Pastor Malachi Maillot | Make Room For the Holy Spirit | February 15th, 2026

Well, good morning.

How are you guys doing?

Some of you are good, some of you don't know.

It's all good.

I'm gonna jump right in.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Pastor Malachi here at the church.

Pastor Brody and Pastor Brian are away.

One's in Mexico and one's at Sparkling Hills, so.

And I'm here.

So public speaking.

Good to be them, right?

Hey, at least it's sunny outside.

Who's enjoying the weather?

Right?

It's February and there's no snow.

Weird.

We're gonna jump right in to 2 Kings.

If you got your Bible with you, we also have it on the screen as well.

2 Kings chapter 4.

2 Kings 4 · chapter mention

I prefer the ESV version, so that's the version we're gonna read on the screen.

If you're there, say I'm there.

Some of you just looking at the screen and say I was already there.

It's all good.

It says this.

It says, Now uh the wife of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, Your servant, my your servant, my husband, is dead.

And you know that your servant feared the Lord.

Uh then she says, But the creditor has come to take away my two children to be his slaves.

And so it kind of opens with this really, really desperate moment of a widow who is in a lot of trouble, and she cries out to the prophet Elijah, and this is what he says to her.

Uh he says, What shall I do for you?

Uh and then he says, Tell me, what do you have in your house?

Uh, and obviously she doesn't have anything in the house because they've already taken everything.

She's probably already sold off everything.

Uh, and she says to him, You know, I have nothing inside the house except except uh this jar of oil, this one jar of oil.

He says to her, uh, then go outside and borrow vessels from all your neighbors, and they have to be empty vessels, and make sure you get a lot of them.

Then he says, Uh, then go in your house, shut the door behind you, yourself, and your sons, and begin to pour the oil into these vessels.

And when one is full, set it aside.

So she went from him, shut the door behind herself and her sons, and began to pour, uh and she poured, and they brought the vessels to her.

It says, When the vessels were full, she said to her son, Bring me another vessel so I can fill it.

And he said to her, There is not another jar.

Then it says in the scripture, it says, Then the oil stopped flowing.

You can highlight that in your Bible if you want to.

And she came to Elisha and told the man of God and said, or he's he told her, Go and sell the oil, pay your debts, and then you and your sons can live on the rest.

Let's pray this morning.

Father God, I thank you for your word today.

I thank you for this time that we had in worship today, just to make room for you, make room for you to speak, make room for you to move.

And God, this morning we want to do the same thing as we listen to your word.

God, would you speak to us?

Would you clear our minds of any negative thoughts or wandering thoughts in our minds?

God, that we would, as we started this service, to lay aside things that would hinder us from moving towards you today.

But God, speak your word.

We're listening to you.

Everyone say this, Holy Spirit.

I'm listening.

Holy Spirit, I'm ready for your word.

In Jesus' name, everyone said, Amen.

Hey, bump your neighbors, say, I'm glad you came to church.

Uh, give it up for revenge on the piano.

She's amazing.

The worship teams as well, they did amazing this morning.

Um, I was thinking about this this week, and I came to the conclusion that there are two types of people in the world.

Two types of people in the world.

There are hoarders and there are chuckers.

Right?

You have you have your people that hoard, and I know Ryan came to me this morning and he's like, well, there's actually three types.

There's collectors as well.

But those are just hoarders who take care of the stuff, right?

I would know, I do the same thing, I collect way too many things, but it's I'm still a hoarder, right?

There's hoarders and there's chuckers.

And uh I can say that my wife, she's on the opposite side of me.

She is a chucker, right?

I think I think a lot of women are kind of like this.

They they just get sick of the mess, they get sick of all the the clutter and they just start throwing things out the door.

Anybody have a anybody live in a house like that?

No?

Uh some hey, one guy, thank you for being brave.

Um, but she can't stand the mess, she can't stand the clutter.

Uh you know, if if she comes home to a messy house, it's like she just it's it's hard.

It's hard for her to, and I'm just telling on her, and I'll tell on me, don't worry.

Um, like she can't stand for disorganized spaces in our house.

And all the women are like, amen, right?

And all the guys are like, What is what's the big deal, right?

Like, what do you mean?

And she loves to purge things, and so I I I was I was thinking about this, and opposites often get married, right?

Um, most of the time, it's not 100% of the time, but I would say 99% of the time they get married, and I'm the hoarder of the house, okay?

I'm the or the collector, as we like to call ourselves.

We're just col we just like to collect things.

But I I know I'm a hoarder because you know, I look at my garage and I I have a room, it's my little tool room, and I look in that room, and there is so much stuff that I don't need.

But the hoarder mentality says, you know, but oh, but we'll just keep this because we'll find uh an uh a use for it one day, right?

Like we have these obscure little pieces of wood that are like this tall and like have a little notch out of them, but it's like, ah, you know what, I'm gonna find some use for that one day.

Any guys in any guys relate to that?

Like you got I got like old tiles that are like this small.

Like, when am I gonna use something this small?

Uh I have like a lineup of like old half, like half-used silicone tubes.

Anybody that's been there before?

It's like, I'll use it one day, right?

And it's been two years.

That thing's probably solid, like it's unusable, but but it's it's that idea of you know, what if one day I'll need it?

And that's the hoarder mentality.

I was cleaning out, um, we were doing some spring cleaning.

I was cleaning out uh one of our rooms in their downstairs, and we had like those IKEA like shelves with all the little things in it, and there's just like stuff in there, and we're just cleaning it out.

And I and I I came across a box and I was like, oh yeah, I remember this box because I just put a bunch of my stuff in it from like when I was like 20, right?

Like 19, and like there was a Game Boy in there.

That was like obviously really cool.

I was like, oh, I'm a Game Boy, this is awesome.

Um, but like there was like PlayStation 1 games in there, and like you can't even play those games anymore.

Uh I I like kept some of my Lego as when I was a kid.

That's the collector mindset, right?

That's gonna be worth money one day, okay?

But there was like, I don't know if you've ever done this.

Uh if you keep like your old iPhone boxes, right?

Yes, right?

And you're like, what if one day I sell it, I want to have it presentable, right?

So I have like 15 iPhone boxes in this box, and I'm like, they're all empty, and I don't have these phones anymore.

There was a phone in there that was completely shattered, it was broken, and I still kept it.

Because I'm like, I could use it one day, right?

Like, what if I decide to fix it?

And it's like they don't even update that phone anymore.

Like it's it's completely useless.

Um, you know, the way that I organize is completely different than the way that Rebecca organizes it.

If you've come to our house, like you wouldn't see it, but there's a few closets.

If you open them, you will see that was my doing.

Because it just everything just gets thrown in there, and it's like, you know, where's the where is this?

And you look in the closet, and it's just impossible to find anything.

But um, you know, there is there is seasons in life that we need to purge things, and the um, but that hoarder mentality is you know, when am I gonna use it?

I might I might find a use for it one day.

And I think um, you know, obviously we do we do a spring cleaning and every year.

Uh, anybody do spring cleaning?

Anyone love spring cleaning?

That's like your favorite time, it's almost competes with Christmas.

Anyone?

Right?

Sometimes you do a fall cleaning too because you didn't get rid of enough stuff, and that was that was this year.

I think we did a spring cleaning and a fall cleaning just because we have too much stuff.

And uh, but uh the the trick with spring cleaning is don't look at the stuff you're throwing away, right?

Because all the hoarders will just start staring at it and like, hmm, what could I do with that?

Like, it's like we just we think of we start to attach ourselves sentimentally, right?

Like I you know what I'm I'm feeling, right?

You know what I'm saying.

I think I was I was talking to my buddy Josh, and uh they had they had like sold a bunch of their stuff, and and he was he was mad at his wife because she she got rid of one of his sweaters and she's like, it was like tattered.

He's like, but I was attached to it.

I I liked that sweater, and so we get it, we get attached to things.

So the trick with string cleaning is don't look at the stuff.

Just start throwing it in the garbage.

Uh get rid of things.

And and I and I try I I guarantee you, every time you purge something, it's like a weight lifts off your shoulders, right?

The house feels a little bit cleaner, there's more space, there's room for activities, right?

You can actually walk into a space and be like, okay, what can I do with this space now that there's not these boxes packed like to the ceiling, right?

We all get that feeling, but I think for us hoarders, it's hard for us to throw those things away because we get attached sentimentally, and you just the trick is don't look at it, just throw it away.

Over time, we will naturally just gather clutter, even if you're not a hoarder, you'll just naturally just acquire things over your lifetime.

If you have a space in your house, you'll probably fill it, right?

You have uh uh if if you want to tell on yourself, some of us have those rooms where when people come over, everything just gets picked up and thrown in that room.

Anybody have one of those rooms?

It's just like we just we just shut the door, don't go in that room, nobody sees in that room, right?

And we have those spaces in our life, but as we as we progress through our life, we'll just gather things, we gather clutter, and the reality is we actually need space.

We need space.

Tell your neighbor I need space, but don't move away from them because it's kind of awkward.

Um what's true in the physical, what's often true in our physical lives, is is most often true in our spiritual life.

What's true in the physical realm that we live in is is is a lot of the times it's true on the other side in our spiritual life.

We can often become like a spiritual hoarder or a mental hoarder, or we hoard things in our soul, we hoard things in our mental spaces.

And and I was thinking about this, uh, and it's an it's not always bad things that we hold on to.

It's not always, it doesn't always have to be something that hinders us, right?

And I was thinking about this, like uh we we I always do this, like I keep the Allen keys of the IKEA furniture, and we have like 50,000 Allen keys in our house, and they're all in different drawers, and it's all disorganized.

It's like I go to my wife, I'm like, I need an Allen key, and it's I can't find the Allen keys.

Like, look in like the other thousands of places that you've put the Allen keys, right?

Like an Allen key can be practical and useful and and awesome, but if you have a ton of them, it's just like overcrowded space.

It's not gonna be helpful for me, and I'm not gonna find it when I need it, right?

And it's the same thing when we go through seasons of life.

Sometimes God will bring you through it through a season and you'll kind of like carry these things with you and you'll hold on to these things.

We talked about uh in in Bible school, whenever they would talk about like things for marriage, they tell us, hey, put this thing on the shelf.

You know, you might use it later.

And those things that we carry on in our life, they're not necessarily bad things, they can be useful things, but we'll go through seasons where God wants to give us something new, and if we're just holding on to those things, how can we get something new?

Right?

We won't have the space.

I won't have any space for any more Allen keys in my house, right?

If someone wants to give me one that's like all on the same one and actually useful, right?

The same thing.

God wants to give us different things in different seasons, but if we hold on to the thing from the last season and we're not like open with our hands, we won't have room to take it.

Right?

We won't have room to accept it.

So we'll go through seasons, we'll pick things up, not necessarily bad things all the time, but we have to be willing to have open hands and be willing to let go and purge things that we don't need anymore.

You guys with me?

On the flip side, there are things that we have in our life that we don't like to let go of.

Right?

Everyone's kind of shaking their head, right?

They know the things.

You know the things.

An old way of thinking.

Right?

I was I think this way, I don't want to change, I don't like change, this is how I process things, and it's it could be an old way of thinking, or an old methodology, the way that you do something.

A lot of us don't like and love change all the time.

Some of us are all for it, but I would say the majority of us like the steady eddy, right?

We have a methodology of doing something, and we we don't want to change our way of doing something, even if it's inefficient, or there could be a lifestyle that we haven't fully let go of because we we like that lifestyle, we like it outside of our Christian bubble, or we like how it makes us feel, we like how important it makes us, and we have these lifestyles maybe that we have uh to let go of, or maybe the way we talk.

Maybe, maybe for you, you were really negative about yourself, you have negative self-talk towards yourself.

I think that it's easy to say that we're all our own worst enemies, right?

We all look in the mirror, we all see the things that we don't like, and I think that uh maybe for you today that's a way that you talk or a way that you think.

Maybe it could be a friends circle that you know is not right for you in this season, right?

We all had things we don't like to let go of.

And we tend we tend to bring along with us in our life thinking it's gonna be beneficial for us.

Because we don't want to lose those friends, we don't want to feel lonely for a season, right?

So we we just drag them along with our life even though they're the ones dragging us down.

And I think I think some of us, and this is something that I was thinking of, and I say some of us, by you know, pointing the finger at me, uh being consumed by what's going on in the world.

Like, like it's I I was thinking about this.

It's not a sin to be informed.

It's not a sin to be informed.

But what happens is, and this is what happened to me, and I'll and I'll tell myself, like these last couple weeks, all the stuff coming out uh in our media and all these crazy, audacious like things coming out, all the wars and rumors of wars kind of going on in the world, and I'm thinking about these things, but and I'm just allowing myself to consume uh media on it and just consume things like every second video on on my Instagram feed is about like these crazy things that are happening, and it's starting to give me fear, it's starting to give me anxiety, because again, I can't do anything about it.

Right?

Like I can't go outside and start changing what's happening in America.

Right?

Like I can't go and change things that are happening overseas.

I can I can only change what's in front of me, immediate day to day.

But what happens is we get so consumed and we're just like, we just want to be, you know, we we tell ourselves, I just gotta be informed about this, I want to know about this.

But what happens is it's all we end up consuming, and all of a sudden we're left anxious, we're left angry, we're less, we're left fearful, and again, we can't do anything about it.

I think some of us have allowed ourselves to become distracted with everything that's going on.

I I would literally, I'll t I'll say this, I literally lost sleep.

It was a few weeks ago.

Um and like some of this isn't like a necessarily a bad thing.

It's good to be prepared, but I was thinking in my head, I was sitting in bed, and I was it was like two hours of of just thinking.

I was like, worst case scenario, someone broke into my house, right?

Like, and they tried to to they tried to like steal my daughter or something.

Like, what would I do?

Right?

And I'm sitting there thinking about the worst case scenarios, and I'm like, how is this healthy for me?

Right?

It's it's good to be prepared, like put a shotgun on like your door or something, like like have an idea, but like it's not good to dwell on these things because what happens is we just become, we just start hoarding those things and hoarding those thoughts, and we become negative and cynical and pessimistic and neg and negative about everything, and we're just thinking, worst case scenario, worst case scenario, worst case scenario, worst case scenario.

I don't know if that's been like for you, but that's literally been the last few weeks for me.

I've been talking to Jamin about it.

He's like, I just had to get off.

I just had to like get off social media.

I can't do it because it's just gonna keep flooding in and flooding in and flooding in.

And I I told our students this a few weeks ago that I don't blame them for it's like the highest level of anxiety that this next generation deals with.

And I don't blame them for feeling that because we were not actually designed to take in that much information.

Right?

We were not designed to take in all the information from everywhere all at once from all over the world.

And we have this generation that has phones when they're coming into kindergarten, right?

Like grade one, grade two, kids have phones now, and they're able to access the information.

And it's like you weren't built to to have that information.

Like you're supposed to be just focusing on your ABCs and like don't hit your sister, like like the small little baby steps of like socializing your kids, right?

And it's and they're thinking about like what's happening in Israel, we're happening all across the world, and it's like you're like five?

How are you processing this information?

And they're not.

It just turns into this angst, right?

And same thing happens for us, really, if we're honest.

We think we're all mature and we think we can handle it, but we can't.

We actually physically, mentally, spiritually cannot handle that much information.

The world uh loves to glorify being busy, right?

It glorifies this lifestyle of just having like a billion things going on in your life.

I don't know if you've asked someone, maybe it was today, you're like, hey, how is your week?

And they said, busy.

Right?

Like, that's often what comes out of our mouth when we when we do have a busy week and it's full, and it's like, or maybe you said it this morning, you're like, someone asks you, like, yeah, it was busy, and you like start sweating thinking about the week.

And and the world and the culture around us glorifies this idea of just being busy.

Busy, busy, busy, busy.

Like, go, go, go.

Like, have a have like 10 side hustles off the start off the side of your desk where you're not going to make it in this economy, right?

Like, and it glorifies this idea of just being busy, and what happens is we become distracted.

And when God wants to come and meet you, and God actually wants to come and meet you, and God actually wants to speak to you, and all of a sudden we're like, we're standing over here with all this stuff, and we're like, we don't have room for God.

Because we've just been consuming, thinking about these other things, being overwhelmed, holding on to things, hoarding things in our life, hoarding things in our mental space, hoarding things in our spirit, hoarding things physically.

Our schedule is just go, go, go, go.

And all of a sudden, God's like knocking on our door, and we're like, we don't have time for you.

Right?

I don't have time to think about this right now.

You know, or it's like you say, Oh, I don't really have time to pray.

I don't what is our life looking like?

Here's the here's the truth.

Um and this might be a hard truth, but it's a it's a good truth.

We have to make room in our life intentionally.

Just like when you go do spring cleaning, the garbage isn't packing itself up in bags and putting itself in boxes, throwing itself in the car, turning on your car and waving goodbye and driving to the dump.

Right?

Like it's it's you have to go and do it.

You have to go and purge intentionally.

We don't need this, we don't need that, we don't like, let's get rid of it.

My wife's like not even looking at it, just throw it out the door, right?

Here, catch and throw it in the car and get it out of here.

Like it doesn't drive itself to the dump.

You have to go into your spaces and say, what do we need and what do we not need?

Right?

And I have to intentionally do that.

And if I don't, it's just gonna be like a hoarder house.

I don't know if you've ever been to one of those before.

It's terrifying.

Right?

It's scary.

We have to recognize first, you know, is my space cluttered?

Is my space too full for God?

Is my mental space just firing on all cylinders all the time, thinking about worst-case scenarios and what's happening over here, and what's Donald Trump doing, and what are like all these different things.

Like, am I am I actually thinking about that?

Am I taking a mental inventory of what's going on in my life?

The truth is we need to start cleaning that house, right?

We need to steward that house.

And so we come back to this story in 2 Kings.

I know you guys are quiet because you're thinking, okay.

It's not because I'm preaching bad.

Maybe some of you think that, but that's okay.

We have in 2 Kings, we have Elisha the prophet, right?

He was the successor of Elijah.

Does anybody know who Elijah is?

Elijah was what I consider the first superhero of the Bible.

This dude was awesome.

Like the stories about Elijah are insane.

Like he outruns chariots on foot.

Like these are horses, and this is a dude.

There was a story of uh he was basically like uh going toe-to-toe with the prophets of Baal, and it's and it's actually interesting that he was the only one standing up for God in that time period.

And it's actually like a few chapters before this, but he's going toe-to-toe with the prophets of Baal and they're and he's like mocking them.

He's like, Is your God too busy to like help you?

And they're they're basically having a competition of whose God is real, right?

And the prophets of Baal, they're like trying to call down fire, they're trying to do this thing, they're like chanting, probably doing whatever they're doing.

And Elijah's like sitting there, like just like looking at his watch, like, all right.

And then all of a sudden he's like, Okay, it's my turn.

And he pours the water on the altar, right?

You guys remember the story?

He's like, he's like, pour another one on, make it even like drench the altar.

And then he just like says, God, do your thing.

And he sends down fire, burns up the altar, and then what does he do?

He slaughters the prophets of Baal.

Like he goes and kills them all.

This dude was insane, like he does it all by himself, and then he starts running away from Jezebel because he's trying to kill him.

But this dude was unreal.

And then all of a sudden, he comes to Elisha and he comes to, he finds him plowing in a field and he puts his coat on him.

And imagine having to fill the shoes of that man.

Right?

Like, and so, but this is this is a story that that's a little bit early in Elisha's ministry, right?

He's he's taken on this uh this mantle of Elijah.

The prophet Elijah has put his mantle on him, and it actually says that Elijah never saw death.

He just like floated off to heaven.

That'd be that'd be pretty cool.

Honestly, let me have that story, please, God, that'd be cool.

Um, but we have Elisha, and he's and he's in it's in 2 Kings, it's early on in his ministry.

He's walking with this mantle, he's walking with this responsibility, this new authority.

And it says in verse 1, uh, now a wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out, Elisha, your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but my creditors come to take my two sons away.

And so there's a couple things to note.

This wasn't like a random woman, right?

This wasn't just some random lady calling out to Elisha.

She knew him.

Her husband kind of served under Elisha.

And obviously, she's going through, second thing to note is she's going through some serious trouble, right?

She's going through what would be considered bankruptcy, but they didn't do bankruptcy that the same way we do.

They just, they literally take everything you have, and she is in this moment where she's she's going to lose her children.

And so you can you can see in this passage that there's this heightened desperation in the passage.

Right?

Like, just imagine.

I could not imagine, like I lost sleep over it thinking about someone trying to take my kids.

Right?

Like, you can't imagine the desperation in this woman.

And she calls out to Elijah, and Elijah, he gets uh he gets very practical very quickly.

He says, What's in your house?

What do you have?

And it's funny because it's like she's literally like, I have nothing but my two kids.

Like, you know what I have in the house.

And she starts, she starts taking inventory in her empty house.

There's no furniture, there's probably no beds anywhere, there's probably nothing on the walls, there's no food in the cupboards.

Like it's empty because they've already taken everything.

She's probably sold everything out of desperation just to satisfy the debt.

And she looks and she finds, oh, all I have is this little jar.

Some commentators actually think it wasn't a very big jar.

Like it was like an anointing oil jar, like a very small jar.

I don't I don't know.

That's just an interesting thought that I was reading about.

And it she says, All I have is this little jar of oil.

I have nothing left.

And what he says to her uh sounds crazy, honestly.

He's like, hey, go outside and go to all your neighbors and knock on the door and borrow every single jar that you possibly can.

Make sure that it's empty and make sure you have many.

Right?

And so I just imagine, I just imagine this lady just going door to door and being like, hey, that's a nice flower pot.

Can I borrow that for a second?

And they're like, uh, sure.

And she just starts dumping the flowers out because it's gotta be empty, right?

It's like, hey, uh, you know, I know you have that jar of like flour.

Can I see that for a second?

And she's in front of them, just dumping it out and running away with this thing.

Right?

Like, it's it's just in it's insane to me.

Like, you you think of the desperation of this woman, just going door to door to door to door, finding all these jars, throwing out people's stuff out of the jars, and then going back to her house.

The jars needed to be empty.

And uh, and I would say that in that, like her dignity was probably absent in that moment.

And you think about that desperation that she has, she's going to lose her kids, and so she doesn't care what anybody else thinks.

She goes door to door, she finds uh the jars, and uh, and it says that she kept filling jar after jar after jar, and every time one would be filled, she'd say, Sons, bring me another one, bring me another one, until it says in verse 6, it says, When the vessels were full, she says to her son, bring me another vessel.

And they say to her, There is not another.

We've borrowed every jar in town, and all the neighbors hate us.

Right?

Like, there's food all over the town, there's like flower pots, like like people are wondering, what are you doing with my jar?

Like, we don't have any more.

And it says in uh the next verse, it says, Then the oil stopped flowing.

Then the oil stopped flowing.

And what I believe is if they had more jars, the oil just would have kept going.

The oil would have just kept going.

And this is no fault.

Uh, I think we're quick to think, well, the the woman's faith just wasn't big enough.

Right?

It wasn't the widow's fault.

It wasn't on the widow, and the the oil didn't stop because you know, God ran out.

The oil didn't stop because Elisha prayed wrong, the oil didn't stop because of a lack of faith.

Like, think of the faith in this story.

Like, just imagine yourself going door to door and desperately just like grabbing people's stuff out of their house and dumping it, and like that's faith.

Right?

Like, that's it's not a lack of faith.

It's a it's a lack of capacity.

And it's not it's not a fault to her because again, we're human.

We will have a lack of capacity.

The the oil didn't stop because of any other things, other than we don't have the full capacity to have the fullness of God.

Otherwise, we would explode, right?

Like it doesn't work like that.

But the limit was not God.

The limit was the capacity.

We are the limited ones, not God.

And this is another thing I was thinking about.

The oil didn't just like like as soon as Elisha was like, hey, go get some vessels, and like you have this time limit, right?

Like the oil just started pouring on the floor.

It didn't do that, it didn't just start free-flowing.

The only time the oil started flowing was there was an empty, prepared vessel ready to be filled.

Right?

It didn't just like start pouring out and she's like holding it, throw me another jar! Like, we need to fill like it's getting all over the house.

Like, no, no.

It was like it would stop as soon as the vessel was filled, and then she would have another empty vessel prepared, and it would fill again.

Very interesting.

And might I suggest to you today that the Holy Spirit eagerly desires to occupy the space that you intentionally create for him.

The Holy Spirit eagerly, he's waiting like the oil, waiting to fill the space that you create.

Eagerly waiting.

And he will fill it as much as you have capacity.

As much space as you empty for him, he will fill it.

Here's the flip side: the Holy Spirit won't go where you don't allow him.

Did that one sink in a little bit?

Right?

The Holy Spirit will not go, let me phrase it a different way.

He will not force himself into spaces that you refuse to surrender.

It's not like he's the SWAT team, like kicking your door down and being like, all right, let's get all this furniture out of here.

We don't need it.

Right?

Like, starts moving everything around.

Like, that's not the Holy Spirit.

That's an annoying friend, right?

We talked about that person that comes over and tries to rearrange your furniture.

You slap those people, right?

Like, get out of my house.

The Holy Spirit doesn't do that.

Not physically, okay.

Not promoting violence here.

Someone couldn't handle that one.

But he's not gonna force his way in.

You know, I like to think of the Holy Spirit, he's like a gentleman.

Right?

He stands at the door and he knocks.

Hello?

Anybody home?

And he waits to be invited in.

He waits to be invited in.

We invite him in to dwell in our hearts, we invite him to fill us, and it's only when space was created that the oil began to flow.

It's only when the space was created.

And I want to ask a question, like, are you are you desperate for his presence?

Or are you distracted?

Are we desperate to create space in our hearts and our minds and our spirit and our life?

Or are we just distracted with everything that's going on?

Are we distracted?

Are you desperate to let go of all dignity to see God move in your life?

Like are we desperate?

Are we that desperate?

Or are we distracted?

Are we making room for the Holy Spirit to fill us?

Or are we just so busy with all the things that we do and all the things in our schedule?

Are we so desperate or are we distracted?

And I think that there's obviously seasons where we need to do a spring cleaning in our own hearts, right?

There's seasons, you know, where we we take an inventory of what's going on.

We take an inventory of, you know, what needs to go, what doesn't need to stay, what what can stay and what can go.

Like what is what is snuck into our lives?

Or or what have we been holding on to that we need to let go?

And it's like a spring cleaning, and we come to this head, we're like, okay, what do we need to do here?

And we begin to clear out the clutter and we make room in our heart.

And there's a there's what's called a daily choosing of this, I believe.

There's like there's like seasons that we do those big cleanings, but then there's also a daily choice that we have to keep our stuff clear and decluttered.

Right?

A daily choosing, and and this is where we daily ask the Holy Spirit to come and fill us.

We daily ask and invite Him to come and fill us.

Actually, I think I've I've taught this before, I taught this in our foundations class, but uh, I talk about the there's two types of fillings.

There's like the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

There's the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is when you are saved, when you receive the free gift of salvation, you believe in your heart, you confess with your mouth that Jesus died for your sins, forgives your sins, right?

That he raised from the dead, that he beat power, the power of death.

Um, that's when the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in your heart.

Is that that's the moment of salvation?

The Holy Spirit indwells you.

Right?

And he doesn't leave you.

From this day on, as soon as you have the Holy Spirit will never leave you.

Right?

Even if you're dragging him along with you in your life, right?

And you're going into a party, you're gonna drag the Holy Spirit with you.

He's not gonna leave you because you're sinning.

Right?

He's a gentleman.

He's not gonna drag you, right?

But we're gonna drag him.

We drag him around in our life.

But he's not gonna leave you.

That's the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Um, this is uh what John spoke of in John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

Jesus was talking, and he says, Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow within them.

And then John tells us, because he's awesome, uh, by this, this is his little commentary, he meant the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to later receive.

Up to that time the spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not been yet glorified.

Right?

So that Jesus talks about this living water.

As you believe in him, as you bel as you receive that gift of salvation, that river of living water is the Holy Spirit, and he comes and dwells in you.

Secondly, uh, later on in John chapter 20, it says, This is uh a really cool moment.

John 20 · chapter mention

I believe that this was the moment of salvation for the disciples.

We see Jesus after his burial and his resurrection, and he's kind of like walking around, and uh he finds the disciples hiding because they were hiding for their life.

They were scared.

Like the religious leaders just took down Jesus.

They're probably gonna take down us, so they're hiding, and Jesus walks through the walls and they all scream, they all get scared.

But then Jesus says, Hey, do not fear.

And he begins to like, it's this salvation moment because they actually begin to believe he was who he said he was.

Right?

And they they they're like touching the holes in his hands, and they're like, wow, like this is actually Jesus.

We just saw him die, but he is who he said he was, and there's a salvation moment.

They begin to confess, you are Lord, and and they have this like belief in their heart that that Jesus is who he said he was, and then what happens is Jesus breathes on them and says, Receive the Holy Spirit.

Right?

So there's this moment of salvation for the disciples that happens.

Later, uh, Jesus, before he goes, he says, Hey, go to this place and receive the Holy Spirit.

Go to this place, wait for a period of time, and you're going to receive power.

Right?

So it's like, why would he tell them twice, like he just told them, receive the Holy Spirit in this moment?

Why would he tell them to go over here and wait to receive the Holy Spirit?

Like you're not making sense, Jesus.

But I believe it's this, it's a filling of the Holy Spirit that we have to invite in.

Right?

It's the filling of the Holy Spirit.

All through the book of Acts, uh, we see it talked about this way.

The disciples were filled by the Holy Spirit.

This the believers were filled by the Holy Spirit.

Uh Ananias, he goes to Paul, who was blind, uh blinded by Jesus, and he he prays for him, he heals him, and the scripture says he's filled by the Holy Spirit.

And so Paul, he he talks about this through his teaching.

Uh, he talks about how we need to walk daily in the spirit, right?

Don't walk in the flesh.

Like you walk daily, right?

Everyone has to walk to get places.

So you're gonna do that daily.

So daily, you are going to walk in the spirit.

You have two options walk in the spirit or walk in the flesh, right?

So, what do we daily do?

We walk in the spirit, and what do we have to do?

We have to ask him, help me to walk in what?

The spirit.

Help me to walk, because we can't do it on our own.

Right?

Paul talks about being filled by the spirit daily.

There's an interesting verse in Ephesians 5.8, it says, Do not be drunk on wine.

This is Paul talking, but be filled with the spirit.

And there's a few things that I think Paul is talking about here, and he uses alcohol as this interesting analogy.

And I believe that alcohol is actually a poor substitute for the Holy Spirit.

It is the world's answer to what the Holy Spirit is in a partial way.

We have the effect of alcohol, we have a like a temporary satisfaction, right?

Eases the stress a little bit.

Like sometimes it's like, okay, well, we drink a little bit too much and we're not thinking straight and you're not sober-minded, but there's this effect of alcohol that takes place.

It poisons you while making you kind of feel okay, right?

And meanwhile, we have the Holy Spirit.

What's the effect of the Holy Spirit?

We have joy, we have peace, we have patience, we have kindness, we have self-control, we have gentleness, we have love, right?

We have all that without the regret.

Where alcohol tries to come in and fit, you know, just you know, just ease the tension of life.

But the Holy Spirit comes in and does so much more without the regret and without the poison.

And Paul kind of uses this alcohol is this like cultural norm, like you don't just drink it once to get the effect, right?

You don't just drink water once and you're good.

Right?

We don't just eat one meal and then we're just good for the rest of our life.

It's called the daily bread, right?

We have to continuously go back to the word, continuously feed on his word, and and and we also have to go back and continually ask Holy Spirit, come and fill me.

Come and fill me.

Daily making room for the Holy Spirit because what happens is if we don't ask him to fill us, we will fill ourselves.

Right?

We're so good at filling our time.

Right?

If we have an empty space, we fill it.

Empty space in our house, we fill it.

Empty space in our mind, we fill it.

Like we're really good at filling the space.

Right?

But what happens is we have to be intentional, be like, no, God, I want you to fill that space.

I'm going to intentionally fight to keep that empty so that you can come and fill that space.

And it happens daily because what do you daily get happens to you is you daily get distracted.

Right?

We daily get distracted.

We daily will fill ourselves and fill our time and fill our schedules and fill our mind.

We scroll, right?

So what do we have to daily do?

Daily, intentionally make room for his spirit.

The second thing I want to point out, and I'm gonna invite the worship team, um, that Elijah tells the widow to do.

He says, shut the door.

Shut the door.

Verse 4, Elijah says, Then go in, shut the door behind you, uh, behind you and yourself and your sons, and pour into the vessels.

And so what Elijah is saying is he's saying, get rid of the distraction.

Get rid of the noise.

Don't let anybody get in the way of you and this miracle.

Right?

Shut the door.

No one else needs to know about this.

You don't need a public miracle right now.

Right?

The the oil was not a public miracle, it was a private behind doors, behind the scenes.

And that's what it needed to be.

Free from distraction, free from the noise of these neighbors probably being like, You're crazy.

Give me my jars back.

Take the jars, shut the door, begin to be filled.

Begin to be filled.

You made the space now.

Get into a room away from everybody else and allow yourself to be filled.

In order for us to make room for the Holy Spirit, we have to shut the door sometimes.

Shut the door, could mean a lot of things.

Shut off the phone, literally shut the door, get away for a moment.

Can guarantee you, if your one-year-old child is like pulling out your leg and you're trying to pray, it's not gonna happen.

It's practical.

Shut the door, shut off the noise, get away for a moment, get in private with just you and him.

Remove the noise, and and I think that he told her this because again, we're human.

We get so easily distracted.

How easily we just fill our lives with worry and we fill our our mind with doubt.

And he's telling me to go steal jars from people and my neighbors and dump them out.

And he's telling me that if I go into my house, that that little jar is gonna fill this jar.

And it's like, like logically, it doesn't make sense.

But it's like, okay, I'm gonna do it.

I'm not gonna let, you know, John tell me, you know, that's crazy, like you're an idiot.

Like, what are you doing?

Like God's not speaking to you.

Shut the door.

Shut that guy out.

Shut off the distraction.

Again, culture says be busy.

It glorifies this lifestyle of having a million things going on so that you can feel important.

But it's not about being busy.

It's not about this obsession of just being busy and our lives full.

But it's about are we being filled?

Are we making the space for the Holy Spirit to come and fill that space?

Because again, the Holy Spirit eagerly desires to fill the space that we intentionally create.

Just like the oil waited for the empty vessel, that's what the Holy Spirit does for us.

He's waiting.

I want to fill you.

I want to show you.

I want to speak to you, but you're too busy.

You've got all this stuff going on.

And he's eagerly waiting at the door.

He's waiting until we make that space.

And so my question for us is, are we willing to make that space?

Are we willing to get desperate as this widow was?

Are we willing to get to the point in our lives where we just say, enough is enough.

We shut the door, we shut off the media, we shut off the television.

Maybe you have to go for a drive, that's how you get away.

Whatever it is.

Are we shutting out the distractions?

I just have two last thoughts this morning.

Um and it's out of Hebrews 12.

I read it this morning.

Hebrews 12, 1-3.

And the first thing we need to do is make room.

In order to be filled by hand, the first thing we need to do we need to do is make room.

And it says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely.

And let us run with endurance.

Let's race it as said before us.

And so the question is, you know, are there things that you're holding on to?

It talks about the weight and it talks about the sin.

It's really interesting because I think we we oftentimes just gravitate to like, I just need to get like the sin.

And like, yes, that's we need to figure out the sin part, but there's also weight that a lot of us carry, the pressures of life, the worries of tomorrow.

And we walk with this kind of like subconscious uh weight that we don't always know that we're carrying, but but it's but it's talking about, hey, like we need to actually do an inventory of those things.

What am I carrying?

You won't know unless you ask.

What am I carrying, Lord, that I don't need to carry?

What have I walked into this room with?

What have I been thinking about?

What have I been dwelling on?

Has it just been negative?

Has it just been what's going on in the world and it's making me frustrated and angry and fearful and anxious?

What is my what has been my mental clutter?

Is I look at my mind, it's like, is it just like a hoarder house of things?

I look at my spiritual life and is it, is it like Jesus said, living water, or am I spiritually dry?

Because I haven't been making room for the Holy Spirit to come and fill me.

What are the things that I need to get rid of?

Because again, the Holy Spirit wants to fill the space, but does he have the space to fill?

And secondly, is very simply, we need to invite the Holy Spirit to come and fill us.

We need to make room and we need to invite him to come and fill us.

Luke 11, 9 to 13 says, So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find, knock, and the door will be opened.

For everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks will find, the one who knocks, the door will be open.

And then he says, Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead, or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion.

Um, if you, then who are you who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

It's as simple as the first thing you do, or as you're getting into your car, it's it's not some like, you don't need some hype up moment to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you.

And we tell our students this all the time.

You don't need to like dance like a chicken and like throw yourself on the ground.

Like it's just like literally get into a quiet space, shut the door, make some room.

God, I'm putting my phone away.

I'm doing I'm I'm gonna be intentional with this time.

If you need to schedule like an appointment, do that if that works for you.

But you say, God, I'm going to make this space, and you literally just say, Holy Spirit, come and fill me.

Holy Spirit, I need you.

Holy Spirit, I need your wisdom.

Holy Spirit, would you speak to me?

Holy Spirit, clear my mind.

Holy Spirit, if there's things in my life that's getting in the way, God, make them known to me.

Holy Spirit, I need your wisdom for today.

I don't need more knowledge, I need your wisdom.

Holy Spirit, I'm open.

God, I need you to fill me.

And it's as simple as that.

And he will begin to fill you.

As you make the space, he will begin to fill.

As you clear out the clutter, he will begin to fill.

As you invite him, again, what did we just read?

He's not gonna give you something else other than the Holy Spirit.

He's not gonna trick you.

It's as simple as I'm gonna make the space, I'm gonna dump out the pots, and I'm gonna be ready and waiting to fill that jar.

It could be baby steps for you this week.

It could be taking a social media fast for a day and just saying, I'm gonna be real about this.

You know, some of you need to look at your screen time on your phones.

I did that the other day and I almost threw up because it's like, whoa, this is not good.

I need to take a social media fast, I need to take a media fast from my phone.

I need to get away from that.

And some of for some of us, it needs to be as practical as that.

Some of us need to turn the TV off, stop watching the news, stop thinking about these other things, and focus on the here and now and say, God, I need you to feel me.

Some of us might have hidden sin in our life.

Some of us might have areas where we're like, Holy Spirit, you are not going there because I'm not willing to deal with it.

Some of us need to let the Holy Spirit go there today.

What he's not gonna do is be like, shame on you for thinking that way, or shame on you for having this in your life.

He's gonna be like, All right, let's get it out.

We need a new couch, let's get rid of the old couch, let's get a new one.

That's what's gonna happen.

It's not gonna be this shame on you.

Oh, like, how could you hide this from me?

No.

It's like, okay, you're gonna let me go there.

I'm gonna clear it out.

We're gonna take it to the dump together, and we're gonna leave it at the dump together.

Could you stand with me?

And here's where you're gonna shut the door, you're gonna close your eyes.

That's the best way to shut the door in a room full of people, is you're just gonna close your eyes.

I tell our students all the time, hey, don't let yourself get distracted in this moment.

Don't let yourself be distracted in this moment.

Don't let anything else pull your attention in this moment.

So we shut the door, we shut our eyes.

And maybe you need to ask yourself the question what have I been holding on to?

What have I been hoarding in my life?

What are the things I've been dwelling on?

What's been my mental state?

Has it been just full of things?

And you ask yourself, what is it?

What do I need to let go of?

Where do I need to create space?

Maybe this week looks insanely hectic for you.

And maybe it's uh a practical thing where you just write in your calendar, okay, Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, whatever it is, I'm gonna make space.

And you're gonna write it in your calendar so you don't forget.

Maybe it's as practical as that for you.

Maybe for some of us, you've been holding on to something, you've been holding on to shame for something you've done, something you've thought you let go of, or maybe just something that you can't let go of.

Maybe for some of you it's an old mentality, maybe for some of you it's an old way of doing things, maybe for some of you it's an old lifestyle that you're holding on to.

And you know to let that go.

And it might be a decision today, but it might have to be an action point on Monday.

And so I'm just gonna ask the band just to play.

And I want us just to get real with God.

Like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna force you to do anything.

I'm not gonna stand up here and and try to conjure up a moment for you.

You know what needs to be done, and you know what you and God need to be talking about in this moment.

And so I'm just gonna ask the band to play, and I'm just gonna allow for some space because that's what we're talking about.

We're talking about giving room, and so we're literally just gonna do that.

The band's gonna just play behind me, and I want you to just do some business with God.

Whether it's huge business or whether it's a few minor things, maybe it's just a few adjustments for you.

Maybe you have a great relationship with God and you are you are devoted to prayer, but maybe God's just like, I want you to adjust here.

I want you to adjust here.

It doesn't need to be this huge 180.

Maybe for some of us it is a 180.

Maybe for some of us, we've completely just like disconnected from the idea of having to pray, and and and disconnected from that idea of needing to read our Bible and connect with God because we're just so busy.

Some of us need to repent.

Say, God, I'm sorry for the way that I've made things.

Repentance is not a bad thing, it's a God thing.

It's a grace thing.

So I'm gonna invite the band just to sing behind me, and I want to invite you, don't open your eyes, don't open the door, don't allow yourself to be distracted in this moment.

Come on, band, just begin to play.

I want you to just just if you need to lift your hands, you need to go on your knees, whatever it is, just begin to speak to God right now.

Make the space, begin dumping out the jars, allowing for space for Him to come in.