Formed, Not Just Informed | Ps Melanie Politanski

Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to

take hold of. So we hope this message inspires

you and build your faith. But it helps you have more of a

God perspective for your day. Enjoy get.

Myself set up, I'm going to make a confession.

Is that all right? No, nobody's ready for

confession. Our interns have been learning

in the last fortnight the power of confession and I'm not making

a confession on my husband's behalf who can make his own for

lying about coming out with $10. He can do that at the end of the

at the altar called of the service today.

I'm going to make my own confession because we're in a

theme right now called you plus me and ChatGPT.

All right, so I'm going to make a confession.

You ready all right I had some fun on ChatGPT this week who

else has had some fun on ChatGPT?

Who loves to ask chat all sorts of unusual things.

I'm making a confession today. I this week had some fun asking

some things of ChatGPT. And so I asked all sorts of

things things like help me understand and unusual Bible

passage. Who else?

Come on, confess right now. Who asked for some

interpretation from ChatGPT this weekend?

All right there we go Well done. You are forgiven.

You are forgiven. You are forgiven.

I am forgiven. Hallelujah.

All right, I I asked help me structure a really good preach

for this Sunday. No, I'm kidding right there.

People are like that's it. I'm out of here.

I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, but truthfully, I asked

some really, really serious life things this week of ChatGPT

because I just who who just needs to know some things and

you need a real wisdom. Come on, come on.

I know there are others in the building who are like, I needed

some real wisdom. So this year, this week I asked

chat. All right, so this week I asked

chat because curiosity got the better of me.

I asked is there a correct way to fold a fitted sheet?

Some things are just too important not to research,

right? Well, apparently there is 4

pages of instruction, a number of key links.

Now you're all doing. I can see you, see you on

ChatGPT. Apparently there is a very

specific method, and apparently some people can do it really,

really well. And apparently those people do

not live in my house, but we live in incredible times and so

that information is right at our fingertips.

Politansky family you, me and chat chi BT you can ask chat

anything these days. I have had some fun over the

last number of months asking chat all sorts of incredible

things, like you can learn how to fix a washing machine even if

you're not a qualified electrician.

You can write an incredible speech that sounds like a

presidential speech. You can learn how to cook like a

chef. You can learn how to build a

business that will absolutely succeed, and you'll receive that

affirmation from chat. You could even learn, or it can

help you understand the theology of the Bible.

We are living today in the most informed generation in history,

yet at the same time we are living in one of the most

disconnected generations in history.

Why? Because information is

everywhere, but formation is rare.

Don't enter that into chat. You can tag Mel on insta.

Information fills our minds, but formation shapes our lives and

discipleship has never ever been about information.

It's always been about formation, and through our

Scripture, God uses a beautiful image to explain how He shapes

people. This is found for those of you

who take notes. You can have a lot of fun with

my message today. You can write the big letter P

right at the top of your page, and everything falls under that

today. All right, but throughout

Scripture, God uses a beautiful image to explain how He shapes

people. And I want to bring us to this

passage this morning and unpack this a little bit and what God

does in us to help form us into who He's created us to be.

Because here's news to some of us today.

You aren't right now who He has created you to be.

I say Amen too. We're in the stage of formation

to whom He has created us to be. It's not a done deal when we

were born with $10. He spends our life forming us

into the likeness of Him, which is so significant.

So I want to bring us around a passage in Jeremiah today,

Jeremiah 18, verse six. I'm going to give you a moment

to open your passages, open your Bibles.

Who's got a physical Bible in the building today?

I saw so many of my interns lifted up there, so proud, so

proud. Jeremiah 18, verse 6.

Jeremiah 18:6

It's going to be on the screen. For those of you who do not have

your Bible here today, can I encourage you to bring your word

to the House of God? Bring it.

Test these messages through it, open it up, decipher it for

yourself. The Holy Spirit will help you.

Let this is what it says in Jeremiah 18 verse 6.

Jeremiah 18:6

It says like clay in the hand of the Potter, so you are in my

hand. Clay does not shape itself.

Clay is shaped through pressure, through process and through

proximity. I told you there would be some

peas. You cannot shout instructions at

clay and expect it to change shape or change form or become

something beautiful. You've got to put it on the

wheel. You got to place your hands on

it because formation requires contact.

And This is why discipleship always requires relationship,

not just knowledge, not just information.

It requires you plus me. The problem with the with the

information age is this, let's be really honest, OK?

Many people today approach spiritual growth the same they

approach everything else. We consume information we

consume. Let's be really, really honest.

Maybe this is a confession moment for you too.

We consume podcasts, sermons or messages, books, YouTube,

theology, and none of those things I am saying today are

bad. But here's the problem.

You can consume hours and hours and hours and years of

information and still remain unchanged.

Because information does not shape us, vulnerability does.

Transformation happens when someone asks us individually

questions like how are you really doing?

Where are you struggling? Why are you drifting?

What has God highlighted to you through his word in this last

week? It's that kind of honesty that

we cannot we cannot have through a screen.

It happens in relationship. And so this morning I've titled

this message Formed not just Informed.

Formed, not just informed. God is looking for a church who

is formed, not just informed. Do you know this is because this

is the great pursuit of believers all around the world

as unity. This is how we come into unity

when each of us are being formed into the likeness of God.

We come together in like mindedness, like spirit.

When we are informed, we actually become separate from

one another. The truth is, is each of you

have your YouTube preferences and they are different from one

another. Some of you in the room like me

are like, I don't even like YouTube, right?

We each have our preferences or our opinions or our leans or our

bends to specific things. You know how those things are

formed through what is already in us.

We we get our relationships that way.

We find those that we want to do friendship with based on

likeness. Same, same, same spirit.

That's a real challenge to some of us in the room today who

might be married and they're looking at their spouses.

That's the problem. You chose them because you are

like them. Don't look at them and they're

the problem. You are them.

You are them. We actually choose this way.

We choose what we believe we're worth.

We choose same spirits. Most often we even choose.

It's crazy the way we're designed by God, but we often

even choose similar circumstances, right?

So then the trap in this is how do you grow when you're same

same, we need some same different iron sharpens iron in

and around our worlds church. We are not just here to inform

people. Even today.

This message will go up on podcasts, but it's purpose is

not to inform believers. It is to encourage and urge and

invite people to step into formation.

We are here to form people into the likeness of Jesus.

So because of this, here's the questions we're asking this

year. We're asking, is there not a

cause for each and every one of us to be formed?

Is there not a cause in Caboolture and Maury Fields and

a Limbaugh and all the surrounding regions so that

people there also have the opportunity to step into

formation, not information? Is there not a cause for the

people of our region, for our young people, not just our young

people in this House, but the young people of this district,

for the broken people in this region, for the people in our

city who are searching for hope? We're asking the question, is

there not a cause? Yes, there is a cause.

And that cause is people say people this morning the founder

of the Salvation Army had a slogan.

Maybe you know this, maybe some of you grew up in that

denomination of churches. And I love this statement.

Others. The mission and the vision for

the Salvation Army is others. When you look at that now,

whether you've been part of that or not, you can see what they

have done as a part of their churches and the missions of the

Salvation Army. Their entire structures,

systems, vision, everything funnels through others.

Very rarely do we hear about what's happening in the church

programs. We most often hear, even on the

news most nights of the week, the work they are doing for

others. The 'cause that you and I have

been called to is people. It's others and others being

transformed by Jesus Christ. So I want to just look at this

passage for just a minute more in Jeremiah.

I want to read just a couple of verses before because like

Jeremiah says like clay in the hand of the Potter, so you are

in my hand. But this is how it starts in

verse one. It says this, the Lord gave

another message to Jeremiah and he said go to the Potter's shop.

Go go to the Potter shop. He's telling Jeremiah I want you

to go to that place and I will speak to you there.

So I did, and he and as he told me to, and I found the Potter

working at his wheel, but the jar he was making oh so much in

this, but the jar he was making did not turn out as he had

hoped. So he crushed it into a lump of

clay again, and he started over. It goes on into the next verse

and says, Can I not do to you as this Potter has done to his

clay? As the clay is in the Potter's

hand, so you are in my hand like clay.

You and I are not shaped by information.

We are shaped by pressure, by process, and by proximity.

And if we're going to be formed into all that God has called us,

fashioned us, designed us to be, these same three things must be

present as the process of our lives.

So today I want to unpack these three things for us.

Pressure, process, and proximity.

The three ways that God forms us, three ways that we are

discipled into the nature and the person of Jesus Christ with

our life. So #1 pressure.

Hold on, it's going to be good, but pressure.

Pressure is what God uses to shape us.

Clay cannot be formed without pressure.

If the Potter does not apply pressure, the clay will remain

shapeless. It cannot contain anything

unless it has been formed into shape.

And you and I were called, were designed to carry the spirit of

the Lord, to carry fresh oil, to carry fresh wine.

But we are called by the Lord to come to the Potter's house and

allow how our lives to go on the Potter's wheel and be formed and

fashioned. Can I be real here for a second?

Our generation, and I'm not talking about our young

generation. In our generation, pressure is

something we are all trying to escape from.

Who can be honest in that? In every season, regardless of

whether you are a child or whether you are an older person

in this auditorium today, I know that pressure is something we

actually try to avoid in all its forms.

We do not like the pressure of hard work.

Most of us are chasing the next escape, the next downtime, the

next holiday. The most comfort.

We don't like pressure, but hard work feels like pressure.

We don't like wisdom. Come on, let's be real this

morning, wisdom is what? Pressure.

Wisdom challenges our preconceived ideas.

It challenges that we know all we should know, right?

Wisdom invites another voice into things, ideas that we have

preconceived and we've set. Wisdom is pressure.

That's why very few of us ask for it.

Very few of us go. I know you're actually an expert

in this field. Would you tell me what I don't

know? So I do this the best possible

way we go. I want what I want.

And so I'm not even going to invite that into my world

because it puts pressure on my preferences.

It puts pressure on my ideals. Pressure.

But God uses pressure to shape you and I not to harm us, but to

form us. I want to talk about a guy in

the Bible just to make this really easy for the note takers.

It's another Pi want to talk about a man that God formed and

his name is Peter. I want to look at this man for a

little bit because Peter, Peter experienced intense pressure.

One of the greatest moments of pressure in his life came the

night Jesus was arrested and he's standing around a fire,

which I think is a lovely place of comfort.

Anybody else got the fireplace is a place of comfort set in

their ideas right? Me too.

But people began to recognize Peter and said, aren't you one

of his followers, the man who is the spectacle right now, one of

the most public crucifixions that there was an innocent man

being taken to a cross. Now for a follower, an

acknowledgement of this could very well mean you're following

in his footsteps. If an innocent man is going to a

cross, is there any reason why Peter wouldn't process that?

If I acknowledge in this moment where there is pressure to be

honest, pressure to own my savior, pressure to speak up and

say yes, I follow Him, you and I are challenged to do this

everyday, pressure to say, Yep, I have chosen to follow him.

That is pressure from some of our families, pressure from some

of our friendships, pressure in our workplaces, pressure in our

world. And yet Peter finds himself in

this moment, standing by a comfort place, a place of

warmth. Are you not one of his

followers? And under pressure, Peter denies

Jesus not once, but three times. That pressure revealed something

in Peter, and this is what pressure does.

Pressure reveals something in you and I, and that revealing

process is vulnerable but necessary.

For Preeta, that pressure revealed fear, insecurity, self

preservation. And here's the truth.

Pressure doesn't create what's inside of us, it reveals it.

Stuff that's already there, stuff that we're trying to hide,

stuff that's hidden behind the surface.

Pressure reveals it. And This is why we need

discipleship. Because when pressure reveals

what is inside of us, we need somebody trustworthy who can

come and stand and walk with us to help us process it properly.

Someone who can say that's not who you were designed to be, but

let's step forward into who you were created to be.

That's not how God sees you. Let's have a look at how He sees

you and then let's walk in it. Let's walk this thing through

together and see healing and see strength.

So when pressure is applied, because we've not walked into a

life except in Christ and then walked out of pressure, pressure

comes, but pressure is good. It allows honestly those things

to come up. I like to say it's the Holy

Spirit revealing things in my life, things that he's like, I

want to put my finger on that. A little bit of pressure applied

and the surfaces is, aw, thank you that it came to the surface.

I want to clear that dross. I want to heal that.

I want to purify that. Give that to me.

And this is done as a part of our formation through pressure.

Without discipleship, pressure can break us, absolutely.

But with discipleship, pressure can form us.

Which brings me to #2 because this happens in a process.

So point #2 is process. God forms us over time.

He is not a microwave. He's a farmer.

That's why he did. There was.

I can't find. Now, correct me if I'm wrong,

Pastor John, you can tell me if I'm missing the microwave

passage, but I see a lot of farmer passages.

You think I'm on it? There is a process, there is

time involved in this. Clay is not shaped instantly, it

is formed slowly, carefully over time.

And it's the same with our lives.

God forms us through process. I want to talk about Peter again

because Peter did not become a bold leader overnight.

A brass one maybe, but not a bold one, right?

He walked through a process with Jesus while he walked with

Jesus. Let's talk about some of the

processes. He got things wrong, and he got

spoken to and corrected. In those moments.

One of the most confronting things I find about Peter's life

is that the Saviour of the world rebuked him.

And many, many times I have found myself in situations or in

moments and seasons where I too have been rebuked.

And each time the Holy Spirit has brought me back to that and

said and Peter continued to walk with the Lord.

I taught our interns last year one of the most powerful lessons

around Matthew 18 and just unpacking in theology, that

beautiful passage about if I know it's a party for a moment,

just to soften you up for Matthew 18 and if you know what

Matthew 18 is, maybe we needed that for a second.

That passage says if you have anything against anyone or other

translations said if a brother or sister has sinned against

you, right. Anything against anyone.

Now, anything against anyone covers a fence, right?

It it covers everything it covers.

I think they looked at me funny or they're not hugged me on

Sunday or they haven't called me in a while right through to I

think they told me a lie or they ripped me off.

They stole from me. They treated me poorly.

They abused me. Matthew 18 covers it all.

If you have anything against anyone, right?

I was teaching our interns about the process because there is a

godly process in how we do this. Just it's a whole nother sermon,

but it's definitely not talk to your neighbor to get wisdom

before you go and speak to them. It's not in there.

It says go to them, doesn't say to call a friend that's a

television show says go to them and talk about it with

reconciliation as the goal, with forgiveness as the goal, to talk

about it so that your relationship can be restored and

made whole and robust and more intimate and deeper.

As we were doing this particular passage, I thought I, I, I was

reminded all the time that Peter was rebuked by Jesus and he

didn't walk away from Jesus. Too many of us walk away or

retreat from relationship when we are given the gift of a godly

rebuke. And you know why?

It's 'cause it's foreign today, it's foreign to have somebody

tell us and I, I'm going to be really honest.

The older I get, the harder it is to be rebuked.

Anybody else with me on that? No being honest.

Thank you for being honest. The older it is often put on our

young adults because in psychology, and it is true, they

hit a stage of independence where they know it all.

I am kind of thinking now at 44, we don't grow out of it.

We keep pointing at our young adults and saying you wait, They

think they know it all, but they'll get some wisdom.

I'm yet to see it. We don't grow out of it.

We actually become more certain and less curious the older we

get. I find that Grey and I, as a

young couple, we used to fight over all the regular things.

You don't put your tail up, you don't do that and you know all

the things. Now it's the challenge of

curious and certainty. Do you have somebody who's

allowed to challenge your certainty stance and keep you

curious to learn, to grow, to remain on a Potter's wheel?

Because this happens in process. Peter is rebuked when he gets

things wrong. He speaks too quickly.

Come on for all of those in the room and go, yeah, that's me.

Speaks too quickly and then goes, we shouldn't swallow those

words, right? He misunderstood Jesus multiple

times and then he denies him. His most closest companion of

the discipleship relationships. This is the epitome Jesus and

Peter. And Peter denies him.

I don't even know him. No, I don't follow him.

But Jesus doesn't give up on him.

He keeps walking with him, teaching him, correcting him,

shaping him, forming him. One of the most powerful moments

of Peter's process is this. The night after sorry, the night

that he denied Jesus, Peter stood by a fire.

I'm not going to cry. But after the resurrection,

Jesus restores Peter beside another fire.

That detail is not accidental. Jesus brings Peter back to the

place of failure, not to shame him, but to restore him and

reform him. This is process.

God doesn't ignore our failures, church.

He also doesn't just move on from them, He redeems them.

And so maybe you've even heard the statement before that he

takes your background, the mountain.

He might be bringing you back to the fire, the place of failure,

so that he can redeem you, restore you, reform you.

This is why discipleship matters, because process takes

time and we need people who will walk with us, be patient with

us, remind us of truth, encourage us to keep going, and

yes, rebuke us. Discipleship says I'm not just

here for your highlights, I'm here for the process.

Which brings me to the final point this morning, and that is

proximity. Proximity formation happens up

close. Say up close.

If you're sitting beside somebody you really love this

morning, say up close. Just like that, Gray.

Don't do it, John. John, you do it with Rach.

Get it right. Otherwise there's going to be a

whole nother confession moment after this.

The right person up close, Clay must stay close to the Potter.

I feel like I just lost you. Gather on a Potter's wheel

again. Clay must stay close to the

Potter. If it moves away from his hands,

it cannot be shaped because formation requires proximity,

right? Jesus didn't disciple people

from a distance. He didn't say watch this from

afar or just come in one day a week and that's enough.

View it, consume it. He said come, follow me.

The disciples lived with him, walked with him, observed him,

and followed him. Because of this, they didn't

just get information, they caught something.

They caught who Jesus was. For all of the conversations

that Graham and I have had with our children over the last

nearly 20 years of raising children, they do not do what I

say. Anybody else feel the same?

Who is spending way too long on a phone with a child at this

season? How do you lead them?

You follow the Lord, you continue to walk in His ways.

Don't deny Jesus at the fire. Acknowledge Him as your Lord and

Savior. You're not going to beat this

over your heads. They're going to see

transformation in your life and they're going to want to.

They're going to want to crave it, and they're going to want to

step into it because your life looks like victory.

I am so grateful for struggling parents who were incredibly

broken, taking step after step after step after step into

victory and wholeness. Are they perfect?

No. Were the scars made on the way?

Yes, I'm so grateful for seeing and witnessing and catching that

God can form and transform somebody's life from brokenness

to ministry, from something that seems worthless to actually

having an incredible impact in the Kingdom of God.

I haven't been told it. I've witnessed it.

I've caught it, I've seen the process, I've watched the

pressure, and I know God is faithful and he does what his

Word says he can do. And the evidence is how they

walk today. They might, like Jacob, have a

limp, A scar that bears reminder of where they've come from, but

they are not the same. Is there anybody in this

building who craves that for their life, for their children's

lives, for their grandchildren's lives, for their great

grandchildren's lives, For the children of our community, for

the families of our community, for the adults of our community,

for the seniors of our community?

This is what God can do, but He does it up close.

It is court. Peters life was shaped because

he stayed close to Jesus. Even when he failed, even when

he got it wrong, he stayed in proximity.

He didn't retreat, he didn't hide.

And that proximity is what allowed transformation to take

place in his life. Why does this matter today?

Here is the challenge of our world.

We think we can grow spiritually at a distance from one another,

through content, through screens, through information,

even through large gatherings. But formation does not happen at

a distance. It happens in relationship.

This is the tension of our time. We are living in a time where

people are talking AI about their deepest feelings and

struggles. They're asking AI why am I

lonely? How do I deal with my anxiety?

How do I get out of debt? And that tells you and I

something, something significant.

People are surrounded by information but starving for

connection. Church, this is where you and I,

you plus me, come in. Because the answer is not more

information. The answer is you and me.

I wonder if you would say that in faith this morning.

The answer is you and me. This is where it becomes really

personal for us as a church, because discipleship has always

had two sides. I need discipleship and I need

people who will help shape me. All right.

I need discipleship. I need people who will shape me.

And you're ready. I am needed to disciple others.

I need discipleship and I am needed to disciple others.

There is someone behind you in their journey who needs what God

has done in you for them to take their next step in their

relationship with Jesus Church. This matters so much for our

community. Caboolture does not need more

content. It needs more people who are

formed, people who walk with others, disciple others, build

strong relationships, and bring hope into homes one person at a

time. Because when discipleship

becomes normal in a church, say normal in a church, we're going

to step into the new normal. Transformation flows in a city.

I wonder if you heard that? Transformation flows into a

city. This is who we're called to be,

a church where people are formed, where disciples are

raised, where relationships are strong and robust and no one

walks alone because the cause is far too great in our region.

Is there not a cause? Yes.

Come on, yes there is. And the cause is people, I want

to, for a moment, as we close this service today, I want to

just take us on a particular response moment.

So I'm going to ask in this house if each person would close

their eyes. And I want you to picture Clay

sitting beside the wheel. Some of you got great

imaginations. You've got it.

Others are you going to have to work for this?

That's OK. I want you to picture Clay

sitting beside the wheel. It's close to the wheel, but

it's not being shaped because it hasn't stepped on to the wheel.

And today some of us are that clay, close to God, but not

allowing Him to shape us through relationships, through

discipleship, to be formed into the likeness of Him.

Some of us today need to step into discipleship.

And that challenge is huge because for some of us, we've

followed the Lord for many years, but we're beside the

Potter. Potter's wheel.

Some of us need to begin discipling someone else, but

unlike Jeremiah, we don't answer the call to the Potter's shed to

witness what God wants to do in somebody else's life.

Church, we're not just here to be informed.

We are here to be formed through pressure, through process,

through proximity, through relationships, through you plus

me. So for just a second, we're not

going to rush this, not going to distract it with something else,

just you and God. Because this is this message is

not something we just need to hear.

It's something we got to respond to.

I want you to picture that image again.

Clay sitting beside the Potter's wheel, close but not being

shaped, near but not surrendered.

And I wonder how many of us in this room are close to God, but

we are not allowing Him to truly form us because we're formation

requires something of us. It requires pressure, process,

and proximity. It requires letting someone in.

It requires vulnerability. It requires saying I don't want

to just stay the same. So I want to ask you 2 questions

today, and I want you to answer them honestly before the Lord

number one. Who is shaping me?

Who has permission to speak into my life?

Who knows my struggles? Who is helping form me into the

likeness of Jesus Christ? Or am I trying to do this alone?

Question #2 Who am I shaping? Who am I walking with?

Who am I encouraging in their day-to-day walk with the Lord?

Who am I helping grow in their faith steps towards Jesus?

Because there is somebody behind you on this journey who needs

what God has done in you to be caught by them.

So here's what we're going to do.

If you're here today and you are saying I need to step onto the

wheel, I need to be discipled, I need to allow God to shape me

through relationship, or I know God is calling me to disciple

someone else and I need to stop holding back and start investing

in others, then I want you to respond in this moment, not for

me, not for a moment in a service, but as a decision

before God. And if either of those are you,

I wonder if you would simply stand where you are, where it's

time to step onto the Potter's wheel, where it's time to start

discipling someone, would you just stand right where you're at

in response to the Lord? It's a response that says, God,

I'm stepping onto the wheel. I'm choosing formation.

I'm choosing discipleship. I'm choosing you plus me.

Let me pray for you this morning.

Beautiful vulnerability, Father, you see every person standing

up. You see the hunger, you see the

surrender. And right now we place our lives

in your hands as the Potter. Shape us, form us, use

relationships to strengthen us, refine us and grow us.

Give us the courage to be discipled and the boldness to

disciple others. Let this church be a place where

people are not just informed, but are transformed for the sake

of our community, for the sake of your Kingdom, in Jesus mighty

name, Amen. I thank you for your boldness

and vulnerability. I wonder if everybody would take

it.