Your worth more Broken
Psalm 34:15-22
Greeting-
Good morning and welcome to those here in service and those who are online. I am glad you’re here. You have come to the right place!
We have just come out of our Easter celebration.
A time we look at the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
A time that we are reminded of the brokenness of Christ…His journey to the cross and our victory because of His victory.
I have title the message “Your worth more broken”
This message will lead us into a new series that starts next week entitled “Life choices” I was going to title it Nuts and bolts but as I thought about it, I wanted us to look at our life choices and then see that there is nuts and bolts of our faith needed to make sure that our lives line up with the blessings of God.
So maybe it is a series you will need or someone you know that you could invite either to join us here or listen online.
I think the Lord every…time we get together has something to say to all of us.
So our text this morning is Psalm 34 but let me set it up first.
Shepherd David is sent by his father Jesse to check up on his brothers in battle and discovers a giant tormenting the Nation of Israel and in 1 Samuel 17 and 18 describes in detail how David defeated the giant Goliath and came against his own obstacles victorious.
Anyone have some giants in their life right now?
“Giants” are problems, pressures, pains, and persecutions we will have to face from time to time in our lives.
“Giants” often times cause major difficulties in our life.
People of faith have long faced giants in their lives. Fear, discouragement, loneliness, worry, guilt, temptation, anger, resentment, doubt, procrastination, failure, and jealousy can plague us today.
3 points here with David
David used his own armor given him from the Lord
David Put God ahead of everything else
David knew how to celebrate his victories
Well Psalm 34 was written about the time right after that victory
He went from hang ten to just hanging
As David took the head of Goliath through the town, and was bringing the head to King Saul...he was receiving a hero’s welcome.
The women of Israel began singing praises to David
“Saul has killed his 1000's and David his ten thousand”
Saul became jealous, he did not want to share that praise with him, and from that point on...set out to kill him.
One minute a hero, next minute fugitive, one minute on top of his game and the next crushed by the pressures of what was a victory only moments ago.
I wish I could tell you that coming to Christ would have you not to face anymore trials or life’s storms.
It would be a lie! If I did
I cannot tell you that, but I can tell you that even though the storms come, there is a reason to rejoice.
Your heart can be made to sing
You can pick up your head in hope!
Danny Gokey has a song out titled- “Tell your heart to beat again” it is my favorite song right now for the season I am in- “Tell your heart to beat again, close your eyes and breathe it in. let the shadows fall away, step into the light of grace. Yesterday is a closing door, you don’t live there anymore, say good bye to where you’ve been, tell your heart to beat again.”
Question- How do you do that?
Power of Jesus Christ
Joy, confidence, hope is only found in him!
Job: 14:1-2
“Man that is born of a women is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and it is cut down.”
I don’t think anyone can say that they have never have felt at some point in their lives, the crushing weight of the world upon their shoulders.
David knew the pain of suffering storms in his life…many of the storms for him were self-induced through his acts of sin against God.
David always had to come to a place of being broken before God before he could find answers.
In ourselves, we usually don’t find answers,
Sometimes we learn the hard way, because it is the only way we learn
Sometimes God has to let us down, so that we look up to heaven and cry out for his help.
When we are at the lowest level, we are forced to look up to God.
The same is for today- this world is messed up, we are messed up people, and instead of fighting God, we need to look up!
There is no hope outside of Jesus Christ!
His sacrifice upon the cross for our sins, his precious blood…lifting us out of the pits where we have placed ourselves is our only hope.
You can run from God, you can fight with God, you can pretend that you don’t hear his voice, you can rebel from the directions He is giving.
He specializes in broken lives- he takes broken lives, puts them together, and Numerous times in our lives has to break us until we become what he wants for our lives.
The word says he heals the broken hearted, but sometimes he has to break us before he can heal us.
Broken, mended, broken, mended
This is where David was at in this Psalm- he is being hunted down by king Saul, he is fleeing, he ends up running into Gath- the very town of Goliath’s birth.
He is sure that either King Saul, or the people of Gath will kill him
“David is between a rock and a hard place”
Psalm 18:2-
“The lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God is my rock, in whom I take refuse, he is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
If you are walking with God, it is a safe to be between a rock and a hard place!
He runs into King Achish from Gath-he begins to act like a mad man, he begins to claw on the doors of the gate, he lets spit run down his beard.
He was relying on the superstitions of the philistines, that they believed in many gods and one of their superstitions was that they don’t mess with a mad man because the gods have punished him for some sin , and if you mess with him, harm him, kill him, that the gods would punish you.
They pushed him out of town, he flees to the cave of Adullam and it is here that David begins to build an army of 400 and write the powerful words of psalms 34
In a cave he realized God was in it, and so have many of God’s servants. They had a Special revelation.
He realized the lord provided a way of escape
“Your problem won’t look as big when you look through the eyes of Christ.”
“If only you knew”
“I was close to death, God made a way”
“If you could experience what he has brought me out of—you would praise him also”
Psalm 34:1-4 (Read from bible slowly)
That is a praise report! - “If only you knew” the God I serve.
I faced loins, bears, who tried to kill my sheep- God provided a way
Goliath laughed at me and thought he would defy my God-God provided a way
King Saul wanted to kill me- God provided a way
Goliath relatives chased me out of town- God provided a way
Illustration-
There is a village in the Far East, through the centuries, was known for its exquisite pottery. Especially striking were its urns: high as tables, wide as chairs, they were admired around the world for their strong form and delicate beauty.
legend has it when each urn was apparently finished, there was one final step, the artist who made it would shatter it–then put it back together with gold filigree.
An ordinary urn was then transformed into a priceless work of art.
What seemed finished wasn’t...until it was broken.
But like Paul said to the centurion in Acts 27:31- “Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved”
Your only hope is to stay on the potter’s wheel, or not jump out and bail from the ship.
The only way you can experience God’s best is too go through the storm and come out on the other end through the power of God. Amen.
That will preach! That can change your life!
You can either allow God to complete the work in you now, or you will have to face it again down the road because the process must be completed.
Church…we are all facing some storms, everyone of us has our “cross to bear”
Don’t let the devil lie to you and say that you are the only one going through a storm.
Don’t let him lie to you and say that you have to do it alone, or that the lord doesn’t want to help.
The big difference here is the lord wants to bring you through the storm…the devil wants it to destroy you in the storm.
John 10:10-
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Are you facing tough times? Maybe its God putting you on the potter’s wheel one more time....molding you into his image.
If you know Jesus- it is time to come to him because either the devil is trying to destroy you or Jesus is breaking you and allowing the storm to draw you close to him.
Do you feel shattered? Do you wonder if there is hope?
The answer is yes! There is hope, and it is found in surrendering to Jesus and allowing him to work in your heart.
He will make you a new creature and a vessel of honor.
Put your trust in the hands of the lord!
Last point as I close-
We cannot walk in the Spirit without the Spirit of God in us!
You would think that church people would do a better job of staying on the wheel and allowing Jesus to mold us into His image.
We are the ones that should realized that Jesus is the one who heals and He is the one that fixes broken hearts and lives.
I would pray that the church would speak more words of encouragement to those who have been broken by the world and needing Jesus to speak into their lives.
Paul tells us in Galatians 6:7-10
“Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows, whoever sows to please the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
The best of people mess up
The word Paul uses is (Paratoma) meaning they slip up, take false steps. It does not mean a deliberate sin, but a slip that might come to a man walking on an icy road or a dangerous path. (unexpected)
We are all broken people in need of Jesus! We need each other!
The word used here for broken is for executing a repair and also for the work of a surgeon in removing the problem.
“If anyone thinks he is something, when is nothing, he deceives himself.”
“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before the fall”
