What To Do When You’re Empty // The Word Of God: The Book Of Galatians (Part 6) // Charles Metcalf

Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to

the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so

glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe

God will transform your life. Do today's message.

So I want to give you kind of an overview.

The last couple We've been in this series for five

weeks now, we're gonna be finishing it today. And if

you missed any or you didn't take notes, or you

fell asleep at some point, it's okay, not personally offended,

but just hope God isn't.

But I'm joking.

I want to give you a review of what we

went over the last couple of weeks. So Chapter one

we talked about God chose me, somebody shall God chose me?

We talked about being chosen by God. Chapter two we

talked about and I kind of wrote these out as statements.

We talked about there's always gonna be space at my table,

that we're gonna make room for people. We're always going

to make sure there's space for people who are different

than us. Chapter two is about a beef between Paul

and Peter, and Paul calls him out.

It literally says.

He's like I called him out to his face. It's

just wild. That's how you know Paul was wild. If

you feel like you're wild, it's okay. A guy who

wrote the whole half of the New Testament, over half

of the New Testament, was also crazy. So chapter three,

Pastor Joel tb but anybody enjoy his sermon?

And Pastor Joel was here.

He talks about us having an unstoppable promise. Literally in

Galatians three, it says that there was a promise given

over four hundred and thirty years ago and nothing could

stop it. You have an unstoppable promise. Chapter four, Pastor Roosevelt,

can you give it up for Pastor Roosevelt?

Just an apps.

I literally was sitting over there and I was watching

and just praying and thinking, and I just thought, like,

there is nobody like Roosevelt, Like nobody could I really

mean that? Like he has been such a gift to

our church from the second he got here.

So for a moment, if you're.

Grateful for our worship, Pastor Pastor Roosevelt, can you make

some noise?

Come on y'all like.

Happy y'all came back because he was here.

Don't play nobody and then.

Last week we talked about being the better me. I

can be the better me. So we're gonna move right along.

We're gonna read five verses in Galatians. I said that,

but y'all kind of played me on the reading the

whole chapter of the Bible.

So I will never get played twice. You know, that's

my rule.

So we're gonna read Galations six one through five, Galatians

six one through five. I'm not scar everybody to stand

up on your feet.

Please stand up on your feet.

This the last week last week, we're gonna stand up

on our feet.

For the reading of the Word of God. All right,

we're gonna read it now. I don't now.

It gets a little confusing when we all start reading

together because our paces are all different. So I might just.

Read it to you.

But the standing is just like, we're unified. We honor

God's word, and you can follow along in your Bible

if you got a Bible. Hey, O, somebody, Okay, all right,

we're gonna read it together. That's what it says. Dear

brothers and sisters, if any believers overcome by sin, you

who are godly, should gently Everybody say gently and humbly, everybody, say, humbly,

help that person back on the right path, and be

careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself, share

each other's burdens, and in this way obey the law

of Christ.

If you think you're too important.

To help somebody, oh my goodness, you are only fooling yourself.

Let's say this line together right here. You are not

that important. That's good, Bible. Pay careful attention to your

own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of

a job well done, and you won't need to compare

yourself to anyone else. Now, let's read verse five altogether,

real loud, say which and chest, for we are each

responsible for our own conduct.

Can you give God a shout of pray? It's just

grateful for his word. You can grab a seat, all right.

If you're taking notes, I need you to write this

down at the top of your notes. The title of

the last sermon in our series on chapter six of

the Book of Galatians is what to do when You're empty?

What to do when you are empty. I'm gonna pray,

Lord Jesus, we love you, Lord, We're grateful. I thank

you that you are the only one that can help us.

You're the only one that can change your heart. You're

the only one that can bring peace to all the

things that are going on in our soul.

So God, right now we.

Pray that your word would do what it does and

that has changed us. Encourage us, give us the strength

to see a brighter tomorrow.

So God, we thank you for it.

Speak your children are listening. It's in the beautiful name

of Jesus, we pray. And everybody said, Amen, Amen.

I really love this chapter chapter six.

And as a matter of fact, yesterday, I have traditional

schedule of when I'm sermon prepping or when I'm preaching

a sermon, and it's a couple of different days. The

primary day it's been the same day since twenty seventeen

when me and Pastor Michael started sermon prepping together is Wednesday.

So Wednesday is sermon prep day. So we preach on Sunday.

Usually Sunday. I get in the car from church, I

log on, I get on Facebook. Is the only time

I get on Facebook, or if my grandmother messages me.

But I get on Facebook, I go to our Facebook

page because it's the last.

Stream that stays up the longest. You know, it stays

up for a little bit long. Some of y'all know

because y'all ripped our worship off. Okay, it's all.

Right, it's waiting about the album anyways, said Joe.

Calm down. Okay.

But I go back on there and I watch back

the whole.

Sermon and I'm like, oh, that was good. That was

wag boy. What were you wearing? And then like I

watched the whole thing.

And then immediately after I finished watching it, I'm usually

thinking about next week's sermon. On Sunday night, I'm thinking

about the next one. But Wednesday is sermon prep day.

So I sat there Wednesday, stared at my computer for hours,

and I had like six different sermons. Literally, I sent

them to my friend. I was like, which one should

I do? And this is my friend. You know those

friends that won't give you a straight answer. It's really frustrating.

They're like trying to encourage you and they're like, so.

What do you think. It's like, well, you know, I

love this one. I'm like, okay, cool, I'll do that one.

They're like, but also, you know, it's like you just

answered the question.

So anyways, I learned from Pastor Michael not to force

a sermon. And this is a beautiful message. If God

has called you to do something, you ain't got to

force it. I want to encourage you. If God has

called you to do something, you ain't got to force it.

It doesn't mean you don't have to fight for it.

It just means you ain't got to force it.

So if God wanted you in that job, this ain't

even my sermon. If God wanted you in that job,

you wouldn't be having to change who you are to

act like you somebody else to get the promotion. If

God has it for you, can't no person stop you. Okay,

you don't have to force it. So I've learned this

from Pastor Michael week after week writing sermons. There'll be

times we sit there and we be talking and talking

and praying and praying and listening to stuff and writing stuff,

and he'd be like, all right, we ain't got it.

And I'd be like, all right, so what are we doing?

He's like, well, I'm going home. What you're doing? Like?

And we just walk out and be like okay, And

then we come back the next day.

We work, work, work. I ain't got it, Okay, well,

what we doing. I'm going home. I don't know what

you're doing. And we'll do that all the time.

And so I kept doing that, and so I have

some random pictures and this is literally just a part

of my intro and it's funny. And I want you

to know this because sometimes I think when we think

about the Word of God, we think revelation only happens

in this super holy set apart sanctified moment. I want

to show you where I got this sermon. This was

yesterday at like three o'clock. If you can throw those

photos on the screen for me, this was me sermon prepping. Okay,

so I have half my chickens.

In my lap.

This right here is Sonny. Why is she in a

cheetah tank top? We don't know. Goodness gracious Jade October.

And then arloa drew an angel in the middle of

my notebook. Sonny is playing We're not really strangers, apparently,

I don't know what she's doing. And then over here

we're listening to a commentary. And then this this is

Arlow drawing. Guys, look at this photo. I'm sermon prepping

Arlow Phoenix. I promise you he gave his life to

Christ the first.

Out of all my kids. He did. I look over.

I said, buddy, what'd you draw?

He goes, this is Jesus on the cross, and over

here is someone who is crying and sad, but there's

an angel on the left who's here to comfort them. Yes,

it's like, thank you Jesus. Half of this is working.

And then Luna walked up. She's like, what's your reading, Dad,

And I was like, oh, Galatian six and she was like, oh,

let me see, and so she grabbed it out of

my Bible. So this is Galatian six right here. So

I'm gonna tell im he's gonna be preaching from today somebody.

I was like, oh, that is the Holy Word. Calm down.

A four year old ripped out of my Bible. And

it wasn't really her fault. It was all your front.

But so these are my notes. Calm down, all right.

I want to talk to you today about Galatian six.

And the reason it's important that I have this page

is one because it's really is my sermon notes and

what we're talking about today. But if you study the scriptures,

many theologians will tell you that when you first read

Galatian six, it kind of seems random. Paul is kind

of shotgunning all over the place talking about a bunch

of different random stuff. He starts off with the idea

that you should bear each other's burdens. He's talking to

a church in Galatian. It's multiple church, and he saying, Hey,

you need to bear each other's burdens, and if you

think you're too special to do that, you're not that special, Like,

don't think of yourself too highly. You should bear each

other's burdens. And then he goes into this idea of comparison.

He said, as a matter of fact, you should bear

each other's burdens. But if you feel like you're too special,

why don't you just mind your own business instead of

comparing yourself with other pe and you can just focus.

On that yourself. And it's like, oh, okay, cool Paul.

And then he takes a random turn and he's like,

but also, the people who are teaching the Bible are.

Super important, and you're like, okay, Paul, that's cool.

But also you should be sewing, don't give up, don't

don't give up, and doing good for at.

The proper time, you will reap a harvest if you

don't lose heart.

Like, okay, we got the bear of the burdens, where

we should be giving people money who are preaching or

something taking care of them.

Okay, we're sewing and reaping.

And then he literally goes into in verse twelve, he

says this, in verse twelve, notice what large letters I

use as I write these closing words in my own handwriting.

So it's like Paul's just salty.

Halfway through the letter, he's like, if you don't know

many of these letters, he would have someone with him

so he would be talking and he's like, hey, write

this down. He grabbed a notepad out of their hand.

He's like, give me the note right now, I got

something to say. He grabs it.

He starts scribbling real big, and then he goes on

a rant about people who we talked about a lot

this week. I mentioned it verse five. Really, this whole

book is arguing this, there is a group of people

who are trying to force people to be circumcised.

Now that's a little weird.

We got a couple questions while we're asking people to

do that, but the main one was that was the

old sign of the Covenant if you go back to

the New Testament. This is God marks his covenant with

a man, and he says, hey, this is how you

are set apart.

So that was a part of the Jewish tradition.

The only thing is Jesus comes along says, hey, I

am the fulfillment of all that. You don't need to

do outward stuff to prove you're with me. That's not

how you prove. So just coming to church doesn't prove

you're a Christian.

Reading your Bible.

Doesn't prove your christ Those are the fruits of your life,

but it's not the proof of your life. The real

thing is have you given your full trust and have

you surrendered your life to Jesus? And if you trust

in him, that is how you're a mate holy. If

you trust in him, that is how you are sanctified.

If you trust in him, it's not about works, it's

not about dues and don't And so Paul is mad

at these people. The truth is the context of the

story back in Acts thirteen is these people were walking

around talking trash about Paul, like, hey, Paul is preaching

this whole weird thing that you don't have to do

all the rules. We've been following you can just believe

in Jesus that's not right. So Paul gets mad at

him and he ends it yelling at them about what

they should or shouldn't be boastinging. The reason this is

important that to kind of see all the differences in

the story is because I was reading a commentary why

my daughter was screaming in my left ear. I had

another AirPod on listening on this side. And many theologians

will tell us that it makes sense of the entire

chapter if you read the last verse of verse five.

They said when they were going through and this was

now I want to you may know this, but this

is a letter.

So this wasn't written like they weren't reading it like okay,

verse one, chapter one. They just read it as a letter.

Later on it got split up so we could organize it,

understand it, memorize it, all those things. So I want

to read you from my one page by don't get offended.

But it is the last verse of chapter five that

many theologians say, Hey, if this was the first verse,

it would make sense of the whole thing. This is

what it says, let us not become conceited or provoking

one another or being jealous of one another. Paul, he

brings up this word conceited the original language, the framework

of this word would have been an Old English word. Now,

this is all from commentaries of Timothy Keller. So if

y'all impressed by anything I'm saying right now, I stole

it from Timothy Keller. So, but he says, the old

English word would have been vain glorious.

It's like a Shakespearean word.

What it means is so empty of glory and value,

and you are desperately searching for recognition and affirmation, completely

void of any identity, awareness or.

Encourage in your own soul.

That you are desperately grasping and doing anything to figure

out who you are, how you are, and what you

should be doing. So, Paul says in Galatians five, which

really sets up this whole idea, he says, Hey, some

of you are so desperate for attention, so desperate for identity,

so desperate to know who you are, that you have

steeped down and now you're provoking people, You're envying people,

and worse than all that, you're comparing yourself to other people. Today,

I want to talk to about how empty we all

feel sometimes and really the root of all of those issues.

Paul is talking to this church and he says, hey,

I don't want you to become this conceited word and

that word. Sometimes we have an idea, but the real

word is you're so empty. An emptiness that is insatiable,

and emptiness that no matter how much money you get

it doesn't matter. And emptiness that no matter how many

followers you get, it doesn't matter. Emptiness that money can't

fix that, sex can't fix that, influence can't fix that,

a new job can't fix that, a new wife that,

a new husband, nothing.

Can fix it.

He said, you're so empty, and it shows up in

so many different ways. And what he's trying to outline

in chapter six is a solution for the emptiness of

the human soul. He's trying to tell you, hey, are

you tired of being empty? Are you tired of searching

and finding nothing? Are you tired of comparing yourself to others? Now?

I want to talk about comparison for a second, because

comparison is interesting because some of us were so empty.

We're so unsure of who we are.

The only way you figure out who you are is

you start comparing.

So you're a kid.

You don't know what's good or what's bad.

So what do you do? You look around to other people.

Oh, they have a lot of attention. That must be good.

They don't have friends, that must be bad. And we

go throughout life comparing what a trying to do. We're

trying to fill a void. Now I want to give

you this, and this is just an acknowledgment, and I

think something that's important for you to understand. The reason

every human soul is so empty, The reason we are

all so desperate for recognition and affirmation is because you

were created to hear seven words from one person. The

reason you need affirmation so bad, The reason you need

recognition is because when you were knit together, that hole

that feels like I need to be acknowledged was meant

to be filled by these seven words.

Well done, my good and faithful servant.

That's why that hole on the inside of you is

so big, because you were knit together in your mother's womb,

created by God to hear. When you get to the

end of your life, those pearly greats crack open and

you walk before Ge, the King of Kings and Lord

of lords.

The reason you're searching.

The reason you're so desperate for people to recognize your gift,

the reason you keep posting about all this stuff, asking

for people to see you, is because your soul knows

God is supposed to look at me and say, well done,

my good and faithful servants. Your spirit knows it.

It knows that no.

Enough of good jobs from anybody is gonna fix it,

so it keeps searching. Your soul knows it wasn't meant

to just hear you're pretty good at that. Your soul

knows that there's not enough money for it. Your soul

knows that there's not a big enough house you're Your

soul knows you can keep having sex with people, keep

acting like you don't care. But until you hear are

well done, your soul will keep searching. Until you stand

in the glory of our God, your soul will keep searching.

You aren't made to make money. What kind of sense

does that make? You think you're here to get a

big house. You think you're here to get a bunch

of degrees. You think you're here to just have kids.

You think you're here just to go to church. A

couple of times you were created You're not even from here,

the Bible says. The Bible says, you're this, You're just

passing through here. You want to know why you're empty

because nothing on this earth was made for you. You

weren't even this isn't even your house. It don't make

That's why the furniture doesn't make sense. That's why the

food has lost its taste. That's why there's nothing that

can fill you on the inside. Is because you weren't

created to be filled by a good job from a human.

I hope your parents affirm you. I hope you have

affirmation in your marriage. I hope your job recognizes you.

But let me be very clear.

If you don't understand that you're waiting on a good

job from the King of kings and Lord of lords,

you will waste your life.

Waiting for a coworker to say, who I like your ouse.

Spend all your time, wasteing away your God given energy

and grace trying to.

Get a good job. That would be like a drop

of water in the.

Ocean of the whole of your heart. No wonder, it

don't work. No wonder if people have millions of dollars

and still feel lonely, some of y'all like, I, man,

if I just get this, if I just could get that.

There's a quote by a famous actor. He says, I

wish everybody could become rich and famous, so they realize

it's not gonna fix nothing. Yeah, but if I just

get my business together, if I just.

No, no, no, it will not work.

You will keep being empty because guess what, Once you

get that promotion, there's another promotion, and they keep printing money,

so you ain't never gonna have enough. It's still out there.

You get more money, sobody.

Else got more money than you.

There's an insatiable desire because you were created to only

hear one well done.

That until you embrace.

That there's only one well done that's going to fulfill

my soul, you will stoop down to the cheapest way

of figuring out who you are. Comparison. Write this down.

Comparison is the cheapest way.

I believe this. Comparison is the cheap way to.

Find out who you are, where you are going, and

what you should be doing. Comparison is the cheap way

to figure out who you are and where you are

going and what you are doing. Now, I'm not saying

it's inherently bad. If I'm honest with you, I think comparison.

Has gotten a bad rap. I have a whole argument

that some comparai is good.

Some of y'all's relationships would benefit from being compared to

a healthy one.

Oh shoot, you.

Don't know nothing different than somebody who talk crazy to you.

But it would be good for you to get around

a healthy marriage who didn't always tear each other down.

It would give you a new standard to aspire to.

So I'm not gonna go down that train, because for

the sake of today, we're gonna stay right here. But

comparison is a cheap way to figure out who you are.

It's a cheap way to figure out where you should

be going, and it's a cheap way to figure out

what you.

Should be doing.

And here's the thing, it will always leave you empty

because no matter who you compare yourself to, they're not

you and they don't have your call. Well, Paul makes

this argument. He says, hey, you should bear each other's burdens.

You should be in the fight with your friends. And

if you think you're too important to do that, trust me,

you're not that important.

And then he goes into this focus.

Talking about comparison, he said, you know what you should do.

You should mind your own business.

You don't want to help people mind your own business,

because what you've done is you've used comparison as a

way to gain value and figure out who you are.

I want to give you an example. Real quick.

Can those guys I talked to earlier come up here,

real quick, come up here, real quick, y'all give it

up for Macaiah, Will and Ty.

Come on, come up here, come up here, come up here,

come out here. All right.

I know I had a concussion, but we about to race.

Okay, I'm about to show y'all.

I'm about to show y'all what's up.

Don't play me. Junior Olympics out here, two thousand and eight.

All right, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna line up,

We're gonna race.

Yeah, you're the wrongest probat brother. We talked about this.

Come on, okay, we planned it in the back. We

already forgot. Okay, we're gonna race. But here's the thing.

We only get five steps, so we're gonna see.

Now.

Don't play me because I know, uh mister daddy long

lags over here, y'all think already gonna for that stride.

All right, I'm gonna say, go, you get five steps.

Whoever wins the race will get an unnamed amount of

money through an unnamed donor.

And by that, of course, I mean nothing.

Okay, we're gonna count down who y'all think's gonna win.

Just shout out who y'all think gonna Well, God, tie.

That's so disrespectful. All right, I need y'all to countdown.

We're gonna count down three, two one, y'all all the crowd,

y'all gonna say three to one, go, I don't go.

We're gonna race. I'm gonna beat them.

I'm gonna win, and it's gonna work for the illustration. Okay,

all right, I need y'all count down five steps. Don't

play me? All right, here we go, count it down?

All right?

Who won the race?

Who?

Who won?

You think?

Tie? One?

Look? You only that three people?

Just in your one point? He said, who will you

think will one?

Okay, the last shall be first. That's good. That's good.

You think we think Mi Kyle will okay? Oh the sides, Okay,

let me preach for a second.

The only way you know who won is if you

know where the finish line is. This is why comparison

robs you, because his finish line ain't my finish line.

So it looked like I won, or you think hey one,

or you think he The thing is, we all have

different calls, and we all got somewhere different to go.

So I'm not worried about your race. I'm not worried

about your rask.

God has set me to go this way. I ain't

got time to compare to nobody else. Here's what many

of us do. Y'all stay where you are. I'm running

my race and I take my little one step and

I'm thinking, ooh see, he done completely gone the wrong

way and you don't even know where you're going, and

you're going backwards looking.

But who I feel good?

What if your race is that way?

Or what we'll do would be like, oh wait, where

are y'all?

Hold on?

Who looked like they know where they're going? Let me

hold on, Let.

Me go over there, let me hold on, let me

let me get up, let me go to a bunch

of different college.

Hold on, Maybe I'll go, Maybe.

I'll get into ministry. Now I'm supposed to be a

no Okay, I need to do a podcast. Hold on

a second. Maybe I need to hold on a pot I.

Need to open.

And we spend life comparing to people who don't have

your race, who don't have your call, who did not

hear from God on your behalf run your race. God

has set something in front of you, and it's worth running.

And you will always feel empty watching everybody else run

their race, getting your.

Cue from which way they went.

Well, maybe if I do if I do the podcast,

then I use that as a launching pad to then

launch my other LLC and then I do this and

then or maybe if I come in humbly as a volunteer,

and then I'll become an intern, and then I'll show

up to the conference, and then I'll become Pastor Michael,

and then or maybe if I let me just burst

your bubble, you ain't gonna do half the stuff Pastor

Michael has done. That man has got a unique annointing

on his life.

And guess what you ain't called to do it?

And guess what he ain't gonna do half the stuff

you called to do. We see people that we deem

are successful and think that's what I'm supposed to do

now Here's literally Ty gave me this point.

I was. I was in the back and I was like, Yo,

I need some help with this. So I texted him.

I was like, Yo, come here, and he said this.

This is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

So twenty points for tie on this great point.

You can compare hustle, but you can't compare harvest.

Yeah, ties a dog don't play my man's ties a dog.

You can compare hustle.

So you can look at another marriage and think, Man,

they're going to counseling their they've prioritized date night, they're

patient with each other.

I could aspire to do that.

But guess what in my own marriage, I can compare

the hustle and the hard work and the dedication. But

I'm not going to compare harvest because I'm not over that.

I don't control that. I can look and be inspired

from you. I can look and see, man, you're walking

towards God in a way that is beautiful. But what

I should do is I look at that, I come

back to my own life and I say, God, what

if you called me to do in my race? God?

Who if you called me to be with my family?

As long as you do not realize Whi's well done.

You're waiting on.

You will keep searching and keep comparing, running in circles

when you are the only one graced for your race.

Thank y'all so much. Can you give it up for

my friends who helped me.

Today? I want to give us three things.

We're gonna be out of here.

What time is it, y'all gonna turn the CD off

on me?

So if I go for two hours, it's not my fault.

Uh okay, okay, back great, I got three hours perfect things.

I'm joking. I'm joking.

I want to give you three things. Is what to

do when you're empty? If you feel like the emptiness.

I've described, maybe it's a search for that.

Recognition, for that acknowledgment, for just being seen. We all

have different things that we feel like we need in

this life. We all have different things that maybe is

a marker of I won't feel empty when I get this.

The ultimate truth is that you will always have something

you're looking for until you find all of it.

In Jesus, until you realize.

Your confidence has to come from Jesus, your contentment has

to come from Jesus. Today, I want to give you

three things if you've ever felt empty before, or there's

any area of your life, well right now, you feel empty,

empty in a relationship, empty in purpose. Some of us

because we have had struggles figuring out who we are.

We haven't felt like our path was the most clear,

or we didn't go the right way. All of our life,

we've been comparing to so many people, and it's less

us feeling empty, like I don't know who I am

or what I'm supposed to do.

Say, I want to.

Give you three things if you've ever felt empty. The

first one, would you write this down what to do

when you're empty.

The first one is serve. Everybody say serve. Come on, everybody,

say serve.

If you've ever felt empty, the first thing you can

do is serve.

I'm gonna read you this scripture again again. This is

my Bible. My daughter did it. Don't blame me. You're

brothers and sisters for any of you. If a believers.

Overcome by sin, you who are godly, Now let me pause.

That is not a measuring stick for you to think

you're more godly than somebody else.

Oh I'm godly and you're not godly anymore.

The original language Another translation would say, you who have

heard or can hear the Holy Spirit, guess what that's everybody,

So don't be using yourself as like a oh, I

can't know you who are God.

This isn't a church thing.

Let me say that this restoring people is not a

church thing. It's a following Jesus thing. Churches don't restore people.

People restore people. You're a person, You've got the Holy Spirit.

Priests are out. We used to have to go through

the priest. In the Old Testament. You didn't have a

relationship with God for yourself.

So you had to go to the priests.

They would offer sacrifices that made you good.

This is a new day.

You have the spirit of the Living God on the

inside of you.

He can give you wisdom, he can talk to you.

So everybody should be leading a tribe anyways.

Share each other's burdens and in this way obey the

law of Christ. If you're too important to help someone,

you're only fooling yourself.

You're not that important, you see, serving.

Is always the solution to empty selfishness. You see, your

life starts to become empty when it's just about you.

I know, it doesn't feel that way because you feel

like I gotta get all my stuff together and get

a bunch of stuff for me, and then once I

get that figured out, then I'll be able to help

somebody else. Yes, yes, yes, the Bible does say love

your neighbor as yourself, So you gotta understand who you

are who you are before you can.

Love anybody else properly. Absolutely.

What I'm saying is if your life is only set

up to benefit you, at some point, you're gonna realize

that's empty. There's something that happens when you begin to

serve others.

Now, listen.

Traditionally, when we say serve in church, everybody's like, Okay,

here go. They're gonna ask me to get out there

in the rain and.

Hold a sign that says welcome. Maybe I might.

There may be some people out there ready to help

you do that today, but that's not my point, because

we have locked in in pigeonholeds. Serving to something you

do for a certain amount of hours at church. Oh,

I serve people when I go to the homeless shelter,

or I serve people when I'm on that Greeter's team,

or I serve people.

Yes, all those things are amazing.

And if you're not serving and you thought about serving,

you can do that this Sunday. Here's the point. Your

life should be serving people. Every day of your life.

When you wake up, it is thinking, oh do I

feel empty?

Oh?

It's probably because I have started serving myself. I set

everything up to be convenient for me.

I've stopped serving my kids.

Hey, can you come play with me?

No, I got stuff to do.

Stopping what you're doing and playing with your kid is

a way of serving your child.

All see that, I'm grown, I got stuff to do.

I gotta work, I gotta pay the bills. Okay, pay

all the bills. Not know your child, and then you're

gonna be sitting at their wedding like a stranger. Come on, now,

let's be honest. So I provide for you.

I put food on table.

What business I gotta no?

No, no, no. They want you, not the money you make.

I get it.

There's pressure, there's responsibility. You're in situations that are tough.

I get it. I can't begin to understand. But what

I do want to acknowledge is there's an opportunity every

day for you to serve somebody. Serving somebody by just

encouraging them, serving somebody by saying, hey, is there anything

you need?

Anything I can do for you.

When you set your life up and put yourself in

positions to serve, it starts to bring value to your life.

Serving people by taking the risk of inviting them to

something that's changed your life.

I was talking to somebody one time.

This conversation has's happened a thousand times over. People are like, man,

I just feel so I just feel socstatic and so

dull in my relationship with Jesus. I feel like nothing's happening,

and I can't I don't know what's going on.

My first question is was the last time you invite

somebody to church?

Because church gets real alive when your friends sitting next

to you and you've been praying for them for five years.

And you realize this is not a game, this is

their eternity on the line.

You wanted something to spark in your relationship with Jesus

when you go to the checkout line, say hey, what

do you do on Sundays? I go to this little thing.

I mean it's not taking me little, but you know,

but it's.

Super encouraging and it helped me every single week you

want to come, you would be surprised. Here's what I'll say.

Don't get people to know.

Don't give their no for them. Some of us you've

given nose for your whole family. They would never You

may not know. Last night they were up crying to God.

Please give me a sign that you see me.

Please.

I'm tired, I'm empty. I may be done. When you

set up your life to serve, to solution to emptiness.

The next one what to do when you are empty?

You gotta serve.

The next one is so everybody says, so Paul talks about.

He says, don't get weary in doing good, for at

the proper time, you will reap a harvest. If everybody say,

if you don't lose heart. Now, let me tell you

something that maybe you haven't thought of before, or maybe

has been misrepresented to you. Our God loves without condition

one hundred percent.

There are things in.

The scriptures that are conditional. You will reap the Harvest's

a blessing. If come on now, some of this is

just English, it's a theology.

This is just English. If you don't lose heart, if

my people.

Who are called by my name will humble themselves repent

and turn and.

Pray to me.

I will hear them, and I will.

Heal their land. Absolutely.

Now I gotta go into this because now I open

the can of worms. There's a difference between a blessing

and a miracle.

Let me help you.

Miracle is God intervening and no human could have done it.

There's no rational reasoning, and you did not earn it.

A blessing is conditional. I will bless you if you

do this. I will have open doors for you if

you obey me here and you do the same things

with your kids.

This is not a matter of God being weird or

what is that? Or I thought he was supposed to

love me.

No, you tell your kids, hey, if you listen to me,

when we get home, we will get some ice cream.

Or hey, if you do this when we get home,

I will let you stay up for five minutes. If

you don't do that, I'll give you another chance, grace.

If you don't do that, I'll give you another chance.

Grace.

You didn't do it the third time. Go to bade now,

Dad is three thirty. I don't care. Go to sleep

in your bed now. But then what happens a miracle?

The next day you wake up, you got.

Grace in your heart.

We're going to target to get you a new toy.

Why there's no reason, there's no explanation. It's the same

with God.

There are things He will intervene on your behalf and

there is no explanation. There are other times he'll say, Hey,

I have given you grace for this. If you go

outside of that, it's gonna run you ragged. You're gonna

be by yourself. You're gonna be stuck. You're not gonna have.

No grace for it.

But if you stay where I've called you to stay,

I will always provide for you.

I will always make a way for you.

But if you go outside my path, I'll show up

with some miracles, but I can't promise you. What he's

saying here is hey, I've got a harvest for you,

but just don't lose heart. And here's what I felt

with this point. He says, don't get tired in doing good.

I want to encourage some of y'all.

You have come too far doing this good to throw.

It away now.

I just want to stop.

Think about where you were, think about what you've been through.

I know it's not perfect. I know it's not all

worked out. I know you don't have all the ducks

in a row that you want to. But think about

where you were twelve months ago, in your thoughts, twelve

months ago, in your self talk twelve months ago, in

who you would be with and not be with. Who

you were, where you were, what you were doing. He says,

don't get tired of doing good. Don't get tired of

sowing good seeds. Don't get tired of serving people.

Don't get tired of doing the thing you know that

you don't necessarily want to do, but you know it's

good for you.

Don't get tired in that. Don't get tired of holding

a standard for who you'll date. It's a good thing

to have a standard. It's a good thing to save

your sel for marriage. It's a good thing to have

a budget. It's a good thing to not accept every

promotion because you realize it would rob you a family time.

It's a good thing to not necessarily be talking to everybody.

It's a good thing to maybe set time aside for

God and not be at everything. It's a good thing.

And I feel like sometimes we waste so much time.

Wait on the great miraculous thing that we miss a

lot of good things. It's a good thing to set

up and say, Okay, this is gonna be my schedule

for this season, and this is how I'm going to

prioritize time for myself, and this is how I'm going

to encourage people in it. It's a good thing. And

he says in verse ten, it's so beautiful. He says, Therefore,

whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone.

I love the Bible because sometimes we make the Bible

super complicated, like this.

This is conversation I have with people. They'll be like,

I'm trying to read a Bible, but I just don't understand.

It's where do you start off? It's like revelations. I

just feel like it's we there's a lot going on.

That's why I don't trust the Bible. Okay, let me

help you. Whenever you feel like you can do good,

you should do it. Why just what does that really

mean in the original Greek language?

Shut up?

It means be nice to people, be kind. It's not

that complicated.

Stop playing Seriously, sometimes we make stuff so the Bible

is just like, whenever you can try to do good,

you're like okay, but I'm just you know, well, I

gotta pray about it.

What what are you gonna do? What is it to

pray about?

Well, you know I'm where I'm at where God has

to be in this season, and you know he's really

working on me.

Be quiet. Good. What is something that would be good?

It would be good for you to make sure you're

in a friend circle that is encouraging and headed toward God.

That would be a good thing. You should do that.

I'm gonna move on because I felt myself going to

a rant.

I'm not gonna do it. What to do when you're empty?

Serve? So the last one step everybody says step Paul.

In his closing remarks in Galatians, he says this in

verse fourteen, As for me, may I never boast about

anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus. Because of

that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified,

and the world's interest in me has also died. It

doesn't matter whether we've been circumcised or not. What counts

is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. Paul,

at the very end of this letter, you gotta think

about this. This is Paul, This is a guy who's

seen a lot. He had this miraculous encounter. He literally

is writing his animal gets knocked off his horse. Jesus

himself is like, yo, I've got a new plan for you.

He immediately is like, yo, I used to kill people.

Now I preach. That's exactly how that happened. He becomes a.

Missionary, starts planning churches around the world, and the church

you are in today is a seed of Paul's ministry.

Paul is emptying himself to this church, and he's saying, listen,

there are people who are trying to tell you what

you should or shouldn't be doing. And the reason they're

doing that is because they're comparing themselves to you. And

what they're going to start doing is they're going to

boast an amount of people following them. He says, But

for me, only thing I boast in is the Cross. Now,

you've got to understand the implications of this statement. I

know you got a cross around your neck right now.

I know you got a cross tattoo. That was not

the visual of the cross. During this time we think

of the cross, when we're like.

Oh that's so sweet, God die for me love, the

cross was the most brutal, gruesome, humiliating way to die.

They would literally you just died from literally you would

sit up there.

They would beat you until you were unrecognizable, couldn't recognize you.

Whip you with whips that.

Had nails and glass and rocks and stones sewed into it.

They would hit you. It would all sink into your

skin and rip off over and over. This is what

Jesus did. He then is made while the blood is

seeping from his body, to carry across. This is not

the ones you see on the highway where the guy's

got the wheels. This is a real deal. Wooden oak

still got thorns, didn't sand it down for him so

it be comfortable, and he drags it miles. He gets

to this cross, he lays down. They take nails and

hammer them straight through his skin in the perfect spot

between the bones in his hands, so that the bones

in his hands keep him hung up there.

He gets up on there, and then what they do.

They break his ribs and they break his legs wide

because so that way he can't push up to take

a breath, so he suffocates in his own blood. You

know what Paul is saying. Whenever I start to think

I'm too important. Whenever I start to think, you know,

I know a lot of the Bible, and I've been

to church a lot, and I've prayed a lot, and

I've got a couple prophetic words, and I'm feeling pretty good,

and I've done a.

Couple good things.

He says, Oh, I don't boast about nothing, because it

should have been me up on that cross.

And here is the gospel. Yes, Jesus loves you. Yes

he died for you.

But let's talk about why he had to do it.

He did it because you were supposed to die. The

Bible says the wages of sin is death. And I

know we got a lot of beautiful preaching right now,

but sometimes we only sell you part of the Bible

and part of the gospel.

And that he's a good God.

That is true.

But he had to be so good because we're so bad.

We always make a mistake when we think there's good

people and bad people.

You've got a list in your head.

There's good people and there's bad people. Not in heaven,

there ain't not in Jesus' standard.

It ain't.

You want to talk about comparison, Let's compare yourself to

the real standard perfection.

That's where we all stated in here.

And this is why Paul's message was so offensive, because

there were hundreds of thousands of church people who got

their value from comparing themselves to other people.

All the rules.

You don't So when Paul walks in saying, yeah, none

of that matters you believe in Jesus or not.

Well, but I've done all these good.

Things, don't matter. Yeah, but I've never missed church don't matter. Yeah,

but I'm really disciplined, doesn't matter. Putting your faith in

Jesus is the only way the.

Cross is beautiful.

It's also offensive because it levels the playing field. You mean,

if I just tell this little white lie and someone

commits murder, it's the same thing.

Yeah, to Jesus, it is no, that can't be true.

Come on, there's some really horrible people who have done

some really really bad things, and already we have compared

ourself to somebody else. Scripture says in verse we read it,

you don't need to compare yourself if you mind your

own business, and your own business is no matter what

you've done your own businesses.

We have all fallen short. But the beauty of the

gospel is Paul says this.

He says, I know we've talked about a lot in

this book, but he says this, it doesn't matter whether

you've been circumcised or not. What he's saying is we've

I've spent this whole letter trying to explain to you,

and we're arguing over something dumb.

That's the truth. You've argued over all this stuff of.

What you can do, what you can't do, who you

can be, who you can't be, he said, at the

end of the day, that doesn't matter. What matters is

are you being transformed into a new creation. That's all

that matters at the end of the day. And my

last point is if you feel empty, I'm gonna ask

you to take a step a step, because the truth is,

sometimes you get in church and you feel empty and

you come in here and it's like, yeah, here's a

list of eighty sixteen you're not doing, and I'm gonna

give you a list of forty six things that you

need to do. And if you follow these perfectly, and

now it's.

Another thing on your list.

After you figure out what's going on with your teenager,

after you figure out how.

To pay your debt. After you realize, shoot, I forgot

to follow my taxes.

After you realize, oh my gosh, there's a little distance

in my marriage.

Then you're like, oh yeah. And also I need.

To serve hundreds of hours, and I should be reading

my Bible no at more. And I got a no

Greek in Hebrew, and oh my gosh, no.

A step?

Can you? Would you consider taking a step?

I'm gonna say, you gotta have it figured out, Charles.

I got questions about God. Me too. I got questions

about God. God, Why do we pray for stuff and

sometimes it don't happen? Why are we praying if you

already know what you're gonna do? I got a question.

I can throw this whole room sideways with a couple

of mind. We can really my questions stay in a

group text with my friend Eron, just because I wan't

scare nobody. But I got some questions. But my questions

do not have to inhibit my step. Yes, I don't

feel worthy all the time.

But it's also true he still called me.

Yes, I've still got some stuff that I'm working out,

and I still feel a little insecure sometimes.

But what's also true is he says he.

Will give me both the power and the desire.

To do what pleases him.

Yes, our marriage is a little rocky, and I don't

see the way forward, and I've never had a template

of how to work through things. And I always give

up when it gets hard, and I don't know what

I'm gonna do, but I.

Can say I'm sorry. No, I don't know what the future.

Holds, and I don't know how God's gonna work it out,

and I don't know where I'm going, But I can

say God, I'm listening.

No, I ever done this before, and.

I've never started a business before, much less did I

go to school to start a business. But I can

get a notebook from Walgreens and right at the top

my business will be a blessing to other people. I

can take a step. Jesus is called one of the

most beautiful scriptures.

He says, are you tired? Are you worn out?

Are you tired of waiting on that well done? Are

you tired of walking throughout your day on the edge

of depression and anxiety hoping that someone acknowledges you, and

if they don't, it ruins everything.

Are you sick of that?

Are you sick of having the list of rules that

you need to follow to be a good person, and

if you miss one of them, it robs you of

all the momentum you had when you sink back into

the whole of not being good enough.

Are you tired of that? He says, come to me.

Do you feel empty? Do you feel frustrated? Do you

feel like you don't know why you're here? Do you

feel like money, can't feel the void? Do you feel

like you've went.

To church and still there's some questions that rob you

at night? Do you are you tired of being anxious?

Are you tired of comparing yourself? Are you tired of

not knowing why you're here on this planet? Jesus is

the only one, And the.

Call of Jesus.

Is if you feel empty.

The end of that verse is, I will give you

rest for your soul.

I might ask everybody to stand up all over this

room today.

I want to pray over everybody.

In this room.

Firstly, if you feel empty anywhere, anywhere, anywhere, anywhere, if

there's any level of emptiness, I'm gonna say a prayer

for you.

And here's the thing.

All your problems aren't gonna be solved in this one prayer.

It's not gonna just magically all go away, but there's

gonna be something beautiful that happens. And that's an awareness

of God's presence, just an awareness that he loves you,

that He's with you, that there is hope, that I

can dream again, that God is gonna work everything out.

So if you're in this room, I ask everybody to

buy your.

Heads and close your eyes just out of a moment

to focus. Maybe take a moment and just take some inventory.

How do you feel?

What think about your last week, the last month, this

last year.

Was there a moment where you felt empty?

Was there a moment where you felt lonely?

Is there a moment where it felt like the room

got darker and darker?

Was there a moment where you feel like you didn't

know who you are?

If you answer yes to any of those questions, I

promise you Jesus and the Cross of Jesus is the

only thing that will bring hope to that broken place.

And if you're in here, I want to pray for you.

So if you've ever felt any of that emptiness, I'm

going to ask you to do something. But I'm just

want you slip your hand up. Nobody looking around. You

can go and do it right now, all the room,

any area.

Currently, you're feeling empty, you're feeling hopeless.

Holy Spirit, right now, this is.

A situation where we're asking for a miracle. We're asking

for you to intervene in a way that only you can.

We're asking Lord that that deep void that is on

the inside of every person, that place that needs to

be seen and recognize that place that just wants to

be known. Holy Spirit, right now, would people just get

a sense.

Of your well done?

Would people just get a sense that you're proud of them,

When people just get a sense that you haven't left them,

that you haven't forsaken them, that they're not all by themselves,

that this depression is not their story, that anxiety is

not their story, that they do have life to live

and they are not going to end their life early.

That there is another page in the book. I feel

that so strongly.

Some of you, you feel like you're at the end

of the book. You feel like the story of your

life is written. But God says, baby, you are only

in the beginning chapters.

There is so much that is left unwritten. And I

know the end.

So God, I thank you right now for a spirit

of hope that would rise in this room. Right now,

people who have felt empty, Lord Jesus, I thank you

that Lord, the spirit of the Living God would erupt

on the inside of them and they would begin to

overflow with an expectation. They would begin to overflow with hope,

Lord Jesus, realizing that you are everything that they need.

Every hit still about, every eye still closed. You can

put your hands down. There's some people in this room that,

if you're honest, you do not know where you stand

with Jesus.

Maybe you've been in church, maybe you've been around church.

Maybe you've tried to keep that list of good things.

But the truth is you're still in the driver's seat

of your life. You're still in control. You have the

final say, You decide what you do and don't do.

And let's be honest, it's why you're so empty.

You ain't got a lie to me, you ain't got

a lot to yourself.

It's why you're empty. That's why you came today, because

you were just grasping for any type of hope. Can

I tell you there is no list of good things

and no amount of anything that will fulfill you. All

you got to do is surrender. All you got to

do is say yes. One Yes could be the best

thing that changes your life forever.

I know you made a lot of mistakes. I know

you feel like a bad person, But.

The greatest reality is that Jesus took your place.

Yes, you should have been on that cross.

But the gospel is he found you in a broken state.

He found me in a broken state, and he said, all.

You got to do is put your trust in me,

For I am the perfect Lamb. I am the perfect sacrifice.

And when you put your trust in me, when you

surrender to me, when you say I can't do it anymore,

when you give up, that is just the start. When

you say I can't, I'm just getting started. So if

you're in this room, every head bow, every eye close,

and you want to surrender to Jesus for real, Not

because you feel like it's the right thing to do,

not because you feel like, oh, I probably should do this,

No because you're tired of that empty feeling. If you're

sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand on the

count of three.

One He loves you so much. To believe it or not,

He's proud of you.

Three lift your hand right now, proud of you, so proud.

Of you, beautiful, beautiful. I might ask everybody.

If everybody would bow your heads, close your eyes, repeat

this prayer after me. For everybody in the room and

watching online. Would you say, Dear God, thank you for

doing what I couldn't God, I pray from this day

forward that you would take control of my life. I

surrender to your will in your way. I give my

life to you. It's in the beautiful name of Jesus,

I pray. And everybody said, come on, can you shout? Amen?

Hey, listen, we're about.

To close service in just a moment.

But if you just prayed that prayer, that is the

best prayer and the best moment of your life. It's

a brand new start, to fresh start with Jesus, and

we're so proud of you.

As a matter of.

Fact, if you just prayed that prayer, you gave your

life to Jesus. I'm gonna ask you to do something bold.

I'm ask you to raise your hand. We want to

give you a Bible. We want to give you something

in your hand that you can take home with you. So,

if you prayed that prayer, raise your hand high, don't

even play, raise.

It up high if you see somebody. Can we celebrate

people who made that decision. So proud of you, So

proud of you, so proud of you.

Thank you for joining us today. If you said that

prayer and accept it Jesus into your heart, it's the

best decision you could ever make. We want to celebrate

with you, and we have some tools to help you

on your journey. Tech saved to A two eight two

eight two, and to find out more about TC text

connect to A two eight two eight two. Be sure

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for listening. Now go out and live a transform life.