A Fresh Start
Jeremiah 18:1-6
Introduction: Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet because his ministry was one that continually caused conflict between him and the people he was sent to preach to. It has been said that Jeremiah never had one convert or anyone to believe in his message. Talk about discouraging. He was not allowed to marry because the burden of the message he carried would cause too much distress on a spouse. In fact after he got the insight and the message that God wanted him to receive from the potter’s house and after he preached the message that God wanted him to preach he was put in stocks and humiliated. Maybe we as preachers and Christians today are not preaching the right message for today’s society. Maybe if we were truly preaching what needed to be preached we would be facing more conflict and opposition. I believe Christ said that he did not come to bring peace but a sword.
You say that maybe the world and society are not as bad as they were in Jeremiah’s time. We’ll the reason that God had destroyed Israel and would now destroy Judah was because of idolatry. Forsaking the One True God and serving pagan gods and idols. I believe, from my own personal experiences, that there is a lot of idolatry happening today. We are putting many material and physical things in our lives before we put the things of God in our lives. My professor Dr. Jack Partain taught at the seminary over in Kenya and he said that he was always preaching to the locals about worshipping the dead and worshipping idols. He said that he brought a young ministerial student to America around Mother’s day and they passed a cemetery that was all decorated and the students said to him, “I thought you did not worship the dead. We might say that we do not worship the dead or idols or other gods but if we invited someone from another culture to come over, maybe they could enlighten us as to what they see in our lives. Maybe they could point out the idols in our lives as easily as we point out the idols in their lives. What idols do you put in your life before putting the things of God? Is it TV, Sports, Facebook, Work, or even family. Wonder how our life, our church and our community would be different if we truly did not have idols and we put God first?
God was using Jeremiah to point out Judah’s sins, wickedness and idolatry. God told Jeremiah to go to the Potter’s House and there he would receive God’s word and the message he was to deliver. I believe it is important to note that Jeremiah did not get his flash of insight while he was praying but while he was watching a potter engaged in his daily work," "God reveals Himself in strange places and at unexpected seasons. For instance, He once revealed Himself in a stable."[
What did Jeremiah learn when he went to the Potter’s House-What insight did he gain? It is really a pretty simple revelation-it is simply that God has to start all over with Judah. They had become too wicked. Their hearts were so hardened that they would not repent. They needed to be made anew. They needed to have a Fresh Start.
Maybe many of us need a Fresh Start. Maybe our hearts have become so hardened that we are unable to discern what is truly of God. I believe that we can gain insight and understanding and grasp the essential truths needed for a Fresh start by looking at the The Clay, The Potter and The Vessel. First let’s look at. . .
I. The Clay
a. Is the house of Israel-Dug up out of Egypt
i. They had been delivered by God though Moses out of bondage and slavery-God cared for them deeply
ii. Israel and Judah had rejected God and now he was rejecting them
1. Israel had already been destroyed by Assyria and now Judah would be destroyed by Babylon
2. King Josiah was trying to bring revival but was killed in battle
3. Judah would be destroyed because of their wickedness and their idolatry
4. They had sacrificed their children to pagan gods
iii. God told Jeremiah not to even pray for the people because their wickedness was too great
iv. Jeremiah 7:16-20 (KJV)
16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
b. The clay also represents us and he wants to dig us out of the miry pits of sin
i. We have the ability or freewill to choose him or reject him
1. He did not create robots to love and worship him
2. True love cannot be dictated or demanded it has to be a choice
3. Ill. Of Husband and wife
4. We have to choose to love God
a. Why should we choose to love God
b. Because he first loved us and gave us life
c. Because he loved us so much that he left the Glories of Heaven and embraced the rejection and scorn of this world-
d. He loved us so much that unlimited God became limited flesh that he might Die a cruel and painful death on the cross so that we might have a means for our sins to be forgiven
ii. Maybe we, like Judah, have rejected God and turned our back on him.
1. God does not want to throw the clay away
2. God wants to forgive us of our sins and short comings
3. God wants to reclaim the clay-Personal Testimony
4. We are valuable to Him – if we will only allow him to put his hands on us.
We have looked at the Clay now need to look at the . . .
II. The Potter
a. Which is the Lord
i. He is the master potter
ii. He is the one that created us and sustains us
iii. He is alpha and Omega-the beginning and the end
iv. And his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The prince of peace.
v. Without him nothing was made
vi. Without him you and I are nothing
vii. He is the creator
b. Think of our position when he puts his hands on us-- the clay
i. The potter and the clay represent his relationship with us
ii. Oh think of the possibilities that we have when his hand is on us
1. The possibilities are endless
2. Think about Joseph
3. Think about Moses
4. Think about David
5. Think about Elisha and Elijah-Those Great Prophets
6. Think about Paul
c. God demonstrates his craftsmanship in shaping our lives
i. As the potter molded or shaped a clay pot on the potter's wheel, defects often appeared. The potter had power over the clay, to permit the defects to remain or to reshape the pot. Likewise, God had power to reshape the nation to conform to his purposes.
ii. Our strategy should not be to become mindless and passive—one aspect of clay—but to be willing and receptive to God's impact upon us. As we yield to God, he begins reshaping us into valuable vessels.
iii. We should allow God to shape us into the vessels that He wants us to become
iv. I do not know what type of vessel that God is shaping you to be nor can I tell you what God wants you to be—All I can tell you is to spend time with him on a daily basis in reading his word and talking to him in prayer. If you do this I know that He will make it clear as to what type of vessel you are to be and what type of ministry He would have you perform.
We are talking about a fresh start- being made anew. Becoming refreshed in the goodness of God. Allowing God to use us and keeping our focus on him instead of the selfishness of the world. To help us with this undertaking we have looked at the Clay and the Potter-now we need to look at the vessel.
III. The Vessel
a. The Vessel was marred
i. Marred- to stubbornly resist God’s sovereign hand in our life
ii. 1 Samuel 15:23 (KJV) These words were for the first king of Israel-Saul
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
1. Saul was God’s anointed and God chose him to be king-Did God make a mistake-No
2. Saul became stubborn and decided he was going to do things the way he wanted them done instead of God.
3. Saul stubbornness caused him to blantanly disobey God
4. His attitude was that it is all about me—sounds like today.
5. Because of Saul’s Selfishness and Stubborness God gave the kingdom to David.
6. Are we going to allow our selfishness and Stubborness to get in the way from us serving God as valuable vessels.
iii. Our society admires assertiveness, independence, and defiance of authority.
1. In a relationship with God these qualities become stubbornness, self-importance, and refusal to listen or change. Left unchecked, stubbornness becomes a way of life hostile to God.
2. Are we hostile toward God. Are we stubborn wanting our way all the time
3. Do we even consider what God wants
4. If we never consider what God wants then we are selfish and stubborn and God cannot use us
5. We are practicing idolatry-the idol is becoming ourselves.
6. To pacify and pamper ourselves
b. The vessel was marred but The Vessel can be remade
i. We need to be willing and receptive to God's impact upon us. As we yield to God, he begins reshaping us into valuable vessels.
ii. The potter’s skill overcame the defect in the first vessel
iii. The clay was remade but it was inferior to the first but still capable of use
iv. Do we need to be remade?
v. He is able and willing
vi. We might have things in our past they will not permit us to be the Christian we could have been if we had surrendered to God earlier but he can still make us into a vessel of honor and vessel that is useful, a vessel that is worthy to him.
Conclusion:
After Jeremiah preached this message he was put in the stocks and then we find that he was put in an empty cistern. When you follow the Lord, you never know what will happen to you next. It might not be all peaches and cream. There will be some hard times and some discouraging times. Jeremiah even cursed the day he was born. He felt like given up and tried to give up. But the Word of God was so powerful in his life and his heart was so sensitive to the things of God that he could not contain himself. His very bones and the very core of his being cried out with the message that God wanted him to proclaim. Jeremiah could not conform to his wicked society. He could not turn his back on the sin and the idolatry that was taking place. He did not want what the world had to offer. He did not want to be like the rest of his people. He wanted more of God no matter what the cost.
I hope our desire and our cry today is that we do not want what the world wants-I hope that we are growing tired of this world. I hope that we want more of God. I hope we want a Fresh Start. If you want a Fresh Start-If you want to Start over with a different attitude and a different direction then today is the day. God will Help you. He does not expect you to do it by yourself. That is the problem- we have been trying to live our lives by ourselves. We have been trying all this time to be successful but we are made for more than success -we were created for significance and God bring the significance in our life.
I personally want to be made anew-I want a fresh start—I want what he wants for me. I want to be remade into the image of his Son. I want to be like Christ. How about you?
