The Potter

Jeremiah 18:1-18

Introduction

Turn to Jeremiah chapter 18, we will be looking at the illustration of the Potter and the clay and seeing what God will be telling us this morning.

18:1- “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. Go down to the potter’s house and there I will give you my message.

Jeremiah is obedient and goes to the potter’s house.

18:3- “So I went down to the potters house, and I saw him working at the wheel, but the part that 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.’

Stop there a moment!

Jeremiah had a relationship with God- because He heard and communicated with God.

He was obedient- God said go- and he went.

Told to see the potter and when he got there, the potter was at the wheel, and the clay that was in his hands was marred, and he was shaping it as seemed best to him.

Jeremiah was attentive to see what God wanted him to see.

Most messages start and stop with this text, God the potter taking the hard to shape clay and making something beneficial out of nothing.

We serve a great big God more than able to do that.

This text is really about God molding, shaping, correcting nations. On the wheel was the nation of Israel.

18:5- “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?

Until you realize that God has the ability to change nations if they are willing, you will always fall short of thinking God can do something amazing and spectacular in your life.

God the potter controls what he does with the clay, so the Lord is sovereign over the people of Judah.

Picture this! The potter little legs are spinning the bottom wheel so that the top wheel is turning where the clay is in His hand. He is working hard to work that clay in His hands. (You don’t always see how hard the potter is working.)

The clay was marred- Hebrew word translated “ruined”

The flaw was in the clay, not the potter’s skill. (repeat)

Illustration-

A grandfather and grandmother were in a gift shop looking for a gift for their granddaughter. Suddenly the grandmother sees this beautiful vase and shows it to the grandfather. This is perfect, it is the loveliest vase I have ever seen. At the point something remarkable happens, just like in a movie, the vase says to the grandparents. Thank you for the compliment, but I was not always beautiful. Instead of being surprised that the vase could talk, the grandfather asks the vase… what did you mean you were not always beautiful?

Once I was just an ugly lump of clay. One day a man with wet dirty hands threw me on the wheel and started turning me around. Then he poked me, punched me, made me dizzy and I yelled stop! Not yet He said.

Each time that I thought he was done, he would start again and then he did something worse, he put me in a furnace. It got hot until I could not stand it. Stop, stop! Not yet he relied!

He took me out of the furnace and he began to paint me, and the fumes were so bad I could hardly breath, it made me feel sick! Stop, stop, Not yet!

When I thought he was done, He put me back into the furnace, it again was hot.

Finally, he took me out of the furnace and let me cool. A pretty lady put me on the shelf. When I saw myself in the mirror, I was no longer ugly.

It was then that I realized that all the pain was worthwhile. Without it I would still be ugly. It was then that all the pain took on new meaning, the pain had passed, but the beauty had remained.

The problem is not the potter, it is the clay!

What God can do for a nation, He certainly can do for us as individuals.

The nation may decide to turn its back on God, but God will still take some willing marred ruined clay and make something beautiful.

(7) “If at anytime I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warn repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.”

There is no question that this country is headed for trouble.

It is not only terrorism that threatens us.

It is not only our immoral behavior that brings us down.

It is the fact that at one time we lived our lives according to God’s standards, we cared what God thought, we cared about the value of human life.

Today we are a nation that is hell bent down the path of destruction by disobeying God and turning our backs on the things of God

And just like God wanting to show Jeremiah that the potter (creator God) Is still wanting and able to make something out of marred clay if we are willing to let Him, He wants to speak to us.

Reading the rest of text- 18:11-18

What things can we learn from the potter?

What things must we learn about our lives?

Until you learn that God can change nations, you will fall short believing that he can change your life.

The flaw is in us, the clay not the Potters skill

The problem is us, not God.

I. God is the potter and we are the clay

When the process is reversed is when we see terrible things happen, wither we are talking about whole nations or individual lives, when God is not directing it, terrible things will happen.

It may be the rage of business to be a self-made man, but as believers when we do not allow God to mold us and make us as He seems fit, it is rebellion and it will be dealt with.

Society says self determination, decide your faith, choose your path, you are your own God and director of your life. But as a believer, you choose to allow God to take that ruined marred clay and make something unique and special with it.

You by choice decided that you will not get off the spinning wheel as soon as it gets a little hard.

Most of us know this- we take the sterling wheel out of God’s hands and start driving, we have learned very quickly the consequences of our choices.

By our choice he is the designated driver and when we drive, we drive impaired and have lots of accidents and mistakes.

We jump off the wheel when God is taking us through some painful processes, to restore that marred clay into something beautiful.

Realize this, the moment you made Christ savior, He became the potter and you are the clay. God wants to make something beautiful.

You gave him permission to mold you and make you to what he desires.

If you have never given your life to Christ, that is what He desires- right now you are in charge of your life, and how is that working out for you?

If by choice you have gotten off the wheel, get back on and let God finish what he has started.

Never handed the controls over? Today would be a great day to do that.

II. God specializes in broken and marred clay

Some of us have hurts that we have had for a very long time, and some we don’t know how to live without them, we have had them so long. Today, God wants to speak to those issues. He desires to let you know that wither this corrupt world has hurt you or you have made some bad choices that He has not given up you.

God does not throw out marred clay. (repeat)

He takes the disfigured clay and will make something beautiful out of it.

God redeems or buys back broken pieces of your life. We keep thinking we have to fix it, were the ones that broke it, and he is the only one to fix it. He’s the master.

He is the one that specializes in brokenness. Perhaps you are here today and all you keep thinking is that He will not forgive me for what I have done.

He wants to redeem you and fix the brokenness, and make you whole again.

The world throws people away when they are broken and used up, God repairs and restores.

When others say that you are not worth fixing, God keeps trying to get you to the table. Operation game- He can get the funny bone, the hardest piece.

God wants to redeem, repair and fix you, the devil wants to condemn you and cast you out.

God wants to redeem, repair, and refill you. (Salvation and the Holy Spirit)

A vessel has to have value, has to be functional, and has to be used. That is what God desires for each one of us today.

Most believers if they were honest, have several times in their life seen God restore, repair, replace and give value to our lives. We sometimes forget where God has brought us from. We look at other broken people in need of God’s help and judge instead of pointing them to the one who can help them.

Broken people look at others and think they have it all together, they don’t.

They don’t realize at one time they were broke and needing God’s help also.

They do not know where God has brought them from.

III. last one- if we are to become something of value, we need God’s help.

These points today are not cute, they are practical.

God is the potter and we are the clay.

God specializes in brokenness

God is our help if we will let Him.

There are some things that God cannot do;

God cannot leave you or forsake you as a child of God- it may feel like it, but he has not- He will never leave you or forsake you

God can’t stop loving you- He does not approve at times of what we do, but it does not stop Him from loving us. He gives us a choice.

God can’t forget about you- you may be one of millions, but to him you are special and unique.

God don’t make losers- only people that allow life circumstances to make them feel like a loser. God don’t make junk and He doesn’t make mistakes.

God cannot be unforgiving to someone that is asking for forgiveness. (repeat)

God does not throw the clay away! He wants to make something beautiful of it.

You know we can only take the analogy of the clay so far. Because clay is an inanimate object and God loves and cares for people.

You have value! Look to the person next to you and say you have value!

Look to the one on the other side and say that I have value!

With God’s help, I am somebody! He is not finished with us yet!