When it comes to stressful situations, I want to know if you are an escape, a controller or a seeker. Are you an escape? A controller or a seeker? Now, I'm gonna tip my hand a little bit and say that all of us by default are tend to lean towards a escape or controller. When really we should all be longing to be a seeker. Let me explain what these are and then I'll, and then you guys gotta respond to me and let me know which one you are and I'll share what I am as well. So here's the deal when a stressful situation comes into your life, when a difficult circumstance comes into your life, we have a natural tendency to do one of two things either to escape or control. So on this side here, so we'll call this. These are our escapes over here. OK? To escape means this is scary. I don't know what to do. So you put your hand up, I don't want to think about this. And so you take a step back into something else. So there is a lot of things you can do to escape from the situation. Now, there's some unhealthy things. I mean, a lot of them honestly are unhealthy to an extreme but some people go to more extreme things whether it's drinking or drugs or pornography or something like that to escape. But here's the thing, anything could be an escape when we take it to an extreme level. So that means food or Netflix or, um, sports or whatever show or obsession you have. Here's how this works. When you take something that's good. Like a hobby. But then when you get stressed out, that hobby now prevents you from responsibility. That's an escape. Right? If you've ever been in that situation, you might be an escape or an escape artist. If you find yourself doing two things first thought, I'm so overwhelmed. I'm so stressed out. I can't believe this next action. You binge watch an entire series, right? And you're like, oh, I'm so overwhelmed. I have no time. What do you mean continue watching? I haven't been watching for that. Oh, ok. I guess I have. Right. That's an escape. Sometimes you escape to food or drink or activity or even even work can be an escape. Have you ever done that? Maybe it is, uh, you, you feel stressed out and so then you start cleaning obsessively or you, or go to the office obsessively and you start to really just like, I don't wanna think about this. So I'm gonna do this. Does that make sense? So, these are my escape artists over here. All right, on this side of the room, these are my control freaks. OK? And here's what this looks like is that so where the escape artist has their hand like this? OK? The control freak has their hand like this. And this is very natural for us to do because here's what happens. You get into a situation that you cannot control and you want to feel a sense of control. So you come home or, and you decide to control a task, an area of life or sometimes a person does that make sense. This is really stressful to me. And so I'm gonna really zero in and tell people what to do or, or focus in on this task. I'm gonna be super organized in this one area of my life. Again, both accomplish the same thing of, I don't know how to handle what I'm going through. And so I either go to escape. I don't wanna think about it, the hand up or I'm gonna fo I'm gonna really zero in on a person or a relationship or a concept or idea or the house and I'm just gonna really and cleanse on to what I can. OK. So now we all have one of these two tendencies. So right there to your neighbor, go ahead and say, hey, I'm not saying it's great. But when stressful situations come, go ahead and tell your neighbor, do you find yourself being an escape artist at times or a control freak. Go ahead and share with your neighbor right now. And if you're telling your friend or spouse what they are, you might be more in the controlling side just saying, ok, and if you're like, what are we talking about? You know, you weren't paying attention the whole time. You might be an escape artist. OK. So just helping out, just helping out for me, I tend to be an escape artist. So for me, I stress eat any stress eaters in the house. Like I can be doing so good, so healthy and then I get stressed out and I can put down some peanut butter M and M's, you know what I'm saying? Like it's just good, like I'm like, it's like I just negated like weeks of salads for just a bag of Oreos. Um And so um that's a nor normal amount, right? They say like 1 to 2 packages, right? Serving sizes 1 to 2. So if you eat it in one setting, it's fine anyway. So I tend to, I tend to escape. I tend to, if I get stressed out, I tend to turn to food, I tend to turn to uh get really obsessive over sports because I love sports again, you take something that you love that's healthy outlet, but when it becomes obsessive, it becomes an escape, right? And I tend to really zero in on statistics that don't really matter to my life, but like, I don't want to deal with here, but I do care about the completion percentage on third down of Kyler Murray last season. Right? Like, so, like, I, I focus in like, that's what I tend to do. Um So here's the thing, we all lean, either escape or some of us lean in on a control side and that's very realistic of what we do it like because we, we wanna feel comfortable, we wanna feel kind of wrapped in a logical blanket if you will like, I know what to do here and so I can control this person, this thing, this task. And so I feel comfortable in my box. Well, stressful situations really are the default for all of us because life at its best is still really hard and really overwhelming even when things are going well and you are doing great. It's hard. See, we're in a series called Small Deeds. Big Difference. We're taking a look at the life of Elisha, the most prolific, least talked about prophet in the Old Testament. And we shared in week one through small beginnings that really this idea is, is that God meets you where you are and leads you where to go. In Elisha's case, called him out of a farm field and he ended up burning the plows. He said there is no plan B, I'm going with God. That's plan A and then last week, we talked about small tasks that how God's provision includes our preparation and while people were praying for water, God told them to dig a ditch. So we were burning the plows, we're digging the ditch. And today we're gonna talk about a widow who learned to start collecting some jars and we're gonna talk about what does it mean to have small faith? Now, just a little bit of faith can make a huge eternal difference. And so if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. God can work with what you got. God can work with what you got. It might not be what you want, but it's what you got. And I know it would be better to say what you have. But uh but I find myself in a situation. This is all I got. And maybe you feel that way in your attitude, in your health, in your finances, in a relationship. I wish I was that parent. I wish I was that spouse. I wish I was this person I would. But here, here's, here's the reality, here's what I got. You see the escape artist puts their hand up like this. OK? The control freak puts their hand like this. But the seeker puts their hand open like this to God. And it's, it's the person that seeks God. The things above and says, I don't have much Jesus. I don't have much God, but I'm not gonna block it out. I'm not gonna control it. I'm just gonna say here you go is what I got. Same. I mean, we're in these times. There's crazy times now where prices are going up everywhere. In fact, I was at the tire store and they were gonna charge me just to pump up my tires. I went in and I was like, why are you charging me to pump up my tires? And the clerk responded back because of inflation. Think about it. That was bad. That was bad. That was bad. I'm sorry, I got that with my buddy brody who's watching right now. So um so it was a good, it was a good one though, but some of you still didn't get it. That's ok. You're probably better off anyway. So it's stressful situations. We're struggling. We don't wanna put our hand up, we don't wanna have a closed fist. We wanted to say here's God, here's what I got. And so here's the situation for our story today. We're gonna be in Second Kings chapter four. So if you have your Bibles open up there, if you don't own a Bible, we gladly give you one. We have them at the guest services table or you can open up on your smart device here. But second kings chapter four. And so we're in this divided kingdom. There's an un Godly king in charge where in the northern kingdom, which is Israel about 850 BC ish give or take a couple of years. The ruler is not following God, the nation is in turmoil, enemies are getting stronger, the economy is getting weaker, leadership is ignoring God. And in chapter three, we saw that Elisha performed a miracle for three kings. So that's big scale, right? These are nations involved in the very next chapter. We see the life of life are zooming in and providing a miracle for a widow. So one chapter, He's saving nations and kings and the next he's zeroing in on one person in one instance in one case. And we're gonna see how God works because God works with what we got. And the first thing we see from this story, we're gonna share these points and then read through the scripture. So you see how this is all connected. But the first way in which God works is that God works in our experiences. God works in our experiences, which includes the stressful situations. What was the stressful situation for this widow? Well, we read in second kings chapter four verse one, it says now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, your servant, my husband is dead and you know that your servant feared the Lord. But the creditor has come to take my two Children to be his slaves. Now, some traditions and commentators say it might actually be Obadiah who was actually a well known kind of prophet and and had a good interaction with Elisha, but we don't know that for sure. But either way this, this lady's husband was connected with the Ministry of Elisha and he's passed away. And in that culture, if you owed a debt, there wasn't like loans and interest, the loans were people and specifically your Children. And so if you owed money to someone else, he could by law take your kids from you and have them work off your debt. And so imagine this woman for just a moment in a troubled enemy filled nation. She believes in God. And what does she get in? Response? Her husband dies and now she's in debt and now she might lose her own kids. Uh You might put it this way here. The widow experienced death, death, despair and then even doubt. And so here she was, isn't it interesting that when crisis comes, the bills are still due? Have you ever experienced something traumatic in your life? But then you still have to keep moving forward. This is what the widow did and she lost everything she was. She was threatened to lose her property, her livelihood, her own kids. I'm sure she had lots of questions, God, how could you or why? But what we see here is that while God has a miracle for kings, God also is gonna have a miracle for this widow. And while she feels like this isn't fair. The truth is, is that God is still there. Because whether you believe in God or not, the default mode for humanity is actually Brokenness. The end result of every single life on earth is actually death. And because we are in a sinful broken world, it doesn't mean that your action caused something in your life. But the reality is we live in an, in a finite broken world where bad things happen and death is possible. So the default mode, the fair mode and the fact that all of humanity is rejected God, the fair mode is, is, is actually if we're gonna say God, are you being fair in all fairness, none of us deserve God and all of us experience loss. And I know that to be true because you don't have to be a Christian to go through a hard time. So the question is not, will you go through a hard time? But how will you respond when the hard time comes? How will you respond in the stressful situation? Because in this case, this widow was not an escape artist. She was not a control freak, but in all of her sadness, still chose to seek God and to seek advice from Elisha, the other prophet. So she's hurting, the pain is real and yet still in her pain goes, God, I need you. So where do you go in times of trouble? You try to escape it? Do you try to control it or do you choose to seek God. So first we see that God works in our experiences. The second thing we see here is that God works with our exceptions. God works with our exceptions. Watch what happens here. He works with our exceptions. Verse two. And Elisha said to her, what shall I do for you? Tell me what have you in the house. And she said your servant has nothing in the house except for oil. It is so low. It is such a small thing in her mind that she doesn't even that it's below nothing. There's poverty line, there's nothing empty fuel tank line. And then there is the exception. Here's the thing. God is so powerful that God can work with our exceptions. I remember I was driving my car and it was so low in gas one time that when I parked it at the gas station and I turned the car off the needle actually went up to e God can work with what you've got. Here's another way to put it. Don't downplay what God placed in your pantry, don't downplay what God placed in your pantry. And I'm not just talking about food here. This could be finances, this could be relationships, this could be um skill sets, whatever it is, whatever God has given you. What is it in your mind that you right now think is not enough Elisha turned to the woman and said, what do you have available to you? She said, I don't have anything. They got nothing. I mean, I guess, except I got this little jar of oil but that's not gonna do anything but that little jar, that little exception is exactly what God chose to work with. What is it in your life that you have overlooked or dismissed, man? I, I just have nothing. I mean, I got this but see, sometimes it's what we overlook is the very thing that God uses for transformation in our life. And if you think that you've got nothing left to give to God, you're in a good place. You know why? Because how did God create the world from nothing. God literally commanded nothingness and nothingness obeyed him and became something. Everything you see in the universe came from a point of nothingness. And so if you feel like you've got nothing left to give God, it's ok because guess what, God can work with what you've got. I got a failed marriage, I got a failed relationship. I got debts paid. I got to be paid. I got an empty bank account, whatever you've got whatever you've walked through difficulties, Brokenness, failures, struggles from others, sickness, whatever it is that you bring to the table, I can't do this because whatever comes after the because God says I'm working in that. See, God works with our exceptions. She, she was trying to minimize oil, but oil actually had a lot of uses. Back then, olive oil was used for religious offering. It was seen as a commodity and trade good. In fact, that's how Solomon came a couple of generations before actually paid for a lot of the supplies that built the temple was through oil, oil could be used to heal leather, which was often used as shields and things for battle oil was used for cooking. It was used for healing ointments and wounds. It was used for fragrances and perfumes. They would mix it and they would light it in and lanterns and candles. So it was used for illumination. They get mixed and used for soap. I mean, it was used all throughout the culture, but she had so little of it left that it was in her mind. It was an exception. It was an afterthought. Do you know people can be seen as afterthoughts too? In fact, a couple of generations prior obed was, was standing before the prophet Samuel and Samuel had come into town and, and said, ok, someone in your family is gonna be anointed king, line up all your sons. And so he lines up all his sons and he says, ok, and he goes down and God says, nope, it's not any of these. And he asked a crazy question. He goes, hey, I know I'm the main prophet of God. I know I asked you to bring all your kids out and that one of them was gonna be the next king. Um This is a weird question. But do you have any more kids that you're hiding from me? I said, well, I mean, we do technically have one more. I mean, I mean, these are all the kids except for David. He's just out in the field, King David, like the most well known old Testament guy. The man after God's own heart was an exception that his own family overlooked him as a person and his value. And God said, I'm gonna use that guy. How did Jesus choose his disciples? It was a group of mostly uneducated exceptions. He didn't use the powerful people. He said that the people that are outcast, the people that they don't look at the exceptions. I can work with that. And in this case, we see this widow in despair, in her depression, in this struggle, this all I've got is this. And I says that's enough and whatever you've got in your spiritual pantry right now, in your relational, financial, physical, whatever that is, whatever you're struggling with, whatever comes after the exception. I'm here to tell you that God can work with that and God can work with what you got. See that God works in our experiences. God works with our exceptions. But third, we see that God works through our expressions. What we're gonna see here is really this act of obedience. You see, to express means to show manifest or reveal, to show manifest or reveal. If you think about our hand motions. We have pushing away when you're trying to escape. You have a closed fist when you're trying to control. But when you have an open lifted up hand to God, you're just trying to show and express and reveal what's in your heart. You see just a little bit of faith, little bit of faith by the widow expressed through her actions, makes all the difference. Let's let's read together verse three. Then he said, go outside, borrow vessels from all of your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few, gather a lot and then go in, shut the door behind yourself. And you and your sons pour into all these vessels and when one is full, set it aside. So she went from him, shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured, they brought the vessels to her and that when the vessels were full, she said to her son, bring me another one and he said to her, there is not another and then the oil stopped flowing. So kind of a crazy weird little miracle here, right? In this story, you have a widow. She's about to lose her sons. There's deep in debt, lost her husband. She's grieving. He says, what am I going to do? And Elisha was like, what do you got? I said, well, all I got this little jar of oil. Ok, go collect the jars from the neighbors. And when you start pouring out of that little jar, the oil is going to keep flowing. And here's what's crazy is that the miracle was not the vessels. The miracle was the oil. I want you to hang on to that for a moment. We're gonna come back to that. The miracle was not the vessels. The miracle was the oil and however many vessels they brought in however many jars they brought in. God filled those jars. But I want you to notice something else here in these verses that God's provision was both public and private. Notice that God's miracle included other people. We live in a culture where we hate to say that we need one another, right? We hate to admit that we have a need your answer to prayer might actually be someone else's action or your action might actually be the answer to someone else's prayer. We see this in the New Testament as well. We need one another. She had to go to the neighbors. Imagine, go imagine how humbling that would be to go to your neighbors in your grief and your loss and be like, can I borrow some jars? Ok. You need some food, you need something. Now, I just need some jars. Can you give me some jars? You know, she was embarrassed because she didn't even do it. She sent her sons to go do it, Billy Tommy, go get some jars. How many as many as you can. And so it's public because it involves other people. But then it's private because she went back and she shut the door. That means that Elisha is not even in the room. You know why I think they did. That is because then Elisha isn't given any of the credit because there was no way they could say that Elisha did that, that in the room privately between her and her sons there. The act of faith, the only explanation of that is God. And so it's public because she needed other people, but it's private because God had that miracle for her. And that's how God works. God works for you personally. If you've ever gotten a thought, if you've ever gotten an answer to prayer in a personal moment while driving, thinking in the shower, this b or see the sunset or you get that little nudge in your heart. God works in those private moments, but God also works in the public moments that we need one another. Sometimes the miracle for you. Sometimes it's for other people. In this case, it was for both and it happened because she obeyed. She expressed her faith through her action even when she was down, even when she doubted, even when she was in debt. Even when she struggled to the point where she said, all I got left is this exception and says that's enough. Now, here's what I want you to do with it and she obeyed if we could be like that widow and obey even when we're at our wits end and say, I don't have a lot. But what I've got, I'm ready to do what you tell me to do and she did it. Here's the thing number four is that God works beyond our expectations. God works beyond our expectations. He didn't just meet the need and pay the debt. He went beyond that notice. Here in verse seven, we continue the story and she came and told the man of God and he said, go and sell the oil and pay your debts and you and your sons can live on the rest. How much oil are we talking here? Like this isn't just a debt. This is a 401k like here like enough oil to say, ok, you're good. God took the lowest amount to the point where she didn't even include it in her inventory of what she had. And God took that with her faith not only paid the debt but promised more. We have a God who is a God of more in the New Testament. Our theme verse came for this year in January. We shared that as a prayer, prayerful word, one word, theme as a church this year is, is we're gonna be praying a prayer of more. We don't want God just to meet needs. We want God to do, do abundantly more. And it comes from this verse here in Ephesians chapter three, Paul's praying. He says, now to Him, who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church in Christ Jesus. And who else? And throughout all generations forever and ever, we are still experiencing the ripple effects of that prayer to the God who can do more than anything we can think or imagine. I remember a few minutes ago, I said that the miracle was actually not the vessels. It was the oil. Why is that important today? Because on one hand, it's one story in one context. And so I'm not saying you can just go home and start pouring, pouring oil into cups and jars and it's just gonna keep going. That doesn't work like that. But here's what I want you to understand is this second Corinthians chapter four verses 5 to 7 says, and what we proclaim is not ourselves. But Jesus Christ as Lord, for ourselves are as servants for Jesus sake. And for God who said, let the light shine out of the darkness has shown in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And now notice this, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that surpassing power belongs to God. And not to us. Here's why this is important church. We are the vessels. We are the vessels the spirit of God, the truth and gospel of Jesus Christ today is the oil. The miracle is Jesus. The miracle is God himself and He promises and it's not the same story, but it is the same God and the same truth. And I know this to be true that for every vessel that humbles himself and is brought before God. God has promised to pour in Him, his spirit and to provide for his life, not just material blessings but eternal ones and wherever you come in, you might be thinking I am a broken vessel. I am a broken jar of clay. God can work with you. God can work with what you got. I got a broken marriage. God can work with you. I'm not a great parent. God can work with you because you might not be the parent that you wanna be. But you're the parent that your child has got. You might not be in the job where you wanna be. But God can work in that position right now. God can work in your finances and in your health right now and that you are actually not just the miracle. You are the vessel and the spirit of God, the power of God. The provision of God is the miracle and the same God that provided for the widow in the middle of nowhere in the desert, in a famine and a culture that did not worship Him the same God that provided for her and her sons went above and beyond. Can provide for you and is with you and is for you and can do abundantly more than anything we ask. So when you're walking through something hard, don't be an escape artist and push God away and say, I'm gonna just be numb and pursue the things of the world and the desires of the flesh and just say, I don't wanna think about it. Don't be the control freak and say, ok, God, I got this. If I just grind it go, ah, it's a little harder. Instead, whatever you got questions, doubts, strengths, pursuits, whatever you have, seek and openly give to him. And if you do that, God can work because God can work with what we've got. So let's give it to him. Do you have any father? We just lift up who you are and what you've done. And God, if people are struggling, if they're hurting, experience loss, experience de de in depth and doubt, depression, despair, got whatever they're struggling with. God, you saw the widow and her pain and you were present there. And so we know that you still are present with us today and that has broken jars of clay. As are people. We know that if we come before you, that you promise to give us your spirit and your son more than enough than what we need right now. Give us your spirit today. Give us your provision today. And God, we give you what we've got and we humbly seek you that we can obey what you tell us to do next. We love you goddess in the sense that we pray. Amen.