Trusting God for the Future
Notes
Transcript
What Do You Do When You Don’t Have Much?
What Do You Do When You Don’t Have Much?
Intro:
Intro:
Leading with the Spirit today.
I want to speak to those who is in a deficit in an area of your lives.
Many different varieties of poverty:
Rich financially - Broke Emotionally
Rich financially - Broke Relationally
Lots of responsibility - Not much Joy
Lots of Joy - Not alot of influence
Poverty can take many shapes.
Some come of you came to church this morning driving vehicles that are more expensive than some other peoples homes, and we are in the same church!
You might wonder, well maybe you can’t preach the same message to the person who is in the top tax bracket and to the person who has been without a job for 2 and a half years.
But the longer I am around people, the more I have realized that we ALL have a deficiency. We are not all that different.
I love this story because on the surface, it may seem like an unassuming, perhaps incidental small little miracle. A 7 verse footnote.
But let’s look into the context of where Elisha is in his travels:
Context:
Elisha had just finished solving a problem for 3 kings,
Elisha is just about to go meet a wealthy woman and raise her son from the dead...
Sandwiched between those two magnificent miracles on a grand scale (real prophet stuff, hanging with top brass) is a miracle that seems so small on the surface, but it should speak directly to each and every one of us.
This morning, I hope to reveal to you the wisdom that I have found in this story, and how it has applied to my personal life.
Let’s go to the text in 2 Kings 4:1-7
1 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that are not the result of our disobedience.
Have you noticed that life doesn’t make allowances for your crisis?
That the universe doesn’t send out a memo when you’re having a bad day?
I like to joke when we are driving in traffic: Don’t they know that IIIIIIII have somewhere to be?!
It would be nice if life’s demands accommodate my crisis, but they don’t.
The bills were due, but the woman did not have the means to pay them.
So this creates a sense of deficit, a very desperate deficit in her life. One that I am all too familiar with.
And this crisis is not a national crisis, but a personal crisis. This doesn’t involve kings and great leaders. But the man of God makes time for the poorest of widows.
This reveals a truth about God that we need to remember: God is not far off somewhere dealing with people more qualified that you. He is right there with you, standing firm in the trenches by your side.
Look to your neighbor and say, “he’s with you.”
So this poor widow with her (in her eyes) tiny problem has come before this mighty prophet of Yahweh and is taking up his precious time with her dilemma.
2 Kings 4:1 “...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.””
2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all, that’s why I’m coming to you, if I had something to put on eBay, I would have done it by now, I have NOTHING.” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.
This dude can’t hear. He’s good at talking, but he can’t hear. I don’t need jars, I need oil. I’m broke. I don’t need something to put nothing in.
Or do you.
See, in the beginning when God created the world, it was without form and void and the first thing God did was to form it before He filled it...
...Let’s keep reading before I get us off track...
3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.
6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
The power of this verse is easier to spot in the King James version.
6 And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.
The New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words ˓âmad עָמַד (1)
5975. עָמַד ˓âmad, aw-mad’; a prim. root; to stand, in various relations (lit. and fig., intr. and tran.):— abide (behind), appoint, arise, cease, confirm, continue, dwell, be employed, endure, establish, leave, make, ordain, be [over], place, (be) present (self), raise up, remain, repair, + serve, set (forth, over, -tle, up), (make to, make to
be at a, with-) stand (by, fast, firm, still, up), (be at a) stay (up), tarry.
What a weird little story. A weird command from bald prophet leading to a personal miracle and financial freedom for this woman and her sons.
It reminds me of Elisha’s predecessor, Elijah, after he challenged 850 prophets of Baal to a showdown to see who’s God could command fire to fall from the heavens.
Do you remember what Elijah did in that story? 1 Kings 18. He drenched the wood in his offering in water to prove a point. Sometimes God will make a situation seem impossible to men, so that when the fire falls and the wood starts to burn, you won’t think that it’s because of the quality of the firewood, but because of the power of God.
Now, if you have wet wood in your life, start rejoicing because the Lord is setting you up to do something special.
And He wants all the credit.
So He allows this woman to get down to seemingly nothing.
Do you notice what her first instinct is when Elisha asks her ‘What do you have in your house?’
Her first instinct is to minimize what she has left.
...“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
I can’t prove this, but the way the NIV writes this makes me imagine a moment of pause during this exchange.
Anybody here know someone who enjoys making uncomfortable eye contact?
Imagine this play out in real time: “What do you have? She says, nothing!”
wait for several moments with a straight face. Look overtop of glasses.
1. I can stop waiting for what I want and start working with what I have.
1. I can stop waiting for what I want and start working with what I have.
It’s possible that you are overlooking the very thing that God wants to perform a miracle through.
When you’ve lived in a deficit long enough, it can be difficult to appreciate the supply that you have, especially when you’ve lost alot. She lost her husband. She spent everything. She has one small jar of oil. So small that she doesn’t even think it worth mentioning.
God is about to do a miracle through something that you don’t even think is worth mentioning.
Something so small and insignificant that your first instinct is to not even mention it.
But the enemy wants you to despise your oil. Because he can’t STEAL your oil.
In scripture, oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit.
Kings were anointed with oil to symbolize the blessing of God, which was ultimately fulfilled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost when He came to live inside of us.
I am not talking about the oil that is in your pantry, I am talking about the oil that is in your heart.
The gifts God gave you, the people in your life. The ideas he gave you, the time he gave you, the season you are in.
If I were your enemy and I knew I couldn’t take your oil, what I would do instead is convince you that your oil isn’t even worth using.
That’s why some people sit in church week after week after week after month after year and stay in their deficiency and never realize that what you’ve got is SOMETHING. IT’S NOT NOTHING.
Somebody shout,
My Gift... is SOMTHING!
My life… is SOMETHING!
My praise… is SOMETHING!
I may not have as much oil as someone else in this room, but God won’t hold me accountable for your oil! Only that which He has given ME!”
We learned this from Elijah in 1 Kings 18 after Mt. Carmel when they were waiting for the rains to come. He has his servant cross the mountain to get a view of the sea. The servant returns, “There is nothing there.”
“Go look again.”
“There is nothing.”
7 Times
This is getting really old Pastor
How would you feel if you were the one running to the top of the hill to look at nothing?
And when you finally did see something, it’s so small that you minimize it.
“A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea...” he finally said. Afterthought.
Right before the sky grew black with clouds, the winds rose, and a heavy rain fell upon the land.
You see, it’s not the size of the cloud that determines the size of blessing.
You see, it’s not the size of the cloud that determines the size of blessing.
It’s not the amount of oil.
It’s not how smart I am, or how talented I am, or how skilled I am at my profession, or even my own estimation of myself.
If God calls me and chooses me, nothing on Earth shall be able to stop me!
Shout if you believe that!
So check your oil. It might not be much but it’s not nothing.
2. Offer God What I have and trust him to give me what I need.
2. Offer God What I have and trust him to give me what I need.
It’s too easy these days to check other people’s oil.
It’s about to become a real issue because vacation pictures are about to start popping up everywhere and it might make you feel like a bad parent. It’s gonna make you question your oil.
But let me tell you something that happened right before the picture...
Those parents almost divorced, those kids were almost placed for adoption, but they can’t put that on Instagram.
Somebody say, “Enjoy YOUR Oil”.
I’ll tell you exactly what the devil is doing:
He can’t take your gift, or your purpose, those come from God and will not be revoked. But, if he can make you think that your gift is so small that you don’t use it, he can starve you from miracles.
God gave me a ministry. The enemy can’t take away the ministry that God gave me. But if I give up my joy, I will forfeit my ministry. If I give up my joy, I will forfeit my marriage.
The devil can’t take my marriage. But if he can get me to despise my oil, to make me think that I am not a good husband or father...then I will say it’s nothing when it’s really something.
Notice, by the end of this passage, this woman has a house full of oil. It was not until she POURED the oil that it became more.
When you feel poor, you don’t pour. Because you hold on to what you have.
So when you feel like a poor parent, or poor wife, it keeps you from wanting to try.
Talk to me.
When the need seems so big, you call it nothing and you don’t use it. So it doesn’t multiply.
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.”
Tell story of yesterday: Jazz club, Gio struggling hard and crying for help; My patience and capacity to deal with other people’s emotions and kids was nearly nonexistent. But I poured what I had and cancelled a night with the guys to instead have a night with my wife. And let me tell you, my oil was multiplied.
I choose to pour out the little that I have, because Jesus chose to pour out all of Himself, blood included.
None of this stuff means much...without the oil. The Holy Spirit.
The Gospel
Closing:
Close your eyes and shut the door. Let’s walk through this story. You are the vessel that God is ready to fill. When the vessels are ready, the oil will begin to flow.
Pour out something. Just enough, raise your hands.
