Experiencing God as Your Provider:

Help, hope & heaven’s answers for

UP living in a DOWN economy.

May 17, 2009 – Dr. Brian Kluth - bk@kluth.org Message #4 in a sermon series.

1) God is bigger than countries and leaders

Gen 41:53-55 The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food. When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph and do what he tells you."

Ps 22:29 The Lord is King and rules the nations.

1 Tim 6:15-16 At the right time Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only almighty God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Ps 57:2 I cry out to God Most High,to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. Matt 6:33-34 Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (food and clothing) will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

2) God is bigger than terrible economic times

Ps 33:18-19 The eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

1 Tim 6:6-8 Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

Gen 12:10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

Gen 26:1-3 Now there was a famine in the land--besides the earlier famine of Abraham's time--and Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines . . . The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you.

1 Kings 17:1-9 Now Elijah . . . said to (King) Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: "Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine . . . You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there." So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine…and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the LORD came to him: "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food." So he went to Zarephath.

3) God is bigger than bad economic times

NOTE: God uses droughts/recessions to shake things up and to get people looking in looking up

Hag 1:5-11 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD. "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands."

Next sermon in this series: Discover the practical ways God provides for us from His resources.