Sabbath 4/22/17 Seventh Day Baptist Edgewater, FL Pastor John sermon “We Have this Treasure”

Sabbath 4/22/17 Seventh Day Baptist Edgewater, FL Pastor John sermon “We Have this Treasure” II Cor. 4:1-7, I Cor. 1:11-13



You can have a $10.00 watch in a $500.00 Pulsar watch box and the watch is still a $10.00 watch. Then you can put a $500.00 Pulsar watch in a Burger King Hamburger bag and still the watch is valuable. In our text, we have treasure in earthen vessels. The value of something can be misjudged by its surroundings. Once a $4,000.00 painting in a rummage sale sold for $5.00. God put the greatest treasure, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit into us, the earthen vessels.

The Gospel is the one great treasure. The Bible tells us once a man found a perfect pearl and he sold everything he had to buy it. Many of our saints died for the Gospel- the message of Salvation. This message of Salvation distinguishes the Church from other well-doing organizations. The Church is made up of people of no big greatness in society. God uses common folk, poor folk and ones who make mistakes to spread the Gospel. The Church is an earthen vessel that sometimes has worldliness in it. The Church is susceptible to human error and frailties. Because some churches try to look all fancy on the outside, the Church then gets more caught up in fund raising then the spreading of the Gospel. It’s easy to fall into this trap. Many people want to be Christians but don’t want to belong to a church.

The Church is like a clay flower pot that needs to be a respectable vessel of the Gospel and of the saints. God can use us better when we depend on Him more than we depend on ourselves. In I Cor. 1:11-13 we see that the church denominations were taking the focus away from the treasure inside the church/the flower pot. The treasure inside gives the value to the Church. A cracked flower pot cannot hold anything of value. The cracked pot will break apart under any pressure. We need to be content that God has chosen to have His treasure in us, the earthen vessels. Be careful that you don’t become a cracked pot.

AMEN
 
Yet God uses cracked pots (like me) and rejoices in restoring the broken things. The Jews obeyed God and rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem with the burnt stones (Neh_4:2 ). A church is a hospital for souls and should embrace (like Christ) the broken ones. He uses the weak and foolish to confound the wise and strong. if we had the talent and the abilities needed we would try to take the glory but when we cannot and He does through us we see Him lifted up.
 
Back
Top