THE POTTER'S HOUSE Jeremiah 18:1-6
#614b THE POTTER’S HOUSE
Scripture Jeremiah 18:1-6, NIV Orig. Date 2-4-75 (5-78)
Rewr. Dates 9-24-87
Passage: This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 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.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.”
Purpose: To share a message at a special gathering of high school students.
Keywords: Discipline Banquet Revelation Relationship Youth
Introduction
It was one of those intolerably hot August days. A hiker had come out of the high regions and was beginning to see signs of civilization. Occasionally, in the distance, a house. Here and there, cultivated land with crops laid by. The hiker was now thinking only of finding a place to get a cool drink of water.
Down the way, he saw an old mountain house. As he drew nearer, he saw a man seated in a rickety chair on the run-down porch. As he approached he determined to be neighborly to the man, hoping that he would be so in return. He spoke, then called attention to the disagreeable weather. Still no invitation to rest came. He went on, “How is your cotton doing in this hot, dry weather?”
“Ain’t got none!” replied the mountain man.
“Didn’t you plant any cotton?” asked the surprised traveler.
“Nope,” he replied, “’fraid the boll weevils’d get it.”
“Well,” said the passer-by, “How is your corn?”
“Ain’t got none of that either,” said the old farmer, “And if you gotta know, I figured there weren’t gonna be no rain.”
Still hoping for an invitation to rest, and a drink of water, the hiker plunged in again. “Really, well what did you plant?” he asked.
“Didn’t plant nothing,” said the farmer, getting up to enter the old house. “I just played it safe.”
There are lots of good reasons why we do what we do. Some of them even good ones, and our excuses become the determinants of the way our lives are lived. To be a farmer and not to plant is ludicrous. To live in God’s world and make excuses for discounting Him is also.
I. Jeremiah Reminds Us of Something that He has Overlooked. V2. “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.” The message is not a new one. We are reminded rather than informed. It is not something never said before, not some new thing making its appearance. There all the time but Jeremiah was elsewhere.
And, it was becoming increasingly important for Jeremiah to know the heart of God. I wonder what good thing occupied the prophet. I wonder why he failed to seek the “best” thing. Were you ever guilty of that? I have been.
Even here, we can occupy ourselves with secondary matters. Why, here is a wonderful lesson about wasted clay. The potter needs to be more careful. We can extend this to a world where waste abounds and examine others’ guilt.
Contemporary ecology warns us about waste. We are losing trees, forests, woodlands. Water quality is a problem everywhere. Oil has been wasted to the point of world revolution.
The major economic concern in America today is that we are creating debt on unborn populations.
But, that’s not the lesson. The lesson is in the message delivered through the potter. It is a lesson that shows God to be the redeemer, the user of what has been cast aside. It didn’t just involve clay. It involved people, flesh and blood. Folks with free will, who could resist their potter.
II. So, Jeremiah Has to Deal with a Relationship That Has Been Bargained. V4 “And the vessel that he (the potter) made of clay was marred.” It did not achieve what was intended. It was bargained. It was cheapened. Now, wait a minute, do those words mean the same? The world out there, young people, is teaching you to get by as cheaply as you can. That’s okay if you’re buying books, or jeans, even a car if you are careful. But what about things that matter: Home, family, community, peace, dignity, integrity. God.
Soren Kierkegaard, a philosopher you’ll study about in college, wrote a fantasy about geese. A wild goose, with broken wing, entered a farmer’s flock. After winter, with healed wing, he heard another flock flying north. He extolled the other geese to fly with him, but they would not, for the farmer’s corn was good, and the barnyard secure.
We are too ready, you and I, to bargain the true lessons of God’s spirit for material, worldly reasons. James Michener’s book, The Source, is a fictional account of Moses. El Shaddai said to Zadok-the-Righteous, “As long as you live old man, you will be free to ignore my commands. But in time, I will grow impatient and will speak to others.” Zadok: “My home is the desert. I was afraid to leave.” El Shaddai: ‘I waited because I knew that if you did not love your home, you would not love me either. I am glad that you are now ready.”
We are neither too young nor too old to discount, to bargain the word of God to us.
III. Jeremiah Begins at Last to Look into the Very Heart of God. V4b “He made it again, another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.” V6 “. . .As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand.”
The prophet had to learn that God was involving Himself redemptively in their lives. Exodus 19 (Moses): “Ye have seen how I bear you on eagle’s wings to myself.” Psalm 37 (David): “I was young, and now old. Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken.”
How intuitively Jesus knew this to be the case. Matthew 5:45 “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good.” Matthew 10:29 “The sparrow shall not fall without the Father.” Luke 12:27 “Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin.”
The prophet had but to remember this Godly quality and act in obedient faith. The life of Jesus proves how unlike God we are. His doing is my undoing. Without His mercy I have no choice left. Faith is believing, and living on the basis of that belief.
I watched a little girl, 4 or 5 years old, at the baggage belt in the air terminal in New Orleans. Just the three of us waiting for luggage. She asked about putting her stuffed bear on the belt. Her daddy assured her it would come back. You cannot imagine the look of concern on that father’s face as he waited with her for his word to be trustworthy.
IV. The Prophet Reminds Us that there Is an Undeniable Discipline in Responding to the Trustworthiness of God. V6 “. . . Cannot I do with you as this potter [does with the clay]?” saith the Lord. “As clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand.”
So, we are dependent. Give God the first segment of every day. Give God the first day of every week. Give God the first return on material earned. Give God the first consideration in every decision. Give God first place in your heart.
For a brave to become a chief, he had to pluck the fur from the sacred bobcat, bring down the white buffalo alone, wrestle the brown bear. Then came the trial of fire and water. “Whatever happened to wholesome good looks and a nice personality?”
Look on the potter’s wheel and see design. It was the design that was flawed. Even so, God’s people were less than he had planned, thus the renovation.
Nor must we overlook discipline. The potter’s feet were calloused and misshapen from all the years at the wheel. The tools were those of wheel, rasp, chisel, fire.
And it was thus that the light suddenly came on in the prophet’s brain. This God would have me to see. His work is never to destroy but to design. His grace is not to reduce but to redeem. The smartest thing that one can do is to let Him have His way in our lives, and the sooner the better.
Conclusion
Herman Hegedorn wrote after the initial atom bomb blast in New Mexico: “I went to call on the Lord in His high house on the hill, my head full of 150 million people having to grow up overnight. If ever a people needed a miracle! The Lord!! He looked at me as a mountain might look at a molehill.” ‘So you want a miracle. My! My! You want a miracle. You want me to come sliding down a sunbeam and make 150 million self-willed egotists into 150 million cooperating angels.
‘Brother,’ said the Lord in a voice that shook the windows, ‘that isn’t the sort of universe you are living in. That isn’t the sort of God I am. . . .
‘Give me your life, and I will make it a spade to dig the foundation of a new world.’”
Alternate Conclusion
“When was it that I completely scattered the good seeds, one and all? For, after all, I spent my boyhood in the bright singing of Thy temples.
“Bookish subtleties sparked brightly, piercing my arrogant brain, the secrets of the world . . . in my grasp, life’s destiny . . . as pliable as wax.
“Blood seethed . . . and every swirl gleamed iridescently before me. Without a rumble the building of my faith quietly crumbled within my own heart.
“But passing here between being and nothingness, stumbling and clutching at the edge, I looked behind me with a grateful tremor upon the life that I have lived. Not with good judgment nor with desire are its twists and turns illumined, but with the even glow of the higher meaning which became apparent to me only later on.
“And now, with measuring cup returned to me, scooping up the living water, God of the universe! I believe again! Though I renounced you, you were with me!”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Gulag II (Harper and Row—1968)
MEMORIAL SERVICE, MRS. LIB COLVIN
#922 FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
Bernice, Louisiana
May 6, 1991
Memorial Service
Mrs. Lib Colvin
There is a nonsensical story of an old farmer sitting on a rickety rocker on the porch of his cabin way back in the hills. A backpacker happened along the trail that brought him by the cabin. Being hot and thirsty on the August day, he stopped and attempted to engage the old man, hoping to get an offer to stop and rest. Asked about cotton, the old man told the youth there was none because of boll weevils. Asked about corn, he informed him that it was not smart to plant corn when there was no rain. Asked what he did plant, the farmer responded, “I didn’t plant nothin’! I played it safe!”
But this has nothing to do with Miss Lib. The one thing that she was careful to avoid was playing it safe, especially where her Christian responsibility was concerned. She knew what she ought to do, needed to do, and set about doing it.
Too many people are like the old farmer. Just playing it safe! And when the end comes, nothing is left. We have so much to learn from Miss Lib. As much as we grieve for her, yet we know that this was the essence of her life. She was prepared for this moment of truth.
My wife taught her Sunday School lesson yesterday. She fretted when she first found that it would be her job. Then, someone gave her the material that Miss Lib herself had prepared. She knew what her responsibility was, and she was ready. Imagine, she went in the hospital on Thursday, and her lesson for the next Sunday was already prepared.
I know teachers who don’t start preparing until Friday night. I know preachers who have no idea on Saturday what they are going to preach about on Sunday night. Occasionally, Sunday morning also. This dear lady, who has taught this class longer than any of us can remember, regularly prepared her lesson early in the week, starting even on Sunday afternoon. She would never run the risk of being unprepared. Her message to us here today is preparation. What we are responsible for, do it well. Because we face the future uncertainly, face it squarely, with Christ as Lord of our lives.
I. We Learn from Her the Importance of Something to Believe. “If I do not the work of my Father,” Jesus said, “believe me not. But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works; that you may know and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in Him.” (John 10:37-38.) Again from John (11:25), “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”
No matter where we are in life, the essence of living is in what we believe: the content of our belief and the way we live our lives in response to the things believed. For the Christian, what we believe about Christ sets the tone for everything we do. Of course, there are generalities, like believing the sun will rise tomorrow. But the special things that show Christ alive within this committed life have particular meaning. Romans 15:13, “Now the God of all hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing.”
II. The Next Thing there is to Learn from Her is of Something to Be. I John 3:1-3, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we shall be called children of God . . . now we are God’s children, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.”
The example of Jesus was of major importance in Miss Lib’s life: Moral persuasion, compassion, and commitment to God’s will. Hebrews 10:9, “Then said He, Lo, I come to do thy will O God.” Our highest resolve is shallow outside of the will of God. She was a fine example of womanhood, of sacrificial service, and of commitment of one’s best.
III. The Third Thing that We Learn from Her is of Something to Do. Rev. 22:14, “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates to the city.” There is a proper sequence: Something to believe, something to be, and something to do. The example of Jesus was to do what He was uniquely equipped to do.
We have surrendered a friend to the ages who showed us that this works in ordinary lives also. She found Christ sufficiently able to forgive sin. She grew in God’s grace to discover His purpose in deliverance from sin also.
Conclusion
Henry C. Morrison, missionary to Africa, tells of his return to America. A life had been spent in faithful and effective missionary service in Africa. He was retiring, regretting that he was at the end of the way. Teddy Roosevelt was on the same ship, returning from some safari or the other. Servants attended his every need on board the ship. As they approached New York harbor, passengers could see crowds of people at the dock, awaiting the president.
Mr. Morrison said he was filled with self-pity. For the president, it had been fun and games. For him, it had been devotion and service. But the crowds were waiting to see the president, not him. But suddenly, he said, the Lord filled him with an understanding that he “was not home yet.”
STEEPLE DEDICATION, FBC BERNICE, LA
#000 STEEPLE DEDICATION
First Baptist Church
Bernice, Louisiana
March 15, 1987
Orig. Date 3/15/1987
Old Testament Lesson Mr. Maury Davis
Psalm 27:4-6, 11-14
4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.
5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord
11 Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
14 Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Prayer Mr. Clifton McIntosh
New Testament Lesson Mr. Kenny Culpepper
I Corinthians 3:9-14
9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
Special Music Sanctuary Choir
“Come Ye Christians, Be Committed”
Responsive Reading Pastor
He said to them, But who do you say that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
As the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also in Christ.
For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink in one Spirit.
He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
You are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone;
In whom the whole building being joined together, grows into an holy temple in the Lord;
In whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him.
For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Presentation Pastor
Prayer of Dedication Watson Goss
Chairman of Deacons