Walking In Faith
Download MP3Welcome to another week at the deck, what is now Redeemer Community Church, because this is where the body of us gather together. It's so good to be here with all of you. It's been about a year since I've been able to preach to the congregation as a whole. I get to a lot with our college students but it's been a long time, since I've been able to to to stand up here and preach to y'all. So interpret that as you will.
Collin Hansen:They've they've kept me out for for a year. But I will say, in all seriousness, if you have any questions, comments or concerns after, my email is joel@rccvermingham.org. Please, I will get back to you right away, after this. But no, my my name is Craig Millard. If you don't know me, I'm the college minister here at Redeemer Community Church.
Collin Hansen:I've been here for about 2 years and it is a joy to just serve our college students. But like I said, I'm excited to talk with y'all today with with individuals above the age of 23. It's good to be with all of you, today. We're actually going to be looking at 2nd Kings 4, so if you want to go ahead and flip there now, if you are at home or if you're not using your worship guide, it will be 2nd Kings 4, the beginning of that chapter, the first seven verses. This is a super short passage, but I think it gets to the heart of, what a lot of us think about.
Collin Hansen:When when I talk with college students, one of the big questions that comes up literally almost weekly is what is God calling me to? What should I do with my major? What should I do with my job? What should Like just what should I do and and how do I walk? We talk about this.
Collin Hansen:How do I walk in faith? And today, I think that's what we're gonna look at. We're gonna we're gonna read the story of Elisha and the widow and we're going to talk about what it means to walk in faith. And just like I like to do with my students, ask questions to get to a deeper heart issue or heart topic, that's what I'm gonna do today. I my goal is that as we look at the stories, look at this text, we'll think through different questions of what it looks like to walk in faith, with Jesus.
Collin Hansen:It is a simple text. So this will be a simple sermon. And as the great theologian, said this past week, Kanye West, he said, just preach the word. We don't need the extra sauce. So that is my goal here today as we look at 2nd Kings 4 1 through 7.
Collin Hansen:Read with me. Says, now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, your servant, my husband, is dead. And you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my 2 children to be his slaves. And Elisha said to her, what shall I do for you? Tell me, what have you in the house?
Collin Hansen:And she said, your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil. Then he said, go outside, borrow borrow vessels from all your neighbors. Empty vessels and not too few. Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all of the all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.
Collin Hansen:So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured, they brought the vessels to her. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, bring me another vessel. And he said to her, there is not another. Then the oil stopped flowing.
Collin Hansen:She came and told the man of God and he said, go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest. It's the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, what a blessing it is to stand here and preach, your word. I pray, Lord, as we look at this text today, I pray that your spirit would do as it wills within us.
Collin Hansen:I pray, Lord, where we need to be convicted, we would be convicted. Where we need to be encouraged, we would be encouraged, Lord. But where we need to be reminded, we'd be reminded. And I pray, God, as we look at this, we would see what it looks like to trust you, to depend on you, to rely on you, and to walk in faith as we pursue you. If I say anything that goes against your word, I pray that would fall on deaf ears, but your word, would live on and would land in the hearts of all of us here.
Collin Hansen:I love you and pray all these things in your name. Amen. Although this story is short, it is in fact quite full. A lot is happening here and much can be learned from the story of the widow. If we don't slow down and look at it verse by verse, we will miss a lot of what the Lord has for us today.
Collin Hansen:See, verse 1 opens up by telling us all that we need to know about the situation and the widow's plight. The widow of the story is the former wife of a disciple of the prophets. Her husband, as she states, was a God fearing man and a well known one at that. She even goes so far to remind Elisha that that he knew of her husband. Like, he he knew of her well and knew knew of him well and knew of his devotion to God.
Collin Hansen:Because of his devotion and where we see she's going to for help in this hard time, we can assume that she, like her husband, was God fearing as well. That she was a God fearing woman. Her now dead husband was in debt. And that debt had been passed on to those he left behind, her and her sons. This makes sense that they lived in poverty.
Collin Hansen:It makes sense that they weren't able to pay off this this immense debt that was on them because this was not a good time for the true prophets of God as Joel has talked about over the last couple weeks. See the people during this time cared more to follow false prophets that said the things that they wanted to hear, than following the true prophets of God in hearing hard things, in hearing convicting things, in hearing challenging things. Thus, many of the real prophets, as we've seen before, live in great, immense, worldly poverty. Many of them, because of harsh circumstances put on them by the ruling leaders for no reason at all. Because of the poverty, she found herself the widow found herself in the crushing debt left to her.
Collin Hansen:The creditor is coming to take her sons away to pay off this debt. And I think it's easy for us from our perspective to look at this story and be like, there's no way this is true, there's no way that this woman in this in this debt that she had that the creditor can come and just take her sons away. And I want you to think of it more of as indentured servitude. Right? Right?
Collin Hansen:They're coming to take her sons to pay off this debt and but from our lens, it makes no sense because say, hey, just declare bank bankruptcy. Alright? You'll trust the government. They'll they'll take care of it and you move on. But it's important for us to note that this is well within the creditors rights to do this.
Collin Hansen:It is law, the law of the time that the creditor can come, and when a debt cannot be paid, that creditor can take her sons, put them into, indentured servitude whether until they pay off that debt or until the year of jubilee. The widow had lost her husband and if she would lose her sons to pay off this debt, her life would be severely ruined. Because we know at this time that women, the status of a woman was to have to rely on the men in your family for your ultimate survival. She's not able to go out and get a second job to pay off this debt. She's not really able to do much of anything, but rely on the men in her life.
Collin Hansen:It would be incredibly hard for her to survive if her sons were taken away from her to pay off this debt. Safe to say, she was in an extremely hard situation. But it's all It's important though as we look at this to highlight where she goes to in her time of need. Where she goes to for help. She didn't appeal to the king because And that's something that people did during that time.
Collin Hansen:If they felt like they had a case that they could make and say, hey, King, show mercy, show show me grace, pardon me of this issue, they would do it, but she had no case. This was a part of the legal system. This was well within the creditors rights to do. Or she couldn't rely on herself because we know as her status as a woman, there wasn't a way that she could she could pay off this debt on her own so she couldn't rely on her own abilities to pull herself out of the situation. No.
Collin Hansen:She turns to Elisha, a true prophet of the one true God. So she's ultimately looking to God to save her from her situation. Which leads me to my first simple question for us to think about today. 1st question. In all times, especially hard times, where do you look to for help?
Collin Hansen:Say it again. In all times, especially hard times, where do you look to for help? See I recently had the pleasure of preaching about the martyrdom of Stephen found in the book of Acts to our college students at one of our college gatherings. And the thing that's that struck me, the thing that stuck out to me most as I was preaching through, through through the story of Stephen, is not that that his his being martyred is what truly made him the martyr that he was. The persecution he faced did not or his faith did not become strong because he was persecuted.
Collin Hansen:No. A life dependent and devoted on the Lord was simply revealed in this time of great persecution. As he faced death and death by stoning, he was able to handle himself like Jesus. He was able to stand in the face of death and pray for those that were gonna kill him, pray for their forgiveness. The reason he was able to do this was because he lived a life dependent on the lord and that was revealed in persecution.
Collin Hansen:Persecution did not force him to become that. He was already that in Christ Jesus. In a similar fashion, the widow's back is up against the wall here. She finds herself in an extremely hard situation, but she's a follower a follower of the one true God and she turns to him in her time of need. Her husband mean being a member of the group of prophets, who have the true prophets, would certainly have spoken the words, of the Torah to her.
Collin Hansen:She would know that the God of Israel, the one that she serves, cared for the widow and the orphan. That that that he commanded people to look out for those people. She would be familiar with Exodus 22, 22 to 23 that commands God's people to look after the orphan and the widow. Why? Because he hears their cries.
Collin Hansen:Thus, as she is certainly reminded of these truths found in the book of Exodus, she turns to God because she, like this text, is a widow in need. And so she cries out to God. We know that God answers her cries for help, but we'll get to that later. The point here or the question here is, do you like the widow turn to God in hard times? Is your posture of dependence on God reflected in the manner by which you turn and rely on him in great need?
Collin Hansen:Ask you that again. Is your posture of dependence on God reflected in the manner by which you turn and rely on him in great need. See, I know for myself, I can't say that this is always true. I was raised in a society, in a culture that told me that when I find myself knocked down, when I find myself in a hard time, all I gotta do is dig down deep. Dig down, deeper, try harder and and work my way out of a situation.
Collin Hansen:That I've I've got I got the education, I got the ability that I can just figure it out on my own and and figure that out and then then I go to Lord. See, I put the weight on myself and try to figure it all out on my own. I come up with the situate I come up with my solution to the situation, and then I take it to the lord. All the while acting as if god is the one who gave me that idea or that insight, which reflects a deep reliance on self over god. Or I go to my community.
Collin Hansen:I'm a person, I love my friends, I'm an extrovert. I go to my community and I talk with them about the situation. I seek their advice and guidance and then go to the lord in prayer. Simply, my prayer is just to confirm the things that they have already told me. The things that we've already worked out together.
Collin Hansen:And my dependence is on my friends and my loved ones over God. Does this sound familiar to you? Can you relate? See maybe for you, it's you go to books or maybe you go to certain mentors that have meant a lot to you in your life. Whatever it is you turn to first is truly where your dependence and reliance lies.
Collin Hansen:And hear me. Are community and family and friends? Bad. No. But much is said about our view of God in our time of need when we turn to those things first and then we turn back to God.
Collin Hansen:Making up our minds first and then seeking to confirm it with God. And, honestly, this is easier for me to see in my great times of need. When I am knocked down and when I am low, it's easy for me to say, you know what, I need to rely on God. I need to turn to him. He's the one who's going to save me.
Collin Hansen:He's the one that's gonna pull me out of this situation. It's easy for me to see my need for him. And maybe you're sitting here feeling the same way. You have no issue relying on him in the hard times. But what about the highs of life?
Collin Hansen:What about when all is going well with the family, when your kids are behaving, they're progressing as you wish them to, or or or your job is going well, you're getting that promotion that you think you deserve or your school, you're getting the grades and you're getting the internship, whatever it is. Are you pausing to give praise to the Lord first? Are you acknowledging that it's him who puts you there? Not your own ingenuity or your own hard work, but it's God who gave you the ability to get there and you turn and give him praise first. Or as I like to think a lot about life is not mainly the highs and lows.
Collin Hansen:Life is more or less pretty mundane. When things are just simple, are you still praising God? Is he still who you turn to? Is he still who you depend on and rely on? Do you give him praise when he puts you there?
Collin Hansen:See, in the good and the bad, in the hard and the prosperous, in the stale and the mundane, where you look to for your hope, for your salvation, is where your faith lies. And you might you might say, hey Craig, I get it. Alright. In in the highs and the lows and the mundane, I'm to turn to God. I I want to in fact.
Collin Hansen:As a believer, as someone who follows Jesus, I want to follow what God has for me. But a lot of times times when when I sense that, when he gives me a direction, when he gives me a certain call on my life, it's really really tough to step out and do it. I think, hey, that thing, you're calling me to that, you want me to do that thing, I'm not equipped for that. I haven't had enough time to grow in my faith to get there. I don't know enough stuff to do that.
Collin Hansen:They're gonna see that I don't know everything. See, that leads me to my next question. Are you willing to step out into faith, into what the Lord is calling you to? Are you willing to step out into faith in what the lord is calling you to? See, something profound happens when the widow asks Elijah for help, from God.
Collin Hansen:Elisha actually gives her an answer from God. Like a clear direction. Like hey, this is what you are supposed to do. I don't know about you but this does not happen often in my life. There are very few times that I can look back on my life and say hey, this is that I know clearly the Lord has spoken and this is exactly it.
Collin Hansen:I know word for word, this is what I'm gonna do and this is the outcome that's going to come. And I think it's easy for us to look at this text and look at the stories, especially in the old testament, and we look at it and we're like, man, God seems to be talking an awful lot. But remember this is the only recording we have that God gave a specific clear direction to the widow. This is a big deal that he's speaking to her through Elisha. Elisha commands her to step out in the faith and trust God would provide for her.
Collin Hansen:He asks her what she has in her house and at first she states she has nothing, but it's it's almost as if she has forgotten. She she remembers this meaningless thing. She remembers she has this small jar of oil. And it's so small in fact that many believe that it was simply just enough for spiritual anointings. Elisha then tells her to leave her house, go to all of her neighbors, ask for empty, keyword empty vessels and then go home and close the door, pour out the oil that she has into these vessels until the pouring stops or until she runs out of empty vessels.
Collin Hansen:We don't see her initial reaction here to the direction that Elisha's given to her. In fact, it goes from, hey, this is the command to her back in her, back in her home with all of these empty vessels. All we know for sure is that the widow heard the direction, stepped out into faith, and obeyed the lord. She trusted that he would in fact provide. And as I read through this passage, this gap from her doing the collection of the vessels to her being in, her own home actually sticks out to me in a pretty profound way.
Collin Hansen:Right? Because she's directed to go to her neighbors. It says all of her neighbors. People that she knew and people that knew her circumstances. People that may or may not follow God and she's asked to go ask them for vessels.
Collin Hansen:And this may not seem like a big deal, but I read through this and I'm sitting down this thought trail of wondering what this would look like if I was given this command. If I was told to go in my extreme poverty, to go door to door asking for these empty vessels. And I think of it, honestly, follow me, I I think it would go a lot like me knocking on the door and probably stuttering through my words and saying like, yeah, hey, hey, you know, I'm in I'm in great need. The creditor has told me that it's gonna take my sons, but hey, I talked to this guy Elisha and and and he claims that that he is a prophet of the one true God. And he told me that if I can just collect empty vessels, then, then then my then he'll he'll do some miracle for me.
Collin Hansen:And I could just see them just staring at me. And just, what? You're gonna do what? You have nothing. You think that they're going to God's gonna multiply your like, that makes no sense.
Collin Hansen:You're crazy. Why would you even think that this would actually happen to someone like you? A widow. One that's tossed to the side, who is in extreme poverty. Why would you think this god would provide for you?
Collin Hansen:But they give it to her. They give her these empty vessels. And she goes from door to door and she probably has more of these awkward conversations and she collects the vessels. And I don't know if this actually happened for her, but I can just picture myself as I go from house to house beginning to wonder what in the world am I doing? Is this actually going to work?
Collin Hansen:Is God actually going to fulfill this promise he's given me? Is he gonna show up? Is he going to do the thing? And I probably would have given up or I probably would not have gathered that many vessels. But we know that the widow doesn't because she returns to her home with a bunch of vessels.
Collin Hansen:And this should teach us something. Oftentimes, the thing the things that the Lord calls us to come with difficult, awkward or hard conversation and actions. Sharing Christ with that friend or family member who doesn't know Jesus might involve awkwardness or talking through hard topics. Abstaining from certain activities because you know you're called to pursue holiness could result in being made fun of, being being being called names or being left out of being invited to the thing. Taking the job that might pay less because you know the Lord is calling you to it might bring great concern or questions from well meaning people.
Collin Hansen:Because living in accordance to how you sense God directing you can be difficult. We state that we desire to follow God but yet when he directs us, we have a real hard time being willing to do as He directs. May we, may I, may you be like the widow. May we not only desire earnestly to hear from God and follow his lead, but also step into faith and actually do it. See the widow stepping out into faith resulted in God providing for her needs.
Collin Hansen:Why? Because our God is one who holds to his promises and fulfills the things he says he will he will do and we can trust that. No matter the difficulties that may come in life, no matter the awkward conversations or awkward questions, obeying God and walking in accordance to his directing is rewarding, fulfilling and so worth it. You may sit there and say to yourself, Craig, you don't understand. Most of the time, I don't get an experience like the widow.
Collin Hansen:I don't sense the Lord leading me in one direction or another and you could be right. Sometimes God does not give us clear direction like the widow and he simply asks us to step out into faith and trust that he will provide and give us what we need and meet our needs. But I would ask before you get to that point, before you simply state, I don't hear the Lord speaking, I don't hear him talking to me, I would truly ask you to think about it and ask yourself, do you fight to quiet the silence in the noise of your own thoughts in the world, in those around you? Do you fight for that silence in order to hear the lord's leading? In order to hear his prompting?
Collin Hansen:In order to hear his voice? Are you taking the highs and lows in the decisions of life to him first? Are you connected to the vine in such a way that it gives you confidence? That when you sense the Lord leading you, you have confidence that it's his voice and not your own. Do you fight for that?
Collin Hansen:Do you fight for that silence? See, this is not an easy thing in learning to discern the leading of God is one that comes with time. But it comes with time in word and in prayer and in worship that you learn to hear his voice. See, if we're not willing to step, to step out in faith to what God clearly directs us, then why would we think we would when things aren't as clear? Last point.
Collin Hansen:Our stepping out into faith grows our faith in God. Our stepping out into faith grows our faith in God. See, as Elisha instructed the widow, in, in what to do for the miracle that was coming, it was clear that she was to do the things. She was to collect the vessels. She was to pour the oil.
Collin Hansen:She was to have faith that the oil would continue flowing. It wasn't something that she was asked to pass off to others. It wasn't something that she at What she was told that she could rely on others to do. No. She was to fully trust the lord that the little oil that she had left, the only thing she had left, would in fact multiply.
Collin Hansen:The widow was commanded to pour out all that she had in order to trust that God would answer her cry for help and perform a miracle. Elisha made her do the pouring because when God calls us to step out into faith, we have to do it. God wants to trust that God wants to see that we trust him. And the beautiful thing to me about this story is that the oil stopped pouring in the exact moment that she had no more vessels to fill. The provision was given exactly according to the to the amount she gathered.
Collin Hansen:No less and no more. If she trusted God with a little, then she would have had a little. And if she trusted him with much, then she would have had more. Can you imagine as she was filling these vessels, as she continued to pour out from this small jar, as she a for the Lord after this and during it? She stepped out into faith and God answered in a mighty way and her needs were met.
Collin Hansen:And she now has this super profound moment that propels her forward, that propels her further into faith and trust that this God, this one that she claims to serve, is the one true God. He's one that she can trust and she can follow. And isn't this how God uses our answered prayers and our cries in our own life? How sweet it is when I think back on the ways that God has been faithful to me. How sweet it is to remember those times and then to step out into faith again.
Collin Hansen:Like even when I doubt, even when I find myself in a hard situation, even when I don't know which way is up or down, I can trust that God will come through because he has before and he will again. How sweet this is that we can step out into faith only for God to answer, which gives us a deeper trust that he will the next time, when we find our self in doubt or a tough situation. And before you jump to the conclusion, I know in our circles a lot of times, we're real weary of the prosperity gospel that, hey, you're just telling me that if I just pray for something that God is going to give it to me no matter what. No, I'm not saying that. But please remember James 42 to 3.
Collin Hansen:You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. The widow asked and God answered. She received because she asked correctly for her needs, not her passions and God saw fit to answer her. She came to God in her great emptiness and God filled her.
Collin Hansen:Not just what she needed to pay off her debt, but verse 7 tells us that he actually gave her enough to live off from that time forward. We too, in our desire to follow god, must realize our emptiness apart from Christ. Charles Spurgeon reminds us that a full Christ is for empty sinners and for empty sinners only. We are broken and empty without Christ and in him, we find fullness of life. Every single person in this room has nothing that warrants God giving us his love.
Collin Hansen:We are empty apart from Christ just as this woman had nothing to offer. But the beautiful thing about the gospel, the beautiful thing about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, is that his blood was not just sufficient for you in the moment of salvation, but his blood was sufficient for you in every moment of every day. Scripture says that he lavishes grace upon us. Just like the widow that her needs were met here in the moment, she was given enough that she could live off after that. God gives us enough of his mercy and grace that not only are we saved in our moment of salvation, but he saves us every single day from ourselves.
Collin Hansen:And we must remember our emptiness. We must remember our great need. We must remember our brokenness that turns us back to Christ. Because when we realize that and follow him, there we find fullness of life. Not when we try to clean ourselves up.
Collin Hansen:Not when we try to figure it out on our own and then go to Lord. No. We find fullness of life when we lay, get down on our knees before the cross and say, lord, I have nothing without you. You've answered me before. You'll answer me me again, and I can trust that.
Collin Hansen:Because you're a good God, and you love me, and I love you. So if you sit here and you have never given your life to Jesus, I sit here and and and and and urge you to look at the story of the widow and see the way that god answered her. In the same way, if you cry out to god, he will answer you. He will prove to be faithful. He will give to give you a life that you could never imagine, a life full of hope, peace, and joy.
Collin Hansen:No matter if you find yourself in a hard situation or one that finds you beat down and and crushed or on top of the mountain, he will give that to you. And if you are in Christ Jesus, may you be reminded that this god you serve, the one who's proved to be faithful to you in the past, will be faithful to for to you in the future. Step out. Trust him. Follow him.
Collin Hansen:Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, I admit, just even as I'm speaking these words, Lord, that I far too often rely on myself and others around me. I don't go to you first. I don't go to you when I need you, Lord. I figure it out on my own and then I turn to you.
Collin Hansen:Lord, I repent of that. Lord, I pray for all of us here, Lord. I pray that we would be a people that go out from here that are fully dependent and reliant reliant on you. Lord, that we would be a people that seek you in our in our prayer, in our word. Lord, and I pray that you would reveal yourself to us.
Collin Hansen:I pray, Lord, that we would see where you are directing us. So we will see where you are calling us. Lord, that we would be willing to step out no matter how hard it may be. We'd step out and trust you. Lord, you tell us, those who seek you will find you.
Collin Hansen:So Lord, reveal yourself. Lord, and in that, Lord, maybe just walk humbly and obediently with you. Lord, we love you and pray all these things in your name. Amen.
