Treasure in Jars of Clay By Jeremy Anderson

What if every empty chair you looked at and you said, there's a person that might sit in that chair? That every empty chair represented a soul, an opportunity, a person who who maybe has yet to even know the truth of the gospel, a person that that even right now as we speak and we spend these moments here, maybe sitting in their own homes, trying to grasp and wrestle with the realities of the world in which they live, and they're trying to make sense of it and find truth and reason, and they're looking in any and every which direction. They're saying, what's real? What's true? What can I place my stock into? What if the missional aspect of ministry would drive to say, hey, I will endure the hardship. I will endure because God's gonna see me through. He will give me the perseverance, but it's for the sake of of you, of that person, and that person, and that person, and that person. [00:23:26] (57 seconds)  #EveryChairAMission

Another aspect of the weight of glory is that it is training and developing in us a Christ likeness. That sometimes through our suffering, God is shaping and molding us into his likeness, like it or not. That's how God has chosen to work. He's chosen to work through our difficulty. James chapter one verse two enforces, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. Why? For you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. [00:38:03] (35 seconds)  #TrialsProduceSteadfastness

That if the chief end of man, not just the chief end of, oh, if you decide to be a Christian, but the chief end of man is that we would glorify God and that we would enjoy him forever, then every lost soul that comes to saving faith in Christ, you had a part to play. God doing the work, you had a part to play in them stepping into their chief end, which is to glorify God and to enjoy him both now and for all of eternity. [00:27:45] (34 seconds)  #GlorifyAndEnjoyForever

And maybe that faithful step will take you to the point of giving your last breath for the sake of the gospel. And if that's the case, the strength to get there is not bound up in your willpower. It's not bound up in my willpower, but it's bound up in God's power giving us the strength, giving us the perseverance to endure the hardships that may come our way. [00:10:17] (23 seconds)  #PoweredByGodsStrength

But it's God's surpassing power. It's his glory on display because this is me all day. I feel like I'm breaking and splintering and falling apart because I'm weak. I don't have it in me. I'm the grayscale so that the brightness of that beautiful butterfly, which is God's glory and wonder and splendor can be displayed so that people will see that, so that I'll see that. [00:15:22] (26 seconds)  #GloryThroughWeakness

If if that is true, then everything that we are talking about, the ministry of the gospel, suffering for the sake of the gospel means that we can look beyond the the pleasures of the circumstances of life here and now because our greatest pleasure is that we are enjoying God both now and forever. [00:26:51] (26 seconds)  #PleasureInGodForever

Christianity is not something where we say simply, man, we're here just to try to do the best we can through this life so we can get to eternity and be done. We have a purpose. And if we as a church, the whatever 50 some people who are here this morning, if we could say we're gonna buy in to a mission of the gospel that transcends me, It transcends us. How would we live differently? How would we think differently? How would how would we prioritize our lives differently? [00:29:09] (51 seconds)  #MissionThatTranscendsSelf

But if we're driven by a purpose to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, and we recognize that in in this, we are given the gift. God has entrusted this as a treasure in our jars of clay to go that we can help other people fulfill this mission. I'm in. I am sold. [00:30:43] (21 seconds)  #TreasureInJarsOfClay