3 AREAS OF BROKENESS:

Salvation, sanctification, and Service

We must be broken in all 3 areas of our Christian life.

SALVATION:

At some time we must all come to the point and realize there is no way possible to save ourselves. We can’t crank out enough good behavior, or good works for salvation. Once we realize this, then we are broken and ripe for God’s amazing grace.

See it says Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.  The only ones who will enjoy the Kingdom are  those who understand our inability to save ourselves and our need for grace.

SANCTIFICATION:

Once saved we are sealed.  The life of God is in us.  We get a new heart with new desires. We desire to live holy lives. We desire and are called to be transformed to Christ’s image. So we try hard to be the best Christians because we love God.  But when we try in our own power we actually accomplish less.  The more we try hard for “self-righteousness” the more true holiness eludes us.  Eventually through all our trying God gives us a gift, we hit a wall running full speed…we fall.  And we realize then we can’t.  Then we get up broken and dependent on God’s power through the Holy Spirit to live holy.

SERVICE:

In the context of our ministry we must once again be broken.  We must remember “I can’t do this!”.  Real ministry isn’t about buildings, raising money or preaching a sermon.  Kingdom ministry is making spiritually lame people walk, spiritually blind people see, and spiritually dead people live.  Psychology can’t help them, great teaching can’t help them, only God can open them up.  He does that through broken people. For when I am weak He is strong. He gets the glory.

When you see enough peoples real life pain and hopelessness you realize no Ph.D. will fix it.

When we comprehend we can’t possibly do this “service thing” we come up hungry for the Holy Spirit’s power.  It is reserved for the broken.

CONCLUSION:

There is not a neat five step program to become broken.  I can’t tell you how to become beggingly dependant on God.  One way I know is to “keep trying”. I also know this about beggers, they are not afraid to ask.

Other examples of Brokeness:

Wrestling with God Genesis 32:22-32          Peter       Matthew 26:31-35

Thorn in Flesh 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Other examples of Dependence:

Dependence(childlike)  Matthew 18:1-4

PHARISEE(religion):

The Pharisee was quick to condemn all the “evil doers” especially the tax collector standing outside. He also had a list of all the behaviors that affirmed his righteousness. He fasted and tithed.  These are the things that Christians do.  He was a faithful attendee of the synagogue. He had to feel pretty good about himself.  His definition of spirituality was wrapped up in both what he didn’t do “thievery, adultery, etc.) and what he did do” church, tithe and fast”.  He fell in line with everyone else’s expectations.  Matters of the heart were not important.

TAX GATHERER (Sinner):

His own condemnation would not even let him go inside the temple to pray.  He didn’t feel like he was good enough to go to church.  Church was a place for good people who no longer struggle with sin.  Who would you rather be in this parable? We all know the right answer.  But deep down I’d rather be the guy who had it all together, who looked good and didn’t have any struggles.  I’ve spent a lot of energy in life on having it together and being independent or having the right answers. What about you?  But the tax gatherer went home justified by God not the Pharisee.  You see he reached a point of begging dependence on God. Brokeness. He said things like this; I can’t. I need help. You are my only hope. I try, but fail. I need you.  In all these Beatitudes there is a great consolation and a great confrontation depending on which side you stand.

CONSOLATION(The real deal):

This was a great consolation to the tax gatherer who was at the end of himself, at the end of trying hard to do it right.  It was a consolation to Peter who denied Christ after saying I will never leave you, I will follow you to death.  It is always a consolation to people who reach the end of themselves. Then all they have is the promise of hope God gave them. They say things like God I tried, I failed, I am fully dependant on you. I need you in my life to help and guide me.

CONFRONTATION(Counterfeit):

As with most vital truths, there are dangerous counterfeits.

David Johnson writes in his book “Joy Comes in the Mourning”,

“People who espouse (meaning adopt or marry) this counterfeit spirit assume a whining, mealy mouthed posture.  They pretend to be weak, timid, apologetic and piously (acting falsely) no confrontational.  This is rather odd because in the lives of Peter, Paul and the early disciples we see that their poverty in spirit translated into great power, numerous confrontations and amazing activity for the Kingdom of Christ.

  This version of poor is different than ptochos poor. This is not begging dependence. This is still someone who can sift through the trash can to eat.  Someone who can work it out on their own and deep down prefer it that way.  Someone who is too proud to become broken. True brokeness and dependence doesn’t  even have enough energy to sift through the trash can.  We must come to the end of ourselves and there find the beginning of God’s great mercy, grace and power.

poor in spirit concluded in next session 

INTRODUCTION:

      Beatitudes, Sermon on the Mount, read Mathew 5:1-12

What do they mean to us today? As we read them for face value sometimes they cause confusion. They all seem upside down and inside out.  In this study we will find that in the Beatitudes is the essence of Christian life, character, transformation into Christ’s image, and most importantly the Gospel is intricately interwoven inside them. The message cannot be taught it has to be somehow be caught.  A writer once wrote this about the Beatitudes; is like someone went into the display window of life and switched all the price tags and what we thought had value suddenly didn’t.  We will find statements like “happy are the sad” or “satisfied are the hungry”. In which none of it makes sense until you place yourself at the feet of Jesus over 2000 years ago on a mountain side.

SET UP

       Matthew 4-5

Jesus’ ministry starts with John’s imprisonment. Then He is tempted in the desert by the devil and angels come to minister to Him.  Jesus in the desert was the defender, and Satan was on the offensive. But from this point on Jesus goes on the offense. He had been healing people, and casting out demons. Word had spread and great multitudes of people were gathering. It was like He was the senior pastor of the first church of what is happening now.  He had the momentum to kick this thing off. And what does He do? He withdraws from the crowd and goes to a mountain side and teaches disciples.  Any church growth expert would tell you this is not what you do. In doing that we get what some people say is the best sermon ever. It is found in Matthew 5,6, and 7 (The Sermon on the Mount). Place yourself at His feet beside the disciples.  Think about all you have just witnessed.  What would you want to know?  I would want to know how He did it.  Where did He get the power and how can I do it.  You know I don’t know if that is what the disciples were thinking. Maybe they never dreamed of God’s power manifested through their lives, but I have dreamed of this ever since I was little.  I’d want to know was it the way you held your hand out or the way you said in Jesus name.  But instead we get this unorthodox path to real authentic Kingdom power in this sermon.  Jesus says this power is real, this Kingdom is real and you have a part in it, but the path is unlike any you have traveled.

DEFINE:

First let us just look at it for face value. POOR IN SPIRIT. Whatever type of POOR it is it refers to the spirit, not of the flesh. So we know it is a POOR SPIRIT it is talking about.  .  In this same passage Luke recorded, he doesn’t use the words in spirit.  The Bible talks a lot about how hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom. But it is not the riches that make it hard for them to get to Heaven it is the way they have little need for help.  A person that is poor knows that they need help and are normally dependant on someone or something.  This takes us to the word poor.  The Greek word for poor is ptochos (toe-kas) , is has a very specific meaning “one who is reduced to begging dependence; one who is broken”.  Begging dependence, or bankrupt. God wants His people to know that the Kingdom is for the begger and the bankrupt, and the broken.  Not for people who know how to say it  or do it right.  He is looking for people who know that in and of themselves they can not do it all right.  They are reduced to a begging dependence on God to work in and through them. One of the greatest places to see this in action is a few books over in Luke 18:9-14(read).

We’ll continue this in next discussion.