Full
Pt. 1 - Pushing Past Empty
I. Introduction
It is a new year. Usually a new year is filled with expectations, resolutions, big plans, and anticipation. But, I also wonder how many would be honest enough to admit that in the back of our minds there is also some fear? I was excited last New Year's Day too and look how it turned out. I was making these same plans last year at this time and look where I still am 365 days later. So, try as you might your excitement is measured with past pain and disappointment. As we step onto the pages of unwritten 2017, I want to challenge you examine your own life and determine whether or not you are full. You "fullness" will determine what overflows to every area of your life. But why should we even expect to live a life of fullness? I take you back to the last verse that I began the last night we shared together in worship in 2016.
Text: Isaiah 53:10
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life. (Message)
John 10:10
The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance - to the full, till it overflows. (Amplified Version)
Colossians 2:9-10
You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.
It is prophesied and then Jesus Himself owns up to His divine appointment. We say He came to save us and He did. We say He came to make a way for us to get to Heaven and He did. We say He came to bridge the gap to the Father and He did. But that is an incomplete understanding of His goal and role! The accurate and mature understanding is knowing that salvation was only part of the picture. He came to save but He also came to enable us to experience fullness in life! Paul says, "in Christ we have been brought to fullness!" And yet, in our first step into 2017 some of us are empty and so the idea of fullness seems like a fantasy and a fairytale.
So let's take a moment and examine an instance in Jesus' life that I think speaks to where most of us are on this first day of a new year.
John 2:1-10
Three days later there was a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. Jesus and his disciples were guests also. When they started running low on wine at the wedding banquet, Jesus’ mother told him, “They’re just about out of wine.” Jesus said, “Is that any of our business, Mother—yours or mine? This isn’t my time. Don’t push me.” She went ahead anyway, telling the servants, “Whatever he tells you, do it.” Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings. Each held twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus ordered the servants, “Fill the pots with water.” And they filled them to the brim. “Now fill your pitchers and take them to the host,” Jesus said, and they did.When the host tasted the water that had become wine he didn’t know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew, he called out to the bridegroom, “Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you’ve saved the best till now!”
Being empty is embarrassing!
It is embarrassing not because we have lack but because we are told we should be full. It is embarrassing because we didn't expect it. By now in your journey you should have this figured out! You grew up in a powerful home. You have graduated from Bible College. So we fake fullness. We become empty because we leak and we don't want anyone to know it.
How many of us are running on empty in spite of the promise that we are supposed to be full?
So, the question is if we are empty is that our fault or God's? Perhaps we are empty because we are trying to become full of the wrong things? We are becoming stuffed with substitutes that do nothing but take up space but don't fill. They simply clutter. They may provide momentary satisfaction but no long term solution. Too many of us have lives full of filler but not fullness.
Mary knew that her Son couldn't escape His divine job description. Jesus steps in ahead of schedule to resolve the emptiness of the situation even though He said, "It isn't my time." He can't help but fill things up because He didn't arrive to leave things empty. But my question is . . . What forced His hand? What caused Him to respond and resolve their empty problem ahead of schedule? What caused Him to get involved in their business? He does His best to push back. He does His best to keep His power under wraps. He does His best to keep His own time table. This is what forced Him to act . . . Whatever He tells you . . . Do it! Wait a minute . . . did I just see obedience? Wait a minute . . . I thought I said it isn't my time but I just heard the key inserted into the lock that was on the door of this miracle. See Mary knew something . . .
Obedience is the master key that unlocks fullness!
Some of you are behind schedule to experience fullness simply because you won't obey. Some of you are as empty on January 1, 2017 as you were on January 1, 2010 because you still haven't obeyed!
He told you to breakup. He told you to give. He told you change. He told you to push back. He told you to get out. He told you to get in.
He won't leave you empty . . . He can't leave you empty if you will obey. It goes against His nature. His mission. His appointment. He will in fact, change the schedule. He will adjust the timetable if you will respond with obedience.
Some of you weren't supposed to experience fullness until later this year but you decided to obey in January. Some of you weren't supposed to be healed until March but you obeyed this week. Some of you weren't supposed to see breakthrough until 2018 but you sowed in 2017 and He can't leave something empty when He sees obedience!
Are you tired of empty? Then push Him with obedience! Are you tired of broke? Then push Him with obedience! Tired of sick? Then push Him with obedience! Tired of chains? Then push Him with obedience! Tired of running on fumes? Then push Him with obedience! Obedience pushes Jesus to respond! Obedience leads to fullness! Reach over and push your neighbor and say "I'm pushing Him to fill me!"
So, the question must be asked and better be answered . . . What are we supposed to be full of? If He came to fill us to overflow, then what are we supposed to be full of? Do we even know? If we don't know, then we become full of busyness, trouble, meaningless mess, stress, cares, career and the list could go on. A void will be filled with something. Unless we know what should fill the space in our life then we will fill that space with something. We do that with silence. We fill it. We do that with space. We fill it. With time we will assign it. We do that with relationships. The same is true with our soul. If there is emptiness, then we will fill it with something.
So the challenge for this year that I want to throw at your feet is this. . . If Jesus gave His life to make you full, then are you going to settle for emptiness this year? Are you going to be satisfied with less than the fullness that you have been promised!
Here is the truth . . . Some of you are running on empty. You aren't anywhere close to being full of what Jesus promised you. You have filled the space . . . It is obvious and understandable because emptiness is embarrassing. Some of you have been empty so long that you don't even know what you are supposed to be full of . . . And that is where we are going to spend out time as we begin this year . . . I am going to challenge us to find ourselves full of certain things that will enable us to be full of fulfillment. I am challenging you to push past empty. You don't have to be empty. You not only can be . . . but you are supposed to be full! Together we are going to get there.
However, two things first . . . We have to obey. Do what He said to do. Some of you are going to hear me talk about being full of certain things over the next few weeks and you won't be able to go with us because your disobedience is a leak that will empty you. It is time to obey what He said so that He may fill you to the brim. Second, you can't experience fullness if you won't admit the emptiness. Their emptiness would not have been resolved unless Mary had revealed it to Jesus! We are taught to hide it and mask it but together we must own up to our lack so that we He will be able to address it - even if our fullness wasn't on His schedule! Is there anyone other than just me that is ready to push past empty as begin the year?
