CLAY JARS
JEREMIAH 18:1-11
SUNDAY PM SERVICE OCTOBER 7, 2003
INTRODUCTION: “Touch Of The Master’s Hand”
Well it was battered and scared, And the auctioneer felt it was hardly worth his while, To waste much time on the old violin but he held it up with a smile,
Well it sure ain’t much but its all we got left I guess we aught to sell it to,
Oh, now who’ll start the bid on this old violin? Just one more and we’ll be through.
And then he cried one give me one dollar, Who’ll make it two only two dollars who’ll make it three, Three dollars twice now that’s a good price,
Now who’s gonna bid for me? Raise up your hand now don’t wait any longer the auctions about to end, Who’s got four Just one dollar more to bid on this old violin?
Well the air was hot and the people stood around as the sun was setting low,
From the back of the crowd a gray haired man, Came forward and picked up the bow, He wiped the dust from the old violin then he tightened up the strings,
Then he played out a melody pure and sweet, sweeter than the Angels sing,
And then the music stopped and the auctioneer, With a voice that was quiet and low he said now what am I bid, For this old violin and he held it up with a bow.
And then he cried out one give me one thousand, Who’ll make it two only two thousand who’ll make it three, Three thousand twice you know that’s a good price,
Common who’s gonna to bid for me? And the people cried out what made the change we don’t understand, Then the auctioneer stopped and he said with a smile,
It was the touch of the Master’s hand. You know there’s many a man with his life out of tune, Battered and scared with sin and he’s auctioned cheap,
To a thankless world much like that old violin, Oh, but then the Master comes,
And that old foolish crowd they never understand, The worth of a soul and the change that is rought, Just by one touch of the Masters hand. And then he cried out one give me one thousand, Who’ll make it two only two thousand who’ll make it three, Three thousand twice you know that’s a good price, Common who’s gonna bid for me? And the people cried out what made the change we don’t understand,
Then the auctioneer stopped and he said with a smile, It was the touch, that’s all it was; it was the touch of the Master’s hand,…
It was the touch of the Master’s hand; oh, it was the touch of the Master’s hand.
Wayne: I had denied the listening public that song for a little while, too, because the guy that gave me this song gave it to me on a handwritten page, and I looked at it and I thought pretty highly of myself at the time, and so, I stuck it in a piano bench, you know, and I didn’t play it for almost two years. During those two years, I was trying to say all the right things to all the right people and really make it, you know. And, it was one of the most stressful, unpleasant times of my life. And, I remember many sleepless nights, and "why don’t they like me," and "why don’t they pay attention", and I really, really got low. I remember pulling out Touch of the Master’s Hand and I began to play it at church camps and the things I was doing, and it got the attention of some people over in Mississippi; and they took it to Bob McKinsey by way of through Nashville.
And he heard it....he didn’t think much about my presentation of the song, but he knew it was a great song, and he knew it had great potential as a message song and called me and asked me if I would like to go to Nashville and talk about a recording contract and a publishing contract. I think at the time they thought I wrote the song, and I didn’t. It was an old, old literary piece, and the song was put to music by a guy by the name of John Kramp, a youth minister in the Dallas area. And, when I got the call, I thought somebody was pulling my leg....that’s how far out I was at that point...I thought somebody was joking with me..."who is this?"...you know. And, I went to Nashville and that was the beginning. But, it was just a beginning.... it was not a big deal at that time. It was a very slow start; and although Touch of the Master’s Hand did very well on the radio, it still was a lot of work and just slow plugging at trying to make some headway as far doing concerts and sharing things that were on my heart. And it was a slow process.
TRANSITION THOUGHT: Our text for tonight talks about The Master’s Hand. You see our God has one desire and it is to shape us into His image. He longs for us to be HIS and to become wholehearted followers! Our text reminds us of the choices we have in life. We can do what is right, or we have the power to do what is wrong. It is up to us. In this case God speaks through his spokesperson and encourages individuals to choose HIS way over their own, for to not do so will bring pain and frustration instead of happiness and peace. God’s desire is to mold us and make us into the people that we were created to be, and this is Blessed of the Heavenly Father living lives pleasing to him and beneficial to ourselves. Let us look now at this molding, shaping process and see how we can become beautiful Jars of Clay.
THESIS SENTENCE: WE MUST BE SOFT CLAY ON THE POTTERS WHEEL
I. GOD SPEAKS IN WAYS WE CAN UNDERSTAND TO MOLD OUR LIVES (VV. 1-4)
A. God speaks to us in tangible ways using life all around us.
1. The role of the prophets in the OT was to make the word of God plain to the people of God so that they would have no excuse for not understanding his message.
2. The only context we have for understanding God is the world and reality that surrounds us.
3. The OT prophets used images like: 1. A basket of summer fruit (Amos 8:1-3: This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. “What do you see, Amos?” he asked. “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered. Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.”) 2. The invasion of a locust plague (Amos 7:1; Joel 1:4 “This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the second crop was coming up. When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive!
How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”/ “What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.”) 3. A pot of boiling water: (Jeremiah 1:13-14: “The Word of the Lord came to me again: “What do you see?” “I see a boiling pot, tilting away from the north,” I answered. The lord said to me, “From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land.”)
B. Jesus always used language that those surrounding him could understand.
1. The parable of the Sower: “a farmer went out to sow seed and some fell...(Mark 4:1-9).”
2. In Mark 4:21-22 “He said to them, ‘Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a be? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For what ever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and what ever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.’”
3. AND THE LIST GOES ON AND ON AND ON...
4. Preachers today do no different than the prophet and Jesus. Our calling is to present the message of God in ways that we can all understand and respond to. GOD ALWAYS DEMANDS A RESPONSE!
C. Now we look at the parable with a few thoughts attached.
1. The Lord God spoke to Jeremiah. God’s desire is to communicate with each of us as with HIS Servant Jeremiah. God wants to talk to you, Will you listen??
2. Jeremiah responds to God in obedience, even to the little things. Go where I send you, even if it is just to watch someone make a pot. God doesn’t always make sense to our dulled minds, but His leading always demands obedience!!
3. The Parable itself:
a. the potter was a specific person: the word means to form, shape, or fashion.”
b. The wheel used was a fast wheel, verses a slow wheel. The slow wheel is turned by hand and only allows one hand to shape the clay. The fast wheel is turned by a peddle and allows both hands to be used to shaped the clay.
c. The clay had a blemish, an undefined blemish, so the potter squashes the clay back into a mound and reshapes it into a likeness that pleases him.
d. The interesting thing to note, and a word of hope, is that the potter did not discard the clay, He merely remolded it. In and of itself, the clay was good. The original substance is good. What it became was not good. I BELIEVE THE CLAY, UNMOLDED, PREFOMED, BEFORE FORMATION, IS THE IMAGE OF GOD THAT IS WITHIN EACH OF US JUST WAITING TO FASHIONED BY THE MASTERS HAND.
II. GOD REMINDS US ABOUT WHO HE IS (VV. 5-6)
A. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah once more.
1. The focal point is God.
2. The power of the prophecy is that it is God’s words not man’s.
3. The God of all creation speaks to human kind. It is his desire to communicate with us.
B. God reveals His power!!
1. can not I do to you as the potter does!!!
2. You are like clay in my hands!! God is sovereign!!
3. God is almighty and can do what ever He desires!! He is God!!
III. GOD GIVES US THE POWER TO DECIDE (V. 7-11)
A. Although God is completely in control, unfathomable to our minds that it could be, God gives us complete control over our own destines.
1. Two illustrations: 1. (vv. 7-8) If I am planning to uproot a nation and it repents of its evil, Then I will relent and not inflict on it disaster!!
ILLUSTRATION: THE STORY OF JONAH AND THE PEOPLE OF NINEVEH: JONAH 3:1FF
2. (vv. 9-10) If I am planning to do good to a nation (BUILD IT UP) that is obeying me, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, I will reconsider!!!!!
3. The bottom line theory here is, in a sense, we are completely in control of all our destiny. We can choose!! The chose is up to You. You and me, we are very, very, powerful people.
B. Verse 11. God is the God of Second chances and perpetual Hope.
1. although the prophet had been sent by God to proclaim Judgment and the bitter truth, which is still true for each of us today, Sin has consequences!!!, The final word is HOPE!!
2. Hope is held out in the Face of Disaster. I wonder how many times I have told Bennette, “If you don’t stop that I am going to spank you.” How many times has a doctor told us to not do something, or to do something and we rejected his advice to only here him or her say, “I Told You So.” We always take those orders as denying us of our right to be in control. But the sad fact is that when we reject good healthy advice, we are taking the control away from ourselves.
3. SO GOD SAYS: “LOOK!!!!! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. SO TURN from your evil ways, EACH ONE OF YOU, and reform your ways and your actions.
4. So you ask, “How is this holding out Hope??” It is never God’s desire to Punish. He is a loving Creator. It is His desire to teach and to Guide. But, Sin will not be tolerated by God. Just as Parents have many standards to which the children must abide, God is no different.
ILLUSTRATION: On last Bennette tale: I have always heard parents say, “This will hurt me more than it does you.” And, I was the recipient of that phraseology multiple times growing up and I NEVER BELIEVED IT!! But now, the shoe is on the other foot. I can honestly say that to spank Bennette, I do it and will continue to do it as long as it is needed, HURTS ME WAY MORE THAN IT HURTS HIM. AFTER HE GOES TO SLEEP AT NIGHT AFTER A SPANKING, I LIE AWAKE IN PAIN. IF A MERE MORTAL CAN FEEL THIS WAY, HOW DOES THE PERFECT LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER FEEL AFTER HE HAS HAD TO PUNISH A MISS BEHAVING CHILD, MAYBE EVEN FOR ETERNITY?? MAYBE THIS IS WHY HE WAS WILLING TO SEND HIS SON JESUS TO DIE FOR OUR SINS!!!!!
CONCLUSION: DOES THE MASTER HAVE HIS HANDS ON YOU? Will you allow Him to mold and shape your life, will you be clay upon His wheel?
BENEDICTION: NUMBER 6:24
