If you have your Bibles this evening, we're going to turn to 1 Kings 17. Before we begin reading, we're going to bow to the Lord in prayer again. Brother John, will you lead us in prayer? Thank you, dear Lord. Bless us and serve us. We worship you in truth and in spirit. We're so thankful to have my father. We made a prayer request this morning and this evening. We're so thankful of your father. We call upon your name in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. May he bless us, Lord. We have answers to those prayers in our heart. We're so thankful of your father. We're so thankful of your great and all the wonderful wisdom of what you know. Those things of literature. I pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I just pray, Lord, that you continue to bless them in their journey to South Carolina. And I pray, dear Lord, that my mother there was an infant, about a month or two old. She was so sick. I pray, Lord, that they can find the proper care for her, that she can have a wonderful eating and extended food in this short period of time. I pray, dear Lord, for all the requests that have been made this evening. You know, the desire in each heart, I would call it, for those things that we're dealing with. First Kings chapter 17 Let's start here in verse 8. It says, And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, talking about Elijah here, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks. And he called to her and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, as the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal and a barrel and a little oil and a cruise. And behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. And Elijah said unto her, fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of milk shall not waste, neither shall the crucible fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, And she and he in her house did eat many days, and the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the crews of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah." We're going to stop reading here just a minute. I just want to kind of lay a foundation here for the message. You know, I believe that when Elijah was sent to the brook Shareth, before this situation here, the Lord told him to go to that brook. He was going to sustain him there by the ravens that would bring him bread and flesh in the morning and evening every day. He was sustained the same old way. And Elijah didn't know, but of course, God knew what the next step was. He knew that He would have him go to this little widow woman's house and that she would sustain him there for a little while longer. What I want us to see though is Perhaps when Elijah was at that brook. Perhaps when Elijah was wondering, you know, what's the next move? How much longer am I going to stay here? Where's God going to bring me next? How's he going to provide next? The whole time he was wondering that, perhaps, I believe God was working on this widow woman's heart. Preparing this woman's heart, telling her, putting a burden on her heart that I'm gonna use you, I'm gonna need you. I've got something that's gonna come up and we see that this woman, she needed help. I don't believe she was in a situation to help, she needed help. This was a time of drought, there was famine and And just, it was hard times in the land. She was in a situation to, she needed help, not to give out help to others, at least not in her eyes. To the humans' eyes, our human eyes, you know, if we were in this situation, we'd say, there's no way I can help somebody else. I'm the one that needs help. She had nothing to eat. And again, she was a widow woman. She had no help. It was just her and her son. She had nothing to eat except that last little meal she was about to prepare. She said, we're going to eat it and we're going to die. That's what's about to happen. But here come Elijah. Elijah who obeyed God's command. You know, I believe God was working on this woman's heart ahead of time. God told Elijah to go to Zarephath and be sustained by this woman. But He also, I believe, presented this woman with the same situation. He said, I need you to sustain my man. I need you to sustain Elijah. Imagine being in a situation where you need help and God puts on your heart to help somebody else. Has that ever happened to you before? You're in complete need of help. And you might say, I only have a few dollars in my wallet. I only have a few hundred dollars to my name. I'm only able to pay my bills and that's it. And then along comes somebody. Maybe their truck broke down. They might need a bite to eat. They might need a couple groceries. And God put them on your heart. You need to help them. Say, how in the world am I going to help them? I'm the one that needs help. Have you ever been there before? Maybe something along those lines. I know I have. When God puts on your heart to help somebody, that thought, that burden, it's going to be there. When God wants you to help somebody, you need to help them. That's where this woman was here. She was in no position to help, but God put on her heart, you need to help this man, my man. My preacher, my minister, the one who's been doing my work, I need you to help him. My thought here this evening that I want to preach is in order to receive help, we must be ready to help. In order to receive help many times, we ought to be ready to help others. We need to be willing to help others. If the Lord puts on our heart to help, and look, I know there's times that you say, there is no way. God's not in it. I know that God has me where I am. I need to be still. I'm in no position financially to help others. But if God does put on your heart to help somebody, you best be getting at it. I believe this woman, you know, I'm sure she was afraid. I'm sure that she was concerned. You know, I gotta look out for my boy here. Not even herself. She probably wasn't even worried about herself as much as she looked down and she had her little son. You know, I'd do anything for a man of God. You know, I would starve and feed a man of God, but what about my son? I don't want him to starve. She was in a very tough situation, no doubt. I believe she was scared. But she helped Elijah first. He said to go and make me a little something to eat first. He said, do what you said you was gonna do, but make me a little something first. And he told her to fear not. Fear not. She was in a pickle, wasn't she? Just as much as Elijah. But first she had to be helpful. You know, many times, when we pray, oh God, help me here. Oh Lord, I need help here. Many times, we don't ask God, how can I help? A lot of times, our one-track mind is, Lord, I need help, I need help, I need your answer, I need your guidance, I need it now. But what if God is showing you, I need you to help over here? And the beauty of it is, many times, God helps us by us helping others. And we go to scratching our heads many times. It's not made for us to understand. There's so many times that God provides through us, providing for others and helping others. A lot of times when we pray and seek answers, we aren't looking for, hey, what can I do? I find that my mindset many times is, Lord, what can you do for me? I'm in a bind here. I'm in a situation. What are you going to do here? What's the next move? A lot of times we need to step back and realize, well, what can I do for him? You see here in 1 Kings 17, a woman who was in need of help. But God's man was also in need. God's work comes first, don't it? So she trusted in God's Word. She trusted that Elijah was telling the truth. And I believe again that the Lord was working on her heart as well. She trusted in that. I'm going to have faith. She trusted in God's promise when Elijah told her, he said, for this saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of milk shall not waste, neither shall the crucible fail until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth. She trusted in that. Today, my question to you is, If you are in need of help, there's a lot of us that need help. There's a lot of us that, you know, I'm going through this, I'm going through that. There's a lot of us that need help. But my question is, if that's you needing help, are you first willing to be helpful to others? So many times, you know, I see myself just, along with so many others, just asking God for help. asking Him for help, how often do we see ourselves helpful to others? That's something we need to be aware of. Being helpful is a characteristic we need to learn as Christians, ain't it? Many times, that's something we need to learn before we continue to ask for help again and again. And I know that we cry out for help to Jesus Christ when we ask Him to save us. And that's the first step. That's becoming a Christian. That's becoming a believer. When we ask God to save us, that's the ultimate way to ask for help. Lord, I need help. Save me. And He does. But there comes a time where we need to return a favor. We need to be helpful as well. And I know that the Bible says, ask and it shall be given you. The Bible says I can ask and I'll get it. That doesn't mean, Lord, I won't, I won't, I won't. I want this, I want that, and we just get it, and we get it, and we get it. That's not what it means. It means that, like we see with Elijah's life, that a man of God, a woman of God can certainly, you know, we can live off the bare necessities of life. Think about that old cartoon, The Jungle Book. I was telling Trinity about this yesterday. I said, I want to be able to use this. That's a good little cartoon I grew up watching, but old Baloo bouncing through the jungle, living off the bare necessities It's not always pleasant, though. There's not always a tree we can scratch our back on and just be happy about it. A lot of times, God has us just living off the bare necessities. I don't mean it's going to be nice. It's not going to be pleasant all the time. But He's going to make sure we have what we need. I don't mean let's just, oh, asking it shall be given you. Okay, Lord, I want this, I want that. God's going to take care of it. But you've got to be willing to help others, too. Something I'll never forget, when I first started preaching, Brother Everett Driscoll told me, he said, he said, son, you won't get rich off of preaching. He said that this calling that you've been called to is the greatest honor a man can have. He said, but you ain't going to get rich off of it. You ain't going to become wealthy off of it. He said, but you'll always have enough. As a child of God, you will always have enough. But God doesn't promise wealth and luxuries and just all these things. A lot of times we take stuff out of context. Lord, I want this. I should get it. He doesn't promise all that, but He does promise enough. He promises to sustain just like He sustained Elijah. He sustained this widow woman. But you know, if we want things in life, if we want blessings in life, there's times that I've said, Lord, I want this, I want that. That doesn't mean we're just going to stop wanting things. And I know that we need to be content, but there's things that, boy, it sure makes this area of my life easier. We can still ask for. God will still provide even blessings, not just the things that we need. A lot of times, He will provide the things that we want. But if we want to receive not just help, but also blessings, we ought to first be willing to help others. We ought to first be willing to bless others. It needs to go both ways. We need to be willing to give more than we take. Turn with me to Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22, verse 31. It says, And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Jesus realizes that Simon Peter He's not all in yet. He's still kind of got his self kind of riding the fence a little bit. He's still got his foot in both worlds. A foot in both worlds. He's still not fully convinced to serve the Lord with all his heart. But he tells them, he says, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Tonight, when you decide to become faithful, When you decide that I'm willing to be helpful too. I'm willing to be used by God. Do as Jesus told Simon Peter. Be ready to strengthen the brethren. Be ready to help others. Many of us need to choose if we're going to be used of God or not. Many of us are still riding the fence tonight. One foot in, one foot out. Some of us need to decide if we're gonna be a help to others before we just keep on asking for help. Some of us, we need to stop asking for help so much so we can see how we can be a help. I'm just as guilty as anybody a lot of times. I'll get so selfish in my prayers. I caught myself the other day. praying and it's just, Lord help this, Lord help that, Lord I need this, Lord I need that, Lord bless this person, Lord bless that person. How often do we open our prayers with, Lord, thank you. Lord, thank you for sending this person into my life. Lord, how can I do better? How can I serve you better? Lord, strengthen me where I can serve you better, where I can help others in this world. I've caught myself many a times that, you know, I need to kind of be more, I have my mind set more toward that way. But instead, a lot of times, we just get into, Lord, help me, Lord, help me. Lord, I need this and that. Child of God, when you decide which side of the fence you're on spiritually, and again, I don't have anybody in mind, a lot of times I think of myself. I'm riding the fence a lot of times. But when we decide which side we're on, And I hope you decide to be all in, not just sticking your toe in the water, but cannonballing into the work of God. Be ready to help at that point. You need to be ready to strengthen your brothers, strengthen your sisters, help others. A lot of us just ask and ask for help, but when we decide to be helpful, that's when we begin to see how much others need more help than we do. And by looking back at 1 Kings 17, you don't have to turn back there, but if you look back again at that account in Scripture, we can see that many times by deciding to be helpful, that's when we receive help. That widow woman was in need of help. She wasn't looking to others until God told her to look to Elijah to help Him. When she decided to be of help, that's when she received the help she needed. Ain't that something? That blows my mind. Only God can work in a way like that. It became a trail in the midst of a trial. It became a rescue in the middle of her serving somebody else. She found help in the middle of her being willing to do a favor for somebody else. God can do that. He can help us by us helping somebody else. Isaiah 55 verse 8 and 9 tells us, It says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. We don't see what the Lord's doing. A lot of times we think, I got this figured out how this is going to go. I'm going to help this person and I ain't going to have enough to buy groceries this week. I'm going to put gas in my tank so I can take so-and-so up to the hospital and then I'm going to be stranded the rest of the week. I ain't going to get to go to work. A lot of times our thoughts, we need to quit thinking, don't we? I heard a preacher say, I was listening to somebody preaching this past week. He said, we think too much. A lot of times we think too much, don't we? We overthink things, don't we? We don't always know what the Lord is thinking. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Neither is it our place to question what the Lord's doing. He can give us help by being helpful. You know one way to receive help? And listen to me here. One way to receive help, the same way you gain friends, the same way you receive more friends. How is that? Church, you are my friends. You help me in time of need. But I also should be helpful. I should also be friendly. How do you receive help? Same way you receive friends. Proverbs 18.24 says a man that hath friends must show himself friendly. We've got to first be friendly to receive friends. Same thing, we've got to first be helpful to receive help because God does help us through our friends many times. Through our church members. Through our family. Through our brothers and sisters in Christ. God can use those who we call friends, family, and church members So often those are the ones He uses to help us. There's so many ways that God can work. There's so many times we don't see it coming. I don't know how many times I've made the statement, you know, I didn't see that one coming. I didn't see God working there. I didn't think this was possible. We don't know what He's always doing. If God's put someone in our path, even when we need help, we need to be ready to help them. Are we helpful like we should be? Are we friendly like we should be? This will be the message this evening. We'll have a verse of a song.