No More Jars! (reposting of blog I spoke of this weekend)

Out of the Overflow

It’s 5:20 am right now and I couldn’t sleep.

It’s a good thing.

You ever have one of those mornings where you’re just overcome with the joy of the Lord? Where God wakes you up just to talk?

No, I’m not nuts.

At least not for that reason.

Well, I am having one of those mornings right now and I thought I’d let you in on it because you all are actually a part of it.

The reason for it?

You see, I can’t believe I get to pastor a church so FLAT OUT AWESOME as Southbrook!

Really.

Quit waiting for the other shoe to fall.

That’s it.

Here’s the passage I was reading today during my quiet time with the Lord,

1 One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”

2 “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied. 3 And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 4 Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.” 5 So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. 6 Soon every container was full to the brim!

Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons. “There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.

When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over (emphasis added).”

I discovered over the years that the Lord seldom wakes me in the middle of the night (yes, I consider 5:20 am the middle of the night!) just to give me a warm fuzzy. I wouldn’t trade those joyous moments of connecting with Him for anything, I’m just saying that I try to perk up at such times because something of importance is usually coming and it’s not the time to go all ADHD on God.

And this passage just happened to come up in my Q.T. book for today (yeah, right – I think God rearranged the pages while I was sleeping!). Actually, a good friend of mine presented this same passage to me a couple of weeks ago and said he really felt the Lord was prodding Him to share it with me.

Did you hear me?

It was the same exact passage!

God was speaking to me!

And there’s something for you in this too so sober up and give me an ear (or in this case, an eye).

You see friends, Southbrook is being blessed right now (tremendously) and God’s favor rests upon us. Many Christians spend their whole lives hoping for this (although that’s sad because God wants every believer to live like this and it’s readily available – but that’s another post for another day) yet we are living it! And, obediently we are gathering jars right and left in order to receive the blessing of God.

Over the years you all have stepped up to:

• Lead small groups
• Tithe financially to support ministry through SCC
• Free up seats at the 10:00and 11:30services
• Stepped up to be a part of a multi-site campus
• Faithfully started, grown and lead various ministries at the church (men’s, women’s, youth, facilities, landscaping, worship, children’s ministries, and on and on).
• Given above and beyond your tithes and offerings in order to grow our physical facilities
• Served one another
• Put others first
• Loved the Lord your God with all your heart mind and strength
• Loved your neighbors, family, co-workers as yourself

You all are easy to love greatly because you love so greatly.

God asks you to, ‘Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors.’ And you do it.

That’s why we have received His blessing so abundantly. But God isn’t through with us. In fact, I believe He’s just getting started. I know I say that a lot, but perhaps this will help you understand why I know it’s true…

Zoom in on this one particular part of the above text…

Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons. There aren’t any more!”he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.

I believe what the Lord woke me up this morning to tell me is this;

Southbrook church has been blessed tremendously, yes, but I want to do much more than you can ask or even imagine (see this verse for more about that) And Rob, I want to do this through the people of Southbrook. Tell them to go and get more jars because they are about to see Me bless them tremendously. But Rob, tell them this as well, when the jars stop coming (they’re no longer stretching their faith, an inward mentality of, “us four and no more” develops, they grow comfortable with the size of the church and the spiritual condition of the community outside the church, they forget how big I am and how small they are) the blessing will cease as well. The oil will no longer flow.

You’ll be fine—good even, but not all you could be. It could have been more. I want to bless your socks off. I’m about to.

Just keep those jars coming.

So you know what I think we should do?

Keep those jars coming!