God Almighty as a judge upon His throne. Holiness is all around Him as He judges dead and born. Satan is old accuser and he stands before the king with his list of accusations all my sins he tries to bring There he points, accusing fingers to where I stand before the throne. Then a voice behind me whispers, child, I'm near. You're not alone. That's my savior, my interceder. standing in my place. As he stands before the Father, he speaks one word, and it is grace. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse ♪ Grace, grace, God's grace ♪ ♪ Grace that is greater than all my sin ♪ ♪ That's my child, she's been forgiven ♪ ♪ See my hands, my side and feet ♪ That's my child and she is free There is now no condemnation Unto men who are redeemed With my blood I want her pardoned That's my child and she is free With my blood, I bought her pardon. That's my shot, and she is free. There's the wonder of the sunset at evening. The wonder of the sunrise I see. But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul is the wonder Oh, the wonder of it all, the wonder of it all, just to think that God loves me. Oh, the wonder of it all, the wonder of it all, just to think loves me. There is wonder in the springtime and our beds. The sky, the stars, But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul is the wonder that's only begun. Oh, the wonder of it all. The wonder of it all, just think that God loves me. The wonder of it all, the wonder of it all, just think that God loves me. ♪ There's the wonder of God's revelation ♪ ♪ The word he dwelt among men ♪ ♪ But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul ♪ ♪ Is that Jesus is coming ♪ Oh, the wonder of it all, the wonder of it all, just to think that God loves me. Oh, the wonder of it all, the wonder of it all, just to think Open them to the book of First Kings, chapter number 17, First Kings, the 17th chapter, and again, express our joy and appreciation at being here at Sunshine and being here with you. Our hearts have been blessed and we're grateful for the opportunity First Kings chapter 17, let's begin our reading tonight in verse number 17. First Kings, the 17th chapter, the 17th verse, and it came to pass after these things that the son of a woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him. She said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou coming to me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? And 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 bed, his own bed, and 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? And 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. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered him unto his mother. And Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God. and that the word of the Lord is in thy mouth is truth. We'll end our reading there tonight. I want us to look at Elijah here. Last night we used that word, see, and we saw, I asked a question, what hinders us? Tonight I want us to look at it and see something in a different light. If you follow the life of Elijah, you will know that Elijah was quite a unique individual. Some of the things that contribute to his uniqueness was his beginnings was kind of just all of a sudden. And this chapter, he just appears on the pages of the Bible. It doesn't give us much of his background. doesn't really say much about his lineage per se, and he came somewhat abruptly. He came talking to the king and Ahab, and he just gave him words of condemnation from God, and God tells him to hide himself by the brook. And it's there we find the beginnings of God's dealing in the life of Elijah. Elijah there by that brook. Then God supplies his needs in a quite a unique way. You recall, Elijah's by the brook. God feeds him with the ravens as they delivered meat to him and the brook for his nourishment. And then the brook dries up. And, you know, a good saying I always say that, what are you going to do when your brook dries and your bird dies? And that's pretty much what happened to Elijah. His brook dried up, didn't it? And God moved him to a poor widow's house. Not a rich widow. That wouldn't have been much faith, would it? Not a rich widow, not a well-to-do widow, but a poor, on the last leg of her journey, widow. And there was a cruise of oil that was about to run dry. And Elijah tells that widow, just go back to the barrel and dip again, and you'll see what God can do. And I tell you tonight that if your barrel seems to be empty, by faith, according to the word of God, just dip again, you'll find God is more than capable of providing. But now Elijah is dealing with not a natural problem, but he needs a supernatural intervention. God has led him through stages of his life and he's coming to a place that he needs God in a great way. When you are hungry, when you are needing water and nourishment, you can get out there and you can do and hustle and just try your best to survive. I remember my wife's grandfather talked to us about when they were in the Great Depression, how they would hunt squirrels and birds and anything they could to survive. But when you're dealing with this problem Elijah's dealing with in our texts, there's nothing you can do. you need a supernatural intervention. And that's how life is. God brings us through problems and then we hit a big problem that only God can solve. Let us look at three major thoughts tonight about Elijah and this widow and seeing God do the supernatural. Notice first of all that our positions do not remove problems. in verse 17, and 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. Our position does not remove problems. Here this widow had fulfilled several roles. Notice, first of all, she was very subservient. After these things, what are these things? Well, one of these things the Bible is referring here to is her servitude. The widow was gathering sticks, and Elijah shows up on the scene, and she is gathering these sticks and about to fix her last meal, and Elijah says, I tell you what, I'm going to come stay at your house, and you're going to feed me until God does something different. She doesn't argue with him, she doesn't try to fuss with him, she doesn't try to reason with him. She opens her house up to this prophet and he lodges with her family until all of these things pass. She'd been very subservient. She inconvenienced herself. I don't know about you, we were talking about it earlier this week, me and Brother James and the pastor and others, we talked about how sometimes living with someone for a small length of time is not so bad, but if you stay a length of time, it's hard to have two families together. It just doesn't work. Can you imagine what it would be like for a preacher to show up at your house and say, I'm going to stay here until further notice? and I'm going to get one of your rooms, and you're going to feed me, and you ain't got much food, and you don't know where your food's coming from tomorrow, but I'll let you know when I'm moving out." Well, that's somewhat what happened with this widow. He just shows up. She never seen him. As my mama used to say, she didn't know him from Adam, and she didn't know him at all. And here he shows up, and she just opens up her house. She inconvenienced herself for this preacher, and now she's facing problems. Can you imagine what the devil must have said to her? Look, God doesn't care about you. Ah, listen, the preacher don't care about you. God doesn't really concern Himself with you. Look how you've inconvenienced yourself, and this tragic thing's happened to you. Why, if the Lord really loved you, He wouldn't allow this to happen. Look how you sacrificed, and look how you have inconvenienced yourself. You have went out of your way, and God let this bad thing happen to you. I tell you what, the devil doesn't miss a beat. Come on, not only was she subservient, but she had sacrificed. Elijah come into her house, and she was at the bottom of the barrel, and she said, I'm gathering these two sticks, and I'm going to gather these two sticks and make a fire, and my son and I are going to eat, and then we're going to die. You know, you can't make a big fire with two sticks. I mean, she was at the bottom. She was, this was the last straw, this was the end of the line, and here she was going to sacrifice, going to give all that she had for this profit. She said, I've got just a little bit of meal here, a little bit of oil, and Elijah says, hey, bring me something to eat first. Bring me something to eat first. And she does that by faith. She gives by faith. She doesn't have any cupboards she can fall back on. She doesn't have any other thing in the basement or in the attic. She doesn't have any reserves. This is her last meal. And by faith, she gives to this prophet. Now her son's dead. Don't you know the devil said to her, I would imagine, look how God's mistreating you after you went out of your way and by faith you trusted Him. And now look what this has happened. Our positions do not remove problems. Not only is she sacrificed, not only has she been subservient, but she's also seen God provide. She has seen God come through. Can you imagine what it must have been for this widow to go back to that barrel? I imagine the first day after she had gathered that two sticks and made that fire and went down in there and dug into the bottom of the barrel and came up and she may have said, well, that's a coincidence. A little bit more in there than I thought. And she made that meal, and then the next day, I'm sure they didn't eat three meals a day and have some ice cream in between, or Tim Tams, I'm sure it was very, very meager. And can you imagine the next day when she went to get that one meal, she said, there's not gonna be enough. But sure enough, she dug down in that barrel and she said, well, maybe I miscalculated, but tomorrow there's not gonna be any. See, I don't believe God filled that barrel to the top. I believe she always was on the bottom for several reasons. The most just logical, just thinking out of the practical, if God would have made that barrel overflow, neighbors would have heard about that, and other people would have heard about that, and they may have come down there and tried to hurt that woman and steal her barrel. I believe God let her dig at the barrel. But anyway, the third day she comes and digs, I believe you may have heard a little shout from the kitchen. I believe she may have got a little excited and said, well, praise the Lord. Maybe under her breath, well, praise the Lord. But after a week later, she went and I believe she may have got her handkerchief and just waved it. Maybe she didn't shout. Maybe she's from Australia and she was a little bit more reserved. She wasn't like us loud Americans. Maybe she had that reserved mentality and she said, And she didn't let anybody hear her, but she was excited, God's done it again! She's seen God work time and time again, but it doesn't look like God's working now. Don't look like God's coming through now. Look like God's forgot her address. Look like God's forgot who she was. It look like God has stepped out of the room of her life. It look like God has walked off. I'm telling you it doesn't matter what position you are in in life. We're going to have problems. Don't fall under the realm of the tricks of the devil that you think, hey, I'm serving God, I'm giving the missions, I'm faithful at church, I'm teaching a Sunday school class, I'm doing this, then I shouldn't have to go through this. Hey, the Bible says it rains on the just and the unjust. We live in a depraved, fallen world. We're going to have problems. Man is born a woman a few days and full of trouble. There's just no escaping it. And the devil will use the problems of life to beat you over the head with and make your faith uh, be doubtful in the good grace of God. Problems, opposition doesn't remove us from problems. And secondly, notice verse number 18, and she said unto Elijah, what am I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou coming to me, coming to me to call my sins to remembrance? and to slay my son." Not only position, our position does not remove problems, secondly, our reaction is a true revealer. Our reaction is a true revealer. Notice first of all, she was sorrowful. She says, what am I to do with thee, O thou man of God? She somewhat seems to be, you can read this several different ways. You can read it as if she is broken. You can read this as if she is being critical. You can read into this as if she is lashing out. Her tone could be construed various different ways, but I say that problems somehow, troubles somehow, have a way of pulling our insides out. You get a man under pressure and you'll see what he's really like on the inside. Our reactions are true revealers. She is very much sorrowful. Not only is she sorrowful, but she is searching. Notice what she says. Art thou come to call my remembrance, my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? What is this sin she is referring to? Well, I can't answer that question because it's not given to us what this sin is. If you study commentaries, you'll find out that everybody has an opinion about what this sin is. And I have to agree with one commentator. I would say that probably, more than likely, this sin is idolatry. Possibly it is idolatry, and the reason behind that is because where she is geographically located. She is located, the Bible tells Elijah to arise and to go to Zarephath. Now if you know anything, if you've studied anything about that geographical location, you'll know that Zarephath was the hometown of none other than Jezebel. That's where Jezebel lived. And Jezebel was the promoter, the one that was so zealous for Baal and idolatry. She built temples for Baal all across Israel. And I would imagine that this lady was possibly an idolatry. And when Elijah showed on the scene, if there's anybody that's not an idolater, she knew Elijah wasn't. She knew that she had heard, I would have imagined, because the Bible tells us in the next chapter that there's no place in Israel that Ahab hasn't looked for Elijah. I would imagine they knocked on her door sometime or another, or they've been in her town sometime or another, saying, have you seen Elijah? Elijah's the one who called, shut the heavens and the rain, and that's why we're in a drought, because of Elijah, and Elijah hates idolatry, and now maybe she had her idols in the basement when Elijah moved in. Maybe she took her little idols and she covered them where he couldn't see. Maybe she stopped worshiping idolatry so fervently when Elijah moved in, and now, whatever it might be, she said, Elijah, you have come to call my sin to remembrance. And I tell you this evening that our troubles are not always in results of our sin. There are some that say if you got sickness, it's because you sin. If you're poor, because you sin. That's not true. That's not the case. However, when troubles come in our life, it should cause us to search ourselves. Say, Lord, is there something that you're wanting to show me about myself? I lost my job. Is it something I've done? Or maybe is it just something to grow my faith? Open to whatever the Lord wants to show us. And here she's soul-searching. She's sorrowful. But I want us to focus on the third thing about her reaction. Notice her surrender. Elijah says in verse number 19, and he said unto her, Give me thy son. Now if you follow Elijah, he has told her in verse number 10, he said, Fetch me. In verse number 11, he said, bring me. In verse number 13, he said, make me. But now he's saying, give me. Oh, my dear friend, tonight, can you imagine what it must have been like for this woman to hold that child to her bosom? The love of her life, all she had left. Being a widow, she was living for this son. She's holding this dead child in her arms and she is grieving and Elijah says, give it to me. Give him to me. You know, it's easy to go and fetch him something. It's easy to make Him something. It's easy to bring Him something. But now He's wanting her to give Him the most precious thing that she knows and she has. Give me. Give me. Surrender. The Lord says that it must be Him first. You remember when he was recruiting disciples and they said, let me first go and bid my family goodbye. Let me first go and do this or do that in the Gospels of Matthew chapter eight and Luke chapter number nine. Let me first, but it can never be me first when it comes to serving the Lord. It always must be Him first. And here Elijah is saying, give me that son. Can I tell you that's exactly how the Lord wants us to be and how we should respond. Give Him the troubles that we have. Give Him the burdens that we carry. Give Him the grief that we have. Give Him the life that we have. Give it to Him. Oh, this lady, if she would have held on to Him. She would have never received what she had later. And we're looking at this thought tonight in the avenue of missions. Can I say God will do more with our finances when we give it to him than if we hoard it for ourselves? God will do more with our finances. I'm telling you, I cannot explain it. I don't always understand it, but it is amazing to me what it is like when we give to the Lord how He blesses. I'm thankful that as a young man, I mean as a teenage boy, I learned that truth. And then as growing up, and a young married man, that truth was anchored in my soul, that giving, you never can out-give God. I've seen Him time and time again make a way when it was unbelievable, when things just did not look like it could be. By giving. Giving. Give me. And I tell you tonight, that's what He wants from our life, for us to give it to Him. If you're here tonight and you've never given Him your life, can I say He stands with open arms and a loving heart has already been expressed, the love of God. And He says, give me your life, give me your life. Why? Why? Because He died for that life and He will ransom. That word redeem means to buy back. And that's what He wants from you tonight if you're without Christ, to give Him your life. The reaction's a true revealer, a position that doesn't remove her problems. And thirdly, notice a meeting with God is a must. Verses 19 through the conclusion of the chapter, we find Elijah as he takes this child in their bosom and carried him up into the loft where he abode and laid him upon his bed. And he cried unto the Lord. and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? Notice Elijah's separation. The Bible says he took her from her bosom and carried him up into the loam. Elijah made a break, a separation. He walks away. He walks away from her grief, He walks away from her doubt, He walks away from her sorrow, and He gets alone. He walks away and gets alone. Can I tell you that's exactly what it must be in order for you and I to experience a meeting with God. It must be a walking away. We must walk away from the things of this world. We must walk away from the griefs of life. We must walk away from the doubts. Walk away from the pulls of this old flesh. And we must get alone. Thank God we can conjugate together and God can meet with us. expressed in the prayer, the singing, and how we enjoy the singing of the songs, and the Spirit of God moves, and our hearts are refreshed, and all of that is a blessing, it's a joy, but I'm telling you it is, it pales in comparison to the days that we are secluded And we're all alone with the Lord. We're in that place of prayer. We're in that place of meditation. We're in that place of communion with God. There's nothing to compare with you and the Lord being alone, away from all of the things of this world of separation. And we see a sincerity. The Bible says, and he cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord my God, You hear the agony and the sincerity in his voice, in his prayer. I heard one preacher say, when we lose those first two words, O Lord, and I pray, we have gone in the wrong direction. When that heart, you read the Psalms, he often begins his prayer, O Lord. That denotes a a brokenness, it denotes a dependency, it acknowledges a omnipotence, oh Lord, a sincerity. The Bible says he takes this child and he lays him on this bed and notice what he said, he stretched himself upon the child three times. Now some of the commentators say by doing this he is breaking the law of touching the dead, but he is showing that he needs something more than what the law can give. He stretches himself. I want to play on that word stretched. Stretched himself. You know anything about stretching? You'll see athletes do it. You see weirdos in the airport on the airplane doing it in the aisles. Why in the world is he stretching? And he's gonna go sit right back in that seat. Stretch. You wake up in the morning, you stretch. You extend as far as you can and try almost as if you're reaching beyond where your borders are. Trying to go a little further. trying to extend just a, as Mama says, a smidgen further, just a little bit more, and he stretched himself. I'm going to tell you, if you're going to see God, you've got to stretch yourself. You've got to stretch. You know what Christians have become? Couch potatoes. They've said in there, y'all got lazy boys? Recliners. They're easy chairs. They don't want to stretch. Spiritually speaking, they want to come to church and just go through their Christian life comfortable without ever stretching. We'll never see God move until we stretch. and we'll never reach the world with the gospel unless we stretch. Jehovah Preacher, you don't know what I'm doing. I'm already giving faithfully. Thank God, praise God, commendable. I'm gonna tell you, if we're gonna see God do something, it's gonna take some stretching. Stretching. In our home, we need to stretch. Say, God, I want to be more for you. I want to do more for you. You see, some people, they think there's a magic saying. There's a magic dose. There's something they can do to get this spirituality to reach this plateau. There's a formula. There's a method. Can I say it in a hymn? The Bible says, hey, if we just hunger and thirst, He's not going to deny us to be filled. What it is, it's a stretching. Elijah just stretched himself. Boy, wouldn't it be something if sunshine at this church just this year stretched himself. We said, boy, I can't believe we went that far. Well, concluding, Elijah takes the child down to his mother and he says, see, thy son liveth. Look what God can do. Look what God can do with a hopeless situation. Look what God can do with a desperate situation. Look what God can do in a doubtful circumstance. And she says, Now I know thou art the man of God and the word of the Lord is in thy mouth. You know what amazes me about her response? The Bible doesn't say that she grabbed that boy and said, Oh, honey, you're still alive. Oh, I'm so glad that you're here. Oh, I'm so... No, the Bible doesn't say she even acknowledged that boy. It's almost as if she was so overwhelmed with the person of the Lord than she was with the power that the Lord used through Elijah. Now I know that the word of the Lord is in thy mouth is true. See thy son living. See what God can do with an individual, a church, a home, a person that will yield themselves to the Lord. It amazes you, young person, it amazes you what God can do with you. They'll look back and they'll say, see what God can do with that young person. I never dreamed that God could use him like that or her in that light. See what God can do with that church. I never dreamed that their reach around the world could extend in such a great facet. See what God can do. See what God can do with that family, that family that was a mess, a wreck, but they yielded themselves to God, and God has done something magnificent. See what God can do with that individual that was lost without Christ, had no hope, had no joy, had no peace, had no fulfillment, and they yielded themselves to God, and God saved them, and now they're serving the Lord. They have peace in their heart, and joy in their... See what God can do, what God can do. And many of you tonight are testimonies of what God can do. Now tonight, maybe you need to come. Find somewhere around this altar and not physically stretch, but spiritually say, Lord, I want to stretch for you. Maybe you need to say, Lord, I want to come as a sinner because you stretched on that cross for me. I want to yield myself and ask you to save me. I want to be a husband, a young person. As a young person, I'm not really being what God wants me to be. But tonight, I want to come and say, Lord, I'm tired of being all drawn together, carnally minded. Spiritually, I want to stretch far from you. I want to come and pray and say, Lord, stretch my faith this year in this matter of missions greater than I can imagine. Maybe you had a number in mind, but God tonight stretched it. You know, we don't mind him stretching the paycheck. I'm going to tell you, he'll stretch that paycheck if we stretch our faith by his obedience to him. Stretch, stretch. Will you bow your heads with me? Our Father, I pray the Spirit of God would minister in our midst. I pray you'd help us to be mindful. Lord, I pray you'd strengthen, encourage, speak. Oh God, we pray in Jesus' name, we ask it. Lord, we pray and plead. Amen. Will you stand tonight? Our heads are bowed and we're quietly standing. Our eyes are closed. Maybe there's one here tonight that needs to come. Maybe you're not a Christian tonight. Maybe you're not saved. Maybe tonight you're not living like you ought to live. Maybe tonight you've been battling the number of what God would have you to give. Why don't you come talk to the Lord about your need? Join these that are already coming and those that are here praying. It's amazing what the Lord will do.