Praise to our Heavenly Father for the gift of our pastor, Jim Singleton who preached his last sermon to us yesterday as pastor of our church. It was bittersweet as we are sad to see him go but we know that he is doing what God calls him to do which is to teach the next generation of pastors. The sermon was about the analogy that many of us have heard before of us being jars of clay and God being the potter. He told a couple of powerful stories to bring home his point that we are all just ordinary people just as the people of the bible were and God used them for some great things. It didn't matter that Moses had a talking problem or Ruth was a Moabite. What mattered was they were obedient to God's call. We are all jars of clay. Some of us are broken, chipped, marred, dirty. Some of us are like new, freshly made pots. It doesn't matter what the pot is. It's what they contain that matters. Jesus is what we should be filled up with. Our pastor told this story of a boy who has cerebral palsy who is away at a summer boys church camp. All week long the boys in his group are constantly teasing and mocking him by imitating his slow awkward speech and the way he walks. On the last day, this group of boys is asked to nominate a speaker from their group. The boys as a final intentional act, all vote for the boy with cerebral palsy to be the speaker. The boy is asked, "what is the most important thing you have learned this week?" It took him a full 5 minutes to get out these 10 words. God...............................loves.......................................me................................................................
God...............................................................loves....................................................you...................So...
..........................I.....................................................love........................you............................too.
There was not a dry eye in the audience, including the boys who had been be-littling him all week. God can do great things through us no matter who we are. Fill your jar with Jesus and let his love pour out of you.
2Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
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