Lord... I have nothing to offer

No Direction

My brain seemed like a dry hole when it came to sermon ideas for this Sabbath. I prayed for inspiration, but I didn’t seem to get any impression. Nothing, nodda, zilch. The only idea that kept coming back was a word and it didn’t seem like a very significant word. The word that was going around in my brain was

Broken

I know we all have broken things at least some point in our lives, sometimes on purpose, sometimes accidentally and when it’s broken - it usually needs to be repaired right. Sometimes things need to be intentionally broken for things to be fixed. Eileen's and Garry’s tub needed that option for the downstairs bathroom to be reworked several weeks ago. It was much easier to brake it to get it out. than to haul it out in one piece.

Ever felt like you were broken? Are you feeling broken right now? I deal with physically broken people at the hospital every day. God has given us the knowledge to mend for the most part the ailments that happen to us physically. The Aging fix, well people have been looking for that for a very long time, but God has reserved that for the 2nd Coming. We all have to deal with broken items every day, but that’s only a part of our existence here on earth isn’t.

We can learn to deal with broken things in our lives, but there are other parts of our lives that are much harder to deal with.

Broken Thoughts

How often do we become broken mentally? I know stupid question…but I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately with all of the things that are going on around us, at present in the world.

Becoming "mentally broken" is a non-clinical term often used to describe severe mental distress, typically resulting from a combination of factors:

Traumatic Events,

Chronic Stress,

Neglect and Isolation,

Mental Health Disorders,

Substance Abuse,

Poor Self-Care,

34 Genetic/Biological Factors Genetic predispositions under stress can trigger mental health conditions.

Satan wants us to become broken mentally more than anything else and he’s accomplishing it. I watch the news and I shudder wondering how things will continue transpire. As I contemplated the idea of brokenness, I went to the bible and started doing some looking and I’d like to show you some of the thoughts that impressed me.

Mind

When you start looking at the concept of the mind (our mental ability) in the Bible I found a number of words that are used to represent our ability to reason and grasp the concepts God wants us to understand and on the flip side that which Satan doesn't want us to understand. The Mind represents the sum total of a man’s mental and moral state of being.

To the Hebrew way of thinking (or OT) there is no distinctive terminology for the conception of mind. Bible translators use soul, spirit and heart to describe our ability to understand our relationship with God. All of these terms represent a person’s mind. There are many OT verses and each one talks about the mind and how it’s used. Not enough time to pull them up today. These Hebrew ideas carry over into the NT as well

Matthew 22:37 NKJV

37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

To the Greek world (NT), the mind plays a very important role in the understanding of man. One of the most prolific writers of the NT, ie: Paul, understood the mind as distinct from the spirit of man. He relates that the mind possess the ability to understand and to reason. I debated as to whether I should put this text in because it’s kind of lengthy but it describes well how Paul looked at how we process things.

1 Corinthians 14:14–19 NLT

14 For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don’t understand what I am saying. 15 Well then, what shall I do? I will pray in the spirit, and I will also pray in words I understand. I will sing in the spirit, and I will also sing in words I understand. 16 For if you praise God only in the spirit, how can those who don’t understand you praise God along with you? How can they join you in giving thanks when they don’t understand what you are saying? 17 You will be giving thanks very well, but it won’t strengthen the people who hear you. 18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than any of you. 19 But in a church meeting I would rather speak five understandable words to help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language.

Paul says that our minds control the mental and moral processes that make up our state of being.

Romans 12:2 NET

2 Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

The state of a man depends on who controls our minds.

Romans 8:6–7 NLT

6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.

So who we are depends on who and what we let our minds dwell on then.

My thoughts make me who I am. Do my thoughts make me broken then? Logically it might seem so huh? You know as well as I do how much damage we can and do sometimes do to our selves when we start down those avenues of thought. But God doesn’t want us to live our lives like that.

Broken Revisited

In the OT there are 146 verses that have the word broken in them and in the NT 20 verses. All the different word uses in those verses mean to shatter, to break, to tear apart, to crush, and to destroy. I found a lot of thoughts on the word broken in the Bible, but one chapter in my searching really stood out to me. That was chapter 51 of the Psalms.

A Song of Repentance

I wish we had time to read the whole chapter but not today. We should all make time to understand what David wrote here and how we can pattern our requests to God. You probably know that David is the one person in the Bible that I can associate with the most. He was so "normal” and he had to deal with, mostly because of his mistakes, so much of what it means to be human on this earth. Psalm 51 is the prayer of repentance to God after his great sin with Bathsheba. He had just been visited by Nathan the prophet. As you read you begin to understand the anguish, the self loathing and the remorse that filled him. He didn’t let these thoughts destroy his ability to reason, he turned to God his best friend.

Psalm 51:1–7 NKJV

1 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

The whole chapter is full of David’s earnest plea for forgiveness. But verse 17 gave me what I needed in my quest for the idea of brokenness.

Psalm 51:17 NKJV

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.

Psalm 51:17 NLT

17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

The word sacrifice usually gives us images of alters and fire and death right, but in verse 16 it says that God does not desire the burnt offerings. The sacrifices that God desires are a broken spirit.

A Broken Spirit

How should we understand a broken spirit then according to the Bible.

Heart

As we discussed earlier, the heart is the centre not only of spiritual activity, but of all the operations of human life. “Heart” and “soul” are often used interchangeably, but not always. The heart is the “home of the personal life,” and so a man is then designated, according to what his heart represents. Ps 51:10 says

Psalm 51:10 NKJV

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

A steadfast or right spirit as the KJV uses. It’s “a constant spirit.” David’s prayer is for a spirit that is steadfast in its faith, and therefore constant in its obedience. Now see Is 66 2

Isaiah 66:2 NKJV

2 For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the Lord. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.

So the POOR IN SPIRIT are Not those who are spiritually poor, that is, lacking in faith or love, but those who have a humble spirit and thus depend on God.

To be contrite, is to be humble and repentant before God, crushed or grieved by the sense of guilt and sinfulness.

Being Broken

There is away to contend with the idea of brokenness then isn’t there. If you are overwhelmed with the brokenness of your life, there is an answer to it. God wants your broken spirit. He will not reject your broken heart.

About 2025 years ago give or take a few years, the world was just a broken as it is now. In some ways it was worse, but in some ways not nears as bad as it is becoming now. At that time, the idea of being broken and the ability to survive being broken, was forever changed.

In a stable, in a manager, in the outskirts of Bethlehem, a babe was born that gave us the ability to change the idea of being broken forever. With simple act of being born Jesus chose in growing up human to be physically broken for our sakes, so that we even though we’re are broken will not be rejected by our heavenly Father.

Psalm 51:17 NLT

17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

During this Christmas season, when we look of the joy of giving and living, but maybe only find sadness and longing instead. Remember Ps 51:17 and remember the peace and serenity that is ours if we’ll give what He desires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHvMceXQVpQ