Earthen Treasure Series

What is the most inexpensive container you have ever put something valuable in? Money in a sock? Cigar box?

God chose to place in human vessels the very presence of His Holy Spirit.

If I would have been in charge of presenting Jesus to the world 2,000 years ago I would have used a stadium instead of a stable. I would have put in the stadium all the richest and most powerful and influential people in the world at the time. I would have made sure that those with little influence or resources were not a part of the guest list. I would have had John the Baptist baptizing in town instead of out in the wilderness. I would have made him wear cooler clothes and not say such offensive things.

BUT GOD DID NOT CHOOSE ME TO DO THIS OR ANYONE ELSE LIKE ME: God has His own ways and sometimes they don’t make sense to us or are not what we would choose ourselves.

God will often:

1) Make things harder than we would

2) Make us wait longer than we want

3) Make us less comfortable than we like to be

4) Call us to places we don’t feel like going

But after it is all said and done the end result was much better than we could have ever imagined.

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;

8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death works in us, but life in you.

THERE IS TO BE A SURPASSING GREATNESS OF POWER COMING FROM OUR LIVES:

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;

Why doesn’t God put His valuables in the most valuable looking containers?

You may think they you are not valuable enough for God to be able to use. You think have too many ‘chips’ and ‘cracks’ or past or present problems and failures. What is valuable is not us but Whom in in us. What is valuable is not what holds the treasure but the treasure itself.

MAKEUP OF CORINTHIAN CHURCH: 1 COR 1:26-29 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.

There are three places where it is very difficult to find a true dynamic Christian life: Hollywood – Washington D.C. and Wall Street(money, fame, and power)

Bill Gates may offer a more expensive package for God to use or some Hollywood type a more attractive package for God to use but what matters is not the wrapping but the gift inside of it.

Too many people get so distracted by who they are than Who He is in them. They try to do things for God in their own power than by God and through the Spirits power.

People will often buy FINE CHINA but rarely use it but instead they will use their everyday plain and regular dishware. IT is ultimately what is on or in the plate that impacts our lives and not the plate we eat it off of.

The word used for “jars of clay” in verse 7 refers to ordinary earthenware. These clay pots were used by common people to store grain, hide valuables, and to keep oil for lighting their lamps.

Paul is saying, “We’re not like a vase from the Ming dynasty. We’re cheap brown pots you can buy at Wal-Mart.” We are not $25 Yankee Candles but the kind that go 3 for $10 at Target. When it is dark it is not the candle but the flame that will transform the darkness.

The treasure in us presents Himself as ‘surpassing’ and of ‘power’.

Fundamental Truth to learn: What makes a person valuable is not what is on the outside but on the inside.

The farther a culture/nation/people strays from this truth the less it will value the things that really matter andthe less it will build itself upon that which would make it/them great.