New · First edition 2026
“The Holy Spirit is the treasure.
You are the jar.”
Nine times in Scripture, God tells one of His biggest stories through the most ordinary object in the ancient world: a clay jar. A dropped water pot. A shattered alabaster flask. Three hundred pitchers smashed in the dark so the light could get out. Not one of those stories is about pottery.
Start here
What jar are you carrying today?
Before you read another word, Chuck asks his congregation one question. Most people recognise themselves in the first ten seconds.
The argument
The jar is never the point. The jar is the picture. And the picture is you.
The prophets of the Old Testament pointed us to the Messiah. Every sacrifice, every feast, every shadow was an arrow aimed at Him. We know this. We have preached this.
But Jesus, all along, was pointing us to the Holy Spirit. Look at what He offers at the well — not better water, but living water. Not a fuller jar, but a spring that never needs one.
Religion hands you a jar and tells you to keep it full. Grace puts a fountain inside you and tells you the jar was never the point.
Nine vessels. Nine chapters. One thread running through all of them.
The nine vessels
Nine jars, nine chapters, nine passages
Each chapter is anchored in one text, opened in the original Hebrew or Greek, and closed with questions and a prayer. Read it with your Bible open.
Gideon's men did not win that battle by protecting their pitchers. They won it by smashing them. The light could not get out until the clay came apart.Chapter Four · Judges 7
The books
Read it. Then work through it.
This book was written to be worked through, not simply read. The companion workbook turns all nine chapters into a study you can use on your own, with a friend, or with a group.
Both titles are available in paperback. Prices are set at the retailer.
For small-group leaders
A nine-week study you can actually run
These messages were preached a week apart on purpose. The workbook keeps that rhythm — and it does not leave you to improvise.
- Session-by-session leader notes. Which question to protect time for, and a "watch for" warning on every single session — where groups typically go wrong, and what to do about it.
- A structure that repeats. Open · In the Text · Digging Deeper · Bring It Home · The Hard Question · This Week. Members know what to expect by week two.
- Questions built to get honest, not to get answered. Every session sets one aside as The Hard Question — nobody has to share it, but everybody has to answer it.
- A weekly practice, not just discussion. Every session ends with something to do before the next one. That is where most of the change actually happens.
- A plan for after week nine. A group agreement in Session One, a follow-up protocol at the end, and My Jar of Manna — journal pages members keep for life.
Free sample
Session One, free.
The complete first session of the companion workbook — Drop the Jar, on the woman at the well. Not an excerpt. The whole session, exactly as your group would run it.
What's inside
- 01The full session: Open, In the Text, Digging Deeper, Bring It Home, The Hard Question, This Week
- 02The phrear vs pēgē word study — a pit you haul from, against a spring that rises on its own
- 03The three-jars exercise and the closing prayer
- 04Leader notes for Session One, including what to watch for
Check your inbox
Session One is on its way. If it hasn't arrived in a few minutes, look in your Promotions tab or spam folder — and drag it across so the rest gets through.
Author portrait
to be supplied
The author
Dr. Chuck R. Perez
A pastor, teacher and church planter with more than thirty-six years in full-time ministry, and a doctorate in Biblical Studies. He has walked the Holy Land eight times, and it shows in how he handles a text.
Chuck writes for believers who have moved past being impressed by church and are looking for something that holds — bridging deep biblical exposition with the raw, everyday realities of human brokenness.
These nine chapters were preached before they were written. The book still sounds like a pulpit, on purpose. He lives with his wife Rosie and their two children, Solomon and Jubilee.