33 - Why You Feel Empty

Why do you feel empty, even when you believe?
Why does nothing seem to change?

In this episode of the series “The Importance of the Word (2/8)”, we uncover a powerful truth.

The Word of God is not optional. It is your spiritual food.
Without it, you become weak, empty, and vulnerable.
Jesus Himself used the Word as His defense, His strength, and His source of life.

This message will help you understand why you feel stuck and how real change begins.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to One Gospel, bringing you the full truth of God's Word. Clearly explained. Together with our host, Johann Tuet, we'll unpack scripture to understand what's written and grow as a disciple of Christ. Ready to take notes? Let's open the Bible.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hi there and welcome back at a new episode of One Gospel. I'm your host, Johan Tut. And so in the previous episode, I started this new series, The Importance of the Word of God. And we have spoken about how the Word of God is a seed and how we need to sow that seed into our hearts, and it's the good seed so we can bear good fruits. And you know, I've we have spoken about how important it is that we make this word of God our own, that we meditate on it, that we ponder it, and so on and so forth. And so today I just want to continue this series. And as I said, you know, I I have no clue how many episodes I'm gonna spend on it, but we will see. Maybe we're just maybe we can close it today, and maybe you know, I do another one or another two on it. But um without further ado, just let us dive into the word of God and just continue with it. So the importance of the word of God, you know, um I think it's good to continue where we have left the last uh episode, and that was that you know the word of God is also our spiritual food. And so the Bible says in Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 8, verse 3, it says that uh you know, uh, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And so, you know, um natural man lives by food and drinks alone, and oxygen, of course, but the spiritual man cannot live by bread and water, you know, alone. He needs to have spiritual food, and the spiritual food according to the Bible is the word of God. So if you do not feed yourself with the word of God, then you know you will dry up, you you will become empty, you know, you will become a desert that didn't have rain for many years with all the cracks in it, you know, and you will become fruitless because there is no seed. And when there is no seed, then there is no harvest, there is no fruit. And so it's important that you eat the word of God, that you take it in and just you know, let it feed you and nourish you, you know, and take care of your spirit, soul, and body, you know. And so it was this word of God, you know, that Jesus applied as truth, you know, to attack the enemy, you know, and his lies. The word of God is a weapon. So the word of God is our spiritual food, the word of God is a seed, the word of God is our spiritual food. We need to eat because otherwise we are not gonna make it, you know, and we need to use it as a weapon against the enemy's attacks. And so in Matthew 4:1, you know, Jesus is tempted by Satan. And then after 40 days and 40 nights, eventually he gets hungry after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. You know, man boy, I'm getting hungry after 30 minutes. And so Satan comes, you know, to Jesus and then he attacks him on his identity. You know, when Satan comes to attack you, he always comes to attack you on your identity. You know, do you really think that you're forgiven? Do you really think that you're God's child? Do you really think that you can come into his presence after the mistakes that you would be making? You know, you thought, you know, that you were a new creation, but you still do those old things, you know, and he comes with all that nonsense. He wants to make you believe that you are not who God says that you are. And so he fought, he attacks you on your identity. And so Satan tries to deceive him with carnal desires, you know, all that is in the world is the loss of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, you know, and so he tries to deceive Jesus with those three things, you know, with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Now, let us read together in Matthew chapter four. I'm reading from the New King James Version, Matthew chapter four, and then we read from verse 3. 4, verse 3, and here it says, Now, when the tempter came to him, he said, If you are the son of God, command these stones to become bread. So that's there, like you could say, the loss of the eyes, right? When the tempter came to him and said, If you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered and said, Hey, it is written, Men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, because it's our spiritual food. Amen. And then the devil took him up into the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the son of God, again an attack on his identity. If you are the son of God, God has spoken before, you know, like a voice came from heaven. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, and now he comes, you know, if you are the son of God, then throw yourself down because it is written. So Satan also comes. Religion also can come with Bible verses to try to, you know, to get you off track, to like you, to make you believe that it's not true what you are believing about the word of God. And so Satan comes with the word and he says, it's written. He shall give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. And so then Jesus says again, it is written. So he comes back with the word of God. He takes the word of God as a sword and comes against Satan. He doesn't say, Ah, don't do that, snake. You know, please leave me alone, man. I'm hungry. Don't say that I need to change it in bread. I don't know. I ain't got dang time for the jokes and this and that. And Satan will come back and come back and come back. But Jesus did something else. Jesus took the word of God to counter every attack of the enemy. Jesus said, You know, it doesn't matter how many bread I make, but God, and man will not live by bread alone. He needs the word of God, which is also food, spiritual food. And so he came again, and then Jesus said to him, He said, It is written again, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. Now the devil again took him up an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And then he said to him, All these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. You see, this is the heart of that ugly snake. He wants you to worship him. And then Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and him only, and you shall serve. And then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. Man, I would love to have some angels ministering to me. Amen. But you see, Jesus was using the word of God as a defense against the attacks of the enemy. And so, you know, you can only use the word of God as a defense against the enemy if you have sown the word of God into your life and you know what the word of God says, and if you have eaten the word of God, so you are filled and you're strong and built up in your spirit, and you can counter the attacks of the enemy. So Jesus knew the importance of the word, and therefore he used the word of God as a sword. Amen. And um, Jesus didn't only use it against Satan, he used it against religion. He used it to counter, you know, all that stuff that people were teaching other people that were not in the will of God, you know, they were not true, you know, and then he also used the word of God to set people free, you know, and so he used the word of God constantly, you know, to bring change about. And he knew how important it was because he constantly refers to the scriptures. It is written, you know, is it not written in your law, you know, and constantly he comes back, you know, and it's written, you know, don't make my father's house, you know, uh a place of thieves, you know, etc. etc. etc. And so if Jesus, you know, our Lord and Savior, if he was already using the word of God for everything that he did and everything that he wanted to establish, and every attack of the enemy, to counter every attack of the enemy, and to set people free, and to counter religion, etc. etc. etc. You know, to fulfill all those things. If Jesus already used the word of God, then how much more you and I as his disciples? How much more you and I should use the word of God. We cannot function in what God has for us without the knowledge of his word. It's impossible. I'm telling you, it's impossible. We need to have knowledge of the word of God. The Bible says that my people perish because of the lack of knowledge of the word of God, the lack of knowledge about who he is and who they are in him. And so we need to have the word of God, and as I said, his word is spiritual food for us. It is our manna, it's our daily bread. We pray for that. We pray every day, right? Jesus said, Don't pray like this, not that prayer, but pray like this, you know, and then he gives us like a little frame where he starts with worship and then lays down his uh, you know, request and then he ends with worship again and making God great. But we pray in Matthew 6 11, give us daily our daily bread. Give us daily our bread. And so, yes, it's talking about physically also to have food on your table and all that kind of stuff, but it's also spiritual. Give us our daily the bread that we need, give us our bread daily, or however it's been quoted, you know, to have a desire for a daily, fresh word of the Lord. You know, that should be our prayer. Father, give us a fresh word, give us this spiritual bread, this manna from heaven, you know, and just seek you know uh to understand more and more and more about who he truly is for you and who you are for him. And so we literally need the bread from heaven. So the word is a spiritual food, and if we do not eat, now I don't know, you know, we've just been talking about fasting. You know, if you do not eat, you know, before you know, you're gonna start to feel weak, slow, a little bit empty, you know, and if you don't eat for a long time, finally you will starve. Amen. And so it's the same with the spiritual food, the bread from heaven, it's the same with the word of God. If you do not eat the word of God, if you're not taking the word of God, if you are not, you know, taking it in, you know, like a honeycomb, you know, if you're not taking it in, you know, like the bread from heaven, if you are not taking this as spiritual food, eventually you will starve, you will drain out, you know, still God's child, he still loves you and all that kind of stuff. I'm not talking about it. I'm talking about you know the importance of you to eat and take the word of God. And so if we do not read our Bible, if we do not meditate on it, if we do not, you know, um ponder on it, if we do not take it in us, you know, we will gonna feel very weak. We're gonna feel very empty. So we need the bread from heaven. Let us read together in John 6.31. John 6.31, it's a beautiful account of what Jesus is talking about, what I'm trying to teach to you now. John 6.31, here it says this. Jesus says, or well, they said, Our fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. And then Jesus said to them, Most assured I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Verse 34. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. Man, what a powerful statement Jesus makes here. Look what he says. He says, I am the bread of life. The spiritual food that comes down from heaven, the true bread of life that comes down from heaven is Christ Himself. I am the bread of life. Man, that's beautiful. And he says that if you come to me, you will never hunger. You will never hunger. Now, let me just try to simplify this for you. Jesus is the word, because in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. This was in the beginning with God, John 1.1. And so the word became flesh and dwelt among us, talking about Jesus, you know. Uh the word became flesh in Christ, in Jesus, you know, and um that's John 1.14. And so he also says in John 14, 6, he says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. And he also calls himself the bread of life. Now let's just shuffle that together. Jesus is the word, which is our spiritual bread from heaven. He says, If you take the way, the word, then you will find the truth, the word, and then you will find the life, the word. I am the way, the truth, and the life. My word is the way, the truth, and the life. My word is bread to you. I am your bread, I am your spiritual bread. And if you eat from me, if you come to me, if you come to me in my word, if you're gonna seek me in my word, if you're gonna take my word, then you will never ever hunger again. You shall never thirst again. What a promise he makes us. So when we take Jesus, the word of God, we will find the way to the truth that will set us free and bring us life and then in abundance, because he who has the son has life. He who has the word has life. He who does not have the son does not have life. So he who does not have the word does not have life. That's powerful, man. That's powerful. That's really changing, you know. His name is called the Word of God, John uh Revelations 19, verse 13. His name is the word of God, he is the word of God, man. And you gotta take him, and you will never hunger again. That's powerful, man. That's beautiful. Let's go into Hebrews 4.12. Hebrews 4.12. I love the words, you know, and the way that he explains himself. You know, Hebrews 4.12. Just try to get that quickly here. I'm used to Bibles with thumb prints, you know, how you say that, thumbnails. So uh this is a brand new Bible. I'm really happy with it. It's a beautiful Bible, but I it really got to be used a little bit more. Um, just to say that I have here, for example, my Dutch Bible, and it's almost falling apart, you know, and I can I can find everything very quickly. So, but uh, you know, this one is new, but I'm gonna I'm gonna wear it out also in Jesus' name, amen. And so, Hebrews 4 12, here it says this it says, for the word of God is living and powerful. The word of God is living and powerful. Jesus is living and powerful, he is alive and he's powerful. He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world, amen. And then he is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. There is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. You see, the word of God, Jesus, you know, he knows you're coming in, you're coming out, he knows you're laying down and you're rising up, he knows every thought. Although there is not even a word on your mouth, see, he knows it already, what you're gonna say. You know, there's nothing hidden from him. Impossible. So the word of God knows everything, sees everything. Nothing is hidden from him. It's naked. It's like a two-edged sword, you know. It's like, you know, it's powerful and it's alive and it can change. The word of God can transform your life like nothing in this world can. It truly can transform your life. So it let it shows us who we are, where we stand, what we need to do, what we can, what we have to get rid of, you know. It purifies us, you know, and it it makes us, you know, it it shapes us into, you know, the man or the woman that God intended for you to be. Amen. And so it brings the impossible uh to pass in your life. Now, let me give you a personal testimony about how the word of God, you know, transformed me and set me free in a way that will blow your mind. As I said, you know, uh before I shared my testimony with you that I was in prison. And you know, I was in prison in Portugal, and there is uh an agreement with between countries, not every country but uh Europe, for example, has that that if you are convicted, like uh I'm from Holland, but I'm convicted in Portugal, you know, then the Portuguese uh government justice system has an agreement with the Dutch that I can, after I've been convicted, I've can I can be transferred to my own country and do my time in the time that I received there in my own country and vice versa. And so if you are convicted, then you can go back to your country and do your time. And so that was a little bit of hope that I had, because you know, prisons in Portugal are way, way worse than prisons in Holland. And so, and I was far away from my family and everybody that I loved. And so I wanted to go back to Holland as soon as possible. But you know, they just tried, they were just postponing and postponing and postponing, and finally, after five years, I still didn't know when was my end date, when I would be released, and I still had no clue what my future would bring, whether I would go back to Holland, yes or no, and I was really, really tired. I mean, I had given everything, you know, to make the best out of it, but my time was up. I wanted to go back to Holland so I could have like visits from my family, you know, and could be closer to the people I love, speak my own language, you know, and eat Dutch food and that kind of stuff, you know. So um, you know, then finally, you know, they said, all right, you can come back to the Netherlands. And so they transferred me to the mainland because I wasn't an island and so I couldn't escape. And so they brought me to this mainland, and uh there I needed to sign with a judge that I willingly and voluntarily wanted to go back to Holland to do my time, and so I signed as soon as I could, of course. And then he said it will take about six weeks for you to go back to the Netherlands. So I was waiting in the holding prison in Lisbon to be brought back to Netherland, to the uh Holland. And so, you know, in the meantime, in those six weeks, I was super excited, you know, and I was helping a lot of people, praying for a lot of people, and I led people to the Lord, and you know, it was really great, and I felt that my time was finished, you know, in Portugal and I started a new season. Couldn't wait to start a new part of my sentence in another country and just you know be reunited with my family and my kids and so on. And so, you know, um the six weeks passed and then two months passed, and then three months passed, and I started to get a little bit worried, you know, and so then we started to investigate why I'm not back in the Netherlands yet. And so finally, you know, somebody came to me uh from the government and told me, listen, uh, you know, every crime you committed in Portugal is also punishable in the Netherlands, but one thing not, and that is you gave a false identity when you were arrested, and you have been convicted for four months for that, and that is not uh illegal in the Netherlands, so we cannot take that punishment unless you do that in Holland, and therefore you cannot come back to the Netherlands. So you gotta understand here, I already signed with the judge, you know, everything was said. I was convicted for manufacturing drugs, organized crime, money laundering, and weapons and all that stuff, and for all that stuff, I was welcome to go back to the Netherlands, but to give a false name, now I couldn't come back. This sounds so ridiculous and crazy, you know, and I just couldn't believe it. I was like, what? And so they denied my return, even though everything was already set. And I've been waiting for months for my transfer on the mainland, and I've signed with the judge, and everything was translated and agreed on, and everything, and so my world just crushed and crumbled down. I didn't know what to do. I was devastated, my wife was devastated. And they told me I would go back to the island to do the rest of my time, that meant 12 years in Portugal, then be transformed to do another six in the Netherlands. It would take a long time here. And so I went back to my cell completely defeated, and I had this Bible. No verses, nothing. Now I know which verse it is, but then I didn't know. I just opened my Bible like this. It was just I just I just was like doing a little bit like this. I opened it and it. It fell right here. Now I opened it there and it just fell immediately right there. I didn't know, I had no clue about the Bible and what it all said. I didn't understand the Bible the way the way that I understand it now. But then it said here in John 15, verse 7, it says that if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. Man, I was like, What? I started to read that verse like a hundred times. Because I was reading the Bible, I didn't understand it, but I was reading it every day. And now, you know, I just saw this verse, it just came out of the Bible, it just started to become alive, and it just it just grabbed me. It said, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. And I said, Ma ma ma ma ma my God, if you are who you say you are, then then this is true. I am in you, your words are in me because I'm reading them, and what I desire is a miracle. I want to go back to Holland. I'm done here. I need a miracle. Help me to get back to the Netherlands, please, Lord. Hallelujah. And that's it. It was about six, seven o'clock in the evening. I laid on my bed and I fell in a deep sleep. I mean, a deep sleep. And I woke up the next morning and there was something in the air. I walked out of my cell. I was calling Brenda, you know, still disappointed and sad, and just to see what our next step will be. And so I was talking with her, and somebody tapped me on the shoulder. Was a guard and he said, Hey, can I ask you something? Do you have some money on your card? We used to pay with cards in the bit in the prisons, you know, the special cards. And I said, No, I don't believe. So he said, uh, because you're gonna go away uh on Monday. I said, I'm gonna go away. There was on a Thursday. I said, I'm gonna go away. He says, Yes, I said, Where am I going? He said, Let me check. And so I said to Ren, I said, I'm gonna call you back. And I hung up and I went to his office and he told me, You were going to Hollanda. That means you're going back to Holland. And I couldn't believe, man. I just couldn't believe. And I said, What? Wait, what? What did you say? He says, You're going back to Holland, man. I fell on my knees and I started to praise God like crazy, and everybody thought I lost it. I just started to pack my things, you know, and I was ready and I couldn't sleep for the whole weekend. I mean, no, I was already for five and a half years in prison, but these three days were longer than the five and a half years. Amen. Friday didn't pass, Saturday didn't pass, Sunday didn't pass, and then finally it was Monday. I stepped into the van after leaving the prison with all the ninjas and the guns on me and everything, and I waited in that bus. And there was a guy in the bus, a Dutch guy, and he said, Man, are you going back to Holland? I said, Yes. He says, I'm going back because I took the place of somebody else. I shouldn't go back now, but somebody else was cancelled and I took his place. He was talking about me. And I couldn't believe and I waited and waited and waited, and finally we got into the plane, and then the plane went back to the Netherlands. There was a huge relief. I came in front of the judge and he said, Why are you back in Holland? You're not supposed to be back here. I said, No, don't ask me, ask my father. Amen, hallelujah. I took the word of God, I've planted it in my heart, I believe the word, I've spoken the word that was in me, and I remained in him. And I asked and what I desired, and it has been given to me. It was a supernatural miracle. I'm telling you, the word of God is so powerful, it can change your life and set you completely free. Well, that's an amazing story, but my time is up, so I gotta leave it by this. But we can continue in the next episode about the importance of the word here at One Gospel. I hope you were blessed by it. I was blessed by it, and I hope to see you again. God bless you until next time. Bye bye.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

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