July 20, 2014
Stetson Memorial United Methodist
Church
Sermon
Series on “All My Day: A Summer of Prayer”
Inspired
by Marcia McFee
Sermon
4 of series-
“Silence”
Psalm 37:5-7 Common
English Bible
1 Kings 19:9-23 NIV
Bible
“Is silence
Really Golden?”
Let us pray. . . (Pray for God’s illumination. . . )
A reading from the book of 1 Kings
chapter 19, verses 9 through 13 from the NIV Bible. . . listen for a word from
God to you and me the people of God. . .
9 There he went into a
cave and spent the night.
The Lord Appears to Elijah
And the word of the
Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He replied, “I have
been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your
covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword.
I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
11 The Lord said, “Go
out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is
about to pass by.”
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. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but
the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When
Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at
the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to
him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
This
summer, we are invited to pray “All My Days” and to make a habit of prayer
wherever you are. Each Sunday in worship we will focus on one of the steps of
the prayer beads but you are encouraged to pray these categories all summer
long. I hope that you to bring your beads with you to church as we spend the
summer sitting at the feet of God spending time in prayer. My continued hope is
that our Summer Sermon Series “All My
Days: A Summer of Prayer” will help us learn a way of prayer that will
bring us closer to the maker of all we see.
Now,
we have talked about the first bead. . . the Gold Bead. . . which reminds us to
begin with adoration and the second bead. . . .the bumpy beady. . . .that is to
remind us to let go and let God (remember.
. . drop it. . . leave it. . . ?) This week’s bead is one of the hard ones.
. . the Bead of Silence.
We
live in a world that always has something going on. . . there is always
something that can invade our scenes. We, as a society, have learned to almost
hate silence. It’s too quiet. We tend to feel on edge when it is too quiet
around us. . . .almost like we are nervous because of the silence. We need to
have noise to feel secure. Many people turn on the T.V. or radio because it is
too quiet around the house.
I know I am guilty of
that sometimes. I need the noise so I don’t feel I am all alone in the house.
It can give me a sense of security. But there are times
when I crave silence in my life. Sometimes there is just so much going on at
once that I can’t keep up with the demands of ministry and family. There are
those times when I just want to run away to a quiet space where I can meet God
and just be. . .
I
remember the song from the Four Seasons “Silence
Is Golden” back in 1964. But is
it really “golden”? Silence is something that can be very difficult for us to
embrace but that is what God wants us to do, embrace the silence and to quiet
ourselves. It is within the silence that we can hear Him more fully.
Throughout
the Gospels we hear of Jesus preaching o the masses and healing them from their
infirmities. There was always a “buzz” around Him. People would flock from
miles around to see Him and hear His message of the Kingdom of God. There was
almost a chaotic atmosphere around Him with people pushing and shoving to be
near Him. Zacheus, a tax collector, even climbed a tree in order to se Jesus.
After he spent time doing what he came here for, to preach God’s love and heal
people, He often went away to be by Himself to commune with God. He needed
these times of silence in order to reconnect with God, to refresh Himself, to
hear God’s instructions for what He needed to do next. We all have that chaos in our lives clambering for attention. Just as
Jesus did, we too need that time away with God to regenerate ourselves so that
we too can be reenergized to do what we are called to do for the Kingdom of
God.
The
Psalm that I read this morning tells us that we need to be still before the
Lord and to wait for Him. We need to trust enough to take that time away
knowing that God will refresh our souls so that we can go on in strength that
is only found in and through Him. It is
within the stillness that we can refocus ourselves from the chaos around us to
following God’s will for our lives. How can we move forward for the Kingdom
when so much stuff is crowding out God’s voice of comfort, of strength, of
peace?
Then
we have the story of Elijah in the cave. Elijah had become so busy and zealous
for the Lord that he was weary and couldn’t go on. He felt as if his life had
come to end and maybe he couldn’t hear God’s voice because of all the chaos
around him. He had just called down fire from heaven. He had just killed all
the prophets of Baal. He had just heard the “death sentence” that Jezebel had
pronounced over his life. Now, warn and weary, he had climbed into a cave to
hide from the world and chaos around him.
Here
is where he heard the voice of the Lord. He
had finally come to the end of himself and was ready to hear the word of God.
But when did he hear the voice of the Lord best and his instruction of what to
do next. Was it in the earthquake? Was it in the blazing fire or in the wind?
No, it was within the silence. . . the after math of the noise that he clearly
heard the voice of God. And it came in a gentle whisper. How can we hear the gentle whisper of Go din or lives when we are in
the midst of the chaos?
Is
silence Golden? For me the answer is yes. It is within the silence that we can
here God’s still, small voice. It is within the silence that we are
refreshed and renewed. It is within the silence of our hearts that we can hear
God’s instructions in our lives. It is within the silence we are given hope and
strength. It is within the silence that we commune with God. In all the chaos
and noise this world offers it can e hard to tell whether God is speaking or
the sirens of the world. In all the chaos of life we too can become tired and
defeated as Elijah was. It is within the uncomforting silence that we receive
the comfort of God. Being silent is so counterintuitive of the chaos of the
world. But we have been called to be in the world and not of the world. We need
that silent time with God so that we can be His hands, feet and voice in a
chaotic world. We truly do need to be still and know that God is God. Then and
only then will we be able to give God the adoration and let go of what needs to
be removed so that we can be that refreshed
and renewed person that God has always intended us to be. Yes, silence
is golden and more precious than silver and much gold. Silence is what keeps us
above water in a world that is sinking in the deep. It is where we meet God. .
.
Let
us pray. . . pray about finding God in
the silence. . .
Amen
=====
July 20, 2014
Psalm 37:5-7 (Common English Bible)
1 Kings 19:9-23 (NIV Bible)
Sermon 4 of “All My Days: A Summer of Prayer”
Summer
Sermon Series on Prayer
Bead with a Hole - Silence
children’s message by
Pastor Ruth Foss
a blank
space
-
God starts with a
blank canvas,
God fills in the picture until
a masterpiece
is created and we come home
and
sermon, “Is Silence Really Golden?”
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
sermon blog
meditation blog
“God’s
Whisper” blog
Stetson
Memorial United Methodist Church
July 20,
2014
&
Psalm 33:30-22
Psalm 25:1-3
Romans 8:30-32
Matthew 11:28-30
Sermon 3 of “All My Days: A Summer of Prayer”
Summer
Sermon Series on Prayer
Bumpy Bead – Letting Go
children’s message by
Pastor Ruth Foss
-
a broken set of
prayer beads - God can make something
beautiful
of
all the broken pieces: Dad can you fix this? Yes I can…
and sermon,
“In the Letting Go We Find”
by Pastor
Ruth Foss
Stetson
Memorial United Methodist Church
July 13,
2014
&
June 29, 2014
Psalm 105:1-6 Common English Bible
Exodus 15:1-3 The Living Bible
Psalm 89:1-18 The Message Bible
Closing Hymn – “As the Deer”
Sermon 2 of “All My Days: A Summer of Prayer”
Summer
Sermon Series on Prayer
children’s message by
Pastor Ruth Foss
-
Sabbath rest,
time with God outdoors, in nature
and
sermon, “All My Adoration. . . !”
by Pastor
Ruth Foss
Stetson
Memorial United Methodist Church
June 29,
2014
&
June 22, 2014
Matthew 6:5-14
“Jesus Teaches About
Prayer” (NCV)
(including Lord’s Prayer)
Romans 12:12
Ephesians 6:11-18
Sermon 1 of “All My Days: A Summer of Prayer”
Summer Sermon Series on Prayer
children’s message by Ray
Foss
-
God fills in the
words we pray
based on Upper Room Daily
Devotional for June 9, 2014
Romans
8:26 (NRSV)
Romans
8:22-27
Upper
Room Daily Devotional
“Guided
by the Spirit”
by
Milly Ibanda
for
March and April 2014
-
spontaneous
prayer, wait for God’s answer
(based on Shanequa’s
prayer for a puppy July 21, 2006)
opening and welcome by
Pastor Ruth Foss
and
sermon, “Stop, Look and Listen”
by Sally
Drew
Stetson
Memorial United Methodist Church
June
22, 2014
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