A Journey to the Potter's House

[Applause] hello everyone oh hello everyone yes it's good to be with you it's good to be with you and share this share this journey with you we are going to be taking a uh a journey together this morning or this afternoon we're going to take us a journey to the potter's house you know in the old testament in the in the book of jeremiah in chapter 18 in the first six verses there it says this is the word that came to jeremiah from the lord go down to the potter's house and there i'm going to give you my message and so jeremiah writes i went to the potter's house and i watched him working at his wheel but the pot he was fashioning from the clay was marred in his hands and so the potter fashioned it into another pot as seemed best to him then the word of the lord came to me oh house of israel can i not do with you as this potter does declares the lord like clay in the hands of the potter so you are in my hands and so we see in this passage god he sends jeremiah on a journey to the potter's house and as jeremiah is sitting there watching the potter work with the clay god begins to reveal to jeremiah a deeper understanding into how god works in the lives of his people and it really is a lot like a potter working with their clay did you know that the bible makes reference in several places to god's relationship to his people as being similar to the relationship that a potter has to their clay did you know that well if we look in the earliest pages of scripture in the book of genesis in chapter 2 part of the creation account there in verse 7 it says and then the lord god formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into man the breath of life and man became a living being we know that the book of genesis is originally written in the hebrew language and the hebrew word that is used for formed here in verse 7 that god formed man that hebrew word is yatsar and it literally means to form but as a potter what i think is kind of exciting is that the hebrew root word from which yazar comes from is yotzer and diotzer literally means a potter someone who works with clay and so a more literal translation of genesis chapter 2 verse 7 would read and then the lord god did the work of a potter and formed man from the dust of the ground isn't that cool church that like not your head look religious or something that thing is like really cool and so we see right here in this genesis passage from god's very first contact with his human creation it is in the context of a relationship between a potter and their clay well with this understanding i want to take you through some of the processes a potter takes their clay through as they fashion their clay into a piece of earthenware and as i do i want to talk to you about some of the similar processes god allows us to go through as he's fashioning our lives into what the bible refers to in second timothy 2 21 as vessels of honor fit for the master's use now i'm going to be doing several illustrations for you today with these pieces of clay up here and of course this clay is a metaphor for our life and so i want you to see your life represented in these different pieces of clay now when a potter is going to make something on their wheel the first thing they have to do is they have to go out and they have to dig up some clay now when a potter goes out looking for their clay do you know where they look for it they look for it in the swamp they look for it in and around the wetlands now when the potter goes out looking for their clay they're not looking for clay that's going to be perfect it's got to be just perfect and do you know why the potter doesn't go out looking for perfect clay because the potter knows there is no such thing as perfect clay you see the potter knows when they dig this clay up out of the swamp it's going to have all sorts of muck all sorts of mire all sorts of junk inside of it and the potter understands that dealing with all of that junk that's inside the clay that's just all part of the formation process now i want to start with that point because i'll talk to lots of people and sometimes people will tell me that they want to have a relationship with god or they want to go deeper in their relationship with god but they don't feel they can do that now see because they just don't feel good enough see they're still struggling with some junk in their life maybe they're struggling with an addiction maybe they got a habit they can't seem to control maybe they've got some people in their life that they know are not good for them and they just don't feel good enough to have a relationship with the lord well listen friends the bible makes it really clear none of us are good enough in and of ourselves right come on yes it says in romans chapter 3 verse 10 that there's nobody who's righteous not even one person it says in verse 23 of that same chapter that we we've all kind of messed up right it says for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god this is the whole reason why god sends jesus to the world to die for our sins so that we can be reconciled to god because in and of ourselves we're just not good enough but the good news of the gospel is that god is not looking for you to be good enough before you can have a relationship with him he's just looking for you to be willing that's all you just be willing to open your heart come on ask jesus christ into your life and give god a chance just give god a chance and he's going to take you just the way you are because he understands that dealing with all of that junk that's in your life that's just all part of the formation process now once the potter has their clay they can't just put it on their wheel and start working with it it's not going to work you see the potter knows if this clay is going to be successful on the wheel this clay's got to first be properly prepared for the wheel now this process of preparing the clay potters call it the wedging process and it accomplishes three objectives and i'm gonna go over those with you in the first part of our journey to the potter's house now in order to understand the first objective in preparing this clay you have to understand something about the structure of clay clay is made up of platelets of fel spartak rock that's all it is now when the clay is first dug up out of the earth all of the platelets that make up this piece of clay these platelets are facing in all different directions now in order for this clay to be moldable when it's on the wheel and in order for this clay to have the strength it's going to need to have to stand up under the pressures i'm going to be putting it under as i'm fashioning it on the wheel all of these platelets they all need to be oriented in the same direction i call it being oriented in the potter's direction that is in the direction the potter wants the clay to go and that is the first objective in preparing this clay we've got to get it oriented in the potter's direction now the way this process looks is you simply put your clay on your work surface and then you you push down on it and you squish it and then you push it forward because you're trying to stretch it and then you roll it back onto itself and you twist it and you drive it down into itself and through itself and you're going to continue this process of pushing and stretching and rolling and twisting you're going to continue this process until this clay has been prepared now i want you to notice what's starting to happen to this play as i'm beginning to work with it notice it's changing shape it's taking on the shape of a cone see it's narrow at one end it has some foals in it and if you can see it it's starting to develop a counter clockwise spiral to it right here in the wide part of the clay you can see it right here this is the direction i'm orienting this clay i am going to rework the whole structure of this clay and i'm going to get it all oriented in this counter clockwise direction okay why am i doing this i'm doing this because i have my wheel set up to spin in a counterclockwise direction so what's going to happen is i'm going to rework this clay i'm going to get it all oriented in this counterclockwise direction and then i'm going to pick it up and put it onto my wheel and look look it's going to continue to spin in a counterclockwise direction now what would happen if the clay was oriented to the right but the wheel was spinning to the left what would happen if the clay and the potter were not both moving in the same direction what would happen is i'd only be able to take this clay so far in its formation i'd only be able to take it so far and then it wouldn't be able to handle the stresses i'm putting it under as i'm trying to take it further and it's going to fall apart right on the wheel and so the first objective in preparing this clay here is we've got to get it oriented in the potter's direction now as you're watching me do this i have a question for you and i want you to call the answer out loud okay you think you could do that for me oh that was bad now if you've seen this before and like you know the answer then you can't call that out because that'll be like cheating and the lord will get you for that okay so here's my question for you uh what's the primary thing you see me using here what am i using to move this clay in the direction i need it to go call it out class my hands yeah that's it that's right i'm abs yeah i am using my hands however that's not the primary uh thing i'm using here the primary thing i'm using is pressure that's right pressure see the pressure is finding its expression through my hands but did you know that pressure it can find its expression through lots of different things can't it pressure finds its expression through things like financial difficulties through challenges in relationships through stresses in marriage through anxieties around parenting through peer pressure school pressure employment issues health concerns pressure finds its expression through lots of different things in this case it's finding it through my hands you see this is a very physical process i'm pushing down on the clay and i'm stretching it and rolling it and twisting it this is a painful process for this clay i'm heaping affliction onto this clay right now this is a really painful process for this clay and think about this from the clay's perspective if this clay could talk to me as i'm taking it through this painful and confusing process right here what do you think this clay would be saying to me right about now yeah that's exactly what it would be saying it would be saying ow potter stop it that hurts me why are you doing this to me i'm so confused i didn't ask for this why why i thought you loved me why if you were really a loving potter you wouldn't be letting this happen to me that's what it would be saying because this is a really painful process for the clay but if i as the potter if i could talk to this clay in a way that the clay could understand me do you know what i would say to this clay in response to its cries of pain and protest i would say i would say clay i know the plans i have for you come on plants that prosper you not to harm you yeah plans to give you hope and a future and so i continue so the potter uses pressure to move the clay in the direction he needs it to go now when i think about our life is there anything is there anything that can get your attention and orient you toward god more effectively than pressure come on i see it all the time in the lives of people they're too busy for god they have time for god they have time to pray they don't have time to read their bible they don't have time to have a devotional life they don't have time to go to church church sunday well that's the only day i get to sleep in oh yeah that's the only day i get to be with my friends i had to have time for church and then one day when they least expected a crisis strikes their life and what's one of the first things out of their mouth that's it oh god oh god help me oh god why me oh hey they got time to talk to god now they got time to pray now or they might even find time to read their bible why they might even find time to show up at church pressure it orients people toward god and so the first objective in preparing this clay is we've got to get it oriented in the potter's direction and the potter uses pressure to do this now before i go on any further i want you to get a hold of this truth this morning you need to know that god has a plan and a purpose for your life you need to know that god has a plan and a purpose for your life listen you need to know that you were born on purpose and you were born for a purpose come on church you were born on purpose and you were born for a purpose your life was not a mistake your life was not an accident hey it may have been a surprise to your parents but come on it wasn't a surprise to god did you know that the bible tells us in psalm 139 verse 16 that god was planning out the days of your life long before your parents even knew each other he just used them to get you here and i can't tell you the number of people i've spoken to even christian people who are supposed to know better and they've said to me well i was a surprise i was a mistake i was accident no listen god doesn't make mistakes come on god doesn't create accidents no you were born on purpose and you were born for and listen this is a big purpose a transcendent purpose it's a purpose that involves more than you just working really hard so you could make lots of money and buy lots of things that everybody else is only going to be fighting over after you're dead come on church that's exactly what happens god's plan for your life is so much bigger than that and if you want to know what that plan is if you want to be walking in that plan the first thing you need to do is you need to get your life oriented in a god direction and i'm not talking now about playing christian or play in church i'm saying it's time you get serious in your relationship with the lord and you begin seeking god for the plans he has for your life and sometimes god allows a little pressure in our life to get us oriented in that direction okay the second objective in preparing this clay is this whole process here it works the impurities out of the clay and you think well what kind of impurities does clay have it has two kinds it has earthen impurities things the clay picks up from just living in the world then once those have been removed the primary impurities become little pockets of air that get trapped inside the clay you think well what harm could a little air do well hey what harm could a little air do if it was caught in your heart or in your brain it's just a little air it could be fatal to you and so it is the clay see anything that's in this clay that's not supposed to be there it compromises the integrity of this clay and if this play is going to fail anywhere if it's going to break or fall apart it's going to fail in those areas where its integrity has been compromised now not only that but sooner or later in this formation process this clay has got to be heated up now as the clay is heated up any residual moisture that's in this clay and there always is it turns into vapor now when moisture turns into vapor it expands over 1100 times its size now when that moisture leaves those platelets of clay those platelets they they shrink and they form a denser mass so what happens here is you've got the temperature in the kiln increasing the moisture turns to vapor the vapor gets trapped in those air pockets now the clay is shrinking but the vapor is expanding so it can't get out then as the temperature continues to increase the vapor continues to expand the pressure builds up and ultimately that pot it's going to explode and it doesn't just pop man that thing explodes it is unbelievable what one little impurity in this clay can do one impurity in this clay it can prevent this clay from ever reaching its fullest potential now not only that but because it takes so much energy when potters do what they call their first firing they're going to pack that pottery in as tightly as they can get it because they want to get as much as they can all out of all that energy so they're going to put pots inside pots pots on top of pots they cram pots next to each other and when one pot explodes it can often do collateral damage and hurt the pots that are nearing and so the second objective is we've got to work the impurities out of the clay now when i think about our life i think okay so what are the impurities in our life like don't call them out but the bible calls them sin sin contaminates your life sin is going to cause you to compromise your integrity and if you're going to fail anywhere in your life in your work in your relationships in your ministry you're going to fail in those areas where your integrity has been compromised now i think well what does the potter use to work these impurities out of the clay he uses that same pressure pressure brings the impurities in the clay to the surface so the potter can see them and remove them and continue to clay now when i think about our life is there anything is there anything that can bring your sin nature to the surface more effectively than pressure come on how you doing how are you doing when you're late for that meeting of yours and traffic isn't moving fast enough for you and somebody cuts you right off how's your sin nature then yeah come on it's moments like that you wish you didn't have that jesus bumper sticker on your car isn't it come on how you doing how you doing when you're feeling overworked and underpaid and taken advantage of and not appreciated how's this in nature as you send nature when you've got more bills and money to pay them and you got the kids pulling at you and your partners being unreasonable how's your sin nature how about you did you ever explode when you're under pressure you ever do any collateral damage when you explode and you hurt the people who are near you now listen just like there's two kinds of impurities that contaminate this clay earthen impurities and pockets of air so too the bible implies that there are two kinds of sin that contaminates your life and this sin is going to prevent you from ever reaching your fullest potential now the first kind of sin that contaminates your life it's what we call the sins of commission these are the sins that you commit you commit them against other people you commit them against yourself you commit them against god now the remedy the bible has for the sins of commission we see in first john 1 9 if you confess your sins god is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness then matthew chapter 5 verses 23 and 24 if you bring in your gift to the altar and there at the altar you remember your brother or your sister has something against you leave your gift leave it first go be reconciled to your brother or sister then come back and offer your gift okay now think about it why would your brother or sister have something against you good sweet little all you who never does anything wrong why would they have something against you they would have something against you because you did something to them you hurt them and jesus is instructing us here when you hurt your brother or your sister you the one who's at the altar the one who thinks they're closer to god than the one who is not at the altar jesus is talking to you and he's saying you need to be the one you need to be the one to take the initiative and go make that thing right listen you don't demonstrate for anyone how spiritually mature you are by showing them how long you can outweight them just waiting for them to come to you first and apologize that doesn't demonstrate your level of spiritual maturity it does demonstrate something about you though but it is not your level of spiritual maturity the mark of spiritual maturity we see in micah chapter six verse eight it is to do justly that means be fair be fair in all your dealings don't be trying to rip people off don't be trying to take advantage of people don't be making friends with people just for what you can get out of them you do justly then it says you're too you to love mercy that means you don't have to pay everybody back with your passive aggression when you don't get your way and then it says you're to walk humbly the mark of spiritual maturity is you walk humbly you take the first step and you go clean that thing up and so the first kind of sin that contaminates your life it's the sins that you commit against other people the second kind of sin that contaminates your life it is the sins that other people commit against you the sins that other people commit against you and you never deal with those sins or those people the way jesus instructs you to oh no you're not going to forgive the people who've hurt you no way instead you get mad at them and you harden your heart toward them and you plot your revenge toward them and you say i'm never going to trust that person again i'm never going to trust anybody you can't trust people because they hurt you and you walk around angry and bitter and jealous and resentful and depressed and cynical and listen listen these are all the fruits of unforgiveness and so you walk around with this attitude of anger and unforgiveness in your heart because of the ways people have hurt you or how unfair you think life has treated you listen to me friends this is the most dangerous thing you can do it affects every area of your life did you know the bible tells us in ephesians chapter 4 verses 25 and 26 26 and 27 that when you hold on to your anger and your unforgiveness you open your life up to a demonic stronghold and there's a stronghold that gets a hold of your life now and it robs you it robs you of the joy and the victory and the peace in your heart and in your mind that jesus died for you to have you cannot go walking around holding on to your anger and unforgiveness and at the same time go skipping around saying you just love jesus and you're going to serve the lord the bible tells us in first john 4 20 it says how can you say that you love god who you cannot see but you hate your brother or your sister who you can see and who's made in the image of god you can't do it [Applause] and you say to me well listen i'm never going to forgive that person for what they did to me and i still love jesus i'm not saying you don't love jesus i'm saying the bible teaches us when you hold on to anger and unforgiveness there's a stronghold that gets a hold of your life and it robs you of the victorious life that jesus promises you is available to you now listen when you hold on to your anger and unforgiveness and say that you love jesus what you do listen what you do you move your relationship with god you move it you move it from your heart up into your head and now you have an intellectual relationship with the lord now you got nothing more than dead religion that's all you got and you go around saying oh god i love you lord i want to serve you oh use me in some great way while you're at every church service you run from bible study to bible study you got all the books you but all the tapes and you know all this fascinating biblical trivia you've got all this great spiritual knowledge but you have got no spiritual power come on church you're spiritually impotent yeah come on you're still controlled by your depression you're ruled by your fears you're paralyzed by your anxieties you're still in bondage to your addictions you can't control your anger your thought life's in the wrong place more times and it's in the right place you don't know how to have a healthy relationship with another human being your marriage if you still have one is void of the joy and excitement it used to once have and you're standing there saying well i guess this christian thing just doesn't really work that well no this christian thing works really good it's just not working for you because you've got nothing more than dead religion now listen to me church if you want to live this victorious life that jesus promises is available to us then you have got to heal from the ways people have hurt you you got to heal from the ways people have hurt you and the first step in this healing process the first step is you need to forgive them and you need to learn to walk in an attitude of forgiveness now listen don't shut me down don't shut me off don't shut me down don't shut me up because i said you got to forgive the people who hurt you i'm going to explain to you now why it is so hard for you to do this and if you can get a hold of this principle friend it'll change your life it'll break strongholds in your life the reason it is hard for you to forgive people when they've hurt you is because quite frankly you've grown up believing a lie yeah you you've believed a lie and this is an excellent lie like as far as lies are concerned because this lie was crafted by the father of lies and this lie was created to keep you in bondage to your past and the lie goes like this the lie leads you to believe that if you forgive the people who've hurt you that what it means you're really saying is that you've gotten over what they've done to you that it doesn't bother you anymore they don't have to suffer any consequences for what they did to you why you could even be friends if that's the way you want to take your relationship but listen to me friends that is not what forgiveness means that is not what forgiveness was designed for now listen it will never be okay that somebody molested you that will never be okay and statistically half of us in this room men and women alike half of us have that wound in our soul and it'll never be okay it'll never be okay somebody hurt you or violated you in some way that's never going to be okay it's never going to be okay somebody beat you up it's never going to be okay somebody was unfaithful to you never going to be okay somebody forced you to have an abortion against your will never going to be okay that somebody walked uh walks off with somebody else it's never going to be okay somebody steals from you never going to be okay somebody lies about you and gossips about you and slanders you and tries to malign your character and sabotage your success never going to be okay somebody walks out of your life and never comes back these things are never going to be okay never see the bible makes it really clear in deuteronomy 32 35 when people sin against us in these ways and in other ways the bible makes it clear god is going to vindicate you god is going to vindicate you come on god is a just god he is a righteous god he is a holy god he is a god who vindicates the oppressed and when people sin against us in these ways and in other ways the bible says god is going to vindicate you but he's going to do it in his time and in his way not yours because god knows more than you believe it or not god knows more than you and god's got a bigger plan than you in the meantime in the meantime god makes forgiveness available to you as a way of releasing you from the power and the control that that person who hurt you is still holding over your life you need to understand forgiveness is a powerful spiritual principle that's designed to set you free not the people who've hurt you now listen the devil is no fool the devil is no fool and the devil begins to work early in your life to sabotage your ability to forgive people and i believe he starts it with this little childhood saying and i'm curious i want to take me a survey and i want you to raise your hand like this if you have ever heard this little childhood saying okay it goes like this you need to just forgive and forget just forgive and forget raise your hand if you've ever heard that saying you've got to forgive and forget come on church look at this just about everybody in the house no wonder you struggle the way you do well do you know that i've actually heard that preach from the pulpit i've heard it preached from the pulpit that the bible teaches us as christians we need to forgive and forget well look at let's clean this mess up right here no it doesn't no it doesn't the bible doesn't teach us that as christians we need to forgive and forget the only mention of forgiving and forgetting in the bible you're going to find it in jeremiah chapter 31 verse 34. and this is god speaking and he's talking about a new covenant a covenant he's going to make with all people for all time one that transcends the old sacrificial law no more killing animals to make atonement for your sin and we come into this covenant when we open our heart and ask jesus christ into our life and put our faith in him in the atoning work he did on the cross and when we do this the bible tells us we enter into what the new testament calls a new and better covenant and god says in the context of this new and better covenant i'm going to forgive you of your wickedness i'm going to remember your sins no more god is the only one who can forgive and forget and i don't know about you friend but that's good news for me come on church that's good news yeah come on gloria adios that's good news yes hallelujah that's good news but listen god's the only one who can forgive and forget but you can't do that but you can't do it and i'm going to explain to you now why you can't do it and if you can get a hold of this principle it's going to break holes in your life it'll change your life okay listen i'm going to give you a quick lesson now in cognitive science okay this is graduate level material so strap yourself in for about 60 seconds here we go when your brain your cortex your brain is exposed to information or experience that information or experience it gets encoded chemically and electrically and it gets stored in a series of neural connections in your brain in what cognitive scientists call a neural network and that's where it stays forever until you die now whenever that neural network is stimulated activated by a sensory cue the data in that network gets sent through a neural pathway into the frontal lobe portion of your brain and you retrieve a conscious memory of it wow you didn't expect to get down at church this morning did you but but you did now this is why you can be older and then you're exposed to some kind of sensory cue now look at we're coming up on thanksgiving right thanksgiving christmas just around the corner people are going to be cooking they're going to be baking right you're going to step outside the air is going to be filled with aroma and you're going to go all of a sudden you're going to smell something that grandma used to make and the next thing you know you're thinking about when you're a little kid in grandma's kitchen or did you ever have something like this happen to you maybe you're driving in your car and you're listening to the radio and all of a sudden an oldies tune comes on a song you haven't heard in years maybe even decades you just catch the first note of that song all of a sudden the words come back to you you start singing that song driving your car going down memory lane in your mind thinking of that season in your life when you heard that song and your friends and the things you used to do look you thought you forgot that memory you could not have called that memory up if somebody asked you to but you see what happened you were exposed to the right sensory cue that auditory cue that held that neural network it stimulates it and it releases that that memory into your conscious mind okay why am i telling you this i am telling you this because you need to understand friends you are never going to forget about the rotten things that were done to you and if you are waiting to forget about the rotten things that were done to you before you start forgiving the rotten things that were done to your friend you're going to remain a prisoner you're going to remain a prisoner held captive too and tormented by painful memories from your past so listen to me now for the christian the biblical injunction is not to forgive and forget because physiologically you simply can't do it for the christian the biblical injunction is to forgive and let go you forgive and you let this thing go this is what the apostle paul was talking about in philippians chapter 3 of verses 13 and 14 when he said forgetting what lies behind me and straining toward what lies before me i press on he was not talking about forgetting cognitively here how do we know this we know it because of the way he starts that chapter he starts with a whole overview of his history i was a pharisee of the pharisees i persecuted the church listen paul did not forget his past paul did not forget his shame paul did not forget the shameful things that he had done or the shameful things that he was a part of but what he's saying here he's saying as a new creature in christ all things pass away all things become new and i am no longer going to allow my past to determine my future and neither should you church come on neither should you [Applause] neither should you listen i want to give you my definition for forgiveness forgiveness doesn't mean that you've gotten over something look at some things we never get over i have some scars in my life i'll never get over them but you can transcend them through christ some things we don't ever get over forgiveness doesn't mean you've gotten over something listen forgiveness means that you are releasing to god the responsibility for your vindication that's what it means come on when you forgive somebody you're taking your hands off that thing so god can do something with it listen you want to hold on to your pain you want to hold on to all those offenses and those things that have broken your heart and crushed your spirit all those junk you brought in with you today you want to hold on to that stuff and manage it yourself god will let you do it god let you do it hey how you doing with it so far come on aren't you tired aren't you tired forgiveness doesn't mean you've gotten over something forgiveness means you're releasing to god the responsibility for your vindication listen there's an old saying and it goes like this keeping unforgiveness in your heart it's like drinking poison hoping someone else will die come on what are you drinking friend it's time to spit that out of your mouth and take hold of the future and hope christ died for you to have you will never go forward with your life holding on to the pain of your past it isn't going to happen okay so the the the second objective if the potter is going to fashion this clay into something beautiful you got to deal with the junk that's inside of it the third objective this whole process cultivates a relationship between the potter and the clay you see there's all different kinds of clay it's not just clay and if the potter is going to work effectively with their clay they have to understand the characteristics of that clay and the only way that's going to happen you've got to spend time together you've got to have relationship with one another and isaiah the prophet understood this and he wrote about it in a beautiful way listen to what isaiah says in isaiah chapter 64 verse 8 he says yet oh lord you are our father and we are the clay you are the potter and we're all the work of your hands he's talking about a relationship here and listen to how he describes this he begins by saying yet o lord so he recognizes and acknowledges that god is the sovereign lord god is the lord of heaven and earth and he wants to be the lord of your life too and this happens when you say yes to god and you open your heart and you ask jesus christ to come into your life and you put your faith in him and the atoning work he did on the cross and as you surrender your will to his it becomes the lord of your life but listen friends god loves you god loves you and that is really good news and he wants more from you he wants to have a love relationship with you he wants to be your heavenly father now listen god loves you and god wants to be your heavenly father and god is nothing like your earthly father no matter how great of a guy your earthly father may have been or no matter how terrible of a person he was god's nothing like him and i'm saying this to you because i talk to a lot of people and sometimes people will tell me that they want to love god they just find it really hard to trust him hard to trust god the author of life and love and when we deconstruct that fear and get to the root of it we discover the reason it's hard for them to trust god is because somewhere along life's way they were not able to trust their earthly father and they think because they couldn't trust their earthly father now they can't trust their heavenly father but god's nothing like your earthly father friend listen god's never going to embarrass you in front of your friends come on god's never going to shame you god's never going to criticize you make you feel like you can't ever do anything right god's never going to call you fat dumb ugly and stupid god is never going to tell you you're never going to amount to anything god is never going to violate your body you're never going to see god run off with somebody else you're never going to see god beat up your mother you're never going to see god addicted to anything come on you never have to walk around on eggshells with the lord wondering what kind of a mood he's in you never have to worry about god walking out of your life and never coming back because god is nothing like your earthly father come on church you know i take this illustration all over i've had two people come up to me at the end of a service a middle-aged man in one location and a middle-aged woman and another and they both said to me the same thing they said when i was 12 when i was 15 i was an eyewitness i saw my father murder my mother i watched the police take him away i lost my family that day and i've grown up clinging to god out of desperation but i've always been afraid to trust him because of what happened to my mother i said to those two people i said listen god did not kill your mother god is not going to kill your mother friend and he's not going to kill your father and he's not going to kill your sister or your brother he's not going to kill your children he's not going to kill your friends he's not going to kill your marriage he's not going to kill your parents marriage that's not god the bible tells us in john 3 16 it says for god so loved the world he gave see god is a lover and love gives god does not want to take from you the only thing god wants to take from you is your sin stained life and your broken heart but jesus said in john chapter 10 verse 10 i came that you would have life and that it would be a good life but you know what he also said in that same verse he said oh but there is someone who's come to kill your mother yeah and there's someone who's come to kill your father and there's someone who's come to kill your sister and your brother and your children and your friends and your marriage and your parents marriage there is someone who's come to kill those but it's not god it's the devil it's the enemy of your soul look it don't blame god for the things the devil has done or for the consequences of the rebellious choices you have made don't blame god because he's a good god and he's nothing like your earthly father i said to those two people i said look you have been mad at the wrong father you need to be mad at the father of lies not the father of lights who's the giver of everything that is good and perfect because god is nothing like your earthly father then after jesus is your lord and your heavenly father then he's gonna be your potter and he's gonna take your life your broken life and he's gonna fashion it into something beautiful okay this clay that i was working on there it's ready now it's ready so uh let's see if we can make something with it on the wheel you just don't you just don't go from the swamp onto the wheel you gotta go through a bit of a process and this clay has gone through that now so let's see if we can make something with it here on the wheel now when a potter is going to fashion their clay on their wheel they have to take the clay through several stages on the wheel the first thing you've got to do is you've got to get the clay in the center of the wheel potters call that being centered oh doesn't that sound so mystical this clay here is not centered it's on the wheel but it's not centered and this is an important observation to make just because it's on the wheel doesn't mean i can work with it it's got to be on the wheel and it's got to be centered okay so if it's on the wheel but it's not centered then what's it doing what's it doing yeah it's just going around in circles that's all it's doing you know what i meet a lot of people like this i meet a lot of christians like this they're just going around in circles with their life see they confuse activity with accomplishment you see they think because they're running here and they're running there that something actually is getting accomplished for the kingdom but the only thing that's happening is they're just running around in circles they're just getting dizzy yeah but they're dizzy for jesus oh yes they are dizzy for jesus hey do we have anybody here today who is dizzy for jesus let me take a look at you all right i tell you what i'll tell you from where i'm seated i can see at least two of you i'm just kidding i am just kidding i'm just kidding but come on i'll bet for a moment there were probably an awful lot of people in this room wondering who the other person was now look as this clay spins around and around on this wheel there is a force a force that's being exerted onto this wheel it's an invisible force it's a centrifugal force and it wants to take what is ever on this wheel and it wants to fling it off the wheel it wants to just pull it away from its relationship with the potter and this clay cannot withstand this invisible force in its own strength it needs the strength and the help of the potter in the same way the bible tells us in ephesians chapter 6 verse 12 that this is a spiritual world that we live in and there are spiritual forces in this world and these spiritual forces are trying to pull you away from your relationship with god they're trying to distract you from your relationship with god and just like this clay cannot withstand this invisible force in its own strength it needs the strength and the help of the potter you cannot withstand these spiritual forces in your own strength this is why we need the active and dynamic working of the holy spirit in our life now once this clay comes into the center see it's here it is now it's centered it enters into a stillness a a place of rest i don't have to put as much pressure on it now i i really just need to contain this now this moment of of stillness here when it's centered this reminds me of god speaking to us through the psalmist in psalm 46 verse 10 listen to what god says to us here he says be still and know that i am god what god is telling us in this psalm is that we come into a knowledge of god in the stillness in ways we do not when we are not still this is why it is so important that you develop a quiet time a devotional life where you can shut yourself in with god so god can reveal himself to you in the stillness in ways he cannot when you're not still this is why god doesn't say through the psalmist get busy and know that i'm god or get over committed and know that i'm god or burn yourself out and know that i'm god it's be still the stillness always comes before the knowing now that it's been centered it's ready for the next phase and that is we're going to open it now the way the potter opens the clay you're going to take your fingers and you're going to plunge them right into the heart of this clay and then you're going to draw this clay open now this is a very intimate time between the potter and the clay because there is a real searching out that's going on here you see if there's something in this clay that's not supposed to be there this is where i'm going to find it this searching out process this reminds me of the prayer of the psalmist listen to the heart of the psalmist in psalm 139 and verses 23 and 24 listen to what he prays here he prays search me o god and know my heart test me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there's any offensive way in me and guide me in the way everlasting that's what's happening here there's a searching out here this clay has been open now i'm going to show you just let me clean it up here for you let me show you it's open see see that it's open now that it's open it's ready for the next phase and that is we're going to lift it now the way the potter lifts the clay you've got to apply pressure pressure to the inside and pressure to the outside at the same time and then you're going to begin the process of drawing this clay upward and this is a process and like any process it takes time and you do not want to rush the process this process here this reminds me of james chapter 4 verse 10. humble yourself before the lord and he will lift you pressure on the inside and pressure on the outside how about you have you ever had pressure on the inside of your life and the outside of your life at the same time you have so what do you do when that happens do you do you grumble do you whine do you complain do you make life miserable for everyone around you or do you allow god to lift the christ-like character out in your life so that others can see christ in you your hope of glory now that this clay has been lifted it's ready for the next phase we're going to do an internal work on this clay now we're going to do an internal work now you'll notice with my outside hand here i'm steadying this clay i am supporting this clay i am protecting this clay but what i want you to notice is that all of the work is taking place on the inside of the claim and we can see the work that's taking place on the inside of the clay by the way it's reflected on the outside of the clay [Applause] now this is exactly how god works god works from the inside out religion works from the outside in see religion will say you do this and you do that and you don't do this and you don't do that and and then you're going to be something that you're not and neither are you capable of being which is holy and righteous but the bible tells us in ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 that it is by grace you've been saved through faith that this is a gift of gods it's not of works you can't work your way into righteousness or salvation jesus did all this for us on the cross this is why we open our life up and ask jesus into our our life his holy spirit comes into our life like my hand goes inside this pot and he does a transforming work from the inside out and people see the work that god is doing in your life by the way it's reflected on the outside of your life a vessel of honor right here church hey [Applause] hey thank you thank you so much that was so nice of you to uh to clap but i want to challenge your thinking for a moment around your clapping okay what you think for a minute what were you clapping for see i'm asking you that because when i came up at the beginning and i said to you i'm going to do several illustrations for you with these pieces of clay it's like nobody clapped and then i make something with a piece of clay then everybody claps what you clapping for see see i understand you're clapping now because you see something you didn't see before you understand something you didn't understand before you see you saw this clay it came into a relationship with the potter it didn't have to be perfect it didn't have to have its act all together it just had to be willing yes come on [Applause] and because it was because it was willing the potter was then able to draw to draw out from this clay something you did not see before but you see it now and that is its potential so you get a little excited and you started clapping did you know that is exactly what jesus meant in luke chapter 15 verse 7 when he said that all of heaven rejoices when one sinner comes to repentance come on church hallelujah [Applause] the bible tells us that when you say yes to god all of heaven does for you what you just did for that clay all of heaven claps for you because now all of heaven can see potential for a kingdom work in your life it didn't see before now listen how come all of heaven can get excited about the potential it sees in your life but you can't how come you can't now look i'm happy like that it came out like that i mean especially since everybody's looking at me you tried it's not easy so so i mean i'm i'm happy it came out like that but i don't get really excited here no this is where i start getting excited as soon as i come into a relationship with this piece of clay this is where i start getting excited because i can see things in here that you can't because i'm the potter oh come on church i can see things in here that you can't because i'm a potter hallelujah gladiators hallelujah yes hallelujah i can see things in here that you can you wonder what i see i'll tell you what i see i'm an italian boy and when i send me a big ball clay like this i always see me this big bowl of pasta ooh spicy shrimp and lots of garlic mamma mia that's worth a little handclap but i want you to think about this from a functional standpoint from a functional standpoint listen this clay here it's of no more functional use to me than this clay here is it i mean i can see i can see what i can do with this clay here but i can see it right here i don't need that now if i want to use this clay for the potential for which i have just destined it i got to do more than see its potential i got to set its potential see just this is powerful friend listen just because we can see the clay's potential it does not mean that that clay is going to fulfill its potential come on just because we can see its potential doesn't mean it's going to fulfill its potential look i look out here at all of you and i see a room full of potential but just because i can see the potential for your life it doesn't mean you're going to fulfill that potential some of you may go to your grave having never sung your song if this clay is going to fulfill the potential for which i have just destined it i got to do more than just see its potential i've got to set its potential and the way the potter sets the clay's potential is i got to take this clay now and i must put it into the fire yeah come on church it's the only way it's going in the fire and this is not a little fire to set this clay mix i have to heat this clay up to 1800 degrees and i'll tell you what there's not much that can withstand 1800 degrees i'll put this in perspective for you i was talking to the director of a funeral home one day hey listen church you want to have an exciting conversation then do not talk to the director of a funeral home because i'll tell you right now that conversation is going to be totally dead and i know it's kind of like it's i know it's a little silly i know it's a little it's true it's true i really spoke to one and it was like totally dead and he worked with a crematorium you know these big ovens that cremate people and i was curious because my father my father was cremated after he died after and so and so no that is the best time and so i asked him i i asked him i said i said how hot how hot do you have to make those ovens in order to take the entire lifetime a lifetime of another human being and reduce it down to a little five pound bag of gray ash how hot he said 1800 degrees and i thought wow that's the same temperature i fire my pots to and i drove away from that interaction just kind of reflecting over it and all of a sudden i'm reminded of jesus's words in mark 8 35 where he said if any man is going to save his life for the kingdom of heaven you're going to have to lose it to this world come on you want your life to count for heaven friend then you're going to have to die to some of the things on this planet but when this thing comes out of the fire it's going to look like this see all these pots here they've all been fired to 1800 degrees this is the same clay mix notice it's gotten a little lighter i like to think of it now as it is reflecting the shekinah glory of god see yeah fire has a way of purifying things doesn't it not only that but look look at this ouch it's hard fire gives strength to things doesn't it not only that but listen see if you could hear this shh see if you can hear this shh listen listen can you hear that that's a note god made that note i like to think of it now that this pots got a song yeah this pot's got a song now here here here's an observation that i've made i'm a student of human behavior i've studied it my whole life here's an observation i've made when you go through the fires with your life not if you go when you go did you know that is actually a promise from god in isaiah 43 2 it says you are going to walk through the fire that's a promise from god yeah oh hallelujah how many want to claim that promise oh yeah come on we like to claim the blessing promises we like the healing promises oh we like the prosperity promises who wants the fire walk promise yeah come on church you're going to walk through it listen to me when you do when you do stay faithful to god stay faithful to the lord jesus christ yes yes don't turn your back on god don't shake your fisted god because god knows more than you god's got a bigger plan than you and if you will read the second half of daniel chapter 3 verses 24 and 25 you will discover as you're faithful to god going through your fire god has a way of showing up in the middle of your fire and when you come out of that thing and you're going to come out friend your life is going to have a song yes come on church your life is going to have a song oh it's going to be a song of praise a song a thanksgiving a song a healing a song a deliverance a song a provision your life's going to have a song come on hallelujah but here's the way it works you want the song for your life yeah you got to go through the fire to get it now look i don't know if you could see it from where you see it but when i with making this pot maybe the you can see i put a little squiggly line on it can you see that put a little squiggly line okay potters call that a form of a surface removal but what i've done in a very literal sense here is i have scarred this pot i just put a scar on it i just did it in a symmetrical way so it's easy look i did it on this spot here too maybe you can see it in the shadows another potter is going to come along and pick this pot up and see the scarring on it and it's going to tell them a story about how this pot was made because that's what scars do right scars tell stories don't they i've got some scars on my body and when i look at them i'm reminded of how i got them when my children would see them they say daddy how did you get that scar and now i have a story to tell them i was a deep sea diver in the united states navy for four years so when my babies were little i used to tell them the shark story yeah i just made that one up though but that was such a scary story when my babies were little they were getting a bathtub for a week after that story yeah see see scars tell stories now listen to me on a serious note on a serious note listen you tell somebody that you were molested when you were little and i told you what the statistics were a moment ago that's a scar and that scar tells a story and you don't have to say anything else about your story especially if you're telling someone else who is molested see because they know your story scars tell them you tell someone you went through a painful divorce that's a scar and that scar tells a story and you don't have to say anything else about your story especially if you're telling someone else who went through a painful divorce they know your story scars tell them you tell somebody you grew up in an alcoholic family hey that's a scar and that scar tells a story and you don't have to say anything else about your story especially if you're telling someone else who grew up in an alcoholic family see they know your story because scars tell them now look i don't like these scars i don't want them in my life anymore i'm trying to take them off but they're not coming off listen friends you cannot undo your past you cannot undo your past i can hide it though i can hide the scars all i've got to do is put the glaze reel real heavy on it right here and when it comes out of the glaze firing you're never going to know they're there but from the potter's perspective why allow a pot to be scarred if you're only going to hide it now you see now that it's made it this far in its formation it is now eligible for the next phase and that is i'm going to adorn this pot with beauty i'm going to put glaze on it but in order for it to fulfill its relationship with the that pot guess what has to happen it's got to go back into the fire and this time i'm going to fire it up even hotter but when it comes out of the fire depending on the glaze that you use it could look like this i don't know if you can see it um but what i want you to see is the scarring on this pot you can come up and look at it later the scarring the glaze breaks over the scarring and it accentuates it and now this scarring becomes a focal point of beauty and it gives this pot a sense of movement a sense of dynamic a sense of beauty that other pots that are not scarred simply do not have and i guarantee you what you would do if i put this thing out here like this just like this and you came into the auditorium here thinking you're the only one here this is what you're going to do i know what you do this is what you do first you're going to walk over to it like this and you're going to stare at it for a little bit then you're going to do this with your body you're going to go like this come on yeah you want to make sure nobody's looking then you're going to reach over you're going to pick this thing up and the first thing you're going to do is you're going to go like this you're going to touch the scarring see you think just your kids touch everything you don't outgrow that you got to touch everything don't you yeah see no that's exactly what you do see there's something about the scarring that makes people want to connect with it now here's another observation that i have made listen to me church if you if you will give those things that have scarred your life to the lord jesus christ if you'll give those things that have left their indelible mark in your soul stop trying to cover it up with the glazes that this world has to give listen this world's got nothing for you this world doesn't care about you this world will use you up and spit you out as soon as it's gotten everything it wants from you but you give your broken life to the one who loves you so much you went to the cross on your behalf he took the stripes on his back for your behalf you give your broken life to jesus christ he's going to take your life he's going to pour his healing bomb over you how he does this i don't know it's part of the mystery of the cross but you're going to experience the fulfillment of isaiah 61 3 god's going to give you beauty for your ashes you're going to get the oil of joy for your mourning god's going to give you the garment of praise for your spirit of heaviness you know what your spirit of heaviness is friend that's your depression come on god's going to lift that thing from you because it's not his will for you to have it that's right and then you know what god's going to do he's going to bring people into your life and you know where they're going to connect with you they're going to connect with you right here right around your pain right around your scarring right around your brokenness yeah now now why does god do that so you could sit around and have a little victim talk together no no he does it so you could now point them to the one where you found healing for your broken life so they can find it for theirs come on that's the gospel right there church that's the gospel hallelujah i want to show you something else here see this clay i cut all of this clay out of the same big lump of clay but you see this piece right here i did something to this piece i let it dry out now when i was making this first piece over here i don't know if you noticed to make the did you notice i kept putting water on it yeah see in this illustration the water is very symbolic in ephesians chapter 5 verse 26 and 27 the apostle paul is explaining how christ sanctifies the church it makes her holy and he says he sanctifies her by washing her with water through the word so in this illustration the water represents the word of god as you keep the word of god washing over your life by praying by reading your bible by memorizing scripture by getting under spiritual authority by getting connected to community when god speaks to you to direct your life you're going to hear them you're going to hear them but you see this clay here this is the person who has dried out spiritually they're not reading their bible they're not going to pray unless they're in trouble they're not coming under spiritual authority no this is the gospel according to them this is the person the bible calls hard-hearted stiff-necked they're prideful arrogant so what can the potter do with the clay that has dried out well the first thing we've got to do is we've well we've got to get this in the center of the wheel and this whoa whoa this clay here is fighting with me i'm trying to hold it into the center and it's not cooperating and it's actually talking to me now and it's saying don't tell me what to do don't tell me what to do i'm clay don't tell me what to do so what can the potter do what can the potter do with clay that is dried out actually i can't do anything with it i can't do anything with it so what does that mean for this clay now does it mean that this clay is now hopeless no no this clay is not hopeless it's just hard it's not hopeless it's just hard and you see i love this clay too much to discard it i love it too much even though it's hard even though it's not listening to me even though it's resisting everything i'm trying to do with it i love it too much and do you know why i love this clay so much even though it's hard even though it's not listening to me you know i love it so much i love it so much because i paid a price for this clay yeah come on this clay costs me something yeah this clay cost me something and and i'm not going to discard it simply because it's not listening to me no i'm going to redeem it oh yeah i'm going to bring it back but in order for me to do that i've got to take it through a few more stages the first thing i have to do is i have to let it dry out completely so you can't force more water into it now laws of physics prevent that so i'm going to put this on a shelf in my shop and then i'm going to take this clay here and i'm going to go onto my wheel and i'm going to make some really cool things and i'm sure while i'm making really cool things with this clay this clay is sitting on the shelf watching me and it's thinking to itself that potter doesn't love me anymore oh that potter doesn't care about me i see it doing all this really cool stuff with this other clay it's not doing anything with me it doesn't love me anymore no i do love this clay i love this clay just as much as i love this clay just as much as i love this clay but you see this clay's taught me something it's not going to listen to me and the clay doesn't tell the pot or how we're gonna do it so i'm gonna let it dry out you know what happens to clay when it dries out it gets really brittle i brought a big heavy chunk of dry clay to show you look look it gets brittle and then i the potter i the potter who loves this clay so much i am going to take this hard clay and i am going to break it i'm going to break it and you know how i'm going to break it i'll find something i'll find something's going to work really good and i'm not just going to break it in half no i'm going to break this thing in lots of lots of pieces i'm going to break it in lots of pieces see because the more pieces it's broken into the more responsive it's going to be to the next phase and then i'm going to take all of these broken pieces i'm going to pick them up and i'm going to put them into a basin and then i'm going to pour water into that basin and that dry clay is going to start absorbing that water and that water is going to break down that hard clay just like the word of god can break down the hardest heart of the hardest man and i know because i was one of them and after it's all broken down i'm going to take the water off and i'll pour it out on a big plaster slab and that plaster's going to start absorbing the water and filtering out all those platelets and before you know it i'm going to wedge it up like this and i'll have a ball of clay moist and malleable ready to go onto the wheel to be fashioned into something beautiful here stay with me church i want you to see this here you see this clay right here this is the person who loves the potter this is the person who loves god maybe this is you maybe this is you but you see this do you see this here this is a little a little pebble i picked this up in my yard look i'm putting it into the clay you see what i've just done here i've just contaminated this clay that little pebble represents a wound in the heart of this person a wound maybe this person was molested when they were little maybe they grew up in an alcoholic family maybe they had an abortion or maybe they went through a painful divorce maybe they were abandoned that's one of my wounds when i was 15 years old my mother ran away and my father he wasn't interested in being a father and i have two sisters and we grew up just a little outside of new york city and and we grew up on the street and from the age of 15 to 19 which is when i went into the military the way i got most of the meals that i ate i stole them i'd go into the supermarket i go up to the deli counter asked for a pound of italian roast beef they shave it off put a little plastic bag with a sticker on it i hand it over the counter to the little boy i'd take it i'd smile i'd say thank you i'd go around the aisle and when no one was looking i would drop it down my shirt i go out into the street find a place where i can sit and eat it like some kind of animal i remember the autumn season of my 15th year right around this time of year it was two o'clock in the morning and i was downtown walking the street and i remember i was so tired i just wanted to go to sleep i found a parked car had a seat cover in it i smashed the window in that car and i ripped the seat cover out of it i wrapped myself up with that thing and i lay down on the side of the road and i went to sleep i got up the next morning i hitchhiked to where i was going i have four children now and when i see how easy it is to love your children when i see how easy it is to love your children i see why was it so hard why was it so hard for for my parents you see i had a lot of forgiving and letting go to do so you grew up on the street like i grew up on the street there's a lot of junk inside that you got to deal with if you're going to go forward with your life there's a lot of forgiving and letting go that has to happen but you see this person here they're not going to forgive anybody no way they're going to hold on to that anger hold on to their resentment but they love jesus but they love jesus so what can the potter do with the person who's going to hold on to their pain well you can be centered sure but there's more to living for jesus than sitting still with your life when christ calls us to follow him he's calling us into a life of adventure a life of action listen listen serving jesus is exciting if you think living for jesus is boring friend that's because you're boring because i tell you what there is nothing boring about living for jesus yeah come on it's the most exciting ride you're ever going to have [Applause] and so this person gets to this place in their life and they say god what is this all about what is this life all about there's got to be more than this i want my life to count for something god use me use me god and god likes that prayer but you see to be used by god you're going to have to be opened by god and remember what god uses the potter uses to open the clay uses pressure ouch ouch it's ouch listen i there's a there's a stone in here and it's going around and it keeps hitting my finger and it really hurts me you say well then what are you doing it for because i'm trying to illustrate this for you that's why i'm doing it but when i think of how this hurts my hand i think you know when we hold on to our pain pain that jesus died to set us free from i think it hurts the heart of god i i think he's got to be wondering what are these stripes on my back that i i took for your healing what are they for if you're going to hold on to your pain now look i don't know if you can see this can you see where it's starting to come through here can you see that all right yeah that's good all right right here listen this is where the christian is going to relapse into their addiction right here remember what does pressure do to the impurities in the clay it brings the impurities to the surface right so the potter can see them remove them work with the clay so this is where the christians going to relapse into their addiction this is where the christian is going to lose their ability to manage their emotions their anger they're going to lash out hurt somebody they care about this is where the christians are going to get involved in another abusive or exploitive relationship so what do most christians do when this starts to happen when you start struggling with that old sin issue of yours what do most christians do it's been my observation you're going to do this that's it you're going to hide it and then what you do you put on what i call your christian happy face here it is right here come on this is the christian happy face this is the face that you see most christians wearing on a sunday morning that makes you feel like everybody else in the church has their act together except you and you see them during the fellowship time and you say hey how you doing they say i'm doing really good how are you oh i'm doing good too oh god is good isn't he all the time oh yeah oh you got the victory yeah walking into victory what blessing's all mine well ten thousand besides see see see you got all the church talked down you got all the church talking hey i just told you a moment ago that i grew up on the street right down new york way maybe some of you grew up on the street too and you will know that if you're going to survive living on the street then you got to learn the culture of the street right that means you got to learn the walk you got to walk come on you got to learn to talk you got to talk in order to survive the culture of the street right and when when you get that down what do they call that they call that street smart your street smart see you know the moves right you know everything you got to do to survive the culture of the street listen i've been in a church for a while now i have observed something i call church smart yeah you're church smart oh you know the walk you gotta walk oh yeah you know the talk you gotta talk oh yeah to survive the culture of the church but inside you're dying you're dying inside say nobody cares about me here they ask me i'm doing it i'll stand around long enough to hear my answer don't care about me and after a while you start thinking god doesn't even care well what happens next well it's been my observation in order to anesthetize your pain you're going to start getting religious now yeah you're going to do something like join the worship team no offense worship team people no offense worship team people yeah yeah yeah or or you're going to teach yourself a sunday school no offense sunday school people and the newness of what you're doing hey it distracts you from your pain see the only problem is it doesn't heal you from your pain it just distracts you from it now i want to tell you three reasons why it is so important that you heal from those wounds you brought in with you this morning three reasons now listen to me the first two are clinical they're kind of clinical in nature but this is what they are the first reason you need to heal from the pain of the past is because if you don't heal from it you're going to organize your life around it this is what human beings do if you don't heal from your pain you organize your life around your pain this is what humans do some of you know exactly what i'm talking about so so you see this little pebble so how does the clay accommodate it how does it hold on to it it can't absorb it so in order to hold on to it it's got to organize around it and when it organizes around it it imposes this structural shift on the clay and it throws it out of balance this is exactly what happens with your life if you don't heal from your pain you're going to organize your life around your pain and then it's going to throw your life out of balance it's going to throw your emotional life out of balance it's going to throw your relationships out of balance and when your life is out of balance you become the most eligible to believe a lie and then the devil is going to show up and he's going to speak a lie into your mind and he's going to say something like well that's just the way you are you're messed up you're messed up something's wrong with you that's the way you are but listen to me proverbs 11 1 tells us that god does not make anything out of balance and he certainly didn't make you out of balance if you're feeling like your life is out of balance friend that is because you are holding on to something that god never intended you to hold on to and he made a provision for you to let it go you're just not doing it so the first reason you want to heal from those wounds in your soul is because if you don't you're going to waste your life and you're going to waste lots of money in therapy organizing your life around your pain the second reason if you don't heal from your pain you're going to end up recreating it you're just going to do it in a different context with different people it's going to be the same old drama just different faces and the third reason you want to heal is because friend you can only go as far in your life and as far in your relationships with other people as your wounds allow you to go and no further you can only go as far in your life and as far in your relationships with other people as your wounds allow you to go and no further don't think you're going to go further you're not so see i'm trying to take this up further but with this clay then that one little pebble is letting me do with it so this is you now this is you you're limping through your life you're trying to do the best you can trying to be a good person trying to love jesus feeling like your life is all messed up and then one day whoa whoa one day when you least expect it your life it comes crashing down around you and you sit here in your brokenness and you sit here in your confusion and you say god why me why me god why me did your life ever look like this yeah my life is look like this my life has looked like this more than one time and where does it break you really just have to run your hand along the edge and you're gonna find it it breaks right where that little wound was and so you finally come to the end of yourself and you cry out to god and you say god help me help me god i'm tired of trying to control everything and everybody god help me and god who the bible tells us in psalm 46 1 he is a very present help in our time of trouble god he comes along and he picks you up he picks you up he picks up your broken life with all your guilt all your shame all your addictions all your messed up relationships he picks up your broken life and he carries you over to his special place and here he's going to dry your tears and then he's going to begin to bring you through a process yeah come on a process of reorienting you in a god direction come on now a process of working more of those impurities out of your life a process of re-establishing a love relationship with you see this is a love process right here this is a redemptive process right here at times it can feel a little painful feel a little scary but make no mistake about this this is a love process now listen i want to speak to you for a moment as your brother i'm your brother did you know that whether you like that piece of information or not i'm your brother and you make a big mistake to think that you don't need to deal with those wounds to your soul just put them in a little box just compartmentalizing stick them in the back of your life somewhere the mere fact that you got to put that thing in a box is speaking to how much control that thing is still holding over your life and if you're here today i believe god is trying to show you something that will set you free that will heal your heart and that'll take you to the next level and then when the potter is ready when god is ready he's going to take your life your broken life and he's going to put you back on the wheel but he puts all of you on the wheel because god wants all of you he doesn't want to leave any part of you out and he's going to center you and your patient now oh you're patient you understand some things about god that you did not understand before you understand some things about his love and his mercy his patience towards you and then he's going to open you and he is going to search you out and then he's going to begin to lift you once again he's going to lift you and he's going to lift all of you you see this clay here this this is the person who was broken beyond recognition right here this is the person who had given up on themselves they given up but listen the potter never gives up on the clay the potter never gives up on the clay god will never give up on you so don't you give up on you and don't you give up on god first peter chapter 5 verse 6 says submit yourself or humble yourself under god's mighty hand and in due season he'll exalt you in due season after god lifts you out of your brokenness after he lifts you out of your brokenness he's going to do an internal work on you potters call this internal working they call it giving the pot a form and a function that's what potters call it giving the pot a form and a function i like to think of it as giving the pot a calling because this is what god will do with you god will never waste your suffering if you give it to him so he's going to raise you up god will raise you up he's going to give you a calling and then he's going to do something with you something that he couldn't do before because you just weren't ready he's going to give you a calling and then he's going to give you an equipping and he's going to equip you in a way that you were not equipped before now why does god do this why does he do it he does this so that you can now take from your broken life and you can pour from your broken life you pour into the life of another broken person so you can bring them into a relationship with the potter so they can find healing for their broken life just like you found for yours come on that's the message of a journey to the potter's house that's the message of the cross right there [Applause] you see this this whole process here this is my life this is my life my life has been so broken but i know enough about human beings and human behavior to know that this is your life too and i'm taking from my broken life now i'm not going to let all of that brokenness go to waste i'm taken from my broken life and i am pouring it into yours right now now i want to close with a story this story is told of an old woman she lived out in the far east in a little farm on the outskirts of town and her farm was known for its beauty she had beautiful flower gardens beautiful flower line trails the birds of the air would come to her gardens the butterflies people from the village would come and walk her beautiful flower line trails many would find god well out in front of her house she had two clay water pots that were tied to either end of a long pole and every day she'd put that pole across their shoulders and go down to the river near her home fill those pots up with water carry them back to the barn empty them into a large clay cistern and she'd draw water throughout the course of the day well the pot that was on her right it was a fairly new pot it had the look and the feel and the smell of new clay it stood there at sharp attention oh even the water it carried looked so clear and refreshing and the pot that was on her left it was an old pot that was mottled and chipped from having endured the storms of life it even had a crack that went from the top down to about the halfway point and every day when she got back to the barn and emptied the contents into the cistern the new pot always had a full pot of water but the old broken pot it never had a full pot of water and the old broken pot felt really bad about this well this went on for days for weeks for months for years and finally one night after she emptied his contents into the system the old broken pot he just couldn't take it any longer and it spoke to the woman said master i'm broken and i'm so ashamed i can never carry you a full pot of water i see that other part over there it always carries you a full pot of water even the water it carries it looks more clear and refreshing than the water i carry i can never carry you a full pot of water because i'm broke and i'm broken and i'm so ashamed the old woman she looked at that pot and she said i know i know that you're broken and because i know that you are broken i have planted flowers all along your side of the path and every day you water those flowers through your brokenness and the reason we have so many beautiful flowers on our farm the reason the birds of the air come and the butterflies come and people come and many find god really it is because of your brokenness now listen friends god knows that you're broken and he wants you to stop pretending like you're not there's so much life that christ has waiting for you to live on the other side of your christian happy face now as we bring our time together to a close i just want to give you two opportunities to respond to this message and i'm just going to ask you to go like this just put your hand up in it no you don't have to but it's an act of faith it's a demonstration of faith and god says with without faith it's impossible to please god so he looks for us to demonstrate faith and i want to give you an opportunity to demonstrate it so here's the first opportunity for you listen if you want god to take your life and fashion it into the plans he has for you you've got to start by having a relationship with the potter right it only makes sense doesn't it how else can the potter fashion their clay if they don't have a relationship with it how else can god fashion your life into the plans he has for you unless you have a relationship with god and why wouldn't you want that anyway what that's about for you what's that about for you why would you want that anyway well maybe you're here and maybe you have that relationship with god and maybe you don't or maybe you had it at one time and it's kind of it's just kind of going i got distracted and this morning is a time to recommit your wreak make a new commitment to the lord and if you hear this morning or this afternoon and and you want to say yes yes jesus i want you to come into my life forgive me of the sins of commission help help me just be the lord of my life if that's you this morning come on just go like this with your hand yes thank you that's the right thing to do yes yes yes this is the right thing to do yes i'm so proud of you come on church i see your hand over there good job i'm so proud of you it is the right thing to do i see your hands back there it's the right thing to do good job good job i'm so proud of you that's the right thing to do if you said yes to the lord this morning listen you just took the first step on a spiritual journey that will change your life but like any journey you got to take another step and another step and this is why god has raised up pastors and he's raised up communities of faith like this you need to get connected to a bible believing gospel teaching jesus loving community and there's one right here that's why they have me here so if you get a chance later you'll see the pastor just say hey i raised my hand that's all you got to say you'll take it from there he wants to bless you he'll help you come along on your journey okay i want to give you one more opportunity to respond and then i'm going to step down as i was going through this process talking to you about how the potter has to use pressure and pain and you saw this pot here how it was scarred but the potter could take a scarred pot and turn it into something beautiful this was the hard clay that had to be broken this one here this was the person who loved the potter but you see that little wound in their soul how they were holding on to that and how its life came crashing down but when it released that wound to the potter how the potter was able to take a broken life and just fashion it into something beautiful as you were watching all of that maybe just maybe you were sitting there and you were thinking of a time when somebody hurt you come on you were thinking of a time when someone hurt you if that was you i really believe friend that was the holy spirit showing you that thing that you were thinking about that's been a stronghold in your life and it's been holding you back it's been holding you back and if you're here today and you want to let that thing go you're no longer going to give your future over to your past you're going to forgive and let it go and you're going to trust god that god is a god who says what he's going to do and does what he says and god's going to clean up the mess god will vindicate you you're just going to let it go give it over to the lord today if that's you come on put your hand toward heaven like i am i got my own issues i got to let go come on you put your hand up like that symbolically to say god take this thing from me take it from me i'm not holding on to it any longer i'm so proud of you church i'm so proud of you it's the right thing to do let me pray for you you can put your hand down father your word says that without faith it's impossible to please you and that literally means impossible it's impossible you're not impressed with how many times we come to church you're not impressed with how much we read our bible you're not impressed with how much scripture we can memorize or we play on a worship team or we minister to uh children or lead a home group that stuff does not impress you what impresses you is a humble heart a humble heart a heart that says god i cannot do this on my own a heart that says god i am stepping down from the throne of my life and i'm going to give you preeminence in my life god i need you to be lord of my life that's what impresses you and so many just now have lifted their hand toward heaven in a courageous act of faith and i pray god that you would be pleased you would be pleased by their faith and i pray that if there has been any stronghold over their life because of whatever that up raised hand meant right now on the authority of the empty tomb i command that stronghold to be broken just like that in jesus name completely broken never again to affix itself to that person's life we commanded to leave and go back to the abyss from which it came and god i pray that you would just fill your people now with a sense of your shekinah with a sense of your glory a sense of your presence i pray that you would be jehovah rapha to your people today you'd be the god who heals that you would wash over them god with your love with your love may they feel so loved by you they just can't even articulate it let it take their breath away i just thank you for your people i thank you for my brothers and sisters everybody who's here and i pray i pray that like the pastor prayed earlier that the words that were spoken would be like good seed finding a place in good soil and that's going to produce much fruit much fruit for the kingdom of heaven and for the glory of god and father i pray i pray for a spirit of evangelism to come over this house i pray god that you're going to put a burning desire as we're living in these end times for people to do more than just come and occupy a chair in church and receive from everything that's going on but they're going to be active and dynamic and they're going to go out and they're going to talk to people about what jesus has done for them they could do for them also and i pray right now god i pray right now according to your word that each person within the sound of my voice whether it's here in the house or whether it's online or whether wherever it is anybody can hear my voice right now that this week you're going to bring somebody into their life that they can share christ with and that it is going to be so obvious that if they don't do it they're going to feel such conviction such consternation they're going to just take a chance they're going to get out of their comfort zone and they're going to say i just got to tell you something i hope you don't mind i just got to tell you something god loves you god loves you and we're living in such uncertain times but god loves you and you give your life to him he's going to take good care of you he's going to guide every step along the way he's going to meet every need that you have heal every broken heart god i just pray in jesus name every person in that sound of my voice will have the opportunity to share christ with somebody this week oh god and i pray that they're just going to start bringing people to church and they're going to they're going to just have to buy this building and make a church and make it their church god that's what's going to happen because we need this the people in this country this world we need hope god and we need to be ambassadors of hope and so i just pray for your people just bless them and i pray for the pastor and the other leadership here god that you just lift up the hands that hang down that you raise up aarons and hers that are going to come alongside of them and hold up their hands as they continue to go through the battle and let me just speak a word pastors do not grow weary in well-doing for in due season you're going to reap if you faint not and just receive that from the lord i love you god loves you hey thanks for coming on a journey to the potter's house i love you i love yes i do [Applause] thanks

Channel: City Wide Church

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Id: Jhue1rSyxC8

Length: 107min 6sec (6426 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2020