First Kings 17. I won't read the whole passage again and I just asked brother Vogt to read it. I'll recap just a little bit here for you. So, you have context if you haven't been here for the last couple weeks. The wicked king of Israel, Northern Israel, by the name of Ahab, married a Sidonian princess by the name of Jezebel.

She was a worshiper of the idol Baal. And she convinced her husband to convert and he converted almost the entire northern nation of Israel to Baal worship. Now, these are God's chosen people. These are the ones to whom God gave the land and here they are turning from the worship of the true and living God to worship a false and lifeless idol. Was God happy?

The answer is no. God had warned them all the way back in Deuteronomy. He said, when I when I take you to the land and you forget how you got here and who gave it to you and you turn for me to worship other idols, you can be sure judgement will come. If you're faithful to me, you'll stay in the land forever but if you turn to idols, I will cast you back out of the land just as quick as I brought you in. That is about to happen.

Shortly, in Israel but not quite yet. This wicked king Ahab to this wicked king Ahab, God sent a prophet, prophet by the name of Elijah. We read about him in verse one of chapter 17. We don't hear about him at all until this chapter. Boom.

Here's Elijah, okay? Comes on the scene, prophet of God, speaking for God, says to Ahab, it's not going to rain again until I say so and it didn't for three and a half years. Remember, Elijah was speaking for who? He was speaking for God. It wasn't Elijah that had confidence in Elijah.

It was Elijah that had confidence in the word of who? The word of God and so he confidently spoke and stood upon God's word and indeed God kept his promise. It didn't rain as a means of judgement upon Northern Israel to turn them back from the worship of Baal to the back to the worship of the true and living God. In the meantime, no rain. Elijah needed food and water just as much as everybody else.

So, in the first seven verses, we didn't read today. We covered last week. God provided for Elijah at a brook. He sent ravens with food to bring him food and he sustain him from the water of the brook but after a time, what happened to the brook? The brook dried up.

No rain, the brook dries up. And so God, in turn, sends him to a wealthy person in Israel whom he could stay with, who had all these means to provide for him until the famine was over. True or false? False. He sent him to of all places, Sidon, this wicked kingdom where Jezebel came from and there in Sidon, God told him to find a widow lady to sustain him.

A widow lady in Sidon kind of an odd choice it seems but sometimes God's choices do seem a bit odd to us at the time. God says simply to trust in the Lord with what? All your heart. Lean not into your own understanding in all thy ways. Acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.

I'm sure that Joshua found it kind of odd when God said, when you get to Jericho, here's how you're going to defeat it. You're going to walk around at 13 times around the walls and then you're going to shout and praise God and the walls are going to come down, okay? That's not a normal war strategy, okay? But it was God's strategy and it worked because of course, God's strategies always work. So, he sent Elijah to the widow lady in Sidon.

A city called Zarephath and there, God day by day provided for Elijah and for the widow and for her son. When he arrived in Sidon, she had nothing. She had just a little bit of meal left. She was going to make the last cake, last bit of bread for her and her son and they were going be out of food and she assumed they were going to die but God is always shows up at just the wife, just the right time, in his time, in his time. He knows what he's doing.

He provided for Elijah and he provided for this for this widow lady and he was glorified before her even in the nation of Sidon which most certainly brought faith to her also. So, this is where we pick up in our story. Point, I have just two points. They're not kind of big points but two points this morning from the message and first one is this, God's blessing in the midst of the storm. God's blessing in the midst of the storm.

There was a great storm. Unfortunately, it wasn't the kind of storm that brought rain. It was it was a famine. It was a drought. It was a very difficult trial in which Elijah and many others in Israel found themselves but God brought blessings in the midst of the great trial and God took care of Elijah and the widow.

They were doing very fine health wise. Thanks to Lord Lord's provision despite the darkness of the famine in the land. God has shown himself faithful to his prophet and his mercy and grace to this widow lady and to her son who would have likely died had God not intervened. Day by day, God provided for their nourishment in a time when they could not provide for themselves. Does that ever happen to us?

It may. It may. There's a time to work hard and provide for yourself and your family as the Lord gives opportunity and strength and he does expect that of his children. He doesn't, we should not expect to get everything just handed to us without any effort. First Timothy five eight, God says this, but if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.

There were people in this time when Paul wrote to Timothy in this church who supposed that the Lord was going to come back soon and and they just didn't need see any need to work and they were just going to live off the charity of others and God said, no, you need to work. If you can work, you need to work. You need to provide for your own family. But there are may, there may come a time and often does if you live long enough. There may come a time to look to the Lord for what you cannot provide for yourself and accept the charity and help of others and God will be there for his children who truly need his help.

As we should be there for them also. Psalm thirty seven twenty five, David said this, I have been young and now I'm old. Yet, have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. Why? Because God takes care of his own.

He takes care of those who serve him. We learned Matthew six thirty three last week but seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you and God keeps his promise in times when we are able to work, in times when we're not, in times when food is bountiful, in times when it is not, God always comes through for those who put God first in their life. That is certainly true of Elijah. There were certainly those around them that were not as blessed as they were, obviously. This undeserved blessing the Lord displayed by the God of Israel for this poor widow certainly resulted or should have resulted in growing faith and love for God in her life and I'm I'm sure that it did.

As she day by day got up every morning and went to the cupboard and there was just enough flour and just enough oil for that day and every day, day after day after day, the Lord showed himself faithful. Great is thy faithfulness and he shows himself faithful to us too. I'm just afraid in The United States Of America sometimes we just don't see it. We've got so much and it's so easy to take it for granted and to take God for granted. We must also count our blessings and be grateful to God when his grace is showered down around us and indeed, it so much is.

The manner of his provision day by day highlighted his sovereignty and grace and made it difficult for the widow and her son to ignore the goodness of Elijah's God. Every day when you got up, you were reminded. Here it is. When the Israelites got up in the wilderness, in the desert, every morning, they went outside their tent and the ground was covered white, not with snow but with manna. They were reminded.

Every day when we get up, Hopefully, we take some time to talk with our God, to read in his word, and to be what? Reminded of the goodness of our God. And indeed, God knows what's best for us God knows what's best Sometimes, we don't. We think we do but he's going to take care of us. We think it would be easiest if God would just provide it all at once.

Just give it to me all now, God and but God knows what's best is for us to get it one. Day by day. You've heard, I don't know if these people that win the sweepstakes in the lottery, they used to give them all the money all in one big lump but if you notice lately, they've quit doing that. They give em so many thousand dollars a week or so many thousands a month and they string it out. Why do they do that?

Well, two reasons. One, first of all, if they die fairly soon, then they don't have to give em all the money, you see, because they were going to give it so much per month but also, the other thing is because they find that when they give the money to people all at once, what do they do with it? They spend it. Boy, they spend it and spend it and spend it and then it's gone and then they're worse off than they were to begin with and that that's that's the way that's sinful humanity, okay? When we get a lot of stuff, we think, oh great.

Look at this and we spend it all and we waste it. We waste it. So, God knows our frame. So, it's best to give it to us what? A little at a time and sustain us day by day.

God knew what he was doing with Elijah and the widowed lady and her son as he does with us. James one two through four. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire, wanting or lacking nothing. When we see trials on the horizon or when we find ourselves in the midst of one suddenly, our temptation is to throw up our hands, say, Lord, why me?

Not in the thing of, Lord, why me? Like, I know you got a plan for this but Lord, why me? I said, why didn't happen to somebody else? Why me? As a complaint.

But you know, God says, if you're facing trials in your life, those things are not all what? They're not all bad. They're not all bad. Trials force us to flex our spiritual muscles, do they not? They force us to run to who?

To run to God. That that's what he was doing in Israel. He wanted people to run to to him rather than to Baal. He wanted Elijah to grow in his faith and run to him. He wanted this widow lady to run to him.

In this other nation, God uses trials to help us to grow. They get difficulties of life provide us with uphill climbs to make us stronger and God an opportunity to show his grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. Joshua started weightlifting class at school this year and first week, he had weightlifting. He was just a little bit what do you think?

Sore, okay? A little bit sore. Why? That was. Well, because he was using muscles to lift weights and do stuff that he didn't do on a regular basis.

When you do that, it makes you sore but what do they say when it comes to weightlifting and exercise, no pain, no gain, okay? And that's true in life. No pain, no gain, no trials, no hardships, no reason to learn to take that next step of faith as a Christian and we get complacent and we begin to atrophy. No pain, no gain. God knows what he's doing.

The trials he allows in our life can all work together for our Romans eight twenty eight. And thus, there's the case with Elijah and this lady. Their faith grew, her faith grew, everything was was going pretty well. The blessings of God, however, can be taken for granted and we become comfortable and we can can become comfortable and complacent. You know, the the first day they got up and God provided, the tenth day they got up and God provided, The three hundredth day they got up and God provided.

I'm sure they were still thankful on the three hundredth day but then had start to become maybe a little what? Routine. And we have a tendency to do that. Every day, get up and and you have health and life and you can go out and serve the Lord. They just, we just assume that it's just going to be that way.

Every day and that we're never going to have to worry about food on our table. We're never going to have to worry about persecution in this country. We're never going to have to worry about things that many other people do. In their life. And we begin to take things for granted.

We forget from whom all these blessings flow. We forget to thank him for the undeserved blessings. We forget how difficult others have it. We think ourselves entitled. But we are not entitled.

We are sinners. I tell you what we're entitled to. An eternity separated from God in the lake of fire. That's what we are entitled to. That's what we have earned.

For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. We're not entitled to the blessings. They are a gift of God and every gift along our pathway, every blessing is a gift of God. We haven't earned it. We don't deserve it.

Jesus Christ deserved it and he earned it for us and we are the beneficiaries of his grace and of his mercy. Lamentations three twenty two and twenty three, say it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. This widow lady in Sidon, she responded with a certain amount of knowledge and interest and maybe even faith in the God of Elijah.

But she had not earned God's blessing. It was what? It was of his mercies. The same thing was true of Elijah and the same thing is true of us. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his love does not fail.

And his compassion and mercies are new what? Every morning toward us. Who will remember to look to him, to thank him, and to live for him each day. Job said again in Job one twenty one, the Lord has given, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Sometimes, the Lord gives and sometimes, the Lord takes away but the Lord is always right. The Lord always knows what he's doing and in the end, there will be a reward. There will be a benefit. It will work together for our good. It seems in my life when I begin to take things for granted in particularly, that's when things start to go a little bit awry and God has to has to shake it up a bit.

I don't know if that's true with you but a few years back, I started having trouble with my elbow and I had to have elbow surgery and then I had to have knee surgery And then I got better from that. Then I had vertigo. So I walked around here dizzy as a bat for about three months. And then my blood pressure went berserk and I had to deal with that. And then I was out for two months because of my back.

It's been about four, three or four years ago. My back got better but it still acts up and reminds me it's there sometimes. You know, and it we take for granted when everything's going smoothly, you know, and then when oops, you hit a bump, it's like, oh, well, that's right. You know, this is life. We live in a sinful world.

We have trouble. This body is not going to perform as well twenty years from now as it did twenty years ago. And there's going to be bumps in the road. And we need to remember who? We need to remember the Lord because he's the one who's going to get us over the what?

He's the one who's going to get us over the bumps. He's the one who's going to sustain us by his grace. And when things are going easy, sometimes we tend to forget. We need to remember. Where it is?

We get our blessings from, from whom we get our blessings and who will be there to be with us when times are tough. You see that brings us to verse 17 in our passage. Verse 17, if you look there, chapter 17 verse 17, it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house fell sick and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him and she said unto Elijah, what have I to do with thee, oh thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? He said unto her, give me thy son and he took him out of her bosom and carried him up into the loft where he abode and laid him upon his bed and he cried unto the Lord and said, oh Lord, my God, hast thou brought evil upon this widow whom I sojourn by slaying her son and he he stretched himself upon the child three times and he cried on the Lord and said, oh Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child souls, child's soul come into him again.

And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the soul of the child came into him again and he revived and Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, delivered him into his mother, unto his mother, and Elijah said, see, thy son live it. And the woman said to Elijah, now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. So, we see God's blessings in the midst of the what? The storm and the trial and how he provided for them each day and then, things were going well. Each day, they got up each day.

The Lord took care of them. But then what happened? The bottom fell out. Just when it seemed that they didn't have anything to worry about the bottom falls out. What happened?

She gets up one morning. She goes to see her son. He's still in the bed. And he's and he's sweating. And he's got a what?

A fever maybe. And a cough. And she takes care of him. But he doesn't get better. As the day goes along, he gets worse.

And it gets worse. Now, today, if you wake up and you have a fever, you go to the cabinet, you get Motrin or ibuprofen or Tylenol or and and and usually, it just takes your fever right down. They didn't have that then. And often times, kids would get sick and there was no remedy and viruses that are easily survivable today were not survivable then. You know, we're dealing with a new virus that's causing us problem right now.

Even our president. Well, her son got worse and worse and in a matter of hours or days, her son quit breathing. He was gone. And she was hysterical. As you can imagine, her only son was dead.

What did she do? Well, she she cried out to God. She cried out with a complaint. She said, why did you, why, you know, why what is this? She said to Elijah, did you come here to bring my sin back upon me and slay my son?

Why has God done this to me? Was God an Elijah to blame? Was her sin to blame as she suggested? In part, the answer to that is yes. God was to blame and that God did allow this.

God knew and God didn't what? God didn't stop it. Could he stop and stopped it? Yes, he could've stopped it but he chose not to. Was sin to blame?

Well, yes. We wouldn't have any of these problems if it weren't for what? It weren't for sin. But as we see in the story, I don't think God was punishing her for her sin in particular because especially how the story ends. But now remember, her son would have already what?

He would have already died if it hadn't been for who? For Elijah and God but you know and and I find this is true in church just as much as it's true anywhere else. When bad things happen, when somebody crosses you and says something you don't like, when when somebody fails or when something in life fails, everything good that they did, all of a sudden, just what? Poof, it's gone. Out of our mind and all we can think about is, how, why did they say that?

Why did this happen? And why is this happen? And and immediately, we just forget about all the good stuff and all we can see is the what? And all we can see is the bad and that's that's this lady and and it's understandable in a way. I mean, this was her son.

Her life was in her son. That's that was her life. And now all of a sudden, she's gone. So, it is when something very precious to us is lost or something goes wrong. We too get angry sometimes even at even at the Lord who has showed us what?

Mercy in the past. Just assuming that his blessings and grace will always be in everything we do and that we are entitled to it. Entitled not to face grief over the loss of loved ones, entitled not to have to face the loss of our own health or the loss of money or investments. Well, just not it's not going to happen to me. It may happen to you.

God doesn't make promises that bad things aren't going to happen to us. Just that he is going to be what? With us. Reminds me of the time someone sent word to Jesus and said, Jesus, this friend of yours, he's he's fallen ill. And they were kind of expecting Jesus who they knew had the power to heal to come and heal him but you know what Jesus did?

He didn't go. For three day, two or three days, he stayed where he was and he didn't go and when he got back to the town where his friend was, they met him outside the town and they said, where were you? If you had been here, my brother, what? Wouldn't have died. They were sorrowful.

They were angry. They were upset. But Jesus had something better in store. He had something better in store than if he had showed up what? Three days earlier.

And as he walked up to the tomb of Lazarus with Mary and Martha, tears came streaming down his face like I suspect the face of Elijah here for this widow and her son. Over the sorrow of that they were experiencing He is a god of grace and mercy and compassion. His compassions, they fail not. When he stood there before Lazarus' tomb that day and he said, Lazarus, come forth. And he did.

We tend to have short memories and forget what God has done in the past that God does care. He has a purpose in the pain and he has a plan to bring comfort and healing. In this case, as in Lazarus, the plan was resurrection. The Bible says in Matthew five four, blessed are they that mourn shall they, for they shall be what? Comforted.

You may mourn, you may cry, you may weep, but joy comes in the in the morning because God is still there. Now, God will not likely resurrect your lost relative at least not now. Though someday, if they know the Lord. He might not heal you completely of that ailment you suffer from. He might not relieve you completely of that burden that you're carrying.

But he has a purpose and there is joy and hope to be found in it. He will help you to carry it. He will help you through it. He will weep with you. He will comfort you.

He will carry you. He will sustain you. If you will let him. Philippians four six and seven, be careful for nothing or be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The lady was hurting.

She was crying out. What did Elijah do? He lectured her. He rebuked her. No, he didn't.

He wept with her. And he cried with her. And he went to the Lord for her. That's what he did. That's often what people need from us.

As a pastor, it is a temptation to see everything as a teaching moment. But not everything is a teaching moment. Sometimes, it's just a moment to be there for somebody, to be there to comfort. It's a moment to pray. It's a moment to look to the Lord is what it is.

Even Christ wept over the death of his friend. This was a time to weep for the widow but it was also a time for hope. To call on God per chance, it was his will to show himself even mightier. In a mightier way is the sovereign almighty God. Before a hurting woman, as he does through us before a hurting world.

And he did. Just maybe that is why things have taken a bad turn In your life, maybe that's why you're suffering the loss of certain things. So, God can be magnified more in his answer and in his care and in his grace. If we will just trust him. God is still a god of miracles.

Don't ever count him out. You don't know what miracle he may be trying to perform. It could be in the one you're praying for. It could be in you. It could be in somebody else.

Don't count him out. When things go south, keep trusting in him. Go to him. He will be there. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.

Lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways. Acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for your goodness to us even when we don't recognize it as being good. Lord, help us when times do get rough and when we face loss in our life, to remember that we haven't lost you and that you haven't lost us.

Lord, we pray if there be one here today that's never come to you for salvation. We pray that they'd come as we give this hymn of invitation this morning. We'd love to share with them how they can be saved and know it. How they can become a child of God and have this relationship with you. Lord, we pray for us who know you that you would help us to grow in our faith, that you'd help us to be patient and endure in trials, Lord, that you'd help us to learn to look to you more and Lord that we would be forever grateful for all the blessings you do bestow.

Lord, thank you for being our God, for being our friend, for being our savior, for being our comfort, our strength, our mighty fortress. In Jesus name we do pray, amen.