This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day two of our look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. We're going to look at
verses 7 to 12 today. We're talking this week about how do you survive a loss of
heart?

How do you make it through when you just don't know how you're going to put one
foot in front of the other? You just don't have the emotion. Yesterday, we
talked about the fact that first you check your attitude towards a ministry to
others and you realize that that ministry comes out of the mercy of God.

Today we're going to look in these verses at the fact that we secondly need to
check our attitude toward ourselves, how we're looking at ourselves, how we're
seeing ourselves. Listen to what Paul has to say in verses 7 to 12, "But we have
this treasure in jars of clay to show that the 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 be revealed in our mortal
body. So then death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

" Paul talks in these verses about our attitude toward ourselves and that makes
all the difference in a loss of heart or gaining new heart for the life that God
has given you. Let's just walk through some of the phrases that he uses here.
First he says, "We have this treasure in jars of clay.

" What a picture of who we are as human beings. He says here, "We are designed
as human beings to be pots, capable of holding something. We are a jar.

We're meant to hold something. " And you can try to fill your life with all
kinds of things. You can fill it with your habits.

You can fill it with your hobbies. You can fill it with whatever you're designed
for success is. You can also fill it with your own pleasures.

You can fill it with your own misdirections in life. You can fill it with your
own pride. You can try to fill that pot, that jar, with a lot of things, but the
truth is it's made to hold only one thing, and that is the glory of who God is
in Jesus Christ.

We are designed to hold something, and that something is God's glory in our
lives. God wants in your life to put the glory of who Jesus is in your life.
That's an amazing truth.

You've probably heard people talk about a God-shaped vacuum that's in all of our
lives. There's a hole in our lives that can only be filled by God. This is a
different picture.

This is the picture that really our lives need to be filled, and the only way
our lives can be filled, we can try a lot of things to fill our lives, but the
only thing that's going to truly fill our lives is the glory of God in Christ.
So that's one part of it. We are this pot.

We are meant to hold something, and in our minds we think, "Well, if we're meant
to hold the glory of God, what must that pot look like? " That clay pot we think
more of as some beautiful thing. It must have to be a metal, gorgeous,
absolutely awesome kind of pot, but no, it's just a common clay pot.

We have this treasure in jars of clay. We're clay pots. Not metal.

We're fragile. We're easily broken. We're sort of common, easily made in the
world of that day.

You could find a lot of clay pots. You can make another one fairly easily. Paul
is not minimizing who you are as a human being here.

He knows that God made you. He writes about it in many places. He just talked
about the glory of God being in your life.

He's just being honest. These bodies that we have, these human bodies that we
have, they're not going to last. Someday we'll get a new and resurrected one,
but the one you have right now, it's a clay pot.

It's fragile. It's easily broken. And the moment you accept that about yourself,
the moment you realize that about yourself and live in that acceptance, you are
saved from a tremendous amount of loss of heart.

If somehow you're attaching your heart's emotions to how you look on the
outside, how you do on the outside, every time you have a sickness, every time
you have an illness, every time your body lets you down. And by the way, as you
get older, day by day, every time you look in the mirror, you have a loss of
heart. Oh, man, I look worse and worse every day.

Well, you're a jar of clay, but that doesn't mean that God's glory can't shine
through your life. When you recognize who you really are. Some jars of clay look
better than others, I know that.

Some jars of clay wear better makeup than others, I understand that. Some jars
of clay have better muscles than others, I get that. But in the end, we're just
a jar of clay, frail human beings, and God has decided to put His glory into our
lives.

Now, why did He do that? He tells us in verse 7, to show that the power is from
God and not from us. That's why He did it.

He wants to show where the power comes from. We get so frustrated with ourselves
because we are so human, we're so fragile. The reason that we're only clay pots
is so that God can display His power through our lives.

Now, being a clay pot doesn't mean there's nothing you can do that attaches to,
that connects to how God wants to show His glory through your life. A vessel, a
pot, it needs to be clean, it needs to be empty, it needs to be available so
that it can be filled and used by the glory of God. You have to be clean.

There needs to be purity in your life so the glory of God can truly be shining
through your life. You need to be empty. That's a picture of humility.

You empty yourself of the other things in life, but you also empty yourself of
your own pride, and that's the tough one. So that God's glory can shine through
your life. And you need to be available.

That's a sign of commitment. God, I'm available to be filled by you. And you
know, if you've walked this road, this idea of being clean and empty and
available, it's not a one-time prayer.

It's not a one-time decision. It's a constant decision throughout the days of
your life, and you learn better and better how to live in purity, how to live in
humility, how to live in availability. How do you live in those places in life?

By following Jesus day by day, by working on it day by day, by letting Him work
it out in you day by day. And the reason that this all is happening is to show
that the power is from God and not from us. He wants to show His glory through
your life.

And then as Paul talks about how God shows His glory through your life, there
are some verses that make a lot of people scratch their heads. He says that the
way God does this is we actually care about death in order that life might be
revealed. Paul starts and he says, "We're given over to death.

" Now just before he says that, he's talked about how he was given over to
death. The problems that he was facing in life were not the problems of life,
they were the problems of troubles and death and circumstances. In fact, he
talks about four particular ones.

He talks about we are hard pressed on every side. He talks about afflictions. He
talks about bothersome problems that we have in life, and you have those in your
life.

That's part of being given over to death. That's part of living out a life in
this world. And then he talks about what I would call perplexities, times of
uncertainty.

We're perplexed, he says, but not in despair. One version translates this, "We
are at our wits end, but never at our hopes end. " Sometimes you're confused
about why certain things are happening in life.

That's part of what Paul is talking about here when he talks about being given
over to death. He then talks about persecutions. We're persecuted, but we're not
abandoned.

You get outside attacks from others for your faith, for the fact that you're a
Christian, for the fact that you're standing up for what's right. You have
integrity in a circumstance. There's outside attacks.

So you've got afflictions and perplexities and persecutions and also what I call
catastrophes. Struck down, Paul says, these stunning blows in life, but he says
we're not destroyed. One version says this, "We are knocked down, but not
knocked out.

" These problems that you have in life, that's what Paul is talking about. Part
of what he's talking about when he's saying we are given over to death, we are
experiencing what sin does to this world. We're experiencing what death does to
this world.

And when you read what Paul went through, it really does put things into
perspective, doesn't it? Somebody on our research team wrote, "When I read this
passage, it really puts my life into a different perspective. I tend to get
self-focused about my problems and frankly a bit whiny.

Paul went through so very much more and yet he just continually, valiantly
fought the good fight. " That's a great perspective. But whether your problem
seems smaller or larger, and it certainly probably seems smaller than Paul's, we
all experience part of what he's talking about here.

We're given over to death. In fact, he says in these verses, not only are we
given over, he says we carry out about death in our lives. What does that mean?

He says we carry about in our body, around in our body, the death of Jesus. He's
talking there about Jesus' death on the cross. I face the death of this world in
the circumstances of trouble, but I also carry about in my body the death of
Christ and the fact that he died for me on a cross.

And when those two come together, that's where you get the place of his life
being revealed in your mortal body. When you apply the truth that Jesus died for
you and was resurrected to the troubles you're facing in everyday life, that's
living the resurrected life. In one sense, we all need to carry around our necks
a cross at work sign in our lives.

Not just worn around our necks, actually carried in our hearts. We have all
these phrases about what to do when trouble comes into our lives. Some people
say no pain, no gain.

Other people say no guts, no glory. What Paul is saying here is no cross, no
crown. You recognize the truth of the cross through everyday life, and that is
part of recognizing what it means to be a jar of clay.

Jesus gave his human body for you, and I carry that truth into my life every day
of my life. But not just that truth, I also carry every day into my life the
truth that he was resurrected for me. If I don't carry the truth that he died
for me, how can I carry the truth that he was resurrected for me?

They go hand in hand. Paul says it takes both. As we pray today, let's pray for
spiritual insight into this.

Oh, Father, I pray that each of us would be able to see with insight this truth
of how we carry your death and life into our everyday lives every day. There's a
depth here to me that I have to admit I don't quite comprehend, but I want to
live out. I want to live out what it means, Jesus, that you died for me every
day.

And see that even as you suffered for me, I go through sufferings in this life,
nothing compared to yours, but to realize they're not just accidents. They're
part of living in the same kind of world where you had to suffer and give your
life for me. But Lord, help me also in that to remember that your death is not
the end of the story.

Your life is the end of the story. And so every time there is suffering in my
life, it is also a reminder of the fact that one day you will you have done away
with all suffering and I can look forward to that resurrection life. Help me to
live in that truth, to comprehend that truth spiritually in deeper ways than I
ever have before.

I pray this in your name. Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look together at the
daily power of Jesus's resurrection.