July 15, 2001

How Does God Bless?

Phil. 4, 1 Kings 17

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was an unhappy man. This man was putting drywall mud on a wall, and he was not happy. The mud was not laying down right, it kept getting flaws and blemishes in it, and it was a terrible aggravation. And the man became very annoyed. The man continued working, and things got worse. It seemed like the harder he tried, the worse things looked, and it was very frustrating. And in his rage and frustration, the man asked the Lord, "Lord, why is this apparently simple task so difficult and frustrating?" And the Lord said, "So that I can teach you something." Oh. We learn things from experience, don't we? And the experiences that we learn the most from are generally unpleasant, aren't they?

I can preach and teach until I'm blue in the face, and if God really blesses, you'll might retain and apply 10 or 15% of what you hear. But if God puts you through the wringer and lets you experience His truths first hand, those among you who are wise will retain and apply a whole lot more, amen?

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to Philippians 4 and verse 10. What we are going to do here today is to see the theory and principles behind how God blesses, and then we are going to go to the Old Testament book of 1 Kings and see how this works in real life. The context here is that Paul had received a gift of financial support from the church at Philippi, and he is thanking them for it, and pointing out to them how and why God uses some people to meet the needs of other people, and how it frequently involves times of adversity and hardship.

Verse 10: " But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, - or thoughtful, you were concerned about me- but ye lacked opportunity.
Phi 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
Phi 4:12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Phi 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Phi 4:14 Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.
He is saying; "You did good: I really needed some help, and you folks sent me something and supplied my need."
Verse 15: "Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.
Phi 4:16 For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.
Phi 4:17 Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
Phi 4:18 But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.
Phi 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Everybody has needs. I have needs, you have needs, even the great apostle Paul had needs, and God almost always meets those needs through other people. Spiritual maturity helps us cope with having problems, having unmet needs, Paul says in verses 11 and 12 that he has learned how to be content whether his needs are met or not. Whether he is abased and put down, or whether he is having things easy and everything is comfortable, he has learned how to maintain a contented life. Whether he is full or hungry, whether he has everything he needs or not, he has learned how to be content. How many of us here today can say that? Are you able to be content whether you have everything you need or not? Whether things are comfortable of difficult? Are you still content?

How many are content when things are comfortable? How many are content when things are difficult? Which part do you obviously need more practice with? Scary, isn't it? But wouldn't it be nice to be able to be content no matter what?

God meets our needs, and he is able to meet all our needs, look at verse 19. God can meet all our needs how? According to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. When our needs are met, God is the source of meeting them, Jesus Christ is the means by which they are met, and His supply is inexhaustible. It doesn't run out. Notice that it does not say that God supplies our needs "out of" or "from" His riches in glory by Jesus Christ, but according to His riches in glory. It almost sounds like a blank check doesn't it? Guess what? It is. How much glory does Jesus Christ have? Apparently an endless amount. His glory is enough to meet the needs of everyone, all the time, forever.

Notice that there is no distinction between physical and spiritual needs in this passage. Paul had physical needs, and the church at Philippi helped to meet them financially. Paul says: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, none the less you did good when you shared with me when I was afflicted."
Having faith during adversity is not the same thing as enjoying it. Christian maturity can enable you to be content during hard times, but it doesn't change the fact that hard times are still hard times.

Hard times are easier when others help you. Paul was helped by other believers. God can use unbelievers to meet needs, He can use believers to meet the needs of unbelievers, He can even use fish or birds or whatever He chooses, but our concern is; how can He use us to help others? He used the believers at Philippi to meet Paul's needs, but first they had to make themselves available to be used. In verse 10, we see that those believers were compassionate, they were concerned about Paul, they would probably have done something sooner, but they did not have an opportunity. That tells us a couple things that are important:

It is not enough to be tender hearted or compassionate, you also need to be aware of opportunities when they happen. It is all very nice to hear about some body else's need and get all worked up about them, and pray for them, and think about them, and have concern, but somewhere along the way you need to start looking for how you can make a difference. Like we said last week, paraphrasing what the book of James tells us, if we know somebody that is cold and hungry, and all we do is pray for them, that is not Christian faith and love. Christian faith and love digs around until it can send them home with a set of warm sweats and a sack of groceries.

When we fail to allow God to use us to meet the needs of others, that says something about our Christianity. It says that we are selfish. If we have a problem with giving to others, we have a problem with being selfish. Our time, money, material goods, whatever.

In the Old Testament, God's people were commanded to give a tithe, ten percent of their income to God. That's not in the New Testament, so some people think that everything they make, they can keep for themselves. That's not real smart. Everything we have comes from God, and belongs to God, and He very generously suggests a pattern of us keeping about 90% of it, and give the rest of it to Him. That generally takes the form of giving it to His people, or His work. Generally.

Giving is a picture of the Old Testament sacrifices, which is what Paul describes for us in verse 18, an odor of a sweet smelling sacrifice, acceptable to God. Giving is an eternal investment, and God is mindful of what we freely and graciously give to Him, as Paul describes in verse 17, fruit that may abound to your account. When Paul says it abounds to our account, I think of it as giving to God, and then He causes it to draw interest, it abounds and increases to end up being more than what we give to start with.
God is able to take the things that we give to Him and make them more than what they are, or more than what we think they are worth. It is not like we give to God, and nothing much comes of it, we give to God, and He makes it much more than it would be worth otherwise.

I want us to see how this works in practice, turn to the Old Testament book of 1 Kings, chapter 17. Just to set the stage here, this was a time in the history of Israel when Ahab was king, and if you are not familiar with Ahab, he was a sorry rascal. Figure it out; anybody that would marry a woman named Jezebel couldn't be all that good... Jezebel was a gentile, and an idol worshipper, and she got her weak sorry husband to go along with everything she wanted, and pretty soon the whole country was given over to corruption. So God proceeded to bring chastisement on the land of Israel. He was going to send a three year long drought, and he raised up a prophet named Elijah to tell the king about it. That's the background, here's the details.

Chapter 17, verse 1: "And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word."
There were a number of occasions in Israel when the prophets and the kings didn't always see eye to eye, and I think we are safe to assume that this is one of them. Since Ahab and Jezebel were pretty much like Saddam Hussein is today, Elijah now began to have a physical need. He needed to get out of Dodge before they separated his head off his shoulders, which brings us to verse 2:
"And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
1Ki 17:3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
1Ki 17:4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there."
1Ki 17:5 So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
1Ki 17:6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook."

This is an interesting situation: God is providing for Elijah's safety, because he has told him where to hide from Ahab. God is providing for Elijah's provisions, because he has sent him to where there is water, and he is miraculously causing the ravens to bring him food, but there is just one problem: the raven was an unclean bird.

God had commanded his people Israel concerning what they could eat, what they could not eat, and in many instances, what they could not even touch, because it was unclean. In the bird family, He had told them that they were to have nothing to do with birds of prey, or vultures and scavengers, including ravens.
To Elijah, that would be like God telling us: "I'm going to take care of you, I'm going to meet all your needs, I'm going to send a flock of buzzards to personally bring you breakfast and dinner every day." Wow, thanks. I'm not sure I'll be real hungry...

So picture this prophet of God, probably the most "holy man" in the country, and God tells him: "I'm gonna personally take care of you, and I'm going to use an unclean bird to do it." Do you suppose this was kind of humiliating? Sort of like Paul, when he said: "I know how to be abased?"

Because God loves you, He will find some way to deliver you from your own misconceptions of your overactive ego, and your inflated self importance. God sent Elijah to tell the king off, and then to keep him from getting the big head, he put him in the most socially and religiously humbling position for a believer back then to be in. Met his need; and abased him.

And then God tightened the screws. Verse 7: "And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land." God kept His Word. The rain quit, the drought came, things got bad, and God continued to take care of His servant. Verse 8: "And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
1Ki 17:9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee."

Abasement lesson #2. Widows back in those days were not very high on the social or economic ladder, and God takes Elijah out of one humbling situation and sends him off to another one. And not just any widow woman, but a gentile widow woman. And best of all, a gentile widow woman from Jezebel's home territory. Do you suppose at this point that Elijah is wondering what God is up to?

God is going to meet the need of someone who is not a believer, and bring them to the point of faith, and He is going to use Elijah to do it, verse 10: "So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
1Ki 17:11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
1Ki 17:12 And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die."

By this time the drought has gone on for some time, and it's starting to take it's toll on the lower levels of society. The widow woman is down to her last handful of flour, to fix herself and her son their last pancake. She's in need. Probably depressed and discouraged. And now here comes this foreign religious fanatic that wants her to feed him. How much you want to bet that her reply to him sounded a little cranky? But that's OK. God is just as capable of taking care of us, and blessing us, when we are cranky and ignorant as when we are gracious and pleasant. It's just that when we are cranky and ignorant, it takes us longer to realize that we are being blessed. And God was preparing her a blessing.

Verse 13: "And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
1Ki 17:14 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth."

Lots of times, I think the biggest difference between those that are spiritually minded and those that are not, is how quick they recognize the hand of God in what's going on. Elijah was getting the picture. Elijah was beginning to see God's hand in this. Like Paul, he knew how to be abased and how to abound, and he could see in his abasement a chance for the grace of God to abound to this woman.

Question: how did he know that neither the meal not the oil would fail as long as the drought lasted? The Bible does not say, but I think he recognized the Lord's hand in putting him where he was, and the Lord's desire to show graciousness to that woman and her son. And he knew that no one can out give God, and that God will not allow Himself to be in debt to anyone. And if God was able to supernaturally use birds to provide him with food, then He could supernaturally use an almost empty barrel of meal and an almost empty container of oil to supply a household for many months.

And that was just what happened, verse 15: "And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.
1Ki 17:16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah."
The important thing here is, the widow woman exercised a certain amount of faith in God, symbolized in her obedience to God's prophet. She did what God's prophet told her to do. She did not act in blind faith, or wishful thinking, she had a word from God about her specific situation, and she acted on faith according to it. That's an important principle. She was obedient and faithful to an intelligent specific instruction. Bear in mind that she is a gentile, and has no real reason to have anything to do with this prophet of Jehovah, except his word.

So she gives him her last meal. That was a real act of faith. And when we respond to God's word in faith, He always sends a blessing. He meets our needs just like He met her needs. She had oil and meal when others didn't. Back when a lot of people were worried about the Y2K thing, everybody was storing up rice and beans, and you heard things like,"Won't you get tired of rice and beans?" "Yeah, but I'd rather be tired of rice and beans than tired of being hungry." And that's what happens here with the widow and her meal and oil. Just one kind of meal, and some oil to mix it with. Pancakes. Back in Philippians, it says that God shall supply all your needs, not all your greeds.

I have nothing against televangelists, I believe in using the media to get the message of Christ to people, but these church groups that teach and preach that if you give money to God He will make you rich? Giving to God is the formula for prosperity! That's like sending money to "Miss Cleo." Do you ever see her on your cable channels? "I see you putting money in the envelope, Honey, but the cards tell me you need to put in a lot more."

God does not bless greediness. God is not the author of the health and wealth gospel. God will supply all our needs, and God is gracious and generous, He gives us more than we can ask or think, but just because you might be a king's kid does not guarantee that the King is going to make you rich. God's goal is not to make you rich, it is to make you more like Jesus.

God also wants to give His children a solid education. Sometimes He gets us down to the bottom of the barrel so that we can learn something. We learn a lot more from hardship than we do from luxury, and we learn it a lot quicker, that's why God uses hardships on us.
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.
1Ki 17:18 And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?"
She is trying to make sense out of it all. She asks: "Why are you here? What do we have in common? You're supposed to be a holy man, can you understand how I feel? I know I'm a sinner, have you come here to judge my sin by taking my son's life? Tell me something so that I can make some sense out of this tragedy."

Those are hard questions. Sometimes God has to get us to the point of losing everything so that He can bring us to the point of faith and give us what we really need, and what He really wants us to have.
Verse 19: "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 own bed.
1Ki 17:20 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?
1Ki 17:21 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.
1Ki 17:22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
1Ki 17:23 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."
Elijah was notable for the miracles he performed during his ministry, and the Holy Spirit obviously used him here to do a great work. God uses Elijah here not only to get this woman to have some food during the famine, but to get her son raised to life again. And apparently up until this point, she was not even a believer, because look what she says to Elijah, verse 24:
"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 in thy mouth is truth."
Her doubts are replaced by belief. Her questions are replaced by confidence. Not only did God meet her physical needs, He met her spiritual needs as well. She came to a place of faith and trust in God. She came to trust that God could keep His Word. She became a believer.

Now lets think about what we read in Philippians and how it fits here: people have needs, and God is able to meet all our needs in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ saves from sin and gives life to the dead, and God's word, in the person of God's prophet, had that exact effect on that woman and her son long ago.

God uses some people to meet the needs of other people. God used his man to meet the needs of someone He wanted in His kingdom, and He used a believer and a time of trouble to bring that woman to the place of salvation.

God used trouble to bring Elijah to the place He wanted him. Having to live on complete dependance on God, even in the most unpleasant circumstances. All Elijah's needs were met, but obviously not in the way Elijah would have chosen.

Those who are willing to give to the Lord get blessed. The widow gave what little she had to God, and in return she got fed, she got her son raised to life again from the dead, and she gained a place in the kingdom of God.

Elijah got blessed. He did what God wanted him to do, and in return, he learned that he could trust God to meet his need in any situation, and trust God to use him to bring salvation and blessing to others.

And finally, just as God blesses us out of the riches of His glory in Jesus Christ, God gets the glory for what He does. The widow had a lot of doubts, a lot of troubles, and a lot of apparent hopelessness, but in the end, she gained her own life, the life of her son, and eternal life with God, because someone else was obedient to God.

Do you know someone today that has a need? Are you willing for God to use you to meet someone else's need? God may need to abase you for a while before He can use you. If God has you out in the desert being fed by ravens, it's because He wants you to learn something. Quit whining and pay attention, you might get done with the lesson sooner.

God may use you to bring a blessing to someone else, but it would help if you recognized the hand of God in the situation. That may be hard to do if you are obsessed with yourself and your own abasement.

God may use some strange, curious person or situation to be a blessing to you when you have needs. Faithfulness to the word of God frequently answers a lot of questions, and can help you makes sense out of what's happening.

When God calls, are you generous and obedient in your response? Elijah was not too narrow minded to go and trust in a gentile woman to help him when God said go. The widow woman was obedient to give the last of what she had to God when He said give. They both got a wonderful blessing out of what happened later.

How do you answer when God calls? There are a lot of opportunities around us every day. A lot of them require us to abase ourselves before we can really take advantage of them.

Some of them require us to be very generous, even to the point of giving more than we think we have. The important thing is, is the Lord really leading? We can very stupidly give away something that we ought to keep, or we can very selfishly hang on to something we ought to give away. God does not ask us to go broke being naive or dumb, but if His wisdom is behind what's happening, there is no way you can lose anything. Years ago a Christian martyr said: "No man is a fool who gives away what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose."

God may not meet your needs the way you would expect or prefer. Elijah would probably have preferred not to have his needs met by ravens or foreign women. The starving widow would probably have preferred not to have her last meal requisitioned by a foreign religious fanatic. But God met their needs, and in the process, He taught them how to be abased, and how to abound, and that's what He wants to do with you.

Paul says that he had learned how to be content, whatever his situation. After Elijah had raised the widow's son back to life, they still had only plain pancakes, nothing more, but do you think they were content? I think they were.

Where are you in your walk with God? Are you content? Is God trying to meet your physical and spiritual needs, but you don't want anything to do with ravens, you don't want to leave your own city, and you don't want to give away your last pancake? Are you waiting for God's blessing on your terms? You might be in for a long wait.