FREE ESSAY ON JARS OF CLAY

JARS OF CLAY

1. Introduction: 
I will be teaching this lesson to a group of second graders at my church. Are classroom
is on the
upstairs level and, I will also be utilizing the outside area that is directly behind of
my church. 
There are about thirty second graders in my classroom. So, it is a really busy class.
But, they are
a whole lot of fun to work with. And, they seem to respond to me well. We will be
talking
about II Cor. 4:7-18. I think that this lesson will be very interesting to first and
second graders. 
It will help them to better understand the gift of salvation.
2. Outline:
I. Opening Focus
A. Make small clay pinch pots
B. Ask the children questions
C. Show large pot
II. Saul (Acts : 9)
A. Saul's threats
B. Jesus speaking to Saul
1. "why do you persecute me?"
2. "go to the city"
C. Saul's blindness
1. blind for three days
2. Saul meets Ananias
3. Saul is healed spiritually and physically
D. Saul's Discipleship
1. the other disciples did not believe Paul
2. Barnabas tells of Saul's healing
3. Paul is accepted
III. Paul (Acts 13:9)
A. "Asked of God"
B. Prison
1. wrote letters
2. rejoiced
C. Paul's letter to Corinth (2 Cor. 4:1-18)
1. Corinth's problems
2. Corinth's disbelief
3. Jars of Clay (2 Cor. 4:7)
a. kept treasures in them
b. fragil
4. Christians as Jars of Clay
a. hard pressed
b. struck down by others
c. treasures of heaven inside (2 Cor. 4:18)
3-5 External Content, Internal Content, and Application:
Opening focus: As my opening focus I am going to take the children outside to make clay
pots. 
I will teach them to make a simple pinch pot. While the children are pinching their pots
I will
ask them questions (Where in the Bible do we learn about clay pots? What are some of the
things that you can do with a clay pot? Do you all have any clay pots at your house? Do
clay
pots break easy? and etc.). Then when they are finished I will show them a large clay pot
that I
have made. Then, I will have all of the children leave their pots at their seats and come
sit in the
grass so I can tell them a story.
Lesson Body: I want to tell you a story about a man named Saul (Acts:9). Saul was a very
bad
man. He threatened to murder Jesus's disciples in Acts 9:1. One day while Saul was
walking to
Damascus he fell to the ground. He heard a great voice saying, "Saul, Saul why do you
persecute me?". Who are you, Lord" Saul asked. And, what do you all think that the voice
replied? The voice said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now, get up and go into
the
city". 
But, when Saul got up he had a big problem. He could not see anything. So, he had to be
lead by hand into Damascus. And, for three whole days he could not see a thing. Can you
all
imagine what it would be like not to be able to see anything? Do you think it would be
scary? 
Saul was very scared. But, he met up with a man named Ananias. And, Ananias was sent by
the
Lord to help Paul see again. And, he was also here to fill Saul with the Holy Spirit.
And, when
Ananias told Saul these things Saul felt something heavy lift from his eyes. And, it was
a
miracle. Saul could see again. What is a miracle? A miracle is an act that only God can
do.
When Saul finally made it to Damascus he met with the disciples. Do you all know what
a disciple is? A disciple is someone who spreads the word of God. But, when Saul met up
with
the disciples. They did not believe that he was a disciple. But, Barnabas told them about
Saul's
vision of God. And, the disciples believed him and accepted him as their own.
So, Saul changed his name to Paul (Acts 13:9). Do you all know what the name Paul
means? The name Paul means "asked of God". And, Paul surely was asked of God.
After Paul was saved he had a bit of misfortune. He was arrested. And, where do you
go when you are arrested? You go to jail. But, while Paul was in jail he still continued
to work
for the Lord. He learned to rejoice in times of sorrow. Do you think that any of you
could
rejoice while you were in jail. It would by awful hard. But, Paul had Jesus in his heart.
And,
he knew that everything happens for a reason. So, he continued to tell about God even
when he
was in prison. Do you all know how he did this? He did this by writing letters to
different
churches.
The letter that we are going to look at today, is the letter to the city of Corinth.
Now,
the city of Corinth was having a few problems in their church. And, Paul was writing them
to
help them understand what to do.
Do you all remember what the disciples did when they found out that Paul was saved? 
They did not believe him. The Corinth church also did not believe that Paul was Saved.
So,
Paul had to convince that he was truly a changed person.
One of the things that Paul talked about in his letters were jars of clay (read aloud 2
Cor.4:1-7). How do you all think that we are jars of clay?(while the children are
answering go
and get the large pinch pot that you made) Do you remember some of the things that we
said we
could do with a clay pot? In Paul's time clay pots were sometimes used to hide treasures
in. So,
why do you think that Paul thinks that we are clay pots? Well, Paul explains how we are
jars of
clay in the next few verses.
Paul says (holding the pot that you have made) that we as Christians are hard pressed on
every side (press in the sides of the pot). Paul said that we are struck down (press down
on the
pot), but not destroyed. But, he also said that we have treasure in our jar of clay
(reach in and
pull out gold coins). What do you think Paul meant by all of this?
When he said that we are hard pressed. He meant that we as Christians are sometimes
pressured by others to do things that we know that we should not do. Have any of you ever
felt
pressured to do something wrong by someone else? It is a hard situation to be in, Isn't
it?
But, we as Christians have the love of God in our hearts. And, that is our treasure. We
may just look like fragile clay pots on the outside. But, on the inside we have the love
of God. 
And, God's love for us will earn us treasures beyond our wildest imagination in heaven. 
Treasures that will last for an eternity. In verse eighteen Paul says, " we fix our eyes
not on what
is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is
eternal" (2
Cor. 4:18).