Sermon Title: You Need to be Broken Before You Can Be Fixed
Scripture: Psalm 51:14-19
Wesleyan Community Church
Terry, Mississippi
Sunday Morning - February 17, 2002
Scripture Introduction:
We find ourselves here this morning, for obviously different reasons then others find themselves in different churches of different beliefs. We must be careful of the allegations that we make against their doctrines and their beliefs, because just as individuals are judged on the basis that they judge so to are the different denominations. It becomes easy to fall into the holier than thou trap.
If we are going to proclaim a higher standard of conduct in all of our affairs then we had best conduct ourselves by those same standards. Yes we are called to be holy, Yes the Bible tells us that we are to be holy. Yes Jesus set the example that it is possible as a man to live a holy life.
We have many people who walk close with God, but will never walk any closer than where they are because they believe something that has been drilled into their minds for years and years and years, and that is, “I sin in word, thought and deed each and every day.” It need not be so. If we set a lower standard then we will only meet a lower standard.
David is obviously called by God. He serves God in a mighty and powerful way, but then falls in a manner that is still all to common today. Let me tell you a startling statistic – the divorce rate among Christians is almost no different then that of the society from which we consider ourselves set-apart from. What gives with that? Did Jesus go to the cross so that Christians could live exactly in the same manner as the rest of the world? David realized that there was something missing in his relationship with God, the same thing that is missing in many a Christians walk, and that is dealing with the problem of the universal birth-defect and that is the sin that was carried away from the Garden of Eden. We hear it said many times, “If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it”, the problem is that most people aren’t going in for the repair because they don’t want to admit that things are broken. And the philosophy that we sin in word thought and deed each and everyday is a convenient tool of Satan that is going to pull a multitude of almost persuaded people into the depths of eternal damnation. Why do you think that Jesus proclaimed the way of salvation as a narrow road?
Scripture Reading: Psalm 51:14-19
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. 16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise 18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
Sermon Introduction:
I think of the old saying, “LIVE HARD, DIE YOUNG, AND LEAVE A GOOD LOOKING CORPSE!” What a statement that makes about the lostness of our spiritual condition before coming to our senses and coming to Christ. It is a fact that we were Born to be lost! The problem with that condition of lostness is that we are blinded to the fact that we are lost. We have no clue about what a difficult position we are in when we are ignorant of life with Jesus. We are in a situation where we are headed for an eternity in hell and we don’t even seem to be concerned, well if ignorance is bliss then the hopelessly lost should be extremely happy. Problem is, there are many who have been misled by those who say they know another road that leads to salvation. There is a theological term that expresses this thought and that is “HOGWASH”! We read the Scripture that backs this up in 2Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
God wants us to want to want to serve Him but many are Giving the wrong gifts! God wants us to give to the ministry – but that is not His primary purpose when He blesses us and loves us. He is not interested in how many verses we have committed to memory, He is interested in how many verses we have made an intimate part of our life. He wants us to humbly come before Him and pray for forgiveness, but He wishes to see a changed lifestyle afterwards. As a whole the church of today is missing the point. People fill out questionnaires that ask the question if they are Christian and many answer yes, but they wouldn’t be able to produce a Bible if you asked them in their own house. If you asked them when the last time that they prayed was, they would have to think of the last time that they were in some type of danger or had a health concern. If you asked them if they supported the church they would mentally tally how many times they pried that dollar bill out of their hand and let it fall in the offering plate. God doesn’t want a cent from those that force themselves to give.
God wants us to be genuine, with Better attitudes – Better gifts! How much time do we spend visiting those that don’t get visits? What do we do for others without looking for remuneration? Have we ever done something just because it would please God instead of looking what we would get out of it in return? I think the statistics would bare out the fact that we make a dismal showing in these areas.
Let us pause for a moment of prayer!
Point 1: The very first thing that we must tackle that David mentions in this morning’s text is that we are Born lost! Please join me in re-reading verses 14 and 15:
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
When the curses were pronounced after the sin in the Garden of Eden, the entirety of creation groaned. In other-words, the perfect world that God created was from that point forward flawed through the sin of disobedience of man to God. There are to many people that believe that the only reason that Jesus went to the cross was to win the forgiveness of our sins, and since those sins are past present and future, they see little reason to change the course of their lives and the situations that they allow themselves to fall into. The idea that we sin in thought word and deed daily as being acceptable is unacceptable. Jesus died on that cross so that we could live holy lives until the day when we stand before Him, our slates clean and our lives since the day we came to our senses, dropped to our knees, seen as an acceptable living sacrifice to God.
You see, until we find that righteousness though Jesus, our mouths will not be capable of saying the things that need to be said. We need to be in a proper relationship with God and then through the Holy Spirit the words that we need will be placed upon our lips. We often hear people struggle with the appropriateness of the words that they say – when we choose to fill our minds with the things of God then the words that God would have us speak will naturally come out.
Point 2: Another thing that David brings out in his prayer of forgiveness is that people will do anything to try to please God, except for the things that He wants then to do. Many of today’s Christians are guilty of Giving the wrong gifts! Let us read what David writes in verses 16 and 17:
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
We wear our church attendance record like a merit badge. How much do we expect to get out of our time in church if we come simply to be able to truthfully say that we go to church? Church attendance is to often considered as a measure of someone’s spirituality. David was making a simple statement that it wasn’t the sacrifices on the altar that God was really looking for, it was the fact that the Israelites were obedient to the will of God. God wants us to be of a broken spirit and contrite heart. Jesus gave us an example of this in His Sermon on the Mount, Matthew wrote in Chapter 5 and beginning with the first verse we read:
1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set his disciples came unto him: 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
People oftentimes misunderstand what it means to be poor in spirit, and that same misunderstanding applies to what David is saying in this Psalm. What God wants of His people is a total dependence and reliance on Him. Our spiritual fulfillment is totally dependant on God. Our spiritual well-being is totally focused on God. Nothing else enters into this relationship, not a single thing comes between God and the one who is completely surrendering self to the Father. God does not want our attempts to please Him, He wants the sum-total of our existence.
Point 3: Christians as a whole have been extremely guilty of having a bad attitude when it comes to the things of heaven. One of the groups that probably exemplifies this the most is some of the holiness people. I once heard a wonderful holiness preacher ask the question that if we receive the greatest of all gifts from the Father, by the Son through the Holy Spirit, and that gift being Sanctification, why do we walk around when we are sanctified and come across as petrified and cranktified. We are to be setting an example with our lives of the wonders of being a part of His kingdom, and even when things aren’t peaches and cream, the grace that He gives us to follow through should show others the difference in living with Jesus as Savior. What kind of an impression do we give the world when we walk around constantly looking like we are sucking on a lemon. When Jesus spoke to the adulterous women, he told her that her sins were forgiven and to go and sin no more, he never told her to be good and grumpy. When we allow that grace of God to give us Better attitude – that better attitude allows us to give God Better gifts! Let us read this morning’s final verses of Scripture:
18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
When we go forth and serve God with a joy in our hearts that is so totally overwhelming that it overflows from each and every aspect of our life, then we make a difference in the lives of others and assist in the building of the kingdom which is among us and around us right now. When we minister to others through the strength of our spirit and the resolve that we are capable of only through the grace that He bestows upon us, we will make a difference in this world. When we set aside the things of the earth and instead seek the things of God, that is the sacrifice of righteousness that David brings to our attention in this text. What is God more pleased with, a heart that overfilled with the love that He has placed their or a face on a Christian that is so stern that no one even dare question their relationship?
Conclusion:
Why is it so difficult for people to realize that as a race mankind has gone against God from the beginning and that drive to be disobedient still runs wild today? Look at the condition of the world today and compare it to the world 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago. There is no one going to tell me that things are improving? The first thing that someone may say is that look at what medical science has accomplished – they have played around with prolonging life and now are trying to create life that they have moved God out of the picture for many people – they are only prolonging the onset of the beginning of a persons eternity of torment, and in so doing are leading even more people astray. Am I against the medical profession – absolutely not, but there are many places where they are not the extension of His miracle workings and are instead meddling where they ought not be meddling. Yes all Christian’s want to serve Him on this earth for as long as He ordains possible, but never at the expense of the loss of a soul. Perhaps this morning there is someone who sees the lostness of their condition.
Are you Giving God the wrong gifts? What drives you to come and worship this morning? God desires that you seek Him and His will for your life. Is there something perhaps that He is calling you to? Do you desire to spend more time with Him in prayer? Perhaps you have reached a point in your study of His word where you don’t seem to be growing, perhaps there is something that you feel that He is pressing you toward? There is more to the power of prayer than we will ever give it credit for. If you came here this morning to feel the movement of the Holy Spirit in your life then lift your prayers to that end. Lord allow the Holy Spirit free reign in my life! Lord open my eyes for what you have for me in Your Scripture. Prepare my mind to understand and apply what You would have me learn.
Let each of us strive to have that Better attitude when it comes to our service of the Lord – Pray that we give those Better gifts!
We are living in a world that is absolutely overwhelmed with lost souls. Allow that blessing of the gift of forgiveness and the promise of life eternal to not only put a smile upon our hearts but let that be translated to a shining radiance upon our faces that others can see the light of Christ beaming from our faces.
This altar is never closed and let us now pray that if there is a need this day that we lay it before the foot of the cross. Jesus died for each and everyone of us so that we would not only be saved but also that we could have that abundant life, though it be a life the strives to be free of sin it need not be a life void of enjoyment and full of the satisfaction that comes from serving God without reserve of anything. Truly allow us to become that sacrifice of righteousness that He so desires.
