Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you.

Amen.

Come on.

Come on.

Give a shot of praise.

If you're just happy to be in the house of God.

Amen.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

Man.

God is so good.

And it's good to see you.

If we have any visitors in the house, welcome.

We love you.

We already consider you family.

Thank you for being with us. shout out to our youth that are that are here the ones that were able to make it that weren't too tired to come after a really long road trip they're back here and to our chaperones our youth pastors thank y'all for y'all's work they had an awesome week in nationals and fine arts in Ohio and i just want to also thank everybody who gave i think this was the biggest group that we've taken of young people and um it we've been been doing fine arts for a long time since I've been in youth group.

I was 12 years old.

We started fine arts and we'd never, we'd never been able to get it right, especially when it comes to like raising funds because it's expensive sending kids to go.

But these youth pastors of ours, they nailed it.

And they have it.

And it comes with the support of the church because you guys give and you sponsor one of these one of these young people.

They're able to go and praise God for that.

So I want to say thank you to you guys.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's go to the Word this morning.

I'm going to open up to First Kings chapter 19.

And we're going to read just a couple verses here.

First Kings 19, three through four.

If you have it, say I have it.

Amen.

If you don't have it, say hold up.

All right.

I'll give you like two more seconds.

First Kings, right before Second Kings. 19, 3 through 4.

And it says this, we ready.

It says Elijah was afraid and fled for his life.

And he went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servants there.

Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day.

He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die.

I have had enough, Lord, he said, take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who already died.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I thank you, my God, because I know that it was you who have spoken this word over your servant.

Lord, I pray, my God, that we would receive it as a people, Father God.

I pray that we would open up our hearts and our ears to hear what your word has for us today.

Holy Spirit take over.

I pray that you'd be on my lips, my God.

I pray that you would be as much in the preparation as you are in the spontaneous, Father God.

And I pray that you would speak in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Hallelujah.

This week, God, I had another word already planned, the word that I was going to preach last week.

And then the week happened.

And God spoke to me through some various conversations and some sit downs that I had with some people.

And I want to thank God real quick, before I even start to preach.

Because every word that I preach with some level of self. doubt, which is pretty often.

I praise God that every time it ends up being a word that somebody needs to hear.

I'm so encouraged to know that God is speaking to many of you.

I, of course, take no glory for that.

It's not mine.

But this past week, a brother called me, or he pulled me to the side because he wanted to ask me about a sermon that I had preached a couple weeks ago, God is love.

A very basic sermon, a sermon that I told you, if it had been up to me, I probably wouldn't have been preach it because of so just basic and rudimentary.

And the gentleman said, he had a genuine curiosity about how the Lord reveals sermons.

How does God speak to you, pastor?

Because he said, every time you give a word, it's exactly what I need to hear.

It's exactly what I'm going through.

And many of you have told me the same thing.

And again, I take no glory for that.

And I'm sure that every preacher that gets up here can say the same thing. but you know I just I want to testify because so many times I wonder about these sermons man I'm like God is this really gonna you really want me to preach that I don't think he's going to hit anybody I think maybe maybe one person maybe but God knows his people and I thank God that I am able to get out of my own way sometimes you just got to get out of your own way sometimes you're overthinking things too much and you got to get out of your way so that God can work God knows his people I might not know what you're going through, but God knows exactly what you're going through.

And so I want to remind you that through these words, you are heard, your prayers are answered, and God is listening to you.

And so this week, God spoke to me this word through some hurting people, through some broken people, and I just are there more people that are just going through some stuff.

We're all going through stuff, right?

But, no.

But, no. many of us go through stuff and we go through it alone without anybody.

And that's the title of my sermon, very simple, alone.

Because I believe that God wants to speak to lonely people today.

I believe that.

I believe that God wants to call people not just to him, but to other people.

God is, God is trying to send people to your life to help you, to walk with you, to pray with you, and to grow with you.

God doesn't want you to be lonely.

He doesn't want you to feel like you don't have anybody else that you can go to.

And I know that there's, I know it.

I know there's people battling things alone.

And God is saying, I know who you are.

I know where you are.

And I am sending people to you.

And again, if this word is not for you, I'm sorry.

Catch me next Sunday.

You know, not every message is going to be for every person all the time.

But I do think that a lot more people than we might realize are facing things right now.

And they're facing them by themselves without. anybody knows it.

Some of you are going through marital issues and the only ones who know about it is you and your spouse.

And you come to church and you act like everything is okay and you go out and you have dinners with your friends and you put on the happy face.

But as soon as you get in the car, it's either silent because y'all don't want to talk to each other or you're just fighting with each other.

And nobody else knows that you're going through that except for you.

You might have financial problems that you're too embarrassed to share with anybody else and you're facing that alone.

You might have a personal issue, a character issue that you're trying to get worked out.

Maybe it's sin that you're facing alone.

And the very first problem that God identifies in humanity was that man should not be, what, alone?

That's the very first thing he says.

That's the very first problem that he identifies in his perfect creation.

He's like, wait, hold on.

Something isn't right.

It's not good for man to be alone.

The birds got the birds, the fish got the fish.

The land animals got the land. got the other land animals, but man needs a companion.

And so he creates Eve, but he don't stop there.

He says, be fruitful and multiply.

Go and make more of you.

By design, we are people of community.

We need human interaction.

But I also want to go deeper than that, because what's different about us than the animals is that we are spiritual people.

Genesis says that God breathed life into the nostrils of Adam.

And so we're not just like the birds.

We're not just like the fish because we don't just have a physical body.

We have a spirit.

And so even though we might think, well, I do have people around me.

I do have friends and a family and I have people that I hang out with.

And I do go to church sometimes.

There's not just a danger of being alone physically.

There's a very real danger of being alone spiritually and mentally and emotionally.

Like how many of us are surrounded by dozens of people who love us, people that we love, but we're still alone.

You deal with thoughts and nobody else knows that you're thinking because you don't want to be judged for it.

You deal with guilt or shame of your past actions because you don't want to talk about it.

You deal with insecurities and anxieties all by yourself.

Don't allow yourself church to get lost in the solitude.

Because when you close a door to people and you say, I don't need people, it becomes so much harder. for you to one day open that door to people.

And it only creates bitterness and more pain and more loneliness.

It's not good for you to be alone.

I don't know who I'm talking to this morning.

Hopefully I'm talking to some of you.

I'm just the messenger.

But a lot of times, man, we don't think about these things until something happens, man.

And those are the only time we're getting these sermons is after somebody takes their life because they were in depression. they were battling things alone.

And then we wonder why.

And we look at their life as a picture that we assume was telling the entire story.

Well, they had a wife.

You can tell the difference.

And there's so many people that come to these altars week after week in a broken, broken moment.

I remember a few years ago, I admit to Melissa that I was, I was feeling lonely.

And it wasn't because people weren't reaching out to their pastor. many of you do thank you it wasn't because i didn't have great friendships with people because i have great friendships it was because i chose to be alone with the things that were weighing on me so i i can speak from experience i understand why people don't like to admit feeling lonely it took me a long time to have that conversation with melissa can just be real with you because you you may or may not relate to this but if you do that i pray that you find some healing in it for me i thought you know for a man my loneliness was something I just needed to man up to.

It's got a man up, man, man, man, man, man, man, dealing with thoughts that I was dealing with that would keep me awake at night and I had no one else to talk to about it and so I just let you know letting my wife in to my battles that that helped me get a different perspective it helped me you know get sympathy and it helped accelerate my healing process and so if you are alone for too long church in that desert place you might quit on God you might quit on people you might quit on yourself you might die and i know that somebody needs to hear that today elijah if you know his his kind of nickname that was assigned to him he's known as the lonely prophet and i want to preach real quick because i know some of you are thinking well how how can you be so closely connected to god and feel lonely some of you are thinking now pastor you shouldn't have been lonely you weren't you weren't connected to god you can be lonely and really connected to God.

In fact, I think that's the most lonely you can feel.

When you're way up here and you're anointing level like this man of God was, no one else is there.

Who else can I talk to?

How is it that a man so closely connected to God, a very real, not a superficial, a very real relationship with God could feel so lonely.

The answer is simple.

It's in our design.

It's not good for man to be alone.

It's right there in the Bible. read it it's in genesis the the bible talks about adam having communion with god he walked with god in the cool of the day he spoke with god he received instruction he had a mission and purpose in his life from god but god still saw something missing you need someone at him he's someone to play with that's why we gave leila sister i still remember it's ingrained in my memory she i remember i remember why i'm one day Layla's going upstairs and she's all sad and she's all cute, you know, I think she was maybe three years old.

And she just said, I wish I had a systole.

I looked at my wife and like, let's get on that.

You need somebody.

That's what God looked at Adam.

He said, I mean, you need somebody, man.

You're getting weird over here by yourself.

You need someone to have fun with and somebody to talk to and somebody to laugh with and somebody to cry on, somebody to teach you things and someone for you to teach things to, you need somebody who relates to you.

I don't relate to God.

I don't relate to God.

Man, I'm not.

I try to be.

But that's why God sent his only son to relate to us so that we could have access again to the Father. we need people this idea that no no one needs to know what I'm going through that's a lie and I rebuke the devil out of you right now because if you're not going to tell yourself that then I will this this thought that no one needs to know my struggles that God can heal me all on his own yes God can heal you all on his own but if you don't allow people to walk with you on your way to your healing you might wind up creating a lot more issues along the way I remember years ago, you know, there was a sister.

I don't think she comes here anymore, so I'm going to say it.

But she gets out of the hospital and she's like, Pastor, no one came to visit me.

No one called me.

I was sick and I got nobody.

Sister, I didn't even know you were sick.

Did you tell anybody?

She's like, no, I didn't want to say anything.

So you're telling me, because you didn't want people knowing your business, you come out of the hospital after receiving the healing with more issues.

Now you're mad at the church because we didn't go to visit you, and you didn't even tell anybody you were there.

Created more issues for yourself and your pride.

Hmm.

Come on, man.

Sometimes part of the healing process, listen to this. sometimes part of the healing process comes when you let other people in when you say hey i have a problem james says hey if any of you is sick let them call for the elders of the church to pray over you but some of us don't want anybody praying over us nah they don't even know my business so you don't know it's too personal hello man prayer is personal it's one of the most intimate and personal things that you can do And so the reason it's so powerful and so healing is because when you allow others to go to God on your behalf, there's more people praying over you.

I'm not saying don't pray for yourself.

I'm not saying rely on the pastors only.

I'm not saying that, but there is power in godly numbers.

There's power in godly numbers.

Elijah apparently didn't have any of that.

You're still with me?

I want to give you some context real quick, because I know we just read just a short portion of the text.

But so Elijah had just confronted Jezebel and the prophets of bail.

They'd been looking for Elijah.

In fact, if you read the chapter before this, Obadiah finds Elijah.

And he tells them that he hid 100 prophets, prophets of God in caves, because Jezebel and Ahab were out killing the prophets of Yahweh.

And so they'd been looking for Elijah.

And so, you know, Elijah, unafraid, straight up gangster, he confronts Ahab and he proves to him that Yahweh is still the God of Israel.

So Elijah goes up against 450 prophets.

He destroys all of them.

And then after this, Jezebel swears to do to Elijah what he did to the prophets.

He says, I'm going to kill you.

And this is where we find ourselves in this story.

He's running for his life.

This is a very weak moment for this prophet. after a very strong and amazing victory.

Maybe Elijah thought that, you know, this was going to be the pinnacle of his prophetic career, that Israel was going to be restored again after these miracles that God did through him.

But no.

And so now he's afraid and he's tired and he's discouraged by the fact that God did this amazing miracle, but his enemy is still after him.

So he's going through all of this and the worst part is he's alone.

He's alone.

Verse four says, he went alone into the wilderness.

That's the dumbest thing you could ever do.

That's like in the horror movies when the girl runs straight into the dark alley, the only place that the killer is going to be and no one else is going to be.

Why would you go into the wilderness alone?

The only man who did that was Jesus and it was only done to demonstrate his sinless perfection.

Not even Israel in the company of an entire nation could withstand the wilderness without falling into temptation.

I don't know how many of you are in some type of wilderness today, but the Lord is saying today, don't go in there by yourself.

Don't go in there alone.

That's dumb.

When we went to Canada, it was six of us.

Six of us weren't, man, I can't get over Canada.

Beautiful.

And, you know, I just love nature.

And I love hiking.

There was a lot of hiking that we did.

And in Canada, there's a lot of bears.

There's a lot and like big bears, the scary ones, grizzly bears.

We actually saw a bear while we were driving.

And no one's afraid of a bear when you're in the car and driving, right?

But we did a few hikes, and I won't say any names, but some of these girls were scared because, you know, we're walking into the woods.

Obviously, there's bears in the woods.

And we had our bear spray, and, you know, we had Jesus.

And, you know, we had me, mountain man.

But everywhere, everywhere you go, every where you go, every way. where you go, they tell you that if you're going to go on a hike, it's best to have at least four people with you.

Because anything more than four, a bear is probably not going to want to mess with you.

And they also said that when you enter the woods, make noise, sing songs, talk loudly, make your presence, no.

And so my sister, Steph, she took that to heart, man.

On our last day, we did this amazing hike, beautiful hike, man.

It was about two months. miles up to a beautiful lake.

And we started really early in the morning.

So right when the sun was coming out.

And as soon as we hit that trail, man, her praise music came on blasting.

And I won't lie.

Like I wasn't really in the worship music mood in that moment.

I wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet of the mountain.

But she went in there, praise.

I was back there kind of just, all right.

But she, man, as soon as we started that trail, man, she made her presence known in the forest.

And those are the types of people that you want walking into the wilderness with you.

Don't go there by yourself.

Go in there with an army, even if it's a small army, but of real worshippers who are going to help keep you worshipping.

Go in there with prayer warriors who are going to say, don't give up on yourself, brother.

Don't give up on yourself, sister.

You got to keep praying.

Let's keep raising those hands.

You got to go in there with company of men and women of God.

That's when the enemy attacks. when you're alone.

That's when he attacks.

We talked about this a few weeks ago, private spaces.

If you're not creating godly private spaces, the enemy is going to find you in that moment of emptiness and he's going to attack.

And you're not going to have a company of brothers or sisters around you to help you.

It's easy in the company of men and women of God.

It's easy at church to not fall into temptation.

It's easy to worship here.

And in the wilderness, when you're alone, it's easy to give up there.

It's easy to just quit.

That's why you got to go in there with a company of men and women of God.

Remember the words of Solomon when he wrote two or better than one.

Because they have a good reward for their toil for if they fall, one will lift up his fellow.

But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him and a threefold cord is not easily broken.

Remember those words.

Get people in your life to pray and fight and fast for you.

Don't go in alone.

He went alone until the wilderness.

You're still with me, right?

One time.

I want to try to speak to as many of us on this topic as I can quickly, people that are kind of going through this in their own context.

Real quick, I want to talk to leaders real quick. whether you're a leader of this church or a leader or not, I just, if you're involved in a ministry, you lead any, any amount of Christians to any capacity, this is for you because Elijah was a leader.

He was anointed.

He was a man of God.

And he was saying in this moment, Lord, I'm done.

A man with a purpose and a calling.

See, we're always asking for these things.

We're always asking God to, to fill us with purpose and give me an assignment.

Everybody wants to be used by God.

Everybody wants to be gifted and an anoint. but a calling to leadership does not exempt you from what Elijah was feeling.

If anything, it accelerates it.

First of all, leadership is naturally, ministry related or not, is naturally lonely.

Because people will surround you because of what you can do for them.

Where you can take them.

What platform you can give them.

Once you're not the leader anymore, they're going to go on to the next one.

Secondly, ministry can be and is, and anybody in ministry knows, is discouraging.

Moses was a miserable minister, man.

He was always complaining because people were always complaining to him.

And if you don't have anyone to hear you out, hear your frustration, if you don't have anybody to listen to this, if you don't have anybody to counsel you, regardless of how wise an experience you are, you will get to a point where you don't want to do this anymore. even the wisest men need godly counsel the ones with years of experience still need to sharpen their own sword in the company of men one of the frustrations of Elijah you'll see this throughout the chapter in the previous chapter is the fact that he thinks he's the only prophet that's what he's telling god god i'm the only one left He's got no one who thinks like he does, no one who believes like he does, no one who loves God the way that he loves God.

And when you don't have a circle of people who share your values and who can speak life into you, you're going to get lonely.

This is why I can't, I don't understand why some people pull away from church.

All right.

Now I'm going to talk to the newer Christians, the rookies.

Yes.

Thank you, Uncle David.

If this is you this morning, look, I want to talk to. to talk to newer developing Christians of which there are many at PNEUMA, man.

I praise God that he's bringing people into salvation and discipleship.

I mean, I've been in awe of God what he's been doing these past couple years.

New salvation's coming in.

People brand new to the faith.

You have to understand something.

I'm going to say this with love, okay?

If you have no one in your inner circle, if you have no one who is committed to the things of God in your life, it's going to be very hard for you to stay committed to the things of God.

I don't care if your faith.

I don't care if your family believes there's a God.

I don't care if they've been to church a couple times.

I don't care if they know some worship songs.

You need a circle of people who can create deep and positive spiritual impact in your life where where spiritual nourishment and replenishing happens constantly in their presence.

Remember, I'm talking about spiritual loneliness.

You can be spiritually lonely at church.

I'm going to get to you in a minute.

But how much more do you malnourish your spirit when you step away from the very people who were called to lift you up?

I was always, going to preach an entire, I was going to preach the same message, but on an entire different passage, 1 Corinthians 12, which talks about the body of Christ and how it's important and how we can't, the ear can't say to the hand, well, I don't need the hand.

No, you need the hand.

You need everybody.

You need the church.

And there's, you know, the people that you do life with have to be those who can point you to God.

That might not be everybody in your life, but you need to get enough godly influence in your life, in your daily routine, besides just Sundays.

This is what I mean about pulling away from the church.

You might come to church Sundays, but you're always the first one to leave.

No one can catch you.

Not even Brother Larry can catch you.

Brother Larry's out there in the parking.

He'll go down navigation running after you, man.

And you know it.

That's why you leave so quick. you're not if that's you look I understand some look if I were me I'd probably be one of the first ones to leave I'm socially awkward I don't like to socialize a lot with a lot of people so I might leave if I don't know anybody but you have to plug in because development spiritual development happens with with godly people and so you're not developing relationship with men and women of God and without other men and woman of God in your life, it's going to be very hard for you to become a man or woman of God.

Pastor Danny, I don't, I don't know.

Maybe you can think of somebody, but I don't know a single man or a woman of God who's not plugged into a church.

Right?

Pastor B?

Maybe there's a couple of them.

I don't know them.

Everyone that I know who is a man or woman of God, and I look at them, I'm like, man, that's a man of faith.

That is a woman of prayer.

I guarantee you they're committed to a church.

They don't just go to church. they're plugged into a church.

More likely is about 99% of men and women of God who are plugged into a church.

You can't get the right type of help with the wrong type of people.

And for those of you in the room who come to church sometimes and you're not really plugged in, you know, I'm not trying to make you feel bad, but I'm going to tell you the truth, man.

You can't get quality spiritual nutrition without a church.

You can still learn about God.

You can still read the Bible on your own and listen to sermons. through Facebook or podcast and you can listen to that worship music, but there's something about plugging in and connecting person to person that a virtual relationship with the church cannot do for you.

And I'm not equating the church with God, the church cannot save you, Christ saves you, but the Holy Spirit has empowered the church.

He has blessed the church.

Heaven is for the church.

Pulling away from the church will more often than not lead you away from God.

And I don't understand a more and more more people, more and more Christians are struggling to plug in.

I'm sorry, I'm just kind of nailing this point, but I think it's got to be nailed because during COVID, man, COVID did as dirty.

Because COVID brought a lot of Christians outside of the church and we became, we became satisfied with church online, with virtual church.

And there's nothing wrong with that on the surface.

I have these, these debates with people every now and then I'm like, you go to virtual church?

and you know we get into we get into an argument and then I ask him would you want a virtual relationship with your family would you be satisfied just talking to your kids on face time but never seeing them in person would you be would you be satisfied with just texting your wife all the time and never being in the same room with her come on that's that's only the next best thing when the best thing isn't an option but too many times we're trying to to replace the best thing with the next best thing, and that we're surprised when Christians aren't, aren't, are not tolerating the things of God.

And we're becoming intolerant to the things of the world.

And we have no zeal for the Lord.

It's because you're not plugged in.

If you're not plugged in, there can't be accountability.

There can't be discipleship.

There can't be substance.

And now, what of those who are in the church?

You haven't left the church. church, you're surrounded by good people, godly people, but you're still lonely.

I'm going to have to worship team to come up.

I think that might be the majority of people in the room.

You choose to be alone, maybe because you should know better.

You should know not to struggle with certain things, but yet you do, and so you are too ashamed to say anything about it, and you keep quiet.

That's shame.

Or you choose to be alone because you don't want the accountability.

You keep telling yourself that you're going to get better all by yourself and all you have to do is just keep on praying and seeking God, but you're not going to let people know.

That's pride.

I love this part of Elijah's story, and there's so much of this story that I'd love to get into so many different ways to preach it.

But there's something that I want you to see here, and we can't really see it if we don't read it.

So let's keep reading real quick.

Verse 9.

Go down to verse 9.

This is after God sends Elijah an angel to, to to nourish him and he he travels another 40 days.

Verse 9 says, then he came to a cave where he spent the night.

But the Lord said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah?

And Elijah replied, I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty.

But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets.

I am the only one left.

And now they are trying to kill me to.

Go out and stand before me on the mountain, the Lord told him.

And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain.

And it was...

That was a great illustration of what the Lord did on the mountain.

Thank you.

Amen.

Let's see.

Where were we here?

Okay.

Okay.

Elijah stood there.

The Lord passed by. and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain.

It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind.

You get that?

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, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire, there was a sound of a gentle whisper.

And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, and he went out and stood at the entrance of the cave, and a voice said, what are you doing here, Elijah?

He replied again, I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty, but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets.

I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.

Okay, here's the connection.

Here's verse 15.

We typically don't read past verse 14.

This is usually where we stop.

But it says, then the Lord told him, go back the same way you came and travel to the wilderness of Damascus.

And when you arrive there, anoint Hazayel to be king of Aram.

Then anoint Jihu to be the king of Israel.

And anoint Elijah, the son of Shafat from the town of Abel Mahala, to replace you as my prophet.

Anyone who escapes from Hazahel will be killed by Jahu, and those who escape Jahu will be killed by Elijah.

Yet I will preserve 7,000 others in Israel who have never bowed down to bail.

So I was really wanting to talk about the significance of the still small voice, that gentle whisper.

I love the significance of that portion of the text.

But I wasn't planning on talking about it because it didn't really go with the sermon.

And it wasn't until I read verse 15 that I understood what that's still small. voice was.

You still with me?

I'm almost done.

Normally, when we look at the still small voice portion of scripture, we do so in light of the miracle that God had performed through Elijah when he defeated the prophets of bail.

You know, chapter 18 is all about the victory over the false gods.

It's all about the victory over Ahab.

And if you notice in chapter 18, go back, go home, read chapter 18. you'll notice in Elijah there is this unspoken kind of arrogance to him while all of this is happening scholars have long made the connection between chapter 18 where Elijah is prideful in his victory in chapter 19 where Elijah is humbled in his defeat and so Elijah has been lonely for a very long time but in this moment of defeat and discouragement he's he's feeling it so much more it's one thing to be lonely on a mountain top is another thing to be lonely in the valley.

And what so many of us do when we are lonely in our wilderness, in our valley, what do we do?

We call upon God for a miracle.

Please say with me, God is speaking.

We're asking God, Lord, do something, God.

Do something in this moment of solitude. do something in this valley, do something in this trench.

I can't get myself out of it.

I've asked God time and time again in a moment where I was feeling alone in the valley.

I said, God, get me out of it.

I don't know if you've ever prayed that prayer before.

It's so vague, but it's just like, God, get me out of this.

Get me out of it.

Get me out of this wilderness.

I've said before, I said, God, just do it.

Just do it.

Do what I can't do.

And I would call upon him and the things that he's done before.

I said, God, you've done miracles.

You've done it for other people.

Do it for me.

Do it in this moment of loneliness and despair.

I am a man of God.

I serve you.

I love you.

I've worked.

I've committed myself to you.

Help me in this lonely moment.

And that's what Elijah is looking for.

He just came out of this massive miracle that God performed.

And so Elijah had to witness the hand of God Or he had just witnessed the hand of God by doing all of this work But after all of that he's still being pursued by an enemy So he says God if you're not going to do a miracle just kill me Just kill me And so God had to show Elijah something And it wasn't something extravagant Right It wasn't something it wasn't something that that was like this wow factor like so many times God does when God parts the Red Sea when God slays the giant when he moves the mountain when he causes cities to crumble Elijah's this super anointed man of God calling down fire from heaven asking for rain and it rains man it's like it's like he's got God on speed dial and now he's God, just do a little bit of something for me, for your prophet.

And God has to show him something small, simple.

We're always looking for God to just fix it.

Just do the miracle.

Just give me the job.

Just give me the healing.

Just make it happen.

Just move it.

Just move the thing.

Move the mountain.

Just give me the blessing.

And a lot of times, most times, listen to me because we're Pentecostals, okay?

we're always looking for the big we're always looking for the miraculous but most times God works in the small in the smallest of details and when we don't look for it when we when we don't look for what God is doing in the details we will miss it because we're looking for God to to split the Red Sea, to make the mountains fall, to take the giant down.

You know, we have a phrase that we say, the devil's in the details.

So is our God.

If you think about it, our infinite God reduced himself to a small infant child to save us on this planet that is just a speck in the universe.

He is great.

He is in the great, but he is also in the small.

And the answers to your prayers because so many of you have been praying God for a miracle.

And sometimes they're going to come, but many times it's going to be in the practical.

He's going to tell you to do something.

He's going to tell you that you need to move.

You need to act.

God said, Elijah, I'm not in the wind.

I'm not in the earthquake.

I'm not shaking the foundations of the earth for you right now.

I'm in the whisper.

Listen.

Listen.

Man and women of God and people with prophetic gifts and pastors and preachers and worship leaders.

We're so used to speaking with power and authority.

And God do the miracle.

And I cast you out in Jesus' name that sometimes we don't shut up.

To listen to the still small voice of our Heavenly Father. what was God's whisper to Elijah?

It's right there beginning with verse 15.

Even we miss it because it's not a very exciting portion of scripture.

There's no cool miracle.

There's no wild factor.

There's nothing to shout victory about.

It's just simple instruction and next steps that Elijah needs to take.

He says, go back to the wilderness.

But he's not sending Elijah back alone into the wilderness.

What does he say?

He says, when you arrive, there will be three men.

You're to anoint them.

What you thought wasn't there, Elijah, has been there the entire time.

I am sending people to you.

I am sending godly men your way.

I am preserving 7,000 prophets.

I am sending Elijah.

But Elijah needed to get up and go to council to walk with you and pray with you and believe with you and help you and build you. up and disciple you.

You have to open up to somebody.

You got to ask for prayer.

You got to come to the altars.

You got to ask for help.

You got to let the pride go because there is power and godly numbers.

God gave us a church.

The church is an assembly of people.

Stop walking.

Stop walking until the wilderness alone.

You're not strapped.

You're not strapped. enough.

And sometimes the devil lies to us and tells us that we're not good enough.

Sometimes he tells us that we're strong enough.

I'm strong enough for this moment.

I'm strong enough for this demon.

I'm strong enough for this spirit.

No, you're not.

But greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

And when we come to the altars and we present ourselves as a sacrifice to God And we say, come over here, pastor, pray for me.

Come over here, sister.

Pray for me.

Walk with me.

I have fallen.

I am weak.

I need help.

There is power and there is healing in the body of Christ.

I want you to stand with me.

And this is a moment real quick.

I'm going to have the prayer team come up.

And I really want, I want to use this moment with intention. and I'm going to ask you this morning to take a bold step of faith if you are in need if you are in need of prayer if you need somebody just to walk with you I want you to allow holy hands my prayer this morning was God as this prayer team prays over people let it be your hands let it be your words that flow through them Holy Spirit, you speak.

And we pray every, every Sunday over this prayer routine, whether they're called up here or not.

These are anointed men and women of God who love the Lord with all their hearts.

And they are prepared to pray.

And if that's you this morning, if you need to step out of the loneliness because you've been there, you've been in the wilderness alone for too long, I want you to come forward.

I want you to come forward.

If you're a woman, you need to admit something to a woman.

Go to a woman.

If you're a man, you've got to go to a man.

I want you to open up.

I want you to open up and I want you to begin to to take that step of faith to walk with somebody.

Holy Spirit, we welcome you into this moment right now, Lord Jesus.

These altars are open.

If anybody wants to just come and worship, these altars are open.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mynuma church.org.

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Thanks again and God bless.

Thank you.