Rhythms of Peace | Week 5 | Sermon

You know, I I I realized years ago that sometimes I have a little bit of an issue that pops out every now and again, and maybe you're like me, was that when I'm in a meeting, I'm it's I I get frustrated with a problem,

and I I I'm not I'm not mean to the people. I just get mad at the problem, and sometimes I I express it verbally, and it's like I'm yelling at the problem. Matter of fact, one of the guys on our staff, Jeff Larson,

a long time ago, many many years ago, I'm doing that in a meeting. He goes, you know, Bill, yelling at the problem doesn't fix anything.

And I'm like, yeah. I know that. He goes, then why are you doing? I go, because it makes me feel better. And he goes, but how long does that make you feel better? Well, until I stop yelling. And and he's right. And I've realized that sometimes

when we get angry and we're just yelling at a problem, we somehow think that's gonna do anything, and it really doesn't. It doesn't give us any peace. Maybe it makes us feel a little bit better to let out some steam in the moment, but it's usually just a frustration

and a stuck. And and and and as we've been in this series, the rhythms of peace, what we talked about the first week, we're wrapping all up today with the topic today is the idea that that peace is a person, it's not a place.

And what we've been unpacking these rhythms are these things that we need to do to be in relationship with Jesus. And that's why we we we we need to pray. It's why we need rest, and not just physical rest, but rest needs to be combined with physical with resting in the Lord in a personal way.

And then last week, we talked about community. We need others. We can't be alone in this. And today, I wanna wrap it up with this final piece, and it's the word of God. We need to be in the word of God, and we we need to understand, we need to know it, and we we need to live it, and we need to be part of life. But here's the problem.

What we need to do is not just the big idea when we look at is it's it's it's not just know the word of God, but know the God of the word. That's the reason we read our Bibles. That's the reason we do it. Sometimes I think we approach what the Bible is supposed to be the way I approach problems.

We think that the Bible is this rule book or this magic incantation book or this instruction manual that just gives us the right word to yell at the problem.

And so we we we grab the Bible when we're really frustrated or in a fight with someone or we're trying to get our kids to grow up or we're trying to do something and we open it up and we're like, here it is. Thou shall not pass.

You know, we're acting like Gandalf and stuff. And and and and the truth is the word of God is not just something you know so you can yell it at a problem. That's not what makes it powerful.

That's not what makes it the sword of the spirit. That's not what the Bible says makes it a double edged sword that is alive and active. It cuts both ways. It's interesting. The Bible describes it as a sword that is alive. And it's interesting if you study swordsmanship

in any culture, samurais, you know, the knights in the Middle Ages, any culture, when you go look up how they look at being a good swordsman,

every one of them talks about how you have to become one with the sword. You can't just grab it and wield it. You don't just practice it to nose moves. You have to be so one with it that they speak of it in spiritual and almost relational terms, almost like Thor with his hammer Mjolinir.

You've it's it's it's it's gotta be a part of you. It's gotta be invested. It's not just some weapon you wield. It's not just a tool you use. It's it's integrated. And if we are ever gonna truly experience peace, this last topic is really ties it all together,

that we have to have to understand that 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, to let Him be able to to take that sword and and challenge us.

And I wanna show how all of these pieces actually fit together with a guy who greatly served the Lord and just had an incredible victory in his life, and yet he still ends up with no peace.

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. He's a prophet during a time when the Israel has not followed God. It's split into two kingdoms, and the Northern Kingdom is the worst of the two. They're gonna get overrun at some point and taken into captivity to disappear off the face of the earth, basically. And

they never had good kings.

And Elijah is out profiting, you know, not profiting, like, he's doing his job. He's calling people out. He's trying to get people to turn back to faithful to Lord in a time when a king named Ahab and his wife Jezebel are in power, and they were the worst of the kings and queens that ever ruled.

And especially because Jezebel the wife, she is a prophetess of this false religion called Baal. They worship Baal, b e a a l. Some say Baal. I think it's pronounced Baal. And and and and and and and so

just a little bit, not too much about it. Just all you really know about the worship ball is it involves temple prostitution and child sacrifice. That's what the people of God were running after, and the queen of their land is promoting it. And so he's speaking against this.

And in chapter 18, there's this great challenge that happens, a showdown with just Elijah by himself facing 450 priests of of of Baal. And what they do is they have this contest up on Mount Carmel. I've been up there. It's beautiful. Way up high place.

And and and what he does is they challenge to this moment of, hey, let's see who's God's really God kind of a deal. And they both build an altar and put a sacrifice on it. And then he lets them go first, and it's like, okay, you pray to your God and see if he actually shows up and consumes this this this

sacrifice and see what happens. Well, start chanting and doing all cutting themselves and and just doing stuff all day. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. And then later in the day, Elijah, who actually was kinda harassing him a little bit, taunting them, you know, talking smack.

And and then it is, alright, my turn. He says one prayer and fire from heaven. Fire of the Lord. This incredible display of terrifying power just goes, and

it hits the sacrifice. And what he had done all day while they were chanting and cutting those, he kept pouring water on the wood and on the bowl. Nice fact, he dug a ditch around it that he poured so much water that this ditch was filled up with water. This thing is so nonflammable

that the fire comes down and consumes everything, including every drop of water in the ditch. It just incinerates this thing. It is so overwhelming to the people like, oh, I guess we're on that. In this moment, they kinda wake up for a moment, and then they gather them and and and Elijah kills

all 450 of those false prophets. An incredible victory. And then chapter 19 happens.

And maybe you can feel like like Elijah in this moment. Starting in the first few verses, it says, when Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed the prophets of Baal. So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah. So she sent him an I'm message on on Instagram.

May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them. Wow. That's not a pleasant message. She's like, basically, I'm gonna kill you by tomorrow. And and that's a brutal message, you know. I've I've gotten some of those. That's why I'm not on social media anymore.

I mean, don't worry. They were just for my family, so it was okay. Worked it out. No. But 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.

Now, man, that that either she is the most terrifying person you've ever met in your in in the entire world, or he's got some issue already. It's probably a little bit both. She was terrifying. But we're gonna see in the story that it wasn't just about what she did. It was where he was at.

Why he just gives up at this moment.

It says he fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. He then went on alone into the wilderness traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die.

I've had enough, Lord, he said. Take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors who have already died. You might be there. You might be saying, I've tried. I I tried to serve the Lord. Tried and then it just seems like it just gets bad, doesn't seem to work. I'm I'm done. I'm spent. I'm out of here.

And you might wanna sit down, you know, and just say, I'm I'm that's it. I give up, God. I quit. A few things to understand that if we're ever gonna understand and not just know the word of God, but know the God of the word is the first point, is you can know God's words and still feel lost. It's true.

I mean, sometimes just knowing that might help some of you calm down. Because you might go, what is going on here? I've studied the Bible. I said and I still feel lost. I still feel sad. I still that shouldn't be.

Just knowing God's word does not guarantee that you're not gonna have moments that your peace is is really upset, and that you can end up in a moment where you feel lost, you feel frustrated, you feel tired, you feel worn out. Usually, the reason the peace goes though is not because of the problem.

It's because spiritual knowledge doesn't always bring spiritual peace. See, we can end up in a moment like the moment that Elijah ended up in, where you can hold on to the promises of God. You can even see the power of God working, but you can be disconnected from the person of God.

That's what spending time in the Bible is for us, as Christians say. Where we sit and talk to God, he gave us his word. He speaks to us. He relates to us through this. And that's what what Elijah hadn't done in a little while. We're gonna see by the end of the story, you can tell.

And and that happens to us that I can know God's word and still feel lost. You know what? This is this point hits me hard because being a pastor or preacher, I do a lot of what Elijah does. And sometimes it can it can feel very difficult. It can feel like, hey, I'm saying stuff, but it doesn't seem to be working. I and people are still complaining about you're doing the right thing.

And and I can get really really worked up over that. But where I lose my peace and it bothers me is when I know that I've gotten so busy and so worked up that I've disconnected from truly being in the presence of God. And sometimes, the times you're the most busy experiencing the most victory

is when you lose track of slowing down and taking the time to sit in his presence. And I'll do that sometimes. I go, I'm a pastor. I gotta read my bible. So I get up and I read it, but I do it really quick.

I'm like, hey, God. Thank you. I love you, and here you go. I read your word. Thanks a lot. Here's my five prayer requests. Here's what I need you to do for me today. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. See you later. And then I leave.

And then I thought about it. I go, man, how would my marriage go if I did that with my wife? She'd probably kill me because she's Sicilian and knows a guy. But

But

could you imagine if I just got up because I was so busy being successful and looked at her and go, hey, honey. Sweetie, love you. Thank you. Talk to you. Hey, how what do you have planned today? Cut her off after she says two things. Okay. That's great. Here's what I need from you today. Can you do this, this, this, and Bye. I'll see you. Maybe talk to you tomorrow. I don't know. Tomorrow's kinda busy.

That's not gonna work. And that's I think sometimes why we can know God's words and still feel lost. We can see God's power, but and hold on to God's promises. But what's really the problem is not the problem. It's the fact that we've disconnected from that daily presence of God through his word.

You know, like, well, I can't be in the word because of the problem. I go, well, peace is a person, not a place. So a problem where you're at in a place does not have to affect your peace if you practice the rhythms of peace,

of being with the Lord. So what happens next? 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. So it's doesn't it sound like a little kid who's just really upset? I can't take this anymore. I'm just gonna die.

He just falls asleep. Falls asleep. And then but as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, get up you loser. No. He says, get up and eat.

He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and he laid down again. So he went to sleep again because all he had was carbs.

He's like, this isn't gluten free. It's hurting my stomach. No. That's not what happened. He did go to sleep again though. And and and after he went to sleep, it says he got up to him again and told him get up and eat. He says get up and eat some more or the journey ahead will be too much for you. So he stops

and an angel has him sleep, eat, drink, sleep, eat, drink, so you can be able to go on the journey ahead.

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. So he so runs out there, says I might as well die, and the first thing he does is fall asleep.

And then when he wakes up, this angel, the the Lord provides for him food and and water, hydration, and then he falls back asleep, and he has to do it again. That tells you he has ran himself physically ragged.

He's been seeing the power of God, and now he's exhausted. That's part of the reason why he's disconnected from the presence of God. I think he's been so busy doing that he didn't stop. He wasn't taking time to be still and know that he is God as it says.

And he knows God's words. He's even following God's words. He's trusting God and still has a lack of peace, and part of it was 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.

And often time we miss that. And a lot of us were disconnected from resting in the Lord and spending those moments because we know God's word, but we've gotten so busy running after stuff that we're not doing that. And then on top of that, the reason we probably cut out that is because we're not even doing the right amount of rest and taking care of ourself

physically. And you know, sometimes a lot of us, the lack of peace could just be bad health.

I I hate to oversimplify it, but I think a lot of the time you feel like, know, I'm really messed up. My mental health is bad. So I'm not saying everybody. Some you seriously need to see some people for stuff, but some of it could just be, you know, eat better food and and get more sleep, and you might be amazed at how much better you feel.

Matter of fact, I heard it said this way one time. It says, if you if you hate everybody, eat a sandwich. If you hate if you think everyone hates you, take a nap. That might have solved some people's problems in here. That's it. Because you're just hangry or or tired.

And and but we also need to rest in the Lord. So but here's the point. You can know God's word and still feel lost, but I think what God does in this moment

kind of helps us be encouraged to go back to him even when you feel lost, even if you feel frustrated, even if you feel like where's God in this moment. Because what you need to remember, some of the reasons I think we avoid

pursuing that presence of God is we're afraid that he's just gonna tell us what a failure we are. But what does he do? He takes care of them first. So that's the second point. See, you can know God's word and still feel lost. But secondly, God meets us with grace, not shame.

Do you God will always meet you. If you go to his presence, if you open his word, yeah, there's gonna be a challenge in there. You're probably gonna get throat punched as

something because what we're gonna see by the end of it, he loves him, but he redirects him and he gets honest with them and he says, here's what you need to do. But he starts with the grace

because what he does is he actually cares. Even what he calls us to do, which sounds hard and difficult and scary, is an act of grace. He wants us to be healthy. We need to trust that,

and he'll meet us with grace. But I think the reason we're afraid of is because because think about it. If you wake up and you see a man in a mask coming at you with a knife, what's your first thought? This person's either gonna take my wallet or take my life or maybe both. Right? But what if you were in an accident

and you woke up and it's an operating room?

That changes everything, doesn't it? The guy that's being quiet and has a mask on and has a scalpel in his hand is trying to save you. He's not trying to harm you. And I think that's part of the thing we have to understand. He will come with grace. He really does.

But part of that grace is, yes, he cares, and you gotta trust he cares. The Bible says he's the great physician.

It says the Bible is alive and active, and it says it's a double edged sword, meaning it cuts both bone and marrow, meaning it goes both ways. In other words, I think part of our issue with this is we're afraid to go to the Lord daily in his presence because we're actually also afraid of the scalpel.

And we can't wield the sword until we yield to the scalpel. 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. The way we change is God has to change us, and God has to change our heart, but he has to cut the old one out and put the new one in. You get a heart transplant, you're gonna get cut open. There's gonna be pain involved in that. But that's what saves you.

And I think that's why we don't like listening to what when we hear something scary, when we think, hey, this isn't going well, then we go, I just might as well die. God, I quit. I I've tried. And then we don't wanna trust this because we don't practice his presence. We don't get into the word and know the God of the word. So when we see him coming at us with a scalpel, we think he's a mugger that wants to take or kill me or both.

And that's not what he's trying to do. And you have to do it consistently to let him cut the stuff out that needs to be cut. But you gotta understand

that's different than just knowing God's word. You'll still feel lost because you gotta not just know him. You need to know the the God of the word and understand that he will meet you with grace, not with shame. 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? There's the scalpel. He's already taken care of him, but now he says, why are you here? Why are you here?

Do you realize that anytime we come to the presence of God, he he loves us. He meets us there with grace, not shame. But he doesn't wanna leave us where we're at. And he's basically saying, you're running the opposite way. You've ran away and you're giving up. That's what he means. It's not like, why are you in this cave? It's like, why are you in this moment?

Whenever we are struggling, whenever we don't have peace, God is gonna love you, and He's gonna have the answer for you. But He's also gonna have to ask you the scalpel question, why are you here? Even church. If you're sitting here, why are you here?

Why? He wants to get to the heart of the conversation. He wants to help change our hearts, and he does care. He really wants to hear his answer of what he's struggling with because he Elijah gives him his answer of where he's some, and God does not be cruel to him, but listen to his answer. He says, why are you here?

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. I'm the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me too.

I added the emphasis on the whininess. But when I read that, that's all I feel. Because I've talked to God this way before, and it wasn't confidently. It was whiny. I mean, he is. He's he's he's basically telling him. He's being honest. And God does not he shows grace. He doesn't rip him. He doesn't say, hey, grow up, man.

He he doesn't. He just listens, but then he gives him an answer. And his answer watch. God loves you, has grace for you. He does not enable and codepend you though. Some of us, we've only experienced such horrible relationships that you're confused by God because he's not enabling you.

He's not gonna enable us. He'll meet us where we're at. We'll love us, but he's never gonna leave us there. So when he gives that answer, yes, he shows grace. He doesn't tell him he's an idiot, doesn't call him out for being a coward,

you know, but what he does say is this, 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. It was such a terrible blast that rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, this gets he does three. He does this triple three part analogy.

He sends the wind, he sends an earthquake, and the last one, interestingly enough, is and after that was a fire.

Fire. He just experienced the power of the fire of the Lord. That's something oh, I wreck. He'd be like Captain America. I I get that reference. He's like, I've seen the power of the God in the fire, and he shows this powerful fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was the sound of a gentle whisper.

And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

And the voice said, What are you doing here, Elijah? Same question. He just said it. He answered. He said, Okay. I'm gonna show you something. He showed him the incredible power, and it wasn't until the whisper

that the Lord was in the whisper. That's the presence.

Elijah needed the presence. He had seen the power.

And here's what's interesting to me in this. How did Elijah know that when it was just a whisper, that's where the Lord was?

Because here's the thing. Elijah was having a bad week,

but it implies he's listened to the whisper of the Lord before.

It's almost like a reminder. He's like, oh. Oh. So then he walks out and then he hears the voice of the Lord whisper to him again. He takes him right back to where he answered the rest the question. So he's saying, think sometimes we struggle with the Lord in our quiet time because he wants to be the surgeon.

He wants to bring something or cut something out of her life and put something in, and we avoid that like the plague because it's uncomfortable. But every time you go back to him, he's going to bring you back to the same question. He just is. Because he needs us to deal with the real issue, the real problem.

Because I'm telling you, the problem that you think is causing you not have peace, the problem you think is the problem is rarely the actual problem, and that's a problem.

Say that 10 times fast. The problem we think is the problem is usually either it's either a symptom of something else that we're going wrong in our life, we bring that on ourselves, or it's just an obstacle. It's just an obstacle.

It's not really the problem. The problem that makes us wanna go down to a tree and die and say, I give up, Lord, is usually something in here. And it usually has to do with the fact that we may know God's words, but we haven't spent time in God's presence to trust the great physician. And that's what his issue is.

Because after he says that again, look at how Elijah replies. It's crazy what he learned. He's just like you and me.

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. I'm the only one left, now they're trying to kill me too. He gives the same answer.

That's one cool thing about reading the Bible. You realize Bible people are just like you and me. We're all kinda stupid sometimes. We get stuck in our pain. We just don't get it. So he's still back to the same thing, and God still doesn't rip on him,

but he gives him an answer. And here's what's interesting. His answer is a challenge to go back, to get back on track, to get back to, hey, you're here, but you need to go here. But in the answer,

he gives him the answer to hope of what he really was struggling. All that stuff he was whining about comes down to one thing, and God knew it, and it's how he answers. 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.

So then he's about to answer because

God reveals himself in the whisper.

You can know God's word and still feel lost. God meets us with grace, not shame. And the third thing is he reveals himself in a whisper. So now that he whispered again, asked the question, now he's gonna whisper an answer to him.

Even though he's giving this answer, I don't think he understands what's going on. He says, then the Lord told him in verse 15, go back the same way you came. Travel to the wilderness of Damascus.

When you arrive there, anoint Hazael to be king of Aram, then anoint Jehu grandson of Nimshi to be the king of Israel, and anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat from the town of Abel Meholah to replace you as my prophet. He's like, wow.

You're worried about this king and queen. Don't worry. This guy's gonna be the king. This guy's gonna be another king.

And by the way, that you're gonna go anoint the guy that's gonna take your job. You're fired. No. That's not what he's doing. He doesn't get rid of him right away, but he trains him up, and he has someone else with him, which God already knew about this guy. He was never gonna be alone.

And and and then he look what he says. He gives him some encouragement. He goes, anyone who escapes his ale will be killed by Jehu, and those who escaped Jehu will be killed by Elisha. If any killing's gonna be happen, it's not gonna be you getting killed, Elijah.

Don't worry. What he's telling him is, I'm sending you back to work. Do the job I've asked you to do and understand I have a bigger perspective than you. I have a plan. I know how it's gonna work out. Trust me. Just do what I've asked you to do.

And I think that's a hard part when people we were so used to being enabled that when we tell God our heart, where it's like, I'm broken, I'm tired, he gives us rest, he gives us grace, he gives that. But he's gonna tell us to go back the way you came, get back on mission, get back the answer oftentimes for when we're really upset and don't have peace is God's gonna say, well, are you enacting my plan for your life?

Do you know? Do you grow? Do you go? Are you are are you trying to make disciples? He's saying, send back and go do what I've asked you to do. Go on mission with me. The problem is not the mission.

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. That's the last thing he says to him in that part. And

that, in the end, through the grace of the whisper, the whisper carried the scalpel, but it also handed him the sword again and said, this is why you can boldly go back. You're not alone. You were never alone. You got isolated.

You got disconnected from me even though you were serving me, and you saw the power, but you got disconnected from the presence, and you got caught up into that thinking of isolation, and you got tired, and you got scared,

and you felt like no one understands you. No one's doing going through what you're going through. God can't expect me to do this because of this. I can't do that because of that, and it's the wrong thinking because you're disconnected,

and that's why your peace isn't there. That you don't not have peace because Jehu and or because of Jezebel and because of Ahab. You don't not have peace because you're the all this stuff. You don't have peace because you have isolated. You do feel like you're all alone and you believe it and it's not true. It's why we come to church. It's why you should commit to being in church. We come here and we're all together. We're rallying. We're worshiping God together. We're not alone. It's why we get into community and small groups because God says plan a is often each other. We need to be that to each other in each other's lives, and we need those people. He's like, well, it's a waste of time. I'm busy. I'm like, well, what happens when life falls apart and you feel all alone? What happens when people go, man, that church didn't care about me when I had this problem happen? Oh, wow. Your your small group didn't care. Well, I didn't have time to join the small group. What about the team you serve on? They would probably help you. I don't serve. I don't have time. Then why did you think the church abandoned you? You never were a part of it. Nobody knows you.

How can you expect? Like, we all Karnak the Grey? I feel a disturbance in the force. It's as if it's as if the Olsen family has cried out and then gone silent. See, we believe stupid things when we isolate, and we get stuck.

And we might know the Word of God, but we don't know the God of the Word. 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.

It's a chance to be honest with him because he shared twice. He was honest, and God never ripped on him for saying it. It's okay to be completely real with God. Even if you're mad, you can whine to God all you want. But what we need to do is be willing to be quiet and listen to the whisper of his answer

because that's where the hope is found. That's where the peace is found.

You see, this last point is peace comes when you know you're not alone, and that was Elijah's real issue.

That was his issue. And God said, by the way, there's 7,000 just like you. I have a plan. You're not alone. And Elijah went back and served the Lord the rest of his life. You're

never as alone as you think you are. Some of you feel alone in all this. Some of are like, I can't figure this out. Put your faith in Christ and do yourself a favor. Make reading your bible a priority, but not like a checklist. Make that relationship moment with God a priority. Because then you will be able to effectively wield

the sword of the spirit. Let me let me show you a picture of a guy. Talk about him a little bit. This guy is Hamilton Sawyer Gillespie. That's him when he became a captain and was in the the civil war fought for the Northern Army.

He was the started off as a captain. He became a captain because he had a 101 guys that followed him from his hometown. So 101 guys, you're leading, you're leading the size of a force that you got commissioned as a captain.

He ended up within a year or two rising all the way to lieutenant colonel and being the full commander of the entire regiment of the fiftieth Ohio Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War. I know this about him because Hamilton Sawyer Gillespie is my wife's great great grandfather.

And so he is my kid's great great great grandfather.

And before he died, his kids got him to write down his memoirs because he's actually kind of been in a lot of stuff. You can look them up on Wikipedia and all that stuff. And so he wrote this, and I got a copy of it. And in it, it's fascinating. And he talks about these battles he was in. And one of them was the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee.

And he was a key contributor in this battle. I wanna show you another picture of something. That is his actual sword. My father-in-law has it on a mantle in his house. I've held it. I've and and and and and he was the type of officer. All officers got swords. They had sabers.

You get to a certain rank and you don't really use it anymore. Generals didn't use their sword. He was the highest rank you could be that's still right in the middle of the fight. As a lieutenant colonel, he's down in the thick of it. He used that sword.

So I'm looking at this sword that this this this, you know, great great grandfather of of my wife and my kids and and and that this is the sword he used in in combat. And he actually used it in the battle of Franklin,

which was in Franklin. They lined up. The South kept coming at him. His regiment was holding a spot that the South decided General Hood says, we have to take this place. And the place they wanted to hit was where his men were over and over and over, and 11 charges from 7AM to about 7PM

all day long. And near the end, they broke through their their their it's called the works, you know, they put the poles up, that stuff to try to slow you down. They broke through and it turned into hand to hand fighting. And I just wanna read an excerpt from his memoirs from this battle.

He says, when the two forces were all mixed up together, I stayed at the center of my regiment as near as I could beside our flag. And as one of my men who had the flag would be killed,

I would grab the flag and hand it to another one of my boys. That's how in the middle of the fighting, you're sitting there over and over, the guy holding the flag is getting killed. And he's right next to him fighting, and then he grabs it and goes, hey. Here. You gotta hold the flag. And you're like, well, if you keep getting killed on the flag, I go, stay away from the flag. You know?

But you understand before I read this, it's important to have the flag up. The flag has to be held.

Kinda like in the Bible, says the banner over me, God has called our banner. It's that banner you go into battle with. It's the banner. And back then, it still meant that. When you had your flag up, it told everyone behind you you're still in the fight. That's the only way they knew where everybody was going and doing. So if a flag went down, the enemy would almost like try to get your flag down because then you would shoot on your own men in the behind the lines. They would start going, oh, must be all wiped out. Let's just start firing that direction.

And it would be chaos. The other thing would happen, men would look and not see the flag. And even if you're winning, you might be winning, but they're like, the flag's on. Let's get out of here. We're gonna get killed. And then panic. So if you had to keep the flag in the air. It's an important critical job.

So he said he'd hand it to one of his boys. Once when our flag went down, a rebel officer grabbed hold of it. So another officer from the the South, a confederate, grabbed it, and I grabbed the staff of the flag. They're both holding the flag looking at each other basically.

And he says as this was happening, he says, men in the second line in our rear could not see our flag, and they supposing us all killed or captured opened fire at us. I love how he writes. It's like back when people used English, but so understated.

He goes, it was very disheartening to have to fight the rebels hand to hand and have our own men firing on us from the rear. Disheartening? I think I would have been yelling at that problem. But then listen. By effective use of my sword, because my two navy revolvers were both both emptied in the early part of the fight,

I pursued my contestant for the flag to release his claim on our grand old glory, and this most understated thing in the world, and I hoisted it high in the air. Read between the lines. Officer with a sword. Officer with a sword. He keeps the flag. He was the better swordsman.

The effective use of his sword means he killed the guy and saved the day. Because it says when he hoisted it high in there and he held the flag.

When our men in the rear line saw it, they ceased firing, rallied to our assistance, and we soon forced the Johnnies to seek refuge on the other side of the works, thus ending the battle of Franklin, Tennessee. He turned to that battle, saved his life, saved his men's life, and won the victory by the effective use of that.

Here's my point. That was 11/30/1864. Hamilton Sawyer Gillespie did not get married until December 1865. He wasn't married and had no kids. He did not have his firstborn son, who was my wife's great grandfather and my kid's great great grandfather until after that moment. In other words,

if he did not know how to effectively use his sword, my wife doesn't exist. My kids don't exist. And here's the kicker. Rock Point Church was my wife's idea. Rock Point doesn't exist. And we ain't all sitting here listening to my story.

Knowing the God of the word by knowing the word of God and trusting it and being having it in your life, the effective use of your sword.

What is not gonna exist if you are not effectively using it? What might not ever happen that God wants for you, the victory he wants to give you, the legacy he wants to give you? I mean, you might have great great grandkids that will know the Lord because of the legacy you started by knowing the Lord,

by really trusting the Lord.

See, here's the problem. Many of you, if you're pretty comfortable, your job's going well, your marriage isn't collapsing, and you reasonably are happy, you think I don't need to really do what God wants me to do. I don't need to be in the word. I don't need to trust his plan. I don't need to I'm okay. It's working. That's the insidious part of this. By not using the word of God, by not having it, it's not what's going on now. It's what will never exist, what you will miss out and you don't know what you don't know.

That's the sad part. Every one of us when we don't effectively use our word by knowing our Lord and trusting him, there are things that will never exist.

That's the key to peace. Don't miss out.

And it's not just yelling the Bible at problems. It's sitting in the presence of God and realizing he's the God of grace. He's the God who loves you. He's God that knows you better than know yourself. He's the one that sacrificed

to give you this. He's the one that what his plan for you is he's that surgeon. Yes. He has a scalpel, and, yes, he's gonna cut on you, but it's because it's gonna save you. It's gonna make you better. It's gonna give you a new heart. It's gonna transform your life and leave a legacy. And I believe

that is why the night before Jesus died, he asked us to do this thing we call communion. He was trying to connect the world. He was trying to say, hey, you understand what I'm about to do is what you really need to be connected to. Peace really comes from me.

I'm giving you peace with me, peace with God. I'm giving you peace by going to the cross. See, the cross and is Jesus the word becoming living? He is the living word. This is the written word. But we could take the written word all we want if we don't know the living word. This is useless.

I'm kinda reminded how I set it up today because this this little packet here, my wife tied these together for me as a decoration in my office, is this little book's an old hymn book from the eighteen sixties. This here is a bible from the civil war.

I got it when I was youth pastor at a church. I was we're tearing out an old baptismal because we're reconverting this room for youth ministry, and this thing was wedged down behind. I've probably been in there for thirty, forty years. It had names written all the way up to, like, 1970, sixties

in it, like a family bible. And I asked everyone in the family, nobody remember these families, so they probably weren't around anymore. But it went all the way back to published and someone owned it. It's written in their name as they had it as a soldier in the civil war.

So this soldier carried his sword around with his sword. But the point is, this means nothing if we don't know this.

It means nothing. And I think Jesus said, I gotta give you a moment. See, the power is useless without the presence. And

that's why I believe the night before he wanted us to understand this when he said, hey, this is my body. This bread is my body broken for you. This cup, this wine, that's my blood spilled for you. This new covenant, the forgiveness of sins, the grace, the love, the presence of God. And

then he says, do this in remembrance of me. He didn't say often. He says, but when we gather at the church, the reason we take this moment called communion is not just to check it off a list. It doesn't it's this is not an ink this is not some potion now that gives you grace that somehow, oh, I drank the grace. I ate the body. That's great. That's not what it means. He says, do it in remembrance of me because he what he wants us to do is to often we get so busy doing. We see the power of God. We see this. We miss that Jesus coming to be very present with us was to love us, and we can trust it. If we can see what he did on the cross, we should trust him with everything else.

And so this is a moment to sit and listen to the whisper when Jesus went to the cross. That's the Lord was in that moment. The Lord was there. Cover your face. Walk out before the Lord and hear him whisper to you. And that whisper of this is, yes, we sin, but I am greater than sin.

Yes. We have failed to love him back many times, but he loved us perfectly. And that's what we need to sit in. We're gonna take communion in just a minute, but for just a moment, we're gonna shut off the music. We're gonna go silent. And I'm gonna ask you to just sit in that silence

and listen for the whisper of God as He asks you, Why are you here? And talk to Him about that before we take this.

He took the bread. He broke it. He said, this is my body broken for you. Take and eat.

He then took the cup. So this is my blood spilled for the forgiveness of sins for the new covenant. Take and drink.

Lord, my prayer for me, everyone in this room, and anyone watching online is simple. Thank

you that peace is only found in you. Thank you that you gave us your presence, that you went to the cross because you do love us. Help us to take the moments each and every day to sit in the stillness, to listen to your whisper, to read your word, to share our hearts, and to go away transformed

because of the relationship we have with you. I thank you for that. And I pray that we would all have that blessing that we would all be able to effectively use the sword you gave us. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Hey. Hey. Love you guys. Good to have you. Good to be here.

Hey. Thanks for joining us for service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on our Rock Point social media to stay connected with everything happening here at Rock Point.