In the hands of the potter.

One of the kids, when they were looking ahead, said I want to be a doctor. One of the boys is a doctor today. His name is Nabbit Thomas. He was an orphan who lived with his grandmother and aunt. They let him study in their bedroom. It was like a two-room shack, just sort of amazing. We've been back from Namibia for four years, living here in Madison. My kids have moved to Madison. My oldest daughter came up here to help start a Bible school with youth of the mission, about when we left. So Madison is our home now.

We've got pottery for sale. I make pottery. I've realized today that I've been making pottery for 57 years, which seems like way too long for anybody to do one thing. Somebody asked me, wow, you've been doing this for so long. Do you really like it? I didn't answer them directly, but it's a lot of work. It keeps me busy and out of trouble, so that's good.

We brought some cards because one of the ways we've financed Community Hope School for the last 20 years is through donations. This is our 20th anniversary. The school is now an after-school program. When we left, God made a big change. We moved into a new building on Kindergarten Street and took over an old kindergarten run by a Lutheran church. We remodeled it. One of the guys living there is the lighthouse keeper, Mr. Casomba. Ezekiel Casomba is one of his sons, and they're great kids. You can sponsor some of these kids. I have cards up here for fifty, thirty, or two thousand a month, whatever you want to give.

It costs us three hundred dollars a day to keep this program going. Does that seem like a lot of money for God? It doesn't, does it? But that's been my full-time job for many years that we've been involved in the ministry, as well as training the teachers. We went over to start a teacher training program called Teachers for Africa. I did not want to start a school. Once you start a school, you're into it. You can't get out of it. It's just like forever because more kids keep coming, and you don't get a break.

It's Christmas break. It's summer right now in Namibia. I sent my administrator from Zimbabwe a text this morning with a picture of the weather, minus seven, which is minus twenty in Celsius. It's about eighty degrees there right now.

I was thinking about Advent and John 3:16 comes to mind. God is really the biggest giver. My wife and I met Jesus in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1972 while we were hitchhiking to India to join a yoga commune. I know you could do that then. I don't advise it now. But I've been making pottery, and fifty years ago this year I started preaching this message about God, the master potter.

If you have your Bibles, in Isaiah 64, verse 8, it says, "But now, O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, and you are our potter, and each of us is the work of your hands."

But now, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are our potter, and each of us is the work of your hands.

Isaiah 64:8

Here we are. We're the clay, and God has a plan and a purpose for you and for your life. He wants to take and shape your life just like the potter shapes the clay. In Romans 8:28, it says that God works all things together for good to those that love him and are called according to his purpose.

What's God's purpose in your life? It's called according to his purpose. Well, in verse 29, it says that for whom he foreknew, he also predestined that we would be made into the image of his Son. So God's purpose for us is to be like Jesus. That's our purpose here. Each of us in some way gets to represent him in a different, unique way. That's one of the beauties of the body of Christ. We're all not trying to conform to some particular image of what a Christian looks like.

I think that's one of the things I like about this church. The diversity. Many of you are from UW or have been involved on campus, and the campus has a worldwide draw. So we have a lot of people from different places. How many people aren't from America here? A few of you, yeah.

The potter's water

I do videos on Instagram and try to do them every day. One of the things that people always ask me is, why do you use so much water? I use a lot more water than other people do when they throw. But the water is good. The water makes the clay slip through my hands. The potter forms the clay with pressure.

How many of you have been under pressure lately? You've got exams. You've got all sorts of things that you're dealing with. Finances, friendships. God is going to use that pressure to shape and form your life.

One of the things that the potter does is get the clay in the center of the potter's wheel. People ask why that's so easy. But what you need to understand is that if I'm going to make a pot, God wants you to be in the center of his wheel. His will. The pot has to be in the center of the wheel. It took me about two years to learn how to center clay. Now I can do it in seconds.

Is it finished?

So is that a good pot? Am I done? Is it finished? No, it's not finished. It would be a great paperweight. We often talk about election in seminary, and we're God's elect. But how many of you have thought about the fact that we have to elect God to be Lord of our lives? You have to actually choose God.

In Exodus 19, Moses is up on the mountain, and God gives him a campaign speech. He says, listen, Moses, I want you to go down and tell everybody that I'm running for king of Israel. I took them out of Egypt on eagle's wings. I've done all of this. I'm providing for them and will take care of them forever. They just have to agree to this, because then they have to obey me.

Moses goes down the mountain and they agree. They actually take a vote and vote to have God be king of Israel. It's really hilarious, but it's true. The first great election. That's when this whole thing started, where we have the people of God. You have to elect God. Right now, whether you're a Christian or not, Jesus is Lord. He's Lord over your life. But what we really need to do is submit to him and ask him to be Lord in our lives. It's all about prepositions.

I used to teach English, and still do. So how does that work with the clay? This is not a pot because it doesn't have a hole in it. There's no inside. It's full of itself, like me. As we ask God to replace us with himself in our hearts, he begins to put pressure right in the center of the clay. On those things that you and I have filled our life with, and that we love the most.

What is it that you love the most? What's God putting pressure on? What's he wanting to replace with his love and grace? What are the loves of your life that he wants to make into a place where he can live and shape?

From pressure to growth

The great thing about this is that when I begin to open up that clay, when the pressure comes from the outside and squeezes it in, he's on the inside. So instead of squishing the clay and making it smaller, with Jesus on the inside he turns that pressure into growth.

We can't avoid pressure. We can't avoid the difficulties in life. We can't avoid the hardships, pain, and suffering. I communicate with a potter named Duane, and he wrote the other day that he was having a lot of trouble. He said life is pain. I thought, okay, so I've been talking to this guy. He's a young potter, really good, but it is painful. If life is difficult, we can't just ignore it.

But we've got to ask Jesus. As Christians, we have an opportunity to ask God to turn that pain. He works all things together for good if we look to him.

Trimming and shaping

There are times in our lives when God uses nice sharp objects. I make these. They work just right for me. They've got two blades on them, one going each way. I take them and begin to trim off and scrape off things that aren't necessary. When you're starting to work with a piece of clay to make a pot, it's thick at the bottom. If you want your pots not to feel like they're full when they're empty, it's really important to trim off the excess.

What are the things that God's trimming off of your life right now? Is there anything that he's asking you to give up, to go without? I liked what was said about the offering. God, not what am I supposed to give, but what am I supposed to keep? There's a guy that started an engineering college in Texas, Letourneau, and I think he ended up keeping ten percent and gave ninety percent away as he started a university down there.

What is God doing in your life? Is he stretching you? From the inside out, God wants to expand your life. He wants to expand you and do greater things in you. Give you more capacity for giving, for sharing, for loving.

Sometimes I need to trim the top off a piece because it's gotten uneven. Is there anything that God's wanting to trim off of your life right now? Jesus said about himself that the Son of Man didn't come to be served but to serve.

The pitcher's purpose

I always make a picture when I do this. And the point of a pitcher is to serve others. It's not just to serve itself. You don't drink out of the pitcher. The spout goes out of the pitcher. It doesn't go in. God is the potter. This is your life.

I exhaust my life and I'm just dust. I gave in to the pressure. I didn't let God's pressure do it. I let envy dictate me, inform me, smash me. Well, you've done a good job with your life so far. What are you going to do now? I don't want to forgive people. I don't want to forgive me.

You don't need to forgive me. I don't need to forgive you. So you don't want to forgive others. Why is that? What kind of hurts have you had? We just build our own wall. We move on and go on with our life. We don't have to.

What are you going to do about this? So you're going to try to make a pot on the wheel here? Are you going to the wheel of life? Or are you just going to give up? I'm just dust. You're just done. That's it. You're finished. What's the pot we're going to do?

Well, I'll tell you what. Here, let me just give it to you. What are you going to do with your life? It all just slips through my fingers. This is why we put the stuff down. I just make a mess of things. You've made a mess of things. Do you need help? I'm still here. You need help? Well, that was a good choice.

How many of you think she made a good choice to give her life back to the potter?

A fresh start

Let's start over. You've been born again. You don't have to deal with the old life. God gives you a new one. Let's see if I can make an even bigger mess. I'm just going to do this and not talk. I want you guys to watch as I work and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you about what he wants to do with your life. And how, no matter how big a mess you've made of it, how he can reshape it.

Closing prayer

Lord Jesus, I want to thank you for New Culture and that you want us to be part of your new culture right here in Madison, Wisconsin. Thank you for the opportunity to make you Lord, to let you be king of our lives. Lord, that there would be no king but Jesus. In your name, Amen.