Give of your flour and oil, or Die!
Luke 14:26-35
(Prayer) He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!
Last week I began to share a message meant to enable you to come to the presence of Christ Jesus and receive what you so desperately need in your spiritual life. Jesus said that whosoever does not bear his cross and come after him, CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE! Do you believe there is a cost to your discipleship since you have been saved through the blood of Jesus Christ? Do you believe that there is a cross that only you can bear for the kingdom of God and that you have a value in the Hand of God? It seems that many times I ask questions designed to make you think about your spiritual life and that I do so this next question should really stir your heart…
HAVE YOU FULFILLED YOUR COST OF DISCIPLESHIP?
Look with me at verses 28 thru 29 and read it along with me…" For which of you intending to build a tower, sits not down first to count the cost to see whether you have the commitment and the funds to complete the tower, lest shortly after he has built the foundation and is not able to go any further to finish the project commitment AND ALL THAT BEHOLD IT BEGIN TO MOCK HIM SAYING THIS MAN BEGAN TO BUILD BUT WAS NOT ABLE TO FINISH BUILDING"
THERE IS A LOT OF MOCKERY OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND JESUS HAS BEEN PUT TO AN OPEN SHAME BECAUSE OF OUR LACK OF COMMITMENT. Listen to me and you listen to me well, the world is looking at you and the fruit in your life and I tell you these things because I love you but the church must begin to tear away the compromise! We must stand firmly on the foundation spilled in the blood of Jesus at Calvary to proclaim with every breath in our body, COME YE OUT AND BE SEPARATE! LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE BEFORE MEN THAT THEY WILL SEE YOUR FRUIT AND GIVE GLORY TO GOD IN HEAVEN FOR THE MARVELOUS THINGS HE’S DONE!
"For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin with us, what shall the end be of them that obey no the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 1 Peter 4:17-18
Many of you enjoy listening to the messages the Lord places in my heart and some of you even enjoy the way that God chooses to deliver those messages using my talents and abilities. Let me ask you a question if I may? How many of you stuck it out during the tent crusade and actually prayed everyday for Brother Emmit Roper? Or instead did you come and hear him once then decide you had a date with the television set watching some ungodly thing Hollywood produces? How many of you made a covenant with the Lord God to come and pray for the services as they were going on that somebody would be saved through the word of God being spoken? THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP WOULD HAVE PUT IT ON YOUR HEART TO PRAY FOR THAT MAN OF GOD THAT GOD WOULD USE HIM TO LEAD OTHER PEOPLE TO JESUS! What did you bring to the worship services under the tent?
"And I brethren, when I came to you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power… that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the POWER OF GOD!" 1 Cor 2:1-5
What does your faith rest in my friend? Does it rest in the power of the preacher or the charisma of the speaker or in the programs we offer at the church or in the friendships you’ve made in the church? YOUR FAITH SHOULD REST IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BY THE SHEDDING OF THE BLOOD OF JESUS AT CALVARY!
(1) If you’re going to come to church only as long as Brother Mike or Brother So and So is the preacher, YOUR FAITH IS IN VAIN!
(2) I’m going to let you down friend! People are going to let you down!
(3) LET YOUR FAITH BE IN JESUS AND HIM ONLY!
In verse 26 there is a hard saying from the lips of the Savior but he ended that scripture text in verse 35 with these words, "LET HIM THAT HATH EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR!"
(1) Some of the people here today have no ability to hear the spiritual truth I’m speaking through the power of the Holy Spirit in this church today
And that’s o.k. my friend but to those who can hear the Spirit of God speaking to them, listen to him! This is a physical book I hold in my hand but it must be discerned only by the Power of the Holy Spirit as He guides us into all truth. Jesus told his disciples just before He was crucified that they could not bear all that they must be told BUT THAT HE WOULD SEND A COMFORTER TO GUIDE THEM AND TO REVEAL TO THEM AND CALL TO REMEMBRANCE EVERYTHING THAT HE HAD SAID BECAUSE THAT SAME HOLY SPIRIT WOULD ENABLE THEM TO BEAR THE BURDEN OF ALL THAT HE SAID AND CARRY OUT HIS PLANS ON THIS EARTH!
Those are the people I want to preach to this morning, the remnant that want Jesus no matter what anybody thinks, that want to be used by Jesus no matter who gets the credit. God has a message for the people who have put God First and Foremost in their life forsaking all others, laying aside all their worldly treasures and denying their own selfish nature to serve the Living God. In Matthew 15:12-14 Jesus said an important thing to the blind who cannot see the spiritual things around us…
" then came his disciples and said unto him, Don’t you know that you’re offending the Pharisee’s by what you’re saying? He answered and said, ‘every plant which my Father has not planted shall be rooted up. Let them alone they are blind leaders of the blind and if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch."
(2) Plenty of people are going to hell my friend no matter what we do for them because they don’t want the truth of the gospel
(3) Keith Roach went to a large Church while visiting in Texas with his daughter and after hearing the message of the preacher in a 4000 person, filled to capacity auditorium: He knew that most of those people were going to hell because the preacher was blind to the gospel
(4) He was talking about spreading a little sunshine in everybody’s life so that you could go to heaven!
(5) Unless you be saved by the blood of Jesus, you’re gonna bust hell wide open with a bible in your hand and a church membership card in your hip pocket
(6) Once you’re saved you better put Jesus first and pick up your cross and follow him or you cannot be his disciple!
1 Kings 17 is a story of a little woman that has been on my heart for a few months now after hearing someone share what God told them through that story. This little woman had just enough flour and oil to make a little cake for her and her son, then they were going to lay down and die. Couple of sticks to build her fire with and then eat a mouthful of food to lay down and die, doesn’t sound like much to praise God about does it? She was standing just this side of Glory though folks because of the man of God, Elijah the preacher of the Living God.
Hold up there a minute woman and make me a little bit of bread first then make one for yourself and your son. Sounds just like a preacher doesn’t he? You would have to know the preacher was there with his hand out wanting his share! I can see that little hungry boy there looking at that preacher wanting a little bit of what they had. I bet he got mad at the preacher for saying something like that, wouldn’t you? I would have because I know what it’s like to be hungry and see somebody show up for supper. I was twelve years old before I knew what fried catfish tasted like! We were so poor they used to fry eggplant to give to the kids while the grownups ate fish. They told us it was fish! Kind of like the little kids that tasted real apples after being raised on a fake apple juice produced by Gerbers a few years ago.
· The woman had a decision to make. She had to decide to put God first as represented to her in the presence of the Man of God. She had to put God over her finances, she didn’t have any money to go buy anymore flour or oil! She had to put God first over her son because she didn’t hold no family meeting to decide what to do with their little bit of flour or their little bit of oil. She had to put God first over herself because she was going to have less by being obedient to what the Man of God told her.
· THAT’S WHY SOME OF YOU DON’T HAVE ANYTHING FROM GOD RIGHT NOW! YOU LET YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES DICTATE AND EVEN LET THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU DETERMINE YOUR SERVICE TO THE LORD!
Jesus wants to be Lord of All or not at all my friend. He won’t accept second best and until you make him the absolute Lord of your life, you’ll always have just a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil with a couple of dried up old sticks. SHE HAD TO MAKE A HEARTCHECK DECISION! CAN YOU SEE THAT? WHAT IF SHE HAD TOLD THE PREACHER NO?
SHE WOULD HAVE DIED ALONG WITH HER SON BEFORE THE SUN CAME UP THE NEXT MORNING! I just wonder what little trinkets are keeping you from your blessing? God is speaking to some of your hearts right now isn’t he? Jesus said what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul and that also applies to the people who just have a little bit they won’t give to the Lord!
We need some more people to stand up on their feet and say like the Man of God Elijah, THUS SAITH THE LORD, IF YOU WILL GIVE WITH A HAND OF FAITH AND SERVE WITH ALL THE POWER OF YOUR BEING, THE LITTLE BIT YOU HAVE WILL NEVER DRY UP OR BE USED UP,
IF YOU’LL JUST PUT GOD FIRST!
That little woman made a decision to follow God with her whole heart and to place God on the altar of her heart over even her own son and her own personal needs. She put God first and the little bit she had supernaturally never dried up even though there was a famine in the land. All around her people were gathering two sticks and taking there little bit of flour and small drops of oil to cook their cakes on then die. Jesus said so! He said so! Yet this one little woman never went hungry because she put God first! She put the man of God in a place of honor in her home and they did eat many days!
Some of you right now are saying well you know Brother Mike I ain’t been hungry and can’t really remember ever being hungry so my life must be in balance and times have changed. Move to Ethiopia and see if you don’t go hungry because of your faith then you can come up here and preach but until then I want you unbelievers to know this… THE STORY DIDN’T END WITH THE LITTLE BIT OF FLOUR AND THE SMALL AMOUNT OF OIL MY FRIEND! OH NO, I PRAYED FOR TOO LONG FOR GOD TO JUST STOP WITH THAT LITTLE TIDBIT OF BLESSING! BY MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICE WITH THE LITTLE THINGS LIKE PUTTING HER SON SECOND TO GOD, BY PUTTING HER CIRCUMSTANCES SECOND TO GOD, BY PUTTING HERSELF SECOND TO GOD SHE WAS ABOUT TO BE ENTRUSTED WITH MUCH, MUCH MORE!
THE RELATIONSHIP WAS IN TACT FOR HER TO SEE THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE CHANGING POWER OF GOD MANIFEST ITSELF IN HER LIFE BECAUSE OF HER FAITH ALREADY TESTED!
Looks at verses 17-21 the widow’s son died. She lost the only person on the face of the earth that she probably loved. She stood in the valley of the shadow of death and cried out to the man of God to do something! That’s what a lot of people cry out to the man of God when somebody is dying, DO SOMETHING PREACHER! PRAY PREACHER! HELP US PREACHER BY PLEADING WITH GOD TO HEAL US!
Problem is that the relationship with God isn’t right and has never been right to get something that big from God by reaching out a hand of faith. You haven’t been faithful with the flour and the oil and the two sticks, so why do you think you can be faithful if God heals you or raises the dead. Oh, now you’re meddling Brother Mike. HE THAT HATH EARS TO HEAR LET HIM HEAR! Some of you need to be faithful with the little things he’s told you before he can answer your prayer to save the lost people in your family! Some of you need to be faithful with the little things before God can even transform your situation by the Power of the Holy Spirit. Almost everybody in this church is expecting something to break out at any minute under the power of God,
BUT GOD SHOWED ME YOU HAVEN’T BEEN FAITHFUL WITH THE HANDFUL OF FLOUR OR THE SMALL AMOUNT OF THE OIL YOU HAVE RIGHT NOW, HE THAT HATH EARS TO HEAR LET HIM HEAR! HE THAT HATH EARS TO HEAR LET HIM HEAR AND THEN REACH OUT A HAND OF FAITH AND BELIEVE GOD! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SEE THE LOST SAVED OR THE BACKSLIDEN RESTORED OR THE SICK HEALED UNTIL YOU’RE FAITHFUL IN THE LITTLE THINGS FIRST!
PUT GOD FIRST! PUT GOD FIRST! GIVE GOD YOUR LITTLE BIT AND HE’LL SUSTAIN YOU AS LONG AS NEEDED BUT GIVE HIM FIRST PLACE IN YOUR HEART AND HE’LL RAISE THE DEAD WHEN YOU PRAY, HE’LL SAVE THE VILEST SINNER ON EARTH AND OPEN THE FLOOD GATES OF HEAVEN OVER YOUR SITUATION AND THIS LITTLE CHURCH!
Before I close I have got to let you see this part. Look at verse 24 (read) Do you know what that means? That little woman really wasn’t sure Elijah was even a man of God when he told her to give him from her little bit of flour and oil but she did it anyway. By faith in the word of the Lord she believed and put God first above everything. Not because she felt something inside her tell her he was a great preacher or that the whole community was talking about old Elijah in town but because she heard the word of the Lord in verse 14 (read).
Faith is not a feeling! Faith is a believing that God is bigger than my circumstances! Faith made her do the right thing but because of that small amount of faith in the little things, SHE WAS IN RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST JESUS TO SEE THE STRONGEST DESIRE OF HER HEART GIVEN TO HER BY THE POWER OF GOD! DO YOU SEE THAT? UNTIL NOW, UNTIL I RECEIVED THIS GREAT MIRACLE I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IF YOU WERE REALLY A MAN OF GOD, ELIJAH!
What little thing have you not given to the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it a husband, son, daughter, wife, job, money, recreation? Until you love Jesus more, you’ll never feel the power of God in your life. Church? What thing have you forgotten? Are you honoring your commitment to the Lord by becoming a lighthouse? Are you honoring the man of God by giving him first of the little bit that you have? I could answer that for you but I think you know the answer. I want to leave you with this before we come to a time of decision.
Why do you want to keep your little bit of flour and small amount of oil, represenative of the Holy Spirit, so you can lay down and die? Don’t die! God has set before you the way of life and the way of death, the way of blessing and the way of cursing, CHOOSE LIFE! CHOOSE LIFE TODAY AT THIS ALTAR IN JESUS CHRIST BY PUTTING HIM FIRST! He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!
