8/2/25 A Broken Vessel

We are in the 7th week of this understanding of the hand of God as the Potter in our life and we are his clay. The hope is that it has given you a greater idea of how much in your early years he played a role and depending on where you are now, how he left it up to you to choose your path with or without him, & how much that determines what you are capable of doing. This series covered the function of a vessel, to be filled. In this case it is the filling of the Holy Spirit. IT is from the Spirit within can we achieve special purposes because we operate not from the corrupted, not from the temporary as this flesh, but from the Spirit for the sake of the Spirits’ leading.

Sometimes these special purposes can happen & we begin to encroach on the glory of God because the enemy provokes the flesh & we think it came from us. How much has God blessed you with instances where his power & capability was at work through you? Some of us have been blessed with operating in the spiritual gifts to bless the life of others. The spiritual gifts can be found in Romans 12, & 1 Corinthians 12. Some have thumped their chest with what God did through them. Paul has a different attitude.

2 Corinthians 12:6-10 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations.

Paul was blessed beyond measure by what the Lord did through him. He was a vessel just like you and I, a man with strengths weaknesses and limitations. He was a man whose #1 priority was to spread the gospel, seeing to it that the theology was not corrupted by the world & cultural bias. Paul rebuked the misunderstandings of the bad theology which led to corrupted living. He straightened the lives of those who were mixed up out. Taught, discipled, led by example & still says there is no boasting.

The Lord gave him the assignment to spread the good news to those outside the Jewish circles known as the Gentiles. Further he was gifted with visions, revelations of truth to operate in the gifts, to possess a boldness by the Spirit because of his anointing to not stand down to any debate proving that the Savior of the world was alive & would fulfill his purposes. The Lord took this vessel that was the Apostle Paul & did monumental good works through him. Because with great power comes great responsibility. The truth is with this willingness to be a vessel in the Potter’s hands comes a heightened opportunity to be damaged. Paul tells the tale.

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

Circumstances that are humbling. A Vessel with a thorn is punctured. Pierced, and notice Paul servant of God, the chosen vessel was not spared the trial of waiting. We struggle with the former things and live in our power below our means when we are forced to wait. How many of us have dealt with sickness disease unemployment betrayal maligned marginalized unprovoked, unjust and made to wait for the Lord to show himself in the life of his child?

Guess what if you are in ministry, if you are a vessel set aside for the purpose of the hand of God to move & guide your steps then this is you. Why exactly why Paul mentioned. Humility. He wants to kill the disease of PRIDE at the root & sometimes justice won’t be done, healing won’t come, your name will not be found to be innocent over time and you may never get back to where you to where you were financially. But Paul makes it clear, how we should see all of this mess.

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

  • I want to look at the word GRACE here.
  • Typically this is not getting what you deserve. GR word Charis-
  • Here it is favor, favor made perfect in weakness.
  • The fragility of the vessel is made perfect through the process of the Potter’s favor.
  • In this we, the vessels can see God move in methods that are not common.
  • I am not talking. That is power!
  • You see the true power in your weaknesses can be bragging about, boasting about how in spite of you God has provided,
  • God the Potter who holds you has lifted you, and provided.

So the hates will come, the unjust will come, the disappointment will come, the unfaithful will leave but the Lord who is love, who is just, who will live up to his word, who is faithful is holding you in spite of brokenness and says I still love you enough to show you favor!