Choices+transformation = Abundant Living

Scripture: 1 Kings 17:8-16; Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17

Theme: Thanksgiving

Title: Right Choices + Transformed Living = Abundant Living

INTRO:

Good morning! Grace and peace to all of you from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit! I hope all of you are enjoying life to its fullest!

Have you ever noticed that there are some people that come into our lives that are like lynch pins?

Lynch pins? What in the world is a lynch pin?

If you remember, lynch pins are those little pins that go through the end of an axle outside the wheel that help keep the wheel from coming off. You usually see them on farm equipment like garden tillers.

If you have ever tried to use something that has a lynch pin and the lynch pin has fallen off then you know their importance.

Thankfully, there are people that come into our lives that serve as lynch pins. They help us keep everything together. You can find lynch pin people in sports, in the workplace and in families. There are certain people that have this wonderful ability to keep everything together. There are certain people who have this wonderful ability to keep things running smoothly and their mere presence doesn’t allow the wheels to fall off.

In 1 Kings 17:8-16 we find a lynch pin person by the name of Elijah. The Lord sends him to the home of the widow at Zarephath to make sure that her life and the life of her son doesn’t completely fall apart.

As we read the story it looks like her life and her son’s life is not only going to fall apart but they are going to die. They are down to their last handful of flour and just a few tablespoons of oil left in the jar. That is it. Their cupboards are completely bare. Everything and anything that could have been eaten has vanished. After this little meal of biscuits all they will be able to do is to lie down and die.

You could say she was down to only one wheel and it had a very rusty and dodgy lynch pin. Her time and her son’s time on earth were almost at an end.

It is not a happy ending to a story. It is the continuation of the story that we find at the beginning of the chapter 17, where we are told that for a period of years the land has received no rain; not even the presence of dew.

Think about that for a second. Not just any rain but no dew. No moisture whatsoever. You can imagine how devastated everything looked.

+Rivers, streams, creeks and springs are quickly drying up or have already dried up.

+No well water is left and the nearby Mediterranean Sea is full of water but it is saltwater which can’t be used for drinking water.

+All livestock have either been sold off or have already been eaten

+Most of the wild life has vacated the area and have migrated wherever they could find water and food.

This widow’s land which at one time looked like a botanical garden now looks like a desert wasteland. Her hope has turned into despair, then into depression and now into complete defeat. All that was left to do was for her and her son to do was to have a final meal and then wait for the final stages of starvation and death.

But then the Prophet Elijah arrives and as we have read the story things take a wonderful turn. Things go from being hopeless to being full of hope. Things go from being a time of despair to a time of rejoicing and celebration.

But it doesn’t happen all at once. There are some things that first have to happen. This morning it is those things that I want us to examine in more detail. And as we examine them to not only understand them but to be thankful for them in our own lives.

For the things that we find in this first story and in the second story are common to us all. They occur in each one of our lives.

Let’s share at them more in detail and you will see what I mean.

I. This morning, let’s be thankful for choices – Let’s be thankful that we have the freedom to choose today!

One of the greatest freedoms that God has given any of us is the freedom to choose. We can choose to live this way or we can choose to live that way. We can choose to say these things and we can choose not to say these things.

This woman of Zarephath had the freedom that day to make a choice. At the very minimum she was able to at least do a couple of things: