Sermon Illustrations on God's Voice

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Imagine God’s Voice

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Zephaniah 3:17, Psalm 29:3-5, Isaiah 40:9-11, 1 Kings 19:11-12

What do you hear when you imagine the voice of God singing? I hear the booming of Niagara Falls mingled with a trickle of a mossy mountain stream. I hear the blast of Mt. St. Helens mingled with a kit...

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The Voice of the Shepherd

Author

Richard J. Foster

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 19:9-13 , Exodus 33:12-23, Habakkuk 3:17-19, Luke 10:38-42, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 , Psalm 46:10

One evening I was taking a stretch break from study, walking out into the night. Soon I began speaking prayers of complaint . . . a little like the lament psalms in the Bible. I wasn’t angry, really, ...

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Hearing God’s Voice is no Small Matter

Author

Dallas Willard

Keywords

Scripture

1 Samuel 3:9-10, John 10:27, 1 Kings 19:11-12 , Acts 9:3-6, Isaiah 30:21

Sunday dinner was finished, but we lingered around the table, savoring the good food and reflecting on the morning’s service at church. The congregation—where I then served as a very young (and very g...

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A Voice They Could Trust

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 21:14–19, Luke 15:1–7 , John 10:1–16, Psalm 139:7–12, Exodus 3:1–12 , 1 Kings 19:1–13, Psalm 91:14-15, 2 Peter 2:9, John 10:27, Romans 10:17, John 5:37, John 8:47

On May 1, 2023, a small aircraft carrying seven passengers crashed deep in the Amazon rainforest, one of the most remote regions on Earth. The Cessna had been flying between two villages in southern C...

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The Gentle Whisper of God

Author

Richard J. Foster

Keywords

Scripture

1 Samuel 3:1-10, Isaiah 30:21, 1 Kings 19:11-13 , John 10:27, Acts 8:26-40, Psalm 32:8

In the early days of my experiments in listening to the Lord, I sensed a distinct word to call a friend, a chaplain at a local college, and see how he was doing. The word carried with it the marks of ...

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Listen for the Flutes

Author

Stephen Macchia

Keywords

Scripture

John 10:3-5, Romans 10:17, Hebrews 5:14, 1 Kings 19:11-13, Isaiah 30:21

We must tune our ears to hear God’s voice. It’s like the child who was told by his father during a symphony orchestra concert, “Listen for the flutes in this song. Don’t they sound beautiful?” The chi...

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Elijah Experiencing the Crucifixion of Ministry

Author

Andrew Purves

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 19:12-15

In his important book, The Crucifixion of Ministry, seminary professor Andrew Purves sees a paradigm in Elijah’s ministry: For many years I have taken Elijah’s story in 1 Kings 19 as a paradigm. Eli...

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Staying Quiet in a Noisy World

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 5:8, Ephesians 6:12, Proverbs 4:23, Matthew 26:41, Psalm 46:10, 1 Kings 19:11-12, John 10:10

In the Critically acclaimed 2018 horror film A Quiet Place , Earth faces an alien invasion unlike any other. In the movie, the aliens behave like merciless monsters, using their lightning-fast sp...

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Losing Sight of our Spiritual Longing in the Modern World

Author

Annie Dillard

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 19:11-12, Job 38:1-7, Isaiah 6:1-5 , Romans 1:20, Luke 19:39-40 , Psalm 19:1-4

In our modern materialistic world, it is easy to lose sight of that sense of longing. In her wonderful collection of essays Teaching a Stone to Talk , Annie Dillard speaks about that growing void...

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God Speaks, God Listens Too

Author

Adam S. McHugh

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 18:22-33, Exodus 3:1-12 , 1 Kings 19:9-13, John 5:19-30, John 16:12-15, Psalm 116:1-2

The God who shares power is a listener. Listening is not something that becomes necessary for God only after the world is created. Listening is who God is. In God’s very being, communication does not ...

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The Still, Small Voice of Love

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 19:11-12 , Isaiah 43:1, Deuteronomy 31:6, Matthew 3:16-17, John 10:27, Psalm 46:10

Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, “Prove that you are a good person.” Another voice says, “You’d better be ashamed of yourself.” There also is a voice that says, “Nobody r...

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What Angels Sound Like

Author

Halford E. Lucock

Keywords

Scripture

Judges 6:12-14, 1 Kings 19:5-7, Genesis 19:15, Matthew 28:5-7, Acts 12:7-8 , Psalm 91:11-12

We so often hear the expression “the voice of an angel” that I got to wondering what an angel would sound like. So I did some research, and discovered that an angel’s voice sounds remarkably like a pe...

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If birds could write books, their story of creation

Author

Barbara Brown Taylor

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:2, Exodus 14:21, 1 Kings 19:11-12, Psalm 104:3-4, Acts 2:2-4, John 3:8, Matthew 6:25-34

If birds could write books, their story of creation would no doubt read quite differently than ours. In the first place, I expect they would make quite a lot out of that wind of God that swept over th...

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The Spirit & Temptation

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 4:1, Matthew 4:3, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Romans 5:3-5, Mark 1:12-13, 1 Kings 19:4-8, James 1:2-4

In their excellent book Invitation to a Journey , M. Robert Mulholland and Ruth Haley Barton discuss the poignant insight that it is the Spirit that leads Jesus into the Wildnerness. What does this...

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The Privileged Site of God’s Comfort

Author

Robert Barry Leal

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 3:1-2, Deuteronomy 8:2, 1 Kings 19:4-5, Psalm 63:1, Isaiah 40:3

Especially in the Hebrew Bible, wilderness is the privileged site where God comforts the Hebrew people or their representatives at times of crisis in their lives. In the wilderness God calls and leads...

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Hearing Jesus in Silence

Author

Jim Forest

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 1:35, Psalm 46:10, 1 Kings 19:12, Zephaniah 1:7, Psalm 4:4

One of the early saints who emphasized the place of silence in spiritual life was Saint Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who died a martyr late in the first century. In a letter written shortly before his...

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If You Want to Fill your Sunday School Class

Author

Dallas Willard

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 3:5-6, Exodus 3:1-12, 1 Kings 19:9-13, Romans 12:1-2, Acts 16:6-10, Psalm 25:4-5

Within the Christian community this leads to a prominence of teaching on the will of God and how to know it. Russ Johnston draws upon his own wide experience to remark how this continues to be one of ...

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Jesus’ Hidden Invitations

Author

Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 19:11-13 , Exodus 33:12-14, Isaiah 30:15 , Mark 1:35-38, Luke 5:15-16, Psalm 46:10

Jesus’ actions, in and of themselves, often make no sense unless we see them as responses to some hidden invitation—an invitation received from time spent alone with his Father. When Jesus was interru...

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Discernment: Distinguishing the Real from the Phony

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:1, 1 Corinthians 12:10, 1 Kings 19:11-13 , Genesis 41:15-40 , Isaiah 30:20-21, Matthew 4:1-11, 1 John 4:1-3, Psalm 42:5-11

Scripture also speaks of “discernment of spirits” and encourages us to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” This aspect of discernment helps us to distinguish the real from the phony, ...

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Jesus Discerned Between Invitations

Author

Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 19:11-13, Exodus 33:12-14, Isaiah 30:15-21, Mark 5:25-34, Mark 1:35-38, Psalm 46:10

Jesus knew his spiritual journey depended on responsiveness to God’s invitations. Although his job was the most crucial in human history, Jesus did not get compulsive, preoccupied or unable to practic...

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The Child Born in the Night Among Beasts

Author

Frederick Buechner

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2-4, 1 Kings 19:11-13, Luke 2:6-7, Philippians 2:5-8, Psalm 22:6-8 , Matthew 1:22-25

In this excerpt, Frederick Buechner shares a meditation on the vulnerability of Jesus’ birth: The child born in the night among beasts. The sweet breath and steaming dung of beasts. And nothing is...

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Your Cell Will Teach You Everything

Author

Thomas Merton

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 46:10, 1 Kings 19:9-18, Matthew 5:5-15, Daniel 3:19-27, Exodus 13:21-22, Mark 1:35-39, Luke 5:16, Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Genesis 32:24-30, Psalm 62:1, Hosea 2:14, Habakkuk 2:1, 1 Samuel 3:1-10, Isaiah 26:3

A certain brother went to Abbot Moses in Scete, and asked him for a good word. And the Elder said to him: Go, sit in your cell and your cell will teach you everything. An elder said: The monk’s ce...

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The Doubts of a Church Planter

Author

Peter Chin

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 19:1–18 , Exodus 3:1–12, Lamentations 3:19–26 , Luke 7:11–17, 2 Corinthians 12:9–10 , Psalm 73:21–26

In this first-person memoir, Pastor Peter Chin shares a story that most pastors can probably relate to, the reality vs the expectation of a church-planter or even the pastor of an established church: ...

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The Church of Silence

Author

Ryan Holiday

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 46:10, 1 Kings 19:11-12, Isaiah 30:15, Habakkuk 2:20, Mark 1:35, Matthew 6:6, Luke 5:15-16, Matthew 14:23, Matthew 6:1-34, Mark 1:35

In downtown Helsinki, there is a small building called the Kamppi Chapel. It’s not a place of worship, strictly speaking, but it’s as quiet as any cathedral. Quieter, in fact, because there are no ech...

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A Field of Chaff & Wheat Growing up Together

Author

John F. X. Harriott

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 32:1–14 , 1 Kings 19:9–18, Isaiah 6:1–8, Matthew 13:24–30 , 1 Corinthians 1:26–29 , Psalm 51:17

The Church is not a clean, well-lit place where everything runs smoothly and actions automatically match ideals. It is, in the words of the Gospel, a field of chaff and wheat growing up together and b...

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Struggling to Stay Standing: A Story of Weakness & God’s Sufficiency

Author

John Ortberg

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 4:10-12, 1 Kings 19:4-5, Isaiah 40:29-31, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 46:1

In grad school, although I was studying to become a clinical psychologist, I started working at a Baptist church. I discovered then that I loved to preach . . . until one weekend when the sermon wasn’...

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Theophan’s Wisdom on Prayer

Author

Richard J. Foster

Keywords

Scripture

Joshua 1:8, 1 Kings 19:11-13, Isaiah 26:3-4, Philippians 4:6-7 , Luke 10:38-42, Psalm 46:10

Theophan the Recluse…is well recognized in Eastern Orthodoxy, specifically the Russian Orthodox tradition. Theophan was a complex and intriguing personality, but today we know him mostly because of hi...

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Dost Thou Know Before Whom Thou Speaks?

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Daniel 3:, 1 Kings 19:, Matthew 10:28, Luke 12:4-5, Acts 5:29

Hugh Latimer was the Bishop of Worcester, England during the reign of King Henry VIII. On one occasion he preached a sermon that offended the king, who sat in the audience. The king commanded Latimer ...

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When your Good Christian World Falls Apart

Author

Tammy Maltby

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 19:1–18, Job 3:42 , Lamentations 3:17–26, Luke 15:11–32 , 2 Corinthians 12:7–10, Psalm 34:18

In her memoir, Confessions of a Good Christian Girl, Tammy describes the internal turmoil she experienced trying to be a good, rule-following Christian who had unexpectedly built an entire life arou...

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Looking Into Jesus’ Eyes (Is Hard)

Author

Brennan Manning

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 41:10 , Exodus 3:7-8 , 1 Kings 19:9-13, John 11:32-35, Matthew 14:26-31, Psalm 34:18

One night a friend asked his handicapped son, “Daniel, when you see Jesus looking at you, what do you see in His eyes?” After a pause, the boy replied, “His eyes are filled with tears, Dad.” “...

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