All right, if you open your Bibles, please, to the book of Jeremiah, chapter number 18, as I get my things settled here. Jeremiah chapter 18. Does your Bible look like mine sometimes? This is pastor's message from July. This is another message from July. This is a message from June. This is a, oh, that's an old one. Uh, anyways, somehow they left these in here, but they won't hinder me at all. Jeremiah chapter number 18. And, uh, I do appreciate brother Jim and his message that he shared in song this week, uh, on Sunday. And it blessed my heart. And he's singing, he's just singing away. And as he's singing those songs, there's one song that really just leaped out to me. And you know, I want to look into that just a little bit more. And in looking at a little bit more, I wanted to make sure that I, that I was obedient unto the Lord to, to share what the Lord is laying upon my heart. Making sure I'm not, that's good. Okay. And so tonight he sang a song that he didn't throw the clay away. And so I just pondered that a little bit and prayed about it and started finding the passages of scripture that were wrapped all around that and that thought and that method. So tonight, here's the message from that. It's called In the Potter's Hands. In the Potter's Hands. In Jeremiah chapter 18, verse number one, two, three, and four, we'll read some others in Jeremiah as well as a bunch of other passages. Here the Lord is talking to the children of Israel and he's talking to Jeremiah about them. And so in verse number one, it says this in Jeremiah 18 verse one, the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, arise and 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 upon the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter, so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Let's have a word of prayer, shall we? Let's talk about the potter's hands. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. We thank you, Lord, for tonight. I pray, Lord, you'll lead us through the passages of scripture and, Lord, help us to see some encouraging words here, dear Lord, but also some challenging words. And, Lord, may we continue to be as you'd want us to be and mold us in the fashion you want us to be fashioned into. So Lord, we love you. We pray all this tonight in Jesus name. Amen. And amen. God would use prophets of old to talk to his people and he would give his word to them. And that time there weren't any scriptures. There wasn't anything to look back upon. There wasn't anything for them to kind of study on other than what passed down from Moses and the first five books of our Bible, they call it the Pentateuch. And other than that, they really didn't have any other word from God. And so God would use holy men of God and work through them and speak through them unto the people. And that's what Jeremiah is talking about. We know Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, from Jeremiah into the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah cried aloud and cried a lot about his people. And who did he cry unto? He cried unto the Lord. And here at times, God would come and talk to Jeremiah and share with Jeremiah what God wanted him to do and reminding his people of what they needed to do. And so to help Jeremiah along, he gives Jeremiah an illustration. Do you like illustrations? I love illustrations. I love using illustrations. I love seeing illustrations. It helps me to connect the dots with whatever it is. When I'm learning something new, I like looking at whatever it is. Whether I'm putting a puzzle together, I look at the front to see. If I'm building something for Ms. Kelly, just recently she had me put some bookshelves together. Don't worry, Ms. Kelly, I can do that. I've got screws. I've got a powerful screw gun. I can make it work. She says, no, read the instructions. And she said, only read the instructions. Follow the diagram that's there. Follow the diagram. There's pictures. You like pictures. I like pictures. And I looked at it and said, but it's not in color. This is a modern age. Why don't they do them in color? Everything we do around here is in color. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, but there's a diagram. It shows me, you know, take piece number A and put it with piece number B. And then you fit it with this, that, and the other. And then now you just kind of go through the alphabet. And once you get done, voila, there was a bookshelf. I have built my own bookshelves before. I have built my own bookshelves. I even got rambunctious one year and we were in a little town called Hilliard, Florida. And in Hilliard, I decided to build this massive TV cabinet. Massive. It was huge. It was full four by eight sheets of plywood. And I put it together with shelving in the middle. You could not move it. I could not move it. I had four men kind of move it. And it wouldn't have been good if they did move it. Because after I built it and it was done, it was solid, but it was a solid crooked. And as soon as I tried to fix it, it would crook the other way. But we used it for years. We did. And then she said, get rid of that thing. I mean, it was just, OK, OK. But when a master craftsman, when I was pastoring in Mount Joy, we had an evangelist that came through who was a professional craftsman cabinet maker. And he came in and he fashioned for me. He asked me, he said, now I've been to the church several times. I've built this. This is what I can do. What can I build for you? And I'm like, I don't know who he is. I don't know what his skill level is. I don't know. Can you build me a desk? And he came and he says, what kind of wood do you want? You want oak? You want poplar? I said, can you build it? And I'm from Florida where there's pine everywhere. Can you build it out of number two yellow pine? The craftsman built me this beautiful desk that I've never seen before. Yellow pine. Yellow knotty pine. I guess when I left there, it was still giving sap out here and there. It was that fresh of wood. And he built it beautifully with drawers and cabinets and things for my computer. And then the next year he came back. So what do you want now? I need cabinets now. I need bookshelves. So he built me a bookshelf that was probably what? 20 feet long, 15 foot long, 12 foot long. It was this big. No, it was quite, it was almost like four bookshelves together with a little credenza connected to it that I was able to put things on. Beautiful. The hands of a master. Working with wood, I am not. I am more of, I mean, I'm the master at disaster. I can destroy things faster than you can guess. I am on my third lawnmower, and I haven't been here that long. I'm on my third lawnmower. But the master, master the crafts. And we're going to talk about this craft tonight, this of the potter and what a potter does. You see, we have vessels all around us, things that we use to hold things and carry things. And, you know, whether it's made out of a glass pot, a glass jar, a little small Tupperware thing made out of plastic containers. We have plenty of those. We have paper bags. We have cardboard boxes. We have all kinds of things that containers that hold. But back in Bible times, they didn't have that option. They didn't have that technology. So the primary item that they were able to store things in to keep the mice out and keep, you know, everything better instead of the moisture getting in there, they made jars, they made pots of many different sizes from around. Archaeologists are still finding them from days gone by to where they would keep important things found in these jars, in these bottles, big ones, huge ones, wide ones with lids and containers sealed. Who made those? But the potter, who made those? Now, when we see this story and we're reading through it in our own time, in our own time and space, we think of, well, this is a great craft. There aren't many people that do pottery. Does anybody in here do pottery? Have you ever done pottery other than in middle school? You know, before I got saved, you know, when I was a little kid for, you know, for my dad, I made an ashtray. You ever make one of those? A cup? You ever make a cup work with pottery? I did that in the second grade and making things and they taught us how to, it was the ugliest thing that ever was. It didn't take long before I broke it, but it's beside the point. But it was, it was something that I was, I went through the process of it. But there are folks that are skilled. If you were to go down to the Tamarack, we will see skilled people working with making molding, moving and doing pottery. And you're like, how did they do that? How did they do that? But in Bible times, it was very important for what now here in Jeremiah, especially when he's giving, God's coming to Jeremiah and giving him instruction. He's going to give him an illustration of which he can see and he knows that is a part of the life of everybody to be able to see, that of the potter. And so, first of all, if you'd like to keep notes, I didn't hand out notes, but you're welcome to take notes. God tells Jeremiah to go to a specific place. A specific place. God could talk to Jeremiah anywhere. God could show Jeremiah anything. He's given dreams to people in the past. He's shown them by things that are around them. He didn't really have to go anywhere for God to show Jeremiah what he needed to see to get his message out. But God comes to Jeremiah and says, Jeremiah, I want you to go to a specific place. We find this in verse number one and two. Jeremiah 18, he says, To hear my words. You know, even today, God has a specific place for He wants us to go to hear from Him. To hear from Him. And of course, He wants us to go to His Word. He wants us to hear from His Holy Word. God gave us the Holy Bible so that we can hear from Him. And He wrote it for us. This is more than just instructions for us. This is more than a history book. This is more than a law book. This is more than an instructional manual. This is God's love letter to each and every one of us. And God wrote it for each one of us individually. I said, well, no, this is everybody's Bible. No, it's your Bible. It's your book. It's your place. When you read it, God makes things come out for you to understand. It is by the working of the Holy Spirit of God that these things become illuminated. Illumination meaning turning the light on. I've been reading the Scriptures for years. I was 10 years old when I got saved. I can't say that I read it faithfully every day, but I have read through the Scriptures many times. But I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I know everything in the Bible. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I could read more. I can learn more. Dr. Glenn Matthews, who we just were talking about a moment ago, was a scholar in the Word of God, able to pull things out as he preached here from time to time. And in the six years that I got to meet him and know him and to hear the message that he gave, he would go there. He would go to that specific place and there he would find these nuggets that he would pull out that even studied preachers would go, where did he get that from? Because it's in there. And that was for him. And then he was able as a preacher to relay it back around for us. But God has things in here for you at your time and at that place. God told Jeremiah to go to a specific place, a specific place, and that to hear his word. You know, God has showed us in his word that he has a specific place for us to come to. Yes, we meet with God in His Word wherever. In the closet that He tells us to go to, that secret place, or into, we can be driving down the road and be listening to the radio and get something. But God has specific places. And one of the specific places that He really wants us to be at by His Word is church. He tells us in scriptures that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together for the matter of some is, but we gather together as a body of believers. Christ died for the church, the believers. They gathered together from where it started. And God used his men to teach and to work and to train and to share what Jesus poured upon them through the disciples. And then the word were being written and then it was taken and carried and then carried around the world. And it was carried around the world through His church, through His church. God told Jeremiah to go to a specific place. And God wants us to go to a specific place to hear from Him. So number one, a specific place. Number two, Here he sees, Jeremiah sees him. And I want you to see just what I wrote down. I want you to see a specific mud. How about that? A specific mud. We find in the passage of Scripture that he is now at the potter's house. He is getting everything put together and He has a wheel and He says that He has and He's the power of the Son. Behold, He wrought a work upon the wheels and the vessel that are made of clay. Made of clay. A specific mud. Now I had to look into that. You know, there's a difference between clay and mud. But clay is mud. But it's not real mud mud. It's a specific mud. It has qualities that are much different than what mud mud. Like we would say what we step in a lot, when we step in the mud puddle, we're stepping into more of a topsoil mud. And a topsoil mud is different than that of clay. Topsoil mud is mostly organic matter. It's mostly decomposing things that haven't quite reached dirt yet. It's kind of like the stuff that Ms. Kelly and I have in our compost pile. It's a combination of stuff. You step in it and you go, eww. I just stepped in the mud. Now, little kids, you know, they like doing it every once in a while. I like being in mud. I like getting dirty. I like getting in things like that. It's just like, oh, yeah. There's nothing better than a good old football game in a big old pile of mud. I mean, it's just nothing like it. But there's a difference between mud and clay. Mud and clay. You see, we find that the topsoil with its organic matter, if it's made into anything, if you can even make it into something because of its consistency, it just won't hold. It just won't hold. But not only that, because it's organic matter, more so than what clay is, when you put it into the kiln to fire it, it will burn up. 1 Corinthians 3, 11 came to mind. 1 Corinthians 3, 11 says, For other foundation can no man lay than that such as laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver and precious stones, wood, hay and stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If you build your house on the top soil of life, when it's put to the fire, it's going to burn up. It's going to burn up. But it's the clay, the clay is different. The clay is something that's not on a top surface, it's something that's down deeper. It's something that's traditionally down deeper. And it's not just a single mineral, but a number of minerals. A couple of things that they say it's high and it's high in alumina, A-L, and silica. Did I say that right? Silica. S-L-I-C-I-A, cilicia content. It is by which silicone comes from. The unique thing about this cilicia, that in reading about it, I just want to figure out what was something special about that. And it stood out that it is a mineral that's found throughout the human body. Where we see it most, they say, from doctors, is that they see it in your heart, they see it around your throat, they see it in our bones, they see it on our skin. It is that element that keeps these areas more strong, even, and pliable. Now, as we get older in life, we find that the silica goes away. And in that, as well as other things, we see the skin is not as pliable as it used to be. The bones aren't as rigid as they used to be. They get kind of fragile as we get older. The heart starts thickening. And the same thing with our throats, we get older. When I read that, I'm like, wow, that's pretty neat. So the same element that's in clay is in us. Hmm. So clay and mankind, How did clay get in us, Ms. Karen? In the beginning, the Lord formed man out of the dust to the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. A man became a living soul, Genesis 2.7. In Genesis 3.19, it says, Hmm. I guess Han Solo, you know, whoever said it, we're just nothing but mud balls walking around, you know, mud balls. So we find that we are made of the dirt. We are made of the mud. We are made out of clay. I think somebody said, I didn't look it up, somebody said that we actually eat about a bunch of dirt during our life. And it's actually pretty good for us. I don't know. Psalm 40, verse 1, we find this clay in the Psalms. David wrote here a Psalm. He said, Now it could be read along the lines that he was just stuck. Or we can also look at the fact that he was fashioned out of clay. Either way, we all have come out of a miry pit and we're all come out of a miry batch of clay. But now He has set us upon a rock and He's established our goings. Verse number three, and He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praising to our God, many shall see it and fear and trust in the Lord. Many shall see it and fear. You know, when you got God on you, people see it. When you allow God to mold you as a piece of clay into what He wants you to be instead of what you want to be, God, people see it and they look and they see the difference. And as He says, as we're giving praise unto the Lord, we're singing songs with our mouth, many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. Shall trust in the Lord. So we see the fact that He wanted us to go to a specific place. He wanted to use a specific mud Now I want you to see specific hands. Specific hands, number three. In Jeremiah 18, verse one, it says this again. He wrought a work on the wheels. He wrought a work on the wheels. We find down in verse number six, if you're there in Isaiah 18, verse number six says, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter, sayeth the Lord, behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel, the potter's hands. It's one thing to have gone to a specific place. It's another thing to be a specific piece of mud, a piece of clay specifically. But now it's specific hands that are there that are being used to mold and to make us. The potter's hands, the master's hands. He wants to make us to be and to grow and to be fashioned into what He wants us to be. Specific hands. Can I tell you something in this world today? There are many hands pushing you from every side, from every nook and cranny about you and to mold you and to fashion you into what they want you to be. Whether it's Facebook, whether it's TikTok, whether it's any other of those social media places to where if you're not this, you're nothing. If you don't wear that, you're not in style. If you're not drinking this, then you're useless. If you're not participating in that, you're not having any fun. Everybody's trying to mold you into this fashion and into that fashion. They're trying to mold you into this product or into that product. Can I tell you something? That's not a new thing. That's an old thing because God's been wanting to work on you with His hands. God was wanting to mold you and make you with His hands into His image, into the image of Christ. Hold your place here, if you will, in Jeremiah. Let's go over to Romans chapter number eight. Romans chapter number eight. Look at there, one of my papers is right there. How about that? Romans chapter number eight and verse number 29. Romans 8, 29, let's go to verse number eight. We know that one, Romans 8, 28. Conformed. into the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. He wants to mold us. He wants to make us. He wants to, in the biblical word, to conform us. Can you see that? Can you see how the potter and the wheel is conforming the mud? He is molding it. He is pushing it. He is moving this way and moving it that way. God wants to do that with his hands, with his hands. To do and to where? And to the image of God. In Romans chapter number 12, if we were to turn the page, in Romans chapter number 12, we find in verse number two, where he tells us in verse number one, Conformed to this world. How do we get to that good and that perfect and acceptable will of God? By letting God conform us. By resisting the world to conform us. but not letting these things overcome us and overpower us, and to be fashioned like unto the things of this earth and the things of this world, but fashioned unto Christ. In Romans 9, verse 20 and 21. You see, sometimes we say otherwise to God, but God says, nay. Romans 9, verse 20. He says, old man, you're fighting me. Old piece of clay. Oh, batch of mud, specific mud. You're being used by the master's hand. Let the master move you. Let the master mold you. Let the master create with you. Because he wants to conform you into the image of the Lord. Number four. It says here in our passage of Scripture that he placed it upon, he wrought, back to Jeremiah 18, verse three. So it was a specific wheel, a specific wheel. This is the wheel that goes around and around and around and around. Not a wheel that rolls down the road. How would you like to work on something while it's rolling down the road? I know people work in things that roll down the road, but to work on something besides something while it's going down the road? We've seen some crazy things on videos and all that, people doing some silly things, working on stuff that comes loose, and now they're trying to stay with it while it's going down the road. But that's not God's plan. God says that the wheel, the wheel that is spinning is an around and around wheel that the clay goes on. So everything can be done evenly. Everything can be fashioned perfectly by utilizing the wheel. And it's on the wheel that we're molded. It's on the wheel that things get pushed. It's on the wheel that we're pressured on this side and that side by the Lord. See, it's the turning of the wheels, like the turning of life for you and for me. Round and round we go where God places the pressure and moves our lives. Round and round we go where we are lifted up like a piece of clay, and then we're also brought back down again. Round and round we go where God works on us to smooth out the rough spots. And some of us have rougher spots than others, but we all have rough spots. We all have spaces that God has to really work on. We have all those spots that we feel the pressure from the Lord, but it's good pressure. It may not be the pressure that we want, but it's definitely the pressure that God wants as He molds and He makes the clay. We were just there in Romans 8, 28. We have to go back to it. But my Bible says, for all things work together for good. He molds us and He makes us. Well, Lord, I don't want that. I don't want that, Lord. I don't want that. But God says, but it's for your good. I don't want to be pushed that. I don't want to be pushed that. I don't want to go through that. I don't want to be mowed that way. I want to go this way. I want to go like the crowd goes. I want to go like everybody else goes. I want to go like it's popular to go. But God says, but that's not my way. That's not the right way. And on the wheel, the wheel spins. Have you ever seen somebody working with some clay and they got it on there and all of a sudden this beautiful bowl that's fashion, all of a sudden it just goes whoop, whoop, whoop. I used to see that as a Christian that just tells God, no. No, God, I don't want to do that. And everything just falls apart. But the master doesn't stop. He spins the wheel. He spins the wheel. He takes those specific hands at that specific place and he spins the wheel and he starts fashioning and molding again upon the wheel. Number five, sometimes that clay can get hard and rough and say, I don't want to be moved no more. It starts to dry out and get hard. So what does the Lord do? The Lord comes along and he adds a little bit of water. He adds a little bit of water, the master potter, he adds a little bit more water to the clay and makes the clay pliable again and he splashes it on there and it's able to be molded and it's smooth and it comes out. So what is that, Brother Holtzclaw, to the Christian? Oh, you know what that is. That is the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God. Hebrews 3, 7, Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost sayeth today, if ye will hear His voice, If you will hear His voice, then He tells us in verse 8 of Hebrews 3, 3, 8, In the wilderness, Hebrews 3, 13, Hold on. follow his movements, move with his hands and let the Holy Spirit make you pliable. Old friend of mine years ago, and he was older then, I think he's believe he's with the Lord now. He would always say when someone was, when God was working upon the heart and when God squeezes the heart, the juice comes out the eyes. You know, there are times that God's got to get ahold of us and squeeze this old clay. And to us, the juice will come out our eyes as we start getting things right with Him. He puts us on the wheel. Pressure is applied. Titus says this, Titus 3, 5, My friend, we were dirty clay at one time. But by the Holy Spirit of God and the calling of the Lord and salvation unto Him, He has made us new and He's made us whole. So number six, we're fashioned by His plan. Fashioned by His plan. Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10. He is the workman. He has a plan. He wants to make us. He wants to mold us. I think he has experience. I think he knows how to do that. Who made the clay? Who made the earth that the clay is on? Who made all the beautiful things we get to see? Who made the stars? Who made the sun? Who made the moon? The same Creator that's holding you and that's holding me. With His hands, He has a fashion plan. And then at times, number five, we're tried by fire. We're tried by fire. Everything that we have back to first Corinthians 3, 13, everything that the master has made us and he's molded us and all that we're tested into the fire. Every man's work shall be made manifest, for that day shall be declared, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 1 Peter 1, 7 says that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than that of gold, that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory to the appearing of Jesus Christ. Job even said this, Job in the Old Testament, chapter 23, verse 10, but he knoweth the way that I take when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. We're put to the test. We're tried as that lump of clay. We let him mold us and we let him make us and we let him pushed us where he wants us to be. When the fire comes, when the trial comes, we'll stand the test. and we'll make it through. So with Brother Holtzclaw, I haven't lived the best life. I got saved at a young age and along the way I've messed up. I've goofed up here, I've goofed up there. How can the Lord continue, would want to use me? God can't use me anymore. And I've met folks like that. Met a gentleman just the other day that he just said, it's just, my life's a mess. God can't use me. But yes, he can. Because back to our verse in Jeremiah chapter 18, now verse number four, he says, Can I tell you something, folks? God's not done with you yet. God's not done with me yet. God's not done with us yet. The old saying, you can point a finger out this way, but there's three others pointed back. And my friend, when I say that he's still working on you, he's still working on me. Is he still molding you? He's still molding me. Is he still finding some rough spots on you? He's still finding some rough spots on me. Can we be better? Yes. Do we need to be molded? Yes. Do we need to be pushed? Yes. Sometimes He's got to take that marred bowl and He's got to make it all over again where He wants us to be, unto His image. Because God's not done with us yet. God created us. He created us to be useful. God's hands are shaping us into Christ's image. God's hands are reshaping us from our broken dreams. 1 Peter 1, verse 7. What does that mean, Brother Holtzclaw? That means that Jesus is coming again. He's coming again. And one day up in heaven, whether we are up in the rapture with him, and I pray that's what happens, even now, boom, we're gone. Wherever pastor's at, we'll meet him up there too. But in that instant, we'll be before the Lord. How will we stand before Him? How will we stand? What will we have to stand before Him? Will it be a clay that's pure and ready to go as best as we can be? Or we're going to be a marred one with junk and stuff in there that's going to be tried with fire and be gone. But my friend, all in all, God's still working on you. God wants you to be the best you that He is molding you to be. He's not molding you to be like me and all of God's people said amen to that. He's not molding you to be like Brother Jim. He's not molding you to be like Miss Karen. He's not molding you to be like anybody. He's molding you to be like Jesus. Like Jesus. We're broken vessels, all of us are. But I am so glad, Jim's gonna sing a song for me that he sang the other night, by which the sermon came from. I'm so glad that when he found that mar in me, he found that resistance in me, and he found that trouble in me, that he didn't throw the clay away. How about you tonight? He's not throwing you away either. He wants to mold you and use you and make you to be all that you can be for Christ. Amen. Let's have a quick word of prayer as Jim comes. Dear Holy Father, Lord, we love you. We praise you. I pray, dear Lord, that we'll just yield ourselves to you as clay to be fashioned in a form unto Christ. Lord, thank you. Bless tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. and broken, I came back to him, a vessel unworthy. you