Chiseled

The title of my sermon today is Chiseled. Chiseled. As most of you know, this is the last day of flatbread. Last day for putting sin out of our lives for one year. What? Last day for a year that we're forced to be humble. Isn't that the meaning? That you are really forced to do this? And you are forced to have a piece of this? I must admit, my wife makes some very good on living bread, but this was macho. And I'll tell you that I am so tired of eating this. It is dry, tasteless, closest thing to cardboard I can imagine eating. And yet, for the last six days, and including today, I've been eating it. So I want to talk about it because I want to know, so everybody in here ate this. Did you learn any lessons? I mean, did you really learn any lessons other than how to choke down this stuff? You learned a lesson. Do it with caramel.

Okay, so it's a forgery. Yeah, John? It's the bread of, I think, people that were slaves. Yes. I felt like a slave, having to eat this every day. But what did you really learn? Did you learn anything from eating this? My wife and I, we open this every morning, as we first got up, and we took a bite of this or had a piece of unleavened bread like this. We ate other unleavened bread with stuff on it that tasted good or she baked stuff. But with this, it was just this plain old bland bread every single morning. I look forward to tomorrow morning when this thing will no longer be here. But it taught us about humility, hopefully. It taught us about putting sin. And maybe this won't be the last day that we will put sin out of our lives. I hope not. I think that's not the lesson. But I ask you the question, are you in better shape spiritually because of this break? Nobody's saying anything. I see a couple of heads. You are? Okay. Are you in better shapes? You're saying spiritually. Are you in better shape physically? No? So eating all that bread that you would eat at McDonald's and stuff didn't put on weight. So you weigh just as much this week as you do any other week. Huh. Are you chiseled? Are you chiseled? If you go to the gym, which I know you're not very hard to believe, but yes, I belong to a gym. I haven't been for two weeks. But you find people in there that are very chiseled. One guy gets up there and grabs onto this bar and just sits and pulls the leg lifts up off this and just does it and then does it in reverse and all this kind of stuff. Guys like that make you sick. But I'm to be overcoming that during this week. I can't even think about that. I remember my days when I was in my 20s. That was a little better. But have you pictured being chiseled? Because God wants you to be chiseled. I wish that was me in the middle, but I guess I could have Dave. Had you put my head on that picture? That's about the only way that's going to happen. And the biggest one laughing right now is my wife right in front of me. Makes me feel good. Never too late, Lewis says. You just wait. So why does God, if this is not chisels, why does God make such a big deal out of unleavened bread? Have you ever thought about it? He asks us to sit one whole week out of 52 aside to eat this stuff. And then he says he wants us to learn a lesson from it. Chisel.

Any of you ever used a chisel? Yes? Got one in the back? Yes? Okay. Oh, whoa, you've got a hand up here. You're a chiseller. Yes! You know what? It's not fun, is it? It's not fun to just beat away on some stone. For a long time. Can you imagine doing this as your job?

No, I can't either. Matter of fact, I probably wouldn't do it. Am I coming in okay? Why do I feel it? Okay. So I want to tell you a story today about a guy that made his living doing this. But I need to tell you this story, and it's about chiseling. Because it does tie into here. Let me do the story. The year was 1460.

The city was Florence, Italy. Anybody ever been to Florence, Italy? You have been. Okay. Maria's not here. Oh, she's been there too. Okay. In 1460, you weren't there in 1460. You're not that old. Over 500 years ago, in 1460, the city of Florence decided they wanted to have some sculptures made of certain individuals. They wanted 12 made, and they wanted to make the first one the big one, the great one.

And so they had this stone brought in. It's from Tuscany, 39 miles away. They had this stone, marble stone, brought in the ground. It weighed 18,000 pounds. Can you imagine transporting something that big? It was 18 foot, if you stood it up, it was 18 foot tall. Huge stone, 18,000 pounds, I said. And they brought it forward. And so they hired a guy by the name of a sculptor who was well known at the time, named Agostino.

And Agostino started chiseling on this, except it didn't last very long, and he quit. He said, it's just too hard. I could relate to that if you're sitting there chiseling on this huge, just square stone. And so the stone set out in the weeds for 10 years. Couldn't find anybody to do it. And then they found Antonio, another sculptor, and someone had recommended him and said, he'll do it. He went out, and after a few weeks they fired him, because he wasn't any good. They couldn't even tell he'd done anything.

And so the stone then set out in the weeds again for 30 years. 30 years waiting for someone, waiting for someone to turn it into something. And the year was 1501. The date was August the 16th. A young 26-year-old sculptor was hired. They'd already seen a piece of his work, and it was amazing.

But they said, this might just be a little too big for anybody to try to take on. But not for this 26-year-old sculptor. So he decided that he would work and work and work on this. And three years later, September the 18th, 1504, the masterpiece known as David was finished. He had taken three years of this and had sculpted something so amazing. You can actually see he was chiseled, a young David.

So his eyes, you saw his hair, all this done with these, with sand that he would take behind a piece of cloth and sand it down with water and sand and files. Three years, and he turns into the greatest masterpiece that he would have ever done. Imagine that. And it was such a great piece that even the founding fathers, those who were still alive who had commissioned it, said, well, how are we going to move it? Because we need to move it over here. Because we're afraid something's going to break, something's going to chip off.

So they built a wood crate, so heavy that it would hold that now 17,000 pound statue. And they had to move it 2,000 feet to the center of town. And they had to use wood rollers and set up under this box. It took 40 men working even at night for four days to set it in place. It was, and still is, a magnificent piece of work. A young boy asked the great sculptor how he knew what parts to chisel off.

His answer was, I take everything that does not look like David away. Brethren, God is chiseling us. And this week he used a simple piece of bread to chisel away, help us, remind us to chip off, to chisel away the parts of us that does not look like Christ. God is working on a masterpiece. This is just so important to him. Once you do think about some of the things, though, marble, stone, having to use one of these every single day, and then chipping everything away, and having the vision to see that there's something greater underneath.

And God has a vision. He wants us to. But imagine taking the equipment even we have today with portable drills with sanding blocks, saws. There was a study done of some architectural firms as they all went and examined this sculpture. Asked to replicate it, everyone turned it down because they said they couldn't do any better.

That was 10 years ago. 500 years after this was done by one man with the chisel, sand, files, they said they just couldn't. They even found that someone did it in wax, like a wax museum one time, and they saw flaws. It's hard to find any flaws. Antonio got there as he was chipping before, and he said he complained to the people before he was fired that there's just too many gaps in it and it's just it's never gonna work. That it would be a waste of time.

And so would we be if we weren't in the hands of a master sculptor, a master that knows how to take a rough piece of hard, hard-headed man like me and begin to sculpt him into Christ's image. He does it to all of us, and sometimes that chipping away doesn't feel too good. Doesn't always feel. But hopefully using this piece of bread this week, he's learned to chip off or we have learned to sand ourselves because we can do a little bit of the sculpting to help him, can't we? We can't just rely on God to do it all. Here I am, God! Make me perfect. Make me perfect. He says, no, you got to do a little bit yourself too. I'll be there to help. I'll be there to help. I'll be there to show you the way. I'll be there to do some of the chipping, some of the sanding you're going to need to do yourself, some of the filing you're going to need to do yourself. Like self-righteousness, a little puffy, right? Like selfishness. Sometimes we can be a little puffy. Or what about lust? It's all about me. It's what I want. It's not what God wants from me. Greed, jealousy, envy, apathy, laziness. These are some things that we can kind of put our hands on to start working. Working does not look like young David, look like Jesus Christ. Look like Jesus Christ looked and acted when he walked on this earth for 33 and a half years.

He preached many a sermon. Preached many a sermon with actions. People saw. People see us. Do they see God's sculpture? Do they see the finished product? We're not there yet. But can they see the outline? Because it was it said that Michelangelo was working into the last year. So much was done that people would just come by and just want to stop and talk to him because they could see this. They'd seen this flat stone and they were like, oh what? And he said, I can't.

He was curt. He was terse. Leave me alone. He had a work to do. God has a work to do in us. Do we hold him up sometimes? Because we want to talk and make excuses. Guilty here. God is trying to complete his masterpiece. Like you to go with me because there was a masterpiece built. So God originally designed it and gave the architecture and the plans to King David. But he said, you're not going to build it, David, because you've got some issues. You're not a finished product yet. So I don't want this built with all these thoughts about you and all the blood you've shed. I want them to think about this as a temple of God. And so he had Solomon build this temple, this incredible temple. And as much as people can look at it and be amazed by it, God says in 1 Corinthians 3 and 1 Corinthians 6, he said, you, you are the temple of God. That's why he's taking so much time to build this, to build in you that image of Christ so that you can be just like his temple was, where people will know when they've come into the presence of God, they've come into the presence of holy. Go with me to 1 Kings, if you will. Find my way to 1 Kings 6. And so this temple was so special, nothing had ever been built like it before. It's estimated just a few years ago by some architectural firms what it would cost to build it now, and gold wasn't even five thousand dollars an ounce in. It's said this same temple, a little over two thousand square feet, would cost 15 to 20 trillion dollars, two thousand square foot. Amazing. So let's look at it. 1 Kings 6 and verse 7, and the temple when it was being built, was built with stone finished in the quarry so that no hammer, no chisel, or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. He wanted this place so holy, but each of those stones that were built were finished in the quarry. They were polished. They were exact. All of every stone was exact size. They didn't have a measuring tape. They used string. String. And that was their measuring. And they took that string and took it from the inside and took that string and that's exactly what they went to the quarry to have this stone. Just exactly what that little piece of string measured. Every single piece was exact. And when they brought it back, they would actually sand it. So they would make sure when they brought it into the temple and they laid that stone and some of them were half the size of this wall, they fit exactly. No hammering. No chisel. Just set the stone in place. Perfection. That is what God wanted. Perfection is what God got. Perfection, brethren, is what He's wanting us to do. Work towards it. That's why Christ said, become you perfect. The actual translation where He says, be you perfect. Become you perfect. He's wanting us to be that temple. Let's finish this.

Said the doorway of the middle story was on the right side of the temple. They went up by the stairs to the middle story and from the middle story to the third. So He built the temple and finished it and He paneled the temple with beams and boards of cedar. And He built side chambers against the entire temple, which each five cubits high, that they were attached to the temple with cedar beams. Then the word of the Lord came to Solomon saying, concerning this temple you are building. If you walk in my statutes, execute my judgments, keep my commandments, and walk in them, I will perform my word with you, which I spoke to your father David. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will not forsake my people Israel. He asked them to do this. What does He ask us to do?

My commandments, my statutes. I'll walk with you. That's why He dwells in us, as 1 Corinthians 3 says. He dwells in us. A part of Him is in here, because without Him in here, we are not the temple of God.

We're just a shell. Does He have more room to grow in your temple? Does He have more room? Isaiah, you'll go with me to Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64 and verse 8. Isaiah has a credible example here. But he says, now, Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You are the potter, and all we are the work of Your hands. Are we? Can you see the shape that God is shaping us to begin? It's not always easy. I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to do it this morning. But it's a reminder that God is still working with me. I'm doing this because He asked me to. So it is that reminder. And please, Mary, hand me my water. I didn't think about doing that.

Anybody here ever did pottery? Do pottery? You have? Back in school days? You had, yes. I had a customer one time. I made my head construction company. We were doing a big job for her. Out back, she had this little shop, and she did pottery. And she did it for a living, and she did pretty well. So I just thought, well, I want to know more about it. So the guys were doing some work. I walked out back and said, show me a little bit about pottery. So she showed me this clay. And then she showed me, and she had her wheel going there. Because they'd been making pottery for thousands of years. They'd just like a bicycle, and they could turn it. Although this was all electric. So she had this pottery. She was doing this. And, man, it just looks so easy. She said, would you like to try? I said, of course. I built whole houses. I know what I'm doing. Oh my! What a mess! I didn't realize that little skinny woman had hands that were stronger than mine. And when that wheel was turning, the clay just was like it was all falling apart. So I thought by grabbing it and holding it and then doing it around. But, no. She was strong enough in her hands to form the ridges, but soft enough so the water would travel. And she just would just spin around to where she just made it like a piece of art. And me, mine, was just a big mess. And I so appreciate reading these verses. And, as a matter of fact, let's go because Isaiah reminded us of that. We are the clay, but go with me to Jeremiah because that's also brought out to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 18, let's go to verse 1. God told Jeremiah, he said, well, you've got all kinds of problems in Judah. And they're eventually going to be captured. But this is a story you need to have. So I want you to get the picture. I want you to get a visual on this. So I want you to go visit a potter, just like I did. Okay, so in verse 1, the word 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 to the potter's house, and there he was, making something at the wheel, and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands and of the potter, so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. So it didn't go quite right, so he just formed it again. Then the word of the Lord came to me, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? Look, as the clay is in the potter's hands, so are you in my hands, O house of Israel. He was wanting to form them, just like us. Why are we called the Israel of God in the New Testament? Because they abandoned him. They didn't want any part of him. He left because he wasn't wanted by them. He said, I'll start anew. I'll start a new group and I will put my law in their minds. I will write it on their hearts. I'm going to make my masterpiece one way or another. Brethren, we are clay in God's hands. Are we allowing him to craft us, to finish us, to mold us into what he wants us to be? Or do we say, no! I want to be a tall, slender pot. I don't want to be a short, squatty one. I only want to be this size, God. I think it's a buddy. He says, no. What I have planned for you is bigger than your little minds can even think about. I want you to be more open so that we can do this. Go with me to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 4. Oh, this is beautiful.

2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. But we have this treasure in... What's the word say? Earthen vessels. Earthen vessels. That's what we are right now. We're God's earthen vessels. He says, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. Wow. Earthen vessels. Those vessels are talked about in Jeremiah 32 and verse 13 as a place to store things. Anybody... well, you just... Matthew showed me earlier a book that I want him to go into with me afterwards about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Anybody remember where the Dead Sea Scrolls was found? Qumran, right? They were found by what? Yeah, taking care of going and looking after goats. Yeah, sheep didn't like that. Goats. And he was just a kid kind of playing around and took a rock and threw it in one of these caves. There's hundreds of caves there. And he hit what? Boom. He hit a clay pot. He could tell because it broke. And he had no idea it was in there. And he goes in there. And was he fine? We've known later as the Dead Sea Scrolls. There's a 47 or 48. I can't remember which one. 1947, 1948. Somewhere in there. But it's interesting because they stored this valuable stuff, these valuable manuscripts and pieces of clay in what? Earthen vessels. What has God given to us? When he says these 10 commandments, earthen vessels, how much can he put in there? How much can he put rather than in your vessel? Wow. Go with me. Isaiah. Back to Isaiah. Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45 in verse 9. Look at my clock. I'm still doing okay. Let's hope I don't blow it here. Let's hope I don't blow it here by digressing into something. Isaiah 45 verse 9. Woe to him who strives with his maker. Your name on there. You ever had a problem with your maker? You ever had a problem with the decision that he made? You ever decided to go to the complaint department way up there? Most of us have. Like a spoiled child. He won't let me play with him. Think about that. Woe to him who strives with his maker. Let the potshards strive with the potshards of the earth. Shall the clay say to him who makes it? What are you making? Hmm. God knows what he's making in us. A masterpiece! We just can't see it enough. Or his handiwork say, he has no hands. Woe to him who says to the Father, why are you begetting me? You get the humor there? Yeah. Before we were born, we could say, why are you fathering me?

Or to the woman, what have you brought forth? Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel and his Maker, ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands you command me. I have made the earth and created man on it. My hands stretched out for the heavens, and all their hosts I have commanded. God made the universe! Look out tonight if it's not raining. Go on YouTube and see what our satellites pick up. See what the probes can show you. He made all that! And then we sometimes doubt and say, well, why did he pick me? Tell you the truth. You're not smart enough to even ask that question. That's what this says. He says, you are so young, so naive, as I am, that you did not see, but just a small place of the picture. If that statue, you only saw one toe of that statue. And you know what most people would say? Wow, look at that. Look at that. Because the toe was perfect. So perfect that a guy 20 years later came along and chipped it off.

Before then they put it into a case, the statue of David here. You can go see it today. People marvel at it. But if we just saw one toe, we would go, wow, I wonder how he did that. See, brother, we're only seeing one toe. And the sculpture called us. God knows what he wants to do. And he knows how to do it. How do we test that? How do we question this? This is a sanding block to help sand us, to become more like Jesus Christ. Are there other ways? Yes. You're going to find that out. We find out every year, don't we? There's more ways that God works with us. The old Garth Brooks song, Thank God for Unanswered Prayers.

Things we ask for we don't get, and then we say, wow. Sure, go ahead. Thank you, God, you knew more than I did. Thank you for continuing. Stick by me and help me sand this incredible sculpture. God knows exactly what he's doing. He's building his masterpiece. Brethren, we need to be convicted. Smooth off our edges. Metaphiles, abrasive, sand, sandpaper. It was said that this sculpture, everyone thought it was complete. You have a picture of that again, the sculpture. Everyone thought it was complete, and they came by, and Michelangelo was still working on it.

And he put the muscles, all the little things. All he did was a little bit of sand and water, and he would take water and just rub it and rub it down, and rub it and rub it with just a little bit of sand on his hand so he could actually feel everything about it. And he sculptured that with his hands. Hundreds of hours, just when everyone else thought it was finished. Brethren, God knows what he's doing. We can look in the mirror and say, well, you got a lot of work to do. No, God doesn't. What does he say about David? I look upon his heart. He looks at the inside, and he sees the heart, and he says, I wonder how much space there is for me in there. And he knows. And brethren, he wants to dwell in his temple.

He can do it. He desires to more than anything else. Will we let him do that? All of Michelangelo's hard work was rewarded by, arguably, the greatest masterpiece ever made, the Statue of David. God is creating in you his masterpiece. Are you ready? Are you ready to do your part and take those last hundreds of hours? And sand and sand and smooth out those rough places. Make everything the way God wants them to be. And to do that, we have to ask the master.

And he will say, go study my word. This is what created that. God is what created you.