There You Will Hear
Text: Jeremiah 18:1,2 (I am using the KJV for this message because of its unique wording of verse 2, being caused to hear as opposed to other versions where the prophet would simply have the word of the Lord announced to him, or him simply receiving a message)
Jer 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Seek and you will find. This is a message dealing with the reason for delay. Delay in getting answers.
A Jeweler often displays his golden wares on a black velvet background. The contrast is to heighten the appreciation, and to also remove distractions from your view. So it is, that often before we get some fresh insight from God, we often experience a season of silence. I don't know about you, but I am sick of food, this Christmas season. How many dainties have you walked away from this holiday season, because you were already full. There were about 6 or 7 different deserts at dinner last night, I really didn't want any. This verse encapsulates how I was feeling:
Pr 27:7 The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
Sometimes we experience a season of dryness in our soul, because God wants to communicate something to us that will stick with us a lifetime. Against the backdrop of silence, a fresh revelation of Him is more greatly appreciated. We will be like Mary treasuring those things in her heart. It will be a jewel box we open from time to time and relive the beauty that was communicated to us.
As a pastor it has taken me a long time to realize that one thing said well, has more impact than many things said well. A laser is a highly focused beam of light. Words spoken in a drought of hearing are like the jeweler placing his beautiful golden wares on a black backdrop that only enhances our appreciation because of the stark contrast.
Jeremiah the prophet is told to go down to the potters house and, "there I will cause you to hear My words." (Jeremiah 18:2) He goes down to the potters house and while watching him work his mind is illuminated by a thought from God. Why couldn't God just speak to Jeremiah where he was, why did he have to go to the potters house to hear God? From this passage we learn that there is often:
A circumstantial factor which will impact our ability to hear.
A physical location we need to be, to hear from God.
A timing factor which will impact our ability to hear.
A causing from God, that is necessary to be able to hear.
An obedience that is necessary to hear from God.
1. A circumstantial factor which will impact our ability to hear.
In Jeremiah's case the piece had to be marred and then redesigned before he could hear and understand what God was wanting to tell him about his nation.
Often God puts unfolds living parables before our eyes and then with them as a backdrop He speaks to us.
Illus: Once helping my son to deliver newspapers I felt a strong urge to pray. Halfway through his route I felt the urge to pray again, part of me said it was foolish to pray I had already done so, the other part of me said to that mocking voice, shut up you don't know what you are talking about, you don't know what is around the corner for me. Immediately after the second prayer I saw a boxer loose as my son and I were delivering papers. I said to Dan, "I wonder if that dog bites?" Dan said, "I guess I'll find out," as he prepared to get out of the car and deliver the paper, then out of nowhere a puny little 3 legged dog came and chased the big old boxer away. Dan and I sat there jaws dropped and watched the whole thing. Dan said the boxer was a wimp. I said the boxer didn't know who he was.
That is when I figured out why I had a burden to pray. Not for protection from the boxer but for the realization that the boxer shouldn't have been the one to run.
Le 26:8 five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. You are not the three legged dog, the devil is. You are the boxer that needs to start walking in your God given authority.
Often times for God to be able to communicate with us, He first has to set up the chess board, and then He can make His move. I had a living parable enacted before my eyes. Often in life we need certain circumstances to be played out before us, in order to get in the right frame of mind to hear what God wants to communicate to us.
So it was with Jeremiah, he couldn't hear what God wanted to tell him, until he saw the marring of the clay, and the remaking of the clay played out before his eyes. Circumstantial factors were important in his ability to hear what God wanted to communicate.
2. A physical location we need to be, to hear from God.
Matthew Henry translates the verse this way: "Go to the potter's house, and observe how he manages his work, and there I will cause thee, by silent whispers, to hear my words."
Jeremiah had to walk by the potters field. Seeing all the broken pieces of pottery thrown on the refuse heap spoke volumes to him, he would never have heard in his bedroom. Going to that specific place prepared his mind for what he was to hear. As he walked that day passed the broken pottery perhaps he thought of cisterns that could hold no water. Perhaps he mused that God was going to speak of judgment. He did. He also spoke a word of hope.
He learned of the consequences of missing God, and that there was still hope as illustrated by the potter reworking the lump.
Sometimes like Jeremiah we need to be in a very specific location for our ears to be open and able to hear.
3. A timing factor which will impact our ability to hear.
The potter had to have that lump of clay. Jeremiah had to have that frame of mind. Those things would only coalesce on that day at that time.
Years ago my niece, a teenager at the time, decided to color her hair shocking pink. If you ask her she thought it was cool. Something is wrong with her thinker, but not to other teens! Teens think with a different part of their brain.
Who would go to a heart surgeon with shocking pink hair?
Who would go to a dentist...
Who would hire a carpenter with shocking pink hair? Another teenager, that's who.
She thinks from a different part of her brain, it will change. The pink hair is gone, she is now a mom with normal hair who wouldn't go to a brain surgeon with pink hair.
Teens aren't the only ones who need to evolve before that can understand things, sometimes parents need illumination on how important things are to them. There is a time to speak and a time to be silent. There is a time when we are in the right frame of mind to hear, and a time when we are not, as it was with Jeremiah. Often in life the problem is not with God's speaking ability it is with our hearing ability.
4. A causing from God, that is necessary to be able to hear.
There I will cause... Some things will never be understood unless there is first a Divine causing. A person's ears need to spiritually pop open. In salvation, and also in understanding of truth:
The natural man receiveth not the things of God....
Often the church tries to change the world by attempting the influence it through the mind gate, with reasoning and arguments. Abortion is not a mental problem, but a spiritual problem, until God causes peoples minds to open up about the sinfulness of it, society will not change. Society needs a causing from God to be able to hear.
In Luke 24 two disciples are with Jesus and didn't realize it was him until "their eyes were opened." Mary at the tomb, thought Jesus to be a gardener, He spoke her name and that brought about a "causing," from God in which she now knew it was Jesus.
Jeremiah would be caused to hear at the potter house (KJV). It is the Spirit that quickeneth, you can study the bible for years, and unless God opens your eyes and heart, you will never know Him.
Here is a story that illustrates how one woman's eyes were opened: The Burden. (illustration appended at the end of the message)
5. An obedience that is necessary to hear from God.
Go down to the potters house, and there I will cause you to hear my words. Some things you will never hear until you first obey. In the TV show Amazing Race you don't get the next clue until you complete all tasks in the first clue. If Jeremiah hadn't gone to the potters house he would not have heard what God wanted to communicate to him, even so there are times we need to be obedient to something the Lord is asking us to do, as a precondition for us being able to hear what He wants to say.
Close: We need God's help to hear. Prayer for those who need some direction from God, but are having a hard time hearing/figuring out what He wants them to do.
THE BURDEN
By Louise Gouge, Moody Mag. Feb. 1993
Why was my burden so heavy? I slammed the bedroom door and leaned against it. Is there no rest from this life? I wondered. I stumbled to my bed and dropped onto it, pressing my pillow around my ears to shut out the noise of my existence.
"Oh, God, I cried, let me sleep. Let me sleep forever and never wake up!" With a deep sob, I tried to will myself into oblivion, then welcomed the blackness that came over me . . . .
Light surrounded me as I regained consciousness. I focused on its source: the figure, a man standing before a cross.
"My child," the person asked, "why did you want to come to Me before I am ready to call you?"
"Lord, I'm sorry. It's just that . . . I can't go on. You see how hard it is for me. Look at this awful burden on my back. I simply can't carry it anymore."
"But haven't I told you to cast all of your burden upon Me, because I care for you? My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.""
"I knew You would say that. But why does mine have to be so heavy?"
"My child, everyone in the world has a burden. Perhaps you would like to try a different one?"
"I can do that??"
He pointed to several burdens lying at His feet. "You may try any of these." All of them seemed to be of equal size, but each was labeled with a name.
"There's Joan's," I said. Joan was married to a wealthy businessman. She lived in a sprawling estate and dressed her three daughters in the prettiest designer clothes. Sometimes she drove me to church in her Cadillac when my car was broken. Let me try that one. How difficult could her burden be? The Lord removed my burden and placed Joan's on my shoulder. I sank to my knees beneath its weight.
"Take it off!" I said. "What makes it so heavy?"
"Look inside," said the Lord.
I untied the straps and opened the top. Inside was a figure of her Mother-in-law, and when I lifted it out, it began to speak. "Joan, you'll never be good enough for my son, it began. He never should have married you. You're a terrible mother to my grandchildren . . . ."
I quickly placed the figure back in the pack and withdrew another. It was Donna, Joan's youngest daughter. Her head was bandaged from the surgery that had failed to solve her epilepsy.
A third figure was Joan's brother. Addicted to drugs, he had been convicted of killing a police officer. "I see why her burden is so heavy Lord, but she's always smiling and helping others. I didn't realize..."
"Would you like to try another?" He asked quietly. I tested several.
Paula's felt heavy. She was raising four small boys without a father.
Sarah's did too: a childhood of sexual abuse and a marriage of emotional abuse. Then I came to Ruth's burden, I didn't even try. I knew that inside I would find arthritis, old age, a demanding full-time job and a beloved husband in a nursing home.
"They're all too heavy, Lord," I said, "give me back my own."
As I lifted the familiar load once again it seemed much lighter than the others.
"Let's look inside," He said.
I turned away, holding it close. "That's not a good idea," I said.
"Why?" "There's a lot of junk in there."
"Let Me see!"
The gentle thunder of His voice compelled me. I opened my burden. He pulled out a brick.
"Tell Me about this one."
"Lord, you know it's money. I know we don't suffer like people in some countries or even the homeless here in America, but we have no insurance, and when the kids get sick, we can't always take them to the doctor. They've never been to a dentist, and I'm tired of dressing them in hand-me-downs."
"My child, I will supply all of your needs..... and your children's. I've given them healthy bodies. I will teach them that expensive clothing doesn't make a person valuable in My sight."
Then He lifted out the figure of a small boy. "And this?" He asked. "Andrew . . . I hung my head," ashamed to call my son a burden. "But Lord, he's hyperactive. He's not quiet like the other two. He makes me so tired. He's always getting hurt, and someone is bound to think I abuse him. I yell at him all the time. Someday, I may really hurt him?"
"My child," He said, "if you trust Me, I will renew your strength. If you allow Me to fill you with My Spirit, I will give you patience."
Then He took some pebbles from my burden.
"Yes, Lord, I said with a sigh, those are small. But they're important. I hate my hair. It's thin and I can't make it look nice. I can't afford to go to the beauty shop. I'm overweight, and I can't stay on a diet. I hate all my clothes. I hate the way I look!"
"My child, people look at your outward appearance, but I look at your heart. By My Spirit, you can gain self-control to lose weight, but your beauty should not come from outward appearance. Instead, it should come from your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is a great worth in My sight."
My burden now seemed lighter than before. "I guess I can handle it now, I said."
"There is more," He said. "Hand me that last brick.."
"Oh, you don't have to take that. I can handle it."
"My child, give it to Me." Again, His voice compelled me. He reached out his hand, and for the first time I saw the ugly world. "But Lord, this brick is so awful, so nasty, so . . . . Lord! What happened to your hands? They're so scarred." No longer focused on my burden, I looked for the first time into His face.
In His brow were ragged scars - as though someone had pressed thorns into His flesh.
"Lord," I whispered, "what happened to You?"
His loving eyes reached into my soul.
"My child, you know. Hand me the brick. It belongs to Me. I bought it."
"How?"
"With My blood."
"But why, Lord?"
"Because I have loved you with an everlasting Love. Give it to Me."
I placed the filthy brick into His wounded palm. It contained all the dirt and evil of my life: my pride, my selfishness, the depression that constantly tormented me.
He turned to the cross and hurled my brick into the pool of blood at its base. It hardly made a ripple.
"Now my child, you need to go back. I will be with you always. When you are troubled, call to Me and I will help you and show you things you cannot imagine now."
"Yes Lord, I will call on You." I reached to pick up my burden.
"You may leave that here if you wish. You see all these burdens? They are the ones that others have left at My feet. Joan's, Paula's, Sarah's, Ruth's. . . When you leave your burden here, I carry it with you. Remember, My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
As I placed my burden with Him, the light began to fade. Yet I heard Him whisper, "I will never leave you . . . nor forsake you."
A peace flooded my soul.
