Broken Vessels

Psalms 31:12.  I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel.

    a.) some may feel like they have been forgotten

    b.) others like a broken vessel, maybe life has been cruel, mistakes have been made, bad choices have been made

But God never throws anyone away!

   a.) Remember the miracle of the loaves and the fishes? He would not allow the disciples to leave until the leftovers had been collected!

God never gives up on anyone!

   a.) like a coach He may sit you on the bench for a while as an act of correction/ discipline

   b.) but He always puts the player back in the game to give him a chance to succeed again

Romans 9:21.  When a man makes a jar out of clay, doesn't he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar beautiful, to be used for holding flowers, and another to throw garbage into?

 22.  Does not God have a perfect right to show his fury and power against those who are fit only for destruction, those he has been patient with for all this time?

 23.  And he has a right to take others such as ourselves, who have been made for pouring the riches of his glory into, whether we are Jews or Gentiles, and to be kind to us so that everyone can see how very great his glory is.

 25.  Remember what the prophecy of Hosea says? There God says that he will find other children for himself (who are not from his Jewish family) and will love them, though no one had ever loved them before.

 26.  And the heathen, of whom it once was said, ``You are not my people,'' shall be called ``sons of the Living God.''  (The Living Bible )

All through out the Bible we see that God uses broken vessels to accomplish His plan/ purposes.

1.) Rahab the harlot.

Hebrews 11:31.  By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.

   a.) was greatly used in God’s plan of deliverance

Joshua 2:9.  "I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you.

 10.  "For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

 11.  "And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

 12.  "Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house, and give me a true token,

 13.  "and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.''

   a.) called Him Lord. v11 called Him God  v12 have mercy  v13 save me and my house

NO MATTER HOW FAR A PERSON HAS GONE IN THE WRONG DIRECTION, IF THEY ARE WILLING TO COME OR COME BACK TO GOD, GOD CAN USE THEM!!!

2.) Everyone has a past. Things they have done they are ashamed of.

   a.) people in Hamilton are willing and able to work for God if they are given a chance

   b.) the church is guilty of holding a persons past over their head

THEY ARE PRISONERS OF THEIR PAST AND THE CHURCH WILL NOT HELP THEM GET FREE FROM THEIR PAST AND REACH FOR TOMORROW!

Philippians 3: 12.  Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

 13.  Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,

 14.  I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

3.) The Church is guilty of closing the door to people because they are broken vessels. You can worship here because you’re divorced & remarried. We don’t want your kind here because you have a drinking problem. O no we see the needle tracks in your arms we don’t want you. Or you don’t smell so good so we wish you would go somewhere else.

   a.) If they can’t go to church where can they go? If they can’t come here where will they go? If they can’t feel love where will they feel love? If they can’t be accepted here, where will they be accepted? If they can’t be healed here where will they go for healing? If they can’t find God here, where can they find God? If they don’t find God where will they spend eternity?

4.) In boxing it’s not always the person who knocks out the opponent that wins the fight. The judges don’t judge a fight based on the last round. They look at the entire fight before they make a decision.

IN LIFE YOU CAN WIN THE FIGHT WITHOUT WINNING EVERY ROUND!

   a.) as Christians we judge a persons life by a couple of bad rounds and label them for life

BUT GOD looks at the persons entire life before making a decision.

   a.) the potential of a person, what they can become

MAYBE YOU’VE LOST A FEW ROUNDS IN LIFE BUT REMEMBER THE FIGHT IS NOT OVER!

The Bible is full of men who did not win every round in life, broken vessels, seemingly unusable vessels.

5.) Look at some of the titles God gave them.

   A.) God called Noah a preacher of Righteousness., but he wasn’t always r’ ous , But after the flood Noah got drunk & exposed himself.

     a.) but God did not look at that moment in his life and call him a loser. God looked at all the rounds, all the failures, all the success, all the determination and gave him the title of  “preacher of righteousness”

   B.) God called Abraham the father of faith. Abraham wasn’t always a great man of faith though.

On their travels to the land of promise he lied about Sarah not being his wife. He didn’t trust God to protect  him. He got impatient and fathered a baby by his wife’s hand maiden. Yet God did not throw him out for a few bad rounds. He walked in the covenant and received the promise and is called “ the father of faith”

C.) God called Moses His servant. The same Moses who beat the rock instead of speaking to it. (disobedience) The same man who was not allowed to enter the Promise Land because he lacked a servant’s heart. And yet God looked at all the chapters of his life a calls him “ MY SERVANT”

D.) God called David a man after His own heart. But David committed adultery and dishonored a good man with a good name. He was involved in a conspiracy to kill Uriah to cover his sin. David broke all of the ten commandments through the course of events surrounding his affair with Bethsheba . But in the end God considered David’s lie, his victories and labeled him a man after His own heart, What a title given to a man who fell so hard.

THANK GOD HE SEES THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

Perhaps you or someone you know is living in the agony of their past.  You / they need to know they are still some rounds left! The fight is not over! Learn from your mistakes and let God declare you a winner!

I am convinced that people are wasting their lives , they have dreams, God given dreams but because of their past, and the church’s failure to become a recovery room for hurting people they refuse to move on and make something out of their lives.

Our title must become sanitation department. We need to walk around picking up shattered glass and broken pieces of peoples lives and by the power of the Holy Spirit put them back together again.

Hamilton is full of broken people with no sense of worth. No sense of what is right or wrong. They are considered by some as refuse, garbage, trash, not good enough. It was for those that Jesus came to die!

God doesn’t throw anyone away! Aren’t you glad that He did not throw you away.?

The church must become a place for hurting people, broken people. people with a past, a criminal record, for drug users...broken vessels