Cracked, But Carrying Glory

March 1, 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Amen. Let the church say amen. Church say amen again. Give it on to God who's ahead of my life. I'm so thankful and grateful for this opportunity to Pastor Audrey in his absence. First lady, Sister Audrey, thank you so much. And to each of you guys' children, it's so good to be here. So good to be here on today. Chapter 4. Verse 7. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. Cracked, but carrying glory. Cracked, but carrying glory. Let us pray. Father, we're so grateful for today. We are so thankful for this opportunity. None of me, Lord, and all of you. Let you be glorified, Lord, today. Let others see you and you only. Let it be acceptable in us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Of this world trouble of this world with the trouble with God.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Sisters and brothers, Mahalia Jackson's song, Troubles of this World, gives us a glimpse of future hope.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

But here we have today, Paul tells us that the shout is not about the future. Paul tells us that trouble wakes with us each and every day. Some of you all went to sleep with trouble. Some of you woke up with trouble. Even as you came here today, some of you all experience trouble. The shout is not just that we will experience hope on eternity, but Paul tells us the real shout is that God would give us the strength to deal with trouble today. And here we have right here, Paul, he paints a beautiful picture. He paints a beautiful picture as it relates to the life of the believer. Here we have in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we are looking at Corinth, a place full of beauty, a place full with prestige. And many times people, it was a place to go to where everyone wanted to be, everybody. Here was the place where you wanted to go to when you wanted to step upon a pedestal to be seen, to be evaluated, to show your strength, to show your power. And here you have false teachers are teaching that one cannot be weak, but you must be strong. But Paul says, hold on, wait a minute. That is not the life of a believer. The life of a believer is not one of prestige and power. Many people begin to doubt Paul's apostolytic legitimacy. Why? Because Paul could not speak with eloquent rhetoric. Paul, his body, he did not look impressive, he was not easy on the eyes. And so many people doubted who Paul really was and his legitimacy with God the Father. But Paul says that the Christian life is a reflection of Christ. And what is that reflection of Christ? You can't have the cross without the crown. No cross, no crown. And Paul wants to encourage us today, sisters and brothers, is that we are cracked jars carrying glory. Look at what he says right here. He says, we put this treasure in jars of clay to show the surpassing power belongs to God. Look at that, sisters and brothers, crack jars, weak vessels. Look at the jars in which God is putting something so precious, so beautiful, in something that breaks apart, something that wears out. I mean, can you imagine taking something so beautiful and precious and putting in something so weak, so broke, so broken down and decayed? I mean, I can't even imagine God who is all knowing, our wise, why in the world would he choose something so weak, so broken, in order to put the beautiful treasure of Jesus Christ? Good question, I'm glad you had. Look at me, preacher. You're gonna tell me glory is inside of me. I'm so blue, I don't know what to do. Look at me, preacher. My little girl is pregnant, my son is on dope, my marriage is on the rocks. In fact, I'm going to the divorce court tomorrow. Look at me, preacher. I don't know what to do. I've been knocked down, kicked down, cast down, pushed down, put down, pull down. I'm at the bottom of the bottom to the bottom of the bottom, and you tell me glory is inside of me. Preacher. I don't know. It's glory is inside of me. Look at my life. The pain I deal with. The heart, the trouble. I'm broken. Can't you see? I'm broken. But yes, I hear what you're saying. And that's exactly what God wants from you. Your brokenness. My brokenness. We're just parts of play. But Paul tells us why. God wants to use us. Here we have faith does not reserve, remove pressure, but faith redefines it. Look at what he says. He says, We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Here we have external situations will impact our lives. But internally, the beautiful golden treasure of the gospel, it keeps us, it sustains us. God sets the parameters that yes, I go through troubles. Yes, I deal with difficulties. But even though I go through troubles and deal with difficulties, I might be crushed, but I'm not going to be left out. Not only are we not destroyed. We must understand the life of the believer. We're weak, but we're strong. The oak tree and the palm tree gives us a beautiful example. On the outside, the oak tree is strong. It's sturdy. When the wind comes, the oak tree sustains the pressure. But when the hurricane comes, the oak tree has to break. Its strength, its power breaks down the oak tree. Invisibility looks strong, but it's actually internally weak. The palm tree, on the other hand, the exterior is not as strong. The wind is blowing, the palm tree is moving back and forth. Trouble moves you back and forth. But when the hurricane comes, even when the palm tree feels like it's going to be destroyed. But after the hurricane, the oak tree is the lying on the ground. But the palm tree stands back up. Sisters and brothers and I want to tell you in the life of the believer, yes, you're broken. Yes, you're going through trouble. Yes, you have trials. Yes, you have difficulties. But the beauty is you're carrying the gospel. You're carrying the gospel. But here, look at what it says. Verse 10 says, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus. And always mean. Always. This is an ongoing thing. But look at what it says is that we always carrying a body and the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies. Manifested means to be visible. In other words, God wants you to put your scars on display. Let people see you. Let them see your broken pot. Let them see your crackpot. Why? Because all of us have a crackpot. All of us have experienced brokenness. All of us have things in our lives that we may be not proud of, maybe ashamed of, but who cares about that? God has saved you. He's restored you. I don't care. Call me whatever you want to call me. But we all are ex up in here. Ex-criminals, ex-prostitutes, ex-pimps, ex-players. All of us are ex up in here. But the building is God saved us. We were broken. But he's carrying glory. Don't let the devil, don't let the devil stop you from carrying your glory. My scars are beautiful. Look at my life. Broken but beautiful. Your life broken but beautiful. Your life broken but beautiful. Your life broken but beautiful. Why? Because we carry the gospel. We carry glory. Your life is a picture of Jesus Christ. You talk about your scars. What about Jesus' scars? He died for you and me. Nails in his hand. Pissed aside. Nails in his feet. Why? Because he wanted to give you and me the beautiful gospel. Don't be ashamed. Don't be hurt. Don't hide your scars. Let the world see who you are. Broken but carrying glory. Let them see you for who you are. Whatever your struggle is, who cares? God can heal you right where you are. The world needs to see your brokenness. The world needs to know your brokenness. The world must see Jesus in you. Don't be ashamed of your brokenness. But trust the treasure inside of you. My identity is not my brokenness. My identity is in Jesus Christ. The world needs to know it doesn't matter what you've done yesterday, and some of us done something today, even before we got here. But they need to know that God will accept you just the way you are. To act like we got it all together. You know, we know we don't have it together. So why do we act like we got it together? The world needs to see you in your brokenness. How many people will be able to receive the gospel if you told them about your brokenness? How many lives can you change if you tell someone about your brokenness? How many people will feel readily available? They don't feel like I gotta get it together. If you tell them about your brokenness, let's wrap this up here. Here it is. Why? Why do we do it? Verse twelve. It says, So death is at work in us. But life in you. Death is at work in us. The story of a candle. The testimony of a candle. You have a dark room. The candle is lit. And what happens to the candle? The wax begins to dissolve. The candle wick begins to shorten. The candle begins to dissipate. But why the candle is dying? It's giving light to the entire room. What's your purpose of telling your scars? Somebody needs to see the light. While you're dying, while I'm dying is giving life to somebody else. Your struggles, your hurt, your pain, your anguish, your discomfort, your frustration, your money problems, everything that you have that's dying is giving life to somebody else. Why? Because you're carrying the gospel. Susan brothers, you would have told me six years ago, I'd be standing here today. I would have said no. Went through a crazy divorce, homeless, seven months, living in my car, living in the streets, just trying to find a place, all alone fighting for my kids. I was fed over God. I said, God, I'm broken.

unknown 22:08

I'm hurt.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

What are you doing to my life? But God had told me you're dying to yourself that you can bring glory to me. I don't know who you are today, but some of you, we need to die to ourself and let God come through us. I said I never preach again. The last time I preached was 2021 in my daddy's eulogy. 2021. I preached my daddy's eulogy. As I did that, I cried. I went back, put my Bible back up. Not my other Bible, my preaching Bible. I put it up. I said, God, you must be through. There's a beautiful treasure inside of you. I don't know what your situation is. But the same God. He has all power to meet you where you are. There is no secret what God can do. What he's done for others. He'll do the same thing for you. So today, make up in your mind. I might be cracked. And I might be broken. I might want to give up. I might want to throw it in the town. But I'm not going to do it. Why? Because I'm carrying glory. I'm carrying glory. I'm carrying the gospel. That Jesus love the sand shake show. And God can take what's broken and put it back together. Again. But the hour has gotten late. Let me tell you. Satan wants to steal your joy. He wants to steal the glory that God has for your life. Tell him Satan, no. Tell him I'm cracked. But I'm carrying glory.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

Let's give another hand for the Lord's word. It's been. Let's give a hand for God's preacher of this morning. Amen. Someone told us, uh, one of our members said years ago, years, years ago, when we first started, actually before our first service. That Christ's community reine then would be a place of healing. Somebody needed to hear exactly that word this morning.