Treasures in Jars of Clay | 2 Corinthians 4:7-15 | 3/8/26

All right, so important question for

you. Um

don't say this out loud,

but where do you keep all your

valuables?

Just in case we need to know, you know.

Um typically we don't leave things that

are really valuable to us in places that

are at risk, right? Typically if

something is precious us, we don't leave

it lying around. We don't leave it in a

place that's fragile.

Typically we put them in places like

safety deposit boxes, fire safes,

vaults. We have them hidden away.

And you can tell uh you can probably

tell I don't have a lot of experience

hiding stuff. You're like, David, that's

not where I hide any of my stuff.

Um I don't have lots of valuables

either, so there we go.

Um I just dig a hole by the trees at

In-N-Out because I was told the X marks

the spot on the treasure map. So that's

why I put it, okay?

Um

So but typically there's a principle

that the greater the value, the greater

the security behind something. And so I

think that's kind of why we like heist

stories, heist movies, stories of people

who are trying to break into some place

really secure to steal something really

valuable.

Typically in those movies or stories you

have a team of people with varying

skills to come together to rob something

that's invaluable.

And they're kind of fun because it's

somewhat like a mystery that you see how

this robbery or heist comes together.

And the first one I watched back in the

day it was Ocean's 11, but it's even

come down to like kids genres and movies

like The Bad Guys and stuff like that.

There's all these kind of stories about

how do you come together as a team to

break in and steal something really

valuable. Now, we preach the Ten

Commandments, you shall not steal, okay?

Not endorsing stealing here, obviously,

but it's kind of fun to imagine how you

would rob a vault. I

Now,

usually there's someone who's the

mastermind or planner, someone who's

charismatic as well as charming, a a con

artist type person is usually part of

the story. There's usually someone who

can physically do all the acts of

breaking into a place, and then there's

the person in the chair taking care of

the technology, right?

Um now, it'd be a really movie if the

thing you're stealing is just something

that's left out in the middle of the

road, right? That'd be a pretty quick

movie. It would not be fun to watch.

It's something that's like left in the

front seat of the car, whatever it might

be. It's like not fun, but when we get

into this idea of breaking into some

place where the security

that's where it gets kind of fun. So

when the Louvre Heist happened

this past year, it was it was sad and

funny, right?

Did you hear about that?

A group of people who dressed up as

construction workers and stole the crown

jewels out of the Louvre Museum in Paris

in broad daylight.

They hacked into the system for the

closed-circuit camera system,

and the password

Did you hear this?

It was Louvre.

Now

I bet

more than half of us couldn't spell it,

so I get it, right?

But come on, like

if your password is password, raise your

hand.

The surprise of our text today is that

Paul writes that God stored

his greatest treasure in something

incredibly common and fragile.

That God stored his greatest treasure in

something incredibly common, incredibly

fragile,

and that God ordained the communication

of his glory and the gospel that it be

overseen by people he describes as jars

of clay.

Fragile, weak, and God did this so that

his power would be seen. It goes against

our idea that we store something of

incredible value in something that's

incredibly secure, and God's like, "No,

I'm doing the opposite.

I'm storing the most valuable thing I

can, the message of the gospel,

in fragile, weak

people."

And so the Corinthians and many of us

would assume that it'd be smarter for

God to just use super Christians, to use

people who are made of steel rather than

people made of jars of clay. And yet the

main idea of our text of scripture here

is that God has purposed your frailty

and your weakness

to show his power.

That when you find times where you're

frail and weak, God has ordained that to

show his power. God has caused it to

happen. You're like, "Thanks, God.

You couldn't have done it another way?"

No.

He did this so that we depend on him and

so that no one would think that we're

great and that God is just okay.

And so as we explore our passage this

morning, I want us to remember how

Pastor Jason introduced Second

Corinthians as a book that gives us

hints or clues as to why we suffer.

We don't get one single answer in one

single text of the scripture here, but

we get many images, many clues as to

what God is doing through our adversity

and our hardship. And in fact today

we'll see three things that God

accomplishes through his fragile

messengers

to underscore that God's purposed your

weakness to show his power.

We'll see three things in relation to

our suffering, the relation to us being

weak people, fragile people, how God

uses that suffering to create dependence

on him and to show his power.

We often wonder if any of our suffering

that we go through matters. We wonder

why when our experience makes no sense.

And our text of scripture gives us three

ways that suffering pushes us towards

depending on God.

The first thing we see here is that our

suffering shows that Christ is

sufficient. Let's read our whole text of

scripture, but we'll focus in on verses

7 to 9, but let's get our minds around

the whole passage here. Join me in

reading Second Corinthians chapter 4

2 Corinthians 4:7

verse 7 to verse 15.

>> [clears throat]

>> But we have this treasure in jars of

clay to show that the surpassing power

belongs to God and not to us.

We are afflicted in every way, but not

crushed, perplexed, but not driven to

despair, persecuted, but not forsaken,

struck down, but not destroyed, always

carrying in the body the death of Jesus

so that the life of Jesus may also be

manifested in our bodies. For we who

live are always being given over to

death for Jesus' sake so that the life

of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal

flesh. So death is at work in us, but

life in you.

Since we have the same spirit of faith

according to what's been written, "I

believed, and so I spoke." We also

believe, and so we also speak.

Knowing that he who raised the Lord

Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and

bring us with you into his presence.

For it is all for your sake so the grace

is so as grace extends to more and more

people,

it may increase Thanksgiving to the

glory of God.

>> [clears throat]

>> What a great passage.

What a great passage.

The complaints the Corinthians had

against Paul

was if Paul is

chosen by God to be this messenger of

the gospel,

why is everyone against him?

Why does he suffer so much?

And this theme will pop up again and

again in Second Corinthians, especially

towards the end as Paul recounts his

sufferings, how God uses sufferings to

magnify his power and his grace more and

more.

But why?

If God really blessed him, why does

everyone oppose him? And why is he going

through so much pain? They, like many of

us, view suffering as an interruption to

God's plan rather than a feature of the

Christian life.

They did not have this really high view

of Paul like we have in the church today

because they were wrapped up in viewing

success like the world view success.

Numbers, power, influence.

And so Paul answered the question, "How

could so much glory be mis- ministered

by someone so fragile, someone so weak

like Paul?"

How could someone so weak be the person

that God uses to communicate the great

truth of the love of God, that there's

forgiveness and hope and reconciliation

in Jesus?

And the simple answer is that God

magnifies his power through human

weakness.

That God stored the treasure in a jar of

clay so the power belonged to God, not

to any single person.

So we think that human power is this

great thing, but it's actually an

illusion because when it comes down to

everyone is weak.

Everyone is in need.

Some of us just know it,

and others pretend.

If you took ceramics in school,

you know

the initial read of this text doesn't

make sense.

Because making a jar of clay

is not an easy feat for a 21st century

American.

Ceramics in school, we have the electric

wheel, it spins the clay at 150 RPMs, so

a simple pressure can either make

something beautiful

or destroy it.

But in the ancient world, this was the

common everyday

vessel they used for everything.

It was fragile, common, cheap, and

disposable.

They were inherently meant to be

expendable. So Paul's telling us the

content of the jar

is more important than the jar itself.

It's like ordering a cup of coffee.

You care more about what's in the paper

cup than the paper cup itself.

Unless it's Christmas time and you love

or hate the Starbucks Christmas cup,

whatever it is.

The gospel is the coffee.

The human vessel is the paper cup.

Now, at first glance, this can feel

offensive.

This can feel offensive because God's

saying the messengers he uses are like

these disposable paper cups, these jars

of clay.

But notice the full witness of scripture

affirms that we're made in God's image

and as we'll see later we're precious in

God's sight.

Even our suffering and death is precious

in his sight.

But Paul's point here is not that human

servants are unimportant, it's that

we're incredibly fragile.

And that God purposed this weakness to

show his power. We see that very clearly

in verse seven.

We're we're told we're told the main

idea in verse seven.

That God purposed this

to show his strength.

That means that as someone who serves,

someone who follows God, someone who

submits your life to his ways

that suffering and human weakness is a

feature of the Christian life, not a

bug.

Our culture sees suffering as an

obstacle to success

rather than something God uses for his

divine purposes.

And this goes against a lot of our

culture. We like to make it about

people.

We like to make it about strong leaders.

We like to make it about power.

But God wants us to keep it about God.

It's why we can be so quick to hold up

certain Christian leaders so highly as

being gifted or special.

But even the most gifted communicator of

the gospel today is still a jar of clay.

So the fragility of the human servant of

God keeps the focus on the God of the

gospel, not the person.

Notice this. Notice how the Christian

faith has survived and flourished and

due to despite of the fact that everyone

who's ever proclaimed the gospel or has

been important or influential in the

church has died.

Right, Paul's days are numbered.

Just like our days will come to an end.

Every single person who's proclaimed the

gospel for the last 2,000 years is no

more.

Now, you can say that about other world

religions.

But think of it this way. Do you think

about the expanse of the Christian

gospel? Think about the way it

transcends culture and place.

Other world religions like Buddhism,

Islam, Hinduism, they're still primarily

centered in the place where that

religion started. Only Christianity is

truly global in the fact that the center

of the faith has not only gone from

person to person, but also place to

place.

That the center hub of the Christian

faith has shifted from the Middle East

to Europe to North America to now what's

called the global south.

God's not dependent on a charismatic,

influential, or powerful person. God

uses weak people.

Fragile people for his power.

What does this frailty and weakness look

like and what does it produce in us?

Well, Paul paints a picture of the

totality of human suffering with four

sets of pairs in verses eight and nine.

That actually leads to a fifth pair

where he contrasts this idea of death

and life in us.

But let's focus on this four sets of

pairs in verses eight and nine first and

we'll explore that fifth pair in the

next point. But Paul's goal here is to

show suffering's hard.

But God delivers and saves us from the

worst of it. Look at verse eight.

>> [clears throat]

>> He says, "We are afflicted in every way

but not crushed.

We're perplexed

but not given to despair.

We're persecuted but not forsaken.

We're struck down but not destroyed."

Afflicted in every way but not crushed.

Those are some words here that are

playing off each other in the original

language. To be afflicted was to be hard

pressed or squeezed. He says that we're

squeezed

but not crushed.

Carries the idea of not being

constrained or restricted that God saves

us from the worst of what things could

be.

That second, we're perplexed but not

driven to despair. Again, there's a

doubling of words here in the original

language saying that we're at a loss but

not completely lost.

There are times in our walk with God

where things will not make sense, but

we're not cast away. We don't have to

give in to hopelessness. We don't have

to give in to being completely, utterly

lost.

Third, we're persecuted but not

forsaken.

Meaning that we're not alone in our

suffering. That speaking to God's care

for us in the face of harm here that

even though it may feel that we're

alone, Paul's saying in the face of

persecution that God had always stood

with him.

We're struck down but not destroyed.

Struck down in the military context is

when you were on a horse and brought

down to the ground.

Which you can imagine that sense where

you're in this place of safety and

security on your horse, but you're

brought down and typically destroyed,

killed on the ground.

He's saying that we're struck down here

but not destroyed. That God saved from

the worst.

Then in verses 10 and 11 we'll see that

fifth pair of the death and life this

contrast we get here where Paul wrote

about that he was carrying around the

body of death.

The body of the death of Jesus in his

mortal body to show the life of Jesus.

More on that in a bit.

These contrasts here show us that the

suffering we experience has an end

to it.

That there's a limit. That even though

we'd like it to be different, suffering

shows us the sufficiency of Christ that

Christ is enough.

And then when we hit our limit, we can

just see how much we really depend on

him.

That when we go through the season of

suffering, we go through the hardship,

through the challenge that suffering has

a limit and it reveals the power of God.

It reveals our need for him in a way

that we wouldn't understand without it.

Now, let's be honest here that when we

talk about suffering in the church

it's really common

to offer a couple quick pats on the back

and then say the equivalent of there,

there, God will be with you.

He's got you.

Paul said earlier though in 2

Corinthians that he was near the point

of death

to the point of despairing of life

itself. Like he's so honest with how

hard his path had been.

Nice Christian sayings often minimize

the hurt and suffering you experience.

They don't help.

But you know what helps?

Knowing that you're not alone in it.

What helps is that you have a church

family. You have friends in Christ that

the suffering does teach us to depend on

God himself, but God often puts people

in our life to be with us.

That at rock bottom, Christ waits for

you there.

And so God uses suffering to empty us of

ourselves

and we more clearly see our need for

him. Now,

it's really easy to want to trade

sufferings.

To look at the sufferings of others and

to minimize your own because it isn't

hard as so-and-so's suffering.

Or maybe you're going through a really

intense season of suffering and and you

think no one understands cuz their

suffering's so small.

It's really easy to want to compare and

trade sufferings.

I mean, I feel that way a bit sharing

this with you right now, but

one of the most difficult things for me

in these pairings here has been the

perplexed

but not despairing essence of suffering

in the life.

That sense of being frail and weak

people is that God uses it to display

his glory and so

the way I'm experiencing this right now

is about two years ago. Two years in

February actually and I can't explain

what happened, but

I walked into my office and um one day

and started hearing a ringing hum in my

ears.

And um I actually thought um the pastors

we have a good relationship. I thought

one of the pastors was playing a joke on

me.

That they had hidden some sort of like

white noise machine in my office or

something like that.

Um they don't do that kind of stuff,

right? They're nice.

But um

I I went I unplugged everything in my

office and that ringing stayed lasted my

ears about five days.

And it was gone

for a day and came back

another four to five days.

And that's been the cycle of my last two

years.

Um it's called tinnitus, tinnitus. Um I

learned a lot about this. About 10% of

the church has it probably. 10% of the

population has it. As I share this with

person to person, I've been really

encouraged and comforted by a lot of

people who've been walking with that.

Um it's perplexing for me cuz it comes

and goes.

Um it sounds

like a hum or static in my ears.

I often experience it inside when things

are really quiet. Um I've also begun to

wear earplugs. You see me wearing

earplugs at church, it's not like a

statement.

You know, um

but I found that wearing them in loud

places does help me.

Um

I reached out to my doctor and uh she

said something really comforting.

She said, "You have old ears. It's only

going to get worse."

I've seen four audiologists.

Three ear, nose, and throat doctors and

my hearing's fine. The pressure in my

ears is fine.

Um and there's no treatment.

They think it's stress related.

Um

I'm not sure.

I've done

online classes and And consistently the

youngest person in the class by 30

years.

Um I'm thankful that it's not all the

time.

But I'm confused to why I'm confused how

to manage it.

And I will tell you there are times when

my ears are buzzing

and I'm just really irritable.

I'm really frustrated. I'm really short

with people.

Uh or when I'm on day four of the

ringing and it's 9:00 p.m. and I feel

like I'm at the point of despairing that

things will only get worse.

Um there are times where I wish I could

hear nothing at all.

And I'm brought back from the edge of

feeling hopeless by people in the church

who remind me that they're praying for

me.

I'm brought back by a sense of

hopelessness. I'm brought back from that

sense of hopelessness by the truth that

Christ

that I'm not alone.

And this becomes a reminder of my human

weakness and my daily need for God.

I'm not saying this for sympathy. I'm

not saying this for medical advice. I'm

letting you know that

we all carry a sense of human frailty.

And whether you feel invincible now

or not, it will come.

If we were not jars of clay,

if we were not fragile,

common, weak people,

if we do not practically need God in our

day-to-day life,

the gospel really wouldn't be good news.

If you had no need for God

day-to-day in your life,

the gospel wouldn't be good news.

The gospel acknowledges that we're saved

from something into something, that

we're saved from our sin and separation

to God. We're saved to a restored

relationship with God through Jesus

Christ, saved to an eternity where

suffering will be no more.

So God doesn't look at our affliction,

perplexedness, persecution, or being

struck down. He doesn't look at that and

take delight.

Instead, the gospel is that God has made

a way for weak people to be restored to

him from their sin, from their

brokenness, from their weakness

in Christ. And to highlight that, he

uses weak people cuz that's all he has.

Now, being weak and limited means you

can't save yourself. You need God. It

means the gospel is good news. And so

the marks of your weakness,

your anxiety, your depression, your

physical disability, the persecution you

experience at work, your tinnitus, the

marks of your weakness,

all those are experiences of being a

treasure in a jar of clay.

That our human weakness magnifies the

power of God. So we learn that God that

Christ is sufficient. That at the end of

the suffering, that at rock bottom,

Christ is there.

The second thing Paul wants us to see is

that our suffering practically shows the

life of Jesus to others.

Look at verse 10

to verse 12 with me.

After taking us through the totality of

suffering, the four pairs, he drops us

into a larger pair here. Verse 10,

always carrying in the body the death of

Jesus, so the life of Jesus may be

manifested in our bodies. For we who

live are always being given over to

death for Jesus' sake, so the life of

Jesus may also be manifested in our

mortal flesh.

So death is at work in us, but life in

you. Paul's saying, as I'm dying

day-to-day today, suffering for your

sake, your faith, your life is being

built up so you see more of Jesus.

The path of ministry, serving and

sharing Christ with others is marked

with a road of suffering because

suffering uniquely shows the life of

Jesus in a way that other things can't.

So verse 10 and 11 actually they

parallel each other here.

He says, always carrying around in the

body the death of Jesus. And then in

verse 11, we are always being given over

to death for Jesus' sake.

>> [snorts]

>> Hey guys,

you should follow Jesus. It means death.

Lots of death.

You want to follow Christ?

Death.

Why does anyone

come to faith? It's like, what?

Power of God.

Dying to self, suffering, persecution,

you know, all the good stuff.

You don't typically hear that when

someone shares the gospel.

God has a wonderful plan for your life.

Death.

But look at the outcome of a life where

your weakness and suffering are on

display.

This type of life,

the life of Jesus is manifested in our

bodies. In verse 11, the life of Jesus

may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

This is a call from Paul that following

Jesus means a lot of sacrifice

that puts the needs of others over our

own needs.

It's a life that does not choose comfort

at the expense of

others hearing the gospel.

And so Paul anticipated the question,

why go through all the hurt? Why pursue

anything that is hard and difficult? Why

not just give up and find an easier

path?

His answer,

for the sake of others they may see

Jesus through our suffering.

Paul wrote similarly in Colossians 1:24.

Colossians 1:24

He said this in Colossians 1:24. He

Colossians 1:24

says, I rejoice in my suffering for your

sake, and in my flesh I'm filling up

what is lacking in Christ's afflictions

for the sake of the body that is the

church.

Now, what could be lacking in Christ's

afflictions? Like isn't his suffering,

isn't what happened on the cross uh like

all that we needed? Isn't it sufficient?

What Paul's saying here is what's

lacking in Christ's afflictions is a

visible representation

of how much Christ suffered.

And so God uses us to show that to the

world.

Jesus called himself a man of sorrows.

He constantly pointed to how his road

took him to the cross where he'd suffer

and die.

It's It's astounding that God the Son

took a human nature like ours, a fully

human life including the pain and grief

we experience in order to show us that

true humanity

looks like and to redeem it.

He embraced the life of poverty. He was

rejected by those he came to save. He

was reviled, persecuted, beaten, mocked,

misunderstood, abandoned by his friends,

and he experienced death fully

for our salvation.

Pretty much any way you can imagine

someone suffering, Christ suffered.

He knew it all.

And so when we suffer for the sake of

others, when we do hard things and are

persecuted for it, when we're afflicted,

when we go the extra mile to share

Christ and to serve others,

whether that's going across the ocean or

across the room,

whether that's missions or the sacrifice

of preparing to serve in Sunday school,

we point to the great love of Christ who

did not

pursue comfort and ease, who embraced

suffering,

and the world can see the love of Christ

manifested in our bodies through it.

And so when Paul wrote in verse 11,

given over to death,

he's essentially saying, I'm in the

process of dying

so that others may see the life of

Christ. I am dying so others may live.

Dying to self, dying to his personal

desires, dying to the message of the

world that says comfort, ease, fame,

success.

And so Paul was telling the Christian

that if you follow and proclaim a

crucified Messiah, that your life will

be shaped by the cross.

And so our world focused on winning and

progress and moving forward and success

and glamour and fame, but that's not the

path

of Christ.

It was ordained by God that anyone who

would be the bearer of the good news

would actually be weak and fragile. It's

ordained by God that we would have

weakness and limitation and and need for

his power that may made perfect in our

lives. Now sure, God can use the stage

where God's word is proclaimed. He can

use the power of the platform, but he's

uniquely using the power of your

suffering

to show others Christ.

Do you still want to follow Jesus

if that's the path?

Keeping with the theme of treasures in

jars of clay,

there's a form of art,

Japanese art called Kintsugi.

Not sure if you've heard of this before

or not. You've likely seen it. If not,

there's an image on the screen here, but

it's when a broken vessel is put back

together

with lacquer and typically gold powder

mixed into it.

And so you see the veins in the pottery

there where the vessel was broken, where

the cracks existed, and it was remade.

Now, this form of art started about 500

years ago, and it takes months to

properly

put one of these pieces back together.

Months to complete one vessel.

The goal of this art

is to highlight the imperfection.

To highlight the cracks.

To show that healing's taken place.

Our suffering,

it's the gold veins.

It shows the life of Jesus.

It shows the ministry of Jesus

who is a man of sorrows, a human nature

like ours,

to suffer and die in our place.

That when we suffer

and God restores, God heals, God meets

us at the end, that those cracks are

formed and show Christ to others.

Do you know that when God called Paul to

follow him,

he didn't lie to Paul.

He was very truthful to Paul

and told Paul how much he'd have to

suffer for Christ.

Acts chapter 9 verse 14 to verse 16,

Acts 9:14

God speaking to Ananias, the person who

restored Paul from his blindness, but he

says this,

"And here he has authority from the

chief priest to bind all who call on

your name." So, Ananias is expressing

his like, "Why send me to Paul?"

And God said to him,

"Go, for he is a chosen instrument to

carry my name before the Gentiles and

the kings of Israel,

the children of Israel, for I will show

him how much he must suffer for the sake

of my name."

Some of your greatest ministry

will be built on your greatest pain.

And church, this is a call to honesty.

It's a call to sacrifice.

No one wants to follow someone else's

life

when they're pretending to be a

superhero.

When they're they're pretending that

they don't have a practical need for God

themselves. No one wants to follow that

life, really.

No one can follow the guy wearing the

cape.

You can't model your life after that.

But when we're honest about our weakness

and frailty, we show the power of God

and in a beautiful way, our death shows

the life of Christ. Our dying to self

shows the life of Christ. And so, if

you're in any sort of men's group or

women's group, a mentoring relationship,

a community group, a Bible study, any

sort of friendship in the church,

it's okay to suffer.

It's okay to be honest

about that suffering, because God uses

it to highlight the beauty of how his

power is made perfect in our weakness.

And for some of us, this is a call

to embrace the sacrifice of following

Christ fully that Christ demands.

If you're a Christian and your life is

free from any sort of friction

or selfless service or suffering where

you have to give up some of your comfort

to serve and share Christ with others, I

want to be direct here.

You're missing out.

You're missing out on the call that God

has for your life. He's called us to be

a messengers who embrace the body of the

death of Jesus, so the life of Jesus may

be seen through us.

Jesus who came not to serve, but to be

not to be served, but to serve and to

give his life as ransom for many.

And so, that's the call of the Christian

life. The call of suffering is to show

the life of Christ.

And it's meaningful

and fruitful for your faith.

And so, Paul shows us that Christ is

sufficient in our sufferings, that it

show suffering shows the life of Jesus.

And the final thing here

that we see is that our suffering is

surpassed by the resurrection.

That there's an end to our suffering.

Verse 13,

he says this, "Since we have the same

spirit of faith according to what's been

written, I believed and so I spoke, we

also believe and so we also speak."

Come back to that quote there in a

minute.

"Knowing that he who raised the Lord

Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and

bring us into his presence."

That's the resurrection.

"For it is all for your sake, so that as

grace extends to more and more people,

it may increase Thanksgiving to the

glory of God."

We'll cover this a lot more next week as

we talk through the last few verses of

uh 2 Corinthians chapter 4,

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

where Paul compares our current

suffering to the glory that is to come.

I want to say those verses directly

there.

Wanted to set that stage for you to

expect

a great message about the resurrection

and our hope in Christ next week.

But the hope we have in Christ verse 14

is this, that he who raised Jesus from

the dead

will bring us into his presence.

The hope of our resurrection is the

presence of Christ.

Notice that this does not wipe away our

suffering,

but shows us that

God does not view our sufferings as

good.

It also shows us that suffering has an

end.

And it shows that even though we were

previously called jars of clay, that God

views the life of his people as

precious.

To make that point, Paul quotes Psalm

Psalms 116:10

116 verse 10

with the words, "I believed and so I

spoke."

He said, "We believed and so we speak."

Right? We believe.

It's likely Paul was quoting this

passage of scripture here

not just to make a point, but because it

was a passage of comfort to him.

It's likely a passage of scripture that

God used in his suffering to remind him

of his mission and remind him of his

goodness to him.

That whole verse reads this in Psalm 116

Psalms 116:10

verse 10. It says, "I believed even when

I spoke, I am greatly afflicted."

Now,

he gave words to faith and affliction in

the same passage there.

And in the fuller context of Psalm 116,

it's a song where the writer was

critically ill and God delivered him.

And he confessed his affliction, he

believed God and was delivered.

Now, get this. Psalm 116 is the only

Psalm in the whole Bible to begin with,

"I love you, Lord."

The Psalm of hardship begins with the

words, "I love you" to God. The only

Psalm that begins that way in the whole

Bible.

Throughout the song, the writer talks

about death surrounding him, how he was

in anguish, and how he prayed, and how

he offered praise to the Lord who heard

him and delivered him.

And so, Psalm 116 also says uh verse 15

to 17, you have to hear this. This is

great stuff.

Psalm 116 verse 15, "Precious in the

Psalms 116:15

sight of the Lord

is the death of his saints.

O Lord, I'm your servant. I'm your

servant, the son of your maidservant.

You've loosed my bonds. I will offer a

sacrifice of Thanksgiving

and call upon the name of the Lord."

That's how Paul ended our text this

morning, that as we

sacrifice, love others, that the glory

of God abounds in the Thanksgiving of

many receiving grace.

And so, it appears that what got Paul

through the seasons of weakness and

suffering,

what got him through was God's word,

God's past history of saving his people,

and the knowledge that even if the

current suffering ended in his death,

that his death would be precious

in the sight of God.

And so, the resurrection, going back to

verse 14, that is our hope

as followers of Christ.

That's the hope of the church.

That even though this world is filled

with so much joy and beauty and

goodness,

even if our time is cut short, God will

raise his people and bring them into his

presence where joy, beauty, and the

goodness of this earth is a mere shadow

of what we get to expect with God in

eternity, because God raises the dead.

It's the ultimate source of deliverance,

being delivered from suffering, from

death into his presence.

Theologian [snorts] Kelly Kapic says it

this way. Listen to his words.

He says this, "Believers are called to

be confident not in their physical

stamina or their mental abilities, nor

in their clever answers, but in the

merciful God.

Even as believers grieve, lament, and

wrestle amid pains and challenges, they

can also experience genuine love,

rest, and joy.

Here Christians know there's a tension,

for we do not look at tears, hurt, and

grief as good things.

But these are the very things that God

has determined to end.

These are the very things that God

promises to liberate us from.

And how does he liberate us from those

things?

The resurrection.

The resurrection does not bring an end

to our need for God, but it brings an

end to our frailty.

Heaven will be filled with the presence

of God. We will see our need very

clearly and experience the joy

of being in his presence.

A few weeks ago, I asked the question,

if the Corinthians were so obsessed with

power, fame, and strength,

if they were so slow to change, if they

were stuck in their sins of division and

unforgiveness and sexual immorality and

stuff like that,

why would Paul go through so much pain?

Why would he persevere in his love for

them when most of us would just give up?

You're here, you remember that question?

It's easier just to walk away.

Paul's answer,

God was at work through this treasure in

the jar of clay, even if it was hard.

And so, verse 15, it gives us his

answer.

It's all for your sake.

The call to serve and share Christ with

one another, Paul says it's an extension

of God's grace and it results in the

increase of Thanksgiving to the glory of

God.

And as more people put their trust in

Christ, they too embrace the hope of the

resurrection. Their sins are forgiven.

God becomes their deliverer

and it results in Thanksgiving to God.

Even though it came through suffering,

it came through hardship, Paul's

ministry to the Corinthians was

productive. It shared grace with more

and more people. It resulted in more

Thanksgiving to God.

And so, church, we carry with us in our

jars of clay,

in our fragile, weak lives, we carry a

treasure of immeasurable worth,

the gospel message, the ministry and

life of Jesus. And God's ordained it so

that we magnify his power through our

weakness,

so that no one would think that the

power of God rests on us,

but it rests on him.

And so, in our suffering and weakness,

we show that the sufficiency of Christ,

we show the life of Christ, and we can

take comfort and hope that that

suffering and weakness will be surpassed

by the resurrection.