August 23, 2026
Empty Wells
- Matt Nickoson
Sermon Notes
How is your heart?
Proverbs 4:23 NIV
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
6 truths critical to a whole and healthy heart.
Ephesians 1:22-23 NIV
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
1 John 4:11-12 NIV
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Colossians 3:23-24 NIV
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
John 11:35 NIV
Jesus wept.
Mark 14:72 NIV
Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.
It’s impossible to be a whole human and never feel a variety of emotions!
Ephesians 4:26 NIV
“In your anger do not sin.”
“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.” - Mother Teresa
1 Kings 19:4b NIV
He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”
The highest of highs can also produce the lowest of lows.
1 Kings 19:5a NIV
Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.
1 Kings 19:5b NIV
All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”
1 Kings 19:7 NIV
The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”
1 Kings 19:8-9 NIV
So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night.
God didn’t rebuke Elijah. He fed him and let him nap.
“My default system had to be reprogrammed.” - Wayne Cordeiro, Leading on Empty
There are only two ways to keep our hearts full:
- Plug the hole
- Keep being poured into
1 Kings 19:9b-10 NIV
And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
1 Kings 19:11 NIV
The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
1 Kings 19:11b-13 NIV
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
1 Kings 19:14 NIV
He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
God acts to draw Elijah back into His presence, and the confidence that is found there appears to land on a heart that is empty. Elijah perhaps feels unseen or unheard or uncared for by the Lord. However, this is a shallow view of all the Lord has done to care for Him. So, God sends Him back to work.
1 Kings 19:15-16 NIV
The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came… Also anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.”