Under Construction

Introduction

How many of you were blessed by the Word of God last Sunday? Last Sunday we talked about being in a New Season called Expansion. We talked about how God told us to make room in this new season because he’s getting ready to fill us up in this new Season that we are in. Because of this filling that God is getting ready to do, he told us in Isaiah to Enlarge the place or size of tents, stretch out the curtains of your dwelling, and do not spare them; he told us to lengthen the tent ropes, make your stakes firm in the ground, because he’s about to fill us till we overflow. How many people in the house today want to receive your overflow? Well, before we can receive the overflow we have to do what he says first. Here’s one of the issues that I find in the Body of Christ. I notice that we want God to bless us, but most of time we don’t want to do what he says to be blessed. For example, we love to quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” We rejoice at the fact that he will hear from heaven, forgive sin, and heal the land, but we forget that there is a caveat in this phrase and that is IF you humble yourselves, pray, and seek his face. You have to do something first. He tells Isaiah you have to do expand before I fill you up and give you that overflow.

I asked God well what should I say today, well earlier this week I was traveling to and from Raleigh. As I was thinking about what to say today, I noticed that I was on Interstate 40 or I-40. As I was traveling down I-40, I was thinking to myself how long will this road continue to be under construction. All they are doing in essence is EXPANDING the lanes so that travel will be less congested. God began to speak to me and said “That’s what I need you to tell the people.” In order to receive that overflow, in this season of expansion, he says tell them that they “under construction.”

Background

So today our text is taken from another Major Prophet by the name of Jeremiah. I don’t have to do much on the background of Jeremiah. We know him as the weeping prophet. He was Prophet to the Southern Nation of Judah. He is given instructions by God to go down to the Potter’s house to hear a word from God. He gets to the Potter’s House and notices that the Potter was working or constructing a Pot. He was working at the wheel.

Body

When you are Under Construction, you must be patient

When considering the text, what gets me is not what was there, but what was not there. I noticed that the text never gave a time frame on how long the potter was working on the vessel, or the pot. We are only told that the Potter was working on the clay. So I that caused me to wonder, how long does it normally take for a potter to make the clay he’s working with into the pot he envisioning. I looked it up and I found that a potter can easily work 3 and 1/2 weeks, 24 days, roughly 576 hours to finish the pot he or she is working on. This is granted there is no accidents or mishaps that can cause the potter to have to start over. What are you trying to say Pastor? What I’m trying to tell you is being under construction by God can take time. You’re not going to get it all of a sudden. You’re not going to be that person in God that you AND God desires you to be over night. You have to allow God to work on you in his time. We often feel like the longer we wait or if we are not where we want to be right now, we are late. But, how many of you know that what God is working on can NEVER be late?

Consider Lazarus. Jesus waited and even took the detour to get to Lazarus, even to the point that Lazarus dies in the process. Martha even tells Jesus, IF YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN HERE, MY BROTHER WOULD NOT HAVE DIED. Yet when Jesus was done working, Lazarus was just as alive as you and me.

We have to learn that when God is working on us, we must have patience, we must be willing to wait and allow God to get done with us. We can’t rush God. We don’t want to run the risk of being Pre-mature. A pre-mature child can find themselves with birth defects that can hinder their development. Like wise a pre-mature saint can find themselves with defects that hinder their spiritual development. You have to allow God to finish what he starts. Can I submit to you that God knows what he is doing? He has a plan. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

When you are Under Construction, Access must be limited

Something else I noticed was not in the text. Not only didn’t I notice a time frame. I noticed that there was no telling of how many people was in the Potter’s House. What I notice from the text is that there were 2 persons present. Jeremiah and the Potter. Now once the Pot is done and the Potter puts the Pot on display or for sale, many people may come and observe the Pot, but in the time that the Potter is working on the clay, the clay is not seen by many people other than the potter. In other word, everybody doesn’t access to the clay while the Potter is working on it.

Can I submit to you that while you are in this season of expansion and while you are under construction, everybody can’t have access to you. I know you are an extrovert, I know you’re a people person, I know that “to know you is to love you,” I know people are just drown to you, I know when people get in trouble they call you, but there comes sometimes in your life that you have to take time away and allow God to work on you. Even Jesus took time away from his Disciples sometime. He would disappear to the High Mountain to pray and to be replenished by his Father.

Can I submit to you that what God is trying to do in you everybody can’t be a part of it? Everybody can’t handle what God is doing. One of our biggest issues in life is we try to make permanent, what was only designed to be temporary. We try to make a husbands and wives out of somebody God only sent for seasonal times. We try to make BFFs, Sisters before mista, and bros before .... out of people who God had purposed to be there for a moment.

Not only that but When I considered I-40, I noticed only certain vehicles had access to go in on the sections of the road that is under construction. We were literally driving on I-40 but there was a part of I-40 I couldn’t access because I was not authorized to be over there. Some of you need to put up a sign in your life that says AUTHORIZED ACCESS ONLY. I can be cordial and friendly, and still deny access to certain sections of my life. Even Jesus did that. He picked out 12 disciples but there were only 3(Peter, James, and John) that were were authorized access to certain parts of Jesus’ Ministry. You gotta learn how to separate who can be in certain areas of your life. Access must be limited so that God can work on you.

When you are Under Construction, You are under a blueprint

Lastly, as I prepare to make my descent. I’ve told you what I notice from the text that was not in the text, but let me tell you what I noticed was in the text. What I noticed was in the text is that potter is working on clay at the wheel. V.4 says And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. The New Living Translation says it like this, “the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.” What I noticed is not so much on the clay as it is the potter, the potter had a blueprint, or a plan. He had an idea for the pot and in the process of constructing the Pot, the Pot messed up. Don’t get it confused the Potter, didn’t mess up, the clay did not form correctly. What I noticed is that instead of throwing the clay away, instead of tossing the clay out, the potter starts over because his blueprint INCLUDED the clay.

We all have something we need to work out. If you feel you have already arrived, if you feel like there is nothing you need to work on, if you feel like you have it all together, I pray for you because we ALL have something we have to get right. You might not be out here doing drugs, committing adultery, or fornication, but you’re gossiping, you’re backbiting, you’re undermining leadership, you’re harboring Jealousy, envy, and strife, guess what, you have something to work on.

I love God because just like the Potter while I was in my mess, he didn’t just throw me away. He just started over because there was a blueprint, there was a plan.

Conclusion