Is There A Famine? | Elder Rosalind Ang

You're listening to a message to go from at church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Okay. So I want to go to a story in

a Bible. It's not just a story, but it's a

real story. And I want us to always have the

mindset that everything that you read in the Bible is real. Yes,

that's the fundamentals of our faith as Christians. We have

to believe that everything that is in the Bible that

we have today is real. It's not just a story,

you know, like you know, a fiction story where we

can learn good moral values from. It's true. And you

know why I can confidently say that everything in the

Bible is true. One evidence that I can give you

is the nation of Israel. Do you know where Israel is? Okay?

Y'are yes? If I open the world, man, I say,

point to me Israel. You know where? It is an

art Okay, never mind, go back and learn your geography.

It's okay. But you know the very evidence that today

there is Israel. Of course, there's war, right, Everything that

you hear about Israel now is bad news. Okay, never

mind about that. But the very fact that there is

a nation of Israel. It points towards this that the

Bible is reel, because you would read from Genesis itself

that God called the nation called Israel starting from the

Father of our faith. What's his name, the Father of

our faith? Abraham, Father Abraham. Yes, that's right, So all

the way from Abraham, you know, In fact, the Bible

goes beyond that. Yes, if you're read in Genesis, he

started with Adam and Eve, the first man and the

first woman, and that's really our ancestors, you know. And

so do you know? Sometimes I find it very interesting,

And as I was growing in my own Christian journey,

I later came to know that actually I have a

Jewish heritage. You didn't know I have Jewish heritage. Do

you know that you two have a Jewish heritage? Because

everything that you read points towards Jesus, right, And was

Jesus a Jew? Yes? Or no Ah? If Jesus is

a Jew and Jesus is a Jew, was a Jew,

it's a Jew and will be a Jew when we

meet him, right, And our inheritance is in Christ you know,

so guess what, you also have a Jewish inheritance. Did

you realize that everything that you read in the Bible

is about your ancestors. Wow, are you interested to know

your ancestors? Now? Okay? So I want to go into

one of the books of the Bible. This is in

the Old Testament, all right, and it's called the Book

of First Kings, the Book of Kings. Okay, some of

you know, some of you don't know. It's okay. We

will lend this book together. Now tell me what do

you know about? Okay? So the Jewish history is very long, okay?

In summary, let me give you a concise summary. There

was a man called Adam and Eve. And what happened

to Adam and Eve? They ate the fruits? Why did

they eat the fruit? Why didn't they just eat chuck

with out? You know? They had to go and touch

the Durien. No, no, it was not the duren. Okay.

They touched the forbidden fruit, and there was sin in

our lives. And actually, right, you can explain everything that

is wrong in this world today from the Bible. I

don't know what anything else can tell you. Science has

tried to give you a lot of you know, philosophies

and evidence, but nothing like the Bible that gives you

the truth from beginning. So why there is so much

disaster today. Do you feel that there's a lot of

disaster day?

Ah?

Yes, suh. Every time you open the news is bad news.

Have you ever wondered, you know, why why is this

well such a difficult place to live in? Right? And

in my first slide, I have this question to ask you, Right,

is there a famine? Oh? And and famine? You know

when you think about famine, have you ever experienced a

famine before? No? Right, most of us have not experienced

as any kind of famine. So what is famine? Famine

means it's just deep hunger and lack of food and

and you know, basic necessities famine, Right, there is no

water in the land. When there's no water, do you

know sometimes we take water for granted. Right, If I

tell you a cheras cherras people, next one week you

have no water, how you'd be like, ah, what's happening?

Moved to subannfas? Right? No, it's crazy. Right, think about

no water and we it's it's necessity of life. And

so famine, you know, we've not really experienced it. Maybe

one day no water, got one two days no water,

that's normal. But famine in our lives we may not

have experienced physical famine. Most of us here, I think

we are so blessed. We have water, food, shelter over

our heads, right, and it's you know, we are so

blessed actually, And we've never experienced real hunger. Have you

experienced not being able to eat for days and days

and days? No, we've never experienced true famine. But there

are do you know there's actual famine happening in other

parts of the world, that children are dying from malt

nutrition and not having food. It's true, you know. Sometimes

we always like to put the African children right, very

skinny and no food to eat. But it's real. Okay,

it's real, and and the thing is but I feel

for us as a church in the modern city, the

famine goes beyond just the physical. It is a famine

of the soul and spirit. I think that's even more

dangerous because when we have no more spirit and soul

within us, what we are is just our living bodies.

And if you think about it, we only have seventy

eighty years to live on life. So if you everything

that you do in life just is to feed this body,

to let it enjoy, and then one day we will

not breathe any longer, then what happens after that? Right?

So the famine to me, you know, you might be

going through something very difficult right now. I don't know.

It could be a financial issue, it could be a

relationship issue that you're going through. But you know, sometimes

the famine is the famine. Just as we were worshiping earlier,

the Lord drop this word. We have a famine of hope.

There is hopelessness in many people around us. There's hopelessness

in the city, yes or not? If you think about

this world, is that much hope? Yeah? Thank you for that?

Respond it feels very hopeless, right, Like are why do

we still wake up in the morning, you know, go

to the run meal, go go to work, you know,

and then get beyond contract, never get permanent. You know.

It's like what's the meaning of Like what's the purpose?

The other famine is there's a femine of purpose. Many

of us don't know what our life is all about.

But it's okay because it means that we are searching.

We're hungry, right, famine means you're hungry and are you

hungry for something that will feel you? Are you? So

let's go to the word of God, because God's word

is the daily break that feeds us. Amen. All right,

So okay, let's go to First King's chapter seventeen. All right,

chapter seventeen. So this is like in the middle of

the book already. Okay, So tell me what do you

know about the kings of Israel? Let me just ask

you a quick question. Now, were they majority good kings

or bad kings? Huh? Bad kings? Okay, you know your

Bible very well, thank you. Okay. Now there was a

particularly bad king and his name was a do you

know a hap King? A hep. Okay, let's see how

bad this king was. Okay. So let's read from just

a few verses before that First Kings, chapter sixteen. I

don't know if XTV can help with the verses? Are

you able to? All right? Thank you Tyrol for manning

XTV today. All right. And he's so initiated, okay, of

course he he started to come to intern in a

Ya during his school holidays and and you know, he

was so initiate. He came to me. It's like, okay,

are you prepared your message or not? Give me the slides.

I'm like, okay, okay, boss, I give you the spies already. Okay,

so initiated. I love that. No pleasure as a speaker

if I haven't finished preparing message now, oh, never mind,

never mine. Okay. So let's read from First Kings, Chapter sixteen,

Verse thirty. I just give you a bit of context. Okay. Now,

a had the son of Amri, did evil in the

sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him.

Before him, there was a lot of kings. Okay, never mind.

As Tara tries to get it, let me just read

you just listen, okay. Also, please you have your bibles okay.

If you don't have us, your neighbor can share with mere. Okay. Now,

and let's go on to verse thirty one. It says,

and it came to pass as though it had been

a trivial thing for him to walk in the scenes

of Jerobom, the son of There. But this is another

king that he took as wife, Jezebel, the daughter of

f Ball, the king of the Sidonians. And he went

and served Baal and worship him. Now what was Baal

at that time? But I was an idol, right, and

idol and they worshiped idols. Right. So in verse thirty two,

he says. Then he set up an altar for ball

in the temple abat All, for which he had built

in Samaria. Now, what was God's commandment to the children

of Israel? What was the first commandment? You know? Have

you heard of the ten commandments? Yes? Can you tell

me the first commandment? You shall not serve any gods

other than Me? Right, other than there is only one

God and only God shall we serve. And guess what

did they he do? He broke the first commandment? Okay,

served the bar oles. And that's why God said you

were like bad king, like the badness of the bad kings. Okay.

He set up an altar and then investary traces he

had made wooden images. A had did more to provoke

the Lord of the God of Israel to anger than

all the kings of Israel who were before him. Okay,

so we can establish now that this is a bad king. Okay. Now,

you know, sometimes when we look in this world today, right,

do you feel like God is doing something about it? Yes?

Or no?

Honestly? Honestly, sometimes you look at all the disasters that's happening, flood, famine,

you know, temperature rising so hot, right, and then in

the evening rains? Right, are you make life difficult? Flooding

here in k Elsam? More so, do you ever sometimes

wonder God, are you still alive? Are you still in

control of this world? If you are in control, why

is it still so difficult to live in this world?

Have you ever asked that question? Oh? You got best

to then, Matilda, because you're growing older? Right? Sorry? Why

is already? Why is there? Why is there? No? But no,

I want to be real with you, right because sometimes

when we we we hear the world God, you're like, yeah,

God is so good, you know, God, You're so faithful,

And then we compare that thought to our own lives

and we feel like there is a disconnect. Do you

have you ever felt a disconnect with that? Like yeah,

you know, yeah, my family just someone you know, going

through a terminal disease. And can we still say God

is good? Is it logical to say that it's hard? No? No,

logical or no, it's a different thing. It's hard or not.

It's hard to find the goodness of God when your

life is difficult. True? And I just want to be

very real because as you read through the stories, the

parables in the Bible. It's true again and again that

the people of God didn't live just a blessed life,

rich and abandoned, no problems in their life. That's not

the God that reserve. Okay. Can I just kind of

if you have the idea that if I become a Christianity,

right all my life, all my problems will be over.

Can I give you news that it's not gonna be

It's different. Okay, it's different, okay, but I will tell

you what the good news is, okay, right, So, so, yeah,

you know it's it's like that there is just a

massler the world that we live in. Okay. So and

in those days, yeah, as we can see this, these

the people have got chosen by God, God's very own

chosen people have turned away from him. Can you imagine

how he felt? How would you feel the disappointment or

husband showing leading away by the way, Matilda, you know,

married to this man in front of you. Canno see

him at later you'll show his face hiding behind there.

But he's the one who shouted that. Okay, but do

you see that there is you know, we need to

come to a place where we recognize we have to

change our mindset about the God that we know. We

have a different idea of God, you know. And sometimes

you can say, I'm a Christian, you know, and this

is what I believe in. But sometimes the very idea

and the perception of God is an idol. Anything that

is an idol means it's not truth. That's it. That's

what a definition was idole. If it's not truth, it

is an idol. All right, Okay, So so let me

go go into the story. Now, okay, okay, Now God

didn't just sit still when the people were turning away.

He When I say he's a good God, right, it

means he will not leave you in your sin. True.

As a parent, I don't know how many of your

parents are many of your parents here. If your child

is sitting in mud, you just leave them in the

mud and say, okay, you go figure out on your own,

wash yourself clean. Not yes, parents, first thing you do is, hey,

get out of the mud. You probably pull them out

of the mud, right, And that's what God consistently did.

When Adam and Eve sin, we got ourselves into the mud,

and throughout our lives we are actually in our mind

there's no way to kill ourselves you know. But God

recognized it and says, my poor children, let me deliver you,

let me save you from this. And so God send

this man called Elijah. All right, he's a prophet. Okay,

tell me what do you know about this prophet Elijah?

Anyone knows? What do y'all know about him? He very

what savage? Why the other side that? Oh? There something

about the rain and the other prophets of ba Al right,

he went into a battle with the prophets of Babah. Yeah,

that's Elijah. What else do you know about Elijah? Sorry,

he brought fire down. Okay, so you'll remember that story.

What else don't know about Elijah? He prayed, He prayed

for rain, and rain came right, okay, okay, so you're

not a little bit about him. Now I want to

bring you to the beginning of the story of Elijah.

So first, King seventeen is the first time Elijah was

introduced into the scene. Important or not? I think it's

important for us to know. Okay. So okay, let's reader

one King seventeen. If the verses can be on screen,

that will be helpful. I'm reading from the NKJV. So

let's go, okay, and Elijah. Right after you hear about

King Ahab, the bad king. Suddenly he says, and Elijah

the ti spite of the inhabitants of Gilead, this is

one of the districts there. Say to Ahab, say to

the king, as the Lord God of Israel lives before

whom I stand, they shall not be due nor reign

this years except at my word. Okay. I paused there

for a while. Suddenly can you imagine if you're watching

a movie right suddenly drama or there's a bad king

and he's making all people worship but all and then

suddenly there was Elijah. We know nothing about Elijah before this.

We don't know where you know about his family. We

don't know whether he's been a prophet for a long time.

He just suddenly came into the scene and he had

audience with the king, you know, to be able to

tell the king, as the Lord God of Israel liz

before whom I stand, they shall not be due or

reign these years except at my word. Now you'll probably

be thinking, okay, why suddenly, climax, Why is suddenly the

scene enters, the villain enters the hero, and the hero

suddenly says I'm gonna prophesy to you that there will

be no rain or do for the next three years.

What's going through your mind? Now? Would you like to

be Elijah in this point? He's a hero, you know?

Would you like to be Elijah? No? Why not? You

don't want to be killed? Correct? Remember Eli, if I

said I, if I'm the prophet, right, I come to

you and tell you extraras for the next two months,

got no water, no rain, no, so get behind me.

I love this commentary, this dialog that's going on. Okay, yeah,

you probably curse at me and say, okay, you you're

of the devil. Why are you bringing bad news? I

thought prophets supposed to bring good news?

One?

Hey, Noah, what do you think a role of a

prophet is to bring God's word? And do you think

God's word is always very nice to hear? No, that's

something that you think about, right. Sometimes we think if

it's a messenger from God, he should only tell me

the good things and to be a prophit of doob.

You know, it's like I'm gonna tell you, I'm declaring

upon you that there's gonna be a femine in your country,

in your life for the next few years until I

say so, wow, I think all of you are ready

to take your shoe and throw at me. Right, it's crazy, right,

but it's not easy to do that. But what it

tells me, and that's my first one. I five points

for you. First one is there has to be a

conviction to be able to carry that. What is your

conviction in life, my dear brothers and sisters, as a believer,

as a Christian, what is your conviction? I think you know,

sometimes we have to build our lives on convictions and

not convenience. It's very easy for us to come into church, right,

listen to a good sermon, and then go about our

lives and not built on convictions. And conviction means I

will do it even if nobody likes me. That's what

Elijah did, right, I will do it even if it's

gonna cost me my life. Do you know that everyone

wanted to kill him? Then, like Matida said, will you

do it? Do you have the conviction to say that

I will do something that God calls me to do

even if my whole family deserts me. Then it's difficult. Now, Seriously,

when you live a life of conviction, That's why I

say that when you come into a life with Christ

and you begin to build these convictions in your lives,

you will face different persecutions that will come your way.

It's not going to be easy. I've heard many stories

of different ones who when they first started to believe

in Jesus, you know, and the whole family turned against them.

Whole family. I this is a personal story. You know.

When my husband, my husband all the pay home, he

wanted to join the church full time, so his full

time ministering. He was a lawyer by t and when

he said okay, he told us that that I want

to join full time in the church. And he's that

at the time, I was pregnant with our first child.

The dad came to me personally, my father in law.

Then he came to me and he said, he is

doing the most irresponsible thing as a dad to me.

You know, can you imagine how I felt. I don't

know what to say it. Oh, this is my father

in law coming to me and telling me your husband,

which is his son, he don't tell him, come do

me straight off? Your son is doing the most irresponsible thing.

How are you gonna feed your family? Because he took

a like seventy percent pay cut, you know, but of

course you know, it was tough. It was really tough

for me and my husband. But we believe that this

is what Got wanted us to do. And so this

is a conviction that we carry. I say, God, you know,

if you call ready, I cannot say and I can't

say no to you, right, even though it's gonna cost

me our relationship with his parents, you know. And yeah,

we you know, our logical mind, it will not brain it, right,

How am I going to provide for the family growing family?

You know, two of us, Maybe we cannot, but we

always want to provide the best for our children. Right,

So all this guilt feeling comes in and say, oh,

you know, are we actually being irresponsible or not? Should

he just continue working, you know, in the law firm

and so that we have enough to support the family, right,

I mean being responsible, my right. So all these thoughts came,

but we say no, we will trust God. And look

at where we are today. You know, there was never

a moment of lack in our lives. I won't go

further than to say that in fact, we had more.

We had more that we could give others and I

can only stand here today to testify that it is God.

It is really God, no one else. It's not because

I was so clever or you know, my husband was.

You know, it was nothing of us, but it was

just us saying that God, we want to trust you

because you called us into this. Amen. So what kind

of convictions do you carry? Ter us exteris? I want

to ask you this. You know, some of you, like

Gray say, you know, I just want to be in

church every Sunday. That is a conviction, you know. And

being a doctor, do you think it's easy? Not at all.

My sister is a doctor as well, and she used

to say, you know, in the doctor's world, you have

to be on call and on call meets and everybody.

You get to pick your slots, you know, Saturday Sunday,

whether you work or not. And then there will be

some people who want to be rostering roster manager. They

want to take care, let's get your so they can

put themselves off on Sundays or whatever day they want to.

And as a Christian, would you say I would like

my Sunday at least the first two hours off. Would

you be able to stand out and say, yeah, this

is important to me because this is my faith right

and I need to feed my faith. Are you able

to do that now? Would you tell your colleagues that, yeah,

I will Tuesday is pres service. I'm a person who

prays even if there's a dateline, then maybe I should

pray for all projects. No at pre service, and if

I need to, I will come back to after that.

And that's what I did. I was an auditor by training,

and we had datelines. I remember sleeping at the mass

office Malaysia Airlines. I used to audit mas. We had

the dayline on Monday, so we stayed through from Saturday Suday. No,

literally stayed at the office in Subang Saturday Sunday and

then Monday we will still there. Climb came in right,

They're like, hey, you're here, you know, change clothes. It

stayed overnight just to meet the dayline. But Sunday was

no compromise. I said, sorry, I need to go to church.

I will come back right after that and I'll continue

on my work with you. Are you able to have

those kind of convictions, because you know, to live a

life of faith, like Elijah did to say, sometimes not

the good nice things to hear you know God's word,

because you know what God's word does. It cuts you.

It cuts you because as much as we like to

be in the mud and play with our own right,

God is saying, no, that's not what I want for you.

You just don't see it, right. I want to take

you out. But you know, usually if kids like to

play in the water and the mouth, when you take them, man,

what do they do? And they cry kick a fast, right,

because we're so comfortable with our mud, and you know

it's nice. But God's like, no, I cannot leave you

like that. I want to take you out, and we

don't like it. And God is trying at this point

to take the children of Israel out of their own sin.

That's what the mud is. It represents our sin. And

God say, I cannot let you sit in sin. And

therefore he said, Elijah, okay. So the first point I

have for you is this, do you have convictions? You

have convictions, And in my experience, convictions comes from a

close relationship with God. It doesn't happen overnight. Can I

tell you that I was talking to someone this week

and I was saying that you know that for me

to do this now it's it's easier. But I'm actually

a very very very shy person. I'm very serve. I'm introvert. Okay,

I know church a lot introverts, right, I'm one of them.

Closet introvert. Now you cannot You probably say like, ye,

you're not introvert. But but do you see that God

has transformed me? This is an evidence of God's transformation

I was. I am not the person that I was before.

Because when God takes you out and he calls you

by name, and he does call you by name, he

will give you a new identity, and your identity is

not longer whatever you were, your position, your title, your richness,

your status, nothing like that. He calls you out of

that and he says, I give you a new identity,

and your identity is my son. Your identity is my daughter. Wow. Different,

you know, very very different perspective. I'm like, wow, my

father is God. You know, that's what we call God,

our father. We are adopted into his family. And therefore,

why do I have confidence? Is not confidence in myself.

It's a confidence in my God. My God can do it.

So my confidence lies there. Amen. So are you having

a close and consistent relationship with God. It doesn't happen overnight.

Can I tell you that God builds your character and

character takes time. Yes, you know, it's like growing a tree. Right.

We say, like, you want to plan what was your

favorite fruit here? Passion? You're like passion fruit? Nice? So good? Right, amazing?

Plant the seed today? Can you eat the fruit tomorrow?

It's the same thing with us. We are on a journey,

a transformation of growth, right, starting from work. But we

have to start somewhere. Yes, we have to start somewhere

and say, God, today, you plan the seed in me?

Maybe you know I will see it fruit soon. And

God begins to give us this you know, you know

the fruit of the spirit. What are the fruit of

the spirit? Love, joy, pease, patience, kindness, goodness, all these

good things that we want. It begins to grow and

develop in us. Amen. All right. So the first one

is having conviction. Would you have a conviction to even

say the difficult thing? Brother? I think you have to

live your life of sin. It's gonna hurt, yeah, but

it's important. Okay. So Elijah did that for him. Okay,

so so we know. Let's let's continue reading the verse

from verse two it says. Then the word of the

Lot came to him saying, okay, after he delivered the

prophecy of doom to a hep right, so he knows, Alama,

I tell this already, something's gonna happen. Okay. And the

word of the Lord then came to him saying, get

away from here and turn eastward and hide by the

brook Chariot which flows into the Jordan, and it will

be that you shall drink from the brook. I've commanded

the ravens to feed you there. Okay, And let me

pause there for a moment. If God told you to

go to Ampunk today, everyone go to Ampung and go

to this hotel. There will be a bird there that

will give you your food. Would you go? Only Matilda?

I guess Matilda, you got the spirit of Elijah Nuah

still got. It's very interesting because how many of you

would actually obey a command like that that you would

go to somewhere? Is it logical or I can't? Okay,

tell me how many of you have been fed by

a bird before? Anyone? No? You know. When I was

sharing this in the other churchman, they say, oh, I

feed the bird, Gola, You'll go to the zoo. You

feed the bird, right, have you ever experienced the bird feeding?

You know? And another churchman like you better? They say, no,

we eat the bird. That's Chinese for you are we

eat everything? All right? And so so God gave a

commandment to it, like just put yourself in the show

of Elijah, go to this river in Klang, right, and

I will instead of giving you bakuta you know from

the restaurant, a bird will feed you there, a black crow.

It's very interesting. I don't know, Tyrone, if you can

show the This morning I was I was going for

a walk around oug and I saw this picture. Can

you see that? A bird? And then there was another

step shot the next one. It was actually on the

ground next to me, and I was like, oh my gosh,

you look like a raven. And can you imagine a

raven like that feeding you. It's like, it cannot it's

not logical. Can I say that a lot of things

that what God will command you to do, It's not

going to be logical. We cannot use our brains to

accept the word of God. We have to act on faith. Okay,

it's not logical one right, But let's let's see what happens. Okay,

So for most of us we will not obey this commandment.

But let's see what Elijah did, all right, and verse

five and so he went, that's it, So he went,

I love this tree words. So he went and did

according to the word of the Lord. For he went

and stayed by the brook Charot, which flows into the Jordan.

The ravens brought him braid and meat in the morning,

and braid and meat in the even and he drank

from the brooke. Wow, hey, burger for you. Okay, burger

in the morning, burger in the evening, the best kind

in crazy. You know that the raven didn't just pluck

like fruits. You know, you think that's more logical. You

maybe he plucks some mangoes la, pluck some strawberry la.

He doesn't meat, you know. And you think the raven

went through a big green and baked themselves. How to

make break? Try and think about it. It's crazy, and

this can only point to a miracle as good. This

is a miracle. It's impossible, but it happened, all right.

And so this is my second point for you, which

is there will always be a command in the midst

of a crisis, all right, whatever that you're going through

in life, especially when you're going through a difficult, challenging moment,

God's word will come to you. And that's why you're

here this morning. You know, if you are searching for something,

God's work is coming to you. And he says, listen,

and this is my third point for you. Right. So

the first one is that what convictions do you carry?

All right? Convictions will lead you to a place where

there will be a challenge. Do you know that? Why

why Elijah went into to King a he to give

that command because his conviction was God's work must be delivered.

The second thing is, I cannot stand the sin in

this land you see. Can you look around, exterers and say, man,

this is a dark land, darkness where people do not

do not know God. Do you have that conviction and say,

then I need to do something about it? Imen? And

that that's the conviction that led Passa Gloria to plan

his church because she says, there need to there needs

to be a lighthouse in cher Us. Without a church,

it's gonna be dark spiritually. Amen. And that's why you

know the convision comes with and then there's many challenges

and then the word of the Lord will come. But

can I tell you that with every time that there

is a word a command from the Lord is going

to be a choice. Yep. So today, every time you

hear the word of God every Sunday, at every prayer service,

you know, in every homes, when the word of God

is bring preach, you have to make a choice. Your

choice to say is to say I either accept it

or I ignore it. Yep. Everyone makes a choice. Sometimes

you say, oh, no, I don't make any choice at all,

then you already made a choice. When you say I

don't make any choice at all, you already made a choice.

So the choice to say, God, I accept this word

or I ignore it. And do you know ignorance is disobedience.

We can either choose to obey or disobey. Right, if

you're a child, you say okay, stop touching the socket now,

and then they still continue playing this obedience right or

they say, oh maybe later, mom, I will do it later.

There's also this obedience, right because you know that the

moment something happens and the child gets electrocuted, it's a

cause of this obedience. And many times a lot of

the troubles and challenges in our lives are caused by

all this obedience our own. No this obedience, don't blame

it on others. Okay, So there's gonna be a choice.

And you know that the first thing that Elijah did

was he obeyed, Yes, because in verse five it says,

so he went. Did he argue, we got a god

wish burner whish which you know? How how will the

bird give me the food? You know? They got money?

May they can buy from the bakery. May, how do

you get how are you gonna cook it raw? Media?

Well done? That's us right. Every time God's wold comes

and we have all these questions for him. But Elijah,

what we can learn from him is so he went.

He just did according to the word God. You say what, okay,

I do. It doesn't matter what you think about it.

God's word has spoken, and you will receive it and obey.

And then let's go. Let's continue reading our verse seven.

And it happened after a while that the brook dried

up because there had been no rain in the land, duh.

And then the word of the Lord came to it.

And okay, so for some of us Christians, I want

to just say this quickly. Sometimes as you are walking

and obeying the lot, right, did Elijah do that? He

was obeying? Right? And then suddenly, hey, how come the

brook dried up? And you might feel that, Hey, God,

did I hear from you wrongly? Why did the provisions

stop here already? Didn't you ask me to come here?

Why going through this trouble again? Another trouble? You know? Right? Not?

It's another challenge. And sometimes in your Christian life you'll

be like, hey, but I've been obeying God. You know,

I've been listening, and then suddenly something happens to your life.

Can I tell you that it's not over, because it's

not that God said wrongly? Because in another challenge, God's

will come again. Can I tell you in your challenge,

God's work comes again? And again? Let's see what he says. Okay,

it says that there had been no rain in the lead.

Then the word of the Lord came to him saying,

do you see God is speaking again? And he says, arise,

go to Zaraphath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there.

See I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.

Now if I ask you to go to you know,

one of the be forty groups and say a widow

there will give will provide food for you for many,

many days. What will you think again, canna impossible? If

God asks you to go to the rich man, stay

in his house and he will provide for you, you're away, right,

logic ma makes sense. But you know the widows in

the Jewish days, they are actually the poorest. They are

defenseless because they have no husbands to protect them. And

in those days, women are taught off very low. Actually

it's quite selah, but that's how it is. Like it's

a culture that they lived in. But when your widow

means your defense lives, you have no one to protect you.

And God is asking Elijah to go and say, go

to this widow and she will provide for you. Again,

our response, would you go like, no, are men? How

can I ask a woman to feed me? You go right,

it's a choice again. Can you see that it's a

cycle that I'm bringing you through. Whatever your conviction and

what your thoughts about God is, you will lead you

to a command of the word of the Lord in

your crisis. And then it becomes a choice again. What

is your choice? Would you obey and you know that

he did, right, So let's go he did so, he arose. See,

so he arose, how about that being out the mantra

of our lives exterers? So exteriers did so. Exteriers went

according to the word of the Lord. Amen, noney, excuse

us none irrational. As long as the Lord says it,

we will do it. Amen. So he rose and went

to Zeraphith. And when he came to the gate of

the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And

he called to her and said, please bring me a

little water in a cup that I might drink. And

as she was going to get it, he called to

her and said, please bring me a morsel of bread

in your hand. Wow, a bit much or not? I

show I know, for I cannot pahn Tha Okay, I

don't know even know what it means. Means a very

chavenistic man. And it seems like Elijah was being very childnistic,

right right, Thai Lamia, No, first come to me already

ask me for water? And do you know that it

spoke about the generosity of the women. Hey, hello, it's famine,

you know, no water and rain. And yet she was

willing to go and get a little bit of water

to share. You know, water is so precious now also

water is precious, but that time when there's no water

is even more precious. She spoke about her generosity willing,

you know, and there are many people who are not

Christians who are very generous. And she gave. But then

when he asked, okay, bring me a bit of braid. Also,

how about that? That's where she said, okay, okay, I

swear by your God I have no brain. She actually

saw no And in fact, she said that what I

have is okay, let's see what she says. She says

verse chalk, And so she said, as the Lord your

God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful

of flour in a bin and a little oil in

a jar. And see, I'm gathering a couple of sticks

so I may go in and prepare it for myself

and my son, that we may eat it and live.

Is it your Bible says die? Is it good? You're

reading the same words. She is telling him that whatever

I have, I'm gonna prepare it so that we can

eat our last meal on earth and then die. This

is her last meal on earth. Desperate? Have you ever

been that can't desperate before not never, right, this woman

she's desperate, desperate. And then in her challenge, you know,

she's she's going to a challenge, right. And then the

wood of the God, the word of God came to her.

She's not a Christian, she's not a believer in God,

she's not Jewish. She was a strange. And then it says,

let's see what Elijah said to her, and verse the

thing this is very important, and Elijah say to her,

do not fear. For some of you. I want to

say that to you, do not fear. If you're going

through challenges. God is speaking to you. This is God's

word to you. Do not fear. Go and do as

you have said, But make me a small cake from

it first, a bit too much, and bring it to

me and afterwards, or bring to me first and make

the cake, bring it to me afterwards, Make some for

yourself and your son. So much you do. Sometimes not,

as we go through our Christian war, we can think,

like God, you're asking too much from here, too much? Right,

can't you see how desperate my situation. I'm going to

eat this and diary day beat my son. And for

many moms, you know, you would rather die than to

see your own son dierect. You would sacrifice yourself. But

you know she's saying that I cannot. I'm already desperate,

and you're asking this. You know I already have little

bit already. You ask someone asked me to give you

first and then make the rest. Many of us are

not willing to do that. We say, God, you have everything.

Why you ask so much for me? I already have

so little that also you want me to give you first?

This is the principle of tiding. By the way, do

you know that whatever that you have, right, God says

you set apart something for him. It's not because he

needs it, It's because he's testing your heart. Would you

be willing to obey even if it costs you so much? Right?

And what was her response? Again? When I say there

is a command, there's the word of God. You always

have a choice, what was this woman's choice? Did she say, no,

I'm gonna eat everything. You you know, you just go

in front your own brailer. But you say, sometimes in

your desperation, right, you might think that I'm gonna die already. Anyways,

What is there to lose by obeying the word of God?

What if I just gave this man of God a chancellor.

You say this, okay, Lah, fine, I will swallow my

pride and say, okay, God, I this is a man

of God. Is like, okay, I will just obela because

I am at the last straw already. And this is

what he says right verse fourteen. He says, for that

says the Lord God of Israel, the bin of flaws

shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of

oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain

on the earth a man that was his prophecy. He

says that if you obey your bin of flower and

your oil will never run out. Would you believe or not? Church,

would you believe that God will provide for you? I

love this verse fifteen. So she went away and did

according to the word of Elijah, and she and he

and her household ate for many days. Amen. My fourth

point to you, as I draw to a close. Four

point is continuation. Do you know that she continued living

for many days? Yes, the food continue on. Do you

know that continuation is a miracle from God? It is

sometimes you know, we are thinking God, I want to

see the big miracles. I want to see the date

rise from the you know date. But do you know

that the very fact you're sitting here and you're still

holding onto your faith, it's a miracle you are continuing on.

And we don't celebrate this enough. We always think it

must be the big thing, you know, the mega things,

But it is the every day. You just had bread,

a little bit of bread, You had oil, you had water,

you continued to live. That's something to celebrate. Amen. Do

we celebrate the small things? Do we give thanks to

God for the small things? You know, many times we forget.

You're like, oh, I want a big thing, you know,

I want to strike lottery. But it's the every day

that the fact that you're continuing today, it's a miracle

from God. Amen. And so they live and they continue

to live. Now, I will give you a summary of

what happened after that. So so they continue to write

in obedience to God. And do you know what happened

after that? There was another crisis that hit Her son died.

What hey, I thought you she obeyed, She obeyed, She

continued to obey God and live and eat. And then

her most precious possession in her world was her son,

and he died. And so Elijah at this point, it's like,

oh my goodness, what did I do? Did I come

here to bring disaster on this family? Right? You think

about it. What must be going through Elijah's mind and

what must be going through the woman's minds? Like did

you come here to point out my sins? That's what

she said? Later on, Can I encourage you to go

back and read the rest of the story, And that's

what she said, right, you come here to point out

to my sin that my son now died. So what's

the point of living anymore? And so Elijah again he

went to God in the midst of a crisis. He

asked him. He prayed and said, God, would you bring

back life to this child? And so the child lived? Miracle? Right, miracle,

it's another miracle. And this is my final point at

the end of all the story. This is what we

can gather. Can I read to you from verse twenty four,

and this is very key, right, let me read from

verse twenty two first, okay, So he prayed, and then

the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul

of the child came back to him and he really

and Elijah took the child and brought him down from

the upper room into the house and gave him to

his mother, and Elijah said, see your son lives. Amen.

Then the woman said to Elijah, now by this I

know that you are a man of God, and that

the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth. Amen.

This is the final point. Do you know at the

end of this God wants to bring clarity. Clarity means

you know in your mind and in your heart, and

that others also know. Do you know that through this

act of obedience, this woman knew God. That's the whole point.

That's the whole point. You know. God orchestrated the whole thing,

and he brought in his specifically focused on the story

of this woman, this widow is because he's also interested

in her. He's interested in making himself self known to

her in a very personal way. Right, so personally she experienced.

She's not a Christian, by the way, not yet. Yeah,

God revealed himself to her true Elijah. Wow, might been

a flower never run out, the oil never run out.

I could eat It's crazy, nobody feel it in It

was just there. Her sun died but was raised to life.

And then she said, now I know, and you know

that the theme for our church is that all me no? Right?

How would others know if we do not obey be

like the Elijah to them? You know that will continue

to obey God even though it's crazy, even though it

does not make sense. Do you know? Forgiveness does not

make sense? Like when someone hurt you, really you say

I will forgive you. It doesn't make sense logical sense, right, Noah,

If you you hurt me, I hurt you better. But

to forgive is to say I release you from this death.

It doesn't make sense. But that's the miracle that God

wants to work through. Amen. And then the people around

you would know that our God is the truth. Amen. Amen.

I'm going to ask the worship team to come on stage,

and I really believe that the word of God has

gone forth this morning to each one of you. And

so now comes a choice for you. How would you

respond to the word of God. Would you say, oh, God,

you know this is just another message, another good story,

but it doesn't relate to me. Or you can say, yes, God,

I think there is your voice is speaking to me.

There's something that I need to do, and I need

courage to act upon that. I need strength because god'ss

do not fear right. There might be many, many fears

in our lives, and I acknowledge that there are many fears.

But our God says, you know, do not fear because

I am with you. Amen? Can we stand? Shall we stand? Stand?

As a response to God and say, God, would you

continue to use your word to minister to us? What

are the convictions? Church? What are the convictions that you

are carrying? What is right and what is wrong? And

you know that we can only find out convictions to

the word of God. Let every conviction that you carry

come from the word of God, not what the world

tells you. And if you're going through a crisis or

a challenge, you know the word of God has come

forth to you. Now the question is what is your choice?

How would you respond to that? Would you say yes, God,

I will go and I will obey, or you will

say maybe I'll think about it later. What would you do?

What would you do? Amen?

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for you God, bless