Download Today, we`re in Jeremiah chapter 18. It`s 600 BCE. We`re going to be

“It’s A Dirty Game”
#The Potter & the Clay –Jeremiah 18:1-12 (NIV)
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This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Go
down to the potter‟s house, & there I will give you My
message.” 3 So I went down to the potter‘s house, & 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.
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Then the word of the LORD came to me.
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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. #7 If at any time I announce that a
nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down & destroyed,
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& if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent
& not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.
# 9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or
kingdom is to be built up & planted,
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& if it does evil in my sight & does not obey me,
then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
# 11 “Now therefore say to the people of Judah & those living
in Jerusalem, „This is what the LORD says: Look! I am
preparing a disaster for you & devising a plan against you.
So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, & reform your
ways & your actions.‟ # 12 But they will reply, „It‟s no use. We
will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the
stubbornness of our evil hearts.‟”
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# Today, we‘re in Jeremiah chapter 18.
It‘s 600 BCE. We‘re going to be talking about becoming
something beautiful for God. We‘re going to talk about how
we can get God to give us an extreme makeover.
That‘s what God wants to do for everyone in this room!
# So, beginning again with verse 1, God says to Jeremiah,
“Go down to the potter‟s house, & there I will give you
My message.”
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So Jeremiah heads for the potter‘s house.
There he sees him working at the wheel.
The potter spins the lower wheel with his foot.
And he works with the clay on the top wheel.
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He never takes his eyes off the clay.
He’s always watching.
He’s always working.
Making sure that the clay turns out the way it’s supposed
to turn out.
This is a picture of God at work in our lives. Just as the potter
molds & shapes the clay into what it ought to be, our heavenly
Father molds & shapes us into what we ought to be.
# God uses our situations & our circumstances to make us
more & more into the image of Jesus Christ.
You may be struggling financially.
You‘re working as hard as you can.
But the bills just keep coming. You just can‘t seem to get ahead.
You say, “Lord, this isn’t what I wanted!?
Why is this happening?”
But then you realize that God is using this time in your life to
make you more like Jesus. God says,
 “Right now, you need this situation in your life so that
you‟ll continue to pray night & day & to ask Me for help.
 You need this situation as a reminder that ‗ “People do not
live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from
the mouth of God”. (Deuteronomy 8:3 & Matthew 4:4 [NLT] )
 You need this situation so that I can accomplish my
purposes in your life.
 I use all the good things & all the hard things to make you
more like Jesus.”
# Philippians 1:6 says that ―He who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
So the first thing we see is, # 1. Our God is an attentive God.
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The second thing we learn about God from watching the potter at
work is that, # 2.He is an artistic God.
God doesn‘t want us to be lumps of clay for the rest of our lives.
God wants us to become His masterpieces!
# Ephesians 2:10 says that “we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared
in advance for us to do.”
That was also God‘s plan for Israel. But something was wrong.
Jeremiah says in Verse 4 that ―the pot that was being shaped
from the clay was marred.‖ # The expression in Hebrew refers
to something that is ruined beyond repair. The marring of the
clay represented the idolatry & the sin that was ruining the
Jewish people—individually & as a nation.
If the potter wanted to, he could say, “This clay is bad.
I‟m going to throw it out.”
But that‘s not what he does! Verse 4 says that ―he flattens it out &
forms it into another pot, shaping it as it seemed best to Him.”
Then the Lord says “My relationship with you is just like that.
Just as the potter has the right to do what needs to be done
with the clay, I have the right to do what needs to be done
with you.”
You say, “Oh, I don‟t like that! I want to call the shots!
I want to be in control! I want to be the boss!”
But Isaiah 45:9 says “Does the clay say to the potter,
“What are you making?”
When was the last time you heard a piece of clay say,
“Hey, what do you think you‟re doing?
I don‟t want to be a bowl!”
Not only that, God has been so good to me.
Why would I want to get into a power struggle with Him now?
Why would I want to fight against the One Person who knows me
best & loves me most & actually cares for my welfare?
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If God is truly the Creator of the universe, then He should have
the right to run the universe. He‘s the Potter & we‘re the clay.
# Beginning in Jeremiah 18:7-8 God gives two examples.
He says that ―if a country headed in the wrong direction
repents & comes back to Me, I reserve the right to show
mercy. But if a good country turns bad, then I reserve the
right NOT to show mercy.”
# In other words, God’s plan for our lives will turn out well if
we turn to Him.
We see this again in the Book of Joel.
God is sending an army of locusts to ravage the nation of Israel
because of their sin.
It looks like the country is destined for destruction.
# But in Joel 2:12-13, the Lord says, “Even now, return to Me
with all your heart, with fasting & weeping & mourning.
Rend your heart & not your garments. Return to the Lord your
God, for He is gracious & compassionate, slow to anger &
abounding in love, & he relents from sending calamity.”
In other words, God is saying,
“I want you to come back to me!
I want you to ask for forgiveness!
I want us to be together forever!”
# God’s plan for our lives will turn out well if we turn to Him.
And then in Jonah 3, the prophet Jonah goes into the city of
Nineveh. In verse 4, he says to the people,
“FORTY MORE YEARS, & NINEVEH WILL BE DESTROYED!”
And the message really hits home!!!!
 The Ninevites tear their clothes as an expression of grief.
 They fast.
 They pray.
 They say, ―Who knows? If we turn to the Lord
wholeheartedly, God might give us a break!.”
And that‘s exactly what happened.
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# Jonah 3:10 says that “When God saw how they turned from
their evil ways, He had compassion & did not bring upon them
the destruction He had threatened.”
# God’s plan for our lives will turn out well if we turn to Him.
You can be the biggest sinner in Milford/Dickinson County/Iowa.
You can be on your way to the lake of fire as we speak.
You can think that there‘s no way that God could ever forgive you.
But then you hear the GOOD NEWS: God loves you so much
that He sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay for your sins.
Then He rose from the dead on Easter Sunday & if you
renounce your sins & turn to Him, you will be forgiven,
& you will be saved.
And your heart is so moved by the message that you say,
“Lord, that‟s what I want!
I want You to love me! I want You to forgive me!
I want You to shape my life the way it ought to be.
I need a makeover, Lord…from the inside-out.
Get me on track…with You at the center of my life!”
Based on your heartfelt response, your name will then be
written down in what the New Testament calls “the Lamb’s book
of life”, # As Romans 8:38 says, “…nothing will be able to
separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.‖
# God’s plan for our lives will turn out well if we turn to Him.
You say, “Pastor Karl, the Bible says in Numbers 23:19
that “God is not human, that He should lie,
not a human being, that He should change His mind.”
If that’s true, then how can He change His mind about
someone’s eternal destiny?”
God‘s not really changing His mind because He’s always ready
to extend forgiveness to people who repent.
# Showing mercy is a part of God’s unchanging nature!
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1 Timothy 2:4 says that He wants ALL people to be saved
& to come to knowledge of the truth!
 Knowing that God wants to pour out His mercy on my life
gives me hope!
 It means that God’s ready to take me back right now!
 It means that God still loves me!
 It means that no matter how jaded & hypocritical I‘ve been
I can still be forgiven!
I can still become a masterpiece for God! A New Creation!
[Big PAUSE]
# Back in 1501, Michelangelo was commissioned to work on a
great statue of David. At the time, he had a huge block of marble
that was spoiled & abandoned.
Most artists would say, “Who needs this ruined hunk of marble?”
But Michelangelo couldn‘t take his eyes off of it. Every day he‘d
walk to where it was, & he‘d touch it, measure it & caress it.
He decided to work with it. And so for 2 years, Michelangelo
worked without any contact with the outside world.
# He chipped off the parts of the marble that were truly bad & then
he chiseled the rest of it into the image he wanted it to be.
# Today, his amazing statue of David is considered to be one of
the greatest works of art in all of Renaissance culture.
It‘s a wonderful example of how an artist can take something that
is marred & rejected & turn it into something that is marvelous.
That’s what God wants to do for each of us!
And all you have to do is say “God, I‟m ready for a makeover!
Help me to be the best parent I can be,
…the best spouse I can be, …the best student I can be,
…the best friend I can be, …the best employee I can be,
…the best farmer I can be, …the best Christian I can be.
Make me over into the person that You are calling me to be.”
# God’s plan for our lives will turn out well, if we turn to Him
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 How many of you know this from your own personal experience?
 How many of you already know that it‘s better to be with God
than to be without God?
# Then I want you to do something (if you are not already doing it).
Please, take a moment everyday & pray for our country & also
the world around us.
Israel decided to turn away from God, & they‘ve had a hard time
ever since. Yet they are still ―the people of the Covenant God
made with Abraham‖ & God continues to bless them.
I don‘t want to happen to us here in this country what has
happened to so many throughout history, who have turned away
from God & His purposes.
Like you, I love America, but we must never take God’s
blessings for granted.
# I encourage you to pray that our leaders will turn to God for
guidance & then listen to it & act upon it.
# Pray that there will be a nationwide moving of the Holy
Spirit that moves people to turn back to the Lord.
# Pray that God will continue to speak & that we will learn to
listen not through conservative or liberal ears, or political ears, but
rather with spiritual ears.
What we really must begin doing is to
# Pray so that in the words of Psalm 33:12, we will never forget
that “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”
God‘s plan for our lives will turn out well if we will but turn to
Him & truly believe & begin to declare boldly what is on printed
on our # currency…”IN GOD WE TRUST!”
#…BE THE CHURCH! …Let‟s pray…
# …* HYMN “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” (4 verses)
#... Move into Service of the Lord’s Supper - (Communion)
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