He Didn't Throw The Clay Away

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 18:1-6

He was 21 years old. By all appearances he was living life to the fullest. Parties, drinking, living it up. He was young and full of live. He had a bright future ahead of him. Although this was the appearance to many, inside a war was going on. The parties were no longer satisfying, the alcohol no longer enough, the friends were there when he would buy their drinks, and his family-well he hadn’t seen his mother since he was a young boy and his father was not much of one. He was only 21, but inside of his exterior confidence an interior battle was being fought. He began to feel hopeless. He had no reason to live. Why should he go on. There is nothing in this life for me. So one day he had had enough. He could no longer bear the emptiness that he felt on the inside. So he went to his lonely apartment room, and set on the edge of his bed. He pulled out his 22 revolver pointed it at his chest and pulled the trigger.

Have you ever felt like a complete failure? Do you ever wonder what you are alive for? Has life seemingly passed you by? Do you lie awake at night and wonder why your life has turned out the way it has?

Maybe at one point in your life you had big dreams. You were going to go places. You wanted a big house, a nice job, the perfect husband or wife, and a bunch of chubby little kids who were all little angels. Instead, you got a shack for a house, your marriage is a wreck, and you can’t work because you have too many little brats to take care of. So now, you lay awake and wonder why? Why live? Why fight this battle anymore? Maybe its not even what I’ve talked about so far . . . whatever it may be, it doesn’t really matter. It all adds up to the same conclusion-hopelessness.

In our world today many feel like there existence means nothing. Many are simply empty shells of brokeness. Oh, they paste a smile on their faces, and laugh there way through life, or maybe they become depressed and withdraw from it all. Suicides occur everyday at unprecedented rates. From the front page of the newspaper to the deep, hidden corners of the human heart a cry is going up. It’s the searching, longing cry of a culture and, in fact, a world in crisis. Where is the hope? Where is the peace? Where is the purpose and meaning for life here in the real world?

Many you feel like you have messed up too many times. God would never forgive me now. I’ve gone too far. Waited too long. Perhaps the Potter of your life has thrown the clay away. Have you ever wondered if maybe the clay of your life has been thrown away? Well I have good news, God has not thrown the clay of your life away. God has come to make your vessel all that it was intended to be, and today he wants to

1. Redeem the Vessel.

Redeem means to buy back. God desires to buy back the broken pieces of your life. It doesn’t matter how broken up your life may be. It doesn’t matter what you have done, or where you have been. God wants to buy you back. The Master of all potter’s wants to redeem you vessel. He has provided the redemption plan for your life. He doesn’t care what you’ve done, or the mess you’ve made. He wants to buy you back.

Jesus Christ paid the debt that was necessary for our salvation. There was once a Russian officer having become hopelessly involved in debt, sat down in desperation and wrote out a list of his indebtedness. Summing up the whole, he wrote in despair at the bottom, "Who can pay such a debt as this?" That night the emperor passed through the barracks in disguise and seeing the paper beside the sleeping man, read it, and wrote at the end of the question the one word Nicholas! In the morning the officer wondered who had done it, but all doubts vanished when at ten o’clock the emperor sent the cash necessary for the heavy payment. Unsaved people, you are in debt also. Think of your sins, how much you owe your Lord, and when in despair you say, "Who can pay such a debt?" then whisper the name of Jesus. He can pay it. He has paid it. Jesus paid it all, Yes, all the debt you owe!

Martin Luther said this, “God, then, is more earnest for me to be saved than I am to be saved! "He so loved the world that He gave His Son" (see John 3:16). He loved not saints, not penitents, not the religious, not those who love Him; but "the world," secular men, profane men, hardened rebels, hopeless wanderers and sinners! He gave not a mere promise, not an angel to teach us, not a world to ransom us, but His Son--His only begotten! So much did God love the world, sinners, me! I believe this. I must believe it; I believe on Him who says it. How can I, then, do otherwise than rejoice?”