Human Clay

Sermon by Scott Frame

April 26, 2009

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one who supports our First Christian Church youth group, whether you support it through your service, your resources, or your prayers. These are some of the most awesome kids you will ever meet.

Our scripture reading comes from 2 Corinthians 4:7-12:

7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not of ourselves,
8. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;
9. Persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed;
10. always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
11. for we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus ' sake so the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
12. so death works in us but life in you.

The Point of This Sermon

This is a message about humility, about being real and authentic, about how we see and respond to difficulty in our lives, and about recognizing where true power comes from.

Earthen Vessels

First, I want to point out Paul’s illustration about earthen vessels.

I like how the Bible uses common things to bring about great lessons in life. The Bible is amazing in being written so that a child can understand, but in still challenging the great minds of our day: simple things like plowing, bread, water, and sky, things that everyone can relate to, so that no matter who you are or where you come from, no matter how much or how little money you have, or your status in the community, we all can understand.

Earthen pottery in the time of Christ was incredibly common. If this was in our day and age, it would be like plastic Glad containers, a far cry from Tupperware or at my house jelly jars; my wife won’t throw anything away. But these earthenware containers were used for just about everything; from storage of grain to even very valuable items, like silver and gold; we all might remember when the Dead Sea scrolls were found, they were found in earthenware vessels. It was so common and accessible that, when they were broken, they were considered pretty much worthless and were cast aside.

Paul is not talking about fine works of art like golden and silver containers with exquisite craftsmanship. Most of us have some antique pieces of china that are family heirlooms that we would never use for anything but to look at and admire, and if any one was caught using them for anything else, they would suffer the wrath of Mom and Dad.

There were many different types of earthenware pottery and they all had a different purpose depending on what their design was. We wouldn’t use a plate for soup or an earthen lamp for grinding grain.

Paul is referring to us as earthen vessels, which were created for a specific reason.

On Being Real and Authentic

Apparently, the Corinthians were too busy trying to look good and impressive rather than being real and authentic. We, as Christians, walk in our churches where everything is polished and manicured. Nothing is out of place; we all look well-kempt and act as if we have it all together.

But if we were to be honest with ourselves is this really an accurate reflection of our lives?

Work is demanding and we would probably wish our career choice would have been something else.

Our kids are wearing us thin as our kids are being also worn thin buy their parents.

Marriage can be difficult.

We are struggling with sin but we continue on as if everything is just fine.


We all have messed up. We all have failed at something. We all have suffered loss.

But yet we still want to make a good impression. We want to look like we have it all together, spotless and without flaw, in control.

Christ’s Example

Yet, ironically, the One to whom we look and on whom we depend for our salvation did nothing to enhance his image. In fact, the first place in the Bible that Christ clearly describes himself (Matthew 11:27-30), he stated in verse 29: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

He could have displayed all his power on the cross to reveal his greatness. He could have given an impression of himself that the crowd was demanding. But he chose to reveal his majesty through the power of humility and love.

So if Christ himself wasn’t trying to impress everyone, wouldn't it be obvious that we need to be true to ourselves?

Fruitful Humility

A neat story I read on humility is about two brothers who grew up on a farm. One brother went away to college, earned a law degree, and became a partner in a very prominent law firm. The other brother stayed on the farm. One day the lawyer came to visit the farmer, and he asked "Why don’t you go out and make a name for yourself so you can hold your head up high in the world like me !
The farmer pointed and said, “See that field of wheat over there. Only the one with empty heads stand straight up, but the ones that are filled always bow down low.”

The branch that bears the most fruit bends the lowest.

Part of My Own Story

Life sometimes seems to be one disappointment after another, full of difficulties and discouragements. We seem to be just a tragedy away from final defeat.

When I first came to Christ I had a pretty distorted view on Christianity, partly because I attended a misleading church in where they preached a prosperity, name-it-and-claim-it, type religion that if we prayed right, lived right, and had it all together, our lives would prosper .

I was confused and the more I tried to get it together, the more my life fell apart. So, over the course of time, I began to question my faith. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m not doing it right, maybe Christ is not happy with me, maybe he left me for dead.

I could never find a place in my life where all was well. It seemed to be that the more I tried to get it right, the more things went wrong.

All I had was one constant valley where there was never a mountaintop of peace. Christianity was supposed to make my life better, it was supposed to be heaven on earth, so why then was my life such a living hell?

I tried to be stoic and without emotion, to keep a stiff upper lip to take control of my life, to act as if nothing were wrong.

I wanted to keep from showing everyone that I was a failure. All I found was frustration and exhaustion.

But I wasn’t going to quit. I was somehow “kept by the power of God.” He gave me a heart for his word, and I continued to read despite what the legalistic judaizers had to say. I found the truth.

I didn’t realize what was next or what was even happening.

Jesus is so subtle and such a gentleman.

As a child I had been human clay, so soft and pliable, but, through the fires of life, my clay began to harden. Every disappointment, every broken relationship, every sin and all my discouragement began to turn the heat up on my clay to the point it was now hard and brittle. I didn’t realize that at the time, but now my earthen vessel was ready to be broken by the hand of God.

I prayed that I could learn more about the Bible I even wanted to go to school, but at this point in my life that was unrealistic, but not to God.

My friend J. R. Poulson’s wife Vicky sold a house. I went with J.R. to help the lady that was occupying the home move out, and he had told me that the people who were moving in had a entire library about the Bible. I was so excited and had to make a connection. Eventually I met John and Judy Turner.

I went to borrow their library but was amazed by what I found.
I found two individuals that were strangely concerned about me: where was I spiritually, when did I receive Christ, what did that mean to me? As we began to talk, tears began to fall down my face. I didn’t even realize that I was carrying so much hurt and pain. I continued for many years with John and Judy Turner. Nearly every time we would meet, more baggage in my life would begin to be revealed and more tears would fall. I did get to use John’s library, but the real value looking back was that we allowed God to break me from the inside.

I had to die before I could live.

I had to realize that my greatest achievement in life was that I failed.

Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it cannot produce fruit.

I live out what Paul had described in verse 8 and 9: We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; perplexed but not despairing; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down yet not destroyed.

Paul’s Paradoxes

Paul describes one of the many paradoxes in life, things that contradict one another, like how we can be sitting next to our spouse but be a million miles away, or like how we have get low in order to rise up, or like how we must lose in order to win, or like how we have to be weak in order to be strong, or like how we have to be dependent in order to be powerful, or like why we first have to be broken before we can be whole.

Paul didn’t candy-coat his position. He was saying that our weakness doesn’t denounce God but proves him, that while we are disappointed and suffering God is the reason that we can keep on keeping on.

The Powerhouses of Faith and the Grace of God

We look at these great powerhouses of faith like Paul and the disciples and people of our day such as Billy Graham, and we say to ourselves, “I can never be as great as them. I can never attain that level of spiritual growth. They seem to have it all together.

But praise be to God that the Bible was written with brutal honesty. Billy Graham’s 1954 crusade was considered a failure by many.

Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it.
Sarah laughed at God when he said she would get pregnant.
God said that David was a man after God’s own heart, but David had an adulterous relationship and plotted murder.
Peter, who walked with Christ, denied him three times
Paul, writer of 13 books of the New Testament, confessed to his own spiritual weakness and failure

I’m glad that God chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

All we have left to say is

"For by GRACE you have been saved through FAITH; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not of WORKS, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus."

The Treasure in the Earthen Vessels

We have treasure in earthen vessels.

What treasure?

Nothing other than the gospel of faith in Jesus Christ.

How can something so precious be contained in something so common? How can something so awesome and powerful be contained in something that is fragile and broken?
Paul even goes on to say that this power is the surpassing greatness. The word used here is the same word that we get the word for dynamite.

In our time we have seen some incredible displays of our intellect and power as well as awesome power displayed in nature.
· we have seen hurricanes level whole cities
· we have seen in the 1980s Mount St. Helens erupt
· we have seen our own minds create weapons of mass destruction.

Paul is not talking about that kind of power.

Paul is talking about the explosive, life-changing resurrection power from God which is strangely revealed in our weakness and frailty. It doesn’t make sense unless we look with the right eyes, the eyes of faith.

Being Real about Our Human Nature

Our witness for Christ is more effective when we are real as we witness to non-believers. We don’t have to look down on them with judgment and condemnation. They don’t have to think that they are less than us. God’s dream is that none should be lost

We realize that they can’t help it: it’s their nature, and they are powerless to change within themselves. They must have the gospel presented to them in love.

You might remember the story of the scorpion and the frog:

One day, a scorpion looked around at the mountain where he lived and decided that he wanted a change. So he set out on a journey through the forests and hills. He climbed over rocks and under vines and kept going until he reached a river.
The river was wide and swift.

Suddenly, he saw a frog sitting in the rushes by the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog for help getting across the stream.

"Hellooo Mr. Frog!" called the scorpion across the water, "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?"

"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you won’t try to kill me?"

"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!"

Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. "What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!"

"This is true," agreed the scorpion, "But then I wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the river!"

"Alright then...how do I know you won’t just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?" said the frog.

"Ahh...,"said the scorpion, "Because you see, once you've taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!"

So the frog agreed, The scorpion crawled onto the frog's back,

Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog's back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.

"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"

"I could not help it. It’s my nature."

When we were lost, we were powerless to change. We acted the way we did because it was our nature, but once we have been born again and given the power to overcome sin, although we still struggle and have this tension between right and wrong, we tend to forget about the long road it took to get where we are, and we look down on others who haven’t caught up to speed.

It’s not about how far we are down the road with Christ but that we are on the road.

Jesus said the same thing:

“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.”

The Miracle of Grace

We will never be able to remove all of our specks. So the sooner we realize that, the sooner we will be able to reveal the true power of God, the God of Grace.

We serve a God not of do, but of done!

It’s not that we become perfect within ourselves, but that we serve a perfect God.

It’s not about what we have accomplished for ourselves but what Christ has accomplished for us.

During this past year, you may have experienced terrible suffering emotionally, physically, spiritually. Your heart may be breaking with grief over the death of a loved one. Perhaps you have lost your job or experienced a crushing failure in your personal life. You may have a child with a long-term illness. Do you have grief compounded by grief? Do you feel wounded, abandoned, and kicked to the curb, left for dead?

I have felt this way and have personally experienced that God’s promises are true, that he would never leave us or forsake us.
If someone would give you the opportunity, would you take Christ’s yoke upon you so that you could receive rest?

It is my prayer:

· that all of our earthly vessels will be broken again and again and again so that the real, true, surpassing power of God can be leaked out on the lives of all the people that we come into contact with.

· that we may be able to see that all our cracks and imperfections don’t make us wrong and that we don’t have to be ashamed of the truth. This is so that God’s desire may become a reality. It is God’s desire that we are careful to give an accurate view of what true Christianity is, so that we don’t cause others to stumble.
· That we may always keep on keeping on and never quit. Whenever the fires of life begin to harden our hearts, whenever life seems like it’s not worth living, and whenever despair is all we can see, may Isaiah 40 31 be impressed in our minds:

"But they that wait upon the LORD
shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as EAGLES
they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint"