Empty Vessels
There is a tale of a young man who was desperately seeking God. He went to a well-known and wise old man for help. He asked him how he could find God. The old man took the young man to a nearby river and there they waded out into the deep water. Deeper and deeper they went and when the water got up to their chins, the old man took the young man by the neck and pushed him under the water. He held the young man down until the young man began flailing the water in desperation. In another minute, the young man would have surely drowned.
The old man finally let the young man come up for air. They both found their way back to the bank of the river. The young man asked the old man, “What did this have to do with finding God?”
The old man asked the young man, “While you were under the water, what did you want more than anything else?”
The young man simply replied, “Air.”
The old man concluded with this thought, “When you want God as much as you wanted air, you will find Him.”
Let me now ask the question. How desperate for God are you this morning? How much of God’s Holy Spirit do you want? How desperate are you to drink in all that God has for you?
Let’s pray.
Text: II Kings 4:1 thru 6
On Sunday nights we have been looking at the Holy Spirit. And with our Intercessory Prayer time, on Wednesday night, we have been praying for more of the Holy Spirit to baptize us.
We have found that the Holy Spirit will cleanse us in the inside, and then He will empower us on the outside.
And like the story of the young man, we haven’t another moment to loose. Whether we realize it or not, each of us desperately need to be cleansed by the precious oil of the Holy Spirit. Each of us then needs to be empowered by the oil of the Holy Spirit.
No matter who we are or where we come from, each of us have been created to be vessels of the Holy Spirit.
II Corinthians 4:7
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
My friend you are an earthen vessel. What you decide to put in your earthen vessel is your choice. God has the better plan for your life to fill you up with His “…excellence of…power…”
Let me just say that the day in which we live in has most people more concerned about keeping their cars and pick-up trucks filled up with gasoline…than they do keeping their “earthen vessels” filled up with the “excellence of God’s power”.
As well, in Matthew 25, Jesus spoke of the ten virgins who took their oil lamps and were waiting for their bridegroom.
2Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
There are those who are hungry for God to fill them up. And He will. Others may not realize how important it is for the oil of the Holy Spirit to be poured into their lives.
This morning let us focus on what will satisfy our spiritual beings instead of satisfying our earthly desires. Amen?
In our story of the widow in II Kings 4, we can see a very close correlation with the emptiness of our physical needs and the emptiness of our spiritual needs.
In a moment, we will take a closer look at this prophetic story.
First- I have a few more questions for you:
Do you ever –
· Run out of time in your life?
· Run out of options for your life?
· Run out of resources to save you from what you are going through?
Today you may feel like you –
· Are like the widow woman in II Kings.
· Have been pushed under water, and you find yourself in desperate need of swimming back to the surface for more air.
· Have an emptiness inside of you.
· Are desperate for God to pour out a miracle into your soul.
We should note that sometimes that emptiness is because we are running from God. Only you know whether or not what you are going through is because of sin or rebelling from God.
We will talk about that another time…
Here’s a reminder for us all.
What you sometimes go through isn’t always because you have committed sin.
The woman in this story was the wife to the great prophet, Obadiah. A godly man. A godly wife and godly children.
And yet, there is an emptiness, a hunger, a literal bankruptcy is taking place in the home of a godly woman and children.
Nevertheless in this particular story, we have someone in need of a miracle.
The widow woman had experienced a great loss in her life. Those things happen.
· Sometimes our lives are so filled with things that distract us that God has to remove them before we can see clearly enough to see Him and His glory.
· Sometimes God will remove the things in our lives that make us comfortable.
You may find yourself at the end of your ROPE – you are frustrated
ABILITY – you have given up on our self
RESOURCES – you don’t have anywhere else to turn but to God.
At a moment like this we need to
(1) evaluate our lives and decide what things are most important to us.
God expects us to do our part before he will step in to fulfill His obligation or any of His promises to us. We must be good stewards of what God has already given to us before we can expect God to perform new miracles on our behalf.
Some people just simply need to embrace the forgiveness and grace the Lord has already provided for them.
We stand here today responsible for His greatest gift of all to us. The grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ is all we need.
In verse 2 Elisha asked the widow woman,
“What do you have in your house?”
All she had was a flask/jar of oil.
That was all she needed for her miracle.
Phil. 4:19 my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Do you remember what Jesus asked of the disciples when there were 5000 men and their families standing on a hillside that were hungry?
5Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” (John 6:5)
Sometimes what we think we have is not enough to make a difference.
But God has a plan of restoring us with exactly what we have. What we have is all He needs to bring a blessing.
(2) “Shut the door behind you”
God may want to do something for you that doesn’t involve anyone else. A lot of times miracles take place behind closed doors.
Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead (in Mark 5) after He cleared the room of the hecklers and scoffers.
Peter did the same thing when he raised Dorcas from the dead in Acts 9.
When you need God to do something extraordinary and miraculous, you may have to send the doubters, scoffers, heretics, and the foolish nay-sayers away.
Get them out and away from where the Lord is getting ready to do something. Clear the room. Get rid of the rift-raft!
(3) Expect a miracle
God will give as much as you have room to receive.
The widow woman went out and borrowed all of the empty vessels she could from her neighbors.
She is not sure what to expect but she is obedient to the voice of the Lord.
She begins to pour from own jar of oil. She simply used what little she had.
But the miracle had to begin in her first.
This is how God operates. Something small from us will equal something very big from God.
What we think is nothing to offer the King of Kings, is about to become your everything. More than you will ever know to expect from God is about to multiply in your life like you can’t imagine.
GOD SAYS,
“WHERE ARE THE EMPTY VESSELS?”
2Tim. 2:20,21 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
We must become those EMPTY VESSELS “for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master…”
We need to cleanse ourselves to make ready for the great and miraculous outpouring that God has planned for our lives and for the future of this church.
If there are things in your life that need to be changed, don’t expect God to change them until you are willing to do everything you can to change them first.
Ephesians 5:20 says -
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,
We must not limit what God has for us. We must begin by finding every EMPTY VESSEL in our neighborhood so we get all that God has for us.
That’s the way that God wants to pour out his blessings upon his children today. His mercy, his love, his grace, and all of his provisions. That is, if we have a vessel that is empty of sin to receive it.
God won’t pour his blessings into a vessel that is filled with the cares of life and the love of this world and it’s sin. God is looking for EMPTY VESSELS to fill!
God has an outpouring of His Holy Spirit for you today that if you come to Him as EMPTY VESSEL.
Closing:
I can only imagine what the widow woman’s house must have looked like that day. Before she began pouring, she may have lined up all of the empty vessels to be filled. Vessels of all shapes and sizes. Empty flower pots, empty trash cans, wore out old wine skins. It must have been a strange sight to see.
I have seen some Holy Ghost meetings like this before. You are not sure if what God is pouring the oil into will hold up.
The oil getting ready to be poured out was very expensive olive oil.
What God has for you is very precious and will only keep pouring until every vessel is full right up to the brim. Not a drop of the oil of the Holy Spirit is to be wasted or squandered.
God is ready to pour. Are you ready to receive? Are you an EMPTY VESSEL ready to be poured into?
