Clay in the Potter’s Hands

[Chris Rowland] Well, my wife Katherine and I went to an art museum this past winter. And we saw some really beautiful sculptures there. We saw some sculptures where an artist had taken a block of marble, and they kept chiseling away at it until it had looked like a person, with all of the expressions that the artist desired for it to have. We also saw some ancient vessels there — vases and cups — that had been made by ancient Egyptian and Greek civilizations, shaped carefully into something practical and yet beautiful. We saw other sculptures that were made of clay, that had obviously been worked by an artist into a particular shape, and then fired in a kiln or an oven.

I still find it fascinating how these sculptors can take something that looks as formless as a ball of clay or a block of granite and turn it into something that almost looks like a human being. I mean it does look like a human being, but it’s almost as though it could be alive. You know, thinking that perhaps after looking at all of this fine art that I might be able to do likewise, I tried this past winter to make my own representation of a human being. There was lots of snow outside. So, I tried using snow. My snowman didn’t turn out so well. The snow that falls in Cincinnati isn’t really good material for trying to make anything realistic or to capture a lot of detail. I’m sure there are some professionals who could have used that snow to make something realist. But my person consisted basically of a few giant balls on top of one another.

Well, knowing that snow wasn’t probably my best choice, I moved on to something that could capture a little more detail. When seven-year-old Krystal came to visit, it seemed like a good opportunity for me to try my hand at Play-Doh. You know, being able to use it alongside a seven-year-old meant that I didn’t need to come up with any excuses to tell my wife for why I was playing with modeling clay. I was able to do a much better job with the Play-Doh than with the snow. You know, I could shape it into a face or into a head. And then when I wasn’t happy with it, I just took that clay, rolled it back into a ball, and tried again.

And while I was working at this, it reminded me of a scripture in Genesis 2. I think most anyone who has heard of the Bible is probably familiar with this account from Genesis 2:7 where we read, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” You know, I was taking that modeling clay, and I was shaping out ears, hands, and fingers. It made me think about that process that our Creator must have gone through when He took the clay of this earth, the dust that we walk on. And He began to shape it into the ears, hands, and fingers of our ancestor, Adam.

But even the best sculptors in history, even if they could sculpt that most beautiful looking person out of clay, would they also be able at the same time to mold all these inner organs and all the bone structure inside of that sculpture? I don’t think so. You know, they might craft a person who might look good on the outside, but it certainly wouldn’t also have a perfect interior. There’s no way that breathing into the nostrils of any human-made sculpture could ever turn that clay into a living being. So, our Creator is far superior, no contest.

So, let’s turn to Isaiah 64:8, and we’re going to continue with this thought of our Creator being the one who made us from the dust of the ground. Isaiah 64. We saw this analogy begin in Genesis 2, and it continues throughout the Bible. So, let’s read what Isaiah recoded in Isaiah 64:8. All right. It says here, “But now, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You are potter. And all we are the work of Your hand. Do not be furious, O Lord, nor remember inequity forever indeed. Please look, we all are Your people.” We are all God’s people. He’s the one who created us.

We see here a recognition that God is our potter. He’s the one who formed us as products of clay. Look at yourself. You are the work of God’s hand. You didn’t just appear one day by chance. You were created by God for a purpose. In today’s sermon, we’re going to explore this idea of the potter and His clay to see several lessons that we can take away and learn from God’s use of this analogy in the Bible.

So, one thing that I noticed while sculpting with Play-Doh is that it’s really important, when storing it in a container, to put the lid on tightly. Little scraps of Play-Doh, they will become hard. And it’s pretty much impossible to work that modeling clay once it’s hardened. And whatever shape that clay was in, once it’s hardened, well, that’s kind of the shape that it’s going to be. So, let’s look at some verses that bring out this first lesson about God’s clay, which is, don’t become hardened. Don’t become hardened. As clay in God’s hands, one of the things we must remember is that we mustn’t let ourselves become hardened.

Let’s turn first to Nehemiah 9:16, where we can read some things that the Levites were saying in a loud voice as the children of Israel where here confessing their sins. Here in Nehemiah 9, they were addressing God, and they were recounting the history of the Israelites. Nehemiah 9:16. “But they and our fathers acted proudly, hardened their necks, and did not heed Your commandments. They refused to obey, and they were not mindful of Your wonders that You did among them. But they hardened their necks. And in their rebellion, they appointed a leader to return to their bondage. But You are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them.”

So, these leaders, they used the word “hardened their necks.” They used it twice to describe their forefathers. In verse 16, it says, “They hardened their necks by not heeding the commandments.” In verse 17, “They hardened their necks by appointing their own leader to take them back to bondage.” So, hardening seems to be this going against God’s ways or choosing our own ways over His ways.

Let’s turn now to Proverbs 28:13. We’re going to look at a couple of passages that talk about some of the pitfalls of becoming hardened here in Proverbs 28:13. We read that, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Happy is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.” So, not only is it possible for us to harden our necks, but we can also harden our hearts, as we read about here. And if we do harden our hearts, we will fall into calamity.

Let’s look at the first verse in the next chapter, Proverbs 29:1. It says, “He who is often rebuked and hardens his neck will suddenly be destroyed. And that, without remedy.” So, what causes someone to harden their neck? In this verse, someone hardens their neck after being often rebuked. When someone is rebuked, that means that they’re reprimanded or they’re scolded. When we’re scolded for having done something wrong, how do we react to that? Do we harden our neck? Do we refuse to take that correction? God will not be able to use clay that refuses to be reshaped through correction.

For one more example, let’s look at Hebrews 3:7-15. Hebrews 3. In this passage, the author of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 95. So, Hebrews 3 beginning in verse 7. It says, “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works 40 years. Therefore, I was angry with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. And they have not known My ways. So, I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest.’”

The children of Israel, they saw God’s work for 40 years, but they continued to test Him. They continued to try Him because they’d hardened their hearts. Have we understood God’s greatness? Have we understood what God expects of us? If we don’t respond to Him, if we don’t follow His ways, then we’re hardening our hearts in the same way that Israel did.

Continuing in verse 12, it says, “Beware, brethren. Lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. While it is said, ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’”

Well, in verse 13, we see that one of the things that can harden us this deceitfulness of sin. We need to hold steadfast as partakers of Christ and resist sin. The more that we allow sin to tempt us, the more we allow sin to lure us away from that right path, the more that we’re hardening our hearts. And if we allow sin to harden our hearts, then as verse 12 says, we will depart from the living God. That’s why verse 13 urges us to exhort one another. We need to look out for one another. We need to encourage one another to stay true, to stay steadfast to God’s ways. We must help one another not to become hardened, not to be deceived by the sin that surrounds us.

I’d like to turn now to Jeremiah 17:1. This verse struck me as quite interesting in the imagery that it uses to describe the effects of sin. Jeremiah 17. We’ve already looked at how the deceitfulness of sin can harden our hearts, but let’s actually see what Jeremiah says about our hard hearts. Jeremiah 17:1. We read that, “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron with the point of a diamond. It is engraved on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of your altars.”

So, the new King James version talks about writing with a pen of iron, engraving with the point of a diamond. And what was it that was engraved on Judah’s heart here? Was it something good? No. It says, “Their sin was engraved on the tablet of their heart.” And we’re probably all familiar with Jeremiah 31 where it says that, “God will put His law in our minds and write it on our hearts.” So, instead of sin written on the heart, in the future, God will ultimately replace that with His law written there.

But let me read the New English Translation for the same verse Jeremiah 17:1. The New English Translations says, “The sin of Judah is engraved with an iron chisel on their stone-hard hearts.” Let me say that again. “The sin of Judah is engraved with an iron chisel on their stone-hard hearts. It’s inscribed with a diamond point on the horns of their altars.” I really liked the imagery that comes out in this translation, and how it uses that phrase, “Their stone-hard hearts.” The sin of Judah had so thoroughly hardened the people’s hearts that their hearts could only be engraved with an iron chisel, that pen of iron.

When I think of the imagery of God writing His law on someone’s heart, I don’t picture those hearts as being stone-hard. I picture a heart of flesh on which God is writing His laws. God isn’t going to write His laws on a heart that’s hard and requires an iron chisel just to make a dent in it. God is going to write His laws on our tender hearts that have not become hardened. So, let’s remember this first lesson about God’s clay which is, don’t become hardened.

Now, while I was sculpting with Krystal, I took some green Play-Doh and I made a figure of Gekko, who is one of the heroes in a favorite television program of hers, “PJ Masks.” Now, it wasn’t the best-looking Gekko character out there, but he was green. He was green, and that’s kind of what mattered the most. Now, as the one molding the clay, I got to decide what it turned out to be. I didn’t decide for it to be Catboy or Owlette. I decided it would be Gekko. Now, it wouldn’t have been appropriate all of a sudden for that little clay figure to question my wisdom by asking, “Why I couldn’t have been one of the other PJ Masks or maybe one of the villains?” But as the creator of that clay figure, I was the one. I got to decide what it was I was making.

So, let’s look at some verses that bring out a second lesson about God’s clay which is, you’re not the potter. You are not the potter. As clay in God’s hands, one of the things that we must remember is, God is the one who created us. And therefore, we must remember that He fashioned us the way He wanted, and we are here to serve Him. We have to keep the proper perspective and realize that we didn’t make ourselves, and that God has a purpose for His clay. So, this second lesson is, you’re not the potter.

Now, let’s turn to Romans 9:20 where we can read a passage where the apostle Paul continues this potter and clay analogy. Romans 9 and we’ll start in verse 20. We read here, “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to Him who formed it, ‘Why have You made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” So, as the potter, God has power over the clay. He has power over you, and He’s the one who will determine what type of vessel you might be. So, we need to keep our proper perspective because it’s not fitting for us to ask God, “Why have You made me like this?” God has placed each one of us in the body as it pleases Him.

Let’s continue in verse 22. It says, “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and make His power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had prepared beforehand for glory? Even us, whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the gentiles?” Those whom God has called are being shaped into vessels of mercy, prepared for glory. We shouldn’t wonder to ourselves, “Why did God call me?” or sometimes think, “I’m not good enough.” You are not the potter. God is calling and preparing you to be a part of His family. So, you should respond to that purpose and fulfill that calling that you’ve been granted.

Let’s turn now to Isaiah 29. Isaiah 29:13. In this scripture, we can read about a backwards perspective that ancient Israel had towards God, perspective that we should avoid as God’s clay. Isaiah 29:13. “Therefore, the Lord said, ‘In as much as these people draw nearer with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear towards Me is taught by the commandment of men. Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among these people. A marvelous work and a wonder for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish. And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.’ Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord and their works are in the dark. They say, ‘Who sees us? And who knows us?’”

Verse 16 says, “Surely, you have things turned around. Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay? For shall the thing made say of Him who made it, ‘He did not make me.’ Or shall the thing formed say of Him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding.’” We see this attitude in our society today. As verse 16 says, they certainly have things turned around. If we truly remember that we are clay, then how can we say to the potter that He didn’t make us? How can we claim that the potter who shaped and designed us, “He has no understanding.” Truly, the one who created us is wiser than we are as His creation. So, let’s remember this second lesson about God’s clay, which is that you are not the potter.

Now, while I was sculpting with this Play-Doh, after working on one masterpiece for a while, I might get tired of it or I might have a different idea. So, it’s pretty easy to take whatever it was that I had made, just push it back together quickly into a clump, and then work on fashioning something else. Now, not everything can be a keeper. Right? Sometimes when working in the clay, you know, you thin it out, maybe an area might be too thin from stretching it out. And it won’t work well just to grab some more clay and just slap it on there because it doesn’t adhere to it the same way. So, you might have to start over again.

So, let’s look at some verses that bring out a third lesson about God’s clay which is that clay can be reworked. Clay can be reworked. As clay in God’s hands, one of the things that we must remember is that God, as the one who created us, He has the right to rework us, that He can help us to change. This third lessons is that clay can be reworked.

We looked at Jeremiah 17 a little bit earlier, but now let’s turn to Jeremiah 18. Jeremiah 18, in this chapter, God sends Jeremiah to visit an actual potter. So, He kind of gives him a field trip, says to go visit an actual potter because there are some things that God wanted Jeremiah to understand about the way that He works as the master potter. So, this potter in Jeremiah 18 is one that was working with a potter’s wheel. You’ve probably seen these. You know, a potter’s wheel is used for shaping or throwing round ceramic ware. The clay goes on to the middle of this flat wheel, and then as the potter turns that wheel round and round, he uses his hands then to shape that clay.

I’m going to read this passage from the New English Translation, beginning in verse 1 of Jeremiah 18. We read here that, “The Lord said to Jeremiah, ‘Go down at once to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.’ So, I went down to the potter’s house and found him working at his wheel. Now and then, there would be something wrong with the pot he was molding from the clay with his hands. So, he would rework the clay into another kind of pot as he saw fit.” So, sometimes something was going wrong or would go wrong with his pot that the potter was creating. And what would the potter do? He didn’t necessarily just take it and throw it out because he didn’t like the way it turned out. Instead, he would rework that clay. He would rework it. The potter valued that clay enough that he would rather rework it than to throw it out. And in that reworking, the potter was then able to turn it into something that pleased him.

Let’s continue this passage in verse 5 to see what God wanted Jeremiah to learn while he was there watching this process.

Jeremiah 18:5 says, “Then the Lord’s message came to me. ‘I, the Lord, say, O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay? In My hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter’s hand. There are times, Jeremiah, when I threaten to uproot, tear down, or destroy a nation or kingdom. But if that nation I threatened stops doing wrong, I will cancel the destruction I intended to do to it. And there are times when I promise to build up or to establish a nation or kingdom. But if that nation does what displeases Me and does not obey Me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it. So, now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this.’ The Lord says, ‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you. I’m making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, stop the evil things that you’ve been doing. Correct the way that you’ve been living and do what is right.’ But they just keep saying, ‘We don’t care what You say. We’ll do whatever we want to do. We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly.’”

So, God is describing a case where the nation of Israel, the clay, is telling the potter they don’t care what He wants, and that the clay will do whatever it wants to do. As the potter, God has tried to use His hand to rework that nation so that the people can be built up, so they can be established. But the clay has resisted the potter. If we want our potter to fix our faults, we need to be properly positioned. We have to put ourselves in the right place for God to rework us. For clay that’s on a potter’s wheel, it’s vital that the clay be centered on that wheel. As it spins around, it stays in the middle. Otherwise, when that wheel spins quickly, forces will pull off parts of that pot. And it won’t be symmetrical.

We also have to stay centered. We must stay centered as our potter works with us, as He refines us, so that we don’t get scattered all over the place. We need to fight the distractions. We need to focus on staying where God can rework us most effectively. So, let’s remember this third lesson about God’s clay which is that clay can be reworked.

Now, when the potter is forming something from the clay, he needs to be sure that that clay can still be worked with. He could only work with clay so long and be worked at so many times before it just kind of stops responding in the same way. Now, Play-Doh is designed to be easy to work with and pliable for a long time. Since it’s designed for children, it’s not really designed to create objects for any long-term use. But actual clay requires a lot more care, care that it’s the right consistency for the potter to actually work with. The clay needs to respond to the potter’s hands.

Let’s look at some verses that bring out this fourth lesson about God’s clay which is to remain pliable. Remain pliable. As clay in God’s hands, God will be able to continue working with us and continue refining us as long as we remain pliable. A pliable lump of clay, it yields to the potter’s hands. We let the potter shape us by remaining pliable and soft enough that we don’t just snap off or shatter due to resisting His hands upon us. Something that’s pliable, it’s something that’s supple enough that it can bend freely or repeatedly without breaking. It’s that capacity to yield to others.

God wants to create a masterpiece of His workmanship in your life, as He helps to shape you to conform to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. So, in order for a potter to successfully complete his project, he needs clay that is pliable. The clay can’t be too dry, the clay can’t be too wet in order to have that right pliability. It must be free of impurities. It can’t have any foreign objects that somehow got mixed in there, which would keep it from being flexible in the hands of the potter.

And likewise, as believers, for Christ to accomplish His work in you, you must be pliable. If you lose your pliability, you hinder what God wants to accomplish in your life. When you resist what the Master desires to accomplish in you, you start to harden your neck, you start to harden your heart, and you become rigid to His touch. Doing that will make you an unfit piece of clay to work with.

Now, when human potters work on clay, they have to keep that clay moist. Often, the clay starts to dry out. You’ve got it spinning around in a circle on a wheel. From being exposed to the air while the potter’s working can dry it out. So, typically, the potter is going to have a bowl of water nearby and maybe a sponge, which he’ll use to bathe that clay in water. And he does it over and over again until he’s done. And that clay absorbs that moisture from the additional water, which means it can continue to be worked with. If the potter doesn’t add water at all, that clay will quickly dry out and it tears apart as the potter works on it. Pieces will break off and fall to the ground, wasted.

So, good clay is going to yield to that water that’s being put on it. You know, that moisture becomes part of the consistency of that clay. It gives it life. It gives it usefulness. We can think of this added water, possibly, through two different symbols. I’ll give you two different ways to think about it. One symbol that can help us to remain moist and not become hardened is by our shedding tears. By shedding tears. When we sigh and cry over the abominations that are done in this world, it shows God that we are still pliable, that we’re troubled, that we still look to Him to solve the world’s problems. But if we allow ourselves to become hardened to the sinfulness of this world and we start maybe to participate in those abominations that we see around us, we’re not going to shed many tears for that world.

Now, as Christians, we don’t only shed tears for the world, we also shed tears over our own hardships and mistakes, don’t we? We shed tears because of how deeply we care for people. We shed tears because of how deeply we care for God. The apostle Paul mentioned several times how he shed many tears. Acts 20:31, Paul said, “For three years, I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.” Paul wasn’t afraid to cry. He told the Corinthians, “I wrote to you with many tears.” It’s healthy to cry for the right reasons.

Tears make us aware. They make us aware of our desperate need for God, and they motivate us to seek His help with our problems. Paul wrote to the Ephesians that we are to be tender-hearted. We’re to be tender-hearted. Empathetic tears in response to brokenness in others, and personal tears in response to our own shortcomings, they soften our hearts toward God. They make us susceptible to His influence. They make us easily shaped by His strong hands.

Let’s turn to Psalm 126 and look briefly at this Psalm of Ascents. We’ll look at verses 5 and 6 that remind that this weeping and crying isn’t something that is going to continue forever. So, Psalm 126:5. We read here that, “Those who sow in tears,” if they’re planting in tears, what happens? “They shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again, and not with tears this time. He’ll come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

So, tears are one symbol for the water that can help us to remain moist and pliable. Water can also symbolize something else. The second idea is it symbolizes God’s Spirit. God uses His Spirit. He gives His Spirit to us freely to help us to change. He gives it to us to help us to remain useful for Him. The question becomes whether we will yield to that Spirit. Are we going to yield to God’s Spirit? Whether we will allow that water to be absorbed into our character or whether we’ve become so hard that that water just runs down off of us without penetrating our minds. We are called to change. We’re called to change. If we yield to God’s Spirit in our lives, we will allow it to change us at our core, you know, transforming our mind, transforming our speech and our actions.

How can we know whether we are yielding to God’s Spirit? How can we know? There’s an article in the United Church of God website titled “How Can I Know If the Holy Spirit is Leading Me?” Well, that article brings out three questions that we can ask ourselves. I’ll just read these questions to you, so you can think about that.

The first is, have you received God’s Spirit by the laying on of hands? Have you received God’s Spirit? The second one is, are you overcoming your sins? Are you overcoming your sins? The third was, are your thoughts, speech, and actions becoming more and more like Christ with each passing day? So, if you answered yes to all three of those questions, then you can reasonably conclude that you are being led by God’s Spirit in your life.

Keep nurturing that Spirit. Keep nurturing it. Keep growing spiritually and listen for its promptings in your life. We yield to God’s Spirit by using its help to overcome our sins and to become more like Jesus Christ. When we do that, then we’re allowing the potter to keep us moist. He’s keeping us moist and pliable, so He can shape us into the image of His Son. If instead we have other priorities, if we have other priorities and we hold on to our pride or we hold on to our possessions or we hold on to our pleasures or we hold on to our past, we can start to quench God’s Spirit. You can quench God’s Spirit and become a lump of clay that is dried out and unable to be worked with.

Let’s look briefly at 2 Timothy 1:6. In this passage, the apostle Paul was encouraging Timothy, and reminding him of how to live out a life of faith. 2 Timothy 1:6. Paul wrote, “Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” God’s Spirit needs to be stirred up within us. Kind of, like, kneading clay or kneading dough. You know, we need to be sure that we work the Holy Spirit throughout the entire lump. We need to be yielding to God in every part of our lives. It needs to be stirred thoroughly and not try to keep maybe any part of our lives hidden from God’s power. And by stirring up that gift, that spiritual moisture will be more effective, keeping all of our clay pliable so that we can respond to His hand more effectively. So, let’s remember this fourth lesson about God’s clay which is to remain pliable.

Now, when the potter makes various pieces, whatever it is he’s making, they may have different purposes. If he creates a pot, you know that pot is usually something functional. You know, it needs to be able to hold something inside of it. And its appearance is maybe not the primary importance. But if he creates a vase or a piece of art, then perhaps it’s intended to be decorative. Maybe it’s decorative, and the actual function of that piece might be secondary compared to how that piece might look.

So, we will examine a few verses that bring out a fifth lesson about God’s clay which is, become a vessel for honor. Become a vessel for honor. As clay in God’s hands, we have an opportunity to become something beautiful. We have the opportunity to allow the potter to form us into a member of His own family. So, this fifth lesson is to become a vessel for honor.

Now, we just looked at a verse in 2 Timothy. So, let’s move ahead to chapter 2, still in 2 Timothy 2:20. We read that, “But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself of the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work.”

So, Paul explains that there are a number of different vessels that might be in a large house. Some of those vessels are of a high quality and they’re probably displayed maybe in a place of honor. And some of the vessels are low quality or probably used for rather menial tasks. They don’t get quite as much honor. But it’s interesting thing here to me is what Paul wrote in verse 21 that, “We can become vessels for honor if we cleanse ourselves from dishonor.”

So, the issue here, it seems to be, that it isn’t what type of vessel the potter has shaped us to be. Whether the potter has shaped you to be a vase or whether He shaped you to be a coffee mug. He doesn’t say, “Hey, if you’re a flower pot, try to turn yourself into a vase. It’s a little bit more honor.” No. We are not asked to changed whatever type of vessel God has formed us to be. We aren’t asked to do that. But instead, we can be cleansed from dishonor, and we can become an honored and useful vessel for God in the role that He gives us.

So, to become a vessel for honor, we need to stay pure. We need to stay pure. We need to be all-in. We need to allow ourselves to be formed in line with whatever designs it is that God has in mind for us. To be pure means that we try to become in every respect what God wants to make of us, both inside and on the outside. So, no matter how good it looks on the outside, a vessel is only as good as it is on the inside. That’s why our potter works on all sides of us. He wants to repair what is damaged inside. He wants to repair our hearts and our minds. He wants to smooth out what’s rough in our character to ensure that we don’t have any hidden flaws that will hinder our functionality in God’s service.

You know, I bought this really beautiful mug on the way to the feast in Branson this past year. It’s this nice Route 66 mug. It was really big. I loved it. It was so beautiful. The third time I used it, I poured some hot water in there for tea, and all of a sudden, it just cracked down the side. So, you know, it can be really beautiful, but there are sometimes hidden flaws you have to watch out for.

Let’s look at a verse in 2 Corinthians 4:7. In this verse, the apostle Paul, again, talks about Christians as vessels. We see this analogy again in 2 Corinthians 4:7. Paul wrote here, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” So, we’re earthen vessels. You know, as we’ve seen, we’re made of clay. But this treasure that we have inside, we see in verse 10...continuing in verse 10, that we are to be “carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” So, we as these earthen vessels, we’re to be manifesting the very life of Jesus. We should be exhibiting the power of the Spirit of God working through us.

When people see us exhibiting the fruit of God’s Spirit in our lives, verse 7 reminds us that this excellence is of God. The excellence of the fruit of His Spirit is from God. It’s not of us. Clay on its own can’t turn itself into something that’s beautiful, something that’s lovely. It’s the work that is put in by the potter that is demonstrated by the beauty of that completed vessel. Now, you wouldn’t think, “Oh, look at that beautiful vase sitting there. Certainly, the clay that it’s formed from must have been so amazing.” No, you wouldn’t think that. That’s kind of crazy. You would think, “Oh, look at that beautiful vase. What a skilled artist or skilled craftsman created it.”

Paul reminds us in verse 7 that any excellence or power that we may have did not originate from us, that we are simply the clay that reflects the potter’s master craftsmanship. We can become a vessel for honor. We can allow God’s Spirit to bear fruit in our lives. So, if we can cleanse ourselves and become a vessel for honor, we will have the honor of being God’s people with the privilege of having His law in our minds and on our hearts.

As spoken by the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31, God says, “I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” He’s not talking about needing to chisel something onto a stone-hard heart like we read about in Jeremiah 17. A vessel for honor doesn’t have a stone-hard heart, but a heart of flesh. It has a tender heart. God won’t need something as hard as a chisel or a diamond point to write His law on our hearts because we’ll be receptive. We’ll be receptive to that law, and He’ll be able to write His law there easily. So, let’s remember this fifth and final lesson about God’s clay which is, become a vessel for honor.

So, to conclude today’s sermon, let’s go back to Isaiah 64:8. Let’s review this analogy that Isaiah wrote about God as our potter, and about us as His clay. Isaiah 64:8. We read, “But now, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You, our potter. And all we are, the work of Your hand. Do not be furious, O Lord, nor remember inequity forever. Please look. We all are Your people.” At the end of both verses 8 and 9, we see the same idea. “All we are, the work of Your hand,” and, “We all are Your people.”

We all want to ultimately be called God’s people and His handiwork. We want to be fit for the purpose that He has for us. So that we can be sure to end up that way, remember these lessons from the potter and the clay. First, don’t become hardened. You need to make sure that you aren’t going against God’s ways or choosing your own ways over His. Second, remember that you’re not the potter. God is the one who created you. And if you want to have the proper perspective, you have to keep that proper perspective and remember that He made you the way that He wanted. You are here to serve Him.

Third, don’t forget that clay can be reworked. You know, maybe you feel like you’ve made mistakes. We’ve made mistakes, and maybe we feel like we’re headed in the wrong direction. Well, guess what? It’s not too late. It’s not too late. God can rework you. He can help you to change. Fourth, remember to remain pliable. Allow that moisture of God’s Spirit to penetrate all aspects of your life so that you can continue to be shaped. And finally, remember that your purpose is to become a vessel for honor.

And those creations that I made from Play-Doh, they ultimately just got pushed back together and placed into a container with the lid real tight. I checked a couple times. And the sculptures, the sculptures of ancient civilizations, they now sit in art museums where people can come by. They can look at them. But the vessels that God is making out of us, they aren’t going to be put into a museum for all eternity. You’re not going to sit on a shelf somewhere where people can look at you, so people can admire God’s craftsmanship. No. Instead, as Paul told Timothy, we will be for all eternity vessels useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.