Upwards Church

In today’s passage we will see:

Let’s dive into our text  2 verses just to set the context: “The wife of a man from the company of 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.’  ‘Your servant has nothing there at all except a small jar of olive oil.'”

Let’s discuss these two verses because there’s a lot in them.  First, you’ll notice, we don’t know this poor widow’s name.  We don’t know who she is.  According to Jewish tradition, many believe that she was actually the wife of the prophet Obadiah.  And if this was the case, then it would be no wonder she was in financial need because Obadiah was known for protecting and providing for 50 other prophets.  So if indeed, it was Obadiah’s wife, he would have taken all the resources he had to meet the needs of other prophets.  It would not be uncommon at all for a prophet’s family to be financially struggling because they would spend the majority of their lives on the run, trying to survive and so it was very difficult to make ends meet and now that he’s dead, she doesn’t have much.

We’ve got a widow, she’s just lost her husband, she’s got little chance at meaningful employment because in this culture, women were mostly unemployable So she’s in a really devastating place.  She’s lost her husband.  And now, the creditor is coming after her two sons because the law said if you can’t pay your debts, they can take your sons as slaves, and they will be slaves until they’re released in the year of jubilee.  It doesn’t get any worse than this.  Humanly speaking, she has no hope whatsoever.  She’s lost her husband, she can’t pay her bills, and now she’s going to lose her sons.  And that’s something I always try to remember when I face what I call life’s smaller problems. It’s amazing how riled up I can get about things that are really not a big deal.  And yet it happens all the time.

For example, if you get really riled up because the G.P.S. on your phone took you to the wrong place, that’s an entry level problem.  If you’re at the restaurant and you’re just devastated because they put too much goat cheese on your salad. That is an entry level problem.  If you’re really devastated because you only got seven likes on your most recent self-y on Instagram; it’s an entry level problem.

This woman is in significant need and she expresses her need to the prophet, and what does the prophet do?  Let’s see what he doesn’t do.  He doesn’t say, “Oh, that’s a bad problem.  It stinks to be you!”  He doesn’t blow her off.  He doesn’t say, “Oh, that’s bad.  I’ll be thinking about you.”  It’s always funny to me when people say that.  If someone’s hurting, don’t tell them, “you’ll be thinking about them.”   Do something significant.

And that’s exactly what he does.  He makes himself available to her and you see this in verse 2 of 2nd Kings 4. Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you?”  Ask that question.  Anytime there is a need, even if we can’t directly meet the need, we may know someone who can.

Then he says to her something that is very profound, he respects her dignity and says, “Tell me what do you have in your house?”  In other words, he doesn’t say, “I’m here with all the answers,” but he respects her dignity and says, “Let’s start with what you have and let God meet your needs through what you have.”  She replies, “Your servant has nothing there at all.”  Isn’t it interesting that when you’re hurting and when you’re lacking, all you can see is what you don’t have and you miss all the blessings that you do have?

When we get down and we’re depressed, and we’re hurting, we get consumed with what we don’t have. “I don’t have enough money so I can never be happy.”  “I don’t have a spouse so I can’t really have a meaningful life just now.”  I’ve heard people say, “My house isn’t nice enough so we can’t host a Growth Group,” because everybody knows the Spirit of God cannot move unless it moves on top of granite kitchen countertops!    “I don’t have what I want so life doesn’t matter.”

It’s interesting how when you’re in need, all you focus on is what you don’t have.  And this is exactly where this poor woman was.  She lost everything and all she could see was her lack.  I asked the question, “What do you do when you don’t have much?”

• Stop waiting for what you want and start working with what you have!

2nd Kings 4:2, she says this:  He says, “What do you have in your house?”  She says, “Your servant has nothing there at all except” what?   She said, “Except a small jar of olive oil.”  “I don’t have anything there at all.  Oh yeah, except this one little thing.”  Stop waiting for what you want and start working with what you have.

What good is a small jar of olive oil?  Olive oil was incredibly valuable because it had lots of important uses.  Oil was used in cooking, to help lamps burn, it was used as moisturizer because you couldn’t go to Bath and Body Works.  It was used to help keep leather pliable, it was used to keep iron from rusting, it was used as an offering to God, it was used to help anoint people in religious services.  It was very valuable but she didn’t have a lot; she only had a little.

I’m so thankful that we serve a God who specializes in doing a lot with a little!  We serve a God who is absolutely capable of doing a lot with a little.  All through scripture, you’ll see it again and again.

In the New Testament whenever Jesus had taught to thousands of people, and at the end of the lesson, everybody’s hungry, and the disciples say, “Who’s going to feed these thousands of people?”  And everybody goes, “I don’t have any food.”  And a little boy came up and could have said, “I don’t have a lot but do I have a little.”  And Jesus took what he had and said, “All I have is five loaves and two fishes.”

And in the hands of the Son of God, a little bit became a lot and they fed the thousands and even had 12 basketfuls left over because we serve a God who can do a lot with a little.

In the Old Testament when a whole army was afraid of the Philistines because of one man, Goliath, who stood them down, guess who God used?  A little shepherd boy with a little bit of faith and a little stone who said, “Who are you to come against the armies of my living God?  Everyone thinks you’re too big to beat.  I think you’re too big to miss.  Somebody duck, I’m taking this guy down.”  And God used a little boy with a little faith and a little stone to take the big giant down.

And in the New Testament, Jesus said if you just have a little bit faith, not a lot. Some of you say, “I’m low on faith and all I have is a little.”  We serve a God who can do a lot with a little.  If you just have the faith of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Be removed and cast into the sea,” and you will have what you ask for.  If you just have a little bit of faith, we serve a God who can do a lot with a little.

Elisha says, “What do you have in your house?” God asked Moses one time, “what do you have in your hand?”  What’s in your house?  What’s in your house?  Notice God never said, “What do you want,” or “what do you need,” but “what do you have.”  Let’s stop waiting for what we want and start working with what you have because God has given you everything you need to do everything he wants you to do.

I learned this principal in the early years of our church when what I wanted was a bigger plot of land.  There were 25 acres for sale here by the VFW, but we could only afford 10 which is what we have in Leander.  I obsessed over the other 15.  I put what’s called a “first right of refusal in the contract” that if anyone else was going to try to buy the other 15 acres, we could make an offer too. I prayer walked, put this on our prayer list, talked about it in our early membership classes.  In 2001, I had a dream for a huge footprint in one place, to build a large complex believing God had big plans for us here.  Today, that has changed!  We now have 24 acres… but it’s in two different communities!  Now I understand that 24 acres in one place is much different than 24 acres in 2 places!  We can do ministry to thousands more people in 2 locations than one.   We are placed in  strategic places to do big things for God in multiple communities!

So many people say: we cannot because we don’t.  And I believe a person with faith says, “We can because we don’t.”  Because the limitations are often inside that gives us innovation.  If we had what we thought needed, God wouldn’t have been able to show us what we needed to see.

And that’s exactly what God did.  When the pastor friend of mine in Jarrell was moving to a different line of work and he asked us to help, we couldn’t give them money, but what we had we could give.  We had several teachers we could rotate over, we had message series planned and programs printed.  We just took what we had, which turned out to be what they needed most and it worked!    I am so thankful to my God that he taught us to do a lot with a little instead of giving me what I wanted.

I don’t know how this will speak to you, but some of you, you’re going to look at what you have and say, “I wish I had something else so I could do something more significant.”  And God’s going to say, “no no.  Stop waiting for what you want and start working with what you have.  “But I’m not a good up-front person.  I’m not that charismatic.”  I’m good behind the scenes but I’m not that good up front.”  Jesus said, “It’s the behind-the-scenes people that are the most important.”  Jesus said, “The servant is the greatest of all.”  So stop wanting something else and do the important assignment God has given you to do.  Is the person on stage more important than the person in a booth with all the power, sound and lights?  NO! Is the person who’s visible more important than a person a kid’s classroom? No!

There may be a guy in here who says, “Man, I’m not a good provider.  I don’t make a six-figure income; I wish I did.”  And God would say to you, “Hey, you’re home six nights a week with your children.  That’s important!”  Stop waiting for what you want and start working with what you have.

Guys, I’ve seen people take a six figure job only to be out of town all the time, working late and missing the most important things of all their family!  The most important thing you do may not be what you make but what impact you have on your family with your presence! When you’re a man of God to your wife and children, that is huge success!

The second thought that we learn from this awesome story is this:  We’re going to:

• Offer God what we have and trust him to give us what we need.

Watch this come true in 2nd Kings 4:3 through 7. 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.”  Now what’s going on here?  Go get a bunch of jars.  All you have is a little bit of oil, but if you’ll trust God and pour out what you have, then put that jar aside, God will refill your jar and give you what you need, and you can keep on pouring.

When she had the faith to offer what she had, God would give her what she needed.  And that’s exactly what happened in verse 5:  “She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons, then they brought the jars to her,” and as they kept bringing on jars, what did she do?  The bible says 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.

As long as there was an empty jar, God would fill it but when there were no more jars, the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God and he said — here’s the good news — “go sell the oil and pay your debts.  Your debt has been paid for.  You and your sons can live on what is left.”  When she offered what little she had, God gave her everything she needed.  As long as there was an empty jar, the oil kept flowing.

This is a ridiculous request, to ask her to empty out everything she has and to trust God to provide what she really needed but that is how our God works.  When we show him our faith, we get to see his faithfulness.

Again, when that pastor friend of mine in Jarrell years ago, said to me, their church could possibly close.  “Our greatest need is money. We don’t have money to pay a pastor, and if we don’t get a pastor we won’t have money to pay our bills can you help?”  They had great facilities in a great location! They had a great team of leaders and volunteers! We didn’t have much money but what we do have is have was available teachers to rotate, message series and programs which as we offered and it kept people there and kept new people coming and money came in to meet their needs. They didn’t die,  in fact they are thriving! We didn’t provide money but provided what we had, and they used what they had and God is blessing us both!

And I don’t know how that will speak to you but at some point, when you take what you have, and stop waiting for what you want, but you offer what you have, God will do something special.  He provides. And it may not be how you think. And he said, “Go get a bunch of jars.”  Notice he didn’t say what color, he didn’t say what size, he didn’t say what shape.  What did he say?  The only requirement is that the jars must be what? Empty.  It could have been any jar.  It could have been for milk or it could have been a butter tub because God can use any shape, size or color.  He just needs it to be empty.

How does this apply to you?  2nd Corinthians 4:7 in the New Testament says this:  It says, “But we have this treasure which is Christ”.  “In” what?  “In jars of clay.” What is it that referring to?  Do you know what that is? That’s our bodies; that’s what we are.  We’re clay pots.   That’s what we are.  “We have this treasure in jars of clay.”  What is God looking for?  God is looking for a few empty jars.  When we empty ourselves of self, when we empty ourselves of pride, when we empty ourselves of greed, when we empty ourselves of our own agendas, and come to God totally empty, then he fills us with oil which has always been a symbol of the Holy Spirit.  And suddenly you realize when you don’t have outwardly what you wanted, it is God that you truly needed.  And suddenly He is enough; He is sufficient in every single way.

When you are weak, He is your strength. When you’re hurting, he is your comforter.  When you’re lost, he is your guide, when you’re hungry, he is the bread of life which nourishes you.  When you are thirsty, he is living water.  When your life is unstable, he is the rock that does not move.