Steven Furtick - God, You Are Enough (So I Am Enough)
This is an excerpt from: Enough Until It Comes
Some of the problems that show up in your life aren't just problems. They are prophecies in disguise designed to show you what you have that you don't… Now, I remember Holly preaching on Running on Empty last Mother's Day. It was so good. She preached about this widow in 2 Kings 4. The woman was in the same situation. She was desperate. She didn't have it. She was in a bad situation. The creditor was coming to take her kids. The prophet asked her what she had in her house, and she said, "There's nothing there except for a little oil". He told her to go get some jars, and it said the jars were filled. I mean, so many jars were filled that they ran out of jars before they ran out of oil. But let me show you something specific about this miracle. Ooh, when the Lord showed me this I had to stop and write it down because I didn't want to forget it. It was in verse 14.
When Elijah gives the prophecy… I believe I'm prophesying to some moms, some dads, some teenagers. I believe I'm prophesying to some single people, some married people. In other words, if this is your word and you need a word from the Lord today, I believe God has authorized to tell you this from verse 14 from his Word. This is a word for you. Say it, "This is a word for me". "For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain on the land.'" There is a prophet who is waiting for God to give him a word he can speak that will open the heavens and bring the rain, bring the repentance of a nation, bring the destruction of the false prophets of Baal and deliver the people to the freedom of worshiping Yahweh.
There's a prophet waiting for the rain. There's a woman waiting for the rain. While they are both waiting, God sends a word, and this word is for your situation, for your children, and for your family. The jar and the jug. He said there was going to be enough. "There is going to be enough in the jar and enough in the jug". "Wait a minute, Elijah. Don't you mean jars and jugs… plural"? "Nope. I said what God told me to say. There is going to be enough in the jar and the jug. One jar. One jug. It's not going to be 10 jars and 10 jugs. It's not going to be 100 jars and 100 jugs". He says, "As a matter of fact, it's not even going to look like it's any more than it was before you brought it to God, but it won't run out". I'm praising him for all the times in my life where it seemed like it wasn't enough but he said, "My grace is sufficient. My strength is made perfect in your weakness". It was one jar and one jug.
Well, watch God. What was in that jug was enough, and I came to tell somebody you have enough in your jug to do your job. You've got enough in your jug to raise your family. You have enough in your jug to make it through this trying season, this hard place. There's enough in your jug. There's a word in your spirit. There's a breath in your lungs. I feel God on that. There's enough in my jug. There's enough in my jug. I don't have 15 jugs, but I've got enough oil in one jug that if I will use it daily… Drop by drop by drop she ate through the famine, fed the prophet, served God's purpose, and saved her kids, all by understanding that God promised to make it enough until the rain came. God said you needed to be here today because he's going to give you enough until it comes. Enough until it comes.
You may not feel freedom right now, but God is going to give you enough grace to make it until freedom comes. When we fight to be free of things we feel like we're never going to be free, and we think that until we feel free God can't really use us. But God said, "My grace is sufficient for you, and my strength is made perfect in your weakness, so I see what you still struggle with". But greater is he… Do you want this word or not? He said it will be enough until the rain comes. He does not tell her it's going to rain in a year, because he doesn't know either, but they are both in the same place. The prophet and the mom, looking at the same problem, trusting in the same God, believing in the same word. It was the word at the brook. It was the word in Zarephath. It was the word when you were 12. It is the word when you are 72. It will be the word that sustains you, and it will be enough.
So while you wait for the rain, rejoice in the space between, because God said, "I'm going to give you meantime miracles while you're waiting for the change, while you're waiting for the maturity, while you're waiting for it to take root". The Bible says train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they won't depart from it. So how do I have enough patience to keep from killing them until they can get old enough to do what I taught them? God said, "My grace is sufficient, and if you will lean on me and learn from me and listen to me it will be enough until it comes". All your life God has been leading you from brooks to Sidons to Carmels, from brooks to Sidons to Carmels, and every space in between he has been good, and he has been God.
So, as simple as it sounds, whatever you have like the woman that isn't even enough to feed an extra guest… Whatever strength you have, whatever skill you have… Just so I can know, because I need to know, because I need to adjust my approach if I miss this bad. Are there any moms in here who have been feeling in the last little bit, in the last season (I don't mean 30 years ago) that you are not enough for the job? Just feeling like that. There are literally eight people here who have felt like they're not enough.
So let me tell y'all what you need to know, for the eight of y'all who feel that way. There is enough in your jar and your jug for you to do your job. But, there's not enough for you to do God's job. He's the one who has to make it happen. He's the one who has to make it work. He's the one who has to prove himself able…not you. You're a steward. That means you get to give it back. I love being a pastor, because I know it's God's church. I tell the Lord, "Here it is back. It's COVID Lord; here it is back". What do we do now? I don't know what the future is 10 years from now, and neither do you, but God said, "Until I show you what's next, what you know will be enough until I come. If you go worrying about tomorrow…"
God cannot defend you from a battle he did not call you to fight. If you keep waiting for 50 more jars, if you keep waiting until the fact… Because I'll tell you what's going to happen. You're going to think, "When I have this much money… When my kids get this old… When I get this opportunity…" It still will never be enough until you really, truly believe that he is enough. I want us to sing the words. We sang them earlier many times, but I want to sing them over every prophet who God is giving a word to and every mom who God is giving a miracle to, and I want us to sing it over every problem you need to bring to God today. Did you notice what the prophet said? He said, "Bring me some of what you have," when she did that it was always enough.
As we wait in these spaces for answered prayers, as we wait in these spaces for test results, as we wait in these spaces for situational resolve we have to know that his word is enough until it comes. God, just like Abraham finally got to the place and you had a ram in the bush and he called that place Jehovah-jireh, we chose and decide in our hearts today to call you Jehovah, and we call this place jireh, that the Lord will provide. I want to pray for somebody who has been tormented by what they don't have. They've been threatened by what they don't have. They've been restless, withdrawn, and depressed because they don't have it. I mean, if it's a mom, if it's a dad, if it's somebody who doesn't have kids…
You see every need, God; I don't. But whatever they thought they were not when they came in here today is just a space for you to show off who you are. We talk tough, and we say these things, God, but we need to live like that: to bring you the little that we have and watch it become more than enough in the hands of Jehovah-jireh. Just like you did when I started, I want you to cup your hands toward heaven, like if you had a father who knew how to feed you, like if he would send birds to drop food for you, like if he would send Elijah to your doorstep as you were gathering sticks to feed your family.
I want you to take a moment and silence all of those voices that have been telling you, "Look at you. You're not smart enough to raise that daughter; you can't even help her with her math homework. Look at you. You're not tough enough to raise that boy; you don't even have a man around the house". For everything you're not you are a candidate for revelation of who God is. After all, when God gave his name to Moses he chose to self-identify as "I AM".
That leaves all the space in the world for any need you will ever have, and I believe God is calling some people away from dry places of self-dependence. I believe God is calling into their next assignment today. Your jar, your jug… It's more than enough. If your jar needed to be bigger, or if your jug needed to be wider he would have bigger or wider, but he put you there. You are the one he chose. It's going to be all right. God's got tomorrow, and it's going to be all right. God's got your babies, and it's going to be all right, for the jar of flour will not run dry, and neither will the jug of oil until the day the Lord sends rain. I know you're waiting on rain, you're waiting on some things, but God said it's going to be enough until it comes. He's going to send you everything you need, but until it comes God is no less enough.