Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Hey Siri, are you ready for the word? Hey, tif
Speaker 1: are you ready for the word? Hey Joey, are you
Speaker 1: ready for the word? Hey? Fam are you ready for
Speaker 1: the word? Stay standing? Stand up? Stay standing or stand up?
Speaker 1: Just make sure you're standing. I want to read to
Speaker 1: you from One King seventeen. There's something that the Lord
Speaker 1: was showing me today that I think is really going
Speaker 1: to speak to your situation. Please take a moment and share.
Speaker 1: If you're just joining us, make sure to let us
Speaker 1: know in the chat where you're watching from. It was
Speaker 1: so cool last week that after the sermon was posted,
Speaker 1: everybody who watched the sermon went and said, here's where
Speaker 1: I'm watching from, and they said, I'm here for it.
Speaker 1: And it was so cool to see all the places.
Speaker 1: And our team then gets to go through and they
Speaker 1: get to pray for you by name that God would
Speaker 1: speak to you. So put it in the chat. But also,
Speaker 1: don't just be blessed today, be a blessing. Be a blessing.
Speaker 1: What if you took a moment right now to share
Speaker 1: this experience with someone and it lifted them out of depression.
Speaker 1: What if you took a moment to share this with
Speaker 1: someone right now and it helped them to breathe deeply
Speaker 1: and not have a panic attack later this week. What
Speaker 1: if you shared this message with someone right now and
Speaker 1: God spoke a word that kept them from doing something
Speaker 1: stupid that was going to mess up their life. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you the Word of God is powerful and you're
Speaker 1: going to see that in the text. But by faith,
Speaker 1: right now, share it. Hit the share button or text somebody.
Speaker 1: You know how to do it, and you know who
Speaker 1: God puts on your heart. And let's move into the
Speaker 1: Word of God together. We've already had an awesome time
Speaker 1: of worship. We've already praised God, We've already been singing
Speaker 1: to Him. We spent this week serving and now let's
Speaker 1: go to the Word and see what God will give
Speaker 1: us to sustain us for these crazy days we live
Speaker 1: in One Kings chapter seventeen. Now Elijah the tishbite from
Speaker 1: Tishby in Gilead said to ahab As the Lord, the
Speaker 1: God of Israel, lives whom I serve, there will be
Speaker 1: neither do nor reign in the next few years except
Speaker 1: at my word. Then the word of the Lord came
Speaker 1: to Elijah. Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the
Speaker 1: Careth Ravine east of the Jordan. You will drink from
Speaker 1: the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply
Speaker 1: you with food there. We talked last week about unschedulable blessings.
Speaker 1: Unschedulable blessings. It's a word I made of It's a
Speaker 1: thing you can't put on your calendar. But God is
Speaker 1: going to come through for you. He's going to come
Speaker 1: through for you sometimes after you've given up. But this
Speaker 1: is an unusual way for God to provide for his servant.
Speaker 1: It's an unusual source. So he did what the Lord
Speaker 1: had told him verse five, and he went to the
Speaker 1: Karath Ravine east of the Jordan and stayed there. The
Speaker 1: ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and
Speaker 1: bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from
Speaker 1: the brook. Sometime later, the brook dried up because there
Speaker 1: had been no rain in the land. Then the word
Speaker 1: of the Lord came to him. Go at once to
Speaker 1: Zerapath in the region of Sidon, and stay there. I
Speaker 1: have directed a widow there to supply you with food,
Speaker 1: and I watch this. So he went to Zarapath, and
Speaker 1: when he came to the town gate, a widow was
Speaker 1: there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, would
Speaker 1: you bring me a little water in a jar? Just
Speaker 1: slow water? Uh uh uh uh oh, hang on, let's
Speaker 1: see if we can get that fixed, little water. Isn't
Speaker 1: it weird? Come on out, tech support, How many out
Speaker 1: real quick? Because I know we can get this fixed.
Speaker 1: Isn't it weird? Come check this out? I'm broadcasting right now.
Speaker 1: Can you can you fix it? Isn't it weird? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: no no, yeah. See if we get fixed, you can't
Speaker 1: fix it. No, fix it in the back and bring
Speaker 1: it back in the weird. Look, look, we're broadcasting to
Speaker 1: the whole world. Why can't you don't leave me hanging
Speaker 1: in We're broadcasting to the whole world. Isn't it weird?
Speaker 1: How something so little, I mean, we're broadcasting all over
Speaker 1: the world. Isn't it weird? How something so little can
Speaker 1: control something so big. Bring that back to me on stone.
Speaker 1: We see if we can fix it. He said, bring
Speaker 1: me a little water? How much water? A little? So
Speaker 1: let me have a dream. And as she was going
Speaker 1: to get it, he called, and bring me, please a
Speaker 1: piece of bread. As surely as the Lord, your god lives.
Speaker 1: She replies, I don't have any bread, only a handful
Speaker 1: of flour in a jar, and a little how much
Speaker 1: a little olive oil in a jug. A little flour
Speaker 1: in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug.
Speaker 1: I am gathering a few sticks to take home and
Speaker 1: make a meal for myself and my son, that we
Speaker 1: may eat it and die. Now here's the word of
Speaker 1: the Lord. Elijah said to her. Don't be afraid. Go
Speaker 1: home and do as you have said, But first to
Speaker 1: make a small loaf of bread for me from what
Speaker 1: you have, and bring it to me, and then make
Speaker 1: something for yourself and your son. For this is what
Speaker 1: the Lord, the God of Israel, says. The jar of
Speaker 1: flower will not be used up, and the jug of
Speaker 1: oil will not run dry until the day the Lord
Speaker 1: sends rain on the lands. So she went away and
Speaker 1: did as Elijah had told her. So there was food
Speaker 1: every day for Elijah, and for the woman and her family,
Speaker 1: For the jar of flour was not used up, and
Speaker 1: the jug of oil did not run dry. In keeping
Speaker 1: with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah, a
Speaker 1: little olive oil in a jug, A little olive oil.
Speaker 1: Here's what the Lord sent me to tell you today.
Speaker 1: Take the lid off a little, you ready, Father, We
Speaker 1: stand under an open heaven, thanking you for your blessings.
Speaker 1: We thank you for rain in due season. We thank
Speaker 1: you that you speak what we need when we need it.
Speaker 1: And when you speak, there's nothing the enemy can do
Speaker 1: to snatch what has sown. Our hearts are good soil.
Speaker 1: We are open to your word. We are open to
Speaker 1: the possibility that in this season you are leading us
Speaker 1: like never before into a place that you prepared for
Speaker 1: us before the world began. We give you praise for
Speaker 1: it in Jesus' name. Everybody who receives this word, clap
Speaker 1: your hands. Amen, you may be seated. Take the lid
Speaker 1: off a little. That's crazy, Zach, how a little thing
Speaker 1: you'll be seated. How a little thing, something so little
Speaker 1: can affect something so big. I mean, this word I
Speaker 1: just told you is going all over the world, and
Speaker 1: one little wire wires. We were in a church one
Speaker 1: time and the sound guy said, quit on hooking my wires.
Speaker 1: We had our little sound system we were setting up
Speaker 1: that he said, quit messing with my wires, my wires.
Speaker 1: Isn't it weird? One little, one little thing? And in
Speaker 1: the text I was reading, they're gonna think we worked
Speaker 1: this out ahead of time, but we did it. Isn't
Speaker 1: it crazy? In the text we read, the Bible says
Speaker 1: it didn't rain for three years because of the word
Speaker 1: that came from Elijah's mouth. How can the word from
Speaker 1: one man's mouth control the weather? How can something so
Speaker 1: little affect something so big? What happens all the time
Speaker 1: in your life, I mean, the littlest thing in your
Speaker 1: day can set you in a direction that you don't
Speaker 1: even realize until it is so depressing. I mean, my
Speaker 1: die and didn't even realize something so little. That's why
Speaker 1: I have to be so very careful. What the first
Speaker 1: thing I look on my phone for when I get
Speaker 1: up in the morning. Because it doesn't take much. It
Speaker 1: doesn't take much. And I don't care who you follow
Speaker 1: on Instagram, they find a way into your feed. The
Speaker 1: people you unfollowed, they find a way back in. The
Speaker 1: algorithm will attack you. Somebody said. The devil is a
Speaker 1: Lauren Ryan Lyon. So is the Instagram algorithm. It is
Speaker 1: looking for someone to devour. That's why they call it
Speaker 1: a feed. I figured this out. He's looking to eat
Speaker 1: you alive. Ah, something so little. It said that the
Speaker 1: word from Elijah's mouth controlled the weather system. How could
Speaker 1: something so small? How could how could a wet market
Speaker 1: on the other side of the world have you shut
Speaker 1: down and grounded from traveling. There's never been a better
Speaker 1: time for me to p this message that I want
Speaker 1: to appreciate today because everybody has to agree in this moment.
Speaker 1: If you've never agreed before that the littlest thing in
Speaker 1: your life or the littlest thing in someone else's life
Speaker 1: can affect you in a way, I'm telling you right
Speaker 1: now that the littlest things in your life right now,
Speaker 1: if you can receive this word from the Lord today,
Speaker 1: are controlling the things. And maybe we can help make
Speaker 1: this connection through studying Elijah little bit controlling the things
Speaker 1: that you have no control over, And I'll do my
Speaker 1: best to break it down as we move. I've always
Speaker 1: read Romans eight twenty eight with a very specific categorization.
Speaker 1: Romans eight twenty eight is my favorite Bible verse because
Speaker 1: it gets me through anything. It says that all things
Speaker 1: work together for the good of those that love God
Speaker 1: and are called according to His purpose. How could I
Speaker 1: have quoted it for so long and only seen it
Speaker 1: through the lens of good things and bad things. I
Speaker 1: always read Romans eight twenty eight that all things, whether
Speaker 1: good or bad, work together for the good for those
Speaker 1: who are called according to God's purpose. Now I realize
Speaker 1: that Romans eight twenty eight doesn't just apply to good
Speaker 1: things and bad things. It applies also to big things
Speaker 1: and little things. Turn the lights on and wake them up.
Speaker 1: I can't get I can't get any help out here.
Speaker 1: It said all things turn the lights on and wake
Speaker 1: them up. Do something, pull the lights up because it's
Speaker 1: sleep Yeah, yeah, yeah, yah, that's better. I need to
Speaker 1: see y'all sleeping. Y'all are sleeping on me. I'm about
Speaker 1: to clear out the whole room. It doesn't just mean
Speaker 1: good things and bad things. It means that the big
Speaker 1: things and the little things. And that's why you cannot
Speaker 1: despise the day of small beginnings, because everything little leads
Speaker 1: to something big. That's how you got here. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give y'all a minute for the for the YouTube delay.
Speaker 1: That's how you got That's how everything you see got here.
Speaker 1: It started with somebody's thought, an impulse in the brain
Speaker 1: that you cannot even see with the human eye. A
Speaker 1: virus has shot down the world. Show me a coronavirus.
Speaker 1: You can't show me the effects of it. You can't
Speaker 1: get away from it. How can something so little affect
Speaker 1: something so big? How can something that happened to you
Speaker 1: when you were twelve still be haunting you when you're
Speaker 1: forty two? How can something so little control something so big?
Speaker 1: And that's the lens at which I was looking at
Speaker 1: the prophet Elijah's life. I was say he controlled the
Speaker 1: weather with his word, And I thought about how our
Speaker 1: words control the weather. How when we speak things, when
Speaker 1: we say things, when we say them, not even out loud,
Speaker 1: but to ourselves, it affects the weather of our heart. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how can a little thing like a thought lead you
Speaker 1: down the track? I mean, it's such a little thing.
Speaker 1: By little things lead the big things. Little things lead
Speaker 1: the big things. So the prophet Elijah prophesies at drought,
Speaker 1: and it's a wonderful story, and we could elaborate on
Speaker 1: it for days, but we just want to talk about
Speaker 1: this little instruction that God gave them in verse to
Speaker 1: Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, leave here,
Speaker 1: turn eastward and hide in the care of Ravine east
Speaker 1: of the Jordan. Okay, that verse right there. It kind
Speaker 1: of sounds on the surface like like God will tell
Speaker 1: you everything that you need to do in your life.
Speaker 1: But I want to show you something very interesting about
Speaker 1: how God spoke to Elijah. One time someone asked me,
Speaker 1: what do you mean when you say God spoke to me?
Speaker 1: And he asked it very innocently. He said, I hear
Speaker 1: you preaching and say God spoke to me. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure God ever spoke to me. What do you mean
Speaker 1: when you say God spoke to me? And the challenging
Speaker 1: thing about it was he was hearing that as a voice,
Speaker 1: but really I meant it as a thought. I don't
Speaker 1: experience God through my ears. I experienced him through my thoughts,
Speaker 1: and then I call it God spoke to me, but
Speaker 1: I didn't hear a voice. And here's what's interesting about
Speaker 1: how how God was leading Elijah. Because you got to
Speaker 1: you got to pay attention to the small things in
Speaker 1: the text, because the little things matter. It said he
Speaker 1: told him leave here, turn eastward and hide into care
Speaker 1: of Thravinis to the Jordan. You will drink from the brook,
Speaker 1: and I have directed the ravens to supply you with
Speaker 1: food there. Whoe? Can we stop for a minute and
Speaker 1: talk about how ridiculous? How's this gonna work? We just
Speaker 1: read it, right, we just skip right past it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you go down there in the birds, bring him the birds.
Speaker 1: Get ready for God to explode your box of how
Speaker 1: you think He's going to provide for you. Huh. We
Speaker 1: have all these limitations on ways that we think God
Speaker 1: can take care of us. We have all these limitations
Speaker 1: on ways that we think that God can take care
Speaker 1: of our family. We have all these limitations on ways
Speaker 1: that we think God can use us. We have all
Speaker 1: these limitations on ways that we think that God can
Speaker 1: order our life and ways that we think. But God said,
Speaker 1: get ready for me to take the lid off and
Speaker 1: start blessing you through birds. And not just birds, not
Speaker 1: just any kind of birds. But I'm gonna use ravens,
Speaker 1: unclean birds, dirty birds. Have you ever had God bless
Speaker 1: you through a dirty bird. I need you to put
Speaker 1: a dirty bird bless it in the chat. If you
Speaker 1: ever had God use something just ridiculous, didn't make sense,
Speaker 1: didn't see it coming, didn't even like it. God has
Speaker 1: used people I didn't even like to bless me before
Speaker 1: dirty birds. The ravens were dirty birds. God said, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna use a dirty bird to feed you
Speaker 1: by the charath ravine. And he does this for a while.
Speaker 1: He does this for a while. If I could tell
Speaker 1: you the whole story, I would, because Ahab Now he
Speaker 1: needs to see that God controls the rain, not bail.
Speaker 1: He needs to see that God controls the rain, not bail.
Speaker 1: He needs to know that that God is in control,
Speaker 1: that God is not only in control of the big
Speaker 1: things in our life, but the small things in our life.
Speaker 1: Follow me, I promise you. This is a powerful, profound
Speaker 1: word for those who can receive it. And so he
Speaker 1: takes Elijah to a place where he feeds him what
Speaker 1: he needs in that season. Now, E've been in a
Speaker 1: season lately where God hasn't been feeding you the same
Speaker 1: way he used to feed you. And the word is
Speaker 1: so relevant right now because up until now you had
Speaker 1: a certain way of how you thought it had to be.
Speaker 1: I had a certain way I thought church was supposed
Speaker 1: to be. I thought in order to have church, you
Speaker 1: had to let people in the building. But God took
Speaker 1: the lid off of that. Come on, God is trying
Speaker 1: to take the lid off of that just to show
Speaker 1: me that church is not just going to be contained
Speaker 1: to a physical location. And now I'm setting you up.
Speaker 1: God is trying to show you the same thing. In
Speaker 1: your life. You've had some people leave you because God
Speaker 1: wanted to show you that you don't need them to
Speaker 1: make it less. Claps, y'all were clapping when I talked
Speaker 1: about closing the church. That was weird. You just left
Speaker 1: me because what's what the Bible says. It says that
Speaker 1: every day the birds brought him bread in the morning
Speaker 1: and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank
Speaker 1: from the brook. But in verse seven, verse seven, it
Speaker 1: says that sometime later the brook dried up because there
Speaker 1: had been no rain in the land. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: cause and effect. The brook dried up because there had
Speaker 1: been no rain in the land. Why had there been
Speaker 1: no rain in the land, Because Elijah spoke, there will
Speaker 1: be no rain in the land. So now he is
Speaker 1: the victim of the consequence of his own obedience. It's
Speaker 1: causing effect. And every day he goes out to get
Speaker 1: some water from the brook, there's a little bit less.
Speaker 1: And every day he goes out to get water from
Speaker 1: the brook, it's a little bit less. And every day
Speaker 1: he goes out to get water from the brook is
Speaker 1: a little bit less. And you gotta be wondering right
Speaker 1: about now, when is God gonna stop it from going down?
Speaker 1: Have you been wondering that lately? Like when is God
Speaker 1: gonna stop it from decreasing? And this is not a
Speaker 1: message for everybody. If you're living in a time of overflow,
Speaker 1: it's wonderful. I'll see it next week. I'll preach next week,
Speaker 1: I'll live it in the overflow. But this message is
Speaker 1: about the little bit every time he came to the brook.
Speaker 1: This did happen all at once. It's just a little
Speaker 1: bit less, a little bit less, a little bit less,
Speaker 1: a little bit less until the point where one day
Speaker 1: it comes to the brook and there's nothing there and
Speaker 1: he has to move to the next mealracle. So how
Speaker 1: does God move you to your next miracle? Let me
Speaker 1: ask you a question. It's a conversation. Now, do you
Speaker 1: want God to lead you? How did God lead Elijah
Speaker 1: from the brook to the widow's house. How does God
Speaker 1: get us from where we are to where he's taking us?
Speaker 1: How does he get us from the good work he
Speaker 1: began to the good work he wants to finish. It
Speaker 1: may not be the way that you think, because the
Speaker 1: Bible says that God led Elijah to his next assignment
Speaker 1: through a limitation, give him a teaching stool. We often
Speaker 1: say things like, where God guides, he provides, and he does.
Speaker 1: He'll put a dirty bird to feed you by a brook.
Speaker 1: He'll show you a secret stash that nobody else in
Speaker 1: the neighborhood even knows about. How many know I'm right
Speaker 1: about it. God will encourage you in ways that are
Speaker 1: specific to you. But just as sure as that is true,
Speaker 1: this is also true. Sometimes God will lead you through
Speaker 1: what you lose. And this is the more painful thing
Speaker 1: to talk about, but I think it's very important. Is
Speaker 1: God trying to lead you by limitations? And is God
Speaker 1: trying to lead you just as much by the doors
Speaker 1: that he closes as the doors that he opens. If
Speaker 1: the brook had kept flowing, miraculously, Elijah never would have
Speaker 1: left that spot. If Elijah never would have left that spot,
Speaker 1: he never would have met that widow. If he never
Speaker 1: would have met that widow, that widow and her family
Speaker 1: would have died of starvation. If he never would have
Speaker 1: gone to Zaraphath, which was right in the heart of
Speaker 1: Bail territory, he never would have got to Mount Carmel,
Speaker 1: where he called down fire and the whole nation repented.
Speaker 1: Isn't it crazy how a little thing can lead to
Speaker 1: a big thing. Isn't it weird how something can go
Speaker 1: all over the world but start with one little connection.
Speaker 1: Isn't it crazy how God can can use something in
Speaker 1: your life that you thought it was bad, but later
Speaker 1: you look back and say, no, it wasn't a bad thing.
Speaker 1: It was just a thing that led to a thing.
Speaker 1: It's just a thing that leads to a thing. So
Speaker 1: all things work together for the good. So if the
Speaker 1: brook doesn't dry up, Elijah doesn't move on. If they
Speaker 1: didn't break your heart, you wouldn't have learned the lesson
Speaker 1: that you learned. If you didn't go through Goliath, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been ready to be a king. If you
Speaker 1: hadn't been thrown in a pit, you wouldn't have been
Speaker 1: positioned in eg to feeds the aerations. You met it
Speaker 1: for evil, but God used it for good. Put it
Speaker 1: in the chat. Take the lid off. Take the lid off.
Speaker 1: You know we have all of these lids, or I
Speaker 1: could call it all of these limitations on the ways
Speaker 1: that we think God can move. And if it feels good,
Speaker 1: we think it's God. And if it feels bad, we
Speaker 1: think it's the devil. But God is calling us to
Speaker 1: recategorize in this season of our life. I prove it
Speaker 1: to you. David came to Goliath and saw him as
Speaker 1: a meal ticket. The rest of the nation saw him
Speaker 1: as an enemy. The king said, if you kill Goliath,
Speaker 1: you never pay taxes again, and you can marry my
Speaker 1: heart daughter, the hot one. David said, what now, let
Speaker 1: me do the math on this. Okay, how big is he?
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. What's this because a little thing I'm
Speaker 1: waiting on. I'm to catch up. You look like you
Speaker 1: look like you know the power of a little thing.
Speaker 1: A little thing. Saul said, you're only a boy. You
Speaker 1: can't fight him. He's nine feet tall. You think somebody
Speaker 1: as little as you can kill somebody as big as him,
Speaker 1: and David said, no, no, no, I only look little.
Speaker 1: See the reason I look little is because I have
Speaker 1: to be hidden. I'm a secret weapon. A secret weapon
Speaker 1: can't be real. Big. God had to sneak me to
Speaker 1: the battle line. And how did he get there? How
Speaker 1: did he get there through bringing a lunch to his brother?
Speaker 1: That's a little thing. What did he see when he
Speaker 1: got there? A nine foot tall giant? That's a big thing.
Speaker 1: Isn't it crazy how a little thing can lead to
Speaker 1: a big thing? How you coming through Monk's Corner South
Speaker 1: Carolina could lead to lead me to Christ? Isn't that
Speaker 1: crazy that I went to North Greenville and met my
Speaker 1: wife because you came through Monk's Corner, because you signed
Speaker 1: up for the ministry and you obedience, little thing, Take
Speaker 1: the lid off a little, because I found out that
Speaker 1: what you call little might be the thing that God
Speaker 1: leads you to. What is exceeding abundantly above or beyond
Speaker 1: what you could ask her imagine? So he gets there,
Speaker 1: Let's look at this a little deeper, y'all want to
Speaker 1: keep going? Man, the Lord has been speaking to me.
Speaker 1: It says that when he got there, he saw a
Speaker 1: widow who was working on her last meal. She was
Speaker 1: made the final arrangements for her and her son to eat.
Speaker 1: And I think the reason Lord led me to this
Speaker 1: text is because so many of us are worried about
Speaker 1: our families these days, you know, on every level. And
Speaker 1: I'm hearing it from people who have young children, I'm
Speaker 1: hearing it from people who have elderly parents. We're worried.
Speaker 1: It's it's hard for us right now to trust God
Speaker 1: with the things that we can't control. And as some
Speaker 1: of the parents here in Charlotte are getting ready to
Speaker 1: try to figure out how am I going to homeschool
Speaker 1: my kids another year? You know, when I barely got
Speaker 1: out of high school myself, and and we're all in
Speaker 1: this thing together. In a sense, the whole nation was
Speaker 1: going through a drop. But now, notice Elijah was not
Speaker 1: led to somebody that was likely, and he was not
Speaker 1: led to somebody who was rich or wealthy. He was
Speaker 1: led to somebody that, in the world's eyes, was little.
Speaker 1: Be careful what you labeled little. When you label it little,
Speaker 1: it becomes a lid. And some of us have so
Speaker 1: compartmentalized how God works in some of us have even
Speaker 1: belittle ourselves. Now you're going to see the woman coming
Speaker 1: to Elijah and she needs a big miracle. How many
Speaker 1: would agree that for God to provide for you in
Speaker 1: a time of famine, that's a big miracle. And I'm
Speaker 1: just going to take it one step further, if you
Speaker 1: don't mind being honest. How many of you need God
Speaker 1: in a big way in this season of your life,
Speaker 1: whether it's direction or comfort or energy or any of that.
Speaker 1: Raise your hand. I need God in a big way
Speaker 1: in this season of my life. So I was surprised
Speaker 1: when God led me to preach on little in a pandemic.
Speaker 1: It felt obscene to preach about a little when some
Speaker 1: of us need a lot right now. And the prophet
Speaker 1: comes up to the woman and asks her for a
Speaker 1: little everybody say little, say it in falsetto a little
Speaker 1: little water. And as she was going to get it,
Speaker 1: he called and a piece of bread, and that triggered
Speaker 1: her because she has a little. When you feel limited,
Speaker 1: you operate in fear. This took me a while to
Speaker 1: realize because I thought people sometimes were being selfish. Beneath
Speaker 1: what appeared as selfish behavior was really that they were scared.
Speaker 1: And it's easy to mistake. Scared for selfish. The woman
Speaker 1: sounds selfish on the surface because instead of giving hospitality
Speaker 1: to the man of God, she says, I don't have
Speaker 1: any bread verse twelve, only a handful of flour and
Speaker 1: a jar and a little olive oil. So watch this,
Speaker 1: she says, I don't have any bread. I only have
Speaker 1: a little bit. And notice what the prophet tells her
Speaker 1: to do. He says, take the little that you have,
Speaker 1: and if you'll make something out of what you have,
Speaker 1: God will make sure that you have enough. Okay, this
Speaker 1: is the word of the Lord. Take the lid off,
Speaker 1: a little little bit of oil, all right, take the
Speaker 1: lid off a little because you say this a little.
Speaker 1: But the thing about God is God likes little. He does.
Speaker 1: How did he send his son to the earth as
Speaker 1: a what you mean, not as a superhero, but as
Speaker 1: a baby? Say it? God likes little? Wait, joy, this
Speaker 1: is your word. God likes little. Come on, God likes little.
Speaker 1: I'll prove it to you. I'll prove it to you.
Speaker 1: Who does God choose to start a nation with one man?
Speaker 1: Yell and believe me, yell, don't believe me. God likes little. Okay,
Speaker 1: how about this? He wants to deliver the nation from
Speaker 1: Midianite oppression. Who does he come to Gideon? Look it
Speaker 1: up in Judges chapter six in the Holy Bible. In
Speaker 1: Judges chapter six, he comes to Gideon. And who is
Speaker 1: Gideon the smallest in the least? Why God likes little?
Speaker 1: Oh no, I'm just I'm sorry. I'm just I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I'm just over here. God likes little. I'll prove it
Speaker 1: to you. When get and got ready to fight, he
Speaker 1: had a big army. God took him from twenty two
Speaker 1: thousand to ten thousand. Why did God do that? God
Speaker 1: likes little? Then God sets something really crazy. You still
Speaker 1: got too much. You still will take credit if I
Speaker 1: do it with ten thousand, you'll think it was you.
Speaker 1: So God had to take Giddy in all the way down.
Speaker 1: Get ready to shout to three hundred. This message is
Speaker 1: for somebody who has been reduced. You don't have what
Speaker 1: you used to have. You don't feel strong and sure.
Speaker 1: You used to know so much. Now you don't know
Speaker 1: as much. But God likes it when you come to
Speaker 1: him with a little bit. It gives him something to fill,
Speaker 1: It gives him something to prove, It gives him something
Speaker 1: to work with. It gives him a canvas to pain on.
Speaker 1: God said, I want to get you down to the
Speaker 1: point he must become greater, I must become less. Take
Speaker 1: your little get, your little get, your little get, your
Speaker 1: little I feel God on this. Get your little get,
Speaker 1: your little get, your little get, your little praise, and
Speaker 1: give it to God right now. Yeah, that's a little praise.
Speaker 1: That's a little praise exactly because some people right now
Speaker 1: you can't give God a big praise. Give him a
Speaker 1: little praise, Give him a little praise, Give him a
Speaker 1: little under your breath. Uh you give a little thank you, Jesus,
Speaker 1: Give me a little thank you, Jesus with the attitude,
Speaker 1: because God likes little despise. Not the day of small beginnings.
Speaker 1: Because I'm telling you what's gonna happen. If you start
Speaker 1: getting grateful, if you start magnifying what God means to you,
Speaker 1: if you start giving God a little praise, watch out,
Speaker 1: it's about the snowball. It's about to get Come on
Speaker 1: and try it. Some of you have not praised God
Speaker 1: all week, So right now, give him a little praise
Speaker 1: in your little apartment watching me preache on your little iPhone.
Speaker 1: God likes little give sim something to expend, give him
Speaker 1: something to grow, get zim something to get glory. F
Speaker 1: take the lid off a little. Come on, come on,
Speaker 1: just a little, just a little, just a little, just
Speaker 1: a little, just a little, take the lid off just
Speaker 1: a little. Come on. You don't have to run around
Speaker 1: the house or anything like that, just a little. Just
Speaker 1: take the lid off a little. Just look up a little.
Speaker 1: Just give God a little praise. Just lift your hands
Speaker 1: right here, just to right here. Just lift your fingers,
Speaker 1: lift your thumb, lift your pinky, give God a pinky praise.
Speaker 1: I promise you God likes little. God likes when you
Speaker 1: take your little bit and take the lid off and
Speaker 1: start pouring out praises and dry places. God said, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna visit you, but you gotta take the lid off
Speaker 1: a little. Will you give them a little? Will you
Speaker 1: give God a little faith? You have to have a great,
Speaker 1: big faith. You don't have to. You know, we get
Speaker 1: so caught up on big things. God doesn't need you
Speaker 1: to have such a big faith. He said, if you
Speaker 1: have faith like a like a little seed, like a
Speaker 1: little seed. You see how high my voice is. That's
Speaker 1: how little of a seed is. No no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: He said, don't be afraid take the little that you have.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying this a little, but I'm saying take
Speaker 1: the lid off a little, take the lid off a little,
Speaker 1: and take the lid off a little. Why do we
Speaker 1: belittle what God gave us? Why do we do that? What?
Speaker 1: Why do we see ourselves as grasshoppers when God has
Speaker 1: given us a promised land called Canaan. You ever thought
Speaker 1: about the reason that the nation didn't go into Canaan
Speaker 1: was because they made themselves small. We're too little, We're
Speaker 1: too little. Okay, all right, let's sit down. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you a story. I got in a fight with
Speaker 1: Holly yesterday. My fault wasn't a huge fight, but we
Speaker 1: don't even fight that much. I mean, it's been it's
Speaker 1: been a minute. But she was trying to encourage me
Speaker 1: yesterday and I couldn't receive it. That's the bottom line,
Speaker 1: you want to know the bottom line. This is what
Speaker 1: I had to go back and tell her an hour
Speaker 1: later because the Holy Spirit, you know how the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit will speak to you in that little voice. He's
Speaker 1: not real loud, just a little voice told me. Now
Speaker 1: you know that she was trying to help you, and
Speaker 1: you know that the reason that you really got angry
Speaker 1: is because you were really afraid. I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: the story behind it. This will be my marriage therapy
Speaker 1: for the I've been writing for a few months. I've
Speaker 1: been working on a book, but I won't call it
Speaker 1: a book. I haven't called it a book. All I'll
Speaker 1: say is I'm writing, and I've been writing and revising
Speaker 1: and writing and revising. And it's been about five years
Speaker 1: since I've put a book out. The reason it's been
Speaker 1: five years since I put a book out is because
Speaker 1: something got in my head and say, you're not an author,
Speaker 1: you know, And isn't it crazy how a little thought
Speaker 1: can get in your head? And then something little little
Speaker 1: and five years later then I hadn't put a book out.
Speaker 1: And turning forty this year got me thinking, Like we
Speaker 1: were talking about this the other day, I felt some urgency.
Speaker 1: And when we were creating songs for our last album,
Speaker 1: they just kept coming, they kept flowing, kept flowing just
Speaker 1: right till the last minute, and I decided I was
Speaker 1: going to try to write a book this year. And
Speaker 1: yesterday I took the book through its second revision and
Speaker 1: with my finger shaking. I put it, put the mouse
Speaker 1: over sind on an email and sent it to the editor,
Speaker 1: and Holly was trying to tell me congratulations. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to hear it because if I acknowledged that it's
Speaker 1: a big deal, then it means that it could fail.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be telling you all lot all this. Yeah, y'all, y'all,
Speaker 1: really y'all, really, y'all really don't deserve to know all
Speaker 1: this about my marriage and all this is this is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And I got mad angry because really I was afraid,
Speaker 1: and in the process of analyzing why, I was basically
Speaker 1: telling her, don't try to encourage me. She said, she said,
Speaker 1: congratulations on sending your book off. I said, it's not
Speaker 1: a book yet, It's just a document. You see what
Speaker 1: I'm doing. Belittle it because the moment I call it
Speaker 1: a book, the moment I call it a book, that
Speaker 1: means others are going to read it. If others read it,
Speaker 1: that means they can judge it. So as long as
Speaker 1: I keep it little, it's a fear move. It's just
Speaker 1: a little oil, right, what she was trying to get
Speaker 1: me to do, and she was right, you hear that
Speaker 1: you were. You're right, she said. At some point you
Speaker 1: have got to start speaking what you want to see.
Speaker 1: She said, it's a whole chapter in your book. Speak
Speaker 1: what you want to see. I'm not even doing the
Speaker 1: chapter I wrote because if I speak it, that makes
Speaker 1: it real. But if I make it little, I can
Speaker 1: hide it. Now, do you see why you put yourself down?
Speaker 1: Because if you, if you, if you ever come out
Speaker 1: and say you know God can do this. I'm walking
Speaker 1: on the water, say the word Jesus and I'll come.
Speaker 1: But if I come, that means I can slip. So
Speaker 1: I'd rather know. It's more than a good word, this
Speaker 1: power of God coming through right now. This is a
Speaker 1: great word, because this word is helping you to see
Speaker 1: sometimes why you talk to yourself the way you talk
Speaker 1: to yourself only got a little oil. Take the lid
Speaker 1: off a little. God likes little. God. God likes little
Speaker 1: so much that when he wanted Naming to be healed
Speaker 1: of leprosy, he used a little servant girl in his
Speaker 1: house to send him to the prophet. God likes little.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna tell you something, if you take the
Speaker 1: lid off the little bit that you have, it won't
Speaker 1: be little for long. Baby praises grow into big, groom big,
Speaker 1: just wopping praises. I dare you to say it, by faith,
Speaker 1: it won't be little long. It won't be little long.
Speaker 1: I see a cloud the size of a man's I
Speaker 1: see a cloud the size of a man's hand. Now
Speaker 1: see At first, Elijah heard the sound of rain. Right,
Speaker 1: this is first King's chapter eighteen. I moved on from
Speaker 1: chapter seventeen. I'm moving to chapter eighteen. He said, I
Speaker 1: hear the sound of the abundance of rain, but I
Speaker 1: can't see it yet. I can't see it yet. And
Speaker 1: then when the servant went to look for it, he said,
Speaker 1: I see it now, but it's little. But Elijah knows.
Speaker 1: God likes little. God likes little. God likes it when
Speaker 1: you're untrained. God likes it when you're the when you
Speaker 1: feel like you're the only one. God likes it when
Speaker 1: you need him. God likes it when you're not arrogant.
Speaker 1: God likes it when you humble yourself under his mighty hand.
Speaker 1: Would you take the lid off a little, just go
Speaker 1: look again, and say, God, you know, I know I
Speaker 1: don't have much strength right now, but you have given
Speaker 1: me some strength. God, I know I don't have every game,
Speaker 1: but you have given me some gift. It's only little
Speaker 1: if you look at it next to something bigger. By
Speaker 1: the way I found this out flying on airplanes, everything
Speaker 1: looks little if you get up above it, high enough everything.
Speaker 1: If you get up high enough above it, everything looks little.
Speaker 1: Some of the things that look so big to you
Speaker 1: today that you don't see how you're going to overcome
Speaker 1: them when you get the altitude, when you begin to
Speaker 1: worship God, when you begin to trust Him in this moment,
Speaker 1: and take the lid off. Come on, put it in
Speaker 1: the chat. Take the lid off, Take the lid off,
Speaker 1: take the little If you get up high enough, that's
Speaker 1: what worship does. That's what coming too, the word of
Speaker 1: God does. It takes the lid off. And if you
Speaker 1: get up high enough, I promise you you're the problems
Speaker 1: are not going to look as big as they look
Speaker 1: right now. And I'm speaking by the spirit of the
Speaker 1: Lord to somebody who is about to run out. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're about to run out of ideas to save your business,
Speaker 1: You're about to run out of ways to get through
Speaker 1: to your kid, You're about to run out of patience, desire,
Speaker 1: passion you're about to run out. Here's the miracle. It
Speaker 1: does not say that when the woman did what Elijah
Speaker 1: told her to do, that she got more flower and
Speaker 1: more oil. It says that what she had didn't run out.
Speaker 1: So here's what God showed me. It'll always look little,
Speaker 1: but it will never run out. As I close this message,
Speaker 1: I want to know, are you willing to take the
Speaker 1: lid off of your little and stop putting limitations on
Speaker 1: what God can do through you? Right now? I know
Speaker 1: it looks little. I know the little bit that you
Speaker 1: have to offer seems so insignificant in the face of
Speaker 1: the challenge that you're up against. But God likes little.
Speaker 1: In fact, the scripture says that the sufferings of this
Speaker 1: present time are not worthy to be compared with the
Speaker 1: glory that will be revealed. What God is going to
Speaker 1: do through your life in this season is going to
Speaker 1: lead to something that will outweigh everything you've been through
Speaker 1: to get through. Stand on your feet in the room
Speaker 1: as I close. The Lord sent me here today to
Speaker 1: get your altitude up higher so that you can see
Speaker 1: things like he seesed. And what that woman had wasn't much,
Speaker 1: but it was enough and This is the tension that
Speaker 1: we live in. It's not much, but it's still enough.
Speaker 1: And if you can hold those two tensions, then you
Speaker 1: can live by truth and not by sight. Father, your
Speaker 1: word is powerful. Your word controls the weather. And not
Speaker 1: only that, but your word commands birds to feed us
Speaker 1: in places along the way. We stand before you right
Speaker 1: now as a global community in the middle of a
Speaker 1: situation that we have no frame of reference for. Not
Speaker 1: only is that true of our nations, that's true of
Speaker 1: our households, that's true of our plans. And as we
Speaker 1: stand before you in this place, God, what we have
Speaker 1: seems so little in comparison to what we need. But
Speaker 1: I hear you say and take the lid off, and
Speaker 1: I think that means you want to exceed our expectations
Speaker 1: in this season. And I want you to know the
Speaker 1: Lord that I'm open to it. And for everybody who
Speaker 1: will come into agreement with this word, I join my
Speaker 1: faith with them that it may look little, but it'll
Speaker 1: always be enough. It will always be enough. The miracle
Speaker 1: is not that it overflowed all at once. The miracle
Speaker 1: is that it never ran out. And I speak over
Speaker 1: your life, and I speak over your family and I
Speaker 1: speak over your finances. It will always be enough. I
Speaker 1: know it doesn't look like much, feel like much, and
Speaker 1: seem like much, But come on up here and get
Speaker 1: abuffet for a minute, Come on get up here above
Speaker 1: it for a minute where we are seated in heavenly
Speaker 1: places with Jesus. God always uses little things to lead us.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to stay in this moment, Father, because
Speaker 1: I feel you telling me too. For somebody who has
Speaker 1: just a a little bit of faith, a little bit
Speaker 1: of strength, a little bit of hope, I got a
Speaker 1: little bit left. The woman said. Elijah said, all right,
Speaker 1: take the lid off of your little and watch God
Speaker 1: keep supplying. And that's exactly what God did. God has
Speaker 1: been using our problems to position us for his purpose.
Speaker 1: We are not here by accident, and we are not
Speaker 1: in sufficient Thank you Lord for the little. As I
Speaker 1: go through my week this week, I want to see
Speaker 1: the little miracles You're doing. How am I going to
Speaker 1: around and wait when something be When these little miracles
Speaker 1: just keep happening all around me, even right now? What
Speaker 1: a wonder that I could reach around the globe and
Speaker 1: speak a word that could reach somebody right in the
Speaker 1: middle of what they're going through. Somebody right now is
Speaker 1: hearing this word in the darkest season of their life.
Speaker 1: Somebody in the midst of their confusion. Somebody just needed
Speaker 1: in encouragement to keep going today. And your word controls
Speaker 1: the weather. Thank you, Jesus, Your word controls the weather.
Speaker 1: Help us to help us to speak and see like
Speaker 1: you speak, and like you see. We might feel like
Speaker 1: Moses sometimes I just got a little staff in my hand.
Speaker 1: What am I against so many? But Lord, I believe
Speaker 1: you like little things. I really believe you little things.
Speaker 1: I think you like it when we do the little
Speaker 1: things with excellence. I believe you are pleased with the
Speaker 1: people who are doing the little things. You who could
Speaker 1: be faithful with little will be faithful and much. We
Speaker 1: thank you for it. Right now, in this moment, God,
Speaker 1: I believe you're drawing somebody to yourself. God. I pray
Speaker 1: for those who have felt far away from You during
Speaker 1: the season. I pray for those who have felt dislocated
Speaker 1: and maybe even in their spirit, they have felt like
Speaker 1: giving up on themselves. They still believe in You, but
Speaker 1: they don't believe in them. They feel little, be little.
Speaker 1: The voice inside of them is telling them so much
Speaker 1: they've started to believe it. But now, God of all Grace,
Speaker 1: we invite you to come into those places and fill
Speaker 1: those spaces that are empty with your glory. You can
Speaker 1: do that as we lift our hands in your presence today.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and get them up. We're taking the lid off.
Speaker 1: We're taking the lid off. You can come through the ceiling,
Speaker 1: you can come through the internet, you can come through YouTube.
Speaker 1: We're taking the lid off. You can bless us through
Speaker 1: a bird, you can bless us through a widow. You
Speaker 1: can bless us in zero fat. You can do anything.
Speaker 1: You can do all things. The only thing you can't
Speaker 1: do is fail. So God, we have faith to believe
Speaker 1: that the flower won't run out and the oil won't
Speaker 1: run dry until the day you sin rain. God, you
Speaker 1: control the weather. We obey the word. Where you speak
Speaker 1: will go. I thank you, Lord. This is a turning
Speaker 1: point for somebody. This is a turning point for someone's heart.
Speaker 1: And we worship you in this moment. We worship you
Speaker 1: for who you are. We thank you that according to
Speaker 1: your word, it will be done in Jesus' name. Come
Speaker 1: on and give God the praise wherever you are. Wow,
Speaker 1: take the lid off a little. I might need to
Speaker 1: do a part two on that. I pray you received it.
Speaker 1: It's so important right now that we open ourselves to
Speaker 1: all the ways that God wants to bless us and
Speaker 1: all the ways that God wants to use us. And
Speaker 1: I just pray, like He provided for Elijah with the birds,
Speaker 1: like he provided for the lady in's air fat through Elijah,
Speaker 1: that He would just meet every need in your life
Speaker 1: right now. I don't know whether that's emotional or physical,
Speaker 1: but I know that God is the one who can
Speaker 1: control the weather. And I just pray this week that
Speaker 1: you would see God's provision all around you in unusual ways,
Speaker 1: coming from unusual sources. Maybe God's going to speak a
Speaker 1: word of encouragement through you this week to somebody, but
Speaker 1: whatever it is, just know that we love you. Thank
Speaker 1: you for doing the little things. You know, those of
Speaker 1: you who give, that's no little thing. We're able to
Speaker 1: continue to preach the gospel. Man. The world is dark
Speaker 1: and times are uncertain, but Jesus Christ never changes. And
Speaker 1: I want to thank you for those of you who
Speaker 1: tied regularly and give to this ministry. You're the reason
Speaker 1: that the Word is going for thank you, we love you.
Speaker 1: I'll see you next time. Take the lid off.