The Power of the First Fruit
Notes
Transcript
Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
Famine from the Lord
Famine from the Lord
People often say, God won’t give you more than you can handle. But I’m here to shatter that notion. God frequently gives us more than we can handle. Why, so we learn to trust in Him
Elijah gets up one day and God says, I want you to prophesy famine and drought! Why? I’m doing something! but we need rain, Yes, but you need me more!
WHat God does in these situation is he is trying to draw us closer to him.
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
God provides for his servant
God provides for his servant
So the drought begins and everything begins to dies. People are starving but God speaks to Elijah and says go to the brook at Cherith. You will drink from the brook and Ravens will feed you.
God calls on Elijah, his servant to place his life in the beaks and claws of Ravens. Are you telling me I have to rely on birds to provide for me?
How often do we look out and say God, I’m not going to rely on this to provide. It doesn’t make sense. I can’t trust that birds will take care of me.
But God looks at it and says, it isn’t the birds, it isn’t your employer. It I who provide.
Trust me.
Elijah trusts God and moves to the brook. He is fed by birds day and night.
However the next thing that is written is: Then the brook dried up!
Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” “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.” Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 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.’ ” She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.
The Crushing Call of Faith
The Crushing Call of Faith
Has your brook dried up today?
You see Elijah was trusting God and learning to trust the birds. lol
He is getting into a routine, and then the brook dries up!
God why have you dried up the brook? It was my lifeline!
The brook was never your lifeline! God was, It just looked like a brook for a season.
But behind the brook was God drying it up!
Its hard when the brooks dry up isn’t it?
What are you doing?
I can’t handle this!
Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!” Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
Trust in Jesus today so that you can save tomorrow!
Trust in Jesus today so that you can save tomorrow!
You see more often then not God dries up the brooks that we rely on to get us to move!
Imagine Elijah sitting there, finally getting into a routine of faith. Trusting God for water and food. Then the brook dries up and the birds leave.
Suddenly Elijah has to move and he ends up at the door of a widow.
Now flip the story. Now your the widow.
You have no food, you are starving and all you have left is one meal.
God shows up and says, give this food to my servant.
Trust me with your life.
She tells Elijah, If I feed you, I have nothing, I was getting ready to make our last meal. It is just my son and me. All we have left is one meal together then we die. Please don't take that.
Elijah tells her what. Fear Not. First feed me, then yourself.
Obey God and trust him for the provision.
Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!” Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
The Widows faith in the small (with the flour and oil) paved the way for a Resurrection.
So often, you and I fail to trust God in the small and we scratch our heads at why the grander works do not seems to manifest!
Are you in financial hardship? Perhaps you cannot make it work? Are you tithing?
You cannot expect the blessing of God when your heart lies in rebellion!
Yet here