2 Corinthians 4:1-5:10 – Jars of Clay

We're starting from 2 Corinthians 4 verse one, and we

go down to five to chapter 5, verse 10.

And what we're going to do is I'm not going to read the whole

stretch of the passage. I will jump some verses.

I'll go right down to the end and then we'll walk our way back

up again into the main verse that talks about the jars of

clay. So we'll get right into it.

So we'll start reading. So what all I've got are just

pictures and some few lines. Nothing, nothing more.

And I will rely on every one of us to pick up our Bibles,

whether it is this one or the ones on your phone.

And we're going to read together.

I have got actually the new Living Translation.

So that's what I'm going to be reading from.

Yeah, I just got this and it's been really interesting how much

difference it makes from reading this rather than reading on the

phone that yeah, it makes a whole lot of difference.

So that's where we're going to start from.

Last week Ben talked about the light.

He talked about Moses. He talked about how the light

was shining on Moses face and people couldn't see him.

So we're starting here. And he says, therefore, since

God in his mercy had given us this new way, we never give up.

We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods.

We don't try to trick anyone or distort the word of God.

We tell the truth before God. And all who are honest knows

this. If the God, if the good news we

preach is hidden beef behind the veil, it is hidden only from

people who are perishing. Satan, who is the God of this

world has blinded the minds of those who don't believe.

We're going to verse 6 all together, but I'll skip to verse

5. It says, you see, we don't go

around preaching about ourselves.

We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord and we ourselves are your

servants for Jesus sake, for God who said let there be light in

the in the darkness has made this light shine in our hearts

so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of

Jesus. And I'll put a bit more emphasis

on the verse 6 that says God who said let the light shine in the

darkness at the point of accepting Jesus as our Lord and

Saviour is the light is shown in our heart.

God has shown us a different way of living.

God has shown us a different standard of living and is giving

us that light. And that's the light that we've

got in our heart. And it's that light that we aim

every single moment, every single morning, every single

time with fellowship, every time we come to the church, every

time we meet with our Christian brothers.

And it's that light we aim to keep shining.

And we're hoping that that light of God, which He's got in our

hearts and every single time, does not die.

And what do we do is we fellowship, we pray, we love

Jesus, we study his Bible, we encourage one another.

And the whole aim of this is that God has given us that

light. Our faces are not veiled.

It means that we're not blind to what God is able to do.

But then we have troubles in this world, in this life that

wants to throw us here and throw us there.

But God said, I have given you that light and that light should

shine in your heart. So ignore all of that picture

there. And then the next one here is

just that. So we're going from, so it's 2

Corinthians 4. We're doing from verse 8 to 11

next. Sorry, it's not a very big slide

in itself, but hopefully we can arrive at a message that I'm

trying to preach out this morning.

So 8 to 11 says we are pressed on every side by troubles.

And I think that if we have followed the service this

morning and you look at the theme of Andrea's prayers and

the theme behind Olympus prayers and skips prayer, it sort of

resonates with what we're saying here is that even though God has

given us that light wants us to be strong and be bold in him and

walk with him. But Paul is saying we are

pressed on every side. We are not without our troubles.

We are not without our challenges.

We are pressed on every side, but we are not crushed.

And that's the testimony that God wants us to hold onto that

regardless of whatever life is throwing at us, we do understand

Jesus said in this life you will have troubles, but be of good

share because what? Because I have overcomed the

world and he's saying, well, we are pressed on every side, but

we're not crushed. And that's our testimony.

We are perplexed. Yes, we are anxious.

A few things will make us anxious here.

A few people are struggling with anxiety.

A few people may be struggling with depression.

A few people may have 1001 thoughts running through their

mind at every single moment. I go to work every day and it

might be the first few patients I see and you're thinking, why

is it that? But then we go back to it and we

realise that God has given us his light and God and Paul is

saying we are perplexed but not driven to despair.

And that's the grace of God that holds us, that regardless of

whatever we go through in life, it might look like we might

crush under the weight of it. But he says we're not thrown.

We're not jumping over the ledge, We're not jumping over

the edge. We are not driven to despair.

We are haunted down, but never abandoned by God.

And then we look at the prayers this morning and he says, you

know, a whole lot of things are happening, but we know that the

light is inside of us. And the main testimony is that

God has got us. We are never abandoned by God.

We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed through

sufferings. Our bodies continue to share in

the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be seen in our

bodies. And through all of this, our

body, which is the temple with sicknesses, with everything it

says, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus.

But we know that this works life for us because whatever thing it

is on it that we're going through, yes, we have the body

and we have the spirit, but our body receives the bulk of it

all. And I'll go into the next one.

So that there is all the colours and all of that just shows what

our life may be, what my life may be, what your life may be.

And it's like we're going through the motions of it all

and we're saying, when is this going to end?

How am I going to live through this?

And as much as we try sometimes with everything that is going

on, we try to have a very beautiful life.

Sometimes, you know, we try out there.

I don't know, maybe. Well, I didn't, we didn't, we

didn't camp in in, in devoted. But I can imagine if it's a

windy day and you're trying to set up A and, and that's what

you've got at the end of the day anyway.

That looks like rubbish. But have you ever felt sometimes

that you're trying to grapple a whole lot of things at the same

time and it's not coming together?

Have you ever tried and felt like, well, maybe if I have

tentacles like the octopus, I could hold on to that and hold

on to that and hold on to that one and hold on to that one.

Yeah. And then maybe you're trying to

figure out your own life. And then someone from somewhere,

from a family, a friend is asking you and saying, can you

help me with this? Can you help me with that?

And it's saying sometimes even as much as we try, it may still

end up like that. But it's fine because what we

know is that we are never abandoned by God.

So in verse 16, Paul said that is why we never give up.

And that is why even though our bodies are failing.

And that is why even though we don't have that motivation to

come to fellowship, to come to church on a Sunday, because we

know that God has got us. Because we know that even though

our lives are looking like rubbish and that's all we end up

with is that we know that God has got us.

Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every

single day. So even though we are struggling

and it looks like it's not nice, and it looks like sometimes you

just want to wake up and break down and cry and do all of that,

and you're thinking, no one is going to understand me even if I

say it. And it's OK to look like that.

But it says that even though we are dying on the inside, our

spirits are being renewed because God has got us.

And it will be nice sometimes to have something good, something

perfect. You know, you pitch up to camp

and so on, has set up your tents.

That way it will be nice. Really.

You're thinking, yeah, what a beautiful life I've got.

But then the dangers of that is that if the person is not around

to set it up the next time, what do you do?

And you're thinking, yeah, how am I going to do that?

And it's natural. And it's OK for us to long for

something good. It's OK for us to say, God, I

just need a break. Just just just give me a break.

And it's normal. It's not, it's not, you know,

for, for, for whatever thing it is, you know, it's OK.

And God is not going to say he's come again.

He's going to say come on in. Yeah.

And he says, and that's why he said, he says, come to me.

All who are laboured, all who are stressed, all who are

feeling low and despair. And he says, come to me and I

will give you rest. Ignore it.

Everything you've got, everything you're carrying.

And he says, take on me, my yoke.

And he says take on me, my own burden because it is lighter.

And sometimes we want this, you see.

So in verse in chapter 5, one to five, he says, for we know that

when this entry tent we're leaving is taking down, that is

when we die and leave this earthly birdie, we will have a

house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God, not by human

hands, because what we know is that whatever it is we're going

through right now, they are temporary.

I can see, you know, it's it's amazing really when I feel like

sometimes this morning, for example, me and from maybe woke

up tired and we felt like, oh God, not today again.

And I said, yeah, I'm doing set up today.

I said, yeah, I know I'm doing kids today.

And I thought, well, if only sometimes you could have a lie

in or maybe say, yeah, yeah, I don't want to come.

But it's amazing sometimes, regardless of how tired you are.

And Clem is walking through that door in his little steps, as

small and as fast as he thinks he's going, But it's that little

steps. And Anne is there being pushed

here. And he says our bodies are

dying, but we know. But we know that we've got life,

but we know that God's got us. And I'm just going to skip to

the next one there. And he says, what if we get a

new body every seven years, maybe every two years or maybe

every one year? If we get a new body, it will be

nice, really, because sometimes we want to jump up.

I'm sure if we give Clem a new body, he's going to be happy.

He's probably going to be standing here and then singing.

But then what does Clem do every day or maybe every Sunday is

that he reads out the words to us, encourages us.

And we hear a prayer from Anne and it encourages us and we hear

a prayer from everybody and it encourages the house.

We won't get a new body, will we?

No, but we can have our spirits renewed every single day.

We can have God built up in us that even though our bodies are

dying, our spirits are growing and it's quite massive what the

Spirit of God in US can do so in six to 10, he says.

So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as

we live in these bodies, we are not at home with the Lord.

For we leave by believing, not by seeing.

Yes, we are fully confident and we would rather be away from

these earthly bodies. I mean, sometimes you will feel

like my body, you know, my body's failing me.

I just want to go away. So it says.

So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our

goal is to please him. And that's the ultimate.

So whether or not our bodies are failing, whether or not the

troubles and the challenges and the illnesses and the mental

health problems are weighing us down and, and, and, and we seem

to be struggling. And he says that whether or not

our goal is to please him. And it can seem like that

sometimes when you're trying to please God and it is normal.

It's like you're, you're, you're putting the whole of your

strength in it. You're trying and trying and,

and doing everything. And it looks like it's not

working. And so we're now we're

backtracking again into, so we're going back into four and

we're reading from verse 13 and we read to verse 17 again.

And it says, even though in all of this, it says, but we and

Paul is saying, we will look at Paul's experiencing a bit and

we'll see how much thing he's gone through because Paul had a

lot of trials, had a lot of tribulation, and that's why he

could write this. But we have our own individual

experiences. What what?

You know what he says, But we continue to preach because we

have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said I

believe in God. I spoke, so I spoke.

We know that God will raise Jesus, will also raise us with

him and present to us together with you.

All of this is for your benefit as God's, as God's grace, which

is more and more people, there will be great Thanksgiving and

God will receive more and more glory.

So God is Paul is saying, you know, whatever things we're

going through, the trials and the tribulations that Paul had

to go through were quite immense.

But what was he doing is that he was taking the Scripture to

Corinth. He was taking the Scripture to

Rome. He was taking, he was taking the

word of God to Galatia, to all of these little towns and little

countries. And he's saying, yeah, it is

hiring. It is overwhelming for

everything I am doing. It is for your glory.

And he's saying for as more and more people hear the word of

God, they believe. And it can be the same way in

our Christian journey, that as much as we want to preach the

gospel, as much as we want to tell the next person in Asda, in

ALDI, in Tesco about Jesus, sometimes we're not in the right

frame of mind to do it. And sometimes maybe we're

scared. Sometimes we're tired from our

own troubles. But then we still continue

because what we aim to do is that more and more people will

know about Jesus. For our present troubles are

small and won't last very long. And that's the consolation that

we have. I'll take that again.

For our present troubles are small and won't last very long,

yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and

will last forever. So it's like you put them on the

pulley system and you've got a lever there, and then your

troubles are that way. But you know that what is

producing for you is a lot more way to thin than whatever it is

that we're going through. And sometimes it feels like

we're fighting the darkness around us and the whole depths

around us. But Paul had an experience in

Acts, so we're just going to go through to Acts 23, and I'll

read that. I hope I've not missed what I

was going to read. Yeah.

So I'll paraphrase this boy, if we've got time to read this,

this just tells us about what our experiences are like and

what God's promises through our experiences, what it assures of

us us of, and how God has made plans for us in our experiences.

So in Acts 23, and I won't read verse 11, but I'll start from

verse 12, the next morning, a group of Jews got together and

bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they

had killed Paul. And it may look like maybe

that's our life really, and that sometimes maybe, maybe, maybe

maybe, you know, as we're trying to keep strong, but then we have

all of these challenges around us and it's thinking this is

going to kill me. But these guys have said to

themselves that no, no, no, we're not going to eat, We're

not going to drink. Our main aim, our main purpose

in life is that we're going to kill Paul.

And that's their aim. They didn't have any other aim.

But if we look back at 11, which is just the night before, he

says that night the Lord appeared to Paul and said, be

encouraged, Paul, just as you have been a witness to me here

in Jerusalem, you must preach the good news in Rome as well.

If I had that testimony and there are some people down the

street clamouring and saying they're going to kill me, what

do you think Paul's mind will be like?

It's never going to happen. Because God said, because God

said so it's not going to happen.

So even though they have a group of people, we don't know if

there were 100 of 1000 or 500, even though they have said we're

not going to eat, we're not going to drink, we're not going

to put on new clothes until we have killed Paul.

Yeah, they can clamour all they like, but God has said to Paul,

I've got a mission for you, I've got a task for you, I've got a

duty for you. And that duty and that task

means that you're not going to die.

You're going to go to Rome and you preach the good news and it

doesn't matter what plans they make.

And Paul is not thinking, God, how are you going to save me

from these people? Because if we read back, what he

said is that, you know, God reviewed that to someone else

and and and and he went ahead and told someone and who said,

yeah, we're going to save Paul. And that's what happens.

And what that means for us is when God says, I know the

thoughts I have towards you, you know, and when we look at all

his scriptures and his promises over our lives, and it looks

like whatever circumstances we're going through is going to

weigh us down and push us down and break us.

We look back at the scriptures and what God has said about you,

about me, and we make it personal.

And that's where our courage starts from.

And so we go through all of these experiences in life, all

our trials, all our troubles, all our tribulations, and we

hold God side by side and say, walk with me.

But this is what happens as we do so is that God puts His word

in US. And sometimes that word is for

us. Sometimes God puts his word in

US to encourage us so that we can encourage someone else with

that word that He has given to us.

And so even though our flesh is breaking, even though we are

weak, every morning God has to put his light in US.

And he says day by day, your promises to me, to you, to us is

new. And God puts his light into us,

and that just freams out. And he says that yes, our body

may be failing, but our spirits are renewed every morning and

like this, this is all I've got here.

But this is an empty, well, I think it's a jar.

And this is an empty jar made of clay.

And it's been battered every single time you wash it.

It's been battered every single time you put it in the

dishwasher. And maybe your toddler comes and

drop it on the floor and it's and it's got a chink there or

it's got a bit of a crack there. But what happens every day?

So even though this gets old the more with fellowships with God,

this is what happens is that you've got a treasure that got

pours on the inside of this and that treasure is valid, but that

treasure does not need to stay in the cup.

That treasure needs to go either in your belly, in my belly

maybe, or into something else. And you can use that in the pot

to cook or use it for something else.

And that treasure goes into something else and even when it

gets empty from the challenges of life and from the struggles

of life. And he says that we can go back

to God and get filled up again. Because what have we got there

is that we have got this treasure of God in ettin

vessels, in you, in me. And that treasure is meant to

flow out. And so when we come to church

this way and we're thinking, oh, God, not again today.

God from your personal experience has dropped the word

in your heart, in my heart to encourage someone else.

And don't underestimate it, even if it's a prayer that says, God,

I thank you today because I've woken up.

What it does is that you have taken that treasure that God has

put on the inside of you through your personal experiences and

struggle, and you've poured it into someone else who may just

be sat next to you and doesn't know what they're going to do

next. And so it's encouraging

ourselves that as we come to fellowship, it's that we pour

out that treasure that God has put on the inside of us.

And it's pour it out because we've got we've, we've, we've

got a whole lot that God has done for you and that God has

done for me. I'm just going to go back to

Corinthians. We now have this light shining

in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clays

containing this great treasure. And So what we want to see every

often is that because we know that God has given you a

treasure, we're looking for ways that we as a church, as

individuals, can release that treasure into someone else.

And so when Skip stands out here and say Home group is going to

be at this place or that place, you've got something inside of

you that you need to share. You need to come to Home group.

You need to let us see it. If you've got a song, if you've

got a sermon through your struggles on your day-to-day

basis and God has given you a word that encourages you, what

it means is that he's put another treasure on your inside.

Why not let us see it? Why not pour it out?

If you've got a prayer during the during worship, it's a

treasure that God has given to you.

Let's see it. Let's see it because we want to

see it because you know what? The church exists primarily for

two closely correlated purpose. One, we want to come together

and worship God and work in his Kingdom and you know, and put

and put treasures in his Kingdom like skippers been saying in the

last three weeks and saying, you know, we need to give all.

That's what we need to do. But the church also exists for

one of the purpose, which is to serve the other two, to

encourage one another, to build one another up in faith, to pray

with and for one another, to learn from one another and to

set one another examples to follow, challenges to take up,

an urgent task to perform. And that's what the church is

for. And that's why God has given to

you that treasure. And so we want to come together

as a family and family shares. And family has got one or two

things they bring to the table. And so in the family setting,

someone is cleaning and the person is taking up the dishes.

And it's because we have our own capacity and capabilities in

different ways. And it's the same way God has

put that in US and he wants us to use it and to use it for his

Kingdom. And that's what we call

fellowship. And that's just what we call

fellowship. Because if, if we do want a

fellowship, then we have to share.

And God has given something, there is something in you that

you can share. And it's that treasure.

And it's that treasure, really. And my prayer for us all is that

we've got a beautiful church, but we want everybody to jump

in. And so if you're not there yet,

if you're not jumping in, like Olympia said, like I said, you

know, it started off really, really quite nice.

But Olympia said, if you're not giving your role, if you're not

jumping in, it's time to jump in because you've got a whole lot

you can share. Amen.

There you go. We thank you.

You are an amazing father. You are a good, good father.

And we know that that that, that that life has got its ups and

downs. It's got in different phases and

we're all in different phases. We, we, we, we recognise this.

But above all, we know that you have got us and through as we

walk through life, we know that you have given to us things,

treasures, blessings, words that we need to share.

And God, we pray that as a church that we grow more in you

and that fellowship with you grows more and more.

And then we're an open children, receptive.

We just want to see you in our hearts, in our lives, even as we

fellowship together as one. God, I just pray for anyone who

is struggling, who is going through a time of phase or the

other God, we just pray for strength for them or God in the

name of Jesus, we pray. Oh God our Lord, you will give

us strength as we walk with you through life.

Thank God. We just want to pray that even

as we walk with you that you give us the strength and the

courage to do business with you and to also grow in you, that

the light that you have given to us will shine brighter and

brighter into everybody. Amen.