Before We Get Started

For our discussion today, we will be using the sermon series discussion guides. If you would like to follow along you can access this discussion guide on the website at mosaicchurchaustin.com and then select “community group resources” in the menu options.

Prayer

Because the primary goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for or anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together?

This Week’s Topic

GOD + US

Today’s Topic

God The Potter

Discussion Questions

Jeremiah 18:1-10

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 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.

Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 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.

 

Jeremiah 9:23-24

This is what the Lord says:

“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
    or the strong boast of their strength
    or the rich boast of their riches,
but let the one who boasts boast about this:
    that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
    justice and righteousness on earth,
    for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.

What Pottery Shows Us

Notes from Digging Up Jericho, by Kathleen Kenyon

Pottery changed the world Before pottery, all food had to be consumed right away. People lived a hand-to-mouth existence. However, the creation of pottery allowed food to be carried and stored. Because of this:

Pottery allowed communities to be formed and life could develop beyond daily survival

Pottery didn’t just sustain communities; pottery beautified communities. Pottery wasn’t just functional, pottery was art. Pottery allowed individuality and creativity to flourish.  

Pottery transformed the world. It brought human history into the Neolithic Age, the time in which the book of Genesis takes place. 

Why do you think God sent Jeremiah on a field trip to the potter’s house?

Has God ever spoken to you through an ordinary, everyday object or setting?

What other inventions from history have impacted culture and the story of humankind in a meaningful way?

When We Shape Ourselves

Jeremiah 18:4

But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands…”

 note: “marred” (šāhat) means spoiled, decayed, or falling apart.

Madonna  

I have an iron will, and all my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy…I push past some spell of it and discover myself as a special human being and then I get to another stage and think I’m mediocre and uninteresting….my drive in life is from this horrible feeling of being mediocre. And that’s always pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I’ve become Somebody, I still have to prove I’m Somebody. My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.

Dr. Tim Keller  

Every person is seeking a verdict on their performance as a person. But the problem is the verdict is never in because the performance is never over.

Why do people so often seek approval and glory from others?

Who is in control of our lives when our identity is determined by our performance or acceptance?

What are the possible consequences if we receive the approval and glory we long for from others?

What are the possible consequences if we don’t receive that approval and glory?

How God Reshapes Us

Jeremiah 18:6

Can I not do with you…as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand…”

Jeremiah 9:24

 but let the one who boasts boast about this:
    that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
    justice and righteousness on earth,
    for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.

Morgan Stephens 

God doesn’t keep his approval for himself. He doesn’t keep glory for himself. It all belongs to him, but he gives it away to us.

What are some signs that someone has submitted themselves to God as the potter, shaping their lives?

How can valuing (or boasting) our knowledge and devotion to God help us relinquish our need for approval from other people?

How does God use the gospel to shape us into something better and more glorious than we can become without it?

Closing Thought

Eugene H. Peterson, Run with the Horses: The Quest for Life at Its Best

Pliny the Elder once said that the Romans, when they couldn’t make a building beautiful, made it big. The practice continues to be popular: If we can’t do it well, we make it larger. We add dollars to our income, rooms to our houses, activities to our schedules, appointments to our calendars. And the quality of life diminishes with each addition. On the other hand, every time that we retrieve a part of our life from the crowd and respond to God’s call to us, we are that much more ourselves, more human. Every time we reject the habits of the crowd and practice the disciplines of faith, we become a little more alive.

 

End your time sharing one way you can answer God’s call this week to allow him to be the potter in your life.