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Let's pray.
Our gracious, loving God and our Father, we just turn to Thee this morning and we ask that Thou wouldst lead by the Holy Spirit and give us a portion this morning as we open Thy precious word. We thank Thee for the resource it is to us to give us Thy mind and Thy will, as we were reminded last night, and so we just ask for Thy help. As we open Thy precious words. We pray that Thou wouldst make it good to each heart and soul in this room.
We pray that Thou is leading guide us and help us this hour. We ask this in the worthy and precious name of Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, Amen.
So we started in Second Corinthians chapter 4, and we'll start at verse 6. Read the chapter.
Second, successful to Corinthians.
4th chapter.
Verse 6.
We're gone. We commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in US.
Life in you we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written. I believe, and therefore have I spoken. We also believe, and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might be the Thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
For which 'cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
For those of us that were not clear on Saturday morning, could.
Well, I tried to do my best here, but the chapter that we have before us, we mentioned that it's really in its context, Christ flowing out through our lives to this world. And there's a number of verses I guess we can look at within this chapter to that bear that out we we had in verse 2.
The manifestation of the truth.
And commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
So that is certainly something that is outward and towards others.
00:05:00
We also had in, you know, verses 3 and 4, the glorious gospel of Christ shining unto others.
And we have in verse 5 preaching the Lord Jesus.
You, you know, we have in verse 10, I'm just moving ahead here a little bit. It's bearing about in the body, the dying of Jesus that his life might be manifest in our body. So the context is really Christ flowing out.
And you know, each one of us as Christians have that responsibility that the Lord Jesus is manifested in our life and the chapter.
Touches on various things that might hinder that within our lives and what we can do to make sure that.
This testimony, this this outflow of Christ to others isn't hindered. And so we made a few comments on on you know, verse one, for example, we, you know, we we need to have courage to go ahead but.
We also need to, you know, we need to be willing to go forward in our testimony and in our service.
Without, you know, letting the things around us discourage us from doing so. And then, you know, there's in verses two and three or, or, you know, there's things that may manifest themselves in our lives.
Be it a, you know, hidden things or more open things that could.
Could hinder that outflow as well. So you know, we commented on the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness or handling the word of God in a in a wrong way.
If we do that, then you know, the truth is not going to be manifested and we're not going to commend ourselves to anybody's conscience and and this outflow of Christ will be hindered in that respect. And you know, verse 5:00, we, we touched on the fact that, you know, our service ought not to be so not to be focused on ourselves and, and and self absorbed. You know, we could use the platform of our ministry.
As Christians to promote ourselves and and put ourselves forward and that taints this glorious gospel that we've been given to share and the testimony of Christ in our life. So the apostle said you we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake. So that brings us up to verse 6 where we where we started today. So again it's.
The the context of the chapter, just to repeat it is, is the outflow of Christ and it's those things that we that we ought to not allow within our lives that that would would hinder that outflow.
Before we jump into verse six, I would just like to touch back on verse five that talks a little bit more about it. In verse seven it says for we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake. And then at the end of verse seven it says that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. You know, this is the exact opposite of what the world looks for and what the world does.
And I was thinking about an example that we have in scripture of one who bore this out and.
John the Baptist wore this out in his life. Everything that he did was purpose for shining the light on Christ.
In John chapter one.
He over and over says that people came to him. He had the opportunity to exalt himself. He could have made much of himself.
But he always deflected that to the Lord, and that was his, that was his ministry. And they asked him, are you the Christ? And said, I'm not and so.
Everything that he did focused on the Lord Jesus and he's given a tremendous commendation.
I couldn't find the verse this morning but it says John did no miracle.
But everything that he spent of this man was true. That's a remarkable commendation.
There was nothing about John you didn't do any miracles. He didn't draw attention to himself, but his testimony for Christ was found to be true and that is a wonderful accommodation and if you turn to Matthew chapter chapter 5. I'm going to share something that those that.
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Are in the West Richland Assembly. You've already heard me say because I mentioned this before, but.
I I my whole life have always wondered what it meant when.
Let me let me just read a couple of verses here and Matthew chapter 5 and then I'll I'll continue.
Matthew chapter 5 and verse 13. Here are the salt of the earth. But if the salt of lost his Savior, wherewith shall it be salted? Is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and be trodden under the foot of men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a Candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. So I don't know if there are any of you young people have struggled with this as as you thought of this, but my whole life I've always wondered what's it mean to be ye are the salt of the earth?
You know, salt is a preservative. There's, there's a lot of different aspects. It's a cleansing agent. There's, there's probably multiple applications that can be made on this. But a little while ago I was meditating on this. The Lord gave me this, these verses and I from my own heart, it really answered a question to me, what's it mean? You're the fault of the earth and it has to do with what we're talking about right now.
In verse five and the end of verse 7 where?
We have a ministry that is to reflect Christ and deflect that which has to do with ourselves. And So what it speaks of here in Matthew chapter 5 is you're the salt of the earth. And then a little bit farther down it says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
So I mean, I give an example and I'll just use the same example again when you're eating corn on the cob.
Where I am from, you butter the corn on the cob and then you salt the corn on the cob. And if you eat the corn.
It's delicious and you might make the comment, Man, this corn is delicious.
But you don't say this salt is delicious.
The salt adds savor or flavor to the corn. It enhances the flavor of the corn, But the salt in and of itself has no real part. You see what I'm saying? And so the focus for us as Christians, as we walk in this world and by our good works, the Father is glorified. But the tendency, and especially in this world, is to take the focus and put it on our stuff. And that extracts or detracts from.
The value of the testimony because God is not glorified.
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Somebody help us with verse six maybe?
I've noticed that a new translation it it says that.
The God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shine in our hearts and says for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So I think that.
Again, there's a there's a shining forth of this wonderful knowledge, but it's an interesting verse and perhaps somebody can elaborate on that.
The very first chapter of the scriptures in Genesis chapter one find the creation account laid out for us. We find out in verse three it says God said let me light there was light.
And we know it would be the creation account.
But the sun itself wasn't created says until verse 14. Let there be lights in the front of the heaven to divide the day from the 9th. So there's three days that went by before we see the lights in the heavens.
And so we have here, no doubt, a picture of.
With God in his light shining forth on the creation before the physical sun that we see out there even was in existence.
And so it is in a future day we're going to see the glory of Christ shine forth on a new creation. So here though in our in our verse, this is a new creation, new life is being imparted upon man. That's nice to think about that the physical light of the glory of Christ to see him light up the creation in Genesis one. And then we can also turn to the last chapters of Revelation to see that the Lamb is the light thereof beautiful. Consider that for a moment.
That the sun itself that we see out there in the sky right now is not going to be in a common position.
In a future day. But Apostle Paul on that road to Damascus was struck down by light, and that's a phenomenal thing to consider is to see a man gets struck down by light.
You struck down by light, and he saw things that could not be uttered, but it's beautiful to see. That meant life was imparted. Paul was struck down and turned around. And it could be said that every one of us has to have that light shining in our hearts. At some point. You have to see the light shine into your heart. If it's younger, the gospel is clearly given last night. If you're younger and the light hasn't shined into your heart.
It's time to let the light shine in and we will find I enjoy what we said last night. There's good news, but we start with the bad news 1St and we find out that we are dark. We have dark parts and the light has to shine in. So consider the fact that the Christ is light. Consider the fact that He shined on this creation before the sun was created in Genesis 1. Consider the fact that He will be the glory of of a shining upon new heaven and new earth.
But consider the fact that you can shine in your heart, and Paul got to experience that. And I think it'd be the prayer of everyone here that every person in this room would have the light of Christ shining earth.
That's good, Mark. What what we speak up here is a relationship with our Creator and our Redeemer. It's not some creed. We don't have a bunch. You know, you walk in there and there's all these rules and everything for camp. We don't have a set of dos and don'ts. Do do this and do this and do this and don't do this and don't do this and don't do this. It's a transformation. It's a new life that we've been given. We were complete darkness.
There is nothing good in US. And it says here He commanded the light to shine out of darkness. He has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And the very life of Christ lives inside our bodies. And as our dear brother spoke earlier.
00:20:16
Our our objective, our job is to make less of ourselves and to make more of Christ, to make more and more and more of Him shine through our lives.
Like to connect this with the 1St chapter of the Gospel of John? Let's just turn over there real briefly.
Because in our verse, if you read it in the new translation, it says because it is the God who spoke.
That out of darkness, light should shine.
Who has shown in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God? Just want to read these verses in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. God spoke.
And our brother Mark was just mentioning that in the beginning.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shined shineth in darkness, and the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.
We were reminded on Saturday.
Of new birth.
And that that is a work, a sovereign work of, of God. There was nothing in us that would receive that light.
We did not comprehend it when God shown the light of the Lord Jesus Christ into this world. This world did not receive that.
But God and His sovereignty has.
You might say opened up our hearts to receive that. It's his work and he is the one that has shined into our hearts with the gospel, the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. It's so beautiful.
In verse nine it says that was the true light which lighted every man that cometh into the world. So not only is the Lord Jesus the life and the light, that He's the true light.
That's the interesting thing about light.
Light is from science. We know that it's energy.
And light dispels darkness. She turned a light switch on, and all of a sudden, instantaneously to our eyes, the darkness flees. It has to flee, it goes away.
Darkness is the absence of light.
And so that's our natural condition, Your heart and my heart, apart from the Lord Jesus is darkness, is utter darkness.
But God, you might say to use the illustration very poorly and this is a poor illustration, but he's the one that that has turned on the light so that we can see the beauty and the glory of the Lord Jesus.
And we need to see that. It's so absolutely important that we see that.
So that's what God did in sovereignty.
Then in the context of the chapter, in the second-half of the verses, the goal for that is that that very light would shine forth unhindered through the servant so that the world utters might come into the knowledge, a glorious knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I, I heard that when you started this chapter referred to the last verses of the previous chapter. And the only way for that light to shine forth through us is that we are occupied.
Looking at the Lord Jesus Christ and Moses is a beautiful example of that in the Old Testament after, yes, spent time in the presence of the Lord and he came down, his face showed. And so the more we are occupied with the Lord, the less there will be of self and the more that light will shine through us out to this Dark World. And I think that's the whole kind of purpose of these first verses in this chapter that Paul wanted to impress, that he saw to seek his life in a way that there was nothing of himself.
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That would hinder the message that he had to flow forth through the world and so he can say if our gospel be here, it is hid to death, but our long he's saying is nothing that we did or said or the way that we behave hindered that life to flow forth. If it didn't didn't find entrance into the hearts of others is because Satan had darkened their hearts. And so for us, each one of us should be a testimony to the world.
And our desire should be too, is that there's less and less of us visible, so more and more of the light can shine out or flow through us. And I think in the next verses we have that our earthen vessels, through the things that the Lord allows us to pass through, are slowly broken down and the cracks become bigger and bigger, and the light shows out more and more. So it's for the shining 4th of that light. It's through the Lord shone in our hearts and we're so thankful for it. That's a sovereign act.
But the more we are broken now, the less there is of us.
The more the world will see of that light. And so we are.
You know, in Ephesians 4 it speaks of joints of supply. It's a little bit different thought there. It's the same way the light shouldn't stop if there's a lot of us S, If we're occupied with S, we hinder the light from flowing forward. The less of self, the more delight will be able to flow out and the more purely the light will be able to flow forth.
Well, we could speak a lot about the light, couldn't we? But as our brothers just brought out, it's the responsibility that we've been given. And we have that at the end of Mark when he tells us to go out into the world and preach the gospel. So he's taken us in first Peter chapter 2 out of darkness and brought us into his marvelous light. And as Steven pointed out in John chapter one, that he is the true light and the light of the world. And if we look further in John.
I think chapter 8.
John chapter 8 he says in verse 12 That I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He tells us a little bit further over in.
John, Chapter 12.
Verse 35 When Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while as the light with you, walk, while you have the light, less darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth while you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light.
And so that's our responsibility, isn't it?
I think it's in Second Peter.
Somebody mentioned this just in comment, but I think the verse is worth reading to a second Peter chapter one and verse 19.
Part way and it says, whereunto he do well, that you take heed is unto a light that shineth in a dark place, and so we might have that true light within us.
But I believe we're to reflect that true light. It's his light. We're to reflect that to the world around us as his disciples. And so Paul, as Mark mentioned that light that there's so many marks. I'm sorry.
As Mark mentioned, Paul.
And how that light came upon him there, and how he was transformed, we might say.
He had a real desire in these first couple of verses to go out and to preach the gospel. And I think it was in the previous chapter, sorry. Now it's First Corinthians chapter 10.
And I don't want to belabor the thought, but it's important to point this out.
In verse 16 he says, For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory. Nothing to glory, Her necessity is laid upon me, Yeah, woe is unto me if I preach not the God.
And so he wanted to reflect that light to all. And he goes on to say, For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me, what is my reward then verily, that when I preach the gospel I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I have used not my power in the gospel. For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more.
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Wasn't that the Lord Jesus desire that we would go out and gain, the more that that light would shine out of us so clearly, so bright, that all those in the world might see something and that they might have a desire to have it?
Spoke about this a little bit on Saturday and.
Again, not to belabor the point, but we each have a responsibility as Christians to be ambassadors for Christ. They have that in the next chapter in chapter 5 at the end, and it says in verse 20. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you for you isn't even in there in the in the original. Now we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech by us. We pray in Christ's dead be reconciled to God.
And you know, again, we may not feel like they have the gift of evangelism, but we have the responsibility to do the work of an evangelist.
Knowing thou, therefore, the terror of the Lord would persuade men and.
And think of it this way. What if what if you were given from the President of the United States a a, a mission to travel on a railroad?
And you're going to ride on this railroad and the president of the United States is going to meet you in Denver, Co. And you're starting in the East Coast, and you're headed West. And the president of the United States tells you, aren't you, to get off at the depot in Denver. I'm going to meet you there, but make sure you get off. And I want you to tell the people on the train to get off at Denver as well.
Because just West of Denver, there's a huge trestle that's gone.
And the trains going off the track and to the bottom of the Canyon. What if you got on that train and you headed West and you never said a word? Anyone else on that train?
But Denver came around and you stepped off the train and the train loaded back up and headed West and drove off into that trestle.
That's pretty sewn. And as we walk through this world, we have a treasure that tells us here in our earthen vessels, this world is a world full of hopelessness.
I am not kidding you. I come into contact with people every day and my work that have gone to the extremes of hopelessness and they are desperate for somebody to give them something that they can actually find hope in. And we have that treasure and I have that treasure. We have the opportunity to tell others that the word you described and the light that he would impart for each one of us.
And I know it's difficult. I'm not any different than anybody else here.
Struggle I have I I told the story in Kirkland of a of a co-worker that needed the gospel badly and I was intimidated by him because he was not a nice man and.
And I never gave. I never stepped up because I lacked courage. I never stepped up and told him.
The gospel and I'm 40 years old on 4th of July came back from the fire and died of a heart attack. Fire station.
Really smoke my heart. I had opportunity to tell him, I have no doubt.
And I had an opportunity to tell them the doc never did.
And that bears heavily upon.
And just want to emphasize the importance that each one of us out, you know, maybe we don't, maybe we don't have the courage to necessarily preach the gospel in an elephant way like Alejandro did last night. And you know what, just beside him, John 316 to somebody, everybody here from the youngest kid to the oldest knows John 316. And there's power in that verse. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
And.
A lot of it goes back to what Mark was just mentioning, too. If I'm on that train, maybe I tell everybody about the fact that the trust was out, but I do it in a really disparaging way, and I'm fighting with people on the train and I'm doing things that diminish my testimony. Nobody's going to believe me. Nobody's going to get off the train because of my actions. And so it's important. Maybe we don't have the courage to necessarily go out and physically preach the gospel, but they can walk in a way.
00:35:07
To reflect the light of religion of Christ in my life.
And that's a good start.
We have so many kids here and one thing I like about the camp is that we sometimes.
And I think this is important. Who here has flashlights here?
Any flashlights here at the camp?
All right, I don't see something. The half, half crowd. What's the rest of the folks doing without flashlights? Well, we have flashlights here. And last night, you know, Steve and I were walking around the camp here and Uncle Steve told me he's got a brighter flashlight than mine. Well, he said his has got a lot of candle power and he was bright enough stuff. What? We're talking about lights here. So why do we need a flashlight? So we can see where we're going. We were actually peering off in the bushes last night.
What kind of batteries do you have in your flashlights? You tell me. Someone tell me what battery they have in the flashlight. What do you have?
AAA's there we go. Anybody else have another battery in their flashlight?
AAA's I, I think I have some C's. Anybody else have any other candidate? Rechargeables maybe? The point of it is, is there's different batteries in these flashlights. Now let's get back to Uncle Steve's flashlight. If, how can my flashlight I thought was pretty powerful, but his was even more brighter. How can I, how can he, what could he do to his flashlight to make mine a brighter flashlight than his? In other words, his would be dimmer. How could, how could we get Uncle Steve's flashlight? It's so bright.
To shine less than mine.
Yeah.
There's a way to get a flashlight to shine not as bright, yeah.
Did, yeah. OK. So yeah, you could have batteries that are going dead, right. You could get a less less light. Yep, that would be I didn't think of that too. That's a good one. Your batteries are starting to dim. Yes.
Cover it with something that's good. Now you're on the right. You're on the same track. What do you have?
What if he dropped it in a mud puddle, right? And, and, and it dries, right? The mud is on the glass and he shines his out and I shine mine out and I've got a lesser flashlight, but it's brighter because he's got mud on his screen, right? And so it is you and I, we can have batteries, we can have the light shine for things. This is what Mark was saying earlier is the light shines out. But sometimes we can have mud spots on our flashlight and it takes away from the brightness.
And so it's a responsibility. We get this in Apostle Paul on his first letter to the Corinthians. We never really read it and break your bread, but you can read it for yourself and 1St kisses 11 There is a process, and John brings it up in his first epistle, is there's a process of cleaning our lenses before the Lord, right? So the light shines forth.
Maybe that, you know, elaborate a little bit what you're saying. Mark I That's how I took it. I think it's a beautiful thing. There's the light that shines into us, and then there's a light that shines out from us.
I was thinking of conversation I had.
Our brother and I can't pronounce his name right now because I'm trying to our Mexican brother that had gospel last night and we were Speaking of this young girl that spoke to her grandparent.
And she said, you know, probably just like some of you children here, that she was afraid that her Grammy would go and die and not go to heaven. And so she wanted to know if she was saved.
And it didn't take anything special.
No special particular words for that little girl to do that.
And we often are afraid to do these things as older ones. We're afraid to speak to ones. And I was thinking of these verses in First Corinthians chapter 2, and it speaks of the power here.
Paul says in verse one. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with Excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, but I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ.
There's the gospel and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your face should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
00:40:13
And I know how difficult it is.
To not only stand before your peers in a room like this and speak the gospel, but to try to pass a gospel tractor, speak the ones on the street, and you consider what it might be for a light to shine forth. And maybe you and I don't necessarily think we see it, but I'll mention John Kemp for a moment, and many of you may know him. I know Josh and I know him quite well. And I can remember in the little town of Truro that I live in, I don't know how many, what the population is there. I'll say 50,000.
But there's a drugstore downtown. And one day I get out of my car and I was walking around the corner and, and I could hear this man. I couldn't see him, but I could hear this man say, oh, dear ones, take one of these. The Lord loves you. Take one of these. He wants to save you today. And I could hear this voice. And that's a light shining for it. That's a light shining for me. And I walked around the corner and I had no idea that Mister Kemp was going to be in Truro, NS.
Here he was standing at the door of this pharmacy passing out tracks and talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, that one that he knew of and that one that he wanted to pass the message on. And I just think that we might be in fear and trembling and might not have the words, but we can pass out that little paper. And you know, he encourages us because there was a person there that very day as I stood and watched Mr. Kent, I didn't really participate on the shame to say this lady took one and she said, oh.
I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, so he encourages us while we're in the midst of our trembling in fear, someone comes along and they encourage us to go a little bit further and to pass out another 50 or so or five or six. And, and so, you know, I don't want to keep talking about these things, but one day my wife and daughter and I went into the mall and we had these little calendars and.
And I was quite shy to pass these out, but we came to a counter to pay for some merchandise. And I told the lady I was so thankful for her help. And I gave her a calendar. And that was the very thing she said, oh, I know this story. And it's so encouraging, dear ones. And, and to think that the Lord gives us that power and that strength and that courage from others that believe in the Lord so that we might shine forth and others might be saved.
Sometimes I think we're reticent because we don't think we have something to share.
We don't think our story is as cool as John Kemps or or Jim Highlands or Mother Teresa or somebody. It says we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Each one of us has the spirit of Christ inside of us at the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
And there's a couple things here. One of the things is that we need to be willing to share.
We don't want to defile people if you know, if there's like really negative events, negative details, but we need to be willing to share what's happened to us to let to let God's power be revealed in our weakness. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. And our brother last night was a beautiful example of that to just share. This is what the Lord is doing in my life.
And to be willing to be honest and not have a facade, because when we aren't honest, it's a turn off to people. It's it's fake. But when we're willing to let.
To be honest and say this is what I've struggled with, this is what the Lord's brought me through, this is where I am, there's another thing here.
We went to a conference earlier this year and there was a gentleman there who was a believer and he was talking about he's a comedian, believe it or not, And he was talking about every single one of us has trials in our lives that are setbacks.
Every single one of us in this room.
Maybe, maybe the little kids, the young kids don't feel like that, but as you get older, every single one of us has setbacks. That's something that's common to every single human being. And he was telling how a joke is you, you make a setup, you you tell a story and then you change directions and that's the punchline. And dear beloved brothers and sisters are setbacks are our setup, the trials and the challenges that we pass through. That's what the Lord is going to use to show his glory.
00:45:02
You don't have to be Brother Kemp. You don't have to be Mother Teresa. All you have to do is be you.
And just be honest, this is what I struggled with, This is where I am, this is what the Lord has done for me. And there isn't a person in here that can't share that. And I know the trepidation that people are talking about, but when we just share what the Lord has done for us.
When we share what the Lord's done for us, it's so good. And then lastly, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Those trials in our lives, they can either make us better or they can make us bitter.
And in Hebrews 12 it talks about.
Let's just read it in Hebrews 12. I think it's in verse 5.
It says this, my son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked of him. And we, we can go through a trial and it can make us stronger. You see people and they go through trials and you just be like, man, I can't even believe I would never want that. And Tim was sharing with me this morning about Brother Mike O'Brien and he wouldn't trade where he is today for where he was. Can you imagine? This is a man in a wheelchair. He can't even get up. He can't even stand up.
And he wouldn't trade that.
Do you see the power of Christ pouring through his frail body? We watched a video about this man. He was injured just like days before. He was going to be a millionaire and he was going to get to play in the NFL. He longed to play in the NFL his whole life, and he gets in this accident and his arm is completely useless.
And he said, Lord, couldn't you have waited, like until I got into the NFL and people asked him, his name's Inky. Inky, don't you wish this wouldn't have happened to you? And he said, no, I'm so glad this happened. He was. He's not fainting under that trial. He's letting the light of the glory of Christ shine through his frailty. And every single one of us has that opportunity. It's not about us, it's about him.
I'd like to.
Read some verses in the Old Testament. We have the word treasure here and I've been enjoying the thought of treasure the last.
Month or so. And so I'd like to turn just to expound a little bit on what Matt said, want to turn back to Isaiah.
Chapter 54 and we're going to we're going to talk a little bit about treasure.
I have a question for the kids. Thanks, Mark for the reminder to take it down to the kids level.
Have any of you kids ever seen?
Real treasure.
Let's treasure.
Somebody give me a definition for treasure.
Danny, let's treasure. What rubies Very good, very, very good. So treasure is generally defined, especially in the word of God, as something that is very precious. And most of us are probably acquainted with at least one type of precious stone, maybe more than one type of precious stone. So I know my wife has a.
Diamond on her finger and I probably I can guess that most of the most of the ladies that are married in this room probably have a precious stone.
That means a whole lot to them and I want to read some verses that are really kind of interesting.
In Isaiah chapter 54, I'm going to read from verse 11.
Oh, thou afflicted.
Tossed with The Tempest and not comforted.
That's pretty tough.
Oh, thou afflicted and tossed with The Tempest, and not comforted. Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors.
Who's this I?
This is God speaking. This is the Lord Jesus. He says that he is going to lay thy stones with fair colors, and I will lay thy foundations with sapphires. I will make thy windows of agates and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. These are all precious stones. I want to read another verse over in Malachi Malachi chapter 3.
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We know this verse pretty well. In fact, we have a children's hymn that is written.
About this verse.
I'm going to read it in in the King James, and then I want to read it in.
The New Translation, Verse 16. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened and heard it in a book of remembrance was written before him For them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name. They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. I really appreciate the way this is rendered in the New Translation. And they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure.
A special treasure.
Saith the Jehovah posts in the day that I prepare, and I will spare them, as a man's spirit, his own Son that serveth him.
This treasure, if I understand it right in our chapter and we could turn over to Matthew chapter 13, and we find there that the Kingdom of heaven is likened into a treasure that is hid in a field. And a man when he found it, I found it, he hide it, and for the joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
It's interesting this treasure is speaking about your life in my life as hidden Christ.
And back in Isaiah, it says that he is going to.
I'm going to read that again.
It says, Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors. He's the one that is creating that color. And interestingly enough, color is what makes a precious stone precious.
And that color comes from the trials that are in our lives Uncle Matt was just talking about.
Trials in our lives.
I believe that.
There are beauties, there are glories that are are being formed in your life and mine as we go through trials. It's the pressure, it's the heat of the trial that creates the color in the stones and they all these stones, it's very interesting all this precious stones that are that we read of in the word of God.
Are transparent stones. The light shines through the stone.
And like Uncle Tim was mentioning, just to connect these thoughts together, it's like that salt that that adds to the flavor of something that that it's applied to. And what the Lord wants in our lives, in your life and my life as we pass through these trials is he wants there to be glory for himself. That's what he is working in your life and my life. The power is of God.
We don't have to worry about that. To go back to Mark's illustration of the flashlight, he's the source of the power. The power is infinite.
But we can have a dirty lens and we if there's if there's things in our lives that are not right and we've read about them at the beginning of this chapter that hinders the light from shining through us so that others can see the glory of God.
Dear young person, dear child, God wants to shine through you.
And reveal himself to others.
And so that's why I read these verses in Malachi. It says that they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord was listening.
The Lord was listening and he values it. He calls it his peculiar treasure, His most valued treasure. That's amazing.
That you and I can be valued by God because we speak to each other.
About his blessed son.
We have that opportunity. It doesn't matter how old we are.
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Well, you can be five years old.
And speak to each other about the glories of Christ, about the love of the Lord Jesus.
And the Lord values that so much, he said he wrote it down in a book.
And He's going to make us His treasure. There's a coming day. And we could, we won't take the time, but we could turn over to Revelation and we could find that these precious stones make up the foundation of a coming city. And they're going to shine. We're going to shine for the glory of God.
Blessing of others. He wants to use your life and he wants to use my life. And it can be something very, very small. We were talking about it earlier on Friday. That ministry is simply service.
Whether it be one of the young kids that was walking around with a cart this morning picking up trays, take him over and put him in the window. That's a service for the Lord and he values it, but he values it even more.
When we open our mouths and we speak about the Lord Jesus to each other, I want to encourage you to do that.
It's a peculiar treasure. It's a special treasure to the Lord.
I always enjoy that person. I'm not sure what time the meeting goes still but.
1030 Enjoy the verse in Proverbs 17 and eight that speaks of the precious stone. But a gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it, and whithersoever attorney that prospereth. And so those in line with brother Steve is saying, and he's made us precious stone, that whatever way we turn, we should shine forth that glory for him, shouldn't we? And I think in John 17, it speaks really clearly of that glory and and what we're to do with it.
Maybe if we just read that verse 2 verses there in John 17 verse 22 and the glory which thou gave us me I have given them that you and I.
That they may be one, even as we are one, I and them and thou and me. That they may be made perfect in one.
Now here's our responsibility, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me.
I've read those verses so many times.
And leftover that responsibility. I didn't realize that that's what that that little line means in that verse.
And that the world may know that thou hast sent me, how is the world going to know?
The only way the world can know is that you and I are shining forth that glory to all those around. And it is difficult, as our brother has pointed out. It's tough. The next few verses in our chapter, which we didn't get very far, but says we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, and so on. And it just reminds me of the verse that I love so much in Romans chapter 8. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy.
Be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in.
And so to be that peculiar treasure, as their brother has pointed out, reminds me of the verse in First Peter Two that says that we're a peculiar people. The margin says purchased, purchase people purchase treasure redeemed by the blood of Christ, that we might shine forth that glory while we're here.
When people have something that is valuable, a treasure, they usually put it in a very safe place and.
In a safe box, or if a museum has a piece of art that's very valuable, it will put it on display, but they might put bullet through grass around it. We have this treasure, the knowledge of the glory of God.
What did God do? He put it in earth and fastest. That's us. We are the earth in the past. The treasure is the knowledge of. Isn't it like God to do that? That he would use us to shine forth that treasure into this world?
You know, an earthen vessel is not worth very much. It's fragile, it can break easily. And in this case that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Why did he put that treasure, the knowledge of the glory of God in an earth investment. So the attention would not be on the vest, but the attention would be on the tread. And so these next verses, as a brother referred to, what is the whole point of the Lord allowing us to go to these things is that our earthen vessels might break.
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We are allowed to go by the perfect wisdom of God.
Through circumstances in our life, and it will be different for each one of us, but each circumstance has, Matt said if it makes us better, if we take it from the Lord, we will realize, we will feel our own weakness, we will feel that we are earthen vessels.
And will break us down. They're a perfect servant of the Lord. The light would go in and it would shine forth without any filter. The same strength as it comes in, it would shine forth. Lord Jesus was that John the Baptist could say that he had to become glass. The Lord had to become more. And that's the whole point. If we want to be servants of the Lord here, we need to realize our own weakness, our own frailty. But we need to realize too that the Lord has entrusted us with this treasure.
And if the world is going to see anything of the light of God, it's going to come through these earthen vessels.
That the more they're broken down, the less we rely on ourselves, and as the younger we are, the harder that is because we are strong.
We don't wake up with aches and pains. We haven't gone through all those things yet that have humbled us.
You know, we have bodies of humiliation, and so here at the beginning of this, we have a treasure, but it's in an earthen vest. Let's not make more of that earthen vessel than what it is. It's made to be broken so that the light can shine through.
Matt mentioned it already, but on that same subject again.
Michael Brian would be very upset if I made a lot of Michael Bryan, but I will just say that I have never seen a vessel of such power as to these things that Michael Bryan, He is a vessel that as far as the earthen structure is concerned, it is completely gone, is relegated to a wheelchair where he has.
The capacity to maybe move his head a little bit. But if you go and talk to him, you take the time to go talk to him, to encourage him, He will spend so much time talking to you about how good God is. Yeah, that his face will glow and he can't even breathe because he's struggling so hard to get enough air. And to tell you more about it. Right. That's what we're talking about. Exactly where the earthen vessel is. Not even.
Not even an aspect involved in it anymore. But it's all Christ. And I'm telling you what, there is power in that testimony. If somebody from off the street came in and saw that man speak of Christ, I don't know how they could even not take it. Just like a tremendous amount of weight because there's nothing of Viking. It's all crazy. It's incredible.
He's got his forecast to make us to bring us to that point.
In our lives, he do things in our lives so we can get to that point. I was telling brother Matt yesterday that Job needed to come to the point where he says even if God kills me, even his his lightning, I will trust him.
Even if he takes my life, I will trust him and.
He's working in our lives to bring us to to that point.
Brother Joshua wasn't saying that we should don't use ever our gifts to bring attention to ourselves. And Paul says what you have that is not given unto you. And if he's given unto you, why you boast about it? You are nothing. What we have is giving to us. The ability to walk, to breathe, to work, to speak is given to us.
And every day when we wake up, we should say thank you Lord, for a new day, that you letting me wake up and speak to you.
So it's striking to see how our bodies are spoken of in this chapter into the 5th chapter, and we've been speaking about how frail we are.
In these natural bodies and really have nothing to boast in or of save our Lord Jesus Christ and.
You know, to think that we might put ourselves in a place or position that.
Would receive any glory is unthinkable really, when you think about what has been done in us by God and his sovereign mercy and grace. You know when we think about that.
01:05:08
It it, it ought to humble us to the dust and you think here in this chapter, I appreciate it how it has been brought out by others, but I highlighted them in this chapter.
About how attention is given to the glory of God in Christ and to the frailty of man. And you notice in verse seven, we've already touched on it. Bodies are spoken of as earthen vessels. And verse 10 it's it's spoken of as a body. Verse 11, it's mortal flesh. Verse 16, it's the outward man. And into chapter 5, verse one, we have an earthly house and a Tabernacle.
All various ways to reference our body, but what is in those phrases that gives any thought that there is anything of strength or glory or power in us, in our natural condition, in this natural body of ours? Nothing. It all suggests nothingness and frailty. And so it's good that we've appreciated the comments that my brethren have been, have, have, have made already.
To to demonstrate, to to explain to us that brother we're nothing and he is everything.
Unfortunately, our time is up.
Father, we're thankful that we have the scriptures to turn to.
We're thankful that weekend.
In a little bit more of the Lord.
You see that we have a role.
But it's to the glory of the Lord.
So we just pray that this might be manifest in our life, each in our capacity.
Thanks again that we have opportunity to sit down over the scriptures and liberty to enjoy what we trust. Father that you have for us here today. We give thanks in Jesus worthy and precious name, Amen.