The Marred Reshaped

THE MARRED RESHAPED

Our text starts in Jeremiah 18:1-4.

Verse 2 says, Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.

You know many times I have noticed that the call of God in our life is a call to arise; a call to action.

When we were called to salvation, we had to act on that call. Didn’t we?

And after we are born again the call of God in our life is still a call to action.

Too many people have told me, "I don’t have to go to church. I’ll just serve God at home. I’ll be a Christian at home."

NO, YOU WON’T!

If you are able to go to church, then you are called to be there.

God didn’t save us and fill us with his Spirit so we could sit home and try to squeak by and get ourselves to heaven. He saved us and filled us with his Spirit so we could work in the vineyard and be witnesses.

Acts 1:8 says that we should be witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth.

God called Jeremiah to arise and go to the potter’s house.

He has called us to arise: to cast out devils, to lay hands on the sick, to preach this gospel to every creature, to set the captive free, and to bind up the broken hearted. Jesus said, freely ye have received, freely give.

God told Jeremiah to arise and go to the potter’s house, there I will cause you to hear my words.

God could have told Jeremiah what he had to say right where he was. He was already speaking to him, but he told him to arise.

God wanted to demonstrate his word to the prophet. He wanted to show him what he was talking about.

Listen, obedience to God’s Word brings the blessing.

In I Kings chapter 17, God sent Elijah to the brook Cherith. He said there I have commanded the ravens to feed thee.

Then he sent him to Zarephath, and said there I have commanded a widow to sustain thee.

The place of provision will also be the place of obedience.

Many people miss the blessing. They miss the answer they have been seeking simply because they didn’t move when the Lord spoke. They didn’t follow the Lord’s instructions.

Sometimes God sends the answer to the potter’s house and calls us to be there.

Sometimes people lay at home in revival or even weekly service, when they could have come. They miss their answer.

But I like verse 3. Jeremiah said, and then I went.

Lord, help us to be like Jeremiah.

Jeremiah said, then I went. Not first thing in the morning or next week or tomorrow, but then.

He didn’t get up a committee to do a study on potters or have a bake sale to raise money. HE WENT!

Too many times we are more like Jonah than Jeremiah. Jonah got in a lot of trouble.

But listen, if we will obey the call and not harden our hearts, look at what the Lord can do.

This is really the heart of today’s message. The marred reshaped.

Verse 4 says, the vessel he made was marred in the hands of the potter, so he made it again.

The vessel was marred clear back in the garden.

Who better to reshape and repair, to make over, than the one who created it to begin with.

I want to tell you today that our Lord can take a life that has been marred by sin and by this world and it’s care, and he can make it new again.

II Corinthians 5:17.

Think of this scripture for a minute.

You’re not a fixer-upper, but recreated.

No longer a creature born to this realm of death and darkness, but a new creature born of the life of God.

Whatever has marred your life, God can remake it. He can take a life marred by sickness and disease and make it new again, just like the lady bound for 18 years, the lame man at the gate, and blind Bartimaes.

Maybe you are a Christian and God has called you to a work, and you are saying, "I can’t. It just isn’t me".

God can change ME!

He can turn a fisherman or even a madman into a preacher. He can change an outlaw into a minister, if we just don’t harden our hearts.

Hebrews 4:7 says, today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart.

No matter what kind of life you may have had, or how marred your past might be, if you will bring it to the Potter, he can reshape it.

He can take a life that has been full of ugliness, pain, and abuse, and reshape it into a life of beauty, peace and joy.