WHAT’S IN YOUR CLAY?
Text: Jeremiah 18:1 -11
Jeremiah 18:1-11 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: (2) "Come, go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words." (3) So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. (4) The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. (5) Then the word of the LORD came to me: (6) Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the LORD. Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. (7) At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, (8) but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. (9) And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, (10) but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. (11) Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings (NRSV).
Ask anyone who works with pottery as hobby or a lifestyle and they will likely tell you that there are three parts to pottery. Those three parts are the clay, the potter’s wheel and the design of the potter. They will also tell that unless it is a piece designed from a mold that every piece of pottery is unique---one of a kind. So are we as people and so is every nation---unique. God has a plan for our lives that include both a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). When we yield to God, He can mold us for His purposes so much easier.
How many times have you seen a Capitol One commercial where you always hear the question, “What’s in your wallet?” As we hear today’s text a better question to ask is “What’s in your clay?” What’s in our clay that makes us resistant to how God is trying to mold us and shape us?
In Jeremiah 18:1-11, we have a parable that came about through what God revealed to Jeremiah when he went down to the potter’s house. God helped Jeremiah to associate the clay with the house of Israel and the potter with God. The point was obvious. God was saying to the house of Israel through this prophetic parable, “Why will you not let me mold you to be a vessel for my purposes?”
Today we will explore the danger of independence, the danger of spiritual adolescence and the need for spiritual conformity.
THE DANGER OF INDEPENDENCE
Don’t we like our independence?
1) Autonomy: We like to be able to plan our own way. Surely, we all like our independence. We like to be autonomous, but we cannot preserve ourselves. How often have you known sinners that enjoyed being told that they are sinners and that they need to change? Naturally, they were not happy with Jeremiah when he shared with them that they were like “spoiled clay” that a potter had to remold. They even got so mad at Jeremiah that they wanted to kill him (Jeremiah 18:23).
2) Pilot or co-pilot: As someone has said, “We tend to reduce His greatness and majesty down to a few lines in a chorus. Our thinking of God as our buddy or our co-pilot or our friend on the seashore is way below the dignity of God who spoke, and the world came to be.” (Ken Hemphill. ed. Nelson’s Annual Preacher’s Sourcebook: 2016. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2015, p. 6).
Why is it important to allow God to be our pilot instead of our co-pilot? Proverbs 16:9 says “The human mind plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps” (NRV). Proverbs says 20:24 “A person's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand their own way?”(NIV). How can anyone successfully do anything that will last without God’s input? What’s in your clay?
What had their independence gotten them into?
1) Trouble: Their autonomous spirit got them to believing that they did not need God. They were deserving of destruction, but they were told that they could amend their ways and avoid destruction by changing their ways so that God could mold them into the nation He wanted them to be like a potter molds the clay on a potter’s wheel. What’s in your clay?
2) Amnesia: Jeremiah’s audience were descendants of those whom God had rescued from Egyptian captivity centuries ago. They clearly developed spiritual amnesia about their history. If the Lord had not rescued them, then they would eventually cease to exist as a nation.
3) Inoculation theology: Like a "one and done inoculation" we have a tendency to want a "one and done" way of living. Have we ever wanted God to mold us with a “one and done frame of mind? The Apostle Paul wanted it that way when he asked God to remove the thorn from his flesh (II Corinthians 12:7) but God refused and instead made all things work together Paul’s good (Romans 8:28).
4) Adjustments: Just like a potter, God will make the necessary adjustments to achieve the desired results of the vessel He is designing us to be. Have you ever wished that getting a chiropractic adjustment was a "one and done" thing? Just like a chiropractor makes adjustments for our backs so we can move better, God makes the necessary adjustments to mold us and shape us in our lives so we can serve Him better.
5) Stubbornness: Sometimes we can be stubborn and even strong-willed like adolescents who think we know what is best for us. What’s in your clay?
THE DANGER SPIRITUAL ADOLESCENCE
What does adolescence have to do with this parable?
1) Guidance: Do you remember how Jiminy Cricket tried to be a guide to Pinocchio? Pinocchio was naïve and certainly needed guidance so he would stay on the right path. Anyone who has ever seen the animated classic Pinocchio can remember how Pinocchio would get into trouble when he neglected the necessary guidance. The story seemed to be like a parable for children and preteens alike. But, what about the adolescent years?
2) Adolescence: Erik Erikson had an eight stage theory about how we grow develop from the time of our birth till the time of our old age. His fifth stage is Identity versus role confusion during the adolescent years of life. It is in that stage when young people begin to try to figure out who they are and how they fit in. Just think back to how your peers changed over the summer between the end of fifth grade and the beginning of middle school.
3) Adolescent Spirituality: In his book The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis tells of a Senior demon Wormwood who has a nephew apprentice known as “Screwtape”. Wormwood trains Screwtape through a series of letters. He tells how disrupt, distract and deceive and hinder the growth of Christians. In one of his letters to his nephew Wormwood shares this insight about a moderated religion: "A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all. ... "You see the idea? Keep his mind off the plain antithesis between True and False. Nice and shadowy expressions---"It was a phase" ---"I've been through all that" ---don't forget the blessed word "Adolescent" (New York: Bantam Books, 1982, p. 27). How many have gotten stuck in this phase because they did not trust God and His timing? What’s in your clay?
How many of us like to think that that we can have good character apart from our relationship with God?
A story is told of this guy who was prosperous businessman who was in love with a beautiful actress. He wanted to marry her and had a private investigator look into her character. He wanted to make sure that marrying her would not harm his reputation, and his growing fortune in case things did not work out. He asked that his girlfriend not be told about his checking on her background. The report came back that she was clean, but she had been seen around town in the company of “… a young broker of dubious business practices and principles”. (Michael E. Hodgin. ed. 1002 Humorous Illustrations. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Press, 2004, p. 53). How many people would be lowering their character to be seen by us? How much do we fall short of the people God’s calls us to be because we do not depend on Him?
THE NEED FOR SPIRITUAL CONFORMITY
What gets into us that spoils us?
1) Ambitious pride: Proverbs 16:18 tells us “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (ESV). It is our pride that will make us resist God’s molding and adjustments.
2) Impulsiveness: Do we get impatient and act on our own because we do not think God was acting fast enough? Aren’t we told to be still and wait on God for a reason? Doesn’t the Golden calf story of Exodus 32 serve as an example of people who got impatient and impulsively acted without God. We need to be still long enough to know God and His sovereignty!
3) Broken promises: God’s chosen people went from being slaves in Egypt to becoming God’s chosen people---God’s priesthood to be like a lighthouse to those in darkness. But they went from being God’s chosen people of promise to becoming “promise” breakers who enslaved themselves with sin as their master. Until they allowed God to make the necessary adjustments in molding and shaping them for His purposes, they got behind in the plans God had for them (Jeremiah 29:11). What’s in your clay?
4) The turtle and the scorpion: Chances are that we have all heard the moral in the story about the turtle and the scorpion. A scorpion runs into a turtle on the side of a river bank. He wants to get the other side. The turtle knows it’s the scorpion’s nature to sting. However, the scorpion convinces the turtle he won’t sting him. But before the turtle completes the trip the scorpion stung the turtle in the neck. The turtle asks why he stung him. “You promised you would not do that”. The scorpion’s response was “You knew who I was before you gave me a ride. You knew its my nature to sting.” Bing search engine: The Scorpion and the Turtle - Chris Busch [paraphrased]. Satan never keeps his promises! We all know that broken promises destroy trust! God never breaks his promises to us.
Why is it so important that we as the clay conform to the potter?
1) Their future: The house of Israel’s future depended on changing their ways. They could never be who God called them to be without surrendering to the hand of the God as the potter of their lives!
2) Our future: Our future depends on allowing God to remold and reshape us to make us into a new vessel.
3) Mercy: God always keeps His promises! God will keep His promise to reshape us if we repent and yield, but He will also keep His promise to pluck up, break down and destroy if a nation refuses to repent. Nineveh repented and they were remolded and shaped by God who showed them mercy when Jonah went to preach to them and everybody including the king repented in sackcloth and ashes. Nahum is the sequel to Jonah. Nahum was sent to address the judgment on Nineveh one hundred and fifty years later.
4) The Potter at work: In Jonah’s day, God remolded Nineveh as a new vessel. In Nahum’s day God plucked up Nineveh as a nation where their legacy would diminish because Nineveh who would have no descendants to bear her name (Nahum 1:14). Their own demise was self-inflicted. What’s in your clay?
5) Vessels of promise: God does not want us to end up being “plucked up” like Nineveh. God wants to mold us---our nation and other nations into being a vessels of promise to make a difference today and for those who come after us.
6) Helpful vessels: God wants us all to be helpful vessels who make a difference and leave a legacy of the vessels that He designed for us to be! With that I want to close with the following poem.
My Life
My life shall touch a dozen lives before this day is done;
Leave countless marks for good or ill, ere sets the evening sun.
This is the wish I always wish, the prayer I always pray:
Lord, may my life help other lives it touches by the way.
Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. [Source unknown]
“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above” (Third verse of Come Thou Fount of every Blessing United Methodist Hymnal page 400).
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
