The Potter and His Clay

In a poem entitled Invictus, the English poet William Ernest Henley captures the resilience and defiant independence of the human spirit.

And the last stanza reads this way, he says,

It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.

Isn't that an accurate description of humanity, right?

We like to bow to no one. We like to get our way.

We don't want people to interfere with our lives and what we want to do.

And so the mantra goes, let me be and I will let you be.

That's the prevailing attitude of our world.

In the chaotic world, we strive and struggle to maintain some semblance of control over our lives.

But this passage teaches us that we are not in control of our lives and our fates.

That we are not independent beings accountable only to ourselves.

And really the main point of these three chapters is that in spite of appearances to the contrary,

God is the sovereign Lord over creation to whom we are accountable.

That's really the main point of this passage.

And first we're going to see God's sovereignty over the nations.

And then lastly we're going to see God's sovereignty over Jeremiah and people around him.

The word of the Lord comes again in verse 2 and says to Jeremiah,

Arise and go down to the potter's house and there I will let you hear my words.

So when Jeremiah visits the potter's house and sees the potter working at his wheel,

he notices a clay vessel in his hand that was spoiled, ruined vessel.

This was misshapen or ruined in some kind of way so that he could not be turned into the vessel that the potter wanted it to be.

And because of that, he takes the ruined clay in his hand and reworks it into another vessel.

And as it seemed good to him to do.

So as Jeremiah is watching this scene unfold, the word of the Lord comes to him again in verse 6.

O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done, declares the Lord.

Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

So the verb do that is used here, can I not do this to you as my clay?

The word do that's used here is the same word that's repeated throughout verses 3 and 4 to refer to the potter making the clay.

In fact, that's the same word that's used over and over again in Genesis 1 to refer to God making and fashioning his creation, the whole world.

And so that word that's being used here is declaring God's absolute sovereignty over all of creation.

Israel is mere clay in God's hands and God can fashion them into whatever he wants as the potter does with his clay.

Look at verse 4 again.

According to what does the potter rework the spoiled vessel into another vessel?

He says, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

He makes the clay to be what he wants to be according to his own will.

He doesn't have any obligation to the clay itself.

They're merely his creatures.

He is sovereign over them.

God's sovereign Lord over his creation.

And this illustration, the meaning of it is spelled out further in verses 7 to 10.

Follow along with me.

Verses 7 to 10 of chapter 18.

If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it,

and if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil,

I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.

And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it,

and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice,

then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.

So yes, even though God had made a covenant with Israel, there were covenant obligations.

And if they fulfilled those covenant obligations, they would enjoy the covenant blessings.

But if they violated those covenant obligations, they would experience the covenant curses.

And conversely, when God decrees disaster on an evil nation, but they repent and turn from their ways,

God would relent.

And so this shows that God's not confined or limited in what He can do to His people and to the nations.

As a potter of His clay, God has every right to act in a manner that seems fit to Him.

So that's God's sovereignty.

But that doesn't mean that God is arbitrary or somehow capricious, does whatever He wants to do.

Because God is in fact constant and faithful.

So the word reworked, right, in verse 4, and the word turns from in verse 8,

and the word return in verse 11 are all different translations of the same Hebrew word.

So what God's saying is people have turned away from His purposes,

and because they have turned away from Him, God is turning them away to other purposes.

And so God's turning them away, it has to do with them turning away from Him.

And so the only way they can avoid this judgment is for them to now turn back to Him.

So it shows that kind of consistency of God's action, right,

that God's treatment of His people, indeed His treatment of all the nations on earth,

is not arbitrary or impulsive, but it's based on how the nations are responding to Him.

So He's not being fickle, He's not changing His mind,

rather He's being faithful to who He is and keeping His covenant promises.

So it's not God who has changed and turned on His people,

it's they who have turned on Him and changed on Him.

And so God's face is turned away from them.

Why? Because they have turned their back on Him.

And so verse 12 tells us how the people responded to this call to repentance by Jeremiah.

But they say, that is in vain.

We will follow our own plans and will everyone act according to the stubbornness of His evil heart.

God promised that He would relent of the disaster,

or literally the evil that He has designed for them because of their evil.

Yet each and every one of His people clings to the stubbornness of their evil heart.

And this kind of rebellion is so unheard of that God speaks about how unheard of this is.

He says, who has heard of the likes of this?

He says in verses 13 to 16.

And He describes it this way,

But my people have forgotten me.

They make offerings to false gods.

They made them stumble in their ways in the ancient roads

and to walk into the side roads, not the highway,

making their land a horror,

a thing to be hissed at forever.

So the highway is a reference to the paved roads.

And they had paved roads in the ancient world,

and they were quite expensive to make.

And I was just hiking a couple weeks ago in Seattle.

And as you're on the trail,

sometimes you notice these,

not the official pathway,

but these byways that go to the sides.

And they're created either by one or two ways.

Either one way is that people get lazy.

They don't want to stay on the path,

on the winding path,

so they caught a shortcut through the grass,

and they create this byway, right?

And another way they create a byway

is they venture into the woods.

They get a little bit too adventurous,

and they go into the woods

and try to forge their own path.

And on one of those byways,

there was a sign saying,

Stay on trail,

because it was dangerous

to go into those byways,

those paths that they created for themselves.

In fact, a few years back,

in that same trail,

because people went into those byways,

there was a man who got lost and died

because he couldn't find his way out.

And so that's kind of the image

that Jeremiah is painting here.

God has paved a highway for them

to walk on

that has stood the test of time,

the ancient road that many have walked before them,

yet these people have strayed

into the side roads,

into the obscure and secluded roads

of sin that lead to death, ultimately.

And so as Jeremiah is continuing

to denounce their sins,

the people, as you can imagine,

are fed up with him.

And they say in verse 18,

Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah,

for the law shall not perish from the priest,

nor counsel from the wise,

nor the word from the prophet.

Come, let us strike him with the tongue,

and let us not pay attention to any of his words.

Striking with the tongue means

to bring a charge against that person.

Bringing a legal charge against Jeremiah.

So these people are not heeding

any of Jeremiah's words.

They should be listening to him,

but instead they are speaking to him.

Instead of heeding his words

and learning from him,

they want to teach him.

And they're complacent

because they can't imagine

a day when God would abandon them

because they have these institutions.

They have the temple.

They have the priests.

They have the prophets.

They have these sages.

When they have these leaders

in their context,

how can it be

that all of these leaders are wrong

and that Jeremiah is right?

So they are complacent.

They are not listening to Jeremiah.

And as long as these people,

these leaders who pay lip service to God

are in place,

they feel that surely

God cannot abandon us.

And so they reject the true teaching

and true warnings of prophet Jeremiah.

And as these people responded this way,

Jeremiah himself has had enough of them,

these stubborn people.

And so he cries out to God

in verses 19 to 23.

Hear me, O Lord,

and listen to the voice of my adversaries.

Should good be repaid with evil?

Yet they have dug a pit for my life.

Remember how I stood before you

to speak good for them,

to turn away your wrath from them.

Therefore deliver up their children to famine.

Give them over to the power of the sword.

Let their wives become childless and widowed.

May their men meet their death by pestilence.

Their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.

May a cry be heard from their houses

when you bring the plunderers suddenly upon them.

For they have dug a pit to take me

and laid snares for my feet.

Yet you, O Lord,

know all their plotting to kill me.

Forgive not their iniquity,

nor blot out their sin from your sight.

Let them be overthrown before you.

Deal with them in the time of your anger.

It's pretty intense, right?

If you were to say that to somebody

out on the street,

you very well might risk

getting called on for abuse

or abusive language

or for threatening.

And so Jeremiah,

this sounds initially very severe and vindictive,

but you have to remember

that Jeremiah is a prophet of the Lord.

And in Matthew 10, 40 to 41,

Jesus says,

Whoever receives you receives me,

and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

And the one who receives a prophet,

because he is a prophet,

will receive a prophet's reward.

And the one who receives a righteous person,

because he is a righteous person,

will receive a righteous person's reward.

A prophet of God represents God himself.

And to reject a prophet

who was speaking authoritatively,

the inspired words of God,

was tantamount to rejecting God himself.

And the curses that Jeremiah utters here,

they're not just personal, vindictive,

kind of vengeful curses.

They're actually exactly the curses

that were stipulated in Deuteronomy 28

in response to people who break God's covenant.

So he's really calling down the same curses

that God had already given to people

as they first entered covenant with him.

And so Jeremiah,

who then once stood before God

to turn away God's wrath from his people,

now seeing their stubbornness,

their evil,

that they're incapable of repentance,

he stands now before God

to call God's wrath down on them.

And then in chapter 19,

this picture of God as the potter

and his people as the clay

is continued in a different episode.

And he says,

Thus says the Lord,

Go buy a potter's earthenware flask

and take some of the elders of the people

and some of the elders of the priests

and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom

at the entry of the potsherd gate

and proclaim there the words that I tell you.

So this time Jeremiah is to buy a potter's flask

and assemble the leaders of Judah

at the valley of the son of Hinnom

at the entry of the potsherd gate.

The potsherd gate is mentioned only here

in the entire Bible,

but the name suggests that it's the gate

beyond which potters dumped

all their broken pottery,

all their ruined pottery

that was no good for anything.

And the Jewish commentary

on the Old Testament

called the Jerusalem Targum,

it identifies the potsherd gate

with the dung gate.

So a dung gate, as the name suggests,

is where they burned

or they dumped all the people's garbage

and refuse, right?

So they think that it's the same thing,

same place where they dumped all this.

And this is significant

not only for the image

of the broken pottery being dumped there,

but also because years back

in 2 Chronicles 28 and 33,

it's recorded that two of the most wicked kings

of Judah, Ahaz,

and his grandson Manasseh,

they burned their own sons

as sacrifice to an idol named Baal

at this very place,

at the valley of the son of Hinnom.

And so this is a symbolically

very important place.

And there Jeremiah's next

prophetic assignment takes place.

And his announcement is that

he brings the charge

that they worshiped idols,

that they made child sacrifices to Baal.

And the word he uses is this,

he says, they profane this place

by making offerings in it

to other gods

whom neither they

nor their fathers

nor the kings of Judah have known.

The word profane literally means

to make strange or foreign.

Because they have forsaken

the God of Israel

and worshipped foreign gods,

Israel has become

like a foreign nation to God.

And all the plans of Judah

and Jerusalem,

God says he will nullify

and make void.

So it's not the plans of Judah,

even though they rebel against him,

that will ultimately prevail.

But it is the Lord's plan

that will prevail

because he is the sovereign

Lord over creation

to whom we are all accountable.

And at the climax

of this announcement,

God commands Jeremiah

in verse 10

to break the flask

in the sight of the people

in a dramatic symbolic act.

And then he says

in verse 11,

thus says the Lord of hosts,

so will I break this people

and this city

as one breaks

a potter's vessel

so they can never be mended.

Men shall bury in Topheth

because there will be

no place else to bury.

So there's a sense

of finality here

in chapter 19

that wasn't there

in chapter 18.

In chapter 18,

they were spoiled pottery

that can be reworked

into another purpose.

But here,

it's not just

the misshapen pottery,

it's a broken pottery

that can no longer be mended.

And so after concluding

that forceful prophecy,

Jeremiah leaves Topheth

and goes to court

of the temple

in verses 14 to 15.

So in front of more people,

a bigger audience

in front of the temple

and makes a similar pronouncement.

And so even though

the people of Judah

were living their lives

as usual

without heeding

the warnings of Jeremiah,

and even though

they were defying God

with seeming impunity,

the day of reckoning

will come.

And that's what

Jeremiah is announcing.

And this is helpful

for us to apply

because today,

as there were

in the days of Jeremiah,

the most prominent people

in the world,

the leading voices

of our society,

they may not recognize

the true God.

But it would be

a grave mistake

for us to follow

their lead

and ignore the God

who created us

because we are all clay

in the vessels,

in the hands of the potter.

We were created

for His purposes.

So then are we

examining our lives then,

our priorities,

our purposes,

to see if they are

aligned with

that of our Creator?

Or are we as creatures

trying to forge

our own path

and live for ourselves?

And so in chapters

18 to 19,

we saw God's sovereignty

over the nations,

and in chapter 20,

we see God's sovereignty

over Jeremiah.

Read verses 1 to 2 with me.

Chapter 20,

1 to 2.

Now Pasher,

the priest,

the son of Emer,

who was chief officer

in the house of the Lord,

heard Jeremiah

prophesying these things.

Then Pasher

beat Jeremiah the prophet

and put him

in the stocks

that were in the

upper Benjamin gate

of the house

of the Lord.

And so,

this is really ironic

because in chapter 1,

verse 10,

when God first

called Jeremiah,

He promised them

He has set him

over the nations.

And the word

set him over

means to make

overseer

or to make an officer.

It's the same word

that's used here

to describe the title

that's given to pasture.

He's the chief officer

in the house of the Lord.

So,

the officer of the house

of the Lord

is now beating

and binding

the messenger

of the Lord,

the officer of the Lord.

So,

obviously,

something is amiss

here.

And so,

in response,

Jeremiah,

however,

doesn't just tower.

But next day

when he's released,

he defiantly says to him

in verses 3 to 6,

the Lord does not

call your name

pasture,

but terror

on every side.

For thus says the Lord,

behold,

I will make you

a terror

to yourself

and to all

your friends.

And then he talks

about how pasture

will be exiled

and that's fulfilled

later in Jeremiah.

So,

even though Jeremiah

gets the final word,

this episode

throws kind of

Jeremiah into

a bout of

depression

and turmoil.

And so,

he pours out

his heart to God

in this raw,

unfiltered way

in verses 7

through 18.

He says in verses

7 to 8,

O Lord,

you have deceived me

and I was deceived.

You are stronger

than I

and you have prevailed.

I become a laughingstock

all the day.

Everyone mocks me

for whenever I speak,

I cry out,

I shout,

violence and destruction

for the word

of the Lord

has become for me

a reproach

and derision

all day long.

In 1 Kings 22,

when Micaiah,

who is a true prophet

of the Lord,

goes to warn

the king of Israel

against going into battle

against Syria,

there are 400

false prophets

who are prophesying,

yes,

you should go into battle,

you should go into battle,

God will give you a victory.

And in that scene,

Micaiah prophesies

that God will send

a lying spirit

to these false prophets

to deceive

the king.

And it's that same word

that's used here

that Jeremiah

is using

to speak to God.

He's saying,

I've become a laughingstock

all the day

and everyone's mocking me

because everywhere I go,

you tell me to preach

violence

and destruction,

but as of yet,

there is no violence

or destruction

to be seen

in Jerusalem.

These people

are doing fine.

And so I'm a mockery

and so maybe

if this is the case,

all of these leaders,

these false prophets,

they're saying

that everything's

going to be fine.

Maybe they're the ones

that have the truth.

Maybe I'm the one

that's been duped

by you, God.

That's basically

what Jeremiah

is telling him.

But even though

he says this,

he doesn't stop

saying what he's

been called to say.

In fact,

he says he can't

stop speaking

because he says

in verse 9,

if I say,

I will not mention him

or speak any more

in his name,

there is in my heart

as it were a burning fire

shut up in my bones

and I am weary

with holding it in

and I cannot.

That's such an intimate

look at Jeremiah's

relationship with God.

Notice that

even when the judgment

that he is announcing

on God's behalf

is not happening,

Jeremiah does not

once doubt

that God has spoken

to him.

Rather,

he says,

God,

you've lied to me.

And then he says,

there is in my heart

as it were a burning fire

shut up in my bones.

Jeremiah has so

completely aligned

himself with his desires,

with that of God's desires.

He has given himself

so completely

to the mission of God.

He can't help

but to speak.

Even though

we have been called

not to preach

that message of judgment

but the message

of God's salvation

through Christ,

I pray that all of us

would have that kind

of intimate relationship

with God

because we can't help

but to speak

and to be witnesses

of God

because our purposes

are so aligned with His

and our passions

are so aligned

with God's.

And so because Jeremiah

can't help but

to speak the message,

he has to go on

being mocked

by his peers.

And so he says

in verse 10,

For I hear many

whispering,

terror is on every side.

Denounce him,

let us denounce him,

say all my close friends,

watching for my fall.

Perhaps he will be deceived

and we can overcome him

and take our revenge

on him.

Remember that Jeremiah

renamed Pasher,

the chief officer

who beat him

and bound him.

He named him

terror on every side,

right?

And now,

Jeremiah is being mocked

because so often

wherever he preaches,

he says terror

on every side.

They call him,

people have started

to call Jeremiah,

oh, there comes terror

on every side.

Let's denounce him,

let's denounce him,

make fun of him.

And it's his friends,

he says.

All of my close friends,

they're watching

for him to fall

and for him,

for them so that they

can take their vengeance

on him.

So Jeremiah

is really hitting

rock bottom here.

He's feeling lonely

and forsaken.

He feels weak

and vulnerable.

But at this rock bottom,

he turns to his faith

in God

who is the rock of ages.

He says,

though he's not

feeling well,

he turns to what

he believes here.

Because even though

he has no comfort,

he has his conviction

and that's written here

in verses 11 to 13.

But the Lord is with me

as a dread warrior,

therefore my persecutors

will stumble,

they will not overcome me,

they will be greatly shamed,

for they will not succeed,

their eternal dishonor

will never be forgotten.

O Lord of hosts,

who tests the righteous,

who sees the heart

and the mind,

let me see your vengeance

upon them,

for to you

have I committed my cause.

Sing to the Lord,

praise the Lord,

for he has delivered

the life of the needy

from the hand of evildoers.

The ruthlessness

of his enemies

cannot stand

against the steely resolve

of the God,

the dread warrior,

to defend his servant.

So even though

they try to overcome him,

they will not overcome him.

And instead of making

Jeremiah fall,

they themselves

will stumble.

And instead of they

taking their revenge

on Jeremiah,

God will take his vengeance

upon them.

So even though it seems

and feels like

God's enemies

are prevailing,

God will prevail

in the end.

So in your life,

to whom have you

committed your cause?

Do you look to people,

your fellow creatures,

for your validation?

Do you look to them

to vindicate you,

to put a stamp of approval

on your life

and what you do?

Or do you look

to your creator?

Because in spite

of appearances

to the contrary,

God is the sovereign

Lord over creation

to whom we are accountable.

But in spite

of his faith

that God will deliver him

from his enemies

and detractors,

Jeremiah has not yet

been delivered

and so he remains

in great anguish.

And he continues

his lament

in verses 14 to 18.

Cursed be the day

on which I was born,

the day when my mother

bore me.

Let it not be blessed.

Cursed be the man

who brought the news

to my father.

A son is born to you,

making him very glad.

Let that man

be like the cities

that the Lord overthrew

without pity.

Let him hear a cry

in the morning

and an alarm at noon

because he did not

kill me in the womb

so my mother

would have been my grave

and her womb

forever great.

Why did I come

out from the womb

to see toil

and sorrow

and spend my days

in shame?

Among the Jews,

it was a capital offense

to curse God

or to curse one's parents.

And so Jeremiah

carefully avoids both.

But out of the depth

of his suffering

and sorrow,

he does curse

the day of his birth

which is about

the most serious thing

he can curse.

And it's a common

literary way

in which the ancient

world expressed

these sentiments

that they would not

rather have been born.

And it's a heart-wrenching

sentiment, right,

to say that

I wished my mother's

womb were my grave,

right?

Because the womb

is supposed to be

a place of nurturing

and security

but it's shocking

and it's jarring

to hear Jeremiah

say that I wished

my mother's womb

had been my grave.

And this is insightful

and helpful for us

because Jeremiah's

stirring lamentations

and mourning

on the one hand

is set right next

to his soaring praise

of God

and his expression

of faith.

And that teaches us

something very important

about Christian hope

because Christian hope

is not the wishful

positive thinking

that many gurus

and life coaches

in the world

in our society today

teach.

We don't have to

put on a mask

and draw a smile

on our face

when we are

feeling horrible.

We don't have to

deny our sufferings

and shortcomings

and struggles

and say everything

and pretend like

everything is okay.

We can acknowledge

our sufferings.

We can admit

our shortcomings

and struggles

and even then

as Christians

we can have hope

because we believe

that in spite of

appearance to the

contrary

that God really is

the sovereign Lord

of our creation

and that he is

making all things new

and he will make

the world a right

in the future.

So Christian hope

is not this flimsy

wishful thinking

of an optimist

it's the enduring

and substantive hope

of a person

who trusts in God.

And these few chapters

have shown

that in spite of

appearance to the contrary

that God is the sovereign

Lord over creation

that he is sovereign

over the nations

and the kingdoms

and over the lives

of individuals

like Jeremiah

and Pasher.

He establishes kingdoms

overthrows others.

He raises one person

and humbles another.

But these chapters

also point to

a greater

eternal reality

because the image

of the potter

and the clay

that Jeremiah uses here

in these chapters

to speak of God's sovereignty

how he determines

the fates and fortunes

of peoples and nations

in this life

that's used later

in Romans 9

in the New Testament

by Paul

and he picks up

that image

of the potter

and the clay

to show that

God is not only

sovereign over

our lives

in this life

but also

in the life to come

that he sovereignly

determines the eternal

fate and fortunes

of people.

And similarly

in Jeremiah

the ruined

and broken pottery

were discarded

in the Valley of Hinnom

and the Hebrew name

for Valley of Hinnom

when it's used

in the New Testament

it gets transliterated

into the Greek word

for hell.

Hell is Valley of Hinnom.

Those who refuse

to acknowledge

and follow God

will not only

be discarded

like pottery

in this life

but in eternal

perdition

in hell.

And that's the fate

of all people

because we have all

at some point

ignorantly

and pridefully

refused to acknowledge God.

We, even though

we are mere clay

pottery designed

for the potter

we have lived

instead for his purposes

we have lived

for our purposes

we have presumed

to be masters

of our own fate

and captains

of our own souls.

And if we are

to be saved

from the Valley of Hinnom

we have to yield

to the will

of the Master

and submit

to his purposes

for our lives.

But the truth is

we are all

like the Israelites

because they said

in chapter 18

verse 12

that is in vain

we will follow

our own plans

and will everyone

act according

to the stubbornness

of his evil heart.

Our evil hearts

are stubborn

and resistant

to God's will

and just

and the people

of Judah

had Jeremiah

to tell him

about how they

can be spared

from God's judgment

but Jeremiah

ultimately failed

to save them

he was unable

to save them

because they rejected

Jeremiah's message.

Jeremiah could mourn

and he did

he could mourn

people's sins

but he could not

atone for their sins.

Jeremiah could warn them

about God's

coming judgment

but Jeremiah could not

deliver them

from God's judgment.

But about 600 years

after Jeremiah

God sent

his own son

Jesus Christ

the son of God

to atone

for people's sins

and to save them

and deliver them

from God's judgment.

Jeremiah was only

threatened to be killed

but he was spared

because God protected him.

But Jesus Christ

was actually killed

and crucified

by his own people

but on that cross

as he died

Jesus was unfolding

and advancing

and fulfilling

God's ultimate plan

by absorbing

the judgment

and penalty

for sin

and paying for

all the sins

that we deserve

to be punished for

for those who

trust in him.

And this love

that God poured out

if we trust in Jesus

who died for our sins

so that we can

live with God

and so that we

could be saved

and spared

from the judgment

and that

if we know

that love

that Christ

displayed on the cross

that love

is what

melts the hardest hearts

it's what makes

the misshapen

hardened

pottery

that we are

moldable

again

so that we can be used

for the wonderful purposes

that God has for us.

People like to say

right

God

has a wonderful plan

for your life

how many times

have you heard that

from people?

God does

have a wonderful plan

for your life

but it might not be

the plan that you have

for yourself.

You might want to get married

raise a family

get a dog

become a manager

or principal

or president

or professor

and retire comfortably

when you're 60.

these are not bad things

in and of themselves

and you can certainly

pray for

and ask God for them

but these are not

the primary plan

that God has for you.

Our creator's primary plan

is for us

to be saved by him

for eternity

and for us to be shaped

into his glory

that's God's primary plan.

His plan is that

we grow in our love

for him

more and more

so that we can cherish him

above all things

so that we can be sanctified

so that we can become

more and more

like the Holy Son

Jesus Christ.

That's his primary purpose.

So let me invite you

all of us

at Clay

no matter what you do

for a living

make loving God

and glorifying God

the primary pursuit

of your life.

Banish all your

selfish ambitions

foolish fancies

and vain hopes

subdue all your

sinful habits

and thoughts

and submit entirely

to the sovereign

lordship of Christ

and let him

mold and shape you

as he sees fit.

It's when we do that

then

and only then

that we will truly

discover

the wonderful plan

that God has

for us.

Let's pray together.

God this is a hard

message Lord

for us

to hear

a difficult pill

to swallow

because we like

to have our way

all of us

we have turned

to our own way

but we thank you

for sending Christ

to save us

to bring us back

the sheep

that have gone

astray

back to the fold

of the Father.

Help us now

to give ourselves

entirely to you

entrust our lives

entirely to you

mold and shape us

as you will

so we might see

your purposes

fulfilled in our lives

Lord.

In Jesus name

we pray

Amen.