1 Kings 17: The Offering That Gives God First Place

Introduction

"Every time you leave your house to come here, it is for a purpose. A purpose that must be noble." This is how Suzie, whom the congregation calls "Mama Suzie," opens her message at the Centre Évangélique Parole de Vie. Coming to worship is already an offering: we do not come to see the pastors, but to meet the One who gives the breath of life.

The church is living a year centered on the theme of revelation and dominion. This Sunday's subject is the offering, and worship within the offering. The preacher wants God to reveal "what is hidden in the offering" and wants his Word to destroy the false reasoning we have picked up from the world on this subject.

She draws on the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17), on Abraham at Mount Moriah (Genesis 22) and on the promise of Malachi 3. The common thread: God wants first place.

Outline of the Message

1. God First Accepts the Person Who Gives

During the drought, God feeds Elijah through the ravens by the brook. When the brook dries up, he sends him to Zarephath: "I have commanded a widow there to sustain you" (1 Kings 17:9).
God knows that this woman will do what he tells her. She already has a heart ready to obey. "God will first accept the person who gives, even before the offering itself."
Before you give, God looks at your heart: how you walk with him, whether you have spiritual ears to hear and a heart to obey.
The widow brings water without hesitation to a stranger she does not know. For the preacher, Elijah understands at that moment that she is the person God has chosen.
Her answer, "Yahweh your God lives," shows her discernment: this man is no ordinary man.

2. God Cares for You, So Watch Your Words

"God cares for you because he is a father, and not just any father. He is the most responsible dad." If he feeds the birds of the sky and clothes the grass of the field, how could you lack anything (Matthew 6:26-30)?
The widow says: "that we may eat it, and die." For Suzie, when you are in need, you must avoid speaking words that will have an impact later: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21).
She links this statement to the death of the child later in the chapter: in her view, the child died because of those words; death was already in the house, the father was dead, and the mother was still speaking death.
When you are in need, she says, call into being the things that do not exist (Romans 4:17). Say: "I will lack nothing. The Lord is my shepherd. I will find this job. My children will lack nothing."

3. "Make Me One First": Giving God First Place

Elijah answers: "Don't be afraid," and then asks for a small cake for himself first, and afterward for her and her son (1 Kings 17:13). "God meant by this that we must give him first place."
The one who gave the flour and the oil is able to give more. His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).
What holds us back from these steps of faith is not even ignorance: "it is fear."
The woman could have protested that there was not enough to feed a third person. She obeyed. And the flour did not run out, the oil did not fail, until the day Yahweh sent rain.
God does not want us to count on our salary or our bank account. "You may have the money, you may have everything, but something will always be missing" for which you will need God.
There were many widows in Israel, but it is to her that Elijah is sent (Luke 4:25-26).

4. A Universal Law: What You Sow, You Reap

"The offering is not only money." It is a spiritual act that shows itself through physical acts. Your life and your children must also be an offering to God.
People of the world have understood this: they create associations to bring water and food where they are lacking.
Suzie gives the example of her husband, who does not attend church. Without her asking, he gives regularly to several organizations, including UNICEF. He does not have an extraordinary salary, but he buys his car in cash and pays for vacations and restaurants. She wonders whether it is not "perhaps because of this act" that nothing is lacking at home. "He has understood the law. That law is for everyone." God shows no favoritism (Acts 10:34).
God multiplies. As with the loaves and the fish, she tells of seeing, in her business, her merchandise last beyond what she sold, which allowed her to pay the rent.
"Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). In her view, if you pay school fees for children in need, God will think of your own children's schooling. If you think of orphans, God will think of your descendants.
"There is one who withholds more than is appropriate, but gains only poverty" (Proverbs 11:24). Whoever does not hesitate to help a sick person will see God take care of his or her health.
Look to God and not to the man of God: "his pocket is not long enough to bless you." It is God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3).

5. Abraham: The Offering Is Worship

God asks Abraham for his son, his only son (Genesis 22:2). Abraham sets out without hesitation, like the widow who had nothing but her flour and her oil.
He tells his servants: "We will worship, and come back to you" (Genesis 22:5). "Our offering is also our way of worshiping God, of saying: Lord, there is only you."
To Isaac's question, he answers: "God will provide for himself the lamb." The ram was waiting on the very mountain God had pointed out: Jehovah Jireh.
There is also the offering of time. Just as we want to spend time with those we love, God wants us to stay in his presence.
"Before you go and give to your boss, God says: give to me first." Go into your room, close the door and leave your worries outside (Matthew 6:6). Give him two, five or ten minutes, but quality minutes.
In the offering, "there is an arrow going out, and it has to have returns." For there to be a return, God must accept the offering, as the story of Cain and Abel shows (Genesis 4:3-5). He looks at the heart of the one who gives.

6. Bringing It to the Storehouse

Malachi 3:10-12: "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. […] Test me now in this […] if I will not open you the windows of heaven."
For Suzie, the storehouse is the church, or the place where God tells you to give. It would be unfair for a full-time servant not to be paid: the church needs to be able to pay the rent and the electricity, and the man of God needs to be able to "even buy himself a Coke."
Whoever gives a cup of water to a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a reward (Matthew 10:41-42).
"He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully" (2 Corinthians 9:6). She mentions a servant of God in Africa who made a covenant with God over his business, fifty percent for him, fifty percent for God, and who prospered greatly.
She compares it with large companies: you reap in proportion to what you invest. "It also depends on how you invest with God."
Solomon offered great sacrifices. God said to him: "Ask what you want." He asked for wisdom, and God also gave him riches (1 Kings 3:4-13). Hannah offered her son Samuel, and God gave her other children (1 Samuel 2:21).
"God cannot tell you to give if he himself has not given." He so loved the world that he gave his only Son (John 3:16), and in return he received many children.

7. The Testimony of a Faithfulness That Cries Out

In Africa, she gave an insignificant amount every Sunday. One day she realized that the amount was worth almost nothing, and she decided to do things differently.
Her daughter is, she says, "the fruit of an offering to God": together with her sister, who had only boys, they gave their tithes while asking God for girls.
Even when she was laid off during a relocation, she kept giving. When she opened her shops, she made a vow: to give the same amount every Sunday, "whether I sell or I don't sell."
A person to whom she had sent money for smoked fish disappeared with the sum. She was "almost at the door of bankruptcy." God sent her a man looking for someone for a temporary job; she took it herself, and she kept giving. When God opened the door, customers were lining up: "It was my offering that I had put on the altar that was crying out." She also tells how, at the beginning of her business, a sister advanced her what she needed to buy her merchandise, without her asking.
Her conclusion: "Let us be faithful in what God asks us to do. This God is faithful. He is not a man, that he should lie" (Numbers 23:19).
After the message, a leader of the church extended the exhortation: we keep to the schedule at work, but we come to church "as we please." She called us to offer ourselves to God (Romans 12:1), to give him quality time without the phone, and to give joyfully, like the widow with the two coins (Mark 12:41-44), because God looks at the heart.

Key Takeaways

God first accepts the person who gives, a heart ready to listen and obey, before he looks at the offering.
In times of need, watch your words: speak with faith rather than pronouncing death over your situation.
"Make me one first": God wants first place, in your money as in your time.
The offering is worship: like Abraham, you tell God that everything comes from him and that he will provide.
Let us be faithful in what God asks of us, because he is faithful: what you sow, you will reap.

Personal Application

When you lack something, what words do you speak over your situation and your family?
In your budget, does God receive the first share or what is left at the end of the month?
What quality minutes can you give God tomorrow morning, door closed and phone set aside, before leaving for work?
What is holding you back from taking a step of faith in giving: ignorance, or the fear of lacking?
When you give, are you looking to the man of God or to God himself?

Verses Quoted

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the widow of Zarephath teach us about giving?

According to Suzie, God looks first at the person who gives before looking at the offering. The widow had a heart ready to obey. Elijah asks her to prepare a small cake for him first: God wants first place. She obeys, and the flour and the oil do not run out until the rain returns.

Is an offering only about money?

No. For the preacher, the offering is a spiritual act that shows itself through physical acts. Your life, your children and your time are also an offering. She encourages us to give God a few quality minutes each morning before giving our day to our boss.

Why is the offering a form of worship?

As he sets out to offer Isaac, Abraham tells his servants: "We will worship, and come back to you" (Genesis 22:5). Suzie concludes that the offering is a way of telling God: "Lord, there is only you." She recognizes that life, breath and the body we work with all come from him.