Directed-Bishop Bill Woodruff

Thank you for listening to this message from Life House Church.

Good morning, Life House.

It's great to see everybody out here mingling together.

It's great to see all of you all like each other.

It's great.

We love that.

But this morning, as I mentioned earlier, Pastor Kip and Dixie are not with us, but

we do have the privilege of having our state youth and discipleship Bishop here with us.

That is Bishop Bill Woodruff.

He is a great gifted speaker, flowing in the Holy Spirit.

We are excited to have him this morning.

If you would just honor Bill as he comes and brings the words this morning.

Praise the Lord.

I said praise the Lord, amen.

Alright, Zach is going to come up and play that one chorus from the second song.

But before we get started, I know Pastor Kip is watching and I just want to thank you,

Pastor Kip, for the opportunity to minister this morning.

I know that you don't take lightly who you are allowed to stand behind this desk and

you shouldn't.

So I kind of honor a privilege that you trust me this morning.

If you would turn in your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 17.

1 Kings 17 · chapter mention

And as I was finalizing a few things just this morning, the scripture from the chorus

of the second song that we sang came into my mind and I was reminded that all things

work together for our good.

If we walk in the Spirit, if we walk with Christ, all things work together for our good.

I just want you to sing that chorus maybe into the bridge, I don't know.

But we just for a moment reflect on how good God is to us.

Amen?

Go ahead, man.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

For my future, for my good, for his glory and for his name.

So many times throughout scripture the Bible talks about for his name's sake.

Did you know that God cares about his name?

He cares about his reputation?

He cares about, in fact, when God was considering wiping out the children of Israel, Moses appealed

to God for his name's sake.

Like if you wipe out your people, what will the people of the land say about the God of

Israel?

That he wasn't strong enough to keep his people?

So Moses' appeal to God was for his name's sake.

For his name's sake, for the sake of his name.

We carry that name.

We carry that reputation.

And when we go out into the world, we represent Christ.

And when the world looks at us, they're judging God.

Right?

And they look at our behaviors, they're saying, if that's what a Christian is like, dot, dot,

dot.

You see what I'm saying?

There's a responsibility there.

But it's also reciprocated in that what he does, he does for my good and for my future.

And I'm going to bring a passage from 1 Kings chapter 17 that is almost never about this

1 Kings 17 · chapter mention

message, but this morning, God placed in my heart, already had the message completed,

already ready to preach, placed in my heart that your life is directed.

Your life is directed in everything that happens.

God does for your good.

Can we pray this morning?

Lord, I thank you for the opportunity and the privilege to minister your word.

God, I pray that it wouldn't be my words, but that it would be your word going forth

out of my mouth, that you would anoint my mouth to speak your word.

We thank you for your word, that it lightens our path and it lightens our load.

God, anoint your word, that our ears would hear what you're trying to say to us this

morning and that our hearts would respond to your word.

Not my word, not my agenda, but your word, Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name.

Everybody said amen.

I'm going to read 1 Kings chapter 7 back for hanging with me this morning.

1 Kings 7 · chapter mention

When he started singing that song, when he started singing that chorus, it was just confirmation

that we're going to talk about how God directs your path.

You are directed.

Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishby in Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord, the God of Israel

lives who I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my

word.

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah and said, leave here, turn eastward, hide in the

carousel ravine east of Jordan.

You will drink from the brook and I have directed, everybody say directed, the ravens to supply

you with food there.

So he did what the Lord had told him and he went to the carousel ravine east of Jordan

and stayed there.

And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening

and he drank from the brook.

Sometime later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

Then the word of the Lord came to him, go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon

and stay there.

I have directed, everyone say directed, a widow there to supply you with food.

So we went to Zarephath and when he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering

sticks.

He called to her and asked, would you bring me a little water in a jar so that I may have

a drink.

And as she was going to get it, he called and bring me please a piece of bread.

She said, as surely as the Lord your God lives, she replied, I don't have any bread, only a

handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug and I'm gathering a few sticks

to take home to make a meal for myself and my son that we may eat it and then die.

Elijah said, don't be afraid, go home and do as you've said, but first make a small

loaf of bread for me from what you have, bring it to me and then make something for yourself

and your son.

For this is what the Lord the God of Israel said, the jar of flour will not be used up

and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.

And she went away and did as Elijah had told her so there was food every day for Elijah

and for the woman and for her family for the jar of oil was not used up and the jug of

oil did not run dry in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

I'm going to try to minister to you for just a few moments this morning on one last drop

of oil was the title that I woke up with, but I think it's Your Life is Directed is

what we're going to talk about.

Now I was talking with Bruce just a few seconds ago here on the second row and talked about

how my family comes from Elkhart, Indiana, it's a big RV industry in Elkhart, Indiana.

Everybody in my family, in Amanda's family for generations back has worked for Winnebago

or Suncraft or Patrick Industries or one of those companies that makes RVs.

And so my brother worked in the RV industry and he worked in cabinets and he worked by

the peace.

So he had a certain number of pieces he had to complete before he could go home that day

and he would tell stories of running through with 100 pounds cabinets on each shoulder,

running through the factory trying to get the number of pieces done.

Kind of a quota.

So I'm here ministering this morning, that's my background, all I know is quotas, right?

So I'm going to preach to you on an amen quota this morning.

Somebody already got it.

I need your help this morning.

And so there's a certain number of amens that need to be said and then I'll be done.

So the more you amen, the quicker I'll be finished.

Amen?

I think that'll work better second service because these folks know that I got to get

out of here and they know I'm bluffing.

But I want to have a little bit of fun but I want to talk about what the Lord does for

us.

It's been dry.

We've been in a drought here in central Pennsylvania this year.

But I feel like there's some folks that may feel dry spiritually that though the circumstances

of this world has converged into a chaos and there's no point in looking to the future,

you may be so consumed with worry that the trees in your path have blinded you that

there's a forest beyond.

Somebody in the room may be in the place where this widow was where she, everything seems

hopeless and everything's, I'm just going to do this and then whatever.

We're going to cook a piece of bread and then we're just going to die I guess.

I mean that's the attitude that this widow woman had.

It's so bad that she had no hope.

But I'm here to tell you that God has a river.

God has a river that can supply every need.

So we find Elijah and it just struck me this week that this is our introduction to Elijah.

Like the great prophet of the Old Testament, Elijah.

This is our introduction to him.

This is the first time, like the entire rest of First Kings is about Elijah.

But this is the introduction.

This is how we meet Elijah.

He starts out, the first mention of him in Scripture is, hey Ahab, it's not going to

reign until I say so.

It's how we're introduced to this great prophet of God, not, you know, he did this miracle

and this miracle and this miracle and then he stood up to the king.

We're introduced to him that he is in direct confrontation with the king of Israel.

Now this king is the son of Amri, Ahab, the son of Amri.

Amri was a military general who killed the entire family of the royal family of Israel

and took over.

So this is his son who's now married a woman named Jezebel from a neighboring country and

brought in pagan gods to Israel.

And Elijah stands up to him and says, what you're doing is wrong.

And it begins a several chapter clash, feud between Elijah the prophet and the house of

Ahab that kind of culminates in the next chapter with 450 prophets of Baal on top of Mount

Carmel trying to call down fire.

But it begins here.

It begins here with Elijah saying, it's not going to rain until I say so.

And so as a direct result of his obedience to God, Elijah finds himself on the run.

As a direct result of obeying God, he finds himself starving and thirsty because he stood

against the pagan queen.

We have to stand against a culture that we live in today that would just as soon we go

away.

Like the king and queen would have been happiest if Elijah had just gone off to that carat

ravine, disappeared from history and left them alone.

And that's the culture we live in.

They would rather the church just shut up and go away.

And that's the culture that we've entered into.

And if we don't, then there's a culture where we're going on in our nation right now that

if we don't just shut up and go away, then we come under attack.

But Elijah stands up against this pagan queen.

Now Elijah is one of my favorite prophets and it's because he has so many mental issues,

emotional health issues, right?

Elijah, if he was alive today would be definitely diagnosed bipolar because you see him in one

chapter, he's on top of Mount Carmel, bring it on, 450 prophets, I don't care.

And then the next chapter he's hiding in a cave, running for his life after this great

victory.

There's a lot of the Old Testament prophets that would probably be institutionalized in

our day and age.

Ezekiel sat in the middle of Main Street for a year with a skillet on his head, built

a sandcastle in the middle of Main Street and threw pebbles at it every day for a year.

And God said cook your food there on human dung and Ezekiel said I would never do that

and the guy says okay animal dung.

So this is what he's doing and he's saying Israel you're so thick skulled that it's like

you've got a skillet on your head and Jerusalem's going to fall like I'm attacking this sandcastle

with sticks and stones, God's going to attack the city.

Pastor Kip did that.

If he went down to Main Street, High Street here in Carlisle, I promise they would lock

him up.

I promise.

Right, so these are what the prophets of Israel, they just boldness and went out and

did what God said.

But as a direct result of his obedience, he's on the run.

Have you ever been there where you did exactly what God said to do and it caused trouble?

Where you did exactly where God had you to be and there were challenges because of your

obedience to God?

That's where Elijah finds himself.

He stands against the pagan queen.

But then in chapter 19, he's hiding in the cave and he says God I'm the only one, I'm

the only one, I'm the only one willing to make a stand for you.

And God looks at him and says Elijah I got 7,000 just like you.

Whenever you feel like you're alone, like you're the only one making a stand for God,

whenever you feel high schoolers, when you go into your school and everything is against

the kingdom of God and you feel like you're the only one, can I just remind you that God's

got people everywhere?

And if we would just take a stand and recognize one another, we'd be shocked at how many people

love the Lord.

When I was in high school, I was convinced that I was the only one, only one that loved

the Lord.

My youth group, there were two middle schools in our town and the whole youth group went

to one middle school except me, I went to the other middle school.

So I'm sure that I'm the only Christian in this entire school.

Well, I find out later, like in high school years, that there were so many people that

loved the Lord and we were all just too scared in middle school to stand up.

And I feel like that's everywhere.

But God looks at Elijah and he says I've got 7,000.

I have a remnant of 7,000 just like you.

So Elijah is hiding from Ahab who's trying to kill him.

The clash between Elijah and Jezebel is just beginning, but in our text he stakes God's

reputation on it.

He says as surely as the Lord lives.

Wouldn't that be amazing if God's people had so much confidence that we're hearing from

the Lord, that we could state God as surely as the Lord lives, it's not going to rain

until I say so.

What kind of boldness is that?

What kind of relationship?

That's my prayer that I would hear the voice of God.

That I would have the kind of relationship with God where I could speak with confidence

and say this is what God is saying.

And as surely as God lives, this is the way it's going to be.

So there's no wind.

There's no rain in the land for three years.

Three years or into the third year.

So at least two years.

And so he stakes God's reputation on it.

No rain.

So God provides him a brook and had ravens feed him.

So he goes to this brook and ravens are literally bringing him meat and bread every day so he

can eat.

And then the brook dries up and the ravens stop coming.

Why does the brook dry up?

Because there's no rain.

Right?

His obedience to God led him to a place where he gets dried up.

The thing that he's doing for the Lord leads him to a place where he's in need.

Some people get one word from the Lord.

They hear from God one time when they get saved.

They hear from God.

They begin walking in what God says and they never hear anything again.

And they never look for what are you saying to me today, God.

Right?

If Elijah had taken the first word, go to this brook and ravens will feed you.

When the brook dried up, if he had stayed there, he would have starved to death.

I just want to encourage somebody to get a new word this morning from the Lord that you've

been walking in what God said.

Somebody's been walking in what God said 10 years ago.

And God's got a fresh word for you because that word's dried up.

That thing, that season has passed.

And God's got something fresh for you and you're still walking in what you heard 10

years ago.

And that's where Elijah is.

He's at this brook.

God says to go to the brook.

He goes to the brook.

There's provision there and then it dries up because there's no rain in the land.

So then God talks to him again and says, go to the village of Zarephath.

I've directed a woman there to feed you, say directed.

So God directed the ravens.

They bring food, meat, and bread to him.

Then God says, I have directed a widow.

So Elijah walks into town.

God has told him that there's a widow there that God has directed to feed him.

That God didn't tell the widow that he had directed.

Because directed here doesn't mean that God says to the widow, hey, Elijah's coming to

town and you need to feed him.

It means that God has directed her path to converge with his.

God has directed her life to be in a place where it intersects with Elijah's life.

And I think we need to look for these God moments.

I think we need to look for these opportunities where God has, if God has the entire world

in his hand, there are so many, has anyone ever heard of the butterfly effect?

That one butterfly pollinating one plant instead of another can have an effect on winds that

creates a hurricane five years later.

Everything in this world is so interconnected that we could never imagine what this action

has an effect on another action.

But my God has that all under control.

He understands every action and what cause and effect is going to happen leading to what?

And what intersections of your life with your life are going to lead to a word from the

Lord that will change somebody else's life?

And if we would just be sensitive to the fact that God has interactions happening all the

time that we need to look for and take advantage of and hear the word of the Lord, God didn't

tell the widow to feed him.

God directed her into his path and him into hers.

If I was telling this story, and most preachers were telling this story, it would be there

was a widow woman in Zarephath who had just a little bit of flour left and just a little

bit of oil left and she prayed to God one night and she woke up the next morning and

there were three bags of groceries on her doorstep.

Isn't that amazing?

Everybody prays the Lord.

Because that's the story we get excited about, that there's a need and God miraculously provides

for that need.

But this story is there's a widow who's out of food and God sends her a prophet who has

no food.

That's the solution.

The solution to her problem is a problem.

She's going to make one last fire with what few sticks she can gather together to make

one last cake and take the last cup of flour and the last drop of oil and instead of sending

her a man with a bag of groceries, God sends her a starving hungry prophet who's hungry

for something she didn't have.

Elijah's our main character here but I just want to take some time to look at the life

of this woman.

What did the future hold for her?

And her mind, death.

Like we're going to eat one last time and then we're going to die.

But really, looking beyond that, her future probably involved begging, near starvation,

or somebody probably would have helped her not die.

Maybe she would have had to sell herself or her son into indentured servitude to provide

for them.

It's not a good future that she's looking at.

But God directs her path to intersect with this prophet to give her a future.

Romans 8.28 says, moreover, we know that those who love God who are called according to his

plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good.

That's the J.B.

Phillips translation.

Everything that happens fits into a pattern for your good.

The one we're more familiar with is all things work together for those who love God, for

the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

Everything fits into a pattern.

The prophet says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding,

but in all your ways submit to him and he will make your path straight.

King James says he will direct your path.

Everybody say direct one more time.

He will direct your path.

The better translation there is that he'll make your path straight.

He will put you on a path for good things and even the bad things will work to good

like starving almost.

He shows up and he says, bring me water.

That involves effort and service and she's willing to bring him water.

Oh, and oh, by the way, give me some food.

She could draw water from him and it's just work and it's just effort and it's just service

and that's something we should all aspire to.

But when he says bring me food, now we're talking sacrifice.

We go from effort and service to a life of sacrifice where you give up what you think

you need because God has something better.

I said we need to give up what we think we need because God has something better.

She obeyed God in the face of starvation and her attitude, if I know this woman, I don't,

but if I did, I feel like I know her well enough to say, well, gonna die anyway.

Might as well give him the last one too.

But for whatever reason, whatever her motivation is, she gives him that last little bit.

Don't let the details derail your destiny.

See, I'm the kind of person that I wanna know exactly what is going to happen.

Okay, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna go here.

Tell me what's gonna happen so that I can prepare myself for, I'm a contingency man.

And what I do in camps and conferences, having 18 different contingencies, like if this happens,

we'll do this and if this happens, we'll go this direction.

If this happens, we're gonna do this.

That's a superpower, right?

But in my household, that is a handicap because my wife is amazing, wonderful, energetic,

and spontaneous.

It's that spontaneous part that gets me sometimes.

Right, because I wanna know exactly what is going to happen so I can plan for every contingency.

And then you walk with God, you don't get to know sometimes.

Like I don't know the things that have worked together for good.

I don't know conversations that have happened that I'm not aware of.

I don't know, you know, the classic example is I don't know what car accident I barely

missed because I've walked back to forget my keys.

Right, we don't know what could have happened, should have happened, would have happened,

didn't happen.

But God has all the interactions under control.

Don't let the minutiae hinder the ministry.

I wanna know how.

I'm a logistics person and I wanna know what resources we have to accomplish this goal.

I wanna know how the goal is gonna be accomplished.

And Elijah walks into this town, he doesn't know how.

He just knows God said go there, I've directed a widow to feed you.

And when he gets there, the widow has no food.

Don't let the details derail your destiny.

Don't let the minutiae hinder the ministry.

Don't let the stuff stop up the strategy.

I wanna know why.

I wanna know what, I wanna know how, and I wanna know why.

Why are we doing this?

And what different could we do, what could we do different to accomplish that goal with

less resources?

What could we do different to accomplish that goal?

When I was a youth pastor, I had spreadsheets.

Now I'm old.

I literally had a grid of the things we were trying to accomplish, fellowship, discipleship,

ministry, worship.

These are the things we're trying to accomplish.

And the target groups are our core, our committed, the congregation, the crowd, and the community.

And I had a grid that not every event had to cover one of those things, but everything

we did had to cover all of them.

So that, you guys remember the see-through, what do they call those?

Transparencies, that we used to put lyrics on the, yeah, we didn't used to have TVs in

church kids.

We used to put, so I would lay them every event that we had on top of each other, and

it had to fill every point in the grid through the transparent.

It's bad.

It's a problem.

Please pray for me.

But I want to know why we're doing this and what we could be doing different to accomplish

the same goal.

And God doesn't tell us that sometimes.

He sends us into a situation that seems hopeless, that there's no resources, and He makes a

way miraculously.

Why?

For my good.

For my future.

For His glory.

That's the hardest thing that I had to learn as a Christian.

It gives God more glory if the answer circumvents my expertise.

It gives God more glory if I can't.

That's really hard for a person like me, but in my weakness, He shows His strength.

If you don't have the resources, if you don't have the ability, if it is a hopeless, impossible

situation, I'm praying for some impossible situations.

Why?

Because they produce testimony that there is no way it was my skills or ability.

There is no way that man could have manipulated that.

It's all God.

It's all God.

I'm praying for some of those situations.

Let me tell you, some of those situations are messy.

I walked into a church.

My bishop sent me into a church in Charleston, West Virginia that had been reporting regularly,

consistently.

They sent in their church reports, 26 people, $5,200 every month.

But the pastor never came to state events.

We hadn't heard from him in a long time, and the pastor died.

We walk into this situation, and my bishop had gone before and had talked to the director

who was living in the parsonage, and he knew something wasn't right there.

He sends me in on Sunday morning to preach.

When I walk in, I'm met at the door by 26 men asking if they can still live here now

that the pastor is dead.

He said, what?

I go down into the basement, and all the Sunday school classes are set up with bunk beds.

There are 26 men living in this church.

As I begin to dig a little bit deeper, the former pastor had been a chief of police.

He made an arrangement with the state of West Virginia to take parolees who were convicted

sex offenders into the church.

If you out on parole, I learned a lot.

I didn't know this.

You have to have a place that you're staying, and nobody wants to take convicted sex offenders.

He created a place where they could come and live.

He had created a halfway house, except it wasn't a halfway house.

It wasn't transitional housing because nobody was transitioning out.

There are guys that had been living there for 10 years.

26 of them paying him $200 a month for a program that didn't exist.

$5,200 that he was reporting is tithe, but it wasn't tithe, and it wasn't a program.

He was charging them rent.

He was charging 26 guys rent to live there at the church.

There was no church there.

It was a halfway house, except it wasn't at all.

He had an arrangement with the prison system, and that was all that there was.

Just about three months before that, the district overseer of that district retired.

The guy who replaced him was his associate, who had a background in counseling.

In fact, he owned his own counseling company.

He had his doctorate in counseling, and not only did he own his own counseling company,

but his specialty, his number one client was the state of West Virginia prison system,

and his specialty was trauma.

He had counseled most of the men that were living in this church, didn't know that they

were living in the church.

He met them when they were in jail.

An impossible, crazy situation that we walked into that God had just put the man as district

overseer two months before who knew how to solve it.

He came in.

We disbanded the church.

He created a program.

He got it licensed.

He legitimized everything and put an end date on it that these people had to transition

out in 12 months.

Now the church of God has a transitional housing situation in Charleston, West Virginia that

is an amazing, amazing program, because God put the man in charge as district overseer

two months before we discovered there was even an impossible problem.

The one person in the entire church of God who could fix it, God had just placed there

two months before.

Those are the kind of miracle stories that I want to see.

There's no way, there's no way that a state overseer could have known that there was a

problem appointed a pastor on purpose who could fix the problem that much in advance

two months before the problem had reared its ugly head.

But I walked into that church, 26 guys wanting to know, do we still get to live here?

I said, I don't know, I'm just the youth director.

You're going to have to ask the bishop about that one.

But God worked it out because that's what he does.

Not because of my bishop's ability to appoint the right pastor, not because we even knew

what needed done.

The state office doesn't know how to deal with that, but God does.

God places it perfectly in order.

Your paths are directed.

Can we say directed one more time?

Hallelujah.

I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but Elijah and Elisha, Elisha was the protégé

of Elijah and he asked for a double portion.

We know that Elijah did twice as many miracles as Elijah did, but a lot of the miracles are

very, very similar.

It's clear through scripture.

Scripture makes it clear that this is the same anointing.

We've got Elijah here who prays for this widow.

Her oil doesn't run out.

Her flour doesn't run out until rain comes.

Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord.

That's amazing, miraculous power through this difficult season.

Elijah has a similar story, but in Elisha's story, he tells the widow, go to your neighbors,

go to your friends, and gather as many vessels as you can.

Gather as many vessels as you can.

As many vessels as you gather, that's how much oil will flow.

She kept pouring out and pouring out and pouring out.

As long as there were still vessels, there were still oil, and as soon as the vessels

were all full, the oil stopped.

She went and sold the vessels back to her neighbors full of oil, and it created provision

for her family for years to come.

Sometimes there is work required.

Sometimes there is something different that needs to happen, some effort that needs to

go into it.

It's not just blindly walking around, well, God's going to take care of everything, and

it doesn't matter how smart or how dumb or how informed or how uninformed I am, God's

going to take care of everything because He directs my paths.

It takes some effort.

I love this second story because it talks about anointing.

Oil in the Bible symbolizes anointing, and I believe that everyone in this room has an

anointing.

If you're a believer, you have an anointing.

We are not called to just come to church and be here.

We're all ministers.

Ephesians 411 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture because it's so misquoted.

How many know Ephesians 411?

What do we call that?

We call it the five-fold ministry.

God gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.

We call it the five-fold ministry.

That's a bad name because we look at those as ministers, apostles, prophets, evangelists,

pastors and teachers, those are the ministers.

Ephesians 411 says He gave those five offices to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry.

The church does what the church is supposed to do when the saints are doing ministry.

The five-fold offices are equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry.

I'll go as far as to say that Pastor Kipp is not your minister.

He's your apostle.

He's your prophet.

He's definitely your pastor and teacher.

But you're the ministers.

Everyone in this room is the minister.

The more oil that's poured out, the more oil that fills up.

The more anointing that is poured into each of you, when I see a church going and doing

a missions trip, when I see the minister, I've never seen a church like this that has

so many...

We walked in here just before the Christmas barrage.

There was a video that showed 432 ministries that you guys were doing over Christmas.

I don't know if you guys remember that or not.

I'm like, oh my word.

I don't even know how to process this because most places I'm going begging people to recognize

that their pastor isn't the minister that they need to be doing ministry.

This church is doing that.

But I'm here to tell you that you're doing it under an anointing.

That you have a calling, you have a gifting, you have an anointing that as you walk out,

as you walk out into this world, people should feel the impact of the presence of God in

your life.

That that oil isn't just flowing in your pastor, that that anointing isn't just flowing in

your pastor.

But as you do these things, you're the hand and feet of Jesus and there's an anointing

and a power behind the ministry that you do.

And I see too many churches like, I love friend day.

I think it's great.

I was just at a church that was advertising their friend day, get your friends here and

we'll get them saved.

That's great.

But what if God's people knew how to lead people to the Lord and that you didn't just

get an invite to your friends and family, that you made an impact on your friends and

family and you led them to the Lord and they came in worshiping and ready to do works of

service and it goes on and on and on.

And that's the second story.

And this woman builds Elisha a room that anytime he comes to town, he can stay in this room

because she didn't want just a visitation.

She wanted a habitation of the presence of God.

And I feel like too many people today treat God like an estranged father that he gets

visitation every other weekend.

Right?

But it's time that we give God full custody of our hearts.

That it's not just in every other weekend, come to church when I feel like it when I

can, but that everything that you do is being directed by God.

Every step that you take is being directed by God.

And I'm not trying to be weird here, but I'm telling you that when we give our life to

Christ, that means giving each step to him to be directed for our good and for his glory.

That everything we do brings glory to God.

That every situation that we find ourselves in, the answer isn't necessarily the most

obvious natural answer.

It's not, you know, woman is starving to death, her son starving to death, and God miraculously

provides three bags of groceries.

The prophet walks in and says, yeah, I'm starving too.

Just do something about that and make a sacrifice to the Lord.

And he multiplies the oil and the bread and it doesn't run out for two and a half or three

years, however long it wasn't raining in the land that God does it.

And then the prophet goes from there to fight 450 people on the Mount Carmel and God answers

by fire.

This is just the beginning of the battle that Elijah is in against the forces of darkness,

but it starts.

We're introduced to Elijah when God directs his path to a little widow woman who doesn't

know what she's going to do for her next meal.

Isn't that amazing?

Isn't that amazing?

Can we stand together in the house?

Listen, it's not enough for me to just know about him and hold him in a distance.

The Bible said that it's not even enough that there'll be some people at the end times that

say we cast out demons and we prophesied in your name and Jesus will say, depart from

me, I didn't know you.

I have to know him.

The writer of Philippians said to know him and the fellowship of his suffering and the

power of his resurrection, I need to know him.

Don't be anxious for anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving,

present your request to God.

And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds

in Christ Jesus.

Think about your heads this morning.

Too many Christians live unnecessarily anxious lives.

What do they say about me if?

What will happen if?

What will people think if?

Who will get angry if I do this and who will get angry if I don't do this?

And worry and anxiety become obvious in every tentative step, every facial expression, every

text, and the melancholy of their voice and in the droop of their heads.

First Peter 5.7 says cast your cares on him because he cares for you.

Another translation says you can throw the full weight of your anxiety on Jesus because

you're his personal concern.

If you're here this morning before I go any farther and you say, man, that sounds amazing.

I would love to have my steps directed and know that everything was going to work for

good.

Now that doesn't mean everything's going to be beautiful.

Right?

Elijah was literally starving at the beginning of this story.

But even that worked to his good.

You may be standing here and saying I would love to see that happen in my life, but I'm

not a Christian.

I'm not a believer.

I don't walk with God.

I don't talk with him.

He doesn't talk to me.

If you're here this morning and you want to get right with God, you don't have right

relationship with him and you want right relationship with him.

If that's you, just lift up your hand.

Put it right back down.

Thank you.

Is there somebody else?

You're not sure if you died today.

If you'd go to heaven or to hell and you want to be sure, if that's you, just lift up your

hand and put it right back down.

Is there somebody else?

I'm not going to call you out.

I'm not going to call you up.

That's not why we're here.

But I want to pray for you.

If that's you, just lift up your hand right now and put it right back down.

Is there somebody else?

Thank you for the one.

If you're here today and you say, I have a need that I have been anxious about, that

I've been worried about.

Again, I'm not going to call you out or call you up.

I just want you to lift up your hand.

Put it right back down.

Thank you.

One, two, three, four, five, seven.

Is there somebody else?

You've been genuinely anxious about a need to the point that it's not healthy.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

If you're here this morning and you say, I want to have that kind of relationship, I

don't yet and want to have that kind of relationship where I know that my paths are directed by

him and I could stake his name on it.

That whole Elijah is surely the Lord liveth.

This is the way it's going to be.

I don't have that and I want that.

I want more direction in my life.

I want to have that kind of relationship with God where I feel his direction in my life.

If that's you, just lift up your hand and put it right back down.

Thank you all over the place.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I want to pray for all of you that raise your hand, but first I want to pray for the person

that wasn't sure about their salvation.

The Bible says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

There's two hindrances to salvation that I see.

One is that people are so proud that they don't think they need a savior and the other

is that they're so humble that they don't think they're worthy of a savior.

Whatever of those you are, you've raised your hand and said, I want to get right with God.

I just want you to know that you've been loved with an everlasting love.

Even though the wages of sin is death, Jesus took that death on him when he died on a cross

and it's not your punishment anymore if you'll accept his sacrifice.

All you have to do is say, I accept your sacrifice, Jesus.

Your punishment is placed on him and you're given the gift of eternal life.

I accept your sacrifice.

It's that simple.

For those that raise your hand regarding anxiety in the name of Jesus, I come against every

anxious moment and every sleepless night.

I come against every attack of the enemy that would confuse and hinder God's people.

I cancel every assignment of the enemy and just because we don't see the solution doesn't

mean that you're not working all things together for our good.

We believe and receive from you your word to us that tells us to be anxious for nothing

and that all, oh, hallelujah, in the name of Jesus, somebody's receiving freedom right

now.

In the name of Jesus, we receive that word to be anxious for nothing and that you are

working things together.

Not everything is good, but everything working together is for our good.

We receive it in Jesus' name.

And right now, let's just lift up our, if you feel comfortable, lift up your hands all

over this house.

God, we receive your direction.

We want to hear your voice.

We want to walk in your anointing in this church and we receive your direction.

God that we could speak with the boldness of someone who hears your voice.

From this day forward, God, we're listening.

We're listening to hear your voice.

We step with you because our lives are directed.

Thank you for tuning in to this message from Life House Church.

We pray that you were impacted powerfully by this message.

If you have been personally affected by our ministry and you would like to partner with

us as we love God, love people every day, visit our website at www.lifehousecog.com.