Go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels of a very familiar passage. Everybody in the building preached on it. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it again another vessel. It seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, and to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it. If that nation against whom I pronounce turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. I just went ahead and threw those last two verses in. They didn't have anything to do with that. But there's people going around the country, you know, they're quoting Chronicles, you know, if my people were to call by my name. And I've heard preachers say, I'm sick of hearing that, that's God talking to His people in Israel. I threw those two verses in right there. Well, God will do that for any nation. He'll do that for any nation if they'll turn, amen? You say, you think America's going to turn? No, I really don't think it will. But it could. And if they did, God would fix them, amen? I believe that. But I'll preach about that for a few minutes tonight. We sing, have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay. And over and over we sing, he molds me and makes me. After his image, he fashions the clay. And God bless the day he didn't throw the clay away. Notice it's an earthen vessel, brother and sister. We're the clay. He said, can I not do with you this potter? He's the potter, we are the clay. Amen. And I will preach about that tonight for a few minutes. Did you notice this vessel right here, what he did? The vessel's marred. And he made it over again, another vessel. He made it brand new. Look in verse chapter 19, verse 10, 11. Verse one there in 19, he said, go and get a potter's earthen bottle. angel of the people. Verse 10 he says, Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of men that go with thee, and shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh the potter's vessel that cannot be made whole again. And they shall bury them in Topheth till there be no place to bury. Do you notice how different God treated those two vessels? One vessel got marred. He didn't like the way it looked, so he made it over. He made it again. Thank God. He's made me over a few times. He's helped me. But one vessel there, he broke it in a thousand pieces. One vessel tore all the pieces. How did he do that? Well, I don't know why he did it, but I know one thing. He couldn't have broke it if it hadn't become hard. It became hard and it shattered, brother and sister. The other was still pliable, he could still work with it. It was marred, but he could remake it, he could reshape it. But boy, once you become so hard, sometimes the only thing God can do is break you. And he will, don't you think he won't? We preach about the unknown God this day and time, but God isn't God of love, but he'll break you if he has to. I'll preach for a few minutes tonight, and I won't be very long, honestly. I'll preach to them before the vessel breaks, before the vessel breaks. Now, there's a lot of steps to making a vessel, and I'm not a professional in this, but I've seen them do a lot. Lumps are rough at the beginning. They don't look like a vessel when he throws them on the wheel. Brother said, as a matter of fact, they don't look like anything when he throws them on the wheel. And some lumps the potter throws on the wheel are rougher than others. I mean, some of them are just downright rough. Some of you were pretty rough when God got you. Some of you have been on the wheel a while and God's done something with you. He shaped your life and turned it into something, blessed you with things. The potter's good at that. There's a lot of shaping. You say, Brother Jim, what do you think the Lord will make out of me? What kind of vessel will I be? Who knows? We may never find out. You don't stay on the wheel. You're in, out, up, and down. Every time God tries to do something with you, you get off the wheel. How do we know what God can make of you? If you stay on the wheel, you stay on the wheel, we might have an idea one day. But you got to stay on the wheel. Clay's different, brother and sister. And this clay that we're talking about here tonight is really different. This clay can get off the wheel anytime we want to. We don't have to stay in a potter's hands. We don't have to be shaped by the potter if we don't want to. To make a vessel, there's firing. They have to fire that thing. Nobody likes that. But if God's gonna make something out of you, he'll fire you a few times. You will go through some things, brother and sister. We've seen a little bit of that at our church in the past two or three years. We had like 85 people get COVID one Sunday at our church. 85 people. We had six people that we couldn't do without that died from COVID in our church there. Tough time. But the Lord put us through a little fire. But you know, our church grew the whole time during COVID. Our church grew. We've seen people saved, offerings doubled. Wild time. A little firing. And then there's glazing. Potter makes a vessel. He can make it shine if he wants to. He can make you shine. People like that, amen. They like that shine. There's some of that. Notice one vessel's marred there. I guarantee the potter didn't mar it. We'll mar our vessels sometimes. And the world will mar your vessel, brother and sister. The things you get into will mar your vessel. And sin will mar your vessel, but he can fix it. The potter can fix it. He can take it, brother and sister, no matter how bad it's marred, and he can straighten it out, and he can smooth it out, and he can glaze it and make it shine again, brother and sister. He can do that for you tonight. I guarantee you he can. Some vessels are beautiful to look at. They're just good to have around. We had a couple ladies in our church named Minnie and Daisy. You talk about Hicks. We're Hicks up there where I'm from, boy. We are. We love it, too. I wouldn't want to be nothing else. We're old Southern white cracker redneck Hicks where we come from. Amen. I like it. But we got ladies in our church, they many a days eat. And I'm telling you, they are the sweetest, they are sweet as sugar. They were just beautiful to look at. They passed on now. But I'm telling you, when you go into church, they smile, and they tell you they loved you, and they'd make you believe it. They were just sweet to have. Some vessels are just sweet to have around. I like having them around. Some vessels, brothers and sisters, are for carrying loads. You know that some vessels of the potter makes? He never makes them to shine. He don't make them to glaze them. They're made for carrying water, they're made for carrying grain, they're made for carrying stuff. He don't ever intend for them to shine. Can you handle that? Can you handle if God wants to use you? Can he use you to carry the load here at this church to help the preacher carry the load? And you might never shine. People might not ever get you in the limelight and say, boy, there's something. Maybe you're just behind the scene like some of these dear ladies and men that have fixed this food all week. They carry the load around here. Most Christians can't handle that. If I can't shine, I don't want no part of it. But sometimes a potter makes vessels he don't intend to shine. He just wants them to help carry the load. Thank God for that. They're never glazed. Can you handle his plan for you tonight? And some vessels, he said, he takes no pleasure in. And he broke that thing to a million pieces. Well, listen, he has a plan for me and you tonight. Better find out what it is. I'll go through three or four things real quick, and I'll let you go. Number one, I want you to notice he's the potter. He said, can I do with you as this potter? He's the potter, brother and sister. You're the clay. Do you know the potter chooses the shape of a vessel? He chooses it. Now, I'm not sure he chose the shape of some of us tonight. They say, Brother Jimmy, y'all need to get in shape. And my friend said, round's the shape. But the potter chooses his shape, and he chooses the looks. Might shine, it might not. The potter chooses the size of the vessel he's gonna make. He'll make it like he wants it to be. Our church camp over here, it got out of hand, and we had like 500 teenagers in camp that week, and we didn't have room to feed them, didn't have room to do anything, and we had to build a brand new kitchen, brand new dining facility. Boy, God's good to us, wasn't he? Gave us a nice place. We had to build a bigger pool, had to build bigger everything to get them all in there. And somebody came to me and they said, that's enough. Good grief, we can't just keep on adding on every time kids keep coming. We can't just keep getting bigger and bigger. And I said, oh, are you the potter? Are you the one that decides? The potter chooses the size of the vessel. I ain't got nothing to do with that. If the potter gives you a small vessel, thank God for it. If he gives you a big one, thank God for it. He's the potter. You're not the potter. He's the potter with the clay. I'll tell you something else he chooses. He chooses the location for the vessel. Potter chooses that. You don't choose it. You don't ask a ball of clay, a piece of dirt, where you want to go, what you want to do. You might shine. You might carry a load. Tonight you may be full of sweet perfume, you may be full of poison. I don't know what kind of vessel you are tonight, but I'll tell you this much, you don't decide. The potter does it. I'll tell you something else, circumstances don't decide either. Well, brother Jim, I've got to leave the church because I was offered a good job over here and we're just going to move over. I'm getting a dollar more an hour. A dollar more an hour to leave a Bible believing God-loving, devil-hating, Bible-preaching church, going out somewhere you don't even know if you can find a church for a dollar. Say, well, I need the money. Circumstances are not the potter. He's the potter. I'll tell you something else, being up home, your family's not the potter. They don't choose for you either. Your family's not your potter. I've had folks at my church, they've been coming 20-something years faithful, and they're faithful every time a door's open. But I'm telling you what, right in the tomorrow, preacher, tomorrow, preacher, if I offended their mama and daddy, a whole bunch would leave. You know what the problem is? Their family's their potter. He's the potter, you're the clay. Circumstances is not the potter. Well, I gotta go off to school, brother Jim, I'm going to college over here, so I won't be able to come to church no more. Oh, so you're the potter now? You be careful with that. I said this and I mean it. I got my grandkids, a couple of them here tonight. I've got six of them. I got triplet boys, 18 years old. A blonde and brown and redhead. They don't even look alike. Dumber than a sack of rocks, ain't they girls? No, they're good kids, we love them. But honest to God, I'd rather they ride a garbage truck, I'd rather they dig ditches. and be in a church where God wants him to be than to make a million dollars. Honest to God, I'd rather them be in God's will than make $10 million. He's the potter. I'll tell you something else tonight. Number two, the place is the potter's house. What he said, he said, let's go down to the potter's house. And he said, I'm going to fashion a vessel down there. Woo! I said, where? The potter's house. He can work anywhere he wants to. But where he'll do most of the shaping and most of the firing and most of the glazing will be right down here at the potter's house. I don't know where yours is at, but that's where he'll do the shaping. Stay at the potter's house. That's where he'll do the work. He may go outside to gather clay. He may dig it down to the ground, buy it from a supplier. But he'll form it at the potter's house. He'll shape it there. He'll glaze it there. Sometimes you see some real pretty vessels. And I mean beautiful vessels. You ever see potter's vessels? Some potter, man, just beautiful to look at. You look at that? You see some beautiful vessels in church sometimes. And you know what you know immediately? They spent time down at the potter's house. They didn't get that way by themselves. Somebody taught them. Somebody helped shape them. Somebody gave them the doctrine. Somebody preached to them. You know when you see them, they spent time down at the potter's house. Ain't no doubt about that. They didn't get there by themselves. Sometime, brother, sister, you can go down to the back alley at City Dump somewhere. You can look on the ground. If you look around, you don't have to look long. You look around a little bit, and you'll find shards of pottery all over the ground, thousands of pieces of it. Those were all vessels at one time. Did you know one time every one of those was at a potter's house? They was there at the potter's house. I can name you people right now out of our church. There's people out of this church. There's people out of your church. People out of your church. Right now they're out of church. They're away from the potter's house and their life's in a thousand pieces. Tore all to pieces because they couldn't stay at the potter's house. Stay where God can do something with you. Stay where God can shape you, where he can rebuke you and nurture you if you need it. Stay at the potter's house. I got people running through my mind right now, they are divorced, their families tore up, they've lost their home, financially busted. Should have stayed at the potter's house. brother and sister, just shards is all they are, what they used to be. I told you I'd go quick. Listen, the potter would have taken care of them. He loves vessels. Hey, if you want to stay whole, keep your family at the potter's house. It's a good place to be. If you want to be repaired every now and then, brother and sister, you better stay at the potter's house. Say, brother Jim, I did something dumb. Stay in church. They'll help you smooth it out. They'll help. They'll help you shape it back like it ought to be. Stay in church. Stay at the potter's house. I'm a local church guy. I know I know the church is not a bill. I know the body of Christ is you know, it's universal by the way. I just love saying that because it stares up brighter so much. It's universal. Amen. I know that, but I'm a local church guy, boy. I think the local church, the vehicle God gets most of his work done through is a local church. Listen, he'll shape you if you'll stay on the wheel. He can repair a damaged vessel. He'll save your soul. He'll put your life back together, boy. He'll put your marriage back together. He'll put your home back together. He can smooth out the rough places in your life. And some of you need it. Amen. No matter what shape your vessel's in today, boy, he can help you out. Up home, our folks, I told you last night, poor, I'm not beatin' the drum, because I got so much now, I don't know what to do with it. God's been good to me. Say, Brother Jim, you got a lot of money? No, but I feel like I got a lot. God's been good to me. Give me a good home, give me a good church. But we was raised dirt poor. And my mama saved, some of you will know what I'm talking about. My mama saved jelly jars and we drank tea out of them. And all the women in my daddy's side of the family dipped snuff. So we had an ample supply of snuff glasses. And mom would wash them up. And my mom had a full set of salad bowls that all said Cool Whip on the side. We saved everything. And we'd eat out of them, we'd eat beans out of those things. But my aunts, my aunts would come over and dip that snuff, boy. And they always had a spit can when they'd come to our house to see my daddy, they always had a spit can. And up in Tennessee at that time, where we's at over in West Tennessee, that's how you knew you was getting a level-headed girl if she's getting married, if the snuff ran out both sides. If it ran out just one side, she's not level-headed, she's crazy, leave her alone. But they'd all come to our house and they'd dip that snuff. And I said, that must really be good. I just a little kid, I said, that must really be something. Man, that's got, they all love it. And so I caught them all going to town one day. They went, mom and daddy and all of them went to town to get groceries or something, and I said, I'm going to have me some of that snuff. I got in there, and I don't know, they had rooster snuff, they had scotch dental snuff, they had all this mild stuff, mild garret and all these things, all different kinds of snuff. And I got in there, man, I took the lid off that thing, and I got me a wad of that and put it in my mouth. And I didn't know they didn't swallow it. I was just a kid, and I swallowed me about half of that. I'm telling you, I turned green and blue. I threw my guts inside out. I turned inside out. I've never been so sick in my life, and I swore. I said, I will never, ever get anything, taste anything out of that glass again, out of that jar again. Done with it. And boy, I come in there one day from chopping cotton, something working the field, it's hot and messy and everything, boy, sweaty. And my mama had iced tea, a big old glass of iced tea in a jar for me, ice cold sweet tea, boy, I love it. Can't drink it anymore, but I still love it. Got that big old glass of sweet tea, and it was in a scotch snuff glass. I turned that up, that's the best stuff I ever tasted in my life. You say, what's the difference, Brother Jim? Well, the vessel was dirty before. And somebody emptied it out, and somebody cleaned it out, and somebody put something good back in it. And God do the same thing for anybody building tonight. No matter what's in here tonight, he can take it, clean it out, and fill it up with something good. Be a help to people. God can do that for you tonight. My mom ate pickled pig's feet. Good grief, she'd get a gallon jug of them. And I said, pickled pig's feet, any of y'all ever eat them? Anybody ever, yeah, I had one or two. Pickled pig feet, she'd sit and eat those things off a knuckle and chew on them. I said, mama, good grief, that's sick. And they stunk. You couldn't even, when she opened the jar, I didn't like to be in the room. Kill everything in the room. But I come in again one day, and she had that thing cleaned out and had it full of green Kool-Aid, which is the best substance on earth. Green Kool-Aid. Man, I drank my fill of that. The difference was, brothers and sisters, somebody cleaned it out. Somebody refilled the vessel. Somebody made it clean again. What a blessing, brothers and sisters, that God can take me and you. No matter what's inside you tonight, he can clean it up, reshape it. and fill it with something good, and you'd be a blessing and a help to your family and a blessing and a help to your church. Just stay with the Lord. I will say this, there's no hope outside the potter. There in verse 12, did you see what they said? And they said, there's no hope, but we'll walk at their own devices. They said, we know there's no hope, but we're gonna do what we want to. That's where America's at right now. There's no hope in this world outside Christ. They know that, but they're still going to go their own way. They still refuse to come to the Lord. This world's losing. They used to hope in science. Now they know science has lied. And after Fauci and all the COVID stuff, you know, you don't need a mask, and well, you might need a mask, or you can wear a bandana, but now you can't wear a bandana, you gotta wear a mask. And then maybe you ought to wear a double mask, and then you wear a double mask, and just on and on and on. You need a shot, you don't need a shot, this'll help you, this won't help. Now they know they don't know anything. You know, COVID came out, And people were dying, people were sick all over the country. And they got the best scientific minds in the world and the best medical minds in the world to work on it. And you know what they told us? Y'all go home and hide from each other. That's the best they could do. Go home and hide from each other. God help us. If you're hoping in science, you're in trouble. Now, they used to hope in the government. My soul, it's in there. Now we got Biden up there, and not only don't know what country he governs, they don't know what day of the week it is. Amen. Now the country's going towards socialism, and you say, what's the difference between a socialist and a communist? The difference is a communist has a gun, and a socialist can take your money without a gun. But don't you worry, there's a gun behind it somewhere, and it's probably coming. That's the difference. They used to hope in mankind. My soul, after Obama, he had everybody hatin' everybody, time he was done, everybody hatin' the police, everybody hatin' each other. Now out in California, you can steal $999 worth of stuff, and it's just a misdemeanor, you don't even have to go to court anymore. If you keep it under $1,000, you can go to the department store and load up, and nobody punishing you. People, you can't walk down the streets without dope heads on the streets and needles and urine and everything else where kids try to shop, can't go down there. Say, what do you do, brother? I can clean that up in a week. Amen. Look, we got a hospital for you. We're going to put you in and get you straight. And if you don't want to go there, we'll put you in jail. But you will not be on the street next week. Say, that's cruel. No, it's cruel living like they're living. Know how I got off on that, but there it is. The preceding was a paid political announcement. There's only one hope, and it's looking for that blessed hope. And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, he's the only, he can get you through heartache, A couple in our church, she got breast cancer, and they told her she only had like six months to live. And she lived seven years. We still lost her at 30-something years old, but she got seven more years. Got to see both of her boys saved, and I baptized both of her boys, and she got to watch that. Praise the Lord. He's the only hope there is. We had some girls in our church, and I won't mention their name, but they're sweet as sugar. There's three of them and their mom. They were traveling there one night and had a terrible wreck. And they said, you better get over to the hospital in Batesville and see them soon. I'll tell you, it'll break your heart. Beautiful little girls, messed up. One of them's spine fractured in like six or seven places. One of them had 32 skull fractures. And I went in there to see it, and they said, whoo. I remember the night, I went in that hospital there, and the nurse, she called me, she said, are you the pastor? I said, yeah. I said, I'm going to go ahead and pray with her. She said, you better come over here and get the little one first. And they said, they're fixing to fly her out to Springfield. We don't think she'll make the flight. She said, she probably won't be alive when you get there. I went there and prayed with that little girl, that little beautiful girl, and her head was that big around, and swelled. I'd never seen anything that didn't even look human. I went there and prayed with her and prayed with her sisters, and they got on that helicopter, and I didn't think I'd ever see her again. And a day after that, she was sat up in bed and was eating food. A day after that, she recovered, I think made a full recovery. She's in our church right now, meaner than a two-headed water moccasin. Say, where'd you get that? That's hope in the Lord. God did that. He fixed every one of them. They're doing good now, all of them. There's no hope outside Him. One of these days soon, brother, He's gonna come and get us out. Any day now, honest to God, we sing about it, but any day now, he's coming. I like the little girl, she asked her mama, she said, mama, is it true what the preacher said, that Jesus could come any second, any moment? And she said, yes, baby, that's what we believe. She said, mama, fix my hair. Woo! Praise God, we need some of that in the church! We need some of that. I will say this, if you're coming, you better come soon. Before the vessel breaks, before the vessel hardens, it can't break, brother and sister, until it gets hard. And you know how God is. God loves you. He'll give you every chance in the world to do right. But there'll come a time if you don't, he'll break the vessel. He'll do what he has to do to break your heart and get you back on the wheel. And there's one thing he can do worse than breaking your vessel. You know, a potter make a vessel sometimes and it just didn't turn out like he wanted it. Sometimes he don't break it. He just take it and put it up on the shelf. He didn't break it, but he's not gonna use it. He puts you on the shelf, brother and sister. Some of you on the shelf now. You can get off. You can get this altered a little while. You can fix it between you and the Lord. You can get back on the wheel. with you. I think worse than being broken would be to put on that shelf and God said, I'm not using them anymore. How would you like it, brother? God said, I'm not using your songs anymore. You're talking about breaking your heart, boy. He does use them, by the way, praise the Lord. He said, for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure. God said, I broke them like a vessel where I have no pleasure in. You can't break a vessel till it becomes hard. You can reshape it till then. You can completely remake it till then. And brother, sister, you can harden before you know it. Say, brother Jim, what kind of vessel will I be? I'll tell you what kind you're going to be. You're going to be exactly what you are when you harden. That's where you stop. Let me ask you tonight, are you satisfied? Are you satisfied with where you're at? Have you arrived spiritually? You think you're where God wants you to be? That you don't need any more shaping? That you don't need to be on the wheel anymore? You think you have arrived and you can just harden in that shape you're in? Are you satisfied with where you're at? That's why we have revival. You can harden before you know it, boy. Listen, God can clean the vessel out tonight. I don't care what's in it. He can refill it with good things. He can make it shine again. And sometime, brother and sister, he will put it on the shelf. You ever see a potter make a vessel? You know how he shapes it? You ever watch him shape one? They put their hand down inside, and they shape it from the inside. That's the way God will shape you, too, if you get shaped. He'll reach down inside, and that heart boy, he'll shape you from the inside out. I preached this message up in Kansas one time, and a guy told me, he said, man, have I got an illustration for your sermon? I said, tell me about it. He said, I watched Antique Roadshow last week. And he said, they had a pottery vessel on there by a famous potter. He said, very rare, you couldn't hardly get your hands on it. And he said, they had one on there, and that guy looked at that, and he saw the signature on it. He said, if that signature is real, he said, that thing is worth $3,000. Little bitty vase. Boz vase. It's a vase where I come from. little bitty vase, he said $3,000. And he picked it up and looked at he said, Oh, he said, I'm sorry. He said, right there. He said, You can see where it was chipped. And somebody repaired it. He said, Now it's probably worth $300. And then he started the guy started turning away. He said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, he looked down on the bottom of it. He looked And the guy who made it, the original potter who made it, is the one who repaired it. And he signed his initials by it. He said, that thing might be worth $30,000 now. Because it was repaired by the masters. Woo! Praise God! If we could see what God sees, some of you, and we won't ask, but some of you, right inside your lapel, or somewhere on your back, there'd be initials repaired by the master. Whoo! Reshape! Redone! Repaired by the master. I know you'd find it on me. I bet you'd find it on some of you, too. Would you stand, please? Listen, God spoke to your heart.