Pastoral Letter 122
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and peace to you all.
Last Sunday we celebrated Trinity Sunday and revisited the doctrine of the Trinity and tried to explain, saying that God is three distinct Persons, yet one God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit coexist and work in cooperation. He is a complex God, who cannot be easily described. Each of the Three Persons of our One God has different attributes, yet the three are working together in partnership.
The next 2 weeks lead us to Advent and Christmas.
If you will not be able to join us at our face-to-face service, you can worship with us at home. Please light a candle and follow the attached Order of Service.
Please note that I will be on leave from 27 June to 9 July to travel to Armenia to attend the 175th Anniversary celebrations of the Armenian Evangelical Church. On Sunday 3 July our congregation is invited to join Crows Nest Uniting at 10:00 am for worship. Also be aware that on Sunday 26 June, we will join Lane Cove Uniting at 9:30 am at St. Columba’s for our Combined Service on the occasion of the 45th Anniversary of the Uniting Church.
Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love and let us know if any member of the congregation that you know of needs our help and prayers.
Here are some more prayer points for this week:
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for those who are unwell and struggling with different kinds of medical issues.
- Pray for the churches in the Lower North Shore Zone, as we still await the recommendations coming from the Life and Witness consultations.
- Pray for world peace and ask for God’s blessings.
- Pray for the hope that God gives.
- Please pray for Dee, Lori and me as we travel to Armenia, to go and come back safely.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Best Regards,
Krikor
MESSAGE
The Gentle Whisper of God
1 Kings 19:1-18
Two men from Texas went to Minnesota one winter to do some ice fishing. After setting up their tent, they pulled the cord on their chainsaw to cut a hole in the ice. Then they heard a mysterious voice from above saying: “There are no fish under the ice.”
“Is that you, God?” They asked in awe. “No”, came the reply, “but I know that there are no fish under the ice. I am the owner of this ice-skating rink.”
People who don’t know God’s voice, or His whisper, resemble fishermen fishing in a skating rink.
If our life is untuned, maybe it’s because we’ve been deafened by our negativity that causes us not to hear God’s word!
Maybe we’ve listened to the voice of criticism for so long that we can’t believe anything else about ourselves. Or maybe it’s the enemies voice of condemnation that speaks lies about who we really are.
If we don’t silence those competing voices, they’ll eventually deafen us. Before long we won’t be able to sing God songs, because we won’t be able to hear His voice. His voice of love, compassion, power, healing, wisdom and grace.
It’s often what we hear least that we need to hear most.
This morning we are going to learn about hearing God during the midst of life’s difficult circumstances. How many of us have ever been through a difficult time in which we felt like God had abandoned us, or perhaps that He was nowhere to be found? Surely a number of us have experienced times of silence from the Lord. Many of us have gone through what is often called a “valley experience” or a “lack of spiritual consolation” and we felt like we were completely alone.
We will look at a situation in the life of the prophet Elijah in which he felt all alone, and by the end of the account we will realise that God is always with us and that He has our best interests in mind at all times, even though we may not immediately hear from Him.
In chapter 18, we find a familiar story with Israel. The people had begun to bow down and worship foreign gods and idols. Elijah confronted Ahab, the King of Israel (which was the Northern Kingdom) and commanded him to gather all Israel along with the four-hundred fifty prophets of Baal to meet him on top of Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:17-19). He challenged the people to choose whom they would serve, either Baal or the Lord God of Israel (18:21).
Elijah then devised a test to prove which god was the real thing. Elijah told the prophets of Baal to prepare a bull for sacrifice and then place it on their altar and call on Baal to rain down fire from heaven and burn it up (18:23-25). The prophets then cried out to Baal all day long, and there was no answer; and then Elijah mocked them.
Elijah then prepared a bull to be sacrificed to the Lord God and then called on God to engulf the sacrifice with fire, and the Lord immediately consumed every bit of the sacrifice, including the water. Afterwards, the people finally confessed: “The Lord, He is God!” (18:36-39). Elijah then commanded all the prophets of Baal to be seized and taken down to the Kishon River and be executed there (18:40).
For what Elijah did, Queen Jezebel, King Ahab’s Phoenician wife, put out a threat on Elijah. So, Elijah went as far away as he could possibly go in order to flee from Jezebel.
What doesn’t make much sense is that Elijah had just witnessed a huge victory by the hand of the Lord and had seen God’s power in all His glory over Jezebel’s prophets; and then right here, we find him running. Why didn’t he believe that God could win another victory and protect him? Instead of finding Elijah walking in the victory of the Lord, he was running away in fear, and he was also feeling sorry for himself.
His self-pity can be seen in verses 10 and 14 when the angel of the Lord asked Elijah why he was hiding in a cave. Elijah replied: “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected Your covenant, broken down Your altars, and put Your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only left; and now they are trying to kill me.” Elijah basically said: “Woe is me, for I am the only one who cares about you Lord. I am the only one left who worships you, and these ungodly people are trying to drag me down. All I can do is run away and live out the rest of my days alone.” In verse 4, we can see that Elijah pleaded for God to end his life. He said: “I have had enough, Lord,” or in other words, “I just can’t go on.”
Elijah was likely suffering from burnout and depression. He had expended a great deal of energy in serving the Lord, especially during his last spiritual engagement with Jezebel’s prophets. He had been on a spiritual high, and then he crashed and fell into the depths of despair and self-pity. Battling for the Lord can lead to burnout. During these low times it is often difficult to look up and see God’s guidance and provision. The Lord is a God of deliverance, but Elijah could not see this through his state of darkness.
He felt discouraged and all alone, but the Lord was still there for him. In fact, God still had a plan and purpose for his life, and He didn’t want Elijah to stay where he was. That’s why God kept asking him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (19:9, 13). Elijah wasn’t supposed to be hiding out in a cave, for God wanted to use him. In verse 15, the Lord commanded Elijah: “Go back the way you came.” In other words, God said: “Get up and get going!”
Elijah had a misunderstanding of God’s presence in his life. He believed that God was present if he could see His power revealed through mighty acts, such as what he had just witnessed with the consumption of the offering by fire from heaven. He felt that the Lord revealed Himself only through signs and wonders. If things were going right, then it meant that God was present. However, when things went wrong, he felt that God was nowhere in sight. He reasoned that if he were going through such a difficult time that the Lord must have forsaken him, and that he was all alone and in big trouble.
Elijah was one who gloried in what we call “mountaintop experiences.” He was ready to serve the Lord when he could see God moving and when things were exciting; however, when he went through a “valley experience,” or a dry time, he stopped serving the Lord. He could not see Him and so he ran away, and he did not persevere through the hard times. All too often we will serve God when things are going great, but when hardship strikes, we drop out of service. We feel like the Lord has abandoned us, and we fail to realize that He is still there beside us through it all, watching out for us and providing for our every need. Just because we can’t see or hear the Lord, it does not mean that He is not there.
God taught Elijah a lesson when he failed to see God in the little things, such as the provision of bread and water. God felt He needed to get Elijah’s attention and teach him a much-needed lesson about the Lord’s presence. Since Elijah was impressed only with the big things in life, the Lord got his attention through some really big things.
We see that the Lord got his attention through His mighty deeds, but the Lord spoke nothing through these mighty forces of nature. Elijah must have been astonished. He had expected to hear from God through His great displays of power, and yet he received no answer from Him. So then, when and how did Elijah hear from God? He heard the Lord through “a gentle whisper” (v. 12). God was not heard through great displays of power, but in the midst of the silence – in the moment in which Elijah thought He was nowhere around. I believe this taught Elijah the lesson that the Lord is with us all the time and that He never abandons us.
He is there if we listen to His voice.
Whether it is preaching, mission work, or just plain attending church, we can all become discouraged when we are worn out and God doesn’t seem to be moving much or saying much to us. We tend to believe the Lord is only with us when we see Him working and moving in mighty ways.
Some of us will become discouraged and begin to complain to the Lord, saying: “Why are you not speaking to me anymore God?” or “Why have you abandoned me, Lord?” But God is still near us to watch and protect.
In those quiet times God will speak to us through “a gentle whisper.” How can we hear a still small voice if we don’t slow down or become quiet enough to listen? Remember that the Lord says: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). If we could simply rest in the assurance of knowing that God is always with us, then we would be able to hear the Lord during the quiet times.
Let us be assured that God is always with us. In Hebrews 13:5 the Lord says: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” If we are going through a valley experience, and we are discouraged, thinking that God is nowhere in sight, then let’s take heart. The Lord is right there by our side, and if we will trust Him and be still while abiding in His peace, then we will hear His voice; and when the Lord speaks to us, then we will discover that He has a plan and a purpose for our lives.
Let us be still, and rest assured in God’s peace and presence, knowing that the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us.
Learning how to hear the voice of God is the solution to our many problems! It’s also the key in discovering our destiny and fulfilling our potential.
His voice is a voice of love, compassion, power, healing, wisdom, grace and joy.
Maybe we’ve listened to the voice of criticism so long we can’t believe anything else about ourselves. Or maybe it’s the enemies voice of condemnation that speaks lies about who we really are.
God speak to us with “a gentle whisper” or whispers to us. He doesn’t need to shout, because that’s what the evil does. God whispers His goodness to us with a soft voice.
All we need, is to hear, listen and be attentive.
Amen!