Living Hope Fellowship Church...Sermons From the Pastor
BROKEN
by Pastor Kevin Badgley
This message is about being sorry. There are many things for which we might
be sorry. We can have sorrow over things that we have done wrong. We can sorrow
over the fact that we should have done something, and either we weren't in time,
or just didn't do it at all. We can be sorrowful for other people, or sorry
for our selves, and yet not do anything about it. We can be sorry for a lot
of things. We can be sorrowful about life in general. However, I want you to
know something. If you have a sorrowful heart (in repentance) toward the things
that you have been in and gone through, and you turn your eyes on Jesus, He
will set you free.
In Psalms 51:17 it says, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." If you are going to sacrifice to God, and give your all to God, you must be sorry. You must be sorry for your current state of mind, your current condition, and your walk, if you have one in the Lord. You must be sorrowful, desiring to see the things that God has for you. Be sorrowful enough to quit doing wrong and do what God says. This may seem over simplistic, but it is not.
The Bible declares that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. God will not despise nor turn away from a heart that is broken, contrite, humble heart. You see, sorrow humbles us. The Bible declares that God abases the proud, but he gives grace, lifts up, and even exalts, in some cases, the humble. If you are to get something from God, you must be broken. If you are going to receive from God, all the way from salvation to the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and on in to the deeper things of God, you must be humbled. If you want your prayers answered for yourself, your family, your church, and others that you are praying for, then you are going to have to be broken and humbled by sorrow.
Concerning the things of Jesus, the Bible declares in Isaiah 53:3, that He was a, ". . . man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. . . ." We can look at Christ's life, and see that there were many times great sorrow filled his heart. Yet, we also know that he was moved with compassion on those who had caused the sorrow. He forgave them, even in the midst of their trials, troubles, and torment against him.
God wants us to be broken and sorry for what we have done, and sorry enough to quit. When God sees a heart that is humble and broken (not head knowledge sorry, but heart felt, fear of God sorry for what they have done), then God will forgive that person. God will lift you up if you ask him. The rich young ruler came to Jesus, asking him what he should do to inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus told him to obey the commandments, which we are still admonished to do today. Matthew 19:20 says, "The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" He knew something was lacking.
The same instance was recorded in Luke. Luke 18:22 says, "Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me." The man's reaction was sorrow, but he was sorry after an ungodly sort. He wasn't sorry for anything that he wasn't doing, he was sorry that he had even asked God what it would take to get the greater things of God in his life!
Read this from 2 Corinthians 7:10, "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." The rich young ruler that day had the sorrow of the world. This sorrow was not just for events that might have happened in his life, but he had the carnal sorrow in his mind that he was not going to go any further than he had gone. He asked Jesus what it would take to inherit the kingdom of God; to go on deeper in the Lord, and walk with God. Jesus told him. Beloved, if you read the Bible, God will tell you what it takes. Good preachers will tell you what it takes, but if you don't do it, after knowing to do it, it is sin to you. James 4:17 says, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." You are more accountable then than you ever had been before.
God doesn't want us to just be sorry in finding out that we are far below what we need to be, but he wants us to be sorry that we haven't done something about it.
God wants us to ask with a humble, contrite, and broken heart that we would receive from Him. God will hear us if we ask him this way. The rich young ruler that day did not ask Jesus any more questions. The Bible says that he turned sorrowfully away, because he had great possessions. He wasn't about to give that up. Today, many people are seeking the Lord, but they are seeking him for an answer, which many of them do not expect. They say, Lord, what must I do to be saved? or, Lord, what must I do to see the works of God done in my life and my family's life? or, Lord, what must I do to be sanctified and press on to greater things? I'm so tired of religion, and the hum-drum of church life, that I just can't stand it anymore. I'm about to backslide, and my kids are cold.
People ask God, and God begins to reveal to them through godly preaching or out of the Word of God itself. As they begin to search the scriptures, they suddenly realize that the cost is more than they are willing to put out; they turn sorrowfully away. They don't realize that you've got to be sorry enough to quit what you are doing, and sorry enough to begin to do what God has told you to do. This is not complicated. It fact it's so simple that sometimes people miss it.
God does not want us to be sorry and say, I need to change, and then walk off and not do anything about it. You won't grow that way. You cannot grow if you do not press on and become crucified with Christ. You must be sanctified before the Lord. If you disobey the Lord, you can expect the devil to hammer you even harder, and give you still more trouble. Things that begin to happen around you are definitely not God. You can even be afflicted in your body or in your mind. James 4:17 again, says, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death;. . . ." When you know to do good, and you turn away, it is a form of unbelief and rejection of the things of God. The rich young ruler did that. The Bible declares in 2 Corinthians 7:10, "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." You are going to change when you get saved. You can remember that you were sorry, when you got down before God and asked God to forgive you, wherever you were. You may have said something like this, God, whatever it takes, clean me up. Save me, heal me, deliver me, and set me free so that I can serve you and make heaven my home. This is the whole point of the gospel and the Christian walk, but it doesn't end there.
You've got to press on and endure to the end. You have to maintain to the end, and you've got to grow in grace day by day. You don't grow in grace by asking God to forgive you every fifteen minutes for something that you can't get free of! You are barely breaking even. You grow in grace as you give up the things of the world more and more. God sanctifies you, and as you grow in His grace, he will hear you when you pray, not only for yourself, but for others also. God wants us to know this.
God many times allows us to go through trials and tribulations, not so we will be sorry that we are in them, but that we will be sorry that we allowed the devil to work us over like that. A thief, for example, can be sorry that he's caught, but not sorry for what he was doing! Many people are going to church today, because they feel an obligation to go. They are sorry they got caught in their sins, but they are not sorry for the fact that they were sinning! Maybe somebody got caught, and they are paying the price in a hospital bed. Maybe somebody is paying the price in their social standing in the community. Maybe you have been embarrassed by a family member, or maybe you got caught at something. You may feel sorry, and you may say that you are sorry, and you may start going to church, but that is not salvation. Salvation is when you call upon the name of the Lord, and He saves you. Romans 10:13 says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Why would you call upon the name of the Lord unless you were sorry?
The Bible declares in Job 33, that when God begins to deal with a man, he often allows trouble to come upon him. It is so that he will see his condition, and be sorry for what has allowed him to get there. It is so he will be sorry for his sin, or his negligence, or his foolishness that has opened the door to the devil. Then, you've got to go beyond that. You've got to say, God, not only am I sorry, but I will serve you. Set me free so that I can. Many people say, Well, if God will do thus and so, then I will serve him. You need to serve the Lord no matter what! You need to pray and ask the Lord to set you free so that you can serve him better. Many say, I'll keep my bondage as long as I can have a little bit of God. If I can squeak in, I'll make it. There is a problem with that, because you set a standard for what it takes to squeak in, and when you get to the judgement seat of God, you will suddenly find out that it wasn't enough. Then you will go to hell.
If God has saved you and set you free, you should want to see Him exalted! You should want others to know what has happened to you! Don't you want the God of heaven, who is gracious enough to send his Son to die on the cross for you, exalted? Jesus shed his blood, took the torment and trial that the devil and the world sent against him, yet He did not sin. He arose on the third day for you! Wouldn't you want him to be exalted? I believe that we should have exaltation service before the Lord every day.
Whosoever will, may come, but we have got to tell and show by our lives that Jesus is Lord. First, we must be sorry for what we have done, and ask God to forgive us, and mean it. God will give us power to not do again that which we used to do. He will set us free right then if we believe him. That's the honest and contrite heart; that's the broken heart that God was talking about in Psalms 51:17. God won't despise that, nor ignore it.
Some people come to God, and ask God to forgive them because they are sorry, but they go right back out and do it again. They aren't sorry enough to quit. Many say, I can't quit! The reason is that you haven't prayed through; you haven't prayed long enough to get a hold of God and get delivered. Sometimes deliverance takes a little while, and you need to search your heart while you are seeking the Lord and God is dealing with your heart.
Many times God will deliver us from things that we find near and dear, though we have not realized that it is damning us and destroying us. Yielding these to God shows the humbleness that God is looking for in His people. That is being sorry enough to repent as found in 2 Corinthians 7:10, "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. . . ." This is the godly sorrow that God is looking for. Just to be sorry for your sins, and not really care whether or not God keeps you from doing it again, is sorrow of the world. That is a carnal sorrow, the sorrow that you got caught. It is the sorrow that you are suffering for what you have done. That is not godly sorrow, and God will not bless you in that state.
God wants us to know something. In Proverbs 15:13 it says, ". . . by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken." If our heart is broken before the Lord, then God can create in us a new heart, and give us a free spirit from him by the power that is in the name of Jesus.
Don't harden your heart against the things of God. If God is dealing with you, and you begin to weep before the Lord, ask God to forgive you from a broken heart. Ask Him from a heart that doesn't care what other people think or say, but rather cares about what God wants in your life.
Father, I ask you to move on this people, and deliver every soul. God, let them know what it is to pray through; to get born again; to get saved. God, it's not that the thief was caught, but rather that he was sorry for what he had done. Lord, I ask you to move on every soul today. Rend their hearts, and circumcise them with a new walk in Jesus. Amen.
Email the pastor at
© Living Hope Fellowship, Inc.