2024-07-31- When God Changes the Outcome

The main idea of this information is that there is always more from God. The story of Elisha and the widow woman shows how God provided for them in times of need. Even when they thought they had nothing left, God gave them just enough to sustain them. This story is a reminder that God is always there to help and provide, and we can depend on Him. There is always more grace, mercy, and strength available to us when we trust in God. We're all very familiar with this verse of Scripture, very familiar with it. I'm very familiar with it, as I really like reading about Elisha in the Bible. Chapter number 17 starts where Elisha is from Tishbite. He is the Tishbite who was of the inhabitants of Gilead. So it's bringing us into the beginning of this chapter, number 17, and it's telling us a little bit about Elisha. He's a Tishbite, and it's telling us that it goes on, Brother Jameson, it goes on, and he's by a river, he's by a brook. And the Lord commands ravens to bring him food, as you might know from this text that I'm reading from. And he's already got... I mean, how many of you had a bird bring food to you? When you was in need, and you're out in the land, and the birds brought you food. He already knows the Lord can move in a situation, Brother Camden, and he's being moved by the Lord to move on into Serapheth. And there's a widow woman there. You might ask yourself, how does he know where this widow woman is? Well, the Lord spoke to this widow woman already Himself, and she knows that Elisha is coming. She knows that there's a man of God coming. She knows, because when she looks at him, and she says, as the Lord thy God liveth. She knew it was a man of God that came to her, because she said, thy God. She didn't say, my God, she said, your God. She said, thy God. And as he came into the city, and he came in too, and he asked her for a morsel of water, a little bit of water and a little bit of cake. And a little bit of something. She didn't have a whole lot of it, Brother Camden. Now, my thought this morning is, when God changes the outcome. When God changes the outcome. Now, she had already been preparing herself, Brother Camden, to make the last meal, and her and her son were going to die. They were in a drought in the land. There was no food available. And they were going to cook the last of their bread, and take their oil and their wheat, and they were going to make bread. And that was going to be the last of it, but God steps on the scene. And he sends Elisha into the mist, and he brings a message from God. And he says, make me a cake. That would be awful hard, Brother Tim, for me to walk, knowing that there's this one little piece left. And this woman is going to just, this woman, that's all I've got. And I look at her, just make me what you've got. Bring me the cake. Bring it to me. Make me what you have left. I'm telling you what, I have a word from God for sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Or is that just me talking? Is that me trusting in the Lord? Elisha didn't have no problem doing it. Elisha didn't have no problem obeying the Lord, Brother Quentin. He stepped in. He said, bring me what you have, and the Lord will provide. You will not run low. You will not run down. You will not run dry until you get rain again. And it's several years later, or two years, some commentary said up to two years that could have lasted, but there's really no, it says many days that the wheat stays, and it didn't go bad. It went just fine. Every time I go down in the barrel to get a little bit for bread out, it's just there again. Every time I go back down in the barrel to get a little bit more, it's there again. But every time I depend on the Lord, and I ask Him to help me out, there's just a little bit more. And there's just a little bit more. Just where I thought I'd drained it all, Brother Michael. I thought that I was not worthy, and I thought I'd just drained it all. And I didn't have no more food, but there he was again. And he had just enough for me again. He had just enough for me to pull back out of that barrel of faith again. He had just enough for me to pull back a hope again of the mercy of God. I thought the mercies were run out. I thought that the bread of life was run out. But there was just a little bit more for me to pull out. There's just a little bit more, Brother Quentin. Every time I reach down to get more, there's just a little bit more for me to grab. And I'm not going to die. And I'm not going to go without. My children aren't going to go without. The saints of God aren't going to go without. God has seen us that we're in a drought. We're in a famine land. There's a land we've never been in before. God is being tamed, turned to the behind everybody. This world is turned back on God. And we don't have to do that. We can depend on God. But I'm here to tell you tonight that God has just got a little bit more for us. He's got a little bit more for us to reach down and grab. He's got just a little bit more to pull us out, to give us that strength that we need, to give us that power we need, the faith that we need to get on, the fear that we need to fear God and know that He is beyond. He is way better than we could have ever dreamed or asked. But there is just a little bit more. There's always just a little bit more. I felt like Brother Jameson at times that I've got to the very bottom. But then when I turned around, went back and looked at it, there was more there. There was more grace. And there was more just for me. But I'm here to tell you tonight, the widow woman thought when her husband died, that was all she was going to have. She was just, she was a widow. She didn't have nothing to look forward to. Oh, me and my son, we don't have anybody providing for us. We're in a drought. We don't have anybody to go get us food. We are going to die of starvation. We're just going to die without anything. But I'm here to tell you today, Brother Dawson, the Lord stepped in and He changed the scene. And I'll never forget when the Lord stepped in and changed the scene for me. When He died on that cross at Calvary, He stepped into that situation. Oh, Joe Durbin didn't have any future. Quentin Taylor didn't have any future. Brother Camden Hodge didn't have any future. You're just going to take what you had and die. Because I didn't have no way to get any more. But I'm here to tell you today, that Jesus, He died on the cross for us sins, Brother Jameson. He done everything for us. He took it to the cross. And so we no longer have to go to the bottom and see there's no more remnants left. There's always something else we can grab. We can go to this altar at any time. And we can grab just enough of what we needed. Just enough of what we needed today. And we go back tomorrow, and guess what? There's more. There's more, Brother Quentin. Every time we go back to that altar of grace. Every time we go back to that altar of mercy. There's more right where we left it. It's like we never even picked any up in the first place. He's there to help us. He's there to pick us up. He's there to bring us out of the trouble we're in. There's more. I stopped reading in verse 17, and it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, felt sick, and his sickness was sore, was so sore that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? Verse number 19, And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up into a loft where he abode and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and said, And the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elisha took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered him unto his mother. And Elisha said, See, thy son liveth. Note on verse number 24, The woman said to Elisha, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the Lord is thy mouth, and thy mouth is truth. There was more bread. There was more wheat. There was more there. There was more. Her son passed. Even more after that, her son passed. He's no longer. The Lord raised him from the dead. Verse number 24, And the woman said to Elisha, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the Lord is thy mouth, is truth. Yes, He's there for us. Yes, He's there to pull us out. Yes, He's there to give us more. But there's more. We are a witness to this world. We are a witness to these people that we're witnessing to, that we're living with, that we're living around. We're a witness to them. There's more. There's a God out there that cares for you. Not only can He pull you out, but He can keep you. He can keep you. The son died later on. We already had one miracle. We already had the bread we needed. The son passes on. Elisha's on the scene. The Lord is there listening. If you've ever felt like you're alone, if you've ever felt like you're by yourself in this world, God, His ears are tuned towards you. His ears are tuned towards the child of God. And He is there to help out and pull you out. And just maybe, just maybe, it is for a witness for somebody around you. For surely, you are a son of God. Surely, you are a child of God. Surely, there is a God. There's a 93-year-old man in the hospital that's thinking, that's starting to talk about giving himself to God. There is a God. 2014, Brother Jameson, right around the time that I got, a little bit after I got saved and got baptized, there is a God. When I was laying in that hospital bed with no hope, with doctors saying, we don't know, we can't even give you a time frame, He probably will never walk again. There's a God. He reached down and He touched me. There's a God. I can tell you different times when the Lord reached down. I remember a time when I was a young child. I was probably in my teens. I wasn't too much of a child. But we were in need, Brother Camden, of food. There were seven of us. And Dad trucked. And Mom, she didn't work or anything. She took care of us. And there was seven of us. And we didn't have much food. We were raised kind of homestead. So we'd done a little bit of the milking the cows and stuff. But there's just not a lot in having a bunch of milk in the house with nothing else. We had a van pull up and back into our driveway. And they opened the door. And there was so much food in that van. It fell out on the ground. That's my God. That's the God that I know. He won't leave us starving. He won't leave us without help. He knows when we reach out for Him and ask for help. He knows about our lost loved ones. He knows that there's a future for them. He knows what they're at. You might think Joe Durbin's up here behind his pulpit. But he's got five brothers and one sister. And every one of them's lost. And then they married off. And now their spouses are lost. There's no hope. I'm the direct testimony that there's hope. I don't have an idea besides the fact that Jesus had a divine plan for me to walk in the back of Highway Honus or in the front doors of Highway Honus and go to that altar. I know it was a text message from the pastor. But I want to tell you tonight, how'd he get my cell phone? He had to reach out for it. God dealt on him to get it out. God will move on you to reach out to people. I'm telling you what, I wouldn't be standing here today if it wasn't for somebody, for Brother Tim and Sister Carrie to come to the hospital and see us when we had our children, when the Lord just kept coming back. I kept trying to run. And he just kept coming back. You can't get away from God. When he's looking for you, you can't get away from God. And I'm here to tell you, every time you need him, he's there. Every time you need him, he's there. And it's not just for you. It's for those around you. It wasn't just for the child. It was for his mom. She now believes. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God. That gives me, I feel the Holy Ghost right there. And I tell you what, how many times have we been in a situation where it is dependent on those that's been around us to know that there's a God? How many times? Many, many times. Those that wronged you, and you look at them, and you don't treat them like they treated you, that you don't turn around and look at them and treat them like they treated you, that shows, that tells that person, This man's got something. This woman's got something. We are a witness. We are here for God. And every time that we reach down for more, every time that we reach for God, He's there to help us. If we can come to our feet and come to a song here. I'm here to tell you tonight that when God steps on the scene, things change. When God changes the outcome, I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what to tell you to expect. But when you're asking God to move on the situation, I don't know who's dealing with what here, but when you seem like there's nothing else, when you seem like you've drained the barrel, there's a little bit more. There's just a little bit more to pull back out. And I can tell you tonight that I'm standing up here as a saint of God and as a person that don't deserve to stand up here and tell you that God is always giving me just a much more to get by the next day. He's not giving us more than we can handle, Brother Camden. And we're not to worry about tomorrow. Because when tomorrow comes, what is it? We are renewed. Grace and mercy. We can reach back down and get that barrel and pull it out just like we did yesterday or the day before. And God is there. The strength is there. The power is there. The faith. The faith that overcomes the fear of what we're dealing with. If we come to these altars, I don't know what you're dealing with, but you can come to this altar and you can rest assured that there's a little bit more in the barrel. There's a little bit more for you to pull out. And God can move in your situation. I've been in the darkness the middle of the night praying for assurance everything's going to be all right. Lord, I see another battle down in front of me. I'm afraid I won't be able and I'll go down in defeat. He said, do you remember where I brought you from? Take a look behind you and see how far you've come. Every time you ask me didn't I deliver you? So why would you be thinking that I wouldn't see you through? Didn't I walk on the water and I calmed the raging sea? I spoke to the wind it hushed and I gave you peace. Didn't I run to your rescue? Didn't I hear you when you called? I walked right beside you just so you wouldn't fall. Didn't I leave all of heaven just to die for your sins? I searched until I found you and I'd do it all again. Now she's talking to her father in a house that was once a home. She said, my bills are coming due, Lord in six days, it's not that long. She hears a voice still low that said, I've moved like that before. I'll do this little thing, child and I'll give you so much more. Didn't I walk on the water and I calmed the raging sea? I spoke to the wind it hushed and I gave you peace. Didn't I run to your rescue? Didn't I hear you when you called? I walked right beside you just so you wouldn't fall. Didn't I leave all of heaven just to die for your sins? I searched until I found you and I'd do it all again. © BF-WATCH TV 2021