Speaker 1: One King, Chapter seventeen, verse seven. Sometime later, the brook
Speaker 1: dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
Speaker 1: Then the word of the Lord came to him. Elijah,
Speaker 1: the prophet that we're reading about. Then the word of
Speaker 1: the Lord came to him, Go at once to Zaraphath
Speaker 1: in the region of Sidon, and stay there. I have
Speaker 1: directed a widow there to supply you with food. So
Speaker 1: he went to Zarapath, and he came to the town gate.
Speaker 1: A widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her
Speaker 1: and asked, would you bring me a little water in
Speaker 1: a jar so I may have a drink. And as
Speaker 1: she was going to get it, he called and ugh,
Speaker 1: this guy, and bring me please a piece of bread.
Speaker 1: As surely as the Lord your God lives. She replied.
Speaker 1: This is an indication of the magnitude of the miracle,
Speaker 1: that it's not even her God that the prophet represents,
Speaker 1: and she's going to have to make a choice to obey.
Speaker 1: As surely as the Lord your God lives, she replied,
Speaker 1: I don't have any bread, only a handful of 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. How many of you, if
Speaker 1: you're the prophet, you're sorry you asked at this point
Speaker 1: because you didn't really ask all that. I didn't ask
Speaker 1: all that. Elijah said to her verse thirteen. Don't be afraid.
Speaker 1: Go home and do as you have said, But first
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 land. I read that scripture again
Speaker 1: because that's so good. But y'all are still mad at
Speaker 1: me about the other verses where he said bring me
Speaker 1: some bread, and bring it to me first, and you're like,
Speaker 1: this is just like a man to preach this on
Speaker 1: Mother's Day, And where is Holly, And we want Holly,
Speaker 1: we wan Holly, we wan Holly. I'm just reading you
Speaker 1: the scripture that the Lord gave me to preach, all right,
Speaker 1: So let me do verse fourteen again because you need
Speaker 1: to savor how good this is. This is awesome. This
Speaker 1: is awesome, for this is what the Lord, the God
Speaker 1: of Israel, says. The jar of flower will not be
Speaker 1: used up and the jug of oil will not run
Speaker 1: dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.
Speaker 1: She went away and did as Elijah had told her.
Speaker 1: So there was food every day for Elijah and for
Speaker 1: the woman and her family, for the jar of flower
Speaker 1: was not used up, and the jug of oil did
Speaker 1: not run dry, in keeping with the word the Lord
Speaker 1: had spoken through Elijah, or by the word spoken by Elijah. Okay,
Speaker 1: the Lord told me to tell you this for our
Speaker 1: message today. Look at your neighbor and say, God promised
Speaker 1: to give you enough. Look at your other neighbors, say
Speaker 1: God promised to give you enough until it comes. This
Speaker 1: is the Mother's Day message. Enough until it comes. You're
Speaker 1: waiting on something from God. He told me to tell
Speaker 1: you prophetically, not pathetically, that he promised to give you
Speaker 1: enough until it comes. All right, y'all, take your premium seat,
Speaker 1: and let's talk about this text, this story for a moment,
Speaker 1: because I'm surely not going to give a parenting sermon
Speaker 1: on Mother's Day, but I might just preach a few
Speaker 1: practical things from this passage about a prophet, a problem
Speaker 1: and a mom, a prophet a problem and a mom.
Speaker 1: All the moms in the house make some crazy nolds.
Speaker 1: So you beat a mom and I'll be the prophet,
Speaker 1: and we want to talk about what God said enough
Speaker 1: until it comes bias. But I think Holli Fredick would
Speaker 1: beat all of y'all in a momming competition, not that
Speaker 1: there is such a competition. We do give her a
Speaker 1: hard time because every family that can't make fun of
Speaker 1: itself is dysfunctional. So if you ever see a family
Speaker 1: and nobody picks on anybody, that is a sad family,
Speaker 1: and trust me, I have to regulate and referee in
Speaker 1: our house. Like that's enough. That's three times with Abby
Speaker 1: and one time with Graham, and five times with Alla.
Speaker 1: Y'all leave your mom alone. But there's one thing we
Speaker 1: all pick on her about. It happened right here on
Speaker 1: this very stage. I want to say it was on
Speaker 1: Mother's Day. I'm not sure make the story better if
Speaker 1: it was, So let's say it was Mother's Day. She
Speaker 1: was up here preaching, and after her sermon, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you why she did it. I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: what she did after her sermon, She said, I want
Speaker 1: to go into Waymaker. Y'all know the song Waymaker. Now,
Speaker 1: let me tell you something. I have written many songs
Speaker 1: to bless our church. Waymaker is not one of them.
Speaker 1: I wish I wrote Waymaker. That's a great song, but
Speaker 1: I didn't write that song. We didn't write that song.
Speaker 1: She stands in my pulpit, in my pulpit, and she
Speaker 1: closes her message, and she's thinking about Jesus is the Way,
Speaker 1: and I know the way, so I know how she
Speaker 1: got there. I know why she got there. But what
Speaker 1: she said was devastating. She ripped out this songwriter pastor's heart.
Speaker 1: She said, you know, there's a lot of great songs
Speaker 1: out there, graves into gardens, the Blessing Rattle, the songs
Speaker 1: we wrote, but my favorite is a Waymaker. You'll never
Speaker 1: let her live it down. And what better way to
Speaker 1: earn points with your wife after a two week tour
Speaker 1: than to pick on her on Mother's Day And you're
Speaker 1: opening sermon illustration right. We always do it every time.
Speaker 1: We'll say, mom, you want to see your favorite song, Waymaker,
Speaker 1: miracle Worker, promise Keeper. We love her so much, we
Speaker 1: love her. You love you so much. You're so amazing.
Speaker 1: You're our way maker, You're our miracle worker. Okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: giving it up since it's your favorite song. If I
Speaker 1: could have written it, I would have added one thing
Speaker 1: to it. I want you to think about this real quickly,
Speaker 1: not just for the moms. Don't log off because I
Speaker 1: said Mother's Day. That's not a code word to mean.
Speaker 1: This sermon isn't for you. This word is for you.
Speaker 1: But if we're gonna call out a waymaker, miracle worker,
Speaker 1: promise keeper, light in the darkness, also want to talk
Speaker 1: about how he's a need meter, right, a need meter?
Speaker 1: How good are you at letting God meet your needs?
Speaker 1: And what do you tend to run to instead of
Speaker 1: God in times that you need relief resource? And is
Speaker 1: it possible that those things you run to are the
Speaker 1: things that you have replaced God with in your life.
Speaker 1: Let me just look right here at my pulpit and
Speaker 1: not look at y'all, because y'all do not like this
Speaker 1: sermon so far. But it's going to get good in
Speaker 1: a minute. But first we got to talk about the
Speaker 1: context of confrontation in One King seventeen with a prophet,
Speaker 1: a mom and a problem. Now the whole nation has
Speaker 1: a problem called famine. Drought which causes famine, has now
Speaker 1: become so severe that they've got the king's men out
Speaker 1: search for grasp. And it's really his fault because he
Speaker 1: brought this woman named Jezebel. I don't think there's many
Speaker 1: preachers in America bold enough to preach on Jezebel on
Speaker 1: Mother's Day except yours truly. And she is catched us
Speaker 1: a Phoenician princess. But they worshiped different gods than Yahweh.
Speaker 1: So when Ahab decided to bring this Phoenician princess into
Speaker 1: the ecosystem and the religious system of Israel, it caused
Speaker 1: all kinds of compromise. Maybe not all at first, but
Speaker 1: gradually it began to corrupt everything about the way God's
Speaker 1: people worshiped the God who had called them and named them. Eventually,
Speaker 1: Ahab got so bald about it that he set up
Speaker 1: a center for bail worship b Aal that was the
Speaker 1: name of one of their gods that controlled the rain
Speaker 1: and the fertility. So they thought, and they thought that
Speaker 1: all the way up until Yahweh, the God that's the
Speaker 1: real God, said okay, if Bail is so big and bad.
Speaker 1: Tell him to make it rain. Oh he can't. That's right,
Speaker 1: because I am God, I am the source. I am
Speaker 1: the one I have the word that sustains life, starts life,
Speaker 1: ends life. And so that's kind of the context of
Speaker 1: First Kings seventeen. I'll point that out to you because
Speaker 1: both of the people in this passage of scripture that
Speaker 1: I read to you are dealing with a problem that's
Speaker 1: not completely their fault. The prophet Elijah has prophesied there
Speaker 1: will be no rain nor do except at my word
Speaker 1: over the space of the next few years. And he
Speaker 1: said that to Ahab, and then he went into hiding
Speaker 1: this woman. She's not even in Israelite. She's hanging out
Speaker 1: inside on which happens to be Jezebel's hometown. That's the
Speaker 1: one who is going to try to kill Elijah in
Speaker 1: a few chapters after, he goes up on Mount Carmel
Speaker 1: and says, hey, Bail, are you busy? Are you using
Speaker 1: the bathroom? Send some rain since you're really God, because
Speaker 1: you have to understand, this was a tremendously cruel and
Speaker 1: tormenting system that the people were living under. Trying to
Speaker 1: appease Bail, who wasn't a God at all. Depending on
Speaker 1: a God who can't say it, depending on a God
Speaker 1: who is not a God will leave you dry. I
Speaker 1: want you to hear something from me today. I'm not
Speaker 1: a prophet, but just as a preacher prophesy in God's word,
Speaker 1: everything you depend on that does not come from God
Speaker 1: will eventually dry up. Preaching good pastor everything you depend on.
Speaker 1: I'll take it further, that is not God, even if
Speaker 1: it's good, will eventually dry up. Even people who like you,
Speaker 1: we'll get tired of you if you start needing them
Speaker 1: to meet needs that God is designed to me. Some
Speaker 1: of the people that you're angry with, they are good people,
Speaker 1: but they are not God. When you try to make
Speaker 1: a good relationship of God in your life, it becomes
Speaker 1: a idle. The passage in One King seventeen is about idolatry.
Speaker 1: It's about what happens when you decide to run to
Speaker 1: the resource and neglect the source. I'm gonna break this
Speaker 1: down till everybody in the room can confront it. When
Speaker 1: I fill every spare moment of my life with social media,
Speaker 1: how can God speak to me if I run to that,
Speaker 1: If that becomes my first resource and recourse. Anytime I
Speaker 1: want to escape my mind, then how can the peace
Speaker 1: of God guard my heart and my mind? In Christ
Speaker 1: Jesus or you could say that about sex, or you
Speaker 1: could say that about a pill, or you could say
Speaker 1: that about a doughnut. I can go all day long.
Speaker 1: How long do you have? I mean, I got a
Speaker 1: big list of stuff that I've tried to run through,
Speaker 1: run to that wasn't God. And I said that accidentally,
Speaker 1: But it's kind of good. If you run to something
Speaker 1: that's not God, you will run through it. Eventually. It
Speaker 1: will not sustain you, it will not last forever, and
Speaker 1: it can only give you so much. Now there's been
Speaker 1: no rain in the land. Why because the people needed
Speaker 1: to repent and come back to God. And maybe you
Speaker 1: do too. Maybe you do too. Maybe you need to say,
Speaker 1: you know, God, I'm experiencing a dryness in my life
Speaker 1: right now. That indicates the fact that I have been
Speaker 1: replacing you with something that is not you. And see,
Speaker 1: I think dryness is often a gift that God uses
Speaker 1: to direct us. God. God directs by dryness to show
Speaker 1: you that something's wrong here. This isn't working here. Wow,
Speaker 1: I keep on putting more effort more effort, more effort,
Speaker 1: but I'm not getting more results. I'm not getting more joy,
Speaker 1: I'm not getting more peace. I keep doing more and
Speaker 1: I keep feeling less. And that is a sign that
Speaker 1: God is redirecting you to the text to the text
Speaker 1: to the text. In One Kings, chapter seventeen, it says
Speaker 1: that Elijah is hang it out by a brook because
Speaker 1: there had been no rain in the land. You don't
Speaker 1: know what restraint I am using not to preach about
Speaker 1: the fact that he is suffering from the problem that
Speaker 1: his prophecy cost. Did you catch it? He said there's
Speaker 1: gonna be no rain. So God says, since I made
Speaker 1: you say there's gonna be no rain, and since nothing
Speaker 1: can grow where there is no rain, I'm gonna show
Speaker 1: you where to run where you can receive even though
Speaker 1: there's no rain. And it works for for a while.
Speaker 1: Eventually the Bible says that the the late autumn rains
Speaker 1: and the early winter rains that were meant to replenish
Speaker 1: the land didn't come. Now we know by nature that
Speaker 1: the brook didn't dry up all at once. I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't go from a brook that's filled with water
Speaker 1: to a brook that has no water. Just like that,
Speaker 1: And so every day Elijah wakes up, it's a pretty
Speaker 1: good setup he has. All right, let me tell you
Speaker 1: what God did. God's like, I'm gonna give you water
Speaker 1: from the brook, even though there's no rain in the land,
Speaker 1: because you spoke a word. You spoke a word to
Speaker 1: bring the people to a place, back to worshiping me.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna bring you to a brook, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: let you drink from the brook. But you need to
Speaker 1: eat too, So I'm gonna send birds, not just any
Speaker 1: birds you already dirty birds. I'm gonna send some ravens.
Speaker 1: These are unclean birds. For Jewish boy to eat from
Speaker 1: a dirty bird, that's a bad system already. But God
Speaker 1: would meet Elijah's needs daily through the mouth of a
Speaker 1: bird that he considered unclean, and he would meet his
Speaker 1: needs daily at the brook cad char it Ah the
Speaker 1: Hebrew the charith Ravene. It gives the impression that he's
Speaker 1: by this brook, and every day he wakes up there's
Speaker 1: something for him to drink. How many of you would
Speaker 1: say that in your life there were seasons where God
Speaker 1: provided new mercies every day in your life, And let
Speaker 1: me be more specific, you didn't know how, but he
Speaker 1: kept you going. You didn't know how. I didn't add
Speaker 1: uh like, it doesn't even make sense. But you had
Speaker 1: something to drink doesn't even make sense. But you had
Speaker 1: something to eat. Doesn't even make sense. But you got
Speaker 1: up and went to your job, and your job sucks.
Speaker 1: You didn't want to be there. Sorry, Mom, you didn't
Speaker 1: ask to be there. But I have watched in my
Speaker 1: own life the times where something that was sustaining me
Speaker 1: in one season started to go away in the next season,
Speaker 1: and it goes away slowly, And the Lord sent me
Speaker 1: to minister to somebody today. Whose brook is drying up?
Speaker 1: Whose brook is drying up? The thing that used to
Speaker 1: bring your joy or comfort, it's no longer bringing it
Speaker 1: to you anymore. Your brook is drying up, and you're thinking,
Speaker 1: maybe I did something bad, maybe I did something wrong. No,
Speaker 1: Elijah did exactly what God told him to and his
Speaker 1: brook still tried. There is no indication that God gave
Speaker 1: him a warning. Incrementally, in fourteen days, this brook will
Speaker 1: be dry. He watched the water level go down, down, down,
Speaker 1: and waited for a word from God to tell him
Speaker 1: what to do about it. And when it says in
Speaker 1: the Bible, the Word of the Lord came. In verse eight,
Speaker 1: it says nothing of the space before the Word of
Speaker 1: God came, where Elijah had to sit there watch the
Speaker 1: water level go down while his thirst increased and his
Speaker 1: hunger was not abated, but his resource was not replenished.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on with my mic. The
Speaker 1: devil must not want you to hear this. And the
Speaker 1: Bible says that as it went down, Elijah, waiting for
Speaker 1: the word of God to come, has to wait in
Speaker 1: a place where he doesn't know where he's going next.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching to somebody today who is waiting for God
Speaker 1: to give you your next step? Who is it? Who
Speaker 1: is it? And you don't know what it is? Yet
Speaker 1: you need God to show you your next step? Who
Speaker 1: is it? You need God to show you a next
Speaker 1: step in your life because God, I can't stay where
Speaker 1: I am like I am where it is. This isn't
Speaker 1: going to work. I have to move on, but I
Speaker 1: don't know where. And now you feel like Abraham, who
Speaker 1: God said, go to the place I'll show you. What
Speaker 1: kind of weird life coaching is this? Go where I'm
Speaker 1: gonna show you. It makes me think of Psalm one
Speaker 1: oh three, verse one oh five, Verse one oh five.
Speaker 1: That's how long Psalm one oh three is you get
Speaker 1: all the way to verse one oh five. And the
Speaker 1: Psalmist says, your word is a lamp to my feet
Speaker 1: and a light to my path. But I don't really
Speaker 1: like the fact that God's w is compared to a
Speaker 1: lamp to my feet, because what I really want is
Speaker 1: a floodlight where I can see all the way to
Speaker 1: my future ten years from now, especially as a parent.
Speaker 1: God show me exactly where my kids need to go
Speaker 1: to college, so I can know how much I need
Speaker 1: to save and when I need to put it there.
Speaker 1: And my kid is three. But God is not going
Speaker 1: to give me the name of the college when my
Speaker 1: kid is three, when I have barely got them walking.
Speaker 1: But in our walk with God, a lot of times
Speaker 1: we won't take a step toward a destination we don't
Speaker 1: know until God gives us all the details. That's not faith,
Speaker 1: that's not faith. That's not faith. He had to wait,
Speaker 1: wait for the next word from God, and until it came,
Speaker 1: God kept him sustained in a place that was enough.
Speaker 1: Wasn't fancy, but it was enough. It wasn't but the
Speaker 1: birds got the job done. It wasn't five star, but
Speaker 1: his belly stayed full. And God is sustaining some of
Speaker 1: us in a place in this season of our life
Speaker 1: watch this where it's enough. But we don't know what's next.
Speaker 1: And the problem isn't that God isn't faithful to us
Speaker 1: in this moment. Wrong with us is we haven't read
Speaker 1: Matthew six thirty four. Jesus has a word for everybody
Speaker 1: who is trying to project out into the future, a
Speaker 1: promise that God will not give you until you get there.
Speaker 1: If I came to preach this message today, just to
Speaker 1: me and Holly, it will have been worth me putting
Speaker 1: on this itchy Levi's jacket they tre Siah gave me
Speaker 1: because Jesus said, here's your problem. Look at Matthew six
Speaker 1: thirty four. Y'all got it? Well? I know the number
Speaker 1: I need the verse. Thanks, that's helpful. Put it up
Speaker 1: on the screen, y'all. Wake up, Wake up, wait, go
Speaker 1: get somebody some coffee. Back there. Matthew six thirty four.
Speaker 1: You got it. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for
Speaker 1: tomorrow will worry about itself. And then I love this part.
Speaker 1: Each day has enough trouble of its own, So wait
Speaker 1: for the day to bring the trouble. It's gonna don't
Speaker 1: borrow trouble from tomorrow that you may never even have
Speaker 1: to face anyway, because God might do something about it
Speaker 1: overnight Mother's Day. But I got a word from God,
Speaker 1: and I realize that a lot of us are not
Speaker 1: really losing the battle that we're fighting in the moment.
Speaker 1: We're losing the battle that we're a imagining that's going
Speaker 1: to happen out there. But sufficient is theday for its
Speaker 1: own trouble, and sufficient is today's strength for today's struggles.
Speaker 1: But today's strength is not sufficient for tomorrow's struggles. And
Speaker 1: God will not give you the entire plan. He told
Speaker 1: him kind of like a GPS. He told Elijah, turn
Speaker 1: by turn, go east of the Jordan, and there I
Speaker 1: have directed these birds. Now he can't leave Elijah there forever,
Speaker 1: because if he leaves Elijah in one spot long enough
Speaker 1: where he provides for him, Elijah will begin to worship
Speaker 1: the spot and think that the spot is God. Have
Speaker 1: you confused the spot where God blessed you with the
Speaker 1: God who blessed you there and worship the situation or
Speaker 1: even worship the y'all. I say this about once a
Speaker 1: year just to make sure y'all know it. If I don't,
Speaker 1: if I don't show up to preach next week, you know,
Speaker 1: my head gets cut off or something like that. I
Speaker 1: don't know what might happen to me. Might be riding
Speaker 1: a bike, might run under some cut my head off,
Speaker 1: and I can't come preach. Got it. If that happens,
Speaker 1: y'all still need to get to church because God will
Speaker 1: put up here the person that you need. It's not me.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm just a dirty bird. I'm just dropping off
Speaker 1: the stuff God wants you to have. God's got a
Speaker 1: lot more birds now. I want to be the best
Speaker 1: bird I can be. I'm trying to stay clean, stay holy,
Speaker 1: stay studied, and all that. But God will not leave
Speaker 1: you with the need that He will not meet. He
Speaker 1: just might meet it differently in different seasons. And that's
Speaker 1: intentional me. That's intentional because if Elijah had stayed at
Speaker 1: the brook for the whole three years during the famine,
Speaker 1: he probably would have been tempted to start worshiping the birds.
Speaker 1: And how can he confront bail worship if he thinks
Speaker 1: the birds that are bringing him. The food is God.
Speaker 1: So the brook dried up, and God uses the dryness
Speaker 1: in our lives, to dry places, to dry seasons, to
Speaker 1: lead us to our next assignment. That make a little
Speaker 1: bit more sense of why you've been feeling like you've
Speaker 1: been feeling that God is using what is God using
Speaker 1: in your life to move you. Now, Remember he doesn't
Speaker 1: move him to somewhere more comfortable. He calls him to
Speaker 1: somewhere even crazier. Is one thing to get water in
Speaker 1: the wilderness, it's another thing to be sent to get
Speaker 1: it from a widow in enemy territory. So God will
Speaker 1: send you to places to provide for you that you
Speaker 1: may not prefer. I can't buy it. Amen, Holli, you
Speaker 1: want to take over. I know it's good. The Lord
Speaker 1: told me it was good. He told me to preach
Speaker 1: this word to you today because He wants to show
Speaker 1: you that the dryness in your life is not a
Speaker 1: sign that He has left you. It is a sign
Speaker 1: that He is moving you. I don't mean physically. I
Speaker 1: don't mean physically. I mean moving you to new patterns,
Speaker 1: moving you to a new way of doing things, moving you.
Speaker 1: If we want to make it a Mother's Day, sermon
Speaker 1: to a new way of parenting your kids. And I
Speaker 1: think the greatest skill to learn in life is the
Speaker 1: difference between what you can control and what you can't control.
Speaker 1: Now in the story, in the story, both the prophet
Speaker 1: Elijah and the mom who he's going to meet, he
Speaker 1: doesn't know he's going to meet her yet. We'll be
Speaker 1: about to find out. And you're about to find out
Speaker 1: why God is working in your life. But he will
Speaker 1: not tell you that and tell it's time for you
Speaker 1: to know. So say this out loud. I know enough
Speaker 1: for now, eat memm. I know enough for now. When
Speaker 1: I need to know more, God will show me more.
Speaker 1: And sometimes while I'm waiting for the next word to
Speaker 1: come from God, I am still stuck in the last
Speaker 1: thirty words he spoke to me that I haven't done
Speaker 1: a thing about you. You have enough Bible verses in
Speaker 1: your phone right now to beat the devils behind back
Speaker 1: to Timbuck two every time, or wherever he comes from,
Speaker 1: you can beat him back to the sixth level of
Speaker 1: Hell with the scripture you have. Well, I need a
Speaker 1: word from God today. Okay, I know what you mean
Speaker 1: by that. But the last word you heard from God,
Speaker 1: did you walk in it because a lot of times
Speaker 1: I don't. The Lord already told me some stuff to do.
Speaker 1: I just don't like that stuff. So I'm addicted to
Speaker 1: the feeling of the next thing that he tells me
Speaker 1: to do, because the next is sexier, and the last
Speaker 1: thing he told me to do, I don't like it
Speaker 1: very much. One thing he told me to do in
Speaker 1: the Bible. This is a Bible verse, y'all. This is
Speaker 1: not a personal word. This is a universal word in
Speaker 1: the holy scriptures of Almighty God. Yeah, Wah, maker of
Speaker 1: Heaven and Earth. He said, do everything without complaining and grumbling.
Speaker 1: I'm still working on that word. You hear me, And
Speaker 1: in the meantime, a lot of time you'll use it
Speaker 1: as an excuse. Well, I don't know how, I don't
Speaker 1: know where, I don't know what. God. If you show me, God,
Speaker 1: if you tell me God, no no, no, no no no,
Speaker 1: you know enough right now, and if you need it
Speaker 1: to know more, he would show you. You know enough
Speaker 1: exercises to be in good shape. You've heard of push ups,
Speaker 1: You've heard of sit ups, You've heard of dumbbells. You
Speaker 1: know to put this down and pick this up and
Speaker 1: do that over and over again. You know enough, it
Speaker 1: was enough. He was by the brooks. He wasn't stressed,
Speaker 1: he wasn't confused. If he was, the Bible doesn't say.
Speaker 1: He just waited until the next word, knowing that if
Speaker 1: God fed me here, if God replenished me here, if
Speaker 1: God sustained me here, if he took me in this wilderness,
Speaker 1: if the birds brought my food, whatever is next will
Speaker 1: have what I Whatever is next, we'll have what I need.
Speaker 1: Whatever is next, we'll have what I need. And I
Speaker 1: don't even need to know what it is. So the
Speaker 1: Lord was preparing you in Canada while my last MD
Speaker 1: was leaving. I'm not mad at him, but God had
Speaker 1: you in Canada. He was practicing in Canada to my sermons,
Speaker 1: and we had never met, we had never interviewed him.
Speaker 1: And LJ would play organ to my sermons to practice
Speaker 1: before I ever even knew that. On the eighth day,
Speaker 1: God made LJ. Now, let me break this down real
Speaker 1: specific for you. That means, like I know, we all
Speaker 1: want to know, especially if we're talking about with our kids.
Speaker 1: We all want to know every struggle that they're going
Speaker 1: to face, and we all secretly fear that we're screwing
Speaker 1: them up because we all the kids. Cover your ears.
Speaker 1: I don't want you to hear this part. We don't
Speaker 1: know what we're doing. Cover you years. I don't want
Speaker 1: you to know that I am bluffing you every day.
Speaker 1: I am tour guiding you through a terrain that I
Speaker 1: barely survived as a teenager. And I love God because
Speaker 1: he's so good. Oh Lord, oh Lord, help me, help me.
Speaker 1: Help them see that you know enough, and when you
Speaker 1: need more wisdom, God will send more wisdom. And when
Speaker 1: it comes to point, remember when Harold Staley used to
Speaker 1: teach me guitar, and then he finally said, you need
Speaker 1: another teacher. I have taught you everything I know, so
Speaker 1: he moved me to another teacher. I'm glad he did that.
Speaker 1: I'm glad he did that because it gave me an
Speaker 1: illustration for how I can trust God that when it's
Speaker 1: time for a new stream or a new teacher, he
Speaker 1: will use something to move me along. Now, can we
Speaker 1: do a quick parenting conference? God knows what's next. He
Speaker 1: doesn't want you to, because if you did, you'd screw
Speaker 1: it up trying to be him. You would make an
Speaker 1: idol out of your idea of what your kid's life
Speaker 1: needs to be, and you would end up depending on
Speaker 1: bail to send rain instead of waiting on God to
Speaker 1: send his So a confession. God is going to send
Speaker 1: everybody that my kids need into their life. And while
Speaker 1: you're at it, Lord, keep all those other ones out.
Speaker 1: I don't care what you have to do. Relocate their
Speaker 1: parents at another job in Kansas City, whatever, Lord, because
Speaker 1: you know what they need and I don't. That's my
Speaker 1: favorite prayer to pray before I preach. I've tried a
Speaker 1: bunch of them. Okay, but this one seems to work best. Lord,
Speaker 1: they need something I don't have, You do give it
Speaker 1: to them through me, and then the Lord speaks to me.
Speaker 1: It said, the word of the Lord came to Elijah,
Speaker 1: and then it came through Elijah. Because really, the brooks
Speaker 1: drying up had nothing to do with the prophet, did it.
Speaker 1: It had everything to do with this mom talk about vague.
Speaker 1: God said, I'm gonna send you to a widow in
Speaker 1: a region. Go to Sidon. Now, Zara Fhat is seven
Speaker 1: miles south of Sidon, so he actually has to go
Speaker 1: even past he has to go way out there. And
Speaker 1: the Lord's like, I'm gonna send you to a widow.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. A zip code is not
Speaker 1: an address. So when the Lord says, go to Sidon,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be like, all right, socif it can, I
Speaker 1: get the street number. And the scripture says, I know
Speaker 1: you might have forgotten it. I read it a few
Speaker 1: minutes ago and said that when he got to the gate,
Speaker 1: there was a woman there that was gathering sticks, two twigs.
Speaker 1: The original language says, and so she's got two twigs,
Speaker 1: and she's got a son. And I noticed this as
Speaker 1: Elijah's brook was drying up. This woman's son was dying.
Speaker 1: So God the need meter knows that his prophet needs
Speaker 1: a meal, and this mother needs a miracle. And God
Speaker 1: is this sovereign. God is this sovereign that he will
Speaker 1: take a need, and take a need, and put a
Speaker 1: need next to a need, and he will get in
Speaker 1: the middle of those needs, and he will create a
Speaker 1: space for himself that is called grace, and supply all
Speaker 1: of your needs according to his riches in glory. I
Speaker 1: might stay at eleven thirty and preci this again, God
Speaker 1: is that good at his job. God is good at
Speaker 1: his job. God is good at his job. And in
Speaker 1: some of our lives. God wants his job back. We
Speaker 1: have been trying to do God's job. We have been
Speaker 1: trying to make it happen in our own strength. We
Speaker 1: have been trying to manipulate it in our own strength.
Speaker 1: And that's why we're stressed, because any strategy that does
Speaker 1: not start with God as the source will dry up.
Speaker 1: And now your strength is dried up. And now your
Speaker 1: friends aren't calling you back, and now nobody wants to
Speaker 1: talk to you, and now you have no energy, and
Speaker 1: now you have no ideas because you're too tired to think,
Speaker 1: and you're filling all of the empty spaces with everything
Speaker 1: but God. And he redirects this prophet to a mom
Speaker 1: so that the mom can feed the prophet, or is
Speaker 1: it so that the prophet can feed the mom. I
Speaker 1: can't figure out who God is trying to meet the
Speaker 1: need of today? Is he? You did? God give me
Speaker 1: this word? Because He gave Elijah her word. But unless
Speaker 1: his brook dried up, she couldn't get her word. Everything
Speaker 1: that you go through isn't just about you. His brook
Speaker 1: was drying, her son was dying. Gossip I gotta get
Speaker 1: you there. She's not even a follower of y'ah wigh.
Speaker 1: She says, the Lord, your God. You got this god
Speaker 1: telling you to ask me for bread. I don't have it.
Speaker 1: Come on, be real. Have there been some moments in
Speaker 1: your life this week where you said I don't have it?
Speaker 1: Maybe you said it about I don't have it. I
Speaker 1: certainly don't have it to give to you. Maybe you
Speaker 1: said that this week I don't have it. Maybe you
Speaker 1: were lying, but you just don't want to give it.
Speaker 1: I don't have it. I know somebody in here has
Speaker 1: said that this week about patience. I do not have
Speaker 1: a single nerve left for you to get on. I
Speaker 1: would invite you gladly to get on my last nerve,
Speaker 1: but my last nerve was gotten on three weeks ago.
Speaker 1: And so if you come on this nerve, you need
Speaker 1: to know it's already gone. So whatever happens when you
Speaker 1: try to get on this nerve, you just need to
Speaker 1: be forewarned. I don't have it. I'm out. In fact,
Speaker 1: you caught me making the final arrangements because I have
Speaker 1: just enough left. Of all the widows, Jesus mentioned this
Speaker 1: woman and looked for right beside naming, he says that
Speaker 1: there were many widows in Israel, in the time of
Speaker 1: Elijah the prophet. But he was sent to one and
Speaker 1: he said, give me some water, and she said fine,
Speaker 1: because it was customary. But when she asked, when he
Speaker 1: asked her for bread, she had enough, and she told
Speaker 1: him how it really was, I don't have it. In fact,
Speaker 1: translated like this, it would be like we're saying, I
Speaker 1: swear to God, I don't have it. That's what she said.
Speaker 1: By the Lord your God, as he lives, I don't
Speaker 1: have it. I'm not lying to you, I don't have it.
Speaker 1: So Lura said, you're going to be preaching today to
Speaker 1: some people who are weak and weary, and they don't
Speaker 1: have their own water, and they're trying to give water
Speaker 1: to others. Look at me preaching the Mother's Day message
Speaker 1: after all, trying to organize somebody else's life when you
Speaker 1: wish somebody would come help and organize yours, telling them
Speaker 1: to clean up their room when you've got a few
Speaker 1: spots that you would like to get to also. But
Speaker 1: now you've got to teach them responsibility even as you
Speaker 1: deal with your own resistance. This is the scene at
Speaker 1: zerafad Zeriafad Jezebel's hometown, the one he would ultimately confront
Speaker 1: and the Lord said, I'm going to send you to
Speaker 1: this place with your need so you can meet a need,
Speaker 1: so I can meet your need. That's parenting. God uses
Speaker 1: what your kids need that you don't have to show
Speaker 1: you what he's given you that you don't recognize yet.
Speaker 1: All right, you're ready for this. This is what I
Speaker 1: got up to tell y'all. Honestly, y'all need to bring
Speaker 1: a little more energy for me to give you this point,
Speaker 1: because I've been in these arenas all week and they
Speaker 1: were excited to be there. Okay, okay, all right. That's
Speaker 1: my son and I feed him to support me. So
Speaker 1: that's how bad it got. All right, sit down, sit down,
Speaker 1: let me teach you. The prophet was the problem, and
Speaker 1: the problem was the prophet. They both start with pe
Speaker 1: Can you break it down a little bit? I sure can.
Speaker 1: When he said there's no rain, that's why she was
Speaker 1: gathering sticks, because the land had stoppedroducing because of the
Speaker 1: word he spoke. In obedience to God. The word he
Speaker 1: spoke was responsible for the problem she had. So he
Speaker 1: shows up as a prophet and as a problem. Some
Speaker 1: of the problems that show up in your life aren't
Speaker 1: just problems. They are prophecies in disguise, designed to show
Speaker 1: you what you have that you don't. No, no, no.
Speaker 1: I remember Holly preaching on running on empty last Mother's Day,
Speaker 1: and it was so good because she preached about this
Speaker 1: this widow. She preached about this widow and second King's
Speaker 1: four and the woman was in the same situation. She
Speaker 1: was desperate, she didn't have she didn't have it. She
Speaker 1: was she was in a bad situation. The creditors were
Speaker 1: coming to take our kids. And so she went to
Speaker 1: the prophet, and the prophet said, what do you have
Speaker 1: in your house? And she said nothing there excepted a
Speaker 1: little oil. And he said, well, go get some jars.
Speaker 1: And it said that the jars were filled. I mean
Speaker 1: so many jars were filled that they ran out of
Speaker 1: jars before they ran out of oil. But let me
Speaker 1: show you something specific about this miracle. Oh, when the
Speaker 1: Lord showed me this, I had to stop and write
Speaker 1: it down because I didn't want to forget it. It
Speaker 1: was in verse fourteen when Elijah gives the prophecy. And
Speaker 1: I believe I'm prophescient to some moms, some dads, some teenagers.
Speaker 1: I believe I'm prophecying to some single people, some married people,
Speaker 1: and other words. If this is your word and you
Speaker 1: need a word from the Lord today, I believe God
Speaker 1: has authorized me to tell you this from verse fourteen.
Speaker 1: From his word. This is a word for you. Say it.
Speaker 1: This is a word for me. Say it. This is
Speaker 1: a word for me. Say it again. This is a
Speaker 1: word for me. For this is what the Lord, God
Speaker 1: of Israel says. The jar of flower will not be
Speaker 1: used up, and the jug of oil will not run
Speaker 1: dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.
Speaker 1: There's a prophet who is waiting for God to give
Speaker 1: him a word that he can speak that will open
Speaker 1: the heavens and bring the rain, and bring the repentance
Speaker 1: of the nation, and bring the destruction of the false
Speaker 1: prophets of bail and deliver the people to the freedom
Speaker 1: of worshiping Yahweh. There's a prophet waiting for the rain.
Speaker 1: There's a woman waiting for the rain. And while they
Speaker 1: are both waiting, God sends a word. And this word
Speaker 1: is for your situation and for your children and for
Speaker 1: your family. The jar and the job. He said, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be enough. Somebody say enough. Put it in the chat.
Speaker 1: Enough enough enough, There's gonna be enough in the jar
Speaker 1: and enough in the jog. Wait a minute, Elijah, don't
Speaker 1: you mean jars and jugs plural? Nope? I said what
Speaker 1: God told me to say. There's gonna be enough in
Speaker 1: the jar and the jog. One jar, one job. It's
Speaker 1: not gonna be ten jars and tin jogs. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna be one hundred jars and one hundred jogs. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, it's not even gonna look like
Speaker 1: it was any more than it was before you brought
Speaker 1: it to God. But it won't run out. It won't
Speaker 1: run out. I'm praising him for all the times in
Speaker 1: my life where it seemed like it wasn't enough. But
Speaker 1: he said, my graces sufficient, My strength is made perfect
Speaker 1: in your weakness. It was one job and one junk,
Speaker 1: But watch God, what was in that jug was enough.
Speaker 1: And I came to tell somebody, you got enough in
Speaker 1: your junk to do your job. You got enough in
Speaker 1: your junk to raise your family. You got enough in
Speaker 1: your jog to make it through this dry season, this
Speaker 1: hard place. There's enough in your junk. There's a word
Speaker 1: in your spirits, there's a breath in your love. I
Speaker 1: feel God on that there's enough in my job. There's
Speaker 1: enough in my jog. I don't have fifteen jugs, but
Speaker 1: I've got enough oil in one jug that if I
Speaker 1: would use it, watch this daily, drop by drop by drop.
Speaker 1: She ate through the whole famine and fed the prophet
Speaker 1: and served God's purpose and saved her kids, all by
Speaker 1: understanding that God promised to make it enough until the
Speaker 1: rain comes. When God said you needed to hear today
Speaker 1: that He's going to give you enough until it comes,
Speaker 1: enough until it comes, because you may not feel freedom
Speaker 1: right now, but God is going to give you enough
Speaker 1: grace to make it until freedom comes. When we fight
Speaker 1: to be free of things, we feel like we're never
Speaker 1: gonna be free, and we think that until we feel
Speaker 1: free God, God can't really use us. But God said,
Speaker 1: my grace is sufficient for you, and my strength is
Speaker 1: made perfect in your weakness. So I see what you
Speaker 1: still struggle with. But greater is he You want this
Speaker 1: word or not? He said it will be enough until
Speaker 1: the rain comes. He does not tell her it's going
Speaker 1: to reign in a year because he doesn't know either.
Speaker 1: But they are both in the same place. The prophet
Speaker 1: and the mom looking at the same problem, trusting in
Speaker 1: the same God, believing in the same word. It was
Speaker 1: the word at the brook, It was the word in
Speaker 1: zarah Fath. It was the word when you were twelve.
Speaker 1: It is the word when you are seventy two. It
Speaker 1: will be the word that sustained, and it will be enough.
Speaker 1: So while you wait for the rain, rejoice in the
Speaker 1: space between, because God said, I'm gonna give you meantime
Speaker 1: miracles while you're waiting for the change, while you're waiting
Speaker 1: for the maturity, while you're waiting for it to take through.
Speaker 1: The Bible says train up a child in the way
Speaker 1: they should go in. When they are old, they won't
Speaker 1: depart from it. So how do I have enough patience
Speaker 1: to keep from killing him till they can get old
Speaker 1: enough to do what I taught them? God said, my
Speaker 1: grace is sufficient, and if you will lean on me
Speaker 1: and learn from me and listen to me, it will
Speaker 1: be enough until it comes. And all your life, God
Speaker 1: has been leading you from Brooks to Sidonce to Caramels,
Speaker 1: from Brooks to Sidonce to Carmels, and every space in between.
Speaker 1: He has been good, and he has been God. So
Speaker 1: as simple as it sounds whatever you have like the
Speaker 1: woman that isn't even enough to feed an extra guest.
Speaker 1: Whatever strength do you have, whatever skill you have, just
Speaker 1: so I can know, just so I can know, because
Speaker 1: I need to know, because I need to adjust my
Speaker 1: approach if I miss this bad. Is there any moms
Speaker 1: in here that had been feeling in the last little bit,
Speaker 1: in the last season. I don't mean thirty years ago
Speaker 1: that you are not enough for the job, just feeling
Speaker 1: like that. There are literally eight people here who felt
Speaker 1: like they're not enough. Okay, so let me tell y'all
Speaker 1: what you need to know. For the eight of y'all
Speaker 1: that feel that way. There is enough in your jar
Speaker 1: and your job for you to do your job, but
Speaker 1: there's not enough for you to do God's job. He's
Speaker 1: the one who has to make it happen. He's the
Speaker 1: one who has to make it work. He's the one
Speaker 1: who has to prove himself faithful. Not you. You're a steward.
Speaker 1: That means you get to give it back. I love
Speaker 1: being a pastor because I know it's God's church. So
Speaker 1: I tell the Lord here it is back. It's covid Lord,
Speaker 1: we can't have church here. It is back, what do
Speaker 1: we do now. I don't know what the future is
Speaker 1: ten years from now, neither do you. But God said,
Speaker 1: until I show you what's next, what you know will
Speaker 1: be enough until it comes. Now you go worrying about tomorrow.
Speaker 1: God cannot defend you from a battle. He didn't call
Speaker 1: you to fight. And if you keep waiting, if you
Speaker 1: keep waiting for fifty more jars, if you keep waiting
Speaker 1: to the fact, because I'm telling you what's gonna happen,
Speaker 1: You're gonna think when I have this much money, when
Speaker 1: my kids get this old, when I get this opportunity,
Speaker 1: it still will never be enough until you really truly
Speaker 1: believe that He is enough. So come on, thing, come on, singers,
Speaker 1: I want us to I want us to sing the
Speaker 1: words we sang them earlier. Today we sang them many times,
Speaker 1: but I want to sing it over every prophet who
Speaker 1: God is giving a word to, every mom that God
Speaker 1: is giving a miracle too. And I want us to
Speaker 1: sing it over every problem that you need to bring
Speaker 1: to God today. Did you notice what the prophet said?
Speaker 1: He said, bring me some of what you have. And
Speaker 1: when she did that, it was always enough. As we
Speaker 1: wait in these spaces, for answered prayers. As we wait
Speaker 1: in these spaces for test results, as we wait in
Speaker 1: these spaces for situational resolve, we have to know that
Speaker 1: His word is enough until it comes. So God, just
Speaker 1: like Abraham finally got to the place and you had
Speaker 1: a ram in the bush, and he called that place
Speaker 1: Jehovah Gyrah, we choose and decide today in our hearts
Speaker 1: to call you Jehovah, and we call this place Gyra.
Speaker 1: That the Lord will provide. And I want to pray
Speaker 1: for somebody who's been tormented by what they don't have.
Speaker 1: They've been, They've been threatened by what they don't have.
Speaker 1: They've been, They've been restless, withdrawn, depressed because I don't
Speaker 1: have it. I mean, if it's a mom, if it's
Speaker 1: a dad, if it's somebody who doesn't have kids, you
Speaker 1: see every need God, I don't. But whatever they thought
Speaker 1: they were not when they came in here today, it's
Speaker 1: just a space for you to show off who you are.
Speaker 1: We talk tough and we say these things God, but
Speaker 1: we need to live like that to bring you the
Speaker 1: little that we have and watch it become more than
Speaker 1: enough in the hands of Jehovah. Jirah just like you
Speaker 1: did when I started. I want you to cup your
Speaker 1: hands toward heaven, like if you had a father who
Speaker 1: knew how to feed you, Like if he would send
Speaker 1: birds to drop food for you, like if he would
Speaker 1: send Elijah to your doorstep as you were gathering sticks
Speaker 1: to feed your family. And I want you to take
Speaker 1: a moment in silence all of those voices that have
Speaker 1: been telling you. Look at you, you're not smart enough
Speaker 1: to raise that daughter. You can't even help her with
Speaker 1: her math homework. Look at you, you're not tough enough
Speaker 1: to raise that boy. You don't even have a man
Speaker 1: around the house. For everything that you're not, you are
Speaker 1: a candidate for revelation of who God is. After all,
Speaker 1: when God gave his name to Moses, he chose to
Speaker 1: self identify as I Am. That leads all the space
Speaker 1: in the world for any need that you will ever have. Now,
Speaker 1: I believe God is calling some people away from dry
Speaker 1: places of self dependence. I believe God is calling people
Speaker 1: into their next assignment. Today. Your jar, your jug more
Speaker 1: than enough. If your jug needed to be bigger, if
Speaker 1: your jar needed to be wider, he would have made
Speaker 1: it bigger, wider. He would have made it, but he
Speaker 1: he put you there. You are the one that he chose.
Speaker 1: And it's gonna be all right. God's got tomorrow, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna be all right. God's got your babies, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna be all right. For the jar of flower
Speaker 1: will not run dry, neither will the jug of oil,
Speaker 1: until the day the Lord sends rain. I know you're
Speaker 1: waiting on rain, You're waiting on some things. But God said,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be enough until it comes. I'm gonna send
Speaker 1: you everything you need. But until it comes, God is
Speaker 1: no less enough