The second lefton is in 2 Timothy, chapter 2, beginning at verse 19, 2 Timothy, chapter 2, at verse 19. The foundation of God stands, having this seal, the Lord knows those who are His, and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity, but in the 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, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work. Only also use the lust, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace without those with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart, but avoid foolish, ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate the strife, the servant of the Lord must not quarrel with the jettel to all, able to teach patience, and humility correcting those who are in opposition, God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by Him to do his will by the spray, and able a father to claim from this scripture that truth, the spirit of God was show us, we give ourselves father to the Holy Spirit, the illuminator of our souls, the enlightener of our minds, that he might have in this evening time of worship full sway in our thinking, so we call upon thee, and by blessing, through Jesus Christ our Lord, our man. The recent days I have been captivated by the book, the man who listens to horses, I'm sorry that I had not come in contact with the book before he came to Montgomery, I would have wanted to meet him, fascinating book, I was your age, I was wrapped up in horses, joy didn't still work, I had time and few less creaky bones, I suppose, I'm fascinated with him, I'm fascinated with his learning both negatively and positively, you know that he had a harsh father, and he says in the book, my dad never hunt me, he always pushed me, held the carrot out in front of me, expected him to excel, the father of the great horseman in many ways, and had his own way of jetling a wild force, included here, aggressiveness, and you, if you know the story, and the relationship of a forthcoming movie, the horse whisperer, the author of the book, the real story of the man who listens to horses, rejected his father's example, and learned how to listen to horses, to listen to a horse, how do they speak, to communicate, animals communicate, well they're domesticated and we own them, they communicate with us, kiddie will tell you when our dish is empty, she has a particular amount, meow, to get your attention, horses communicate, and Monty Roberts tells in there how he learned advanced and retreat, and in 30 minutes he boasts and demonstrates taking a wild force and causing it to take the saddle and dip into operate, a language he does, he rejected his own father's example, a developed, a method, a mammoth, it's right, say Paul is driving at that with young Timothy, second Timothy is the last letter of apostle Paul writes, we call those final writings a swan song, the last thing he has to say to young Timothy, who would not be a teenager, but he's not yet an elderly man, and Paul is about to pass off the scene in Timothy, undoubtedly, takes his place, and he says in this passage that we have here in second Timothy, their distinctions to be made, like Monty Roberts made, and jembling a horse, their distinctions in even more important areas of life to be made, their distinctions about how you graduate aren't there, gold braids, badges depending upon the traditions of the school, some graduate with distinction, some graduate with great distinction, distinctions are part of life, he's saying Paul says here, that's like a great house, and I suppose that he's speaking of a very large house, a manor house, because a small house might not have all the different kinds of utensils and vessels, but he says in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, some for honor, but there are vessels of gluten clay, some for dishonor, because I want you to be gold and silver vessels, I don't know most of you,
but that's what I want for you, which is to be gold vessels, fit for the master's use, make the distinction in a great house, there are some that are just utilitarian vessels, and when they're used up, they're put in the dump, the trash heap, they're ordinary, they're not passed down to the next generation, there are some things in a great house that are treasured generation after generation, become more valuable, the longer they're passed down from a great house. I want you to understand that distinction, that it refers to our lives and our futures, knowing the truth, understanding and hearing it at a place like Trinity Presbyterian School, in a farewell sermon, in a baccalaureate, I call you to make a distinction between vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor, that right along with that St. Paul gives a directive, a command, the issues, something of an order, he says, therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the lachai, he will be a vessel of honor, split of St. Paul, not only to tell us that we need to be an ought to be, but how to be. So making the distinction, he adds to it a directive. All of the past things, this should be eliminated as we go along in life and develop in the tour, expand our understanding, St. Paul said it in another way, in the great love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13 when I was a child, I spoke like a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things, and there's some things along the way you need to put away as your mature and grow up. There's some things that are worthy, that attach themselves to our thinking all around us, invading, have no right in our thinking and actions. So the directive is, if anyone cleanses himself from the ladder, he will be a vessel of honor. Not everybody graduates with honor, there's a cutoff line isn't there. Maybe I'm speaking to somebody in this section, and I'm preaching just to you tonight, they can listen if they'd like and preaching to you, you just missed the cutoff, it's hard. You wanted the honor, you wanted the distinction, we can all have the honor, every one of us, by being a vessel of gold and silver, ready, acceptable, sever part for God's special purposes. Why didn't he allow you to come in contact with this school, which has its stem in this church, through here, what's the point of it? More than to escape inferior, tax-supported schools possibly, to understand that you can be set apart for something everlastingly significant and wonderful, holy, right, for special purpose. I used in the prayer that verse from Jeremiah, a 29-chapter wonderful verse that says, I know the thoughts that I'm thinking towards you and this very nice sitting here, under a sermon that will only be an hour and a half long, I promise no longer than 90 minutes. God in heaven knows us and sees us assembled here and says, I know what I'm thinking about you and he doesn't have to look on the bullet and to see it and hang. I know the thoughts that I'm thinking about you, there's thoughts that are good, not evil, thoughts that will provide for you a future and a hope in which you will not be ashamed or disappointed or disillusioned or empty. I plead for the distinction, play wood, ordinary vessels, soon used, passed away, the skill it doesn't work, you don't leave it to your grandchildren, but a vessel of gold, beauty, a value, displayed, treasured, passed along to the next generation. So there is a distinction, isn't there? And I want you to know that, as there's a distinction at graduation time, there's a distinction in life in general and honors are available to everybody in Christ Jesus. So cleanse yourself regularly, as they false as the Timothy, to be a vessel of honor sanctified, set apart, useful for the master's prepared for every good work. What's the head? I'd love to know. I'd love to hear what you did, what your impact was in university days and beyond.
Whether it's finally a strong determination for the useful lust, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart, avoid foolish things, pursue knowledge, truth. You see, to become a vessel of honor, there is a sense in which we not only know the distinction and hear the directive, well, we ought to do that, determined to do that, set your sail to do that, who you are, to cut a swath through culture and conditions, wherever you are. Be your own man, your own woman, as under the Lord, negatively flee youthful lusts. We might in an hour and a half go over that list, but sometimes as you have a false sense of being invincible, flee back. We're in temperance and patchiness. Acting before we think,
with all been along through there, some of us can't remember those days, but we all came through those days. We flee. Monty Roberts. Sadly, turned off by his own dad, the way his dad was cruel, inflicting fear to gentle a horse. He determined to pursue what he thought was right, having watched wild herds, having tried his own method that he calls advance and retreat to the horse-giving permission to put the saddle on, a distinction, a directive, graduates, with determination at your course, to be a life that is gold or silver, treasured, valuable, purposeful, put on display by our living Lord Jesus, the midst of all kinds of things, that disappoint, distract, bring down. There was a sentence of that book that jumped out to me, I finished with it. My hour and a half is off. Went by fast, didn't it? He went to a Catholic school.
They had nuns and have a scarved in those days. It'll see it much in our country. Whatever the scarved was, usually black and white with some kind of headpiece, now nuns were street clothes, basically. But she, strong, sturdy tall, according to the book, grew up to her full stasha and said to Maddie into the class, knowledge, ought to be pulled into the brain by the student, rather than pushed into it by the teacher,
pull into your brain, your heart, your life. The knowledge of the truth, that in a great house, there are vettles of gold and silver to honor, and some vessels to dishonor, pull that in. I can't push it in, pull it in, believe it, and let it God bless you.