Shaped by Grace: The Potter and the Clay

1. "The first thing that's important for us to realize is that the potter in this story, the potter in the illustration, is God. God is the potter. He's the one that's in control. He's the one that determines how each pot or each vessel is going to be shaped, how it's going to be formed, how it's going to be made, what it's going to look like. He's in charge, okay? And that helps us really to understand. And I want you to understand that God is the one that determines how each pot or each vessel is going to be shaped, how it's going to be formed, how it's going to be made, what it's going to look like." [00:44:04] (26 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "The sovereignty of God okay that our God is sovereign and maybe for some of you that word sovereign what do you mean by sovereign what do you talk about let me define the word sovereign for you so you understand what we're saying when we say God is sovereign this is what sovereign means that God has the power the wisdom and the authority to do anything he chooses with his creation let me say it again that he has the power the wisdom and the authority let's say those things together power wisdom authority God has the power the wisdom and authority to do as he pleases with his creation and if you don't know him then that can be a scary thought that that he has power and authority and and and wisdom he can do whatever he wants to but you've got to understand who he is because he is a God of love he's not a God that has the quality of love he is love he is love all that he is is love and so this power and wisdom authority it flows out of him being a God of love it flows out of him being a God of love and so when you understand that he loves us with this immense love then we can trust in the sovereignty of God to make those decisions to use his power to use his authority to use his wisdom to do what he needs to do because we know that he loves us and so we can trust those decisions we can trust what he's doing in our hearts and not and even when we don't understand it even though it may not make sense to us in the natural sense we can trust God and we can trust him because we can trust him because we can trust we can trust our sovereign God because we know that everything he does comes out of his heart of love for us. So God's the potter." [00:44:29] (126 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "We are the ones that are being molded. We're the ones that are being shaped. We're the ones that are being pushed. We're the ones that are being pulled. We're the ones that are being stretched, but it's by his hands, right? And at times it can be scary because you think about that piece of clay on the wheel and it's spinning around. A big percentage of the time, if you're sitting on that wheel, you may not be able to see God. As you're spinning around, you may lose contact of where God is, where the potter is, but you can always trust him, all right? You can always trust him." [00:46:42] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "It is the circumstances of life that God uses to shape us into his image. They're the trials. They're the difficulties that we walk through. They're the good days, the victories, the mountaintops, and the defeats, and the valleys, all of it he uses. It's part of the wheel. It's part of what shapes us. It's part of what molds us. It's part of what he uses to create in us his nature and his image. He uses those things to turn us into the vessel that he needs us to be." [00:47:36] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Aren't you glad that when we come to God, that he's willing to accept us just the way that we are? You know, we didn't have this experience. This is what some people think happened, but it's not true. That we come to God and, you know, we come and we got all kinds of flaws and we got all kinds of sin and we got just a mess. You know, our lives were a mess before Jesus. Let's be real. Our lives were a mess before Jesus. And we come to God and we say, oh, Lord, I need you. I need your help. I need your grace. I need your mercy. I need your forgiveness. And God did not do this. Well, you know, kind of a little messy right now. In fact, you've made a huge mess. Look at all the sin. Look at all the garbage. Look at all the pebbles that are in your life. Listen, let me make you do it. You take the next six months. You work on it. You try to fix some stuff up. Try to correct some things. And if you do a good enough job over the next six months of getting your life together, then maybe I will extend my grace and my mercy to you. Aren't you glad he didn't do that? Come on, aren't you glad? For the grace and the mercy of God that says, I will accept you just the way that you are." [00:52:53] (86 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "If you're broken, if you're hurting, if your life's a mess, I will accept you just the way you are. But understand, I love you enough that I'm not going to let you stay there. I will forgive you of everything. In a moment, if you ask, and some of you may be in the room today, you need to, at the end of the service, we're going to give you an opportunity. You need to ask. You're at a place in your life where you've never asked. And what Jesus is declaring and what his word declares to us is that, listen, if you ask, I will forgive you of everything. You come just the way that you are. And all the mess and all the sin and all the hurt and all the pain and all the brokenness, you come and I will accept you just the way that you are. But I'm not going to leave you just the way that you are." [00:54:00] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "And the process of sanctification is what we're talking about today. You being on the wheel. You allowing God now to begin to start molding and shaping your life. And as he's molding and shaping you, he's going to find these pebbles, these areas of sin, these areas of compromise in your life. And you have a choice and a decision to make. Are you going to allow him as the potter to pull that pebble out and continue to shape you? Or are you saying, time out? No, no. I'm keeping that. I'm holding on to that area of sin. I'm holding on to that area of compromise. I'm not willing. I'm not willing to give that up. Or I'm not willing to do this or do that. And so I'm holding on to the pebble. See, that stops the process. Because how can it continue? Because it's just going to continue to cause you to be marred in his hands." [00:55:28] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "And so we need the conviction of the Holy Spirit to come and to stir us and to move us to a place of repentance. Okay, and so I've been praying that God would bring conviction in your life. If there's areas of sin, if there's areas of conflict, of compromise that is keeping you bound, that's keeping you from becoming the vessel that he needs you to be, that he would convict you and you would allow him to begin to do his work in you." [01:00:33] (27 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "That's really what it is. Understand, if you're trying to hold on to that sin, you're trying to, I want to have the freedom to be able to do this, I want to keep this in my life, just understand what's happening. Sin, that behavior, that attitude, that mindset, that area of consciousness, compromise, it's your master. It's controlling you. You're not controlling it, it's controlling you. And so, we've got to come to a place where we're not going to allow sin to be our master any longer." [01:01:44] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "And so I'm just going to ask everyone just to bow their heads across this room. And I just want to pray for all of us today that we would be so sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit that as he convicts us of areas of sin, he convicts us of areas of compromise in our life, that instead of condoning it or making excuses for it, we're just saying, yeah, I know. but you know I'm not going to give that up or I'm not ready to do it that we would be so willing to say God get it out of my life God get it out of my life don't let there be anything in me that would cause my life to be marred in your hands but God shade me into the person that you need me to be let me pray Lord I pray for each person here God I pray for all of us Holy Spirit we invite you even right now into our hearts Holy Spirit come help our ears our spiritual ears to be tuned in to your voice and I pray that you would begin to show us areas of our lives that are wrong areas of sin areas of compromise areas where we're not living the way you would ask us to areas of our lives that break your heart that grieve you because of the way we're acting and Lord I'm asking that you would reveal it to us and then help us to have the attitude that says God get it out God I surrender it God help me to overcome this area of sin God I'm just believing that you want to do a deep work within our hearts and God I'm asking that you would allow each one of us to get back onto the wheel and God I pray that you would apply your grace to us to your hands to our lives and God that you would mold us and that you would shape us and that you would form us into vessels that are worthy to carry your anointing that are worthy to carry your love and your grace and your mercy to the world that we that we're a part of God use us we pray use us we pray and we ask it in Jesus name in Jesus name amen amen" [01:16:14] (141 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)