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  THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING SMALL AND BEING BROKEN
  by Santosh Poonen
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of falling into the
ground and dying to self in order to bear much fruit for God. It draws
parallels from the lives of biblical figures like Jacob, Joseph, Moses,
and Jesus, highlighting how their brokenness led to God's victory and
glorification. The message challenges listeners to embrace brokenness as
a pathway to God's purpose and power in their lives.

Topics: "Brokenness", "Fruitfulness in God"
Scripture References: Genesis 32:28, Genesis 50:19, Numbers 16:4, John 12:27, Philippians 3:10

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of falling into the ground and
dying to self in order to bear much fruit for God. It draws parallels
from the lives of biblical figures like Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Jesus,
highlighting how their brokenness led to God's victory and
glorification. The message challenges listeners to embrace brokenness as
a pathway to God's purpose and power in their lives.

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CONTENT
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Hey, good morning family. It's good to be with you again. Thanks
children for singing loud.

I love listening to you sing as I believe Jesus does too. Let's turn our
Bibles together to actually John chapter 12. John chapter 12, you can
pull up my slides, Derek or Dorington or Zave.

We were looking a couple weeks ago at the story where Jesus found, Jesus
came riding on the colt of a donkey and I talked about how God wants to
relieve us of our burdens so that He can become our burden, He Himself.
And one thing I did want to clarify, I remembered after my message that
it does say, I think in Luke, in the parallel passage, we were reading
in Matthew 21, but I think if I remember right in parallel passage in
Luke, it does say that that colt had never borne a burden before,
actually. So even though I was using the example, we've all borne
burdens.

I think you understand the point of what I was saying, but I did want to
clarify factually, I may have misspoken, that that colt had not borne a
burden before. It's very clear about that. Jesus picked a colt that had
not borne a burden.

Anyway, that's a small bit of trivia, if you're into Bible trivia. It's
good to be accurate though. And what it's interesting though, you think
about that, that Jesus, who had been rejected throughout His life by
most of the people around Him, there were periods of time when
multitudes would follow Him.

And I'd like to look at, look at a little, look at that a little bit
this morning, in how it says here in John 12, verse 12, that the large
crowd who had come to the feast, it was a large crowd that had come to
the feast and saw Jesus riding on a colt, and even though He was riding
on a colt, they were praising Him. I'd like to pick up the story in
verse 17, John 12, verse 17. This is after Jesus is riding on the
donkey, He's entered into Jerusalem, like we read a couple weeks ago.

Now it says, the people who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of
the tomb, which had happened just a few days before this, and raised Him
from the dead, continued to testify about Him. So Jesus, as we see here,
had a large crowd of people that continued to testify about Him. There
were people who followed Jesus when it was popular.

In other words, the way I look at it, word kind of spread and Jesus
became a popular figure. There was a point of time, there were moments
of time in Jesus' life when it was popular to follow Him. The reason I
say that is because there can come times in our lives, in our church
experience, and even among, in the world around us, where calling
yourself a Christian or being a Christian can be the popular thing.

We live in an age where there are probably larger congregations of
churches than there have ever been. The concept of megachurches probably
didn't exist, you know, few, even a hundred years ago, let's say, but
now we have the means to do that. You can have tens of thousands of
people.

So there can come a time when it is popular, when a church becomes
popular, or the name of a church becomes well-known, and you can be
identified with Jesus in a popular way, which doesn't cost you
something, doesn't require the reproach of Christ, and I think this is
what happened here. It says the people who were with Him, because they'd
seen the miracle that He'd done, and who doesn't want to be with
somebody who's gonna raise somebody from the dead, right? Who doesn't
want to be around a man? Who doesn't want to be around Jesus? If you
know that, He'll do good things for you. It's kind of like saying, who
doesn't want to live with Santa Claus? I mean, children, you know,
there's no Santa Claus, but imagine if you were to go to children and
say, hey, you have the opportunity to live with Santa Claus.

To people who think that Santa Claus is this gift-giving person, it's a
popular thing to do. Who wouldn't want to live with, or with a rich
uncle? Maybe that's a better analogy. Who doesn't want to live with a
rich uncle? Of course, and this is the mentality that a lot of people
had at this time, because guess what? If you have a brother who dies, or
you have somebody who dies, He'll raise him from the dead too, perhaps.

So the people who were with Him, when He called Lazarus out of the tomb
and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. Now, these
weren't His disciples who had forsaken everything. These were the ones
who liked being around Jesus when it felt good.

For this reason, verse 18, also the people went and met Him, because
they heard that He had performed this sign. So a bunch of other people
joined them as well. And then the Pharisees said to one another, you see
that you are not doing any good.

Look, the world has gone after Him. They started fighting within
themselves. Then Jesus' fame spreads even more.

Look at verse 20. Greeks, these are non-Jews, people from far-off
countries, who maybe who were there. There were some Greeks among those
who were going up to worship at the feast.

These then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began
to ask Him, saying, sir, we wish to see Jesus. The fame of Jesus has now
spread even to the Greeks. People are thronging in their coming, saying,
hey, we want to see Jesus.

We want to see Jesus. That can even happen to the church of today, the
true church of Jesus Christ, where it starts to become popular, where
maybe the influence of a church, the messages that go out from a church,
start to spread out into different places. Philip, verse 22, came and
told Andrew.

Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus. Look at Jesus' answer. And Jesus
answered them, saying, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be
glorified.

Think about the situation here. Here's these people that have come from
far off, and they're thronging to see Jesus. It's kind of like, hey, we
hear about this guy.

We want to meet Jesus. We want to meet Jesus. Imagine if a whole bunch
of people walked in this door.

Says, hey, we want to know about River of Life. We've heard about you.
We've heard about, maybe they mentioned your name.

We've heard about you. We want to know more about you. And our response
is, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Now, if the story ended there, if there was not a verse 24, we would
have, we would be, I would have a completely different message for
today. What did Jesus mean when he said, the hour has come for the Son
of Man to be glorified? See, when you and I think glorification, we
think somehow God is going to lift us up. This hour has come for the Son
of Man to be glorified, because all these people are thronging, and
they're coming here to listen to the preaching, or to do this, or to do
that, or to be around us.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. This is the
world's way of thinking, what glorification is. But like he says in
Isaiah, as high as the heaven is above the earth, so higher the thoughts
of God above our thoughts.

In fact, you can think of it like this, that it's upside down. The
world's way of thinking is upside down. So imagine if all of us was
upside down.

What we thought was up, would actually be down, right? Picture that for
a moment, children. Let's say you were upside down, and we're all
hanging upside down, and you're pointing up. You would actually be
pointing down in the real world.

So if you hung me upside down, and I'm pointing what I think is up,
that's actually down. This is exactly what Jesus was showing. What we're
going to see here is that what he meant by glorification is this, that
the Son of Man must go down, must die.

And unless we change our way of thinking, unless we allow ourselves to
be turned right side up, so that we realize that what God thinks of as
glorification is the exact opposite of what the world thinks of as
glorification. I want my life to be a glorification of God. Let me put
it that way.

I don't want to be glorified. I don't want to take any glory, but I want
my life to be a glorification to God. And in order for that to happen,
that doesn't mean that somehow I will be lifted up.

It means that I will go into the ground and die. We read that Jesus said
in another place, that if I be lifted up, if I the Son of Man be lifted
up, I will draw all men to myself, Jesus said. I thought about that
verse.

That must be the means by which God draws people into our midst, to
integrate them into the body of Christ, into this local expression of
the body of Christ. How is that going to happen? I've always thought,
Lord, it must be. He said, I will draw all men to myself.

We don't want to draw all men to ourselves, because what we do as a
result of our drawing will be the work of man. It will die with us. But
if Jesus is lifted up in my life, in your life, in our marriages, in our
homes, and in this church, it's a promise.

I will draw all men to myself. But what was he talking about? Was he
talking about his ascension? What do you think? Because he says, maybe
we should look at it. John chapter 3. No, it's not John 3. Anybody
remember where it is? 12.

Oh, it's in the same chapter, yeah. Yeah. So there it is in verse 31.

Actually, it's in a parallel. Yeah. So there it is.

Verse 32. If I am lifted up from the earth, I, if I am lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men to myself. This is later on in the same
context where he's talking about, if I am lifted up, I will draw all men
to myself.

And you might think, okay, Lord, that means you're going to go sit on
high and rule from heaven and command that people obey you. If I be
lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. What was Jesus talking about?
He's very clear in verse 33.

He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which he was to die.
See the lifting up of Jesus? He was saying, if I be lifted up, you have
to really point down because we're still upside down from the world
standpoint. If I be lifted up, if I be lifted up, and if the church be
lifted up, if you, my dear brother and sister, be lifted up, if you in
your marriage are lifted up, if you in your home are lifted up, I'm
pointing down to reinforce that this is what it means to be lifted up.

What does it mean then for God to lift up River of Life Christian
Fellowship, to lift up this church? Does it mean that all of a sudden
there'll be throngs of people coming in, that people will be talking all
over town about revival in our church? I pray that God brings a
wholehearted following him in every day of our lives, a constant
repentance and following after him wholeheartedly, but that lifting up
may not and quite likely will not look like this. But I know it will
look like this. The outward manifestation of that lifting up is up to
God.

How many or how much he allows our recognition in this world to happen
is up to the Lord. What is up to us is how much down will we go. If I be
lifted up, Jesus said, I will draw all men, and by this he was talking
about the kind of death he would suffer.

And then so when he said in verse 23 that the hour has come for the Son
of Man to be glorified, he clarifies in verse 24 what it was he was
talking about. Truly, truly, I say to you. In other words, he's saying,
get this, disciples, when I'm talking about glorification, I want you to
see truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the
earth and dies, it remains alone.

But if it dies, it bears much fruit. I brought a grain of something.
It's not wheat, okay? It's the closest thing to it.

It's lentil, actually. You guys can see it? Nope. I just dropped it, so
I brought a few extra, because I had a feeling that might happen.

That's a grain of lentil. It's a close thing to a grain of wheat. It's
pretty small.

If you look carefully, you can see it. If I put it even that far, I can
barely see it. This is a grain of wheat.

Very, very, very small. But you know that even this, and you might
think, well, Lord, we're small. I'm small.

I'm insignificant. What's my purpose in life? Like my job just goes
through the motions, or my life just seems sort of mundane and small,
like a grain of wheat. But Jesus didn't say that you must become like a
grain of wheat in order to experience his glorification.

What did he say must happen to this grain of wheat? Must die. The
difference between something that is small and something that is dead is
a difference between heaven and earth and heaven. Smallness.

That's out of your control. The smallness of your life. Maybe you feel
like God has drawn a very small circle around you.

Very few friends. Very insignificant life. Kind of just, oh, nothing to
brag about.

They're not going to write a biography about a grain of wheat. But that
in itself doesn't mean that God will use you for his purpose. There's
something that must happen to this grain of wheat.

Because it's very easy for people, for us to think that because we are
small in any circumstance, whether it's in our individual life, or in
our marriage, or in our home, or in the church, or in our influence, in
our jobs, whatever it might be, you think, my life's pretty small. It's
a small insignificant life. But Jesus has one command for you with your
small insignificant life.

Fall into the ground and die. And there are many people who are big
grains, let's say. Huge, one big kernel of corn, let's say.

You might see in a museum or something like that. It's fake, obviously,
if it's that big. And then there are others who are small.

And you might think, because we preach, we might think because we preach
the message of discipleship, I must be spiritual because I'm small.
That's not what Jesus was saying. Just because you're small, just
because you feel small, just because you think you're small, just
because you've been despised, just because you feel left out or alone,
doesn't mean that you're spiritual.

There's one and only one way for this small insignificant thing to bear
much fruit. Otherwise, it will remain alone. But if it does die, it
bears much fruit.

He who loves his life, says, I love my life, even though it's
insignificant. I'm going to try to make this little grain of wheat
bigger in my own strength. Breathe a little hot air into it or puff it
up a little bit.

Add a little bit more talent. Brag about myself a little bit. These are
grains of wheat trying to puff themselves up.

Or maybe even, I mean, here's a whole bag of them. You can kind of see
them. It's still small and insignificant.

Grains of wheat. You know why these grains of wheat are still alone,
even though they're in the same Ziploc packet? And you know that River
of Life Christian Fellowship could be like this. Grains of wheat sitting
next to each other, week after week.

Maybe we even hang out on a few days during the week, but we're alone.
There's only one thing, my dear brothers and sisters, that will preserve
us until the coming of Christ. It's not that we do more activities
together.

It's not that we do better activities together. It's not that we change
the format of things or change this or change that. There's only one
thing Jesus said will cause these grains to bear fruit, to bear much
fruit.

That is a death. And that's up to you. It's up to you and I. So a grain
of wheat that's small and lonely, it's just a grain of wheat.

But a dead grain of wheat. Broken. Powerful.

There's an even greater example of this, actually, if you know your
physics, you know science a little bit. You know about the atom. The
atom is even, I mean, this consists of many, many, many millions,
perhaps, of atoms.

Every one of these. So an atom is even smaller than a grain of wheat.
It's like millions of atoms make up a grain of wheat.

So you can imagine how small an atom is. So small that you can't even
see it with the naked eye. You need a microscope.

What if you thought, okay, Lord, I was a grain of wheat, pretty small,
but then I became even smaller, like an atom. I'm talking about
quantity-wise, size-wise now. You feel like you've become smaller.

Do you know that an atom itself, yeah, it's useful. It's what makes up
matter. But you know that there's a power that's within that atom that's
waiting to be unleashed.

And that's unleashed through a process called nuclear fission. Fission
is where you take this atom and separate what's within the atom, the
neutrons and the protons and the electrons, you split them apart. The
result of that is what we call an atomic reaction.

Powerful enough to destroy a city like it did in Japan about 70 years
ago. That the atomic bomb was released, was set off by many little atoms
being split. And the force of that atom being split was so powerful that
it could destroy an entire city.

And now, hopefully they use it for positive, nuclear energy comes from
the splitting of this atom. It's another beautiful picture there. Think
about an atom that's even smaller than a grain of wheat, but it's small
and lonely.

Sadly, I think there are many people sitting in churches, lonely. Even
in the mega of mega churches, lonely. They have all the activities and
all the opportunities.

Even some of the richest people in the world find themselves lonely.
That's why the rate of suicide is so high. Even among the celebrities.

That in itself ought to tell us that the secret to being coming out of
loneliness or to being set to finding that friend in Jesus is not that I
add more or do this or change some outward circumstance. Jesus was very
clear. Fall into the ground and die.

Like an atom, allow yourself to be split, to be broken. And the power
that comes out of that is something that God can use. An atom by itself,
small and lonely, but a split atom, broken and powerful.

I want to do this, what this speaks about, if you can forward to that
next slide. I guess this is not working. The difference, essentially, my
dear brothers and sisters, the difference between smallness and
brokenness, like I was saying.

Here's the thing, smallness is not our choice. If you have a small life,
if you have a small world, if you have a small family, and by small I
don't even necessarily mean quantity, but in terms of, you know, you
look at your life and think, it's so small, it's so insignificant,
that's beyond your control. And let's say even as a church, we think, oh
we're so small, we're actually a lot bigger than Jesus Church.

But let's say we have this feeling, we're so small. What does that mean?
Smallness in itself is not within our control. That's up to the Lord,
right? The quantity of things, it's up to the Lord.

But brokenness is up to you. And that's the difference between whether
you will experience the power of God, which will not happen if you're
just a small thing, or a small person, or a small home, or a small
church. But the difference between smallness and brokenness, whether you
will go from being just a small person to a broken person, is up to you.

It's up to you and I. Will we allow God to break us through the
circumstances in our life, despite the fact that we're small? And you
might look at yourself as this grain of wheat and thinking, Lord, how
much more brokenness do you want me to go through? I'm pretty broken
itself as it is. And I confuse smallness with brokenness. See,
brokenness is an internal thing.

You can only find out whether this grain is broken. How will you find
out, children, whether this grain is broken and dying or dead? Jesus
said, put it into the ground. So when God takes you and your small world
and puts it into the ground in a hole two feet deep or a foot deep, now
the process has begun.

The process of brokenness has begun. Unless this small grain of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it remains alone. But if it does, it bears
much fruit.

So I want to show you a few examples in the next four or five minutes
from scripture of men who had small lives, people who had small lives,
and then God took them and broke them. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
32. Sometime this week, if you have time, I encourage you to go back and
read the stories of these four people and the examples from their lives.

The first is Jacob. Jacob. I want to show you this verse in Genesis 32
verse 28.

When Jacob's name was, you know the story of Jacob, right? He was small.
He was despised by his father. He had to run away from home because he
stole.

In fact, he was so small that he had to use deception to accomplish his
purpose. The blessing was going to go to his older brother. And so
because he felt small and insignificant and left out, he decided, I'm
going to grab.

And he managed to get the blessing, but then he had to run. And then he
runs to his uncle's home and there he's taken advantage of by his uncle
Laban. He wants to marry a girl and he's deceived by his uncle into
marrying another girl.

And then he has to work for seven, 14 years in all to marry this girl he
really wants. And here's this small Jacob. Now he's coming back to the
area.

It's not yet called Israel, but the land of Canaan. And his brother is
coming out to meet him and he's afraid. And he feels very small.

And he hears that Esau's coming with, I think it says 400 men. And he
feels small. But God hadn't yet broken him.

There was a process that was leading up to the brokenness. He got
smaller and smaller and smaller. And now he's afraid of his own brother.

And then God meets with him. And he wrestles with him. And he pokes his
thigh and dislocates his hip socket.

And now for the rest of his life, Jacob's going to walk with a limp. And
Jacob was actually not that old. I mean, he was probably middle-aged by
the standards of people's age at that time.

Imagine if I walked up here with a cane, limping up here. You think,
man, is he really that old? What's up with the cane, man? Why do you
look so haggard and broken? Because the Lord had broken Jacob. It says
in Hebrews 11 about Jacob that he worshipped, leaning on his staff.

Is that an act of faith? What do you think? You know that verse in
Hebrews? Let me look at it real quickly. Keep a finger on Genesis 32,
we'll come back to it. Hebrews 11, verse 21, in the midst of all of
these people who tore down walls and shut the mouths of lions and went
through the fire and had children when they were in their nineties and a
hundred and offered up, you know, went to a land they didn't know and
Noah was saved.

And in the midst of all of that, what does it say about Jacob? He
worshipped on his, leaning on his staff. You see the act of faith? It
took not just the act of faith to lean on his staff. The years of faith
it took for Jacob to get to the point where he was leaning on his staff
because God had broken him.

So broken that he had to lean on his staff for the second half of his
life. By faith, Jacob worshipped, leaning on his staff. But this is the
phrase I wanted you to see.

After he wrestles and now Jacob's finally broken, will remain broken for
the rest of his life. It says in verse 28, the angel says to Jacob, he
said, your name shall no longer be deceiver, small man who takes
advantage of others. But God won.

You know, that's the meaning of the word Israel. God prevailed. What
will be the story of your life at the end of your life? What will they
write as the epitaph on your tombstone? He was a good man.

He lived a good life. Survived by his wife and children or survived by
her husband and children or grandchildren or whatever. Is this the
testimony that we want people to give about us? Or will it be said by
the Holy Spirit, God won in his life.

God won in her life. We want to win. We are always fighting with others.

We're always trying to protect what's our own and prove that we're
better than others. And God is looking for a people whom he can break
and about whom he can say, I won. Come Lord, win in my life.

Let's say that about us in our marriages. Let's say that about us as a
church. It doesn't matter what people think about us.

We might look defeated, but you know what they don't know in secret is
that God was the one who prevailed over us. We went into the ground and
died. God won.

This is the meaning of Israel. Will you let God win in your marriage,
husband, wife? Will you fall into the ground and die and you say, maybe
your husband or your wife thinks that they won the argument. But you
know what? You know, God knows he won.

You humbled yourself. You allowed yourself to be broken. God won.

The next example we see is Joseph. Joseph says, you know the story of
Joseph. He was despised by his own brothers, taken advantage of.

He was mistreated. Finally they threw him, turn with me to Genesis 50.
They threw him into a pit.

I mean, his own brothers threw him into a pit. Pretty sad. Then they
weren't done with that.

They sold him into slavery. I mean, talk about your life getting
progressively smaller. God is breaking Joseph.

Smaller. He goes from being despised by his brothers. At least they
leave him alone.

Then they have a chance. They throw him into a pit. Then they have
another chance.

They sell him into slavery. He gets sold to Potiphar and now it looks
like his star is starting to rise. But God says, no, you got it.

You're not deep enough yet for you to bear fruit. I'm sure Joseph, by
the time he got to Potiphar's life, thought, well Lord, you've broken me
enough. Isn't this about as low as I can go? God says, no.

You got to go lower. So he allows him to rise a little bit. He rises to
the top of Potiphar's household, overseeing all of Potiphar's household
and God says, Joseph, I'm not done with you.

He allows him to be falsely accused because he said, I've got something
to accomplish. Joseph, I have a purpose for you that's greater than
anything that you can see right now. In order for that to happen, in
order for you to really be the glorification of God, because it says
that he was there to preserve God's people.

God's name was going to be glorified and in order for that, Joseph had
to go down. He goes down, goes down. He's falsely accused, sent further
down, thrown into jail falsely.

Then he's in jail and all of a sudden his star starts to rise a little
bit in jail. The jailer makes him in charge of all of his household. I
mean all of the prison.

God's not done yet. He says, you got to die some more. The butler is
released from jail.

You know the story and he goes to the Pharaoh's house and completely
forgets about Joseph. What do you think was going through Joseph's mind
as he sees his grain of wheat go further into the ground? When the
butler forgets about him and weeks go on, months go by. I did good to
that person and he rewarded me by forgetting about me.

That's what Joseph felt when the butler forgot about him, but God hadn't
forgot about him. One day at this right time, God lifted up Joseph. But
listen to what he says.

This is the verse I want you to see. At the end of Joseph's life, you
know that he later on that his brothers come back into his life and they
have the opportunity to, you know, they think he'll take advantage of
them. Now he'll get back of them for what he did.

But he says in verse 19 of Genesis 50, they were afraid and they says,
listen Joseph, we'll be nice to you. We'll serve you. We will mean to
you and all that, but we know you have the authority to destroy us.

Please be nice to us. And he said, listen, Joseph said to them, verse
19, don't be afraid for am I not in God's place? This is the testimony
of God, of Joseph's life. I'm in God's place.

You guys mistreated me. You guys meant, no, he goes on to say, am I in
God's place? I think there's two meanings to that. One is, am I God to
take advantage of you? But another translation of that says, am I not in
God's place? Have I not come to where God has done well with, done well
for me? Am I in God's place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but
God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to
preserve many people alive.

This is the grain of wheat bearing much fruit. The entire line of
Israel, including Jesus, who was to come physically through the line of
Judah, was preserved through Joseph's falling into the ground. Judah
would never have survived this famine if it hadn't been for Joseph.

So even though the line came from Judah, God had to use Joseph and his
brokenness to bring about his eternal purpose. Joseph was being
prophetic when he said, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for
good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people
alive. I'm going to dismiss the children now.

Children, you can go to your Sunday school classes and I just have a
couple more people I want to talk about here before I close and hand off
to the time of sharing. Thanks, children. You can go to your Sunday
school classes.

Number 16, I want to show you Moses. But remember that too, brothers and
sisters, I think it's significant what Joseph said, am I in God's place
to judge you or to take advantage of you? Let's say somebody who has
hurt you or done some wrong to you is now at your mercy. What will you
do? Or you find out some information about them.

Will you spread it? Will you take God's place to pronounce judgment on
those who have wronged you or done harm to you? Am I in God's place is a
powerful word that Joseph said. Number 16 verse 4, Moses was small in a
little wicker basket. Then God allowed him to be lifted up.

But because he identified with the people of God, his life got small
again. And he was on the run and he went off and lived in the far off
land and married this woman and had to live with her father, live with
his father-in-law. This life got small and broken during that time for
40 years.

I mean that's about as old as many of us. 40 years of brokenness in the
prime of his life when he could have done so much for God. God said no.

I want to go hide you in a far-off land and I want you to hide you under
your father-in-law and live there and be broken and broken and broken to
the point where later on now after 40 years God says now you're ready
Moses. You're so broken that you can't even speak. Historians say that
he probably had a stammer when he said I can't even speak.

Let Aaron be my mouthpiece. Either he was so shy and so nervous that he
didn't want to speak or he had a speech impediment. Either way
regardless this was a broken man.

But you know the result of that brokenness is that when he was
confronted. His own brother and well first you read about Miriam and
Aaron confronted him. And here you see when Korah, Dathan and Abiram
came and confronted Moses in front of all the people.

It says in verse 4 look at Moses of response. When Moses heard this they
brought these accusations and these complaints against Moses. Who says
that God only speaks through you? Look at Moses response.

He doesn't defend himself. When Moses heard this and this is the man who
had part the river the Red Sea. He had hit yet I don't know what all had
happened at this point but water had come out of a rock.

Manna had come down from heaven. He had at his lifting up of the rod
that the plagues had come on the land of Egypt and this was a man
mightily used of God. And Korah, Dathan and Abiram confronted him and
when Moses heard this he didn't stand up and say don't you guys know
weren't you there when I did this and I said that and this happened and
God used me.

Look at the response of a broken man. He fell on his face and he spoke
to Korah and all his company saying tomorrow morning the Lord will show
who is his. This is the mark of a broken man.

I'm not going to fight. I'm not going to defend myself. I'm not going to
prove.

The Lord will. I will fall on my face. If God can find that response out
of our lives in every circumstance what amazing things he can do through
us.

The final example I do want you to turn back to in John 12 is Jesus
himself. Verse 27 now my soul Jesus says has become troubled. That's why
I take comfort in this that when we go through those times of breaking
whatever it might be there may be time there may be emotions that you
feel in your soul that feel troubled.

My soul is troubled but what shall I say? Father save me from this hour.
Shall I refuse to be pushed down into the ground but for this purpose I
came to this hour. Remember how it said about Esther perhaps you were
made for such a time as this.

What was it under the old covenant? She was to become Queen. Now what is
it under the new covenant? For this purpose you have come to this time.
For what purpose? To go into the ground and die.

That's what he's talking about. When you go through that breaking
circumstance in your life will the response that you have be this my
dear brother and sister. Lord this is why you put me on this earth.

To fall into the ground and die. Not to become the Queen. Not to become
the King.

Not to be lifted up in the eyes of others but to fall into the ground
and die. For this purpose I came to this hour. So when you find them
speaking evil of you or doing evil to you or you find circumstances not
going the way you thought they would.

Father for this purpose I came to this hour. Glorify your name. And a
voice came from heaven.

I have both glorified it and will glorify it. What wonderful words. So
now God says to you will you allow me to win in your life? Will you
refuse to take the place of God in dealing with others? Will you allow
the Lord to manifest who is his? Will you allow the Father to glorify
his name through your life? If I be lifted up I will draw men to me
Jesus said.

And he's looking for the church that will follow him into the ground and
die. That I might know him and the fellowship of his suffering and the
power of his resurrection. Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/WWtxri-mymM.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/santosh-poonen/the-difference-between-being-small-and-being-broken/
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