From Empty to Filled

Are you empty this morning? Does it feel like things are empty? I want to suggest this morning that empty might just be right where God needs you to be.

The problem with empty is that we feel like we need to fill it. Let me say that again…the problem with empty is that we feel like WE need to fill it. If there is silence, we must say something. If we don’t have something on our calendar, we need to schedule something.

I think there are times that we miss a blessing because we take matters into our own hands and don’t allow the space for us to hear what the Spirit of God is trying to tell us.

Before we get to the meat of the message today, I want to read two passages of scripture. Hopefully these will encourage you not to feel despair in what feels like a time of empty. The first is from Luke 5. Jesus is starting his time of ministry and has not called the disciples yet. At the end of Luke 4, Jesus heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and many others. Word was getting out about Jesus and what is was able to do and what he was teaching. People began to follow him around to see what he would do next...

Luke 5:1–11 NIV

1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

Jesus takes the empty nets of Simon Peter and fills them to over flowing. They had fished all night unsuccessfully and in the morning the take the time to listen to Jesus. He then tells them to take their empty nets and cast them again. Logic tells us that repeating the same action gets the same result, but with Jesus the result is different. An empty net becomes a full net. So full in fact that the nets could not contain the catch. Such is the work of God.

You would think that this turnaround in business would prompt the fishermen to double down on their business, but they recognized a greater opportunity to follow Jesus. They left it all.

They worked all night to fill the nets. Jesus made it happen in one cast. Then they left it all behind to follow Jesus.

Turn with me now to John 21. This is after the resurrection. They had already had an encounter with the risen Jesus, but they were still in limbo…I imagine there were wondering what would happen next.

John 21:1–14 NIV

1 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. 5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. 6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. 7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

I love that Jesus took some of the same men all the way back to the beginning of their time together. Took them all the way back and did the very same thing for them again.

Empty nets. Jesus even asked if they had any fish, just so they could verbalize that they had caught nothing. Then he tells them to cast again on the right side and that they’d find some. Haha…find SOME they did. Once again, empty nets become full and they all realize they have just had another encounter with the Son of God.

Empty might be just where God needs you to be. How else are you going to recognize a move of the Lord in your life? If they had caught fish either time, do you think they would have even had the need to cast again? Sometimes we need to be in a state of emptiness so the Lord can prompt us…how full are you? Lord, I’m empty. Then he can tell us where to cast that we might be full.

Turn with me to Acts 1. The book of acts picks up the events after the resurrection and chronicles the formation of the church. The book of Acts then tells us how the church spread from a meeting of the disciples in an upstairs room to the rest of the world. The spread of the church would not have been possible without the filling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told us in John 16:

John 16:7 NIV

7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

If Jesus sticks around, the Holy Spirit would not come. So he had to go. In verse 9 of Acts 1, he goes. He ascends while the disciples watch. After that, I imagine they weren’t sure what to do. What they did though, positioned them to be able to receive the filling of the Holy Spirit they didn’t even know they needed. Let’s read in verse 12:

Acts 1:12–14 NIV

12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

They gather together and prayed. Constantly. If you are in a position where you feel empty, pray, constantly. And don’t do it alone. Bring along those you trust the most.

I think sometimes when we hear the word prayer, we think we have to do all the talking. In effect, we say “Your servant is here Lord, listen to me speak.”

I imagine the joining together in prayer in the upstairs room had more listening than talking. They were saying: “Your servants are here Lord, speak.”

What would it look like if we spent more time listening than talking when we pray? I think there is benefits in listening over talking in our daily lives, but that’s another sermon for another time. When we pray, are we just looking for God to do something, or are we also looking for Him to show us something? To tell us something...

If you are feeling empty, be encouraged, you are likely right where God wants you. Take the example of the disciples and pray. Constantly.

After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, this is what they did. They prayed - constantly.

God then led them to fill the leadership role vacated by Judas. Then Acts 2...

Acts 2:1–4 NIV

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Jesus dies and is buried. He rises on the third day and spends 40 days with the disciples (Acts 1:3) and the ascends to heaven. Ten days later at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fills the disciples.

For 10 days, the disciples pray. They are together and they pray constantly.

Are you feeling empty? Pray and wait. Then as Acts 2:2 says Suddenly something is going to happen. It happened suddenly when they were fishing. The very next cast after Jesus provided direction suddenly filled their nets.

After 10 days of constant time together in prayer, suddenly the Holy Spirit filled them. From empty to filled…suddenly.

The moment they were filled, they were now equipped to go and do what Jesus told them to do earlier in Acts:

Acts 1:8 NIV

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Without the filling of the Holy Spirit, they could not and would not fulfill this command. But in order for them to be filled, they had to be empty first.

They emptied themselves out in prayer.

In their time of greatest emptiness, the Holy Spirit came and filled them.

Sheri Dursin wrote this prayer of emptying.

Lord, I bring to you all that is on my plate.  The noise, the clutter, the chaos, and the distractions.  Help me to empty myself so that I may see you, hear you, and feel your presence.

Loving God, may your Spirit come to move my life. Empty the interior space of my soul that I may receive you and discover who I truly am.

Lord, I bring to you my fears and worries…all the things that are so heavy and hard to carry. I place them into your hands.

Loving God, may your Spirit come to move my life.  I place my trust in you. I place my faith in you. I place my life in you.

Lord, I bring to you my burdens. Things that I cannot control weigh me down like a heavy rock.  On the days that I am tired, stressed, and weary, I know that you walk with me.

Loving God, may your Spirit come to move my life.  I know that you are my rock—my cornerstone—and I can find rest in you.

https://hearinggodswhisper.com/2020/01/09/a-prayer-of-emptying/