Craig Groeschel - When Life Demands Too Much
So what do you do when the weight of the world feels overwhelming? In the last month in our nation, we’re reeling from not one, but two horrific school shootings. Then there’s a video that goes viral of a young Ukrainian girl that’s stabbed and murdered on a train. And, at this moment, there are so many people, many of you, trying to process the senseless, heartbreaking, tragic death of Charlie Kirk, and to make things more difficult, many people didn’t just hear about it, but you saw it, and your children saw it, and when you see a life taken, raw and unfiltered, it shakes you to the core, and that’s one of the reasons why this death is leaving a deep mark on families, on communities, and even our nation.
And you feel it. You open up social media or you scroll through your newsfeed, and you see the anger, and you see the rage, and you see the division, and it’s no wonder so many of us feel sad or anxious or even afraid. And for some of you, the heaviest weight that you’re carrying, it’s not just in the news, but it’s in your home. You’re battling something personal, a health issue that’s got you scared because you don’t know what to do.
Will God heal you? Will the doctors heal you? Maybe it’s a financial issue. You don’t know how you’re gonna make it through next month. It may be that you’re battling with anxiety so heavy, there are times you can barely catch your breath, or you’re fighting for your marriage, and you don’t know if it’s gonna make it. Some of you have got kids. You’re praying for them, begging God to bring them back before they go too far and do something that’s hard to recover from. What do you do when life gives you more than you can handle? What do you do when giving everything you got is still not enough?
And I’ll tell you right now, it’s not easy living in these days. It’s not easy. And I’m not gonna give you like, here’s three steps to make it easy. I’m not gonna do that. I’m just gonna acknowledge that living in a broken and painful and sin-filled and a divided world is very, very complicated. But I will tell you that we have a very good God, that we have a God who is on the throne, a God who reigns supreme, a God who rules over the nations, and a God who cares about you. That’s our God.
And so, in the middle of what is too many different emotions to even express, what I want to do is tell you a little bit of the good news if you feel like you don’t have enough. And if you find yourself right now wondering how are we gonna make it, how are we gonna get through this, I want to just tell you that when you don’t have enough, not enough is where God starts. Not enough is where He starts. When you’re at the end of your strength, he promises that «My grace is sufficient for you,» that in your weakness, God says, «My strength will be made perfect». If you find yourself today hurting with not enough, not enough is where He starts.
Father, we pray. We continue to pray for our nation. God, we pray for our spiritual leaders. We pray for those that are grieving the death of Charlie Kirk. God, we pray for churches to be unified as the body of Christ would rise up to preach your word, to show truth and grace and to be a light into a dark and hurting world. We pray this in the name that is above all names, the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. And all God’s people said, Amen.
Online say amen. Amen. We are in a message series on the prophet Elisha. And today we’re gonna see the prophet come across a widow whose life was falling apart as she had lost her husband, and now she’s afraid she’s about to lose her sons. She’s grieving, and she’s afraid. She feels like she has nothing left. And we see her story in 2 Kings 4:1 that says, «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.'»
Here we have a widow who’s now a single mom. We don’t know her name. Her husband has died, and he’s not some random guy. He was the from the company of prophets, which would’ve been young men that studied under Elisha. They were kind of like seminary students who were learning to become prophets. And she says, «This man who served God and served you, he’s no longer there, and I have a great debt. The creditors may take my son». Now what does that mean? Well, in this time in history, it sounds crazy, but if you owed money to someone, they legally could come and take your children as temporary slaves, not forever, but your sons or your daughters might have to work off of a debt for the next four or five or six years.
And so you can imagine she’s devastated. She’s a widow and couldn’t easily find work in her culture. She’s looking at her situation. She’s like, «I got no husband. I got no protection. I’m about to lose my sons». In her mind, she has no hope. So how does the prophet Elisha respond? I love the question that he asks. He replies to her in chapter 4:2. «How can I help you»? One of the best questions we can ask today is not, «I’m mad at you because you’re different. I’m disappointed in you because whatever. You should have been there… But how can I serve you»?
The greatest are those who serve. And he asked her, «How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house»? And she says, «Your servant has nothing there at all». «I don’t have a thing. Your servant has nothing,» she said, «except a little jar of oil». Elisha asked the widow, «What do you have in your house? What you got»? She goes, «I don’t have anything». That’s not the whole truth, right, and I’m not judging her because I’ve fallen apart over her much less. The truth is, when you’re hurting, it’s really, really easy to see what you don’t have, and she’s focused on what she doesn’t have, right? She didn’t have a husband. She didn’t have any savings. She didn’t have a job. In her mind, she didn’t have any hope at all.
In the early years of the church, when I was probably in my late twenties, Amy and I started. and we’re in a little garage in a elementary school, and then we were in the bike factory, and the church had outgrown probably my leadership skills, probably my pastoral skills, maybe even in my faith. We didn’t have the staff, and we had, you know, 300 people coming and me and two part-time staff. And I was sinking, sinking, sinking. And I was so afraid, so desperate, I remember telling Amy that I was crying out to God, «Like no one understands the weight of this». And then I was saying, «No one cares». And in my mind at that time, I just said, «This job is literally gonna kill me».
Now I wish I could tell you that’s the only time that I’ve said that, but throughout three decades in this incredibly complicated and sometimes demonic world, there are times when the weight of it just feels like too much. This job is going to kill me. It’s probably not true. I’m probably catastrophizing because what happens is my mind goes to the worst place, and I’m so thankful that I’m the only one that has this problem. It’s really good that none of you do this because I am certain that none of you have ever texted a loved one of yours, and 20 minutes later when you didn’t hear back, you pulled up your phone, and looked at their location, and it’s completely still in the middle of a highway, and all of a sudden on the spot, you start planning their funeral.
I know none of you have ever done anything like that. And it’s kind of funny, but it’s not really funny because fear doesn’t just exaggerate, but fear lies. Fear doesn’t just exaggerate, but fear lies, and «God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind,» and right now there’s a lot of people listening to the enemy who is spreading fear, and it can be just personal like, «You didn’t get the job». And so you think, «Well, I’m screwed for the rest of my life. I’m never gonna amount to anything. I’ve tried the best I can. I’m never gonna get ahead. No one’s gonna see my gifts. I’m gonna add no value. No one’s gonna respect me. I’m not gonna be able to make a life».
Or you have a secret addiction, and you find yourself looking at something that you know is not pleasing to God, is not helpful to you. And you tried to stop, and you can’t stop. And so you think, «I’m gonna be addicted to this pornography for the rest of my life. I’ve got no hope». Or you pray, and you worship, and you talk to God, and you call on God, and you don’t hear from God, and you feel like he’s distant, and you wonder, «God, are you even there? And if you’re there, have you forgotten me»?
And that’s what some of you may be doing right now. You’re letting the fear of what you don’t have drown out the faith in what God has already given you right before you. And Elisha asked her, «What do you have»? And she says this. «Your servant has nothing there at all,» she said, «except a small jar of olive oil». «What do you have»? «Nothing except a small jar with a little bit of oil». When your husband’s dead, and you’re about to lose your sons, what can you do with a little bit of oil? And the answer is, «Not much». But you can do a little.
What can you do with a little bit of oil? Well, you can cook with oil. You can do that. You can use the oil to burn some lamps at night. You can do that. You can mix the oil with some herbs, and you can create some medicine. You can do that. You can use the oil to anoint someone or something and pray for a miracle from God with just a little bit of oil. Something very, very ordinary. Something insufficient by human standards. She didn’t have a lot, but what she did have in God’s hands became the means for a miracle. And some of you right now, you’re hurting, you’re afraid, you’re desperate. You don’t know where to turn. You don’t have enough. Like you don’t, you literally don’t.
Some of you in a single family home, you’re like, «I don’t have enough time. I’m doing two jobs trying to raise three kids. I can’t get it all done». Some of you say, «Well, I don’t have enough confidence to believe in myself. I don’t have enough faith right now to even trust God with tomorrow». Some would say, «I don’t even have enough hope that I’ll ever have a good life or experience the presence of God again. I don’t believe that things will ever change for the better in my life. I don’t have enough».
Remember, not enough is where God starts. When you get to the end of yourself is when you best experience the presence, the goodness, and the strength of our God. So what do you do like right now if you don’t have enough? what do you do? Like practically, what do you do? You just have a little. What do you do? Here’s what you do, is you offer God what you have, and you trust him to give you what you need. You take what little thing that you have, and you say, «God, I trust you with this,» and you believe that our good God, who will meet every need through his glorious riches in Christ Jesus, will give you everything that you need for life and godliness.
And I don’t know about you, but I want to take a moment. I want to thank my God right now, give him praise for who he is. I am so thankful that we serve a God who knows how to do a lot with a little. We serve a God who can take a little and do miracles. When a little shepherd boy named David faced a giant Goliath. He looked on, «Who am I? Who are you»? And then looks at the guy, and said, «Who are you to come against the armies of the living God»? And God shows him five little stones. And he picked up five, five little stones, not a lot. And he only needed one because we serve a God who can do a lot with a little. Jesus and the disciples come across some thousands of hungry people, hungry, hungry people. I don’t know about you, but I’m not pleasant when I’m hungry. I don’t want to be around thousands of people like me who are hangry.
And someone says, «Anybody got any food»? And a little boy, I’m paraphrasing, a little boy says, «I don’t have a lot, but I got a little». He opens up his SpongeBob SquarePants lunchbox, and he says, «I got five loaves and two fishes». And in the hands of God, a little became a lot. Some of you will say, «Well, I just don’t even have much faith right now. I don’t have hardly any faith at all in God at this moment». I’m gonna ask you, «Do you have a little? Do you have a little? Do you have a little»? Do you just have a little? And you do because you’re here. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have just a little bit. As Jesus said, «If you just have the tiniest bit of faith in God, the faith of a mustard seed, you can speak to the mountain that’s taking you down and say, 'Move from here to there, ' and it will move» because all things are possible with our God. I give him praise that He is a God who does a lot with a little.
The widow doesn’t have much, just a little jar and a little bit of oil. And in 2 Kings 4:3, the prophet Elisha said, «Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t just ask for a few». This is where it gets personal. If I haven’t pushed on you a little bit, I’m gonna do it right now. He says, «Hey, go ask some people for help. Go ask some neighbors for some jars». What does that mean? That means that the widow had to admit her need. And most of us, including me and many of you, we don’t want to do that. We don’t want to ask for help. We don’t want to receive help. We don’t want to admit that we need help. Why? Pride doesn’t borrow jars.
And some of you right now, like you’re literally, I mean, I got people round me, they’re praying for a miracle, but they’re too proud to ask for help. And sometimes your miracle starts with admitting your need. «God, I need help». Elisha says, «Ask your neighbors for jars». And then verse 3, the text says this. He said, «Borrow as many as you can get». «Go borrow 100, 500. Go borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and your neighbors. Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you». I like this. I don’t know why, but it’s almost as if God’s saying, «Hey, I’m gonna do a miracle behind closed doors 'cause this isn’t for anybody else to see. This one’s just for you».
I love it when every now and then, God says, «Hey, I don’t need anyone else to know about this. I’m just gonna do it just for you». Go and close the doors behind you, and pour olive oil, that little bit that you have, that little bit, pour that little bit that you have from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it’s filled». So she did what she was told. Her sons kept bringing the jars to her as she filled them one after another. So she fills up one with this little, and then another one and then another one. Can you imagine going like, «What? How long is this gonna happen»? Another one, and they continue to pour. It continues to fill.
«Bring another jar,» she said to her sons. And then the boys said, «There aren’t any more». And the olive oil stopped flowing. When she told the man of God, Elisha, what had happened, he said to her, «Now, sell the olive oil, and pay your debts. God has met your needs, so you and your sons can live on what is left over». Because with God, not enough is more than enough. As long as there were empty jars, the oil kept flowing. And notice, what kind of jar did God ask for? He could use any size, any shape. «Bring me a milk jug. Bring me an empty peanut butter can. Bring me your saucer jar, whatever it is».
The only requirement was the jar had to be empty. The jar had to be empty. Someone today, you might need to admit your need. You need the presence and the power of God. Like you need the presence and power of God. You may need God’s people to come in and help you as well. You need to admit that you need the presence and the power of God. Not tomorrow, not someday, not when life calms down, but now! And maybe, like me, you’ve been full of yourself, like me, your desires, your pursuit of comfort, what you want more than what God wants. Maybe you’ve been full of pride, like me, or full of the desire to control things. And the only way God can fill you is if you empty yourself.
Somebody here needs to empty yourself of the shame that you’ve been carrying. Someone needs to empty themselves of the need to look strong and to impress people when the truth of the matter is you’re hurting and you need them. Someone here needs to clean out the anger that is poisoning you. And if you get mad at me for saying that, God’s probably talking to you. You need to clear out the fear that’s paralyzed you. You need to clean out the comparisons, «I suck. I suck. My life suck. My life suck.» that’s robbing you of joy.
You need to clean out the devil’s lies that are poisoning your mind and telling you what you’re not and what you can’t do, and that God’s not with you, and that you’ll never make a difference in this world. «Renew your mind with the power of God’s Word. Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,» and cry out to God and draw near to God because when you draw near to God, God will draw near to you. So you empty your life of what doesn’t matter, and you watch God fill your life with what does. And when you empty your life of sin and self, he’ll fill you with his Spirit and he’ll fill you with purpose, and he’ll fill you with power, the same power that raised Jesus from the grave.
The Holy Spirit dwells within you. And when you get to the end of your strength, his strength is present. Not enough is where he starts. And when you don’t have enough, God is more than enough. Question just for fun. Who was a part of the widow’s miracle? Let’s play a little game. You can type online if you want to. Who was a part? Let’s start with the obvious. What prophet was a part? Elisha was a part, right? Who else was a part? God was a part. Who else was a part? The widow was a part. Who else was a part? The two sons was a part. Who else was a part? The neighbors. Maybe the Community of Prophets. We don’t know. Maybe it was her life group. «Oh, you’re in need? Oh sure, we got jars. You want jars? We got jars. We’ll empty our jars for you because we love you».
God did a miracle through his power, through his prophet, and through his provision, through the people that loved her, through the people that loved her. Many of God’s powerful provisional miracles he does through people. And that’s why, I’ve said it week after week, if you don’t have people that are doing life with you, Christian community, you’re missing out on what it means. We don’t just go to church. We are the church. We’re the family of God. And in a very divided time, we stand together. Jesus said, «May you be one. How beautiful is it when brothers walk together in unity. Do not sow discord, but love one another. Greater love has no one that he laid down his life for his friends».
I got some people with their arms crossed right now like you’re mad at me, like literally like I got people around. I’m like, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Fruits of the Spirit, not fruits of the enemy, Fruits of the spirit. And this was my story, is early church, Amy’s like, «Pray for Craig. He’s in trouble». I literally thought it was gonna kill me. Too much. And we were in the little bike factory. I think that Jerry would’ve been there. He wasn’t on staff yet. Sam was there. Wasn’t on staff yet. We had one service, maybe 180 people in the room, and they were kind of like a crowd but not really a church yet. They were just new people. Pat and Jim, you were there. And I started crying. I just started crying.
So embarrassing. It wasn’t even like preacher cry. It was like ugly cry, like, «Whoa, I didn’t mean to go there». And so I’m sobbing, and I just said like, «I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble. I can’t do it all. I don’t have enough. There’s literally too much. I don’t have enough. It’s too much. And I can’t go on». And two guys, one of 'em I knew, one of 'em I didn’t know, came up to me, and they put their hands around me. And the next thing you know, like they’re all around me, and the whole little church is standing up, and they’re praying, and that was powerful, but what happened next was even more powerful, is they prayed, but they also said, «Oh, we’ll help».
Like literally. «We’ll be your prayer team. We didn’t know you need a prayer. And we’ll serve. We didn’t know you were didn’t on. You know, you needed somebody to help clean the toys? We didn’t know you were cleaning the… We didn’t know you were mowing the yard. We’ll help. We’ll do this». And basically what happened is that was the day the little crowd became a church. I remember it. You brought your empty jars, and God filled them. And so the question I want to ask you, and, again, we’re gonna ask this in our live groups. The question I’m gonna ask you is this. What in your life do you need to empty so God has room to fill it?
I want you to think about it. Let’s just pause for just a moment. And I want to ask you. What in your life? What in your life do you need to empty so God can fill it? What do you need to release to him so he can release his power to you? What do you need to pour out so he can pour in? Maybe you need to empty your pride and your self-reliance so God can give you his strength. Someone here, you need to empty the fear, «for God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound mind,» so God can fill you with faith.
Someone here, you need to empty your desire to control, so God can fill you with trust. There are many people here. Listen to me. Shut off social media. Empty the noise of the world so you can hear the quiet voice of the Spirit that says, «I am with you, and I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you,» because if you feel like the widow, overwhelmed with what you see, and your heart is heavy with what’s in the news or what’s in your home, and you’re hurting, and you’re empty and you’re poured out.
You think, «I have nothing left to give». That is exactly where God does his best work because not enough is where God starts. So we serve a God who takes empty jars or empty vessels because Paul said that we are jars of clay. We empty ourselves. We serve a God who takes empty lives and listen, he restores them to better than new. We serve a God that takes empty hearts and fills them with joy and purpose and meaning because you may not have enough, but I promise you, we have a good God. We have a good God. We have a good God who is on the throne. He’s big enough to rule the nations, and he’s loving enough to care about you. And we serve a God, church, who is always more than enough.
So, Father, we ask that you would show up and do what only you can do in the lives of those who are hurting, broken, and afraid today. Holy Spirit, have your way. As we empty our hearts, fill us with all your good things.
All of our churches, those of you online, if you find yourself in some area of your life where you don’t have enough, not enough faith, not enough resource, your marriage is struggling, your kids are running, you’re afraid, you’re anxious, you’re overwhelmed, you’re stressed, you got a medical need, you gotta a financial need, you find yourself in some area that you’re lacking, would you lift up your hands right now? Admit your need. Admit your need. «God, I need your power. I need your presence».
Online, you can type in the comments section. I need provision from God. As your hands are up, just in a moment of surrender, just pray your own version of this. Just, I’m gonna give you a moment just to pray your own version. Just ask God to empty you. «You gotta empty me of whatever it is, of my fear, of my need to control, of my pride, my anger, my doubts, my insecurities». Just tell him, «Empty me of this». And then ask Him to fill you with His presence. Ask Him to fill you with His power. Ask Him to fill you with His provision. As you’re praying, just in your your own conversation with God, just keep praying, and I want to tell you that His grace is enough. His grace is enough. Not enough is where God starts. His grace is sufficient for you. And when you are weak, his strength is made perfect.
Holy Spirit, meet needs today. Heal hearts today. Bring your peace today. Be our provider today that we take what little that we have, we offer it to you, and we trust you, God, to give us what we need. You’re a good God. We surrender. We empty ourselves.
As you keep praying today, around the room, I’ve been talking to a lot of people lately that are asking questions like, «What if? „What if these are the end times“? And it got me thinking. and I just want you to think for a minute, nobody looking around, I want you to think about it. Like, what if next week, life is uncertain? What if your life ended? What if Jesus came back? I’m just gonna ask you like how you feel about it. Do you feel ready? I’ve been looking at my life. I’ve been asking really hard questions. And bottom line is I often think like, „Well, maybe I haven’t done enough, and I’m not enough“. If you find yourself there honestly, let me just shoot real straight with you. You’re not enough.
Some people say, „Pastor Craig, you’re not bold“. Let me just be real bold. You’re a pathetic sinner. How’s that? So am I. We all are. Listen, we’ve all sinned against God. Every single one of us, we’ve sinned against a holy God, and we feel guilty for that. So we want to work our way to please him, but you’ll never ever be enough. Why? Because his grace is enough. His grace is sufficient. His grace is enough. Scripture says that it’s by His grace that we’re saved through faith. How much faith? Just enough faith. Just faith. Faith in Jesus that His work was perfect. Who is Jesus? He is the Son of God who became flesh. „The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth“.
The one who came for those who were lost and hurting and broken. Jesus, the lamb of God who was slain for the sins of this world. Jesus, the name that is above every name. Jesus, He gave His life on a cross. He died. He took our sin. He took our shame. He was buried with it. And God raised Him from the dead so that anyone who calls on His name would be saved and transformed and forgiven. So if you feel like you’re not enough, let me just tell you you’re not. And neither am I. And you never will be. And that’s why today we step out of ourselves. And with faith, we believe that Jesus is more than enough.
All of our churches, if you’re doubting, if you’re unsure, if next week was your last week, and you don’t know where you’d go, and you think maybe I haven’t done enough, it’s because you can’t be saved by your enough. It’s only His grace. All of our churches, if you’re feeling drawn today, that’s the Spirit of God. You’re not here by accident. He is loving you, and He’s drawing you. It’s His loving kindness. Come to Him today. Come to Him today. Empty yourself of sin. Empty yourself of pride. Empty yourself of doubt. Empty yourself of fear, and say, „Jesus, I trust you. Be enough. Save me. Be the Lord of my life“.
If that’s you today, you don’t know where you stand with God. Today, you’re emptying yourself of self, and you’re trusting Jesus to save you. That’s your prayer. Lift your hands high right now all over the place and say, „Yes“. That’s me up there. God bless you. And right there. Both of you. And over there, praise God for you. Others today say, „Yes, Jesus. You’re enough. You’re enough. I trust you, Jesus“. Lift your hands and say, „I surrender to you“. Online, you can type in the comments sections. „I’m trusting Jesus to save me and be enough“. And now church, unified around the truth of the risen Christ, would you pray? Pray aloud. Everyone pray. Nobody prays alone. Pray:
Heavenly Father. Save me from my sins. May your grace be enough. I trust you to forgive me. To make me new. Fill me with your spirit. So I could know you. And serve you. For the rest of my life. My life is not my own. I surrender it to you. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray.