God is Greater Than Your Trouble

Elijah God over gods: God Is Greater than Your Trouble

Text; 1 Kings 17:8-24

Intro: You don’t know God is all you need until God is all you’ve got. God sent Elijah to the brook Cherith, providing him with water through a bubbling brook and meat and bread from ravens every morning and evening. In this setting, Elijah learned God was enough. God had plans for Elijah beyond the brook. When it dried up 17:7, God’s plan slowly began to unfold, taking him away from complete isolation.

• Set the scene: Elijah the prophet confronts King Ahab, the most wicked king Israel ever had, and declares that there will be no more rain until he, as a prophet, says so. Ahab followed Jezebel and her gods - Baal and Asherah. Ahab believed his baal was in charge of the rain, and Elijah reveals otherwise. God sends Elijah into hiding to live beside the brook Cherith, where he will drink from the brook, and God sends ravens to feed him bread and meat every morning and evening. Then the brook dried up, but remember - Our weaknesses are advantages in God’s hands.

1. The Widow in Zarephath
   1. Zarephath - to melt or smelt, and in the noun form, it is a crucible or refinery. God calls us to walk with Him and trust Him, placing us in a furnace where He works to melt away our sin and indifference, freeing us for a life of intimacy with the Lord.
   2. Zarephath would be Elijah’s crucible as God uses it to refine the prophet and make a significant difference in him.
   3. In Cherith, he was weaned away from the bright lights and cut down to size, and now he will be further molded into a man of God.
   4. God knows what the future holds in your life, and He never forgets you. Is. 49:16 God knows where you are. When you feel forsaken, remember God is there, ready and available. Is. 41:10
   5. God knows where you are going. God tells Elijah explicitly:
      1. Arise - not hard
      2. Go - harder, but okay. Zarephath was 100 miles from Cherith, and Elijah was a wanted man as Ahab wanted him dead.
      3. Dwell there - “huh”
   6. God has a place for you 17:9
      1. He was not going to Zarephath to minister to her, but she would care for him. The Lord commanded a widow to feed him 17:9. This is identical to the Lord commanded the ravens to feed you 17:4
      2. The place God has for you may not be comfortable. Zarephath belonged to Sidon, which was where Jezebel was from 16:31. As we conform to the image of Jesus, it brings challenges.
   7. God has people for you to go to.
      1. God sends her to a widow, but not just to any widow. Widows all across Israel were hurting economically as they were going through a famine, but God sent Elijah to this widow, specifically, who is a Gentile from Jezebel’s hometown.
      2. Jesus preached on this unique moment Luke 4:24-26
      3. This widow is clearly an outsider
         1. She was a gentile - a racial outsider. 17:12
         2. She was a pagan - a religious outsider.
         3. She was a woman - a gender outsider.
         4. She was a widow - an economic outsider.
      4. God loves outsiders.
         1. Matthew 1 includes the genealogy of Jesus. To a Jewish person, a genealogy is akin to a resume, as it would consist of a list of rulers in your lineage if you aspired to rule.
         2. Jesus’ genealogy included women with scars.
            1. Rahab a prostitute
            2. Bathsheba committed adultery with David
            3. Ruth, a Moabite.
         3. These women were included in the line leading to Christ, so we can know that our names are found in the line that leads from Christ. No matter who you are, there is room in God’s family for you.
2. Replenishing the widow’s food
   1. Elijah obeyed the Lord, and when he came to the gate, he met the widow he was looking for. 17:10-11 The Lord told Elijah the widow would feed him, so he asked for some water and bread.
   2. Elijah had to get past his first impression as she revealed that she and her son are destitute and on their last meal.
      1. I’m sure Elijah expected a better situation, but he knew that if God could feed him through a raven, then he could do it through a destitute widow.
      2. Elijah walked into Jezebel’s hometown to find a widow who would care for him, and he happened upon her on her last meal. God smiles.
   3. Maybe your first impressions of a new school, church, town, or job are not at all what you expected; as a matter of fact, your impression is bad.
   4. The widow saw the facts of her situation, but Elijah saw what God could do because God had already spoken by telling him to dwell there, and the widow would feed him. He believed the Lord and knew an empty flour bin was no biggie for God. 17:13-14
   5. The widow did everything that Elijah told her to do, even though it didn’t make sense to her physical eyes. 17:15-16
   6. The widow met God in the kitchen. They ate from the flour bin for two years.
   7. Elijah met God in a widow’s home in Jezebel’s hometown. God provided for him in the most unusual way and in the most unusual place.

• George Müller ran orphanages in Bristol, England, in the 1800s, caring for over 10,000 children in his lifetime. He never asked anyone for money—he only prayed. One morning, the housemother of the orphanage came and told Müller the children were ready for school, but there was no food to eat.

Müller gathered the children in the dining hall. He had them sit down at the tables, with empty plates before them. He prayed and thanked God for the food He was about to provide.

Moments later, there was a knock on the door. A local baker said, “Mr. Müller, I couldn’t sleep last night. I felt God wanted me to bake bread for you, so I got up at 2 AM and baked all this fresh bread.”

Right after that, the milkman’s cart broke down right in front of the orphanage. He said, “My cart is ruined; the milk will spoil. Could the children use it?”

That day, the children ate fresh bread and milk because God provided—just enough, right on time.

1. Raising the Widow’s Son
   1. Heb. 11:35 is probably a reference to Elijah.
   2. After this - every day, the widow and her son would go to the flour bin, and there would be flour, which reminded them of God’s faithfulness. During the daily trusting of God’s provision, the widow’s son became sick and died.

• In 2007, Florida scientists and archaeologists looked through a window of the past and saw hidden treasures just below the surface of Lake Okeechobee.

Okeechobee is the nation's second-largest lake. Because of the drought, the lake hit its lowest level on record. In some areas, the shoreline receded more than a mile, creating areas of dry lakebed where historical artifacts were uncovered, with some dating over 500 years.

Pottery, arrowheads, weaving tools, and pendants lay on top of the dry ground, providing clues about Native Americans living in the area hundreds of years ago. Evidence of a fishing boat from 1904 that probably sank during a hurricane in 1928, and proof of paddleboats that once ferried tourists in the area.

All these items have rested just beneath the surface of the water for many years. It took a drought to bring them out into the light of day again.

Spiritual droughts are not fun, to say the least. But the trials and moments of doubt that come during personal drought can reveal many things about us.

This week, Charlie Kirk was assassinated on September 10, 2025. Charlie was probably assassinated for his Christian beliefs and courage to stand for biblical truth in hostile environments. It is believed that churches will have larger attendance today because of the shocking actions that have occurred this week. My prayer is that, like a brook that dries up, an empty flour bin, and the death of a child, which reveals the grace and power of Christ, you will find Christ in the middle of your pain.

1. His mother looked for someone to blame - a typical response in the midst of a tragedy. Sometimes in tragic situations, people say things they later regret.
   1. She blamed her past sin.
   2. She blamed Elijah for her son’s death. 17:18
   3. Elijah is silent: he does not argue, reason, rebuke, or shame her for blaming him.
   4. Elijah simply asks for her burden. Gal. 6:2
2. Elijah is where he is supposed to be, doing what he is supposed to be doing, and now there is tragedy. God places him in a vise and tightens it.
3. What do you do when tragedy comes? Elijah did not panic, fear, or doubt, but trusted God. Ps. 91:1-2
4. What does true faith look like?
   1. We come to God with sincerity and humility, bringing our unanswered questions, and knowing that God loves us.
   2. God desires our best, but if He doesn't do what we believe is best, I will trust Him anyway.
5. We can not give our dead souls to Elijah, but we can give them to Jesus, who has conquered death. This is what we are challenged to do.
6. Elijah lays the boy on his own bed 17:19
   1. He placed the boy in his own place
   2. The position states almost an absorption of death into his body.
   3. The woman asked if he died for her sins. He is not, but one will, and his name is Jesus.
7. Elijah questions the Lord (1 Kings 17:20). Elijah may have been silent before the woman, but not before God. There was no manual for this situation as it had not happened previously in scripture. 17:21
   1. He did the one thing he had learned to do - have faith.
   2. He laid his body over the boy's body three times. Ceremonially, this was an unclean act. 17:21
   3. He prayed and believed for a miracle - then he waited.
8. Many of us might lay our lives out before the Lord in a similar way, as circumstances are out of control, and you go to your special place and stand before God, pleading for His intervention, trusting in His power, and waiting.
9. Can you say?
   1. I am here by God’s plan - I will trust Him Eph. 2:10
   2. I am kept by God - I will trust Him 1 Pet. 1:5
   3. I am under His supervision - I will trust Him 1 Peter 5:7
   4. He will show me His purposes in His time - I will trust Him Rom. 8:28
10. What was it like when the boy regained life? Was it sudden or gradual, small or significant? 17:22
11. This passage reveals that God clearly has power over death. There is no other God who has gone to the grave and conquered it.
12. God’s greatest plan for the widow’s life was not to keep her cupboards full of oil or to bring her son to life, but for her to know Him. Every earthly blessing is temporary; that pales in comparison to knowing God, who gives life and has conquered death.
13. Elijah hands the son to her mother and says Your son is alive! 17:23
    1. Elijah did not want her to think great things about him, but he desired her to think great things about God. 17:24
    2. Now she knew Elijah was a man of God. Every time she would look at her son, she would see him differently, as she would now see him as one who died and is now alive because of the Lord.
14. So What
    1. The first impression of Elijah when he met the widow of Zarephath could have been devastating, but he simply continued in his obedience. The early days of following Jesus will bring challenges; don’t quit.
       1. There will be a stronger temptation to go back into sin that you have just repented of.
       2. Temptations to tolerate people in your life that will drag you away from the Lord rather than propel you towards HIm.
    2. When God leads, follow. Often His leading is unusual and surprising, but our responsibility is not to analyze HIs leading but simply to trust, follow, and obey it.
    3. God’s promises are sometimes conditional; obey. God told Elijah to arise and go; what if he didn’t? Elijah told the widow to go and fix the meal, but what if she didn’t? Proverbs 3:6b, 5-6a, 8, 7, 10, 9
    4. God’s provisions are often just enough; be thankful. Elijah had bread to eat and a meal every day in the middle of a drought. He didn’t eat high on the hog, but he had what he needed. The Lord provided him with his daily bread.
       1. If we postpone our thankfulness until we receive everything we want, we will never be thankful.
       2. We are to learn contentment with what we have and where we are.
       3. The quickest way to learn contentment is to practice thankfulness.
    5. When facing impossible situations - trust God. Your marriage might feel dead - trust God, habits that you can’t break - trust God, the sins that dominate you - trust God and His power for help and deliverance.

Conclusion:

A few years ago, a young couple in Texas lost their home in a flood. The water rose so quickly that they had to be rescued by boat. They lost nearly everything—furniture, clothes, family photos, even the baby crib they had just bought.

The husband later shared: “We stood in the driveway looking at all the ruined things, and I felt completely helpless. But then our church showed up. People brought meals. A family gave us a crib. Another family let us stay with them until we could find a place to live. We didn’t have much, but we had exactly what we needed, every single day.”

Months later, when their little boy was born, the husband said, “I look back now and realize—we never went without. God used His people to take care of us. We thought the flood ruined us, but God was writing a story of His faithfulness.”

Just like Elijah at Zarephath, this couple discovered that when everything runs out, God is still enough. He may not give us abundance, but He gives us enough. He doesn’t just keep cupboards filled—He shows Himself greater than our trouble.

So when your brook dries up, when your cupboard is empty, when you face what feels like death—don’t quit on God but know that He is greater. Trust Him. Obey Him. And watch Him prove Himself greater than your trouble.