What Are You Carrying In Your Jar of Clay? (2 Corinthians 4:5-9, 15)

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What Are You Carrying In Your Jar of Clay? (2 Corinthians 4:5-9, 15) 

Thanksgiving 2021

GIST: Our lives are about serving and proclaiming Jesus because the creator of the universe has shown Himself to our hearts, and our fragility reminds us of His grace and power; therefore, we face brokenness so more people can experience grace, increase in gratitude, and see Jesus!

Happy Thanksgiving Sunday! The passage we’re going to look at this morning wasn’t my original plan. In fact, until yesterday morning, I had every intention of walking through the letter of Thyatira with you guys as we continued our study in Revelation. Just to put you into my world a little, I start praying through and working on Sunday’s sermon...on Monday. It’s an all week process, and I try to have a “finalish version” of the manuscript I type up for the blog by Friday night. Then, I make the slides and write down my outline (which will end up spending most of the sermon under my armpit) on Saturday night after the kids go to bed. I followed that same process this week except when I woke up Saturday morning I felt like the message wasn’t the right one for today☺️, so we’re shifting gears a bit.  

This morning, I want us to look at a few verses from 2 Corinthians 4. I actually quote this chapter a lot because 2 Corinthians 4:16, which speaks of the struggles of this world as light momentary afflictions preparing us for the eternal weight of glory which is beyond all comparison, is one of my favorite verses. For this Thanksgiving Sunday, however, I want us to look at the equally beautiful verses that lead up to that statement. For the sake of time, I am going to skip a few verses in our discussion this morning, so don’t be alarmed and think your translation has extra verses or something ☺️. 

“5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ... 15 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.”

That’s a beautiful passage. To give the full context a bit, Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and at this point explaining the kind of ministry he and his fellow laborers have been called to— one that brings life even though it might cost everything. And guys, this is the ministry of every believer, to be faithful bearers of the life-giving gospel of Jesus. I have a massive gist for us this morning, but will try to be conscientious of your time, so we’re going to dive straight into this: Our lives are about serving and proclaiming Jesus because the creator of the universe has shown Himself to our hearts, and our fragility reminds us of His grace and power; therefore, we face brokenness so more people can experience grace, increase in gratitude, and see Jesus!

I. Our Lives Are About Serving And Proclaiming Jesus.

“5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.”

When I was about 15, a youth leader and dear friend gave me a Max Lucado book called It’s Not About Me. He’d bought it for himself, but thought I could benefit from it more ☺️. He was right. This is a truth I needed to hear at 15, and it’s a truth I need reminded of every day. It is so easy for all of us to live our lives for ourselves. Even if we try hard to come across as humble, our natures are very self-serving. That’s the root of sin and what Jesus came to rescue us from, so a defining characteristic of all believers should be living for Him instead! 

When we make decisions, therefore, the driving question should be “Does this honor Jesus and will it help me tell other people about Him?” Not only should our lives no longer be about us, but they don’t have to be stuck in that self-destructive pattern→ 

II. Because The Creator Of The Universe Has Shown Himself To Our Hearts.

“6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

The creator who spoke the world into existence has shone His light into our hearts! What is that light? Seeing the glory of God by seeing Jesus! Guys, this is exciting. I know I’ve explained this often, but it bears repeating. Glory in man is praise for what we do good. By nature, it has to ignore the flaws in our character or the mistakes we make. Glory in God doesn’t have those limitations. He has no flaws. He makes no mistakes. He is perfectly holy. Thus, seeing His glory is seeing His character on full display. And where do we see this? In Jesus! We can know God because Jesus came fully revealing who He is to us.

Our lives aren’t about us, but they get to be about Jesus. Still, we live as messed up people in a messed up world, and→ 

III. Our Fragility Reminds Us Of His Grace And Power.

“7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;”

I say fragility because of this term “jars of clay”. Not only was this a Contemporary Christian band from the 2000’s, but it’s a phrase that essentially means “breakable vessels”. These bodies we live in are breakable. Yet, it’s into this life that Jesus has revealed Himself, and it’s in these fragile lives that we see Him work powerfully again, and again, and again. What should that remind us? We are weak, but He is strong! All the goodness and glory is coming from Him. We’re breakable vessels blessed enough to carry that light to the world!

And, guys, we’re going to feel breakable. That’s what this awesome list reminds us. However, it also reminds us that because of Jesus we have hope regardless of what comes.

We will be afflicted— but not crushed. Life will be hard. It will press down on you like all those movies where people get stuck in some room where the ceiling is slowly pushing down on them. BUT… you don’t have to get squished. You can stand because Jesus faced ultimate pressure in your place. 

We will be confused— but not driven to despair. You might be confused right now. How often do we have questions we have zero clue how to even begin answering? All the time. Nonetheless, we don’t have to allow that to overtake us because we know there’s still hope!

  We will be persecuted— but not forsaken. Why? Because we’re never forgotten!

We will be struck down— but not destroyed. Hurt. Yes. But never destroyed if we belong to Jesus. Why? Because He took Hell in our place! 

IV. Therefore, We Face Brokenness So More People Can Experience Grace, Increase In Gratitude, And See Jesus!

“... 15 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.”

This is the verse I skipped to because I didn’t want us to miss the why here, and this is where the Thanksgiving connection might actually seem most clear☺️. Paul tells Corinth his suffering was for their sake. He knew that suffering for Jesus was worth it because it meant more people were able to experience grace by hearing the gospel and seeing it lived out in his life. When they experienced grace, they would then increase in gratitude. See, thanksgiving is meant to be a natural outworking of being rescued by Jesus, so if we’re His, it should be a natural part of our lives. And all of this is ultimately about the world seeing Jesus, the glory of God on full display!

Beautiful.

Let’s just hit that gist statement on last time as our→ 

TAKEAWAY

Our lives are about serving and proclaiming Jesus because the creator of the universe has shown Himself to our hearts, and our fragility reminds us of His grace and power; therefore, we face brokenness so more people can experience grace, increase in gratitude, and see Jesus!