The Empty House

Good morning. Welcome to Insights. This

is Pastor John. Let's pray. Heavenly

Father, we just thank you and praise

you, Lord, for your word. God, we ask

that you open hearts and minds to

receive and that you help us, Lord, to

speak the words that you would have

people hear. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. So, today we're talking about the

empty house.

And uh

we're going to start in Matthew chapter

12. But let me lay some groundwork here.

Matthew chapter 12 is where Jesus begins

to confront the Pharisees for their

hypocrisy and the things they do. So one

of the things he hap that happens in

chapter 12 is Jesus declares his def his

divinity by claiming to be the Lord even

of the Sabbath day.

And uh he leaves the synagogue and he

heals a man whose hand is withered.

And uh

he gets into a confrontation with the

Pharisees for healing on the Sabbath

day.

And uh

they demand a sign. And they they accuse

him of casting out demons in in uh

the name of Billsub, the prince of

devils. And Jesus goes on and this is

this in Matthew is where he talks about

the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And uh

when it when in verse uh 43

they did the scribes and Pharisees

demanded a sign from Jesus to prove

that he was who he said he was.

So he gets down to verse 43 and he's he

had cast out a demon and he's talking

about

the condition

and this is really important and it

applies to us and I want this I I'm

putting this in context so that we

understand he's talking to them

uh and he says when the unclean spirit

is gone out of a man he walketh through

dry places seeking rest and findeth

none. Then he saith, I will return into

my house from whence I came out. And

when is come, he findeth it is empty,

swept and garnished. And then he goeth

and he taketh himself seven other

spirits more wicked than himself. And

they enter in and dwell there. And the

last state of that man is worse than the

first. Even so shall it be also unto

this wicked generation.

And uh when we're looking at this

passage of scriptures, you know, it's

important that we understand that

when we

when we get saved

and Jesus comes and he cleanses us and

he forgives us of our sins, that's

that's initial sanctification.

That's where God has restored our

fellowship with him through Jesus's

atonement on the cross and our

acceptance of that. But it goes much

deeper because

moving forward from that point,

sanctification is ongoing. And what that

means is that as we're progressing

further and further in our relationship

with Christ, he's going to begin to

point out other things that are

hindering our walk. And I work a uh

with men who

uh are dealing with issues of addiction

and um homelessness.

uh recidivism

uh which means uh repeated

incarcerations either in jail or prison.

And uh one of the things that I've

learned over the years of doing this is

number one,

when you truly want to see a change,

you have to change your thought

processes. You have to change

uh how you approach life. You have to

change your friends. You have to go to

new places. You have to stop going to

the old places where you were tempted to

to uh go back to what you're doing. And

in Romans chapter 12,

uh Paul talks about this in in great

detail. And this does tie into what

we're talking about the empty house. He

says, 'I beseech you therefore,

brethren, by the mercies of God, that

you present your bodies a living

sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,

which is your reasonable service. And be

not conformed to this world, but be

transformed by the renewing of your

mind, that you may prove what is that

good and acceptable and perfect will of

God. So, let's go back over to Ro uh

Matthew chapter 12 and let's look at

this again. He says, "When the unclean

spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh

through dry places seeking rest and

findeth none." Then he saith, I will

return into my house from whence I came

out. And when he has come, he findeth it

empty, swept, and garnished. Well, when

Jesus comes in, you accept him as Lord

and Savior. He cleans you up from the

inside out. So, he restores everything

back into a place of where it where it

should have always been. Uh, which is

impossible to get without him. But if

you don't put things in that swept clean

house that are acceptable to God and

they and are changes made into your

lifestyle, when that thing raises itself

up again against you and it finds that

you haven't put anything in there to

counter it, it comes back in. And I've

seen this uh I have witnessed this

personally. I have seen people that got

free of addictions. They lasted they

they went through life clean and sober

for for a period of time.

But when they didn't engage in true d

disciplehip and begin to put into

themselves things that have to do with

living for God, studying God's word,

going to church, having fellowship, uh

going to Christbased sober living

meetings and things of that nature when

the addiction raises itself back up or

the possibility of going back to prison

because you feel like you're not making

any progress. stress and you get

desperate and these kind of things and

you go back and do the same thing you

did before

uh you wind up in a condition that's

seven times worse than it was before you

started

and um

so the first thing that we have to do to

overcome that is change how we think and

listen to what Paul said he said be not

conformed to this world but be

transformed by the renewing of your mind

that you may prove what is that good and

acceptable and perfect will of God. So

the empty house will remain empty unless

you transform your mind and take on the

things of Christ. Well, you might be

asking yourself, well, how do I do this?

How do I furnish this house? Well, one

of the ways of doing that is uh

we go over to first uh 2 Corinthians

uh chapter 10. He says, "Now I," this

starts in verse one, "now I, Paul,

beseech I, now I, Paul myself, beseech

you by the meekness and gentleness of

Christ,

who in presence and base among you, but

being absent and bold toward you, but I

beseech you," that means I beg you in

all things, that I may not be bold when

I'm present with that confidence

wherewith I think to be bold against

some which think of us as if we walked

according to the flesh. F. Now listen to

this. This is where it begins to explain

it. For though we walk in the flesh, we

do not war after the flesh. For the

weapons of our warfare are not carnal,

but mighty through God to the pulling

down of strongholds,

casting down imaginations and every high

thing that exaltth itself against the

knowledge of God,

and bringing into captivity every

thought to the obedience of Christ.

And that's critical. That's very

critical because you need to be able to

do that to have a successful walk in

Christ.

Now,

today in today's world, you're going to

hear people all the time, and I see this

posted on the internet. I see it posted

on social media all the time, and people

say, "Well, you don't have to go to

church to be a Christian."

That's true, but you do have to go to

church if you want to be a successful

Christian. You need that fellowship. And

Paul laid it out this way in uh

Ephesians chapter 4 starting verse 11.

And I I want to expand on this some

because I want you to realize what he's

saying. He says, "And he gave some

apostles and some prophets and some

evangelists and some pastors and

teachers for the perfecting of the

saints, for the work of the ministry,

for the edifying of the body of Christ,

till we all come in the unity of the

faith and of the knowledge of the Son of

God, unto a perfect man, unto the

measure of the stature of the fullness

of Christ, that we henceforth be no more

children tossed to and fro and carried

about with every wind of doctrine by the

slight of men and cunning craftiness

whereby they lie and wait to deceive,

but speaking the truth in love may grow

up into him in all things which is the

head, even Christ. And uh the word I I

want to focus in on this because I want

to explain this and I looked this up in

the Greek to make sure. So

in verse 12 he says that the reason for

verse 11 and he gave some apostles and

some prophets and some evangelists some

pastors and teachers for the perfecting

of the saints for the work of the

ministry for the edifying of the body of

Christ. So, I looked up that word

perfecting

because a lot of times we misinterpret

what that word says.

And what that actually means when you

look it up under perfecting in the Greek

in this word, it means fully or

completely furnished.

Back over to Matthew 12, Jesus goes in,

he sweeps the house, he cleans the

house, he puts it all in order.

And then the work falls to apostles,

prophets, evangelists, pastors and

teachers

to help you

completely

furnish

your house. The Bible says that our

bodies are the temple of the Lord. This

is the place he inhabits. So he puts

different ministry gifts into the

church.

uh which are different than the gifts of

the Holy Spirit listed in uh 1

Corinthians chapter 12. These are

ministry gifts. These are ministry

offices that he has established that he

has put in place and it all has one

purpose which is the complete furnishing

or fully maturing

of uh the saints. It's for the

perfecting of the saints. And what is

the end result of completely furnishing

a saint? Well, they begin to work in

ministry.

There's a lot of lay ministry in the

church. Not everybody's called to be a

pastor. Not everybody's called to be a

teacher. Uh not and assuredly not

everybody's called to be an evangelist

in the the ministry office evangelist,

but we're all called to do evangelism.

And you can't do evangelism unless you

know what the word says. So we have to

come in and we have to fully furnish and

equip

uh the saints for work of the ministry

and it's for one purpose which is

edifying the body of Christ. That's the

church as a whole. And what edifying the

body of Christ means is bringing them to

full maturity.

And you know you run into people a lot

in this world who would prefer not to

mature. They want to

get saved.

They want someone to tell them,

"Everything's going to be fine. You got

saved. Everything's fine now. You don't

have to do anything else. You You've

done everything you need to do." Um, and

they're not being honest

with Christians. I've said this before,

I'll say it again. If you step out to

and you make a commitment to Christ that

you are serving God and that you're

going forward and you're going to do the

things that God has called you to do,

the enemy is going to come against you.

He's going to make life hard.

But Jesus says to stay the course, to

continue going forward. Because if you

do,

he's going to empower you through the

Holy Spirit to overcome

all of this.

He said in John 10:10 that thief cometh

but to kill, steal, and destroy. But I

come to give life and to give it more

abundantly.

And you know, our what we're seeking

here is not an earthly reward. We're not

seeking, you know, fame, fortune,

houses, cars, money, wealth, notoriety.

What we're seeking is a closer

relationship with Christ. Why? Because

it's only during our life here on earth

that we have an opportunity to

determine,

and it's up to us to determine where

we're going to spend eternity.

It's your choice. You get to choose.

Heaven is real.

What we we refer to as hell, it's real.

It's an eternal place of torment and

punishment.

Um the Bible warns us. Jesus warned it.

In fact, Jesus spent more time talking

about uh avoiding the consequences of

sin and winding up in hell than any

other thing that he came to talk about.

other than salvation, other than it you

have to accept him as Lord and Savior,

as the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords,

the Alpha and the Omega to come to a

place where when you die or the rapture

takes place, you're going to spend

eternity in God's presence. Because

there's only two places that you're

going to spend eternity. Either in God's

presence or in hell.

There is no in between. There is no

paradise. There is no, well, I just want

to squeak in the door. You're either

going to be there or you're not. He

says, you know, he went ahead of us to

prepare a place for us. I talked last

week about how

when the Jews rejected Jesus, the

message was taken to the Gentiles for

the Gentiles to um be heirs according to

the promise.

And uh

you know Jesus talked about that. He

talked about how he had come

for his own that's God's chosen people

and they rejected him

and the message of grace the message of

uh reconciliation

was passed to the Gentiles because the

Jews rejected it. But at the end

after the church is raptured,

the Jews are going to repent and they're

going to they are going to come into

their own as the preachers they were

supposed to be if they had followed

Jesus from the beginning. So I want you

guys to keep in mind that the things you

go through

are meant to build car are meant to

build character and integrity.

They are meant to give you a solid

foundation so that as you go forward in

your walk with Christ, you're able to

overcome anything the enemy brings

against you. And uh you know, sometimes

we find ourselves

uh

in situations we never expected. I know

I did. And uh I also by maintaining my

relationship with God, trusting and

depending on God in that situation, God

brought me out of it. Um, I can tell you

lots of stories, uh, and I have spoken

on these before in the past of how

God used my situation

to minister to me in such a way that I

was able to overcome the situation I was

in and changed my life. And uh, you

know, we all have things we deal with.

you're if you think you're you're the

only one, uh that's not true. Everybody

does. Uh he came for a broken world. He

he said, you know, the well not need a

position. I came for those that are sick

and broken. Um every human being on the

face of this earth is broken.

And Jesus provided healing from that

brokenness.

And only he could do it.

When you read through the Old Testament

and you're you're seeking to understand

God better, and you should read the Old

Testament, you should study the Old

Testament and realize that even through

the law, God was still trying to reach

people. But you'll notice in all these

Bible heroes in the Old Testament,

it wasn't

their adherence to the law

that gave them a place at God's table. I

mean, partially, yes. But look at

David's life. He started out, you know,

a shepherd boy.

He became anointed to be king.

He went in, he killed Goliath.

He became the favorite of the people to

the point of jealousy growing in Saul to

the point that Saul tried to kill him

for years.

And David went through all of that and

was became king. And after he became

king, he was he was uh he was known as a

man after God's own heart. But at the

same time he had some major major flaws.

Um he spoiled his children rather than

disciplining them. Um he committed

adultery and murder. Uh and still

God blessed him in such a way that it

was through his descendants

uh all the way down to Joseph. It was

the line of human beings that God chose

to use to come to this earth to become

the supreme sacrifice for all of mankind

to eradicate sin.

And so God, if you are there thinking to

yourself,

I am too broken.

I am too messed up. I have made too many

mistakes. And there's no way that God

can overlook all of that. Let me tell

you, that's not true.

He loves you. He died for you. Even when

you didn't know him,

he made a way for you to escape exactly

what you're living in.

He made a way for you to overcome all

the attacks the enemy has brought

against you.

And he's given you power over all the

powers of the enemy.

He has made it possible for you to live

a full complete Christian life through

him. He swept the house clean.

Now, it's your responsibility to furnish

it. And you can't furnish it if you

don't know what's in the Bible. You need

to know what God says about you. You

need to know what God says you're

capable of doing. Uh you need to realize

that he called you and saved you for a

purpose. He didn't call you to

uh

build space on a pew in a building. He

called you to be the church. And what is

the church? It's Jesus's arms

outstretched to the world. Jesus said,

"If I be lifted up, I will draw all men

unto me." He said, "Upon this rock,"

speaking of himself, "I will build my

church, and the gates of hell shall not

prevail against it."

So, as you're going through this life

and you've chosen a life with Christ,

put in the effort to make it a

bountiful, successful life. And I'll

tell you something, I played sports in

high school. I was a baseball player.

And

before we played our first game every

year, we practiced and practiced and

practiced. And then after our first

game, we practiced and we practiced and

we practiced until our next game. And we

practiced and we practiced and we

practiced.

You have to pursue it with a passion.

You have to make it more important to

you than anything else in your life. And

be when you do that, when you put God

first, he will put you first in

everything you do. So I want to

encourage you. I want you to keep your

mind focused on this point. God has a

plan for your life. God has a desire

to see you become as successful as

you're capable of becoming through him.

And you can do all things through Christ

who strengthens you. There is nothing

that you cannot overcome. And uh Romans

chapter 8 uh vers uh 38 and 39 it says

there is no thing in all creation that

can separate you from the love of

Christ. So no matter how bad it might

be, no matter what you're going through,

realize one thing. Jesus said, "I'm a

friend that sticks closer than a

brother. I will never leave you or

forsake you." He's not going to let you

live by yourself and face these things

alone. He wants you to trust him to get

you to the other side. It always makes

me think about the parting of the Red

Sea and the parting of the Jordan River.

Um

when he parted the Red Sea, Israel went

across on dry land. When their enemies

came in to attack them, God released the

sea and drowned them.

They were no longer the slaves and

captives of Egypt at that point. Later

on, 40 years later, as they're preparing

to enter into the promised land, God

blocks the Jordan River

and the children of Israel cross into

Canaan into the pro promised land on dry

ground.

and they go in and they begin the

conquest.

And

it's important for you to realize that

having a relationship with God doesn't

promise you

that you're going to get to walk on top

the water,

i.e. life problems

attacks from the enemy or go around it.

99.9% of the time he wants you to go

through it. That's and David made that

clear in the 23rd Psalms. You know, when

he said, "Yay, though I walk through the

valley of the shadow of death, I shall

fear no evil." That's what he's talking

about. He didn't say, "Thank you, Lord,

for allowing me to to

bypass the b the valley of the shadow of

death." He said, "Yay, though I walk

through the valley of the shadow of

death, I will fear no evil. For thy rod

and thy staff, they comfort me." So

God's with you in the worst, and he's

there with you in life's best. And you

have to build confidence in Christ to

the point where you can trust him

beyond what you can see. And that's what

faith truly is. Hebrews 11:1 says,

"Faith is the substance of things hoped

for and the evidence of things not

seen." You can't see the workings of God

behind the scenes. You can see the

results of the working of God in your

life, though. So, I want you guys to

keep that in mind this week. As you're

going through life, put new furniture in

that clean house. And as you're going

through life and God brings other things

to mind that you need to work on, let

him take them and replace them with new

things that bring glory and honor to

him. So, that's it for this week, guys.

We will see you next week. Enjoy

the holiday season. Uh right now it's

Hanukkah for our Jewish brothers. Uh

we're preparing to go into Christmas

next week. And uh I want you guys to

celebrate Jesus because he is the reason

for this season.

We'll see you next