"BORROW SOME VESSELS, BUT NOT A FEW!"

Written and preached by David P. Nolte

2 KINGS 4:1-7

1. MAYBE YOU HAVE ONLY A LITTLE OIL:
1. The widow had one jar of olive oil in her house. The oil would be used for cooking, for anointing the body or the hair, for burning in a lamp, for offerings and for medicinal purposes. It was a valuable commodity. And the widow's supply was scant. Her husband was a prophet and she was a godly woman, but that didn't spare her the exigencies of life.
1. Crises come to the good and to the bad.
2. Contra the "health and wealth" doctrine that if you have faith you will always be rich, the reality is that even saints suffer.
3. While God promises to meet all our needs, there are times we have to wait for provision; there are times when our greed exceeds our need and we put ourselves into a financial quagmire and when we take stock of our resources, we have only a little left.
2. Little oil represents our lack. What is your "little oil?"
1. Have you ever been out of money? Maybe you are barely squeaking by. God isn't broke.
2. Have you ever run out of strength? Maybe you feel like a deflated balloon. God's power isn't depleted.
3. Have you ever lacked wisdom? You not only don't know the answers, you don't know the questions! God is the giver of all real wisdom to those who ask Him.
4. Have you thought you had run out of options? You didn't know what to do because everything you had tried had failed? God is never in a corner with no way to turn.
5. Moses had only a rod in his hand, but it became God's instrument of power to deliver His people. It wasn't the rod, it was God.
6. David had nothing but a sling and 5 stones but it felled a giant and freed his people. It wasn't the stones, it was strong faith.
7. The lad had only two loaves and five fish but they fed a multitude. It wasn't the lunch, it was the Lord.
8. The widow had only a mite, but it became a testimony of generous faith. But it was a fortune in the Lord's eyes.
9. Dorcas had only a needle, but it clothed widows in her town. But it was adequate to the need of the moment.
3. Many timeswe have but little while the world has excess. An aged Christian laborer shows us how to handle seeming inequity. He sat down to rest and just then a limousine passed by. Its wealthy owner sat in the back seat in luxurious ease. A fellow laborer said, "There goes the boss. He doesn't even believe in God, but he isn't having trouble like you. You believe that everything belongs to God, you trust Him and you serve Him, yet you still have to work hard for a bare living. How can you say God loves you so much?" The old man simply replied, "Couple heaven with it! Couple heaven with it!" This old man saw life's true source of wealth, because he could look beyond his earthly lack to his eternal treasures. Whatever little you have is enough with God. Couple heaven with it! Little is much if God is in it.

We learn from the widow, that using the little we have opens the way to God's plenty.

2. TO EXPERIENCE GOD'S PROVIDENCE, WE MUST LIVE AND ACT BY FAITH:
1. What Elisha instructed didn't make much sense. Maybe she didn't even know what good it would really do to borrow all the vessels she could get her hands on. It might not have made sense, but she did it - that's acting and living by faith!
2. Many times the things God asks of us don't make sense from a human vantage:
1. God told Moses to lift his rod over the Red Sea. Moses didn't argue: "Lord, the Egyptians are closing in. There's no time to waste with this silliness. Get us outta here!" He simply raised his rod and the sea parted. He acted in faith, and God provided deliverance.
2. Jesus told Peter to cast the nets on the other side of the boat for a catch of fish. Peter said, "Lord, we've been fishing all night and caught nothing. But, nevertheless, at Your word, I will cast out the nets." Peter acted in faith and caught so many fish his nets broke. He acted in faith and God provided.
3. That's why Paul said, "we live by believing and not by seeing." 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NLT).
3. An old prospector illustrates acting in faith. Many years ago in a California desert there was a rundown hut. Nearby was a pump, the only source of water for miles around. Attached to the pump was a tin can with a message inside, written in pencil on a sheet of brown wrapping paper. This was the message: "This pump is all right as of June, 1932. I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last five years. But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up. There's enough water in it to prime this pump but not if you drink some first. Pour in about 1/4 and let her soak to wet the leather. Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump for all your worth. You'll git water. The well never has ran dry. Have faith. When you git watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller. Signed: Desert Pete. P.S. Don't go drinking the water first! Prime the pump with it and you'll git all you can hold." Only by acting in faith could one get water. Only by acting in faith can we experience God's provision.

There is still another lesson here.

3. THE ONLY LIMIT ON GOD'S PROVISION IS OUR ABILITY TO RECEIVE IT:
1. As long as there were empty vessels, the oil continued to flow. Vessel after vessel; quart after quart; until at last the final vessel was filled and the oil stopped flowing. God's provision was limited by her ability to receive it.
2. Many times we limit our ability to receive by our
1. limited giving:
1. "If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving - large or small - it will be used to measure what is given back to you." Luke 6:38 (NLT).
2. God said, "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in My Temple. If you do, I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let Me prove it to you!" Malachi 3:10 (NLT).
3. Paul wrote, "Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully." 2 Corinthians 9:6, 7 (NASB).
4. You can't out give God. But if your giving is small, you'll receive a little. If your hand is still full of your stuff, He has no place to put more of His! If you cling tenaciously and selfishly to this world's goods, God has no place to bestow His providence. Let go of your stuff to gain His.
2. Limited asking: James wrote, "yet the reason you don't have what you want is that you don't ask God for it." James 4:2 (NLT). You may not get because you don't do what Jesus said to do, "Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. . . . For everyone who asks, receives." Matthew 7:7, 8 (NLT).
3. Limited faith: If your faith is small, you will receive but little. James said of those with little faith, "But when you ask Him, be sure that you really expect Him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord." James 1:6, 7 (NLT).
4. Limited and wrong motives: James said, "And even when you do ask, you don't get it because your whole motive is wrong - you want only what will give you pleasure." James 4:3 (NLT).
5. Limited respect for God: Solomon reminds us, "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything your land produces. Then He will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with the finest wine." Proverbs 3:9-10 (NLT).
3. We often limit God's provision by our little ability to receive. Let me illustrate. In Nigeria, a rich man announced that on Monday of the next week, he wanted all the women and girls of the village to gather at his house. When the women went to his house, he asked them to go to his field to harvest his field corn. Many women and girls responded and went to the field with their baskets, little, big, and middle-sized. Some brought back a big load, others only a few ears of grain. When all the loads had been brought in, he called the women together and told them that each might keep what she had brought! There were shouts of joy and thanksgiving, but also sighs of regret. "If only I had known, I would have taken a larger basket," some complained. There were those who had refused to go at all, saying, "I have work enough of my own." These went to the rich man the following morning and begged him to let them go and bring in a load. But he told them quietly, "The time is past; the corn was brought in yesterday." The limit on his provision was each woman's ability to receive.

Some folk just don't receive because they don't believe. We don't have and we blame God for it. But often it is only because we don't ask, or we ask for the wrong things and with the wrong motive or we ask in doubt or we don't honor Him with what He's already given us. You may have only a little of this or a little of that or a little of the other thing. Well, God has a surplus. Only when we act and live in faith, though, do we open our lives to His providence. And only when we bring Him everything we have and are, does His provision keep flowing. You can have all God has to give if God has all you have to give. You can have all of God if God has all of you. God provides, but we must be ready to receive it, to recognize it when it comes and then to responsibly manage it as stewards of His grace. This is the moment of decision. Do you want to receive all God wants to give you? Then let Him be in control. Surrender all you have, all you are, all you hope to be to Him as we sing.