“Then I went down to the potter’s house and there I will cause you to hear my words. 4. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter.”
The question is: Will God use broken vessels? According to what Jeremiah wrote in the text above, He will. The gist of what Jeremiah wrote was that when a nation, or as in our case, an individual, goes against God and repents they can be used of God again. There are many people who do not feel that they can be of use to God because of past transgressions. This might be an excuse on their part not to serve the Lord, or it might be that they genuinely feel that they are unusable. One thing is certain; if they have repented they can be used again, just like the marred pottery in Jeremiah 18:4. This would include you and me. We forget that God’s forgiveness is complete and if our confession and repentance was genuine, God has forgiven it and expects us to forgive ourselves. This doesn’t mean that there will not be scars, but scars are a sign of healing. I want to use some examples from the Bible of how God used “broken vessels.” Of course you know that David comes to mind. In one of his sermons in Antioch in Acts 13:22 Paul wrote: “And when He had removed (Saul) he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom He also gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill my will.” The point is that David’s sin did not disqualify him from being recognized as God’s servant. Paul obviously wrote this many years after David died. In fact, Jesus referred to Himself as the “root and offspring of David” in revelation 22:17. If you know the rest of the story about David, you know that things did not go easy for him after his sin with Bathsheba, but he was still used of God after that, and was well-spoken of in the Bible. Another person who comes to mind is Simon Peter. The person with even a minimal knowledge of the New Testament knows that Peter denied Jesus. Before Jesus’ arrest, Peter had declared that, in essence, he would defend Jesus with his own life. Of course you know that when it came time to stand up for Jesus he didn’t do it, but he denied even knowing Jesus. Surely, God couldn’t use such a person as this. But in events after His resurrection, Jesus challenged Peter to “feed my sheep…” On the Day of Pentecost, after Jesus’ resurrection, Peter stood and preached a bold sermon about Jesus and His resurrection and three-thousand people were won to Jesus. God used this “broken vessel” to win many people to Himself. We think of Paul as a mighty man of God who wrote a third of the New Testament and started many churches. But we need to remember that before his conversion on the Damascus Road, Paul had been the number one enemy of Christ’s church in Jerusalem, and sought to go beyond that, but God intervened and he was saved on the Damascus Road. Paul never forgot that he had persecuted the church, and actually referred to himself as “the chief of sinners,” but no one can doubt that this “broken vessel” was used mightily of the Lord. That brings us to you and me. If you are like me, you can’t claim to have lived a faultless life. You might not consider yourself a “broken vessel” but you are a “sinner saved by grace.” Some of you reading this might describe yourself as a “broken vessel,” but like the piece of pottery in Jeremiah 18:4 you can be “made over” and be used of God. Don’t give up on yourself, and certainly don’t give up on God. Bro. Joe
1 Comment
PASTOR MOSES CHEGE
8/24/2018 11:52:13 am
GOD BLESS YOU
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