October 11, 2026

So we're gonna be in first Kings chapter 17 this morning.

1 Kings 17 · chapter mention

We'll start at verse number one.

It says, and Elijah the Tishabite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, that's the king, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, behold, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Give thee hence and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan, and it shall be that thou shalt drink from the brook.

And I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.

So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord.

For he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan.

And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarepath, which is which belongs to Zidon, and dwell there.

Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

So he arose and went to Zarepath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of the sticks, and he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel that I may drink.

And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand.

And she said, As the Lord, Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal and a barrel, and a little oil and a cruise, and behold, I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.

And Elijah said unto her, Fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and thy son.

For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, you need to underline this for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.

And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days, and the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you, Lord, for this word.

I thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit that is in this house.

Let the word of God find a place in our heart today.

God, speak to us individually, speak to us corporately.

I pray, God, remove every obstacle, every hindrance, everything the enemy would try to do to distract this morning, God.

Make your word, Lord, paramount in our life.

Let it be clear.

Lord, let it speak to us, Lord, in such a way that we will be blessed and declare this is the word of the Lord.

And we thank you for it.

And we give you the praise.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

Well, if you know anything about Elijah, you know that Elijah was a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel.

He was a prophet during the reign of Ahab and of Ahab's son, Ahaziah.

And the name of Elijah means the Lord is my God.

And that represents the unshakable conviction of Elijah's life.

He was a man that stood in the presence of God.

He believed that God was who he said he was.

Amen.

He loved the Lord.

And I believe that you love the Lord today, but we've got to understand that God is God over all things.

Amen.

And in this time that we read this scripture, we have a conflict going on in Israel.

The people of Israel were called God's people.

He chose Abraham out of Ur, the Chaldeans, and He said, I'm going to make you a great nation.

And he did.

And the Bible says that God allowed them to be held captive in Israel for 400 years.

And he brought them out with a strong and mighty arm.

And he's brought them into the promised land.

And we know the story, if you've been in church any time, how they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

And God brings them into the land.

And if you'll read in the book of Judges, and it said, when there was no king to rule over them, and judges ruled over them, it said, every man did what was right in his own eyes.

And God would allow the enemy to come in, and they would have have hardship, and we'd see the enemy ransack their villages and take their grain, and they were suffering, and God would raise up a judge, it would deliver them.

And now we're in a place where they are established in Israel, and they know that what all God's done for them in the past, and God said, When I bring you to the promised land, make sure that you don't worship the idols that the Canaanites worship.

Don't do what they did because of their sin, the land has vomited them out.

He said, I'm removing them out of this because of their sin.

And lo and behold, not only did they do what the Canaanites did, they took it to another level.

They mingled the worship of the Canaanites' gods with the God of Israel.

They began to have dual gods.

And here in this reference, God has sent Elijah to the king, and Elijah is telling him, There will be no rain until I say there will be rain.

I'm telling you, you got to back it up if you're going to say anything like that, right?

He was a true prophet of God, and he said, It will not rain until God says it will rain.

And Elijah centered his life in this conflict because his mission was to awaken the Israelites to their apostasy and call them back to loyalty to the God of Israel.

Church, I want you to know it is most important that we serve the Lord God with all of our heart, all of our mind, and all of our strength, and not allow anything to become an idol in our life.

Amen.

And so Elijah is called to be a restorer and a reformer and to re-establish the covenant of God with Israel.

And I believe that God wants to speak to us today, that we understand how God is opposed to all idolatry.

God's opposed to all the wickedness in the world.

God's opposed to all the heathenistic things that are going on.

And the church, we're not called to war with the world.

We're called to stand for the things of God and contend for the faith that we have received from Jesus Christ.

Amen.

I don't want to get out on the street corners and yell at everybody that comes by and be obstinate toward the people who are living in sin.

I want to see them be saved.

And my prayer this morning was, God, you know those that are for you and you know those that are against you, Lord.

It's my prayer that the enemies of God would be destroyed, but not before they have an opportunity to be saved.

Amen.

I don't want them to be destroyed, but I sure don't want to live next door to someone who hates God and hates me and is constantly being a thorn in my side.

Is anybody here this morning?

We want them to be saved.

We want them to come into the kingdom of God.

But if they want, someone said, Lord, if you won't turn their hearts, turn their heels so we'll recognize them by their limp.

Y'all catch that later.

God, if they won't live for you, Lord, then let us know that they're not living for you, that we won't be ambushed by.

And I'm not against anybody.

I want all men to be saved.

But there's a scripture that said, not all people believe in God.

You're going to work along some people that just simply choose not to believe in God.

You're going to have family members that just simply choose not to believe God.

And we're not called to call fire down from heaven and destroy them.

But in the Old Testament, God dealt harshly with them.

I'm so glad we live in a day of grace, aren't you?

I would have probably been burnt to a fritter if it hadn't been for the grace of God in my life and so many of us today.

But the Bible is clear that Elijah was called to restore and reform.

And I don't believe that God's changed his heart for humanity.

We're still called to speak the truth in love.

What did he say?

He said, There shall be no dew or rain until the word of the Lord says so.

And so this is called the judgment of the Lord against this disobedient Israel.

This is God's judgment.

How many believe today that God still can judge?

God can still pull one down and raise another one up.

No one ever gets too big for their britches with God.

God can do what he wants to do.

He is God over all the earth, and we are simply stewards of what God has given us.

And Elijah is telling the top man, the king, he says, God is shutting the rain off because Israel has sinned against God, and it will not rain for three and a half years.

And we've been in about a three-month drought, and we see how dry it is.

You just multiply that by three and a half years.

Not even any rain, no dew.

And this word of judgment actually mocks the God that they were worshiping called.

We always called him Baal, but it's Baal.

And I said, How many people were worshiping Baal now?

Huh?

Football, basketball, baseball, we worship Baal.

Well, this one here, this guy, this idol, this deity or false deity, they believe that he controlled the rain and was responsible for abundant cross.

And God's fixing to shut the rain off, and he says, No, I'm the one who's in control of the rain.

I'm the one who is the blesser.

I'm the one that causes you to prosper and get well.

Don't you ever believe that the devil has an upper hand on God or upper hand on your life?

You begin to learn to say, if God is for me, who can be against me?

I'm going to serve the Lord.

I like what Joshua said.

As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.

You serve who you want to serve.

If you want to serve the gods of the Canaanites and the gods of all these heathens, go ahead and serve them.

But for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord.

Why?

Because He's proven himself faithful to us.

He's a faithful God.

He's a good God.

But the Bible's also clear, it says, it's a terrible thing to fall in the hands of a living God.

You don't want to make God angry at you.

Somebody say amen this morning.

I don't want to be on God's bad side.

I'm so thankful for the blood of Jesus Christ that has brought us into right restoration and relationship with Jesus Christ that I was once an enemy of God, but now he says you're a friend of God.

I was once in dead and sins and trespasses against God, but now by the blood of Jesus Christ, when he looks at me, he said, That's my child.

He's sealed with the Spirit.

He's marked, you're marked as a child of God, and he knows those who belong to him.

But he will judge the world.

There's coming a day that the world will be judged.

There's coming a day when those that refuse God will meet the judgment of God.

And then this is showing us that the Lord is in control of everything and even nature.

I want to give you a reprise right now and let you take a breath.

And Psalms 84, 11 states that no good thing will the Lord withhold from those who walk in blamelessness.

Aren't you glad?

That means if you walk with God, he says he will not withhold any good thing from you.

But often we focus on what's temporary.

We focus on comfort, health, the amount of friends that we have in our circle, life status, our jobs.

We think if we if we have that, everything else is right.

But I say today, if we don't have the Lord, we don't have anything.

If we don't have God in our life, it doesn't matter if you have all the necessities of life without God.

We're poor and miserable and wretched without God.

But the truth is that when we walk before God, he says he won't withhold anything from those who walk blameless before him.

That means he'll never deny what is truly beneficial for our soul.

And we've got to get our eyes off of the moment that we go through the times that are hard.

And get our eyes on what's fixed and eternal.

You see, when God brings judgment, he's acting in mercy to bring about the best results.

I'm so glad that God judges because there's always mercy in that judgment.

God is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to a repentant life and experience Jesus as their Savior.

There's mercy in the judgment of God.

Because he could take us out without blinking an eye, right?

He could open the ground and swallow us up alive, like he did in the Old Testament when he judged Ahab and Abahu and those that stood against Moses.

God's still the same.

He could take us and fling us on the other side of the universe if he chose to.

But he is long-suffering and merciful and compassionate and kind, and he's not willing that any should perish.

And when Elijah came, there was mercy when God cut the reins off, saying, Turn back to God.

Baal's not God.

He can't bless you, he can't sustain you.

You can cry out to him and offer sacrifices.

He's not God.

When God shuts something up, you can't open that door that God shuts.

And when God opens a door, the devil can't close a door that God opens.

The word of the Lord came to Elijah after he told Ahab that.

And the Lord said, Go hide by the Cherith brook, near where it enters Jordan, and drink from the brook, and eat what the ravens bring you, for I've commanded them to bring you food.

So it says, Elijah did what the Lord said, and he camped by the brook Cherith, east of Jordan.

He obeyed the word of the Lord.

He's just doing what God told him to do.

I'm going to tell you today, just do what God tells you to do.

Don't fight against the word of the Lord.

You won't win when you fight against the word of the Lord.

Don't dig your heels in and be obstinate to the word of God.

Just say, Lord, I'm your servant.

If you tell me to go, I'll go.

If you tell me to stay, I'll stay.

If you tell me to be quiet, I'll be quiet.

If you tell me to speak, I'll speak.

If you say, Lord, whatever, that's what I'm going to do.

And so the Bible says that he obeyed the word of the Lord.

And what happened in his obedience, it says the ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and each evening, twice a day.

These ravens came like clockwork.

I think he could have set his watch if he had a watch.

The day was coming.

He said, Well, it's about supper time.

Those ravens are coming in just a minute.

And here they come flocking in.

Some of them carrying bread, some of them carrying, let's just say ribeye steak.

I don't know where they got it from, but they brought but they brought the food to him, and he's sitting there camping out by the brook, enjoying nature and eating those hot rolls from the steakhouse and eating some ribis.

I just had lived that.

That doesn't say that.

But if we're going to imagine, let's imagine good, right?

Buttered rolls.

I wonder if they brought a butter.

You know, ravens are known for hoarding and stealing.

I can see somebody they put their bread out in the cool, and those birds said, Here it is.

They weren't cooking it, they were getting it for somewhere where the God set it down and said, Here you take it.

It doesn't matter where where their source was.

The true source was God Almighty.

And so God is feeding him because he's obedience.

Church, can I tell you today, when you're obedient to the Lord, he'll sustain you, he'll keep you by his word.

The miraculous provision of God will be in your life, and you'll say, I don't understand it.

It's not conventional.

I don't know how God's doing it.

But time and again, twice a day and three times on Sunday, if he needs to, God will perform his word in your life.

Let us be a people of faith that says, I know my God is able to perform his word.

Come on, we got to quit being people of doubt.

Well, I don't know if he can do it.

We need a little little wine with a little cheese with our wine sometimes, right?

We're winers.

I don't know if he'll do it.

He did it for you.

No, the Bible says no good thing will he withhold from those who walk with him.

You say, Well, I'm not blameless.

Well, welcome to the club.

But the blood of Jesus washes my sins away.

When I fail God, and and when you fail God, we don't practice it, but what we do is we confess and He forgives.

Let me tell you, never let that devil crawl upon your back and beat you on the head and say all manner of things.

Yes, we know what we've done in the past, but that's not who we are anymore.

We are like Elijah and we're standing for the right.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

And so what we see is God sustaining.

Psalm 37, 7 says, Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.

Do not fret when people succeed.

And one translation says, when the wicked succeed in their ways and when they carry out their wicked schemes.

We get caught up in politics and and and the right and the left and what's going on.

Let me tell you, they're corrupt on both sides.

Somebody say amen.

There's some good in there, but there's some bad on both sides, on both sides of the aisle.

There's people that's there for the wrong reasons to get rich.

And let me tell you what, I want the freedoms of an American and I want to be blessed.

But let me tell you, as a Christian, whether America is is it's in the in the in the slums of bad politics or riding high in righteous uh politicians, then we're still under the covering of God.

Well, I I said it and I can't take it back.

I won't take it back.

I'm a citizen of heaven.

I'm I'm thankful to be an American, but my citizenship is in heaven.

I'm gonna stand for Jesus Christ before I stand for any party in politics.

And if they are contrary to the word of God, then they're contrary to my beliefs.

My belief is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

And so what we pray today is that we see God's work in our life, that we surrender every thought to God, and we realize that He is going to provide in every season of our life.

Verse number seven, it says, but after a while, say that with me, after a while, the worst thing happened.

The brook dried up.

The very thing that God's using to sustain him and bless him and told him to go there.

He's obedient to God, but it says, after a while, the brook dried up.

I'm gonna tell you, that's enough right there to cause some people to be angry with God.

Oh, you've never met any, I've met plenty.

They blame God for everything that went wrong.

They said, Well, if God really sent you here, why would the brook dry up?

But the Bible's clear he obeyed the word of the Lord, but after a while the brook dried up.

And the the dried-up brook was not God failing Elijah.

You need to know that this morning.

It was not God failing, it was God moving him into his next season.

In order for God to get us to move out of the place he sent us a lot of times, what he has to do is cut the source off that we've been there for so long and doing the same thing over and over and over again.

It's just routine.

We know what to do, we know how to do it.

We can operate without God in our life as long as we have the source.

But what happens, church, when God cuts the source off, we will starve to death.

We will die of thirst if we don't move where God is leading us.

Churches are drying up because they simply are not following the cloud.

They're not following the moving of God.

When he moves, we must move.

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

God doesn't move when we move, we move where God moves and God sustains us.

Hallelujah.

God sends him to a place.

God says the brooks dried up, Elijah.

He's like, I see that, God.

But God, I've been here for a while.

I got used to camping out here by the creek.

And I've got used to having the ribbis and the New York strips and the filet mignons.

God, those are the best roles that they was bringing.

God, I was used to that.

And God says, yeah, but but the season's over with.

And he says, I've already got arrangements for you.

And it's not going to be what you think.

He's like, He's probably thinking, we're fixing to go to the Marriott.

We're fixing to go to, we're going somewhere.

God, where are you sending me to?

Are you sending me on the cruise where I can eat three times a day?

No, God says there's a there's a place uh in the region where Jezebel comes from, the one who wants to kill you.

He said, I'm gonna send you over there.

He said, I've got a widow woman, and she's already ready to be used for the glory of God.

She's about to cook her last meal.

She's about to say it's all over with.

And God said, But I got arrangements with her.

I've got a plan for her life.

I got a purpose for her life.

And I want you to go down there to this place and see what I'm about to do in your life.

You and I must remember when the brook dries up, it is not God filling us, it's God moving us to the next season of our life.

When God moves, we move with him.

If this church is going to be blessed, we got to be blessed in following Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Word of God and doing whatever seems crazy.

Lord, we've done it this way for 50 years, and God said, But I am doing something new.

Will you follow me?

I believe God is about to bless those who follow Him.

See, if the brook had kept flowing, Elijah would have missed where God was taking him.

Sea life.

If the brook was never dried up, he just carried on.

Sometimes the things that we think is destroying us is a is a is just launching us into our next season.

You see, God some dries up one source to move us to a new place where we'll see his provision.

We get the sources mixed up with provision.

See, God is the one who commands the blessing.

God is the one who anoints us.

God's the one who equips us.

And I could not dream of Elijah refusing to obey God and say, Lord, I'm not moving.

I'm getting me a shovel.

Can you see?

I mean, he's got one of the round point shovels and he's digging in that creek.

He says, got to be water somewhere down in here.

It used to be here.

Let's dig a little deeper.

And God said, You can dig to China.

He says, There's not going to be water in there.

He said, You've got to go where I'm sending you.

And so Elijah packs up his tent, packs up his little suitcase, and he gets on the road going to Zarephath.

Listen, if we don't move, when God says move, we will die of thirst.

I'm just going to be a person that says, God, sometimes I don't see where you want me to go, but God, I'm willing to go.

Is anybody going with me?

About five of us?

I'm asking you.

Is anybody going with us?

If we got to rent a Greyhound bus, let's go together.

Amen.

Let's get on the bus and go to where God is taking us.

And because where he is taking us, we'll find provision there.

We'll find the anointing there.

We'll find joy and peace evermore where God takes us in the next season.

When God moves, we move.

Isaiah 43, 19, the NIV says, I'm doing a new thing.

How many like something new?

I mean, I'm okay with going rolling heels and finding something in pretty good shape.

Right?

I'm okay with that.

I found some good stuff there.

People give up good stuff.

They like, man, that's hardly worn.

Some of them still have new tags on it, right?

I'm okay with that.

But you know, I like a I like a new suit every now and then.

I don't have to have one for every day of the week, but I like to, all my stuff's getting kind of a little ragged, and I've been thinking I need to go and check out, see if I can get something after I lose about 30 pounds.

But God says, I'm doing a new thing.

Now it springs up.

Do you perceive it?

We need our spiritual eyes open as God.

Show me what you're doing.

You're leading me to a place I wouldn't have gone.

You're taking me to someone who I wouldn't think could help me, but God, show me what you're doing because he says, I'll make a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

The New Living translation says this, for I am about to do something new.

What does that mean?

If he's about to do something new, I want to be there when it happens.

In Zarebat, there was a widow woman, and God says, I'm about to do something, son.

If you don't go, you won't see it.

If you don't see it in faith, you won't go.

If we believe God, we will move before we see it.

He's about to do something new.

Do you see it?

It's what he said.

He said, I've already begun.

And so what we do is we realize that he is the one that creates rivers and dry wastelands.

And this is a metaphor for a miraculous divine provision or spiritual renewal in hope when facing extreme hardship, bitterness, or grief.

Anybody ever had that t-shirt?

I think sometimes the church, our first hymn ought to be that old hee-haw song.

Remember?

They sit on that front porch with that old hound dog.

It looks like he's been gone for about five years, and they're singing, oh.

Right?

So what we have to do is position ourselves to move when God says move.

He's about to do something.

He's getting us ready.

He's beginning to move on heart.

We're praying and asking God to move.

And when the brook is dry, there's no better time to move than when God says to move.

Thank God he didn't let him die at the brook.

God says, I'm going to send you somewhere.

There's a widow without much.

There I will provide for you.

The least likely place.

Not much to offer.

Not a palace.

Not a bank.

Not a wealthy person, but an unlikely source.

I'm here to tell you that God works best when we don't see how He can work in it.

God is a God of miracles.

The Bible says not many wise, not many noble, not many mighty, but God chooses the foolish things to confound the wise.

God calls people to preach that they thought they would never even be saved.

God calls people to be a testimony that's been through enough hell to wreck anybody's life.

And God says this person is a testimony of the power of Jesus Christ to save.

We're not careful.

We'll get bitter against God because He changed the season.

See, this woman was about to prepare her last meal.

But when she was asked by the man of God for something to eat, she had a choice.

Look at your neighbor, just nod at him.

You're going to have choices.

See, God's not going to force anybody to do anything, but our choices is to move with God.

Our choices is to be led by the Spirit.

It's not what I would choose.

It's not what I want to do.

But God, what are you saying?

And her choice was either, do I fix this last meal and me and my son are going to eat it and it's over with?

Or was she one saying, God, you know I need a change in my life?

God, you know I've come up, but I don't have anything else.

And God, I need something.

And God says, I'm going to give you an opportunity today.

What are you going to choose?

You're going to choose to go with God or you're going to choose to stay where you are.

If she had refused God, it's over with.

Let me tell you, when we look at this word of God, we begin to apply it to our life.

We say, if I choose my way above God's way, I have made the wrong choice.

But when I choose to say, God, it doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense, God, I don't have much.

And you're asking me to do this, God, I'll do what you say do, and I'll trust you with the outcome.

See, America, we've been so blessed that we relied upon our resources.

We relied upon what we can do.

We relied upon the government helping us or someone helping us.

We have not got to the place where we have no help but God.

But it can come quickly.

And without God, without hope, we are the most miserable bunch that you'll ever cross.

But we have hope.

We have help.

We have the word of God.

We have the Holy Spirit.

That's the good news today.

He didn't leave us here to figure it out.

He didn't say, I want to build my church and I'm going to run the church through pastors and through boards and through congregates.

No, he said, My Spirit will lead you into all things.

And the church is simply the vessel that God is using as we follow Jesus Christ.

Your home is an extension of the church.

Your family is the glory of God that the church has.

It just shines everywhere.

God's glory touches from the church to the home, to the workplace, to the government.

And everywhere we go, we are a testimony.

Whether it's through a woman who's got two little coins jangling in her purse, and she walks up to that place in the temple and she drops them in.

Can you hear them?

Ding ding.

Little coins.

And Jesus sitting over there watching people dropping in their great gifts.

And he says to his disciples, he said, Hey boys, you see that lady.

She just outshined everybody.

They were confused.

Why?

He said, Because of her, out of a desire to give to God, gave everything she had.

If she needed a bus fare to get back home, she didn't have it.

She gave it all.

We say, well, all the churches want wants is our money.

All Walmart wants is your money.

We still go there, right?

We don't get out upset, Walmart.

I don't want your money.

Listen, I'm not preaching for money.

I'm preaching to try to be an influence on your life, that you will follow hard after God.

That when God says, this is it, it's time to move, that this church, that you as individuals say, hey, I don't know what he's gonna do, but I know he's able to do what he said he would do.

And when I get to the next place he's taking me, I know that I'll find God there.

I know that he will never fail.

He cannot fail.

Do you believe it today?

Then you need to you need to walk with your with your head up, not in pride, but in confidence.

Where he leads, I'm gonna follow.

And I know when I get there, it's gonna be good.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

Is anybody gonna settle for rolling hills when you could go down to Dillard's and just pick what you wanted to?

God's like, hey, you go down to Dillard's.

There was a couple of men.

I'm gonna share this in close.

There were a couple of men that were on the mission field and they were hungry and they were broke.

One looked at the other and he said, Hey, I'm just gonna believe God's gonna provide.

We're gonna go in this restaurant.

We're gonna sit down and eat.

They said, Okay, we'll do it.

They went in and sat down.

He said, Let's just thank God before we even order that God's gonna provide for us and he's gonna bless us and he's gonna make a way.

And they said they bowed their heads and they pray and said, God, I thank you that you're gonna provide for us this meal.

You know we don't have any money, but God, we're trusting you today.

We're hungry and we know you're gonna take care of us.

And so they said, Amen.

The waitress came over and he says, Well, what will y'all have?

Gave them a menu.

The one guy he looked at the menu and he got the most expensive steak on the menu.

The other guy said, I'm just gonna have a cheeseburger.

He didn't believe as much as the other one.

And when they got through eating, the waitress came over, she said, Someone has paid for your meal.

You're free to go.

Now they both ate, and they both were full.

But one's faith was, I believe he's gonna pay, I'm just gonna go ahead and get the best thing.

And sometimes we're like, Well, that was selfish of him.

Well, the Bible says God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

And if he's hungry, he would not ask me for anything.

I bought a brisket the other day.

I hated to buy when I looked at the price of it, but I looked at the per pound price.

It was cheap per pound, but it was a lot of pounds.

I mean, when you're looking at$4.44 a pound, that's cheap compared to$13 a pound for a steak, you know, and it's still off the same animal.

So I said, Well, I'm gonna get it.

I'm gonna I'm gonna cook it and I'll freeze part of it and I'll I'll eat it later, you know, have have sandwiches.

Instead of going hot rods and paying$30 for two of us to eat, I said, I'll just double up on that and have a whole brisket, you know.

And if some of y'all look up and say, Y'all didn't get none of it, you didn't come by.

We live way below believing God.

I'm not here to rebuke you, I'm here to encourage you.

God has more in store, but we must be willing to move where he says to move.

I'm not telling you to leave the church, go find a better church.

I'm gonna say, let's make this church the church it should be.

Through praying, through moving.

If things change, things change.

If things don't change, they don't change.

But here's the thing: God wants to do something.

Amen.

I I I'm gonna close because I'm not here, I'm not here to to manipulate, I'm here to tell you God's moving.

And I'm following him.

Amen.

You know how I know I'm following him?

I wouldn't be up here preaching if I wouldn't.

I had made a statement last year, I'd rather just be preached to than preach.

I'd rather just sit down and let somebody else work.

But when God calls, when you answer the call, the provision is already in store.

You believe that?

Now that doesn't mean that you're gonna be up behind the pool here preaching, every one of us, but it means just obey what God when He moves, you move with He.

Amen.

Sister Garrett said her daughter moved.

Moved back.

Did you say move?

She moved back from uh Bomb.

Took a little bit to move, didn't it?

But in the move, there's a lot of lessons.

But the joy is when when the move happens, there's provision.

Believe God's got some things we haven't moved into yet.

You believe that?

Let's pray.

Stand with me.

Father God, you know everything, you know everyone here, you know what we face, you know what's dried up, you know what's left us, you know what's what we struggle with, you know every frustration.

God, you know what we've done, what where we've stood for you.

God, I'm here today to proclaim your word that you're the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The enemy has no authority over our lives as your children.

God, for every season that we're in, Lord, we thank you for the seasons.

We thank you for the provision of last season and the provision of this season, but God, we also look ahead and we say, we thank you, Lord, for the seasons that you will bring us into.

And God, Lord, we ask your forgiveness where we put our hope and in our trust, our confidence in anything other than you for your word.

Because, God, our confidence is not in man, our confidence is in you.

And God, I believe, Lord, that this word will carry us, Lord.

When things seem to dry up, Lord, this word will remind us, Lord, to listen for the word of the Lord that you're already doing something.

God, you're already working.

And God, we will step in to that season that you've already prepared to provide for us.

God, I pray for these today, Lord, that are here, Lord, that may be struggling or maybe weary or may be wandering, God.

I pray for them today.

That you would just put your hand upon their life.

That, Lord, you would lean in to them and speak to them.

And God, that they would have the assurance that you will provide for every need.

You will not fail.

You cannot fail when we follow you, Lord.

You always perform your work.

We thank you for it.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

All hearts are clear.

Anybody need prayer for anything before we leave?

God bless you.

We love you.

We'll see you next time.

Hope you have a blessed week.

If you need us, call us.