Running on Empty? God Still Meets You There | Ken McIntyre

Some seasons leave you exhausted. Mentally, physically, spiritually. In this Mother’s Day message, Pastor Ken walks through the story of the widow and the oil in 2 Kings 4 and reminds us that God meets people who are running on empty.

Whether you feel overwhelmed, discouraged, or like you have nothing left to give, this message points to a God who still provides, still restores, and still works through ordinary faith and simple obedience.

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- Hey, this is Phil Kniesel, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- Our children's pastor told me that we have dedicated 73 children to the Lord this year at our church, uh, which is amazing. That's, uh, yeah, sure, why not? That's enough to start a new Hope City campus. . I was thinking about how fun, uh, and terrible it would go. It would be to go to a church that was totally run by children. Uh, it would be, uh, Lord of the Flies meets veggie tails or something like that. . Our vision is to reach 1% of Edmonton and the gospel is the primary way that we do that. But it seems as if we're also stacking our numbers with new babies as well. And I'm a hundred percent okay with that because both are a miracle from God. Uh, many of you know, I've told lots of stories, but I am the father of three daughters and they're no longer kid. Kids. Like they're not little. Those long nights, those diaper changes, the goldfish crumbs, you know, stuffed into every crevice of our car and couch. Those are long gone. Um, and I look back on those early years with fondness, with rose colored glasses, really, I don't remember the difficulty of that season very vividly. My wife though, she remembers. And so when I half jokingly suggest that we have a fourth, she never once has cracked a smile or thought that was funny because she remembers. But we are both very grateful for those days. But they were not easy, didn't have money, didn't have sleep, didn't have energy, felt like we were just always running on empty. And that's par for the course, right? For new parents there. It's a season of joy, but it's a season of running on empty. As your kids grow up, it just becomes a different sort of difficult, we are now full-time taxi drivers. That's, that's our job. Now, I I, I moonlight as a pastor, but I'm a full-time taxi driver. I don't even get paid for that. Um, you know, girls are becoming that age where they're thinking about boys and there's friend drama and all of that stuff, and it's just a different kind of difficult now. And I am so thankful that I am not doing this alone, that I have my wife who mothers our children so well, she's so caring. She's way more patient than she gives herself credit for. She works so hard. She knows exactly how much medicine to give our kids. I just eyeball it. She just knows, man. I'm so thankful. She really, um, she's like a superhero, not just to me, but to our kids. And, and I know that in a room like this, I mean, there's so many moms who would, you know, your family did the same thing about you. You're faithfully fulfilling that wonderful and sacred call that God has on your life to raise your children. And it is like, to me, at least, like you have superpowers, but you don't do you, you have limits. Maybe you're at them right now. You grow tired, you grow weary, you go frustrated, and maybe you are exhausted. And it's not like your life is completely falling apart. You still show up. You're still getting things done. But inside you might say, I feel done. Like my, my, my mind is tired. My body is tired in my spirit, my faith, it's tired. I wanna take you to a story in the Old Testament book of two Kings, chapter four, where we meet a tired widow. A mom who is at the end of a robe is super desperate. And so here's the context. Elisha was a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel and a collection of men grouped around Elisha and tried to be faithful to God in a time when the nation's leadership had abandoned God. And so this group of men were called the company of the prophets. And this woman who we meet in the story, her husband was one in the company, but he had died leaving her and her sons in debt. And in the ancient world, if a man died owing money, a creditor had legal recourse to take the man's children as slaves to satisfy the debt. Now, for this woman to lose her sons, it was not just tragic, it was a death sentence, no social safety net, no security, no hope without them. So that's the context of the story we're about to read. It starts here. It says, the wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, your servant. My husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord, but now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves. Elijah replied to her, how can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house? Your servant has nothing there at all. She said, except a small jar of olive oil. Elisha said, go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons pour oil into all the jars. And as each one is filled, put it to the side. She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her, son, bring me another one. But he replied, there is not a jar left. Then the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God and he said, go sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left. There's three things from this story that I wanna draw as an encouragement from the Lord for those here today, both those who are just hanging on and, and also those who just need an encouragement from the Lord.'cause you need to know that the God of the Bible can meet you exactly in your need today. And so the first thing I want to pull out is this idea that obedience proceeds provision. I'm go back to the text here. It says, Elisha said, go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. How bizarre is that? I would, I would never do that. Go around and ask all of your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour all the oil into the jars. And in Jesus filled, put it to one side. She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring obedience, proceeds provision. My wife and I, uh, next month are celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary. And we have slowly become the exact same person. Okay, , are you clapping because of 17 or because I'm becoming more like her . Anyway, I'll say, I'll, I'll, I'll think about it that way. We're becoming the same person. Our senses of humor are becoming one. We like to do the exact same thing, which is nothing together, alone. , Uh, one area of our life. Where we, where we differ sharply is when it comes to following rules and how we interpret rules. Uh, she believes that rules are created to be followed. Uh, I don't, I think rules, uh, are gentle suggestions. If I don't like them, if I'm not in the mood, if I don't want to do them, if they're inconvenient in any way, then I just won't do them. , listen, the Lord did not create us to be bound to the rules of men. We are slaves to no one but Christ alone, right? Amen. Okay, anyway, kids plug your ears. You didn't hear that . So Elisha tells this woman to do something that makes absolutely no sense, super disconnected from her need. Elisha doesn't hand her the money she needs, doesn't call in a favor. Instead, he tells her to do something that just seems so bizarre. Go around to all your neighbors and ask for empty jars. I don't know what this widow expected from Elisha, but surely it was not this. Yet the widow does it. She obeys the word of the Lord. She goes around and she collects all of these jars and she begins to pour. And I wonder, would you do that? Would you do something that seems so silly, so below you, so disconnected from the need that was staring you right down the middle? Would you do that? This isn't a one-off event when I, uh, teach the Bible. Uh, or if you are studying the Bible, uh, it's important to interpret the Bible correctly. Your job is not just to, to show what it says, but show what it means. This is a challenge of interpretation, meaning the Bible can never mean to us what it never meant to the people in the story or the original hear. So one of the challenges of interpretation is trying to understand, is this describing a scenario, just describing an event? Or is this prescribing something that should always be done? And so this is an important thing to understand. For example, Solomon had 700 wives. He's also considered wise. So is the Bible telling us that it's wise for Christian men to have as many wives as possible? Or is the Bible just describing that although Solomon was wise, he was also crazy, probably just describing that he was a little crazy when it comes toh command to do something so disconnected from the need. Is this a one-off story or is this a pattern? It's a pattern. A few chapters later, uh, there's a man named Naman and he's a powerful military commander for the Syrian army, which was enemies with Israel. And he has leprosy and he is desperate. So he knows, and he's heard of this person named Elijah, who miracles seem to follow him around. So in desperation, he goes to Elijah and Elijah doesn't even answer the door. He sends the servant and the servant tells, tells Naiman, go into the Jordan River and and dip yourself seven times and you'll be healed. And Naman we read is absolutely furious. This is below him that has nothing to do with, with what's going on in, in his life. They had better rivers in Assyria. Jordan was not a very remarkable river. It was muddy. And this was below him yet name and servants convinced him to go ahead and naman obeys and he is completely healed. Same pattern. A desperate person, an unusual instruction, no guaranteed of an outcome, obedience, first provision after. That's how it works. But we try to flip this around, right? , we want the provision first and then we'll follow along with the obedience, right? It's those, those prayers, those those deals that we make with God. God, we fix this relationship while we hold onto unforgiveness. We live in disobedience and we want God to provide for us. We say, God, I will give, I'll be generous once I have enough. We want the provision before the obedience. That's not the pattern in scripture. It's obedience before provision. Don't get that in the wrong order. And so this woman obeys the word of the Lord, even though the instructions were so disconnected from her need. Now, I'm not gonna pretend to fully understand the ways of the Lord because no one knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. But here's what I know, that God will sometimes move in our way, in our life in a way that only gets him the credit that's unmistakably him. If Eisha would've handed her the check, Elisha would've gotten the credit. If a neighbor stepped in, the neighbor would've got the thanks. But an oil that's multiplied in an empty house with nobody explaining it, nobody funding it, that only points to God. God will move in a way that only he gets the credit. And it's not a one off pattern. He can do it in your life as well. He can move in your life in a way that makes absolutely no sense to you or anyone else. But he unmistakably is the one who is moving. So what does provision for you look like? And what does obedience before provision look like? Because here's what I noticed in the story. It's not heroic. This woman's obedience, it's not flashy. She just obeys. She goes home, she closes the door, she gets charged and she begets, begins to, begins to pour. And that's the model. Most of the time, God is not looking for us to move out in some sort of dramatic fashion. He just nudges us towards something that we've been putting off that habit that we haven't surrendered that conversation. We haven't had that person. We haven't forgiven. None of it looks like much. It might not even look that spiritual. But here's what the text shows us. The oil came when she began to pour. God moved when she moved. And so I wanna ask you this. What is one thing that God has been nudging you towards that you have been putting off? That's your jar. That's where you need to begin pouring. Verse five says this, she left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her, son, bring me another one. But he replied, there is not a jar left. Then the oil stopped flowing. The second encouragement I wanna bring you is this, is that God fills what you bring him. God fills what you bring him. Have you ever heard of seven eleven's promotional day called Bring your own cup Day? It happens once a year where you can bring in any size container into a seven 11 and fill it with a Slurpee for $2 and 50 cents. So people being, people have taken advantage of this. So we got flour VAEs, we got garbage cans, we got mixing bowls. Someone brought in a fish tank once to fill with a slurpee. Now seven 11, they had to change the rules regarding this to uh, prevent a little bit of abuse. But the idea still stands. You bring in a small container, you get a small slurpee, you bring in the largest leak proof container that you can legally move from the door and you have more Slurpee than you can ever drink. The limit is not the supply, the limit is the container that you bring. The oil didn't stop because God ran out of oil. The oil stopped because she ran out of jars. And God supply perfectly met her. Preparation. This isn't a one-off story. One chapter earlier in two kings, Elisha gives a very similar instruction to three kings who are marching their armies out to war. But there was a drought going on. And so their armies were on death's door. They were parched, they were going to die of thirst. And there's no storm on the horizon, there's no, there's no rain in the forecast. And these three kings, they go to Elisha and say, what do we do? And Elisha says, go into the valley and dig it full of ditches. The last thing you wanna do, I dunno if you've, I dug a hole two days ago. That's hard, man. Digging a valley full of ditches when you're already just on deaths door, it seems like such a bizarre command. But the next morning they dug the ditches and God's provision filled every ditch with water. Same pattern, same principle, same God. Now here's where I wanna be careful, because if you're in a place today and you are exhausted, you're barely hanging on. If you're just feeling done, the last thing I wanna say is now go do this and this and this and add things on your to-do list. Sometimes that's important, but sometimes there's something actually more important than the to-do list. But it's the thing behind the to-do list. See, the widow, the the widow, she gathered jars. Yeah, that was her action, but there was something underneath that action. She actually believed that God was gonna provide for her. She wouldn't have got the jars if she did not think that there was gonna be something to fill those jars. And so maybe that's just where you're stuck today. Not in the doing. You're good at the doing. You got the doing down, but you stopped believing, not believing in the general sense that God is real, but believing that God can move specifically and powerfully in your own life. You just don't trust that God's gonna show up for you in the way that you need. And so you've lowered your expectations to the very bare minimum. And I just believe that God would ask you to believe again, that he can move in a way in your life that is inexplicably him. That your marriage, if it is on death tour, that you believe that God could revive that. All of those prayers that you've prayed for your child and tears that you shed, and maybe it doesn't seem like God is answering those that you would believe. Again, you need to get on your knees again and trust that the Lord hears those, that he could do something mighty in their life. Maybe it has to do with your finances and you are stressed to the max, but just like God provided oil in his empty house, that God could do something beyond your wildest imagination in your own life. If you believe again, God fills what you bring him today, can you bring him a believing expectant open heart? I wanna go back to verse two. It says this, Elisha replied to her, how can I help you tell me? What do you have in your house? Your servant has nothing there at all. She said, except a small jar of olive oil. The third and most important thing for today is this. Your nothing is enough for God. Your nothing is enough for God. The widow assesses her situation pretty accurately. What do you have? Nothing. I literally have nothing except for this small little thing that I could offer in faith. Maybe if I was to ask you your assessment of your situation, you might have a similar way to answer that. I don't have the energy I used to have. I don't have the passion that I used to have for God's work in the world. I don't have the faith that I used to have. I don't have the margin that I used to have. I don't know if I have anything left to offer God. Here's the thing. When we believe, and when we say, and when we think things like that, we forget who we are bringing our nothing to. Psalm 50 says this, and this is God describing himself. He goes, the mighty one, God. The Lord speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to where it sets, it's talking about his power. And verse 10 says, for every animal of the forest is mine. And the cattle on a thousand hills, meaning every animal, every hill, every molecule of existence is god's. But that's not even framing it correctly because, because that makes us think that God's supply is vast and God's supply isn't vast. That's undercutting what's true. What's true is that God's supply is without limit. We are hemmed in on every side by limits. We have credit limits and time limits and emotional limits. To be human is to live according to our limits. I've been watching this guy on YouTube named Jacob Collier, and he's a musical genius. I cannot believe the creative, uh, just genius of this man. He is the most gifted musician I have ever been exposed to. But for all of his brilliance, he's hemmed in on every limit. He can only work with the notes that he's inherited. He did not create these things. He can rearrange them. He can combine them with the instruments that are at his disposal. They are his limit. He can't move beyond that. We are always working with something that is already there. We don't create WeCreate, we rearrange, we we discover things that are already there. But God, yeah, he can work with us Al already there, but he's the only one who can create out of nothing. There's a theological term for this called ex nihilo, which is Latin for out of nothing. And so, let me mess with you for a moment. Um, there's no register for what I'm about to say. Uh, don't let me lose you on this because it is, it's wild and we just can't get there. But it's true. Before creation, there was no space. We, we like to think of space as something that has eternally been there, that it's not true. There was no matter, there was no time. The things that we think have always existed actually had to start. So there was a time when there was no space or matter, but there was a time when there was no time itself because time is created. So there was a time, even though time didn't exist, but there was a moment. But there's no such thing as that because God had created it. But regardless, God was there and then he spoke and time and matter and space. Scientists say that the amount of stars in the observable universe are more than the grains of sand on our beaches and our desert. Every cosmic grain of dust, every star, every galaxy that we can see God created out of nothing. He spoke it into existence. Things that we'll never discover in a hundred lifetimes. And here's the thing, God was not diminished in any way by creating it. I dug that hole and I was done for two days. He did all of that. And he was not diminished at all. And he didn't even need it. He just did it. Which means this. When that widow said, I have nothing, she was offering God everything that he needed, all that God needs was all of her. Nothing. Maybe you've been sitting here today and think that I don't have anything worth bringing to God today. My faith is barely there. My tank is too empty. It's like that's the point. You're desperate, you're exhausted. Bring him your desperation. Bring him your exhaustion. You have a barely hanging on faith. Bring him that barely there. Faith, you're struggling. Bring him your struggle because all God needs is what you consider nothing offered in faith. And that's not just a one-off idea. And I couldn't even just point to a few stories to corroborate that idea. That is the story of the Bible, the widow and the oil point to something much, much bigger. This second Kings chapter four is what's called a proto Gospels story. Meaning it's showing us the gospel before the cross, the widow's desperation and our offer of nothing foreshadow how God meets our deepest needs in Jesus Christ. One of the ways that we read the Old Testament is through what's called a typological lens. Meaning we see things and we connect them with the New Testament. And so for example, Elisha is a type of Christ. Now, it's not a one-to-one exact match, no, but it foreshadows someone greater. Jesus is the greater Elisha. And so those widow comes to Elisha at the end of her line, desperate with absolutely nothing to offer exhaustion. And Elijah meets her in that place. And we get this invitation from Jesus in Matthew 11. It says this, come to me all who are weird, all who are burdened, and I will give you rest. He's the greater Elisha. We think that coming to God requires something significant of us. That we need to have our life together enough. We need to have our faith big enough that we have to have a record clean enough. But Jesus doesn't ask for any of that. He doesn't need any of that. He says, come as you are with what you have. Even if what you have, you consider nothing because you are nothing offered in faith is enough for God. Lemme pray for you, Lord. We bless your name in this place. We lift you high, we lift you above our struggle, our regret, our pain, our tiredness, our frustration. Lord, we see you seated where you ought to be, which is above all. And so do we. Thank you for your word, how it reveals to us who you are and how you act towards us. Lord, I thank you that it shows us that obedience precedes provision, that you're asking us to move out in faith, in obedience, and you will meet us there. So that I pray that we would do that. Lord, I thank you that your word shows us that you will fill what we bring you. And so today, Lord, we bring you an expectant open, believing heart, believing that you can move, Lord, in our life, in all of these areas, Lord, where we desperately need you. And so that I pray for the people in this room today who are walking through a health scare, Lord, that you would meet them where they're at. And they could believe again for your presence, for your comfort, for your healing. I bring before you, Lord, the people in this place who just their relationships are desperate and and broken. Lord, I pray that they believe again, that you can move, that forgiveness could happen, that connection could be reestablished. Lord, I thank you for this truth that everything that we offer in faith is enough. And so, Lord, we bring you our nothing. We bring you our barely their faith. We bring you our exhaustion and we say, Jesus, take it. And we know Jesus, that you are not diminished in any way when you take on our burdens. And so do we give them to you in faith. Lord, I pray for every mom in this place that you would give them wisdom for this season. You would give them endurance, Lord, that you would give them divine counsel as they, as they work to raise sons and daughters who are filled with godly character, who know your word and can navigate life. And Lord, I just want to take this moment, just, just sense, uh, you leading this way, Lord, that I, I really want to pray for those who want a child and cannot have one Lord, just maybe it's years of struggle being told that they can't have one that is medically impossible. Just disappointment, Lord and stress. And Lord, I pray that you would move miraculously in their life, I believe for them, Lord. So I pray that faith would stir up in this place for all of those families who desperately want to experience the joy of loving a child their own who haven't. Yet Lord, this world is, is, is marked by this idea that children are a burden and can be discarded. Lord. Yet we have these people, Lord, in this space today, who desperately want one. So I pray according to your kindness and love and power, Lord, that you would do a miracle in their life and you would bring life where everyone else has told them that they cannot have it. Lord, I ask that in faith. We pray this in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. If you're here today and you do not know Jesus, but you would like to understand what it looks like to offer him your nothing and and experience his rest, couple things, we'd have some pastors, we'd love to pray with you up here. We also have a tap disc on a seat back in front of you. You can tap to take that next step. Happy Mother's Day. Remember, treat your moms well today. God bless you, and we'll see you next week.