What Sustains Your Substance?
Scripture: 1 Kings 17:9; Nehemiah 9:21; Psalm 55:22; Psalm 3:1-8
“”Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”" (1 Kings 17:9, NASB95)
Subject: The sustaining of the our substance is from the Lord.
Action: Our faith activates the sustaining power of the Lord in our lives.
I. Elijah Testimony Begins With A Miracle
A. He predicts a drought in 1 Kings 17
B. The Lord supplies for him at the Brook Cherith for 3 years
C. He then is commanded to go to a widow (poor) and to be provided for
1. No description is given just the command
2. He is sustained by a widow who was preparing for her last meal and then death
3. He begins to request from her a miracle
4. She responds and the family is sustained with spiritual substance during the famine. for two years.
II. The Sustaining Grace of God to his People
“”Indeed, forty years You provided for them in the wilderness and they were not in want; Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell.” (Nehemiah 9:21, NASB95)
A. The testimony of sustaining the substance of His people
B. In a place called the wilderness (desert experience)
1. Even in the place that many will find themselves the Lord will sustain you with His sustaining power of provision and grace
2. Continuing to provide even in the most difficult of times!
3. Here in the 21st Century when provision is at the finger tips of prayer there are cries unto the Lord as found:
“Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” (Psalm 55:22, NASB95)
A. This is an admonition of the Lord to cast our burdens on the Lord
B. That is, our cares and burdens are to be thrown away, abandon into His care, so that we have nothing more to do with them.
C. The sins that are carried by so many should be cast unto the Lord as it is put graphically in Micah 7:19
D. The knowledge of this sustaining grace places an exceptional inference in our relationship with the Lord and the depth of trust that we must have for Him.
1. Knowing the through all that may seem to be a wilderness experience of desert place: He is the protector and sustainer of life.
“But You, O Lord, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head. I was crying to the Lord with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah. I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustains me.” (Psalm 3:3-5, NASB95)
III. The Testimony of Knowledge of Sustaining Grace From Experience
A. The Prodigal son spent all his substance on unrighteous living (Luke 15:11-32)
B. But he was reminded of the goodness of the Father
C. He was assured that he at least could have a place in the house as a servant
D. But what he found was the the absolute restoration of the sustaining power of the Father, not just awkward moment in an embrace that was longed prayed for!
1. The Father was waiting daily for the return of the son
2. Desiring to sustain Him again
3. Knowing the grace and the substance had not been spent from His heart to His child!
Prayer and Praise:
“Sustain me according to Your word, that I may live; And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.” (Psalm 119:116, NASB95)
Prayer and Promise:
“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (Isaiah 46:4, NIV)
Prayer and Power:
“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” (Psalm 51:12, NKJV)
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm 51:12, NIV)
Dennis
Remember prayer moves the Hand of God.