Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

We are looking for volunteers that would be willing to cut the grass.

Please see Pastor John...

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!

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:

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.

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?

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!

“ 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.

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.