THE CLAY PEOPLE

TEXT: JEREMIAH 18:1-19: 11

Just what are you? Are you an accident evolved, a compilation of male and female genes? God spoke to prophet Jeremiah “Go down to the potters house, watch him work and learn a lesson-Jer. 18:2.

Some people think you are an accident, some other people think you are an animal with blood and organs and breath, with instincts and muscular reactions, an ape from an African jungle.

Are you a lonely, isolated universal happening? A blob soon to dry? A ripple soon to cease, a speck soon to be blown away. Some people think so but what are you really?

When you ask your doctor he will tell you one thing. Ask your science teacher, he will tell you another, but ask God and He will tell you are the creation of His hands, you are the fruits of His labour, you are the apple of His eye and the choice object of God eternal love.

Like you and me prophet Jeremiah wrestled with this whole concept of man. What is man? Where is he going? Why the dilemma of life? God spoke to Jeremiah, “Go down to the potter’s house and watch him work and learn a lesson”-Jer. 18:2.

THE POTTER AND THE MATERIALS.

1. The presence of the master potter.
2. Picture it in your mind.

• The potter is seated on the ground with a mass of clay nearby.
• There was a vessel of water by his side.
• There in front of the water was the potter’s wheel.

After moistening and softening the clay, he puts it on the horizontal wheel and then with the wheel turning, he touches the revolving lump of clay and begins to shape the vessel.

Sometimes when the vessel is near completion the potter discovers a serious flaw but because the clay is still pliable the potter is able to form the new vessel again and placed the clay once more on the wheel and reform a new vessel.

Some people claim that they are “self-made” but there are no self-made people.

• We are all the work of God “It is He that made us and not we ourselves.”

Preparation of the clay.

Clay is a mixture of common earth and silica.

• It is the presence of silica that makes clay.
• Man is of the earth but God breathed His spirit into him and he became a living soul.

Clay must first be crashed. We too must be made pliable in the hands of God.

• The crashing process is not pleasant.
• Life is often painful beyond description.
• But remember until the lumps have been removed and all foreign elements removed out.
• Until you have been sifted you are not suitable material for the potter’s skill.

The potter cannot make use of any clay which is too moist.

• He must squeeze out all excess water.
• When God squeezes us to remove excess water, excess criticism, anger, impatient.
• Life can squeeze out a lot of excesses.

The potter isolated the clay hiding it away for a time so that it may acquire true texture-this isolation process is always important.

Isolation has proven spiritually helpful to many people.

• Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness.
• Elijah spent time in solitude desert and at Cherith Zeraphath.
• John the Baptist discovered faith in the mountains.
• Saul of Tarsus was isolated many years in the Arabian desert.
• God the great potter will usually isolate us from people to work on our lives.

THE CREATION PROCESS.

A touch of the master’s hand.

Once the clay is prepared then the potter creates.

• Here God is personally working on our lives, the spinning wheel moves very fast.

Lifting, shaping, forming the wheel of time turning very fast.

• The vessel that forms might be tall, short, narrow neck-each vessel comes out the way the master wants.

So it is your life and mine a unique creation, the clay plays a very minor role in this process.

• We must just submit like clay in the hands of the potter.
• Jesus Christ said “come after me and I will make you fishers of men:-Mark 1:17.

Each has a unique contribution.

John was a work of the master’s hand, He lives more than 100 years.

• On the island of Patmos he saw the heavens opened and God’s glory revealed.
• John was a prince among men.

James was another vessel of honor to God.

• He preached only for a while and was killed by Herod through beheading!! He was very young.
• John and James same parents, different roles in the master’s plan. So it is with us.

THE TRIAL BY FIRE.

All valuable pots must be fired.

Green pottery or fleshly created pottery must yet be fired otherwise it is useless.

• The usual temperature for pottery to be fired is around 1700 degrees Fahrenheit.
• The pottery is in the firing kiln 14-100 hours.

For porcelain a ceramic material made in a kiln is heated to temperatures between 219^o F-2552^o

The firing makes the clay rigid and non-porous. So it can hold liquids.

• The longer and hotter in the kiln the better the expensive the vessel.

God’s people must pass through fire.

Our faith must be tried as by fire.

• It is the furnace of life that tempers us.
• It is the rocks and stones of the road that makes our feet rough in our feet.

John Westley came to America as missionary to the Indians of Georgia.

• He returned to England miserable failure, disheartened, discouraged, ready to give up. It was in his misery God spoke to John Westley. He sparked a revival throughout the entire church world.

The Bible declares, “I will try them as gold is tried”-Zachariah 13:9.

• God’s fires change us from pottery into porcelain.
• Joseph and David went through trials which prepared them for the greatest responsibilities.

THE FINISHING TOUCHES.

What makes a life beautiful?

• It is not money, the rich and the famous have so many problems.
• It is not success which makes life beautiful-even executives, starlets and athletic champions are consumed with problems of life.
• Only God the master potter makes our lives beautiful-He does the finishing touches.
• The master potter with his brush draws the pattern and the followers-the glazes.

Two vessels; two messages.

But God wanted Jeremiah to learn yet another lesson.

• God instructed Jeremiah to take a vessel, one that had been finished and made beautiful.
• God through Jeremiah pronounced judgement upon the people because they were hardened in the heart-(19:15).
• At the end Jeremiah broke the vessel into tiny fragments on the rocks.
• They cannot be made whole again (19:11).
• God crushes vessels that are complete and hard necked-in death, divorce etc.
• Which vessel would you be? The marred but pliable? Hardened vessel that cannot change?

CONCLUSION

• God knows what He is doing for all of us.
• God is the potter and we are the clay.
• God will mould us and make us the way He wants.
• If your life is messed up, put yourself on God’s wheel of restoration and let Him begin the new work of restoration in your life.