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Overflow with Faith Key Passage: 1 Kings 17:8-16

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Overflow with Faith Key Passage: 1 Kings 17:8-16 DEEPEN YOUR FAITH Week 4: Overflow with Faith Key Passage: 1 Kings 17:8‐16 Note to Group Leaders: Regular text is intended to be read to the group by the leader. Instructions, scripture readings, and questions for the group are indicated in italics. Scripture quotations are noted throughout and are provided only for additional study at home. In order to get through the entire study, ask for volunteers to read only the passages that say “read” in front of them out loud as a group. Introduction On Sunday, Pastor Lance told a story about a family living in a colonia in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The wife and mother of five children cared for the children while her husband worked in the United States and sent everything he could back home to make payments on their small tract of land and to provide basic necessities for his family. This family was without utilities. Their home had a dirt floor and was made out of discarded materials without secure doors or windows. When it did rain, their roof leaked. They always dreamed of owning a home with a real roof, a door that locked, and windows to keep the dirt from the frequent sand storms out their home. One day, this family was sitting out in their front yard and watched as three vans pulled up with Texas license plates. They began unloading building materials and soon began pouring concrete and erecting walls. One of the missionaries working there came over to invite the children to Vacation Bible School in front of their house later that day and throughout the week. This family wondered why complete strangers would leave the comforts of their community to build a home for someone they had never met. That night this mother went next door to ask about what was happening. Her neighbors said that there was an organization they heard about through their church that would provide a house to Christian families living in the colonia who owned their own land. She began asking questions about faith and about Jesus. The neighbors invited her family to church and she starting attending and never looked back. Now she has a new, secure home and has led many other families to Christ. When we overflow with faith, others come to know and commit their lives to Jesus. How have you experienced the overflow of faith leading others to know and commit their lives to Jesus? Background Today’s scripture is about the prophet Elijah. 1 Kings 17 is the first time Elijah is mentioned in the Bible. This first story is all about God calling him to confront King Ahab with the truth of him leading the people of Israel astray by worshipping Baal, the god of vegetation. The king and people were calling on a god to send the rain that didn’t even exist. To turn the hearts of the people back to God again, Elijah delivered a word from God: “as the Lord the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next three years, except by my word” (1 Kings 17:1). It must have taken tremendous faith for Elijah to confront the king. The king had already put to death prophets who had spoken against his rule. But Elijah delivers this word anyway, because he knows that leading this leader to place his faith in the true God of Israel again will lead many in the kingdom back to God as well. After Elijah speaks these words, God leads Elijah into the wilderness and promises to provide water for him to drink from the brook and to send ravens with bread and meat twice a day. To eat meat twice a day would have been a luxury that many could not have afforded. God was not only providing for Elijah, but he was providing in abundance! Share a story about a time when God provided for you when you took a leap of faith. Bible Study One day, the brook that Elijah depended on for water dried up. Elijah could have given up. He could have thought this was the end. But God used this circumstance to lead him to person who would take the place of the ravens in providing food for him and to another community that needed to place their faith and trust in God. Read 1 Kings 17:7‐16. Zarephath was deeper in King Ahab’s territory. Unlike the wilderness, this area was populated. King Ahab had sent soldiers out into every land in search of Elijah. Going to Zarephath put Elijah at extreme risk of being found. But he had learned to trust in God. God had led him and provided for him all the way up to this point and he knew God would continue to do so. When God sent Elijah to the region of Sidon, he told Elijah he would find a widow who God had directed to provide him with food. When he arrived, he found a widow there gathering sticks and asked her for water and bread. Tell a story about a time you had to ask someone else for something you needed or a time when you were asked by someone else for something they needed. How did you feel about asking or being asked? How did it turn out? How was your faith stretched and challenged? The widow and her son had been feeling the effect of the drought. No rain means no crops. No crops meant no flour. When Elijah asks for some bread, she replies, “as surely as the Lord your God lives, I don’t have any bread – only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son. that we may eat it – and die” (1 Kings 17:12). Drought in this passage is more than just a lack of rain. It represents the situation of a people who do not know God. Did you catch the widow’s reply? She told Elijah, “as surely as the Lord YOUR God lives.” She had been taught to put her faith and trust in Baal to provide for her; but she knew Elijah had faith in a different God. Drought exists all around us and even within us. Drought occurs in all of the places where people have not placed their faith and trust in God. Think of the people in your life. Without mentioning any names, lift up some of the places of drought in their lives – places where they struggle and have placed their faith and trust in something other than God. How can the church bring people out of the drought they are experiencing? The widow looked at her jar of flour and oil and saw scarcity. She saw what she didn’t have and felt like she had nothing to offer Elijah. Think about your life and the lives of those around you. What are you holding in your jar that seems scarce? What do you or the people around you fear will run out if it is shared it with someone else? What are the consequences of holding onto what we have rather than sharing it with others? Elijah doesn’t have anything to offer the widow, but faith. He knows that God created everything that exists and gives it freely to His people. He knows that in God, there is more than enough to meet our needs and the needs of those around us. God had given His word that He would provide for Elijah in the wilderness and He did. Once again, God promised that He would provide for Elijah through the widow, so Elijah shares the faith he has gained from his experience with God to encourage her to trust God as well. Where she saw drought and scarcity, he saw faith and abundance. What are some ways that you have been able to speak out of your experience of faith to bring others to place their trust in God? Elijah told her not to be afraid, but to go and make two loaves of bread, one for him and one for her and her son. Then he shared God’s word with her, saying, “this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: the jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land” (1 Kings 17:14). Fear puts the familiar in the way of faith. The woman could only see what she had. Her experience had been of a god who could not provide any more for her. She had lost hope. But Elijah calls her to place her faith in God; to take steps out in faith and to trust God to bring about a different outcome. Seeing his faith, the widow did just as Elijah had told her and there was food every day for Elijah and her family. The outcome of this story brought this woman to faith in God. When we are excited about an experience we have, we want to share it with everyone we know and love. Can you imagine how the lives of her neighbors were changed when she shared her faith story with others? What fear is God calling you to overcome so that you can help others place their faith and trust in God? God has given us all something that can be shared with others for God’s glory.
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