Sermon Tone Analysis

Looking for empty vessels…

It's always a joy to be in the house of God… Amen?

If you would stand with me and turn in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 4…

2 Kings chapter 4 verses 1-7

Pray………….

Amen!

While you’re being seated, turn and ask someone “Are you empty tonight?”

Now ask them... “Is your door shut?”

The word the Lord has given me to share with you tonight concerns Empty Vessels and closed doors… Somebody say Amen…

The Biblical account that we just read is a familiar story to many of us…

We read this narrative of a widowed woman who’s in a desperate situation…

Her husband who was a servant of the prophet Elisha was now dead and she’s left with a debt that she cannot pay and the debt collector’s knocking on her door.

See, there was no such thing as bankruptcy protection or procedures in those days and since she was unable to repay the debt they were coming to collect her two son's as payment making them bondmen or indentured servants until either the debt was satisfied or until the year of Jubilee at which time whatever amount was left would’ve been forgiven.

Now that may sound strange or even cruel to us today but they were well within their rights to do that because Mosaic law stated that if someone owed a debt they could not pay the creditors were allowed to take their family and use them in this manner until the debts were satisfied.

So here they are, knocking on her door and I’m sure she’s trying to figure out what she’s going to do…

But there is one thing that she understood…

She knew that she needed God…

By virtue of her knowing and being the wife of a prophet, she knew that when she went to Elisha, she was not just going to a man to hear an answer from a man but that the Prophet was in fact the mouthpiece of God.

And when she would ask the Prophet how to help her in this desperate situation, she knew that whatever answer that he gave her would be an answer from God and not one from his own human reasoning or intellect.

**We need to stop looking to the world to solve our problems and instead turn to God and seek His Divine Counsel in our times of need… Amen?

So she gets to Elisha and she tells him what's happening with her and Elisha turns around to the woman and he asks her a peculiar question…

It’s interesting to me that he wasn’t concerned with what she didn’t have, but that which she did have.

**And someone needs to know tonight that God’s not interested in what you don’t have... His supply is endless and if you will start honoring Him with the little you ‘ve got, He’ll take your little, multiply it and make it more than enough for what you have need of because He said to tell you that He’s a more than enough God who’s Big enough and who’s more than able to meet your needs… if you will tust Him!

So Elisha asks her, “what do you have in your house?”

And she tells him, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”

Now on the surface and to the carnal mind Elisha’s question was odd enough, but the instructions he gives her were even more peculiar.

He tells her to go out to all her neighbors, her and her sons, and borrow empty vessels…

“Elisha, Maybe you didn’t hear what I said… I have nothing left except a small jar of oil and you want me to go and gather empty vessels?” “Don’t you mean I should ask for full ones?”

What am I going to do with empty jars?

No, the Prophet told her to go and gather empty vessels… Then he said do not gather just a few, meaning not only do I want you to go and get empty vessels, but go and get all that you can find… that’s a whole lot of nothing.

What is this woman supposed to do with nothing?

She’s already got plenty of nothing… That’s why she’s sought out the man of God to begin with, she’s looking for help to overcome her nothing so she can pay her debts and save her kids from being taken as slaves...

But can I remind somebody tonight that God can take your nothing and make something great out of it…

Genesis 1:1-2 says:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters.

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

If the God that we serve created this world and everything that you can see out of nothing… Which He did… Somebody tell me how is He not able to take the nothing you have and make something out of it that will not only provide for your need but also for the needs of your children and your family?

He said to her, “Go, and gather not a few, but get all that you can find…”

I imagine that must have also included chipped or even cracked and broken vessels too that had been discarded because someone said they weren’t useful anymore… so they just threw them out with the garbage.

**I’ve got to tell someone tonight that Jesus loves you and just because you may be broken and just because someone else has thrown you away and discarded you and gave up on you does not mean that you’re done for, it does not mean that your story has ended, because the God I serve specializes in broken vessels… And He said for me to tell you that he hasn’t thrown you away but that He has a plan and a purpose for your life, and He wants to give you a future and a hope tonight.

**You’re looking at what used to be a broken vessel that was good for nothing but a landfill… But I’m standing here tonight before you a new creation, a new man in Christ, old things have passed away and behold all things have been made new, and God is saying to you that if you will come to me and surrender your life to Me I will begin to put you back together, I will begin to make you new and the former things will be no more because He’s still saying I Am the God that can Healteh thee…

Jesus said “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

**Someone say “God can use Empty Vessels”...

And it’s the empty vessel that God is looking for… Tonight… Amen…

Elisha said to her, “Go, and gather not a few, but get all that you can find”

I need to park here for just a minute and preach to you...

Some of us are so full of other things that we won’t let go of that it hinders God from using us and it prevents Him from fulfilling His plan and purpose for our lives.

What are you talking about Pastor?

I mean we need to start slamming some doors shut, locking them up tight, never to opened again.

Some of us need to start closing the doors to some things and some people in our lives that shouldn’t be there, and I hear the Spirit of God saying if we will empty ourselves out and close some doors then we’ll start to see the oil begin to flow, then we’ll begin to see miracles happen.

See, It wasn’t until the widow closed the door behind her and her son’s that the miracle manifested itself.

There’s too many people that claim to be serving the Lord, that profess to be a christian but they don’t have enough Holy Ghost conviction in their thumbs to change the channel on the television or the radio when something dark, evil and ungodly comes on.

There’s a problem when you can watch movies that are full of foul language, horror and gore, sorcery, witchcraft… and all of those types of things and then you come into the house of God on Sunday without any remorse…

There’s a problem when you can listen to and even sing along with songs that go on about drinking and committing adultery or using drugs and then you come in here, raise your hands and sing about how you love the Lord and how good God is without any sense of spiritual conviction.

Let me remind you tonight that what goes in is what’s gonna come out and if all you’re feeding your spirit is that kind of trash… Ever heard the expression garbage in garbage out?

We’re supposed to ambassadors for Christ, His representatives here on earth and I’m sorry, I just can’t see the King of glory sitting down on the couch or going to a theatre with a great big bucket of popcorn and watching poltergeist or Freddy Kruger or listening to music that does nothing but exalt satan and the kingdom of darkness.

You hear me tonight… If it doesn’t give God glory, if it doesn’t lift up the name of Jesus, if whatever entertainment you ‘re engaged in no matter if it’s movies, television, music, games or whatever… If it doesn’t edify God you shouldn’t be fooling with it and you certainly shouldn’t allow it in you home.

The modern church has taken the grace of God and used it to excuse their sinful lifestyles and I’m telling you tonight that unless they stop and truly repent and turn from those things, they’re gonna hear the Lord say:

“I never knew you, depart from me you who practice lawlessness!”

Tell someone “You’ve got to shut the door on some things”

When I surrendered my life to God one of the first things I did was gather up everything I had, All the music, all of the movies, all of the drug and alcohol paraphenalia and I burned it all…

Why?

Because it didn’t glorify God and if it doesn’t glorify Him it doesn’t belong in your life… Can someone say Amen?

Before the oil can be poured out , you’ve got to get empty, you’re gonna have to shut some doors and get away from everything that takes you away for Him, that doesn’t look like Him, that doesn’t sound like Him...

You shouldn’t be going down to the honky tonk or bars no more, you shouldn’t be watching filthy movies no more or listening to just any old kind of music no more!!!

Hold on I’m not finished yet… Some of us need to shut the door on some people and some relationships in our lives too…

Not everyone that’s in your life is supposed to be in your life.

Be careful who you let in your life because the influence of the wrong person can and will corrupt you and hinder your relationship with God.

That’s why I’m constantly asking God to place a hedge of thorns around my children and remove every person from their lives that does not belong and whose influence is steering them in the wrong direction…

It’s vital that we close some doors… Amen?

If we want to see the oil poured out in our lives we’ve got to close some doors.

There’s something else here that needs to be mentioned also.

No where in these passages of scripture do I read that this widow ever questioned the instructions of the Prophet of God…

Faith and Obedience to the Word of God are still principles for the christian life today… His word hasn’t changed and the word says:

The just shall live by faith and without faith it’s impossible to please God…

But the kind of faith that is pleasing to God is an “Obedient faith”…

Faith and obedience are still required!

Look with me at verses 6 & 7:

Tell your neighbor he almost done…

I want you to know tonight that Heaven hasn’t gone out of business and God hasn’t run out of oil…

God hasn’t run out of nothing… He’s got an endless supply… The oil of healing, the oil of deliverance, the oil of any other miracle you can think of…

Who in here tonight could use an oil change…?

I’ll take one, Amen…

Stay with me here, I’m almost done… I want you to get this in your spirit…

The magnitude of the miracle is dependent on your faith and obedience.

As long as she had an empty vessel the oil just kept on pouring out.

It wasn’t until she had filled all that she had that the oil ceased…

There’s more than enough oil to go around.

There’s always more oil… The issue isn’t with the oil , the issue’s not with the oil supplier… come on somebody… the issue is… There’s not enough empty vessels to be filled…

We talk about Azusa street and we reminisce about Brownsville and how amazing those revivals were and we’re asking and praying for God to send a revival that rivals all revivals…

And God’s asking where’s the empty vessels?

If I could only find some empty vessels to pour into.

2 Chronicles 16:9 says that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.

I’m telling you tonight that God’s looking for a vessel… And the oil is still flowing… Amen?

People seem to like to talk about what God did back then and How God used to move way back then and sometimes you’ll hear them say… Well, God’s moving again like he did way back yonder…

The fact of the matter is God has never stopped moving…

If it appears that God has stopped moving that just means that you've stopped moving with God…

Woe to us when our memories become more than our present experiences…