Can we hear me? Is that good? Do I need to speak louder? Okay, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, thank you for gathering us together tonight. Thank you for this faithful congregation on a Tuesday evening that we devote our time to come hear your word when there's so many other things that we could do. And I know that everybody here, there is no place where they would rather be. Lord, let your word go forth, correct us, convict us, encourage us. In Jesus I pray, amen. Okay, again, here we are again. We'll get used to this eventually. So tonight we're going to look at a few examples that stuck out to me in the word about these vessels, these earthen vessels that we dwell in. These jars, these vessels, either empty or full. And how these vessels are broken by God to show what's inside. Some for honor, some for dishonor. And just because you're saved, don't think you're not a vessel that can be used for dishonor. Just like vessels that are made from clay pots, that the Bible references a lot, it's made by hands. And in Genesis 2-7, the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living being. And a great example of this is in Jeremiah chapter 18, verses one through four, where Jeremiah goes to the potter's house. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying arise and go down to the potter's house. And there I will cause you to hear my words. Even in this first line, we have the completed word of God. We don't have to go somewhere. Now we go to the word arise in the morning, go to the word and he will cause you to hear. There's no house to go to. We go to the word and we hear from God. This is the command and this is his promise with it. and I, God, will cause you to hear my words." Jeremiah goes on, then I went down to the potter's house and there he was making something at the wheel and the vessel that he had made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. So he made it again into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make. And right here, this is us, marred on the table by sin and death. This is how we started off. Eve was deceived and Adam sinned. And we've been marred. We've been marred by sin and death, dishonored, corruptible, unclean. And it goes on to verse 5, it says, Can God not do with us as this potter did? The potter had a marred pot and he reformed it as it seemed good to him. Has God done this with you? Are you still on the table marred by sin? The sin that has been forgotten and paid for by Christ? Or do you still sit in that table marred by the sin in your life, unconfessed, not brought to the light? Or is he forming you into the image of his son? I love how Scott said it last week that God is not concerned with our comfort But he is concerned with conforming us into the image of his son We want comfort. I know I want comfort from the Lord But that's not that's not my concern God do with me as you will and Then in verse 11 the answer from God is I want to do this for you, so repent and turn from evil and do good. Make my ways your ways. And how do we make the Lord's ways our ways? By faith. Faith alone. Faith accounted as righteousness. Reading the word, believing the word, and when we do this, righteousness is ours. Being good doesn't attain to this righteousness, this godliness. But by having his righteousness accounted to us through faith is godliness. And great is this mystery. We know this verse very well in this church, I hope. This righteousness accounted through faith, this mystery. If it's nothing less than that to you, I don't know what it is, because it doesn't make sense to me that I believe God and I get the righteousness of God. I believe, I do the work of God by believing in the Son who the Father has sent. and without controversy, by common confession, all that understand this say the same exact thing, that this mystery is great and mysterious and wonderful. God, Jesus, was manifested in the flesh, Jesus was seen by angels, Jesus was preached among the Gentiles, Jesus was believed upon in the world, and Jesus was raised up in glory. This mystery is great. Because of what He did, we receive His righteousness. Nothing of ourself. And this faith, to make His way our way, comes from faith. And faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. And me and Ty were talking on Sunday, and something came out of my mouth, kind of shocked me and surprised me. You know, I think of the experiences I've had with God. I've had some amazing ones. Amazing experiences. I mean, everybody in this room knows what He did in my life with addiction. And as we were talking, I realized that that touch of God, what happened in my life did not give me faith. Did not increase my faith. How could it? I wasn't receiving the Word of God. God worked a miracle in me. But if I would have stopped and not seeked his word, that's where it would have ended. And I have no doubt that the people in this room that knew me then, your faith was increased. Luke chapter 17, verses five through 10, the disciples said, Lord Jesus, increase our faith. And the answer, the reply is, in my own words is, you know, there's a master and there's a servant. And the job of the servant was to go out into the field and plow the field. servant does that comes back in he says okay now you think it's time to eat no you're not time to eat yet the master still needs to eat and then after you have done what was done in the field and you have served the master then you can have a meal and then after all of that what you do is you consider yourself an unprofitable servant doing only the duty that was commanded of you and i know people in this room have done this. So what they witnessed in my life, what you guys have witnessed in my life, increased your faith. But for me, it couldn't have. Faith comes from hearing, hearing from the Word of God. Faith doesn't come from experience. I had an experience with God, but that would not have built my faith. My faith came from reading the Word, rereading the Word, believing the Word. And it says, without faith is it impossible to please Him. Hebrews 11, 6. For he who comes to God must believe that He... He is. And He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. My faith didn't do nothing. God did a work in me so that I would have an opportunity to then begin to have faith. But without the Word, that's it. That's all that happened to me. And I've seen this happen. I've seen addicts have opportunity and get sober. Not of themselves. They had an opportunity and they didn't seek the Lord with all their heart. And they go right back to where they were. We have to be so careful these experiences that we have from God not to put so much value on the experience to forget what it's for. He does that for us so that we will seek Him. God can do a thousand miracles in your life. It ain't going to change your faith until you seek Him through His Word. Because faith comes from hearing, hearing from the Word of God. Okay, back to our vessels, sorry about that. We're gonna go to Romans 9, 20 through 23. But indeed, O man, O vessel, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have the power over the clay? From the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor. What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory? So in these verses we have, vessels of honor, vessels of dishonor, and vessels of mercy. So first we're going to look at a beautiful vessel of mercy. And it's the woman of Bethany. I didn't even look in to try to figure out who it was, if it was what Mary it was. I'm confident her name's Mary. It's in the New Testament. But in Mark chapter 14 verses 3 through 9, Such a powerful testimony. A testimony so powerful that what she did would be told for memorial for all time. She made the Bible. It's a big deal. These people we read about. There's a lot of people on earth at that time. We got so many examples and there's a reason for it. For the ones of honor and dishonor. They're all in there. And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as Jesus sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on his head. I want to, before I continue reading, this is important, she broke the flask. She didn't open a bottle. I don't know what flasks looked like that had spikenard in them then. I don't know if you broke them all, but I know this woman broke it. Never to be used again the same. But there were some who were indignant among themselves and said, why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. And they criticized her sharply. I always want to notice, too, in this reading that we always look at Judas. Judas is the crook. Judas did this. But it says they. We always have to remember that evil company corrupts good habits. It wasn't just Judas pointing a finger here. Others got sucked into this mentality of evil. But Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish, you may do good to them. But me you do not always have. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her. I like in the account of Luke too, it really, really paints this picture. And she stood at his feet, being Jesus. behind him weeping, and she began to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head. And she kissed his feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. So what did this woman do that would be told as a memorial to her? Did she know that Jesus was going to the cross and would be resurrected? Did she really have the understanding that the disciples that follow him didn't at this time? What she did was she came with her brokenness. And I love how the flask in this picture was broken. She did what she could. What can we do for the Lord? What can we repay the Lord that that would be suffice for what he's done for us? Absolutely nothing. We can't do anything. And what she did is she brought her brokenness to the Lord. And this this account will be told as a memorial to the rest of the world forever until time ceases. Did she do some mighty work in the Lord? Did she tell the Lord what she was going to do? No, she came broken, knowing she needed a Savior. Nah, I can relate. And she's the same woman who loved Jesus so much because she sinned so much. And she knew that her sins were forgiven. And once our vessel, once we truly, truly come to the Lord broken, knowing that we have nothing for Him, nothing to offer, these vessels, that flask of oil, will never be used the same. Cannot and will not be used in the world the same way. the things of this world will go strangely dim. And for no other purpose does this person now live for their Lord and Savior. Because they know what was happening to them without them. Yeah, I can really relate to this woman, Bethany, and God still has his hammer. My vessel goes right back and put that together and he gets to crack me again and crack me again and crack me again. But every time I'm cracked, now I have something to offer to God. My brokenness. A broken spirit you will not despise, Lord. So now we have a so that there's a beautiful vessel of mercy the mercy given to this woman What she did what she did for me. She didn't do nothing. She brought her brokenness to him So now we have vessels of honor I love this the imagery in second Kings chapter 4 verses 1 through 7 I starts off with saying, a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha saying, your servant, my husband, is dead. And you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves. So Elisha said to her, what shall I do for you? Tell me what you have in your house. And she said, your maid servant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil. Then he said, go borrow vessels from everywhere, get all the jars you can, collect as many as you can from all your neighbors, empty vessels, do not just gather a few. And when you come in, you shall shut the door behind you, you and your sons, then pour it into all those vessels and set aside the full ones. So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured it out. Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her sons, bring me another vessel. And he said to her, there is not another vessel, so the oil seized. Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, go sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest. Vessels of honor here, and look in our lives as these jars The Spirit will fill us to our capacity. And without the Word of God, our capacity is limited. We can only collect so many jars while here on earth. And like the jars in this account, the more word we have in us, the more we can be filled. And as they ran out of jars, the oil ceased. So we stunt our spiritual growth when we stop taking in the Word, when we don't make it a priority in our lives. And I am fully convinced that if God didn't have them shut the doors and they can keep bringing jars into this account non-stop from everywhere, the oil would have never ceased. It wouldn't have stopped. It only stopped when they ran out of jars. With no more jars to fill, there's nothing else to hold the oil. And whenever we read the word, we are forming this jar of faith for God to fill with His unlimited supply of the Holy Spirit. The jars are the words of God in our souls, and it is our responsibility to never stop collecting them. And the doors being shut in this picture, this is eternity. This is when we go to face our judge. The doors are shut. There's no more jars that can come in. And this is what our eternal life will look like. How many jars have you collected on this side of eternity? Because when you go to the Lord, you're taking with you what you have with them here to spend eternity with them. If you don't get it here, you're not going to get it there. We are rewarded in heaven by the faith we have, by the word of God in our souls. And we start our lives as these empty vessels on that table, marred by sin and death. The first jar that is filled is the last, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. We start at the end. What is first is last and what is last is first. When we become saved, we receive eternal salvation. And the next is up to all of us. Open your Word and let's see how the Holy Spirit is going to fill that jar. So then He can crack it open into this world. The Word of God isn't to be kept inside, it's to be cracked open from the shells that we have, these vessels. And like I said, these vessels of ours will be broken, whether for honor or dishonor. Second Corinthians four five through seven these earthen vessels we have our lives For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord This is Paul talking to the Corinthians and ourselves your bond servants for Jesus's sake For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness Remember that we're gonna look at that in with Gideon and the Midianites who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Lord, who is a man that you consider him? that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. Do you think you can walk in Christ and be used by Christ and not be broken? Not have this vessel shattered? Because if it's not shattered, then it's you. And Gideon and the Midiites. Anybody ever see the 300 movie? Great, great action movie. Here's the real 300. Gideon and the Midiites. God chose 300 people to destroy an army. I think it's labeled like the sand of the seashore. And the reason He did this, chose 300 men, is so that no one can say that they did it. Just like Paul in the Corinthians, we have this treasure in earthen vessels that need to be shattered. That the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. So Judges 7, 16 through 21. Here's Gideon and the Midianites. I love that too. It's 300 and we made this movie. 300 and action. Man, the 300 were the heroes. God's the hero here. He chose 300. If you don't want to go to war, go home. If you drank water the wrong way, go home. I need 300 people just to prove my point that you're not going to do this. It's going to be me, the Lord. Then he divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man's hand with empty pitchers and torches inside the pitchers. You see where I'm going with this? You got empty pitchers with light inside of them. And he said to them, look at me and do likewise. Watch and when I come to the edge of the camp, you shall do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp and say, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. So Gideon and a hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch. It's nighttime, it's dark. just as they had posted the watch, and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers. They held the torches in their left hand and the trumpets in their right hand for blowing. And they cried, the Lord of God and of Gideon, the sword. And every man stood in his place all around the camp and the whole army ran and cried and fled. 300 men, broken vessels with light on the inside of them. What does it say in Corinthians? For it is God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness. We are dark, empty vessels. This is how we start. Then we receive the Spirit and there is a light inside of us. But this vessel needs to be broken to be used by God. John 1, 4, and 5, and in him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. What happened with Gideon and his army of the sand of the seashore? They saw the light, it confused them, and they killed each other, and they fled. And we know in Matthew, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket. but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5. Do we know that when we're broken by the Lord that the light shines out? We don't realize what people see in us. Like Scott said, I can see Jesus in people in this room, people I'm close with. You don't see it. The lights in the ceiling don't know what they're doing. We just walk in and enjoy the light. You don't think about that there's a light on. Just the light's on. It's always on. And when you turn it off and we put that shell of our humanity over that light, it gets dark. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is inside of you? this light from God whom you have from God and you are not your own for you have been bought for a price therefore therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's first Corinthians 619 now then I'm just on this whole vessels cake to and I thought about the woman at the well she said sir you have nothing to draw with you don't have a vessel to draw with how you gonna get the water out of there when she was talking to Jesus Where do you get that living water? And I think about myself and situations in my life and people I care about and love. And I say, Lord, where? You don't have a vessel. How are you possibly going to reach them? And he says, do not I have my spirit in you, Greg? Do you think this is for somebody else? You know you've been called for this. and I have an ever-constant temptation not to deal with these things. I think of Paul in 1st Corinthians that had the sentence of death inside of him. Paul's been broken by God and look what God did with him. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raised the dead. You see the theme? Don't trust, we can't trust in ourselves. These earthen vessels without the Holy Spirit in us is useless, is futile. But in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us, in whom we trust that he will still deliver us. And deliver us from what? He's delivered us from the evil of the world. It's this internal evil and this sin that this light needs to reveal inside of me through the word. It still dwells in me. I do the things I don't want to do. The things I want to do, I don't do. There's a lot of work to do, a lot of hammering and jar-breaking in my life to still do. And Paul, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering. His flask was broken. He would only be poured out, never to store the Word of God for anything. And the psalmist said 119 for it is good for me that I have been afflicted That I may learn your statutes. It is good that I have been broken. It is good that you break me Lord It's hard to do that sometimes There's a lot of things. I don't want to deal with And the psalmist continues on your hands have made and fashioned me I Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. Those who fear you will be glad when they see me because I have hoped in your word, Lord. I know, oh Lord, that your judgments are right and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. We want to run from affliction. This is God's faithfulness to me so that I don't become prideful. That I don't think that I have anything to offer Him. I want to be like the woman at Bethany. Have a memorial written for eternity about my life because I brought my brokenness to Him. Nothing else. And I think of Peter. Oh, me and Peter. In Luke 22, verses 31 through 34, how Peter had to be broken. It's very insightful, too. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon. I love that devil name. You guys know I do. It just really gets your attention. The Lord says, Greg, Greg. That second one's got to catch you. Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail and when you have returned to me strengthen your brethren But he said to him Lord. I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death Then Jesus said I tell you Peter Peter Peter you got it wrong the rooster shall crow this day before you will deny three times that you know me and Never saw what Peter said as evil. Thought, you know, he was trying his best for the Lord. That's what he thought he could do. This was an evil thing for Peter to say. I'm surprised the response wasn't, get behind me Satan. Because in Ecclesiastes 5 verses 1 through 2, walk prudently when you go to the house of the Lord and draw near rather to hear than to sacrifice the offerings of fools. For they do not know that they do evil." What did Peter do? Was it just him trying his best? Is our trying our best not evil in the sight of God? God, I'm going to do this for you. How do you think God receives that? Do you think he's proud of you? What you're going to do for him? Just waiting for you to accomplish it? Great is that mystery. And do not be rash with your mouth. And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. Peter was a champion at this. I'm really good at it too. For God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. Just never saw it. This was an evil thing. Peter said I almost want to give him credit for like I'm like Peter I'm bold and I'll speak up I'm a fool when I do that And Peter needed this corrected. I mean, oh, how did he get corrected? And I also want to mention to notice that Satan came to Jesus came to God and asked for Peter to sift him like wheat What was Jesus's response? I rebuke you, Satan. He said, go ahead, because I have prayed for my servant Peter, and when he is restored in his faith, he will strengthen his brethren. How often I want to pray these things out of my life. And Peter, believing in himself, told Jesus he would go to prison and death with him. This was Peter's strength speaking up, which is his weakness. Peter's pride in himself and his own faith within himself. And Jesus needed to fix this in Peter. So he allowed and predicted Peter's denial to show Peter how weak he was apart from Christ. Peter needed to be humble to the point of tears. And after these lessons, Peter learned that it was not what he would do for Jesus, but what Jesus would do for him. Be crucified, buried, and resurrected, justified in the Spirit for Peter and for all of us. It's not important, dare I say evil, when we tell the Lord what we will do for him. It's what Christ has done for us. And this is that magnificent mystery. What he did for us is given and accounted to us as righteousness. Our righteousness is filthy rags. Peter is saying that I will die and go to jail for you, Lord. Filthy rags. In Psalms 51, The psalmist says, make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you Lord have broken may rejoice. Talk about a potter doing what he has to do for what he sees fit to be good in our lives. For you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise." He can't do anything or not do anything to please God. It's not what He desires. It's not what He has delight in. God, I won't do that anymore. He doesn't desire that. He doesn't desire sacrifice. God, I will do this. Doesn't desire that, has no delight in me telling him that. The only delight he has is in what his son did for me. And I pray with the psalmist, let me hear your promises, Lord, your truths that will bring joy and gladness to my broken bones, the bones that you have broken. My brokenness I can sacrifice to you. And I can't do anything to receive this free gift of mercy and grace because you don't desire my works. You desire for me to bring my brokenness and my willingness to commit it to you, Lord. You continue to break my bones, my spirit and my heart so that I may have opportunity to give them to you. And in Luke 22, in Jesus in the garden, we know this prayer, Father, if it is of your will, take this cuff from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And the truth is, there's a semicolon in my version. I put a period. Lord, take this cuff from me, period. So often I don't finish that prayer. I know it's revealed to me in my prayer life. Take this from me, Lord. This hurts. Oswald Chambers, I read him every day. I'm going to change the word agony to brokenness. He says, to those who have had no brokenness, Jesus says, I have nothing for you. Stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with. He knows there are forces he cannot touch and I will do everything for him if he will let me. Only let a man grant he needs it and I will do it for him. Then we have vessels for dishonor. Jeremiah 19, so I didn't really study too deeply into Jeremiah 18 and 19, but there's a city that's very evil, believes some Jews live there. And this is why Jeremiah was sent to the potter's house, to take this pot as a prophecy to this city. And in chapter 19 verses 10 and 11, This is what happens at eternity if you don't have the Holy Spirit. You'll never be made whole again. But with the Holy Spirit inside of us, the same breaking happens with a different result. Psalms 2 9 you shall break them with a rod of iron you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel I found something interesting too in Leviticus 11 33 even the law talks about these unclean vessels where an unclean carcass of an animal fell into a pot into a vessel that vessel was to be shattered And just like in the garden, when Eve was deceived and Adam sinned, sin and death fell into every one of our vessels. And God's command was it to be shattered. But thanks be to Christ, our Savior, who came and died for our sins and took that shattering on the cross so that we may be made clean, washed, regenerated and renewed in the Spirit. And that once we are broken by the Lord, we have this light to shine out into this world of darkness. I did something today that I've never done before. We're getting close to closing here. Matthew 23 verses 25-28. You know, woe to you scribes, you Pharisees. I put my name in here. I always look at the Pharisees as them. It hurt. It really did. So I'll do it. I'll do it here. Woe to you, Greg, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish But inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgement. Blind Pharisees, blind Greg, First clean the inside of the cup and dish, That the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees! Greg, you hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautifully outward. but inside are full of dead man's bones and all uncleanliness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Now I know I have the Holy Spirit in me. When I did that earlier today and it just hit me again, I don't even know what's yet to be revealed. But it cut. It hurt me. I'm waiting to see what needs shattered in my life next. Because God will reveal it. And we'll end with 1 Corinthians 15 verses 42 through 49. I think it really just puts all these vessels together with Christ very clearly. It's talking about the resurrection of the dead. A body is sown in corruption as we were, but it is raised in incorruption as he was. It is sown in dishonor as we are, and it is raised in glory as he was. It is sown in weakness and it is raised in power. It is sown in a natural body. It is sown in a vessel of clay made by God. But it is raised in a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first but the natural. Like I said, we started out marred on that table. And as believers, God formed us into His image of His Son. And afterwards, the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven. And as was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust. And as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. Let us pray. Lord, thank you for your word. I love your word, Lord. Let us all love your word because it is you. I want to hear from God, read his word. Lord just bless our fellowship tonight. Thank you for everybody that came out Thank you for my friend Chris that made a trip and surprised me Yeah, bless her ride home and bless the offering in Jesus I pray amen