The Bible Breakdown

Isaiah 64: The Potter and the Clay

• Brandon Cannon • Episode 642

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Speaker 1:

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, isaiah, chapter 64, and today's title is the Potter and the Clay the Potter and the Clay. We're going to jump into that in just a moment. So, if you have your Bibles, you want to open up with me to Isaiah, chapter 64. And while you're doing that, you know what to do. Make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Make sure you leave us comments on the YouTube channel and leave us a five-star review wherever you listen to your podcast.

Speaker 1:

By the way, don't forget to go to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing team there that's doing a wonderful job every day. I look forward to reading them and seeing them. They're different blog entries or, excuse me, devotional entries, and make sure you comment on those. We want to hear your feedback on what you're engaging with, what you're learning, because the more we dig, the more we find, and you may know something about God's word that we don't know and we would love to find out. All of us are just a bunch of people that love God's word and we want to grow together, so make sure you're doing that Well. Once again, if you have your Bibles.

Speaker 1:

I want to open up to Isaiah 64. We are getting really close to the end of Isaiah and as we are getting ready to end, you can see how God is just saying, over and over again you're going to have to trust me. You're going to have to trust me, just over and over again. And that's part of the overall theme, which is God is our salvation. Part of that salvation is you've got to trust me when you don't see it. Well, that's what Isaiah 64 is all about is Isaiah is asking for God to deliver them, but then he's saying but I trust how you do it. Okay, I really want you to do this, I want you to do it this way, but I trust you.

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A really silly example of this is I remember not too long ago. People who know me know I love coffee. I love every kind of coffee, I love specialty coffees, just all the thing. I just love coffee. And not too long ago, there was someone who was doing a coffee order at our office and they were asking people what they wanted and I told them I was like look, this is what I like, this is the idea of what I want, but I trust you OK. So like if, if they don't have that, you just pick me something out, it'll be great, be fine. I'll be honest with you, I didn't mean a word of it.

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I wanted the coffee that I mentioned, but I didn't know if they had it. I was almost to the point that it was like if they don't have that, I don't want anything. That it was like, if they don't have that, I don't want anything. But I just I wanted coffee a little bit more than I didn't, right? And so I was really hoping they would get what I wanted. But so when they got back, they my coffee wasn't there, but instead they got me a different one, and I was like, oh okay, okay, fine, fine, until I tried it. Now I have a new favorite drink. This thing is amazing, but I had to just trust them to do whatever, and that is an extremely silly illustration on what happens in our lives all the time. That's why I love that God.

Speaker 1:

Over and over again. We see it here in Isaiah. Eventually we're going to see it in the book of Jeremiah, how God uses the analogy of the potter and the clay, and it's the potter will put the clay on the spinning wheel and he'll start to spin it and he'll start to shape and mold the clay in the way he knows it needs to be. And it's almost as though he kind of gives character and personality to the clay and the clay is going hey, potter, if you don't mind, could you trim off a little bit here and do it that way and make me into this, make me into that. And the whole time the potter is like sounds good, I'm going to do it my way, only to realize it was the best way. And that's what Isaiah is doing here and we're going to see this. How he's going to give God all of his order, but in the end he's like but you do it your way, which it's almost like God is going good, because I was planning on doing that anyway. All right, if you're ready, let's read this together.

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Isaiah 64, verse 1, says this oh that you would burst from the heavens and come down. How the mountains would quake in your presence as fire causes wood to burn and water to boil. Your coming would make the nations tremble. Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame. When you came down long ago, you did awesome deeds beyond our highest expectations, and oh, how the mountains quaked. For since the world began, no ear has heard, no eye has seen a God like you who works for those who wait for him.

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You welcome those who gladly do good and who follow godly ways, but you have been angry, very angry with us, for we are not godly. We are constant sinners. How can people like us be be saved? We are all infected and impure with sin. We display our righteous deeds and they are nothing but filthy racks, like autumn leaves. We wither and fail, and our sins sweep us away like the wind. Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy. Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins.

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And yet verse 8 says so. Don't be so angry with us, lord. Please don't remember our sins forever. Look at us. We pray and see that we are all your people. Your holy cities are destroyed. Zion is a wilderness. Yes, jerusalem is a desolate ruin. The holy and beautiful temple where your ancestors praised you has been burned down and all the things of beauty are destroyed. After all this, lord, must you still refuse to help us?

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Wow, isn't it amazing to see how Isaiah starts off with saying God, if you would come down. You can fix all this. You really could, and you can be good to us, even though we haven't always been good to you. But you're the potter, we're the clay. We choose to trust you and God, don't you think it's time for you to do it? I don't even care how you do it, I just care that you do it. What an amazing prayer to pray, and what would it look like in our life. It's almost like what I was telling you how, so many times, we have an idea of exactly what God needs to do. God, if you would just do it this way, man, I'm telling you you could straighten some of this out. You know what I mean. But then we come back to God and we go, but you know what? I don't care how you do it, I just care that you do. And God, don't you think it's time? Don't you think it's time? That's what intercession is.

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Intercession is when we just continue to say God, you do it your way, but God, I need you to do it. God, you do it your way, but I need you to do it. Just over and over again, just pleading before God, because what it does is it sets our heart in the right place. It's not that God doesn't want to do it and God doesn't want to do it. And it's not as though God is like, okay, beg me a little more and then I'll do it. That's not what intercession is.

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Intercession is not us convincing God to do something. Intercession is us praying and pleading with God to prepare our hearts for what God already wants to do. And so I want to ask you this question Are you prepared, whatever it is that's going on in your life, are you prepared to say God, I don't care how you do it, I just care that you do and I'm going to trust you. That's a bold prayer, because I don't know about you, but I kind of do. Can we just be really honest? This is just me and you, it's just us talking, right, I kind of care what God does. I want him to do it in the nicest, the best, the easiest, the most wonderful way, where everybody's happy, nothing bad happens, it's no friction, everything's wonderful and we all just sail off into the sunset. That's what I want God to do.

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Often, god doesn't do that, because what would we learn in the process, right? Remember? We talked about yesterday how God is our good father. We learn in the process, right. Remember we talked about yesterday how God is our good father, and a good father knows that you can't get an A on every test that you haven't earned right. Sometimes you need to fail so that you learn how to try harder. Or if you didn't learn the material, the worst thing I can do is give you an A you didn't deserve.

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Everyone doesn't need to get a trophy. Only those who have done the work get the trophy. I don't like that. I want a trophy anyway. You know what I think. But because God loves us, he does what is right, not always what is easy.

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But a bold prayer is God, I love you. I got a big idea for what you could do, but you're in charge and I'm not, so I don't care what you do, I just care that you do A bold, bold prayer. But here's the great thing when we realize that God loves us more than we can imagine. God cares more about whatever situation it is than we can imagine. He cares more. If we're praying for someone, god loves them more than we do. So whatever God does, he does it for their and our ultimate good. So, honestly, it's the best prayer because for all of us. We have a limited understanding. We don't understand all the different things, we don't understand what it would take for someone to come to Christ or for a situation to be fixed or whatever, and so if we had God's full view, we would do exactly what he does. And so, honestly, the best prayer is the one that is the hardest, and that is God.

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I don't care what you do.

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I mean, yeah, I kind of care, but by faith, I don't care what you do, I just care that you do and I trust you in the way while you're doing it.

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Can I encourage you when we finish our podcast today, what would it look like if you took the thing that's bothering you the most and you kind of put it on kind of the altar before God and said God, I am going to trust you with this. Today I'm going to tell you what I wish you would do, but then I'm going to trust you and then you let him do it, you leave it with him. You still do the best you can with whatever it is you have to do, but you trust him with what's left. Can I tell you there's a peace there, there's a joy there to know that God is working, that God is moving and that you can trust him. You can trust that, whatever it is, he does, even if it gets harder before it gets easier, it's the only way. It's the best way and that's the best way to live.

Speaker 1:

Let's pray together, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that, even though it can be one of the hardest things to do to put things in your hands, at the same time it's the best thing to do because you are trustworthy. I pray, god, that we will stop holding you hostage to our next answered prayer, but we'll trust you even now to say, god, I care, but yet I don't care. I want you to do the best for me and I'm going to trust you in the meantime and then, when it's all over with I know you prove yourself faithful every time. And so, god, we trust you today and we celebrate in advance all that you're doing. In Jesus name, we pray Amen, amen. God's word says in Isaiah, chapter 12, verse two. God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has given me the victory. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Isaiah, chapter 65.

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Brandon Cannon

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