You Need To Be Broken Before You Can Be Fixed

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.