God Can Hide Your Problems

Note: I need to re-record the attached video.  The video above is showing a different illustration of the same lesson.

What you need:

1. Larger clear glass vase (cannot be tinted or texture… needs to be completely transparent)
   • The best one I have ever used I purchased at Walmart for around $10 from the craft area.  It was sold as a flower vase and was around 8″ or so in diameter and about 24″ tall.  Glass bowls do not work very well at all.
2. Two smaller clear glass cups or vases, one of which can easily fits inside the larger vase (cannot be tinted or texture… needs to be completely transparent).  The ones I recommend can be also purchased either at Walmart or at Dollar Tree.  They are around 3″ or so in diameter and about 12″ tall.  They are a uniform diameter from the base all the way to the top.  Even at Walmart they only cost $1.
3. Oil (enough to cover the smaller cup inside the larger one).  Usually I would buy a gallon and would only need to 3/4 of it.
4. Large towel
5. Hammer
6. Optional but nice to have at cleanup is a strainer
7. Optional but nice to have is some rubber gloves so you can reach in and grab the glass without getting your hands covered in oil.

Prep:

• Place one of the smaller vases in the large vase.
• Begin pouring oil into the large vase and the small vase until the oil comes just to the top of the small vase. Once the inside of the smaller vases as well as the space between the smaller vase and the bigger vase is full of oil, you should not be able to see the smaller vase inside at all. It should have completely disappeared. You might be able to see a small line in the oil where the very top of the smaller vase is, so use this as your guide for how full the vases should be. Stop when you hit the top of the smaller vase, making sure you cannot see it at all.
• Have the large vase on a table visible to everyone, full of oil hiding the small vase.  Have the 2nd small vase on the table as well.
• MAKE SURE YOU TRY THIS AHEAD OF TIME! YOU MAY VERY WELL HAVE A PROBLEM MAKING THE GLASS INSIDE DISAPPEAR. IF YOU CAN STILL SEE IT, YOU LIKELY WILL NEED TO FIND A DIFFERENT TYPE FOR EITHER THE OUTSIDE OR INSIDE VASE.

Lesson:

We need to be very careful about being proud but we also need to be careful about feeling like we have nothing to offer God.

HOLD UP THE SMALLER VASE

This glass is you, and you and me and everyone here. We start out life with SO MANY GREAT PLANS. We look so good… our future’s SO BRIGHT… The sky’s the limit.

We can be anything we put our mind to but then something happens. Perhaps someone has done something TO YOU… maybe just a tragedy that happened that you didn’t expect.

Maybe it was the LAST THING YOU WANTED but something happened in your life that you felt absolutely CRUSHED YOU TO PIECES! Maybe someone you loved left you or passed away. Someone did something to you that wasn’t right and you just didn’t understand

You just DON’T UNDERSTAND, “WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?”

WRAP THE SMALLER JAR IN THE TOWEL AND SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER (THE TOWEL IS TO MAKE SURE THE GLASS FRAGMENTS DON’T SHOOT ALL OVER THE ROOM)

And suddenly your life is in ruins… Your big dreams are crushed. Your plans of being something GREAT FOR GOD are SMASHED IN A 1,000 pieces!

Now you feel like you are going nowhere! Instead of changing the world, now, I don’t even NOW HOW I AM GOING TO SURVIVE!

BUT GOD…

Those 2 little words have the answer to EVERYTHING that ever happens to you… but God.

No matter what has happened… GOD CAN RESTORE YOU!

God is always there waiting for you… with open arms, He is just waiting for you to give Him a chance.

Give Him the broken pieces. Give Him the shattered dreams, the crushed plans
Submit yourself to Him completely and just watch Him work!

PUT THE PIECES IN THE JAR… NOT INSIDE THE SMALLER JAR THAT IS ALREADY IN THE OIL BUT AROUND THE PERIMETER. THE VERY THICK GLASS THAT IS AT THE BASE OF THE SMASHED VASE, YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO PUT INSIDE BECAUSE IT WILL BE VERY OBVIOUSLY SEEN AND NOT FIT IN VERY WELL.

My God has the power to restore! He can put all the broken pieces back together again!
Just GIVE HIM A CHANCE

PULL THE GOOD JAR OUT

My God can HEAL you! He can give yor your life back. He can breathe excitement back into you.

You CAN be something GREAT for GOD! You CAN fulfill those BIG DREAMS. You can be an incredible MAN OR WOMAN OF GOD.

Just give Him the pieces, do what’s right and TRUST HIM!