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Female Announcer: Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham.

Jack Graham: If you dare to think that God does not love you, remember the cross. Remember that His blood was poured out for you, that His body was broken for you. You are of infinite value to God.

Female Announcer: On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how it's never too late for a fresh start. If you listen and trust God. Now, here's Dr. Graham with his message: Hope for Broken Lives.

Jack Graham: Take Jeremiah, the 18th chapter, open God's word. I'm going to speak to you on the subject, hope, hope for broken lives. We see so much brokenness all around us in people's lives. And we wonder with all the hurt and heartache and brokenness in the world, our world, is there hope?

This is Jeremiah 18, a living illustration. We all typically like illustrations, whether they are great stories that come out of the Bible or stories that we hear from pulpits or lessons that we learn, parables instruct us. This is a living illustration at the potter's house.

Now, making pottery is one of the oldest, most ancient arts. And it is virtually unchanged, this art of making pottery, unchanged from ancient times. If you went to a potter's shed in the Middle East or even in this country today, if you would find a house of ceramics, you would discover that pottery is made virtually the same way as it has been done year after year after generation after generation. A few minor changes, maybe some motorization and so on, but ultimately, there is the clay and there is a wheel that is operated with a treadle, either motorized or by your feet. And the potter puts the clay on the wheel and turns it and shapes and makes a vessel.

So God takes us to this vivid illustration in Jeremiah 18 to teach us some lessons, vital lessons, at the potter's house. And what do we learn on our trip to the potter's shed? That is that failure is not final when you put your life in the Master's hands.

This was originally spoken to a nation, the nation of Israel. And certainly it's a word for America today. And there's so much brokenness in this country, as Jeremiah described the nation of Israel, we are facing disaster. And no human being can make America great again. We have political problems, we have moral problems, we are broken morally, spiritually, politically, financially. We are a broken people and only God can fix it. Only God can change the future of our nation.

And what is true for the nation is true for you and me. That we are on the potter's wheel. We, like the clay, are in the Master's hands. What do we learn there? Let's think for a few moments about the shaping of a person's life. Verse 3 tells us that the potter places the clay on the wheel. We don't have to wonder who is the potter, because God tells us in verse 6, that He is the potter.

Can I not do with you, O Israel, as the potter does with the clay? The potter represents God. He is the divine potter. And like the potter, God makes us and shapes us. He sovereignly breaks us and makes us into the persons that He desires us to be. God is the Master workman. And He has a plan, a purpose in making every life. The Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

The handprint of God is upon every life. The echo of God is in every soul. And His design, His desire is to make a beautiful vessel for His glory, for His use, valuable and beautiful and useful. You are not the result of chaos or confusion in the universe. You are not the result of random chance. Mankind, humankind is made by God Himself. In fact, we're told in Genesis chapter 1 that He made man in His own image.

The very image and identity of God is in our humanity. We were made for an eternal purpose. Just as God cannot cease to exist, you cannot cease to exist. The breath, the life of God. God breathed His life into mankind, and the life of God therefore is in mankind. We know of course that that life became flawed, and because of sin, distorted and depraved.

But the original intent of God and God's purpose and plan for every life is for you to be a beautiful expression of His love. You are not loved because you are valuable. You are valuable because you are loved. Loved by God. And your soul, your very being cries out to know the God who made you, who created you for Himself. You were made by Him and for Him.

We will never find happiness or hope in life in chasing pleasure, or money, or possessions, or property. We will not find it in drugs, or alcohol, or sex. These do not bring peace and promise that only God can give. The happiness that is expected. You know, they say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and over again and expecting a different result.

Sin is spiritual insanity because somehow we think that by more sin or by living my own life my own way again and again and again, I will ultimately get a different result and be happy. The fact is God is for your happiness. He made you for His good will. The chief end of man is to know God and enjoy Him forever. You were made to know Him. And the happiness and fulfillment and the forever life that He gives. The reason that some of you don't have security and identity in your life is because you are living outside of a relationship with God who made you.

God is the divine potter. But what is the clay? Who is the clay? Well, of course, we be the clay. We are the clay. Now, that's not very flattering, is it? The clay is colorless. It's basically worthless in and of itself. It's just wet dirt. You know, there's there's no beauty in the clay itself.

But when God gets his hand, when the divine potter gets his hand on the clay and begins to shape it and make it and even break it and bend it, He makes something beautiful of our lives. You know, the Bible says that we were made from the dust of the earth. I actually went on my my phone Siri to ask, what is the physical, financial value of a human body? And she said, this is what I found. And I got several articles that showed up. And the answer ranged from $3.95 to $5, $6, $7. Not much.

But to God, you're worth everything. The God who made you, created you, and recreates you in Christ. He loves you so much. You're so valuable to Him that He sent His darling son to the cross. Because you see, Jesus, God became clay. He took on human flesh. And that clay was pure, but it was broken. And His life poured out for us on the cross.

If you dare to think that God does not love you, remember the cross. Remember that His blood was poured out for you, that His body was broken for you. You are of infinite value to God. Eternal value to God. Jesus said what does it profit a man should he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Your eternal, immortal soul that will be here endless, timeless, dateless, immortal is more valuable than all the world's and everything in it put together. You are clay, but you're God's clay.

Female Announcer: You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, Hope for Broken Lives. July 4th, 2026 will be a day of great celebration for the 250th birthday of our great country. However, there has never been a more important time in our 250 years as a nation where we need God to move in power and heal our land. That's why I'm inviting you to join Dr. Graham in a prayer challenge for our nation. To join, simply text `Cry` to 59789. Again, text `Cry` to 59789.

Remember that your support of PowerPoint Ministries helps bring the truth of Jesus Christ to people around the world. Every day we hear from listeners who are searching for answers, longing for peace, and discovering hope through God's word. Often for the very first time. Your generosity keeps that message going out. And as our thanks for your gift today, we'd love to send you Dr. Jack Graham's book, The Jesus Book. A powerful guide to help you grow deeper in your relationship with Christ. Text `May` to 59789 to give your gift and request your copy. Again, text `May` to 59789. Now, let's get back to today's message: Hope for Broken Lives.

Jack Graham: If the potter, the divine potter takes the clay and begins to work with it and having created it, begins to caress it and move it and shape it, he then when it's just right, pliable enough, throws it on the wheel. And the wheel spins it round and round, and there's a treadle on at his feet that he is moving like a pedal on a on a piano here, just moving the treadle as he's moving the wheel. What is the wheel? The wheel represents the daily turn and twist of life, directed by the potter. Turned by the hand and the feet of God.

Life is on God's potter's wheel. James told us something like this when he said that life is like the cycle. He spoke of the cycle or the wheel of life. And so when we, the clay, are tossed on to the wheel of life and we begin to turn, the master craftsman, the maker, begins to shape us by turns and twists. Sometimes rapidly speeding up the wheel, sometimes slowing it down to an almost interminable level, the twist of life. Not the blind fate or chance of life, but again, the wheel of life directed by the divine potter.

We're not going just round and round and round and round in circles. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are according to Ephesians 10:2:10, His workmanship created in Jesus Christ unto good works. And as God turns the wheel of your life, He knows what he's doing. He is sovereign over all of those turns. In tragedy, in sorrow, in grief, in pain, He knows it all, and He's working it, working it.

And when you go through one of those times in life when the pressure is on, the hands of the potter seem to be pushing too hard, when the potter's hands meet the tragedies of life and the tests of life, Romans 8:28 is still right where it's always been in the Bible. For God is still working all things together for good. He's working creatively, constructively, continually in His child. He's working all things together for the good to those who love the Lord. Watch this. To those who love the Lord and are fitting into His plan, who are walking according to His plan and purposes in our lives.

God is working intelligently and individually on your life and in your life. So God is turning the wheel of life. And because He does, He turns ultimately every sorrow to joy, every grief to comfort, every pain to healing, every loss to gain. The divine potter is in charge, and He's making something beautiful of your life. That's the shaping of a person's life.

But then I want you to see at the potter's house the spoiling of a person's life. Look at verse 4 again in chapter 18 of Jeremiah. "And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand." Spoiled, marred. There is a defect that shows up. And you see the frown on the potter's face. And the wheel slows and his hands cease moving as he finds something in the clay that is resistant to the work of his hands.

Something in the clay that becomes a problem. Now what's the problem here? This clay that was spoiled, this vessel that was spoiled in the very hand of the one who made it. The problem is not in the potter or in the potter's hands. Skilled and always successful. The problem is in the pot. It's in the vessel itself. Some of you who are listening to me today are resisting the work of God's hands in your life.

You are struggling against His hands, some secret in your life that is stiffening your resistance to God. Some impurity that is in your human clay, a brittleness, a bitterness. And God cannot do what He desires to do in the design of your life to bring about the beauty and the glory of you, His vessel, because you're holding back, you're pushing Him away. Whether it be sorrow or whether it be circumstances. Some blame the circumstances of their lives for the problem in their clay.

God, if you had not made me. I've even heard as a pastor, I've heard over the years people blame God. God, why did you make me like this? Why am I like this? And with raised fist, curse the name of God. You know, there are some things in life you cannot change. There are some givens, some veritables in life that you cannot change. For example, the date of your birth.

The day you were born. You can change your age if you want, but that would be lying. You can't change the date of your birth. You can't change there was something you didn't have anything to say about, and that was the place of your birth. I don't have a lot to say about some of the basic components of who I am and what I am like and my DNA and and and my genetic code and all the rest. These are givens.

But I want you to remember today that when God made you, He made you for His purpose. And if you will live in the potter's hands, He will shape you and make you exactly the way He wants you to be. As someone elegantly put it one time, when God made us, God don't make no junk. You are not a mistake. You are a miracle, made by the Master's hand.

Some blame their flaws and failures on the wheel itself, the circumstances of life. You don't understand, if I had more education, if I'd been born in a better place, if I had a better opportunity, if I had to been sick, if I could get well, all the circumstances, and we rail at God because we're on the wheel in a place we don't enjoy. And yet all along He's using the turn of the wheel and the twist of the clay to make us into His image.

There is rhyme and reason and logic in life when you yield to the touch of the Master's hand. Have you said, Lord, I give you my life? Have you said, Lord, take my life? Make my life, break my life, shape my life. Have you said as the old songwriter said, have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will while I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have you yielded your life to the touch and the transformation of the Master's hands? Because remember this, God always gives His best to them who leave the choice with Him. So we see a vessel shaped, we see a vessel spoiled. But thank God, there's something else. We see here, we learn here at the potter's house that we see the saving of a person's life, the saving of this vessel. Look at verse 4, chapter 18 again. "And the vessel he was making of clay, spoiled in the potter's hand." And what did he do? Did he throw it away? No.

He re-worked it. He re-worked it into another vessel. Some say he mended it. No, he made it over. He made it again. As it seemed good for the potter to do. Thank God for the saving of a person's life, the saving of this vessel representing you here. Our God, the divine potter, is the God of the second chance, and the third and the fourth and another and another, how many you need. It's called grace. It's that marvelous grace, that majestic, magnificent grace, that we are made again.

Literally, in the Hebrew, it says that it was marred again and again. It was spoiled over and over again. But he kept remaking it. Is God through with you because you have failed him? No. No. No, a thousand times no. Our God is the God of new beginnings. And because of the cross, because of the power of the resurrection, even though you've messed up and you're broken, you can be made again.

Female Announcer: You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, Hope for Broken Lives. We want to thank you for being a part of the mission of PowerPoint Ministries. Every day, through the support of friends like you, the message of Jesus Christ is reaching people across television, radio, and digital platforms around the world. As our thanks for your gift this month, we'd love to send you Dr. Jack Graham's book, The Jesus Book. A powerful guide to help you move beyond simply knowing about Jesus to truly knowing Him through His word. Text `May` to 59789 to give your gift and get your copy. Again, text `May` to 59789.

July 4th, 2026 will be a day of great celebration for the 250th birthday of our great country. However, there has never been a more important time in our 250 years as a nation where we need God to move in power and heal our land. That's why I'm inviting you to join Dr. Graham in a prayer challenge for our nation. To join, simply text `Cry` to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

Jack Graham: Have you ever had the experience, maybe back when you were a child, of having a splinter in your finger or in your foot? And then came the fear that someone, your mom or your dad, or God forbid your brother or sister, was going to take your hand and start digging with tweezers to get that splinter out. Now the splinter hurts, and you know it could get infected because your mother told you so. And you got to get it out. But maybe you would rather suffer through pain and be in control of your misery than let someone else take the splinter out.

That's what it's like when we hesitate to give our broken lives, our messes to God. We're afraid of losing control. We're afraid of giving someone else our lives. We're afraid of how long it might take and how much it might hurt. But it is that very fear that keeps us from healing. It's the fear that keeps us from trusting in the Great Physician who can truly transform our lives. Remember, God isn't just cleaning up your problem. He's transforming your life. He wants to take your broken life and put it together again if you will give Him all the pieces. The one who made you, and even though you have been marred in His hands, you can be made again.

Sin is such a powerful and destructive force. It breaks so many lives. But let me remind you, God loves you. Jesus died on the cross for your sins. And He loves you so much that He's chasing you down right now to offer you forgiveness and to change your heart, your mind, your future forever. So let Jesus perform a little divine surgery in your life today. Let him take your wounded hand and your broken heart and heal your soul. Let Jesus make something beautiful out of your life. And that is today's PowerPoint. Join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how you can build a solid foundation in your marriage. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.