RACA: DANGER OF EMPTY
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
I. FEW WILL EVER REALLY UNDERSTAND THE DANGERS AND PERILS OF BEING SPIRITUALLY EMPTY.
A. My first car was a 1961 black VW Beetle, it never had a gas gauge? There was a handle by your feet that opened a one gallon reserve tank when you ran out?
B. Have you ever been driving and ran out of gas?
Matthew 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man
is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
58 But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest’s palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end.
C. EMPTY:
Barren, unfruitful.
Containing nothing.
Deserted, unoccupied.
HOLLOW, INSINCERE.
Vacant, lacking in value.
D. RACA:
Vain, empty worthless.
A word of contempt ---
COMES FROM THE ROOT WORD: to spit
E. Have you ever been hungry? Eat?
And still be hungry?
Eccles. 6:7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
II. BROKEN, EMPTY CISTERNS? DO WE APPRECIATE THE WELL WHEN THERE IS NO WATER?
A. GOD’S PEOPLE DID WRONG, THEY SETTLED FOR LESS THAN LIVING WATER... THEY ALLOWED THEIR SOURCE TO BECOME DRY.
Jeremiah 2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
B. 5 FOOLISH VIRGINS ALLOWED THEIR OIL SUPPLY TO GO DRY! They missed the MASTER!
III. HOW SHALL WE RELEASE A MIRACLE?
6 EMPTY WATER POTS, HOW SHALL WE ATTAIN OUR MIRACLE?
FILL UP THE EMPTY.
A. What will start Jesus’ first public miracle?
FILLING THE EMPTY.
John 2:5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
B. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT WOULD HAVE BEEN TO GET
150 TO 180 GALLONS OF WATER?
John 2:6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.
C. WHEN YOU FILL THE EMPTY THE MIRACLE GROWS NEAR!
John 2:7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
IV. IT IS EASY TO GET EMPTY WHEN YOU SEEM TO BE AIMLESSLY WANDERING THROUGH DRY SEASONS.
A. 40 days of complaining and bellyaching can cost dearly.
Numbers 32:11 Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly
followed me:
B. Their sin? Empty? Not WHOLELY FOLLOWING GOD!
V. THE BRIGHT DAY OF SOLOMON’S GLORY FADES QUICKLY INTO DOOM AND DARKNESS.
The history show Solomon’s decline to a terrible fall as a sad, sad record.
A. As Solomon aged, he spent more and more time just being idle.
His idleness was spent living among 1,000 women.
B. SOLOMON’S PALACES BECAME KNOWN AS PLEASURE DENS.
C. SLOW --- GRADUAL DRIFTING OFF COURSE CAN HURT!
1 Kings 11:7 Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
8 And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
9 And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,
D. AT FIRST SOLOMON TOLERATED THE STRANGE WOMEN AND THEIR gods.
This interest was first curiosity then IMITATING the heathen way.
E. IN SOLOMON’S MIND HE DID NOT STOP THE SACRIFICES AND WORSHIP AT THE TEMPLE, BUT SLOWLY THE ISSUES OF THE HEART TURNED SOLOMON’S WORSHIP TO NOT BE RIGHT WITH GOD.
F. Solomon’s emptiness left him WITHOUT RELIGIOUS FERVOUR and ZEAL.
G. This SPIRIT OF EMPTINESS brought GOD’S DISPLEASURE and eventually JUDGMENT.
H. SOLOMON’S ENEMIES PREVAIL, and Solomon becomes famous for saying:
VANITIES OF VANITY all is vanity.
USELESS, USELESS ALL THINGS ARE USELESS.
I. Solomon’s great sin? EMPTINESS!
VI. SAUL WOULD NOT APPROACH THE OLD MAN OF GOD EMPTY!
BUT SOMETHING HAPPENS IN SAUL’S LIFE THAT EMPTINESS
BECOMES ACCEPTABLE.
A. Saul was a handsome, tall man. He would have been the dream of every college basketball coach.
B. They had a problem, Saul’s Dad was named Kish.
Kish’s donkeys had got out of the pen.
C. Saul had a DIVINE APPOINTMENT.
1 Samuel 9:6 And he said unto him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honourable man; all that he saith cometh surely to pass: now let us go thither; peradventure he can shew us our way that we should go.
7 Then said Saul to his servant, But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to
bring to the man of God: what have we?
8 And the servant answered Saul again, and said, Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver: that will I give to the man of God,
to tell us our way.
D. SOMETHING SAD HAPPENED TO SAUL’S HUMBLE SPIRIT AND GODLY ATTITUDES.
1 Samuel 15:20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.
1 Samuel 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
VII. PAGAN --- HEATHENS KNEW NOT TO SEND THE ARK OF THE COVENANT BACK EMPTY.
A. The enemy had possession of the visible sign of God’s presence.
B. The enemy knew to send the ARK back.
1 Samuel 6:3 And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a trespass offering: then ye
shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.
C. THEY SENT THE ARK BACK WITH GOLD ON BOARD.
VIII. THE PRODIGAL SON KNEW EMPTY WAS DANGEROUS.
HAVE YOU EVER HAD HOLES IN YOUR POCKET?
Haggai 1:6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
A. THE PARTY IS OVER WHEN THE MONEY IS GONE?
B. WHERE ARE MY FRIENDS NOW?
Luke 15:14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
C. Twice empty: empty pockets? Empty stomach?
This boy had never been hungry?
Luke 15:16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
D. HUNGER IS A GOOD TEACHER?
FATHER HAS MORE THAN ENOUGH!!!
Luke 15:17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
E. COME HOME SON!
THERE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH AT MY FATHER’S HOUSE!
IX. IF YOU DON’T HAVE ENOUGH --- ASK!
A. PLEASE COME TO THE FATHER!
Mark 9:24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
B. Ask God, he will not jump on you!
James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
X. GOD PROMISES HIS FULLNESS... WHY SHOULD WE BE BARREN, EMPTY, FRUITLESS?
A. In your time of need COME! COME BOLDLY!
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
B. GOD HAS BLESSINGS FOR YOU TO SPILL OUT ON OTHERS!
Malachi 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts,
if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
C. You have been designed to be FULL!
John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
D. HIS ABILITY NOT OURS?
A CHECK IS AS GOOD AS THE ACCOUNT ON WHICH IT IS WRITTEN.
Ephes. 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
WHY WALK DOWN DANGEROUS PATHS OF EMPTINESS, --- STAY FULL.
He give His love --- we give our hands!
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Help me? Pass it on to at least one?
