God is – Still Restoring

Joke:  Fred went to a job interview for a company looking for a diesel fitter. He was asked about his previous experience and he said he stitched clothing for 20 years. The interviewer was not impressed as he did not believe the job skills would be transferable.

Since the company continued to advertise for a diesel fitter, Fred’s brother Ralph said he was going to apply for the position and secured an interview. He was asked the same question about his previous experience and replied that he was a diesel fitter for 20 years.

Ralph was hired on the spot. Fred was furious and still insulted by the rejection he received. He went back to find out why he was rejected, but his brother Ralph was hired on the spot.

The interviewer explained that Ralph had the experience they were looking for. Fred was shocked and screamed at the interviewer:  How can that be for 20 years I stitch the women’s dresses. Ralph all he does is pulls them over his head and says “Yeah, dees’ll fit her.”

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God is: Still Restoring

This is the final week of our God is series and I hope it’s been a blessing to you. I love that God is still moving today.  It’s so great that you and I can experience God today, tomorrow, next week, next year, everyday we live.

This eternal, self-existent, all-powerful God has not changed over time. He is still “The Great I AM”…and today I want us to look at how God is: Still Restoring

 How many of you are familiar with that HGTV show called Fixer Upper.

At its height there were more than 5 million viewers who would tune in each week to watch that show and for a short period of time it was the second highest rated show on cable television.  You know what beat it out?  AMC’s The Walking Dead.

 From restoring places to living among zombies.   But I digress.

 People love Chip and Joanna Gaines and they love that show. It has even blossomed into a full blown destination spot if your ever traveling through Texas.

And the premise behind the show is pretty simple.  A couple buys a home that needs repair and renovation. . .and to the rescue come Chip and Joanna!  He leads in the construction and she leads in the design concepts. And of course the climax of the show takes place in the last segment when they reveal the new home to the anticipating owners.

It’s awesome.  The look on the buyers’ faces as they initially lay eyes on their rehabbed home speaks volumes.

I think I enjoy how Ty Pennington from extreme makeover revealed their transformation better when you would hear the crowd yell out. . .

What was it they said. . .

MOVE THAT BUS!

But just as Chip and Joanna or Ty repair and restore broken, outdated and dilapidated homes, it’s a great picture of what God does with our lives.

He takes broken. . .marred. ..as we will read in our text “spoiled” clay and he fashions it. . .forms it. . .molds it into something special.

Jeremiah 18:1–6 (NIV): This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.

Now you all know where our churches name came from in case you ever wondered.

In this passage God is getting Jeremiah’s attention. . .He wants to teach him a valuable lesson about how He works in His people’s lives and He does it using this real life object lesson of a potter and clay.

Now, the message this object lesson communicates is pretty simple. The potter has power over the clay. And the potter works the clay, forms the clay, molds the clay to take whatever form or shape the potter desires.  Whatever seemed best to Him the text stated.

The clay, in order to conform to what the potter’s designing, must be worked and reworked. The lumps in the clay have to be smoothed out. Where it is “spoiled” or marred it has to be remade.

This is an incredible picture of God and how He works in our lives.

I want to make three simple yet incredible points from our text today.

The first point is this: We are all broken.

I’m using the word “broken” as a synonym for the word found in verse 4 – “marred.”   Some other translations use the word spoiled.   And that is exactly what the word means.

Jeremiah uses this same word in chapter 13 to describe a belt he was commanded by God to bury and later dig up.

Jeremiah 13:7 (NIV): So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.

After he dug the belt up he described it in verse 7 as being “ruined…spoiled” and said it was “good for nothing”. . . “useless.”

Completely useless as our text said.   Simply put it was broken.

Is there anything worse than something breaking and not being able to fulfilling the purpose for which it was created?

Well, we were are all broken spiritually. This is what sin does to us. It corrupts us. . .it mars us.  It breaks the relationship between God and humanity.

Romans 3:23 (NIV): for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

 Translation using Jeremiah’s term – “for all are spoiled.” And the only solution for spoiled clay is to be refashioned and remade by the potter – what a wonderful picture of salvation.

The only solution to sin. . .to the brokenness in our lives is the gospel.

And when we submit our life to the Potter’s hands, He begins to form us, fashion us, and make us into what 2 Corinthians 5 calls, “A new creation.”

Maybe you have heard that verse. . .

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV): Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Jeremiah is a prophet. And the message he proclaimed for 40 years was one of judgment upon the people of Judah. He predicted that Jerusalem would fall to the Babylonians and that God’s chosen people would be carried off into exile.

Not the kind of prophecy most of us would want to hear.

He’s been called the weeping prophet. . .because the reality of what he prophesied broke his heart.

It’s important to note the object lesson God gives him refers to a people God was in a covenant relationship with. . .the people of Israel.

Jeremiah 18:6 (NIV): He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.

What does that mean anyway?  It means that God continues to make us everything He desires for us to become.

Philippians 1:6 (NIV): being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Salvation is when God’s shaping work starts in our lives, not when it stops.

And just like the people of Judah over time even those of us in a relationship with God:

• Can make decisions that cause lumps to form in the clay. . .

And it’s at that point we learn the same valuable lesson Jeremiah did. . .clay that is marred. . .clay that is broken – can be

Look at it again in verse four. . .

Jeremiah 18:4 (NIV): But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

It can be “reworked” and remade!   It can still be restored.

And that brings me to my second point and that is:

Only God Can Restore the Broken.

Only the potter has power over the clay. Only He has the power to  rework. . .remake. . .restore.

And this should bring us great hope because I know that I am speaking to some who are Christians – you have trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, but something happened and you’ve gotten away from God.

Sin can lead to a hardening of the heart.

Hebrews 3:13 (NIV): But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Sin is deceitful.  It will try and convince you it will make you happy, rich, famous, and a whole lot of other things.

Hebrews 11:24–26 (NIV): By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

Hebrews 11:24–26 (TPT): Faith enabled Moses to choose God’s will, for although he was raised as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he refused to make that his identity, 25 choosing instead to suffer mistreatment with the people of God. Moses preferred faith’s certainty above the momentary enjoyment of sin’s pleasures. 26 He found his true wealth in suffering abuse for being anointed, more than in anything the world could offer him, for his eyes looked with wonder not on the immediate, but on the ultimate—faith’s great reward!

Here’s something I’m sure you already know, the harder clay gets, the less moldable it becomes.

Use the Play-doh – It’s like this. When you first take the Play-doh out of the can it’s soft, pliable, workable.  But over time as stuff gets in it, or on it, or if you accidentally leave it out. . .what happens?

• It gets hard. . .
• It gets brittle. . .
• It’s not nearly as easy to work with!
• It’s broken. . .and it’s not able to carry out its intended purpose!

What’s true with Play-doh is true for our lives. If we don’t keep our hearts soft before God. . .take care of our personal relationship with Jesus through abiding in him.

If we choose to not listen to Him and embrace His word in our life. . .it can lead to a hardening.

If you haven’t watched The Chosen you need to.   It’s in its second season and in episode 6 of season 2 called unlawful.   Mary went back to her past and a couple of His followers, Simon and Matthew, go and look for her.  They end up in a shady place where Mary had been.

Matthew suggests they split up to look for her but Simon disagrees.  Matthew says to the Simon. . .”what if you were cut off from Jesus from something in your past, wouldn’t you want help getting back to him as soon as possible.”

They end up finding Mary and telling her that we need to go back.   Mary says no I can’t.  Her reason she says, “he already fixed me once, I broke again.  I can’t face Him”

Ultimately they return to Jesus, Mary approaches Him and He forgives, He always forgives.  It’s called being in the Potter’s hand.

And maybe there is someone here or someone watching online and sin. . .the deceitfulness of it. . .the consequences that have come along with it, have hardened your heart. And at the very same time, it has led you to, it’s leading you to a place of extreme brokenness. And your saying. . .

• I’m afraid. . .
• I’m grieving. . .
• I’m depressed. . .
• I’m discouraged. . .

And today, maybe due to sin that has hardened your heart or a situation or circumstance that is overwhelming you, what you are screaming is, “Help, I’m broken!

• A relationship has ended. . .
• Someone you love is dying. . .
• An injury or an illness is holding you back. . .
• Maybe you’ve recently been let go from your job. . .
• Some circumstance has happened and it doesn’t seem like God even cares. . .

Listen to me. . .don’t keep running from God.  Don’t lose hope in God. You are in the right place. You are in the potter’s house and God can restore that which is broken in your life. . .He’s still restoring!

Run to Him no matter how broken you feel. . .He restores.

Psalm 34:18 (NIV): The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or how much you’ve failed. . .let the potter do what he does best and remake you into something beautiful.

You are not too broke that God can’t remake it into something beautiful.   He trades beauty for ashes.

I’m reminded of two examples of Jesus restoring people in the New Testament.

The first was the woman caught in adultery? Do you remember this story?

(Tell Story) – talk about being marred. . .being broken. . .and what does Jesus do?

He doesn’t judge her. . .pick up a stone to throw at her. . .he looks at this woman who is at the lowest point of her life and speaks words of life to her!

John 8:10–11 (NIV): Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

 In that moment he restores her. . .in a moment of grace he shows this woman love.  It’s exactly how God treats all of us in our sin. He restores us. . .no matter what we have done, where you have been or how broken and messed up we are!

The single best example of this in scripture in my opinion: Is Peter.

Everyone remembers his epic failure, right? “Jesus, I’ll never deny you! If everyone else bails on you, I won’t! And what happens?

(Tell Story)

 Peter is so broken, the Bible says he went out and wept bitterly.

He sees Jesus after the resurrection. Can you imagine the grief. . .the embarrassment. . .the shame when Peter first saw Jesus?

I can only imagine that in their interactions, in the mind of Peter at least his failure was that “elephant in the room”.

And yet it goes unaddressed. The disciples make their way back to Galilee and do you remember what happens? Peter says, “Enough of this, I’m going fishing!” And he along with some of the other disciples get in a boat and the Bible says they catch nothing.

Again, just imagine the feeling of failure on their part. They don’t have Jesus there with them anymore. . .and the one thing they were good at, fishing, they failed in that as well.

For Peter, it had to be a deeper sting knowing he had denied and failed Jesus a little before this fishing trip.

But, all of the sudden as day is breaking, a man stands on the shore and asks those fishing if they caught anything.

(Tell Story)

 It was here that Jesus asked a marred, spoiled, broken Peter – three times, “Do you love me?” And in gently restoring Peter, he took this pliable lump of clay and reworked him, giving him a new mission to go and “tend my sheep”.

Talk about love. . .he doesn’t just not shame you. . .he gave him a brand new mission and it was Peter that would preach at Pentecost and on that day three thousand people came to know Christ. Only God could do that!

 It’s called the “blessing of brokenness”. Listen:

 We are all broken.

• Only God can restore the broken.

 My third and final point today: God wants to restore you.

I truly hope that you are taking this message personally. God longs to remake. . .remold. . .restore. . .YOU.   It’s the loving work of a potter!

 The potter has power over the clay.

Ephesians 2 uses the word “workmanship” to describe his work in our life. . .it’s a word that means poem! God is writing a beautiful poem with your life.

Speaking of poetry, listen to this one as it relates to our message today

Here’s the words to: The Touch of the Master’s Hand by Myra Brooks Welch:  Someone even wrote a song based on this poem.

“Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin, but held it up with a smile; “What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried, “Who’ll start the bidding for me?” “A dollar, a dollar”; then two!” “Only two? Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?

Three dollars, once; three dollars twice; going for three..” But no, from the room, far back, a gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow; Then, wiping the dust from the old violin, and tightening the loose strings, he played a melody pure and sweet.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low, said; “What am I bid for the old violin?” And he held it up with the bow. A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two? Two thousand! And who’ll make it three? Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice, and going and gone,” said he.

The people cheered, but some of them cried, “We do not quite understand what changed its worth.” Swift came the reply: “The touch of a master’s hand.”

And hear this church, many a man with life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin, is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin.  A “mess of pottage,” a glass of wine; a game – and he travels on. “He is going” once, and “going twice, He’s going and almost gone.”

But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought by the touch of the Master’s hand.”

The Master. . .the Potter. . .Great God Almighty. . .can take your life – a simple lump of clay and in a moment with his touch as you remain pliable and soft in his hands, he will form you. . .make you. . .remake you. . .restore you into something that he can use for his glory.

Going back to Fixer Upper. . .you know what my favorite part is?

It’s the end. . .when they have the reveal!  Watching the couple’s faces as they see their home and the investment they have made for the very first time.

It’s also where we get to see the “before and after” pics. The couple walks through each room and is just blown away by what they are seeing.

In a very real way, this is how we should look at ourselves. This is how the world should look at us. God takes us. . .works on us. . .and as He does, we get so excited at what He is doing!

And the watching world: our friends, family, those at school at the office, see how God has shaped us. . .how he has changed and restored us. . .and they say, “Who did that?!”

And we just smile and say, “The greatest fixer upper in the world. . .and He wants to restore you today as well.”

Will you let him?

Let’s pray.