CLAY PEOPLE
Jer. 18:1-6; 19:10-11
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. In Johnson City, Tennessee, a police officer and his partner pulled over an unlicensed motorist. They asked the man to follow them to the police station,
2. …but while en route they spotted a North Carolina vehicle whose license plate and driver matched the description in an all-points bulletin. The officers took off in a high-speed chase and finally stopped the wanted man's car.
3. Minutes later, as the felon was being arrested, the unlicensed motorist drove up. "If y'all will just tell me how to get to the station, I'll wait for you there," he said. "I'm having a heck of a time keeping up with you." [John Newland]
B. TEXT
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 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. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. Jer. 18:1-6.
10 “Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, 11 and say to them, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired” Jer. 19:10-11.
C. THESIS
1. Just what are you? Are you an accidental, evolved, compilation of male and female genes? Some people think so!
2. Are you an animal? With blood and organs and breath? With instincts and muscular reactions? No less and really no more than an ape in the African jungle? Some people think so!
3. Are you a lonely, isolated, universal happening? A blob soon to dry? A ripple soon to cease? A spec soon to be blown away? Some people think so! But what are you really?
4. Ask your doctor, he'll tell you one thing. Ask your science professor, he'll tell you another. But ask God and God will tell you that you are the creation of His hands. You are the fruit of His labor. You are the apple of His eye and you are the choice object of God's eternal love.
5. Just like each of us, the prophet Jeremiah wrestled with this whole concept of man. What is he? Where is he going? Why the dilemma of life? God spoke to Jeremiah: "Go down to the Potter's House, Jeremiah. Watch him work. Learn a "lesson" (Jeremiah 18:2).
I. THE POTTER & THE MATERIALS
A. THE PRESENCE OF THE MASTER POTTER
1. Pottery-making is a great analogy portraying God’s relationship to man. The Potter himself is the most important element. The Clay is next. God said; "I am the Potter. You are the Clay."
2. Picture it in your mind. The Potter is seated on the ground with a mass of clay nearby, a vessel of water by his side, and in front of him the Potter's wheel.
3. After moistening and softening the Clay, he puts it on the horizontal wheel, and then with the wheel turning, he touches the revolving lump of clay and begins to shape the vessel.
4. Sometimes when the vessel is near completion, the Potter discovers a serious flaw. But because the Clay is still pliable, the Potter is able to form the new vessel again and placed the Clay once more on the wheel and re-form a new vessel.
5. Men may claim that they’re "self-made," but there really are no self-made men. We are all the work of God's hand. "It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves."
B. PREPARATION OF THE CLAY
1. Clay is a mixture of common Earth and silica. It is the presence of that silica which makes Clay something more than common Earth. So it is with man; God breathed His Spirit into him, and he became a living soul.
2. Clay must, first of all, be crushed. We, too, must be made pliable in the hands of God. The crushing process is not pleasant. Life is often painful beyond description. But remember, until the lumps have been removed and the foreign elements screen out, and until you have been sifted, you are not suitable material for the Potter's skill.
3. Next, the Potter can make no use of clay which is too moist. He must squeeze out all excess water. One of the most difficult of all life's lessons is this matter of excess. A man who is impatient and critical of today's youth can suddenly learned kindness with his own son or daughter is the one messing up. Life can squeeze out a lot of excesses.
4. Next, the Potter isolates the clay, hiding it away for a time so that it may acquire its true texture. This isolation process is always important.
a. "What I can do for God seems very insignificant," some people say, "My little part would never be missed." If it seems like you are not being useful to God, it may be the God has isolated you in preparation for a spot in the sun.
b. Isolation has proven spiritually helpful to many people. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness. Elijah often walked and parked with God in the solitude of the desert. John the Baptist discovered faith in the mountains. And Saul of Tarsus isolated himself with God prior to stepping forth to turn the Gentile world upside down for Christ.
c. Don't fret over moments spent alone with God. Let them temper your soul. Let them bring out your true godly nature and tomorrow or next year, the Potter may send you forth as a fit example of His art.
II. THE CREATION PROCESS
A. TOUCH OF THE MASTER’S HANDS
1. Once the Clay is prepared, then the Potter creates. Then and only then, does God take us in His hands for molding on the spinning wheel of life. It is fascinating to watch a piece of raw Clay take shape in the Potter’s hand.
2. Lifting, shaping, forming. The wheel turns fast. Miraculously the pottery takes shape. A vessel tall, a vessel short, a vessel with a narrow neck and spout, a vessel with a handle. Each is an individual piece. Each standing alone. Each work of art.
3. So is your life... and mine... a unique creation. Notice that the Clay plays a minor role in this process. We are just submissive to Him, not charged with creative responsibility. Didn't Jesus say, "Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Mark 1:17)?
B. EACH HAS A UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION
1. John was a work of the Master's hand. He lived past 100 years. On Patmos he saw the heavens opened and God's glory revealed. He was, indeed, a prince among men.
2. But let's not forget that James, too, was a vessel of honor to God. He preached but a few sermons, worked but a short while, and died on Herod's chopping block.
3. God fashioned both. In no way would we be justified in thinking John to have been better loved than James. They differed only in rolls they played. So it is with us!
III. THE TRIAL BY FIRE
A. ALL VALUABLE POTS MUST BE FIRED
1. Green pottery, or freshly created pottery, must yet be fired. Otherwise it is useless.
2. Extremes of heat found in the kiln.
a. The usual temperature for pottery to be fired is around 1700 degrees Fahrenheit. For the first firing, pottery is usually in the kiln between 14 and 18 hours.
b. Porcelain is a ceramic material made in a kiln heated to temperatures between 2,192 °F and 2,552 °F (400-700 degrees hotter).
3. The firing makes the clay rigid and non-porous, so that if can hold liquids without absorbing them or leaking. With porcelain, the extremely high temperatures give it a toughness, strength, and translucence arising mainly from the formation of glass and the mineral mullite within the fired body at these high temperatures.
4. Because of the difficulty of firing a kiln that hot and the beautiful appearance of porcelain, it is more highly prized and valuable than normal fired greenware.
B. GOD’S PEOPLE MUST PASS THROUGH FIRE
1. Our faith must be tried as by fire. It is the furnace of life that tempers us. It's the rocks and stones of the road which put toughness into our feet. It's the action, the pain of muscles reaching to their full capacity, the strain of lungs gasping for air that makes us strong and creates stamina for the race ahead.
2. John Wesley came to America because he visualized himself a missionary to the Indians of Georgia. He returned to England a miserable failure, disheartened, discouraged, ready to give up. Then out of that fiery trial, even out of that failure, John Wesley received a vision that sparked revival throughout the entire Church world.
3. The Bible declares; "I will bring [them]... through the fire... and will try them as gold is tried" Zechariah 13:9. God’s fires change us from pottery into porcelain.
4. The difference between porcelain and fine china [make sure this is true] is that the temperature of the kiln is much higher! Think of Joseph or David – the great trials they went through prepared them for the greatest responsibility.
5. Paul said, “If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames” 1 Cor. 3:12-15.
IV. THE FINISHING TOUCHES
A. WHAT MAKES A LIFE BEAUTIFUL?
1. Do you ever ask yourself, what really makes a life beautiful? Good question! We know it isn't money that makes life beautiful -- the rich and famous have so many problems of their own. It's not success which makes life beautiful -- even the executives, starlets, and athletic champions are consumed with the problems of life.
2. The correct answer is, only God the Master Potter can beautify our lives. It is He who must give us those finishing touches that make for real living.
3. After the Clay has been prepared, and the vessel has been formed, and the fire has made it strong, then the Master picks up the brush and adds color -- color as beautiful as the rainbow, soft as the rising sun. [The special paint used on pottery is called “glazes.”]
B. TWO VESSELS; TWO MESSAGES
1. But God wanted Jeremiah to learn yet another lesson on his visit to the Potter's House. This time Jeremiah was commanded to take a vessel -- one that had been finished and baked in the fire and then made beautiful.
2. KEY: Our impression is that this vessel can never be changed. It is not like the other vessel that had been marred but was still soft and workable. God through Jeremiah, pronounce judgment upon the people because "they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words" (19:15).
3. At the conclusion of these words of judgment, Jeremiah broke the vessel into tiny fragments on the rocks. And God said, "Even so will I break this people and the city as one breaks the Potter's vessel, they cannot be made whole again" (19:11).
4. I have heard the crash of those broken vessels -- heard them in the cemetery. I have heard them in the divorce courts. I have heard them in the tragedies caused by sin which has overtaken men and women in the prime of life.
5. Which vessel will you be? The marred but pliable vessel that was made began? Or the hardened vessel that wouldn't change, but could only be broken?
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: Story of the Teacup
1. There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup. They said, "May we see that? We’ve never seen one quite so beautiful."
2. As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke. "You don’t understand," it said. "I haven’t always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, ’Let me alone’, but he only smiled, ’Not yet.’ "
3. Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said, "and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. Stop it! I’m getting dizzy? I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, ’Not yet.’
4. Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips and he shook his head, ’Not yet.’
5. Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. ’There, that’s better’, I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. ’Stop it, stop it!’ I cried. he only nodded, ’Not yet.’ Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, ’Not yet.’ Then I knew there wasn’t any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up.
6. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later He handed me a mirror and I couldn’t believe it was me. ’It’s beautiful. I’m beautiful.’
7. The Heavenly Potter said, “You didn’t understand why I allowed you to be rolled and pressured, then your world spun around, and intense heat was allowed to come to your life – It’s because I love you and want you to be transformed into a priceless work of grace!”
8. God knows what He’s doing for all of us. He is the potter and we are His clay. He will mold us and make us, so that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will.
B. ALTAR CALL
1. God is not searching for golden vessels or silver vessels or ornamental vessels, but He is searching for willing vessels to fill with His Spirit and power.
2. If your life has been messed up, put yourself on God's wheel of restoration and let Him begin the new work of recreation in your life.
