00:00:00.000 - 00:00:41.100

[Music] [Music] O perfect redemption, the purchase of God, to every believer the prideness of God. The proudest of him that all truly believe, and all went from Jesus a modern receipt. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his word.

00:00:41.100 - 00:01:05.900

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son, and give him the glory great things he hath done. [President John F. Kennedy]

00:01:05.900 - 00:01:35.900

Now is our time of prayer together. We invite you to come forward now as we unite our hearts in the fellowship of prayer. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.

00:01:35.900 - 00:02:08.500

(eerie music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) ♪ (eerie music)

00:02:08.500 - 00:02:49.280

(sniffling) Let us pray. Here we are, dear Father, your children gathered in your house on your day to give praise to your name.

00:02:49.280 - 00:03:16.520

We thank you that you've spared us. We thank you that you've led us, that you've fed us, and that you've been with us all along life's way. We're so glad to honor you today.

00:03:16.520 - 00:04:00.880

We recognize our faults and our failures. We haven't done the things that you have told us to do. We've left much of it undone. We've stumbled. We've faltered along the way. You know us, you understand us. You are acquainted with all of our ways. So as we bow reverently in your presence, we seek your forgiveness. Pray that you would hover us with your love.

00:04:00.880 - 00:04:35.600

embrace us with your understanding, support us with your sympathy, and help us right now to be what you want us to be. Forgive us of what we've said that we should not have said, the things that we've done that we should not have done, the sins of omission as well as the sins of commission.

00:04:35.600 - 00:05:23.840

Please, dear Lord, forgive us for our feverish ways. And then we ask that you would open our eyes, open our understanding, that we may be motivated by your Spirit to attain into that high mark that you have set for us. We would pray for nations of our world, the tension, the turmoil that we face. We earnestly pray for peace

00:05:23.840 - 00:06:00.040

in our time, and we pray that you would make us the instruments of your hand to be workers for peace, that we may have that peace in our hearts and seek to manifest it in our relations with others. Bless our President and the rulers of the nations. Pray for those who are hostages, who are still held as prisoners and for their families. Pray for those who

00:06:00.040 - 00:06:35.420

are in bondage, in physical bondage, those who are deprived of the freedom which you have made all men to enjoy. For those who are in mental bondage and spiritual bondage, we pray, O God, pray that you would give strength to those who are witnessing for you on foreign fields as well as those who bear witness here at home. Lord bless us this day. We come,

00:06:35.420 - 00:06:54.520

you know us, with problems, with uncertainties, with fears, but we ask that you would help us to lean on you, to know that you will gently lead us through. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. [Music]

00:06:54.520 - 00:07:23.520

♪ He'll always come ♪ ♪ Come to my land ♪ ♪ Where my son is found ♪ ♪ Come to my land ♪

00:07:23.520 - 00:07:43.340

♪ Nobody knows me ♪ ♪ No one needs me ♪ ♪ I don't need me ♪ ♪ They want me here ♪

00:07:43.340 - 00:08:05.920

♪ Why should they need me? ♪ [Music] ♪ I know ♪ ♪ The fields always dry ♪

00:08:05.920 - 00:08:22.920

♪ ♪ ♪ Come to the farm ♪ ♪ Somewhere I'm dying ♪ ♪ I love you ♪

00:08:22.920 - 00:09:17.920

[Music] [Music] I don't need no grace, I know. I've come too far from where I started from.

00:09:17.920 - 00:09:41.800

♪ I'm a man of my word ♪ ♪ Nobody told me ♪ ♪ That the road would be easy ♪ ♪ But I don't believe ♪

00:09:41.800 - 00:10:10.100

♪ He brought me this far to live ♪ [Music] I don't feel no way back. [Music]

00:10:10.100 - 00:10:36.100

I've come too far Long too far, where I've come from Nobody told me So good things

00:10:37.100 - 00:11:01.100

Don't I? He really, he really is going to be with you. I don't need no way's time.

00:11:04.100 - 00:11:22.100

God's been so good He keeps me here Keeps me here everyday There may be trouble

00:11:22.100 - 00:11:42.100

Sometimes the road Might get dreary You know what? I don't believe he brought me this far just to leave me here.

00:11:42.100 - 00:11:58.100

[music playing] I don't-- I don't-- Don't feel-- ♪ He's coming this time ♪

00:11:58.100 - 00:12:14.240

♪ And soon enough ♪ - How beautiful! ♪ There I'll be lying by ♪ - Oh yeah!

00:12:14.240 - 00:12:33.580

♪ The light of day ♪ - Oh, let it show me! ♪ I don't believe ♪ ♪ I'm not worthy this morning ♪ ♪ Believe ♪

00:12:33.580 - 00:12:43.580

♪ He brought me this morning ♪ ♪ I don't believe ♪ ♪ I don't believe ♪ ♪ He brought me this morning ♪

00:12:43.580 - 00:12:54.380

♪ I don't believe ♪ ♪ He can't do ♪ ♪ He brought me this morning ♪ ♪ He may be sick this morning ♪

00:12:54.380 - 00:13:10.760

♪ But God is good ♪ ♪ He may be good ♪ ♪ He's a man of error ♪ ♪ Yes, he is ♪

00:13:10.760 - 00:13:30.260

♪ He's so good ♪ ♪ He's so good ♪ ♪ Believe he brought me this ♪ ♪ Believe he brought me this ♪

00:13:30.260 - 00:13:43.600

♪ I don't believe he brought me this ♪ ♪ Believe he brought me this ♪ ♪ I don't believe he brought me this ♪ ♪ Believe he brought me this ♪

00:13:43.600 - 00:13:56.420

♪ God's good ♪ ♪ Yes he is ♪ ♪ He's been good ♪ ♪ Yes he has ♪

00:13:56.420 - 00:14:35.480

♪ He's been good ♪ ♪ He's a burden bearer ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ [Music]

00:14:35.480 - 00:14:58.360

Amen. Subject of the message, parable of the potter and the clay, parable of the potter and the clay. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying,

00:14:58.360 - 00:15:33.800

"Rise and go down to the potter's house and there I will cause thee to hear my words." Then I went down to the potter's house and behold he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. So he made it again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it.

00:15:40.360 - 00:16:16.560

The Prophet Jeremiah receives a revelation from the Lord in which he is given specific instructions. It is a revelation which involves dramatic action. So this has been called a dramatic parable.

00:16:16.560 - 00:16:40.360

The message which God has for his people is to be acted out in the life of the prophet. So the revelation which is to come to him is not one which he receives in his prayer closet.

00:16:40.360 - 00:16:56.360

And often we do have revelations to come to us when we are in our secret closet of prayer. God reveals to us that which he would have us know. The revelation which Jeremiah receives

00:16:56.360 - 00:17:15.280

is not one which comes in the sanctuary. And oft times we do receive God's revelation while we are within the sanctuary in that holy place. Isaiah receives a vision of God.

00:17:15.280 - 00:17:54.980

He receives from heaven a revelation concerning what he is to do, his mission in the world. But such is not the case with Jeremiah. revelation does not come while he is in his prayer closet, neither does it come while he is in the sanctuary, but it comes to speak, so to speak, while he is at a factory, while he is busily

00:17:54.980 - 00:18:35.660

engaged in a happening in the workaday world. It is a revelation which is born out of a concrete situation in human experience. He is at the potter's house, the potter's house. Now the potter is one who is a skilled workman, is one who has sovereignty over the clay.

00:18:35.660 - 00:19:05.060

The potter is engaged in the making of vessels. And now Jeremiah is at the potter's house, where the potter resides with all of the materials which he needs to carry out his desires.

00:19:05.060 - 00:19:21.260

The potter's house. The potter, I said earlier, is the sovereign. He's the ruler. He's the one who has control.

00:19:21.260 - 00:19:35.660

God is our sovereign. God is our ruler. God has control. In a certain way, we may say that the world

00:19:35.660 - 00:19:53.540

is the potter's house. This is God's world. God rules his world. he has full control over this world. The psalmist expresses it quite well when he says that

00:19:53.540 - 00:20:37.820

the earth is the Lord's, the world and they that dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. This is the potter's house. This is God's world. We may see forces that seem to have control that are in conflict with that which is right and the forces of righteousness. But as Jeremiah makes his journey to the potter's house

00:20:37.820 - 00:21:11.060

which is located in the southern section of Jerusalem near the valley of Hinnom. A place that is situated on the outskirts of the city where it has easy access to the drainage and to the water of the pools that are located there for the potter to perform his work. As he makes that journey and as he looks at the potter's house, he receives this revelation

00:21:11.060 - 00:21:36.520

that God is in control of this world. This is my Father's world. Oh, let me ne'er forget, although the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is the potter's house.

00:21:36.520 - 00:22:11.120

We are all but materials that God has in his world, materials that may be used in a manner that is pleasing to him. And as Jeremiah observes the potter's house, this is the message that comes to him that this is God's world and God has control. Sometimes we forget that. And maybe Jeremiah had sort of forgotten that to

00:22:11.120 - 00:22:26.360

some extent. He was witnessing for God, but he was such a lonely man and he was standing alone Proclaiming the will of God telling people about their sins their wickedness and

00:22:26.360 - 00:22:44.760

He had told them that judgment would come and yet there were so many other voices saying don't pay any attention to that old prophet He doesn't know what he's talking about. He's just old. He's foggy. He's up sleep. He's not in step with things Things gonna be alright And they kept saying to the people peace peace

00:22:45.760 - 00:23:15.760

But there really was no peace. And yet Jeremiah, who stands alone against all of the other forces that are clamoring, as he goes to the potter's house, he receives this revelation that God is in control. Those who are in places of leadership, the priests and the prophets,

00:23:15.760 - 00:23:39.760

they're going contrary to God's will and it seems that nothing is happening to them. But remember, God is in control. This is the potter's house and God controls his house and he works continually there. Jeremiah, as he visits the potter's house,

00:23:39.760 - 00:23:53.300

the second thing he notices is not only the house, but as he notices the potter's wheel. The potter's wheel. The potter's wheel.

00:23:53.300 - 00:24:25.920

Oh, this wheel was made of two circular discs connected by a vertical rod. And the lower disc was larger in order to give momentum as it was activated by the feet. The upper disc was lighter and was used for shaping the clay into the vessel that the

00:24:25.920 - 00:25:03.180

potter wished to make. potter's wheel. And every one of us, in a sense, is placed upon the potter's wheel. When we are born into this world, we are placed upon the potter's wheel. There is a design for our lives. Sometimes things may seem so confused and so disjointed that we wonder

00:25:03.180 - 00:25:44.400

what in the world we're in this world for. But there is a design, a divine design, for every one of us. And so it becomes our task to discover what this divine design is for each one of us and to cooperate with God in the working out of this divine design. Sometimes we're sent where we don't think we need to go and we find ourselves doing things and assigned tasks

00:25:44.400 - 00:26:13.840

that we'd rather not have assigned to us. But somehow all of this is in the mystery of God that many times he is using these means to develop the kind of design that he has in mind for each one of us, the potter's wheel. Then Jeremiah sees there the potter's vessel.

00:26:13.840 - 00:27:05.400

He sees that vessel which the potter places on on the wheel, this clay that he works with his fingers, this clay which is responding to the work of his fingers, so impressionable it is. And as Jeremiah sees this, he thinks of Judah as being that vessel upon the potter's wheel, and God as being that potter working with the nation Judah,

00:27:05.400 - 00:27:45.320

the Israelites, God's people. And as he notices the potter working with the clay, there is foreign substance in the clay, something that's in the clay that ought not be there, and as he places this clay upon the wheel and begins to work with it, the clay is marred in the hand of the potter. Doesn't come out the way that he'd like

00:27:45.320 - 00:28:12.360

for it to come out. Doesn't work according to the design that he has in mind because there is a foreign substance in the clay and the clay is marred in the hands of the potter. And that's That's the way it is. Some foreign substance is in the clay.

00:28:12.360 - 00:28:41.200

All of us, there's a lump of clay, and all of us placed upon the potter's wheel, and the potter works there, fashioning that clay with his fingers, the way that he would have it be. somehow doesn't turn out the way he'd like for it to turn out. Man placed in the

00:28:41.200 - 00:29:14.800

garden, the paradise of Eden, a lump of clay and placed there with a divine design and God works with man. He orders him and tells him just what he is to do but But somehow in the process this lump of clay is marred in the hands of the potter. What does the potter do? Well ordinarily we say well maybe the potter ought to just throw this old lump of clay

00:29:14.800 - 00:30:07.920

away and get a new batch of clay and place it on the wheel. But no, the potter doesn't do that. Instead, the potter starts all over again with that same lump of clay. He makes a fresh start and fashions a new vessel. You see the potter has the preference. The potter's working at the wheel and the potter has control. The potter can do whatever he wills. He can

00:30:07.920 - 00:30:54.640

destroy the clay, he can throw it away, or he can begin again. And so the potter makes a fresh start, a new beginning. Because you see, the potter has a specific purpose, a a specific purpose. God has a purpose, a divine purpose for every one of us. And yet there comes a foreign substance that mars that purpose, that keeps us from being what God wants us

00:30:54.640 - 00:31:05.120

to be. [BLANK_AUDIO]