Elisha: Oil dependence

Mini Message

Jewel cave was terrifying and incredible. We only went 220 feet underground, which was wild. But the thing that made me think about you, Living Rock church, was this one fact that has two implications. The guide told us that over 200 miles have been explored, which is incredible but there are still 4-7,000 miles still unexplored. Can you imagine the depths and the possible jewels and beauty that is unexplored? Which made me think about two different things.

The depths of the Word that I believe we still have to keep spending time in the Word. To keep digging in and knowing who God is because even though he is here, he is holy and he is beyond exploring. So, keep getting into the Word, because there is so much more to grow and learn, and discover.

The second thing I thought about with this stat of miles and miles of the cave unexplored was revealed to me after listening to Billy and Tab Nelson share. Wasn’t that amazing, I was so blessed by both of them. And the thing I thought about is that, that is the depth all of us have in this room. All of you have a testimony, miles and miles of God’s faithfulness to learn and grow and miles and miles of God’s gifting in you that for some reason, have not been tapped into. And I share that as an encouragement and an exhortation. There are gifts and testimonies in this room that we have not heard, seen, or encountered yet and the reason for this is manifold, but one of the biggest reasons is that we have not dug deeper.

Life groups

Family fun night

fellowship time

So all this to say, it was a great vacation but I’m glad to be home and ready for the miles and miles of God’s goodness and kindness to explore in His word and His people. Amen, let’s go home. Just kidding. Let’s open the Word today in 2 Kings chapter 4.

2 Kings 4:1-7 ESV

REVIEW

So just a review for where we are at in this series/the Bible. Elijah was just taken away on a chariot of fire and Elisha, his little padawan was given a double portion of his Spirit. Elisha does his first miracle by splitting the Jordan river, just like Elijah did, and goes into Jericho to heal their water problem. Since we don’t have time to cover everything right now, in chapter 3, Elisha helped provide prophetic guidance for the kings of Judah and Jerusalem. So he is already seen as a prominent prophetic voice in the country, he is already doing miracles, and he is already rebuking people for their sin.

So the story that we are going to read, and the following stories, are actually somewhat shocking. For someone who is walking in powerful influence, miracles and God’s voice in this still very disobedient nation, what he is about to do feel strange. But since we know Jesus, and how Jesus did not take his power and influence to increase himself, but constantly sought the lowly, the hurting, and the unknown. What Elisha does here feels almost familiar. Like we are getting a foretaste of someone else and how to walk in love toward those who are hurting and in need. So let’s talk about the story and then we will discuss how it can help us be more like Jesus in our everyday lives.

BODY

1 Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”

So we don’t know the full story here but I want to try to fill in the cracks a little bit to understand what is happening here. A widow, some one not looked on with great esteem in this time, comes to Elisha and tells him her husband has dies. Elisha may know this man because he was a prophet too and she says “your servant” so he may have been a disciple/intern of Elisha. Like I said, we don’t know, but this is important because we need to remember the culture they were in at that time. People were not following the Lord, Ahab was still being a wicked king with his nasty wife Jezebelle and people are still worshiping false God’s. So this guy, this prophet was somewhat an anomaly and now he is gone. Not only that, he must have worked for a non prophet that made no profit because he had some debt. And in these days, you didn’t get to take out another credit card to pay off your overdue credit cards, they take property that is worth something. And this widow says that her two kids are about to be taken from her, right after losing her husband.

So here is the question I have for you, to help us really understand the story and be in the story.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE THIS WIDOW? WOULD YOU TURN TO GOD OR BLAME GOD?

That is a fair question, right? She just had a godly husband pass away and now her sons are about to be taken? She could be angry with God for dealing for her this way after already sacrificing so much for God by having a husband be a prophet, not God is going to treat her this way?

This is what I so appreciated about Billy and Tab’s testimony, both experienced a lot of pain and sadness. And they were honest about those things and yet, instead of blaming God and running away from Him, they ran to him. And were met with the goodness of God. It’s what every person has to wrestle with when met with pain and tragedy. Where will I run, and has my God changed in this tragedy, or is he still faithful, good and gracious despite what I am going through? Well

this woman, this widow did turn to God through going to the prophet Elisha. Let’s read about how he responded.

2 And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” 3 Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. 4 Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.”

Man, does this not remind you of Jesus? How many times in the Gospels people would come up to him and he would ask this very question. In compassion he would says “What shall I do for you?” And here is a pop quiz to stir up your Biblical mind this morning, what miracle of Jesus connects with this miracle of jars being filled up? Yes, the water into wine story.

But before I get ahead of myself with jumping straight to Jesus, can you see the compassion and love that Elisha has for this widow? This is amazing because, like I said, the last chapter was him standing before kings and seeing a national victory. But here we have him caring for a nobody. Someone that should just be tossed by the wayside and I think it is important because of this point.

As God’s prophet, Elisha is showing God’s heart of compassion for the weak, lost, and hurting.

We are going to talk more about this in a little bit, but I think it is important to not run past this moment of seeing a prophet of God showing the heart of God for people that are overlooked, brokenhearted, weak and in need. Elisha could have walked past her and not helped her, could have said, “Sorry I have kings that I need to go rebuke, I don’t have time for you.” Yet, here he is in the busy schedule and prominent role stopping and caring for this hurting widow. Let’s read about how the rest of the story goes.

5 So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. 6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.

We are not told how many vessels she filled but it was enough to sell them to get out of debt and then to live off of the rest. What a relief! She gets to keep her sons and she is provided for more than she even asked or imagined. God literally prepared for her a feast in the presence of her enemies. She went from nothing to well provided for. This is incredible and it has a lot of implications for us today so that we can live supernaturally in a complacent culture.

Remember, Elijah and Elisha both were living supernaturally in a very complacent culture and James tells us in this letter that Elijah was a nature like ours and we can live and pray and see God’s hand work in the same way that he did. So I think it would be important to look at the two main characters of this story to see how we can live supernaturally in a complacent culture.

So let’s look first at the widow in how she lived supernaturally in a complacent culture.

HOW THE WIDOW LIVED SUPERNATURALLY IN A COMPLACENT CULTURE

I believe there are two ways that this widow shows us how to live supernaturally in a complacent culture.

HOW THE WIDOW LIVED SUPERNATURALLY IN A COMPLACENT CULTURE

1. Asked for help 2. Sought God.

So these go hand in hand for the widow and they go hand in hand for us today. The reason why this is living supernatural in a complacent culture is because we live in a very individualistic culture. A culture that thinks living for yourself and not asking for help is more commendable than admitting that you need help. And I’m not just talking about needing help because you need help getting your lawnmower started, I’m talking about deeper issues where you are in debt to sin, and that sin is taking you out and you can’t get out of it. You have tried everything and yet you can’t self will yourself out of it. But God brings redemption. And he does that through His son and gives forgiveness and he also provides for you a family. People in your life to confess to because they know that no one is perfect and want to help you out of that sin. This is why asking for help and seeking God are intertwined. Because when you seek God, for some reason, His spirit comes through people. It has always been this way ever since the garden. He works through people. And here the widow sees the heart of God in this prophet. And many of you have seen the heart of God when you come to this place of being so broken that you realize you need help. You can’t do it on your own. God still loves meeting with those who are in desperate need, those who feel like their back is against the wall and nothing else will work. He still cares about you and what is going on in your life. He wants to meet you in your disappointment and frustration. I know this firsthand.

ENGAGEMENT STORY

So, even though that is a story from my own life, I share that to remind you that he care. He wants you to seek him in a place of difficulty and tension. It is supernatural to seek God when things are not looking like eden. To reach out to others in a culture that wants you to be your own god and say I really can’t do this on my own. This is why we have prayer after the service, fellowship time before the service, life groups, family fun night. It is a time to connect to the body and be open and real.

And if you are not in that place right now, that is okay, because we have another person in this story that was able to help the helpless one.

HOW ELISHA LIVED SUPERNATURALLY IN A COMPLACENT CULTURE

Had compassion on the weak, vulnerable, and needy

Put love in action

As I said before, what Elisha was doing here was actually pretty radical. He could have pushed this widow aside and said good luck lady. I guess your husband wasn’t good enough for God. See ya! But he didn’t, he showed the heart of God for someone who was weak, vulnerable and needy. Which was already wild for that time and culture to do, but it is still the heart of God today for the people of God to have compassion on the weak, vulnerable and the needy. And not to just saw, oh shucks, that must stink, but also to put their love in to action.

You don’t have to turn there but Galatians 6:1-3 speaks to help us understand this. It tells us that those who are spiritual should be caring for those who are stumbling. James 2 tells us that there is a sin of partiality that can creep into the people of God where they like to sit by the rich people but ignore the poor. Jesus told us in the sermon on the mount Matthew 5:43-48 that we are no better than unbelievers is we just love people that love us in return. We should pray love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Our goal is Christlikeness, is it not? And what did Christ do? He went to the hurting, the broken, the sick, the poor, and those who could not return to him anything in what he gave them. And then he turned to us, His followers, and said follow me.

If someone were to take an inventory of not only our church, but let’s just say the church in the mid west, what kind of repot do you think we would get? I’m not saying this to shame anyone, I just think it is interesting to think about when we say we are Christians, what does that mean? Well back in AD 125, a man by the name of Aristidis, who was a philosopher gave a report to Ceasar on his investigation of different cultures such as Barbarian, greek,Jews and Christians. You can look it up on google if you want to read the whole thing, I kinda nerded about it, but that is just me. But here are some things that he stated that I found interesting.

It had been reported…

They fast for days in order to provide food for the needy.

When they see a stranger in need they take them into their homes.

Those with more give to those with less, without boasting.

They care for widows and orphans with kindness

There is something divine in the midst of them.

Is this not what Jesus called us to be? That they will know we are Christians by our love? How do we live supernatural in today’s culture? Pretty easy actually, love. Paul said the aim of our instruction is love. If you want to change the world, start loving the people around you

Are we willing to be supernatural in a complacent future by asking for help and seeking God instead of running from him when we are in need? Are we willing to be supernatural in a complacent culture by being filled with compassion, not judgement, for those who are in need and weak and desperate? I pray we will be, because, like the widow, I believe God will meet us in ways that go beyond all that we ask or imagine as we live supernaturally.