Broken Vessels

2 Corinthians 4:4–12 NIV

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

Pauls is teaching about the nature of the Gospel

This is what this ‘treasure in jars of clay’ is. It’s the light of the truth of the gospel of Christ.

But we can’t interpret this verse, and the following sections, as about anything other than that - the truth of the gospel.

People are naturally blind to the Gospel

we need to acknowledge that. That there’s a spiritual war going on, and that there are victims out there.

This reframes how we should understand the world.

We are tempted to use the phrase ‘THEM’. As in, we’re the good guys, they are the bad guys.

Jesus didn’t see it that way:

Matthew 9:36 NIV

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

The people ‘out there’, the people who don’t come to church and don’t know the gospels. They aren’t the enemies. They are the victims.

We look at the world, and the way it’s going, and how society seems to be abandoning many christian values that it was loosely founded on. But the truth is - we’re a world full of wandering sheep without a shepherd.

The crazy state of the world isn’t a sign to us that we need to go hide in our bunkers - it’s a sign that we need to get out of them more than ever before.

Because:

The biggest place people will see the light of the Gospel is through our lives

STORY - had some youth over, trying to fix sound system with a flashlight. Youth - why don’t you just turn on the room light? Me - you make everything difficult, come on.

The truth was simple though - I had the power to bring light into the situation. There was darkness, and I could have done something about it.

There is so much darkness in the world. And we can spend our time arguing against the darkness - telling people about how bad the darkness is, how they should be avoiding the darkness. We can spend all of our days trying to teach the world that they shouldn’t be in the darkness.

Or we can just turn on the light. STORY - Old pastor friend, ‘we spend too much time trying to tell the world what we’re against, and not nearly enough time trying to tell the world what we’re FOR’.

If we believe that in our relationship with God, we have everything we need - then a relationship with God is everything THEY need too.

For sure, God hates sin,and He has a plan to remove it all. Don’t get me wrong. We just forget God’s plan to deal with darkness.

Psalm 18:28 NIV

You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.

God doesn’t want to just convince the world that darkness is bad - he wants to burn away the darkness with light.

We act like the world is an evil place full of pits, and snakes, and pits full of snakes, and spikes, and hazards, shrouded in darkness, and it’s our job to convince everybody that pits full of snakes are just the worst.

God placed an amazingly bright light in our hearts and our lives. And we can show the world who God really is through that light. WE can be part of God’s process to burn away the darkness with light.

BUT.

Our weakness and frailty is what shows people the Gospel

And I’m very convinced that for generations, we missed this as a whole as the church global.

We build bigger and better buildings. We create new songs, or hold onto beautiful old ones. We polish everything we do until it’s shiny.

We define ourselves by how good we can do things. We do an amazing job of showing the world how great this thing we do called a church service really is. We defined ourselves by how well we could get the job done by our own standards.

We push away at weakness until we put on this display that is strength and power and stability. But we forget the absolutely transformational power of letting God work through our weaknesses.

Paul says that God chose to put the treasure of the light of the gospel into ‘jars of clay’.

Clay pots were fragile, they were breakable. They weren’t designed to last, or to be beautiful or ornate.

If I had to pick a vessel, i’d pick totally different.

But God has designed something wonderful in the gospel - that through the weakness of our lives and our circumstances, we will show the world the indestructable power of the Gospel.

Through the cracks in our vessels, God shines through.

This is what paul means by 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

God intended the gospel to be conveyed THROUGH our frailty and brokeness, not DESPITE it

We feel the pressure - but for some reason, we don’t break. We are struck down by the world - but will never be conquered by it.

And here’s a really scary thought: that maybe, just maybe, we can’t fully show the world the gospel without our weakness.

Maybe, just maybe, God’s intention with the gospel was for the world to see us pressed, but not crushed. Persecuted, but not abandoned.

Our words and actions are what make the gospel available. Our weaknesses and troubles are what make the Gospel believable.

And we know this is true. For those of you who have shared your faith. You know it. There’s a difference between ‘Here’s the Romans Road. Here’s all the scriptures you need to memorize and understand in order to be saved’ and ‘Yknow, in my life, I had bad problems. I struggled with this, or with that. But God came in, and He changed everything’.

I BOAST about my weakness, about the ways that God made me more than I am. Because when other people having the same struggles hear about it, and they relate, they can see something beyond all the struggles. They begin to see the light through the cracks.

When a person says, ‘Yknow, I grew up in hard times, there was a lot of drugs and alcohol in my family’ and I say ‘hey ya, me too. I actually know someone who was murdered over drugs’. And they go, ‘man, how were you strong enough to get past that?’.

and i tell them the truth. ‘I wasn’t. God was. He rescued me.’

And in that moment. In that place. When we’re not afraid to be weak - to BOAST about being weak - people begin to hope. That person in the deepest darkness begins to see a light.

God’s called us to be bright lights in the darkest places. But we can’t do it if we’re afraid to show our weakness.

Jesus can be the brightest light in your darkest times

John 8:12 NIV

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Whatever darkness you may be experiencing - God can light it up. Not only that, he can light up your path forever after that.

Jesus promised that with His light, we don’t have to walk in darkness. We may still struggle, but we won’t be conquered. We may still feel pressed, but we won’t be crushed. Because however frail our bodies, these outside containers may be, the power of the Spirit in us is indestructible.

We invite you to make that choice today - just pray with us.