Good morning. Let's go with Lord in prayer
first. Father, be with us. Lord, don't leave us to ourselves,
and if you be not with us, don't let us go. As you see fit, Lord,
add to your church daily. Father, there's water in the
brook. Lord, while your rain and your dew come in this dry
and desolate land, save a widow. with child that's poor and needy.
Find a poor and needy soul, Lord, and let us preach to them. Allow
us to tell your word and your promises. Give us ears to hear. Gather two or three in your name
as it pleases you, Lord. In Christ's name we ask it, amen. 1 Kings 17. Hopefully this morning we can
see the prophet, the widow, the message, and the reaction to
the message. There are two stories this morning.
This will be our first one. 1 Kings 17. I want
us to see the prophet, the widow, the message, and the reaction
this morning. There's two stories we're going
to be looking at. I didn't really know which one I was going to
preach first, and I don't know that I'll preach a second one.
This may be the only thing for us today. But both stories we're
going to see are so similar. This one and Rachel being family,
that faithful servant. They're both so similar. The
first one we're going to look at this morning, it's more the
way you and I see things, more the way we feel. the way we understand
this world. And in the second hour, that's
the way the Lord sees it. That's much more precious than
the way I see it. And our perception has no impact
on His reality, and I'm thankful to Him for that. Here in 1 Kings
17, we read of a prophet named Elijah. This is the first mention
of him. And he's speaking to King Ahab. Ahab was married to
a woman named Jezebel. And it says in the previous chapter,
Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than
all the kings of Israel that were before him. That's quite
a charge. Here comes God's prophet. Where'd
he come from? Don't say, does it? When did Elijah die? He didn't. Lord come and took him. And if
it's appointed to man once to die in the judgment, maybe it
ain't physical death the Lord's talking about. Did Elijah die? He died in Adam,
didn't he? I hope we can learn some things.
Let's read a text here in 1 Kings 17. And Elijah the Tishbite,
who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, here's
Elijah the prophet's first message that he ever preached. As the
Lord God of Israel liveth, and he does. What a message. We could just stop there for
about two or three months, couldn't we? as he liveth before whom I stand. Do you stand
before another? How does he stand? Who can stand
before the Lord? A man saved by Christ's blood,
can't he? He knows something. As the Lord God of Israel liveth
before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years But according to my word, operatively,
it ain't gonna rain, and you ain't even gonna see as much
as the dew pulled up in the morning until I say so. I thought about setting down
for a fire for effect on that one. Till I speak, it ain't gonna
rain, and you ain't even gonna have dew operatively. Operatively. how that comes to pass in the
world. It ain't gonna rain. There ain't even gonna be humidity.
We won't recover our humidity at nighttime. There ain't gonna
be no dew. That's gonna change some people,
if God's pleased to do so. And if not, they'll just die
of thirst. That's all I had to say. It ain't gonna rain, there
ain't gonna be no dew until I say. And the word of the Lord came
unto him saying, Get thee hence, and return thee eastward, and
hide thyself in the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it
shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded
the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did according
unto the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt by the brook
Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread
and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening.
And he drank of the brook, and it came to pass after a while
that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the
land. And the word of the Lord came
on him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongs to
Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow
woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate
of the city, when he came to the door of the city, behold,
The widow woman was there gathering of sticks, and he called to her
and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel that
I may drink. And as she was going to fetch, he called to her and
said, bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. What a message, what a convicting
message. And she said, as the Lord thy
God liveth, I have not a cake, I said, Lord, your God liveth. I have not a cake, but a handful
of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruise and behold, I'm
gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and
my son, that we may eat and die. And Elijah said in here, fear
not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me therefore a little
cake first, bring it unto me and after, make for thee and
for thy son. Four, thus saith the Lord God
of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall
the cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth
rain upon the earth. And she went and did according
to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did
eat many days, a whole year. And the barrel of meal wasted
not, neither did the cruise of oil fail. according to the word
of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah." This famine that was
brought on was on purpose. It was a needed famine. It was
a needed famine, and it physically happened. They didn't have much
meal, and there was nothing to grow, and the cattle was all
sick and starving to death, and they started buying water from
other places. Have you ever heard of such a
thing? Happened right up the road that way, isn't it? Maybe
we ought to pay attention. But what's he talking about whenever
Elijah said, as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom
I stand, there shall not be dune or rain these years? Why didn't
he just say it's gonna be a drought? Why did he say dew or rain? Turn
over to Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32. Look here in verse 1. Deuteronomy 32, 1. Give ear,
O ye heavens, and I will speak. And hear, O earth, the words
of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain. Ain't gonna be no rain. And my
speech, the word of the Lord, shall distill as the dew. You ain't gonna have no doctrine.
More importantly, you ain't gonna have no dew. The word of the
Lord ain't gonna be there. As a small rain upon the tender
herb and as the showers upon the grass, because I will publish
the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He's
the rock. His work is perfect for all his
ways of judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is he. That's precious. That's good
doctrine. What's your doctrine? He's the
rock. He's perfect. What's his word? He's the rock,
and he's perfect. All his ways are judgment. He's
a God of truth. He has no iniquity, and he's
right and just. There'll come a time when that's
a famine. Our brother Paul Mahan, I thanked him that day. I said,
thank you so much, Paul. Oh, I love you. I'm so thankful
for you. He said, what I do deserve that?
I said, years ago, you preached from this text. I'm gonna preach
from tomorrow. I said, and if nobody thanked you that day,
I thank you now. Oh, that's wonderful, that's
precious. Like if you was thirsty and you got a glass of water
and you gotta drink it. Oh, drink till you hurt. Oh,
till your side starts hurting. And then just, and again, fill
that water up again. I don't want this to happen.
I don't want to have me in another full thing. Turn over to Amos
4. Amos. Here's what happens whenever
the Lord's words dried up. Amos 4, it's one of the minor
prophets. It's after you find Isaiah in a couple books, you
have Daniel. You got Hosea, Joel, and Amos. If you get to Obadiah
and Micah, you went too far. Amos 4. Amos 4, verse 6, Lord speaks
so plain. He's a master artist that uses
words to paint a picture. I mean, it's amazing to me. I never get to, I saw this I
brushed my teeth this morning and brushed my teeth last night.
Amos 4, 6. And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all
your cities. That's masterful. Cleanness of
teeth. You know what that means? Let
me tell you what that means. You ain't got nothing stuck in
your teeth. Every time I get something stuck, it's right there
in that one spot. And after I go brush it, oh, I didn't even see
that. And they're sucking their teeth. They're making horrible
noises. Boy, it hurts my ears so bad.
Why? They ain't got nothing to eat. Your teeth's clean as a
whistle. Because you're gonna starve to death. Who did that? Who does this famine? God did. Elijah just told them what the
Lord said, didn't he? And I also have given you cleanness of teeth
in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places.
Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. This country
may be, it's been a long time since we've seen a famine, and
since it's just been, I mean, dire straits. We've had it too
good for too long. And if the Lord seemed fit to
do so, to bring horrible trials to this nation, who's gonna call
out on him who sent the trial? When was the last time it rained?
Was it a month ago? Did you go outside, look up,
say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for your rain. This
morning I walked outside and dew was dripping off the roof.
There's a couple little wet spots here and there. And that one
flower bed, we get watered by the dew dripping off the, I don't
even have to water it. Lord waters it. Thank you for
that dew, Lord. Thank you for watering my plants today. Verse seven, and also have I
withholding the rain from you when there were yet three months
to harvest. I was trying to think of some plants. A couple of them
go more than three months to harvest when you plant them.
Pumpkins maybe, one or two of them. Just about anything's harvested
within 90 days, mostly 60 to 90 days. And he said, you've
put your seeds in the ground thinking you're gonna eat. That's
whenever I sent the drought. right whenever you think you're
just planting seed. Oh, we're sowing churches. I'll send a
drought. And I caused it to rain upon
one city and caused it not to rain upon the other city. One
piece was rained upon and the piece whereupon it rained not
withered. So two or three cities wandered into one city to drink
water, but they were not satisfied. Yet have I not returned unto
me, saith the Lord. They gathered together. Try to
find water. What's he talking about? Amos
8, verse 11. A couple pages, Amos 8. Verse 11. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine
of bread, nor a thirst for water. Not just that, that happened
operatively, but speculatively, spiritually, not practically,
but spiritually. but a hearing of the words of the Lord. And
they shall wander from sea to sea, from the Pacific to the
Atlantic, and from north even to the east, and shall run to
and fro and seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it.
And that day shall the fair virgins, those that seem so pure, and young men, strong, they're
gonna faint. You're gonna kill over dead from
thirst. I've seen physical famine in
my life. I saw little tiny people, little short people with distended
bellies, where it looks like they just ate Thanksgiving dinner,
they're all swelled out, flies landing on their eyeballs and
walking around, they don't even blink. I've seen physical famine, I've
experienced it, I've seen it. That changed me. Do you get that? Can you enter into that? I've
seen those, you've seen them, brother. That changed me. That changed
me. If you ever entertain the thought
of a spiritual famine, It'll change you. Some of you
have. Some of you have been fed briefly,
and then that table got cleared. They want no plates, no forks,
no tablecloths, no nothing. If you entertain the thought
of a spiritual famine, it'll change you. Old wore-out cassette
tapes and whatever newfangled digital devices they have ain't
gonna cut it. We need fellowship. We need to hear. Hear! with our
ears from somebody's mouth. If you've ever entertained the
thought of a spiritual famine, it'll change you. We can't store
up manna for tomorrow. I'll tell you what, I'm gonna
go weave two or three baskets from whenever it comes next. Dang
it, I'm gonna keep me and you all on reserve in case I gotta
move. Wow, why does the Lord send physical
famine? Why does he send spiritual famine?
Just like Naomi and Ruth. Naomi was taken down there to
Moab. God killed her whole family. Why? Christ had to come. Ruth had to come with her. That's
precious. Why was there a census done?
Why is a government numbering its people and charging us taxes?
So Christ could be born in Bethlehem. Isn't that right? So the Lord
could save his people. Why do we have hope when hard
things come? We know our only hope, just as
David did. He said in Psalm 33, Behold,
the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that
hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death, to keep
them alive from famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord.
He is our help and our shield. It's Elijah. He has no recorded
beginning and we know he didn't die physically. The Lord carried
him away. Is he like us? This one that
preached, James told us that, I'm thankful I found that. Eliza
was a man subject to like passions as we are. He was no different
than me. And he prayed earnestly that
it might not rain. And it rained not on the earth
in the space of three years and six months. And then you know
how the rain came back? He spoke, he prayed. What a powerful thing. First message he ever preached.
was right here, back in our text, 1 Kings 17. And Eliza of Tishbite,
who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the
Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not
be dune or rain these years, but according to my word. That
was it. That was his whole message. And
the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence,
and turn thee east, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith,
as before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt
drink of the brook Now I've commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
I'm gonna provide for you. The Lord ain't without a witness.
Now he was protected. He was hidden. He didn't have
any enemies. He had plenty of food. He was
a man just like me. You think it was ever about 1.30
in the evening? Because them ravens brought him
meat and bread in the mornings and meat and bread in the evenings.
He's got two good meals a day. You think maybe about 1.45 he went,
I'm hungry. He's about a year and a half
in. You thinking ravens will come this evening? I don't know
if he'll come. He'd like me. That's what I think.
But the Lord had him there. And I was going, I could go on
for several days about these ravens. But there's a man up
in New York City, I knew, got a ticket one time. He trained
ravens, crows to go steal money out of people's pockets and then
bring it back. He didn't work. Guy made like
$100,000 a year sitting in his apartment. Might want to get
in the bird training business. And I thought, the Lord trained
these ravens. He commanded them to go get my servant food. And
they went and got it, didn't they? Then yesterday, my pastor
didn't know I was preaching on this. This ain't Psalm 25, is
it? We're not in Psalms this morning. He sent me a thing,
a big old eagle, had a baby goat, I bet that thing weighed 30 pounds,
taking it down a hill. Both of them tumbling together,
he had to stick his wings out. And I thought, here, this whole,
my whole life, I thought Elijah probably just had just a little
old hunk of meat and just a little piece of bread. He probably had
a full goat. Lord provided abundantly for
him, didn't he? It says, and he did, he went
and did according to the word of the Lord, verse five, for
he went and dwelt by the brook of Shareth, that is before Jordan,
and the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and
bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook. Had
a creek running right next to him during a horrible drought
that brought on horrible famine. All he was provided for in such
comfort. He didn't have any prophesying
to do, he didn't have to deal with any enemies. He was protected,
he was hidden. Plenty of food in this harsh
famine, plenty of water. This horrible drought. Comfy. Comfy, wasn't it? Lord, don't
leave us comfortable too long. You start getting good and comfortable,
you better watch it. If you're His, you better watch
it. It's gonna come, isn't it? The Lord didn't leave him there.
If the Lord has a prophet, He's gonna use him. If the Lord makes
somebody a preacher, He's gonna make him preach. If He has a
child, they're gonna be a profitable child, a profitable servant.
He's gonna put him to work. Verse 7, And it came to pass,
while at the brook right up, because there had been no rain
in the land. Time passed, the brook dried
up. Physically, you wouldn't disagree
with me one bit in the world. We may have the world's largest
concrete structure that's a bridge, not too many hours from here,
real soon, if the Lord's so pleased to dry this place up. If there
ain't no water, if there's no water in the brook, you can dig
all the wells you want and you can't get no water, move. Well,
Kevin, I get that. If it comes to that, I get that.
If the Lord ever dries up a place where there's no spiritual dew
or rain, move. Ain't nobody done it yet, but
if it happens, move, up, go. The purpose of this famine, millions
of people dying, millions and millions of animals dying and
perishing, was to save one Gentile woman. Do you know that? Verse eight. And the word of
the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath,
which belongeth to Zidon. Here it is, Tyre and Sidon, and
dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow
woman there to sustain thee." I was sustaining you, this was
miraculous. I had ravens, not doves, I had ravens come and
take care of you. They brought you meat, they brought
you bread. Twice a day I had a brook right there for you the
whole time, however long it was. He was with her at least a year,
so it was a good patch of time. And I protected you the whole
time. That was miraculous. Now, I want you to go down to
this Gentile land and I got a widow woman down there, she's going
to sustain you. That's what he tells his prophet. There's so many things that aren't
understood in this generation that I think is absolutely deplorable
and ought to, over time, the Lord will teach us, it's absolutely
terrible. But I want to put these in perspective for you of what
ought to be horrible. Here was a Jewish prophet, God's
prophet to Israel, and God said, you go to the Gentiles. What? It would never occur to me. It
wouldn't even cross my mind to go to them Gentiles. You go out
to the heathen world, go to the heathens, I'm gonna use them
to take care of you. On top of that, that's bad enough. You
go to a woman. It's a shameful thing if a woman's
gonna provide for a man. God told his prophet, you go
to the heathen, you go to a woman, And you go to that woman that's
a widow. You're in a famine. His word's
nowhere. His food's nowhere. His reign's
nowhere. And you go to a woman, Gentile
woman, that's a widow. She has no man take care of her.
She's going to sustain you. Oh, by the way, she has a child. Does any of this make sense to
you? It ought not. It ought not. Go to the world, go to the heathens.
A woman who shouldn't use the authority of a man, she should
be depending on her husband. She don't have a husband, she's
a widow and she's got a child. The Lord said that's who I'm
going to use to sustain you in this horrible drought that I've
sent in the word of the Lord and physically. and will starve
to death left and right. You go to her. Does that make
sense to you? So he arose and went to Zarephath.
He went. Yes, Lord. He up and went. Does
it make sense? Don't make a lick of sense to
me, but I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. He believed God,
didn't he? These unlikely means was the
very ones our Lord was going to save and elect child of his. What's this? Is this just some
widow happened to make him a cake? This is election. This is how
God promised to save some people that sinned against him. Didn't
even know him. They weren't looking for him.
Our Lord preached this on good ground, ain't we? Verily I say
unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell
you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel. So
he's telling those Israelites, those ones that believed in election,
they thought they was it. He said there's a whole mess
of widows in Israel. In the days of Elijah, the days of this famine
I sent, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,
when great famine was throughout the land. But unto none of them
was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman
that was a widow." God sent this whole famine, did all this to
save one widow woman that was His, that He loved before time
was. All these things that are contrary
to just good common sense sometimes. That's horrible! Sins of the
mankind. Ahab's out there worshiping Baal
as hard as he can go. God didn't save one widow woman. But first,
there must be a need made manifest. Lord, don't just show up and
hit peaches and cream and just hand you everything you want.
That ain't how it works. A need's gonna be, nothing's
changed. Nothing's changed. The Holy Ghost has gotta come
and convict this woman of sin. Do you know that? That's what
has to happen. We'll convict of Christ's righteousness, that
every word that comes out of his mouth's true, and that judgment's
done. It's all wrapped up. Verse 10,
I'll hurry. So he arose and went to Zarephath,
and when he came to the gate of the city, where does God's
people gather? Across the door, where he's preached,
isn't it? There wasn't nobody preaching
there, but she was at church anyways, so that's where they
used to preach. I don't know. His spirit went ahead, we'll
see it next hour. He went to the gate of the city. Behold,
a widow woman was there gathering sticks. And he called her and
said, fetch me, I pray thee. That means go do it now. Fetch
me right now a little water in a vessel. He didn't say I need
five gallons. You just go get me a little water
in the vessel that I may drink. Practically, it hadn't rained
in years. Go get me some water. Well, that's
impossible. Are you crazy? It ain't even
dew falling off the rain. We can catch five gallon buckets.
That's impossible. Have we heard this before? Go
get me a drink. We're going to hear it next hour. The Lord told
that woman, give me to drink because the disciples were in
the city buying meat. The woman said, how is it thou, being a
Jew, ask me to drink? Which is a woman of Samaritan,
for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. And he said, if thou knewest
the gift of God, and who it was that saith to thee, give me to
drink, thou would have asked him, and he would have given
thee living water. But he asked this woman, give
me something to drink. Give me something to drink. Just like
Eleazar's gonna ask Rachel, give me a drink, I pray thee. A little
pitcher of water. He didn't say a whole bunch,
a little pitcher of water. But we remember, though, That's physically,
that's shocking, isn't it? Ask you to do something you can't
do. She took off running. There must have been a little bit of
something. But what was that rain? What was that water? My doctrine
shall drop as rain. My speech shall distill as the
dew. Well, spiritually, he said, you get me some sound doctrine.
Oh man, anybody can do that. We can scrounge up some doctrine.
People love doctrine. Doctrine's all over the place.
Dime a dozen. Let me see what I can scrounge
up for you. The doctrine doesn't save, it
divides. Do you know that? The scriptures alone do not save
somebody. Christ must. The God of the scriptures
must save. I can get you doctrine. I'll
get you some proof, verses. Versitis. Oh, what a horrible
thing. Deplorable. That's a shame. That's
what that is. Hold on, I'll go get it. Verse
11, as she was going to fetch it, I can get that. Oh, Elijah,
just like me, He said something with an intended outcome and
it didn't work too well. It backfired on him. So he had to dig a little
deeper. He had to swing a little harder
for the fences. And he called to her and said, bring me, I
pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. You get me a little
water, but you get me a piece of bread too. You bring me Christ. Don't just bring me your doctrine
that anybody can go get in dime stores. You bring me Christ,
who the doctrine's about. Bring me the bread of life. And
she said, Lord, as the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake.
I don't have that. Oh, she's needy. Physically, yeah, she didn't
have no water and she didn't have no cakes. She didn't have bread
prepared. She was physically needy. But boy, spiritually,
she was needy. She was needy. And she said,
as the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of
meal in a barrel. If I can get to it, that's precious.
It's in a barrel. You know what a barrel is? Big,
ain't it? I got a handful of meal in a
barrel and a little oil in a cruise. And behold, I'm gathering two
sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we
may eat and die. I'm poor and needy. You know
what that means? I ain't got nothing. I can't
come up with nothing. I ain't worth nothing. And I'm
going to die. That's poor and needy. There've
been a lot of people, Lord saves, that were poor, physically poor,
not lazy. What was she out doing? She was
out getting two sticks, wasn't she? She may have only had that
last biscuit, but she went out and she got the sticks to make
the food with to feed her child. She didn't take advantage of
some government program, and she didn't excuse herself for
one reason or another to be accepted and justified in her own mind
while taking handouts, and she didn't look to lean on somebody
else and take advantage of them. We need to hear this as trials
begin to come to this nation. The Lord's people aren't to be
begging bread. Is that right? Is that what David
said? I've been young and I've been old and I've never seen the Lord's
people begging bread. Why? They take care of each other.
I can waive my, well, the first two years, I can't now. I could
waive my social security. I don't have to put in social
security. You know how much that saved me? You know, why would the government
let somebody do that? Because the Lord's people take
care of the Lord's people. The Lord takes care of them.
He provides for them and they take care of one another. The
government recognized, our evil, wicked, stupid government recognizes
that. Those people aren't to be begging
bread, they're not to be taking advantage of people, they're
to support one another. And this woman's needy and she
knows it. And she knows it leads to death for her and those family
members of her and everybody like her. If we don't have Christ
the bread of life, we're gonna die. We're on the same boat.
And verse 13, Elijah said unto her, fear not. That's good, isn't
it? We heard that a lot throughout
the scriptures. Those people are scared. They might be physically
poor, and they're poor in spirit, and they're needy, and they're
afraid. Their soul has value to them. We hear, fear not, how precious.
Fear not, go and do as thou hast, but make me therefore a little
cake first, and bring it unto me. I ain't coming to your house,
you bring it to me. And after, make for thee and thy son. What's
he telling her? Have faith. You're poor and needy.
What'd our Lord say? Let not your heart be troubled.
Fear not. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Believe in God. Have faith. Act on it. Don't
just have it and lock it in a safe somewhere in your basement. Fear
not. Go do what I tell you. And you
give of your firstfruits. Not everything, just a little
bit. As you've been increased, you give of your firstfruits.
You go make me a little cake. And you give it to me first. Believers
need to support the furtherance of the gospel, and you ought
to do that with your firstfruits. If you don't want to support
here, or wherever, somebody listening, wherever they are, if they don't
want to support there, that's fine. You send it to another faithful
work. It'll be good for you, and it'll be good for them. But
believers need to support the gospel work. Earnestly. And they will. The Lord makes his people generous,
and kind, and care. We'll sit next hour. They go
above and beyond. His people do. Now them ravens,
they brought Elijah, whatever God commanded about. I bet those
over there were eating as hard as they could before they loaded up their
little claws, didn't they? That's what I have to bring.
Paul talks about that. Don't give to necessity. Give
joyfully. People said, well, this here's taking advantage
of widows. Our Lord spoke of that in Mark 12. Wear the scribes
which love to go in long clothing and love salutations in the marketplace
and titles. And look at my fancy outfits.
Ugh. The chief seats in the synagogue
and the uppermost rooms at the feast so they could be seen to
men, which devour widows' houses. That's what they do. And for
a pretense, make long prayers. These shall receive greater damnation. But rather, that's not what this
is, is it? Elijah go down there to devour that woman's house?
He went on the promises of God. He went on the command and will
of God, didn't he? What's she doing? How could she? What in
the world would make her go take, that's the last one, and make
him a little cake, like pinch him off a little piece and bake
that first for God's profit? Wherefore take no thought saying,
what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall
we be clothed for after? These things are Gentiles. That's the
heat of it. She's a Gentile, but the Lord's saying in the
world, for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have needed
these things. It's just a biscuit. If he could provide his son,
if he gave his son for us, We'll be all right with some biscuits,
won't we? But seek ye first the kingdom of God. First, first.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and
all these shall be added unto you. She went to go make him
a biscuit first. Who's helping who here? She's
here to sustain Elijah, what the Lord said, isn't it? Oh,
but Elijah's doing something for her. Elijah's doing something
for her. You think she's hard to live
with? They're going to be together for a year. I'm gonna make you a
biscuit, you stay on that side of the house. That ain't the
heart of God's people, is it? It ain't. She might have had
some moments here and there. She sustained Elijah, but Elijah
was gonna do something for her. We've met the prophet. We've
met the poor, needy widow. Command was given, faith, believe.
What do we command to do? Believe on the Son of God. Repent
and believe. Believe, repent, be baptized.
You know what we're told to do? He said, have faith, fear not. Here's the message. Why in the
world would this woman believe this prophet? How can she even
know he's a prophet? How could she know that this
is God's man? Verse 14, for, because. You see that? Look down
at it. Verse 14, for thus saith the
Lord God of Israel. Here's the message. God said,
the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise
of oil fail. until the day of the Lord sendeth
rain upon the earth. That meal you have, it will not
fail. That oil you have, it will not
go away. Until God's pleased to send rain,
send life, and that's not needed anymore. It ain't gonna fail.
Does that mean you ain't gonna go hungry and when SDG&E's rate
hikes go up, that we ain't gonna be in the poorhouse? No, you
might end up in the poorhouse. You may be switching back and
forth between beans and rice and rice and beans. Mix things
up a little bit. That may happen. But the bread, the meal, the
body of Christ, it ain't gonna fail. It's gonna be sufficient
just for you as long as it's needed. And that oil, that anointing
oil, that's what God declares holy. If it touches it, whatever
that oil touches is holy. It's mine, he told Moses. the
blood of Christ, whatever on them doorposts, wherever it is,
wherever it's applied, that ain't gonna fail. Why? God said so. God says the person
and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ shall not fail till the
rains come back, till his word comes, till we pass over the
Jordan and we're with him in glory. Then we won't need faith. We'll have sight. It'll be gone.
Love will remain, won't it? God made this promise to this
woman, but let me tell you something. God does not make promises except
to needy folks. If you can do it yourself, these
promises are not for you. If you can, well, I can borrow
a little bit of meal off of my neighbor. I can borrow a little bit of
meal off of what I had years ago. There's a message I listened
to. Boy, is this precious. These
promises ain't for you. These are promises for needy
folks. Sin of God, only telling the words of the Lord. That's
what God says. The widow, needy, poor, but she's
the Lord's widow, isn't she? The message, fear not, the Lord
provides. Isn't that it? Isn't that what
he's saying? By the word of the Lord, he's gonna provide what's
needed, whatever's needed. He's gonna provide it. He provides
everything needed for life. What's the response? If there
was ever, if I could find an old widow, Gentile, widow, poor,
with a child. I mean dire straits that needed
something. Get a word from the Lord and
give it to her. What would be the response? Verse
15, and she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. Obedience
and faith go hand in hand. You hear me? Lord said, I know
my sheep. I call them by name and they
follow me. Not, that one's mine. Hooey. They followed him. She obeyed
and she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. Was
this Elijah's doing? Did he have his wield over this
widow? He just told her what the Lord
says. What he commanded. And she and he and her house
did eat many days for a year. And the barrel of meal wasted
not. Neither did the crews of oil
fail according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah. God provided the meal and the
oil every day, just like those ravens had. Elijah had experienced
this. He knew what it was like, and
so he could go tell his sister what this was like. That's why
we need each other. That's why there must be two
or three gathered, fitly framed together. We need each other.
We need fellowship. One can go through a trial and look at the
other one and say, I've lived through this. Just like Samuel went and anointed
David, and David's like, I'm just a teenager, man. What in
the world's going on? Sam said, I was too. I've lived
that part like you have. Let me tell you what God did.
He provided. Message don't change, does it? It don't change. The Lord provided that oil every
day. It wasn't filled up once a week and they had a whole bunch,
but manna, just like the manna, it was every day. And like that
manna, the children of Israel, they had to bend down to get
it. It was on the ground, wasn't it? You got to stoop. Like Rachel's
going to have to get off that high camel. You won't have to
get knocked off your high horse and stoop down and get that manna.
This was in a barrel, wasn't it? You imagine a little old
woman. Here's a 55 gallon drum. Where's that little one scoop
of meal at? Down at the bottom? You get that? She had to reach
down every time. And you know what she found down
there? What was needed of the Lord. You've got the bottom of the
barrel standing right in front of you. I'm His. I've got his meal. There's just a little bit and
it's down at the bottom. She had to reach down and get that
handful. That's good, isn't it? I don't need to get too trusting
of what the Lord's given me. I need to reach for it every
day. I need to lean on him and see his mercies every day. I
need that. Could you imagine if that barrel
was full? I'd trust it. Can you imagine? He said, go
down and find a widow. What if she had a big old W tattooed
on her forehead? What's the big sign on top of her leg? What
if we heard a message one time and I thought that right there,
now I know I'm a, I'd worship that and not the one that saved
me. You see that? We're not to trust what the Lord
has given us, the fruits of the spirit, the love, anything. But
we're to trust the one that gives it. See that? That's what she
did. People argue with me. Later,
Elijah brings her son back to life. She said, now I know. No, no, you're the Lord's man.
She's been living with it for a year, but eating this meal.
When does she know? I don't know if she's alive during
the famine, wasn't she? God's prophet came, she ate what
he gave her, what the Lord provided. She stayed alive, and then she
kind of come to a little bit later, huh? All right, let's
pray together. Father, thank you for this hour. Lord, give
us our daily bread. Give us our meal and our oil
today. Lord, give us the strength and
the heart of love to go gather sticks, to serve you, to do what
you've put in our hand as unto our Lord. Make us that way. We're
so feeble, Lord, and so needy in a dry and thirsty land. Be
with us as you see fit, Lord, and if it pleases you to dry
up a brook, move us. Like Jonah, Lord, make us where
you want us. We know you will, Lord, but we
petition, we ask anyway. Keep us as you promised you will
keep us. Sustain us as you've promised to provide, as your
name declares. Lord, allow us to tell others
of it. It's in Christ's precious name that we ask it. Amen. All
right, brethren. We'll take about a 15-minute
break.