Bulletins - Curry's Chapel Church

SLIDE: Scripture 1 Samuel 3:10
1 Samuel 3:10 NLT
10 And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.”
SLIDE: Title
Introduction
We live in the loudest era in human history. Think about it.
Your phone buzzes with notifications every few minutes.
The news cycle never stops.
Social media is a fire hose of opinions, images, and outrage — all competing for the one thing you can never get back: your attention.
We wake up to alarms, fall asleep to screens, and fill every quiet moment in between with podcasts, playlists, and background noise.
We have forgotten what silence sounds like. And more importantly, we have forgotten how to listen.
🎭 Joke:
A long time ago, my mom asked me to pick up something at the store. I heard "ice cream." She meant "rice and beans." I stand by my interpretation.
We hear what we want to hear, don't we? But what about what God wants us to hear?
Let me set the scene for our main scripture from 1 Kings 19:11-13. The prophet Elijah has just come off the single greatest victory of his ministry. On Mount Carmel,
he stood alone against 450 prophets of Baal
and called down fire from heaven (1 Kings 18).
The crowd fell on their faces and declared, "The Lord — He is God!"
It was the Super Bowl, the World Series, and Pentecost all rolled into one. But within hours, Queen Jezebel sent a death threat, and Elijah ran. He ran into the wilderness, collapsed under a tree, and begged God to let him die. Eventually, he ended up in a cave on Mount Horeb — exhausted, afraid, and utterly alone. And that's where God met him.
SLIDE: Scripture 1 Kings 19:11-13
📖 Scripture: 1 Kings 19:11–13
1 Kings 19:11–13 NIV
11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave...
A gentle whisper. Not thunder. Not an earthquake. Not a wildfire. A whisper.
That changes everything about how we approach God. This morning I want to share three truths about the whisper of God — because how you listen may be the most important spiritual discipline you ever develop.
Main Teaching
SLIDE: Slide Point 1
1: God's Whisper Is Intimate
God had every dramatic option at His disposal.
He sent the wind — powerful enough to shatter rock.
He sent the earthquake — the ground itself trembled.
He sent the fire — consuming and terrifying.
And the text is very deliberate here: "The Lord was not in the wind… not in the earthquake… not in the fire."
God was making a point. He was saying, "I could speak this way. I have that power. But that's not how I want to talk to you right now."
He chose a whisper. Not because He's weak — the wind, earthquake, and fire proved He's anything but. He chose a whisper because intimacy requires closeness.
🔑 Object Lesson:
Try this with me. I need a volunteer. [Have someone stand at the very back of the room and whisper something — anything — a short phrase.] ‘
Could you hear that? Probably not. Now, [invite someone to come close — within arm's reach — and whisper the same phrase.] Now did you hear it? Of course you did. Here's the point: a whisper requires proximity. You have to be close to hear it. God whispers not because He's weak, but because He wants you close. He's not shouting from a distance — He's leaning in, the way a Father leans in to a child He loves.
💡 Illustration:
Think about a parent whispering to a child at bedtime. The lights are low. The house is finally quiet. And a mother or father leans over the edge of the bed and says, "I love you. I'm proud of you. You're safe." That is the most tender, most intimate communication there is. You don't shout those words from the hallway. You whisper them up close. God speaks this way because He's not a distant CEO managing the universe from a corner office. He's a loving Father who leans in close — close enough for you to feel His breath on your life.
📖 Scripture: Psalm 46:10
"Be still, and know that I am God."
Stillness isn't passive. It's not laziness. It's positioning yourself close enough to hear. It's choosing proximity over noise.
So let me ask you this: When was the last time you got close enough to God to hear Him whisper? Not the podcast preacher's voice. Not the worship playlist. His voice — to you, about you, for you. If you can't remember, maybe the distance is the problem.
SLIDE: Slide Point 2
2: The Whisper Requires a Trained Ear
Here's something easy to miss in this passage: Elijah recognized the whisper.
The wind came — Elijah stayed in the cave.
The earthquake came — he stayed put.
The fire came — he didn't move.
But when the gentle whisper came? He immediately pulled his cloak over his face and walked to the mouth of the cave. He knew. He recognized the voice.
How? Because Elijah had history with God.
He had heard God's voice at the brook Cherith, where ravens brought him bread.
He had heard it in the widow's house at Zarephath, where the flour and oil never ran out.
He had heard it on Mount Carmel, when fire fell from heaven.
Elijah's ear was trained — not by one dramatic moment, but by years of daily, faithful walking with God.
🎭 Joke:
Some of us have spiritual ears like a grandfather's hearing aid — we only pick up what we want to hear. "God told me to buy that boat." Did He, though? Did He really?
💡 Illustration:
A mother on a crowded playground can pick out her own child's cry among dozens of screaming kids. She doesn't have superhuman hearing. She has a trained ear. She knows her child's voice because she's spent every single day with that child — the laughs, the cries, the whispers at bedtime. She knows the pitch, the tone, the urgency. That's what trained spiritual hearing looks like. You learn to recognize God's voice by spending daily, ordinary time in His presence — not just in crisis, but in the quiet, unremarkable Tuesday mornings of life.
📖 Scripture: John 10:27
"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."
Notice Jesus didn't say, "My sheep occasionally stumble across my voice." He said they listen. Present tense. Ongoing. Habitual. It's a lifestyle, not a lucky accident.
So here's the honest question: Are you training your ear, or are you just hoping to accidentally overhear God? Training takes daily time in His Word, daily time in prayer, and daily willingness to obey what you've already heard — because God rarely gives new instructions to people who haven't followed the last ones.
SLIDE: Slide Point 3
3: The Whisper Is Confirmed in Community and Scripture
Now, I need to give you a gentle but important warning. God's whisper is personal — but it is never private in the sense that it stands alone, unchecked, and unaccountable. One of the most dangerous phrases in the modern church is "God told me" — spoken with absolute certainty, with no willingness to test it, and with no community to confirm or challenge it. That's not faith. That's presumption.
The whisper of God will never contradict the written Word of God. Ever. And it will be confirmed — or lovingly challenged — by the body of Christ around you.
💡 Illustration:
I think of a man in a church I knew who felt strongly that God was calling him to leave his career and move his family across the country to start a new ministry. He didn't just announce it on Facebook. He sat down with his pastor. He talked to his small group. He studied Scripture. He prayed with his wife. His community asked hard questions: "Is this running from something or running toward something? Have you counted the cost? Does this align with your gifts?" And after weeks of prayer and counsel, the community confirmed the call. They sent him out with blessing. That's how the whisper works — personal revelation tested by communal wisdom.
📖 Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16–17
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
📖 Scripture: Proverbs 11:14
"Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety."
If what you think God is whispering to you contradicts Scripture — it's not God. If the wise, godly people in your life are all raising red flags — pay attention. The whisper is personal, but it is confirmed in community.
So who are the people in your life who can confirm or challenge what you think you're hearing from God? If the answer is "no one," then that's your first assignment this week. Find your people. Get in a small group. Sit down with a mentor, a friend or your pastor. You were never meant to discern God's voice in isolation.
SLIDE: Conclusion
Conclusion
Here's what I love about the rest of this story. After the whisper, God didn't scold Elijah. He didn't say, "What are you doing hiding in a cave? Get it together." He gave him a new assignment. "Go back," He said. "Anoint Hazael as king over Aram. Anoint Jehu as king over Israel. Anoint Elisha to succeed you" (1 Kings 19:15–18). The whisper didn't end with comfort — it led to mission. It always does.
💡 Illustration:
The most important conversations in life happen in whispers:
~ "I love you," spoken at a hospital bedside. ~ A prayer breathed over a newborn in the delivery room. ~ A word of forgiveness between two broken people who thought it was too late.
God speaks at that volume because that's where life-changing words live — not in the noise, not in the spectacle, but in the sacred quiet between a Father and His child.
So, here's my challenge to you this week. I'm asking you to do something radical in a noisy world:
Be quiet.
Turn off the noise for 15 minutes a day.
No phone.
No television.
No music.
Open your Bible.
Sit with God.
And listen. Not for thunder — for a whisper.
Because when God whispers your name, everything changes.
SLIDE: Prayer
Closing Prayer
Father, we confess that we have filled our lives with noise — some of it necessary, much of it not. We have been so busy listening to every other voice that we have neglected Yours. Quiet our hearts right now. Tune our ears to the frequency of Your whisper. Draw us so close to You that we can hear what You've been saying all along — that You love us, that You know us by name, and that You have a purpose for our lives. Teach us to be still. Teach us to listen. And give us the courage to obey what we hear. In Jesus' name, Amen.
- - 1 Samuel 3:10NKJV

Introduction

Main Teaching

1: God's Whisper Is Intimate

2: The Whisper Requires a Trained Ear

3: The Whisper Is Confirmed in Community and Scripture

Conclusion

Closing Prayer

1 Samuel 3:10NKJV