AUG 31 2025 | Elijah: From Drought to Downpour S1E3 | The Refining Place

Sea Change Church · Elijah: From Drought to Downpour · "The Refining Place" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · August 31, 2025
1 Kings 17:8-16
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Let we pray. Amen. The book of First Kings chapter 17, verses eight through 16. Then the word of the Lord came to him, arise and go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, bring me a little water and a vessel that I may drink.

And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. And she said, as the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked. Only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die. And Elijah said to her, do not fear. Go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me.

And afterward, make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, the jar of flower shall not be spent and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth. And she went and did as Alleh said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

This is the word of the Lord. Well, good morning if you have your Bibles open up to one king 17, eight through 16. We're following the story of Elijah. Just a quick note tonight is the window. And if you have not gone to the window a little later tonight, 'cause we're, uh, trying out, we're working with a new church, uh, Pacific Beach Presbyterian, that's, uh, opened up their hall to let us do it in pb We really wanna move into new areas and PB is one of them.

It's one of the areas that, uh, I was in a long time ago. And God said, go back there and kind of redeem some of those days. You know what I'm saying? So we're gonna be there tonight, seven o'clock. You wanna dive into deep worship. Danny and Lily, my daughter, I'm a little preferential, are gonna be leading worship, singing some of the new songs we're putting out. So show up for that seven o'clock. Uh, I think we're having ice cream afterwards, is what it is.

And the miracles you'll see the miracles van out in front. Uh, lemme just pray. Lord, thank you for this word. Speak to us about filling empty jars, filling empty hearts as you guide us and move us in Jesus name. Amen. Uh, Elijah's on the move. Hopefully you have read the eight chapters that Elijah is in, in the Old Testament, and they start at the beginning of seven, chapter 17 and move on through there. And you're following the story.

We're in mostly 17 for this entire series. And what we're seeing is Elijah's on the move, right? This is his third location that he has been in, in just how many verses is it? 16 verses. And the first one, God sends him somewhere that's a little bit confrontational, right? God sends him to Ahab. Ahab's an evil king. We know about him. He is in Israel, in the northern part of Israel. It has been broken into two kingdoms at this point.

You have the kingdom of Judah that's run by a asa, the the king, and he's a good king. Uh, and then Ahab becomes one of the most evil kings of all time. Says, if you took all the sins of all the people who have ever lived in Pacific Beach, excuse me, who had ever been before him? Lost sin, right? Uh, a lot other cities have good sin too. He said, you add it all up, you put it in a poltus, you mix it up. Uh, it doesn't even add up to what Ahab did.

Ahab is a king that is leading people in the wrong direction. He's married a Ian Princess by the name of Jezebel who might even be worse than him. She has a worship of a Baal. He brings in Baal worship because of her. And it is a mix. And in chapter 17 verse one, God sends Elijah unannounced. You haven't seen him in the Bible before. There's been no prophecy that he's coming. He just shows up. And sometimes God just sends us or sends people into our lives unannounced because he wants to give a word, he wants to give a reason.

He wants to give a purpose. Maybe you've experienced that yourself. So he shows up in one verse in chapter 17 and says, uh, to Ahab in the court. I don't know how he got into the court, but he gets in there and he says, God is going to judge this nation. There will be no more rain upon this nation until I say, and that's when God tells me that's the first place that we see him. It's a confrontational, confrontational place.

It is a place where God has called him to come speak the truth, right? Some believers live in this pattern of constantly living in the Ahab Court. What we see with Elijah is God is not always calling you to live in the courts of Ahab. Always being online, giving your opinion, always having to say the hard truthful words. Some people, these pride themselves, I say the hard truth, I give the brutal truth. It's awesome when you give the brutal truth because it's truth, right?

But it's brutal, right? Jesus did both. And so he pulls him out and then he sends him to Kieth. And if you didn't hear last week's message, I wanna encourage you to listen to it. It was powerful. I had probably as much response to that message as I've had to any message all year. It was out pulling away where Elijah is sent from the court from this confrontational moment to actually, I found out today it's somewhere near Tishbe.

Now he is Elijah the Tisch bite, right? He has moved to, um, from Tishbe and the, he was called to leave Israel to go across east of the Jordan. We talked about that last week to the careth, to a brook at Keth. Kath means a separated place. Now, I found out that the brook at Keth is right now by Tishbe. God sends him close to his home, but not home. He removes him from the provision of Israel. He tells him, don't go to the provision of your house.

I'm going to send you to a place. It might be uncomfortable, but it'll be a place of rest, a separated place. And I'm gonna care for you. You can go back and listen to the last week as we got into that message about how God provides and how God is calling some of you to a season of careth, a season of separation to be strengthened, to be cared for, to be lifted up. You need to know that some of you are in confrontational seasons.

The thing is to know is when God is telling you where to go and when to go, now he's on the move again. He says, in this passage, arise and go. He says, and he sends him to another place. And we'll see where that place is in just a moment. We're gonna follow this journey. This is his third place. He was in the courts of, of Ahab for probably about an hour. He was about anywhere between nine and 18 months at Garath. And he spends and he dwells Now in the new place that God sends him, I want you to write this key word.

Or if you, if you have your notes, you can just circle it. The word is sovereign. Could have been sovereignty. What does that mean? Sovereign means God is a sovereign. It means he's a king, right? But he is in charge and he showed that he's in charge of creation. I can feed you with the ravens. If I need to feed you with some ravens, I can give you a brook to drink at. And when that brook dries up, I can send you somewhere else.

We'll see where he goes in a moment. And the word for you, it's hard to live in. This word, right, is sovereignty. God is sovereign over your life. He knows where you are. He knows why you're there. And he can provide for you where you are and in the place you are. It is a practice to practice God's sovereignty. We need to practice the sovereignty of God by saying, God, you're in charge. I love that song that Chris was singing and the team from Point Loma Nazarene, it's Point Loma Nazarene's University's team, where my daughter goes now he's dropped her off on Wednesday, empty nesters, great time.

Uh, they were singing that song. You know, when I was, when I was lost, when I was, when I was out, you know, in the waters and you were always there. And if had I known I would've done it different, I would've let you be in charge. What Elijah is showing right now in his life that he's willing to let God direct him. He's willing to let God provide for him. He's willing to be obedient. It says he did. He did, he did.

We'll get to He God sent him to a widow here in this passage and it says she did. There's a lot of of bidding in this passage. They're doing what God tells them to do. And I will tell you that you will increase God's provision when you follow his ways. God is graceful even when you're not following him. He provides, isn't he good? Isn't God so good that he, even when we mess it up, that God will show up and provide? But I have found that when we do it his way, that provision goes to 11.

This one goes to 11. If you've heard that one, no one's seen that. Okay, don't worry about it. Here's two things that we're gonna go through today. God is sovereign over our path. That's the first point. And the second point we see from Elijah is God's provision is sovereign, surprising and sufficient. So I wanna talk about sovereignty over our path, that where you are is not by mistake. My daughter regularly gets upset with me, Lucy be here a second service, uh, regularly gets upset with me.

She goes, dad, this happened. I can't believe this happened. What do you think the odds are of that? And my answer is a hundred percent. Why? Because it happened. And if it's God will, it's gonna happen. I find out when it's God's will, it's either zero or a hundred percent. And God's not like, uh, 50 50 on this one. I'm toss a coin. She hates when I give her that answer. Go to verse eight. God is sovereign over your path.

Let's talk about his sovereignty over your path. Word of the day is sovereignty. Verse eight, then this is after a long season, the word of the Lord circle. Word of the Lord came to him. Verse nine, arise and go to Zare path, which belongs to Satan and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. Not very reassuring. I have committed, I I I have commanded a poor desperate widow who is on death's door to feed you and to care for you.

Thank you God. I so much appreciate it. I appreciate it. But we're gonna see that God is sovereign over the path and he knows what he's doing. One, this is the same point of last week, and it's the same, uh, uses of the, of the, the phrase. Then the word of the Lord came to him. Elijah is determining the pivot points on his path by the word of the Lord. Now granted, he wasn't blessed to have a Bible. He wasn't blessed to have the Holy Spirit who lives within him.

So you don't need, I don't know how the word of the Lord came to him in a vision, in a dream, whatever we have the word of the Lord and we have the Holy Spirit who lives within us, which is far superior to what Elijah, the tools that Elijah had. That's why God gave them to us. And the through the blood of Jesus, by the blood of that song, we have access to direction we've never had. God is sovereign over your path. He's being led by the word.

What leads you? What leads your decisions? So often my decisions are led by emotions, right? Emotions are great. God gave you emotions for a reason. But when they cause you to cut somebody off on the road or do something you don't want to do or make say something that you can't take back, then you're being led by your stomach. The Bible says he's being led, especially on decisions. Now these are big macro decisions. We understand this is a macro decision.

This also works in our micro decisions. But the macro decision is where am I going to go and dwell. But he's being led by the word. How are we led by the word? We're led by the word in a few ways when we read the word. If you read the word of God, you need to be reading the Bible. I've met a new, uh, newcomer to the church today. Stopped me as I was walking in. He said, I'm, I'm brand new to the church. Started reading the Bible.

And usually what that means to me is someone has picked and put their finger and started reading and come across who knows what they came across. The Bible's got a lot of interesting stuff in there. He said, well, I just finished the Old Testament getting ready to start the New Testament. I said, oh, you're all about it. Let's go. You're gonna already. And so here today, just beginning to read the word of the Lord, I want to say there is a hunger at the moment for truth in a generation that doesn't know the Lord.

They're far hungrier than many believers are to read the word. Lemme say that again. It's, this is 100% true. There is a seeking a searching. If you hang out with any of Gen Z, if you hang out with that crew, you are going to see a hunger for truth. And they're beginning to seek out God's word by Bibles. Bible sales are up. Did you know that They're beginning to seek out the word for truth when we have a lot of believers who don't even pick the book up and they're asking, God, where am I?

Where should I go? How do I get to read your Bible? It is so simple. Read your Bible. Find a plan. I got somebody who's not even a believer. Walked in, said, I figured it out. I started in Genesis and just started, started at the beginning of the book. You know how we read books? Bless. You're in Japan. You go the other way. Says He's being led by God's word. The next thing is God commands Elijah. And this is a word for summer. You.

He says, go back to verse eight. Excuse me, verse nine. Arise and go. Now Kieth, he's been chilling, right? God said, go and sit. And you need the, the, the nuance of God's voice to know when it's time to sit at a kieth and when it's time to arise and go and to stand up and finally move into something that God has called you into, or it's been a passion on your heart and you've been waiting for God to open a door. When God opens a door, you will know the door has been opened.

He doesn't get a little crack in the door and just can, can you squeeze through there? No. You know those big panel doors that they just slide across and the whole living room opens up that no one can afford? You know those doors? I'm talking about those ones right there. Actually, we actually, when God opens the door, you're gonna know it. He slides it open the word of the Lord, he's gonna open it up and you're gonna be in a tune.

But if you're sitting here like this on your shiny portal to hell, I heard someone say that on podcast. I really like it. It's a shiny portal to hell. Listen, there's some, you can find some good stuff on here, but mostly it's a shiny portal to hell and to waste your life. And so, you know, if you're sitting there distracted, you might miss it. What is God saying? Be in the word of God. He says a rise and go. And the, and the easy word is for some of you, God's saying right now a rise and go.

It's a wide open window. Fear. You're worried about his provision. You're not sure you've been hanging out with your girlfriend, haven't asked her to marry you. Been dating for nine years. Guy, bro. Start. Okay. The ladies are like, yeah, go. There are some times arise and go. Maybe you're in a place right now where you just don't want to hang around that filth no more that you've been hanging around with no more. I don't mean people, I mean just stuff you're doing.

Arise and go. The word of the Lord came to Elijah and he said, arise and go. Some of you are being called to arise and be more active in your children's lives. Whatever it is, you know your thing. You got the word, the Holy Spirit can speak to you next. God sends him into Sidon. Now this is an interesting choice because Sitan has already been mentioned in chapter 17. You know who's from Sitan, Jezebel right now, this is an interesting call.

If I'm God, if, excuse me, if I'm Elijah and I'm listening to God and God's like, okay, go confront Ahab. Okay, he can kill me, but I'll go do it. I'm gonna do it now. Go to a brook and care. At least I get to go chill out and camp. I get to go to some rough camping. Okay, I am out there. But then he says, now I'm gonna send you back into the belly of the beast. I'm gonna send you into the heart of Baal worship. I'm going to send you to the very place where Elijah, where where, where this princess who has come in and become the queen, who eventually will try to kill you.

I'm going to send you into her homeland there and I'm going to command you to stay. I'm gonna command you to dwell in that place. My once again to bring up my daughter Lucy. Again. I like my kids a lot. I apologize, I do a lot of kid analogies. I apologize. I'll, I'll chat. GPT some better analogies from now on. But she got into Santa Fe Christian Great school. I taught there for a while, uh, as a track coach got in there and we were driving up there and they gave us a, a 50% discount, which is great.

This is like four or five years ago. She went and prayed about it. She says, dad, I think I'm supposed to go to La Jolla High. I said, really? That's good 'cause it's a block away from where we were living. I said, great, easy. I'll have to drive up there or whatever. I said, great 'cause of the drive. She goes, no, I just feel like God wants to be a light in a dark place. You know? So now after four years, she's ready for some keth.

We send her to point L, put her in the bubble. They say, point Loma Nazarene's a bubble. Yes it is. It was a gray bubble and bubbles float. And that's why I went there because I was drowning. Sometimes you need to go to Kieth, get yourself in the bubble, right? Get away from the things that bring you down. God will send you to a place he'll provide for you in the midst, in the midst of darkness, God will provide for you.

And some of y'all, where am I from the south? Some of you, God is calling to go not into the, not into hell, but like I said last week, maybe put out a little outpost by the, the gates of hell. So we see that Elijah was commanded to dwell on this dark place. You might ask yourself now, in this sovereignty word, here's the sovereignty word over your position of where you are. You cannot always know why you are where you are, but you can always know where you are.

Does that make sense? Because sometimes we get lost along the journey. Like, where am I in life? Where am I? I don't understand why. You know, why you have all these why questions. God has made his creation, um, a a beacon of how he lives his life, or how he wants us to understand creation and understand him. Here's a truth about knowing where you are on the earth. If you look up, you can always know where you are by looking up to the stars.

Winston Churchill twice was lost in the desert once in the Sudan, in the desert, in the, in the, uh, the river war. In his first campaign in the, I think it was 1896, I think believe in 1901 I think, or 1904. It was the boar war. He was once again lost in the desert. And both times he said that he was, he looked up to the celestial beings to guide him. One, it guided them to the Nile. He said, the giant Orion guided me to the Nile.

Another one he said, the North star guided me so I could move, leave the boar concentration camp and make my way back down to South Africa. Both times he knew where he was by looking up. Let me tell you, if you have any question about where you are, you might not know why. But if you, any question about the way to know where you are in the moment is to look up. God did that for a reason. When you look up to the stars, you can always know where you are on the earth.

You will never be lost if you can see the stars. Now, that's just a, a physical analogy. The same thing is true with God. To know where you are, to understand where you are. And that's the key thing, is just to understand where we are on the map. And so now he's been moved, but he's looking up and he's being guided. Wherever you are in your life, whether you have physical ailments right now, whether you have financial ailments, look up, look up to God and say, God, be with me in this place.

And we see that God is constantly providing for him, we're gonna go to the second point. Now, God's provision is sovereign, surprising and sufficient. Let's say that together, God's provision is sovereign, surprising and sufficient. Let's go to the verse then the word of the Lord. Kingdom in verse eight, verse nine, arise and go to zero path, which belongs to sight and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. Hmm?

Send me to the home of, of Baal worship where the queen who's really angry at me right now is from she has friends and connections there. And you want me to go to the city gate to make myself known, throw myself out in the open. And you're gonna send a poor widow there. 'cause you know, widows back in the day didn't have any property rights. They didn't, you know, they, they could be stolen from Jesus talked a lot about this that was going on and he said, you're gonna send me to her.

Well, the question is, why, why does God send you and two places where the provision doesn't look like? Maybe you'd want it now if he could send you to some, I'm gonna send you to a rich man's house. Now he does that sometimes in the Bible. There's rich people who provide for the church. And, and you see that through Paul's ministry. You see that. But God is doing it for a reason. And here's the reasons. One, to prove that he's not of subservient to the powerful or the powerful ways of this world.

God is not subservient to having to use people of power, people of means, people of influence to provide for his people. He often provides for his people using his people. We'll see that in a moment. He provides for people using his people. And God sends him to one of his people. He sends him to someone who is not powerful, who is not wealthy. And he says, I will provide for you. And God's provision, as you can see on this is miraculous.

God's miraculous provision doesn't necessarily need a key to, you know, the New York Stock Exchange in all of its ways. It doesn't necessarily need all those things, although God uses that. I don't want to say God doesn't use powerful, wealthy people. And we need believers who have power in this world that know how to wield it for the kingdom and expand the kingdom. If you're one of those people, yay. Yes, awesome. If you're a widow right now, who has on, on, on meager means right now, know that God can use you in abundant ways just as much as he can use anybody else.

Because in God's economy, he doesn't look at how much you have. He looks at your heart. And so he sends him to a widow with a heart. And I gotta tell you, if I want, if I'm wanna be sent somewhere by God, I want to go to the people that have God's heart. I don't wanna be surrounded by people of means, but people that have no heart, people of wealth, but have no moral compass. And so God sends him here and he says, I have commanded the widow there to feed you who doesn't even have enough food for herself.

So he's not subservient. The second thing just, I always say there's a messianic tie in here. So there's a New Testament tie in. Once again, we see Elijah, he's mentioned I think four times in the New Testament. He sees Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. He shows up there with Jesus. Um, we know that Jesus, that Elijah is being sent to someone who is not an Israelite. She's a ian. He didn't even send Elijah to God's people.

He sent Elijah to, to a gentile. This is the beginnings of the gospel working out. This is the reason why we're doing multi-language translation here at our church. Because there are people who need to hear the gospel in every language. And God sends him to somebody who most Israelites wouldn't ever want to speak to. Most Israelites would never even have a moment or a care for. Most Israelites at the time would probably see them as an enemy and wish them off as dead.

But God sends them to him. Acts 1347. I just wanna give this messianic tie in real quick as you think about who God sends you to. 'cause there might be some people in your life that God is sending you to, to be in relationship with, that you might not want to be in relationship with before the sake of the gospel. The cause of the gospel, God is sending you to those people. Lemme just give you Acts 1347, Paul Barnabas quoting Isaiah 49, 6, I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

That's our mission. I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. That's what we're doing here at sea change. That's what we hope you're doing as a congregation, is we are making Jesus what That's right. Making Jesus known. That's what we are doing. So we see that. So why do God choose the widows? That's the first reason. The next thing is I'm gonna, I'm gonna get into some territory where I, I don't have any, usually any friends on my side of the aisle on this, I'm gonna talk about generosity and giving.

And my take is usually nuanced to a point where I tick everyone off. So prepare to be offended. I believe that God's provision is often yoked to our generosity. Well that's a controversial statement right there. God's provision is often yoked to our generosity in age of grace. Can that be true? I think the New Testament does show us that not in the same way the Old Testament does, but I wanna show you outta this passage how God is using a widow to provide.

And when she is obedient, God provides more. Verse 15. And she went and did, as Elijah said, I love that. What did Elijah had? Elijah said, well, look at that in a moment. And she and her household ate for many days, circle many days the jar of flour was not spent circle not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord. There's that phrase again, the word of the Lord that he had spoken by Isaiah.

There's a few things that I want to say about offerings. I I rarely speak about offerings and tithing and I I just don't speak about it much. Um, I try to on occasion bring it up about once a year I'll do a maybe one message on it or two. Uh, but it it, it came out in this passage just as we're going through the word. And so I wasn't seeking it out, it's just what showed up. And I wanna give some teaching because a lot of believers do ask me about this in regard to how do I sort this out and what do I have to, uh, uh, to say.

Um, the first thing, um, we want to see is, is offerings are a little bit different. In the Old Testament, if you look at the Old Testament, there was a tithe which was given to the church that was a percentage, uh, of their, of their income. It was usually agricultural, right? So they would come bring it to the church and they would give this percentage. And God commanded that they did that. If you didn't do it, you were in debt to God.

You were according to Micah robbing from God. Well thank you for the verse. Through the blood of Jesus that doesn't exist anymore. But God was using his people to provide through compulsion. If you didn't do it, you were in arrears to God. You were on his, the, the negative side of his ledger. And in the Old Testament you had to do that. It was a command. You had to do that. That is, it is, that is, it is true from the Old Testament if you read that.

Um, offerings were different offerings were free will offerings. And this is what God really liked. He liked saying, Hey, there's a free will. They're building a temple. And you saw this in the book of First Kings where they said, Hey, we're gonna build this temple and we're gonna do these other things. And the people brought so much, the priest had to say, stop bringing money and provision. We don't have enough room for it anymore.

It was free will God loves free will giving. We'll look at that verse in the New Testament here in a second. But God wanted his children to be able to give to him without a command. And lemme just share it with you this way. If you have a child and you say, every day at three o'clock, you must come and hug me. Tell me you love me at three o'clock, don't be late. Right? Or you could say, Hey, you know, whenever you want or whatever.

If the child comes on their own and just hugs you and jumps into your lap, what would you rather have? You want the child that jumps in your lap, right? That's what God always wanted. And through the blood of Jesus, he fulfilled the tithing requirement. So I will tell you, and this is where I'm gonna get some people upset, is that the New Testament, after Jesus' death on the cross, you are not required to tithe. You are not required to give anything to God.

You are not you were, there is no more requirement. Everything is by free will. Everything has no compulsion. That is second Corinthians nine 17. Give according to what's in your heart, not by uh, um, reluctantly or under compulsion because God loves a cheerful giver. So I just want you to know that if you're worried, I don't give any money. I don't, the blood of Jesus is sufficient. He has paid the debt. Now, lemme tell you the other thing that gets people upset, but he hasn't removed the blessing.

Jesus says, I have fulfilled all the commandments. He said, if you tithe, if you give, and he also has the one is 10%, he says 10% in the Old Testament. If you give that 10%, I will give, I will bless you. I will make, bring abundance on you. Your jars will never stop being filled. I will just give, I will give you more than you can have. He, he says, I will bless your finances. I will watch you over your fight. He says that in the Old Testament, that blessing was not removed.

Jesus did not remove the blessing. He's removed the compulsion. So this is where I make, IIII got people upset. One I tell you don't have to give. And then I'm telling you that if you do give and you're generous, you don't have to give 10%. But if you do to to the church, you will see a blessing because God hasn't removed his blessing. Now you, we can have a conversation about that. I think you can see why I have no friends right now on either side of the aisle on this because you're like, are you preaching prosperity?

No, because, no, not at all. 'cause you don't have to. I'm not saying you have to do anything, I'm just saying what I see and how I see the Old Testament. Lemme just give three things out of this verse and then we're done. Offerings are not dependent upon wealth. Verse 12, go to verse 12. And she said, as the Lord lives, I have nothing baked. Only a handful of flour and a little bit of oil. And now I am gathering a couple sticks that I might prepare for myself and my son that we may eat and die.

I don't know why I keep laughing at that. It's just the, it's just the most morose, melancholy statement. We're gonna go make a little final meal and then we're gonna die. Like, I'm like, wow. I mean you say your offerings are not dependent upon your wealth. It's like people tell me all the time, we can't get married, we're just gonna live together. We can't get married until we, we make some money. Like, like nobody in the in, you know, the slums of Mumbai get married.

They get married there all the time. That's a lie. It's a lie. Your your, just go look at the numbers. Your, your wealth is gonna be substantially increased if you get married, stay with the same woman. Have some kids commit to her. And the younger you do it, the more money you're gonna have. Go look at the statistics, you're gonna see that. But your offerings are not dependent on your wealth. If you are saying I cannot be generous and you don't have to give here, try it at another church.

Okay? If, if you, if you thinking I'm trying to manipulate you 'cause I was really praying this week, I don't want to come off as manipulative. I don't think I've done that over the 10 years I've been here. I don't wanna do that with you. Find another church if you want. Tithe to them and see what happens, right? Hopefully you tithe here if this is your family, but they're not dependent upon your wealth. Do not let your giving be dependent upon your wealth.

That we should be dependent upon your heart. And the thing that it says in second Corinthians is decide with the Lord. So you should give what you decided. You know what? A lot of believers, they never decide. They just don't. They just live in guilt, which I'm trying to free you from. And then they don't make a decision 'cause they don't pray over it. You need to pray over it. How much am I gonna give to the missionaries?

How much am I gonna give to the school I wanna support? How much do I give to my church? You need to have that conversation with God and don't feel guilty about it. Next thing, next thing we see is that it's a principle of the first fruits. Go to verse 13, Elijah said to her, do not fear. Go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake and bring it to me. And afterwards make something for yourself and your son.

That is, that is bold. I got a little bit, I'm gonna go make a meal for my son, then we're gonna go die. He says, oh, okay, no problem. But before you do that, make me a meal first. I don't want to be Elijah in your life, okay? I don't want to be Elijah, but this is the principle of the first fruits. God gets the first because she was, when she was providing for Elijah, she was actually giving to God. When you give to an organization that is a Christian organization or to a church, you're not giving to the organization, you are giving it to God and asking the organization to steward what you were giving.

And he asks for the first fruits. I want to, I wanna say that, you know, everything pulls out automatically these days, but I make sure, unless I'm a mistaken, I make sure the first check that gets cut outta my, outta my bank before my rent, before my healthcare, before anything. The first one that goes out a day earlier than the others is what I give in our giving. Not saying that to highlight it or whatever. I just, I just, I want the blessing.

I want the blessing and I want to love God and I wanna support God's work in the world. And so we try to do, that's the principle of the first fruits when you're given, just give off the top to God, decide in your own heart, but give God your best. And like I said, you don't have to give here. I've had elders say, don't say that. I'm gonna say it. Verse 15, hope I'm not making anybody upset. Don't email me. Verse 15, final one.

God still blesses Old Testament faithfulness. I already said this. And she went and did as Elijah said, and she and her household ate for many days. The jar of flower was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. I believe that still happens today. I believe that when people prey upon the widows with a prosperity gospel and they prey upon them on tv, you've seen it, you've seen it in church.

Doesn't have to be on tv. Could be in this, it could be in this pulpit, it could be any in pulpit that when they do that, the reason it works is because God blesses the faithfulness of the one given. You have some pe some people who are just let astray, but they give and they give to God with, with hearts. And it doesn't matter who's asking, God looks at that person that maybe that person who's living on a income, they're given to someone who's stealing their money and buying jets and God still blesses them.

God shows up because God is a faithful God. God loves you and he wants to provide. That's probably the last teaching on tithing and my thoughts on tithing that you're gonna hear for a while. But here's the point. God is sovereign. God's sovereign over your finances. God's sovereign over where you are. If you'll look up, if we wait for the word of the Lord, this is a lesson for Christians and non-Christians, but this is a lesson of spiritual formation to grow us deeper as a community in faith.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Let's stand up if you would. I have Pastor Joshua coming to get the leadership team. We're gonna sing another song and then we're gonna open up the well you tell him, Joshua, you tell him. Definitely also word Pastor Adam. Greatly appreciate it. And uh, as always, uh, we wanna take time to self-reflect on is God sovereign in your life. And ask yourself the question, is there areas where he's not sovereign and self-reflect on what the word was today so that we could all be changed and transform.

And that's the worst team come up and worship. We're gonna invite the prayer team up right now and uh, and if you need prayer for anything for those areas, please don't hesitate. Don't wait, come forward. It's never been about performance, perfection, striving for acceptance. Lemme tell you, it's only by the blood. It's never been about deserving or earning. It's a gift that's freely, lemme tell you, it's only by the blood. Does anybody Wanna be holy In righteous, Pure Father, let tell you, It's only by The blood.

Does anybody wanna Tell you It's only Hallelu? Hallelu, I know it was the blood. It could have only been the blood Hall Hallelu. I know it was The blood. It could have only blood. Invite our prayer team forward. And if you need prayer, we, this Aisle was full of both services last week. We got some people that wanna pray for you right now. If you have, uh, any health ailments, I've been praying for it. People are going through it right now in our church.

And if you're going through it, get prayer, look up. This is one way to look up right. I wanna bless you. Now, tonight, once again is the window. My sermon will be a condensed 14 minute version. So show up and worship the Lord and you'll get a little bit of me, uh, tonight in Pacific Beach. But come and lean in with us as we go deeper tonight. Extend your hands if you would. Lord Jesus. Bless your people. Lord God, I pray that this, uh, word would be a word of grace.

This is this on Elijah Jesus. Give us a spirit. I know that that spirit of Elijah was on John the Baptist, the mantle was put on eisha. Do you still do that? God, the Holy Spirit, bring the Spirit, Lord, not just Elijah, but the Holy Spirit to fall upon you. Let the Holy Spirit just come. Just take a moment right now for this week as you reset your, renew, new choices, new opportunities, just invite the Holy Spirit into your life.

There's somewhere you need to let go and give him the reigns, hand over the reigns believing in God. A rise and go, Lord, we just bless your people today. God bless this church. Lord Jesus, bring safety.