Making A Fresh Start! Lessons From The Potter's House!

Jer 18:1-10 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will 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. 4 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. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6 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. 7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; 10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

Jeremiah is instructed to go down and observe what was taking place at the potter's house. He noted the following:

1. A lump of clay is being formed into a vessel

2. The vessel is marred

3. The potter does not discard the lump

4. He pounds it back into a shapeless lump and throws it back on the wheel

5. He made it again: the same clay, the same potter, the same wheel.

6. He makes it into another vessel

7. He made it as he see fit.

It is to be noted that the clay was being

1. Made into something,

2. Then pounded into nothing,

3. Then made again into something.

Lessons from the potter's house.

1. We are like lumps of clay but whereas the clay is inanimate we are creatures with will to decide.

2. God is the Potter! He makes us, or plans to make us into what He sees fit.

4. When we are rebellious and unyielded, He pushes us into a lump again:

i. shapeless - loss of individuality

ii. pounded – various trials, tribulations and suffering

iii. worked into a useful pliable lump - brought to the state where we are finally yielded.

iv. made afresh into a new vessel...not as I want but as He sees fit!

What caused the vessel to be marred?

1. A slip of the potter's hand? Man's hands may slip but remember God's hands does not slip. He does not makes mistakes!

2. A defect in the clay? Yes that's it!

What are our lives in the hand of God? It is like clay that He moulds and forms as He sees fit. The Lord sees you as a prime lump of clay that has to be made into a useful vessel. It is the responsibility of the believer, as clay, to be pliable and workable in His hands. The more we are yielded to God the better He is able to work with us.

There may come times in your life when you feel like you're something. Then things happen and you feel like nothing but in due process you are remade into something as He sees fit according to His good pleasure.

When we sing 'Thou art the potter I am the clay', what do we visualize ourselves as clay to be?

1. AS CLAY IN HIS HANDS WE NEED TO BE SOFT AND PLIABLE.

God can then mould and shape us as he desires. the plan for our lives is in His mind. He desires to work out that plan in our lives. The degree of submission we exhibit will determine how well we can be confirmed to His will and be transformed into His image. Hard clay cannot be moulded unless it is broken up finely, moistened and kneaded into a soft pliable workable lump. There will be a lot of travail and intercession on our part but it is necessary to accomplish the final product…Christ in us!

Gal 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

Rom 12:1-5 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: 5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.