In this chapter we just read, there were people that didn't have anything. They had no food to eat. Here's God's man, Elijah, and he prophesied there's not gonna be any rain, and there wasn't, according to the word of Elijah. There was no rain for three years. Well, without any rain, there became where there was no food. But God said, Elijah, I'm gonna take care of you. If you will go out here to the brook, there's a brook out in the wilderness here, a brook, Kareth, and he said, there, if you'll drink of the brook, and I'm gonna tell the ravens to feed you. And then the brook dried up, and Elijah, he goes down to Zarephath. God says, I want you to go there. I've got a little widow woman. That makes me think about my granddaughter every time I hear somebody talk about a widow woman. In her kindergarten class, the teacher says, today, we're gonna learn about the widow woman. Now, boys and girls, do you know what a widow woman is? And Abigail knows everything. She raised her hand and she said, yes, Abby, what is a widow woman? And Abby says, it's a widow woman. Here, this widow woman, God gave her a commandment that the hungry preacher was coming her way and she was to feed him. Now, I can just imagine, Lord, this is not a good time. Now, Lord, you know I love to feed preachers. Now, Lord, you know that's just part of who I am. I love to feed people, I love to entertain, but Lord, I hadn't got anything left to feed, but just a little bit, and God says, well, you leave that up to me, but when that preacher comes, I want you to feed him. Now, can you imagine how that little woman felt? And some of you may be feeling that way, but Lord, at missions conference, this is the most difficult time of my life. Times are hard, it's difficult. You know, sometimes God will allow you to get down to the last jar of peanut butter. Have any of you ever been down to the last jar? And I tell you, for some of us, if we hadn't had peanut butter, we might have starved to death growing up. And sometimes you get down to the last jar and it's not the last jar of peanut butter. You're scraping it and I don't know how some of you are. I take my finger when the jar is done and I just wipe it around inside that jar and lick off the finger. That's the way I like peanut butter. But there were times, I know in our life, We had got down to where the cupboard was bare, but my dad, he could get hold of God, and I've seen him do it. and food would appear on our doorstep. I'm telling you, we have that kind of God, but sometimes God will let you get down to nothing but God so he could do something great with our life in us and through us, not just in us. Oh, so oftentimes we say, oh God, I want you to bless me, bless me, bless me. You know what's better than having God's blessings? is allowing God to make you a blessing. And when God makes you a blessing, you are so blessed, but somebody gets in on it. When your cup runs over, the saucer gets filled, and I mean somebody else just gets in on your blessings. I wanna speak to you this morning on what to do when there is barely a bit of barley in the bottom of the barrel. What to do when there's just barely a bit of barley in the bottom of the barrel? When I put this message together, I was curious, and it doesn't tell us exactly what this meal was, but the poor man's meal was barley in the Bible. And I looked up that word barley, and every time I read it in the Bible, somebody was hungry. I mean, it was the bottom of the barrel for somebody. We're gonna look at some of those this morning. We're gonna look at what to do when there's barely enough. Have you ever been there? When there's just barely enough to go around. Well, let's consider it and maybe you are there. Praise the Lord if you are. Maybe you are learning to trust the Lord And maybe the Lord's about to do something great in your life. First of all, I want you to look at what to do when there's barely a bit of barley in the bottom of the barrel. First of all, you must trust God and don't waver. You've got to trust God and don't waver at all. Elijah, God says, now Elijah, I'm gonna feed you down at the brook Kareth. Now in trusting God and not wavering, you've got to, first of all, be where God wants you to be. God had birds dropping food by the brook of Kareth. Whether Elijah had been there or not, I believe the ravens were obedient to God's command. Later in the passage of scripture, God says, I've commanded a widow woman to sustain you. Now, if you're going to enjoy the blessings of God, you've got to be where God wants you to be. A lot of people, they're out of the will of God and they're praying, oh God, I want you to bless me. But there is a place that God wants every person, one thing for sure, it's not out of church. You want to get in on the blessings that God's been doing around here at Central Baptist Church, then I'd get right in the middle of it. I would get under the spout where the glory pours out, as my dad used to say. I mean, I wanna be right in the middle of it. So Elijah does. He goes where God tells him to go. He is where God wants him. And then secondly, you gotta do what God tells you to do. You gotta do what God tells you to do. God says, I've commanded the ravens. And what did the ravens do? They did it. They did exactly what God told them to do. God said, I have commanded a widow to sustain you, to feed you, Elijah. And you know what the widow woman had to do? She had to do what God told her to do. If she was going to If she was going to make it, if she was going to experience God's blessings, you've got to do it when God tells you. Had Elijah waited till the brook dried up, the ravens, he would have missed the food. The ravens, he would have missed what God had for him. Had he waited till the widow woman died of starvation, then he would have never experienced the blessing. And sadly, if we hold off the missionaries and say, well, now you're just gonna have to wait till I get right with God until we decide we're going to give what God has told us to do. Well, the sad thing is the mission field, they're dying without the gospel. It's imperative. We've got to do what God wants us to do, when God wants us to do. Well, I'll have to work on it. Maybe I can figure something out, get another job, save up some money. I maybe do this or that. No, whatever God tells you this week, you need to do that, but you need to do it when? You need to do it when? Sometimes, and I did that just a moment ago, I always like to put something in the offering. I know I give online. That's how I give, and you can give online to Central Baptist Church, you can give online to missions. I do that. But I don't like for an offering plate to pass without me putting something in it. Now normally what I do, because I'm already giving, I pick out the smallest denomination of bills that I got. Well, I opened my billfold this morning and I didn't have no ones in there. I started to close up my billfold and God said, nope, you done opened that billfold up, buddy, you better pull something out. And I had to do that, but you know, you'll never regret what you do for the Lord. But you gotta do it when God tells you. Now, Lord, what I'm gonna do, I'll go to the bank this week and I'll get some more ones. No. Listen, when God tells you to do something, you need to do it then. If you want God to bless, and you need to do it how God tells you. We're really good at trying to figure this thing out and figure and finagle away and try to help God make this thing work. And we'll do that sometimes with our missions. When God says, why don't you just do it exactly this way? God said to the widow woman, and he said the word to Elijah. Elijah said, would you fix me something to eat? She said, Lord knows, all I've got's a handful of meal. little bit of oil. I've gathered these two sticks. I was about to bake some cakes. I didn't have a cake to give you. I was about to do that, and me and my son were gonna eat that and die. And Elijah said, do that. Go ahead and fix the cake, but bring me the cake first. That's hard to do. Some of you, you're in that spot right now. You're trying to figure out how you can be part of faith promise missions of Central Baptist Church and getting the gospel in all the world and be part of this exciting program that God has that for our church to do. Let's look at an example. Take 2 Kings chapter four, 2 Kings chapter four, and I'm going to give you an example in every one of these. points that I'm about to make. This point, trust God and don't waver. And what will happen, God will meet your need, but he'll meet somebody else's. In 2 Kings chapter number four, we find here there was a bunch of hungry men, a hundred is mentioned here. How in the world, ladies, can you imagine trying to fix a meal for a hundred, one hundred hungry, not just men, preachers. Preachers can put away the chicken, let me tell you, they really can. Well, they said, In 2 Kings 4 verse 42, there came a man from Baal, Shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, 20 loaves of barley. and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, given to the people that they may eat. And his servitor said, what should I set this before a hundred men? He said again, give the people that they may eat for thus saith the Lord, they shall eat and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them and they did eat and left thereof according to the word of the Lord. They had leftovers. Here's a miracle that happened. Now, the question is asked, well, somebody's brought, they've got 20 loaves of barley, but 100 men, that's not going to be nearly enough. It's like the little boy, what is that among so many? But you know what he did? He said, here's what you do. Set it before the men. Go ahead and set the table. Go ahead and start serving the food. and there'll be enough. Everybody's gonna be fed and you're gonna have leftovers. And you know what the key is? Trust God. Don't waver. Do it exactly when he tells you, where he says, what he says, when he says, and how he says. And God will meet your need and somebody else's. Second point I wanna make, Not only must you trust God and not waver, you must trust God and labor. Sometimes we think, well, now, Lord, if you'll put it in my pocket, then I'll give. And Lord may say, yeah, I've got it for you, but here's what I want you to do. there's some work involved. Now some people's not interested in work. I remember one time years ago, when I was building my house, in fact, so I had some money on hand building my house from my bank loan, and Lord gave me a bright idea, taking about $500 of that money and giving it to the church. And I did, I said, instead of taking off an offering this morning, I'm gonna give you an offering. And I gave everybody $5, and I said, now here's what you gotta do with that $5. You gotta take it and figure out, God gave you an idea, I'm multiplying it. And some people did some amazing things with $5. There were people that went out and bought posters and markers and used the $5, but they did a project and worked at that thing. And we had thousands of dollars that came in as a result of a $5. But you know what? Sometimes you just gotta roll up the sleeves and work. This woman here, she had to gather sticks. She had to make a fire. She had to knead the bread. She had to bake it. There was labor involved. And listen, our missions conference is never complete without some work involved. Some of you have already put in many hours, and can I say to you, God is going to bless that. He always will bless when you do and labor for the Lord. God will bless the missionary, not that he just gets the money and goes to a mission field. Listen, I have known some missionaries, they thought that's all there was to mission work is just get the money, go to the field and take a four-year vacation. I've seen some do about that. No, there's labor involved, being a missionary. And so it is for all of us. It is said that a church is full of willing workers. Some are willing to work while the rest is willing to let them work. May that not be true of any of us. God has something for us to do. Now let me give you another example, Ruth and Naomi. In the book of Ruth, chapter one, Ruth chapter one and verse number 21. You know the story. Naomi, she went out full. God brought her home again empty. She lost her husband. She lost her two sons. And all she had for what she had, cause she said, I went out full. She wasn't hungry sometimes. We're trying to make more and do all these ventures and we foolishly maybe pursue, get out of God's will that they did and God let them bankrupt out there in the land of Moab. Now Naomi's coming back. All she's got to show for her leaving is a Gentile Moabite daughter-in-law. That's all she's got. She said, I went out full. Verse 21 says of Ruth one, I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call you Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite is her daughter-in-law with her, which returned out of the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest. Here's Ruth, here's Naomi, they're hungry. They don't have anything to eat. And you know what Ruth says? Ruth says to Naomi in chapter 2 verse 2, Not easy work, going out there in a field that already was being reaped. And she would come after the reapers and get a little grain here and a grain there, and here and there, and just keep working at it and working, and she was so diligent. They were hungry, but how were they gonna get it? Listen, in her laboring, there was a man there who said, who is that? That striking young lady out there working so hard in the field. Well, really that's Boaz, that's one of your kinsmen. That's Naomi's daughter-in-law. And so Boaz noticing this young lady, he says to her, Ruth, I don't want you to go to another field. I want you to work in my field, but I want you to gather among my maidens. I don't want you lingering behind, but get right in the middle of them and you reap all that you want. And then she took all that she could carry when Naomi sought it and said, how did this happen? Where did you get all of this? She said, oh, God has blessed you. And she said, don't you leave that field. He is our kinsman. And you know the story, Boaz became her kinsman, redeemer. And if you read the last chapter, oh, how God blessed the labors of Ruth. But you see, Ruth said, now, let me do this for you, Naomi. Let me go out here and work and labor for someone else. But you know what God did? You know the story. God blessed her, but she became a blessing, you see. Naomi was taken care of. Then Boaz was blessed and she was included in the lineage of Jesus. Her grandson was David that became the king of Israel. How did that all happen? Oh, listen, when you say, I'm just at the bottom of the barrel, I don't know what to do. Well, you might need to trust God and don't waver, but you need to trust God and labor. and labor, and God will meet your need, and someone else's. Thirdly, you've got to trust God and consider. When we are without sometimes, our faith is tested. And oftentimes, when I'm in need, the only person I'm thinking about is me, my needs. We have a tendency to be that way. But you know, in God's economy of things, when we have a need, God is saying, I want you to have compassion and I want you to learn compassion. The best workers and laborers in my church that I had, we had a great addictions ministry. And we began, I led some of those to the Lord, they became soul winners. You know who they would go after? They would go after those drunks and they would go after drug addicts. You know why? Because they had been there. And if God has let you go through some time when you didn't have anything, but God, maybe God just has given you a whole boatload of compassion. And that's what it takes. If you're going to find out what to do when there's just a little barley in the bottom of the barrel, I mean, God wants you to just care for somebody else, and so it is with this widow. If the widow woman could have compassion on Elijah, no doubt you and I can have compassion. Let's look at another example. Again, 2 Kings. 2 Kings 7. Samaria is surrounded, under siege. The Syrians have shut off all the trade routes, nothing coming in, nothing able to go out. People began to starve within the city. In fact, it was so bad, a donkey's head brought a great price. bird poop was valued and you could scrape the windowsills and you could make a little money by selling bird poop for people to eat. Now it was bad, bad times, difficult times, but it even got worse until there were women eating their own children It was such a terrible, terrible time. But Elisha, the man of God, he said to the king, Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. Now you know the story, don't you? Outside the gate, which is Ironic to me, they're dying inside the city, eating their own children, but they won't let the lepers come in. The lepers are outside. They're seemingly, they're just a lower class of people. They're cannibalizing inside, and yet these lepers are outside. Lepers said, you know what we need? We need mercy. We just need the mercy of God. Why don't we just go to the camp of the Syrians? If they kill us, we're dying anyway. And so they, you know what the story, how it goes. And they go and God had cleared the Syrians out of the camp. They had fled, left the table spread, left their coats in the way. I mean, all their goods and everything, there they just left them and these lepers came in and they just couldn't believe it. Here was the tables, they ate and they ate and they began to take these treasures they had found and they were trying to hide it. Then they said one to another, we do not well this day. What are you kidding me? You hit the jackpot. Oh no, we're not doing good at all. It says this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace. If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. Now therefore come that we may go and tell the king's household. You know what they did? They had been rejected from the city. but they go to the very place that they had been pushed outside the walls. We've got bread, we've got food, and listen, Central Baptist Church, God has blessed us so. This church is blessed. We may not be considered a wealthy church, but God has blessed this church. But we do not well if we do not take what God has blessed us with and share it with the lost. And it may be those who have rejected us. And it may be in places that are unkind to Americans. But you know, if we really get hold of the fact that God has had mercy upon us and had compassion upon us, We can do like those lepers. We can't do it by the world's methods, by the way. Inside, they were eating and devouring one another. And you've got to, as these lepers, you've got to realize someone else's need besides and apart from your own. But you know what'll happen? When you just trust God and you consider others, God will meet your need. and many others. Central Baptist Church, that's what faith promise is. Oh, but preacher, you don't understand. I can't afford that. Wonderful, that's great. That's where faith comes in. That's what unleashes God's blessings. I mean, that opens the windows of heaven for you when you just trust God, but have compassion. having compassion, making a difference, and then last of all, trust God and surrender. This is really what he asked. Surrender, what he asked. The widow woman, give me the bread. But you know what God'll do? God'll meet your need and someone else's, but he always does it so much better. All she had in the bottom of that barrel was crusty, half-grit, and that's the way the bottom of a barrel of meal is. You that are older that can remember when you used to sift your flour to sift out the grit out of your flour, my mama would do that and then throw the grit into the trash can. But when people are starving to death, you save the grit. I mean, you're down at the bottom of the barrel, it's half-grit. cake that Elijah had, that must have been about the worst bite of bread he ever put in his mouth. But when the widow woman went back to the barrel, there was no grit in that meal that God had put in. That oil might have become very rank that was in Elijah's bread. But in the widow woman and her son, it was fresh bread. And listen, that's what God will do. Now, you know the story. You don't even have to turn there. I preached to the kids this week in chapel on God's math. John chapter six, a lad plus a little plus the Lord equals or is greater than a lot. He took five barley loaves. Two small fishes. He did what God told the disciples to do. The disciples had 200 penny worth of bread. The reason they had their bread, they had no leisure to eat, went out there to eat. And God, the Lord Jesus said, give ye them to eat. No, we don't have enough for us and them. But there is a little boy that said he'd give you his. It's five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what is that amongst so many? And another grandchild story, my granddaughter, Anna Grace, I had her and Olivia and Abby, five, four, and three. And I was reading them this story, and they were just, I said, I'm gonna ask you questions. Anna Grace says, I'm listening, Pawpaw. I said, no, you're not. And I read this story. I said, now what, did Jesus feed the 5,000 without hesitation? She said, buffalo and fish. I said, you didn't listen. And I read it again, five barley loaves, and that's where she got the buffalo. I thought if I had five buffalo, I bet I could feed 5,000. But that little boy, you know, if you'll just surrender what he asked, it may not be much in anyone else's eyes. Not one of you. should pass up the opportunity to take that faith promise card and tear it off. You say, I'm so ashamed, this is so little. What is this among so many? It doesn't matter, it's what God wants you to do. God took this little boy's five barley loaves, two small fishes, and fed a multitude of people. It may not be much in others' eyes. It may be what no one else will give. Any one of those disciples could have done that, but they wouldn't. And what you may do this week may be what no one else will do, but it's what you need to do. And you know what happened? God will meet your needs. and someone else's. And that's what God wants to do in our missions conference this week. God not only wants to bless us, He wants to make Central Baptist Church a blessing. Let's bow our heads.