Christ In Me (Part 4)





March 31, 2019
4th Week of Lent
Sermon Series: Christ In Me
Inspired by:
Casting Crowns: “Only Jesus” CD
“Only Jesus Devotional”
 by Pastor Mark Hall
With Tim Luke
Psalm 32
Jeremiah 18:1-6 MSG Bible

 “A Life On the Wheel”
Prayer of Illumination…

A reading from the Prophet Jeremiah…chapter 18 Verses 1-6… Listen to the Word of the Lord to the Prophet Jeremiah for His people Israel and for us who are grated in through Jesus Christ…

18 1-2 God told Jeremiah, “Up on your feet! Go to the potter’s house. When you get there, I’ll tell you what I have to say.”
3-4 So I went to the potter’s house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel. Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot.
5-10 Then God’s Message came to me: “Can’t I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?” God’s Decree! “Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel.

Have you ever watched a potter at work as they were creating something? They have these gentle hands, lovingly molding the clay into the vision they have in mind. Sometimes as they are creating something happens and their vision is not seen in it, so they take and remold it…they begin again with the same piece of clay.

It spins around and around on the wheel so that it almost seems out of control, but the potter’s hands are steady even though. The potter doesn’t let the clay fly off the wheel as they guide it to keep it on the spot in which they are working.

We are continuing our journey to the cross this week. I believe that Lent is a time of soul searching and confession as we search our hearts and prepare it for the new life, we rise to on Resurrection Sunday. We ponder over what Jesus did for us and the great love that was shown on Calvary’s Cross for you and me.

As we journey to the place of redemption…where God’s greatest work was done…to the place where we surrender ourselves to the One who surrendered Himself for all of humanity, I have asked us to ponder this, what does it look like when we begin to become the glove that the hand of our Savior can wear for His glory? What does it look like when we surrender ourselves, as Jesus modeled for us, and not live for Jesus but let Jesus live through us?

One thing we talked about as we begin to let Christ live through us the fact that it is the legacy of Christ working through us that is seen not what we do. Also, the legacy that we leave is the legacy of, well, being nobody as we point to Jesus and not ourselves that is a sign of Christ living through us not us living for Christ. But we also talked about the fact that in order to be this kind of Glove for Jesus…for Christ to be seen in and through us…we need to come out of the darkness into His glorious light.

So here we are, we are ready to go forth for God. We are letting Jesus work through us, to the best of our ability from where we are at in our relationship with Him. We are following God and all His ways. We are praying in the spirit with fervency. We go to church and then out into the streets to bring the Gospel to those who still sit in darkness. When help where and when we can. We are on fire for God!

Then, something happens. We are devastated to our very core. And we stand there and ask WHY! Why God are You doing this to me…I have done everything for You as You have asked me to do and now this…This shouldn’t be happening…I TRUSTED YOU! We feel that God has just abandoned us…never showed up to do His part in our lives. God…With the big “S” meaning Savior on His Robe didn’t come in and save the day like a hero.

Ok…so here is my theory…my theology…on the “why” that you and I may have or are even asking as I speak this morning:
1.  Not all trials are our doing…we live in a fallen world…
2.  We live in a world under the curse of sin…
3.  God is always at work, even when we think He has abandoned us

From the Jeremiah scripture this morning, we hear about an attribute of God. He is the Potter and we are His clay. At times, the world and situations we go through misshape us…remolds us…into its form. As God places us on His Potters Wheel, we are created into who He needs us to be. He gently shapes us with His strong hand and smooths out those rough patches and bumps that are flawing His masterpiece and yes…there are times that He allows us to be completely broke so that we can be reshaped into the vessel He needs us to be. And even though it seems our life is spinning out of control He won’t let us fall off the wheel and as He guides us to be exactly where He needs us to be for our most excellent transformation.

The most hopeful thing that I have found as I am on that wheel is that in and through His Spirit, I am comforted. As you and I submit to His remolding, we are given the peace that goes beyond all understanding…even within the spinning and reshaping. Also, just as the potter uses water as he shapes the clay, God’s Living Water helps us not to dry out as we are being shaped…as those bumps and lumps are smoothed out.

Maybe…just maybe… now think about this y’all… we need to be broken so that at our lowest we can be put on the wheel. Maybe our lives seem chaotic and out of control but maybe we are being recreated. Perhaps things may be falling apart because the world is being broken off us so that we can become of who we were created to be. Perhaps there is a new thing being birthed in our lives and out of the ashes it will rise like a Phoenix. Because in order to be the glove we need to be molded to the hand…sort of like a pair of gloves that we have had for a long time holds their shape…

 Play Hands of the Potter by Casting Crowns…

If we are to be formed into the image if Christ...if we are to be the glove used by Jesus for Him to work in and through us, then we need to Live Life on the Potter’s Wheel as we are created…moment by moment…into the vessel to be used for His Glory. It’s a question of faith. Do you believe God is Sovereign and loves you? De o you believe God can make good out of bad? Do you believe His purpose will be fulfilled in and through you? Will you trust even though suffering makes no sense? Do you have this kind of faith?

Amen




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