The Still Small Voice

can we just give glory to that beautiful name The Only Name that is worthy the only one who is righteous the only one seated alone on that throne in heaven the only one we can give our praise to Jesus I love you and I give you everything that I have I give you all my friends your name is beautiful Hallelujah

Spirit of the Lord is in this place and he is speaking already he is speaking already to the hearts of young men and young women but I wonder if we hear him he's speaking but I wonder if we hear his still small voice I wonder if we have yet to quiet the noise from our lives enough to hear his voice call out to you my son my daughter I have come to restore I have come to make you free I have come for you

he's come for each individual person in this room he knows your name he has the hairs on your head numbered that doesn't mean he knows the numbers he said this one's number one and this one's number two this one's number three that's how much he knows you that's how much he loves you

and I think it'd be appropriate if before we go any further before we get into any any attempt at preaching the word I think it'd be okay if we lifted our hands and ask God to prepare our heart Jesus I love you and I lift my hands to you in Praise God even though I find myself coming to you dirty even though I find myself coming to you unworthy even though I cry out from the pit you find me you still speak to me so God I pray soften my heart and open my ear to hear your voice tonight God I want to hear you I want to get to know you better I want you to change me and I want you to restore me prepare me prepare me Jesus

thank you thank you for your worship it's very encouraging it's very encouraging to see you all lifting your hands and singing along with us so thank you for your worship I want to give honor where honor is to you to those who have organized this and asked us to come I thank you I wasn't given a list of names to things so I'm just going to say a blanket thank you to all those who put this together and thank you all for coming this this has been tremendous already so far I also want to give thanks to my home pastor Pastor McInnis because everything a pastor should be and for me he had been a father for many years I am at Ocean we have preaching classes and one of the rules they teach you to do is to always start off with your text and I'm going to break that rule so if you come to Ocean and you take those classes they're going to teach you that and they're going to tell you to not do exactly what I'm about to do but I want to set up this passage before I get into it and you can go ahead and get seated foreign

beginning of military Warfare communication has often been the key to Victory communicating with your allies while knowing where your enemy is is the most crucial part in war after all in military ranks the common saying is that knowing is half the battle military communication has evolved Through the Ages from flaming arrows to drum beats to smoke signals to messenger pigeons and now we have modern satellite and electronic communications to where we can communicate very quickly during the first world war communication technology was changing very quickly and for the first time the world was utilizing electricity in this new source of power was utilized for the communication in the form of telegraphs telephones signal lamps and radio however this new technology was not always the best way to communicate with the soldiers on the front lines variables like weather and the terrain and enemies coming behind your ranks and cutting your lines of communication made electronic communication a little bit less reliable uh while instant communication was preferred soldiers often had to use primitive forms of communications come up with even before the Revolutionary War whether that be smoke signals or flaming arrows or flares but because of the advantage that instant electronic communication provided a new type of Advanced Warfare was being waged soldiers were being trained to sneak Behind Enemy Lines and cut Electronic Communications on lines and sever the connections so that the enemy could not communicate at the same rate they could and many times battles were one or lost decided solely on who had the most efficient way of communicating with their Commanders commanding officers could see from above and they knew information that the soldiers at the front line did not know they had information and they were able to move the pieces on the chessboard if you will they could they could see the whole battle in a way that the soldiers at the front line could not for the soldiers at the front line actually finding communication was life and death

and for the ancient people that we read about in our Bible they understood the importance of this very much so every morning and every evening Jewish people would pray this prayer called the Shema and if you come to Ocean there's a class you take all the introduction to Pentecostal Theology and they teach you the Shema and it sounds like this and if you want to Urshan go ahead and quote it with me and we know this is Deuteronomy 6 4 and 5 it says here O Lord hear o Israel the Lord Our God the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength there's a lot of there's a lot that we as one as Pentecostals pull from this passage like the Lord Our God has won yes and we should love the Lord Our God with all our heart yes but if we take a closer look we can find something else of equal importance see other languages other than English that we're familiar with some of them have different sentence structures than ours and not to bore you with logistic language and to get into all the nerdy stuff that I like to get into because I'm a nerd I'll just tell you that in Hebrew in Biblical Hebrew they put the important stuff first and if we look at the passage the first word is Shema here and hear what I'm saying today and hear the voice of God just is in hearing the voice of God is just as important the writer of Passage Deuteronomy put the most emphasis on hearing the word of the Lord and of course we know how could we know God if we do not first hear him and how could we love God if we do not first know him

now I'm getting into my text if you have your Bibles or if you have your lightsabers as Peter Wright calls them I'm going to be reading very quickly very quickly from First Kings chapter 19 verses 9 through 4 and while you're flipping there tell your neighbor say listen I am slotted for a keynote so I don't know how long this is going to be it says keynote on the piece of paper so I'm gonna try to be brief First Kings chapter 19 verses 9 through 14 it says this and there he went into a cave and spent the night in that place and behold the word of the Lord came to him and he said to him what are you doing here Elijah so he said I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts for the children of Israel have forsaken your Covenant torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword I alone am left and they seek to take my life then he said go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord and behold the Lord passed in a great and strong wind tore into the mountain and broke the rocks and pieces before the Lord and the Lord was not in the Wind and after the wind and earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake of fire but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice so it was when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave suddenly a voice came to him and said what are you doing here Elijah and he said I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts because the children of Israel have forsaken your Covenant torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword I alone am left and they seek to take my life you may be seated thank you for standing for the reading of the word

In this passage God speaks to Elijah many times and of course that's not a surprise Elijah is the prophet of the Lord after all but notice something God never interrupts Elijah even though what God has to say is much more important even though God has the power to create the entire universe with one word and even though when he speaks Liberation can come and even though when God speaks restoration can come and even though when God speaks nothing can stand against it he never interrupts Elijah God speaks to Elijah when Elijah finally gets wise enough to stop talking in this excerpt of scripture God first speaks to Elijah right after he woke up before Elijah was even able to get his morning coffee before he could read the newspaper before Elijah could do anything that's when God spoke to him when he was silent and God spoke to him and Elijah did something that we often do he complained to God he said God I do a lot for you I defend you but these crazy people they're coming after me they killed all my friends and they want to kill me I don't know what to do and I don't know where to go and I could just see God standing up in heaven looking down at Elijah you done complaining yeah okay get up on this mountain let me show you something and he gets up on the mountain and God shows Elijah a great Ruckus of Wind and Fire and an earthquake but God did not speak during the chaos God spoke when the wind and the fire and the earthquake had passed and again like most of us often do Elijah again complained and

if we're not careful that that's what our prayer life can evolve into our prayer life can quickly become nothing more than taking out our spiritual trash and setting it at the feet of God We Get Down On Our Knees to pray and it becomes just a listing off of our needs and a listing off of our wants and what we're going through and we quickly become a bad friend to God we say all of our own things and we never give him space to talk we never give him space to speak to us it's like it's like if I'm having a conversation with Mason and I say hey Mason my day's been really really bad I woke up this morning I woke up late I miss my class I did get my coffee I had no time to shower it was terrible how was your day oh your day my day was my day was worse my day was bad I missed lunch too I missed dinner and and I missed another class how was your day oh I don't really care but my day was worse we're not careful that's what our prayer life can become if you want to hear the voice of God we've got to learn how to quiet ourselves and if you want to hear the voice of God we have to learn to quiet the external noise just as much as the internal

in the excerpt of scripture we read we find Elijah the prophet of the Lord anointed and empowered but he's crippled by anxiety because he let the external noise drown out the voice of God that had come to deliver peace Elijah said this I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts for the children of Israel have forsaken her Covenant torn down your altars killed your prophets with the sword and I alone and left they seek to take my life more now than any other time in history the enemy has the ability to tap into our lines of communication and deliver lies straight to your ears he has the ability to get you to get your focus off of him the enemy has the ability to get your eyes off of God and onto something else and he has the ability to take your time because we've become so infatuated with social media we've come become so infatuated with entertainment and we can we can get so caught up and spend hours and hours and not even realize now I'm not here to draw lines that's not my place that's that's not what I've come to do but I can't tell you that I've watched too many of my friends get dragged down by the anxiety that's attached to social media and I watch too many of youth group members back at my church and nearly myself at one point drift out the back because they wanted so desperately to fit in at their school it's probably not a good thing that we spend more time watching YouTube and more time watching Netflix and more time on social media than we do praying and reading our Bible and hearing the preach the word of God nowadays there's so much that can grab your attention there's so much in in the news and in Hollywood that tries to tell you that Christianity's taboo or that Christianity is oppressive that you don't have time for it and that there's other things that are better there's other things that you can spend your time doing there's other things that are pleasing to you but we have to learn to silence that noise the enemy knows if he can get you wrapped up in anxiety or to throw a pity party like Elijah there's no way you'd hear the voice of God this isn't in my notes this is for free my pastor says that so I'm going to say that I want to know why sometimes it's hard to feel the presence of God when you come into his house you want to know why you find it a little bit more difficult to pray than you do to get on Instagram or why you find it a little bit more difficult to listen to Christian music because we've developed an appetite for the things of this world and we fill our spiritual bellies to the point where we have no more room for God by the time we get here we have no more room for his Spirit we have no more room for his love because we got filled up on anxiety we got filled up on entertainment we got filled up on the message of this world and we have no more room if we ever hope to hear the voice of the Lord we must learn to shut out the external noise that comes from this world and again the story that we read you see that God did not speak with a loud booming voice no he did not speak through the Mighty Wind or the Fire or the earthquake but he spoke in the midst of the Silence with a still small voice is he hearing the voice of God takes more work than just finding a quiet place it takes listening closely as well just getting quiet is the first step but we must listen God speaks with a still small voice and it may not even sound the same every time God can speak through many different mediums of course he can speak through his word that he's written down it's our instruction book for life it's the blueprint it's our road map every answer to every question we ever have it's written down right here already and he can pre he can speak to you in prayer and he can speak to you through the holy spirit that lives inside of you and he can speak to you through a sermon or a Bible teaching lesson he can speak to you through wise counselor through testimony or through your life experience God could even speak to you through his creation or through a dream or through anointed music or through the history or through fulfilled promise God can even speak to you through your pain and somehow the voice of God can even speak to you through the silence

how many know that you can hear somebody but not listen to them how many people are married no that's a more accurate number my my grandpa my grandpa just had a 65th birthday and since he was my age he's worked in the same Machining Factory all those years and even though he wears hearing protection and all of those things there's still been some irreparable damage to his ears and it's funny because every once in a while I'll be leaving the house and I'll say grandpa I'm going to the store and all I'll get is yeah yeah and then I'll say something completely different I'll say grandpa the dog got outside he's like yeah because he heard me say something but he wasn't listening he couldn't listen he didn't have the ability and it's funny he causes some causes some funny times it causes some issues as well but if we're not careful that's how we can treat the voice of God he can speak to you and tell you to go pray for someone at the altar and he'll say yeah or he can give you a calling to preach and you can say yeah God can anoint you to sing and give you many gifts and talents and you can look at him and say yeah and we stay put and Mason I'm about done see I've already talked a little bit about when God will speak and how we can hear him and what we must do to hear him

but what do we do after God speaks in the verse immediately after the passage we read and after Elijah had complained this is how verse 15 starts it says then the Lord said to him go when God speaks there's always either an explicit or implicit action that's attached too often we read our Bible or when God speaks to us in prayer or through a sermon we try to negotiate with God but what God is searching for and what he's been searching for since the garden is an obedient heart that When God Says jump we say how high When God says go we say how far When God says go pray we say for how long we can't negotiate with God like he's running a 10 sale on miracles that's not what this is and it's simple but it's very difficult but when God speaks we must obey

I'll make it real practical for a second in the united if you want to come back up we're going to sing here in a second too we got one more song but I'm gonna get real practical with you for a second that's one thing they teach you in preaching class two is to give you some actions to do we don't know better than God and it's not worth being disobedient and comfortable to be outside of God's blessing right now if God's dealing with your heart respond right now if God is calling you or if there is a call on your life that you've already acknowledged do something with it if God has given you a talent don't bury it cultivate that gift right now if you feel convicted because you know better to give tithes and you don't you do good to get square and if right now if the Lord is speaking to you but you're afraid that your friends might judge you but you think you want to respond you do good to stand to your feet and to lift your hands and to give glory to the King of Kings to give them all glory and Majesty

come on can we just rest in his presence for a moment it's okay if you want to respond we'll try to fill we'll try to fill the room with some praise we'll try to fill the room to get everybody not looking at you but if you want to respond you do good to do it if God's can if God's calling you if God is drawing you if the voice of God is speaking to you respond

and if you test God if you test God if you ask him to speak to you I promise I promise his word will come to you

I'm actually going to take two more minutes Mason I feel something else I want to try to relate to you a little bit because I remember a time in my life when I was y'all's age well I say y'all there's a wide range of wide range here I'll say youth age when I was youth age I was at a Crossroads in my life I was a senior high school I had opportunities to go other places I had church was not even on my mind for most of my conscious life my parents have been divorced I had been around drugs and it affected me and I fell into all of that and it even though I went to church I wasn't really in the church but when I was youth age I was at a Crossroads in my life and I remember I remember I was sitting in my bedroom at home and I remember I prayed this prayer I said God if you are real if what my grandparents say is true if what I experienced as a child wasn't fake God I need you to tell me because I'm about to make a decision I'm at a fork in the road and once I make a choice there's really no going back so God I I need some information I need you to come and talk to me I need you to help me I need you to send a word and about that time my mother came knocking on the door which was quite odd because she wasn't in church either she came knocking on my door she said Nathan what do you know about Bible College I said Mom I don't know a thing about Bible College I don't know a thing about College college but she began to sing in the in the spirit of the Lord filled that room and she got done singing and it was silent and for the first time in my life for the first time in my life the Lord spoke to me and he answered me when I tried him when I said God I need you to speak when I laid out a fleece before him God I need you he answered he is faithful he is faithful and when he when we call he answers ask and you shall receive not and it shall be opened unto you

we're going to sing we're gonna sing but I'm looking at your faces all around the room and I can see some of you trying to hide it I could see somebody trying to hold back and I can see others of you getting Nancy to come up to the front so I'm going to try to get out of the way as fast as possible but if God is speaking to you or if you need God to speak to you he is here his presence is in this room and he's waiting he's waiting for any sign that you give him any sign that you want him to speak he's waiting and he's chomping at the Biff I've got a word for you and I've got a calling for you I wonder if you're ready to receive it I wonder if you're ready to hear me

so can we lift our hands and can we ask God Jesus I love you and right now I need your voice in my life I need you to speak to me God I need a covenant that you made to those before you I need that with the same Covenant I walk in the promise is that you made all those years ago God I need them to be true in my life promise that you are faithful the promise that you would respond when we ask the promise that she would be faithful to us God I need that to be true to us