Broken Hearts Club

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Video: Will It Blend? iPad

I’m calling this message The Broken Hearts Club

There are a lot of things that can break your heart.

Break ups

death

family brokenness like divorce

friends who betray you

your team losing (Gophers)

So many different things that have a similar result. You end up with a broken heart.

Having a broken heart puts you in a vulnerable place.

Part of our vision here at NXT is that

God is stirring our hearts for the things that stir God’s heart.

Main Point:

Our Hearts can only be stirred by God when they have been broken by the things that break God’s heart.

Just like the iPad could only blend after it had been broken enough to fit into the blender, our hearts can only be stirred once they have been broken.

Let’s look at a passage in scripture where the prophet Jeremiah gives us a glimpse into his heart and the things that break God’s heart.

Read Jeremiah 8:4-7 (God)

Read Jeremiah 8:18-22 (Jeremiah)

What I see here in chapter 8 are 4 big statements that help us understand the heart of God.

Repeated Rejection breaks God’s heart.

“Do people fall and not get up again? If they turn away, do they not return? Why have these people turned away? Why is Jerusalem always turning away?” (Jer 8:4b-5a)

We all know what this is like. Maybe there’s a cute girl who turned you down. Maybe it’s a friend group that doesn’t invite you to things. Maybe it’s not making the team you wanted to, not getting the role in the play you wanted…so many possible scenarios where we feel and experience repeated rejection. Closed door after closed door.

Getting cut from Wheaton Football

Now imagine you are God. You’ve created humanity. You love your people so so much. But you watch time after time as your own people turn away from you. They constantly choose things that are harmful over you. They curse you out and spit in your face when you know that the way they’re living is going to kill them!

God’s heart breaks when the people He created and loves repeated reject Him.

the main point tonight is that your heart can only be stirred after it’s been broken. When you see people - your family, your friends, your teammates, your neighbors, your classmates, people you don’t even know - who are repeated rejecting God and the love that he has for them, the plan that he has for them, the hope he wants to give them. Does your heart break for them?

Intentional Deception breaks God’s heart.

“They take hold of deceit; the refuse to return. I have paid careful attention. They do not speak what is right.” (Jer 8:5b-6a)

We live in a world where it feels like it’s almost easier to lie than to tell the truth. Little lies, big lies, conspiracy theories on social media, fake news stories, misinformation…

I have felt like I don’t know who to trust!

the virus is huge: it’s not a big deal

masks are gonna save everyone: masks don’t even work

we should cancel church: we need to keep meeting

I’ve honestly felt like no one is telling me the truth!

But let’s make this personal.

Maybe you feel like you’re living a lie. I know that’s how I felt when I was in junior high.

Wearing a mask in junior high

I said this last week in y message, maybe you caught it: God cannot heal who you pretend to be.

Your heart can only be stirred after it has been broken.

Does your heart break for people who, like me in junior high, feel like they are two different people. Does your heart break for people who want to be real but fear rejection will come when they’re honest. Does your heart break for them?

Firm Stubbornness breaks God’s heart.

“No one regrets his evil, asking, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone has stayed the course like a horse rushing into battle.”

Argument is way too easy. It’s way too easy to get at someone you disagree with than to genuinely love someone you disagree with. Why is that? I think this verse hits it. Everyone just stays on their course like a horse rushing into battle.

Do you see the picture?

If you’ve got horses running, they’re going to run someone over.

Jousting

The only outcome is that someone is getting knocked out, ran over, and trampled.

When you play that zero-sum game there can be no love, only winners and losers. But that’s not a way to live!

Being able to look someone in the face and say, “I’m sorry. I was wrong. Will you forgive me?” is so powerful! But we don’t see that modeled for us in our culture! People fight and fight even when they know they’re wrong!

Your heart can only be stirred when it’s been broken.

What emotions do you feel when you see people who can’t say that they’re wrong? What do you feel when people are so stubborn in their disagreement with you? What happens when you’re the one getting run over? Does your heart break for them?

Willful Ignorance breaks God’s heart.

“Even storks in the sky know their seasons. Turtledoves, swallows, and cranes are aware of their migration, but my people do not know the requirements of the Lord.”

The bible makes it so clear that God is obvious.

Romans 1:18–20 CSB

For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

When you look around at the world, when you look at people, it should be so clear that God is who he says he is.

People have to try to not know God. And they do.

Breaking a window with a baseball - a classic example.

Mom comes in, who broke this window, i don’t know...

Does that break your heart? That there are people who don’t know God? People who can look at nature, look at the complexity of the human anatomy, people who can theorize about human morality - but willfully ignore God. People who don’t know hope? People who don’t know they’re loved? Does that break your heart? Because it breaks God’s.

If your heart is going to be stirred it has to be broken.

In the first half of chapter 8 that we just talked through we have God saying:

repeated rejection breaks his heart

intentional deception breaks his heart

firm stubbornness breaks his heart

willful ignorance breaks his heart

But there are more things that break God’s heart all over the pages of your bible.

when people put things before God

when people get so focused on the next paycheck that they forget about God

when people use and hurt other people made in God’s image

when people commit acts of injustice

racism breaks the heart of God

people struggling with anxiety and depression - it breaks God heart

people confused about their sexuality breaks God’s heart

disunity in God’s church breaks his heart

If our hearts are going to be stirred they have to be broken.

People are not projects that need to be fixed.

People are sinners who need s savior.

WE are dead and we need life.

So when this passage shifts gears from God’s perspective to Jeremiah’s perspective we see an example of a heart that is stirred because it has been broken.

Jeremiah 8:21 CSB

I am broken by the brokenness of my dear people. I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.

So let me give us a couple ways forward.

If you’re at a place where you’re like, What do I do when God breaks my heart for something, here is how I would proceed:

Pray

Ask God how he is already working in the situation.

If it breaks God’s heart, he’s already working in the middle of it.

Psalm 34:18 CSB

The Lord is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit.

Ask God to show you where he is.

Walk

Join God in what he’s doing.

The difference between a broken heart and a stirred heart is movement.

If your heart breaks, but you don’t move, you’re missing an opportunity.

Worship

The first time I felt my heart break for the things that break God’s heart was when I was in junior high. I remember being at a Dare 2 Share event in this very auditorium and God broke my heart for kids at my school - especially my best friend at the time who didn’t know Jesus.

Call with Sam - unsuccessful

I thought I had to be responsible for fixing everything I saw that was broken but in reality that’s not my job.

We worship God when we correctly acknowledge that HE is the one who changes messed up situations. He is the one who fixes broken things. He has broken your heart for a reason, he wants to stir you up, but

Philippians 1:6 ESV

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

So it is not your efforts but God’s.