Transcription
[Applause] Would you join me tonight in whispering some words of prayer? Let's ask the Lord to bless our time in the word tonight. God, in the midst of a world that is fickle and funny acting, you stay faithful. And we rejoice tonight in another evidence of your unending faithfulness as we celebrate how you have used Bishop Reed for these 42 years. Thank you for [Music] his national and worldwide impact, and thank you that, uh, you're still doing great things through him, and we are made the better. Now, God, as we commence the celebration, we, we need to hear from you. So we're asking you, Lord, to speak because your servants are listening. [Music] God, the assignment on me is too much for me. I cannot do this without you. So, Lord, would you pour fresh oil on my head? Give me clarity of thought and precision of speech. Please, Lord, use me as an instrument in your hand. Purge my motives, purify my intentions, so that I may only say those things that you would have us to know. Then we collectively pray for listening ears, receptive hearts, and most importantly, responsive lives. We want to leave better than we were when we came. That's what we are asking for tonight. We pray that you would arrest our attention and help us to be focused on the scripture as it reveals your son, Jesus Christ. Please rebuke any potential distraction. Now, Lord, save the lost, reclaim the backslider, and then build up believers, all while getting the glory for yourself. And we trust you with these things, and we thank you for all things because this is your will concerning us in Christ Jesus. And we believe you're going to say yes to what we've asked because we pray it in accordance with your will as revealed in your word, and in the name of your son, our Savior. And all who believed and agreed said together, amen and amen.
Well, this is the day the Lord has made, and we should be rejoicing. We should be glad in it. Would you help me celebrate our great God who is great and greatly to be praised? Help me celebrate your pastor, God's man, 42 years of pastoral ministry, Bishop Keith Reed, Senior. What a joy it is to be a part of this, uh, celebration. The Bible says those who serve well are worthy of double honor, and what a privilege it is to always be in his presence, to learn from his wisdom, to be encouraged by his wit, and, uh, it's just a joy, uh, to be around him as always. To all who make up the leadership and fellowship, and those who are visiting friends, this church, it's good to be here tonight. Uh, we're not here tonight because we've been good or lucky. We're here because God has been faithful. Once again, look beyond our faults and zero in on the bullseye of our need, and giving us the privilege of worship together, both physically and in the virtual space. Bishop, thank you for including me, uh, in this celebration. Uh, it's my great joy to be here tonight.
Listen, First Kings chapter 17. First Kings chapter 17. I'm going to read quite a few verses, but please don't be nervous at the length of the reading. I, I won't preach as long as I read. The first 16 verses of First Kings 17. First Kings 17, beginning at verse one, concluding at verse number 16. And with your prayers and participation, I want to see if we can get you out of church at a reasonable hour. The Christian Standard Bible of First Kings 17 reads this way: "Now Elijah the Tishbite, from the Gilead settlers, said to Ahab, 'As the Lord God of Israel lives, in whose presence I stand, there will be no dew or rain during these years except by my command.' And the word of the Lord came to him, 'Leave here, turn eastward, and hide at the Wadi Cherith where it enters the Jordan. You are to drink from the wadi. I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.' So he proceeded to do what the Lord commanded. Elijah left and lived at the Wadi Cherith where it enters the Jordan. The ravens kept bringing him bread and meat in the morning and in the evening, and he would drink from the wadi. After a while, the wadi dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him, 'Get up and go to Zarephath that belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman who is a widow to provide for you there.' So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. Elijah called to her and said, 'Please bring me a little water in a cup and let me drink.' As she went to get it, he called to her and said, 'Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.' But she said, 'As the Lord your God lives, I don't have anything baked, only a handful of flour in the jar and a bit of oil in the jug. Just now, I'm gathering a couple of sticks in order to go prepare it for myself and my son so we can eat it and die.' Then Elijah said to her, 'Don't be afraid. Go and do as you have said. But first, make me a small loaf from it and bring it out to me. Afterward, you may make some for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord God of Israel says: The flour jar will not become empty and the oil jug will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the surface of the land.' So she proceeded to do according to the word of Elijah. Then the woman, Elijah, and her household ate for many days. The flour jar did not become empty, and the oil jug did not run dry, according to the word of the Lord he had spoken through Elijah."
I want to put what might seem to be a trite tag on our time in and through this text. I simply want to talk from this thematic thrust: God Will Make A Way. God Will Make A [Music] Way. John Wooden is known as the wizard of Westwood. He won 10 NCAA Men's Basketball Championships in 12 years as the head coach of the UCLA Bruins. He's famed for having star players like the former Lou Alcindor, who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and then that, uh, uh, 7-foot hippie, Bill Walton. And but then he also had teams that were not filled with stars and standouts, players that would seem to be average, run-of-the-mill, regular. And yet, somehow, he was able to wring the brag out of their talent, to get them to perform at high levels, significant, uh, levels of excellence and execution. And as such, they were perennially favorites during his time and tenure. John Wooden, wizard of Westwood, a master strategist, a master motivator, a molder of men's characters. Yet, one of the most significant things about Wooden is how John Wooden began each first practice of each season as coach. He sat his players down, whether superstars or mundane, regular, run-of-the-mill players, and he taught them all, each first practice, how to put on their socks. Yeah. Nothing about is in those strategies. He did not work on free-throw shooting, or he did not work on running drills or conditioning. No, he, he started each season by teaching his players to put on their socks. He, he, he did this, he says, in his own words, because putting on your socks is fundamental to functioning on the court. It's, it's, it's, it's this. He knew that putting on your socks incorrectly would lead to blisters and boils and perhaps putting you in a bad position late in games and late into the seasons. And so he taught his players how to put on their socks first. Those 7-foot giants, those skilled and highly motivated players, had to start, friends, with sock attentiveness because no one can be great and jump high until they get the fundamentals right. I think many of us want to leap high in spiritual matters, but we don't focus on sock spirituality first. Friends, you can never get too advanced for the fundamentals. And here is the truth: the fundamental reality of experiencing God in significant, supernatural, and spiritual ways begins with putting on the simple socks of regular old obedience. First Kings chapter 17 is a passage that is filled with amazing and astounding miracles of supernatural nature, but it begins, friends, with Elijah and a widow woman simply doing what God told them to do. And that's all I'm trying to lift for us tonight is that supernatural abundance is most often accessed through simple acts of obedience. Because when ordinary people obey God's awkward instructions, then they can experience supernatural provision. Did you hear me? I want to try it again. I said, when ordinary people obey what seemed to be from God, awkward instructions, it is then that we can experience supernatural provision.
As the curtain rises on the scene of our text, and our protagonist, a prophet named Elijah, steps onto the stage of the scripture, we've got to know the background of this man. According to James chapter 5, Elijah is nothing special and nobody significant when we first meet him. No, according to James 5:17 and 18, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, but he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months, it didn't rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the Bible says that the heavens gave their rain, and the earth bore its fruit. He's an ordinary man. He's from the suburbs of the boondocks. He's a nobody from nowhere. But this ordinary man is used by God to do extraordinary things. And he is, for us tonight, Sharon, an example of the possibilities of a yielded life. A man from nowhere who has nothing becomes the premier prophet of the Old Testament scripture, and ultimately gets to meet with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, simply because he does what God says do. And I'm talking to somebody here, and God has given you what might seem to be some strange instructions, uh, some simple things to do, uh, but God said, "I do supernatural wonders when you do simple obedience." If you just show up, if you just speak up, if you just stand up, if you just sow, if you just serve, uh, if you just give, uh, if you just worship, if you just forgive, if you do the simple acts of obedience I've called you to do, then I will open up windows in heaven and pour out blessing that you will not have room enough to contain. It, it, it's this. The text is trying to help us to see, friends, that God ensures that God's people are always sustained in every circumstance by any means necessary. I, yes. Yeah. God, God, God is going to make sure that you are going to survive, no matter what it takes to keep you going. And that, that means when I leave tonight, I've got to learn how to be obedient to God, and then be open to, uh, and expect God's surprising, unexplainable blessings. Elijah shows us what simple obedience results in, and the woman, the widow woman, does as well. It, it begins. Come here, church. It begins, um, I get to this place where I experience this amazing, abundant provision, um, when I first re-engage my sense of purpose. Purpose. Elijah shows up on the scene. He's from Tishbe. That's a place, um, where we don't know where it is. I told you it's the suburbs of the boondocks. He's a nobody from nowhere who, as far as we know, has nothing. His lineage and genealogy is not listed. He's a country bumpkin who goes to stand in the face of a king named Ahab, a wicked king who's now reigning, um, some 40 years after Solomon, the height of Israel's influence and wealth and affluence was under King Solomon. Now, 40 years later, we've got this wicked king, and who's partnered with a wicked wife named Jezebel, and they are leading the people into idolatry, which actually rolls out into injustice. Because, uh, idolatry is really the worship of self. It objectifies others for its own selfish intentions and means. Ahab is being enriched, his court is being enriched, while the people, people are being abused through inequity. And y'all, it is on the scene of that cultural chaos that Elijah is called by God, a nobody from nowhere who has nothing, to announce God is going to send a divine drought. I don't have time to work on this tonight, but I need you to know that cultural chaos is often the soil in which personal purpose flourishes. That you and I, friends, find our sense of purpose when God attaches an irritation to our person in the midst of the world's problems. The thing that bothers you is probably what you're called to. The thing that works your nerves and grates against the grain of your sense of stability, the thing that makes your heart hurt, is what you are called to. I thought Sharon was going to help me tonight. This is why when, when you look around the world and you see the issues that we experience locally and nationally and even globally, that thing that bothers you is God calling you to do something about it, not merely to talk about how bad the world is, uh, but to employ the gifts that God has given you, to use the resources you have access to, to engage in the ways that God has divinely designed you so that you can make a difference in the world around you. Elijah stands up and says, "It's in the midst of cultural chaos that God is calling me to be a prophet." And I want to talk to somebody here and suggest to you that God does not call his best to his best. God calls his best to his worst. God uses, uh, the, the people, uh, that he has called, uh, to go into the ugly and the off, uh, and the awkward spaces of the world, uh, to announce by his grace the possibilities of redemption, but also the penalties of rejection. God calls you to stand up and speak up and to announce that the kingdom has come, and that God wants men and women to repent and to be saved, uh, and wants sister to be equitable, and wants the poor to be concerned to be taken care of, and the marginalized brought to the middle. And God says, "I need you to re-engage the reason for which you have been born, and the reason for which you have been born again." Okay. Uh, uh, uh, here it is. There are times that God temporarily suspends natural blessings to remind us of his identity as the only true source of blessing. And so, in those spaces, those liminal spaces, where, where the culture has questions, the church ought to stand up with the answer. And it might, that be true on a macro level, certainly. But it is also true for you, my brother, my sister, on a micro level, in your space, in your world. You, you, you may not ever get to the pulpit with, with a microphone, but you got a stage. He didn't save you for nothing. He's not sustaining you for nothing. You and I ought to stand up and be courageous. The phrasing that Elijah uses, friends, is, "As the Lord God of Israel lives, in whose presence I stand." The scholars tell us this is prime minister language. This is a country bumpkin standing up and saying, "I'm God's representative. I know who I belong to, and I know who sent me." And though I may not have the secular credentials, I do have the spiritual calling, because the spiritual calling, uh, can survive without the secular credentials, uh, but the secular credentials, uh, ain't nothing without a spiritual calling. And so, you ain't got to call me doctor, nothing, or prophet, nothing, or pastor, nothing, or reverend, nothing. I know the hand of the Lord is on my life, and I'm going to walk in perfect [Applause] favor. Hear me good. Please stop measuring your, your significance by your popularity. You don't have to be liked to be [Applause] used. Elijah, you're not, you, if you're not used, that sense of, of, of, of longing and the lack of peace that you feel is because there's ministry in you that you've got to execute. And he says, he says, as he does so, um, um, here, here it is. He, he re-engages his sense of purpose because provision is going to be on the other side of purpose. What you need God to do for you is on the backside of what you're called to do for God. Well, I'm trying to talk to y'all talking back to me. Let's try it again. Um, um, um, provision follows purpose. What, what you're looking for from God is on the other side of what you owe God in obedience. When you step out and do what he's called you to do, let me say it this way: If you take care of God's business, God will turn around and take care of your business. And some of y'all took a break. You've been on break since COVID. You've been on break since you had that loss or that transition. You've been on break since things broke down. God said, "Get back in the game. Get back in service. Get back in ministry. Go back to ushering. Go back to singing. Go back to being on the praise team. Get back in children's church because I've got provision for you." But when you give me obedience, I can give you the open door you're looking for. Let me move. You've got to re-engage your sense of purpose. Elijah stands up, speaks up, and stands in the face of the king. And God says, God said, "It ain't going to rain for three years." And then, then the Bible says, "Then the word of the Lord came to him, verse two, 'Go by the Wadi Cherith. I've commanded the ravens to feed you there.'" He goes. The ravens bring him bread. I like the CSB translation here: "kept on bringing him bread and meat in the morning and in the night." Then the brook dries up. Verse 8: "Then the word of the Lord came to him." Did you get it? Did you catch it? Did you get it? God didn't speak the next while the now was working. God let the now dry up so Elijah could be available to hear what was next. I don't know who I'm talking to now, 'cause you've been cursing the dryness, and God said, "I'm just trying to get your attention 'cause I've got another opportunity in another space and another place." But you wouldn't have been open to your next 'cause you were so focused on your now. So I had to let the now dry up because dry brooks are actually open doors. God has something else for you that your eyes haven't seen, that your ears haven't heard, that your heart has not conceived. But I got to let this dry up so I can get you to your next. I got to let this job let you go so I can get you to your business. I got to let this relationship fall apart so I can get you to some real friends. I got to let this season end, uh, so I can walk you into your next season. And I've got to rethink my ideas of opportunity. Yeah, 'cause, 'cause God has something somewhere in someone's hand for me. I don't know if you know, "I have commanded a widow woman to feed you there." Let's try it again. God has something somewhere in someone's hand for me. But if the brook is still flowing, I'm going to miss something somewhere and to someone 'cause I got what I need right here. So God said, "I got to let you get a little thirsty in order to move you from your now to your next." And the thirst and the desire, the sense of unfulfilled desires and expectations and needs, uh, is a grace from God, 'cause it's letting you know there must be, uh, something, uh, somewhere in somebody's hand for me. Okay. Go, go. I like the timing here. The timing is that Elijah's dry brook is perfectly in synchronization with the widow's last handful of [Applause] flour, 'cause sovereign synchronicity knows how to partner people with different needs into symbiotic relationships that result in supernatural supply. Try one more time. God knows where to send you, who to send you to, and you have something they need, and they have something you need. And when we can honestly and openly communicate the realities of our need, then we can see God use your gift to bless me, and my gift to bless you. 'Cause the widow woman needed something supernatural, and Elijah needed a base from which to do ministry. So God hooks up a person with prophetic power with a woman with a generous spirit. And when prophecy and generosity got together, everybody ate. The whole time, I wish y'all were helping me. This is why I ain't got to be jealous, and I ain't got to be envious, and I don't have to be upset when God blesses you, 'cause if God is blessing you, it just means that God is blessing around me. And if God is blessing my neighbor, he's in the neighborhood. And let's find ways of mutual cooperation because, because, because these are unlikely people. Ravens are unlikely, but the widow's unlikely too. She's, she's, she's 100 miles away [Applause] geographically. Prior to our meeting her, her, her, her religious heritage is one of paganism and idolatry. Somewhere in her life, she comes to know the God of Israel and becomes obedient to the God of Israel. She's a proselyte. She's a convert to the to the worship of the one living and true God. She's, she's, she's the wrong gender for Elijah. But, but, but everything that was wrong culturally and situationally made it right spiritually, 'cause your greatest opportunities are found in relationships with the most unlikely people. Okay. Uh, uh, this, let me say it this way, uh, if, if you want to get, uh, and live, you, you got, you got to learn how to let, uh, God's blessings flow not just to you, but through you. That's, that's, that's what they teach us right here. Um, um, that's the Red Sea, and the Dead Sea are both major bodies of water in, in, in the Holy Land. Red Sea and Dead Sea. Red Sea is full of life. It, it's teeming with life. Fish and and animals and and vegetation live in the Red Sea. But the Dead Sea is called the Dead Sea 'cause it's salty. It's so salty that nothing but a few microorganisms that you need a microscope to see can live there. So salty, you can't sink. You got to take off all your jewelry. It will corrode everything. It's dead. What's interesting, though, Bishop, is that they have the same tributary. Yeah, the Jordan River flows into the Red Sea, and the Jordan River flows into the Dead Sea too. Both of them get the same water in. So why does one have life and the other is salty? It's 'cause the Red Sea has an outlet. It gets water in, but it flows water out. Whereas the Dead Sea gets water in, but nothing ever flows out of it. And because there is no outflow, it becomes salty and dead. Now, I'm talking to somebody here, because if you only ever get God's best blessings, you end up being salty. That's why folk are nasty and mean and can't speak and can't talk and are honory all the time. It's 'cause blessings flow in, but nothing ever flows out. But when you learn how to get God's blessings in, but find somebody to bless, find somebody to encourage, find somebody to uplift, find somebody to push and promote, find somebody to give your gifts away to, then life is the natural result of getting blessings in and flowing blessings. I got to go. I'm done. Woo. I got to re-engage my sense of purpose, sir. I got to rethink my concept of opportunity. Last thing, last thing, last thing. I got to recalibrate my measures of abundance. Ready? All right. Um, she, she, she, she goes and does what he asks. Hey, hey, make me a little cake first. He said, "First, bring me some water." She said, "Cool." He said, "Hey, by the way, give me a little, little piece of bread, little, little whole cake." Um, and, uh, and she says, she said, "I ain't got but a little bit of flour, little oil. I was going to fry that little flour in that little bit of oil, and then my son and I were going to eat it and die." He said, "Listen, hey, I don't want all your flour. Make me a small cake first, and then make it for you and your son." And, and here's what God said: God said that the flour won't run out and the oil won't run dry until the rain comes again. Uh, now, now, now, some, some used to say back in the day that that the barrel of flour overflowed and the cruse of oil overflowed with oil, but that's not what the text says. The text seems to suggest that every time she went to the barrel and scraped the [Applause] bottom, when she went back again, there was some more to scrape. And every time she emptied that cruse of oil, when she went back again, there was some more to empty. Because, y'all, abundance, I'm through, is not always having more than you can use in a day. Abundance is having what you need every day. You need something to that end. I'm talking to somebody who feels broke, but you really are walking in abundance. Your bank account does not necessarily testify to the level of your abundance, 'cause if you look back down the hallway of your history and see how many days God has sustained you and kept you and fed you and forgiven you and healed you, it's not that you have more than you need in a day, it's that every day I have a need, the Lord has made a way. I wish I had help us in here. Somehow, how many days has he fed you? How many dangers has he kept you through? How many sins has he forgiven you? You are walking in abundance right now. It was three years, Bishop. It was 1,095 days, 26,280 hours, it was 1,576,800 minutes, it was 94,608,000 seconds of being sustained, uh, by an Almighty God, and you're walking, uh, in abundance every day that God sustains you in spite of what's going on around you. I'm gone.
I was in my office, in my office a couple weeks ago, few weeks ago, in my office. And, um, I'm getting ready to leave. I, I got an office on one side, got, got a middle kind of meeting space, got my library on the side. Bishop, um, I'm ready to leave, and I can't find my keys. Can't find my keys. Um, um, I'm looking everywhere trying to find my keys. I'm getting frustrated. I go, I, I retrace my steps. Okay. I normally put them in this drawer, so they're always in the same place. They're not there. I, I go to my library, looking on the shelf. Sometimes I put them on the shelf. Not there. On my, on my up desk in my library. Not there. Maybe, maybe on the bathroom counter in the office. And go, go to the, no, it's not there. Uh, I'm going everywhere. I, I go to the sanctuary to pray. The sanctuary. Maybe, maybe I took them over there. And I go look in, in pews in the sanctuary. They're not there. Finally, I'm, I'm frustrated. I'm standing there. Can't leave, can't lock up, can't, can't drive my car. What am I going to do? I need my keys. Where are my keys? And my son in ministry, DJ, comes in. Says, "Pop, what's wrong?" I say, "Son, man, I'm, I can't find my keys." He said, "Doc, what's that in your [Applause] hand?" Do you know how foolish it is to be looking for what you already have? I'm through. Would you look at somebody real quick and say, "Neighbor, I'm already blessed. I'm already favored. I'm already walking in abundance. I'm already living in overflow." And here I am, worried and frustrated and having anxiety attacks about something I already have. You walk in the abundance of God right now. Now, that's why the saints said, "Lord, uh, keep me, uh, day by day." I wish y'all were helping me here, in a pure and perfect way. They would say, "Just another day that the Lord has kept me." Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Would you look at somebody and say, "Neighbor, this day is another day of abundance in your life, 'cause the Lord has been blessing you. The Lord has been taking care of you. The Lord has been opening doors for you. The Lord has been making ways, yeah, out of no way." Do I have a witness in Sharon? We got to leave here now, but I need to tell somebody: the God we serve, he, he keeps on keeping the flour full. He keeps on keeping the oil flowing, so that whatever you need, the Lord has already supplied. Do I have company in here? I have, I heard Paul say, "My God shall supply all all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ [Applause] Jesus." Is there anybody here that knows God will make a way somehow? If we were old Baptist Church, I'd say, "Like a ship, yeah, that's tossed and driven, battered by an angry sea. We, the storms of life are raging, and their fury falls on me. I wonder what I have done to make this race so hard to run. But then I say to my soul, soul, take courage, the Lord will make a way somehow." We got to go now, y'all, but can I borrow your hand just one time tonight? Can I get you to turn and look at somebody? Can I get you to turn and shake somebody's hand and say, "Neighbor, I don't know what you need. I don't know what you're looking for, but tell him, God will make a way somehow." In fact, I'm looking for a miracle. I expect the impossible. I see the invisible. I feel the intangible. I got one question, y'all: Won't he do it? I said, "Won't he do it?" Say, "Yeah, I know he will." It's going to be all right. Going to be all right. All right.