· He threw a ball across the stage and told the dog to fetch it – The Dog stayed sitting. It didn’t budge for a religious leader.
· He called up a large body builder who told the dog to fetch – the dog stayed sitting. It didn’t budge for power.
· Then a banker came up and flashed money, telling the dog it would get a reward for fetching. The dog stayed sitting. It didn’t budge for money.
· After that was a peer pressure attempt. The whole congregation shouted “fetch, fetch” – the dog didn’t budge for peer pressure.
· The two models came up, One male and one female, who seductively, told the do to fetch – Dog didn’t move. I didn’t budge for lust.
· Until the Pastor called up the dogs master. The master gave the command, “Fetch” and the dog shot across the stage and fetched the ball.
This dog didn’t fetch until its master spoke to it.
Whom are you fetching for? (power, money, lust, status…)
Who is your boss?
Romans 6:16 - Tells us that we have a choice as to who, or what, we follow.
16) Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey-either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Every one of us has a master, and that master determines our behaviour and our actions.
If you’re master is:
· Money = then everything you do is centred on money.
· Power = your life is centred on trying to obtain that power.
Having free will gives us the freedom to choose what we want in the centre of our lives. But if it’s not God then we will be bitterly disappointed. Because that centre spot is made for God alone!
In the end, we will find out that we need God and that God is ultimately the one in charge. Saying that, you don’t want to turn around one day and have that ‘oops’ moment (oops, I should’ve put God in charge). It could mean where you spend your eternity.
So, Be honest with yourself…
Who is the boss of your life?
Our reading, helps us reflect on this question…
Jeremiah 18
1. This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2. “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”
3. So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.
4. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
5. Then the word of the Lord came to me.
6. He said, “Can I not do with you, house of Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.
7. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed,
8. and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.
9. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted,
10. and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
11. “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’
When God told Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house, the Israelites where living in time of spiritual crisis.
This chosen nation who belonged to God, who were blessed by God – Had turned from God and forgotten God. Who was there Boss?
They were chasing after things for their own pleasure. They turned from God to do and live however they pleased.
God sent Jeremiah to tell them to turn away from their evil ways and to turn back to God.
God says:
if they turn to Him, He will not inflict disaster.
If they don’t, he will reconsider the good he planned for them.
This was their response…
JEREMIAH 18: 12,18
12. But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.’ ”
18. They said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest will not cease, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let’s attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says.”
In this reading we learn two invaluable insights…
1) People don’t like being controlled when things are going their way and are asked to give them up. We literally turn against the church, God’s messengers, and invariably, we turn away from God when we are told to change – WE REBEL.
2) God doesn’t take rubbish. Either we are with Him, putting Him first in our lives and, spiritually, we will flourish. Or, we are against him by being the master of our lives, do our own thing and invariably, destroy ourselves spiritually.
We forget that, although part Jesus’ work on the cross saves us from God’s wrath to our sin, God is not going to tolerate our evil behaviour. We must not forget that God is still the ALMIGHTY GOD – who hates evil! He is the Boss!
So, in short…
1) Turn back to God, put God first, make God the boss and Flourish.
Or…
2) Put yourself first, be your own boss and be destroyed.
Deut 30 – Same message from Moses (Choose life (God) or death (yourselves)).
The Choice is yours…
Who is your boss?
So why is God so serious about this?
That’s because God is a Jealous God. Not a bad kind of negative jealousy, but one where God will do what it takes to get you into realising that He is the God of salvation and He will do anything to get you into Heaven with Him.
God’s jealousy is so righteous and profound, that He made sure He didn’t and doesn’t share you with Satan. The way He proved that was by hanging Jesus on the Cross to rip us out of the clutches of Satan. Not for anything else but to save you!
God is the potter, we are the clay.
He formed, created, moulded us to be His, and when we wander from that, God has every right to be jealous. So when Israel was wandering from God, God didn’t stand back and say, “Oh, that’s okay…have a good time.” No, He sought to bring them back. God wanted them back to Himself.
vs. 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.
4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
We live in a marred world. Just look at the headlines from this week. There are wars, famine, strife, you name it and we got it. This world is not the way God made it, it is marred.
And humankind is the same way. We try hide it but no one here is perfect.
But did you notice that something AWESOME happened!...
The Pot the potter was shaping collapsed and it was ruined. But the potter didn’t fling the clay into the dustbin and start with a new batch…
He took the same broken down, ruined piece of clay and continues shaping it from scratch, giving it its perfect and stronger form.
When we mess up and fall apart, God message remains the same. You are in my hands and I will remake you into something better.
You may have messed up (royally), been disobedient but God can still turn it all around for you. He can give your life form, shape and strength.
The only way is to make Him the ultimate Boss in your life – in EVERYTHING!
Ask God to rule in your life and stop being the boss.
Story: John Newton is a good example.
His life was falling apart. He was a drunkard and a slave trader (he got so drunk once that he fell off the ship and his shipmates had to harpoon him to bring him back on board.)
We would say what a waste, but not God. God would give John Newton another chance, and one day when fearing his life while at going through a storm at sea, John Newton gave his heart to Christ, and later this slave trader turned preacher would write the words of his life in a hymn, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see.”
God has a purpose for your life.
Following Jesus has been the best and greatest decision I have ever made. The times I've let Him direct my path, have been the greatest adventures and growth points in my life. It hasn’t been easy – BUT it has been so worth it! I would never changing it for the world! Jesus is the Boss!
How do you make God the Boss? Where do you start?
Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
I said earlier…
Every one of us has a master... Who is yours?
