Skip to content Seeing God’s Provision Oct 14 · 40 min ...more
October 14, 2022 · 40 min · Knowing God
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Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.
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0:01 Many of you will remember the story of the the boy who loved to give his father expensive, unique gifts for his birthday.0:14 He was thinking, now what can I give dad this year? Because every year, he wanted to come up with something exciting and fancy, unique, and different. And on this particular year, he thought, well,0:27 my my dad loves birds, so let me see if I can find a unique bird. So he went around, and he discovered a very exotic bird that was extremely talented. This0:39 bird could speak 5 different languages. It's a talking bird. It could do acrobatics on 1 leg while singing the yellow rose of Texas.0:50 This bird was a beast. So he packaged the bird up and had it sent to his father who lived in another city, and excitedly, he wanted1:02 to call dad to see what he thought about this unique, exciting, exotic gift. Dad, how did you like my gift?1:14 His dad said it was delicious. Dad missed the point. Something that was to be a long term benefit,1:26 he limited for a short term gain. We are looking at the life of Elijah to discover the supernatural, and I don't want you to miss the point.1:38 I want you to get this. And today, we're going to be introduced to him and learn about a lesson about God's supernatural provision.1:52 The context in which Elijah appears on the scene, he appears in first Kings chapter 17. We're told in verse 1, now Elijah the2:04 Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead. Tishbite, or if you were from there, you'd be called a Tishbite, was the place2:15 Elijah was from. Now we don't know a lot about Elijah. He just kind of breaks in on the scene, and he comes like out of nowhere. His name means Yahweh is my God. That tells us a little bit about his2:27 mother and father who named them. They were obviously people of faith that they would name him that way. Prophets, as Elijah was, showed up because there was a spiritual2:38 issue among God's people that needed to be addressed. Prophets were there to bring God's message in the midst typically of spiritual decline.2:52 While the scenario that brings Elijah on the scene is summarized for us in chapter 16 verses 32 and 33. So he erected an altar, that is3:04 king Ahab, erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah. This Ahab did more to3:15 provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him. So the context that brings Elijah on the scene is idolatry.3:27 Ahab, the king, has begun worshiping Baal, and he brings the rest of Israel to worship Baal with him. He not only worships Baal, he worships Baal's girlfriend,3:39 Asherah, Because Baal and Asherah, kinda like boyfriend and girlfriend, work together to bring fertility to Israel. They look to this3:50 idol to bring fertility to Israel. Let me define an idol again so that you understand its meaning. An idol is an4:01 unauthorized noun, person, place, or thing that you look to to meet the needs in your life. You're looking to it. Idols weren't just something that was4:12 there. It was you looking to that something that was there to do something for you. So in places around the world, people will worship the sun and the moon and the stars and the water and the trees, but they're not just4:24 worshiping that to worshiping that. They're doing that because they're hoping their worship of that thing brings something to them. Now you and I over here, we don't worship those kind of idols. We worship4:36 American idols. We worship people and popularity and and power and prestige and4:47 possessions because we look to it to meet a need. When you look to an unauthorized noun or when you4:58 look to an authorized noun in an unauthorized way, you have an idol. You don't need a tree. They could be an actor, an actress, an entertainer. It could be5:10 your bank account. It could be your house. It could be the people living in your house. When you look to them in an unprescribed way from God, you just created an idol. So before5:22 we go any further, are there any idolaters in the house? It says that idolatry ticked God off. It said it5:34 provoked him. It irritated him. It upset him that they looked to these unauthorized things to meet their needs. So he5:46 calls on Elijah, and he tells Elijah, I want you to go and speak to the king and to the nation. So Elijah comes in verse 1, and he says to Ahab the king, as5:58 the Lord, the God of Israel lives before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word.6:10 Ahab, God told me to tell you heaven's gonna close. No dew, no rain, and it's not gonna be for a day, a month, or a year. It's6:22 gonna be for years. There's gonna be a downturn in the agricultural economy. Okay. Who's your daddy now? Who's your god now?6:34 Let's see what Baal can do now. Let's see what Asherah can do now. God attacks Israel at the place of their idolatry because6:46 they were looking for Baal and Asherah to bring about fertility even in the land. God says, I'm gonna attack your idol, and I'm going to attack6:58 your looking at them to take care of you. Because when I shut heaven down, I don't care how much you pray to Baal and Asherah. They're not gonna be able to grow your7:09 crops, give you your food. You see, in an agricultural environment, if there is no rain, there is no growth. If there is no growth, there is no food. If there is no food, you're gonna be hungry, so you7:21 best be looking at the right source. So to let you know who the real God is and who the God is that you should be worshiping, I'm going to no7:33 longer provide because rain and dew made the provisions in an agricultural environment. So he makes this prediction. So before7:45 we go on, let's get this straight. The idols in your life will be attacked by God so that whatever you are worshiping because it's unauthorized or it's7:56 authorized and you're worshiping it in an unauthorized way, don't be surprised when God shuts it down to let you know that is an idol.8:08 So he removes the provision. Now the word of the Lord comes to Elijah in verse 2 saying, go away from here and turn eastward and hide8:20 yourself at the brook of Cherub, which is in the east of Jordan. It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there. That's our word provide.8:33 He says, go to Cherub. Let me tell you, the Hebrew word for Cherub means to cut off or cut away. So he says, I want you to leave the crowd, cut away from the masses, cut8:45 away from where everybody else is, and I want you to go to this private, secluded, solitude location, and I'm gonna take care of you there. So watch this.8:57 There's gonna be a downturn in the economy, but I got you. I know the job situation looks bad, but I got you. I I I know that the9:08 economics are not in favor of the nation, but Elijah, I got you. But in order for me to have you, you gotta go to the place that I tell you to go. And9:20 that means you're have to be cut off from the environment you're used to being in. So Elijah, go over here and I'm gonna take care of you, and I'm gonna take care of you in 29:32 ways. I'm gonna, first of all, take care of you naturally because there's gonna be at Cherith, a brook of water that's gonna stream down, and you're gonna go down and9:44 you're gonna cup that water. You're gonna put that water in your mouth, and you're gonna drink fresh water in a dry season from a private source that only you know about because I'm only sending9:56 you there as I break you away from the crowd. So I'm gonna use the natural provision of a brook. But I'm a provide for you another way,10:09 supernaturally, because I'm gonna call on the raven catering service to supply you food morning and evening.10:20 They're going to give you bread and meat. That's called a sandwich. They're gonna give you bread and meat morning and evening.10:32 Now that ain't normal. A brook that you can drink from, that's normal. But having birds fly in10:44 with a sandwich twice a day, having waiters fly in on schedule10:57 every day in a drop that ain't normal. Oh, but it's worse than that. You see, in Deuteronomy chapter 14 verses 11 to 14,11:09 God tells his people, don't mess with ravens. They are unclean birds. Deuteronomy 14 11 to 14, ravens are unclean. You may not eat them. You don't mess11:21 with them because they're unclean. But we got God calling on unclean birds to tweedle deedede,11:33 in, to bring in bread and meat twice a day, but they're unclean birds that11:45 Elijah and the rest of Israel were prohibited from dealing with. Well, what does that tell you about God's provision? That ought to tell you that God can use11:57 hell to bring heaven to you. See, you never wanna box God in because while God does not sin and God12:09 does not tell you to sin, he often uses sin and uses sinful people to provide for his people. All throughout the12:20 Bible, God will use a pharaoh to get his people the way he wants them to be. God used Satan tempting Judas to get Jesus to the cross so he could die for our sins. All through the Bible, you12:32 will find God not sinning, telling you not to sin, yet using evil to fulfill his purposes. So God can use an evil employer to put you in the12:44 place he wants you to be. He can use an evil corporation to get you where he wants you to be. So the beautiful thing about God's provision is that you never wanna box him12:56 in, and you don't wanna be so spiritual that you miss him using ravens to address the need in your life. Those are unclean birds. They were prohibited13:07 birds. But God is so God that even the devil has to be under his rule. He says, want you to I want you to go to the brook13:19 because I got the I got some birds that got your back. I got some birds that are gonna cover you at this place called Cherith. Now this ought to free13:31 up a little bit because that means the sky's the limit, the world's the limit. Now who could have predicted how could Elijah think13:44 that God was gonna meet his need this weird way? But he was only gonna do it at Cherith, which means if you're out of the will of God, you miss the ravens. He had to go to13:56 Cherith first because that's where the catering service was located. Don't miss God's will because you're out of God's will because he has separated you in a place you don't wanna be, you'd rather14:08 not be, is isolated. No. He if he's got you in that isolated place, that's because that's where his provision is gonna be located for your current situation. Now14:20 what this means, in order to have a supernatural raven feeding you and have birds listening to God to feed you, that14:32 means that God must be your only source. Your job is not your source. Your bank is not your source. Your employer is not your14:44 source. God is your only source. Everything else is a resource, a mechanism that God14:55 uses, and you must free him up to use whatever resource he wants to use even if it comes from something you wouldn't normally understand it coming15:07 from. So he's there at Sheriff, eating 2 meals a day, drinking some fresh water. I mean, he's he's he's doing okay in a bad15:19 situation. But now we come to verse 7. It happened after a while that the brook dried up15:31 because there was no rain in the land. Things went dry on him. See, just because God is providing15:43 today doesn't mean you can't lose your job tomorrow. Sometimes things dry up. Economics dry up. Income dries up. The Dow goes down. I15:54 mean, he said things went dry on him. But wait a minute. Why did they go dry? Because it wasn't raining. But why wasn't it raining? Because he told Ahab that it's not gonna rain for 3 and a half16:06 years. So the only reason it's not raining is because he had a word from God, but now what's happening in society is affecting him. Because the brook dried up because there's no rain, there's no rain because there was16:16 judgment on the land, and he's the 1 who pronounced the judgment. So now he becomes a recipient of the very judgment everybody else is experiencing. So follow this. When he first gave it,16:28 God provided supernaturally, but now the economy is affecting him. The circumstances in the land are affecting him. The downturn is affecting him, and things16:40 dry up. So don't have anybody tell you, serve the Lord and things don't get dry. Serve the Lord and you don't lose your job. Serve the Lord and your bank account doesn't get drained.16:52 Serve the Lord and things don't break down and dip into the savings that you didn't plan to use for that. Don't let anybody tell you that if you're in God's will, he was in God's will that things don't still dry up. Said17:03 the brook dried up because that was it was judgment on the land, and he lived in the atmosphere of the judgment, so he was affected too. Some of you have been laid off because the company cut back, and you thought, well,17:15 I I belong to Jesus. I I ain't gonna get laid off, and you got laid off. You got a pink slip like everybody else. You went through the same thing that the non believers went through, the people who don't pray, the people17:27 who don't go to church. You went through the same thing because things dried up. Said dried up. Verse 8. Then the word of the Lord came to him. When the word of the Lord17:39 come to him? When things dried up. Okay. The word of the Lord came to him and told him where to go for the catering service, the raven catering service. So he's, you know,17:50 eating sandwiches every day, twice a day. He's drinking his water. All of a sudden, what's happening in society is now affecting him. And now the word of the Lord comes to him again. Okay? Let me18:02 explain something. When God allows things to dry up in your life, it is because he's moving you to a different provider.18:14 When God allows things to dry up in your life, it is because he has a different plan. And because your job is not your source, your boss is not your source, when they let you18:26 go, you go back to your source and let your source tell you where to go next. Because he's taking you to a different place because he lets where you are dry up. So he lets it dry up18:38 even though it's in a context of everybody dry up because he has another place to provide. Don't get all shook up when it's dried up. All God is doing is moving you up to another18:50 location. Oh, but you gotta be close enough to him to hear the word. Said he heard the word again. See? Because he was in19:02 God's will in a dried up situation. So God says to him, go to Zarephath. Arise, verse 9, go to Zarephath, which belongs to19:13 Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. Okay. I have problems with this.19:26 First of all, Zarephath is the Baal belt. You know, this is the Bible belt. That was the Baal belt. That was the center of Baal worship, is19:38 Zerephath in Sidon. So wait a minute now. I was out here in my nice little private place with my private swimming pool. Me I the man19:50 didn't even have to go out to eat. The birds brought it to him. I mean, this is not a bad situation. I'm out here and I'm I'm living nice, and now you want me now to go out in public20:02 to the center of paganism. You want me to go work for a company where folk are cussing every day, and you want me to work for a corporation that doesn't believe in in20:14 you. You want me to be in an environment that doesn't respect you. You want me to go to the bail belt? You want me to go to the secular environment, work for these secular people who don't who that's where you20:26 want me to go? Yeah. Elijah, I want you to go there because there, I got a widow, and she's gonna be your new provider. Okay.20:38 I got a problem with that too. She more broke than me. Okay? I mean, girlfriend has nothing. I20:49 mean, she has nothing to offer me. Widows were the poorest people in the land. You often, all the way through the Bible, see widows and orphans, they're poor. You're gonna see how poor she is. So how are you gonna lead21:01 me to somebody less than me that don't doesn't have what I have to help me? Let me explain something. God21:15 will often test your faith by sending you places you don't prefer to go because it doesn't make sense. How's a widow who's21:27 down her last meal, as you're see him, well, help me. She can't help herself. But God said, I commanded the widow and she's gonna be your new21:38 provider. But he was close enough to God to hear his voice. So he arose, because Elijah's a21:50 man of faith, so he's not gonna just listen to God to say amen. He got up. He arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a woman was there gathering22:02 sticks, and he called out to her and said, please get me a little water in a jar that I may drink. And she was going to get it. He called and said, please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.22:14 So why does he say this to a woman? Well, God said there's gonna be a widow. He comes to the city, he sees a woman. But is this the woman, or are there other women? How do I know that this is the 1? So he says, well,22:23 give me some water, give me some bread to see if this was the 1 that God had to provide for him. Because even though it didn't make sense, he was gonna operate on what God says, so he comes to her because God said, I22:34 already told her to take care of you. So he comes to her and says, would you get me some water? She goes to get him some water because he's a prophet. And oh, by the way, when you go get some water, because he gonna take22:43 care of me with food and bread, so bring me some bread too. Something about them preachers. They always want more. He said, bring me some bread too. But she said,22:56 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'm gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for23:08 me and my son that we may eat it and die. Wait a minute. I'm confused. Didn't didn't we just read God had commanded the woman? God had told the woman.23:20 God said, I've commanded the woman to take care of you. It doesn't sound like she'd been commanded to me. Because Elijah said, bring me some water. She said, okay, I can get you the water and23:32 bring me some bread. Here y'all go again, preachers. You just want more stuff. Okay? I don't have bread. All I have is flour and all I have with the flour is to make a little something for me and my boy to eat our last23:42 meal so we can die. So it doesn't sound like to me, this woman has been commanded. In fact, Elijah says to her in verse 13, do not23:54 fear. So she's scared. I don't see the command because she's scared to death because she's down to last meal. Here's this man asking for stuff. He24:06 says, make me, verse 13, a little breadcake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterwards, you may make 1 for yourself and for your24:18 son. Let them preachers go again. Make 1 for me first, and then you can take care of your family. Okay. Now I know this has been abused. Okay? I24:30 know that this this this can be abused. This woman is down to her last meal. So this woman needs a miracle too because she's planning on dying.24:42 Okay? This is our last meal. So what he's gotta do is get her to move in faith. Okay? She's been24:53 commanded, but she doesn't need she either doesn't know it or is too scared to operate on it. He's gotta get her to move in faith. He tells her, this is what I need you to do. I need you to make me my25:05 bread first, and then and then you take care of you and your son. And when you do, this is what God's going to do. He says, for thus25:17 the Lord God of Israel says, the bowl of flour shall not be exhausted nor the jar of oil be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the25:29 earth. He gives her a promise from God. All this woman has is a promise and a final meal. The question is whether she gonna believe the preacher. But not because25:41 he's a preacher, but because he's saying, thus saith the Lord. I hate it. His name was Reverend Yerbe. Reverend Yerbe was the pastor of the the Baptist church we went to when I was small. When Reverend Yerbe came over, I25:52 hated the fact that he got to pick the chicken first. My mother said, he the preacher. We gotta feed the preacher first. I'm there hungry as I can be. And then he and reverend Yerbe was a big guy,26:04 so it wasn't like 1 piece. Reverend Yerbe would dig in there and get all he wanted, and I was hoping there's a thigh left for me. What was26:16 he challenging her to do? He was challenging her to put God first. He was challenging her to faith because all he had26:28 was a promise from a preacher. But his job was to get her to act in faith for her, because she was gonna be the beneficiary of her26:39 faith. He was gonna be too because she was gonna make a bread cake for him. My primary job, the job of our leadership, is to provoke your faith. Because26:52 until you move in faith, you will not see the supernatural open up. This woman had every reason not to believe because the money was funny. She27:03 had every reason not to believe because she's down to her last meal. But because the word of God through the prophet of God was delivered to her, she now has the choice.27:16 Do I settle for my last meal, or do I believe the word of God? The answer to the question is, do you want the supernatural, or do you wanna live on what you can see and the flower you have in your hand?27:29 So what does the lady do? Verse 15. So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, which was the word of the Lord.27:42 When you are convinced that what comes from this pulpit or any pulpit for that matter is truth from the word of God, now that's the criteria, not not the preacher, but it's truth from the27:54 word of God, the question now is, are you gonna act on it? Because nothing happens for this woman until she moves. She could've been there all day talking about, amen. Praise the Lord. I believe you.28:06 But nothing happened until footwork was done, and she did according to the word of the Lord. And what happened? It says, and she28:18 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 he28:29 spoke through Elijah. So now let me give you the secret of your provision. Elijah, we gotta leave here because this is dried up.28:41 I got a widow. I know I know this doesn't make sense, but I got a widow over there. She doesn't have much, but she gonna take care of you. So you do what I told you. You go over there, and you minister to her.28:53 You create faith in her. And when you create faith in her, she gonna take care of you. But when she takes care of you out of obedience to me because you excited faith in her, I'm a take care of her. Okay.29:05 That went too fast. I want you to go to her. She has a need. It's the same need you have. You invoke faith in her. When you invoke faith in her and29:17 she obeys me by faith, she's gonna meet your need. But because she listened to you in meeting your need based on her exercise of faith, I'm a cover her.29:29 Or to put it into words, the scripture, Luke 6 38, give and it. The thing you give will be given back to you. Pressed down, overflowing. Because it says, and they will return29:41 it back to you. The secret to your provision is to be a provider for somebody who needs what you need so that God can use what they29:53 need, that's what you need to bless them and return it back to you. In other words, you cannot be a miracle receiver unless you're willing to be a miracle30:04 dispenser. That's the problem with people who come and only wanna be blessed, but who don't want to be a blessing. They want a miracle. They don't wanna deliver a miracle, and God is30:16 not interested in folk who don't wanna deliver what they themselves needed. When Hannah wanted a baby, she said, I will give my baby to you. God said, because you've given your baby to me, I'm a give you30:28 a baby. The boy had lunch. He was willing to give his lunch to Jesus so 5000 other people could eat. But because he gave his lust to Jesus so 5000 other people could eat, he had leftovers for him to take home to his30:40 family. You must be the miracle that you want to receive for yourself. And if you're unwilling to do30:52 that, if it's only about you coming to be blessed, which is far cry for what God had in mind when he gave the word blessing, the Bible says in31:03 Proverbs 11 25, he that waters will himself be watered. He says in Ecclesiastes 11 verse 1 that you must cast your bread before you see it. Come back.31:17 And I know what you're saying. I know what some of you are saying. I'm reading your mind. I'm looking at your faces. You're saying, all that preacher wants is my money. That's that's all it's about. He he got all his31:28 fancy way of saying it, but all he want is my money. Interesting. When you go to the grocery store, do you tell the grocer all you want is my money? When you go to the filling31:40 station, do you do do you all all Exxon wants is my money. When you go to a car dealership to buy a car, do you say, all this car dealership wants is my money? No. You don't say that?31:52 Because they have something you need that benefits you. It doesn't bother you to go because what you get, you need to drive, to have gasoline, to32:03 eat food. So you don't have that complaint. The question is, do you need what God has to offer? That's the question. And this is not just about money. It can be32:15 relationships. It can be helping hand. It can be God pricking you to to reach out to somebody who's sad because you need encouragement, so you decide what you know, I need encouragement. So let me find somebody who needs32:26 encouragement. God, lead me to somebody who needs encouragement. So when I encourage them, you'll bring somebody to encourage me, and you'll work this thing around. And so God lead this is not just about tithes and32:35 offerings. It is about God being able to work through you to benefit somebody else so he can come back to you and give you the miracle you've been looking for. It's32:47 the supernatural circle of provision. It is the supernatural circle of God moving when people move in concert with him. He invoked her faith.32:59 If I can ever get you and me and us to move in faith, not talk in faith, but to move in faith, then heaven opens up and God blows your33:11 mind to somebody who makes less than you, can feed you and almost retire at the same time. We got some folks here who are living by faith, who are on bare33:23 incomes, who God has blessed. We have 1 sister who she just lived on subsistence. She had 3 kids. She's a widow, and God brought a man who gave her his house.33:35 You never know how God's gonna come at you. You never know where it's gonna come from, but you'll never see it. If he sees idolatry, you'll see a famine in the land. And it may not be a famine of money. It could be a33:46 famine of peace. It could be a famine of confidence. It could be a famine of of stability. It could be a there are all kind of famines. Because you are doing what the land does,33:58 worshiping another god and unauthorized worship. So the question on the floor is who's your source? Oh,34:10 you should feel free right now. Because see, once you adopt God as your source, nobody now owns you. You can see no nobody owns you now. Nobody owns you.34:22 Uh-uh. You don't owe me. You don't owe me. Because you were never my source. You happen to be the resource God is using right now. So if the economy34:34 shuts down, that was not my source. If the person I was depending on to take care of me walks away from me, you were never my source. If my stability is not a you were never my34:46 source. As long as God is in heaven, all he did was dry me up to move me to someplace else. That means you can't be threatened. You can't34:58 be owned. You can't be nobody go, well, well, if you don't do this like I want you to do this, I'm a take this. Hey. Hey. It's35:09 wonderful not to be owned. A man 1 day was lost in a desert. It was blazing35:21 hot. Blazing hot. He was lost. And if he didn't get some water soon, he was gonna die of thirst, die of dehydration. So he's stammering just 135:33 step at a time, knowing he wouldn't make it much further. Then in the distance, he saw a little shack. Oh, at least I can get out of the sun if I can make it to the shack.35:46 He walks inside the shack. He looks over to the side, and there's a pump, a pump connected to a well. Oh my.35:57 Maybe I can get some water. Pumps and pumps and pumps. Nothing is coming up. He trying. He trying. He trying. Nothing is coming up. Oh,36:09 I'm so disappointed. I'm dying. And then he saw it. A little over here on the side was a glass of water, just 1 glass36:21 of water with a sign under it. The sign said, use this water to prime the pump, and then fill it up again for the next36:33 traveler. Now he's on the horns of a dilemma, because at least if I drink the water, I can make it another day. But if I use this water to prime this pump and36:45 this pump don't prime, I not only have the water, I don't have anything here, and I'm gonna die. Do I take the risk based on the36:56 word that was written underneath the glass to prime the pump? Or do I take this water and just satisfy myself37:08 for the moment? You are that man. I am that man. You can say, I'm a take what I have, whatever the category37:20 is, and I'm a use it for me, get as much of it out as I can, or I'm gonna believe the word. Prime the pump. He primed37:32 the pump, the pump gushed with water, and he lived for many days because he believed the word. Do you believe the word, or do you just come37:44 to church? 1 closing comment that you don't wanna miss. Because I know what some of you are thinking.37:56 You're thinking that's Old Testament. That's in the Old Testament. I don't believe that works today. I don't believe that principle applies today. So let me close by quoting you Luke 4 verse38:07 24. When Jesus is rejected in his own hometown, he says, truly, I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his own hometown. Talking about himself. But I say to38:19 you the truth. There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the skies were shut up for 3 years and 6 months when a great famine came over all the38:31 land. And yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow. Girlfriend, it38:42 made it from the Old Testament all the way to the New Testament with a new prophet whose name is Jesus. And Jesus says, let me reach back to the old prophet.38:54 He said there were a whole lot of widows in Israel, but God sent her the only 1. And the 1 he sent her to didn't even go to church. She was the widow of Zarephus. She was a Gentile.39:06 But because she was willing to act in faith, she was the only 1 who got the miracle even though there were a lot of widows who could have gotten the miracle, but they were living as idols. But because39:18 this 1 foreign woman was willing to believe the prophet, A greater than Elijah is here. I am the prophet. So the question on the floor is, are you gonna be thatShow more
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