"Let’s Go To The Potter’s House”

Illus: From an article in Reader’s Digest: A friend of mine awoke one morning to find a puddle of water in the middle of his king-size waterbed. In order to fix the puncture, he rolled the heavy mattress outdoors and filled it with more water so he could locate the leak more easily. The enormous bag of water was impossible to control and began rolling on the hilly terrain. He tried to hold it back, but it headed downhill and landed in a clump of bushes that poked it full of holes. Disgusted, my friend threw out the waterbed frame and moved a standard bed into his room. The next morning, he awoke to find a puddle of water in the middle of the new bed. The upstairs bathroom had a leaky drain.

This true story in Reader’s Digest explains a lot of things in our life. To really find out what is causing the problem, we must first locate the source of the problem.

You can ask any good mechanic to fix your car, and he will tell you the first thing he must do is locate the problem. Sometimes that is the hardest part of fixing a car. Before we can fix something we first have to know what the problem is.

During the days of Jeremiah the people of God had a SERIOUS PROBLEM. Jeremiah told them they had a deceitful heart problem. That’s a very serious problem!

Physically and spiritually today, many folks have heart problems.

Illus: Speaking of heart problems, did you hear of the two fellows who went to school together? One of them turned out to be a heart surgeon and the other one turned out to be a mechanic.

The one who was a mechanic was removing some engine valves from a car when he spotted his classmate, the heart surgeon, Dr. Samuel Kaiser, who was standing off to the side, waiting for the service manager.

The mechanic who was somewhat of a loud mouth and thought he was underpaid, shouted across the garage, "Hey Kaiser, is that you? Come over here a minute."

The surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over to where the mechanic was working on a car. In a very intimidating way, he says to the doctor, "So, Mr. fancy doctor, we basically do the same thing. I too take valves out, grind them, put in new parts, and when I'm finished, this baby will purr like a kitten. So how come you get the big bucks, when you and I are doing basically the same work?"

Dr. Kaiser, very embarrassed, shook his head and replied, "I guess the big bucks come because I do all my repair while the engine is running!”

Jeremiah recognized that these people had a serious heart problem. Look at Jeremiah 17:9, we read, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

God was going to use the “Potter’s House” to teach them what they must be willing to do before He could bless them and use them.

Illus: Throughout the scripture, God uses many things to teach us. The Lord used fish, trees, boats, stones, water and many other things to teach us.

In this passage of scripture, the Lord is going to use something that the people of Jeremiah’s generation were familiar with. He was going to use the local POTTER!

Look at Jeremiah 18:1-6 “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”

For the Potter to make a beautiful vessel out of their life, they needed to go to the Potter’s House. And so do we!

LET’S LOOK AT-

I. THE POTTER’S HOUSE

Look at Jeremiah 18:1-2, we read, “The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.”

Making pottery was a very popular trade in the days when the Lord was here on earth. God wanted to make His people into a beautiful vessel.

When we arrive at the Potter’s house we see a number of things.