Another Turn

Jeremiah 18:1–8

God is about to take this old year and leave it in the past forever. God is about to give us another turn and what we do with it is up to us. God told Jeremiah, “Go to the potter’s house and watch him work, because I’m going to teach you something of My ability to make things over anew.” In this lesson to Jeremiah, the potter represents God, the clay represents us, and the potter’s wheel represents the turns of this life. God uses these things to mold us and to make us.

I. The Future of a Moldable Heart:

a. Your future depends on you having a moldable heart—a heart that responds to the touch of God. God has a plan for every life. You’re important to God. God wants to make something beautiful out of your life. Apart from the touch of God, we’re just a lump of clay. Every turn of the wheel has Romans 8:28 written all over it—that “all things are working together for good to those who love God.”

II. The Setback of an Unyielding Heart:

a. Not everyone lets the Master Potter make of them what He desires (Jeremiah 18:4-6). The reason the vessel would be marred in the hand of the potter is because the clay is not responsive to his touch. Either there is impurity hidden in the clay, or you will not yield to the touch of the potter’s hand. God is not going to force you to be or do anything.

b. The Assurance Given to a Repentant Heart:

a. (Jeremiah 18:4-8) God gave the clay another turn. He’s saying, “You’re like clay in my hand. And I wanted to make a great nation of you, but you became stiff-necked, hard-hearted, stubborn. You rebelled and what I wanted to do was marred. But just as the potter made the vessel over again, I can make this nation over again, because if they will turn from the evil—if they will repent—then I’ll take this clay and I’ll remake it! I’ll give you another turn.” And there is the assurance to a repentant heart.

b. And He will remove that impurity, He will pour on the water, He’ll start the wheel, He will take us and make us over again! God is the God of another turn. He is not finished with you. Failure is not final. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

c. The Doom of a Hardend Heart:

a. (Jeremiah 19:1-2;11) There’s only one kind of bottle that can’t have another turn and that is the one that has hardened in its deformed condition. Once it is hardened, once it is fixed, once it is dried, it’s no good to put it on the potter’s wheel again. It’s beyond redemption. It’s cast away.

What Jeremiah is telling us is this: If you want another turn, if your heart is still pliable, He’ll give you another turn. There is a glorious future for a moldable heart, a yielded and a responsive heart. There are the many setbacks for an unyielding heart and the blessed assurance given to the repentant heart. But certain doom awaits the hard-hearted.