Tell the story from the mother’s perspective. Can you say all things are possible with God? Tell your neighbor, “Don’t judge me now, because God’s ain’t finished with me yet”. Tell your neighbor, “You need to be confident”. Now quote Phil. 1:6 with me.
Alice and I visited a church this week. The have ss 3 times on Sunday, worship 2 times in morning, and one on Friday night. The way that you check into ss is by using a card similar to your Kroger key card. Their orchestra practice room was larger than our sanctuary. They had more 3 yrs. and younger than the population of Jenson. (450) The population of Pineville wouldn’t fill it. Hear is the point, they built it thinking it would be impossible to fill. They thought they had plenty of room. God said, “with Me, nothing is impossible”.
Today, it is time to catch His vision for our church. Good is no longer good enough. Okay just doesn’t cut the mustard. Johnny is a good teacher. Some of you have been content with sitting under his teaching and never making a move to implement the ministry that God has for you. Say, “It is time”! It is time to be great! It is time to change our way of thinking, our perspective, how we live! We need to stop just getting by, and start experience God’s possibilities! We need to move from fatalism to faith. How do we do this? We live in FAITH!
I. Faith filled mothers hear from God. (9)
Mothers often have a gift of hearing God. A certain sensitivity that others do not experience. To the point to where they often overlook and take their gift for granted. They often assume that others can hear and understand the same way, and when others don’t, mothers can’t understand why?
This lady wasn’t any different. Verse 9 God says, “I have commanded her”. Did she totally understand God’s plan at the time? Did she know God was going to use Elijah? Did she understand to what capacity things would work out? I don’t think she did. However, I do believe that she knew God’s voice, and knew from experience that He would provide. Folks there is just one word for that, FAITH!
II. Faith filled mothers are servants of God. (10-12)
She is in the middle of a task and someone asks her to do something. So she stops, and serves. Remember Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve. Mt. 20:28. He went on to say that if you want to be the greatest you must be a servant. Lk. 22:27. There are a couple of observations here that must be seen.
1-The meaning of her mission. It was very important. This was to be her last meal. This was to be her boys last meal. Don’t take that lightly.
2- The message of her Messiah. I am not talking about Elijah. I am talking about the One who sent Elijah. Notice the message. “Get me a drink of water”. How many of you would balk at this moment? How many of you would say, get your own water, I am busy? How many would somehow justify your decision by saying something to the effect of, “I am sure he has done something sinful to cause him to be thirsty. People just aren’t thirsty this time of day.” But she didn’t. She stopped what she was doing and headed toward the sink to get his water. And then the second part of the message was delivered, “Give me your bread”. It appears as one of those, “Since you were up, get me a…” And that is bad enough because most of us would say, “Who do you think you are. Get it yourself!” But it goes much deeper than this. This is her last meal, and her son’s last meal. It is the priority of priorities! Do you like to be interrupted when you are working on something important? No. When this happens are you polite? No. You are rude! But not her. She was willing to give and serve at the expense of her and her sons life!
Here is the application. More often than not in life we are busy like that woman. What we are doing is very important in our eyes. Often life threatening, right? What was God’s perspective? Not quit the same as yours or mine. God sends His messenger to interrupt our way of thinking and most definitely our task. How we respond is critical. Is God in control? Then we should respond with the same faith and in the same way as this woman!
When we respond to life’s interruptions like this woman, God blesses us like never before!
III. Faith filled mothers walk by faith. (12,15)
Notice the words in verse 12, “that we may eat it and die”. These aren’t words of fatalism, these are words of FAITH. This is what I mean. She has done all that she knows to do, she has continued to do this until the present time, and she is being obedient to God. Remember, God has commanded her, verse 9. But we truly see her faith and obedience in these two verses. Here she is believing that in spite of her circumstances, God will still provide. However, if He chooses not to, she still will believe God even unto death! Kind of sounds like Shadrach, Meshach and AbedNego, Daniel 3:18.
Verse 15 we continue to still see her faith in action. “She went away and did according to the word of Elijah.” Did she know what was about to happen? Of course not. She was walking by faith and not by sight. To others what she was doing looked foolish. It appeared that she was being taken advantage of! But she passed the faith test with flying colors. This blessing that I have been talking about, we now see the manifestation of!
IV. God blesses faith filled mothers. (14,16)
God’s promise and blessing was that there would be an ample supply of flour and oil. The blessing of provision. When we go and do according to the word of the Lord, our household will eat that which God has prepared for us! When we function within the faith parameters, God’s provision will never be used up and His spirit will never run dry!
Can you see the life application here? Faith is the key that unlocks the door of God’s blessings. What is it in your life that needs filling? Where in your life do you need provision? Are you at the threshold of God’s blessing and you don’t even realize it?
Church, what is the church called? Yes God’s body, but we are also referred to as the bride. The bride is a woman. Are you seeing the correlation? God is asking us just as He did the woman to go and get some water of life, and on our way pick up the bread of life too. However, like the woman, we can’t because what we have is insufficient. God says, give Me what you have and I will multiply it!
God has been speaking to you this week asking for something. Are you ready to trust Him? Will you give what you have just as the woman gave what she had? The pattern here is when we give, God blesses abundantly. Will you give your life? Your time? Your energy? Will you commit to the church? To the vision that God has for us here at Jenson?
If you said yes to these questions you need to respond. The woman responded with faith. So must you. Will take that first step and walk down the isle committing yourself to the Lord? To do so takes to things, first humility, and secondly faith. Humility says that I need to go. There is something about that isle that always takes faith to walk down. That is what God requires. Will you come?
