Further Up Further In: Broken by God

Introduction

2 Samuel 12:1-10

Sermon series, Further Up and Further in.

Show slide of stops and sum up the last couple of weeks.

Brokenness will not occur until you make some further mental and emotional adjustments. For starters, you have to acknowledge that you cannot attain the life you want — the life He has prepared for you — without placing Him at the center of your life. He has always wanted the best for you, but you have clouded the picture through your dependence on everything but Him. He has never abandoned you, though. If you are really ready to take things to another level, He is ready to, too. But you must acknowledge with you mind, heart, body and soul that you want what He wants, and that you cannot get any farther in the journey without Him being the One who powers everything. Barna, George. Maximum Faith . Kindle Edition.

Brokenness is always about the heart

Going through ordination process right now and at this step they do one last deep dive into your history to see if there is anything there. I hate doing these background checks because I know there will be something that comes up. I find myself telling others about it before the search even happens. And what they find is my criminal history with DWI. It shows what I did wrong to break the law. However, it does not tell you where my heart was at in that season. Self-absorbed, searching for validation and value in places that were not good. And completely justifying what I knew God was calling me away from.

See at this point David has an impressive rap sheet. but God is going to press in deeper to the foundation of the issue, his heart.

2 Samuel 12:9 NIV

Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

2 Samuel

Relationship with God:

God tells David that you did not just break meaningless rules, you harmed yourself and the people around you.

Understand this, to neglect or ignore the word of God was to ignore God himself and that is what David had done. Friends, to reject or ignore the word of God is to reject or ignore God himself.

Side note: when Nathan tells David the parable about the man that took whatever he wanted, David responded with death, a requirement of the Torah.

David’s own Torah-violating behavior had not robbed him of his commitment to impose the requirements of the Torah on others!

 Bergen, R. D. (1996). 1, 2 Samuel (Vol. 7, p. 370). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Sometimes we becomes nastier with religion and morality and ethics about the very thing that binds us.

This stage of brokenness is about allowing Jesus to have his rightful place to rule and reign in your heart. And in this stage God reveals those places that you may have not yet yielded unto him.

Brokenness is a choice

I think David had a choice here and I think we do as well in this stage.

So often our first choice is to defend, justify, or ignore. It is no small matter to face our brokenness and admit it out loud.

There was a time in my marriage that I had to confess some things to my wife. A hard conversation for sure. I am not going to give you the details, this was not infidelity. But still some small things that I had kept from her. leading up to that point I had done a lot of things to cover up, justify, and mostly ignore. There came a point where I chose to admit and see my own brokenness not only with Lauren but with God as well.

David, chooses to stop running from God. Maybe that is what broken by God looks like for us today. The choice to lay ourself open. That is why is attributed to David during this season....

Psalm 51:

Psalm 51:3–6 NIV

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

“The greatest blessing spiritually is the knowledge that we are destitute: until we get there, our Lord is powerless. He can do nothing for us if we think we are sufficient of ourselves; we have to enter into his kingdom through the door of destitution. As long as we are rich, possessed of anything in the way of pride or independence, God cannot do anything for us.” - Oswald Chambers

Brokenness is the first sign of healing

Did you know that when you have a fever or a rash or symptoms of any kind it is usually a sign of your body fighting to ail some infection or problem in your body?

These symptoms are a natural result of your body’s efforts to restore proper organ function, to slough off and get rid of dead cells and toxins and to fix injured tissues.

I know this sounds simple but I didn’t realize it until I had to care for another human being. I love that though, pain is a sign that healing has begun. This process and choice for David will hurt.

It is painful to admit I am wrong. I hate it. It is painful to admit I am destitute but that is where healing begins.

Brokenness points others to God

Broken by God means we are turned away from the world and back to God. See David is another example of what is happening with Israel. If we had time, in studying 2 Samuel you are going to see God use covenant language with David. He is speaking to David with this judgement and punishment in response to it in the same way that he does with Israel when they choose themselves over God.

Just as Israel chooses other gods, so does David. Being broken by God is about seeing the place in our life that we have become just like the world, instead of the called, set apart, followers we are to be.

It is in choosing God in this moment, about finding forgiveness and humility, that we become a witness to the world.

Friends, God’s glory and work in your life is on display more in your weakness. As we choose to be used by Him, not only do we find healing....but others find him.

“It has always seemed to me that broken things, just like broken people, get used more; it’s probably because God has more pieces to work with.” - Bob Goff

Isn’t this amazing? We are talking about David today because of his brokenness and the way that God worked in the middle of it. In this place our lives begin to be put back together so that we, somehow, become a work of art that was better than the original and speaks of the artists’ brilliance.

Stained glass illustration.

Conclusion

Broken by God. Sometimes this is sin, sometimes this is a season of catastrophe or as Barna points out a lot of times it has to do with a diagnosis or some tramatic event. I don’t think as some would, that God does this to get our attention or turn us towards him. However, it is in those valleys of life that we realize how Spiritually anemic we are.

Most of the people in this stage go back to the earlier steps. Maybe even back outside of activity in the church.

“Many people will follow the Lord halfway but not the other half. They will willingly give up possessions of property and wealth but it touches them too deeply to disown themselves.” -Count Zinzendorf Moravian Hernhut

Can I just bring up one thing that I think we have a huge problem with:

Over 40 million Americans are regular visitors on porn sites

There are 42 million porn sites and the industry makes more money than NFL NBA, and MLB combined. More than revenues of ABC, CBS, NBC combined

47% families report that this is a problem in their home.

Pornography increases the marital infidelity rate more than 300%

56% of American divorces involve one party having “obsessive interest” in websites

68% of church going men and over 50% of pastors view it on a regular basis

Christian adults 18-24 76% use it regularly.

There is all sorts of research about the lasting affects to you physically and emotionally from all of this. A couple of days ago social media instagram and facebook went down simultaneously and a leading adult site reported a 19% spike in traffic during that time. Meaning we can fill in the blanks a little here; both social media and adult site usage has shown to give a release of dopamine…a chemical in your body.

I still dont think we understand the spiritual toll that it has.

I dont know if you are dealing with this or something else going on. God does not love you any less, but he does desire more for you.