Being A Vessel Filled with God

Very blessed and humbled to be here. I don't know why you keep inviting me back, but I Enjoy coming back coming here. Thank you. This is a second home for me in many ways, so I'd like to begin by having us turn to a verse in 2nd Timothy chapter 2.

Vessels for Honor and Dishonor

2nd Timothy chapter 2. I've been thinking about vessels in the last few months or weeks maybe I Thought I would speak on that During this weekend We read here in verse 20 2nd Timothy 2 verse 20 by the way, this is one of the last If not the last letter that Paul wrote.

He wrote more New Testament scripture than anybody else and this these are his last words almost as it were and He's served the Lord for 30 years or so planted churches raised up other leaders Nearing the end of his life.

He's gonna say a couple paragraphs later that he's finished the course in chapter 4 and He's waiting ready to meet Jesus. He knows his time is short. But before that he says now in a large house 2nd Timothy 2 verse 20 there are not only gold and silver Vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware some to honor and some to dishonor.

Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from these things he will be a vessel for honor Sanctified useful to the master prepared for every good work. This is our calling dear brothers and sisters to be vessels for honor if I take God's Word seriously, which I do I Understand these verses.

We just read to mean that there are people sitting in churches today who are vessels for dishonor and Let's not Assume that I am a vessel for honor. Let's examine our lives. Let's see Lord. He says in a large house, there are some for honor and some for dishonor and You should be one for honor verse 21.

If you cleanse yourselves from all impurity the impurities that he talks about the previous verse verse 19 everyone Who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness? I want to show you another story in the book of 2nd Kings 2nd Kings chapter 2 and this story takes place right after Elijah has taken up to heaven and Elisha is going to carry on the ministry.

We know he receives a double portion of the anointing that Elijah had. Because he saw Elisha taken up. Elijah taken up. Elijah had said if you see me you will receive what you asked for which is that double portion and Elisha did receive it and Now Elisha is on his way back.

Elijah's taken up now Elisha must carry on the torch as it were. Similar to what Paul was telling Timothy. Paul says in a sense. I'm leaving Timothy. It's up to you now I've spent years teaching you and training you.

It's up to you now to carry on the torch with the same Passion and the same anointing and the same humility and zeal for God's house as I had and My dear brothers and sisters and the children as well.

We are living in such times. We've been blessed to receive Teaching from godly men. I think of my dad especially and the influence he's had in my own life and in this church here We've been tremendously blessed but If the Lord was to call him home at some point, which he might if the Lord doesn't come before then Will you be ready to take up the torch?

Will you have received the same spirit not the spirit of his brother Zach, but the Spirit of Christ in you? That you can now be a part of building up the church. That was Elisha's responsibility. I don't think he was that old when the Lord called him young man and And But already the anointing of God is over him and here we read in verse 19 2nd Kings 2 verse 19.

Then the men of the city said to Elisha behold now the situation of this city is pleasant as my Lord sees. But the water is bad and the land is unfruitful. So the situation in the city is nice. It seems like a nice city, but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful.

When you think about that and you think about your life you think outwardly it seems like my life's pretty good. I've got a good job. I've got some stability. My marriage is doing okay. My family's doing okay.

But does the Lord are you allow you to see every now and then when you drink from that water? When you find yourself in a situation you find unfruitfulness a little bit of a bad taste a little bit of a bad spirit that Comes out in your interaction with your spouse at home.

This is the situation that Elisha was facing and Elisha said bring me a new vessel and Fill it with salt so they brought it to him he went out to the spring of water and Threw or poured out the salt in it and said thus says the Lord I have purified these waters there shall not be from their death or Unfruitfulness any longer.

I would like you to remember this phrase the last part of verse 21 Lord, I want to leave this weekend with this promise of hope that there will not be any death or Unfruitfulness in any area of my life anymore.

No spiritual death. No spiritual unfruitfulness in any area of my life. This is what I I'm leaving. I'm come here for this weekend for the Lord to speak to me. To receive a little bit more of his spirit so that there will be no more death.

No more unfruitfulness in any area of my life those areas that only you know about. And you see three things here that I like to speak on in the three sessions that I'll be speaking first of all a new vessel.

It wasn't something old it had to be a new vessel. Secondly he filled it and Thirdly he poured it out a new vessel filled and poured out. We look at those three things. You know this verse, but I'd like you to see it so we read it together.

The New Creation in Christ

It's in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 see God doesn't take Anything that's old and reuse it he always starts with a new creation and That happened all the way back you read in Genesis chapter 1 when the earth was formless and void God had to remake it.

It was a new earth as it were and then we read in the book of Revelation that he's making a newer earth. If you will the new earth Which is coming it's gonna look nothing like this old earth. I don't think there will be continents and all this stuff that we knew it will be a new earth it won't be a Remodeled earth and the reason that's important is because often in our Christian life.

We're trying to have God remodel our life. And say Lord. I've got a pretty good life. I've kind of got things in order. I went to college and I studied this and I studied that and I met the girl I liked or the man I liked and we got married and we've got this nice little thing going and we found a little Cozy place in this church that we like.

Can you remodel my pretty good life and make it a little bit more pleasing to you and God says no I can't do that. 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 17 says if anyone is in Christ the old is dead. The old has passed away.

If anyone is in Christ he's a new creature. The old things have passed away all things have become new which means Santosh must have had to completely die if I'm in Christ. Now I think for all of you who are born again, and you say yeah, I remember the day.

I was born again I've been walking with the Lord. I am in Christ. Let me ask you By the test of this verse are you really in Christ? By the test of 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 17, which is the only test that matters.

Are you really in Christ. Has the old passed away? Or is it a mixture a Mixture of the old and the new. And I I don't. I won't tell you that I let God's Word. Tell you that that's not Christ. It's another Jesus.

Where you can bring in the old? Have it a little bit remodeled and have a pretty good life and this is going on in Christendom all over the place. See the Lord will not share his glory with another. You read that Isaiah 42 verse 8 I will not share my glory with another if I could get to heaven with a remodeled Santosh.

Where okay, I didn't go out and murder anybody. I didn't do all those really horrible things. I wasn't a terrorist. Wasn't one of those, you know horrible people. I had pretty decent life. Yeah, I did some bad things and God cleaned them up and Put a wrapping of Christ around Santosh on the inside and I stand before God at the end of my life.

I could still take a little bit of glory for that. There was something good in me that I stood before God at the end of my life and said, yeah I I was pretty good Lord. I I did it. I Made it. After you I was born or maybe you had a sinful life but then you grit your teeth and you fought hard and you obeyed all the rules and You read your Bible and you finished reading the Bible and you raised a godly home.

You did all these wonderful things and you say look Lord. I did it. Are you proud of me? And God will say no, that's not what I was looking for. I cannot. I will not share my glory with another this is God's way so You know Paul recognized this.

I Even as I got up to preach I was sitting there and praying and said Lord. I want to. I want to speak. Not in a way that Has anything of me in it? I don't want to have a little bit of a cute idea I came up with or any gift or ability.

Paul's Conversion and the Emptying of Self

Hi, I'm challenged by how Paul could do that. You know, Paul was a man of great authority. Let me start here by looking showing you a verse in Acts chapter Nine. No acts 8. This is Saul. The old song, you know, we read 2nd Corinthians 5 if anyone is in Christ He's a new creature.

Old things have passed away. All things have become new. Here's the old things of Saul who became Paul the Apostle. Saul was in this is Acts 8 verse 1 was an hearty agreement with putting Stephen to death and There was a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem.

And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the Apostles. And verse 3 Saul began ravaging the church entering house after house and Dragging off men and women putting them in prison.

This was Saul with great authority from the chief priests from the religious leaders. When Paul Saul showed up in your house, he came with great pomp and authority. He had a badge that said I'm I have the authority to drag you and put you in prison.

Now you read in the next chapter that he gets converted Acts chapter 9. He gets converted and then he becomes blind verse 8 second. This is Acts 9. Verse 8 Saul got up from the ground after Jesus had spoken to him and though his eyes were open He could not see anything.

He could see nothing and he was led by the hand to Damascus and he was there three days without sight. He didn't eat or drink. This is Paul being broken. The old things are passing away. Something new is happening a new man is being created as it were and then God tells an Ananias to go and lay hands on Saul and Look at what Ananias says after the Lord tells him go there verse 12 and Lay hands on him so that he might regain his sight and Ananias says Lord This is a man with a lot of authority.

He's a powerful man. He could kill me. Lord, I have heard from many about this man. I've never met him, but I've heard about him. He's a famous man for the amount of authority he has. How much harm he did to your Saints at Jerusalem and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.

This is the old Saul. Now turn over to 1st Corinthians chapter 1. I want you to meet the new Paul. Where old things have passed away the man who had authority the man who could come into your house and everybody lived in fear and trembling in fact.

According to Ananias whose words his fame had spread far ahead of him where Ananias didn't even want to go anywhere near him. And now Paul his name is changed to Paul and he writes to the church in Corinth, which is a church that he Fathered he planted this church he tells them and he says verse 17 1st Corinthians 1 verse 17 Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel and look at how Paul preached the gospel.

See how all things have become new. Paul is now a broken man. After he was converted he spent three days and three nights blind. It says his eyes were open. But he couldn't see. Then Ananias you read that story in Acts 9 comes and anoints him and he his eyes are regained and then Paul goes off to The Arabian Desert and spends three years and God is breaking him and breaking him and breaking him and breaking him.

So that this man of authority who had all power and wisdom and raised In the school of Gamaliel a theologian he could argue To no end and prove you wrong about anything related to the law of God in the Old Testament.

And now God has broken him where he comes to the very church. He's planted and he says To preach the gospel not in cleverness of speech. Why was it that Paul who could have? Spoken with cleverness of speech Paul was so articulate.

I believe before he met Christ. He was so gifted so Scholared so he studied the scriptures so well. He was such an authority on God's Word and on God according to the Jews but he says I Refused to speak to you in cleverness of speech.

Why so that the cross of Christ would not be made void? It's a very very powerful phrase. Do you know how you and I will make the cross of Christ? Void means empty. You might think Lord. I would never do that.

I Would never Mock the cross of Christ, you know, I'm sure even Even in the world if you mock a crucifix People would be an uproar, you know, sometimes you hear about these weird horrible art Displays where they do something wicked they mock mock the cross of Christ.

They mock Jesus. They mock his suffering. I don't think any of us would be a part of that. But you know that it's possible for you and I as Christians to make the cross of Christ empty according to this verse Paul As an apostle who had planted churches was in fear that he would make the cross of Christ empty.

Have you thought that it's possible that you or I might make the cross of Christ empty? You know how? By mixing in a little bit of myself. My cleverness of speech and how I preach the sermon my ability and how I lead the singing.

Something about me that I mix in with Christ. Yeah, we're singing about Christ yeah, we're preaching about Christ, but it's me on display and Paul says if I was to do that, I would be mocking the cross of Christ.

Meditate on that brothers and sisters and see if in your Christian life in your marriage in your godly home in the church. You're seeking to build is a little bit of self that's coming in there. And I tell you we'll see in eternity that if we allowed that to happen we were throwing dirt on the cross of Christ.

He goes on to say for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. See the reason you know, think about it if you were to present the gospel to an unbeliever. Would you present it in a foolish way?

I? I'm speaking to myself here. I know when I speak to an unbeliever, especially an educated person I want to convince him somehow that Jesus is the true Christ that he's the true. He's the true God. I want to make my argument so.

Well-done, you know and a lot of apologists unfortunately get caught up with this argue with the right and prove them wrong and all that and Paul says no, I'm not gonna do that. Because God forbid lest they should be converted as a result of my intelligence.

Am I convincing them somehow? I Would be throwing dirt on the cross of Christ because the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Let's skip down a few verses. Verse 20. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God look at the wisdom of God.

The world through its wisdom did not come to know God. So God was well pleased. Through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Do you see that if you really have come to faith?

It was through the foolishness of those of the preaching foolishness of the message preached. For indeed Jews ask for a sign and the Greeks search for wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.

But to those who are called both Jews and Greek Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God stronger than men. Verse 26. This is the kind of church we should be seeking to build.

I want to say a word before we move on. During this weekend dear brothers and sisters. You you I think we face a choice you and I could associate with the smart people and the intelligent people and the gifted people and the cool people and The ones that I enjoy the conversations with or you could choose who Christ would associate with.

You could seek to be knit with those whom Christ wants to be knit with and this is how it's described. Consider your calling brothers and sisters that there were not many wise according to the flesh. Not many mighty.

Not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world. If you're chosen by God you see yourself as a foolish thing in the world. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world.

To shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world. You see the the progression here in the spiritual life. This is progression in the Christian life. Foolish things weak things base things despised.

The things that are not zeros, let me read it again. So you see this is verse 27 and 28. This is how you know that you're growing spiritually. You start out foolish. Because that's who you were when you came to Christ and then the more you walk with Christ you become weak.

Less Trusting in your own strength and ability and the more you walk with Christ you become base. Base means lowly. Base, it's what you stand on. It's a base lowly base Things of the world and the more you walk with Christ you become despised.

Do you want to be a despised person this weekend? You may if you are you're probably becoming more like Christ. You went from foolish to weak to base to despised you're growing spiritually brother sister.

This is God's way to nothing the things that are not so that He may nullify the things that are so that no man may boast before God's but by his doing. You are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption and Sanctification so that just as it is written.

Let us let him who boasts boast in the Lord. He goes on to say when I came to you brethren. I did not come with Superiority of speech or of wisdom. I could have I hear Paul saying I was trained in Gamaliel school.

I could have come with all that superiority speech, but I did not. Etc etc. So I wanted you to see that Paul Recognized the danger of his own wisdom and his own ability now. You and I I think in Christendom face the option of Continuing to pursue our Christian life this way and that's what Paul warns us in 2nd Timothy chapter 3.

We read 2nd Timothy 2 like you to see this verse in chapter 3. After he talks about these vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor he goes on to say that What do these vessels of dishonor look like? And as the time of Christ's return draws near you see that These vessels of dishonor you can summarize them this way in 2nd Timothy 3 verse 5 a few verses down from where we were just reading.

That these vessels of dishonor will hold to a form of godliness. But they have denied its power. Holding to a form of godliness. But they have designed Denied its power. So there are people there will be people and it'll increase as the time of Christ returned draws near who?

Will try to come up with this brand of Christianity where they create an unbroken version of Christianity a Version of Christianity that it's still me underneath. With Christ as a wrapper around me still me underneath and a Christ as a wrapper around me now.

I don't know if we realize just how dangerous this is. Do you know that? Unbrokenness in the presence of God is the most Devastating thing that could ever happen. Think about it if I'm unbroken and I make it into the presence of God.

You know what? The result would be. You don't have to think hard because it's actually happened. There was an unbroken being a Long time ago who was in the presence of God? He was closer to God than any other being had ever gotten.

Unbroken and in a moment he became the devil. Think about it again here was somebody and a an exalted being. God had lifted him up and Given him a place closer to God himself than anybody had ever gotten.

We thought what about if you thought about what that must have been like. Now think about you if God was to allow you of all people sitting in this room to come closer to him than any of the others. If God picked you by name says hey, I'm gonna allow you to come closest to me.

But you were unbroken in a moment you would become the devil himself. So it's dangerous. The devil has already proved that unbrokenness in the presence of God has the most drastic of Consequences. The end result of being unbroken in the presence of God is that you end up in hell now.

When I think about how I'm going to stand before God at the end of my life and say Lord Will you come let me come near you for all eternity? And I'm there with a little bit of unbrokenness still in me a little bit of Santo is still there.

I deserve to go to hell and Hell is comprised of Unbroken people that's how I would describe it. It's not sinful people. Sin is just the consequence of unbrokenness. Sin is just the consequence of the fact that I still held on to who I was.

I didn't want to really give up myself. Yeah, I wanted to clean up the outside. Maybe you are an alcoholic and now you don't drink alcohol. Maybe you're a drug addict and you're freed from that. Maybe you used to physically beat your wife or your husband and now you don't do that anymore.

Maybe you used to cheat on your wife and you don't do that anymore. But is it still you underneath with a clean up outside and Hell is full of such people. Good moral people. Do you think everybody in hell is the worst of criminals?

You think everybody in hell is just adulterers and murderers and thieves? No. There there are plenty of people in hell today who have never committed murder. Maybe never committed adultery never stolen anything, but they were full of themselves.

Because that's how hell began. The devil didn't have to commit murder. He didn't have to commit adultery. He doesn't have a body to do those things. What made him the? Characteristic of hell self. You read that In Ezekiel 28 How did this person this being that was closest to God?

He got and the moment he got the closest to God because he was unbroken. He was cast down. Ezekiel 28 this is a prophetic picture about how the highest archangel became the devil. The Word of the Lord came to Me saying son of man say to the leader of Tyre was a picture of the devil.

That says the Lord God because your heart is lifted up and you have said I am a God. I sit in the seat of God's when God allowed you to come close to himself. You allowed self to remain in the heart of the seas yet you are a man and not God, although you make your heart like the heart of God and He says look at this you're wiser than Daniel.

There is no secret that is a match for you by your wisdom and understanding. You have acquired riches for yourself and have acquired gold and silver for your treasuries. By your great wisdom by your trade you have increased your riches and your heart is lifted up.

Therefore thus says the Lord because you have made your heart like the heart of God I will bring strangers upon you and I will cast you down verse 8. I will bring you down to the pit. This is how the devil became the devil and hell is full of such people.

Christ's Humility and Dependence on the Father

Jesus picked exactly the opposite. We're told about that in Philippians chapter 2. I'm speaking about a new vessel. How does God make a new vessel? He destroys that old vessel. Shatters it and builds something new something that has nothing of the old in it and I Wanted to start with this message because it's a good thing.

I'll tell you brothers and sisters as I examine my heart I see that in different areas as if I allow the Holy Spirit to dig deep. I see that there are things that are of the old that are still there and I hate it more as the Lord's been revealing it to me.

It was a little bit of the old Santos. When I stand before him, he'll have to say I can't have that here. There's no room in heaven for even a little bit of me. It has to be all Christ now. It's one thing to sing about and say yeah Christ alone forever and all that but to still have that in my thoughts.

Only you and the Lord know whether it's Christ alone in you or if it's a little bit of you mixed in Philippians 2 we read Christ who was God and is God has always been God. He didn't he wasn't elevated to be God.

He is God. He's always been God and after he saw this fall of of the highest archangel to become Satan and Then saw our fall in the same way in the Garden of Eden. It says that Jesus. Verse 5. Philippians 2 verse 5 have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus who although he existed in the form of God Did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.

He says here I am God and I I can always be I will always be God. But I'm not gonna hold on to this position. Do you know that God is not? And I want to be careful how I say this he the characteristic of God is that he doesn't hold on to that position of Being God that's what Jesus showed now.

God will never relinquish that position as God. You never lose his authority. But the spirit of God is it's not fighting to keep its place. That's how I would describe it. The more you become like God, even if God lifts you up into a position of authority, you're not fighting to keep it.

That's the Spirit of Christ. Let's make it practical if you were to become an elder in a church. The real Spirit of Christ is that you're not fighting to keep that and yet you see the exact opposite of that in Christendom.

People fighting to keep their position and and fighting to keep their authority and and all these things fighting for their place. The Spirit of Christ is that it does not fight for its place. You have this attitude who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or grabbed.

But emptied himself taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. This is the the Spirit of Christ and Unless God is able to destroy the old vessel completely and give us the new vessel He can never pour his life into us.

And so the end result of that is that we end up with a Christianity or a it's not even Christianity a religion. That looks like Christianity. But it's not real. Let me give you an example, you know, you've you all we use money.

We use currency all the time but Because currency has value. Let's say a hundred dollar note. It becomes a target for people to counterfeit. People make counterfeit money all the time. I don't know if you've ever seen a real counterfeit $100 bill.

I haven't. I've seen like monopoly hundred dollar bills that you can look at it obviously and say well, that's not real but Apparently real counterfeit money. Oh. It's kind of weird real counterfeit right counterfeit money that looks exactly like the original.

If it looked like monopoly money, it would be obvious and What I'm what I'm trying to say is that if you were to see a real $100 bill and a counterfeit $100 bill It would look exact to you to you and I with our naked eye.

We wouldn't be able to tell the difference and it's exactly the same with real Christianity counterfeit Christianity and You can you know that they say that there's a watermark that you can see to compare if it's there in the original or not.

But even that they're getting better at counterfeiting all of that and to the naked eye to somebody who's not really studied $100 bill you could be given a $100 bill and it'd be fake and it has no power.

So what is it that makes a $100 bill actually genuine? It's not the outward because the outward can be copied what makes the real $100 bill. Authentic is who distributed it. Where did it come from? Did it come from the counterfeiters machine?

Then it's fake if it came from the government of the United States, then it's real. That's the only thing that ultimately Determines whether a currency is real or not and it's the same with the Christian life.

If your Christianity is something that you've come up with. Because you didn't want to be broken. You didn't allow God to break you in that circumstance. You wanted to preserve yourself. You wanted to still keep a little bit of that and a little bit of the other thing and so God will not pour his spirit Into such a vessel so you poured some of your own spirit into it and you come to the church meetings looking like all the other vessels and God knows That what's in your vessel is just you it's counterfeit.

He didn't give it to you. I Tell you the devil also knows that the devil sees he's operating in the spiritual realm not in the earthly realm. And he can see who are the ones where God is pouring his life into them.

And who are the ones that they're just coming up with their own vessels coming to the church looking like their vessels are also full of the divine nature, but it's just their own self and. This is why the essence of the new covenant is how are you walking in secret where nobody can see you?

Sure, it is what who you are when the doors are closed and you're with your wife your husband your children at home but even more than that, who are you where nobody else not even your spouse knows what you think about and Your thoughts about yourself and how you use your eyes and your ears and the thoughts that are going through your mind.

Are they full of self? Have you been allowing the Lord to break you to to destroy that old vessel completely so that you can have a new vessel and if not you can you can listen to all the messages you want you can be a upstanding member of the new covenant Church and all that and use the language and and all that everybody else could look on the outside.

And see what a wonderful new covenant Christian you are and God knows. You don't have spiritual authority. You haven't allowed me to break you. You're holding on you still stiff-necked. This is the danger.

You know that Jesus after he read about how he emptied himself. How was it that he overcame and lived a perfect life if he emptied himself. He had to be filled again with that same life that he had existed all along.

Jesus as the Dependent Son

We'll read about that here John chapter 5. How is it that Jesus as God when he became man so that he could set an example for us emptied himself of That ability to be holy on his own. This is what Jesus emptied himself off.

We read in Philippians 2 that he emptied himself. What was that that he emptied himself off because he was God for all eternity. He didn't need to depend on anybody else to be holy he had the divine nature in him all along.

He didn't have to depend on anything else. He was holy. You couldn't even tempt him and Jesus as God had to empty himself of that independence. Let me make it very very simple. There is only one person who has the right to be independent.

That's God himself and Jesus emptied himself of that right to be independent to be holy on his own to have his own holiness because it was the divine nature and he became a man. Dependent on his father for holiness now.

That's what he emptied himself off. So he came with an empty vessel and now from the day he was born the father had to fill his vessel with the divine nature. Keep it full of depending on his father always leaning on the father.