“Is it not wheat harvest (dry season) today ? I will call upon the Lord, that He may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king.” So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.” And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. (1 Samuel 12:17-21 ESV)
It was apparent that the God who revealed Himself to Israel was not their Lord nor their Heavenly King any more. Notice in the above portion of Scripture how the Israelites refer to God as Samuel’s Lord and how they admitted to the fact that they no longer accepted God as their Heavenly King. They confirmed this by asking for an earthly king. Samuel refers to their folly as chasing after ’empty things’.
How often do we find ourselves chasing after ’empty things’ in life and push God aside in our pursuits? Oh yes, you may have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior at one time in your life. You can probably tell me exactly when it was, just like the Israelites in the above portion of Scripture could tell exactly how God delivered them out of Egypt. But what about right now, oh Christian? You are not the only one who truly knows the answer to that question. The God you are supposed to worship wholeheartedly forevermore cannot be fooled. Do not waste your time gawking at the empty tomb for the rest of your life. Jesus Christ is risen! He is alive! It is time to get back to living for Jesus.
Here is what Jesus says in Luke 11:23-26, “Anyone who isn’t with Me opposes Me, and anyone who isn’t working with Me is actually working against Me. When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds that its former home is empty, all swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.”
Jesus is letting us know that being empty is bad enough. But being filled with empty things is even worse.
Annointing 