We've been sitting for a little bit, so why don't we stand, if you're able, and we'll read three verses here in Joshua chapter one. Joshua 1.1, now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. And then verse three, every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you as I said unto Moses. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, again, Lord, we thank you for just giving us the health to be here today. And as we open up this precious book, Lord, I pray that you'll speak to our hearts and help us to glean some things from what you've recorded for our benefit. about this servant, Joshua, and how he led his life, Lord. May we be instructed by it. May we be encouraged and convicted by it. And may we maybe change the way we're living accordingly. So Lord, I pray that you'd be with my lips this morning. Help me to communicate this message. Help me to do it clearly, succinctly, understandably, Lord. And I pray that you'd set me aside and just use me as your mouthpiece to say what you once said. to the hearts of your children here this morning. I'll pray above all else, Lord, that you would be honored and glorified and ask in the precious name of our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. You may be seated. So have you ever thought about what a daunting task that was? Have you ever thought about the sheer size of, let me wait, I'm gonna stop here and back up. I'm gonna start making some stuff on the potter's wheel. I'd probably be off in another Neverland here. So I wanna say this right away. Keep in mind, I'm gonna be making some stuff on the potter's wheel. And of course, I hope you know who the master potter really is. And I wanna say this and I'll explain it later. The little statement I wanna preface this message with is that God is in the shaping business. And because he's in the shaping business, you and I need to be in the serving business, okay? And I'll expound on that a little bit later. Let me get busy here. So roughly two and a half million people. I don't know, I know they crossed over on dry land, but have you ever tried to imagine what that looked like? You know, let's say we're flying over that area in a helicopter. What would that look like? And do you think that they went over single file? I doubt that. And I don't know how wide a path it was that they crossed in. But let's, and keep in mind it wasn't just them, not just all those people, but all that stuff and the animals they had. And by my estimation, the closest I could figure, let's just say for argument's sake that they were about 200 people wide going across this thing. That'd still be a very wide group of people. That line of people would be 15 miles long. This was an amazing, amazing undertaking. And to think about Joshua being in charge of that, we just assume, I don't know why we assume it, but we must assume, I always did, that Joshua certainly must have been very courageous just to accept that responsibility that was placed on his shoulders. But again, why should we think that? Look in verse, Verse 6, this is the Lord speaking to Joshua. And the Lord says to Joshua in verse 6 of Joshua 1, be strong and of a good courage. So Joshua wasn't necessarily that way already. The Lord had to tell him to be strong and of a good courage. Look in verse 7. The Lord says again to Joshua, only be thou strong and very courageous. Look in verse 9. The Lord says, have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. And then if you look at the very end of verse 18, this is the nation of Israel. And the nation of Israel, I think, is either singing or chanting in unison back to Joshua, only be strong and of a good courage. I looked up the word, Courage, courageous, forms of the word courage in our Bible, not in there many times. In the entire Bible, that word or words like that from the root word courageous or courage, only 26 times. The interesting part of that is that the first eight times that word is used in our Bible, it's right into the ears of Joshua. 10 of the first 11 times into the ears of Joshua. Even the word encourage, which is only, I think, four times in our Bible, first two times to Joshua. Joshua wasn't born courageous. He was shaped to become courageous, which begs the question, does the Lord want to shape you for courage? courage to step up to the plate and ask the pastor, hey, that ministry you just mentioned, I can do that. How about maybe step up to the plate and pass out that tract when it's really outside of your comfort zone to do so. Maybe God wants to shape you for the courage to go soul winning. I don't know if your church does that on an organized basis. If you don't, maybe God wants to shape you for the courage to do that on your own. just to make an effort to pray about it and go out and try to witness to somebody and maybe lead someone to the Lord. And I'm not saying you need to try to force that. It's better to kind of just let that happen. But if he's already shaped you for the courage to pass out tracts and invite others to church, then hopefully he's gonna shape you for the courage to open your mouth from time to time and maybe give the gospel to somebody. Mommy, maybe the Lord just wants to shape you for the courage to put that scripture verse on the back of your vehicle, or that scripture sign in your yard, or maybe put something on the wall of your living room, or how about that, something at the front door of your house, a little verse. Maybe the Lord wants to shape you for the courage to actually follow through and read your Bible all the way through, whether you do it in a year or five years or whatever. But I hope most of you are doing that on a regular basis, reading your Bible, every word in your Bible all the way through. How about maybe he wants you to shape you for the courage to start tithing, or to join a church, or maybe you men need to be shaped for the courage to be the spiritual leaders in your homes. And I don't wanna let the women out of this. Maybe the Lord's trying to shape you for the courage to not assume that responsibility, but to step aside and allow your husband to be the spiritual leader in your family. Turn to 2nd Timothy. 2nd Timothy chapter 2. 2nd Timothy 2.4, the Bible says, no man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him that hath chosen him to be a soldier. Maybe the Lord wants to shape you for the courage if you are entangled with the affairs of this life to get disentangled from the affairs of life. I'm going to encourage some of you younger folks here that maybe aren't as entangled in the world as some of us older folks have gotten. Don't get entangled with the affairs of this life. You know, very interesting point about this verse. If you're using a King James Bible, you'll notice that the word this is italicized. And I'm sure most of you know that the only reason we have italicized words in our King James Bible is because those translators, not finding any manuscript evidence, not finding that particular word, in this case the word this, in any of the manuscripts they had at hand, but led by the Holy Spirit of God for whatever reason or reasons, they felt they needed to include that word. But in their honesty, in their transparency, they're telling you, look, we didn't find that word anywhere, but we've inserted it anyway. We just wanted you to know that's from us, not necessarily from God. I don't know if they'd go to that length to say that. But here's my point. That verse makes perfect sense without the word this. It says no, it would read like no man at war entangled themselves with the affairs of life, right? Versus this life. But what about that extra meaning we're getting from this? What am I saying? I'm saying that our Bible says don't get entangled with the affairs of this life, but by implication, go ahead and get entangled with the affairs of the life to come. That's the life you want to get entangled with. And that's a principle that we have in our Bible. And I get that principle is substantiated or reaffirmed when I look at verses like Colossians, where Paul said, set your affection on things above, not on the things of this earth. Matthew records that Jesus Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount, lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, because of the moths and the rust and the thieves, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Because there's no moths and there's no rust and there's no thieves. And then John quoted Christ as saying, labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life. In other words, we get that principle all throughout the scriptures. And this principle is this, don't get entangled with the affairs of this life. If you want to please him, if you want to glorify him, if you want to be mobile enough to do the things he wants you to do. You see, when you get entangled with the affairs of this life, pretty soon you are just overwhelmed with this life. You talk to any missionary that has gone to the foreign field, when they realize they have to get rid of almost all their earthly possessions before they can leave, it kind of dawns on them how maybe entangled they are. I know when I went to Bible school in 2003, I felt very entangled. That's why I like this verse. It's got a special meaning to me. 2004, I started Bible school. In 2003, I made the decision to go. And it took us about six months to get rid of most of the stuff in our house. We still had a business in South Florida, a pottery business. And the Lord took his time on disentangling us from that. It took another year and a half. but we left anyway, and during our absence, during that first year and a half at Bible school, he not only got rid of our store, he got rid of our house, any extra cars we had, which I think were only one extra car that we had, and a few things like that, but he really got us disentangled. And what was he doing? He was preparing us to be able to go places. He even got rid of our dog while we were in Bible school. The dog passed away. It was like 16 years old and all that. But still, I mean, he made us very mobile. He made us where we had no excuses not to be going from this place to that place. That's what he had in store for us. Listen, you talk about someone who was not entangled with the fears of this life. Think about the Lord Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry. He was born. in a borrowed manger. He preached in a borrowed boat. He entered Jerusalem on the back of a borrowed colt. He had that last supper in a borrowed room. He was crucified on a borrowed cross, and then they buried him in a borrowed grave. You talk about someone that had nothing. Do you realize that there was a point, it's recorded in Luke 9, where a certain man comes up to Jesus Christ and says, I'll follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And he says something like this to him, he says, you know, foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. Christ had nothing. He was definitely not entangled with the affairs of his life. As a matter of fact, during his earthly ministry, he needed a coin for a sermon illustration, and he had to send one of the disciples out to get a, borrow that coin, so to speak, out of the mouth of a fish. Boy, what an example. You know, I don't know if you thought of what your definition might be for the word courage, probably something like I would come up with, you know, to be fearless, to be brave. I thought a better definition of courage is not to be strong, not to be brave, but a definition for me, I would come up more of a Bible definition, I think, is to be to trust in God. Because to me, trusting in God is faith in action. And that's what he was shaping Joshua for, just to be faithful. Shaping him for faith. I get that definition when I start to examine some of the heroes of faith. Like Gideon, who took 300 men up on that mountaintop to destroy 135,000 Midianites. I think of Elijah who confronted 450 Baal worshipers. By the way, 450 Baal worshipers, that's the exact same ratio as 300 to 135,000. Kind of interesting. How about David when he went up against Goliath? How about Paul? Three missionary journeys, do we think he was just courage or did he just have a lot of faith? A lot of faith to just step out one step at a time in faith, not knowing maybe where the second step or third step, and certainly not those steps months and years in advance where they would take him. Every one of those missionary journeys the Apostle Paul went on started with a single step of faith. I came across this little saying, maybe you've heard it before. It says, fear knocked at the door, And faith answered, and nobody was there. You see, you can't have fear and faith. They don't coexist together. So maybe what God really wants to do is shape us for the faith to start tithing, to get involved in a ministry, to join the church, to read our Bibles, to do any of those things, passing out tracts, and maybe some of these things, especially extricating ourselves from the affairs of this life, repudiating that by actually making some kind of outward show of our commitment to not live according to this world. Joshua is not only shaped for courage slash faith, but he's also shaped for companionship. Turn to 1 John 1. 1 John 1. Keep your thumb there in 1 John 1, but go back to Joshua, Joshua 1. Joshua 1.5 says, there shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. There's a principle there. Pastors sung about that a little bit. You know what God wants? He wants fellowship with us. He wants friendship with us. You know that friend that sticketh closer than a brother? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants that friendship with us and he wants it right now. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. I gave you that principle from Luke where Mary and Martha are sitting at the feet of Jesus. That's the principle of the Lotter Fellowship. So I mentioned these verses in 1 John 1 if you're still there. 1 John 1 verse 5 says, This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. Not only does God want your fellowship, your friendship, but He wants it right now. He wants you to abide in Him. And why does He want those things? Look in verse 4, 1 John 1, 4. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. Do you realize that true joy, the joy that's available to each and every child of God, is the joy that comes from having that close walk with our Lord and Savior? That's what He wants. And in your heart of hearts, you want that too. It's just that we're enticed by the things of this world that have that strong pull on our lives. Joshua was shaped for courage slash faith, shaped for companionship. He's also shaped to be a witness. Go to Joshua 24. In Joshua 24, pick it up in verse 26. It says in Joshua 24, 26, Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone and set it up there under an oak. That was by the sanctuary of the Lord. Verse 27, and Joshua said unto all the people, behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it hath heard all of the words of the Lord which he spake unto us. It shall be a witness with you, or unto you, lest ye deny your God. Now if you got a Ruckman reference Bible, raise your hand if you use one or you have one at home maybe, whatever, okay, a lot of you do. He's got a great footnote there about stones and the fact that I think he said 34 centuries before that. which is when Joshua was writing, scientists came to find out, and I think he said 1993, if I'm remembering correctly, that scientists realized or found out that they could actually recover vibrations from a stone, something that had been said, they could recover those vibrations 24 hours later. I mean, that was 30 years ago when they could do that. Do you realize there's something about stones that record all of these things that are said? And God's gonna download those stones someday. Ruckman, he refers to some of those things in the Bible that all these, your smartphone has chips in it. And those chips are basically what they call rare earths. They're stones, computer chips. And he named some of the different types of stones they are. Listen. You and I were saved so that you and I could be witnesses. 26, where Paul is giving his personal testimony to King Agrippa. And he's telling what the Lord Jesus Christ actually said to him on the road to Damascus. And one of the things he told Paul on the road to Damascus is that, I'm appearing to you for this reason, to make you both a minister and a witness That's the same reason he saved us. The great commission is for us to go into all the world, right? Under the uttermost parts of the world and teach and preach and spread the gospel. That's our commission. Go to John 16. John 16, the Lord has started a few chapters before that, realizing that he's just hours away from appearing on that cross at Calvary and doing all that. But he realizes that he wants to start comforting the disciples. informing them that he has to go away. And when he does go away, he's going to send the Comforter, the capital C, the Holy Spirit. He says, and if I don't go away, the Comforter can't come. And he's just trying to reassure them. If you've got a red letter Bible, you'll probably notice that starting around John 14, and for about five chapters there, it's just a red letter after red letter. It's almost Christ speaking that whole time. But he says this in John 16.8. talking about the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. He says that when He has come, that Comforter, that Holy Spirit, He will reprove the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. Now, if you have Calvinist tendencies where you think that God has chose people from the foundation, from the beginning of time, who would be saved and who wouldn't be saved, then you probably appreciate that verse. Because that verse seems to think that, hey, what do I have to witness to people? The Bible says no man can come to me, no man can come to Christ unless God draws him to me. Now, he's telling that to his disciples during his earthly ministry. But keep in mind, if you're born again, you've got God living inside of you. So you know what your responsibility and my responsibility is? Is to open our mouth and give control of our lips, our tongue, our vocal cords to the Holy Spirit so that you and I can be used to reprove the world of sin. How do we do that? Well, we remind people that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We remind people that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We reprove the world of righteousness by informing, educating, if you will, lost people that only the righteousness of God can get a person into heaven. And by the way, according to God, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. But we have available to us the righteousness of Christ, which is necessary. And it's a free gift. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. We need to reprove the world. of that righteousness. You know, we have the same problem, at least lost people do, as the nation of Israel. I think that's recorded in Romans chapter 10, the first few verses there. It says, they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. And that's what the world needs to know. We need to submit ourselves that we already have if we're born again to the righteousness of God so that we can get that free gift, the free gift of eternal life. We and I, you and I need to allow the Holy Spirit through our surrendered time and energy and voice and the efforts and the things we do to reprove the world of judgment. reminding a lot of believers that know nothing about the judgment seat of Christ. They are gonna stand before God one day and give an account of their works. Now, it's not just eat, drink and be merry. It is if you wanna be, but you can eat, drink and be merry and still be out there serving the Lord Jesus Christ and have some things to show for the days of your salvation. We need to tell lost people that they're gonna stand before God at a judgment called the great white throne one day. And that's just a, quick stop on their way to an eternal lake of fire. And that's not gonna be a party. That's gonna be cast into everlasting darkness. The Bible says there'll be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And it's eternal. It's not gonna be a temporary punishment and then they are destroyed or annihilated, however you wanna say it. It's an ongoing, eternal suffering forever. versus eternal life in a real place called heaven. I mean, the choices, who wouldn't want to make that choice? You and I need to explain some of those things to people. So our responsibility is to reprove the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. And the God who lives inside of us will do the heavy lifting if we make ourselves available to him, his purposes, his pleasure. Go back to Joshua chapter 18. Joshua was shaped for courage slash faith, shaped for companionship, shaped to be a witness. He's also shaped to receive an inheritance. Here in Joshua 18.7, the Bible says, but the Levites should have no part among you for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance. Now the context here is they've conquered the land of Canaan and they killed a lot of people and they've taken over their possessions and property and now Joshua is doling out these land grants to the 12 tribes. It just so happens that, as we just read, the Levites don't have a land grant of an inheritance. Their inheritance, it's said, is to be the priest. The priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance. Guess what? That's the same inheritance you and I have. We are, beloved, now are we the sons of God. And we are called priests and kings in that Bible. And we are gonna inherit, I mean, we're inheriting everything. God owns everything. And we're not joint heirs of Christ, we're joint heirs with Christ, according to that Bible. Turn to Colossians chapter three. I spent a half an hour or so a year ago here in this church talking about your earned inheritance. I just want to remind you of a couple of verses here. You and I have a potential earned inheritance that will be given out at the judgment seat of Christ. It says here in Colossians chapter 3, I think we'll pick it up in about verse 22. Whatsoever you do, do it heartily, yes, unto the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. That's your earned reward. You don't have to turn there, but in 2 John 8, it says, look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. I'm not going to go on and on about it like I did a year ago, but you have a potential earned inheritance and God gets pleasure from giving you that earned inheritance and he's going to give you that earned inheritance if you earn it at the judgment seat of Christ. Now I mentioned Major Ian Thomas in Sunday school, and one of the books he wrote, The Mystery of God in Us, he made this statement, because the key to your earned inheritance is your fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you and I abiding in him, and then allowing him to do those good works through us, and our responsibility, basically, to make ourselves available. just to make ourselves available. And the way Ian Thomas, I love the way he said it. He said, all of the inexhaustible supplies of God are available to the man who makes himself available to all the inexhaustible supplies of God. In other words, what he's saying is, God has an inexhaustible supply of, you name it, love, mercy, knowledge, wisdom, understanding. Think of the fruit of the spirit. Love, peace, joy, gentleness, goodness, long-suffering, faith, meekness, temperance. Anything you can think of, God has, not to mention just material, physical things, God has an inexhaustible supply of those things. And the man or woman or child of God that makes himself available to those things has access to them. We all have access to them, we just need to make ourselves available to them. Go to 2 Timothy chapter one. I think I made this point talking about the sanctification process last year, how a lot of your earned inheritance is gonna be dependent on us sacrificing, surrendering, serving, and being sanctified. And that word sacrifice, is something we don't like to think about. Suffering, we don't like to think about that. But we've got to realize the way God uses those words. When it comes to sacrifice, I think it's in Hebrews, it says, talking about Christ, he says, let us therefore offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. That verse is telling me that when we thank God, and praise God. He counts that as a sacrifice on our parts. What's so hard about that? Thanking God. Then why don't we do it more often? Would be the question. 2 Timothy chapter 1. I can remember those verses. I think in verse 7 it says something about, thou therefore, my son, be not ashamed. Oh, no, it says, for we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And then he goes on to say, thou therefore be not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner, something like that. But let us be partakers of the afflictions of the gospel. And again, that doesn't sound like a good thing, does it? I don't want to be a partaker of afflictions. But you being a partaker of the affliction of the gospel is you coming to church on Sunday, school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. It's you reading your Bible. It's you presenting the gobble, handing the gospel tract to somebody. It's those things. That's partaking of the afflictions of the gospel. It's really, it's really, not that, I mean, I don't know, I want to sugarcoat it. I'm not saying there won't be times when you and I will be called upon to physically or emotionally suffer, to physically suffer, but a lot of times it's just these things about us thanking God in advance, us getting out of our comfort zone, making ourselves slightly inconvenienced, slightly uncomfortable, adjusting our actions to serve someone, being sensitive to their needs, being sensitive to the opportunities God has given us to do something in his strength, not our own. Now, because I'm occupied up here doing this, I want to remind you of this template I put on the board. And I may do it in a minute here. But if you think about Revelation 4.11, we were created to please God. And that verse tells us that we can please him by glorifying him. Revelation 4.11 says, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. All right? God created us to bring Him pleasure. We get that pleasure when we glorify Him. He gets that pleasure. Then I mentioned to you in John 15.8, the Bible says, Herein is my Father, this is Christ speaking, herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. So you want to glorify God, according to Revelation 4.11, that pleases Him, then you need to bear fruit. How do you bear fruit? By doing good works, according to Titus. Titus said, when Paul wrote to Titus, he said, we need to be careful to maintain good works, lest we become unfruitful. So you get the works. You do the works to bear the fruit. The fruit is what pleases God, and that's what glorifies Him. And then we, one day, we read these verses talking about the judgment seat of Christ. There's coming a day when we will stand before God at the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of those works as to what sort they were, what were our motives for doing those works. That's how simple it is. You wanna receive that inheritance that He wants to give you? Then it's gonna be dependent on you and I really obeying the mandate in Revelation 4.11, doing things that please Him. Turn to Joshua 24 again. I met a potter up in Nashville. She's a woman that just does a few meetings a year, and primarily in larger churches. and almost exclusively two women. And she's got a pretty neat little setup. It's not as elaborate as mine. She's got some of these. If you've ever seen the missionaries have them sometimes, it's like a big banner, but it pops right up out of a little tube. You know, it's a big cloth thing. She's got a couple of those for her background. She's got a little potter's wheel there, and she sits down and makes pottery. And I think she makes just one piece while she's talking. And there's a certain point during her message where she literally just has music in the background for about five minutes, doesn't say a word. And sometimes I think, I should just do that. I just can't bring myself to actually do it. But I'd love to just get involved and actually make something up here that, the way I wanted to, you know, not the way I'm rushing through it to do. But here, let's get back to the message here, Joshua 24. I'll explain the method to my madness here in a minute. Joshua 24. Beginning in verse 14. Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth. This is Joshua. He realizes that he's coming to the end of his life on planet Earth and he assembles the people to hear his kind of final words of wisdom. And that's what he's saying there. And he says in verse 15, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua was saying, hey, people, Make up your minds, who are you going to serve? Now we read about it in Sunday school a little bit in the book of Romans, that before we were saved, we were serving the God of this world. Maybe not knowingly, but we were. And I will tell you this, even as a saved man, woman, or child, if you're still focusing your time and your intention on yourself, or the pleasures of this life, then you're serving the God of this world. He is the king of the children of pride, by the way. Joshua said, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I told you about one of the ways you can repudiate the world. is by putting a scripture sign, not necessarily inside your house, which is a wonderful thing. My wife does a lot of artwork. And on her artwork, she tries to incorporate a scripture verse of some kind. So by default, we have a lot of scripture that way on the walls of our home. And we have just moved to a new house And one of the things I want to do is have a little plaque made something tasteful not in your face or really big But I want to put up part of this verse here But as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord You know and I was preaching in Montana a couple years back for John Habman. John is not a PBI graduate, but he has three sons that are, at least two of them graduated PBI, and they're all pastors of churches. John was telling me that early on in ministry, his pastor, the man that mentored him, gave him a plaque that said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And it was made out of copper or brass or something like that. And he's had that at his front door of every home he's ever lived in. And I want to have something like that at my front door. Just a subtle little thing. When people visit your house, or maybe it's just a delivery man dropping something off, there's a little witness there. Those are the types of things we should be considering doing. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Well, obviously the focus of Sunday School, the focus of this message is us allowing God to shape us for that service. And I guess, as I mentioned in the beginning, God is in the shaping business, therefore you and I need to be in the serving business. And that is one of the, I'll call it a subliminal message that hopefully you've already gotten from watching me make these vessels on the potter's wheel. Because this wheel is nothing more than a type of planet Earth, going round and round, round and round, And day after day, night after night, you may think that the circumstances in your life are all coincidental or accidental, but they're not. God is allowing and sometimes causing all these little, seemingly insignificant circumstances in your life so that he can shape you as you're serving him. Because that's the other message. The potter almost never shapes the pottery unless the wheel is spinning. It's a picture of you and I being shaped as we're out there trying to serve the Lord. And I guess one of the things I'm trying to get across to you is the excuse I hear way too often is, I'm just not ready. I just don't know enough. you will never be ready, you will never know enough. Or I could say it, you're always ready and you always know enough. It's really the truth. Because when I said God is in the shaping business and you and I need to be in the serving business, what I'm telling you for a fact is that God is gonna push you, he's gonna pull you, he's gonna prod you or propel you into some act of service. for him so that he can in fact shape you as you are serving him. That's when he shapes you. You don't get ready to serve. You jump out and serve so he can shape you. And at the same time, he's shaping you, hopefully through your efforts of serving his strength, not your own. You are shaping the heart of that person you're trying to serve. So, you know, I try to make it really simple. I couldn't think of anything more simple than this. Let's see what I got here. This is a picture of a potter's wheel, okay? Top view, pretty simple. The wheel's going round and round and round. He's shaping us so we can serve him. As we're serving him, he's shaping us more so we can serve him better. It is a never ending thing. You and I need to be asking ourselves the questions. Lord, help me. We should be praying earnestly. Lord, help me to take advantage of those opportunities to serve you. Obviously not in my strength, but in your strength, Lord. And that's what abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ is all about. You know, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12, seven, but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all. God put himself inside of us, that Holy Spirit, to do the heavy lifting, right? And he gave us that spirit so that we could profit from it. How do we profit? When do we cash in? At the judgment seat of Christ. Of course, you cash in during this lifetime, too, really, not only by pleasing Him during the days of your salvation, but probably encouraging, comforting, and serving other people lost and saved to life. You know, so there's all kinds of profit going on. It's just not the Holy Spirit is given to all men to profit with all. It's the manifestation when we allow that spirit within us to behave, to act. And I said this last year, I'll say it again. The keys to us realizing that we're doing something in the Lord's strength and not our own is if it makes us uncomfortable. If it's inconvenient, those are usually the hallmarks of us doing something that will glorify God. There's all kinds of things that we can do in our own strength that are good things, but not necessarily glorifying to God. One other thing, our responsibility to be on the wheel, to be out there making our yielded vessel available to God so he can shape us. And then the key, something I mentioned in Sunday school, the key is to spend time in God's words. You've seen me make all these vessels up here. What was I doing? I'm showing you that God has created billions of souls, right? We are vessels of clay. And some of those vessels are small, some of them are taller, some of them are wide, some of them are narrow. We're all unique. God's got unique things for all of us to do. He's actually ordained things for us to do at different times in our lives. We just have to make ourselves available. available vessels for his service. When I mention the water, These vessels I'm shaping up here, I'm continually dipping my hands in this water. And I usually drip the water down my hand like this. I've got my thumb inside the vessel, my fingers inside, actually, the thumb outside, the fingers inside. When I drip the water down here, it goes down and covers the exterior surface area and the interior surface area. I'm trying to lubricate those surface areas so that my, the clay does not stick to my fingers. I'm bringing this back to the word of God and how important it is. What I'm telling you is that in one respect, the potter's fingers never touch the clay. What's touching the clay is the water. And we touch him through the water of the word. And that's how important it is. Because clay that is not exposed to water starts to harden immediately. And in order for that clay to remain soft, it needs a continual exposure to the water. For us to serve the Lord, to be effective, to fulfill our potential, to serve Him the way He created us to serve Him, we need a continual exposure to the Word of God. We need to satiate our spirit with those words. Allow God to shape you for faith, for companionship, to be a witness, to receive an inheritance, and above all, to serve the Lord. Amen. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for what you've shown us today. And Lord, I pray that these pictures would come back to our minds and our remembrance. And Lord, if they would encourage us to take advantage of those opportunities that you give us to please you by serving others, to glorify you by stepping out of our comfort zone, by adjusting our actions and so forth. Lord, you're such a wonderful savior. You do so many things for us, many of which we're not even aware of. But Lord, help us to be used by you to serve one another. I ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Pastor?