07 Who Does God Think He Is? (Jeremiah 18:1–17)

Krisan Marotta: Thank you for downloading the Wednesday in the Word podcast. That's Krisan Marotta. This is the seventh talk in our series on the book of Jeremiah. Today's passage is chapter 18, verses 1 through 7. You can find lecture notes on our website, wednesdayintheword.com slash Jeremiah 7. Thank you for joining us. When my daughter was growing up, she played on a competitive travel soccer team. And about the age of 13, the coach stopped playing everyone equally in the games. So the girls who were the most talented or who played together the best or worked hardest in practice started seeing more minutes in the game than the other girls. And he stopped passing out rewards and accommodations equally. And players that mispractice sometimes didn't play at all. Well, you might imagine he had a mutiny on his hands. Some of the players and lots of the parents voiced all these heated accusations that he's unfair because he didn't treat everybody exactly the same. And the coach listened to all their complaints, and then he said, Everything you said is true, but you're not describing injustice, you're describing soccer. So basically he said, as the coach, he has the right to make judgments. The players are under his command, they're not equals. And that was his prerogative, to do as he saw best. So today we're going to look at a similar question about God. The question we're going to focus on is who does God think he is, or is God fair? Why? And we're talking about that issue, is God fair or not? Because one of the most common complaints today is that the God of the Bible isn't very fair. And we can look at all the people in this room and see immediately that we're not all treated the same way. Some of us had perfect childhoods and some didn't. Some had these great educational opportunities and some didn't. Some of us have had to face tragedy and loss, and some of us haven't, and some of us have just had an easier time, and some, like Job, have faced one trial after another. And then we come from different backgrounds, we have different accents, we have different gifts and opportunities, and we look at that and we say, is God fair? How is that fair? But we can also raise it on a larger level. How is it fair that Jesus is the only way to God? Why shouldn't there be more than one way? How is that fair? How is it fair that God says this is the way sexuality is to be used and not used, and that he puts limits and circumstances about where we are to enjoy that gift? Or how is it fair that there's so much economic and political disparity throughout the world? Some countries have dictators, some have democracies, some people live in freedom, some people live in fear. So how is it fair? And coming to faith in Christ doesn't stop these questions. I mean, if you read all of Jeremiah, you'll find he accused God of letting evil people prosper while he, the prophet, suffered. In fact, we're going to look at one of those passages next week where he accuses God of giving him a raw deal and making life way too difficult. And I'm sure all of you have felt at times God isn't fair. So the passage today, Jeremiah 18, 1 through 17, addresses that question. Who does God think he is? How is he fair? So just to remind you, Jeremiah began his ministry as the Assyrians, who were the dominant world power, went into civil war. And as they lost their power, the Babylonians and Egyptians were trying to occupy that power. The little state of Judah is caught in the midst of all that chaos. They geographically sit between all those countries, and everybody wanted to control Palestine and that region to gain power. And in the midst of all that political chaos, Jeremiah's job is to predict and warn that the Babylonians are going to win. They're going to invade Judah. They're going to level the temple, and that will result in the exile, but the exile will end. So one of Jeremiah's responsibilities was to warn the Lord is about to re destroy Jerusalem, and the people that live there probably didn't think that was very fair, because the nation had been disobedient for quite some time now. So why should their generation be the one that takes the hit? Why should they take the fall for everybody? So one of the most noticeable things about this passage is it's organized just like we like to organize sermons today. We have an illustration, an explanation, and then an application. So in verses one through four, he gives the illustration. He gives this visual picture to help Jeremiah understand the point that God's gonna make. And then in five through ten, he explains what that illustration means. And he tells Jeremiah, here's the principle, here's the truth I'm trying to communicate. So one through four we get the illustration, five through ten, we get the explanation, and then 11 through 17, he applies it for Jeremiah, and he explains how the particular people that he is ministering to, here's how it's going to apply to them. So illustration, explanation, application, that's like our modern sermons. So that's how we're going to walk through the passage. So let's start with the illustration, verses 1 through 4. God starts by inviting Jeremiah on a little field trip. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will announce my words to you. Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hands of the potter, so he made it into another vessel as it pleased the potter to make. So the Lord asked Jeremiah to go down to the potter shop and watch the potter at work. And there's two things we need to know about pottery. First, it was their critical piece of technology. For a culture like the ancient Israelites, pottery was really one of their big technological advances. Now we don't think of pottery that way, but for them, it allowed them to live their lives more efficiently. So it was their containers of everyday use. Imagine a life without a container. So you they used it to store water, to store food, to carry food, to carry their wares in business. Without it, they would have had to live right on a water source there, and they wouldn't have had a way to store food and keep it clean. So pottery was this very common piece of everyday life. It enabled them to live the way they lived. Second, every village had a potter's house. Because pottery was so critical to their lifestyle and it breaks easily, everybody had one. There were potter's house everywhere, so think grocery stores for us. This was a common feature. That's why we see rules in Leviticus for what do you do when one of your pots becomes unclean or when you find mold on it and that kind of thing. It was a very common part of their life. So right off the bat, we see God is using familiar imagery to communicate his truth. And we've seen that before as we've studied Jeremiah. He speaks in an image, he uses a familiar picture so that we can understand what he's saying. So he's reaching out to Jeremiah and communicating, using something that he would understand easily, something that's very, very familiar to him and was part of his daily life. And we see that repeatedly in Scripture, God reaching out to his people, kind of coming down to our level so that we can understand what he wants us to understand. When my kids were little, we were driving home one day, and as they were strapped in their car seats, out of the blue, I hear my son saying, Mommy, what's grace? And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, how do I explain this to a three-year-old? How do you make, you know, toddler theology, how do you explain that? And I had to really quickly come up with some way to make sense of grace to a toddler, and I think that's actually where I came up with the broken chooser analogy, some of you have heard me use. But that's what God does here. He's coming down to our level, he's coming down to the level of his people, saying, Here's something you're very familiar with, and I'm going to use that familiar object to teach you a lesson. And so he's speaking in a language they can understand. Now, for us, that can make the Bible difficult because we're not familiar with the same things the people of Jeremiah's day were familiar with. The language is different, their daily lives look different, the way they worked is different. So most of us have probably never been to a potter's house. We use plastic and glass, and we rarely watch pottery being made. So I sent you a video of a potter making something on the wheel. I hope that you watched it. It's a woman who makes a plate and a bowl from the same lump of clay. If you didn't watch it, I'll put a link to it in the lecture notes. And what I liked about that video is that she makes two different vessels from the same lump of clay. She just scoops off a piece and makes one thing, scoops off a piece, makes another thing. And I thought it would be helpful to see something like what Jeremiah might have seen. So the critical verse in this section is verse 4, but the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter, so he remade it into another vessel as it pleased the potter to make. So it tells us while he's watching the potter at work, the potter has to start over because what he's making was spoiled. So he would have smashed it back into a ball and started over again. We don't know what he was making. The word vessel here is very, very generic. It just means a container of some sort. But the visual image that Jeremiah is given is that the particular clay that's on the wheel at the time isn't suitable for the particular kind of pot the potter wants to make. So the quality of the clay in some way determined what could be made with it. Maybe it wasn't pliable enough or wasn't wet enough or something like that. And typically, I asked some of my potter friends, and they told me the more pliable and soft the clay is, the more easily and quickly it can be fashioned into the shape you want. But if the clay is not pliable or it resists, then you have to do something else with it. So he can make something else from the same length of the clay, but it's not what he was hoping for, so he starts over. So that's the image. Now, before we start making conclusions, we need to look at the conclusion God make. What's the comparison he's trying to draw? And thankfully he tells us that in 5 through 10. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as the potter does, declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or destroy it. If that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I plan to bring on it. Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up and or to plant it. If it does evil in my sight by not obeying my voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. So he's making the connection explicit. And he starts out by saying in verse 6, Can I not, as creator, don't I have the same authority that the potter has? So he's asking whether he as creator doesn't have the same authority to relate to them in the same way the potter does, and he expects the answer, Of course I do. But look carefully at the comparison he's making. If you read only verse 6, it's easy to draw the wrong comparison, and it's a harsh comparison. So I think the wrong comparison is to conclude that God treats his people exactly like the potter treats his clay. So you know, we have this picture of the potter making a beautiful vase and then smashing it to smithereens and starting over and making a chamber pot or something like that. That's not the comparison he's making. The potter does have the right to do that. The pottern is sovereign is sovereign over the clay, and so God is completely sovereign over his people. And to conclude, well, God can do whatever he sees fit with his creation, and we just have to live with it, I think is the wrong conclusion, but it's the way a lot of people understand this analogy. That's true if you stop reading at verse 6, but look carefully at what he goes on today to say in the next four verses. He makes a larger point. He asserts his right to make whatever he sees fit with his people, just as the potter has the right to shape his clay, but then he goes on to talk about what happens if the people respond. So in the image, the clay was resisting the pottered's efforts to shape it, so he started over and made something else. But verse 10 talk about God responding to his people. So the first two kingdoms he says, these kingdoms merit divine judgment. He threatens to uproot, break down, and destroy them, which are the same verbs we saw in chapter 1 about Jeremiah's call. But the nations in seven through eight, if they repent, then God responds accordingly. Then he contrasts that. But if they turn to evil and continue on their evil path, God responds accordingly. So when their behavior changes, God changes. He responds to their response. A lump of clay can't change its behavior. A lump of clay is just passive. It can't stop resisting. So a potter doesn't have to respond to his clay because the clay can't decide to change or repent. But God's people are people, they're not inanimate, they're individuals. They make decisions and they respond to their creator and their creator responds to them. And that's what God's describing in these verses. So the analogy is to use partly to show how similar God's relationship to his people is to the potter and the clay, but partly how much different it is than the potter and the clay. And this is what we call a how much more comparison. This is common in Scripture, for especially in Jesus' parables, he will give a parable, and then the point is, how much more than is God? If you give good gifts, how much more than does God? If this judge reacted this way, how much more will your father in heaven? So the picture gives you a taste of what we're talking about, but then the actual reality is deeper and better. And Paul does this a lot as well. It's very common, a how much more kind of comparison. Okay. So what's being described here is a personal relationship. You have a dynamic relationship between two parties where the actions of each one affect the behavior of the other. That's a relationship. That's how God relates to his creation, not as inanimate objects, but as individual persons. So the picture of the potter demonstrates that it is completely fair for the potter to have so total sovereignty over the clay because he is the creator. Similarly, it is completely fair for God to do what he wants. He is creator, he has complete sovereignty over Israel, he can judge them and destroy the Jerusalem if he wants. But then we see, as the illustration gets explained, that we're talking about something that's more than fair, because a real relationship is not based on fairness. It's a good relationship isn't based on making sure everyone's treated equally in all possible situations, no matter what. A real relationship is more than fair. It involves adjusting and making sacrifices and changing and recognizing different people have different needs at different times and they have different wants and they need to be treated differently. They're going to need different kinds of encouragement or different kinds of discipline or different kinds of comfort. So good relationships are more than fair. They're dynamic, they're responsive, they're giving. Now, you parents know this, right? Because I bet none of you treat your children with exacting fairness such that they all get the same treatment at the same age and the same responsibilities and the same punishments no matter what. You don't do that. You recognize my children are different. A child one child may be ready for something at three that the other one's not ready for it until five. One person may need have a different kind of spirit and need a different kind of reigning in than one that is maybe more compliant. So we mature at different times. And children then need different things from you. That's not fair, that's a relationship that's adapting to your child's needs. And this is how God's describing his relationship with his creation, and I think that's what the image is supposed to help us understand. God could treat his people like the potter treats the clay, and that would be fair. But he goes farther. He's more than fair. He relates to us as individuals, changing, responding, teaching, adapting, disciplining as each person needs. And that's amazing to think that our Creator would treat us that way. And I think that's why we see these stories in the Old Testament where people are talking to God and they seem to talk him out of doing something. Well, the clay doesn't talk the potter out of doing anything, but God uses that picture to show this is a relationship. There's a two-way street here, it's dynamic. His relationship is much more uh much better than fair. It's a real relationship. Now, one of the complicated things about that is when we are shown grace, we tend to rewrite the rules. We confuse fairness with grace. So when someone shows us grace, we think, oh, I deserve that. That's the way I always need to be treated. And if you don't treat me that way, you're not being fair. So I heard R. C. Sprohl tell a great story from his early days of teaching that illustrates this, and I may be getting the details wrong. I looked all over for it, but it was in a podcast and I couldn't find it again. So I apologize if he ever listens to this and I got the details wrong, but I think I got the gist. So his class had three papers due over the course of a semester. And on the day each paper was due, Dr. Sproul placed a box on his desk to collect the papers, and five minutes after class started, the box was sealed and taken away, and anything not in the box was considered late and received a lower grade. He announced that the first day of class, he announced the deadlines, it was all clear, everybody knew what the situation was. And then the day the first paper was due, about five people were late. And Dr. Sprohl showed them grace. He didn't lower their grade, even though they missed the box deadline. Well, then the day the second paper was due, about 15 people were late. And again, he showed them grace, he didn't lower their grades. But the day the final paper was due, like over half the class was late. Like some huge number, like three-fourths or something was late. And this time he said, Nope, there's no grace. And they said, That's not fair. To which he said, if you want fair, we will go back and lower all the grades. Because fair is playing by the rules. See, the students confused grace with fairness. Fair is everybody getting exactly what they deserve, but grace is getting what we don't deserve. So when someone shows us grace, they treat us in a way that's more than fair, then we edge up the bar of fairness and we think, ooh, here's the new standard. And we keep moving the bar up and thinking, well, I'm entitled to that extra grace. I'm entitled to that extra treatment, and we start expecting it. And then when it changes, we say, that's not fair. And it doesn't match up. And think about how we do this as believers. You know, if God blesses her with a perfect marriage, then it's only fair that he blessed me that way. And if God gave this person material wealth, then he should give me material wealth. And if he blessed her with four perfect, compliant children, then I should have that. But that's not fairness, that's grace. That's blessings. And God is not required to show everyone grace in exactly the same way. Rather, he has promised to treat us as individuals, writing our story individually, planning every day of our life, tailoring them for our good and his glory, giving us what we need and not what we deserve. We see Peter run into this same issue in John 21. After telling Peter to feed his sheep, Jesus tells Peter, he warns Peter actually, the kind of death that Peter is going to have to face. And Peter turns to Jesus and says, Well, what about John here? So this is John 21, verses 21 and 22. When Peter saw him, that's he's referring to the Apostle John, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? And Jesus said to him, If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is it to you? Follow me. You follow me. And I like that passage a lot. Whenever I start coveting someone else's gifts or someone else's blessings, I come back to this and say, What is that to you? Jesus is free to treat them however he wants to treat them. What is that to you? My job is to follow him. So God explains that his relationship with his people is more than fair, it is a dynamic relationship. But I think the second thing it shows us is that it's not gonna feel fair to us. The people in 9 and 10. He tells them he's going to bless them a certain way. They reject his relationship. They rebel against him and disobey him. So he cancels whatever the blessing was he was going to do. And if that happens to us, we think, well, that's not fair. It doesn't feel fair to us because we're expecting to be treated a certain way and we think we deserve it. And then when things change, it doesn't feel fair. So we learn God is more than fair, but it's not going to feel that way to us. Jesus tells a parable about the same idea in Matthew 20. This is the parable of the vineyard owner and the workers. Some of you may be familiar with it. A vineyard owner hires workers to work in his vineyard, and he agrees to pay the first workers at the start of the day a denarius for a day's work, but then at different points during the day, he goes out and hires more workers. And the last group starts so near the end of the day that they barely work an hour before the workday is over. Now in the parable, only the first hires were promised the standard wage of one denarius for one day's work. The second hires, the owner does not quote a pay scale, he just says, I will pay you what is just. And he extends that to the next two groups, and then the last group isn't given any promise of any pay at all. So when he comes out to start paying the workers, he starts with the last ones first and he gives them a full day's wage. So the ones that actually work a full day say, Whoa, if they got a full day's wage, what are we going to get? We're going to get something huge, way more than promised. And he ended up paying everybody a denarius for the day's wage. So the landowner gave everyone what they needed, not what they deserved. So none of the workers were the workers were overpaid, none of them were underpaid. And the story focuses on the emotions of those that thought, well, I earned way more. I get I deserve more. But the landowner gave each person what they needed because a denarius was the amount of money you needed to buy a day's worth of food. If you didn't have a denarius, you couldn't buy enough food to eat for the next day. So to be paid less than that would mean going hungry. So the landowner's providing what his workers need regardless of the amount of service they offered them. He's giving them what they need, not what they deserve. And Jesus concludes that, this is Matthew 20, 11 through 12. When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, talking about the workers who worked the whole day, saying, These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day. So basically they say, not fair, we should receive more. But that's not the cry of the underpaid, because no one is underpaid. The complaint is from those who are justly paid, who can't stand grace being shown to someone else? So grace is not only amazing, it's infuriating. So why should these Johnny come lately receive the same grace as me? And think about that. Why should these Gentiles who never kept kosher a day in their lives get the same grace as the Jews who loved and studied and cherished the law? And why should a prostitute who converts on her deathbed get the same grace as someone who follows Jesus their whole life? That's grumbling. That's the attitude of, I earned this, I deserve something, I ought to get what I earned. The grumbling has implies the attitude that they had a right to the work done instead of realizing the fact that they're working at all was the result of the landowner's charity. So the point is not how much wages were paid, but any wages were paid at all. The master gave each worker what he needed, enough money to buy food for the next day, not what he deserved. And that's how God treats us. And we need to be careful when we insist that God be fair because he may give us what we deserve instead of what we need. So the passage does two things. It affirms God's more than fair, but then it also affirms that I am not gonna think it's fair. It's not gonna feel that way. My normal everyday experience is gonna, it's gonna look like God's being unfair because sometimes he's merciful, sometimes he's generous, sometimes he answers quickly, and then we start moving the bar up, and we think he always has to do it that way. So when he does draw the line, or when he was doesn't intervene, or he's slow to answer, or we he withholds some blessing we want, it's not gonna feel fair. And from our limited experience, we may never understand that. Because this side of heaven, I don't think we have the ability to understand why he's doing what he's doing. But the promise of the gospel is one day we will get it. One day we will see and understand. Okay, so we looked at the illustration God gave Jeremiah, the potter and his clay. We saw the principle that he was illustrating is that they are similar in some ways and that God is sovereign, but that they are different in some ways and that God is a relationship that is dynamic. And let's look at the application to the current situation. So we're gonna look at 11 through 17. And notice 11 starts with so now then, and that phrase frequently introduces the conclusion to an argument. That's so now. So if you see that and you're reading along, think, aha, here comes the point, or here comes the conclusion. So 11 through 17, so now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the Lord, behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh, turn back each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds. But they will say, It's hopeless, for we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore, thus says the Lord, ask now among the nations, who ever heard the like of this? The virgin of Israel has done the most appalling thing. Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country? Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever snatched away? For my people have forgotten me. They burn incense to worthless gods, and they have stumbled from their ways, from the ancient past to walk in bypass, not on a highway, to make their land a desolation, an object of perpetual hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished and shake his head. Like an east wind I will scatter them before the I will scatter them. Before the enemy I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their calamity. So here's the application, and this is for the people of Judah, of Jeremiah's day. He refers back to the principle he's just explained. He says, I'm preparing disaster. He warns them, he gives them a chance to repent in verse 11. He says, Turn back, you have a chance to change. He's just finished telling them that, like the potter and the clay, if the people change their minds, he will adapt and respond differently. But in verse 12, he says they've already made up their minds. They won't change their ways, they're not going to respond to the warnings, they're not going to respond to God's discipline, and so disaster will come upon them at Jerusalem and the temple will be leveled. And he then goes on to say, Whoever heard of such a thing? How can you imagine being told this is the consequences of your actions, and going, Yeah, well, I'm going to do it anyway. Why would they do that? So the comparison he points out to the snows on the mountains of Lebanon is that what makes the snow on the mountains of Lebanon the snow on the mountain of Lebanon? It's the fact that it's on the mountain of Lebanon. That's why it's the snow of Lebanon, because that's where it is. It never leaves the mountain. If it left the mountain, it wouldn't be the snow of Lebanon anymore. It would be the snow of wherever it went to. So what makes the snow of Lebanon the snow of Lebanon is the fact that it's on the mountains of Lebanon. And the comparison is what makes Israel the people of God, they have a relationship with God. They are God's people because they have a relationship with him. If they turn away from him, they stop being his people. So they think we're the people of God because we're on the land. And if we're not on the land, we're going to stop being Israel. But God's saying, the land isn't what makes you Israel. It's your relationship with me that makes you Israel. And he's pointing out, you've already given that up. You've forgotten me. It doesn't matter that you're in the land because, as he says in verse 15, you've forgotten your God and turned to other gods. And who ever heard of such a thing? So what makes them God's people is they have a relationship with God. It's not living on the land, so what is he going to do? He's going to take the land away from them. Hoping that in the exile they will realize they can still be Israel without the land. They can still be his people because they can still have a relationship with him no matter where they are. Which is exactly what we see the potter doing. It's not going the way he wants it to go, so he adapts and changes and does something else. But he also does what the potter never does, that is, he gives his people a chance to change, but they don't. So there comes a time when turning away from the Lord has consequences, but notice he doesn't abandon them. He doesn't just throw them out, just like the potter doesn't just throw the clay away, he starts over. He remakes them, he remakes them into his people in a different way. And that's another conclusion we ought to draw. God is not abandoning us when he disciplines us, he is remaking us. The problem is it begins with that tearing down part. So just as we saw Jeremiah go to the potter's house, take the lump of clay, smash it into a ball, and then start over so he could build something else, it begins with that smashing into a ball part. And essentially we see God taking his people, smashing them into a ball, and starting over in the exile. But we don't see the starting over in this passage. We're going to see it in some of the others, but it's implied. But the point is the destruction or the tearing down is so that you can be built up. There is something new on the other side. But when you're in the midst of that smashing part, it can be hard to see that there's anything else, that there's any rebuilding. But that's what God says to his people. The land's going to be waste. I'm going to scatter them before their enemies. I'm going to destroy Jerusalem because of all the evil that they've been doing, but something new will be coming. He's taking away their idols. For Israel, it was the land, the temple, and the Davidic throne. For us, it could be anything: health, prosperity, family, fame, fortune, beauty, competence, intelligence, whatever. And one of the ways God works in our lives is to say, if that's what you're counting on instead of me, I'm going to take it away. But that taking away is so that He can rebuild to make something new. I have these bushes in the front, in my front flower bed that I just pruned, and I almost took a picture to bring them into you because I do this every year. And every year it looks like I've killed them. I mean, they just look terrible when I'm done. You just have to whack off every last bit of green and cut them back to these little twiggy bare branches. And when I'm done, they look dead. But and every year my husband comes out and goes, Are you you sure you should have done that? And it's like, nope. Because I've learned if I don't do that, they do not bloom next spring. That the only way to get flowers on them, they have these beautiful pink blossoms in the springtime. But if I don't cut them back, there will be no blossoms. But every time I look at them when they're in their miserable, sad little twiggy state, I think, they're gonna bloom, and God's teaching me a lesson here. They look dead now, but they're gonna bloom. I know they're gonna bloom, they've done it every year. So there will be seasons in our lives when God may walk us through those really difficult times, and those are the rebuilding. Those are the cutting back to the bone, back to the twigs, so that He can build something new. Now, some of you have probably never been through that. You might never, so, or not yet have done that. So, this passage, I think, can tell you that time is coming. Be prepared. Some people may be going through that kind of time right now, and I hope this passage gives you the hope to see God is remaking you. He's not destroying you, he hasn't abandoned you, no matter how it feels like he might be abandoning you. This is him at work, this is him making something new. And some of you may have been through these seasons and come out the other side, and you can help the rest of us know there's light at the end of the tunnel. This is how I got through. It may seem unfair, but God is more than fair. All right, so that leaves us with the question: who does God think he is? And I think one of the most dangerous things about these kinds of trials or this being cut down so that he can rebuild, is that those are times when we're tempted to turn away from God. So I think God intends those times to turn us back to him, to get us focused on him again and come back to him, but they can be the very places where we lose heart and give up and lose faith. So, how how can we get over that? I think we need to accept the fact that we're not gonna fully understand what God is doing. And if God is really God, I should expect that. Because from my little finite, limited perspective, I'm not really gonna understand everything he's doing. It's not gonna seem fair to me. So, what do I do when I don't understand what God's doing and life just doesn't seem fair? Well, honestly, I don't have all the answers, but in my experience, I've found six things that I try to keep in mind when I'm in the midst of one of those situations, and they help me get through it. So I'm gonna give you my six truths that I think are really helpful when you're right in the midst of one of those trials where it seems like God is just smashing you into a ball. So the first thing, number one, whatever it is, it's not unique. So whatever trial, tragedy, change, upset, chaos I'm facing, it is not unique. Many people before me have gone through it. Many people after me are gonna gone through it, and maybe something worth, I'm not alone. There are other people out there who know and understand what I'm going through because they've been through it. So seek them out and talk to them. First Corinthians 10 13 says, No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond that which you are able. But with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. God will not ask me to endure anything that has not already been endured by many others before me. My struggles are not unique, they're part of the fabric of human existence as uh the in the world we live in, and I'm not alone, and I find comfort in that. So the first one is not unique. The second thing is God, like the potter, has every right to take me through trials, through darkness, or through chaos and uncertainty. He's not required to grant me peace, safety, and an easy life. It is fully fair and just of him to bless me as he sees fit or withhold blessings as he sees fit. So no matter how I feel about it at the moment, I have to realize he is fair and just and loving, and he is still fair, just and loving. And I hang on to that, that he is loving, just, faithful, and true. Yet, on the other hand, and this is the third thing, he has written every second of my life and every inch of my story. I can be utterly and completely secure that I am in his hands. So, no, he has not promised continuous comfort, but he has promised that everything we go through has a purpose. It is not senseless, it's not meaningless, it's not random, the universe isn't out to get us, God has written our story and he has a point. So everything I experience has a purpose and is part of the plan. Nothing can befall me which God has not scripted for me. So the author of our stories never abandons us. He's always creating, guiding, disciplining, and teaching. Number four, it will end. The darkness, the tragedy, the trial, the trouble, they always come to an end. And when we get to heaven, the promise of the gospel is when we get to heaven, we're gonna look back on even the longest, most darkest trial we are asked to go through, and we're gonna go, gosh, that was worth it. That's like the briefest moment. Paul calls them, uh, I think it's in Corinthians where he says, the eternal weight of glory is they're they're nothing to be compared to the eternal weight of glory. They're gonna seem like the briefest of seconds to us, even though now they feel like they will never end. And if you think about it, even the worst apocalyptic scenarios and civilizations ending, you know, the fall of Rome, the fall of Assyria, Babylon, the fall of Jerusalem, a new order emerges, a new normal comes in for what was destroyed. So the tunnel that God takes me through may be dark, but there is always an end. There is always light at the other end of the tunnel. All right, number five, and this is really getting on my personal soapbox, so you might just want to skip this one and go on to the next one. But number five is spend time in the Word. Because no matter what circumstances I find myself in, the most essential task of my existence doesn't change, and that is to know, love, and glorify God. So no matter what circumstances I find myself in, it's still appropriate to serve the Lord, to seek the Lord, to put his kingdom first, to strive to live out my faith. That's the most essential thing I can do. And since understanding the Bible is the best way to know and love and come to understand him, the more I can understand what the Bible says, the better off I'm gonna be. So I think it's one of the most important things I can do in good times and in bad is always come back to strive to understand the Bible. Okay, and finally, number six, and this this may be pop psychology, but I find it very helpful. When I'm in the midst of a trial, I must place no greater burden on myself than to do the best I can. So my perspective may be wrong, my judgment may be cloudy, I may be mistaken, I will likely say or do something that with time and hindsight I will come to realize, oh, I shouldn't have said or done that. I may do something wrong, but I usually, in whatever circumstances we're in, we have to do something. So pray, whine to God, complain to him, and then throw yourself at his feet. Admit you're in pain. I do this all the time. I'm flawed, I'm selfish, I don't know what to do, then I pray and I take my best guess. So doing the best you can with the resources you have available at the time is all you can ask of yourself. If you try to expect that you're gonna be perfect, that you're gonna handle everything perfect, you're gonna be paralyzed, and fear of making a mistake could lead you to do nothing at all. So don't put those burdens that you have to be the one shining Christian who never struggled with anything in her life, and you know, you're gonna be the example to everybody else. That job's been taken, that's called Savior. That one's done. That's not our job. We we don't get that role. Jesus got that role. So just the only burden is to do the best you can with the resources you've got at the time. So you pray, you think, you study, you meditate, you seek the counsel of friends, you seek accountability, whatever you need, then you choose a path, you follow it, and you trust that God knows what he's doing, that he's the one who saved you, he loves you, and he's teaching you, and he will get you through. Okay, let me pray for us. Father, we thank you that you are more than a potter to the clay, and that you do love us enough to treat us as individuals, to write our stories, to plan our lives, to individually care about who we are, who we're becoming, and how we reflect your glory. And I just pray for each of us here, because I know people here are going through some dark times, that you would reach out with these truths so that we would remember the darkness will end. There's a purpose to it. You have not abandoned us, that rebuilding always starts with tearing down and that we will get through it because you are with us every step of the way and safe.