Opening Illustration: Back in 1501, Michelangelo was commissioned to work on a great statue of David. At the time, he had a big block of marble that was spoiled and abandoned. Most artists would say, “Who needs this ruined hunk of marble?” This marred block of marble was called “the Giant.” It was over 16 feet and weighted over a ton. It was lying in the mud. And they were going to cut it up for tombstones.
But Michelangelo couldn’t take his eyes off of it. Every day he would walk to where it was, and he would touch it, measure it and caress it. He decided to work with it. And so for two years, Michelangelo worked without any contact with the outside world. He chipped off the parts of the marble that were bad. And he chiseled the rest of it into the image he wanted it to be.
Today, his amazing statue of David is considered to be one of the greatest works of art in Renaissance culture. It’s a wonderful example of how an artist can take something that is marred and turn it into something that is marvelous. (1)
Illustration: A psychiatrist who visited a rescue mission listened intently to the testimonies of many converts. The superintendent asked him if he would like to say a word. This is what he said: "Tonight I have been given an opportunity to observe something I did not know existed anywhere. It has been my privilege to listen to the testimony of men who were glad to witness to what Christ had done for them. I know nothing about that, but I confess I cannot otherwise explain what has taken place in their lives. A few of these men I recognize. As drunkards, even as dope addicts, some of them have come under my observation at the hospital. But here they are, alive, well-dressed, delivered, and in their right minds. I do not know how the miracle has been wrought, but of one thing I am confident--nothing in science can account for this change in them. That kind of gospel is worth preaching to anyone, anywhere." (2)
You see God is in the transformation business.
He looks at our clay, and sees a vessel of honor. God doesn’t need gold or silver. All you have to do is give Him your clay. He is the Master Potter.
He can make treasures out of trash, Jewels out of junk, glory out of garbage, Riches out of Rubbish. He can make Diamonds out of coal, Righteousness out of Rift raft
If you let Him put your life on His potter wheel, He can bring Deliverance to the Drug Addict
He can make a homosexual straight!
He can fix your broken home!
He is the God of another chance
And He builds His church with misfits and throw away’s:
God says: (examples from Scripture)
Give Me a murder like Moses, I’ll turn him into a great leader.
Give Me a dreamer like Joseph, I’ll turn him into a commander over Egypt.
Give Me a shepherd boy like David I’ll turn him into a king.
Give Me a child like Jeremiah I’ll turn him into a prophet.
Give Me a fisherman like Peter I’ll turn him into an apostle.
Give Me a tax collector like Matthew, and I will turn him into a disciple.
Give Me a persecutor like Paul I’ll turn him into a preacher.
Give Me someone who has been married 5 times like the woman at the well, & I’ll turn her into an evangelist.(3)
There is no telling what God can do with a piece of clay. Why does it seem like God takes the unlikely things and turn them into something great? Paul said that God took the weak things and the base things of the world to put to shame the mighty. So that:
1 Corinthians 1:29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.
It is all about what God does not about what we do. It is all God and God gets all the glory. And He is not done with me yet.
Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
We don’t know what God will make out of us. 27 years ago I never knew what God was going to mold me into. I remember distinctly God speaking to call me into the ministry. I just knew God had to be wrong because I was a hot shot fighter pilot flying F-16s in Korea. I thought I was God’s gift to aviation.
But God had a plan for me, it was almost 20 years to the day I got the call to preach, God call me here to Rosemont. It was a long road and some of it was very painful, but God was molding and shaping me into what He wanted me to be. And God is still working on me!
The fact is God is in the process of molding and shaping everyone us, and we He will continue that process until He calls us home.
Jeremiah was called to witness that fact. A God gave Jeremiah a little illustration.
Jeremiah 18:1–4 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.”
Watch the potter at the wheel and My word will come to you. 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.
That clay didn’t do right as a vessel, so the potter pushed back into a lump and remade it. This passage is all about the sovereignty of God. Like the potter, God can do with us as He pleases.
Jeremiah 18:5–6 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!
In Jeremiah’s day, the nation was going south. It was full of wickedness. God is the one who brought you into this world, and He can take you out of it. Until you recognize this, you have not fully reckoned with the sovereignty of God. (4)
This is what God is saying.
Jeremiah 18:7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it,
This is the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. Some people do not care for this doctrine. Others tremble at it. Some may even try to oppose it. But it cannot be denied.
Human beings are not on equal terms with God. He is the Creator; we are the creatures. God is the absolute sovereign; all others are totally subservient.
“Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ ” (Isaiah 45:9).
Of course not. (5)
God is sovereign and He went on to remake Israel, but the remake was going to be painful. God has the right, He built that nation, He can take it down. He can remake it.
This passage ought to cause great alarm in us. God made America, God has greatly blessed American, but unless America turns from its evil ways, this 4th of July we celebrate 241 years as a nation, I pray it is not our last.
Jeremiah 18:8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.
What was the answer the House of Israel gave to God?
Jeremiah 18:12 And they said, “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.”
I pray that won’t be our answer as well, but as a people, but it sure looks likes it. I fear greatly for our nation. But like last week, when I talked about following the commands of our Lord, I said that we are a stubborn people, the Bible uses the word “stiff-necked.”
We give too much credit to the lump of clay. You see it is not about the clay. It is all about the God who made the clay and as maker of the clay, He has every right to form the clay into what He wants. But we, as clay resist that.
Paul quotes some of this in His letter to the Romans. To put it into context, the question is asked:
Romans 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?”
Why has God made me the way I am? But the better question is: who has resisted His will? Paul answers:
Romans 9:20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”
Paul is quoting from Isaiah 45:9. Paul is not answering the question. He is saying we have no right to even ask the question. Man, who is loaded down with sin, and is ignorant and weak, is in no position to question Almighty God.
We want God.
We want the saving atonement of Jesus’ shed blood on the cross.
We want to to flee the wrath that is coming.
We just want to get a Get out of Jail free Card
We just don’t want God to change us.
You see as clay, if left alone as a lump, we would be sent straight to Hell. And God would be absolute just and fair. But instead He draws people to Himself so that they might be saved. And those He saved, God works to conforms them into the image of His son.
Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
But God does love us, His people, those that respond to His drawing to Himself.
And He does love us the way we are. But He loves us way too much to leave us that way.
Romans 9:21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
God formed man from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7) God made us in His image. God called us to different things. But as He makes into the image of His Son, He has absolute power and authority to make us how He pleases.
John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
It is the work of God that we believe. And it is His work that make us complete to do His will
Hebrews 13:20–21 Now may the God of peace . . . , 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Here again, we are molded and shaped to do His will for His honor and glory. It is all about Jesus.
But may will say, Well God obviously made a mistake. I have a flaw, I have a weakness, I have these habits that I cannot shake. What is up with that?
Paul, who wrote almost half of the New Testament, who wrote this passage in Romans complained about a thorn in the flesh:
2 Corinthians 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
A thorn, a problem, and infirmity. We do not know what that thorn was. But it given to Paul by God to keep hm humble, to keep Paul dependent on God.
2 Corinthians 12:8–9 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Paul had a God-given shortcoming, through which Paul praised Jesus. All the problems Paul had, He depended on Jesus. These problems, these infirmities, molded and shaped Paul into what he needed to be in Christ.
2 Corinthians 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Are we allowing God to mold us and to shape us.
We may have to overcome sinful desires, that is part of the molding and shaping process. There is a church word for this process: sanctification, the process of becoming holy. We can struggle against this process or as James says
James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
Are we letting God shape us into the image of His Son?
Are we looking to Jesus?
Are we fulling dependent on Him as He shapes and molds us?
(1) https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/what-type-of-clay-are-you-christopher-young-sermon-on-christian-disciplines-145723
(2) https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-prophet-and-the-potter-stephen-e-trail-sermon-on-change-173040
(3) https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-god-of-new-beginnings-john-wilkinson-sermon-on-new-beginning-206036
(4) Philip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 296.
(5) Philip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 294.
All Bible References are from the NKJV.
