The Mother Who Struck Oil at Home Outline by Rodger F. Campbell

Outline by Rodger F. Campbell

No man is poor who has a Godly mother.  — Abraham Lincoln

My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.  — George Washington

God knows that a mother needs fortitude and courage and tolerance and flexibility and patience and firmness and nearly every other brave aspect of the human soul.  — Phyllis McGinley

I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know.  — Mitch Albom

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field, since the payment is pure love. — Mildred B. Vermont

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? — Milton Berle

I. Introduction

A. Mothers and their Many Responsibilities

1. Who can number them all?

2. Yet mothers are uniquely equipped by God for this task

3. Motherhood was the first command of God to Eve

B. The Added Responsibilities of Widowhood

1. The increased load when the husband is gone

2. Such is the case in the text before us

2 Kings 4:1 NASB95

1 Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”

A. This Mother Knew where to go in the Time of Need (v. 1)

1. The preacher’s widow

a. Wife of one of the sons of the prophets

b. About this departed preacher

(1) Must have been a man of faith. Served under Elisha

(2) Must have been fearless. He didn’t have any money

(3) Must have been hard working. He died young

c. No bankruptcy back then. You worked off your debt.

2. The Problems: Death and debts

3. The widow went quickly to seek the wisdom and help of God

a. Scriptures not complete, not even OT. To hear from God, you went to a prophet.

4. Blessed is the mother who knows where to go when her family is in need

a. What are your needs as a family? Are you seeking the Lord? Will you be satisfied with the Lord’s answer?

B. This Mother found the Answer to her Need was Right at Home (vv. 2–4)

2 Kings 4:2–4 NASB95

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

1. Elisha considering her problem: “What shall I do for you?”

2. Elisha’s searching question: “What hast thou in the house?” What are your assets?

a. A good question for all mothers today

b. A husband who loves you? Food enough for today?

c. Money for this week’s groceries?

d. This mother had none of these things

3. The negative answer: “Thy handmaid hath not anything”

a. Mothers and others with this attitude are miserable

b. “Others get new things, I am deprived. Poor me!”

4. The Startling Discovery: “Save A Little Pot of Oil.” A Positive Move

a. Literally “an anointing of oil” Nothing expensive. It was everyday oil; easily overlooked

b. But this was the turning point

c. How long has it been since you counted your blessings?

d. Rediscovering the house, the family, the furniture, love

5. The answer for lifting your burden may be right at home

a. God didn’t bring her husband back to life

b. He didn’t just give her a hand out either

c. They were all involved in the solution.

C. This Mother Found that the Possibilities are Unlimited When you Allow God to Use what you have (vv. 4–7)

2 Kings 4:4–7 NASB95

4 “And you shall go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour out into all these vessels, and you shall set aside what is full.” 5 So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they were bringing the vessels to her and she poured. 6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not one vessel more.” And the oil stopped. 7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”

1. Heeding the message of Elisha in faith. Jesus said “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” Obedience shows love.

2. Involving her sons in the act of faith

a. Sent them borrowing

b. Thinking big! “Borrow not a few”

c. Expecting the answer

d. Moms, how can you involve your children in the outworking of your faith? [Lent services, whole family involved}

Our kids helped put together the gifts for the moms out in the foyer. They enjoyed dressing up the bags of chocolate with the cards and the bows.

3. The closed doors. The thrilling moment

a. This was private, just for them. What a bonding moment it must have been for them. Kids, “do remember that one time when…”

b. God took what she had and multiplied it

c. Filling all the borrowed vessels

4. What God will do with what you have

a. A boy’s lunch

b. Moses’ rod

c. David’s sling

Conclusion

A. Whatever you have is Enough for God to Use

B. What do you have in the House? Unlimited potential especially here in America. [Pastor Salomon visit. He wants us to teach the African women to make quilts, crafts, etc.] What can you develop for the Lord Jesus? What might the Lord do with it?

I think our problem today might be that we have so many resources that we don’t know what to do with them.

A.B.Simpson: “Our God has boundless resources. The only limit is in us. Our asking, our thinking, our praying are too small. Our expectations are too limited.”

Campbell, Rodger F. (1997). Preach for a year (pp. 8182). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.

A Mother's Arms

There was a teenager who didn't want to be seen in public with her mother, because her mother's arms were terribly disfigured.

One day when her mother took her shopping and reached out her hand, a clerk looked horrified. Later, crying, the girl told her how embarrassed she was. Understandably hurt, the mother waited an hour before going to her daughter's room to tell her, for the first time, what happened.

When you were a baby, I woke up to a burning house. Your room was an inferno. Flames were everywhere. I could have gotten out the front door, but I decided I'd rather die with you than leave you to die alone. I ran through the fire and wrapped my arms around you. Then I went back through the flames, my arms on fire. When I got outside on the lawn, the pain was agonizing but when I looked at you, all I could do was rejoice that the flames hadn't touched you.

Stunned, the girl looked at her mother through new eyes. Weeping in shame and gratitude, she kissed her mother's marred hands and arms.

At that moment in the fire, that mom only had her 2 arms available to use, and she was willing to even sacrifice for her daughter.

Application: Isn't it true that any real success you experience in your life is due to the sacrifice of someone else? For most of us that someone else was mom. Never underestimate the immense influence of a mother's sacrificial love and care.

"She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed …" (Proverbs 31:27-28).

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.  — Washington Irving

Behind all your stories is always your mother's story, because hers is where yours begin.  — Mitch Albom

No man is poor who has a Godly mother.  — Abraham Lincoln

My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.  — George Washington

(Motherhood) is the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won't be needed in the long run. — Barbara Kingsolver

(A mother) can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.  — N.K. Jemisin

How vital are mother’s influence and teaching in the home—and how apparent when neglected!  — Ezra Taft Benson

God knows that a mother needs fortitude and courage and tolerance and flexibility and patience and firmness and nearly every other brave aspect of the human soul.  — Phyllis McGinley

(Mothers) worry only about those we brought into this world, regardless of whether they loved us back or treated us fairly or understood our shortcomings.  — Adriana Trigiani

I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know.  — Mitch Albom

You may have tangible wealth untold; caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be. I had a mother who read to me.  — Strickland Gillilan

The daughter of a good mother will be the mother of a good daughter.  — Vikrant Parsai

No language can express the power, and beauty, and heroism, and majesty of a mother's love. It shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man faints, and over wastes of worldly fortunes sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star. — Edwin Hubbell Chapin

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field, since the payment is pure love. — Mildred B. Vermont

The phrase “working mother” is redundant. — Jane Sellman

If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been. — Robert Brault

She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along. — Margaret Culkin Banning

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? — Milton Berle

Mom—the person most likely to write an autobiography and never mention herself. — Robert Brault

The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent. — Erich Fromm