God has more than one way of supplying what you need. When one way dries up, God is able to provide another. And so what we must learn here is to trust the God who provides, not the particular means of supply. Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick. And Colin, I think today’s message is really profound. We have to learn to trust the God who provides and not the means of provision that we’re used to. Yeah. Elijah’s been at Cherith for some time and then God moves him to Zarephath. And he must have wondered, now, what is the point of this? And how can I possibly leave a place in which God has supplied for me? You know, it is interesting. God may bring a friend into your life or a wonderful church. And then in some circumstance, you’re now moved on to another place. And you say, now, how am I going to manage in this other place? God is the one who supplied. Don’t trust the means. Trust the God who supplied the means. And he’s able to supply other means. So for the person who’s in the middle of this right now, whether it’s leaving a church or a close friend is moving away or maybe the loss of a job or career, those means of support are gone. What would you say to that person who is waiting for God to show them the next step? Simply the assurance that God will do that. And you can trust him in this. Because Satan always comes to us to try and undermine faith. And as soon as a familiar thing is taken away from us and God’s new purpose has not yet been made clear, Satan’s going to come and say, well, no, this isn’t really going to come through, is it? And that’s the point at which we have to have faith in Christ and to say, no, I trust in the God who has always supplied for me. And I’m looking to him now for the new way in which he’s going to do it. We see this played out in the life of Elijah. So if you can, please open your Bible and join us in the first book of Kings, chapter 17, as we begin the new message, Why God Asks for Sacrifice. Here’s Colin. Now we pick up the story where Elijah is at Cherith, a remote place where God hides him and feeds him and leads him. We ended last time in verse 6 where we read that Elijah drank from the brook. Now what a marvelous picture that is if we pause there just for a moment. Here is this man of God and he trusts God and he obeys God and God is providing for him. There’s a brook and we’re told that Elijah drank from it. And when he did, he must have said, thank you, Lord. Here we are in a dry time and you are providing for me through a brook and you provide for me every day. But now look at verse 7. After a while, the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. So God had used this brook to sustain Elijah and now the very means that God had used to provide for his servant begins to dry up. And straight away, many of us will resonate with the position Elijah is in here. God has provided for you a stream of income. God has provided that stream through a certain form of work. But now things are changing. The work you have done, the business that you have pursued that has been your brook, it’s drying up. What was working before is not working for you now in the same way. And it becomes obvious that in some way you have to move on. Others of you are not there yet, but you can see that there is less water, as it were, running in the brook than there used to be. You wonder what the future will hold for you. How long is this going to be able to sustain me? And you say, now what happens if this brook dries up altogether? This is speaking directly into scores and scores of lives in our congregation today. And Elijah must have expected this. Remember he had told the king, there will be no rain in the land. And if there is no rain, obviously at some point the brook will dry up. And the drying brook is evidence, therefore, that God keeps his promise. In this case, God is keeping his promise of judgment. But the God who keeps his promises of judgment is also the God who keeps his promises of mercy. And the same hand that is holding back the rain over Israel will very soon be pouring out a fresh provision for Elijah, the servant of God, through the flower and through the oil. Now follow the story with me in verse 8. When the brook dries up, God tells Elijah to move on. 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 to feed you. And so what we learn here is that God has more than one way of supplying what you need. That is a wonderful truth for us to hold on to today. God has more than one way of supplying what you need. When one way dries up, God is able to provide another. And so what we must learn here is to trust the God who provides, not the particular means of supply. Because the God who provides never changes and he never fails. The means of supply will change in the course of your life. If you see you have a steady, stable job, a steady source of family income, and that’s been the pattern of life for 5, 10, 20 or more years, it is very easy to get the idea that it is the job that provides for you. No, the job is God’s means of supply. It is God who provides for you. He may have done this for 5, 10, 20, 25 years through this particular job, but if the job dries up, he will provide for you in another way. This is a wonderful principle to hold on to. And it’s not only in relation to money. You see, you may say, well, you know, God is providing for me in my life in wonderful ways. He provides for me in my life group. I find such support there. I have made a friend here and that friend mentors me and has been a source of growth in my Christian life. I see that God has provided for me through that person. I see God has provided for me here through a church in which I am being fed and so forth and so on. And you list the means by which God supplies. But here’s the reality. Your life will change. And the means of supply will be different at different points in your life. What you need to hold on to is not the means of supply, but the God who provides. It’s very important. And it’s important for this reason that if you cling to how God has blessed you in the past, you may miss how he will bless you in the future. There’s no use, Elijah, getting all sentimental about Cherith. Oh, this is such a wonderful place where you’ve supplied for me through the brook. The brook’s not running there now. And God says, you’ve got to move on. And I’m going to supply for you in another place and in another way that’s beyond anything that you’ve experienced before. It’s going to be very different. But I’m calling you to walk with me in faith and in obedience. So understand this, to cling to the means by which God has blessed you in the past may very well be to miss how he will bless you in the future. Very important principle from this story for us today. So God says to Elijah, in effect, the brook that was such a blessing to you in the past, that this Cherith that you cherish, it’s not what I have for you now. I am drying it up. But as you continue to walk with me in faith and obedience, Elijah, there is blessing, there is ministry, there is provision for you in a place where you would least expect it. Now get up and go to Zarephath. So let’s follow the story, verse 10. He arose and he went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. Now here is a woman who is in desperate poverty. She’s outside the city. He meets her at the city gate. Assume from that that she was gathering sticks from the city dump that would have been outside the gates. And Elijah asks this woman for a drink. And as the woman, verse 11, turns to go and get him the drink that he asks for, Elijah says, and bring me some bread. And the woman says, verse 12, as the Lord your God lives. By the way, just to pause there for a moment, notice that the Lord your God. She doesn’t say our God. She says the Lord your God. She moves to a different position by the end of the chapter, which we’ll see next week. But at this point, she describes the living God as Elijah’s God, not hers. I take it from that, that at this point, she was not yet a believer. She knows who the God of Israel is. She has heard of the fame of the Lord. But at this point in the story, God is Elijah’s God, your God, not hers. But she says, 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. So here she is, she’s gathering sticks to make a fire, and she’s making a fire in order to make bread, and she’s making bread out of the last of these ingredients that she has and therefore expects that it will be her last meal. It is a tragic picture of need. Then we have the astonishing words of verse 13. 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 for your son. So by any standards, Elijah at this moment asked for an astonishing sacrifice. Got enough to make one cake, and I expect it will be my last meal, and Elijah says, now don’t be afraid, you can go and do what you say, but first I want you to make something out of that minimal amount that you have and give it to me. Can you imagine it? Astonishing, invasive. Now remember Elijah was a prophet, and what this means is that as a prophet he spoke the word of God. What the prophet says, God says, and so the word of the Lord comes to this woman through Elijah. It is God who is calling her to make a great sacrifice. But then I want you to notice that Elijah speaking the word of God then gives her a great promise. For thus, verse 14, says the Lord, the God of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth. So there is this astonishing call for great sacrifice, but it is for the sake of greater joy because there is an amazing promise that is tied to it. Now alarm bells will be going off in some minds, I am sure, and some will say, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, is this health and wealth or what? Not a bit of it. You will never hear that from this pulpit. Let me tell you why it’s not health and wealth. God never promised wealth to this woman. The promise was not bake me a cake and I’ll give you a bread factory. That’s health and wealth. God wants you rich. There’s none of that here. The promise was, and it’s a very important promise for every one of us to receive, bake me a cake and the jar of flour will not be empty and the jug of oil will not run dry. It’s not that the jar and the jug will be overflowing, it’s that there will always be enough in the bottom. That’s the promise. The promise is this, God will provide what you need as you need it, as you walk with him in faith and in obedience, and that is a promise that every Christian desperately needs to understand and to hold and to live on. And it’s right here in the story of Elijah. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message Why God Asks for Sacrifice, part of our series, The Surprising Influence of a Godly Life, which looks at the life of Elijah. Remember, if you ever miss any of our programs, you can always go back and listen again or catch up online at openthebible.org.uk. You can download an MP3 for free or you can simply stream any of our previous messages directly from the website. You can also find the messages as a podcast. Go to your favourite podcast site, search for Open the Bible UK, and then subscribe to the podcast and you’ll receive regular reminders when a new podcast is available. Now let’s get back to the message. Here’s Colin. Leaders ask for great sacrifice for the sake of greater joy. Elijah makes an astonishing ask, gives an amazing promise, and these are the very words of God. Now, Elijah is a type of Jesus Christ here. Let me explain what that means. Elijah pictures for us what Jesus Christ would do when he came. And think about the parallels. Think about how Elijah, as it were, shines a light on Jesus. Christ came to people in great need, just like Elijah came to this woman in great need. Here we are, and what defines us most fundamentally is whatever our particular situations in life right now, every one of us, like this woman, is on the way to death. Every one of us. Most of us are a lot further away from death than she was when Elijah arrived on the scene, but we’re exactly on the same path. We have exactly the same position. Every one of us here today is on the way to death. We’re in exactly the same situation of need as that poor widow. Second, when Christ comes into this situation of great need, he calls for great sacrifice. Mark chapter 8 and verse 34, you know these words of Jesus. He says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. That’s what Jesus said. Now, it’s easy for us 2,000 and more years later to say, well, of course, that must be for the really seriously committed and so forth. People like Peter and James and John know. The Bible says Jesus called the crowd to him. People who were trying to make up their minds whether to become Christians, he called them to them. And together with his disciples, Jesus said to them, Mark 8 and 34, if anyone, while you’re thinking about whether you’re going to be my follower for real, let me tell you what it involves. If anyone would come after me, here’s what it is. Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Jesus does not put a life of sacrifice in the small print. Jesus puts the life of sacrifice in the headline. He says, you’ve got to know that if you follow me, this is what it is. So, Christ comes into this situation of great need, and what does he do? He calls for a great sacrifice, and then what else does he do? He promises greater joy. The very next verse, for whoever, Mark 8, 35, would save his life will lose it. Try and live your life, it just slips through your fingers and is gone. Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. That’s what Jesus said. If you lose your life, you give it away, you lay it down for my sake and for the gospels, you will save your life. And that’s what it means to follow. So, here’s Christ, and he comes, and he comes to great need, and he calls for great sacrifice, and he promises greater joy. Folks, I’ve been really moved by reading the story of Adonairon Judson. Some of you will have read his story. If not, it’s powerful stuff. The great American missionary to Burma, born in 1788. Adonairon Judson fell in love with a girl by the name of Anne Hasseltine, and he wrote to her father asking for his consent to their marriage, knowing that what that meant would be that together they would be embarking on a missionary life in Burma, which at that point was unreached with the gospel and was full of danger. I want to read to you the letter that Judson wrote to his future father-in-law as he asked for this man’s consent for the daughter’s hand in marriage, and this should run deep with every father in the congregation. I have now to ask, he says, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring and to see her no more in this world. Whether you can consent to her departure and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life. Whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you, sir, consent to all this for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you, for the sake of perishing immortal souls and for the sake of the glory of God? Can you consent to all this in the hope of soon meeting your daughter in a world of glory, with a crown of righteousness, brightened with the acclamations of praise, which shall redound to her Saviour from heathens saved through her means from eternal woe and from despair? What would you have said in response to that letter? God gave to me two wonderful sons, and now, as of three weeks ago, I have a granddaughter. Oh, thank you. What a joy. What if God, in 20 years’ time, were to bring a 21st century Aden Eireann Judson into her life? Would I say yes? Yes. I hope I would. What about you? That’s a really powerful message, which I think many of us can identify with. You are listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, and the message is Why God Asks for Sacrifice, part of our series, The Surprising Influence of a Godly Life. And if you ever miss any of our messages, you can always go online, catch up, go back and listen again. Go to openthebible.org.uk. There, you can download any of the messages as an MP3 for free or stream any of the previous Also, at openthebible.org.uk, you’ll find Open the Bible Daily. That’s a series of short 2-3 minute reflections, new one every day, written by Pastor Colin Smith and read by Sue MacLeish. And beginning this month, you’ll also be able to hear Pastor Colin Smith’s messages as a podcast. Go to your favourite podcast site and search for Open the Bible UK. When you subscribe to the podcast, you’ll be notified whenever there’s a new one available. You can also get Open the Bible Daily as a podcast. Open the Bible is able to remain on this station and on the internet because of the generosity of our listeners. This month, if you’re able to begin a new monthly donation to Open the Bible of £5 or more, we would love to send you the book The Fight by John White. Colin, give us a sample of this book. It is warm in the way that it’s expressed and it’s very practical in taking us through what it means to live the Christian life. So, for example, in his chapter on prayer, which I think is just outstanding, he gives several principles as to how we can grasp God’s will in prayer. For example, he says, it’s always God’s will that we praise him. It’s always God’s will that we open up the longings of our hearts and speak to him, tell him how it is. It’s always, he says, God’s will that we pray for our enemies. He applies that scripture really powerfully. He says it’s always God’s will that when we don’t know what his will is, we should ask. Really practical. Wisdom given and we should ask. Really practical. Wisdom given in a warm and a fatherly way. Anyone who reads this book is going to be helped to grow in the Christian life. Again, the book is The Fight and it’s our gift to you when you set up a new monthly donation to Open the Bible of £5 or more. You can find details of this offer and lots more information about Open the Bible at openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick and I very much hope you’ll join us again soon. Many people wonder, what am I going to do with my life? Discover why the Christian asks a very different question, next time on Open the Bible.