The Church of Eleven22 - When God Says Go - Elijah: Wk 2

Episode Date: July 27, 2025

What’s the last thing God told you to do… and are you doing it? When God told Elijah to “Arise and go,” it didn’t make sense. He was sent to an unlikely place, to meet an unlikely person, with an impossible need. But Elijah trusted and obeyed—and God provided every step of the way. In this message from 1 Kings 17, Pastor Ryan Britt reminds us: God’s commands always come with promises, but obedience still requires trust. 📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week: The Jump That Changed Everything – Enrique’s Story Trusting God With All - Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin S22E2 Elijah Sermon Series About The Church of Eleven22 The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://coe22.com/donate

Amen. Amen. If you have your Bibles, we're going to be in the Old Testament book of First Kings in chapter 17. We're going to be in verse 8, where we left off last week. I'm Pastor Britt. I'm excited to teach God's word. Excited to be here. As you're making your way there, I want to start with a little self-evaluation.

So here's the scale. Ten is you're cool, calm, and collected at all times. One is you're a little bit cray and you should probably be in a straight jacket. All right? So this is the scale. One to 10, one is cray. 10 is under control at all times. Here's the question. What kind of driver are you? Out there on the roads? What kind of driver are you? Have you ever pulled up at a red light and honked at it just because it was red? I mean, why is it trying to slow you down? Why is it getting in your way? When you see a yellow light, do you think, I should slow down? I should come to a safe stop. Or do you think, about to turn red? I got to. I got to. I'm going to

I got to hit the gas, I got to go, or somebody's going to make me wait. What kind of driver are you? What about when it goes from red to green? How are you doing out there? Are you Mario Carton, you know, just taking off as fast as you can? Are you just rolling out, cool, calm, and collected? If I'm honest, I'm about a three. I'm about a three. I can't be trusted behind the wheel, but here I am. I've been pastor in a long time, and one of the things I've realized is that there's a lot of people who think of God like he's a big red light, that he's there just to say, stop doing this and don't do that and you can't go there and that God's just trying to slow you down and keep you from getting to where you're trying to go and live in your best life. A lot of people

treat God like he's a red light. Sometimes people treat God like he's a yellow light, that he's just really cautious and timid and everything has to be totally calculated and we've got to be slow and we've got to take our time and look both ways and that everything's really, really predictable. A lot of times people treat God like he's a yellow light. But I'm here to tell you this weekend that our God is a green light God. He is a God. He is a God. who is on the go. His foot is on the gas and he is on the move. From the time that he first started creating until the day that he makes all things new, our God is on the move and he is changing things. And he's bringing about his plan in human history. He is a green light God. The topic of my

sermon today or the title of my sermon today is when God says go. When God says go, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? First Kings chapter 17, we pick up in verse 8, where we left off last week. This is what it said. Then the word of the Lord came to him. Who's him? Him is the prophet Elijah. He is a prophet to the nation of Israel.

Elijah's testimony is what we're studying in this sermon series that we're in. The nation of Israel is the primary testimony of the Old Testament where God reveals who he is and what he's like through Israel. Israel is in a bad place at this point in history. They have a king named Ahab. and Ahab is a terrible person. The Bible actually says that God is more upset with Ahab than all the other kings of Israel combined. Of all the lists that you don't want to be number one on,

you do not want to be number one on the list of people that God is upset with. That's where Ahab is. And it's not just Ahab. Ahab is also married to a woman named Jezebel, and she's the devil. I mean, just the worst. And she, preach, I'm preaching. That's what I'm doing. And Jezebel's the worst.

And she is from a pagan people. He was not supposed to marry her, and he did. And they have a pagan God named Bell. And she has brought idol worship into the nation of Israel, and she has normalized it. And so now all the nation of Israel, who are supposed to be God's people walking in trust with God, have turned their hearts from God. And they are practicing idol worship, and they are rebelling against God. In this season of time, God sends a drought to the nation of Israel.

Why does he do this? Because God will not let his kids trust in things that are not trustworthy. He will do whatever he has to do to get their attention. So God sends a drought to the nation of Israel, and he raises up a man, the prophet Elijah, to say to them and to show them through signs and wonders that they can trust God and that the God of Israel is trustworthy. That's where we are. Last week, Elijah was at a brook called Cherath. This is a place of preparation where God was preparing him. And he took Elijah to a place where Elijah had to trust God to provide his every meal.

And Elijah stepped into it. He trusted God and God provided for him in significant ways over and over and over again. And then the brook dries up. And this is where we pick up in verse 8. Verse 8. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah and says, arise, go to Zarifath, which belongs to Sidon and dwell there. If you're taking notes, you're going to want to write this down.

When God says go, number one, it is for good reason. It is for good reason. Go is an imperative in the Bible that demands action. God looks at Noah and says, go build a boat and he saves humanity through it. God looks at Abram and says, you've got to leave your father's land and you've got to go to a land that I will show you and I will make your name great and I will bless you and I'm going to bless the world through you. I'm going to give to you, Abram, but I also want to give through you. And to this day, everybody on the planet is still being blessed through the seat of Abraham, primarily through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

God looks at Moses and says, you've got to go to Pharaoh and you have to tell him to let my people go. They will not be slaves. He leads the people of Israel to the Red Sea and says, you've got to go across the Red Sea if you're ever going to get into the promised land. He looks at the prophet Jonah and says, you've got to go to Nineveh and you've got to tell them to repent of their wickedness. And Jonah, after taking a weekend break in the bottom of a fish, just like a holiday end express at the bottom of the ocean, he goes, he eventually goes to Nineveh, calls the

people to repent, God moves, the people, they repent, and this changes the course of the Middle East for like a thousand years. When God says, go, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? God looks at Isaiah, and he says, who will go for us? And Isaiah says, here am I, send me. God raises up John the Baptist and says, you're going to go before the Messiah, before Jesus Christ.

I'm going to raise you up. You're going to make a way in the wilderness, a prophet in the wilderness, to tell everybody that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. God the Father looks at God the Son, who is Jesus, and says, you are going to go on a rescue mission for our family, and you're going to forgive them of their sins, live the life they could not live, and be a perfect substitutionary atoning sacrifice on the cross so that sins can be forgiven, and I can be with my kids forever. When God says go, it is for good reason. It doesn't always seem logical.

Go where? Do what? Talk to who? But if God said it, you can bank on this. Every command that God gives comes with a promise. Every command comes with a promise. But to the people receiving it, it often feels pretty risky on the front end. The question I'm asking this weekend is not, do you believe in God?

The question I'm asking is, do you believe God? my dad when I was in high school I was in like ninth grade my dad comes downstairs late one night it's like nine or ten o'clock and he's got a suitcase and he's walking out the front door and at this point in time he was a single parent and I'm like hey man where are you going and he looks back at me and he says well god told me I need to go see john john was my older cousin and he was in the middle of fighting a really rare form of bone cancer and it wasn't going well. And not just that. While he was fighting cancer, he had been married for a couple of years. He was in his 20s. He'd been married for a couple of years and his wife committed adultery on him with his best friend. And so John was in a really tough

season. And so my dad says, God told me I need to go see John. And I'm like, are you coming back? He's like, I'm not sure when. I'm like, all right, good chat. And all if he goes, he gets in the truck. And we were living on the north side of Atlanta at the time and he drives up. to Washington, D.C. My cousin was living in Washington, D.C., because my uncle was serving us the vice president of a community college. I was just seeing if you are with me.

Just seeing if you're still paying attention. He drives up there. He's gone for a few days. He comes back. And I'm like, Dad, how'd it go? He was like, man, it went really good. God's faithful. That's all he said.

Fast forward a couple of months, and we're at, my cousin John passes away, and we're at the funeral. And I only remember two things from the funeral. Number one, as I remember before the service began, I was standing in a hallway kind of outside of the sanctuary where the service was going to be. And across the hall for me was a men's bathroom and a women's bathroom. And I see my grandmother walk into the women's bathroom. And all of a sudden, I just start hearing cussing and screaming in the women's bathroom.

And I'm like, what is going on? And then I see the door open and I see the woman who was my cousin's wife come running out. And then I see my grandmother's shoe fly out the door and hit the wall right next to me. Hey, look, man, you might be looking for some drama. You do not want to mess with my grandmama. I'm just telling you right now. I remember that. And then I remember sitting in service.

And as far as I know, my dad was the only follower of Jesus who shared in the service that day. But testimony after testimony after testimony, they said this. They said, hey, look, we don't know exactly what happened. But a couple of months ago, everything about John changed. Every time that I would go and sit next to his bed, he would just hand us a Bible and say, Will you read this to me? Will you read this to me? So I'm sitting there and I'm putting the pieces together.

And so after I were to look at my dad, and I'm like, Dad, did you lead John to Christ? And he looks back at me and he says, no, God led John to Christ. He just told me to go. You see, when God says go, it is for a good reason. It is for a good reason. Every command comes with a promise. the word faith trust dependence these are all interchangeable words and as we as we wrestle through what does it look like to trust God and depend on him and we think about faith in the context of

our life the truth is that trust God created it for our good if you're right if you're taking notice you want to write this down God invented trust for our good so that we can live aware of how dependent on him that we are you see we don't wake up every day and decide am I going to depend on God today? We wake up every day and we are completely dependent on God. The question is, are we aware of it? And when we're aware of how dependent on God we are, we live from a place of gratitude and provision

that the Bible calls this joy. Every command comes with a promise. And as we'll see, God always has a good reason. He looks at Elijah and says, arise, go to Zarifath, which belongs to Sidon. Point number two, when God says go, it is going to be uncomfortable. It is going to be uncomfortable.

Sidon is Jezebel, the devil woman's home. This is enemy territory. They are completely pagan. One of the beautiful things we see here is that by God sending Elijah to this pagan people, it is one way that God is proving in the Old Testament that this gospel has always been for all people. He's sending someone to a pagan people to say and to show through signs and wonders that the God of Israel is the one true living God and that he can be trusted. This is a good news for all people. were to boil down the summary of the scriptures, what is the good news that this book teaches?

Well, the good news ultimately is God. He is good news. It is good news that there is a God who upholds his people with his righteous right hand, that there is a God who is sovereign over everything. It is good news that we have a God who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast mercy. We have a God who is lavishing love on his people over and over again. We have a God who is so good that he gives his children faith so that they can place their trust in him. We have a God that is so good that he sent his son to live for us in this world as a baby, and he grew up as a man, and that he became the exact thing that we needed in order to put us in right relationship with God. We have a good God. The good news of the scriptures is God.

And Elijah goes to make this God known to the people of Sidon. God never intended for Israel to be the only ones that had had actually. access to him, this good news is for all people. Our God wants to be known. C.S. Lewis says it like this. This world is enemy-occupied territory. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed. You might say landed in disguise and is calling us to take part in this great campaign of sabotage. If you study the scriptures and you spend any amount of time following Jesus, one of the things you will quickly learn is that discomfort is a key ingredient in discipleship. Another way to say this is that comfort is the enemy of calling.

What is easier being healthy or unhealthy? Whoever got healthier by putting surgery off till tomorrow. Whoever had their life changed for the better by just sitting on the couch? Nobody. The question is, is it possible that in America, specifically in the southeast, is it possible that maybe we've constructed a God in our own image? A God who is loving, but he is always predictable. a God who would never call us to discomfort or only wants us to be happy?

Is it possible that we've made up a God with our own mind that his highest aim is for us to be happy? We live in a world where our culture tells us that the point of life is to be happy. And the way that it defines happy is it says happy is easy. But this is not what the kingdom of God says. And the kingdom of God happy is not easy. And the kingdom of God happy is holy. They are completely different things. They are completely different things.

is a completely different economy. One of the things I've been praying for, as I've been praying about this series in all year, as we've been walking through what it means to stand up and act like a man, one of the things I've been praying is, God, will you make me hungry? Will you make your church hungry for you?

We need to be hungry for the power of God, hungry for the presence of God, hungry for the people, for the person of God in our lives. May God make his church hungry. I meet Christians all the time whose spiritual bellies are just bored, man. They're just filled up with bored. It's apathy and lethargy and complacency.

What we need is for God to pour out his spirit on us and make us hungry for who he is. Look, I saw something this week, and it caught me off guard. I'm not going to lie to you. Took me back a little bit. I was rolling in here on Tuesday morning during the course of this Elijah series, we're having a men's Bible study at this campus every Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. You're invited. men are invited.

And we, so I rolled in here at 545 a.m. And y'all know what we did, man? We broke this place on Tuesday. I can't explain it. We just broke it. I rolled in here at 545 on Tuesday morning. There were F-150s and Z-71s lined up for half a mile or a mile in every direction. We didn't have enough tables.

We didn't have enough chairs. We didn't have enough coffee. We broke this place on Tuesday morning. All over the place, there were grown men. sitting on concrete floors all over the place talking about the word of God. They were completely uncomfortable to the glory of God. Why? Because there's some people here that are hungry for God, man.

A friend of mine texts me after that and he said, he said, hey, every time I think I got my head around what God's doing at the Church of 1122, he shows me that I have no idea how significant it is what he's doing. And I just replied back to him and I said, it's a true outpouring. I'll let the historians decide if we're living in revival or not, but what I know for sure is that God is pouring out his spirit on this people. Do you know why? Because God goes where he's wanted and he is wanted here.

He is wanted here. May we never get comfortable. May we never get complacent. May we never live on yesterday's miracle. May we be hungry for the power of God in our lives. God looks at Elijah and says, arise. Go to Zarifath, enemy territory, which belongs to Sidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.

Number three, if you're taking notes, when God says go, you should be prepared to stay. You should be prepared to stay where he sends you. God will send you to a different place. And sometimes he says, I need you to go deeper in the place that I have sent you. It takes faith to go, but it often takes faith to stay. In order to dwell somewhere, you have to dig in. You have to be there. Elijah was in this place called Cherath, a place of preparation.

And now God is moving him from a place of. preparation to a place of refining. The word Xeraphath actually means refining, refinery. And what happens in a refinery is that the refiner turns up the heat on a mineral or a metal in order to remove the impurities from it that would seek to diminish its strength. So a refiner turns up the heat on a metal in order to remove impurities that would diminish the metals strength. Maybe some of us here this weekend, we are in a season where we are in God's refining fire in our life. The heat is being turned up. Think about Elijah's experience. God says, I want you to go to intimate territory and I want you to find not an army, not a harvest. I want

you to find a widow is what God tells him. I want you to go and find a widow. Now, when Elijah hears this command from the Lord, do you think Elijah hears it as blessing or burden? You see, there's The thin line between blessing and burden is almost always an issue of perspective. But that's another sermon. You can put that in your pipe and smoke it later, okay? What Elijah certainly heard when he heard widow was dependent. What God was calling Elijah to was into responsibility. Yes, Elijah, I want to give to you, but I also want to give through you.

He was calling him into responsibility. This is how God defines his people. God gives us responsibility. A life of purpose is a life that is lived responsible to God and for people. Now, what happens in a refinery, this process of turning up the heat, do you know what it's called? Smelting. It's called smelting. What a fun word.

Smelting. You don't use it a lot, but you should. You're really smelting on my nerves right now, right? You just, it's such a great word. Now, there's some relationships that God has, by his grace, given me that he, He uses in my life over and over again that are smelting relationships. Relationships where the heat gets turned up a little bit in order to remove the impurities that would seek to diminish the strength of the calling, the strength of the purpose,

the strength of the God-given design that he's put on my life. There's some relationships that do some smelting. Number one is my marriage, no question about it. It is the most sanctifying thing that God has ever used in my marriage. I love my wife. She's fantastic, but there's nothing else that God has used to remove. ego and to remove insecurity and to remove self-justification and to remove selfishness. All the time God is putting me in a position in my marriage where I have to choose to treat

someone as though they are more significant than me. I have to choose to put someone else's needs in front of me. This is called responsibility. In the covenant of marriage, God has made me responsible to God, but he's also made me responsible for someone else. God's just removing those impurities as he transforms me into the likeness of Christ. What about parenting? Parenting.

Is parenting a blessing or a burden? We choose the answer to that with our perspective every day. My kids, God has made a responsible to God for my children. And I am responsible for them. This is how God refines us. The local church, what are we doing here? We are responsible to God for worship, for adoration, for disciple making, for obedience, for trust, for faithfulness, for joy.

for commitment. We're responsible to God, but we're also responsible for one another. The Bible says that we are here to bear with one another in each other's burdens, that we belong to each other in the family of God in the name of Jesus Christ, and that we do this life together. We're responsible to God and for each other. This is how God grows us up and refines us. The truth is we don't love hard. We certainly don't love staying in things that are hard. The issue for us is not that we don't have anything to do. We have plenty to keep us busy. It's that we do not know what to do with ourselves. We do not know how to dwell. We do not know how to stay deep in thought, how to stay deep in relationship, how to stay down on our knees in the prayer closet, how to go to uncomfortable places

in our relationship with God, in our relationship with ourselves and to others. Psalm 37, it says it like this. We'll pick up in verse four. It says, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. That's a coffee mug verse. Doesn't that sound great? It's like, if you read that with American glasses on, you just think, God wants me to be happy. And he does want you to be happy. He just defines happy differently than the way that this world does. In verse three, in verse five, help us understand what this verse means. Psalm 37, verse three, it says this, trust in the Lord and do good.

Dwell in the land. Dwell, dig deep, stay deep, and befriend faithfulness. Another version says, feed on faithfulness. after day after day, feed on faithfulness, and then delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart because he's changing the desires of your heart into his desires, because he's giving you his heart. And then verse five, commit your way to the Lord and trust in him, and he will act. Don't you want God acting on your behalf? Do you dwell well? God tells Elijah, behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you, and so he arose and went to Zarifath.

four if you're taking notes. When God says go, he goes before you. He goes before you. The verse eight, it says that the word of the Lord came to Elijah and told him to go. This was not Elijah's good idea. These are God's instructions. When God tells us to go and we go, we will always find him there. This is what Isaiah 45 says, the Lord of hosts, the God of angel armies. This is him speaking. He says, I will go before you and level the mountains. Do you have any idea what God has gone ahead of you and done for you in your future. Do you have any idea of the ways that God has gone ahead of you and he has leveled mountains on your behalf?

Jesus Christ went before us and he swallowed the mountain of God's wrath stored up for sin and sinners so that our sins could be forgiven and we could forever be a child of God. Jesus Christ has gone before us and he climbed the mountain of God's law only to get to the top, having never stumbled to sit down on the throne as the king of kings and the Lord of Lords, and now he has got a seat right next to him for everyone who will believe on his name, and they will get to share in the glory of his riches forever.

He goes before us, and he levels mountains on our behalf. The Holy Spirit of God is going into your tomorrow, and he's making all the crooked places straight. He is making all the rough places smooth, and there is a voice of the Spirit of God behind you saying, this is the way walk in it. Will you trust him? Can you hear his voice? God goes before us. You don't even know what to do.

It's just preaching, people. I'm just preaching. I love it. Listen to this one. I will break in pieces at the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, and I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in the secret place. Do you know that the Proverbs tells us that God is storing up the wealth of the wicked for the righteous? How about that? Why does he do all this?

That you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. Our God will be known. He will be known. 1st King 17 Elijah comes to the gate of the city And behold a widow was there gathering sticks And he called to her and said Bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink And as she was going to bring it he called to her and said

Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand And she said as the Lord your God You want to underline that as the Lord your God lives I have nothing baked Only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug And now I'm gathering a couple of sticks That I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son that we may eat it and die.

And Elijah said to her, do not fear. I mean, it's wild. She's like, I got nothing. I'm completely broke. I'm hopeless. I have set a plan for myself. It's over. And Elijah's like, don't worry about it.

Don't fear. Do not fear. Then he says this, go and do as you have said. She literally just said, I'm going to go die. And Elijah's like, okay. do not fear go and do as you've said don't miss this but first i know you've got a plan for yourself but first i know you think it's hopeless but first i know you think that your backs up against the wall that you got nothing that that god's not going to give to you and that god's not able to give

through you but first but first is what elijah says and i love this but first make me a little cake. The widow's like, I got nothing. He goes, yeah, that's great. I want some red velvet. That's godly, man. It doesn't have anything to do with the cake. Let's keep listening. But first, make me a little cake and bring it to me and afterward make something for yourself and your son. She goes, I don't have enough for us. And as it goes, are you sure? Are you sure? And this is the statement of the statements. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. It's not just a good idea.

God told him to go. This is God speaking. God makes a command. He makes a promise. The jar of flour shall not be spent and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day the Lord sins rain upon the earth. And she went and did, as Elijah said. Number five.

when God says go, it is all about trust. It is all about trust. Elijah looks at the widow and says, I'll have some water. And she's like, okay. And he goes, I'll have some food. And she's like, hold the train, Elijah. I'm broke. My son and I were going to die.

And Elijah's like, all right, go for it. You can go and do that. But first, there's something of first importance. But first, the Lord God of Israel has a word for you. Will you trust the word of the Lord? The widow says, I only have a little. Elijah says, I see that. Will you trust God with it?

Even that little bit is something that God gave you. Will you trust that God can not only give to you, but that he wants to give through you? Will you trust him? See, what's going on here? This lady, they live in an agrarian society, and so what is she holding in her hands? Well, it's the sum of her earnings. What she has is money. and what has caused more anxiety, what has been more tempting to people in order for us to put our

trust in, to put the security of our future in, what is more tempting for us to put our trust and security in than money? What is the number one competitor for the human heart? Jesus answers this question in Matthew chapter 6. He says, in verse 19, he says, do not lay up for yourself's treasures on earth, where moth and us destroy or where thieves break in and still, but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and still. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Verse 24, no one can serve two masters. For either he will

hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Verse 21, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I learned that verse backward. I've actually quoted it backward before preaching a long time ago. For years, I thought about it backward. I thought it said that where your heart is, your treasure goes. But that's not what Jesus says. Jesus says where your treasure goes, there your heart will go. He says, something goes first, and it is not your feelings. I learned this backward. I actually learned discipleship a little backward. See, I grew up in a tradition where they taught you that once you said, I want to follow Jesus, where I came from, they called that getting saved.

And once you got saved, you had to start learning how to do a few things. You had to go to some classes and you had to learn how to pray and learn how to sing the songs and get really involved in the church. And then you had to learn how to share your faith. And then you had to learn how to be a godly read your Bible all the time. And these are all really, really, really good things. But I was taught that you start doing these and you do these for a long time. And then maybe at some point you'll become spiritually mature. And when you get spiritually mature, then at that point in time, you could start to consider to trust God with your first.

finances. That's how I learned it. We did not spend any time in my house growing up or in my early years of my marriage. We did not spend any time praying about giving, talking about giving, talking about financial generosity. We didn't do any of this at all. We would talk about spending. We would never talk about giving. The truth is I had a broken relationship with money. Like this widow, I lived for a long time and I had a scarcity mentality. I didn't take it to the Lord. I didn't trust the Lord with it. I felt broke all the time. The bottom line is this in this area. of my life, I did not trust God. I didn't. Every now and then I would tip him. I grew up in a tradition where we would, in our church services, we would pass the plate is what they would call it.

Someone would pass a plate around or they would pass a bucket around, and this would be the time where you are supposed to give your ties and offerings. And every now and then I would just, I would tip God, but it was obligatory. It was dutiful. It was not done from what the New Testament prescribes. The New Testament prescribes the Apostle. Paul says that God loves a cheerful giver, and that giving should be done from a heart of worship and adoration and response to the reality and the goodness of God. And the Apostle Paul also says that no one should ever give under compulsion. Everybody who calls themselves a follower of Jesus has been told to go and to be generous in the way that the Bible prescribes, but never under compulsion.

And I always felt like I was giving under compulsion. And so every now and then I would tip the Lord, really just to make myself feel better about me. But I was completely stuck in my relationship with money was completely broken. I didn't trust him. I felt stuck spiritually and emotionally in every area of my life. And so I started asking God for breakthrough. God, I want breakthrough. I want breakthrough.

And over and over again, he would lead me to verse 21. For where your treasure is, that your heart will be also. God, I want you to have my heart. I want you to have all of me in that still small voice of God ask inside of me, will you trust me with your treasure? This act of trust is the single greatest area of breakthrough in my life. life. Breakthrough in my marriage, breakthrough in my ministry. I was actively living in disobedience to an area where God clearly told me to go. I wasn't going. My wife and I, we began

to pray about it. And so we began to tithe, which means a tenth. This is a practice given to us in the Bible so that we can live in financial freedom. And we began to tithe, bring a tenth of everything that came in. We would go back to God through the local church. We began to practice this. And as we started tithing and we continued to see God's provisions over and over again, he led us down a path of trusting. And he began to teach us about what is known as the principle of first. This is something we talk about here at our church all the time. I love what Elijah says.

He says, but first, there is an area of first importance. Holiness is the desire and the practice of lining my life up around the reality of God. And the reality of God is this. He is first. Christ is preeminent before all things. He is first. It is not just who he is. It is not just where he is.

It is who he is. Before there was ever a beginning of, before the beginnings began, there was God. He is before all things. He is just where he is and who he is. And I want my life to be lined up around the reality of God. And Jesus says that if I want my life lined up around the reality of God, there's an area that will go first or an area of first importance. Jesus could have said,

you cannot serve God in sex. He could have said, you cannot serve God an ego. You cannot serve God in the approval of people. But he didn't. He said, you cannot serve God and money. There is an area of first importance when it comes to walking and trust is what Jesus said. So we started tithing and then God led us on this path of trust where we really began to trust. And for our family, we began to feel the, the nudge of God, the leading of God that for us, we wanted to bring our tithes and offerings, our first and our best, back to God. And we wanted, for us, what first and best was going to mean was most. And we felt led by God that the most amount of money coming out of our house every month was going to go back to God through the local church. And so we started stepping into this practice. And look, I can't even

believe I'm about to tell you all this, but here we are. So might as well shoot you straight. We begin stepping into this practice. And the first time that I go to give to bring back to God in this way. I sit down, I open my laptop up, and I go to CUE22.com, and I hit the give button, and there's a little window that pops up, and then I put in the number. Now, I don't always know what most is going to be year to year or month to month, but I do always know that there is a second most. And the second most for the last 10 years has been my mortgage. And so we have felt led that we will always give more than that month to month in year to year. And so the first time I sit down, I open my laptop up, and I write that number out. In my mind, my eyes see that number,

and it looks really, really big. And do you know what I did? I started negotiating. That's what I did. If you were under any illusions as to what you were looking at up here, I just want you to know that what I am is an idle factory. It's just what I am. I need Jesus every day, all day. Immediately, I started negotiating. And here's what it sounded like. In my mind, I got my lamp, just sitting there at night. In my mind, I'm like, all right, Lord. All right. If I did it. If I didn't, I'm just sitting there, I didn't live in a country that required escrow. Straight up. If I didn't have to pay property taxes and insurance,

then my mortgage would only be this amount. Can I not just give one more dollar than that? And then as I'm sitting there, that's still small voice of God. Isn't that voice good? Isn't it kind and gentle? God just speaks to me. He says, are you going to trust me or not? are you going to trust me or not?

And right there, we decided that we were not going to negotiate, we were not going to hesitate, we were going to trust the Lord. And so we set it up on recurring giving every Monday. An amount of money comes out that goes to the Lord through the local church, and every Monday we're able to rejoice, we're able to celebrate it. And honestly, even though I've been doing this for almost a decade now, honestly, there's still times where month to month, he still feels kind of risky. it requires trust for us to live in this over and over and over again.

But guess what? We've never missed a meal. And not only that, it's not like we just haven't missed a meal. It took us about a year to get out of debt and then another year to really figure out how to live on less than we made. But over the last seven or eight years, my testimony is this. I'm able to live in financial freedom by God's grace and through God's provision in my life. And when I say freedom, I don't just mean, freedom is not defined as you get to do whatever you want to do when you want to do it. Freedom is defined that God told you to do something and you did it.

and you have the joy because of it. That's freedom. That's freedom. My family, we live in financial freedom, but not just financial freedom. We live in emotional freedom. Why? Because we've stepped into trust

and we've never regret it. We've never looked back. I love what Elijah says to the widow. He says, do not fear. The spirit of fear will come against us in all kinds of ways. Jesus says the same thing in Matthew 6. He says, I tell you this.

Do not fear. Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or drink, nor about what your body or what you will put on. Is life not more than food? And the body more than clothing. Look at the birds outside. They neither reap nor gather

and your Heavenly Father takes care of them. Are you not more of value than they? How can you add any hours to your life by being anxious? And why are you anxious about stuff? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. And yet even Solomon and all his glory

was not array like one of these. But if God so closed the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh, you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious saying, what shall we eat and what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things. And your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

Verse 33, but, but seek first. But seek first. There's something of first importance, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. and then here's, that's the command, and here's the promise. And all of these things will be added to you. Number six, if you're taking notes, and I'll close with this, when God says go, he will take care of you.

He will take care of you. The widow, think about it from her perspective. She's skeptical. She looks at Elijah, and she's like, as the Lord, your God, not my God, your God, she's skeptical because she's been hurt. She feels isolated. She feels alone. got broken trust. She's given up. She's saying, I'm going to die. She's had too many broken

promises. She's had a broken heart for too long. She only thinks that she has a broken future. And maybe you're here this weekend and you would say, it feels like my marriage is dying. Can anybody save it? God can. It feels like my business is dying. Can anybody save it? God can. It feels like I'm buried under debt. My relationship with money is completely broken. Can anybody save me? God can. I feel all alone. I feel isolated. Can anybody save me? God can. God can. This widow was confronted with the choice. Her way wasn't working. The way of the cultural around her wasn't working. She had to decide, will the way of this God that this man is talking about work. I will trust it enough to try. Remember that it is not the amount of faith that we have that changes things. It's who we put our faith in that has the power to change things. It's not the amount of trust that we have that changes things. It's who we put our trust in that has the power to change things.

Verse 15. It says this, and the widow went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days, and all these things will be added to you. The jar of flour was not spent. Neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the Word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. When God says go, he will take care of you. Will you trust him? So I'm going to close with this question. Is there an area of your life where you have been withholding trust from God? Whether it's a command that he gives him scripture that has been made clear to you or it's a still small voice, something God has spoken personally to you. Is there an area of your life where you're withholding trust from God. When God says go, he will take care of you.

Will you trust him? We'll respond this way like we always do. We're going to sing. We're going to sing the words, I trust in God. I'm putting my trust in God. I need someone from outside of me to do me what I cannot do for myself. There are things in this world that are tempting me and trying me and calling me and weighing me down, but I'm putting my trust in God. God, I want you to have my heart. I trust in God. We're going to sing these words. We're going to bring our first and best through tithes and offerings. Maybe today our testimony would encourage you.

And maybe the right step for you is to set up the recurring giving, trusting the Lord through the area of your finances with no hesitation, with no debate. You're just going to set this up for us deciding that this was going to be the big rock and everything else in our life bounced off on it. This was the first step into walking in to freedom. And God used it in a powerful way. Now, there's no Bible verse that says that,

that every believer should be set up on reoccurring giving as they practice trusting God financially. I've just found it to be a good practice and maybe God would encourage you in it as well. We're going to bring our first and best through ties and offerings, and then we're going to pray. We're going to come to our altars. We're going to pour our hearts out to God. We're going to ask God, God, make us hungry. I want an outpouring of your spirit in my life in this church in our country. Will you pour out your spirit on us?

Would you stand with me at all of our campuses as we respond, as we sing, as we bring, and as we pray. Father, we love you. We thank you for your kindness. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you that you are near to the brokenhearted.

And that we note if we draw near to you, God, you will draw near to us. And so as we respond, we pray that our song blesses your heart. We pray that you would stir up gratitude in us as we bring our first and our best back to you. And God, as we pray, would you give us the words through the power of the spirit? Would you help us to walk in faithfulness? would you meet us here and meet us now? We invite your presence. We turn down the noise of our normal, Father, in this moment

so that we can hear from the voice of our good shepherd. We love you, and we know that we love you because you first loved us first, and so we receive and believe your love for us. We thank you for going before us. We give you all the glory, and all God's people said, amen, amen. Let's respond.