Ep 32 – XTreme Faith: Examples

Hi there tom and Vicky Mahairas again with it’s all greek to me, thank you for coming and joining us again. And uh, we’ve just enjoyed doing this series on extreme faith and my wife and I are gonna go in and discuss this last message on these incredible women. These these widows of incredible extreme faith in the old testament. In fact, the widow of Arafat, First Kings, The Widow’s Oil in Second Kings and the shooter Might Woman in Second Kings four. So let’s go in and join the discussion as Vicki and I have been talking now uh, about this whole subject, extreme faith and how we can apply that to our life. Tom Mahairas and Vicki, my wife. We’re coming back to talk about little faith versus great faith and we are thrilled that we’re able to talk about the last a message which is going to be dealing with illustrations of great faith in the old testament. Now we could pick just a variety of illustrations. I mean, you think about Abraham, you think about moses, Joshua, David, all these great men of God. We’re picking out these obscure stories of a widow of Zira Fat and the Widow’s Oil and the shooter might Woman. And you know, the women as Arafat. That was a story that Jesus talked about in right there in Nazareth when he went and went before the synagogue in his hometown where he grew up And was able to talk about that in Luke chapter four. We look at that in the context of it. But Vicky, I just wanted to ask you about just you know, the the attitude of faith, the answers of faith, the actions of faith and about these women and there were women in the new testament. You mentioned mary in the last program and just maybe you could recap and and then there were others, there was Elizabeth, there was there were people in the women in the temple uh anna and others that were just great women, the women that followed jesus In Luke chapter 8 1 and to talk about uh you know, the women that were part of his entourage traveling and they actually supported from their money, the Lord jesus christ Yes, he did his public ministry. So maybe you could just talk a little bit about that. How about mary Magdalene, mary Magdalene, what an incredible woman of faith. Yeah. And God did so many great things for her. She was a woman who was a prostitute and Gave her heart 100% to Jesus. That in the midst of all those men, she walked, she goes in, kneels down and takes the oil and pours it on his feet incredible. And what wasn’t she the first one that actually saw jesus raised from the dead and it talks about the fact that she had seven demons in her think about the kind of people that the Lord just kind of calls anoints cleanses fills and then uses its not your, you know, your typical people, it’s it’s anyone who has got a willing heart to repent and believe in the Lord, jesus christ. Now we’re gonna go into these beautiful stories and I’d like to just read it and then we have the widow’s Arafat here on the left, a beautiful picture and then the widow’s oil on the right and what we like to do is just go in and read the narrative that God gives us of the widows Arafat First Kings chapter 17 beginning with verse one Now Elijah the Tisch fight who was of the settlers of Gilead said to ahab as the Lord, the God of Israel lives before whom I stand. Surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word. And the word of the Lord came to him saying, go away from here and turn Eastwood and hide yourself by the brook Sheriff, which is east of the jordans and it shall be that you shall drink of the brook. And I have commanded the Ravens to provide for you. They’re commanded the birds the Ravens that they’re going to provide. Okay, so he went and did according to the word of the Lord for he went and lived by the brook Sheriff, which is the east of the jordans and the Ravens brought him bread and meat in the evening and bread and meat in the evening and he would drink from the brook and it happened after a while that the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land so morning and evening these birds will come and bring food meat. It says to this to this prophet of God. God can use birds. He he used uh you know big fish it says for for Jonah, he used a little fish for peter to bring him the gold coin, the coin rather to pay for the tribute. All of the different. What about what about the dog? I was just thinking of him that he said, don’t keep hitting me. Can’t you see the angel in front of exactly balance? Don’t get that spoke. You know God has used, he can use anything he wants. He can use the the vegetables and the trees and the birds and the animals of I mean he used animals with, with daniel the lions then and and uh and how God shut the mouths of the lions, they became a great glory to God. And the king said, wow, wow, you’re still there. You know Daniel, You know what an incredible story. But we see so clearly How God is using even the Ravens to keep his profit alive, keep going on verse eight. Then the word of the Lord came to him saying, arise, go to Zara Faith which belongs society and stay there, behold I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. So he arose and went to Zara fat and when he came to the gate of the city. Behold the widow was there gathering sticks and he called to her and said, please get me a little water in a jar that I may drink. And as she was going to get it, he called out to her and said, please bring me a piece of bread in your hand. This is this is backwards. The story is totally backwards. I mean the man of God is supposed to provide for the widow and the orphan, not the other way around. And yet this woman was a woman of faith even though that people didn’t know what was going on in her soul. God was hearing her, God was listening and she was crying out to God, she was ready to die. And here we have a beautiful situation where God sends his prophet there to meet one another’s needs. Like it says in romans, one your faith and mine. It’s almost like you know the bible talks about that one man can sharpen another man here. In this case it’s this widow of Arafat who’s getting an answer from God in a very unique way the profit comes and says, hey can you, can you get me a little water? She’s like okay by the way, as you’re going, can you can you make a little how about a piece of bread? And uh and then of course the story comes out, please bring me a piece of bread, he says in your hand and she said, continue as the Lord lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar. And behold I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son so that we may eat it and die now that it’s come on. So she’s literally preparing her last meal. You know, you have nothing, you have no food, you have no one to take care of you. And God sends this profit along Elijah and he is asking for food, he’s asking for water and she’s like, well, you know, I was just gonna do this and prepare my last meal and die. Look what it says here then Elijah s etcetera. Do not fear, go do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first. Really, you know, give me some first. Now some people would look at this and go, what a selfish guy! I mean, how could you do this? And yet he had the word of the Lord God was testing her. God was even testing him because he was going against the grain of doing asking this from a widow and notice the next words and bring it out to me and afterwards you may make one for yourself and for your son. Now, now that’s where the faith is because there was no more and yet he believed it was gonna be more and she would have had to believe there was more if she would make this for him. And the bible says for thus says the Lord God of Israel, the bowl of flour shall not be exhausted. He’s telling her this God is using him to tell her. Look. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, the bowl of flowers shall not be exhausted. Nor shall the jar of oil be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth. So what did she do? Yeah, right. People hear the word of God all the time Vicki and they have a choice. They can believe God’s word or they can say forget about that. Have you have you noticed people do that? Yes. When I talked to them of course. And here what is God saying? He’s saying something really? It’s a big challenge. It’s her last meal. God is, God is the prophet is telling her God is telling me to tell you to make this first for me. That’s a hard message. You know. Unless God had already spoken to her and she had faith in that God was bigger than this profit that he was. In fact speaking for God, she wouldn’t have seen the miracle, she’s about to see. If she didn’t listen. If she didn’t listen and obey, she would have never she would have never experienced this. The bible says he had that. The promise of God was. Nor shall the jar of oil bi empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth. So she went and did according to the word of Elijah and she and he and her household ate for many days. The ball of flour was not exhausted. Nor did the jar of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord which he spoke through Elijah. So yes, it’s the word of God but he uses men, he uses women, he uses people sometimes even animals to take care of us and birds. In this case that God was working in a mighty way outside of the normal. Let’s move on to the next frame. The word command in the hebrew is say wah stressing the import role and content of the command. G archer, great linguist to order with full authority and guaranteeing the benefits of obeying or curses for disobeying for more discussion. You can see the cognitive and a miss wa or the command. Then there is a mitzvah. Now you’ve heard of mitzvah like bar mitzvah, this is the same word. A command pm preeminently in order from God to direct people into his preferred will. God’s commands are often dynamic spoken in the hearts and minds of believers by him, through his in working of faith. Now the bar mitzvah as I said before, we look at that in a minute but it stresses the full authority of a command, crucial signpost God’s commands give direct immediate direction like direct, commanding his profit to rise up and go to speak. They enable us to know The what, when or where of what pleases him. That’s like Matthew 28 when he says go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. It’s a command from jesus who has all authority. He says I’ve got all authority in heaven and on earth. I want you to go and then I’m gonna be with you wherever you go. I want you to baptize those who believe and I want you to teach those who believe everything that I have commanded you. And that’s what is the command of God. Now, Bar mitzvah is the son of God’s command. God gives commands to bless people, revealing his preferred will in his servants. Even as he did with Adam and Eve In Genesis 26 5. Because Abraham obeyed me and kept my charge, my commandments and my statutes and my laws. Abraham became the inheritor of a seed, a land uh a great nation and became the father of many kings as a result of what he was the covenant that God had promised him. God commanded the Ravens to provide for Elijah. She was a widow. Her son was an orphan. These are some of the principles that we gleaned from this. God commanded in James 1 27 in the new testament. Pure and undefiled religion. In the sight of God, our father is this to visit the orphans and the widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained By the world. You take the next one. Vicki. God commanded the widow to take care of Elijah. This was literally their last meal. But God promised to provide supernaturally. This is the widow’s oil. Now we’re going to another another one of these three incredible extreme or ex women of faith. Okay, this is Second kings 4127. Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elijah. Your servant, my husband is dead. And you know that your servant feared the Lord and the creditors have come to take my two Children to be his slaves. And Elijah said to her, what shall I do for you tell me? What do you have in the house? And she said, your mates, It servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil. Then he said, go borrow vessels at large for yourself and from all your neighbors. Even empty vessels do not get a few. That’s a sign to get have great faith. Get many. Yeah. So number one, the lessons here is God uses what we have. You know, what do you have? He asked. And she said, I’ve got a jar of oil. I got a little jar of oil here. God will use in every one of our lives. What we have not something you don’t have. God doesn’t expect you to do something that someone else is doing. He expects you to do what you can do. But then he will make something supernatural take place in your life through that. If you offer it up to God, if you surrender that to God and say God, I’m your I’m fully surrendered totally, your servant and you surrender your life to him. He will do supernatural things through your life in your life. And then the second thing was that God wants us to have great faith, incredible faith. Do not get a few. Here was, you know the prophet saying, okay, now God’s gonna work through this little jar of oil, but don’t get a few get as many as you can. This was the intent there. And now let’s keep reading. And you shall go in and shut the door behind you and your sons and pour out into all these vessels and you shall set aside what is full. So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They were bringing the vessels to her and she poured and it came about when the vessels were full. That she said to her son, Bring me another vessel. And he said to her, there is not one vessel more. And the oil stop when there’s no more there. Then God says, okay, he filled everything they brought. And then the oil stopped any any thoughts on this. Did you enjoy that? I enjoy that. A great story. You know that God can come to any life. Even a widow who you know people think well what is she gonna do? And here she God uses these widows and these older women to show us that God is still working. And when we when we get older, he’s still working through us. He still wants to bless us in our in our older years. You know when you when you’re 1920 25 30 40 you’re like, yeah, I’m full of like, hey, when you get to be 70 and his God still gonna pour his oil through your life, Is he gonna pour his power through your life? Is he going to continue to work as he has worked in the past? Yes, he will. All we need to do is be surrendered and bring it all to God. And when we’re finished with everything we think we’ve got God says, okay, that’s it. I’ll stop right here. It’s amazing how God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. God will provide to the measure of our faith. Now, this is what’s found in romans. Chapter 12 and verse 12 and three, every one of us gets a measure metron in the greek language Of faith. And then the gifts are distributed seven gifts in Romans. Chapter 12. Each one based on the measure, you know? And sometimes people just don’t think they can do something. Well, I can’t do that, I can’t do this. But you haven’t surrendered your life. How do you know what you can do or cannot do unless you surrender your life and you surrender your life. It’s amazing that God will work through a surrendered vessel. That’s what I’ve learned. God will provide to the measure of our faith. Then she came and told the man of God and he said go sell the oil and pay your debt and you and your sons can live on the rest. You know, it’s amazing we have things in our lives that we could sell. I remember remember when we ran out of money up at city vision camps that we were doing from basketball clinic and we went through a real uh time of uh of baroness and but we had a bunch of equipment that we weren’t using a bulldozer track, whole uh you know, all kinds of stuff and we were able to sell all that stuff. Why are you chuckling? I’m laughing because you were overseas at the time. And Billy Schneider and I were up there and we were like, Billy is a wheeler and he’s a wheeler dealer. I’m glad I wasn’t even there. So I said, what are we going to do? He goes, let’s sell the wood, that’s all piled up inside. Well yeah, we had a bunch of wood in there and you guys got thousands of dollars for if we got six or 7000 there was a lot of money. Listen, the point is sometimes you’re looking, oh God do this. It’s right there in front of you, it’s right there in front of you. See the resources that God has given. You don’t just be asking, don’t ask for things that you don’t have unless you exhaust the things that you do have and then give those things to the Lord. Okay. And then the next principle uh the next passage of scripture rather would you finish that Vicki? Please let us make a little walled upper chamber and let us set a bed for him there and a table and a chair and a lamp stand. And it shall be when he comes to us that he can turn in there. One day he came there and turned into the upper chamber and rested. So God, this woman was so excited he she just wanted to be able to do as much as she could for the prophet of God, provided that upper chamber. And little did she know that she would need the Prophet of God in her life because he was later on going to be used of God to do another miracle in her life. That’s another story. But what a blessing to be with you and to see these great illustrations of great faith in the old testament and go to the new testament in luke chapter four and see that jesus christ brings the first of these illustrations in luke. Chapter four, he identifies, he identifies the the uh the widow And in the New Testament in Luke chapter four and when he explains that you know that there were many widows in Israel but the Lord went to the widow ins Arafat and he and he was working there. And it’s amazing to me that this is how the Lord presented that he loved the gentiles, that he was also the savior of the world, Not just the savior of the jew first, But also to the Greek and to the rest of the world. And that’s the Gospel Matthew 28 go into all the world uh and make disciples and and also mark 1615 go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He’s the, he is not only jesus the messiah for the jewish people, but also for all of the people, the gentiles and these are three great extreme x stories of faith from these three widows and we’ll talk to you again on it’s all greek to me there, it is extreme attitudes of faith, extreme answers of faith, extreme actions of faith and look at these women that were presented just a little while ago with Vicki and I discussing these incredible extreme uh women of great faith in the old testament, even jesus Mentions that in Luke chapter four when he was explaining that God went to them through Elijah and here it is in uh this first slide, the first king 17 passage, The Widow of zero fat and then the second Kings four passage, The widow The Widow’s Oil, both incredible miraculous things happening to these widows. And uh and so Elijah uh is told by God to go and get his food from this widow and uh zero fat and in in zero faith. And this widow is now collecting sticks to make her last meal. She only has a little handful of flour and she’s gonna make her meal and die. And he comes along and says, oh by the way can I have some water And by the way, while you’re getting the water and she started going there can I have a little something to eat, a little piece of bread? And she’s like well I’m just gonna die now, he says yes, but the Lord told me that he’s gonna provide for you and just make that meal first for me. You see there’s a there’s a lot of challenges, There’s a lot of testing Abraham was tested with Isaac, God tested moses, God tests his men and women and this whole aspect of faith here was peter walking on the water, everything was great. And then he started looking around and said I can’t I shouldn’t be doing this And he started sinking. So faith is listening to the voice of jesus, listening to the voice of God, the word of God and putting full confidence that what God says he’s gonna do. And so uh that was the story of this woman. She goes ahead and makes the meal for Elijah. God blesses that uh that meal and then God tells Elijah to tell her, I just love this passage. It says in verse 16, the bowl of flour was not exhausted, nor did the jar of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke through Elijah. Now, if God gives you a promise like that and he says, yeah, go ahead and make the meal, let me have some, then you go ahead and make for yourself. Well, if it’s the last that you have, you’re like, well if I do this, I won’t have any. But if you have faith, you’ll say God is gonna do a miracle, he’s gonna provide. It’s exactly what happened. God did provide. Listen many people and let’s practically apply to our life, many people are going to church, you’ve got just a little bit of money to maybe pay your bills, but God allows you to come in contact with the situation that’s so overwhelming, maybe maybe that you take part of your money or the money that you would have taken for your own food or your own bills and he says, I want you to give it to this that I’m, I’m telling you to give it to. And you know, it takes faith to give that those finances to meet a need that nobody knows about except you and God you do that. And, and then you realize, you know what, even if God doesn’t provide for me, I’ve done what God told me to do the just doing the obedient act action of what is impressing me on my soul to do something. That’s the thing. That’s the thing that God is watching our heart and God’s eyes are going throughout the whole earth searching for a man, a woman whose heart is completely his that he may strongly support them. And then you have the uh, the other word that we will. The other story that we were looking at that, the illustrations that came out of this, uh, that God commands the widow to take care of Elijah. This was literally their last meal. But God promised to provide supernaturally. Uh, we talked about that and that God used what we have. He used, he used a little jar of oil that she had and God did the supernatural there, just like he did with moses when he said, what is that in your hand? And God through the stick down and turned into a serpent. He said, take it by the tail. It became uh staff again. And God told him put your hand in your, in your cloak and he and and he took it out again, it was leprosy put it back in again, it was, it was clear God allows us to go through these testings in life concerning our faith. Every one of you have gone through this testing of your faith is more precious than gold that perishes, it says in the scriptures and this woman was being tested. God wants us to have great faith and do not get a few. He said, go ahead. And when he starts the miracle, go ahead and and know that I’m going to continue providing for you. And then God will provide to the measure of our faith. Then then she came and told the man of God that he said, go sell your oil and pay your debts and your your sons can live and and rest. And this whole passage of scripture and also the second kings for passage tells me that God is interested not just to meet the profits needs or somebody else’s need, but through that prophet God met that widows need, she wanted Later on, a son, God provided the sun. It seemed like that was taken away because he died. God restored that and and resurrected him. What an incredible stories. These stories of incredible extreme faith and how God tested his people here were the disciples, watching all this in the house of their headquarters where jesus was in Cap Ernie. Um and he’s and and they’re breaking the roof down and they’re lowering this man who is a cripple who is a paralytic and the Lord, jesus not only forgives his sin but restores his body and all of this, the testing the Pharisees, they failed the test because they were judging jesus who can forgive sin except God. Other people were watching what was going on, who knows what was going on in their minds, but to that man who was paralyzed and to those disciples or those uh four friends that carried him, they got the benefit of the faith that they had and they put their faith in jesus christ, are you gonna put your faith in jesus christ with the testings that God is allowing you to go through sickness through your your family, through your relationships through the circumstances around you, the government, are you gonna put your faith and trust in jesus christ no matter what you go through and trust him, no matter what it sounds like some people are selfish, how am I gonna do this? But just follow what the prompting of the Lord is and above all listen to the word of the living god because faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God and without faith it is impossible to please him because he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a reward of those who diligently seek him. God bless you again, Tom Mahairas with It’s all greek to me until next time.