brokenness revisited

Wanted to write down the important points of Sunday's sermon since, well, Sunday. lol. But didn't get down to writing it until now. Pray that God will speak to everyone who's reading this, especially friends who are already believers. =)

Key verse - Psalm 51:16-17

16 "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings."

17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise."

The offerings of praise & worship to God, offerings of things that we do to please Him in our marketplace, offerings of community service, offerings of money, offerings of food, offerings of even time, are all worthless unless we do it with all our heart, unless it is truly for Him.

God is only pleased with one sacrifice - the brokenness of our hearts.

God cannot use us more unless we are broken further. We can only grow spiritually when we are truly broken. The limit at which God can use you is the level of your brokenness.

So much talk about brokenness. What does it really mean to have a heart broken by God?

BROKENNESS IS AN UTTER DESPERATION FOR GOD.
Concerning 3 Areas:

1) The Condition of Our Hearts

Psalm 51:3-5 "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 that You are proved right when You speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."

Through these verses, we see that the psalmist realizes how far his own heart is from God. That sense of desperation at the realization of the true nature of his heart. David was looking at the condition of his own heart with honesty & reality. He saw the darkness of his soul and the evil of his heart, he realized the depth of his sins. The sin that he committed when he yielded his heart to the temptation of his eyes at Bathsheba.

We are fully capable of doing what David did (taking Bathsheba, killing Uriah, etc - 2 Samuel 12:7-10). Apart from God, we are incapable of any good. It may sound extreme. But it's true. Ask God to reveal your heart to you.

But a heart of brokenness is NOT a heart of condemnation or guilt. God does not condemn us neither does He wish for us to be filled with guilt. A heart of brokenness is a revelation from God where He uses our moral failures to show how weak we are.

We may think that we've grown a lot in our spiritual life since we first became Christians but truth is, we are just as capable of sinning now as we did when we were saved. Only God can help us. If we truly understood that brokenness in our hearts, we can never stand in judgment of others.

- I realized again how far away my heart was from God.

2) For the Cleansing of the Lord

Psalm 51:1-2, 7-9 "... blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin." "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow... Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity."

David knew that there was only one way that he can be forgiven: To CRY OUT to GOD for His mercy.

Only when you know the state of your heart, will you understand the grace of God. It's only through God's death on the cross for us that we are REDEEMED and CLEANSED.

Luke 7:47 "Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

But those who knew the extent of the evil of what they did, when forgiven, knew how much grace was given to them.

Paul, the great Apostle, called himself "the least of all", "the chief sinner". It's only until you see the darkness of your heart, will you see the grace of God.

A stanza from "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" - Issac Watts

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down,
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

- The grace of God. His love. Mingling down from His head, His hands, His feet. All for a wretched people like us. Are we worthy? Are we deserving? But yet He did it willingly for us. So that we can be redeemed.

3) For the New Creation of God

The sinner knows how much his evil is, and how undeserving he is of God's grace, and that he has no right to God's grace and love, but realizes God has forgiven him. He knows that if he is left alone, he would be dead.

Psalm 51:10-12 "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from our presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."

The only hope that the sinner knows he has is that God will create a pure heart in him. The sinner knows that deep down inside, he is not willing even for that cleansing. That only if God creates it in him, can he have that spirit that is willing.

Philippians 2:13 "... for it is God who works in you to will and act according to His good purpose."

It is God who can give that will.

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

Paul was not referring to new Christians, but the Corinth Christians, in this book.

Many of us go through a lot of religious motions, going to church, partaking of the bread, choir duty, many of which are what psychologists would term "behavior modification". Changing of the outward behavior.

But Christian life is not = behavior modification
Rather, Christian life = HEART TRANSFORMATION

Psalm 51:16-17 - The Message translation

Going through the motions doesn't please you,
a flawless performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship
when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don't for a moment escape God's notice.

There will be no end of brokenness. God will continue to break us if we let Him.

God, take me, use me, mold me, break me, till the day I see You face to face. I don't want to put up a flawless performance. Create in me a willing spirit always to come back to You. I know You do not want my burnt offerings and sacrifices. Not even beautiful words that I sing with a melodious voice. I know that when I offer up this broken heart to You, a heart that knows how far it is away from You, a heart that knows that it's unable, a heart that does not deserve, You will receive, more than anything else.