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[ Silence ] [MUSIC] ♪ Beyond the grave ♪ ♪ And he goes headlong to me ♪

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♪ Come ye nearer ♪ ♪ Nearer, blest ye Lord ♪ ♪ To the cross where I have died ♪ ♪ Come ye nearer ♪

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♪ Nearer, blest ye Lord ♪ ♪ To the crash that made it fly ♪ ♪ Christ is great, be thou to thy service strong ♪ ♪ While the power of grace beguile ♪

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♪ Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope ♪ ♪ And my will be lost in thought ♪ ♪ Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord ♪ ♪ To the cross where thou hast died ♪

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♪ Call me neighbor ♪ ♪ Near a blested foe ♪ ♪ To thy precious baby's side ♪ ♪ On the filthy night of the stinging night ♪

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♪ And before thy proud eyes stream ♪ ♪ With a kneeling prayer ♪ ♪ And with thee my God ♪ ♪ My communest wind will wave ♪

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♪ Domine, Domine ♪ ♪ Our blessed Lord ♪ ♪ To the cross where thou hast died ♪ ♪ Domine, Domine ♪

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♪ Our blessed Lord ♪ ♪ To thy precious ♪ ♪ There are depths of love that I cannot know ♪ ♪ Till I cross the narrow sea ♪

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♪ There are heights of joy that I may not reach ♪ ♪ Till I rest in peace with thee ♪ ♪ Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord ♪ [MUSIC]

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Amen, let us bow for a word of silent prayer. [ Silence ] Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Thou art the path, and I am the way.

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♪ mold me and make me ♪ ♪ after thy will ♪ ♪ while I am waiting ♪ ♪ yielding and singing ♪

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Bless God this morning for this opportunity. We thank our pastor, Dr. Griffin, to our brother, Reverend Swisher, to all of you God's children. We indeed counted a blessing. Thank God that he has found us faithful and placed us into this ministry. And I must say that I am indeed happy to be standing before you. On yesterday, in looking at the funeral services of

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Barbara Jordan, I was indeed blessed. My heart was filled and as my wife and I sat and watched and we had our niece and our nephew, we tried to make them sit down and watch also. They probably didn't quite understand the significance of it but it just made my heart feel glad being from Houston, Texas,

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and to see the number of people that were there to show their love and their respect for such a woman. And I thank God for her. Growing up in the seventies, we would fight during the Black History Month

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time as to which person we would write our essay on and everybody would fight to get Barbara Jordan because she was from Houston, fifth ward, Houston, Texas. So we indeed thank God for her. Our scripture lesson this morning, again taken from the 17th chapter of 1 Kings.

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I'd like to read in the New International Version just a few verses of that for which Our topic, our theme for this morning comes from beginning at the 12th verse, and surely as the Lord God lives, she replied,

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"I don't have any bread, only a handful of flour in a jar "and a little oil in a jug. "I'm gathering a few sticks to take home "and make a meal for myself and my son

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"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 cake of bread for me

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"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,

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"and the jug of oil will not run dry "until the day that the Lord gives rain on the land." So she went away and did as Elijah had told her, So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman

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and for her family. For the joy 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.

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Living from the bottom of the barrel. Living from the bottom of the barrel. Elijah was a great man of God, a great prophet. Vernon McGee in his commentary say that Elijah was probably one of the greatest men ever

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to walk the face of this earth. You look at the name Elijah, it means Jehovah is God. So he had an important name, an important name for an important mission for such a great man of God.

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He had a certain type of character that allowed him to be the perfect man for such a mission. See Elijah was a bold character and he stood tall and he spoke the word of God. And so we find this great man, this great prophet of God, Elijah. As he comes into the world, seemingly unnoticed, seemingly just mysteriously shows up, but

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he comes at a crucial point in Israel's history. God had sent many prophets to Israel to talk to them and to tell them and to try and get them to turn around and to be the kind of people that he had wanted them to be. But we find Elijah being sent by God because Israel had gotten off the beaten

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path and they had strayed away. So God sent Elijah and and he comes boldly and walks into the court of Ahab. King Ahab being the seventh king of Israel and having took Israel to his highest heights in idolatrous worship, Elijah Elijah comes at the right time. King Ahab, who scripture says did evil more so than any

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other king that was before him in the sight of God. Elijah comes at the right time. King Ahab, who in a political move married the daughter of the king of Zidon whose name was Jezebel. Now Jezebel was something else. Jezebel, Queen Jezebel, showed Ahab a few things and she got Ahab to worship in Baal, the idol God.

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And not only Baal but then they also worshipped the goddess Asterith and And that kind of worship service was some kind of worship service. Because they used prostitutes to worship the goddess, Asterith. And so you can imagine what kind of worship services they held.

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Yeah. Coming into the house of worship and getting involved in all kinds of sexual matters because they were praising and worshipping the goddess. He married Jezebel and so Elijah comes in at the right time and God sends Elijah to Ahab and Ahab he tells him

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that God will not let a drop of rain not even dew fall on the earth for a span three years. He prophesied a drought to the king of Israel. Just walked right into his court and told him, "God will not let it rain until I say so." Who is Elijah? That he should speak to the king like that, but until I say so. Not a drop of rain.

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And so there we have our story for today. Our message is centered around this widowed woman who had to deal with this drought that she found herself in. I don't know if the drought was against her.

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I know God was using it to work on his people, but she just happened to be in the middle of what was going on. And so she was dealing with this drought situation.

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everything had dried up. And so God sends Elijah to see this widow woman 'cause there was something that he needed to do for her. And so we find him coming to the gates

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of the city of Zarephath, where he walks upon this woman bending down, picking up sticks. And Elijah asked her, "Would you fetch me?"

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I don't think he used the right word, but he used it anyway. "Would you fetch me a glass of water? "I'd like to have something to drink."

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Here's this woman picking up sticks, about to prepare the last meal for her and her son so that they could die, and this stranger walks into town, doesn't say, "Hello, how you doing?"

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"Would you fetch me a glass of water?" But to show you how God works, because physically that would probably be impossible for some of our friends,

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not us, but maybe some of our friends would not take that so well. But the way God works, she just left off gathering sticks and went to give him a glass of water.

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But then Elijah goes a step further. "While you're in there getting that glass of water, "could you bring me a piece of cake, please? "A morsel of bread that I may have something to eat."

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Now, I don't think that that was a sister Elijah was talking to. I don't think so. Maybe, but I don't know.

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(audience laughing) Woman about to die. Her livelihood dried up and gone. She's preparing a last meal for her and her son,

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had given up hope, and she was about to fix it so that they could die. And he asked her to go get him a cup of water and a piece of bread.

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But again, how God works. She said, "I swear by your God, "that all I have is some meal that's left in the barrel, "and a little oil that's left in a jar,

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"and I'm gonna fix that for me and my son." And Elijah said, "That's all right, "because God is gonna fix it." See, if we're to learn to live

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from the bottom of the barrel this morning, I want you to think of three things. Number one, that we need to give God his portion first. Give God his first.

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Notice what the widow woman did. Elijah said, "I understand your predicament. "I know what you're going through, "but if you would make mine first."

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And she believed and she trusted and she did exactly what Elijah had said. when we give God our first, we'll find that all these other things will just fall into place. See God commanded that he would be he would get the firstborn

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he said the firstborn Israel is mine of your your children and of your beasts I don't care what it is the firstborn is mine said God. He said your firstfruits should be mine. That's what God asks for, your first fruits, mine. That's what the tithe is all about. That tenth is to be taken off first and then you use

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whatever's left to do whatever you want to do, but God says that tenth is mine. It's mine. Matthew puts it plainly, he says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God God and his righteousness and then all these things, what things are you talking about? What shall I eat? All these things, what things are you talking about? What

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shall I wear? All these things shall be added unto you when we give God his first. And when the widow woman gave Elijah first, when he gave him first, she began to live from the bottom of the barrel. The widow gave her last first. That was all she had left, but she gave it to Elijah. Why did she give him her

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last? How could she give him her last? Like I said, your friends might be saying, "This man must be crazy. This is my last meal here on this earth and he wants it? No. But when we give God our first, then secondly, if we're going to live from the bottom of the barrel, we've got to understand that God has given us

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his promise. God has given us his promise. "For after the widow woman gave him his first, he said, 'Bring it on to me and then afterward make for yourself and for your son. For thus said the Lord God of Israel." He gives her God's word, he gives her God's promise. He says "The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the

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crews of oil fail." That was her promise that if you give God your first then he makes you a promise to take care of all of your needs according to his riches and glory. And so he made to her a promise. You've got to learn to trust the Word of God. You're gonna live from the bottom of the barrel, you've got to learn to trust in

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his Word. God has given us many promises by his Word. Scripture says that heaven and earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle of my word shall fail. Now it's an interesting thing that when we look at jot, jot is the smallest letter in the Hebrew language. It's comparable to our apostrophe sign in our

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language. So God says not even an apostrophe sign of my word, and then the word 'tittle' was just an exclamation point in the Hebrew language. So God's saying even these small and seemingly insignificant things of my word shall not pass, shall not pass. My word shall not fail, and God has given us his

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promises through his word. He has promised never to leave us alone. And when I'm living at the bottom of the barrel, if I know that he'll never leave me alone then that's something that I can stand on, that I can live on. Isaiah says that when you pass through the waters, the flood shall not overtake thee.

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When you pass through the fire, that the fire will not burn thee because fear not 'cause I am with you. Now that's a promise to stand on. You mean to tell me that no matter how high the water gets that I'm not gonna drown? And no matter how hot the heat gets I'm not gonna get burned up? That's a promise to stand on

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by God's Word. David says, "When I pass through the valley of the shadow of death," God says I am with you. These are promises that she had received no wonder she was able to live from the bottom of the barrel. She had given God her first and she relied on his promises and when we rely on God's promises then God will

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provide. It's the third thing God will provide. See the woman did as Elijah had told her. She went and did according to the saying of Elijah. And scripture says and she and he and her house did eat for many days. So she was living then from the bottom of the barrel. Scripture did not say she came and every day she came

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she found the barrel full of meal. No, she just went to the bottom of the barrel. And every day she went to the bottom of the barrel she found something else for another day We we got to depend on Jesus day by day We got to take it one day at a time. See we can't worry about tomorrow

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He didn't promise us tomorrow But he promised us today and I can stand on his promises of that He will take care of my needs today See see he tried to get Israel to understand when he would provide them meat

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He would provide them manna as they were traveling through the wilderness. He said now don't gather These quail don't gather these quail and try to save them until tomorrow I'm providing you enough to eat for today, but Israel figured that they they beat God to the punch They put a few quail on ice

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So that just in case the Lord, you know got busy and didn't come back to see about us We'd have something to eat for the next day but when they went and found and looked at that quail, it all rotten and it was no more good to be eaten because God wants us, if we're living from the bottom

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of the barrel, to depend on him day by day. He gives us those provisions because he's promised us. She went and she found each and every day something there that they could live off on, and it was just not herself. But the Bible says it was her and her family. When you living with God day by day, even the folks around you

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can enjoy some of the blessings of God, because that's just how good and wonderful a God he is. Living from the bottom of the barrel that we have to give God his first and rely on his promises and know that God will, he said he will, provide. I want you to understand as I close that living from the bottom

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of the barrel is only a temporary state. It's one of those right now kind of conditions but that doesn't mean it'll be that way tomorrow. See, see, see God had fixed it, that if she followed the word of Elijah and did according to what he said, that Elijah says that the meal shall not get used up, nor shall the oil

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run out until the day that God sends his rain. So that tells me that living from the bottom of the barrel is only a temporary situation because God is gonna to send some rain. I don't care if emotionally you're at the bottom of the barrel. Economically you're at the bottom of the barrel. Physically you're at the

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bottom of the barrel. Spiritually you're scraping the bottom of the barrel. The rain shall come. He said at my word God shall send his rain. And when the rains come, see rain brings about a refreshing. See rains bring about a newness and growth in your life. So if you're in a temporary state right now of

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famine and dryness and desert-like conditions, don't worry about it because God promised His rain. God promised to give us a little rain every now and then. See, not a lot of people like the rain. I remember growing up we used to have a little song we sung, "Rain, rain, go away. Come again some other day." I don't

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forgot the rest of it but I knew that part. We didn't like the rain when we were little. We didn't like the rain because the rain stopped what we wanted to do outside. But every now and then when it rained long enough and it rained hard enough, where I grew up in the city of Houston, see we had ditches, we didn't

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have sidewalks. So the only time we appreciated the rain was when it rained enough to where it could flood and in our front yard became Galveston. And we got out there in that ditch and in that dirty muddy water and we died and we were mud crawling in that ditch because we enjoyed to have the water that time.

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But God says he's gonna send some rain. He's gonna send some rain. Hosea writes, "Then we shall know if we follow on to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as rain as the latter and former rain unto the earth. It's only a temporary situation because it shall

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rain. Elijah said, "By my word when I give the word it shall rain again and you'll find life." That's why I like the song "Even Me." Lord, every now and then we need a shower. You get so dry and brittle walking down here. Everything that you go through you just get thirsty down here. But every now and then we need a

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shower. Lord I hear of showers of blessing. Thou art scattering. See rain just falls. It doesn't care whether you're good or whether you're bad. Rain just falls. She said, "Lord, you're scattering them full and free. Showers the thirsty so refreshing. Lord, just let some drops fall on me. Pass me not, O gentle

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Savior. Sinful though, I know that I'm not alright, Lord. I know I haven't done all that you call me to do but God send a little rain. I just need you to shower me with your blessings. I'm struggling in this desert. I'm going through some tough times, but he'll send you some rain. He sent his son Jesus Christ with the rain.

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There's one this morning who believes that you don't have to live from the bottom of the barrel all the time, but even when you're down there at the bottom, God still will provide. Will you come? Lord I hear her showers of blessings, flowers scattering, full and free. Shouts of

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♪ But this is so refreshing ♪ ♪ Let some drops now fall ♪ ♪ All on me ♪ ♪ Pass me not, O gentle ♪

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gentle, gentle Savior. Sinful though my heart may be, I am longing for your favor. ♪ While thou art shattering ♪ ♪ Lord bless ♪ ♪ Lord bless me ♪

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♪ Even me Lord ♪ ♪ Even me ♪ ♪ Even me, Lord, even me ♪ ♪ Let some drops now fall ♪

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♪ On me, even me, Lord ♪ ♪ Even, even me ♪ ♪ Even me, Lord ♪ ♪ Even me, Lord ♪

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♪ Let some drops, let some drops ♪ ♪ Let some drops now fall ♪ ♪ Just every now and then ♪ Just every now and then, Lord let some drops now fall on me. Every now and then

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let some drops now fall on me. I may not be the best, but Lord every now and then Nuts and drops now fall on me. I've been living from the bottom of the barrel for a long time. [MUSIC]

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Yes. [MUSIC] ♪ He has won ♪ ♪ He has won ♪

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- Open now. ♪ He has won ♪ - Now the church is open. ♪ He has won ♪

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[music] [BLANK_AUDIO]