Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 410 | God Doesn’t Throw the Clay Away
Transcript
- 0:00Music.
- 0:07Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries,
- 0:11where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
- 0:18Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
- 0:21Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
- 0:25or on our website at watwm.org, we invite you to sit down with us as we look
- 0:31to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
- 0:38Living a life for Christ. She's a happy girl.
- 0:38Music.
- 0:48She's a happy girl.
- 1:03In this world, where it seems that one mistake and you are out,
- 1:07or one missed opportunity and you are doomed, it is refreshing to know that
- 1:11God is a God of second chances, fat chances, and all chances in between.
- 1:17He never gives up on us. His love endures forever.
- 1:22Regardless of what we have done or what we have not done, God is always working
- 1:27on our behalf for our good and His glory.
- 1:31Join us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as Kim takes us on a
- 1:36journey through the scriptures, revealing the magnificent truths found in Jeremiah 18, 1-6.
- 1:43Join us as we learn of the love, care, and determination that God has for each
- 1:49of us to be who He called us to be.
- 1:52Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
- 1:56What an absolute joy it is to spend time with you, and especially today to spend
- 2:03time with you in Jeremiah 18, verses 1 through 6. Let's pray for God's presence.
- 2:09Our kind and most gracious, your Heavenly Father, Lord, we invite you into this message.
- 2:14We invite you into our heart and our mind and our lives, and we know that you
- 2:18never leave us or forsake us.
- 2:20But, Lord, we want you to know that we want to have an absolute conversation with you today.
- 2:26And we want to have your presence to influence direct into God.
- 2:32And, Lord, we want to submit ourselves. We want to humbly bow before you that
- 2:37you could do with us what only you could do, that you could make us into what you'd have us to be.
- 2:45Lord, we submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God that you may exalt us in due time.
- 2:53Lord, we know that you are the potter and we are the clay.
- 2:57Mold me and make me into what you'd have me to be. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
- 3:05Let's read our scripture from Jeremiah 18, one through six.
- 3:09The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying.
- 3:14Arise and go down to the potter's house And there I will cause thee to hear
- 3:18my words Then I went down to the potter's house And behold he wrought a work on the wheels,
- 3:24And the vessel that he made of clay Was marred in the hand of the potter So
- 3:28he made it again another vessel As seemed good to the potter to make it Then
- 3:33the word of the Lord came to me saying O house of Israel Cannot I do with you as this potter?
- 3:39Saith the Lord Behold, as the
- 3:41clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
- 3:49What comforting words to know that no matter what we do,
- 3:54no matter how many mistakes we make, no matter the things that we're supposed
- 3:59to do that we don't do, God does not throw the clay away.
- 4:04In this passage of Scripture, there's so much truth that we are given,
- 4:09but one of the most important truths we're given is that God never gives up on us.
- 4:15The world may forsake you. Your family may dismiss you.
- 4:21Those that you love more than anyone else in the world may not pay any attention to you.
- 4:27And maybe you made one mistake and it ended a friendship, or maybe you've had
- 4:32some things they wanted you to do you didn't do, and the relationship became broken.
- 4:37But there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God.
- 4:41In Romans 8, verses 38 and 39, we are told this.
- 4:48For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
- 4:52nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
- 4:57nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
- 5:01of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- 5:05The love of God surpasses all our problems, and it meets our every need.
- 5:16In fact, in 2 Corinthians 12, 9, he says, And he said unto me,
- 5:20My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
- 5:26Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ
- 5:32may rest upon me. His grace is sufficient.
- 5:38So maybe you've told yourself, or maybe other people have made you believe that
- 5:44you are less than what you should be.
- 5:48But I've got great news. In 1 John 1.9, he says, if we confess our sins,
- 5:53he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- 5:58If right now at this moment, you humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.
- 6:05He will exalt you in due time. That's a promise in 1 Peter 5.6.
- 6:10So right now at this moment, ask the Lord to speak to you.
- 6:17Do as the psalmist David did in Psalms 139 when he said, search me,
- 6:21O God, and know my ways and see if there be any wicked way in me.
- 6:26And whatever God puts in your heart at this moment, ask him to help you to have
- 6:31the courage the strength to remove it.
- 6:34Give it to him. Give him your addiction.
- 6:38Give it to him. Don't just pack it away and try to fix it on your own, but give it to him.
- 6:44Because he says, in his most amazing grace and love, come unto me,
- 6:51all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
- 6:55Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
- 7:00and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
- 7:04His forgiveness is complete and his forgiveness is forever.
- 7:09And he's asking you to just come to him and find the rest. He says,
- 7:13casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you in 1 Peter 5, 7.
- 7:20Friends, as we look at Jeremiah 18, 1 through 6, it's important that you see
- 7:26yourself as the clay in the potter's hand.
- 7:30It's important that you commit in your heart and purpose in your soul to give
- 7:35him your entire being so that he can make you into what he wants you to be.
- 7:40In Jeremiah 29, 11, he tells us he has a plan for us, and that plan is a good plan.
- 7:45In fact, he says, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you,
- 7:49the King of kings and the Lord of lords, he's thinking about you.
- 7:52And he says, there are thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end.
- 7:58Jesus has a plan for you. God has direction for your life.
- 8:03The Holy Spirit is speaking to you, directing you and guiding you and teaching you and comforting you.
- 8:09You are the clay, and he is the potter. Well, we got to submit ourselves.
- 8:16We got to allow him to have his way in us and through us.
- 8:23If you need a little bit more convincing that this passage in Jeremiah 18,
- 8:291 through 6 is speaking to you,
- 8:31and that it is indeed telling you that you are the clay, and he is the potter.
- 8:39I direct your attention back to Genesis 2-7, where it says, And the Lord God
- 8:45formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath
- 8:48of life, and man became a living soul.
- 8:52Genesis, we're also told, From the dust we were born and the dust will go back.
- 8:56We are dust, and dust is a form of clay. And when he comes to Jeremiah,
- 9:02he's using something that we can understand.
- 9:06Do you understand that the lord wants you to know what he has for you he wants
- 9:12you to know his plans he wants you to know how to live your life he has given
- 9:17you everything pertaining to holiness that you could live holy and he says be holy for i am holy.
- 9:23Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
- 9:27From Genesis to Revelations, he has given us the roadmap, the manual for life.
- 9:33And Jeremiah 18, 1 through 6 gives us the hope that, hey,
- 9:38you don't have to get it perfect because he is perfect, and he will make you
- 9:42perfect through his blood, and he will work in you and continue to work on you
- 9:47until you get it right, and you can attain your perfect end in life.
- 9:51You can make it from here to heaven, not on works of righteousness, which you have done.
- 9:56But according to the finished work on Calvary, Jesus loves you. His blood cleanses you.
- 10:01The Holy Spirit will lead you.
- 10:04And Jesus said, in my house are many mansions.
- 10:07And if it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you
- 10:11that where I am, you may be also.
- 10:13When you get to the end of your journey here is the beginning of life for eternity.
- 10:17And it's goodbye world and hello God. And when we get there,
- 10:21we're going to find that the perfect plan, the expected end that Jesus had is amazing.
- 10:27And it is the plan that God said in Jeremiah 29, 11, he's got good things for you.
- 10:33We're told in Corinthians that the best is yet to come. And I have not seen
- 10:37an ear now have not heard what lies in store for them that love the Lord.
- 10:41But we have the opportunity to live the life that God wants us to live here and now.
- 10:49You're not waiting for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in heaven.
- 10:54No, he walks with you and he talks with you.
- 10:57Jesus loves you. And you've got to learn to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit,
- 11:04not the voice of the world.
- 11:06You've got to learn to heed what the
- 11:09Bible says and what Jesus says and
- 11:12the Holy Spirit as they're leading you and guiding and
- 11:15directing you and not what your mind would say not
- 11:18what logic would tell you not what the self-help books
- 11:21tell you not what a person in this
- 11:24world would tell you but what the king of kings and the
- 11:26lord of lords and the holy spirit that dwells inside of you is telling you that's
- 11:31what you have to heed and this is what we see in the example that jeremiah set
- 11:36before us when he said arise and go and then when you look in verse three he says then I went down.
- 11:45He didn't deliberate. I'm sure of that. I'm sure that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah.
- 11:52He got up and he went. You got to show up.
- 11:57If you don't show up, God can't use you to do what he's planned for you to do.
- 12:04See, Jeremiah didn't argue, hey, you sure you're talking to me?
- 12:10I don't have that skill set. I can't do that. This is not what I can do.
- 12:15You surely must be meaning that's for somebody else, and I need to pray for
- 12:20them. Hey, listen, pray without ceasing.
- 12:22Hey, listen, pray one for the another, because the effectual fervent prayer
- 12:26of a righteous man availeth much.
- 12:28But when God is telling you to do something, he's telling you to do it.
- 12:32He's telling you to do it. He's not telling you to pray for him to find somebody
- 12:36else. When he's telling you to do something.
- 12:40So don't waste time.
- 12:42Make haste and do what the Father says.
- 12:45How do I know that there wasn't some deliberation going on between verse 1 and verse 3 for Jeremiah?
- 12:53Because you may not be aware that Jeremiah preached for over 40 years for the
- 12:58people of the land to be obedient to the Lord, to turn from their sinful ways,
- 13:03and to follow what God wanted them to do.
- 13:05And for over 40 years, there was no repentance.
- 13:11Jeremiah had a stick-to-it kind of face.
- 13:18Jeremiah knew that what God said, God meant, and God would back, and God would do.
- 13:25He was fully persuaded that he who hath begun a good work in him would complete
- 13:29it to the end, and he never read that verse.
- 13:31But we have it fully to unfold in front of us.
- 13:35See, but without faith, it's impossible to please him, and you must believe
- 13:38that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
- 13:42This, my friend, is the kind of life that Jeremiah is showing us right here.
- 13:47He believed, so he followed.
- 13:50I believe if he could go 30 plus years and have zero results that he could put
- 13:58on an Excel spreadsheet for all the hours he had put in, he still had zero in the results column.
- 14:06Do you know what I believe? I believe he wasn't keeping score.
- 14:10I believe he didn't have a stone tablet that he was chiseling on or parchment paper and some ink.
- 14:15No, I believe God said it, he believed it, and he did it.
- 14:21And he allowed God to bring the increase.
- 14:24He allowed God to do the work.
- 14:29He understood that his job was to obey.
- 14:32He was teaching obedience, and he was living obedience. It is a good thing to live what you preach.
- 14:39One must always obey the word of the Lord. But on those moments,
- 14:45when we don't get it right,
- 14:48I want you to see that God took the time to explain to Jeremiah that he was
- 14:57the potter and Jeremiah was the clay.
- 15:01It's so important that you realize that God wants you to understand things.
- 15:07That's why he teaches in parables in the New Testaments when Jesus speaks.
- 15:11This is something we can relate to. It's something we can hang our hat on.
- 15:15It's something that we can hold in our heart and in our mind.
- 15:19We can understand fully what he's saying.
- 15:21And I want you to know that he gets Jeremiah to the potter's house to explain
- 15:26to Jeremiah exactly what Jeremiah needed to know.
- 15:31In a way that he could understand. And I want you to know how important it is
- 15:36that Jeremiah obeyed the Lord, because when we have a task to do and we obey, it's not just for us.
- 15:43It's for our good and his glory, but lots of people around us benefit from our obedience.
- 15:51People you may never know are benefiting from your obedience,
- 15:54and people you may never know are being harmed in their walk. They are losing faith.
- 16:00They are becoming disengaged because you are not being obedient.
- 16:07See, Jeremiah heard the word of the Lord. He arose and he went,
- 16:12and we are speaking about it many centuries later about what God told Jeremiah,
- 16:18and it's making a difference in your life and my life and in the lives of those
- 16:22around us because the word of God is powerful and is sharper than and a two-edged sword,
- 16:28and it divides asunder, and it knows the intents of the heart,
- 16:32and it begins to cut away sin, and it takes the fleshly desires away,
- 16:37and the closer we get to God,
- 16:39the closer He draws to us, and we find ourselves in His presence,
- 16:44and we understand that you simply can't outgive Him.
- 16:48Luke 6, 30, 80 says, Give, and it shall be given unto you.
- 16:52Good measure, pressed down and shaken together
- 16:55and running over shall men given to your bosom for with the same measure that
- 17:00you meet whether it shall be measured to you again god will give you a hundredfold
- 17:06we are told in other places god will bless you a little as much when god is
- 17:12in it and when you move forward,
- 17:15God will do the rest as you hide yourself in the cleft of the rock of God.
- 17:23There isn't anything more powerful and his power works in you,
- 17:27we're told in Ephesians 3.20, that we can do exceeding abundantly above all
- 17:32that we ask or think according to the power that works in us.
- 17:36Friends, Jeremiah was committed. Are you committed? Or are you committed to
- 17:41the results so you can get the vainglory?
- 17:44Are you wrapped up in the outcome? Not because you have a burden for souls,
- 17:50but because you want people to know that you're building your kingdom and not his.
- 17:55We must keep our eyes on the prize of the high calling. We must obey.
- 17:59That's all we were called to do. And obedience is better than sacrifice,
- 18:02even though many times obedience requires sacrifice.
- 18:06You can't out give him. So Jeremiah, he had a lot of occasions to be discouraged.
- 18:13And maybe you're not doing for the Lord what you used to do because you're discouraged.
- 18:19Buckle up, buttercup. let the Holy Spirit wrap around you and follow.
- 18:25Keep your eyes on Jesus.
- 18:28We are to set our affections above and not on things of the earth,
- 18:31it says in Colossians 3, 2, meaning that we are to look above.
- 18:36And if we're looking above, we can't look left or right.
- 18:38And whatever it takes, put the blinders to this world on your eyes and look
- 18:43only to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.
- 18:47That's what Jeremiah did. So he arises and goes down to the potter's house because
- 18:53God said, and there I will cause you to hear my words.
- 18:56See, sometimes we have to show faith.
- 18:59Sometimes we got to get out of our comfort zone. Sometimes we got to do the
- 19:04thing that God says just so he can know that we mean business.
- 19:09Could God have said to this all that he wanted to say to Jeremiah where Jeremiah was, sure.
- 19:15But he wanted to make sure he got it. So he took him to the place where he could see and understand.
- 19:20But I also want you to know he wanted him to have skin in the game.
- 19:26See, faith requires trust and trust requires action.
- 19:30So in order to believe that God had something that Jeremiah thought was worth listening to.
- 19:36To make it important enough for him to obey. God required him to trust.
- 19:43So he told him to rise and go. And when he gets to this place,
- 19:47he's going to hear from the Lord.
- 19:49Sometimes the Lord says, go. You're not even sure what's waiting when you get
- 19:54there. But if you trust, you know it's right.
- 19:57If you trust, you know he has you.
- 20:00But then he tells us something. He says, and I went down to the potter's house,
- 20:05and behold, he brought a work on the wheels.
- 20:08Do you know how a potter makes something out of clay? Puts pressure on it.
- 20:13There's a wheel and it's running round and round.
- 20:17And as the hands of the potter touch the clay and different pressures are put on fingers and the hand,
- 20:29different ways of moving their hands on this clay, what they designed in their
- 20:36head appears in their hands.
- 20:40And it's essential for the potter to have a source of water because the friction
- 20:50without the water would cause them to mar the vessel.
- 20:59Stay with me. The hands of the potter are God.
- 21:06And the clay is me and you. And in John chapter 4, verse 14,
- 21:12he said, but whosoever shall drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
- 21:17But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
- 21:22up into everlasting life.
- 21:26Jesus is pouring his life-giving water on you.
- 21:30As you are going left and right, and as he's turning, and there's more pressure and less pressure.
- 21:36And as things are revolving in your life and he is creating you to be exactly
- 21:42what he planned for you to be. Remember Jeremiah 29, 11?
- 21:46He has a plan for you, to prosper you, to give you a hope and an expected end.
- 21:50And he says, he's the potter and we're the clay.
- 21:55And as we submit ourselves, as we humble ourselves, as we allow the water,
- 22:00the life-giving water of Jesus, as it becomes the delight of our heart,
- 22:05as it becomes the purpose of our life, as it becomes our determination,
- 22:10as it becomes our all in all, as we love him with our whole heart, mind,
- 22:15soul, and strength, then we become pliable and flexible.
- 22:21And as he steers us with his hands that never leave us,
- 22:26with his hands that are never taken off of us,
- 22:30as his eyes continue to do that which it needs to do as we are spinning in his world,
- 22:38he creates in us who we are to be, and he manifests John 10.10 to us.
- 22:47He said he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
- 22:52True success in this life is to be clay in the potter's hands that he can mold
- 22:59and make into what you want he wants you to be.
- 23:04See, but we do have flesh. We do have worldly desires.
- 23:10We do step left or right of the center of his will at times.
- 23:14But it's not a one and done, because this is what he says in four.
- 23:19And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. So he made it again.
- 23:25He didn't throw the clay away.
- 23:30He dumped more life-giving water.
- 23:32He put a little more pressure and he started again molding the clay.
- 23:41He didn't change his plan or design for what that clay could be.
- 23:48He started again to make it what he was determined for it to be.
- 23:55My friend, he's the potter and you're the clay. And maybe you've made a lot of mistakes.
- 24:02He's the God that forgives. He tells us that, as I said earlier in 1 John 1.9.
- 24:10If we confess, He forgives, and He cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
- 24:17Friends, God doesn't throw the clay away.
- 24:22And Romans 8.28 says, And we know that all things work together for the good
- 24:27to them that love the Lord and that are called according to his purpose.
- 24:30So he takes messy, bad things like wet, yucky clay, and he molds it into beautiful masterpieces.
- 24:39And the bumps and the divots, those are things he presses out,
- 24:45and he makes something beautiful of broken pieces because he never throws the clay away.
- 24:54If you need a little more convincing, let's
- 24:57go back to the parable to the.
- 25:00Account where jesus is feeding
- 25:04the 5 000 with just a few fish and a few loaves greater than 5 000 when it's
- 25:11all said and done after he had just blessed a couple loaves and a few fish he
- 25:18sends the disciples back and he says pick up all the fragments,
- 25:23put them in your basket and every disciple
- 25:26came back he wasn't doing
- 25:29that just to show that he's in abundance but he
- 25:32is a god of abundance he's abundant in peace he's abundant in grace he's abundant
- 25:37in mercy he's abundant in life and his blessings on us are far more abundant
- 25:42than we could ever imagine or we ever deserve but he brought back the fragments
- 25:47not because he needed him to feed him down the road,
- 25:50because he had just done a miracle he could do again.
- 25:53Not because he was lazy, because Acts 10 says he went about doing good, and he was not slothful.
- 26:00He was always about his father's business.
- 26:03Had him to pick up the fragments to show that every body matters.
- 26:10To some people, you might be a fragment in society, but to Jesus,
- 26:15you were worth dying for.
- 26:17To God, he is the Father, and you're part of his family.
- 26:23There are no fragments left behind. The clay is never thrown away.
- 26:29But perhaps even more importantly, the design in his head never changes.
- 26:36He's for you. He loves you.
- 26:40He provides for you. And just like the potter, molds the clay.
- 26:50In verse 6, he says, O house of Israel, can I not do this with you as a potter?
- 27:00He doesn't throw the clay away.
- 27:03He has a plan for you to prosper you and to give you a hope.
- 27:07We have a hope and his name is Jesus.
- 27:11He come that you might have life and have it more abundantly,
- 27:14and he came to seek and to save those which were lost.
- 27:18Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. He will save you from
- 27:23the guttermost to the uttermost.
- 27:26His hand will reach to the very depths of hell.
- 27:30You cannot go beyond his reach, and you cannot do what he will not forgive.
- 27:39But he's a gentleman, and you have to ask him for forgiveness.
- 27:44I don't know what you have done. I don't know what you haven't done.
- 27:49Neither of those things do I need to know. But I do know this.
- 27:53We serve a God who can. He can forgive, and he puts our sins as far as the east is from the west.
- 28:02We serve a God who cares. He says, cast your cares upon him, for he cares for you.
- 28:08We serve a God who bestows unmerited favor on us in abundance,
- 28:14and His grace is sufficient.
- 28:18Don't listen to the world. Listen to the Word. Don't follow man. Obey Jesus.
- 28:26Walk in His ways and know the blessing of an abundant life of peace, joy, grace, and mercy.
- 28:38Oh how he loves you And oh how he loves me.
- 28:44Music.
- 28:51Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
- 28:56quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
- 28:58We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
- 29:02our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
- 29:05You can find our app by searching for Woman at the Well Ministries in your app
- 29:09store or through our website at watwm.org.
- 29:13We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash watwm. If you visit our website,
- 29:19you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits, a daily devotion written by Kim and
- 29:24delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
- 29:26Woman at the Well Ministries is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving our Heavenly Father.
- 29:32And it is through your loving and generous support that our ministry continues to bless others.
- 29:37To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
- 29:41Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
- 29:47We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
- 29:52Remember that God loves you, you.
- 29:54Music.