Elijah Part 2: A Little is Enough

Elijah Part 2: A Little is Enough

1 King’s 17: verses 7-15. 

In the previous podcast, we saw that Elijah confronted King Ahab and was immediately called by God, to the wilderness where he was fed by ravens and drew water from a small brook. In time that brook dried up and Elijah was called away again – this time to the home of a widow. In this story, we learn about faith and provision and how we can trust God even when there is very little because, for God, ‘A little is enough.’ 

In sending Elijah to a widow who was at the point of despair due to the drought and famine that prevailed, we find God providing through very unlikely means. Within the context of her life, "First make me a little cake" is a huge ask, because she was being encouraged to give away her last meal by someone she barely knew. Elijah essentially asked the widow to prioritise God above her own and her son’s survival. It was in her willingness to trust Elijah that we see the story pivot.

God was faithful to His word and honoured the widow’s faith. He provided for her and her family. The miracle we read about in the widow’s life is quiet and ongoing - the jar and jug simply never run out. God's provision is steady and sufficient, not showy. What the widow had, was enough. 

This episode in Elijah’s story points to a God who can be trusted even when circumstances say otherwise. Whilst we are not enough, with Him in us, we have enough. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

In the previous podcast, we saw that Elijah confronted King Ahab and was immediately called by God to the wilderness where he was fed by ravens and drew water from a small brook. In time that brook dried up, and Elijah was called away again, this time the home of a widow. In this story, we learn about faith and provision and how we can trust God, even when there is very little, because for God, a little is enough. Indeed, sometimes a little is far better than a lot, because it forces us to rely on Him and not on our own resources. In sending Elijah to a widow who was at the point of despair due to the drought and famine that prevailed, we find God providing through very unlikely means. Within the context of her life, first make me a little cake is a huge ask. Because she was being encouraged to give away her last meal by someone she barely knew. It was in her willingness to trust Elijah that we see the story pivot. This episode in Elijah's story points to a God who can be trusted even when circumstances say otherwise. Whilst we are not enough, with him in us, we have enough.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

It gives God something to ruin, I find. And so I had a plan for the series of Elijah and the one set out, and as I got into it, I'd like to have to divide some of them up, so we'll see where that leaves us and where that takes us up to. I can never guarantee the number of weeks that each one will contain. But this week we're going to be in Elijah, uh sorry Elijah, in 1 Kings, uh, chapter 17, verses 7 to 15, and then we'll do the end of chapter 17 next week. That is the plan. Again, it can be ruined. I'm open to that at all times. Um, last week we saw Elijah, he starts with this grand announcement, goes to this king, this evil king, and his evil uh mistress or wife, um, this Jezebel, this lady, and he speaks to her and he says, Um the rain's gonna stop. Which to us may think, well, that's how we are at the moment, isn't it? I know farmers are waiting for the rain, waiting for storms tonight, possibly, but waiting for the rain, possibly, we hope not for three and a half years. Uh, but then it wasn't just a a famine, a famine, although it brought that, it was also a challenge to the God Baal, who controlled the winds and the crops. And Elijah says, You've been worshiping this God. Ahab and Jezebel have introduced worship of their this God. The people are sacrificing their children to this God to bring the rains. This is a horrific time, and it's been allowed and institutionalized, and God finally has enough and sends Elijah with this simple word the rain will stop as a challenge. You think Baal will provide for you? He is not the one who controls the weather. I am. And so he stops the rain. And you think, well, that's it, that's a pretty good start. That's that's an opening statement, uh, a big bold thing to happen. And then we saw that Elijah is then brought right back down to earth. He's taken off to a brook, he's taken off to a uh the Jezreel valley where he's cut off from anyone. The brook is providing water, ravens are providing food, he is humbled because God has to do a work in him before he can do a greater work through him. And last week we saw how God does that, how he strips back, how he lowers us, that he does something in us so that we can take on what he has in the future, that we shouldn't resist these times, but we should be aware that God takes us through them, so that we become dependent on him, that we are obedient to his voice, that we are humbled and not arrogant in our so easy for Elijah to become arrogant. You can stop the weather with a word. But God humbles him before he does a greater work, and that continues as we read in the story. It goes on, so it says, sometime later, we looked a bit of this last week, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Why had there been no rain in the land? Because Elijah would stop the rain, so he's now a victim of his own obedience. But then the word of the Lord came to him, go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have instructed a widow there to supply you with food. So he went to Zaraph. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink? As she went going to get it, he called, And bring me please a piece of bread. As surely as the Lord your God lives, she replied, I don't have any bread, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I'm gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die. Elijah said to her, Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said, but first make a small loaf of bread for me and from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord the God of Israel says the jar of flour will not be used up, and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land. She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and 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 the Lord spoken by Elijah. Father, we just thank you that there is an open heaven. We thank you that you are a God who speaks. We are open today to the possibility of you leading us, of you preparing us. And in that vein we receive your word as a gift, Lord, that it might speak to us, that it might redirect us and reprioritize and re-categorize the way we think about things and what we see in front of us. We need your Holy Spirit to heal some things, to correct some things, to restore some things. And so would you speak now, Lord, through your word to each and every one of us? We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. It's crazy, isn't it, how something very little can affect something very, very big. If you ever had a splinter, you'll know the truth of this. That something so small can cause so much pain and consume your whole mind and your thought until you finally get rid of it. Elijah, with a word, he stops the rain. One word from one little man affects something so big. It's amazing how the lit of this thing can set you in the wrong direction. Some of you right now will be in a bad mood because you woke up and something small, you stubbed your toe, the coffee wasn't quite hot enough, or the you ran out of milk and it set you in the wrong direction, and that small thing directs the whole course of your day. I can't, I don't know what the thing was, but you can see the results of it in a whole day, maybe even longer, of you being upset and concerned. The smallest thing controls us, shapes us, and leads us. Here we find Elijah. He's been he's been led by God, and we saw last week that God sometimes leads us by opening doors and sometimes by closing them. The brook dries up, and so Elijah has to listen to God. Where do I go now? Where will I be provided for now? You've provided through ravens. You are the God who provides. You can use ravens, but you can lose something else. And God sends him to this lady, a widow. A widow who is starving. Why is she starving? Because there's a famine. Why is there a famine? Because Elijah told the rain to stop. So he's going to a woman who is a again, he's a bit become a victim of his own obedience. Now she's become a victim. Her family's starving and she's preparing one last meal. So suddenly it jumps out as you read it. She's getting some sticks, a couple of sticks, she's got a bit of flour, a bit of oil, she's gonna make a loaf of bread, they're gonna eat it, their last supper, and then they're gonna prepare themselves to die because there's nothing else. She's perhaps seen that around them people are starving, that the rains haven't come. She needs a miracle, she needs help, she needs someone to provide, and God does a work both in her and in Elijah as he leads them. The prophet comes to her and says, Please, can you can you get me a little water? Just a little cup of water. And she goes off to get the water, and as she goes, Elijah says, Oh, and would you mind also some bread? And at that point she goes, You're asking too much. The water I can do, but bread, she says, Oh, I don't have any bread. I have I have a jar with a handful of flour. Measured it out this morning. I said, I have a jar with a handful of flour and a little bit of oil. Say a little, little, little, your falsetto, little, just a little bit of oil. That's all I have. He wants a little water and a little loaf of bread, and she goes, Well, I've only got a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil, and I've got plans for that. My son and I, we're gonna eat this. This is our last meal together. Some small comfort in a hurting world, some small comfort before we curl up together, perhaps in each other's arms and wait the inevitable. For we know what is coming now. There is nothing that can change it. We only have a little, and the little is not enough. It's not enough to share with you, it's not enough to even keep us alive. It's a tiny morsel, but it will not be enough to sustain us, and eventually we will succumb as so many others have. Just a little thing. But little, we we shouldn't belittle little. See, when we think of little, the word that comes to mind is, I don't know where I am, I'm completely off my notes as well. Um when we think of little, what we think of is not enough. Little, that's what we think of in our minds. Little is not enough, and big, well, big is enough. That's how we categorize things, that's how the lady categorizes. I've got a little bit, and it's not enough, it's not enough for you, Elijah. It's not even enough for me, it's only a little bit. If I had more, if God provided more, if the rains fell, then there'll be abundance and there'll be more, and I would have enough. And I might even have enough to share with you, but I don't. All I have is a little. The thing that God teaches Elijah and teaches this widow is that God likes, he likes a little. God likes a little. How did God create the world? We're told that there's a big bang, but before the big bang there was a little word. In the beginning, God said, and I love it in the Hebrew because it's two words. He says, light be. So he talks to the light and says be, one word, be and it bees. He says to the world, land, be and it and it bees. He says to the to the to the animals, be and they be. And he says to the skies, be and it be. Just one word, one little word, and he creates everything that we see. The stones, the bricks, the trees, the the everything around us, the mountains, the valleys, the rivers, they they come because he said be. God likes he could have done it big, he could have got a whole description and a whole speech prepared of everything, but just the word be is enough to bring it to be. How did God come when he finally chose to step into this world, to step into this earth? If we were writing the story, he would crash down like a superhero, you know, they come down like there's a like a crater around them, and the capes waving in the wind, and a big J on his chest as it bulges out, he's gonna save the world. This big brash statement, how does God arrive? Little as a cell in a young girl's womb. One cell that multiplies into two and four, and on and on it goes until he becomes a little baby. God likes little. When he works, he works in the little. Famous story of Gideon. The people are being oppressed by a group called the Midianites, and he goes to Gideon, who's the smallest in the smallest tribe, the smallest man in the smallest tribe, and he speaks to him and he goes to lead him and he says, Well, I've got a big army, 22,000 people, we think we can do it with them. God says, Good, right, get rid of 12,000 of them. We'll go down to 10. And they go, Okay, well, that seems odd, but we'll do that. They go down to 10, and God goes, still too much. If you win, you'll think it's down to you. So let's strip it back down to 300. Because I like a little. I can work with a little. Big is fine, but but I like a little. And this woman and Elijah, they're gonna learn this lesson that God likes little. So little that the woman thinks I'm about to be stuffed out, so little she thinks she has nothing to offer, but little is good. You know, a few weeks ago, Henry came back from school and he said, and he must have been doing it in one of his classes, but he said, Daddy, in the back of the car, Daddy, nothing is a good thing. I said, You're gonna have to elaborate, yeah. I don't know where you're going, you're gonna have to explain. Where he said, Well, if there's nothing in the sky, then it means we have a sunny day. That's a good point, yeah. Nothing, nothing blocking out, that's a good point. He says, if there's nothing on the road, then the journey home is quick. Oh, yeah, nothing. And I think what they were doing was Jesus, nothing in the tomb. I questioned him this morning because I said, Well, the nothings, he couldn't remember any of them. Um, but but James said, Well, Jesus in the tomb, nothing. And James Henry went, that was an awesome thing. It's like, yeah, yeah, nothing is awesome. Sometimes nothing is good. You feel strong and sure and confident when you have enough, that's great, but but sometimes when you have nothing, then it gives God something to fill. When you have little, it gives God a chance to prove Himself. When you've got little, it's suddenly that's the point where it gives God something to work with. God is at work in the big, and I think we're very comfortable with that. What we need to get used to is God who uses the little. There's a very famous verse in Romans that says, in all things, God works for the good of those who love him. It gets mistranslated. People say God all things work together for good, but it's not that all things are good, there are good and bad, but in them all, God is working. Now I've already always read that verse that God is at work in the good things in our life and the bad things in our life. Somehow he's at work in the good, blessing us, but he's also in the work in the bad, redeeming and comforting and helping. And like those are the categories I've worked in: good and bad. But he says in all things. So it's not just good and bad, it's also big and small. We can't despise the day of small beginnings because God is at work in all things. Everything little will lead to something big, everything small starts off that way, but it becomes bigger later. Everything big was once something small. Every idea that every everything that you see that's created was once an impulse in a human brain that you cannot see even with a microscope. And yet it is created art and beauties and stories and wonder and buildings and cities because of one small thing that becomes bigger. Elijah's word, so small, controls the weather. And actually, I think we could say the same is true for us. Your words control your weather. Your words and your thoughts, those tiny little things, those neurons firing in your head, those tiny things control the course of your life. It's crazy how God can use that. Renew our minds that we might think in a certain way, and through that would lead us to his ways and his glory, do something greater in our life than we could by ourselves. We have all these ways we think God works, but we forget that he often begins, nearly always begins, in the little. But we think if it's big, then God's in it. I have a I have a grievance when I meet with other pastors. Um it's not that there are other pastors and they're weird like me, um, because I'm used to that. We're all a bit strange, but when I meet with them, there's inevitably a question comes up, how are things going? Yep, going really good. How many are you getting on a Sunday? And then my heart sinks, and I'm like, oh. Not that I don't have a great answer, it's lovely to have so many here to be able to say, yeah, Drew, it's lovely, and we're struggling to find seats and things like that. That's lovely, but I go, why is that the measure? Why is big good? If I said I've got one person who comes along each Sunday and listens, why would that make their heart sink? I remember when I started preaching, I'd go to churches and preach to two people, and one of them would be asleep. And and and then that's how I start so little, but why is that less glorious than crowds of 50,000? I often think there's a story of um Keith Green, I think I've got a picture of him in case you don't know him. His wife wrote, um, There is a Redeemer. He died very young, but his his the life that he lived for Jesus was was passionate and on fire. And I remember one time he there's a story he went to in 1978, he was at a contemporary Christian music festival, 35,000 people come to hear him play. And he was in his his trailer beforehand, and he felt something he was an odd character, but he was sat under his piano crying out to God, going, God, I don't know what to say to these people, I don't know what to say. There's something something's in me, I don't know what it is, that I've got to have the right words for them. And a young lady came and knocked on the trailer and asked to see him, and she came in and gave him a piece of paper with a scripture on it, Amos 5.21. And she said, I don't know why, but I I've been praying and I've been at the festival a few days, and I feel like this is what uh the people need to hear, and I don't know how to get it to the leaders, maybe you could pass it on to them. So Keith Green opened the piece of paper and realized this was the verse he had to give to them. So he went out, crowd 35,000 people. Here's what the verse says I hate and despise your feast days, I do not savour your sacred assemblies. Though you offer me offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them. I will not regard your fattened peace offerings, take away from me the noise of your songs, for I not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. Let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Thirty-five thousand people here to sing and worship God, and he reads out, I hate your songs. I hate your gatherings. Because big is not necessarily better. Big can be a cover for what God is doing, big can be a replacement for the quiet work of the Spirit who turns hearts and shapes them and moulds them. Big can be impressive, but it can hide a multitude of sins. And what Keith Green had the spiritual insight to do was to say, this can all just be a charade. This can all be a show, because there's going to be a point where you go back, and what I really want is a life of righteousness. Little acts of kindness and goodness to those around you. Without that, and all this means nothing. Not that with those things, this becomes even more glorious, but without that, this is a shell. Yet we so often attempted to belittle the little. It only looks like a little. It's only a little. And what we mean is it's not really enough. It's fine, but it is it's it's small, it's insignificant. We do that with things around us. I think we also do it with ourselves. We see ourselves, as one verse puts it, as grasshoppers. We belittle the little in us. There's a story, I don't know if it's true, um, but why let the truth get in the way of a good illustration? But apparently, if you get a flea and you put a flea, I've never tested it because I don't have fleas, but if you've got fleas and you put them in a jar um and you put them in a jar, as a flea can normally jump about 75 centimetres. So what's that about that high from the jar? So pretty high for the size of them. It's like me jumping up to the ceiling. So they can jump about that high. But if you put them in a jar and you close the lid, then they jump and they get a sore head because obviously they hit the lid of the jar. And apparently, what happens is the flea learns not to jump that high. So it jumps to the height of the jar. And if you keep it in there long enough, you can take the lid off and take the flea out, and the flea will continue for the rest of its life to jump the height of the jar because it's learnt it can't get any higher. It learns that little, that little jump. And it doesn't ever go any further. Whether it's true with fleas or not, I don't know, but I think it is true with humans. A little word. Something that happened to you, some incident in your life, something that went wrong, something that didn't work out, some problem that you faced, suddenly it sets a lid on your life, and the rest of your life you settle for little because you think, well, my little is not enough. I'll just stay here. I don't have what it takes. I can't be anymore, I can't give anymore, I can't accomplish anymore, I can't rise up, and so I'll only ever jump this high for the rest of my days. We need to recategorize. We need to stop thinking that little is not enough. We need to think little is enough, and big is more than enough. This simple change is what we're showed here in this passage. The little she has is enough. Elijah says, you take your jar and you take your oil and you go and you prepare it. And she goes and she prepares it. Now there is a story a bit later in Elisha where there's an oil jar that hasn't got very much, and what they do is they get all the jars, they pour it, and it multiplies. And one jar gets filled, and all the jars in the houses get filled, and it multiplies and multiplies. The little becomes more. And that's a great story, it's not this story, so forget it. So this story's different. This isn't that God's gonna take the little and he's gonna multiply it to fill all the jars. This story says she goes and it doesn't become more. The little doesn't become big, the little just never runs out. That's a different message. It's not that God's gonna multiply, he's not gonna make the little big, he's just gonna make sure that the little is enough. Over and over again. So when we start with little, we go, it's okay it's little, because one day it will be big. Maybe it won't. Maybe it will always be this, but it will always be enough. That's the miracle of this story. Not that God makes the little more. There are plenty of times when he does that, but on this occasion, the little is enough. You see a little in your life. I want you to re-categorize. I see enough. I see, I say, I I haven't got I've got a little bit of strength. You've got enough strength for today. There's so much going on. I feel I've only I've got little comfort, but you have enough. Enough for today. I feel like I haven't got much hope, I've only got a little, and you have enough. I'm running out of ideas, it's going low. You have enough. You give him the little, and it becomes not more, it becomes enough. Jesus says this you don't need big faith, you need little faith. Little faith is enough. It's enough to move mountains. You think, well, no, I need to have little faith, that will become big faith, and then that'll move mountains. No, little faith is enough. What you do is you get your little flower, and what you need to do is you need to take the lid off. And you need to reach in and grab your handful and do what you need to do and trust that God will make it enough. And you'll go, well, it doesn't seem like no, no, that's the whole point. It doesn't seem like enough. But what you see isn't how it's how it is. It is enough in God's hands. Some of you today can only manage a little bit of praise. Some of you will do the big, hands up, praising God, worshiping. Wonderful. I'm not going to take that away from you. Some of you, maybe it's only here. Maybe it's a hand, maybe it's a thumb. Pinky praise. That's all you can manage. But that little, that's enough. If you bring it to God, then He will do more with it. He will take your little bit, it will become enough. And even then I nearly said it will become more. No, that's not the message. It won't become more, it'll be enough. Because God is enough. When there's little, it means there's room for God, and God is enough. We need to recategorize. The little that we have, whatever it might be, is enough. I get so nervous before I preach, I don't know what to do about it. It's been going on for so many years. I've settled with this is how it is. Every Sunday I wake up and I'm nervous and I don't talk to my father. I do talk to them a little bit, but but they know that I'm on edge. If I remember when I'm in Bournemouth and I used to preach, namely's dad would know I was preaching because there'd be a worn-out patch in the grass where I just pace round and round in circles. Because I'm going, I don't know what to say. Is it enough? Is it is it the right is it the right words for today? Is it for them? Is it enough? Is it enough? Is it enough? And I've learned to be okay with that. Okay, it's little, but it's enough. It feels like it's so small. Is it really going to make a difference? It's enough, it's enough. And that whole morning, that's basically all I'm doing. I'm convincing myself that in God's hands this will be enough. I want it to be more, I want it to be bigger, I want it to be brush and brown, bloud and grand and life-changing, but it's little. And I can't make it more. I don't want to make it more. I want to give it to God, and He will say, It is enough. Every now and then it becomes more than enough. But I'm happy with enough. I'm content with enough. We need to stop putting limits on what God can do. I know it doesn't seem enough. I know perhaps in light of the challenges you face, you think I need more. I know that the little you have seems insignificant. It does to this widow. We've only got enough for today, but as she goes and puts it into God's hand, obeys his word, it becomes enough. Thing is, when we worship God, it's interesting. We get we get we lifted up with our altitude. From up there, you know what? Everything looks little. From God's height, everything is. So you ever been in a plane, hot air balloon, got up high, you look down, everything looks little. To God, there is no big. He he is big, universe seems big, but to God it all seems little. God only works with the little, and when we get up to that height, we go, oh okay, it's fine that it's little. It's okay that it seems so small. Because that just increases the wonder that God would use even this. Increases my astounding, my astonishment that God would say, I will work in that. As a kid song, we sing nothing's too big, big, big for his power, nothing's too itty bitty for his care. It's so small, but it doesn't mean it's too small for him that he doesn't notice, that he doesn't care. It's where he begins his work. We have little, but we can't use little as an excuse. Some of us will be thinking, Well, I wish I could give more, I wish I could give you a loaf of bread, Elijah, I wish I could feed you, I wish I could welcome you, I wish I could do more, but I can't. But maybe one day when. One day when I have more time, one day when I can sort myself out, one day when I've got things straight, and then I'll do it. But the problem with that, and I speak to people all the time, I wish I could give more time to church, I wish I could serve more and offer, and that would be great if you wanted to. But again, do you see the problem? What you're saying is the things that I'm doing, they're too little. I wish I could, but I've got young kids and lots of time. What you're making your kids into a very little thing there. That's where God's at work. Well, I wish I could, but I've got to work. Well, maybe you could do, but that's fine. But your work is not it, that it may seem little, but that's where God is. There's a verse, and I often quote it to myself more than to other people because it's a bit harsh, where it says, Those that the man who does not provide for his family is denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. I wouldn't say that to anyone because anything, oh, that's a bit harsh, but do you see what he's saying? Look, when you don't when you ignore this, our faith is not about taking you outside of these things as if they don't matter, making you all spiritual and holy and up here. These are the things, these are the little things where God is at work. Providing for your family and caring for them, it may seem little, but don't belittle the little. That is where God is, and he might be leading you. If it's your work, then whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, these are little things, but do them to the glory of God. These little places, they are where you prove, and that's what Jesus says. If you're faithful with very little, then you will be faithful with much. But you can't get to the much unless you start with the little. One for the farmers I thought I'd put in here. It said, anyone can look at an apple and count the seeds, but only God can look at the seed and count the apples. We can all look at an apple and count the seed, but only God can look at the little seed and see what he's going to do. I know it seems little, and you can't see how many apples are in that seed, but God can. You do what you need to do with that little seed, and you see the apples that God will produce for it. This woman finds that to be true. She goes and she makes the bread and it feeds her all the way up until the time the rains fall. And then Elijah goes off and he has this great confrontation on Carmel and he turns the people back into repentance, but only because there was a widow who was faithful with the little that she had. The rest of Elijah's story doesn't happen. He starves along with her and dies. But she is faithful with the little. And she learns along with Elijah that God's word may seem small, but it is powerful. It controls the weather, it speaks to our hearts. It's a small thing, but it can do a mighty thing. And if we will listen to it and follow, then we will find a miracle happening. Not the miracle of overflow, that's a different story for another time. But the miracle that it doesn't run out. Doesn't seem like much, but it's enough. And if it grows, then it simply becomes more than enough. I wonder what it is that you are belittling. Is there anything in you or in your life that you're going, I don't have enough? Because what happens if you notice the woman when Elijah questions her, she almost, I don't know if there's anger in there, maybe I'm reading that into it, but it's almost like you don't understand. I don't have enough for you. There's a defensiveness to it. And that's how so many people react when they feel like they don't have enough. People get short, they get if I don't feel like I'm confident enough, then I'm I'm I'm I'm sort of short with people and I'm rude and then I'm defensive. If people challenge me, ask me a question, I don't know the answer. There's a defensiveness in me, a sort of a resistance, because I feel like I haven't got what I need. Perhaps that's your story. Perhaps in your life you look at it and you think, I don't have enough. I've lost so much. I've never been given much to start with. And what it's done is it's made you hard. Made you have to appear like you're more than you are. It's interesting that we meet so many people who on the surface seem strong, but you start to pry actually, they're just very brittle. They're very defensive because their life is marked by I don't have enough. And so I will increase it. I will make it seem, I will make myself seem like I'm more than I am. And actually, underneath it all is I feel like I don't have enough. I feel like I've been cheated. I feel like I've been robbed. Now there is someone who will cheat and rob you. Jesus talks about this. The enemy comes to steal and kill and destroy. He comes to take things away so that you feel like you don't have enough. But those who are in Christ, those who are in Christ always have enough. Those who are in him always have, we could say more than enough, but we'll settle for enough today. We have enough. This woman and her son are coming to eat their last supper. And it made me think, we we called it the last supper with Jesus, don't we? Comes and has his last meal. I don't know. Is that a Bible thing? Maybe we should call it the first supper. Because it's the first of many. We eat it again and again and again until the time when we eat with him, and every time we eat it, we are reminded this little bit of bread, this little bit of wine, is enough. It shows us that what Jesus did, as small as that may seem, and in one sense it was one man in the middle of the Middle East a few thousand years ago, so small, but is enough for all eternity and forever. This is the story of our gospel. Little is enough. Jesus who came is a few cells, who became a boy, who became a man, who one man who gives his life for the sins of all the world. How could that be? But because of what was in him, it was enough. Because he is in us, we are now enough. We're going to sing in a moment a song that celebrates this, yet not I, but Christ in me. I am little and I'm okay with that. That's that's our cry. I am small, I do not have the resources, I don't have the intellect, I don't have the ability, I don't have the wisdom, I don't have the experience, I don't have the insight, I don't have the background, I don't have the plans, I don't have, I don't have anything, I don't have enough. I don't have enough, but if he is in me, then I am enough. I've learnt that I am enough and I'm content, as Paul says. Paul says, I'm content. I've learnt this contentment, I have enough. In Philippians, you're gonna go read it. He says that if I'm in if I'm in prison, I have enough. If I'm out of prison, I have enough. And then he says the famous line: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I am not enough, but him in me is enough. I don't have strength, but him in me, I have strength. I don't have the wisdom, but him in me, I have wisdom. I don't have the words, I don't have the ministry, I don't have anything, but him in me, I suddenly have enough, and I can do all things. That's the context of that verse. I can be content, whatever comes, because I have enough, because he is in me. And so, whatever little may look like, however scarce it may seem, I can look at it and re-prioritize my thinking, recategorize this looks small, but it is enough. This looks little, but it is enough. And so I give it to you, God. I take the lid off. Not that it become more if it does, that's a wonderful thing. But that I might learn that this is enough. That you, God, you are enough. Your word is enough. You and me is enough. And I walk in that. That's part one. Part two will finish next week where Elijah has to put this to the test, where suddenly he's faced not just with little but with nothing. Where the son goes on to die, but that is a story for another time. Let me pray for us as we close today. Father, we live in a world where unless you are big, unless you are fast, unless you are strong, then you aren't worthy of attention. You aren't worthy of notice, that you aren't able to be or become or do much at all. But this is a lie. It's what we've been sold and it's what we've been told, and it's convinced many of us that we are too small to be significant, that we are too little to be able to do anything in your name and for your kingdom, to make a difference, to impact those around us. As we've prayed so many times already this morning, Lord, we just ask that you'd help us to see differently. To see that you are a God who loves the little, who works in the little, who is even at this moment in our little. And in that place, Lord, when we we realise that you are in it and we walk with you in it, that little becomes enough. Help us to hold on to that. For some, so much has been taken. We've been stripped back and we feel so small. And all we can see is the problem, all we can see is the lack, all we can see is what has been taken. Some of us perhaps have gone so far down that we've become hardened. We've become defensive, protective of the of the little that we have, that we've pushed others away. I just want to ask, Father, that you would soften us today as you help us to see that our little is enough. In your hands, our small is enough. So, like this widow, Lord, help us to get our flower, get our little bit of oil, and see how in your hands it each and every day is enough. There is enough strength, there is enough grace, there is enough mercy, there is enough comfort, there is enough each and every day as we go back, it doesn't grow, it become more, but it is enough again and again and again. We thank you, Lord, that in you we are enough. In you we have enough. We thank you that it is enough for the challenges we face, for the difficulties we struggle with. Would you help us to see all the things that we have been built in? And today see them in a new way. For we are yours, Lord. It is your word that directs us. Help us, Father, to be faithful in the very little. That in time we might be faithful in the merchant. We thank you. We thank you, Lord, that it will always be little. That with you it will always be enough. You're big enough. You're big enough for us. You're big enough for all this. You're big enough for all we can say. In your presence, a little joy can become joy and full of glory. Christ in us is enough. Renew our minds in this way, Lord, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

We hope that you've enjoyed listening to Dean's thoughts today. If anything that we have said has challenged you or raised questions that you'd like answers to, please don't hesitate to contact us and ask for a chat. You can find our details on our website, which is leobc.co.uk, as well as on the information that we have posted with this podcast. Alternatively, if you live in our area, you're very welcome to join us on Sunday morning at 10 30 to hear things first hand. We'd love to see you there.