GOD MAKES CHAMPIONS OUT OF FAILURES - God prefers losers, broken people who know their weaknesses, see their flaws, admit their faults and mistakes, and cry out to him for help. God prefers people who know their weaknesses, admit their flaws, acknowledge their mistakes. They know they needed God and cry out to him for help. If God had chosen only people with no character flaws, some of the credit would inevitably go to those heroes and not to the Lord. By choosing flawed people with a bad background God alone gets the glory when they accomplish amazing things by His power.

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You Are A Masterpiece

God is making a beautiful masterpiece out of you 

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 “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 (ESV)

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The Light of the Gospel

“⁴ Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. ² But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. 

“³ And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴ In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 

“⁵ For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 

“⁶ For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4 English Standard Version (ESV) 

God prefers losers, broken people who know their weaknesses, see their flaws, admit their faults, failures and mistakes, and cry out to him for help.

God specializes in turning around losers, mending broken people and displaying his power through them.

Why did God use flawed people in the Bible? He could have raised perfect, prominent, dignified heroes without any character flaws.

All the perfect people are in heaven. The only ones on earth are the people with serious weaknesses.

So, God works with sinners because that’s all he has to work with. In heaven we will all be perfected by God’s grace. But until then, he uses people who fall short in many ways, and He does some amazing things through them.

If you are a self-made champion you can win too much, too soon, too easily. You can garner all the laurels for yourself and make a name for yourself, and put God out of the picture. 

Consider the list of God’s imperfect heroes:

Noah was a drunkard.
Abraham was a liar and a coward, He lied about his wife to save his life.
Sarah laughed at God and His promise.
Jacob was a deceiver, trickster, supplanter.
Moses was a murderer – he murdered an Egyptian.
Rahab was a harlot.
Gideon was fearful.
Jephthah made a foolish vow.
Samson was enslaved with lust and anger.
David was an adulterer and a murderer.
Solomon married foreign wives who turned his heart toward idolatry.
Elijah struggled with depression.
Jonah was disobedient and ran away from God.
Peter was hot-tempered and denied Christ.
Paul argued with Barnabas.
Barnabas compromised the gospel.
James and John wanted special seats in the kingdom.
All the apostles argued about who was the greatest among them.

God prefers people who know their weaknesses, admit their flaws, acknowledge their mistakes. They know they needed God and cry out to him for help. 

If God had chosen only people with no character flaws, some of the credit would inevitably go to those heroes and not to the Lord. 

By choosing flawed people with a bad background God alone gets the glory when they accomplish amazing things by His power.

That was what the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 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." (ESV)

That is how the Lord shows his magnificent power by working through puny defective character. In this verse are statements we need to consider.

-  the Gospel is a treasure. “We have this treasure.” 

What does this mean? We can see the answer in verses 3-6:

“If our gospel is veiled" (verse 3).
“The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" (verse 4).
God “made his light shine in our hearts" (verse 6)

The unbelievers are blinded by Satan who keeps them from seeing the glory of the gospel of Christ.

But then verse 6 puts the credit where it belongs when it says that God “made his light shine in our hearts.” 

God saved us not because of anything we have done. Our condition was so hopeless that apart from God’s grace, we had no hope at all.

We would never have discovered the truth about Jesus on our own. “Once I was blind but now I see.”

-  God has hidden his treasure in “jars of clay.”

Sometimes valuable treasures are found in ordinary clay pots. 

The Dead Sea scrolls were found by a Bedouin shepherd in a cave. Since he could not decipher the scrolls, he had no idea what they said. 

He used some scrolls for fuel and sold three. Other scrolls were discovered in the same cave and in nearby caves. 

Later it was confirmed that he discovered the greatest collection of biblical manuscripts found in the 20^th century - the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

Those scrolls contained parts of every Old Testament book except the book of Esther - all of them dated a thousand years earlier than any copy known at that time.

You never know what you might find in an ordinary clay pot.

The original koine Greek word used for “jars of clay” in verse 7 refers to ordinary earthenware. 

These clay pots were used by common people to store grain, hide valuables, and to keep oil for lighting their lamps. These cheap pots were fragile - easily broken.

And God hides in that those clay pots the priceless treasure of the gospel.

And God is still doing it. God blesses the world by hiding the precious message of the gospel in “clay pots” that are not impressive by the standards of the world. We would not qualify if that is the way God would do it.

But God has a special purpose in mind. He does it to demonstrate Who the true source of spiritual power is.

The Greek word for power is “dunamis,” from which we get the English words “dynamite” and “dynamo” – we can outright imagine what kind of power it is.

God’s power is unique, working in various ways - uniting people, tearing down walls, restoring marriages, rebuilds families, lifts up the rejected, heals the broken-hearted, forgives the deepest sins, imparts hope to the depressed in the darkest hour, shines light in the valley of death.

So, you sometimes feel like a cracked pot, a broken jar, a discarded piece of pottery. You sense your own weaknesses and failures and cry out for answers and help for new directions in life.

God has the right comrades for you - imperfect, unqualified people – the Church. 

Get in line and join with the rest of God’s cracked clay pots and see what he can do through you – He is the Potter we are the clay.

^“8 But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
    we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.” Isaiah 64:8 (ESV)

A huge chunk of beautiful marble lay in the courtyard of the Florence, Italy, cathedral for almost a hundred years.

The sculptor commissioned to carve it had made a mistake while attempting to carve the stone, and most people thought it was beyond repair.

But in 1505, another young sculptor by the name of Michelangelo came across the piece and thought he could do something with it.

For three years, he worked steadily, carefully shaping the marble into an 18-foot-tall image of the young shepherd boy David – a sculpture that would define the great artist’s career.

Much like Michelangelo, God is our Sculptor. He finds us broken, lost, and in desperate need of work.

Then, after we put our faith in Christ, He begins to chisel us – scraping and chipping away our imperfections and making us more and more into the image He wants us to be.

This sculpting we undergo is not always a pleasant experience. That’s because sometimes we have idols and imperfections chipped away to which we’ve grown very attached.

But our Master Sculptor knows what He’s doing.

Trust Him to mold you throughout your life into the masterpiece He’s created you to be and thank Him that He’s set you free from the imperfections that hinder you!

God would want to change your life if you let Him.

Ask God to help you submit to His daily sculpting in your life as He transforms you into His image.

God has made it possible for you to know Him and experience an amazing change in your own life through a relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ, and have eternal life.

Say the following prayer:

“Father God, I confess I am a sinner and my sins have separated me from you. 

I am truly sorry. I now want to turn away from my past sinful life and live a new life pleasing to you.

Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again.

I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer.

I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Thank you that according to your Word, I am now born again.

Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. I promise to study Your Word – the Bible.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.”