"Building a Church Through Outreach"
Are You Spent?
ELCOG 11/25/07
Text: 1 Kings 17:10-16
This morning I want to encourage you with a very familiar scripture, one that I have preached several times, but this scripture has been in my spirit over the past couple of days. I just want to be very simple this morning and encourage you.
Do you feel spent? Have you been through so much that you feel tired and ready to quite. Have you been through so much that you are just aggravated and ill? It seems that everything is against you and everything makes you a little cranky. You know that its stress, but you also know that you are down to your last drop of oil and you only have enough for one more meal and you are going to die. You are at the point of what seems like is no return. You have weighed out your option and there is only one thing to do and that is to quit. You are going to try one more time and then you are finished. You and your family are through. You are spent. You have been through the wringer and you feel that you don’t have enough energy to try again. You are lonely, you are tired and you are depressed. The situations in your life have been bad. You have been through a long drought and the ground is dry and cracked. The riverbed is dry and the trees are brown. The fruit is drying up on the vine and you don’t know what to do. You try to blame your family and you try to point fingers at the church. You try to work, but the end is here. The oil is running out and the meal is gone. No matter what people say, it cannot encourage you. It only causes anger and guilt. You have no hope. You see what the reality is. And you are going to eat one more meal and then you are going to die.
You had no hope last night. You had no hope getting ready this morning, but you haven’t run into your destiny yet. You haven’t heard from the prophet yet. So I want to encourage you to sit up now and listen. I want you to pull yourself up by the boot strap and listen to the rest of this message with intensity.
Psa. 30:5
5 …. weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
Heb. 11:1
1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Heb. 11:2
2For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Heb. 11:3
3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Let me just remind you before I get into the meat of this message that the God that you believe in is the God that formed this world. He spoke and things appeared. He is the God that has the power to turn your sad, depressed situations into a joyous celebration. He can take what seems to be your last day to eat and turn it into a time of resurrection. He will stop the funeral and raise the dead to stop the weeping. You may feel like you are spent, but there is another day coming. There is another son rise of hope coming your way. Today is your day of help, not your day of death.
**Back to text: Verse 13… Fear not. Hey, stop worrying and stop being controlled by your fear. There is still a God that is on His throne and he still controls your life. You feel spent and you feel finished, but God is going to refresh you. He is going to replenish you.
It looks like you are running out of meal and that you are running out of oil, but that is not how it really is…. Remember….. FAITH IS the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things that you can not see.
You can not see the oil filling up, but it is.
You can not see the barrel of meal filling up, but it is.
You can not see that the life coming backing into your body, but it is.
You can not see the power of God, but it is supporting you. It is holding you up!
Here is the important thing for you to remember…. Be obedient. Follow the ways of the word of God. Stay in the word remember that even when you are depressed and frustrated the word is still superior…
Psa. 119:105
105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Psa. 119:116
116 Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope.
Psa. 119:114
114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.
Psa. 119:133
133 Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
Even in low times God’s word is still powerful.
Stay in the word and keep your faith. However, when your faith is low, a prophet will come your way and your oil will not run out. There will still be
flour in the barrel. God is going to take care of you and he will also take care of future problems.
In our text the woman’s son fell sick and died, but because she took care of the prophet, God took care of her and her son.
1 Kin. 17:17
17And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.
1 Kin. 17:18
18And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?
1 Kin. 17:19
19And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.
1 Kin. 17:20
20And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?
1 Kin. 17:21
21And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.
1 Kin. 17:22
22And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
So, if you feel spent. Let me encourage you: God will take care of you now by provided flour and oil, but he will also take care of your future. You don’t want to quit now. You want to stay in the word, be obedient, remain faithful and watch God provide for your life.