INTRODUCTION
SERIES: “Discovering & Experiencing God’s Will” – Part 3
Part 1: Ephesians 2:10 – “He Wants You To Know”
- God is a Master Artist and has a Perfect Plan for His Children
- As a Believer, the Master Artist wishes to make you into a Masterpiece
- To allow the Master Artist to accomplish that task, one must be Available
o God, not the believer, does the work. Certain conditions must exist.
Part 2: Romans 12:1-5 – “What Is Expected”
What is expected on our part for God to be able to accomplish His work.
- A Living Sacrifice to God and to Each Other
- How the Church was a major part of that process
Part 3: Jeremiah 18:1-6 – “The Potter & The Clay”
- God as a “Potter” – His Power and Part
- The Believer here as “Clay” – his part and purpose
A. What Jeremiah Saw
1. Jeremiah as a Prophet at 14
At the tender age of 14, Jeremiah became a prophet living just outside of Jerusalem. His age didn’t stop him from obviously developing a great reputation as a prophet evidenced by what God was able to do through him.
In fact, some believe that his constant persecutions might be in part due to his early age.
2. Pottery As A Point of Lesson
Many places in Jeremiah, the Lord taught through a parable or illustration such as Jesus did in the NT. It doesn’t surprise me that Pottery was the example because this was very big in Jeremiah’s day.
Demonstration on TV: Using a Stone Wheel that was operated by a Foot Pedal, the Potter would place a piece of old clay on the wheel and then by pumping the pedal the wheel would begin to spin.
Using his hands, he would work and stop, work and stop and work and stop, until slowly that piece of old clay would begin to take shape looking more and more like what the Potter had envisioned. Finally, the piece he was waiting on created!
In our passage, God sends Jeremiah to see this process! Surrounding God’s Lesson to Jeremiah are some wonderful principles that we can apply to our lives to help in the process of “Discovering and Experiencing God’s Will”.
B. The Interpretation
What Jeremiah learns was for the nation of Israel. BUT the principles surrounding what he learns apply to us as individuals AND as a church. Again we are considering the process God uses to make us the Masterpiece He desires us to be so we can better “Discover and Experience His Will” along the way.
C. The Passage - JEREMIAH 18:1-6
1. READ VERSES 1-2:
I found it interesting that Jeremiah must 1st go to the Potter’s House before the Lord would give Him the message. Isn’t it interesting that again we see that one must allow God to use certain tools to prepare us for something ahead.
2. READ VERSES 3-4:
The ILLUSTRATION is shown to Jeremiah. Jeremiah watches as the Potter begins to form the “pot”/(masterpiece) as the “potter felt best”. Now He is ready! He is at the place and time where God needs Him to be.
NOW he is ready to “Discover and Experience God’s Will”.
3. READ VERSES 5-6
If you’ve been here the last 3 weeks, you are already beginning to notice again that what we’ve seen in earlier passages is being repeated today! Everywhere in God’s Word we see the same thing confirming to us what is Desired by God:
Jeremiah had to be available in order for God to “prepare him for what he had in store”. Just as Jeremiah had to be at the right place in order to receive what God had in store, so you and I must do the same.
TODAY, 2 PARTS:
1. The Role of The Potter – The Artist
2. The Role of The Clay – The Envisioned Masterpiece
I. GOD – THE POTTER
If you picture the potter’s house, you can see the potter giving full attention to working with that helpless, ugly, messy piece of clay. His intent on transforming that worthless piece of marred clay into a piece of art is amazing.
The Potter having complete Power over the clay and that power is unlimited. As crazy as this sounds: NO CLAY can stop the potter, NOR can it question his right. No clay can RESIST his will nor altar His plan.
I KNOW: Sounds kind of ridiculous doesn’t it. That really sounds far fetched doesn’t it? UNTIL YOU CONSIDER…
Genesis 2:7 (NIV) 7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
A. GOD IS SOVEREIGN
NOWHERE will you find such a graphic picture of the Sovereignty of God. MAN, (the clay upon the potter’s wheel), and GOD, (the potter). GOD having all power, majesty, and glory, has complete absolute power over the CLAY.
Isaiah 40:13 “who has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed Him as counselor?”
Sometimes I need to be reminded that:
GOD doesn’t NEED me for anything BUT I need God for EVERYTHING!
B. GOD’S HANDS
Go back to the Potter’s House. The Potter is serious in what he is doing. He’s not playing around. I mean this is not a hobby of his but his vocation. After all, this is a Masterpiece He is creating!
GOD is not playing around with you or I either! He is not experimenting!
But CONSIDER THE HANDS of the Potter – the Tender Hands!
READ VERSE 4 AGAIN
Those hands have to be so tender and caring! He doesn’t want to hurt the clay because he needs a yield out of the clay so He can get a return. The care he is putting into His design!
APPLICATION:
God, the potter, even with such power and majesty, loves you and I so much that in our marred condition, still sees a Masterpiece! He tenderly and loving works to accomplish His Purpose!
1. READ EPH. 2:1,4 & 4,10
2. The question becomes DO YOU TRUST HIS HANDS?
II. THE CLAY
We’ve talked a lot about the “Clay”. Go back to the potter’s house and look over on top of the shelf. The one with all of those pretty bowls, and pots, and vases, and tools. The finished pieces of clay. They really are worth a lot are they not?
You ask the potter the worth of each Masterpiece and are astonished when you hear it’s value. But then you remember that the potter gave the clay its value and an artist the value of the painting.
There is not only a principle showing God’s Sovereignty BUT also His Desire that the CLAY have a PURPOSE. As the potter worked, its value increased! But because of the POTTER and NOT the CLAY.
GOD SIMPLY WANTS CLAY! He doesn’t want steel – He doesn’t want oil – He wants CLAY – Something that He can put in His hand to mold and fashion into a useable piece of work!
Isaiah 64:8 “Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
You and I, the pieces of marred clay, are to be such that God is able to continue to Work into the Masterpiece He desires so that you and I can HAVE THE PURPOSE HE DESIRES.
Again, the question: Do you trust His hands?
TRUST IS REQUIRED
We’ve talked last week about “What God Expects…”. Today, I want us to consider another side: TRUST! It’s hard at times to Trust God with the Reigns in our lives isn’t it?
Jeremiah 17:5-8
APPL:
1. We see that the one who trust in his own strength is the one who will be like a bush in the wastelands. Wasted because he was not willing to trust the Potter!
2. Blessedness – Growth – and Peace was and is promised to the one who puts His confidence, hope, and trust in the Living Waters of Life!
Psalm 1:1-3 (CHECK TIME)
APPL:
1. Again – blessed IS NOT the one who trust in the ways of the world.
2. His DELIGHT will be found in the Lord and that through a daily relationship.
3. A Fruitful Life.
AGAIN the question is “Do You Trust In the Hands of the Potter?”
ILL: GOD’S HANDS
A 2nd century writer Irenaues writes this regarding God’s Hands: From God’s Hands it is not you who shape God; it is God that shapes you. If then you are the work of God, await the hand of the Artist who does all things in due season.
Offer the Potter your heart, soft and tractable, and keep the form in which the Artist has fashioned you to be. Let your clay be moist (never ignoring the journey), lest you grow hard and lose the imprint of the Potter’s fingers.
III. SUMMARY
This morning, we sang a song we have only sung twice. A very simple Worship Song called “He Knows My Name”. Listen again to the words:
I have a Maker; He formed my heart
Before even time began my life was in His hand
He knows my name; He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls and hears me when I call
I have a Father; He calls me His own
He’ll never leave me no matter where I go
He knows my name; He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls and hears me when I call
(REPEAT 1st 2 lines of verse 1)
Vernon McGee whom you hear me quote often as a Biblical Teacher/Preacher/writer says it this way:
He is the potter; we are the clay. He is the shepherd; we are the sheep. He is the Master; we are the servant.
No matter how educated we are, no matter how much power and influence we may think we possess, no matter how long we have walked w/ Him, no matter how significant we may imagine ourselves to be in His plans.
None of that qualifies us to grasp why He does what He does when He does it and how He chooses to do it.
God’s will is a way beyond our understanding, yet it is a way in which we are called to think and live
I just praise God that He chooses to love me enough to envision this old boy to be worth anything! BUT THEN, that’s the awesomeness of God!
Are you “Workable – Moist – Useable” Clay?
