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[silence] [music] ♪ Let the light from the lighthouse ♪ ♪ Shine on me ♪

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♪ Shine on me ♪ ♪ Shine on me ♪ ♪ Like a light from the lighthouse ♪ ♪ Shine on me ♪

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- Amen. Scriptural basis for the message. It's found in 1 Kings chapter 17, verses 12 through 15. It's an account of the experience of the prophet Elijah with a poor widow.

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And she said, "As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruz. And behold, I am gathering two sticks,

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that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. And Elijah said unto her, fear not. Go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake

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first, and bring it unto me. and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste,

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neither shall the cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he

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and her house did eat many days." The subject of the message "When life reaches bottom, when life reaches

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bottom." When we think of the bottom, we think of going down. It's to descend to the lowest point. It's to go down, down, down, until we can go no further. It is the end. Many years ago there was a a popular song which contained these words,

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"Going down to the bottom, to froggy bottom." Bottom land is low land, inundated, easily flooded, its residents subjected to hazardous living.

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The focus of our attention today is on a poor widow woman who reaches bottom. She dwells in

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Zarephath and Sidon. It's a time of famine and the Lord causes his prophet Elijah to declare that there will be no rain for three years and six months. Considering the experience which we are going through, we can somewhat identify with Israel

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in her plight. After making this declaration, Elijah, following the leadership of the Lord, is hidden by the the brook Cherokh, where food is brought to him by ravens morning and evening. He drinks water from the brook.

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God in the midst of famine, in the midst of crises, provides for those who are fateful to his commands. In time of drought and famine, the prophet is sustained. But in the course of time, the brook dries up.

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Elijah is directed by the Lord to a poor widow who is to sustain him. Sometimes our lives are punctuated by crises. When one crisis is over, another emerges. The situation seems to go from bad to worse.

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Sometimes we are divinely sent to sources we regard as signs of weakness in order to receive strength. God's strength is often revealed in weakness. The prophet Elijah is sent to a poor widow woman. Here is a woman buffeted about by the vicissitudes of human existence. Her husband has died and left her as the sole means of

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support for the family. She is all alone, isolated from the main traffic of human existence, a poor widow woman. She has no welfare assistance, no social security check, no pension, no inheritance, no bank account, a poor widow woman. Now the scripture teaches that one ought to be sympathetic, understanding, and caring, especially where widows are concerned. In

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fact, according to the scripture, one's religion is evaluated according to how one treats the widows. Among the scathing rebukes Jesus levels against the scribes and Pharisees is one in which he says, "Woe to you! You devour widows' houses. You are a burden to the helpless.

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Care for widows is necessary in order to receive God's approval. James expresses it quite well when he says, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction,

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and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. But God directs the prophet Elijah to a poor widow woman to take care of him In time of drought and famine, God says to the prophet, "I have commanded her to sustain you."

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How strange this is, that a prophet in great need is to be sustained by a poor widow woman. Now when the prophet Elijah arrives in the city, he sees this poor woman near the gate of the city gathering

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sticks. She's out there gathering firewood. Her fuel supply has run out. She's out there picking up sticks. She's poor.

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She's unable to buy any fuel. She has no funds. So she has to pick up sticks as best she can, wherever she can find them.

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Times are hard. She's near the bottom. It's a time of depression. And Elijah greets this poor woman with a request.

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He says to her, "Please bring me a little water in a vessel that I might drink." How strange it is, it's a time of famine when water is scarce. If you're fortunate enough to gather some, you drink it and use it very sparingly because

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it's a time of famine, there's no rain. And Elijah introduces himself to this poor woman by making a request of her that he might receive from her a drink of water. And then before he has completed that, almost right on the heels of it, he makes another

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request before she can fulfill the first one. "While you're doing that," he says, "bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." This is her answer. She said, "Now God knows that I don't have anything to give you.

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I don't have anything for you, Reverend. Why in fact, I don't have enough for myself. I only have a little meal in the barrel. I'm out here gathering sticks that I might cook the little that I have

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because I'm at the bottom of the barrel and my son and I will eat that and then prepare to die. I don't have anything for you. Elijah says to her well go on and do as you have planned but when you prepare the first cake, give that to me. And when you go back, even though you reach the

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bottom of the barrel, when you go back, the Lord will provide provisions for you to eat many days. Well this woman is certainly in a crisis. Any of you who who know what it is to be at the bottom of the barrel. You've been at the bottom of the barrel many times.

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At the bottom of the barrel, you don't have a table that's filled with food. This woman is depending upon hot water cornbread. You know what hot water cornbread, all of us do.

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You don't have a whole lot of stuff to put in it. It's just some water in the meal. And when you're hungry, I can testify to the fact that it really tastes good when that's all you've got.

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And that's all she had. And she is now at the bottom of the barrel. She has now just a little and it'll all be gone. That's what she's staring calamity in the face.

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She's at the bottom of the bed. She's up against it. And most of the time, when we really have a widow in the scripture lifted up before us,

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this widow is facing dire circumstances, a poor widow. Jesus tells a story of one poor widow who is up against it And she goes before the judge seeking justice. She's really up against it.

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She doesn't have any support, no relatives to help her. She's a poor widow. She's all alone in the world. And she goes to this judge for justice.

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And this judge doesn't care a thing about God or man. But because this poor widow, destitute, lonely, forsaken, by all the human props, so to speak, She just goes to the judge and finally the judge just gets tired of this poor widow nagging

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him and decides to give justice. But a poor widow, she has nothing else but God in whom to trust. Jesus talks about another widow who has just a few coins, copper coins, that's all she has. That's all and yet when she comes to the temple she drops them in the collection plate.

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That's all she has, a poor widow. And somehow here God directs the prophet in a time of crisis when she's all up against it to a poor widow in Zarephath, in Sidon. Zarephath in Sidon you say?

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Yes. Jezebel has brought the 450 prophets of Baal to Israel. Elijah is standing firm for God in the midst of the false worship. And yet when the crisis come, God sends Elijah up to Sidon, which is Baal territory.

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It's the territory where the false gods have their home. And this is the territory of the enemy. God sends Elijah into enemy territory and says go back to the widow in that enemy territory and don't worry about how you gonna get along I'm gonna protect you

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there I'm gonna provide for you. You see the Lord has a way of preparing a table for us in the presence of our enemies. Poor widow, poor widow, up against it. And I I suppose she must have said to Elijah, look Elijah, I'm having a hard time.

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I already have two dependents. You know what you would say under such circumstances. I already have two dependents and I don't have enough to provide for us,

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myself and my son, we're at the bottom of the barrel and here you come to add to my number. So often God adds to the burden. We think we have a burden and he adds to it.

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But whenever God adds, when God gives us a burden, when God gives it to us, the burden is a blessing when God gives it. We never know how heavy the load may be that we can carry

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until we accept the burden that God gives. For God has said to Elijah, I have commanded the widow woman to take care of you. I've done that.

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For you see, Elijah says to the woman, fear not, go and do as you have planned, but make me a cake first. In other words, the woman was somewhat hesitant, no doubt.

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And the first word is fear not. That's always the first word when we, to follow the commands of God, we've gotta have the faith to overcome fear.

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Faith, you see, drives out fear. Fear not. Commit your way into the Lord, don't be afraid of whatever's gonna happen, though the way looks bleak.

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You don't know how you're going to make it, it's dark. You don't know where to take the next step, but just step in now into the darkness and put your hand in the hand of God,

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he'll take care of you. Fear not. Fear not. In other words, your priority is in obedience

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to the word of God. God says this, in other words, according to God's command, thus said the Lord. Elijah, you see, is a spokesman for God.

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He only tells the woman what God orders. God says, "Make for me the first cake. "Make for me the first cake." And she has the faith, she commits her way into the Lord

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When we trust God for our way, trust God to provide, we don't know how God's gonna work it out. That's God's problem. We put it in his hands.

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You know, so often what happens is we pray and we go to God and we take our burdens on up to the Lord and what happens is many times when we get there, we bring 'em right on back.

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But the song says, "Take your burdens to the Lord "and leave them there." Well, this is faith, she trusts God. As expressed in the language of that spiritual Lord,

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I'm out here on your word. I'm out here on your word, and if I die on the battlefield, Lord, I'm out here on your word.

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I've reached bottom. I've run out on the limb now on your word. In fact, I've reached the bottom not only as far as the meal barrel is concerned, I've reached bottom

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as far as my oil is concerned. My fuel supply is at bottom. And there are times when we reach bottom, When there is no human resource available,

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when we've gone as far as we can go, when we have kept on using meal from the barrel until we've come to the bottom. As an old saying, we never see a miracle

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until we need one, until you really need one. But when we really need a miracle, God has a way of providing a miracle in our lives. This poor widow needed a miracle.

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She was one of the old sisters in our church when I was a boy, I used to say, she shown off, needed a miracle. And God miraculously multiplies in our lives

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when we are up against it and solely dependent upon him. You see, God redeems the soul of his servants. This woman and her son were at the point of death, and when you're at the point of death,

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all she had, just a little, bottom of the barrel, no other way of receiving any other meal from any human source, only God. And there's some circumstances that we face,

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some conditions in our lives that only God can help. God is the Redeemer. No, no, no, no other way. God alone can do it.

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Only God. That's why we say God is the Redeemer. That we recognize the fact that we have come up against some problems.

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We've come up against some experiences that only God can help us and deliver us, only God. God is the Redeemer. That's what the psalmist was talking about

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when he said, "I had fainted, "unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord "in the land of the living." God is our Redeemer.

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He snatches us from the jaws of death. He lifts us from the muck and mire and places our feet on a solid rock, puts a new song in our mouths and establishes our going.

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God is our Redeemer. There are times when only God can do what needs to be done for us. He's our Redeemer.

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You see, He puts meal in our barrel when the meal has just about run out. And you don't have any other sauce on which to depend. God just keeps on putting more meal in the barrel.

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She goes back and she finds more meal. She gives the first cake and when she returns to the barrel, she finds some more meal there. She prepares some more and they all eat

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and she goes back to the barrel and she finds more meal there. God has a way of just putting more in our barrel. You know, I used to pick cotton when I was a boy

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And many times when you just keep putting cotton in the sack, put more cotton in the sack, more cotton in the sack, and you think it's almost full, and all you have to do is shake it.

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You shake it, and you find there's room for more in there. And God has a way of shaking our lives. He shakes our lives with difficulty. He shakes our lives with trouble sometimes.

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He shakes our lives with sickness and disappointment. And sometimes when he shakes it, he just puts more blessings in your life. More real in the power. That's what happened to this poor widow when she reached his bottom.

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God blesses her and manifests himself in her life as redeemer. He does that in our lives now. Whenever you're up against something that you can't handle, no human resource can help you, you? God can. He's Redeemer. You see, so he provides the meal. He does that. No one

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else could do it. But you see, there's something else in there that God doesn't do. He doesn't come down and cook the bread. The widow has to do that. She has to cook it. She has to prepare it. She has to set the table and they have to sit down and they have to eat it, but God has provided the meal. But the widow has

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to cook it. She has to prepare it. There's certain things God does, but there's other things we've got to do. We are to be partners with God. God is the Redeemer, you see, and it's, and then the other phase of it is it how emancipation comes by our cooperation with God. There are certain things that we

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have to work with God in doing in this society in order to experience the emancipation of God. We have to be workers together with God and that's the the experience of our emancipation. God provides more meal.

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The widow cooks it. And not only does he provide more meal for the barrel, he provides more oil for the jar. More, more.

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It's poor, destitute. Some of you remember burning kerosene in your lamps. I used to go to the store, we didn't call it kerosene, that's a rather fancy name, my mother called it coal oil.

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And you go to the store and we'd just have a nickel worth of coal oil. You put that in the lamp. And sometimes we'd run out late at night

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and I remember going, trying to find a store open almost at midnight to get a nickel worth of coal oil. Mother didn't like to go to sleep at night without having some coal oil in the house.

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But this lady has run out just about of all. She's run out, but God puts more oil in the lamp of the Lamb. More oil, more meal.

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More strength, and he also gives us direction. Strength and direction, light for our pathway. God provides it so that when we come to the end, as far as we can see, God gives us more light.

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Says you can keep on keeping on. God does it all when we work with him. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?

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The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? God does it. When we reach bottom, God expands our resources.

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He gives us light for the journey, strength for the way. Trust him. Trust him. I have commanded, that's what he says.

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I have commanded a poor widow. Well, that word is for each one of us, poor in our resources, our spiritual resources. But God has commanded us to do great things for Him.

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And we say, well, I've come to the bottom of the barrel, yes, but just trust in me and I'll provide more meal for the barrel and more oil for the jar. Trust me, and when we trust in God,

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we are sustained not only for the day, but many days. God will take care of you. God will take care of you. So as we come to the hymn of invitation,

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we invite you to come forward now, trusting in God. For the one who will help you when life reaches bottom, who will sustain you, who will guide you along the way, and keep you not only this day, but always,

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we invite you to come and unite with the church, accepting Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. ♪ Be not dismayed ♪ ♪ Whatever be tide ♪

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♪ God will take care ♪ of you. Beneath his wings of love abide. ♪ God will take care of you ♪

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Let's all join in that chorus. (orchestral music) ♪ God will take care of you ♪ ♪ Through every day ♪

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♪ All the way ♪ ♪ He will take care of you ♪ ♪ God will take care, take care ♪ ♪ Through days of toil ♪

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♪ When heart doth fail ♪ ♪ God will take care of you ♪ ♪ When dangers face your path of sail ♪ ♪ God will take care of you ♪

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♪ God will take care of you ♪ ♪ To every day ♪ ♪ For all of me ♪ ♪ We ♪

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♪ Take care of you ♪ ♪ God ♪ (music) [MUSIC]

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