Acts 9:15

A Chosen Vessel

He is a chosen vessel unto me. Acts 9:15.

I wonder how many of you can make clay models. I have seen boys and girls create wonderful things out of clay cups and saucers, and birds' nests, and odd animals. Well you know that our cups and saucers and plates and vases are made out of clay also. Only the clay goes through so many different processes that when the china reaches us it doesn't look a bit like the ugly-looking grey lumps that we make into models.

First of all, the moist prepared clay is formed into shape on the potter's wheel. The potter throws the lump on to his wheel which moves round horizontally, and as the wheel spins round, with a deft touch here and there he molds the clay into the shape he wants.

When the vessel is shaped it is put away to dry for a short time and then it is packed with others of its kind into a sort of oven called a seggar. There it is baked for forty hours, and it comes out firm and hard. After being baked the china is ready to be decorated. This is done by pressing on transfer designs. The best kinds of china are hand-painted, but this is too expensive a way to ornament ordinary dishes. Lastly, the china is given its beautiful glossy surface by being dipped in liquid glaze and then baked for other fourteen hours.

Now, God is just like a great Potter, and we are like the clay in His hands. He molds and forms our characters, and if we let Him do with them as He will, He makes them into very beautiful shapes. But I want you to think today rather of the use God has for His vessels than of the way He makes them. The great Potter never makes two vessels exactly alike. He forms each into a different shape, and He has a different use for each. He has given us each our work to do.

Who was the “chosen vessel” of our text, and for what had he been chosen? The vessel was St. Paul, who had just seen that great light from heaven, and had been led blind into Damascus, and God had chosen him to be His instrument to bear His name before “the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel.” St. Paul was the greatest missionary who ever lived. Think of the journeys he made tremendous in those days and of the sermons he preached, and of the works of healing he performed, and of the letters he wrote to the different churches; and all the time he was hampered by a serious bodily infirmity.

Now God may not call you to be missionaries like Paul, but He has some special niche for you to fill. Each of you is a chosen vessel unto God just as much as Paul was; each of you is here for a purpose, and if you do not fulfill that purpose, you are a failure, however rich and prosperous you may become.

There are two things I should like you to remember, and the first is that God thinks us worth using. Perhaps you say, “I am only a child and a very ordinary child. I can't be of very much use.” That is a mistaken idea. You never know how much good you are doing although you are in a quiet, hidden corner. That is your corner at present the corner God has chosen for you, and He never makes a mistake. He has some work for you to do there.

One Sunday morning, more than a hundred years ago, a gloomy-looking elder came to speak to his minister before the morning service. He told him he thought something must be wrong as only one member had been added to the church in a year, and that member was just a boy. The poor old minister felt very sad. He thought that perhaps he had failed in his work. But as he was leaving the church, after the service, the boy who was his only new member came to him and told him he would like to be a minister and, if possible, a missionary. The old man was greatly cheered, and he firmly believed the boy would have his wish. Years passed, and the boy became the great missionary, Robert Moffat, who carried the Gospel into Africa, translated it into native languages, and was famous in scientific research. The old minister's labors and prayers had not been in vain, and through that boy he became a great blessing to the world.

So we need never despair of being of no use, however humble our position. God thinks us worth using, and after all it is better to be just a plain, ordinary tea-cup to carry a cup of cold water to somebody's lips than a useless china ornament, even although that ornament be fit for a king's palace.

The other thing I want you to remember is that to be useful we must be willing to be used. A vessel is made to contain things, and to pass them on for the use of others. So if our vessels are to be of use we must first get them filled. Where are we to fill them? There is only one place at the fountain of Christ's love. And then when we have filled our vessels we must be willing to give out that love in joy and helpfulness to others.

The Master stood in His garden,

Among the lilies fair,

Which His own right hand had planted,

And trained with tenderest care.

He looked at their snowy blossoms,

And marked with observant eye

That His flowers were sadly drooping,

For their leaves were parched and dry.

Close to His feet, on the pathway,

Empty and frail and small,

An earthen vessel was lying,

Which seemed of no use at all;

But the Master saw and raised it.

From the dust in which it lay,

And smiled, as He gently whispered,

“This shall do my work today.”

So to the fountain He took it,

And filled it full to the brim;

How glad was the earthen vessel

To be of some use to Him!