Fill Me Up

Steve Bowyer

Follow the Right Leader; 1 & 2 Kings • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

2 Kings 4:1–7

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Will it Work?

Sara and I have been here 6 years. We started June 1, 2015.

This was when we were moving, getting settled, ready to hit the ground moving. Time flies.

One of the things we did when we got here was cut the cord on the phone to the house. We have never had a landline here. The line comes to the house, jacks all over the house, but we have never hooked up for our phone.

We have cell phones, Verizon service, we kept our Little Rock numbers b/c so many already had the numbers and it’s less of a deal to have a 10-digit phone number.

Nobody has to remember your number once they put it in their contacts. From then on, find my name, tap on it, my phone rings.

We had had Verizon for years. One of those things that it turn out Verizon is the only cell service that gets decent coverage here.

Others are trying, T-Mobil has an antenna on Mormon Mountain and AT&T has put their equipment on the tower at the fire station.

This is how we communicate. For good or bad, it goes w/ me everywhere.

We kept our Centurylink line to the house for our internet service.

In fact, you know that you need to keep your C-link hooked up when you sell your house b/c it’s a selling point that you have it b/c C-link has no more ports to hook up any more houses. All the ports in all the boxes are full.

When we moved in we brought a second phone line in to help w/ our internet speed. We have a second phone # to the house but never hooked up a phone to it. Combined the lines for a better speed.

A few weeks ago we were having all kinds of trouble w/ our internet service. It was cutting out a lot, mostly in the late afternoon and evening. Frustrating..

Century link sent a tech out to the house to check it. Sitting in his truck on the street he could pull up a report on the quality of our line strength. He saw that and said, “Wow. That’s really a poor quality signal.” No kidding.

Turns out, as the line comes into the house on the west side, early afternoon the line heats up in the sun, as the sun moved, the line cools and contracts, shorts out the signal. That was the old, first phone line.

He hooked us up to the second phone line that was newer and it works great, for MP. We’re getting over 30 mps download speeds now.

When we first got here, we signed up for DirectTV satellite service.

It worked great, unless there was a snow storm or heavy monsoon rain.

A few years ago we decided to cut that cord. We now use HULU streaming service. Save a lot of money.

It works great, except we are dependent on the internet now to get our TV shows.

Again, the frustration of what I just talked about when our internet is going out all the time while we are watching our evening TV shows.

All of this is dependent on AEP. Nothing works if the power goes out.

I discovered that about 45% of their power generation comes from coal. About 35% from nat’l gas and nuclear power. The rest, about 20% comes from renewables.

In some contexts, that’s really important. But, as far as me using all of my devices and our appliances, not so much. I just want to press the power button and have the thing come on.

So, when we have an ice storm, that brings down a tree on a power line in the forest we’re in the dark, literally.

Nothing works. Even if my phone or computer was charged, Verizon and C-link are down so I can’t get a signal.

Sara and I are left to figure it out on our own.

Stoke the fire.

Light a candle.

Read a book or newspaper.

And, if this was a long-term event, like our power grid is attacked by an enemy, we’d have to add a regular community meeting to find out what was going on. Someone, hopefully, could get to Flagstaff or PHX, come back and inform us.

Sara and I take all this for granted. We have tremendous faith that they will all work.

Flip the light switch, the lights come on.

Log on to the internet, there it is.

Turn on the TV, news and entertainment.

Press the power button on our phones, we can talk.

Our faith doesn’t make it happen. The power source, AEP, and the service providers, Verizon, HULU, and C-link, do.

Our faith gives us the reason to push the power buttons to get the resources.

If we had no faith, which our faith in C-link waned a bit, we wouldn’t push the power buttons nor expect the resources.

They’d still be there. We just didn’t believe it so we wouldn’t do it.

And, w/ no faith in them, we’d have to believe in ourselves to get the resources these providers couldn’t provide.

To begin w/, we’d have to light our own fires to be able to see to read to know what is going on.

The question today is, for all the faith we have in these service providers, do we have more or less faith in God to provide what we need?

God’s provision is always there, available whether we believe it or not.

To access it, first we have to turn off our own power button. Which is a little scary b/c we make ourselves vulnerable.

What if there is no other power or provision?

Faith. There is.

Next, we push God’s power button. How? By getting as close to Him as you can. Love Him w/ all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Then, love ea other as yourself.

Love is a verb. Act like it. Act like it b/c you have faith that the power will come on.

It does no good to act like it if you don’t believe God is the only One who can do for you what you need.

Have more faith in God than you do in AEP, Centurylink, Verizon, and HULU for the services you need that will provide for you in the deepest and most significant ways.

If all the power went out, God’s power is still at work.

Next time you flip a light switch or press a power button ask yourself if you have more faith in God’s power than the power behind that switch.

This is the message that comes from 2 Kings 4:1-7.

Israel was in bad shape. It was their own fault. God had warned them. If they would love Him and each other then He’d take care of them. That was the agreement God had w/ Moses.

If they didn’t, then He wouldn’t either.

That’s where there were and it was about to get a lot worse. Babylon was preparing to invade.

But, as bad as it was for the nation, what about the individuals who still had faith? Those who still loved God and looked to him faithfully to provide? What were they supposed to do?

God used a situation w/ a widow and Elisha to help them understand how they were going to survive the most difficult time of their lives.

A Bad Place

2 Kings 4:1–2 NIV

The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.” Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”

You remember the company of prophets. There were 400 that Ahab called on. As a lot, they were pretty useless. But, there would have been a few exceptions among them.

Here’s a case where we don’t know for sure the faith of the husband, he died. But, his widow believed and was asking for God’s help.

In this culture a woman could not work, draw a salary, or own property. She was dependent on the men in her life.

If she were to be divorced, or in this case, widowed, it would leave her in dire straights.

Her options were few. Best case would be to move in w/ a close, male relative like her father or a brother.

If not, she could either beg or become a prostitute. And prostitution was no option for a woman of faith. Everything that went w/ that violated what God asked his ppl to avoid.

It’s hard in our society for a single mom. I was raised by a single mom in the 60s. We had my g-parents who helped.

Even if she goes to work she has to provide child-care. So, a woman has to make enough money to start w/ caring for the kids then make more to live on.

If she is uneducated, unexperienced, untrained; how could she expect to get a job that pays that much even in a culture that allowed it?

She had 2 sons. And another aspect of this culture was if a family could not pay its debts the children were taken as slaves. Either, the one they owed took them as payment. Or, they sold them and repaid their loan.

Another horrible option.

Being a prophet did not pay well. Apparently, they had to borrow money to survive. Then, her husband died. And w/ no way to repay, she was left w/ these distasteful options.

The economy was bad. The infrastructure of the society was crumbling. A single-mom was exposed and vulnerable. Her boys were innocent and on the verge of paying a dear price for their plight.

Israel was falling apart around her. She had fewer resources than she had bad options.

1 jar of oil. Oil was used to cook with and as fuel for their lamps that would light their homes at night.

The jar was small. About to run out. And she had no means of buying any more.

So, she cried out to God thru Elisha for help.

She had no power button to push. All she could do was hope that God’s power was available to provide for her in a way she could not figure out.

It was an impossible situation for her. She was empty in every way imaginable.

Her oil jar was down to its last drops.

Her bed was empty, her husband was gone.

Her heart was empty. Her sons were about t/b taken away.

Her house was about t/b emptied.

Her mind was empty, no ideas how to fix this.

Deeply inside and out she was spent.

What do you do when you’re so spent that you’re out of options and you can’t figure it out on your own?

God wasn’t her last hope, He was her only hope.

And she cried out to Him, thru Elisha, for help.

A Miraculous Provision

2 Kings 4:3–7 NIV

Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

This is a simple, yet profound little miracle.

Go collect jars from all your neighbors. How many? A lot.

This would have hard work for her and her sons. She was a capable woman, but had to convince her neighbors to loan her the jars then she and her sons had to carry them back to her house.

If she knew what was about to happen, would she have stopped w/ only her village?

The instructions she was given were to fill up all the jars you get w/ the oil that’s in the jar you have.

She knew she didn’t have much so, really, how many jars should she collect?

How much faith did she have?

The amount of oil she received was limited only by the number of jars she collected.

The amount of work she did was based on the amount of faith she had.

If you have no faith in AEP, you’ll never flip that switch.

If you have a little faith, you’ll try a few times and hope the lights come on eventually.

W/ a lot of faith, you flip the switch once w/out even thinking about it.

If she had no faith in God, she would collect no jars.

A little faith would lead to a few jars.

A lot of faith led to a lot of jars.

Elisha instructed her to close the door. No one else needed to know about this. If word got out, others would have brought their jars.

But, they didn’t cry out to God for help. They would love the idea of a miracle worker. But God was their Messiah.

Jesus didn’t come to be our Miracle-Worker. He came t/b our Messiah. He limited the miracles he did. But, his message was unlimited b/c he wanted as many as possible to believe the message, in the Messiah, not in the miracles.

The miracles proved the message was true.

And, in this widow’s case, the miracle proved the message that God would provide for those who believe.

Elijah’s and Elisha’s message to Israel was that God is still alive and active in the lives of those who believe even if the majority in the nation do not believe.

Isn’t that the direction we are headed in today?

W/ the oil she received, she kept some to use, she sold the rest, paid her debts, and still had enough left over to live on.

One little, almost empty jar of oil, blessed by God, provided enough oil for her to live on.

Just like the disciples who had one little boy’s little lunch to feed a crowd.

1 Happy Meal, blessed by God, fed thousands.

And, when the widow paid her debt, she redeemed her sons who were destined for a lifetime of slavery.

Jesus, paid our debt and redeemed us from our lifetime of slavery to sin and bad habits that destroy us.

Isaiah was a contemporary of Elijah and Elisha. He wrote about the same time warning Israel of the coming punishment for their disobedience.

He wrote this:

Isaiah 50:10–11 NIV

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment.

We have some nice candles in our house that work okay when the power goes out.

But, why would I rely on candles for light when all I have to do is go to the light switch on the wall to light up my house?

Why would I try to walk by the light that I create on my own when all I have to do is ask God to walk by the light He provides.

It’s so much better.

The only reason I wouldn’t is if I didn’t believe it. If I have no faith in the light switch, I wouldn’t flip it. I’d light my candles.

Faith doesn’t bring the power to my house. My faith in the power opens it up to provide the light that I need.

My neighbors, it’s up to them to do the same thing.

Even if all of my neighbors used candles, I can use the light switch.

Even if no one around me believes God will provide what we need deeply w/in us, I do.

If you will keep those jars coming, God will keep the oil flowing.

And, in the hardest, darkest situations you face, God will provide the light that you need to get thru.

Faith in him even if nobody else has it, will keep the oil flowing and provide what you need.

Applications

Don’t light your own fires

Stop.

You have to turn your power off. That’s scary b/c we can be afraid that we will lose total control if no power comes on to replace it.

But, to access what God offers, we have to surrender what we have.

Why try to light your own candle when God keeps the sun lit and every other star in the universe.

Stop trying on your own. That empties you out.

Let God fill you and light your way.

Offer what little you have

You may think you have so little to offer God that there’s no way He’ll provide for you.

That’s the point.

We have so little. We are that happy meal, or unhappy meal.

Offer what little you have to God. That jar that’s just about to run out.

Your heart is empty, you can’t muster up the love.

Your mind is empty, you can’t think of what to do.

Your house is empty, you’re lonely.

Any solution to the fix you’re in seems impossible.

Take what little you have, present it all to God, he will bless it, multiply it, fill you up and fix your life.

How many jars would you collect?

How much faith do you have?

Easy to say, a lot. But, do you live like your life like you have faith?

When you are empty, keep the jars coming and God will keep filling them for you.

When you stop, he’ll stop. It’s not b/c the oil ran out. It’s b/c you stopped pouring.

Keep pouring letting God fill wherever you need to be filled up.

For all the faith we have in our service providers, do we have more or less faith in God to provide what we need?