True confession time, everyone. I think a lot about food. What I eat, when will I eat it? What will Elam put in his lunch? Will we have enough eggs for Tobiah? And good grief, how much food can Brian actually put away? That's my husband. Recently, we've also talked about creatine powder. Uh, I also spend an inordinate amount of time making lists and going to the grocery store and I'll come on home and somebody will say, "We're out of bread or bananas or milk."

What about you? Do you think a lot about food? Is food a main uh issue in your household? I was in a conversation this week with two parents that just found out one of their kids has an egg allergy. Oof. Food is something that is really good. God gave it to Adam and Eve. In the book of Genesis, we learn about this that all of the plants and all of the fruits were created except one. Jesus was perfect and Jesus ate food. Jesus needed food and water.

God did not have to take on a body to come to earth and interact with us, right? could have been some sort of ethereal figure. But no, Jesus put on flesh. God has therefore created us embodied people to need food and water and to take care of our health. Unfortunately, we busted the game plan and we went astray. And here we are today, broken beings who eat from more than just the wrong tree.

But in a sense, we can get wrapped around the axle, as my dad used to say, when it comes to our health. We're in a series inviting you to come to worship and relax. And maybe today food is not the thing that's causing stress. Maybe it's some other element of health and wellness. But we believe that God has something for all of us. Rest.

In 2024, America spent 18% of our GDP on health and wellness. That's twice as much as any other developing country. Now, another sermon series could be about how much money we're pouring in and how the results are not nearly what they should be, but that's for another day. People are opening mental health gyms. Have you heard of this? You can go and like do little mental health puzzles and other activities that are good for your brain health.

Um, we have stickers that can calm your minds if you want one of these on the way out. By the way, I'm going to have the ushers hand them out. We have kid versions, kid at heart versions, and others. We have pills who help us that can help us to lose weight. Um, and grocery shopping on one of the nine million grocery tours lately. Um, protein potato chips. I think that one's going to come back and bite us.

The US loves to be healthy. We love to think about it. But again, I want us to not be those that just follow the crowd, but take stock. How much energy am I actually spending on this? How much of it is actually un toward anxiety and worry? And instead, how can we trust God with it?

Now when I say health and wellness, food and water, there are so many things we could talk about. Sleep, sunscreen, skincare, we could talk about how we are obsessed with how we look. Should I color my hair? Should I lift weights a certain way so that I can get sculpted? Should I work my jaw, everyone, so that I have a good jawline? You're laughing because it's true.

What should we wear? It's after Labor Day. What do you wear the end of September? Or it could be our mental health, the lack of support systems in our communities for people that need support groups and need help. We could talk about inequity in healthcare access like I mentioned before or simple like what do we do about climate and the air quality?

And in the midst of this, we believe that Jesus is calling to us from Matthew. Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Does health and wellness ever feel like a burden? And it's something that man, you're just tired about worrying about how much protein might be in my potato chips for the love of Are we stressing out to the point where God would say, "This is not what I have intended for you." Are we distracted to the point of sin? Are we actually being unhealthy in the ways that we relate to our health?

Well, if it does seem to be like a burden, you're in the right place today. If you're online, I'm so glad you're with us. Starting today, I just wanted to give us a minute. So, little like physical practice. Ground yourself. Put both feet on the ground. Okay? Take a deep breath.

I'm going to have three questions maybe on a slide and I'm just going to invite you to ask these questions and give you a minute right now. Where what is taking up my head space? That's at the end. There we go. How does my body feel? And then just how am I feeling today?

Lord, would you help us wherever at, wherever we are at in relationship with our health? Would you help us to be present today? And would you speak?

Our passage today is in First Kings 17 starting at verse one. Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbi in Gilead said to Ahab the king, "As the Lord, the God of Israel lives whom I serve, there will neither be due nor rain in the next few years except at my word."

So Elijah's in the prophet. Elijah is a prophet and he is speaking for the Lord to Israel. God has declared a drought in direct opposition to the popular god of the day Baal. Now Baal was said to control fertility, harvest and therefore rain. So by God saying no no no there's no rain. It is as if God declared a new rule to the America uh to the United States and said there will no longer be football on Sundays. Okay. Roger Goodell actually the NFL isn't in charge of all things. Okay. It's a statement.

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah. Verse two. God says to him, "Leave here. Turn eastward and hide in the Carth ravine east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there. There's a little NFL joke as well for anyone picking you picking that up. Okay. The ravens were will supply you with food there.

So Elijah did what the Lord said. He went to the Kth ravine east of the Jordan and he stayed there. The ravens brought him meat and bread in the morning and meat and bread in the evening. and Elijah drank from the brook.

Elijah is hiding because the king and his wife Jeze Jezebel were intent on changing the minds of the people to stop worshiping Yahweh and instead worship Baal. First Kings 16 said, "King Ahab did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him." Now, there were some pretty bad kings. So to say like this one guy did worse than everybody else was a really big statement.

Ahab and Jezebel were trying to hunt down all of the prophets and shut them up. So God's protecting Eli Elijah.

Verse 7. Sometime later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah. Go at once to Zerapath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.

So Elijah went to Zerapath. He came to the town gate and a widow was there gathering sticks. Elijah called to her and said, "Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?" This would have been normal practices, by the way. At the town gate as you approached, this would just be normal, okay?

As the widow was going to get it, Elijah said, "And please, a piece of bread." As surely as the Lord your God lives. she replied. I don't have any bread. I just have a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil left in a jug. I'm gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son so that we may eat it and die.

I don't know how you respond to that. This is like maybe my cynical self goes, "Wow, that got dark. Maybe a little dramatic, funny, not funny. But we know that there's been a famine. And if you're a widow with a son, likely younger, it doesn't sound like this son is taking care of the widow. It's the opposite. She is desperate. She likely is eat about to eat her last meal and die. Talk about someone who's burdened and weary thinking about what she doesn't have.

Well, Elijah says to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said, but first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me. Then make something for yourself and your son. 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."

So now, I don't know much about this woman. There's no other story about her in the Bible. There's a little indication when she's talking to Elijah earlier and she says, "The Lord your God." Most of the time someone would say, "The Lord our God." No, this is like your God.

She has an empty pantry. Just a little bit left. And then here comes a guy. Maybe I don't even listen to this prophet. Maybe I'm listening to the king because I don't want to lose my head. And he says, "Don't serve yourself first. Serve me first. Serve yourself and you will not run out."

Elijah says, "Don't be afraid." And I wonder by him meeting her with how she's feeling if that's not what catches her attention. We don't know exactly what happens, but in verse 15 it says she went away and did as Elijah had told her.

So God's telling Elijah to do stuff. Elijah does exactly what God says. Elijah tells this widow to do something and she does exactly what Elijah asks. And not surprisingly, God comes through. There was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. The dryer flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry in keeping in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

When I uh when Brian and I were prepping this passage, I almost started doing a different passage because I was like, I don't know, does this really get like our theme of health? So, I kind of kept with it and kept with it. And this is what I think the Lord wants to say to us.

Number one, when it comes to your health and your wellness, it's important for us to remember that God cares about our needs. Sometimes it might be easy to think that um nope, let me go back to my notes. I almost just did it. God cares about our needs.

God is the one who told Elijah to hide in the first place. He knew that Elijah's life was in danger. Now, we all know life is hard for Christians in history. Plenty of Christians lost their lives. Followers of God lost their lives. But for whatever reason, Elijah gets hidden.

Following God is hard, but also I don't think God is unreasonable. And he knew Elijah was in trouble. God declared a drought to call for the Israelites to to repent. It's a reminder that God is actually in control of the weather.

So sometimes we can like work ourselves up to a frenzy about things that frankly we're not in control of. God sees and cares. There are things that we cannot control when it comes to our health like the weather, like car accidents.

There are of course things that we should do that are wise. So, for instance, America, let's not think that we can eat protein invested Cheetos and sugar-free Mountain Dew and think we're making healthy choices. Sorry if I'm stepping on someone's toes. If you're sitting at home right now eating the protein inspired potato chips, I apologize.

Also, Elijah Somehow in the midst of the drought, I don't know how they did without water. I don't know that part. But Elijah found someone else who was stressing. Elijah in his own sense of not having what he needs, meets someone else, and reminds them that God cares.

Whatever you're stressing about, friends, food, finances, your environment, your weight, mental health, or allergies, God cares. And there's nothing that you're worrying about that God doesn't understand. He may not agree. God may not say, "Oh, yeah, let's keep stressing about this." God may say, "Let's maybe like, you know, adjust your thinking." But God understands it. God gets it. Like God understands.

Jesus knew what it was like to be hungry and thirsty. Do you maybe just thinking about your health issue? Do you just need the reminder that God cares? God's with you in it.

So, number one, God's cares.

Number two, God provided. God provided for Elijah, provided for the widow, provided for the son. We don't even know the kid's name. God's provision came through ravens, birds. Apparently, ravens do this. I did a little research. Ravens actually like pick up food and store it in places to come back later. They like have their own pantry system. And God used ravens to provide for Elijah.

We also see in the Old Testament all over the place, God providing for people's health, for their needs. Widows could go over to family harvest parties and they were supposed to have left rose for those widows or the people in need alone. They didn't just like harvest it all. They left some out there for people in need. Every seven years, debts were cleared.

Jesus one day on a Sabbath day, they were hungry. And so Jesus figured out here's a field. We're gonna pick some of this wheat and we're going to eat it. In the new in the New Testament, in the early church, it said that the early church, they shared so that no one had need.

God provides. And sometimes God provides through ravens and sometimes God provides through other people.

So number three, God calls people to help when there are people in need. Our city in Mano, y'all, we have plenty of food and water here, right? And there are food pantries. There are places where we can share when we need help, when someone needs a meal train.

I love a meal train, by the way. God bless the mealrain.com system. It's really sad right now. There's a ministry at MSU that's been open for years and they're having to close. I don't know the whole story, but as I was prepping this, I was like, "Lord, would you lead somebody to either restart that or figure out another way to provide food for students?"

Did the woman help Elijah and then stop worrying about her own need? I don't know. But I bet for a minute it alleviated some of her anxiety because she wasn't thinking about her own need. She was thinking about serving someone else. Sometimes I think we can relax and get rest about our own stuff when we're thinking about someone else.

So, do you need a reminder today that God cares? Do you need a reminder and encouragement that God does provide? Do you need a reminder that God will call someone else to help you? Or perhaps God's calling you to be that someone to help.

Now, a good sermon has three points. Well, I have a fourth. So, this is either a bad sermon or I'm just listening to the Lord. But I feel like it is necessary to say in a message like this that lastly, there are times we don't get what we need.

Maybe us personally, but for sure on our planet, there are people in droughts. There are people dying because they do not have the right nutrition. There are people that are not getting the mental health resources that they need. There are people that do not receive equal health care.

Black women in general still die at a crazy rate more in childirth and when they're pregnant than white women in this country. It's not right. I wish I could say God's going to fix it or the hungry person. I wish I could say God's always going to provide. I don't know how in this sermon to address that without sounding crass or like flippant. But I had to say something about it.

What I will say is it sometimes it seems like God just doesn't provide. The cancer comes back, the stroke takes someone out, that bike accident brings a traumatic brain injury. And that is when I find myself settling into we live in a broken world.

God doesn't leave us deserted in that broken world. God does provide community in this broken world. We are called to support others. We are called to give and to be generous with what we have. And until Jesus comes back and make things right, I am not called to just sit and worry about my own health and taking care of my own self.

So well-being and health, how do we push through all of that to get to a point of experiencing rest? Sometimes I think we try to control things we shouldn't like the weather. We miss out on so much of life because we meal plan. We obsess about our food.

There is a line that I cannot draw for you for you and your health because I think it's going to be different for everybody. There's meal planning and there's food obsession. There's health and fitness and there's body dysmorphia. Where's that line? I don't know. I don't know.

There's sleep scheduling and then there's like a rigidity where we become unkind to other people because of what we have chosen. So, I want to invite God to speak to us about those lines.

I'm going to have two other questions up on the board. Up on the board on the screen. Is there a health issue right now for you that is maybe causing anxiety where you don't feel rest? Is there an issue that God would love to take from you?

Or maybe it's somebody's else's. Maybe you actually feel fine, but there's somebody in your life and you're like, "Oh, yeah. I'm gripping that too tight and I need to just let the Lord." And is there something you could do differently to provide for somebody else's health need?

I'm gonna invite the worship team to come on stage. Let me just pray for us.

Lord, uh you are good. You provide food and water. We see scripture. We see stories. We have our own testimonies of how you've provided. And we also live in this country that loves to talk about health and wellness and nutrition and fitness and sleep and sleep masks and sound machines and calming strips. My gosh. And it's hard to know if we're doing it right, if we're doing it right for our kids, if we're helping our neighbors. I don't know. It's just there's such a mess with that.

And so Lord, as you have invited us for a few weeks to think about what does it look like to come to you, Jesus, and rest, God, would you speak? Would we listen? Holy Spirit, would you give us the strength to obey? Amen.