Sermon Tone Analysis

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n apocryphal story is told about a man applying for a telegraph operator's job.

The man doing the interviews was busy so he and the others waited.

As they waited they were surrounded by the normal noises and activities of a telegraph office.

Suddenly the latecomer stood up and walked into the boss' office.

The others were more surprised when the boss came out and announced he was had hired the man who had entered his office.

Demanding an explanation the employer responded, "All the time you’ve been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out a message: `If you understand this message, then come right in.

The job is yours.'

He is the only one who heard and understood the message.

So the job is his."

It is easy to “hear” God’s voice.

God isn't hiding from us.

God wants us to hear.

Yet it is very difficult it is to “listen” to God’s voice.

Hearing and listening are not the same thing.

If you don't believe me ask anyone who's had a teenager.

The fact is, we hear a lot.

Some of it impacts us at a level at which we are not even aware.

Some of it we flat out ignore.

Some of it we hear half-way, it's familiar so we sort of listen.

Very seldom we move from hearing to true listening.

Listening is active.

Listening involves thinking about what we hear.

Listening demands we pay attention too, focus on, take to heart and apply what is being communicated.

What's more listening is just as likely to take place in silence as it is in the midst of a storm as Elijah discovered.

Sadly, many of us spend a lot of time hearing God but fail to listen.

Rev. Bill Crawford lives in Louisiana.

He had a blog entry this past week about solitude which was timely for us.

He is a self-confesed talker and extrovert but listen to what he writes about solitude

"Some people need it in very obvious ways.

I used to take it or leave it.

Now I have to have it.

I want to be where God has called me for a long time.

I think churches are often ineffective because their leadership move around.

And I think one of the reasons they move around is because they don't stop and reflect enough to work out their problems (with God's help).

\\ \\ That's why I think I love Kayak fishing so much...Kayak fishing is by its very nature a lonely sport.

It sometimes involves being the only human being for miles around (alligators don't count).

It's a place where I get solitude.[1]

It is places of solitude Bill finds a place to listen to God.

He's in good company.

God speaks through several ways to us.

He speaks through our life situations.

It shouldn't be a surprise to hear God via the hassles circumstances, problems, joys, movies, TV, radio, newspapers and a million other avenues of communication we're exposed to each day.

A chance conversation overheard in line at the store or the magazine or book we’re reading may well be God’s voice to us.

God still speaks in and through dreams and visions.

They let us to see God's heart for His world.

They confront us with a reality far beyond the normal.

They quicken our souls.

There is an "ah-ha" moment about it when we recognize the deep spiritual Truth God is telling us.

They are just as likely driving down a road as being in deep prayer.

Such dreams and visions burn God's truth into our lives the way God's glory was burned onto Moses' face.

God speaks in an audible voice and through His written Word.

They will never contradict one another.

When God speaks you know it.

My experience is that God's voice, like the Bible confronts, challenges and changes those who hear it.

Consider how Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus.

God's voice confronted Paul with Jesus.

It challenged Paul's very identity.

And it changed Paul into a follower of Christ.

The same thing happens today.

The problem isn’t that God doesn't speak, it is that we don't listen.

In 2002 /Charisma/ magazine there was an article about a church that purposely listened to what non-believers had to say about Jesus and the church.

Pastors struggled to listen to the criticisms from these non-churched folk.

As the author explained, “Listening is hard work and we must resolve to stop talking and stop controlling.”

This is even truer when it comes to listening to God.

Too often we aren't quiet, we try to explain ourselves, we believe we already know it all, or worse, we insist on controlling the conversation with God so that God will do things /our /way.

\\ Elijah has seen God work in great ways when we enter chapter 19.

The drought is broken and he’d confronted the prophets of the Queen’s deity and destroyed them on Mt.

Carmel.

Jezebel doesn’t change her heart or mind.

She is more intense than ever on wining this war so she threatens Elijah.

Face with this Elijah turns southward.

He moves out of Jezebel’s sphere of influence.

He wasn't afraid.

He was seeking a place where he could hear God's voice once more.

Verse 3 literally translates "he went upon his soul, or his life".

It isn't fear that moves him.

If that was true once he was in the Southern Kingdom under Jehoshaphat, Jezebel would have not power or claim on him.

Elijah is seeking something more.

As one commentator stated Elijah had "gone into the desert for the purpose of seeing whether the Lord would manifest His mercy to him, as He had formerly done to His people under Moses, or whether He would withdraw His hand entirely from him.[2]

Exhausted, he gives up.

God brings him Mt.

Sinai where Elijah goes into a cave.

And once there a wind, earthquake and fire come upon the mountain with no sign of God.

The very same signs which happened when Moses' was there doesn't contain any voice from God.

Instead God comes in literally a "tone of a gentle blowing".

Elijah hides his head in fear and awe.

Now Elijah is “listens” to God.

God has constantly spoken to Elijah.

Under the tree an angel of the Lord /tells/ Elijah to “get up and eat”.

As Elijah arrives at Mt. Sinai we read.

“The /Word/ of the Lord came to him” God plainly asks.

“What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Then right after Elijah’s answer God /commands/ Elijah to “go out and stand on the mountain”.

Up to now Elijah hears God but doesn't' listen.

How do I know?

It's because not till after the "tone of a gentle blowing" touches Elijah that he actually does what God commanded him to do-- he “went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.”

Apparently God’s voice which told him to go stand on the mountain wasn’t obeyed.

Why?

Because he hadn't listened to God he'd only heard God.