Well, good morning, church family, I hope you're excited and ready for the best two hours of your life. Here we go. Those of you who are home folk, you're like, mmmmm, no I'm just kidding. Not really.  Before we jump into the message this morning, we need to have a little family meeting here for a minute, I don't know about you, but growing up in my house, if my dad said, Hey, we're about to have a family meeting, somebody might not come out alive.  It's how it normally worked in my house, it's nothing like that. But there are a few things that I just need to mention to you today. Need to kind of speak over us today and just give you some info.  Number one, if you're a normal church folk here, you will know that Peter Abungu was supposed to be with us this morning.  I got good news and bad news in that the bad news is he's not with us. Um, the good news is that he is going to be with us.  He is our partner in Kenya, he's going to be with us on May the 16th, he came out of a pretty crazy bout of COVID, he's fine, but he couldn't test negative to get out of the country. So, had to delay that a little bit. That's bad news. The good news is, that we have another couple of weeks to hit our goal. We have another couple of weeks for God to plant in our hearts to give towards the Kenya Resource Center, our goal is to begin to move in a direction to plant a church, plant a center, just to help relief the physical and the spiritual needs to give girls resources and just to see a generation impact in Kenya, and we want to be able to get into that process. So, some of you; you've already given and praise God, thank you for that we are really close to our goal. For some of you, man, I just want to ask you to give towards that program, I promise you, God is going to bless it. A little side note, I had a family this week just felt it pressed into their minds and hearts that they want to match every gift coming in the next two weeks. So, every gift that is given up to $50,000, there's a gift that is already going to match what that is. So maybe that'll push you into going yeah, I'm in and I want to do that. That's the first thing. The second thing of our family meeting today is our COVID protocols. I don't know if you've been paying attention lately, but our governor has released a lot of the restrictions. But we want to find the right balance of worshiping the Lord, inviting everybody we can into the church of God but also being a good neighbor. So, we're stepping through a process of getting back to what normal looks like, to begin to see what things can look like over the summer and on into that. We are doing away with reservations after the month of April praise to the Holy God, right?

Thank you, Jesus. Not that we don't like the responsibility of reservations, but boy, it's a pain. So, we're going to be doing away with them after April we feel like with summer and with the amount of people who are being vaccinated, and they have gone through the virus already. And how much you guys just live at the beach in the summer, just to be honest, that we'll probably be okay through summertime and back to fall. We're going to blow it out in the fall. So, hope you're here for that.  Third thing of our family meeting I told you I got some stuff today we got to deal with business is our holy land trip. Our holy land trip that we had to bump from last December in January because I mean, really the world fell apart is going to be back on for this year. We're leaving on the night of the 26th of December for 10 days. And I can just say this, you need to go. You need to go and watch the Bible come alive walk where Jesus walked, pray where Jesus is we're going to go spend time just worshiping together, Melissa and I are excited to host you guys to be on this journey and just to open up the Bible and stand where they stood. And let's just talk about it. So, there's info on the app that tells you all about it. We do have already 60 people who are in and who are going.  There are limited seats in this thing, limited availability, so jump in, we want you to go.  And then here's number four and I promise I'm done. We're going to get into the word.  Number four is how about them 29 baptisms last week? Hey, man, come on. Oh, so good. So good. Thanks for not just giving that pity clap. I mean, that was a good one. All right. I appreciate that. Um, Such a great, great time last week. And here's what I want to say. We're not done yet. I think you saw a few more today. There are more in the hopper life change is happening. God is good. And we're going to serve Him. Let's pray. We're getting into the word. Lord, we love you. We thank you today, we're honored to be called your children. God, speak to us, from your holy word today. It's in your name. Amen. Amen. 

Well, if you're a regular here at Burnt Hickory, you'll know that one of my favorite personal things to do in the Bible is to find those little moments that nobody ever talks about, to find those little stories that leads into the big stories.  To find those little bitty messages that we skip over to get to those that we grew up with looking at the flannel board.  I love watching how God takes people, how uses people, how the offerings of people and the gifts of people in these moments in people's lives and I love watching how God blesses that.  How that one little step sometimes can just cause God to erupt, and to do something monumental, that for generations, we see the result of.  I love looking at the little nuances and those little messages.  And this morning, we're going to do just that. And we're going to look at a widow lady in the Old Testament, that if I was to kind of say her name, you wouldn't think anything of it. But when I say the result of what she did, you would go, Oh, now I know where this is going. Because I want us to see an incredible point this morning. And here's what I want us to see. I want us to see, that God when He calls us to do something; when He asks something of us when He expects something out of us. A lot of the times when we take that one step of obedience, we never know how exponential God is going to make it. You see a lot of us we walk in here today thinking that I really have nothing to offer.  That nothing that I can do can make a difference. Nothing that I can say can make a difference. Nothing that can ever give God can make a difference. But this morning's story is going to show us from Scripture, what happens when we simply just go, God, this is all I have and God goes, that's all I need. That's all I need. So, here's the principle and then we're going to get into the message. The principle is this. We never know how one act of obedience will impact eternity. We never know. We never know. And here's what that means. We never know. When we finally say yes to God, what God will do when he takes that from us, and He blesses it.

And I can hear you, I know what the rooms like.  Oh, we've heard it. We know Matt, pastors say this forever. We've been hearing this forever. But no, listen, it's true. You never know when you make an investment into the kingdom of God, what that investment is going to do. My favorite way to tell this is, by telling a story. And it's actually a sequence of events that God absolutely blew up and it's almost unbelievable. And it's a story about a man named Edward Kimball. Now Edward Kimball is a man that is just like me, just like a lot of you guys. He was a church guy. He loved the Lord. And one day in 1855, God got a hold of Edward Kimball's heart, and really did something in a message from his pastor. And he stood up at the end of the church, he walked up to the pastor, and he said something that it takes a lot of faith to say.  He said, "Pastor, I don't know what it is that God is calling me to do, but God is calling me to do something. What needs to be done in this church?"  Now, when you ask a pastor, what needs to be done in the church, you better be ready to get one of those assignments, right? You better be ready to get one of those things that nobody else wants to do. Well, all of a sudden, the pastor says, "I know exactly what you can do, Kimball. You can lead the high school boys’ group. You can lead the high school boys’ group; we've had four or five other leaders and they've all quit. It is the unruliest group of boys that we have ever seen. In fact, they have run people off from this church. I need somebody in that group."  He says, "Well, okay, if that's what God wants me to do. I'm in." So, Kimball makes an investment at that moment, and he's asked God, God, I need you to bless this, and I want to do this, and he calls upon God and says, Hey, God, I'm going to give this everything I have and I'm going to invest in them. I'm going to speak to them and I'm going to prepare for them and every Sunday after Sunday, after Sunday, he walks in to lead this group and these jokers want nothing to do with him. So, he decides, hey, I got to do something different. So, he decides I'm going to start visiting them one on one at some point during the week. Well, there was one particular kid in the crowd that was the ringleader of all of them. And this kid didn't even want to be a church. This kid was only at church because he came to live with his uncle.  And the condition to live with his uncle and have a job was that this kid had to go to church on Sunday mornings. Amen. Anybody grew up in that house, right? Well, Kimball decided one day, but he knew that this kid didn't want anything to do with it. So, he decided to go visit him at his job, at his uncle's shoe shop in Boston. So, Kimball loaded up that day, took the bus into town and sat on the curb during a break with this unruly kid and looked this kid square in the eyes and presented the gospel of Jesus, how much Christ loves him how much He wants to change him and how much He wants to offer him life. And lo and behold, that day sitting on the curb in Boston, 1855, a little kid by the name of Dwight L. Moody met Jesus.  He met Jesus that day. Kimball a nobody from Boston led Dwight L. Moody to the Lord that day sitting on this curb and his life was changed. It absolutely in a moment changed. He devoted himself to the cause of Christ and it changed him forever. If we know anything about Dwight L. Moody, from that point forward, he begins to rely on who God was. He began to preach the gospel; he began to be one of the most gifted evangelists that have ever walked on this planet. And most estimates will tell you that he spoke to over 10 million people in person during the life of his ministry.  With 1000s upon hundreds of 1000s giving their life to Christ in America, as well as in Britain. 

Well one night, Moody was preaching at one of his crusades, and a guy by the name of Wilbur Chapman walked the aisle that night and gave his life to Christ and asked to speak to Moody.  That night Wilbur Chapman looked at D.L.  Moody and said, I would love to walk beside you. I'd love to learn everything from you. Can I come beside you and your ministry? And Moody was like well sure. Chapman began to do that for a year and a half until he broke off on his own and began to preach at 10 revivals all across the Midwest. Well, something happened in one of Chapman's meetings one night, and a professional baseball player that had the night off that night decided I got nothing to do. I'm in a town that I don't live in. What am I going to go do? There's not Netflix, right? This is long time ago. So, he decides to go to one of these meetings that he never said he was going to go to.  A guy by the name of Billy Sunday that night stepped into the meeting. And Billy Sunday heard the incredible loving gospel of Jesus that night and on the spot gave his life to Jesus that night. He met Jesus but not only met Jesus, but Jesus called him out of his profession that night. He walked over to his coach's room, knocked on the door, handed him his uniform and said God has called me on a different path. Billy Sunday spent the next six months in Chapman's ministry until Chapman was called out to the pastorate and Sunday took over the evangelistic ministry to which one night and a crowd of 1000s of people a guy by the name of Mordecai Ham walks in.  Now Mordecai was a little weird. He's about six foot six tall, about 110 pounds and he just looked weird. Mordecai didn't smile a lot. He was a scholarly fella. And something got a hold of Mordecai's heart that night. And as you've seen in the story so far, God spoke to him and Mordecai found himself just hanging out at the end of this meeting and Sunday looked at him in the face. He said, "Gentleman, is there something you need to do tonight?" And Mordecai looked at him and said, " I don't know." And Sunday said, "Well, I do, you need to give your life to Jesus.  Mordecai Ham met Jesus that night and became a sidekick of Billy Sunday for about the next year of his life. And then Mordecai kind of broke off and began to do a little tent revival tour in the southeast until one night he pulls into this one-horse town called Charlotte, North Carolina.  He pitched his tent.  He began to preach that night and invite people to come, and these four unruly teenagers decided that afternoon that they didn't like what was happening in their town. So, they were going to go to the meeting, and they were just going to cause a ruckus. They were going to just bring the whole thing down that night.  Mordecai preached and preached and preached and all of a sudden, he noticed these guys trying to distract him, but he was going to have none of it and at the end of the meeting, he asked these four boys to come talk to him. And he gave them a little rebuke in the name of Holy Spirit, right? Mordecai gave these guys a little talking to afterwards to which they didn't like, but one of them by the name of Billy Frank felt something was going on his spirit.  He didn't want to tell his friends, so he came back the next night and Billy Frank during the last song of this evangelistic meeting got him, Billy Frank and on the 17th verse of, "Just as I am", gave his life to Jesus. Well, Billy Frank, is how he was known by his family, that’s his two first names, but the rest of us know this guy by the name of Billy Graham. Billy Graham, that night, gave his life to Jesus. And 2.2 billion people over the course of Billy Graham's life heard about the saving grace of Jesus.  Jesus, why? Because Edward Kimball sat on a curb with one boy, with one boy.  I hope you're feeling the bigness of what just happened here. Let this soak in just for a minute. Because I think all of us in this room, we don't look at ourselves as a Billy Graham as a whoever of a hero, but all of us have been called to make the one step of obedience that God has called us to act.

And I don't know what your obedience is. I don't know what God has called you to give. I don't know what it is that God is saying. You need to do this. Yours might not be teenage boys, I don't know. But I do know this. When we say yes. When we say here I am, Lord. When we offer God all that we are. We never know what can happen to questions I just want you to ask, with that being the context this morning.  Number one, is what's holding me back? What is it? The second one is What is it God that I just need to say, God, here it is. Here it is. Here it is Lord. 1 Kings chapter 17. That's where we're going to be this morning. I love the Book of Kings, because it's one of those weird books in the Old Testament that talks about God's people, Israel. And as you're finding it, let me just give you a little bit of background on what this book is about. It's about Kings. All right? I mean, it's really hard and in Greek the word King means King. I mean, it's just what it is all the time. And the book of 1 Kings is a description of these men that led Israel when God didn't even really want them to have a king.  If you remember right, from history, God was the King of the Jews, He was their king, but they asked and they begged so much that finally God relented and said, Okay, I get it. You want to be like everybody else.  Does that sound normal?  I'll give you a king. Well, they started with Solomon and went to Saul, and then to David, then to Solomon, and they fast forwarded through some others. But this morning's story checks in to a king by the name of King Ahab. Now, King Ahab is an incredibly evil king. In fact, in chapter 16:30, it says this, "Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the sight of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam" that was another king, "son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, the king of the Sidonians, and he began to serve Baal and worship him.  He set up an altar for Baal in the Temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him."  Now that is not how you want your name to be remembered in a biographical sketch at all.  Real quickly, Ahab was so bad, he out sinned Jeroboam. Now Jeroboam was so bad that it split the kingdom and his whole family was banished from God's presence. And that's pretty bad. And because Ahab was so bad, the whole country was so bad, because so go the leader, so go the country.  Amen?  King Ahab is incredibly, incredibly, incredibly evil. So, God begins to send prophets to speak on behalf of God, to be the voice piece of God, to give warning to speak wisdom to say, hey, you are going to suffer consequences. And this morning, I not only want to step into the life of King Ahab, but we step into a prophet by the name of Elijah.  Now, Elijah is one of my favorite prophets in all of the Old Testament, because Elijah is called to come to the most evil king during one of the worst evil times in the lives of all of God's people. And listen, Elijah is incredible because we don't have anything written by Elijah. We don't have a book that's in his name, or we don't have any huge messages that he gave, but Elijah's life spoke so loudly of who God is. In fact, there's 14 miracles in the Old Testament that are attributed to Elijah. Elijah never died; he was taken up by a chariot into heaven. And that's pretty monumental. I would say, Elijah, we find him again, in the New Testament, at the Mount of Transfiguration.  I believe that we're going to find him as one of the people who returns with Christ, when he comes back to take us home.  The Jews for 1000s of years, looked at Elijah, praised Elijah, brought Elijah's name up. And eventually it was so true that any other prophet that came, anybody that ever talked about God, even Jesus was called, is this guy Elijah, he was that popular. But at this moment, he stands in front of King Ahab that we're about to see and he's given King Ahab this message of, hey, you better turn because, listen, God is about to unleash his discipline on you.

He's about to unleash a monumental moment on you. And Elijah stands in front of Ahab and he's like, Look, this god Baal that you're worshipping, he is not God. Jehovah is God, don't worship Baal. We're going to see this next week when we jump back into the next part of the story. But then he stands in front of him, and he gives him this message that a drought is coming, but it's going to turn the people back to God.  Now, Elijah's incredible, alright?  We're going to see that next week. But what I want us to see this week is not Billy Graham. I want us to see Edward Kimball. Because here's the question.  How did Elijah get a start?  I'm glad you ask questions, because I want to answer it.  1 Kings 17 says this. "Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe."  I don't know why that's funny, but it is, “in Gilead, said to King Ahab," this is the properties coming for the king, "As the Lord the God of Israel lives, whom I serve, there will be neither do nor rain in the next few years, except at my word. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, and said, 'Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine east of the Jordan.  You will drink from the brook,' is a creek in the south, 'and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.' So, he did what the Lord had told him.  He went to Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan and stayed there.  The Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening and he drank from the brook." And I love this thing. Why?  Because he stands in front of King Ahab, and he's like, you better turn because this is what is coming. And then all of a sudden God goes, you better get out of there. You better get out of there; he's going to kill you. And that's totally what happened here, leads him out into the wilderness, and then God begins to send these birds to feed Elijah. Now the cool part about this is that a raven is an unclean animal in the Old Testament.  God uses even the unclean things in our mind to bring glory to Himself. We see it happening right here. So, for three and a half years, he spends this time out in the wilderness.  Matt, how do you know it's three and a half years? Well, in Luke chapter 4, and in James chapter 5, it tells us, it's three and a half years. Look at verse 12. "Sometime later, the book dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: 'Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there.  I have directed a widow there.' now don't miss this. 'I directed a widow there to supply you with food.' So, we went to Zarephath.  When he came to the town gate a widow was gathering sticks.  He called to her and asked, 'Would you bring me a little jar of water so that I may have a drink?' As she was going to get it? He called out again," I love this. "And bring me please a piece of bread.  She replied, 'As surely as your God lives.  I don't have any bread-only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug."  And listen to the rawness of this next sentence.  "I'm going to gather a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son that we may eat it and die." What just happened?  Elijah goes to the wilderness, the brook dries up God says Hey, I need you to go back to the city and a widow is going to take care of you. He does.  He packs up, he walks back into the city.  He sees the widow, he's like, Hey, lady, I need a drink water. I'm dying here. I've got nothing. I got no food, I got no drink, I need substance. And she looks back at him and says, Hey, I'll try to give you some water, but I've got nothing else. Then what does he do to where he says, Hey, I need you to do this. God needs you to do this. 

You know, how incredible is it that this unlikely candidate of a lady, she wasn't even a Jew, I might add, she was a Gentile, she was not a God follower.  She steps up, looks at what she has, hears a voice of the Lord say, here it is. And she gives it. She gives it this poor distressed widow how incredible is it, the object lesson of this story is that we while we don't think we have much to offer, we always have something to offer. We always do. This reminds me the account of Jesus in Luke chapter 21, when he's giving the story of the widow lady, it says this in Luke 21. It says, "As Jesus looked up, He saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury," the offering plate, right?  "He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. "Truly, I tell you, he said. This poor widow has put in more than all of the others." Verse 4, "All of these people gave gifts out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on."  See Elijah's widow. She was going home to feed her kid, the last meal. That's it. The last one. Now look, we don't know this kind of poverty. We don't. Now I get it. I mean, it's like what 11:52 right now, and I get it. We're hungry. Right? Almost hangry. But we're not starving to death. Some of you have been in other countries when you've seen this? When literally, a meal is on the table, they don't know where the next one is. We don't know this. But that's the spot this lady was in.  Three and a half years, no water, three and a half years, no food, she didn't even have proper wood to cook a meal on she's out gathering sticks at this point to basically come home, look at her son in the eyes and go, Hey, I've got nothing else to give you. We're going to die. Watch what happens after Elijah says to give it.  Verse 13, "Elijah said to her, don't be afraid."  Now that's a little bit of an understatement. I mean, really, don't be afraid. "Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me and then make something for yourself and your son."  Verse 14, "for this is what the Lord God of Israel says." Don't miss this on you might want to highlight this one, "the jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the Lord God sends rain on the land of Israel."  Keep going, verse 15.  "She went away and did as Elijah had told her.  So, there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family."  Verse 16, another highlighter.  "For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah."

I don't know if you noticed what just happened right here. But right in this moment, when God calls you to give something at the moment you say yes, there is no worry that your well will ever run dry. There's none. You say Matt, how irresponsible it is right, in American thinking it is irresponsible to give away the last meal that I have and not feed my kid. But it is not irresponsible when you have the Way maker, the Miracle worker, the One that has provided, has created, has given us everything for all times. That's what happened in this lady's life.  In verse 15 she gave it all.  She didn't look at profit and go, Hey, when this thing hits halfway up, I'll put a little tap on it. And when I think I have enough, I'll start tipping God a little bit of my time and my stuff and my priorities.  No, she knew God called her to do something and she knew the provisions from God would follow. That's faith. That's what God has called us to.  You see, here's the deal.  Can I just be honest with us?  When I see this story, I don't think we give of ourselves a whole lot. I really don't. I mean yeah, we're Sunday morning people, we might even throw Wednesday in there if there's no other sports going on. And we might even throw in maybe a tithe here or maybe even a mission trip if I got an extra bonus week off this year, or I might even serve at VBX and if they have to have me do something in the students, I might do it. This lady said, No, no, God has called me in my answer is yes, the yes is on the table. I don't know the consequences. I don't know the consequences.  You see, when you read the story of Elijah, he gets all the credit. But it was the widow lady’s obedience that kept him alive. The text even implies that Elijah stays with her for a while. I don't know what the while is. But it's a while, so long as their son dies later on. And in verse 22, Elijah brings her son back to life. When you keep pressing into chapter 18, in the whole nation, we're going to see this next week spoiler alert when the whole nation turns back to God. Yeah, Elijah did this. But it was the widow who positioned him to do it. Do you see this? It's not about the people that we think gets credit. It is about us being who God has called us to be. And He's called us all to be something different, and to give something different, and to operate something different. And all He expects of us is not to be somebody else or give like somebody else.  He wants us to give who we are, who He's created us to be this poor, depressed widow gave the necessary provisions for an entire nation to turn back to God. Do you know what giving are all does? It's four things really. Real quick, number one, giving our all; it grows our faith. It grows our faith. You see, it takes no faith just to offer God the leftover time and the leftover treasures in my life.  That takes no faith. I mean, I'll do that for the Red Cross. But I want you to see when we give our all, look at this lady's growth. Look at verse 12. What does she say?  "As surely as the Lord your God lives," right? That's what she said back to Elijah, the first time she meets him she doesn't know the Lord at this point. Surely as the Lord your God lives, you fast forward down to verse 24.  Watch the transformation after she gives. "The woman said to Elijah, 'Now, I know that you are a man of God, and that the word," catch this "of the Lord, from your mouth is true. Notice the difference. The first one is the Lord your God. That's where we're at when we don't give. That's where we're at. When we don't offer ourselves. That's where we're at. When we don't serve. We're looking at somebody else's faith, somebody else's gifts, somebody else's moving in the kingdom of God, but the moment we start to be obedient to God, it changes from your God to what, The God.  Subtle, but huge difference right here. Some of you are stuck in the Lord your God stage.

You're stuck there. And until you decide to give your time, give your service, give your hearts you're never going to get out of the Lord your God and go into the Lord the God. It's what it says I get people all the time, Matt, I'm just not hearing from God. I just don't, what is wrong with me? I'm not hearing from God. Here's my number one explanation. What are you holding back from Him?  Matt, I'm not hearing from God. 99% of time, it's because I'm holding a piece of my heart from Him.  99%. You see when we give it takes our faith on an exponential journey. When we give our hearts number two, when we give it shows God my real priority. And don't take this for just money, because I'm not even talking about money. Yeah, that's part of the deal and our finances, but I'm just talking about our hearts. I mean, we can sing about it, we can talk about it all we want to, but rest assured your treasure is identified by your actions and what we offer ourselves to. That's your treasures. Give me one week with you. One week with your family, one week looking at who you are, and I will tell you very quickly what your priorities are. Why?  Because your actions always follow them. Always.  This widow she could have held on to that last little bit, but she knew that she met God. And God told her, just offer it. Isn't this the Matthew 6 principle? Listen to what Jesus said in verse 19, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal." Verse 21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  You see this kind of giving ourselves is not the kind of giving that our me first Christianity teaches.  This kind of giving says Hey, it doesn't make sense. It's not even going to make sense on the balance sheet of my life, but I need to do it and here's what I want to say. Families, some families in this church, you need to go home this week and have a priority family meeting and say, where are we? Are our hearts in our lives and our actions, are they devoted to the cause of Christ? Or are we just giving Him the leftovers? Because here's what happens when we give leftovers, we don't see the power of God move in our lives. It doesn't show that he's a priority in my life. Listen, some of you need to confess that you have gotten caught in the trappings of the world. And as a result, you have guarded your heart from God.  You have been okay at keeping God at arm's length distance, and you are not feeling the presence and the power of God in your life. Because you have not gotten to the point where you have made him a priority. Some of you students, you need to look your parents in the face and say that God is not calling me to live your dream mom and dad.  He's calling me to this. And I'm sorry, I'm not going to end up at that place or be that thing. But this is what God wants me to do. Some of your college students, you just need to go give your lives to Jesus, however, he is calling you. Some of you dads, you need to take control of the leadership of your home and make God a priority. Make Him the priority. Even, listen to me, even if it doesn't make sense. That's what this story shows, right? When God calls us, He always provides for us. He always gives for us. Number three; when we give our all, it paves the way for others, it paves the way for others.

Quite simply, the story of Elijah, he gets the credit, but who kept Him alive because they gave him a miraculous faith gift? The widow, the widow.  You see, when we give, yeah, it physically feeds and resources and keeps people alive. But spiritually, when we step out in faith and offer what is hard for us. It leads other people to see that God is real.  You see, can I tell you that it's amazing to me that the countries that the gospel is exploding in right now are the countries where you have to pay something to follow it. The countries where it's just easy, because we just pop in and out when we want to are the countries that are getting deeper and deeper and deeper in despair. You see when we give our all it paves the way for others, fast forward one chapter 18:39 it says, "When all the people saw this, they fell on their face on the ground, and they cried out, 'The Lord- He is God. Yes, he is Lord, He is God." Yes, he is Lord.  Why? The Prophet spoke, but the widow gave. She gave, she gave.  Here's number four; when we give our all, it positions me to hear God's voice. It positions me to hear God's voice. Here's what I want to say about that. There's some of you. You have not heard the clear voice of God in your life for maybe decades. Maybe.

Have you ever had that friend where every time you get together, they're always saying things like, man, I just feel like the Lord is just saying this to me? I just feel like the Lord is just pushing me to do this. Don't they get annoying sometimes? Do you know why they get annoying? Because secretly inside of us, as a believer, that's where I want to be. And there's so many of us that aren't in that position, because we've held God off at arm's length and we're expecting to live a nominal Christian life, but yet have the full blessing of God over us. You see, when we give our all, it positions us and our heart to be so in sync with the Lord, that I'm no longer worried about doing the will of God because I'm walking in his presence every day. I'm feasting on his word every day; he's bringing things back into my mind every day. And so, I'm not tiptoeing around worrying. Am I going to please Him with this?  Am I not going to please Him with this? Am I going to do this? And is it going to give Him glory? I don't have to worry about that anymore. Why? Because I know that I'm walking with the King, because I've offered Him what is my treasure, which is my heart.  Which is my heart. And some of you know what I'm talking about. When I say hearing the voice of the Lord, you remember that camp, you remember that retreat? You remember that one service. You remember that moment where God just did a major work in your life. Listen to me, that does not have to be a onetime event. That can be an everyday event that can be a total fellowship with God at every moment of your life, because you can hear God's voice, but you got to be willing to open up even those hidden parts of your heart.  And say God, I know it's hard and I know it doesn't make sense. But here it is. Here it is.  This is what the widow from Zeraphath did.  You say, God, if you want it, hear it is, and watch what happens.  Her jug never ran dry.

If you're afraid, you can't be fearful and faithful in the same moment. What's God asking you to give? What's God calling you to open up your soul and go God, here it is. I'm giving it to You.  You say Matt, is this lady that big of a deal? Maybe?  Maybe not. I don't know. I mean, the Jews talked about Elijah a lot, right? Over and over and over. But what about this lady?  The Jews never said anything about this lady? No, they didn't. But Jesus did. Catch this, Luke chapter 4:25 look at what Jesus said, "I assure you that there were many widows in Israel and Elijah's time when the sky was shut for three and a half years, and there was a severe famine in the land.  Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow, in Zarephath, in the region of Sidon."  1000 years later, the gift of this poor lady was recalled by the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. And here's what I know. He'll recall your heart being given to him. Your life being given to Him?

Here's the last principle, in the kingdom of God, big things come from small beginnings. Don't get trapped in thinking that you have nothing to offer.  Because you do. You do. You do.  So, what is it? Here's the invitation today. As we worship together, do you need to make a step today to say God, here's this part of me I've never given you. Or maybe today you need to make a step and give your life to Jesus. We do that in a couple of ways. Here we have a next steps text if you want somebody to follow up with you this week, if you're making a decision today to make Christ your King. And we'd love to come around you and talk to you and see what that looks like for you. Also, I'll be down front during this next song together. Do you need to give your heart to the king today to Jesus today for him to save you?  For Him to come into your heart and forgive your sins and give you Himself? That's the ultimate gift. 

Maybe today you know the Lord and maybe today you just need to have a moment where you're like, Hey, Lord, here I am. Whatever part of me that I have not offered up to you. I'm giving to you. During this next time of public worship, I'm just going to ask if you need somebody to pray with you. I'll be down front. We've got some other leaders down here. But let's stand and sing together. 

Lord Jesus, we love you. Move in this moment, Lord Jesus. Thank you for the gift of the widow from Zeraphath. It's in your name. Amen. 

Let's stand and sing.