Elijah and the Widow, Part 1

If you got your Bible turn to first Kings chapter 17 first Kings chapter 17 One week from tomorrow. I and 70 other people will stand on top of Mount Carmel We will overlook the Jezreel Valley We'll be able to see the ridge the Nazareth Ridge Where Jesus himself was raised as you look across the valley as you look to our right we'll see Mount Megiddo and understand about the Battle of Armageddon and all that that means and You'll be able to look down from Mount Carmel and see the brook Keishon brook where Elijah would take the 450 bales of prophets and slay them and Win the victory for the Lord God But before he ever climbed Mount Carmel there were three and a half years of Of Time alone with the Living God That prepared him for that one major event the event that he is known for all throughout the scriptures and Yet before that ever took place God was doing a work in this man's life.

You need to understand that because before you ever climbed the Mount and Perform great things for God God is going to do a wonderful work in your heart and soul and if you look at first Kings chapter 17, you begin to realize that Elijah is going to be on the move once again He's going to be on the move he's going to move from the brook the place called Kareth and God is going to move him a hundred miles away Because there is a widow who has a need In fact, it's crisis time It's a crisis for Elijah and there's a crisis for the widow Elijah's never met the widow the widows never met Elijah and yet God would speak to the widow and God would speak to Elijah and He would have to move Because the brook now was dry He had been there for several months There had been no rain and So the brook would dry up.

He had no water There was a crisis for Elijah the widow a hundred miles away in Zarephath had no food and so both had a need a Need that God would meet in a supernatural kind of way and God would step in and do something marvelous in both of their lives And it's a story about a crisis and what do you do when the crisis comes and the way to conquer crisis is always through obedience to God always Because God will speak to you God will move you and God will deal with you if you listen and you obey you can conquer the crisis both Elijah and the widow for the next two years Two and a half years Would be able to conquer the crisis before then Let me read to you what the Bible says in 1st Kings chapter 17 verse number 8 then the word of the Lord came to him saying arise go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and Stay there.

Behold. I have commanded a widow there to provide for you So he arose and went to Zarephath And when he came to the gate of the city behold a widow was there gathering sticks And he called to her and said please Give me a little water in a jar that I may drink And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please bring me a piece of bread in your hand she said as The Lord your God lives. I have no bread only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son that we may eat and Then die Then Elijah said to her do not fear go do as you have said but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me and Afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son For thus says the Lord God of Israel the bowl of flour shall not be exhausted Nor shall the jar of oil be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth So she went and did according to the word of Elijah She and her household ate for many days The bowl of flour was not exhausted Nor did the jar of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke through Elijah I Want you to notice the context that I want you to notice the command and then I want you to see the capitulation to that command and the compensations based on Elijah's Capitulation to that command.

Okay. First of all the context Elijah was sent by God from the palace having confronted the king To tell them of the judgment upon the nation sent to a little place called Kareth a Little brook and God said you stay there and in the morning in the evening I will send the Ravens and they will feed you They will provide for you, but only there and so we had food in the morning food at night He had water to drink because of the brook But as time went on The brook would slowly begin to dry up and he would be out of water And he would be in a great need.

I don't know about you, but When you go to the wilderness for a retreat usually it's a weekend Maybe a week or so but if you're in the wilderness for months on end It can be very wearisome There's a reason that I don't camp There's a big reason in fact This is how I camp If I was to go camping I would get in my RV fully equipped with direct TV microwave Running water and I would make my way to the closest Marriott I Would park my RV in the parking lot of the Marriott I would check into that hotel I would sleep there overnight eat their breakfast get up get on my RV and drive to the Knicks Marriott That's what I consider hardcore camping Now I know some of you like to go out and camp and sleep underneath the stars and sleep in a sleeping bag with Snakes and squirrels and cockroaches and spiders and ants and and more power to you if that's what you like to do if you want to spend money and go Back in time that that's fine with me that but that's not what I want to do.

God didn't Allow me to live Two and three hundred years ago. He allowed me to live in the 21st century So I like to use the 21st century amenities and live in that kind of context So here was Elijah in the wilderness and it was probably fine for a while I mean the Ravens would come he'd feed him in the morning. They feed him at night He had the water there, but after a while it gets a little dull But it was a place of refuge for him. Remember we told you last week It was a place of protection because he had to be protected because once Everything began to dry up and all the livestock began to die and all the crops began to die He became the most wanted man in all of Israel.

So God was going to protect him It was a place of protection. It was a place of provision because God would provide for him food and water It was a place of preparation Because it would be here in Kareth. Okay in Kareth That we understand the word means to cut off or to cut down to remove To whittle away, that's what Kareth means It's very significant Because God was doing a work in Elijah. He was cutting down and cutting away and whittling away at Elijah's character He was doing something very unique in Elijah's life.

He was Removing things that would hinder him from becoming God's vessel God's pure vessel It was the hidden place for Elijah. I Love what FB Meyer says about this hidden place He says many of us have had to sit by drying brooks. Perhaps some are sitting by them as we speak the drying brook of popularity having away as it did from John the Baptist the drying brook of health sinking under a creeping paralysis or a slow decline The drying brook of money slowly dwindling before the demands of sickness bad debts or other people's extravagance the drying brook of friendship which for long has been diminishing and Threatened soon to cease.

Ah, it is hard to sit beside a drying brook Why does God let them dry? He wants to teach us not to trust in his gifts But in himself Let us learn these lessons and turn from our failing carrots to our unfailing Savior for all sufficiency resides in him Elijah sat by the drying brook and God was removing the dross of his life God was doing something unique in his life in that alone place as he sat there day after day Which led to week after week which led to month after month all the while protecting all the while providing all the while preparing this man for one Incredible act and yet God was not done with Elijah God would had to move Elijah to another place and he would move him by his word So we move from the context to the command he would give Elijah a command and Notice it says the word of the Lord came to him saying Arise go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and stay there Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you the will of God Came to Elijah through the Word of God and That's the way it always comes the will of God always comes to us through the Word of God if You want to know the will of God you must know the Word of God That's important to say that's why Paul said in Ephesians 5 be not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is Okay, and the Bible tells us on many occasions what the will of the Lord is and we've given it to you over the years We know that the will of the Lord is that we be saved first Timothy 2 for God is willing That you be saved and come to the knowledge of who he is we know that God wants you to Sacrifice your life because Romans 12 to says that when you present yourself a living sacrifice you prove What is that good and acceptable?

will of God We know that the Bible says that we are to be submissive To those in authority over us first Peter 2 verses 13 to 15 says that this is the will of God for you That you submit to those in authority The Bible also tells us that if we are to know the will of God Then we must be sexually pure first Thessalonians 4 verse number 3 This is the will of God even your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality So we know very clearly God's will be saved God's will to live a life of sacrifice God's will to be submissive God's will to be sexually pure God's will to always say thanks to him first Thessalonians 5 or some rating This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you that you give thanks in all things Okay, that is the will of God We also know that the Bible says very clearly in first Peter Chapter yeah first Peter 4 verse number 19 that some of us suffer according to the will of God So God's will is that we suffer for his glory We also know that psalm 103 verse number 21 is that we serve him doing his will So serving God is a part of the will of God for our lives And then Ephesians 5 18 tells us that the will of God is that we be spiritually controlled By the Spirit himself we'd be spirit filled now listen Those eight elements of the will of God must be actively Relevant and prevalent in your life or you will never know the will of God for your daily life You just never will if you're living in sin You're committing immorality You're not going to find the will of God for your life Because you have sin in your life when the Bible very clearly states this is the will of God for you if you are unwilling to give thanks in all things and You gripe and complain you will not decipher the will of God for your everyday life because you have already broken a direct desire of the Living God If you are unwilling to be submissive to those in authority over you whether it's a school whether it's at work whether it's at At the church whether it's your your husband ladies You will not decipher the will of God for your everyday experience You just won't because you have violated God's will as it has been clearly explained to you in Scripture And so if he gives you clear direction as to what his will is and you refuse to obey it Don't expect to understand What job you are to take what house you are to buy when you are to move or where you are to move or who?

You are to marry Because you will not get clear direction Because you violated what God has already said in his word But if those eight things are prevalent in your life, it's very simple and very easy to decipher What it is God wants you to do Because God will make it very clear to you Because you're living a life that's living in obedience to him See and that's what God wants for his children And so when the Bible says be not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is well, the Bible spells it out for you and The problem with us is is that we just don't know what God's Word says.

What did Christ say? Hosea 4 verse number 6 my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge They just don't know me They're destroyed for lack of knowledge. Look at what Moses said in Deuteronomy 32 Moses said this But Jeshurun or Jerusalem or Israel you grew fat and kicked You are grown fat thick and sleek then you forsook God who made you and scorned the rock of your salvation verse 18 of Deuteronomy 32 You neglected the rock who begot you and forgot the God who gave you birth God is referred to as the rock in first Corinthians 10 verse number 4 Christ is referred to as The rock in Matthew chapter 16 Peter's confession about Christ being the son of the Living God is Looked at as a rock by Christ for upon this rock I will build my church and in Matthew chapter 7 It says those who hear my words and obey them are like those who built their house upon a rock And so the rock is God the rock is his word and what Israel did was forsake the rock Who stood by them and protected them?

And so he says and the Lord saw this and spurned them because of the provocation of his sons and daughters Then he said I will hide my face from them I will see what their end shall be for they are a perverse generation Sons in whom is no faithfulness This is the way talking to Israel about and then he says this verse 28 for they are a nation lacking in counsel and There is no understanding in them Would that they were wise that they understood this that they would discern their future They don't know their future because in the present they live in sin They don't know my will for them in the future because they refuse to obey me in the present It's just that simple.

They spurned the rock of their salvation And so it's very important for us to know what God's Word says and when we obey the Word of God The crisis then we find ourselves in will always be conquered Very important for us to understand that and so if you go back to first Kings chapter 17 and you look at this command God tells them you need to go to Sidon you need to go to Zarephath now, that's very important.

I told you on Sunday that you come tonight. We'll tell you what Zarephath means We know that what Kareth means right Kareth means to remove Okay to cut away to cut down to whittle away and that's what God was doing as he camped at Kareth but now he's gonna move him to Zarephath and Zarephath is from a root word, which means to refine Once God wills away your life now, he refines your life He fine-tunes your life. And so now for the next two two and a half years His life is going to be refined in the town.

That means to refine And so what God does is he takes us to a place to a brook to a place called Kareth In order that he might refine us. He'll remove from us the dross He'll whittle away at our character so that we become the men and women he wants us to be and then he refines us He fine-tunes us so that we can best represent him The only reason you go to Kareth is because God Kareth for you. I just had to say that It had to come out sometime right didn't come out loud. He's not come out there sometime so there it is your only reason you're at the brook called Kareth is because God does care for you and That's why he whittles away at your life He cuts off the dross He removes all that he might remove a relationship from you.

He might remove a job from you He might remove something from you that you hold dear He might remove your physicality He might remove all kinds of things Because there are hindrance to what it is It's keeping you from being all that God needs you to be so you can climb Mount Carmel and Be his representative in a very powerful kind of way and that's what God's doing in the life of Elijah and so He's going to show him now notice what he does.

He gives the command God doesn't tell you everything about your life Okay, God doesn't say okay. This is the will of God for you. You're gonna go to this school You're gonna meet this person. You're gonna marry them once you marry them. You're gonna have six children You're gonna live in this little hut drive this car and then you're gonna move over here then your wife's gonna die and three or kids will be burned in a fire and then you're Going to have to have deal with all those kind of things and then you're gonna remarry somebody But the person you you remarry you're not gonna like anyway, and you're gonna end up in divorce And it's just gonna be one hectic life God doesn't do that for you why because you couldn't handle it You couldn't handle it.

It's like when you drive down the road you have headlights on right I Have to drive home to my house in Fontana Which is 35 miles away when I turn my lights on guess what they don't shine on my house They only shine a few feet in front of me Because that's where I need to go and as they follow the headlights on the road I can see what's in front of me until I eventually get to my destination, which is my house in Fontana 35 miles away But I don't know what's between here and Fontana. I have no idea until the light shines upon what is in front of me That's way God works That's why Jesus said take no thought for tomorrow For each day has enough trouble of its own, and that's all in the context of Matthew 6 when he says be anxious For nothing do not worry about anything.

I'm gonna provide for you. I'm gonna take care of you I love what John Stott says John Stott wrote on that verse in Matthew 6 34 When he said these words worry is a waste. It's a waste of time It's a waste of thought and it's nervous energy We need to learn to live a day at a time for each day has enough trouble of its own So why anticipate them if we do we double them for for object of fear does not materialize We have worried once for nothing if it does materialize We have worried twice instead of once in both cases.

It is foolish worry doubles trouble And that's right So if you're worried about tomorrow and the events tomorrow and then they tomorrow comes and they happen you have doubly worried about something And if you worry about it, and it doesn't take place you worried when you didn't have to worry so who looks foolish You do right? So Jesus says take no thought for tomorrow each day has enough trouble its own trust me in the today The Lord says don't worry worry is a sin by the way do that God says don't do something.

It's because it's bad for you Your parents say don't do something. They're trying to protect you. God says don't do this.

That's because it's bad for you Don't do it. Trust me believe in me Well here was Elijah God moved him to the palace He gives the announcement to the king no rain Except by my word God says okay.

You got to go. So what does he do? He goes does he know where he's going? Nope But he takes him to a brook And there he sits tells him how he's gonna feed him right there. No place else He's got the water of the drink now the brook dries. He didn't have to move into the brook dried Once the brook dried now he has to move, but he doesn't dare move until God moves him because God providing food for him So now God says you got to go You say well, it's easy for him to move now because he's thirsty.

Yeah, but he has to move 100 miles away to Sidon now When he gets there, you got to realize who is the king of Sidon? ETH Baal Who is the father of? Jezebel and Zarephath is eight miles from Sidon God is taking Elijah and moving him into the enemy's home country You see we might not always understand why God moves us where he does and I'm sure Elijah had to think through this thing As he was walking that hundred miles with no water with no food Maybe he ran the hundred miles because he was really thirsty and he wanted to get there quick.

I don't know But as he's thinking I'm going to Sidon. I'm going to Zarephath which is eight miles away That's in enemy territory. They're going to see me They're going to find me out and They're going to kill me But God said this is where you go Because I've already spoken to the widow that's there So she knows you're coming Now think if you're the widow you've never met Elijah and God says Then tells what he says.

I assume he said Elijah the prophets gonna come and when he comes He's gonna ask for you bought it from you and you're to give him a drink and whatever he says you do So she's she's waiting for Elijah to show up she's never seen Elijah but She knows this He is Israel's number one enemy so God has asked her to house a fugitive God has asked her to take care of somebody who is the most wanted man in all of Israel So she has to have enough faith to believe that what God says is true in order for her to follow through on What God says?

So Elijah makes a journey he gets there. He sees the widow collecting sticks He says to her. I need some water. Would you fill a jar with water? so she goes to fill the wall the jar with water and Then he says I'm hungry Could you make me some bread? Could you make me a biscuit? Could you make me something to eat and she says? I've only got enough for me and my son and I'm going to prepare that After I prepare that It's over We're gonna die Because we have no more food This is our last meal And you want me to give you my last meal?

Even The greatest of faith would have a hard time giving away their last meal knowing that she's a widow, right? She has no husband She has one son She must feed him for the name to continue on For the line the legacy to continue on he must stay alive I must feed my son, but who are you to come in here and want my bread, too? I'm gonna give you water now.

You want me to feed you, too? How can I do that once I feed my son once I feed myself we're just gonna curl up and die Because there is no tomorrow for us Because there's no food There's nothing to eat and Elijah says to her Listen It's gonna be okay It's gonna be okay You go You make the bread for me first Sounds a little selfish doesn't it?

Wow Elijah the prophet. What a selfish guy feed me first and then You will have enough flour and enough oil To feed you and your son Now that's very important because she has to do what the Prophet says Now remember Elijah is only doing what God told him to do He's only speaking what God's told him to speak.

He's not being selfish. He's following the direction of the Lord He's being obedient to God He's doing what God wants him to do And in her obedience listen in the midst of her crisis She will conquer it out of her obedience if she disobeys the crisis remains If Elijah doesn't move when God says move He's he has no water And he won't have any ravens to feed him because God only sent the ravens for the time he was going to be there So if he says Lord, I'm not moving.

I'm staying right here. I'm too tired to go 100 miles to Zarephath. That's too far And it's too dangerous I'm not doing that. He doesn't overcome his crisis And he dies So, what does he do he obeys the word of the Lord listen folks the same is true for us God says this is what you need to do You might not understand it You might not get it But God doesn't care whether or not you get it or not He just wants you to obey him He says I need you To forgive your brother And you say I can't I can't do that I've been offended so bad.

I have been hurt so deeply I cannot forgive them and you remain in your crisis. You never conquer it because you will not be obedient to God God says husbands you love your wives as Christ loved the church and you say you know what Lord?

You're not married to my wife because if you were you wouldn't ask me to do that Not knowing That God made your wife and God created her And God knows everything about her And God never says, you know, I know she's a tough woman So you really don't have to love her as I love the church. It's okay If you want to hate her go right ahead I'll understand No, he didn't say that Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for It her You give yourself up for your wife See I've been married to this man for For 30 years.

I'm done I am done. I'm out of here. He does not love me. He does not care for me. He does not Celebrate valentine's day with me He never gives me a card never sends me flowers He never calls me never tells me what he's gonna. I am done. I'm out of here I'm gone and without any biblical reason for divorce you say i'm out and God says you can't do that You gotta stay You have no biblical grounds for divorce You stay in that marriage and you honor that man and you love that man Even though he doesn't meet any of your expectations And you say lord, that's unreasonable You see we don't like to do things that make us uncomfortable We don't like to do things that put us in situations that we don't like But you'll find out that god asks you to do things Out of obedience to him in those kind of situations that once you do that crisis Will be conquered See the biggest problem in your life Is you aren't you glad you came The biggest problem in your life is you it's not your husband.

It's not your wife. It's not your kids. It's not your boss It's not your professor at school The biggest problem in your life is you What keeps us from being all that god wants us to be is not anybody else but me my selfishness my desires My wants my needs and I don't want to do what god's asked me to do and all the while we remain in crisis mode And we wonder why our lives are falling apart It's simply because we are unwilling to obey the word of the lord So we looked at the context went to the command Saw elijah's Capitulation to that command he obeyed He submitted the widow.

She capitulated she submitted She said yes, I will do this and she did And everything is moving smoothly. It's great And that takes us to the compensation What happens three things number one the providence of god?

is properly perceived The providence of god god's providence is the daily working of god that brings about his ultimate goal That represents the sovereign plan of god And now he's able to see the providence of god at work. He's able to see what god's doing In fact, she goes back. She she Has enough flour she has enough oil And for the next two and a half years Every day, she has flour and every day she has oil That's a supernatural miracle of god and someone might ask why can't god just fill up her grain away?

Just fill up her granary so he didn't have to keep doing it every day Can you imagine if that happened what would happen to the widow and elijah? Everybody who was hungry would know the widow's got food We're stealing the food. We're killing the widow. We're taking over a granary. God's not gonna do that to her. He's gonna protect her worse yet Ahab would find out that there's this widow who's housing a fugitive who has this huge granary His name was elijah. He'd find elijah and kill elijah and mount carmel would never happen So god doesn't work that way god works in a way that's going to bring about his ultimate glory And so every day there is a provision every day something supernatural happens.

She goes back She takes the the meal that's there. She takes the oil that's there and she bakes the bread and she has enough Next day same thing. There's more flour. There's more oil. She breaks the bread. There's enough and she elijah and her son eat every day All because they're able now elijah is able to put two and two together and realize this is god working God moved me to the palace that he moved me to kareth Now he moved me to zarephath and he provided for us there. He's always been provided for me all throughout the time And so now he's able to properly perceive The providence of god the working of god in his life You see when you obey god you're able to look back and say wow god Look what you did You're amazing god how you orchestrated all the events to bring about your glory to supply my needs to take care of me my family God you are incredible remember way back in uh, luke's gospel sure you do we spent nine years there, but uh, uh in luke chapter, um uh 22 Christ says uh go and prepare the passover for us that we may eat it and they said to him Where do you want us to prepare it?

And he said to them behold when you have entered the city a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water Follow him into the house that he enters and you shall say to the owner of the house The teacher says to you where is the guest room in which I may eat the passover and my disciples and he will show you a large Large furnished room upper room prepare it there and they departed and found everything Just as he had told them and they prepared the passover Because of their obedience they were able to see the providential working of god in the life in their life If they said lord, we're not going to do that.

We're not going into jerusalem And how are we going to find a guy carrying a picture? There's a million people in jerusalem How are we going to find some guy carrying a picture come on lord You got to be kidding me and then to tell him hey the master has need of a room show us a room He's gonna say. Oh, yeah come to my room. Come on lord. What are you thinking? That's not gonna happen That's not what they said They obeyed the lord and as they obeyed they found the guy with a picture It was not that difficult because Only the women carried the pictures But there would be a man carrying the picture They found the guy And said And follow and follow him.

So they did they found the guy they followed him, you know, you could just see them They're following wherever he goes, you know, they follow this guy right here and he goes through me Ah, would he get there tell the master of the house? My master has need Of a room he will show you a large furnished Upper room you go there Prepare the passover. It's happened exactly as he said That's because they were obedient to the lord god of israel You see when you are obedient to god those kind of things happen.

You're able to properly perceive the providence of god You even look back and say Now I see Remember what the psalmist said psalm Psalm 103 verse number 7 says He made known his ways to moses His acts to the children of israel Moses Understood the ways of god israel did not They just saw the act of god But moses understood the ways of god He made known his ways to moses moses was able to decipher god's Providence and the working out of all things because moses was the man who sought after god who lived for god who honored god and like like uh Elijah there by the brook kareth for many many months Moses was on the backside of a desert for 40 years God had to whittle away a lot in his life took 40 years to do it Like Saul in the arabian desert for three years after his conversion Because god had to teach him before he began to preach the gospel like david on the backside of bethlehem Tending sheep god was preparing him to be the great shepherd of israel God prepared those men Because god always takes you to the backside of somewhere That he can whittle away all that dross Drain all Those bad things That he might make you and mold you to the person you need to be for his glory And then he's going to refine you To take you to zarephath He'll smooth you over Make you shiny for his glory and for his honor So that you can one day climb carmel And speak with authority and represent the true and living god for his glory so the provision of god was Properly perceived i'm sorry the providence of god and number number two the power of god was clearly conceived The power of god was clearly conceived every day the power of god was on display It was an act of god And they would learn to trust him more and more all this was about trust me All this was about believe in me.

All this was about obey me All this was about serve me you serve me you obey me you let me lead you and you will see the power of god On display like you've never seen it before and what keeps us from experience god's power paul would pray in ephesians chapter 1 verses 18 19 and 20 that we would understand the greatness of the power of god as was Exemplified in the resurrection of christ from the dead That same power resides in the people of god that they might be able to accomplish great things for the glory of god And that was paul's prayer that those in ephesus would begin to understand that And here was Elijah and here was this widow the food never Ran out the oil was always there the flower was always there And number three the provision of god Was readily received God provided as he always Does the widow had a need?

She had a need for food And god provided that Elijah had a need He had a need for water food and shelter And god provided that Because god always provides for those Who submit? To his commands you see I wonder if you can say I have Properly perceived the providence of god working daily in my life As to how god has put me where he is today And that you can say Not only that i've clearly conceived the power of god on display Daily in my life in my marriage in my family in my work in my church and on top of all that I have readily received the provision of god because he's supplied all of my needs He's done it for his glory for his honor He is the one who could do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think Jeremiah 33 3 call upon me and I will show you great and mighty things which thou knowest not Okay, I have not seen nor is ear heard nor is it entered into the heart of man the things that god has prepared for those Who love him?

And all those things have happened. Is that the way it is with you and it all comes down to simple Basic obedience That's it There's no magic formula here No magic wand that you wave and all of a sudden the light goes on and whoo There's god. Oh, this is great. Everything smells of god now, and that's not the way it works It's simple obedience But that is not the end of the story think about this elijah is protected eight miles away from sidon in the enemy territory on the mediterranean sea But he's protected He's protected by the power of god He is provided for daily So is the widow She's been obedient to god.

Just don't say wow. Elijah's a great man of god. Look at the widow She's a great woman of god. She obeyed the word of the lord. The word of the lord came to her too She too had to obey and when she did great things began to happen for her and her son Great things are happening everything Is going Great and then It came about after these things that the son of the woman The mistress of the house became sick And this sickness was so severe That there was no breath left in him So she said to elijah, what do I have to do with you?

Oh man of god, what have you done? Wow, everything's going so good Everything is so Wonderful God has supplied and then When everything is just peaches and cream Her son gets sick And he dies wow Thanks a lot elijah If you had never been here This wouldn't have happened And you're right You're right. He'd have died earlier because they would have starved to death Okay But when everything is going hunky dory peaches and cream Always understand that god still has a refining work to do God's never done polishing off his servants Making them just like him And god will stop at nothing To make sure that your character represents his glory that your life Looks like his life That your attitude is shaped like his attitude god will stop at nothing And he will do everything he can to make you just like him So there was a crisis that was conquered because of their obedience And then there came another crisis What do they do How does elijah handle this one?

What does a woman do How does she handle it? You gotta wait till next time Let's pray Father we thank you lord for your word the greatness of it We truly are a blessed people To be able to sit and read about the life of times of elijah the prophet of god Our prayer is that we learn from this man from this woman We learn to listen to what the word of the lord says And obey without question And watch how you work out everything perfectly for your children Because you do you're our father you care for us You protect us You grace us You empower us You do everything That we need and always at the right time You didn't move elijah before the brook was dry You waited till it dried up Then you moved him And you didn't provide for the widow until she had nothing left And then you provided Lord that's how you deal with your servants You take us to a place Where all we can do Is trust you And when we do You provide Thank you In jesus name.

Amen