(Jeremiah 18: 1-6)
The topic for the quarter has been well covered by previous sermons in the course of the quarter. It talks of a life that we previously walked. This was a life of sin and disobedience orchestrated by Satan. But because of his great love and mercy, we have been transformed and made alive. The last part of the text reminds us that we are God’s handiwork, “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”. Please note the emphasis is, “prepared in advance”..
We are in a transition and getting to another level where God is taking us. If we are going to embrace this new level and attain where God is taking us, we have to realize that there is a missing dimension in the body of Christ. We are very prayerful, we are very charismatic, we are very religious and we are good church members. Some people are good givers and observe every religious activity in the church. Some are good worship leaders and even good choir members. But then we have not been informed of the Word of God.
There is a great need for information. Hosea said, ”my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. We don’t have enough information to provoke our destiny. There is so much the Lord has locked in us but we are carrying so little information to take us to where God has designed for us. God has a plan on where he is taking his people. I believe one of the deficiencies in the body of Christ particularly the charismatic Christians is that we are too noisy with little information. We don’t sit at our bibles; we don’t do bible study. We don’t read and chew the scriptures.
That is why we are taken away by every false prophesy and doctrine that come to us. We don’t seek to understand what God is saying.
As much as there is so much confusion and misleading doctrines, I believe a time has come when God is going to raise sons and daughters who will teach the Word in its entirety. God is equally going to raise sons and daughters who will seek to grow deeper in the knowledge of God. In spite of the emerging cultic tendencies within the society, God is going to shift things so that his people are liberated from such bondage. God is transforming us from what we were, how we lived and as dead as we were, we are being made alive in Christ Jesus to do his work.
The Lord spoke a word to Jeremiah’s life.
This is the same Jeremiah that God spoke to in Jeremiah 1:5 that “before you were formed in your mother’s belly, I knew you”. Jeremiah, you are not a product of whatever you are trying to be. You are not an effort of what you are trying to do. Jeremiah, before your mother and father came together physically, I knew you. You pre-existed in my mind before you existed in your mother’s belly. God is saying that, before you were conceived, I knew every detail of you and the bible says, “I ordained you a prophet to the nations”.
That provoked me about destiny. There is no single person in the congregation today that has no destiny. I am talking about destiny because God is destiny oriented. He is a God of purpose and plan. The only person who can destroy the plan of God in your life is yourself; through ignorance.
There is destiny locked within yourself. There is greatness. There is enough seed of greatness that has been deposited inside of you.
The Lord said to Jeremiah, arise and go down to the potter’s house and observe. I am going to talk to you out of what you will observe. From this text, I have realized that God is demonstrative. God is illustrative.
It will take a people that understand the spirit of God that are so observant on what God is saying and doing so that they are able to tap into the mind of God and get to know exactly what God is doing in this hour.
God said to Joshua, “This book of the law, shall not depart out of your mouth, you shall meditate therein day and night, to observe to do”. Because if you do not observe what God is doing, you will miss what God is saying in your life.
Jeremiah went down and looked at the potter and the potter reached down to the mud and scooped out a clay and after scooping the clay, he started removing the pebbles out of the clay and begun to heat the clay on the wheel, and as the wheel turned, he was very observant. If you meditate on what Jeremiah was observing, you will realize that when God is beginning to form a person for destiny, he picks them out of nothing; the clay. He made a work out of the clay. He picked the clay and scooped it and the clay got into his hands. He looked at the clay, and the clay was dirty, smelly and sticky.
I believe that if God is going to raise anybody in this church, he will pick them out of the clay. You picked me out of the miry clay and set my feet upon the rock.
Jeremiah wondered, what can come out this stinking clay? But the potter was so patient with the clay, because he had made other pots before. Because he already has confidence in the finished product, he can begin from anywhere. The pot was made and looked as though it was complete.
There is the first vessel that is not really what God destined for you.
While Jeremiah was still watching, the bible says, the pot got marred, got destroyed, got spoiled, it did not fall down, and the potter crushed it.
This implies that when you had the crisis in your life, you were right in the hand of the potter, when your business failed, when the marriage got some challenges, when you lost your job, you were sick in the hand of the potter. All these were not happening to you in the wilderness, they were right in the hand of the potter.
What you are going through is not an accident, it is part of your destiny. God knew your ministry; your calling or your status would not have stood what was coming. God knew, if he allowed the relationship to stay, it would not live long, so he allowed some shaking, he allowed you to lose your job while you are still in the hand so that he can make another. God said this is good, but not good enough.
We have to remember that:
There is no greatness without experience
There is gain without pain
There is no testimony without a testing
There is no elevation without a trial
There is no anointing without a prize
If you are going to become something or somebody, God will allow you to be marred. God will allow something to happen in your life so that he can make you another vessel. There is another vessel that is coming in your life that you have never seen before.
CONCLUSION
The children of Israel had gone into captivity. While they were away, the house of the Lord went into ruins. When the people came back, they got so busy in their own houses and own things until they forgot the house of the Lord. Haggai then brought a word from the Lord that the Lord will deal with them if they do not rebuild the house.
Haggai 2: 9 God declares that the glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former house. In between the former house and the latter, there is the ruins. In between, we will face discouragement, we will face illnesses, economic challenges, but the latter house is coming. There is a new vessel that God is creating in our lives. God will allow you to go through the ruins so that you can cry out for the latter vessel. As we go through the ruins, we have to thank God for the latter house that is coming. We have to thank him for the new glory that he is bringing. We have to thank him for his deliverance.
One of the greatest prayers in the bible is recorded in the book of Jonah. In Jonah 2; 1-2, Jonah was praying while still in the belly of the fish. In his prayer, he was praising and thanking God for hearing him. We too can begin praising and thanking God even in our situations because he has heard us and deliverance is coming. There is another vessel that God is creating and its’ glory will be greater than the glory of the former vessel.
PEACE TO ALL