This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:02] Good morning to you all. Greetings from your your friends down in the least severe. Hello, I'm Pastor Pete. I'm one of the pastors at CompassHB Bible Church in a less severe house. So glad to be here with you this morning. You are invisible in answer to an answered prayer that the pastors of our church, and at least so in a lot of people in Alisa have had. Pastor Bobby came into my office probably about 10 and a half years ago, and we hired him to be a youth pastor for us. And boy, what a great day that was. Sometimes when you hire someone, you think, well, they're that good and sometimes maybe they're not as good as you thought, but sometimes you hire people. You think they're that good and they're way better than that. Well, you're senior pastor with someone that we hired that we thought was here, but he was way better than what we thought. And we're so thankful for him. And I can't tell you the number of times that Pastor Bobby and myself would spend time in in my office. And we would talk about the day that he would come up to Huntington Beach and become a senior pastor and preach the gospel here in North Orange County. We talked about it. We prayed about it. It's happened. We're excited. You're visible. Answer to God's prayer. And I'm so excited and delighted to be here with you this morning and share God's word with you. Last week was there are actually two weeks ago, I was actually in a different state of mind and a physically different state altogether. Two weeks ago today, I was in the state of Illinois, in the Chicago land area. My oldest son got married. And not only did he get married, but I got to officiate his wedding, which was was certainly an interesting and great opportunity to sit there and stand in front and watch your future daughter in law come down the aisle and walk in with your with your son, who is the groom and your other son, who is the best man. And that was quite a day. And one of the things we got to do is we got to throw a rehearsal party so the groom's parents always get to throw the rehearsal party. It's a dinner. And so we had thrown this big dinner on Saturday, the day before the wedding. And my wife, who understandably, like all wives, very, very interested in this wedding. I mean, very interested in it. And so she came up with an idea that on every single table at this at this rehearsal dinner would be a lantern in the lantern, had four sides to it. And so on each side was a picture of both Michael, who is my older son, and Patricia, his his new wife. And there were pictures of when they were infants. And then when they were toddlers and when they were in elementary school, there were probably twelve of these lanterns that were on all of the tables. And so she went to a great deal of work on it and took pictures and made him into black and whites and put this special effect on him. And then she printed him on and put him on vellum. And then the vellum was in the window of it. And then she put a light in the side. So, you know, light was emanating through it. You get the idea that she spent a little bit of time on it. We had to ship this stuff out, by the way, from California to a whole nother story. But at any rate, we get it all there in. It's amazing. And and and I start looking at one of the pictures there that's at the table I'm sitting at. And it's a picture of my son Michael, when he's perhaps maybe four or five years old playing with Legos. My son loved Legos. He was the ultimate builder, you know, Legos, right. The the builder thing. And he's four or five years old. He's not going to eat him and worry about whether he's going to choke to death enemy. He's old enough to start playing with them and anything he ever wanted as a kid from probably four or five years old up until I don't even want to tell you how old was. Can you get me a Lego? And so you get a Lego and you look at it and you'd see the picture of what the designer of the Lego would want the Lego to look like. You'd look at and go, okay, is a Star Wars picture love Star Wars to see Star Wars Lego. Look at it. Then you open it up and all the pieces would be in there. And then there would be something else called directions. And the directions would say, step one, do this step to do this. And so methodically you could build this Lego and it would look just like the picture.

[00:04:21] Except there was one big giant problem. My son would take the directions and throw him over his right shoulder and he would build the Lego the way that he wanted built and want to tell you he had hundreds of Legos, he had hundreds of Legos and absolutely zero none of them look like any of the things that were on the boxes cover. And it used to drive me nuts because he'd asked me for help and I'd be like, oh, sure, I'll be able to start with step one. Oh, no, I don't like the way they're doing it. At three or four years old, we knew he had a problem already or should have known that. And and so none of these Legos look the way they should look. And the designer, the developer of Legos, had an idea of exactly the way they wanted it to look. And it never did. And I tried to get him to stop it. I a clean built just one. The way it should look. Just one. And still to this day, we have never built one Lego that looks like that box. And like the Lego builder, the designer, the designer had an idea. You know, sovereign over the Lego world, if you would like. And. And my son rebelled against it and said, no, I want to build the Lego. The way that I would like it built. And today, I'm here to talk to you about the nation of Judah in a in a prophet named Jeremiah. And Jeremiah came to the nation of Judah with the same problem he had. He had a group of people that were under the sovereign rulership of Yahoo! Away, the God of heaven, the God of Earth. And these people did not want to do what the designer had called them to do. They would not repent. And that was pretty tough stuff. The nation of due to the southern kingdom refused to follow the directions of God. And not only that, they chose other gods and the gods placed in this huge temple for your way. And they worshiped Molik. They worship all. They worshiped Ashura, every other God. They worship themselves as God. They wanted nothing to do with a god of heaven and the God of earth. And perhaps maybe a little bit of history will help us before we open God's word and understand a little bit of all what's happening in Jeremiah in 10, 50 B.C. to nine hundred and thirty B.C., a period of 120 years. The nation of Israel was the United Kingdom. You remember the United Kingdom. That's when everybody got along. Ten fifty to nine thirty. And you had three kings. The very first king was a man by the name of Saul. Saul was not a very good king. And after Saul came, King David and David was a good king, a man after God's own heart. But he had some problems of his very own as well. And then the third king in that united period was a man by the name of Solomon, and Solomon was David's son. So from ten fifty to nine thirty, you know, it wasn't perfectly great, but it was unified. When Solomon dies, the bottle comes out and everything becomes problematic. The nation of Israel divides. It becomes a divided kingdom. And divided kingdom is from nine hundred and thirty to seven. Twenty two. That's two hundred and eight years of a divided kingdom. And so what was going on is ten of the tribes of the twelve tribes of Israel state to the north. And they started under a man by the name of Jerry. Two of the tribe state in Jerusalem. They were under the rulership of a man called Ray. A bomb Ray. A bomb was Solomon's son. So it was a divided situation. These people did not get along. Shekar them in Somalia were the new capitals of this northern kingdom of Israel, and Jerusalem was the king, which was the capital of Judah. So the southern kingdom was called Judah. The Northern Kingdom was called Israel. Well, the northern kingdom had big problems and their big problems was they didn't really love God anymore. They stopped liking God and following God and what God does, God is a gracious God, a God is merciful and patient. And he sends prophets to the northern kingdom and says, hey, guys, knock it off, knock it off, stop worshiping false gods. Come to me, come to back to the God of heaven and earth. Come back to your way. And the people say, no way. We don't want you think God is a gracious God. Two hundred and eight years worth of prophets and repent and repent to repent. And they don't do it. And you know, there's only so much sand in the hourglass with God in the last grains of sand went through the hourglass. And God was done sending prophets. He was done causing these people were wanting these people to repent. And he sent judgment to him. And God used the nation of Syria. Syria was a worldwide leader. It would be similar. These were ruthless, killing people. The Assyrians were killing machines. Maybe not so dissimilar to a group called ISIS today. And God used him to punish the northern kingdom and destroyed in exile the people that were in the north.

[00:09:32] Well, all the brothers that are in the south saw what happened to the people in the north. And they were like, wow, bomber, that's really bad. God really punish those people. That's awful. And so from seven hundred and twenty two and the Syrians conquer the northern part of Israel from seven twenty two to five hundred and eighty six, five hundred eighty six B.C. We have what's called a solitary kingdom. So all it was really left was Judah. The people that were in the north. Immigrated. That's a good word. Immigrated to the South and joined in the southern community or were sent elsewhere. And in the north was no more. So the southern community went that way for almost one hundred and thirty six years worth of problems. So from seven twenty two to five eighty six, guess what the southern kingdom did? Did the southern kingdom look at the northern kingdom and go, Oh, man, I saw it happen to those guys. We shouldn't do what they did because the God of heaven and earth destroyed them. So maybe we should do is repent. We should keep worshiping your highway instead. Absolutely no way. That's not what they did. They just looked at that example and said, so what? It won't happen to us. There's no way it will happen to us. And they continue to do exactly what the northern kingdom did was he turned away from God. They said, we want nothing to do with God. What does God do? He sends prophets. He sends prophets to them to get them to do one thing, repent. That's all he wants them to do. And in five hundred and eighty six B.C.. The last of the sand goes through the hourglass. God has had it. It's over. Any God sends a man by the name of Nebeker Nasser King. Never can hazard the King of the Caledonians. The Babylonian leader sends them right to Jerusalem. They take the beautiful temple that Solomon had made. And they raise it to the ground. They destroy it. They they kill many of the people that have turned their hearts against God. God used he used never confessor to punish his own people because God hates sin. And he gave those people a long time to repent. And it was over. And the remnant that lived, the remnant that made it. You know what happened to them? They got to go on a on a little hike in Nebeker, Nasr took a remnant of people and he'd actually been to Jerusalem earlier and he brought Ezekiel and Daniel to Babylon before five eighty six. But the remnant that was left over in five eighty six, they got to take a hike and they got to walk all the way from Jerusalem to Babylon. Now you might think, well, how far is that? Can't be that far, right? It would be like if I said, hey, join me outside here in the parking lot at the end of the service and we're gonna walk to Salt Lake City, which I like to walk to Salt Lake City with me this afternoon. Anybody we're going to have to go through right through the Mojave Desert and all the way up through. I'm hoping we can make it to maybe Victorville, you know, by Tuesday. But it's going to take a long time and think you watched all your friends and relatives die. You've seen your city destroyed to the ground. You've seen the Holy Temple of God destroyed. And now you get to go for a walk to a foreign land.

[00:12:54] There is where Jeremiah lived. Now, remember, I told you seven twenty two was when the northern kingdom was judged and destroyed. Five eighty six is when the southern was well in seven twenty two for thinking about what we call the major prophets. Our first major prophet is Isaiah, and Isaiah was around during that first time period with Syria. The next prophet in order is when we're gonna look at today. His name is Jeremiah and Jeremiah totally wrote the book of Jeremiah, but he also wrote the book that's right next to it called Lamentation. Lamentations is basically a dirge. It's a book of mourning. If you go to Israel with me and I'll be going to Israel, I know Pastor Bobby's probably going to be going to Israel pretty quickly.

[00:13:37] You can still see Orthodox Jewish people and they'll stand before the Western Wall and they will cry out. And they're reading the book of lamentations and destruction of their own city, Jerusalem, and they're crying out to the Lord like this going never, never again, never again or holy one. Oh, he no, don't ever destroy Jerusalem ever again. And they're reading from the Book of Lamentations. And then after Lamentations, there's two other major prophets to come right behind it. One of them is a guy by the name of physical and the other one is Daniel. And a Ziegel and Daniel are called exhilarate exhilarating prophets because their time period was during the exile. So after the destruction of Jerusalem, those two guys do all their major work, not in Jerusalem, but they do it in Babylon. And most of all of their writings discuss what's going on in Babylon. And that's Daniel and that's also Ezekiel. But today I want to introduce to you Jeremiah. Jeremiah was both a prophet and he was a priest. God instructed him not to marry. Those of you that are married and those of you that hoped to be married, you know, it's a blessing to be married. It's a blessing to be having children and a family. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing. Right.

[00:14:52] And God said to Jeremiah, no, I don't want you to get married because the impending judgment that's gonna be coming. Goans Nation. Don't want your family to even be part of it. Plus, I want your main attention to it. So Jeremiah could not even start a family, could not have the fellowship and companionship of a wife. And he was a preacher and he was preaching repentance every single Saturday at Shabad. He'd be preaching repentance. And you know how many people came to hear him. That's ahead.

[00:15:23] We're with you, Jeremiah. We got this. We're with you. He had zero people show up. Not one that would be like if Pastor Bobby came back here next week for the nine and the eleven and preach to a bunch of empty chairs and did it for years and years and years and years. That's exactly what Jeremiah did. It's one of the reasons that we refer to Jeremiah as a weeping prophet, as a weeping prophet. Judah, just like Israel, the southern kingdom that we're talking about had turned their hearts and turn their minds away from your boy. They were worshiping other gods.

[00:15:57] They had absolutely no interest in repentance at all. And Jeremiah kept preaching to them and preaching to them. And they kept saying, no way, man. We want to do it our way. In many ways, isn't America kind of like that today? Don't you see that in our world today? Just like Judit turning their heart away from God? How is Christians? How is Christians today? Do we look into the world of Jeremiah and we find application.

[00:16:31] We see what Jeremiah saw. We see people that are not interested in God anymore saying, look, don't bring the God thing up. Let's get God out of schools. Let's get got out of everything that's here. We want to live in a godless society. We want nothing to do with you any longer. You're fired. God.

[00:16:49] Isn't that what America's doing today?

[00:16:52] Because that's exactly the place the Jeremiah has lived in. So let's take a look at our passage this morning. If you have your Bibles, would you open them up to Jeremiah and Jeremiah? Chapter number 18. And let's see what God's word will teach us this morning about how to live in difficult, difficult times. Jeremiah, chapter number 18.

[00:17:15] Jeremiah has gone on a lot of field trips and we're joining Jeremiah in the 18th chapter. God has taken him on field trips all over Jerusalem to teach not only him lessons, but to teach people's lessons. And he's teaching his people a lesson today that they don't want to forget. I don't want you to forget either, he says, Jeremiah, let's go for a walk. We're gonna go down to the Potter's House in verse number one, joining me in the word of God. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. We see capital l o r d in your Bible. Do you see that there? What the translators are telling you is that the translation for that, the Hebrew is your way. Yolly is the holiest name of God. The Jewish people today are so afraid, at least the Orthodox Jewish people of blasphemy and God, that they're not even permitted to say the name Yahweh. When they see the name Yahweh, though, they'll replace it with the name L.O. Heem, which they can say. But Yahweh is the holiest name. And the translators in your Bible want you to know when your way is being used and your way is being used right here. The word came to Jeremiah from your way arise and go down to the Potter's House there.

[00:18:29] I will let you hear my words. And Jeremiah did that. He went down to the Potter's House and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand. And the potter instead reworked it into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to do. So what he sees right off the bat is quite interesting. Jeremiah sees a potter and he sees some clay.

[00:19:00] But what's really interesting at the very beginning of it, I told you that God takes Jeremi on a lot of field trips, you know, in our lives, God will take you on a lot of field trips and take you to a lot of places. And he'll want to speak to you and he'll speak to you from his word. And as he speaks to you from his word, we want to pay attention. We want to hear what God has to say in our lives. And what's interesting right off the bat is that Jeremiah is immediately obedient to the Lord. Did you notice that immediately God said, hey, fieldtrip, get a permission slip from your parents were going and he doesn't give him a hassle. He's like that. Let's go. I'm willing to listen. I'm willing to obey. I'm willing to follow. He goes to the Potter's House and as he goes to the Potter's House, we understand that the potter has been revealed to Jeremiah and the potter is none other than God himself. And God himself is sitting at the potter's wheel.

[00:19:58] He is the designer. He is the creator. And this yaha way is creating clay pots. The people of Judah are the clay pots.

[00:20:13] You are a clay pot. God has created you. God, the majestic one, God, the holy one, God Almighty.

[00:20:23] This God is creator, and he is creating his people and he's creating them in his own image, not creating them in any other way. This is a critically important thing. We need to stop and sink that. And and you every single person in this auditorium, every single human being you will encounter tomorrow on Monday morning are all image bearers of God.

[00:20:54] That's why we say that human life is valuable. It's valuable because it's God. It's in God's image. You're an image bearer of God, no matter what your life is like right now. How difficult it is or what challenges you're facing. You start from a great proposition that you are a reflection of God himself. And did you notice that when God is at the wheel and he's a he's making pots. He doesn't look at the pot and ask, hey, how would you like to be designed? He doesn't ask permission from the pot at all. He makes the pot the way that he wants to. And it shows us that God is sovereign over his creation.

[00:21:42] He is going to make you he made you the way he wanted to make you. Not the way that you wanted to be. We can't reassign our sexuality or our gender. Can't reassign anything about. God has created us in his image the way that he's wanted us to be. And he's done it from the beginning of all time in Psalm. One hundred and thirty nine. King David gets it right. Listen to the words of David talking about the creation process, talking about how you and I have been created and Psalm one hundred and thirty nine, verse 13 for you, God for my in word parts. You needed me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you. I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book were written every one of them. The days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

[00:22:52] None of them.

[00:22:54] God's design of you was patient, specific, well thought out. It had absolutely nothing to do with chance. Every single life is designed and developed and directed by God himself. And not only did he design you, design you, he designed everything else.

[00:23:20] Paul gets it right and acts. Chapter 17. He's at the area. OPIC is talking to some really smart epicurean ests and some stoic SIDOR there. And he says this inverse 24 of chapters, 17 in the Book of Acts, the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of Heaven and earth doesn't live in temples that are made by man. Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything else. You see, Jeremiah, David, Paul all had one thing in common.

[00:23:59] They had a big giant view of who God is. How big this morning is your view of God? How big is it, how big do you see God being in your life?

[00:24:16] All of these things, all these things were at the potter's wheel point to a godly godly development, a godly design.

[00:24:28] And you and I are image bearers, wonderfully imperfectly designed, were valuable and were valuable because because we're made in God's image. And that's it. All these things lead us to pray. And we pray that God would make us the way he chooses, not the way that we would like. You need to believe that God knows best. And you need to trust that God knows best in this. And I put it this way for taking notes with me this morning. Embrace. I want you to embrace God's design for you. Could you embrace God's design? God.

[00:25:04] God holds us in his hand. And as he shapes our lives through experience. And some of those experiences are good experiences. Some of them very difficult. And when you can think of the potter's wheel going round and round and and God sitting there forming the pot, informing you that that wheel is kind of like the experiences and circumstances of your life. And some of those circumstances and experiences are quite pleasant. It's fun to be in a good family. It's fun. Last two weeks ago is great to go to a wedding and and be out there with the family. That's quite a nice experience and a blessed time to be able to go there. I can remember 30 years ago, after being married and being married for a couple of years, being told by your doctor that you know what, you and your wife will never physically be able to have children. That's not a very pleasant experience. But that experience, just like the experience I had two weeks ago. God used to shape my life and he uses good experiences and difficult, whether it's financial prosperity or lack thereof, were challenging and difficult relationships. Hardships in your life. Painful losses of friends and other people. All of these things will shape and the Potter will use all of them to shape who you are. C.S. Lewis put it this way. And I think very profoundly, we're not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us.

[00:26:27] We're just wondering how painful the best will turn out to be. And I think that's insightful because some of the best lessons, some of the best shaping that we go through is sometimes some of the most painful things that will ever experience.

[00:26:43] Did you notice something else in the first four versus I think is quite interesting?

[00:26:47] Did you notice that God didn't like the first part? He call it spoiled or marred and he built it into something else. But that but that that been a claim was just a lump of clay at that point. It's no good luck. Like just a lump. But you notice what he didn't do well. What didn't he do with a clay when it was no good? He didn't take it and pitch it over his shoulder and throw it away. Cotton never throws his creation ever away. And he doesn't throw it away because, again, you are image barriers. Listen to this. Listen to this about our God. Our God is a God. Second, chances are God is a god of second chances. If today if you have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and I hope that you do, I can trust that if we pass the microphone around, you could give me examples of how God has provided second chances in your life, chances for you to repent of maybe some heinous sin or some difficult things or bad choices that you've made that you needed God's forgiveness for.

[00:27:59] And he needed God to to restore you and reconcile you back into the family and see the potter never throws the clay away. He doesn't do that. He loves the clay. He loves his people. And he won't ever throw that away. But even in our sanctification, needing needing a second chance. Do you ever think about the story of Peter the apostle Peter? Here's a guy that had backstage passes to the Jesus show, arguably the most important person next to Paul, maybe Paul and Peter, most important people historically in the Christian faith. And Peter was a man that looked at Jesus before crucifixion, before arrest and said, you know, a Jesus. I was just thinking today, if someone persecuted you, I would I would be persecuted with you. I'd go to jail with you. And Jesus get this. I would die for you and I would die with you.

[00:28:55] And he got his chance to prove his words, to see if his words and his actions matched up. And when Jesus was arrested under relatively mild, very mild questioning. Peter denies Christ. Three times as if he never knew him. A lady just asked him, Sandino, that ax. And she got Peter sounds Galilean.

[00:29:19] You know that Jesus guy? No. Now, I never knew. And three times Peter says, never known.

[00:29:29] I mean, how bad is that denying the Lord and not only denying law, but denying him after he made a big speech saying, you know what? I'd never deny you at all. And yet in John 21, Jesus cooked breakfast for Peter because Peter walks away depressed. Peter was supposed to do things after the resurrection that he never did. He never Peter did. He went back to what he was before he went back fishing. He was a fisherman and and God rescued him from. That's a no. I'll make you a fisherman of men, not a fish. But he goes back and does it. And Jesus Christ meets he meets him on the shores and north Galilee and he makes breakfast for him. You remember this conversation, Peter? Peter, do you love me? Oh, yes, Lord. You know, I do. And you remember three different times he asked in that question three different times. And Jesus said, After you say you love me, remember he said no.

[00:30:30] Then feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. What are you saying to Peter? Accept your apology. You blew it big time.

[00:30:40] I accept your apology, but I need you to get back into the game. I need you to do what I asked you to do at the beginning. And he never punished Peter to the place of of humiliation or put him in the penalty box or demoted him. He put Peter right back in the ballgame, hit and cleanup. And Peter becomes arguably one of the most important characters in the Christian faith. Historically.

[00:31:07] And here's a guy that denied Christ three times, he needed forgiveness. He needed a God that would give him a second chance. Hey, man, are we excited that we have a God that gives us second chances? We're not clay that he doesn't like and throws away. We need to be thankful this morning. We need to be thankful that God created you. No matter how bad your bones hurt, no matter how bad you think your life is, you're an image bearer of God and you should be thankful for it. He should be really thankful that he saved you, that he pulled you out of the mire of sin and has given you ever lasting love and ex ever lasting life. Can you imagine? Could you imagine what your life would be like without the Lord Jesus Christ? So let's continue on. Let's look at versus five and six now that we've been introduced to the Potter and we see the potter on the wheel and now Jeremiah needs some interpretation.

[00:32:06] He sees it. He sees what what's happening. And in the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah and provides some some information. Verse five, then the word of your way came to me o House of Israel. Can I not do with you? Is this Potter has done declares your way. Behold. Like the clay in the potter's hands. So are you in my hand. Oh, House of Israel. And here comes a big statement and the statement that God is making to Jeremiah that were eavesdropping on this morning is that God can do what ever he wants to do with you. He could take care of life this afternoon. He could do anything that he would like. And that is what he's saying, saying, look, can't I do just like the potter to the clay? Can't I do with you as I choose to do?

[00:33:07] It's a great question.

[00:33:10] God's control is big. And again, how big is your view of God? Got interprets as parable for Jeremiah.

[00:33:20] Got a sovereign. He has you. He has me right here in his hand. You can do whatever he wants with us.

[00:33:26] God's control extends to the entire universe, not just to you. Control of all nature and natural law. God controls all of his creatures. God controls all of the human beings. God controls the nation. God controls history. God controls every single circumstance. Ladies and gentlemen, he controls it all. It's his world.

[00:33:48] Your clay pot. I'm a clay pot. It's his. Not ours.

[00:33:54] Juda, the nation of Judah, believed none of that. They didn't believe that that your way control them, made them or that they had any accountability.

[00:34:04] Nor do they want any accountability to to God like that at all. They're done. Finished. We'll do it our way. We'll make the Lego the way we want. Not not the way it's pictured, not the way God wants it. Isaiah and Isaiah, Chapter 40. Jot this down. I'll read it to verse number 13 of Isaiah 40, who has measured the spirit. If your way or what man shows him his counsel. Whom did he consult? Who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge. And who showed him the way of understanding. Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are counted as the dust to the scales. And behold, he takes up the coastline's like fine.

[00:34:48] Does the potter. Ladies and gentlemen, is clearly in control of everything. So if. If the potter is really in control of everything, whether you yield control to him or not, how do you respond to a God like this? This God didn't just make you and go off to a different planet.

[00:35:10] This God made you and his seeking relationship with you and is interested in growing with you. And so he's he's personal. He's intimate. So what's our response? We have a high view of God and we know God controls all of these things and God has made you. What is our response to that? What is right? We need to rethink, don't we? Don't we have to rethink and examine the way we're living and the way that we're living? Unlike the people of Judah, our hearts have got to be in a place of saying, you know what? My heart's open. And if God wants me to repent of something, I'm ready to repent today. If God finds something that's that's not to his liking.

[00:35:55] And I'm doing that today. Today's the day. Today's the day that I confess that today. Today's the day that I say, you know, I'm alive in that way anymore. Today's the day that I'm going to seek his forgiveness.

[00:36:06] You see, life's not about us. It's about God. You know, my job. I have people all the time talking to me about worship services. And I'll be out on the patio and I'll go. You know, Ryan Guy, I don't like a song selection today. You know, that, B, that my vision was a little bit slow for me. I like something a little bit more upbeat.

[00:36:25] You guys do any redmen around here? Do you do this or. I like the hymns. Do you have those same music? Part of this just wasn't it just wasn't hitting me. I didn't feel it. And and the pastor that you had today. Yeah, it's awful.

[00:36:39] I couldn't learn anything from arrogant sounding, horrible human being. You know, I got a couple of passages, was able to write it down. So scale of one, did a no and attended day over at companies Huntington Beach only to give you guys a four. Good job. Way to go. And as as wrong. And that's the way people come to church a lot. You came to church today not for the worship leader, not for the preacher. You came here today to worship the king. That's what you came here for. To give your heart to say, yes, I love God. I love Jesus. I want to worship collectively. I want to sing no matter what the song is. I want to sing out to the Lord. And when God's word is open and presented, my heart is ready. It's ready to grow. It's ready to repent. You know, every one of us is sitting here.

[00:37:29] We can be balled up and all kinds of anxiety and all kinds of sin. And God, through his spirit, is calling you to repent of things that that might be really heinous in your life for Mary. Very difficult that you're holding on to just like the nation of Judah.

[00:37:45] And gods like tick, tick, tick, tick.

[00:37:49] And he's waiting, he's waiting. And he's a patient. God. Oh, you know that. I mean, his patients is incredible. There's no one more patient than our God. But sometimes the sands in the hourglass, they kind of, you know, they kind of work through it. So if we know that God has this kind of God and it's not about us, it's about him. If you're taking no say write it down this way with me. Commit to living for his glory. Commit to living for his glory, not yours. More of him. Less of you. More of him and less of you. You know, we came here this morning to worship the king. He's the center of our lives. Many times you guys, we don't even know where or how God is going to even lead or direct us in our lives. People ask me often, what do you think God's going to do in the next 30 days in my life? Pastor, I have no idea what he's going to do. I wish I did. I wish he did. I wish I knew what he was gonna do in my life. He's unpredictable. He's got his undefinable. And we want to know. That leads us to a place of doing two things, having faith and trust in his direction and what he's doing. No matter what, we might be in a period of our lives where everything looks really foggy around us and we don't know what God's doing and we don't know what the next steps are. But by faith and trusting in his direction, we know that he is a good God and we know he has our best divine. And that means if we have to put the seatbelt sign on because it's going to get a little turbulent. Okay. We'll put the seatbelt sign on or put seat belts on. It'll be turbulent. But we know that God has his best in mind for us, even if it's in good times or if it's in bad times. And many times the roads bumpy. It's a bumpy road and it's not clear. But still, we want to trust God that this potter has us in his hands. He has us in his hands. There's no other place you'd rather be, right. I want to be in the hands of God, no matter what the circumstances are. Do you remember Joseph from the Bible?

[00:40:03] I think Joseph is a good example for us to think about because we're talking about the sovereignty of God. Here's a guy, Joseph, who who's a pretty amazing character in the Old Testament. And Joseph one day called a meeting. He said, hey, I'd like to get my brothers, your 10 older brothers. And, yeah, little bit of sibling rivalry in his family. He was not probably the most loved among his brothers because there's a little bit of jealousy that was brewing with the other 10 brothers. And they felt that their dad, Jacob, was was treating Joseph perhaps a little bit nicer. He gave Jacob a really cool jacket that he wore that none of the other brothers got. So Joseph calls a meeting and says, hey, everyone is have a meeting.

[00:40:44] And Dad, you come to hey, you know, I had a dream last night and you always spoke to me and he said that all 10 of you were about down to me and dad YouTube.

[00:40:55] And at that point, these brothers were like, done, we're done with this guy and we're going to take action on him. And they're they're herders and they're hurting animals. And so dad stays back in the tent. They go out, they do their job. And then 10 brothers are like, ah, kill him. And they decide to take Joseph and stick him in a hole and leave them there to die.

[00:41:21] And they lie to their father. They take that nice jacket that he had. And they tear it up and they dip it in some blood and say, oh, hey, dad, your favorite son, Bomber, is dead.

[00:41:32] Too bad. Sorry. Get over it.

[00:41:35] God had a different plan for Joseph. God's plan for Joseph was that Joseph would go to Egypt and not only would he go to Egypt.

[00:41:45] Joseph will go to Egypt and take the role as the second most powerful man in the Egyptian empire.

[00:41:53] Second most powerful man in the Egyptian empire. And the reason for it? God had a reason. He always has a reason. We don't know them on the front end. A lot of times, for God's reasons, sovereignly to have Joseph go to Egypt was was one fold.

[00:42:08] He knew God knew that this horrible famine was going to hit the land. And in this famine, he knew people would die.

[00:42:16] Lots of people would die.

[00:42:18] Tens of thousands of people would die in this famine, and what he wanted was he wanted to use Joseph as a tool. And he brings Joseph must bring him to Egypt to become the second most powerful man in Egypt so he can save the lives of his brothers and his father. But really, there's only one life that God's super interested in saving. And it ain't Joseph and Jacob either. It's a guy by the name of Judah. Judah had to live. Ask ourselves why? Why would you to have to live? Judah would have to live. Because he's in a line of Jesus Christ.

[00:42:58] So God was using Joseph Sovereignly to get there. Now let's watch what happens to him. He gets thrown in a pit by his brothers.

[00:43:07] His brothers have a moment. A conscious synagogue. This isn't really cool. They pull him out of the pit. They sell him to a bunch of Ishmael light slave traders and they say, hey, just take him away. We never want to see him again. They sell him.

[00:43:18] Doesn't seem like he's getting to Egypt. Doesn't seem like he's going to be number two guy. He gets to Egypt and he works the guy's house by the name of port offer and he gets a little bit of blessing. He does very well there. And. And Potter's wife thinks Joseph is kind of hot and makes a move on him. And Joseph flees sexual morality says no. She responds by claiming that he tried to rape her.

[00:43:41] Off he goes to prison. Joseph, our number two guy in all of Egypt, going to prison.

[00:43:48] Gets to prison, he meets two guys, he meets a baker and he meets a cupper, and both of them walk up to Joseph and they say, hey, you know, you know how to interpret dreams. We both have dreams. He tells them about the dreams. And Joseph interprets and he looks at the looks of the baker and says, Bummer, you're going to die. You're going to be executed. I think I was. And the other guy, the cup error, he said, well, good news for you. You one day will pour wine back into the cup of the pharaoh. Good news for you. And that's exactly what happens.

[00:44:17] You know, the Cup said to Joseph before he left prison, he said, dude, this dude way back then, too, dude, you are amazing. You have done great things for me. I will never forget you ever. Thank you. Amazing. Thanks. And he goes back to work for the pharaoh and promptly forgets Joseph. You know, from Worli perspective, from our rural view, look of it.

[00:44:42] God allowed all these things to happen to Joseph. All of them, Eli. All this free will to happen to them. But God, sovereign plan would be Joseph would be number two. He ends up interpreting the dream for the pharaoh. The pharaoh does promote him and he does come up with a plan for seven years of famine and seven years of just great tidings. And he saves the life of Judah. How amazing, how great God the potter got his will, his clay pot got where he wanted to get to. But did everyone see it coming? Nope. No one saw coming. Except for God. God knew what he was doing. So this idea that that we want God glorified over us is a great idea.

[00:45:30] It's biblical. God gets the first place.

[00:45:33] We don't get the first place. You guys. What we are is we're a billboard. Your life, your life is a billboard in front of everybody if you're married. Your billboard in front of your family, in front of your spouse. In front of your kids, in your workplace. You're a billboard there. And your opportunity is a billboard for people to see. Your life is for you to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:45:58] Ephesians Chapter two versus eight, nine and 10. Well, Paul says this about how you're created and what you're going to be doing versus a bike race. You've been saved through faith. This isn't of your own doing. It's a gift of God, not the result of work, so that no one may post this diverse 10 four.

[00:46:17] We are his workmanship. Same idea, right? He's the pastor. He's made us. Where is workmanship? We're created in Christ Jesus for four for good works, which God prepared the good works that you're doing beforehand. That we should walk in them. We should. Perry Petare o in them is a Greek word for walk.

[00:46:39] We should do what God has called us to do. His will, not ours.

[00:46:46] His will not ours. First Corinthians 10, verse 31, instructs us whether we eat or drink, whatever we do. We all do it to the glory of the glory of the Lord, not for the glory of yourself, not calling attention to you, but calling attention to our our great and amazing and wonderful God.

[00:47:07] Let's let's bring glory to him, not to ourselves. That's the message here.

[00:47:12] Now we've got a couple versus remaining and those versus are, well, quite troubling. Let's go back to our passage in Jeremiah in JEREMI 18, in verse number seven. So here comes some of the trouble at the beginning. It sounds pretty good. Verse number seven sounds like it's written directly to the nation of Judah. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns repents from its evil, I will relent. God doesn't repent. He relents. I will relent to the disaster that I intend to do to it. That sounds promising. That's the proposition that God is making through Jeremiah. To the people of Judah. It's like, hey, back down. Repent. Put me where I belong in your life. And if you do, I'll call the dogs off. We're not gonna have this big time of punishment. So it sounds OK. But, you know, it's frightening. His verse number nine and 10. Look at versus nine and 10. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and planted.

[00:48:24] Think about a nation that God has built or land.

[00:48:28] Mm hmm. A nation that was perhaps developed by Puritans from Europe. A nation that that revered God and God's word. A nation that was under God.

[00:48:43] A nation like that. So if I did that, if I built it and plant it. Verse 10, if if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent.

[00:48:56] Of the good ol pull the good back that I intended to do to it. That's a that's a frightening, frightening promise from a holy God that God would would do good.

[00:49:09] And I think all of us agree that that God has done quite a bit of good in this country.

[00:49:15] There's quite a bit of good. And yet this country wants nothing to do with God any longer. We're trying to get rid of God everywhere, out of schools, out of the community, everywhere. God has almost become a pejorative term in this world, almost like. What Chuda was doing in 586 B.C.. Well, God is on the throne just like he is as a potter. He is in control. God is a power. Everyone else you see in your life. You go back to work tomorrow and see a bunch of clay pots. Everyone's a clay pot. It doesn't matter whether it's President Obama, whether it's Putin, whether it's David Cameron. You think about who you think the most powerful people are in this world. They're nothing more than clay pots. That's what they are. And they were created by the same person. You were created by God himself. They're no better. They're no more powerful than you are. There is only one sovereign. And his name is God. Jesus Christ is sovereign over everything and every one. So as God is in control of all things, he is also a benevolent leader. You know, sometimes people are in control and there they're kind of despots are their kind of horrible people. But the person is controlling you is good. He's great.

[00:50:39] And if you remember do you remember The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? C.S. Lewis play is a great play in in it, two characters, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver are having a conversation. Yes, beavers can talk.

[00:50:52] You didn't know that, but they can. And Mr. Mrs. Mrs. Beaver are talking about God, just like husbands and wives today. Talk about God and they talk about life.

[00:51:00] And in the in the in his play in his book that C.S. Lewis wrote, Asselin Asselin is a lion and Aslan is is the lion of Judah. He's got himself in the book. And people look at asylum in this book. And there there's a sense of of all that frightened. He's a lion. Lions are frightening or the king of the jungle. And and here's the conversation at Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. Have a safe. Safe, says Mr. Beaver. Don't you hear what Mrs. Beavers telling you? Who said anything about safe?

[00:51:37] Of course, Asselin isn't safe. He's not safe at all.

[00:51:43] But he's good. He's really good. He's the king, I tell you. He's the king.

[00:51:50] You see, we want to God we can control. We want to God that we think is safe. God will bless us the way we want. And folks, that's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is in control. How big is your view of God?

[00:52:05] How big do you see God? How high is it? Do you believe that he created you?

[00:52:11] Do you believe that he is truly in control? You know, what's what's quite interesting is the is the time period that we're living in there. There are things about Judah's world that might might be quite similar to you. Today. In Judah's world, during the time of Jeremiah, the people that were there were in a great struggle with sexual immorality, homosexuality, gender, distinctives the whole nine yards.

[00:52:47] People in that community had taken all of the Torah, all the law, all the fear, all of that, and just checked it off to the side and said, we just want to do whatever we want to do sexually and we're just going to do it. And it was a big problem to a holy God. It is a big problem.

[00:53:03] Jeremiah and the people, it is like we still simply don't care. It's not a big deal to us. And the community then the religious leaders and the political leaders, the kings and the priests that were there were also corrupt. They were corrupt. The people could not trust the leadership that was in place. You want to have anything to do with them economically. There was even a bigger problem. There were high deficits in Israel and the Middle East. They had done a lot of deficit spending. Ever hear that before? And their economy was was really on the edge of going over. And you know what else? There was no middle class. The rich who were corrupt and greedy were getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

[00:53:54] And that middle class was going away. This is all during the time of Jeremiah.

[00:54:01] Couple of other things, one of the other big issues of that time was immigration. Immigration was huge. Remember I told you about the northern kingdom? Let's people have anywhere to live. There were refugees. And guess where they came? They came back to their brothers and said, hey, can we move in? Hundreds of thousands of them streaming through the borders. And there was no big wall then. Well, there wasn't the city, but not in a not in the southern kingdom. So they could come into the southern kingdom easily. And, you know, Egyptians, they also wanted to live in Jerusalem. And so did some Babylonians and some Assyrians. It was a big problem because the people in the southern kingdom, you know, they said we don't want any of them. We want our government to say, shut the doors. We want. We want just what we are. We don't want any of these people. Do you know that was a problem in 586 B.C. during the time of Jeremiah? And here's the here's the biggest problem of all. You take all those problems and you have meetings and forums in Jerusalem and five hundred and eighty eight and five hundred ninety B.C. And you know what the people's biggest gripe was? They didn't like the leaders, the people that were coming forward to say, oh, I think I can solve your problems. I can do it. They did not like what was offered to them and the leadership, they said here, here are the leaders, go for it.

[00:55:11] And people were like, no, this is like we don't know who to choose. This one's worse than the other. That sounds familiar today.

[00:55:20] Maybe.

[00:55:22] That's what Jeremiah. And that's what Judah was like during that time period. And that was a big, big deal. So as we're as we're thinking about it, we want to understand rightly that that God is is paying attention to what's going on. He sees everything. There are a lot of disturbing issues and images every day that are thrown at you on the Internet and on television about what ISIS is doing and what our government is doing and what's happening in England or what's happening over here.

[00:55:53] And they're disturbing. They're they're difficult to look at.

[00:55:57] But if you're taking notes with me, I want you jotted down this way on the third point is you need to trust God. Trust that God will always and fully punish evil.

[00:56:09] That's exactly what he just said here in the passage we looked at is that God will punish and he will fully punish. These is not like God wakes up in the morning and picks up the Wall Street Journal and looks at it and says, oh, wow, Brexit. I never saw that coming. Wow, that was a surprise.

[00:56:28] Those Brits are crazy people over there. You never know what they're going to come up with. And he's not sitting around today going, gee, you know, the stock market dropped 600 points. And York Stock, New York Stock Exchange or 6th, Dow Jones, 600 points down. Shocking. Do you know that God knows what the stock market's gonna do tomorrow? He doesn't need to be informed by The Wall Street Journal or by Bloomberg or by any of you or any of me.

[00:56:53] He knows exactly what's going to happen. And he is taking note of every every disturbing image, every every ounce of evil that you're seeing. God has. He's got it. He sees it. He knows it. He will adjudicate it perfectly. And amazingly, you may not get to see it and maybe you will. But trust me, a holy God hates sin, can't stand in front of sin. And his evil is you see the world today. He will adjudicate it. He will take care of business. They will be punished.

[00:57:28] They will be punished. And that should give you peace, because a lot of Christians today are not living very peaceful lives. Everybody's in the moral freefall. Just one more bad news from the Supreme Court. Oh, look what the government's doing over here in the liberalized education that our kids are receiving. You know, in the state of California, wants to wants to go after by all and other universities and remove God from them. I mean, those are all disturbing things. Do you think God is not paying attention to any of that? Do you think God's not going to handle that? You think God's not going to punish the people that are involved in it?

[00:58:08] He will. He will. And that should give us assurance. One of the things that we need as Christians, we need assurance and sometimes we get overanxious and we get really upset about what's going on in the world. We've lost our faith. We've lost our belief in how big God is. You know, Jerry Brown's a Clavon funny clip. But there's a lot of clay pots out there. They're made by God. God stands over all of them. And our God is a good God. He will correct it. He will take note of it. He will adjudicated. He will punish evil because that is his character. So how high is a view of God that you have? I hope that this morning maybe elevated a little bit of your view of God and kind of lowered a little bit of your own view of who you are. I hope you believe that God Nolan created you, but he created you in his image, never threw you away, never did anything like that. And that he's a God of second chances. He's a God. No matter how you feel today, how how guilt ridden and shameful that you might feel about something going on in your life, that if you simply got before him this morning or later this afternoon and said, you know what, God, I am really sorry for whatever it is that's going on in your life, that God would hear you. And not only would he hear you, he would respond to you. He would cleanse you from all unrighteousness. All it takes is admitting, confessing and having a proclamation of repentance. And the Potter Potter will make it right with you. And then you can live in freedom. Then you can be done with guilt and shame that so many people live with. It's the Christian life God sent his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for your sins and for mine. And if you're not acquainted today with the potter, I would love for you to be acquainted with him. All it takes is a realization of the need that you have that you cannot save yourself, and that the only way, the only way for you to get right with God is only one way. And that is repenting of your sin and trusting in the complete work of Jesus Christ, his death and his resurrection. Rivers death and his resurrection in his resurrection. He defeated not only death, but he defeated sin. And you did it for you. God sacrificed his only son on your behalf. And the only way for you to get right is repenting of it and placing your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how to become acquainted with the potter and this whole idea of justice and and what's going on in the world. It's my prayer that the men and women here of CompassHB Bible Church in Huntington Beach with live in godly peace, Catholic peace. No matter what the circumstances are in this world or how awful they are and that their peace would be predicated. And knowing that we have a holy and majestic all mighty God who will impose punishment upon those that are evil doers, he will take care of business. No stone will be unturned, and everyone will receive exactly what they deserve because God is a holy and righteous God. The Apostle Paul tries, summing up his understanding of God in Romans chapter number eleven. I'd like to read it to you as we close this. This morning in Romans Chapter eleven, we have what's called a doxology. It's a doxology DOCSIS a Greek word, and it means to bring glory. It's a prayer. Listen to what Paul says about his God.

[01:01:55] Oh, the depths of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments? How inscrutable his ways.

[01:02:04] For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor, who has given a gift to him that he might even be repaid versus 33 to 36. And in verse 36, Paul says this.

[01:02:19] Four from him and through him and to him are all things you see. Paul is saying, look, it starts with him. It is him and it finishes with him. It's all about him. It's not about you. It's all about him. From him, through him and to him are all things. And to him, CompassHB Bible Church, Huntington Beach, to him be glory forever and ever and ever pray with me.

[01:02:47] Galbi, thank you so much for this opportunity to come together this morning. And truly, it's an opportunity, an opportunity that you've provided where we as true believers and your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we can come together, we can worship you and we can worship you and praise you. We can learn from your word and got what we want to learn today are important things. God, we want to we want to embrace the idea that that we have been designed in your image. One, to embrace the idea that you are a God who is a god of second chances, and that when we're in sin or we're in trouble, the enemy will always try to push us away from church and away from you. End point is index finger at us and say you're unworthy, you're unworthy, and God wants nothing to do with it. And yes, we are unworthy, but God wants everything to do with us. And so, God, we pray that we know that you're a God, a God of second chances. And Father, we want to bring glory to you and everything that we do, how we live and how we act. God, we want to be a billboard, a shining billboard for your goodness in our lives. So, God, I pray as we look through these passages again and we visit the Potter's House, we remember that you are a god of judgment, but yet, in your judgment, you give us a chance to repent and that you, if you see repentance, will truly relent. Help us as men and women today living in a turbulent, turbulent time. Live not in Worley's, not living in our own rulership, but help us to live in godly peace where we know that you are a God. Yes, a God who is not safe, but a God who is truly good. And we pray to this God this morning in Jesus name a man.