Well, good morning. Once again, it's very good to be with you all. I appreciate the opportunity to meet several of you and have conversations with you. It is good to be with the other missionary families here. My wife and I, we have four girls and we've been accused that all four of our girls tend to look like each other. You can tell they're sisters and they follow their mom in the way they look. The first three we were actually Not surprised with that, but the fourth one we were because we kind of know our mission statistics and people groups and we were told that every fourth child born in the world is either Chinese or Indian. None of us. She came out looking like her sisters. It's so good to not only have our family here, but other missionary families. And there's a number of mission organizations represented here this week at the Missions Conference. Three of the families, one of them being ours as well, are from the organization called Ethnos 360. And I thought I'd just take a minute to explain that Ethnos 360, some of you may remember it as New Tribes Mission, founded in 1942. And our tagline is a thriving church for every people group. And the name changed. Why did they call it Ethnos? And that comes from the Greek that is every nation. God's command to take the gospel to every ethnos, every nation all around the world. And 360, 360 degrees around the world, every nation of God needs to know. Every nation needs to know God. Another reason we call it Ethnos 360 is to represent that full circle, 360 degrees of ministry work. And for us, that has been the last 20 years working in Papua New Guinea. And 14 of those was spent in a people group called the Papatar. And it was there where we were able to go into an unreached people group and do this ministry. And what does that involve? First of all, it involves going in and learning their language and understanding their culture so that we can clearly present the gospel and effectively plant a church there. Now, when we went in, I was not a fast language learner. I grew up in Sioux City, Iowa. I did my Spanish in high school, and when I got done, I could not speak Spanish. I went to New Guinea. We learned the trade language, which was fairly simple, but it was a big task for me. And then we moved into the Papata and tried to use that trade language to learn the Papata language. Now, we have some missionaries in New Guinea that have unbelievable abilities. We've had a couple finish a tribal unwritten language in only nine months. Others, it takes years. That was me. In fact, as I was getting done, I was approached by some of our leadership. And they asked me a question which took me by surprise. They said, hey, with our culture language acquisition consultants, we're wondering if you would be interested in being one of those consultants to go in and help other missionaries in other locations so they can learn their language. And I said, well, why? Well, see, you've taken a long time to do it. You've tried about every tool there is. You know the struggles. You could probably go in and really encourage people and show them how they can do it when they feel like they can't. And God's used us, despite us, to do his work. Not only do missionaries have to go in and learn the language and culture, but we had the opportunity to do literacy and translation. From an understanding of the language, an alphabet and literacy course are formed. And this was the primary role that my wife had. We started out with co-workers, but by the time we got to the literacy program, we did not have any co-workers. Eventually, we had a single gal join us, and she was able to help us with this. But my wife took on the primary role, and together we developed this literacy program, and she was able to help teach and lead the first Popitar literacy classes so that adults could read and write. We had the privilege when we moved in that an SIL missionary had moved in on the other side of the island, same people group, and before we even started teaching had finished the New Testament in the Papata language. And that was such a privilege. But when we got to the teaching part, there were boxes of these New Testaments stashed in corners of buildings being destroyed by rats and roaches, never being touched, never being looked at. because the people could not read and were never taught. And it was so exciting for my wife to be able to teach them how to read. And they began to take these Bibles that before they said, this doesn't make sense. It's not clear. You need to do a new one. Oh, wait a second. We can read it. Hey, this is our heart language. This cries to our stomach. And she was able to teach those classes and not only that, but teach other Papathar people that could then take those classes and teach others. And it's still going on today. We were able to invest in Old Testament translation, do portions from that so that they had both the New Testament and Old Testament portions. Besides literacy and translation, there's also chronological teaching. Because in the Pampatara, as well as many other people groups, there's a lack of understanding of the real concept of the God of the Bible. And while the Pampatara people had heard about God, had heard about Jesus, even knew he died on a cross, had no idea what that meant. And for them to appease the missionary's God and go to church on Sunday or sing hymns, that was enough to make this Jesus, whoever he was, help them in their gardens and everything would be okay, just like all the other spirits they were trying to appease. And so we have the task to take God's Word and starting in Genesis, lay out who God was. who we are as broken people, and why he sent Jesus Christ to pay for our sins on the cross. After that is when the real work begins. Following the pattern we see in Acts, missionaries seek to establish mature churches. See, it's not enough to give birth to a child and then leave it there. That child needs picked up, cared for, fed, loved, taught. And most of our ministry in the Papadar was this phase, teaching the people, discipling them. Nine years invested in them, pouring on the basics of Christianity, working through books of the Bible, teaching them how not only to read the Bible, but read it and study it and teach it to their family, to their church, to their community. What a privilege. Now, in Ethnos 360, along with most other missions, it's not just the church planners that are there. In fact, in Papua New Guinea, 52% of the missionaries that are there are serving as church planners, either actually in the tribe or preparing, learning that initial language to go into the tribe. The other 48%, it's almost exactly half and a half, are serving in support ministries there on the field, enabling those who are in the villages to continue there. And for the last three years, that's what Laurie and I have been doing. Because now after 14 years full time in the tribe, there's two churches there and they're growing and they're teaching and there's pastors and deacons and they're carrying on the work and they don't need us there full time. We still get in there. I get in there about every three months to spend time with them. But now we're not in the village. We're up on the mainland in a missionary center, living in kind of a typical American house with a clinic there and a store there, working with the other nearly 50% of the missionaries that are keeping those folks in the tribe. Laurie's working in a print shop, producing those literacy lessons in 80 different languages. I have the privilege to be that CLA consultant, and now a church development consultant, going into our 44 locations where we have active teams, to help them, to encourage them, to say, here's the next step. Not only are there those roles, but there's teachers there at the school. There's logistical support folks. There's pilots. There's the mechanics, there's technical service and builders, there's technology, IT guys doing stuff that I am so glad they're doing because I can't. We have doctors and nurses there, dentists and hygienists, business office, accountants. See, a lot of people say, man, I'm glad you're doing what you're doing because I couldn't do it. I just work in an office and work with numbers. Yeah, that's half of us. See, it takes a team. It takes people that are willing vessels. And that's what this morning is about. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Derek read for us the passage we'll be looking at. On Thursday night, we've been going through 2 Corinthians. Chapter 2 was about being His fragrance. And while here on earth, we have the opportunity to be the aroma of Christ and rub off on the people around us. On Friday night, we looked at 2 Corinthians chapter 3, and that was about being His letters, that we are written, the author Christ by the Holy Spirit writes on our life, and we are an open letter to the world around us. This morning we're moving on to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And while here on earth, in this brief time that you and I have here on this planet, we get to be His vessels. We get to be what are called these earthen vessels, clay pots for Christ. What does that mean? I want to start in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6 again. It says this, For God who said light shine out of darkness is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. How many of you know what a megaton nuclear bomb is? Anybody have one of those laying around? A megaton nuclear bomb is the equivalent of a million tons of dynamite. A million tons of TNT make up one megaton nuclear bomb. Now if that was to go off here, it would destroy all of La Mars and all of the tri-state area. No more going to Sioux City. It would be gone. Now, the amount of energy emitted by the sun is the equivalent of 100 billion one mega nuclear bombs exploding every single second. Now, the God who said, let there be light, there was light. 100 billion nuclear bombs going off every second. Yeah, let there be light. He's the one who has shown our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. The one who said, let there be light. He's the one that gives that light now to us about Christ. The picture here is just incredible. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not of ourselves. What are these verses saying? If you have your outline, you can start filling in the blank and take a note. It's all about the treasure. John 1, 3-5 says this, All things came into being through Him, through Christ. And apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. And in Him was life. And the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness. And the darkness did not comprehend it. Jesus, the light of the world, came into the darkness. God said, let there be light. The sun gave light. But spiritually, it's Christ giving light to the world. And this passage is about that light. About that treasure. The treasure is God's light. The treasure chest are fragile clay jars. Guess who that is? That's us. The Popitar have some traditional money that they still use. They're kina shell necklaces. Little necklaces that they carve out one by one. and puts a little hole in the middle, and run a string through. Now this string necklace, and this string necklace, and this string necklace, and these two, are about the amount that you would use to buy a wife in Popitar. These are passed on from generation to generation, and when they go to buy their wives, or do a trade of some sort, The way they carry these is not in a fancy briefcase or a nice bank pouch, but they find these plastic bags that wash up on shore. And they put them in and they carry this around. And inside this plastic bag is some of their most valuable things. Because it's not the bag that's of value, it's what's inside. And this picture here, it's not the treasure chest. It's not that you go out and you start digging and find that buried treasure chest and there it is. No, it's not about the treasure chest. What do you want to do when you find a treasure chest? Let's get the lock off. Let's find out what's inside. It's all about the treasure and the treasure It's God's light who is Christ. The treasure chest, the plastic bag, the thing that holds it, are the fragile clay jars. Now, the splendor of this is that source of great power chose to be revealed through those fragile clay jars. Colossians 127 says this, God willed to make known What is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Wow. That splendor is Christ in you. Now, what's so beautiful about clay pots? Because it's not about the treasure chest. It's about the treasure. So what's the beauty of clay pots? Let's look at the second part of verse seven again. It says this, the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. I want us to look at five different points about why there is beauty in these clay pots. And the second thing or the first one is this, God's power is displayed. I've got a few clay pots here. Verse 8 goes on to say, we are afflicted in every way. If we're these clay pots, we don't often times just get taken good care of. Sometimes there's things that come in and nick at us and chip away. There's things that come in and hit us, and we get knocked down, and we fall over, but we are not crushed. Perplexed, alright, there are things going on, but not despairing. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. I have a hammer here as well. What happens if I take this hammer and this clay pot? You think? Wait a second. What's the difference? It's what's inside. Got a crack in it. It's not destroyed. Because it's not about this. It's about what's inside. What's the beauty? of the clay pot, that we are his vessels, is that God's power is displayed through us. It's what's inside. How can that person be able to do that, go through that, endure that? It's not because it's an awesome clay pot. It's because of what's inside. I told you all that I was not a quick language learner. I want to teach you a little bit of pop guitar this morning. You guys can probably do better than I can. Alright, that is the word pulo. Can you guys say that with me? Pulo. Pulo, very good. Pulo means blind man. Now I have another word I'm going to put up there. Similar, that's the word pulu. Now, the O and the U on the end of those two words, it's pulo versus pulu. Okay, so let's see if you can do the first one again. Pulo. Okay, now the second one, pulu. Okay, excellent. Very good. Impressed. Kind of surprised, though, that you guys would say that, especially here in church. Because pulu means anus. Now, when we got to that teaching stage, I was fluent in Papatari. At least that's what my consultants checked me off as. But you see, I didn't go around every day talking about blind people. It wasn't a normal part of my vocabulary. Neither was the other word. And as we're getting... Through the Bible, we're teaching, going along, going along. For a couple months, we've been meeting daily, working from Genesis all the way through the Old Testament. We finally got to the Gospels, and we're talking about Jesus and who He is. And I've been able to teach, and lights are coming on, and people are seeing the truth. And we're getting closer to the story of the death, burial, and resurrection. And within just a week or so, the Gospel is going to be presented. And we're coming up where Jesus is going to enter Jerusalem, And there's the lesson that I've written out and checked back when he's walking along, and there's blind Bartimaeus up on the side of the road. And so in front of a hundred people I'm teaching, and I said, and Jesus was walking around, and on the road on the way to Jerusalem, in front of him was Apollo. And everybody sat up, and I knew I had their attention. I thought, the word of God is powerful, here we go. And Jesus sees him, and the pulu says, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And the people are saying, no. And I said, yes. And I said, the pulu, Jesus asked the pulu, what do you want? And the pulu said, I'm in darkness, I want to see. They're like, no, like yes, like really, no. And then I'm like, wait a second, am I really being an effective speaker here or is something wrong? And at that point I knew something was wrong, but honestly guys, I had no idea what. And it wasn't until after the lesson and I went home and I started looking through my notes and I went, how do you recover from that? Guys, a broken vessel. Because it's not about us. Because if God can use an Iowa guy that talks like that, and yet people begin to understand the gospel message. It displays the power of God. Second thing is this. Well, let me just say this. God's not necessarily looking for those who have a lot to give, but he's looking for those who can tell of all that they have been given. Second thing that makes a clay pot beautiful is this. The cracks reveal Jesus. Romans 8, 36 through 37 say, just as it is written, for your sake, we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things, we are overwhelmingly conquer. We overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. See, guys, the thing that's beautiful about clay pots is when they do have cracks and holes, the cracks reveal Jesus. When we moved into the apothecary, I was 26 years old. At that stage in my life, I was pretty confident. This healthy young guy going in. I was adventurous. I was ready. I could take it on. Within the first six months, I started having pain in my chest. One night it got so bad, my left arm started to tingle. I had shortness of breath. My chest felt like it was constricting. Tried to get my wife up, and we thought I was having a heart attack. It kind of went down, but then it happened again. My wife got on the radio with our medical team trying to assess the situation. Eventually, we got out to a town, got it checked into a hospital, and they were able to do a test, and they found it wasn't a heart attack, but I was having pericarditis, where the lining of your heart fills with water and starts to compress on the heart. Not much longer, I ended up in Australia, on the ward with all the old men who were actually having heart issues. And at that point in time, I wondered, God, am I going to be able to do this? And he had to show me that actually, no, you're not going to be able to. But these cracks reveal me. It's not your strength. It's going to be me that does the work. We went back into the tribe, and the report was that I'd suffer with that for the next 15 years. you know, though it never came back. And I believe it was just God saying, this isn't you. We have four girls. There's a big gap between our third and our fourth. And that's because we went through a time of loss in the tribe. My wife was expecting our fourth at the time. and went into labor early, had some issues, and gave birth to a little baby boy. And the tribe, we wondered, man, if we had been here, I might have a son. Instead, he's buried next to our house in the village. But the master knew that as we were building those relationships and sharing with people, when women would have miscarriages in the village, they would always accuse the mother. You killed your baby. And they started accusing my wife. You killed your baby. And it was at that time that Colossians 1 came to her mind, where you've been able to suffer so that you can share with those who also suffer. And there's a little chip away that we don't understand. But as people began to see how we were responding, and how my wife was responding, and how there was still hope, it deepened those relationships, and people saw, you have something else. because the cracks reveal Jesus. These two pots here come from a village called Bilbil. It's near the center now because one of our roles now that we're on the support side is to teach three months worth of classes to some of the new missionaries that come to Papua New Guinea. And we take them to this village that's not far from where they first come and arrive in Papua New Guinea. And this village is known for making clay pots. They collect sand and clay and they do the traditional way with the rocks and everything. But what's kind of cool about this place in Bilbao is that each artist has their own way to carve out, scrape, cut, dig. And then as they finish up, they put them in this initial fire. They start this really hot fire and they put the clay pot in. And what happens is it starts to seal in all around these scars and these cuts. And it leaves black marks that at first kind of look like it's going to burn and singe everything. But then as it's later taken out of the fire and left to dry, it creates a beautiful pattern. And it points to the author, the creator. of this work. And they told us, they kind of do it now for tourism, and they say, hey, if you get one with a lot of holes and a lot of cracks and scars, you can put a candle in it and it shines through. Now, we don't always know why we have the holes and scars and cracks, the marks, But God is working with His vessels, purifying it, strengthening it, so that the light of Christ can shine through. This man's name is Tokyo. When we moved in, this man formerly was a witch doctor. He was one of the first believers. that heard the gospel as we were working through those lessons, even before we presented them to the village. We were working through making sure they were understood, and he got saved. He lived in this village, and one night, in the middle of the night, he came and knocked on my door. And he said, Aaron, you got to come with me quick. There's a guy that's come down from another village, he's here, and they're accusing him of working sorcery, and they've beat him up really bad, and they're gonna kill him. We gotta go rescue him, we gotta get him to the aid post. And so I jumped in our truck, there's a little dirt road, and it was about two miles away where this village was. And it was the middle of the night, and we drove down to this village. And he jumped out, and he went into one of these huts looking for this guy. Because they had heard him bad. And then they had gone off to get their machetes. And he went in and he came back out and he said, he's not here. So he started going into another hut, looking around. And he started going into another one. And he couldn't find him. And then we looked across the village and on the other side of the village, here come some flashlights with guys with those machetes. And they were looking for him too. And they started going house to house, looking for this guy to kill him. And we were on the other side of the village. And Tokyun kept trying to find this guy. We couldn't find him. And finally he goes, we just have to go. So we got back in the truck. These guys were getting closer to us. And as we were exiting the village, I was pulling out and there's big tall grass on the sides of the little dirt road. And a guy jumps out in front of us, hits the hood. And I didn't know what to do. And my friend Tokyun, he says, stop, stop, stop. And he said, that's our friend. And we pulled up and they got into this big grass and they drug the guy out that had been beaten up. And he was all battered and bruised and bloody and one of his eyes had been knocked in. And we put him in the back of the truck. And by that time, the crowd that was pursuing him, when the guys put the flashlight on, saw us and they started yelling and started running at us. I jumped in the truck and we took off just as they were getting to us. Now I had two miles of road to get back to my family. And I didn't know if these guys were going to chase us and pursue us and what would happen if I went past my house an hour away to this aid post and left my family. So I drove as fast as I could. I pulled into our house. I woke up Lori and said, get our go bag, grab our girls. You got five minutes. I ran across the road where at that time we had a single co-worker and I woke her up and said, we have to go. I'll explain later. Grab your go bag. You got to get in the car now. And we all piled in with these guys in the back and the injured guy and our go bags and our computers and we took off down the road. Now the aid post, this is one that is very similar to it. It's not all that fancy. It's a cement block building, no running water, no electricity, a few of the basic supplies, a nurse aide that works there. And we got there and I was holding the kerosene lantern over the guy so she could work on him, clean him up, give him stitches. We stayed there for a few hours and we eventually left him there at the aid post and we drove back. We got there early in the morning. The crowd hadn't come to our house. Everything was fine. And we were okay. Now I thought that was the end of this story. But there's more to it. I never heard about what happened to that guy. He wasn't from our village. He wasn't from around. I'd heard he'd gone back. He'd gotten better. He'd gone back. Before we get to that part though, let's look at what else the beauty of clay pots does. It makes our faith grow. Verse 13 says this, But having the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke. We also believe, therefore we also speak. Knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, And you and will present us with you that first verse there 13 can be confusing It says but we having the same spirit of faith according to what is written. I believe therefore I spoke that's a quote from the old testament and And paul is saying we have the same faith that grows just like those guys that said I believe therefore I spoke we have that kind of faith that grows because we're these vessels and So I looked up where that verse came from. What is it talking about? And it's Psalm 116, 3. It says this in verse 3. It says, Death wrapped its ropes around me. The terrors of the grave overtook me. I saw only troubles and sorrow. Then I called on the name of the Lord. Please, Lord, save me. As you read on down through this psalm, it talks about these things the psalmist is going through. And then in verse 10, he says, I believed you. So I said, I am deeply troubled, Lord. That's where this quote comes from. I believed you. In my anxiety, I cried out to you. These people are all liars. Wait a second. This psalmist is talking about how tough it is, and he cries out to God saying, I believe in you. These people are all liars. And now Paul is saying, we have the same kind of faith that says, I believe, therefore I spoke. In other words, man, as we go through hardships and difficulties in the midst of that, we can still say, I don't know what's going on, but I believe you, Lord, because we are these vessels that are prone to crack and break. And if we're focused on the vessel itself, we're in trouble. But if we're focused on what's in us, we can say, I believe in you, Lord, you're doing something. After we had the church going in Papathar, I was actually taken to village court. They took me to village court and there was a crowd of opposition against us because the gospel message wasn't real popular everywhere. It went against some of their animistic teaching. It went against some of their cults. And people were starting to leave those things and join the church and there was this jealousy going on. So they took me to court. And they were asking me why we had come and what we were doing. And as I was talking, some of the youth over on the side, they carry their machetes with them everywhere. It's just the way of life. One of them lifted his machete and started to chant, cut him up, cut him up. Father, you told me to come here, right? And plan your church. I'm in trouble. And I was starting to get a little a little angry, a little upset. And when the believers beside me said, it's okay. It's all right. God's in control. And I was just able to settle down. And the village judge said, you know what? This whole thing is just escalated too much. I don't hear any truth in it. We're just, we're going to disband. Our faith can grow because we're broken vessels that often face trouble. Same thing happened to Tokyung after we left and moved out of the village in 2017. The church was going well. It was continuing to grow. Tokyung, the one earlier, he became one of the pastors of the church and was teaching and reaching out to his community and his neighborhood and his village. One day he came down from the village and he had a traditional, what they call a gorgor on his door, where he was not allowed to go back into his own home. And when he was gone, the village basically met and kicked him and his family out of the village. Because they have this animistic belief. And he used to be one of those witch doctors. And just like this guy is spitting this combination of stuff on this guy to give him power so he can dance well and have the ancestral spirits come in and dwell in. That's what Tokyo used to do, and now he was standing for Christ. There are also these religious groups that we're meeting, building churches. Ironically, at their opening, they had one of the witch doctors there and one of the pastors there to dedicate this church building and to try to ask the missionaries, God, and all the spirits to protect this building. And Tolkien was saying, you're missing the point. You don't have it right. And they were starting to mix the message. They were getting pieces of it. They heard the word God and they knew that Jesus and there was a cross. And so they put these crosses up and then they put the traditional why in front of it, which they did for other things to protect it from evil spirits coming at it. And Tokyo, now that he understood the gospel in his own language, began to teach that and went against the grid, the mindset of the people there. And they said, you're not allowed to come back. In fact, the little teaching house where we were right before we left, we showed up one morning and they had knocked it all in. But Tokyung wasn't originally from that village. He'd lived there his whole life, but his mom lived a six hour hike up the mountain in another village. And so as a church, they met. And that village up in the mountain had been asking us for years to go there and teach them. But we couldn't. We couldn't abandon the church there on the coast. But the church met and they said, Tokyo, that's your mom's place. You have land up there. Why don't you go up there and live? And we talked and he said, man, this is just like the book of Acts. And God's using this persecution to scatter His message. And they moved up there. And they built a house and a garden. And they started, guess what they did? They started building relationships and learning the culture of that place. And then they started teaching literacy. And then with the Bible portions, they began teaching God's Word to the people. Our faith can grow even through these things because of our play pots. Look at this verse, verse 15. For all things, for your sake, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. Fourth thing that makes a vessel beautiful is that more vessels are reached. He uses fragile clay pots to reach fragile clay pots. Here's a big clay pot. Out in the foyer, there are little ones just like this. I'd like each family unit, when you guys leave today, to grab one of those. And remember, that fragile clay pots is what God uses to make more fragile clay pots. filled with the glory of Christ. Over 40% of the world's population is still considered unreached. What's God going to use to reach those folks? Fragile clay pots. Unreached means they are without adequate access to a clear, cultural, relevant teaching of the gospel in the language they know best. And they lack ample opportunity as a body of believers to grow unto maturity in their knowledge of Christ. So what's God going to do? He's looking for some clay pots to use. That's the beauty of clay pots in 2 Corinthians 4. The last thing is this. Sorry, I'll go back and read the scripture there. Therefore, we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, anybody feel that? Yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Chapter five, verse one says this, for we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house made not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Last thing about the beauty of clay pots is this, we get a trade in this vessel for an eternal one. You looking forward to that day? We could turn this thing in for something a whole lot better than a broken clay pot. While here on earth, eager to be that broken clay pot. And because of that, God's power is displayed. The cracks reveal Jesus. Our faith is grown. More vessels are reached. And we eventually get to trade it in for an eternal one. Let's move on and finish up to the application. I want to go back and just hit a few points from a couple verses as we close things down. The application. That is why we, as broken Fragile clay pots continue to speak. Verse 13 says, but having the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I believe, therefore I spoke, we also believe, therefore we also speak. Continue to speak and share the word of faith. God's not looking for those who can open doors as much as he's looking for those who are willing to walk through them. Romans 1 16 says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God to salvation. Second thing is this as fragile clay pots for 16 says, therefore, we do not lose heart, though our outer man is decaying, yet the inner man is being renewed day by day. We never give up. Don't throw in the towel, don't say, well, you can't say I can't do it, you're right, you can't. But it's not about you, the clay vessel, it's about the power inside. So when you feel like you can't, rely on Him. Romans 8.11, But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, your clay vessels, though His Spirit who dwells in you. Last application is this. Fix our eyes on the unseen. Verse 18, says, while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. We don't look at the things around us that are all going to burn up. Our houses and our toys and our properties and everything we live our lives for, the temporal. Let's look for the eternal. I went back up to the village in the mountains about a year ago. And Tokyung said, hey, I've been teaching a while. The church is going well. But there's a new group of guys that have been really growing, and they're actually wanting to become Bible teachers. So I've been meeting with them, and we've been doing some trainings and some teaching. I'd like you to spend some time with them. So I met with these guys, Tokyung's there in the front on the right. And as I'm talking with him, I notice the guy there in the green has a bad eye. So later, I was talking to Tokio. Hey, that guy there, he's got a bad eye. What happened to him? You don't remember that? In the middle of the night, when I knocked on your door, they bashed his eye in. Yeah, he is from this village. Now he's a believer. Now he wants to be a Bible teacher. God used that former sorcerer to start a new clay pot. I challenged the youth the other day, there's only two things that are going to last forever. The Word of God and the souls of men. What are you doing with those two things? Father, thanks for this time. Help us to be your vessels willing to be used for your glory. Amen.