A Broken Spirit

Last week, you know, I said that nehemiah's attitude really in this story that we read about in the book of Nehemiah fits right into our current day and time and lot of things that are going on. Cuz you know when the news headlines in the social media's non-stop discussion of some of these things tends to threaten you and depress you with all the negativity that's out there. We need some of these stories, you know, these flesh-and-blood examples that we find in scripture like Nehemiah that remind us that God is still in control. That God is in charge of the situation. You know when we need to know that God still has people out there in this world that are making a difference for him. And you know, it holds true the verse that were kind of going to be tracing through this whole thing and 2nd Chronicles 16:9 where it says for the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the Earth that he may strongly support those who heart is completely his

You know, there was a story in the book. I read by Chip Ingram a year ago talk about holy ambition. Talk about this lady named Angie. When she got out of college got a very comfy job in Silicon Valley working at a software company where she made a great way to and life was good for her. Then she decided to go on a church missions trip to Romania. while she was in Romania She saw all of these orphans all of these children super homeless orphans, and she just couldn't believe the conditions that these children lived in.

Angie is just an ordinary person. But by what she saw she was given an extraordinary vision. And she serves an extraordinary God, you know, Angie just couldn't imagine going back to her comfortable life back in California in a setting having her lunches with her friends and sipping coffee at a cafe. She couldn't imagine returning to that sort of comfortable life knowing that these children were living in these sort of conditions. So she knew that she had to do something. You know last week we talked about a dislocated heart and you know, what I've described their is the dislocated heart that seeing these conditions gave Angie.

You know, so she decided instead of returning home to her comfy job. She would return home and try to do something. So she started a Ministry to those children. And now that Ministry is growing to a point where they've actually built an orphanage to house a lot of those children and to give those children a home. And now the church that she was attending regularly take strips to help at that orphanage in to do different things there. A lot of the people who go on those missions trips talk about how life-changing those missions trips are because what a lot of them have seen when they go on those trips when they experienced it themselves. Their hearts become dislocated they returned with a new understanding of what God can do through a single life that belongs completely to him Angie is that Flesh and Blood example for them? And you know, I have to witness the same thing when I've taken people on missions trips. You'll never forget one of the trips that we took from the church. I was at in Cody, Wyoming. We went over to Bosnia to help my sister do basically a vacation bible school for a week for the kids there. I can't call it vacation bible school, but we called it English camp for the week and it just happened to be that are text was the Bible and all the songs that the kids learned were Sunday school songs, but most of the people who were going on this trip with us had never been on a missions trip. Most of them had never even been out of the country before so it was a new experience for them. But one thing that each and every one of them said after they got back was how much it changed their view of world missions in the work that God is doing around the world. And I think that's something important that we remember and that's why we do the trips. We do as a church here to help change our perspective on things. And you know this one young woman in this story Angie that we talked about, you know, she refused to just accept the status quo and to go back to her comfy lifestyle, you know all too often if we can return home and we don't have to see those kids everyday we forget about him. We don't let it affect us. We just go on living our life, but she refused to do that. You know, we must do the same thing. We must allow our compassion and concern that we feel in those sort of situations to drive us forward to do something to serve others. And you know the best way for us to do that is if we can have a clear view of God in the Clearview of ourselves and understand those things we talked about that last week. This week we're going to talk about what it means to have a broken spirit. Cuz what exactly is a broken Spirit, you know, when I first mentioned the idea of broken Spirit or you talk about somebody with it, you know all too often our tendency to feel bad about myself, right and who I am and what I do know, that's not it. It doesn't mean that we spend all of our time groveling over how horrible we are or that we should you know, beyond our face, you know, repenting of everything and how terrible person we are but no A broken spirit is an attitude of desperate dependency in humility. Understanding How Deeply we need God. Fully expecting that when we come before God with that broken humble spirit that God's going to meet us and he's going to say to us, you know, I see you. I love you and I'm lifting you up and I am going to use you for my purposes. You know, if you actually look at the original language that some of these verses are in. You know the original language behind the expression broken Spirit actually means the experience of being crushed or bruised. So broken spirit is that sense of absolute dependency and Reliance on God?

You know another life for a church that is going to be effective tool for Jesus's plans is going to take on some unexpected shapes. It's going to do some unexpected things. A life. That is totally God's in a church. That is totally his will break out of the common mold. It will change what people think is most important in life and what their priority should be that's going to hold fiercely to some ideals that the world just simply doesn't believe and that's because we are totally committed to God and to his agenda. And you know, it will lose that natural human tendency to put ourselves first. And if you really think about it a lot of times in our life, we are totally preoccupied with ourselves. You're worried about how everything's going to affect us and how it's going to impact us and we don't spend much time thinking about others. But when we have a broken Spirit when we have a dislocated heart we come to have that tendency to think more of others and to realize how desperately we need and how he is. The only one who can help us to accomplish his purposes. And you will find that when we approach god with that sort of humility with a broken spirit that that is something that he will respond to 100% of the time. You see that many times in scripture and as we look at Nehemiah chapter 1 verses 4 through 11. You know, we're going to hear one of me and my has most powerful and revealing prayers and we're going to look at that to see what three keys are to a broken spirit. The first one is a restored view of God.

You know when we have a broken Spirit a broken Spirit begins with a restored view of God. Yeah, we don't. If you don't have a right view of the power and the Holiness of God, how can we truly understand that he is the solution to the problems that we see? You know, it doesn't take long to look around the world and see how many problems there are and how big some of those problems are. And that can be frustrating because so often when we see all of those problems those problems appear to be bigger than what our concept of God is. So we have to have a right understanding of the power and Majesty of God if we're going to ever see him as the solution to those problems for the world.

And we see in this Prayer by Nehemiah that he had a right view of God Nehemiah chapter 1 verses 4 through the first part of verse 6 says when I heard these things I sat down and wept for some days. I'm more than fasted and prayed before the god of heaven. Then I said Lord the god of Heaven the great an awesome God who keeps his Covenant of Love with those who love him and keep his Commandments. Let your ear be attentive in your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant is praying before you day and night for your service the people of Israel.

You know, even though Nehemiah lived and culture that was full of other gods and Idols that the people around him for worshiping he still had a right. He was the majesty and power of God. He still had the view that scripture was giving him. Aw, Tozer who was a big figure theologically in the Christmas tree Alliance once wrote what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people have ever risen above its religion and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God for this reason. The grave is question before the church is always God himself. the most pretentious fact that about anyone is not what he is doing it to given time, but he may say or do but what in his deep heart he conceives God to be like It is important what we think about God's if you think about it what we think about God and how powerful he really is impacts everything else that we think it impacts how we see the entire world. My question is what comes to your mind when you think about God?

No, we will never have a broken Spirit unless we have a high and lofty view of God. And yeah, that's what we've seen and Nehemiah so far and as we continue through the book of Nehemiah will see that he has a very high and lofty view of God and will see that that high and lofty view of God is really a preway prerequisite for us to have a clear view of ourselves. And that is the second step. It's an accurate view of ourselves. In Nehemiah chapter 1 second part of verse 6, they're continuing through 7 Nehemiah continues to pray. He says I confess the sins. We Israelites including myself and my father's family have committed against you we have acted very wickedly towards you we have not obey the commands to trees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

Appreciate the honesty of nehemiah's prayer here. He knows that his himself his family and even all the Israelites haven't lived up to the standards that God set and he's honest about that. And you know this I thought about that. And what amazing thing? I've noticed throughout my own life. Is that every time that? I'm really into God's word. My prayer life is going well and everything seems on track and young the closer. I feel to God the problem with that is sometimes the closer I feel to God the more clearly I see myself and I realize that I'm not doing nearly as well as I thought it was. Have you ever noticed that in your own walk with God that when you're really in tune with him and with what his word says, sometimes it can be difficult and you know the goal of a broken Spirit isn't feel terrible about ourselves, but it's just to be real. It's just to realize that we are human. We have our own limitations in often we fall short and it's because it's only when we have the accurate view of ourselves that we can truly have that dependency that we need upon God that we can truly see that God is the only solution for sinful mankind. Cuz you know the amazing part about God's grace is that when we realize that and when we begin to get down upon ourselves and out who we are and doubt how we live our lives. You know, God isn't going to push our push us down even farther and say yeah, you are a terrible person. The difference with God is when he sees us in that condition when he sees us have a dislocated heart and a broken spirit that tumble before him. You instead our heavenly father Whispers to us. I see who you are. I know all about your sin. I know all about your struggles in your life and it's okay. I will still use you. That's why I sent my son God's grace always responds to genuine broken with more mercy and Grace. You know, we were taught the opposite by this world that they're going to respond in a negative way, but that's not how our heavenly father response. It's only when we have that high and lofty view of God that we're going to be able to respond to it in the right way and to realize that in those times when we are struggling he is the only solution he is the one who's going to get us through that cuz he already knows the struggles that were facing and what we're going through everyday. It just takes us humbling ourselves and admitting that that's where we are. Then God can use us because until we see the extent of our need for a savior. We can never appreciate the significance of our savior. Yeah, Jesus covers in bridges that distance between us and a holy God. That's why God sent him to die on a cross for us and a broken spirit is that deep sense of your need and dependency upon God and when we have that God's grace will move us in the direction that we need to go. It'll drive us to do the things that we need to do in our life to be able to be in the position to be used by God. However, he sees fit to use us to accomplish his agenda. Not notice nowhere in that did I talk about our agenda? That's part of it. We have to be willing to let that die and put that aside and allow God to work through us to accomplish his agenda. That's the third step when we get to that point. We'll have a renewed commitment to God's agenda. You're broken Spirit results in that renewed commitment to fulfill God's agenda instead of our own plans and Nehemiah talks about that here Nehemiah chapter 1 verses 8 through 11. He continues to pray and says remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses saying if you are Unfaithful I will scatter you among the Nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your Exile people are at the farthest Horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place. I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. They are your servants in your people whom you Redeemed by your great strength and your Mighty hand Lord. Let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight and revering your name give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.

You know, I talked last week. It was a threat to nehemiah's life to even ask the king if he could leave and go back to Jerusalem to rebuild it.

Cuz he was the cupbearer the king and for him to leave would mean he was leaving the king exposed to threats into danger. That's why he's praying to God and pleading that God would give him favor with this man because think about it doesn't really make sense for this Babylonian King to send him back there to fortify a city that he had conquered to rebuild its defenses. None of that makes any sense. But when Nehemiah came to the king and asked for his Blessing to go he gave him his Blessing he told him to go and he even provided the workers in the supplies to do the work. So God certainly bless them. And what you'll continue to see if you read through the book of Nehemiah is that near my afraid god-centered? Gut-wrenchingly honest prayers. He didn't hide the fact that he knew they were a sinful Nation. He prayed about it. You're so often in our day instead of having a big God we have big problems. And so often in our day when we feel things are impossible. We forget that Nehemiah prayed this prayer in the midst of a culture that was strikingly like ours is today. A culture that worshipped a lot of other gods and didn't think about God very often. Yeah, that should encourage us that God will respond to our prayers in a favorable way. Like he did those of Nehemiah. Amaya was honest about the state of things and you prayed about it and God responded positively. But you know, we have to ask ourselves as individuals and as a church, are we approaching God the same way that Nehemiah did? Are we are coming with that same humility. Are we coming with that? Same broken spirit?

You know, it's not a place. We're going to arrive at immediately. It's a process for us to realize that that's where we need to be in to start praying and that way but it starts at that point in time where we decide that something has to change and that we're going to do something different. We've taken a lot of steps toward that as a church, but they're still a long ways to go. There's a lot of things we have to do a lot of things. We need to pray about decisions we have to make

And you know, we have to decide that we're going to allow God to do that deeper work within us. You know, we all have to do that by asking ourselves some questions of do we want to have an impact? In the society around us. Do you know we see people in our community with the same eyes that God sees them. You know, where do we look at them and just think well, that's fine. Their life doesn't directly bother mine so I can go home and turn on the TV and watch it and forget about the struggles. They might be having.

I want to be those people that it talks about in 2nd Chronicles 16:9 where you know, it says the eyes of the Lord go to and fro looking for those who are completely his. We want God to look upon us and realize that we are completely in is. if we do then we must let God Work deeply within us cuz we have to understand that God must work in you before he will work significantly through you.

I hope that you have noticed how important through this whole process so far with Nehemiah that prayer has been it's been a big part of it. It's no different for us. You know, we have to realize the prayer is the assembly line for a broken spirit. It's when we spend that time humbly before God In Prayer that we are able to broaden and deepen. Our understanding of who God is it's where we sharpened understanding of ourselves and who we really are and it's where we renew our deep commitment to God's agenda. That all starts in prayer may have to realize that and continue to pray for our church and pray for God's leading us but the same as individuals, you know, as we move forward that's going to call us some of us to do different things and we've done before in the church. But we have to be open to God's leading in that and where it takes us, please bow with me in prayer. Most gracious Heavenly Father. We thank you for the blessings. You give us Lord. We pray that you will continue. the guy Des and Lord, we know that that starts with each of us having a dislocated heart and a broken spirit. And Lord, I pray that you would help all of us to Humble ourselves and come to that point. Lord knowing that if we come before you humbly. Lord that you will always respond to that 100% of the time and Lord that you will respond by using us to accomplish your agenda in this world. Lord help us to see others with the eyes that you see them within Lord help our compassion to drive us towards. Being willing to do whatever it is that you asked us to do Lord to serve you and to serve others for the sake of your glory. We pray this all on your most. Holy name. Amen.