Welcome To The Potters House

How many of you could use some hope today? Welcome to the Potter’s House. You might have come in the doors this morning and you are going through some things that others in the place don’t even know about. You might be suffering from a medical condition and you could use some hope. Welcome to the Potter’s House. You might have just figured out your bills last night and even though you hear on the news of the economic prosperity in America, your financial picture is not one of prosperity but of poverty and you need some hope. Welcome to the Potter’s House. You kids might be in rebellion, welcome to the Potter’s House. Your might have been betrayed by a spouse, welcome to the Potter’s House. Work may not be a weekly celebration, welcome to the Potter’s House. People, there is hope today because we have come into the Potter’s House. The Bible is filled with broken people but there is hope, in the Potter’s House. In Daniel 4 we read of King Nebuchadnessar, remember him? One minute he is the king of the Babylonian Empire, the next we find him out with the cows grazing in the field. One minute he is given a warning, like many of us have received in our lives warnings of pending disaster if we keep the course we are living, and like many of us the king pushed the limits, and suffered the consequence, he paid the price, he became broken, in need of hope. Fortunately for him there was someone in his court, Daniel, a man of prayer who walked in the Potter’s House. We have been praying for you as well, that hope would well up inside of you before you leave today, that you, like King Nebuchadnezzar will find hope in the Potter’s House. In Daniel 4:37 he said, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven because everything he does is right and all his ways are just and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. He is able…able to not only humble, but able to bring hope into your situations. Welcome to the Potter’s House.

Jeremiah 18:1-6: 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 potters 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. Then the word of the Lord came to me, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as the potter does? Declares the Lord. Like clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in my hands.

Isaiah 64:8 says, Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay. You are the Potter, we are the works of your hand.

Watch this video, the Potter’s Hand…

In your notes today there is a place for you to write your thoughts about being in the Potter’s hand. I want to encourage you to journal, learn the art of writing your thoughts, hopes and dreams out, being honest with yourself. I want to share some thoughts from the Potter’s Hand with you from the chorus of this song.

TAKE ME: Are you willing to say “Lord, I’m am yours willingly, without reservation.” You might be here this morning and you are in need of hope, but you have never asked the Potter to take you. Oh, He wants to, standing willing in the studio of life, waiting for you to surrender from trying to do things in your own power. He is waiting right now for some to say Lord, I confess you as my Savior and ask you to forgive me of my sins and I want you to take me right now without reservation and place me on your Potter’s wheel. If you ask, he will do it…in fact, lets take a moment right now to pause in the service to do this most important work so the Potter can being His work in you, or maybe you are here and have not surrendered unconditionally to God, you have said yes, but…well, it is time to get your but out of his way and just say yes, Lord, yes…so lets pray…

You might want to write in your notes under take me today’s date, a date you willingly and unconditionally surrendered to God and said take me…now we move to the next stage…

MOLD ME. Can I encourage you not to be a concrete Christian…all mixed up and permanently set. This is a stage that takes submission. When you get married, and you say I do to each other, the take me, I’ll take you words, it isn’t long until you find there is submission involved in the relationship. Divorces happen when couples become unable to mold their lives around each other, to submit one to the other. If you have been married long you begin to see the molding that has taken place, and boy have I been molded. Well as masterful a job as Laura has done in molding me God has done an even greater work as I have allowed myself to be spun on the Potter’s Wheel. It has not always been easy, at times I have rebelled and have been lumped down and reshaped, but I am thankful. How many of you are ready to call out to God and say mold me Lord. If that is your desire, just jot a note to yourself there in the sermon notes, just so you don’t forget when the shaping comes.