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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
Blessing |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
1 Ki 17:12 |
Date |
2005-05-08 |
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1 Kings 17:12
" As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread ? only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it ? and die."
Our Father God has us reap what we sow and repays according to what we have done. His blessings are different according to our heart and attitude in our sowing and doing. True blessings are given when our souls are getting along well. And those blessings do not come upon us just one time but continually.
What then shall we do to receive those true blessings? Let me explain to you how to receive the true blessing with the illustration of a widow of Zarephath in Old Testament times.
1. The blessing of a widow of Zarephath
At the time of King Ahab, the king and the people of Israel abandoned God and worshiped Gentile gods. They committed a range of sins including worshiping idols. God sent His beloved prophet Elijah before King Ahab to prophesy that it would not rain in Israel for years. However, the king did not repent and turn his way, but tried to kill Elijah. God told Elijah to hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. God sent ravens to feed Elijah with bread and meat every morning and evening. He also prepared a brook for him.
When the drought became more severe and the brook of Kerith Ravine ran dry, God gave Elijah another command. He said in 1 Kings 17:9, "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food."
Elijah went to Sidon according to God's command, and asked a favor of the woman God had prepared, saying, "Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?" The woman did not reject his request for favor and brought him water although he was a stranger to her. Then Elijah asked her again, "And bring me, please, a piece of bread."
In fact, it was hard to get water because of the long drought, so it seemed so imprudent for Elijah to ask her to bring a piece of bread. But she did not get angry or feel offended. But, feeling sorry for him, she tried to explain to him about her helpless situation. She said, "As surely as the LORD your God lives, I don't have any bread ? only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it ? and die."
Elijah answered, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.'"
At these words she obeyed him without making any excuses, and God let the surprising blessing Elijah had spoken come on her (1 Kings 17:15-16).
2. How did she receive those blessings?
First, she trusted a man of God and believed his words as God's word.
Because she believed Elijah was a man of God, when he said, "Bring me a piece of bread," she answered, "As surely as the LORD your God lives." And when Elijah gave her words of God, she believed them and did not hesitate to obey them without her own thought.
If you trust prophets of God and obey their words by believing them as God's, you will surely receive blessing (2 Chronicles 20:20). Prophets of God refer to people who are called as servants of God according to His will, and have cultivated their hearts into a good heart-field to become a man after God and accomplish His kingdom. God's prophet should be accompanied with evidences of God's presence with him (2 Corinthians 12:12).
When you trust God's servants who have been called in His will, you will be deemed to trust Him. When the people of Israel asked Prophet Samuel to appoint their king, God told him in 1 Samuel 8:7, "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king." That's because when you trust God's prophets, you are deemed to trust Him.
Secondly, she had a truthful heart without any falsehood.
When you trust God's prophets and believe their words as God's, you will surely confess your faith from the truthful heart and your perfect obedience will follow. A truthful man without any falsehood does not make excuses or give wrong answers. Excuses and wrong answers come from an untruthful heart. If we try to give an honest answer to questions, we will not answer absurdly but understand and reply to those questions correctly.
Through a few bits of the conversations between Elijah and the widow, we can find what a truthful heart she had. When he asked her to bring a piece of bread, she answered, "I don't have any bread ? only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. " If she had not desired to give her bread to him, she would have simply answered, "I have no bread."
She really wanted to serve him as she was told because she trusted him. She felt sorry because it was difficult for her to serve him with bread. That's why she said, "only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug," and explained to him the situation where she did not have bread but resources for it. When she said, "I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it ? and die" she did not mean to emphasize her situation in which she could give him nothing.
What would you do if you were in her situation? You might give a wrong answer or make excuses for not doing it. You may think about many reasons why you cannot do what she did even if you do not say anything. A person who has a truthful heart says "Yes" or "Amen" because he trusts God's man. And if he confesses about his real situation and condition, it will be a start on the way of blessing.
If you believe God and trust His prophets, you will also believe in the power of God who creates something out of nothing. A person who can obey to the point of giving up his life will be blessed as much because he sows and does so with faith, even though he has nothing.
Many people follow fleshly thoughts and think negative things and give wrong answers because they do not believe God with a truthful heart. Then, they will not see works of God and stay away from the bigger blessing of God.
Many people confess they believe God and trust the words of His prophets. But God's blessing is different to the extent they have accomplished a truthful heart.
Thirdly, she obeyed to the point of giving her life.
To receive big blessings transcending the limits of man requires our obedience to the point of giving our lives. The widow of Zarephath served Elijah with her last food that she and her son would eat for the last time. The food was like her own life because the drought lasted so long that it seemed impossible for her to gain any other food after she ate it. Nonetheless, she obeyed him to the point of giving her life because she believed his words as God's. God repaid her and blessed her double of what she sowed.
This perfect obedience never comes from calculating exactly with any kind fleshly thought. Those who measure in their thought whether something brings them some loss or profits can never give up their lives. For you to obey up to laying down your life requires that you can give everything you have in your own situation without any kind of fleshly thought because you believe God and trust His prophets. With that heart, you will want to give everything you have and much more than that, but you feel sorry for not having much more.
This is the secret of receiving big and wonderful blessings. Only when you obey Him with the attitude of giving your own life without counting whether it brings benefits or losses or following any kind of fleshly thought, can God work for you.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I pray in the name of the Lord that all of you may realize the love of God the Father who wants to bless us through the Word of God and resemble the faith and obedience the widow of Zarephath showed so that you can receive abundant blessing in spirit and body. |
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