Thursday, November 10, 2011

Living in the Spacious Place: How to Defeat the Poverty Spirit

Sermon Notes
November 6, 2011

Sermon: Living in the Spacious Place: How to Defeat the Poverty Spirit
Sermon Text: 1 Kings 17: 7-16

7 And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.” 11 And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 So she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” 13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. 14 “For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day of the Lord sends rain on the earth.’ 15 So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah.

There are times in our lives where we just don’t have enough. Examples: we don’t have enough time to do what we need to do or we don’t have enough money to pay the bills. The moment when you don’t have enough, you have a poverty spirit.

In this text, we see that not only does the widow have a poverty spirit, but the land had a poverty spirit as well. She didn’t have enough faith to overcome her situation. The definition of a poverty spirit is when your situation is bigger than your God.

Step 1: Don’t Be Afraid (vs 13)
Elijah knew that the woman was afraid by her actions and wanted her to deal with her fear. Fear is where the poverty spirit grows.

FEAR acronym:
F-alse
E-vidence
A-ppearing
R-eal

A.)Fear eliminates faith-whenever God gets ready to do something big, he says “fear not”
B.)Fear freezes you
C.)Fear causes you to fixate on your problems-the more you think about it, the bigger the problem gets

Step 2: Go Home (vs 13)
Elijah told her to go home because that’s where the spirit of poverty lived. The only way you can have faith is that you have to do something.

It is at your home where you learn if you’re going to have faith or live in your poverty situation. Many times we have the mindset of: “my level of living should be everyone else’s level of living as well.”

Step 3: Obey The Word (vs 13)
Elijah wanted the woman to change around her routine.

God will put you in a situation where you MUST use your faith. Sometimes God has to get you to your last, so you can learn to put him first.

Step 4: Watch God Show Up (vs 16)
God has promised some things over your life and he will bring it to pass with your obedience to the word. He will show up and be there EVERY day.

Conclusion:
Many times God has spoken something over your life, but you need a man of God to challenge you and push you past where you are.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for your thoughts! Come again soon!

Virtual Family Sunday Questions

What ways can we create community as a family? How has our viewership/church attendance enhanced or diminished our family covenant? What way...