The Vessel Series: When God Uses the Broken

 

Session 2: Cracked Jars and Hidden Light

Based on 2 Corinthians 4:7

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I. The Treasure in Fragile Clay

Paul gives one of the most profound images in the New Testament.
He calls believers jars of clay, fragile containers meant to hold a treasure far greater than themselves.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

The treasure is not the jar.
The treasure is the life of Christ within the jar.
The value lies in what is carried, not in the container that carries it.

Henri Nouwen wrote,

“Our brokenness is the true place where God can meet us and give us His blessing.”

The cracks do not diminish the treasure.
They reveal it.

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II. The Purpose of Fragility

In ancient times, clay jars were ordinary, inexpensive, and easily cracked.
They were not designed to impress but to serve.
Paul chose this image deliberately.

“We have this treasure in jars of clay.”

In other words, God chooses fragile vessels on purpose.
He does not need polished marble or unbreakable stone.
He prefers clay that knows its weakness.

Thomas Merton wrote,

“God is on the side of our weakness, not our strength.
When we accept this truth, we begin to live in freedom.”

Fragility is not a flaw to be hidden.
It is a truth to be embraced, because only those who know they are breakable can depend fully on God.

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III. The Light That Leaks Through Cracks

The treasure within us is not meant to stay sealed.
Cracked jars allow light to shine outward.
In God’s economy, what feels like damage becomes a doorway for glory.

Paul described this paradox earlier in the chapter.

“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)

Light shines most clearly through places where the jar is thin or broken.

Dallas Willard wrote,

“The life of Christ within us becomes visible when we stop trying to appear strong and begin to live honestly in our weakness.”

God’s light leaks out through honesty, humility, vulnerability, and truth.
Cracks reveal Christ.

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IV. The Power That Is Not Our Own

Paul’s point is not simply that we are fragile.
His emphasis is that God’s power works through fragility.

“To show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

If the jar were too impressive, people might mistake the vessel for the treasure.
If the jar were flawless, people might think the strength came from the clay.
God allows weakness so that the world cannot confuse the source of the glory.

Henri Nouwen wrote,

“The place where we are most broken is often the place where we become most beautiful in God’s hands.”

The cracks of our lives become windows through which others can see Christ.

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V. The Invitation

The invitation of 2 Corinthians 4:7 is to stop hiding your cracks.
To stop pretending the clay is stronger than it is.
To stop trying to be the treasure.

The jar is breakable, but the treasure is eternal.
The jar may crack, but the light cannot be extinguished.
The jar may be weak, but God’s power is limitless.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Broken places are not disqualifications.
They are conduits for divine light.

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Carrying the Light in Fragile Clay This Week

1. Identify one crack.
   Choose one area of vulnerability or limitation.
   Instead of covering it, offer it to God as a place where His light can shine.

2. Practice honest dependence.
   When you feel weak, pray quietly:
   “Lord, let Your strength show through my weakness.”

3. Share light, not perfection.
   Look for one opportunity this week to encourage someone out of your own story of weakness redeemed by grace.

4. Let Scripture define your identity.
   Read 2 Corinthians 4:6–10 each day.
   Notice how Paul unites fragility and power without shame.

5. Pray for transparency.

   “Lord, make me a vessel that reveals Your light.
   Shine through the cracks.
   Let my life glorify You, not myself.”

The Vessel Series: When God Uses the Broken

 

Session 1: The Potter’s Hands

Based on Jeremiah 18:1–6

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I. The Potter’s House

God told Jeremiah to go to the house of a potter, not a palace, and not a temple.
It was an ordinary workshop filled with clay dust and the steady rhythm of a wheel turning.
There, in a simple room, God revealed one of the most profound truths about the human heart.

“So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.
But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands,
so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” (Jeremiah 18:3–4)

Clay does not resist.
Clay does not define itself.
Clay does not hide its imperfections.
It rests in the hands that shape it.

Henri Nouwen wrote,

“Our weakness is not something to hide. It is the place where God can finally work without resistance.”

We are never more ready for God’s shaping than when we are honest about our cracks.

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II. The Wheel That Turns

The potter works steadily, guiding the clay with patient pressure.
There is no hurry in his hands.
He applies strength where needed and gentleness where the clay is thin.

Jeremiah noticed something essential.
The vessel became marred while in the potter’s hands.

The potter did not discard it.
He did not throw the clay aside.
He simply began again.

“But the pot he was shaping was marred in his hands.” (Jeremiah 18:4)

Brokenness in God’s hands is never final.
It is an invitation to be reshaped.

Thomas Merton wrote,

“God works in the ruins of our plans.
He builds His grace where our strength has crumbled.”

The wheel turns, but the hands never leave the clay.

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III. The God Who Reshapes

God then spoke to Jeremiah.

“Can I not do with you as this potter does?
As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand.” (Jeremiah 18:6)

This is not a threat.
It is a promise.
It is the gentlest declaration that no flaw, no failure, no fracture is too much for the Maker.

Dallas Willard wrote,

“Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning.
It is the steady action of God that transforms us.”

We do not earn being reshaped.
We simply yield to the hands that know us better than we know ourselves.

What feels like breaking is often God removing what hinders beauty.
What feels like pressure is God forming a vessel that can carry His presence.

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IV. The Beauty of Remaking

In ancient pottery, the most beautiful vessels were often the ones that had been remade.
The potter did not discard the clay that resisted.
He soaked it, softened it, pressed it again, and began a new design.

Remade vessels carried a story.
Their beauty came from being formed twice.

“He made it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” (Jeremiah 18:4)

God never shapes us according to the expectations of others.
He shapes us according to what seems best to Him.
This is the kindness of sovereignty.

Henri Nouwen wrote,

“We become truly beautiful when we allow God to write His story into our broken places.”

Every crack becomes a place where grace can enter.
Every flaw becomes an opening for glory.

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V. The Invitation

The Potter invites His people not to perfection but to pliability.
To be clay is to surrender the illusion of self-made strength and to rest in divine shaping.

The vessel’s beauty is not in its symmetry but in the hands that formed it.

“We are the clay, You are the potter.
We are all the work of Your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8)

To be held is to be healed.
To be shaped is to be saved.
To be remade is to be restored.

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Resting in the Potter’s Hands This Week

1. Name your broken places.
   Write down one area of your life that feels marred or unfinished.
   Offer it to God without explaining or fixing it.

2. Practice spiritual pliability.
   When frustration rises this week, pray quietly:
   “Lord, shape me.”

3. Return to the wheel.
   Read Jeremiah 18:1–6 each day.
   Picture yourself as clay resting in the hands of the Potter.

4. Allow grace to soften you.
   In moments of tension, ask God to soften your heart rather than strengthen your control.

5. Pray for remaking.

   “Lord, I am clay in Your hands.
   Shape what is marred, restore what is wounded,
   and form me into a vessel that carries Your grace.”

The Mountain Series: Lessons from High Places

 

Conclusion: Where Heaven Touches Earth

Based on Psalm 121 and Isaiah 40:9

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I. The High Places of Scripture

Throughout the story of Scripture, mountains are the places where God reveals Himself in ways that cannot happen in the valleys.
They are the places of clarity, surrender, transformation, and calling.
Each mountain teaches a different facet of faith.

On Mount Moriah, trust was tested and God was revealed as Provider.
On Mount Sinai, holiness was spoken and God revealed the weight of His Word.
On Mount Carmel, fire fell and God revealed His unrivaled power.
On Mount Tabor, glory shone and God revealed His Son in radiant truth.

Each mountain has its own language, but all of them speak of the same God.
A God who draws near.
A God who speaks.
A God who calls His people to higher ground.

Henri Nouwen wrote,

“Spiritual growth is the gentle movement from fear to love, from confusion to clarity, and from hiding to being found.”

The mountains of Scripture invite this movement of the heart.

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II. The God Who Calls Us Higher

God does not lead His people to the mountains to overwhelm them.
He leads them there to awaken them.
He lifts their eyes above the dust and shows them the larger landscape of His purpose.

“I lift up my eyes to the hills.
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1–2)

The God who calls us upward is the same God who walks with us downward.
No revelation on the mountain is meant to stay there.
It is meant to reshape how we live when our feet return to ordinary ground.

Thomas Merton wrote,

“We are saved in order to share in His life, not to escape the life we already live.
Grace does not pull us out of the world. It puts us deeply into it with new eyes.”

Mountain revelations exist for valley living.

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III. The Fire, the Cloud, the Light

On the mountains of Scripture, God meets His people in ways that reveal His character.

On Moriah, His provision appeared in the thicket.
On Sinai, His voice thundered through the cloud.
On Carmel, His fire consumed the altar.
On Tabor, His light radiated from Christ Himself.

Each revelation carries a truth we never outgrow.
God provides.
God speaks.
God answers.
God shines.

Dallas Willard wrote,

“The presence of God is the steady, unending reality that makes all things possible, and all things bearable.”

Every mountain encounter is a reminder that God is nearer and stronger than we imagine.

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IV. The Invitation to Remember

The final lesson of the mountains is this:
We do not meet God once.
We meet Him again and again, in new ways, in new seasons, with new understanding.

Isaiah wrote,

“You who bring good news, go up on a high mountain.
Lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid.
Say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God.’” (Isaiah 40:9)

Every mountain in your faith story is a place where heaven touched earth.
Remember these moments.
Return to them when your heart feels low.
Let them anchor you when your path seems hidden.

Henri Nouwen said,

“Remembering is the sacred act of allowing God to show you that your life is held in His faithful hands.”

Faith grows when we remember where we have seen Him.

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V. The Invitation to Descend

The final act of every mountain encounter in Scripture is descent.
Moses descended with the tablets.
Elijah descended after the fire.
Jesus and the disciples descended after the transfiguration.
Abraham descended knowing God more deeply than ever before.

The purpose of the mountains is not escape.
It is empowerment.

We do not stay on the heights.
We carry their truth into the shadows, into the ordinary, into the places where faith must become flesh.

“The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 121:8)

He is God of the mountain and God of the plain.
He meets His children in both places.

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Living the Mountain Truths

1. Remember a mountaintop moment.
   Write down one moment when God felt close or made something clear.
   Let it anchor you this week.

2. Carry a mountain truth into your day.
   Choose one of the four truths
   God provides.
   God speaks.
   God answers.
   God shines.
   Whisper it throughout the day.

3. Practice reverent listening.
   Take a quiet pause before major decisions.
   Listen for His voice as the disciples did on Tabor.

4. Bring glory into the valley.
   Let clarity shape your actions, not stay as memory alone.

5. Pray for renewed vision.

   “Lord, lift my eyes again.
   Show me Your presence in high places and low places.
   Let the truth I have seen on the mountains guide how I walk every day.”

The Mountain Series: Lessons from High Places

 

Session 4: Mount Tabor: The Light of Transformation

Based on Matthew 17:1–8

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I. The Mountain of Revelation

Jesus took three disciples, Peter, James, and John, up a high mountain.
Away from the crowds, away from the noise, away from the demands of everyday life, they were positioned to see what could not be revealed at ground level.

“After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” (Matthew 17:1–2)

Mount Tabor is the mountain where Jesus allowed His glory to shine openly, not merely through miracles, but through His very being.
This glimpse of His divinity did not change who Jesus was.
It revealed who He had always been.

Henri Nouwen wrote,

“Our life is full of brokenness, broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations.
But in the midst of all this brokenness, God gives us glimpses of the face of Him whose light can never be extinguished.”

Mount Tabor is God’s reminder that glory is often hidden until we are ready to see it.

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II. The Cloud and the Voice

As the disciples watched in awe, a bright cloud enveloped them.
Out of this cloud came the voice of the Father, declaring His pleasure in the Son.

“While He was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said,
‘This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him.’” (Matthew 17:5)

The command was simple:
Listen.

Transformation begins with listening.
The disciples had listened to many voices, including their own fears and their own assumptions about the Messiah.
Now they were invited to center their hearts on the only voice that could guide them rightly.

Thomas Merton wrote,

“We must learn to listen to God in the depths of our hearts, for only then do we find the clarity that comes from divine peace.”

Mount Tabor teaches that revelation is not given for excitement but for obedience.

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III. The Fear That Meets Glory

When the voice spoke, the disciples fell facedown, terrified.
Glory often exposes our smallness, but fear is not the desired outcome.

“But Jesus came and touched them. ‘Get up,’ He said. ‘Do not be afraid.’” (Matthew 17:7)

Even in glory, Jesus remains gentle.
Before lifting them into new understanding, He first lifts them from fear.

Dallas Willard wrote,

“The presence of God is never meant to frighten us.
It is meant to free us from fear.”

The hand of Jesus on the disciples’ shoulders shows that transformation is not forced.
It is guided by love, sustained by mercy, and accompanied by the touch of Christ.

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IV. The Vision and the Descent

After the revelation, Jesus led them back down the mountain.
Glory on the mountaintop was never meant to stay on the mountaintop.

“When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.” (Matthew 17:8)

They descended with a clearer vision of who He was, but they still had to walk through the ordinary world.
The purpose of the mountain is not escape.
It is clarity.
Once clarity is given, the work of faith continues in the valleys below.

Henri Nouwen wrote,

“The goal is not to avoid the world but to live fully in it without being overwhelmed by it.”

Mount Tabor gives us a vision strong enough to carry into the shadows of everyday life.

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V. The Invitation

Mount Tabor is where the veil thins and we see Jesus as He truly is.
Not merely a teacher, healer, or prophet, but the radiant Son of God.

“In Your light we see light.” (Psalm 36:9)

The invitation of Tabor is to let His light interpret our darkness, to let His voice quiet our confusion, and to let His presence steady our fear.
Transformation begins in revelation, but it grows in obedience.
We rise and follow Him, changed by what we have seen.

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Carrying the Light of Tabor This Week

1. Practice attentive listening.
   Begin each prayer time with the simple words,
   “Speak, Lord. I am listening.”
   Let silence prepare the heart to hear Him.

2. Reflect on the glory of Christ.
   Read Matthew 17:1–8 slowly.
   Imagine yourself on the mountain and allow the passage to reveal the majesty of Jesus.

3. Let fear meet His touch.
   Whenever worry rises this week, repeat Jesus’ words,
   “Do not be afraid.”
   Picture His hand resting gently upon your shoulder.

4. Bring glory into the ordinary.
   Choose one routine task and offer it to God as worship.
   Tabor shines brightest when carried into daily life.

5. Pray for transformation.

   “Lord, open my eyes to Your glory.
   Let Your light renew my mind and strengthen my heart.
   Help me see You clearly and follow You faithfully.”

The Mountain Series: Lessons from High Places

 

Session 3: Mount Carmel: The Fire of Faith

Based on 1 Kings 18:16–39

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I. The Mountain of Decision

Mount Carmel was a place of confrontation.
The nation of Israel had grown divided in heart, following both Baal and God.
Elijah, the prophet, stood before them and called for clarity.

“Elijah went before the people and said, ‘How long will you waver between two opinions?
If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him.’ But the people said nothing.” (1 Kings 18:21)

Silence can be the most revealing answer.
Israel’s hesitation showed that their faith had grown unsure, diluted by comfort and compromise.
Mount Carmel reminds us that faith often begins with a choice to stand firm when others remain quiet.

Henri Nouwen wrote,

“You do not think yourself into a new way of living.
You live yourself into a new way of thinking.”

Faith is not an idea. It is a posture of obedience that stands even when the crowd does not move.

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II. The Challenge of False Fire

The prophets of Baal called out from morning until evening.
They shouted, danced, and even cut themselves, but no fire fell.

“But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.” (1 Kings 18:29)

False gods demand effort but never offer presence.
They take energy but give nothing in return.
Elijah’s challenge revealed that only the living God answers by fire.

Thomas Merton wrote,

“To worship our false selves is idolatry.
To deny the illusion of control is to begin to know the truth of God.”

Mount Carmel is not only about a contest of gods.
It is a confrontation between illusion and reality, between self-effort and surrender.
When our faith feels exhausted, it is often because we have been trying to ignite our own fire.

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III. The Prayer That Invites Fire

When Elijah’s turn came, he did not shout or strive.
He simply rebuilt the altar of the Lord that had been torn down and prayed quietly.

“Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that You, Lord, are God,
and that You are turning their hearts back again.” (1 Kings 18:37)

Faith does not manipulate heaven. It invites it.
Elijah’s calm prayer was rooted in confidence, not desperation.
He knew that true faith requires preparation, not performance.

Henri Nouwen said,

“Prayer is not a way of escaping from reality but a way of discovering reality.
It is the place where we learn to see the world through the eyes of God.”

The fire fell not because Elijah forced it but because his heart aligned with God’s purpose.
Where surrender meets obedience, divine power becomes visible.

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IV. The Fire That Consumes

“Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the soil,
and also licked up the water in the trench.” (1 Kings 18:38)

The fire that came down consumed everything, leaving no doubt about who was God.
The people fell to the ground and cried,

“‘The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!’” (1 Kings 18:39)

Dallas Willard wrote,

“Faith is the confident reliance on God’s reality and goodness that transforms how we live.”

The purpose of divine fire is never destruction for its own sake.
It burns away the false so that the true may be revealed.
God’s fire restores clarity where confusion once lived.
When His presence fills the altar of our hearts, everything else finds its rightful place.

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V. The Invitation

Mount Carmel reminds us that the fire of faith does not begin in spectacle but in surrender.
It begins by rebuilding what has been neglected, listening for God’s voice, and trusting that His response will come in His time.

“For our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:29)

The fire that once fell on Mount Carmel still falls upon hearts that wait with expectancy.
Where there is humility and prayer, the flame of faith can never be extinguished.

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Living the Fire of Faith This Week

1. Rebuild your altar.
   Spend time in prayer restoring your connection with God in any place where it has grown distant.
   Ask Him to renew your focus and your devotion.

2. Renounce false fires.
   Identify one habit, distraction, or pursuit that drains your soul but never satisfies.
   Release it in prayer and make room for God’s presence.

3. Pray quietly but expectantly.
   Use Elijah’s simple prayer from 1 Kings 18:37 throughout the week:
   “Answer me, Lord, so that hearts will turn back to You.”

4. Invite God’s refining fire.
   Ask Him to burn away what is false and strengthen what is faithful.
   True fire cleanses more than it consumes.

5. Give thanks for His presence.
   End each day with gratitude that the same God who answered Elijah is still near, still speaking, still burning with love.

“Lord, send Your fire again.
Consume what is false within me,
and let my life reveal the truth of who You are.”