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.
We live in a culture that had taken a sharp turn in this wrong direction.
Americans spend $18 Billion a year on Cosemetics - $24 Billion on Skin care, $38 Billion on hair care products - 5 Billion a year on Fitness equipment and gym memberships - $64 billion on weight-loss products & services - $13.2 Billion on Cosmetic surgery -
BUT we also spend $134 Billion on fast food and $175 Billion on Alcohol. (endless cycle)
People fill themselves with false treasures and when the Pot gets broken you see the contents on the inside and you realize that is not very attractive at all. Or you see just how superficial someone is.
But the opposite is true in the life of the person who is living for Christ
Brokenness reveals a beauty – a glory that is inside of them. The presence in them of something more than they themselves are.
The Greek word for power is dunamis, from which we get the English word dynamite. God’s power is different from the kind of power the world thinks of. God’s power does not trample down or dominate others but it unites people, tears down walls, restores marriages, rebuilds families,, heals broken hearts, forgives the deepest sins, imparts hope in the darkest moments, and gives light in the valley of death.
2This treasure has it’s resource in God’s greatness and never from our weakness.
If I held up two containers: One a regular clay pot with some chips and cracks and another more nice looking vahse with unique markings that I paid $20 dollars for at a fancy store. If I asked you which was more valuable you might quickly say the one from the fancy store. But I might tell you that you are wrong and that the simple clay pot is more valuable because in the vase is a plain piece of paper while in the clay pot I have placed 5 $100 dollar bills. Would the HOPE DIAMOND be any less valuable if it were carried in a brown paper bag?
“Antiques Roadshow” on PBS is a show where people bring their knick-knacks, their family heirlooms, and things they found at a flea market or garage sale to an appraiser, hoping to discover that their ‘treasure’ of value. Appraiser will ask “How much did you pay for it?” $10 “I have good news for you. At auction I would expect this to go for at least $10,000.” Sometimes a vase turns out to be a “vahse.” Greatest treasures can come in the ordinary.
1947 a shepherd boy found a ceramic jar containing very ancient scrolls in a cave overlooking the Dead Sea. He had no idea what they said and eventually sold three of the scrolls for $29.
More scrolls were discovered in the same cave and in other caves nearby and only later was it determined that he had stumbled upon the greatest collection of biblical manuscripts found in the 20th-century, the Dead Sea Scrolls. Those scrolls contained parts of every Old Testament book except Esther-all of them dated a thousand years earlier than any copy known at that time.
People will sit in a church service and hear the gospel or pick up a Gideon Bible in a hotel and toss it aside or see the life of a friend who now has something different between themselves and God and walk right away giving it little concern. They just missed an opportunity to discover the most valuable thing this life offers. They could have picked it up and taken it before the Ultimate Appraiser and be shocked at the true value of what they now have.
Professor James Denny of Scotland remarked that “there always have been men in the world so clever that God could make no use of them.”
Jack Wyrtzen, “God is looking for nobodies who will become somebodies in his hands.”
God does it so that when great things happen, the people around us will come to only one possible conclusion: “All I know is, it can’t be him. It can’t be her. He’s not that smart. She’s not that strong. It’s got to be God.”
God wants the world to see what He can do through people whose trust is in him alone. And that’s why he puts the treasure of the gospel in fragile “jars of clay.” The weaker we are, the more he can often do through us.
Dr. Billy Graham. What is the secret of such a fruitful life? Scholars agree that his sermons are not particularly unique. You cannot explain his success merely by the force of his intellect or his many natural gifts. Why did God raise up a young man from North Carolina to catapult to worldwide fame? Years ago one writer gave this answer: “God uses Billy Graham because he knows he can trust him with his glory. Billy won’t try to claim it for himself.” That explanation ought to lead each of us to ask, “Can God trust me with his glory?”
GOD HAS A PROCESS OF GETTING OUT OF US WHOM HE HAS PUT INTO US:
One of the most frustrating things that can happen is when you are trying to fix a meal and you cannot find a can opener.(soup) Nothing else will work. Hammer, ice pic, crow bar, axe….all are inadequate of get out of the can what is necessary to serve the meal.
• God has His own way, His own can opener, to get out of us Whom the world needs to see is in us.
• Sometimes the cracks in the pot are the very ways that the light inside of it shows to the outside world.
• I would rather God use riches or comfort or a life of ease to bring the best out of my life.
The world sees nothing of value from the life of a comfortable Christian. The new messages of Health Wealth and Stealth: God promises no problems, no pain and no persecution(the Bible teaches the opposite on all three)
Best things can come from our worst moments!
Ask Joseph – sold by his brothers/ saves his brothers from starvation.
Ask Ruth – loss of husband, loss of country/ gain of the true & living God, new country & new husband.
Ask Daniel – lost parents, country, language/elevated & given visions & dreams.
Sometimes there is a special formula to getting the Genie out of the bottle: Rub the lamp three times or say ‘abra cadabra’. God’s formula for getting Himself out of us and into the world is often using the difficult moments of life.
I don’t think Christians have any more number of difficulties than non-Christians unless it is because of a Christian being persecuted for his or her faith.
Christians get cancer, have financial difficulties, struggles at work BUT God will just use our difficulties, if we let Him, to be an evidence to the world of His presence in our lives.
THERE ARE SO MANY BELIEVERS WHO ARE SO HESITANT TO SHARE THEIR FAITH THAT IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER THAT GOD USE OUR STRUGGLES TO SHOW THE WORLD THAT HE IS REAL.
• Most things lose their value when they are broken but the opposite is true in the life of a Christian.
Psalms 51:16-17 “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-- These, O God, You will not despise.”
Brokenness leads to humbleness and dependency
God resist the proud but gives grace to the Humble.
Psalms 34:18 The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
Brokenness is a part of the Christian life - It is a means thru which God’s Power is Revealed
Paul gives a list of that not many of us like:
8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
1. we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;
carries the idea of “pressure”. They were under pressure like grapes being squeezed by a winepress.
The word “pressed” was sometimes used for walking through a crowd where people surround you and literally press against you. The pressures of life may squeeze us but we are not utterly crushed.
Piano craftsman Theodore Steinway said that it is the 40,000 pounds of pressure exerted on the 245 strings of a piano that creates beautiful harmony.
Sometimes, it is only the pressure, the persecution we undergo that causes a song to resonate in the hearts of those with whom we share.
2. perplexed, but not despairing;
It suggests the idea of being lost & disoriented
3. persecuted, but not forsaken;
hunted by like an animal but never abandoned by God”
4. struck down, but not destroyed;
It’s not that a Christian doesn’t fall, but when he does he always rises again!
My Mom was and is an amazing woman in many ways. While in the hospital a young 23 year old was one of her nurses. I was sitting there when she came in to check my Mom’s blood pressure and somehow the conversation allowed me to say, ‘I really like to brag on my mom’. I told her that here is a lady who never picked up a tennis racket until she was 45 and ended up being the perennial Arizona champ in her age bracket. My mom then said, ‘Yes, for 10 years I was #1 in two different age levels. I was offered a scholarship by the local college because I kept beating their girls in tournaments. Girls from schools like ASU. I could hear them beforehand talking about who would play the old lady and then I would beat them’. Then she said this: ‘I would beat them with my head. When we would warm up I was not just getting ready to play but watching them to see what their weaknesses were. Then I would not pick on that weakness until I got to a point in the game that really mattered’.
That was her secret: Her strength was knowing their weakness.
Satan fears nothing from my life except my dependence upon God’s Spirit.
When difficulties happen he will try to detour us down another road than dependence upon God. The road of bitterness or anger or self-pity while God has allowed the difficulty that we might learn to depend upon Him. His strength is to keep me from my strength
As the young nurse listened I knew this was having an unusual impact on her. She said that she had been very athletic as a teenager playing all types of sports. She then found out she had rheumatoid arthritis and her treatment for was so intense that she was even on chemo for awhile. She had just this week gotten back on a treadmill for the first time in 2 years. My Mom’s story gave her a new sense about it never being too late.
Bob Jones Sr. was fond of saying, “The door of opportunity swings on the hinge of opposition."
1 Corinthians 16:9 Paul says: “A wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries”
Mike Tyson remarked, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” If you live long enough, you’ll be punched in the mouth more than once. Sometimes you’ll see the blow coming. More often it seems to come out of nowhere. Our friends will judge our Christianity mostly by how we respond when we take it on the chin.
If Christians are truly the light of the world, when is the light most likely to be seen? The answer is obvious. And it’s not as if we have to choose. We are the light of the world 24 hours a day. But our testimony given in the midst of hardship and sorrow will resonate more loudly because it comes at midnight.
NOTICE TWO THINGS:
Weakness of the "pot" Paul says "We are hard pressed; preplexed, persecuted, struck down."
Power of God "We are not Crushed; in despair, forsaken or abandoned & never destroyed or knocked out."
• Too often we love our pots more than the treasure inside of them.
THE LIFE OF JESUS BEGINS WHERE MY OWN LIFE ENDS
Paul shares how truly living means understanding how the death of Christ effects our lives.
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.
DEATH WORKS IN US: Carrying about the dying of Jesus….His life manifested in our body…in our mortal flesh…
Like Mary’s expensive perfume, no one in the room was blessed with enjoying the fragrance until she broke the vessel that was holding it. Often this is God’s only way to pour out the fragrance of Christ...is to break one of His vessels(us).
When we die He lives; when we lose He wins; when were weak He’s strong; when we are dependent He is powerful.
• There is a DAILY DYING TO SELF that is supposed to define the life of a believer. When this happens it releases in us the life of Jesus.
• Rom 12:1 Paul calls us to be ‘living sacrifices’. Jesus called us to follow Him by ‘taking up our cross daily, denying ourselves and following Him’.
• So much of REAL CHRISTIANITY hinges on our DYING TO SELF. That is one of the main reasons why it is hard to find in the Western world and that we have seen so many self-centered hybrids develop in the American church.
• THE FACT is that the world will never see JESUS IN US until we learn to die to ourselves and live for something beyond ourselves.
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Phil 3:10-11 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; {11} If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” (John 12:24–26)
Paul does not say, “I bear in my body the death of the Lord Jesus,” but rather “I bear in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus.”
There is a sense in which we learn as believers to die more and more each day.
We are BORN saying “hello” and then we spend the next 70 or 80 years saying “goodbye.” Eventually the undertaker catches up with all of us. The statistics on death are overwhelming. One out of every one person dies. We can’t escape that even though we do our best to avoid the reality. We are BORN AGAIN and begin a process of dying more and more to this world with every new work of God in our lives. More and more we are to say goodbye to the things of this world that had fastened their grip upon us
Paul finishes by quoting a passage out of Psalms 116. Psalm 116 describes a time when (King David) almost died but God delivered him from death
13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I BELIEVED, THEREFORE I SPOKE," we also believe, therefore we also speak, 14 knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.
The final thought is that our obedience in dying daily will ultimately lead to the day where we do physically die but the life we chose to live will leave behind a great impact on others
On October 25, 1999 golfer Payne Stewart was killed in a plane crash. We all heard the news about the runaway aircraft and the subsequent crash and death of Stewart and all the others on board. Payne Stewart was a dedicated Christian and a member of First Baptist Church in Orlando, Florida. His memorial service was broadcast live on local stations and around the world. As soon as the service was over, the phones at First Baptist began ringing off the hooks. Callers from around the world wanted to know how they too could come to faith in Jesus Christ. E-mail began to come in of decisions that had been made as a result of this service. God literally used this valley in the life of Payne Stewart and his family to bring praise and glory unto Himself.
Why so many of the heroes of the Bible had serious flaws. That’s all God has to work with. All the perfect people are in heaven. But until then, God uses some pretty ornery people who fall short in many ways, and he does some amazing things through them. By choosing flawed people God alone gets the glory when they accomplish amazing things by his power.
God passed by Socrates and Plato the philosophers and he chose fishermen and an ex-Pharisee tentmaker to bring His message to the world. He is still doing it. God intends to bless the world by “hiding” the gospel in “clay pots” that don’t seem very impressive by worldly standards. We wouldn’t do it that way. But God does when they learn to die to themselves and let the life of Jesus live thru them.
