Broken Things
Matt 5:14-16
Intro: We’ve all heard: Let your light shine, you are the light of the world, this little light of mine etc…
ME: I’ve always had this feeling deep down that people won’t like what they see if they see me in the light
1: I’ve been trained
I have a lot of practice at hiding and putting stuff away, stuffing down way underneath what you see on the surface
I’ve wrestled with the assumption that what I have isn’t good enough, or adequate enough, OR Christian enough, saved enough
People really don’t want to see my mess, my brokenness, my issues, and my baggage
Application: It creates an avenue for Satan to accuse and manipulate me into thinking I’m too broken to shine, I’ve got too much dirt, I’m too different, I don’t fit, I was told I couldn’t, I was told HE wouldn’t.
I don’t want a light on my life because it’ll expose the truth, I’m not good enough, and I’ll never be enough!!! I’ll never be what they want or what they expect,
Every time I start to come out of that satan has something say, an accusation, a half-truth, a moment or a memory from the past...
WE: We’ve been conditioned to run from things
2: Christianity today says, easy, happy, fulfilling
So when hard things happen we run from them
When uncomfortable walks through the door we got a look on our face like (What are you doing here???)
When we don’t get our way, or it doesn’t happen or go the way we think it should we go somewhere else (God’s calling me to this)
Application: We’re so careful to cover up the broken parts of our lives, we’ve even grown accustomed to running when they start to surface.
It’s easier to run from it than it is to face it, if we run from it, we don’t have to deal with it; we literally let our fear set the boundary lines of our freedom…
The place we stopped at, the place that’s too painful or too frightening for us to walk in is the place where satan begins to separate us from love and acceptance of Christ.
GOD: Jesus says, You are the light of the world
3: Not your world, the world
Jesus using the illustration of light to describe HIS church
This is a description of you and me, You Are (not you can be, not you might be) YOU ARE the light of the world
You know why it’s hard for us WE like darkness) Light reveals things
Light illuminates and makes things visible
[Eph 5:8, 11, 13-14 KJV] 8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now [are ye] light in the Lord: walk as children of light: ... 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove [them]. ... 13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. 14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
Application: We see what’s in the light, BUT you see what I want too you see, I see what you want me to see. Because we pick and choose what makes it to the light and what stays in the darkness…
Jesus never intended for us to fake it or be hypocritical, HE said let your light shine that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.
Good works are born in bad places, the good works that God has performed in you and I started in the darkest, loneliest, most painful places we’ve ever been in our lives...
WE PLAY THE COMPARISON GAME
Pastor Jeff, beautiful wife 20 yrs of marriage, awesome, handsome, kind, hardworking, athletic teenage son. You see the degrees on the wall of the office, the trophy case of past victories and accomplishments.
BUT YOU DON’T SEE THE HELL WE’VE WALKED THROUGH OVER THE LAST 20 YRS.
When we hear this everyone goes to that thing, or place in their lives where they don’t want anyone or anything looking around.
That issue, that struggle, that addiction, that affair, that divorce, that problem, that situation that no ones knows about etc...
The Dark areas in our lives, that’s where fear resides, that’s where our emotions and intellect outweigh our faith.
Here is the deal: God wants to let the light out! And Jesus tells us to LET your light shine before men.
“Let” implies there is something we must allow for this light to shine. If I am not careful, I will hide this light...JUST like I hide my brokenness.
See, God has linked our light to our brokenness.
Remember God’s instructions to Gideon and his army in Judges 7? As they marched to battle they each held a pitcher or jar that contained a lamp inside. This was due to their sneak attack on the Midianite army; they were “hiding” the light within this vessel they carried.
Through Gideon, God gave specific orders: In order for this lamp to shine, you must break the jar/vessel! If the pitcher remains unbroken, the light remains hidden….
BUT, if you break this vessel, the light will SHINE!
God blesses broken things...broken dreams...broken marriages...broken callings..broken hearts...broken lives...broken daddy's...broken mommas...broken young men and women...broken lives…
God blesses our brokenness because it is our brokenness that let’s our light SHINE!
YOU: Maybe you are here today and you try to hide your brokenness...the reality is when you hide your brokenness, you hide your light too...
4: ILLUSTRATION (BOX AND THE LIGHT)
SO WHAT: Your stories are light, and light is a very precious thing in a world so dark as the one we live in today…
God loves to shine light through broken things, when we trust God to shine light through the broken places, the darkness is terrified!!!
