Give to God First

First Kings chapter 17, verse 8 and following, says: “Then the word came to him”—to Elijah—and that “then” is there because something came before it. A few verses earlier, Elijah had fled from Jezebel and Ahab because he had declared a drought as judgment against Israel for its sin and corruption. God had told Elijah to escape into the wilderness and had hidden him there near a brook, and He had sent ravens—you remember that famous story—ravens to feed him. Elijah remained hidden there for a time, held in reserve, but after God had provided for him in that extraordinary way, it says that the brook dried up, and then it was time to seek another solution. Very interesting; we do not have time to discuss all of that, but the point is that God then gives the prophet instructions to go somewhere else, and this is where the narrative begins.

It says: “Then,” after the brook dried up, “the word of the Lord came to him”—to Elijah—“saying, ‘Arise, go to Zarephath of Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.’ So he arose and went to Zarephath.”

“And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, ‘Please bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.’” A very brief aside—and this has almost nothing to do with the subject—but this thought captivated me: How old do you think this widow was? How many years old? She was probably a younger woman, because when we think of a widow, we generally picture a woman who is rather advanced in years. But the fact that she has a son, and that on one occasion Elijah carries him and she carries him too—later on there is the story of the son dying and being raised from the dead by the prophet—shows that she is evidently a relatively young woman, in the prime of her life. Yet she is already a widow and is in a very, very desperate situation.

I find that interesting because sometimes we think, well, that someone is already advanced in years and that is why she is a widow. But no, this is a woman going through a relatively early stage of her life, and the Lord calls her in order, in a sense, to redeem her from her misery. And she is there gathering sticks, and he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she was going to bring him the water, he called to her again and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread.”

It occurred to me just now that one day someone could preach a sermon entitled “The Things God Comes Up With,” because notice that the prophet says to her, “Bring me a little water,” and then, as a second little thing, “And if you bring me a little piece of bread, I will appreciate that too.” That little afterthought is the central part of the entire message.

You know how sometimes God seems to prepare the ground so He can trip us up, and sometimes He tells us, “Do this,” and we say, “Oh, of course, I can do that,” but then He has something else that is more important? So that second thought from Elijah was: “Oh, bring me a little bread too, if you can.”

But in verse 12 she answered him, “As the Lord your God lives”—in other words, pay attention to what I am about to tell you—“I have no baked bread, only a handful of flour in the jar and a little oil in a vessel. And now I was gathering two sticks so that I could go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and then let ourselves die.”

If there is a grim and tragic scene in Scripture, this is one of them. A woman who has already reached the very end of her resources, with one last meal remaining, and she knows that what awaits her on the other side of that meal is certain death—death by starvation—because there ain’t no more, as they say; not even manna. There simply ain’t no more this time. Nothing remains: just a little oil to make a small loaf of bread, and then to shut herself in a room simply to wait for death.

The interesting thing is that in verse 13—I say that verse 12 is one thing and verse 13 is another—verse 12 is life lived without God, life lived solely with the resources one has, life lived simply with one’s bare hands: with your mind, your resources, and your circumstances, but without any divine intervention. And this woman has reached the end of her life.

And that is often what happens to many of us. Many times we are living through circumstances in life which, if measured simply from the standpoint of what I can do—like so many people in this world: there are many highly educated, highly gifted people who do not have God in their hearts, do not have Christ in their lives, and do not have either the Word or the principles of the Gospel to help them—they can depend only on the resources they themselves possess.

Let me tell you, brother, that life is far too dangerous, far too complicated, and far too threatening for you to try to live it with your own resources. Every man and every woman, no matter how gifted, needs an Almighty God. (Applause.)

Because this world is one great trap; it is a minefield, and you do not know where the explosive mines are. You walk along, and perhaps on the first day, the second day, or in year 25, everything goes relatively well for you. But one day, if you are using only your own resources, you are going to step on a mine. It may be a mine of anxiety, a mine of marital problems, a family mine, an explosive mine involving your emotions or your family lineage, a demonic attack, or whatever it may be. But if all you have are your personal resources with which to deal with that crisis, sooner or later you are going to be defeated, because no one can live this life with complete success unless they have God as their resource. And that is something we must carry in our hearts today.

If you are living life today solely with your own resources, instead of doing what every human being must do—which is to admit that you cannot live by yourself, that you need an Almighty God to take you like a fragile child in His Hands and carry you along the pathways of life—then you must understand that every human being has to reach that moment.

As I was coming in the car this morning to prepare for this service, I was saying to the Lord, “Take me in Your Hands and carry me through the next few hours.” And God brought me, brothers, into a moment of deep conviction that by myself I am not capable of guiding this people, protecting them from the enemy’s attacks, and keeping them healthy and safe; that as the senior pastor of this congregation I desperately need the Grace and mercy of God upon my life; that by myself the only thing I could produce would be a disaster; that I even need God to protect me from myself; and that all the glory and all the honor belong exclusively to the Lord.

Brother, we must cultivate a sense of fragility in our lives; that is a good thing. People think exactly the opposite: that we should cultivate a sense of strength and self-sufficiency. No. The son or daughter of God must continually recognize that we can never succeed by relying on our own resources, because life and the devil will always be more powerful than we are, and that is why we need the additional strength that only God can provide.

At the moment Elijah finds her, this woman is the symbol of a human being living life with her own resources, and the water is already up to her neck. She is preparing to eat the last little morsel of bread she has and then lie down to die. But now, in verse 13, the Grace of God enters; the presence of the Kingdom of God, embodied in the prophet Elijah, enters. With the prophet Elijah, resources enter this woman’s life; authority enters; the person centered on the Power of God enters; the person who knows that God is real and who knows that he can say, as Elijah continually did, “As God lives, in whose presence I stand.”

Can we be that person who makes a difference upon entering a home where there is a crisis, a marriage that is breaking apart, a place where there is sickness, or a place where there is despair and mental anguish? And when we enter, can the Presence of God and the Kingdom of God enter with us? Then we can intervene, intercede, and declare the Grace of God, because the Kingdom of God enters with us. That is what Elijah represents at this moment. Elijah represents the Grace of God entering a desperate life and changing the entire picture.

Then Elijah says, “Do not be afraid.” My brothers, I wish that every one of us this afternoon—myself included—would stock up on that call: “Do not be afraid.” No matter how difficult your life may seem, if the Lord is with us, who can be against us?

Elijah tells her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said,” and here is the key: “But first make me a small cake from it, baked under the ashes, and bring it to me.” I want you to focus your mind on this Word, because this is the heart of the sermon: “Make one for me first.”

Elijah says to her, “Yes, I know your situation is desperate. I know you are in a profound deficit.” And instead of telling her, “Do not worry; it is all right. Eat your little meal there, and I will manage as best I can,” he tells her something that would seem utterly outrageous and selfish. He tells her, “Make one for me first.”

Brother, if that is all I manage to say this afternoon, you have enough to go home nourished—well nourished spiritually: “Give to God first.” That is the title of this sermon: “Give to God First.” Put that into your heart and your conscience right now: “Give to God first.”

Elijah speaks as a representative of the Kingdom of God, because this is not merely Elijah in his flesh saying, “No, I want to eat first.” No. Elijah is a prophet of God. Elijah embodies authority; he embodies the concerns of the Kingdom of God; he represents the Presence of God on Earth. He has Israel in checkmate through the drought he has declared. Elijah represents God’s living, walking authority on Earth.

And so, by serving the prophet, she is not merely serving a flesh-and-blood man; she is serving the Kingdom of God that he embodies. Am I making myself clear? And that is something very important that we must understand, brother.

When we serve the concrete manifestations of the Kingdom of God on Earth, by extension we are serving God, and it is important for us to understand that. The Bible says that when you bless a prophet because he is a prophet, you will receive a prophet’s reward, does it not?

In one of the parables, the Lord Jesus Christ says that a day will come, on the Day of Judgment, when He will say to some, “Come, enter My Kingdom, because I was naked and you clothed Me; I was hungry and you gave Me food.” And the people are puzzled. I would not ask Him that question. If God tells me, “Come, enter,” I am not going to ask Him, “Oh, but explain that to me.” No, I would go in! But these people say to Him, “But Lord, when did we see You hungry and give You food?” Be quiet! (Laughter.) Just go in and enjoy it! “When did we see You hungry and give You food? When did we see You naked and clothe You?” And He says, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of these little ones, you did it to Me.”

You have to expand your mind to see that many times the things you do in the Lord’s Name and for the extension of the Lord’s glory are also being done for Him and for His Kingdom. Many times we do not make that connection, and that is why I think we are sometimes stingy and tightfisted when we have an opportunity to be used to bless others.

Some people think, “Well, why do I have to give my tithe to the Church? Why do I have to serve without pay in the congregation’s various ministries?” Brother, because the Church is the place God has chosen; it is the instrument God has chosen to channel His Grace here on Earth. And when you bless your Church, when you bless someone from the family of God, when you bless someone in the Name of the Lord and because you are being a channel of blessing, and you consecrate that moment and that act, it is because you are doing it for the Lord.

So when Elijah tells this woman, “Give to me first,” he is telling her to invest in the Kingdom of God. And he is also telling her something very important, which is the heart of this message: Many times we cannot wait for God to solve every problem in our lives before we give to the Lord. And it does not have to mean giving financially, brother—I want to make that clear. It means sharing the resources God has given us in any creative way in order to advance His Kingdom.

It may mean helping someone in need; it may mean volunteering in one of the Church’s ministries; it may mean blessing someone in need; it may mean taking a little of your time to call a lonely elderly member of the Church who is in need, visiting a family that has suffered a loss, or praying with someone at work—all in the Name of the Lord. We are instruments in the Hands of God, and we should see ourselves that way, because if we wait until we have all the strength and all the resources necessary to do God’s work, we will never do it.

And God chose this woman, a symbol of utter scarcity, a symbol of helplessness, a symbol of the inability to help anyone, because she does not even have enough for herself.

The truth is that God has a sense of humor, doesn’t He? God has a sense of irony, because He could have chosen one of the rich people in the region. He could have chosen someone who had enough food, a merchant, the owner of a food reserve—but no. He chose a woman who did not have a penny to her name, and He orders that woman to sustain the prophet—the condition God places upon her—and how many times, brothers and sisters, God tests us in very small ways.

Many of us want to be great evangelists; we want God to use us to bring in multitudes. We say, “Lord, take me to such-and-such a country, and I will offer You my body as a sacrifice,” and then someone comes along saying, “Brother, could you offer me a plate of food or something?” Or an opportunity to serve arises in the church, and we say, “No, I’m too tired.”

We can go to a midweek service to honor the Lord, and we feel the prompting in our spirit to go: “No, I have to get up tomorrow morning and I have to work; I have to get up and struggle with that alarm clock. I’m too tired; I can’t, and I shouldn’t”—and perhaps you are missing out on a great blessing.

There are times when God presents Himself to us in very small ways to test us and see what our heart is made of, and if we were to say yes, at that moment, by faith, God would open the windows of heaven and bless us. I wonder how many opportunities to be blessed in our lives we have missed because we failed a small test that God brought us.

She surely did not know Elijah; she did not know that perhaps the most powerful man on Earth at that time was standing before her, but he says to her, “Give to me; make something for me first.” Brothers and sisters, that is the key—I tell you, that is the key to a powerful life in the Christian faith. That is the key to a life of power, success, influence, and fruitfulness in the Kingdom; to seeing your prayers answered, your needs supplied, and the desires of your heart fulfilled; to seeing and experiencing the benefit and faithfulness of the Kingdom of God and the promises of God: give to God first.

Many people wonder, “But the Bible promises me this, God promises me that, and I do not see any of it. I spend my entire life trying to get going, but I never move forward.” And perhaps it is because there is a tumor in our spiritual circulatory system that is holding back the flow of God’s blessing, and it is that we have not given our heart and our priority to the Lord.

There is an Isaac; there is something we love more than God, something we may not have admitted, but in our spirit, in our mind, and in our subconscious we have said, “Yes, Lord, You may have 98 percent, but unfortunately I cannot give You that 2 percent.”

It may be a habit in your life; it may be a trait of your temperament; it may be an attitude; it may be that there are things you value more: your privacy, your comfort, your social or financial position, people’s esteem, your reputation, the friends whose company gives you so much pleasure. There is something about which you have said, “I am willing to give the Lord everything else, but He must not touch that.” And perhaps you have not said it verbally, but God does not go only by what you verbally admit. God knows the fibers of your heart, and it says that God reaches even to the marrow and divides the thoughts of the heart, and that nothing is hidden from His scrutiny.

And God knows those areas of our lives—and let me tell you, we all have them—that we have not yet surrendered to the Lord. What interests God is that you go to that place, to that which puts God in second place; and until you are willing to give Him that precious thing in your life, you are stuck, because the Lord will settle for nothing less than first place in the heart of a man or woman.

When the rich young man hurried to Jesus and urgently said to Him, “Lord Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”—you remember the passage—the Lord says to him, “Well,” going back to the Lord’s unexpected ways, right? “Well, nothing; keep the commandments and behave yourself.” And he says to Him, “But Lord, I have done that since my youth; that is easy.” And the Lord says to him, “Ah, well, look, the only thing you have to do is this: go to your bank account, withdraw all the money you have, give it to the poor, and follow Me. You will find the satisfaction you need; you will find that salvation and security you are seeking.”

The Bible says that the young man went away sorrowful because he came to a realization in his mind: “Am I willing to give up my money, my reputation, my social influence?” And when he counted the cost, he realized that he was not willing to give up those things, and the Lord Jesus was saddened with him because He understood that it was a sacrifice.

If you look throughout all of Scripture, you see those moments of crisis when a person is backed against the wall and asked, “Which do you prefer more, the Kingdom of God or the things of this world?” And I believe that is the key, brother. Once you have resolved that issue in your life, then God’s blessings will flow. You will have trials; you will have difficulties, but you will emerge victorious because the Lord joins Himself to you and says, “Now I can work; now we can walk together; now I can do what I have wanted to do in your life.”

And this woman’s life—at least the next few minutes of her life—depends on that little bit of flour and that little bit of oil, and Elijah, as the embodiment of the Kingdom of God, says to her, “Look, dare to do it; make something for me first.” And then he tells her, “For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel”—wow. Have you ever stopped to consider those words? “For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel.” I ask the Lord to help me and all of us to speak with that authority.

How many of us can say, “For thus says God”? And can we pray that way and walk with that authority? That does not come easily, brothers and sisters; it comes at a very great price.

But Elijah can speak with that prophetic authority, and he says to her, “Listen to me: the flour in the jar will not run out, nor will the oil in the vessel diminish, until the day the LORD sends rain upon the face of the Earth.” In other words, he tells her, “Look, if you obey me, if you dare to go against your mind, against your reason”—because that is one of the things that so often keeps us, brothers and sisters, from doing the Lord’s will and entering that stage of glory and victory: our mind betrays us, and we begin doing the math. “Ah, but if I do this, that will happen to me; if I do this, then I will lose the other thing; if I rush into it...” So many things compete with our opportunity to enter into the Lord’s blessing.

Right now, there may be people in this congregation to whom God has been speaking for a long time about this: “Give to Me first. Surrender your life. Believe Me. Open your will; open your heart and your spirit.” And there are twenty thousand excuses we give the Lord: “This is not the time. I do not feel ready. I have to straighten out a number of things. My life is not in order. Ah, those are human foolishnesses. I can do that at home, and I do not have to do it in front of anyone. There will be another time. It is not yet time. I still have a great deal of life to enjoy”—hundreds of reasons.

There are moments when God gives you an opportunity to bless His church, to take a discipleship class and invest in your spiritual growth, to serve your congregation in some way, to take a young person under your wing and disciple and mentor them, to consecrate yourself more fully in your life, to surrender some aspect of your life and draw closer to the Lord. And one says, “Ah, another time. That is not necessary. After all, those things are foolishness. God knows my heart.” And our heart and mind begin to work, and we find ten thousand rational and logical reasons to say no to the prophet’s offer that presents itself in our lives.

And at this moment this woman has the opportunity to do something extraordinary and to leave behind an anonymous, ordinary, commonplace, impoverished life and enter into greatness—greatness lasting thousands of years. This event probably took place some three-thousand-and-something years ago—three-thousand-and-something; do the math. And this woman does not know that, at that moment, she is at a crossroads: depending on what she says to the prophet or what she does with the prophet’s offer, she will either continue in her misery or enter into spiritual greatness for all eternity.

Look at where we are today, three thousand years later, in Boston, as far as can be from the Brook Cherith and from Zarephath of Sidon, and we are talking about this woman. And let me say something else—and I hope I do not lose my train of thought—this woman is pregnant, and she does not know it. This woman carries within herself an embryo of greatness, an extraordinary mission, and she does not know it. But God has already told the prophet Elijah, “I have commanded a widow in Zarephath to feed you.”

This woman does not know it, because when the prophet approaches her, she does not recognize anything. She is simply so immersed in her deprivation and crisis that the only things she sees are her deprivation and her need. But within herself she carries a command from Almighty God, who has made her pregnant with an extraordinary mission, and every day she needs to do this: obey and launch out in faith so that the impartation of life she carries within herself may be activated.

My brothers and sisters, I wonder—this came to mind for the first time this morning as I read this passage, which I have literally read dozens and dozens of times—whether many of you, many of us, are carrying right now in our lives a mission God has for us, an embryonic greatness that is within you, while perhaps you see only what is before you right now.

I see this young woman here whom I greeted this morning, and she told me that she is joyfully taking the discipleship classes. And how wonderful that she is moving from the ordinary to the exceptional, because that takes time. You have a little baby there in your arms, and one thinks, “Oh, I have a baby; I have to care for him”—all the responsibilities of a mother. Perhaps she works and has other responsibilities, but she has decided—forgive me for putting you on the spot here—she has decided to seek more of God and invest in the Kingdom, in her spiritual growth, and in knowledge of the Word, right? Who knows whether there is a Deborah there ten or fifteen years from now, whether she is destined for—perhaps I am prophesying—(applause). Who knows what God may have in store?

Brothers and sisters, I have learned that this is not a matter of great academic pedigrees or exceptional lineage or anything extraordinary. God does whatever He pleases with whomever He pleases, and the only thing needed is a willing heart, a radical willingness to be used by God.

Over thirty-something years of pastoral ministry, brothers and sisters, I have literally seen giants born in our congregation—people of whom one might say, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Right? And God has done extraordinary things through many of you. He has activated you in the Kingdom; you have brought people to the knowledge of God; you have become teachers of the Kingdom; you have blessed and supported His church in extraordinary ways; you have inspired so many people—and that is only the beginning. I believe that each of us carries an embryo of power, life, and distinction in the Kingdom.

God had entrusted this woman with an exceptional task, and she herself did not know it. But all that was needed was a response of obedience when the prophet told her, “Give to me first; make something for me first. Prefer me, for I embody the Kingdom of God.” And she did not allow her conscience or her reason to prevent her from doing what she had to do; instead, she obeyed.

Verse 15 says, “So she went and did as Elijah told her”—she did as Elijah told her. Brothers and sisters: obedience. Many of you told me on the trip that obedience is the most important thing in the Christian life.

Brothers and sisters, sometimes it is not even conviction, because many times we feel an emotional conviction to do something, but it is obedience; it is doing things because God tells us to do them. It is following the principles of the Kingdom and then letting the Lord take care of backing up His Word.

Sometimes one gets into so many difficulties in ministry, and if it were up to the flesh and emotions, one would never do anything. Right now I am involved in these matters, as we have always been in recent years, at the level of New England and the region and all of that. And you have heard me speak about evangelism and its importance, and God is doing it—sometimes not as quickly as some of you would like, but perhaps that is because of my shortcomings or whatever the case may be. Yet I am committed to a calling from God to become a radioactively evangelistic church, and it is a commitment.

But at the New England level, I am giving the signal and raising my voice, speaking about evangelism and motivating the churches, motivating people to develop a regional evangelism strategy, and God has been meeting me along the way. There are things happening right now—things in an embryonic state involving organizations and groups. Just this week, when I was in Atlanta, Georgia, after returning from Israel, I reluctantly went to that event because someone to whom I owe a favor had committed me to it. And I went reluctantly, grumbling, as we say. But while I was there, the Lord put me in contact with resources and people concerning this matter of evangelism, and I can see how He is weaving this network together.

Now, my emotions tell me: don’t get yourself into any more trouble; you already have enough on your plate. And many times, I find myself doing things, and while I am doing them, I see myself doing them and say, “Why? You can barely keep up with what you already have.” But something inside me tells me: simply obey and give the word, and I will open the way before you.

And I have learned throughout my life that this is how it is, brother. I have to live like a pilot flying at an altitude of 32,000 feet in the middle of the night over an ocean. There is nothing to tell him which way to go except the instruments in front of him: his instrument panel, the compass, the computer, or whatever it may be. He simply cannot allow himself to be guided by external signs; he has to follow what the instruments say.

My brother, you must learn, and I must learn, to live by what comes from the mouth of God—the Word that comes from the mouth of God. As you learn the principles of the Kingdom, as you learn to live according to what the Word says, and as you obey those principles, you will always be blessed, and God will always support you.

Do not be guided by your emotions. Do not even be guided by what makes sense on a rational level. Be guided by what the Word of the Lord says, and you will always come through successfully. If you have discerned the Will of God and are certain that God is the One calling you, go for it, and the Lord will carry you through.

This woman heard the prophet’s Word, obeyed, and stepped out in the Name of the Lord. Elijah’s promise was: if you give to me first, the oil will not diminish and the flour will not run out.