PSALM 51
SONG OF THE BROKENHEARTED
Psalm 51.17
S: Brokenness and Repentance
C: Revival
Th: Our Time, Our Turn, Our All
Pr: YIELD TO GOD’S CONVICTION.
I. SIN
II. REPENT
III. CHANGE
IV. FRUIT
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Grieve over your sin.
• Reconcile – make it right.
• Move forward
Version: ESV
RMBC 26 April 09 AM
ILL Signs (H)
Let’s start with a bit of humor this morning. Here are some really good suggestions for signs…
For an Optometrist’s office…
"If you don’t see what you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place."
For a taxidermist…
"We really know our stuff."
For the Podiatrist…
"Time wounds all heels."
For the a muffler shop…
"No appointment necessary. We’ll hear you coming."
For a garbage truck…
"We’ve got what it takes to take what you’ve got."
Let’s pause for a moment. If God had a sign outside His office, I think it just might say this…
“I can’t fix it until it is broken.”
As a I mentioned last week, through mid-June, Lord willing, we will be thinking through our prayer action plan, talking about how we can PRACT – pray and act.
I know that “pract” is not a real word, but it does fit.
When it comes to the Prayer Action Plan, we must pray it and we must act on it.
We must do both!
Let’s read it out loud together.
PRACT
RENOUNCEMENT: We renounce stubbornness and an unwillingness to repent.
ANNOUNCEMENT: We announce our need for brokenness and repentance.
AFFIRMATION: We affirm that God will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
COMMITMENT: We will readily yield to the conviction of the Holy Spirit in confession and repentance.
I want us to consider a part of the story of David for a moment.
Though David had many successes in his life, there was one point that…
David had made a real mess of his life (Psalm 51.17).
Psalm 51 is based on this.
Because David became filled with lust for a woman, he committed the sin of adultery with her.
Then when she discovered she was expecting, David tried to force the husband to have relations with her.
When this plan failed, he tried to cover-up the sin by having him killed in battle.
He covered his adultery with murder.
What he forgot in all this process is that God knew all about his sin.
And when a prophet of God confronted him, he got it.
He knew he had been an evil man.
A #1, class A Jerk.
So he writes the song of the brokenhearted…
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
To handle sin in the Old Testament, a sacrifice of an animal was offered.
It was a total commitment.
Every part of the animal was given in a sacrifice.
By definition, a sacrifice is the surrender or destruction of something valued for the sake of something else.
In the Old Testament, it is the destruction of a valued animal in order to receive the forgiveness of sin.
But David understood that a sacrifice is not what God wanted.
It was much more encompassing.
God wanted what was missing.
He wanted David.
Listen to this verse again, this time in the New Living Translation…
The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. (NLT)
The word broken is descriptive.
It is the idea of being burst, shattered, and smashed.
It is not just being broken into two pieces (like a stick).
It is much more than that.
The Hebrew word for contrite is even more vivid.
It means crushed.
Literally it means crushed into a powder.
It is like being crushed into smithereens.
And here’s the thing…
God wants us broken.
Not because He’s cruel.
Not because He enjoys seeing us in pain.
He wants us broken, because unless we’re broken, He cannot penetrate the hardness in our hearts.
You see…
God is in the fixing business.
That’s the sign on His door.
This is God’s specialty!
When we are broken, He fixes us.
But we have to understand sin first…
SIN
Because…
Sin breaks us.
It wrecks us.
It ruins us.
It is poison to our system.
When we sin, we are playing God.
When we know something is wrong, and God has said it is wrong, but we do it anyway, we are choosing to sin.
We are choosing to play God.
We put ourselves at the center.
We put God anywhere else but the center.
As a result, we put our will in opposition to His will.
Here is the thing…
We don’t get to a better place with God until we recognize where we are is not so good.
So often, we are like David.
It is difficult to accept sin in ourselves.
We try to cover it.
We hope others don’t see it.
We attempt to shift the blame.
But listen to this…
Denial of sin only takes us backward, never forward.
Somewhere along the line, we just absolutely have to recognize that we are not living the right way.
We are living opposed to God.
Therefore, we need to repent.
REPENT
Note this, because it is going to sound different…
We want more repentance in our lives.
It is not easy.
It is not pleasant.
But it is a good thing, for we get to a better place with God.
Repentance is the funnel through which personal revival flows.
Repentance – turning away from our sin – is the long term exhortation of Scripture.
The Hebrew prophets -- Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Hosea – all had the same message, and it is like the only thing they really had to say.
“Good morning…repent…let’s pray.”
Folks, there are times that we sit here in this room with our arms crossed, refusing to hear God’s Word because we don’t like the screen, or the missing organ rail, or we think classical music is the pits.
But you know what we need to do instead?
We need to draw a circle around our own feet, and take responsibility for our own spiritual life, and say, “It’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer!”
You see, when we want things to change, you know who really needs to change?
When I want things to change, do you know who God wants to change?
It’s me.
And I think this is what is happening to me right now.
ILL Repentance (S)
Think of a husband and wife in a car, the wife, being the navigator, tells her husband to turn right at the next road and by mistake, he turns left.
When he realizes what he has done, he says to his wife “I’m sorry dear, I went the wrong way.” But if that is all he does, it isn’t enough. His saying sorry isn’t getting them any closer to where they want to be; it isn’t even stopping them from getting further away.
To get where they want to be, he needs to stop the car, turn it around and go back on to the correct road that his wife told him to take in the first place.
That is repentance.
CHANGE
Repentance is about changing my mind, heart and will.
Repentance is changing my mind.
It is recognizing sin for what it is.
It is, “I get it! Yes, this is wrong.”
Repentance is changing my heart.
It is experiencing sorrow.
It is, “I feel it! And it hurts.”
Repentance is changing my will.
It is a new determination.
It is, “I will change. I am going this new direction.”
The story of the prodigal son is an excellent example of repentance.
When he discovers the consequences of his wild and careless living, he comes to his senses.
He feels the shame, and says, “I no longer deserve to be called a son.”
His change of heart leads him to a new direction, and he says, “I will go to my father.”
You see, there is fruit to repentance.
There is a change!
FRUIT
We don’t want to look right; we want to be right.
You see…
I don’t want an A in appearance.
I want the real thing in my heart.
I don’t want to look right.
I want to be right.
This is why Old Testament characters dressed up in sackcloth.
When they were repenting, they put on sackcloth to demonstrate a radical rejection of externals.
They took off their fine clothing, threw ashes on their head, and smeared their face.
When you did this, it means that you are done with posing and posturing.
You were saying, “I don’t care what I look like.”
“I don’t care about looking the part.”
It is the determination that you are done looking good for the crowd.
You see, when we truly repent, it is all out living for God.
The pretensions are gone.
You are going for the real thing.
CHALLENGE:
Let me encourage you to…
YIELD TO GOD’S CONVICTION.
God is working in our lives.
God is speaking into our lives.
But sometimes we are so stubborn.
We get so hardhearted.
We get so hardheaded.
We get so on track with a certain direction, that we can’t or we won’t listen.
But do you know what we need to do?
We need to step back and compare ourselves to the holiness of God.
When we do that, we will see our sin for what it is.
And the thought that “I have it totally together” becomes meaningless.
It is that we know that yielding to God is the only thing that really makes sense.
Along with that, let me encourage you to…
Grieve over your sin.
We need to grieve over sin in order to fully experience God’s grace.
God wants to send His grace and mercy.
He wants to burst forth like rain.
But God waits.
He waits for our grief.
But what happens when you don’t feel grief over your sin?
God will help you with that if you ask Him.
Maybe you don’t feel what you are doing is wrong, even though you know that God does.
Seek God and ask Him to change Your mind.
These are the kinds of prayers God loves to answer.
Here is where I am very worried for our church.
It is why it is in our prayer action plan.
This is a long standing problem.
We seem to do okay at admitting when we are wrong.
But…
We are way too sophisticated to grieve.
We seem to do shift from one foot to another, and instead of taking full responsibility, we blame.
“It was wrong, yes, but, it was not totally my fault…if they hadn’t done this…”
And as a result, we never experience a genuine broken heart.
We never get that full repentance.
But let me tell you…
When I’m really repentant, I have serious energy about putting sin behind me
What was so attractive, is now repulsive.
I’m indignant about it.
And I am absolutely determined to do something about it.
And the one thing we will do is…
Reconcile – make it right.
Once we get our relationship with God right, we will want to make sure our relationships with people get right.
There will be an urgent desire to get to the people you have wounded.
You will want to fix the fall out.
This was true of Zacchaeus
(quick review of story…)
And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold."
Many people want to be right with God, but they draw the line on being right with others.
Not right!
This is a long term issue at Randall.
“I don’t respect them.”
Our responsibility is to do everything we can to make the relationships right, even if we don’t agree.
Our responsibility is to do everything we can to make unity happen.
This way, we can…
Move forward in His grace.
When repentance is genuine, the human heart experiences the cleansing it needs
When we confess, forgiveness comes, and repentance becomes a way of life.
There is no room to look back.
Instead we get locked into the things ahead, and passion for the things of God is revived.
Folks, each one of us needs that.
Folks, Randall needs that.
Perhaps you need that right now.
And here is the thing, God’s grace is so great.
It is greater than all our sin.
For Further Study: Psalm 34.18; Isaiah 1.18, 55.6-7, 66.2; Hosea 6.1-3; Matthew 3.2, 8; Mark 6.12; Luke 15.7, 11-32, 19.8; Acts 3.19, 26.20; I Corinthians 11.24; II Corinthians 7.9-11; II Timothy 2.25; Revelation 2.5, 3.19
BENEDICTION:
“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral
Bazen, Tony From Brokenness unto Blessing
Edwards, Gene The Pathway to Brokenness, Part 1
Fleury, Gerald Broken Hearts
Fogerson, Mike Repentance: Breaking Free from Past Failures
Maugher, Melvin, Jr. Broken
Sullivan, Bill Broken
Other
Buchanan, Duncan. The Counselling of Jesus. The Jesus Library, ed. Michael Green. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985.
MacDonald, James. Downpour: He Will Come to Us Like Rain. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006.
