The Potter and the Clay Jeremiah 18:3-6 Also read: Isaiah 64:8 "But now, Oh Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; for we all are the work of thy hand." In our scripture text, God instructs the prophet Jeremiah to arise and go down to the potter's house. Pottery was a vital part of the economic structure in Old Testament times. It was a major industry making vessels of various kinds and uses, bowls, cups, vials, etc. If you had gone down to the potter's house in those days you would have seen one or more men making this pottery using very crude machinery. He would probably be sitting on a wooden seat with a small table in front of him. Under that table and fastened to it would be a large round rock about the size of a large automobile tire. He would turn the table by placing his feet on top of the large round stone and turning it by using his feet. This is probably what Jeremiah saw that day, a familiar sight that he had seen over and over again. But today, God was going to use the potter's house to teach Jeremiah a lesson. As Jeremiah stood there watching the potter perform his craftsmanship, he saw him pick up a seemingly useless, shapeless, lump of clay. The potter places that lump of clay into a vat of water and washes it. Then he just lets it soak in the water for awhile. I think this story, with all the preparations the potter has to make, has many applications for us to learn today. First, God takes you and I. We were nothing but a lump of clay. We were hopeless, useless, and shapeless. As that clay was dug from a pit in the ground by the potter, so have we been drawn out of the pit of destruction and sin by the Lord Jesus Christ! For you see David said in Psalm 40:2, "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the mirey clay, and set my feet upon a rock......" As the potter washed and soaked the clay in the water, to saturate it completely, so must we be saturated by the Word of God. I think the water here is a symbol of the Word of God. In order for God to use you and I, we must be saturated by the Word of God!! God cannot do much with a person who is unwilling to hear and obey His Word. If we want God to take this lump of clay that we are and make something beautiful from our lives, we must be cleansed by the Word and saturated by the Word!! God cannot do much with our lives if know little about Him. Because by reading the Word, and hearing the Word, we find out what God expects of us, what God's will is for our lives, and which direction God wants us to take. So before we even attempt to be a great vessel for God, let us take the time to study His Word, be rooted and grounded in His Word, so we can then learn to be sensitive to His will when He begins to shape us for some ministry. Now back to the potter's house--- Jeremiah then watches as the potter removes the clay from the vat of water and slaps it on the forming wheel. The potter slaps it on the wheel......he pushes on it, squeezes it between his hands.......then he slaps it on the wheel again, and again, and again, and again. Why is he doing this? To make the clay smooth so there will not be any lumps in it. For if there is any lumps the vessel he is intending to make will be flawed or marred and it cannot be used, Now I am not insinuating that God SLAPS us around, but we must remember that God sometimes allows trials and temptations to come our way to try our faith. For you see, God wants to make of us a holy vessel, a pure vessel, and while He is in the process of molding our lives into a mature Christian, He must work out all of our lumps, or weaknesses, or little sins, or imperfections, or things in our lives that would hinder us in becoming what God wants us to be. I think we all, as young and immature Christians had things in our lives, habits, weaknesses, little faults, that hindered us in progressing into more stable and mature saints that God wished for us to be. He must get those things out of our lives, for if they aren't worked out, they will bring defeat to our Christian walk and a reproach to our Christian witness in the world. So allow God to work you around in His hands. Be patient as He roughs you up a little bit, He's only trying to work out the rough spots so you can grow in the Lord. Then Jeremiah possibly sees the potter as he performs one more preliminary precedure. After the potter smooths out the clay, he take a piece of wire, and cuts through the center of the lump. He is doing this to see if there is any air bubbles or other impurities inside. Because air bubbles left in the clay will cause it to crack during the drying or firing. I think here we learn that even after God works out our immaturities and rough spots, he continues to search our hearts for fear, or pride, or resentments, or jealousy, or unforgiveness, or prejudices, or hatred, or gossiping..............anything that may come up along the way of leading us to be what God wants us to be!!!! For you see even after God works out our rough spots as a new Christian, as we continue to grow towards maturity, sometimes Satan puts those little hinderances in our lives in order to keep us from being that great vessel God wants us to be. Now, as Jeremiah watches the potter go through these processes, he observes him as he places the clay on the molding wheel. Around and around the wheel goes, and around and around the clay goes with it. It seems the wheel is going nowhere, just around and around. And sometimes in our Christian lives we feel that we aren't getting anywhere with God. We get a little impatient. We want God to use us for His glory. But we aren't seeing any results. Things just aren't happening. But now, just who is the potter, and who is the clay? If we want God to make something out of our lives, we must stay on the wheel. If that piece of clay decides that the potter isn't working fast enough and it jumps off the wheel.... do you know what will happen????? It will become an old useless, shapeless, ugly lump of clay again. If we decide that God isn't working fast enough with our lives and jump off the wheel, we will become a useless piece of clay and we will fail to see results in our walk with God. Stay on the wheel. For as the wheel begins to turn the potter places his hands around the clay and begins to shape some sort of vessel, the kind he wishes for it to be. You see, the shape of the vessel is chosen by the potter. The kind of vessel that clay will become is beforehand chosen by the potter. He decides what the clay is going to be. The clay does not decide what it wants to be!!!! Isaiah 45:9 says, "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker........Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?" Or, Woe unto the person that resists the hand of God upon his life. Woe unto that person whom strives against what God is trying to make out of his life!!! God has a purpose for your life. He has already chosen what He wants you to be! He has preordained a purpose for your life. We do not question God's purpose for our lives! We do not resist the hands of the potter as He is trying to shape us into the vessel he wishes us to be. Neither do we look on God's shelf full of vessels and say, I want to be like that vessel over there. "I want to be like him, or I want to be like her, or I want to sing like him, or I want a personality like so and so" But we are to allow the potter to shape us into what pleases Him!!!! And it doesn't make any difference if our vessel is placed upon the King's table, or used in some out of the way place in some obsecure corner somewhere, just allow God to mold you and place you where he wants you to be. Stay on the wheel until God forms you into a vessel that will be useful to the Kingdom of God. For He has got something in mind for you!!! He has a useful place for you to use your vessel. Just stay on the wheel until He has finished with you. You may say, Pastor I used to be on God's wheel as He was forming me, but I made some mistakes, I failed, I came short. Well, Jeremiah saw as the potter was forming that vessel, and it became marred in His hands. But the potter didn't throw it away. OH HE COULD HAVE!!!! The clay was in his hands. He had the option of throwing it into the potter's field where lay piles and piles of old broken discarded pottery. But Jeremiah saw the potter take the marred piece of clay and begin to reshape it again into the vessel he wanted it to be. That's just like God!!!! When we fail Him, aren't you glad He doesn't throw us away. He will not throw you out into a pile of broken pieces. But He will gently shape you again. With the same kind of skill and tenderness that He used before. With the same kind of before thought that He used before. Some of you may be here today that has become marred in the hands of God. At one time He was working something out of you. At one time He was making something out of your life. At one time God had big plans for you, but you slipped, you failed, you became marred in His hands. Even though His hands were gently around you, still you failed!!!!! But He can reshape you today!! He can start all over again. No matter how many times you have failed........as long as you stay pliable in His hands, He can rebuild your life, reshape your life, and give you a place in the Kingdom of God. Now if Jeremiah stayed around the potter's house very long, he saw the potter do something else. It is called the firing process. Oh yes, the vessel goes through the slapping, and the cutting, and the molding, but then here comes something else, the firing!!!!!!! But you see, it is only another step in bringing that crude shape into the beautiful vessel the potter wants it to be. The pottery is placed into a furnace of fire where it spends a lot of time baking unto it becomes hard. This firing process will prove that vessel. You see, there are times we go through trials and tests and temptations, but it is through this process that our faith is tried, tested and proved. The last process the potter uses is called the Glazing process. Not only does this process prepare the vessel to hold liquids without leaking, but it also makes the vessel beautiful. It is now come to maturity. It is now a vessel that can be used. And when someone looks at that beautiful vessel, it is not the vessel itself that they praise, but the one who made it. You see when someone looks at our vessel, being used for God, reaching out, helping, giving comfort and cheer, edifying, lifting up, feeding the thristy soul, quenching the thristy heart, they will not praise us, but they will praise the one who made us!!!!!!! Do you want God to take you today and make you what He wants you to be? Are you willing to be placed where God wants you to be? So many today want to choose their own place of service, do what they want to do that will bring the most glory and honor to them personally. But God is still looking for people who will say, Have thine own way Lord, Have thine own way, Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me, after thine will, while I am waiting, yielding and still. God may not place you on the highest pedestial. He may not place you in the highest position on the shelf. You may be chosen by God to be a vessel that is used in the dirt, the pit, the places where others would not dare to go. But God needs someone in the pit. He needs someone who is willing to get dirty, and to them He will reward bountifully.!!