Filling the Void – LaVon Koerner

Transcript: The number two desire that God has implanted in our heart – remember, He put these desires in our heart for one reason: to draw us back to Him. We need to see that there’s only one answer to everyone that desires. His name is Jesus. Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords.

The second desire is this area that He wants us to feel supported. There is an emptiness, or God-shaped vacuum, that He’s put into our lives, and the only person who can fill it is Jesus. Now, you can try to fill it with other things, but before I get to that, this emptiness is usually called loneliness.

Loneliness is really the symptom; it’s not the cause. The cause is emptiness. But loneliness is a common thing. Did you know that right now, loneliness has reached a crisis proportion? 40% of all people are saying they are stricken with loneliness. Wow.

In the most technologically connected age ever in the history of humanity – you’re more connected to more people right now than anybody else who’s ever lived on planet Earth before you because of technology – at the same time, we’re lonely.

I was in London the week before last, and they have just named a Minister of Loneliness. There are 9 million people on the UK island that are suffering an epidemic of loneliness.

Suicide has raised 25% since the year 2000. I could go on and on and on. The opium crisis, 4.5 million people in the United States, because they’re trying to numb the pain of this desire that God has put in our heart, this desire of companionship, friendship with Him.

We can so very easily start substituting other things, other hobbies, drugs, addiction, food, sex, pleasure, entertainment, sports. We can go any way we want to go, but until Jesus fills that void in our heart, we’ll be vulnerable.

You’ll be vulnerable to discouragement. You’ll be vulnerable to wanting to quit your business. I believe business can even be a substitute for Jesus as it begins to fill our life with all of the challenges that we experience all the time.

I remember when I first started my first business, I was told, “Do not form friendships with the people in your company.” So I have all of these employees, and I remember thinking all the time, “Don’t become their friend, don’t become their friend.” That just made the life of a CEO – it made me unbelievably lonely, because I couldn’t confide. I couldn’t share.

God didn’t design us to be that way. If we have Jesus in our life, if we’ve allowed Him to fill each moment with His presence, the emptiness will disappear and you will never talk about being lonely.

But there was a point in my life when I had to cross over the line of knowing about Jesus and knowing Him. That was a big day. I found out that I was 14 inches away from the thrill of a lifetime. That’s the distance between my head and my heart.

I knew about Him. I was a thinker, thinker, thinker. I was proud of being a thinker. I would think everything through. I was going everywhere to do debates. I did debates with Jehovah’s Witnesses, debates with Mormons, all the time. I would go to the UC campus and debate professors.

I’m ashamed of all of that, because I was talking out of my head and not talking out of my heart, nor living out of my heart. When I realized I was 14 inches away from the thrill of a lifetime, and I moved my relationship with Jesus from my head to my heart, I began to have a friend. I began to have a companion.

I began to fill a void that was crying out, because it’s one of those seven desires that God planted in our heart that is built to draw us back to him.

As you think about that, think about the Scripture in Revelation 3 that says “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

Jesus is knocking on our heart. It seems like we ought to be banging on His door. I mean, we’re the ones in need. We’re the ones that are desperate. We’re the ones that are hitting crisis after crisis after crisis. We’re the ones that are suffering. Why aren’t we banging on His door?

And yet in an unbelievable turnaround, Jesus is knocking on my heart’s door, asking me to come in so that I can fill every moment of every day with His presence.

We talk. We chat. We laugh. We pray. We enjoy. It used to bug me; I would read in Corinthians where Paul kept talking about he had “fellowship with God.” What is that? How do you have fellowship with God? Do you just hang out with Him?

The answer is absolutely yes. But you have to move it from your head to your heart. You have to answer the One that’s knocking on your door. The gift of His presence. The gift of His presence, He wants to give you that gift.

If you have done it, you will not have emptiness. And if you don’t have emptiness, say goodbye to loneliness. You’ll be thrilled with His presence.