Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today. I'll ask you to turn with me to 2 Kings chapter number 4 in the Word of God. 2 Kings chapter number 4. I do pastor the only Slippery Rock Baptist Church in the entire world. There's not another one. It is named after the community where we live, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Slippery Rock University is right across the street from our church, and we bring in university students from that university, as well as another college local to us every Sunday. And I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to have my family with me, three children and my wife. And we owe the thanks to that to the Wilcox family. We came in yesterday to spend some time with brother Wilcox. I've known him for quite some time. Matter of fact, I've known him long enough that he ought to be living better than what he's living right now. But evidently that has fallen off a bit. We're glad to see them here and enjoy today a fellowship with them yesterday and looking forward to what God has for us this morning. I'll be reading the first seven verses of 2 Kings chapter number 4. You are familiar with the story. I will certainly rely on that familiarity with the story to skip some of the implications that are already in your mind. But if you would read carefully and conscientiously verse 1 through verse number 7. And I want to talk to you this morning about the power of empty things. The power of empty things. 2 Kings chapter 4 verse 1. Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead. And thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and thou shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.' So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the word of God says, And the oil stayed. The end of it is in verse number 7. Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. I'm especially interested in this woman that we are introduced to in verse number 1. In verse number one through verse number two, we learn several crucial factors about her life that I'd like to point out to you by way of introduction. Number one, this woman was widowed. The Bible says to us in verse number one, thy servant, my husband is dead. We are not afforded any information concerning her age. She must have been young because she still had two sons that were living with her at home. But by the time verse number one is recorded, her husband has now died. The Bible tells us that her husband had a loving relationship with Elijah. Therefore, she had a connection with Elijah, the man of God. Pardon me, Elisha, the man of God. And the emotional pain of losing her spouse has come to overtake her life. She is left alone in a home with two sons. You can imagine the turmoil that must have been stirring in her conscience and in her soul as now she becomes a father and a mother to them. The Word of God indicates to us that in the loss of her husband, all of her protections were gone. All of the influence of a godly father are now gone. All of the security of a dad in the home is now gone. Of course we understand, as the story plays out, that the provisions of fatherhood are now gone. The guidance of a father is now gone and now all of that responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of this newly widowed woman. She now is responsible to protect and to influence and to secure and to provide and to guide her two sons as in the absence of their father. It's very important that you underscore that in your mind that this was a widowed woman. But she wasn't just a widowed woman. The Bible tells us in verse number one at the end that this woman who was widowed is also Welshing. She was what the world today would call indigent. She couldn't pay her bills. It was not intentional. It was not because of some personal irresponsibility that she did not have the money to pay her bills, but because of the obvious circumstances that are spelled out in the story, she is unable to pay a debt that was left in her responsibility by her husband. Again, looking at the words of verse number one, she said, Thy servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord. And the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. I'm very interested in that concept of her sons being taken into custody as bondmen. According to Old Testament law, creditors could enslave their debtors until the debt was paid. We learned that because of the words of Exodus 21 and of course Deuteronomy chapter number 15 that you are familiar with. That period of servitude, that period of enslavement could last as long as seven years or until the debt was paid or until the year of jubilee rolled around of which all debts were forgiven. However, this creditor seemed to take advantage of her in her destitution. By the way, I remind you also there was a grace spelled out in Deuteronomy 15 verse number 1 through verse number 18 that didn't allow creditors to take advantage of destitute people. But this must have been a heartless, unforgiving, and unjust creditor because he has come and with no negotiation whatsoever has set in motion a plan to take her sons, her two only sons from her, to become bondmen. You see how the story is unfolding. She is a widow. She is well seen. The third very interesting factor of her life comes in verse number two, where we've learned that she is not only a widow and she is Welsh, but she is wanting. Notice what he says in verse number two, And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath nothing, or thine handmaid hath not anything in the house, save this pot of oil." The pot of oil that is described in verse number 2 was used for cooking, but it was worthless to her because she had nothing else. She had the utensils to cook with and she had the oil to cook with, but she had nothing to make bread for her hungry sons. And I remind you of the destitution that she has reached. There are three people now living in this house and all three of them are famished. They are starving. Imagine being a woman whose greatest influence in life is death. She has watched her husband die, and now she is preparing herself to watch not just one, but two of her sons also die. And after she watches them die, she is again preparing herself to die alone. It's hard to imagine what she was living with. The influence that was greatest in her life was not living, but dying. Number three, this woman was widowed. This woman was welshing. This woman was wanting. But I love how verse number one ends and we learn there that this woman was worshiping. At the end of verse number one, we read these words, Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant, my husband, is dead, and thou knowest, now watch this, don't miss it, thy servant did fear the Lord. She married a godly man. She married a man who knew the principles of the Proverbs, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, so she was married to a wise man. The Bible tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, so she was married to a knowledgeable man. He was godly by every measure of our imagination. And no man who had that kind of quality, no man who had that kind of living would ever unite himself to a woman of no wisdom, of no knowledge, of no character, of no godliness. This was no unequal yoke. They were joined together by the principles of mutual love, but not only their mutual love one for another, but their mutual love for the Lord. The Bible says in verse number one, thy servant did fear the Lord, and the Lord whom he feared sovereignly chose to take him home. So as a worshiper herself, She trusting the same God that her husband feared, the same God that took her husband, now the same God that will provide for her in her wantonness. In fact, in verse number one, she knew exactly where to turn as a worshiper. She didn't turn, and I have to color up the story a little bit to help us better relate to it. She didn't turn to a state senator. She didn't turn to a local mayor. She didn't turn to a government official. She didn't turn to the government for welfare. She went, Brother Armacost, I love this, she went straight to the man of God. because she knew that her problem, though represented by death and hunger and destitution, was ultimately a spiritual problem. And you cannot settle a spiritual problem through carnal means. So she went right to the source that her husband had always gone to. Elisha, God's man. Her problems had to do with death. Her problems had to do with children. Her problems had to do with money. Her problems had to do with hunger. Her problems had to do with loneliness. And she knew that the only one that had the answer to all of those problems was Elisha, the man of God, that could tell her exactly what God wanted her to do. She didn't throw in the towel. She didn't quit. She sought help from God. Now that's the introduction, but I want you to look with me at verse number two again as we compound the message. And we find in verse number two that look at how the man of God responded to her concerns. Elisha responded to her concerns with a question of his own. Verse two, and Elisha said unto her, what shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? And I love how she answers this in verse number two. Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil. That's it. All of us come to a place in our lives where we throw up our hands and say, Lord, I have nothing. I don't know what to do. The Bible tells us that when we are seeking God, when we are pursuing God, we are not to lean to our own understanding. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, lean not to thine own understanding. It didn't say that we could not have understanding, it just said we couldn't trust it. And she didn't have any answers. She didn't have any understanding. She didn't have any means of coming to a conclusion. She said, I have nothing, I am empty. It was her emptiness that put her in a position to experience her miracle. And what Elisha told her to do, and the song leader was talking about feeling charismatic, I feel a little bit bad to cost her right now myself. What Elisha told her to do is the stuff of legends among those that appreciate the miracles of the Bible. He said to her in verse 3 and 4, go. Borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels. Would you underscore that? At least in your mind, I have highlighted it in my Bible. I have underlined it. And in my outline, I have it highlighted again. Empty vessels, borrow not a few, he says in verse 3. When thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and thou shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full." You see the emptiness? This is so far into the thinking of the world that when we are empty, what we need is more emptiness. As a matter of fact, he said to her, basically, you're empty, your stomach is empty, your sons are empty, your cupboards are empty, your table is empty. By implication, we could understand that her arms were empty because her husband was no longer there. Her bed was empty. And the man of God said to her, what you need is more emptiness. It is not fullness that you need. It is more emptiness because God is attracted. Hear me well. God has a special attraction to empty things. God never leaves things empty. He seeks that which is void. He seeks that which has created a vacuum so that he may fill it. The Bible tells us that he created a vast canvas of creation in the book of Genesis in chapter one and chapter number two and immediately began to fill it. The Bible tells us over and over and over again, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away and behold, all things have become new. He created you in order to fill you. He made you empty for a purpose and it is your emptiness that puts you in a position to be full of what God wants you to be full of. Hear me well. Everybody is full of somebody. You're either full of yourself, or you're full of Satan, or you're full of the Spirit. Can a believer be full of Satan? You remember when the Apostle Peter was preaching in the New Testament in the early church at Jerusalem and Ananias and Sapphira came in and they had broken the vow that they made to the church? And you remember what Peter said about Ananias and Sapphira in his spirit-filled message? He said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? You can be full of the devil. Some of y'all probably are full of the devil right now. You're welcome. I want to be your friend, but everybody in this building is full of somebody. You're either full of yourself, or you're full of the devil, or you're full of the Spirit. You can't be full of the Spirit and full of yourself at the same time. You have to empty yourself of all of those diabolical realities so you can be filled with a spiritual reality. And the word from the man of God was, go out in the neighborhood and find, this is a marvel to me, go out in the neighborhood and find everything empty you can find and bring it home with you. What we need is more emptiness. Collect all the emptiness that you can get around you and just sit in the middle of it and wait for God to do something. We have all experienced situations in our lives where we've thrown up our hands. I've been through Bible college all the way to the top. We've all experienced what it feels like to have more bills than you do month. when there's not enough fuel to fill up the tank of your car. I remember when I was in Bible college, I had three roommates, three toe-headed idiots that I lived with. And I remember a season of time, especially during the second semester when everybody's getting burnt out. You know what I'm talking about? Everything's getting kind of old and everything is being tried. Well, y'all act like y'all don't know anything about that kind of stuff. Some of y'all got halos around your head right now, but I think it's where your horns are growing together. I know exactly where you are. And I remember a time, Brother Armin Koss, when me and my friends, we sat around the table and we had to take turns eating. One ate breakfast, one ate lunch, and one ate supper, because we didn't have enough food to buy. And we were too proud to go and ask somebody for help. We know what it feels like to be empty, but that's not bad. As a matter of fact, when you are empty, you have right then the attention of God Almighty. It is your emptiness that He's been waiting for. He's been waiting for you to come to the end of yourself. He's been waiting for all of your provisions to run their course so He could fill you with what He wants you to be full of. Let's take a look at this woman's life under three headings. If you're accustomed to taking notes, I'll give them to you very briefly, and then you can fill in the blanks. Number one, this was an experience in barrenness. Number two, this was an exercise in belief. And then number three, this was an exhibition in bountifulness. Let's start in verse 1 through verse number 2. This was an experience in barrenness. You're familiar with the story. I'm going to rely on your familiarity with the story so that I don't have to go back and read every verse only to pull out the points that God wants me to make. But I remind you that there is something about emptiness that seizes the attention of Almighty God. In fact, the fuller you are, the less God can do with you. Because you're too self-sufficient. You're too self-made. You're too self-reliant. You're too self-aggrandizing. Is anybody getting this? Too much of you and not enough of Him. There's something God makes obvious about emptiness. You can never have fullness until you know emptiness. I remind you it was the Lord Jesus Christ that said in the Beatitudes, blessed are they, Matthew chapter 5, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for, what did he say? They shall be filled. It wasn't until hunger and thirst became a reality that Jesus said you could know fullness. The greatest act of Christ in his life was when he was thirsty. The greatest miracle of strength in Jesus' life was when He was hungry. I remind you that He began His ministry hungry when on the mountain of temptation, Satan tempted Him to turn stones into bread after He had been fasting for 40 days. Y'all getting this? He began His ministry in Matthew chapter number 4 hungry. And the Bible tells us while He was hanging on the cross, He said, I thirst. He started hungry, he ended thirsty. And his whole ministry is a demonstration of what it looks like to be filled with righteousness. You'll never know that fullness until you're hungry. You'll never know that reality until you are thirsty. The fact of the matter is, And I didn't come all the way over here to Indiana, over here to fast time from slow time. I didn't come all the way over here to Indiana to upset you, but I need to tell you something today. God sent me here to tell you this. The reason why some of you cannot be used, God wants to do something with you and God wants to do something through you. But you can't have God do something with you and you can't see God do something through you until you let God do something in you. There has to be an inflow. There has to be an overflow that comes from the inside or we will never see God do something with us and never see God do something through us until we let God do something in us. I remind you of another widow. She lived in a place called Bethlehem, Judah. Her name was Naomi. Ultimately, her name would be changed to Mara because she experienced tremendous bitterness. And Ruth chapter number one tells us that she left Bethlehem, Judah, the house of bread. And her own testimony in Ruth one in verse number 21 was, I went out full and the Lord, did you hear that? The Lord hath brought me back empty. There would be no Ruth without Naomi. There would be no Boaz without Naomi. And I remind you that of all the chapters in the book of Ruth, the last chapter is the theme of the story, and that is that Boaz begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David, and through the lineage of David came Jesus Christ. It was in her emptiness that God started a magnanimous miracle that would change the world when one woman got empty. What this woman was experiencing was barrenness. What this woman experienced is precisely what the Lord wants us to experience today. The New Testament actually calls upon us to be filled with all of the fullness of God, and be not drunk with wine where it is in excess, but be filled with the Spirit. That is, we can be filled with God the Father, we can be filled with God the Son, we can be filled with God the Spirit, but we have to empty ourselves of who we are to take on that miracle. Anybody get anything out of this? This was a exercise, experience. This was an experience in barrenness. But let me show you secondly, in verse number three through verse number four, and I'm right on time. Watch this, verse three through verse number four. This was an exercise in belief. Look at what she did. This widowed woman didn't seek one human solution for her spiritual problem. She sought the counsel of a spiritual man in her life, Elisha. In fact, look at verse number three. Go, his words to her were, go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels borrow not a few. And by faith, she took the word of the man of God and she acted upon that promise. And in no small fashion, she instructed her sons to follow likewise. The Bible says she borrowed vessels abroad of all of her neighbors, even empty vessels she borrowed, not a few. And you're sitting here right now, many of you are sitting here right now thinking, that is not the answer I've been looking for. That's not what I thought this was going to be about. I've tried that and it doesn't work for me. I remember not too long ago the story of a pastor friend of mine. He told me about a man in his church that was struggling. This man came to his pastor for insight and he said to his pastor in his office, he said, pastor, I just, I just feel empty. I pick up my Bible and it seems like there's nothing there for me. I kneel down and I pray just like I've committed to the Lord to do every day, but it seems like there's nothing coming out of my prayer life. I've even gotten to the place where I'm so cold in some areas that I go to the house of God and I'm not getting anything at the house of God. I just feel empty. This pastor said to him, I love this, the pastor said to him, he said, you see that wicker basket over there on my table? He said, yeah, I do. And he said, go get that wicker basket. Take it out and fill up a gallon jug with water. And take that water and fill up that wicker basket with the water. And he looked at his pastor just like y'all are looking at me right now. What, are you crazy? Has your cheese slid off your cracker? You're a few fries short of a happy meal. That went over like screen doors on a submarine. Fill up a whisker basket with water? I started to say fill up a basket with whiskey. That's not what we're talking about. Forgive me. So he did. He walked out and he got a gallon jug and he filled it up with water and he took the basket and he poured. And the water just flowed right through the bottom of the basket. He poured again and he kept another gallon, kept going and pouring and pouring and pouring. And he came in back in the office with the wicker basket. I feel like Porky Pig all of a sudden. He came in back in the office with the wicker basket and he said, Pastor, Pastor, I've tried to fill it up and I can't keep it full. It will not fill up. I can't keep it full. I pour and I pour and I pour. What's the point? He said, you can't keep it full? He said, no, I can't keep it full. He said, yeah, but look at how much more clean the basket is now. And you may feel that way. You keep pouring in, and pouring in, and pouring in, and you're making your grades, and you're doing your best, and you're trying to impress the ladies. You're looking for the right one. You're looking for that girl whose hair is so hairy, whose nose is so nosy, whose skin is so skinny. And you're doing everything to make all that happen. What? I'm not stupid. Right? And you girls need to make sure that your hair is hairy, your nose is nosy, and your skin is skinny. That's fine. Nothing seems to be working. I'll tell you what, don't lose faith in your Bible. Don't lose faith in your prayer life. Don't lose faith with your experiences on the campus of the house of God. Because God is cleaning you up. And one of these days He's going to fill you up after He cleans you up. It's an experience in barrenness. It is an exercise in belief. What we learn about this woman in verse number four is so revealing. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and thou shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. The need was private and the man of God said, your need will be met not publicly but privately. And this is what he said. I love this preacher. He said, go into a private place. Does this sound familiar to any of you? Shut the door. Jesus said, but thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. And when thou has shut the door, Pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth thee in secret shall reward thee openly." That's exactly what she needed. She had to go somewhere where she could close the door behind her and seek the face of God. And by faith, she did exactly what the man of God said. Now, I'm no Elisha. I'm no prophet. I'm not one of the sons of the prophets. I'm no apostle. I'm none of those things. But I can tell you this, if you will act on what the Bible tells you to do, you're going to find your emptiness in that, where God can make you full. There's a third and last. In verse number 5 through verse number 6, We learned, remember, we learned in verse 1 and verse number 2, this was an experience in barrenness. We learned in verse 3 and verse number 4, this was an exercise in belief. But you'll remember in verse 5 through verse number 6, this was an exhibition in bountifulness. Let's read that. Verse 5, So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her. And she poured out, and it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the Bible says at the end of verse number 6, And the oil stayed. That is a very interesting development. It came to pass when the vessels were full that she said unto her son, bring me yet a vessel. She went from emptiness to fullness in the miracle. Now, I don't want you to miss this. There's been a lot of the mess. There's about 10 pounds of sausage and a five pound bag here. So there's a lot in the message, but I don't want you to miss this. As soon as she came to a point of fullness, the miracle stopped. You get that? That's exactly what's going to happen to you. As soon as you come to a place of fullness, whatever it is that has filled you up, the miracle is going to stop. You have to continually come to God with emptiness. And as long as you have something empty, He'll keep pouring it in you. But the very day, you hear me well, get your graduate degree, get your bachelor's degree, get your master's degree, go all the way up to your doctorate and keep filling it up and filling it up and filling it up. But if there's ever a time when you feel like you have nothing left to be filled, the book closes and the miracle stops. She was so full that the Bible said she had enough vessels that she could feed her neighbors. She could sell and make money from this. It's very much like what happened in the Gospels when Jesus fed the 5,000. It had to be much more than 5,000. If there were 5,000 men, the Bible says they didn't count the women and the children. We know that there were children there because there was a boy with five loaves and two fishes. So there were children there. And then if there were children there, you know they had to have wives that were there. If every man brought his wife, that would be 10,000. If every husband and wife brought one child, that would be 15,000. If they all brought two of their children, that would be 20,000. It's hard to calculate how many people Jesus fed that day, but they all were fed. Can I get an amen right there? I love that. It was a little lad with a little lunch. for a massive multitude and it left behind a whole lot of leftovers. God can do that with you. So I'm nothing. I'm nobody. That's exactly how you need to feel about yourself. My mother and father were not married. My dad was everything you can imagine a sinner being. Married five times. He beat every woman that he was married to, sought drunk, gambler. My mother was married five times. They were never married one to another. In the middle of all of that, God allowed me to come into this world along with my twin brother who is pastoring an independent Baptist church in Tampa, Florida. the armpit of the world. He looks just like me. He talks just like me. He preaches just like me. We're both expositors of the scripture. We're dedicated to the Word of God. We both believe the King James Bible. We both live separated lives. We love our church. He's got beautiful children. I have three children and two of them are beautiful. Amen. So I might take a mulligan on that one, but we do have three, amen, and my beautiful girls, and then my ugly son. Boy, he is ugly as the north side of a southbound mule, I'm telling you. But we're blessed in so many ways, and I don't know how to explain this to you, but you hear me well. Some of you may have come back from the same background. You hear me well. God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick, and he can do that with you. You don't have to have all of the accolades of this world. Thank God for what you're getting. Get everything you can get. If I had the mind of some of you young men, I'd go all the way to the top of my education. Get everything you can get. Ladies, invest and soak up everything you can get out of these days in college. But I'm telling you, there's gonna have to come a time when you have to say, Lord, I am empty. And I need you more than I need anything else. Lord, fill me. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 5 says, Brother Paul says to us, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.