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Content type: Sermon Poem / Prayer Service / Tribute Incomplete Biography
Body: “The Game is Only Half Over” On New Year’s Day, 1919, Georgia Tech was playing California. Late in the second quarter, Roy Regals recovered a fumble for California, and in his excitement, he became confused and began running in the wrong direction. After racing sixty-five yards he was finally tackled by his own player at the Georgia Tech two-yard line. California attempted to punt from deep in their own end zone, but the kick was blocked and Georgia Tech scored a safety. In the locker room at halftime, Roy Regals sat in the corner with his hands buried in his face, crying. Everyone else was silent. The coach didn’t make his usual halftime speech, but shortly before the team was to take the field for the second half, he said, "The starting team is going back onto the field to begin the second half." The whole team left the locker room except for Regals, who remained in the corner, face in hands. "I can’t do it, Coach," he said. "I can’t play. I’ve ruined the team." The coach said, "Get up Regals. The game is only half over. You belong on the field." Jeremiah was a prophet whom God had called to confront God’s people of their sins. The people of Judah had fallen far away from God’s intended purpose for their lives. Not only had they forsaken His law, but they had given themselves over to false idolatry and worship by bowing down before man-made idols. God called men like Jeremiah to warn His people of their sins, and to compel them to repent from their wickedness before His judgment would fall upon them. Unfortunately, instead of heading to the Word of God and turning from their wicked ways, the people mocked the prophets and continued in their sinful ways. Jeremiah was a man of great sorrow. He is sometimes referred to as the weeping prophet, for not only did he experience persecution from his fellow countrymen, but he lived to see the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the Jewish people by the hand of the Babylonians. This message that Jeremiah received at the Potter’s house was intended for the Jewish people and was another call for them to heed the message of God. And yet, though the message was originally for them, this message has a call to each one of us. Listen to the words of another prophet, Isaiah, in **Isaiah 64**. **Isaiah 64:6-8** “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs up to take hold of You; for you have hidden your face from us and have consumed us because of our iniquities. 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.” The Bible tells us that we are the creations, and God is the Sovereign Creator. He is the potter, and we are the clay. As the potter, God, is actively working in our lives to mold us and shape our lives as He wills. As the clay, we are in need of His touch. To form us into the Potter’s great plan. As clay we are far from perfect, in fact our lives are often filled with disappointments and failures, but just as Roy Regals needed to be reminded in the locker room so many years ago, the game is not over. As we look at **Jeremiah 18:1-6** this morning, I want us to first look at the role of The Potter in our lives. He is patiently working (18:3) As Jeremiah went down to the Potter’s house, a place that he had passed many, many times in his life, he saw a familiar sight. The potter was patiently working with the clay to make it into something that only he could envision... “He did not get his flash of insight while he was praying but while he was watching a potter engaged in his daily work,” wrote Charles E. Jefferson. “God reveals Himself in strange places and at unexpected seasons. For instance, He once revealed Himself in a stable.” When you follow the Lord in your life you never know what will happen next. “The potter sat before two parallel stone wheels that were joined by a shaft. He turned the bottom wheel with his feet and worked the clay on the top wheel as the wheel turned. As Jeremiah watched, he saw that the clay resisted the potter’s hand so that the vessel was ruined but the potter patiently kneaded the clay and made another vessel.” (Warren Wiesbe, Jeremiah, pg. 105) For a potter to be good at His craft, he must be patient. The clay is not easy to work with. For the clay to become something of value, the potter must show patience and exert much energy to create something magnificent. **Psalm 139:1-3** “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.” Just as the potter must know his clay, so too does God completely know us. He has searched us and he knows us fully. When I don’t even know myself, God knows me intimately. **Isaiah 41:10** “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah tells us not to fear, not to be anxious in our lives. If the potter is working on our behalf, what do we as mere lumps of clay have to worry about? The potter is in control, He is patiently working His plan out in our lives. He labors with tender hands Notice something else about the potter. Not only is He patient with the clay, but He also works with it in a very gentle way. Working with clay demands the use of tender hands. **Psalm 139:7-10** “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.” There is no place that we ever turn to escape God’s notice. Some people believe that their mistakes lead them to a place where God simply will not care for them anymore. And yet the Bible tells us that we have God’s attention. We are on His mind. The Potter’s hand is leading us. The Potter’s hand is holding us! **Psalm 139**: 13-14 “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” Not only are you on God’s mind this morning, but you have been on God’s mind for all of eternity. That is how much God cares for you. You have been fearfully and wonderfully made. The Potter has invested much time into your creation. Marvelous are the works that He has in store for you. Transition: And so, The Potter’s plan and The Potter’s works are marvelous, but what about the clay? What are we to know about our lives as the clay in The Potter’s hand? The Clay It is Marred (18:4) Notice with me that the first thing about the clay is that it is marred. Of its own the clay is without form and void of character. The clay is flawed and difficult to work with. Even as the Potter uses His tender hands to shape the clay into something special, continuous flaws present themselves. You see, we as human beings are nothing more than marred clay. Due to its natural characteristics; clay is naturally very hard to work with. At every turn the clay attempts to resist the Potter’s touch. And yet even as the clay reveals its defects, the Potter continues to shape it into a more suitable product. For you see as marred as the clay is, the potter always wields his control over it. **Psalm 53:2-3** “God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. Every one of them has turned aside. They have together become corrupt, there is none who does good, No, not one.” The truth is we are all pieces of marred clay. The Bible tells us that God created man from the dust of the earth. He is the one who breathed His life into us. And yet, because of sin, because of our choices of disobedience, we are all marred. **Isaiah 53:6** “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (KJV) We are stubborn and difficult to work with. We tend to resist His tender hands. Through our sinful decisions we set ourselves in direct opposition to His Holiness. Through sin, we became His enemies. And yet, the patient, loving Potter refuses to give up. He is willing to continue to knead, continue to roll, continue to shape and continue to mold us according to His purposes. We must fully trust the touch of the Master. If the clay is ever to become a master piece, he must allow the Master to accomplish His perfect plan. This does not mean that the clay will always understand, or even always agree. And, how can the thing being formed ever complain to the one forming it? **Romans 9:21-22** “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 day, from the same lamp to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” The Potter’s desire is to make our lives into masterpieces. However, for that to be accomplished the marred clay must be willing to allow His hands to work, and that will include the Potter allowing the clay to go through the fire. After The Potter has used his tools to form and shape the clay into His desired image, the clay must be hardened before it is completed. If the clay were to protest that the fire was too difficult to bear, the Potter would not be able to complete the beautiful transition. If we are to ever become priceless treasures, then we must recognize that our faith will be tested. God is a loving God and He has a perfect plan for our lives. But just as the clay can never become a useable object without going through the finishing stages of the fires, so too is it true about our lives. You see it is in the difficult times that we find out who really has control of our lives. It is through the fires of life that we come to discover who holds the reigns. The Master has a plan, and it is a wonderful plan, but we must fully trust to realize it. We have limitless potential. **2 Timothy 2:20-21** “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 from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.” When the Potter is allowed to exercise His plan in a lump of clay’s life, the results are always beautiful. Yes, the process might not always be what we would desire. But the end result is far better than anything we could dream of for our own lives. When we allow God to make us into vessels of honor, not only do we bring glory to Him, but as we do so, we come to understand what the true meaning of life is all about. God is the master architect, and He will accomplish His purposes in this world and in our lives. God’s desire is to make us into vessels of gold and silver, vessels of great honor for His name’s sake and for His Kingdom. He will accomplish good works in our lives and conform us to His image if we give Him the room to work. There is nothing more fulfilling in life than to allow The Potter to take your marred life and make it into something far more valuable than you could ever imagine. And yet there is one last truth about this story that we need to understand. In this passage, God warned His people that as the Potter He was in complete control of the fate of the clay. His desire and heartbeat was that the clay vessels submit to His Sovereign plan for their lives. He wanted them to repent of their sinful ways and obey His commands. But His people were not forced to do what He said. He laid the options out for them. He gave them a choice, a choice that came with two completely different results. **Jeremiah 18:11-12** “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now everyone from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good.” Have you submitted to the touch of the Master in your life? God loves you, Jesus died for you, and He wants to be the Lord of your life today. Have you given the control of your life to Him? Friends, we are all works in progress. We have accepted Christ as our Savior, but perhaps as clay we need to be easier to work with. **At****the Potter’s****House** **18**This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: **2**“Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” **3**So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. **4**But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so, the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. **5**Then the word of the Lord came to me. **6**He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.
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