And speaking unto all, we need to see his blessed face.
He will hear something bright and bright for all.
He's the liturgy of the valley, he'll cry and lose.
He's the fairest of two clouds, a two-month soul.
OK, we're singing for the baby.
Turn across.
He's the fairest of two clouds, a two-month soul.
Right, if you could please turn your knees to song number 244.
We'll be singing song number 244, Amazing Grace,
and that's song number 244.
["AMAZING GRACE"]
Turn around for the Lord.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
what saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
was by the now is the dawn.
Twixt grace that taught my heart to hear,
and grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear, how righteous be he.
Through many dangers, toils, and splints,
I had already come.
Tis grace that brought me strength thus far,
and grace will be all the time.
When deep and dense and loud sweet words
were shining as the sun, we know'd
last place to stay in God's grace,
and when we first begun.
I could see at this time that both of us were asleep.
Right, well, good morning, everybody.
Welcome to Straight Past Baptist Church.
I don't have a bulletin again this morning,
because I've been bested yet again by my arch nemesis,
the printer.
It's not something I talk a lot about, but over the years,
I've had a very tumultuous relationship with printers
and this particular printer we've had for several years now.
We were getting along for a long time.
We were on the same page, but oh, man, you
walked right into that one.
But as of late, I don't know if it's the new surroundings it's
not liking.
I don't know.
I thought I had it, because I had it hardwired in.
I brought the cables.
I tried two different cables, and I
don't know what the deal is.
I might have to just take it out back and teach it a lesson
and maybe go get a new printer.
I'm kidding.
I'm kidding, printer.
You didn't hear that.
But I'm hoping to resolve that issue soon.
However, in the meantime, we'll just
do some verbal announcements, I guess, as it were.
Of course, this is the first Sunday of December.
You might have noticed that we don't have donuts out.
It is birthday Sunday, but we pass on the donuts
in lieu of the fact that we have a plethora of pies
waiting for you afterwards, all pumpkin.
Man, there's more alliteration, a plethora of pumpkin pies
waiting for you after the service
so that you can partake.
So we'll put out the plethora of pumpkin pies
for you to partake in post-service,
and you can enjoy that.
We'll have whipped cream.
There's cocoa, so you can get all sugared up right
after church as normal.
But we are celebrating a few birthdays this month.
I know my daughter Julie is turning four this year.
That's correct, see?
And I can remember that date, because it's my birthday, too.
So there's a few people celebrating birthdays,
myself included.
So talk to my wife if you're wondering
what I want for my birthday.
She should know all of that.
But also, brother Andrew is going
to be celebrating on December 25th.
So that's an easy one to remember, right?
Christmas?
Yep, he was mom's little bundle of Christmas joy that morning.
Anyway, so we do have a few birthdays this month.
And hopefully, the pies are a good substitute
for the donuts.
And if not, I don't want to hear about it.
But anyway, let's go ahead and sing one more song
before we get into preaching this morning.
Please turn your hindle to song number 325.
We'll be singing song number 325, Trust and Obey.
Again, that is song number 325.
Sing it out for us.
When we walk in the Lord, in the light of his word,
what glory he shares on the way.
What we do is we're real.
He abides with us still.
And we love you, we'll trust him.
Sing it out.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Not a shadow that robs, not a cloud in the suns,
what he's found with me drives it away.
Not a doubt or a fear, not a cycle of tea.
In the life that we trust and obey, trust and obey,
for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus,
but to trust and obey.
Not a burden we do, not a sorrow we share,
what earth will be the place we lay.
Not a creature of loss, not a trap or a cross,
but is blessed if we trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
But we never can do the delights of his love
until all of the altar we lay.
For the favor he shows and the joy he explores,
offer them who we'll trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
When he found what should sleep, he will sit at his feet,
or walk by his side in the rain.
What he says, he will hear.
When he says, we will know.
Never fear, only trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
As the ark of play goes around, please grab your Bible
and turn your Bible to 2 Kings chapter 4.
Follow along with Brother Fabian as he
reads to us from 2 Kings chapter number 4.
2 Kings chapter number 4, beginning at verse 1.
Now there cried a certain woman for wise
of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha,
saying, Thy servant and my husband were dead.
Thou knewest that thy servant did fear the Lord,
and the predator is come to take him unto you.
Unto him thy true son took the bottom.
Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee?
Tell me what thou hast in thy house.
And she said, Thy hand may have not anything
in the house they were caught avoiding.
Then he said, Go borrow him vessels
abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels
for all thy feet.
When thou art come in, thou shalt
shut the door of calm feet upon thy sons,
and thou shalt pour out into all those vessels,
and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
So she went from him and shut the door upon her,
and upon her sons who brought the vessels to her,
and she poured it out.
And it came to pass, when the vessels were full,
that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel.
And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more,
and the oil is stable.
Then she came and told the man of God,
and said, Go sell the oil, and pay the debt,
and live thou, and thy children, and the rest.
And it fell on the day that Elisha passed
through the Shunemite, or the Shunemites,
where it was a great woman, and she constrained
him to eat bread. And so it was that as all,
as he passed by, he turned and did her to eat bread.
And she said unto her husband, Behold now,
I perceive that this is a holy man of God,
which passeth by us.
Continuing, Let us make a little chamber
I pray thee, on the wall.
Let us set for him there a man,
a table, and a stool,
and a candlestick, and it shall be,
when he cometh to us, that he shall turn and dither.
And it fell on the day that he came thither,
and he turned into the chamber and labored.
And he said unto the Ghezah,
The servant called the Shunemite,
and when he called her, she said,
She stood before him, and he said unto him,
Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful
for us with all this care.
What is to be done for thee?
What is thou be spoken for to the king,
or to the captain of the host?
And she answered, I dwell among my own people,
and he said, What then is it to be done for her?
And Ghezah answered, Barely she had no child,
and her husband was old.
And he said, Call her, and when he had called her,
she stood in the door.
And he said, About this season, according to the time of life,
thou shalt embrace the sun.
And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God,
do not lie unto thy hand.
And the woman deceived of their son that season,
that Elisha had said unto her,
according to the time of life.
And when the child was grown, it fell on the day
that he went out to his father,
to the reapers, and he said unto his father,
My head, my head, and he said to the lad,
carry him to his mother.
And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother,
he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.
And she went up, and laid him on the bed
of the man of God, and shut the door
upon him, and went out.
And she called him to her husband,
and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men,
one of the asses that I may run
to the man of God, and come again.
And he said, Wreck from without go,
to him today.
It is neither noon, nor savage.
And she said, It shall be well.
Then she saddled and asked,
and said to her servant, Drive, and go over,
slacken up thy riding from me,
said I bid thee.
So she went, and came unto the man of God,
to Mount Carmel.
And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her,
that he said to Gehazi, Behold,
yonder is that Shunammite.
Run now, I pray thee, to meet her,
and say unto her, Is it well with you?
Is it well with thy husband?
Is it well with thy child?
And she answered, It is well.
And when she came to the man of God,
to the field, and caught him by her feet,
but Gehazi came near to thrust her away,
and the man of God said, Let her alone,
for her soul is vexed within her,
and the Lord hath hid it from me,
and it hath not told.
Then she said, Did I desire a son of my Lord?
Did I not say, Do not deceive me?
Then he said, To Gehazi,
gird up thy loin,
and take my staff in thy hand, and go thy way.
If thou meet any man, salute him not.
And if then he salute thee, answer him not again.
And lay my staff upon the face of the child.
And the mother of the child said,
As the Lord lived it,
and as I so lived it,
I would not leave thee.
And he arose and followed her.
And Gehazi passed on before them,
and laid his staff upon the face of the child.
Wherefore he went again to meet him,
and told him, Saying, The child is not awake.
And when Gehazi was coming to the house,
he hoped the child was dead,
and laid upon his bed.
He went in therefore, and shut the door upon him,
went, and prayed unto the Lord.
And he went up, and laid upon the child,
and put his mouth upon his mouth,
and his eyes upon his eyes,
and his hands upon his hands,
and he stretched himself upon the child
last morning.
Then he returned and walked in the house
and went up and stretched himself upon him.
And the child sneed seven times,
and the child opened his eyes.
And he called Gehazi, and he said,
Call the Shunammite, so he called her.
And when she was coming unto him,
he said, Take up thy son.
Then she went in and bowed his feet,
and bowed herself to the ground,
and took up her son, and went out.
And Elisha came again to kill God.
And there was a dirt in the land,
and the sons of Paphas were sitting before him.
And he said unto his servants,
Set on thy great pot, and see potage,
for the sons of the prophets.
And one went out into the fields,
and gathered herds, and found a wild vine,
and gathered therefore a wild gourd,
and a woman whose lap pulled,
and came and shred them into the pot of potage,
for they knew them not.
So they poured out for the men to eat,
and it came to pass that they were eating with the potters,
and they cried out, and said,
O thou man of God, there is death in the pot,
and they could not eat thereof.
But he said, Then bring a meal.
And he passed it into the pot, and said,
Pour out for the people that they may eat,
and there was no harm in the pot.
And there came a man from Baal-Shaleshim,
and brought the man of God bread to the first place.
When he goes a-bargaining,
both years of foreign, in the hustle of the land,
he gave, and he said, and gave unto the people
that they may eat.
And the servant said, What shall I set this
before a hundred men?
And he said, What shall I set this
before a hundred men?
And he said, Again, give the people that they may eat.
For thus saith the Lord, They shall eat,
and they shall eat thereof.
So he set it before them, and gave eat,
and that thereof, according to the word of the Lord.
For that is the purpose.
So from your power, thank you for your goodness
and mercy, Lord God.
Thank you for this church, Lord.
Thank you for our passion.
And for your holy word.
Amen.
In Kings chapter 4, of course, we're reading about
kind of the beginning of Elisha's ministry.
Elisha being the servant of Elijah.
Elijah, obviously at this point,
has been taken up into heaven
by the chariot, the whirlwind.
And Elisha is now beginning his ministry.
And there's a lot,
just an action-packed chapter there.
But I'm just going to look at the first
seven verses there.
And before we get into that, really,
if you would just go to 1 Samuel chapter 16.
Just go to 1 Samuel chapter number 16.
Of course, keep something there in 2 Kings 4.
And I want to just preach, again,
about this miracle, about the empty vessels
and the oil and this widow woman
and this miracle that takes place.
And make some application
as to what that might mean to us today
in terms of the Holy Spirit.
Often in the Bible, oil
is likened unto the Holy Spirit.
It's a picture of the Holy Spirit
in Scripture.
And I think one of the best examples
of this to kind of have that illustration
shown to us is in 1 Samuel 16
where Samuel anoints David
as the king of Israel.
It says there in verse 13.
Then Samuel took the horn of oil
and anointed him, meaning David,
in the midst of his brethren.
And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David
from that day forward.
So Samuel rose up
and went to Ramah.
So we have this connection here
between the oil being poured upon David
and then the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him
from that day forward.
So again, you know, you can make
other parallels with what oil might represent
but I think likening it unto
the Holy Spirit, that's a very solid,
very biblical application
to make. And I want to
keep that in mind as we go back into 2 Kings
4 if you want to go back there
and to start looking through a few of these verses
and just make application about what
the story might mean to us.
Obviously there's a lot of different things
this could mean to us. We could just talk about
the faith that this woman had, to just do
what she was told to have faith in God
and how she was blessed abundantly.
Again, that's maybe a primary application
but one of the great things about the Bible
is that it lends itself to
other applications. We can get up and preach
things and we can be edified
even from just these simple stories.
You read these stories and yeah, they're miracles
and they're amazing and we believe that they happen
but often, you know,
maybe we forget to
apply them in
ways that we need to
or the ways that we could
excuse me, I had to get that set up.
So that's what I want to do this morning.
I want to just take a minute and remind
us again that the Bible is very deep
it has a lot of different applications, it has a lot of different layers
and in this story we're going to look
at the application of the Holy Spirit
in our lives. Now the first thing
it says there in verse 1, it says
there was a certain woman of the wives of the sons
of the prophets
unto Elisha saying,
Thy servant my husband is dead
and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord
and the creditors come to take away
my two sons to be bondmen.
So she's a widowed woman,
the husband is dead, there was some debt
apparently and
as a result,
those that the husband was indebted
to are now going to show up
and take her two sons
to work off that debt. That's how it was
handled back then.
And of course that's not a pleasant
situation to be in. Especially when
you're a widowed woman, when you have
no one else to rely upon, who knows
how old she has gotten at this point
maybe she relies a lot
upon these sons of hers, these
grown men perhaps, to do
a lot of things around the house for her. So you can imagine
the desperation that she's in.
And the first thing
I want us to understand is that
one of the great things about
the Holy Spirit is that we are never left
alone. One of the great promises of the Holy Spirit
is that the Holy Spirit is always
with us. Now in the
Old Testament, in 1 Samuel 16
we saw that the Spirit came
upon David, but it was not
indwelling him. We have to understand that the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit is a New Testament
phenomenon. That's something that we
as New Testament believers get to enjoy
that Old Testament believers did not
have advantage of. They did not have
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Keep something to set in kings. I hope you're awake this morning
because I'm going to be turning to some Bible.
Okay, so if you came rested
and alert and ready to learn something
out of the word of God, and if you're not rested
well, pinch yourself. I don't know.
Or have your spouse pinch you
or something like that. I don't know. But
go to 2, or excuse me, go to John 14.
John 14.
Again, one of the
first applications we can make about the Holy Spirit
in this story, right, because
we already know that in a minute here
she's just going to have this abundance of oil
given unto her which again is a picture of the Holy
Spirit, and we see
first of all her desperation, right. She's
just on the verge of being completely
abandoned by everybody.
That's what she's coming to him
about, right. She's not trying to, this isn't a
get-rich-quick scheme. She has no idea
what Elisha's about to do. This idea
about the oil and the vessels, this wasn't
her idea. This is Elisha's idea.
She's just coming and saying, this is my problem.
My husband's dead. You know, he left us
with this debt, and now the creditors are going to
come and take away my two sons. I don't know what
to do, right. I'm going to be abandoned.
I'm going to be left alone, and
one of the great things about the Holy Spirit
is that we are never left alone, right.
We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
If you look there in John 14, verse 15
it says, if you love me, keep my commandments,
and I will pray the Father, and he shall
give you another Comforter. Now
that's Comforter with a capital C
because that is a reference to the Holy
Spirit as we'll see here in a minute. As
he says in verse 17, the Spirit of truth,
right. And so that's
one of the aspects of the
Holy Spirit's ministry is that it comforts
us. That we, if we
avail ourselves of God, if we read our Bibles,
if we pray, if we believe this
and understand this, that we actually have the
comfort of the Holy Spirit in our lives
even in our most desperate situations.
When it feels like everybody else has forsaken us,
maybe we truly are alone.
Maybe, you know, we'll find ourselves at a
point in life where all our loved
ones are gone, and it's just us.
Maybe we don't have the network we
used to have. We don't have these relationships.
They're lost for whatever reason.
You know, we still have the Holy Spirit.
We still have that Comforter. We still have
the comfort of the Holy Spirit
abiding within us.
As he says there, he shall give you
another Comforter that he may abide
with you. How long?
Forever. Forever.
The Holy Spirit today is not something that just
comes and goes in our lives.
That's something that they would experience in the
Old Testament as we'll see David later
prayed, take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. Not talking about
salvation, talking about the
filling of the Spirit, having the
Spirit upon him. We today
enjoy the sealing
of the Spirit. We are sealed on the day
of our redemption. We have the promise of
the Holy Spirit forever.
He goes on and
says in verse 17, even the Spirit of the truth
whom the world cannot receive. I mean, what a
privilege that we have as Christians
to enjoy fellowship
with God through the Holy Spirit.
The world cannot receive it because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but ye know him for
he dwelleth with you and shall
be in you. So Jesus is saying after
I am gone and departed, this is when
the promise of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit
shall come and not just dwell
upon you as it did in David in the Old Testament
but shall actually be in you.
He's going to be with you wherever you go.
He said, I will not leave you comfortness.
I will come to you. So one of the first
things we learn from the story is
this story being a picture, I believe,
of the Holy Spirit is that when we are
desperate, when we are on the verge of being left
alone, when those that we are
endeared to have departed from us
for whatever reason, we
always have the comfort of
the Holy Spirit. We always have God
abiding with us. And we know
that's true because as he says there
in John chapter 14,
he says, the world cannot receive
him because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but ye know him.
The world does not know him. Why?
Because they cannot see him.
And they do not know him. They
want to see these things. They want
proof of these things. Well, the proof of
the Holy Spirit is the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit. He says,
ye know him. Why? For he dwelleth
in you. Those of us that are saved
and have the indwelling of the Spirit, we don't
have to have somebody show us
a chart or somebody take us over to
a microscope and prove to us
scientifically beyond a shadow of a doubt
that the Holy Spirit is real.
We experience the Holy Spirit.
We know the Holy Spirit. We commune
through the Holy Spirit. Why? Because he dwells
in us. We have fellowship with God
through the Holy Spirit. When we read his
word, when we pray, those of us
that are saved, we very well
may know the comfort that God
gives through the Holy Spirit. That's
how we know that we have the Holy
Spirit. Why? Because he dwelleth in you
and shall be in you.
That's the first point I want to make this
morning. Go back to 2 Kings
4.
First point is, hey,
what's so great about the Holy Spirit?
Well, he's a comforter and he's in us
and he will be with us forever.
He's never going to leave us or
forsake us. Jesus Christ is not going to come
down anytime. He will eventually,
obviously, but he's not going to come down
between now and the second coming and visit
us individually, personally,
bodily. What we have
today to have fellowship with God is the
Holy Spirit. It's a very important doctrine
and it's just something we need to understand
and more than that, believe
and know that the Holy Spirit
and his indwelling is real.
We'll do a good chapter. Verse 2
there of 2 Kings 4 says,
And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do
for thee? Tell me what thou hast in the house.
And she said, Thy handmaid hath
not anything in the house save a pot of oil.
She just has this one pot
of oil. Maybe it's, she didn't even say
it's a full pot of oil. Maybe
there's just a little bit of oil left. We don't
know. But she says, I don't have anything.
I don't have anything to rely on. There's
nothing that I can sell. I've already
put everything on eBay. I've already put
everything on Craigslist. I've already put everything
up on an offer up and everywhere
else. I've set everything up by the curb. I had
the yard sale. There's nothing left.
The creditors are coming. I'm broke.
I have no one else to rely on. All I have
is just this pot of oil.
And look, there's going to be times in our lives where we feel like
we don't have anything.
Maybe we don't have a lot of this world's goods.
Maybe we don't have a lot of the things
that we would desire physically,
right? But we still have a
pot of oil. We still have what?
The dwelling of the Holy Spirit.
We still have God's
spirit dwelling within us, comforting
us, right? We still have a
God in heaven who can work on our behalf.
And this is another
great example of the Holy Spirit.
We might not have a lot of things
that I preached about this Thursday night about the
mercy of God and being thankful
for salvation. If you would, go over to
Ephesians chapter 1. Keep something in Ephesians.
We're going to come back later in the sermon.
But I'll remind us of 2 Corinthians chapter 2
that, you know, this pot of oil,
she says, that's all I have. That's representative
of the fact that we are saved.
No matter what else is
taken from us in this life, no matter what else we might
lose, we can never have our
salvation taken away. We can never have
the dwelling of the Holy Spirit taken away from us.
It will be with us forever. He shall
abide with you forever and he shall dwell
with you and be with you. That's the promise of
Christ. The Bible says
in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, as you go to Ephesians
1, now he which stablishes
us with you
in Christ and hath
anointed us is God. It is God
that established us with Christ.
It is God that has anointed us
with the Holy Spirit,
with the oil of gladness,
who hath sealed us, the Bible says,
and has given us the earnest of the
Spirit in our hearts. Look, we might not
even know the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
We might not even be walking in
the Spirit. We might be going through difficulty.
We might have sin in our lives. We might have
literal creditors coming after us.
Maybe we have lost everything else,
but my friend, one thing that could be
never taken away from us is the sealing
of the Spirit, the earnest of the Spirit.
Why? Because it is given of God
and no man can take that away. It is of God.
He is the one that's anointed
us. He is the one that established
us in Christ. He is the one that has sealed
us. It's a proof of our
salvation. We're sealed with the Spirit to the day of
our redemption. It is the earnest
of the Spirit in our hearts.
So don't misunderstand this morning
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is
not the fullness of the Spirit.
Just because you have the sealing and the
earnest of the Spirit does not mean
that you're walking in the Spirit. That's
something you have to try and endeavor to do.
That's something you have to purpose to do in your own
life. And then you can enjoy the fruits of the
Spirit. But even if you don't have those
things, even if you walk in the flesh, even if you
walk contrary to God, the great news
is, you know, you can have nothing else
going for you, but you still have
this little pot of oil called
the sealing of the Spirit in your
life that can never be taken away.
What a great promise that we cannot
lose our salvation. We've been sealed
by it. It's the earnest. And anyone
who's had any kind of, you know, has ever
gone through a transaction of buying a home
knows what an earnest is, right?
The earnest, you know, meaning
sincere, grave, you know,
you put down the earnest money, right?
Meaning, I intend to buy this house.
We're going to go through this rigmarole.
We're going to get everybody involved. We're going to sign
all the paperwork. But here's the down payment.
Here's the earnest that says,
I'm serious, but I'm not going to back out at the last
minute. And if I do, you can keep the money, right?
That's what it means, the earnest money,
right? Well, the earnest
spiritually for us is the Spirit. And it's
of God. The Spirit of God
indwelling us, the sealing of the Holy Spirit is God's
promise that one day we will
be redeemed unto the new man.
We will be made a new, we've already
been made a new creature in Christ, but one day
we will receive that glorified body that God
will come and receive us
unto himself. In the meantime,
we have the indwelling. We have
the comforter
dwelling within us, okay?
So this lady, she has nothing else
going for her, but she's got that one pot
of oil. She said, I don't
have a lot of these other things. In fact, I'm standing,
you know, I'm facing the loss of my two
sons. My husband's already dead.
I'm going to be completely helpless here
all I've got this oil. Well, at least you got the
oil. At least you got something to work with.
Look, you might not have anything else
going for you in your Christian life, but if you're
saved, you know, God can still work in
your life. You're not too far
gone where God can't start using you.
God can't start working through you. God
can't start blessing you.
But we have to see, we have to understand there's
some things that we have to do in our
end. Look at Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13.
It says, in whom ye also trusted
after ye heard the word of the truth, the
gospel of your salvation, whom also
after that ye believed, ye were sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise.
There it is again. Which is the
earnest, there's that word again,
of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession,
unto the praise of his glory.
You know, you can sit there and say, I've got anything else
going, but you know what, you have the earnest,
you have the sealing of the Spirit, and
that's not just the earnest on some house.
That's not just a down payment
on a car. That's something that's just going to
burn up and fade away. What you
have in the Holy Spirit this morning, if
all you have is that pot of oil, what you have
is the earnest of an inheritance,
a redemption, unto the
praise of his glory.
So that's a great thing, but here,
you know, beyond that, okay,
we'll always have that. We can't lose
that, but what we have to understand is
God wants to give us more.
God wants to bless us more. God wants to give us more
oil, as it were. God wants us to be filled
with the Holy Spirit. God does want to
bless us. What I'm not saying
this morning is, hey, if you've got nothing else going
for you, just be of good comfort. You have the sealing
of the Spirit, and let's close in a word of prayer.
That's not the story.
She comes in and says, I don't have anything else.
All I've got is this pot of oil.
You know, well, at least you got that.
You know, we just got over Thanksgiving,
right? At least you got that. At least you got
something to be grateful for. At least you're not completely
destitute. Hey, you haven't got anything
else going on. Your life's a mess.
You got sin in your life.
Things aren't working out for you. Well, at least you're saved.
At least you have the earnest of the Holy Spirit.
And what we'll see is there's actually,
you know, I'm not saying just be
content with that. What you need to understand is that
you have potential because
you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
because you are sealed, because you are
a promised
eternal life, and you have the comfort of
dwelling in you, you can do more
that the world cannot do.
Look at verse three.
Then he said, we're going back to 2 Kings
chapter number four.
So again, she comes and says,
you know, what do you want me to do for you?
You know, what shall I do for
thee? Tell me. What
hast thou in the house?
And he's just like, well, let's talk through
this, right? And let's
figure out what we can do for you.
He says, well, I don't have anything but this pot of oil.
And he said, go, and he said,
well, I can't do anything for you. Sorry.
You've got so little resources.
I ain't got nothing to work here with, right?
That's not what he said.
He said, oh, you got a pot of oil? You just got that one pot?
Well, I got something to work with.
And that's what I want us to understand this morning is that
if you're saved, God's got something to work with.
If you got just that
ceiling, if you just have that little bit of the
promised possession, that earnest
of the Spirit in your heart,
if you're saved, God's got something to work with.
And God can and
wants to work in our lives.
It's just that often we're the ones that don't want to do what
it takes. We're the ones that don't
want to do our part
to get the blessing in our lives.
Look there in verse 3.
Then he said, go borrow thee vessels
abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels.
Borrow not a few.
And now what I want to focus in on here
is the fact that these vessels that she's borrowing
are empty vessels.
We know how the story goes. We know that miraculously
she's going to begin to pour in out of the oil
that she already has,
which is representative of our salvation.
She's going to be able to pour into these other vessels
and they're going to miraculously, and she's going to look back
at that same vessel and be like, well, there's still oil in here.
Let's pour in the next one. Oh, there's still oil. Let's pour in the next one.
That's the miracle.
It's like the feeding of the, you know, the two
instances where Jesus fed the thousands, right?
Where he just kept
breaking the bread out of just a few loaves,
right? It just kept coming out of the basket.
You know, you wonder how that might have worked.
It's amazing. Same thing with this oil.
She just keeps pouring. It's just, it's never empty.
Because that first
pot, that one vessel that she already
has that has oil in it,
that's your salvation.
That's never going to run out. That's the earnest.
That is the promise. That is
the sealing of the Spirit.
That's the indwelling of the Spirit. That's never going to
run out. That's never going to go away.
But if you want more
of the Spirit in your life,
you're going to have to get some vessels.
And they can't be vessels that are already filled
with other things.
They have to be empty vessels, okay?
Now if you would, go to
2 Corinthians chapter number 4.
Go to Luke 10. I'm already burning up my time.
Go to Luke 10.
I'll read 2 Corinthians 4.
You know, that might start ringing a bell here
when we start using that word vessels.
Very, you know, well-known verse in 2 Corinthians 4.
Verse 7, the Bible says,
We have this treasure
in earthen vessels.
We have this treasure. We have
this treasure in earthen vessels
that the excellency of the power may be
of God and not of us.
Look, we're not going to fill up that.
She didn't go get pots of oil that already had
oil in it. She had to go get
empty vessels so that the power could be
of God, that the miracle could be of God.
But the point I'm trying to make is that the
vessels had to be empty.
You know, maybe God wants to fill you
but there's no room
because you're so full of the world.
You're so full of everything else. You're so overly concerned
with all these other things. There's no room
for God in your life.
We are that earthen vessel.
We're represented here in the story
by the vessels, right?
One vessel has oil
in it constantly. That's representative of the fact
that we always have salvation.
We always have the sealing, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
But God wants to give us more
of the Spirit in our lives. If He wants to do
that, then we have to be empty vessels.
And I don't want you
to get carried away with this.
I'm not suggesting
that we all just join a monastery or something
like that and just forsake every worldly
thing and all the things
of this world. We're to be in the world but not of the world.
I understand that. That there's things
that we're just going to have to go through in life
that we have to carve out time for other
things as the Bible commands
us to.
We all have to provide for our own.
That's a commandment of God.
But you know what? That would bring God's blessing
upon our lives when we do even
those basic, simple things.
What I'm saying is if you want more of the Holy Spirit,
you're going to have to get some other things out.
You might have to empty a vessel or two.
You might have to look at this vessel
and say, what's that doing in here?
This doesn't belong in here.
Maybe you look at that vessel and say, this thing's full of sin.
There's a bunch of sin in this vessel.
Let me get that sin out. Then God can fill it.
You say, what sin?
I don't know. You name the sin.
Whatever sin it might be.
Obviously, we always sin.
We're always going to be
falling into sin.
We're going to slip up.
If it's not a sin of the flesh, it's a sin of the mind
or a sin of the tongue. There's all kinds of different sins.
None of us is without sin.
Some people just live with
habitual, perpetual sin.
They have little pet sins.
They have a little vessel made for it.
That's where they keep it. They have a lid on it.
They like to screw it up and take it out and play with it.
They like to have their little sin.
Look, if you want the Holy Spirit to fill that vessel,
you've got to get that sin out and keep it out.
That's how it works.
You wonder why some people
just never have the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.
It just seems like God isn't moving through them
or working through them.
They don't have the love, joy, peace, and long-suffering
and all these things that come with it.
You have to wonder sometimes, is it sin?
Is it because the vessel
is just so full of the world
and they're just so preoccupied with everything else
and all these other things,
all this entertainment that's out there.
Look, I'm not saying we can't have a little fun
and blow off some steam.
I'm not saying you can't enjoy some of the
more harmless, innocent,
even perhaps wholesome things
that the world offers up from time to time.
But there's a lot of things out there
that maybe they're not inherently sinful,
but they overtake our lives
and they just become distractions.
Maybe they're not even wicked things.
That's what we fill our vessel with.
We fill our vessel with our hobbies.
We fill our vessel with our careers.
We fill our vessels with whatever it is,
our groups.
There's just so much.
We're living in the age of entertainment.
We've gone from the age of information
to the age of entertainment
where everything has to be entertaining all the time.
That's what people fill their vessel with today.
And you say,
it just seems like I don't have fellowship with God.
It just seems like God's blessing.
I don't feel like I'm walking the Spirit.
What's in your vessel?
Is there Bible reading in that vessel?
Is there prayer in that vessel?
Is there church attendance in that vessel?
What's in there?
Or is it just the world?
It's just video games.
It's just music.
It's just movies.
It's just all these things.
And again, I'm not saying that all those things,
obviously in each one of those categories
you can find some very wicked things.
But even if they're not necessarily sinful,
maybe there's just too much of it in there.
Maybe you need to set a vessel aside
and say, let me empty this thing out.
And you know what? Maybe there is sin.
Maybe there is some sin in there.
And look, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
And a fly in the ointment
causes it to send forth a stinking vapor, the Bible says.
A little sin can do a lot of damage in a vessel.
God looks in there and says,
man, that thing's got sin in there?
I'm not putting my Holy Spirit in that.
Why would I want to put my Holy Spirit, right?
Holy, sanctified, set apart,
into a dirty, nasty vessel.
You know, sometimes we need to look in that vessel
and say, let's keep the Holy Spirit out.
Maybe it's a sin.
Well, let's dig around and get that sin out
so that God can fill it.
But here's the thing,
some people won't do that. Why?
Because they'd rather have the sin than the Holy Spirit.
Look, if that's us this morning,
we need to check our hearts big time.
And you're missing out on the joy of the Holy Spirit.
You're there in Luke chapter 10.
You say, well, I don't know if God would want to really fill my vessel
with the Holy Spirit, right?
Well, God wants to fill these vessels,
and he does in the story.
Look at Luke 10, verse 1.
And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place,
when he ceased, when his disciples said to him,
Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.
And he said to them,
When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
thy will be done as in heaven, so on earth.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
So this is him giving us our Father's Prayer, as it's called.
Not the Lord's Prayer, but our Father's Prayer.
And this is not something you should pray verbatim.
But yes, it is a pattern to pray.
You say, I don't know how to pray.
This is a great pattern of how to pray.
You might even think, well, how did that prayer go?
It might be worth memorizing.
It'll teach you to pray.
Isn't that the point?
Lord, teach us to pray.
Here's how you pray.
When ye pray.
I love the word when, because soon you're going to.
Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Maybe we could start with prayer when we pray.
Because this is all tied in with the Holy Spirit.
This whole passage here is tied in with the Holy Spirit.
And it starts with prayer.
Maybe when we go and pray, we should just immediately break out our list.
Okay, God, here's what I want.
Here's what I need from you.
Look, there's a time and place for that.
Maybe offer God some praise.
Maybe take a time to acknowledge, hallowed be thy name.
That God is holy.
That he is the most high.
That he is lifted up.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Hey, God, whatever I'm about to pray for, I'm going to pray for you.
I'm going to pray for you.
Hey, God, whatever I'm about to pray, let it line up with your will.
I don't want to take this time and turn this into a sermon on prayer.
But you know what? We're there in the passage.
You're struggling with your prayer life.
You don't know how to pray.
Luke 10.
That's where you need to start.
He goes on.
He says in verse 5,
This is all about prayer.
Shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight
and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves
for a friend of mine in his journey
has come to me and I have nothing to set before him.
I'm trying to be hospitable.
I'm trying to take care of this guy who's on a journey.
And he's kind of relying on the generosity
and the charity of others as he goes
to keep them fed and clothed day to day.
And he's showing up at my house
and I ain't got nothing.
Kind of reminds me of the widow that we're reading about.
All I've got is a pot of oil.
This guy's saying, I got nothing.
I don't have any loaves.
And so he's going to his friend at midnight.
Hey, I need some bread.
That's what's going on in the story.
And he answered, verse seven, from within shall say,
troubling me not, the door is now shut
and my children are with me in bed.
I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, though, he will not rise and give him
because of his friend, yet because of his importunity,
he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
And that word importunity means like he's beseech,
like he's almost an annoyance.
He's just trying to get rid of him.
It's like this persistent, urgent requesting
that's troublesome, right?
He's like bothering.
That's literally what the word means.
Like a troublesome persistence of a request.
Like he's just importuning and just like nagging, annoying.
And this is a sermon on prayer that Jesus is teaching.
This is teaching on prayer.
Here's your personal prayer life.
Here's how you pray in your life.
You pray, hallowed be thy name.
Thy will be done on earth as is heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debtors
as we forgive those that are indebted unto us
and lead us not into temptation, right?
We pray those things.
That's a good pattern for prayer.
But then there's this whole other type of prayer
where we're praying for other people,
where we're trying to get something from God.
And if we really want something from God,
what he's saying is you won't just ask for it once or twice.
It'll be something, God, I need this.
God, I got to have this.
God, please help me.
And you'll be importuning God, as it were.
And look, it's not like God's going, you're so annoying,
right?
What he's saying, we have to be persistent in prayer.
If we want something from God, maybe God will hold back
and say, well, how bad, do you really want this?
Because sometimes we think we want something,
and boy, it would be great if we could just say,
dear Lord, give me the Holy Spirit
and walk away and have it.
It was just that simple.
If prayer was just like, God was like a vending machine.
We just put in our 75 cents or buck 50
or whatever it is nowadays
and walk away with our can of the Holy Spirit
and it was that easy.
But look, it's the Holy Spirit.
And he starts talking about the Holy Spirit here in a minute.
It's the Holy Spirit that we're trying to get from God.
We're trying to fill an empty vessel.
And God's not, you know, he wants to give it,
but I don't think God's just going to give it out
unless we really want it.
And look, when you really want something,
do you only ask once?
Anyone with kids knows that's not the case.
Talk about importunity, right?
Can I, can I, can I, can I, can I?
Stop!
And kids, don't think you're going to get what you want
just because you're annoying.
You might get something else.
You might get something you don't want.
At least at my house.
But that's the picture there.
Maybe God will give the Holy Spirit, yes, to them that ask him,
but those that ask him sincerely, that really want it.
Why would God give the Holy Spirit to people who don't really want it?
He wouldn't.
And we all know these verses, verse 9,
and I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you.
Seek, and ye shall find.
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
This is all about prayer.
And he's saying, look, if you go to God in prayer and ask,
it shall be given unto you.
Look, I'm not up here preaching some prosperity gospel.
God's going to give us the things that we need.
He knows the things that we have need of before we even ask him.
And sometimes the answer will be, no.
God, please give me a Bentley.
No!
Right?
Lord, give me more than I need.
We're not preaching that.
Lord, give me a bunch of just wealth and abundance.
God might give us the power to get wealth through hard work and things like that,
but don't go and pray and ask God to give you the lottery numbers,
the Powerball or whatever.
It's not going to happen.
You wouldn't want it anyway.
It'll ruin you.
Right?
We all understand what I'm saying here.
The promise is that if you ask, it shall be given.
What are you asking for?
Some of us would say nothing.
I haven't asked anything of God, and I can't remember when.
But hopefully we can all say, well, I want the Holy Spirit.
I want to be an empty vessel that God can fill.
Lord, help me to get the sin out of my life.
Lord, help me to walk with you.
Lord, help me to be a vessel set aside and meet for the Master's use.
Hopefully that's our prayer.
And look, if that's our prayer, that's a prayer that God's going to answer and say, yes.
Ask and it shall be given you.
Seek and ye shall find.
And it's a seeking.
Right?
We like the asking part because, boy, it's easy to ask.
Seeking's another thing.
Seeking, you have to put some effort in it.
You've got to go to where it is and find it.
And you've got to go seek it out.
Knock and it shall be opened.
Sometimes that knocking isn't that lame little knock that we do when they have that big no soliciting sign out.
Some of those no soliciting signs, I don't care.
I'm talking about the personalized ones where it's a unique to just them.
They took the time to write this down.
And then we go and knock the door and we're like.
That's not the kind of knocking we're talking about.
Maybe you don't do that.
I don't know.
I'm kind of joking there.
We're talking about, hey, I need something from you.
My friend is here on a long journey.
I need some bread.
Is that how we pray sometimes?
And I think that's what God is challenging us to do here.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Obviously we want to come before the throne of God weakly and humbly.
But look, if there's something we really need from God that's right for us to ask for and it's something that God wants to give us.
Why not knock like that?
Why not seek and say, Lord, you said if I ask and if I seek and I knock, it shall be given.
It shall be opened.
I shall find.
You said you would give the Holy Spirit to everyone that asked it of you.
And I'm here knocking.
Lord, please give me the Holy Spirit.
And you know, maybe the indwelling and the comfort of the Holy Spirit will bring us into mind.
And say, boy, I'd really like to give that to you.
You need to fix this.
Look, that's the feeling of the Holy Spirit.
What's when the ministry is the Holy Spirit?
He convinces the world of sin.
Right?
Why not his own people?
Maybe that's why we don't ask for the Holy Spirit.
Because we know he's holy.
And we know we got some things in this vessel that we'd just rather not let go of.
Well, don't expect to ask then.
Don't expect to receive.
If you ask not, you have not, because you asked not, as he said in James.
And why do you ask not?
Why do you ask not and have not?
You ask and miss.
Why?
That you may consume it upon your lusts.
And he's saying, look at verse 11.
If a son shall ask of any of you that is a father, excuse me, if a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father,
will he give him a stone?
Right?
So again, even Jesus is clarifying things.
He's saying, I'm not saying ask for anything.
Ask for the things that you have need of.
Ask for the things that are actually profitable to you, that are going to nourish you, that are actually going to help you, give you strength.
Right?
Look, the Holy Spirit is something that's going to give us peace, love, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, faith, goodness, meekness, temperance.
It's something that's going to bring us closer to God and draw us into fellowship with God and with our brethren.
It's going to give us power to go out and do the work of the ministry.
I mean, why would God hold back?
Of course God's going to give us the Holy Spirit if we ask him.
Just like if our child came and said, hey, I'm hungry.
Can I have a piece of bread?
I mean, that's a question I hear every day in my house.
Can I have a sandwich?
Right?
We got them ready-made in the Ziploc in the fridge.
Yes, here you go.
Eat, please.
But if they walked up and said, can I have ice cream?
Can I have ice cream?
That's a lot of no's, right?
One of my kids told me the other day she just wished all food was ice cream.
That's the only food she would eat.
I thought that would be great if we had like asparagus ice cream, cheese, you know, pizza, you know, all these different things.
Broccoli ice cream.
And I was like, oh, maybe ice cream wouldn't be so great after all, right?
But look, if they come and ask and say, hey, I'm hungry.
And they're really hungry.
They really do have a need.
They really do need nourishment.
I, as a good father, who am evil, as Jesus said, know enough to do good unto them in that way.
And he's likening that unto our heavenly father.
If he shall ask a fish, will he give him for a fish a serpent?
Something that's actually going to harm him.
If he asks him an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
That might be easier to find around here than an egg sometimes.
If ye then, being evil, like you are a sinner and you understand this,
how much shall your good gifts unto your children, the things that they need,
how much shall your heavenly father give what?
The Holy Spirit.
He didn't say, how much shall your holy father give anything that you ask?
Because look, what we ask for and what we need sometimes are two different things.
But what none of us can deny, because it's just plain in the Bible,
is that we all need the Holy Spirit in our lives.
We must have it.
And I don't know why any of us wouldn't want it.
The promise is, hey, if you come to God and ask for the Holy Spirit,
that's like your kid asking for a piece of bread.
That's like them asking for a cup of water.
That's like them asking for an egg.
That's like them asking for things that are to nourish them and strengthen them,
help them to grow and to be useful.
And he's saying, look, that's what the Holy Spirit is going to do for you.
And if you ask for it, you'll be filled with the Holy Spirit
and you will be brought up, nurtured, raised up,
you will be meat for the Master's use.
God will use you.
What a great picture of the Holy Spirit.
I've got to move through the rest of the story.
So the first thing we see is that, hey, she lost everything else,
but she still had the pot of oil.
She still had salvation.
You might not have the fullness of the Holy Spirit this morning.
I don't know.
But if you don't, you still can because you're saved.
You might not have a lot of this world's goods, but you got salvation,
which is more than anything any of us can ever ask for.
And when she brought her petition to him, he said, hey, go get what?
Empty vessels.
Go get vessels that don't have anything else in them.
If we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we might have to get some things out.
There might be some things that God puts his finger on and says,
we'll get you the Holy Spirit, but you need to make room by getting this out.
Take that out of the vessel and I'll fill it, whether it's sinful or not.
And then we saw that God has promised to give us these things,
and has promised to give us specifically, Jesus said,
that he will give us the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.
That specific thing, which is what is represented by the oil in the store this morning.
Look at verse 4, 1 Samuel 2 Kings 4.
So she goes and he's saying, first go get the empty vessels.
We made an application there.
And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee
and upon thy sons, and pour out unto all those vessels,
and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
He's saying, it's good to have the empty vessel.
You got everything it takes now.
You got that first vessel. You're saved.
You have the sealing of the Spirit.
You've cleaned things up in your life.
You've got some empty vessels. You've got the sin out.
You made room for God to fill that empty vessel.
You've got a vessel that's meat for the master's use.
Now you have to get busy about filling it.
How do you do that? Big part of it's prayer.
Isn't that a great description of prayer?
Shut the door upon thee.
What did Jesus teach us to do?
He said, pray in secret.
Go into that closet and when thou shalt shut the door, pray in secret.
And thy Father which hearth thee in secret, shall reward you openly.
He warned us for pretense making long prayers.
And standing in the corners in the market places.
Look, there's a time and place for public prayer.
But I would rather nobody pray another public prayer for the rest of their life.
If it meant they would go into their closet and pray privately to God.
Because that's where this vessel gets filled.
The vessel doesn't get filled during the five seconds of prayer right before the sermon.
Look, I'm grateful for the prayer. We need the prayer. Amen to the prayers.
And God answers those prayers. I believe that.
But the prayers that we need to have in our lives are the prayers that are done in secret.
That's where the vessels really get filled.
That's what I see in the story.
She's got salvation. She's got that one pot of oil.
If she'll do her part and go out and get empty vessels, she'll make room for God in her life.
You know, those vessels will be filled up.
But she's got to do that privately. She has to do that secretly.
She cuts out some time and a place where she shuts the door and starts pouring in the vessel.
That's called prayer.
And I like how it says there, when they pour into all those vessels at the end of verse 4,
Thou shalt set aside that which is full.
We have to remember what we're asking for, folks.
We have to remember what we're asking for.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter number 2.
We're asking for the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is something that is holy, something that is sanctified, something that is set apart.
That's what all these words mean.
That's what it means to be holy or to be sanctified.
It's something that is separate and set apart.
And isn't it interesting, when you're pouring out of those vessels, when you fill that vessel up, you need to set it aside.
Because the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit is there, I think, for very particular reasons.
It's there for us to minister the Gospel.
It's there for us to be guided and led by the Holy Spirit.
It's there for the fruits of the Spirit in our lives.
But those things are unique under the Holy Spirit.
The filling of the Holy Spirit is a very special thing.
It's a very holy thing.
That's why they're setting it aside.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 19.
It says there,
Nevertheless, the foundation of God standest sure, having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are His.
And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
Set that aside.
Depart from iniquity.
Get that vessel empty.
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.
Some vessels are used for things, and some vessels are used for other things.
Some vessels are used for reasons that are not very honorable.
You wouldn't want to be that vessel.
You don't want to be Satan's spittoon bucket at the bar.
They probably don't have that anymore, but you see them in the old westerns.
The guys are always spitting.
They have that big pot there by the bar where they spit in.
Big wad of chaw tobacco.
Gross, right?
Today it's the empty Mountain Dew bottle on the truck bed rolling around on the floorboards.
That's what I did when I worked in excavation.
You're working with a bunch of those guys, those roughnecks and things like that.
And they love their chaw.
They love to chew, right?
Mountain Dew for breakfast, chew to follow it up, right?
And they just spit in that Mountain Dew bottle and then they just leave it on the floor of the truck bed.
Oh man, it's gross.
Hopefully you don't mix your bottles up.
I know a guy that did that.
Took a big swig of that, right?
Look, that Mountain Dew bottle full of chaw is not a vessel unto honor, is it?
But it served a purpose, right?
It served a purpose, but it's not one you want around.
Look, we want to be vessels unto honor.
We don't want to be vessels that are full of sin.
That's why he's saying, hey, depart from iniquity.
And in the story, hey, you want this vessel full, it's got to be an empty one.
It can't have things in it.
You've got to make room for the Holy Spirit.
If there's sin in our lives, we've got to get that out.
And when the Holy Spirit points out sin, when he brings to remembrance those things that are contrary to sound doctrine,
when he calls those things to remembrance, we need to deal with it.
That's the Holy Spirit trying to make room for himself, trying to fill a vessel, a vessel unto honor, right?
Depart from iniquity.
Look, in a great house, there's vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earth.
And you don't use the gold and silver for certain purposes that you would use the wood and earth for.
And some to honor and some to dishonor.
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor.
Purge yourself from the vessels of dishonor.
Be a vessel that is what? Set aside.
Just like in the story, the vessels that are filled with oil, Elisha said, when you fill them, set them aside.
Why? Because they're vessels unto honor.
They're sanctified. They're set apart.
They're not like any other vessel.
And that's one of the unique things about being a Christian.
And sometimes I think we might, as Christians, lose sight of is that we have an opportunity to fill the Holy Spirit.
The world cannot do that.
I don't care how many of these unsaved Pentecostals and how many unsaved Catholics or whoever else asks for the Holy Spirit.
They don't have the first spirit or the first oiled pot of oil to even begin with.
In the story, she's already got one vessel that's got oil in it. That's salvation.
They've got no oil because they're not saved.
And they can pray for it and they can say they have it and they can make up all these fake signs of having the Holy Spirit.
They can babble in tongues and they can say they have all these gifts of the Spirit and we can talk about that.
The fact is that if you're not saved, you don't have it.
If you're preaching a false gospel, you don't have the Holy Spirit.
But we, which believe the Bible, believe that salvation is by grace through faith,
that have had the earnest of the Spirit and know it and cannot be convinced otherwise
and have experienced the dwelling of the Spirit and the comfort of the Spirit,
we have an opportunity to be filled with the Spirit, to be a vessel unto honor.
The world can't have that.
That's what makes it special. That's why it's set aside. That's why it's holy.
That's why we need to purge ourselves from these and be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for what?
The Master's use and prepared unto every good work.
Why would God fill somebody with the Holy Spirit who has no intention of doing anything for him?
That's the purpose of the Holy Spirit.
To make you the Christian you're supposed to be, to make you the husband, the father, the wife, the mother,
the soul winner, the church member that you're supposed to be.
That's the point of the Holy Spirit.
Why would God give that to somebody who doesn't want to purge themselves from vessels of dishonor?
Why would God pour his Holy Spirit into one that's filled with sin,
that's filled with the things of this world, that has no room for God in it?
He's not going to fill it.
And you can have the ceiling all day. You'll always have that one pot of oil.
But her situation was pretty desperate even though she had one pot of oil.
And look, we can all be just grateful that we're on the way to heaven and amen.
And I preached on that on Thursday.
But let's not limit ourselves to that in the Christian life.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also therefore walk in the Spirit.
He says purge yourself from these. Why?
Because that's what the Holy Spirit is meant for.
To meet for the Master's use, prepared on every good work.
Verse 22, every time I read it, I go right back to the first time I read this,
as a 21-year-old man coming out of the world,
going to a youth meeting somewhere and reading this verse.
And God just spoke to my heart through this verse.
Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of pure heart.
Get in church, basically.
Get in church.
You're not going to find people calling on the Lord out of pure heart at the bar.
You're not going to find them at the supply house.
I mean, there might be Christians in the supply house at work. I get it.
But you're not going to find the people calling on the Lord out of pure heart in the world.
Yes, there's saved people out there, I understand.
But you know where you are going to find them, for sure?
In God's house. In church.
Go back to 2 Kings 4.
Look, this story is such a great story.
It's such a great picture of the Holy Spirit.
She only had the one vessel, but hey, that's salvation.
That's the vessel that stayed full no matter how many times she poured it out.
That's the earnest, that's the sealing of the Spirit that's never going away.
He said, you want a blessing, you want God to work, go get some empty vessels in here.
Give me something I can fill.
Words that have rung through my mind.
My pastor spoke to me years ago back in Michigan.
Give God something to bless.
To this day.
Maybe it's not every day, but I guarantee you there's not a week that goes by that that doesn't ring through my head.
Give God something to bless, and He will.
Well, how do you do that? Get that vessel empty.
Give God space, give Him some room, give Him somewhere He can pour that Holy Spirit into.
How do you do that? By being a vessel that's set aside.
By being a vessel unto honor.
I don't know if it's worth it. You're missing out.
That's all I've got to say.
Because look what happens in the story.
It says in verse 6, and it came to pass when the vessels were full.
How much more shall your Father give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask Him?
They will be filled.
These vessels were filled.
The vessels were full.
Every vessel she went out and got, every empty vessel she could find and set aside was filled to the brim with that oil.
And you say, what's the big deal about that?
Well, in the story, I mean, this would be like, you know, it's not literal like crude oil today.
You know, like it's not a 55-gallon drum of, you know, black gold.
But it is an oil that might have been used in lamps, maybe with some kind of oil.
You know, it was a very precious thing, oil.
It was hard to get.
And she's saying, I'm sitting on a gold mine here.
She's got all this oil.
Like, that's the whole point.
He says, go sell it and live of it.
This is her retirement.
Go pay off the creditors and live of the rest.
She gets to keep her sons, and she's got money to spend.
She's been taken care of.
The vessels were full.
But notice her reaction, that she said unto her son, bring me yet a vessel.
Right?
Look, once you get some of the Holy Spirit in your life, you know what you have on it?
You say, I want more of that.
Once you start to experience the Holy Spirit working in your life,
a natural reaction is, man, I want some more of that.
And that's why he told her, borrow not a few.
Right? At the beginning.
He said, go and borrow it and borrow not a few.
And yet, she borrowed maybe as many as she could,
but maybe they got to a point and said, you know what?
That's plenty of vessels.
This should do it.
Let's not bug anybody else for another vessel.
But once all those vessels were filled up, what's she doing?
We got any more vessels? Take your shoes off.
Right? Give me your hat.
Tie a knot in the end of your sleeve.
We're getting more oil out of this thing.
She wants more.
And he told her in the beginning, borrow not a few. I'm telling you.
You start setting these vessels aside.
You start getting these empty vessels.
You start seeing that God filled those vessels up with that oil.
You're going to want more.
It's the same way in the Christian life.
You start walking in the Spirit. You start getting filled with the Spirit.
You start to see God move and work in your life and the lives of other people.
You say, I want more.
I wish I had borrowed more. I wish I had made more room.
Maybe you'll never do that in this life.
Maybe you'll never find yourself that.
But in heaven you will.
You say, man, I wish I would have set more time aside for God.
I wish I would have served God more.
Guaranteed. Mark it down in heaven.
No matter how much work you do for God, that will be your attitude there.
I wish I had given him more.
The first time you look Christ in the face.
The first time you see those scars.
The first time you hear his voice.
The first time you behold that throng.
The first time you lay eyes on heaven.
You'll wish you had given God more in this life.
Promised. Every single one of us.
I don't care how sold out for God you are or not today.
That will be the wish of every single one of God's people.
That's what she's doing in the story.
She's just surrounded by all these vessels full of oil.
She's like, we got any more?
You got another vessel? Break out the Tupperware.
Now I understand why my mom saved everything that was plastic and had a lid on it.
When she passed away, we cleaned out those bottom two cupboards.
It was like yogurt containers and this container and that container.
Everything that was plastic and had a lid, she saved it.
I mean, they get spaghetti stains in them.
You're like, mom, you got three dozen more in the back.
Recycle it.
But that's the idea here.
Where is that yogurt container?
Got a thimble? Fill that thing up.
I want more.
Go to Galatians chapter number five.
Galatians chapter number five.
We know this passage.
Why would I want to clean up my life?
Why would I want to empty a vessel and get the sin out and make room for God in my life?
Why would I want to shut the door upon me and pray and ask God earnestly for the Holy Spirit that I know He'll give me?
Why would I want to be a vessel, meet for the Master's use, prepared unto every good work?
Does it sound, I work enough?
Well, there's other things that come with it.
The fruits of the Spirit.
I don't have time to read all of this that I wanted to read.
But let's just, let's look at verse 21.
Ephesians 4 21.
What's he saying there? Empty the vessel.
Get an empty vessel.
Be a vessel unto honor.
Be sanctified. Be set apart.
Purge yourself from the vessels of dishonor.
Get rid of the former, of the old man, the former conversation.
Stop walking like a dead man. That's what he's saying.
You're saved this morning, but you can still continue on in the old man.
Live just like you were before you got saved.
Be like the walking dead, basically.
Dragging a corpse around.
Put off the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
This is what the Holy Spirit starts to do for us.
And look, this is an emptying of that vessel.
You know, maybe what we need to rid ourselves, or purge ourselves from,
maybe the emptying that needs to take place in our lives isn't necessarily some sin,
or some thing, or some hobby, or some pastime.
Maybe it's a thought process.
Maybe it's a philosophy.
Well, I know that's what the Bible says, but here's how we're going to do it.
You need to purge yourself from that.
You need to be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
You need to change your thinking and get on God's program.
Start thinking about things the way God said to think about them in His Word.
Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore put away lying, every man speak truth with his neighbor,
for we are members one of another.
Don't be lying to each other.
It's crazy not to say that, but it's out there.
Be angry and not let the sun go down upon your wrath.
Neither give place to the devil.
Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands,
a thing which is good that he may give to them that have needeth.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,
but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the ears.
Look at verse 30, and grieve not the Holy Spirit,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of your redemption.
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking
be put away from you,
and be kind-hearted one to another,
tender-hearted, forgiving one another.
I feel like I jumped ahead there.
Did I have you go to Ephesians?
I was reading Ephesians.
So we got Ephesians out of the way. You're in Galatians.
Yeah, okay. Look there.
Galatians chapter number five.
This is where I was trying to get you to.
Galatians 5, 16.
This I say, then walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
That's the picture in the story, folks.
The empty vessels that she had to get.
She couldn't go borrow a vessel that had the Thanksgiving leftovers in it.
That would have spoiled the oil.
We got to walk in the Spirit, not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
These things are contrary one to another.
That's what he says.
And we understand that we have the works of the flesh there in 19, 20, 21.
But look at verse 22.
But the fruit of the Spirit.
Why would I want to be filled with the Spirit?
Why would I want to do any of the things you said in the first portion of this sermon?
Why would I want to be a vessel unto honor?
Why would I want to be sanctified and meet for the Master's use?
And I'm not saying that we all just need to turn into mindless drones here for God.
Because when we are a vessel that's set aside and sanctified to meet for the Master's use,
and you're filled with the Holy Spirit, it's not like you just turn into this thing,
and you're like, I just do the will of God all the time.
Yeah, we do the will of God, but we choose to do it,
but we have the Holy Spirit doing us to do those works.
We're meeting for the Master's use.
But look at all these other things that come with it.
And tell me if this sounds nice.
Tell me if this sounds good.
The fruit of the Spirit is what? Love.
Well, who doesn't want that?
You know, and maybe it would help us be a more loving person.
Don't think about it, oh, I'm going to be loved.
That's part of it.
You'll know that you're loved with God.
Look, you get filled with the Holy Spirit, you'll have no doubt that God loves you.
I think some people really struggle with that.
They're saved, but they think, well, I don't know if God really loves me.
You get filled with the Spirit, I mean, obviously God loves you.
Look, if you're saved, you know God loves you.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
But if you're filled with the Spirit, you're going to walk around knowing God loves you.
And that's going to make you a more loving person.
And I don't know any of us that couldn't stand a little bit more of that.
Especially, you know, in the day and age we're living in,
when the love of many shall wax cold and iniquity shall abound.
Why does it just keep getting worse?
Why is it just keeping more and more wicked?
Because people are becoming less and less loving.
People are at each other's throats in this world.
For what? Not using this blinker.
Because I was walking down that aisle first.
I don't necessarily think everyone's like that, but you see it.
People are rude out there.
People will turn on you in a dime out there.
There's no love. Why? Because there's no Holy Spirit.
And they can't get the Holy Spirit.
Hey, the fruit of the Spirit is love.
Maybe we'd be a more loving people. The world could use a lot more of that.
How about joy?
I mean, imagine being this little woman in this story.
I mean, the desperation she had, and then she's going to Elijah saying,
I've lost everything. My husband's dead. The creditors are coming for my kids.
What am I going to do?
Go borrow vessels. Not a few. Go into your closet.
Go in your house. Shut the door upon you and your sons and start to pour out.
I mean, in a day's time, she goes from just desperate to just,
I've got all this oil. We're rich.
You don't think she was ecstatic? You don't think she was joyful?
You don't think she was happy?
All her problems are solved. This worry is taken away.
Everything's looking really good. That's joy.
Look, joy will get us through a lot of things, folks.
The joy of salvation will get us through a lot of things, folks.
I mean, the people that I've seen go through some of the hardest things with such grace.
I'm not saying they're perfect, but I've seen people go through things that I haven't gone through,
and some of them just go through such grace, such peace.
How is that?
They have the joy of the Holy Spirit.
They know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
them that are called according to His purposes.
Look, why be filled with the Spirit this morning?
Well, once you're empowered to do the work of God.
I mean, to me, that's a great thing.
But how about the love? How about the joy? How about the peace?
End the nail-biting.
End the worry, the anxiety, the anxiousness.
Have the peace.
How about the long-suffering and the gentleness, the goodness, the faith, the meekness?
When you get filled with the Holy Spirit, it'll humble you.
It'll humble you quick.
You'll say, well, it's not a me. It's a God.
And you'll realize real quick, well, it's God that works in me to do according to His good pleasure.
Against there is such no love. The temperance.
Well, look, the Holy Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit, they don't just...
It's not like the sealing of the Spirit.
It's not like you get saved, boom, I'm filled with the Spirit every day.
Just leap out of bed, you know, and just fill with the Holy Spirit
and just go through my whole day just a loving, peaceful person.
It's something you've got to get there.
Look at verse 24.
And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections of lust.
I mean, that's what these verses are sandwiched between.
Deal with the old man.
Understand that the flesh and the Spirit are contrary one to another
so that you cannot do the things that you would.
Walk in the Spirit.
If you want to be filled with the Spirit, you've got to start walking in the Spirit.
I mean, isn't that what He said there in John at the very beginning when we started?
In John 14, right, where He said,
Pray to the Father and I will give you another comforter
and He may abide with you, He will dwell in you and shall be in you.
But verse 15 comes before all that and says,
If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Walk in the Spirit and you shall be filled with the Spirit.
And then you have the fruits of the Spirit.
You've got to empty the vessel.
And look, I don't know where people are this morning. I don't know.
Sometimes I just, you know, I read these things in my devotions
and I have a thought and boom, here we are.
But I'll remind us of one more thing
because, you know, maybe a lot of people are hearing this
and I don't know, maybe they're thinking that sounds nice,
but I just, you know, my vessel's pretty dirty.
My vessel's got a lot of sin in it.
Maybe, you know, they would say I don't know of God.
Would give me His Holy Spirit.
Look, let me just remind you again what He said in Luke.
He will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.
Him withholding the Holy Spirit from somebody that needs it
would be like you refusing your children nourishment.
God's not going to do that.
Now, He's not going to fill you with the Holy Spirit.
If you're full of sin, yeah, we got to get that stuff out.
The kids don't get dessert until the vegetables are eaten.
Okay?
Let me remind you of David, what David prayed in Psalm 51
and I'll just read this to you.
This is a psalm that he wrote, if you look this up
and some Bibles have it, some don't, but the headers
where it gives a little description on top of the chapter.
This is after he went in unto Bathsheba
and committed adultery and murder
and had gotten called out by the prophet Nathan.
He got busted for adultery and murder.
Now, humanly speaking, if anybody should just walk away
and give up on ever having the Holy Spirit again,
that would probably be a pretty good circumstance.
You probably say, well, I could see how God
would want to get everyone the Holy Spirit
in that instance when they've committed adultery and murder.
And it's the same David that we talked about in 1 Samuel
who had the Holy Spirit upon him from the day forward
that he was anointed by Samuel the prophet.
We read that in the very beginning.
He was anointed with the Holy Spirit
and the Bible says he was anointed with oil
and the Holy Spirit came upon him from that day forward.
But now here he is all these years later
with the King and everything that's taken place in his life
and he commits that sin, sins plural, horrible sins,
and yet he has enough understanding of who God is
to pray in Psalm 51 verse 10,
Create me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
Because again, in the Old Testament,
they did not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
They could only have the Holy Spirit come upon them
to be temporarily filled with the Spirit,
as you see in many different instances.
And he's praying here and asking God
to create a clean heart within him
to renew a right spirit within him
to not cast him away from God's presence
but to give him a Holy Spirit. Why?
So that he could restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.
You know, if your salvation's gotten dull,
if your Christian life is lackluster,
maybe that's a prayer you need to pray.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.
And God said, I'd like to,
but we gotta clean that heart up.
We gotta renew that mind.
We gotta renew that right spirit.
You wanna get God's presence,
you want the Holy Spirit, you have to understand
there has to be a purging that takes place.
We have to get rid of some things.
God's gonna deal with some stuff in our lives.
But boy, the joy of thy salvation.
That'll carry you through a lot of things.
That'll get you through a lot in this life.
So that's my message this morning.
You know, the Holy Spirit is a very real thing.
I mean, he's a person.
And the indwelling and the filling of the Holy Spirit
is something that every single child
of God can experience.
That's not off limits to anybody.
It's not like, well, you only get the filling
of the Holy Spirit if you're in the ministry.
No. Only those that have been ordained
to preach, you know, uh-uh.
It's for everyone.
Every man, boy, man.
Every woman, girl, every child, every adult.
Every single one of you can be filled with the Spirit.
And hopefully we all are.
But if we would perhaps say to ourselves today,
well, you know, I'm not.
We need to ask ourselves why.
And then when you figure out why,
maybe ask yourself, do you really want it?
Maybe the problem is we don't really believe it.
Maybe you just don't believe it.
Maybe you just think, oh, yeah,
there goes the preacher again,
going on about the Holy Spirit this morning.
No, the Bible says that he will give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask him
if they really want it.
We looked at that, what that means to ask,
not just this casual, they're gonna give you
the Holy Spirit, but to really want the Holy Spirit.
And then when a people are filled
with the Holy Spirit, they have joy,
they have love, they have peace,
they have long, they have all these great attributes
and they can be used of God like nobody else can.
Look, if that's not enough to convince you
to want to get filled with the Holy Spirit,
I don't know what else to say.
You got some soul searching to do.
I don't know what else to convince you.
I mean, that's what the Bible says.
This is what the Bible describes,
comes with the filling of the Holy Spirit.
That's why you'd want to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And if that's what we want,
then maybe we're gonna have to empty some vessels
set of times and time for God so that God can fill us.
I hope that's what every single one of us will do.
Let's go ahead and close the word of prayer.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for the ministry
of the Holy Ghost that's given to us
through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
Thank you for the comforter,
which you've sent from on high.
Lord, I pray that we would not take
the ministry of the Holy Ghost for granted in our lives,
Lord, but that we would seek Him,
Lord, that we would ask for that filling
and, Lord, that we would be willing to change
whatever it is we need to change in our lives
in order to know the joy of thy salvation
and to not have your presence taken from us, Lord,
but to know that we walk in the Spirit
and that we have the fruits of the Spirit in our lives.
Lord, I pray you'd help us to make
whatever changes we need to make.
And, Lord, we thank you again
for the great opportunity we have
to know the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
In Christ's name, amen.
All right, we'll sing one more song
before we are dismissed this morning.
Please grab the hymnal and turn that hymnal
to song number 316.
We'll be singing song number 316.
I have decided to follow Jesus.
Again, that is song number 316.
To follow Jesus
I am excited
To follow Jesus
No turning back
Oh, when the wind leaves
Still I will follow
Oh, when the wind leaves
Still I will follow
No turning back
Now relax
Behind me
The cross before me
The world behind me
The cross before me
Behind me
The cross before me
No turning back
you