Using All the Space

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” (Matthew 12:39-45 ESV). Have you ever moved from one place to another and wondered how you were ever going to put all the stuff up? When we moved into our new home about six months ago, the first thing I did in the garage was to set up the shop and build some new shelving! I am still not quite sure how we got it all to fit. Thank goodness we didn’t move the stuff we still have in Kyle’s basement! I suppose you could say that if it is “in storage” it is merely wasting space. You may be right! I was reminded by this experience of how much wasted space that we might have in our lives. At first, you may protest and declare emphatically that you don’t have any wasted space. In fact, you’re probably going to assert that you have more to do than you can “say grace over.” But I believe if we are honest, we will find a lot more wasted space than we ever imagined! So often, we define our faith by what we don’t do that the world does. In fact, when sin enters our lives, we do everything we can to rid our lives of that sin. And in all honesty giving up, stripping away, avoiding, and putting to death sinful thoughts, habits, and actions are crucial parts of our walk with Jesus. However, when we work to remove many of these sinful elements, we do little to put anything in their place. We neglect the empty wasted spaces left behind when we excised these sinful elements of our lives. Before we know it, the same old thing or some new thing has crept into that wasted space and taken up residency. Why? Because we only cleaned out the bad. We didn’t intentionally fill it with godliness. We didn’t invite the Lord to take residence and control of that area of our life and lead us into something new and productive to put in place of the sin driven out. That’s the warning Jesus issues in our reading this morning. When we’ve left too many unguarded, wasted spaces in our lives that are not consciously and consistently turned over to the Lord for his use, we focus so much on avoiding sin that we don’t put something back in its place that is righteous and good and nurturing. Renew your commitment to invite the Lord into the areas of our life that are empty, wasted spaces.