Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:09] Pastor Chuck Allen here. And thanks for joining me on this Friday for another weekday podcast. And all day, all week long, we've been talking about Elijah. We've been talking about his journey in First Kings 19. Because prior to this story in First Kings 19, Elijah had called down fire from heaven and. And had this wondrous experience with the Lord. And in doing so, he finishes up and then all of a sudden feels wildly isolated and finds himself sitting under a broom tree questioning whether he's any good, whether God can ever use him again, and literally says, lord, just take me home. I'm done.
[00:00:48] Well, have you ever felt isolated in your faith? I know I have. I mean, I think anybody who's walked by faith has had a season where you're just like, doggone it, I just can't do it anymore.
[00:01:00] Well, Elijah thought he was the last, but God's whisper revealed so much more.
[00:01:06] His story had yet to completely unfold, which is hope, because our story has yet to unfold. So in First Kings 19, in the New living after the whisper, God commissions Elijah and then he drops this truth bomb. In verse 18, he says, I will preserve 7,000 others in Israel who have never bowed down to Baal. He just reminded him, you're not alone.
[00:01:36] You're a remnant. You're unseen, but you're wildly real and you're wildly important in the kingdom.
[00:01:43] I think that's a good thing for us to hear as believers today, as people that want to walk with Jesus. That A, we're not alone, no matter what your brain may tell you. Two, we're a continuing remnant of the first century church.
[00:01:57] Unseen sometimes, yes, but real always.
[00:02:01] God anoints Elijah in the next couple of verses, verses 19 through 21, passing the torch.
[00:02:08] You know what happens in our life? We get so much noise in our life, or at least I know I do, that it convinces me, and probably you at times, that we're just all alone, we're living and flying so low.
[00:02:23] But there's something that connects us to community and connects us to purpose, and I'm not good at it. I trust you are.
[00:02:33] You know what makes us better? When our proximity to the Lord allows us to hear his voice whispering to us.
[00:02:42] Not the big moments, not the rants, not the shouts, not the crowd, not the mega pastor or the super, you know, Christian music star, not even a big church. Just the whisper of God that comes easily to you because by proximity it sounds like he's shouting while he's just whispering.
[00:03:04] Elijah's despair in the minute of the whisper flips to mission, and so can ours.
[00:03:11] You know what? It does require intentional proximity to the Father to literally have this willingness to say, I want to hear from you. So I'm going to carve five minutes of quietude in my day.
[00:03:26] And when you do, watch the connection spark and watch your hopes reignite.
[00:03:33] Because, friend, as a follower of Jesus, you're part of something so much bigger.
[00:03:38] God's voice absolutely assures that.
[00:03:42] So lean in, link up, and go ahead. Live boldly, by a whisper. Because the whisper's weaving your victory, not just your story.
[00:03:53] Let your prayer be God, reveal your 7,000 in us, and unite us in your whisper.
[00:04:00] Thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast.
