Running on Empty

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

I am in the middle of realizing that I've been lied to.

I know, right?

It hurt.

And what hurts so much is that there are so many people involved in this lie.

Media.

Oh, I know, I know.

It is Texas.

Everybody just started like held their guns or something.

Hold on.

Retailers.

Oh, this is so good.

Y'all are even better than I thought.

But I'm not even talking about politics.

I'm not talking about how the Cowboys were supposed to be good this year and last year and the year before that.

And they keep lying to us, and we're like, this is the year.

This is our year.

But it's more of a real, a real subtle lie.

It's very alluring.

There's a commercial and there's people just like you and I on there having normal thoughts.

I wish I could change my powder bathroom paint color.

You know, I need a new deck, and that's how it jumps, right?

Just normal thoughts.

And the commercial draws you in because they look just like us.

And at the end of it, they tell me, you can do it.

And I'm like, I can.

I have no skill sets for this, but I believe I can do this.

Our first year of marriage, which is the best place to test out the DIY line, is in marriage.

We have this apartment, and my desire was for matching appliances, okay?

One was black, that was the fridge, and the other was yellow wish.

I don't even know why this was an option, okay?

But like this is what it was.

And because we were empowered by this DIY lie, I thought we can paint it.

Do you know how many shades of black are in a home improvement paint section?

How many different levels of grit there are of sand?

Do you know how heavy an oven is to lift by yourself?

Well, or the two of us.

I know, it's it was probably like 80-20.

80-20?

This is my awesome husband right here.

And my family's in the front.

This is the day y'all have to laugh at my jokes.

Yeah.

Do you know there are a lot of parts in an oven?

And if you don't put them all back, they don't work the same.

Some of you are sitting here and you are actually able to answer all these questions.

And it's because it's you on the commercial.

You're the craftsmen and women that are in these commercials, but they've cloaked you in plain people looks, right?

So that we would believe the lie, that we could do this too.

And no, they're not there to help.

It's you all by yourself.

Do it, and they told us it too.

Do it yourself.

And you would think the overwhelming nature of a DIY project would make you quit, but oh no.

Oh no.

You get one taste and you're like, you know what, I'm gonna do it different this time.

I can do this.

And you move from complicated to complicated, overwhelming to overwhelming, and then you step up your game, and you know, you're like, it's just in the wrong category.

I just don't need to be in home improvement.

What about life improvement?

Like, what if I DIY my life?

Nobody else has tried that?

I'm the only one who thought that was an original idea.

Talk about overwhelming.

You know that point in the project where you're like, who am I and why did I do this?

That's that moment, that sweeping moment of being overwhelmed one after the other.

In 2 Kings 4, we find a widow who is overwhelmed.

And when we look at her situation, we can think this is this is hopeless, this is what she feels like.

But when God looks at it, he tells us that overwhelming moments are opportunities.

Can we press into that today?

Even if the beginning of this you're thinking, no, they are not.

Like if I can see some faces that are like, mm-mm, like the doubt is already there.

Just give me a minute or 30, right?

Like just hang in there.

Because in 2 Kings 4, we come across a woman that is overwhelmed.

She has lost her husband, and now the creditors are coming after her for her sons.

That's how the payment was supposed to be made.

That's all she had left.

And she is, she cannot, she cannot pull out of it.

Can you feel her today?

Maybe you two came in today with something that has overwhelmed you.

Something that you thought started out and looked so easy and could be attainable that you could do it yourself and you realize that you cannot.

This is where this woman is.

God puts real stories in his word so that we understand he is a real God ready to meet our real needs.

And this is where we find her.

And so she does what any reasonable person would do.

She confronts her late husband's boss.

Y'all, you can already feel this is not gonna be like the best moment, but you want to have your cameras ready, right?

Like this is this is she's tried to figure it out on her own and she can't.

So she confronts him.

I need you to picture how awkward this is for anybody else who could have been around this conversation.

First of all, women are not just rolling up on profits and having a conversation, okay?

Like, hey, can I get an appointment with you?

Not really.

Could you can, you know, let's just meet publicly here.

And so she decides to come in.

I'm sure she tried other ways in her mind.

This was not her first thought, but she was desperate.

How many of you are desperate today for something that you've been crying out for?

Something you've been overwhelmed about that you're asking God for.

Anybody had those moments in family scenarios where someone went off?

This is kind of what it feels like.

Let's listen in in 2 Kings 4:1.

2 Kings 4:1

One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, My husband who served you.

Like, let's make this very clear.

Like, I know who's the boss here, and I came to him, is dead.

And you know how he feared the Lord.

But now a creditor has come threatening to take my two sons as slaves.

You know what I love about this passage is that she's a follower of God.

There's something about us that we believe that we're supposed to tuck our crazy in.

Right?

Have you ever had so much crazy you didn't have room to tuck it in?

Your crazy just started spilling out.

This is where she's at.

I'm sure she tried a hundred times in a hundred different ways in her home to have this conversation.

Maybe there's something else I can do.

Going to your late husband's boss does not seem like the first idea on your mind.

But just like her, we try to tuck our crazy in, but God never told us to tuck our crazy in.

We told ourselves that.

We post what's good and figure out our problems by ourselves.

It's kind of backwards.

The place that I need people the most, I show them what's okay with me.

And then all by myself, I try to figure out my struggles.

Her crazy overfloweth.

And that's where we find her.

And I love reading a story about somebody's crazy that is untucked.

Because it normalizes mine.

She makes it very clear that her husband knew the Lord.

And you can feel underneath it is why is this going on?

Like, what have we done?

Where are you, God?

And maybe you've had those questions in the midst of your overwhelming situation.

And God's right here to show up and say, Can I show you something different about me?

Maybe you can feel her.

She's alone.

She feels scared.

She's overwhelmed.

She's running on empty.

And she doesn't know what to do.

The enemy is got her ear.

And he's telling her about where she lacks, about what she doesn't have, about what's not enough, about where is this God that your husband served?

Because right now you're fearing for the life of your children.

Where is he?

And she could have stayed silent.

You realize how easy it would have been to stay silent in this.

Culture had told her as a woman to stay silent.

But our culture has told us also to stay silent, man or woman.

Don't speak up about this.

Don't be honest about who you are.

Tuck your crazy in.

Don't let them see it, or they you may not belong anymore.

But she spoke up.

And she broke the silence.

She didn't have a script.

I mean, she just literally had nothing else to do.

Because overwhelming moments are opportunities, and opportunities reveal what you have.

And this was painful for her to say what she had.

It's okay to reveal when you're like, oh, ask me, I got something pretty.

Like, ask me what I have.

I want to tell you about it, right?

It's not a happy, a happy moment when you're having to reveal you have nothing, and you're alone and you're scared.

You don't need overflow for the places that are full.

Can I say that again?

You don't need overflow for the places that are full.

She's not coming to Elisha because she's barren and she needs children.

She has children.

She's not asking for a car because they haven't been invented yet.

Right?

She's asking for something that she needs because it's what she feels is empty.

She had to be honest and real and say, God, this is where I need you to show up.

This is where I need your help.

Back in that apartment, we needed help, but this was a different scenario in our mismatchity appliances.

Uh, our fart fan went out.

I understand that there's a nicer name for this, okay?

I now know it is called an exhaust fan.

But in Alabama, we called it a fart fan.

Or maybe it's just my house.

This is where you really need to dig into your own history, right?

And we needed help, but we were young and broke, because that's how you used to start off in marriage.

I don't know what how it works now.

It seems like it's a lot better.

But young and broke, so we called my dad and we were like, hey, we need some help.

And uh he was like, absolutely, he was too in on this DIY lie.

My dad has two PhDs, he's an engineer, he thinks I can fix anything.

There's no reason.

At a home improvement store, this part probably cost 20 bucks, maybe.

I mean, this is 23 years ago, so I'm gonna put it, I'm gonna give it a$20 cost to it.

My husband and my dad spend all Saturday rewiring the fan.

And when you turned this on, it had like a runway to it.

It was like a reminder that we needed help, but we didn't get it necessarily the right help on that one.

Are there some reminders in your life that you've been going to the wrong things and the wrong people for help?

She needed help.

Second Kings 4 2, Elisha's speaking, and he says, What can I do to help you?

Elisha asked.

Tell me, what do you have in the house?

Nothing at all.

Except a flask of oil, she replied.

Elisha asked her what she had, and her response at first was really answering an internal question.

What do you have that can solve this problem?

Nothing.

Right?

And then she realized she's standing in front of a prophet, so she brought she probably needs to be a little more honest, like uh in a flask of oil.

Like, actually, I have this.

I don't know if it was even right beside her.

I brought it alongside me.

Do you ever ask the Lord for something and what he points to, you're not okay with?

It doesn't seem significant enough.

It doesn't seem to answer the very problem that you've come to him with.

You're like, God, if this was gonna solve it, I wouldn't be here asking you this question.

Like, I don't know if you know how this works.

And there she stood saying, okay, well, fine, I do have this flask of oil.

Overwhelming moments are opportunities, and opportunities reveal what you have.

Can you look at what you have today?

Can you look at the thing you're ignoring today, the thing that you don't think is much?

A promise from him, a word from him, a note from a friend.

Can you look at it?

Maybe it's even the job you don't like.

Can you still look at it and say, but I do have this.

I do have this one piece.

It's hard to look at what you have when you don't feel like it's enough.

But he's not asking her to come and say what she doesn't have.

She asks him, What do you have?

And she begins to finally be honest about the fact I have a flask of oil.

Overwhelming moments are opportunities, and opportunities reveal what you have, and this will not shock you, what you have alone is not enough.

2 Kings 4, 3, and Elisha said, borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors.

The widow does not have a container for the answer to her overwhelming situation.

Take that in because God wants to answer the thing that you're overwhelmed in.

But you don't have a container, it would overflow your life.

You don't, you have nothing to put it in because your mind, your will, your expectations have limited what he can pour into.

Can you feel that today?

I want you to feel it.

You are crying out for something that if he gave it to you, you couldn't contain it.

So you have to begin to shift the way that you think, you have to begin to shift your expectations, shift your faith, and you can't do it alone.

Does anybody else want to groan with me at that fact?

Like it has to involve people.

Does that not make anybody have a bad day?

Like that just, because people are messy.

You don't even get to pick which of these people.

It's not like God's gonna line them up and you're like, yes, yes, definitely not, definitely not.

And you, you're a winner.

No, he says, go and borrow these jars from your neighbors.

Because guess what?

1 Corinthians 13, 9 says, we only know in part.

The other part that you need is in someone else.

And so God is asking us to connect with people.

And yes, you're probably gonna start with the ones you love.

But guess what?

There are other people, the ones that offend you, that have hurt you, that God has a treasure in them as well.

I could see the widow and her sons going to borrow jars.

I this is the way my mind plays out.

She's like, Yep, you can get it from Betty and Phil.

He's really nice.

Phil probably has a couple of pots.

He's got a conspiracy theory, he's probably got eight pots.

You know, and you know, we'll skip that one for right now, and then we're gonna go to Marsha, you know, just naming them, going down the line of which ones you would go get a pot from.

And which also could have been awkward.

Hey, can we have a pot?

For what?

You know what?

I didn't get a lot of directions on this one.

I'm I'm definitely winging it.

The whole day I've actually kind of been winging it.

I woke up, I was a little angry, and I decided I'd show up at my uh late husband's boss's house.

So it's it's been a it's been a day.

So can you just give me the pot?

Yep, I promise I'll wash it and I'll bring it back out.

I promise, you know?

How that all went.

But what about that one neighbor?

Anybody okay, you don't have to raise your hand because they might be here.

Anyone have a neighbor?

We had a neighbor once.

Not once, we still have neighbors.

We sound like really bad homeowners.

We had one once.

So we've moved from the apartment.

Now we have our first home.

So this is about 23 years ago, and uh we had our uh first dog, his name is Einstein.

Well, it was.

I don't know that he's still alive, but um, it was an overshot on the name, okay?

Like we were calling those things that aren't as if they are.

Like, you will be brilliant, I promise.

So his favorite thing to do was to get out of the house.

Actually, we're on our third dog right now, which sounds bad too.

Um, okay, but it's been 25 years, guys.

They don't have that kind of life expectancy.

And um, but they've all tried to get out of our house.

I'm not really sure what that says about us, but we're gonna work on it, I promise.

And his favorite thing to do is to run across the yard and uh, you know, have a moment of peace in public, right?

Across the yard, right?

And so our neighbor was determined that our dog was killing his bush.

Like the full bush.

Okay, maybe a burn spot in your yard, maybe messing up your pansies in your flower bed, but the bush was, we felt like it was a stretch.

Now, this didn't happen because he came over and had a normal conversation with us.

Oh no, it was much better than this.

Because I told you he was that neighbor, okay?

So my husband is taking Einstein out.

Okay, he's on a leash.

We're legal at this point, right?

Okay, so we're taking him out across the street to go use the restroom.

When around the corner whips animal control.

Why does Animal Control know what dog he is looking for?

To which he proceeds to have a conversation and says that, you know, your neighbor says that your dog has been off leash.

We were like, Well, it has happened.

And he said, Well, you might want to keep him off leash.

We have to follow up on every complaint because he has evidence.

Evidence, you say?

Did he get a soil sample?

Like, what's going on here?

Oh no.

He has your dog on videotape.

Y'all, y'all, this is not the era of your camera phone, okay.

For this man to have a video tape of the dog, he either had to set up a tripod, screw that video camera on top, right?

Find a fresh tape or an old woman you don't care about anymore, right?

Put that stuff here in.

He either had to leave it on all day, because like when do you know?

It's not like we had an exact timing of losing control of our dog, right?

So you either had to have it preset all day, or you had it on the counter and you were ready like live action news, like, let's go.

He's finally doing it, and here he comes.

That neighbor.

That's the one that I would probably skip over.

But what if he had the jar that was the answer to what I'm crying out for?

What if it's that one more jar that I needed?

I'm gonna put this practically to you because the reality of this idea of like people may have jars that you may need, I want to I wanna make it real for you.

You're listening to someone, and they you you actually you like this person that's in front of you.

And they begin to share something good in your life, in their lives, and you become excited about that, and you celebrate that with them, and you literally walk away because of that testimony with a jar of expectation, right?

God, you did it there, you could do it again, right?

But what happens to the person that offends you?

And you listen to them because God still does good things to people that are offensive.

Isn't that offensive?

I mean, it's so like, really, God?

Like to them, you really want to bless them?

I mean, do you even know what they do?

I mean, do you know who they are?

Do you know where they were last night?

And you hear their blessing, it offends you.

You hear something good, you hear an opportunity, it offends you.

And what do you do?

You judge it.

And through that, you leave that container there.

We call it discernment.

We don't call it judgment, you know what I'm saying?

We got a better word for that.

But you could have had a jar of expectation.

You it could have increased your faith.

God, even for those that aren't even seemingly close to you, you want to bless them?

How much more do you want to bless me?

God, do it again.

God, I believe.

And this woman gathers these jars with her sons.

Do you see a generation influenced by it?

A family changed, a story that was told around their table.

Overwhelming moments are opportunities.

Opportunities reveal what you have.

What you have alone is not enough.

But this is what's great.

Not enough is going to lead to overflow.

Second Kings 4, 4 through 6.

Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you.

Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.

So she did as she was told.

Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another.

Soon every container was full to the brim.

Bring me another jar, she said to one of her sons.

There aren't any more, he told her.

And then the olive oil stopped flowing.

You know what's really cool about this is the fact that Elisha doesn't do the miracle for her.

I had never seen that in the scripture.

And I just thought, this is so cool because he's the professional, right?

You know, it's like, I need a professional to handle this.

And God says, No, I'm gonna do it through you.

I don't want to do it for you, I want to do it with you.

Because he's about partnership, and so there they are.

And with no instructions, by the way, like this is not enough for me.

You think your own DIY is like pretty hard, but this is like just go in there with the jar and just start pouring.

I need a little bit more than that.

Like this one, this one is a little bit hard for me.

As I imagine her standing there with the jar and her little flask, right?

Can you imagine as it began to pour out?

Like you're like, how's this gonna even happen?

Like, is it is it gonna just get to the end and just keep flowing?

Like, can you imagine once it started getting to the very end?

Have you ever felt like what you had was coming to the very end?

And you're pouring it out going, God, you gotta show up.

I need you to move here.

I need you to do something.

Come on, God, I need you.

My oil is low, and my expectation is large.

My debt is huge, and she poured the faith it took, and then the excitement as it began to fill up.

Give me another jar.

Like, I don't even know how to transfer.

Do you hop?

Do you like?

Okay, here we go.

We're going, we're in it, we're in there, I'm in there, let's go, get another jar.

It is like hype city now.

She's getting so so excited, and jars are filling, and she's going to the next one.

And I'm sure in her mind, she was like, I really, really, really wish I had gone to that neighbor's house that I don't like.

And it's filling.

Give me one more.

That's the last one.

And then the oil stopped.

But what did he use?

Did he use what she didn't have?

No.

She used what she had.

No matter how insignificant, how little, how much this world says it had no value, that it couldn't solve her problems.

He used what she had.

She was willing.

He didn't do it through a professional, and he doesn't have to do it through a professional.

He can do it through you and I.

You are a priesthood of believers.

God says, I have empowered you.

I didn't just partner with you and not give you any uh power to do it.

You're not a false partner of the Lord.

He says, I've given you partnership with me and I've empowered you to do it.

Your overwhelming moments are opportunities, and your opportunities reveal what you have.

And what you have alone is not enough, but your not enough will lead to overflow.

And guess what?

Here we come full circle.

Overflow meets our overwhelming moments.

There's a name for God that you need to encounter today, especially as you look at what you have and you feel like it's not enough.

The name El Shaddai means the God of more than enough.

He's your abundant God.

And he says, Listen, I'm not just gonna meet your needs right here.

I'm of an abundant God.

He's not just enough, he is more than enough.

Listen to him prove it in 2 Kings 4, 7.

When she told the man of God what had happened, he wasn't there, it was all by herself with her sons.

He said to her, Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live off of what is left over.

Live on it.

Some of you are right now thinking of this overwhelming moment that you've been in.

And you are running on empty.

Now I am a professional running on empty driver.

In fact, it happened today.

And you always feel like you have more in the tank than you do until you don't.

That's the risk of running on empty.

You live in that tension.

And some of you are running on empty today, and God says, You do not have to live on empty.

You are operating in not enough, and I am the God of more than enough.

And He wants to encounter you in that place.

He's not asking you to tuck your crazy in.

He's not asking you to mask it, hide it, filter it.

He's saying, I can handle anything you have.

Bring it to me.

So, like Pastor Robert asks every week, I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes and ask the Holy Spirit what he's saying to you.

How is he speaking to you right now?

Many of you came in here overwhelmed.

What do you need to do today?

In a moment, we're gonna have our altar team come forward.

And maybe you need to step out and speak up.

Maybe you need to break the silence of your pain, of being overwhelmed, of trying to do it by yourself.

Maybe you need to be honest with someone for the first time.

Maybe you need someone to pray with you so that you can speak and hold out what you have and say, God, here it is.

I've been deeming this insignificant, but now I want to hold it out before you and say, you can have everything, even what I don't even think can answer my problems.

Maybe you need to let others in.

Maybe you've been trying to do life all by yourself.

Maybe you need to be in groups or come to an equipped class or get into community nights.

You do not need to do life alone.

Where do you need to encounter him?

Where do you need to encounter the God of more than enough?

Let me pray for you.

Father God, thank you so much for every person that ever gets an opportunity to hear this message that is your word, that is your truth.

You have intersects their day, their time, their hour, so that they would know that they are not alone, that they are not left to do life on their own and by themselves.

That you, God, see that what they have alone isn't enough, and you want to give them more than enough.

You want to show up into those moments, God.

I pray people would speak out and be honest about the pain in their lives, honest about the places where they need you, God.

Holy Spirit, may they feel bold in doing that.

We give you glory, we give you honor, and give you praise.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.