Treasure in Earthen Vessels 9-6-2026

Welcome to the Life Family Church Sermon Podcast.

If this is your first time listening, you can check us out on our website at lifefamily.church or on Facebook at LFC Beardstown.

Now let's get right to the message.

There's a scripture I want to read in Psalms 34.

It says this: I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Do I have anyone in here that the praises of God is continually on your mouth?

My soul shall make its boast in the Lord, the humble shall hear of it and be glad.

Hallelujah.

And then he goes on to say this: Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.

Come on, somebody, let's lift up our hands and let's exalt the name of the Lord.

Lord, we love you.

Lord, we love you.

We love you, we love you.

Lord, we love you, we love you, we love you.

We packed the potty or thank you.

I want you to hear the rest of this.

Verse 4 says, I saw the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all.

Everybody say all.

He delivered me from all my fear.

They looked to him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed.

The poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him from all his troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamped all around those who fear him and delivers them.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Blessed is the man who trust in him.

Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, there is no want.

Come on, there is no want.

No want to those who fear him.

You younger lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

Hallelujah.

Come, you children, listen to me.

I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Who is the man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Depart from evil and do good.

Seek peace and pursue it.

The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.

The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance, the remembrance of them from the earth.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord, but the Lord, but the Lord, but the Lord, I'm gonna say it again, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

He guards all his bones, not one of them is broken, evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.

The Lord redeems the soul of his servants, and none of those who trust in him shall be condemned.

Hallelujah! Glory to God! Glory to God! Thank you, Jesus.

Oh Lord, we love you.

We thank you.

We exalt you, we adore you.

Hallelujah! Glory to God.

You will never fail.

In two thousand twenty, my wife and I bought a house on the river, and we were so excited about it.

We were excited about many things.

Number one, I was excited about it was on the river, and I could go fish anytime I wanted to.

Praise the Lord.

And then, secondly, another thing I loved and I missed when we were living in Oklahoma and we were in other places.

I missed having a fireplace.

And I remember we walked in the house, there was a fireplace on the right.

And my kids will remember this day because it was not my best moment.

I was so excited to build a fire.

And we had the fireplace checked out, everything was good.

The chimney was inspected, all's well.

I piled it full of wood, put some kindling in there, put some old newspaper in there, and it was ready to go.

And I was gonna have it all going when you got home from work, and it was gonna be just burning and pretty, and you're gonna say, Wow, honey, thank you for building a fire.

And I was putting logs in it, and I'm like, it's time, it's time.

So I lit the fire, and when I lit the fire, smoke started billowing out of the fireplace, and I'm like, oh, that's not good.

And it kept going, and I'm thinking, maybe it was just, maybe it just needs time to take.

You know, maybe the draft is like weird.

But it kept coming out of the face of the fireplace.

And smoke began to fill the room, and the the whole house was full of smoke.

And I'm like, I don't know what to do.

The fire- I mean, the house is like a wooden, like, there's wood everywhere.

It's not good, and there's fire coming out of the fireplace.

Now it's starting to creep up the brick into the mantle area.

And I'm like, I don't know what to do here.

So I'm like, kids, go outside, get on the porch.

Do y'all remember that?

You don't even remember that?

I'm just lying, I guess.

Do I have where my boy?

Where's Parker?

Where are you at?

Do you remember that?

Okay, thumbs up.

We're good.

Alright, I'm like, whoa, maybe I need to go back and research this, but you guys can be seated.

Don't don't stand up for this.

You all can stay up here for a second.

You're not dismissed.

I remember that smoke was coming out of the fireplace, and I'm like, I checked everything.

It should be fine.

But there was one thing I didn't check, and I'll tell you what that is in just a moment, but I had to run into the kitchen and get fire or water out of the sink and keep pouring it on that fire in the house.

And I don't know about you, but there's there's certain odors that just I don't like.

One of them's ashtrays.

And my house smelt like an ashtray.

It was awful.

And after it was all done, and my wife came home and let me know how thankful she was for my manliness of starting a fire, and she came back, and of course she's like, What happened?

There's black all over the front of the fireplace, and I'm like, the walk of shame, like anyways, later on I inspected it, and what the problem was is as I was putting wood into the fireplace, I hit the flu and it knocked it shut, and all of a sudden everything started filling up with smoke.

And I was thinking about how when Solomon was dedicating the temple, and how they dedicated it, all of them were together in unity, the musicians began to play, the priests were worshiping, and the Bible says the glory of the Lord filled that house, and the priest and those who were working in the temple could no longer do their job because the glory of the Lord had just rested in that place.

Now that was Old Testament, but in Acts chapter 2, we see a different story.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

We see a story where they were all in one place, of one accord, seeking the Lord out of obedience, doing what they were asked to do.

And the Bible says, like a rushing mighty wind, the house was filled, and a fire sat on them.

Cloven tongues like a fire sat on them, and they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And from that moment on, I believe the damper was opened, and the fire was kindled, and it was hot.

And the Bible goes on to proclaim, Paul he wrote this that we have treasure in these earthen vessels.

That know you not that your body is the temple of God, and that the Holy Spirit came to dwell on the inside of us.

And he didn't come to the inside of us so that we could blow smoke.

He put a fire within us so that when we proclaim, things change.

When we operate in faith, people's lives are changed.

I want to remind everyone in here, we don't just worship just to experience God's presence.

We worship because the word of God declares that we are instructed to.

We are to worship the Lord in faith.

Sometimes, like Jimmy said this morning, we don't feel like worshiping the Lord.

But when we worship, something changes.

Lives change.

Hearts begin to melt in the presence of the Lord.

The fears that you were carrying when you walked in here just drop off.

And the joy of the Lord, which is your strength, starts to bubble up on the inside of you.

And you start to get a boldness and a confidence and a hope, knowing that God will meet all my needs according to his riches and glory.

Hallelujah.

So before we are done worshiping, let's just lift our hands together and thank God for his glory.

Thank God for his power.

The precious Holy Spirit.

We thank you.

We thank you.

We thank you.

Hallelujah.

Praise you, Lord.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

You guys, you guys can be dismissed now.

How many of y'all like this uh this worship team?

I'm kind of fond of them.

I kind of like them a lot.

And it's cool that you're using this organ over here now.

I like that.

Awesome.

Praise the Lord.

Today I'd like to introduce a family that came from Tulsa, Oklahoma to come and see us.

There's a Southern gospel band.

I'm just I told them last night when they come to the house, I'm like, I kind of made a mistake.

They're like, what'd you do?

I'm like, kind of told everybody to show up tomorrow because there's a southern gospel band family coming.

And they're like, this is Jerry and Brittany, and uh they're the Hertzbergers.

They're family.

They they have uh Joseph back here, and Jocelyn, Jessica, and Joanna.

They're all the Jenny family.

Good people.

We met them in 2000, I believe it was 2008 or 11.

We were at the college weekend.

We were thinking about wondering, and they were too.

And we met them there, and from that moment on, we become friends, and now it's like 2023.

And we're still friends.

It's good when God puts a friend together.

And it is something that's just different than just meeting someone at a bar.

God put us friendship together.

Hallelujah.

Um I do encourage you if you'll come out on Wednesday night.

Sometimes my best stories are on Wednesday night.

So you don't want to miss those for sure.

Last Wednesday I talked about the one time I hit the bees in my yard.

And um I remember I was on a ride mower, and uh, of course, I'm the one that mows the yard in the family.

I'm not like Nate Vargas' wife.

I'm the one that does the work in the house, amen.

Anyways, I was mowing and just having a good time, mowing my yard, excited about having a house.

And I hit this stump, and when I hit the stump, all of a sudden a million bees starting swarming out of that stump.

And I don't know I don't know about you, but when bees are stinging you, you just don't stand still and take it, do you?

I mean, do you just stand there and bees are just stinging you all bees on me?

Wow.

No, I'm not gonna show you what I did, because I don't want to embarrass my wife today, or my kids, or all his kids.

But man, I started doing the Holy Ghost shakes, man.

I started running, shouting, dancing, and my neighbors probably thought I was crazy.

And I remember going out and getting gasoline and porn and all that stuff, and um they all died.

You know, the gasoline kills them, right?

But how many of you men know you just can't let gasoline go to way?

So I had to light the fire.

I mean, the whole ground started shaking, man.

It was awesome.

I love it.

I love burning things.

I'm like Heather.

You just love burning stuff.

Where are you at?

Oh.

Hey, why are y'all over here?

Y'all are confusing me here.

Everybody's sitting in different places.

Grandma, why are you doing up here?

You're normally back here.

What's going on?

Keeping me on my toes.

But I I have another story about bees.

See, that's on Wednesday nights.

You gotta be here for the fun parts, all right?

But, anyways, um, I remember as a young kid, I lived on the corner of Whaley Lane and Pickens Gap.

Anybody all know where that is?

I don't have any takers on that, do I?

Only think my kids know where that is.

But, anyways, that's where I lived in Knoxville, Tennessee, uh on the corner of Pickens Gap and Whaley Lane.

I was a young kid, and I probably wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

Uh I was I hadn't been filled with the Holy Ghost yet, so I wasn't very wise.

Um thank God for the Holy Ghost makes us smarter than we really are.

So I remember uh for some reason, don't know why, we um well let me back up just a moment.

We had this beautiful apple tree.

And we all have apple trees.

I had this beautiful apple tree.

I wouldn't mind it as my dad's buttons.

I love this apple tree.

It produced some of the best apples, and I love guitar apples.

You know what I'm saying?

I like those kind of apples.

I still like sour stuff.

Anyway, sometimes I just say the word lemon in some of y'all like that apple tree produces some of the best fruit.

But how many we know when you have fruit that's growing in your yard, you also have something that comes along with fruit.

This apple tree had some of the best apples.

There was so many horns on this tree.

They decided to build a nest on the apple tree.

I guess they figured that's just going to build a nest tree.

I was already playing baseball at the time.

I was a bit true.

And my dad was pretty rough.

Don't tell him I said this when he comes.

When he was training me to do that.

If I threw a ball, I would have to run a ladder on the baseball.

That's normal, isn't it?

No, I I had no grace whatsoever.

So I was a I was a decent decent picture.

So I could hit things.

So I took this rock in my hand and I decided for no reason whatsoever.

I'm just gonna hit this one again.

So I took the rock in my hand and I started throwing them.

I probably missed a couple times, but finally I made a connection.

I don't know what I was trying to do.

I don't know what what I was gonna gain out of this.

Like I really don't.

I don't know what my mind was thinking, like, what happened?

I don't know if I was even thinking what was gonna happen if I hit this thing.

All I know is I didn't hit it.

I made a connection.

And when I did, you're thinking.

And I'm probably at least three or four foot away from my house.

And I'm standing there with this morning.

Jumped over walls.

That was me, man.

I was inspired.

I was running.

I promise you, if I was timed on the 40, I would have, I would have been, I've been playing professional baseball right now.

I would.

I would.

But those bees chased me and chased me, and I promise you, I was watching those bees out of the peripheral vision, and they're right here at my eyes, and I'm looking at them, and they're looking at me, and they're like, what?

You want some?

And I promise you it had to be God's anointing or whatever, but I did not get stung by one bee.

Praise the Lord.

But I remember stirring up a hornet's nest.

And I believe this church is about to stir up a hornet's nest.

This is the word of the Lord today.

This church is about to stir up a hornet's nest in this community.

Get ready.

We're about to go running.

We're about to have some fun.

We're gonna go.

And we're gonna operate by the Spirit, and we're gonna have the character of God to sustain it.

This is the difference.

We've seen the glory of the Lord manifested in the world.

We've seen great moves of the Spirit of God.

We've seen all these outpourings happen.

But somewhere down the line, man gets involved and they put their hand on what God is doing.

That is not what we're gonna do in this place.

We're gonna learn to yield to the Holy Spirit and take our hands off and allow the Spirit of God to do what He and only He can do.

All we're gonna do is we're gonna learn how to be yielded vessels.

The Bible says the righteous are instruments.

That's exactly what we are.

We are instruments of righteousness.

You notice that God puts an emphasis on righteousness, and righteousness is the very thing that God Paul attacked everywhere he went.

He preached the message of righteousness.

And for that, he had a mark on his back.

And everywhere he went, demon spirits hated him.

I'm gonna tell you something.

You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

And when you get a revelation of that righteousness, guess what?

There's gonna be a mark on your back, and the enemy does not like what you're getting a hold of.

But mark my words.

When you get a revelation of the righteousness of God, that's when miracles, signs, and wonders start to manifest and things start shaking.

Because you know who you are in Jesus' name.

And you take that name and you use your authority and you go after the enemy, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.

Hallelujah.

We have the power of the Holy Spirit on the inside of us, and nothing can defeat us, nothing can stop us.

And if we will take that power and that spirit out there and we'll begin to release it in the community, we will see positive change everywhere.

And this church will result.

The things that will happen will be powerful.

We'll start seeing more and more.

More and more change will start to manifest every day as we begin to release what God's put on the inside of us.

I'm very tempted to preach my message, but this is what I feel like the Lord has put on my heart.

The last few weeks we've been preaching on the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

And the enemy knows that if you get a hold of this, it's going to do something.

Because many people are still walking in condemnation, guilt, and shame.

And they feel rejection and they don't want to go to church because they've been there before and they did not come out any better.

But I prophesy over these doors that when they walk through these doors in the name of Jesus, they come in and they leave changed.

They come in feeling condemned, they leave feeling like they're loved.

And it's not enough just to have the power of God on you to display things.

We need to maintain that same intensity and that same love and that same joy every single day we come in here.

So that the atmosphere is always charged with expectancy.

I remember a preacher saying years ago, the spirit of expectancy is the breeding ground for miracles.

When you come in expecting, you will leave full.

Amen.

Wednesday night we talked about Proverbs chapter 1, and in Proverbs chapter 1, there's a verse that says, Incline thine ear unto my sayings.

Proverbs 1 · chapter mention Proverbs 1 · chapter mention

And I took a chair on Wednesday night and I set it on the stage, and I told everybody in here exactly what that means.

I was sitting on the edge of that chair, and I was leaning in with my ear.

That's what it means to incline your ear to my sayings.

That means you're turning your head to hear clear.

God is speaking.

Are you listening?

God is speaking over your life.

Are you listening?

Are you hearing what the Spirit of God is saying?

When he speaks, he speaks clear.

He doesn't vacillate his words, he doesn't change his word to fit our experience.

But he changes us with his word.

Too many denominations have been created because they did not get what they thought God should give them.

So they dumbed God down to fit their experience.

We should never put God in a box.

We should speak the word only.

The Bible says that the centurion servant said, Just speak the word only, and my servant will be healed.

We need to be people who are word people, hungry for the word of God, ready to come in every service and lean forward.

I read one illustration of that verse says, it's like a horse.

Y'all know what horses do when they when you start talking to them, their ears go like this.

That's what we do when we come to church.

We put our spiritual ears on and we come in to hear what thus saith the Lord.

And you're ready.

Are you receivers in here today?

I told them Wednesday night, receivers are those who are always prepared to hear and not only hear, but to do.

And if there's a disconnect, for example, this lapel, the other day we had trouble with it and it wasn't working.

And we were trying to figure it out.

But what happened was the receiver back there was turned off.

There was a disconnect.

So there could have been excellent words coming out of my mouth, right?

Amen.

Great words.

Anointed words, praise the Lord.

Coming out of my mouth.

But you would not have heard it.

Why?

Because there was a disconnect.

Jesus is speaking.

The word of God is speaking.

Are you hearing what thus saith the Lord?

Are you hearing what he's saying today?

Are you understanding that the glory of the Lord dwells on the inside of you?

Amen.

This is what God is saying to you this morning.

The glory of Almighty God dwells on the inside of you.

You see, if we really understood that, we would be like that bee, would be like me on that bee's nest.

Because we would not be able to sit still.

We would be running and dancing and shouting.

Praise God, the glory of the Lord lives on the inside of me.

Amen.

Glory to God.

Only in I know on the inside of every one of y'all, you all are dancing right now.

I just know it.

And I'm not looking for a pity dance.

Don't give me one of those.

But man, it's so good.

It's so good to know that we have a God who loves us so much that not only does he want to be with us, he wants to be in us.

And he is here today.

Why?

Because when you walk through those doors, the glory of the Lord came in with you.

You need to stop looking at yourself as less than what the Bible says about you.

Now you don't need to think more highly of yourself than the Bible says.

But you need to consider what he says about you.

When the enemy comes and he speaks lies over you, you need to put up the guard and filter every word that comes against you through the Word of God and determine: is this from God or is this from the enemy?

Because the enemy, guess what?

He's speaking to.

And he wants to dominate the narrative in your mind.

He wants to whisper lies in your mind to keep you defeated.

Because he knows if you get a word from God, that will take you from glory to glory, from strength to strength, from righteousness to righteousness.

But he can get in there and put a wedge in between God and you and make that receptor disconnect.

And you can't hear clear.

All of a sudden, the words that God's speaking to you, you're no longer hearing and receiving.

We have to be people who are very, very much like a bulldog.

How many of y'all anybody have a bulldog?

Anyone have a bulldog?

I want to make sure before I make fun of them.

Anybody.

You have a bulldog.

You used to have a bulldog.

They're slobbery things, aren't they?

Yes.

All right.

Our friend has a bulldog, and that thing just drills all the time.

It's so nasty.

There's nothing more nasty than a drilling dog.

It's just gross.

And I don't want to pet your drilling dog, so don't ask me to pet your dog.

But you gotta be like a bulldog.

One thing I love about bulldogs is if they get a hold of something, they're not letting it go.

That's what they come up with that phrase, a bulldog mentality.

That's what we need in the church today.

Every time we come into church, we need a bulldog mentality that I'm gonna get everything God says to me today.

And I'm not gonna let anything go.

It's mine.

That's why I love my dog Ruger, the one I cut, shaved halfway, and got in trouble for it.

Because someone in the church called my wife and told on me.

I'm not gonna say who.

But um, you know.

Listen, when I tell you stories in confidence, don't be calling my wife and, you know, telling her.

These things are personal, so.

But our dog Ruger, man, he loves tug of war.

And he'll sit there and play all day long, wanting to hold on to whatever it is he's got in his mouth.

That's it, that's how he is.

He loves that kind of stuff.

He'll wake up at four o'clock in the morning and I think, oh, he's got to go outside.

No, he wants to go play tug of war with me.

So I'm in the living room at four o'clock in the morning pulling this fish that he likes to tear to pieces.

And we're just sitting there fighting over this fish.

I don't even want the fish.

But man, we've got to be people who are hungry for God's word.

I told I just believe that in this day and age where we are today, you need the word of God on the inside of you because you're gonna need it.

You're gonna need it.

You're gonna need it more than you've ever needed it ever before.

Because there's an enemy that's out to kill, steal, and to destroy.

And whenever he comes out to kill, steal, and destroy, you need something on the inside of you that's more powerful than what the devil's presenting you.

You need that.

When you're going through a struggle in life, what comes up out of you in that time is what will deliver you.

You need the word of God.

I'm encouraging everyone in here today, reflect back to a time in your life where you were consuming the word of God.

And tell me, anyone in here, tell me that your life did not increase for the better.

Everyone knows that when you're when your eyes are set like flint on the word and you are listening to the word, reading the word, preaching the word, doing the word, that your life is changed.

It's time to get back to that.

It's time to become a word church.

I didn't say a denomination, I said a word church, a church that's full of the word of God.

So whenever you're hit, what comes out of you is the word of God.

Amen.

I work construction, and many times people would hit their fingers or get a splinter in their hand.

And I'm gonna be the first one to tell you the first thing to come out of their mouth was not, praise ye the Lord.

Yes.

I'm not gonna say what they said, because I get in trouble.

But it wasn't praise the Lord.

What was on the inside of them came out.

And I'm telling you, when times get tough and you need the word of God, it better be in there.

Because if there's nothing to draw on and you're going through a trial, you're in trouble.

Amen.

But you can learn from the word everything and anything you need to learn to be delivered in any trial and any test.

Any time.

You have that, it's available.

Praise the Lord.

Now, this morning I'm gonna speak my second message, but I won't speak very long on it.

I was gonna speak this morning on the obedience that affects others.

And kind of the whole gist of it is this every decision you make today affects people in future generations.

What my great grandmother years ago prayed out, worshiped, spoke, her faithfulness, her willingness to serve the Lord is still producing fruit today.

My great-grandmother was a prayer warrior, she was a worshiper, and she'd get behind the piano and she would begin to speak in tongues and worship God, and the whole church would be touched and lives would be changed.

And that inspired my mother, who got behind a piano and began to lead worship in a church.

And my mother tells me a story of how she was leading in worship, and like a tornado, the doors opened up, and one by one, everyone in that church building began to fall into the presence of Almighty God.

The glory of the Lord entered the room.

That inspired me.

I want more of that.

I want to see that kind of stuff.

But then what got on the inside of me is this the way that I treat others affects my kids.

The way that I read the word of God affects my children, and not only my children, but my children's children.

Children, children's, children, children's.

What you're doing today truly is the beginning of something that will affect hundreds of thousands of people.

I heard this testimony, and I'll end with this, and then we're gonna take communion.

I heard a testimony, and how many of you guys have ever heard?

Is it Josh Josh Howerton?

Josh Howarton was telling a testimony, and I really liked it, and I wanted to share it with you.

I wanted to make it my own, but I didn't get it, so I'm gonna give him the credit.

Anyways, he was talking about how people's lives are changed from people that are unknown.

And how there were two boys that stumbled upon a tent meeting, and they showed up late.

There was a lot of noise, worship that was going on, and they walked up to the tent meeting, and there was nowhere to sit.

There was a guy preaching by the name of Mordecaiah Ham.

And they'd never heard this guy preach before, so they were there, but they didn't find a seat, so they decided to leave.

So they were walking away, and this usher ran up to them and said, Hey boys, don't leave.

I'll find you seats.

So the usher worked his way and found a Samaria moved some people over and said, Hey boys, come over here.

Sit right here.

And every time I've ever heard about the story of a boy named Billy Graham, I always hear, wow, the guy who preached to Billy Graham, his name was Mordecai Ham.

But then there's an unsung hero in the story.

It's the usher that nobody knows.

Nobody, there's not a name on this usher.

He was someone who was just volunteering.

And he reached out and he took those two boys.

The one boy was Billy Graham, the other guy was the guy that took Billy Graham and orchestrated all the ministry events all over the world.

Glory to God.

You don't know what you're doing when you're sitting in these pews.

Your obedience and your sacrifice and your faithfulness, what you do, is making an impact for generations.

Your prayers, your praise, your getting up here and playing the guitar and singing, You were made for more, all these things you do are making an impact for future generations.

You might never be known, but God knows what you're doing and you're making a difference in people's lives.

This community is going to be impacted because, Chuck, you are faithful and you serve the Lord.

Come on.

You don't have to have a spot on stage.

You don't have to be flashy, you don't have to wear cowboy western shirts and have boots on.

You just need to show up and worship.

Show up and just exemplify who God is and love people.

I believe that this church is going to be the most kind church in this area.

And we're going to love people when they come through those doors, and they're going to sense something different about us.

And it's going to be true.

It's not just going to be a word we say, it's not going to be a cliche, but they're going to they're going to know that, man, when you walk into that place, the people just are so kind and loving and just good people.

Praise the Lord.

And that's going to impact people's lives.

Gosh.

Praise the Lord.

That was a good message.

Maybe I should have preached that.

Praise the Lord.

At the end of this message, I transitioned into communion.

And I said, when Jesus took the bread, he said, This is my body, which is given for you.

I think this is for me personally and for you also.

We need to remind ourselves.

Something I could say when I was reading this is Jesus had a purpose.

It wasn't just to die for your sins.

And this is where I heard a guy say this one time and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

But then all of a sudden it's like, yeah, that makes sense.

Jesus did not just come here to die for your sins.

He came here to be obedient to the Father, even to the point of death.

You don't just come to the church for you.

You come with the intention of I give up my life for you.

I serve in this body.

I join in the connection team.

I join in the Usher team.

I join in the youth ministry.

I join with the children's ministry.

I join up.

I hook up.

Why?

I give myself to you.

Because you can make a difference in somebody's life.

And this is exactly what happened.

Jesus didn't just come to die for your sin, he came to give himself to the Father 100%.

And when he gave himself to the Father 100%, then the result and the fruit out of it is you received the opportunity to be born anew.

So his obedience gave us the opportunity to have redemption as a possibility in our life.

And if you're in here today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're not just giving your life to the Lord because it's the religious thing to do.

You are literally laying your life down and saying, I am no more.

My desires are no more.

What I wanted is no more.

What I dreamed of is no more.

I give it to the Father.

And the Father, he'll say, Okay, I'll take that.

And I'll use that.

And then those who lose their life will find it.

Amen.

This is not a popular message to preach in churches because people like to do what they do and say, God bless it.

That's not how it works in the kingdom of God.

We give our lives to Jesus, give our lives to the Lord and say, do with me whatever you want to do.

And Jesus, I remember when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, not my will, but thine be done.

And if it takes me going to the cross, I will do it.

No matter what it takes, I lay my life down for you, Father.

We need to be people who are surrendered to the will of the Father.

Amen.

If you're in here today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I would encourage you to make that decision today.

If you've never confessed Jesus as your Lord, this is the time.

Let's all stand up.

I know I was kind of everywhere today, but I just I just felt inspired to just speak what was on my heart, and I hope it was something that you got you definitely got something out of.

But um I really want anyone in here that has not received Jesus, this is an opportunity for yourself to come up here and I will pray with you and lead you to the Lord.

So if you're in here, if that's you, come on up here.

Amen.

Anyone?

Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord.

All right, and the next thing I want to do is this.

If you're in here today and you have not fully surrendered yourself to God, but you're still holding on to what you want to do versus giving yourself to God fully, I want you to make a commitment today.

It's called a prayer of consecration and dedication.

It's when you commit your life to God anew and fresh.

I'm not saying you have to come down and be born again, again, but I'm saying this.

You need to make a commitment that I'm gonna yield myself over to God 100%.

Amen.

So, Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, I yield myself to you afresh and anew, and I commit myself to you, and I lay my life down for your glory and your honor.

Father, I want everything that you want, and I'm willing to lay down my dreams, my desires, and pick up what you want me to do.

I want your call to be fulfilled on my life in the name of Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Glory to God.

Amen.

When we take communion, the Bible says that we're not supposed to take it unworthily.

Meaning, if you're not born again in here and you don't know Jesus Christ, we're not trying to be mean, but this the communion is not for you.

It's for those who are born again.

So if you're in here today and you're a born-again Christian, you're not a, I didn't say you were perfect.

I didn't say that you were, you had everything together.

I said you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior who is perfect, who is holy in everything.

Our faith is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

Everything about Him is right.

And we're not putting our confidence in ourselves, but upon Jesus.

So when you take communion today, let's focus on who he is and how he dedicated his life to the Father, 100%.

And the results that came out of it are standing right here beside you.

This is what Jesus did because he obeyed the Father.

Think about what you can do, what this whole church could do if we all obeyed the Father.

Amen.

Amen.

So let's all partake together, but before you uh take of the emblem of the of the Lord's broken body and and and the uh spilled blood, if you don't mind to hold on to the emblems or the, is that what is emblems or elements?

Hold on to it until everybody's been served, and then we'll all take together.

Amen.

So my wife and I are going to grab this, and Chuck's gonna help her out a little bit.

I do that.

Oops.

All right, here we go.

Amen.

Luke twenty two, verse nineteen.

It says, He took the bread, and he gave thanks, and he broke it.

And he said to them, This is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let us all partake together.

Thank you, Jesus.

Likewise, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.

Now it goes on to talk about Judas and how he was a betrayer.

Jesus, I wanted I wanted to make sure that you got a hold of this today.

That Jesus said, I gave up my body for you.

When we make a commitment to one another, we give up ourselves to you.

Someone told me years ago that's what a marriage is.

Is when you give up yourself to one another.

And your dreams become one dream.

And most problems begin in marriage when you've got two different visions and we're not going in the same direction.

So, as a family, if you're partaking together as a family, I would encourage you to remember this is my body that was given to you.

And when we make a commitment to the Lord, we we make it and we make a covenant with the Lord.

And he said, This is the new covenant which was shed in my blood.

So as we drink, now I've told you before, this does not become blood.

This is a representation, a symbol of the blood of Jesus.

And as we drink, we remember the covenant he brought and gave us.

And he will not break his covenant with us.

Amen.

Let's all partake together.

Thank you, Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Worship you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Well, if you're in here for the first time and you're a visitor, we just we want to say thank you for coming.

We're so glad that you came today.

And for those of you who haven't been here for a while, you're back again.

Welcome home.

It's good to see you.

And uh it's so good to have everyone here in the house of the Lord.

I just love it when this place is full and this place is just there's an excitement level.

Um, will you come back next week?

Because um my mother-in-law and father-in-law are coming.

And uh I want them to know that I've amounted to something.

No, they're they're excited about coming.

So Tiffany's mom and dad will be here, and uh man, it's gonna be fun to see them.

They're excited to see the church.

We've we've talked so much about you guys, and uh so you guys are on uh on notice.

You're gonna have to show off a little bit Sunday, all right?

But no, but man, please be here on Wednesday nights.

We are just, I mean, man, it was powerful last Wednesday.

Um, everybody came in excited to hear the word, and we were just we just had a good time.

Man, any more announcements that you can think of?

The women's meeting Thursday night.

That's gonna be at the breadbasket and the men's meeting.

Now, listen, guys, don't wimp out on me.

Be here for the men's advance.

We're gonna have such a good time.

And if you can't camp out, that's fine.

Just come hang out with us as long as possible.

And when you're done, leave and uh you get the best of both worlds, amen.

Free food, and then you get to go home and sleep on your bed.

So, amen.

Well, God bless you.

You guys be blessed, and we will see you soon.

Amen.

Thanks for listening.

We hope that this message helps you draw closer to God as you walk out of your faith.

We'll see you next week.