600 allowing one verse at a time to speak over me, inviting God to 464 00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:07,440 share what He has for me in that moment of silence and solitude. 465 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:11,440 And can I tell you something? It was transformational. 466 00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:16,360 It was transformational. It changed the very fabric of 467 00:28:16,360 --> 00:28:19,880 how I interacted with God. Suddenly faith became alive and 468 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:21,520 a new, fresh wind was breathed into me. 469 00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:25,400 In those moments of silence and solitude, I didn't need more 470 00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:27,840 content. I didn't need more voices. 471 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:31,280 I didn't need more information. I needed the very presence of 472 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:34,240 God speaking to me with this still small voice. 473 00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:39,000 And I wonder if there's anyone in the room where God is 474 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,040 desperately trying to get your attention. 475 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:45,920 But he's not doing it with earthquakes and fire and with 476 00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:48,360 wind. But he's speaking with silent 477 00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:56,120 whispers, one of the desert fathers who were part of this 478 00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:59,480 radical group of Christians who went off into the wilderness to 479 00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:01,960 combat the devil and to deal with their sin. 480 00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:05,600 His name was Saint Anthony, and Saint Anthony was radical. 481 00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:10,960 He was, he was told to have spent 20 years in isolation. 482 00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:15,040 When he left, he took his solitude with him, and he shared 483 00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:16,360 it with all those who came to him. 484 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:18,840 People were going out into the desert to find this man, to 485 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:23,400 learn from him, and people say that he'd become so Christ like, 486 00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:27,560 so radiant with God's love, that his entire being was his 487 00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:30,680 ministry. His very presence was his 488 00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:33,600 ministry because of the transformative work that had 489 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:38,200 happened in the wilderness. And so for us as a church, 490 00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:41,720 especially during this season of Lent, as we're intentionally 491 00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:45,160 slowing down and stripping back, we would love to just 492 00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:49,480 reintroduce the practice of silence and solitude to you. 493 00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:55,000 Solitude is not it's not loneliness. 494 00:29:56,520 --> 00:30:01,480 Solitude is not just isolation, not just being by yourself. 495 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,320 And solitude is also not aloneness, right? 496 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:08,080 Aloneness is what introverts really like, just going off and 497 00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:10,360 being alone, like with a book or by themselves. 498 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:13,680 But that's not solitude. Instead, our definition of of 499 00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:17,280 solitude is this, that the practice of solitude, it's 500 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:21,400 intentional time and the quiet with ourselves and God. 501 00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:25,800 Pastor Wayne Cordero writes it this way. 502 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:30,240 Solitude is a chosen separation for refining your soul. 503 00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:34,400 Isolation is what you crave when you neglect the first. 504 00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:38,840 So when you're in other words, when your body is craving a 505 00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:41,720 little bit of separation, craving meeting with God, 506 00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:46,840 isolation creeps in. Ruth Haley Barton puts it this 507 00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:48,680 way. Solitude at its most basic and 508 00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:52,920 profound level is simply an opportunity to be ourselves with 509 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:58,880 God, to be ourselves with God, not not our fake selves that we 510 00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:00,600 try to show everyone else, right. 511 00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:04,560 But when you're before the Lord, there's no hiding. 512 00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:08,000 And we can try to hide. We can try to fool God in many 513 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,600 ways, but but solitude as most basic level is just saying God 514 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:15,240 here I am truly being ourselves before the Lord. 515 00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:21,960 A couple weeks ago I was at a retreat in California. 516 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:26,720 It was for a bunch of pastors and a very, very famous pastor 517 00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:28,680 who I have enormous amount of respect for. 518 00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,920 He led a Church of about 13,000 people. 519 00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:34,680 So imagine that someday we'll get there. 520 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:38,600 Just kidding. OK, that's not the goal, but he 521 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:40,920 very respected pastor, wrote many, many books and he was 522 00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:43,440 talking about, he was talking about contemplation. 523 00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:45,400 He was talking about silence and solitude. 524 00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:50,080 And he was, he was speaking about how like not everyone's 525 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,440 wired for contemplation and for silence and solitude. 526 00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:57,120 And as much as I respected like 95% of what he, what he said, 527 00:31:57,120 --> 00:32:00,280 otherwise I kind of caught myself because I'm like, I'm not 528 00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:04,800 quite sure I agree with him here when he was trying to make the 529 00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:07,440 point that, you know, extroverted people don't like 530 00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:09,600 going off into the silence and solitude. 531 00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:11,680 And so therefore we shouldn't encourage it. 532 00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:17,120 And the reality is, if we're actually practicing true silence 533 00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:21,040 and solitude, none of us enjoy it at first, for the most part, 534 00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:23,720 because it's a, it's a wilderness. 535 00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:26,800 It's a place of testing and it's a place of refinement. 536 00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:32,800 As a matter of fact, studies show studies show that once you 537 00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:36,320 distinguish between silence and solitude and the lowness, 538 00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:40,960 introverts have no higher desire or enjoyment of solitude than 539 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:44,680 extroverts. Meaning it doesn't matter what 540 00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:48,520 your personality is. This is hard either way because 541 00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:50,120 the deepest parts of you are being revealed. 542 00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:56,800 You can't hide before God. So our invitation for you and 543 00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:00,400 for me is to willingly go out into the wilderness. 544 00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:04,640 Practically speaking, I'm going to throw this list on the screen 545 00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:06,480 here. Practically speaking, for you, 546 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:10,360 this may mean choosing not to look at your phone with your 547 00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:13,240 morning coffee. Maybe you just leave it on the 548 00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:15,720 charger and you just instead have some moments of quiet. 549 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:19,600 Maybe for others, it's making an appointment with God this week. 550 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:23,400 Maybe literally putting it in your calendar, resisting the 551 00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:27,160 urge to fill that time like I did and use that window to try 552 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:31,120 silence and solitude. Maybe for others you just go and 553 00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:34,080 take a walk without listening to music or a podcast. 554 00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:38,400 Maybe you start by just practicing breath prayers for a 555 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:42,160 few minutes every day. Simply maybe choosing a word or 556 00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:45,520 a phrase such as ABBA and you just breathe in and you say 557 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:51,360 ABBA, I belong to you and you breathe out and you just repeat 558 00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:56,400 that as a way of prayer. Maybe for others, you just try 559 00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:59,880 maybe not putting music on during your morning commute, or 560 00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:02,880 you just choose to simply learn more about the practice of 561 00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:06,080 silence and solitude. One of our recommended resources 562 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:08,760 that we love is Practicing the way on this next slide. 563 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:11,760 They have an entire practice dedicated to this. 564 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:15,159 There's unbelievably well made videos along with the companion 565 00:34:15,159 --> 00:34:16,880 guide. We are happy to point you in the 566 00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:20,040 direction of those if you would like to do that as well. 567 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:25,199 But the goal in all of this, the goal in all of this silence and 568 00:34:25,199 --> 00:34:31,520 solitude and learning to listen to God's voice is not to be, you 569 00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:35,560 know, just like a a spiritually elite person who is better than 570 00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:37,840 everyone else. Quite the opposite. 571 00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:42,760 The goal instead is to become a person of deeper obedience and 572 00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:47,360 compassion for others, loving God more deeply and loving 573 00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:52,560 others. It's allowing ourselves space to 574 00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:56,520 actually allow God to remind us of how much He loves every one 575 00:34:56,520 --> 00:35:00,960 of us. Guys, we so desperately need to 576 00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:04,000 be reminded every single day just how much God loves us. 577 00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:07,680 If you're in the room and you've maybe don't believe that or 578 00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:10,040 you've lost sight of that, let me just let me just encourage 579 00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:14,640 you and remind you God deeply, deeply, deeply loves you, 580 00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:19,760 deeply, longs to have relationship with you and longs 581 00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:21,760 to communicate with you and speak to you. 582 00:35:23,720 --> 00:35:28,920 This is slow work. This is not task oriented work. 583 00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:35,160 Our world out there is driven by immediate results and solitude 584 00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:39,480 and silence is rarely immediate and there's rarely results as we 585 00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:42,280 think of them. The goal, instead, is to begin 586 00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:44,000 to build healthy rhythms in our life. 587 00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:47,600 Even if it feels like things aren't changing at first, even 588 00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:50,080 if it feels like our feelings are betraying us. 589 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,320 The experience of it, over time will produce more and more 590 00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:59,800 fruit, and it'll become easier. So my encouragement, practically 591 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:03,640 speaking Church, is to try engaging in silence and solitude 592 00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:07,360 this week. Pick it up, try it on, see how 593 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:09,840 it goes. Try not to judge the experience 594 00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:11,280 too harshly. Ah, that didn't work. 595 00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:14,800 Or oh, I did that wrong, or ah, it wasn't quite what I expected. 596 00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:16,600 Just let the experience be what it is. 597 00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:22,560 As we conclude, I just want to speak to some of you who maybe 598 00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:26,080 are in that wilderness season right now as the band comes 599 00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:30,640 forward and begins to play. Maybe you're in that season, 600 00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:32,480 you're on the verge of burnout yourself. 601 00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:35,360 Maybe some of you are emotionally fried. 602 00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:38,960 Maybe you've seen some incredible victories in your 603 00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:41,760 life. Maybe you have that that sort of 604 00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:46,200 optimism, maybe it's not quite realistic. 605 00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:49,280 Maybe some of you are beginning to encounter some of that 606 00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:50,960 realistic pessimism in your life. 607 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:55,280 Wherever you're at, if you're in that wilderness season, my 608 00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:59,360 encouragement to you this morning is to let God nourish 609 00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:04,080 you. Let him not only nourish you 610 00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:06,920 physically and maybe you just need some restoration and you 611 00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:10,200 need some food and an app like Elijah and that's great, but 612 00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:12,880 allow him to nourish you spiritually as well. 613 00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:20,960 And maybe you just need to allow yourself to to just be still to 614 00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:22,840 the point where you can actually hear his voice. 615 00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:28,640 Galatians 69 says let us not become weary in doing good for 616 00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:33,280 at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 617 00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:39,280 And if you're in that wilderness season or that place of 618 00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:46,120 struggle, allow God to just ask you, what are you doing here? 619 00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:53,840 What are you doing here? What led you to this place at 620 00:37:53,840 --> 00:38:02,020 this time and this moment? I pray that as a church we would 621 00:38:02,020 --> 00:38:06,660 find those moments of stillness and quiet because I've found 622 00:38:06,660 --> 00:38:11,780 that it's better to let God whisper than to cause him to 623 00:38:11,780 --> 00:38:17,880 have to shout. And so we willingly go into the 624 00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:23,520 wilderness to let God prepare us for the moments where life 625 00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:30,080 throws us into the wilderness. There's this beautiful picture 626 00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:32,600 during Jesus time. He's up on the mountain. 627 00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:36,160 It's called the Transfiguration. And there before the disciples 628 00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:40,480 is Elijah and Moses and Jesus, and God's voice speaks over 629 00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:46,200 them, and he says, this is my son, listen to him, listen to 630 00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:51,440 him, hear his voice, heed his commands. 631 00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:58,120 That's the instruction. Listen to Jesus. 632 00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:01,240 And the encouragement to us today is to do the same, to 633 00:39:01,240 --> 00:39:02,800 listen for that still small voice. 634 00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:09,240 Because all of our efforts, all of our practices, all of our 635 00:39:09,240 --> 00:39:13,560 accomplishments eventually will fizzle out, be forgotten, and 636 00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:16,600 they will fail. But Jesus never will. 637 00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:22,720 His Kingdom will prevail. The gates of hell will not 638 00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:26,840 overcome the church. So wherever you're at, whether 639 00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:29,240 you're in a wilderness season or you're on the top of the 640 00:39:29,240 --> 00:39:33,560 mountain in victory, keep that godly perspective. 641 00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:38,520 God's plans are not measured by our success or our ability to 642 00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:39,840 accomplish or whatever it may be. 643 00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:42,840 God loves to use this, but He's not relying on us. 644 00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:45,920 It's not all on you. Surrender it to Him. 645 00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:50,200 It's whether you found yourself in the wilderness because of 646 00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:52,760 your own rebellion, your own weakness or failure. 647 00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:56,080 God's not done shaping and refining you for greater 648 00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:59,200 purpose. May we willingly follow His 649 00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:03,240 prompting into the stillness and solitude so He can whisper to us 650 00:40:03,240 --> 00:40:08,520 everything we need to hear to live a life of fullness in Him. 651 00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:11,600 Fullness. In him.