In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of being a debtor in the Christian life. He uses the story of a widow and her two sons who were in danger of being enslaved to pay their debt as an analogy. The preacher emphasizes that the Christian life is not one of slavery or bondage, but rather a supernatural life. He encourages individuals to be stirred up and to share their testimony with others, as it can have a powerful impact on someone's salvation. The sermon also includes a personal anecdote about a difficult situation in a church and the importance of loving one another.

Well, you know, when they talk about the weather, and how cool it is, it always sort of makes me smile, because I spent 13 years up in northern Michigan, and about this time of the year, if you looked out of the window and you saw a person walking awful fast, you knew it was cold, 30 or 40 below. So, I think it's very wonderful, the weather here. Now let us turn to Luke chapter 7, shall we? Luke chapter 7, Luke chapter 7 and verse 36, And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet, in the Pharisee's house brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee, which had bidden him, saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is, that toucheth him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering, said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor, which had two debtors, the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most, and he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house. Thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he saith to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee, glow in peace. May the Lord bless to us the reading of his word. Now you might wonder perhaps how this comes in with what we have before us as our messages for the morning, and that is incidents from the life of Elisha. But we're going to come to Elisha in a little while and show how he teaches us and shows us a most important lesson as to how you and I as Christians can fulfill our obligations. Now what I want, especially in this portion that we have read this morning, is this little parable which our Lord Jesus Christ brought before the people of his day as to debtorship. And that is what I want to speak about, a Christian being a debtor and how he can fulfill or pay his debts. Now we remember the incident here how this Pharisee had invited the Lord Jesus to his home not because he was interested in the Lord Jesus, but some fault with him. Someone has very well said that we usually look or we usually find what we are looking for. I remember reading about a banquet that took place in a certain location and each of them were called on to give a little word at this banquet. And so this big game hunter, he thought he would give the missionary. It has been a wonderful experience, but he says, in all those years of hunting in India for twenty years I never came across a single missionary. In all those years of hunting, and he says, I wonder what missionaries really are doing there. Well, the time came for the missionary to get up and so when he got up, he says, you know friends, he says, you know when I went to India, he says, I have been there for so many years, twenty-five or thirty years, and he says, in all those years I have never seen a tiger in all of India. He says, you know I never saw a tiger because I did not know what he was looking for. You know we usually find what we are looking for, and this man thought he found it. He thought when he saw this sinful woman come to the feet of the Lord Jesus, his feet with tears, to wipe them with the hairs of her head, as she kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment, he thought within himself, well, this man if he were a prophet would have known who and what manner of man, woman this is that touches him, for she is a sinner. And that thought within himself brought forth this beautiful little parable to teach that man by nature is a debtor because of his sins. You notice the Lord Jesus says, there was a certain creditor with some of the other fifty, and when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him the most? Now here is a sense in which we were at one time debtors. And if perchance there might be someone in this meeting this morning that still does not know the Lord Jesus as his or her Savior, this is the sense in which you are still a debtor. What I am going to speak about after a while does not apply to you, but this does apply to you if you sit in this meeting this morning without the assurance that your sins are forgiven and know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Now you notice he says, there was a certain creditor which had two debtors, the one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty. Now I want you to notice that there was a difference between these two debtors. You know sometimes we quote the verse, there is no difference for all have sinned. And we say, well there is no difference between sinners. But my friends, there is a difference between sinners. And the Word of God very distinctly brings before us that there is a difference between sinners. If there was no difference between sinners, why is it that we read in the twentieth chapter of Revelation, I saw the dead small and great stand before God and they were judged, every man according to his works. There is a difference between sinners. There was a difference between these two people who were before the Lord Jesus, the Pharisee and the sinful woman. There was a difference between these two people. One you might say is a person who owed five hundred pence. One is a person who owed fifty pence. One owed ten times, you might say, as much as the other. And of course, when we bring in the thought of ten, we bring in the thought of the ten commandments, don't we? Might I suggest that perhaps this poor sinful woman at his feet had broken every one of those commandments. And yet perhaps this Pharisee might have been like Paul who says, I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. Sure there was a difference between sinners. There is a difference between the moral person and the immoral. Between the drunkard and between the temperate person. Between the refined and the uneducated. There is a difference. Well, what then? What about the contrast when the Bible says there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God? Well, there was a difference here and yet there is no difference. There was a difference in that one owed five hundred pence and the other owed fifty, but there was no difference in the sense that they both owed. And that's what Romans 3 teaches us. There is no difference for all have sinned. It doesn't say how much, but it says there is no difference in this respect that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so here we have it. One owed five hundred pence, the other owed fifty, but they both owed. But there was no difference also in this sense that the one who owed fifty could not pay his debt any more than the one who owed five hundred. Now it says here there was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty, and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both. You know, that used to stumble me. When they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both. But then that old word, when, and when they had nothing to pay. Now there are many people today who believe they owe. Oh yes, I'm a sinner. But they don't believe they're bankrupt. They don't believe that they're absolutely without assets. They believe that though they are sinners, oh, they can do something about it. And it's only when a person comes to the place that he or she realizes I've got nothing to pay. I'm absolutely bankrupt. I cannot pay a single eye out of my debt. You know, there's a man now with the Lord. I often love to hear his testimony. And he told about how as a young man he was a member of a certain church in his town. And one day a preacher came to that town just for one day. And he preached a text, a sermon on ye must be born again. And you know that shook that young man. And as he went away from that meeting he couldn't get that out of his mind. He was a good church member. He was moral. He partook of the sacrament. He tried to live a good life. But he had not been born again. And for a whole year he thought of that. He was not born again. And again that preacher came around. And again that preacher preached on the text, ye must be born again. And again he was shaken. He was awakened to a deeper sense. And when he came home he couldn't eat. And he said to his mother, Mother, I just can't eat. I've got to think. I want to walk out. And so he walked out. They lived on a ranch out west. And so as he walked out he came into a little grove of trees. And he came into that grove and he saw himself a lost sinner. He saw that he was without hope on his knees. Oh, I'm lost. I'm on my way to hell. There's no hope for me. He had come to the place where he realized he didn't have a single thing wherewith to pay his debt. When he came, when they had nothing to pay. And as he was falling on his knees the verse came to him, Well, Christ died for sinners. Christ came to save sinners. And he thought, Well, if he came to save sinners he came to save me. And right then and there he was saved when he had nothing to pay. When a soul gets to that place where he or she realizes I'm absolutely bankrupt. I can't bring anything to God. I'm depending upon what Christ has done. He frankly forgave them both. It's wonderful to have those sins gone. It's wonderful to know that that debt can never rise. It's put away. God says, Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. God doesn't say their sins and iniquities will I forget. You know, there's a difference between forgetting and when God says I will remember no more. You and I forget. That's a human infirmity. God does not forget. There is no infirmity with God. Things that I've forgotten for years suddenly come up. And oh, sometimes there are things I wish I could forget and remember no more. But I can't say this thing will I remember no more. But God says that. God says their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. My friends, that is a divine attribute. God alone can say I'll remember it no more. Isn't that wonderful? He says their sins will I blot out as a thick cloud. A little boy came home and he says Mother, she says how can God forget sins so that they're blotted out as a thick cloud? And she says well, she says write something on this little blackboard here. So he wrote something on the blackboard and then his mother said now take the eraser. And so he erased it and she says well, where is it? Well, it's gone. Well, where is it gone? Well, I don't know but it's gone. She says that's just what God does with our sins. When he blots them out as a thick cloud they're gone and they can't ever be found again. But there is a sense in which Christians are debtors and the remarkable thing about it is that we find these things that I want to bring before you in the epistle to the Romans which is we find these expressions that I want you to know in the 8th chapter of Romans. Notice it says in the 8th chapter of Romans this is known as the victory chapter. Romans chapter 8 it says in the 7th verse he says because the carnal mind is or the 6th verse for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the carnal mind is enmity against God for is not subject so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God but ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you now if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his and if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness but if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live now notice this little expression in the 12th verse therefore brethren we are debtors in other words you and I are under obligation under obligation as those who have experienced his forgiveness and know his salvation you and I are under the flesh to live after the flesh but we are debtors to live after the spirit one time in Fort Dodge when I was visiting in a home a sister said to me I just had a discussion with my brother-in-law and I told him that Christ had died for me and he said to me no you're wrong Christ died for your sins she said to me which one of us was right was it that Christ died for me or that Christ died for my sins I said both of you were right both are right Christ died for our sins that is forgiveness of our sins that is what you and I experience when you and I come to the Lord Jesus with our burden of sin and we see him as the one who was wounded for our transgressions who was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon us we are healed oh what a wonderful thing to have that burden rolled away Christ died for my sins but you know it's not long when I've gone along and I've found out there's something within me the Lord has taken care of my sins but what about that thing that's what the apostle is teaching us here in the 6th, 7th, and 8th chapters of Romans that Christ has not only died for our sins in improving the flesh the whole system of the world's philosophy and world's religion is self-improvement well self-improvement 2,000 years ago when Christ died on the cross he not only died for sins but my friends as we have here in the 8th chapter of Romans and the 6th chapter of Romans for me at the cross of Christ I came to an end my friend the moment you trusted Christ as your savior he died for your sins but he died for you you died in him you died now let me ask you if you had literally died the moment you trusted Christ could you ever have sinned again? why of course you couldn't could you? because you had died but the fact of the matter is that literally we did not die but judicially we died with him in other words his death is reckoned my death I have died with him and that is what this epistle to the Romans teaches us here he tells us here in the 10th verse he says and if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin I died with Christ if I died with Christ and I have been buried with Christ and I have been raised with Christ if that old man that old sinful man has died with Christ how then or why then should that old man function? why then should that old man manifest himself? there are three words in the 6th chapter of Romans that the apostle brings before us as the understanding of our relationship or our position with our association with Christ he says know ye not that you died with Christ know ye not that you died with Christ then he says we are to reckon ourselves dead and that is something in our daily experience that I reckon myself dead and then thirdly that I am to yield myself to him he says you died with him if the body is dead because of sin he tells me something else he tells me that I am in a new position in the 9th verse he tells me but ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you you and I have a new power and who is that power? that power is the spirit of God who is in you and me to enable you and me to live in victory over the flesh and then he tells us in the 11th verse but if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you because of a prospect that I have what is the prospect? by that same spirit he is going to quicken our mortal bodies when is that going to be? that is going to be at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ at any moment I may be caught up to be with him we don't see it in this country so much but we see it in countries like India, in England where the young prince the young prince is being trained and orders his life in view of one thing and you know what that is? that he is going to ascend the throne of England everything in his life is brought into harmony with that goal that is set before him and here we have brought before us that you and I have a goal set before us our bodies are going to be quickened by or because of his spirit that dwelleth in us and so we are debtors not to the flesh a person says well I've got the flesh in me I can't help yielding to the flesh the Lord says no you're dead with Christ you have a new power within you you have a glorious prospect before you because of this you're a debtor not to the flesh to live after the flesh we're debtors to live not after the flesh notice the 13th chapter of Romans Romans chapter 13 because I want to skip along in the 8th, 7th verse he says render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honor to whom honor owe no man anything but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law for this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment that is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself love worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law owe no man anything but to love one another number of years ago when I was in northern Michigan working in that country trying to see an assembly established we saw working of God there and we had difficulties and problems and one of these problems was that we had an older brother who justly didn't and he was an influence as we all are on one another and one Sunday one Lord's Day this older brother and this younger brother were not at the meeting and it was our custom to have a Sunday school in the afternoon where they were when they were always and they weren't at the gospel meeting so I knew that there was something percolating and so I went to the younger brother's home to see what was wrong well there I found the older brother and after a brief word of salutation I said well brethren we missed you at the meeting this morning at the meetings today and they looked at one another and then the older brother said there's no love there there's no love there and for a moment I was stunted like Nehemiah just lifted my heart to the Lord and I said Lord like that I said to him brother can you show me in the Bible where you are to expect love huh? can you show me in the Bible where you are to expect love my Bible teaches me that I am to love this is a new commandment that I give unto you that you love one another all through the Bible I find that you now if you show love maybe you'll get back what you show you know they didn't have a word to say I learned a lesson there never had that come up again but do you know any place in the Bible where it says you are to expect love have you heard the story of the little boy who lived by the mountain you know and it was a mountain that had marvelous echoing acoustics and one day this little boy came running in he says mother he says you know there's a bad boy in those mountains and he's calling me all kinds she said why son she says you go out and call him good names and see what happens well you know it wasn't long before he came back all smiles he was getting only the echo of what he was saying himself my brother and my sister hear the Lord says oh no man anything this whole economy is built on paper today several years ago near Des Moines in the Maytag plant in Newton they had a strike that lasted for quite a while and it was interesting reading some of the pieces after the strike was settled and one of the pieces was a young fellow wrote and he says the strike should have lasted a couple more weeks he says you know after the first couple of weeks they came and took my television set after a couple more weeks they took my car and he says I know these things are things but nevertheless the scripture says oh no man anything but but to love one another my brother and my sister you and I owe it to each other to love do we love one another I owe it to you it's not a question of what you do to me my responsibility is to love you that's what the Lord says to me in the 15th chapter of John we find a beautiful beautiful picture description he says as the Father hath loved me my can you measure can you describe can you elaborate on the love of the Father do you know where the word love occurs for the first time in the Bible in the 22nd chapter of Genesis that's the first instance of the word love and you know it's the love of the Father for his Son and who can think who can measure who can compare who can describe who can contemplate who can exhaust the love of the Father he says as the Father hath loved me so have I loved you that's what the Lord Jesus says the same love and I don't care how you describe it that the Father has for the Son has the same love that the Son has for you that he has for me isn't that wonderful and then he says you should love one another as I have loved you I like to think the love of the Father for the Son and the love of the Son for me and then that same love flowing out to my brother and my sister in the same character in the same fullness in the same quality oh no man anything but to love one another my brother you say you're out of debt it's wonderful to be out of debt but you have a debt I have a debt and it is to love to love my brother my sister notice the first chapter of Romans in the first chapter of Romans and the fourteenth thirteenth verse he says now I would not have you ignorant brethren that often times I purposed to come unto you but was led hitherto that I might have some fruit among you also even as among other Gentiles I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians both to the wise and to the unwise so as much as it be is I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek notice what Paul says I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians both to the wise and to the unwise he realized he owed the world something you and I owe the world something some people think the world owes them everything but the Christian owes the world something a brother came to work one morning and he says to his partner with whom he had worked for a number of years that he had been spoken to and stirred by what he had heard on the Lord's day and he came to the man workman beside him and he says I want to pay you my debt the man says pay me your debt well he says you don't owe me anything he says yes I do he says for all these years I've been working with I owe you the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ I owe it to you to tell you how you can be saved now I want you to notice what Paul says here he says so as much as it may be well I can't preach like Paul I can't tell it like so and so so I won't tell it is that so? a sister told me one time she says you know I go to coffee with my neighbor every once in a while and she says you know we talk about everything and I just wish I could tell her how to be saved but she says I don't know how to broach the subject what can I do? I said to her well sometimes why don't you just ask the Lord to help you and then just begin telling her what the Lord means to you and what the Lord has done for you well I didn't think anything more of it time went on and one day this sister came to me all aglow and she says my she says it worked I says what worked? well she says what she told me to do well what did I tell you to do? well you told me remember that this neighbor why if I want to talk to her why just tell her what the Lord meant to me and she says that's what I did the other day we were just sitting there and I started telling her what the Lord meant to me and you know she says when I gave my testimony why the Lord just wrote one thing about being saved it was most wonderful as much as in her was well I can't preach like so and so and I can't preach like so and so and I can't talk like so and so but as much as in you is are you ready? are you ready? you know what we need is to get Christians stirred up individually if you were to look at your life I told you how I was saved the other night it was because one person talked to me one person talked to me that was the beginning and I'm sure that most of us have been reached that way because someone talked to me I could go on and tell you a number of incidents that a time is fleeting by I am a debtor I am a debtor not to live after the flesh not to live the old fleshy life but to live the new life in Christ I am a debtor to love my brother, my sister I am a debtor to witness and tell others how can I pay this debt well turn to 2nd Kings chapter 4 notice 2nd Kings chapter 4 and verse 1 it says now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha saying thy servant my husband is dead and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bond men and Elisha said unto her what shall I do for thee tell me what hast thou in the house and she said thine handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil then he said go borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors even empty vessels borrow not a few and when thou art come in thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons and shalt pour out into all those vessels and thou shalt set aside that which is full so she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons who brought the vessels to her and she poured out and it came to pass when the vessels were full that she said unto her son bring me yet a vessel and he said unto her there is not a vessel more and the oil stayed then she came and told the man of God and he said go sell the oil and pay thy debt and live thou and thy children of the rest you know I think this is a wonderful description of how our debts are paid oh yes I'm not to live after the flesh but after the spirit I'm to love my brother my sister I know sometimes they can do things but and most unlovable and how can I witness how can I do these things you say I'm a debtor well aren't you here was a widow humanly speaking a picture of weakness and helplessness she had two sons and they were in danger of being brought into slavery to pay the debt is the Christian life a life of slavery is it a life of bondage oh no it's not our friend she sensed her helplessness and insufficiency do you and I sense it do we sense as I think of this tremendous life to live I know the Christian life is a supernatural life it's a life that's lived on another plane how can I live that life how can I be an expression an exposition an exponent of love how can my life be characterized by love how can I be a witness my friends as we consider these things there must be a sense of our insufficiency of our inability this widow she had a sense of her insufficiency and in her sense of insufficiency she sought the right person she sought Elisha ah how wonderful that you and I can seek him our Lord Jesus Christ he's the source of all counsel he's the source of all strength he's the source of all power he's available and able and Elisha said unto her what shall I do for thee tell me what hast thou in the house and she said thine hand made hath not anything in the house save the pot no doubt this was a pot of olive oil this olive oil was you might say from the green olive tree you know in the 52nd Psalm our Lord Jesus speaks of himself as I am a green olive tree in the court or the house of the Lord and you know that olive was taken from that tree and that olive was crushed and then the oil was taken and at tremendous heat it was produced so that it could be useful and you know our Lord Jesus was the green olive tree and before there could be oil for you and me our Lord Jesus had to be crushed the pressure and the judgment of God was poured out upon our Lord Jesus so that the blessing might be yours and mine so that the spirit of God because I think that the pot of oil here represents for us what every believer has what is a Christian if you were asked to define what is a Christian and my friends this is in the eyes of the world this is not as easy as you might think some years ago I don't know how many of you followed it but there was a man in Waterloo, Iowa who left a fortune for Christian work when you make out a will you better be sure that you make it clear and definite so there's no doubt well he just left it for Christian work while he had relatives who didn't know the Lord and they said well how do you define Christian work and there was a tremendous legal they asked preachers and there was a variety of opinions of what was a Christian and finally if I'm not mistaken the court decided well you can't exactly define what a Christian is and so how can you define what Christian work is what is a Christian you know what a Christian is a Christian is an anointed one that's what the word Christian means one who is anointed with the spirit if any man had not the spirit of Christ he is none of his we may have character we may have works we may have benevolence we may have all of these things church membership partake of the sacraments and all of this but if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his a Christian is a person who is born and indwelt of and anointed by the Holy Spirit a Christian every Christian the weakest the poorest has the pot of oil we have the spirit of God dwelling in us and the spirit of God is our potential the spirit of God is our power but you know in many of us he's in a little pot he's all confined and restrained and all under control and he can't do very much that way we limit him perhaps to certain periods or certain times where in reality he wants to do more than that and so we find here she says I have nothing save a pot of oil he says go borrow the vessels abroad of all thy neighbors even empty vessels borrow not a few and so she went and she borrowed vessels all these vessels were not of the same size all of these vessels were not of the same value you might say she got big vessels and little vessels valuable they say the difference between a just a a vase and a vase is if it's over five dollars it's a vase if it's under five dollars it's a vase well that may be true and it may not but we know there's different values there's different kinds of vessels there's the beautifully ornamented and there's just the common just as there is amongst all of us we're not all the same some have large capacities some have small capacities some have minds that are able to take in some have some don't but nevertheless there is one thing that was true of all of them they were all empty empty am I empty empty of self oh how many Christians are filled with something else filled with bitterness filled with enmity filled with harshness filled with animosity oh I'll never forget what that brother did to me I'll never forget what that sister said to me and you know they're filled with it the spirit of God can never do anything in us until we're emptied of these things we've got to be empty empty of self empty of the old empty these vessels had to be empty and then it says when thou art come in thou shall shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons and thou shall pour out into all those vessels so she went from him and shut the door upon her and it says upon her sons who brought the vessels to her and she poured out have you had that experience do you feel the barrenness do you feel the dryness do you feel the emptiness do you feel the things aren't the way that they should be in life let me ask you do you know do you know what it is to get into the closet alone and shut the door and begin pouring out pouring out pouring out before God pouring everything out before him search me oh God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me see if there be Lord bring these things to me bring these things out of me help me to bring them out and to be through with them you know as she poured out the vessels as there is a pouring out the vessel becomes filled I could take you to the book of Acts and show you how that worked in the early church but we don't have time but I want you to notice she poured out until the vessels were full and she said to her son bring me yet a vessel and he said unto her there is not a vessel more and the oil stayed then she came and told the man of God and he said now sell the oil use the oil pay thy debt you know it is only as you and I are filled with the spirit as we are emptied of self and filled with the spirit that we can pay our debt that's what I find in the 8th chapter of Romans how do you live a life of victory over the flesh by the power of the spirit how is it possible to love my brother at all times it's only by the spirit how can I be a witness to the world testifying of what the Lord means it's only by the spirit go and pay sell the oil pay thy debt and then I want you to notice what he says and live thou live thou are you you know there is a difference between living and existing I think many Christians exist the Lord says I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly the Lord wants you and me to live really live I read about a man who was 70 years old retired and everything good moral respectable man the Lord reached him and saved him and in those years the few years that he had left he had two years left in fact but those last two years were so wonderful because of what the Lord meant to him when he went to be with the Lord he had engraved on his tombstone I existed for 70 years and lived for only two since Christ became my all I'll live thou but you can only live you can only live if you're empty of self filled with the spirit and paying your debt that's living live thou and thy children of the rest may the Lord give us this wonderful experience of really living for him and thus paying our obligations let's stand and sing a verse number 344 number 344 out in the highways and byways of life many are weary and sad carry the sunshine where darkness is right give us what's given to you in your name