Can God Depend On You

Can God Depend On You

Scripture Reference: Jeremiah 18:1-3 (KJV)

Jeremiah 18:1-3 1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there will I cause thee to hear my words. 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.

INTRODUCTION

I received an email the other day as I do so often and it contained a story that I found quit interesting and I would like to share it with you. Notice in this story the major problem lies in the obedience.

Look Beyond The Package

A young man was getting ready to graduate from college.

For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer’s

showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all

he wanted.

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his

father had purchased the car.

Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his father called him into

his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine

son, and told him how much he loved him.

He handed his son a beautiful wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat

disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man’s name embossed in gold.

Angrily, he raised his voice to his father and said, "With all your

money you give me a Bible? and stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He

had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very

old, and thought perhaps he should go to him.

He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make

arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed

away, and willed all of his possessions to his son.

He needed to come home immediately and take care of things.

When he arrived at his father’s house, sudden sadness and regret filled

his heart. He began to search through his father’s important papers and saw

the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago.

With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. His father

had carefully underlined a verse,

Matt 7:11, "And if ye, being evil know how to give good gifts to your

children, how much more shall your Heavenly father which is in heaven,

give to those who ask Him?"

As he read those words, a car key dropped from the back of the Bible.

It had a tag with the dealer’s name, the same dealer who had the sports car he

had desired.

On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words...PAID IN

FULL.

How many times do we miss God’s blessings because they are not packaged

as we expected?

I pray that you enjoyed this passage as much as I did. I also pray that you saw how the lack of total trust and obedience can hold us back from some great gifts. We have to be more than just able to do the will of God we have to be willing to do what God desires for us to do. No matter what it looks like if God said it and you believe it then you have to stick with it. If this young man had only had the obedience to move forward on what looked to be nothing out of the ordinary he would have been blessed with an extraordinary gift.

MAIN BODY

Normally when we look at today’s passage of scripture we look at how God ministered to Jeremiah. We see how God was able to get his point across with the use of the potter and his trials. Today let’s look at how God used the potter to minister to Jeremiah. Note that there was nothing special about the potter. (Verse 2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there will I cause thee to hear my words. )

Not only was there nothing special about the potter but there was really nothing special about his craft. Potters were on every corner in those times. Pottery was very helpful in the everyday life of the people. If one were to break a piece of pottery all that this would mean would be that he had to make a trip to the corner pottery in order to replace the broken pottery. It was very common for pottery to be broken. Why did God choose this common man doing a common thing for such a powerful demonstration of how his word works?

First of all, God knew that he could depend on the potter to be right where he was supposed to be doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing