Empty Spaces
Empty Spaces • Sermon • Submitted
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· 141 viewsIn this lesson Pastor Bogan discusses the danger of not replacing the 'old' with the 'new' and not settling with mere cosmetic changes.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Before I introduce my sermon for today, I want to show a clip. This clip is about 35sec long. The clip is from a film released in 2003 based on the children’s book The Cat In The Hat. In this particular scene the trouble-making Cat arrives at the home of two ‘bored’ children, Sally and her brother Conrad. Hoping for a fun time, the two children invite the cat into their home. Things get interesting when the cat opens his box and releases two of his friends—Thing 1 and Thing 2! You might get a kick out this (if not, then maybe your kids will).
(VIDEO CLIP — Home Wreacker)
The moral of the story is: be careful who you let in your house! That’s a nice segue into today’s topic or sermon, which is taken from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 12. Here Jesus reminds us of the danger of allowing the wrong ‘THINGS’ into our house (lives)!
Matthew 12:43-45
The setting for this statement actually goes all the way back to verse 22 where Jesus ‘exorcised’ or cast out an evil spirit from a man (Matthew 12:22). In seeing this, the Pharisees and religious leaders of that day accused Jesus of sorcery and operating by the power of Beelzebub (Satan). This began a long discussion on whether Jesus was truly sent from God. If He was, then they would have to hear His words and obey them. If He wasn’t, then they could dismiss everything He said. To settle the matter, the Pharisees demanded a sign from Jesus (in addition to the many signs He already performed). Jesus responded to their request by condemning them as ‘evil’ (unbelieving) and He compared their refusal to believe on Him without a sign to the Ninevites who believed at the preaching of the word from Jonah!
Then we come to verse 43 where Jesus gives them a parable, one which an evil spirit is cast out of a house but the house is left empty (nothing is filling the space left by the evil spirit). Jesus points out that this is dangerous because when the evil spirit returns and sees the empty space, he’s going to fill it with someTHING worse than himself!
Now, my question to you is this: Who is Jesus directing this warning to? Is he warning the man out of whom He just cast out an evil spirit? Or, is He warning the Pharisees and the people of Israel? Really, both.
On one hand, this is a general warning to everyone of the danger of not filling our house (lives) with ‘good things’ (Proverbs 24:3, 4).
The words wisdom, understanding and knowledge are all synonymous. Wisdom is the ability to apply what one learns through experience (common sense), understanding is the ability to apply what one has learned through perception and knowledge is the ability to apply what one knows by revelation. Moreover, it is particularly by ‘knowledge’ that one furnishes and fill his house with good things! In other words, when we put into practice what God has said, we are able to fill our lives with good things and, in turn, give no space to the devil (Ephesians 5:22-27).
On the other hand, this parable is also a lesson to the Pharisees and the people in Jesus’ day. It’s an illustration of the state of Israel. Israel was a lot like the house in this parable. Israel had been infected with an evil spirit of idolatry (during the reign of the kings). However, after 70 years of captivity Israel was delivered of that spirit put away their foreign gods. But, their problem was they never replaced their house with true religion and obedience to God’s word. They were content to simply “garnish” it with man-made traditions (Matthew 12:44). The word ‘garnish’ means to adorn or to be clean in appearance (kosméō / cosmetics). Jesus had accused this generation of this very thing (Matthew 23:25, 27, 28). Have we not committed the same crime? We have replaced the idols which we once worshipped in the world with white-washed traditions (going to church, singing in the choir, etc). It seems we’ve simply replaced empty spaces with attractive spaces, but our hearts are still filled with iniquity (covetousness, selfishness, arrogance, pride, lust, the list goes on).
The problem with replacing empty spaces with attractive spaces, is in the end they’re still just SPACES. (This maybe why God chose to remove us from our churches—because although they’re attractive spaces, they are still just SPACE!) The trouble with space is that it will eventually get filled with some THING. Usually something BAD. It’s like the story of The Cat in the Hat. The Cat came to the house of two ‘bored’ children. And he brought with him some THING, actually TWO some THINGS. Now, we laugh when we see these two THINGS wreaking havock on the home because we know that in the end everything will be put back where it belongs. But that’s only in children’s stories. In real life it’s no laughing matter when we allow evil things into our lives because the ending is not always pleasant (Matthew 12:45).
Church, we can’t afford to come out of this time with new makeup. New makeup would be these shallow commitments I hear people make. “When I come out of this season I’m going back to church!” We need to do more than simply ‘go to church.’ We need to become the church (fill the house and establish it on a good foundation). The only way we can accomplish this is by putting into practice what we hear. If we don’t, we’re going to find ourselves rejecting what we hear. Truth must be acted on immediately. It doesn’t keep very well in storage. Just ask the Israelites. They tried to keep the manna overnight and it spoiled (bread worms). Today, the manna (word) will also spoil, but instead of being consumed by worms, Satan will come and take it away from you (Matthew 13:18, 19). By the way, ‘understanding’ is the result of obedience (Psalm 111:10).
John 12:35, 36
How can darkness overtake light? He didn’t say that darkness will overtake the light. He said darkness will overtake YOU (John 12:35, 36). The light will eventually leave you. Therefore, if you do not become light (by walking in it), then darkness will overtake your house. And your last state will be worse than the first!
This was the state of Israel at the time of these words from Christ. They were in a state of darkness, only they did not know it! Not only did they not know they were in darkness, but they thought they were in the light (truth). This is the real danger of failing to walk in truth—you receive an even greater darkness than you had before you found the truth (Matthew 6:22, 23). Here the “eye” is a reference to our spiritual perception. When we fail to walk in the light (truth), we not only lose our spiritual perception, but the light (truth) gets replaced by darkness. But, not just any darkness. A darkness that believes it is light!
Therein lies the moral of the story. If we do not replace error (idolatry) with obedience to the truth, then we get something worse—a false sense of security (Revelation 3:15-17). A false sense of security is even worse than being infected with a spirit of idolatry. Why? Because a false sense of security causes men to believe they are right when they aren’t. The problem with thinking you’re right when you’re really not is you’re rarely open to correction! And this is where we are in our culture. We’re convinced nothing’s wrong with us. And anyone trying to say otherwise is a legalist and preaching condemnation. It’s almost impossible to bring correction to the Church today without somebody accusing you of being negative or ‘judging’ people unlawfully.
As a result, we’ve now thrown out entire sections of the Bible claiming that they are not for us today, or that the apostles didn’t mean what we think they meant, or even that God is not doing today what He did then. They’ve convinced us that this is a new version of God (God 2.0), even though God said, “I am the Lord I change not. I am the same yesterday, today and forevermore.”
Something happens when we stop building our house (lives) on the rock. We’ll eventually start rejecting the rock. Builders who do not build with the rock (obey it), will eventually despise and reject it (Acts 4:11)! Get the makeup case out of your hand. Even get the mop bucket and soap spunge out of your hand, and bring in the movers! We’re spending too much time trying to clean and not enough time trying to fill. If you will get busy filling your life, God will come behind you and do the cleaning! We’re tying to make the house look perfect, instead of putting energy into filling the house. God wants His house filled—not only with guests, but also with good things!