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Sermon Series: The Nobility of God's NobodiesYielding to the Potter's PressureJeremiah 18:1-10PSBC 11/5/00 In a nutshell: One of the ways God can best use us to do Great Commission
work is when we yield to His pressure in our lives to conform to the image of
His Son. When we are yielded, God can use us and release His "molding"
pressure. When we remain " hard", that's the time He must increase the
pressure on our lives. I. Introduction A. Advice Vern McLellan wrote a book a few years ago filled with quips and quotes and
humor designed to help Christians in their journey through life. Here's some
good advice he gives on how to maintain Joy in your life. He calls it... A dozen ways to celebrate joy: Well, this morning as we continue our sermon series on The Nobility of God's Nobodies, we're going to examine that last thing that Vern mentions on his list– Yielding your Life to God. It's a very important concept for us to understand, as followers of Jesus Christ. But not only do we need to understand it, we need to do it. And an Old Testament prophet, by the name of Jeremiah, is going to help us be more willing to do it. B. What I mean Now, the first part of understanding something, is seeing how that thing or that idea fits into the big picture. So, let me try to paint the big picture for you, before we get into the specifics of is meant by "yielding your life to God". The foundational idea you must first know is that the single most important thing to God is people. He proved that they were most important to Him when He devised a plan to rescue people from the consequences of their sin–that plan included the death of His Son, Jesus, on a cross. On that cross He became the substitute sacrifice that was demand by the justice and holiness of God, for our sins. (And that's what we remembered this morning during the Lord's Supper.) And three days later, after God's Son, Jesus, conquered death by rising from the dead on that first Easter morning, He gave all His followers, very specific marching orders to cooperate with what was most important to God–rescuing people from the consequences of their sin. Down through the years, the church has come to call those orders, The Great Commission. This set of marching orders is recorded for us in... Matthew 28:19-20 And ever since those orders were given, just plain, ordinary individuals, who have become disciples of Jesus Christ, by believing in Him as their personal Savior, have been carrying out this plan down through the ages, and literally across the face of the earth. Furthermore, since the beginning of Christianity, it was God's design to establish churches, to equip individual Christians to effectively carry out this Great Commission work. That's why in our purpose statement we have included a very key phrase that says... we will partner with each other to do Great Commission work in the Coachella Valley and the world. We can never lose sight of the fact that this is why Palm Springs Baptist Church ultimately exist. However, its interesting to note, that while God uses just plain folk–nobodies in the world's eyes–to do this Great Commission work... He requires them to demonstrate some specific character traits in their lives. Throughout this series of sermons, I've referred to these traits as tools, and our lives as tool boxes. These tools are necessary for us to have in our tool boxes if we are to effectively do God's Great Commission work, God's way. So, from the lives of Old Testament nobodies, we have been gleaning a number
of things so far. We've seen that the people God uses to do His work are people
who are... And this week, we're going to add still another character trait or tool to our spiritual tool boxes that will help us do Great Commission work in the most effective way possible. It's the trait of YIELDING TO GOD'S PRESSURE. On the front of your bulletins this morning is a quote from one of my
favorite Christian devotional writers, Oswald Chambers... "(As a Christian)
the characteristic of my life is that I yield myself so completely to God that
Christ is formed in me." And like I said before, the person who is going to teach us about yielding is the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah. On one occasion in this prophet's life, God sent Jeremiah on a field trip to the house of a man who made pottery. And Jeremiah learned an important lesson about yielding that he shares with us in chapter 18 of his book... Turn to that chapter in your Bibles, Jeremiah 18... II. The Shaping in the Potter's House Let's start out by looking at the first four verses... A. The Three Things Jeremiah saw... Jeremiah needed to learn something about being yielded to God. So God sent him to a local potter's house. After he entered the house of the potter, he immediately went into the workshop, and there he saw three things... 1. First, he saw the clay. The clay was a picture of Jeremiah. But it was also a picture of the nation of Israel to whom Jeremiah ministered at this time. And it's also a picture of each one of us. We know this because throughout the Scriptures, in the Old Testament books of Isaiah, and Zechariah and in the New Testament book of Romans, each one talks about the people of God being clay in the hands of a potter. 2. The second thing Jeremiah saw was the potter's wheel. It was going round and round with the clay in its center. As the wheel turned round, the clay was brought against the hands of the potter. That wheel stands for the circumstances, decisions and values of our lives, which are ultimately under the control of the Potter. God's desire is to shape us to look more like His Son, Jesus Christ in the way we live our lives. 1 Peter 1:14-15 God does this by bringing experiences, and people and trials and tests, and cross-roads, and decisions into our lives that push us up against the hands of the Divine Potter, so that the final outcome will be a person who reflects the Divine Potter's handiwork–in other words, people whose lives reflect Jesus Christ. 3. The third thing that Jeremiah saw was the potter. God is the potter in the life of Jeremiah, and the life of the nation of Israel, and in each of our lives. The Potter has absolute right and power over the clay, to shape and mold it into exactly what He wants. The apostle Paul says these words in Romans 9 Rom 9:20-21 The answer is, "Of course, He has!" The vessel on the potters wheel is shaped according to the image that the potter has in mind for it. God has a sovereign right to shape the clay of our lives into what He wants in order to best use us to do Great Commission work within our unique circles of influence. God has the skill and design-plan to work with the clay and give it the shape that will be most useful to Him. It's all up to the Divine Potter! III. The Lesson Applied Jer 18:5-10 There are two things I want you to grasp from these verses... A. Pressures to mold us First of all, applying pressure is what a potter does to his clay in order to shape it into something useful and beautiful. Often we call this pressure, tribulation or difficulty or trials. And the first reaction most of us have to times of tribulation or difficulty or trial as that those are bad things. We ask, "How can a loving God be so cruel or hard with me?" But in reality tribulation, difficulty and trials, and any other pressure in our lives, is a very good and necessary thing. Illustration: In descriptions of farming that I've read about from Bible times, the method of threshing grain happens something like this... one man is always stirring up the stalks of grain, while another rides over them in a crude cart equipped with rollers instead of wheels. Sharp stones and rough bits of iron were attached to these rollers to help separate the husks from the grain. During Roman times, this simple cart was called a tribulum -- we get our word "tribulation" from this crude machine. When times of tribulation or shaping come our way, the natural way to think of these circumstances is that they are tearing the comfort and convenience of our lives to pieces. But no thresher ever hooked up his tribulum cart for the purpose of tearing up the sheaves of grain. Instead he did it to uncover the precious kernal of grain inside. And friends, that's why pressure in our lives is so important. Through it, God uncovers the kernel of our lives that He can use to do Great Commission work..., and reach what is most important to Him–the people you know. When the pressure the potter applies is successful in shaping the clay like the potter wants, then the potter pulls back, and the clay is allowed to remain in the shape it has taken. So, if hard circumstances come into your life–and maybe they are there right now–you need to understand what is happening. You are being brought up against the pressure of the Potter's hand. If you don't resist–if your will does not become hard and unyielding–and you refrain from grumbling, complaining and murmuring, or feeling resentful and bitter, then the pressure will be relieved, because you have yielded to the Divine Potter's pressure. But, if you resist God's pressure, if you rebel and get angry at tribulations, and insist that you know better than God does regarding how your future should be shaped, then your will has become unyielding and hard. God, like the potter, can't work with a piece of clay like that. If you put up a fight every time God brings a pressure into your life to help shape a Christ-like future in you, then the Potter has no choice but to increase the pressure. And He will not hesitate to do this, because He loves you and the people in your circle of influence. He sees your potential in Great Commission work. B. The Repentance of God Now, I don't want you to miss a beautiful truth in these verses about the person of God. In verses 8 and 10, we are given a wonderful insight into God's thought processes when He deals with us. It is found in one key word that is used in these two verses... The word in the NIV translation is the word "Relent" in verse 8 and "Reconsider" in verse 10. In other versions, this same word is translated, "Repent." When you and I talk about relenting or repenting or even reconsidering, we are talking about starting out to do something, but we change our minds, and we do something else. It literally means a 180 degree turn. Repenting of your sins is a good example of this. But that is not what this word means in this context. What the Hebrew literally means is "to sigh". It can be used as a sigh of sorrow or a sigh of relief. In fact it is used as a sigh of relief in verse 8, and a sigh of sorrow in verse 10. Illustration: When Jori decided to make her way into this world, we had just had an entire high school youth group spend the night at our house, getting ready for an area-wide Bible Quiz meet. It was Saturday morning, Diane had been a gracious hostess, and all twelve kids and I had just left to go to the Quiz meet. Then her water broke, and Diane knew it was time. Since I wasn't available by phone (this was before beepers and cellular phones) Diane had to call a friend who rushed over and got me and brought me to the house. We rushed to the hospital, and proceeded to do what we had learned in our Lamaze course for 27 hours. Every hour the doctor measured Diane, And every hour the doctor came back with the same news--she wasn't dilating. And every time I received this news, we both sighed a sigh of sorrow and kept on going with our Lamaze techniques. Finally, after 27 hours, the doctor decided to take Jori by Caesarian, and they took Diane to the operating room. When the nurse came back with the news that Diane was fine, and our baby girl was healthy and well, I sat down in a chair outside the operating room, and sighed a huge sigh of relief. Friends, that's how it goes with God's sighing when it comes to applying pressure in your life and mine. He doesn't take delight in bringing pressure. He doesn't relish the thought of tribulations or trials in our lives. In fact, the book of Lamentations says that, "God does not willingly afflict the sons of men." He takes no delight in it at all. Rather, when it is necessary, He brings pressure, molding and shaping the clay of your life, and mine, forcing it into the shape of the vessel He wants it to be–hoping and desiring that the clay will conform. And when it does–when we yield to His touch, He breathes a sigh of relief: "This is enough pressure, I don't have to bring any more." When it doesn't, He sighs, "I have to bring even more." IV. Conclusion Friends, here's the lesson God wants us to know and understand from Jeremiah
18. I'm going to use some very practical words from Dr. Paul Toms who used to
pastor the great Park Street Church in Boston. "Pressure consistently
drives me back to a happy and thoroughly satisfying recognition... that I am the
object of God's call in a specific, special way." The next time pressure comes in your life don't fight it, don't resent it, don't second guess it. In fact, the next time you experience the pressure of the potter's hand, yield to it by responding like this, "Thank you God, for having a specific plan in mind for my life. What are you calling me to do?" You see, I can tell you this, the hands that are applying that pressure are scarred with nail prints. Those nail prints came from hanging on a cross, dying the most awful and humiliating death a person could ever die, so that you could be reconciled to a holy and just God. Jesus Christ is our potter, and He proved your importance to God when he died
for your sins on Calvary's cross. And that means that the hands that are
bringing the pressure are hands that love you so much that they only want the
best for your life and mine. |
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This page was last updated on Sunday, October 31, 2004 03:37 PM
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