Brothers and sisters, God is looking for growling stomachs. Dr. Tony Evans says when our desperation meets our dependence, we're in a position to experience God's fullness. You will never discover that God is looking for. is all you need.
until he is all you have. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. When your stomach's empty, you know it's time to eat. But what about when your soul feels empty?
How do you recognize spiritual hunger and what do you do about it? Today, Dr. Evans reveals how God uses our emptiness as the starting point for rekindling our spiritual passion. Let's join him as he explains how to develop a deeper appetite for the things of God. In our passage today.
In 2 Kings chapter 4. The first seven verses. We have a very familiar story in the life of Elisha the prophet. It's about a lady who is in crisis. She says, your servant, my husband, is dead.
You know that he feared the Lord. The creditors have come to take my two children to be slaves. First of all, this lady was in emotional pain. Because her husband had just died. This woman secondly is of all is in financial pain.
She says the creditors have come. The bill collectors are hounding me. And so she was under... Financial duress. She was in physical pain.
Because verse 2 says, there's nothing in my house except a jar of oil. In other words, The refrigerator is empty. We're hungry. We don't have Food in the house. And so As the days go on and the stomach starts to churn.
Something graphically is missing. And so there's physical debilitation. when there is no food. She was in maternal pain. Because verse 1 lets us know that not only the creditors have come, but they have come to take my two children to be slaves.
And can you imagine a mother? who just lost her husband. Who now will be robbed of her children because back then One of the ways, one of the... collateral that you had to put up. if you couldn't pay your bills with a member of your own household.
And the sons would have to work off the debt. as servants or slaves. Can you imagine a mother? Losing her children. because she can't pay her bills.
And then she was in spiritual pain. Because when she comes to Elijah, She makes this statement. My husband Your servant. Fear of the Lord. In other words, His spiritual status.
And our present circumstances don't go together. He feared God. He served God. If he served God and fear God, why am I in this kind of mess? As you're going to God.
For your breakthrough this year.
Some of you know this woman's emotional pain. Because you've been hurt by relationships. Or perhaps the absence of them. Or some other scar on the soul. That you get up and feel every single day.
Day. Others of you are praying for a financial breakthrough. Because the creditors are at the door. And their regular notices and phone calls are making it absolutely clear. That the bills are passed due.
Others are in physical pain. Whether it's Medical in nature. or some other debilitation. that you're feeling in your body you can resonate with this lady There are those who are here, and perhaps your prayer is. Reflective of maternal pain.
A child that's gone off. And gone left, and they simply do not want to come back home. Children who seem to have thrown away everything you've raised them to believe. Perhaps our great disappointment. and you feel that you're going to lose them.
some form of slavery. It could be drugs or It could be a bad situation of friends. Or a gang or Or just Inertia. And then there are others who are praying for a breakthrough in the spiritual realm. God just doesn't seem fair right now.
How can you come to church every week? Come into his presence on Wednesday night. And still be going through all this.
Somebody told you that, boy, if you serve God and you love God and you commit to God and you give to God what you're supposed to give to God. It's not supposed to work out like this. But we're told that this woman cried out to Elisha. Inverts one. Let me put it another way.
Her pain, huh? Drove her. To the preacher. Because Her need What's from the Lord? Her pain drove her to the Lord.
As her Final option. Whenever you hear the Bible talk about crying out, what you're hearing is desperation. She went to Elisha. These are the To get to God. Because her situation, watch this now, was bigger than any man could fix.
Because you will never discover. That God is all you need. Until he is all you have. Because when you get there You don't pray cute prayers anymore. You cry out.
Well you get there You're not su Sophisticated anymore. You cry out.
God says in his word. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit. Blessed is he. Who hungers? And thirst.
after righteousness for he shall be filled Let me tell you now. The principle that you are not to lose sight of. And it is this. The amount of your Emptiness. will determine the amount of your filling.
Why are we not seeing more of God's Palette? More of God's breakthroughs. More of God's presence, more of God's dynamite. Simple. We're two full.
The prerequisite to spiritual Passion! It's spiritual. Hunger. You've got to be hungry enough. Let's look at what the preacher told her.
And Elijah said to her, What shall I do for you? How can I help you? Tell me what do you have? In the house. And she said, your maidservant has nothing in the house.
And that is accept. One jaw. of oil. He then tells her something odd. He says, go borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors.
Even now. Empty vessels. Do not get a few. You shall go in and shut the door behind you. And your sons, and pour out into these vessels, and you shall set aside what is.
Four.
So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They went, bringing the vessels to her, and she poured. When God connects their emptiness With your emptiness. What he is doing is increasing The possibility of your filling. Because the amount of your emptiness.
determines the amount of your filling. And now she is faced. With a question. Do I believe the man of God? That boils down to that.
Do I believe that what he is telling me, God is telling him? Do I believe that what he is saying comes from the mouth of God? It boils down to this, because without faith, it is impossible to please God. Him that cometh to God, even crying out, must first believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6 says, The question is now: do I believe it?
When you are hurting yourself, it is then time. to become a ministry to others. specifically others facing the same thing you face. Because when God sees that you Are willing not only to cry out for your emptiness, which is quite fine. She cried out for her emptiness, but was willing to pick up the emptiness of others.
In other words, You don't just want to be blessed. You also want to be a blessing. Since it is more blessed to give than to receive. When God sees that you have The same spirit. that he has which is wanting to be a giver and not merely a receiver.
Then you've given God that much more to fill up for you. You see, our problem is when we look for our blessing, we forget everybody else. He says, go to your neighbors and get their emptiness too. Find out how you can minister to them too. Intercede for them too.
Increase your emptiness. See, we don't collect emptiness. We don't collect emptiness. We don't look for opportunities to go to our neighbor and see their empty pots. Because after all I have the same problem.
Oh, but when God sees, He can minister through you. And to you. The degree of your emptiness will determine. The degree of your feeling. doctor Evans will return with more for us in just a moment.
including a look at how the woman put God's resources to work. Don't go away. We pray you're encouraged every time you connect with the urban alternative, whether it's online or on the air. And right now we're asking for your very best year-end gift to help keep that encouragement coming your way. Your financial support will help cover the rising cost of broadcasting production to ensure nothing needs to be cut back.
and that more people like you can continue to be encouraged by God's word in the year ahead. Please visit tonyevans.org to give today. Here at the Urban Alternative, we have so much to be grateful for. not the least is the unwavering support of our faithful listeners. To show our appreciation, if we hear from you today, we'll say thanks for your contribution to this ministry.
By sending you Dr. Evans' current sermon series, Soul Starved: Journey to the Source. If your spiritual life feels dry or distant, This series is designed to help you rediscover the hunger that draws you back to God's presence and power. All 12 full-length messages, far more than we can fit into our broadcast time. Are available to you as an instant digital download as well as on a two-volume CD album or USB flash drive.
And as a special bonus, we'll also send you Tony's inspiring book, God Himself: A Journey Through His Attributes. It's a powerful reminder that the more you know about who God is, the more deeply you'll experience His love and strength in your daily walk. Both the series and the book are yours when you make a donation to support the alternative ministry. To take advantage of this offer, just visit tonyevans.org or Or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. where team members are standing by 24-7 to assist you.
I'll repeat that contact information for you after the second part of today's lesson. Here's Tony once again in 2 Kings 4. And so he says. In verses 6 and 7, the last segment. And it came about when the vessels were full.
That she said to her son, Bring me another vessel, and he said to her, There is not one more, and the oil stopped.
Now, you got to picture this miracle. This is called a breakthrough. She has one little jar of oil. That's all she has. But here's what God did.
As her sons brought in the pots that they had borrowed from the neighbors. She poured her oil into the pot. The only problem was The oil Kept coming. S see you know you're not winning. All she had was one jar of oil.
But when she cried out to God for herself. And was willing to take on the emptiness of others. God Multiplied. The little that she had. And all of a sudden, little was not little, because as the song says, little becomes much.
when it's placed in the master's hand. And she poured into this pot and that pot got full. She poured into that pot and that pot got full. She poured into this pot and that pot got full.
So she's watching this miracle unfold before her very eyes.
So she tells her, son, get me another pot. Because I get the point. God will keep filling as long as emptiness keeps coming. Her son said, there are no more pots. And the oil.
stopped. Because the amount of your emptiness determines the amount of your filling. Elijah said, Don't get a few, because he knew that God was going to keep it coming. Until what was empty was now full. Roll!
Then he gives her a business proposition. Because faith never means sitting down doing nothing. He says, now here's what I want you to do. Go sell the oil. and pay the debt.
He said, get out of debt, girl.
Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and do that. Where is this oil located now? Help me. Where where's the oil located? In the pots.
Who the pants born to? The neighbors.
So who's she selling the oil to? The neighbors, because the The oil is in the pots. Cause every housewife had to have oil. This means that her solution already existed before she cried out to God. In other words, the answer to her prayer was in her house.
And she didn't even know it. Cause she didn't have the eyes to see it yet. The answer was already there. It just hadn't been sanctified yet. She didn't get spiritual eyes to see what the prophet Elijah could see that the answer was already there because she hadn't got empty enough yet.
She thought that just because she was hungry, she was hungry enough. But until her hunger broadened beyond her to consider others beside her, she did not see the depth of how hungry she could be nor the miracle that God wanted to perform. But when she got divine eyesight. And see?
Some of our breakthroughs already are in place. God has already got it situated. We just don't see yet. We don't see it yet. Our eyes have not caught up to what he wants to do.
The blessing stopped when the emptiness stopped. He says, get out of debt and you and your sons can live on the rest. Whoa. Oh, don't read that too fast. He says to Elijah in verse one, help!
The creditors are coming. And they're going to take my boys. That's my crisis and I need a breakthrough. But when she obeyed the prophet. Who spoke for God?
He says, now go sell what you have. Meaning God had already prepared the neighbors to purchase it. And then you go pay your debt. Because the tendency when you get a blessing is to forget your responsibility. You go pay your debt.
And when you pay your debt. There will be from yourselves. Enough money. For you to live on the rest with your sons. She went to God for a debt breakthrough.
He gave her a debt breakthrough and a bonus. You will not only be able to pay your debt, you'll have money to live on. That's when you know it's from God. Because it's exceedingly abundantly above what you can ask or think. He gives you what you requested, but because your emptiness increased.
Because you took on the emptiness of others, he multiplies that. My question is, how hungry are you? Are you hungry enough to passionately pursue God? and be used of God to passionately help somebody else. Are you that hungry?
Are you hungry enough? to go into God's presence and cry out to him because you view him. as your first and last resort. Or are you still trying things without him? If you are, you're not hungry yet.
You're not starving. On Friday night I went to one of the balls. that they had. And they had snacks all over the place. Nice tasting snacks.
All that trouble and a tuxedo for snacks. You see, the issue is if you eat enough snacks.
Somebody knows where I'm going. If you eat enough snacks. It becomes a cheap substitute. for addressing legitimate hunk. And too many of us are still snacking on God.
We want a sermon snack here. and a song snack there. We want to be able to say we went to church when all we did was nibble at the table. There was no passionate pursuit of God. There was performance of a religious duty, and God will never bless your snacks.
He wants people who are passionately pursuing him, not people who want to snack at the table. Who wants to nibble a little truth there and nibble a little Bible there? He wants people who throw themselves desperately like this woman and who cry out to him. Folks who want to lose weight often go and get diet pills. But diet pills don't remove hunger, they suppress hunger.
You're still hungry. You just don't know that you're hungry because the pills have suppressed what is still there. Many of us don't feel hungry, not because we're not hungry, but because we've taken too many suppressants so that we don't feel how hungry we ought to feel. Because if you felt as hungry as you ought to felt, you wouldn't be sophisticated anymore. You'd be crying out to God for his power and his supernatural intervention in your life.
Brothers and sisters, God is looking for growling stomachs. He is looking for people whose stomachs are growling for God, who are hot after God, who are passionate after God. He does not want spiritual McDonald's, folks who want to drive through and pick up as you go along. He wants some folks to dine at his table. He wants folk who are going to take time out to enter into his presence, who aren't going to be satisfied with a sermon, because the best sermon in the world, if it doesn't make you passionately pursue God, is a snack.
The best song and choir in the world, if it doesn't make you passionately pursue God, is a snack. And if you are not crying out to God in his presence because your stomach is growling, then what happens is you're going to be satisfied to be pacified. You're going to be satisfied with a pacifier in your mouth. You're going to be sucking on a pacifier and starving to death. You want God.
Not to be pacified. You want God. Dr. Tony Evans, with advice on how and why to build your spiritual appetite.
Now, if today's message has stirred something in your life, specifically a hunger for more of God. Dr. Evans wants to help you fill that desire. His book, God Himself, reveals how knowing who God truly is changes everything about how you live and worship. It's a powerful reminder that the solution to our soul's emptiness is not more activity.
but more intimacy with Him. Request your copy of God Himself. And we'll also include all 12 messages in the current Soul Starved series from Dr. Evans. when you make a contribution to help keep the alternative on the air.
You can do that easily at tonyevans.org. or by calling 1-800-800-3222. or a friendly member of our resource team is ready to help with your request. Again, that's tonyevans.org. or by phone at 1-800-800-3222.
Most of us think we are giving God our best when we sacrifice our time or treasure for Him. But are we holding back?
Next time, Dr. Evans explains that we really won't know until we're tested. And that's when we discover the real price of spiritual passion. I hope you'll join us.
