A minister in Texas used a very creative visual aid to start his message. He brought on to the stage a beautiful Golden Irish Setter that belonged to his youth minister. The Youth minister loved this dog so much that when the dog had been sick and had to be in the vet kennel overnight, he stayed all night with him. Needless to say this dog loved his master.
That night for the sermon, the senior minister brought the dog on to the stage and he rolled a ball across the plat form and said, “Fetch Josh fetch.” But the dog just sat there and would not fetch the ball for the religious leader. The minister then had one of his friends, a large body builder come up on the platform, and this huge muscleman stood over the dog scowling and growled. “Fetch Dog Fetch!” But the dog would not fetch the ball for power. Then a banker came on to the platform and took out his wallet and waved a handful of bills in front of the dog’s face and said, “Josh, if you get the ball I’ll reward you,” but the dog would not fetch for money. Then the preacher said, “Let’s tries some peer pressure, and so he had all the people stand up and join in unison, “Fetch Josh, Fetch Josh!”, but the dog would not yield to the peer pressure.
The pastor then had a beautiful young woman with auburn hair about the color of the dog’s hair, came on the plat form and patted him on the head and with a sultry voice she said, “Josh, please get the ball…for me.” And the pastor said that the dog did flinch just a little…but he would not fetch for the wiles of a woman.
Finally he called the youth minister on to the platform and the owner of the dog said, “Josh go get the ball.” And the dog bolted from his stance and retrieved the ball and gave it to his owner. After everybody had settled down, the preacher began his sermon by saying, “Now, let me ask you…who are you fetching for?” And that is the question I want to ask you. Who is your master? Who is Lord over your life? Romans 6:16 in the Living Bible says, “Don’t you realize that you can choose your own master? You can choose sin (with death) or else obedience (with acquittal). The one to whom you offer yourself--he will take you and be your master, and you will be his slave.”
Every one of us has a master, and that master determines our behavior and our actions. If you’re master is money, then everything you do is centered around money. If you’re master is power, your life is centered around trying to obtain that power. So let me ask you once again, who is it that you are fetching for? Who is in charge of your life? Now of all the people and things you can place at the center of your life, only one truly belongs there, you were created in such a way where the throne in your heart is reserved for God and God alone.
Now you have the freedom to place other things there, but in the end you will find them woefully inadequate and unfulfilling, because that’s not where they are supposed to be, that’s where God is supposed to be. And in the end you will find that you need God, and that God is ultimately the one in charge, whether you acknowledge it or not, and you would have wished you had followed Him instead of those other things.
Now when God told Jeremiah to get up and go watch the Potter work, the nation of Israel was in a time of crisis, not so much a financial, or national crisis, though it was pending, but rather it was a spiritual crisis. The nation that belonged to God, that was blessed by God, had forgotten God. God was no longer sitting at the center of their lives. They had forsaken God to go fetch for other things. Things that brought them earthly pride and pleasure. They were fetching for the clay, and not the Potter. So God took a back seat in their lives. And God will not sit idle by while his people go after other things to replace Him. God will not settle for 2nd place in their lives or in ours.
That’s because God is a Jealous God. Now we often think of jealousy as a bad thing, but jealousy can be a good thing when it is warranted. God’s jealously for us is actually a good thing. God is jealous because God is loving. You are the same way I bet. Let’s suppose that one day you dig in to your husband’s wallet to get take some money and all of a sudden you a picture fall out of a beautiful young woman whom you have never seen. You ask, “who is she?” He says, “She’s a friend. When I can’t talk to you I talk to her. She is understanding and caring, and she’s always there when I need her.” Now ladies let me ask you, would you be jealous for your husband? Would he be dead? You would be jealous if you loved him.
God is the same way. God is the potter, we are the clay, and God designed us, created us, molded and made us to be His, and when we wander from that, God has every right to be jealous for us. So when the nation of Israel was wandering from God, God didn’t stand back and say, “Oh, that’s okay…have a good time.” No, He sought to bring them back. God wanted them back to Himself.
And here is where Jeremiah is sent to the Potter’s house, and it is there that he sees the potter working on the clay, and he learns some valuable lessons. Look at vs. 3, “So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot 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.”
Now a few things to point out here. First notice that the pot he was shaping was marred in the potter’s hands. It doesn’t say the potter marred it, it just says it was marred. The clay was resisting the touch of the potter so that the original design became flawed. What a wonderful illustration of not only mankind but all of creation. The Word tells us that after God created everything, He looked around at it and said it was all “very good.” But what happened was that He also gave one command to follow, and we didn’t follow it. When that command was broken, and we became rebellious, for some reason (and I don’t know how this works) it affected everything.
Paul tells us in Romans that all of creation is groaning for deliverance from the curse that came upon this world (Romans 8:22). That says to me that everything we see has been affected by what happened. But that’s not the way we tend to look at it. It’s a lot easier for us, when things don’t seem to be what we think they ought to, to question God, or to blame God. But the truth is that many times, things as they are simply do not represent things as God intended in the first place.
We live in a marred world. Just look at the headlines from this week, terrorist hijack a school, a school for crying out loud! And many children are killed. A major hurricane is hitting Florida again. (Ole Miss lost to Memphis...okay maybe the world aint that marred!), Wars, famine, strife, you name it and we got it. This world is not the way God made it, it is marred.
And mankind is the same way. I think most of us just try to hide the lumpy old clay on the inside of the pot where it can’t be seen. But over time, people begin to notice just how marred we are. No one here is perfect. Last week Denise and I drove to Kentucky to attend my Dad’s funeral. As we got to the turn off to go to my Mom’s house, Denise got a phone call from my brother on her phone, gave it to me. Larry asked how far away were and I told him, about 5 minutes away, which we were. Denise and I get into a conversation about the phone and I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going, so we missed the turn off. Now you know who was to blame don’t you…it was her! She was talking to me when I was trying to drive.
Now the sad thing is that I truly tried to blame her, and as we drove I was looking for the next turn off, and I knew this road pretty well, and I knew the next turn off wasn’t until 15 miles away. So now I’m getting mad because I told Larry 5 minutes, he’s going to know what happened, Denise makes a statement about me getting lost in my own hometown, the kids were saying, “Dad are we there yet?” I see a turn in the median with a big no U-turn sign above it, and I was tempted to take it, but I’m not marred that much. But here I had made a mistake (which was entirely my fault), I tried to blame it on someone else, I lost my temper, and I was very tempted to do something illegal. Needless to say, we are marred vessels, far from the perfect holy person we ought to be.
But the beautiful thing is what happens next. The potter was shaping a vessel with his hands when it all collapsed on him. The shape did not take in the clay, it was literally ruined as Jeremiah recorded it. It was marred. But noticed what happened next. The potter did not throw the ruined piece into the corner of the shop, or into the trash. He continued working with it and reshaped it into another vessel which he deemed good to make. In other words, he began again, from scratch with the same clay and gave it a shape that was good and would hold it’s form.
Again, God has said to His people, "As the clay is in the potter’s hand so are you in my hand." When we are found flawed, Here is the good news, God can remake us! We when fall apart at the seams God can put us back together again! God wasn’t threw with the clay. God was telling Jeremiah to tell the people, yes you have messed up, yes you have disobeyed, but I can still rework you, I can still form you into a vessel that is useful. I’m not threw with you yet!
Now many of you may feel like you are no longer useful to God. You’re a cracked pot, with to many flaws, to many mistakes, to many stains. Well, here’s the good news, if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come. God can rework that old clay and turn it into something wonderful. God tells Jeremiah that if a nation that was doomed to destruction repents, then guess what…God gives them another chance. And if you have failed, if you have made a mess of your life, then let me tell you that God is still at the Potter’s wheel today ready to rework your life into something wonderful.
John Newton is a good example of that. He was a man whose life was going downhill quick. He worked as a slave trader and lived a drunkards life, and it got so bad that one time he got drunk and fell off the ship and his shipmates had to harpoon him to bring him back on board. We would say what a waste, but not God. God would give John Newton another chance, and one day when fearing his life while at going through a storm at sea, John Newton gave his heart to Christ, and later this slave trader turned preacher would write the words of his life in a hymn, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see.”
Now in the same way, God is willing to rework your life today, no matter how marred it may be, but here’s the thing, you have to yield to Him. The Potter has a purpose, and with every touch He is forming, and transforming you into a vessel of honor, something so beautiful; but unlike clay, we can resist. If we are stubborn, and follow our own evil desires instead of God’s, if we serve ourselves rather than Him, if we willfully disobey His commands instead of listening and following, if we go fetching for anybody else besides God, then we are not going to be the vessel of honor God would have us to be. 2 Tim 2:20-21 in the Living Bible says this, “In a wealthy home there are dishes made of gold and silver as well as some made from wood and clay. The expensive dishes are used for guests, and the cheap ones are used in the kitchen or to put garbage in. If you stay away from sin you will be like one of these dishes made of purest gold--the very best in the house--so that Christ himself can use you for his highest purposes.”
Now to help you do this, let me give you some applications to gleam from this passage for your daily walk with Christ. First, recognize that God is the potter and you are the clay. That means that God is the one in charge and you are not. Now this sounds simple, but this can have a huge impact in your life if you realize that you don’t tell God what to do, you listen to Him and do what He tells you to do. And since God is sovereign, this means that God doesn’t have to get permission to do something from us, nor does He have to explain Himself to us. You know I like to think that I have some authority in my house, somewhat. Denise and I have been married for almost 10 years now, and we have a simple pact…I make all the big decisions and she makes the little one…in 10 years we haven’t had one big decision yet.
But as a Parent in my home, I have the ability to say to my kids one of the greatest phrases…whenever I tell them to do something or not to do something…if they ask why…all I have to say is “Because I said so!” Now we may not understand a lot of things that God has told us to do, or has told us not to do; we may not understand every detail in God’s plan for our life, but that’s okay. God doesn’t have to explain Himself to us. All He has to do is say, “Because I said so”.
The second thing is this, Know that God has a purpose for your life. When the potter sits down to make his pottery, he has something in mind of what he wants it to look like. And much in the same way, God has a plan for your life. Now I’m not one of those who believe that every detail of our lives is sketched out by God, I believe He has given us the freedom of choice, but I do believe that God has a reason for each person to be here, a part for them to contribute to His overall plan. Ephesians 1: 11-12 reads, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.”
Now you might now what that part is, you might not yet know. I know that God has called me to preach His word. My dad told me, “Barry, good thing God called you to preach because you sure couldn’t do anything else.” Now you might not know yet, maybe God hasn’t revealed it to you yet. Like we said, the King doesn’t have to tell His subjects every detail in His plan. Our job is to listen for that call and then simply be obedient to it.
And Finally, know that with this plan, God will work in us as He seems fit (which is not always what we seem fit). God works in us what is best for Him, which ultimately is best for us, although it may not seem like it at the time. I love to watch my wife fix my little girl’s hair, because she is so good at it. I especially like to watch her work on Carrie’s hair because Carrie hates to have Denise touch her hair. Denise gets within 5 yards of her hair with a brush and the screams start up. But Denise ignores the pleas to stop, and she works. Carrie I’m sure is wondering why is she torturing me, why is she punishing me, why, why, why? But after Denise is done, oh how beautiful Carrie looks.
I don’t know why God allows certain things to happen, but I know that He can turn them into something wonderful. I trust that the Potter is at the wheel and He is working something beautiful in me, and I trust He will for you as well. Now let me ask you, will you let Him. Will you yield to God’s touch in your life today, will you give Him you’re life, you’re all. Will you allow Him to be in charge of your life, to make you and mold you as He seems fit, or will you spend your life fetching for other things. The Choice is yours, what will you do?
