TD Jakes - Are You Empty Enough?
It is not the text itself that I am contemplating; it is the text against the times we are living in. We are currently experiencing a period of emptiness. I’m wondering if there’s anybody watching me who has been feeling empty. Now I must take the time to make a distinction between being empty and being tired. If you are just tired and you get some sleep, you wake up in the morning and feel better. But if you are empty, sleep will not resolve it. Is there anybody who woke up feeling as bad as you did when you laid down? It’s not that you’re tired; it’s that you’re empty.
This message goes out, oh my God, to people who have been experiencing this indescribable feeling that you cannot even understand how to explain. You have just seen so much, heard so much, watched so much, read so much, and consumed so much news. You have read so many texts and seen so many things tweeted, and you have witnessed numerous events in your personal life, financial life, public life, and professional life. So many people have been calling on you asking for advice, help, and encouragement to the point that it’s not that I don’t like you, but I saw your number and didn’t answer—not because I don’t like you, but because I’m empty. I want to talk to some people who are just feeling empty—not happy, not sad, just empty.
People keep asking you how you are, and you can’t even find the words to articulate how you have been feeling because you’re not used to describing yourself as if your contents were gone. You’ve never been drained like you’ve been lately, and you are feeling empty. In psychology, they call it compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue occurs when you have had so many disastrous things happen one after the other that you run out of compassion. It’s hard to quantify compassion because we do not know where it resides—we do not know whether it’s in our liver, lungs, heart, or kidneys. However, we know when it’s gone. If we could figure out where it resided, we could block it from being taken away, but little by little and day by day, hour by hour, every phone call, every situation, every problem, and every deliverer has drained its power, and you have run out of something that an accountant cannot account for, that a lawyer cannot fight for, and that an agriculturalist cannot grow back. You have run out of compassion.
Now you’re empty. Empty means running out of care. I don’t care. Yeah, I don’t care. I don’t care what I put on; I don’t care what I look like; I don’t care that I haven’t shaved; I don’t care that I haven’t done my hair; I don’t care that my nails are grown out. I don’t care because I’ve spent all my care. And now, not only am I broke, but I have also run out of care, and now I’m just empty. Empty is walking around with a sad face and nobody died. Empty is walking around without any expression because you have run out of the energy it takes to have an impact. It is letting the kids do whatever they want, and you don’t even say anything because you’re just here. I’m tired of arguing with you; go wherever you want because mama is just… mama’s just empty. I don’t have any more. I don’t have any more advice; I don’t have any more energy; I don’t have any more passion; I don’t have any more drive. I am empty.
Who wants to hire an empty person? You hire people for their creativity; you value them for their knowledge and intellect. You hire people who have passion, energy, insight, and ideas. And God said, «I don’t want any of that stuff; I don’t want ideas; I don’t want creativity; I don’t want passion. Go borrow me something empty.» Can you imagine being the little boys about to be taken for debt, and in a last surge of hope, knocking on doors and saying, «Mama said, can we borrow some empty?» How do you fix your mouth to ask me for empty? I can see wanting a cup of sugar; I can see wanting a handful of meal; I can see wanting to borrow some soap or dishwashing liquid. But your mother sent me over here to ask me for some empty?
That’s what the prophet told the woman—that God values you the most, not when you’re full, not when you’re overflowing, not when you’ve got all kinds of creative impact and energy, but when you are empty. You see, God creates empty. When, when, when—in the book of Genesis—He reached down into the earth and formed man from the dust of the earth, He formed an empty vessel. Yes, yes, yes, He was careful; He didn’t form it full. He formed it empty so He’d have something to blow into. Don’t hear me. Out of the dust of the earth, an old clay pot, an old empty vessel called Adam, hallelujah, made of red earth. God shaped him and formed him, and when He made him empty, God was attracted to him. Touch your neighbor and say, «Come empty.»
So there God is; we see the Master Himself hovering over an empty vessel as if He were an eagle hovering over an egg, as if He were about to hatch something. God came down from eternity, stepped into time, and hovered over an empty vessel. He was so attracted to it that He kissed the empty vessel, and when He kissed it, He breathed into his mouth the breath of life, and he became a living soul. I don’t know who I’m preaching to, but God is getting ready to kiss somebody. Hey! God is getting ready to kiss somebody who has been walking around for the last three weeks with an indescribable emptiness inside of you—a void, a vacuum that nothing seems to fill. You’re watching TV, but you’re distracted; you’re listening to the news, but you’re only half-listening; you’re going through the motions. You can’t even remember for sure if this is Wednesday or Thursday, or if it’s Friday or Tuesday. You’re just in time, but God is attracted to empty.
And so He hovered over an empty vessel and breathed into the breath of life, and it became a living soul. Later on, as we turn the pages of the Bible, we see where God tells Moses on the mountaintop to go form a tabernacle, and Moses formed the tabernacle. Once he finished it, God said, «Fill it with furniture.» He began to fill that which was empty with furniture. And then when he made the Holy of Holies, God said, «If you make the Holy of Holies and you make it empty, I’ll come in and fill it with glory"—the glory called Shekinah glory—because God… God is… oh, I feel like preaching now! God is attracted to empty. The question is not whether you’re full enough; the question is whether you’re empty enough. Because what God wants to come into His presence are not people who have it all together, nor people whose hair is all coiffed.
God wants people to come into His presence who are empty. And the Bible says that if you are empty enough, God will fill you. Well, let me say it this way: «He who hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled.» God said, «I’m not going to feed you until you’re hungry; I’m not going to feed you until you’re thirsty, because I am a God that is attracted to empty.» Excuse me; I’ve got to knock on another door. «Mama said, can we borrow your empty?» You want what, baby? «Mama said, can we borrow your empty?» Excuse me. My mama sent me over to your house to say, «Can we borrow your empty?» And door by door, house by house, neighbor by neighbor, the boys went out, gathering empty vessels one after another. The Bible doesn’t tell us how many they brought, but it does tell us that the oil didn’t begin to flow until it found empty. There is a glory that God will only release on somebody who comes into His presence and dares to come empty.
I’m out of ideas, I’m out of concepts, and I don’t have anybody else to call. God said, «You are just right for me, because what I’ve been waiting on you to do is run out. What I’ve been waiting for you to do is to run out of people to call, run out of people to trust, run out of people to explain yourself to, and run out of people with ideas. I’ve been waiting on you to run out of yourself, to run out of what was in your head, to run out of your education, to run out of your intellect, to run out of your reservoir of scriptures. And when you get empty enough, I’m going to come into your life, and I’m going to fill you with the glory like you never had before.»
Somebody shout «Come empty!» Mama said that we need to borrow some of your empty. House by house, neighbor by neighbor, person by person, they kept borrowing empty because my God is so big. It isn’t a question of whether He can supply it; the question is whether I have enough empty to attract God’s attention. Little by little, house by house, neighbor by neighbor, let me gather enough empty. It reminds me of what Jesus did when He laid hands on the disciples, blessed them, and told them to go to Jerusalem and said, «Don’t start preaching until you’re empty.»
The Bible said all of these disciples were in the upper room and had not yet been filled with the Holy Ghost. When the day of Pentecost was fully come and they were in one place with one accord, suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind. Cloven tongues appeared like fire and sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. If you want God to fill you, you’ve got to come empty. If you want God to bless you, you’ve got to come empty. If you want God to help you, you’ve got to come empty. If you want God to deliver you, you’ve got to come empty. Somebody shout «Empty!» That’s what He wants. When you finally run out, when you finally get empty, when you finally run out of ideas, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come and they were in one place with one accord, suddenly… suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind. Cloven tongues appeared like fire, and they were all…