Blessed & Broken
June 2015
Have you heard the 4 Great Religious Truths
Muslims don't recognize Judaism as a religion.
2. Jews don't recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
3. Protestants don't recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian faith.
4. Baptists don't recognize each other at Hooters.
(A Baptist pastor told me that… and I was raised in a Baptist church, so I don’t mind poking fun at them)
Some of you have been coming here for a long while,
and you know how we usually do things,
and so you're concerned right now,
because it’s the first Sunday of the month,
and we haven't done something we usually do…
What is it?
We haven't taken Communion together.
And the reason for that is
I'm going to be teaching about that this morning,
so we're going to share communion
at the end of the service today.
Turn in your bibles to Luke 24:13.
We're gonna read a story
that takes place at a time when
Jesus has risen from the dead,
but most of the disciples don’t know it yet.
They've heard rumors that
the body is missing from the tomb,
but they haven't seen Jesus yet.
Luke 24:13-35
That same day two of Jesus' followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened.
What had happened?
Jesus had been crucified,
he'd died and been laid in a tomb,
it looked like darkness had won the day,
it looked like Jesus turned out to be
just another Messiah wannabe,
and now he's dead,
so he clearly can’t be the son of God,
as he had claimed.
So they're talking about that…
Verse 15
As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them.
Notice, these disciples were going away from Jerusalem,
they were leaving the place
where all the disciples were waiting together
for Jesus to reappear.
And while they're going away from the place
where God told them to stay,
Jesus shows up and heads them off at the pass.
This just goes to show that
God can appear to you
even if you're headed in the wrong direction in your life.
That is good news to somebody here this morning,
because you're going the wrong direction,
but God can show up
even when you're headed the wrong way.
I thank God for all the times he cut me off
when I was headed the wrong direction,
but he had a better plan for me.
So Jesus shows up to these 2 guys,
but then it says something really interesting
in verse 16…
But God kept them from recognizing him.
I have to stop and wonder,
how many times has Jesus appeared
in your situation, or my situation,
but we didn’t know it was him,
we didn’t recognize him.
Verse 17
He asked them, "What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?"
By the way,
Anytime Jesus asks a question,
its not because he needs information.
He knew not only what the were saying,
but what they were thinking.
So the reason he asked,
is because he knew
they're going the wrong direction,
and he wants to lead them to the truth.
So
He asked them, "What are you discussing…
They stopped short, sadness written across their faces.
They were sad,
they were disappointed at the way
things had turned out,
they were discouraged and depressed.
Did you know that Jesus can appear to you,
even when you're disappointed?
Some of you this morning are sad,
you're disappointed about some things in your life.
Did you know that its often those times
when you're sad and disappointed,
and it seems like life is coming hard against you,
its often those times
when Jesus appears most powerfully in your life?
18 Then one of them, Cleopas,
Now we know why he was sad,
because his mom named him Cleopas.
Cleopas replied, "You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days."
This is actually a hilarious story when you think about it.
They're telling the only guy who really knows what's going on,
Don’t you know what's going on?
You been living in a cave or something?
You must be the only one in the whole city who hasn’t heard…
But Jesus kind of plays along,
and he plays dumb…
19 "What things?" Jesus asked.
And then they start trying to teach Jesus… about Jesus.
This is so funny.
He asks, what things?...
"The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth," they said. "He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. 20 But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. 21 We had hoped ………
We had hoped…
And right now everyone in this room
could insert something that you've hoped for,
something you wanted so badly,
but it hasn’t happened the way you hoped it would.
We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel.
Now, you notice that
what these guys hoped for,
had already happened.
Jesus was the redeemer, he was the Messiah,
He had come to rescue Israel, and the whole world,
what they'd hoped for was all taking place,
they just didn’t see it,
they didn’t recognize it.
I wonder how many of you have things
that you're hoping for,
and you don’t see it,
you don’t recognize it,
but God is working behind the scenes,
he's bringing about what you hoped for,
in fact its already a done deal,
you just don’t see it yet.
they go on…
This all happened three days ago.
22 "Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. 23 They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! 24 Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the women had said."
25 Then Jesus said to them, "You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. 26 Wasn't it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?" 27 Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Wouldn’t you love to hear his explanation of that?
I would so love to hear Jesus himself explaining,
starting with Moses and all the Prophets,
all the scriptures that talk about himself.
I'd love to hear the one
who was called the word of God,
explaining the word of God about himself.
That must have been awesome.
28 By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, 29 but they begged him, "Stay the night with us, since it is getting late." So he went home with them.
30 As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them.
They'd walked 7 miles, they were hungry,
so they sat down to eat,
Nothing strange about that,
He does 4 simple things,
he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them.
But then it suddenly does get strange.
Because up to this point,
they hadn't recognized Jesus.
For that whole 7 mile walk,
through all their discussion
about current events in Jerusalem, and about the bible,
where he's explaining everything about himself,
they don’t recognize him,
but its when they sit down at the table,
and do something so simple and common,
something you do every day,
then…
31 Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!
32 They said to each other, "Didn't our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?" 33 And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem.
Back to the place they should've been all along,
because now Jesus had appeared to them,
and they wanted to let everyone know about it.
I'm believing that’s going to happen
to someone here this morning.
You’ve been going the wrong direction,
but Jesus is going to appear to you,
and you're gonna get back to where you belong,
the place God has called you to.
Verse 33
There they found the eleven disciples and the others who had gathered with them, 34 who said, "The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter."
35 Then the two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road, and how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread.
They recognized Jesus, as he was breaking the bread.
As you study this, you realize…
There must be something deeper happening here
then just sitting down to lunch.
Something happened to make them know Jesus,
as he broke the bread.
Maybe, in the way Jesus broke the bread,
the disciples had an insight
about the way that God has always worked,
and does always work in our lives.
What did he do with the bread?
he took it, and blessed it, and broke it and gave it.
If you go back to Luke 22,
when Jesus ate the passover meal with his disciples,
it was the very first time that they ever took
what we would call communion,
And it says the same thing…
It says Jesus took the bread, blessed it (or gave thanks), broke it, and gave it to them.
If you go back even further, to Luke 9,
it talks about how there was a crowd of 5000,
listening to Jesus teach,
and they became hungry,
and the disciples didn’t know
where they were going to get food to feed them all,
so Jesus took what little they had,
and do you know what it says he did?
He took the bread, he blessed it, he broke it, and he gave it to them.
1 Corinthians 11
where Paul gives instructions about communion,
He tells how at the Last Supper
Christ took the bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them.
Its always the same order,
it always includes the same four things,
he took, he blessed, he broke, he gave.
I wonder if there's not some deeper meaning
that God intends for us to find
in this sequence or pattern.
I wonder if this is not just the pattern
of how God handles bread,
but the way he handles every life
that he ever uses.
Don’t we see this same pattern in the life of Abraham?
If you're not a bible scholar let me catch you up.
God took Abraham from his hometown,
Ur of the Chaldees,
and he blessed him with riches and wealth,
but then he broke him,
by not allowing him to have what he wanted most,
a child.
He and Sarah were both getting old,
and it looked like he wasn’t going to have an heir
to carry on his legacy
and fulfill Gods promise,
but then God gave him a son named Isaac,
Then we see this process again…
God took Isaac from the barren womb of Sarah,
and he blessed him to be the heir of the promise,
but then he broke him
when his father Abraham
had to take him up on Mt Moriah
and almost offered him as a sacrifice,
but then God gave him back
to be an heir of the promise.
Later on God did this with Moses,
he took Moses from the weeds along the river,
where he'd been placed as a baby in a basket,
because the Egyptians were murdering
all of the children of Israel,
yet God took Moses, and blessed him
to become raised up in the house of the Pharoah,
but then he broke Moses
through 40 long years tending sheep in the wilderness,
but then he gave him to be not only the leader of a nation,
but to be one of the greatest and most godly leaders
that ever lived.
Isn't this what God did with Joseph,
when he took him out of the pit
where his brothers had betrayed him
and were planning to kill him,
but then God blessed him in the house of Potiphar,
so that he became trusted
and put in charge of the whole household
of this rich and powerful man,
but then he broke him in the prison where he left him for years,
but then he gave him to be the prince of Egypt,
and he was able to say in Genesis 50:20
what you meant for evil, God meant for good,
…to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Isn't this the way God always works?
Isn't this the way God gave us Jesus?
He took him from the womb of the virgin Mary,
and blessed him with miracles and signs and wonders
as he walked this earth,
and then he broke him, on a mountain called calvary,
and he gave him to be the savior of the world.
In your life, and in my life,
this is the way God works.
And when we take communion,
we're remembering first and foremost,
the sacrifice of Jesus,
who was taken from his throne in heaven,
willingly came down,
and was blessed and affirmed by his heavenly father,
but broken because of our sin,
and now has been given to us,
so that we can receive the full measure of his life,
and know him through the breaking of the bread,
But also as you take communion,
I want you to think about
what God is doing in your own life.
Because the fact is,
when God decides to use your life,
this pattern that was established
in Luke 24, Luke 22, Luke 9, 1 Cor 11,
this pattern that Jesus himself established,
is the pattern God uses,
and the pattern of how God works in the life,
of every man and woman that he's ever used.
Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it.
In your life today,
you're in one of the stages that I just described.
You're either in the taking stage,
the blessing stage,
the breaking stage,
or the giving stage.
When you're in the taking stage,
it can be uncomfortable.
I remember when this church was still new,
and God took me from a comfortable corporate job,
and called me to be pastor.
Kathy and I had 3 little kids, 5, 7, and 9 years old,
Kathy hadn't worked outside the home in 9 years,
because she'd been raising our kids.
All the sudden I was on unemployment,
Because the church was too small to pay me at first,
and we had to figure out
how we're going to get health insurance for our kids,
and Kathy had to go find a job,
after not working all those years,
and it was uncomfortable.
We felt like God was leading us,
and had given us a promise,
but it still felt like a lot of risk,
and we didn’t know how it was going to work out.
The thing about this taking stage, is that,
when God is taking you,
you usually don’t know where he's taking you.
It would be so much easier
if you knew God was taking you somewhere,
and you also knew exactly where it was
that you were going.
But the thing about God taking you, is,
when he's taking you,
all you know is that you're not where you were before.
And when God is taking you,
sometimes he's taking you out of familiar situations
and out of comfort zones,
and sometimes he's taking you out of relationships,
And when God is taking you,
if anybody here is in the taking stage right now,
it can be a disorienting experience.
I think the disciples were in a taking stage at this point,
where they didn’t know what was next.
Maybe God is taking you somewhere right now
but you're not sure where its going,
Maybe you just lost a job,
and if you just knew when the next one would come along
and when it would start,
that would be fine,
but you don’t know that,
all you know is God, you're taking me.
The people of Israel knew about this.
They didn’t like the experience
of being taken out of Egypt,
even though they were now free,
it was different, disorienting,
it felt risky,
In fact they got to the point where
all they wanted was to go back
to the place that they were familiar with
even though they hated it while they were there.
You see if God is taking you,
then even if you hate where you came from,
at least you knew where you were.
But when God is taking you
there can be a lot of uncertainty.
I wonder if anyone here is in the taking stage?
Maybe somebody just broke up with you,
or walked away from you
or rejected you.
God where are you taking me?
And the answer to that isn't clear.
All you know is that he is taking you.
The good news is that God does not take you,
in order to deprive you.
He takes you, so he can bless you.
That’s the second stage God brings us through.
To be honest, I feel like I have received way more
of the blessing of God
than I've ever deserved in my life.
Is there anybody here like me who would say,
God has blessed me so much.
I have seen the blessing of God,
not always like I wanted to,
but I've seen the blessing of God.
When God is blessing you
it makes all the taking worthwhile.
Garth Brooks wrote a song about,
how he ran into an old high school girlfriend,
and in high school he was convinced she was the one,
and he prayed that God would make her marry him,
God I'll never ask for anything else,
if you just give me this girl.
But then she dumped him.
And now he runs into her years later,
and looks at her with different eyes,
and he compares her with his wife who he loves,
and then he says,
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.
He's saying,
God I'm so glad you took me out of that,
so I could get into this.
I didn’t realize it at the time…
but I needed to be taken, so I could be blessed.
There are times in your life when you realize,
how much God has really blessed you.
And you didn’t always realize it
when you were in the taking stage,
but when you're in the blessing stage,
there is nothing like it.
I know you've had at least a season of your life
where God was blessing you,
and showing up for you,
and working through you
and providing for you.
It’s a wonderful place to be.
Don’t ever feel ashamed
when you're in the blessing stage,
because you went through the taking stage
so you could get to the blessing stage,
so you may as well enjoy it and thank God for it.
But don’t get too cocky though,
because after the blessing stage,
just about the time you want to look around
with just a little pride,
and look at all the people you left behind,
and say would you look at me now,
after the blessing stage,
comes the breaking stage.
And nobody gets excited about the breaking stage,
but scripture says
it was in the breaking of the bread,
that they recognized Jesus for who he really was.
Some of you could say, along with me,
I've know God through his blessings in my life,
but none of the knowledge I received of him
in the blessing stage,
can compare to what I've learned about him
in the breaking stage.
it was in the breaking of the bread,
that they recognized Jesus and knew who he was,
and its when we're broken,
that we see Jesus and know him
in a way we never have before.
You see, the thing is,
God cannot give to the world,
bread, that hasn’t been broken.
I wonder if any of you are in the breaking stage of life.
That’s not something that happens one time
and only one time in life.
These 4 stages could happen several different times
in a person's lifetime.
But this is the way God works, its his pattern.
And the most important thing to know about the breaking stage
is that, when God breaks you,
he has a purpose for you.
He breaks bread, so that he can give it.
I was trying to clean my basement last week,
and I came across a box of about 25 old power cords and converters for electronic gadgets,
They went to things like portable dvd players, video game consoles, atari, playstation, boomboxes, you name it.
Of course all those gadgets have long been
broken and discarded.
And the reason they're broken
is something called, kids.
I have 3 of my own kids,
and we had about a dozen foster kids over the years,
and that adds up to an amazing amount of broken stuff.
Because kids tend to be careless with things,
they are experts at breaking.
That’s not the way God breaks a life,
its not because he's careless,
but because he so carefully made a plan for your life,
that he knows
the only way he can truly bless you,
is to break you.
In fact, you could even say that the breaking stage,
is also a blessing stage,
even though it doesn’t feel like it.
Because its when your pride is broken,
and your will is broken,
and sometimes your hopes are broken,
and sometimes your dreams are broken,
as a result you learn that its not really about you,
and that there's are power greater than you
working in you,
but you'd never know that
if he never broke you.
AW Tozer has a quote, he says,
It is doubtful whether God can use a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.
I wonder if any of you are in a breaking stage in your life right now?
Maybe God is breaking some parts of you that are stubborn,
maybe God has allowed your heart to be broken
by something that you can’t control.
Maybe you have a weakness in your life
that God is using to break you of self-reliance.
You know it'd be really easy, in the breaking stage,
to want to go back to the blessing stage.
But God does not give away bread
that he hasn’t first broken.
So you have to decide.
If you want God to use you,
then he's gonna have to take you,
out of situations and circumstances
that may even be good,
but aren't his best for your life.
Let him take you.
And he's gonna bless you far beyond what you can imagine,
I'm a living walking testimony of the blessing of God.
But when the bread is blessed,
it needs to be broken.
I've been broken a few times in my life,
and specifically two times that were huge
and caused me enormous pain…
I might not have been broken the same way you've been,
but if you live long enough
you're going to be broken,
you're going to be taken,
you're going to be blessed,
and you're going to be broken,
but let me tell you the part of this passage
that isn't explicitly mentioned
but its implied.
Jesus took the bread,
and he blessed the bread,
and he broke the bread,
but one thing that never changed about the bread
is that the whole time,
whether he was taking it or blessing it or breaking it,
the bread never left his hands.
Whatever stage you're in today,
you're still in his hands.
You may be in a time of blessing,
and you're in his hands,
You might be broken, but you're still in his hands.
You might be uncomfortable, but you're still in his hands.
I believe somebody here needs that encouragement today,
that whatever the season of your life,
when you're taken,
when you're blessed,
when you're broken,
you're in his hands,
and he has a purpose through it all…
its so that he can give you to the world.
You see, God is a giver.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only son,
but he couldn't give him until he broke him.
Every great leader that God used, he first had to break.
In a moment we're going to enter into a time of worship,
a time of taking communion together,
I'm going to pray that
no matter what you're going through,
you'll stay in his hands.
Even when you're full of doubt,
you're in his hands.
Even when you're frustrated
because you keep screwing up again and again,
you're in his hands.
Even when you're embarrassed
because you're not as far along as you want to be,
you're in his hands.
Even when you feel like a failure
as a parent or husband or wife,
you're in his hands.
Even when you're lonely,
you're in his hands.
You might feel forsaken,
but you're not forsaken,
you're in his hands.
Your life is in his hands,
Your future is in his hands,
Your hopes are in his hands,
Your dreams are in his hands,
Your purpose is in his hands,
God knows exactly what he's doing with your life,
and if you'll just stay in his hands
he'll use you more than you ever thought he could.
Lets stand for prayer,
and I'd like the worship band to come up.
I'd also like those who are holding communion to come up.
As we bow together,
some of you here, I believe God is speaking to you today,
And you'd say, Yeah, I am in a breaking stage of life right now, but I do believe that I'm in God's hands,
So Lord, I pray for all the people today who are in a stage of breaking in their life. Would you fill their hearts with the certainty that, despite the pain you have a purpose, and would you help them to see your purpose. God we thank you that the purpose of your breaking, is deeper blessing and greater purpose. And we thank you right now that your glory and your provision are going to be poured out through the lives of everyone who will stay in your hands. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
There is real power in this thing we call communion.
It is not just a symbol,
its an act of worship
that God commanded
and that God honors.
But God does tell us very clearly
that communion is only for believers,
for members of God's family.
So if you're not sure if you're a member of God's family,
we can clear that up right now.
Everybody just repeat after me…
whether you're already a Christian,
or if you have some doubts,
or if you want to start following right now.
just repeat this out loud with me…
God, I thank you for the gift of salvation,
that you've given to me
through the life, death, and resurrection
of your son Jesus Christ.
I receive your forgiveness for my sins.
I commit to follow you as best I know how
from this day forward.
I thank you for the new life you give.
Now you have my life.
If you said that and meant it,
then you're welcome to join us in communion this morning.
The way we do it is we'll have a
line at each aisle,
come forward and dip the bread into the juice and eat it.
As we take communion today
lets not only focus on the work that Christ has done for us,
but lets also focus on the work that Christ is doing in us,
as he is taking, blessing, breaking and giving us.
