 when your brook runs dry. When your brook runs dry. We wanna deal today with the topic of financial uncertainty, financial challenges, and bring hope, encouragement, as well as biblical understanding on God wanting to provide for us in every season of our life, especially in seasons that are difficult and in seasons that are hard. If you have your Bible, let's go together with me to 1 Kings, chapter 17 and verse four. 1 Kings, chapter 17 and verse four. And it shall be that you shall drink from the brook that I have commanded the ravens and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. And he went and did according to the word of the Lord, verse five, and he went and stayed by the brook, Shereeth, which flows into Jordan, verse six. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening. And he drunk from the brook. And it happened after a while, somebody say a while, that the brook dried up. And there was, there had been no, because there had been no rain in the land. And the word of the Lord came to him, saying arise and go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. I'm going to go straight in. Where God guides, he provides. Write this down if you are notakers. Where God guides, he provides. The principle of God's provision is this. God will always provide for those people who follow his prescription. When God prescribes something, and we follow that prescription, there is a provision that's attached to it. Elijah was a prophet of God. And Elijah comes to the king and says, there will be no rain on this earth, because you guys are sinful. Now you must understand, there was a significance in that. Ball, bale, the God that Israel decided to worship was the God of rain. So what Elijah does is he pretty much says, God is going to embarrass, and he's going to humiliate the God, the you Israelites worship the God of rain by causing no rain to come on the earth. It's like two gods went to war. The only problem is that now everybody is going to have famine. So God is protecting his servant Elijah and tells him, I want you to go to the brook, and he says this, I have commanded Uravins. Like I don't know how God speaks to Uravins. Like I know how I speak to my dog. I commend him things. He listens half of the time. But I don't know how God got Uravins to obey him. But they did, because God commands Uravins to feed the prophet. But see, God wasn't feeding just anybody, providing for anybody. He was providing for someone he was leading. What I want to encourage you with today is in this difficult and challenging season, focus more on God's guidance in your life than on God's provision. Because when you follow God's guidance, you will always be in God's provision. When you follow God's leading, when you follow God's prescription, you will always find yourself in God's provision. God provides for those he guides, for those that he leads. You know, when I look in the scriptures, I see the Bible compares us to sheep. And when I was younger, I thought that was a compliment. Until you study sheep, and you realize sheep are actually very dumb. Sheep get lost easily. They don't have a sense of navigation. Sheep can settle for muddy, unclean waters, unless a shepherd guides them away from it. When a sheep gets lost, it has no sense of navigation. It doesn't get back unless a shepherd finds it. Sheep also cannot bear burdens. Sheep is not a horse. You can't use your sheep and put a trailer, attach a trailer to the sheep. It just doesn't work because sheep are not meant for that. And there's just one thing, the biggest thing about sheep, and that I found, and that is this. Sheep cannot survive without a shepherd. Now, the Bible calls you and I a sheep. Now, a shepherd finds pasture for the sheep, and the only thing the sheep has to do is follow the leadership and the guidance of a shepherd. And when the sheep does that, the sheep will find itself at green pastures, still clean, pure waters, will find protection provided by the shepherd, and then this sheep will be successful. When it comes to our finances, we must understand, we don't need to be a shepherd if we have one. You don't have to have all your life figured out. You don't even have to have a five-year plan. You don't have to have all of your dots in the row. Why? Because you're a sheep. You're not supposed to. Everything about Christian faith is that we have a provider. We don't have to be one. Some of you say, are you saying we should be irresponsible? Absolutely not. What I'm saying, we shouldn't be anxious, stressed out, afraid or worried. That's why Jesus keeps telling his followers, do not worry. Do not worry, but instead seek first the kingdom of God, meaning make sure you follow your shepherd, because we're shepherd guides he provides. Shepherd will provide for those he prescribes, those he guides in his ways. He did it for Elijah. Shepherds do it for sheep, and the Lord will do it for us. I want you to live without, most of us, it's not our financial problems that hurt us. It's our financial worries that hurt us. It's financial fears that bring anxiety, how I'm going to provide, where I'm going to find clients. The business is the business going to thrive tomorrow. All these unnecessary worries would be necessary if you would be a sheep without a shepherd, but you do have a shepherd, and your shepherd doesn't sleep and doesn't slumber. Let him worry for you. Those of you in the second sanctuary, I hope you were clapping a little bit louder, because here we are slowly getting the jests of this. You know, I'm not sure about sheep and shepherd, because I don't have them. I have a dog. I look at this dog, and I'm thinking, you know, I was dealing last few days with some stuff online, some people came against me, posted stuff, and so I'm dealing with, I'm looking at this dog, and I'm like, man, what a life he has. He has an Instagram account. He doesn't even care who likes him or doesn't. He doesn't wake up in the morning thinking, man, is there going to be food for me? The bin that has dog food is empty. Will somebody go and refill it? He doesn't even care about none of this stuff. Now, he doesn't have to look for food. He doesn't have to do anything for that. Now, he is an example of lazy life, but the opposite of that is a wolf. Wolf has to provide for himself. A wolf has to kill. A wolf has to constantly provide and care for himself. A dog has an owner, and therefore the dog has to, as long as he stays close to the owner, the owner will care for himself and for the dog. I want to tell you something that as Christians, we got domesticated by our God. We got adopted into his family, in other words. We got brought near. God makes us his children and calls himself our father in heaven. One of his roles as a father is to think about your well-being, is to think about providing for you. I want to encourage you today to be concerned for your finances, but not to be anxious for your finances. To be planning your future, but not to be anxious about your future. Not to be afraid about your future because you do have a shepherd. You might not have a husband, but you have a shepherd. You may be a single mom, but you are not alone because you have a shepherd, and your shepherd is a good shepherd who provides for his sheep. He guides us in green pastures. You might be an immigrant in this country, but you are not alone because you have a shepherd. You might not have connections. You might be doing a business that nobody's giving you an upper hand and helping you, but you are not alone because you have a shepherd. When you are led, you will be provided. And somebody say amen. God would not guide you to a place where he can't provide for you. He will not guide you to a place he cannot provide for you. If you have children today and you're saying, I'm not going to make it. There's a lot of mouths to feed. God wouldn't bring you to that place if he had no means of providing for you. You may say, well, God didn't give me those children. Yes, he did. Well, we just made them. Yes, sort of. But it was his will that those children are on this earth and he's going to give you the means and the grace to provide for them. When my grandma had 16 children and people in the village said, these kids are going to die. You're not going to have enough. And this was during former Soviet Union under the utopia of socialism where everybody was supposed to be provided. But everybody was starving. But God provided for my mom. God provided for my uncles and my aunts and 16 of them. Not only they didn't die out of starvation, but they thrived. God took care of that family and God will take care of yours. In this season, God will take care of your family. God will take care of you young student as you go into college. God will take care of you even as you're going through that dialysis maybe or going through that medical difficult situation because you have a provider. Somebody shout provider. And those of you who are husbands and maybe you're saying, I'm the provider. Husbands shift that focus on God. To your family tell them, I am the provider. But when you get into your secret prayer room, say Lord, we know that's not true. You're the provider. Maybe you have a business and you say my business is the provider. Do not make your business into a provider. Make sure that you have a provider and he's bigger than your business. Make sure that who provides for you rules the planets, rules the universe. Make sure he is the one that owns cattle on the Talos and Hills. He is the one that gives power to get wealth. He is the one that finds pleasure in the prosperity of his service. He is El Shaddai. He is Jehovah Javra. He is God who is more than enough. And he happens to be my heavenly Father. If I treat my dog with providing for that God to God, I am his child. His son died on the cross from me. His spirit indwells in me. The Bible says his angels in camp around those who fear God. Which means I am not careless. I am not lazy but I am also not stressed out. I don't know what the future holds. I just know someone who holds it. His name is God. Amen. The first principle of God's provision where God leads he provides. The second thing, where God guides he hides. I want you to notice in chapter 17 God said in verse 3 Get away from here and turn eastward and hide by the brook of Cherith. Elijah wasn't just provided by God. He was also protected by God. Second principle of God's provision is that God's provision involves God's protection. God's protection is part of God's provision. God's provision is not limited to what God brings to you. It includes also what God keeps from you without you realizing it. There are many things God kept us from without us even realizing it. And that is part of God's provision. Elijah's provision by God did not involve cars and houses. But it did involve him not being killed. Jezebel had a hit on Elijah. She had resources to take his head off. Ahab wanted to take Elijah out. And the Bible says not only God led Elijah where he fed him but God led Elijah where he protected him. Learn to appreciate God's protection. In seasons where sometimes we complain about God not giving us abundance when in reality the fact that you didn't end up in emergency every single weekend is God's protection. The fact that there has not been accidents is God's protection. Maybe you haven't got promotions but God kept you from accidents. Maybe you have not had bonuses but God protected you from injuries. Maybe you have not had a lot of blessings but God kept the weapons from prospering who wanted to destroy you. There has been plots of the enemy against you that God held back. When the enemy came like the flood the spirit raised a standard against it. There has been principalities that were planning to wipe you out but God didn't let them. God protected you. God sent his angels to guard you. God's blessing is not always in stuff we get. It's in stuff we don't get. It's in things God protects us from. When God gives you a same mind it's God's protection. When God gives you a sleep at night some of you, some of us don't realize how precious sleep is at night and when you have it and some of you have abundance of it to the point you're becoming slugger. But be appreciative of the things that God protects you from as much as you are thankful for the things God provides you for. Are you with me? The Bible speaks a lot about that. Maybe you went through the fire and it didn't burn you. Maybe you went through the flood and you didn't drown. You went through the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his army didn't make it. You did. The fire got kindled seven times more and maybe you went through it through a divorce and through a bankruptcy or you went through a very difficult season where other people they lose their sanity but you're still here. You're still praising and people talking to you will never realize what you've been through. And you may say, man I've got through this. No, no, no my friend. It has been the protection of God because others didn't make it. You went through the valley but the valley didn't keep you there. You got through it and you came on the other side. Some of you the stuff you've done you should have lost your marriage had it not been for the mercy of God. Some of us the drugs we took we should have been buried long time ago had it not been for the mercy of God. Some of us have been at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people but had it not been for the mercy of God we would not been here. And maybe we don't have a nice car and a nice house but God has been good to us and it's the stuff God protected me from that I am grateful. It's why I lift my hands. It's why I sing praises to him. Not for the stuff he gives me. It's the stuff he takes away. It's the stuff he protects me from without even letting me know. That is what I praise him for as well. That is what I thank him for as well. When the doctors said I was supposed to be born handicap. When I was not supposed to be that person. When I was on the edge of committing suicide and not wanting to live as a teenager. Addicted to pornography and all of that. And no God didn't give me stuff but the things he protected me from. Delivered me from evil. Pulled me out of the Maori clay. Those things. The day I stand on the solid rock praising his name. Witnessing to his glory. And my friends I want to tell you something. Your God is not only good when he blesses you. It's when he protects you he's also good. Elijah go and hide. Where God provides God hides. Your ex says you won't make it but you are still here. Maybe your parents have told you you will be a failure but you are still here. Because there is a God in heaven and he has the best security. Not the White House, not our president. God's angels are the best security. And they encamp around those who fear him. Be appreciative of God's protection. Don't just count the blessings you see. Count the burdens God kept away from you. Count the problems God protected you from. And it's not because you're lucky. It's not because you are better than other people. It's that at the end of the day you have to say. The Lord is good. And His mercy endures forever. Amen. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18 10. The angel of the Lord encamps around all those who fear him and delivers them. Psalms 34 7. But the Lord is faithful who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3 3. Keep me as an apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings. Psalm 17 8. 1 Chronicles 4 10. And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, Oh that you would bless me indeed. Enlarge my territory and that your hand will be with me. That you would keep me from evil. That I may not cause pain. So God granted him what he requested. Matthew 6 13. And do not lead us into temptation. But deliver us from the evil one. Be grateful not only for what God brings to you, but what God keeps from you. We have to be mindful more about God's protection. And some of us don't realize how much the protection is. Till medical bills come. Till accidents come. Until injuries come. Until unfortunate things begin to come. And the things we took for granted and we still complained about. And then sometimes we're like, Man I wish I could go back and just repent for that complaining attitude. And be grateful for what I had. Because it was precious. I just didn't realize it until I lost it. Number three. When God provides. It may not always be in surplus. But it's always insufficiency. The principle is this. Even if God doesn't give you what you want. He will always provide what you need. We must not limit God's provision to meeting our grids. God's provision sometimes for a season is merely meeting our needs. I want you to notice that Elijah walked with God so close. He walked with God so near. He was the man who talked with God very close. But God did not shower him with abundance. He gave him just enough for each day. Now from a financial standpoint of view, it's completely irresponsible. God didn't give him meat for three days. He only gave him for one day. And God didn't bring him to a river called Columbia. He brought him to a brook. Brooks are unreliable. They run out of water fast, especially during famine. Ravens are also very unreliable. They don't bring food to people. Typically you go in the park and you feed birds. Birds don't feed you. So everything Elijah had was unreliable, unpredictable, and it was not permanent. And in the middle of that, God was providing. Sometimes we look at people who go through a season where they cannot save $100 a month. And we say, how could God be providing? You don't have enough. You're living from hand to mouth. There are seasons where God's best provision is living from hand to mouth. Having something to eat from hand to mouth. And those seasons should not be complained about. Those seasons should be received with gratefulness to God without feeling satisfied. Without feeling like you are settling. But to say, God, thank you that I ate in the morning and I ate at night. Not three meals, two meals. That was God's provision. When I look at that, I say, Lord, but that's not prosperity. Lord, but that's not a lot. But it was enough. It was necessities, not abundance. It was just enough, no leftover. It was daily. It was not something you can put into your savings account. You know, I remember in the beginning stages when me and my wife just got married and she was going to school and working part-time and going to school part-time as well. And we were barely making ends meet. And I had a little real estate property that was giving me passive income. And we were barely making ends meet. We had to go on a date with an envelope. We applied the Dave Ramsey principles. And we would have $20 on our date and split one meal. And you know, I felt a little bit dissatisfied. I felt like, man, I'm serving God. Why is he not blessing me? And sometimes when you focus so much on your dreams that you actually forget that it's God who supplies for your needs. And you become ungrateful for the fact that you have food, that you have clothes, that you have a house to live in or a place to live in. And just because you don't have anything extra at this season, it does not mean you will live like this all your life. And it does not mean God forgot you or God isn't blessing you. Not every season of our life, God's blessing brings surplus. There are season, God's blessings just brings sufficiency. 40 years, Israel ate on sufficiency. Just enough for today. Almighty God could have given them so much that they stored in their fridges. Yet God chose to take them through 40 years of giving them just enough for one day. Some of you who may be like, man, but I don't have enough for the future. I only have right now just enough for today. Financial advisors will look at you and say, you are irresponsible with your finances. My friends, in the Bible we're seeing some seasons in our life, we have to take one day at a time, one month at a time, one year at a time, and see God's blessing in just meeting our needs, any less as if that blessing would come with abundance, overflow or surplus. Amen. Trust God every day and stop seeing God's provision as struggle is real. Because that's what we'll end up with especially when we barely make ends meet. This is how we define it. Struggle is real, brother. Meaning, man, just grinding, man. No, change the attitude. God's been good. He meets my needs according to his riches and glory. My family is fed. Our roof doesn't leak. And if it does, we'll replace the shingles. We are doing all right. Do we have overflow? At this season, no. But at this season, we are seeing God's hand. In meeting our needs. Don't covet what somebody else has. Don't compare your provision with somebody's prosperity. And this is why many of us complain about the little that God gives us. It's because your neighbor has moved away from that season. And God seems to give him surplus right now. So you're looking at your sufficiency and you're looking at him. You both serve same God. But there's, you must understand one thing. You have same God, but you have two different seasons. You are two different seasons. Your neighbor is in a different season. And you should not compare your provision with their process. Be grateful for the season that you are in. And that your God is supplying your needs in your season. Can somebody say amen? Don't complain about what you don't have. Thank God for what you do have. Being grateful doesn't mean you are complacent. I battled this with myself. I was afraid to thank God for the little that I have. Because I said, well, that would simply mean I don't want more. Or I don't want, I don't want to be complacent. I don't want to feel like my wife is, you know, or my children, or my family sees it that I don't want to grow and move forward and expand and be like Jabez enlarge my territory. Being grateful does not mean you're complacent. Being grateful means you acknowledge that even in little things there is God's blessing. Being grateful means you're developing an attitude of gratitude. And God will take you from this season to a different season. And you will be, when you will have more, you will even have more gratitude, not more greed. If we go through the little, if we go through the necessities being met, sufficiency being given, and we don't have gratitude. And we say, yeah, once I reach my dreams, I build a house that I finally want, have a car that I finally want, only then I will be grateful. You won't be grateful then, because your goalpost will move higher. The moment you reach that season, you will begin to see somebody who has something better and you will keep moving your goalpost until you are dead. And you realize you were never grateful. You always chased your tail. You always chased the wind. I want to challenge you today, develop an attitude of gratefulness if you have just enough. If you can't save a dollar a month, but your needs are met, be grateful. Give God thanksgiving for the little. You will be surprised how fast God will begin to take you out of the season of just enough, to a season of a little bit more than enough. Amen. There's a quote I've read. Jeffrey Albert said this, prosperity depends more on wanting what you have than having what you want. That hit me. Prosperity depends more on wanting what you want. What you have instead of having what you want. So many times we have a beautiful family. We have health. We have work. We have a local church. We have so many good things, but we don't want those things. We keep chasing something else. I'm not saying that we should not be industrious and pursue more. I'm not saying that the Bible does encourage us to be diligent. What I'm saying is the covetousness is always wanting what somebody else has. Envy, all of these ingratitude feelings, they will foster internal unhappiness and they do attract more poverty than prosperity. Love what God has given you. Appreciate it. Thank God for it. And you will see God will make it grow. Number four, when God provides, it's both natural and supernatural. The principle is this. God does not replace the natural with the supernatural. He adds the supernatural to our natural. The brook was natural. Ravens, not natural. How so? Ravens, they said. Ravens don't even feed their own children. Ravens are scavengers. Ravens are not the birds you want bringing food to you because they don't bring food to people. They just eat. They steal food from other people. Ravens are known to even pluck the dead people's eyes. In the Bible, this speaks of that. Ravens, Noah sent them out and they didn't return. Totally unreliable, totally unresponsible. So there's a supernatural part where God takes Ravens and makes them into his provision method for Elijah, supernatural. But I want you to notice this. When and where did the Ravens appear? At the brook. What that means, those of you in the Second Sanctuary, listen very carefully. God's supernatural will always meet you at the point of your natural. God adds Ravens to the brooks. You don't meet the Ravens until you find your brook. Sometimes what we want is we want God to add super, but we don't want to provide the natural. We don't want to provide good work ethic. We don't want to provide a business idea. We don't want to provide a good, diligent lifestyle. And we say, Lord, bring the miracle money. God, give me a lot of money in my bank account while I play video games. God doesn't bring Ravens if you don't have a brook. That means God wants to partner with you. God doesn't want to replace you. He didn't create you as his image barriers for you to constantly like my dog. Do nothing but bark and just wait for the owner to provide for everything. You are made in the image and likeness of God. God wants you to create. God wants you to innovate. God wants you to plan. God wants you to take your steps. And God says, as you're moving, I will direct your steps. God is not going to move a parked car. He doesn't add super if we don't add natural. His supernatural doesn't replace our natural. It adds to it, which means God is waiting on us. It's both. God wants to supernaturally do things in our life. Your finances, I want to encourage you every person here, not only to work hard, but to believe hard. Work hard will get you a blessing. Miracles come not just by working hard. I know a lot of people who work hard. People who experience miracles in their finances, they don't just work hard. They believe hard. Meaning they do their best and they say, God, I know it's not enough. Could you step in? Lord, I'm working hard. Lord, I'm putting in hours. Lord, I have this education. I have these connections, but God, it's not enough. Lord, when I come to the end of me, could you take on and pick up the tab? Believe for God's supernatural intervention in your finances. Believe that God wants to do something in your finances. You can't explain. Bookkeeper cannot explain. Accountant cannot explain. You're looking like, man, this is God's miracle. I'm not saying because you did something shady, but because God did something incredible. That God brought something that is unexplainable. That God did something that is just, you experienced it, you can't explain it. This doesn't add up. We gave 10% to the local church. We should not be able to survive on 90%, except you get back to the end of the month. You're like, man, not only we have our needs met, but it just seems like there is still enough, even for other things. I can't explain that that is God's math. It involves miracles. When God comes and gets involved in your finances, you have to account for miracles. When God gets involved in your life, you have to give room for the supernatural. Not everything will be explained. Not everything will depend on your school. Not everything will depend on your connections. And not everything will depend on your good ethic. It will depend on his power. Give room to God. Invite him in your business. Invite him in your finances. Invite him to the mountain of debt that you have. Invite him into the medical bills that you have. Invite God because when he comes, he naturally does supernatural. Naturally, he does supernatural. If you walk naturally, it doesn't take any supernatural power on your end. For God to bring miracles is exactly the same. He can't move without making miracles. He snaps miracles happen. Jesus spit. My saliva can get me punched. If I release it and send it in your way, I will have a black eye. Jesus sent the saliva and the guy's eye was healed. His feet, if I walk, I drown in the sea. The sea changes. Molecules change. Art atoms change. Everything changes because it's Jesus. Disciples fished all night. They couldn't catch any fish. He says, go back again. Where did fish appear? I don't know. I can't explain it. One thing I know is the nets were ripping. Disciples fished all night and he's just throw the nest to the other side. Well, that's not much difference from here to here, except such a big difference, the nets were ripping. That's my God. You go fishing and you grab a fish and so you eat the fish. Jesus paid taxes through fishing. You can't explain that. Just five loaves and two fish. One boy's lunch, but he fed multitudes. You can't explain that. Why? Because you can't fit a miraculous universe making God into a box where he will not do supernatural. Your God is a miracle maker. He is the wave maker. He walks on water. I want to challenge you today. Work hard, but believe as well. Believe for the documents to come through. Believe for your status to change. Believe for God to pull you out. Work hard, but also say, God, I trust in you. Where my natural ends add the supernatural. This is not being lazy. This is not being irresponsible. It's being a Christian. Some of us live like atheists. Would I believe God can do anything? We only work hard. I want you to believe in God. Invite him into your finances. Your God is now a religious pope. He's a creator. He's not limited to a church. He made galaxies. He created everything we see and we don't see. Your God is not a theologian. He's God, bigger, mightier, made everything. Can you imagine what he can do as your father whom you trust with impossible? His specialty, there are doctors who have specialties. Some who specialize in heart issues. Some who specialize in giving birth. Women helping women to give birth. You know what your God's specialty? Impossible. There's nothing he cannot do. Impossibilities are his specialty. He called dead things sleeping. He says Lazarus is sleeping. His worldview, his perspective is different. He lives in a different realm. And this God wants to partner with you. You have a brook called your job. Could you ask God for ravens? Could you invite God supernaturally? I lived my life with a portion of it, never seeing God's miracles in my finances. I've seen God's blessing, never God's miracles. But about 10 years ago, everything changed. And I would say in the last 10 years, I lived more generous. I was able to give more extravagantly. But the miracles I've seen in my finances, for me literally, it's mind blowing. It has nothing to do with how good I am. It has to do with how good he is. I want to teach you, church, don't lean on your understanding. Lean on your God. Trust in his supernatural provision. Don't be lazy. I'm not saying that we just sit and do nothing. God's ravens meet us at our brooks. Meaning we got to have a brook. We got to work, but we got to trust him. Amen. Number five, where God provides blessings come from most unlikely places. God's provision might not fit your preference. Now ravens are not clean animals. Also ravens, when I was studying this, I said, Lord, why didn't you let doves bring bread and meat? Like imagine doves. I don't have a dove in my Bible. It's fire in the shield. But doves is doves are the symbol of peace. God takes honestly the animals that I'll be like the last one on my list. And God says, I'll use them. I think there's a principle there, and this is the principle. Your company that you're working for doesn't have to have to have a cross in the lobby for God to provide through them for you. Your boss doesn't have to speak in tongues for God to use that company to provide for you. So many Christians are like, I am not going to work. If I want to know what is his doctrinal preferences? The guy's atheist. I'm not working. Why? They do not have a Bible in the lobby. My favorite verse is not in my office. Instead they have a Confucius guy quote in the lobby. I can't work there because I'm going to get defiled. Joseph didn't get defiled working for Pharaoh. Daniel did not get defiled working for Nebuchadnezzar. Esther did not get defiled being married to a heathen king. The Bible calls you light and salt. Light is not afraid of darkness. Salt is not afraid of corruption. It goes into those places. I am not saying we should work for toxic environments, abusive and unethical places. But we as Christians should not, Jesus did not say taken from this world. He says protect them from evil. That means God will use ravens to provide for you. Your boss doesn't have to speak in tongues and read King James Bible to be used of God to provide for you. Work in that place, be diligent in that place. Add value to that place. Even if it's full of ravens. Amen. God used the prostitute to guide the spies in the promised land. We see that God used the daughter of Pharaoh to raise Moses. God used Amalekites to help find David Amalekites. God used the donkey to help speak to a prophet. David found protection in the Philistines land from Saul. Joseph worked for Pharaoh. Moses grew up in a heathen palace. Daniel worked for Nebuchadnezzar. Esther was married to Xerces. That means that God can use a wicked non-Christian place that you can work. We're not talking about a place where blatantly supports things that are just contrary to the scriptures. But we're talking about a place that doesn't necessarily have owners or it's bored or it's values rooted in the scriptures or things that we value as Christians. You can still be a light in that place and God can still use you to bring salt in that place. God can use ravens to feed his prophet. He didn't use a dove, which means that God can use your workplace to bless you. Amen. Number six, when God's provision comes to an end, it's time to pivot. Principle is this. God doesn't stop being a provider even when his provisions stop. Though God's provisions were supernatural and natural, the Bible says that the natural part ran its course and when the brook dried up, we don't see anything about the ravens. I think the ravens stopped coming as well. Good times don't last. You can be in God's will, in the center of God's will, and your brook can dry up. God doesn't promise that the brook won't dry up. God promises he will never stop providing for you in spite of the means he uses for your provision running dry. Dry brook is not a punishment nor is it a cause for some sin that you committed. I love how the Bible says the brook dried up because there was no rain. It does not say because Elijah didn't fast. It doesn't say because Elijah didn't pray hard enough. Sometimes when you have a job or you have a business and you're doing this and just kind of runs its course and it begins to lose water and you're noticing it's not providing anymore. Customers are not coming. Deals are not coming. The company is, two companies, you know, consolidate and your job out of all the jobs become unnecessary and they let you go. And many times we're like, man, what have I done? Did I pay my tithe? Was there some kind of a demon that's attacking me? Is there spirit of mammon? Let me watch PassiveLad's videos to see what kind of a demon is attacking my finances. And then you start looking for some kind of something to blame but sometimes there is no one to blame. The Bible says the rain stopped coming, the brook dried up and God didn't give an explanation why the brook dried up. God gave a redirection of where to find the next provision. When your brook dried up, don't go into excavation trying to find a reason. Look for God's direction and pivot to the next season, God has for you. This is a word for somebody. This was worth getting up. All the fights on the way to church with your children just to hear this. If your brook dried up, it's time to pray and pivot. Don't pray for the brook to be resurrected. Pray and pivot. Pray and say, God, what are you doing next? God, are you going to open another door for me? Are you going to open another business opportunity for me? Are you going to connect me to something new? Pray and pivot. 88% of Fortune 500 firms that existed in 1955 are gone. Blockbuster. In 1985, a year before I was born, started, this company started, and in 2010 it was bankrupt. At its peak, 2004, Blockbuster employed 84,300 employees worldwide and had 9,094 stores. Unable to transition toward digital model, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010. Interestingly that in the year 2000, so the same year we came to the States, Netflix approached Blockbuster with an offer to sell their company to Blockbuster for $50 million. So Netflix commented like, hey, we want to sell our company to you guys for $50 million. Blockbuster CEO was not interested in the offer because he thought it was a very small niche business. And it was losing money, Netflix was losing money at the time. As of July 2017, Netflix had 1.103 million subscribers worldwide and the revenue of $8.8 billion. What happened? Brooke was drying up and Blockbuster, instead of using common sense, kept staying at the dry brook. If we stay at the brooks that dried up, we will die with those brooks. We have to pivot. Sometimes we wait for resurrection in a place as God doesn't promise resurrection, God promises redirection. The same thing that happened with other companies like Polaroid, Toys R Us, Kodak, General Motors, Compact. Now interestingly, companies that pivoted. Samsung, which is a Korean company, started not by selling electronics, but started by selling dried fish and noodles. I'm so glad they pivoted. Nothing wrong with dried fish and noodles. They started selling one thing, realizing it ain't going anywhere. Change the vision, change the direction. Why? Because when the brook dried up, you have to pivot. You can't just wait there. So they went to electronics, and most likely every person here has something in their house. That's from South Korea. Shell company, gas station company, the one that produces, the one that we buy fuel from, started as an antique business that imported goods from around the world. God bless their soul. Antiques are amazing, but after a while they'll notice this is not producing any finances and they change their strategy. Instead of selling antiques, they sell gasoline. It's a billion-dollar company. Mazda started as a company that produced cork, light brown substance obtained from the outer shell of the bark of the cork oak. So they started for selling, you know, those cork things that we put into bottles, so they were selling cork. Until after a while they decided to probably pivot into selling motorcycles and then into cars. And today a lot of us have Mazdas, but they didn't start selling Mazdas. They pivoted when they realized things need to change. Toyota started to manufacture and sell automatic looms, not cars. Automatic looms they were selling. And then after a while they pivoted. American Express started first to focus on express mail, not credit cards. They were just doing like what Post Office is doing, and then they pivoted and they became the company that they were. There is a certain common sense that has to hit all of us as believers. When the brook dries up, it's time to pivot. The Lord came to Elijah and said, Elijah, rise and go to another place. I'm still your provider, but the means of provision have changed. I am no longer going to use this to provide for you. I'm going to use something else. And we as Christians must learn to pivot. This happens in churches. When the seasons change, when the style of music has to change, because it was from 50s and 40s, the style even of services. And the churches who are more addicted to their past instead of their future, they see the brooks dry up, people leave, and they do not go into the next season. Sometimes we notice that when our building is too small and no more people can come in, we have to pivot and get a different building. We had to pivot even with service times. And you notice one thing about hungry Jen, there's always changes. And some people are like, man, I hate all these changes. Trust me, when the Lord is moving, there has to be changes. When I was younger and as a baby, they had one size of pants for me. But when I grew, they had to change my pants. Why they had to change my pants? Because I changed, my structure changed. And my pants had to reflect my structure. When your life begins to change, so will your finances, your job opportunities. Be flexible. Don't be stuck. Don't be stubborn. Be fluid to change the trajectory and the direction of your company, of your employment, and your business when the brook dries up. Pivot. Amen. And the last thing, this was short. When God provides for you, it's good. When He provides through you, it's better. The brook dries up and the Lord comes to Elijah and says, Elijah, no explanation what happened. He doesn't blame anybody. He says, Elijah, next, next season, go to Zeraphat. And the Bible says, the place of Sidon. Now, for us, we're excited. Who cares? It's very important because that's where Jezebel is from. That's Jezebel's hometown. It's almost like God puts His prophet right in the middle of where Jezebel is from. And God's like, and I'm going to mess with this whole thing up. He goes into Sidon. He goes into Zeraphat. But I want you to notice this. God says, I told the widow to provide for you. I think the widow lost the email because she didn't get the memo. Elijah comes thinking it's going to happen like Ravens. You know, I show up. Water is there. Ravens, meat and bread, morning and evening. He's thinking this is going to be just a widow. She understands Ravens probably hear God not as clear, but widows, you know, women, men, they hear God clearly. So he's arriving. A widow is over there, gathering sticks. Hey, I'm the guy that God told you about. He says, excuse me, who are you? You're supposed to provide for me. She's like, I didn't get the memo. I have very little bit left. Me and my son, after we cook the meal that I'm about to do, and then we're going to die. We already have our funeral lot. We're going to die. And he says, oh, shoot, you have a bigger problem than I do. And then I think it dawned on Elijah. God didn't just send me here so that she provides for me. God sent me here so that God can provide for all of us. At the brook, only I got fed. In the house, a family will get fed. What if God takes us from one season to bring us to a season where it's not just you that we'll be taking care of, but you will have enough to care for your elderly parents, or you will have enough to care for your children. You will have enough to care for somebody that you know is an orphan or a widow, and you know they're struggling, and you have just enough for you and have a little bit more for others. Remember, God's ultimate goal where he's going to take you is not going to be at the brook where your needs are met. It's when other people's needs are met as well through you. Think bigger. Think on the level how God wants to. He wants to care for others as well. God isn't just interested in making your belly full of food. He wants to make sure that the bellies of other people he puts in your radius are also full of food. So when God gives you more, instead of just saying, how can I increase my empire? You have to begin to look at how can I either hire other people? How can I help other people? How can I elevate the life of other people that he puts in my way? I cannot remove poverty everywhere in the world, but I can remove poverty of people that I know that are close to me. I cannot fix poverty somewhere in India, in Mozambique, or maybe somewhere in China. But if I know a widow, if I know an orphan, if I know somebody who felt on the hard time and that news comes to me, that means that God puts the responsibility and the means in me to help that. Because God's provision isn't only the brook where my needs are met. God's provision is also the season where I have just enough to meet others and my needs. 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