December 31, 2023

STARTING OVER (LESSONS FROM THE POTTER’S HOUSE)

December 31, 2023

Charles Billingsley

 

Tomorrow 2024 begins! If you are watching the sermon live, it means God has given you breath to live another year of life as 2023 closes. Today, Charles Billingsley reminds us that every day we live we have the ability to start over, surrendering our lives fully to Jesus Christ. Tomorrow, the first day of 2024, we can put the past behind us, as Paul says, and focus on the future. We can stop making excuses to procrastinate, be idle, or indulge in self-destructive habits and set new goals that will be inspiring, teach us self-discipline, and help us grow in our relationship to the Lord. This should be our way to start every day of the New Year, 2024.

Focal Passage: John 15:5; Gen. 2:7; Isa. 64:8; Jer.18:1-6; Psa. 40:1-2, 139:1-18; Jn. 10:28-30.

THE POTTER

  He has a purpose:

  • Read Isaiah 64:8. Most of us have played with clay as children. What do you know about it? Why does Isaiah liken us, as humans, to clay? What does a potter do? Why does the prophet say we are “the work of [God’s] hand?
  • Read Jeremiah 18:1-6. God gives Jeremiah a visual lesson for Israel. Where is he to go to learn this lesson? Why does God choose a potter and his clay, rather than (for example) a sheep and the shepherd? Do you know how clay is formed? How does clay differ from mud? Can that be a likeness to a believer and an unbeliever? Why?
  • Do you recall from the sermon how clay is “purified” to become fit for a potter to use? In its unpurified state, is it useful to the potter? Why is that?
  • Once the clay is on the wheel, does it matter what position it is in? Why is it necessary that the potter has a definite purpose for the piece of clay he begins turning on his wheel? In Jeremiah’s lesson at the Potter’s House, what happened after he started working on the clay? What did the potter do then?

He has a plan:

  • Read Psa. 139: 13-14. How are we like the clay? Did God know us before we were created in our mother’s womb? Read Jer. 29:11. Does God have a plan and a purpose for each one of us, just as the potter does for his clay? Does that include every person?
  1. He Never Takes His EYES Off of His Creation:
  • Read Psa. 139:15-16. How do we know this? Read 1 Cor. 6:19-20. What does that reinforce? If Someone is inside of you (whether we can understand it or not), will He see you constantly? Read 2 Chron. 16:9. Does God ever cease His vigilance over the world?
  1. He Never Takes His MIND Off of His Creation:
  • Read Psa. 139:1-4, 17-18 and 2 Chron. 16:9. What would happen to the clay on the wheel if the potter took his eyes off of his work? How does that illustrate the truth that God never ceases from watching over His world?

 C:  He Never Takes His HANDS Off of His Creation:

  • Read Psa. 139:5-10, Prov. 13:5 and Psa. 121:8. God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent. What do these three characteristics mean? Does He have the whole world in His hands right now when things look so bleak?
  • Read John 10:28-30. Do we ever have to worry that God will somehow “lose” us to the devil? Is it even possible? How do you know?

THE WHEEL:

  • Read Eph. 6:12. Can anything pull the clay off the wheel? What are some of the temptations Satan uses to try to get us to leave God?
  • What would have happened to the clay if it had not been in the center of the wheel? What is the analogy for us?

THE WATER, THE CLAY, AND THE FIRE:

  • Read Psa. 119:11. The water the potter uses shapes the vessel. What shapes our life? How do we find the will of God for our lives? Today, we are inundated with tools to look up any information we need. If you do not know what God desires of you, how can you find it? Where would you look? What happens if the clay grows dry?
  • Read Jer. 18:4. Once the potter had taken the marred clay, what did he do? What was the spiritual lesson Jeremiah learned, in order to tell the people of Israel—and us? Read Heb. 12:5-11. What happens if we fall into sin—and become marred?
  • Read Psa. 40:1-2. What does this verse teach us? Read Jn. 10:29. If we are living a life in fellowship with God, will anything take us out of His hand?

CLOSE:

In order to let this amazing sermon permeate your entire being, grab your phone or computer and watch a few YouTube videos as potters work, taking ugly clay and making beautiful vessels, fit for service! After you have watched the videos, go back and once more watch this service. It will mean so much more to imagine the potter and the clay, and God’s reference that HE is the potter—and we are the clay! The analogy that God used for Jeremiah should cause you to beg God to take your heart—perhaps marred by the sins of the world, or perhaps never have been given to Him—and let Him mold you into something He can use, giving you a new purpose and peace as you begin the New Year. You will not regret it.

 

By Sandy Day

December 31, 2023

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