“Treasure in Jars of Clay” | 2 Corinthians 4 | Evening Service with Pastor Israel

In Bible, please to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, the title

of tonight's message Treasures in Jars of Clay.

I don't know if you have in your possession at your house

something valuable stored in a surprising place.

I don't know. It'd be be odd for a jeweller to

wrap a diamond in a brown paper bag, wouldn't it?

You know, if they were to transport it from perhaps one

jewellery store to another that they owned and and there in a

brown paper bag would be a diamond, That would be strange.

Maybe a a grandmother might keep her inheritance money in a

biscuit tin. My brother Nat, when he was

working through high school into his uni days, kept all of his

cash. When he was paid that in his

sock draw, that was where his valuable stuff.

My point is that sometimes the container is ordinary, right?

Even fragile, unimpressive. But what matters is the treasure

inside. So that's the picture that Paul

gives to us in Second Corinthians chapter 4.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Tonight he speaks of the glory of the gospel of of the the

wonderful blessing that ministry is for him.

Remember, it's been in question. And yet he is transferring this

on now to the people in Corinth to say that you hold this

treasure. And in holding this treasure,

understand that we are but jars of clay.

We are urban vessels indicative of the fragile kind of cracked,

unimpressive people that we truly are.

And yet we've been entrusted with the greatest treasure in

the universe, the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

So again, this chapter Paul continues his defence of his

ministry. He's been attacked.

But it provides for us a window into the nature of what is all

Christian life. And witness for you and I you

might not think of it tonight, but you are as a Christian a

minister of the gospel. I say well, I'm not a pastor,

I'm not a Sunday school teacher. I I don't lead in worship.

No, you are as a Christian wherever you go, a servant, a

minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ on to others.

You are his hands and feet. And so we're seeing that tonight

and what Paul reveals for us is both the cost and the glory of

following Jesus Christ. So our main points for us, if

you're the note taking to type tonight is that the ministry of

the gospel is revealed in verses one to six.

And then from verses 7 to 12. The weakness of the messenger.

That while we we bear the weight of this wonderful message of the

good news of Jesus Christ. We we need to fully understand

and comprehend who we are in light of that, that it's nothing

of ourselves that nothing that we have done to earn or to merit

salvation and to be servants of Jesus Christ, but it's all by

his great grace upon us. And so there's a weakness, A

frailty that we possess in that. And then thirdly, for us, what

we'll see is the hope of the future.

Paul doesn't leave us going, you know, as as Debbie Downer's

right. Let me tell you what you are.

But now he reminds us of the blessed hope that we possess and

have in Jesus Christ. So I want to read the verses

first of all before us from one to six out of 2nd Corinthians 4.

I'm reading again from the new King James Version.

It says therefore, anytime you see a therefore, you know that

you need to go back to the previous at least paragraph, but

certainly, probably in this sense that the chapter before.

But since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do

not lose heart. We have renounced the hidden

things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the

word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,

commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of

God. But even if our gospel is vowed,

verse 3, it is vowed to those who are perishing, whose minds

the God little G of this age is blinded, who do not believe,

lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the

image of God should shine on them.

We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and

ourselves your bond servants for Jesus sake.

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness,

who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge

of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Paul begins with an encouragement here for you and I

in verse one. Therefore, having this ministry

by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.

We must understand that the ministry that our service that

that we're entrusted, that we're blessed to be a part of, comes

because God is merciful to you and I Paul knows that his

apostle ship is undeserved and it's by the mercy that God has

bestowed and given to him, not anything that Paul has earned,

achieved nor accomplished. And Paul was a learned man.

Paul was again being attacked by a certain group of people within

the Corinthian church that were challenging the legitimacy of

Paul's apostleship and and the point of doing so was then to

try and invalidate all of the gospel that Paul had been

preaching. As a consequence.

You see, if they could question Paul and his character, then

they could invalidate the the words and the teachings of Paul

as he had been in Corinth and in the letters that he had written.

And so Paul is very mindful now to give a defence of the fact

that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ.

But effectively what Paul is doing here in verse one is

saying, I agree with you guys, my apostleship.

Well, it's not for the reasons that you say, but because of

God's mercy, that I've done nothing to deserve being called

an apostle of Jesus Christ. But I am nonetheless.

It's by the mercy of God that I am an apostle, that I have been

entrusted with the blessing of being a minister in this

ministry. I haven't earned it.

God's grace has been bestowed upon me.

And so this ministry is a blessing by the mercy of God.

Paul here in that statement, he declares, I know who I am.

You guys, you don't need to attack me.

You don't need to do that. And more importantly, I know who

God is. Ministry that I am about comes

through the mercy of God. You know, you and I, no

Christian, serve God out of any greatness on our own part, no

qualifications that we've obtained.

You know, it's not like God is so lucky, so fortunate to have

me on his team. You know what a blessing I am to

God. No, there's none of that.

And then likewise the flow on to you and I is, you know, you guys

are so blessed to have me as your pastor or, or me as your

Sunday school teacher or or me as your this or that.

None of us can lay claim to that and that's certainly not what

Paul has been boasting about. His boasting has always been

about the glory of God and the gospel and and the message

there. So you and I must remember that

any ministry that we're a part of is a mercy gift comes from

God. And so that truth should keep us

humble and grateful as we're ministers of the gospel of God.

Ministry is is by mercy, by the mercy of God.

And then it's marked by honesty in verses 2 to 4.

Porous Paul is talking about the words spoken, the words written,

the gospel communicated to them and he's saying that I I

denounce any disgraceful underhanded ways of deception or

manipulation that were prevalent in the day and in in the time of

which Paul was writing. There's been no deception on my

part, no distortion on my part in the message that I've given

to you. And and here what he's doing is

he's he's contrasting himself with very common practise in the

day in the 1st century Roman Empire of these itinerant,

typically false teachers that would travel around and and take

advantage of the early church gatherings and meetings.

And specifically in Corinth, people had come onto the scene

who are peddling the gospel for prophet.

Does that not sound familiar to today, you know, modern

Christendom, the way that people go around and and use the

blessing of the ministry of the gospel as a means to generate

profit for themselves. And here he's he's Speaking of

there was no craftiness, no adulteration of the truth,

meaning there was no tampering, no twisting or or manipulation

on my part of what I communicated to.

And the words here that are used where he speaks of adulteration

is a word typically used of a merchant back then who would

water down typically the wine that they would sell in order to

make more money. They would dilute it down,

spread it further, but sell it at full price.

And Paul says, we're not diluting the truth of the

gospel. We're not watering down the

message. There's no compromise.

Paul believed in the power of the gospel message,

unadulterated, unfiltered, uncompromised, the truth of God.

In Romans one verse 16, he put it this way.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

Why? For it is the power of God to

salvation for everyone who believes.

Paul believed that Paul lived that Paul taught that.

Paul writes that here and there was a temptation in Paul's day,

as we're seeing in our day, to try to make some of the things

that we read in the Bible a little more palatable to modern

audiences and ears to compromise some of well, you know, well,

that's a bit harsh and and where God meant this said that rather

what what he actually means. And, you know, today we've

advanced and now we understand we've progressed And and people

say that, don't they? Or the other thing that people

do is, is they gravitate to what my my pastor in San Bernardino

calls skyscraper sermons, where it's just story after story

after story after story. That was nice.

That was wonderful. How uplifted and and what what a

wonderful message. What what a wonderful talk that

was that you gave. Oh, yeah.

What was it about? I don't know.

But man, I, I laughed, I cried. It was so emotive how wonderful

it is. It's kind of very much appealing

to today's day and age as it was back in Paul's time where people

would philtre down, water down, adulterate the gospel message.

Paul says. I'm not going to turn to any

gimmicks I haven't done in my preaching, in my writing, in my

communicating of the gospel. I'm not filtering down.

I'm not trying to water down. But then it begged the question,

OK, Paul, if you're not doing that, then why isn't everybody

getting saved? If you're giving the truth of

the gospel and it's powerful, why isn't there an impact in

that way? So he addresses that in verses 3

and four. He acknowledges that in verse 3

and 4, the gospel is veiled. To some it doesn't make sense.

It's like that. They're blinded.

It seems hidden or difficult to understand and I'm sure that you

can relate to that having shared the gospel with people and and

it's like they just draw a blank and they can't compute doesn't

seem to register what you know and what you know understand

understand through the illumination of the Holy Spirit

being born again, but for them they're unregenerate.

They don't it it there. There's like a blindness to

them, a veil that's over them. So acknowledges that the gospel

has veiled to some why? Because he says Satan has

blinded their minds. The God little G of this world

has done that. But the obstacle Paul

distinguishes here is not the message.

They don't need to change the message.

That's not the reason why they're not believing the

obstacle. The reason that the the gospel

is not impacting is the heart is the heart.

Let me give you an illustration. Picture a blindfolded person

looking at the sunset, right? The light shines, the sun is

setting, it's still there, but they cannot see for the

blindfold that is over their eyes.

And until that blindfold is removed, it doesn't change the

fact that the sun is shining its light.

That the glory, the splendour and how beautiful some of the

sunsets are where we live here doesn't change the fact that

it's there. But they cannot see it, cannot

realise it and enjoy it for them.

So Paul, he's talking about the the gospel being one that I'm

I'm, I'm not disgraceful or underhanded in any ways in my

communication about it. I've I've been honest and clear

and truthful. There's been no, no filtering,

no watering down of it. But some people still aren't

impacted by it because of the blindfold, the veil that's over

them by the God little G of this world.

Then he he builds on this, that the gospel that we've given.

It's not about any human being. The glory shouldn't be bestowed

upon any particular individual, but it's all focused and and

central to giving glory to Jesus Christ.

Verse 5 and 6 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ

Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your bondservants for Jesus

sake. For it is the God who commanded

light to shine out of darkness going back to creation and how

it was that God spoke and light came out of nothing, out of

darkness in this form. That powerful God who has now

shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the

glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

This is what the gospel and ministry is all about.

Ministry is centred on Christ. What we proclaim, He says it's

not ourselves. It's not about Paul, not about

how good I am, it's not about Apollo, it's not about how good

he is, nor about Peter, but it is about Jesus Christ as the

law. The gospel is never self

promotion. It's always to be Christ

promotion. You know, God forbid, when

ministry ever becomes about the individual.

You know their name, their face, their celebrity status.

John the Baptist. Think of him.

He had a a flourishing, thriving ministry going on.

Crowds flocking, gathering, baptisms aplenty.

The temptation would have been to start selling merchandise.

In today's day and age, get to John the Baptist T shirt get you

John the Baptist teachings and recordings and to broadcast over

his socials and Instagram pages. How many baptisms took place

today? And here's what this Pharisee

said. And here's what that religious

leader said and let's do an interview and let's deal with

that and and promote John the Baptist name and his ministry

taking place. But what did John the Baptist

say when Jesus came onto the scene?

John the Baptist was very clear that I must decrease and he must

increase. It may be true of you and I in

every ministry that we're a a a participant in that we're called

to by God that we're we're mercifully blessed to be

involved in that. It never be about self

promotion, but always be about the promotion of Jesus Christ.

Name that the glory goes to him, but he is the light shining in

the darkness. So what Paul has been speaking,

it's the God who said let light shine out of darkness that has

shone into our hearts. The gospel starts with God,

illuminates Jesus, is fulfilled and accomplished in Jesus, and

is to always be glorifying God. So tonight, how do you view your

ministry, whether preaching, whether parenting, whether your

personal witness as you communicate with friends or with

neighbours? Do you understand it as a mercy

that you haven't earned, merited anything?

But it's given by God that it requires integrity, honesty, no,

no conjuring, no manipulations, no craftiness.

It doesn't need your help and cleverness and it must centre on

Jesus Christ. And so is the focus of your life

and words. Look at me, everybody.

All look at Jesus, everybody. It's his first point.

Moving on. Now he starts to really build on

this in breaking down and recognising the weakness of the

messenger and himself included. Certainly verses 7 to 12,

there's this striking imagery where he contrasts the wonderful

treasure that we have in the Gospel, but it's found in you

and I as earthen vessels or jars of clay.

But we have this treasure in urban vessels, verse 7, that the

excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed.

We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not

forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying about

in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

That the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus

sake, but the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal

flesh. So then death is working in us,

but life in you. Going back to verse 7 as he

focuses on these, these weak, these these earthen vessels,

clay jars back in the time of Paul's writing again, 1st

century Roman Empire, the ancient world were were cheap

vessels, fragile, easily broken. And Paul says, guess what,

that's us. We're a bunch of crackpots for

Jesus. This is the picture Paul

utilises of himself and of us. But he says Paul points out, God

deliberately uses these weak, these, these earthen vessels so

that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Let me give a an illustration that might be helpful.

I have a, a tin watering can at home that's lived a few years

now in the shed starting to rust out and so on.

And my primary use of it is to mix up the sea salt to fertilise

the plants. And as I do, I, I, you know,

pour the mixture in, mix it up with the water and I'll carry it

to the plant that I'm, you know, focusing that, that fertiliser

on. And on my way, it will leak out,

you know, through the cracks onto the grass, onto the

pavement and so on. But you know what?

When those plants have been watered and fertilised and you

know in in the days, weeks, months ahead where they begin to

look healthy. They begin to produce fruit.

That was the purpose of the fertiliser or to flower it.

It would be crazy of me to say in looking at at that health and

looking at that fruit, wow, that watering can was amazing.

You know, and to go into the shed and open that up and praise

the watering can for how wonderful those plants are now

looking. No, it's, it's when I look at

those plants, oh, that that sea salt fertiliser did the trick.

Yeah, that's usually what I say. I'll, I'll, I'll, you know, I'll

put some more on, you know, you know, bit of time and such.

And look how those plants are now thriving and looking healthy

and vigorous. So the the container, my point

is had nothing to do with it right.

And likewise, you and I God's God's grace, the gospel it flow.

You know, he uses us. He's chosen for whatever reason.

And when we studied through revelation the the angelic

realm, they look at it and it blows their mind that God would

choose you and I and yet he has these these weak, these earthen

vessels entrusted the treasure of the gospel to us that in our

frailty, despite our frailty, in our weakness, despite our, our

brokenness, our cracks our, our, our, our cheapness in many ways

that the power of God so courses through us and blesses and

accomplishes his work for his glory.

And Paul builds on this imagery in verses 8 through tonight.

And again, we are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed

and talks about his experience particularly then and he builds

on it of of often being afflicted.

You know, his earthen vessel, feeling the pressure and the

weight of not only living life in this fallen world, but being

an apostle and a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ says I've

been afflicted, I've been perplexed, I've been persecuted,

I've been struck down, but by the grace of God, not crushed,

not driven to despair, not forsaken, not destroyed, batted,

beaten, bruised, yes, broken, but I'm hanging in there.

God is good, God is gracious, God is wonderful.

So Paul is saying that whenever we go through hard times,

whenever we experience the the frailty of our earthen vessels,

there is opportunity for God's power to shine forth through the

breaking of said vessels. No, brokenness in our lives is

sometimes and often times the means of God getting out of us

what he has put into us. It's ironic that most things in

the world lose their value once they're broken, and they become

less valuable when they're cracked.

But not so the Christian seems that brokenness enriches our

value for gospel ministry. God puts a premium, the Bible

indicates often on broken things, doesn't he, especially

on broken people. Psalm 51 verse 16 to 17 says,

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 are God you will not

despise. Why is that?

Well, brokenness in our lives. It leads to humility, doesn't

it, as we understand who we are and it leads us to become

dependent upon God all the more because we're exhausted of any

strength so called within us that we thought that we

possessed. And and these brokenness leading

to humility and dependency in particular, are two traits that

are very attractive to God. You know, the Bible tells us

that he actually resists the proud, but gives grace to the

humble. Psalm 34, verse 18.

Psalms 34:18

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and save,

such as have a contrite spirit. Isaiah 57, verse 15 For thus

Isaiah 57:15

says the high and lofty one, who inhabits eternity, whose name is

holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a

what contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the

humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

So Paul, he understood and he communicates this for them and

for you and I tonight, that it takes weakness in order to have

strength. And this is the place where we

struggle because it's so contrary to our natural way of

thinking and to the world's way of functioning and operating.

And, and this is often what we don't like.

We all want to see the power of God in our own lives, but we

want to come out of that experience untroubled.

We want the power of God to come through our lives, but we want

like peaceful, calm kind of circumstances for that

experience to transpire. It's like we want to move

through life protected from all the dangers and all the

difficulties. A bit like a a ride at a theme

park that has a, a little adventure for us, a few little

ups and downs here and there, maybe a little frightened.

Oh, that took my breath away. But we come out relatively

untouched and unscathed. But you and I, I think we've

lived long enough on this planet that we know that's not how it

works. Brokenness is a part of the

Christian life, isn't it? A life that is certainly not a

theme park for entertainment, but brokenness.

Life's difficulties, like Paul wrote, being hard pressed, being

crushed, being persecuted, being struck down as a means through

which God's power is revealed and his power is manifested in

our weakness for this purpose, for his glory.

We often don't get to choose either.

You know, when it comes to brokenness in our lives.

We'd love it sometimes if God could provide for us a menu of

options to pick from. But Christians can suffer in

numerous ways, can't we? Yep, We've experienced

brokenness in a in a number of varieties.

We're not hidden away from life. We, like anyone else, encounter

problems of every sort. But here's what we do know

through the Bible and what it teaches us is that we don't go

through that experience alone. God is with us and God is

revealed through us at those times.

And that, and that is Paul's point here.

God's power is manifested in our weakness.

We we have this treasure in earthen vessels and, and we're

pressed and we're crushed and we're persecuted and, and, and

we're struck down, but we, we have the Lord in US and with us.

And then he says suffering is real.

God's sustaining power is greater.

But let me tell you of the result, the consequence of this

in verses 11:50, death is at work in US, but it brings life

in you, particularly as recipients of this gospel

message. And so in verse 10 he talks

about how always carry the in his body, the dying of the Lord

Jesus that Jesus would be manifested and then concludes it

in verse 12. So then death is working in us,

but life in you. Paul carries, he says, the death

of Jesus in his body, Speaking of a daily dying to self that he

knew very real, even facing literal death at times, but that

it brought life on to others that his suffering was advancing

the gospel. You know, we, we have so many

other examples throughout Christendom over a Christian

history of missionary stories of people who have experienced and

and can testify of that truth that Paul declares for us in

that that that no matter what was going on, even to the point

of death, that God was able to work and that it brought life is

the power of gospel. And Jim Elliott's words, I think

ring true in that way. He said he is no fool who gives

what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose, and he knew that

all too well, having given his life in the missionary field.

So tonight, as we conclude that second point, I don't know what

your brokenness in your earthen vessel you're encountering now,

what weakness you're feeling burdened by tonight.

Don't think of it as disqualification, rather see it

as a stage for God's power and grace to flow on out in trials.

Then you can testify. Yes, I'm fragile, I'm weak, I'm

an urban vessel. I'm like a clay jar.

But you know, the treasure of Jesus Christ is shining through.

And then he doesn't leave them there with that.

And he doesn't leave us tonight with that.

His final point is to declare the hope of the future that we

have in verse 13 through to 18. He points us to that

resurrection power and since we have the same spirit of faith.

Verse 13 according to what is written, I believed and

therefore I spoke. He quotes David out of the

Psalms and we'll get to that in a moment.

We also believe and therefore speak knowing that verse 14.

He who raised up the Lord Jesus. So if if God is powerful to do

that, then let's have faith, let's have trust in this verse

14, that he will also raise up us with Jesus and will present

us with you. This is our our end where it's

all going for all things. Verse 15 are for your sakes.

That grace having spread through the many may cause Thanksgiving

to abound to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose heart.

Verse 16 even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward

man is being renewed day by day man, it's invigorating despite

what it might look like on the outside, the difficulties we're

experiencing. Paul says trust me within I I am

I am so amazed at God's work and man.

It's just nourishing my spirit for our light affliction.

He calls it verse 17, which is but for a moment he had this

wonderful perspective of of what he was experiencing now on life

on earth compared to all of eternity is working for us a far

more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Or we do not look at the things which are seen verse 18, but at

the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen

are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

So again, for for us, Paul doesn't end with weakness, you

know, the earthen vessels, but he promotes and reminds them of

the wonderful hope for the future found in the resurrection

of Jesus Christ and in the power of God to achieve that.

And of the promises that God has given to you and I of what that

then means for you and I for all of eternity.

And what Paul is experiencing in the here and now as a

consequence of that truth. And he speaks first of all of

the faith in God who raises the dead of of that which

invigorates him. He's he's quoting Psalm 116

where he says I believed. And so I spoke and it's speaking

there at a time in in David's life.

If you were to turn to Psalm 116 and read that David was fearful

of his life. And yet David is able to remind

and and speaks out believing who God is and it stirs up within

him a faith and a trust. No, this is who God is.

And I believed. And as a consequence of a

reminder of of who it is that God is, it stirred up within me

a trust and a faith to now live for him in light of who God is.

So I spoke, I lived it out as if it were true, as if it were real

and invigorated it revived my life and living here and now.

And so Paul says that's, that's my experience.

And for you and I and, and the audience, certainly, he says

belief and trust in God leads to a confidence to declare the

gospel of God and to speak with conviction that the gospel is

powerful, to not be ashamed of it and to boldly then continue

in the ministry that God has called your eye to, no matter

how difficult, no matter how broken, no matter how frown, no

matter how weak you might be feeling.

And the confidence again is not contrived, is not self

generated. But based on this, the God who

raised Jesus will also raise us with him.

And if Jesus is alive, if God is powerful to accomplish that

greatest thing in defeating death and the grave, then God

will in the same power fulfil that which he has promised to

you. And I in the gospel believe it.

Paul says, may it be true in your life and living So faith in

the God who raises the dead. But then also he says, I want

you to see purpose in suffering. In verse 15.

He's not denying that suffering exists.

And Paul's perspective was that the suffering that has come upon

me and the suffering that might come upon you, Corinthians, and

the suffering that might come upon you and I, he says it's all

for your sake so that the gospel can go forth, that grace can

extend to the glory of God. And it's a reminder to you.

And I. And Paul has been big on this

through First Corinthians and through Second Corinthians,

excuse me, that suffering is not pointless, though at times in

our lives we're wondering the purpose of it.

Why me, God? Why us?

Why this what Paul is Speaking of is, is understanding the

purpose in the suffering and and it's it's been a a message

communicated again and again and again.

Suffering will come guaranteed. The Bible is is real on that,

but don't waste it. It's purposeful.

See it as a way that God is able to use you for his glory that

would lead to Thanksgiving in your life.

And that's a well, that's an attitude to have that again,

can't be generated within ourselves, but must come through

the Holy Spirit within us illuminating God's word to the

truth and the reality of that in in our living.

And so continuing to to enhance this verses 16 through 18, he

pulls out this perspective on affliction that he echoes in in

his experience. We don't lose heart whilst our

outer self, our earthen vessel, might be wasting away.

I'm feeling it, the weight, the heaviness of this persecution,

of this suffering. But our inner self is being

renewed. And he calls the afflictions,

the experience that he's going through light.

Was Paul delusional? Was he just trying to, you know,

claim something other than what reality is?

And and you know, Paul, you're kidding yourself to say that

your your suffering is light or is momentary.

No, what Paul had was the right perspective about how our lives,

though at the times and what we're going through, it seems

like it's never going to end. He says compare it to eternity.

Understand that we are immortal, eternal beings, and that while

these present sufferings are going on, there is an eternal

weight of glory beyond comparison that lies ahead for

you and I because of the resurrection power of Jesus

Christ. Maybe an illustration might be

helpful here of of imagining a scale on one side, weighing and

putting all of your present sufferings.

You know what you're going through.

You know what you're experiencing, and yet on the

other side of that scale put eternal glory.

And what you'll see if you read and understand the Bible

rightly, is that the eternal glory far outweighs anything

that seems pressing in this moment.

How do you frame your trials? Well, if you only see the

present and what you're going through and are looking with

your eyes at at the circumstances, at the situation,

then despair is is easy. It's very natural.

But if you see more of the eternal and hope is birthed

within you, your spirit is renewed, you know, and as we age

in this life and the body weakens as we find ourselves

experiencing that, the spirit can grow stronger though, as our

eternal destination is more and more insight and that weight of

eternal glory. And for the younger here

tonight, physically speaking, it might sound like, oh, it'll

never happen to me, but may I encourage you to build your life

on eternal things to prioritise the Kingdom of God.

Seek you first his righteousness.

Matthew 6 verse 33 says I'm not temporary glitter, not the

Matthew 6:33

appeals of this world that are fading and falling away because

man time just rapidly flies by and before you know it, you'll

find yourself looking in the mirror at an elderly version of

yourself should the Lord tarry and you'll know all well that

you are an earthen vessel. 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 gives us

both realism, yes, and hope Realism that that ministry

that's serving God is hard, that we are weak, but that suffering

is part and parcel, is normal and the hope that is conveyed

through this passage of. The gospel being this glorious,

wonderful treasure, God works through our weakness, through

our brokenness, and then we have a future that is certain.

And so persevere in that. Don't lose heart.

May God's mercy sustain your ministry.

Proclaim, keep the focus on Jesus Christ, never yourself.

You've probably all heard those, those Frankenstein testimonies

where people will talk about what their life was like before

Jesus Christ. You know, I know I used to be in

bikie gangs and I used to do drugs and I used to do this and

I used to do that. And man, I was a raging

alcoholic. I was a this and then God saved

me. And then that's kind of the end

and no declaration of the transformative power of God at

work in their lives. And it's almost like all the

focus has been on, you know, the the earthiness of what I once

was and so on. And that's been what the focus

has been all about rather than upon the transformative power of

God. You know, now, now I'm loving my

wife and my family and God has just been a blessing and how how

good and how merciful and how gracious and how wonderful and

all the glory goes to him. May the promotion may may the

focus be always about Christ. And then keep that perspective

that whatever trials, whatever difficulty, whatever you're

going through right now, could you say with Paul, that's a

light momentary affliction that compared to eternity and the

weight of glory that's held up like clay jars.

We might be cracked, chipped, ordinary, plain, simple, but the

treasure in US is Christ Jesus. And one day those cracks give

way to glory. Paul, he didn't write as a a

kindergartner in the school of suffering.

He had an advanced graduate degree.

He knew all about suffering, and he describes some of his

suffering. We'll get to that later in

Chapter 11, but he uses these terms about what he experienced

in the suffering that I think probably all of us combined

wouldn't be able to put our name to.

He spoke of being striped, whipped, being imprisoned, being

beaten, being stoned with rocks, being shipwrecked in perils of

waters, experiencing the brutality of robbers in perils

of my own countrymen, the Jews, in perils of the Gentiles, in

perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the

sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil,

in sleeplessness, often in hunger and thirst, in fastings,

often in cold and nakedness. And those for Paul were just the

physical sufferings that he experienced, the outward

sufferings in his earthen vessel, let alone the spiritual

burdens that he bore and the spiritual attacks that he faced.

But all through it, what we see in Paul's writing and has

emphasised for us tonight is this.

Paul's confidence always was, always is, always will be in

God. And so tonight is your

confidence in God. What is in your vessel.

I love that Old Testament story in the book of judges of Gideon

coming against the overwhelming odds militarily Speaking of the

Midianites. Remember that and how it was

that Gideon was entrusted by God with the whole, you know, the

the fleece testing first of all with the Jew, but OK now Gideon,

you're going to lead now call to arms the people of of of Israel

to come to fight against the Midianites.

And as they they mustered and gathered together, God said not

too many and filtered down and eventually there were just 300

literally crackpots that God used for winning the victory.

They were to break those vessels as they held those torches aloft

and to shout out for for God and for Gideon and to break those

vessels. And it causes confusion amongst

the Midianites. And the victory was won.

And God is able to take the simple, the foolish, the broken,

the clay vessels, because the treasure is him and the power is

him. So will you be emboldened on

into this week at the very least to say, it's not about me, it's

not about what I'm feeling, what I'm experiencing, but to God be

the glory and I'll live and I'll and I'll trust him to just use

me in ways that will honour him and the gospel will go forth.

So let's pray for that. Lord, we thank you for this

passage tonight and thank you for your people gathered here

tonight in blistery, windy conditions.

And, and maybe they're perhaps indicative of, of where our our

souls or where our hearts are at right now with what's perhaps

going on. Maybe this analogy of us being

weak, broken clay vessels is ringing true with with some

gathered here tonight. And so I pray that this message

has been a powerful reminder of who you are, of what you have

done, of what you are doing, of how you have chosen the foolish

things of the world to confound the wise.

That if we will trust you, if we will rest in your power, then

God, the glory belongs to you and, and you will achieve and

accomplish your purposes despite us in and through us.

And so we again, we submit and we surrender ourselves to you

and we pray, Lord God use us, not because there's anything

special or particular in us, but that we're just simply going to

be vessels ready for your use. We pray that you would get the

glory, that you would get the honour in Jesus mighty name.

And God's people said tonight, Amen.

Amen.