The Work of His Hand

It's evident. Presence of the Lord is here today. Amen. And what a delight it is to be back at APC. Love and appreciate so much the leadership of this church. I love the spirit of this house. Praise team. Thank you for just walking us into the presence of God. Amen. There is a special touch of the Lord in this house today. Man, I've enjoyed the weekend being with the men of this church. We had a good time. Ate some good food yesterday. If you missed If you missed the steak yesterday, if I mentioned the steak, it was so good. Enjoyed the fellowship and our time together, man. So good to see. Amen.

Brother Willilifford on Friday night. Got to see him. Love and appreciate the Willford family. Amen. God bless the Reavers. Appreciate him, his wife, his family. Amen. Friends for many years, acquaintances for a long time. I think we're becoming friends. I mean, you're okay. You're okay, Sister Rever. Did I say that right? Did I That was the email I got from you. I just wanted to make sure I said that correctly. Thank you. We're helping the guy out. Um, so good to have my wife with me today. And uh, but brother and sister, Pastor and Sister Dong. Amen.

My wife and I in this season of our life are privileged to go to a lot of places and we're thankful uh, for that opportunity. But uh I hope you all recognize how blessed you are with the leadership of pastor and sister Dong. You're blessed. Not many places have the privilege to have as qualified as leaders as you have. And I know that you are blessed because of it. And I love him. Appreciate his spirit and his friendship. I look around, I see different ones that I know. And if I start, I'll get in trouble. But I get the privilege of working with brother Christian Walmer.

He's one of the most normal P uh MKs that I've ever met. Most MKs are weird, but he's he's he's okay. Did I get that email right? Okay. Thank you, man. I love you, bud. I'm I'm thankful for your friendship. You're a great guy. That's the part that I wasn't sure it kind of I I know you had some more words there, but I don't have it in front of me. Amen.

If you have your Bible today, I'm going to direct you to three different portions of scripture. I'm going to read a little more uh scripture than I normally would, but I just want to kind of set the stage for where I believe God wants us to go today. We're going to start in Psalm 111. Psalm 111. We're going to read seven verses of scripture here. Then we're going to go to Jeremiah 18. And then we will end up in Isaiah 64. Psalm 111 verse1 says this, "Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.

The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious, and his righteousness endureth forever. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. He hath given meat unto them that fear him. He will ever be mindful of his covenant. He hath showed his people the power of his works that he may give them the heritage of the heathen. I love verse 7. The works of his hands are verity and judgment. All his commandments are sure. Go with me to Jeremiah 18:1.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, "Arise, 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, notice, in the hand of the potter. So he made it again another vessel. It seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Oh house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter, sayeth the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, oh house of Israel.

One verse of scripture in Isaiah, Isaiah 64:8. But now, oh Lord, thou art our father. We are the clay, and thou are potter, and we are all the work of thy hand. with the help of the Lord.

For just a few moments today, I want to I want to take from the scripture itself and preach to you the work of his hand. Amen. How many are thankful for the hand of God in your life? Amen. And I believe God wants to minister in this house. Can we one more time just give God thanks and ask him to speak to us? Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be a part of your kingdom. I pray that you would bless this word. Open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, our heart to receive, and our mind to comprehend what thus saith the Lord for us today. Speak Lord into every situation in life.

I pray and everybody say in Jesus name, amen. God bless you. You may be seated. There are many that over the course of life have stated that life is a journey that is not always necessarily about the destination. The point being that the road to where each of us are going in life is just as important or maybe even more so as the final place or the destination that we get to. I've often looked over my own life in times of reflection and I have noticed the importance of the journey in my own life. The lessons learned on the journey of life tend to become the fabric of everything that life is made up of.

I submit to you this morning that the destination is important. It is where we end up in life is should be of utmost concern. But the journey, the road to where you are going is the very thing that teaches you and I the important lessons on what life should look like and how we should be living as we make our way to where we are intended to go. So I would just simply ask questions today. What lessons have you learned? What is God trying to teach you along the journey of your life and the places that you find yourself and your family finds itself?

For several years now, I have been captivated by the prophet Jeremiah. Here is a prophet of incredible acclaim. Yet, we seldom look deep into the chasm of his calling. He He lived a life fully. He invested his life into the things of God. He had no apparent pattern of what a holy, righteous individual should look like or how they should operate. He simply acted upon a word that came to him from God in a time where the nation was dealing with many difficult things. It was an evil time. It was a time that was filled with a lot of debauchery and decay everyone everywhere that one would look.

And the leadership of Jeremiah's day basically consisted of monarchs who were doing evil such as Manasseh and a king by the name of Ammon. Evil of which many speculate had never been seen before or since their time. And Jeremiah ministered during that season. And even though during his time there was the righteous reform of a boy king by the name of Josiah, there were still troubled times and he had to speak against difficult situations. But God used Jeremiah to speak a word that didn't always jive, if you will, with the people. But he spoke it because he said it was like a fire that had been shut up in his bones.

He couldn't keep silent. He had to give it out. It caused every muscle in his body probably to be stretched by the limits of fatigue. And every thought in his mind was subjected to rejection. And every feeling in his heart, amen, was put through the fires of ridicule. God spoke to Jeremiah when he began his ministry and said, "Jeremiah, you're going to preach a word and not everyone's going to like it. You're going to preach a word and some are not going to disagree with it. You're going to preach a word that they're not going to follow through, but preach on. And that's what he did.

He ministered to the fullest and it brought great pain into his life. But the lessons that he brought forth are there to even impact you and I that are in this house today. God had a lesson that he needed for the prophet Jeremiah to learn. So God directed Jeremiah to go to a very familiar place in that culture. He went down to the potter's house and he watched the potter mold the clay into something of value. The simple and familiar craft of the potter becomes a parable of intense truth and power for even us today.

As important as this destination to get down to the potter's house was for Jeremiah, the journey down to the potter's house was just as equally important. The potter's house was a place that God wanted Jeremiah to go to. Notice the way that the potter worked with clay to notice the methodology of the potter and how the potter fashioned and formed the vessel that he was working on. Jeremiah had to commit to this journey down to the potter's house in order for him to experience the revelation and that God had for him.

In order to discover the spiritual artist at work in a time of uncertainty, Jeremiah had to commit to taking the journey down. the journey. He had to leave the comfort of where he was in his life at that time with all the questions that he had about what God was doing and he had to take the trip. Now, I know we all want to focus on the destination and what is discovered there, but what about the road? Let's talk about the road. Why is the road sometimes so rough to journey down? Why must there be a going down before there ever can be a coming up?

I stand here this morning understanding the difficult journey that many of us that are in this house may be on right now. I stand here understanding the struggle and the pain, the questions and the frustrations, the loneliness and the trials. And I often pray to God that somehow may God, can you just make that person's journey a little bit easier? Can you maybe eliminate the hard part and let them not have to go through so much on their way down to where you are calling them? But I'm also reminded, amen, that the road to the potter's house is just as important as the destination is.

I imagine that road got very narrow for Jeremiah. Times that he didn't know maybe he was going to make it through to his final destination. I I imagined that there were moments that he had to avoid the potholes and he that were scattered along the way. And I can even imagine those that may have been on the road that needed to talk to Jeremiah and tell him to stop and discuss what's going on in the nation. Why are we facing so much distraction and trouble? And no matter what he had intended to go, there were probably distractions uh that were on the destination, but he had to continue on.

I I've just got to stop here for just a moment to remind some of you that may be on the journey to a place God is instructing for you to go to that are facing heartache and hardship. I would simply say just keep on keeping on. Just keep on putting one foot in front of the other. I know it may not be pleasant right now. I I know that things may not be everything that you want them to be, but I got a word for you. He knows the way that you take. Uh and he is faithful. There may be those in your life that will tell you to stop, turn back, give up, quit. It's too much work to get to where you're going.

But there is so much to learn as you go down to the house of the potter. God does have the answer for you. It just has to be beyond the going down. You got to commit to the going down. There's another prophet that arises out of the midst of the mundane that also found himself going down. The details are very much different in his life, but the journey was very familiar. His name was Jonah and he had a word from God for a wicked people. He had he had a revival to experience, but he chose to alter the course and go in a different direction.

And the Bible says that Jonah went down to Japa, then down into the ship, then down into the belly of that great fish. Uh but whether this was by his own choices or not does not alter the course of God that had been laid out for Jonah. Because once Jonah found himself down uh in the belly of the fish, uh the Bible tells us that that fish spit him up onto dry ground. Uh and then he went on up uh to Nineveh where he experienced a great revival for the people of that city. I'm going to preach a little bit here on this Sunday morning. I hope you're buckled up. Uh he had to go down uh before he could go up.

Uh there were some things that Jonah had to learn uh before he could be a part of what God wanted to do uh in that city called Nineveh. Why are you fighting the road down, my sister? Uh why are you spending your time fearing the journey going down, my brother? It's part uh of the process that brings you to your promise. Uh it's part of the plan that God has uh and the potential that he has for your life. I I'll just submit to you today, we we don't always appreciate what is learned at the house of the potter until we appreciate the road that we are on that is taking us there.

I've I said this to the men on this uh this last couple of days. I've lived by a very simple statement. You will never make an impact until you are committed to the collision. Some things are only learned uh by colliding with your fear and your doubt and your failure and your pain. Uh, amen. And you've got to deal with those things because God's got way too many lessons that he's trying to give each and every one of us. Uh, amen. And you got to commit to getting on the road. Uh, and getting to where God I don't care how bad it is.

Uh, I don't care how dark the night I don't care if you're weeping through the night. I got a word. Joy will eventually come in your morning. So once Jeremiah completed the journey on the road down to the potter's house, we are then made privy to what was taught to this great prophet of old. Once Jeremiah got down to the potter's house, God began to speak to him and reveal to him what was transpiring in the lives of God's people. Jeremiah, even in the midst of his frustration, all of a sudden began to learn what the reason was that the potter was placed in his life to teach him.

He did not get his flash of insight while he was praying. But while he was watching a potter engage in his daily work, hear me. I'm just going to be me today. I'm just going to take my time. I promise you'll be out of here before the Baptists get to Golden Corral. I promise there'll still be food for you. God reveals himself in strange places and in unexpected seasons. Hello. You know, we don't learn and we we do learn when we come to church. The preacher preaches and teaches and we learn things. But some of life's greatest lessons on how to survive the storm is taught while you're in the middle of the storm.

Hello. Hello. That's where you see Jesus walking on the water. We wanted to be on the other side. And God says, "Honey, I want you to get out here in the middle of the mess because I'm about ready to show you a miracle." Aren't you thankful for the miracles that show up in our mess? God reveals himself in strange places, unexpected seasons. For instance, he once revealed himself in a stable. And the potter that is placed here had a lot that needed to be revealed to Jeremiah, but he could have missed it all if he was not willing to take the trip and travel down the road.

How much have you and I missed in our lives that God wanted to teach us because uh we turned back or we stopped somewhere on the path between the word and the fulfillment of that word. I'm preaching to somebody today and I felt this so strong in the Holy Ghost in prayer this morning. I am preaching to somebody today that has wanted uh amen desperately wanted the potter uh to let the potter work in your life and situation but the journey down has been so treacherous uh that you have just about given up. I've got a word for you. Hang on. Uh there is a lesson to be learned uh amen from the lesson of the potter.

Uh amen. God's about ready to reveal some things to somebody here today. I know things haven't made sense. Uh, I know you don't know why this turn uh in the corner of your life has happened. Uh, but I've stopped by to tell somebody, hang on. Uh, just a little while longer. I'm going to preach this out of my spirit this morning. Uh, amen. Don't give up yet. Uh, don't quit yet. Uh, don't sit back yet. Uh, don't throw in the towel yet. Uh, there's a lesson. I know you've been going downh. I know you've been on the bottom. I know you don't know where to turn to.

But I've come to tell you just a little while longer, you're going to understand why you went through what you had to go through. So Jeremiah gets down to the potter's house and he notices the methodology of the potter. He knows the way. notices the way as the potter pulls from the ground, the clay, and puts it on the wheel that it may become what the potter has already determined for it to become in his mind. And in this story of the potter, we see him taking nothing and making something out of it. Uh because the potter had a pattern that was already in his mind.

Uh, and what's interesting to me is that the Bible says the vessel that he made of clay, watch this, that's strange statement because the Bible called it a vessel when it was still basically just a lump of clay. And aren't you thankful that God says some things about you that if anybody else would have said it, it would have been a lie? Like he says, "You are holy and unblameable." And yet there is evidence that disputes those biblical facts. Uh, so why is it that God seems to say things about you and I in his word uh that evidence shows it's untrue? Uh, I'll tell you why.

The reason uh is because God has the ability to call those things that are not as though they already are. God ahead and calls you uh what you're going to be while you still are what you are. Why? Because if anybody else would have said it, it would have been a lie. But he knows uh he knew you before you were conceived. Uh he knew you before you walked into this storm. Uh he knew you before you faced this trial. My God, I feel the Holy Ghost. Uh he knows uh the way that you take. So hang on. He's about ready to reveal himself to you. Man. Amen.

And he knows that he is able to make you become what he has already declared you to be. Hear this preacher this morning. It's not premature for God to call a lump a clay a vessel because he knows he is able to make it become what he already had in his mind. Your past can't stop him. Your present condition cannot stop him. Your home life cannot stop him. Your problem cannot stop him. If he's got a plan for you, uh all you got to do is get on the road down to the potter's house. Uh you may not be all that yet. Uh but he is able to perform it. Uh he that has begun uh a good work in me.

I said he that has begun a good work in meh shall complete it until the day. Amen. I may not be everything that I'm going to be, but I'm not what I used to be. And God's still working on me. Amen. I a work in progress. So the potter understands something. In order for that lump of clay to become a vessel, a vessel that can be used in the master's hand, it has to go through a forming process. And for just a moment, I want to deal with the concepts. Two concepts, one of forming, the other of filling. You will notice that the Bible doesn't say anything about filling the vessel. It just says that it was a vessel.

But we understand that vessels are made to be filled. The filling is not the issue that God is trying to get Jeremiah to understand. He's trying to get Jeremiah to see the importance of the forming. Allow me a moment just to step back and preach a concept that I have thought of for years and I've preached on occasion because of the power of its truth. In the book of Genesis when it discusses the act of creation, there seems to be two accounts of God creating humanity. At one point the Bible says that God created man.

The Hebrew word used there is a word called barah which means God created man without the aid of a pre-existent substance. He used no recipe. He created humanity without anything. He created man. But when you journey to the next chapter, chapter two, you begin to discover that God formed man. And the Hebrew word for form there is a word in the Hebrew called Yasar, meaning that God formed man from something already in existence. And we know what it was because the Bible tells us he used the dust of the ground. So at one point it says that God did not use anything that already existed to make man.

But then at another place he lets us know that he formed man from the dust of the ground. He used a recipe if you will. And how could this be? It seems to contradict. Uh but for you and I to fully understand this concept. Uh amen. We got to understand that we have a body, we have a soul, we have a spirit. Uh amen. We are a tripart being if you will. Amen. And when God speaks of creating man in Genesis 1:27, I believe that he is speaking of the spirit of man, the immig. But when he talks about the body, he forms the body from the dust of the ground and he takes the spirit which he had created.

Uh and he breathes into Adam the breath of life. Uh and all of a sudden Adam becomes a living soul. Uh all of a sudden Adam became aware of himself. If he notices, hey, I I've got hands, some of us, and I've got feet and I I've got eyes and I got ears and I got fingers and I've got toes and I can move and I can talk. Can I just say it like this? Uh do you know uh you and I will never know who we are till the breath of the almighty God breathes in us. Uh when God breathes in you, I want to preach to somebody right now that the enemy's told you you're not going to get through this.

Uh, but when God breathes in you, uh, all of a sudden you say, "Hey, I'm better than this. Uh, I'm more powerful than this. Uh, I don't have to let the devil treat me like this. Uh, I don't have to be overcome like this." Come on, somebody. Uh, when God breathed in Adam, uh, Adam started walking and talking and claiming and decreeing and subduing. Amen. And speaking of things, God is in the business. And here's here's the deal, y'all. Here's the deal. Y'all good? Hunger pains haven't taken over yet. All right, give me a few more minutes. God starts breathing in Adam and Adam starts taking dominion over things.

He starts naming things and claiming things and blessing things. Some of us need a good breath of God to blow in us because we've allowed the enemy to push us around. But if you'll get a true wind of God to begin to blow into your family and in your marriage and in your life, amen, you'll stand up and say, "Devil, get behind me. Uh, greater is he that is in me uh than he that is in. No weapon formed against me is going to prosper. But Adam couldn't do anything without God first filling what he had formed. God's in the business of filling those things that he forms.

God formed the earth and filled it with vegetation, cattle, and crops. God formed the sky and filled it with clouds and birds. God formed the sea and filled it with fish. God formed man and filled him with divine life. God formed the tabernacle and filled it with furniture. God formed the temple and filled it with shakina glory. God formed the church and filled it with the Holy Ghost. Uh God formed the dry bones in the valley and breathed into them the breath of life over and over and over and over. Anything that God forms, get ready. God's going to fill. I'm going to preach for a while here right now.

If God goes through the trouble of forming you, it's only because he's trying to fill you with something. Uh, and if you can handle the forming, uh, after a while, you get to experience the filling. Uh, God fills whatever he forms. I felt in the Holy Ghost this morning that there are some of you that are on the way down to the potter's house. Uh, and the forming process has started. Uh, and you have questions to what God is doing in your life. I've got a word for you. Hang on. Uh, because God's working in you and on you. He's forming you and shaping you and getting you ready in order to fill you.

Uh he has something that he is wanting to deposit uh into your life. Uh hear me, hear me, hear me. God wouldn't be taking his time on you uh getting you ready. Uh if he didn't have something he wanted to put into your spirit. Can I submit to somebody today? The greater the forming, the greater the filling. The more you're going through, the more God's about ready to pour into you. I I I promise. I promise I'm getting close. The more you go through, be informed. I don't know how long your pastor preaches, but I imagine he's at least a 45 minute to an hour preacher. He's got so much to say.

So, I'm going to do my best to go at least three hours this morning. There's three of you who said, "Go ahead." The rest of you said, "Oh, Jesus, help us. Jesus, take the wheel." The more that you and I go through, be informed only reveals the fact that God's got some good stuff he's getting ready to deposit into your life. And if you can just hold on for a little while longer, you'll get a revelation of why you had to go through what you had to go through in order to get what God has in store for you. I I know the road is long and winding. I I know the way may be treacherous.

I I know the lessons of life are not easy to learn, but it may just be one more bend in the road, just one more turn around the corner, and God's going to reveal to you why you are on the path that you're on. I felt this in the Holy Ghost in prayer. I'm preaching to somebody. If it's one person, I'm okay with that. You haven't been able to make sense of this season of your life. Uh but I've stopped by to tell you it's a journey someplace. Uh where God's about ready to reveal something to you. Uh amen. Don't be an individual that wants the filling without the forming.

Uh don't be a person that wants the position without the pain. Uh don't be an individual who wants the success uh without the struggle. Uh because there are things that can only be learned uh in the treacherous trails of life. Amen. That can reveal the power of the potter's hand at work in your life. Oh, the greater the forming, the greater the filling. God may be getting ready right now to pour something into your life. There's a promise coming down your dusty road. So hang on, dear saint of God. God hasn't finished with his promise in your life. God sometimes just takes his time on us getting us ready.

God shapes us so he can pour treasure into earth and vessels. Uh that the excellency of the glory may be of God and not of us. Uh God wouldn't be taking his time uh amen going letting you go through what you're going through if he wasn't desiring to deposit something into your life uh that no devil in hell can pull out of you. Uh amen. I know we often question why. Uh I know we wonder why the processes of God are the way they are. Uh amen. We don't want to talk about the things that we go through. But let me tell somebody uh it's that process. Uh amen. When God's working uh Amen.

And God's breathing uh and God's molding uh and God's shaping, he's doing it for a reason. So the potter, let's get back to the potter. The potter pulls from the ground the clay begins to shape it. The shape of the clay was in the potter's mind. Long before he pulled it from the ground and placed it on the wheel, the potter begins to spin it. Maybe I'm the only one in this house, but have you ever noticed that when God's getting you ready for something, everything starts spinning? Anybody been there, done that? Got the t-shirt, took a Polaroid. You know what I'm saying?

God's getting you ready for something and man, it's like all hell busts loose. It's like, "What in the world's going on?" Things start going crazy. Folks start acting strange. People you thought would always be with you walk off and leave you. Don't worry about it. God's got his foot on the wheel. And he will not spin you off the wheel. He will only spin it fast enough to get you to pray. He'll only spin it fast enough to get you to call on his name. He'll only spin it fast enough to get you to realize that God's way is the best way.

And when it looks like you're drying out from so much spinning, he'll wet you down with the washing of water by the word, uh, he will drop a word into a preacher's mouth that will bring a refreshing into your life in the middle of a dry season. I'm preaching to somebody right now. He will cause a one-armed preacher to stop by and give you a word. You may be dry today, but there is a river that is flowing your way. He'll send water into your life that will make you pliable and sensitive to his touch. And when it looks like you can't take it anymore, he'll do what only a potter can do.

He'll reach down and he'll touch you. Amen. He'll touch you so that you might become. He'll touch you so you can make it another day. He'll touch you so he can form you. He'll touch you so you can recognize that he is the God that makes a way out of nowhere. He'll touch you. So many things in creation went on without a touch. The rivers ran without a touch. The sun rised without a touch. The moon shines without a touch. But you and I cannot exist without a touch from God. Don't you think for one moment you can make it without a touch from God? Have you ever had God touch you at a very critical moment in your life?

Touch you at the time that you thought you wouldn't be able to make it another day. It's the desire of divinity that you walk out of here with a touch of God on your life today. One touch can deliver you. One touch can heal you. One touch can save you. One touch touch can restore you. So the potter begins to shape it. It's interesting that while he's shaping it, the Bible tells us the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. It was marred. That means it was messed up. It was cracked. It was flawed.

The purpose for which it was being created could not be performed be performed because it was faulty. How can you pour anything precious into a vessel that's cracked? You can't. If you do, things will just run out. Here is this vessel marred, flawed. The purpose for which it was created was not being fulfilled. It had a problem. But hear me, it was still in the hand of the potter. I'm I'm wrapping it down here just a moment. He never Notice something. He never threw the lump of clay away because it was useless. He made it again.

The scripture said, "Another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it." I know it was flawed. I know it had been hurt. I know it had messed up. I know there were cracks in the vessel. But he made it again another vessel. We don't want to talk about saints that have sinners problems. Oh, don't get quiet on me. I will preach a while. We don't want to deal with failures and indiscretions and mistakes. We just want to write them off and forget that he made it again another vessel. Some of you that are sitting under the sound of my voice right now think that maybe things are over.

May I remind you he made it again another vessel. He made it. I'm real simple. I come from a farm in Idaho. Who is he? It's God. You can't do this on your own. Uh he made it. What was it? Was it another vessel? No. It was the same vessel remade uh as seemed good to the potter to make it. He doesn't need someone's permission to remake you. Uh he has a plan that seemed good to the potter. Uh amen. He didn't throw you away. He said, "I'll take your brokenness and I'll bring healing." Uh he didn't throw you away.

Uh he said, "I'll make you again another vessel." That ought to make somebody slap happy on a Sunday because he made it again. All across this house, stand with me. Musician, come. Somebody come up there. Play that funky music. White girl. Sing that funky music. White girl. I was looking at this passage. Pastor, now don't get too funky. I was looking at this passage, Brother Christian. It's like the Lord kept saying, "There's there's a common denominator here. I want you to see something." And I'm like, "There's nothing common. Everything's shifting.

We're going from the ground to the wheel to the spinning to the remaking to the finished product. What's common about all this? Nothing seems to be common. Curse you. Hope that mic still works or that there's this constant shifting of events. Just like life, pastor, things are always moving. Man, I get one victory and wake up Monday morning and my wife looked at me funny or something. Wrecked my day. You all looked over at my wife right there. I saw something be like, "Do you blame her?" So I said, it's the way I talked to God. I was like, God, what what what's common here? I don't see anything common.

It's always shifting, always changing. It's fluctuation. It's it's a mess. The Lord just kept drawing me back to the text. As the potter pulled from the ground the clay, spun it, shaped it, remade it, put it down with the washing of water by the word, made it subtle, made it made it appliable to the touch of the potter's hand. What is the common denominator? The Lord simply dropped something very simple into my spirit. It's not rocket science. And it's simply this. I have always been in his hand. The common denominator in this whole story is you're still there. You're not somewhere we have he cannot find you.

You're you're not so far removed that he's forgotten you. You uh have always been in the hand of the potter every step of your life. You're right there. Uh underneath are the everlasting arms. Uh amen. said that Naam said he has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm. He hasn't forgot about you. You're right there. In the middle of your divorce, you were right there. In the middle of your pain, you were right there. In the middle of not knowing what direction to go, you were right there. You have always been in his hand. I am so thankful for the hand of God.

I am so thankful that God didn't when I had mistakes and there were cracks in my armor and there were flaws in my spirit. I'm so glad that God didn't push me out here on some lump somewhere. Throw me out into a pile of refues. But he said, "You know what? I'll take your brokenness. Uh I'll keep you right here. I'll keep working on you. I'll keep shaping you. I'll keep healing you. I'll keep restoring you. You have always been in his hand. So no matter what, Sister Reaver, we may all be going through on this Sunday, you're here. I know when you've messed up in some people's lives, they pushed you away.

They didn't want anything to do with you. But not God. Not God. God says, "I got you. I got your back, baby. I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you. I'll never walk off. You will always be in the center of my hand. When I was praying today, I couldn't help but sense that there are those that have already felt like it was just about over. You're just about ready to give up throwing in the towel. I'll go one more Sunday to APC and you got here and saw that place couldn't even afford a full evangelist. Pastor was feeling filling his American Disabilities Act quota. ADA compliant. You brought me in, buddy.

You're good for a while. You know, I'm teasing, man. I needed something. And they brought this guy in. I'm going through hell and high water. And they didn't even sing the songs I wanted them to sing today. Doesn't matter. You're in the hand of the potter. Oh, I feel the Holy Ghost. He hasn't forgot about you. You are the apple of his eye. He knows the way that you take. Uh he's not off someplace uh in China or Europe or some other country dealing with something. He's right here. He's present in this house to heal, to restore.

You may not need it, but I guarantee there's somebody in this house today that just needed to be reminded. It's the work of his hand. I'm in the hand of the potter.

Hands raised across this sanctuary. I feel the presence of the Lord. Come on, let's talk to him for just a moment. Hallelujah. Father, I thank you, Father. I thank you for your presence. I thank you for your glory. I thank you for your power. I thank you that you're here right now, God. That you've never left us. You've never forsaken us. Uh you never walked out on us, God. We're in your hand. Uh you've got a plan for us. Uh God, we're going to be that lump of clay that's going to become a vessel that is going to be used by you, Father, in the name of Jesus.

They're going to sing in just a second. And I don't know what you need. This is my third or fourth time here. And I know the protocol usually of this house is an altar call. And I feel that today. If you need to be reminded, if you need the hand of the potter, to touch you, to remind you, to heal you as they begin to sing. I'm going to open this altar and you can come down here, lift your voice, you can kneel, you could stand. I don't care what you do, but there are people here that need God to just remind them that they're still in the head of the father that the work of his hand, would you come?

If you need something from the Lord, would you come? If you need a miracle, would you come? If you need healing, would you come? If you need direction, would you come? Don't fight this on your own. Don't try to do this by yourself. Don't look at the altar as a place where only the bad go. This is a place of healing. This is a place of direction. This is a place of answers. Uh this is a place where God can do a work in you. Maybe you've been removed in your mind from the hand. But there is a God here right now. Hallelujah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Let God touch you. Let God heal you. Let God do a work in you.

Let God heal the brokenness in you. Hallelujah.