[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in.
Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Welcome. Welcome to all of you who are watching online. We are going to give you a big warm round of applause. Say thank you for tuning in from where you are. Come on, family, let's do that together.
Welcome to Church Online. Many of you are celebrating your Memorial Day weekend from wherever you may be watching from. We are glad that you have tuned in and we're jealous of all of you from if it's someplace that's awesome or that I haven't been, I'm jealous if it's someplace I didn't like. Enjoy. You get what you get. That's your punishment. No, I'm. I'm glad that you're here. Welcome, welcome. Grab your Bibles, if you would. We're gonna turn over to 1 Kings chapter 17 today. And as we're turning there, I wanna say thank you so much for your generosity. You guys are amazing and a giving church. We're doing so much, many things. We've got a lot of things happening this summer. We got some things happening today. Not only is it Memorial Day weekend and we have fantastic weather, which is very rare here. Normally it's like 145, but this is also. We have groups kickoff. There's groups happening all over the city. So if you are looking to get connected. If you're looking to find new friends to get to be a part of the church, to find new relationships, new people in your area, groups are a fantastic way to do that. Before we even talk about getting to know the Lord better and diving deeper into his word, deeper into fellowship. So groups are kicking off. You can find all that information on our website. That is highridgelv.com we also have moving up Sunday. So there's a lot of our young ones that are moving up from children's ministry into main service today. So don't nobody cuss.
Be nice.
I'm looking at you. Be nice. No, no, no. There's some that have stepped out of children's ministry and are in big service. They're feeling very mature today. We also have a special, special service happening on Wednesday for our youth. So many of the children's ministry kids are coming into youth ministry for the first time. So if you've ever want to see what it looks like to have deer in the headlights, like, you need to be here on Wednesday nights. So you older youth, be nice to the younger ones because they've been a big fish in a small pond for a long time and they're walking into a room with. Filled with big kids.
That's a tough spot. But because of your generosity, we're able to do a lot of things for some children's ministry, for youth ministry, that is only possible because you guys give, we make it first class and that's a big deal. Let me just say thank you for supporting what we're doing. Thank you for taking a heart, taking an interest and standing behind the ministries that are happening here. It's making a massive difference, not just here in our church, but around the world. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being a giving church, for being generous. It matters. So first kings, chapter 17.
Going to jump into that today. And I want to continue on with our series called the Father First. What has your first, what has your priority? It's all about our priorities. I think all of us would agree that if you're here at church on a Sunday morning, you would probably say the same thing as the rest of us. We, we put Jesus first. We put God first. So saying it and actually doing it are two completely different things. We're going to talk about what it really honestly means to put God first first in a practical way. And as we're digging into God's word, it's important for us to, to, to. To preface this text that we're about to read by saying a couple things. Number one, this is not an easy story to read. This is one of Those texts in First Kings, chapter 17 where it seems like God is exploiting someone who is about to starve, about to die on their last leg.
If you're reading it from the, from a surface level, this is a difficult, it's a tense story to read. But, but I'm so thankful that the Bible doesn't hide those stories from us because they're not politically correct. They don't fit within the narrative that we want them to fit into. But they challenge us to think deeper, to look deeper into the text. Like, Lord, what does that mean? I don't like the way that, that that makes me feel.
And it all revolves around a man named Elijah. Now Elijah just burst onto the scene. We don't really know where he comes from. We don't know his training. We don't have a lot of information on his backstory. All we know is he shows up and balls out. He comes to a place where he is wild, he is confronting, he is prophesying, he's calling fire down from heaven. And he is unstoppable.
No backstory, just shows up.
He comes at a time that it's critical in the history of God's people.
He shows up when their heart has turned towards baal, the worship of a false God.
And he shows up and says, look, this ain't right. You are God's people and you've integrated something into your life that does not belong in the life of those that call themselves children of God.
And so he decrees a prophecy. He said there was not going to be any rain until I say so.
And by the way, God backed it up. So the entire country goes into a major drought. Crops fail, agriculture fails.
The. The. The.
The entire nation gets crippled. Economies are falling because Elijah pronounced judgment.
And then God begins to take care of Elijah in. In some. In some pretty unique ways. God. God says, I want you to go to a certain valley and I'm going to command the birds to feed you.
Kind of gross, like, lord, can we just get doordash? Is that possible? Because I'm more of a chick fil, a kind of person, you know, I don't know what kind of food birds are going to bring you, but I can imagine it's not Doritos. Let's just be honest here. But God commands the ravens to feed him, and God gives him a brook to drink from, and he spends time with the Lord. He's being obedient, but God is providing for his needs every day in the midst of a horrible drought.
Then it says, in the course of time that that brook dries up, the birds stop feeding him. God says, I've got something else for you. This is the next place I'm going to send you to.
So in the midst of an economic drought, in the midst of him having high faith, but a lot of people turning against him, people hunting him, looking for him, because they blame him for the economy crashing. And here is Elijah simply having to trust God. And God asks him to do something that is not easy. He sends him in a situation that is tense, that's uncomfortable, and all the text revolves around one word, first.
First.
So let's pick it up. In verse eight, it says, then the word of the Lord came to Elijah and said, go at once to Zarephath, and I want you to stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food. That's the very first place where it gets uncomfortable for me.
When God says, in the midst of a drought, he doesn't say, I'm going to command a king, a prince, someone that's really wealthy, somebody that's been really smart, and they've stored up a lot. They've got a lot of extra things and abundance there for you to enjoy. No, he says, I've commanded a. A. A widow.
That's not easy to read.
I've commanded a widow there to supply you with food.
So Elijah went, and when he came to the town gate, there was a widow there gathering some sticks. And he said, would you bring me a little water in a jar so that I may have a drink? Remind yourself, they're in drought, Water's hard to come by. But she says, I can do that.
Would you. Would you bring me a drink?
Notice this.
As she was going to get it, he called and bring me, plea, please, a piece of bread as surely as the Lord your God lives. She said, I don't have any bread. Here's what I do have. Only a handful of flour and a jar and a little bit of olive oil in a jug.
I'm gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and for my son, that we may eat that and die. But that's uncomfortable to hear.
Here's a widow. Here's a mother. She says, this is my last meal. This is all I've got.
We're. We're dying. We're starving.
I don't like that part of the story.
Because you want God to be able to just give them millions, bless them. Your heart goes out to this person, but that's not what happens.
Look at this. She says, we're going to eat this last meal and die. But Elijah said to her, look at these next three words. Don't be afraid. Does she have a lot of things to be afraid of? Absolutely. This is the end.
He said, don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But somebody say the next word with me first. And this is where the story gets hard to read.
First, make a small loaf of bread. Not for you, he says, for me.
Make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and for your son. I don't like that scripture that bothers me. That reminds me of some kind of 1980s televangelists where you're completely exploiting some grandma, telling her, you know, you're on a fixed income, and I Want you to send me all your money right now, and God's gonna bless you. That's what this feels like.
If you read it as a surface level story, you. You would skip past this. Like, I don't like that. This is God taking advantage of a widow that's giving her last meal.
He says, first, make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have. Bring it to me. Then make something for yourself and for your son. And here's the promise from the Lord. For this is what the Lord says. That jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day that the Lord sends rain on the land. Remind yourself she only had a little bit of flour, only had a little bit of oil. He says, no, no, no, you're not going to have an abundance.
It's just not going to run out.
You're going to have just enough.
And this is the word of the Lord, the promise that God sends.
So she went away. Look at this. And did as Elijah told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and for her family. For the jar of flour was not used up, and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of God.
Once again, the text hinges on that word first. Elijah says, first, I want you to give.
To give of the last of what you have. That's a hard story, but we understand the concept of the first in every other area of our life until it comes to honoring God with the first of our paycheck, with the first of our generosity, with the first of our money. That's a difficult thing for many of us because we like to give out of the abundance. If God has really blessed me, if things are going really well, then I'll give God something because he's blessed me.
But to give God something when you don't have it and it's only a little bit of what you have left to honor God with, the first of that, that takes real faith.
The first is an important concept. We know this in our education because actually, up until about the 1830s, 1840s, somewhere in there, there was no such thing as kindergarten, which is a. It's a funny word. I was looking that up this morning. Like kindergarten. Is that German? Of course. It's a German word that means kind garden.
Did you know that? I didn't know that, but it makes sense. But it's basically like, okay, there needs to be a step between, you know, a kid just hanging out at home and first grade because by the end of first grade, they should know how to read. They should understand the concept of addition and subtraction. They should understand a lot of very basic concepts that are very foundational for their maturity later on in life. And so we created an extra step.
There was a German school teacher that thought, there needs to be an extra step to help kids understand first things, like, not to bite each other. Mike Tyson.
You need to understand things like, hey, everything is not yours.
Right?
Kid's favorite word when they're four and five is mind. Everything is mine. They don't understand the concept of sharing. Like, okay, we need to create a couple of things before we get to understanding concepts. Like, we need to understand, like, basic principles. Don't kill other people. Like, everything you need to know, you. Everything you need to know, you. You learned it in kindergarten, right?
But we understand those concepts of reading and. And writing that are established in the. In the first grade are very foundational and necessary.
When I was taking my SATs, getting ready to. To go into college, I. I thought I was fairly smart. I ended up graduating with a great GPA and had scholarships and. And it seemed like college was a shoe in until I took my SATs, and it was not good.
You're always a little embarrassed.
And so I had a teacher sit down with me, say, let me look at this. At some of this stuff. And he looks at this. He's like, how did you miss these questions? I'm like, I honestly can say, I don't know.
I don't know.
And so he says, let me just quiz you for a little bit. So he sits down with me and starts giving me different issues. He said, I think the issue is math.
It's not your English and your writing and your creative mind. He said those things. You're off the charts on that stuff. It's the math stuff. Let me whittle it down. And he goes all the way back to simple addition and subtraction. He said, you understand calculus and trig? You can't add.
You can't do multiplication.
I'm like, are you serious? He said, where were you between, like, first and fourth grade? I'm like, homeschool. Mm.
That tracks.
That's right. There's a lot of foundational things that were important to me that. That didn't quite get ingrained, that we. That way, that we would hope.
We understand that the first is important.
Come on. The first matters.
We understand the concept in. In first love.
We understand the concept in your first kiss. Some of you, like God's Got a plan for you. It's gonna, it's gonna happen.
45. Keep going. Keep going.
We understand the concept in first chair. You ever been first chair? For those of you in the orchestra, in a choir, or in a symphony, to earn first chair is a big deal. In band, anybody ever been first chair? Let me see your hands. Where are you at? That's what I'm talking about, first chair.
Like there were six of us, but I was first chair.
We understand the concept of first string in sports.
That was the goal. I want to be on. I don't just want to be on the team. I don't want to be just in the team picture. You want, you want to be first string, first string quarterback, first string tailback, first string defensive end, first string. You want to be. You want to be first.
You remember the feeling for how many of those that are in here today would say I was first string. At one point, I was able to make first string. Where were you at?
Some of us peaked in high school. Others we were just waiting. Just waiting.
I get it. You can put your hands down.
First chair, first string.
I learned in Little League that the best hitter is not like the rest of baseball. When we put the best hitter in the fourth spot, in the cleanup spot, no, in Little League, your best hitter bats first.
We try to get things started off that way. Some of you are baseball coaches. That's the reason why you're not winning. Put your best hitter first.
We understand that concept.
And then maybe on, maybe somewhere later, later on in life, you get a chance to fly in first class.
I got bumped up to first class one time.
It's a much bigger deal to me than it actually was to them. It's like a 40 minute flight from here to Houston, you know, like, I don't care. It's a big deal to me. And you ask for things because you're in first class. I didn't know what to ask. I've never done that before. So I asked for Grey Poupon.
I don't know. What do you do? Like, sir, would you like a beverage? Like, what's the craziest beverage I can ask for? Like what.
What's Grey Poujon? Do you have that? You know, that's not a drink, sir. I'm drinking it today. I'm that.
I'm that guy.
I don't know if you've ever ridden first class, if you've ever, if you've ever been there. You know this.
With first string, with first chair, those things aren't Accidents.
It comes with a lot of hard work and a lot of discipline.
Giving God the first never happens by accident.
It's priorities, it's dedication, and it's foundational.
As foundational, as first grade is to us, to our maturity.
Honoring the Lord first is foundational to your spiritual maturity. And many people want to move on to the deeper things of God. Give me something harder to understand. Give me a concept that I can grasp. And we've, we've, we've forgotten the basic principles of spiritual maturity starts with being able to honor God first, to make God our priority. And in this story, we see God asking that of someone who has a lot less than anyone in this room.
He says, give this first something small. He didn't say, give it all. He said, give the first.
And it shows us some things that we need to confront in our own spirit, in our own spiritual maturity. Things I believe the Holy Spirit is speaking to all of us today. So if you're a note taker, you might want to follow along.
Number one, Giving the first reveals what I believe about God.
Giving the first reveals what I believe. And it shows what she believes about God as well, because she takes God at his word. Now, let me just remind you, this text is uncomfortable. I'm so thankful that the Lord, the Lord doesn't, doesn't make me repeat part of this story that I've never been in this position where I'm down to my last meal before death.
Like, obviously, that's not a thing, right? We're blessed. This is the land of abundance.
But this story is tense because not only is single, but she's a widow. She's dealt with incredible loss.
And it says she's a mother of a starving child, she's a Gentile, and she's at the end of her provision. She's got nothing, nothing left.
That's uncomfortable for God to ask something for somebody like that is difficult for me to process.
But even though there's so much tension in that story, if you remove the tension from that story, what you're left with is some kind of cringy bumper sticker.
Oh, God blessed a widow. Like, no, no, no, no. You need to see how desperate it was.
Stay in the story for just a second. Just because you know the end of the story doesn't mean it was intense. It's uncomfortable. It's, it's tense and it's supposed to be.
Taking that tension away makes the story into some sort of cheesy bumper sticker. And Christians have been known for years for Having cheesy bumper stickers. Some of you like, it's time to rip that off.
We can represent the Lord in other ways. We'll get your high ridge sticker. It'd be much better.
But we are, we are. We are the kings and the queens of the cringy Christian bumper sticker.
80s and 90s, it became so popular to. To share the gospel by a track and a bumper sticker. And we would put on some of the cringiest things. You know, just let go and let God. I'm like, roll my eyes. Come on. Like, is it true? Like, okay, you know, let go and let God.
But the other side of that is just be lazy.
God's got it. Like, no, you have to take some responsibility for some things. No bumper sticker says, let go and let God, like, go to work.
Right?
Go, Go to your job. I'm just letting go right now. I'm in a season of letting go. I'm just letting God.
He's not going to go to work for you. Like, that's not a thing.
And we, we have this bumper sticker theology that we kind of reduce a lot of Christian things down to.
I saw a bumper sticker that said, jesus is coming. Look busy. And it just. It just stuck with me in my mind.
One cross plus three nails equals four given.
Come on, man.
It's like, melbo, we need to take that off the car. I told you three weeks ago to take that off the car.
Apparently we can't do that and go to this church. Like, leave it on there. It's fine. We just recognize that you're kind of cringy.
Jesus is my co pilot.
Remember that. Like, we've kind of reduced these theological issues down to, like, the basic steps, and then we put them in a bumper sticker theology kind of way. And when you take out the tension from this story, when you remove the fact that this is uncomfortable, it doesn't seem right. That's kind of what you turn the story into, some kind of bumper sticker theology. This is not what that is. This is uncomfortable.
But it shows that she honors God with the first out of a desperate situation.
And in this story, we see that the miracle actually starts before the meal is served. It starts when God says, I've commanded, I've directed. I've ordered a widow to supply you with food.
That means that God already knew her situation. He sees her and he's calling her to a miracle. He's calling her out of fear. He's calling her out of scarcity. He's calling her out of her biggest opponent, which is her fear. Fears of what's going to happen to her and to her, to her child. God's calling her out of that even before she takes a step of faith. God is moving pieces on the chessboard. I love that he says, I've directed a widow there to supply you with food. That word directed in the Hebrew is the word sava, which. Which means I've commanded it. I've deemed it necessary. I'm already dealing with her heart.
Even though she doesn't have anything.
I'm going to ask for the first of what she does have.
The first of the last.
I'm gonna ask her to put me first. I've commanded her. And she's gonna take care of you.
It says God sees the situation. And it reminds us of a very important point. Here's what I want to show you. God never asks for what I don't have, just the first of what I do.
I don't have a lot given the first.
Honor God with the first take a step of faith.
God never asked for what I don't have, just the first of what I do. So this is not God exploiting some desperate widow. That's not what this story is about.
This is God calling her out of fear and into trust. And he's doing the same for me and you.
God is calling us into a relationship built on trust and giving the first reveals what I believe about God. Can I trust him now? Most of us would say we can. Oh, yeah, you can trust God.
With what?
With your salvation? Sure.
With your paycheck.
Let's not go that far.
And you have your reasons. I get it. I understand. But giving God the first reveals what you really believe about God. It won't lie to you. It tells you the truth.
So this is not God exploiting desperation. He's calling her and out of fear and into trust. This is not someone that has a lot to give.
This is not our situation. I'm thankful. Let me say it this way. Anybody can give out of the overflow. But faith giving by faith that gives before certainty.
Anybody can give when you've been so blessed by God. Now, that doesn't mean that everybody will.
Most people will tip.
If you really make them feel guilty, they'll tip.
But that's not biblical.
That's Americanized television, televangelist Christianity.
That's not good for you.
Anybody can give out of the overflow. This is not that story.
She's giving by faith, giving by obedience. When it's not certain.
So God says, I've commanded this widow to provide you with food. And then so when Elijah shows up, he says, you know, I want you to do this. Do this for me. Make me something first. She says, I whoo, that's a lot that you're asking for me. This is the last of what I have. He says, don't be afraid. Come on, give me the first.
And God's going to give you a promise.
So she's commanded, but she's not confident. You ever been that way? You ever know that God's called you to do something? You ever know what the right thing to do is, but you're not very confident? Like, I know God's telling me this, but, whoo, that takes a lot.
This is what that story's about.
I know it's the right thing to do.
Being confident in it, not so much.
But she does it with the last of what she has.
Faith gives before certainty. You're going to find that pattern, by the way, all through the Old Testament and New Testament.
Remind yourself of when God called Noah to build an ark before anybody even knew what rain was.
Can you imagine that? God says, build me an ark.
Well, what's an ark? It's a massive boat.
Cool.
We're not close to the water.
No, I'm going to make it rain. What is rain? We've got a lot to talk about. Like, you know, but he works and works and works and builds an ark because God said God commanded it even though he couldn't see it.
Remind yourself over and over how God does that.
We talked last week about Abel bringing God an offering of the First.
The first when he doesn't have the law of the harvest. He doesn't know that God's going to continually provide like we do. He gives him because it's the right thing to do, to honor the Lord, even when there's not a lot of certainty that God's going to continue to provide.
We know it. He didn't know it.
So this widow woman has almost no flower.
She has no oil, no future.
And she gives out of weakness, not out of strength.
She gives out of weakness, not out of strength.
Here's what I want to say. God never asked us to trust him because he's trying to take from us. He asks us to trust him because he wants to bring us into something that's greater than fear.
And I want to make sure that you see that we've got it on the screen for you to see, because this is important.
God doesn't need Your first.
You need to give it, because he's calling you to trust him. He's giving you something that's greater than fear. And that really is the underlying theme of this story.
It's so important. The words that Elijah speaks to her. When she determines that she's gonna take this step of faith, he tells her those three words. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid.
Fear is the real opponent in the story. Fear is the real opponent. Not just in this story, but in mine and your story as well.
Fear.
Here's the second key that we see. Number two. God never leaves his people with less than what he asks for.
This is an important principle for us.
Remind yourself. When Moses is standing before a burning bush and God says, I'm calling you to lead 2 million people out of slavery. He's like, you've got the wrong guy.
I don't have anything.
I can't even talk right.
And God says, no, I choose you, Pikachu. I choose you.
He says, look, choose my brother Aaron. He ain't got no job. He'd been on welfare for three weeks. He needs something to do. I'm busy. I've got these sheep to take care of. I got a job. I can't be leading 2 million people out of slavery. That's not my thing.
I don't have those skills.
Remind yourself, what does God ask him? God says, what's in your hand? It's nothing but a staff. It's a stick. That's all I've got. God says, throw it on the ground before me.
Give me what you do have.
Give me what you do have, and give it on the front end.
Moses lays down his staff and it becomes a snake. And God says, pick it up. And he's like, Pick it up by the tail. Okay, that's about as.
It's about the most faith I can get.
But you know, that staff becomes something miraculous when he chooses to lay it down. Here's what we know. What we place first in God's hands stops being limited by ours.
And this story is hard. This story is not easy to read. It's not easy for me to teach from. Because real faith, please hear me. Real faith usually is.
It's hard.
If it's not difficult at all, it's probably not faith.
I remember telling a pastor one time I'd just given towards something. I said, you know, I wrote that check in faith. He says, really?
I said, yeah. He said, was your hand shaking when you wrote it out?
I said, no. He said, then it's not in faith. You gave out of abundance. Congratulations.
Anybody can do that. But if you're serious about giving in faith, it should make your hands shake when you're writing that check.
That's giving by faith, because it's not certain, but you're doing what you feel like the Lord has told you to do. That's giving by faith.
And here is a woman giving the first of the last of what she has.
Now, the interesting part of the story is God doesn't make her rich.
This is not a prosperity gospel story.
You give God $10, he's going to give you 10,000. Like, that's. That's not the.
That's not the message here.
That's not what we see.
There's a service I heard about one time where a pastor stands up and he says, you know, I. I'm gonna. I'm gonna challenge you right now. I feel like the Lord is moving. If. If you give $100, God's going to multiply that a hundred dollars 100 times over.
And so people start bringing all this money, and they're laying it at the feet of the pastor, believing that God is going to multiply it a hundred times over. Because the pastor said that. And I remember him turning around and hearing the story. There was a guest pastor that was there with him. He said, do you really believe that?
He said, I do.
Said seriously? He said, I do. I believe God's going to return that 100 times more than what they're given. He said, then why don't you cash out everything that you have and lay it on the altar?
If you really believed it, where's yours?
Sometimes we need to be confronted with that prosperity gospel message that God wants to make you rich.
God wants to make you holy. God wants to make you like him.
It's not riches in the conventional way that God wants to give everybody.
This is not a prosperity gospel message. This.
This is daily bread theology.
Because it says she had just enough every day for her and her family and for Elijah because she took a step of faith. God provided every single day. And that's the pattern that God has. He wants to give you a daily relationship where he takes care of your daily needs. He wants a daily relationship where you trust him with everything that you need for that day. That's daily bread.
Remind yourself. Israelites crossing through the desert. And God said, I'm providing manna for you guys. And it was provided new every single morning. And God says, I don't want you to gather up three and four and five Days worth of that stuff. It's one day, one day at a time.
And of course, people are like, you know what?
I want to sleep in tomorrow. Can I just gather a couple days? God will understand.
He understands I need my rest.
And it says, by day number two, those that had gathered too much, it turned into maggots. Why? Because there's a principle behind it.
God says, I want to give you just enough for every day so that you trust me with tomorrow.
Daily bread.
Daily bread.
Here's the story that we see.
She and her family and Elijah had food every single day.
Because a God story never ends with sacrifice. It ends with his sustained provision. And I'm thankful for that. Anytime you see a God story where there's a sacrifice, it never ends with the sacrifice.
It ends with sustained provision. Remind yourself, when Jesus comes and dies on the cross, that's not the end of the story.
That's the middle of the story. Everything after that is sustained provision. There's grace for me, there's grace for you. Why? Because of a sacrifice. So when you determine that you're gonna make a sacrifice and honor the Lord with the first and your best, that is never, ever going to be the end of your story.
It's the beginning of God's sustained provision.
You're stepping into the promises of God that he will provide all of your needs because you're honoring him with the first and with the best.
You see the difference?
It's daily bread theology. You know what else God says is new every single morning? Says his mercy. His mercies are new every morning. There's grace for you. There's mercy for you. This morning I'm thankful because I'd have already run up a line of credit.
So not only does giving the first reveal what I believe about God, and God never leaves his people with less than what he asked for. But here's the final thing I want to share with you. Number three. Giving God the first breaks the power of idolatry.
Idolatry, that's not something that we think about a lot.
We're more familiar with the term adultery.
You know, that's. That's wrong. Adultery is wrong. Stay faithful.
I get it.
But idolatry is a big theme of the Bible, in case you can't remember. Idolatry, it's not something that we would say, we struggle with anymore. That's not a. Not a big deal.
Or do we?
There's a reason why God includes this story. And there's a reason why it's so uncomfortable, intense. Because it brings our attention back to what's important. We know this, that this, this is at a time where King Ahab and Queen Jezebel are the most wicked monarchy that Israel has ever had, the worst in leadership, most wicked. And it's because they're leading God's people into idolatry. They've now made the worship of BAAL the national religion, and people are falling in line right behind baal.
If you know anything about the worship of ancient gods, you know that BAAL is the God of agriculture, he's the God of rain, he's the God of prosperity. And to a people that make their living raising crops from the ground, that's a pretty important God. It's pretty easy to see why they would start falling in love and, and worshiping baal.
Here's what we know.
When I learned about idol worship when I was in Sunday school, I was. I had this in my mind as something so dark and so bizarre, and you're going to offer your children to molech and they're going to burn them like that? That's part of it, sure. But idol worship didn't start out bizarre and dark and weird.
Look at me. It was practical.
Why?
Because their lives revolved around it. This is something that we think we need if we make our living from the ground. What doesn't it make sense to worship the God that brings rain on the ground, the God of agriculture, the God of prosperity.
Makes a lot of sense.
And this is exactly where we find the nation of Israel turning their hearts towards worship of baal. Because it's practical and it's financially intelligent to do that.
It makes sense. It's easy for us to look at them and say, what's wrong with you? God's done so much.
And they would say the same thing about us.
It's financially smart to worship baal.
And here's something that when you, when you, when you understand the history of God's people and what Ahab and Jezebel were doing, when the, the nation begins to worship baal, it, it wasn't that Israel abandoned God and started worshiping baal, that's not what we see.
Look at me. They integrated them.
They worshiped both at the same time.
The exact same problem that we have in the Americanized version of Christianity today. It's not that we've turned our back on God. We've integrated. And Jesus says all the way back in Matthew, he says, you can't serve God in money.
It doesn't work that way.
I like to serve both.
We like to serve both.
It's fine. It's financially smart.
We don't really call it worship. It's idolatry.
It's idolatry.
So they're not turning their backs on God. They're integrating one with the other. They would say, I serve Yahweh for my identity, but I serve BAAL for my security.
It's God for who I am in Christ. I'm a new creation, but it's money for my security.
And we integrate them.
We worship both.
So there's a reason why Elijah comes onto the scene at the end of this chapter, at the very end of the drought.
He calls together all the prophets of BAAL and he calls all the people of Israel together on Mount Carmel, and he gives them the scripture. I want you to see this. In First Kings 18, he says, how long will you waver between. Look at that, two opinions.
They're not worshiping one or the other, they're worshiping both.
He says, you've got two opinions here. Now, if the Lord is God, follow him. But if BAAL is God, follow him, your God of prosperity, your God of money. If God is God, follow him. If money's your God, follow money. But you can't serve both.
Make a decision. It's idolatry.
How long are you going to waver between two opinions?
He says, let the God who answers by fire be God. But choose, make a choice.
Who are you going to serve?
You can't serve both.
Here's what I know. Most believers today don't reject God, but they struggle between two loyalties, my identity and my security. My identity that comes from Christ, my security that comes from my paycheck.
Giving God the first breaks, that power of idolatry.
It says, lord, I trust you. You're my provider. You're my God. It's interesting that God chose a man named Elijah, the very name in Hebrew, Elijah, when you break it down, his very name preaches a sermon. His name means, the Lord is my God.
So his name is warfare against baal. And God says, I'm going to send you to Zarephath, to a widow. Zarephath is in the heart of Sidon, by the way, the. That's Jezebel's hometown. That's where she's from. Queen Jezebel, the leader of the BAAL worship. God says, I'm sending you into the belly of the beast. I'm sending you right into the heart of BAAL country.
And your very name is going to speak volumes.
The Lord is my God because I'm going to provide for you with ravens. I'm going to provide for you with a brook. I'm providing for you with a widow. Those unlikely sources when everyone else is wondering and praying and hoping that their money, their bail God will come through. I'm providing you every day with what you need.
Elijah came to wake up the people of God, to call them back to a relationship of daily trust in the God that can provide Jehovah Jireh.
And he tells them, how long will you waver between two opinions?
How long are you going to. You going to struggle between two loyalties?
The Lord is my God. Choose.
On Mount Carmel, fire falls down from heaven and the people fall on their face. They said, the Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. We will not serve some false God of prosperity. Will serve the God that gives me daily everything that I need.
A beautiful turn in Israel's history when they made a choice to follow after Yahweh, the God that provides.
Here's what we know. Giving God the first isn't losing something. It's dethroning something.
And most of us have put money as the throne of our hearts. It's what we look forward to. It's what we have, all of us, our decisions revolve around.
I've said it a million times. I found that the majority of my problems could just be solved if I made a lot more money.
You can't serve them both.
Choose.
Either he's God or he's not.
But you have to choose. We can't integrate one with the other anymore.
So giving God the first breaks the power of idolatry. Because today's idols, the idolatry that we see in our world today, it's the idol of security, the idol of control, the idol of comfort, the idol of materialism, the idol of self sufficiency. All the things that the world would say, it's financially smart, so sound.
God would say, that's an idol. I want you to trust me. I want you to listen to me. I want you to plan it how I tell you to plan it.
Honor me with the first and I'll tell you when there's a drought coming. I'll tell you when to plan, how to plan, when to be generous, when to store.
But I want you to trust me. I want you to follow me.
Daily bread.
Here's what we know. I want to put this on the screen.
Modern idols aren't, aren't, aren't in temples, they're in bank accounts and Calendars and anxieties.
I'm going to leave that on screen for us to see because this is important.
We don't walk in some temple and worship some false God.
Or do we?
How do we know what has your first.
Let me ask you, what's the first thing that you reach for in the. In the morning? What's the first thing that gets your time and your attention? Is the first thing going towards your calendar?
Does your first thoughts go towards your anxieties and things that you're worried about?
Does your first thoughts go towards how long is it going to take until I have enough money to be able to make these decisions? It tells you what you're worshiping, what gets you first.
But honoring God with the first breaks that power off of you.
Please hear me. This is important to your maturity as believers. It's important for God to call you out of an Americanized version of Christianity. He wants us to walk with him daily, have a daily relationship with him. He wants to speak to you. He wants you to speak to him. He says, give me the first. It shows me what's on the throne of your heart. And it shows you what's on the throne of your heart.
What gets the first of your paycheck?
What's the first bill that you pay? What's most important to you?
It tells you what's on the throne of your heart.
Honor the Lord. Look at this. In Proverbs 3, verse 9, it says, Honor the Lord with your wealth.
Not just your words, your wealth. And with. Look at the next word. First fruits.
With the first of all your crops.
You're like, I'm so thankful. I'm not a farmer. I don't have any of those crops.
Yeah, you do. And you know what he's talking about.
God says, I want the first. There's so many principles that we could get into with this, with the principle of the firstborn, the first fruits, the first harvest. God says, set those aside for me. Give me the first. It's not that God needs more wheat. He doesn't need that. You need it, and it's good for you.
Honor the Lord with your first.
I'll finish up with this. Giving God the first declares, my confidence is not in money or my abilities. My trust is in my God.
I want to finish up right there.
I'm thankful that the Word of God is not just a collection of stories that will inspire you, but it's also a collection of words that will correct us. And it shows us some things about ourselves that we need to See, we need to hear.
I'm thankful that we have a church to come to where God speaks and tells us exactly what we need to. What we need to address.
His Word is sharp. It's alive.
It's good for us.
It divides between the joints and the marrow, the soul and the spirit. It corrects.
It doesn't just inspire.
It's meant for more than just a couple of tattoos to help you do better in softball. Like God's word is much more than that. It confronts us right where we are and calls us into something deeper with him. And that's my heart. That's my hope for you today, that you would hear God's word and you'd recognize that God has blessed us.
And it's one thing to give out of the overflow and generosity. It's another thing to give on the front end, to give God his portion first. So my challenge to you is this. Whenever your next paycheck comes, to honor God with the first dollar. The first penny is, if you can't trust God with a dollar yet, give him the first penny.
Put the first penny in one of those boxes at the back of the room. But take a step and honor God with the first.
The first matters.
This is part of your spiritual foundation and maturity.
But don't say, I honor God and put God first in my life.
If the truth of your life doesn't say that, be more than just someone that says it in idea, that's a Christian in name only.
Be someone that takes a step. Honor God with the first of your paycheck.
Honor him first and say, lord, it's a privilege, it's an honor to return this to you. You're worth this.
And then believe that God is going to begin to move every single day with daily bread, daily manna, a daily relationship with you as he walks you into what's next for your life. There's a step many of us need to take, and there's your step for tomorrow. There's an easy way to do this. Give God the first of your day. Scripture before screens, kingdom before consumption. Give God the first of your day. Let the first words of your mouth be, thank you, Lord, for another day. Thank you, Lord, for waking me up this morning. I give you the first seconds of my day.
Make sure you have a secondary alarm foreshadowing. Sometimes it happens. You start praying, you fall back asleep. There's nothing better than falling asleep in the presence of God. That's a good thing. It's gonna be fine. Like, oh, Lord, your sweet is so, oh, Lord, thank you for the second part of my day, too. I appreciate that. Thank you for waking me up with a secondary alarm.
Give God your first. Give him the first of your day. Not going to regret this. God's not looking to take something from you. He's looking to call you out of fear.
And it's better for you. That's the better version of you. Let me finish up right there. Would you go ahead and put away your Bibles, put away your phones, and I'm going to ask you to bow your head and close your eyes. If you're watching online with us today, I want to say thank you for watching. If you think this message is important for people to hear, I want to encourage you to share this message. Use your social media influence to share this message, and I want to pray for you today if that's okay.
So whether you're here with us live or in person, would you bow your head? Let me pray for you.
Father, I thank you for your word that challenges me, that calls me out of complacency, that calls me into something more.
Thank you for the depth of your word.
Father, I'm so thankful that you see me right where I am, just like you saw that widow. You know exactly what my situation is. You. You know what my marriage looks like. You know what my family looks like. You know what my bank account looks like. There is nothing hidden from you. You see me. But, Father, you love me too much to leave me here. You love me too much to leave you as. As. As. To leave me as. As you found me. You love me too much. You have a heart. You have a hope. You have a future for me.
And Father, I pray that my actions would line up with the future that you have for me.
I pray that you'd restore the joy of.
Of a daily relationship with you.
Let me walk next to you.
Let me make you more of a priority in my life. Let me honor you with the first. You're worth that to me.
For some of us, it's time to make a fresh commitment to the Lord.
It's time to give him your heart again.
I want to encourage you.
Talk to him.
Tell him you love him.
For some of us today, perhaps you came here and you're saying, pastor, it's been a while since I've talked to the Lord. I may have been raised in church, but I've gotten so far away from God.
I need to come home. My friend. Yes, you do. And I sense that so strongly within my spirit right now.
The Lord brought you here today for a reason. You've been away from God. You've been running. And I'm not here to judge you. I'm saying, welcome home, take a step, talk to the Lord. Let me help you.
For others, you might say, pastor, I don't have a relationship with Jesus at all. I don't know what that's like, but I sure would like to. My friend, I'm so glad you're here, too.
I would love to help you, just like somebody helped me one time.
So with heads bowed and eyes closed, if you want a relationship with Jesus, if you've been running from Jesus and need to come home, I'm going to ask that you pray this prayer with me. I'm going to give you the words to say, I'm going to help you, and I'm going to ask that you repeat them after me. I'm not here to embarrass you in any way. So to make sure you don't get embarrassed, I'm going to have all of us say this out loud together. But you need to pray this prayer. You need to get serious with the Lord. It's time.
So high Ridge family, let's pray this out loud together. Just say, jesus, I believe you're the Son of God.
I believe that you came and died.
I believe you rose from the grave so that I could have life and forgiveness for my sins.
Please forgive me and I'll give you the rest of my life.
In Jesus name, I pray.
And with heads bowed and eyes closed, nobody else looking around. My friend, I promise you, I'm not here to embarrass you. But if that was you and you say, pastor, you were talking to me. I prayed that prayer. I meant that prayer. I.
I believe it.
If you pray that prayer in a minute, would you do me a favor? Would you look up at me? Would you raise your hands all across this place? If that was me, I did that. I pray that prayer. I see you. Good, good. Yes, sir. I see you. I see you up there in the balcony. Yes, yes, young man, I see. You guys can put your hands down.
For those of you that pray that prayer, you might even be online and there's a phone number that's going to appear behind me on screen and on your screen at home.
If that was you and you prayed that prayer, I want to invite you to text me, text the number on your screen with the words I prayed.
What I'm going to do is send you back the link to some things that I've prepared that will help you Understand what just happened and what to do next in your relationship with the Lord. It's the greatest privilege of my life to help people know Jesus better. Let me help you take another step.
You've come this far. Let me challenge you to take another one.
Text me for everybody else. Go ahead and look up at me if you would. Then let's stand to our feet together. We're just about wrapping up today, so I'm going to invite our elders and their wives to step forward and they're going to be available to pray for you if you have any prayer needs. So as our service ends today, these guys will stay right here at the front of this platform to be available to pray with you. It's just up to you whether or not you want to take a step out of that aisle. And instead of walking towards the door, you walk front, walk to the front and say, hey, would you pray for me also to remind you, hey, groups are kicking off. We would love to have you connected. Don't just come to church and be anonymous. You need to connect to the body of Christ. It's good for you. You're gonna enjoy it. So we've got all kinds of groups kicking off. There's some fun ones, there's some serious ones. There's some deep Bible studies, there's some jujitsu. So, hey, if you want to, you want to beat people up theologically or if you want to beat them up in real life, we'll teach you how to do that because we love you and we want you to be able to fight the good fight of faith.
It's good for you. Groups are kicking off. All that is available online. And then of course, our.
Our growth track is going to kick off in about 14 minutes right across the parking lot. So if you're interested in becoming part of this church, that's how you do that. We would love to connect with you. Let me pray for you and bless you as we go. Father, would you bless my friends with an incredible week following after your voice? Would you watch over them as they travel, as they enjoy this Memorial Day weekend? Would you bless them, bless their family, bless their finances? Would you pour out your favor upon their lives? I pray in Jesus mighty name and all of us said together, Amen. God bless you as you go. Have an awesome week.
[00:53:03] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening.
[00:53:14] Speaker B: If you want to be a part
[00:53:15] Speaker A: of our online community, connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv. Or you can check out our
[email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its work, visit highridgelv.com give we appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will
[00:53:40] Speaker B: see you next time.
