JUL 1 2020 | Sparking the Flames of Revival S1E5 | Holy Spirit Whispers

Sea Change Church · Sparking the Flames of Revival · "Holy Spirit Whispers" · July 1, 2020
Genesis 27:30–38
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Good morning. My name is Chris Bateman, or Bucky Bateman, and I'm one of the counselors here, as Drea alluded to, and I get the privilege of partnering with the church and being part of the counseling team, and today I get the privilege of reading scripture. Today's scripture reading comes from 1 Kings, chapter 19, verses 11 through 13. The Lord said, Good morning. It's great to see you all in church this morning, and Pastor Jim, really a phenomenal job. I didn't understand, as we're actually going to be coming out of 2020 at some point, the importance of understanding our history as a church and the history of the church, especially in regard to some of the changes that are happening in our world, and how we can reach back. And I want you, as a family member of La Jolla Christian Fellowship, to understand that you, if you decide to become a member of this church, a family member of this church, not just visiting on occasion, but you say, this is my home, my spiritual home, that I, you know, lock shields with others, that you will understand that you are part, not only of a great cloud of witnesses, but with a group of witnesses globally, but with a group of people that have been on this corner for almost 100 years, who have made incredible sacrifices and prayed, and that we want you to know and understand that you are part of, that you are the answer to many of their prayers.

We pray regularly that God would release the prayers of the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, that burn before his throne onto this congregation, and we really want you to see your identity as a believer, obviously only in Christ, but in regard to how that works, has workings in our society as a whole, as a member of a church that, with a lineage that goes way back. And so, Jim, it just, you're doing yeoman's work on that, and it's really important, those things that I've enjoyed as they've shared and been really important.

Today, we are in episode five of the Sparking the Flames of Revival, and we're going to be looking, we have one more week after this, but we're going to be looking today at something that is oftentimes not really valued as an element of revival, and that is because we love the froth and bubble of the activities for God, which he's called us to. You heard about the Salvation Army, you could look at the modern Sunday school movement that comes out of caring for the poor in England, and having a place where the children could learn, looking through all these things that we are called to do.

But the question is, where is the platform built upon, which we build upon these acts of societal care, love, forgiveness, justice? Where does that actually come from, and where do we build it upon? And I would say that one of the most, you'll see in your notes, that stillness, and I want to talk about stillness today, that stillness is perhaps the most powerful and under-pursued attribute of God. I want to say perhaps. I don't want to be overly definitive, but I'd love to be definitive.

But I want to say that stillness, stillness before God, sitting quietly before God, and letting God be the editor of your life. Living a life from the inside out as opposed to the outside in. In this passage, you're going to see Ezekiel change the way in which he was living from an inside out perspective to an outside in perspective, and it caused him to run to the hills. It caused him to live in fear and to run away after a massive victory with God.

Now, we want to experience God as a community. We want to change the world as a community. But we also want to reach into the things that allow us to touch God in a different way than things that have confines. As we'll see later in this message, words have confinement. A word can only have so much meaning. But stillness and silence actually are beyond meaning. They actually live in a place of God's infinite understanding of who God is.

We'll talk about that in just a moment. But if you're going to truly know God, in your spiritual cache of disciplines in your life, you need to have, if you're going to be like Jesus, a component where you draw away and sit silence with God. Now, you can come out of that time and use your Bible to say, hey, is what I heard in silence in alignment with the Word of God? You can put your earphones on after that time and worship the understanding of that.

Obviously, the Bible is used. It is the Word of God that shows us we want to lean into that when we come out of silence as a filter. But we need to have a place where we can sit silent before God and have that as a discipline in our life. I will say that you will never fully, and we'll never fully know God because He's infinite anyways, but you will never know God the way in which He intends unless you have taken time in your life to know Him in silence and time to know Him in solitude.

It is out of this foundation that God will build a bridge from something that is undefinable because we cannot define God, and as we'll see in a moment, in silence, it is difficult to define silence. There's a lot of things you can define a Reuben sandwich a lot easier than you can define silence. And it is out of this place that God wants to build a framework and a pathway so that we can live outside as well. Talk about that in just a moment.

But stillness is perhaps the most powerful and under-pursued attribute of God. I put it in the notes. I think I put it in this morning. I do add things. I usually finish my sermon. I have to have it in by 10 o'clock on Thursday morning. And then I spend three days. I spend a day in silence. I let it go subterranean. I don't think about it. I let it do the subconscious work. I learned that from Hemingway. Hemingway said you need time to get away from your writing so it can come, and in your subconscious it can come alive, and then you come back to it.

And then I spend Friday and Saturday adding components to the message. In Psalm 46.10, it says, Be still and know that I am God. Now, before I get to the next two components of that, which has a lot to do with how Ezekiel was living his life, excuse me, Elisha was living his life, it says if you're going to know God, truly not know about him, words will help you know about God. Words will really help you know about God.

God wants you to do more, to have a relationship that is based more on comprehending his presence within you than understanding it through a lecture, than understanding it through a teaching, and all those things are important, and they do help us to define it. But if you want to really drill down into the presence of God and to know God, Psalm 46.10 says if you want to know God, you need to be still. You need to be silent.

That's no headphones. That's not reading your Bible at the moment. That is nothing but sitting still and letting God affect your being. Now out of that, once again, that needs to be guided by the word of God, but this component of stillness. If you don't do that, you will be trying to make decisions on how to live in the world from a land of confusion. Now in the 1980s, Phil Collins wrote a song, a Genesis song, and I've been using music a lot to help me understand what's happening.

A lot of older music, I've been listening to worship music, but I have some playlists actually. So if you want to follow me on Spotify, my latest playlist is called The Kind Reopening, and on it you are going to find this song by Genesis called Land of Confusion. And so many of these songs, I don't know if they were meant to be prophetic, but I keep finding things, I'm like, that could have been written yesterday. That is so important.

So I'm listening to this, and he says this. Phil Collins says, I must have dreamed a thousand dreams, been haunted by a million screams, but I can hear the marching feet. They're moving now into the street. Now did you read the news today? They say danger has gone away, but I can see the fire is still alight. They're burning now into the night. There's too many men, too many people, making too many problems, and there's not enough love to go around.

Can't you see? This is a land of confusion. We are living in a land of confusion. And the question I am regularly getting from believers, mostly 20-somethings, and I'll tell you why I think that is in a moment, is, and the word I'm hearing, I've heard the word confused over and over again. I don't know what to do. Now, one of the things I want to say is that one of the reasons I think that 20-somethings, not so much my mid-to-late 30-somethings and beyond, but my 20-somethings especially, because we have underserved you as a church and removed core discipleship, something that we want to bring back into the church.

Core discipleship means going through the Bible and understanding things like the atonement. Why are we saved? Understanding why you're justified by faith. Understanding these issues of the Bible. When you have that, when the land is in confusion, you know how to get back home. In the 1990s and in the 2000s and beyond, we started this thing, moving away from discipleship, because it was too programmatic. We don't like programming.

So we did a thing called Life on Life, doing life together. Maybe you've heard these terms. They're very Christian. We get together, and we just talk about the Bible, but we actually never give you actual tools that if something goes down in society or in your own personal life, you actually have a framework that you can go back to and survive. And so I've had 10 people, that's about right, contact me saying I'm confused.

I need to know what to do. And probably 70 to 80% of them have been people in their 20s. This has caused me as a pastor and as a staff here and as an elder board to realize we need to rethink what we do as a church at La Jolla Christian Fellowship and become more programmatic and more definitive in having people understand what it means to follow Jesus so that they have an anchor in the storm. How do you make sense of a land of confusion?

Let me just tell you this. If you are living from the outside in, then you will be making decisions on what to do and your emotions, your fear, your very reasoning, your very logic, your understanding of God, even your praxis, meaning how you will take what you have found out there and try to change the world will be based in confusion and noise as opposed to living from the inside out. People ask me regularly throughout the last, they ask me all the time, they say, how are you doing?

And it's funny because there's been some moments where I've been doing really well and I was at Stater Brothers yesterday and Big Bear and the guy said, how are you doing? I said, I'm doing fantastic. He goes, come on dude, you're not doing fantastic. I said, no, actually I am. Like, no one's doing fantastic. Why was I fantastic? When on other days, I'm just like all of you. Other times where it's just, yeah, I'm horrible.

World's blowing up. It depends, one day I'm this, one day I'm not. Here's what I found out. When I am living from the inside out, letting God direct my feelings, my emotions, and filtering out all that noise and getting quiet and letting the Holy Spirit rest in me, being still and knowing that I am God, when I am in that place, all of a sudden everything makes sense to me. I see God at move. I see the Holy Spirit. I see his heart for people.

I see the things that he is doing amidst all the rumors of war and war and all the things that you say Jesus says are going to happen. And I feel at peace and I feel encouraged and inspired. When I'm on Twitter and on Google and on Facebook and just out, watch, whatever, whatever it is, and taking my cues from the outside in and then also thinking, how can I change the world? Because I'll be out there and then I'll look around and this needs to be changed.

And I'll make a decision based on the noise. As opposed to the inner place, as opposed to the quiet place as we see in this scripture, that gentle whisper. I find that oftentimes I'm deceived. Oftentimes I come up with plans that are really, really good that are not from God. We see in this scripture, as we'll see in a moment, that God shows up in multiple ways, but he wasn't in everything that he showed up in. And so what Psalm 46 says, which is, I want to take you back to that, it says, be still and know that I am God.

And then look what will happen. You see, this is the foundation that he builds upon. I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth. That's your missional strategy? Like, go be silent and by me being silent, he is exalted in the nations and uplifted throughout the land? Yes. Because it is from that place that we actually hear what we should be doing as opposed to looking at the outside world and making decisions based on what we think is right.

What is this saying? What are we doing as a church? Why are we now providing two times a week where you can have silence and solitude? Because we want to model this as a church. We want to model for you as a church something you can do on your home and on your own corner and we want to have silence. So you were invited into that, but I want to encourage you to be a part of that. Now, here we see Elijah in 1 Kings 19.3.

That isn't on your notes, but if you go back if you have your scripture, it says, Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. Elijah is on the run. Now, here's what's so interesting. Elijah had just had a massive victory. This is what is really interesting. He had just gone up against the prophets of Baal. He had called them and had like this wager to find out who God really exists. He says, build an altar really high full of wood, calls hundreds of prophets together of them and he says, you guys pray and put a sacrifice and if fire comes down from heaven and consumes it, then Baal is the God.

But if he doesn't, then I'll try it and he actually puts water all over it when he does it and makes it really soak with water, makes it hard. He says, I will call fire and fire will come down from heaven and then we'll know that I am God. And so this is a really powerful moment. So the priests of Baal are dancing around. They get such into a frenzy. They're cutting themselves. They're crying out to God and then Elijah just starts mocking them.

You know, my daughter, what am I told you? Lucy, what am I, she was like five or six years old. It actually says in the scripture, like he's like, hey, where's your God? Like is he in the toilet? You know, like Elijah actually says like the full shade. He's just throwing shade at the prophets of Baal. And then Elijah says, step back boys. I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it. And so he calls upon God and it says the fire of God comes down.

God is in the fire and the fire of God comes down and consumes the altar. And, and then he puts all the prophets of Baal asunder. What a victory. What an incredible victory. You know what I found in my life? Some of my biggest failures come after my biggest victories. I love, in the past, not so much now, not really anymore at all. I used to celebrate a victory with God with a failure. I don't know if anybody ever was in that mood or you just had, you have a victory, you feel like, I don't know, you just, I just, I just did.

I would, I would, you know, let off the throttle a little bit, so to speak. Well, he's in this massive moment and then all of a sudden he stops listening from the inside out and he starts looking from the outside in and there's this queen named Jezebel, that's where we get the term from, married to Ahab, the king of Israel and basically she sends out a threat, you know, I don't know how she got it to him but she basically said, she's really upset and she said, if Elijah is alive by this time tomorrow then there's this curse that's going to be upon me.

This freaks Elijah out. Matter of fact, so much, so he runs from the north of Israel all the way to the south of Israel which is like a nine hour car drive, I just did it because I was at Mount Carmel not recently with our team from Israel. He drives all the way and then he crosses where the Red Sea, around the Red Sea where the Egyptians cross, excuse me, the people of Israel crossed years before and then he goes to Mount Sinai which is where Moses got the law which is no longer even in the promised land goes up on Mount Horeb it's called Mount Horeb and he runs into a cave and hides in a cave.

Absolutely runs away from what God had done after this massive victory. It's interesting how many times when I start living from the outside in I want to go hide in a cave. And I can't tell you in the last I studied monasticism as part of my graduate degree and I really like monastic spirituality and especially the mysticism and the silence of it. The amount of times recently in the last six months three months four months I've just wanted to run away.

I don't know if you've experienced that. I just I've had enough. I want to go to some island. I want to take my family. I want to go have sheep. I want to make my own butter. Like I just want to just go be alone and leave it all. I want to go to the cave. You know if you're in a cave let me say that God thinks that that's okay. We know he thinks it's okay because Elijah's on the run and God's on the move. God shows up at the cave.

That's amazing to me. Why not send an angel which he did earlier but why not do some other stuff have a burning I don't know whatever. God is on the move. Elijah's on the run. God's on the move and God calls him out of the cave and he says I want to speak to you. What is what is so interesting in regard to grace is that you'll see in the scripture it says the Lord said go out and stand on the mountain and I will and then I will pass by with my presence.

If you actually look at the text Elijah doesn't walk out of the cave and stand there until God already shows up and shows his presence and whispers to him. God said go stand and I will pass by. Well God passes by but Elijah isn't standing there if you read the passage. It is when God speaks in a whisper out of a solitude and a silence that all of a sudden it draws Elijah out of the cave and then God gives him his marching orders.

Why that is so much grace is God said go do this come out and stand here on the mountain and I will speak to you I will pass by. He doesn't go out God still passes by and God still calls him from the cave and God says I want you to come I don't know what he said in the whisper it isn't what he said in the end because he does offer him a question I'm going to ask you the same question in a minute he says ask him a question but God said something in the whisper that was beyond the question that causes Elijah as you will see when Elijah heard it he pulled the cloak over his face he went out and stood at the mouth of the cave then a voice said to him God asked him this question what are you doing here bro but before that there was a whisper we don't know what the whisper said but we know that God pursued him to a cave and even when he wasn't obedient to do what God asked him God still showed up in grace and mercy and peace and whispered something so transcendent that it would draw him out of the cave this is grace this is the grace of our God who pursues us into caves let's say maybe your emotions right now are in a cave maybe your mental state is in a cave maybe your world view is in a cave maybe you don't know where to go I'm going to say that you serve a God who understands that place who wants to meet you in that place and whisper to you and then out of whispering to you he wants to build a path that you can change the world out of that place Elijah ends up going back to change the world and doing a he gets Elisha all these other things happen but there was a moment in a cave where he was there so we see God is on the move Elijah's on the run God's on the move first I want to say that as you look at this passage if you go to verse 11 the Lord said go out and stand some of you are on the run you're emotionally on the run you feel like you have no anchor you feel like you have no tether you don't know how to respond you feel accused you feel guilty you feel shame you feel anger there's a whole bunch of convoluted emotions that are happening and if you are living from the outside in you're going to be in a land of confusion I find myself there regularly it's like when people ask me how you're doing well if I'm living from the inside out I'm doing great when I'm living from the outside in I'm not doing so well so constantly coming back to that so what does God say here?

what does this scripture say to you? stand stop running if you're running stop running where are you running to? God's going to ask you that question what are you doing here? some of you in a place right now you've gone into addiction or you've gone into anger or you've gone into fear guilt, shame whatever the enemy right now in secular religion is offering you a whole bunch of options to assuage your guilt or your fear or your worry and none of them are from God and if you are going to meet the Lord and live in peace we need to stop running and stand God's asking you what are you doing here?

you don't belong here I have a purpose and a plan for you and I want to whisper to you be still and know that I am God moving on now I want to look at some key components the first is this idea of why is stillness so powerful? why is silence so powerful? why is it more powerful than a word than a particular word? I was talking to Lucy my 12 year old philosopher it's the third week she's made the message and she always wants to watch the part where she makes the message hey Dan put that I want to watch the message just the part that I'm in I say okay so we fast forward to that part and having a conversation with her and I ask her I said why do you think people are afraid of silence?

because I was thinking a lot about the noise I surround myself with just noise noise I sit down I don't know how long it is when I sit down but I don't know how long it is for you but within about four seconds of sitting down something says pick up your phone like I don't know maybe you've got a two minute thing or a one second thing but I just want I just have a really hard time with this discipline of silence and I said Lucy why do you think people are so afraid of silence?

and I was trying to lead her somewhere but that's all I asked and she said well because I don't think it has any boundaries and she says like a word if you're talking you can define it but you can't define silence I think I don't know if I said it earlier in this service or the last service but it's easier to define a Reuben sandwich than it is to define silence because silence has it doesn't it has to have a meaning beyond words that's why when you look at this passage and it says if you go to verse 11 it says the Lord now the Lord's name in this passage I think it's three times in this passage no four, five, six times let me see I counted it it's between four and six times the word Lord is used in this passage now that word I looked it up it's the same usage every time Yahweh Yahweh Yahweh is a is a term for God that really has no defined meaning when Moses asked who are you God says Yahweh why do you want to know someone's name because if I were to say friendly I got her attention it gives me control just so I can call your name if you have a name and people know it you are subject to their control FYI because you have a definition and we want to define things in this word and so the thing with silence is silence has no definition this word Yahweh from the Lord because the Lord doesn't have a definition he says he's a father because that builds a bridge to our finite understanding we can understand him as a father he says he's a king but he's more than a king he's more than a father he's more than the suffering servant all the names we love for Jesus he's more than all of them you cannot describe God that is why God is more describable in silence than in a word he is more and so when you even Jesus name they said what is what is Jesus you know in the beginning was the word it's just everything it's like it's undefinable that's why Psalm 46 10 says if you want to experience God you have to go somewhere beyond definition where you can experience him beyond your finite understanding Philippians picks up on this when it talks about don't fear about anything it says we want to give you a peace that transcends understanding God transcendence means you experience something that you can't define silence puts you in a place that is incredibly scary and incredibly tenuous because you might experience God in a way that you cannot define and God wants to take you to a place that is beyond words we always want to use the Bible because the Bible will tell us if what we experience was true okay so not besmirching the Bible but God wants he wants you to know him as himself God is beyond the Bible let me tell you the Bible will not be in heaven FYI it's true the word of God the word Jesus will be in heaven the Bible is a tool that was given to us that will lead us to all truth it will lead us to all truth but it is limited in that if you only are sticking to the words there's a definition this is why God five six times in this passage defines himself as an unknowing God let me just show you what the Hebrews thought about this Yahweh a form of the Hebrew name of God was used in the Bible this name came to be regarded by the Jews 300 BC as too sacred to be spoken and the vowel sounds were uncertain I want to say we want to really move in a direction that is guided by the word of God because we're finite human beings !

we need the you can filter the world of confusion Jesus regularly went away to filter that is that in your cadre is that in your cache of understanding in your spiritual disciplines let me just talk about this other way God showed up I want to say that I love the God of the earthquake when we talk about the God of silence and the whisper or the God of the earthquake I'm a God of the earthquake guy I love the two disciples the sons of thunder I I always have I want to die for my faith you know lately I've been thinking I hope this doesn't throw you off too much but I'm thinking there's a better chance I'll be killed for my faith now than ever before that's so awesome sorry but when I signed up for Christianity that's the understanding I signed up for to be willing to go anywhere to do anything to have nothing hold me anymore that I might even give my life to Jesus when you live I'm going to talk about this next week because Jesus is radical about being willing to have nothing that tethers you to this world your money your house your reputation any of it that's the kind of people he's calling you I gotta say when you give all that away and you can freely speak what God puts !

hey I have a business and they're wanting me to make a statement I don't know what to say they're threatening a boycott of my business they want a statement about this thing they're going to boycott my business I talked to them about statements but what I said most of all is this let them take the business I said as long as you're holding on to you have to have a business or you don't come empty if you go to this conversation completely empty where no one can steal anything from you or threaten you then you can start working from a place of true justice true care true relationship true intimacy true relationship with those you're actually speaking to but when there is a strong arm tactic and you feel indebted to it because you're so afraid of losing something of the world then you were not following the kind of calling that Jesus had Jesus was radical Jesus was willing to lose it all and I finally I just told you two weeks ago I finally prayed Jesus whatever you want you can have it took a long time to get there I've been there before but it took a while to get back I say you want freedom live there I don't care live there you can still care for people but you go to this inner place of living I want to tell you when it comes to a God I want a God of the earthquakes I want to go out I want to fight for justice in the streets I want whatever that means I want to go whatever it means shed blood for the gospel I sat in a class with a man who I didn't talk much around him kept my mouth shut Will Rogers says never miss an opportunity to keep your mouth shut I remember this one brand new seminary student that was at the end of my seminary career at this point came in and he started disrespecting this guy I don't remember what the argument was but he was disrespectful to him I pulled him outside I said hey my friend Yuri here he's bled for he had four generations before him that have been killed for the gospel I said you need to be careful the way you speak to him not that he's not ever be wrong but you need to know who you're speaking to and I said when you're ready to shed blood for the gospel I'll take your opinion a little bit more seriously that's just personally me I love I tend to love that more. You know what's my problem, though? God's not always in that, Adam.

Let me just look at this scripture. Look at it. Because we don't want to be deceived as we go out and change the world. If we're living from the outside in, we're going to be deceived. I have been outside. I've been out there. I was out there this week. I was doing really well, and then I spent a bunch of time reading the news. And then I started getting ideas. Do this. Do this. Make this move. Lead the church in this direction. Do this social justice movement. Do that. Do that. Do that. And I got all fired up. And next thing I know, I had no peace.

Hard time sleeping. I'm agitated. I'm upset. I'm going to, ah. And then I went for like a six-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, and everything's going to, you're not going to do any of that. Slow down, big boy. I want to make a change so badly in the world that I just want the God of the earthquake. Read this. In verse 12, I think, 11, it says, then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind, there was an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake came a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. And it was interesting. God was in the whisper, but he wasn't in the fire. Now, had Elijah not been still, how easy would it have been to have thought after his last victory, which was a fire victory with God in the fire? There's fire again. This is God.

God used fire twice. He used an earthquake in wind. He had just used fire, and he was in the fire that consumed it. But this time, God was not in the fire. I gotta say, I am very susceptible to saying God might be in something when God might not. And I think that right now in society, there are a tremendous amount of traps for Christians. The enemy is setting booby traps all over the place, where Christians are willing, because of their desire to change the world, because of good hearts, because of a desire for justice and all these things, to step on these traps or to confess or profess things that are not scripturally grounded, because they haven't been discipled and they don't know the truth.

But they do it with good hearts. And all at the same time, they debunk the gospel as they do it. This is the God of the earthquake. This is the God of wind. He has it, but he's not in that. So how do we know when God is in the midst of that? Because in 2 Thessalonians 2, 9 and 10, talks about the end times. I wouldn't say this verse terrifies me, but I would say that the verse wakes me up. It says, the coming of the lawless one, which we see a lot of that right now. Satan loves lawlessness.

Which is interesting, because Jesus likes freedom from the law, but he doesn't get rid of the law. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they have refused to love the truth, and so be saved. It says that when Satan comes, he's going to have power and signs and wonders, and all these things. And if you are not tuned in, then you will be deceived, because you will look at and say, fire, earthquakes, power, splitting rocks, destroyed mountains. That must be God.

And say, only in the silence will you know. Because in the silence, the gentle whisper of God's loving voice and the Holy Spirit will direct you. He'll direct you to the scriptures that show you that's true. He'll direct you to all these different things. Society right now says there are certain sins that are unforgivable. It's untrue. It is not true that there is no redemption, or that you can redeem yourself by doing a certain amount of penance. It's untrue. These are not true to the core of the gospel. So as we look at these things, we want to slow down. And here's a simple question before we go into the end, and I've already said it at the beginning now. Think about where you are in verse 13.

It says, when Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face, which we no longer need to do, because we can go boldly before the throne of God. And he went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, what are you doing here? If that's you, you will know it. If you're somewhere right now, you're using the tools of the world to fix how you feel about what's happening in the world. Addiction, anger, malevolence, whatever it is. God would say to you, what are you doing here? You don't belong here. I know the plans that I have for you. Plans to prosper, to move you for. I have another plan. And Elijah gets back into that. At any point, you can step back into that. But God is asking. And you have to ask yourself, what am I doing here?

I don't want to be here anymore, God. And that's a great prayer. God, I don't want to be here anymore. And out of the silence, if you go into silence, God will begin to define reality for you, beyond something that you can actually comprehend. He'll show up in a presence. Thomas Merton, to close the sermon, says this, in silence, God ceases to become an object and becomes an experience. You see, we want to know about God more than we want to know God. This is, you know, why Thomas Aquinas, he wrote the Theologica, I forgot the name of it, but he wrote this massive tome of who God is. And at the end of it, at the end of his life, it's a thousand pages, I don't know, two thousand, I don't know, it's huge. At the end of his life, he had this experience with God. And he came out of the experience, he goes, I would burn everything I ever wrote, basically because I didn't know what I was talking about. It's all straw, because I've experienced God, and it's so much further beyond that.

See, in silence, God ceases to be an object that you can comprehend, and he becomes, you know him as opposed to know about him. At La Jolla Christian Fellowship, we want to raise you up to know God. We want you to know about God, we want you to be able to put that in a framework of understanding, but somewhere beyond understanding, God rests. And if that seems anathema to you, you have to, meaning that, well, I don't have any confines that way.

Seeking after God is terrifying, because you are going into the eternal, and the eternal is beyond your understanding. Now, it is brought back into balance, and edited by the word of God, by wise counsel, the Bible tells us what to do with that eternity when you meet it. But it is far beyond being able to understand three points from the book of John. It is God. And we cannot change this world without meeting God in that place.

My prayer of my heart for this congregation, and I want to lead it myself, is that all of us know God in silence, and then walk out in power. I want to change the world. I want to see signs and wonders. I want to see people saved. I want to see baptisms. I want to see it all. I want to see justice come. I want to see new salvation armies. I want to see it all. But it's got to start with a seed of silence. And so this week, I want to inspire you to get to know God as opposed to know about him, that we might walk from this place together with all those of 100 years behind us and know him deeply and change the world.

Let's stand. This is a time of blessing. This is a time of blessing. And sometimes postures reflect the posture of our hearts. So one of the postures of receivership is extending your hands. I like blessing you. So if you want to extend your hands, you can do that. Even if you're in Scotland, my friends in Scotland now and around the world that are becoming members of this church, oddly. I want to bless you as well. And I want to give you a blessing.

First of all, I just bless these people, Jesus, with a God, a pursuing God. You are worth his pursuit. He will chase you into a desert. He will stand at the mouth of the cave. And even when you don't come out, he will whisper to you through the cave. God speaks to you. We ask that you would remove guilt, shame, fear, worry. Give us a place of silence where we can totally know you. I bless them, God, with presence. This week, with presence and with a knowing beyond understanding that they might know the eternal God, that you would fill them with power, with love, with joy, God.

And we would bless this world. We pray then, God, that when they go out, that you would give them power. Even signs and wonders and healing. We pray that people would heal, that they'd be released, God, to go out into the world in a different way. Living from the inside out, not the outside in. You would remove the voice of Jezebel over their lives, Lord God. And you'd speak strongly when they go somewhere they're not supposed to be, even in their hearts and in their thoughts or physically.

Say, what are you doing here? I have a better place for you. So we send you out now with the grace of Jesus, with the love of God. And this says, every eye is closed and every head is bowed. Is there anybody here that would want to make a decision? You just raise your hand up high to follow Jesus for the first time and be baptized. Is there anybody here? I just want to say that. Okay, well, if there's anybody online, get a hold of us.

And we'd love to let you know about Jesus. So we send you out now in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go get them. We love you. Socially distance and change the world. Go do it. Start your own clap. That's what you do. Just start clapping. Right. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it.

Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it. Go do it.