Shock and Awe

The title of today's sermon is Shock and Awe. Shock and Awe. It's a military term for... that was used actually in the Gulf War. It became very famous as General Schwarzkopf would use that term. And I'll give you that as it's in behind me here. I'll give you a little more title. It's a term for tactics used to show overwhelming power in dramatic displays, forced to paralyze an enemy's perception on the battlefield and destroy their will to fight.

And here you have these dramatic pictures up here. Land, sea, and air, as the power of the United States is shown in these pictures, whether you're an aircraft carrier or whether you're a fighter jet, where you have ballistic missiles, submarines, even atomic weapons on the submarines, and of course the land forces. This, to most countries in the world, to have to face this in war would be a shock.

Would be a shock as it was to Iraq so many years ago. It's actually funny because Saddam Hussein told our troops before we came in that you better bring a million body bags as his guard was going to wipe out our troops. Well, we did things a little bit differently and hit him when he wasn't expected, how he wasn't expecting it. And next thing you know, you had those strong soldiers of his climbing out of foxholes, climbing out of buildings, and throwing down their guns, and giving up because it was a display of shock and all.

But this term I'd like to present to you today was not just from even the Gulf War from General Norman Schwarzkopf or the leaders, but it's a term in which I would like to say that God used it because God can do shocking things with awesome, awesome outcomes. And he has shown that down through the years.

He has shown that he's capable of doing things that will blow people's minds, that boggle people's minds. Those of us who have lived through maybe different times in World War II. We first got that vision when we saw the explosions of the bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and how it just devastated the country in the area.

And next thing you know, their declaration of war was soon over. You even have it in biblical times, whether it was in Hezekiah and Isaiah's time at the Assyrian army, whether it was under Sennacherib or Ashurbanipal or any of the former Assyrian leaders that wanted to strike fear, paralyzing fear, where people were not only shocked, but they would stand in awe of what they had seen or what they were seeing. The Assyrian army, when they captured a city, it happened in different times in different cities in biblical years, they would surround the city, and if city didn't give up, then they would siege the city.

And once they broke through the walls or came over, then it was mass genocide. They would take the men and they would line them all up, those who were still alive, and they would make them kneel before them, at which time they had a counter that came through. And most of the soldiers for Assyria worked on booty, worked on how much money they would get once these city walls came down, what they could get from the cities.

And one of those that they were paid for was head count. That's where the term head count came from, as they had all these people kneeling before them, and some soldier would hold the head of some guy, and then they cut his head off, and then that would be one.

And he may have captured five, and then a man would come through for the government of Assyria and keep that, and he'd be paid by the head. And then they would take the other slaves, and they would make them cut poles and line them up and down the city that, outside the city, and put these heads on these poles. And so after they were done, when somebody came through and they saw with this devastated city, the rubbish and everything that was there, they would then see all these poles, and sometimes they would go for thousands of feet of just heads on poles. And many people would know the Assyrians had been there.

Shock and awe. I'm hopeful today, as we will look at a couple of examples of shock and awe in different degrees, even from the biblical explanations that we have in the Bible, and the explanations that we get, also historical things that tell us about these events. Because I want to make a point today that God is still performing shock and awe in different degrees. We know what will happen down the road. We know what the Great Tribulation will be like. We know what's in the future for this world, unless it repents and turns around. And from all accounts, it doesn't seem to be doing that, but it still has a chance. But we can read from the Bible some terrible shock and awe. But we can go back and look, because I want to make this point today, because as a speaker, if you want to be a great speaker, one man once said, you never make a point without telling a story. And you never tell a story without making a point. So with this shock and awe today, I want to make the point that God is still doing this, sometimes in your life and sometimes in mine, and sometimes both at the same time. It may just not be the degree we're going to look at today, or maybe it will be. I want you to look at that. So I want to go to the first example of shock and awe in Genesis 19. Genesis 19, we all know the story of Lot, Sodom and Gomorrah, and you know, raining brimstone and fire down on Sodom. But I want to look at the story to make my point. You've been there through this before. I've given messages on it, but I want to look at it in a different way here. So we're going to go through with the new King James Version. I'll be reading here, making a couple points, and then hopefully we can see if we were there. Would we be like Lot? Like his daughters? In shock and be in awe.

So let's go. Genesis 19, verse 1. Now two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. So obviously sitting at the gate means he was a judge. He was a ruler. He was some way that was important. We also know this Sodom was fortified then, if there was a gate around it. And that it tells us, or the Talmud historical book tells us that Sodom existed for 52 years. And so that gives us a little background. The one thing that they haven't, they've been arguing about for decades is they can't find where Sodom was. They keep looking at the Dead Sea. They look at this, and I know I've studied archaeology, and they think it's over here, and they think it's over here, and they think they really don't know because it was wiped out. It was totally wiped out. Some have thought that the population was only 12,000 to 2,000 people, but one of the sites that they came up with found the graves over 500,000 graves in one site in the Dead Sea, where the Dead Sea is now. So there's much argument. So I don't know how big the city was. It was well known, so it was a decent-sized city. Well, let's go on as Lot sees these two angels. He rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. So obviously, he knew who they were. He knew what they were. And he said, here, now, my lords, please, turn into your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise early and go on your way. And they said to him, no, but we will spend the night in the open square. Not ideal to do inside him as Lot knew. This was a depraved city.

Degenerates, depraved individuals. This is where he was living, as the Bible tells us in another part, that even though he lived there, he was vexed. It bothered him, but he still stayed there, didn't he? That was his home. It's interesting. As they were saying, at that time in history, the average house in the Middle East at that time was 16 foot long and 10 foot wide. Under 60 square foot was the entire house. Not very big compared to our houses. So you can see how compact this was. And you had a wife, two daughters, and now you brought into other men, quote, men into the house. So let's go. Verse 3.

But Lot insisted strongly, so they turned into him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread and they ate. Now before they lay down the men of the city, the men of Sodom, look at this, both old and young, all the people from every quarter surrounded the house. Can you imagine that? Surrounded the house. Why? Verse 5. And they called to Lot and said to him, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.

That we may know them. They want to have sex with the men. They want to have sex with angels. They didn't know they were angels. They were just obviously good-looking men or something. I don't know. Maybe they were looking like Brad Pitt and George Clooney walking together. I don't know. But I'm just glad that I don't have Jeff and Mike come over to my house tonight in Deerfield Beach and have men knocking at my door wanting at them. So yeah, it was bizarre to me. That's shocking. That would happen. But God says it shouldn't be too shocking because it's probably going to get worse than this in the last days. So this should wake us up that, wow, this was a mess. This was a mess to try to be a follower of God and live in this environment. And would it have an effect on you? I think we can see right here that it does. I think any of us that lives in a city that is just so full of violence and wickedness, it's going to affect us.

We will be vexed, as the scriptures say. So let's go on down to our story. Verse 6 says, So Lot went out to them through the doorway and shut the door behind him, and said, Please, my brethren, or my brothers, do not do so wickedly. I wouldn't be saying they're my brethren or my brothers if I were him. Maybe he was trying to patronize them, being he felt fear. So now I have two daughters. What?

What's he saying? Read this again. This blows my mind.

See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man, virgins. Please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish.

Talk about a warped mind.

Only do nothing to these men. Perhaps he knew they wouldn't do anything to his daughter, as one commentary says, and so he made that offer. Well, you see that offer back in Judges one time, and they threw the concubine out, and they did whatever they wanted to do to her, and virtually died. So this was not a good environment.

Since that is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof, there's also this agreement that you're responsible for anybody in the Middle East that comes into your house, and that just loses a lot of credibility when you think about it. So even here, he's dealing with a depraved mind in his own. He's rationalizing. I mean, obviously, he knew who they were. Didn't he expect them? I would have turned to them and said, you're going to have to get me out of this one. Verse 9, and they said, stand back. Then they said, this one came into reside or temporarily live, as they say sojourn, and he keeps acting as a judge. Obviously, he was trying to tell them in the past whether he was sitting at the outside as a judge by the gates, is where judges typically sat are people of men of renown, who people would ask their advice and ask judgments on things. But so obviously, he'd come in. They knew he wasn't like them. And he said, now, we will deal worse with you than with them.

That means you think we're going to get them. We'll rape you, too.

So they pressed hard against the man lot and came near to break down the door. But the man reached out their hands and pulled lot into the house with them and shut the door. And they struck the man who were at the doorway of the house with blindness. All of a sudden, all these men. How many were there? Quite a few. All were struck with blindness, small and great. So they became weary trying to find the door. He struck them with blindness, and they were still trying to get at these men. How perverted! How disgusting! It must have been.

So now you know why you know the rest of the story. Because God says, it's only going to go on so long.

He'd take care of it, just like he's going to take care of it at the end of days, when there'll be worse as it was in the days of Noah. Think about that. Like to go down now, because even blindness couldn't stop their perversion. But let's go down, since you know that story in verse 24 of chapter 19. Said, then the Lord, as you know, they drug Lot and his wife out of the city. He couldn't get his son-in-laws to come. They thought he was joking. If I knew what the angels were about to do, Lot did. I'd make sure my son-in-laws didn't know I was joking. But was their mind so lost and so depraved that they didn't even care about it? They just thought, oh, it's going to go on forever. There's so many people to date. Think about. So the two angels that they pulled, see literally they had to take hold of their hand and get them out of that city. And in verse 24, then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. Guess what? It was massive. Literally obliterated the entire city as fire came down. In verse 25, so he overthrew these cities, all of the plain, how many cities? Four cities. Four cities is what is actually known at that time. When you saw Sodom and Gomorrah, it was a couple other cities also. All the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground.

So everything was just disappeared. It's just like when an atomic bomb that we set off, there was nothing on the ground around that area. It just evaporated. Everything, even bones.

And but one thing happened in verse 26, but his wife, Lot's wife, never got a name for her, looked back behind him after they told him not to, and she became a pillar of salt.

Shock and awe. Perhaps she didn't believe what was going to happen back there. Perhaps she looked back because she was hoping her her son-in-laws and her other daughters were coming. I don't know, but it was gone. You talk about an example of shock and awe. This was it. And it's still known today as a place that didn't exist that they still keep trying to find, because they believed that it did one time. Let's go to another example of shock and awe. Let's go to second Kings. We'll go to second King and the story of Elisha. Story of Elisha, second King, six. Read from the new King James Version. So here we have the King of Syria that's deciding, okay, I'm gonna have an army with them. I'm gonna take my army. I'm gonna tear apart Israel. I'm gonna attack them. I'm gonna do this. But every time he did, it was like somebody told Israel what was going on.

And it was like having somebody, an inside job, that no matter what happened, he just, nothing worked for the King of Syria. And so he's wondering why? What? What is happening? Why is all this going wrong? Why can't I just attack them without them knowing what I'm doing, where I'm going? And they're able to prepare for us. So we read the story in second King, six and verse 11. He said, therefore, the heart of King of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing. He called his servants and said to them, will you not show me which of us is for the King of Israel? He said, which of you are betraying me? New Living Translation says, where's a traitor? Where's a traitor here? What's going on? I can't believe this. And one of his servants said, none, my Lord, O King, but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the King of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom. So he said, go and see where he is, that I may send and get him.

And it was told him, saying, surely he is in Dothan. Therefore, he sent horses and chariots, and a great army. One commentary says, he sent a thousand or more men with the chariots. Some in chariots they carried for serious battle. They just didn't send soldiers out by themselves when they were expecting that they wanted these chariots. And they were surrounding this city.

And they came by night and surrounded the city. And when the servant of the man of God, which is Elisha, arose early and went out, there was an army surrounding the cities with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, Elos, my master, what shall we do? And so Elisha answered, do not fear. Now that's a leader. That's a man of faith. Well, we have that same kind of faith down the road when we're faced by shocking. You can imagine this servant, not knowing what to do, they're only after him and Elisha. So he knows if they capture them, they just want to talk to Elisha and the servant. They will pretty much kill him right then and there or torture him before Elisha's eyes and and and flay his skin off as so many did back that time. So he had fear. But his master, how encouraging, how powerful is that to turn around and you say, uh-oh, we've got thousands of men. They're just here for us. What are we going to do? And he says, do not fear. Do not fear for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. You thought, shock and awe by seeing a large army surrounding the city coming at you, well, Elisha's servant was about to see something even more. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain, the mountains that surrounded Dothan there, was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

I thought he saw something here. If you look at scripture when he sends angels, it's just like one, it says ten thousand times ten thousands and thousands of thousands. Can you imagine what he saw? You imagine these chariots of fire, these angels sitting there, maybe ten thousand, maybe a hundred thousand surrounded. That army in the mountains, they couldn't see them, but they're there.

Maybe sometimes we need, we need to pray. Sometimes we look at something that we're fearful of, that we need to look at and examine. Maybe it's time that we pray and say, God, open my eyes. Let me see how you'll deliver me. We've all run into those problems before, and we would probably be shocked and in total awe if we knew just how many times God has his angels stepped in and helped us out and how they will continue to do. Even tests in Hebrews that we've entertained angels unaware, and I believe the scriptures.

We just don't know. We didn't know who they were at the time. But here, Elisha, so I love this because it says here in verse 17, Elisha prayed, of course, opened his eyes.

And then verse 18, so when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord again, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, strike this people. I pray with blindness. And he struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. Maybe we need to have the faith of Elisha so we can get out of some things and have God deliver us by just our words.

I don't know about you, but I've said a few times, God, I need your help, and I need it now.

I can't do this by my own. Can't do this by myself. I need you, and I need to see your power.

If we knew how many times he had done that in our lives, we would be shocked. And I hope in total, in awe. Can you imagine having to handle problems like this, but for the faithful of God, it shouldn't be a problem. It should be an opportunity. So many of our problems, so many of our challenges should be looked as opportunity because we have God. We have God. We have the power of God. We have part of our God living in us, and he's waiting for us to ask. He says, you don't have because you don't ask. You know, I haven't asked enough in my lifetime. I want to turn over a new leaf, per se. I want to start asking. I want to start. I want to start having more of that faith. I want to start to go to God in prayer and have the belief in faith. That's why this book is given to us, so that we can be inspired, so we can dig into it, see that example, and say, wow, I'm called of God. I'm a child of God, just like they were. Let me use some of this power. I think we all need to. I want to give another story now. My third story. I'd like to go to Genesis 29. Not quite as dramatic, but I would say quite a story of shock and awe that God was very much involved in. God oversaw God. God maybe had a lesson for Jacob to learn here. So I'd like to turn to Genesis 29. Genesis 29. That story of Jacob and Rachel. Jacob and Rachel. As we know what Jacob was like before he came there, he was a trickster. He was always trying to get the better of his brother and even his father, and had his own way of manipulating and doing these things. You could best say in today's world, he was a pretty good little con man. Still, God was working with him. That's why I always have faith when I read some of these stories that no matter what my problems are, no matter what my sins are, no matter my shortcomings, guess what? I know God is still working with me. He's not finished yet. If he's already finished, I'm in trouble. Because I haven't reached the level I need to reach yet. That's why I need him. That's why we all need him, brethren. We all need him. So let's go to this story. Genesis 29. Let's go to verse 15. As we know, Jacob ran away from home because his brother's going to kill him for cheating him and doing all these things to him. And then, we'll go back to Genesis 29. So then he came to his uncle's house, Laban. Verse 15. Then Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? He'd been there for a month working for him for nothing.

Tell me, what should your wages be? Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah. And the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah's eyes were delicate, weak. Some commentary even says she might have been cross-eyed. She might have been, you know, near blind. She just wasn't that...

wasn't something that was going to stop a man dead in his tracks. Let's say this. She wasn't marrying material because they liked that, because you could get something out of those daughters when somebody wanted to marry him. But Rachel, Rachel, Rachel, Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. So not only did she have a beautiful face, she was stacked, as we used to say, built. Bodacious woman, just someone that would stop you in your tracks. You're walking there. You had to turn around and look. You're like, wow! We've all had that, right, Jeff? He's not going to say his wife's not here. So yes, we've all experienced when you see something that's that beautiful, you're like, wow!

Well, that's what Jacob... he saw her, and man, he couldn't keep his eyes off her. And so he said, hey, I want that one. I want that one.

Now, verse 18, now, Jacob loved Rachel, and he said, I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter. Work for seven years. That's one heck of a dollar. Seven years. Think of seven years of your wages. Work for nothing for a woman. She had... wow! She must have been something. And Laban said, it's better that I give her to you than I should give her to another man. Stay with me. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed but a few days to him because of the love he had for her. Can you imagine those seven years? He knew she was his, and as he took her, every time Rachel walked by, oh man, that's mine. Boy, I can't wait till the time that we can, you know, spend time together. We can sleep together. We can... ah, yes!

I can work, and man, I'm just so in love. You just... he entranced with her is what this was. So, you can imagine. They seemed... they seemed just a few days. Then Jacob said to Laban, give me, give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled that I may go into her. I think the NIV says...

he tells me, he says, give her that I may lay with her. So, as you can see, he was all man. He wanted to... he was thinking about having a wife and being able to enjoy the benefits that come with having a wife. And Laban, in verse 22, Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast. And I'll make sure the word there is mista in the... mista in the Hebrew. And it means a feast of booze. Booze. Wine. Strong drink. So, what did he have? Kind of like a bachelor party. But it was a feast of booze. So, he said, hey, wait seven years. Wait till you have this. Next thing you know, what did Jacob do? Hum? Hum? Hum? Hum? Oh yeah, hum? Hum? Next thing you know, he's had way too much. Way, way, way too much. Any of you ever experienced that?

Usually, I only do it a few times.

When you're young. Well, Jacob was about to learn a lesson that I hope none of you young men have to learn out there.

Now, verse 23. Now, it came to pass in the evening that he took Leah, his daughter, and brought her to Jacob, because he was in the tent, passed out, basically.

And Laban gave Zilpah to his daughter, Leah, as a maid. And then these wonderful verses that really see shock and awe.

And if you were Jacob, those are probably the only words you could think, except some I couldn't even say here. So it came to pass in the morning. He had that wedding night that, behold, it was Leah. Leah! So you can imagine him laying in bed, and all of a sudden he's just like, you know, can't remember half the night. His head is like ringing, but he reaches over there, and he kind of feels the body. And he's just like, oh, now I'm waiting seven years for this. I can't remember much last night, but I got the night. I got the rest of my life. And he turns over there, and all of a sudden it's like, oh, shock! That's not her. That's Leah! That's Leah! What in the world? He comes out to Laban. What have you done? What is this? He says in verse 25, What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me? So the great deceiver, the great con man, met his match. And Laban, he met the master, master manipulator. He met someone who, guess what, had just topped him, had just let him know, you know, this is what it feels like. This is what it feels like. Did God allow it? Definitely. He did. Maybe it was time. It was a lesson I would have definitely not learned. I would have never forgotten. Verse 26, and Laban said it must not be done. So in our country, to give the younger before the first born. Whoa!

Fulfill her week, and we will give you this one. Sounds like cattle. We will give you this one for the service, which you will serve me still another seven years. So I got two for the price of one, but you got to spend another seven years serving this. Beside, you're not going to get her unless you, you already, you already paid for this one now. You got to, you got to spend another seven years to get this. Verse 28, then Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. That means he had to stay with Leah. He had to stay with Leah for one week before he could have Rachel. Imagine, it was not, I imagine it was a, felt like a long time. Felt like quite a few, but just think about Leah. Here, her father was so desperate to get rid of her that he tricked her and said, hey, this is the only way you're going to do this when he really loved Rachel. Verse 29, Laban gave his, gave his maid, Bilhah, to his daughter Rachel as a maid. Then Jacob also went into Rachel and he also loved Rachel more than Leah and he served with Laban still another seven years. Shock and awe, definitely so. Definitely. It's a different degree than what we've looked at earlier, but God works with us in different degrees. Some, some things we're not ready to handle. Some of the things we are. Some of the things he needs to give us a little shock and awe to wake us up, to get us focused. He has with me, Jeff, I'm sure he has with you. Everybody I've talked to have had different trials and different problems come down the path that they realized it was from God. He tests us. He tests us. He doesn't tempt us, as James says, but he does test us. And so we shouldn't be surprised. We shouldn't be surprised when God is working with us what can come before us, or what is before us, because he is sovereign. He is omniscient. He knows everything. He's omnipresent. He's been everywhere. He is everywhere. So I'd like to turn to another one. My last example here is I'd like to not only talk about shock and awe, but get us to realize there's a story behind this incredible point here with Paul. The Apostle Paul, or as he was known before, saw. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was everything. He knew it all. He had it all. He had such power that he could just go and have a whole house arrest. He could have old church people drug out of church and have them arrested. Even that even stood before when Stephen the Deacon was stoned to death, and he approved it. He approved it. He wanted to see it and put fear. This was a man you if you were a Christian, you were a follower of Christ, you didn't want anywhere near you, you didn't want to hear his name. It was kind of like Osama bin Laden a few years ago. You know, the name just struck fear. Well, that's what Paul was. Paul was to the church, to God's church.

And God said, I'm done with you. I can use you.

He talked about shock and awe. This powerful young man, thought to be around 30-35 years of age, was struck blind on the road to Damascus.

Damascus, excuse me. I have two stories. On Damascus, he was blind, so they had to take him. And so for three days and three nights, he just stayed in this room because he didn't eat, didn't drink, he fastened. He didn't know what was going on because he thought he heard the voice of God. And it wasn't a pleasant voice. Had to be incredible shock. Because he thought he knew God. He thought he was following God. Well, he was about to find out. No, he wasn't. For some of us, when God reveals to us, as we may think we are in the past, we were a Christian. And you find out later, well, no, I see what Christians do. I see what a Christ-like person is, and I wasn't that way. He continues to reveal that to many people with a little shock and awe in their lives. So let's go and look at this as we'll go to the book of Acts. Chapter 9, verse 15, because there was a servant of God, disciple of Christ, called Ananias. And Ananias, he knew all about them. God says, I want you to go to this man. He goes, are you kidding me? You've got to be kidding me. Do you know who this guy is? He's a killer.

He loved to see us tortured. Why do I have to go?

And God said in verse 15, but the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a what? A chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles, the kings, and the children of Israel. God was saying, I'm going to use this man to Ananias. And Ananias, it was shock. To Paul, it would be a shock and in a little bit of awe that he's going to be a vessel, a chosen vessel. You see that word used so many times in the New Testament. He was even known even in the Old Testament as a vessel. A vessel does what? A vessel can hold stuff. A vessel are this vessel that we have called a body. It does hold. The Holy Spirit possesses, possesses. So you even look at Rachel. Rachel would have been a chosen vessel. She listed in Hebrews 11 as one of the faithful because you see Rachel's life. Rachel was all about Rachel. Rachel, Rachel, Rachel. That's all. She was loud, basically, but what did she, how was she used by God? She had an incredible son named Joseph. Joseph really saved the world from starvation. A vessel that God used to not only correct his brothers, but to also pave the way and have his two sons and their father's hand laid upon them and received incredible blessings. Was a vessel? Yes.

So what about you? Are you a vessel? Are you a vessel?

Have you, have you, uh, considered yourself a vessel? I'd like to, to turn, if you will.

We'd like to ask the question, are we vessels preparing for God's use? Let's go to 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2, verse 20, the New King James Version, but in a great house, who is he talking to? Timothy. He's trying to tell him about people in the calda, the ecclesia, the congregations, and he's talking about these things, but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, what? From being dishonored. He will be a vessel for honor. It means you got to clean yourself up. That's what baptism is all about. It cleanses us. We can't clean ourselves that much. We can't clean our, our sins away, but by the blood of Jesus Christ, we can. He will be, or she will be, a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work. I like to read that in a New Living Translation, just because it's so powerful here. As we look at these vessels, I mean vessels of gold, vessels of stone on our, on the left there. Well, what are we? God wants us to be vessels of gold and silver, because the value of the Holy Spirit that's in us. And so sometimes we have to be woken up. We have to, God has to say, wake up! Sometimes give us a little shock and awe. But it says in the New Living Translation, in a wealthy home, some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensil are used for what? Special occasions. Special occasions, and the cheap ones for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure. What's that say? If you keep yourself pure. Brethren, do we know how to keep ourselves pure? It's in our book. It's in the book. You will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. May I say, not only now, but also in the future. So the purpose of this sermon is to ask ourselves, are we vessels prepared or prepared for God's use?

For the future? That's, yeah, we spent the Feast of Tabernacles, didn't we? And we heard all about what the coming Kingdom of God will be like. He wants us there! Kings and priests! Simple! But what about now? What about now?

Are we making sure that we are vessels? Are we studying? We praying? We drawing close to you? Are we out there serving and helping other people? God has a purpose. He has a purpose for the future, and He has one now.

We may have been shocked when we were called, but God is still using shock and awe today. Why? So that we can know that He is God. And unlike Sodom, unlike Gomorrah, unlike some of these other things, He's not done with us. We're a project to Him, a project that He wants to use to His glory, to His honor. So, brethren, have a wonderful week.

Have a week that is filled with more of God than more of the world. And let us give thanks to God for not only in Sabbath day, but also because He said, You are my children. You are my vessels.

Have a great week being the vessels of God.