The Life Saver

The Life Saver

1Kings 17:7-24

Introduction: I remember the commercials from the 70’s where someone would lose a game or mess up something important, and a person nearby would offer them a Life Saver candy to cheer them up. Well, whenever I feel the need to be lifted up, I need look no further than my Father in Heaven.

Sidon, home country of Jezebel, Elijah’s #1 enemy. Sidon is also the birthplace of Baal worship. God shows Jezebel how powerless her gods are by starving her in a palace in Israel while Elijah and a widow eat well in her home country.

I. God is the Giver of Faith

A. Elijah trusted God for his food in faith.

1. The cave experience lasted over a year

2. The widow experience lasted over 2 years.

3. “When we cannot be useful, we must be patient; and when we cannot work for God, we must sit still quietly for him.” Matthew Henry

4. “Yard by yard, life is hard, inch by inch, it’s a cinch.”

5. How often do we mess things up by charging headlong into God’s service without learning of His will?

B. “So he went…”

C. The widow reacted in faith

D. Our lives belong to God

1. Her faith was eventually cemented.

2. “The Lord your God…”

3. “The Word of the Lord…”

a. God’s word is not dependent on people, but people on God’s Word.

b. God’s word is his revelation of his will to us.

c. Living without God’s will for our lives is like sewing with a needle but no thread or writing with pen without ink. It makes the activity pointless.

d. The greatest impact we can have if we live outside God’s will is like a ship has on the ocean. At first there is a great wake, then it all just disappears.

II. Power of prayer

A. Prayer for life

1. The resurrection of this boy

2. The resurrection of Lazarus

B. Prayer for purpose in life.

1. Make me an instrument of your peace

2. Make me a channel of your love

III. God is the Giver of Life

A. God gives life several times in this chapter

1. Ravens

2. Oil

3. Resurrection

4. He gave life to a Gentile

a. God uses the least and the weak for His glory

b. This widow was important to God.

c. “One repentant sinner vs. 99 who don’t need to repent…” Luke 15

B. God gives victory over death through faith in Jesus

Conclusion: