Brother Gary Sunday Morning 8/23/15

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 8/23/15

Isa 64:8  But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

A vessel unto honor:  In the first verse Isaiah acknowledged the Father.  It is vital that every one of us realize that man did not come into being someway somehow.  God created man, breathed into his nostrils and man became a living soul.

We are a twofold being: a natural body and a spiritual body.  Isaiah emphasized, “We are the clay.”  Much can be said about clay.  So much, that what Brother Jim taught was a very little amount. 

Clay is found everywhere.  The clay that is in this earthen vessel that I have in my hand came from Medicine Hat, Alberta.  (50 or 60 years ago a minister came here from there.  He was a German speaking brother that had immigrated to Canada, Brother Bedker.)  It works its way to Helena Montana and goes through many steps and ends up in Plains Montana to where there is a potter and a wheel, Mrs. Childress.

We did not come into this world perfected for all God had for us.  We came into this world as living clay, with a soul.  For every baby that has been born, the population in Montana is about 1 million people, all came from dust and all return to the dust but the spirit or soul goes to the God that created it.

Two weeks ago there was a baby in the congregation.  We are always happy when a baby comes.  When service was out, the congregation didn’t all rush out the door, or rush to greet me, or even to see how much smoke was outside, they headed to meet the baby. 

God wants every one of us to ever keep it real that not only do children need parents, they need godly parents.  They need parents that realize that “The potter has a definite plan for that life.”  They need the potter. 

There are many things in this world, the necessity of every earthen vessel is to be purged.  Everyone that is saved and knows God is also purged and set apart from that which would defile.

God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God is the potter.  Even those in this audience that are in the double digits, the thought is as long as we have this treasure in an earthen vessel, we are clay designed by Almighty God to be saved.  We are to repent of our sin and to acknowledge the transaction that has taken place by being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 

To be baptized, in the Greek, means to be immersed.  A spit bath is not a shower nor is it a bath.  The residents in the nursing facilities don’t have someone come in and pour water over them and tell them that they have been bathed.

We are the work of His hands.  I believe that this piece of pottery that I hold in my hand is very well done.  Knowing God as our heavenly Father, Jesus taught us:

Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

“Our Father,” for all that have God as their Father, Jesus as their savior and sanctifier, we all have the same Father.  It is vital that we know who our Father is.  Jesus dealt strongly with the thought, “Those that resist the Gospel have another father.  It is not a heavenly father.”

2Co 6:18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

God said in Proverbs, “I will be the father to the fatherless.”  There should never be a prejudice in the family of God that we look down on a fatherless child.  We live in a mean society.  God said, “I will be a father to the fatherless.  You shall be my sons and you shall be my daughters saith the Almighty God.”

It is wonderful to belong.  To belong to the family of God.  We have a father.  He is the potter.  We are the clay.  It is vital that you and I know how much the clay needs a potter. 

Every one of us sees individuals that have been left to themselves.  Brother Bill didn’t feel that he had received some of the training that those that are in godly homes have received.  But all clay needs the potter.

Every one of the Brothers and sisters in the church, we need each other, but it takes more than that.  We need the potter.  We need to have the attitude as clay, “I really need you.” 

The clay originally has a lot of things in it that must be worked out.  Because we were born with a nature to sin, came into this world speaking lies, we came into this world needing divine intervention from Almighty God.  We as clay really need the potter.

God spoke to Abraham, “I am the Almighty God.”  Then He came back and visited again and asked the question, “Is there anything too hard for God?” 

In Matthew there was a father that came to Jesus with a son that was so impaired.  He asked Jesus, “Is there anything that you can do?”  He had taken the son already to the disciples and they were not able to do anything.  Jesus made the statement, “If thou canst believe then all things are possible.”

We have a soul that is eternal.  We will be alive when the world ceases to be.  With God all things are possible.  You may be burdened with a past.  God does wonderful things with a past.  You need to repent:  I have no power to forgive sin, neither does any other man.  

The bible says, “If we confess our sins…”

1Jn 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Jesus said to repent, it means to confess and turn from your sin.  You can get out of the sinning business you don’t have to go on in your sin. 

Paul said, “Shall we continue in sin since grace abounds…”

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

Rom 6:2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

When we confess and repent of our sin and have the attitude, “I am going to follow you God.”  He casts our sin as far as the east is from the west and never remembers them again.  It doesn’t cost a dime.  It cost the Son, the scars in his hands, and the stripes. 

He casts our sins into the depths of the sea.  God puts your sins so that they will never be remembered against you. 

Until you have been a widow or a widower you cannot tell anyone, “I know what you are going through.”  I don’t know.  I have lost a mother and a father but have not lost a wife.  One thing I know:  We have a God that heals broken hearts. 

Isaiah said in the prophecy of Christ that He would bind up the broken heart.  When Jesus read that prophecy he said, “I will heal the broken hearted.” (Lu 4:18)  The poor it speaks of in this reading is the man, women, boy or girl that realizes that they need help from God.

As the clay, we must know that with God all things are possible.  Recognize, “Thou art the potter.”  He has all the resources to create a vessel unto honor. 

There are certain tools in the spring that you need to plant a garden.  You rake the soil and make it all smooth.  You plant seeds into the containers that you have.  In the harvest you put the cabbage into the crock.  You put certain things on it and on the pickles. 

That is the way that God is.  He takes and makes an earthen vessel that is just right for the season that we are in.  I was always taught to not look for the perfect job, but to find a job, go to work, and like it.

We are the work of thy hands.  The patience of the potter!  Imagine taking that hunk of clay and placing it on the wheel.  There are two pedals.  I think of them as the Word and the Spirit.  They began to mold with a certain design in mind.

We need the attitude, “I want you to place me on the potter’s wheel and make me what you want me to be.”  The potter has patience.  If you think, “I have fallen short and have not been all He wants me to be.”  We have a patient potter.

You may not be clay from Medicine Hat Alberta.  You may be the clay that Doug McDonald dug out of the bar-pit.  You may have grass, gravel, and glass in your clay.  It doesn’t really matter what kind of clay you may be.  You need only the attitude, “God make me what you want me to be.”

Buddy Robinson was a stutterer.  There was not the thought that he would do something big ever.  Someone came by and told him about Jesus.  He found that forgiveness of sin.  He found the experience of dying out to the old man and having the carnal nature purged. 

One day God spoke to him and told him that He wanted him to carry His gospel.  He wrote to an earthly headquarters and told them that God had called him to preach and asked if they had a place for him. 

They looked into it and found out that he stuttered.  They told him to just talk about Jesus where he was.  He began to talk about Jesus there, and the wonderful thing is that when he talked about Jesus he didn’t stutter.

The strength of the potter’s hands.  If you are a child that is challenged or if you are old and it is hard to make changes.  There is strength in the Potter’s hands. 

You may be a young person and the world is making its draw on you.  You may have thoughts of all that the world has to offer you and think that you cannot serve God with all the pressures of your peers.  There is a potter, He has hands that know how to work with you.  Instead of being self-conscious and thinking of what the world has to offer, think of what God has to offer you.

You might be an older person in this audience that feels that your life is consumed with getting old.  God knows how to take those strong hands and say, “Take the focus off of yourself and quit thinking of how poor your memory is and if you are too old to buy a car or not.  Get your focus on God.  Get onto the wheel and let Him begin to move the pedals, the Word and the Spirit of God.”

The love of the clay in the hands of the Potter:  don’t think of going into the turkey business if you don’t like turkeys.  The love of the potter towards the clay!  Hosea was inspired of God.  God said to tell them that He would love them freely.  “I will love them with an everlasting love.” (Jeremiah)

You can rest in His love.  This morning there will not be any in this audience that God won’t deal with.  We are all clay.  He loves working with clay. 

The potter has water there by His hands.  Works with it for a while.  The water is the Word of God.  God is going to work with me and with you as clay in the hand of the potter.

The attitude of the clay, “God I want you to work with me.”  The heart-cry, the deep thing within our soul, “God more than nay thing else, I want to be a vessel unto honor meet for the master’s use.”