Latest / Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE / T.D. Jakes - I'm Still In His Hands - 1995
Transcript
- 0:07Speaker 1: Look at verse 4 and remain standing. We're going to pray.
- 0:10Speaker 2: Verse 4, and the vessel that he made of clay
- 0:15Speaker 2: was marred.
- 0:16Speaker 1: In the hand of the potter.
- 0:19Speaker 2: So he made it again another vessel as seemeth good
- 0:23Speaker 2: to the potter.
- 0:25Speaker 1: To make it.
- 0:26Speaker 2: I'm going to be ministering from the subject tonight. I
- 0:30Speaker 2: am still in his hands. God said, go down to
- 0:36Speaker 2: the potter's house. And if you listen carefully, I'll preach
- 0:41Speaker 2: a supernatural word out of a natural situation. Go to
- 0:49Speaker 2: the mall, man. And sit down at the mall and
- 0:52Speaker 2: let me talk to your head. That's basically what it was.
- 0:58Speaker 2: It was no different than going to the mall. Just
- 1:01Speaker 2: an ordinary place. And he said, just shut up a while.
- 1:06Speaker 2: And sit down and let me talk to you. Prayer
- 1:11Speaker 2: is never complete with you talking to God. You have
- 1:14Speaker 2: to stay around until that God talks to you. And
- 1:20Speaker 2: both of you can't talk at the same time. So
- 1:24Speaker 2: he says, go get over in the corner of the
- 1:27Speaker 2: potter's house and shut your mouth. You always hear people
- 1:33Speaker 2: saying God told them to speak. You don't hear them
- 1:35Speaker 2: say God told them to shut up. But the God
- 1:42Speaker 2: I know will tell you to shut up.
- 1:47Speaker 1: Hold your peace. Be still and know that I am God.
- 1:52Speaker 1: The battle is not yours. It is mine. What he
- 1:54Speaker 1: said is shut up. I'm going to talk to you
- 2:01Speaker 1: at the potter's house.
- 2:05Speaker 2: And Jeremiah notices just a normal situation. Part of going
- 2:12Speaker 2: out in the field amongst the dirt and the rocks
- 2:20Speaker 2: and the roots and the.
- 2:21Speaker 1: Grass and the branches and finding some clay, picking it up,
- 2:32Speaker 1: cleaning it out.
- 2:35Speaker 2: And the rocks roots branches got some bugs in it
- 2:48Speaker 2: but I still want it and he sets it on
- 2:54Speaker 2: the wheel that it might become two things laid before
- 3:04Speaker 2: us One of them is forming and the other one
- 3:09Speaker 2: is filling. Somebody say forming. Somebody say filling.
- 3:13Speaker 3: You got to.
- 3:14Speaker 2: Have both of them say. We spend most of the
- 3:17Speaker 2: time in the text dealing with forming. But you understand
- 3:22Speaker 2: that filling is involved in it too because it's going
- 3:24Speaker 2: to make a vessel. And nobody makes a vessel if
- 3:27Speaker 2: you don't have something to put in it. It's just
- 3:31Speaker 2: that the text is so involved in the forming that
- 3:35Speaker 2: it doesn't waste time talking about the filling. Because if
- 3:38Speaker 2: you can withstand the forming. See the real struggle with
- 3:46Speaker 2: God is not the filling. God will take care of
- 3:48Speaker 2: the filling if you can stand up to the forming.
- 3:51Speaker 1: In your life.
- 3:57Speaker 2: Some of you right now, you've been wondering what in
- 3:59Speaker 2: the world is going on with me. It's that God
- 4:01Speaker 2: is forming you. He's forming you. He's preparing you. He's
- 4:07Speaker 2: getting you ready for greatness so far beyond what you
- 4:11Speaker 2: have ever experienced before. That is having to clean some
- 4:15Speaker 2: things out.
- 4:17Speaker 1: Move some things around. Forming.
- 4:21Speaker 2: In Philly, that's what God did in the creation. The
- 4:24Speaker 2: Bible uses two different Hebraistic terminologies to describe the creation
- 4:29Speaker 2: of man. In one verse, it says that God created
- 4:33Speaker 2: from the Hebrew word bara, which means to be made
- 4:36Speaker 2: without the aid of preexistent substance.
- 4:38Speaker 1: God created man.
- 4:40Speaker 2: And then right down from that, it says God formed man,
- 4:45Speaker 2: which means pressed or shaped together from something that already existed.
- 4:50Speaker 1: And if you don't.
- 4:51Speaker 2: Understand the concept, it's confusing because created suggests that he
- 4:56Speaker 2: made him out of nothing. But formed suggests that he
- 4:59Speaker 2: made him out of something. And so it sounds like
- 5:02Speaker 2: either God is schizo or we need a revelation. Did
- 5:07Speaker 2: you create him like a woman doesn't create a cake?
- 5:12Speaker 2: She forms it, but she doesn't create it. To create
- 5:16Speaker 2: it is to walk in there and say, let.
- 5:18Speaker 1: There be cake. I've seen some days I wish I
- 5:23Speaker 1: could create, you know.
- 5:26Speaker 2: She doesn't create, she forms. And on one instance God says,
- 5:31Speaker 2: I created man. And then the next verse he says,
- 5:35Speaker 2: I formed you. It seems confusing until you understand the
- 5:40Speaker 2: triunity of humanity. That man is a spirit, has a soul,
- 5:47Speaker 2: lives in a body. Then when it talks about what
- 5:51Speaker 2: God created, it's talking about his spirit. He didn't use
- 5:55Speaker 2: anything in the earth to make his spirit. He created
- 5:58Speaker 2: his spirit. And when it starts talking about form, it's
- 6:01Speaker 2: talking about his body. And when God created the spirit
- 6:06Speaker 2: and then he formed the body and took what he
- 6:08Speaker 2: had created and blew it into what he had formed,
- 6:11Speaker 2: a man became a living soul. He became a living message.
- 6:17Speaker 2: He became aware of himself. He said, I know who
- 6:21Speaker 2: I am. You will never know who you are until
- 6:24Speaker 2: God breathes on you. When the breath of the Almighty
- 6:30Speaker 2: comes upon you, that's when you begin to become aware
- 6:33Speaker 2: of who you are. God only formed the body of
- 6:39Speaker 2: man because he had something to fill it with. If
- 6:43Speaker 2: there were nothing to go in the body, man would
- 6:46Speaker 2: have been a ceramic. But when God filled what he
- 6:52Speaker 2: had formed, man became. God is in the business of
- 7:01Speaker 2: forming and filling. He formed the earth and then filled
- 7:08Speaker 2: it with vegetation.
- 7:10Speaker 1: He formed the sea and.
- 7:12Speaker 2: Filled it with fish. He formed the air and filled
- 7:16Speaker 2: it with birds. He formed the body of man and
- 7:19Speaker 2: then filled it with his spirit. He formed the tabernacle
- 7:23Speaker 2: and filled it with furniture. He formed the temple and
- 7:27Speaker 2: filled it with Shekinah glory.
- 7:28Speaker 1: He formed the church and filled us with the Holy Ghost.
- 7:32Speaker 1: God is in the business. Just as surely as.
- 7:40Speaker 2: The word was spoken in the valley of the dry bones,
- 7:43Speaker 2: and he caused the bones to come together, bone to
- 7:46Speaker 2: his bone, and he formed the body, and then said,
- 7:49Speaker 2: let the wind fill that body. Whenever you see God
- 7:53Speaker 2: forming anybody, rest assured, baby, he's going to fill them
- 7:57Speaker 2: with the blood. Oh, bless his wonderful name. Why is
- 8:05Speaker 2: that important? Because when you're going through the forming, it
- 8:09Speaker 2: feels like everything in you is about to break. And
- 8:14Speaker 2: it helps you to understand that when this is over.
- 8:17Speaker 1: God is going to fill you with the glory you
- 8:19Speaker 1: never had.
- 8:25Speaker 2: Touch somebody and tell them something is about to happen.
- 8:39Speaker 1: Whenever you're going.
- 8:40Speaker 2: Through a time in your life that everything around.
- 8:43Speaker 1: You is turbulent, it is only a prerequisite.
- 8:49Speaker 2: That declares to you that heaven has a directive to
- 8:54Speaker 2: get you ready for.
- 8:56Speaker 1: This next move.
- 8:58Speaker 2: Get ready.
- 9:00Speaker 1: Get ready. Get ready.
- 9:04Speaker 2: Because God never forms what he will not fill.
- 9:17Speaker 1: What's he going to fill me with? I don't know.
- 9:19Speaker 1: Eyes have not seen. Ears have not heard.
- 9:24Speaker 2: Neither have entered into the heart of man the thing
- 9:28Speaker 2: that God has in store for them that love him.
- 9:31Speaker 2: But I dare you to get ready. He will fill.
- 9:47Speaker 2: A miracle is about to happen. I come to you
- 10:01Speaker 2: tonight not as a performer or a comedian or an entertainer.
- 10:13Speaker 1: I come to you as a postman.
- 10:16Speaker 2: To bring to you a registered letter that's got your
- 10:22Speaker 2: name on it. That God is getting you ready for
- 10:27Speaker 2: something so awesome that all the demons in hell are nervous.
- 10:32Speaker 1: About what God. Oh, praise the Lord, somebody. I feel
- 10:45Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost in my toes. Get ready. And so
- 11:01Speaker 1: the potter picked up the clay. I can stop there.
- 11:08Speaker 2: Because I'm just happy to be picked up. When you've
- 11:13Speaker 2: really been in the mud, you're just glad to be
- 11:16Speaker 2: picked up. When you've been in the roots and the
- 11:22Speaker 2: rocks and the troubles and the trials and been stepped
- 11:25Speaker 2: on and walked over top of it, rejected, it just
- 11:28Speaker 2: feels good sometimes to know he picked you up. It
- 11:32Speaker 2: doesn't matter whether you get to work on the committee
- 11:35Speaker 2: or whether you put out an album or whether you
- 11:37Speaker 2: preach anywhere or whether you get in the clique or
- 11:39Speaker 2: the club. When you've really been up under the foot
- 11:42Speaker 2: of me, you're just glad.
- 11:43Speaker 1: To be picked up. He picked me up. Great call
- 11:48Speaker 1: to mercy. Delighted. pick me up.
- 11:51Speaker 2: Hell tried to hold me down but the Lord said
- 11:54Speaker 2: pick him up. He's the clay of Paul said he
- 12:06Speaker 2: has raised us up together and made us to sit
- 12:11Speaker 2: in heavenly places in Christ.
- 12:13Speaker 1: He picked me up.
- 12:16Speaker 2: I admit he had a lot of purging cleaning out
- 12:22Speaker 2: to do a lot of impurities left in the clay
- 12:26Speaker 2: but he set it.
- 12:28Speaker 1: On the wheel.
- 12:30Speaker 2: To set it into a mode of processing some of
- 12:35Speaker 2: you don't realize it but God is processing you he's
- 12:39Speaker 2: purging you through the process and you've been praying Lord
- 12:43Speaker 2: fix it and straighten it out and move it and
- 12:45Speaker 2: take it away he said no that's what I'm using
- 12:48Speaker 2: to get you together I'm using that problem to teach
- 12:52Speaker 2: you how to love the unlovely. I'm using that situation
- 12:56Speaker 2: to teach you patience. I'm using that situation to get
- 12:59Speaker 2: more anointing out of your life. I'm using that storm
- 13:02Speaker 2: in your life to teach you how to trust me
- 13:04Speaker 2: in a crisis.
- 13:07Speaker 1: No, I can't stop it. Don't panic. It's just a test.
- 13:16Speaker 1: What do you think I raised you up for? But
- 13:22Speaker 1: you're on the wheel. How many folks have ever been
- 13:27Speaker 1: on the wheel? How many folks? Somebody say, I'm on
- 13:31Speaker 1: the wheel right now. Yes, Lord. When you're on the wheel,
- 13:39Speaker 1: everything is spinning. It's just spinning. Just spinning. Yes, sir.
- 13:50Speaker 2: Yes, sir. Sometimes spinning so fast, everything's a blur. Can't
- 13:59Speaker 2: see what's going on. Because everything is.
- 14:06Speaker 1: Spinning.
- 14:08Speaker 2: Have you ever had everything spinning? Before you could straighten
- 14:12Speaker 2: out this, here comes that. By the time you try
- 14:19Speaker 2: to deal with that, here comes something else. When nobody's looking,
- 14:23Speaker 2: you go off by yourself and cry somewhere because everything
- 14:26Speaker 2: is spinning. And you've been saying, Lord, stop the spinning.
- 14:31Speaker 2: But God is not going to stop it.
- 14:38Speaker 1: He's not going to stop it. But in the midst
- 14:42Speaker 1: of the spinning, look up under the table and see
- 14:50Speaker 1: whose foot Is on the wheel.
- 15:00Speaker 2: I pray them tonight. Because he's got his foot on
- 15:04Speaker 2: the wheel. I'm glad to know that the devil does
- 15:07Speaker 2: not control. The spinning in my life. If the devil
- 15:12Speaker 2: could have got his foot on the wheel. He'd have
- 15:14Speaker 2: threw you off years ago.
- 15:16Speaker 1: But God. God. Oh bless his name.
- 15:21Speaker 2: God has his foot on the wheel.
- 15:26Speaker 1: He knows just how fast to spin you. He'll spin
- 15:34Speaker 1: you and spin you and spin you. And then he'll say,
- 15:37Speaker 1: that's enough. Give her some rest. That's enough.
- 15:43Speaker 2: It's getting to her. Slow it down. Slow it down.
- 15:47Speaker 2: Dry her tears out before. I'm not going to let
- 15:51Speaker 2: you spin her today. She's at the breaking point.
- 15:54Speaker 1: Stop.
- 15:56Speaker 2: Thank you, Lord, that you control my times. Thank you, Lord,
- 16:02Speaker 2: that you are sovereign. Thank you, Lord, that you are
- 16:05Speaker 2: still in control. Thank you, Lord, that no weapon formed
- 16:10Speaker 2: against me shall be able to... If the devil had
- 16:19Speaker 2: ever got his foot on the pedal, he would have
- 16:22Speaker 2: destroyed you years ago.
- 16:24Speaker 1: Thank God that my times are in his hands.
- 16:37Speaker 2: Listen, God has been closely monitoring your situation.
- 16:45Speaker 1: Nothing going on in your life has escaped his eye.
- 16:50Speaker 1: He is looking at you right now. As storms and
- 16:55Speaker 1: winds blow. He is monitoring your times. Preparing you. Getting
- 17:03Speaker 1: you ready.
- 17:04Speaker 2: And periodically he'll just give you a blessing. He'll just
- 17:18Speaker 2: bless you. Like the clay that spins on the wheel.
- 17:24Speaker 2: Every so often, the potter would just reach out and
- 17:28Speaker 2: touch the clay.
- 17:32Speaker 1: Somebody say thank you for a touch.
- 17:36Speaker 2: That's why I don't let anybody laugh at how I
- 17:38Speaker 2: praise God. Because I need a touch. Going through all
- 17:43Speaker 2: I'm going through, I got to have a touch. If
- 17:46Speaker 2: I hadn't got a touch, sometimes I'd have lost my mind.
- 17:49Speaker 1: Just a touch.
- 17:50Speaker 2: Some people don't know it, but if it wasn't for
- 17:52Speaker 2: a good hallelujah, you wouldn't have been able to go
- 17:54Speaker 2: through what you've been through. Don't let anybody stare you down.
- 17:58Speaker 2: When you get ready to praise the Lord, praise him.
- 18:00Speaker 2: A touch will make a difference. A touch will hold
- 18:04Speaker 2: you together. A touch will bring you out. Oh, oh, oh,
- 18:09Speaker 2: he touched me. If he didn't fix me, he'd touch me.
- 18:14Speaker 1: If he didn't straighten it out, he'd touch me. Lord,
- 18:17Speaker 1: I thank you for a touch. One touch. And all
- 18:22Speaker 1: of a sudden, I can take what I thought I
- 18:24Speaker 1: couldn't take.
- 18:27Speaker 2: Just because in the midst of the spinning, every now
- 18:33Speaker 2: and then, he'd touch.
- 18:37Speaker 1: A touch.
- 18:40Speaker 2: And all of a sudden, He shapes something in my life.
- 18:47Speaker 2: Goes against my background, my childhood and my traumas and says,
- 18:52Speaker 2: I'm going to make you do it because of me.
- 18:55Speaker 2: I'm going to take you through it because of me.
- 18:58Speaker 2: You're going to have the character because I'm going to
- 19:00Speaker 2: touch that place. Have you ever had to touch something
- 19:03Speaker 2: in you? You wouldn't have been able to take it,
- 19:04Speaker 2: but he touched you. You would have walked out of
- 19:07Speaker 2: the house, but he touched you. You would have given
- 19:10Speaker 2: up the ministry, but he touched you. You would have
- 19:12Speaker 2: told your husband, I'm leaving, but he... I know you
- 19:17Speaker 2: can't act like you know what I'm talking about, so
- 19:19Speaker 2: keep looking straight ahead. But somebody knows that if the
- 19:23Speaker 2: Lord hadn't have touched you, your marriage wouldn't have survived.
- 19:27Speaker 1: It was just a touch.
- 19:28Speaker 2: Somebody knows that your home is a miracle. A miracle
- 19:35Speaker 2: you can't talk about. A miracle you can't tell about.
- 19:38Speaker 2: A miracle you dare not discuss because you can't let
- 19:41Speaker 2: anybody know that if the Lord hadn't have touched you
- 19:44Speaker 2: at that moment.
- 19:45Speaker 1: In your life. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
- 20:00Speaker 2: Lift your hands and begin to worship him. I feel
- 20:03Speaker 2: the dew descending. The dew of the Holy Spirit is
- 20:08Speaker 2: coming upon this house.
- 20:10Speaker 1: Hallelujah.
- 20:13Speaker 2: Hallelujah. Thank you for a touch. Thank you for a touch.
- 20:21Speaker 2: Nobody knows, Lord, but I thank you for a touch. Oh, hallelujah.
- 20:32Speaker 2: Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Send
- 20:39Speaker 2: the dew.
- 20:41Speaker 1: Wet the clay. Wet the clay. Where the clay is
- 20:46Speaker 1: cold and hard.
- 20:48Speaker 2: Wet the clay. Wet the clay till we can laugh again.
- 20:55Speaker 2: Wet the clay until we can cry again. Wet the
- 20:59Speaker 2: clay until we can love again. Wet the clay until
- 21:04Speaker 2: we can worship again. Wet the clay until the anointing
- 21:08Speaker 2: overshadows us.
- 21:09Speaker 1: Wet the clay until tumors are cast out. Wet the
- 21:13Speaker 1: clay until bodies are healed. Wet the clay until blood
- 21:18Speaker 1: diseases are touched. Wet the clay tonight. Hallelujah. Thank God,
- 21:25Speaker 1: I thank you. I feel the dew descending.
- 21:32Speaker 2: If it were not for the potter wetting the clay,
- 21:36Speaker 2: it would become too rigid.
- 21:40Speaker 1: But it is the.
- 21:40Speaker 2: Occasional splash of moisture that causes the clay to have
- 21:46Speaker 2: the elasticity of change. You cannot walk with God unless
- 21:54Speaker 2: you are willing to change. People who are too rigid
- 22:00Speaker 2: don't make it with God.
- 22:02Speaker 1: People who have got one.
- 22:04Speaker 2: Two, three, four steps and you must always do it
- 22:06Speaker 2: like this or it's not.
- 22:08Speaker 1: God, you won't be around long.
- 22:12Speaker 2: You see, God does whatever he wants to do, whenever
- 22:16Speaker 2: he wants to do it, however he wants to do it.
- 22:19Speaker 2: And God is not going to give you a recipe.
- 22:23Speaker 2: Because if you get a recipe, then the recipe becomes Lord.
- 22:27Speaker 2: And you start telling God how to do it. God
- 22:30Speaker 2: healed several blind men in the Bible and each one
- 22:33Speaker 2: he healed a different way. One he spoke to and
- 22:36Speaker 2: the other one he spit on the ground and mixed
- 22:38Speaker 2: mud and put on it. The other one he spat
- 22:40Speaker 2: in his eye. God said, I'm not going to let
- 22:42Speaker 2: you have no recipe. There are a whole lot of
- 22:44Speaker 2: ways to bless you. God's got a whole lot of
- 22:47Speaker 2: ways to bless you. God's got a whole lot of
- 22:49Speaker 2: ways to bless you. You don't hear me, but I
- 22:51Speaker 2: said God has got a whole lot of ways to
- 22:54Speaker 2: bless you. That's why I don't get upset when somebody
- 22:56Speaker 2: doesn't help me that I thought was going to help me.
- 22:59Speaker 1: Don't think I'm in trouble because you're not there.
- 23:01Speaker 3: God has got a whole lot.
- 23:03Speaker 1: Of ways to bless you. God will bless you through
- 23:06Speaker 1: your enemy.
- 23:07Speaker 2: He'll make somebody who don't even like you have to
- 23:10Speaker 2: bless you.
- 23:11Speaker 1: God!
- 23:21Speaker 2: Never let the devil see your sweat. Because God's got
- 23:30Speaker 2: a whole lot of ways to bless you.
- 23:34Speaker 1: And this is good. This is good.
- 23:37Speaker 2: Because the Bible says the vessel Now I have to
- 23:41Speaker 2: take issue because it really wasn't a vessel yet. God
- 23:48Speaker 2: says some things that if anybody else would say.
- 23:51Speaker 1: Them, it would be a lie. Like he called you holy.
- 24:03Speaker 1: And unblameable. Look at somebody just laugh.
- 24:10Speaker 2: Especially if you sit beside somebody who acts like they
- 24:12Speaker 2: really are holy.
- 24:14Speaker 1: And I'm like, just go.
- 24:23Speaker 2: God says some things that if anybody else would say them,
- 24:27Speaker 2: it would.
- 24:27Speaker 1: Be a lie.
- 24:31Speaker 2: But you see, God calls those things that are not
- 24:36Speaker 2: as though they were. Because God knows that if he
- 24:40Speaker 2: says it, though it isn't when he says it, he
- 24:44Speaker 2: has the power to make it become whatever he says.
- 24:51Speaker 2: So you see, some things God will call you on credit.
- 24:59Speaker 2: You're not there yet, but he'll go ahead and extend.
- 25:01Speaker 1: You the credit.
- 25:03Speaker 2: It's not that he's got so much confidence in you.
- 25:06Speaker 2: He's got so much confidence in his hand. He knows
- 25:10Speaker 2: that he can take that junk on the wheel and
- 25:13Speaker 2: make it become what he said it was. So he
- 25:16Speaker 2: goes ahead and calls it what it will be because
- 25:19Speaker 2: of his hand.
- 25:20Speaker 1: It shall be whatever he said.
- 25:30Speaker 2: God has said some things over you that haven't even
- 25:34Speaker 2: come to pass yet. but because of his hand in
- 25:38Speaker 2: your life, they shall shortly come to pass.
- 25:42Speaker 1: You better get ready. You better get ready. Whatever he said,
- 25:48Speaker 1: it will surely come to pass.
- 25:53Speaker 2: I don't care if everything looks contrary to what he
- 25:57Speaker 2: is saying.
- 25:58Speaker 1: If God said he was going to do it, through it.
- 26:02Speaker 2: All, he will bring it to pass. See, when he
- 26:09Speaker 2: picks a clay up, he has something in mind. And
- 26:14Speaker 2: nothing that he sees in reality discourages him from what
- 26:20Speaker 2: he had in mind. Because the only thing that's standing
- 26:25Speaker 2: between what it is and what it shall be is
- 26:29Speaker 2: the hand of the potter. And he knows that he
- 26:36Speaker 2: is a master Craftsman. Such a master that he's not
- 26:43Speaker 2: intimidated by the stuff he's working with. He knows that
- 26:49Speaker 2: when he gets to working it, he can make it become.
- 26:52Speaker 1: What he said it would be. So he goes ahead
- 26:54Speaker 1: and says, I'm going to call you healed already.
- 27:01Speaker 2: You say, Lord, I still feel the knot. He says,
- 27:04Speaker 2: you're already healed. Because he knows that when he gets
- 27:07Speaker 2: through touching you, you.
- 27:18Speaker 1: Shall be what he said. Can I tell you something else?
- 27:24Speaker 1: There's a fight going on in your life right now.
- 27:31Speaker 2: And I want to say something at the risk of
- 27:34Speaker 2: just blowing your computer The enemy is not fighting you
- 27:40Speaker 2: over where you is. He is fighting you over where
- 27:50Speaker 2: you shall be. That's why when he fights.
- 27:59Speaker 1: Me, I get happy.
- 28:00Speaker 2: Because I know I must shall be something awesome for
- 28:04Speaker 2: me to be.
- 28:05Speaker 1: Fought like this. Hallelujah. God is going to work a wonder.
- 28:17Speaker 2: .
- 28:22Speaker 3: Hallelujah.
- 28:27Speaker 2: God.
- 28:27Speaker 1: Hallelujah.
- 28:33Speaker 2: Hallelujah. in spite of where you is where you are
- 28:49Speaker 2: for you intellectuals where you is God.
- 28:59Speaker 1: Will talk to you about where you shall be.
- 29:04Speaker 2: And you're praying about where you is But God's answering
- 29:08Speaker 2: about where you shall be. Because God don't care where
- 29:11Speaker 2: you is.
- 29:12Speaker 1: He knows where you shall be.
- 29:15Speaker 2: And as long as he touch you, you shall be
- 29:17Speaker 2: what he says in spite of where you is.
- 29:24Speaker 1: I just lost all the English teachers, but... actually, actually
- 29:39Speaker 1: this text would be, we would be finished. That's good.
- 29:45Speaker 2: We could just finish right there. Right up there with
- 29:50Speaker 2: the Shelby's. Not what she is. Shelby, the power to become.
- 29:56Speaker 2: As many have believed him, to them gave he the
- 29:59Speaker 2: power to become.
- 30:00Speaker 1: Become what? Whatever you need to be. You've got the
- 30:03Speaker 1: power to become. That's awesome right there.
- 30:06Speaker 2: Regardless of where you start, by God's grace, you've got
- 30:09Speaker 2: the power to become whatever he says.
- 30:14Speaker 1: That would be enough.
- 30:15Speaker 2: But there is a problem in this text.
- 30:21Speaker 1: We must discuss this problem.
- 30:25Speaker 2: It's an embarrassing blight on the face of a marvelous text.
- 30:32Speaker 2: A flaw, an incident, an imperfection, a blemish on the
- 30:38Speaker 2: face and the terrain of this story has created a
- 30:42Speaker 2: dilemma that boggles the mentality of the theologian as he
- 30:46Speaker 2: wrestles with the complexity of the composition. You see, the
- 31:01Speaker 2: problem is the vessel that he made of clay was marred.
- 31:09Speaker 1: In the hand of the potter.
- 31:12Speaker 2: Now, that's what really is embarrassing. See, if the vessel
- 31:16Speaker 2: had fallen out of his hand, then I could explain why.
- 31:20Speaker 1: It got marred.
- 31:22Speaker 2: I could say, well, the vessel fell out of his hand.
- 31:24Speaker 2: And if you just stay in his hand and stay
- 31:26Speaker 2: in the church and stay in his will and stay
- 31:29Speaker 2: in his way, you wouldn't be going through what you're
- 31:31Speaker 2: going through right now.
- 31:32Speaker 1: Why did you fall out of his hand?
- 31:34Speaker 2: But the problem is the vessel was marred while.
- 31:37Speaker 1: It was still in the hand of the Father.
- 31:46Speaker 2: Now we must deal with the reality of the fact
- 31:50Speaker 2: that you can be in the church. And still have
- 31:55Speaker 2: a problem. You can be saved. And be barred. You
- 32:05Speaker 2: can be in his hand.
- 32:08Speaker 1: And be wounded. You can be his vessel. His vessel.
- 32:16Speaker 1: And still have a blemish. A scar. A struggle. A struggle.
- 32:25Speaker 2: A wound, a memory, an incident, an accident that traumatizes
- 32:36Speaker 2: the complexion of your Christian experience.
- 32:46Speaker 1: The vessel that he made of clay was.
- 32:49Speaker 2: Marred in the hand. Listen and have the Holy Spirit
- 32:53Speaker 2: tips on this text.
- 32:55Speaker 1: It doesn't say that the hand of the potter slipped.
- 33:02Speaker 2: It doesn't say that he added too much water or
- 33:04Speaker 2: that he spinned it too fast. It doesn't blame him
- 33:08Speaker 2: for the injury. It just declares that the injury occurred
- 33:13Speaker 2: while the vessel was cradled in the hand of the potter.
- 33:22Speaker 2: Do not criticize God. The craftsmanship of the potter. Because
- 33:28Speaker 2: regardless of how skillful the potter is, the problem is
- 33:33Speaker 2: not in his hands. It's in the clay he's working with.
- 33:42Speaker 2: And in the process of becoming, we often become marred
- 33:49Speaker 2: in his hand. Now, it was supposed to have been
- 33:52Speaker 2: a vessel. Can you wait on me a little while tonight?
- 33:56Speaker 2: It was supposed to be able to hold precious ointment.
- 34:02Speaker 2: But if a vessel is marred, who can use a
- 34:07Speaker 2: broken vessel? Who can use a vase that won't hold water?
- 34:13Speaker 2: What good is a mason jar if there's a crack
- 34:17Speaker 2: in it? Now the purpose of the potter seems to
- 34:24Speaker 2: be destroyed by the weakness of the material. And Satan
- 34:29Speaker 2: giggles and hell claps because the vessel is marred in
- 34:38Speaker 2: the hand.
- 34:41Speaker 1: Of the potter. Now the problem is, whatever you put
- 34:47Speaker 1: in it, it will die. You know what's.
- 34:55Speaker 2: Causing us to have the most trouble in our churches?
- 34:59Speaker 2: Is that we are trying to lead leaky people. Let
- 35:08Speaker 2: me explain before you walk out.
- 35:10Speaker 1: Let me explain. Leaky people.
- 35:13Speaker 2: Leaky people shout all over the church Sunday morning.
- 35:19Speaker 1: Don't even come back Sunday night.
- 35:30Speaker 2: Leaky people have got all kind of dreams and visions
- 35:33Speaker 2: and revelations. Then if you don't acknowledge them, they get
- 35:37Speaker 2: angry and say, I'm leaving. Leaky people, I don't care
- 35:44Speaker 2: how much fire you preach into them tonight, when you
- 35:48Speaker 2: see them the next service, they'll be depressed again. They
- 35:51Speaker 2: will run all over the church, hold up the service,
- 35:54Speaker 2: lay it out on the floor, speaking in tongues. and
- 36:02Speaker 2: argue with their companions all the way home. Leaky people.
- 36:09Speaker 2: That's what's killing our marriages.
- 36:12Speaker 1: Leaky people. Because no matter.
- 36:15Speaker 2: How much you tell them you love them, they never
- 36:22Speaker 2: feel loved because what you told them last week has.
- 36:26Speaker 1: Leaked out this week. Leaky people.
- 36:32Speaker 2: They're always in a deficit. They're always thirsty. They're always needing.
- 36:38Speaker 2: Tell me you love me.
- 36:40Speaker 1: Tell me. Tell me. Do I look nice? Does this
- 36:45Speaker 1: look nice on me? Am I all right? How did
- 36:48Speaker 1: I sing? Leaky people.
- 36:50Speaker 2: And you tell them. And they need to be told again.
- 36:52Speaker 2: And you tell them. And they need to be told again.
- 36:54Speaker 2: And you tell them. And they need to be told again.
- 36:56Speaker 2: And you tell them. Oh, y'all getting kind of quiet.
- 36:58Speaker 2: And you tell them. And they need to be told again.
- 37:01Speaker 2: And you wonder, well, what happened to what I told
- 37:03Speaker 2: you last week?
- 37:04Speaker 1: Well, it just.
- 37:11Speaker 2: Leaky people are desperate. And desperate people will do desperate things.
- 37:19Speaker 2: Because no matter how much you give them, it is
- 37:25Speaker 2: never enough. Leaky people will live. They'll leave Jim for John.
- 37:33Speaker 2: And they'll leave John for David. And then leave David
- 37:36Speaker 2: for Richard. And there's always something wrong with everybody because nobody.
- 37:41Speaker 1: Can love you enough if you are leaky. Leaky people
- 37:47Speaker 1: will leave.
- 37:48Speaker 2: This church for that church and that church for the
- 37:51Speaker 2: other church and run here and there and everywhere. Nobody's
- 37:55Speaker 2: going to be able to preach good enough for you, baby,
- 37:56Speaker 2: because you're leaky.
- 38:11Speaker 1: You'll never be fulfilled.
- 38:14Speaker 2: Oh the pain of not ever being full the nagging
- 38:19Speaker 2: emotional spiritual hunger that happens in a heart that's cracked
- 38:28Speaker 2: no wonder Jesus said bind up the wounds of the brokenhearted.
- 38:40Speaker 2: You see, how many of you remember the woman with
- 38:42Speaker 2: the alabaster box? She took the precious ointment they call
- 38:47Speaker 2: spicknard in the Bible and put it within an alabaster
- 38:50Speaker 2: box and when Jesus came, she broke it at his feet.
- 38:53Speaker 2: Alabaster was designed. History says it came from India. It
- 38:57Speaker 2: was used to hold Precious ointment. This wasn't the Kmart stuff.
- 39:01Speaker 2: This was the good stuff. And alabaster was so good
- 39:06Speaker 2: at keeping the ointment that they tell me that if
- 39:09Speaker 2: you put precious ointment in an alabaster busk, you can't
- 39:12Speaker 2: even smell the perfume because alabaster will even hold the fragrance.
- 39:20Speaker 2: God wants to devise a container that will hold the
- 39:24Speaker 2: aroma of his anointing. Somebody who will get revived and
- 39:30Speaker 2: stay revived. Somebody who will be happily married today and
- 39:34Speaker 2: happily married 10 years from now.
- 39:36Speaker 1: Somebody who feels good about themselves.
- 39:39Speaker 2: Every morning, God needs an alabaster box.
- 39:47Speaker 1: And that's what he made. Of clay.
- 39:52Speaker 2: Oh, it was marred in the hand. What am I
- 39:58Speaker 2: going to do with all of this precious ointment? I
- 40:01Speaker 2: was going to put it in you. I was going
- 40:05Speaker 2: to use you in the ministry. I was going to
- 40:08Speaker 2: bless you. I had a companion for you. A promotion,
- 40:14Speaker 2: a provision. I was going to anoint you with fresh oil.
- 40:19Speaker 2: What can I look at that crack?
- 40:23Speaker 1: Justice said throw it away.
- 40:31Speaker 2: Why are you holding on to this broken vessel?
- 40:37Speaker 1: The law said crush it up under your feet.
- 40:44Speaker 2: Holiness said there's a flaw in Satan, he said, it
- 40:50Speaker 2: has made a mistake. Mercy said, can I have a word?
- 41:01Speaker 1: Oh, I prayed them for a little mercy. I'd have
- 41:04Speaker 1: been thrown away years ago if it had not.
- 41:07Speaker 2: Been for a little mercy.
- 41:09Speaker 1: Mercy said, wait a minute.
- 41:19Speaker 2: Mercy said, I want to call grace to the stand.
- 41:26Speaker 2: Grace said, Your Honor, I know that the vessel is marred.
- 41:29Speaker 2: I can't deny that it's flawed. I can't deny that
- 41:32Speaker 2: it's made mistakes and it's weak and it's flawed and
- 41:35Speaker 2: it's frail. And I know that it's not what you
- 41:37Speaker 2: had in mind. But grace said, if you just hold
- 41:40Speaker 2: on to it, you can make it. The judge hits
- 41:49Speaker 2: the scaffold. The prosecution rests. The courtroom is quiet. The
- 41:56Speaker 2: sentence is suspended. On one word it says, so he
- 42:07Speaker 2: made it again.
- 42:13Speaker 1: Another. I'm going to do this sentence. I'm going home.
- 42:22Speaker 1: He made it again another.
- 42:32Speaker 2: That sentence held me spellbound for days. He made it
- 42:40Speaker 2: again another. Whenever I study a scripture, I break it
- 42:44Speaker 2: down into phrases. I enter it into the computer in
- 42:47Speaker 2: phrases and parts. And I says, he made slash.
- 42:52Speaker 1: I hear you, God.
- 42:53Speaker 2: You're saying that if there be any help for us,
- 42:56Speaker 2: you've got to do it. You're saying that the vessel
- 42:58Speaker 2: can't make itself. It can't save itself. It can't deliver itself.
- 43:03Speaker 2: It can't fix itself. That even though it's broken and
- 43:05Speaker 2: it needs to be right, it can't help the condition
- 43:08Speaker 2: in its life. That if you don't fix it, it
- 43:09Speaker 2: can't be fixed. And if you can't do it, it
- 43:11Speaker 2: can't be done. That you're not going to send the angels.
- 43:14Speaker 2: You're not going to send Gabriel. You're not going to
- 43:16Speaker 2: send Michael. You're not going to send anybody else to
- 43:18Speaker 2: do it.
- 43:18Speaker 1: That this is a job for God and you're going
- 43:20Speaker 1: to do it. He made it.
- 43:29Speaker 2: You are telling me that you are not intimidated by
- 43:32Speaker 2: the scars in my life. That in spite of my condition,
- 43:37Speaker 2: you still have not given up hope that someday I'll
- 43:41Speaker 2: be able to hold what.
- 43:42Speaker 1: You wanted to put in my head. You're telling me
- 43:47Speaker 1: that you moved.
- 43:48Speaker 2: The law and pushed back the requirement and said in
- 43:51Speaker 2: spite of my flaws, you saw my need and you
- 43:55Speaker 2: made me.
- 43:58Speaker 1: Made it.
- 44:02Speaker 2: He made it okay god i see it there it
- 44:08Speaker 2: is cracked broken i see it he made it again
- 44:16Speaker 2: you can if you did it once you can do
- 44:18Speaker 2: it again If you blessed me yesterday, you can bless
- 44:23Speaker 2: me today. If you raised me up before, you can
- 44:26Speaker 2: raise me up again. If you loose me before, you
- 44:29Speaker 2: can loose me up. God can do it again. Tell somebody,
- 44:35Speaker 2: tell them he'll do it again. Somebody's discouraged tonight but
- 44:39Speaker 2: you don't recognize that God can do it again. Somebody's
- 44:42Speaker 2: depressed but you don't know that God can do it again.
- 44:44Speaker 2: I don't care how you muffed it and you blew
- 44:46Speaker 2: it and the devil's been accusing you and saying it's
- 44:49Speaker 2: your fault and maybe he's right.
- 44:51Speaker 1: But thank God for mercy. God can do it again.
- 44:54Speaker 1: He made it again. Here's the problem. Another.
- 45:05Speaker 2: The another is the problem. Because I thought it was it.
- 45:09Speaker 2: He made it again another. Say that with me.
- 45:13Speaker 1: He made it again another. Say it again. He made
- 45:19Speaker 1: it again. Say it again. He made it again another.
- 45:26Speaker 1: Which one is it? Is it it or another? He
- 45:31Speaker 1: made it again another. It was it. No, it was another.
- 45:42Speaker 1: It's another vessel. No, it's still it. It's it. No,
- 45:46Speaker 1: it's not it. It's another. It's another. No, it's not
- 45:49Speaker 1: another vessel. Jase, it is it. We did it, God.
- 45:53Speaker 1: Only God can do it. Only God can make it again.
- 45:57Speaker 2: Another.
- 46:08Speaker 3: Hallelujah!
- 46:11Speaker 2: Touch your neighbor and tell them, it is me, but
- 46:15Speaker 2: it's not me. Only God, only God, only God, only God,
- 46:20Speaker 2: only God can bless you and raise you up and
- 46:23Speaker 2: fix you until it is you, but it's not you.
- 46:26Speaker 1: I am the same, but I'm not the same. It
- 46:29Speaker 1: is me, but it's not me.
- 46:36Speaker 2: I want the devil to know that it is me,
- 46:40Speaker 2: but it's not me. What used to work isn't going
- 46:44Speaker 2: to work anymore. What used to depress me won't depress
- 46:48Speaker 2: me anymore. What used to make me give up won't
- 46:51Speaker 2: make me give up anymore. It is me, but it
- 46:55Speaker 2: is not. high five somebody and tell them it's not
- 47:11Speaker 2: going to work.
- 47:19Speaker 1: The thing that used to work.
- 47:23Speaker 2: It's not going to work because I went through something
- 47:26Speaker 2: that changed me and what used to bother me doesn't
- 47:32Speaker 2: bother me anymore What I used to cry about, I
- 47:37Speaker 2: don't cry about anymore. What used to make me go
- 47:40Speaker 2: home and feel sorry for myself, it's not.
- 47:42Speaker 1: Going to work anymore. Though the storms keep on raging
- 47:45Speaker 1: in my life, I made up in my mind I
- 47:48Speaker 1: am going all the way with Jesus. I'm not the same.
- 47:53Speaker 1: I may look the same, but I am not. Hallelujah.
- 47:59Speaker 2: Hallelujah.
- 48:13Speaker 1: And so I thought I was finished. I said, Lord, okay,
- 48:23Speaker 1: I hear you. I'm finished.
- 48:26Speaker 3: I'm through.
- 48:27Speaker 1: This is it. He says, you missed the whole point.
- 48:31Speaker 1: I said, what? You mean I've been studying like this?
- 48:34Speaker 1: I missed the whole point? He said, you missed the
- 48:36Speaker 1: whole point. What do you mean? I saw some beautiful
- 48:42Speaker 1: stuff in there. That was good stuff, God. He said,
- 48:46Speaker 1: you missed the whole point. I said, what did I miss?
- 48:50Speaker 1: I scraped it. I skinned it. I sliced it. I
- 48:54Speaker 1: broke it in the savers. I said, how could I miss?
- 48:56Speaker 1: He said, you missed the whole point. Go back in there.
- 48:58Speaker 1: Read it again.
- 49:04Speaker 2: He said, you remember in your math class when you
- 49:08Speaker 2: used to divide and multiply fractions? The old teachers used
- 49:12Speaker 2: to tell you to reduce to his lowest common denominator
- 49:18Speaker 2: he said you can't work with this scripture until you
- 49:22Speaker 2: reduce it to his lowest common denominator i said god
- 49:27Speaker 2: What is the lowest common denominator? He said, there is
- 49:30Speaker 2: one thing in the whole story that is the lowest
- 49:34Speaker 2: common denominator.
- 49:35Speaker 1: One thing that doesn't change. I thought, what is it?
- 49:37Speaker 1: I said, everything changed. I went back through the story.
- 49:40Speaker 1: He said, he picked it up. He put it on
- 49:42Speaker 1: the wheel.
- 49:43Speaker 2: He spinned it around and around on the wheel. It
- 49:47Speaker 2: was cleansed by the washing of water by the word.
- 49:50Speaker 2: He spinned it, but he controlled the spinning with his foot.
- 49:54Speaker 2: If he had not touched it, it would have never
- 49:56Speaker 2: become what he said it would be. But because of
- 49:59Speaker 2: the spinning and the water of the word and the
- 50:02Speaker 2: touch of the Lord, it began to look like what
- 50:05Speaker 2: the master had in mind.
- 50:07Speaker 1: He pulled it up.
- 50:09Speaker 2: He never pressed it down. He's always raising it. Higher
- 50:14Speaker 2: than it was before. Even in the spinning. He's always
- 50:17Speaker 2: lifting me. Higher than I was before. He held it up.
- 50:22Speaker 2: He blessed it.
- 50:23Speaker 1: It was marred. But he never gave it up. He
- 50:26Speaker 1: stuck with it. Through the storm and the rain. He
- 50:29Speaker 1: made it again. Another. He fired it. He fixed it.
- 50:33Speaker 1: He restored it. He kept it. He raised it up.
- 50:38Speaker 1: And then it occurred to me. At every stage, whether
- 50:45Speaker 1: it was raised or on the.
- 50:48Speaker 2: Wheel or wet or spinning or touched or cracked or
- 50:55Speaker 2: being reshaped or being remade. Whether things were going right
- 51:00Speaker 2: or wrong or up and down. Everything changed about the circumstance,
- 51:06Speaker 2: the situation, the environment, the perfection, the only thing that
- 51:11Speaker 2: stayed the same at every stage, in every circumstance, in
- 51:15Speaker 2: every trial, in every trauma, in every distress, the lowest
- 51:20Speaker 2: common denominator, the one point that was always there is
- 51:23Speaker 2: through every storm and test and trial, it was always.
- 51:30Speaker 1: In his hand.
- 51:38Speaker 3: Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
- 52:05Speaker 2: Through every stage in your life, Stand to your feet.
- 52:08Speaker 2: I want to tell you something. Through every stage in
- 52:14Speaker 2: your life, when things were going right, when things were
- 52:20Speaker 2: going wrong, when trouble was everywhere, when you were broken
- 52:29Speaker 2: and wounded, when you felt like dying, when circumstances had
- 52:37Speaker 2: overwhelmed you. When you were on the breaking point and
- 52:43Speaker 2: you couldn't even tell anybody that you felt like throwing
- 52:47Speaker 2: in the towel. When people surrounded you and when all
- 52:52Speaker 2: of them walked away and left you. When you were
- 52:55Speaker 2: in winter and spring and summer and fall. No matter
- 53:01Speaker 2: what stage you were in in your life. When you
- 53:04Speaker 2: had lots of money and when all the money was gone.
- 53:07Speaker 2: When your companion was there. And when they left you.
- 53:10Speaker 2: When they didn't understand you. When you turned your back
- 53:14Speaker 2: to the wall. And let quiet tears slip across the
- 53:17Speaker 2: bridge in your nose. And there was no one there
- 53:20Speaker 2: to wipe your eyes. There is one thing that always
- 53:24Speaker 2: stayed the same. At every corner. In every crisis. In
- 53:29Speaker 2: every trauma. In every dilemma.
- 53:31Speaker 1: You were always there.
- 53:39Speaker 2: In his hand he never let you go and the
- 53:52Speaker 2: next time the devil accuses you and brings up your
- 53:58Speaker 2: past or talks about your flaws or your failures don't
- 54:05Speaker 2: lie tell him yes yes yes all of that may.
- 54:08Speaker 1: Be true But through it all, I am still in
- 54:15Speaker 1: his hands.