The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.
Thank you for the testimonies. I am excited for Joshua and all of our children. I think the blessing of growing up in a Christian home with imperfect parents who tried their best. I feel like the kids, they are light years ahead of where I was at their age, and I expect great things from them. God to use them in mighty ways. Praise God.
Thank you for Matthew. Having a praise leader who can weep before the Lord is all you can ask for. And a praise leader. Thank you for praying for Sister Sarah’s mom.
And we just celebrate together God’s goodness. And what is unfolding in that family. Okay, let’s read together. I’ll read from Jeremiah 18. And I hope that when I get old, my boys will take care of me. So I fully expect that. Jeremiah 18:1,
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord : 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it,8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.‘ 12 “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.‘(Jeremiah 18:1-12, ESV)
Okay, let’s pray.
Father, we lift up America as citizens of this country. We pray, starting with the leadership at the national level, all the way down to the local level, that you would bring about a spirit of repentance. We pray for godly men and women to occupy these positions.
We pray that this country can turn around. We pray, Lord, that you would bless the leaders of this country and bless America. Bless us. As citizens of this country, we take full responsibilities as christians here. If our country falls, it is largely our fault. So, Lord, we repent. As christians in this country, we want to be watchmen. We want to pray more and more for every nation, every man, woman, and child on earth to have a chance to meet Jesus. May it start with each of us. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
The title for today is “It’s Time to Get in Shape.” Summer is around the corner, and we live close to the beach, so we need to tighten and tone up our bodies. I have a wedding to officiate in a couple of weeks. I’m mindful that these pictures will be permanent, and so there’s pressure to get into shape as the summer months roll around.
And here in the book of Jeremiah, and I’m going to touch on Jeremiah, I’m going to touch on Ezekiel, because these were two prophets that were contemporaries of each other and praying for the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah and God, starting with the prophet, Jeremiah is giving this metaphor of clay in the potter’s hands. And we also are shaped like we’re shaped by our past, we’re shaped by our upbringing.
The kind of parents that you had had a great influence on the kind of person that you became, and maybe you had to shed some things along the way that were not right. But we were shaped by our parents’ upbringing and past. We’re shaped by our educational system. And so, the longer you study, the more degrees you get, it’s not an accident that faith seems to decline in such populations, because by design, they are preaching a system of godlessness and liberalism.
And it’s parents who send their kids off to college somehow are surprised when they shouldn’t be, that they return four years later and they’re not the same innocent child that they sent off. So we are shaped by educational system. We are shaped by friends. If you have good friends, you are largely going to be protected. If you have bad friends, unfortunately, that has a big potential to influence you in all the wrong directions. We are influenced and shaped by our present, our circumstances, difficulties, our jobs.
If you have a stressful job, if you have a job with a high title that shapes your identity, how you view yourself in relation to other people, for better or for worse, if you have circumstances that are difficult, God can use that. If you learn the lesson, you can complain and grumble and not learn the lesson.
We shape ourselves by the choices that we make, by what entertainment we consume, by what we watch, by what we hear, by, you know, it’s 11:00 p.m., and, you know, you should not be eating nachos and cheese, but you eat that. And that is actually shaping you in a very profound way in the midsection. So we are shaped in many ways. We’re also shaped by church. And so that’s the area I’m going to focus on the most today. It’s time to get in shape.
And so the potter, who is representative of the Father, has all of us in his hands, and we are being shaped by the father. And if we are pliable, if there’s a right amount of moisture, then it’s easy to shape that lump of clay into a masterpiece. And some people read Jeremiah 18, and they say, aren’t we being shaped, shaped into a vessel that is useful to the master? And so the focus, I think, shifts to what is the usefulness of the vessel.
But I think the more fundamental reading of this scripture is this: the vessel itself is what is important. And, of course, if it’s the right vessel in the master’s hands, it will be very useful. But first, what kind of vessel is being shaped? And I want to. I guess my conclusion is we are all being shaped into the image of God, which is the image of our shepherd, Jesus Christ.
And this is not something I can back up theologically, per se, but I think the two components that are needed for the clay, the lump of clay to be shaped, is moisture and pressure. So the pressure comes from the person who is shaping that lump of clay on the potter’s wheel, it’s the hands. And if it’s the right moisture, if it’s pliable, then just a little bit of pressure. And the spinning wheel, you can shape it in a masterful way.
But if that lump of clay is dry, then it’s going to take a lot of work. And when it gets spoiled or reaches a point of no return, you just cannot salvage it. You need to throw it away and start again. And I think that the water comes from the tears of the father and Jesus Christ, who is constantly interceding for his church. And we are that lump of clay that is being shaped into the image of God, which is Jesus Christ.
And in Israel’s day, in Ezekiel’s day, the nation of Israel, the nation of Judah, the north and the southern kingdoms, they were in a bad, bad spiritual condition. And so what the father is saying here is that there is a shaping that I’m doing because this, this lump of clay that I’m trying to make into masterpiece is not cooperating. It’s not looking like a bowl. It’s not looking like a vase. It is disjointed. And I need to apply a little bit more pressure because this lump is dry.
This lump of clay is not pliable in my hands. And so, as I said last week, sometimes we need to learn the hard way. And God brings, in this case, the nation of Israel. He’s bringing disaster upon them in the form of the Babylonians. And so when we have difficulty in our lives, it’s the Lord trying to get our attention that we are not being shaped. And according to the image of God in Jesus Christ, we have lumps in us.
And so there needs to be added a little bit more water, more tears, but also a lot more pressure. And in this case, it’s a severe amount of pressure that hopefully will wake up the nation, and they will turn back to the Lord. And with that as a context, I want to read from Ezekiel 34:1. Again, these are contemporaries, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God : Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. (Ezekiel 34:1-6, ESV)
And so why is this nation have to be judged by the Lord? It comes back to the shepherds. And so if America falls, in some sense, it is our fault. Pastors and leaders of God’s church, we did not sound the alarm. We did not properly guide the sheep the way they needed to be guided, and instead, they fell away and they fell into idolatry.
And God’s only recourse at that point was to put a lot of pressure on this lump of clay to try to salvage it in the form of judgment. And I’ll read on in verse seven.
7 “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord : 8 As I live, declares the Lord God , surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord : 10 Thus says the Lord God , Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them. (Ezekiel 34:7-10, ESV)
And so this judgment first comes to the shepherds, and then God’s response in terms of his actions against these bad shepherds comes in the following section, verse eleven.
11 “For thus says the Lord God : Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country.14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. (Ezekiel 34:11-16, ESV)
I hope you heard the accents. God’s response to bad shepherds is to say, I will do it. I will be the shepherd. When a church falls, it’s because of the shepherd. When a country falls, it also is because of the pastors and the shepherds. And the conclusion here is, how did these shepherds become this way?
They were like a lump of clay that refused to be molded into the image of the great shepherd, the good shepherd, the chief shepherd, Jesus Christ. And therefore, in the ministry of under-shepherding that they were doing to the flock, they misrepresented the Lord. And if they are not doing all that God asked them to do, it’s so custom-like to the weak. you’re not telling them to run up the hill; you’re coming to them where they are, and you’re trying to meet them in their weakness. If you’re hungry, what do you need?
You need someone to feed you. If you are sick, what do you need? You need someone to heal you. It’s so custom. The shepherd that got put in charge of the flock, it’s supposed to see the need. Each person is in a different place, in a different condition to meet them where they are. And why are they not able to do this? The only conclusion is they are not meeting the shepherd themselves. They are that lump of clay that is not malleable, that is so hardened. And so they’re misrepresenting the Lord. They’re living selfishly.
And when they do interact with the sheep, what does it say in verse four? They minister with force and with harshness. That is not our heavenly Father. That is not our shepherd. That is not our good shepherd. It is not representative of the kind of shepherd we should be in God’s church. And so the only conclusion I can make is that they are not malleable in the Father’s hands. They are not meeting with, consistently meeting with Jesus Christ as their shepherd. Because all shepherds are first sheep. We are all under Jesus Christ.
And if they are not able to submit themselves under the Father, under the shepherding of Jesus Christ, our good shepherd, they misrepresent God, the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit in the ministry that happens in the church. And therefore the sheep are in this condition. And God scatters them and says, I will show you how to do it. I will do it myself. And then the word of the Lord to the sheep: Ezekiel 34:17.
17 “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God : Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? 19 And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet?(Ezekiel 34:17-19, ESV)
And so, there’s God’s assessment of the shepherd and then his action.
Then he is now assessing the sheep, which is all of us, pastors and all members. And then his actions in response to bad sheep is in verse 23.
23And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.24 And I, the Lord , will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord ; I have spoken. (Ezekiel 34:23-24, ESV)
And we know David’s story. He is much, much better than the current shepherds in Jeremiah’s day and Ezekiel’s day.
But he is far, far from perfect. What are we supposed to learn from the history of the nation of Israel and Judah in Ezekiel’s day and Jeremiah’s day is that God puts human leaders in charge of the flock as under shepherds, as pastors and elders. But we never, never place our full confidence in man. Even David, as a godly king, for the most part, he failed miserably in key moments. And that tells us we are all sinners. There’s no man who should be elevated to a level that we put our confidence in.
This pastor, this leader—it’s not true. Even God’s word is so clear that even the godliest leader should never be the person we look to and say, “I am safe because I am under this guy.” All of this is a pointer. And if you are a proper shepherd in God’s church, you understand, like John the Baptist did, as soon as Jesus arrives, he said, “There, behold the Lamb of God.” All of his disciples, why don’t you go to Jesus?
And we make the same mistake that the shepherds of the Old Testament made as New Testament, New Covenant believers. We can make the same mistake. And although Jesus has arrived, we don’t really lift him up as our example. We don’t say he’s the chief shepherd and the senior pastor. Instead, we look to a man again and we fall into this same trap. And no wonder the church in America, the church across the world, is so weak because we have lifted up man again instead of Jesus Christ.
If we lift up Jesus, and every shepherd should be constantly saying, don’t look to me. I’m just a man. I’m just flawed. Look to Jesus. He is perfect. He is your perfect shepherd. We need to be clay in the shepherd’s hand. He is molding us into an image, a vessel of honor. Like me as a father, I have a certain picture for my boys that they would grow up to be a certain man.
And this is a man who is not against hard work, who is not afraid of submitting to bad authority, who can be in a bad circumstance and not complain, who is respectful, even if the boss is just way out of lap, way in left field. The kind of person who is in total self control of their speech and of their emotions, who can run miles without giving up. Because that mentality of, of pushing through when you’re physically tired can also translate to spiritual life, that you don’t give up easily.
You finish your course, you run your race all the way to the end. Like, I have a certain picture as a father for my boys, and our heavenly father has a certain picture. He’s shaping us into this full image of God that we find in Jesus Christ. Somebody who is fully man, but fully God, just completely a new creature, somebody who is so exalted as fully God and yet so low of heart that he came not to be served, but he came to serve, that he will.
He is so lowly and gentle that he can deal with lumpy clay like us. And we are struggling with the same issue over and over. And he doesn’t get frustrated with us. He doesn’t cast us out of his presence. He deals with us where we are. So if we’re sick, he meets us in our sickness. If we’re weak, he meets us in our weakness. If we’re stubborn, he meets us in our stubbornness. Our father, he is shaping us like the vine dresser. He’s pruning. It’s painful when more and more pressure has to be applied.
At the same time, Jesus is like our life coach. We are following his example. We’re trying to become more and more like him, and this is how we grow. This is what we’re hoping to accomplish as a church. That’s why at our church, we hope to encounter Jesus together, starting with me, all of us, from youngest to oldest, that all of us can encounter Jesus, because that is the hope. Because if we don’t meet Jesus, we’re wasting our time.
We’re just teaching lessons, and we’re teaching about community, and we’re trying our best to be good to one another, but it just falls short. We do that for ten or 20 years. We’ll get bored; we’re getting tired. But if the focus shifts not to one another, but primarily to Jesus Christ, and say he is the senior pastor, let’s all look to him. We must become like him. Let’s meet him.
That is where I think church becomes what it was meant to be, so that all of us can be shaped into vessels of honor to fully become the image of God that we find in Jesus Christ.
Okay, let’s pray.
Father, we thank you for your word. We understand now that you’re so much more interested in the kind of person we’re becoming than what we do or accomplish in this life. The doing will come; the ministry will come. But, Lord, we need to become the right kind of vessel, a beautiful masterpiece in your hands.
Or you’re shaping us in various means. you’re shaping us as a world citizen by all that’s unfolding in our world, even in America, we see the kind of situation we’re in. you’re shaping us in many ways. The pressure is mounting. We feel it, Lord, you’re calling us to amend our ways and our deeds and turn back to you.
We pray, Lord, that you would exalt the name of Jesus every time we gather that you’re in our midst when two or three are here, that you’re here in our midst in a special way, when we gather corporately. Jesus, you are the senior pastor. We want to meet you. We want to be changed in your presence. We want to learn from you because you’re humble and lowly of heart. you’re gentle. You act differently to somebody who is sick. You act differently to somebody who is weak.
You can be harsh to somebody who is proud or stubborn. But, Lord, you made us where we are. We thank you that you are this kind of shepherd. You came to serve us. You came to heal us and bind us and all that. We tend to look to each other too much, but we look to you and you say you will do it. And you did it in Jesus. And so, Lord, we look to you again. Even though you came 2000 years ago, you’re here. We look to you again every single moment.
We need to meet you today. We want to meet you today. We pray that you meet us as we finish up this service, as we sing songs, as we partake in the Lord’s supper. Thank you for the blood that you shed for us and the body that was broken because of our sins. Lord, we’re all sinners. We don’t look to each other as our savior, as our redeemer, as our healer.
We look to you, only you, Lord Jesus. We pray that you would build up this body of Christ, that we would be changed from the inside. We become a proper vessel that is useful in a master’s hands, so that we can be sent out as your hands and your feet. We can be the evangelists, the prophets, pastors, teachers, that you can send us out so that we can find the lost, that we can bring back and help heal the brokenhearted.
But, Lord, we know at the center of it all, Lord, you’re the one who’s doing the work. You get all the glory. If we do anything that is of eternal value, we know it’s not us. We don’t congratulate ourselves. Lord, you did it Lord, you’re making it so clear. In your word. you’re the one who does it from beginning to end. From the Alpha and the Omega. Jesus, it’s you. You always do it. We thank you, Lord. We pray that you meet us as we finish out this service. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
