SERMON TITLE: SHAPED FOR GOD’S USE

SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 18:1-12

SERMON THESIS: “Our Maker, God, can shape us like clay.”

INTRODUCTION: Last Friday, I had a unique experience. I was given the opportunity by BBH leadership to spend the day with the surgeons in the operating theatre observing their work. The thing that amazed me most as they operated was the movement of their skillful hands.

One case in particular truly amazed me as they performed surgery on an elderly patient. From this patients back, they removed a 9.9 pound fatty tumor. Once the tumor was successfully removed, I watched as the surgeons closed the flesh with great precision. Now after recovering from the surgery, thanks to the trained and skilled surgeons, this patient will recover fully and be forever relieved of the burden that they had carried.

While observing the skillful hands of the surgeons, and in retrospect of the operations I observed, I was taken back in my mind to the prophesy of Jeremiah. Remembering how he wrote about the potter and the clay. His observation of the potter working at the wheel, like my visit to the operation theatre, focused on the skillful hands of the one doing the work. In this case, the potter, of course, is God, and the clay is Israel. In another sense, the clay on the wheel is your life and mine. We are like clay in the Potter’s skillful hands. As clay in the skillful hands of the Potter, we are being shaped, and sometime, remade, for the Potter’s use. That is, however, if we remain pliable in the Potter’s hands. For you see, some things are useful, while others are useless.

Go back with me for a moment, if you will, to the operating theatre for an illustration of this truth. For example, the fatty tumor on the patients back was useless. Not only was it useless, it was a burden for the patient to carry. On the flip side of the coin, however, the instruments used by the surgeons were extremely useful in the removing of the tumor, but only as long as they were in the surgeons hands. Many other examples could be given of things useful and things useless. My point is, however, the clay, your life and mine, is useful only as long as we remain pliable in the Potter’s hands.

Returning to our story, the potter could take a lump of clay, put it on the wheel and make something beautiful of what was once a lump of unformed clay. The same is true of your life and mine.

Like Jeremiah at the potter’s house, while on a holiday to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to observe a famous Passion Play, as my wife and I waited for the play to begin, we watched a potter at the wheel. We were amazed as he took an ordinary lump of clay and from that clay formed a beautiful vessel.

Did you know that God desires to make something beautiful of your life and mine? There are certain conditions, however, that must be met, as Jeremiah reminded sinful Israel, if this is to happen. In considering this whole idea of the Potter and the Clay, as seen in Jeremiah 18, consider with me these following questions:

First, in order for God to make something beautiful of our lives, we must ask . . .

I. ARE WE WILLING TO BE CLAY? That is a choice that everyone must make. Again, go back with me to the operating theatre. When the patient whom I described earlier, yielded her physical body to the surgeons skillful hands, she was a willing candidate for surgery; surgery that would increase her physical functional ability and her well being in wonderful ways.

You see, our lives, like this patient, whose physical body was spoiled or marred by a tumor, have been spoiled and marred by sin. Jeremiah explained it like this concerning the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people . . .

“But the vessel He was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so He made it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter”(Jeremiah 18:4).

This, of course, is a picture of rebellious Israel. Therefore, for God to reshape and remake the nation into a vessel pleasing to Himself, a transformation must take place. In the words of one commentator, “The visit to the potter’s house taught Jeremiah that God would not destroy the house of Judah if they repented of their sin.” In other words, Judah must become pliable in the potter’s hands. Yielding herself completely to Him. The same is true for you and for me, if God is to remake and reshape us. We must become as willing clay in His masterful hands. Thus the question remains, are we willing to say, in the words of this old hymn, “Have Thine own way, Lord, have Thine own way. Thy art the Potter, I am the clay . . . ?”

There is yet a second question for us to consider . . .

II. ARE WE WILLING TO LET GOD SHAPE US? In response to that question

Hear these words of the prophet . . .

“Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does? Declared the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the Potter’s hand; so are you in my hand, O house of Israel”(Jeremiah 18:6).

The truth of the matter is, in light of this verse, if we do not let God shape us, we will take the shape of the world system that is imposed upon us. The Apostle Paul warned . . .

“Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing, and perfect will”(Romans 12:2).

I am reminded of a story I heard about a prisoner. For many years he had been imprisoned for a devious crime that he had committed. During the time he was in prison while walking in the prison courtyard he collected small pieces of metal and put them in a milk bottle. Nearing the end of his sentence, he became frustrate with the whole idea of keeping this bottle filled with metal. In a fit of anger, he threw it against the wall and the glass bottle shattered into many pieces. What is interesting, however, is that the metal was still in tact. You see, the metal, compacted tightly in the bottle over the years had taken the shape of the bottle.

And so it is with a human life that is unwilling to be shaped by the Potter’s hands. This sad commentary was written across the pages of rebellious Israel, prior to their Babylonian captivity . . .

“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 by paths, not on a highway”(Jeremiah 18:15). Earlier God, through Jeremiah, had warned, “Thus says the LORD, Stand by the way and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls”(Jeremiah 6:16).

Israel was unwilling to be shaped by the Potter. The question for us is this,

“Are we willing to be shaped by the Potter?” Are we willing, once again, to

Say in the words of this familiar hymn, “ . . . mold me and make me after Thy

Will while I am waiting yielded and still?” Are we willing to let God shape

Shape us?

There is a third and final question . . .

III. ARE WE WILLING TO COOPERATE WITH GOD AS HE SHAPES US?

Israel was not. Hear the words of the prophet, “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”(Jeremiah 18:12).

What was left for Israel? Judgment! The human will, we might say, is where the water hits the wheel, or in this case the clay. You see, the clay must remain pliable for the potter to do his work. If it become hardened, as did Israel, it becomes useless. The Potter constantly sprinkles water on the clay to keep it moist and pliable. In your life and mine, the Holy Spirit works in our lives to keep our hearts from getting hard. When clay is moist it cooperates with the Potter. When we yield our lives to the Holy Spirit (Romans 12:1), we are cooperating with the Potter.

Do you want God to make something beautiful of your life? Do you want to cooperate with the Father? Then yield your life to Him. Does this hymn express your commitment to the Father? “All to Jesus, I surrender. All to Him I freely give. I will ever trust and serve Him, in His presence daily live?”

CONCLUSION: Are you willing to be shaped for God’s use? If so, the first step is to trust Jesus, as your Savior and Lord. The choice is yours!!