"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." (Psalm 51:17)
Those words were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by a man who knew a thing or town about "brokenness." David was a king who lost his baby son due to his own indiscretions. David was a king whose own grown son became his bitter enemy and sought to kill him. David was a king who had to hide from his enemies. God took David through times of brokenness and David saw the value in it. That is why he could say,
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit."
This Sunday here at Gaylord E-Free, as we wrap up our 3-week series on the miracle of Jesus feeding the multitude with the 5 small barley loaves and 2 fish, we are going to see how "brokenness" fits into ministry today. We will look at the process that Jesus used to distribute the bread. We will see that this is the same process that Jesus used every time He passed out bread in the Bible (I will share more about this in my posting tomorrow). We will see how God used the same process with people in the Bible, people like Moses, Joseph, and even Jesus Himself.
I think God still uses the same process in the lives of people today. I've seen it in my own life. This Sunday we will see that before God gives us, He usually first needs to break us. This Sunday we will encourage you to "embrace" brokenness when God takes you through it. We will use two special aspects of our service to help you "embrace" this principle.
At one point in the message as we talk about this process, we will actually pass loaves of bread down the rows asking everyone to break off a small piece. This will allow you to use your sense of touch to grasp the principle that before God gives us, He often first must break us.
We will then end the service with some "cardboard testimonies" of several people in our church who have experienced brokenness in their life but have also found that David was correct in what he wrote,
"A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."
Pastor Scott...we listened to your sermon this evening and it brought us to tears as you mentioned our former church and your brokenness through what transpired. I related everything in your words to what I experienced in my life as well. I will never forget sitting in that room at the Dept of Ed in Harrisburg looking at all those people who had the power to decide my professional future and just smiling and feeling so much at peace. I met with you and asked what in the world those feelings meant and your answer was that I was feeling the peace of God...that will be with me always brother. Thank you for always being there for us.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alan! It was truly a privilege to walk through that time with you, my friend! We love and miss you and Janelle!
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