You can open up your Bibles again. Close them to 2 Kings chapter 4 and verses 1 through 7. And if you do have a church Bible, it's page 427, okay? In the church Bible, page 427. Our two kings chapter four and verses one through seven. Elisha is an incredible prophet of God in the Old Testament. We like Elijah, and sometimes I think we think of Elijah as the great prophet that God used. I mean, John the Baptist came into the power of Elijah and was a mighty man of God, but his, follower that he passed his mantle onto was Elisha. The experiences that Elisha had are incredible. He's the only person that ever saw somebody translated, other than the disciples watching Lord Jesus Christ go up into glory, of seeing a man being taken up into heaven in a fire chariot as God took Elisha away from Elisha. There are other stories as he comes up the hillside with children from out of that city. And I don't fully understand the story. It was all these children that are there, mocking Odell Baldhead. And every bald person probably loves this story. But Odell Baldhead, and they're mocking the man of God. And Elisha said what he said, and the bearers come out and take care of those kids that were mocking God's man. We've recently studied the story of a city being surrounded by the enemy that was coming to get Elisha, and his servant panicking, and him just praying and saying, God open his eyes so he can see, and the city is surrounded by the angels of God, and the armies of God, the hosts of God are there. We just recently learned the story of the The striking of the arrows on the ground, we'll refer to that again this morning just a little bit, but also where the dead body is put into Elisha's grave and that dead body rises back to life because this was a dynamic spirit-filled man of God and the Holy Spirit brought that man back to life. And so, as we come to the story, it's got Elisha in it. This is a good story that we're going to look at this morning that we've already read. We read about this widow. She was a widow of a seminary student. The Bible says that her husband was called Elisha's servant and was one of the sons of the prophets. That's kind of like the modern idea that we have at seminary. I went to seminary in Greenville, South Carolina. We had a class that was a preacher boy class. And these are young men that intend to go into ministry or being trained for the ministry, especially when you get to the upper levels. I mean, those are the guys that are really preparing God's call to go out into ministry. And so that's what her husband wants. And so a godly, she had a godly husband, Her husband is dying. And so now she's a widow woman, but she's got two children to care for. Now her source of income was her husband. She doesn't have that anymore. And she had no income to pay her debts. And so because of that, she's a debtor. And she has no way of alleviating that debt. The creditor was coming and was threatening to take her children into servitude to pay her debts. And that's fair, you know, the debt's got to be paid. And so the creditor comes and says, you've got to pay your debts. And she's in a panic. What am I going to do? Because he's going to take my sons into servitude. And then in her story, God provides an awesome miracle of oil, which pays her debt and provides for her family. As we look at that story this morning, it's unlikely that, though we could apply it to our lives and say there might be somebody here today that has a real problem that is burdened about it. How are they going to meet it and see this need met? Well, listen, God has a God of provision and God is able to meet that need, but it's unlikely that God would say to you, take the jars that you've got in your house and take them into a side room and get there with your family, get down, and you've got that little jar of oil, pour that oil out, and God's going to do that same miracle. Now God may do a similar miracle of provision, but that exact idea of pouring out of oil may not be exactly how God meets the need that you might have. And so as we look at this story this morning, I want to focus on, I do want to focus on the oil. But the oil that I decided to focus on with us this morning, and as we consider this, is not physical oil, but the oil that we need of God's Spirit. God's Spirit is described as oil, the Word of God. In fact, all through the Old Testament and New Testament, you have this picture of of oil representing the Holy Spirit of God. So in Leviticus 8 verse 10, Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein and sanctified it and poured it out. And there's nothing special about oil unless that oil represents something or someone, in this case, the Holy Spirit. And that anointing is setting apart unto God and separating unto God. Leviticus 8 verse 12, he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head, the high priest, and anointed him to sanctify him. Again, oil itself is nothing special about oil, but that oil representing the oil of God's spirit is a very precious emblem of what the man of God needs that's going to lead for God. King Saul, as he became king, 1 Samuel 10, verse 1, then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head. and kissed him, and said, is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? And every king that was anointed king, that was emblematic of the Holy Spirit and God's special setting apart to use that man for God. Even the Lord Jesus Christ was anointed, but he was anointed with the oil of God's Spirit, Isaiah 61, 1, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto me. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of prison to them that are bound. The Lord Jesus himself will take this text and say, I am the Messiah. I am the anointed one, anointed of God, set apart by God. Anointed by whom? Anointed with the Holy Ghost. Acts 10 verse 38 says how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God is with was with him. It's very interesting that Jesus Christ was still God, but he set aside his attributes of power and authority that he possessed. He lived in complete dependence upon God as man. God worked through him in the same way as God would work through us by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the enablement of the Holy Spirit. And so even oil is pictured as what? As you think about oil, how does oil get onto somebody? It is poured out, okay? And the Bible says in Acts 2.17, as they quoted that Old Testament text, it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, I think it's in Joel, I think, I will pour out of my spirit upon all your flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." And so again, even the picture of the way oil is applied is applied to the Spirit of God. It's going to be poured out upon men. And so that took place, Acts 10.45, as Cornelius and his household were saved and converted and received God's Spirit. It says in Acts 10.45, they of the circumcision which believe were astonished as they as came with Peter because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. And so there was that anointing that took place upon these that were saved and it was obvious. And what I want us to consider this morning, and I'm not ashamed to say it, is that we need this outpouring of the oil of God's Spirit in our day. that we have received God's Spirit and salvation. We'll talk about this a little bit. We've received God's Spirit and salvation, but we need an outpouring of God's Spirit. We need to be filled with God's Spirit. That what we need is really God's enablement. And without that, We're going to have a situation that, in many ways, we're going to look at this story this morning in 2 Kings 4, 1-7, and say some of the same burdens that this woman faced are going to be faced by us without the anointing oil of God's Spirit. And so I just ask this morning, how much oil is in your home? See, I could be a doctrinally correct person. I could have right theology. I could have right practice, I suppose even. I could dress up, go to church, read my Bible. I could have right practice, but I could have a godliness that is powerless. See, I could be right doctrinally, I could be right practically, but if I'm not right powerfully, then I'm not right. I need the power of God. In fact, I can't really be right practically, or understand correctly doctrinally. unless I have what I need in the person of power, the person of the Holy Spirit of God. And if you want more help on this, I encourage you to come back tonight. We're going to look at something we've looked at before in the Word of God and about things that impact our power for God. The Holy Spirit is one aspect of that. And they're all kind of intermeshed. But there are several things that we can tune and tweak in our lives and say, you know what? I need more of God and less of me. And God's given us an opportunity to avail ourselves of them. And so, let's pray to God to help us get this oil in our lives and our families, and get into the Word of God here. Father, I thank you for the Word of God. I thank you that we get to look at it this morning. But Father, I want this reminder. Father, I need this reminder. And so I pray, Father, that our hearts, as it's just gotten quiet outside right now for some reason, May there be that quietness in our hearts this morning. Fathers, we bow before God. Father, we need you to come down. Lord, this world has yet to see what you do to a man fully surrendered. Part of that fully surrendered is spirit control, spirit fill, spirit guiding. And so Father, we ask that you have your way. We ask that you help me as I speak. I can't speak without your help. I know that. Lord, you've proven that, I'm sure, to our church at times. And I just pray I pray that the Spirit of God would enable me to speak clearly and articulate truth from the Word of God. And Father, I pray, would you please speak to our Hirsute's text. As we look at this story, it's a very interesting story, but I think there is a great application of the story to our need for the Holy Spirit. And Father, that He is the answer to what is taking place in our home and the debt that we owe that we're going to talk about this morning. And so Father, would you lead and guide us this time? Thank you for it. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Right, so the story is we look at this woman and her need for oil and this miracle that God did to supply for her need. The first thing is that the miracle came to a godly woman who was compelled to cry out to God for help. She's a godly woman, and she's got a real need, and she's burdened, so much burdened about it, that she has to cry out to God's servant, and that said, she cried out to God, God's got to help me so I can get to the man of God, and that day the prophet had a very special emblematic picture before the people of an intercessor, you know, somebody that was between them and God. And so she goes to this man and she cries unto him in verse 1. Now they cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant, my husband, is dead. And thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord. It's a big trial of faith for this lady that she's facing. My husband was a godly man. My husband loved God. My husband lived for God. But God took him, and he's dead. And she's got a problem because this is all a great trial that she's facing in the will of God. Without that hardship in this story, we don't have this story. Without that burden that she's facing, we don't have the great picture that we're going to look at this morning that has instructed to us about our need for what she is going to get from the man of God. And so she's facing a burden in the will of God, a trial in the will of God that makes her cry out to God. We don't like trials. And I said I was going to talk about our trip. And so I'm just going to tell you a little bit about our trip. And without, you know, just about the travel and things. But we don't like it when things aren't just going just right, or that's a burden. We drove, the first day of our trip was really good. You know, we drove down, it was pretty good. We got there about 11 o'clock, okay? Half ten, I think. And this was a prophecy to us of what would come. The road to our hotel was closed. So there we are. We finally get down there. And the hotel's kind of in the inner part of this block. And there's no way to get to the car park. It didn't really matter. The car park was full. But the road was blocked. So we couldn't even make sure that we found the hotel. So that took some time. But when we got on our road to Germany, everything was great. We're getting there. We got to an hour away. We were in Strasbourg. The reason we were in Strasbourg is because the exit to our road right before Strasbourg was closed. I mean, you couldn't have taken the road if you wanted to unless you had four-wheel drive and a compass. I mean, it was completely gone. So we get into Strasbourg, which was fun, because it was beautiful. Beautiful city. Driving through that thing, that's okay. We're a little bit out of our way, but an hour to Cannes, not a problem. Then we drive down the road, and the road's closed again. And there's no detour signs, all right? In Germany. If they are, they're German, and that doesn't really go well. And so we get off the road. Thankfully, that time, our GPS reconnected us pretty quickly, all right? And so we're back on the road thinking, wow, two closed roads. And praise God, God's gotten us through it. Now we're still about 40 minutes or whatever from camp. We're getting there. You're excited to get out of the car. I'm just telling you this for fun, OK? So I hope you enjoy it. You can smile. We're laughing about it now. But anyway, so. We come to another road, and it's a mountain road, and it snakes up the spine of this mountainside, and you're going back and forth, back and forth, only about 15 miles an hour, and we pass the sign that we thought might mean road closed. It had X's on it and the places, but we couldn't read what it said. And so we got up about 12 minutes along. 12 and a half, maybe. I'm just being precise. Just want to be accurate. And so the road is caved on one side, and we kind of drive around that. And we think, oh, that was it. Good. We made it. And then we come up, and the road is closed. Again. So we got about 15 minutes back down the mountainside, and then we got a turn and we're going up into the mountains. Another curvy road. Just trying to get our GPS to reconnect. Anyway, long story, not very short, because I told it kind of long. We got to camp with basically two hours from Strasbourg, which was very good, but I'm telling you, feeling completely lost. You know, sometimes, and coming back, let me just say one other thing about the return trip. Coming back, Day number one, we wanted to try to get our 8 o'clock ferry, but we had an adjustable, and we knew the ferry would run every hour, and if we couldn't quite make it, it was okay. We stayed on the road. We took a less than 10 minute break for the toilets, really, in the middle of 8 hours of driving. And we got there, and we had to go through passport control and everything. And we missed our ferry, or the ferry that was leaving, by 30 seconds. I'm telling you, as we pulled into the car park, the last cars were going up the ramp, and they didn't let us on. The 10 o'clock ferry was not going. We had to wait two hours for the next ferry, and then take the later ferry. Just to say, sometimes life's tough, and we look at Why does God do this? Why does God despise me? He doesn't understand. I'm serving God. Listen, I went to camp to serve God. I went to camp to please God. And it was a huge blessing. Why was it so tough to get there? Why is it so tough getting back? Why does God allow that? Levitation 333 says, For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. God allows it. You might have something in your life and you think, why is it tough? I love God, I'm trying to please God. If God doesn't make my life just easy, then I'm not going to serve God. That's kind of how we can be sometimes. But there's times where it's tough, and God has a reason for the toughness. God may be trying to reach down and try to take something out of our life that needs to be taken out of our life to make us better for God. John 15.2 says, Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth that it may bring forth more fruit. God has a desire to better our lives by bringing things into it that are going to make it better. And God allowed a huge trial in this woman's life. But it opens up to us a glorious story of God's provision that would never have taken place if she hadn't gone through the heartache. And I mean, we're talking about it, we're thinking, logically, she lost her husband. She's thinking emotionally, I lost the mate of my life, this person that I spent my life with. I've lost them. On top of that, I've got this huge burden and I can't pay for it. It's kind of like, we saw this morning, we saw a guy with a flat tire back here, and saw the guy riding a ticket because it was parked in a bus stop. And I thought, man, it's just bad and worse. This woman had it bad and worse, what she's facing. but God had a reason. You know, this morning, are you willing to let God use a trial to make you desperate for his oil? Are you willing to let God take you to that low point so that in your heart there's that desperation, God, you gotta do something. I mean, it could be in a number of ways that we look at it and say, you know what, why isn't it going better? Why isn't it succeeding? But God's taking us to that point so that we cry out to God and say, God, you've got to do something about it. So the miracle came to a godly woman who was compelled to cry out to God for help, saying to me, without a miracle, this God-fearing woman would lose her children. Without a miracle, this God-fearing woman would lose her children. It says, and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. So she's got two problems. The first problem is she has a societal debt that she can't pay without oil. She doesn't know that she needs oil. We understand that from the story. That's how God's going to supply. But she has a societal debt that she can't pay without oil. Did you know this morning that we have a societal debt that we can't pay without God's Spirit? There's a debt that we have And Paul, the Apostle Paul, says in Romans chapter 1 verse 14, I am debtor. Both to the great sins of the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. Paul said, I am indebted to give them the gospel. I have a gospel debt that I need to pay. Paul, if we saw Paul's back, it is whipped and bloody. If we saw Paul's experiences of the shipwreck and being stoned and everything that Paul went through, look, Paul paid his debts. I thought about it this way this week as I was walking, there's some nice woods there in Germany, walking in the woods. And I thought, you know, if it was the world coming at the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul stand there and just take a stand for God and say, I have a gospel debt. To give you the gospel, there's a lot of Christians today that just go, you know, come on, buddy. Think about what men of God stood for, for God, and we just kind of go, well, it's not my burden, isn't it? See, doesn't a Sunday school child in a church that saved have the same debt that the Apostle Paul had to take the gospel to the world? And Paul was burdened about it. He said, I'm debtor. And that motivated Paul that he had something he had to pay, that he had to get the gospel out to the world. He's burdened about it. Are you letting others pay your debt? I mean, that's easy to do, isn't it? Well, I'll do it to you. It could even be like this. I heard a story. It was actually Paul Foster, I think, that told this story. I was listening to him preach. I think it was him. But there was a meeting that he was at, somebody was at, I think he was telling the story as well, some creature that was well known was at and the pastor told him, you know that person puts all this money in for God's work and sending missionaries. And the man came up to this creature and shook his hand and put, back then, what would be a lot of money into his hand. And the preacher handed it back to him, and said, you're not going to pay me to give the gospel to other people. Because the thing about that man, he gave money to God, but he didn't ever bring anybody to church. And the story goes that that man at night had two people in church, and they got saved, and that changed about that man. But see, we can say, well, we got missions back there, and we pay our debt of the gospel by giving to missions. We pay our debt to the gospel by paying the church and pastor. We pay our debt to the gospel by doing this. No, we have a gospel indebtedness. I'm dead. So as much as in me is, Paul said, and that's a great statement, isn't it? Everything that I have, everything that I possess, so as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. This morning, as you think about your gospel indebtedness, are you ready to get at it? Say, I'm ready to tell somebody about Jesus. I appreciate the challenges that we got to camp this week. One was just a reminder to have tracts in your pocket, you know? Just to have something that you can take and you can put in somebody's hand and say, you know, can I just leave this with you? Just something that speaks about God. Someone may give it back, but at times they do. But a lot of times, you know, people take it. It's surprising how many times somebody will just take something like that. I had a guy yesterday say, you know, I'll leave that here for the other people that come to work as well. They can have a look at it. And see, I'm ready to preach the gospel. Are you ready to share Christ? Verse 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel. God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also the Greek. So Paul said three statements. He said, I am debtor, I am ready to preach, I'm not ashamed. You think about it. Can you say those statements today? I am debtor, I have a gospel debt, I am ready to preach. That just means tell. And I'm not ashamed. And if you stop at any one of those and think, I don't feel like I'm a debtor, I am not ready to preach the gospel, and I am ashamed of Christ, you've got to stop and think, you know what, you may need the oil that we're going to talk about. Why? Because God's Spirit in us longs to get the gospel out. And that's our consideration this morning, this oil of the God's Spirit. Jonathan, go for it. had read in his Bible, in John 14 verse 12, barely, barely, I say unto you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall I do, because I go unto my Father. John Goforth was a missionary. He was with the China Inland Mission, serving God in China. When he looked at his ministry and thought, where are the greater works? He began to intensely seek after what the Word of God spoke about as far as God's enablement for ministry. He got to Zechariah 4, 6, a key verse in his life, where the Word of the Lord came into his reverberation, saying, Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. See, do we have enough of God's Spirit, and I know we're going to get to the oil part in her story, but do we have enough of God's Spirit in us to pay our Gospel debt? That we're somebody that's empowered by God to give the Gospel. Secondly, her problem was not just that she had a debt to society she could not pay. She faced losing her children to bondage because she couldn't pay her debt. So she's going to lose her family if she didn't have the oil that she needed. You know, with regard to our application today, we stand in jeopardy of losing the next generation of our children, or losing our children personally, if we don't have the enablement of God's Spirit like we need in our homes. We heard heartbreaking stories at camp, and we were there with other servants of the Lord. They're serving God, they're obeying God, they're pleasing God, but some of them have had children that have gone into sin. My heart breaks for them. But you know what we need as churches, and we would say this, if it was our family and we had kids that were away from God, what we need is God's Spirit's power to draw those kids to God, to break their heart about their sin, and help them to see their need. And if we had that today, if we had revival in our church, if we had revival in our home, That that would translate into, by God's grace, His impact in the lives of these kids that are going out into sin and away from God. Does that make sense? That was just a practical application this morning, that we need more of God. We do. In fact, my heart would cry out to God and just say, we did a camp. We wept and we prayed for these kids that are away from God. Revival would bring those kids, by God's grace, back to God. That's what they need. They need more of God's Spirit. So do we have a need to cry out to God? Yes we do. Why? Because we've got a gospel debt and by God's grace we want to reach the next generation. We want to impact them. So let's consider this morning that this oil of God's Spirit will really assist us to do that by God's grace. And then third, the miracle required introspection. Verse 2. And Elijah said unto her, what shall I do for thee? Question, right? Tell me what hast thou in the house. And so Elijah said, OK, what can I do for you? What do you have? What do you have in the house? This woman had to evaluate, really evaluate what she had, what she possessed, and acknowledge that what there was of value. My wife and I got married, we were still in school, and so I was a second year grad student, going to be, and she was a senior. We didn't have a lot of money. I can say we were poor students. I can honestly say that. I mean, it didn't feel like it. I wouldn't have said that probably back then. We felt, I don't know, I don't think we felt rich, but we didn't feel poor. Our house, to honestly evaluate our house, you'd come in and if you walked straight ahead to a little kind of box room off the kitchen, you'd see our computer desk, and I think it was two barrels and boxes, whatever, and a board across, and that was our computer desk. And if you walk into the living room, you see a $10 sofa that I got at Bob Jones. It was a pretty nice sofa, but $10 for the sofa. And then over to your left, you've got a free black and white TV that another preacher gave to us. And we didn't really want a TV, but we took it because they gave it to us. And we didn't have a TV stand, so I worked at the snack shop, and there was an old Pepsi bottle stand. And honestly, it said Pepsi on it. It's kind of cool. It'd probably be worth tons of money today. But we just used it because we had to. That was our TV stand. We had stuff like that. And if I were to honestly die in our home, I couldn't say, well, we are rich, and we've got a really nice physical situation taking place. This woman had to look at our life, and he said, what are you having? She couldn't really look at much of anything. She just had to say, you know, I've just got a little oil. That's it. But it required introspection. I think a lot of times, as we talk about this idea of we need God's Spirit, a lot of people say, well, I'm rich. I'm rich. I don't need it. In fact, I need it of nothing, because I don't even know what you're speaking about when you're talking about having more of God's Spirit. I don't even get what you're talking about, because I just kind of feel like it's OK, I'm fine. It's what Jesus said in Revelation 3, verse 17. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and of need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. They were spiritual paupers, but they felt fine with it. They thought it was OK. In fact, they thought that they were rich. But Jesus looks at them. He strips aside all that whatever it was and just goes, you have nothing. And I wonder today how many churches or how many individuals, they look at themselves and think, I'm just fine. And because they think they're just fine, it's like an unsafe person that doesn't know they're unsafe. They have no appetite for the gospel because they're okay the way they are. And see, we could be like that as a church today. We could think, oh, yeah, that's fine. I go to church. I read my Bible. But we have no thirst for God. We have no desire to say, God, fill me with your spirit. God, our church needs a revival. God, we need an outpouring of your spirit, because we think we're fine. I hope today that we can kind of get a sense that, you know what, if this was a wealthy, just think about it logically, if that woman was wealthy, her house would have reflected it. If our church was wealthy, this house would reflect it. Make sense? I'm not saying we don't have some things. We praise God for what we have. But there ought to be in our hearts a desire, because that desire of provision encompasses our ability to provide for more. Does that make sense? So we need it to see what God desires done. So we've got to look at it, examine it. And then fourth, the miracle was a multiplication of what was already possessed. And so it says in verse 2, and she said, thy handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil. OK, what she possesses is just a little oil. I mean, she looks at it with sorrow. And she's not saying, well, I've got this oil. You know, you've got a big oil tank. She's just got this little vessel full of oil. That's all she had. But she had something that she could lift up to the man of God. She goes, well, I got this. It's kind of like Peter saying, this little lad has five loaves and two fishes, but why do they have them so many? And aren't you struck with the fact, as well, that God uses things rather just poof, making something. You ever think about that? Did you read the Bible? That God takes what's there and God makes it greater? So many times, I don't know if there's exceptions to that, you know, as far as what God does. I can't, in my mind, this morning as I'm standing here, just think of exceptions to that, but so often God takes like the five loaves and two fishes and He multiplies it to be the multitude. Or, I like the story of the coin in the mouth of the fish, because I like to think, you know, what rich pharisee or drunk pharisee was on the boat, and somebody, you know, an angel or something came and shook the boat, you know, and the coin falls out of his pocket and the fish grabs it, and that's where, you know, the coin came from, but God did it counterfeit money. God didn't say, well, you know, we're just going to poop, make money appear out of nothing. God took a resource that was already there, the mud, put it into the man's eyes, and Jesus spitting the mud, taking that mud and applying it to the man's eyes. It's just interesting that He uses what's there. The water turned into wine. All there was was water. But God made it into wine, because he's the creator. But it was there, it was something that was there that God took a hold of and God changed. I guess to put it practically to us today, I hope today rests in the fact that we have God's Spirit. And if you've been thinking today, well Pastor, we've got God's Spirit, so I don't know what you're talking about. I am saved. There's terms in the scripture that when he speaks about the Holy Ghost, one is indwelt. When somebody gets saved, they're indwelt by God's Spirit. They're baptized by God's Spirit into the body of Christ. They are sealed by God's Spirit, identifying them as a child of God. But there's another term, and that is filled. Being filled with God's Spirit is something that the Bible also speaks about. As Paul said in Ephesians 5 verse 18 when he says, Be not drunk with wine where it is excess. Don't be controlled by wine, but be filled with the Spirit. What is that, if not a greater endowment of God's Spirit? This idea of letting God's Spirit have control, letting God's Spirit fill us up to the brim, right? The fullness of God's Spirit. Acts 2, verse 4, as they preach at Pentecost, by the way, Jesus said to them, tarry ye here in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. They were saved men. But they needed an indument with power to do the work of the ministry. Acts 2 verse 4, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave the mantras. Acts 4 verse 8, then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, okay? Acts 4 verse 31, when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they assembled together. And by the way, they had been filled at Pentecost, but it says here a couple verses, or a couple chapters later, after a lot has taken place and persecution has come in, they got on their knees and prayed for boldness, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost. They were filled again. And so, other scriptures, they read, you gotta just look at that charm, filled with the Holy Ghost, filled with the Holy Ghost, searching out among you, sending in an honest report, filled with the Holy Ghost. And so, the question this morning, you might look at your life and say, well praise God, Pastor, I am saved. I am saved, but are you filled with God's Spirit? Are you wealthy with what the oil of God's Spirit that God desires to give for the sake of everything that we're considering this morning? And so the miracle was a multiplication of what was already possessed. And just to make it practical, you can't have the power of God in your life if you're not saved. Somebody could come to a church, they could understand doctrine, they could understand practice, but if they don't understand the personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and have Jesus Christ in their heart, and therefore the Holy Spirit, they haven't even begun the process of what they need, because they don't even have a little oil. They need oil first, that God can multiply. And then the miracle depended upon the work of faith of the recipient. The miracle depended upon the work of faith of the recipient. OK, notice a story where somebody has to obey. Somebody has to do something. I mean, she can sit on her hands and go, oh, you know, I don't really believe that's going to happen. I don't believe that's going to work. And the miracle's not going to happen. So she has to have faith in what God says to do. And so he says, in verse 3, go borrow thee vessels abroad with all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not a few. Right? That is a step of faith. Can you imagine? The lady knocks on your door and says, I've got to borrow your vessels. Why? Well, I'm going to get some oil. Where? Well, I just am, and I need to get as many vessels as I can. I mean, it's just a little bit odd to have somebody coming at your door barging vessels. Have you heard about someone? She's really barging a lot of vessels. What's going on? Is she drilling a well? I don't know what they were thinking, but surely she couldn't do that without people thinking something, because she's not really going to tell them what's going to happen, because she's going to go into a room by herself. If there's a privacy aspect of what's going to take place. And so she has to do this work of faith that other people might look at, and they say, something's wrong with this lady. And let's, again, make it practical. As we borrow vessels, somebody's going to say something like this, you're praying too much. You've got too many vessels. You're praying too much. What's the point? You're praying, but what's this all about? You're praying too much. Don't you hear stuff like that? Doesn't Satan say that stuff, even to people that love us? You're praying too much. You're too into it. That's too many vessels, right? You're evangelizing too much. Just kind of back up a little bit. Why are you so into it? Why are you giving yourself to it? You don't need to get that into it. I understand, evangelize a little. Okay, but not evangelize too much. Church attendance. You don't need to be there all the time. We'll see this. If people come to our church and they got unsafe spouses, they're going to say, hey, I don't like it that you're gone all the time. I don't like it that on Sundays you're there. Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Thursday night. That's too into it. I can understand you can have this, you can have one vessel, but not all these vessels, right? Sanctify. And so we say, I'm going to sanctify myself. Because by the way, the Holy Spirit isn't going to fill a dirty vessel. So I'm going to get rid of that TV show. That's not going to please a lot of people in my home if they want to watch the show. I'm going to get rid of this. I'm not going to go there anymore. That's not going to please anybody that wants to go there, that's in your family or in your relationships. And so there might be friendships broken up by that, right? But I've decided, no. I'm going to set some vestiges up for God. So I'm going to sanctify myself. That might mean separating. I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to drink that. And people say, hey, why are you borrowing all those vessels? Because the Bible says, borrow not a few, if you want oil. Then there might be a labor of faith where you go, you know what? It doesn't matter if people make fun of me. It doesn't matter what anybody else said if I got disgraced. I'm just going to put the vessels there. I'm going to put the vessels there. And I'm not ashamed to go up to them and say, you know, I'd like to borrow a vessel. I don't care what you think about me. I just care about getting ready for what God's going to do because I believe in God. I mentioned, I just referred to the story of 2 Kings 13. Joe asked, remember the arrows? That's not faith. Faith is saying, no, God says strike the arrow. Strike, strike, strike, strike. Borrow these vessels, borrow not a few. If we want the oil of God's spirit, we ought to say, by God's grace, I don't care if everybody thinks I'm cuckoo. Why? Because we need oil. Why? Because we have a gospel debt we can't pay and we're losing our families. We've got to have the oil of God's spirit. And so, the miracle depended upon the work of faith of the recipient. Even so, you know, how many times did Jesus say, be it unto thee according to thy faith? You know, is there such a thing as faith that does not work? Yes, but is it biblical faith? No. And so James says, faith without works is dead. So I believe God's going to give us oil, Pastor. Well, what work of faith are you doing to see God pour out of His Spirit upon us? And so the miracle depends upon that work of faith, that obedience to God. And then the miracle was contained within the room where the vessels were gathered. There's going to be an impact beyond just that room, but primarily the miracle takes place in that room. It's just right there that the miracle takes place. Continue within the room where the vessels were gathered. Verse 4. It says, and when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon me and upon my sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. I mean, that's a precious promise, isn't it? It's going to happen. Let me just go ahead and close the doors. It's coming. And can you imagine their anticipation as they walked in? The sons and the mother. There's going to be some times, reminiscing in the future, where they're going to look back at that time and say, mom, do you remember when God did that? That was incredible. We were there, we got to see it, we got to see the oil that God provided. It was glorious! Why? Because they were there, present, to see what God was going to do. There was a conference at Paul's Baptist in Wisconsin back in about 2005. You know, I've only got so many stories in my 43 years that I can share, so forgive me, at times they're going to be repeated. But in 2005, at the Holiness Conference, it's a conference of people seeking God for revival, so it's similar to this idea of seeking God's Spirit and an outpouring of God's Spirit. And that year, we were commemorating the 200-year anniversary of the Walsh Revival, 100-year anniversary, centennial, which happened in 1904, 1905. As Charlie Kinkle got up to preach a morning session that was supposed to end at noon, he just preached a very convicting message. And you got 600 people there that gathered there for a desire for revival. And he just said some basic things like this. If you've had your devotions every day this past week, what should you think? If anybody's there seeking revival, they ought to have the prayer time and the time of the Word of God every day that past week. If you've done that, stand up. If you've got tracts in your pocket, stand up. I mean, you just started calling out some basic things. If you've done this, stand up. That's pretty convicting. And you might think, well, that's kind of mean. You shouldn't preach like that. But he did. And I've never seen anyone else preach like that, especially with real Christians sitting out there. And church, and these are godly people. When the invitation was given, half the congregation came forward. That's what it sounded like. And there's weeping. And they stood up and they said, you know what, we're going to go to a prayer time after a break. Actually, it was the early afternoon session. It was the early afternoon session after lunch. I'm sorry. Afternoon session. We're going to have a prayer time after this, after a break. But let's just go to prayer now. And as we went to prayer, soon into the prayer time, a man stood up and he cried out, just almost screaming, oh my God, oh my God. And you think, well, what? Does that have to do with anything having to do with prayer? He cried out in such a way, almost like he was scared of God. And you could ask, well, Pastor Ben, do you think that was of the Lord or what? I don't know, but the sense of God was so real that I can't, I don't know. And it continued with this idea of repentance for about an hour and a half. The second hour and a half had to do with evangelism. And I walked out of that place, in a place that you wouldn't think, well that's a very religious place to speak about God. I said to another man, I said, the sense of God's presence here is very real, everywhere on the property. See, I'm glad I was there. And I share that story with you today because I was there, but you think about it, if I wasn't there, I wouldn't have this story. Why? Because I didn't experience it. Does that... I hope that makes sense. I mean, in the hearts of the kids, those boys could have thought, well, mom, you do that, you do that. And they would have missed the blessing of having experienced what God was going to do. And I just wondered this, when God does what he does, do we not have the experience? Because, hey, maybe we weren't there. We didn't see it. Or we're not going to be there. We're not going to think, well, it's that important that, you know, it's that important that I get into that room with Mom as she pours out, by God's instruction, the oil. Or by God's grace we think, man I don't want to miss that. I want to be there. Because I want to see what God is going to do. The miracle only took place in that room. The blessing is going to go beyond that. But I don't know about you, I want to be there to see the miracle. When God gives it. And the miracle was given privately, as we just talked about. But would be revealed openly. The miracle was given privately, but would be revealed openly. So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her. And she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessel was full, that she said unto her sons, bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, there is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Where did the oil come from? A little vessel. Joe, just an aside this morning, you might think God can't use me because I'm just a little vessel. God can't use me? I don't want to put words in anybody's mouth, but God can't use me because of, you know, I'm just... Well, hey, it wasn't about the vessel, was it? It's about what? What would come out of that vessel? And the Bible says about the Holy Spirit that Jesus spoke about it this way. Out of his belly, a convert of Christ, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit. Does it matter this morning what kind of vessel it is? It doesn't matter. What matters is the oil. And so if you look at your life today and think, oh God, I can't use this. What takes place privately, the outpouring is going to bless publicly, but it's just through a little vessel. D.L. Moody was being used of God to a degree. But there were two older ladies that would come up to him nightly in New York City and just say that they were praying for him. And it bothered him a little bit. Like, why do you keep telling me you're praying for me? You know, there's other people who pray about him. The way they said it kind of made him feel bad, like he was missing something he should have had. So he said, tell me, what is it that you're praying? And they're basically praying for him that he could receive basically almost like a second blessing. And I'm not going to this morning morning message talk about what it is, you know, second blessing, endowment with power, filling, okay? Well, basically the idea is this, I mean, you've got the Spirit of God, but the fullness of God's Spirit, the enablement of God's Spirit, they used to call it this, unction. You ever heard that term, unction? I mean, that someone would have that endowment with power from God's Spirit. And so he said, well, I'm going to pray with you. And he started praying about it. And in New York City, he was walking on Wall Street, and came under a tense working of God's Spirit in his heart, when he knew a friend's door was ahead, knocked on the door and said, can I get a place privately to pray? And God so revealed himself to Dio Mudi that in his biography, as he talks about his life, there was a turning point in his preaching. as God's Spirit began to pour out through him, but it took place privately, but it was seen publicly. Matthew 6.6 says, But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which is safe in secret shall reward thee openly. See, she came out of that closet, and she had gotten in there, and she went in poor, and she came out rich. And it was evident to everybody that knew her. Man, she's coming into some money. Has anybody looked at her life and said, you know, you're coming into something there. Something's changing your life. And I'll tell you, I'll be the first one to put my name at the top of the list saying, Ben Shore needs this. I need God's Spirit to use me. I don't want to enter into my closet and come out the same. I need God to pour out upon me so that we can have the oil that we need. We need it. And so this morning, Is what you're doing privately, seeking God for His blessing, is it evident publicly? See, Christianity is not, well, you know, a creed. You know, I believe that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus. And because I agree with that, I've got it. Now I've got to receive it. endowment with power from God isn't just like, well, that's what everyone gets. You gotta seek God and say, you know, how much more should my Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? If you want clarification on this, come back tonight, I'm gonna speak about it a little bit as we consider things that impact our relationship with God as far as our power. But the Holy Spirit's primary, that we need the oil of God's Spirit It's going to be evident in our life. There's going to be an outflow of oil from our life by God's grace because that time spent with God and what God will do through that. We need God to work privately so that it will be seen openly. And then lastly, this morning, the miracle of oil benefited her community and her family. And so it benefited her community and her family. Verse 7 says, Then she came and told the man of God, he said, Go sell thy oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children the rest. See, it was a blessing for the family. They had oil. They needed it too. And there was a source for oil that had just come to this lady. And the blessing to her was provision for her family. It rescued her family. And that a community needs. Send a precious picture of the gospel. That God's precious spirit can make our family what it ought to be. That's going to bless our family. But that that outflow is going to benefit those that are in the community and satisfy the creditor. Mrs. Fosmar. The speaker's wife was from Chicago. And the church that she was at was Marquette Manor Baptist Church in Chicago, in Downers Grove now. But it used to be in the heart of Chicago. And our families have a connection there. Because my dad and my mom both worked at that church. And that's where my mom and dad met. Her dad pastored that church before the pastor that was there, when my mom and dad were there. But there was a man that got saved in Chicago at that time when, I think it might have been just as she was ending her time there, and just before my dad came, there was a man saved. His name was George Minsick. George Minsick had come into his house and found his wife and his daughter praying for him to get saved. He was a gangster without a home. And he took a gun and he put it up to his daughter's head. And it scared him so much that he ran to the church and found the pastor and got saved. His life totally changed. He became a man that was filled with oil. It changed him. God so used him, and there was such a community blessing to what George did as he went into the prisons preaching, that the city of Chicago took his record, that that was thick, and publicly burned it. Pastor Plosmark told me, we talked about him a little bit, George Minsik, a little bit at the table. He said, I asked George once, tell me how many people did he kill? And George Minsik said, I'm not going to talk about that. It's under the blood. It's in the past. I'm just saying that to emphasize. This man, his life was transformed by the oil of God's spirit. His family was transformed. And it had impacts upon the community. Say we can look at it this morning and think, well, no big deal. We don't have oil. Or we can look at it and say, you know what? I'm burdened about that. And I just wonder today, do you feel compelled to call to God today for the miracle that we need? You know, this woman just cried out and said, help! You know, is there anything in her heart that said, you know, we just gotta cry out as a church and say, God, we need the oil of God. Spirit, we gotta have it! Because God, there's a great gospel indebtedness and we're not paying it. Do you know that today? Do you understand that as a church we haven't fulfilled our obligation to Midlothian, or Edinburgh, or Southern Scotland, or the United Kingdom, or the world, that we're not paying our debt as God desires us to, that we have a debt that we cannot pay, that we are losing, and potentially family members because we don't have the power that we need, that God stands willing to give, and that as a church we're praying about, saying God give us that enablement by your spirit, rescue our families, I've shared already, that's ministry families as well as church families that need that. Do you fear losing the next generation if you don't get the miracle? Are you willing to search your heart to see what you have without it? Are you willing to ask the question, am I filled with God's Spirit? Is there a demonstration of that in my life? Am I bold to give the Gospel? Am I burdened to give the Gospel? Am I ashamed to give the gospel? If somebody's spirit killed, they're not ashamed to give the gospel. They're not ashamed to speak about God. We trust God to multiply what we have. You might look at it and say, well, Pastor, I know I'm saved. I know I've got God's spirit. Are you willing to say, God, okay, what I possess, praise God, I possess God's spirit, but I need the fullness of God's spirit. What labor of faith will you do believing in God that the miracle will come? Are you willing to put out some vessels and say, God I'm just going to do my best to get those vessels there and I'm going to put those around because I believe you want to work and so I'm going to participate with works of faith believing that you're going to send the oil. If God sent the blessing Sunday night, if he sent the blessing Thursday night, Sunday school, Sunday morning, would you be here to receive it and to take that blessing and say, praise God, God sent it. Listen, revival is not bound to Sunday morning. I praise God for Sunday morning. But it's not bound to Sunday morning. It might be in evangelistic meetings on a Tuesday night that God's spirit breaks through and something glorious is accomplished, but we'd be here to see what God's going to do. I don't want to miss it. Our community needs to see publicly what God is doing privately. In other words, what is the outflow of this ministry ought to be known in the community. They ought to look at it and say, you know what? God is doing something there. There's oil. And praise God, that'll bless our community. Acts 2.17, it shall come to pass in the last days, he hath said, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh. Do you read that and think, well, I don't really know what that's about. Or do we look at it today and say, no, I know it's about intellectually. Maybe we haven't experienced it as a desire to experience it. But God, I believe you could send that. God, pour out your spirit upon us. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the word of God as we've examined it this morning. Father, there's a great need. Father, I pray that we wouldn't look at this text today and go, no, I don't really want that. Father, how sad. I don't assume that that's anybody's heart today. I don't believe that. Lord, there ought to be in our hearts this great desire for this outpouring of your spirit. Father, we can't give the gospel as we need to. We are gospel debtors and Satan's mocking us because we have not that which to pay and he's taking away our children into sin. Father, I'm praying as I would have prayed at camp. With ministers that, Father, I've seen young people turn their back on God. And Father, as a church, we need to realize this. That it's not okay to just have doctrine and practice. God, we need power. Father, we need oil. Father, I pray that you pour out of your Spirit upon us. Father, please, I pray that we could see an old-fashioned revival. And so, Lord, I just pray, take this text, burn it into our hearts, help us to consider it. And Father, by your grace, help us to do works of faith, putting the vessels out, waiting for the oil to come. And then we see it. And Father, we pray that we could see the blessing, just like this woman did. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. Stay safe. Essentially, she's got a sleeping child on her lap. Port 22, take time to be equally. Is it pre-recorded? Yeah, it is pre-recorded. Port 22, stay on the same, take time to be equally.