This Week's Sermon

Be Still And Wait On God, God Will Fix It

 

(Psalms 46:10)  Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

 

In our text today we have several situations where God shows us his divine providence.

 

First, we have the situation of a widow woman- this woman had been married to one of the sons of the prophets, she has two sons. She was in debt to a creditor. The creditor is demanding to be paid but there is no money to pay. In order to be paid the creditor is going to take the two sons to settle the debt. By her being widowed her support will be gone if the creditor takes away the two sons. So she is crying out for help. When the prophet Elisha hears her cry he asks what he can do for her. He asks her what she has in her house. She answers him that she has nothing except a pot of oil.

 

The prophet tells her to go and borrow lots of empty vessels from her neighbors. He continues to instruct her that when she has the vessels go inside and shut the door behind her, and from the pot of oil that she has in her house she is to pour oil out of it into those empty vessels and fill them up. So she did what the prophet had told her to do, and when it came to pass when all the vessels were full she asked for more, but there wasn't any more vessels to be filled, so her pot of oil stopped producing oil. She went and told the prophet what had happened, and he told her to sell the oil and to pay her debt, and what is left over for her and her children to live off the rest. God will supply your needs according to his riches in glory. Just be still and know that God will fix it, just in the nick of time.

 

The next situation is when Elisha is seen by this Shunammite woman, this great woman. Great in the sense that she has everything she need and have a want for nothing. Through her generosity she encouraged him to stop by and eat bread with them. So this went on several times that he went in and ate with them. So she spoke to her husband and said, I think this is a holy man of God who keeps eating with us. Let's build a room for him on the side of the house, and furnish it with a bed and a table and stool, and let’s put a candle in there so he can have some light, and when he comes by the next time he can go in and rest himself. So the next time the prophet Elisha came by that he and his servant Gehazi went in and were laying around that Elisha said to Gehazi, call this Shunammite woman. So she came and stood before him, and he asked her what they could do for her. She told them I am with my own people. In other words I really don't need anything. But Gehazi said she had no child, and her husband is an old man. So let's surprise her with a promise of a child. So when she came to them Elisha told her that nine months from now she would embrace a son. She could not believe what she was hearing, and she thought the man of God was lying to her. But nine months later she had a son. Just Be Still and Know that God will fix it.

 

But her story doesn't end there.

The child grew up and one day he went with his father into the field. I don't know what happened to him, I can only speculate that he had a heat stroke, but he cried out to his father, my head, my head. So the father told a young boy to carry him back home to his mother so she could care for him. So he made it home and was sitting in his mother's lap until noon time and then he died.

 

So his mother took him to Elisha's room, and she laid him on Elisha's bed, she shut the door behind her and went out. She sent for her husband and evidently her husband had come in to check on the son and she asked him if she could go to the prophet with one of the young men, He asked her why because it is neither new moon nor sabbath. The significance of the time of it being a new moon was when a person repented of sins, the time of the new moon was the time of renewal or the time of refreshing. While the sabbath was the time for going to the synagogue. It was neither of those times so why do you want to go to see him today? In my words I say she knew where to go for help. She said It's all going to be alright, if I can just make it to the man of God. She told the driver don't slow down for anything except I tell you to stop. Elisha saw her and recognized her, and he told Gehazi  to run and meet her and to ask her what was wrong. She made it to Mount Carmel where the prophet Elisha was, and she bowed down at his feet, and Gehazi wanted to push her away, but Elisha could see that something was troubling her and that God had not revealed it to him.

 

She asked the prophet; Did I ask you for a child? Didn't I ask you not to deceive me? Elisha said to Gehazi, get ready to go and take my staff with you, and when you are going don't speak to anybody on the way, and when you get to the house lay my staff upon the face of the child. Then the mother said I'm not going to leave you until I get an answer. They started toward the house. Gehazi arrived at the house and found the child was dead, and when he did what Elisha told him to do; the child remained dead. He went and told Elisha that the child didn't wake up from the dead. Elisha went into the house and found the child lying on his bed but was dead. Elisha went into the room and shut the door and prayed to the LORD. Elisha went to the child laid himself on him and performed what I call mouth to mouth resuscitation. The child's flesh warmed up, but he was none responsive. Elisha did it again and he walked back and forth and laid on the child again, and this time the child sneezed seven times and he opened his eyes. Elisha called for Gehazi and told him to call for the child's mother, and he told her to take her son with her. Just be still and know that God will fix it.

 

Later on Elisha was with the sons of the prophets during a time of hunger through the land. Elisha told the servant to boil some pottage. One of the men went out and gathered some wild herbs from a vine. He shredded them into the boiling pottage, not knowing what they were. When they began to eat they found that the pottage was poison, so they stopped eating. Elisha told them to bring him some meal, and he put it into the pottage, and they ate the pottage with no harm to them. If you just be still and know that God will fix whatever the problem is that you have.

Later on there came in a man and he brought twenty loaves bread and some corn from his first fruit, and he gave it to the prophet Elisha. Elisha told the servant to serve the food to about a hundred hungry men. The servant hesitated because he thought it was not enough for the men to eat. But the prophet of God told him that everybody will eat and there would be leftovers. So they all ate and there was food left over. Be still and know that God will fix whatever situation there is.

 

In summary it's yours for the asking. Jesus saw the needs of many that he came in contact with. Look at the wedding in Cana. The wine was gone, but when you call on Jesus, the need will be met.

 

Look at the centurion whose child lay sick and dying. He called on Jesus and as Jesus was on his way others were healed.

 

You have the situation of blind Bartimaeus who called on the name of Jesus and Jesus opened his blind eyes. You have the ten lepers who called on Jesus and Jesus healed them of their leprosy. Look at Peter and the other disciples who had fished all night long and caught nothing. When Jesus showed up they got more than they could have ever expected.

 

I could go on and on with the wonderful works that Jesus did for others, but I can only testify of a surety what he has done for me. When the devil stole all my goods, not once but several times. Jesus replaced all and gave me more. When the devil tried to take my life with heart attacks, and with stealing my blood, Jesus stepped in and grew another artery on my heart and kept me alive. Jesus filled a half empty body of blood for me and filled it up giving me my strength.

 

I don't know all of what He has done for you, but if you are trying to fix your situation yourself, Stop, and turn the situation over to him. He can do more for you and your situation than you can possibly imagine.

 

When you were dead in sin, Jesus who knew no sin came and lived a sinless life, he was wounded for your transgressions, he was bruised for your lawlessness, he was beaten with many stripes so that you could be healed.

 

He hung out on the cross and died a cruel death taking away my sins and yours. He was laid in a borrowed tomb for three days and three nights. But early on the first day of the week, he got up out of death and the grave, to save sinners like you and me. He ascended into heaven with the promise that he was going to return to take us back to the place that he went to prepare for us.

 

Know for a certainty that his words are true and that he is coming back for us just like he said he would. It is up to us to be ready for his return.

 

I want to be ready; I want to be ready; I want to be ready to walk in Jerusalem just like John.