Stretch Pt 4

Message Text

Isaiah 54:2

“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.

1 Kings 17:7-16

It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for 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 get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.” As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.” But she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.” Then Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. For thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain on the face of the earth.’” So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah.

Message Notes

1. It always starts with what you have right now.

Elisha did not instruct the widow to find more, he said use what you have.

What you currently have and God is always more than what you need.

2. Make sure the work will produce something.

I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

The work she was about to do was going to produce nothing.

3. Don’t eat the investment

Your increase comes from what you have

The farmer always plants first for a harvest.

Returns are produced from consistency and quantity.

4. What is possible with what I have?

I know what I can do with what I have, but what can God do with what I have?

It is only when we give control of the ingredients that we see what God can do with them.

Elijah promises that the oil will not run out until it rains.

Connect Group Questions

  1. What is the danger of an “I don’t have enough” mindset?
  2. Have you ever found yourself making excuses why you couldn’t do more?
  3. Discuss the idea that there is a certain type of work that does not produce.
  4. When harvest comes from planting why is it so important at harvest time to think about planting?
  5. Discuss the idea of “scaling” the investment.
  6. Talk about a time where God did more than you could have with what you already had.