Broken Part 1

Broken

Let me start by asking a question.

When you have a toy that breaks what do you tend to do with that?

When tend to throw it away correct?

I tend to have no problem throwing away stuff that doesn’t work.

If it is broken— throw it away!

Now what do we do when actors or sport stars begin to decline?

Or when their usefulness begins to wain.

Unless you are Tom Brady—

They become washed up they get put off to the side.

They are disregarded.

They had their time but father time is not a friend to age.

So what happens?

We toss them away.

Now, here is the deal when we come to something that is broken, we tend to believe that it is the end of the line.

We see someone who is broken and we tend to write them off.

Our view of broken people is broken.

Which is why when we may feel this way.

That we feel broken— what do we tend to say when someone ask, hey! How are you doing?

We respond— “I’m Ok.”

Instead of saying— I’m hurting, I’m broken, I’m nervous, I’m scared, and above all I’m lost.

We get into this routine of not letting people in and shoving all sort of feeling and emotion into the pits of our souls.

Because what do we do with broken stuff— we throw it away, it’s trash.

If this is where you are at tonight.

I want you to know that you are not trash.

You do not have to wear a mask around me or anybody else here.

Instead you are be real.

Because the reality is that we are all broken.

We all are in need.

We all hide our true and real selves because we don’t want to be rejected.

But truly deep down we all have this desire to be loved and to be known.

All of us.

We want someone to know us in our broken state and still love us.

We want someone to know us in our worse and still know us.

We all have this desire that was put there by God.

Over the next couple of weeks we are going to be looking at brokenness, depression, anxiety and loneliness.

tonight starts it all with this idea that I am broken and nobody wants a broken me.

It is like we are on the island of misfit toys from Rudolph.

Do you remember Charley in the box?

He is the island’s sentry— He is the gatekeeper if you will.

He pops out of his box and he seem aggressive and a little mean.

And after they introduce everyone they guess his name is Jack.

Like a Jack in the box.

To which he responds— “no it’s Charlie.”

“That’s why I’m here at the island of misfit toys, no body want to play with a charily in the box.”

All of these toys just want to be loved.

And I think a lot of times we feel like we get this label of broken.

As in we are diagnosed with something like depression, anxiety, or other mental illnesses and since we have been labeled we then feel like we belong to this island of broken things.

We may feel broken.

We may be treated as broken.

We may even like we are damaged and unusable.

While that maybe how the world see you, that is not how God sees you.

God sees you.

The main point I want you to walk away with tonight is:

For God loves people despite their brokenness

mental status or physical limitations.

God loves broken people

He loves hurt people

God love you and all that you are.

But what happens is, we can know this and we can even believe this but our actions say something else.

We know we are loved by God but we live like God can’t use us.

Or that God won’t use us.

This is so far from the truth.

God uses those who have nothing to offer Him, so that his glory can shine through our weaknesses and our short comings.

While you can look and see this all of the Bible.

Abraham -Was old.

Elijah – Was suicidal.

Joseph – Was abused.

Job – Went bankrupt.

Moses – Had a speech problem and He killed a guy

Gideon – Was afraid.

Samson – Was a womanizer.

Rahab – Was a prostitute.

Samaritan Woman – Divorced.

Noah – Was a Drunk.

Jeremiah – Was young.

Jacob – Was a cheater.

David – Was a murderer and committed adultery

Jonah – Ran from God.

Naomi – Was a widow.

Peter – Denied Christ three times

Martha – Worried about everything.

Zacchaeus – Was small and money hungry.

The Disciples – Fell asleep while praying.

Paul – A Pharisee who persecuted Christians before becoming one.

And God used them all, despite their brokenness.

There is someone I want to look at tonight.

It is one of my favorite stories.

It is the story of Gideon.

If you have your Bibles let’s flip open to Judges 6

We will pick up in verse 11.

But let me remind you what is happening here in Judges.

The Israelites are no longer in Egypt or in the Wilderness but they are in the promise land.

They have been told by God several things to do but they are not doing it.

They would find themselves sinning against God

So God allows them to be conquered and ruled over.

Then once they realized the error of their way they would cry out to God and God would send a judge to save them.

We have had a couple already up to this point who have been pretty good at judging Isreal.

Which brings us to Gideon.

Let’s dive in.

Judges 6:11 ESV

Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

Here is what is interesting right away.

Gideon was hiding from their enemy the Midianites.

He was beating our wheat in a winepress.

Pop quiz what is made in a winepress?

Wine— that is correct.

Here is what a wine press looked like.

PICTURE

You can tell that it is a bit underground.

But Gideon is not making wine— he is beating our wheat.

There is a certain process for this as well.

Here is what this looked like.

PICTURE

For one you would have been on a hill.

Here is what this would have liked like.

Judges, Ruth (1) God’s Punishment and Deliverance of Israel (6:1–8:3)

grain was threshed by first beating the heads of the cut stalks with a flail, discarding the straw, and then tossing the mixture of chaff and grain in the air, allowing the wind to blow away the chaff while the heavier kernels of grain fell to the floor. In the present critical circumstances this obviously would have been unwise. Threshing activity on the hilltops would only have aroused the attention of the marauding Midianites

So right away we see that Gideon is hiding and is scared.

But the angel of the Lord still appears to him.

Let’s keep reading:

Verse 12

Judges 6:12 ESV

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

When we read this story Gideon seems to be scared, not mighty.

Gideon seems like he is hiding and is not a man of valor.

But God see us all differently.

This angel of the Lord appears to Gideon and calls if OH MIGHTY MAN OF VALOR.

Valor means hero-esk

It means strength and courage.

Put yourself in Gideon’s shoes, you are hiding in a winepress from the enemy.

That does not sound heroic to me.

We live now in a day and age where we know what a hero looks like:

PICTURE

God see us differently then the world see us.

While the world calls us broken.

God calls us heroes— God calls us loved.

Let’s keep reading

Judges 6:13–16 ESV

And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

While it is great to not be called broken by God, we tend to think lowly of ourselves at times.

When things are not going our way…

When we are down in a winepress, beating wheat we can respond like a broken person with little to no hope.

When things go wrong we tend to run to God and ask what is wrong.

Things aren’t suppose to be this way.

We get a little short fused.

We speaker a little louder.

We ask those questions like if you are for us then why did this all happen.

If you saved us then why are you forsaking us.

The angel calls him might again, go in your might and save Israel.

But Gideon stops dead in his tracks why?

Because he is broken, from the weakest clan, the last born.

He tells the angel of his brokenness.

Gideon tell the angel this to maybe just remind him who he is talking too.

But we do this too don’t we?

God calls us to do something, to respond to Him in someway.

Instead of going, Yes Lord.

When tend to bring up our brokenness.

We say God I would be happy to be used by you, but I’m damaged good.

GOD DOES NOT CALL YOU BROKEN loved one.

God calls you mighty, he calls you children, he calls you prince and princesses.

He calls you loved.

We are the one who sometimes can’t let go of our broken state to be used by God.

I love verse 16, because after Gideon gives his excuse as to why they got the wrong dude.

But the Lord says, But I will be with you.

Don’t worry about your brokenness, just trust me.

And Gideon did.

He trusted God.

God didn’t let him down.

Gideon would go on to judge Israel well.

Judges 8:28 ESV

So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.

God used Gideon in a huge way.

Here was a guy who was probably told over and over again you are too young, you are weak that we began to believe these lies.

And it took God stepping in and saying that you are worth more then that, to change the narrative of Gideon.

Have you ever had someone or thing happen to you that changed your life’s outcome?

Illustration

A story that comes to my mind is when Peter denies Christ three times.

Jesus is about ready to be crucified and Peter was around all of this but he was staying in the back, he didn’t want to get to close because, let’s be real they may have tried to have him killed as well.

Here is the story

Matthew 26:69–75 ESV

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

But even in the broken Jesus showed up and restored Peter.

John 21:15–19 ESV

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

This is life changing for Peter.

Recall if you have heard this story before, that Peter was going back to his old job of being a fishermen.

But Jesus had bigger plans for him.

So Jesus restores Peter and even when Peter was broken by what he did Jesus still show up to Peter and loved Peter, and even used Peter.

No matter where you are at in your life— God can use you and is able to use you.

God used Peter in a huge way for his church.

*Jesus intervinved for Peter

*God interviined for Gideon

Application

God can use and does still use broken people.

Broken does not mean an ending.

I hope that we can at least give hope to those who maybe feel like you are broken and hopeless.

Because loved one you are not.

You have value and meaning:

Here are three way broken people are used by God.

1) Broken People recognize their need for God.

In case it wasn’t clear, we are all broken.

Everyone single one in here is broken.

While you may not be broken according to your label of brokenness.

You are indeed broken and were in need of a savior which God gave us!

By sending his son Jesus to live and die here on earth to be our sacrifice for the broken and the sinful.

Jesus saves.

Meaning that all people are broken and need God.

I need that reminder everyday.

I need God not most days, or some day but literally everyday before my feet even hit the floor I know that I need a whole lot of God today.

When you come to this understanding that you are powerful-less on your own, that you are only strong with Christ is working in you and through you.

That is when you realize that everyday it is a shout and a plea for God to be with you.

2) Broken People help other broken people

If no one else has experienced something that I have experienced how likely Am I to take them up on their advice?

If you were going to go rock climbing and you had a choice between two guides.

One guide’s experience is from a book and the other guy has lived and breathed mountain climbing for the last 20 years who do you pick?

The more we open up about our brokenness the more we have chance to help others.

I believe that God gives us experiences and allows us to break a bit to then be able to help others.

I’ve shared with you guys about when Brittni and I had our miscarriage a couple of years ago.

We were able to climb out of that because one we prayed a lot and we sought after God but also because our neighbors literally just went through it and they came along side of us and walked with us through it.

To which we then were able to walk a couple through it when they had a miscarriage.

I have had the chance to help countless men walk through having a porn addiction.

Brittni has been a lifeline for several women who have depression.

God uses even the messy- crummy stuff to bring about his glory.

God can use you in your broken state.

Nobody says that about anything broken.

For only God sees you in your brokenness and says I want you.

3) Broken People become trophies of God’s grace

What I want to be careful of is that I am not saying that God is trying to win trophies or that He is even using you and your messy life to get what he wants.

But here’s the deal— in my brokenness God still wanted me.

He looked at me in my sin and my failures and with all my baggage, and illnesses and said I love you still.

I still am going to give up my son for you.

Jesus came to this earth to be the physical representation of God’s grace.

We do not deserve how good God is to us.

I think of Paul who literally was killing Christians.

He was on this way to Damascus to destroy those following the way

Then God showed up and Paul made the choice to follow after Christ.

Paul life’s was a testimony to God goodness.

1 Timothy 1:12–16 ESV

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

This can be your story as well.

The next couple of weeks we are going to be talking about how to deal with depression, anxiety, and loneliness.

But what if we choose to embrace where God had us today?

God can use you despite your brokenness just like Gideon.

Allow Him too

I encourage you to embrace your brokenness.

It will draw you closer to God.

It will allow you to help someone else and it will allow God to put you on display as a trophy of his grace.

Either way if you are broken you are just the one that God is looking for.

No matter where you are at, just know that God is is the who changes our brokenness.

Allow him to and allow him to use you.

Let’s pray