Chapter number 4, we begin reading verse number 1, Lao says,
Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elijah, saying,
Thy servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord,
and a creditor is come to take him and him my two sons to be bonded.
And Elijah said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house?
And she said, Thy name handmade hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil.
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad. Of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not a few.
And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon me and upon my sons,
and shalt pour out in all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
So she went from her and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons she brought the vessels to her, and she poured out.
And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her sons, Bring me yet a vessel.
And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more, and the oil stayed.
And she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt,
and live thou and thy children of the restless grave.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you Lord so much for your support, thank you for your command,
the sermons we've already heard, Lord, there's just nothing we can say, Lord, your spirit is so good.
And I ask that you just help me as I try to convey these thoughts and prayers in my prayer. Amen.
I was recently reading this story, a very well known story, we've all heard it and I'm sure we've all preached,
but I was recently reading this story in my Bible and the Holy Spirit just kind of gave it to me,
showed me something in it that I'd never seen before, and I never really heard anybody preach it this way,
you might have, I don't know, you might have heard it from the person I stole it from, but I'm just kidding.
But anyway, I was reading this and I was thinking to myself, man, that's good, you know, this stuff.
You know, sometimes you're reading the Bible and God just gives you a thought and you see something in a different way,
and I wanted to share that with you, I think it might help you.
The story, for those of you who aren't familiar with the credit, this widow, her husband had died for whatever reason,
her husband was in a lot of debt and she was left without a home, you know, somebody to provide for her home there
and the predators came, they wanted to take her sons, and she goes to the man of God.
He asked her, hey, what do you have? What do you have in the home? What can we work with?
And she goes, well, I don't have much, but I have just a little bit of oil.
And he said, okay, that's what I want you to do. And he didn't tell her what he was going to do,
he said, this is what I want you to do, I want you to go out, I want you to look for vessels.
He said, go to the neighbors, go down the street, go other cities, go anywhere you can go,
find as many vessels as you can find and bring them to your house.
So she goes out, her and her two sons, they borrow as many vessels as they can, they bring them in,
you know, and he says, all right, take the little crucible and start pouring, and just keep pouring until you're done.
And she started pouring, and her son brought her another vessel, and she started pouring,
and her son brought another vessel, she kept pouring, she kept pouring, she kept pouring,
and she gets the last one, she pours it, she says, bring me another vessel, and she says,
her son says, no more vessels. And she says, all right, so they go to the man of God,
the man of God says, sell it, they bought it. And as I was reading this and I was thinking to myself,
you know, she did not, she didn't, here's one on one, she did not have much to begin with.
The Bible says in chapter 4 verse 2 there, it says,
Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house saveth not of oil.
You know, the amazing thing is what God can do with little.
Amen.
We're not much here at all.
That's right.
Myself, and as I look around, I'm not very impressed either.
We're not much, but God can do a lot.
Amen.
First Corinthians chapter 126, these are some of my favorite verses, the Bible says,
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise,
and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty,
and the base things of the world and the things which are despised have got chosen gain,
and things which are not to bring to naught.
Amen.
You know, I think of the story of when God fed the five thousand there,
and when Andrew brought to Jesus the lad there,
and he said, there is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes,
and he says, but what are these amongst the many?
That's right.
Amen.
You've got to think of yourself as a human being, you see this boy,
and you see this little one, and you see this huge crowd,
and he says, God, what are we going to do with this?
Yeah.
He said, if you look at what we've got and you look at what we've got to do,
you say, what is this amongst the many?
I say, hey, I can do anything.
Glory.
Good.
The Bible says in John 6, 9, I'm sorry, let's see, Matthew 19, 26,
but Jesus beheld them and said unto them, with men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible.
Amen.
We might not have much to say, you know, I don't have any talent.
I don't, you know, I don't have any charisma.
I don't know how to deal with people or talk to people, but God can use you.
Amen.
I just got, all I got was just a little bit of oil.
Praise God.
And he also said, all right, we can work.
Amen.
We can work with that with God.
Yes, sir.
Amen.
Glory to God.
I want you to see point number two, she needed to bring vessels.
You look at chapter three, oh, I'm sorry, verse three, it says,
then he said, go, borrow thee vessels, abroad of all thy neighbors,
even empty vessels, and I love this statement, he said, borrow not a fear.
Amen.
Now go with me real quick to second Timothy chapter number two.
Second Timothy chapter number two, and look at verse number 20.
The Bible says, but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver,
but also of wood and of earth and some to honor and some to dishonor.
And it says, if a man therefore purged himself from these,
he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctify and meet for the master's use
and prepare unto every good word.
Now, the passage here that we're dealing with is talking about holiness
and we preach those sermons and you guys know that, you know you're not supposed to be in sin.
But we get from that that the vessel represents a man.
You see that?
Yep.
When God is talking about a vessel here, it represents a person.
Come on.
And when Elisha, who in this story I believe represents God,
went to the widow there and he says, bring vessels.
Hey, go bring vessels, go bring men, go bring people and bring them to your house.
Hey, I'm here to tell you something. Fellowship Baptist Church, your job is to go get vessels.
Amen.
And I love what you're saying.
You said, borrow not a few.
That's right.
How many vessels do I grant?
How many people do we reap?
Not a few.
Oh, hold on.
They're vessels.
Those vessels are kids.
Can we bring them to the bus?
Yeah.
Bring not a few.
Those vessels are poor.
These vessels are rich.
These vessels are white.
Come on.
That vessel doesn't speak English.
Bring not a few.
Yeah, that's right.
That's what I have to say.
Yes.
That's what God needs.
Yes.
Go out.
You say, well, go to the neighbor.
Go to the other neighbor.
Go down the street.
Go to Dixon and back and go.
Amen.
That's what we need.
Amen.
Matthew 28 19 says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen.
Your job is to bring vessels.
Yes, sir.
That's your only job.
That's all you're here for.
You say, well, I'm here to read the Bible.
You're here to read the Bible so you can bring vessels.
Yes.
Amen.
Well, I go to church.
Why do you go to church?
So you can learn the Bible.
Yes.
Amen.
Well, what about prayer?
You pray.
You get filled with the Spirit of God.
Why?
To bring vessels.
Yes.
Amen.
I raise my son so he can bring vessels.
Amen.
You don't want my son to start a business and make billions.
I want him to do that.
Why?
So he can bring vessels.
Yes.
That's your job.
That's the purpose of your life.
That's your job.
That's the purpose of your life.
That's your job.
That's the purpose of your life.
That's your job.
That's the purpose of your life.
That's your job.
That's the purpose of your life.
That's your job.
That's the purpose of your life.
That's your job.
But we have more than just oil.
Yeah, we have some more oil.
Oil represents the Holy Spirit.
Oil represents the Holy Ghost.
Her job was to bring the vessels.
She had no power to fill the vessels.
That's right.
All she had was just a little bit of oil.
The fact that the vessels were fills was a miraculous work that God is doing.
Bring the vessel.
All she did was bring the cup.
All she did was bring people that could get filled by the Spirit of God.
We don't fill them, God filled them.
Here's the thing, it says, and the oil stayed. See, that's what stayed means.
As soon as she had just enough, see the thing is, she brought a vessel, it filled.
She brought a vessel, it filled.
As soon as she stopped bringing vessels, no more oil.
God can't save people unless we bring them.
God can't do anything unless, I mean, God does the saving,
but God needs a vessel.
God needs a woman. God needs a man.
God needs a bus driver.
A woman, a driver.
And if there's someone filling, God said, that man filled.
That's right.
And here's the thing, if she would have brought another vessel, he would have filled it.
If he would have brought a hundred more, she would have filled it.
If I was the winner, I would have dealt myself.
As soon as that last one came, and she's like, bring the other one,
and the kids say, we're done.
I'd have let myself, man, we should have brought more vessels.
And on Sunday morning, we get four people saved.
On Saturday, we get four people saved.
Just today, my wife and I went soloing.
We had two people saved.
You go home, and you leave yourself.
God filled that vessel.
I wish I had more back hands.
But it's your job to bring them.
God can only fill what we bring.
God can only fill what we bring to him.
But we can't fill it. God fills it.
That's right.
Here's the point to bless my soul.
And here's the last point.
The Bible says, well, she got rewarded based on how hard she worked to bring vessels,
not on the fact that they got filled.
Look at verse 7.
It says, Then she came and told the man of God,
and he said, Go sell the oil, and pay thy debt,
and live thou and thy children of the rest.
Now here's the thing.
Did she provide the oil? No.
Was it her who somehow made the oil fill all those vessels?
No, sir.
All she did was bring the vessels.
Go to 1 Corinthians 3.
Verse 5, the Bible says, Who then is Paul, and who is Paul?
But ministers by the evil deed, even as the Lord gave to every man.
Now, just real quick, this isn't in my notes,
but it just popped out to me, and I got to say it.
Look at that verse. It says, even as the Lord gave to every man.
I don't know if you've ever thought about that phrase,
but he said, Who's Paul? Who's Paul?
Nobody. They're just masters.
But he said, even as the Lord gave to every man.
We know that God has set aside a soul winner for every single person in this world.
I believe that. That's what the Bible says.
He says, Who's Paul? Who's Paul is?
He said, They're just servants.
They're just soul winners that God gave to every man.
See, God has set aside someone that you need to reach.
God said, Hey, Charlie, there's somebody I need you to reach.
I gave you to somebody to reach.
And if you don't reach them, no one else will.
There's people you know that I'll never know.
There's people, question mark knows that I'll never meet them.
There's people you've got family members you'll never know.
I know people you'll never know.
And God has given you to somebody.
You don't go when they...
What happens if they die and go home?
But look at this. It says, Who then is Paul?
And who is the Paulist but ministers by whom ye believe?
Even as the Lord gave to every man.
I have planted a Paulist water, but God gave to every man.
God filled with us.
So then neither is he that planted anything.
Neither is he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
Now he that planted and he that watereth are one.
And every man shall receive his own reward to his own labor.
For we are laborers together with God and we are God's husband.
We are God's building.
You know what I'm looking forward to?
One day when I get another day?
We're going to have the judgment seat of Christ.
And God is going to look at me and he's not going to say,
Man, you were a good aging man for the Air Force.
He's not going to say, Man, you were a good athlete.
Man, you knew everything about the stocks.
Man, you knew everything.
He's going to look at me and say, Hey, how many messages do you have?
Man, he messaged God with you.
The widow got paid depending on how many vessels she brought
and depending on how many buskits you bring.
How many people you got saved.
People you preached to got saved.
That's a reward.
Amen.
Oh, well, you know, the Bible doesn't tell us.
I'm sure the widow brought a lot of vessels.
But if she would have only brought five, then that's why she would have got paid.
If she would have brought a thousand, then that's how many she got paid.
And obviously we do this because we love people,
but God rewards you and God pays you in heaven.
And even if you don't bring anybody, I mean, you're still getting heaven,
but I want to get to heaven and get God's reward and God's favor.
And it's going to come, not because I failed anybody,
but because I brought people to the guy who could.
Amen.
She brought them to Elisha.
I bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's your job.
Amen.
That's right.
Thank you, Lord, so much.