Still Small Voice

Good morning, church. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Jose Cedeño Vázquez. I am a member of the church and today I will give you the message.

! The title of my message today is Still a Small Voice and it's based on the reading of the scripture 1 Kings 19, verse 1 to 18.

As this is the last preaching message of our summer series about the life and ministry of the prophet Elijah, I would like to start my message today with a small summary of what has been preached over the summer season and then link that to our message and our passage today.

The time of the prophet Elijah was a very, very difficult time for the people of Israel. The people of Israel fall apart from the presence of the Lord because they start to worship the false god of Baal.

They were led by the king Ahab and the wicked queen Jezebel. But our God is a faithful God and wanted to draw back the people of Israel into his presence.

So he sent his prophet Elijah to minister his people. At the beginning of his ministry, prophet Elijah confronted King Ahab and declared that there was not going to be any rain in the land for several years until he declared so.

So as you can imagine, without rain, there is no crops, there is no harvest, there is no food. So people were starving to death.

It was a very difficult time. Prophet Elijah was led by God to hide near a brook where he could drink water. And prophet Elijah witnessed how the Lord provided for his people in a miraculous way in times of difficulties, in times of famine.

So he was fed by the robins in a miraculous way and he was supplied with food while he was hiding near the brook. Once the brook got dry, there was no more water for him to drink.

So he was led by God to go to a widow's house. This is a particular widow, Gentile widow, not from the people of Israel. So Elijah witnessed how God doesn't make a section of persons.

Being in the widow's house, he witnessed the unending supply of food, unending supply of oil and flour. Again, he witnessed the provision of the Lord in times of difficulties, in times of famine.

Being in the widow's house, the widow's son passed away. He died. And prophet Elijah prayed for the resurrection of this little boy.

And the little boy was risen from the dead. Prophet Elijah witnessed the power of our God and authority over life and death.

He witnessed the resurrection power of our God. After that, he was led to come from the Baals, the false god of Baal and the prophet of Baal.

And they witnessed how the Lord provided fire from heaven for the sacrifice for the Lord in a challenge.

And defeat the whole prophet of Baal and defeat the false god of Baal. That was a victory from the Lord.

And after that, prophet Elijah led to persecute the prophet of Baal and they killed them by sword. And he witnessed how the people of Israel say, the Lord is God, the Lord is God.

It was a great moment of victory for the Lord. And it was a great moment of victory for the ministry of the prophet Elijah. After that, prophet Elijah prayed for a rain to come back.

And he witnessed how the Lord answered prayers and the rain came back into the land. This is the word of the Lord. And now, this is a great moment of victory from the Lord in the life and ministry of the prophet Elijah.

Let's see what is next in the life and ministry of prophet Elijah by reading our passage today. So, still small boys, 1st King 19, verse 1 to 18.

Then, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with a sword. Then, Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So may they God do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.

Then, he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Yuba, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree.

And he asked that he might die, saying, It is enough, Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father's.

And he lay down and slept under the broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was a, his head, a cave baked on hot stone and a jar of water.

And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.

And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. The Lord spoke to Elijah.

There he came to a cave and logged in, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I am being very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, throw down your altars, and killed your prophet with the sword.

And I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life to take you away. And he said, Go out and stand on the mount up before the Lord.

And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke into pieces the rock before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind, an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire, a song of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he grabbed his face in his cloak, and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

And behold, there came a voice to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophet with the sword.

And I, even I, only am left. And they seek my life to take you away. And the Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.

And when you arrive, you shall annoy Hazael to be king over Syria. And Yehu, the son of Nishi, you shall annoy him to be king over Israel. And Elisha, the son of Zaphat, Abel, Meholah, should annoy him to be prophet in your place.

And the one who escaped from the sword of Hazael, shall Yehu put to death. And the one who escaped from the sword of Yehu, shall Elisha put to death. Yet, I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the need that I have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has no kiss him.

This is the word of the Lord. Amen. So we can see that after a great moment of victory, a great moment of victory from the Lord in the ministry and life of the prophet Elijah, now the prophet Elijah is under attack.

He's under attack, physical attack, and also a spiritual attack. Physical attack, Jezebel persecuting him and threatening to kill him, seeking to kill him.

This is a physical attack. And the spiritual warfare was in the battleground of his mind. We can see that he was immersed in fear, isolated, with doubt, believing some lies that the enemy put on his head.

He was believing that he was a failure in his ministry. He was believing that he was no better than his ancestor. And even though he was believing that he was the only one left faithful to the Lord, and that he was the only one who remained faithful to the Lord.

All these were lies from the enemy into the battleground of his mind. And he went down into his emotions, very low mood, to the point to asking God to take his life.

He was very down into the emotion, very low mood. And we can see God's response to Elijah's distress. We can see how the Lord provides food and drink for him for his long journey.

We can see how the Lord provides word of comfort to him. We can see how the Lord redirects his purpose, redirects his ministry.

We clear instructions on what to do, and what to do next in his ministry. And we can see, we can see the mercy of the Lord.

And basically how the Lord rebuked those lies from the enemy, basically telling him, Elijah, you are not alone. There are 7,000 people who remain faithful to me.

And they have not been bowed down to Baal, and they have not kissed Baals. So we can see how the Lord rebuked those lies from the enemy.

We can feel also, as the prophet Elijah, after great moments in our spiritual life, in our life, after great moments, we can be also, be exhausted spiritually.

We can see that the prophet Elijah had unmet expectations. He was expecting the whole conversion of Israel, but instead, he's seeing them persecuting him to kill him.

We can also feel very low into our emotion, very low mood. But I have a message for you. You are not alone. God is with you.

The same God that was with prophet Elijah, even comfort providing for him, is available for you today. Because our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Jesus Christ himself, seated at the right hand of the Father, listen to our prayers, listen to our prayers requests, and intercede to our Father in heaven.

And it's the Holy Spirit leading our prayer life. It's the Holy Spirit that whispered to our souls, that whispered to our souls, that firstly testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.

Romans 8, 16. It's the whispered to our souls that gives us peace, that peace that surpasses all understanding, that peace that doesn't depend on our circumstances, that peace that comes from our eternal God.

It's the Holy Spirit that whispered to our souls, that gives us joy, that joy that comes our strength, that joy that becomes our strength, that strength that allows us to face difficult times, darkest valley, and face a difficult situation with the joy of the Lord, that joy becomes our strength.

Similar as the Prophet Elijah, there were 7,000 remaining faithful to the people. We are not alone. We are a church community who support us.

Something remarkable from the Prophet Elijah, that even though he went low into his motion, he went down to his motion, he kept pressing, seeking the presence of the Lord.

He went into a journey of 40 days and 40 nights, seeking to be in the presence of the Lord. That sounds easy for me to say now, here, but for somebody as the Prophet Elijah, in that spiritual exhaustion, and that emotional state, is something remarkable, and something that we must learn from.

We must keep seeking the presence of the Lord in our difficult times. He went into a journey for 40 days and 40 nights, and he reached a place called the Mountain of Horeb.

This is the same place as Moses and the burning bush, and this is the same place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

And this is the place where Prophet Elijah met with God. this is a physical place. This is not a fairy tale.

It's a physical place, and it's located in the Sinaí Peninsula, I would say southwest of the Sinaí Peninsula. And as I said before, it's the same place where Moses met the burning bush, and it's the same place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

And again, it's the same place where Prophet Elijah met with God. Our battle today, we as a Christian, we can face persecutions.

Not in this country, thank God, in the UK, but there are other countries in the world where Christians face persecution just because of the confession of faith, and their life is in danger.

It's not the case for our country, the UK. However, our struggle is a spiritual struggle. Our struggle is not again flesh and blood, but it's again spiritual forces of evil.

And the battleground is in our mind. The battleground is in our mind. We can see from the Prophet Elijah the pattern from the enemy.

The enemy wants us to be surrounded by fear, isolation, doubt, lies, and death. The enemy represents lies and death.

But our God is the way, the truth, and the life. And we must review those lives with the truth. That's why it's so important, church, to put on the armor of God have a strong reading of the Bible.

It's the Bible our daily devotional, our daily bread. And we feel full of the Holy Spirit. Being full of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit who gives us wisdom, who gives us knowledge, and who gives us discernment, spiritual discernment, to understand our spiritual warfare, and to understand our situation.

It's the Holy Spirit who gives us wisdom to know how to act, what to say, what not to say, what to do, what not to do.

And our victory, our victory is at the cross. That place where Jesus Christ died for us.

He took our sin and shame and took the weight of our sin and shame and nailed it to the cross. And once and for all, He brought us redemption, forgiveness, so that we can have a relationship with the living God, a restored relationship, thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ at the cross.

We will know the truth, and the truth will set us free. Jesus Christ is the truth. Our response must be we stand firm in our faith.

We must keep praying and be with a strong root in the Word of God, being laid by the Holy Spirit. And we must fix our eyes on Jesus.

We must fix our eyes on Jesus, the creator and author of our faith. and finally, an invitation to rest.

In Matthew 11, 28, Jesus said, Come to me, O your worry and burden, and I will give you rest. We must learn from Jesus. We must take His joy upon us, for His burden is light and His humbling heart.

and in Jesus Christ, we find rest to our souls, for His joy is easy and His burden is light. In this world, we will face difficult times, physical difficult times and spiritual difficult times, but we must take heart.

Jesus has overcome the world. Trials will come, but we know who holds the victory.

We don't know what the future brings, but we know who holds the future. And finally, my final encouragement to the church is that we are not alone.

God is with us. He never leaves us, never forsakes us. Our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of our Father in Heaven interceding for us, listening to our prayers.

The Holy Spirit living in us, living our prayer life, living our daily devotional of reading the Bible. We've got brothers and sisters in Christ, a church community who support us and they support us in love.

And finally, we must encourage one another and be full of the Holy Spirit and bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Bear fruit of the Spirit, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

But the most important fruit that we must bear is love. love. We must love one another, support one another, and Jesus go beyond that.

He asked us to pray for our enemy. Very difficult. And he is the best example. When he was hanging on the cross and the Pharisees were mocking about him, he said, Father, Father, forgive them because they don't know what they're doing.

This is our example to follow. I would like to ask the church, the worship team, before I give a small prayer for the congregation.

Father God, thank you, Father. Thank you, Father, for giving us your son to die at the cross for us. And thank you, Jesus, for your wonderful sacrifice at the cross.

You take our sin and shame and you brought death to death and eternal life to us at the cross. Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice and thank you, Holy Spirit, for living our life, pointing us to the cross, pointing us to Jesus.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for ministering our life. Thank you. Thank you. I want to pray for our church, our community. I want to pray that we are a church community with a strong root in the reading of the Bible.

This is our daily bread. I pray that we are a strong church in a strong prayer life, that we keep strong in our prayer life.

And as I said before, Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father intercedes for all our requests in our prayer life. and very important, love one another, support one another in love.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for your love, for your mercy, and thank you, Father, because you never leave us, you never forsake us. You are with us and you go before us, Lord, opening doors that no one can shut and closing doors that no one can open.

We trust you, Lord. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I pray. in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen.