Stability

review

Knowing we will have what we need; define need?

E.g. Mother’s Day; not giving us what we wanted; for recognizing the difference between our wants and needs; entire bottle of coke; missing school; toys, arcade;

intro

confuse want with need; blurred line

intro

define stability: propped up in hard times; safety net; knowing hard times happen, but we have something in place to prevent hardship from becoming a crisis

stability a need, but again we understand, approach stability different than God; maybe why we get disappointed with God - making God in our imagine, defining God according to our values

why listen? primary need? - stability - keeping propped up during hard times

1. job - good feedback, success; close to boss; new boss, restructing, friend loses job

not a good market - instability

2. relationship: communicate regularly; arguing, create distance; not communicating

3. MInistry - enthusiasm, support; fatigued, lagging, support? focus on failures

knowing your relationship is intact; trust is intact; savings intact; investments intact; body intact; ready to absorb a crisis;

4. Personal stability; full of energy, bodily health; happy, positive; sick, friend; depressed;

Why listen (clarify) God gives us stability: doesn’t mean we wont’ have situations like this, or our instabilities will improve; repeat last week: God challengers our definition of need; same with stability; not how to fix instability, but how to think about them, approach them

transition: talking about mothers and instability; main character is a mom; widow

Imagine: widow; god’s wrath, why? vulnerable, exploited or ignored;

Imagine: widow; god’s wrath, why? vulnerable, exploited or ignored;

vulnerable, exploited or ignored;

1. problem: widow should not exist - situation should not exist

point: we withdraw from generosity when our security is threatened; rockville church

Deuteronomy 14:29 NIV

so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Deuteronomy 19:24

causing instability - action or inaction

enduring instability - job, relationships, church; personal

2. stability from the helpless

1 Kings 17:9 NIV

“Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.”

trip to china - called but cashed out; miles donated; congregants donated; church approved

wise plan: go to the wealthy benefactors; fund raise; funded by someone; scholarship, grant

e.g. - our solutions are easy, predictible; God’s solutions create more anxiety;

God’s solution:

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 24:19 NIV

When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

hearing the word v. practical problem solving

1 Kings 17:12 NIV

“As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “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.”

3. generosity in instability

hearing the word v. practical problem solving

our solution: withdraw resources, focus on the problem;

her focus: on survival, but able to hear God’s word

1 Kings 17:14 NIV

For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ ”

Stability with a Purpose