The Potters House: God Forgives & Restores Kathryn Kuhlman Jeremiah 18:1-4

It was an hour of terrible discouragement for the prophet Isaiah. And remember, he too was human. Sometimes I think that we forget that Abraham was human, just as any man today. Moses was human. Elijah. Oh, we think. of Elijah, that great spiritual giant, as he stood there challenging the prophets of Baal. Remember, he was as human with human weaknesses and failures and moments of discouragement just like any human being today. And this was it. terrible hour of discouragement for the prophet Jeremiah. And he was all down in the faith. I know, we never think of these men of God as being weak enough to be down in the faith. But they were. The people all around Jeremiah had their lives marred by mistakes and faults and failures and sins. And because of it, The prophet's heart was cut to shreds. Then something happened. Oh, God is so merciful. God is so understanding. I still contend that God is altogether different than you and I think of him as being. I really do. I think of that a thousand times a week. And I have to believe it because... I stand and watch him work in human lives. I see his tenderness. I see his great compassion. I even contend that he has a sense of humor. He must have. To put up with some of us. And watching him work, I understand his personality. Well, indeed. that moment of discouragement, instead of rebuking Jeremiah for being down in the face and for being discouraged, God did something. And turn with me, if you will, please, to the 18th chapter of Jeremiah. Then the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, get up. Get up, get going. You've got your eyes on circumstances. You've got your eyes on human beings. 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 on the wheels. and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. So he made it again, another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Oh, that's thrilling. To me, that's one of the most precious, one of the most sacred portions of God's word. and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, and so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Though men sin and mar God's plan yet to remember, he is merciful, he is gracious, he is patient, he is loving. that marred vessel. He doesn't take that whipped vessel and throw it aside and say, I'm through with it. I'm disgusted with it. Get out. I am God. I am God Almighty. What have I to do with thee? A weakling. A struggling. Get out. No, beloved. He's merciful. He's patient. He's gracious. He knows we're human. And he understands you and he understands me better than we understand ourselves. Look at David. That young stripling of a lad. rotting goliath oh how god helped him what god did through that young lad's body literally challenging goliath and then later hear that pitiful cry from david I shall one day perish at the hand of Saul. One day, a spiritual giant. The next day, a weakling, weak in the flesh. Look at Elijah, that great spiritual giant. one day literally challenging the prophets of Baal, routing hundreds and hundreds of false prophets on Mount Carna. And the very next day, not a week, not six months later, not a year later, the very next day after that great victory, I want you to see that spiritual giant. After having seen the manifestation of God's power, after knowing the power and the glory of God, one would have thought in the natural that Elijah never again would have doubted God. One would have thought that never again in Elijah's life would there ever be a weak moment. He would never again show any weakness to flesh. But the very next day, He's fleeing at the threats of wicked Jezebel and wanting to die. Think of the weakness of the flesh, wanting to die. Look at John the Baptist, bravely looking in Herod's face. Oh, look at the courage when he looked him in the face. pointed a finger at him and said, It is not lawful for thee to have her. And then in his hour of discouragement, he sent two men to ask Jesus. He didn't go himself. He sent two men to ask Jesus the simple question, Art thou he that should come? Or do we look? For another. Remember something. And if just in the simplicity of what I am saying, you'll remember these few words. Jesus knows the weakness of the flesh. The Heavenly Father knows the weakness of the flesh. He knows how weak you are. He knows how weak I am. Awful common say. I would give anything in the world, Miss Gorman, if I could turn all the pages of my life back and start all over again. There are many things that I would like to erase. There are parts of my life I would like to live all over again. I would live that part so differently. There have been those with tears streaming down their cheeks, have confessed their sins, have admitted their weaknesses, and have said, do you think you fold? Do you really think he can forgive me? My sins were so awful. The things that I did were so awful. So unforgivable. Catherine Pullman, do you think he'll forgive me? I have his word. his precious word i take you to the potter's house and there i will cause thee to hear my words and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter so that he made it again another vessel has seemed good to the potter to make it. Who is there this very hour who has not been able to say, mold me again, oh gracious savior, oh divine potter, master potter, take the clay, mold it again into a new vessel. The man, 83 years of age, who came into the service, I shall never forget, as he stood there, big and strong and ruddy and rugged and built, and yet weeping as a child and said, my life is spent. I've never served God. Do you think there's hope? Catherine Cooman, do you? Think, after having wasted my entire life, do you think, knowing that I'm living in the sunset hours of my life, that he'll forgive me, that he'll receive me, that if I confess my sins, he'll come into my heart? Of course he will. Of course he will, I promise. I promise you that he will. God has a perfect plan for every life. A perfect plan. Before you took your first cry. Before you ever saw the light of day. I believe that God held a perfect blueprint. A perfect plan for your life, for my life. As surely as he had a plan for the world before he ever spoke it into existence. As surely as he had a plan for man's redemption. God is perfect in everything that he does. He had a perfect plan for Abraham. He had a perfect plan for Moses. He had a perfect plan for Paul. A perfect plan for you. For we were created with free moral agency. It is up to man to live his life according to God's perfect blueprint, or you may live your life according to your own will. Remember, Jesus himself had a will separate and apart from God the Father. Jesus himself, when he was here on earth, as much man as though he were not God, could have taken himself out of God's plan for man's redemption. One of the last things that Jesus had to do was to yield his will to the perfect will of the Father, and the two wills became as one, the Father's will. And he followed God's plan. plan for man's redemption. Are you living according to God's perfect blueprint? If you are, then all things will work together for your good and for the glory of God. Only those who are living according to God's perfect blueprint and God's perfect will can claim that wonderful promise. Remember, we are still human. We all had the witnesses of the flesh. If you take yourself out of God's perfect plan, all things do not add up. All things will not work out. You cannot... those old fates. Have you sinned? Have you gone astray? Have you left the fold? Remember, he has not cast you aside. I promise you that. He's still there waiting. He's still there loving you. he's gracious and merciful tenderly dealing with you in those midnight hours you roll and you toss do you really want to come back do you really want to feel his strong arms folding you close to himself He's there waiting for you. I'll never forget a story I heard when I was very young of a young lad, a teenager, who disgraced the family. Left home. Oh, sure, the world... Called him the black sheep of the family. But no mother has a black sheep in her family. No one had heard from him for years. Oh, here and there, they had heard that he was a failure. Just an ordinary bum. One day the mother received a postal card. And on the card was the handwriting of her own son. And he said, Mom, tonight at midnight, when the old freight train comes through town, I'll be riding it if you still love me. hang out a bed sheet on the clothesline. I'll be looking and watching. And that night, at midnight hour, when the old freight train came rumbling through the little town, I'd clackety -clack and a -clickety -click and a -clackety -clack. and an old bum looked out as he passed the back yard of the family home and what did he see he saw every bed sheet that his mother owned hanging on the old -fashioned clothes line He came to my desk with trembling lip. The lesson was done. Dear teacher, I want a new leaf, he said. I spoiled this one. Please, emplace the leaf so stained and blotted. I gave him a new one, all unspotted, and into his eyes I smiled and said, Do better now, my child. I went to the throne with a... quivering soul. My old life is almost done, dear father. Hast thou a new leaf for me? I've spoiled this one. And he took the old leaf, all stained and blotted, and he gave me a new one, all unspotted. And into my sad heart smiled and said, do better now with this one, my child.