“Trusting God With Everything”
Text: 1 Kings 17:7-16
2-16-2025
In the name of Him Who provides all that we need, dear friends in Christ. When I was a boy, my Pastor had an annual tradition where he’d spend the whole sermon talking about the church budget. Mind you, this was not a meeting after worship or some other time. This was in place of the normal church service. As a child, I was bored by it. But now, as a Pastor myself, I am not comfortable with that approach for a couple different reasons. First, I don’t believe it’s right to spend the time justifying the money needed for ministry in place of spiritual food I’m supposed to be supplying to you in the sermon. Second, as I recall, these messages were almost always heavy on guilting the members into giving. As a Pastor, I don’t believe that’s the right way because, quite frankly, it’s not God’s way.
Now, having said that, please don’t accuse me of being a hypocrite when I openly tell you that this is indeed a “stewardship” sermon today. But I promise you, it won’t be like the ones I just described. I never have and I never will hammer you with the Law when it comes to the giving of your time and money to the Lord. Rather, I’ve always had a Gospel-oriented approach because that’s how God approaches giving in the Bible. And the stewardship of our time and money is always painted in the Bible as an act of trust and faith in God’s ability to supply all of our needs.
You know, sometimes our situation in life can look pretty bleak and downright hopeless. Like the 2 men who were shipwrecked on an island. The one started yelling, "There's no food! There’s no water! We're going to die!" The second man was sitting peacefully against a palm tree, so calm that it drove the first guy crazy. “Don't you understand? We're going to die!" The second man replied, “You’re the one who doesn’t understand, I make $100,000 a week.” The first man looked at him dumbfounded. "What difference does that make? We're on an island with no food and no water. We're going to die!" The second man answered, "You don't get it, do you? I make $100,000 a week and I give 10% of that to my church. Trust me, my Pastor will find me!"
Okay, so that was only a joke. But if you want to see a real story of bleak and hopeless circumstances, then just look at our Old Testament lesson. It tells the story of a widow who was in dire straits. The place where she lived was in the middle of a terrible, 3 ½ year drought. And because of that, food was growing scarce. So scarce that this woman was down to her last meal.
Now, there are several important things that we could miss if we just read quickly through this. So, let’s dig deeper. First, you need to know that the town of Zarephath where this woman lived was not in Israel. It was up north on the Mediterranean coast in what is now called Lebanon. That means this woman was not an Israelite. And yet, she obviously had faith in the true God of Israel. In verse 12 she says, "As the LORD your God lives..." The Hebrew word there translated as “LORD” is God’s special name, “Yahweh,” that only a Jew would use. Why else would she speak an oath imploring this special name of God if she wasn’t a believer?
Not only that, but this widow recognized Elijah as a prophet of Yahweh and she trusted God’s promise spoken through him. How did she become a believer? There are lots of possibilities, but the one that makes the most sense is that King David and his son Solomon had good relations with the former king from that area. So, it’s very likely that the knowledge of the true God was shared with the people up north during the many years of trading with one another. Jesus Himself had an encounter with a woman from that same general area and He praised her faith. So, there were evidently non-Jewish believers who existed up there.
Something else is evident. This must’ve been a younger woman. If you read on in chapter 17, you’ll see her son was a young boy. “So what?” you ask? Well, it had to be an extremely bitter pill for her to swallow. Her husband was dead, so her main source of income was gone. She was raising this child on her own which was an enormous burden. She was a single parent and they didn’t have welfare or food stamps back then. Now, she was faced with the horrible prospect of watching her son die of starvation even as she herself was starving. If that’s not enough to challenge your faith, I don’t know what is! Well, Elijah shows up and asks her to share what little bit of food she had left. Like any of us, she resisted the idea. It would be like taking bread from the mouth of her child. Who in their right mind would do that? And yet, when Elijah told her that God would provide for her needs, she stepped out in faith and trusted the Lord. God rewarded that act of faith. Miraculously the flour and oil never ran out just as God had promised.
Before we move on to the application to us, you should know that this was not the end of the story for that widow. Everything was not hunky dory just because she trusted God this one time. A while after this, her faith was challenged again. Her little boy got sick and died. In her distress, she turned to Elijah. Even though she sounded a little shaky in her faith, she was still trusting in God to provide for her desperate need. God was gracious and restored the life of her son. Now I highly doubt that God has challenged any of us quite to this extreme. And yet, we do face some difficult situations in life. In the midst of it, though, God invites us to step out by faith and trust Him to provide for us. He encourages us to express our faith by dedicating to Him our time and our material possessions. Just like the words that Elijah spoke to this woman, God promises that He will provide for your needs. Do you trust Him to do that? I know, we sometimes think it would be so much easier to give freely to God if we were a little, or a lot, wealthier. Then it wouldn’t seem so risky or scary. But would you really be giving of your time and money out of faith and trust in God or because you don’t stand to risk much? Listen, folks. God asks us to give, not because He needs it, but because we need to, for the sake of our faith so it can be challenged and grow stronger.
Have you noticed that I’ve repeatedly mentioned both time and money? We may squirm a bit when we think about giving our money but we often overlook the dedication of our time. That widow didn’t just hand the flour and oil to Elijah and say, “Here ya go!” No, she invested the time and effort of serving the Lord by preparing that food. The old saying goes, “Time is money.” And God honors the giving of our time to Him as much as our giving of money in the offering plate. Some of you donate many hours for the upkeep and improvement of our church property. Some of you donate your time in serving God’s people on various boards and committees. Some of you serve the Lord in the choir or with ushering or other areas. In all of these, please don’t forget how highly God values your offering of time.
Just like He did with that widow of Zarephath, God has promised to provide for you. As He provides for you, He also promises that you will be blessed. That does not mean that you will suddenly become rich. But you’ll notice in our text that He provided enough every day to replace what that widow was willing to risk by faith. That promise is for you and me too. It’s why we pray “Give us this day our daily bread.” God doesn’t promise extreme material wealth. But He does promise to take care of your day to day needs while blessing you spiritually as you trust in Him. C.S. Lewis once said, “Aim for heaven and you’ll get earth thrown in. Aim for earth and you’ll get neither.” The point being that living by faith and trusting in God to provide for all your needs is “aiming for heaven.”
I heard once about a Pastor who was working in his office when the phone rang. It was an IRS agent. "Pastor Jones, I'm calling to inquire about a member of your congregation. On last year's tax return, Dr. Smith claimed that he made a large, tax-deductible contribution to your church. Is that true?" The Pastor replied, “Well, I'll have to ask our Treasurer to verify that. How much did Dr. Smith say he contributed?" The IRS agent said, "It was for $25,000. Does that sound right?" There was a long pause. "I'll tell you what," replied the Pastor, "Call back tomorrow. I'm sure it will be!" Even though we laugh about that, I want you to know that I have not and will not ever look into your giving records. But since we can be awfully forgetful, I’m going to ask you to fill out the Commitment Form that you received in your bulletin. Remember, this is between you and God. I don’t want to know what you write on there. Nobody else except your spouse needs to know what you pledge to give to God of your time and money.
Friends, as Jesus said in Matthew 6, we don’t need to worry about material things because God, our loving Father, has promised to provide for all we need. Do you need proof of that? Then just look at the marvelous provision He has made for you in the spiritual realm. He provided His perfect and Holy Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice to pay for our sins. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we have the greatest blessing we could ever receive: forgiveness, salvation, and the promise of an eternal home in heaven. That’s no small thing. Now if God can provide for something so great as that then you can be assured, He will provide for your daily, physical needs. All He asks is that you trust Him and believe those promises that He has made to you. May God strengthen our faith so that we will trust in His goodness more fully every day. And may He bless the dedication of our time and money for His work here on earth. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!