What Type Of Clay Are You?

What Type of Clay Are You

Jeremiah 18:1-12

 Intro:

 I was reading about a teenager named Ron who came from a broken home. When he was 15, he said something terrible to his dad and he ran away. He got into drinking and drugs and partying. But one day, he met someone who told him about Jesus. He heard about how God loves him so much that He wants us to come back to Him. The Spirit of God opened Ron’s heart to respond to the gospel. He accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. And God changed his life. One day, Ron said, “I bet there are a lot of teenagers who need Jesus just like I did. I want to do everything I can to reach them with God’s love.” He started Teen Mania Ministries in 1986. And now Ron Luce is in ministry for the Lord. God totally reshaped and reformed his life, and turned him into something beautiful.

 That’s what God wants to do for everyone in this room! Today, we’re going to talk about becoming something beautiful for God. We’re going to talk about how God can give us an extreme makeover.

 I would like to focus on one of the most powerful stories in the Bible. It is the story of the potter and the clay found in Jeremiah chapter 18. The reference to the potter and the clay is made on several occasions in the Bible. As you begin to study the significance of their stories, you will be quick to recognize the powerful spiritual implications it has not only on God’s people but on us as individuals as well.

 At the age of 14, Jeremiah became a prophet around 628 BC. His age didn’t stop him from obviously developing a great reputation as a prophet evidenced by what God was able to do through him.

 Jeremiah lived in the southern kingdom of Judah during the years leading up to the fall of the capital city, Jerusalem. For 40 years he preached that a catastrophe was going to happen if the people didn’t repent and turn toward God.

 Jeremiah’s warnings come true when the armies of Babylon under the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar, invade Judah. In 587 BC they destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. The Babylonia Army took the Jewish king and many of the people away to exile. Moses out of Egypt in 1549bc

 This story happens about the midway point through Jeremiahs career around 608 BC.

 Read Text:

 This is a picture of God at work in our lives. Just as the potter molds and shapes the clay into what it ought to be, our heavenly Father molds and shapes us into what we ought to be. He uses our situations and our circumstances to make us more and more into the image of Jesus Christ.

 The MESSAGE:

• Jeremiah goes to the Potters house to listen to what God has to tell him.

• Sounds like what we do here as well.

• Let’s look for a moment at the Potter himself.

• The potter is an artist. Like other artist they are a unique they have a special since of vision that most folks don’t have.

• When a potter set out to create a vessel he has to envision what it is he wants to make.

• The Potter has an idea of what the vessel is to look like when he is finished.

• All Artists have that same property in their physique.

• An Architect has a vision of what the building will look like when completed.

 God has a plan for our lives as well and He knows what He wants us to look like when HE is finished with us.

• Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

 The real message is in verse 6

• Just as the potter had the authority to do with the clay as he pleases, God has the Authority to with us as he pleases.

• But HE doesn’t just free style it. He has a MASTER plan.

 We were created in the image of Christ.

• 1 Corinthians 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

• Colossians 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

 So the plan is for us to look like Him.

• If we are to look like him then we must undergo some major transformations.

 But it requires you to be moldable, it requires you to be receptive, it requires you to be firm enough to hold its shape, it requires you to be tough enough to handle the process, it requires you to be pressured enough to release all of the impurities.