Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro:
If the three wise men had been three wise women, what would have happened?
They would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought practical gifts.
I have an idea for a new reality show.
Since it is my idea I think it is only fair that I don’t have to participate.
:)
Six men will be dropped off on an island for six weeks with one mini-van and four kids each.
Each kid must play two sports and take either music or dance lessons.
Each man must take care of his four kids, keep his assigned hut clean, do laundry, correct homework, and prepare meals.
Each man must attend a weekly PTA meeting and make a miniature Indian hut from four toothpicks, two paper clips, and a flour tortilla.
They must make a four-year old eat an entire serving of peas.
And all of this with no google or delegating.
The kids get to vote them off the island based on their performance.
The surviving winner gets to go back to his own job.
I once had no children and four theories on how to raise a child.
I now have 4 children and no theories.
Little cute creatures called babies make some ladies mothers.
They seem very harmless and cute but they will turn into us soon enough.
Will we be ok with how that turns out?
When you look at these little babies (when being taken care by their mothers, right Seth?) you could almost get the idea that being a mother is the easiest, happiest, most exciting job in the world.
Look at mothers Pinterest boards, Facebook and Twitter feeds or their family photos and it seems that everything must be perfect and that every kid wakes up with a smile on their face and their hair combed perfectly.
Slides of Perfect Families
The truth is that being a mother may be the most demanding, self-sacrificing, draining, unrelenting and thankless job in the world.
Absolutely some of the greatest joys that can be had are found in being a mother.
But there are also so many difficult times many moments that are anything but happy.
Today we are going to see a mother who wasn’t too happy.
She is known as the widow of Zarephath.
I. Cause of her Unhappiness
God’s judgement had fallen upon Israel because of their idolatry.
Elijah was God’s prophet during this time.
He proclaimed God’s judgment that would be seen in a great famine in the land.
In the context of all of this we find a mother that we can learn so much from.
We will see that this mother isn’t happy but that there is good reason for that.
We have to realize her loss, she lost...
A. Her Spouse
This lady is a widow.
Elijah was to stay with her during the famine.
God had told him to go so he went and you can tell in the way that he asks that he just expects her to know and to serve him.
B. Her Support
She is basically saying, we have absolutely nothing left to our name.
We have no one to provide for us and this is a horrible economy.
I have enough to cook one more meal, so I am getting a few twigs, that much of a meal.
Then after that we plan on eating and dying.
Elijah asked for a tiny bit of bread but she literally had nothing to offer.
She and her son had accepted the fact that they were going to eat one more time.
God had provided one last meal for them but she didn’t know that there was one more thing.
What he is asking of her makes no sense at all.
She had provided up until now but now had to make a decision of whether it was her or her God that had taken care of her up until that day.
Our God is the one that giveth.
How many times do we struggle with these same issues?
C. Her Son
After everything she had dealt with there was something else.
She lost her son.
She had to watch her son get sick and die.
As a pastor I have dealt with people as they watched their loved ones die.
There are very few things in this world that are harder to deal with than watching your child die.
II.
Cause of her Happiness
Elijah takes the widow’s son and begs the Lord to resurrect her son.
This lady had watched her husband die and now her son and Elijah was begging God to do a miracle.
God answered and he was raised back to life.
Notice here in the attitude that comes from this mother.
She learned that she could trust God in the hardest times that she had dealt with.
III.
Classes from the Widow
This text has some important application to all of us today when things aren’t going quite the way that they think they need to go.
A. Life has a way of disturbing our happiness.
Like the widow, I wonder how many of us tend to be unhappy today.
Maybe you are very intensely unhappy with life.
As Christians we have to remember that trials will come.
B. God is working in ways that we do not know or understand.
The widow had no idea that a hungry prophet would be used of God to save her son’s life
No matter what life looks like, we have to remember that God is at work:
1. Changing us
God allows things in our lives that disturb us so that we can learn that he will remake us.
He will build us.
Knowing this is a lot easier than trusting this process.
2. Connecting us.
Elijah and the widow were living separate lives, but God brought them both together to bring honor to his name.
Just think about some of the most amazing relationships that we have in our lives come as a result of some very damaging things that we didn’t understand.
3. Contributing through us.
The widow provided food for Elijah and he saved the life of her son.
Both were in a time of trial.
Elijah was hungry and didn’t know where he would get his next meal.
The widow had watched her husband die and even her son.
Everyone involved in trials can and will be used of God if they allow themselves to be.
C. Obey God no matter the circumstances.
It seemed crazy for Elijah to stay with a non-Jewish widow.
He obeyed and she did too.
No matter what we think is best, we must obey the Lord.
We don’t follow our feelings, we follow his word.
D. Don’t blame God for the losses we experience.
When her son died she blamed Elijah even though he had nothing to do with his death.
We have to live in the truth that Jesus told us that we are going to have problems.
The blame game is way too easy to play and there is always a culprit that isn’t ourselves.
This is one of the big steps of maturity when we are raising children.
We know that they are truly maturing when everything isn’t always their fault.
I am sorry, I made a mistake are words that we sometimes think we will never hear from them but as we do we know they are growing more than in shoe sizes.
E. God is faithful regardless of the circumstances.
When her son was resurrected she was as happy as could be!
God is able to fix all of those problems and make them as if they never existed.
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