Father heart of God sermon 4
The broken heart of God.
The Broken Heart of God.
Reflections on human brokeness.
Floyd McClung – Aircraft ride.
GE 6:5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them." 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
God’s heart was filled with pain when I read these words I came to reaqlise that what I feel - God feels.
What I suffer God sufferrred.
It blew away the image of a distant God.
Even parents have feelings
In the current series of sermons we have been considering the Father heart of God.
If you haven’t been following this series then I want to give you a brief outline.
In the first sermon we considered
The two words from the beginning of the Lord’s prayer – Our father
We considered what it meant to be able to call God as our Father.
In the second week we considered areas of parenting, that because of the fall, can be lacking in our lives but god can make up.
Here are some of those areas.
Parental authority etc,
Last week you may have heard me discus with you – the concept of the waiting Father. As revealed in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
This week I want to continue in the subject as Floyd McClung has opened it up and discus what he calls The Broken Heart of God.
We might think of God as a lot of things but if you are like me you may have some difficulty in understanding of what it is like for God to have a broken heart.
It is impossible to have a broken heart over something that doesn’t matter to you.
Someone ignores you who doesn’t figure on your top 100 list and it simply doesn’t impact on your life.
But if number 9 on your list does something bad to you it may well break your heart.
Lets face it we are important to God
F. How much does God love you? Max Lucado says, "If God
had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and he chose your heart... Face it, friend. He’s crazy about you."
Why is it important to understand that God has a broken heart.
Because without understanding that we will hav e a cold heart ourselves towards God.
Floyd McClung tells this story.
He was on an aircraft when a dishevelled man came up the aisle and greeted hjm boisterously. “Hi! You an American?”
Yes – yes I am I said with some lack of enthusiasm as I continued to sit down. As I was tired I chose to sit on the aisle seat thinking it would be harder for anyone to sit by me since he would have to stretch over my long legs!
The man sat behind me but I paid no attention to him.
After a few minutes his head came around the corner. “Whatcha reading? He asked as he peered over my shoulder. “My Bible” I replied impatioentlyu. Couldn’t he seee that I wanted to be alone? I settled back in my seat but a few minutes later the same pair of eyes were again looking over the top of my seat. “What kind of work do you do?” He asked.
Not wanting to get involved in a long conersation, I decided to make my answer brief. “A kind of social work” I said, hoping he wouldn’t be too interested.
“Mind if I sit by you?” he asked as he stepped ovber my crossed legs he seemd to be oblivious to my efforts to avoid talking to him. He turned to face to me and he reeked of alcohol. He spat as he spoke, sending a fine spray all over my face.
I was deeply moved by this man’s obnoxiousness. Couldn’t he see I wanted to be alone? All my plans for a quiet morning were destroyed by his insensitivity. ‘ Oh God’ I groaned inwardly, ‘please help me.’ The conversation moved slowly at first. I answered a few questions about our work in Amsterdam and began to wonder why this man so desparately wanted to talk to someone. As the conversation unfolded it daqwned on me that perhaps I was the one who was being insensitive.,’My wife was like you,’ he said after a while, ‘She prayed with our children, sang to them and took them to church. In fact, ‘He said slowly, his eyes misting over, ‘she was the only real friend I ever had.’
;She’s gone.’ By this time his tears were beginning to trickle down his cheeks. ‘she died three months ago giving birth to our fifth child. Why/ he gasped ‘Why did your caring God take my wife away?’ She was so good. Why her/ Why not me/ And now the government says I’m not fit to care for my own childrenm and thery’re gone too.
I reached out my had and we wept together. How selfish, how insensitive I had been. I had only been thinking of my need for a little rest when someone like this man desparately needed a friend. He filled in the rest of the story for me. After his wife died, a government appointed social worker recommended that the children be cared for by the state. He was so overwhelmed by grief that he couldn’t work, so he also lost his job. In just a few weeks he had lost everything, his wife, his children and his work. It was December so he had decided to leave; he couldn’t bear the thought of being at home alone for Christmas without his wife or children, and was literally trying to drown his sorrows in alcohol.
He was almost too bitter to be comforted. He had grown up with four different step-fathers and he never knew his real Dad. All of them were hard men. When I mentioned God he reacted bitterly. ‘God’ he said. I think if there is a God he must be a cruel monster! Why did your loving God do this to me?
As I flew on the Airoplane with that wounded, hurt man, I was reminded again that many people in our world have no understanding of a loving God – a God who is a loving Father. To speak of a loving God, a God who is a
Father, only evokes pain for them. And anger. To speak of the Father heart of God to those people, without emathizing with their pain, verges on cruelty, The only way I could be a friend to that man on the trip from Oslo to Amsterdam, was to be God’s love to him. I didn’t try to give pat answers. There were none. I just let him be angry and then poured some oil on his deep wounds. He wanted to believe in God, but deep inside his sense of justice had been violated. He needed someone to say that it was OK for him to be angry, and to tell him that God was angry too. By the time I had listened and cared and wept with him, he was ready to hear me say that God was more hurt than he was by what had happenned to his wife and family.
Then these words that Floyd McClung wrote hit me and spun my theology around.
No one had ever told him that God has a broken heart.
Floyd McClung goes on to say that the man listened in silence as he explained that God’s creation was marred by sin and selfishness, that it is completely different to how he created it. It is fallen. It is not normal. The question that he asked is why?
You will be familiar with the sentence – If God is a God of love then Why???
When people are unable to receive a satisfactory answer to that question then they most often give up on god and factor God out of their lives.
Australia was, as many know, originally founded as a convict settlement.
It was a harsh and bitter world that people were condemned to often for as little as the theft of a loaf of bread to feed a hungry family.
We spent time in Port Arthur in Tasmania many years ago and were struck by the harshness and cruelness of the world of the prisoners.
But what I didn’t know – was the British would often use Priests and Ministers as prisoner guards . Can you imagine how most men felt about God if they were sent unjustly to an Australian prison and their sentence was enforced by a priest or minister?
A mission lecturer in Australia by the name of John Smith said:- ‘Australia has a history that causes many not to believe in God, when really they should not believe in man.”
There are three false images of God that Australians have rejected, thinking that they have rejected the God of the Bible.
1. The God of indifference.
2. The God of privlege and prosperity.
3. The God of arbitrary judgement.
Floyd Mc Clung says.
If you have been offended by hypocrisy in the church, or if you have rejected an arbitrary God that gives men laws they can not keep and then sends them to hell for not keeping them, or if you are angry about injustice and poverty and have been presented with a God who does not care, then you can start again without losing integrity. You have not been rejecting the God of the Bible. You have not rejected Jesus Christ!
The God of the Bible, the God who has revealed himself in Jesus christ, hates hypocrisy. His angry at injustice. The difference between God and us is not anger over injustice, but the fact that He is absolutely just and we are not.
This morning I want to expose to you how God’s heart is broken over the tragedies of this world and I want to suggest to you one thing you can do in response to this knowledge.
God has a broken heart over the world and it’s present state.
The story of God’s broken heart starts in Genesis with the fall and finishes in Revelation where we read of a time of incredible healing in Revelation chapter 21 for example.
The broken heart of God is trinitarian:-
The Father heart of God grieves over the sin of Adam and Eve in Genesis:-
Jesus weeps over Jerusalem
And we are told in scripture – not to grieve the Holy spirit.
All three members of the Godhead grieve over the sorry state of the world.
That God is angry over certain actions is very clear in the Bible.
The fate of Sodom and Gomorrah gives ample evidence of that.
But the overarching theme in scripture is God feels the same pain we feel over the injustices and hurts of the world.
This morning I want to suggest to you three things that God wants you to know about how he feels about you and others and three things you can do in response.
Take this on board and it could revolutionise your faith.
1. the first thing is God is not indifferent to your state.
2CH 36:15 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place.
PS 72:13 He will take pity on the weak and the needy
and save the needy from death.
How does Jesus react when confronted by desparate need?
MK 1:40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
MK 1:41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
2. God is quite simply not a snob.
Whilst many reject God – God rejects no-one and expects his followers to imitate Him.
God did not create us to live a selfish life but to serve him and others.
God’s heart is broken by pride, hatred, bitterness, dishonesty, greed and all other forms of selfishness.
But in the same way our honesty, forgiveness, love, unselfishness, and a desire to please him bring him great joy to his heart – even more so because of all the selfishness in the world.
God’s heart is broken over sin – but he holds out the opportunity for forgiveness to the whole human race.
That window opportunity allows two things to happen.
Some people use that window to do their own thing and to sin.
The result of that is the cause of all the injustice and evil in the world.
All the wrong things are a result of the wrong choices people make in God’s window of opportunity we call the human life.
It breaks his heart that so many of us do that but he cuts us a lot of slack and gives us a big opportunity to follow him.
3. Other people use that same window of opportunity to choose not to break the Fathers heart but rather to follow God and His ways.
They still sin and make mistakes but the overall theme of their lives is one of attempted Godliness and obedience made possible through the grace and forgiveness that we receive from Christ on the cross.
God is not a snob – He is prepared to rub shoulders with the rich and poor – sinners – and lepers – he is even prepared to be friends with me – that is how low he will stoop.
If you think that you are out of God’s reach then listen to these words from the scriptures.
MT 9:10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and `sinners’?"
MT 9:12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
The third point is God is not a God who longs to punish us.
Romans chapter 6 – 23 says – The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
The result of sin is death –
Whereever there is suffering and misery in the world you can be sure to track it not back to God but back to evil.
Sin is behind suffering not God.
Even when an innocent person suffers – then it is a result of the fact that sin came into the world and it is imperfect.
The devil’s greatest deception is fooling people that suffering is God’s idea – not a result of his interference in God’s world and peoples co-operation.
The whole New Testament and indeed the whole Bible is God’s work of rescuing us from the results of the sin of the world.
Much has been made of the price God had to pay through Christ.
2 Co 5:17 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.
A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.
When the Viet Nam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.
About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said,"Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.
The young man held out his package. "I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this."
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture.
"Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift."
The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.
The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel.
"We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?" There was silence. Then a voice in the back of the room shouted. "We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one." But the auctioneer persisted. "Will someone bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?" Another voice shouted angrily. "We didn’t come to see this painting.. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!" But still the auctioneer continued. "The son! The son! Who’ll take the son?"
Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. "I’ll give $10 for the painting."
Being a poor man, it was all he could afford. "We have $10, who will bid $20?" "Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters." "$10 is the bid, won’t someone bid $20?" The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections. The auctioneer pounded the gavel. "Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!"
A man sitting on the second row shouted. "Now let’s get on with the collection!"
The auctioneer laid down his gavel. "I’m sorry, the auction is over." "What about the paintings?" "I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son
would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets every thing!"
God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on a cruel cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is, "The son, the son, who’ll take the son?" Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.
In the world there are two broken hearts – both hearts have been broken by the same cause.
The sin of the world which is really mans rebellion from God.
This has resulted in a broken heart.
But when we return to God through Christ our broken heart is healed as is God’s
Two hearts now beat as one.
God miraculously thorough the cross which broke his heart as he watched on the suffering of his son effects the healing of your broken heart and – as far as you are concerned heals his own broken heart as well.
2 corinthians chapter 5: 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
