Introduction
A martial arts student was meeting with his master and teacher at a table, having tea. The student said to his master, "I’ve learned all you have to teach me about defending myself. I want to learn one thing more now. Please teach me about the ways of God."
The master took the teakettle and starting pouring the student’s cup full of tea. Soon the cup was full and began to spill over onto the saucer. But the master continued to pour the tea until it spilled over the saucer and then onto the floor.
The student finally said, "Stop, stop, the tea is spilling over. The cup can’t take any more." The master then looked at the student and said, "You are so full of yourself that there is no room in your life for God. It is not possible for you to learn the ways of God until you learn to empty yourself."
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, are you empty enough?
Text - 2 Kings 4:1-7
1 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves." 2 So Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" And she said, "Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil." 3 Then he said, "Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors--empty vessels; do not gather just a few. 4 And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones." 5 So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. 6 Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel." And he said to her, "There is not another vessel." So the oil ceased. 7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest."
I. I Kings 4:1-7
A. She wasn’t empty enough. Elijah told her to get emptier.
1. Take all the empty you have and borrow all the empty you can get.
B. The oil quit flowing when there was no more empty to fill.
C. If you are not experiencing the fullness of God, it could be that you aren’t empty enough.
D. Jesus specializes in filling the empty, when there is nothing else to fill them.
II. Matthew 14:15-21 - Feeding of the 5,000.
A. Jesus fed them with nothing buy 5 loaves and 2 fish.
B. He only fed them when they were hungry and there was no substitute.
C. It could be that the reason you aren’t hungry for God is because you are so full of the world.
III. John 2:1-11 – Turned water into wine
A. They filled 6 jars with water and Jesus made the water wine.
B. Jesus produced the wine, not when they had wine, but when they didn’t have any wine. Only when the jars were empty did He turn water into wine.
C. 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.
IV. John 4:5-26 – Woman at the well.
A. The well was deep and there was nothing to draw water with.
B. 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.
V. Jeremiah 2:13 - "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water.
A. Two evils.
1. Forsaken the true water.
2. Tried to find a substitute.
3. There is an 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.
4. ILLUSTRATION - After the Dallas Cowboys had won the Super Bowl, Tom Landry made this observation. "The overwhelming emotion--in a few days, among the players on the Dallas Cowboys football team--was how empty that goal was. There must be something more." There is nothing else but God that will fill the emptiness in our soul.
5. What is it that you are substituting for God? It will disappoint you.
VI. Eccl 1:2 “Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher; "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."
A. Solomon tried to fill his life with every imaginable pursuit and he called all of it vanity.
B. The word vanity could also be translated emptiness.
C. Solomon had the ability to try it all and it didn’t satisfy.
D. ILLUSTATION - Rocker Rod Stewart has found that out. A USA Today article quoted him saying - "I remember being in the south of France years ago, in a suite at the Carlton in Cannes, with girls coming and going and all my friends there. And I was empty, just empty.”
E. No matter what you think will fill you, only God can satisfy the longing of your soul.
VII. 2 Chron 12:9-11 “Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house; he took everything. He also carried away the gold shields which Solomon had made. 10 Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the doorway of the king’s house.
A. They took the gold and replaced it with bronze.
B. Some people try to replace God with a shabby religious substitute that will not satisfy.
CONCLUSION
What you must do.
A. Actions
1. Ask yourself, “Am I empty enough?”
2. Admit to your emptiness.
3. Acknowledge God as the only one who can fill your emptiness.
4. Ask God to fill you.
5. Abandon yourself to God and the things of God.
