Hope in Empty Places: Dr. Charles Weir on Finding God in Life's Darkest Voids
About this episode
Dr. Charles W. Weir, senior pastor of Gateway Church in Franklin, Tennessee, joins Philip Cameron to unpack the transformative message behind his book "Hope in Empty Places" — a 12-week sermon series that became a life-changing study of how God inhabits every space we assume He has abandoned. Dr. Weir planted Gateway Church 20 years ago at age 42, starting with three trailers in an elementary school gymnasium, and watched God provide an 11-acre property that now sits alongside Ramsey Solutions, K-Love, and In-N-Out Burger's headquarters. At the heart of the conversation is a bold theological claim: "Empty is an illusion — because God came first." Drawing from Genesis 1, Dr. Weir explains that there was no empty before God, meaning any situation that feels void is already filled with His presence. He reframes biblical hope not as a wish or emotion, but as a person — Jesus Christ — arguing, "If hope is a person, I can share it." The episode closes with a moving reflection on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, where Dr. Weir reminds viewers that the father never ran his ranch without watching for his son — and that repentance and restoration begin the moment you simply stand up and turn around.
Part of our Hope collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“With God, actually empty is an illusion because God came first. So, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. Earth was empty, it was formless. That comes first. But there was no empty before God. God creates empty in a sense. So if He's there, it's not empty. So empty is an illusion. Now, it feels empty, and our feelings are real, but we say a lot at Gateway, feelings are real, but just not always reliable.”
“Biblical hope isn't a wish. Different family. Biblical hope defined is in the person of Christ. It's an assurance. And that's the beauty. A person. And so that's why I said you can learn hope. If hope's an emotion, then you can't learn it. If hope's a person, you can learn it. If hope is an emotion, you can't share it. But if hope is a person, I can share it.”
“The father was on the porch. He was looking. He saw the boy while he was afar off, which means there was never a time that man ran his ranch without looking for his son. Never. He was always watching, and runs to meet him. So the enemy wants to keep you stuck, that you cannot return, you cannot come back. But the boy was saved, if you will, when he stood up. Not when he got to the top. When he stood up, he repented.”
What's Discussed
Dr. Charles W. Weir, pastor of Gateway Church in Franklin, Tennessee, shares the story behind his book 'Hope in Empty Places,' born from a 12-week sermon series that began with a single insight: empty is an illusion, because God existed before emptiness itself. Drawing from Genesis 1, Dr. Weir argues that any place that feels void is already filled with God's presence — like water a fish cannot see but cannot live without. He redefines biblical hope not as a fleeting emotion but as the person of Jesus Christ, meaning hope can be learned and shared. The conversation culminates in a powerful retelling of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, where Dr. Weir emphasizes that the father never stopped watching — and that restoration begins the moment a person simply stands up and turns around.
- Gateway Church Franklin: 20-Year Story
- Church Planting as an Extreme Sport
- Origin of Hope in Empty Places
- Empty Is an Illusion: Genesis 1 Insight
- Biblical Hope as a Person, Not an Emotion
- Hope as a Lens Through Suffering
- Prodigal Son and the Father Who Never Stopped Watching
- Standing Up: The Moment Repentance Begins
Scripture in this episode
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hey, my friend. Welcome to "The Daily Fix." My name is Philip Cameron, and I am delighted to have you with us today. We have got a tremendous program. I believe that God has you sitting where you are or watching where you are because He wants to send you a message. I am astonished at the ability of God to move you to where He needs you to be so He can give you something and deliver something into your soul.
Philip:And one thing I'm noticing in the days we're living in, especially in Europe, where all the mess is taking place — Islam, it seems, is running rampant over the whole continent. You have no idea. My mom is 97 years of age and lives in Scotland. I talk to her every day. I spend an hour on the phone with my mom, FaceTiming her every single day. And you should hear that old woman, 97, talking about the loss of a country, the great country.
Philip:Memorial Day weekend, where our men, our soldiers died. My grandfather survived the Battle of the Somme in France, where 80,000 men died in one or two days. And my grandad lived through that, came home a hopeless alcoholic. And to hear a 97-year-old woman talk to me about the loss of our beloved Scotland and our beloved England because of carelessness.
Philip:And hope. We need hope. And I've got a dear friend, Charlie Weir is with us today, and he's written this book entitled "Hope in Empty Places." And we're going to be talking in a few moments. As you know, we do mission work. For the last 37 years, we have been working in Eastern Europe in a country called Moldova, and the last 10 years, long before the war started, in the country of Ukraine. We have a home in Ukraine, and we've got a village of houses. Literally the most amazing place you have ever seen in a place called Vatra Village.
Philip:It is a village of homes right on the largest lake in the country, and it was built originally for rich folk to have a summer home, dacha. And they poisoned the lake with chlorine to kill algae, and no one wanted to live in a house near the lake. And they fixed the lake, and these houses sat new but never finished. And we bought them, and they are finished, and they are full of the most amazing young men and women.
Philip:Every girl you see in the videos is worth $300,000 a year to the trafficker. One girl earns the trafficker $300,000 a year. And they offer them bogus jobs, and they get in a car and are taken away and raped and beaten until their spirit is broken. And then they stand them on a corner or put them in a tent. If you've ever watched the movie "Taken," they have them in a tent with little cubicles, and they use them 30 to 50 times a day until they die. And we don't think that's God's will. And we are building homes as fast as we can to rescue as many as we can.
Philip:And the crazy thing is these kids that we've rescued find Jesus, give their heart to the Lord, get grounded in the Word, go to church, lead praise and worship in church, are ushers in church, in the local church. But what we have, we have outreaches all through the year to the impoverished villages in Moldova. And each of our homes adopts a village, and they get to know every parent, every alcoholic family, every widow, every broken home, and they pour the love of God and grace. And anyone that gets saved, we take them to the Evangelical church and plant them in that church. Orphans becoming missionaries.
Philip:And they just sent me a video the other day to give you an idea visually what I'm trying to explain to you with my Scottish accent. Watch this.
Hi, everyone. Here we are in Moldova at Promise House, and what you see here is more than a building under construction. With every piece of tile being placed, we are building hope for children who have never had a place to truly call home. Soon, these empty rooms will be filled with love, warmth, and safety. Children who once felt forgotten will finally have a family around them, a bed to sleep in, and a future to believe in. And none of this would be possible without people like you. Thank you for helping us turn walls into shelter and shelter into hope. Together, we are creating a home where healing can begin.
Philip:Thank you so much, Ulizana. Ulizana came to us at 16, the girl you've just heard speak. Her mother is Moldovan, went to Russia to study, met a guy in Russia, moved to Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan. It is as bad as it sounds. When he got her there, she had three babies, and as soon as they were married, the beatings began. And he beat her mercilessly. She tried to escape, and he nearly killed her. She was pregnant with a fourth child, and she had to run for her life, and she managed to make it back to Moldova.
Philip:Her folks wanted nothing to do with her, couldn't afford the luxury of feeding four babies. So in desperation, she put the three girls, the older ones, into an orphanage, and the newborn baby, Ulizana, you've just heard speak, into a tuberculosis hospital. Not sick. Put her newborn into a hospital for tuberculosis, and she lived there until she was 12 years of age. And because she is Asian, because she comes from the steppes, everyone in the orphanage said, "You're ugly" every day. "You're ugly."
Philip:At Christmas time, most of the kids went home to be with their parents, and she sat in this massive institution all by herself. Had never seen inside a house, had never been inside a kitchen, never saw a mom cook at a stove, nothing. One day, her mother came back. Had never seen her since she was born till now, and she's Asian, and her mother's European. And her mother says, "Would you like to meet your sisters?" Ulizana had no idea.
Philip:And all her life she begged. She said, "Please, God, let me have sisters. I don't want Barbies, I just want sisters." And she said, "Would you like to meet your sisters?" She says, "Yes." And she took her a bus to the orphanage and says, "They're in there." And she walked into the orphanage. In the tuberculosis hospital, they called her Christina, and her real name was Ulizana, so when she went to the orphanage, the teacher said, "Your name's not Christina, your name's Ulizana." She found her mother, lost her mother, lost her name, was given a new name, and they wouldn't let her see her sisters for months.
Philip:When she met her sisters, they said, "If ever you see our mom, you better run away because she will hurt you. She's mentally deranged." And she is as we speak. Ulizana came to us at 16, angry. And I spent hours and days speaking with her, and God has totally turned her around. In fact, she competed in Romania's Got Idol, like they have America's Got Idol, and she was third. Gifted. She visits with the prime minister. She's the most amazing girl. And she just got married a few months ago.
Philip:That's what we do every day. We are here rescuing the perishing, caring for the dying. A bowl of soup won't help a girl who's been trafficked. A bed does, and a home does, and structure does, and education does. And I sure could use your help because we're expanding even now. Everything you've seen done in these videos, in that video you just saw, has been done largely by people giving a dollar a day. You can change a life for a dollar a day forever.
Philip:Ulizana's entire life, she was destined to be an alcoholic, and God knows what was happening to her. And she loves God with a passion. Her husband, Victor, is the most amazing young man because somebody gave a dollar a day. You can change a life for a dollar a day. Please pray about that, if you would. You can get in contact with us at our address, or you can go on dailyfaith.tv, and by doing so, you are being a missionary in a world that's dying. So I pray that the Spirit of God will speak to your heart, to listen and obey. You can change a life for a dollar a day. Think about it.
Philip:Well, I'm delighted to have with me today a great man of God with a great church in Franklin, Tennessee. I'd like to go to this church just to hear the music. I can only imagine what kind of musicians these folks have in Franklin, Tennessee. His name is Charlie Weir. And I don't know if he knows this, I'm going to check on this, but I think Weir is a Scottish name. And if it is, he's one of us. We're taking over America one Scotsman at a time. Charlie, I'm delighted to have you with me today on "Daily Faith." God bless you, my friend.
Dr. Charles W. Weir:Thank you. Yeah, in fact, someone traveled from our congregation years ago to Scotland and bought a piece of land in my name so that it could be called a lord. And I have the deed, I have everything.
Philip:Well, Lord Weir, it's good to have you with us on TV today. We're so honored by your presence. But to us, a weir is a water feature.
Dr. Charles W. Weir:Yeah. It runs over gently, the water weir, and they're beautiful things.
Gateway Church Franklin: 20-Year Story
Philip:Well, I am delighted. Tell me about the church, first of all. I'm really interested for folk to hear about what God's doing through you in Franklin.
Dr. Charles W. Weir:Yeah, 20 years ago, my wife and my eight-year-old daughter and a couple of families moved from Marietta, Georgia, Atlanta area, with a felt-like a distinct call to develop spiritually influential people. I heard someone say that evangelism was a math problem. There just wasn't enough people doing it. And at the time, specifically, the best, most effective evangelistic tool was to plant a new church. And we weren't young. I was already 42. I felt like I was the oldest living church planter. But we were convinced that there were three things people were looking for. They were looking for a fresh start, they were looking for great friends, and they were looking for a real purpose.
Dr. Charles W. Weir:Still true. So I can communicate that to anybody. I can communicate to someone that can't spell Jesus, to someone who has known Jesus all their life. It's both. So I need a fresh relationship with Christ, shaped in community, with my life lived on purpose. And we call those spiritually influential people. And if there are more spiritually influential people in the world, there's going to be more people that find Jesus, because them living that out — people in this culture, they can smell stale a mile away. They can smell fake a mile away. But if I have something fresh going on in my life, then I'm going to have an impact, a spiritual impact on somebody.
Philip:That's amazing. So tell us what God's done there over the last 20 years.
Dr. Charles W. Weir:Well, gosh, from a little elementary school gymnasium with three trailers, we loaded in and out for six and a half years. Set up, pull down — yeah, tear down. Probably I'd wear one set of clothes and set up and then go change clothes and then preach and put the other clothes back on and tear down and put it back in a trailer and haul it back to a storage unit. And we had a little office here in Franklin that was near the school, and we're only about two years in, and I said, "Lord, we have a lease at this school. It's going to end at some point. We have to have something else."
Church Planting as an Extreme Sport
Dr. Charles W. Weir:And we began praying for a property, and one day I drove to work, and there was a for sale sign on almost an 11-acre piece of property right behind the office. And I said, "Could it be that easy?" And sure enough, we bought it in '09, couldn't even move onto it until 2012, couldn't afford to build anything on it. And now here we sit next to In-N-Out Burger just moved in, their headquarters is just down the street. Ramsey Solutions is down the street. K-Love just moved in down the street, and there was nothing here 20 years ago, hardly. Just sat between Franklin and Spring Hill, and anyway, it's just something only God can do. God knows further in advance.
Philip:But when you're doing something that's viable to God, He will make a way. One of my favorite choruses — He works in ways I cannot see. And that 11 acres of ground sitting there, and you're driving past and you're driving past and you're driving past, and it's not talking to you, and all of a sudden things align in the Lord, and you think, "Oh, where have you been all my life?"
Philip:And I know that folk are watching just now, and I'm always aware when we talk, I'm always aware of the third person that's watching us speaking just now. And they're in a situation, they've been plodding away, they've been doing the three trailers in the stock it and lock it afterwards and changing — maybe not the same thing, but in a different form. And I just feel the Lord telling you, keep going.
Dr. Charles W. Weir:Yeah. You're one more turn of the wheel away. You're one more step. It's worth it. My wife and I say it's the hardest best thing we've ever done. Church planting is not for the faint of heart. I call it the extreme sport of pastoring. You're trying to build a bridge and cross it all at the same time, out of toothpicks.
Philip:But you're exactly right, Charlie. You've just got to do the next day. I don't have to do next week. I've just got to do the next day. Well, believe me, mission work, like we're doing, is exactly that way. Every day you — in fact, yesterday my son called me. Now, here we are, mind you, building two houses to take in these little smaller kids. In Vatra, we can only take 16 and above, so this is for the little ones. And so we are stretched. I'm sick. I can't speak about what we're doing because I've been in hospital and I've been recuperating.
Philip:And so he calls me and he says, "Dad, there's a house available close to Vatra that'll make a great mission base house." And I think when you consider it, and I'm thinking, you get your kids all worked up in faith and believing God for stuff, and then when you want to say, "Hold on a second, let's calm this thing down," they're saying, "Right, what's next?" And that's the miraculous part about what we do. You're always one step away or a breath away from the next level of challenge.
Philip:Tremendous. And you've written a book. I need you to help me with this book. If ever a book needs to be written, this is the book. "Hope in Empty Places." That is so needed. Tell us, how did you get to this point? What made this come alive in your spirit?
Origin of Hope in Empty Places
Dr. Charles W. Weir:Yeah. It was actually a preaching series when we were a portable church — gosh, I don't know how many years ago now, 13 years ago — when I had this impression that with God, actually empty is an illusion because God came first. So, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. Earth was empty, it was formless. That comes first. But there was no empty before God. God creates empty in a sense. So if He's there, it's not empty. So empty is an illusion. Now, it feels empty, and our feelings are real, but we say a lot at Gateway, feelings are real, but just not always reliable.
Dr. Charles W. Weir:And I understand it. We carry Christ. I understand it completely. But I don't carry Christ into a situation as much as I discover Christ already there, in the empty, if we consider Him. He's already there. He's there. So then that means, okay, well, then it's not empty. So if it's not empty, then how do I carry myself now in a situation that I know spiritually it's not empty? So it should change then how I enter it, how I navigate it, how I communicate. And that's kind of what prompted the book.
Dr. Charles W. Weir:I think I was going to do two or three weeks, and it ended up being like a 12-week series of just every single week, God just seemingly unpacks something new with me of an empty situation in scripture that appeared empty. By all means, it was empty, and yet it wasn't. He was there. And the beauty that He brought out of that circumstance.
Philip:A few days ago, a couple of weeks ago, I bought a fish tank. They told me the fish will lower my blood pressure, so I said, "I'm buying a fish tank." So I went down, bought this fish tank, and we filled it with water. But you can't put fish into water until it — I don't know what it does, but it does something. So one of my grandsons comes in and looks at the tank with a rock there and the gravel on the bottom and the water, and he came in and looked for a while, and he says, "Granddad," he says, "I can't see oxygen." He says, "Can the fish see water?"
Philip:And in your circumstance, when you're going through the circumstance, what happens is you go into an empty space, but you discover that God's filled the empty space with Himself. And like the fish, the fish can't see the water, but it's the water that sustains them. And that's exactly what we're talking about right now.
Empty Is an Illusion: Genesis 1 Insight
Dr. Charles W. Weir:Yeah. Biblical hope isn't a wish. Different family. Biblical hope defined is in the person of Christ. It's an assurance. So any time you read in scripture, it talks about hope, it's never talking about — well, it's rarely talking about an emotion. And that's the beauty. A person. And so that's why I said you can learn hope. If hope's an emotion, then you can't learn it. If hope's a person, you can learn it. If hope is an emotion, you can't share it. But if hope is a person, I can share it.
Dr. Charles W. Weir:It's not easy to live. Christ was very plain that this is not going to be an easy life to live. But His promise was that He overcame. And so I can live in the assurance of overcoming, and that doesn't mean bad things don't happen.
Philip:You had five bypasses. But you're back here carrying the gospel because hope gets you out of that bed. Because as you communicate hope, it takes care of girls 3,000 miles away. Hope is a powerful force. In the movie "Hunger Games," one of the movies, President Snow said, "The most dangerous emotion there is is hope." That was one of his quotes.
Philip:When I had this thing done, I said to my son Andrew, I said, "Let me tell you, my birthday is April 27th." Now, I got this done at the beginning of April, so we're talking three weeks, two weeks away. I said, "I am going to be sitting on my chair in Daily Faith on my birthday." He said, "Dad, that's crazy." That was my hope. So I'd get myself off the chair, and I'd walk around our town, someone with me because I wasn't very steady, and I'd sit down, and I would say, "I'm going to be there on the 27th of April." And I was here on the 24th, I believe. I beat it by three days because hope is a lens.
Philip:Hope can take a diffused situation, a fuzzy vision, and the lens of hope focuses everything to let you see, I know my Redeemer lives. I know whom I believe. That's the blessed hope. There are folk watching just now that are hopeless right now. They're in a situation with their family. They're in a situation in their church. Maybe a pastor watching us just now, and you are thinking, "What am I doing here? What a mess I'm in." It may be of your own doing, and we all make mistakes, so don't pick yourself. That's not a reason to quit. What would you say to someone today that has lost their hope? How do we find hope again?
Biblical Hope as a Person, Not an Emotion
Dr. Charles W. Weir:So again, hope is not about an outcome. It's about a person. So two things I would say. One is, very much I deal with this in one of the chapters, what do you do when your own choices are the cause for this emptiness? One of the best parables Jesus ever teaches us and tells us is the Prodigal Son. The Prodigal Son put himself in that position. In the pig pen. And yet what we read is that there was a day he stood up, and the Greek word there used is a word for repentance. And he stands up and turns around, and he goes back home.
Hope as a Lens Through Suffering
Dr. Charles W. Weir:So if you've created your own empty, you know, "Yeah, I made this choice." The beauty of this story is that the scripture says, or the way Jesus tells it, is the father was on the porch. He was looking. He saw the boy while he was afar off, which means there was never a time that man ran his ranch without looking for his son. Never. He was always watching, and runs to meet him. So the enemy wants to keep you stuck, that you cannot return, you cannot come back. But the boy was saved, if you will, if you read in the parable, when he stood up. Not when he got to the top. When he stood up, he repented.
Dr. Charles W. Weir:What a Lord. So when you make your own choices, and we all do, Christ is still standing on that porch looking for you. Stand up. Get up, stand up, turn around, and get back to where you came from.
Philip:I can feel the Holy Ghost. As you say that, I sense the power of the Holy Ghost. Whatever you need in your circumstance, stand up. Literally, if you're not listening to it just now and you're not driving a car, stand up physically. Stand up and say, "I'm changing. I'm turning around." And the moment — take two pictures. One picture of the boy covered in God knows what, filthy, stinky, lonely. Take another picture five seconds apart, a boy, filthy, stinky, lonely. Nothing's changed in that five seconds. Everything's changed because the boy in the middle stood up, and that's what God is calling for you to do.
Philip:I'd tell the parents, grandparents, "Don't stop looking." Don't stop looking. Keep looking. Don't stop hoping and praying because it happens. We've got a minute left. Could you pray for our audience that God will establish a fresh hope in their heart?
Dr. Charles W. Weir:Yeah. Father in heaven, the Father that stands on the porch looking for us, we are grateful on this side of the cross that you came looking for us. Thank you, God. We didn't know what that was like until we stood up, until we made our way back to some story our grandparents told us about you or some coworker that we saw reading a Bible at their desk, and Lord, I pray for that person that has been longing for something new and fresh in their life, and they just don't know where to look.
Standing Up: The Moment Repentance Begins
Dr. Charles W. Weir:Lord, somebody, someone of spiritual influence will encounter them today, this week, and would spark their turn. Lord, the best thing you do is resurrections, and Lord, I pray that you do them all over today. In the name of Jesus, we pray.
Philip:In the name of Jesus. Thank you for being with us today. You blessed my soul. Thank you for watching "Daily Faith." We'll see you again soon. Bye-bye.
For over 25 years, the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova. From providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They champion the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons, and in the process, orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their Heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus.
God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now, no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and the Ukraine. If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 833-DAILYFAITH. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
What does Dr. Weir mean when he says 'empty is an illusion'?
Dr. Weir explains that because God existed before anything else, there was never truly an empty before God — He creates empty in a sense, which means if He's present, it can't really be empty. The feeling of emptiness is real, but feelings aren't always reliable. His view is that rather than carrying Christ into an empty situation, we discover Christ already there.
How does Dr. Weir define biblical hope, and why does he say you can learn it?
Dr. Weir draws a sharp distinction between hope as an emotion and hope as a person — specifically, the person of Christ. Because biblical hope is grounded in a person rather than a feeling or a wished-for outcome, he says you can actually learn it and share it, the same way you learn about and share a relationship with someone.
What does Dr. Weir say to someone whose emptiness is the result of their own bad choices?
He points to the Parable of the Prodigal Son and notes that the son's turnaround began the moment he stood up in the pig pen — not when he arrived home. Dr. Weir says the father was always watching from the porch and ran to meet the son while he was still far off, which means the enemy's lie that you can't come back is exactly that — a lie. His advice: stand up, turn around, and start moving back.
Why did Dr. Weir plant a church at age 42, and what three things did he believe people were searching for?
Dr. Weir felt a distinct call to develop 'spiritually influential people,' and believed planting a new church was the most effective evangelistic tool at the time. He was convinced that every person — whether they've never heard of Jesus or have known Him all their life — is looking for the same three things: a fresh start, great friends, and a real purpose.
How did the book 'Hope in Empty Places' come about?
The book grew out of a preaching series Dr. Weir started about 13 years ago when he was still a portable church. What he planned as a two-or-three-week series kept expanding as he found, week after week, that Scripture was full of situations that appeared completely empty yet weren't — God was already there. It eventually became a 12-week series and then the book.
Topics
hopeweirchurch plantingprodigal sonbiblical hopegateway churchrepentance