Good morning,
So how many of you have heard the cliché…"if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it"…?
Most people tend to abide by that with the exception of boys between 2 and 6. My youngest son, Dylan, fell into this category. And he still does to a certain extent. When he was 3 or 4, we were visiting my in-laws in Tennessee for Christmas. Well, Dylan found a screwdriver, and from seeing me around the house and at work, Dylan knew what to do with it as well…..Or should I say….knew how to operate it.
Well Dylan took his new found friend and started going around the house in search of something to turn with it. Door knobs, toys, toilet seats…on and on. We finally caught up with him, after many doorknobs came off in our hands, in the Garage. Here we found that Dylan had removed all the screws to all the garage door brackets that he could reach. And he was getting a chair over to reach the rest. One click of the garage door opener would have thrown it all off track.
You see, Dylan’s philosophy was …"if it ain’t broke…then break it"
"if it ain’t broke…then break it" think about that for a minute. Do you realize how utterly God-like that is?
Psalm 34
17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
19 A righteous man may have many troubles,
but the LORD delivers him from them all
You see, God wants us to break. He promises to be `close to the brokenhearted’. To be our source of power, courage and wisdom, helping us to get through our problems. This is when he can show us how great he is and how much we have to learn..
Listen to this quote by Oswald Chambers who was a Scottish minister around the turn of the century.
When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted desires, a broken friendship, or a new friendship—when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us." Oswald Chambers
So let me tell you about another member of my family, my youngest daughter Corinne. When Corinne was real young, she had a stuffed pillow like animal that she referred to as merely `Puppy’. It was, or still is I should say as we still have it stored away, a pretty cheap pillow actually. The material was thin, the colors faded rather quickly and it really wasn’t something that you were proud of when you went out with her and she would want to take ’Puppy’. Countless times we tried to bribe her into leaving it in the car. Never happened. She was as proud of her Puppy as anything. Then one day the ’Puppy’ had a run in with the ’Dog’. Needless to say, the Dog won. Puppy was strewn from one end of the house to the other. There was stuffing everywhere. I never knew that Puppy had so much in her. And of course, before we could pick up Puppy’s remains, Corinne walks in and finds Puppy’s tattered corpse lying by the couch. But being the trooper that she was, and much more adult-like than either my wife or I, Corinne picks up Puppy and brings it to her mom….still leaving a trail of stuffing behind. Holds Puppy up to her mom and simply says…Puppy’s broke….
And that would have been fine if both of us didn’t burst out laughing. Which instantly caused Corinne to run to her room and slam the door. What then emerged was a tug of war between my daughter and her mom over Puppy. After going on for what seemed days, my wife finally looked down at Corinne and said…..’ I can’t fix her till you let go of it"
And she let go. And through the years she gained a lot of practice of letting go because that poor thing had to be fixed a lot. If it wasn’t an animal tearing it up, it was her brother pulling puppy’s tail off.
’ I can’t fix her till you let go of it" isn’t that what God is telling us too?
If it ain’t broke….then break it….but let go of it when it breaks.
So lets learn a little here this morning. In our age of disposable everything, what do we normally do with something that is broken?….we throw it away and get a new one. It’s easier that way isn’t it?
Well God does things a little different. Rarely does he give us an easy road to take. He wants us to get down to the point that we can confess those parts of our lives that are painful and hurting, those parts that are not perfect an don’t measure up. God knows that when we get there, our humanity and it’s frailties will become instruments of healing if we allow it to lead us to confessing to God, our dependence on him to set us free.
Letting go of it. This is where my wife can tell you I have a major struggle. I’m one of those classic types that much prefer to suppress my feelings and hurt than have to share it with anyone. I always rationalize it by saying that it’s easier that way. I just try and bury it all and think that it won’t affect me nor will it affect others. Maybe some of you out there are much like that. It’s usually us quiet types.
But I learned something very valuable about all that this week. I learned it doesn’t happen that way at all. You see, those feelings and hurt are the beginnings of a brokenness. Call it a crack if you will. But what I, am maybe some of you, tend to do is to try and take some emotional cement and try and patch the crack up. And that may work for a little while until the crack happens again. Stuff starts to seep out and it begins to affect your relationships with your spouse, your kids and friends. So we may take that cement and try and patch over the patch. And it may work a little while until it starts to crack again. We repeat this process over and over and each time it works for a shorter duration. Finally one day the patch no longer works and most the gunk we kept putting in there, finally explodes out.
Is this brokenness?……That depends on your next move. You see, you still will have bits of that patch on top of the crack that hindered all the gunk from coming out. And if your next move is to try and patch it again yourself, it will remain the weakest part of your heart and the whole process is destined to repeat itself. I know, I’ve been there and done that many times.
However, if at that point, you turn to God and ask him not to fix it, but to restore it, then you have reached brokenness and true healing can begin. This is His plan for you.
God wants you broken so that you turn to him for help. Then God wants to restore us and make us stronger. But how, you ask, is something stronger once it is broken?
Lets look at the word restore. That word comes up over a hundred times in the bible. The word itself back then, was a medical term that meant, "to set a broken bone". And as a Christian, when we fall into sin, it’s much like a broken bone that affects the rest of your body…it needs restoring. When you break your leg, you normally end up on crutches and then your arms and other leg must then support the weight of the injured leg until it heals or is restored.
And once that broken bone is set, it actually heals and becomes much more stronger than the surrounding bone.. Almost as if nature were determined to fortify herself against another attack.
And look at other examples of something becoming stronger after breaking.
Immunities…you’ve heard of developing immunities against a sickness before. Like the bone, your body will become more resistant to illness, the more you have them
A piece of steel can break, but once welded, the weld, or fix, itself is many times stronger than the surrounding steel.
Also, a piece of steel becomes harder and stronger when you temper it. This is a process of heating and cooling it many times, thus breaking down its internal structure to become stronger. Tempered glass is much the same way. It is breaking down its internal structure to produce something 5 times stronger.
The incision that is made into a heart during open-heart surgery, if properly cared for and allowed to heal, becomes the strongest part of the heart muscle.
Could you ever ride a horse that has not been broken? A broken horse makes a great companion, but a stallion out of control is dangerous. A horse does not give up its strength or power when it is broken, but rather just brought under control of its owner. Kind of like us and God don’t you think?
If it ain’t broke…… then break it….you’ll become stronger.
So then how does God use something that is broken?
In Judges 7, we see that after Gidean’s army was whittled down from 32,000 to a mere 300. God equipped them with only a trumpet, and a torch inside an empty jar. But when they broke those jars and blew their horns, the Midianites were thrown into chaos from all that racket and turned on them selves. (Be thankful that the same doesn’t happen to us when our children break a plate in the kitchen)
In Matthew 14, God used the broken bread and fishes of a little boy to feed 5000. They broke bread at a later date as well to feed 4000.
In Mark 14, God used the broken jar of Mary, and the oil poured out.
And in 1st Corinthians, God used the broken body of Jesus, and a sinner was saved.
Countless times, God has restored a broken heart to achieve greatness.
Before Abraham became the father of many nations, he and Sarah were childless.
Before Joseph ruled Egypt, his brothers sold him into slavery.
Before Job’s estate was doubled, he lost everything he had, including his family.
Before Moses led Israel out of Egypt, he was a fugitive running for his life.
Before Samson crushed the Philistines, he met Delilah.
Before David was anointed king, he was rejected by his family.
Before Hosea became a powerful spokesman for God, his wife betrayed him and returned to prostitution.
Before Peter preached 3,000 souls into the kingdom, he denied his Savior three times.
Before Paul brought the gospel to the Gentiles, he was blinded on the Damascus road.
Before these ministers here have brought you a message, they were all broken
These men experienced brokenness before greatness ever became them. Breaking is a good thing. God established a pattern long ago of preceding greatness with brokenness.
If it ain’t broke….then break it…..greatness will follow.
I want to share one more example of brokenness from the bible, which I think will hit us all close to home.
Luke 7
Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman
36Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is--that she is a sinner."
40Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Tell me, teacher," he said.
41"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[1] and the other fifty. 42Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
43Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
48Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
This sinful woman became broken in front of Jesus and all else there. She allowed God to remove the patch over that crack in her heart and allowed Him to restore it. She is nameless and we hear nothing more of her but she is a poster child for us to admire. I look forward to one day asking her ….so what happened next.
As we read earlier in Psalms, God is close to the broken hearted. And you know why?…because the broken have discovered what is really important in life.. The broken have learned the difference between what is real and what is important versus what is fake and unimportant.
However, you can’t choose how you will be broken. Puppy didn’t choose the encounter with the Dog. God uses all sorts of methods to break us. It may be a neighbor you don’t like, an event you didn’t want to attend, or circumstances that may seem severe. At some point you will need to stop asking "why is this happening"? and then turn to god and say…."so what do you want me to learn"?
You are the only one that can surrender to brokenness. God may bring you to that point over and over, but he won’t push you through it…he won’t beat you. You have do it yourself.
And if you refuse to be broken in this life, well you won’t have any choice in the next.
He can’t fix you until your broke….and he can’t fix you until you let go.
So if it’s not broke….then lets break it…..let it go…….become stronger…..and let the greatness God has in store for you….. come through.
Special thanks to Lyndon Marcotte and his sermon "Broken In All The Right Places" for a portion of the material used here. (sermoncentral.com)
