The Sovereignty of God | Jeremiah 18 | Pastor William Hixson

our evening service, afternoon service.

Next Sunday, the service will be not at

4:00 but at 6:00. Okay,

moving back into summer

time.

Call your attention to chapter 18 of the

book of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 18 · chapter mention

Chapter 18

of the book of Jeremiah.

And this chapter begins with the word of

God came to and it begins a section that

really goes to three chapters. 18, 19,

and 20 are really all together.

But there's no way we can deal with all

that legitimately into one message.

Although when we get to 21, we see the

word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from

the Lord. That's a second section of

scripture subsequent to this. So, we've

got a three chapter section and we're

just going to deal with the first part

tonight.

Let's have a word of prayer. Father,

thank you for the time we can spend

tonight. Bless and guide our direct our

thoughts in Jesus name. Amen.

Philip Reichen in his uh messages on

Jeremiah entitles this chapter, it was

time for Jeremiah to take another field

trip.

It's time for Jeremiah to take another

field trip. And his field trip this time

took him to the potter's house.

in the different field trips that God

sent him on would often be catalysts or

messages.

Those of us that have spent a lot of

time preaching

know that some of our best sermons don't

come when we're in the study.

Sometimes we're in the car. Sometimes

we're walking. Sometimes we're in the

hospital. Sometimes we're doing other

things and the message comes and of

course that doesn't mean we haven't been

in the study a lot and we've been

studying but uh sometimes the middle of

the night I've got some good messages at

3 in the morning

and I've learned to get up and write

what I get.

And so

uh I'm not saying my works are inspired

or my messages are inspired. I'm not

saying that. But God would often use

uh an illustration to generate a

message.

And this time he specifically tells

Jeremiah, "Time for you to go to the

potter's house."

The potter's house was a place where a

lesson was waiting for Jeremiah

from the Lord.

So he goes and then when he gets there

he's watching and then

in verse 5 after the illustration that

God wanted him to be thinking about the

message came

the best messages are given and again

I'm not claiming inspiration for myself

or any other preacher but God we we

study we study we study we pray and then

boom it falls in place and we start

understanding what God wants to say at

that time. Not that we're inspired like

Jeremiah was or the other writers of

scripture.

But I like Reichen's uh note there. It

was time for Jeremiah to take another

field trip. And the potter's wheel is a

lesson in the absolute sovereignty

of God.

The potter's wheel is a lesson in the

absolute sovereignty of God.

And in Isaiah 45:9,

Isaiah 45:9

does the clay say to the potter, "What

are you making?"

Of course not.

Wet clay is malible and the potter is in

complete mastery over the clay.

You know what I'm talking about. There's

a potter. He's working the wheel like

the oldfashioned sewing machines where

the gals would move their feet and then

the then the wheels going around and

he's moving his hands up and down on the

clay.

And there's a point here. If God's the

potter and we're the clay, then let God

be the potter.

Let let God be the potter. I'm the clay.

He's the potter.

He's going to make what he wants to make

out of me, out of Athens Bible Church,

out of you.

We have no right to complain about that.

He's the potter.

We're the clay.

Let me read the first part of this. The

word which came to Jeremiah from the

Lord, saying, "Arise, go down to the

potter's house, and there I'll cause

thee to hear my words.

Once you get there, you're going to get

a message from me. I'm not going to give

it to you here. I'm going to give it to

you once you get to the potter's house.

Then I went down to the potter's house,

and behold, he wrought a work on the

wheel. So the potter's busy at work.

The vessel that he made of clay was

marred

in the hand of the potter.

So apparently the clay was defective.

and it wasn't going to be able to make

what the potter designed.

So, he made it again into another

vessel.

I can't make this what I want to make,

so I'll make it into something else.

He made it again into another vessel as

seemed good to the potter to make it.

Then the word of the Lord came to me

saying, that's where here's where God

starts

giving him the message. Oh house of

Israel, cannot I do with you as this

potter, says the Lord, behold, as the

clay is in that potter's hand, so you're

in my hand, oh house of Israel, at what

instant I shall speak concerning a

nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck

up and pull down and destroy it. If that

nation against whom I have pronounced

turn from their evil, I will repent of

the evil that I thought to do to them.

And at that what instant I speak

concerning a nation and concerning a

kingdom to build and to plan it. If they

do evil in my sight,

if they do evil in my sight that it not

obey my voice, then I'll repent of the

good with which I had I would benefit

them.

This is interesting, isn't it?

So

God God's got quite a message.

Now, does any of this cut the cord of

God's sovereignty? Obviously not. God is

sovereign, and that's the whole point of

this.

But none of us should presume on the

goodness of God. None of us should

presume on his graciousness or his love.

And none of us should

be uh okay if we don't keep

the rules.

Not that we're saved by keeping rules,

but if the clay is unmalable,

God just might do something else

different with it.

Now I this is very very important.

There's different covenants in the Old

Testament. The Abrahamic covenant, of

course, and that's unconditional

covenant. The Davidic covenant, an

unconditional covenant, but what the old

Bible teachers used to call the

Palestinian covenant, which is an awful

name for it, that was a conditional

covenant.

If you obey, you'll be blessed. If you

disobey, you'll be cursed.

And the Old Testament saints were under

that covenant

as a nation.

And if we keep that covenant without

going back to Deuteronomy and really

digging in the weeds with all of that,

I'm assuming you know something about

that

there is either going to come blessing

or cursing from God based on behavior.

And so salvation is not based on

behavior, but the enjoyment of the land

was not is is based on it behavior.

And so God, if you mess up, you get

kicked out of the land.

you'll get to enjoy it unconditionally

regardless of your activities.

So God wanted Jeremiah to see the potter

and his work before God really got into

the details of this revelation

and he wanted to see him trying to make

something and the the clay is not

working so he makes something else out

of it. And the whole point is oh we can

go two ways here. You can stay in the

land or you can go to exile.

You can stay in the land or you can get

into exile.

And this was probably given right before

the exile.

It's kind of last chance.

One uh one Bible teacher, his name is

Thompson, he's written a really astute

commentary on Jeremiah. He believes this

happened in 587 BC, probably right

before Nebuchadnezzar attacked

Jerusalem.

But he says it was a regular feature of

prophetic ministry to find the word of

the Lord in the simple events of daily

life. Jeremiah was in that tradition.

Remember God showed him the almond tree

in chapter 1, the boiling pot in chapter

13 and 14. And here it's the potter.

And the divine command to go with the to

the potter's house was a prelude to the

declaration of the Lord's word.

So he didn't get anything from God till

he did what God asked him to do.

You know, God says, "Forsake not the

assembling of yourselves together." He

wants us to come to church.

And people begin to stay away from

church. And they begin to think, "God's

a stranger to me." Well,

if you stay away from church because you

have to because of illness or whatever,

that's one thing. But if you're just

careless and you stay away from the

Bible and you stay away from church,

what you're you're moving away from the

means of grace. You're moving away from

the means God uses to minister to you

and speak to you. And now not all of us

are healthy or we all in a situation

where we can always go to church and

sometimes it's a long season away but we

got a Bible don't we

so we can meet God on our own

but Thompson said people who were loyal

to the Lord and to his covenant would be

taken up into the Lord's purpose which

is declared in chapter 174 24-26

in terms of The Davidic kings in the

temple in the city of Jerusalem. The

people who broke the covenant and

rejected the Lord's sovereignty were not

material

were not material

uh through whom the purposes of the Lord

could be fulfilled.

Now God can change the clay. I'm we also

we all know that and the picture is not

so much change of mind as a change of

treatment. God's sovereign. He's got a

plan for everybody. Uh what he with this

this clay thing is a change of

treatment. You act this way, I'll treat

you this way. You don't act this way,

I'll treat you another way. It's baked

into the Palestinian company.

And several times in Jeremiah, it bring

God brings up my people forgotten me.

My people forgotten me. We take the

Lord's supper. This do in remembrance of

me, right? because we tend to forget.

We need to be reminded. But in Jeremiah

Jeremiah 2:32

2:32, 3:21, 8:7, 13:25,

my people forgotten.

So what's stressed is their confidence

that in their recognized leaders, they

have all the divine guidance that they

need. They were trusting their leaders

rather than trusting the Lord. and their

leaders were leading them astray.

We don't have to listen to Jeremiah. We

got these kings over here and we got

these priests over here and we got these

prophets over here and we're we're fine

with them. We don't need him. He's the

he's the odd person out.

Now, our chapter is one of the most

well-known chapters in the book of

Jeremiah. If you ask people, what do you

know about Jeremiah? They probably might

mention the the the new covenant which

is it was unconditional covenant. They

might mention the new covenant.

Uh they there's other sections that they

might mention where he uh says I wish I

was never born. That's pretty rem that's

pretty memorable.

But this one this one should be right up

there. It's this this whole potter's

wheel thing.

John Calvin writing on this section

said, "I've already stated why it was

necessary for the prophet to go down to

the potter's house. He did so that he

might afterwards lead the Jews to see

their own case in a more vivid manner.

For we know what a powerful effect a

representation of this kind produces

when a scene like this is set before our

eyes." Naked doctrine would have been

frigid to slothful and careless men. But

when a symbol was added, it had much

greater effect. They can all picture in

their mind that potter's making

something and then finds out the clay is

not going to work for that. So he

changes what he's going to make and he

does something else. What the message is

is exile's coming because if you're

idolatry and you're in transit,

that's really where it's going.

Warren Wearsby said the titles this

section the sovereignty of God. Over 30

words in Hebrew vocabulary relate

directly to pottery because the

manufacturer of pottery was a major

industry in the ancient near east. And

it was

archaeologists have pottery shops.

That's how they date

levels of occupations of buildings that

they

ruins that they find.

And so very very important stuff. I hope

that this is going to be helpful for you

tonight. There's three divisions in our

particular chapter. Actually, the

section goes on into chapter 19 and 20.

But number one, the illustration of the

potter.

How many people here have ever watched

somebody work a pottery wheel?

Seen it in person? Linda has. Then the

other Linda has. You have. I've seen a

couple of times. I remember we were we

were in Wyoming and we were at we were

in Yellowstone National Park and we're

waiting for Old Faithful to go off and

that's always a big thing for it's time

you know it goes off every few minutes

and you sit around waiting for it to go

off and that was fascinating to me that

geyser and you could time it and all of

that but while we were waiting there was

a pottery person doing pottery and

actually I was think I was going back

and forth in my mind I want to watch

this potter over here do this and I want

to watch old faithful go off at the same

time. It was that fascinating to me.

Uh and I still kind of remember that.

But there's some really good stuff here

and I know it's a little bit difficult

to to uh

grasp what we're trying to say.

Charles Fineberg writing on numbers

Numbers 23:19

23:19 which is dealing with the potter

and the clay. He said, "God is not man

that he should lie, or the son of man

that he should repent.

Has he said and will he not do it? Or

has he spoken and will he not fulfill

it?" And that's true.

But he says, "When used of God,

repentance never means what it does for

men." Remember God said to Noah, "Repent

me that I made these people. I'm going

to drown him.

And so here the potter seems to be

changing his mind. It's

Fineberg says it's a strong

anthropopathism.

I had to look that one up. Had an idea

what it was. Anthropopathism.

Pathism.

Anthroposis. Of course, man. And this is

means it's a it's a attributing to God

human feelings.

And so, uh, that's what it is. And so,

it's like a potter says, "Well, can't do

this, so I'm going to do this."

He says of this chapter, it's a strong

anthropism.

It must always undergo redefinition.

It's possible for God to repent as

people do. It's impossible, excuse me,

impossible for God to repent as people

do. for God.

For God the potter uh has never done

wrong. That's true, right? God doesn't

have to repent like we have to repent.

Repentance for us means a change of mind

that results in a change of behavior.

But this the whole potter's wheel is

used to illustrate a change of behavior

because of the people's intrigent in

depravity.

Now, there's great stuff here on the

responsibility of man and the

sovereignty of God. This section doesn't

cut the cords of either of those, but

it's a fascinating business. The defect

is in the clay, not in the potter.

The deflect is in the clay, not in the

potter.

And the potter conforms the clay to his

purpose.

And so there's times where God repents.

Nineveh, I'm going to destroy him. Nope.

He repented. Now I'm going to save him.

Right? The book of Jonah.

Those kind of things. And an unchanging

God must change his treatment of people

to remain unchangeable. God is

immutable. He's he doesn't change

himself, but he changes his treatment of

people sometimes because of their

actions that he already foresaw. and

planned, of course. So, there's great

stuff in the sovereignty of God and the

responsibility of man. What's going on

here is a nation that's abdurant in

idolatry. They're not pliable as they

should be.

Pliable clay is used

to to shape things into things desired.

Unpliable clay is used for something

else.

So, what are we leading up to? We're

leading up to the fact that the nation

has been loving idols, not loving God.

If they'd love God, they wouldn't had to

go into exile. Now, they're

they rejecting God and they're rejecting

Jeremiah. So, they're going to go into

exile. That's what's going on.

So the potter modifies his treatment

on the basis of the clay that will not

be molded. Now what happens of course

God overcame my unbelief and my

disobedience by his sovereign grace and

he always does that but this is an

illustration to get people's attention.

Don't put the wrong doctrinal thing on

here. Hope you believe in the total

sovereignty of God and the total

responsibility of man.

And where this is going is only a

radical modification can avert a

calamity.

The nation's going to have to change.

And the potter can remake the clay for

better or worse. God's freedom is free

to revise his threats and his promises

according to the treatment of the

nation. And that is the whole covenant

of the Palestinian covenant. If you

obey, you'll be blessed. If you disobey,

you'll be cursed. If you obey, you'll be

in the land. If you disobey, you're

going out of the land.

Now, this sermon was so offensive

that they put Jeremiah in jail for it.

They jailed him.

We'll see that when we move into the

other chapters. They didn't like it at

all.

But to God's credit and to Jeremiah's

credit, it was preached and heard even

if it wasn't received.

So here's an illustration, the

illustration of the potter. That's the

first section. Let's go to it. Uh let's

go back to chapter 18 and I'll pick it

up in uh uh

as we move down through here in clear

down to 13. I'm going to read the first

I'm going to read more than we read.

We'll keep reading verse 7. At what

instance I speak concerning a nation

concerning a kingdom to pluck up and

pull down and destroy it. If that nation

against whom I pronounced turn from

their evil, I'll repent of the evil that

I thought to do to them. And at what

instant I shall speak concerning a

nation, concerning a kingdom to build

and plan it, if they do evil in my

sight, that I that it obey not my voice,

then I'll repent of the good that I

would said I would do to them. Now

therefore, speak to the men of Judah.

Talk to these people. Get their

attention. Speak to these men of Judah,

inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus

says the Lord, behold, I frame evil

against you and devise a plan against

you. Return now everyone from his evil

way. Make your ways and your doings

good. And they said what?

There's no hope.

We like it the way it is.

We're not turning from our way.

We're going to stick with

a way of doing it.

That's what they're saying. And it says,

it's very clear in verse 12. And they

said there's no hope,

but we'll walk after our own plans and

we will everyone do the imagination of

his evil heart.

Well, at least they were honest.

At least they were honest.

So now God's going to interrogate them

and deal with them in verse 13-1 17.

Therefore, is that that's what you're

saying? You're sticking with that one?

You think that's a good plan? Verse 13.

Therefore, thus says the Lord, ask now

among the nations, who's heard of such

thing?

Where anywhere else has this ever happen

in the whole world?

Who's heard of such things? The virgin

Israel has done a very horrible thing.

Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon

which comes down from the rock of the

field? Or shall the cold flowing waters

that come from another place be

forsaken? When you got it good, you

don't leave it.

Who who leaves a place of plenty for to

go to a place where there's nothing

growing and nothing there?

Who leaves a place of safety or a place

of peril when they don't have to?

And there's this interrogation going to

try to make these people ashamed of

their own inconsistencies.

Um,

wow. This is

kind of sad. So he goes on and he says

in verse 15, "Because my people have

forgotten me, they've burned incense to

vanity. They've caused them to stumble

in their ways from the ancient past to

walk in paths in a way not cast up to

make their land desolate, a perpetual

hissing. Everyone that passes by, I'll

be appalled and wag his head. And I'm

going to scatter them as an east wind

before the enemy. I'll show them the

back and not the face in the day of

their calamity.

God is now jumping their case big time.

And so the first section is an

interrogation of the people or an

illustration of the potter. The second s

se session is an interrogation of the uh

peoples.

And then there's the imprecation

from the prophet. God through the

prophet lets him have it.

And so as we move through this

particular section,

uh, well, hold on just a minute. Let me

get some of the rest of this. Um,

Jeremiah is going to respond to

everything that has just happened.

And in verse 10, for I heard of the

defaming of many, fear on every side.

Report, say they, they'll report it. All

my friends, watch for my fall, saying,

perhaps he'll be enticed and we'll

prevail against him. We'll take our

revenge on him. This is Jeremiah

speaking. But the Lord is with me as a

mighty, terrible one. Therefore, my

persecutors shall stumble and they'll

not prevail. They shall great be greatly

ashamed. They'll shall not prosper.

Their everlasting confusion shall never

be forgotten. But oh Lord of hosts, who

tests the righteous, and sees the heart

and mind. Let me see the my thy

vengeance on them. For unto thee have I

opened my cause. Sing to the Lord.

Praise ye the Lord, for he's delivered

the soul of the poor from the hand of

evildoers. Cursed be the day on which I

was born. This he goes on. He says, I'm

so tired of living. These people are

just driving me to grave.

How many parents do you know that are

discouraged with their children?

How many Sunday school teachers

discouraged with their class?

How many pastors discouraged with the

assembly they've given their lives for?

How many prophets like Jeremiah?

This is so hard. Life's no fun.

Wish I'd never been born.

Job got there, too, didn't he?

Job and Jeremiah both got there. And

that's a pretty deep hole that we get

into.

And Jeremiah was in it. And God's honest

about all that.

Uh and uh so Jeremiah says in verse 14,

"Cursed be the day on which I was born.

Let not the day on which my mother bore

me be blessed.

Blot that blot my birthday out of the

calendar, Lord.

Cursed be the man who brought tidings to

my father, saying, "A male child's born

to you, making him very glad. Let that

man be like the cities which the Lord

overthrew and repented not. He'd be like

Sodom and Gomorrah in destruction just

because he announced my birth."

Now, he doesn't really mean this in the

sense that he but he's just talking

about he's he's he's he's

what he's just talking about how hard

his life is ministering to an impenitent

people.

God knows all about that. That's why

Jesus told the parable of the prodal

son, which should be the parable of the

prodical sons.

He says, "Let that man be like the

cities which the Lord overthrew and

repented not. Let him hear the cry in

the morning and the shouting at noon

time because he sloo me not from the

womb." He's talking about the man there

that announced his birth. or that my

mother might have been at my grave and

her womb be always great with me.

This is all poetry. It's just describing

how painful it is. Not criticizing his

mother. He just he just what? Venting.

And he said in verse 18, "Why came I

forth out of the womb to see labor and

sorrow that my days should be consumed

with shame?

Life wasn't fun. Ministry wasn't fun.

Life isn't always fun. Aren't you glad

this life isn't the only life?

And Jeremiah, if you just listen to him,

you can sense how hard it was for him.

Um, so we have the implication

of the prophet

the in in a in a terrible thing here as

he emotes before.

Let me just read a couple of other

things that were said on this section.

Warren Wearsby said, "The lesson is all

about remaking for better or worse." We

see the potter in his sensitivity to his

material with all its flaws and

possibilities.

This craftsman is no plotting amateur.

His touch has the boldness and resource

of a true artist. And we can extrapolate

from the immediate setting of the

parable to reflect on God's mastery

remaking of Simon Peter,

of Saul of Tarsus,

of Ruth, of Matthew.

Aren't you glad the potter has

sovereignty over the clay over you?

You know, because it goes both ways,

right?

The the potter can make good clay bad

and he can make bad clay good. He's

totally sovereign over the clay.

And that's a blessing.

that some of this whole business of

ministering in a fallen world is pretty

stark and pretty painful.

And uh that's what this section's

teaching. One of the best things I read

on this section

was a commentator by the name of Burton

Goddard.

And um I'm going to close with what he

said and I hope it's helpful to you.

When I close, we're going to sing a hymn

about the potter and

way

Goddard entitles this section the

sovereign craftsman

Jeremiah was doubtless fascinated by all

that he observed but it was not God's

purpose merely to provide for his

entertainment

God wanted him to view the proceeding

with homalytic eyesic

means preaching

and to use it as a potent illustration

of the sovereign power of the Lord God

over earthly kingdoms.

And if over the kingdoms of men, then

over every individual within those

kingdoms, and also every lesser kingdom

of creation.

The kingdom of Judah might want itself

proudly, but the heaven-drawn picture,

it was this. It was clay in the hands of

the potter.

Ours would be a different world if men

in general believed absolutely that

God's Almighty.

If this truth ruled men's hearts, they

would greatly fear to incur his wrath,

would present themselves humbly before

him, and would tremble for fear that

they might offend against his perfect

righteousness.

Many of us give verbal ascent to the

omnipotence of God, but never feel the

least constraint to make our lives

conform to that belief.

Is it not because we've never received

the teaching into our hearts and given

in it loving acceptance as divine truth?

Would that each of us might even now

believe with our whole heart that our

own life

and every life and the life of every

nation are in God's hands as play in the

hands of a potter.

our life, everyone's life, every

nation's life.

You think America is going to keep

getting better, better, better.

The president wants to make America

great again.

Well, I'm glad he wants to make America

great again,

but maybe that's his plan

and not God's plan

for America. Is that possible?

That's pretty humbling to think about.

We don't know what the future holds for

our country. But when I look at the

abortion and I look at the depravity and

they look at the more immorality and the

pride and the arrogance and the total um

indifference to God,

I don't know. Maybe America will be

great again. If it's his, I don't know

if it was ever super great, but greater

than other sinful communities. But what

if God goes the other way?

What if God says that's enough?

God is sovereign over churches. God is

sovereign over countries. God is

sovereign over families. God is

sovereign over people.

and we are fully responsible and God's

fully sovereign and there's no cutting

accords.

We must hold them both equally.

But this writer said, "Would that each

of us might even now believe with our

whole heart that our own life and every

life and the life of every nation are in

God's hands as clay in the hands of the

potter." So whichever way it goes,

God's right to do it, right?

With this clay the great potter works.

He fashions some vessels to honor and

some to dishonor according to the secret

of his own will. No mere creature has

right to question the wisdom of the

righteousness of what his sovereignty

performs. Not even the vessels of wrath.

It's enough to know that he's omnisient,

all wise, altogether good. His word so

declares. Trust that it is so.

And then he ends with this.

There's one important difference between

men and clay.

Clay is a lifeless substance. It's

entirely passive in the potter's hands.

Men and women are the crown of God's

creation, endued with life and

possessing wills of their own. They know

the difference between right and wrong

and have the capability of making moral

choices.

Otter's hand on them is sovereign, but

never shapes them contrary to their own

will.

Entire responsibility for their actions

and for their final end is laid upon

them.

Now, God does make the unwilling

willing.

There's that mystery there, isn't there?

And he said, 'When Jeremiah declared to

Judah that she was but clay in the

potter's hand, could Judah fold her

hands and disclaim responsibility for

her sinful course, could she blame God

for her failures and iniquities? A

thousand times no.

So that not only one side of the truth

be presented by the illustration of the

potter. God directed his prophet to make

clear the fact that divinely revealed

decrees, either blessing or punishment,

are always contingent on human conduct.

Let the heirs of God's promise of sin

and his wrath will be visited upon them.

They will be cut off from his mercy. Let

transgressors repent in sincerity before

the Lord and they'll receive life and

inherit every other benefit of the

covenant of grace. We fall follow a

false and defenseless course if we live

in defiance of God's truth that God is

the potter and we

are

the clay.

But just as defenseless is our alibi if

we try to excuse our actions on the

ground that it's God who works in us and

shapes our destiny without our being

responsible. On the day of Pentecost,

did not Peter declare it was the

potter's predetermined plan that his

beloved son should be taken by men and

crucified on the cross? Yet Peter just

as si clearly singled out the

perpetrators of this crime as wicked men

and so responsible to the god of

judgment for their terrible sin of

hanging him the tree.

The potter's able to punish. He's able

to bless. He will punish us if we in any

way turn aside from obeying his commands

and refuse to repent, seek his help to

mend our ways. He will bless us if we

walk with him and do his will and with

godly sorrow in for our disobedience

humbly confess our past sins. Can I then

do other than make this my prayer? Then

he quotes this hymn.

Have thy own way, Lord.

Have thy own way.

Thou art pot.

I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after thy will.

While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have thy own way, Lord. Have thy own

way. Hold or my being absolute sway.

Fill with thy spirit till all shall see.

Christ only living in me. Paul had to

find that out. And it wasn't because he

did anything wrong. It's that God

desired a thorn in the flesh for him so

he could do more good.

God's the pot. We're the clay.

And so may we bow to his will. No point

in fighting his will. It's better to

embrace it. All of us in this life have

some things about our life we wish were

not there.

The good news is this isn't the only

life. This is just the prelude to

eternal life in heaven forever.

And God's preparing us for that.

And in light of that, we should be able

to take whatever comes our way. Whether

it's discipline for bad behavior or

simply correction or improvement of our

behavior, our good behavior, we should

sing Have your own way. Number 494.

Let's sing 490.

>> No. as a man by the name of Goddard

494.

Let's spin.

Lord, as we go from this place,

loving you more,

trusting you more.

May the power of your love and the light

of your word shine

to a sin darkened world as we go from

this place.