Pastor Stefanie and Ross Anderson
October 4, 2020 - W2040

"A Lesson from the Potter’s House" 

How Then Shall We Live? 

Pastor Stefanie Anderson & Ross Anderson

October 3 & 4, 2020 

Welcome, New Hope Oahu, and our online family! We are grateful that you are tuning in with us today! For those of you who don't know me, I am Stefanie Anderson.  Most of my teachings have been on midweek; this is my first weekend service, and I am really excited!  My husband, Ross, will be coming up in a minute.  When Pastor John Tilton asked my husband Ross and me to share our experiences of the last five years, I thought I've already shared that; but as you know, husbands and wives may go through the same thing, but their experiences are very different! So, today, you'll hear from Ross's perspective.  But before that, we will continue our series, How Then Shall We Live? "A Lesson from the Potter's House," Jeremiah's experience.

Jeremiah was very young (scholars say he was between 13, possibly, 17 to 21 years old) when God called him to be a prophet; he said I'm too young. Jeremiah 1:4-7 NIV: "⁴ The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” ⁶“Alas, Sovereign Lord," I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” ⁷ But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you." 

A LESSON FROM THE POTTER'S HOUSE 

Since Jeremiah was very young and didn't have any life experience, the Lord physically took him to the potter's house so that he could understand what God was doing. Jeremiah 18:2-6 NKJV says:  ² “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words."  ³ Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. ⁴ And 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. ⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ⁶ “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!"

Point No. 1:  God is the Potter; We are the Clay   

Genesis 2:7, NKJV says, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and we get a revelation of who we are and who He is!  We need to flip on our switch and see that God is always good; that we can trust Him, that when the potter decides to reshape the pot and make something even better than the first version, He's making something more amazing!  But we like our shape and don't necessarily want to change!  So... 

Point No. 2: Allow God to Reshape You

PASTOR STEFANIE:  I don't know about you, but I've had some rough clay spots that the Lord has had to rework in my life; and some were a little mushy that He needed to rebuild.  I say this because some of you are being crushed--and it's painful! Know that God is always good, that He is with you in the crushing, that His gentle hands are carrying you in and through it!  

I want to invite my precious husband, Ross Anderson, up.  He is the reason for my faith.  He is the love of my life, the father of my three children.  So, babe, I have watched you for the past five years going through some of the most brutal crushing, and you have had such integrity and led our family so well in it. I want to thank you for that and share with the people who may be going through a crushing, feeling they may not make it.  Would you share from your life? 

ROSS: This really has to do with my work: For 30 years, I had the best job ever.  I had worked for a wonderful family?owned restaurant company in Hawaii. I started with them on Kauai as a busboy and dishwasher and worked every position in the restaurant and trained new people to do those jobs. Eventually, I supervised and managed the company, and for about 25 years, I was running the largest restaurant in the company. Then they asked me to transition from the restaurant into a larger management role, and I became vice president of operations for eight restaurants in Hawaii.  It was fantastic!  Times were very good--sales were up, profits were up, and the company was growing.  

PASTOR STEFANIE:  You were a good vessel.  Perfectly beautiful. 

ROSS:  Then one day I was in meeting and my phone rang, it's the CEO of our company calling from the mainland and said, "Hey, I need to talk to you."  Over the next few moments, a 30?year career evaporated into: "The board has voted, and your services are no longer needed."  It was unfathomable for me!  I had served them as if it were my own company. Then, a 30?year career ended in a phone call! I was filled with anger, frustration, confusion, and denial. I was all over the place.  I was a mess.  It was horrible!  

PASTOR STEFANIE:  It was really, really hard.  But even in that hardness, you resolved to do two things.  What were those things? 

ROSS:  I resolved to do some things, but it took me a while to get there! It wasn't just that you're fired, but, "We'd like for you to stick around four more months and train your replacement!"  Yeah, exactly. To do that would take everything I could muster, so I resolved to do two things:  First, I would zip my lips. I would not speak evil or ill of the company. Second, I resolved to finish well because I just couldn't see marring my 30?year career by ending badly.  I did everything within my power to hand off the negotiations and projects to make sure that the new people coming in could make a smooth transition--I finished the four months, smoothly! 

PASTOR STEFANIE:  Again, it sounds so good because we can look at it in hindsight, but during that time, there was so much pain!  

ROSS:  It's difficult to deal with pain/crushing when you're not busy--the phone stopped ringing and the e?mailbox that's always full was empty!  And you start to question a lot of things.  It was very lonely all of a sudden! For 30 years, I was surrounded by people in the restaurant business; and, suddenly, there's nobody--it was a crushing like I had never experienced before!  

PASTOR STEFANIE:  Yeah.  So, what did you do?

ROSS:  I had my Job moment.  We're on a prayer team here at New Hope, and I knew I had to pray, but how do you pray? So, the first day I literally I got up early at 4 a.m., shaved my head and beard.  I prayed and heard nothing! I figured this was a transitional moment in my life, surely, God would speak to me.  He said nothing.  The next day, nothing.  The next day, nothing.  About that time, a friend came from the mainland, a pastor, a very wise man. I sat down and poured out my heart to him; he was very patient and listened to me.  Then he reached out and put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Congratulations, you finally need God!"  It was a gut punch; a good gut punch because it was from God! You really need God to speak truth that gives you a foundation to stand on. Now I'm relying on God!  

PASTOR STEFANIE:  Wow. One of the things that you shared with me is that, being on the prayer team, people expect that we know how to pray, and we do know how to pray.  But, when we were the ones going through it, it's really devastating! 

Point No. 3, Regardless of How You Feel, Pray

ROSS:  I had to pray a lot; it started with, "God, help me!"  As time went on, "God, help me" turned into "God, thank you. Thank you for giving me 30 years with that company.  Thank you for the provisions that you gave me all those years. Thank you for my wife and my kids and my home."  It all just became a time of gratitude! And gratitude led to forgiveness!  Wow, I must forgive the people that I perceived had wronged me. And instead of carrying bitterness, I began to forgive! Eventually, I was praying for their success!  This was God because I started out very bitter and angry, but God softened my heart as I went before Him needing Him.  In this new posture of needing Him, He softened my heart and revealed many things and He said, "You're holding on to bitterness.  Can you forgive them?"  It did not happen overnight--it took a year to get through this! It was neat what He did!

PASTOR STEFANIE:  I love the progression.  And just so you know, "Help me, God," is a perfectly legitimate prayer.  It's a powerful prayer! You said that year one--you heard crickets! Then what happened in year two?

ROSS: My friends asked, "What are you doing now?"  I said, "Well, I'm praying a lot.  I'm waiting on the Lord."  And it seemed very noble to do that.  Then, year two comes around, and I felt that it wasn't quite as noble to be waiting on the Lord anymore, so I decided to try to be the potter, and to reshape my vessel back to the way it used to be or the way I'd like it. But God was not letting that happen!  It's tough to balance because people would say, "Hey, faith without works is dead.  You got to get working."  Not if you're doing it on your own and God purposely put you in the waiting room!  If He put you there, you're not getting out until it's time!   

PASTOR STEFANIE:  I love the picture of the waiting room. It's the space between where the door shuts and the next door opens. Now that we could see with 2020 hindsight, the restaurant they were building on the beach for us was a perfect spot, but God saw what was coming and closed the door; I said, "God, why are you crushing my husband so badly?"  

ROSS:  That's all right.  It was a little tough at the time.

PASTOR STEFANIE:  It was very difficult at the time. I jumped up and said, "Something good is gonna happen.  There's no way that you can get crushed like that and not have a good story come out of it! I just feel it!"  That's who this poor man is married to, that annoying person! I feel badly now as I look back at my exuberance and encouragement--sometimes people just need you to sit and cry and hold their hand and not try and get them to the next open door.  So, year two.

ROSS:  Year two. Closed door, more closed doors. Pastor Wayne had told us before that when you're not hearing from the Lord, sometimes you have to go back to the last thing that you heard from Him.  He probably gave you some instructions, are you doing it? Well, several years before I lost my job, we were in a powerful worship service at a conference when the Holy Spirit spoke to me and I literally had to sit down and write it out, as He downloaded a mini business plan:   

I would have a restaurant and take in people who didn't have the right pedigree or who had made a wrong turn in life and needed a second chance to get back on their feet; I would provide them a venue to move forward to recapture the dreams they had. When I told you about it, you had a different opinion and said, "That's great, something we can do after you retire, when we're old."

PASTOR STEFANIE:  Well, we had one kid in college, one on the way to college, and I was just starting my pastoral ministry degree.  You actually got a full download from the Lord, and I may have impeded something happening earlier.  I don't know.  We will never know. I'm sorry.

ROSS:  But, when year three came around, I could see that God has been doing things for me and our plans and timing are irrelevant to Him!  If I could tell you one thing about waiting, it stinks! It's horrible!  Then, someone told us about a restaurant that had been closed, that we might want to check into.  Early on, in the first year, we had investigated it; there was nothing happening.  But in year three, we got a nudge to check it out again--things had changed and now they were open to talking.  It still wasn't easy; but God kept opening many doors:  People came alongside and said, "Hey, we're remodeling our kitchen, and we have all this equipment.  Would you like it?"  "Hey, we're doing a refresh of our dining room.  Would you like these tables and chairs?" Now, it's starting to fall into place!  God had this in His plans, but the time had to be right! The following scripture summarizes our adventure:

Romans 5:3-5 NIV says: "³ ...but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame," 

The money is not endless--it was running out! I'm normally the planner type--I have to see where the funds are coming from next; otherwise, I get really nervous, and I could not see any funds coming, but God was so good! The week that our provisions stopped is the week that we opened our new restaurant!

PASTOR STEFANIE:  Waiting is difficult. It is humbling, but it has built our faith. God has shown us that He is our provider and still is in control!  You may be suffering from a terrible crushing, but God is in the crushing! It's in the crushing that He breathes life into dead things!  

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1. Share a lesson you a learned from God being the potter and you being the clay.
2. Share your Job moment. 
3. Why is it important to pray regardless of how you feel? What happened to Ross when he did this?
4. What were two things that Ross resolved to do when he got fired and was told to train his replacement?