Have you been to the potter's house?

        

Jeremiah 18 The Potter and the Clay

  1. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying,
  2. "Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I shall announce My words to you."
  3. Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something on the wheel.
  4. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
  5. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying,
  6. "Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
  7. "At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it;
  8. if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.
  9. "Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it;
  10. if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it.
  11. "So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, `Thus says the Lord, "Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds."'
  12. "But they will say, `It's hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.'
  13. "Therefore thus says the Lord, `Ask now among the nations, Who ever heard the like of this? The virgin of Israel Has done a most appalling thing.
  14. `Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country? Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever snatched away?
  15. `For My people have forgotten Me, They burn incense to worthless gods And they have stumbled from their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in bypaths, Not on a highway,
  16. To make their land a desolation, An object of perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And shake his head.
  17. `Like an east wind I will scatter them Before the enemy; I will show them My back and not My face In the day of their calamity.'"
Our church has been experiencing revival these past three years and as a result there have been over 400 people saved. Since the national average has been placed at 3.5 per year, somebody is missing out on a lot of blessing. My question for you is, "Have you yielded yourself to the potter?"

We have not experienced the growth of the Kingdom of God because we have revived lost men. They have been saved because the Body of Christ has been revived.

The messages have not been ear-tickling words that we wanted to hear but were instead messages that called for us to get off the pew and take Jesus out of the church, just like they did a hundred years ago. The latest series of messages have called for the church to be obedient to The Great Commission from Christ. Why then the text from Jeremiah? Are you yielded in the potter's hand or is He an inconvience to you?

To the lost man I can only say that you must submit to God. Clay can never make itself into the vessel it wishes to be, the potter does the molding.

It is not such a difficult thing to do. We all obey the written law or we pay the consequences of our failure to do so. All of us have been forced, at some point in our lives, to submit to parental direction. Most of us know the correction of a teacher in some form.

God loves you so much that He sent His own son to become a man that He might be provided the sacrifice to return man to fellowship with Him. That is the reason Jesus died on the cross. His suffering provided the path for you to enter into fellowship with God.

Some try but we will never instruct God in anything. How could we possibly ever do so? He created everything and He made all the rules. We must learn from Him and cease trying to invent God to suit ourselves.

The Bible? It has been correctly described as a collection of sixty-six letters from a heart broken father. Any parent with grown children can relate to that.

To the Christian, I point the question, "Do you really love God?"

Do you have a heart for the lost? Are you comfortable in your Sunday School Class? How many lost men or women have you mentioned Jesus to this past week? I don't mean hit them over the head with your Bible knowledge, just a word about how a Christian would or should solve that problem.

When lost people die, does it hurt you? Do you cry for them?

Your servant,
Bill Taylor