Sunday Sermon: The New You, March 7, 2021
Sunday Sermon at the Grateful Church (UPCI) in Phoenix
The New You
The Holy Ghost is a new and transformative gift of the new wine that belongs in a repentant and sanctified new man. Our old nature cannot comprehend or contain the fermented power of the Holy Ghost without bursting with confusion, questioning the babbling of unknown tongues and the staggering expressions of worship that characterize the influence of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:12-13 - they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. This gift of the Holy Ghost is the work of grace by divine election not by the will of men, but of God. It does not fit the model of our old selves, we must be transformed in our behaviors and renewed in our thinking to receive the gift.
1 Kings 17:9-16
9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
12 And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
14 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.
15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.
16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.
From the text, we can deduce that:
It is an honor and a great gain to support God’s work in history and not a loss.
Ps 50:10-15
10 For every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine and the fulness thereof.
14 Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the most High:
God commands the poor to support the church so that His blessings might be available to them. Her giving was the door of salvation, else she would have died with her son.
Giving is uplifting as oppose to receiving. The “hill we try to climb” was uplifting to Amanda Gorman. The cheerfulness and excitement with which she gave herself to the cause of the inauguration of the president.
Acts 20:35
35…. it is more blessed to give than to receive.
2 Cor 9:7
7 … God loveth a cheerful giver.
Giving links our labor with the blessings of God to conquer greed, the love for money, and gain our salvation. If we do not give the world will be overgrown with greed, envy, and jealousy until only Jeff Bezos is left
Salvation is the work of grace and divine election not by the will of men, but of God. God picks His audience, sends the messenger to voice His word, and the people will recognize the word as God’s power to their salvation.
God bypassed the likeliest of widows in Israel, and the richest in Sidon to elect a hopeless widow in Sidon worthy of His salvation. He Elijah and the widow believed the words by the prophet.
Luke 4:25-26
25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months when great famine was throughout all the land;
26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
God helped the widow overcome selfishness to use her poverty and obscurity to secure Elijah and confound the wisdom of Jezebel.
Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal- king of Tyre and Sidon and in no doubt was well connected with the elites in the city. God used the same city to keep Elijah safe from her – eg: Moses, Paul, Obadiah.
Application:
The Holy Ghost does not fit the model of our old thinking, we must be transformed in our behaviors and renewed in our thinking like the widow. God did not speak to her but gave her the grace to deny herself and her son of the last meal, looking past the fear of death to discover herself in God’s plan of salvation. We must be born again to receive the Holy Ghost.
1 Kings 17:24
24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.
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