Letting God Break Us

Thanks Dan. Lord, this is a day that you've made, we choose to rejoice and be glad in it. I pray that you would speak to us, that our hearts would be open and our ears attentive to hear what the Spirit is saying to us this morning.

In Jesus' name, Amen. I'll start reading something from Matthew 18. Dan shared about being broken and being humble.

The opposite of that is obviously being proud and self-confident. That's how we were before we were born again. We were in bondage of course, but we were proud and confident.

Then the Lord found us. While we were yet sinners, he died for us. And then we start off as babes in Christ.

We start off being humble and broken. But somehow, like little children, we start to learn to walk, we get up, we stop falling. And our tendency is to become proud, self-confident, rebellious.

Some of the same attributes we had before we were born again. And we have the right words. We know that by grace we're saved through faith.

It's not of ourselves, it's a gift from God. But we totally act and behave differently. We treat other people as less than.

It can happen. And this is something that the Lord's been speaking to me about, just remembering where we came from and allowing the Lord to take us through those trials that we shared on last week. And that we allow ourselves to be broken by them rather than to become angry and bitter and resentful and hardened by them.

Because the end of that is like what Dan shared, ground to powder. Matthew 18 verse 1, at this time the disciples came to Jesus saying, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Now these brothers, Jesus called them, they had a sincerity, there was a desire in them to follow the Lord.

But they were not born again. He put his spirit on them, gave them power. But in essence, they're still slaves.

Because that pride is still heavy at work in them. They're still desiring to have that spirit of competition. It was in the old life in business and in sport and all these things.

And now in the new life, it's in ministry. Who's the greatest? Seeking honor, seeking the pecking order to see who would sit on the right hand and on the left, so to speak. That competitive spirit is something we have to guard against.

Because it's hard to be competitive and consider your brother better than yourself or consider not only your own interest, but your brother's interest. Nobody's going to win. In fact, you'll get joy when your brother wins.

At this time, Jesus came and they asked him who's going to be the greatest and Jesus called a little child and he set him in the midst of them. And he said, unless you are converted. Now basically suggests that the brothers are unconverted.

Unless you're converted, and you become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. I remember the very day, Brother Greg Gordon, you called me, we were on our way to Haiti the next day. And we shared our testimonies one with another.

And just reminding of our unregenerate, unconverted life and sharing with one another. It's good that we remember where we came from, lest we somehow think that we've arrived at some place. Because the only reason we are we are is because of him.

All things are of him, through him and to him. And without him, nothing is made. He is that living word, who breathed into us.

And his brother Milt says zero live. We could read that passage, we're wallowing in our blood, and he found us. We're as good as dead.

And he took us and he washed us and he cleansed us and he clothed us. But heaven forbid, we start to trust in our beauty. We start to think about ourselves as being something when he is something.

Unless you're converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Who's he talking to here? Is he talking to the heathen? Is he talking to the Gentiles? He's talking to his disciples. He still sees these guys as slaves.

He still sees them as servants. He said a servant doesn't know what his master's doing. He's been bought with a price.

I was reading this morning in Exodus 20 about the commandments. And then it goes from there talking about a servant or a slave who's purchased with money. And he talks about the man shall serve six months.

Then the seventh month, you give him the option to go free. But if in the time that he's there, while he's serving, he has a wife that's given to him and he begets children. How many of you have had a wife and you've got children? And the master has been good to you.

And you have an option to go free. I was reminded as I was having some fellowship, the Lord was showing me how he blessed the people. He gave them bread from heaven to eat, so to speak.

And they came to seek him because they were filled and because of the loaves and the fish. And they came to the other side, they wanted to make him king, because he would make life better for them. He would make life easier for them.

A lot of us we serve Jesus and our prayer is very much Lord give me help me. I need I want my trials, my life, my problems. And we spend almost zero time praying for our brothers.

When's the last time you prayed for those who are suffering or persecuted? When the last time you had any thought about what other people were going through? We're not to think about only our own interests, but also the interests of others. And then they came and they were seeking him because of the loaves and the fishes. Well, we need bread to eat.

Give us Moses, give us bread, give us the spread. And he said, Listen, you seek me because of the natural things. A lot of times we add Jesus to our life because things aren't going so good naturally, he's getting our attention.

And then when Jesus comes in our life, he starts to turn things around. And he starts to provide for us, he starts to bless us, he does miracles for us. And then it has to manifest that are we really seeking him? Because he's worthy to be praised? Are we seeking him for the loaves of the fish? And he says, Listen, the one who feeds on me shall live.

Moses gave you the bread and they died. He said, but the one who feeds on me shall live. Are you serving Jesus so you get a better job? You serving Jesus you get a little extra money.

So you can get some honor when you share the gift that he gave you in front of the brothers. Why are you serving him? Eat my flesh, he said and drink my blood or you have no life in you. And at this point, the disciples who also needed to be converted, there were 70 there were others who were there seeking him with impure motives, mixed motives.

It says then many of them walked with him no more. And then he turns to the 12. And he said, Do you want to leave also? You know what passage comes to mind? There were Jews who believed in his name.

And Jesus said to them, Come to me to be free. And most of them said, We are free. We're Abraham's descendants.

We've never been in bondage to anyone. No, you were slaves in Egypt. You forgot where you came from.

You were bought with a price. And I redeemed you. Do you want to go also? These brothers said, Lord, to whom shall we go? I know we could go free, we could go like these and just go back to our old life.

Lord, we're going to put our ear to the to the all to the doorpost now. You've been good to us. To whom shall we go? Master, we decide willingly to become bond servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul referred himself as a bond servant of Christ. A slave does not abide in a house forever but a son. When a slave puts his ear to the doorpost and he allows himself to be pierced, because his master has been good to him.

He said, No longer do I call you servants, I call you friends. He treats us like sons. On a day that we share with one another.

It says in Malachi in chapter three, those that feared the Lord, they spoke often one to another. And the Lord hearkens in and hears the things that we're saying about him, man, we have a good master. He said that day, he said they shall be mine on the day that I make them my jewels.

As a man, as a son serves his master, his father faithfully, he grafts them in to the family. Unless you're converted, become as little children who by no means inherit the kingdom of God. What keeps us broken? What we shared on last week, trials.

Trials not only keep us broken, but they bring us revelation of who he is, of his character and of his nature, as we become partakers of the sufferings of Christ. That's when his glory is revealed, as Brother Dan shared, then we get to understand what it means to be an overcomer. We are overcoming by his grace.

Not of works which we've done, not because of anything that we can boast in. But by grace we're being saved. It's through faith in him.

A lot of people say they have faith, they put their faith in God, we trust. They put their faith in other things that they worship the brain, they put their faith in their education, they put their faith in what they've been able to accomplish the things that they have, they put their trust in horses, they put their trust in men, what men can do for them. But we're to put our hope in God.

For I shall yet praise him. You know, it says better to be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked. You know, when you have a revelation that the Lord's been good to you, and you say, Lord, let me be a bond slave forever.

Because you've given me a family, you've given me a home and everything I have is because of you. And you purchased me with your blood. We been purchased by the blood, been washed by your blood.

We've been sanctified and empowered through the blood. Without the shedding of blood, where would we be? No forgiveness of sins. Oh, but who's gonna, you know, preach to us or tell us that we need to humble ourselves.

It doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter how far you've walked with God. We need to remain broken and contrite before him because that's the only place on earth he dwells. He dwells in the high and the lofty place and with him who is humble, who is broken, contrite, and who trembles at the word of God.

We need to tremble at the word of God because he is Lord. And who are we? Read a passage from Job. Job was a righteous man, blameless in all his ways.

To be blameless means that you know nothing against yourself. But you're not justified by that because God is the one who justifies us. Did you know that there's something called unintentional sin? An intentional sin, we could read of that in Numbers 15, but for the sake of the purpose of this message, we're not going to read that today.

But for presumptuous willful sin, there was no sacrifice. There was only judgment. And all the sacrifices were for unintentional sin.

So we have to be careful that we don't defiantly and rebelliously do things just because it seems good to us to do it. Or to give someone a piece of their mind just because they deserve it, or because we have power in our hand to do it. We need to fear God.

What if he speaks to us like Job spoke to him? All our bones would shake. Job's friends, they spoke to him very arrogantly. And they accused him and they spoke wrongly to Job about him.

Now you can say they spoke wrongly to Job about Job. But the Word of God says that they spoke wrongly to Job about him. They didn't understand him.

These preachers who understood something of God didn't understand what God was doing in Job's life. And they basically accused Job using God's words against him in a wrong way, without wisdom, without the right spirit. And Job in the process of this time holding to his integrity, because God had allowed Satan to strip him of all good things, his family and his possessions.

His wife was there. And we see in Job in chapter 40, verse 1, Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said, Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? He who rebukes God let him answer it. Job had now turned in holding to his integrity and his righteousness.

He had turned to blame God, that God had unjustly allowed these trials in his life. Have you ever done that? Have you gone through some hard things? And you know, the Lord's allowed it and has your heart thought, you know what, God, the things that you're doing to me is not right. The way you're treating me is not right.

I've been there. This discipline is too severe. The consequences are too great for the sin, if there even is a sin.

We commit unintentional sin. There's forgiveness for that. And the Lord has his ways of giving us light on ourselves that we might repent and turn from it.

We might learn of it. Jesus is teaching those disciples that if you want to be great, you've got to be the least and servant of all. If you want the Lord to use you, start to serve.

Husbands, start to serve your families. Stop being selfish, wasting time on yourself and your things that you want to do. Think about the interests of your wife.

Think about the interests of your children. Not just your own interests. If you want to be great in the kingdom of God, start to think about the brothers, how you can serve them, how you can bless them, how you can be a friend for them, how you can pray for them.

Start to get the heart of God for the people of God. He said there was a hundred sheep and one went astray. And the Father's heart is to leave the 99 and go after the one that's straying, if perhaps he'll find it.

Have a burden for the lost. Care about his interests, not just me and mine. Job starts to blame the Lord.

He who rebukes God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the Lord and said, behold, I am vile. What shall I answer you? Job gets light on himself.

The man who is righteous, who's blameless, who has done nothing wrong in his own opinion, nothing willful. Now he turns in his self-righteousness to blame God for inflicting him unrighteously. And he says, behold, I am vile.

Shall I answer you? What can I say? I put my hand on my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I'm going to stop now. It's good to get light when we've spoken hastily before God and before others and choose to stop.

Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further. And the Lord answered Job out of the tornado. I don't know about you, but we had some family members that got picked up and thrown across the road by a tornado in Palm Springs last year.

Just suddenly a tornado came, just picked them up and threw them. Small little one. If it was a big one, might have threw him into another state.

God is almighty. If he comes to speak to you out of a tornado, I'm sure it'd be very tormenting thing. Your tornado comes and it's right in front of you there.

You don't know if it's going to suck you up and give you a good toss. You've already had a good toss. You're going to get another one.

And the Lord's speaking to Job out of the whirlwind. He says, listen, you need to prepare yourself like a man and I'm going to ask you some questions and I want you to answer me. Would you indeed annul my judgment? Would you condemn me that you might be justified? You see, a lot of times we seek to justify ourselves and we need to take stock.

It's not so important about us justifying ourselves. It's important that we do what's right. And sometimes we might not understand what's going on.

But we need to be slow to speak and quick to hear. Because if you're listening, you can understand it might take some time. But don't kindle your own fire.

Don't light your own lamp. Try to make something happen. Wait on the Lord until he gives you light on what's going on.

You might learn of him. Have you an arm like God? Can you thunder like his voice? Can you adorn yourself with majesty and splendor? Array yourself with glory and beauty? Can you disperse the rage of your wrath like God can do? Can you look on everyone who is proud and humble him? To look on everyone who is proud and bring him very low? To tread down the wicked in their place and to hide them in the dust forever and bind their faces into hidden darkness? Then I will confess to you that your own right arm, your own right hand can save you. In other words, he's telling Job, you know what? You don't see it, but you're proud.

You're self-righteous and you've been justifying yourself. And you need to humble yourself. You need to do exactly what you said.

You need to put your hand on your mouth. So you don't do any more sinning with your tongue. We can't see when we're proud.

Maybe other people around us can see it. But we ourselves have a hard time seeing it. Because we justify ourselves.

And then the Lord allows trials and tribulations to come in our life. Why did Paul have so many trials and tribulations that came into his life? Because of the abundance of revelations that he had. And because he persecuted Christians and he was going to have to suffer for the things that he had done in the same measure he was going to learn.

What he had done he would experience. But because he had abundance of revelation from the Lord, the Lord needed to keep him broken. Humble.

Now if you're the smartest spiritual guide in all of the city, there would be a tendency to become proud. If you know people were coming from far and wide to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and you are Solomon, you know that you're the wisest man. Solomon knew.

The only problem is he could not stop sinning against what God had called him not to do. And taking so many women and lives for himself. And he could not, he didn't have any power over that, but he had so much wisdom.

We need to act on some of the wisdom that we have. It's not just enough to know the answer, we have to actually do it ourselves. I told Job, you're proud.

You're going through these things, because I needed to allow this spirit in you to manifest so that you could see it. I seen it, you didn't know it was there. And now you're blaming me for the things that are going on, but I'm trying to help you so that you understand what's going on.

Now we jump to Job 42, then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do everything. So he's acknowledging that God is supreme, that he is the authority. And that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you.

You asked who is this who hides counsel without knowledge. Therefore, I have uttered and said things that I did not understand. You know, sometimes we say things we think we understand.

We don't know what we're saying. We speak proudly, we speak without knowledge, speak without thinking, and we're doing damage. And it's from pride.

I spoke things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please. And let me speak.

And you said, I will question you and you shall answer. He said in verse five, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but through the trials and the tribulations and through what you've allowed in my life, and all the hardships that I endured. Now my eye sees you.

Therefore, I despise myself and I repent in dust and ashes. Here Job repents for speaking things he didn't understand. That the Lord was keeping him from the pit.

He was keeping him from destruction. He was sparing him, because pride comes before the fall and haughtiness before destruction. If you're going through things and the Lord is trying to break you, let him be break you in a good way.

Not to become despairing with self pity and self loathing, but to become broken and contrite and humble. So that he might lift you up. Briefly we'll look in Psalm 73.

Psalm 73 is a man who writes this song. And from time to time, this can happen to all of us. We're rubbing shoulders with our family, with our old friends, with the people in the community, people at work, wherever you are in the neighborhood, and you're hearing about all the things that everybody's doing.

And you know, usually they don't tell you too much about their failures. And you know how big their mortgages are on their loans and how much credit card debt they have. But they will tell you that they went to Las Vegas and they won 1000 bucks playing the slot machines, or that they play the 649 and they they won $500 or they'll tell you about all the good things and it produces envy.

It can produce jealousy, it can produce stir up something of the flesh in us when we are not spiritually minded when we become carnally minded. And in this song, this brother speaking about this truly God is good to Israel, we are the Israel of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, because in Isaac your seed shall be blessed to such as are God is good to those who are pure in heart. Now the pure and hard are going to see what you're going to see God.

Job said, I heard of you with the ear. But now I see you he was pure in heart. But there was something there of uncleanness, some kind of secret killer there called pride, self righteous pride that he didn't know was there and he repented of it.

When we repent of a of something, then God is able to remove it from us. To such as are pure in heart, but as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped because I became envious of the proud, the boastful. And when we rub shoulders with the with the people who seem everything's going great for them.

Seems like getting away with everything. They're living with common law and they're just the kids are doing great everything. They're not having any miscarriages.

Everything seems to be going great for them until a certain point. But it's for us everything become hard now that we're serving Christ. Because the Lord has his finger on us, because we've been bought with a price, because he wants us to be his.

You know, when I was reading Exodus 20, the very first thing he says, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the house of bondage. Every single one of us came out of bondage. And now he's received us as bond servants to serve him.

That's where we came from. And now he's been good to us. Let's allow ourselves to become bond slaves for life.

The ungodly their strength is firm. They're not troubled like we are. They're not plagued like other men.

Verse six, therefore pride serves as their necklace. We can become envious of the proud and the boastful. Their eyes bulge with abundance.

They have more than heart could wish. They scoff. They speak wickedly.

They seem to be getting away with it. They speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens.

Their tongues walk through the earth. But yet now Job is stopped in his tracks. And he says, I'm going to stop speaking and put my hand over my mouth.

I've been speaking proudly against you, Lord. Verse 12, these are the ungodly who are always at ease. They increase in riches.

Surely I've cleansed my hands in vain, my heart in vain. I've washed my hands in innocence all day long. I've been plagued and disciplined every morning.

You feel like that? People around you, their stocks are going up. Yours are going down. Their businesses are doubling in size.

Yours is seems to be getting crippled on every side. Why? Because the Lord wants to become broken and contrite. That our dependency would be on him.

You know, we sang that song, he makes us rich and poor. We might trust him more. Whether we have or have not, it matters not.

What matters is that he's pleased with us and that we are abiding in the vine. This brother gets light on himself and he repents. Surely you set them in slippery places, you cast them down.

Oh, how they were brought to desolation in one moment. They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awakes, so Lord, when you awake, you shall despise their image.

I was reading in Daniel last week. If we would keep going in Daniel, for the sake of time, I'll paraphrase. Nebuchadnezzar had another dream.

And then the dream he saw a large tree growing up, which reached up into heaven. And then he heard a voice say, chop the tree down, chop it down. And he called Daniel in to help him with the interpretation of the dream.

And Daniel, when he heard the dream, he was astonished and he didn't want to speak. And he said, Come on, Daniel, tell me. It's okay.

Tell me what it means. Tell me what my dream means. He said, King, I wish it were about your enemies.

You know that you would live long and it would be about your enemies. But it's not King, it's about you. God has blessed you and exalted you and given you a kingdom.

But you know what? You become proud. And he's gonna cut you down. You know, there's this Johnny Cash song that says, sooner or later, God will cut you down.

I think of that when I think of that big tree. But the Lord said, leave a stump. And it was he said, perhaps the Lord will prolong your days.

And one morning, King Nebuchadnezzar got up and he opened up his curtains and he went out onto his porch and he looked at all these things that his hands had created. And all the dominion that he had accomplished and everything he had done in his lifetime. And he didn't even say it out loud.

I think he just said it in his heart. He said, Look at what I've accomplished. Look at it.

I'm a somebody. And that moment a voice came from heaven. And he got humbled.

Until seven times would pass over him. It says that he would be given the mind of a beast. And not of a man.

The guy went insane. His hair grew long like birds feathers and his fingernails grew long. It's not a good thing when your fingernails are really long.

It's hard to work. And he was like, like a like an ox in the field. Eating grass, God is able to take someone who accomplishes amazing things and bring them low.

Because God gives them the ability to do it. Just like an axe in his hand. He allowed Nebuchadnezzar to do his biddings.

But at the same moment when if he decides the axe is going into fire, or the axe is going to cut him down, then God will cut him down. But he's also able to restore if we humble ourselves. There's a passage in the Psalms that says, I was like a beast before you.

You guys know where that is? Psalm 51. David, against thee and the only have I sinned and done evil in my sight. That's not Psalm 51.

And I'll quote it for you. He said, I was like a beast before you. When we become proud, we start doing our own thing and we forget about God.

Then we've been given the mind of a beast. And we start to live according to the flesh and we start to indulge in the things of the flesh. And God is able to humble all those who become proud.

Oh, that was in Psalm 73, verse 22. Thus my heart, verse 21, my heart was grieved. This is a man who became envious of the proud and was vexed in my mind.

I was so foolish and ignorant. I was like a beast before you. Nevertheless, I'm continually with you.

You hold me by my right hand. Now Nebuchadnezzar was there and he was cut down and he became like a beast in the field because he had become proud. May the Lord help us from becoming beasts.

Every man is like a beast when he's in the flesh. The flesh is like a beast. It will do fleshly things.

But the Lord is able to bring a man to a place where he looks up. And that's what he did for Nebuchadnezzar. He brought him to a place where he said after seven times pass, he said, I'll leave the stump and he restored him back to his kingdom that he might acknowledge that God of heaven is king of kings and Lord of lords.

And all the other gods that he had served are nothing. They're idols. May the Lord help us that we don't have to go through these kind of hard dealings to get light on ourselves like Job had to get light on himself.

And Nebuchadnezzar had to get light on himself. And this man who wrote Psalm 73, this Asaph, he needed to get light on himself that when we start to envy people and become proud, we start to get a beast mentality. We go into beast mode rather than being humble and broken and contrite and abiding in the spirit.

May the Lord help us with these things. Let's pray. Father, we're grateful for your many blessings.

I thank you for the wonderful things that you've done for us. We have, but we need more, not more natural things, but more light. We need more of you.

More love, more power, more of you in our life. I pray, Father, that you would keep us broken and contrite. You would help us, Lord, when we read your scriptures to tremble at your word.

Have mercy on us and help us, Lord. Lord, you're able to restore us if we fall. And you're able to help us to overcome.

Lord, help us to tune out the voices that are speaking so proudly and loftily around us that we would not lust after evil things, but that we would tune our ear to your wisdom, to know your voice, and to speak often one with another about you, the things that we've heard about you and the things we've come to know about you. Bless the children, keep them pure, help us to overcome. In Jesus' name, amen.