Empty And Void 3 by Apostle Femi Lazarus: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Why the World Is So Painful

Bad things happen to good people. Children die. People go to war — two powerful forces can be fighting each other and innocent lives get caught in the middle. This does not happen because God is not on the throne. It happens because he has not found people to partner with at the level the problem demands.

God can partner with a believer in church. But he can also partner with a believer in a laboratory. He is present in the lab — showing what to do, expanding insight, accelerating discovery. The issue is that many do not know God is also there. The Spirit of God can move in a scientific discovery just as he moves in a worship service — but only where there is someone available who has built capacity in that domain.

Capacity Cannot Be Skipped

David defeated Goliath. That account is often retold as if God simply did everything supernaturally. But there is something in the text that gets missed. Among David's tribe were 700 chosen men, left-handed, every one of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. 1 Chronicles 12:2. David carried a sling not because he was waiting for something supernatural. He knew what he could do with it. He had trained.

1 Samuel 17:45 — "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."

He said that — and then he threw something. The supernatural declaration and the natural capacity worked together.

Two hours in tongues will not replace capacity. God is a just God. Why should someone get the position because they carry an anointing, while someone who actually studied for it does not? That is not the formula.

The supernatural does not eliminate the natural. It works with it. In the areas where there is no capacity, no interest, no investment — there is no future. A person cannot be effective in areas they have not built for. God will not move where the vessel is unprepared.

The Earth Was Given to the Sons of Men

The devil watches for those who are creative, smart, and daring — those who can go. The ones who have capacity but no allegiance to God, he empowers. God is looking for sons he can use — people whose hands he can use to throw the stone, who will make sure it finds the right place with precision.

God cannot get done what he wants to get done using only Sunday morning. He wants to partner with believers across every sphere:

• In the laboratory, showing a researcher the insight that unlocks a solution to cancer
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Apostle Femi Lazarus
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• In government, giving wisdom to someone who will administer it with justice
• In business, funding hospitals and emergency clinics where pregnant women can access care without conditions
• In creativity, unlocking expression that carries the light of the kingdom into dark spaces

The church is a factory for equipping — and the work is outside, not inside.

The Problem of Playing Safe

Matthew 13:10-15

The disciples asked Jesus why he spoke in parables. He said: "You've been given insight into God's kingdom. Not everyone has this gift. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insight and understanding flows free. But if there's no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That's why I tell stories — to create readiness, to nudge people toward receptive insight."

Then he quoted Isaiah: "Your ears are open but they don't hear a thing. Your eyes are awake but they don't see a thing. The people are blockheads — they stick their fingers in their ears so they won't have to listen, they screw their eyes shut so they won't have to deal with me face to face and let me heal them."

Ezekiel 33:31: "They show up as people tend to do — they sit in your company, they listen to you speak, but they don't do a thing you say. They flatter and compliment you, but all they care about is making money and getting ahead. To them you're mainly entertainment — a country singer of sad love songs playing a guitar."

God says: why do you want to be a part-time child and expect what he gives to stakeholders?

Justice Is the Pillar

Proverbs 21:3 — "To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice."

A just person cannot be greedy. Every act of injustice against people begins with the desire to have more than is needed. And greed is not only in the powerful — it exists in the oppressed who, given the same opportunity, would do the same or worse. Many who cry injustice carry a deformed conscience. The act of injustice is not different — only the access is.

Psalms 33:5 — "He loves righteousness and judgment; the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord."

Begin that system of his righteousness from where you are. The seed of corruption starts early — in a child who puts the best piece of meat on their own plate before sharing. It scales. The habit of taking more than is fair, when left unchecked from youth, becomes the corruption that runs systems.

Jeremiah 9:24 — "Let him who glories, glory in this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth — for in these things I delight."

That is the nature of God. Righteousness. Justice. Loving kindness. The earth is laid on those pillars. Where they are abandoned, the foundations go out of course.

If God has heard the cry of his people and has not yet sent someone who can go head-to-head with the systems maintaining the injustice, it means he has not yet found someone prepared enough to send. The question that comes back is not about God's willingness. It is about the readiness of those who call him Father.

Father, we want to be people you can partner with — not just in church, but in the laboratory, in the boardroom, in the legislative chamber, in the community. Let the cry of those who are suffering reach our hearts the way it reaches yours. Where we have been comfortable and uninvolved, convict us. Build capacity in us. Give us the wisdom of your righteousness and let justice flow from our hands. You are looking for people to send. Here we are.