The Reward For Good Work

We enjoyed three amazing testimonies this past Sunday of what God is doing among us. One lady, who has been battling ovarian cancer for over a year, shared how God has been with her and how good she is feeling. Another mother of a five year old, shared about the adoption process that she and her husband have just gone through and how God worked a tremendous miracle in that process. Another mother who has a special-needs child shared how a new treatment is already allowing her and her husband to see tremendous signs of improvement with their child. It was an amazing day.

Two weeks ago I received a card in the mail addressed to our church-related high school from a lady that I don’t know. I don’t think she has ever had any children or grandchildren at our school and the card simply read “Thank you for your outreach to the community and to the world!” And on the inside was a check for $50.00. When I read that note my eyes started sweating. I thought about how amazing the Kingdom of God is. God gives a vision to one person and uses another person to make provision. It wasn't that the $50.00 was going to make a major difference in our budget. It was the knowledge that God is working on other people to reaffirm His vision for what we are doing.

There is nothing easy about what we do around here. It’s not a vacation. But the last time I checked, the reward for good work in the parable of the talents wasn’t an extended vacation or early retirement. The reward for good work was more work.

We're ready to roll up our sleeves and keep working for His Kingdom!

Divine Delays

There is an amazing little phrase in the story about the release of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. It is easy to miss if you aren't watching for it. It's found in Exodus 13:17 (NLT): “When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land.” Why? Why not get them there as quickly as possible?  “God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”

Quite often, when we pray for God's deliverance, or when we have a God-given dream, we want it to occur immediately. The people of Israel certainly wanted to arrive in the Promised Land. But God did not take them on the quickest route because He knew that, even though they had left Egypt, they still had Egypt in them. When faced with hardships in the Promised Land (and even though it is the Promised Land, it will have hardships), they would be tempted to return to Egypt.

Here's the principle: God cares more about who we become in the process of pursuing a God-given dream, than the dream itself. We're all about the dream. God is all about us.

Mark Your Trail

God spoke to Jeremiah and told him: “Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Mark well the path by which you came.” (Jeremiah 31:21). It is a pretty simple command, but one we often fail to heed. God is basically reminding us that there is a difference in taking a trip and marking a trail.

Far too many people spend their lives just making the trip from birth to death. Far too few actually mark the trail for those that will come after them. The first group personifies consumerism. They are here to consume all that life has to offer. The second group personifies legacy...they are here to make a difference!

And what we often fail to remember is that it is in simple, daily choices and decisions that we make that we either mark our trail or simply make the trip. I hope to live my life by marking the trail.

A Flexible Attitude

We are looking at three attitudes, found in Jeremiah 18, that we must possess in order to shape the things to come in our lives. The first was a teachable spirit. The second attitude is flexibility. We must stay pliable in the hands of the Potter.

Jeremiah 18:4 says, “But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.” The phrase "the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped" is a fascinating phrase to me (see my post on January 11, 2013..."Even In His Hands, We Can Become Marred). But that is not the point of today's post.

The emphasis today is this...the clay was flexible and pliable enough that the Potter could continue to work with it. Have you ever heard someone say, "Well, that's just the way I am...live with it." Why do we think we can do that and expect to succeed in any arena of life, especially our spiritual lives. Try telling your boss "Well, that's just the way I am...if you want me to work here...live with it." Try telling your bank, "Well, I just spend a lot of money...live with it." We instinctively know to shape our future on our jobs or in our finances, we have to be flexible, pliable. Why in the world would we think we could tell the Potter that deep-seated flaws are just the way we are...live with it?

And here's the deal about our Heavenly Potter: If we are not pliable, He will moisten us and crush us (read verse 4 again) until He can work with us. The choice is ours. We can choose to be flexible in His hands, or we can become bitter, brittle, and hard. The results of our choice will be obvious.

A Teachable Attitude

An attitude that we must possess in order to shape the things to come in a successful manner is to be teachable. When I was a basketball coach, I would often ask my players, "Who is the greatest golfer in the world right now?" (At that time it was Tiger Woods). When they would answer, I would say to them, "Did you know that Tiger Woods has a coach?" You see, if Tiger and his coach played a round of golf, you know who would win every time, don't you? Tiger. But he recognizes that even though he is a better player than his coach, he needs an external perspective to help him see the things he can't see about his swing. The good and the things that need to be corrected.

In verse 1, 2 of Jeremiah 18, the Lord told Jeremiah, “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” We all have a potter's house, a place where God can teach us. But the reality is, the potter's house is not so much a geographical location as it is an attitudinal quality. 

God uses His Word to teach us. He uses pastors, preachers, and teachers to help us gain insight. He uses common ordinary things, like pottery, to teach us. In fact, when you have a teachable spirit, you will discover that God speaks to you all the time, through small events, through conversations, through circumstances, and through preachers and teachers.

When you are teachable, you will discover that God always has something for you to learn. An old adage says, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears." If we fail to cultivate a teachable spirit, we will miss opportunities to shape the things to come in our lives.

There's Still Time

George Eliot is quoted as saying, "It's never too late to become what you might have been." That is certainly the message in Jeremiah 18 as Jeremiah made his trip to the Potter's House. What we have discovered the past three weeks, all of us are on the Potter's wheel. And like clay in the potter's hands, we also have times where we become marred, either by our own choices or events that are out of our control. Things don't go as we had planned, and are not even as the Potter had planned (read Jeremiah 18:4....the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped).

But the great hope of this amazing living illustration is there is still time. God is a master at redesigning the flaws of our lives, whether created by our own failures or not, and make something beautiful in our lives.

The point we will drill down on this week is this: we have a say in how shapeable we will be. There are things we can do that will determine the shape of things to come in your life.

It's Never Too Late To Mess Up

We began this week talking about some of the great comebacks in the NFL playoffs this past weekend. But you know, for every team that had a great comeback, there is also a team that...blew it. In the 2008 Super Bowl, the New York Giants and Eli Manning had a great breakthrough comeback and defeated the New England Patriots. What we often forget is that the Patriots were 35 seconds from having a perfect season...and they let it slip through their fingers. Don't you know those players have relieved those 35 seconds over and over during the past 5 years.

While Jeremiah 18 and the story of the potter's wheel reminds us that it is never too late to turn things around, it is also true that we never get to the place, this side of heaven, that we reach the place where we can coast in our spiritual disciplines. The same disciplines that it took for me to become established in the faith are required for me to finish my race faithfully.

The Titanic. Enron. Lehman Brothers. Blockbusters Video. What do they all have in common? At some point in their history, they seemed to big to fail. But they all fell. You never get to the point where you can coast out your life.

That's why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:12: “If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.” He's reminding us that it's never too late to mess things up. I'm not trying to be negative, but I am reminding us...we need to be careful.

It's Never Too Late To Turn Things Around

Jeremiah 18:7, 8 says: "If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned."

Sometimes, people act as if God's judgment or God's blessings are pre-determined. But God says through Jeremiah in this passage: "If I said I was going to destroy something or someone, but they repent, I won't do it." While I certainly won't pretend to understand everything about God's sovereignty, predestination, or His purposes (in fact, I understand very little about it), I do know that He told Jeremiah that repentance can change planned judgment.

What does that mean for you and I in the 21st Century? Again, I won't pretend to imply that I understand it all, but here is what I think it means for us...God's judgment is not a done deal on our nation, on our community, nor for you and I as individuals. It is never too late to change the course of our lives or the outcome of our lives.

Our future is not written in stone...Jeremiah says in is written in clay. There is still time to change the direction of your life!

Play Until The Final Out

This past weekend, the football world was filled with comebacks. On Saturday, the Denver Broncos had a victory and a trip to the AFC Championship within grasp, when the Baltimore Ravens threw a seventy-yard touchdown pass in the final seconds of the game to come back and win. On Sunday, The Atlanta Falcons had a 20 points half-time lead over the Seattle Seahawks and then saw the Seahawks come from behind to take a one point lead with just over 30 seconds left. Amazingly, the Falcons were able on three passes to get to the Seahawks 35 yard-line and kick a game-winning field-goal with under 15 seconds left in the game. Comebacks are amazing stories.


In football, a comeback not only involves a battle against the opponent, it also involves a battle against the clock. Some comeback efforts are stopped short when time runs out, like when the Georgia Bulldogs ran out of time against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game this year.


For that reason, baseball has the advantage in the comeback department, because there is no clock. You can never get too far behind in baseball to win as long as you have at least one more at-bat, one more strike. At some point in each football game, there comes a time when the lead is big enough that the winning team can take a knee and run out the clock. In baseball, you can't coast to a win; no lead is safe, no loss is certain, until the final out.

Life is like that as well. Our mantra in life should be "It's never too late...." And because of that, we should play until the final out. This week we are going to see why, from Jeremiah 18, it is never too late. 

Even In His Hands, We Can Be Marred

Just because you are in the Potter's hands doesn't mean you will never experience pain, heartache, or disappointment. As Jeremiah observed in verse 4: “But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands....” The New Living Translation says: “But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped...”

That is an amazing statement. What Jeremiah is telling us is this: There will be times when things turn out not only difference from the way you wanted, but different from the way God wanted them as well.

Here is a truth that we sometimes forget. Not everything that happens in life is by the design of God, but if you let him, God can redesign anything that happens. The Bible makes it pretty plain that lots of things happen that aren't his will at all. For instance, the Bible says that it's not God's will that any should perish...but there are many people who have refused to accept the truth of God's Word and have rejected Jesus Christ. Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."Why? Because in heaven His will is always done...not so on earth. In this life there are things that happen that are outside the will of God. 

Verse 4 continues: “the potter formed it into another pot...” As the ESV says... “and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.” Things happen in our lives that are not God's will for us; however, nothing happens that is not under the control of God. There is no situation beyond his power to redeem. If we allow him, He can take the broken parts of our lives and shape them into something marvelous.

The Potter Is At The Wheel

Our tendency is to believe that the way things are is the way they will always be. Whether it is financial stress, relational problems, physical infirmities, or spiritual barrenness, in the moment of our struggles, we often feel like it will always be this way.

Jeremiah said in verse 3: “So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.” Obviously, the Potter in this story symbolizes God. And Jeremiah drives home an important truth that we often fail to remember...God is still at the wheel of your life. You may not feel that is true. It may not even appear to be true. Often we feel like a lump of clay spinning hopelessly out of control. But that is the farthest thing from the truth. Jeremiah encourages us, God is "working at the wheel". He is shaping, molding, and making you into your fullest potential.

It Ain't Over Til It's Over

Jeremiah 18 contains an amazing story where God uses a graphic illustration to drive a poignant point into the life of Jeremiah, and in turn, to those of us in the 21st Century. I want to encourage you to read Jeremiah 18:1-11.

I have recently been re-visiting the Ken Burns PBS series called Baseball. While watching this history of the game during the 50's, I was reminded of many of the great statements made by the New York Yankees player, Yogi Berra. Berra had a way of making statements that seemed completely illogical, and yet were full of logic. Like when he said, “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Or when he said, “A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.” He also said, “The future ain't what it used to be.” One time when sitting down at the table he said, “You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.” Another time he gave this sage advice, “Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.”

Probably the most famous Yogism is "It ain't over 'til it's over." No matter how things are in your life right now, Yogi would say, "It ain't over yet. And it won't be over until it's over."

I think of that when I read the story of the potter in Jeremiah 18. A mistake we often make is that we think that the way things are today is the way things always will be. The economy will always be this good, or this bad. Business will always be this good, or this bad. This relationship will always be this good or this bad. But I have discovered that few situations, are permanent. There is an ebb and flow to life. The tide comes in and the tide goes out.

The message the passage reiterates over and over is this: It ain't over till it's over. This week, we are going to look at reasons why, no matter what you may be experiencing at the moment, you can be sure that it ain't over.