Make Room | Real Springcreek Church | Dr. Jessica Fernandez

What a beautiful song to end with.

Worthy is your name.

Worthy is your name.

Worthy is your name.

Everything that's inside of me, Lord, cries out to you because worthy is your name.

How many of you know that God is worthy of all our praise?

All our praise.

Everything that we are, everything that He has created us, He is worthy of it all.

Uh, welcome to Spring Creek Church.

My name is Pastor Jessica, and I'm a teaching pastor here.

It is always an honor and a privilege to be able to do this.

Listen, Pastor Keith is living his best life right now in South America, doing what God has called him to do.

It's so beautiful to see him doing that, but also knowing that he is being filled at the same time and rejuvenate.

Because y'all know what happens to pastors when they take vacation.

They come back, they just on fire.

Okay.

So listen, when Pastor Keith comes back, you know you don't want to miss that service because he's going to be on fire.

And I'm all for it.

So before we get started, let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this day that you have given us, Lord.

I pray for every person in this place.

Father, that they would leave here differently than the way that they walked in, Lord Jesus.

Father, we thank you for our pastor.

We pray that you would continue to bless his life, protect him, Lord Jesus, as he is doing what you have called him to do.

We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen, amen, and amen.

So today's message is called make room.

Make room.

So I have a confession.

Uh, for those of you that know me, I love watching videos.

I am constantly watching videos.

Um, but the types of videos I like, so well, first there's two.

So somebody called me out on it in the first service, okay?

I do love a good animal dancing video, okay?

Um, y'all know that because I send them to you all the time.

Like, look at this one, look at this one.

And uh the second video that I like, I love decluttering videos, okay?

These are my favorite.

Yup, see, we got a fan right here.

Decluttering videos are the best.

Now, I will have to say this Pastor Tammy has to endure this because I'm like, oh my god, can you believe she has one dog and 10 dog pets?

What does she need with that?

She's like, okay, Jessica.

And so I just love them.

I love these videos.

I watched them all the clutter bug.

I watch the minimalist mom.

I watched the space, the spacemaker.

But I'm gonna have to give you a warning uh uh about this situation.

When you start watching some of these videos, something will happen to you, okay?

Your life will begin to change, so beware.

Don't say I didn't warn you, okay?

You're gonna start walking around your house and you will start to realize that maybe you need to be on the show, right?

Maybe, maybe they need to come and put you on there, okay?

Because you're you're looking at your house and you're thinking, my house is a mess, and I cannot possibly fit one more thing in this house.

You look at your closets and they are completely full.

You look at your drawers and they're they're completely full.

You look at your garage and listen, it's hot mess express in there, okay?

And some of you are supposed to have cars in there, but you have everything else but the cars.

You have furniture, refrigerator, sink, you know, a stove, whatever you can fit in there, except for what's actually supposed to go in there.

And sometimes, uh, and somehow Amazon keeps showing up at the door, Shein keeps showing up, and Walmart Plus keeps showing up at the door, right?

And those of you that are laughing especially hard, you're telling on yourselves right now.

And so maybe, maybe that's not you, right?

Maybe that's not you.

Maybe I'm just telling on myself because I do have hoarder tendencies, but I'm not the I'm I'm I'm not the only one, right?

So there's a story about two brothers who lived in New York named Homer and Langley Coilier.

These were wealthy brothers, they were educated brothers, uh, men who lived in a four-story brownstone in Harlem.

So if any of you are from New York, you know that these brownstones are super, super expensive.

But over the years, they started accumulating things, lots and lots of things.

They accumulated newspapers and books and furniture and musical instruments and bicycles and chandeliers.

And they even had parts of Ford Mortar T car parts in the house, which was the first affordable, mass-produced car for regular Americans like myself.

But they just kept adding and adding stuff.

Stuff that they believed in their hearts was important and stuff that they believed was valuable.

And eventually there was so much stuff inside their four-story house that they had to create little hamster tunnels through the clutter just to move from room to room.

Y'all think about that.

They had a four-story house, but eventually there was barely any room left to actually live in that house.

And that's the danger of accumulation.

Little by little, what you keep bringing in can eventually take over the space you were supposed to be living in.

A place for the valuable and important things uh to you and your family.

So Patrick uh Liancioni says, if everything is important, then nothing is.

And that's what I've learned from all these decluttering videos, too.

At some point, right, you have to decide what gets to stay and what has to go, what's important and what's not important.

Because eventually, if something new is coming in, then something else has to move out.

Why?

Because space is limited.

And the same thing is true in our own personal lives.

We only have so much time, we only have so much attention, we only have so much energy, we only have so much emotional capacity, we only have so much bandwidth in our lives, but yet somehow we keep adding.

We add another responsibility, another commitment, another expectation, another distraction, another thing that's demanding our attention.

And then until eventually our lives become so full that there is very little, little room for anything else in our lives.

And sometimes the problem isn't that everything is is is occupying our lives is bad.

That's that's that's not the problem sometimes.

Some of these things are actually good things that occupy our lives.

Like work, it's good.

Family is good, ministry is good, serving people is good, hobbies are good, and self-care, that's good as well, right?

Responsibilities, those things are good.

And having fun, these are all good things.

But even good things can create a crowded life.

And when our lives become crowded, we we have to ask an important question to ourselves what am I actually making room for?

Because whether we realize it or not, every day we are making room for something.

And what I learned about these clutter decluttering videos is the reason why people end up in clutter is because they have to make thousands and thousands of decisions a day.

And when they become tired of making decisions, then they don't make the decision at all.

And that's how they end up in these cluttered situations.

See, in our lives, we we make room for work and we make room for important relationships, we make room for entertainment and and social media and worry and ambition and other people's, and and and we make room for rest as well.

But the question I want us to wrestle with today is am I intentionally making room for God?

Not just fitting God into whatever space is is left over, not just giving him Sunday morning.

We know that.

That's a given, right?

We're gonna go to church on Sunday morning.

And maybe some of us say, well, you know, I'll give God a little time during the week as well.

Not just calling on him when when something goes wrong in our lives and now and now we're pushing into God a little bit harder.

But but but intentionally creating space and making room for him, for his presence, for his voice in our lives, for his for his word, for for his direction, for the work that he wants to do in us.

Because there is a difference between God being present in your life and you intentionally making room for his presence in your life.

See, what do what do I mean by that?

God is always present.

That's a given.

God is always present.

So so so God is always present, but what are we intentionally being present with him?

See, the Bible tells us a beautiful story uh of a woman whose life was full of great things, but she makes room for even greater.

In 2 Kings, we meet a woman.

The Bible says in 2 Kings chapter 4, verses 8 through 10, I'm gonna read it to you.

2 Kings 4:8–10

It says, One day Elisha went to the town of Shunam.

A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to come to her home for a meal.

And after that, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for something to eat.

She said to her husband, I am sure that this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God.

And then she says, Let's build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, and then he will have a place whenever he comes by.

So here we have a woman who lived in Shunam, which is why we call her the Shunamite woman.

The Shunam was a village in the Jezreel Valley.

This is important because it was a major military and trade route.

The armies traveled through it constantly, and it was known for warfare and it was known for political instability.

But during this time, the nation was corrupt and politically and morally compromised.

The area was successful on the outside.

It was wealthy, it was influential, it was productive.

But spiritually, there was confusion within the people.

The Shunammite woman lived during a town, a time with Baal worship, where it deeply influenced Israel, especially under Queen Jezebel and King Ahab.

Now, in the biblical world, Baal worship was a false Canaanite God.

He was also associated with storms and rain and agricultural fertility and prosperity.

So that made Baal worship tempting in an agri-agricultural society, right?

They're like, okay, this is the God who's gonna who's gonna help my crops, who's gonna help me be prosperous, who's going to, you know, bless everything that I put my hands on, right?

So they believed that if Baal controlled the rain, then worshiping him could secure their livelihood.

So worshiping Baal during that time, it represented a couple things.

It represented trusting creation instead of trusting the creator.

It represented mixing pagan beliefs in it with worship of Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God.

And it also represented seeking blessings without having to be obedient to God.

Because isn't that what people have been doing for always and always and always?

They want the blessings without having to walk in obedience to what God has called them to do.

So people were trying to hold on to God while also absorbing the beliefs and the practices of the culture around them.

See, and in the middle of a society that is completely compromising their beliefs in God, the Shunanite woman represents a small, devoted group who loved the Lord.

See, God always preserves people who refuse to abandon their devotion to him, even when the culture around them has.

And years before, when Israel was saturated with Baal worship, God told Elijah, who is Elisha's mentor, he says in 1 Kings 19, 18, yet I will preserve 7,000 others in Israel who have never bowed down to Baal or kissed him.

And here we are, years later, and the Shunammite woman gives us another picture of that same type of faithfulness and devotion to God.

She lived in a compromised culture, but the culture had not compromised her.

Her faith was still in God, and she could still recognize what was holy, and she could still discern the presence and the work of God when she saw it.

So this story takes place during the ministry of Elisha.

Remember, Elijah was the mentor, Elisha was the mentee.

So most likely during the reign of King Joram, which is the son of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in the northern kingdom of Israel.

So the prophet Elisha functioned as God's voice outside of the corruption to help the people encounter God.

See, this gives us hope because this lets us know that it doesn't matter how corrupt things are around you, that God's word will always be heard in the midst of the chaos.

So even in a corrupt society, God's voice can always be heard so that people can know the truth of who he is.

So who exactly was this woman?

We know about her, we know where she came, but who was she?

What was her character like?

The Bible says, well, she was a wealthy woman, a powerful woman.

She had resources, she had wisdom, and she was an influence in her home.

She makes decisions.

What I love so much is that in verse 10, it says, let's build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp.

And then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.

See, I love this so much because it's like when we start watching all these re-remodeling videos, and we tell our husbands, hey, you know what would be a great idea if we add an extension over here, and this extension could be like my craft room, and it could be my plant room, and it could be my prayer room.

And he's like, What about my room?

Nah, you gotta make your own space.

I that's my idea.

Okay, so she tells she's that woman.

She's like, I think we need to make a room for him.

And you know what?

She's so honored, she has uh such influence in her home that her husband, he's like, sure, babe, let's do it.

Let's let's use our resources so the man of God can dwell here.

See, this is a biblical picture of a woman exercising leadership and spiritual discernment within her home.

You see, remember in verse 9, she says, I am sure that this man is a holy man of God.

I am sure that he is.

This is a woman of discernment.

She recognizes something sacred in Elisha's life.

See, others, they saw a traveling prophet.

They saw a guy that goes from place to place and and and he is is talking to us on behalf of God.

That's what they saw.

But she discerned something different.

She discerned the presence of God.

And because she fears the Lord and because she desires to honor God, she doesn't just allow Elisha to stop by occasionally.

No.

See, occasionally is not good enough for her.

She intentionally creates space for him, not just to visit, not just to sit and have a meal, not just to have a conversation, time, okay, it's time to go home, pack up your stuff and go home.

No, she makes space for him to dwell in her home.

See, she makes room for him in her home.

And she becomes, and that becomes the turning point of this whole story.

So, in other words, she recognizes that there is something different about him.

And whatever it is that's following him, whatever it is, I want more of that.

She discerns that God is at work.

And once she recognizes it, she decides because how many of you know that women, we love declarations.

I love a good declaration.

Listen, I have made so many declarations over dinner time, it's ridiculous.

Guys, on Monday, we're all going on a diet and I'm throwing away all the junk food.

Everyone's doing it with me, right?

We love declarations.

Guys, we're gonna we're gonna get out of debt, we're gonna stop spending money.

But let me just order three more things on Amazon, right?

We love a good declaration.

How many of you know when a woman decides?

When a woman decides, is gonna happen.

So she recognizes that God's at work, she decides, and then she says, I don't, I don't just want God's work passing through my life.

I want to make room for it to stay.

I don't just want to see it once in a while.

I just don't want to experience it as different moments of my life.

No, I want the power of God to dwell where I am.

You see, she was intentional.

She was thoughtful, she was strategic about supporting prophetic ministry through hospitality.

See, I I I also love this because she has a gifting that I don't have.

I don't have the gift of hospitality.

You could probably be at my house for at least 20, 30 minutes, and then finally I'll say, Do you want some water?

I may have a half-eaten bag of chips in there, they might be stale, but I mean I could share that with you, right?

And most likely I'll be like, let's just go get something to eat, because I know I don't have enough to make anything in this house, right?

So God gifted some of us with hospitality.

God did not gift me with hospitality, but God, she uses her gifting to bless the prophet.

See, in biblical times, hospitality, it wasn't, it wasn't optional, right?

It wasn't like, hey, you know, I can choose to be, you know, a person of hospitality.

It was a moral obligation during that time.

So providing for travelers and especially holy men, it was a sign of honor.

It was a reflection of our devotion to God.

It was a way to participate and partner with God's work.

But she goes beyond basic hospitality of just serving Elisha meals, of just putting out the the space for him.

It was more than just putting out food and and plates, right?

And it was it was more than just that.

It was, I'm gonna go above and beyond, and I'm gonna build a room for you.

That means I'm gonna take something and make it from nothing.

There was nothing there, and I'm making it for you.

And she doesn't give him some leftover corner of the house, right?

This wasn't like where you walk through your house and you go, okay, I need a craft space.

I think that corner might be good.

Or if I cleaned out my that corner of the closet, that might be good.

Or you know what, let me just move the dog bed.

Elisha can sleep there, right?

No, she didn't she didn't say that.

She didn't just pick some random corner in the house.

She didn't say, you know, let me let me move the furniture from the garage and and and the stove and this and all the things that are in there.

Let me move that and and maybe maybe we can make some space.

No, she she didn't do that.

She intentionally prepares a space, creates a space for him.

The Bible says that she builds a permanent room.

It was it was the upper room on the roof of her house.

And because she's a woman who who's not, she wants to go above and beyond.

She's like, listen, if we're gonna do this, you're gonna go big or go home, right?

We don't, we don't, we don't just make you a space.

We wanna make you a nice space.

Because what's the purpose of having the room if if if we can't decorate the room, if we can't fill the room with something, right?

If we're gonna be, if we're gonna be people of hospitality, like I wanna give you a bed, right?

I want to give you some sheets, and that's what this woman did.

She goes and and and she furnishes the room and she furnishes it with a bed so that he can sleep, and then she furnishes it with a table so that he can sit and eat, and he maybe he can study, right?

So she has a chair so that he can enjoy his food at the at the table, and then she has a light for him so that so as he's reading his books, right, that he he'd be able to have light in the middle of the space that she created for him.

See this ensemble, it symbolizes a sanctuary for the word of God.

So she's not just being kind in this moment, she is intentionally supporting Elisha's prophetic ministry, God's work, by making room for what's important.

Because what you make room for, God will often fail.

And that's what and that's what God did at that moment.

That's what God did.

She makes the room, and then in 2 Kings chapter 4, verses 11 to 12, it says, One day Elisha returned to Shunim, and he went up to this upper room to rest.

2 Kings 4:11–12

And he and he said to his servant Gehazi, Tell the woman from Shunim, I want to speak to her.

And then verse 13 tells us about this woman's heart than any other verse.

It says, When she appeared, Elisha said to Gehazi, Tell her, we appreciate the kind of concern you have shown us.

And then he says, What can we do for you?

Can we put in a good word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?

And she says, No.

My family takes good care of me.

And and essentially, what is she saying in that moment?

She's like, No, my I I'm okay.

I'm cared for.

Look at me.

Look at look at me.

I got I got my Louis hanging on my arm.

I got my nice shoes.

I get my nails done.

I get my hair done.

Look at me.

I'm a well kept woman.

My family loves me.

They they honor me.

I'm I have everything that I need.

When she says no to him, she says, I have everything that I need.

I am content with what I have.

See, in this moment, she had an opportunity.

Opportunity.

And the opportunity is this.

If a prophet came to my house and said, Hey, what do you want?

I might take out, you know, my Christmas list and say, Hold on a second, I got you, okay?

I got you.

But she doesn't do that in that moment.

She doesn't use the prophet to get ahead.

She doesn't turn her hospitality into a transaction, right?

She doesn't say, Well, in lieu of me giving you this space, in lieu of me making a room for you, this is what I need you to do for me.

No, she doesn't, she's not transactional with the man of God.

She doesn't say, Well, since you ask, uh, by the way, here's what I want.

It takes out the scroll of all the things that she that she's been praying about, right?

She doesn't do any of those things.

She made room for God without expecting anything in return.

That's good.

Yeah, that's really good.

She didn't expect anything.

She just did it because she wanted the presence to dwell in her home.

You see, her generosity was not motivated by what she could get from God, but by her desire to honor God.

You see, and this tells us something about her heart in that moment.

Her heart was to honor God.

Her heart was to be closer to God.

Her heart was to use everything that she had in her life to bring honor and glory to Him.

She was content enough not to chase favor down.

She was secure enough not to manipulate for blessing.

And she was generous enough to serve without expecting repayment for what she had done.

See, what makes this so powerful is that verse 14 tells us what she was actually missing.

This woman that stood there and said, I have everything that I need.

I'm a well-kept woman.

I am highly loved.

I am adored.

I have resources.

I have every I have everything that I need, I need nothing.

I need nothing.

But verse 14 tells us about her heart.

It says, Later, Prophet Elisha asked Gehazi, what can we do for her?

What can we do for her?

And then Gehazi replies, and he says, Well, she doesn't have a son, and her husband is an old man.

Now, how many of you know that there are dreams and desires so tucked away in our hearts that we've never spoken them to anybody?

Dreams that God has planted there that only He knows about.

Some of us have dreams and desires that even we don't fully understand or recognize what all this means, but God does.

How many of you have said that?

God, I don't I don't know what any of this means, Lord, but I know that you're doing something in the middle of it.

We don't even understand it ourselves.

See, this is why King David says in Psalm 139, 23, he says, Search me, oh God, and know my heart.

Because there are things that only God knows the depths of what we are experiencing in that moment.

So what do we what do we learn about this woman at that time?

She doesn't have a son.

She doesn't have a son.

We don't know, you know, what she went through trying to have a son.

It may have caused her disappointment in her life.

It may have caused her tension in her life and and and shame and uncertainty and lack of hope.

And I don't, I don't want to say that that she was barren because the Bible, the Bible doesn't say that, right?

The Bible doesn't say that she was barren.

The text tells us that she had no son.

So why is that significant?

That doesn't necessarily mean that she didn't have children at all.

She may have had daughters.

We just don't know.

The Bible doesn't tell us that.

But in that culture, not having a son carried enormous weight and pressure.

A son represented inheritance, and a son represented continuation of the family line and security and old age and someone who would carry the family legacy forward.

So I believe that the reason why it says that her husband was old, because we don't know how long she had been trying.

So even if she had daughters, not having a son would have still created tension in her life.

It still would have created anxiety and shame and vulnerability for family in that society.

That's how important sons were during that time.

Now for us, it's different, right?

We expect our daughters to take care of us.

You see, I just put a plug in, daughter, you have to take care of me, right?

Because listen, if I wait for my son, I'm doomed.

I'm just doomed.

And and and so, but during that time, it was it was the boys, right?

It was the boys.

And then in 2 Kings 4, 15, it says, call her back again, Elisha, Elisha told him.

So when the woman returned, Elisha said to her, as she stood in the doorway.

And then the text gives us a small detail, a small detail that it's it's easy to miss sometimes when we when we just kind of read the Bible, right?

But it's deeply significant.

It's I want you, I want to read this to you again.

It says, He Elisha called her because he wants to bless her, and she stood in the doorway.

Now that detail, it matters because culturally that was what she was supposed to be doing.

She was supposed to be standing in the doorway because she was a woman and he was a man, and it wasn't appropriate for a woman to be in a man in a room by themselves.

So she was supposed to be in the doorway.

She did what she was supposed to do.

But practically, we know what a doorway is, right?

A doorway practically is a transition between one room and another room.

But if we use our spiritual eyes, if we use our spiritual eyes, this woman, this is a transition between one season and another season.

So if we if if we're looking the way that this woman might be looking at it with our spiritual eyes, what we're saying is we're literally standing between what was and what could be, between not having a son and having the promise of a son, between ordinary life and between divine intervention.

You see, she's standing at the doorway.

She fully hasn't entered the room, but she's no, she's she's not outside the room either.

She's standing at the point of transition.

And honestly, that's where many people live spiritually.

She is standing between seasons, between the past and between the future.

Close enough to hear God's promises, but still hesitant to fully trust in them.

Now, how many of you have had the opportunity to stand in the doorway?

I know God's power.

I know what he says, I know that he can heal, I know that he's good, I know that he can deliver me, I know that he can transform me, but will he do it for me?

Am I able to trust him to do that for me personally?

I've seen him do that for everybody else, but is he going to do that for me?

And this creates a hesitance.

God, do I trust you all in or do I not trust you all in?

Because how many of you know disappointment has a way of making people stand cautiously at the tipping point, at the threshold of hope?

Am I able to hope?

Am I able to do this with a hundred percent certainty, God?

See, disappointment carries us and holds us down like an anchor.

And this moment becomes even more powerful when you realize, when we all realize, she's standing at the doorway of the room that she created.

She's standing at the doorway of the room that she created, but she hesitated to fully step into the promise, into the blessing, into the anointing, into the power of God, into the ins into the assignment that would be spoken inside of the room.

See, sometimes we we pray for things and and we and we know that God is good, and we know that there's a promise in our lives, and we know that He has called us for greater, and then we're standing at the door because we're afraid to go into the room, because really we know that God is going to be faithful.

Am I equipped for the thing that I know in my heart that God has called us to do?

So why?

Why the hesitation?

Because disappointed people often approach hope carefully.

Then Elisha says, in chapter, in chapter uh in 2 Kings 4 16, Elisha says, Next year at this time, you will be holding a son in your arms.

He doesn't say you may be holding a son.

He said, You will be holding a son in your arms.

And she says, No, my Lord, no, my Lord.

Oh man of God, don't deceive me and get my hopes up like that.

The man of God just declared a promise over her life, and her response is, Don't deceive me.

Y'all, that's not that's not unbelief.

That's guarded hope.

This sounds like a like a woman who has learned how to survive disappointment, a woman who may have spent years carrying silent grief in her life, praying prayers that she eventually stopped talking about because you know God is not answering.

So, so I'm just gonna forget about that prayer and and and hoping for something that never arrived in her life.

And yet, in the in despite her just disappointment, she does not become bitter, she does not become angry, she does not become vindictive.

The the text actually paints a remarkable picture of who this woman was.

Remember, she's living in a spiritually distracted culture, yet she remains faithful to God in the middle of it.

She lives far from Jerusalem and the temple, yet she remains faithful to God in the middle of it.

She's like, Well, I can't get to the temple all the time, so I'm just gonna make this uh the presence of God dwell where I am.

So Elisha's servant Gehazi tells Elisha that that she has no son.

She didn't reveal, she she didn't reveal her heart's desire.

She didn't tell him that.

That those words never came out of her mouth.

Who reveals it?

God reveals it.

God reveals the desire of her heart.

And here's what's fascinating.

She never chases the promise.

She never chases the dream.

She never chases the desire.

She doesn't jump up at the opportunity to to be blessed by the prophet.

She simply creates an environment where the promise can arrive, where the promise can dwell, where the promise can be fulfilled.

And what I love so much is that is that the items that she puts in the room are significant.

Listen, sometimes we create a space for God.

We create a room for God, and then we're like, okay, God, now what?

I don't know what to do with this.

I I did the room, I have the space, I'm making the time.

You know, I I want to be more in your room.

What does this even look like?

She's telling us what this looks like.

She puts a bed in there.

Because what is she telling us?

We got to rest in him.

She puts a table there.

Why?

Because when we're when we make space for God, we want to sit at the table with Jesus.

We want to eat with him.

She puts a chair because we need to learn how to sit with him.

And then she puts a lamp in there because the Bible said that his word is a guide to our feed, a light for our path, says Psalm 119, 105.

See, anyone that's ever done any type of construction in their house, you know it doesn't matter how many sheets you put up on the wall, how many tarps you put on the furniture, everything is gonna get dirty.

You gotta move stuff around, you gotta make space for all the materials that come into the house.

See, this wasn't just an easy project.

And it to make this project come to pass, she needed to declutter.

She needed to get rid of, you know, get rid of some junk.

She needed to get rid of all the things that are still good, but just not fulfilling her purpose.

She needs to build and she needs to get furniture and she needs to paint and she needs to decorate because she's creating a space where the power of God will dwell.

See, her actions make space for God to do what only God can do.

So the question here today is what do you need to make space for?

What is God asking you to let go so that so that He can enter and dwell in your life?

Now, this woman, this sounds like a woman who has lived in pain for years, a woman who learned how to function while quietly carrying disappointment.

But isn't that true of so many of us?

You can make room for God externally while still guarding your heart internally.

You can still serve and you can still lead and you can still minister, you can show up for everybody else while secretly wondering if God will really come through for you.

There's another layer to this doorway moment.

Culturally, standing in the doorway reflected, it reflected humility, reflected honor.

It reflected reverence.

Because when we when we make space for God, we need to go into that space with humility, with honor and reverence for who God is and what He's done for us.

She doesn't assume entitlement.

She doesn't ever demand a miracle.

She never manipulated for a blessing.

She had already made room for God before she ever received a blessing or a promise from God.

And that's important because some people only draw close to God when they want something, when they need something in their lives.

But this this woman's posture, this woman's posture says, even if I never receive anything in return, the presence of God is worthy of space in my life.

See, and here's what may be the most beautiful part of this entire story.

The doorway belongs to the room that she built, meaning the very place she made room for God became the place where God spoke life over her future.

See, don't miss that.

The space she created in faith became the space where God released the promise.

And maybe that's that's that's a word for somebody here today.

The space you create for God may become the very place where he speaks destiny over your life, where he reveals your purpose.

But standing in the doorway, it's still tension.

It's still tension.

Think about our own kids when we want to talk to our kids.

I mean, some parents have no, they just walk right in, right?

But some parents, most of us, will stand at the doorway.

There's tension there when we're standing at the doorway.

And the tension for us as a parent is do you want me to come in?

Are you gonna let me in?

Are you gonna invite me in?

There's tension.

Because a doorway, standing at the doorway means I'm I'm I'm there, but I'm I'm not fully in possession of being able to walk in the room.

The woman is still not in the room.

You know what that's called?

It's proximity.

I'm close to the space.

I'm standing there.

She's close enough to hear the promise, but she's not close enough to hold the promise.

That's where many of us live.

Close to the breakthrough, close to healing, close to restoration, but still waiting, still wondering, still hoping carefully.

People who are uncertain, people who are tired, people who have been disappointed before.

But God is not intimidated by hesitant faith.

I know many of us know what it feels like to stand in the doorway between exhaustion and purpose, between disappointment and hope, between what life has been and what we're praying it could become.

But thank God he still speaks to people standing in doorways.

He says, even if you are unsure, God will still speak to you standing in the doorway.

The Bible says in 2 Kings 4:17, but sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant, and at that time, the following year, she had a son, just as Elisha had said.

2 Kings 4:17

See, God remains faithful to his promises.

The room she made for God became the place where God addressed something she had stopped asking for.

So what do we do with all this?

Because this story is not just about a woman is shunim.

It forces us to look at spaces that we are creating, you know, within our own lives.

Maybe the first thing that we need to do is we need to take an inventory of all the things that are in our lives right now.

We have to ask ourselves an important question.

What is occupying my space right now?

What is taking my time?

What is taking my attention?

What is taking my emotional energy?

What are the thoughts that are happening in my mind?

What does my schedule look like?

Because whatever consistently occupies your space will eventually shape your life.

See, so if your life is constantly filled with pressure and noise and distraction and hurry and survival mode, eventually that's what begins growing in you.

But when we intentionally create room for God's presence and prayer and scripture and community and healing and rest and truth, we give God room to cultivate something different in us.

So there's three questions that I want us to ask, that I want us to ask ourselves today.

What needs to go?

Am I carrying what God never asked me to carry?

A burden that God never asked me to carry?

What is taking more of my attention than it deserves?

And what have I said yes to that God may be asking me to release at this moment?

The second thing I want us to ask ourselves, what needs to stay?

Because not everything in your life needs to be removed.

Some things need to be protected, like our relationships, our calling, our responsibilities, the things that God has actually entrusted to you personally.

Then the third question is this and what needs to be reopened in our lives?

Because disappointment has a way of shutting rooms in our hearts.

Rooms of prayer, rooms of trust, of surrender, of expectation.

And some of you used to pray differently, used to believe differently, used to expect God to move in a different way, but but life happened and pain happened and delay happened, and somewhere along the way you stopped making room.

Maybe this week your response isn't to add something else to your life.

Maybe your response is to remove something, to turn something off, to cancel something, to release something, to put a boundary somewhere, to ask someone for help, to sit quietly with God.

Because you cannot keep pouring from rooms, you never allow God to refill.

I want to end with this.

Remember the Collier brothers that I told you about at the beginning?

Homer and Langley lived in a four-story house.

But over the years, they accumulated so much that eventually they could only move through the house using these narrow tunnels.

What I didn't tell you was how their story ended.

Langley died underneath the very things that he had spent years of accumulating.

He was actually crushed to death by his own clutter.

Homer, who was blind and dependent on his brother, died in the house as well.

When the authorities eventually cleared the house, they removed more than a hundred tons of belongings.

So if we can't imagine what a hundred uh tons is or how heavy that is, it's 50 cars.

50 cars of stuff or 31 hummers.

Think about that.

That's a lot of hummers.

Okay?

I wouldn't even, I wouldn't even want one hummer on top of me.

They had an entire house.

An entire house, but eventually there was no room left to live.

And little by little what they accumulated took over the space that was supposed to sustain their lives.

But then think about the woman from Shunam.

She did the opposite.

She looked at the space she had and intentionally decided we're going to make room for this.

And one story shows us what can happen when everything is allowed to accumulate.

The other story shows us what can happen when someone intentionally creates room for what matters most.

One house became unlivable because everything was allowed in.

And one room became sacred because one woman intentionally made space for God.

And I keep coming back to this sentence.

She stood in the doorway.

She stood in the doorway of the room that she built.

I wonder how many people in this room are standing in the doorway today.

You're between exhaustion and renewal, grief and healing, disappointment and hope.

What has been and what could be?

Yet you're still following God and you're still showing up.

And maybe some of you have stopped asking those prayers and what I love is that God still speaks to us in the doorway.

He speaks to people who feel hesitant.

So the question for you today is, will you make room for God again?

Some of you might be saying, God, I've allowed my life to become crowded.

There are things I need to release.

There are places in my heart that I need to reopen.

I need you to breathe life into something that has grown weary and tired.

You don't, you, you don't have to have the perfect faith.

You don't have to know what happens next.

You're simply making a decision.

God, I'm making room for you again.

Because you have no idea what God may want to do in a room that you're willing to create for Him.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this day that you have given us.

Father, I pray for every person in this room, Lord.

Father, that they would be brave to create a space for you, God.

A space where you would dwell in their hearts.

A place, Lord, where they could rest in you, Lord, where they could sit with your word.

Father, that you would bring revelation, Lord, to your word and things in their lives, Lord Jesus.

Father, God, we thank you, Lord, because we know that this invitation is for all of us every day, all day long.

Because all God wants to do is He wants to sit with us.

And He wants us to dwell in Him.

So, Father, give us strength, help us, lead us, guide us.

We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen, amen, and amen.

And if you need prayer, the chaplains will be here ready to pray with you.