Going Deeper

Do you want to go deeper with God, friend? Do you long for a closer walk with Him? Do you cry out to Him to use you more? Do you long for a deeper reality of God and a more intimate walk with Him? I've got good news for you, friend. God wants you to go deeper with Him. Let me share a story with you.

I was sitting with Dr. Adrian Rogers in a study at Bellevue and I asked him the following question. I said, Dr. Rogers, what was the point in your life where you felt you had God's Spirit on you in a deeper walk with Him? He paused before answering and finally said, it was after the death of my baby son. That crisis made me go deeper with God in a time of brokenness.

Well, that's our subject today, friends. Going deeper with God. It's amazing how God uses broken things.

It was when Jesus broke the loaves and the fish that He fed 5,000. It was the broken vase that filled the room with the fragrance of spilled perfume to anoint Jesus. There's a relationship between brokenness and usefulness.

Jesus had some vital truths He wanted to teach His disciples, but He had to continually repeat those truths to them until they sank into their thick skulls. Our problem is we may have heard a thing before and although we agreed with it, we didn't act on it. So God has to repeat the lesson and He may have to use more drastic measures with us to get our attention, but He will never give up on us, friend.

God will always mold you in His hands and by His providence to make you more and more like Jesus. You just may be like me. I was a hard case that took more time, but God never gave up on me.

Today, I have a statement to make, a scripture to share, a story to tell, and spectacular news to declare. I promise you, friend, if you pay attention to these four segments of my sermon today and come with me to the end of this message, you'll be glad you did. It'll give you hope for tomorrow.

Well, here's my statement. If God saves you, God will make you like His Son. Let me repeat that.

If God saves you, God will make you like His Son. Now here's the scripture I want to share with you. Turn in your Bibles to the book of Romans in chapter 8. I want to read us Romans chapter 8 verses 28 and 29.

Listen to what God's Word declares. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose, for whom He did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

I'm going to read you, friends, what Matthew Henry, the Bible commentator, wrote about this text because it's priceless. He said these verses speak of God's golden chain that cannot be broken. And there are four links to it.

Well, here's the first link, friends, to this golden chain. One, whom He did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.

Now, here's the second link. All that God designed for glory and happiness as the end, He decreed to grace and holiness as the way. Okay, friends, so you with me so far? Well, here's the third link to this golden chain that Matthew Henry wrote about.

He said, God's foreknowledge of the saints is the same with that everlasting love wherewith He is said to have loved them whom He did foreknow, that is, whom He designed for His friends and favorites. And here's the fourth link in that golden chain. Those whom God thus foreknew, He did predestinate to be conformed to Christ.

Holiness consists in our conformity to the image of Christ. This speaks of the whole of our sanctification. That's what Matthew Henry wrote.

Now, let me repeat my opening statement in light of the scripture we've just read from Romans. If God saves you, God will make you like His Son. This is so for who He saves.

He also sanctifies by His Spirit. God is always at work in our life with either merciful providences or afflicting providences that are all for good and for His purpose. And the end purpose of this golden chain is to make us more and more like Jesus, to make us go deeper with God.

If God saves you, friend, God will make you like His Son. Now, here's my story I want to tell. It's a story about the evangelist Sam Jones.

Sam Jones was at his home in Cordersville, Georgia, when he received a telegram from Texas inviting him to go preach to the cowboys of Southwest Texas. Well, he prayed about it, and he got on a train and went to Texas. And for two weeks he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the cowboys of Texas.

When it was over, as they came to the end of the campaign, the cowboys wanted to give Sam Jones a love offering. They felt the laborer was worthy of his hire, and they had received wonderful blessings from his time among them. But there was a not a single dollar in any of their pockets, and they didn't know what to do.

And they allowed Sam Jones to go back to Cordersville, Georgia, with no compensation or love offering of any kind whatever. Well, Sam Jones went back home, and a number of weeks passed by. Then suddenly, one day, he received the telegram.

It was from the cowboys of Texas. It read like this, We are sending you a love offering, and we are shipping you a carload of Broncos. And Sam Jones scratched his head as he looked in amazement at the telegram.

What in the world am I gonna do, he said, with a carload of wild horses here in the small town of Cordersville? Well, his friend was standing beside him, and he said, Why, it's easy. Hold an auction sale. Sell the Broncos, and you'll get your money.

You can get your love offering then, and put it in your pocket. Well, Sam Jones thought it was a good suggestion, so he held an auction sale. He sold the Broncos, all except one.

He kept the finest-looking Bronco for his son. He wanted to give the Bronco to his son. He wanted to give that Bronco to his son as a gift, and that's what he did.

But the son had never in his life been on the back of an unbroken Bronco, and Sam Jones wondered what he could do. He called the cowboy to him, who had brought the carload of Broncos to Cordersville, and said, Will you take this Bronco? Will you break him, so that my son can ride him? Yes, sir, said the cowboy. I'll be glad to.

Well, how much will you charge? Fifteen dollars, said the cowboy. All right, said Sam. Take him away.

The cowboy disappeared with the Bronco. Two weeks later, he came back. Is he broken? said Sam.

Yes, sir, he's broken. Can my son ride him in perfect safety? Yes, sir, your son can ride him in perfect safety. All right, here's your fifteen dollars.

The father thought that, before allowing his son to ride the Bronco, he better mount himself and make sure that the cowboy had broken the Bronco. He started toward the Bronco. The cowboy came up, waving his hands in alarm.

Sam said, Why? What's the matter? What's gone wrong? Oh, said the cowboy. He's only broken on one side, and you're mounting from the wrong side. Oh, said Sam.

That will never do. My son might make a mistake, and he might mount from the wrong side. How much will you charge to break him on the other side? Fifteen dollars, said the cowboy.

All right, said Sam. Take him away and break him on the other side. Well, another two weeks passed by, and again the cowboy came back, leading the Bronco.

Is he broken, said Sam? Yes, sir, he's broken. Both sides? Yes, sir, both sides. Your son can mount him in perfect safety from either side.

All right, said Sam. Here's your fifteen dollars. Well, I like that story, friends, because it's so true.

You know, the average Christian is only broken on one side. He'll do this, but he won't do that. He'll go here, but he won't go there.

He'll give God just so much of himself, but he still holds something back. He's like the Bronco. He's only broken on one side, and he wonders why God doesn't use him more.

Why the years have passed by, and he's not used of God. Perhaps he's been highly educated. Perhaps he's been well trained.

He may have even gone to seminary, and he sees God using other men who've got very little education, very little training, who've never even been to seminary, and they're being used of God. But he can't understand why God doesn't use him more. He doesn't realize he's only been broken on one side, that God can't trust him.

He'll do this, but he won't do that. He'll go there, but he won't go here. He's only broken on one side, and God cannot rely upon him.

God cannot trust him. The man God uses is the man who's been broken on both sides. The man who's totally surrendered and totally yielded to the Lord Jesus Christ.

But some broncos don't break so easily. They are more stubborn, more hard-headed. Some people are like that.

They take longer to break, and more effort has to be expanded on them. When I was studying the Great Awakening of the 19th century, I noticed it was common for preachers like Charles Finney to call sinners to Christ by saying, come surrender to God. Salvation back then was spoken of as more of a surrender to God.

And today we talk about salvation as only an acceptance of Jesus. You accept him. I wonder if we haven't blocked the way to salvation for many today by telling them all they had to do was to accept Jesus without stressing the importance of surrendering to him as Lord.

You must be broken on both sides in submission to him. God will not allow any rebels into his holy heaven. But do you know what, friend? If you're really saved, God will graciously get you to the place where you will eventually be broken on both sides because he loves you.

And as a father, he only has your best interests at heart. He wants to purge you of the things that are harmful to you and dangerous to you and bring you off your rebellion into a more close, intimate walk with him. Doesn't Amos 3.3 declare, can two walk together except they be agreed? Going deep with God means to be in harmony with him.

He will get you there, friend, if you're a child of his. And here's my last point, which is some spectacular news to declare. God will never give up on you.

If you are his, you will always be his and he will invest the time and effort to get you broken on both sides. He will give you opportunities to go deeper with him. Listen to me, friend.

God loves you with an everlasting love. He wants his very best for you. Come right now, friend, and give it all to God.

Surrender your all to him. Give the Lord Jesus the undisputed right to reign and rule in your life. Agree with him for the grace to bring you to the place where you can be broken on both sides so you can go deeper with him so he can use you the way he wants to use you for his purpose and for his glory.

Let us pray.