Morning everyone Continuing our studies in Old Testament history today with the story of the northern kingdom of Israel The Old Testament really is God's written history of the world it starts off with God's perfect creation a perfect world and then quickly Satan and rebels against God, and he tempts Adam and Eve, and mankind joins in with Satan's rebellion against God. And sin is like a fatal disease then, that Adam and Eve brought upon themselves, and it passes on to the generations that come next, so that all the descendants of Adam and Eve have this disease within them. We just have this natural bent to disobey God. and to go our own way, sinful nature. And there's no way for man to get rescued from it by himself, because we're just sinful in who we are. We want to do what's evil. And so the story of the Old Testament is, if these people are going to be saved, it's going to be God that does it. And how will He? But right from the beginning of the Old Testament, God is making promises. And so as you walk through the history of the Old Testament, you find these key promises and we're just, we're waiting for God to fulfill them. So to Satan, even on the day of our rebellion and to Eve, God made this promise that he would have this offspring who would be wounded, but then would crush Satan's head. A few centuries later, God makes a covenant with Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant, and he promises Abraham that he will give him the land of Canaan forever, and that he will give him innumerable offspring, and that his offspring will bring blessing to all the nations of the earth. Then you come to Abraham's children, people of Israel, God makes a special covenant with that nation of Israel. It's called the Mosaic Covenant because Moses was the one who spoke it. But the agreement between God and Israel is if they obey the law, then he will bless them. But if they disobey, they'll be cursed. And then there's the Davidic covenant. David was a man after God's own heart, and God made him this promise, this eternal promise that his descendants would reign on the throne of Israel forever. Okay. Last week in our studies, we came to the time when the nation of Israel split into two. It's key for understanding the Bible. So Solomon used to rule over all of this territory combined, but his son Rehoboam was foolish on the day of his coronation, and he spoke harshly to the people, and in fulfillment of prophecy, ten of the tribes broke off. Right? So we call the ten northern tribes Israel. The two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin we call Judah and so as you're reading through the Bible you get to this part of the Bible These go these go in chronological order if you're reading through so first and second Samuel first and second Kings follows the story and then when you get to first and second Chronicles which come next it actually backs up and retells some of the events that it's already told and But in Chronicles, after the kingdom divides, that inspired author only focuses on the south. And what we're going to do today, we're going to look at what happens in the north, in the kingdom of Israel, these 10 tribes that break off. We're going to find out what happens to them from the time that they break off to be independent to the time that Assyria carries them into captivity. And so Chronicles doesn't tell us about that. We are going to be in 1 and 2 Kings about the divided kingdom of Israel. Here's a timeline of the Northern Kingdom from the time that they become independent. Their first king is Jeroboam in about 930 BC to when Assyria carries them off into captivity in 722. So it's about 200 years. In those 200 years, there's 20 kings and not one of the kings is godly. Not one of them follows the Lord. There is no David. There is no Solomon. They're all ungodly. Mike Sluter read for us today from 2nd Kings 17, the sad end of the story. If I was going to summarize for you what happens with the Northern Kingdom in these two books, 1st and 2nd Kings, the Lord speaks to Israel through his prophets. And sometimes the Lord gives words of promise and sometimes he gives the words of warning, but every word that God speaks comes true. In 1st and 2nd Kings, there's like 20 different specific things God says and they all happen. It's not that God is silent in these years. He's speaking through his prophets, but Israel would not listen. They would not believe. They would not obey until the Lord removed them from his sight. And the way he did this at the end of the 200 years, he sends a Syria to carry them off out of the land that was promised to them into captivity. Let me show you this picture. This picture is from an ancient Assyrian record. It's called the Black Obelisk. And this is the ruler of Assyria. His name is Shalmaneser III. This is an Israelite king that they have sketched here. His name is Jehu. About 100 years before Assyria conquered Israel and took them into captivity, Israel used to bring tribute. And so here's King Jehu bringing tribute to the king of Assyria and it would end with being conquered by Assyria because they didn't obey. The same thing is happening in each of our lives that was happening in the kingdom of Israel then. The Lord is speaking to you in His Word and you face the same decision that they did. What will you do with God's Word? Will you listen? Will you believe what He says? Will you obey? Okay, we're going to walk through the history from the beginning. We're going to back up to 1 Kings. If you turn there with me, 1 Kings 11 to Jeroboam. Okay, we studied this last week. So Solomon was the king of all Israel, and he, instead of clinging to the Lord, he clung to his wives in love. And they turned his heart away from God. And then God sent a prophet to Solomon to say to him that ten of the tribes would be taken away from his son. At the same time that God sent this prophet to Solomon, He also sent the prophet to the man who would be the first king. At the time, Jeroboam is faithfully serving underneath Solomon, but he's going to get this prophecy that he will be the new king of the northern kingdom of Israel. So, his name is Jeroboam. Let's go to 1 Kings 11, verse 35, to see what God says to Jeroboam, this man who will be the king of Israel. 1 Kings 11, verse 35. The Prophet Elijah comes to him with this prophecy. He says I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand out of Solomon's son's hand and I will give it to you ten tribes Yet to his son I will give one tribe that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem the city where I have chosen to put my name and I will take you and you shall reign over all that your souls desires and you shall be king over Israel and Look in verse 38, there's a promise that he makes to this future king, Jeroboam. The Lord says, If you will listen to all that I command you and will walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house as I built for David. And I will give Israel to you. Every word that God speaks comes true. So Rehoboam is foolish and harsh at his coronation and the ten tribes break off. And Jeroboam, just as God had predicted in Solomon's lifetime, Jeroboam becomes the king of these ten tribes. And the question that we all wonder is, will Jeroboam listen to God? Because God has promised him that if he does, he'll build him a sure house, which means that there's going to be a dynasty. Jeroboam's son and his son and his son will reign as kings of Israel. Will that happen? It depends on if Jeroboam listens. Okay, go with me to 1 Kings chapter 12. Jeroboam has a problem in his mind. Now he's starting to be the new king of this ten tribes in the north, Israel. See, the problem is this. I have Jerusalem circled. to worship God, what the Jews were to do. There were several times a year where you would go to Jerusalem on pilgrimage and you would worship God there. Now, Jerusalem is the capital city of Judah, where Rehoboam reigns. And Jeroboam is thinking, now, how's this going to go for me if all of my people every year, they look forward to going to the feast and worshiping God in my rival's capital city. Look here, it's 1 Kings 12, verse 26. And Jeroboam said in his heart, 1 Kings 12, verse 26, Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their Lord, to Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me. and returned to Rehoboam, king of Judah. See his concern? Do I really want them all traipsing to Jerusalem every year, several times to worship God? Verse 28. So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, you have gone up to Jerusalem long enough Behold your gods Oh Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt And he set one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan So what's Jeroboam to do to solve this problem of everybody going to his neighbor's capital city to worship he Makes two golden calves and he says to his people I Here is your God. Here is Yahweh, your God, the God who brought you out of Egypt. Here he is. He is these calves. And so he takes one of them and he puts it up north in Dan, and he puts the other down south, but still in his territory in Bethel. Okay, number one on your sheets there. God spoke to Jeroboam, but he did not trust the Lord enough to obey him. God spoke to Jeroboam, but he did not trust the Lord enough to obey him. And so he invented his own way of following the Lord. So he invented his own way of following the Lord. Someone might say, well, what choice did Jeroboam have? I mean, if they're all going to worship in Jerusalem, it's not even in his city, that's not going to work out. But I'll tell you what would have happened if Jeroboam would have trusted God. and let them go worship in Jerusalem, God would have built for him a sure house. God made him this promise that if he obeyed that this would happen. It didn't seem logical, but if Jeroboam would have trusted God's word, then God would have done that for him. Friends, this is one of Satan's greatest strategies today. If you look in God's word, often God will give you very clear instructions as to what he wants you to do in your life. But sometimes what happens is we come and we read in God's Word and God says, do this. And I think I start to think ahead and I say, OK, well, if I do what this says, then here's what will happen. And as I imagine obeying and then what comes, I imagine it being real bad for me. Like this doesn't seem wise. It doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem safe to do this. This doesn't make sense. And so when we imagine what's going to come and imagine it being bad for ourselves instead of Obeying the word, we say, OK, I want to follow Jesus. Here's what I'm going to do. Right. And instead of listening to the Bible, I make up my own religion. And there are so many people today who say, I'm a Christian counselor, I'm a pastor at a Christian church. And they say, here's what you ought to do. Here's the advice that I give to you. And yet what they say that you ought to do and what they say you ought to believe isn't coming from the Bible. In fact, it's the opposite. Well, they have a couple of proof texts they go to, verses they pull out of context to try to say what they say. There's a lot of verses they say, well, God doesn't want us to do that anymore. But what they do is they've made up their own God and they're calling him Jesus. Come follow Jesus with us. But that's not the Jesus of the Bible. And so throughout history, really, there's only one way to follow God. You have to do what the Bible says. Anything else, I'm being like Jeroboam, because I don't think it's going to work out. So I make up my own religion and I call it Yahweh worship. God spoke to Jeroboam. He made a promise to him, but he didn't trust the Lord enough to obey him, and so he invented his own way of following the Lord, and that had a negative influence on the whole rest of Israel's history. Turn with me to 2 Kings in your Bible, just to head to the next book. We're going to go ahead about 100 years. Jeroboam's name shows up 70-some times in these books, and a lot of it is after he's dead. because the rest of the book looks back to what Jeroboam does. I'm going to give you an example of how this happens. So 2 Kings 13, we're looking at the author's summary of another king, Jehoahaz, but he refers back to Jeroboam. Okay? A hundred years after Jeroboam, we read this. This new king, Jehoahaz, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and followed the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. which he made Israel to sin, and he did not depart from them." What will happen if instead of trusting the Bible, you say, I think God wants us to do this instead, and you make up your own way that's really not God's way? Well, maybe your kids will follow your new made-up religion, and their kids will follow it. Or in the church, if I say, oh, instead of doing the Bible's word, that just doesn't seem to make sense. That's not going to work out well. I'm going to do this instead. Maybe you're setting a pattern that people are going to be following for hundreds of years away from true religion, true worship of God. I mean, is it okay for them to say these two Calves. This is your God. This is Yahweh. Let's worship. We want to worship God. Here, look at these calves. Is that okay? It's not. Right? Exodus 20, what's the second commandment? Jeroboam had the law. He knew this. Exodus 20, verse 4, it says in the law, You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath, like cows, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, I'm a jealous God. Okay, go back to 1 Kings 14. What happens? What happens with Jeroboam? We keep going in his life and Jeroboam's son gets sick. He wants to know what's gonna happen to his boy. And so Jeroboam sends his wife to the prophet Ahijah. And he and Ahijah go way back. Ahijah was the one that brought him the word that he would become king. Made the promise to him. So he sends his wife because he wants to know about his son. What will happen? So first Kings chapter 14 look at verse 7 Here's what the prophet says the Jeroboam Thus says the Lord the God of Israel Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over my people Israel skip down to verse 9 But you have done evil Above all who were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods and metal images provoking me to anger and have cast me behind your back and Therefore behold, I will bring harm upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam every male both bond and free in Israel and will burn up the house of Jeroboam as a man burns up dung until it is all gone We're we live in Iowa So there's been a time in your life where you have stepped in some animal droppings, right? And had to clean it off your shoes And when you're cleaning your shoes and it's animal droppings that you're cleaning off you clean it better Don't you then when it's just dirt? Because it smells, right? Every last remnant of that we're trying to get rid of. That's what God says, I'm going to do to your house, Jeroboam. I'm going to treat you as if you are dung. I'm going to burn up every last relative. Because he didn't trust the Lord. He made him these promises, and he made him king, and instead he invented his own religion. Has everybody worshipping these calves and calling them Yahweh? Well, every word that God speaks comes true. So after Jeroboam's death, here's Jeroboam, his son Nadab becomes king, he reigns for two years, and then a man named Basha comes along. Go ahead to 1 Kings chapter 15 verse 29 to see what happens when Basha has an uprising. What's Basha's first act as king? Look at 1 Kings chapter 15 verse 29. And as soon as he was king, he killed all the house of Jeroboam. He left the house of Jeroboam, not one that breathed until he had destroyed it. According to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servant, a hijab, the Shiloh night. Okay, let's skip ahead here. So bashes the king. There are several kings that come next. We've got Elah and Zimri and Omri. Omri, actually, if you read in non-biblical sources, they talk about how he built up the nation. Omri was the one who built the capital city of Israel, Samaria. It's helpful to know the rest of the Bible. Samaria is a significant place. The capital of the northern tribe. Omri built that, but in scripture they don't view Omri as a godly man. In fact, it says about Omri that he's the most wicked king to this point. However, Omri does not hold his title as most wicked king for very long because Omri has a son named Ahab who takes the title away from him. Skip ahead with me to 1 Kings chapter 16, verse 30. 1 Kings 16, 30. And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him. Up until this point, the great sin of the kingdom of the north was worshipping these idols, these calves, and calling them Yahweh. Now Ahab continued to do that, but he added the worship of Baal to that. Okay, he marries a princess, the Eph-Baal king of Sidon, up here, his daughter is Jezebel. And for Ahab to marry Jezebel is a great political move because it gives him access to maritime trade. But it's horrible for the soul of Israel because Jezebel is the most committed Baal worshipper you have ever known. And she comes, and very clearly in Ahab and Jezebel's relationship, Jezebel is running the show. And so she, throughout Israel, she has all of the altars to the true God thrown down. And any true prophet of Yahweh that she can find in the land she has slaughtered. The prophets are hiding in caves. try to stay alive because of Jezebel, hunting them down. She has 950 prophets of Baal and Asherah that she feeds at her table every day. So Israel now has a new god, Baal, and a queen who is passionately in love, Baal. But the true God is not silent. The Lord sends at this time two messengers to call the people back to the true God. He sends Elijah, And then he sends Elisha. These two men leave no reason to doubt that Yahweh is the true God. These two guys, Elijah and Elisha, they are miracle machines. Outside of Jesus himself, no one in history has ever done miracles like Elijah and Elisha. Let me give you a sense of it here. Some of the things that these two prophets did. They multiplied food, like Jesus did. They called down fire from heaven. They controlled the weather. They parted the Jordan River. They healed and caused leprosy. They listened in on conversations that happened miles away. They struck armies with blindness. They outran chariots. They commanded wild animals. They caused iron to float. They caused barren women to have children. They raised people from the dead. And then, after Elisha died, And they took Elisha and they buried him. His bones are rotting in this grave. Long later, there was an emergency and they had to take somebody and throw him in on top of Elisha's bones. And that dead body came to life when it hit Elisha's bones. I mean, these guys, they are doing these miracles. And what's the point of... If you read this, the story of them, it's just like, miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle. What's the point of all this? Look in 1 Kings 18 and Elijah tells us what the point of the miracles are. First Kings 18 21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said How long will you go limping between two different opinions if the Lord is God follow him, but if Baal then follow him But even with all those miracles the people of Israel did not listen and Particularly Ahab did not listen. So skip ahead with me to chapter 21, 1 Kings 21. Eventually Yahweh sends Elijah to Ahab with this warning. 1 Kings 21, 21. Behold, Elijah says to Ahab, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up. And I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel. And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and like the house of Basha, the son of Ahijah, for the anger to which you have provoked me, and because you have made Israel to sin. And there's a special word for Ahab's wife. Verse 23, And of Jezebel the Lord also said, The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel. Now, the most surprising verse in the book comes next. Ahab gets this prophecy against him, and he humbles himself before God. Ahab. Look, 1 Kings 12, 21, 27. And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. Oh, listen. Eyes are always open to the humble. It doesn't matter how horribly famous you are for your wickedness. If you will humble yourself before God and fall before Him, He will listen to you. We have a God of mercy. Look at how He responds to this wicked king's humbling himself. In verse 28, 1 Kings 21, 28, And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days, but in his son's days I will bring the disaster upon his house." Now, when I was reading this, I was like, I gotta find out, does Ahab follow through on this? Does he follow through on following Yahweh? And the answer's no. There's more that we read of Ahab. He doesn't turn away from his Baal worship. He doesn't, like, say Jezebel, we're gonna worship Yahweh now. And he was humble for a while, which maybe leads us to the second application here, number two. Ahab introduced the worship of Baal. That's his thing that he did in Israel. He introduced the worship of Baal. He felt bad once when God spoke to him. He felt bad once, but not enough to actually change his ways. He felt bad, but not enough to change his ways. Maybe you're in Ahab's place right now. God calls you out on some kind of sin and you've humbled him yourself before him and you've shed tears over it will pray God He always is pleased with people who come to him humbly But he calls you to more than shedding tears, right but following him Okay, what happened with Ahab every word God spoke came true I So Ahab, it says they're all going to die, except now it's going to be delayed to his son's life. So here's Ahab. Ahab has a son, Ahaziah. Ahaziah reigns for two years, and then he dies. And Ahaziah has no heirs. So the kingdom goes to another of Ahab's sons, Joram. Joram reigns, I think it's for like nine years. And then a man named Jehu rises up, In power he rests the kingdom away from Joram What do you think that Joram first that Jehu the new king? What do you think his new what his first act in power would be? Well, look at 2nd Kings chapter 10 2nd Kings chapter 10 verse 11. Let's see what happens About God's promise to destroy all of Ahab's relatives 2nd Kings 10 11 So Jehu struck down all who remained of the house of Ahab and Jezreel, all his great men and his close friends and his priests, until he left him none remaining. Do you remember what Elijah had said about Jezebel? What's the prophecy about Jezebel? She's dogs, right? She's gonna be eaten by dogs. Back up, let's see if this happens. 2 Kings 9, verse 30. This is what happens when Jehu, the new king, rides into Jezreel. 2 Kings 9, verse 30. When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. Ahab's already been slaughtered. And she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out at the window. And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master? And he lifted up his face to the window and said, Who is on my side? Who? Two or three eunuchs looked at him. He said, Throw her down. So they threw her down. And some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her. Then he went in and ate and drank, and he said, See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter. But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. When they came back and told him, he said, This is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite in the territory of Jezreel. The dog shall eat the flesh of Jezebel. Basically tells you the story of Israel's history. There's 200 years The Lord speaks to Israel through his prophets and every word that he speaks comes true But Israel would not listen they would not believe they would not obey until the Lord removed them out of his sight But you shouldn't have the idea that there's no one in Israel that's listening and believing Number three on your sheets. There was a time when Elijah Elijah He was running from Jezebel. She was hunting him down, and he said, God, why don't you just kill me? I'm not better than my fathers, and I'm the only one. I'm passionately following you, and I'm the only one. And God said to Elijah, no, you're not the only one. There's 7,000. I have 7,000 in Israel who are loyal to me. And God knew him, right? So even if your nation turns against God, You can choose to believe. You can choose to obey. You can choose to trust. And He will know you, right? He'll know right where you're at and know that you're being faithful. Okay, I want to show you one story of a woman who did just that, who believed. Her story is in 1 Kings chapter 17, so back up there. 1 Kings chapter 17. This is going back to the time of Elijah. Let me give you your blanks and then we'll look at it in the text. So number four, there was one widow in Zarephath. There was one widow in Zarephath who listened, believed, and obeyed, and learned that the word of the Lord is true. Learned that the word of the Lord is true. Okay, we're backing up. 1 Kings chapter 17, the prophet Elijah, he's hiding in the wilderness from Jezebel and Ahab, and God is miraculously sending ravens that bring him food, and he drinks from this brook, But the famine is so bad that the brook dries up. And so Elijah needs a new way to stay alive. And the Lord sends him word of what he's supposed to do next. 1 Kings 17, look at verse 8. Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Elijah. Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. Do you remember who else is from Sidon? Jezebel is from Sidon right her dad Her dad f bail the king of Sidon. This is where she comes from So Elijah's gonna hide from Jezebel and God sends him to the place where she would least expect him She he goes to Jezebel's old backyard. There's this town Zarephath. That's just south of Sidon over there and there's a widow there God is gonna show grace to this widow this widow who lives in Zarephath. This is in Israel She's a bail worshiper And God decides he's going to send grace to her, and so he sends her first his word, and then his prophet. The word that he sends to her, somehow he talks to this widow and he says, I want you to feed my prophet. Okay, so the word goes to her, and then we come to verse 10. 1 Kings 17, 10. So he arose, Elijah did, and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And then she was going to bring it. He called to her and said, bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. Now, this widow seems to know that this is the prophet. This is the prophet is going to come from Israel, the prophet of God. Look what she says to him. And she said, as the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I'm gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die." She says, Hey, Prophet, I would feed you. I would. God came and said, I'm supposed to feed you. But you see these sticks that I've got here, famine so bad. All the food I have left at home, I got a handful of flour and I got some oil and these sticks. My plan is to go with my son and I'm gonna cook it and that'll be our last meal and then we'll eat that and we'll die. And so do you really want me to give you food? Look at verse 13. And Elijah said to her, do not fear. See, sometimes the reason we don't obey God is because We're afraid. Jeroboam was afraid that the people's hearts would go back to Rehoboam, and so he didn't obey. Ahab seems to have been afraid of his wife. This widow is afraid of starvation. Is there something that you're afraid of that's keeping you from obeying God? Verse 13, And Elijah said to her, Do not fear. Go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me. And afterward, make something for yourself and your son. Notice that order. God requires you to obey him first. God requires that you trust him and step out in faith before you know what will come. If this woman goes by her reckoning, if she goes and makes a cake for Elijah, she won't have any left for herself and her son. And yet Elijah says, first make me a cake and then for yourself and your son. Look at verse 14. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth. God says, here's my word, listen, believe, obey. Dale Ralph Davis writes, can there be a clearer picture of what faith essentially is? Faith is staking everything upon Yahweh's sheer word, wagering all upon the veracity of God. Van Veer writes, it is as if God says, give me everything you have, for I will give you everything you need. Davis again, at the end of the day, we find that faith consists in leaning all our weight upon the mere word of God. Jeroboam couldn't find it in himself to trust in God. He trusted his logic instead. Ahab trusted his wife instead. What will you trust? Will you lean all of your weight upon the mere Word of God and see whether He will come through for you? Verse 15, and she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he in her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. The last words that we hear from this widow are in verse 24, look there. And the woman said to Elijah, 1724, now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth. Sometimes, before you can know for sure that the Lord is God and that His Word is true, you just have to simply believe it and obey it. You have to say, God, I'm going to act as if You are real and what You're saying is true. You just have to, God, I'm going to act as if it's true and You've got to catch me. And unless I'm willing to do that, I won't see Him act in power. But if I'll do that, God, I believe it. You said it. I'm going to live my life on it. and He's going to come through for you in everything He said He will do. You know, this faith in God, we need it for our life, we need it for our daily life, we also need it for eternity. In Scripture, it says this is the only way we can be right with God. Remember how we talked at the beginning about this sin that infects us all? You know the only way for that to be removed? It's the death of Jesus Christ for us. Jesus Christ died in my place, in your place on the cross. And He says, if you will believe in Him, He will forgive your sins and give you new power to obey. How is it that I access that? There's one thing the Bible says. It says you've got to believe. Put your faith in God and He'll forgive your sins. And it's based on that. There was an old man named Robert Bruce. He was eating breakfast one morning and he realized, he had this sense that his master was calling him home and that this would be his last meal on earth. So Robert Bruce called to his youngest daughter and he said, cast me up to the eighth of Romans. His eyes weren't strong enough to read the words in his Bible himself anymore. And so he listened as his daughter read to him. She's reading through the Romans chapter eight. And as she goes, she got to the part at the end of the chapter that he had memorized. And so as she read, he added his voice to hers. Romans eight ends with these words. They said this together, for I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. When they had recited those words together, he ordered his daughter, set my finger on these words. And he said to her, I die believing these words. Where is Robert Bruce today? Robert Bruce is with the Lord in heaven. How do I know? Because God has said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It's not just for salvation that we need faith. We need it for everyday life. And so let's not be like Israel. Let's be like the widow of Zarephath. Listen and believe and obey. And we will find that every word that God speaks comes true. Join me in prayer. Lord, thank you so much for your word. We find this throughout scripture. You are pleased with faith, but it's not easy for us. Sometimes we have to believe and then step out and take an action that you call us to do that just doesn't seem to make sense. So, God, will you give us confidence in your word, confidence in you to believe what you say and take that step. And then, Lord, we are dependent upon you. You have to catch us. We ask that you would continue to show yourself true as you have in every other generation until this point, and as you will until Jesus Christ returns. Help us to believe, Lord, and then catch us as we trust in you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks, everyone. God bless you.