The Value of Emptiness!

A talk to encourage thirst and hunger in seeking God’s infilling!Life Church; 24^th June 2012, evening.

Because you are in church today my guess is that you would like to know and experience God in a greater way. My question for you today is:

1.   Are we empty enough?

In Pentecostal/Charismatic churches emptiness is seen as a sin.  But emptiness is the key to being filled!

2 Kings 4:1-7: The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”  Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil.”  Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbours for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.  Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”  She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.  When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”  But he replied, “There is not a jar left.”  Then the oil stopped flowing.  She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

She wasn’t empty enough.  Elijah told her to get emptier. Take all the empty you have and borrow all the empty you can get.

If we are not experiencing the fullness of God, it could be that we aren’t empty enough?

You see she was desperate – and could see no way out.

V1- The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”

Now this is desperate – she is about to lose her sons as slaves.  How many of us know this kind of defeat?  This single mum has done all she can to provide but is going to lose everything, even her children.

Now you would think that Elisha would rebuke the devourer.  You would think that he is going to blind the creditors.  But no!

He asks her what she has (v2).

Her answer sounds like Old Mother Hubbard! 

V2: Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?" "Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a little oil."

Now, you know things are bad if you don’t have anything but a bit of oil!  You cannot make anything with oil alone, but it was a staple ingredient in this time.

But Elisha’s response is this:  YOU HAVE TOO MUCH!  Huh? 

Do the maths with me.  Let’s assume that her oil jar holds a litre and that a ‘little’ is just 10% or 100ml.  He tells her to go and get more:

V3: Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbours for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few.

Not just a few!  Lot’s!  Why?  It would seem that everyone is short of oil!  It seems that everyone has run out.  It’s a tough time.

Anyway – assuming her jar is 1 litre and she has 10% in it, and let’s assume that everyone else’s jar is 1 litre (although they could be more) if she has two jars she is not 10% full, but 5% full. 

But she is told to get loads!  So if she has 10 jars she is only 1% full.  But she gets loads – in fact enough to pay off her creditors and to provide an income (V7). 

So if she got 100 jars she would need 1000 times the amount of oil to fill them.  If she got 1000 jars she would need 10,000 times that amount to fill them!

What is happening as she goes around the town asking for jars?  People must think she is mad!

What is she doing?  She is increasing her emptiness!  She is increasing her capacity to receive by increasing the emptiness.

How many of us feel we need the infilling of God so much that we are willing to do anything to be filled with His Spirit? 

You see as long as we feel we have enough – even if it is enough for one more meal – then we are in trouble.

The oil quit flowing when there was no more emptiness to fill.

V6: When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one."  But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing.

What God did for this widow is amazing!  He transforms her from the needy to the one who resources the whole of the town!!  She becomes the one who provides the blessing to those around her! 

You see when we increase our emptiness the Lord is able to use us to bless others.  We become agents of change!!

How empty are we?  If we are happy with a little oil then we are in trouble – we will struggle to get by and we will not be able to bless others.

I want to be empty – so desperate for God to break in that when He fills me I become a resource for others!

2.   Jesus Specialises In Filling The Empty…

…when there is nothing else to fill them.

·       Matthew 14:15-21 - Feeding of the 5,000.

Jesus fed them with nothing buy 5 loaves and 2 fish.

He only fed them when they were hungry and there was no substitute.

It could be that the reason we aren’t hungry for God is because we are so full of the world – other things!

God will meet us at a place of priority – but He sets the priority!

Exodus 20:3:  "You shall have no other gods before me.”

There are lots of pressures on us today.  And our society has changed – there is always something else to do on Sundays but 20 years ago there was not.

However, if we will not prioritise our church time, not because it is a nice place to be, but because God demands it, how can we expect things to go well with us?

·       John 2:1-11 – Jesus turned water into wine

For 2000 years some have been trying to turn it back!

They filled 6 jars with water and Jesus made the water wine.

Jesus produced the wine, not when they had wine, but when they didn’t have any wine.  Only when they had run out did He turn water into wine.

If there had been enough wine, they would have settle for something inferior.  They only received the best wine when they ran out of their own wine.

·       John 4:5-26 – Woman at the well.

The well was deep and he had nothing to draw water with (v11).

She had tried to fill her life with men and Jesus showed her the emptiness of that.  Her life was empty.  Then He filled her life with living water.

3.   The Danger of Self Sufficiency

Barbie used to have a little mini metro.  One day she says to me, “This car is so great on fuel.  I have not filled it up in ages, my fuel gauge says empty, but the fuel light has never even come on!”  I said, “There is no fuel light in that car – go fill up!”

Why is it that we wait until the warning signals flash?  We need to increase our emptiness, but not try to make it on our own.

Jeremiah 2:13: "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

Two sins:

·       Forsaken the true water.

·       Tried to find a substitute.

There is emptiness, a thirst inside of man, that only God can fill.  When we try to fill it with anything else, it will not satisfy us.  It will make us think we are not as empty as we really are.

What is it that you are substituting for God?  It will disappoint you.

Eccl 1:2: “"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher.  "Utterly meaningless!  Everything is meaningless."

Solomon filled his life with every imaginable pursuit and he called all of it vanity.

The word meaningless could also be translated empty = without value.

Solomon had the ability to try it all and it didn’t satisfy.

No matter what you think will fill you, only God can satisfy the longing of your soul.

4.   How Full is Full?

How full does God want to fill us?  We had a clue in our first scriptures – we need to increase our capacity to receive.

Ephesians 3:14-19:  For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

“Filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”  How full is full?  Paul describes the indescribable here – filled with all of God and everything that He has for us.  No room for anything else!!

Out of fullness comes blessings.  Out of fullness comes life (John 7: 37-38).

Wrapping it Up:

ü What we must do:

ü Admit our emptiness

ü Ask yourself “Am I empty enough?” – increase the emptiness!

ü  Acknowledge God as the only one who can fill your emptiness.

ü  Ask God to fill you.

ü  Abandon yourself to God and the things of God.