1 Kings 17:8-16
"Don't Be Afraid"
In her Book, The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom--A Christian who got caught hiding Jewish people from the Nazis during World War Two--tells the story of she and her sister Betsy's experiences in the German Concentration Camps during the Holocaust.
At one of the camps, the prisoners had to hand over most medicines they had brought with them, but they were allowed to keep a few toiletry items.
Corrie kept a bottle of Davitamin, a liquid vitamin compound, that, at the time she entered the camp was only half-full.
Vitamin deficiency was one of the worst health hazards to the prisoners and, understandably, Corrie's instinct was to horde the precious bottle for her sister Betsy who was terribly ill.
But many others were sick too, and as Corrie writes, "It was hard to say 'no' to eyes that burned with fever, hands that shook with chill."
Soon, the number of women receiving a daily dose from that bottle was over 30 people.
Corrie writes, "And still, every time I tilted the bottle, a drop appeared at the tip of the glass stopper.
It just couldn't be!"
Corrie continues, "I held it up to the light, trying to see how much was left, but the dark brown glass was too thick to see through...
...Many nights I lay awake...trying to fathom the marvel of the supply lavished upon us."
One time Corrie said to her sister, "Maybe, only a molecule or two really gets through that little pinhole--and then in the air it expands!"
But her sister just laughed and said, "Don't try too hard to explain it, Corrie. Just accept it as a surprise from a Father Who loves you."
Wonderful things happened all through the Bible through those who put their trust in God and put other's interests before their own.
It's one thing to believe that such things were possible thousands of years ago, it's another to have it happen now, to us in this very day.
In Corrie Ten Boom's experience, she writes that it happened every day, to the point that "an awed little group of spectators stood around watching the drops fall...daily."
Amazingly, when, finally a huge supply of vitamins were smuggled into the camp, and the bottle wasn't needed anymore--the bottle immediately was empty.
What miracles are God performing in your midst?
Do we take the time to notice?
Life itself is the miracle of all miracles, is it not?
A God Who Created us and loves us so much that He came and died for us--is an incredible miracle.
The fact that there is a heaven, there is hope, there is coming a time when there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth becomes less difficult to believe when we take note of the miraculous that surrounds us at all times!!!
When we experience the presence of God it becomes more and more easy to trust in God's provision, in God's love.
When we live a life based on faith in Christ, and the longer we live this life of faith, and the farther we travel life's roads with Jesus--the more we are able to trust, to rejoice and to be filled with anticipation rather than fear and despair.
Because we find that what the Bible tells us about God is true.
We experience it for ourselves, up close and personal.
And when we experience it, we gain trust.
And along with trust comes confidence.
What did the Apostle Paul say?
"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
I can do all things through him who gives me strength."
This is something we learn through the experience of trusting in God.
Do you trust in God?
Do I?
A very dear friend of mine, John LeGault, a United Methodist Pastor in Virginia who just retired this past year has been diagnosed with cancer.
When I heard the news, I was very saddened.
So, I immediately called up John expecting to have a, kind of, down in the dumps conversation with my old friend.
I was shocked at how good a mood he was in.
He wasn't happy to have cancer, he said that he had hoped to have a long retirement, and acknowledged that he still might...
...but he said to me, "Ken, I am the Lord's. Whether I live or die I am the Lord's."
"I trust in God."
Later he laughed, "I've been preaching this stuff all these years, and by golly, I believe it!!!"
It was an extremely inspiring conversation.
People need the Lord.
How do folks cope with illness, hardship--life--without a relationship with Christ?
Many don't.
Too many of us live in fear and desperation.
And of course, fear and desperation lead to just about every form of violence and evil we can imagine.
In our Scripture Lesson for this morning, Elijah is living in a time of severe drought.
The lakes and rivers were drying up.
And God's provision for Elijah's survival during this drought-induced time of famine is as about as unlikely as it gets.
We are told that "The Lord's word came to Elijah: Get up and go to Zarephath near Sidon and stay there.
I have ordered a widow to take care of you."
A widow will take care of Elijah?
That alone, was bizarre, to say the least!!!
In Elijah's day, widows were the poorest of the poor.
And this widow especially was poorer than poor!!!
When Elijah comes upon her she is in the process of making a final meal for her and her son, before they die.
She was out, "collecting sticks."
What kinds of thoughts and doubt might have gone through your head if you were in Elijah's place?
This is the person who God has said is going to take care of me--and she doesn't even have enough to take care of her son and herself!!!
But instead of being afraid, Elijah "called out to her, 'Please get a little water for me in this cup so I can drink.'"
That's a lot to ask when there is hardly any water to be had!!!
But, we are told that this poor widow "went to get some water."
After that, Elijah said to her, "Please get me a piece of bread."
Now God had ordered this woman to take care of Elijah, but how could she?
"As surely as the Lord your God lives,' she replied, 'I don't have any food; only a handful of flour in a jar and a bit of oil in a bottle.
Look at me.
I am collecting two sticks so that I can make some food for myself and my son.
We'll eat the last of the food and then die."
But Elijah, filled with faith and trust in God said to her, "Don't be afraid! Go and do what you said.
Only make a little loaf of bread for me first.
Then bring it to me.
You can make something for yourself and your son after that."
Can you imagine the nerve?
This poor widow who only has enough for her son and herself before they starve to death--Elijah instructs her to make a loaf of bread for him before she makes something for herself!!!
It makes no sense...
...no human sense...
...but in the Kingdom, in the Kingdom of trusting in God, it makes all the sense in the world!!!
It's a lot like tithing is it not?
The idea of giving God a tenth of our income before we use any for ourselves can be fiercely terrifying to say the least.
But this is what God has been asking us to do every since Cain and Abel.
And no matter how scary this can be, those who have practiced it down through the ages to today, have found that in doing so, they have always had more than enough to give to God and take care of their families.
Also, those who give to God first, have learned that God is a God Who can be trusted!!!
What if we, as the Church of Jesus Christ lived and operated this way?
How many more souls could be saved?
How much more alive would our congregations be?
What kind of witness could we provide for the world, if we would only trust God?
Instead, so many of us take a look at the church finances and say, well, "Looks like we're going to eat the last of the food and then die."
And what a shame, what a horrible, sinful shame!!!
Instead of giving to God, we decide to cut out our ministries...
...close in on ourselves...
...until the last of the resources have dried up...
...and then we shut the doors for good.
Where is the trust in this?
Where is the faith?
How could this possibly be God's will, God's plan?
So Elijah tells this poor, poor widow not to be afraid.
And he goes on, "This is what Israel's God, the Lord, says: 'The jar of flour won't decrease and the bottle of oil won't run out until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth."
And what do you know?
We are told that "The widow went and did what Elijah said..." and, "the widow, Elijah, and the widow's household ate for many days.
The jar of flour didn't run out, just as the Lord spoke through Elijah."
Please don't raise your hand, but I want us all to think on this.
How many of us are practicing our faith in the way God has directed us to do ?
How many of us are really trusting in God?
How many of us are, before we pay our bills, before we buy our groceries...
...how many of us are budgeting our tithe first...
...before budgeting for everything else?
In Malachi Chapter 3, the Lord God says, "Please test me in this..."
"Bring the whole [tithe] to the storage house so there might be food in my house...
...see whether I do not open all the windows of the heavens for you and empty out a blessing until there is enough."
United Methodist Pastor, Adam Hamilton writes the following: "Contrary to popular belief, tithing is possible at virtually any income level.
I know this is true from personal experience.
The first year [my wife] and I were married, we lived just below poverty level for a family of two, yet we gave God a tenth of what we had before we spent anything on ourselves."
He continues, "When I was in college and seminary, we lived hand to mouth and paycheck to paycheck...
...yet we always gave our first tenth to the Lord.
It was hard.
Yet nothing was ever repossessed, and somehow we were always okay.
In fact, we were more than okay.
We were blessed."
As Hamilton began to make more money, he says he began to understand what Jesus meant when He said, "To whom much is given, much will be required."
He says that that is when he and his wife came to realize that tithing is a floor, not a ceiling.
I was blessed to be able to give 15% of my income back to God last year.
Clair tithes what she makes to the churches she serves and I tithe as well.
And we don't miss the money.
We don't live lavishly, but we don't lack for anything.
When we trust in God, we find that God is indeed trustworthy.
And when we find that God is indeed trustworthy, our faith grows and thus our joy grows, our fear dissipates and we are truly blessed beyond measure!!!
Right now, East Ridge United Methodist Church is doing incredible ministry.
And we have a bright, bright future ahead of us...if we trust in God.
God wants to do so much through you and me.
And God will--if we trust Him!!!
To date, our giving is down $13,000 dollars from where it was this time last year.
And yet our average attendance is about the same.
Some folks in this congregation do tithe; most of us don't.
If everyone of us tithed, we would have more money than we would know what to do with.
And think of how much trust and faith in God we would be experiencing!!!
Think of how we could help our community.
Think of how many more folks could come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!!!
In the concentration camp, Corrie Ten Boom had a half-full bottle of vitamin compound, and her sister was terribly sick.
But so were many others.
She was tempted to horde what she had, but instead she shared.
Thirty people a day were receiving sustenance through that little bottle that should have run out.
Eventually, everyone would crowd around, in awe of what God was doing, every time Corrie tilted the bottle.
Instead of commanding some wealthy king to take care of Elijah, God chose a poor widow who was down to only a handful of flour, a bit of oil and two sticks.
And God is calling on us, as a church, to pool together what little we have in order to spread His Gospel to this lost and dreadfully dreary land.
Will we do it, or will we die?
