Children—J. Bilisoly
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Maybe we could start by singing a little bit together, so if anyone has a number they'd like to sing, there's some that you're maybe a little more familiar with on the Backpage, but you can choose anything. So who has one?
Good.
Home.
Nsnoise.
Nsnoise.
Nsnoise.
OK.
Uh-huh. I don't have any. Uh.
OK, you know, boys and girls, there's still a number of seats up here, so we're gonna sing another song. And why we are. If you'd like to slip up while we're singing, just feel free to do that. OK, Let's see. We had a Was it a girl? I think it was OK.
#44 was given out.
All right, let's see #44.
Oh OK, easy life.
No problem, but I have anything else.
To do with you, can you please do you want me to do you want?
Me to come back to your house and I'll let you know. But you don't want to let me know.
No, no, I can give you a number, so I'll give you the call regardless of.
Anything else?
00:05:38
Nsnoise.
OK, children, I think we're going to stop right now and, and maybe if we have time at the end of our little message, we'll sing another one if we have time. But for now, let's first of all ask the Lord Jesus to help us in a little time together. All right, let's.
Bow our heads and if we need to fold our hands, let's do that too. Our blessed God and our Father, we just thank you for this privilege to be together and to open up Thy word again. We think of these dear children that are here, many of them in the front rows. We just pray for them. Our Father, we just think of each one of them being a jewel to Thee on those without us, love, and we thank you for this.
We just pray that each one of them might have, in simple faith, put their trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation. We thank Thee, bless the Lord, for coming down from those heights of glory, coming into this world, and being willing to go all the way down to Calvary's cross, and there allow thyself to be hung upon a tree. But we just thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for such love. And we thank Thee for giving up thy life, and we thank Thee too for Thy precious blood that was shed.
That is the means of our salvation.
The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. We thank you for the wonderful revelation. We thank you for thy precious word that we're going to speak of and speak from, and we just ask for thy help now in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Now you know, boys and girls, I had a Sunday school paper from last week that has a memory burst in it and I forgot to bring it down. So I can't remember what that verse was. But if anyone would like to say that verse or another verse would like to hear. We'll see if we have time to get to everyone. You want to stand up and I'll hold this for you.
I have a horrible pet and I have a Merry Christmas and my feet upon a rock and establish my goings. So it's 41St 2:00.
Thank you.
How about anyone else in this room? OK, you want to stand up?
God has made the world.
Umm, God has took our sins away.
OK. Thank you.
Let's see, who else?
Alright. I'll look over there again in a minute. Put somebody over here, OK.
He brought me up also out of a mire, a horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and established my feet upon a rock and establishment. Some 40 verse 2.
OK. Anybody else?
00:10:06
He brought me up out of a horrible pit.
Add Miley Clay and set my feet upon a rock.
So so umm.
40 and Rose.
Killed.
OK, couple over here.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only God and Son, that whosoever believes in him, to not taste, but have every laughing life. 26 suit me.
He brought me up also out of the horrible pit, out of the Maori claims that my feet upon a rock and established my goings.
40 verse 2.
He also brought me out of.
Uh-huh.
He brought me up also out of a horrible pit and the muddy clay.
And set my feet upon a rock.
So.
40 verse 2.
He brought me a parcel out of a horrible pit out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock.
So 40.
There's two good. Thank you.
He brought me a bottle out of a horrible pit out of the Miley Clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my going.
Umm 41St, 2:00.
Anybody else OK?
He brought me out.
Also out of the horrible, a full out of a horrible pit.
Riley.
And set my feet upon a rock.
From 40.
Verse 2. Pretty good, everyone.
Well, thank you. OK, you wanna say one now, alright.
She brought me up also out of a horrible pit and out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock.
40 verse two. OK, well, thank you children very much. That was very nice to hear from you.
OK, uh, boys and girls, I, I had a little message on my heart and I want to use a little illustration to help us to understand. But first of all, I'm gonna read a couple of verses in the word of God in the book of Timothy, second Timothy chapter 2. These are well known verses. You'll recognize them as I'm reading them and I'm gonna start at verse 19. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.
And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor, and some to dishonor, If a man therefore perched himself from these, and Mr. Darby adds in separating from them.
He shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified in me for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Well, you know, I was thinking a little bit about.
Just the fact that you and I, each one of us is a vessel. And I'd like to think of all of us, all you boys and girls, as being like these cups. And I have some cups in this.
This, uh, sack here. I'm gonna just set these out.
Now I've got these cups here, boys and girls, and I'd like them to represent each one of you, all of us. We're just like a vessel. And, uh, like it says there in the, in the verses that we read and you know, umm, a, a cup can be a very useful thing, can't it? And it's something that I dare say that each one of us uses it every day. At some point during the day, we use the cup and there's very.
00:15:25
Many useful purposes for a cup. Well, you know, I was thinking this morning as I was thinking of each of us being like a cup, like a vessel, that maybe we could learn a few lessons that would be a help to us. You know, we've been speaking a lot yesterday and about the word of God and about the one that it speaks of, who's the Lord Jesus. And he's the one that we want to speak of this morning again. But God would have us to learn lessons from the things that we do even in our lives.
There's many, many important lessons that we can learn from everyday things that we do in our lives. And so I brought these cups here this morning thinking about all of us being like a cup now, you know?
There's something very, very important, boys and girls, that we want to convey to you this morning and that is that, you know, you all look pretty much like this. You look like these cups look about the same, don't they? You can't see in really any.
Difference between these cups, if you were to look at them, look them over a little bit, they look pretty much the same. And you know, you boys and girls look very nice this morning and you, you all look like very nice little boys and girls. But I don't know what's on the inside. I can't see what's on the inside. The Lord can see what's on the inside. You know what it said in the these verses that we read that the Lord knows them that are his. And so right now in this world, we have over 7 billion people.
In this world, and God knows with each one of those what's on the inside. He knows if each one of he knows which one of those are his, which one of those have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, and which ones have not.
And so to you and I, they might look the same, but God looks at the heart, man look at looketh on the outward appearance that says in the Old Testament, God looks on the heart. So I've got these cups here and we're going to just see how useful these cups are. I've got one here I wanna demonstrate.
So this uh.
I had to get a little bucket here.
Got some water?
No.
Here's a cup here that looks.
Just like all you boys and girls, it looks the same as the others. I can't see inside your heart, but let's try something here.
We're going to pour a little water.
Now what is wrong with that cup?
The water just comes right out of it. You know why boys and girls take a look at that.
The cup has no bottom on it.
So you pour water into it and it's completely worthless.
It just goes right through it. You know what I thought about that? I thought about boys and girls that don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. You know, we talked yesterday about the word of God. It's like water. It's often mentioned in Scripture. It's it's a picture. Water is a picture to us of the word of God. And you know, you pour this water into this cup and it can't hold it. You know, that's how we are by nature. Boys and girls were like a cup that can't hold water.
You know man's natural heart cannot receive the word of God.
He can't receive it, he rejects it. And if it wasn't for the grace of God that saved us, that saved you, that saved me, we wouldn't receive God's word. It'd be like this water running through this cup. Now I have a question for you. What would you do with a cup like this? What do you think we should do with a cup like this?
Throw it away. You know, that's exactly what I thought. I thought, you know, a couple like this is worthless.
We can't use the cup like this. Let's just throw it away. And then I got to thinking.
00:20:04
Aren't you glad? Isn't it a mercy of God that God doesn't look at us that way? He doesn't say, you know that little boy, he won't receive my words, so I'm going to just push him away. I have no use for that boy. He can't be a vessel for me. That little girl, she won't believe the gospel. I don't have any use for her. No. Boys and girls, that is not the heart of our God. You know what he did? He saw us in our lost condition. He saw us like this cup.
That was not of any use and he performed a work in our heart.
And he performed, you know, he can do that, Kanti God is the only one that can perform a work to make something like this useful to him. You know, there's another verse I wanted to read. It's a very searching verse in the the Old Testament and it's in Jeremiah chapter 2. And it says there the Lord speaking here about his people, Israel, and he says, my people have committed 2 evils.
OK, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, living waters, and hewed them out. Cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. That's kind of like this cup that we had here. It couldn't hold any water. And that's what you and I are by nature, boys and girls. Now, a cistern is bigger than a cup. It might be a big vessel. It might be something that here it says Hume. So it's probably hewn out of the rock. It was carved out of the rock and they would store water in it.
And then they could use that water for other purposes. But if the cistern doesn't hold any water, it can't be very useful, can it? And if a cup doesn't hold water, it can't be very useful. We need a change, don't we? We need to be changed. And there's a verse in, uh, Second Corinthians chapter 5. We're going to look at that here.
And in Second Corinthians chapter 5 it says.
Get to it here. Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Really it should say if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. It is a new creation. It's just like God takes us the way we are and He makes us into something new. He fashions us into something new that He can use.
That's why I thought of this couple lesson that we can learn. You know, in our sins, we can't be a vessel for God. We have to come to him as a lost Sinner and accept his Son, the Lord Jesus, and as our Savior and be saved. And then God can use us. And you know, so I thought about God and his mercy, wanting to use us. And I thought about this new creation. You know, it's just like you would take this cup here without a bottom and God.
Makes a new creation.
You know, he it's, it's as if he provides a covering for us. Now we have a cup that I think we'll find can be useful.
Well, look at that.
Now we have a cup that can be a useful vessel.
And isn't that the mercy of God that he takes us, He sees us as something that we would say, well, let's just throw it away. But God takes us boys and girls, and he wants to make us useful to himself, to bring honor and glory to him. We're going to talk a little bit more about that. So I thought, how wonderful that here we are, each one of us. We, we were born in sin. We began as as this cup here that was not useful to God.
And God in his marvelous grace came in and he provided a remedy for us and he saved our souls and he can use us for his honor and glory. So that's one lesson that we can learn from these cups. Now we have another lesson too, that we want to hear, uh, to listen to. And that is I'm going to read a verse in Revelation chapter 3.
You know, I was thinking, uh, I don't know if you if they have to sell these anymore, but when I was little about your age.
I remember BTP used to sell these little collapsible cups and I thought those were so neat. I remember buying one and it had a little uh, it was about this big around and you could open it up and you could slide up up this cup and on the other, other piece of the, the cover, it had a little compartment. You could put some vitamins or pills in there. I thought that was so neat. So I had one of those little cups carried it around from time to time in my pocket. I don't know.
00:25:16
Uh, we'll have to ask, uh, Brother Don or someone if they still sell those. They have a little Bible verse on them. I thought they were so neat. Cups are so useful. Well, it says in Revelation chapter 3.
Umm, the Lord here says, behold, I stand at the door and.
Him knocking.
If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will Sup with him and he with me. Well boys and girls, we need to listen to the word of God. You know we much of our lives is concerned with listening, right? That's important. Dad, mom, say something to you. And if you didn't listen, you didn't get it. You may not do what they want you to do.
Umm, you go to school and you sit down in the classroom and the teacher is talking and giving instructions and you're not listening. You might not be able to do what you're supposed to do.
So how important it is that when God speaks, we listen and God has given us his word. And maybe you're too young to read, but like this morning, you can hear the word of God, You can listen. I hope you're listening. Umm, you know, we make a choice, don't we? We, we come and we, we either listen or we don't listen. Sometimes we get distracted, you know. Uh, I remember taking a class at work and it was called effective listening. This is many years ago and unfortunately I've forgotten much of what I, I learned.
At that class, but it has some very useful things in that class, effective listening. Well, you know, I thought about that a little bit and if you just take that word effective and you take out the two FS and you put in the letter L, you have elective listening.
Now, effective listening, you kids are, are young, some of you effective means to do something well, it works well. So if you do something well, you could, you might say you did it effectively, but elective means I'm going to choose or I'm not going to choose. I'm going to make a decision whether I'm going to listen or not. You came this morning to Sunday school and uh, you're sitting here and you can make a decision whether you're going to listen or not. I hope you're listening, you know?
Sometimes we listen like this and I thought of this cup here.
I have a cup here. It looks the same, doesn't it? That's the others. It even looks pretty similar on the inside. But let's try this cup and learn a lesson from this cup. This is often how we listen.
Now what's happening there?
It's going in here and it's coming out there, isn't it? If you ever listen that way.
It has a hole in it. Yeah. Did you ever hear anyone say you're not listening to me? What I'm saying to you is going in one ear and it's coming. What do we say coming out the other ear, Right. We listen that way, too, don't we? Sometimes we don't listen and retain what we're hearing. And boys and girls I know that come to a big conference, there's lots of distractions and it's hard to to listen all the time. We have lots of meetings.
But I hope that each one of you boys and girls can hear something that touches your heart during these three days. That's what my prayer is. And first and foremost, I'm hoping that if there's any one of you children that doesn't know the Lord is your Savior, I'm hoping that you will hear the word of God and that you will be saved. You'll hear words whereby you might be saved. That's the our prayer and our desire. But then even those of you that are saved, we're, we hope and we pray.
That you will hear something.
Well, we need to listen effectively, don't we? Not electively. And then, you know, I thought there's another lesson that we can learn from these cups. Umm, let's go to Hebrews chapter 4 and I'm going to read a verse there in verse 12. This is one that we often read for the word of God is quick.
And powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and Morrow, and as the deserter of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
00:30:07
Well, boys and girls, that is a searching verse, isn't it?
That is a really searching verse, to have the word of God as a word, search our thoughts and our intents, and I thought of that with these cups.
I thought, I have a cup here that you know, it looks very good, doesn't it? There's a cup that you can't see any holes in it. It looks just like all the other cups.
But let's test it. You know, the word of God is that which tests us. It's a discerner of our thoughts and intents. And maybe, maybe we're walking around and we, we look pretty good and we're the Lords, we're saved. We've accepted the Lord Jesus as our savior. But maybe we have a little thought in our heart that isn't right towards God. Maybe it's uh, thought about someone else, uh, one of your friends. Maybe you are thinking something not nice about them. Uh.
Or maybe it's something that you did and you have this nagging little. You know, we had yesterday about the word of God coming into our our ears and then into our minds, and then from our minds, through our conscience, from our conscience into our heart. And I'd like to add another one from our heart, hopefully into our feet and our hands and our lips that we might speak and his praises and sing his praises. We're going to be.
We sang a little before we started this meeting. We're gonna sing possibly at the end, and if not in the next meeting we're going to, I'm sure we're going to sing praise to the Lord. That's the work of the Spirit of God, using the word of God to fill our hearts with praise and worship. But if we have something in there that we haven't judged, it can spoil that and the praise isn't going to flow out. Yeah, we might mechanically open our mouth and sing the words, but He wants us to sing from our hearts. So here we have a cup that we're going to test with water.
You know, umm, I don't know, some of you I'm sure are, are very good at plumbing, but in this room, but I it's, it's probably the least, my least favorite job and working on things around the house because I'll tell you why. You can do it ever so carefully. You can get it all the the threads and screwed just nice and snug. Put the Teflon tape or whatever you're gonna use to help. You can get it all done. You turn the water pressure on.
And drip, drip, drip. That's so discouraging. I don't know about you, but I I find that very discouraging.
Water testing and that's what's hard about plumbing. I think it's, it's as soon as you turn that pressure on, umm, everything is under a test. Did you do it right or not? Well, in our Christian life, we need the word of God to test our hearts, our spirits. So I've got a cup here. Like I said, that looks good. What's happening there?
What's happening with this cup? I thought it was good.
Drip, drip, drip. It's just a tiny little you, you couldn't even see this little, this little hole in this cup probably unless you looked really close. But here it is. It's just drip, drip, dripping. Now, is this useful?
Tiny, tiny hole. Is this a useful cup? Is it a good cup?
Not like this, you know, if you have this cup at the table.
Umm, I shouldn't tell this story, but I'll, I, I knew some boys. They've, they've grown up now and they don't do this anymore. But I, I knew some boys that, that the fellowship tea, they put some holes in the cups.
I don't think any of you boys would do that, would you?
They put some holes in the cups and they put them back at the plate at the table and uh, of course, uh, the people sitting there picked up the cups and put water or juice or something in the cups. Drip, drip, drip all over. That wasn't very nice, but.
A cup like this, boys and girls, that looks good with even a little hole in it can be a problem.
And so how important for us to allow the word of God to search the thoughts and intents of our heart. So that's so important. And so we can learn a lesson, can't we, that if there's anything, you know, we talk about keeping short accounts with with the Lord. And what we mean by that is to not let things go on. I hope that each of us before we come into the Lord's presence this morning, a little later.
00:35:12
I hope each of us will just quietly, as it were, bow our heads, if we haven't already, and just own anything to the Lord that perhaps comes to our mind, our conscience, that would be a hindrance to us in our hearts, welling up with praise to Him. I have one more lesson I wanted to share with you.
And I brought a different cup, you know, I, I, I meant to mention too, at the very beginning with that cup that had no, no bottom in it. You know, I could take this bottom that I cut out and I could patch it up here, tape it up a little bit. Would that be the way to do it? Is that what God does with us? Does he take us inner and say I'm going to patch him up, make him a little better? No, we've heard already in these meetings that you can't improve on the flesh.
You can't. Man's old nature cannot be improved on it. It's wicked before God, so we can't patch it up. Umm.
I've got a clear cut here because I want you to be able to see it. We're gonna fill this with water.
And we talked a little bit yesterday and I'm gonna talk again about how things can come in and spoil that communion. You know, the Lord wants to come in and stuff with us and we with him. Like it said in Revelation 3, He wants to have fellowship with us, just like you go to someone's house and have dinner together. But things come in and can spoil it and can defile us. We live in a wicked world, as we've mentioned. So I, I brought some clear cup here and I've got a little bit of food coloring and we're gonna just put one tiny little drop of this food coloring.
In this water and I'll hold it up here in a minute.
We're gonna just take one little drop here.
Put that in that water.
It's amazing, a tiny little lie.
A little bad thought.
What it does to that vessel of water.
That's what sin is like, boys and girls.
And now just think about putting lots of drops. What if I squirted the whole bottle in there? You wouldn't be able to see through this cup. So here we have just this one little.
Little drop of food coloring in this cup, turning this water this color. And you wouldn't want to drink this. You probably could, but you really wouldn't want to. It's dirty now. So what are we going to do to clean this up?
What do you think would be a good idea? Should I dump it out and put some fresh water in it? That would be maybe one way.
You could.
Put some new water in it. Put some new water. Good point. I think we're going to do that. Any other ideas?
You could wash it out. We could wash it out. Very good. Yeah.
You have a thought.
Wash it out and put new fresh water in it. Very good. All right, all good ideas and all along the same line. That's what we're going to do, boys and girls. We're not going to wash it out, but I like that we have the time. We could wash it out, but what I wanted for our lesson this morning, what we're going to do is we're going to just put more water in it. And remember, we're talking about water as being a picture to us of the Word of God. So remember the verse that was read to us?
Yesterday wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? And then the answer is, by taking heed thereto, according to thy word. Now we have a verse also in Ephesians chapter 5.
That tells us this.
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word.
So the Lord Jesus died on the cross. He cleansed us from our sins in His own precious blood. And then He wants us to be clean too, so that we might be able to rejoice and praise Him without hindrances. And He uses His word to do that as well. He uses the Word of God to cleanse us. And that's why it's so important to listen to His word if you're too young to read and if you're a little older to read the word of God for yourself, because it has a cleansing effect.
In your heart like nothing else. And like our brother Jim said yesterday, we come home at the end of the day and we need a good cleaning sometimes, don't we? And how good the Word of God is in the Christian's life. It's so important, boys and girls, that you memorize scriptures and for your so that you can can recall them to mind when you don't have your Bible in front of you. Recently we were in a meeting and I heard a little girl.
00:40:21
And she quoted the whole 53rd chapter of Isaiah from memory without looking. I thought that was nice. And I know others of you have committed to memory whole chapters. That's wonderful. Do it. Keep doing it. It'll have a cleansing effect. So here's the water of the word in our type in our little lesson, and we just start pouring that in and what's happening?
As we pour that water of the word in.
It cleans those does not. And if we were to do that enough, I think we're just about there. You wouldn't be able to see any tinge at all of that food coloring that came in and, umm, colored that water like that sin in our lives when we read the word of God. It cleanses us in Washington. What a wonderful thing. Well, there's one more thing that we want to learn from these cups. You know, we talked about.
Each of us like a cup, like a vessel for the Lord to be used for His honor and glory. But there's something else useful about a cup, and that is that you can share with others.
So if I put put water in this cup.
You know, I can carry this around and maybe there's somebody that's kind of dry, maybe there's somebody that's kind of thirsty and maybe they don't have too much in their cup so.
They say, you know, I'd like to share with you.
And so we can share with someone else. Wonderful thing. Something else too to close with.
The Lord not only wants us to enjoy a little bit of Him, of Himself, a little bit of His precious word, He wants us to enjoy more and more to the point that not only are we full.
OK, there's a full cup.
Couldn't get too much more in that, but let's go ahead and put a little more in.
Now what's happening?
It's overflowing.
What does that remind you of? I'll start a verse and somebody finish it.
My cup. The verse starts out my cup.
David is speaking King David and he said my cup and what was the rest of it?
Every field. What's that refill? That wasn't what I was thinking of. I'm thinking of the the verse, my cup.
Alright, is the light into my seat? You're thinking another. Very good, very good. My cup.
Overflowed just about run us.
Over.
My cup runneth over.
Let's finish with uh, one more verse in uh.
I can find it.
Luke 6.
Luke 6 and verse 7.
38 Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
Give, and it shall be given unto you good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
So in summary, boys and girls.
We don't wanna stay like this.
Not able to hold any water, Not able to receive the word of God.
We want to accept Him, accept the Lord as our Savior. We don't want to be a listener in one ear and out the other.
We don't wanna allow those things in our lives that are unjudged that.
00:45:01
Are just a nagging little drip.
And usually a drip over time, it gets worse and worse and worse. We wanna take care of those little things, those little sins. Those shouldn't call them little sins. But those sins in our lives want to take care of them, don't we? And we want to be a vessel that can be used for the Lord to share with others and running over, you know, I've come to the conclusion, boys and girls, that the happy Christian.
Is not necessarily the one that knows a lot about the Bible. The happy Christian is the one who is enjoying the Lord so much that it just overflows.
It's contagious, isn't it? You're around somebody like that. And by contagious, I mean you feel like being like that. You're around somebody like that. And that's happy in the Lord. And they're so refreshing to be around because the joy just overflows from their hearts and they don't even try to do it. It just does it. And I think that I know that's how the Lord wants each of us to be. He wants us to be a cup running over. Well, let's pray.
Our blessed God and our Father, we just do pray that these little lessons that we've had before us this morning would umm have their effect in the hearts of each of these children. And if there is someone here again, we pray that does not know the Lord Jesus as their savior. We just ask that that would work in their hearts for blessing that they might receive the Lord as their Savior whether there's still time and then that each of us would be a vessel sanctified and meet for the masters use.
And that we would be.
Overflowing with praise and adoration to our Savior, we think of the meeting to follow, and we pray that it might be this way. In His precious and worthy name. Amen.
I see there are.