FROM BROKENNESS UNTO BLESSING

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They take out their bitterness over what has happened on those around them. They develop a short fuse, they say things that they don’t really mean, and they lose control of their emotions very easily.

David’s broken heart caused him to say in Psalm 31:6, “I have hated them that regard lying vanities.”

In verse 17, he said, “let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.”

In verse 18, he cried out, “Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.”

2. There is An Inward Problem.
It causes some to become discouraged, disillusioned, and even depressed.
Proverbs 15:13 A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

A newspaper reporter in Chicago received a telephone call.
It was from a man named James Lee, and he said he was sending
the newspaper a letter containing the story of his suicide.
Immediately the reporter tried to trace the call. But he was too late.
When the police arrived, the young man was slumped in the phone
booth with a bullet through his head.
In one of his pockets, they found a child’s crayon drawing.
It was all wrinkled up and faded, but obviously the man
treasured it. On the back of it a note said: "Please leave this in my pocket. I want to have it buried with me."
The drawing was signed by his little daughter, Shirley, who had been killed in a fire just 5 months before.
When she died, Lee had been so full of grief he asked total
strangers to attend her funeral so she would have a nice service.
He told them there was no family left because Shirley’s mother
had died when the child was 2 years old.
Why did James Lee take his own life? He was broken and didn’t know where to turn.

1. There Is An Outward Problem.
2. There Is An Inward Problem.
3. There Is An Upward Problem.
Some blame God for what has happened and either drop out of church or quit serving like they used to.
Proverbs 25:19 Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.

I. The Reality Of Brokenness
II. The Reason For Brokenness
God is not a cruel God. He allows things to happen for a reason.

There is always purpose in the pain we experience here on earth.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

II Corinthians 4:17 “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

God wants what’s best for you…He wants to do something great in and with and through your life.

Someone once said, “Before God can use a man greatly, He must wound him deeply.”

“Before you can bless, you must bleed; before you can help, you must first hurt.”

Oswald Chambers was right when he said, “If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed—you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.”

There is a clear pattern in the Bible that teaches us that brokenness precedes greatness:

1. Before Abraham became the father of many nations, he and Sarah were childless.
2. Before Jacob could be blessed, he was wounded by angel in a wrestling match.
3. Before Joseph ruled Egypt, he was thrown into a pit, sold