Frozen Oil & Chosen Vessels
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Hey, this is Stephen Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.

The Lord put it on my heart to share from this passage and this thought with you. And I want to speak to you today from 2 Kings 4, 1 through 6. And really, I want to speak to someone who is in a deficit in an area of your life. The more I become exposed to, I'm convinced there are many different varieties of poverty. And so you can be rich financially and broke emotionally. You can be rich financially and broke relationally.

you can have a lot of responsibility and not a lot of joy or you can have a lot of joy and not a lot of influence and so I learned that poverty, although we tend to associate it with finances, can be a poverty of a different kind and that really helped me when I was first starting preaching. I thought, and I was telling Mike this this morning right before I came out to preach how, you know, some people come to church and take the bus and some people come in a Bentley in the same church

And so you kind of feel on the surface like, well, maybe you can't preach the same message to the person who is in the top tax bracket and maybe the person who hasn't had a job for two and a half years. But you learn over time if you pastor people and pay attention that everybody has a deficiency and that we're not all that different. The reason I like this text from 2 Kings 4 is because it seems like a small little practical, I don't know, almost incidental miracle on the surface, but

understanding the surrounding context in the life of the prophet Elisha, he just finished solving a problem for three kings. And right after this, he performs a great miracle for a very wealthy woman. And sandwiched between those two magnificent miracles on a grand scale, where he's consulting political advisors like a real prophet would, and where he's hanging out with a top donor, there's something that happens

that seems so small on the surface. And that's where my assignment is today in 2 Kings 4, 1 through 6. And I hope to be able to preach it to you on a very personal level. So let's read the text together and discuss it a bit. 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. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that are not the result of our disobedience.

Have you noticed that life doesn't make allowances for your crisis? That the universe doesn't send out a memo when you're having a bad day? Hey, everybody be nice to her today. Her mom is sick. It would be nice if life's demands would accommodate my crisis, but they don't. And so the bills were still due, although the woman did not have the means. And so this creates a sense of deficit, a very desperate deficit in her life, as it turns out.

This crisis is not a national crisis. It's a personal crisis, but the man of God takes time for one woman just like he took time for three kings. I love that. That just touches my heart so much because he's not just presiding over a royal wedding across the pond somewhere, but he's right up in your life while you're crying at night and while you're trying to figure out how to build your own relationships. God is into that. Touch somebody and say, God is into you.

So she comes with this need, probably seems small in the scope of a big, bad, important prophet who's commanding kings, but she comes to him boldly and says, "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." Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you?" So it sounds like he's about to get the checkbook out, but then he makes this weird move where he answers his question with a question.

Tell me, what do you have in your house? She said back, your servant has nothing there at all. That's why I'm coming to you. If I had something to put on eBay, I would have done it by now. Do I need to back up and take it from the top?

I told you nothing except a small jar of olive oil. Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars." This dude can't hear. He's good at talking, but he can't hear. I don't need jars. I need oil. I'm broke. I don't need something to put nothing in. Or do you? See, in the beginning when God created the world, it was without form and void. The first thing God did was to form it before he filled it. I'm going to keep reading this Bible passage because we only have so long.

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 is 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. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, Bring me another one. But he replied, There's not a jar left. Then the oil stopped flowing, and the

The gravitas of that last verse is such we have to read it in the King James Bible, like the one your grandmother had, that big one. I'm going to put it on this big screen for you, the King James version of that verse. I'm going to take my title from this one verse. It came to pass when the vessels were full that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more, and the oil is gone.

State I want to speak today for a few moments about frozen oil and chosen vessels so if there are many varieties of Poverty and if the abundance of our life really consists in the flow, you know like Jesus said that from your belly will flow rivers of living water or like it says in Proverbs that from your heart flows the issues of life So you got to guard it

It is instructive that Elisha the prophet, in performing his first miracle, cut off the flow of the Jordan River. The first thing he did when he became the prophet was to grab the mantle that fell off of Elijah, who, by the way, was known for giving strange commands as well. When he called the false prophets up to Mount Carmel, you can read about this in 1 Kings 18-19, it's amazing because the people were in a drought.

And he said, "Whichever God answers by fire is the true God," because he was challenging their idolatry. And when he got up there on the mountain, before he called down fire, he made them pour water on the wood, because sometimes God will make a situation seem impossible to men, so that when fire falls and the wood starts to burn, you won't think it was because of the quality of the firewood, but it is because of the power of God.

Now, if you've got wet wood in your life today, start rejoicing right now, because God is setting you up to do something so special. And he wants all the credit. He wants all the credit. He wants all the credit, so he allows this woman to get down to seemingly nothing. Do you notice that her first instinct when the prophet says, "'What do you have in your house?' is to say, "'Nothing.'"

Her first instinct is to minimize what little she has left. Now, I can't prove this. It's not in the text, but just imagine with me. Maybe, I don't know, you know, prophets are weird. Maybe Elisha asked her that question, and when she started to answer, maybe he made eye contact with her. You know awkward eye contact? You got anybody in your life who has really low relational relationships?

People have no concept of personal space. You got any close talkers in your life? Let me see if you got any close talkers in your life. You know how some people just look at you a little too long and a little too hard? Like eye contact is good, but it can come to a point where it's a little awkward. I can see you're a little sleepy right now. Look at your neighbor. Look at them so hard in their eyes that they feel what I'm talking about. I want you to make eye contact. Come on, staring contest all over the church. You too, Raleigh.

Awkward eye contact. So look at him while I talk. She says, "Uh, nothing." And Elisha just waits. Somebody say, "Nothing." Ask the person next to you, "Really? Nothing?" Because sometimes we get so overwhelmed by our scarcity that we minimize our supply. One of my friends was complaining so hard the other day, I thought he had me confused with a professional counselor.

After a few minutes, I was tired of it. I can listen for a minute, but he would not shut up. Finally, I said, "Bro, do you have anything going good for you right now?" He said, "No, nothing." I said, "Really? Nothing? Not eyelids?" Let me see your hands. You walked in this room. You woke up this morning. That's not nothing. The first thing I see in the miracle is Elisha instructs this woman who is at a deficit.

to check her oil. I want to preach to you today, check your oil. It is possible that you are overlooking the very thing that God wants to perform a miracle through.

When you've lived in a deficit long enough, it can be difficult to appreciate the supply that you have, especially when you've lost a lot. She's lost a husband. She's spent almost everything. She's got one little jar of oil in her freezer. I know it's not a freezer, but go with it. It goes with my title, frozen oil. She's got a little bit of oil, just a little bit of oil, and it's so little. In fact, the oil is so small that she doesn't even think it's worth mentioning. Okay, I'll say it.

God is about to do a miracle through something that you don't even think is worth mentioning. Something so small and insignificant in your sight that your first instinct is to not even mention it. But the enemy wants you to despise your oil because he can't steal your oil.

Oil in the Bible is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. When they would anoint a king in the Bible, they would anoint the king with oil. It represented God's empowerment. It represents joy and gladness. It's symbolic of the Holy Spirit that came on the day of Pentecost to live inside of us. And so when I preach about oil, I'm not talking about something that you keep in your pantry. I'm talking about something that you have in your heart, the gift God gave you.

The people God put in your life, the idea God gave you, the time he gave you, the season you're in. If I were your enemy and I knew I couldn't take your oil, what I would do instead is to get you to think that your oil was so little that it wasn't even worth using.

That's why some people sit in church week after week after week after month after month after month after year after year and stay in their deficiency and never realize that what you've got is something. Somebody shout, "It's not nothing. It's not nothing." Feeling in my spirit today. It's not nothing. Somebody shout, "My gift is something."

My life is something. My praise is something. Now high five somebody. Say, "I got something." How about you? For too long I've been comparing my oil with yours. My oil may not be as much as yours, but God won't hold me accountable for your oil. We learned this from Elijah. "Go look and see if you see anything in the sky." And the servant came back, "Nothing."

Go look again, nothing. This is getting really old, Steve. Can you just get to the point? How old would it get if you were the one running to the top of the hill to look at nothing? And then finally, by the time you do see something, it's so small, you minimize it. There's a cloud. Somebody shout, there's a cloud the size of a man's hand.

See, it's not the size of the cloud that determines the size of the blessing. It's not the amount of the oil. It's not how smart I am, how well-educated I am. It's not even my estimation of myself. If God calls me and chooses me, nothing on earth shall be able to stop me. Shout if you believe that in the back of the room. Check your oil.

It might not be much, but it's not nothing. It's not nothing. I think it's harder than ever to feel okay about our oil, because we have too many ways to check other people's oil, whether it's their vacation… That's about to start, where everybody is posting the happiest moments of their vacation this summer. It's going to make you feel like a crappy parent.

It's gonna make you question your oil cuz they're gonna all be smiling in the picture now Let me tell you something that happened right before the picture. It was almost a divorce Those kids almost went up for adoption, but they can't put that on the ground. So somebody say enjoy your oil So I'll take exactly what the devil's doing. He can't take your gift He can't take your calling the gifts and calling of God are without repentance God doesn't change his mind about what he gave you if he can get you to think it's so little that you don't use it He can starve you

I realized that God gave me a ministry. The devil can't take the ministry that God gave me. But if I give up my joy, then I will forfeit my ministry. If I give up my joy, I will forfeit my marriage. The devil can't take my marriage. But if he can get me to despise my oil, like to make me think I'm not a very good husband, or I don't have what it takes to be a dad,

then I'll say it's nothing when it's really something." Notice by the end of this passage, this woman has a house full of oil. It was not until she poured the oil that it became more. When you feel poor, you don't pour, because you hold on to what you have. So when you feel like a poor parent, it keeps you from wanting to try. Talk to me. I can go from here to here real quick as a parent, really quick as a parent.

You look so perfected right now. I can't figure out where one real person in this whole church is that will say that even if you figure out how to change diapers, they stop wearing them. It doesn't work anymore. So there are things about me and things about you that make us feel insecure and make us say it's nothing, when it's really something. But it seems small. It seems small, and it's overshadowed by...

When the need seems so big compared to the supply, you call it nothing, and you don't use it, and so it doesn't multiply. You send the crowds away so they can get something to eat, and you give away the opportunities God gave you because it's nothing. What you have is nothing. The need is great. My marriage just hit a 16-year milestone. We celebrated 16 years of marriage. I love when I do that.

Because there's always people that have been 40 years, and they look at me like, "What?" I think it's significant. I took Holly to Oak Steakhouse. We dined together. Let me tell you how good the date was. The date was so good. When we got home, the babysitter was texting us that the fire alarm was going off in the house.

It was a storm in Charlotte that night and something tripped the smoke alarm. Abby's freaking out on the porch and I had other plans for post-date. So I'm driving fast down the driveway, right? Can I talk to y'all?

But the kids are on the porch and the fire alarm is going off in the house and it's not a fire and the alarm system is bugging out and she already tried to take the battery out. So Abby is freaking out and I'm holding her because she's seven and when I grabbed her she stopped crying and I felt like the dad of the decade because I knew what to do. I knew if I started singing Hamilton from

from the Hamilton soundtrack that Abby would stop crying and it worked and she stopped crying and I felt like the man for about five minutes until we had to call the fire department not to put out a fire but to turn off the alarm what made it worse was when they got there when only the brave showed up at my house

They're walking down the driveway, the nicest firefighters you would ever want to see. Let's hear it for the firefighters. These men come walking down the driveway, and my wife is the one in the house trying to fix the detectors because I don't know what to do. I'm holding Abby, and five minutes ago I was the man, and here come the firefighters, and they're looking at me like, "'Really, dude?'

And I can tell that the one that's coming in first goes to the church. He didn't say it, but he had that look in his eyes like, you're my pastor, and I'm ashamed of you. You're much bigger on the screen. What kind of man are you? So I didn't make eye contact. I just thanked them for their service, and they got it off, and there was no carbon monoxide, and we're alive to tell about it. Isn't it funny? I was the man one minute, but then now you've got to understand it's little stuff.

It's not always some big shame that the enemy brings to make you feel. This is where I always got it wrong. I thought that you had to go through something sexual that caused you this great traumatic shame to keep you from really trusting God. I thought maybe you had to go through a season of your life, you know, eight years in prison or something like that, and then you would live with regrets. But I found out it is the seemingly insignificant insecurities

that make you feel like, I'm not a real man. I'm not a real mom. Now I'm yelling at my daughter just like my mom yelled at me, and I'm just repeating the cycle, and it causes you to despise your oil, and that's exactly what the enemy wants, is to use a small little thing to get you to miss your miracle, because your miracle is hidden in what you've been overlooking, and the reason you've been overlooking it

is because it seems so small to you, and the reason it seems small to you is because you are insecure about what you're not. So he'll work on you until you call it nothing. What do you have to be grateful for? Nothing. Really? Nothing? What are you good at? Nothing. We went around the table the other day, and I asked a group of people, what are you really great at? And it took us all a long time to answer. I wonder why that is. Because we're so humble? Or because the enemy has messed with us so much now because we're all on the verge of 40?

and we've gotten so familiar with our deficiency. When you've lived in a deficit for a long time, it overshadows the oil that you do have. He wants you to despise your oil. He wants you to despise the season of life that you're in. He wants you to be thinking about how much time you used to have back before or how much time you're going to have when. Meanwhile, the question of the prophet is not, "What do you wish you had in your house?" What do you have left?

Because that's what God is going to bless What you have left God is gonna bless what he gave you

You are his chosen vessel. The oil you have is the oil you need. The strengths you have are the strengths you need. The experiences you've had are the experiences you need. But notice this: the oil only flows when it is poured. You can pray over it.

You can cry over it. You can wish for it. But until you pour it, it will stay one small jar. If the enemy can't take your oil, he will try to get you to stop pouring. And some of you have stopped pouring. You got your heart broken. You poured your love into your last relationship, and it didn't work out.

and they left you and they hurt you and they turned away from you so you stop pouring and when you stop pouring it stops flowing you used to encourage people and then you got discouraged and you stopped encouraging but God told me to tell you keep on pouring because the more you pour the more it's gonna flow until somebody pours out the praise you've got now

We tend to think, I'll pour more when I get more. But the way it works in the order of God is it becomes more as it is poured. Isn't it just like God to command you to pour something that you don't feel like you have enough of? Strange instruction. I don't have much poured out. It's the weirdest strategy in the world, but I'm going to tell you, I think this stuff works. I think as you pour it out, it becomes more. Really, I'm convinced of it.

Because I tried that thing where you feel sorry for yourself when you're discouraged. I tried the other thing where I encouraged somebody else when I felt discouraged. The first one took me deeper into my deficit and my discouragement. The second one is the weirdest thing because I didn't feel like I had it to give. I wanted somebody to encourage me. And bitterness will keep you from pouring what you have while you wait for what you want.

And so then you stay poor. You stay frustrated. You stay stuck. You stay in bitterness. I wonder, was the woman a little disappointed that the prophet told her to pour something? It's frustrating when you have to pour into someone else when you really wish someone would pour into you. Yet, the more you pour, the more it flows.

I'm just telling you what to do the next time. I know you haven't had any struggles in the last seven years, but in case you go through something this year, the more you pour, the more it flows. The more you pour, the more it flows. Y'all getting it over here? The devil is so crafty that he will put you in a state where you'll tell yourself, nobody appreciates me, so you'll stop giving yourself. It will reinforce...

That self-fulfilling prophecy, "Nobody appreciates me," they won't appreciate you because you'll stop pouring and they'll no longer have anything to appreciate about you. That's why Holly said the other day, "They don't even care what I cook." She's talking about the kids. She said, "They only want the noodles." She made this meal.

She made this meal. If you're considering marrying in this age we live in right now, there are a lot of things that can attract you to a person. I appreciate many qualities about my wife. I appreciate the fact that she has excelled to the point where she now… Can I tell y'all something? She grows her own Swiss chard. Do you know how bougie that is? Here's some homegrown Swiss chard.

and some chicken. And when the kids went back for seconds, she said, "They don't care about the chicken. They don't care about the homegrown Swiss chard. They just want the noodles. That $1.29 box of noodles. They would be happy with just the noodles." I said, "Girl, I know exactly how you feel. I feel that way sometimes when I'm preaching."

The Devil will tell me that they really don't care. They're not going to remember this sermon. It's the craziest thing, how I get into self-pity. They don't appreciate my Swiss chard, my scriptural Swiss chard, my biblical chicken. But I looked at her. I said, Girl, if you don't cook it for anybody else,

Keep cooking the chicken for me. It's not even about those little brats Let them eat the noodles. Give me the chicken. I want the Swiss char Now you gotta have this sense in your life servant of God that I'm not doing it for them Because sometimes you will pour into people and they won't say a word But they're not your source. I said, they're not your source. I

I might be pouring into people, but I'm pouring for the Lord. So I can keep pouring if you appreciate me. I can keep pouring if you don't. I can keep pouring if you stay. I can keep pouring if you walk out. Who am I helping make some noise? It's a Swiss shard preacher. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that God kept pouring into me when I seemed unprofitable. And so I got to keep pouring. It said that she pouring.

I wonder how stupid she felt when she first started pouring. Now, once it starts working, it was probably kind of fun. I will point out one thing I thought was kind of funny. We were talking about this, JJ, weren't we? Elisha told her in verse 3, "Give me the verse. Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars." In verse 5 it says, "She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her." She made her kids go to the neighbors. You heard what the man said.

But she did one more thing I want to point out, and it's what enabled her to pour. She shut the doors. That's such an important detail in this text, because it is what you pour out in private when no one is looking. A lot of us are so busy praying for more oil, more opportunity, more, more, more, more, more. God says, "Pour, pour." The more you pour, the more it flows.

You're never going to pour out what you have while you're so busy consulting what everybody else has. You'd be like the woman who came in and poured out that expensive fragrance on the feet of Jesus, and all the men around called it a waste, and she called it worship. Because you're always going to feel like it's not enough. And even if you feel like it is enough, you feel like it doesn't matter.

Have you had a day like that in the last seven where you felt like, "This doesn't even matter"? Shut the door and keep pouring. In fact, sometimes the best thing to do is shut your mouth and keep pouring. The oil only became more when it was in motion, and the oil only flowed when the vessels were ready. I don't think this message is really about the oil at all. I think it's about the vessels.

Because when Elisha told her to go around to her neighbors, he gave her a very specific type of vessel to request. He said, "Make sure they're empty." God can't fill what's already full. That's why it's so important that you pour out your pride. That's why it's so important that we pour out our own opinions and come before the Lord empty. Because listen, when the vessels are ready, the oil will flow.

And there's something strange about these vessels that we only learn with a New Testament revelation. This is 2 Kings 4. But if you jump a couple of centuries over to 2 Corinthians 4, you get the full message. Where Paul says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Why would God put something so special in such a cracked vessel? What keeps you from showing up is your cracks and your conflicts. But that is the very place that the blessing flows through. Paul said, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. That is

The excellency of the power might be from God, not from us. One season in our church that I was feeling particularly overwhelmed, I said to Holly, "I just don't feel like I'm the pastor that they needed." The reason I said it is because the need was so great and my experience was so small. At this particular point, I had just turned 30, and the church was already about the same size as the town I grew up in. That'll make you stop and pause. That'll make you feel like not enough.

If you ever felt like not enough, wave at me. I don't like to do this alone. It's a very vulnerable feeling. Yeah. I said, I don't feel like I'm the pastor that they need. She looked back at me cold-blooded and said, you're the one we've got. Y'all are clapping at me, but I'm saying it to you. You're the mom they got. You're the dad they got. You're the son they've got. You're the daughter they've got. You're the one God chose. You, his chosen vessel. And he chose you.

Not in spite of your cracks, but because of them. That ensures that people will not compliment the vessel. They will value the oil. It is what God put inside of you. But you've got to pour it out. I want to pray for you today. Stand to your feet because I want to pray for you in this moment. If you've been in a deficit emotionally, spiritually, relationally, financially, deficits come in many different varieties. But if you are that empty vessel today,

and you come to the end of yourself, I have good news for you. That's the starting place for God's supply to be poured out in your life. "My God shall supply all of your needs according to his glory…" Not according to your quantity of oil, but according to his glorious riches. I have preached this message today with the hopes that in this moment you would see yourself as a vessel God is ready to fill. When the vessels are ready, the oil will flow.

And it's good when you feel empty. It's good when you feel like you're not enough. It's good when you know your need, because then you remember your source. Right now in this moment, I want to ask that everybody who needs a touch from God today in an area of your life where you've been feeling deficient, I want to ask that you just close your eyes, lift your hands to heaven, and forget about all the people around you. Let's shut the door for a moment. Let's come before God in honesty and sincerity like this woman did with the prophet.

She knew where to go first. She took her needs to the man of God. She didn't run around from neighbor to neighbor to neighbor like we tend to do sometimes. She went to God first. If we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, all these things will be added to us. But if we run around, if we don't open our hearts before him, we will die for the lack of what he has already provided. There is oil in your house.

There is a reason to be grateful. There is a strength in this season of your life. Father, today with our hands lifted up, with our hearts open, and with our minds renewed, we thank you for the oil we have. Somebody say, "Thank you, Lord, for my oil."

God, we're sorry for complaining about the oil that we lost. We're sorry for comparing our oil supply to others. We come to you today in humility of spirit, declaring that what you have given is all that you require. We thank you for the gift of your grace in our lives. We thank you for your mercy in this moment. We thank you for your enabling power, your anointing for this season of our lives.

That where we are is where we're supposed to be. It's by design. God, we determine in our hearts in this moment not to become bitter about what we've poured out that we didn't receive a return on. We declare that you are the source of our strength and you are the strength of our lives. And so we lift our eyes to the hills. Our help comes from you. Our joy comes from you. And you are more than enough to meet every need.

Father, we lift our eyes to heaven today. Would you fill our cups to the top? We thank you that goodness and mercy flow over. Our cup overflows. You are with us in this moment. We declare that your presence is more than enough. Your word is more than enough. Spirit of God, fall fresh on your people now. A fresh outpouring. A fresh anointing. May they receive it in the power of your great name, Jesus.

Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.

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