Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,
with dozens of nationalities worshipping together. We invite you to connect with us from wherever
you are through our website, ecb.asia, or our mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed
by this week's sermon. Well, good morning, good morning. I am loving the cold weather,
the cooler weather, right? Yeah. But there's a problem with this weather. And there's an
age-old conflict in the Holcomb household, one where my wife tends to over-prepare and
I tend to under-prepare. Actually, let me rephrase that. She over-prepares and I prepare
in the right amount. She just said, okay, see, you can feel it. We have this tub in
our home with winter clothes in it, like a stocking cap and some gloves and long sleeves.
And when we were moving to Bangkok, we had this conversation and she's packing these
things and I'm like, I don't think we're going to need that there. And of course, you know,
she's over-preparing, so she's getting this ready. So as cool as the weather has been
right now, I'm actually sweating, not because of the temperature, but because I'm concerned
that I may be wrong and I'm going to have to pull out those gloves at some point and
apologize to her. As we step into 2025 and with Chinese New Year coming up this next
month as well, right around the corner, unexpected things like this cold weather, we know that
we're going to be stepping into a new year, right? So we have started this series called
Treasures of the Journey. And what is this series? It's four of us that have shared different
treasures of our own journey, treasures of following Jesus. Pastor Pablo started this
out and he said, hey, the most important thing that he's been learning is not simply about
can I trust God, but can God trust me? In other words, a faithful response like we saw
in Abraham. Last week, we had one of our ministry heads, Zach Wiley, share. And he gave us an
account of Levi, Matthew the tax collector. And what do we see in this story? That Jesus
encounters this liar, this thief, this cheat with a radical invitation. And not only that,
but he provides a transformational hospitality that we get to walk in. So those are a couple
of the treasures that we have had. Now, my wife and I will often as we transition from
one year to the next, we will take some time to reflect back on the previous year. Many
of you probably do the same thing. And we'll try to discern, you know, what word, what
word captures the last year. And the word for 2024 for us is unexpected. Not the word
is unexpected, or not that the word we chose was unexpected. Actually, the word is unexpected.
There was a lot that happened in this year that was very unexpected. Take for example,
the fires that you may have been seeing in the Los Angeles area. That was right in our
neighborhood where we used to live and favorite coffee shops and our dental clinic and things
like that are gone forever. Unexpected, right? Now I want to share a story with you really
an allegory or an illustration from my own childhood. As many of you know, I grew up
in the wonderful country of Kenya, we have some Kenyans here. And my brothers and I,
we have two other brothers, so three of us total, we knew of this river. But we didn't
know much about it. And one day we decided it would be a good idea to get some tubes,
some inner tubes. So you know, inside a tire there's this tube and you blow it up. We're
going to go to this river and float down and just enjoy ourselves, right? There's a couple
problems with this. Number one, we've never been down this river before. We don't know
where the journey is taking us. Again, remember frontal lobes have not developed for young
boys. The second problem was we invited a bunch of our friends along with us, many of
whom did not know how to swim. And then the third problem was that we only had enough
tubes for some of us, so we're sharing tubes as well. But as you're going down this river
and you come around the corner and you hear the rapids, right, that sound of like, not
like a clang, but this rushing river, something within you is restless. And you react to that
in a way that is like, what am I going to do here? I don't know what's happening with
me. Now, I remember at one point coming around and the noise was particularly loud and the
friend who was on the tube with me had kind of finally had enough and loud sound and he
actually used me as a stepping stool to jump to a rock to then to get out of the river
and he was using all of what he could do to escape this journey that he was on. And I
want to say we all made it. Obviously I survived, all of our friends survived as well, and if
there's children here, please don't try that at home, again, especially in the clangs of
Bangkok. But that experience, it mirrors life, right? We're kind of moving along and we go
moment by moment, day by day, and we come across these experiences, these situations
that bring us to an awareness that something is not right. There's this restless thing
that kind of pops up within us. The loss of a job, it could be conflict with others, health
situations. The treasure that I want to share with you this morning is actually captured
in this quote by a guy who lived quite a few years ago. My clicker doesn't seem to be working
if you could go forward one. And here is what Augustine said. He said, because God has made
us for himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in him. Because God has made us
for himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in him. I want you to take a moment
and just digest that. What first came to your mind when you read that quote? What would
it look like for your heart to rest more fully in God? I want you to think about the last
week. When was the last time your heart was in a state of rest? What brought about that
rest? And where do you turn or what do you grasp for when you're aware that something
is off, something is not right? Will you join me in prayer? Father, we ask that you, through
the power of your Holy Spirit, would open our eyes to see you more clearly. You would
open our ears to hear you. You would open our heart to receive you more nearly. Do what
you need to do in this time and this space. And we declare, even at the beginning, that
you are a good and trustworthy God who is about rest for us. So thank you. In Jesus'
name. Amen.
Well, the Bible tells the story of this man named Elijah. So nearly 3,000 years ago, there's
this guy who lives in Israel. I'd like the experience of careening down that river that
I told you about. Elijah's story, through his life, has lots of experiences and scenarios
that brought up a sense of unrest within him. And there's times when he became aware that
things aren't right. His story captures what it looks like to move in a direction where
you know that God is your rest to where you increasingly experience within your very life
that God is your rest. Now, because his story is pretty lengthy, I'm not going to read all
these chapters. In fact, I'm just going to retell some of the story and capture highlights
from it. So Elijah lives in this time of incredible uncertainty. There's a lot of mess around him.
Things are not going well for God's people. They've walked away from him. And there's
this king that is absolutely a horrible leader. His name is Ahab. And in fact, let's take
a look at his resume here. It says, in the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah, Ahab, son
of Omri, became king of Israel. And he reigned in Samaria over Israel 22 years. Okay. So
he's reigning for quite a long time. But listen to this part. Ahab, son of Omri, did more
evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. That's quite the accomplishment,
right? Now, there's only one person alive at that time that we know of that was more
evil than him. And it happened to be the wife that he chose, Jezebel. And so this makes
a power couple in all the wrong ways. And they journey through life together following
the demonic presence of Baal and absolutely determined to destroy God and his truth in
his ways. So that's where we find our friend Elijah in the middle of that mess. And so
God has brought Elijah to call out a famine across the land. And this famine now is making
things at least for a moment even worse. My father-in-law works for World Vision. And
so he does food distribution. And he talks regularly about hangry. You need to feed someone
before you can engage them deeply. This is the exact opposite situation. The land is
hungry. These people are desperate. And so there's a lot going on that's not right. And
so this is where we find our friend Elijah. He's a spokesperson of God in the middle of
that. And he's going to do incredible things that we're going to see. So despite the evil
leadership of Ahab and Jezebel and all that they're doing to work against God, God works
through Elijah for great impact. The story's full of power, full of wonder. Elijah is miraculously
fed by some birds. There's this jar of flour and oil that no matter how much you use them,
they don't disappear. There's a boy in that same household that actually dies and Elijah
helps to raise him from the dead. Significant. There's a standoff between Ahab and the false
god Baal and all of these prophets and Elijah and the one true god where Ahab and all these
false prophets get completely shamed. God is doing these incredible things through this
man Elijah. So then Elijah comes to the point and he calls off the famine because God has
asked him to do so, builds this altar, calls the people back to follow him or to follow
God. And things are looking pretty good, right? Well, Ahab goes to Jezebel and he says, hey,
this is what just happened. So Jezebel doubles down on her desire to kill Elijah and says,
if he makes a vow, I'm going to kill you. Now, if that was your journey, Elijah, and
what you had just participated in, don't you think that you would be a sense of confidence
and you get this threat and you would just sit there, right? I just saw God do all these
amazing things. I just helped him raise somebody from the dead. You can come and threat me,
you crazy lady, that you're going to take my life, but I'm okay. But that's not at all
what he does, is it? You know the story. Elijah is terrified and he flees for his life. He
had followed the game plan. Things were going as they should, but then he finds himself
in the face of this threat and it's fear that moves him. So Elijah's response of taking
things into his own hand, it reveals a restless heart. A restless heart. And we may find ourselves
relating to God primarily as a cosmic life coach. What do I mean by that? Well, when
we learn to use his gifts, gifts of success and impact and power and control, to experience
rest actually through control, we end up putting our weight on something that actually isn't
going to support us long term. Now you may say, wait, Pastor Phil, but these are the
gifts of God. Can't we fully trust them? But God is up to something here. He wants us to
actually trust him. He's calling us to a deeper trust. And so even though Elijah has found
himself in this place of his life being threatened, this is an invitation where God is calling
into something more. I had a friend named Steve who was a running partner actually in
the Los Angeles area and he was a hospice chaplain. And Steve's job was to sit with
people and provide comfort in their most difficult and final days of life. I asked him, you know,
how did you prepare for this? And he said, well, one of the things that he did was he
had a mentor who had him take some time to list out and actually write down all of the
things that brought him joy. So it's hobbies that he may have or family members or food
that he particularly enjoys, places he likes to visit. And he listed all these things down.
And then this mentor told Steve, he said, now I want you to imagine each one of these
disappearing. So cross it out one at a time. So he goes through and he crosses out these
things one at a time. Now imagine your life with all of that gone. That's the type of
people that you are going to be sitting with. They have come to the end of their rope in
this situation. And maybe like Elijah in this situation, what God seems to be doing is to
allowing Elijah's fear, allow the fear that is coming out, actually to call him to a deeper
rest, a deeper rest in him. So moved by his fear, Elijah actually flees and he runs into
the wilderness to hide. He finds this tree and under this he goes and he pouts. As he
sits under the tree in despair, he says the following words to God. He says, I've had
enough, oh Lord, take my life. I'm no better than any of my ancestors. Then he lay down
under the bush and he fell asleep. Anyone relate to this? Or is that just me? He's well aware
of the restless and weary state of his heart. And so there's this time that he thinks, well,
possibly I can distract myself from this. But not just a normal distraction, but the
ultimate version of a distraction where I am no longer conscious about the fears and
the problems that I face in the world around me. Distraction, right? It's something we
turn to quite regularly. Now watch what God does. He responds by kindly allowing Elijah
to sleep. And then he wakes him up and he gives him some food and lets him rest and
he restores him. He nourishes him and he provides for him. And it's almost as though we're having
a therapeutic session right here, right? And Elijah's just like, God, I can't take it anymore.
All this despair and I'm bringing it out before you. And God sits there with him and listens
to all of this and provides for him and cares for him. You see, we can relate to God as
a cosmic therapist. We can use his gifts just to feel better or experience rest through
distraction. And that does help. God is about our emotional healing. He wants to fix those
things, but he also wants to call us to a different way of relating to him that's even
deeper than that. So God gives all these gifts to Elijah and he prepares him and he takes
him 40 days and 40 nights into the wilderness. Jonas, I don't know if you had the song, the
desert song. What a beautiful song. My wife actually reached over and she goes, did she
know where you were heading with the sermon? So thank you, Jonas and team for that song.
So where does God lead our friend Elijah? Not just to any mountain, but to the mountain
that God had taken Moses and Elijah's ancestors, brought him into this mountain and said, hey,
I'm going to bind myself to you in an everlasting covenant. I'm going to be with you. And so
that's the mountain that he takes him to, right? So he takes him up to this mountain.
And what does Elijah do? Elijah goes and he finds a cave to hide in. God seems to have
a sense of humor because what he does is he asks Elijah a question. He says, what are
you doing here? Now remember, God has been with Elijah the entire time and Elijah is
aware of a lot of what's been going on. And so they're going and now you are aware of
this. And so everyone knows why he's here. God led him here, right? And it's almost as
though God is saying to him, do you remember the amazing, powerful things I did? Do you
remember that I supernaturally turned the world right side up, not only in front of
you but actually through you? I fed you through birds. Who else can claim that? I had raised
someone to the dead through you. I shamed the most powerful man in the land. And I gave
you authority to guide my people into what's good, right, true, and beautiful. Then when
you heard someone wanted to kill you, you ran away in despair and wanted to die. And
I joined you as you ran away. Then I brought you to the very mountain that symbolizes my
presence with you. So we have this understanding, right, God and Elijah. He knows all of that
and so he says, what are you doing here? Hiding in this cave. God has and will always uncompromisingly
invite you to something more, to something better, to something deeper. And he's asking
a much bigger question than just, okay, well, I ran away and now you led me up to this mountain
and I needed a place to sleep. He's asking deep, profound questions. Elijah, what brought
you to this point in your life? It's a good question for us to ask ourselves, right? What
brought us to this point in our life? How'd you get here? It's as though God is saying,
I want you to take a moment and ponder what brought you to this cave. And here's Elijah's
response. I've been working my heart out for the God of angel armies, said Elijah. The
people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, destroyed the places of worship, murdered
your prophets and I'm the only one and now they're trying to kill me. Again, can we relate
with him? I'm the only one who's following you, God, in the way that you've asked me
to. Elijah's response reminds us that when we relate to God as our cosmic boss, we end
up using God's gifts of new life and mission to experience rest through approval. Approval
vertically from him and approval horizontally from others. Now, last week when Zach was
sharing, if you haven't listened to that sermon, I encourage you to go back and tune into that.
And he said a mentor had given him a picture that a church community can be either like
a hospital waiting room or a room that you're waiting for an interview. And when you relate
to God like a cosmic boss, then you're trying to up your resume as Zach shared last week,
right? And you don't want to share the other parts about you. It's always about, am I doing
better than the person on my right and the person on my left? And so perhaps this is
what Elijah has fallen into here. It seems like it from his response. I'll find myself
comparing my own life and the life of other employees of God as a cosmic boss and I'm
wondering what am I doing that is better or worse than they are. But friends, that's an
exhausting place to be. So as you seek approval from God and others, God encounters you and
invites you to something more, again, to something better, to a true rest, true rest in him.
So God calls Elijah to go out of the cave, out from his hiding, away from the controlling,
distracting and working for approval. He's not doing this to shame him, but he's calling
him to something better. And what happens outside of this cave? Now what we're going
to find out is Elijah doesn't actually obey God, it seems, because he comes out of the
cave after these things happen. So God has asked him to come out and I think he still
stays in the cave and God does what he needs to do out there. So this strong wind comes
and it tears the mountain apart and it breaks the rocks and power is on display, yet God
was not in the wind. Next, an earthquake shatters and rattles the world. There's impact, yet
God was not in the earthquake. Then what comes next? A fire. A fire passes in front of Elijah
and as the worries of our day are consumed by these distractions, reasons to worry, we're
told once more God was not in the fire. Finally, after all these three promising things come
and go, there remains one thing, a gentle and quiet whisper. We read, when Elijah heard
the quiet voice, he muffled his face with his great cloak and he went to the mountain
of the cave and he stood there. A quiet voice asked, so Elijah, now tell me, what are you
doing here? Same question. He's just drawing him out to an increasing awareness of God's
presence with him. And that's where true rest is found. It's in an honest and vulnerable
communion with God. His presence is most often and most deeply experienced in the small unseen
and hidden ways. Why does God do that? Because when his gifts are so loud and we're holding
on to those, we've placed our rest upon something that is actually his gifts rather than him.
So it's in the quiet places that God begins to do his deepest work by connecting himself
to us. And so it's that choir whisper that draws Elijah out of the cave. And you can
imagine God telling Elijah this, Elijah, you were made for me and your heart is going to
remain restless until it rests in me. Now at this moment, at the end of this part of
the story, God tells Elijah, hey, next year, during the course of this time, so as you're
looking ahead into 2025, God tells him, hey, this is what's going to happen. You're going
to get replaced by another prophet. Remember that King Ahab and Jezebel, their lives are
going to be taken, their leaders are going to come into that place. And remember your
argument about nobody else is following God. Well, there's thousands that have maintained
their allegiance to me. And Elijah goes on in life more or less like he had before, things
happening through him until Elisha takes his place. But you know what happens at the end
of his life? He gets taken up in a whirlwind into the presence of God. He doesn't die.
He simply moves to increasing presence to where God actually snatches him up. And he's
in what we would call heaven, paradise, forever and ever fully reconnected with God. What
a beautiful story, incredible story. Now there's a parallel in my own journey, my own journey
with God, and I want to share with you just part of it. We could spend a lot of time,
and again, maybe the stool is helpful for that. But I'm just going to capture a couple
parts of this story for you to show how we can end up putting our leaning into rest in
a place that is not actually what gives us true rest. I had a mentor early on in my following
of Jesus who, incredible man of God, he had memorized huge portions of scripture. And
in fact, he had made a decision not to do a PhD because he said, I'm going to devote
the same amount of time to memorize God's word. So it just flowed out of him. And of
course, if he's mentoring me, he's constantly inviting me and encouraging me into memorizing.
And so this was life transformative. It really, really changed my life and it was wonderful.
One of the things that I memorized was the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6 and 7. This
is the most complete accounts of really Jesus's teaching, right? So we're to go into all the
world and to follow and obey all of what Jesus commands. And so I memorized this and I began
to live it out and there was massive change in my life. It was quite wonderful. But again,
remember God calls us to something more. And what he wanted me to see is, Phil, you are
actually trusting more in the gifts that I have given rather than me myself. So how did
he do this? Well, it's sometimes painful. I had a colleague, a ministry partner that
we worked together for quite a long time and we were doing really wonderful things together.
And he was a friend of mine. But at one point we began to see a different vision in life.
You know how this goes, right? So we had hours of conversation to try to figure out, well,
where are we going? How are we going to get there? And in all of those conversations,
we even invited a mediator in to really help us work through this. And there was a point
where we realized there's no moving beyond this. We just can't. There's a block in it.
And my friend told me at this point, he said, let me pause right there and go to this. Any
of you recognize, raise your hand, this bracelet, what would Jesus do? Remember these? You were
aware of it. And it was a reminder, right, to follow what Jesus asked you to do. But
when my friend told me, as he said, Phil, as I go about my day and we're working together,
you know what the question that's going through my mind is? What would Phil do? Of course,
you can place that blame back on him and like, oh, you have some problems and that's why
you're doing that. But you know what this revealed? I had taken God's gifts and I had
brought them in with so much of my own effort and so much of my own trying that he was receiving
me as my own kingdom, not God's kingdom through me. I can know everything about God without
actually knowing God. And so as much as that hurt, that was a great invitation to take
account for what was happening in my own life. Please don't hear me wrong. I'm not saying
don't memorize scripture. Do so. Read God's word. This is why we gather like this. But
don't learn it just to learn about God. Engage with it to learn or to actually know God and
to be with him. Another thing that happened in this time is, is I had started this initiative
for a family that was receiving, had gone through persecution and you're trying to
make it possible for their son to go to school. So you put up a GoFundMe thing and you're
trying to rally people to participate in this. And for whatever reason, a number of people
didn't respond. And these were friends of mine and I knew them and I knew so they're
buying a hot tub during Christmas rather than supporting this kid going to school, right?
What's my response in that situation? Lord, you're in control, right? No, I'm in control.
So this deep anger comes out of me towards other people. And it's at that point that
you know, you realize I've been sitting on something that I thought was my own relationship
with God, but it was actually more of the gifts of God. And God is slowly inviting me
to take out the legs from underneath, which is disconcerting for a time, right? To remind
me that the most important, the most valuable thing that we can ever do is be with God.
That's the end of all of the story. So let's look at God's word just real quickly from
beginning to end. It begins with God's people in communion with him. And then we know the
story Adam and Eve, they sin, they rebel against God. And what happens right after that? Here's
what we find in Genesis three. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God
as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And what did they do? Did they
run towards God? They hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden, go into that
cave. But the Lord God called to the man just like he did with Elijah, just like he does
with me, just like he does with you. Where are you? What are you doing? And he answered,
I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid. There's this
hiding and covering that we do, right? Like Adam and Eve and like Elijah, we all do it.
But God is there and he's slowly calling us out to be more aware of his own presence with
us and saying, where are you? So again, as you step into this next year, take time to
think through that. Now we're going to fast forward to the middle of the story here. And
Jesus comes as God with us, Emmanuel, showing that that is the end goal of all things. And
we have this great story of Mary and Martha. We know this story, right? It's recounted
in Luke 10, 38 through 42. And these two ladies welcomed Jesus into their home and they approach
him in two different ways, right? Martha receives Jesus by continuing in her old habits of doing
and she serves Jesus. Is that a bad thing? No, it's not a bad thing. But Mary, on the
other hand, sits at the feet of Jesus and receives his presence. Now, Martha gets frustrated,
right? So now this is the sign that something you're putting your rest in something different.
She gets frustrated and like Elijah, she expresses a similar statement. She goes, God, I'm working
my heart out for you. And what is that person doing over there? And while God was near,
she was missing the greatest gift. And so here's what Jesus says back to her. He says,
Martha, Martha, the Lord answers, you are worried and upset about many things, but few
things are needed or only indeed one. Mary has chosen what's better. And it's not going
to be taken away from her. Mary has chosen what is better. Now, fast forward to the end
of the story. And if you're again, like my wife who hates to know the endings of movies
or books, spoiler alert, I'm going to tell you what happens at the very end of it. Actually,
God will. And here's what he says in Revelation 21. This is where our culmination is, where
we will end up for those who are in God. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
look, God's dwelling place is now among the people. Among. And he will dwell with them.
They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. And it's in
this closeness, this nearness, this awareness of God that every tear is gone. Every heartache,
all the loneliness, all of what requires us to toil and to work so hard in the life around
us, it's all gone. And it even says in this passage that there's no more need for sun
or moon because God himself takes this place. He is the light in that space. And that is
where we are created, created for that union with God. So real quickly, created for union
with God, right? Then we've lost that union with God. But then God journeys with us forever
to restore that union. And we're invited to actually step towards that and receive it,
to come out of the cave and receive that union. So once again, here's that quote from Augustine.
Because God has made us for himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in him. Let me
invite you to something with this. If your heart doesn't respond to say, absolutely,
100%. Bring that to God, just like Elijah did in the cave, just like he did under the
tree. God's there, he already knows it. So bring it to him because that's where that
transformation happens. Again, what Zach was sharing, it's in that hospitality of God that
we are in his presence that the formation and transformation and reformation takes place,
not outside of that hospitality. So what does it look like to increasingly grow in an
awareness of a with God life? Here's the first thing that we can see. Not just here, but
know that what God is up to is that in all of your life, he is slowly drawing you, not
just the good things, but even the hard things. He's drawing you closer to himself. And like
the story of God with Elijah, God has and is and will always be working for that end.
He isn't following you around to punish you because you've sat in a seat and rested yourself
on something that doesn't actually provide that eternal rest that you're longing for.
He instead helps you to see what it is and how to draw it out from you so that you can
rest in him more deeply. How might we welcome or embrace God's rest? How do we actually
step towards that? Well, one thing is that it often feels like you're going backwards.
It often feels like you're slowing down rather than going forward. So one of the keys is,
like Elijah, is to know that when you end up heading into the wilderness and you end
up pouting at this tree and you end up in this cave with God, God's doing a deep work
even in that space. And it's okay for it to feel like it's going backwards before God
then takes you maybe into another season where it moves forward again. So welcome that and
embrace that. And I can tell you, brothers and sisters, that I hate this. I resist it
and my wife knows very well, like I will tell her in the home, I'll say, why did God have
to make it this way, right? But it's so good and so perfect and so true because it's in
that space that I've been resting and sitting on something that I thought was moving me
forward that God pulls that out and aligns me with what is more important and more valuable.
So I welcome it with one hand and I kind of resist it with the other, right? Lord, help
me. Here is an invitation for you for this coming year, something I want to invite you
to do. I want to invite you to take a retreat. This isn't a conference where you learn more
information and you study something new. This is a time and a space where you remove control
and distraction, where you remove any sense of accomplishment and approval that you can
receive from God and you just sit there with Him. Again, it's going to feel like you're
going backwards. You may say, I don't have time for this, but that's exactly the space
that means you need to take a retreat. This could be 24 hours. It could be a couple of
days. Go alone and spend some time doing the following. Psalm 46, 10 says, be still and
know that I am God. Just come and be still before Him. And I don't know if it's a problem
with you, but for me, my mind always engages and I begin to think, okay, how do I move
forward? How do I change something? How do I grasp whatever is next? And so this has
been actually kind of feels like a ripping for me to just sit there and to be still and
know that He is God. You know what He's doing though? He's saying, Phil, why don't you stop
pretending to be God and just take a seat with me? And you just kind of sit there and
it feels like nothing is happening for that moment. But as you're sitting there, I want
to remind you or invite you to something else. There's another story of a priest in the Old
Testament, Eli, and he's mentoring this guy named Samuel. And God is calling out Samuel
to take Eli's place. And so the Lord speaks to him a number of times and Samuel keeps
getting it wrong and he keeps going to Eli and is like, hey, what do you need? So what
does Eli do? Eli tells Samuel, he says, go back. And this time, when you hear a voice,
say, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. So as you're sitting there in your stillness
before God, you can use that to say, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. Again, what
you're doing is you're sitting there and just receiving from God who he is. All of that
time of memorizing scripture and reading it and participating in all the classes and everything
that has been so good for you, it'll come back to you in that moment. And the Holy Spirit
will use it to minister to you and to bring you to a great healing and a rest in him.
There's this time in the last few years that when faced with an opportunity, an invitation
for stillness before God, I remember my heart saying, I don't have time for this. And it
was as though God said, you have time to breathe, don't you, Phil? Of course I have time to
breathe, God, if I don't breathe, what's going to happen? And I think God was inviting
me in that moment to say, I need you, Lord, every moment, every hour, which is a song
we're going to just sing here in a moment here. I need you. Whether or not I'm aware
of it or not, you're with me and would you increase that awareness to need you more?
And God is always there and he's gently calling us into that deeper space with him. What a
good God, what a wonderful God, what a God that we can actually trust and put our weight
in as we journey through life. Lord, we confess that at times our heart is looking for rest
in a number of things, things that sometimes are clearly not right, but other times are
confusing because they seem to be so good and so right and so true. But like resting
in a river and just heading down, we ask that you would hold us, that you would be the one
to bring us into a greater and deeper rest in you, God. What a treasure that is. Thank
you for calling us out of whatever cave we have hidden. Thank you for continuing to do
that. And we ask that we would do so even this morning. And so as we join the team in
worshiping these words that we need you, God, may those be true expressions of what is going
on in our hearts. And whatever needs to continue to change, do so. Holy Spirit, continue to
do that work. We love you, God, and we declare that you are worthy. In Jesus' name, amen.
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