At the Potters House
Jeremiah chapter 18:1-18:10
Introduction-
As we open our Bibles to hear what God has to say through His word this morning, can we stop a minute and pray that the Holy Spirit would anoint and lead and guide us.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help us where we are at.
You know where you are at this morning-
You know what you need from God this morning.
Prayer-
Jeremiah chapter 18:1-18:10
Familiar verse- but yet society does not accept the fact that God is God.
Society says that I want a God that I can put on the potter’s wheel and I will create the God of my choosing.
Creating a God is called an idol.
An idol is a created God that you put before anyone or anything else including God.
The reference of potter and clay is throughout the Bible.
The potter is reference to God.
The clay is reference to humankind.
There is a spiritual reference here also. That God desires to mold us and make us and He desires to have the finished product be what He intended it to be.
Scripture;our source of information from God tells us what should happen on that potter’s wheel.
Romans 9:20-21
“But who are you O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, why did you make me like this? (21) Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
Isaiah 45:9-
Does the clay say to the potter, what are you making?
What happens on that potter’s wheel is determined by what you allow the potter to do.
In the pottery shop, the clay doesn’t talk. It has no choices. It has no life. It has no purpose, until the potter makes something out of that lump of clay.
In the spiritual, the potter is still God, the clay is humankind and we have a choice.
By design, God has given His lump of clay a choice if they will let the potter make something beautiful with him.
In the parable of the leper, Luke chapter 17- 10 lepers are crying out to Jesus from the edge of town to come to them. Jesus comes to them and they ask to be cured of their leprosy. Jesus tells them to go show themselves to the priest, and as they faithfully go, Jesus heals all 10 of leprosy. Only one of the 10 comes back to Jesus and acknowledges and thanks Him for their healing.
We want to condemn 9 of the lepers for disrespecting Jesus and not coming back, and we make a hero out of the one and say that I would be the one to come back.
Really? I find myself looking in the mirror and remembering all the good things that God has done for me that I didn’t go back and say thank you.
I find myself thinking at times like silly putty rather than clay that God wants to use.
At the potters house- the clay does not talk back, because it is unable to- it clay- mud and water.
At God’s house- which I believe is the church, God is the potter, and in God’s house, we have clay talking back to God.
Clay telling God what they don’t want to be-
Clay telling God what they don’t want to do-
Clay telling God what they don’t agree with-
Listen to this passage again
“This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. Go down to the potters house, and there I will give you my message. So I went down to the potter’s house and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in His hands, so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”
Listen here,
Marred translated from the Greek is “ruined”. The ruined clay that is marred by imperfections is in the hands of God who wants to make something beautiful.
It is God’s control not ours, what He does with that clay- we surrender to the potter.
Matt Chandler speaking at a conference in 2009 said “We are taught morality. We attend Vacation Bible Schools. We are taught true love waits, were taught that any movie that is R rated we should not see. We should not drink beer and curse, and we should go to church. This is what we are taught! This is the part I like- He says that we make it! We get those things out of our lives. We accomplish that. Then something happens to us!- Divorce we don’t want, we lose out job, we are not able to attend the school we wanted, our parent’s get a divorce. We yell at God and we say I was good! Why did this happen? You owe me God. This is why people de-church. God is the potter, we are the clay. It is not multiple choice or vise versa. God does not say if you are good, nothing bad will ever happen to you. He says that if you stay on the wheel the he will make something beautiful out of your life.
What kind of clay are you?
1. Dry clay
Life’s hard so you do not let anything of value penetrate your life.
Dry clay cannot be molded. If It falls apart, and I have seen many lives fall apart because they are not letting God do something with their life and they are drying up.
2. Clay not pliable
Enough moisture to exist, but not enough to be molded properly.
That to me would be clay ungrateful to others and ungrateful to God.
That would be clay marred and ruined and jumps off the potter’s wheel every time God is wanting to do something with you.
That would be like a person building a foundation- they are saved enough to make heaven, but not redeemed enough to surrender and let God do something in your life.
They are not bad people- they love the Lord- they just live for themselves and refuse the potter.
Listen as I head toward the finish line.
I said before- you know where you are at- you know what you need from God. I will go as far this morning that the Lord has told you what you need to do.
Are you going to do what you are told?
If you are going to be clay used by God- you have to get on the potter’s wheel. You have to be softened by the Holy Spirit working in and through your life.
I talked last week about casting vision, this week talking about being molded by God. It is not by accident, it is God trying to tell you something.
Mankind has a problem that only Jesus can fix.
God does not change- character of God does not change. But He does respond to us by our obedience and rewards us according to His Word.
God promises and threats are conditioned on human actions. They are true no matter what but if they are to be applied, they are applied by our response.
De-churched people watch millions of believers who God can do nothing with because they will not let God soften them up and use them for His purpose.
2 Corinthians 4:7-9
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us, we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned.”
These jars of clay are us - carrying the gospel according to this verse. The gospel inside us has little value or beauty and does not attract much attention without the Holy Spirit present with all surpassing power of God. Not us- God working in us and through us.
Closing-
What kind of clay are you?
Hard?- not willing to listen or entertain what God wants to do in your life.
Un-moldable clay? Every time God wants to do something with you- you jump off the wheel.
or do you can be jars of clay, that you want to see what God will do with you and you are willing to surrender.
Whatever you were before doesn’t matter if today becomes life-changing!
People can go to church, love God, believe in salvation, but that is where it stops!
They never surrender to the potter.
They never let the finished product come off God’s wheel.
Here is the thing that we have to remember to have this life changing moments with the Lord.
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.
