Bible Readings
1 Kings 19:9–13
And the word of the Lord came to him. What are you doing here, Elijah? 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 a sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.
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. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
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?
Luke 5:12–16
While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said, be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him.
Then Jesus ordered him, don't tell anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them.
Yet the news about him spread all the more so that the crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sickness. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
This is the word of the Lord.
Greeting & Introduction
Morning, church. Thanks for coming. Welcome to those online.
My name's Beck Mower. I was actually reflecting. I've been a part of this church for nearly 20 years.
I know it's shocking. So I celebrate a birthday this month, but I get the privilege of, taking the second in our series about spiritual living. Last week, we heard from Rachel.
She spoke about what it is to live with generosity. And this week, we're going to look at silence and solitude. When I told some people I was preaching on silence and solitude.
They also laughed because I talk a lot. Let me pray and we'll get started. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the opportunity to gather as your people.
As we see it and we see the life that you lived and what it is to be in silence and solitude. We pray that your spirit will be working among us. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
Icebreaker: Last Time You Had Silence
All right. Have a quick chat to the person next to you. When was the last time you had absolute silence by yourself?
I'm hearing murmurs, so that must mean people are having absolute silence. That's excellent. It's going to be a really short sermon. Great.
Defining the Practice
Silence and solitude are really this simple. Sitting alone. Being still and listening to the father.
And I started this journey and said yes to Meghan at the beginning of the year. I was super excited about silence and solitude. It's a practice that I wanted to get into.
So I went, I'll move that. I went and got all of the stuff that you need. So the books that you need the the liturgy of the ordinary. Thin places. Pondering. Permission to ponder. I filled everything.
When I say I filled everything. I skimmed through parts of it, got to the bits that I liked. What God kept coming back to me with is, I'm actually just asking you to do this.
Sit alone, be still, and listen to me. Oh, well, it sounds really simple. It was actually a big wrestle for me.
So I don't stand before you as someone that's really nailed this. But today I'd love to talk through some of the things that God has really revealed to me over the course of this year about silence and solitude. You might be nailing it, and if you are, I'd love to chat to you.
But I think for most of us and the people that I've spoken to, this rhythm of living, this spiritual discipline is pretty tough. And before I stepped into these three postures, God spoke to me a little bit about what I needed to put on before actually getting there. So I realized that I actually couldn't step into these three postures without wearing some boots.
Hence my prop gardening boots. I've recently got into gardening recently, post-Covid. I'm still learning a lot.
But when we step into silence and solitude, we need to come from a place of knowing two things. Hence two boots. For the sake of purposes, I will not put on the boots today just so you can see them.
Boot #1 — God Wants To Be With and Speak To His People
The first boot that I needed to walk into this practice with is the knowledge that God wants to actually be with his people and wants to speak to his people. I'm a November birthday. Very excited. I got an 8 a.m. chocolate and a 10 a.m. chocolate this morning.
But when organising a birthday party or even any gathering, there was a deep fear within me. What? People come. Two people actually like me. It's my conversation with Wilder. They want to spend time with me. Do they want to chat?
You might not know that from the outside, but it's a deep fear that you're spending your time watching the clock going. Will people show up? God's not like that. He deeply wants to be with his children.
And when I started to do a bit of a search in the Bible about God wanting to be with his people and speaking to his people, it was overwhelming. I'll give you a taste. We start in Genesis with Adam and Eve.
When Adam and Eve have that image of walking in the garden. He speaks to Adam and Eve about stewardship in Genesis chapter two, about how to actually navigate the tree of good and evil in Genesis chapter three, about even when they were in shame. He was speaking and looking for them.
He spoke to Cain when he was angry in Genesis four. He spoke to Noah in Genesis six, giving him instructions to build the ark. He spoke to Abraham in Genesis 12 about the covenant that we live out today.
He spoke to Jacob in Genesis 28, in a dream. He spoke to Moses in chapter three in a burning bush. In chapter 20, he gave two commands, a two tablets of commandments.
And in chapter 33 he spoke to Moses face to face like a friend. In our reading today. To be honest, I could have spent the whole sermon talking about Elijah.
If you don't know much about Elijah and his life, dig in to First Kings. In our reading today, Elijah was at the end and you can hear at the beginning, he was literally running for his life. And the Lord said to him, go there. And he experienced the gentle whisper of the loving father speaking to him.
This is like an interlude moment for Elijah's life. He'd just done a massive thing for the demonstrating the power of God, and God actually calls him on further to do work for him. But in between, he takes a moment to speak to a larger.
God spoke to Jobe in a world when in 38, he spoke to Jonah, who ignored instructions but was clear on what to do. He spoke to Jeremiah, the prophet of the Old Testament. Over and over again to the prophets, and beautifully in Jeremiah 31 says, I will put my law on their minds and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people. And didn't just stop there. God continues to speak. He spoke to Jesus, which is hard to get your head around, but we'll save that question for a different time.
When he was baptized, he declared that he was the beloved son. He spoke to Saul on the road. He spoke to Peter in a vision.
He spoke to Ananias about how to treat Saul's blindness and way right the way through to revelation. He spoke the book of Revelation to John. God is speaking. He wants to speak to his people.
And silence and solitude actually offer a space for us to listen. Second boot. Again? I could probably finish the sermon here.
Boot #2 — Jesus Did It (Model, Teach, Give Access)
Jesus did it. If Jesus did it, probably a thing that I should do. Silence and solitude is something that when we walk into it, we need to know that Jesus did it.
He taught his disciples to do it, and through his death on the cross, he actually gave us access at the cross. You and I were justified. The penalty of sin was paid, and that gave us direct access to the father.
The big picture of silence and solitude really is the father spending time with his children. A space for that to deepen in relationship. And what Jesus did on the cross enable us to do this in an unlimited way.
The second passage that Rebecca read to us today are also demonstrated that Jesus did this. It's a beautiful story of his healing power, cleansing a leper. And then right at the end in verse 16, Jesus withdrew, and he withdrew often to lonely places.
This is a regular rhythm for Jesus. It's part of his pattern of living. I was thinking about Jesus as to do list.
I often have a big to do list. I don't know about you. I think I'd be a hot mess if I had to deal with Jesus's to do list.
He has a massive number of people that he has to try and heal even from this story. More were coming with sickness. In this first four chapters, before we even get to this event.
Jesus was baptized, tested in the wilderness, rejected from the synagogue, drove out demons, healed Simon's mother in law and other sicknesses, called all of the first disciples. Then we have this moment. Then he went on, healed.
A paralyzed man eats with sinners. Questions by Pharisees and other teachers about fasting. He worked on the Sabbath. He called the disciples to rest and then preached the sermon on the Mount.
He's pretty busy. But he modeled for us. He modeled for his disciples this rhythm of retreating into silence and solitude.
We see in Matthew where Jesus heard about John the Baptist's beheading. He retreated to silence and solitude. He was in the wilderness of 40 days where he was tested.
But even before choosing the 12 apostles in Luke, it records that he withdrew for silence and solitude. Before he performed the miracles. He said some time in silence and solitude in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He had some time of silence and solitude. I think he got the picture. Jesus did it taught his disciples to do it.
And in his death on the cross gave us access to do it. So while his death on the cross paid the penalty of sin, we're living in an age now that the Holy Spirit is working in our lives. The Holy Spirit breaks the power of sin or sanctification, and that's the ongoing work of the spirit.
So silence and solitude with the Heavenly Father actually provide a space for sanctification to occur. Our beingness is shaped by the father, son, and spirit. Two boots to walk in silence and solitude. Pretty simple.
Hurdles: Busyness & Digital Noise
The reality is we live at a time that has a few hurdles. Busyness doing this and digital first generation of people to be discipled with this. I do wonder if Jesus would have an iPhone. Would he abstain from technology? I don't know.
I don't have an answer. The reality is that we are very full in our lives. We are very busy with our lives. There is a lot that's happening.
Finding space for silence and solitude is tricky. We're also under, this kind of vibe that we should be doing something with our time. I was trying to explain to my four year old nephew when we were young.
Did anyone else sit on the floor? Summer holidays, maybe. And just stare. Like, when was the last time you got bored?
I also did the little voice thing in the fan that was going in the summer to make your voice go a bit different. Yeah. We feel our time and doing this and busyness kind of go together.
We fill our time with so much stuff. Some of it's great stuff. But it's in light of Jesus coming back. Is it all good stuff?
If he came back tomorrow. Would it all be needed? Our ability to walk into silence and solitude is impacted by these two things.
There are reality. So I'm like, okay, Jesus, we've got these things. These are sort of the easy things to do. But I live in a time that this is going on.
And what sort of came out as I was working through this is. It's a journey. I don't really love that word. But if we start the process, we walk down a path.
And so what I want to explore is just some of the things that silence and solitude is and isn't. In light of those three big kind of hurdles that we live in the context of this life. First one boots on, first signpost.
Silence & Solitude: Time With God (Not Me-Time)
So this might be really obvious. Probably wasn't so obvious to me. Silence and solitude is time with God, not me. Time.
So in preparation for this sermon, I did a couple of trips down to my beach house down in Phillip Island. I'm great. I'll have some silence and solitude all alone, and realized that I just spent a day and a half watching three movies.
I had made silence and solitude meter, not God time. And it's a real risk. I'm an introvert and it's actually a real risk for introverts because we start to get a we want to withdraw and have me time, and it can start to become all about me.
Silence and solitude is about time with God and for extroverts. Is there any is there many extroverts in the room? No. Yes. C extroverts. Extroverts are happy to put their hands up, right. Extroverts.
Lots of generalisation. Extroverts run a risk. I don't need me time. I'm fine. I love people and they run the risk of not entering into silence and solitude because I don't need it.
Silence and solitude is time with God. Not me. Time. Silence and solitude is also an invitation, not a punishment.
Invitation, Not Punishment; Aloneness, Not Loneliness
This one was a big one. Sometimes isolation, solitude in the human world is used to separate, divide and punish. I don't know if you've ever experienced someone shutting you out, whether digitally or in a friendship group or in a family group.
Sometimes we use silence to punish Supernanny. Does it love the Supernanny? But she does put kids in a separate room. Separate? Now is not a judgment, a parenting. I'm not a parent. I'm not judging.
But we sometimes use silence and solitude as a way to withdraw from each other. What God calls us into. This is a space in his presence, an invitation, not a punishment.
And nature published an article last year. Nature journal. FYI, I'm a biology teacher. Sometimes biology references. Noise pollution is the second is predicted to be the second most. I don't know the right language now.
The second biggest killer cause of being a killer. Noise. Trucks. Sirens. Ambulances. Road traffic. Construction. Noise work. Noise TV. Noise. Mobile phones.
It raises our anxiety levels. It stimulates our body. And causes some health issues. God inviting us into a moment of stillness, not punishing.
It's good to think about your experience with silence. Have you transferred that to your Heavenly father? Silence and solitude is an invitation into stillness, not isolation and punishment.
It's also an opportunity to be alone. But it's not loneliness. You know the statistics of how lonely we are as a generation. Coming up in Gen Z.
You are alone from all of the world. But we are not alone. In silence and solitude, we have the Heavenly Father with us. Jesus said in revelation 320. Here I am.
I stand at the door and knock. Anyone who hears my voice opens the door. I will come in and eat with them in person and day with me.
We have a loving father who calls us into an intimate relationship. We're running to a loving father. A trusted friend. Silence and solitude is a time for aloneness.
Now, introverts, we love this. Extroverts. This is their worst nightmare. Feeling alone. If you're in that category, can I assure you you are not alone.
Father, son and spirit are with you. You've got three friends right next to you. Silence and solitude is about being and not doing.
Being Over Doing; Uncomfortable, Not Discomfort
When was the last time you were just being. I think this is a hard one in our Western culture, where we have a pressure on us, particularly the doing ness of our time or the busyness of our time. Feels really hard to find spaces of just being.
In The invitation to a journey. Robert Mulholland says the practice of silence is a radical reversal of our culture's tendencies. Silence is bringing ourselves to a point of relinquishing to God the control of our relationships with him.
Silence is the reversal of the whole processing, controlling, grasping, dynamic of trying to maintain control over our existence. Silence is the inner act of letting go. It is your being. The last one Megan talked about.
It's uncomfortable, but not discomfort. Any English teachers in the room? Not looking at Chantelle or anyone. Anyone know the difference between these two terms? Oh, Bridget, you can't answer.
Uncomfortable is an adjective. Things are uncomfortable being silent. Giving their practices sometimes that feel uncomfortable because they rub up against our world and against our culture.
Discomfort. Discomfort is a noun. We are not in a father's presence. Who's causing us discomfort? It is uncomfortable, but it's not a discomfort.
It's uncomfortable because in silence and solitude, we face ourselves. We face our exhaustion, our fear, our sadness, our anger, our shame, our pain. A lot of times it's a lot easier if I just put my headphones on and drown out my inner voice.
With other noise, but in silence and solitude, we're faced with ourselves. We're faced with the enemy. He doesn't want us to have a deepened relationship with our father.
He distracts. Do you know I haven't done my taxes for a little while? I'm not going to admit how long for purposes that this is a recorded video. Do you know how often this week I have thought about doing my taxes?
He distracts. He provides resistance. He adds noise. But in this silence and solitude. In the uncomfortable.
God calls us to our identity and purpose. Being with the father. That beautiful picture in Genesis as he walks with Adam and Eve in the garden. Megan's going to talk a little bit next week about what walking in nature might look like.
Sitting alone, being still and listening. I was thinking about this and looking at the title of the sermon series. I actually wanted to tweak it slightly.
So, Megan, I hope you're okay with this. I actually want to move it to. Do we get to a point of stillness instead of silence?
Can we be still in ourselves? Maybe silence is a word that is uncomfortable for you and is solitude. You're not alone. You're alone with God.
It's a communion, a moment to sit with him. So with our boots on and knowing sort of what it is and what it isn't, and what to look out for along the way. What do you actually do in silence and solitude?
Practice: Time & Space; Stillness of Body, Emotion, Mind
Easy one. Find time and space. That'll be easy. I won't do it. Little thought exercise for me.
I just want you to imagine your week coming up. Can you see three minutes in your week coming up? That you could potentially. Practice silence and solitude.
I got really clearly. I got really I get really excited about lots of things. I got really excited about the books. I got very excited about the comfy chair that I set up for silence and solitude.
there was cushions. I had a little side table was read, the Bible was sitting there. I was ready for all of my moments of silence. Guess how many times I've used that chair this year?
I can count on one hand. What I discovered. Actually, God wanted to speak to me when I was walking at 6 a.m.. I had thought it would look like this in time and space, but my silence and solitude was actually out in nature.
Time and space is different for each of us. But it's good to think through what is some time that I can give him? Henri Nouwen was a Catholic priest who wrote without solitude, it's virtually impossible to live a spiritual life if we don't take a spiritual life seriously.
If we do not set aside some time to be with God and listen to him. Being still, the silence is uncomfortable. It's unusual for our bodies. What? To feel silence.
So thinking through how do we become physically still? Physically silent. Get comfortable. I don't recommend lying down, but sleep is a whole thing that Phil will talk about at a different point in our spiritual journey.
If you lie down, there's a really big risk of sleeping. Totally fine though. Different thing. Stillness in our breath.
I've found that, breath prayers have been really helpful for me as a show of hands who's come across breath prayers before. Oh, great. Were you too? Had to. But that's a different story.
Breath. Prayers are not manifestations. They're not kind of mantras or chanting. They are literally taking Paul's word in Colossians three verse six.
Dwelling. Letting the word of the Lord dwell in us. Literally breathing in Scripture and breathing out Scripture.
This is an example from Psalm 62. My soul finds rest in God alone. It's a physical activity. How about you give it a try?
You don't have to say it out loud. You can. If you want to take a deep breath in and as are taking a breath in. My soul finds rest in God alone.
This is letting Scripture dwell within us. It doesn't do anything apart from help our mind focus on God's truth. Physically still is important. Emotionally still is just as important in that silence as we enter into just nothing.
We are confronted with ourselves. My encouragement is to bundle it all up and hand it over to Jesus. He can deal with all of that emotion.
He's big enough to deal with all of that emotion. Sometimes people like worship music to get into stillness, to think, to help their minds focus. Just be cautious. It's not more noise.
Sometimes we. It helps with our emotion. But just be careful. It's not more noise. Finally, we need mental stillness.
This is the one that got me. I sat still and thought of the 85 other things I should be doing. But in the reading that I was doing the the visualization of allowing God to direct your thoughts like drifting clouds, there will be things that come in and come out.
I keep post-its. I think post-its are the best thing that was ever invented. I'm so glad that we live in an age that post-it exists. I use them all the time in teaching.
Keep it a little stack of post-its. If it's really urgent, write that stuff down so you can come back to silence and solitude with the father. How do we get our mental space calm? The last thing is trust.
As we do this, we trust that God will lead you. I didn't correct this between the eight and a ten. Can anyone find the error or what is missing from the last sentence starts with an S.
You can buy a vowel if you need. It starts with an S. Ends in all. Great. You got that? Good.
Some people will think you did say it. Trust that God will lead your body, mind and spirit. And so. There's a beautiful old hymn.
I can't remember who sung it. I should have written it down. Turn your eyes towards Jesus. Do you want to have it?
Do you remember it? Look full in his wonderful face. I'm not going to sing it for you. It's the reason why I'm not up here for worship.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. I'd like to change the words to turn yourself, not your eyes. As we turn ourselves towards Jesus.
Look fool in his wonderful face. He will speak. The heavenly Father will speak. Our body and our mind and our emotions are a temple for the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes I get the privilege of praying with people at church, and they, I'll say to them, oh, did you hear anything from God? God is speaking and people panic that maybe they don't hear God.
God is speaking and you are created to listen to him, but it doesn't have to look like an audible whisper. It doesn't have to look a particular way that someone else shared it.
It can be a sense. It can be a Scripture. It can be. maybe you just get an overwhelming sense of peace and joy and love.
Maybe God brings to mind Scripture for a friend. We were doing this as a small group. Solitude is one of the practicing away series.
Just shout out for that as growth groups and someone in the group, when practicing this, got a scripture for a friend, reached out to that friend they were sharing that they actually were reading that scripture, and now they've decided to read that scripture together. Sometimes God gives us in the stillness things to build others up.
God will always speak to us in a way that draws us closer to Christ, in a way that builds up who we are, and always in a way that glorifies God. That's how you know you hear him. If it doesn't do, those things may not be good.
Silence and solitude isn't us going to God in our prayer life, being giving a massive list of things that we want done. It's a space that we sit. Alone. Be still and listen.
Closing Quote & Prayer
I'm a bit of a fangirl of some of these authors now, and I just want to read you a little quote. Ruth Hayley Barton in An Invitation to solitude and Silence. Needless to say, that was one of the first books I bought.
So is this an invitation to solitude and silence is just that. It's an invitation to enter more deeply into the intimacy of relationship with the one who waits just outside the noise and busyness of our lives. It's an invitation to communication and communion with the one who is always present, even when our awareness has been dulled by distraction.
It's an invitation to the adventure of spiritual transformation in the deepest places of our being, an adventure that will result in a greater freedom and authenticity and surrender to God that we have ever experienced. My prayer for you as you step into this week.
There will be a moment that you can capture this practice of silence and solitude. God honors any time that we can give him, and I pray that will be a blessing to your walk with Jesus. Let me pray.
Our Lord Jesus, we thank you that in and through your life you demonstrated what it is to walk. With silence and with solitude. Thank you that in and through your life, death, and resurrection, we do have access to the father.
And we pray as we enter into this week, Lord, that you will guide us into the spaces and the time and the places that we can be alone. We can be still and we can listen to you. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
