"God’s Provision" 1 Kings 17:8-16 - November 11, 2018

let's pray now as we go to God's Word today may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all the assembled hearts be acceptable in your sight Lord God our rock and our Redeemer open our ears our hearts our minds to your word today that we might be encouraged because you provide for all of our needs with body and soul in Jesus name Amen we're familiar with this word empty we don't very much like to experience things being empty like our gas tank we wish that it could stay just full all the time right or our pockets full of money that would be nice also to have an endless supply and the batteries on these phones why can't they just stay perpetually charged and never go empty and there are other things that we might talk about too that are empty that are troublesome you know and create a crisis in their own way time is another commodity right we wish time wasn't running out wish we had more time but we know that the sands and the hourglass they're they're dropping right through their day by day month by month year by year and we're moving toward a day the Bible talks about it the end it's called the parousia fancier word eschatology the study of such things you know the end of the church here as we are getting to it now before Advent starts again in a new church year the talk will be the scriptures will be about Jesus coming back the end of time we recognize that that is the limited commodity as well this thing called time we want to look at the background a set up really through this story that you just heard we need to go to first Kings chapter 16 right at the end to really get a sense of what's going on we have these two folks wreaking havoc on the Northern Kingdom of Israel in those days somewhere around 850 b.c this is a hab who then married Jezebel she wasn't an Israelite she wasn't a Hebrew she came from Phoenicia this this Israelite King married her and brought much trouble really on the land and on the people of God and and stirred up a plenty of anger in the one true God - with what she promoted Bale worshiped right and the female consort of bale Asherah poles actually set up in in sacred Hebrew worship places for the worship of false gods and you can appreciate that God as he said is a jealous God he will put that commandment first and foremost forward through Moses to his people you shall have no other gods before me that first and Great Commandment well Elijah the Prophet is in view here a very prominent Old Testament prophet so prominent in fact at the time of Christ the people of God were wondering if John the Baptist might be Elijah back or even Jesus himself such was Elijah in their in their minds and in their hearts and in their history well this is Elijah doing his prophetic work he speaks a word of prophecy to Ahab this wicked king that as as discipline and punishment from God for all of the idolatry he would withhold rain it would not rain for a period of time an extended period of time there would be a drought and with the drought of course always comes famine but God would provide for his servant Elijah he sent him in hiding to the careth ravine in order to be taken care of and God took care of him with Ravens feeding him day by day these are just nice Sunday school stories these aren't parables this is the Living God providing out of his creation to his servants the prophets in those days now careth the brook you see in lower right the careth ravine in that vicinity there east of the jordan river south east of the Sea of Galilee and then you notice a name of a town there Tish bah that's about all we know about Elijah that he came from this town and we think it's in that vicinity there well God sends him to the careth ravine to take care of him with the Ravens coming bringing them food but then it was time to move on God sent him way to the north really outside the boundaries of northern Israel into the Phoenician territory where Jezebel had come interestingly enough the vicinities of tyre and sidon you remember Jesus in his ministry went up that way to for a visit now it's Elijah's turn here in our story to go visit this widow at Zarephath right there on the sea he arrives in town as we heard in that story and finds this woman picking up sticks and engage a certain conversation and like Jesus asked the woman at the well of Samaria for water so also Elijah asked this widow woman for water that he might have a drink well that was fine she's happy to comply but then he asks her to go make him a cake of bread that he might eat and that's where it got a little interesting there it's there that she pushed back a bit out of her own scarcity out of her own circumstances she said as surely as the Lord your God lives I don't have any bread only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son that we may eat it and die can you imagine being in that kind of a circumstance where this is your last meal it's all you have no other means for providing for yourself husband is gone resources are depleted a famine in the land and that's where you and it's a sad account a sad story she was being honest with Elijah the Prophet when the cupboard is bare it's a difficult place to be maybe you've been there in your life one way or the other with a bear bird or running on empty in one way or another there's this other story that comes up in the New Testament about a widow another Widow and it has to do with scarcity right it's a widow who's at the temple who's offering her gift there at the temple her offering that she is placing there these two small copper coins the Widow's mite the story is referred to in the King James Version these pennies like pennies hardly worth anything but yet she puts them in the offering plate and that's all she has and we might look at that and we say well that doesn't amount to much why did she even bother coming with such a meager offering it's just a drop in the ocean maybe this is a foolish woman who doesn't know enough to keep what she has so that she can eat for another day what difference would that make just such a tiny little offering like that we might logically ask but there's more there there's more in that story Jesus highlighted her offering as compared to the wealthy who were putting in a lot of money because she gave all she had and that was an offering acceptable to the Lord highlighted by Jesus the last meal of this widow woman in Zarephath down to her last penny this woman in Jerusalem giving her offering certainly God can understand what scarcity is like God understands all things he knows all things Jesus himself right we know about Jesus he was an itinerant preacher he didn't have much he went from place to place relying on the good graces of those who would take him in and who would provide for him who would feed him he said foxes have holes but the son of man has no place to lay his head you remember him saying that yeah he understood scarcity he lived that way for those three years of public ministry anyway scarcity can produce interesting results in us human beings we start to do certain things when things are scarce like if we've got a few bucks maybe we don't even trust the bank we put it under the mattress there for safekeeping or when the pantry is getting empty we lock it up lest somebody get in there and take our supplies or we get a bit miserly we don't have much left so we hang on very tight to what we do have and we don't want to share it with anybody or maybe we just protect our stuff and and take out a loan so we can have a nice security system to keep the bad guys out of our house well it all seems very logical on on its face these kinds of things these sort of reactions to scarcity we might say but when my pantries fall well then the food bank can come right around or I'll load up a basket full in and take it and donate it as long as there's plenty left over my pantry for me I got no problem with that or when the bank account is flush well of course then I'll be very generous with the offering or I'll really help some of those nonprofit ministries and other causes that I really want to support but but not when things are scarce not when I'm short on cash the Bible has much to say about wealth and abundance certainly one story after the other one lesson after the other certainly Jesus taught more about money than he did about salvation did you know that on the counter are the interesting that he had plenty to say about that topic remember what he said about two masters you you can't serve both of them you're gonna love one and hate the other you can't serve both God and money jesus said remember the rich young ruler came to Jesus bowed down and said teacher good teacher what must I do to inherit salvation and the commandments how how do they read Jesus inquires you know and the man says well those Commandments yeah love God love my neighbor I've kept those all my life in fact and Jesus says good for you now sell everything you have and follow me and then what the this young man heard that and he went away sad because he had a lot of stuff and he wasn't willing to part with his stuff his wasn't a scarcity mentality well a scarcity mentality with abundance if you will and we you have much can also operate with this sort of scarcity mentality that I can't let loose I can't let go of anything because I am I needed am I needed can't share too much of it well here's the lesson for today God uses scarcity as a doorway really to trust him more has that ever happened in your life where you found yourself on empty I mean without lots of things maybe food provisions roof over your head strength for the day whatever it may happen to be for us in our lives lessons came early on for Sandy and I and our two little boys in Minneapolis we lived there in the late 80s we came home to Nebraska for a visit went back home and found things odd in our garage when the door opened that wasn't there when we left that looks out of place and then the door to the house through the garage was broken in splinters there we walked in and most all of our earthly possessions were missing we found out actually afterwards as the police did their investigation while we were out and they had no way of getting hold of us so we just walked into this situation when we got back home the neighbor across the street saw what had happened really but it had no idea we weren't home she testified that a truck pulled into our garage they broke in the back door of our garage grabbed the remote and then got in their truck backed in and loaded up our stuff kitchen table and chairs coffee maker off the counter phone off the wall even I mean everything everything that they could grab they grabbed it taught us some lessons it was very painful to see all of that and in just an eerie sensation to be in your house knowing that it had been ransacked that way by these thieves but what it taught us early on in our life together as a family is that there are things that matter a whole lot more than stuff that stuff can be here today and gone tomorrow maybe you've experienced that with a fire or a flood right or some other thing that has happened where you've lost maybe financial troubles bankruptcy or whatever and you just lose everything and then it starts to resonate in your heart and soul about what's really important sandy and I have been fighting too much stuff ever since then we just keep getting to these places especially at our stage in life of will somebody come and just take this stuff it's great having four kids we say here you take our stuff it's great to have kids we get tired of stuff moving it around boxing it up I mean it's here today it's gone tomorrow how much utility is there in most of it yeah we're funny creatures us pack rats in our story a widow obeys and they all eat for days that's what happens in this story she obeys God she does what God wants here even though she didn't have much just a handful of flour a little oil I mean how far is that gonna go with three mouths to feed here now she had two now she's got three a grown man to feed when we trust in the Lord this is an interesting thing there's always enough maybe not abundance but there's enough to see us through he provides for us remember the children of Israel in the desert nothing to eat what are we gonna eat God provides them something to eat every day manna it was called they got tired of that grumbled about and God gave them meat quail as well you remember that water what are we gonna drink out here well God provided water from the rock through his servant Moses yeah God is a providing God isn't he over and over again then you got this New Testament story a bunch of hungry mouths to feed a multitude in fact the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee there on that grassy hill they're hungry what are we gonna do well what do you have Jesus says and they come with the boys lunch five loaves two fish it's there in our banner as well and then what happens well a miracle happens everybody is they in fact are well fed that day but notice these supplies did not start to multiply until it was given away you see that the boy had this stuff it wasn't starting to multiply while he was holding it note only multiplied in the giving of away that's when it started to reproduce if you will itself to feed that multitude by the power of God the intervention of Jesus there and his power is God twelve baskets left over full of bread and fish an amazing story of God's provision so last week I was in Belize I wish I was there more now than then because it's nice and warm in Belize as you know I I did some mental health training for pastors in the north a place called orange walk and then I made my way to the western part of the country to visit my old friend pastor tape there he is a wonderful guy you see his tent there this is a tent for his ministry years ago I did a seminar at his church two nights in a row he invited his whole congregation others from the area and I ran a seminar under that tent but it wasn't there this tents in a new place I'll tell you about that it used to be across the high street from his house this tent and that's where his church was because they got kicked out of their buildings because there's some bad folks around and these buildings that the church had they now lost now because of some people you know and their dealings and very unfortunate wasn't the church's problem somebody outside the church and so they had the rug pulled out from under them just imagine if we as the people of God all of a sudden next week we tell you well we don't have a building anymore where we gonna go right well a tent may be not so suitable here in the park across the street but in Belize you can get by with that right it's about 85 every day all day so anyway I was visiting with Pastor Tate after I had found him because I didn't know really where to find him I knew where his house was I stayed there once I talked to his wife and she says well he's right around the corner and take the first Street so I said you mean around the bed we're where the school is because I remember the school no no she says we've got a new place the first Street okay so I left their house and it was just a big half a block I took that Street and then I looked to my left and I saw this place this is this the place is it's a new church this compound fenced in well I drove in the gate and it must have been it looked like a churchy kind of place and I asked the first person I saw where's pastor tape oh he's over in the church and so I go over there and chat with him in the church now this tent is on their new property this tent they folded up and walked to this new property because God gave them a new property 9 acres to use for ministry by a miraculous intervention of Almighty God it's an amazing story really now they have a room about as big as this one 600 people coming this Sunday or next Sunday for their Thanksgiving in Belize and they'll be feeding everybody because they got a commercial kitchen even here in this place it's an amazing facility for that place but there's more than that a school that can hold up to 300 secondary students 14 to 18 year-olds pastor Tate is committed to training children in the way they should go and so he's got this school they used to rent across around the bend that I was talking about and now this is their facility can hold 300 kids they got about 140 in there right now and there are other things that they are providing for on this new campus and God has been so good to them making provision like you wouldn't believe I mean I was having a hard time just taking it in from a tent to all of this what happened in a few years well the grace of God and the provision of God happened there's that tent again they have it there I said why you still have the tent what are you doing under there he said it's there to remind us where we came from it's there to remind us what God has done in our lives there's his church next to that tent and this other building that they use for ministry he and I talked about the provision of God and how it always comes down to this reality biblically the Jesus is enough no other name we just sang the song right no other name but but Jesus and we recognize this about Christ he came to free souls not to fill stomachs cupboards or bank accounts that wasn't his primary purpose there are some preachers that say that's why Jesus came there Rome Jesus came to free us from the bondage of our sin he came to give us eternal life he came to enable us to have capacity to forgive and love others with that same love that he brought into the world through his life through his death through his resurrection no more powerful words had Jesus ever spoken than these right here I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me though he die yet shall he live whoever lives and believes in Me will never die jesus said well that puts a different perspective on time running out doesn't it because with Jesus time never ends so you got these priests in the Old Testament doing what God told them to do sacrificing one animal right after another on the altar according to God's prescription but that was for a time it was not enough for the sins of all of the people no there would be another sacrifice coming that would cover the sins of all the people the writer to the Hebrews talks about it but he Jesus appeared once for all to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself not bulls and lambs and Rams on the altar anymore nope no himself the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world Jesus is enough we recognize that when we are hurting when we have been hurt and we're trying to forgive and trying to show kindness but it's all we can muster Jesus comes and says forgive us I have forgiven you love the way that I love to you I'll take care of your hurt I've taken your hurt upon my self I've experienced your hurt I took it to the cross with me when we're last down to our last dollar not sure where our provision will come from he says how about you trust me remember the lilies of the field the birds of the air God cares for them he knows all about them how much more does he love you and care for you you of little faith he said well we say Lord increase my faith my trust in you I appreciate what Wayne Dyer wrote the first step toward discarding a scarcity mentality involves giving thanks for everything that you have a scarcity mentality we can have that in America as much stuff as we have we can have this sense that oh I just don't have enough if only I had just this much more of whatever it is do you see what this last big lottery did to people you see what goes on people hope even though the odds are so astronomical they still hope I got to get that ticket because I might hit that big but if you look at those stories so many of those stories of people striking it rich one way or another it destroys them because its life is not about all that stuff it's not about all that stuff yeah you can have fun for a while with it but like Jesus said right like Jesus said you fool this night all this stuff will be required of you now what's going to happen your soul is coming to me now what's going to happen with all your stuff the first step toward discarding a scarcity mentality involves giving thanks for everything you know that that's the first step toward dealing with depression and anxiety this from secular writers believe it or not who don't even understand perhaps where everything comes from but to be thankful for what we do have that's a step in the right direction dealing with our heart or soul or mind our troubles the thief jesus said john 10 does not come except to steal to kill and to destroy but I've come that they may have life they may have it more abundantly yeah Jesus has abundance for us but it's not about stuff it's about his love it's about his grace it's about the peace that passes all understanding it's about his mercy it's about his eternal life that he provides us because he conquered death and the grave this an amazing story this woman we don't even know her name we don't know her son's name the widow at Zarephath she has been known for all of these centuries but she learned some things when the prophet of God showed up at her place she learned that you can't outgive God that God will provide and sometimes in this case especially miraculously and the miracles weren't over remember that son of hers he died she blamed Elijah Elijah blamed God and then God says how about we raised him from the dead which God did that's the power that God has to raise people even from the dead and that's what we declare in the Creed as well we believe in the resurrection of the body the life everlasting God does have that power let's pray Heavenly Father thank you for this amazing account a widow one person and and her son yet we're still talking about her all these centuries later there's much for us here in this story and Lord in our scarcity mentality when we think we don't have enough remind us that in you Jesus we have more than enough in your precious name we pray amen

Channel: Divine Shepherd Lutheran Church

Views: 378

Rating: 4.1999998 out of 5

Keywords: Divine Shepherd Lutheran Church, Millard, Omaha, Christian, Lutheran, LCMS, Worship, live

Id: -jEAM7Rn4Ro

Length: 25min 53sec (1553 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 13 2018