Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Hi, everybody.
[00:00:08] Great to be with you. I'm Evan. I'm the senior pastor. And if we're here in the room today and we are asking God, would you give me something in my life and in my heart that looks like purpose, that looks like grace, that looks like forgiveness, man. We've come to the right spot. We believe that as we fix our eyes on Jesus, we find what our souls are hungry and thirsty for in Jesus.
[00:00:33] And so that's what we're all about today. That's what we're focused on. We're walking through these stories in the Old Testament, mostly famous stories that you might have heard if you grew up going to Sunday school. And today, we're going to talk about a story that represents faith. And faith oftentimes is in the asking. Faith is in the asking.
[00:00:54] If you walk into this room for the first time, and maybe you're new here today, and this is the first time walking in, you probably notice our giant prayer sign. It's very large letters. I don't think we have any larger letters in the entire church, but we have prayer as this real signboard about what we value here.
[00:01:12] And around the prayer wall, we have all these note cards with prayers. Some prayers for healing, some prayers for addictions or loved ones who are facing addictions. Many prayers for relationships that are falling apart. And each one of those prayers written on that card and tacked to the wall represents a heart's cry to God, saying, God, would you come close in a situation that is bigger than me?
[00:01:38] And this is so important to our faith because we are, at our core level, we are a praying people. We are a praying community. We're not a preaching people. We're not a yelling people.
[00:01:50] We're not a opinionated people. Well, we are. But at our heart of who we are as followers of Jesus, we are a praying people. And so I want to look at this story out of 2 Kings, chapter 4.
[00:02:04] It's a story of faith. It's a story of need, and it's a story of God's miraculous provision. And I want to look at it through the lens of what God is inviting us into in our life of prayer. 2 Kings 4, the backstory to this moment in the record, the prophet Elijah is gone. And in his place, somebody that he mentored, the prophet Elisha, is now kind of God's person who is hearing from God and then speaking God's word into the life of the Nation, as Elisha walks around, and it's all walking.
[00:02:44] Oftentimes miracles follow him wherever he goes. People are healed, miraculous provision is made.
[00:02:51] And so this is the setting we get in. 2 Kings 4. One day, the widow of a member of the group of prophets, so Elisha had kind of a college of prophets around him. And so a widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, my husband who served you is dead. And you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come threatening to take my two sons as slaves.
[00:03:12] This is a very bleak situation for this woman. She's lost her husband because of that, her livelihood, and without the ability to pay back her debts, there is no safety net, there is no bankruptcy she can file. The answer for debts she cannot pay is that whatever she has will go to the creditors. And what she has are her two sons.
[00:03:32] So she is at risk of losing these sons into slavery. It's bleak and it's desperate.
[00:03:38] Elisha responds to her, and by the way, if it's me, I'm a problem solver.
[00:03:43] So if she came to me, I would be like, okay, here's how we're going to work this out.
[00:03:48] And I know because I've heard everybody say, you know, when you're talking to your spouse, husbands, oftentimes your wife wants you to listen before you respond with a solution.
[00:03:58] I think that's crazy. I think the solution would get us to better days faster.
[00:04:04] Thank you.
[00:04:07] She disagrees, you know, and so to Elisha's credit, and maybe because he's not married, he doesn't know how powerful, immediate solutions, but he actually asked a question, good on you, Elisha.
[00:04:25] And he says, well, what can I do to help you?
[00:04:28] And then he asked the second question and tell me, what do you have in the house? So he kind of goes to the problem solving, and she replies, nothing at all except a flask of olive oil, she replied. And Elisha said, borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors, and then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you and pour olive oil from your flask into the jar, setting each one aside when it is filled.
[00:04:55] So she did as she was told, and her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another, and soon every container was full to the brim.
[00:05:04] Bring me another jar, she said to one of her sons. There aren't any more, he told her, and then the olive oil stopped flowing.
[00:05:10] And when she told the man of God what had happened. He said to her, now sell the olive oil and pay your debts and and you and your sons can live on what is left over. Not only does the provision of God solve the issue of her debts and keeps her sons from being sold into slavery, but it's enough that provides so they can live and thrive.
[00:05:33] I want to invite us today to examine what emptiness or need we have in our lives.
[00:05:42] Oftentimes I find myself believing and not wanting to really be a bother to God in a way and wanting to be so self sufficient that whatever need or lack is in my life that I can figure it out. But do you know, we get to places oftentimes where the situation is too dire and too desperate for us to figure it out anymore.
[00:06:07] And, and instead of feeling that that is so undignified and shameful to get in a place where our self sufficiency no longer covers the bill, this story would invite us to understand that oftentimes it's desperation that sets the scene for God's miraculous intervention in our lives.
[00:06:25] See, I don't want to be indignant. I don't want to ask anybody for anything that I can't provide for myself. And in comes these desperate situations that put us in a position where it is impossible to move forward.
[00:06:40] And that's when we hear the voice of Jesus, I believe, saying what can I do for you today?
[00:06:46] Let's pray. Lord, I want to invite your Holy Spirit to speak through me today. And I know when we talk about faith and we talk about prayer, this can be manipulated in a bunch of different ways. And we don't want, we don't want to come to you in some transactional way. We want relationship. And out of that relationship we want to know you more through our prayers and through our faith. And so God come close today as we bring to you all the empty places of our hearts and our lives. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
[00:07:18] This is a story about being willing to ask, being willing to ask for what you need. And this might be counterintuitive, but I think it's true that actually there is faith in the asking.
[00:07:34] There is faith in the asking that actually by asking God for what we need, it honors the greatness of God and it expresses faith in his ability and his power.
[00:07:46] An example of this. Halloween is coming up and we found out when we moved into our home. We've been living there for 13 years now. And when we moved in we didn't know, but we moved into this neighborhood and it's this block of homes that go all in on trick or treating. I mean, what a gift of God to us, right? So we walk one block, one neighborhood over, and then there is this wonderful loop. And the candy flows like milk and honey. It's beautiful.
[00:08:19] And, and here's the thing.
[00:08:22] Once you see a neighborhood like that, you return to it because you know they got the good stuff, right?
[00:08:30] Now what you don't do is you don't go find that dark neighborhood with all the grumpy people that don't put any decorations out and say, well, kids, try this house. Maybe they have the good stuff. No, they're not going to have the good stuff.
[00:08:42] They're going to have their porch light off, right?
[00:08:47] You go to the place where you know or believe that they're going to have the full size king size Snicker bars.
[00:08:55] None of this, none of this Minis. Come on now.
[00:08:59] And the little packs of Twizzlers. Come on.
[00:09:04] This is not what we've come for.
[00:09:07] Chocolate. I know it's expensive, but chocolate, that's what we want.
[00:09:11] Thank you.
[00:09:14] After service we'll talk about it more. But I gotta keep moving.
[00:09:18] The act of going to a door and knocking because you believe that they're the kind of house that's gonna have what you want is actually an act of faith to knock on that door.
[00:09:29] It's an act of expectation that we think that you have what is needed in this situation. And so when we go to God and we ask when we knock on the door, that in itself, whether we truly believe or not that our situation's gonn or life will shift in the act of knocking, there is faith expressed.
[00:09:51] And so at the outset of this miracle, what Elisha sends the widow to do is go around and knock on all your neighbors doors and ask for empty jars.
[00:10:03] Ask for, not for oil.
[00:10:05] Maybe she'd already asked and come up empty handed. Maybe nobody else had any oil to share. And so she's thinking, why would I ask for what I already know they don't have?
[00:10:15] Elisha sends her ask for the empty stuff, the empty jars.
[00:10:20] And this is true, I think, for all of us in every situation. We might feel like we have nothing of use for the situation that we face. But what we do have, even when it seems empty, is enough that when we present it and surrender it to Jesus, just maybe he's going to use that.
[00:10:36] That is what he will use.
[00:10:41] This is like Moses hearing God ask, what's in your hand? He says, it's just a staff. And he says, with that staff you're going to perform miracles. It's Jesus asking the disciple Philip to bring him the tiny loaves and fish so he can bless it and break it and feed a multitude.
[00:10:58] It's Jesus from the shore telling Peter, take the net that's not catching any fish and put it on the other side of the boat and see what happens.
[00:11:06] You see, when we are certain that the thing that we have in our hand or in our house is not enough, when we surrender it to Jesus, we open ourselves up to the miraculous provision and the breakthrough that he offers.
[00:11:20] So Elisha doesn't ask, tell me what you don't have. Tell me what you used to have. Tell me about the good old days.
[00:11:26] Tell me about what you wish you had.
[00:11:29] He simply says, how can I help you?
[00:11:32] What's in your hand?
[00:11:36] Several years ago, pastor Steve Mickle, who pastored this church for over a decade, was preaching out of this passage. And what he shared, I think, was a word then for our church and it still is a word for our church today, that every empty vessel that we set out before the Lord, he's going to fill it.
[00:11:56] In this story, the oil only runs out when the vessels are full.
[00:12:02] And this tells me that there was never a lack of God's power or his intention towards this family. He filled every single empty vessel that they presented to be filled.
[00:12:14] And I believe that this continues to be a word for Westside church, that whatever we bring before him and whatever we set that looks like emptiness and need, when we set it before the Lord in faith, he's going to fill it.
[00:12:28] And that's what this means for us, is that we're not going to be an insular church.
[00:12:33] We're not going to be a church that puts up fences and tries to protect what we have or what we are. We're not going to be a church for insiders.
[00:12:42] We are going to continue to say, jesus, what emptiness do we face in our community and our families and our homes outside of the in crowd here on a Sunday morning? And what empty places, if we present them to you and hold them up, will you fill miraculously with your provision and your grace?
[00:13:01] And that's what our safe housing project that we rolled out this past summer, you know, over a year ago. We're watching the news just like everybody else. We're seeing the housing crisis. We're seeing homeless encampments and Huntle Road and dirt world and second Street. We're watching all of this and we're saying, you know, we're.
[00:13:23] We're up here on the west side. What could we possibly do to make a dent?
[00:13:27] And this word, I was reminded of this word that every time we feel like we don't have an answer, when we bring what we do have, God's going to use it.
[00:13:39] And in the last two weeks, we started having our first participants move into these micro shelters on our campus. And are we going to solve 100% of the housing crisis in central Oregon? Absolutely not. But what we're going to do is, is we're gonna take the empty things we have, like an empty parcel of land and some now empty micro shelters, and we'll say, God, would you fill this to meet the needs of the community you've placed this in? And he's doing it and he's done it, and he's gonna continue to do it. As we are faithful to say, every empty space, come on, God, every empty space, fill it with your provision.
[00:14:14] And so this is a word for us.
[00:14:18] And so what does our faith compel us to do? It compels us to never stop asking, never stop knocking. This is what Jesus said in Matthew 7. Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. You parents, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead of. Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not. So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him?
[00:14:55] And I know that this is even as I referenced in my prayer. These are the kinds of messages that can be very easily manipulated into saying like, this is a formula. And if you just say these words, then God's going to do this. Can I tell you that God does not invite us into kind of a genie in the bottle relationship with him.
[00:15:13] Instead, he invites us into a relationship where prayer becomes the way that we engage with Him.
[00:15:20] And as we spend time in prayer, sometimes we get yeses, sometimes we get no's, sometimes it feels like silence. But every time we approach God in prayer, our hearts and our minds are shaped more into the image of Christ.
[00:15:35] And as we do this, we begin to pray prayers that for what God intends for us to receive. And so when we look at this, you might be saying, well, I've prayed for things and I've been disappointed.
[00:15:49] I would say this that every current disappointment is an opportunity for an audacious faith that will keep asking and keep knocking and keep returning in faith to prayer.
[00:16:05] There is an old story. I don't know if it's just an anecdote or if this happened in a small town, but there was a small town who was experiencing a drought, and the drought was devastating, and they hadn't had a good harvest in a couple of years. And so the town gathered to pray and to ask God to break the drought.
[00:16:26] And as they gathered, the pastor that was leading this prayer group praying for rain looked out, and there's desperate folks, desperate farmers, not knowing how they're going to survive another bad harvest. And as he looked out, he saw a young girl holding an umbrella.
[00:16:44] And he realized that out of that entire group, the only one that actually expected God to come through was that little girl holding an umbrella. And I want to ask us today, what would our faith look like if we started to expect that God was going to respond to the prayers? We pray that every desperate prayer, every audacious prayer, every prayer that's prayed, even though we face disappointment, that we come with our umbrella and say, God, we're praying for you to break the drought and let the rain of your mercy fall on us, and we're ready for when it happens.
[00:17:17] It is an expectation of filling that motivates this widow to do what Elisha asked to not only grab a few empty vessels, but to keep asking and asking and asking. And I've seen this with my kids.
[00:17:34] They've recently started playing sports. And so my daughter's playing volleyball, and my son is playing soccer in second grade. And we're not really a sports family. I've talked at length about that.
[00:17:45] We don't really have any favorite sports teams, so when we watch a game or a match on tv, we're just kind of like, huh? Yeah, Who? Whoever wins. That would be cool for them.
[00:17:56] Very competitive.
[00:17:59] But the issue with this is it's kind of informed how my kids play sports.
[00:18:07] And so yesterday, watching my son play Parks and Rec soccer in second grade, it's interesting because they don't really have goalies at the second grade level at Parks and Rec, but my son was standing near the goal, and he was in a great position to stop that ball from entering his goal.
[00:18:30] And yet, because of the general vibe that we've given to our children around sports, it was like he was politely watching that ball as if not to upset the ball, who was clearly on its way, going somewhere.
[00:18:49] And there is a certain politeness in my son. That's almost as if to say, like, well, the other team seemed like they really wanted that goal, and I didn't want to take that from them.
[00:19:03] There's such a politeness in my son. And I want to tell you this, that it's a natural thing sometimes to act overly polite in prayer. And actually, Jesus has invited us and almost dared us to pray audaciously and persistently and with great faith and keep knocking.
[00:19:25] And so if we feel like, oh, God, I don't want to be a burden to you, God would say, come on, bring it on.
[00:19:31] Right, let's go.
[00:19:35] This audacious, big prayer kind of life, it's just way more exciting. You guys, a timid, shy, hesitant life of prayer is not one that Jesus has invited us into.
[00:19:57] I wanted to give you guys an update. I know we talked about this several years ago, personally, in my family.
[00:20:05] In 2021, cancer came back from my wife and had moved around. And so we spent that year in 2021 really kind of reeling from a really bad diagnosis.
[00:20:19] And so she walked through a lot of treatments right out of the gate and has since then, praise God, been very stable for about four years and continues to be stable to this day.
[00:20:31] God is good.
[00:20:32] And I just want to say thank you to all of the incredible teams of medical professionals in this town. Everybody from our oncologists to doctors to PAs to nurses, some of you who are in the room today, we are so blessed in this town to have such excellent care, and so many are recipients of that. So thank you. Thank you. But we are grateful as she has walked through this and continues to, just for the stability that we've experienced and the grace of God. But I bring this up both to give you an update, but also to tell you that we have experienced in our faith and in our willingness to pray not one way or one thing this whole time.
[00:21:22] If you think, well, Pastor Evan, I'm sure you've just been faithfully contending for healing every single day with.
[00:21:29] Can I tell you that there are days of deep disappointment where it feels like we've prayed for breakthrough, we've prayed for healing, and is God even listening?
[00:21:43] And then there are days when we pray with great faith and we contend for a miracle and we contend for healing. We pray God, we're knocking on heaven's door. God, would you heal?
[00:21:57] And there are seasons, like I would say the season I am now, when that disappointment and that active, aggressive contending gives way into seasons of simple trust, where we say, God, we don't know what you're doing.
[00:22:12] We don't know why she's still facing this disease. But, God, we're trusting you.
[00:22:21] And here's maybe what I want to tell you, whether you're in a season of disappointment with God, a season of contending for a miracle, or a season of quiet trust that Jesus meets us in all three of those.
[00:22:37] If you feel like the only time God is pleased with you is when your faith is fired up and you're tending that goal and you're fierce about it, come on now. There are seasons when in deep disappointment, we wonder, where is God? Why hasn't he come through? And I'll tell you, Jesus is close to you in that season.
[00:22:57] Jesus, oftentimes, when he talked about faith, used the metaphor and the image of a seed. And I'll tell you what, you plant a seed, and there are seasons of planting and activity, and there are seasons of winter and dormancy, and there are seasons of harvest. And all three look like the closeness and the presence of Jesus. And so be encouraged.
[00:23:19] Be encouraged if you felt disappointed by God. Be encouraged if you felt like right now you are asking with great faith for a miracle. And be encouraged if you don't know what God is up to, but you keep showing up in trust, God is close to you.
[00:23:38] So today we bring of this to Jesus, all of the vessels that feel like they're not going to be enough, all the things that we can't possibly know how God is going to use them, but we surrender every part of our lives to him.
[00:24:00] And with trust and faith, we say, jesus, would you fill those places in our lives where we're not enough?
[00:24:07] Amen.
[00:24:09] I want to pray for you. Would you close your eyes, Lord, I believe that prayer is the way that you shape us.
[00:24:31] And Lord, I pray for those, especially in seasons of disappointment, that they would experience your close and ever present Holy Spirit in those winter seasons where it feels like nothing has happened, maybe God, you're not listening.
[00:24:54] Oh, Jesus, come close today.
[00:24:58] Hear the prayers from disappointed and broken hearts. Hear the prayers, Lord, from those contending for a miracle today. Hear the prayers of trust and faith for those who have given up trying to figure it all out and are simply saying, God, I'm just gonna stick with you, God, come close and Lord, I pray that we would have the tenacity and the audacity just to keep praying, to keep showing up, to keep putting cards on the wall and put time in before you saying, lord, Jesus, we trust you.
[00:25:39] So, Lord, today I do. I knock on heaven's door. I pray and I join the prayers of all these saints here today. And we ask God for healing. Would you heal bodies and would you destroy cancer cells? And God, would you bring back marriages from the brink? Would you heal relationships? Would you.
[00:26:00] Would you strike down addictions?
[00:26:03] Would you restore relationships from kids who have walked away and those relationships have been broken? God, would you provide and make provision?
[00:26:17] Would you bring breakthrough when it comes to jobs? Would you. Would you give paths and ways where there seems to be no way? Would you make streams flow in the desert places in the wilderness? God, would you do all this? We ask.
[00:26:31] We ask with great faith today.
[00:26:39] Thank you, Jesus.
[00:26:43] Thank you that we're never alone.
[00:26:49] We worship you in Jesus name.
[00:26:51] Amen.
