Sunday Sermon 2 Kings 4:1-7

May 29 will be baptism Sunday and a Potluck to follow in celebration. So if there is anyone that has a conviction to take this leap of faith see Pastor John or the elders.

Worship Team Meeting will occur after Kymbra returns from recovery.

June 11, church on the lawn???

Introduction

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mother’s and Grandmother’s that are present and online!

Praise God for Mother’s!!!

We all have much to be grateful for, but next to Jesus a mother is the person to be most valued, to hold in high-esteem, and to give thanks for!

2 Timothy 1:3–5 NLT

Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again. I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you.

Timothy became the man of God he did, because his mother and grandmother poured into him!

Just like many of us sitting here today have become the man or women of God, because of our mothers poring into us, setting an example, and loving us, when we were unlovable.

Some here today are who they are because of their mother and grandmothers knees.

They prayed you into God’s Kingdom, they prayed for your protection and salvation.

They continue to pray that you will grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, and that God would see you through the most difficult times.

So praise God for mothers!

We are so glad that you have joined us this morning to worship God in Spirit and in Truth one verse at a time, one book at a time.

We are currently in Matthew, but today, we will head to the OT for a special message for this wonderful occasion called Mother’s Day.

Let’s Open our Bibles up to 2 Kings 4:1-7

Read 2 Kings 4:1-7

Prayer

Dear Lord, please bless every mother with the finest of your spiritual blessings today and encourage the mother that might not be with their children for various reasons. Please continue to use the mothers of this world and your church to make a difference in the lives of everyone they touch. Please heal the broken hearts of mothers who continuously pour into and pray for their children, grandchildren, and families, but have yet to see fruit. God for those of us here who have lost mothers and grandmothers, we want to say thank you for the years you gave us with them and for the examples they set for us. And for the orphan here today, or for your child that was given up for adoption, we pray for healing, hope, and encouragement, because the truth of the matter is that holidays are not always peaches and creme, but rather hurt and despair. Lord as we open you Word today, we pray for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to penetrate our hearts and that we would walk away refreshed and refilled in the Spirit. We surrender all!

In Jesus Name, we love You! Amen and Amen

As we open our text today, I am reminded that not everyone here today is in a good place.

Some are in despair, some of discouragement, and are depressed and isolated.

Some are in debt up to theirs and they do not know who they are going to turn to next.

For living in survival is a difficult thing, living paycheck to paycheck creates anxiety and fear that creates physical, mental, and emotional health problems.

But wait! There is Good News for the weary sojourner.

There is good news for the down-cast soul, for the person who is discouraged, depressed, and in despair.

Even in the worst of trials, God promises you that he will never leave you or forsake you.

His Word promises us:

John 16:33 NKJV

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

The question we must ask is, “Where are your eyes? What are you focused on?

Let’s learn from the widow here in our story.

2 Kings 4:1 NKJV

A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”

We learn quickly that there is several things going on in this amazing story.

We have a widow here that has lost her husband and I know that there are a few of you here today. May the Lord continue to comfort you and give you peace!

This women’s husband was part of the prophets guild that is called the sons of the prophets.

Sons of the Prophets- was a guild of prophets or a seminary if you may for those who God called to be a prophets.

Depending on you translation, Sons of Prophets is used in your Bibles somewhere between 9-11 times.

There was an order that was set up in the guild. Elijah was a discipler of prophets as were others. He raised up Elisha and the prophetic call would be answered when the disciple would take the mantle per-see of the master.

So this widows husband was in school. He was one of the sons of the prophets.

Soem scholars attempt to say that these men lived in monastic communities away from everyone else.

But we know this is not true because we see here in this text that this man was married and had two sons.

Cried- tsa’ aq- it is an intense word which means to cry out for help; to cry in distress or in grief.

This was a cry of desperation, church.

The cry of a mother.

A. There Was Despair In Her Family – The word “cried” means “to moan; to weep uncontrollably; to shriek out of grief.” This word identifies the sound of a broken heart. This woman comes to the man of God at the lowest moment of her life.

She is in desperate and notice where she turns?

Have you ever been there?

When you have exhausted all options and you have not where else to turn?

Psalm 61:1–3 NKJV

Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a shelter for me, A strong tower from the enemy.

This single mother was not only dealing with the loss of her husband but a few other things I wanted to show you, please do not stay stuck in this story but rather think about how it applies to your life:

. There Was Death In Her Family – She was married to one of the “sons of the prophets”. These were the men who were in training under Elisha to be the prophets and preachers in Israel. Her husband, her lover, her friend, her provider, her protector, had been taken away from here in death. She is broken because a loved one has been taken away.

Have you ever been there?

There Was Debt In Her Family – Since her husband is dead she cannot pay her bills. As a result, her creditors are coming to take her sons away as slaves so they can work off the debt. This was allowed under the Jewish Law, Lev. 25:39. She has been deprived of her husband, now she is about to lose her sons as well. She is over her head in debt and she doesn’t see how she can make it.

Have you ever been in debt like this?

We have a debt that we cannot pay church, however, God sent his only begotten son that he should die for you and for me. He paid our ransom, which means he saved us from our slavery to sin church. He paid our debt!

Colossians 2:13–14 NASB95

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

“ Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe, my sin had left a crimson stain, but He washed it white as snow.”

“Oh praise the one who paid my debt, and raised this life up from the dead…”

2. There Was Devotion In Her Family – In spite of all her problems, she is still held firm in the grip of faith! She needs help, but she does not turn to her family or her friends. She does not try to find someone to loan her more money. In her desperation she turns to the man of God for help. Elisha was God’s representative on earth and he was her best hope. She reminds Elisha that her husband “did fear the Lord.”

Her life has been a life of devotion to the Lord and in her trouble, she still trusts Him and turns to Him for the things she needs! In spite of her pain, her problems and her lack of possibilities, she still looked up to God for the help she needed! Even though she couldn’t see a way out, she knew that she couldn’t see everything. Even though she didn’t understand everything she was facing, she still believed that God cared and that He could do something about her situation, so she cried out to Him in faith!

The fact that she referred to her husband as “thy servant” indicates he was involved in the service of the Lord in some way and may have served Elisha, too.

2 Kings 4:1 NKJV

It is important here also to see the legacy that this widows husband left church, but this is also a time that that I want to say to the men here today, do everything you can to not leave your wife debt when you die.

He left an impressionable legacy to his wife and kids, he feared the Lord church and was in the ministry.

It is important to note that the ministry is not about the pocket, but rather the Lord and the people he calls the minister to serve.

It is not a lucrative business, but rather one that pays eternal dividends!

The widow acknowledges that Elisha knew her husband. She speaks of the legacy that her husband had while he lived and that he was a man that feared the Lord.

A legacy is something that is transmitted or received from an ancestor or predecessor. It is something that has been handed down from someone in the past. It can be an inheritance or it can be a way of life.

You are writing your legacy right now by the way you live, by your successes and failures, by your love or your hate, by your selfishness or your generosity, by your godliness or your sinfulness, by your dedication to Christ or your carnal, worldly living. You are writing your legacy and people are watching and reading it. Your legacy is the story of your life. It is how you live. The psalmist puts it this way:

Psalm 90:9 KJV 1900

For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: We spend our years as a tale that is told.

Paul states it like this:

2 Corinthians 3:2 NKJV

You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

What are people reading about our lives church? What would that screen right there disclose about our home life? Our life in public? Our life in private?

It is clear she loved her husband and that he was a godly man.

May we leave legacies for our families that glorified God, so he can say well done my good a faithful servant enter into the joy of the Lord!

May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock!

Charles Spurgeon

2 Kings 4:2 NKJV

So 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 but a jar of oil.”

It is clear that Elisha heard the cry of her heart.

It is here that we can learn something church. We are called to cry with those who cry and rejoice with those who rejoice.

But maybe in the heat of despair and the agony of tears we could ask what we could do for the person that is suffering?

So Elisha asks her what he could do for her, but before we continue I want to remind you that this widow did not turn to something else or someone else, but rather turned to the prophet of God Elisha that is a type of Christ.

He then asks the lady what she has in the house?

Everything starts here church!

What do we have in our homes? Do our homes glorify God?

If we are going to heal form our losses, get our of depression, despair, and discourage ment.

It starts in our homes. If our homes are not right church, we will not be right!

Elisha asks what she has, and she basically says that everything is gone.

I have sold everything that we owned to take care of my sons, we do not even have food to eat Elisha!

It is all gone church, everything is gone.

But it is not gone because this mother was making bad choices and wasting what God had given her on prodigal living, but rather she sold it all to care for her children!

When it is all gone, when we are at the end of ourselves, guess who shows up?

The Lords Timing is ALWAYS PERFECT

The widow does not have much, but what she does have she is willing to give to the Lord, like the widow and her two mites that went down in history.

How God Erases Our Faith – The Lord erased the widow’s faith through two questions asked by Elisha.

1.) What do you need?

2.) What do you have?

By those two questions, this woman was made to see the size of her need and the smallness of her own resources.

She needed everything and she had very little. She needed much, but she could not possibly meet her own needs.

Often God will use the trials, heartaches and burdens of life to bring us to the place where we can honestly see our need and our own inability to meet it.

Think about it, as long as we think we can handle things, why should we look to the Lord? If we have all the answers, why should we turn to Him with our questions?

But, when we stop and honestly answer those two questions, we will realize that we need more than we will ever be able to supply by ourselves. God does this to erase our faith. He isn’t trying to erase our faith in Him; He is trying to erase our faith in ourselves. As long as we think we can, He won’t!

This jar of oil was not a large item, but rather a jar of anointing oil, and some scholars think this could have been used to anoint her husband when he died, like Jesus, therefore, it would have been fragrant and expensive. Soem tend to think olive oil, but I believe the first because there is a debt that needs paid off.

2 Kings 4:3 NKJV

Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few.

Note: Elisha give her a command to GO!

Do you think this was nice of him?

Did he handle this wrong?

I would suggest getting out of yourself and going to others brings healing in our lives.

To much of the time when we suffer loss, despair, debt, discouragement, depression, or defeat, we get on the pity-pot when we need to run to others and ask for help.

This is exactly what Elisha had her do.

But wait!

She did not flounder, but her faith moved to action because:

Hebrews 11:1 NKJV

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

She gave what little she had when the prophet asked and the Lord multiples it.

You know when God told Moses that he was going to be is mouth piece, Moses said, but God I stutter and he used him anyway despite his failings and shortcomings.

In fact, later on in the story church this out:

Exodus 4:2 NKJV

So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.”

God used what Moses had to bring the plagues on Egypt, to strike the Red Sea and it parted and they crossed over, to strike the Rock to bring water.

But wait!

What about when Jesus fed the 5000, Andrew found a little boy who had 5 loaves and 2 fishes and guess what?

God will use us, no matter id we stutter like Moses or how little we have if we would just step out in faith like the widow!

Church, this is also a picture of us being surrounded by empty vessels.

God said GO, make disciples church and we cannot make disciples if we are not befriending others...

2 Kings 4:4–6 NKJV

And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.” So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased.

Notice the privacy, this is interesting and it reminds me of when Jesus would tell those who he healed at times to tell no one.

Jesus wants to do miracles in our life in private, just like when he said when you pray church, go in your secret closet.

They yielded the voice of the prophet, leaped out in faith, and she began to pour there was a limitless supply of oil.

Oil in the Bible represents the Holy Spirit church.

This lady struck oil!

Church, without faith it is impossible to please God for he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Two men went down to a lake one morning to do some trout fishing, and they stayed there all day. But one man had a strange habit. Every time he would catch a trout he would pull out a little ruler and measure it. If the trout measured larger than the ruler he would throw it back. So strangely enough he kept all of the little trout that he caught, but he threw back all the big ones.

Well his partner watched that all day long, and as they prepared to leave he looked at him and said, “I can’t stand this any longer. I have never seen a man fish like you in my life.” He said, “You’ve kept all of the small trout and thrown back all of the big ones.” The man said, “Sure did.” He said, “Why did you do that?” The man said, “Because I only have an eight-inch frying pan.”

Now think about that. Rather than get a bigger skillet, he was settling for smaller fish. I believe so often God wants to give us twelve-inch blessings, but all we have is eight-inch faith.)

We see here is this story that God gives free refills, not like the world gives does he give.

Philippians 4:19 NKJV

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

The lesson here is simple church, when we keep going to the empty vessels that God has told us to go to and pour into them, God who cannot lie will continue to supply us with oil.

The more vessels we pur into, the more oil..

When the vessels stop, the text said the oil stopped.

2 Kings 4:7 NKJV

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 live on the rest.”

In the midst of our despair and coming to the end of ourselves God will always show up in his perfect timing and provide.

The scripture says that it rains on the just and the unjust, what would make you think he would not take care of you?

Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, he washed me white as snow!

A construction crew was building a new road through a rural area, knocking down trees as it progressed. A superintendent noticed that one tree had a nest of birds who couldn’t yet fly and he marked the tree so that it would not be cut down.

Several weeks later, the superintendent came back to the tree. He got into a bucket truck and was lifted up so that he could look into the nest. To his surprise, he discovered that the fledglings were gone. They had obviously learned to fly. The superintendent then ordered the tree to be cut down.

As the tree crashed to the ground, the nest fell clear and some of the material that the birds had gathered to make the nest was scattered about. Part of it was a scrap torn from a Sunday school pamphlet. On the scrap of paper were these words: “He careth for You!”

Are you at the end of your rope today? I just want you to know that He careth for you! Bring your vessels; let Him amaze you with what He can do with your situation.

Prayer

John 3:16 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

THE LORD BLESS YOU!

YOUR MISSION STARTS NOW!

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