SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, welcome to the Play Church Coming of the Plus Debbie's church. Brother Jesse Allen, Mr. L Rica Hunter, Chris Catlin's with us. Brother Bryson Whaley Meister is out of town this morning. So he is not in the house or in the studio. He's uh with his mom and dad, with his mom and dad uh in Seneca. Had a busy weekend, it was spring weekend, wrapped it up, and first thing he did was get out of town. I don't blame you. So uh uh getting some R as well as some time with this family, so we're grateful for that. So thank you for tuning in today. And today's topic is is uh what do you do when God goes silent? Times in our Christian life where it seems as though heaven's gates are closed, the windows are shut, the portals are slammed, closed, and sometimes you just wonder where God's at, what he's doing, when he's gonna answer, what he's thinking, what he's up to. And so there's a lot of times in our life when we go through that. Uh, I think every Christian that's been a believer for any length of time has been through times in life where you just wonder, you know, what God's doing, where's he at, and when's he gonna come through. So that's that's gonna be a topic this morning. Maybe you're listening and maybe you're thinking, man, I'm in there right now. I mean, no, I'm looking for God to answer right now. And we've all been in that point. Sometimes it can be due to a sin in our life, sometimes it can be due to a spiritual test we're going through, sometimes it can be just in a in a season of waiting, or the Lord's just waiting for something to come through, and he's got you in a place, but he's got something ahead for you. So there can be many different scenarios that can lead to that. And so that's just some opening comments, and I'll let these two guys chime in, and then we'll get into some scripture, and then we'll start digesting some text this morning.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Yeah, the silence of God. Um that is uh to me, that's the hardest part about our Christian life. It is. It's not enemies, it's not troubles, it's not trials, is when God's not not it seems like he's not listening and he don't care.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

And it don't matter how mature you are, sometimes God will silence himself to a point to where, I mean, you really do, God have you forgotten about me. I mean, we think about David, and I'm gonna bring this scripture out, Lid but uh later, but man, many times, as strong as David was and faithful as he was and all the mighty things God had done through David's life, there were times that he wondered if God even cared anymore. That's right. And he cried out to him, and and as you said, it happens to every believer. Uh we're all going to experience multiple times in our Christian life when uh God goes silent, and we'll talk about maybe some of the reasons for that. But there are times that God just distances himself for purposes that sometimes we don't even know. That's true. But it's uh the silence of God is hard uh in our Christian life to deal with.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Because you feel like you've been abandoned. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_04 2:51

I think sometimes we we mistake when we're not hearing from God that that he that is he doesn't love us and and that he's forgot about us, but uh but a couple things I thought was maybe we've been disobedient and we got some things in our life that we need to clean up, and that's why we're not hearing from God.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

You good? Sometimes there's some awkward silences in the room. And um the text I'm gonna use today, and I guess I chose this text because it's one of the most popular that we can really kind of relate to, understand, even in text as we read scripture, and I'll get into that in just a moment. But in Amos chapter 8, uh, as he's writing in verse number 11, it said, Behold, the days will come, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, not a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Now we know that he was basically referring to the time between the Old Testament and New Testament, approximately 400 years, where there's not a word from God. And when you begin to think about that, you know, there they would look for a word, couldn't find one. They would look for a for a a way or a knowledge or an explanation of peace, and there wouldn't be one. And when you think about that, you know, what are those four, what did they do then in that 400-year time period? If there wasn't a prophet of God, there wasn't a word from God, there wasn't a delivery from God, they would seek a word from God and not find one, then what did they do? They did only they could do, hold on to the writings that they already had. And we know that there were righteous people in these 400 years because we even get to the gospel of Matthew, and Joseph was called a righteous man.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Mary found favor with God. So we know there was righteous teachings and generations handed down during those 400 years, but how did they get there? Well, during those 400 years, the only thing they could do was hold on to what they already had. They held on to the writings of Moses, they held on to the writings of Isaiah, they held on to the writings of Jeremiah, they held on to the writings of David. And so I would just say to you today, and we're gonna get into this a little deeper as we go, but just kind of a quick overview. When you're in those moments where it seems as though God is silent and there's no, you just think that he's abandoning you when he really hasn't, you hold on to what he's already done. You hold on to what he's already said, you hold on to what he's already promised, you hold on to what he's already guaranteed. Hold on to what you know is true in life. And so during those 400 years, man, they might not have had a new word from God, but they had all the word that they needed. And I'll even say, in, you know, in our day and time, you know, in our day and time, there are no more apostles, they all died out. There are no more disciples, they all died out. There, there are no more, you know, New Testament guys that we come across from Matthew to Revelation, they've all died out. So what do we do? We hold on to what's already written. You know, when a man says, I got a revelation got from God, you need to turn him off right then. There is no more revelations of God. Now, God may give you an understanding of something, but a revelation from God, the word's already been finished. There are no more.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

So we have, you know, even in our day and time, we hold on when we go into those times of silence and feel like God's left us and don't know what's going on, we do the same thing they've done during the during the 400 years. We hold on to the promises that we already have.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Yeah. So you hold on to promises, and uh I want to kind of add something else here that you hold on to as landmarks in your life. Right. Because when God does supernatural things, miracles, uh, just high top mountaintop experiences in your life, mark those in your spiritual life. Because when the silence of God hits, sometimes the only thing you got to hold on to is the times that you did have a fresh presence with God. That's right. And uh so you hold on to his word, and uh which never dies, never gets old, and you also hold on to those spiritual landmarks in your life because you realize God met me then and uh my life's not over. And uh the the thing to remember, I guess, in it all is that God has a purpose in silence. We'll go through those times we wonder if God cares, but we have to remind ourselves below that that God hadn't forgot about us. He promised never to leave us or forsake us, and um his distance and his silence from us is for his reasons only, and he may share with them or may not while we went through those times, but our human flesh will finally get in the way and you know say, God, do you really care? But if we deep down remember those landmarks and stay in the word of God and keep praying, even though we think God's not listening, and just holding on and uh remembering that uh God has a purpose in this, and for whatever reasons, when you come out of it, you needed that silence to get to where you're gonna go.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

So it's just part of God's process.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

The uh I kind of went in a direction that might be hard for some people to swallow, but but my my question as far as maybe we're not hearing some you know someone's might hear from God because maybe they haven't got right with God yet. Maybe they thought they were right with God. And that's the kind of the verse that I was just wanted to just read a part of right here is John 10, verses uh 25 through 27 says, I told you and you believe not the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness to me, but you believe not because you are not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice and know them and they follow me. So maybe the question is, maybe you're not your maybe you're not a sheep. Maybe you hadn't made things right with God, so you can't hear from God if you're not one of his ch children.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

You know, the silence of God is one of those things in our life, because when we first get saved, it's like drinking out of a fire hydrant. You know, we're reading scripture for the first time, we're digesting, we're processing, we're beginning to understand, we're beginning to get on our feet, we're starting to grow as a Christian, you know, we're trying to get off of milk and get on the meat, as Paul told the church. So it's it's kind of like we're trying to drink from a fire hydrant, and we've got all this stuff coming into our life, this new, you know, things that used to be our normal in life are going away, and now we're beginning to live a righteous life. Things that used to be normal of our desires, now we got new desires. You know, maybe old friends are moved on, we got new friends. So when you first get saved, everything's changing so fast, and you're beginning to get on your feet, and it's like God's talking so much, you don't know, you're just trying to make sure you're hearing the right voice. But then as you grow in your Christian life, if you're not careful, you can go the first time you go through those moments of silence, you begin to ask yourself, man, am I even saved?

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

I mean, how didn't how in the world did I go from drinking out of a fire hydrant to now I'm like I'm in a barren land and I can't find a drop of water nowhere. The creek's dried up.

SPEAKER_04 9:37

The creek's dried up. A very long time.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

A very long time. But you know, I gotta be honest with you, um if you handle it the right way, I would say sometimes you can grow during the silence because you're reminded whenever you come out of it and God finally gives you a fresh drink of water or a new breath, you're reminded that you know what, as as script as Paul tells us, his grace is sufficient. Yeah. And those moments of silence had a learning to them.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Yeah. And it's like God pulls back from us to get us to lean into him. Uh sometimes I believe if God never had any silent time, we'd be weak in between Christians. Absolutely. We'd never grow.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

It takes those times of pulling away for uh for us to reach for and pull into God. I always think about a baby walking. Uh, a parent's not mean by standing a child up on his feet and letting go of his hands. No one is gonna fall down. But that child will never learn how to walk if a parent never lets go. And so for God to teach us that how to walk, he has to let go of us. And when he lets go, that's a scary time and it's a silent time. We don't know what's going on because he's not telling us what's going on. And that, but it's a time for us to reach into God. So it's important during those silent times, not only remember that God hadn't forgotten us, but keep striving and keep going forward and keep praying, keep begging, keep listening because eventually God will break through. But I believe we can delay that silent time by giving up on God and say, Well, you don't care about me, so I'm not gonna talk to you. Well, then we find ourselves in a bad situation.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Yeah, it's as much about how you handle it as it is anything else. Absolutely. What's it what are the scripture you got some more, Rick?

SPEAKER_01 11:16

I got Psalm 13. It's just a time we don't know where David was, but he it was one of those wilderness times when he was either running from Absalom or running from Saul. But uh David was in a position to where he had trouble all around him. And uh, of course, God is not responding. And this is what he says in Psalms 13. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily, and my enemy exalted over me? And we could go on and read the whole thing, it's very short. But the essence of what David was saying was he was in a hard, difficult place, needed direction from God, and heaven was silent. And he was begging God, How long are you gonna be silent? When are you gonna break through? When are you gonna give me direction? And so his heart was hurt, it was lonely, he was desperate, uh, but yet David kept crying out to God and wrote this psalm. Thousands of years later, we can still take comfort from that. That everybody goes through the silences of God. And God eventually brought David through this. And we have to remember God will eventually bring us through ours also.

SPEAKER_04 12:24

Wow. Yeah, sometimes as far as and just speaking personally, you can be in a crowded room and still feel alone as far as this where you're just oh yeah, you just uh you know, you won't you just feel like you're you're on an island and you're uh in things by yourself, and and uh I think that's times when it really tests your faith. And it really tests is the uh and and I am a believer and I know I'm a believer, but still uh like I said while I go, it's kinda lonely it gets kind of lonely sometimes. And one thing I've seen about just in just in the ministry itself, and you know, you want to some things you want to have somebody to talk to about, and and and sometimes you can't even talk to your wife about it. You know what I'm saying? It's just some certain things that that was you know that you're going through or that somebody's entrusted with you that you have to you have to just deal with it on your own.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

So And you just said something I want to talk about very quickly too. You know, we're talking about going through silent times. You said you can be in a room full of people and feel all alone.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

I was gonna talk about the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

When you're going through those silent times with God, man, there's nothing worse. And I use I use the word worse realistically. There's nothing worse than being in a Holy Spirit-filled service and seeing God move and feeling like you're the only one in the room that's not hearing. Yeah. And and I and I want to use, you know, one of Jesus' own men, I want to use Thomas. You know, after the resurrection, the Bible says Jesus showed himself to the disciples, but Thomas wasn't there. And the Bible says God waited almost a week before he revealed himself to Thomas. Can you imagine going a week hearing everybody talk about they've seen the Lord and talk with him? And Thomas is like, well, why ain't he talking to me?

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Why ain't he showed himself to me? I mean, imagine, I mean, I mean, realistically, him being a human man, imagine the misery and the despair he felt wondering if he's alive, why don't he show himself to me? Yeah, when is it my turn? Yeah, yeah, when's he gonna talk to me? So, you know, we we use that statement, but man, you could put Thomas in that very situation.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

You know, he was the only man in the room that was wondering when God's gonna talk to me.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Yeah, I I thought about the same thing. I both of our minds went to there when Chris mentioned that. But man, I I've been in services before, and uh even being in ministry, I've been in services before when the silence of God was hitting, and I was going through the motions, but God was, man, he was he was not there spiritually for me. You see people's lives change, you see people weeping, you see people praising the Lord, and you're sitting there, you're in misery. I mean, it's just the silence of God, and you're like, man, you know, I don't feel anything. And um you start worrying about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

You know, what's wrong with me?

SPEAKER_00 15:15

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Why has God forgotten me?

SPEAKER_00 15:17

And that's right.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

I want to be where they are, but then you remember there's gonna be a time you're on the mountaintop, and those people there, they're gonna be crying out to God and God, where are you at?

SPEAKER_00 15:26

That's right. And I think a lot of I think a lot of times this is one of those things where we have to put things in perspective and remind ourselves that, you know, not all days are gonna be good because in reality, sometimes the silence can be because you're overwhelmed with a burden. Sometimes the silence can be because you got, you know, trials in your own life that nothing's happened yet. Maybe you got a heavier prayer quest and nothing's come through. So sometimes it is God's silence, and then sometimes I think we create silence. Yeah. And we have to be careful to discern those two.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Yeah. Eventually we was gonna get into that, but I guess we'll jump into it now. I didn't want to get through this and not bring it up. Uh man, sometimes the silence of God is because of sin. That's right. Just basically get down to it. It's uh we wonder where God is at, and God is trying to show, well, look what you've done, look how you've acted, look at what you said, look what you've involved yourself in. Uh sometimes the silence of God is just repentance away, and uh the heavens will open again.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

We can create our own silence from God by really God didn't pull away from us, we pulled away from Him. And then we blame God for the one, you know, pulling away, but God's never left us. Our sin just distanced us from Him. That created that silence.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

That's exactly right. And um, whenever there's sin in our life, the first thing we gotta do is not worry about hearing from God, we've got to worry about getting it right.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Because you already know it's wrong. You know, if you know it's wrong, then fix it. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 16:53

The uh, you know, I've uh you know like man, I've just prayed for this God five minutes ago before I burned my hand. But I I I I think, and and I'm speaking of myself personally, sometimes you know, you pray for things and you wonder why God's not answering. But you know, we talked about it before. Sometimes you you know, I pr you know you pray about something, but you're already in the process. Yeah, uh you ask God for this, but you're already trying to figure out how you're gonna take care of it, and or you just get yourself so busy with everything else that that you know, maybe we're not hearing from God because we just need to get rid of some stuff, maybe we need to slow down uh on some things we're doing. Um it's kinda here it's it's kind of uh hard to hear uh God's voice if you're so busy and you got so much noise going on in your life. And noise I mean just just dis distractions we put in front of God.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Yeah, and I think a lot of that is especially in our day and time, I think a lot of that's a problem. We're just too busy. And it's one of those things where when you're going through silent times with God, and you know, I read uh Amos 811 a while ago, but I didn't read chapter uh verse 12, and I want to get to that now. I think one of the things, one of the worst things you can do going through silence, and you know, you two guys may agree, you may not. I think one of the worst things you can do when you're going through silence is to start going anywhere and everywhere looking for a word. Yeah. And and that's what Amos talks about in verse number 12. He says, And they will wander from sea to sea, north to east, they will run to and fro to seek that the word of to seek a word of the Lord, and they shall not find it. And and a lot of times going through silence, and I know even in my own experience, if we're not careful, we can run everywhere looking for an answer when all God wants you to do is just be still.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

And, you know, we can run to this service or that service, and there's nothing wrong with going to revival service, don't get me wrong. But a lot of times, you know, we can look at this book or this thing or this paragraph or this lesson or let me read this story or let me start this devotional book. And nothing wrong with all that.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

But when God's got you in a in a place where he wants you to be silent and just listen, the worst thing you can do is go try and chase a word down.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Yeah. Because you have, I mean, it's that's easy to do.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

That's easy to do.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

We we because you want it. Yeah. And we tend to compartmentalize God thinking, well, he's not here, maybe he's over there.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Yeah. And uh but that kind of goes along with uh uh what I was wanting to say anyway about, you know, we chase God in those silence times and everything else. But um, when God is silent, there's a period of that silence that we're just going to deal with. As you can run all over the face of the earth if you want to and read every book you want to, and you're not going to hear from God until he decides to speak.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

And we just press into him and wait on him. And during the silence of God, there's a waiting period, and that waiting period is the hardest thing that we'll ever do.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

It is.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Is God, where are you?

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Because we're not patient people.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Yeah, we're not patient. And I was just watching, man, I hate watching these documentaries because that it just shows me just how bad I am. I was looking at uh um A. W. Tozer the other day, a documentary on him, and it said every Saturday night for several hours he would just pray. He said he would not preach the next morning unless God gave him a word, and he would stay there until God did, and he wouldn't get up from prayer. Sometimes he'd miss meals and everything because he would stay on his face before God until he knew God gave him a word. Not because he studied. Of course he did. He wanted to make sure it wasn't something that he wanted to say. And I'm thinking, man, just it makes me feel so bad about myself. These men of God from the past that that went through all I mean, he didn't have an easy life by any means, but man, the time he spent in prayer and waiting on God and pleading with God and wouldn't do nothing until real God really showed up. But our day and time, man, we're just too busy. It goes back to what we've all been saying. We if God doesn't speak in a a matter of minutes, it's it's terrible.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

And uh it's like we're waiting on a phone call that never comes. And some, you know, it may take God a week, it may take him a month before he breaks through, but we just gotta be patient and wait on him.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

That's true.

SPEAKER_04 21:04

I know y'all have had it happen before and it just happened to me plenty of times, but the uh how you can read a verse a hundred times and not get really get anything out of it, and then all of a sudden, you know, when you're struggling or you read a voice and then God speaks to you in a different way and it just enlightens things to you in a way he's never he he hadn't done before. The uh see rick writing down. I don't know if I'm getting great at the end of the day. I'm the one that's supposed to I'm just I'm the scribbler in here. But uh but yeah, just uh w wa waiting's hard. And I and and I I I can't stand to wait and and uh I talked about being too busy, but sometimes as far as it just takes just getting yourself alone. And uh I catch myself doing this a lot of times. I get to try to get my mind ahead of what uh what I want to say. You preached before about sometimes you just have to c you just have to pull yourself out of it. You have to give yourself a word. You have to encourage yourself. And uh and sometimes I have to catch myself where I was like, you know, where I just get my mind just seems so clustered of thoughts and why is this not happening the way you know I I planned this out perfect. That's when things I I plan this out to the T and things don't go the way I want it to go and and uh sometimes for me it's hard to let go of what uh how I want things to want to go and how I planned it that I don't God might be telling me but I don't want to listen. And I think that's the big thing is just like a child. Yeah mom and dad's telling you to do something but you don't want to listen so you know you know if you're not ready to receive it then then God can't give you that word.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Good point. Rick I seen you Jocelyn you got a note over there you you got something uh you got a golden nugget.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Yeah just well not a golden nugget it was just something I was I want to make sure we get in as we wind this thing down. Um if you know somebody the let me just start off with the family. The first person's gonna know something spiritually is wrong is within the own family. When a husband and wife or children or something in the home let's just use the father for a minute and uh it's a Christian family and that dad's going through the silence of God, the wife may not be the children may not be and uh they notice that something's just not right. And so that's hard to watch somebody else go through the silence of God. You're excited and you don't want to be overly excited because you realize that person there is struggling with some things and you know God is silent and uh they're not excited about the things and it's hard being in close relationships with people when the silence of God hits one of them. And so if you have a friend or family member going through that man pray for them lift them up before the Lord and help them be patient with them and uh just do all that you can to be there for them because they're going through a hard difficult time and uh all kinds of emotions are involved in it. And they just need some caring understanding people alongside them that that you're gonna bombard heaven for them and be there for them to help them through this silence. Because you just may be what God has brought into their life to break that silence.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Right and if you're listening and you know somebody's going through it, for heaven's sake, don't be friends like Job had who'd say man what kind of sin you you committing that we need to know about you don't need enemies when you got friends like that. Yeah if you're around people like that and God's silent and you know in your spirit that you are totally innocent of anything iniquity wise you need to need to say hey guys y'all need to go home all right I'll call you and tell you when to come back over here don't go get Joe's wife either don't start telling me everything I've done wrong.

SPEAKER_04 24:49

Wife to be supportive of that time be supportive of that time.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Yeah the last when you're going through a time of silence in the Lord the last thing you need is critics and warriors and those who want to kind of pry in information just trying to be nosy because that's how Joe's friends were and so be mindful of that and be sensitive to that and you know the last thing you need to do is try and be some kind of wise guard. Yeah exactly you know just sometimes you don't need to say nothing just be there. Yeah that's right just let them know that you're there. So a lot can be said about that but uh if you're listening today and maybe you've you've been a Christian now for a short amount of time and you say well you know I haven't got to that point yet it's gonna come and it's not because God's mad it's not because God is at uh trying to break you it's not because God's abandoned you but sometimes in life especially in your Christian life you just got to go through those moments and I'll be honest with you when you begin to think about it and looking through it it we're reminded that if our faith can't be tested it can't be trusted. If our faith can't be tested it can't be trusted. So sometimes it's you'll come out of those moments stronger than you were. Yeah because you're you're you're reminded that you know what uh just like any other challenge in life my spiritual life's gonna be the same way. Yeah I'm gonna go through those moments where I feel like nobody's here uh but it's one of those things where God's trying to teach you something. And I do believe in 2026 one of our biggest problems is what Chris said a while ago is we're just too busy. Yeah. When God has to put you in a place where where you feel he's no longer talking, he's got you. Because if you're really walking with Christ and all of a sudden it's like the communication line's been shut down all of a sudden he's got your attention now.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

You know now you realize okay what what's what's going on here? You know let's just look we need to stop everything until we get plugged back in.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Yeah it's like a cell phone we gotta we gotta shut ourselves off and reboot.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

That's very true. That's very true.

SPEAKER_04 26:50

And sometimes we need to be rebooted off to or or or just the boot period sometimes we need a good swift kick in the pants instead we get ourselves out of a funk.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Amen.

SPEAKER_04 27:01

Christian closing comments the uh I just got you know uh you know I know it's hard when things are silent and we feel alone but know that if you are a believer God will never leave you sometimes being silent and being still is when God's fixing to real somet reveal something great so the uh you know don't don't don't be that person that uh that just gives up you know if if if if God like Jesse said it's God's God's getting ready to do something for you. Do something in your life and maybe it's not something that you think is great. Maybe it's removing somebody out of your life that doesn't need to be in your life. Maybe you're holding on to a relationship that shouldn't be that that that God didn't want you even in as far as maybe it's you know you're praying for a job uh that uh you're not happy where you're at but maybe God's got you in that job. Maybe God put you in the job where you're at because he's got somebody there he wants you to witness to and something he wants you to accomplish so just just don't lose hope and don't don't uh get upset just just just stay focused.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

I just say uh when you don't know what to do and God is silent keep doing the last thing you were doing don't don't stop doing everything. Keep doing what you were doing keep praying keep seeking God keep reading keep praying keep keep praying keep reading the Bible keep going to church just keep doing the last things you were doing until God uh opens the clouds again and speaks.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

And I would just say and that this verse just popped in my mind listening to Chris talk I would just say in the silent times that verse we use a lot just be still and know that I'm God as Amos said you're gonna run everywhere looking for a word it's not there. Just be still be still and know that I am God. Be reminded that you might not know what I'm doing but I know where you at you might not know what I'm I'm up to but I know where you are you might not know what I got planned but I know what's going on with you. You know the problem is and I don't I'm I'm speaking for me personally the problem is when we go through the silent times we do want to go find the word yeah we do want to go chase down an answer. And many times God's like no I I put you here to be quiet. It's kind of it's kind of like time out in time out in class. You sit in the corner the teacher's not mad but I got to need to teach you something. So thank you guys for listening you know I don't as we said I don't know what um level or what stage you may be in your Christian life if you're a newborn you know maybe you're a toddler maybe you're starting to walk maybe you've been saved for a long time but regardless of where you at that we go through those moments in life where we just wonder what's God doing, you know, what's God up to and during those times as we said this morning don't try and chase things down. Don't try and outsmart God don't try and figure it out sometimes it's just in the way if we could learn to if we could learn to enjoy the waiting life would be so much better. It's the hard part yeah because we want it now waiting is just not natural it's not who we are. You know it's not our natural gift. So maybe we need to talk about it next time waiting on God. We need to talk about patience and waiting on God. But so thank you guys for tuning in if we can be of any help to you we will here at Pleasant Church uh PDBclanks.com and thank you for listening if you're involved in a church and as Rick said earlier if you know someone going through the tough times just show up just love on them and you know don't try and be Joe's friend and try and figure out what all is going on in their life and then throw all kind of accusations at them that just aren't true. Just love them and be there. So it's 1992 16 year old bus driver what would he do in the silence I believe he was singing how great they are because if there's silence that means the bus is empty