Mensa Otabil - God Will Build It Again
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My message today is very simple. I believe that it is a message that God wants to speak to you as an individual. He wants to speak to you as a family. He wants to speak to you if you’re a businessman, and he wants to speak to our nation and to our world. The message is simple: God will build it again. I don’t know what has been broken in your life, but God will build it again. I don’t know what has crumbled, but God will build it again. My text is from the record of the Prophet Jeremiah, the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 18, verses 1 to 6. Jeremiah chapter 18, verses 1 to 6. The record there is about a message that God gave to Jeremiah to deliver to the children of Israel. I believe that this message is relevant to us, to the children of Ghana. It is relevant to you as a person, and it is relevant to all of us in our world at this time. Jeremiah chapter 18, verses 1 to 6. Let us hear the reading of God’s Word.
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, «Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.» Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was making something at the wheel. The vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. So he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, «O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?» says the Lord. «Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.» You can replace «house of Israel» with your house; if you are Otable, you would say «O house of Otable.» If you are Oakland, you would say «O house of Oakland.» Whatever the name of your house is, God says he is able to do with you as this potter does with the clay. We can also say to our nation, «O house of Ghana, God is able to do with you as the potter does with the clay.»
Jeremiah was a remarkable prophet—one of those called the major prophets in the Bible. He was called very young, and as a young man, he was not even very sure of himself. But God encouraged him to go out and not be afraid of the message that was going to be put in his mouth because Jeremiah was called to speak to the nation during a very difficult time. The message he had was challenging for him to carry, but he carried it. For about 51 years, he ministered powerfully to Israel. He was one of the last prophets that God raised before Israel went into captivity in Babylon, and so he spoke about that incident, but he also spoke about the return. If you read the Book of Daniel, it was because of the record or prophecy of Jeremiah that Daniel started to pray for the return of the people to their land and their restoration.
In this particular message that God gave to Jeremiah, God takes him to the potter’s house. The potter is a sculptor, and he goes to observe what is happening. In that place, God gives him a message. I want you to note three items that I will be commenting on. The first is the potter. The potter is the one who works on the elements or the clay. His other name is a thrower, and the reason why the potter is called a thrower is that he takes the piece of clay and throws it on the wheel. The potter is also called a thrower or one who forms and fashions things.
Secondly, there is the wheel. The wheel is also known as the delivery stool or the birthplace—the place where things come into shape. The third is the clay; the clay is an unformed mass. It has no shape, no form, and no cleanness. So there is the clay without form, the wheel which is the place of birth, and then there is the potter who is forming something with the clay.
When Jeremiah enters the potter’s house, God says, «I’m going to speak to you a word in the potter’s house.» When he enters, in verse three, the Bible says that he saw the potter making something at the wheel; he was in the process of doing something with the clay. The important thing to note is that the clay cannot form itself; it needs the potter to make it into something. The potter’s work is not done with just one touch; he has to constantly move, turn, twist, and add to the clay. It’s a constant touch, a constant work. This is a vision of how God works with us; God doesn’t just do one work and finish everything. He constantly works with us.
If you think that God has finished with you, I’m here to announce that God is not finished with you. You’ve had one touch from him, but you will have several touches from him. So the potter is working at the wheel. If you went to a potter’s place and observed what happens, you would see that the potter starts by turning the wheel. The wheel is turning round and round, and then he takes the clay and smashes it onto the wheel. So, the wheel is turning, and he introduces the clay to that turning wheel. If you were the clay and you were put onto that spinning wheel, you would start feeling dizzy because you’d be going around and around and around. That going round and round symbolizes the change of times and seasons, events happening in your life.
God takes your life and throws you into things that are happening, and so the clay is going round and round. If the potter doesn’t intervene, the clay on the wheel will spin out of control and be thrown away. But thank God, when the clay is thrown onto the wheel and things are turning round, and it looks chaotic, the hand of the potter comes and steadies it. We are at a time in history when the world feels like it is going around and around the wheel of events. Many of us feel as if our lives are turning chaotically on the wheel, but the potter’s hand is what creates purpose out of chaos.
The potter’s hand gives you steadiness in the midst of chaos. So, even if you feel that your life is spinning and things are changing and you have no idea what is happening, remember there is a hand that is upon you, a hand that is forming you. As Jeremiah is watching this, he sees something beautiful emerging; a shape is emerging from the clay. The clay is becoming beautiful. We are not told what the potter is making, but probably it’s a flower vase.
He is forming it, and if you were watching, you would say, «What a beautiful work! What a beautiful flower vase!» Now you can see that the wheel is turning, the clay is shaping up, the potter is in control, and everything seems to be working perfectly. He is making something out of the clay. As Jeremiah watches this potter creating something beautiful from the clay, something unexpected happens in verse 4: it states that the vessel made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. The potter is making the clay vessel, and as Jeremiah watches, the vessel is marred; in other words, it was ruined.
To put it in modern language, it was messed up. Something went wrong, but the interesting thing to notice is that it was still in the potter’s hand. The potter still has his hand on what he is making, and the Bible says it was marred in his hands—not marred in the hands of the devil, but marred in the hands of the potter. That’s a very important thought. The fact that God’s hand is in it doesn’t mean there will be no trouble because, many times when things go wrong, we assume, «Oh, God is not in it; the devil has attacked, and this is the devil.» But this is the potter representing God working, and while the thing is in his hand, it gets marred.
The reality of life is that sometimes, even when we commit things to God and it appears that God is working something beautiful in our lives, things can go wrong. 2020 is one of those years when we can say something got marred, something was ruined. Has God left the clay? No, he is still working. Is his hand removed? No, his hand is at work. Then how come God is still working with my life? God’s hand is on my life; he still cares for me. How come I’m going through what I’m going through? That is the message God told Jeremiah to observe.
So, the vessel gets marred. Sometimes in our lives, we feel as if God is doing something beautiful, and suddenly everything goes wrong. Everything just goes wrong, or something spins out of control, or something beautiful is cut short, and you wonder, «Where is God?» We are still in his hands, and it’s going wrong. Yes, we are still in his hands. Many of us can relate to times when our spiritual lives were going well. You were worshiping God, in love with God, and all of a sudden, something happens that leaves you wondering, «But I have been praying, and I’ve been fasting, and I’ve been giving, and I’ve been honoring God. Why is God treating me this way?» Well, his hand is still upon you. While Jeremiah observes everything going wrong, the potter has not left the clay.
The next thing he sees is that he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to him. It got marred, but that was not the end. He made it into another vessel. That is the message God has asked me to give to you: he will make it into another vessel. He will build it again. It got marred, but that is not the end of the story for the clay. God is about to transform, change, and restore everything that has been ruined. He will build your life again. He will build your marriage again. He will build your family again. He will build your home again. He will build your business again. He will build his church again, and he will build our nation and our world again. God says it got marred, but watch—I will fix it.
When he fixes it, he does a few things with what he is restoring. The first thing you read in the passage is that he made it again; he gave it a second chance. If God can do it once, he can do it again. If God can do it for somebody, he can do it for you. He made it again. Someone say, «God will make me again.» Say, «God will build it again.» I don’t know what has been destroyed this year, but a lot has been ruined. I don’t know what has gone down, but God will build it again. That is what he is telling Jeremiah: I can do it again.
The second thing you will notice is that he didn’t just say God did it again; he made it into another vessel. He did not repeat himself; he did something new. He showed another side of his ability to the clay. He told the clay, «Well, the first thing was ruined, but I’ll make it again.» So, if he was making a flower vase and it was marred, you might think, «Oh, he’s going to make another flower vase.» No, he makes something totally different. What God is about to do in your life is not going to be a repetition of what has been destroyed; it is going to be better than what was lost. God will build it again, and he will build it into another vessel.
Don’t ever limit the extent of God’s grace in your life. I expect that when we look back at 2020, we will see the immense grace of God, the unsearchable grace of God, when it seemed like everybody was on their knees and everything had collapsed. Nations have collapsed, businesses have failed, and it seems like nothing good will come out of this. Then God will make it again into another vessel, and the end will be better than the beginning.
What he does next in your life will be greater than what has been marred in his hands. He made it again into another vessel, and the third thing you will notice is that he made it as it seemed good to the potter. He did it according to the counsel of his own will, according to his own purpose. He made it into another vessel. As we recount all that has happened in our lives, we cannot calculate all the losses. There have been tremendous losses in human life, in quality of life. People have lost their lives, their health has become fragile, businesses have collapsed, homes have been distorted, and sources of income have shut down.
These events happened to believers and unbelievers alike. It happened to people who pray and those who don’t pray. It happened to people who believed in God and those who don’t believe in God. You might wonder, «So what’s the difference? I’m a child of God; why am I going through this?» Remember, God has not taken his hands off the clay. His hand has not left you. If things have gone wrong, his hand has not been removed from you. Now, why do things go wrong? Why would something that God is shaping go wrong? It’s not because God gets it wrong, but sometimes, when a potter is making something and molds the clay, he discovers that there is some piece of stone in the clay—a piece of stone that has been there all along.
As he molds it thinner and thinner, that piece of stone rises to the surface, and if it remains, what he produces would not be perfect. So that piece of stone starts to change the structure of what the potter is building. The potter says, «Okay, I would deal with this piece of stone, and after I deal with it, I will build it again.» Sometimes, it’s the quality, the character of the clay; it doesn’t respond to shaping. So, as he shapes it, the clay may not be malleable enough in the potter’s hands, and he has to change it.
God is able to change what he is doing with our lives, and even if it is our fault, if there is an inconsistency in us, or if there is a piece of stone, or a character flaw that has caused you everything, remember that your life is still in God’s hands. The good thing about the Lord is that he does not say, «Because it’s your fault, I can’t fix it.» Yes, it’s your fault; yes, you messed up; yes, you made a mistake.
I don’t know where this virus came from. Some say it came from a lab; some say it came from a wet market. Wherever it came from—from a bat, to a pangolin, to a human being—whoever made a mistake to introduce this pandemic to humanity, I don’t know. But what I know is that God’s hand has not left me, and even if we don’t know what caused this trial, God is able to use it to turn us around and bring something good out of it. He will form something beautiful with your life. He will do something beautiful with my life.
Isn’t it interesting that the first time we encounter God in the Bible, we find him in chaos? Genesis 1:2 states, «And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving upon the waters.» In a chaotic environment, the Spirit of God is still moving. Is God still moving in our world? Yes, he is. If you are a believer in Christ and you have his Holy Spirit, I want you to know that God’s hand is on you, and he will form you again; he will shape you again, and he will build you again. Whatever has been brought low is coming up again; it will be very beautiful in the end.
I am totally convinced, without any shadow of doubt, that our nation will be built again—without any shadow of doubt—because of this God we know. We will be built again. Your life will be built again. If your business has collapsed, it will be built again. If you lost your customers, they will come back. If you lost an industry, he will give you another industry. If your business has collapsed, he will resurrect something new for you. Expect that it will not be the same thing; he will do something as it seems good to him. God will build it again, and that is the assurance I want to give to everybody this morning.
As we come before the Lord in Holy Communion, let us ask him to build it again—not the same thing, but to build it into something new. Do something beautiful with my life. Do something beautiful with my family. Do something beautiful with my marriage. Do something beautiful with my children. Do something beautiful with my church. Let us behold the wonder of your power, that you can take what is marred and create something beautiful with it.
This morning, God wants to assure you that his hand never left you. His hand never left you; his hand never left our world. Even though our world seems to be drifting away, God has not left us because he created this world. Even though people are saying, «We don’t believe in him any longer; we don’t care who God is,» his hand is still upon our world, our nation, the nations of the world, and our continent.
Even if you have said, «Lord, leave me alone,» he will not leave you alone because he made you, and his hand is going to be upon you. He will form you; he will shape you into what he desires. May the Lord protect his will in our lives. May he perfect his will in our nation, and may he cause us to see the lifting up after the casting down. May he cause us to see the wheel turn and produce something beautiful in our world.
I believe the years ahead of us are going to be unusual years—unusual years. After this catastrophe, our world is going to enter a new season of amazing development, amazing transformation. We are not going from chaos to chaos; we are moving from chaos to order, because God has his hand upon his creation, his world, his people, and upon those who believe in him.
Before we partake of the Lord’s table this morning, let us spend a few minutes talking to the Lord. I just want you to ask him to fix your life. I don’t know what is broken in your life, but can you just talk to him and say, «Lord, I trust you that your hand is still upon me. Lord, build this again for me. Whatever is gone, just say, 'Lord, build it again.'»
Let us pray for our country, Ghana, and for the continent of Africa. Our economies were already struggling, and now they are striving even more, but may God do something new out of Africa, greater than we have ever seen. May the images of a pristine African culture and civilization and economic attainment be realized.
May the Lord build our continent afresh. Lord, build our nation afresh. Lord, build our churches afresh. For those of you pastors who are worried and concerned and wondering what is going to happen to your church, can you see God in the church again? Well, God will visit the church again. Will there be revival in the church again? The hand of the Lord never left the church; his hand never left the church. He is building something new with his church.
The church is going to be better than it has ever been, greater than it has ever been, and more anointed than it has ever been because God has not left us; he has not departed from us.
As we enter this time of prayer, if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can say, «Lord, I want my life to be better. Build me; make me a new person. Forgive me of my sins, cleanse me, and make me a brand new person.»
If you are praying for God to give you new life, pray this short prayer with me: «Lord Jesus, I trust you as the one who died for me and rose again from the dead. I receive you today into my life as my Lord and my Savior. I declare that you, God, raised him from the dead, you are seated at the Father’s right hand, and now you live within me. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.»