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Rhythms of Peace | Week 5 | Sermon · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Bill Bush · May 26, 2025 · 49 min watch · 3 min read

Rhythms of Peace | Week 5 | Sermon

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In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

1 Kings 19
1 Kings 19:3
1 Kings 19:5
1 Kings 19:8
Psalm 46:10
Jeremiah 31

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

True peace comes not from knowing God's words, but from knowing the God of the Word — staying in His presence daily.

In this closing message of the 'Rhythms of Peace' series, Pastor Bill argues that reading the Bible is not about mastering a rule book or wielding scripture like a magic incantation. Using the story of Elijah's burnout and restoration in 1 Kings 19, he shows that spiritual knowledge alone does not guarantee peace. Real, lasting peace flows from an ongoing, honest, relational encounter with the God who meets us with grace, speaks to us in a whisper, and reminds us that we are never alone — so that we can effectively wield the sword of the Spirit and fulfill the legacy He has planned for us.

Key points

1
1You can know God's words and still feel lost when you are disconnected from His presence.
2
2God always meets us with grace, not shame — like a surgeon who cuts in order to heal, not to harm.
3
3God reveals Himself not in spectacular displays of power but in a gentle whisper — the place of true presence.
4
4The problem we think is the problem is rarely the actual problem; the real issue is disconnection from God's presence.
5
5Peace comes when you know you are not alone — God always has a bigger plan and a community around you.
6
6Effectively wielding the sword of the Spirit requires yielding to the scalpel — allowing God to transform us through His Word and presence.
Related passage
7
7Communion is a call to stop, remember Jesus — the living Word — and listen for His whisper rather than just going through the motions.

“we don't just learn the word of God. We don't just wanna know the word of God. We're really getting into the Bible. The reason we commit to reading it every day, the reason you want to be studying it, being in it, is to get to know the God of the Word and let Him reveal Himself to your heart”

Application

Pastor Bill's call to action is this: make your daily time in God's Word less like a checklist and more like a real relationship — showing up honestly, listening for the whisper, and trusting that God will meet you with grace rather than shame. Like Elijah, you may be serving hard and even seeing results, yet still feel lost because you've drifted from God's presence. The remedy is to slow down, open the Word, and let the Lord ask you His searching question: 'Why are you here?' Let Him be the surgeon. Stay rooted in community so isolation doesn't feed lies. And remember that what you risk losing by neglecting this rhythm is not just your own peace — it's the legacy and the people and the victories that God intends to bring about through your life.

Take it into your week

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“And and how does he end up getting peace again? And it's found in first Kings 19. The Gahan's name is Elijah. He's a prophet of God”
From the transcript
“look what he does. He just faced down this whole country, all these falls, has this incredible victory. One with the the queen just sends him one message, and in verse three, he says, Elijah was afraid and fled for his life”
From the transcript
“Let's go on verse five. Where was I at? Verse four or verse five. Then so after he says he should die, he says, then he laid down and slept under the broom tree”
From the transcript
“Says in verse eight, so he got up and he ate and drank, and the Lord gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God”
From the transcript
“he hadn't rested. And when we talked about rest a few weeks ago, said it is those things. Eat well, hydrate yourself, good nutrition, good sleep. You have to physically rest. But rest also includes not just that. When he says rest, it's not just rest, it's also rest in the Lord, and it's also rest is also preparation for the mission. Because what did he say? You need to rest, not just to rest for rest sake, because you need the strength for the journey to come and meet with me where I'm where you're gonna go next”
From the transcript
“In the same Old Testament passage here, says in in in in in Jeremiah, I believe it is, it says, God says, I will take your stony heart, stubborn hearts, and replace it with a heart of flesh, a soft heart”
From the transcript
“And then when he does meet you, what happens next? It says, so there he came to a cave in verse nine where he spent the night. But the Lord said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah”
From the transcript
“And first, here it says, verse 10, Elijah replied, here's his answer, I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty, but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, killed every one of your prophets”
From the transcript
“he says, go out and stand before me on the mountain. God told him in verse 11. And he says, and the Lord stand there. The Lord passed by and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain”
From the transcript
“Is when we look again after he said that in verse 14, it says, I'm the only one left and now they're trying to kill me too”
From the transcript
“He says, then the Lord told him in verse 15, go back the same way you came. Travel to the wilderness of Damascus”
From the transcript
“He gives them the answer to his problem though at the end. The last verse is such grace filled and a little bit throat punchy. He says, yet I will preserve 7,000 others in Israel who have never bowed down to Baal or kissed him”
From the transcript
“Being in the Bible is that time to say, be the physician, bring the scalpel, let's have a conversation. Search my heart, oh Lord, as David said”

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Elijah had just called down fire from heaven. He had outrun a chariot. By any measure, he was on the winning side — and yet, just a few verses later, he is under a broom tree asking God to let him die. That is a jarring turn, and Pastor Bill pointed right at it: you can be in the middle of real, visible fruit and still feel completely empty inside. Spiritual knowledge and spiritual momentum are not the same thing as spiritual health. Elijah knew God's power. He had experienced it firsthand. But somewhere in the doing, he had drifted from the being — from the steady, daily encounter with the God behind the miracles. What makes Elijah's collapse so worth sitting with is how honest it is. He doesn't perform courage he doesn't feel. He sits down, he names the exhaustion, and he tells God the truth. That is not weakness. That is actually the beginning of the way back. If you have been running hard — serving, showing up, going through the motions of faith — and you find yourself feeling strangely hollow, you are in good company. The invitation today is not to try harder. It is simply to be honest about where you actually are.

For reflection

Where in your life right now are you going through the motions of faith while feeling disconnected on the inside?

Pray

Pray for the honesty to tell God exactly where you are today, without dressing it up.

Elijah doesn't get a lecture. He gets a meal. He is lying in the wilderness, done with everything, and an angel shows up and says, essentially, 'You need to eat — the journey ahead is too much for you.' God's first response to Elijah's burnout is not correction. It is care. Pastor Bill described this as God meeting us with grace, not shame — like a surgeon whose cuts are in service of healing, not punishment. That image is worth holding. A surgeon causes real pain, but the pain has a purpose and a direction. God is not indifferent to what you are carrying, and He is not disappointed that you are tired. He sees it. He meets it with bread and water before He says another word. This is not a picture of a God who rewards performance. It is a picture of a God who provides for people who are running on empty. Whatever season you are in — whether burnout is a distant memory or a present reality — the God you are being invited into relationship with through His Word is this God: the one who notices, who comes near, and who says 'get up and eat' before anything else.

For reflection

How do you tend to expect God to respond when you are struggling — with disappointment, or with care? Where did that expectation come from?

Pray

Pray for a clearer sense of God's gentleness toward you in whatever you are carrying right now.

Wind. Earthquake. Fire. Three dramatic, undeniable displays of raw power — and God was not in any of them. Then came a gentle whisper, and Elijah covered his face. Pastor Bill made the point plainly: God reveals Himself not in the spectacular but in the still and quiet. That is a genuinely countercultural idea. We live in an environment that rewards volume and urgency. Our attention is constantly being pulled toward whatever is loudest. And if we carry that same orientation into our time with Scripture — skimming fast, checking a box, waiting for the lightning bolt — we will keep missing the whisper. The whisper requires slowing down. It requires a posture of listening rather than performing. This is exactly what Pastor Bill was getting at when he said that daily time in God's Word should feel less like a checklist and more like a real relationship. Relationships require presence, not just information. Elijah had experienced the spectacular before, but something shifted when the whisper came. Meeting God in the quiet is not a lesser experience — it turns out to be the truest one. The question worth sitting with today is whether you are giving yourself the kind of unhurried space where a whisper could actually reach you.

For reflection

What conditions in your daily life make it hardest to slow down enough to listen? What is one small change that might create more quiet?

Pray

Pray for the willingness to slow down and for ears that are tuned to what God wants to say.

Related passage

Pastor Bill put two images side by side: the sword and the scalpel. The sword of the Spirit — the Word of God — is something we are called to wield. But Hebrews 4:12 describes the Word doing something to us first: piercing, dividing, discerning. Before it is a weapon in our hands, it is a surgical instrument in God's. You cannot effectively use Scripture to speak truth into someone else's life if you are not allowing it to speak truth into yours. That is a convicting idea, but it is not a shaming one. Pastor Bill framed the scalpel as a tool of healing — a surgeon cuts in order to restore, not to wound. Allowing God's Word to do its searching work in you is not a painful obligation. It is an act of trust. It means showing up to your time in Scripture not just looking for something useful to pass on, but willing to be examined yourself. The honest question Elijah was asked — 'Why are you here?' — was a scalpel moment. God was not asking for information. He already knew. He was inviting Elijah into the kind of self-reflection that only happens in the presence of a safe and trustworthy God.

For reflection

When you read Scripture, are you more often looking for something to use, or are you allowing it to search you? What might it look like to hold it more openly?

Pray

Pray for the courage to let God's Word do its searching work in you today, trusting His intention is healing.

Elijah tells God, 'I am the only one left.' It is one of the most painfully relatable moments in all of Scripture — that particular loneliness of feeling like no one else understands, no one else is holding the line, no one else is even trying. And God does not dismiss it. He listens to the whole thing. Then He gently corrects the record: there are 7,000 others who have not bowed to Baal. Elijah's isolation had fed him a lie about his situation, and the lie had become more real to him than the truth. Pastor Bill made the point that the real problem is rarely the surface problem — the actual issue is disconnection from God's presence, which then leaves us vulnerable to believing things about our situation that simply are not true. Isolation amplifies fear and distorts reality. Community — being in honest relationship with other people who are also trying to follow Jesus — is not just a nice addition to faith. It is one of the ways God pushes back against the lies that loneliness tells. You are not the only one. You are not alone. And God has more going on around you than you can currently see.

For reflection

Where have you been believing a lie about your situation — that you are alone, that nothing is working, that it is all up to you? What might be truer?

Pray

Pray for clarity about who in your life God has placed around you, and for the humility to let them in.

Pastor Bill referenced David's prayer — 'Search my heart, O Lord' — as a model for the kind of openness that makes real encounter with God possible. This psalm captures that invitation completely. It is not a prayer of someone who has everything figured out. It is a prayer of someone who trusts that God's searching is safe — that being fully known by God is not a threat but a relief. Elijah's 'Why are you here?' moment was God doing exactly this kind of searching. Not interrogating, but inviting honesty. The willingness to be searched — to come to Scripture and to prayer without a performance and without pretense — is what makes the difference between going through the motions and actually encountering the living God. This is the rhythm Pastor Bill has been describing throughout this series. Not a checklist. Not a magic formula. A relationship in which you show up honestly, allow God to ask His questions, and trust that what He finds, He will also heal. The legacy and the peace and the purpose that God intends for your life are on the other side of that kind of openness — not on the other side of a flawless quiet time.

For reflection

What part of your inner life are you most reluctant to bring honestly before God? What would it take to trust Him with it?

Pray

Pray using the words of Psalm 139:23-24 as your own — asking God to search you and lead you.

Looking back over the full arc of 1 Kings 19, what stands out is not Elijah's failure but God's faithfulness. A man burned out and convinced he is the last one standing gets food, rest, a whisper, a honest question, a corrected perspective, a restored mission, and the knowledge that thousands of others are still with him. God does not replace Elijah. He restores him and sends him back. That is the shape of the whole week — and it is the shape of what Pastor Bill has been inviting you into. Not a guilt-driven, box-checking relationship with Scripture, but a rhythm of honest presence with a God who meets you with grace. The sword of the Spirit becomes most powerful in the hands of someone who has first allowed the scalpel to do its work. The legacy God has planned for your life — the people, the moments, the quiet victories — flows from this kind of rootedness. It is not achieved by willpower or religious effort. It grows from showing up, day after day, and letting God ask His question and trusting that His answer for you is always 'you are not alone, and I am not finished.' That is the rhythm of peace. That is the invitation.

For reflection

As you look back over this week, where did one of these themes land most personally for you? What is one concrete way you want to carry this rhythm forward?

Pray

Pray for the grace to make this rhythm of honest, relational time in God's Word a real and lasting part of your daily life.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message closed out the 'Rhythms of Peace' series by asking a question Elijah had to face in the wilderness: what does it actually look like to meet God in His Word, rather than just move through it?

Discussion questions

1
In 1 Kings 19:1-4, Elijah has just called down fire from heaven — a stunning victory — and then collapses in exhaustion and despair under a broom tree. What does that contrast tell us about the relationship between spiritual activity and spiritual health?
2
When God meets the burned-out Elijah in 1 Kings 19:5-8, His first move is to let him sleep and then bring him food — not a lecture. What does that response suggest about how God approaches people who are depleted or discouraged?
3
In 1 Kings 19:11-13, God is not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire — He is in a gentle whisper. Pastor Bill drew attention to that detail. What might it look like, practically, for a person to position themselves to hear a whisper rather than waiting for something more dramatic?
4
Twice in 1 Kings 19 God asks Elijah, 'Why are you here?' — and both times Elijah gives the same answer. Pastor Bill suggested that the problem we think is the problem is rarely the actual problem, and that the real issue is disconnection from God's presence. How does that idea change the way we might diagnose what is going wrong in our lives or in a community?
5
Pastor Bill described Hebrews 4:12 — the Word of God as a sword — alongside the image of a surgeon's scalpel: something sharp that cuts in order to heal, not to harm. How might that picture shift the way people approach reading Scripture, especially when it confronts something uncomfortable?
Related passage
6
At the end of 1 Kings 19, God reminds Elijah that 7,000 in Israel have never bowed to Baal — people Elijah didn't know were there. Pastor Bill connected that to the danger of isolation feeding lies. How might staying rooted in community guard against the kind of 'I am the only one left' thinking Elijah fell into?

Pray together

Ask God to meet your group with grace rather than shame as you slow down, open His Word, and listen for His whisper this week.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Go deeper

Continue the series

Rhythms of Peace

Week 5 · 4 messages

Where these passages are preached

1 Kings 19 Psalm 46 Jeremiah 31 Psalm 139

Explore related topics

God's Presence Hearing God's Voice Isolation and Grace Peace Through Relationship Spiritual Exhaustion

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