What He Fills He Uses Brokenness

My bible declares in Isaiah, all we like sheep have gone astray, every one to his own way. And that's what sin is, friend. Sin is going our way when we know it isn't God's way.

If we allow a thing in our life because it's not a worse thing, but from God's perspective it's a questionable thing, a harmful thing to us, and we continue to allow it, it becomes a sinful thing, and we grieve God's spirit by allowing it in our life, and by making room for it, it creates a divided heart in us. You see, God wants all our heart. I was tired of an up and down walk, and I longed for a life of consistency with God.

I wanted His best for me, but I kept getting in the way. I finally got to the point of desperation. I wanted more.

I cried out to God that I wanted the living reality of His best aspirations for me. I came to Him and I said, Lord, will you teach me? And immediately He led me to Isaiah 28-26, which states, For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. And as my jaw dropped and I scratched my head, I thought, here is a God who hears man.

Here's a God who gets serious with those who get serious with Him. When Jesus was here in His earthly ministry, He had some vital truths He wanted to teach His disciples, but He had to teach it to them over and over again. The Master does the very same for us, and like a father has hopes for a child, God the Father has His only best intentions and His best aspirations for each one of us.

He wants to rid us of the things in our life that are harmful to us. He wants to rid us of the things that block or delay His best for us in becoming what Christ intended for us to be. God lamented in Isaiah over His stiff-necked people, Oh, that thou hast hearkened to my commandments.

Then had that peace been as a river, and the righteousness as the waves of the sea? We have to get to the place in our life where we have to be made willing to be teachable. For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. God wants a willing heart, not a stubborn heart.

God wants all our heart, not just a part. To allow something questionable in our life is to have a divided heart with God in the world. We cannot serve God effectively with a divided heart, but God is long-suffering, and He is loving, and He has all the patience in the world to effect His plan for our life and to make reality His good intentions for us.

But it's often our unwillingness, our hard-headedness, and our stubbornness that delays the process. But the good news is, friend, God won't give up on His children. But we have to get to the place where we're willing to be teachable, and that comes only from brokenness.

Psalm 3418 declares, The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and save as such as be of a contrite spirit. Let me share a story with you, friends, that will illustrate my point. It's a story that's pretty interesting, and I love to tell it, because it's got such a wonderful lesson behind it, and it's a story about the famous evangelist, Sam Jones.

Sam Jones was at his home in Quartersville, 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 he went to Texas for two weeks, where 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 problem. They had no money, not a single dollar, in any of their pockets, and they allowed Sam Jones to go back to Quartersville, 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 a telegram from Texas. It read like this, We are sending you a love offering, and we are shipping to you a carload of broncos. And Sam Jones scratched his head as he looked in amazement at that telegram.

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

You can get your love offering that way, and then put it in your pocket. Sam Jones thought it was a good suggestion. So he held an auction sale and sold the broncos.

He sold all except one. He kept the finest-looking bronco for his son. He wanted to give that bronco to his son for 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, Tim, who brought the carload of broncos to Georgia. He 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. 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. Well, the father thought that before allowing his son to ride the bronco, he better mount himself and make sure the cowboy had broken the bronco. He started toward the bronco.

The cowboy came running up, waving his hands in alarm. Why? said Sam. What's the matter? What's gone wrong? Oh! said the cowboy.

He's only broken on one side, and you're mounting him 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 we 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 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 with 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 go here, but he won't go there. He'll do this, but he won't do that. He'll hang on to something when God says to let it go.

He thinks something is permissible, but God says otherwise. He's only broken on one side, and he wonders why God doesn't use him more. But God cannot rely upon him.

God cannot trust him. The one God uses is the person who's been broken on both sides. And that brings us back to the verse in Psalm 3418, which speaks of a person who's broken on both sides, a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

A contrite spirit gives the imagery of just ground glass, ground to nothing. This comes about from a one-time absolute surrender to God where we throw down our weapons of rebellion and give it all to Him. But then there is a daily submission to Christ's Lordship via the cross where sin is exposed and self is crucified, where self is dethroned and another enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then there has to be a continual yielding to His Spirit. And this speaks of the abiding life from John 15, about the vine and the branches. For Jesus told his disciples, apart from me, ye can do nothing.

That's nothing worthwhile that will last for eternity. We try to do so much in the energy of the flesh, but God is looking for us to rely totally upon His Spirit. So there has to be a constant yielding to the Holy Spirit.

Listen, friend. The Spirit-filled life is the only way to a useful life of fruitfulness to God. I like what J. Sidlow Baxter said about this.

He said, Oh, what I give to Him, He takes. What He takes, He cleanses. What He cleanses, He fills.

And what He fills, He uses.