Trinity XV - 09.13.2026

Fear, Love, And Trust In God Above All Things

1 Kings 17:8-16

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

This widow at Zarepheth told Elijah she was going to make her last little bit of food for herself that her son that they may eat of it and then die.

Elijah told her to make something for him to eat first. He promised there would be plenty for her and her son for a long time.

She did not hesitate, but “went and did as Elijah said.”  She did not doubt for a moment that the Lord would take care of her and her son. She did not doubt for an instant that the Lord would take care of them. After all, that is what God’s servant, Elijah, told her? So, she took the last of her food and cooked a meal for someone else – even knowing that without that food she and her son would die. But surprise of surprises, God did exactly as He said he would through the prophet – the flour and the oil did not run out.

This week is the first day of Sunday School. We began Catechesis in the summer, this week began a revised schedule form the summer. It is the beginning of this year’s instruction in the Christian faith for our young people.

How important it is that they be grounded in God’s Word? 

How important is it that they get instruction in the Christian faith?

How many remember your Catechesis in the faith? How many of you remember everything you learned? What is the first commandment? (You shall not have any other gods before me.  – or the newer version – You shall have no other gods.)  Luther asked in his Small Catechism, “what does this mean?” Can you answer it? Yes, it is our sermon title. It is right there on your bulletin. You should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

So, do you? It is very easy to tell.

You gather every week in that place where Christ comes to feed and nourish your faith?

You read your Bible every day?

You pray before and after every meal – and a couple other times EVERY day?

You attend weekly Bible Study? If not, how come?

Is it important for you to get your children or grand-children to Sunday School? Will you make sure they get confirmed?

If the things of the faith are so important for them, why not for you?

If you love God above all things, then those things are daily priorities! This is not a question, it is a statement.

Dear friends, it may be the beginning of another school year, the beginning of another year of Sunday School, and the beginning of another session of Junior Catechesis.

It is not the beginning of your instruction in God’s Word. That instruction never ends.

Confirmation Day is simply the public confirmation of baptismal faith, something infants are unable to articulate at the time. It is a confession and confirmation that they have been taught and now trust the most rudimentary Christian doctrine.

But that is only the beginning.  Faith needs to continually be fed and nourished.

We need to continue to learn from God’s Word so that we can defend that faith against the lies Satan tells, hoping to lead astray every day. He is at work in the world, in false Christian churches, and in our own hearts and mind.

We need to be ready to defend our faith, if not out loud against others, at least in our own minds in order that we are not led astray by false teachers.

Do you fear, love, and trust in God above all things? Consider your offering today. Is it 10% of your income? Or at least 5%? Paul goes out collecting the tithes and the offerings in his missionary travels, that is, in the New Testament.

Does everything you have come from God? Do you trust Him above all things? Do you trust that God will provide all that you need for the support of this body and life?

To trust God is not to believe that you will be wealthy, or even moderately rich. It is to trust that He will provide all that you need? If you TRUST  GOD  WITH  ALL your heart, mind, soul, and strength then why do you hold back with your offerings?

If you TRUST  GOD  WITH  ALL your heart, mind, soul, and strength why do you think, “if I give more, I won’t have enough to live on?”

Why do you doubt God’s goodness to you? Why do you doubt that God cannot do more than you think He can? Does he not clothe the lilies of the field which are here today and gone tomorrow? Does God not feed the birds of the air?

If your income has gone up and your offerings have remained the same, then you are giving a lesser percentage of what God has given to you, back to service in His kingdom. If you were to read the book of Malachi, you’d find these words. Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. (Malachi 3:8-10)

Do you trust God enough to stand your ground on issues that address us each day? Do you boldly confess that that killing of infants in the womb is murder, and speak out against the practice? Do you reach out to those who have had abortions, and now in their pain and sorrow need to hear of the God who out of His love for them, gave His own Son unto death to purchase their forgiveness? 

Do you fear, love, and trust in God above all things so that you boldly witness to God’s six-day creation? That He created all mankind – one race – as male and female in His image? The marriage is God’s institution to be fruitful and multiply, that it takes one man and one woman for His institution of marriage? (By the way, topics we consider in Bible Study. You should join us!)

Did you pay attention to the first hymn today? We sing that we love God with all our heart, that He would never depart from us and cheer us. In that first verse it declares that there are no treasures in earth AND heaven that we would want around if the Lord were not near us.

Did you hear about the widow in our text? She feared, loved, and trusted in God above all things and He did for her exactly as He promised through the mouth of His prophet – the flour and the oil did not run out.

Did you notice what happened? This woman trust sthe Word of God, and by her actions, the man of God and her family are fed and nourished – her actions of faith care for them all.

Do you have other gods? Do you fear, love, and trust in God above all things? I could probably go on all day showing how we do not obey the first Commandment.

I do not! Nor do you! We fail at it on a regular basis. Even the widow who is so faithful in our text, will next week show us a different side, the side of doubt and anger against God when her son dies. 

We might ask, “Why this woman?” Because God chose her, to use her, to accomplish the blessing of His prophet.  Was she better than others, or more religious, or more open to His will?

Nope. 

In fact, she was not even an Israelite, not even one of God’s chosen nation. She was the one God selected, actually ‘commanded’ is the word the text used. She did not hear the command, nor was she aware of it until the prophet asked her for food and promised her divine provision. 

Nevertheless, she did what God had commanded. God used her to bless her household and His prophet. God could have kept Elijah in many miraculous ways. He had already fed him by having birds bring him food.  That was not the special and miraculous way He cared for him this time.

God did it this special way, having the widow provide food for Elijah. He did it in this way so that you could see that He can provide, and will provide, all things in accord with His will – even when it seems hopeless and it appears that we have no resources. He provides when everything and everybody seems to be against us.

God’s only begotten Son is evidence of His care and concern for us. It is way Paul says that he is determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

Christ’s sole purpose by the Father’s will is to live and die in our place. Even as His best friends abandoned Him – Christ kept perfect fear, love, and trust of His Father.

He remained steadfast even as His enemies falsely accused Him and convinced Pilate to crucify Him.

Upon the cross dying, He forgave those who nailed Him to it. Finally, with His dying breath He commended Himself into His Father’s hands.

Promising to provide all that we need for this body and life, His resurrection boldly proclaims that we too will rise from the dead. He has paid the price to bestow life eternal in body and spirit. His resurrection is living testimony of what your resurrected life will be like.

Today He feeds you with a far greater miracle than the one performed in our text – great though it may seem.  While they were fed with that oil flour for months, He gives us to eat of His own body and to drink of His own blood.

This meal cleanses us of all sin and grants us strength in the midst of our doubts and fears.

This food feeds us even as it removes guilt and pain.

Christ’s body and blood, sacramentally united to the bread and wine say to you, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

God has commanded Jesus, His own Son, to provide forgiveness, life, and salvation to you and me.

No, everything that happens will not be entirely to our liking. Nor will we always understand it. BUT, we are His children. He will always accomplish what He has planned, and He will do all that He has promised – fulfilling all that we need.

God’s way is not always plain for us to see, but it is always right and exactly what we need. We might like to figure it all out, but trusting God we do not need to, everything will be done as it was done in our text – according to the way it has always been done – according to the Word of the Lord.  So let it be to us, also.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.