The Purpose of an Upside-Down Life
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The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
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.
Introduction.
Introduction.
Sometimes life doesn’t work out like you planned it. A child dies, a marriage fails, you lose your dream job, you are ruined financially. No one ever wanted those things.
Jeremiah didn’t want Israel to go through the sufferings in Babylon, but they needed to be turned upside down, so they would yield to Jehovah.
In the Potter’s house Jeremiah is shown three things.
The Potter
The Wheel
The Clay
The Potter is God.
The Wheel is Life or Time
The Clay is God’s “work” His People.
1. The Potter
1. The Potter
He is completely in control of both the wheel and the clay.
He is spinning the wheel and holding the clay in His hands.
Everything done to the clay is done by Him.
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, And let the skies pour down righteousness: Let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, And let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it.
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? Or thy work, He hath no hands?
He is the Potter. No detail escapes Him.
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
There is an estimated 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) bugs on earth. That's one with 19 zeros after it!
God, the infinite God, Who made the earth, and the heavens, and knowed all things, and knew it before the world was ever formed, every flea, every fly, every gnat, everything that would ever be. And you live by His Word. 58-0928M - The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit
He knows, and He cares.
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
2. The Wheel
2. The Wheel
The Wheel is your life.
The wheel turns at the speed directed by the potter, depending on what He is making.
Actually two wheels. It is unbalanced to keep it turning. (Ebbs and flows)
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
We would know it today as the law of contrast. That, where there is good, there is evil; where there is right, there is wrong. And we will never, no matter what our environment may be, ever be able to shake ourself from the presence of either. Because, Paul said, “When I would do good, then evil is present.” 60-0221 - Hearing, Recognizing, Acting On The Word Of God
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
Weeping only endures for the night.
3. The Clay
3. The Clay
The clay is made into a vessel, but as it’s being made it is marred in the Potter’s hands.
The vessel—was marred in the hands of the potter] It did not stand in the working; it got out of shape; or some gravel or small stone having been incorporated with the mass of clay, made a breach in that part where it was found, so that the potter was obliged to knead up the clay afresh, place it on the wheel, and form it anew; and then it was such a vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it.
The Potter did not make a mistake, the fault was in the clay.
The Potter already knew the fault was in the clay, but it must be spun on the wheel to be revealed and then remade.
In God’s original making man was perfect, but the rock in the clay was his free will.
All you ever did by free will is turn away from God.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
And when we were sinners, alienated, without God; in the world, in that muck of mud, as I talked about this morning, God come to us! God sought you, you never sought God. “No man can come to Me except the Father draws him first.”
And God came down in that muck, what you were, and sought you out and brought you out! That ought to create a Perfect Love. Look what you was, and look what you are.
What did that? Somebody that loves you! Can’t you have faith in what He’s promised you, then? Real genuine love will create a confidence in His Word.
He caught me when I was nothing. I’m still nothing, but I’m in His hand. See, He caught me. And He loved me when I was unlovable. He loved you when you was unlovable, but He changed you.
(Ain’t what I used to be)
If God, when I was an alien from Him, so loved me till He stooped down to get me and pick me up, that gives me confidence that He wants to use me. He’s got a purpose in doing it.
He seen something in me. He seen something in you. He had a reason to save you, look at the people that’s unsaved today.
Look at the millions He could have took beside you, but He took you. Amen! No one can take your place. Amen! You’re in God’s economy. No one can do it. That’s His Love to you. 63-0825E - Perfect Faith
Because off your own free will. He had to allow you to be broken, so you could be made whole.
That’s the way the people today, you don’t like to get broke up. You got to be broke up before you can be remade. The prophet went down to the potter’s house to get broke up, to get on the wheel and spun out something different.
If you’re a sinner, get on the Wheel. God will break you up, mold you different, shape your life up different, shape your home life different. 55-1120 - What Is That In Your Hand?
It’s so much better to have a broken spirit than a broken life.
You know the prophet, one time, went down to the potter’s house, see, to be broke up, to be melded over. If there’s something wrong, God don’t just put a patch in anything. He said you put a new piece in an old garment, it’ll make it worse than ever.
Said, just, the thing to do is put the whole thing new. So, if you’ve done something wrong, don’t just get around with a little, say, “Well, I’m sorry I did it. I won’t, try not, do it again.” Just break up and get molded over again. See. Make that piece another piece. 54-0516 - Questions And Answers (Law Having A Shadow)
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
He remakes the earth the same way.
John Sees New Heavens and a New Earth.
The old one remade.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
The Purpose of an upside down world is so He can remake it.
Jesus was always eating with sinners and tax collectors. (Like eating with Democrats)
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
The Woman at the Well had a lot against her. She was marred.
a. She was Samaritan.
a. She was Samaritan.
This means she was racially mixed.
Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
The Jews considered them worse than the Gentiles.
And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
They were hated by the Jews.
The immoral woman that Jesus found up at Sychar up there, that she was a Samaritan, which was rather an offcast people that really believed God. They was about half Jew and half Gentile, and they were a race. They believed in God.
And this little, immoral woman in her condition, very marred by sin, and one day perhaps had got discouraged with all their traditions of the elders, of pots and kettles, and washings, and so forth.
She went out one day to the same old Jacob’s well up there, and she was going to let down her bucket, to get some water. And she changed springs. Oh, how she can remember that there was One setting there that said, “In Him was living Water.”
What a thrill it was to her, when that living Well revealed her sins, and told her where she was wrong, and described what she had did to her.
And it put a message in her heart, that set her on fire with the glory of God; and into the city, and to the men. 63-0122 - Remembering The Lord
b. She was a Woman
b. She was a Woman
Now, you know, that really isn’t legal in that country, for a woman to go through the streets, and especially a woman marked with immorality.
But I’m telling you, when she got cleansed and a drink of that fresh Water, you try to stop her? It was like trying to put a fire out, or a house on fire, and it real dry, and a high wind in dry weather, that was really blowing that blaze.
And you couldn’t stop her, because she had found something that was real. Her sins was revealed. And when her sins and wrong was revealed, she can remember tonight, in Glory. She can remember that there was a Spring for her.
There was a place where, all the creeds and the churches had turned her down, but yet she found an oasis. She found a place where there is Somebody Who cared. What a rejoicing!
And how we can rejoice with her, we who was bound down with creeds that pulled us away from God, and we found a Fountain filled with Blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins. There we lost all of our starchy condition. And we drank from the Fountain and refreshed. 63-0122 - Remembering The Lord
c. She was a Sinner.
c. She was a Sinner.
Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
That little woman at the well, she had seen so much scruples about all their religions, and churches, and the theology of that day till she was sick and tired of all of it, she didn’t go to none of it.
Don’t know, what she was just as well off. Poor child was maybe, by bad parents, let out on the street, and she become a prostitute.
Let me tell you, there’s a lot of bad women, we know that, but you can’t be a bad woman without, being a bad man, you know. So there has to be somebody to make her bad. So, and sometimes them kids are turned out by a bad mammy, run out to barrooms and everything. 62-0714 - The Uncertain Sound
So He was on His road down to Jericho, so He had to go up by the way of Samaria, and He come to the city Sychar. About eleven o’clock, or twelve, and He sent the disciples into the city, to get some victuals.
While they were gone, an ill-famed woman of the city came out, maybe a pretty girl. She had probably, you know, had been turned out by her parents and everything,
and she had seen nothing in the church, so she just made her living in a bad way, by having too many husbands. 64-0401 - The Identified Christ Of All Ages
With all these thing against her why did the Potter come sit by the well?
I can see her getting up that morning, trying to wash her face in front of a cracked mirror, wondering why she was still alive. Her heart had been broken so much that the last time she met a man they hadn’t even bothered to get married. Her own free will had gotten her into so much trouble. She couldn’t see the point in life, but the potter had seen that her life was marred to the point of yielding. This was her hour.
She picks up the waterpot and carries it up the hill, and the wheel of life spun her right into the hands of the potter, who was there when she was marred, and is now ready to make her anew. Woman, bring me a drink! Why did He speak to her? She was in the mind of the potter. Not the woman with 5 husbands, but the redeemed virtuous sinless vessel, who had never sinned in the first place. That’s what the Potter made. A Vessel of Honour.
Conclusion.
Conclusion.
The purpose of an upside down life is to bring the clay to the point of yielding.
Simon Peter at the Last Supper.
He failed Jesus so miserably, there was a flaw in his own free will. He was a coward, and everyone knew it.
Simon Peter backslid to his fishing business.
Children, do you have any meat?
He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.
This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.
You won’t deny me next time Peter. Let’s go down to the Potter’s House, I’m going to remake you and fill you with My Spirit, and you will die a martyr. You won’t deny me Again.
Over and Over
The Goodness of God