Book of Second Corinthians chapter four tonight. Second Corinthians chapter four. Pastor Ruck has already mentioned it. I want to mention it as well. Great crowd here tonight for a Tuesday and appreciate the the special music tonight. I love it when families sing together. And you know what I do when I when I'm watching a family sing together. That one looks like dad. That one looks like mom. You notice the twins. One is like dad's little clone, and the other one is mom's little clone. You notice that? It's just the way it is. And that's all right. That way you can tell them apart, right? Because they're not identical twins. My wife's mother was an identical twin. They played tricks on people until they were in their late 70s. And people just could not tell them apart, people who didn't know them. My wife was 27 before she knew which one was her real mother. No, just not quite, not quite. Were you what, eight? Eight years old? She was not, I mean, it was hard. And when they would get together for family vacations, she would run up and it's like, I'm not your mother. And she'd be like, what? You look like my mother, you know? Anyway, a great crowd. Thank you for those of you that work all day. and come right into the house of God. We appreciate that so much. And guests and members, all of you, we appreciate the effort you make to be a part of these meetings. You know, revival meetings, a series of meetings won't do anything for you unless you want it to. I have a preacher friend who often says God is not inclined to send revival to people who are okay if He doesn't. Hmm. That's so true. You know, if we're getting by and everything's OK, then probably these meetings will come and go and you'll say, well, you know, I don't really know what that was all about. But if you're looking for something, if you're desiring something, you know what Jesus said in the in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. People that are hungering and thirsting for something. And He didn't say that to lost people. He said that to His disciples. Jesus said this in John 7. If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. He's not talking about the thirst of John chapter 4 there. In John chapter 4, the woman at the well was thirsting for the forgiveness of sins. In John chapter 7, Jesus is speaking of those who are thirsting after the fullness of the Spirit. Because the text says, this spake he concerning the Spirit. And so it's important that we understand that once you're saved, you never need to thirst again for the forgiveness of sins. Once you're saved, you're saved. Amen? But the growing Christian, the disciple, the one who wants revival, the one who wants God to work, is thirsting every single day to know Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and being made conformable to His death. It is a yearning, it is a constant pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God. prioritizing of spiritual things. It is a setting of one's affection on things above and not on things on the earth. It is a yearning and a desire to grow. That's what it is. Tonight, a message I've entitled right out of the verse. Eternal treasure in earthen vessels. Eternal treasure in earthen vessels. Let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and the 7th verse. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Let me read that again. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Heavenly Father, would You help us tonight? And I do thirst and yearn again for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. I thirst and yearn again for the Word of God to be quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and tonight to pierce even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and narrow, and to be a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Once again, I pray that the Word of the Lord will have free course and be glorified. Once again, I pray that the Word will bring forth fruit. Once again, Father, I pray that the Word of God will accomplish that whereto Thou hast pleased. That it will not return unto Thee void. And so would You take these simple words, and would You take this preacher, and would You somehow shower down Your mercy and Your grace and Your power tonight? Because this is most surely a time of need. And so would you meet that need for everyone in this room and for the ones who came in here who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. May they understand with clarity that they can be saved. That they do not have to live in condemnation. They can live in salvation. And would you make that clear to them tonight as well as making clear to every believer How precious it is to have eternal treasure in earthen vessels. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. We have an eternal treasure. We have eternal treasure in these earthen vessels. And as we look at that verse, he says we have this treasure. And the treasure is the truths of God. And the earthen vessel is a reference to this frail human body. And I want to talk to you tonight and give you some thoughts on that subject, eternal treasure in earthen vessels. First of all, let's look at the concept of the eternal treasure. And what is that eternal treasure? Well, it starts out with the gospel. Notice verse one of this chapter. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry that is We have an opportunity. We have a calling. And every believer has a ministry. Every believer has a calling. That does not mean that every believer is supposed to be a preacher by profession. That does not mean that every believer is supposed to be a missionary or an evangelist. What that means is every believer has a ministry. Every believer has a calling. And if you were to go farther in the book of 2 Corinthians, you find out that God has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. God was in the world reconciling the world unto Himself, and He has committed this ministry of reconciliation to you and me. He has given us the marvelous privilege of taking the Word of God and opening the Word of God and showing sinners how to be saved and showing believers how to live. Notice, if you will, we have this ministry. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, verse one, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid. It is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world, that would be the devil himself, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. One of the treasures, one of the eternal treasures that you and I have is the Gospel. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. How that Christ died for our sins. according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and he was seen. There are more eyewitness records that Jesus Christ rose from the dead than there are eyewitness records that George Washington was the first President of the United States. A lot of people don't realize that the resurrection is one of the most documented events of human history. And it is absolutely proven by the fact that over 500 people at one time that were gathered together saw the resurrected Christ. Over 500 at one time. It is not a mirage. It was not a myth. It was an absolute fact that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and the way He did that was to offer Himself without spot to God. The way He did that was to offer His blood as the only sacrifice acceptable to God. a man or a woman or a young adult. I generally refer to teenagers as young adults because that is what they are. A young adult, even a child, can understand the concept of sin. Even a young person can get a hold and grasp the idea because a child is created in the image of God and we live our lives in the image of God and we're aware that man is a sinner. We know that. across the board. But what happens in the life of a person one day as they awaken to realize it's not just that we're all sinners. It is that I'm a sinner. I have offended a holy God and I can't forgive myself. I cannot atone for my own sins. I cannot stack up good works enough to forgive sin. You may stack up enough good works so that you can perhaps offset your bad works in the eyes of a person that you've offended, but that doesn't forgive your sin. You can live by great commandments. There are marvelous commandments in this Bible. Somebody counted them up and said, I think there are 613 commandments in the Bible. I think that's the total. Well, you know what? Nobody's going to be able to live by all of them. But say you live by 375 of them. That's pretty good. But keeping commandments does not get you into heaven. It would be like taking Russian money to the store when you go shopping tomorrow. And when you get to the cash register, you try to stick it in that self-pay thing, it's going to spit it out because it doesn't take Russian money. This is the United States of America. And you can take your good works and your law keeping and stand at the gate of heaven and try to slide it in and it's going to spit it back out because that is not the way you get into heaven. People go to heaven justified by his blood. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And if you walked in here tonight without the Savior, You can walk out with Him. You can receive Him. As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Born of God. Jesus said you must be born again. Peter said it this way, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth Forever You know one one of these eternal treasures is it's the gospel Do you realize that if you're saved you can tell somebody else how to be saved? Do you realize that if you're a saved person tonight and maybe you're nine years old or maybe you're 19 or maybe you're 73 or maybe you're 46 Do you realize you can open a Bible and you can tell somebody how to be saved. Did you know that I? And you can change that person's eternity from hell to heaven if that person will listen and receive the truth. It's an eternal treasure. Everybody that's saved has that treasure. It's been given. We have a ministry which gives us an eternal treasure, and that eternal treasure includes the gospel. to a lost and dying world. You hath he quickened, Ephesians 2 says, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Oh, how wonderful it is that we can communicate the gospel and a person who is dead in trespasses and sins can become alive in Christ. Recently, I was in a revival series in another state. The pastor said, can we go out calling? I said, absolutely, let's go. We went out and he had a list of names of people that he was following up, people that had visited the church, people that had expressed an interest in the gospel and so on. And we were driving around town, just driving around, following up on visits. We got up to this one house. We knocked on the door. Nobody came to the door. We knocked again. Nobody came to the door, so we slipped a flyer into the door and turned around and headed for the sidewalk to go to the next house. As I was walking down that driveway, I caught motion out of the corner of my eye. And here was a young man charging down the sidewalk at a pretty good pace. And I quickened my pace and I cut him off at the pass with a gospel track. And he stopped. And God didn't speak out loud to me. But I had a very strong conviction at that very moment, don't stop talking, just keep on. And I presented the gospel to that young man as clearly as I knew how. We probably talked for 25 or 30 minutes. And when we got done, he bowed his head and trusted Christ on a sidewalk at the end of a stranger's driveway. If that man had been home, he would have walked by and we would never have been able to speak to him. What I want you to understand is, I'm just a farm boy. I grew up on a dairy farm in northern Vermont. That is not a glamorous life. Did I just tell you it's not glamorous? It isn't fun. It's dirty. It stinks. We got laughed at in school because when they drove the school bus by our property, boy, everybody knew it. It's not a glamorous life. I didn't grow up with some silver spoon in my mouth. We were poor kids. We didn't even know we were poor. We lived like two miles from the nearest pavement. I'm not painting a pity party picture. I'm just telling you, that's how I grew up. I have a treasure. I have an eternal treasure. And the first time I ever got a hold of it was October 25, 1974, the night I got saved. I've had that treasure in my hands ever since and I've had that treasure in my heart ever since and I've been able to tell people Down through these 40 plus years almost 50 years This October 25. I will have been saved for 49 years Almost half a century and I've been able to tell people it's an eternal treasure Oh, but listen, that's not the only eternal treasure we have We also have not just the gospel for sinners, but we have the doctrines of godliness for the saints. Look, if you will, at verse five, for we preach not ourselves, but notice, but Christ Jesus. The Lord. He's not only the savior of sinners. He's the Lord of the saints. Listen, I don't preach lordship salvation. I don't preach that you have to quit smoking to get saved. You have to quit fornicating to get saved. I don't preach that you have to quit drinking to get saved. You have to get clean on drugs to get saved. I don't preach that Jesus saves sinners. Jesus saves people who are dead in trespasses and sins. He gives them life. He regenerates them. And the Spirit of God comes in to live in them and to give them a spiritual life that they never had before. Walking corpses, physically operating, mentally operating, socially operating, but spiritually dead can be born again by the power of the Spirit of God. And that can happen when you're 12, it can happen when you're 44, it can happen when you're 76. Recently in a meeting we had a lady 90 years old, trust Jesus Christ as her Savior, 90 years of age. She had been coming to that church for years. The pastor had been witnessing to her. Her son who brings her to church had been witnessing to her. And she'd resisted and resisted and resisted a woman Catholic who was absolutely set in her traditions. We preached and we went from the auditorium to the fellowship hall and right there standing as people are bustling around filling their plates and the preacher and that son cornered her and led her to Christ right there. Glory to God. But you know what? There's more to the Christian life than just being saved. There's a whole lot more to the Christian life than just being saved. There is a thing called growing. There is a thing called the fullness of the spirit. There's a thing called abiding in Christ. There's the thing called the spirit filled life. There's and all of these wonderful things are available to us. And just like salvation is available to the sinner, but not automatic. So it is that the filling of the spirit and the abiding in Christ life, and the victorious life, the triumphant life, all of these are available, but they are not automatic to the saint. They must be laid hold of. Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and tells him, lay hold on eternal life. Timothy had been saved for 30 years when Paul wrote that to him. He wasn't telling Timothy to get saved. He was saying, Timothy, you're saved. Lay hold on that. Apprehend it. Possess your possessions. Learn, grow, know Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering. You will be shocked if you open your Bible and you say, Lord, show me all the passages where people wanted something more than just saying, I'm saved. It's full of it. You know what Peter said? He said, beside this giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge. and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and about, they make you that you will not be unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There are things to add into your life. And that is so much of the Bible. And these things that we can add. So look at verse 5 again. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Do you know it's a wonderful thing to open up the Scripture to a sinner who's not saved so that person can be saved? But you know what is equally wonderful? To open up the Scripture to a believer and show him something he never knew before and help him grow. John said it this way, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children Walk in truth. Now, we all know the difference between standing and walking. What am I doing right now? Yeah, this isn't walking, this is standing. Walking is what I do most of the time when I'm preaching. We know what the difference is. And what John is saying there is that there is a matter of making progress toward a destination. And when you make progress toward a destination and you're walking in truth, that's one of the greatest things that can happen. Stagnant, stale Christian living stinks. just a few miles from here, about an hour and a little bit, and we are kayakers. My wife and I have kayaks, and we tell people we go out on the lake to yak and kayak. And years ago, we did the Chain of Lakes in August, and that is a state park kind of south and a little bit west of us, down near Albion, Indiana. And it's called the Chain of Lakes because there are lakes connected by little channels. And there are nine of those lakes. And as you go from one lake to another to another, you come to the lake that nobody likes. And it is very appropriately named Mud Lake. And when we got to Mud Lake, we were very much wanting to turn around and go back. But that's lake number seven on nine lakes, and we wanted to get to the end, and so we went through. And on the top of Mud Lake, I'm not kidding you, four to six inches of this nasty, smelly sludge. Flies, every time you put your oar in, flies are buzzing up out of it and nastiness. You do this like four times and then you've got to take your oar and shake off all the glop and the slime. And we did this to get through this nasty lake. But let me tell you the worst part. You can't row a kayak and plug your nose at the same time. And we did not have any clothespins. It stunk. And you know why that lake stinks? Because the water flows in and out at such a slow pace, it's almost like a totally stagnant body of water. Stagnant Christianity is one of the reasons that many of our young people grow up and walk out of church and never come back. Because they haven't seen anything happen in the 18 years that they went to church. They haven't seen God do anything for mom. They haven't seen God do anything for dad. They haven't seen God do anything for the preacher. They haven't seen God do anything for the preacher's wife. Prayers don't get answered. Nothing changes. Nobody grows. The grouchy people are still grouchy. The gossip still gossip. The liars still lie. The cheaters still cheat. And our young children are not stupid, especially yours. I mean, your children are the smartest people in the world, right? One of our early pastors, way back in our early marriage, used to say, every crow thinks his are the blackest. There's some truth there. And then when you have grandchildren, it gets dangerous. I never have figured out why grandchildren are such a fantasy. But we walk around showing pictures of our grandkids. They don't ever show pictures of me. I'm a little offended. No, we have the opportunity through the power of the Holy Spirit. We have the opportunity through the individual sanctification that takes place in our lives. We have the privilege through the inner strength of God to share truth. If any man be overtaken into fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. Wouldn't it thrill your heart if you could sit down with another believer and say, now, listen, brother, I've been watching your life. And I can see something that's going to hurt you if you don't make a change. And wouldn't it be wonderful if instead of getting all ruffled and offended and irritated and getting all hurt and I'm leaving the church and can't believe what that man said to me, if you would say, well, help me then. Help me. We have this treasure. It's eternal treasure. Because you know, it's not just changing a man's destination from hell to heaven. It's changing a man from standing at the judgment seat of Christ and watching his life burn up and giving him an opportunity to lay up gold and silver and precious stone that will abide the fires of the judgment of believers. Because we're all going to stand one day at the judgment seat of Christ. But you know, and Pastor Ruck knows this, we don't like it when the liberals silence the conservatives. We don't like that. I'm a preacher. And I don't like that feeling that you can't preach on that subject here. Half the church will get offended. You know these churches, you can't mention certain things. Because you know what? We're stuck in our lifestyles and we don't want revival if it means we have to change the music we listen to. We don't want revival if it means changing from immodest clothing to modest clothing. We don't want revival if it means treating our wives like God said to treat them. We don't want revival if it means submitting to our husbands like God said to submit. Oh, we don't want revival if it means obeying our parents. Because everybody knows what rotten parents we have. We don't want revival if it means training our children, not just in the admonition, but also the nurture or not just the nurture, but also the admonition of the Lord. No, we want our lifestyles and we have our ideas and we don't want some preacher coming in who thinks he knows something telling us to change our lives. But I guarantee you, without change, there's no revival. Without change, there's no growth. Those little twins back there, you know what? I don't know what Pastor Ruck's plans are, and I don't know if the Lord's coming or not in the next couple of years, but just so, just suppose, just suppose, it's been four years since we were here, just suppose Pastor Ruck says, now, Brother Farnam, we want you to come back in four years. That's 2027. Those little girls are going to be seven years old then. You think they're going to look different than they do today? Are they still going to be this high with little cherub faces? No, they're going to be seven. They're going to be this high. And I'm going to walk in and I'm going to say, no way. And then we'll do what we always do. The kids just look. I remember when you were this big. And they're like, I was that big? I don't remember that. I wonder what children think sometimes when we talk to them that way. No, you know what? We have great treasure. Eternal treasure. And I can give that to you. And I can help you. Your pastor. You know what your pastor can help you? If you'll let him. If you'll let your pastor disciple you, he can disciple you. If you let him show you things out of the Bible that will help your marriage. If you'll let him show you things out of the Bible that will help you navigate the teenage years. Listen, being a teenager is not easy. It's not any easier to be one than it is to raise one. It's a hard decade of life. And I'm not going to go into all the biology and physiology of that, but anyone who knows what's going on in those teenage years understands what takes place physiologically, hormonally, emotionally, all that stuff that's going on with all these ridiculous, nonsensical wackos telling our kids things that are no more scientific than I am a lizard. It's just unbelievable what the world is telling our young people today. And on top of everything else that's going on in their bodies and in their emotions and in their minds and hearts, it is no wonder we have a generation of young people who are straying. We need to surround them in prayer. We have this treasure in earthen vessels that we can show people the truth and we can pray over them and enlist the help of God. I said eternal treasures in earthen vessels. We've talked about the eternal treasure, the truth of the gospel for sinners, the truths of the Bible for saints. Let's look at these earthen vessels. Verse 7 again, 2 Corinthians 4, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. It literally means clay pots. You know what that means? I'm a clay pot. That's what we are. Clay pots are not gold or silver or rubies or diamonds. They're pots. They're easily broken. They can be cracked. They're breakable. They're weak. They're vain. They're not decorative. They're not fancy. And you know what? We're not here to be decorative and fancy. We're here to be a vessel. A vessel contains something. And you know what we contain? The Holy Spirit of God. Eternal treasure in an earthen vessel. God dwelling with man. He sent the Lord into the world. And one of the names He gave His Son was Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. And Jesus came and He dwelt on earth with men and He fulfilled His ministry. And He said to His disciples in John 16, He said, it's expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come. But if I go away, I will send Him unto you." And when He has come in all that passage in John 16, and one of the things Jesus taught His disciples is that God would not just be with them, He would be in them. Talk about eternal treasure. in an earthen vessel. And I think it is high time that revival begins, and it begins when we get a proper estimation of God and a proper estimation of ourselves. And what I discover as I travel around the country is we tend to go to one extreme or the other. We tend to swallow this idea, well, bless God, I'm just a worthless, good-for-nothing sinner. No, that's not true. That's a lie from the pit of hell. It is an effort by the devil to destroy people by making them think they're worthless. I'm going to ask Pastor Rock a question. What did you pay for that suit, roughly? $150. Did you buy it or did somebody else buy it? You bought it. That works. He bought it. So when you saw that suit on the rack, you imagined it on your body and said, I think that'll fit. That'll look good. You tried it on. You liked it. And you bought it. What that means is you are not only capable of buying it, you were willing to buy it. Correct? Would you have bought it for $500? He wouldn't have bought it for $500. Would you have been capable of that? Probably not. If you had been capable, would you have? Sure. Would you have bought it for $1,000 if you could? Probably not. You see, there reaches a point where we're capable but not willing. And you know where capability and willingness part ways? That's the point where the value is. I know somebody named Jesus Christ who was capable of buying a sinner out of the slave market. but He was also willing. And it wasn't just $500 or $1,000. It was His blood. And that is your value in the eyes of God. That is your value in the eyes of the Son of God. That fact alone will take care of all your self-esteem problems. Because self-esteem is a crock of garbage that psychologists are making out to be the cause of all our problems. And you know what? People that don't know Jesus Christ fall into those pitfalls. And a lot of people that do know Him have fallen into those pitfalls. If you just get a hold of one thing, Jesus was not only capable, He was willing. And it wasn't just $500. It was his life. What a wonderful thing. Because at that moment, what was I worth to the world? What would I have been worth to myself? You know, suicide is on the rise and it is higher among young people than it's ever been in the history of the United States. Happy people don't commit suicide. Did you get that? People who commit suicide have many, many problems of instability and grief, but down deep inside, somebody has convinced them the world will be better off without you. Jesus was not convinced of that when He died on the cross for you. when He willingly and capably paid the price for your sin. He was not convinced that the world would be better off without you. There ought to be an amen on that. Yeah. The other extreme is people who have this rather inflated view of themselves. And they just kind of have this idea that they are all that and a bag of chips. And this church is really blessed to have me. Or my wife better know what she got in this bargain. My husband, I sure hope he appreciates me. You understand what I'm saying? Both of those extremes are wrong. What we do need to understand is that we are clay pots. And man in his best state, the psalmist says, is altogether vanity. We are at best broken vessels. At best. And we need to understand that God knew that, and He understood that. And scarcely for a righteous man will one die, but for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The word commendeth there, in Romans 5.8, He commendeth His love. It means exhibited. He put His love on exhibit. You want an exhibit of the love of God? It is the cross. It is Jesus Christ hanging there willingly, capably paying the price of your sin because He loved us. Not because we were so wonderful. My value tonight is in Jesus Christ. It is not in me. I am a broken vessel. A clay pot. That's all I am in myself. I may not be broken the way you are. And you may not be broken the way I am. But everyone in this room is a broken vessel. Injustices have broken us. Perhaps abuses have broken us. Perhaps tragedy has broken some of us. Perhaps a calamity in life. Perhaps an upbringing that was full of twisted and strange ideas has broken you. Perhaps a sibling has broken you. Everybody's broken. But we still have eternal treasure even though we're a clay pot. And that brings me to the third point tonight. And that is the excellent power. Why does God put an eternal treasure in a clay pot? Well, the verse tells us. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. As it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Jeremiah chapter 9, the prophet Jeremiah gives us some phenomenal words and I'll read them to you if you want to look there. Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24. Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise men glory in his wisdom, Neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things do I delight, saith the Lord. The book of 1 Corinthians, we're in 2 Corinthians, the book of 1 Corinthians tells us in chapter 1, you know your calling. You see your calling, brethren. 1 Corinthians 1.26. How that not many wise men after the flesh, not many noble, or excuse me, mighty, not many noble are called, but God have chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are. Notice that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. If you get something out of a message tonight, or last night, or tomorrow night, glory to God. If you are encouraged, if you are helped, then glory to God. And you may walk up to my table and say, I got some help tonight. I got encouraged tonight. I received some correction tonight. I found out something that I ought to be doing that I'm not doing. Or I found out something I am doing that I shouldn't be doing. I learned something tonight. And I want to thank you for that. Glory to God. Because I'm just a clay pot. I'm just a farm boy. And you know what? I didn't marry some famous girl. She was the captain of her volleyball team in a high school, about 800 students. And they took the state championship when she was the captain. I can understand that, because she's athletic. I'm not. I'm not a very coordinated person. I tell people I have the athletic coordination of a pregnant cow. And that's about the truth of it. I'm very happy that I've been able to get up and down off this platform without falling. That really helps. No, you see, God has given us resurrection power. We're here in 2 Corinthians. Look at chapter 13. I love this verse. 2 Corinthians 13.4. 2 Corinthians 13.4. And I know we're coming down to the end of time here. I just want to take a moment and look at this with you tonight. 2 Corinthians 13.4, for though He was crucified through weakness, this is the Lord Jesus Christ, Though He was crucified through weakness. A weakness that Jesus willingly allowed Himself to endure. Though He was crucified through weakness, notice, yet He liveth by the power of God. How is He resurrected? How is He seated? How is He living? How is He interceding at the right hand? By the power of God. Notice the second part of the verse. For we also are weak in Him. But we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you. In other words, what Paul is saying is that we have this eternal treasure in these earthen vessels so that right now, right now today, in our present lives, we can help other people by the power of God toward you. And that's as true for you as it is for me. That is as true for the layman as it is for the preacher. That is as true for the laywoman as it is for the preacher's wife. That is as true for the person that just got saved as it is for the person who's been saved for 20 years. I like the story of the woman of Samaria. She's also called the woman at the well. She's also called the woman of Sychar. I like her story, and I'm going to tell you why. Because she never went to a soul-winning seminar, but she won half the village to Jesus Christ. I'm not against soul-winning seminars. I've been to scores of them. But you don't have to be at a soul-winning seminar to tell somebody what God has done for you. In fact, sometimes soul-winning seminars will train you to stick by a portion of Bible verses so closely that you'll forget that you even have a testimony. And we all have one. And God has done great things for us whereof we are glad. And that is one of the most powerful things that you can communicate to anybody. You know what your testimony really is? It's three things. What you were before you were saved. Get into the details. Do not glorify sin. Don't give press time to the devil. Don't magnify the flesh. Just say, you know what? Before I was saved, my life was empty. I was engaged in many sins and God. And that's where you begin telling what God is. You tell what you were before you were saved. You tell what God did for you and you tell what God has done for you since you were saved. That's how you tell your testimony. And that brings the glory to God. And you know what? We live, even though we're weak, even though we're clay pots, we live with Him by the power of God toward other people. And God has given us this treasure, the Spirit of God, the Word of God, the message of God, the truths of God, the gospel of God. And we put them into clay pots. So we don't get the credit. He does. It is good to give honor to whom honor is due. Tribute to whom tribute. Custom to whom custom. It is good to recognize your mother on Mother's Day. It is good to recognize your father on Father's Day. It is good to honor your parents. In fact, it's the first commandment with promise. It is good for you as parents to show respect and deference to your children. It is good for a husband to treat his wife with respect, and a man who doesn't isn't worth his salt. It is good for a woman to treat her husband with respect, and a woman who doesn't isn't worth her salt. And I'm not speaking of grossly abusive marriages when I make those statements. I'm talking about the marriage covenant. Yes, we ought to respect people. We ought to show that. But don't take God's glory. because he tells us in the prophet Isaiah's writings, my glory will I not give to another. I said early on in these meetings, God didn't create us to handle fame. You know what else he didn't create us to handle? Too much compliment. Here's what Jesus said, woe unto you when all men speak well of you. You know what I need every once in a while? Volunteer tonight if you think I need it. Every once in a while I need a good criticism. Thank God for people that are not ashamed to just say, you know, have you thought about the way this came across? Have you ever thought about this? Have you ever thought about that? You know what? I preach all over the country. I can't know every person in every audience. I can use help. You know who my greatest helper is? It's my wife. I bring her to church. I say, honey, you need to come tonight. It's a new message. I need your input. She doesn't write them, but she can help me because she's a totally different soul than I am. And she can understand the way a message comes across. And I'm like, seriously? I would never have thought that. Now, that doesn't mean that I get sliced and diced. She doesn't do that. But she's very good at helping me to come across better. And that's a good thing. It doesn't mean she writes the message or rewrites the message. It means she helps me understand people from a different point of view, because I don't understand anyone except from my point of view. And I'm a man. We're not multi thinkers, multitaskers. We're just like lasers, you know, that's all we see. Men and women are quite different. Amen. Listen, the excellency of the power is of God. And I want you to know tonight that this power is available. You can have the power of the Holy Spirit in your life if you ask for it. Jesus said these words, Luke 11, 13, If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? That's not the giving of the Spirit when you're saved. In your salvation prayer, you don't say, and Lord, please give the Holy Spirit to me. No, He does that automatically when you're saved. What does it mean to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? It means to give Him in fullness. Do you know that if you will get on your knees and honestly ask and beg for the power of the Holy Spirit, He'll hear you? And He will fill you up to the level of your consecration. He gave not His Spirit by measure to Jesus Christ because Jesus was perfect. If you are 10% consecrated to the Lord, don't expect 90% filling. God's looking for people where he can put his treasure in its fullness. If you want to live a worldly life and not be affected by the things of God, then you will have a small measure of his power. And when you're witnessing to lost people, they won't get saved very often because you don't have much power. And people you love will die and go to hell because you're not willing to consecrate your life so the Holy Spirit can fill you. If you want to be a carnal believer like the Corinthians were in 1 Corinthians, don't expect a whole lot of the filling. It's not going to come. And part of revival is for a person to say, but Lord, I want Your power. And I don't want to tie your hands. I don't want to hobble your feet. I don't want to bind your hands so that you can't fill me. So here I am tonight. And you've got more of me than you've ever had before. Because God is using you all He can, but not all He could. Right? God is using you all that He can. but not all that He could. I believe there are people who could do far more for the Lord if they get on their knees and let God change them. Change the way you talk because the way you talk is part of your witness. Change the way you act because the way you act is part of your witness. Change the way you deal with the members of your own family, because that is part of your witness. Change your attitudes toward the truth. This isn't just an old fashioned book of rules to make your life unhappy. That's what the devil told Eve. God hemmed you in, he doesn't want you to be happy. God knows that In the day you eat of that tree, you'll be wise. You'll be like God. You'll know good and evil. Well, yeah. And the devil's been telling people that for 6,000 years. Oh, look at you, you poor sheltered little child. You don't know anything about sin. Oh, let me tell you about sin. It's fun. God is keeping you from having a fun life. What a liar. What a liar. Ask the person that's gasping for air at 43, dying of lung cancer, if smoking was worth it. Ask them. Huh? I don't know. Maybe that's a problem with somebody here. It's a killer problem. I've buried a lot of people in my ministry. Over half of them died of cancer. way before their time. What a tragedy. Men who never got to walk their daughters down the aisle. Moms who never got to see their children graduate from high school. Cancer's a killer, folks. And it's largely preventable. I didn't say 100%. It's largely preventable. And a whole lot of other problems are largely preventable. And that's some of that eternal treasure. Let's stand with our heads bowed tonight.