Remedy Part 7: The Remedy For Brokenness Series

REMEDY

The Remedy for Brokenness

“Our life is full of brokenness - broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God’s faithful presence in our lives?”

-Henri Nouwen

Intro: Broken. Many of us are. We carry the burden of pain and regret of yesterday with us wherever we go. We’re broken. Can’t anybody fix us? God can.

How God Takes Broken People

1. God takes broken people gladly.

-Some people are scared to let God have control of their lives because they think they’re not good enough. But that’s simply not true. The Bible says Heaven throws a party whenever one sinner repents of their sins and starts a relationship with Jesus.

2. God takes broken people in spite of their imperfections.

-I know people who think that they’ve got to clean up their act before they begin their walk with God. I know people who think that they can’t come to church yet because they smoke or drink or live with their boyfriend and they have this notion that only after they get rid of all that stuff in their lives can they start attending church regularly and begin seeking God. Maybe you’re here this morning and that’s you. Listen, God takes you despite of your imperfections.

3. God takes broken people impartially.

-God doesn’t play favorites. Rich, poor, black, white, male, female…He takes them all. So guess what that means? He takes you.

4. God takes broken people for His glory.

-God can still use you for his glory. I know people who think, “I’ve lived in sin for so long, I could never do anything good for God.” Listen, you’re never too far gone that God won’t take you and use your life for His glory. He loves taking people that everyone else has given up on and doing something big through them.

-So you may be thinking, well that sounds good, but it’s kind of “out there.” You might be thinking, “what do you mean, ‘God takes broken people’?” How does He do that? What does that look like?

-It looks like the Church. And this is so important. Now, I know that some of you may just want the check out at this point. You may be thinking, “Oh right, the church. No thanks. Been there, done that. I don’t like the Church and I don’t need the Church.”

-But listen:

† God uses the Church to fix humanity’s brokenness.

† The Church is made up of broken people…just like you.

-And in our final look into the book of Romans today, Paul paints a beautiful picture of what the Church should look like. And when the Church looks like this, the Church becomes God’s Remedy for Brokenness.

(Prayer)

God Fixes Broken People…

1. As we build one another up. (1,2).

Scripture: Rom. 15:1-2

1We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Statement: In any congregation, you have a mix of people, some who have been here for a long time, some for a short time. When Paul wrote to the churches in Rome, the question was not how long people had been there, but how they applied their faith to their situation. If you read Chapter 14, you see that the biggie had to do with whether or not to eat meat. This had nothing to do with eating at the most popular steakhouse in town. But it did have something to do with the pagan religion some of them had come from. In that religion, worshipers offered meat to idols. Some of it the priests ate. Some of it found its way to the meat market.

-So, new Christians, who gave up offering meat to idols, found themselves facing a dilemma. What if the meat they bought at the market had been offered to idols? They were serving Christ now, not those idols, so they thought it was wrong to eat that meat. And since there was no way of knowing which meat was which, they decided not to eat meat at all.

-At the same time, there were those who had come to the church by a different route. And they said, “Christ has given us freedom from such problems. After all, God has created everything and God is over everything. Those idols do not really exist. Just thank God and eat your meat.” Their faith was strong enough to overcome this problem. But it wasn’t that easy for these new Christians.

-So if you are one with a strong faith, do you eat the meat or do you not? The principle Paul lays down is, “If, by eating meat, you offend a weak Christian, then don’t eat it.”