Broken but Not Yet Destroyed

Good Morning Beloved,

What a tremendous joy it is to have all of you with us today.
Thank for you joining us! What a glorious day to offer our worship
and praise to the Lord! Amen?

Heavenly Father,

we just thank You for assembling us together today for such a blessed day, this time of worship together. We know that every time that we gather we'll hear a Word from You and we are grateful for that, so grateful. We praise You for those truths in Your Word, as we read it, as I teach it. 
Thank You for speaking to us today. Help us to understand, that now that know these truths, we are now accountable for what we have learned, for what You have said. 

Father, we admit that we love Your truth; we love Your Word. We embrace it; we long to fulfill it, though we often fail to apply it to our own lives. So today, we ask, Lord, that You would do work in each of us, a work of humility, that You would humble us, that You would make us weak in our own ways, our own confidence and our own strength, so that we may be strong in You, and be usable to You and for Your plans.

These things we ask and pray in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen

"Be gracious to me, God, be gracious to me, for I take refuge in You. I will seek refuge in the shadow of Your wings until danger passes. I call to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me. He reaches down from heaven and saves me, challenging the one who tramples me. Selah God sends His faithful love and truth. I am surrounded by lions; I lie down with those who devour men.
Their teeth are spears and arrows; their tongues are sharp swords. God, be exalted above the heavens;
let Your glory be over the whole earth. They prepared a net for my steps; I was despondent. They dug a pit ahead of me, but they fell into it! Selah My heart is confident, God, my heart is confident.
I will sing; I will sing praises."

Psalm 57:1-7 

Today's Message: Broken but Not Yet Destroyed

Here's a little lesson in Psalms 101. There are 150 Psalms contained within the book of Psalms. Of those 150, David is contributed to about 73 with the possibility of it being 85. The remaining Psalms are authored by others, from Moses, Solomon, to Asaph and Korah. Regardless of the author the book of Psalms is the most read and quoted book of Scripture. It has brought 
countless numbers of people comfort and great strength.

Psalms 57, however, was written by David. He wrote at a time when his life was uprooted and displaced. When David wrote this Psalm, he was fleeing from King Saul, who had already made 4 attempts to kill him, 2 by spear, which missed David, another by offering his daughter in marriage if David would bring him 100 Philistine foreskins in hopes they would kill him, instead he lives and brings back 200 and marries his daughter, and the final attempt was when he sent assassins to his home and David fled out the window, his new wife, King Saul's daughter, covered for him. To say that David had been going through a lot, was quite an understatement.

This all came about, because Saul was extremely jealous of David. Saul was the people’s choice, however, David was God’s choice. God would choose David to be the new King after Saul got impatient and performed the duties of the High Priest which was forbidden.

Here's an interesting thing about David being chosen. When Samuel went to Jesse, David's father, to find the next King. Jesse displayed all his sons except for David. Jesse didn’t see anything worth anointing; man may look at you and cast you off, and may say you don’t have what it takes, you just don’t fit the mold. You’re not smart enough, good looking enough, or even educated enough. Or perhaps, you were raised on the wrong side of the tracks, you know, came from the wrong neighborhood.

"But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him. Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart."
I Samuel 16:7

There are a lot of people within the church, they look the part of a Christian, but they only honor God with their lips, but their heart is far from him. What I am about to say next was not in the originally intended message, but the Holy Spirit, placed this in my spirit and perhaps it’s a little bit raw, and I'm sure that some may find it to be offensive but as I am always obedient to speak what's given to me, because evidently, someone needs to hear this.

There are some people who are in the church; perhaps even right now, you are physically present from time to time, even occasionally give in the offering and sometimes pay tithes, however, your heart is not invested. Your passion, your desire to please God, are far removed from your actions. You're simply going through the motions. And if you stop for a moment, and think about it, that is really no different than a prostitute. A prostitute performs a service. They go through the same physical motions as a wife, but they are not emotionally engaged or invested in the activity. They are emotionally detached from the person they are interacting with. Before the night is over, they may have had multiple experiences with a variety of other men, and none of it meant anything to them.
It was completely devoid of feeling.

When we approach God with a divided heart, God sees us like a prostitute, because all we're doing is performing an act of duty, what we think is expected of us. Or just to keep our "fire insurance," but there is no heart in it, no passion, no desire. Allow me to just let you in on something, Christ does not want a prostitute. He wants a bride!

Let me tell you something else child of God, you stay in the fields and keep seeking God, keep praising God, keep tending to your duties because "Do not lift up your horn against heaven
or speak arrogantly.’” Exaltation does not come from the east, the west, or the desert, for God is the Judge: He brings down one and exalts another." He is exalting some people now, and no, it's not you! Why? Because you’re not marriage material. 

"For as a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you; and as a groom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you."
Isaiah 62:5 

This is perhaps an enigmatical allusion to the critical circumstances connected with the history, for which compare I Samuel 22:1; 26:1-3. In Moses' prayer, Deuteronomy 9:26, it is a prominent petition deprecating God's anger against the people. This explanation also suits the fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth Psalm. Asaph uses it for the seventy-fifth, in the scope of which there is the allusion to some emergency.  

In scripture there is the rule or law of witness and repetition. In both the Old Testament and New Testament you will hear the words, "Every fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." In Matthew 18:19-20, Jesus said, "Again, I assure you: If two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there among them"

There is a fundamental rule in Scripture, if it is repeated, then you really need to listen and pay attention to what God is saying. And Job 33:14 says, "For God speaks time and again, but a person may not notice it." Throughout the Bible, in order to give emphasis, certain names, words or phrases are often repeated, seven persons were addressed by God with their name repeated, "Abraham, Abraham." Genesis 22:11; "Samuel, Samuel," I Samuel 3:10, are a few of them, oh and in Acts 9:4, "Saul, Saul." In John's Gospel, Jesus used the double form of "Verily, Verily" twenty-five times but by far certainly the impactful, to me, are the words of our Lord, in Matthew 27:46, "Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

Even how we are to approach God in prayer should carry some emphasis not “vain repetition” but a persistence in our requests. In Luke 18, Jesus said that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; and spoke to them a parable of the “Persistent Widow” who kept coming to a judge asking to be avenged of her adversary and she came to him daily until he realized that the only way to get her to stop making her request was to honor it. In verse 5 he says I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Verses 6 and 7 say, And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 

In Christ's illustrations showing the necessity of perseverance in prayer, Jesus admonishes us to "ask," "seek," "knock." In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus says, "Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." Allow me to put it another way, for those of you that have children, think of your children asking for something they want. At first, you might say no, then they continue to ask, no turns into we'll see, and when they persist, it's more like OK, OK, sure, just stop asking. Now, I'm not implying we are to try frustrate God into giving us what we desire, I'm simply stressing the point, the persistence pays off. Continuously asking for what you need, that's what Christ is saying here. 
"Keep asking, and it will be given to you." Jesus goes on to say, in Matthew 7:11, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Let's face it, 2020, was supposed to be your year. This was the year where, nearly everyone I spoke to last year, said it would all change. Now here we are, half way through the year of 2020, and rather than a year of the changes we all anticipated, it's become the year of clarity, the year it all begins to come into focus. Maybe the change you actually needed was a new vision. To look at old things afresh.

In our culture today, brokenness is often celebrated; you can admit to a lot of faults, pretty much anyone will listen, and no one really stands in judgement. In fact, often times you can be called a hero or brave for admitting your short comings. In the church, we are to bear one another's burdens, and in doing so fulfill the law of Christ but we don’t seem to do that, do we? We feel we must hide our brokenness, our weariness, our fatigue, our fears and disappointment, so we wear a smile to church, and tell everyone we're "too blessed to be stressed," or "blessed and highly favored," "too lifted up to be down," and "above and not beneath, " in fear of judgment and criticism. Why is that? Because someone got the notion, not to tell anyone about how you are really feeling, because you are only supposed to feel one way. That in the church we are only supposed to wear a happy face. This has got to stop. Beloved, that's not what Scripture says we are to do.

I'm going to be really bold here, if Hollywood ever runs out of actors, they can come to many a church for an Oscar performance. Its deeply disturbing! They can portray a variety of emotions. Turn them off and on like a light switch. The truth, sometimes you don’t feel that way and it’s not always that easy to just say "it is well." Concealing your feelings doesn’t always work; there are times it is not well and harboring your feelings and emotions doesn’t work either and because one of these days, the harbor is going to open and it’s about to be fleet week! Yes, even in the church; Christians can be vexed. There are those inward emotions that come from the outward struggles of life; which has its own problems built in.

All you have to do is open up your Bible and actually read it, you will see what I'm talking about. David was a great Man of God, a great King of Israel, a worshiper, but that did not exempt David from pain. Of course not! If you study David’s life, you will see a man who endured much pain. And just look at Job: He was a righteous man, but he endured more grief and pain than today would seem humanly possible. Did that make him a bad worshiper of God?

The truth is, sometimes life stinks. Sometimes we're hurting. Sometimes you're in the pit and sometimes you're in the fire, sometimes you're on the Mountain calling fire down from heaven, and sometimes you're in the cave hoping Jezebel doesn't find you. There are just some times, that things happen to us all, just because we're here, living in a fallen world. Then there are things that are demonic in nature, attacks straight out of hell; our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour: Remember, the thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. It happens, there's no need to pretend it doesn't. God knows what we're facing down here.

I'm going to let you in on something, even us ministers deal with sickness, grief over the passing of a loved one, divorce, family trouble and chaos, lost loved ones that keep you up all night in tears, foreclosure, pink slips, bounced checks, overdrawn checking accounts, harassment, brokenness, depression, anxiety, and all of life’s trials and tribulations.

In Closing.....

In my life, I've had to deal with stuff too. And there are somedays, that I don’t always feel like being in church and wearing a smile, sometimes, I just want to cry. And some days, I do! To be honest with you I have had a pretty difficult couple of years with family issues and health, and my own health issues, and when you think things can't be more stressful, then the enemy comes in like a flood, but I've got to tell you, it feels more like a Tsunami and I'm drowning. There have been days I felt more like being ministered to instead of ministering to others. Some days, everything around me looks fixed, except for me. Just because I am a pastor doesn’t mean I am not human. We are struggling with our own issues, it's OK to admit you're not perfect. There is only One who has ever walked this earth Who was, and His name is Jesus Christ.

When you really study the Word and dig deep into its meanings, you start to see that what David and others were saying in the midst of their crisis, in the midst of their calamity. David was at a place where he said his soul was bowed down. You find a man at the lowest point; on the inside his heart felt bent down.

Beloved, this year may have been a year for clarity, and new vision. But also may be a bowing year. Maybe the words of David ring true within you right now; "For my soul is full of troubles: O my God, my soul is cast down within me." Maybe you are feeling bent over, from all of the stress of being unemployed, afraid, at a loss.  But to everyone else its "business as usual," but on the inside your soul is bent over from all the weight and the pressure. Maybe you came here today, looking like "it is well," you’re here, but your inside doesn't quite match your outside. It's OK.

Maybe you came here today, feeling like crying Psalm 143:9-10, "Rescue me from my enemies, Lord; I come to You for protection. Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your gracious Spirit lead me on level ground." Remember this, Abraham was promised to be a Father of Nations, but he had to wait on his son, David was given the throne, but another man was still sitting on it, Joseph was promised the palace but there was the pit, Potiphar, and Prison.

In God, your life is sort of like a tree, with two parts to your existence, the part that's visible to the world and the part no one can see. It's the visible part of your life that manifests the fruit, all your good works, your acts of love and righteousness. The hidden parts, are your roots. Your inner life with God, your faith, your devotion, your love, communion, your time with Him in prayer, that which is in your heart. No one can see it, but beloved, that's the most critical part by which you receive spiritual life and nourishment. It is this which causes the rest of your life to flourish and bear fruit. If your roots are shallow or weak, the fruits of your life in God are going to just wither away. Your fruitfulness in God will always be directly proportionate to your rootfulness in God. The Hebrew word for root is sheresh. And it's linked to deepness, depth. So if you would become great in God, you must become deep in God.

Those of of you that are here today bowed over, let today be the day that receive the beauty from the ashes, the oil of anointing for joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that today, you might be called trees of righteousness, a planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified in you. It’s time to rise up, the test of your roots proves that you can handle the fruit!
This entire time you thought you were running on faith less than a grain of mustard seed but in reality, you had what Jesus called great faith.

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

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