God's blessings are overflowing

Sunday, January 21, 20076:54 PM
This is a sermon by Pastor Chris Hill, an evangelist who came to Planetshakers today to share God's word with us.It might be copyrighted, I'm not entirely sure, and I hope he'll forgive me for posting this if it is, for I mean no ill intent, but would simply like to share it with you guys..
Its gonna be a very simplified version compared to his, hes a great speaker and Im no where near but i just wanna share with you the essence of the sermon..
Hope this helps..
2 Kings 4: The Widow's Oil..
This is the story of the prophet Elisha and a poor woman..The story starts off with a poor woman, who lost her husband, who was a prophet, crying out to Elisha for help.
Her husband is dead, and now, left with no money to pay her bills, creditors are after her two sons, wanting to take them to work as slaves for themselves..Now you must know the emotional stress she would have been feeling.Imagin the person you love most dying, and now the only things left to remind you of your memories with that person is about to be taken away..
I think it would be better just for the creditor to take away all her other possessions, her house, her food, and everything else, rather than to take her two sons away..
Many would fall away from God just because of the event. But even with the stress of the second, the woman did not fall from faith..
Instead, she decided it was time to fight back.She told herself," My husband may be dead, but my husbands God is not.My husband may be dead, but his beliefs in God and God's word will never die."
So she went off to find Elisha..
Now Elisha says to her," How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?"
If I were in her situation, I would probably have said something like.. " Youre the prophet, you tell me.. I came to you for help, so you help me.."
But instead, she further showed her faith by saying," There is nothing there at all, except a little oil"
How is this showing faith you ask?
Notice how Elisha asks how he can help her instead of just going straight to do the miracle.He wants her to help herself first, and go to God with an open heart to recieve blessings, instead of going with a negative heart. And that is exactly what she does. She identified that she did indeed have something back at home, a little oil. She doesnt say,"Its just a little oil, what can it do?" No, she trusts God to help her.
In reply, Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbours for empty jars, dont ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons."
Now it was her sons' turn to act in faith, going around the neightbourhood asking them for empty jars. The neighbours must have thought them crazy, because they didnt have anything to put into the empty jars, they were so poor that all they had was just a little oil. But they gave up their jars which the woman brought back to her home.
By shutting the door, she kept out all unwelcome negativity, all cynitism from the neighbours and she kept the miracle private between her and God,And then she started to fill the jars.
When she had filled them all, the oil stopped flowing. She went back to Elisha and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left."
I'd like you guys to think of this maths problem. What is zero plus 0.5?
0.5 right?
Not with God.When God blesses, he pours out his blessings so that many people will recieve, instead of just a single person.The woman and her sons borrowed empty vessels, the emptiness of their neighbours, and filled them up with whatever little she had.Oil back then was used as a symbol of the annointing of God. So God basically filled the emptiness of every soul in the neighbourhood, using just a little bit of faith that the woman had, gave the woman and her family themselves enough to pay her debtors, and then still leave enough for her and her two sons to live on with.Isn't God amazing?
God can fill your emptiness today too,All it takes is an open heart to recieve, an open mind to what hes given to you and a little faith.
=)Cheers, Joel..