1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message today is entitled, “Always Enough,” and it’s taken from 1 Kings 17:8-16. I need some help from all of you today. I want you to take a moment and think about things that you would never want to be empty. I mean, if you had your way, what would be perpetually full? I’ll give you a moment to think about that. . . . Okay, help me out: what did you come up with? That’s all good stuff, things like food, coffee, your gas tank, money in your bank account, energy, and maybe an endless supply of Mountain Dew. Wouldn’t it be great if these things never ran out! But here’s my question: Has that ever actually happened to anyone, for real, and not just because you get free refills with your meal? Truth is, it never happens. Our everyday experience tells us time and again that eventually things run out. Eventually it’s empty. Eventually what we have is gone. What we live with day in and day out is this cold reality that there never seems to be enough. Maybe you have those fears of not having enough to provide for your basic needs. Remember the theme for your school year is “Fear Not,” from Isaiah 41:10, which says, “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” This passage from Isaiah is based on a longer passage from the Book of Isaiah that God will be with His people in the midst of their exile in the foreign land of Babylon.
2. What we live with day in and day out is this cold reality that there never seems to be enough. This thought leads us into an interesting set of Scripture texts in 1Kings that begins with a widow on the verge of running out. Before we dive in, let me give a little setup as to what’s going on. At the end of 1 Kings 16, Ahab becomes king and marries Jezebel. Together they do evil in the eyes of the Lord by leading the people to worship false gods. Elijah pronounces God’s judgment on Ahab and on the land by predicting a drought. The word of the Lord directs Elijah to go into hiding, where God miraculously meets his every need. Now the word of the Lord sends Elijah to a widow in Zarephath, whom God has instructed to feed him, and that brings us to today’s text. Obediently, Elijah does as he is instructed. Here we learn the gravity of her situation. The widow has nothing to offer. She is living in a land of scarcity. She is ready to prepare a final meal for herself and her son “that we may eat it and die” (1 Kings 17:12).
3. That’s a rather dramatic response. Maybe she meant to match what she perceives as an absurd request. Or it may serve to further highlight the severity of her situation. We can understand her hesitancy. We would probably do the same because that is the logical thing to do.
4. There’s another widow in the Gospel of Mark 12:41-44. Let me read for you the text from Mark 12: “And [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” Our same logic makes that a hard story to understand. The camera zooms in on a poor widow. She’s virtually invisible—nothing more than a speed bump to avoid as the rich go about their daily lives. She pulls out two copper coins and with no fanfare, no pat on the back, drops them into the treasury. The smallest drop in an ocean!
5. Again, our logic kicks in. Why would she do it? What’s she thinking? If that’s all you have, why give it away? Our conclusion: it’s utter foolishness! Today we are confronted with two different stories, but human logic gets us to the same place. If your last supper is on the way, don’t give it away. If you’re down to your last penny, don’t give it away. That’s how we think. We will even justify it in our minds saying, “Certainly God understands the nature of scarcity.” Yes, he does. The problem isn’t with him; it’s with us.
6. Scarcity prompts preservation and protection. If I don’t have a lot of money, I will do my best to take care of my car to make it run well up to 200,000 miles. I will try to keep my cell phone and my laptop running well, maybe for three to four years, so that I don’t have to spend money on new technology. I will try to maintain my clothes and watch how much I spend on groceries, if I don’t have a lot of money to pay for clothes or food. That’s what logic tells us to do. We’re happy to feed the poor when cupboards are full, happy to give . . . donate . . . give our offerings to Church when the account is overflowing. When it gets down to it, we tend to trust in our abundance.
7. Our logical way of thinking is to trust in abundance. But, how often does abundance reveal itself as a hindrance to the movement of God in our lives? Remember, for example, a few weeks ago: Mark 10 told the story of a rich young man. He goes away sad because his heart and trust were in his riches, in his abundance. Logic is a gift from God, but sometimes the way we depend on logic gets in the way of what God is trying to teach us.
8. The accounts of both widows teach the same lesson: God uses scarcity as a doorway to trust. Trust in the Lord and his provision is the only way either of these stories makes sense. A widow obeys, and they all eat for days. The Bible doesn’t say what happens to our other widow, but the point is clear: When We Trust in the Lord, There Is Always Enough.
9. That’s easier said than done, of course, but it really should be no surprise, because God has been using scarcity to lead his people to trust for a long time. He provided manna, bread from heaven, to the Israelites in the desert (Exodus 16). God brought water from a rock (Exodus 17). With just five loaves and two fish, how many thousands of men, women, and children did Jesus feed (Lk 9:10–17)? There was so much abundance they even had leftovers, because with Jesus there is always enough. Yes! Jesus is always enough! A lesson we struggle to learn, but one that time and again points us to the cross.
10. Jesus came to be enough—enough to pay the full price of our sin. His mission was not about multiplying food to fill our stomachs but about ransom and restoration to free our souls and fill us to overflowing with grace and forgiveness. The Old Testament sacrifices were never enough to cleanse us from our sin permanently. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that Christ came to be enough: “He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26). Jesus is always enough.
11. It is into the full sufficiency of Christ that you have been baptized. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 6 that you have been joined with Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection. You are credited with his righteousness, empowered with his grace, crowned with his glory, and loved with a never-ending love. So maybe the next time you find yourself hurt, wondering if you have enough to forgive, remember that with Christ there is always enough. Or maybe you’re down to the last dollar in your wallet and you happen across that person in need of a helping hand and you’re wondering if you can afford to give; remember with Christ there is always enough. As God’s redeemed children, we need not fear scarcity because our Heavenly Father is a God of rich abundance. When we put our trust in the Lord, when we put our trust in Jesus, we can be sure, no matter the circumstances, there is always enough. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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