Unending Oil

Hello, I hope you can hear me. I'm Jason, it's nice to see you. Me and my family have been part of Harvest Church for a little while now. And it's been great being part of Harvest Church. We've really loved it and we felt really home here and part of the family.

So just all credit to all of you because you've really made us feel at home. And we're going to do something slightly different this morning. We're going to say hello to the person next to you and also, I mean this is radical, to the people behind you as well.

Not just to the people. Now, there's some instructions to follow. I'm going to bring some South African culture in here. Instead of just saying hello, what we're going to do, we're going to say Harzit Bru. Okay, listen to that. Harzit Bru. Now, English translation, hello, how are you doing?

Alright, so see if we can get our best Harzit Bru to the person next to you and behind. Great. Hopefully you're feeling blessed this morning.

Now, I'm going to start this morning by praying and we're going to open God's Word together. Lord, we come to you this morning and we want to have open hearts, Lord, this morning.

What do you want to do in us this morning? We want to quiet our hearts, Lord, this morning and listen to what you're wanting to say. Come, Holy Spirit, and fill us afresh. We pray. Amen.

So, last week, Tim introduced us to the new series of Elijah and he's talking about Elijah being fed by ravens and receiving blessings in surprising ways.

So, I'm going to be picking up on this topic is unending oil. And if you could open up the Bible with me, we're going to be reading from 1 Kings 17, 8 to 16.

It'll also be up on the screen as well. Then the word of the Lord came to him, Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there.

Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. Since he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks.

And he called to her and said, Bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And she was going to bring it. And he called to her and said, Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. And she said, As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar, a little oil in a jug.

And now I'm gathering a couple of sticks that I might go in and prepare it for myself and my son. You might eat it and die. And Elijah said to her, Do not fear. Go and do as you have said.

But first, make me a little cake of it. Bring it to me. And afterward, make me something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, God of Israel, The jar of flour shall not be spent.

The jug of oil shall not be empty. Until the day of the Lord sends rain upon the earth. She went and did as Elijah said. She, he and her household, ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent.

Neither did the jug of oil become empty. According to the word of the Lord, he spoke by Elijah. I mean, just imagine this in your own situation. You're there, about to die.

Let that sink in. There's no food. There's no water. You only have enough for you and one family member. It's a difficult situation. It's a tough situation.

And then you've got this guy who comes along and he says, Oh, can you get me some water? Can you get me some food? I mean, if it was me, I'd be like, sorry, no. I've got to provide for my family first.

I can't, I can't give you anything. Well, it's a good thing that for Elijah that I wasn't there because this lady does something a bit different. What does she do?

She trusts in the word of God. I mean, what a test of faith. And for a lady who doesn't even believe in God. She believed in Baal.

As we heard last week, they believed Baal to provide for rain. But yet she believed in the word of God. The question this morning we have is, do you believe in the word of God?

Do you trust it for what it is, full truth? Do we water it down? I know I can struggle with that myself. Do we doubt not trusting God?

As this widow believed in Baal for rain, I wonder if she was losing her faith in Baal and God was starting to speak to her heart. The question this morning is, is God speaking to your heart?

Listen. It might be a whisper. Remember this morning, we can trust in God to provide because Jesus is the bread of life.

Now if you can also turn with me to John 6.35. It will be on the screen again. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. And whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Jesus died for us on the cross. His body broke.

And his blood was spilt for us. It was the most gruesome and horrifying and humiliating scene. You are probably wondering, well why am I talking about this horrifying thing with the kids in?

It is because we need to hear it. We need to hear about this. It should make us feel uncomfortable and cause tears to fall down our eyes. Because the root of this excruciating pain was love.

Love for us. Jesus is an unrelenting love that drove him to allow suffering through his life and on the cross. To bring us into relationship with him. A relationship that should never be taken for granted.

There is a call here to pursue Jesus above all. Food, money, possessions and everything. To trust in his word. To understand that there is nothing that compares to him.

Nothing will ever come close. Nothing will ever be able to satisfy. Nothing will ever be able to make a way apart from him. He is the way, the truth and the life. His mercies are new every morning.

He is the name above all names. He is the only one worthy to open the scroll. The Lion of Judah. The risen King. Wonderful Counselor. Prince of Peace. Faithful One. How great is our God.

Amen? Amen. Amen. Do you want to know him this morning? This God that we've been speaking about. Prince of Peace. Maybe for the first time God is speaking to your heart.

He's got speaking to your heart this morning. Do you want to know him for the first time? Or maybe you want to deepen your relationship with him. You want to go deeper. Learn more about him.

Amen. Amen. Just listen. He's got speaking to you this morning. There's going to be an opportunity at the end to respond. Start to think even now.

He's got speaking to me. Is there something I need to trust him with again? Now you're probably wondering why I've got these things on the stage here.

Well I've got a little challenge coming up. And we're going to get some people up on the stage. I need some volunteers. There will be donuts on offer. Okay. So I think I'm going to pick on the New Day lot.

Because you know. Might as well tie you out some way. Right. So I need a youth leader or an adult. And one of the youth. And also two other youth as well.

As you're coming up. Yeah.

Give them a round of applause. They need one other youth now. Right. If you'd come up and stand on the stage.

This is not just about eating donuts. So, yeah. Yeah, they're great things. We've got a bit of a challenge involved this morning.

Right. So who are the ones who are going to be eating donuts? Okay. Right. So what we need to do, you need to put that one on. That would be great. You need to put that one on.

Right. So there's a bit of a challenge here this morning. You're going to start off in front of these bowls. With your eyes closed and blindfolded.

Also, with your hands behind your back. Right. Right. So the youth behind, you're going to have to instruct them where to go.

So if you go in front there. Yeah. That's it. Hands behind your back. Oh, first. Yeah. First did that. That was pretty helpful. Right. You're going to have to instruct them to get to the donuts.

Now, as many donuts as you can get in that bowl. And we're going to set a timer for about a minute. Right. So we'll set a timer. You're going to try to go down. Get the donuts. Put as many as you can in the bowl.

You're going to have to instruct them the whole time. Tell them where to go. Yeah. And there are donuts on offer. You will be able to keep some donuts at the end. Right. Can we all applaud them? Get ready.

Set. Go. Come on.

Let's cheer them on. Come on. Come on. 30 seconds left.

Only got one donut each. I mean, this is. Do we need to increase the time? Oh, no. Keep going.

We'll give them some more time. We'll give them another 30 seconds. Keep going. Keep going. Last 10 seconds.

Keep going. Last 10 seconds. Right. 10. 9. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Well done. Alright. How many did we manage? Oh, look at that. Is that three? Yeah, about three.

You've eaten one of them. Look at that. Five. We've got the winners here. Well done. Right. For the winners, we've got some bigger donuts.

And just because I'm feeling great this morning, here's some donuts for you as well. Well done. Well done. Well done to our contestants.

Probably wondering, why have I brought donuts into it this morning? I don't know if you've heard about the story that J. John shared about God Owns All the Donuts.

It's about this guy who goes to an airport lounge and gets himself a latte and a bag of donuts.

And then he sits down at the table next to this guy, he's reading his newspaper. He opens a bag of donuts and the guy reading the newspaper looks over, puts his hand in the bag of donuts.

I mean, what a cheek. He hasn't even said, you know, oh yes, please share my donuts. He's just gone ahead and taken a donut. And they keep on going back and forth. He takes a donut.

Another one, the guy with the newspaper takes another donut. They keep on going until there's only one donut left. So, I mean, you'd think that the person would just leave it there. But no, I take the last donut, break it in half and put it in the bag.

Now, the guy's thinking, I didn't offer to share my donuts. And then there you've gone and broke the donut in half and left me only half at the end. I mean, there's a code in the English way, is there not, that you always leave the last thing.

Whatever it is. If it's the last piece of cake or you can let it rot, you can let it go bad, but you never take the last of it. Whatever it is. I mean, so what a cheek to take the last one.

So then it's time for the guy with the newspaper to go. And our guy's sitting there. He sees it's time for him to go too. So then he goes and gets his suitcase.

But then he realizes, oh, it's his bag of donuts on his suitcase. The one on the table was never his to start off with. Oops. And I wonder, are we like this?

Are we like this with how we live our lives? Are we worried that we're going to lose all our donuts? Our donuts could be money or the way we serve.

Like the widow, we might be worried we might not have enough. Is there going to be enough? What do we do?

First, let's fix our eyes on God. Philippians 4, verse 4 to 7, it says, God, the Holy Spirit works in us to remove the weeds.

And replace it with mercy and love. Do you want that this morning? Do you want more of God's mercy and love? Do you want more of God's mercy and love? First, we seek God. Stay in Scripture.

And keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit. And keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember this morning that we can trust in God to provide. Because Jesus is the bread of life.

And keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember this morning that we can trust in God to provide. Because Jesus is the bread of life. And secondly, we can ask for our minds to be renewed.

Philippians 4, 8 to 9, says, Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is justified, whatever is justified, and we can ask for our minds to be renewed.

Philippians 4, 8 to 9, says, Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable if there is any excellence if there is anything worthy of praise think about these things what you have learnt and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and the God of peace will be with you we have a helper who will help us remove the doubt and the untruth and replace it with the living word of God we have a challenge here this morning to surrender and allow God to remove those weeds and renew our minds this morning are you going to allow God to renew your mind first we seek God stay in scripture keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit we can trust in God to provide because Jesus is the bread of life and finally we can trust in God's word

Philippians 4 11-13 says not that I am speaking of being in need for I have learnt in whatever situation I am to be content I know how to be brought low I know how to abound in any and every circumstance I have learnt the secret of facing plenty hunger, abundance and need I can do all things through him who strengthens me what's the secret what's the secret of facing those challenges this morning do you know what the secret is it says it right there I can do all things through him who strengthens me God gives us the strength we need every day if we go through rough times good times plentiful times call and challenge today is to hold fast to truth we have been given an armour by the Holy Spirit to defend against the enemy we seek God stay in scripture and keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit remember this morning we can trust in God to provide because Jesus is the bread of life now if the band could come up

I'm going to pray and we're going to have a bit of time to respond I'll hand over and we'll have some time I'll ask you all to stand there's a lot of things we've gone through this morning I believe there's a bit of time that we need to just listen and hear what God is saying Lord we want to lift you up this morning we thank you Lord that you are faithful we thank you that you're true we thank you that we can trust in you Lord there's no one that compares to you whatever situation we go through Lord we know that we can trust in you Lord I want to pray would you speak to hearts this morning come have your way what is it you want to do in us Lord what are you saying to us soften our hearts this morning Lord is God calling your heart this morning is he knocking on the door and saying

I'm here run into my arms this morning or maybe you're here wanting to deepen your relationship with God he's ready and available for you this morning we can trust in God to provide because Jesus is the bread of life you