Many times we talk about being hurt and talk about being broken, we believe the saying that time heals all wounds, we believe that a few comforting words, a little sympathy will make everything alright, and we don’t seem to understand when people don’t seem to bounce back from something the way we think they should or as soon as we think they should. We believe that time should have healed their hurt by now, but what we fail to understand is that there is a difference between being hurt and being broken. And since we don’t understand that, we cast judgment on them and say things like they just need to get saved or let it go, because we never really understand the difference between being hurt and being broken. Children are growing up in a society that has pushed them aside, cast them off, and rejected them as being normal, acceptable, and viable members of the social order, they have even classified them as being called “Generation X”; with X being the unknown, so in essence they are the Unknown Generation. They are becoming what we have too much of today, adults who have no direction in their lives, wandering aimlessly, bound, confused, and perplexed. Some have been mentally, physically, and sexually abused. Feeling rejected, dejected, and alone, they are hopelessly waiting to die, imagining that everything will be over if what they have experienced to be life would just cease from being. Many people in society are being incarcerated mentally, physically, and spiritually. Although free from the human judicial system, they are regretfully imprisoned in a far crueler and ultimately eternal prison. They are sentenced with a life sentence of emotional emasculation, depression, and anxiety, low or no self esteem, and phobias. Some are on the habitual death row of deadly narcotics, alcohol, and careless, unsafe and uninhibited sexual activity. Others have been placed in a solitary confinement of physical pain, discomfort, and disease. They are being held captive behind these seemingly impenetrable bars and inescapable walls, being made to believe that this is all there is to life. So mentally messed up, emotionally emasculated, and spiritually lost, they are aimlessly wandering through life busted, disgusted, and broken. Their lives are shattered, their dreams are non-existent, their hope is gone, they are being battered by the angry sea of sin, tossed to and fro, bouncing from relationship to relationship, being drug down through the gutters of degradation. Their self respect has been broken, their esteem has been broken, their reputation has been broken, and their innocence has been broken. They are disappointedly unable to see that God has a far more excellent and abundant life. They are struggling trying to break free unable to come into the freedom that is promised to them. They are unable to understand that the price of their freedom has already been paid, they don’t have to remain in a broken condition, their shattered lives can be put back together, they can have life and have it more abundantly all they have to do is COME; COME and let Jesus put the broken pieces of their lives back together again. And this is not just our youth but grown folk as well.
So the question becomes today, has anybody ever been broken? According to the dictionary hurt is to affect adversely, to injure, and to feel pain, to become damaged or harmed. But broken comes from a Hebrew word called “SHABAR” and it means to crush into pieces, shattered, bruised, violated, not functioning properly, disconnected, overwhelmed with sorrow, raped, plundered, maltreated, and desecrated. So I ask the question again, has anybody ever been broken?
See when you’ve been broken spiritually, your body can’t take it if your mind is confused. If your mind is confused your body will break down because your emotions are not in check. Hair falling out, high blood pressure, diabetes, substance abuse, physical and emotional abuse. That’s why we look older than what we are. 30 looking 50, 40 looking 65 when we should be 30 looking 20 when we’re walking with God. You see a broken spirit happens when spirit attacks spirit; it’s what we call spiritual warfare and when our spirit is under attack we have to rely on a higher power, we have to let go and give it to God and have God to fight this battle. When we try to fight a spiritual war on our own, we’ve already lost and our physical bodies suffer. We cannot fight what we cannot see and even those things that we can see, we should turn them over to God. We wrestle not against flesh but against principalities. We are attacked on all fronts on a daily basis, the devil is busy; we are attacked on the front, the right side, the left side and the back, even those who “go” to church will attack you. Amen somebody. They aren’t washed in the Blood, because they come to shed blood. Everywhere that they go trouble and hell follow them. Abuse is physical and emotional and if you miss the Word of God it becomes spiritual. But I come to tell you today that God never sent anyone to abuse you. But what happens? What do we do? We ignore abuse and deal with it emotionally and it tears us down physically all because someone says that they love us. That, my brothers and sisters is not love because the Bible never mentions God’s children being abused. Love does not hurt others, or abuse them, mistreat them or use them in any kind of way. 1 Corinthians tells us that love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. So love will not abuse you or break your spirit but when our spirit is broken we become crippled, when we are broken we become crushed, when we are broken we become maimed, and when we are broken we become shattered. A broken spirit will wear you out. But tell your spirit enemy that you refuse to lose because the God you serve has already given you the victory. Somebody shout out I WILL NOT LOSE! I know all of you have heard the scripture “what shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Amen somebody! I come to tell you that if you heard that, you heard wrong. Romans 8:35 says, “WHO shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.” I need 2 or 3 people to shout out, “NO ONE!” But watch this, Romans 8:37-39 tells us, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Turn to your neighbor and say, “NO ONE.” The beautiful thing here is that verse 37 says that we are MORE than conquerors which says that you are not just a conqueror but you are more than a conqueror and your victory will be bigger, your deliverance will be bigger, your healing will be bigger, your anointing will be bigger, your praise and worship will be bigger because YOU ARE MORE THAN A CONQUEROR through Him who loved us. We can do ALL things through Him that strengthens us because greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. Amen!
Now a hurt, a hurt is heartbreak, such as you and so-n-so have been dating for a while and for some reason you break up it’s a heartbreak, it hurt you, it will make you cry, loose a night or two of sleep. Hurt may cause you to miss a meal or two, when you are hurt you can still come to church, smile enough that psyches everyone out, you can still testify, sing, and say Praise the Lord and pretend that everything is alright. You can fake it until you make it; you understand that in time the hurt will heal, the pain will go away, after some comforting words and shows of compassion you’ll be alright. When you are hurt you can say the scripture that says, “Weeping May endureth for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” But broken is more than a heartbreak, although it is a broken heart, you see a heartbreak will cause you to cry, but a broken heart can cause you to die. When you are broken you begin to develop illnesses that you never had before, you begin to worry and have anxiety, fretfulness develops, bad tempers are ever present, hatred and malice start to rule you, you begin to feel hopeless and helpless, you begin to think that you are no more any good. Why? Because you have been broken. You have been raped by the devil, I’m not talking about raped like you may be thinking about, I’m talking about raped, beaten, abused, used, mistreated, desecrated, plundered, R.A.P.E.D. repeatedly abused, plundered, emasculated, and desecrated by the devil way down deep in your spirit, in your bowels of compassion, not just your feelings have been hurt but you have been broken, you are not functioning properly, sorrow has set in deep, you’ve been crushed. When you’ve been broken the scripture that you find yourself so often saying is not “Weeping May endureth …”, but “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me” I’ve been broken, a little time or shows of compassion will not fix it. I am no longer the same, I have gone through some mess, I’ve been repeatedly abused, emotionally, spiritually, and physically, I’ve been plundered, everything good in my life has been taken by force, I’ve been emasculated, I’ve been desecrated, I am no good for Holy use. Anybody know what I’m talking about? There is not anyone here I believe that has at some point in their life dropped a cup or a vase and a piece of it chips off, you get out the super glue and glue the piece back in and after a little time you can’t hardly even tell that the cup or vase was even damaged, you can continue to use it for whatever reason you used it for in the first place, it will hold water, coffee or whatever you put into it, it was damaged, hurt, but it’s o.k. now. But if you broke it, you shattered it into a lot of little pieces, there is no way that you can put it back together again, because some of the pieces you are unable to find, and even if you try to put it back the pieces don’t fit together properly, they may look like they belong together, but once you put it back together you find out that it’s not in the proper place. I don’t care how much super glue and duct tape you use you can tell that it has been broken, time doesn’t make it as strong as it once was, it can’t hold water or anything in it anymore, you put water in it and the water begins to come out from all of the little places that you were not able to fix, if you try to fill it with dirt like a flower pot it can’t handle the pressure so it just shatters again because it can’t hold up under the strain. Why, because it has been broken, not just hurt or damaged, but it’s been shattered right down to the very essence of what it once was. I’m not talking to the ones that have experienced a little hurt in their life, but I’m talking to the ones that have been broken, that have been shattered, that have been repeatedly abused, plundered, emasculated, and desecrated by the devil, every fiber of what you once were has been stepped on and abused by the devil and the sin that you have done in your life.
When you have been broken your self esteem is non-existent, your will and desire, if you have any at all, begin to diminish, you don’t like the song says feel like going on, you want to give up, you have been broken, you’re weary, struggling to hold what little dignity you have left together, you feel like you are about to lose your mind. You begin to feel lonely and become all alone not of your own free will but like the Bible says in Psalms 69:20 “Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.” You Are All ALONE! The reason why you can’t find them is when your spirit has been broken you don’t have joy, when your spirit has been broken you don’t have peace, when your spirit has been broken you are not happy and the people you are used to being around begin to say “I can’t stand to be around you anymore because you’re always bringing me down”. Now on top of being hurt you begin to feel unloved, like a cast-a-way, that you no longer fit in with the click, and yes we do have clicks in the church, so you begin to separate yourself which is extremely dangerous, because you are now where the devil wants you to be. He understands that where there is unity there is strength, when we are together I have your back and you have mine the devil can’t come in and just run over us, because we are united, but if he separates you and gets you alone he can devour you. When you separate yourself you leave yourself open to whatever the devil wants to do. When you separate yourself you begin to listen to the voice inside. To those that have ever been broken you know the voice that I’m talking about, it says you see that no one cares, you are all alone, no one even notices the pain that you are feeling, they will not even notice you if you’re gone so go ahead and end it all right now, you have been broken and are no more any good. These are the tricks that the devil will play on us. This is the reason that our suicide rate among our young people is so high because the devil causes them to separate themselves from the strength of unity and he devours them.
The Bible says in Proverbs 17:22 “…a broken spirit drieth the bones”. Why?, because when you have been broken, devastated, repeatedly abused, plundered, emasculated, and desecrated down in your soul, in your spirit you begin to feel what’s the use, I’m no more any good, I don’t feel like going on, I’m good for nothing now because I have been broken but I find in the Bible, Psalms 51:17 to be exact it says “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Your spirit is heavy, but I read in the Bible and it says that God will give you a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness all you have to do is give it to the Lord, it’s too big for you to handle yourself, it’s too heavy for you, but if you give it to the Lord, He will give you praise and a broken heart and a contrite spirit He will not despise. You have to become a sacrifice unto the Lord. The word sacrifice comes from a Hebrew word called “QORBAN” it means to present. A sacrifice was a total commitment; every part of the animal was given in a sacrifice. A sacrifice is the surrender or destruction of something valued for the sake of something else (repeat). The word contrite comes from a Hebrew word called “DAKA” it means maimed, dejected, humbled, and broken down.
You may be sitting there thinking that’s me, I have a broken spirit and a broken heart. You may even get more discouraged because you haven’t fully understood what God is saying, but I find in Psalms 34:18 “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth them such as be of a contrite spirit.” Understanding this, understanding that a contrite spirit means to be broken and dejected but sacrifice means to present a total commitment. A surrender or destruction of something valued for the sake of something else and He said He will not despise which means He will not cast you out; He will not leave you alone. I’m standing here broken down, shattered into many pieces, I feel as if I am of no more earthly good, so Lord I am presenting myself to You that You may be able to use me, I don’t know what You can do with me because I’m broken, I’m a shattered mess, pieces are missing, but like Isaiah tells us, here I am Lord, send me. The songwriter said, Lord make me over. When you present yourself to Him as a broken vessel, what He does is He takes the pieces and begins to put the pieces back together in the proper places and fills the cracks not with super glue, but with His agape love. Agape is God’s love for man. Agape is not predicated on our goodness, but is solely based on the strength of God. God says I love you even though you are incapable of loving me back; I love you just because you are there. Our love, this carnal love, this Eros love is predicated on what we can get. God fills the cracks and begins to put the pieces back together and unlike super glue that may or may not hold, God fills you and gives you a new clean heart and restores unto you the joy that you once had then He begins the restoration process. I want you to know today The Potter wants to put you back together again. With the hyssop of His blood He begins to rub out all the rough edges, He buffs you up and polishes you up, He proves you worthy and fills you with His precious Holy Ghost, and this is called the refining process. To refine silver or gold is to hold it over the fire and let it heat up. In refining silver or gold, you need to hold the silver or gold in the middle of the fire where the flames are hottest to burn away all the impurities. God is holding us in the middle of the hot spots in life to season us. The whole time the silver or gold is in the fire the refiner has to sit in front of the fire the whole time it is being refined. The refiner not only has to sit there holding it, but he has to keep his eyes on it the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver or gold were left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. No matter how long it seems you have been in the fire, God knows and will not leave you in there too long. He is refining you and seasoning you. The question is, "How do you know when the silver or gold is fully refined?" The answer is when I see my image in it. God will send us through the refining fires until He is able to see His image in us. Once you have been refined, after He has rubbed all the rough spots off of you, after you have gone through the fire, after the shattered pieces of your once broken life have been put back together, after you have had an internal transformation, after He has grinded away at all the negative in your life, He presents you and you come forth as pure gold. You can’t even tell that you had been broken before, you’re not even the same vessel anymore, because He said in His word if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away and behold all things become new. You have been transformed.
The Potter wants to put you back together again. You were once a shattered mess, broken in many pieces, not good for anything, but now you have been fixed, you’re a new creature, you realize that after all you’ve been through you’re still alive. You have undergone a great transformation. The word transformation is the operation of changing one configuration or expression into another, a change of variables or coordinates in which a function of new variables or coordinates is substituted for each original variable or coordinate. Let me do it this way, I was on my way to hell, but I had a transformation and I am on my way to HEAVEN. Because of His nail scared hands and His nail scared feet, because of the crown of thorns on His head, because of the wound in His side He became ruptured and my soul has incorporated His DNA and I have undergone a genetic modification. In other words old things, I say old things, old things are passed away and behold all things have become new. The Bible says in Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed (undergo a spiritually chemical transformation) by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” After you have gone through His restoration process and you realize that after being broken, after being shattered, after being raped, and after being abused that you are still alive then you can say like the song writer “After all I’ve been through I still have Joy(x3).” I was broken, I’ve been through the storm, my friends forsook me, the devil tried to destroy me, but after all of this God put the pieces back together and I still have joy. I’m like Patty Labelle I have a new walk, a new talk, a new point of view; I have a new attitude. WHY? Because Jesus, because Jesus, because Jesus put the broken pieces of my life back together again. Now I can look back at the devil and say I once was broken but now the Potter has put me back together again. God has put the pieces back together so devil “HOW YA LIKE ME NOW”? Old things are passed away and behold all things have become new. I am still alive and I still have joy. You are still alive and still have joy because the Potter put you back together again. You see when God put me back together He brought me out. It may not have been how I wanted but He brought me out. It may not have pleased me but He brought me out. He didn’t keep me where YOU wanted me to be but He brought me out. I was tied to sin, sinking in unrighteousness but He brought me out. I was blinded by the devil, walking in darkness, talking in darkness, living and sinning in darkness but the light of Christ brought me out. How many of you did God bring out today? Did He put you back together again? Did He rise you above your enemies? You were hurt, you were forsook, you were raped, plundered, mistreated, maltreated, desecrated, shattered, bruised, violated, disconnected, you were broken BUT He fixed you, He put you back together again, He brought you out. To someone else today may be just another Sunday but to you today is a miracle. Stand up and thank God for putting you back together again. He used His provision for your purpose and gave you favor for His praise. Tell someone God gave me favor for His purpose and I will give Him my praise. You all remember the childhood tale of Humpty Dumpty? Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty back together again. The good news today is that when you’ve been broken momma and daddy can’t put you back together again. Big Momma can’t put you back together again. They can pray for you but when you’ve been broken, there is no earthly thing that man can do. You have to fervently seek the face of the Potter to put you back together again. He can do it, yes He can. He will do it, yes He will. He’s able, oh yes He is.
And when you know that The Potter has put you back together again you live the 23rd Psalm where it says, ‘surely Grace and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” On Monday grace and mercy follows me. On Tuesday grace and mercy follows me. On Wednesday and Thursday grace and mercy follows me. On Friday and Saturday grace and mercy follows me. But early, early, early Sunday morning surely grace and mercy shall follow me. Grace and Mercy will hold you in the midnight hour. Grace and Mercy will walk with you and talk with you. Grace and Mercy will pick you and turn you around and place your feet on solid ground. Grace and Mercy hung on Calvary’s old rugged cross. Grace and Mercy hung His head and died. Grace and Mercy lay in a borrowed grave. Grace and Mercy preached to the heavens above and the hells below. Grace and Mercy rose early on Sunday morning with all power in His hands. Grace and Mercy rose to put us back together again. No longer do you have to be broken. We don’t have to remain in a broken condition. When the devil attacks, when family and friends forsake, when the weight of the world is on our shoulders, we don’t have to wonder who, what, where, when, why and how. We can give it all to God and ask Him to put us back together again. Romans 12:2; “and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” The Potter wants to put you back together again.
