Sermon – “Nothing God Created is Meant to be Empty” – Collaborative sermon by Pastors Nancy Cantrell, Jimmy Skeen and Ang Droese
Genesis 2: 15-17, 3: 1-7
First this: God created the Heavens and Earth – all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss. (Gen 1: 1 & 2 The Message)
Nothing God created is meant to be empty.
God spoke and began to fill things up: light, darkness, day, night, sky, heavens, land, ocean, plants, trees, sun, moon, seasons, days, years, fish, birds, animals. Nothing God created is meant to be empty.
At the time when God made Heaven and Earth, God planted a garden in
God brought all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air to Adam to see what he would name them. What a time they had, Adam and God, laughing as they gave each animal their names, especially when the duck billed platypus waddled up to God’s side to be scratched behind the ears. The man named the cattle, the birds, and the wild animals. He could see the animals all had mates of their own kind. God looked at Adam … Adam looked at God, no emptiness in this garden. So, God put the Man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. God then used the rib that he had taken from Adam to make Woman and presented her to the
Days were filled with the task of caring for this beautiful perfect place. The ground was full of good crops, flowers and trees. The air was full of singing birds. The evenings were full of Adam, Eve and God walking, talking, laughing, enjoying each other’s friendship. And the nights were full of the loveliness of pure and holy marriage including all the benefits that go with it.
The reading of God’s Word
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
3: 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' " 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
The Word of the Lord “Thanks be to God.”
The heavens and earth are full. All the animal and plant kingdom is full. The garden is full. Adam’s house is full. Adam and Eve’s relationship with God is full. Nothing God created is meant to be empty.
Then a whisper echoed through the garden, “There are trees you cannot eat from, you are unfilled, hollow.”
“You are missing out.” “You are empty.”
And the woman said, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, “Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you will die.”
And the serpent said, “You don’t have everything, God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you will see what’s really going on. You will be like God, you will know everything from good to evil. God is holding out on you.”
If you just had a different spouse then you would have the love you crave. If you just had more money then you would never have anything to worry about. If you just had a different job you would be significant. If you just had a different body, you would be fulfilled. And in your ears you hear, “You are empty.”
At that moment doubt and mistrust took root in the first couple. Could God really be holding out, keeping something from them? Eve turned, looked at the tree and saw that the fruit looked good to eat and she realized what she would get out of it – she would know everything, it was all within her grasp.
Could God really be holding out…am I empty because there’s something God has kept from me? My boyfriend says he loves me, so I’ll sleep with him and have him. I’m really broke so I’ll keep this week’s tithe, just in case. One drink won’t hurt, just this once. Yes, this is the fourth job in a year but it will be the right one. This house is just too small, the one across town is bigger. And Satan whispers, “You God is cheating you.”
She took and ate the fruit and gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. Immediately the two did “see what was going on.” They immediately knew good from evil and death entered the world.
And they received something they had never experienced before, it was theirs, it was true their eyes were open and they found themselves…empty.
For the first time, they knew the hollowness that comes with disobedience to God’s word, the deep void sin always brings. They knew shame and a cavernous hole filled them and has filled the human race since.
They looked at each other and knew they were naked, defiled, sinful, unfulfilled. All creation bowed and fell, a vacuum filled the heart of mankind, creation groaned. They looked at each other in disgust and made aprons of fig leaves, all the sweet pureness of the love they had known was gone. They hid.
But ever so faintly a sound was heard, the sound of walking, closer, closer… it was in the evening at the end of the day, among the sweet smell of flowers.
They hid in humiliation, indignity and embarrassment. What would happen when God found them? How they longed to go back, to cough up the fruit, to return to the way it had been before, that’s always how it feels when we choose to sin.
But in those footsteps and the voice was mercy. The voice called to the ones who had disobeyed, who had failed in their trust, who had doubted, who had chosen to separate themselves, “Adam, where are you?” “Adam, where are you?”
Grace poured from the one who loves beyond all hope, God came seeking. You see their sin was not unknown by God, how he must have wept as they succumbed to the deceit of the serpent. Now, the voice, of the one who loves, calls out for the two friends who had sinned. The voice called their name, calls my name, calls your name.
Mercy extended to those who had committed the offense…God still talked with them respected them enough to ask, “What have you done?” And then God killed animals… sacrificed their lives to cover the nakedness, to protect Adam and Eve for living in a fallen world.
Grace showered down as God said, “You must leave this garden, for if you eat of the tree of life now, you will know despair and separation from me forever.” So, he barred the way with angels and a sword, keeping them from eternal emptiness.
Love, love from a God who longed to walk once again in the garden with his creation, with us. Love so deep and so wide than he EMPTIED himself … emptied himself of his very Godhood and became flesh in Jesus Christ. He became the sacrifice so that the penalty for sin would be paid, we can be reconciled to him and enjoy the fullness of His Spirit.
Can you hear God’s footsteps, smell the flowers in the evening breeze, hear the sound of the voice “Nancy, Joe, Kathy, __________” where are you? What are you trying to be filled with? You do not have to remain hollow you can be overflowing with my grace. You can be packed to the top with My mercy.
It doesn’t matter if this is the first day you’ve ever heard about Jesus or if you been serving him a long time you need to be filled and re-filled and filled and re-filled. He is here today to give us Himself until we spill over. Never listen to the whispers of the old snake, experience fullness. Nothing God created is meant to be empty. Response Time with song and prayer.
