What would you think if I came to you and said that I no longer believe in God and from this point on I promise never to mention God in my teachings anymore. You would be astounded. You would be shocked, and yet I read that a Chaplain of Birmingham University, England, does not believe in God and he makes no bones about it. He has promised the University that he will never mention the name of God as long as he is Chaplain of the University. And yet he is the elected spiritual leader of 6,000 students in one of the world’s great centers of learning.
Why do I mention this? I mention it simply to illustrate a tremendous truth about our age. We are living in a day where the spirit of anti-God and anti-Christ are raging as they never raged in all the world. We are living in an age of unbelief that the world has never witnessed. An unbelief has crept into the church and boldly says it does not even believe in God. Do you not see that the only answer in the world for this kind of blatant unbelief are Christians who are committed absolutely and unreservedly to the Lordship of Christ?
There simply is no answer to this thing except men who are convinced and convicted and who are willing to lay their lives on the altar. Unless we do that in this country we are sunk. There is no hope for America because unbelief is simply going to take over in the country unless somebody who believes is willing to stand and to sacrifice himself for the cause of the Lord.
We all need to pray, “Lord, make me available and make me usable.” When we do that the Lord will wear us out. This truth is dramatically and forcibly illustrated in our text – 2 Kings 4. In this remarkable story we have a picture of three things. I want us to enter into our truth through three doorways.
- We Have The Picture of A Poor Widow. This widow was the wife of a prophet who had died. This prophet was a very man and had left his widow in debt. All she had were two sons and her creditors were threatening to sell them into slavery in order to have some money to pay off the debt. In heartbroken desperation, this poor widow went to her pastor, the prophet, Elisha. She said to him, “Your servant and my husband is dead. My creditors are threatening to sell my two sons to get their money.” We have a picture of a dire need. No one was more helpless than a widow in Bible times. She had no profession, she could not teach school. She could not be a secretary. There was no help unless it came from a higher source.
So with desperation and with her need, she brings it to the Lord through the man of God, the prophet, Elisha. Remember the widow and her need, because that’s what provoked the great miracle of God.
- There Is The Picture of A Pot of Oil. The prophet said to the woman, “What can I do for you?” Without waiting for an answer, he asked her this question, “What do you have in your house?” The widow answered him truthfully. She said, “I don’t have anything in my house except a little jar of oil.” I don’t have enough for one meal in my house. I’m on starvation, and I cannot pay my debts. The only reason I mention this jar of oil is to be honest with you. It’s as good as nothing.
Do you get the picture? Just a poor widow and just a little jar of oil? Nothing could be more insignificant in the eyes of man that a widow in Bible times with a little jar of oil – that’s all she had. But you know it has always pleased God to take nothing and make something out of it. Five Barley loaves and two little fishes are nothing – just enough to feed one little boy, according to the Scriptures, but placed in the hand of Jesus Christ it was sufficient to feed more than 5,000 people. A little measure of meal is insignificant, and yet God took this little handful of meal and stretched it out to feed the prophet, Elijah, a mother and her son until the famine had passed.
We look at ourselves today and we don’t feel too strong, if we are honest with ourselves. Just a little pot of oil – not much to us – we don’t feel we can do a lot, but that’s not the way to look at it. The question still presses home to us today as much as it did to that widow – “What do you have in your house?” Are you available and are you willing for the Lord to use it? That’s all God wants. God does not expect us to be a superman- God just wants us and our willingness and availability and He will use us. He used the little jar of oil to work one of the greatest miracles. But there had to be something besides the oil.
- There Is A Picture of A Lot of Empty Vessels. The prophet gave this woman some very strange instructions. The prophet said, “Go out and borrow all the vessels you can. Be sure they are empty. Borrow all the jars, all the pots and pans and basins – gather them up and bring them in.” He did not say how many. He just simply said, “Go to all your neighbors and get every empty vessel you can and bring them back to me.” The Scripture does not tell us how many the woman borrowed. But the number she borrowed depended upon her own faith. The prophet said, “Borrow every one you can and be sure they are empty because we can’t fill up vessels that are already full.” So the widow did what the prophet said. Then she came back to see what the prophet was going to do with all those pots and pans and basins and jars and empty containers that she had gathered from far and wide from all her neighbors and anyone that would give her an empty vessel.
The prophet said, “Now I’ll tell you what to do. You and your two sons go into the room and close the door.” It is significant that the door was closed. God does His great works often unseen to the eye of man. Often He cannot work in the unbelieving crowds. She did what the prophet said. When she did, this little jar of oil- this thing that was nothing – began to flow and it flowed and flowed and flowed. One by one the sons brought the jars and all the containers were filled. They kept bringing them and they kept being filled from this little jar of oil. Finally, every vessel that she had gathered up was filled to the brim. She calls to out to the sons, “Bring me yet a vessel.” The sons said, “There are no more vessels.” She said, “But the oil is still flowing – there’s plenty here.” But what does the Bible say? “There is not yet a vessel.” And notice the Word of the Lord; it says immediately, “And the oil stayed.” That is to say, the oil flowed no more. Why did it cease to flow? It was not because the supply was exhaustible at all. It was not because God was limited at all. It was because there was no more vessels. There was nothing else that God could use. And when there were no more vessels God worked no more miracles. When faith asked no more, God gave no more. Everything that was provided and made available to the Lord was used and He filled it. The conclusion of the story is more than abundance for someone who began with nothing. The conclusion of the story tells us that the widow had plenty to pay off her taxes. In other words a plenty for others and also she had enough for her family and her sons.
What Is The Lesson In This Remarkable Old Testament Story? It is a great lesson, a relevant lesson, a personal lesson, a timely lesson. God is not looking for supermen. God is not looking for strong men in their eyes. God is looking for vessels. Vessels that are empty. Vessels that realize they cannot do, but vessels that are willing to let the Lord take them and use them for His honor and for His glory. All God wants of me is all I am. The widow did not have anything put aside. She was honest – everything she had she brought. Someone says it doesn’t take much of a man to be a Christian ,but it takes all there is of him and that is true. God does not require anything of us that we cannot do, but He does require that we bring ourselves. And that we bring ourselves as an empty vessel ready to be filled and ready to be used for Him.
Jesus expressed it very well and He expressed it over and over again to the early church. He said, “If any man will come after me he must deny himself.” That is the emptying. You must deny yourself of your sins and your habits and your attitudes that would keep God from filling you and using you. “If any man would come after Me he must deny himself, but not only that, he must take up his cross.” Taking up the cross is something we do – it’s not something that is imposed apart from our own free will and our dedication to Jesus Christ. The cross was a symbol of death in those days. In other words, die to your selfishness and your own desires and be willing to let the life of Christ live through you that you might count- that you might be a testimony – that you might be a power in the world in which we are living.
The One Key to Triumphant Biblical Giving in The New Testament– 2 Cor. 5:8
The most generous and willing givers in the Bible were the poorest of persons and were also passing through very hard times – the Macedonians. However, God used their example to inspire us to give of our means abundantly and above measure. What was the key to their triumphant giving? “They FIRST gave themselves unto the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:8). Not unto tithing, not unto the expectations of others, not to impress others, but simply unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
Question: How can we today give ourselves as did the Macedonians and find our giving a joy and a key to victorious living? The apostle Paul answers this question in Romans 12:1-2. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you offer your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Many dedicate themselves to a higher commitment – to pray more, read the Bible more, attend church more, live up to a higher moral level, but Paul is asking something quite different: Total and absolute Surrender of all we are and all we have to the Lord Himself. Now this word, “Surrender” is a “no-no” even in Christian circles. Illus: The only place we see it today is in Olympian athletes who surrender to rigorous training so they can defeat their competitors. Please note what surrender entails:
- We are urged to “offer” ourselves to God, which means a voluntary, total sell out.
- Our offering is to be a “living sacrifice.” Paul says as “one who has been raised from spiritual death unto life” (Romans 6:13c)
- And we are to “offer” ourselves with the finality of an Israelite who offered animals to God in the Temple.
- Finally, Paul specifies that our offering must be “holy and acceptable unto God.”
- All of which is reasonable in light of God’s mercies to us (Romans 12:1).
Therefore, there was to be NO EXCEPTIONS or Excuses, no tolerance of any known sin or failure but a total Giving of Oneself and one’s possessions to the Lord to do His bidding and will.
But not only did Paul urge us to offer our bodies, but also our minds until we would think like God, love like God, give like God. “And be ye transformed, that is “Metamorphosed” by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2). Illus: Some things in nature are a complete mystery to me. How can an ugly fuzzy caterpillar crawling on the ground spin a hard cocoon around itself and emerge as a beautiful butterfly? A lot of things are a mystery to me in the spiritual realm: How can a totally selfish person who lives only for self and never thinking of giving anything to anybody, how can he become a willing, generous giver of all he is or has, including his hard earned money? And why must the mind be absolutely metamorphed or changed? Because the natural mind thinks that only material things matter and happiness consists in piling up more and more material things. Not realizing that his money is not owned by him, but loaned to him by God to be used for His glory and our enormous blessing in this life and even more in Eternity.
How can this change be accomplished:
- By Memorizing the Word – like 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Luke 6:38.
- Meditating on the Word we memorize and obeying it.
- By Sharing the Word.
- By praying without ceasing.