2 KINGS 4:1-7 (PASTOR TONY CLARK) 01/06/2019

[Music] turn with me in your Bibles to second Kings chapter 4 2nd Kings chapter 4 we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 7 father we pray that your spirit will meet us here we pray God that your Holy Spirit would teach us we pray God that your spirit would lead us and guide us into all truth Lord there are many people struggling in their finances so we pray that you and your word will help us today in Jesus name Amen 2nd Kings chapter 4 and we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 7 the title of this message is it starts in your house it starts in your house now let me just start off by saying that God wants you out of debt and into freedom God wants you to be able to come to church and praise and worship Him many of you are unable to praise and worship God because of the mountain of bills and debt that you're under at home and it's quenched your worship it's quenched your spirit the only music that you're hearing is that is the phone ringing and the other person the creditor on the other line are singing you two blues about the bills you all and many you find yourself unable handcuffed to worship God because of the debt that you're in but I want you to know that there's hope for you today there's always hope when it comes to God when God enters the equation there's always hope for you and for me no matter how much the bills are piling up because God wants us to be free to worship Him he wants us to be free and sometimes these things these bills these creditors the phone ringing and then you stop even answering your phone when you see that weird number come up on your cell phone you know you already know what it is that's strange area code and you know I'm not getting it do you stop answering the phone you when you go to the mailbox you just drag to open it up because you know it's just gonna be more bills piling up and many of you have cried yourself to sleep because of the mountain of bills and the debt that you're under but I'm here to tell you that God wants you out of debt he wants to give you some hope and in the next few weeks we're going to be talking about and showing you how God has been canceling debt for people for a long time so doing that for you today is no big deal for him in fact the foundation of our Christian faith is based on the fact that God forgave our debt the debt of our sin through the sacrifice of the son Jesus Christ this is the most important debt that you can have counsel is the debt of your sin or I've asked you today do you know that your sins are forgiven today that's the most important debt that you can ever have cancelled is the debt of your sin that Jesus died on the cross for do you know that today do you have that that sort of assurance and when you stand before God you won't stand before him guilty you stand before him innocent because of the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for your sin that's the most important debt you can ever have cancelled and so we're gonna dive in now and see what the Word of God has to say concerning these things look what it says in verse 1 I said there's certain woman of the wives of the sons of the Prophet cried out to Elijah saying your servant my husband is dead and you know that your servant feared the Lord and the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves so here we see we're introduced to Elijah who's the protege of Elijah they were both spiritual leaders doing a very dark period in Israel's history and even though both of them were very heroic men the way that they ministered was was very different and Elijah was a fiery old prophet that separated himself from the everyday people and he preached these fiery messages of judgment that demanded repentance but Elijah on the other hand lived among the common people he made his business to hang with the down-and-out folks and as a preacher his primary message was one of grace and mercy and hope so it was not unusual for a poor distraught woman to come to him and search for assistance but there's a couple of things I want to bring to your attention be or we leave this verse notice number one there this certain woman was a widow this is amazing to me because she was single by way of death there's five categories of single and she was single by way of death so single parents this is a message for you as well and so let me just let me just say there's this particular widows late husband was apparently one of Elijah's assistant then like today ministry was not a lucrative career so this prophets family was already poor the death simply plunged the family into deeper financial crisis certainly the widows husband was not expecting to die before paying off his debt but he died leaving the burden to his family oh man this is the word listen up man this is a word for us make sure that your family has a way to pay off the debt in case you die I know you think you're a Superman and you work out and you take your supplements and you try to eat right and you think you're gonna live forever but the statistics are still the same 10 out of 10 people still die and you're no different so let's make sure this year to make out a will so our families can be taken care of if we happen to die before the debts are paid off because you never know around what corner death is and our families need to be taken care of either through some good life insurance or something like it well I've seen both sides of the equation I've seen where guys you know they're hard-working you who they hard you know they just good men hard-working and then they they pass on and they didn't take care and the burden of that the debt is now left to the poor wife and she don't know what to do she's struggling because he didn't make sure things were squared away on the other hand I've seen where and many times this has happened with people in ministry you know please erase the folks that you see on TV that is a ministry that's got all these cars and homes and so that does not that's that's not the proper that's that's not what's happening most people in ministry are struggling living paycheck-to-paycheck struggling and then they give their heart and lives to ministry then they either get a little too old what they don't quite they've been that we say in sports they lost the step and then the church kicks them to the curve for some younger guy and he doesn't have any no still have a savings he doesn't have any insurance that they couldn't afford he was living check the check or offering to offering and poor wife is left left to deal with the bird deal with this sort of thing and this is terrible and I've seen what things just trying to get better I knew a guy in California pastored a very large church and he was kind of having a bunch of he was getting older and he was getting a little sickly and stuff and but he made sure his wife was taken care of and he just all of a sudden just up and died but his wife will squared away soon as he died stuff started kicking in house was paid off that woman said deuces I'm going to live near my babies and the grandbabies and she doesn't have to work another job because that healthy making sure she was squared away man I know you think you're Superman and you may be young as well you don't know around what corner death is make sure your families your wife isn't scrapping and struggling after you are gone I don't care how many supplements you take it I don't care how many laps you run still ten out of ten people still die still still so make sure your family is taken care of so in these particular days taking and selling of children was the legal means of collecting on a debt according to the Mosaic law what would happen is they would take the children and they had to or whoever it was that was in debt and they had to work to pay off the debt and they had to release them at the year of Jubilee the year Jubilee was every 50 years therefore if if they were in debt couldn't pay the debt and let's say the year Jubilee is in two years well then they will work for two years whether the debt was paid off or not the year Jubilee said you gotta let him go let's say the years you believed was in ten years and they worked they had to work they had to work into that debt was paid off they had to work they had to work now I bring all this up because many people they like critics of the Bible who like to talk about and point out that the Bible supports slavery and when you hear that immediately your Western today twenty-first century mindset goes back to the terrible slavery that was in America that was not what the Bible talked about the Bible is referring to a more employer-employee situation where they will work to pay off their debt and when their debt is paid off then they were set free many of them it was a seven-year deal their debt was paid out then they were set free then watch this let's say you working to pay off your debt and all of a sudden you like I like you you've been good to me I want to keep working for you then they will take his ear and take an instrument and pierce his ear there's nothing new Under the Sun pierce his ear and he will have an earring too when you see them he is saying I am a slave by choice did that happen in American slavery no it's not the same so when people try to hit you up and said the Bible is the white man's and it's all about you know fortunate on the slave and it's a Bible teaches slavery you correct them d him innately and let him know it was not like that so here it is according to the Mosaic law but this guy could come and get her kids oh he could show mercy and just say you know I know your husband just died let me show you a little mercy get a little leeway know that he was not merciful he was ready to come get those boys so y'all gonna work this particular thing off so in desperation she goes to Elisha who was no doubt her late husband spiritual adviser and ministry now the second thing I want to bring to your attention is that this woman had the kind of faith to believe that whatever trouble she was in financially watch this God could work it out she didn't go to the bank for a loan she went to the man of God she didn't go to the pawn shop she went to the man of God plan the lot old never came in her mind she went to the man of God selling drugs or her body did not even come into her mindset she went to the man of God - many of us are looking for worldly solutions before seeking biblical solutions and some of you are so quick to see earthly help before seeking heavenly help oh jesus said is not on the screen for you note-takers Matthew 6:33 says seek ye first the kingdom and his righteousness and all these other things shall be added unto you and if you want God to bless your earthly problems then you need to seek God first if you're a child of God which means you've repented of your sin accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior if you have trusted your eternal soul to him doesn't it only make sense that you seek him first this wisdom you know this one this widow she was not lacking wisdom she might have been lacking wealth but not wisdom and she went to the man of God look with verse this is the the key of this whole message verse 2 so he likes her said to her what shall I do for you tell me what do you have in your house ah stop right there notice she said he said what do you have in your house this is very important whatever counsel he is getting ready to offer to help this widow out of her financial debt notice starts in her house oh you can write it down you note-takers it starts in your house if you want to get out of debt the answer will always start with you simple actions that you can start doing in your own household must be at the foundation of your plan to get out of debt and if you're not willing to do the little things that you can do then you will never get out of debt it starts in your house oh that's it continues and she said your main service has nothing in the house but a jar of oil and then he says go borrow vessels from everywhere from all your neighbors empty vessels do not gather just a few now notice she said that she had nothing in the house but a jar of all see God is able to take what little we have and do great things with it you remember the little boy that had his lunch for five loaves and two fish and God and Jesus took that and what he did was he blessed it and fed 5,000 men counting women and children it was 15 to 20 thousand people that he fed with just a little boy's lunch he can take the little we have and do great things with it notice how he Lysa instructed her in verse 3 to borrow some additional containers from her neighbors notice from everywhere as many as she could do not just gather a few the end of verse three says this shows us that we must do something to get out of debt she had to do something she had to get out there and go borrow sue the CIL's so here's something to take notice of answer her miracle notice was according to her faith and so too it is with us this as well your answer your miracle will be in direct relation to the amount of faith you bring to the table oh let me say this is nothing you know me by now this is not some name it claim it theology which wrongfully turns faith in God into some magical formula to get whatever you want no this is a fundamental principle Jesus said according to your faith let it be unto you in Matthew 9:29 for you note-takers Jesus asked the blind man who came to him to heal him he said jesus said do you believe I'm able to do this and blind man said yeah I believe it Matthew 9 verse 38 28 and I say and James says you have not because you ask not James 4:2 now quite often our blessings will be in accordance to the level of our faith and faith is not a work that we do to somehow influence God to give us some particular thing it is a loving trust in our Creator who first loved us and this Widow I want you to notice something this whittles faith will be in proportion to the amount of vessels she would collect oh this is key here don't miss that look what it says there in verse 4 and when you come in Elijah continues to tell her you shall shut the door behind you and your sons then pour it into all those vessels and set aside the full ones notice he instructs her to shut the door behind you and your sons the point that Elijah was making here was that not only was this particular miracle was going to be a private one but the woman needed to bring her whole family in on what she was about to do they all need it to be in agreement oh please please don't miss this dear people if you're going to work out and get out of debt planning it starts in your house not just with you but the entire family the whole family need to be on the same page and getting out of debt getting out of debt will require things to be done in the house that everyone has to agree on I'm being nice when I say that because really in my house it was everybody who got the money that would mean me and my wife but even the kids had to they won't agree we the ones got the money so they don't agree no that's just how it was when I was raising kids I know it's a little bit different today so that's why I'm trying to be nice when I say that you you get the family may make everybody agree you know in the house you know you give them all that power making them look you know let every I gotta agree they can't find a good fight against it you're teenagers they domain ones they are the main ones you are the main ones teenagers parents those are the ones you're gonna have to deal with the most so parents stand your ground don't give in if you want to get out of debt yeah let me just say this so single moms oh this is the word for you I know I know I know they're your babies and I'm so glad this story shows this notice it shows a single mom of boys I'm so glad it showed that single moms that this is tough I know it is it's tough but folks single moms everyone if you want to get out of debt there are some bad habits that you must remove and we're going to talk about them Roman numeral number one for you note takers we will not visit KFC McDonald's chick-fil-a until the leftovers are gone then everybody in the house has to agree see there are situations where nowadays the kids call one of the parents up at work and tell them to pick up some Wendy's or some Popeyes because they don't want moms leftover spaghetti this kind of behavior will be unacceptable to the family trying to get out of debt now I know I you know my wife reminded me you know in between first and second serves she reminded me that you know for me I I have a leftover limit I got a day limit where to me leftovers have expired so you know and she reminded me mom's this is easy for you to do to stop off at miss Wendy's or go to mister Popeyes because you don't have to cook see so that makes it easy but who wants to get out of debt these are some things that's gonna have to change Roman numeral number two another bad habit that needs to go going to the grocery store and buying more groceries when the previous week's groceries are not gone we've trained our children to open up the cabinet cabinet is full there's nothing there to eat can you can you bring then go to the store and what they're saying is that their particular thing is gone they ate it up you know they're kids they're teenagers so within a day or two they eat up their favorite thing you're getting two and three bowls at a favorite cereal bus and open bags bags of chips and they're gone so so you can't go into the store and get just a bag of chip or a box of cereal you come out with more groceries that's a bad habit that has to go it has to go Roman numeral number three there's another bad habit it has to go working hard families working hard you wasting money by running up credit-card bills because your kids especially your teenagers want the latest Jordans or timberlands or whatever the latest thing they want and the old ones are not worn out yet they barely have a crease in them you know they walk they don't one put the crease in them my wife reminded me because I kiss a grown now my wife reminded me that that that my mother-in-law bought bought my boys some Jordans back in the day one day Tony jr. he come comes home from the bus stop walking in his socks because he didn't want to get the bottoms on the Jordans dirty let alone the crease from walking in them madness madness to me so those shoes are still in great condition and but you'll run up your bill just to get them the latest style but if you're trying to get out of debt there would need to be some agreement in the house that last year's Jordan are just gonna have to last a little longer and those Timberland you want to brush them a little harder the bottom line is just escaping the debt trap we're requiring family lifestyle adjustment it is impossible to get out of debt if you're steady creating more bills there needs to be a family wide freeze on unnecessary spending this right here is where some moms get off the train because you will continue to do these bad habits for your babies and you justify by saying I didn't have these things when I was growing up and you justify it and now I'm hearing because of social media that kids are now being bullied because they don't have the latest fashion the latest shoes on the latest clothing and they're being bullied and here's your baby coming home in tears because somebody's talking about them because they got last year's model of shoes or something but I'm just here to encourage you even though I know it's ongoing one they're not the other I'm here to curd you you grab your baby you wipe their tears you love on them hug them kiss them pray for and you say hey those gotta last just a little bit longer we're trying to get out of debt now I know for some of you wind up one year not the other because you gonna tell your baby you see them crying you want their tears baby tomorrow after school we go get you some more because that's exactly what you moms do dads oh they will do is they will last longer they go ubi driving dears up home back to school you let me know say hey I got some news coming but they're not right now I'm a new mom you secretly sneak up in the room and say tomorrow just meet me you know where to meet me so I know what I'm saying what one they're not the other so the poor widow was instructed to involve her sons in her debt free plan it was a family thing Amos 3:3 says how can two walk together except they agree and if you want to get out of debt you got to agree to these things look at verse 5 I'm running out of time look at verse 5 so she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons who bought the vessels to her and she poured it out now she obeyed the words of Elijah even though it didn't seem to make sense naturally but she obeyed anyway now here's something to be mindful of don't think that you are going to get out of debt if you ignore the advice of the one cent to give you the help to get out of debt remember I'm your friend remember that I'm your friend I'm here to help you I'm standing in the sandals of Elijah giving you wisdom how to get out of debt so you must act on the principles that you are going to learn today as well as throughout the this month you must take action to escape the debt trap or you will forever be in this crutches James 1:22 says be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own self and if you're here and you hear these messages on getting out of debt and you don't act upon what you hear you're deceiving yourself into thinking you're gonna get out of debt by just hearing messages about getting out of debt and not acting on what you hear you're deceiving yourself and but here in 2nd Kings we see cooperation between the widow and in a similar fashion as you set out to escape the debt trap there must be cooperation between you and God when God shares with you principles on how to get out of debt you must cooperate with him and that means you have to do what he says look at verse 6 now it came to pass when the vessels were fool that she said to her son bring me another vessel and he said to her there's not another vessel so the oil ceased I want to draw your attention to the phrase it came to pass meaning that some time had passed this means getting out of debt would take some time there's not an overnight thing you got to change some mindset you got to change your kids your family's mindset it's not gonna be an overnight thing it takes some time to get out of debt you know you didn't get in debt overnight and you're not gonna get out of it overnight either now this really is amazing to me this wood will collect some vessels and when all were filled to all seized I wonder if she had going to valleys over to collect maybe a hundred vessels she will still be poured he likes a told her in verse three to borrow vessels from everywhere my point is this there are many of you here today just like this Widow you're saying you know what if I can just pay off some of my bills I would be so happy why settle for some of your bills to be paid off when you can pay all of them off let's determine that we're not going to limit God in our lives because of our lack of faith and obedience Elijah told her collect as many vessels that she could and she collected notice the amount of vessels that was in accordance to her faith if she had just going to valleys three valleys over and got about 100 vessels her and her boy cracked she'd still been pouring today still been poor but her faith was only with the amount that she had see God can do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or even think Ephesians 3:20 says Philippians 4:19 God shall supply all your need not some of them according to his riches in glory look at verse 7 last verse then she came and told the man of God and he said go sell the oil and pay your debt and you and your sons live off the rest notice he told her to sell the oil and pay your debt well to get out of debt you may have to have a couple of garage sales you know who closed you you swore that you know you keeping around cuz you're gonna get back in them soon it's been four years you still ain't in those clothes you may have to have a garage sale from that junk you got laying around you to get out of debt you may have to have a cup of garage sales to go sell what you haven't paid your debt and then notice what he says and live off the rest oh this reveals an important principle God doesn't want you living from paycheck to paycheck he told her to live off the surplus and even the aunt with this tiny little insect wit understands this principle in proverbs 6 and verses 7 and 8 the ant does not live from day to day not knowing where the next meal is coming from it builds up a reserve or a surplus and live securely off of that we should strive to do the same with our resources but before that can happen we must get out of debt let me conclude with this as you can see getting out of debt it stars in a house it starts with a family consensus parents you need to gather the family and tell them that we're getting out of debt so those shoes have to last one more year the leftover is one more day a snack may have to be a peanutbutter sandwich instead of some Pisa and some hot wings and don't be a hearer of the word only meaning don't just hear what God is saying today and go back to the old ways of handling money it starts with a new attitude it's a new year it's a new way of thinking but what's most important is that is that the debt of your sin is paid do you know whether your sins are forgiven you stand before God and your sins are not forgiven you'll be guilty before him so that you want to make sure that debt is squared away now here's the last thing I'm gonna say did you know you can put these principles into action and still have financial problems you say well yes and you know how you gotta wait till next week then find out how you can put this stuff into play and still have financial problem up the wazoo yep yep and you'll find out how next week father thank you so much for this time you've given us Lord we pray your Holy Spirit will move today Lord I pray for those who are not sure that the dead of their sin is forgiven I pray that you would draw them to you change lives today by the power of your Holy Spirit and lord I just pray for those who are struggling financially may they come and get prayer and get on the road to financial freedom in Jesus name Amen

Channel: calvarynn

Views: 1,905

Rating: 4.7647057 out of 5

Keywords: SUNDAY SERMON

Id: r39LfdGsNis

Length: 34min 18sec (2058 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 06 2019