Little + God = Much

Get ready for a new perspective on life and faith from Dr. Michael Yusef and leading the way. Until you are willing to risk everything in trust of God's provision, you have not learned how it is to live by faith.

If everything in your life is calculated and comfortable and safe, you have not learned what it is to live by faith. Listen to what Elijah tells this Baal-worshipping widow. He said, before you bake that last cake for you and your son, bake one for me.

He's saying to her, bake God a cake first. Rescue all for the God of heaven. Trust in my Jehovah God because my God delivers the goods. It took a lifetime of God's guidance and life experiences for the faith of Elijah to grow into what we see in the pages of the Bible.

It didn't just happen overnight. Welcome to Leading the Way, featuring the Bible teaching of pastor and author of more than 50 books, including the just released Never Give Up, Dr. Michael Yusef. Today, see how God works in willing vessels to grow his children toward maturity and faithfulness.

Join me in listening to Dr. Yusef and a message he's called Little Plus God Equals Much. First Kings 17, Elijah is facing a new test. Do you know the way you handle a crisis in your life, the way you handle a challenge in your life, it can either honor God or dishonor him.

Yes, you heard me right. The way you handle a crisis, you can either honor God or dishonor him. In verse 7, we are told that the brook of Cherith has dried up and now God is putting his man through a back to back testing. In verses 8 and 9 of 1 Kings 17, God said to Elijah, arise and go to the village of Zarephath near the city of Sidon.

There is a widow who will feed you. You know, I wish that the word of God would have told us how Elijah reacted when he heard those words. I really would have loved to have known how he reacted, but we don't have it in the scripture.

But I can tell you how most of us would have reacted. Lord, are you really sure about this? Have I heard you right? And begin to give God a geography lesson. God, do you know that Zarephath is about 70 to 100 miles on the other side of the wilderness? Lord, Zarephath is in the land of the Phoenicians.

Zarephath is a smelly and a polluted place because there they melted metals. Zarephath, Lord, is where Baal worship is worse. Why Zarephath, Lord? You know what God is doing, don't you? He was preparing Elijah for the greatest moment not only in his life, but in biblical history. God was going to teach Elijah that little is much when God is in it.

Something we need to learn in these last days when we're still living by sight and not by faith. God is going to teach Elijah that little plus God equal too much. God does not always ask you to go to places that are logical. God does not ask you to do what is rational all the time. And Zarephath was illogical and irrational as far as Elijah was concerned. But Zarephath was both logical and rational as far as God was concerned. Look and see how God works in this passage. First of all, we saw in the last message that Elijah was on King Ahab's most wanted list.

If there were 12, he would be on top of the list. King Ahab is furious at Elijah because Elijah came and announced a drought and then he left. And he's been trying to find him. Ahab's men were looking for Elijah everywhere that is logical. They were looking for him everywhere that is rational. But Zarephath was a Phoenician city.

It was only seven miles away from Sidon where Jezebel, Queen Jezebel's father was the king. As I read it superficially first and I really go back and begin to focus on the passage a little more. And on I read it initially, you know what, I've read this passage many times before. But I honestly felt it's almost like God was playing a practical joke on Elijah. He was playing a practical joke on him, sending him to Zarephath. The man who's going to confront the prophets of Baal, he's sending him to the very center and the heart of worship of Baal.

He's sending him to Jezebel's hometown. Have you ever found yourself in places in your life where it doesn't make sense at all? I mean it just doesn't make sense. Have you ever sat down and said, oh God, I'd go anywhere except that.

I'd do anything except this. And then you find yourself ending right there in Zarephath. Not only that, God sometimes takes us to where it seems to us to be irrational places and illogical trips. There's a second thing that I want you to notice here. God often works on more than one front at the same time. God is often working on more than one level. I think most of us are able to work on one, two, three, maybe four levels. Some of us are brighter than others, I guess have the capacity more than others. I can't work on too many fronts at the same time, but there are some of you can, and I thank God for that.

But I don't know how many fronts you can work on, but you know what? God was working his purposes out here on so many fronts at the same time that Elijah couldn't even fathom it. The obvious front that we see here in the passage that God is taking Elijah from Cherith to Zarephath simply because the brook has dried up and he wants to save him from starvation. That's the obvious one. But there are a lot more not very obvious things that God was working out in Elijah's life in a way that he could never have expected.

I'll give you just some of these. God was showing him that he had a larger purpose than just the nation of Israel. He was showing him that he is the God of the universe, that God called Israel out of Egypt in order to be his ambassadors. The great commission was given in Genesis chapter 12 when God called Abraham and he said to him, And you, all the nations of the world, shall be blessed. The very reason why God calls you, the very reason why God called Israel, in order to make him known in the world. But when you stop being effective, God takes you and puts you on a shelf. And God wanted to tell Elijah, Elijah, I have the world in my heart.

I love the whole world. Did you ever think that this seemingly illogical trip, this seemingly irrational place would serve for Jesus' text of his very first sermon that he preached in the synagogue in Nazareth? Luke chapter 4. Jesus comes in in the beginning of declaring of his messiahship and the first sermon he preached was in his hometown of Nazareth. He goes to the synagogue and he picks up the scripture and he opens it to Isaiah and he starts reading. And then he said, this day, this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears.

I am the expected messiah. And they probably mumbled something and said, oh yeah, yeah, that's interesting. We've heard that before. And then he goes on, verse 24, Luke 4 onward and he said, There were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them but to the widow, the Gentile, the widow of Zarephath in the region of Sidon. You know how they reacted after that. He told them about how there were many lepers but God healed the Syrian general.

They picked stones and they wanted to kill him. They have failed in their narrow-mindedness, in their self-sufficiency to realize that God loves the world. That God has a purpose for the whole world. And so many of us are comfortable in this buckle of the Bible built, we think God just loves us. And we become naval gazers, God is our God and He doesn't care for everybody else, no.

Do you believe that God loves the Hindu, He loves the Buddhist, He loves the Muslim, God loves the world. And the second front that God was showing Elijah is precisely this. That God loves Baal worshipers though He detests Baal. Because two years from this very point in history, Elijah was going to have his greatest showdown between him and the prophets of Baal, between Jehovah and Baal.

And Elijah was going to exterminate nearly 1,000 priests of Baal. But here God is saying, Elijah, I love these people and that is why I want you to live with this widow for two years with her son. When we obey God, God works on many levels that we cannot even fathom, we cannot understand, we cannot comprehend and God knows that. That's why He doesn't give us everything. He doesn't reveal to us His full purpose.

And God is saying to Elijah at this very point of his life that His purpose is beyond Israel, that His purpose is for the whole world. With obedience there always comes a test and here is the test. You know, I have to tell you that one of the greatest temptations when you are obeying and you know you're fully obeying the will of God in your life, the greatest temptation you have to fight is what I call the first impression blues.

Some of you know what I'm talking about. It's getting over what seems to be impossible. God, you brought me here but look, verse 10, here it is, the first impression blues, mark it down, write these words down. Circle verse 10 and say first impression blues when you obey God. Elijah arrives to Zarephath and I want you to imagine that he has came the 75 or so miles, is cotton moused, starving to death. And he just gets to Zarephath and here's the sign, welcome to Zarephath, population of two and they'll be dead tomorrow. I told you it sounds like God playing a practical joke on Elijah. He sees the widow collecting these sticks and he asked her for water and then he said to her, give me a cake.

And the lady said, look, you don't understand. I just got a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil. I'm going to mix them together. I'm going to make a fire with these sticks. I'm going to cook them.

My son and I are going to eat them and then we're both going to die. You don't understand? And he said, no, no, no, lady, you don't understand. You've been worshipping Baal for too long. I want to tell you about Jehovah.

But you see, there's also in this first impression blues, what he saw first was not necessarily what he expected. You know, they had a big sign that says, welcome, Elijah. Zarephath, welcome, Elijah. We're glad the Lord brought you here.

He already told us you're coming, you know, on a welcoming committee and a big barbecue. Boy, Elijah would have really felt good. Bless God. Oh, look what God is doing. But it's always that first impression blues when you obey God. And I have to confess to you, every time I obeyed God, I went through it. And I want to tell you, it is lack of faith. It is unbelief as far as I'm concerned in my case.

Because first impressions can be wrong and have been always wrong in my case. Elijah went beyond that first impression blues. He went beyond what is impossible and he risked his faith on God's word. Please listen to me very carefully. Until you are willing to risk everything in trust of God's provision, you have not learned how it is to live by faith. If everything in your life is calculated and comfortable and safe, you have not learned what it is to live by faith. Listen to what Elijah tells this Baal worshiping widow.

I mean, she's poorer than a church mouse. He said, before you bake that last cake for you and your son, bake one for me. What is Elijah saying? Is he being selfish? Is he being self-centered?

No. Listen, that's what he was saying to her. He's saying to her, bake God a cake first. Risk your all for the God of heaven.

Trust in my Jehovah God because my God delivers the goods. I don't know about this woman. She probably trusted in Baal. She probably called upon Baal. She probably sought Baal with all her heart, but Baal failed her. Baal let her down. And now she's ready to believe in the God of Israel. I was asking myself this week, why is it sometimes and so often that people who have trusted in the God of Mammon and they meet disappointment, that people who trusted in materialism and ended up in misery, that people who believe the lie that money, prestige, and possession will make you happy and then find themselves to be emotional wreck. Why is it sometimes people have to come to this point before they turn to the living God?

Most likely this was this woman's condition. Elijah already had experienced God when he left Gilead and went to confront King Ahab. Elijah had already experienced God when he left Ahab's palace and went to the Cherith Brook. Elijah had already experienced God when the ravens were bringing him bread and meat in the morning.

And bread and meat at night. And now he's asking a woman he doesn't know. A woman who does not believe in his God and he's asking her to risk in faith.

It is one thing for you to risk in faith and it's another to challenge somebody else to do it. You know, there are people who are just daredevils. When it comes to physical risks, they love to go on the exciting and the dangerous. You know, they go bungee jumping and they go parasailing and parachuting.

And there's some people go out skiing in the hard sections and even jump from helicopters and ski. And you know what? We all admire them.

We all think it's not great. And there are people who take financial risks. They invest in non-proven businesses. They pour themselves in ventures and we all admire them. And they say he began or she began with borrowed money. Look where they are. Look how God... We admire them.

But you know what? When it comes to spiritual risks, there are very, very, very precious few takers. And that is why I began this series telling you that James gives us Elijah as example of being a man like us, a human being like us, and yet he prayed and it stopped raining and then he prayed and it rained.

Why? Because he was willing to risk his all on God's promises. Because he was willing to stand on the bare, naked, unadorned word of God and word of promise. Because he was willing to tell the starving, Baal-worshipping widow to risk her all on the Jehovah God, fully believing that God will not let him down, that God will not let her down. Do you know why Elijah was able to do this? Because he had come to believe that his God works on both ends of the equation.

Did you hear that? Elijah believed that his God was already working on both ends of the situation. He believed that when God told him to leave that Cherith Brooks and go to Zarephath, that God is already working in the heart of that widow in Zarephath. When God told Jacob to send his family to Egypt, it was because God has already been working with a Joseph. When God told Joshua to send some spies to Jericho, it was because God has already been working in the heart of the prostitute Rahab. When God told the Ethiopian eunuch to turn into the book of Isaiah, because he had already told Philip the deacon to go in there into the chariot and explain to him what's he reading.

When God told Cornelius, be ready, somebody's coming to see you, he had already told Peter to get up and go to Cornelius' house. And the way you risk in faith is believe that God has already been working on both ends. People of God, the Christian faith is not give me, give me, give me, feed me, entertain me.

This stuff, this suggestion boxes with what we like and what we don't like. These last days, I believe with all my heart, when I sense God is gathering his sheep and separating them from the goats, this shallowness has to come to an end. I believe with all my heart that what the world is thirsting and hungering for is to see God's people living with absolute faith. What things have you done that your pagan neighbors did not do?

Think about that. What have you done for God? What kind of faith risks have you taken that the rest of the world is not doing? Look at verse 15. The widow went away and she too risked in faith and did exactly as Elijah told her to do. And there was food every day for Elijah, for the woman, and the Bible said her son and then her whole family. Where does all this family come from? Look at the verse.

The only conclusion I can come up to is when God blesses you, everybody wants to be your cousin. How did God do it? How is it flour continued to multiply and the oil continued to multiply?

I don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us. But the God who said, let there be light, and there was, was able to say, let there be oil in that cruise. And it was. Little plus God, equal much. Well, I must confess to you, I guess it wasn't much of a variety of food.

It was biscuits with oil in the morning and then oil with biscuits at night. You know, it wasn't much of a variety. But you see, God did not guarantee to give us everything we desire or wanted. But he guaranteed everything we need. Paul did not tell the Philippians, my God shall supply everything that you name and claim.

No. He said, my God shall supply all your needs according to the riches in Christ Jesus. I thought of a story that I have known years ago. There was a little boy who was standing on the sidewalk in what seemed to be in the middle of the block. And he seemed to be waiting for something. And then an older man comes in and he sees him. And as he approaches him, he said to him, he said, young man, what are you waiting for? And the little boy confidently told him, he said, I'm waiting for the bus. And then the older man laughed and he said, the bus?

The bus stops in the next block. And the boy acknowledged that fact. But he insisted that the bus will come and stop for him right here.

And the older man really became annoyed of what he thought was insolence on the part of the boy. And he raised his voice and told the boy, he said, you better start walking if you are hoping to catch the next bus. And the boy politely turned down his suggestion and said, he would wait for the bus just right where he was. And the man was fuming and then finally started walking away. And before the man could get away too far, he heard the screeching of the brakes of the bus. And he came to a standstill and stopped right there. As the boy was about to board the bus, the door opened.

The boy looked out the window before the bus would start moving and he said, hey, mister, my daddy is the bus driver. Those who have risking faith are precisely those who know that their heavenly daddy comes to them. And he comes for them in ways that are seen as impossible by the rest of the world. The world does not understand risking faith.

Let me ask you this. Has God been telling you to trust him fully, to trust him completely, to trust him unhesitantly and you just holding back? Has God been asking you to risk in faith and do something great for God and you're digging your heels? I don't know what God is saying to you.

Has God touched your heart in a special way? I don't understand it. Maybe even your spouse doesn't understand it.

Maybe the nearest and the dearest doesn't understand it. If God is calling you to take risking faith, respond to him because there lie the secret of blessing and the secret of power. All I've said to you today could be just words. Mere words would only give you a headache if the Holy Spirit is not using them to touch you in a special way and get you to a decision in your life.

I don't know what you're doing and I don't know who's doing what. But I know that if God is touching you, say, yes, Lord Jesus, I will obey. How often do you lean on your own power and come up short?

Thankfully, when leaning on God, he will see you completely through. You're listening to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. And if today's message encouraged you or if you've been touched in a special way over the years, we would love to hear your story. And right now we've got a special testimony line set up to capture your words. Simply call us at 877-941-7934.

That's 877-941-7934. Give us a call today. Leading the Way has been on my radio, in my car, in the morning, on my way to court. It's just brought a lot of hope and a lot of purpose and a lot of peace into my morning drive. And I just thank the program and the doctor so much and pray that other people get to listen to him and give thanks for the gospel and the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thank you.

I hope you have a great day. Leading the Way is a listener-supported broadcast relying on God's provision through your prayers and your generosity. Do plan to join Dr. Youssef next time when he passionately proclaims uncompromising truth on Leading the Way. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Connect with us through our YouTube channel, Facebook, Twitter, and all of our social media networks.