Finding God In the Whisper - 1 Kings 19

Well good morning Church. It is so good to be back with you today. As some of you heard, last week I was over at Voyage church - introducing myself to the newest church in the Zero Collective network. And I was so excited to leave this church in the very capable hands of Josh Holtrop, our Youth Pastor. I watched the service online afterwards and I was just so impressed with how much he has grown from his first time preaching in front of us until now. It’s been really cool to watch him grow and improve, and I’m just really proud of that guy. 

But you know, watching church online is a pretty strange experience for me - especially because I got exposed to the comment section. There’s no comment section when you’re experiencing church in person - but online, there’s always a comment section. A few months ago I had a moment where I asked the question, “How do we get God to say Yes to our prayers?” and throughout the sermon we saw that actually the best practice is to pray in order to grow closer to God, not just to get what we want. But I took a clip of that sermon and posted it to social media with that question - How do we get God to say “yes” to our prayers?” and we got a comment from a youtube person that said, “thanks for misleading me with your title. Now I still don’t know how to get God to say yes.” [pause] Sometimes I really think the internet was a mistake - good grief. That was the WHOLE point of that sermon. [airplane over the head motion]. I think i deleted the comment, but I was tempted to write back, “you should probably go watch the rest of the message” - goodNIGHT people. 

As many of you know - we’re into week 2 of our sermon series called “White Noise” - and we’re diving into this moment with Elijah meeting God in a moment of prayer, and we’ve been talking about how to silence the noise of this world so that we can better connect with God and hear his voice. But I wanted to start this morning with a question. What would your life look like if God answered every prayer you ever prayed EXACTLY the way you hoped he would? Sounds like it’s a good thing - right? Like, how many times have I prayed for something, and God either says NO, or it feels like he doesn’t respond at all, or he answers my prayer in a way I wasn’t expecting - and it’s like, you know what? It might be nice if just once, God would answer my prayer EXACTLY the way I was hoping he would. I mean, some of you know that part of my story was that I resigned from my position as a lead pastor in the United Methodist Church when they were preparing to change their position on human sexuality. I was prepared to lose my home, my health insurance, my paycheck - but I asked God, please don’t let me have to resign. What if God had answered my prayers? I never would have moved back to West Michigan. We never would have gotten to move closer to family. I never would have found Center Church. I wouldn’t have met all of you. Hmm. If God had answered my prayers to become a missionary doctor - traveling the world and telling people about Jesus, well, I never would have met Sara. I wouldn’t have any of my children. If God had answered my prayers to be taller, to be in better shape, to make more money, to have a nicer house, less family drama, to get that job I didn’t get - I don’t even know who I would be. What would your life look like if God answered every prayer you have exactly the way you hoped he would - and how sure are you that it would be a good thing?

Sometimes we get ahead of God in the conversation. We assume we know what he’s going to say - and when he doesn’t follow our script, it’s devastating. At least, that’s the way it was for Elijah, and it’s been that way for me too - maybe it’s been that way for you. I have this imaginary conversation in my head with God - and I assume I know what he’s going to say. And it’s all scripted out, and then he doesn’t follow the part I wrote for him in my head. God how could this relationship fall apart - wasn’t it in your will? God, how could I not get that job - don’t you know how much I need it? How could I get let go - God aren’t you going to take care of me? How could my kid do that - God don’t you know I’m trying my best as a parent? God why isn’t my life following the script? Or maybe it IS, and you’re still not satisfied. You GOT the job, or the promotion, or the obedient kid or the perfect relationships - so why am I still sad? I’ve had two friends, pastor buddies of mine, 2 months of them in the last six months - and it seems like the better their church does, the more their life is falling apart. They are thriving on the outside, but just drying up on the inside. God, why am I still feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled? Josh talked last week about the “post achievement collapse” - when things go well and you’re winning and you STILL end up exhausted and depressed like Elijah. And so I want to step back into that world for a second, 1 Kings chapter 19, and actually I want to zero in on the very end of chapter 18, right before Elijah’s big collapse. Chapter 18 - you might remember from last week, Elijah’s been doing miracles, he prays for it to stop raining, and it doesn’t rain for years. He brings a kid who died back to life, and then there’s that whole bit on Mount Carmel. Elijah gets together with the prophets of the false god Baal. And I’ll make an altar and you make an altar, and you call on your god for fire, and I’ll call on my god for fire and we’ll see who the real God is. And I swear, this is such a scene! It’s very famous - such an obvious demonstration of who the real God is. So much so that people sometimes wonder - how come we don’t do this every time someone doubts God? Like, why can’t we just round up all the atheists in the world and have God do a little fire demonstration once a month or whatever until the whole world believes? 

And actually, the answer is in there - but most of us don’t catch it. I didn’t - until someone showed it to me recently. But look at the end of Chapter 18. Elijah does the big epic fireball moment. Proving without a doubt that God is God and everybody else is a fake. And then he prays that the rain would return - and the sky starts to get some clouds. And it says, in verse 45, [read v.45-46]. I have overlooked that verse my entire life. Elijah tucks in his cloak and runs back to the capital of Jezreel. And it’s sort of weird - why does he run back to the capital, why does he follow the king back to the palace? But imagine this with me. You have just performed an incredible miracle proving once and for all that God is God - wouldn’t you assume that the people would rise up and want to follow God? Like, if you could prove it - WITHOUT A DOUBT - that God is real and all the idols are false. Don’t you think that would move the needle? There should be people in the cities, rising up against King Ahab. Stop following evil, we want to follow God. He’s real and we’re going to follow him. They’re standing outside picketing outside the palace, holding signs, “give us the real God” and “We want to follow the real God!” Can you imagine what Elijah was expecting when he arrived in the capital city? This is why he ran there, expecting a victory lap. Expecting support. And what was actually there? Nothing. Epic miracle - no change. Incredible power of God on display removing all doubt - not a single voice was raised to support Elijah. I never realized this before, but the Mount Carmel miracle didn’t change a single heart in Israel. And suddenly chapter 19 starts to make a little more sense. We get to Elijah’s collapse [read v.3-4]. Sometimes we get ahead of God in the conversation. We assume we know what he’s going to say - and when he doesn’t follow our script - it’s devastating.

So then Elijah does what most people do when their world is rocked - he goes back to the place where he knows God has been before. He goes to Mount Horeb, which is also known as Mount Sinai. And he’s mad that God’s not following his script. But he knows that God has shown up on this mountain in powerful ways in the past. And maybe you already know these stories, but hang in there with me - because there’s some pretty cool connections. Elijah would know the story of this really famous guy named Moses. And Moses on this exact mountain - had a whole conversation with God with what? Does anybody know? A burning bush. God came and spoke in the fire. And in the story of Moses God is coming to talk to him all the time. There was this epic moment when God shows up as an eastern wind that parts the red sea, and then later after Moses has freed the slaves in Egypt the go to Mount Sinai and Moses goes up the mountain and there’s like earthquakes and thunder and he comes back with the ten commandments. And so God has shown up in a lot of different ways on this exact mountain in the past - and so now Elijah, he’s falling apart, and so he goes back to the place where he knows God comes in power. He’s thinking - God, I know you show up in fire, I know you show up in wind, I know you show up in earthquakes, and so I’m going to show up and I’m going to get some answers out of you. How come you’re not following my script?

Chapter 19, verse 8 [read v.8-10]. I read that and I wonder - is that exhaustion and heartbreak or is it anger that we hear in Elijah’s voice? Like, is he on his knees with tears streaming down his face pleading before God because he’s at the end of his rope? Or is he angry, defiant, because he feels he has held up his end of the bargain, he has been obedient and now it’s time for God to step up. [pause] Which one is it for you? For me, I sort of go between the two emotions. I usually start out with anger, frustration with God for things not going the way I want - but then a lot of times I’ll process those moments with God in prayer, and slip out of anger and underneath it, a lot of times, is exhaustion. Sometimes I’m just tired of things not being the way I want them to be. And God responds, [read v.11a] Wind - like parting the red sea, we’ve seen God this way before. [read v.11b] Okay, earthquake - we’ve seen earthquakes on Mount Sinai before, this is good! [read v.11c-12a]. Okay, fine - fire! Even Elijah knows God’s presence in fire, we can connect with this power. [v.12b]. After the fire, and the earthquake and the wind - there was the sound of a gentle whisper. And God was in the whisper. What I want you to see in this moment is that God is not always where we expect Him based on what he has done in the past. God is not contained in a particular spiritual format. 

And can I just have this moment of honesty - this is such good news for people like me. Like, I have some friends who are creatures of habit. They get in a rhythm, and they love it. They do the same exact routine every day, always. That’s their comfort zone. They get up and they’re in the bible and reading in the exact same way, they’re praying in the same way every day, consistently, faithfully spending time with God. And sometimes, (I don’t normally say it out loud, but) sometimes I feel like they’re just better Christians than I am. Like I will hear about the devotional life of some of my pastor friends, or lifelong Christians, and I’ll think to myself, “Geez, those guys love Jesus more than I do. Or at least, better than I do.” Because I am not good at doing the same thing in my devotions every day. It follows a rhythm for me. I hear about a new trend - maybe it’s a book or an app or a technic, like Lectio Divina or something - and I’ll get all excited. And I’ll start fresh on Monday morning, and usually I do the first week or two really well. But then I start to slip. Maybe the excitement dies down, or the routine of it gets annoying - most often it’s because there’s some interruption that comes in and gets me off track and then I just can’t seem to get back on track. And I’m telling you all of this because I’m going to assume that some of you are struggling the same way that I struggle. Elijah looking back at the hero Moses, thinking, “God you had like a WHOLE conversation with Moses in the fire - but you’re NOT in the fire for me?” And I watch this moment and I am so comforted by the realization that God’s methods of connection with you are not limited to what he does in other people’s lives. And I think it’s really easy to miss the voice of God if you’re looking in the wrong places.

But that teaching comes with a challenge, right? Maybe you’re like Elijah and you’re looking for God in the wrong places - and you tried the whole prayer thing, the whole devotion thing, the whole quiet time with God - and you felt like it didn’t work. Like Elijah looking at Moses, you’re seeing how it works for others and then it doesn’t connect for you - so you figure, “I’m not as good as they are”, “this prayer thing must not be for me” or “something’s just wrong” - and you give up. But now that we know, now that we have seen with Elijah that God’s methods of connection are not limited by what he does in other people’s lives - now that we know that, we have a responsibility on our end to connect with God. It’s our job to discover how God best speaks to YOU. What I mean by that is - get out there this week and try some stuff! Spend time with God, and even if you’ve already tried it before - try again. Switch it up. If you tried praying, and it felt awkward or forced or you just didn’t “feel it” - remember what it’s like when you first start talking to someone! It’s normal for a new thing to feel weird the first time, it’s normal for spiritual disciplines to feel awkward when you’re practicing. But if you keep trying, find your method - God is so creative and varied in how he reaches us. And can I tell you what works for me? I rotate. I’m not good at doing the same thing everyday - and so I’ve found a whole pile of exercises that work for me, and I rotate through them every few weeks. I might use a book or an app for a few weeks, and when I find that slipping or I’m getting off track - I switch to a new prayer method. Maybe I’ll focus on memorizing the scriptures or I’ll fast for a season or just try writing out the bible - just copying it by hand, there’s SO many tools we have, and with a God who can be present in the fire and the wind and earthquake and the whisper - it’s on us to find the method of connecting with God that works for you. 

 But for Elijah, he DOESN’T come in any of those methods. God comes in the whisper. And it’s beautiful and hilarious - because God comes in the whisper and says, “what are you doing here, Elijah?” And Elijah launches into the exact same tirade that he gave before, he’s still so full of complaint even after all this stuff that’s happened - and God comforts him. God gives him guidance and instruction, God reminds him that “Actually, you are not as alone as you think.” But for Elijah God chose not the fire or the wind or the earthquake, God chooses the whisper. A lot of times in life, just like Elijah, we look for these epic moments, these incredible experiences - but God is most likely to come to us in the common place, the everyday, the mundane. And this is sort of the last big thing we can grab from the scriptures this morning - God tends to speak to us in the mundane. 

A few years ago, there was this event at Asbury College down in Kentucky, back in 2023 - where a spiritual revival broke out that lasted weeks. Maybe you heard the news stories - it was sort of an incredible thing. It was a normal, like, Wednesday morning chapel service and some students stayed to pray afterwards, and they just kept praying and the worship continued and more people came, and the prayer and song and presence of the Holy Spirit was so powerful, so potent that they kept worshipping for DAYS. [picture]They estimate that some 50,000 people showed up to this chapel during the 16 days of straight 24 hour worship. People flew in from all over the world to witness this incredible moment. The Holy Spirit showed up, and it was life changing for a lot of people. But do you know what it actually looked like? The previous pastor of this church, John Gorveatte, he went down there with a bunch of people from the Zero Collective - and they described it. I think mundane might be the perfect word. It was wall to wall packed in there, people worshipping and praying and singing - but it wasn’t flashy. It was like a bad chapel service you never wanted to leave. The service was mostly repentance and singing. The school had offers from like big name worship leaders and christian musicians - hey, if you want, I’ll get up on stage and lead everyone in worship, and they turned them all down. Famous pastors and some of the greatest preachers and speakers offered to get up and speak - they were turned away. It was a zero production, unimpressive afterthought of an event and people could not get enough. The Holy Spirit’s presence was so obvious that people were spontaneously confessing sins, accepting Jesus into their hearts, healing relationships, praying over one another. It was incredible, unstoppable and just so, so very mundane. I think about the way God has done that in THIS church too. Some of you might remember, my very first Sunday - was Easter Sunday two years ago, and somewhere out here a car hit a transformer and knocked out power to the entire block. Middle of service, and BOOM - zero lights, no microphone, no screens. And I remember, my microphone died - but I figured, it’s a small room. And so I said, “can everybody hear me?” And everybody said, “yep” and so I used my cell phone flashlight to finish the message, and then we had a guest worship leader Brandon at the time - and he came up and did an unplugged acoustic song and we all looked up the lyrics on our phones. We lost all the bells and whistles - and yet, it was unforgettable. Same thing a couple weeks ago - when our outdoor service got rained out. Suddenly all our polished plans fell apart, and we had to squish everyone in here for one service and we had a potluck afterwards, and there were people hanging from the ceiling, eating off their knees, it was wild and messy and mundane, but also so beautiful.

You see, nobody applauds a branch for staying attached to the tree - and yet that is arguably the most important thing a branch can ever do. Jesus said it like this, [read John 15:5-8]. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. This is probably the most important teaching of the day - I mean, if the grand project of Christianity is to remain in Jesus, to remain attached to the vine - this insight that God tends to speak to us in the mundane is SO valuable. 

We talk about white noise - how many of you have a white noise machine? I’m not big on that, but my wife absolutely is. If we don’t have a white noise machine, we need to have a fan on or something - even if it’s the middle of winter, because that noise is so important. But technically white noise is the presence of all sound frequencies simultaneously, which cancels out any individual signal. That’s why it’s so effective at covering up distracting noises and letting you stay asleep. But it’s also a metaphor for every single day of our lives. Our world has become white noise - every frequency occupied, making it impossible to isolate any single sound. And what I see from Elijah this week - if I am convinced of anything - I have noticed that God refuses to shout for your attention. He uses the whisper - because it is good for our souls to learn how to turn the rest of the world down. 

You, know a long time ago there was this guy John Wesley. He was from England, and part of the Anglican church. And he grew up in the church, but a one point - he had this weird crisis of faith. Basically, he’s sitting in the front row of church, looking around at this gorgeous cathedral and he was wondering, “Is this what God intended? Is this what religion is supposed to be?” He had this issue where he was surrounded by “church people” who would go to service on Sunday, and claim Jesus’ name - but they didn’t actually LIVE it out in their daily life. Good thing we don’t have THAT problem in the modern world. And that really bugged John, and so he and a small group of friends asked themselves, “what could we do to make sure we’re actually living out our faith.” Not just saying it with our words, but actually authentically BEING followers of Jesus. And so they created what was basically a small group, and they met during the week - and their whole job was “let’s come up with stuff to do to help us live out our faith.” So they would get together and read their bibles together. And they would go visit sick people in the hospitals, and they would fast and pray and they would go visit prisons together, and they would just do whatever they could to try and remain attached to the vine. And John Wesley, he was actually sort of a huge dork, but he actually created a list. Some people who make fun of him for being so methodical, others would call him an organizational genius - but I think it’s fair to say, he was just a huge dork for Jesus. And so he makes a list and he called it the “means of grace” - and it was basically a list of activities that help you grow closer to God. And it was never like, “if you do this stuff, you can control God, or you can get God to do what you want” but it was more like, “if you do these things, you will be more likely to experience God’s presence.” These practices are designed to make the line between you and the Holy Spirit thinner. And do you know what’s not on the list? Fire and Wind and Earthquake. The list of methods we use as means of accessing God’s grace looks like this stuff. [put list on the screen: prayer, scripture, serving others, small groups, communion, baptism] And for those may not know - John Wesley lived over 200 years ago, and those little groups he created that met every week started a massive church revival that ultimately led to the creation of the Wesleyan Church, which is the type of church that we are. 

And one of the practices John Wesley used, and he used it because it’s something Jesus used - was the practice of communion. And if you’re not familiar - basically, there was this special meal, called the passover meal - it was a jewish holiday. And Jesus celebrated this holiday with the 12 disciples, and when they were done eating. He took the bread that was already on the table - the leftover pieces, nothing fancy. And he took that bread and he broke it. And he said - take, eat, this is my body, broken for you. And then he took the cup that was on the table, most likely one of the cups that they use in the passover tradition - but again, this was nothing fancy, just the cup that was on the table. And he said, this is my blood which is poured out for you. And just like God approaching Elijah in the whisper, Jesus uses the most basic, common, everyday elements found on almost every table everywhere to tell the story of his sacrifice. If his body is going to be broken, if his blood is going to be poured out - that’s pretty obvious, right? He’s going to die. And he did die. He took the sins of the world - every single thing you have ever done wrong in your life, took all of it, on himself, and died as a sacrifice so that you could be washed clean. And because of that victory, his sacrifice gives you access to the forgiveness of God. You are forgiven of your sins because of what Jesus did for you that day. And ever since that night, the church created this tradition where we take the bread and we take the cup - the most common, mundane elements, and with it we celebrate the greatest victory the world has ever known - victory over sin and death. And Jesus said, “do this, as often as you eat of it, in remembrance of me.” And some people interpret that as, every time you take communion, remember what Jesus did. But another way to look at it, is that every single time you break bread, every single time you eat - take a second, and remember what God has done for you. Let God speak in the whisper, in the common, mundane methods of your everyday life. Let him whisper how much he loves you. And forgives you and washes away your sins. Let’s pray.