YP Sing Address—A. Buchanan
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127.
What?
Well, we had quite a bit today of giving.
And we had a little bit about the vessel.
And I kind of like to continue with that for a little bit this evening as we each won.
In our lives.
So we go on, whether we're young or whether we're old.
I don't know if I was supposed to do that or not. I'm gonna do it anyway.
Umm, how do we serve the Lord first of all?
We have to know the Lord before we can serve Him, and I hope everybody here.
In this room knows the Lord as their savior, because that's who I'm speaking to. Those of you that know the Lord is Savior.
In the Gospel, if you don't know, you certainly heard the gospel tonight.
In the gospel we heard that we need to ask of the Lord.
It's rather interesting because I think we have to ask before we can give to the Lord.
We have to ask of him.
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The flipping jailer said. What must I do to be saved? He asked.
Have you asked the Lord into your heart?
We can turn. I'll read.
In Paul's conversion in Acts.
I'll read it because it's an interesting story. It's kind of one of my favorite stories, I guess you could say, in the Bible.
Paul's conversion in Acts 9.
I better put these on.
I'll just read a few verses here, starting with.
The.
Verse three. Acts 9 Three. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecute is thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? There's the question, the first question, Who art thou, Lord? You see, Saul thought.
That he was a religious man.
And he thought he was doing service for God, but he didn't even know who the Lord was.
The Lord said I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest is hard for thee to kick against the ******.
And he trembling and astonished, and said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
There's that question that probably each one of us face. What will thou have me to do? Do you ever ask the Lord? What do you want me to do, Lord?
Maybe you have and maybe you've gotten a very direct answer. Maybe you haven't.
We're kind of used to getting direct answers in our lives. We like to.
When we ask a question or we like an answer right now, we don't want to wait a week or two.
That's our nature.
Sometimes we don't get the answer right away.
Well, the Lord told Saul what to do.
And.
I'm going to skip down a little bit.
And verse 10 And there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a vision.
Ananias And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the street which is called straight, and inquire in the House of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he prayeth.
And has seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard by many of this man how much evil you have done to thy servants that drew at thy to thy Saints at Jerusalem. And here he had authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
Now this is the verse we're going to consider a little bit. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel.
Spoke in his address about giving and he spoke about the vessel.
Here we have saw a chosen vessel.
And if we can consider that you and I are chosen.
Vessels. If we're saved, if we know the Lord, we are a chosen vessel. We had that in Ephesians 1 today. Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. A chosen vessel. You are a chosen vessel. I'm a chosen vessel.
What was he going to do to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel?
That's what Saul's job was. He later became Paul. God changed his name.
Well, we can go on and read a couple of things that he did.
Verse 18 And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales. And he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.
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And then I'd like to get to this verse. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. Now I don't know all the time elapsed and so on and when Saul was gone and and so on. But I like to think right here anyway, that one of the first things he did really was he preached Christ.
And so he was chosen by God, and he was obedient.
And he preached Christ.
Now, I'm not saying that everyone's job in here is to preach Christ right off the bat.
And perhaps you each one have a different way that you preach Christ.
We've maybe heard the statement that says preach Christ at all times and if necessary use words. Do you preach Christ in your lives? That's the way we can serve him as a vessel.
A little later it says.
Saul increased the more in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus. Proving that this is very Christ. Proving that this is very Christ. That's what he did.
And so if we consider what Don had said a little bit and those two words giving and.
This is one way Paul's conversion and how.
First he had to know, he might say ask of the Lord, and then the Lord gave him something to do.
And So what did he do? He gave what he knew.
Christ, He knew him. He came to know him.
As that vessel and he was able to give.
If we turn over to Two Corinthians 8.
This verse this chapter was read several verses in here and I want to take a verse here.
That we can all probably understand.
2nd Corinthians.
812.
For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath.
And not according to that he hath not.
That that verse speaks of volumes to me.
And perhaps it does to YouTube. Perhaps you might say, I don't know what I have to give to the Lord. I'm just, I'm young.
I don't have money.
I don't have a lot of talent.
We can think up all kinds of things.
That we don't have. But that's not what the verse says. It says it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. We know the story about the widow that cast in two mites made-up of Farthing.
What did she give? The Lord says she gave all she had. It was more than.
Than the rich that had cast in more than all day two mites you and I would consider that if we watched somebody give we would think well the poor they can't put much in. We might see somebody that we consider rich put in a lot of money and think wow, Lord must appreciate that that's not what the Lord says.
She gave more.
Maybe you don't have a lot to give. Maybe you don't. Maybe I don't.
Sometimes we feel like we don't have anything.
But it's accepted according to that a man hath. And I'll tell you, if you are the Lord's chosen, you do have some.
Thing to give.
Each one of you, boys and girls alike, doesn't matter.
And as a parent, I can attest to the fact that.
Young people do have something. I have young people and you.
All have parents I presume.
And your parents know that you have something.
And they don't require what you don't have. Now, maybe one of your siblings has something that you don't have.
And they may require it of you, of them what they have, but they don't require it of you because they love you for who you are as an individual. They don't love you because you're just into the family.
Or because you're like somebody else, they love you because you are you and God is the same way.
He made you and he loved you because you are who you are. I don't care what your name is. John. Mary.
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Sam, Bill, Kathy doesn't matter. He loves you for who you are.
And he's given you abilities.
Sam, he's given a lot more ability than he's given me, no doubt about it.
But he loves you now. What are you going to do as one of his chosen vessels? We heard today and it was encouraging to me.
The fact of giving God loves a cheerful giver. Do you give cheerfully what God's given you?
You probably do. You're probably better at it than I am. It's not always easy to give cheerfully.
But I do believe that God appreciates it. He loves the cheerful giver.
So we're not, it's not required of us of something that we don't have. And that should help us in our lives, everyone of us to know that he doesn't. He doesn't ask for $1000 if we've got a dollar.
Or if you can't play the piano at a thing like this, he doesn't ask you to do it. Maybe you can sing, maybe you can invite somebody to come with you. Lots of things.
So each one God has given different abilities.
And.
It doesn't matter how much it is in our eyes or in man's eyes, don't forget.
The Lord looks on the heart, man look upon the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart, and He sees what's in there in your heart and in my heart.
Sometimes I think of the law given in the Old Testament times.
And if you were to read through the 10 commandments.
Most of them are Don TS.
Don't commit adultery. Don't covet. Don't kill.
And so on. There's a few. There are dues honor the father and the mother, and so on.
But under the law, there was a lot of a lot of you might say don't, but as a Christian, I believe Christianity is.
Is a list of dues.
I'll just read through real briefly.
Some dues that Paul gave to Timothy.
Scan through. If you want to, you can turn to First Timothy.
Kind of go through the book real quickly here.
One Timothy 118 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy.
So he was given Timothy these instructions, that thou by them might just war a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.
Hold fast those things he might, you might say.
Chapter 2. I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions.
Giving of thanks. These are things that you and I can do. Do you make supplications? Do you really pray for somebody that's on your mind? Do you really almost beg of the Lord sometimes?
Prayers, intercessions, troubles sometimes people have. Do you give thanks?
What about the kings and Queens and all that in authority, our president and so on? These are things to do.
I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands.
Let the women learn in silence. Women are to learn. There is something to do.
Learn.
A Bishop? Perhaps you take a responsibility in an assembly somewhere.
Beacons, things to do.
It seems to me there's just you can just read right on through.
There comes to a time when it's even there are some that it says they forbid to marry and command to abstain from meats and so on. This is the opposite really. This is things don't do this. It's not what God says.
Forbidding to marry God didn't say that.
He sanctified marriage. Young fellas, don't be afraid to take a wife. Marriages of the Lord.
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Put, brethren, in remembrance of these things. Timothy was instructed to do this.
He says bodily exercise profiteth little or for little and you all know that. We all know that if we don't exercise. So it's good that you can play ball and and get exercise and so on. It's good do these things.
Godliness is profitable unto all things.
Practice godliness.
Good. Do it. Meditate verse 15.
Some things not to do. Don't rebuke an elder.
But then what to do? And treat them as a father? Well, we'd go right on through.
At the end of the book it says, O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust.
Good instruction for us all. Keep what's been committed to us.
It's God-given you something.
As a person, keep it.
Well, maybe we can just turn over Hebrews.
The last chapter of Hebrews.
Had kind of thought to speak about doing somewhat by. Kind of enjoyed what Don said so much.
But in Christianity, I just like to stress that Christianity is something.
That we can do.
It's a doing. It's not a, it's not a list of rules. You can't do this and you can't do that.
That's not what Christianity is serving our Lord.
Being like Christ, That's what Christian means, being like Christ.
It's a nice easy way to think of it anyway. Christian, like Christ.
And so we can, there are things that we can do.
And in a sense, perhaps my thought is in the word giving as a vessel, you can give, and one way you can do it is by doing.
That's the way we give sometimes.
If I as a husband.
Gave my wife a ring and never told her that I loved her. It wouldn't be much, would it?
Sometimes we have to do something.
Even in salvation.
We believe with our heart. With heart man believeth.
But we make confession with our mouth, don't we?
Do something. Do something about it.
Hebrews 13.
Verses I suppose everybody and you're familiar with.
Hebrews, 1315. By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.
That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. That's probably the ultimate thing we can do in giving giving thanks.
To our Savior the Lord Jesus, and to God the Father for giving his Son. Do you give thanks for that?
Do you offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually? I don't really know what that means to do it continually. I suppose it doesn't necessarily mean to go around every minute of our lives, but be ready to do that.
Give thanks.
To God.
And we do it with our lips. So there's an action, isn't there? Well, it doesn't stop there. It says to do good. That's something else. There it is.
We can give.
We can do.
Do good.
And then there's to communicate. Perhaps that's one way we think of when we give to the Lord. It's more a more common thought perhaps in giving is how much do we give?
And that's of our resources that we have perhaps money, but that's only one way. But it is one way here. It is to communicate. That's what it means, I believe.
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Do you help others?
But more important than that, it was the giving thanks. Don't forget young people, to give God thanks in that way.
You as a vessel can give.
To God and to his Son.
Well, that's all I have, I think. May I encourage you all to not give up as you wonder sometimes what can I do for the Lord and my.
My little puny corner that I'm in, you can do something for the Lord.