Text: Jeremiah 18:1-6
Proposition: What can we learn from the potter and the clay?
Introduction
Potter video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=588Mh7yzqVQ
The Potter is the one in authority. He makes what he desires. He decides if it will be a vessel of beauty or utility. He decides if it will be a vessel of honor or dishonor. He can change it into another vessel if he wants too.
The clay has the capacity to be what the potter desires if it yields to the potter. It must be moldable not brittle.
The wheel is like circumstances in life. Sometimes the speed of life changes like the speed of the potter’s wheel. Sometimes it is fast and sometimes it is slow. The potter is the one who decides. The potter varies the pressure of his hands upon the clay. Pressure in life is what molds us and shapes us into what the potter wants.
I. The potter is the one in charge
II. The potter has a purpose for the clay
III. The clay must not strive with its maker
I. The potter is the one in charge (Why is the potter the one in charge?)
A. He is the designer and creator
1. Genesis 2:7, the name “Adam” means red dirt.
2. Isaiah 64:8
3. An amazing creator has designed us. We have an amazing pump in our body to pump blood. It is constantly beating death. If our heart stops we die. It beats about 10,000 times a day. It has to pump blood in two different directions at the same time.
4. To protect this nonstop muscle, God placed it in a special two-layered bag, called the pericardial sac. The tough outer layer of the sac, called the fibrous pericardium, anchors to the diaphragm, while the inner layer, called the serous pericardium, attaches tightly to the heart. A special lubricant fluid between the two layers allows the heart to slide around with little friction. If it were not for this marvelous lubricated sac, the beating heart would create enough heat to kill us. (Heather M. Brinson, Answers in Genesis, pg 52, Oct. – Dec. 2009)
5. God is our designer and creator if we don’t yield to what he wants from us he will remake us into something else. He makes the evil for the day of evil.
6. Proverbs 16:4
7. Romans 9:16-23, Pharaoh didn’t want to yield to the potter. He resisted. The Potter put more pressure on him. He still didn’t yield. So the Potter let him be hardened. He sent the fire of the ten plagues on Pharaoh. Pharaoh didn’t recognize God’s mercy. God gave him over 10 opportunities to repent. Pharaoh wouldn’t do it. He was broken beyond remedy.
8. Moses yielded to the Potter. It took 80 years for God to shape Moses into what He wanted. Moses lived as a prince in Egypt. He received an education and he was a man of power in word and in deed. Then he killed an Egyptian slave driver and he spent 40 years as a shepherd, the most loathsome job to an Egyptian, taking care of his father-in-laws flocks and herds. There he learned to live in the wilderness where he would spend 80 years of his life.
9. Proverbs 29:1
B. The clay is useless without him
1. The clay without the potter is just a useless lump of mud without the potter. With the potter’s hand the clay can be a beautiful vessel.
2. God has given us talents and abilities to use for his glory
3. Matthew 25:15-31, These men were able given abilities to use for their master. The ones that used theirs to gain more for their master were blessed the one that did nothing was destroyed.
C. He knows what he needs
1. II Timothy 2:19-26, we want to be a vessel for honor. In our house we have vessels for honor. We have nice dishes for holidays and when company comes. We have everyday dishes that we use all the time. We have two toilets. Neither of them is regarded with honor. If you want to yield to the master and cleanse yourself of wickedness and youthful lust you can be a vessel for honor. Otherwise you can be a toilet.
2. God can’t honor you if you have a toilet mouth.
3. Ephesians 5:3-5, a lot of jokes and things people laugh at are not honorable. We are to have clean mouths as Christians that have honorable things coming out of them.
4. God needs vessels for honor. He already has plenty of vessels of dishonor.
5. A vessel of honor won’t dress up like a witch or evil creature for Halloween.
a. God is against what is glorified at Halloween.
b. Deuteronomy 18:10-12
c. Galatians 5:20
d. Revelation 21:8
e. Harry Potter is an abomination. Harry Potter movies are an abomination. I saw a few minutes of a Harry Potter movie. Kids were casting evil spells on one another. Strange creatures were attacking Harry Potter. He was able to fight them off because he had stronger magic. I didn’t know what the movie was so I asked the people who lived at the house, “What movie is this?” They said, “It is a Harry Potter movie. A lady at church says you will go to hell if you watch them.” I agree with that lady whoever she is. Harry Potter movies are from Satan himself. He is the master of deceit and trickery and lies. That is what witchcraft and sorcery are.
f. Acts 19:19
II. The Potter has a purpose for the clay (What is the purpose the of the clay?)
A. To obey his voice.
1. Jeremiah 18:8-10
2. Judah didn’t obey they slandered Jeremiah. Jeremiah prophesied of the calamity that was coming on Judah and Jerusalem.
3. Jeremiah 18:18
4. We are to obey God as a nation or we will be pulled down. When the people of our nation live with one another instead of getting married. When we have state governments legalizing same sex marriages. When we have people who continually ignore God’s commands we will not last as a nation. We will be destroyed.
5. Proverbs 14:34
6. God exalts nations that listen to his word those who ignore his word fall.
B. To be a chosen instrument of His.
1. Acts 9:15-16
2. Paul decided to yield to the master. He was persecuting and killing Christians. God blinded him on his way to Damascus. Paul spread the gospel of Jesus Christ more that any other man. He wrote 14 books of the New Testament. He was vessel of honor. He was shaped and formed under the pressure of the Potter. He was a masterpiece of the potter because he yielded to the will of the master
III. The clay must not strive with its maker (Why must the clay not strive with its maker?)
A. It is foolish to strive with your maker.
1. Isaiah 45:5-12
2. A clay pot never says to the potter, “What are you doing,” or “You don’t have any hands.” “You didn’t make me. I came about by chance.”
B. Striving with your maker brings calamity.
1. Jeremiah 18:11-12
2. The people of Judah were worse than other nations. When Jonah rebuked Nineveh they repented. They didn’t want calamity coming upon them.
3. Jeremiah 18:13-15, they had forsaken the cool clear running water for the mud puddle of idolatry.
4. If you strive with your maker you will end up as a shattered piece of pottery
5. Jeremiah 19:1, 10, and 11
Conclusion
Let God shape and mold you. He will make a masterpiece out of you for his glory. He will put pressure on you to shape and mold you to what he wants.
I. He is the one in charge
A. He is the creator
B. You are useless without him.
C. He knows what he needs.
II. He has a purpose for you
A. To obey His voice
B. To be a chosen instrument of His
III. The Clay must not strive with its maker
A. It is foolish
B. Striving with your maker brings calamity
If you let the Potter shape you, you will be a vessel for honor useful to the master. If you have been contending with the Potter repent before it is too late. God is merciful he doesn’t want to destroy you. He can remake you into something useful if you have marred your life. If you have been yielding to the potter keep doing so and be patient. He knows what he is doing and what he wants you to be.
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