Strong Enough to Break

What I'm doing, what's hard is sometimes you plan things, but God kind of changes those plans. Anybody ever have that happen? And we were planning on Worship Wednesdays, and that's easier for me, Worship Wednesdays. But when I've got something burning in my heart to share with you, it's usually a good indication that it's good to come and share that with you.

The main verse, of course, I talked about last Sunday with Psalm 51, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. That's what we give God. It's a pretty incredible Scripture.

So the title is Strong Enough to Break, and it says God desires a broken heart. When we break something, we throw it away. But when God breaks something, it's time to be renewed and rebuilt.

And it's a beautiful thing. God bless the brokenness, because that's the only way to really get pride out of us. I mean, I wish it was not the case.

I wish we could just always humble ourselves, even though we're commanded to humble ourselves before God. It's sometimes hard, because if you don't have things that break you and keep you humble, there's self-exaltation comes in, and I'm doing pretty good. And so God will use those seasons of brokenness.

If you're a cowboy, you know you break a horse to humble it. A rock has to be broken to get the minerals out, the gold, the alabaster box in the Bible had to be broken in order to experience that incredible perfume. And so it is with us as well.

So let me put the Scripture up there, Psalm 51. The reason I put the whole chapter up there is you can't just pull 17 out without really understanding the whole context. Now, this is when David was confronted about Bathsheba.

David saw a woman bathing, and at that point, that's why it says flee. You don't ponder, you get out of there. And he looked and gazed, and he wanted her.

She was married. And come to find out, she came to the king's house when she was summoned, became pregnant. She said, I'm with child, and David said, oh, this is not good, brought her husband Uriah back in from war, and said, you know, go be with your wife this evening.

And he did not want to do that. He tried a few times, and he felt bad because all of his men were in battle, and for him to come home, it was just not what a warrior would do, I guess, in that case. And so David put him on the front line and had him killed on purpose to take his wife.

Pretty bad, pretty bad. And I think quite many months went by, like probably a year or so went by before he was confronted. And Nathan gave that famous story about, you know, David, you have this man in your kingdom who has all these little sheep and lambs, and he's very rich, and he went and he took this little lamb from this family.

That's all they had. He took that lamb, and he killed it for his feast. And David said, that man ought to be killed, or at least repay everything.

And Nathan said, you're the man. And he confronted him about his sin. And I don't know if Nathan was trembling.

I don't know, it took him so long. But this is what God loved about David. He's a man after his own heart because how he responded.

He responded. When God convicts you, when you're lovingly challenged about something, you know, how do you respond? That speaks volumes, doesn't it? Pride stands up straight and gets in that boxing position. And excuses and blame shifting and trying to defend because true brokenness and repentance has not occurred.

But David took the other approach and admitted it. And from that, we get this psalm. That's incredible.

To read back in history what he was feeling. And so he said this, oh God, have mercy upon me. According to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgression.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. It's so important for us as well. He began with mercy.

He began with mercy. What is mercy? It's undeserved, compassionate kindness that withholds punishment and relieves suffering. Often expressed as forgiveness, healing, and steadfast love.

See, that's God's nature. And that's why we can both preach His holiness and righteousness and His love and His mercy and His grace. See, the churches that get off course are if they go on one or either side.

If it's just all about mercy, that's when you have the tendency to hang the rainbow flags and not point out sin and not say anything negative and just wanna be popular and just love people. And I appreciate that heart, but that's not the biblical message. You have to also explain the other side of the coin or this group that's always angry.

And you know it because that's where that word Bible thumper comes from. Hellfire and brimstone preaching. And it's okay to have that as long as you have the grace and the mercy and the love.

And so he approached God and said, Lord, please give me your mercy. And here's the key though. Verse three, for I excused my sin.

Does not say that. It says, for I acknowledge, I acknowledge my transgressions. That is so beneficial and beautiful to do before God.

And even others. When you own it, isn't it beautiful? I mean, it hurts at first, but it's beautiful. You don't have to fight against things.

You don't have to remember the last thing you kind of misspoke and trying to twist things and blame shift. It's just like, you know what, I just own it. And he acknowledged this sin.

And he said, this sin is always before me. Against you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. Guys, this will be a big help if you always think of this.

The sin is really against God. Because sometimes I don't care if I sin against that person. But we're actually sinning against God when we sin.

That you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. He had a true sign of repentance. I won't go into this in great detail because I have many times before.

But there are true signs of repentance. And we see this a lot at church, working with different people. There's the sorry I got caught.

And there's the repentance. The sorry I got caught, they usually have a little attitude behind it. You know, a little chip on the shoulder, a little bit, yeah, but the blame shifting and you don't know.

And it's just this kind of whole vibe you can get. You're not really repentant, you're just sorry. Sorry you're losing half your alimony.

Or half your paid alimony. And right in the gap, there's no repentance. They're sorry though, they say the same thing, kind of, wrong, different tone.

But then true repentance is when somebody says, I was wrong, I acknowledge it. How can I fix it? They just want to fix it. And there's usually no strings attached.

Okay, I'll do that, but you do this. Not repentance, I mean, you're broken. You're like, how can I fix this? I don't like that this happened, whatever it takes.

And I hate to beat this up, but I'm dealing with another issue out of state actually, kind of, where they're on their way to divorce, Christians, it's like, do you know how easy this would be to fix? Humble yourself, somebody has to. Please. I say, can you just go and say, you know what, I'm sorry, I don't want the kids to see this.

We both made mistakes, how can I repair this? This is worth fighting for. Instead of bowing up and getting your attorney. It's like, guys, this is, how many marriages are truly repairable? A lot, a lot.

I would say the vast majority, we've seen a lot of divorces here over the years. Sad to say. And I would say, I want to be conservative, but nine out of 10, we're salvageable.

You know, there's the abuse and there's this and constant infidelity and things like that, you know, but more often than not, it's like, they got their fight stance and this one's got their fight stance, and like, can you just, can you own some of it? No, no, no, they need to, and like, why don't you just own it and just say, you know, I need to work on it, I can become a better husband. Like, no, no, no, well, if I do that, then she'll take advantage. I'm like, well, you guys.

And so it just goes to divorce court. I've had people speak from this pulpit years ago, give a testimony, divorce within a couple years. How does that happen? And again, if you're separated, if you're divorced, I don't want to beat you up.

God knows, God knows your heart. You've done all you can do maybe, but my point is on brokenness and genuine repentance, once that happens, even on one side, God can do an amazing work. Amazing, now, if both of them humble themselves, it's repaired, it's restored.

If both of them humble themselves, it works. It's really that simple. If one does and the other doesn't, then that can be challenging.

That's where you take it to the Lord. And, you know, there's a lot, I mean, I'd have to do a whole teaching on biblical grounds for divorce and things like that, but God knows a person's heart. The bottom line is there's not signs of true repentance because of pride.

Pride doesn't want to admit that they are wrong. And he says, verse five, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Now, this could be our inherent sin nature versus an admission of an illegitimate birth.

Why I said that is some people use this to say that David was born out of, kind of out of wedlock and wasn't a legitimate son. We just don't know that. Even the series on TV about David on Amazon kind of made him out to be an illegitimate son, not a real son, and that's why he was treated a certain way.

It could possibly be. I just couldn't find any scriptural support this week. Most commentary said one or the other, which, of course, it's true that we were all brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

And that's why we go against that view that we are inherently good. I don't know how that snuck in to the church. Do you not have kids? I was a kid at six months when, you can tell, there's a little sneaky person in that little body.

You remember Aubrey, firstborn? I mean, she'd say, mine. Aubrey do, Aubrey do, mine. Let's share.

Don't worry, all the kids were like that. All of us are, right? So there's sin within when we're born, and that's why we have to deal with it as soon as possible in teaching. Did you know that the sooner the kids come to the Lord, the better? I don't know why I was doing some research, and I came across some interesting statistics.

Maybe I'll share it during Run the Heavens, but yeah, like most kids come to faith around 12 or so, and that's the best age, and they're open and they're receptive. Probably that teachable heart, they haven't been jaded, and as you get older, it gets so hard. Like I know people, we're praying for somebody in their 60s now, and it's been a 23 year prayer for us.

It's hard, and then I also heard that most Christians evangelize within their first two years of becoming a Christian. So the longer you become a Christian, the less you evangelize. Like that is so, I remember the first two years, I was, I could, talking to everybody about Jesus, how do we lose that fire, lose that zeal? Maybe life becomes comfortable, we become jaded.

I'm not sure, but we need to get back to that. That excitement, and that's why we put on Run the Heavens actually, is to get that passion back into our hearts. And he said, God, you desire truth in the inward parts, in the deep areas, in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom.

Go deep with God, not superficial. Don't harbor unconfessed sin. Unhealed and unforgiven leads to anger and shame.

Let God do that deep work in your heart, that he had to do in David's heart, obviously, and I love this verse too, purge me with hyssop. And I shall be clean. And they used hyssop back then for the purging process and the cleansing process with how they, with cleanliness and things that they did.

And he said, wash me, Lord, you wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Make me hear the joy and gladness again. In other words, I'm desperate, I'm despondent, I'm depressed, I'm caught in sin, and now we see an incredible heart breaking.

King David, this is King David breaking and repenting. He's basically saying, let me hear that joy again and that gladness, and you broke my bones, but Lord, they will rejoice someday. The bones you have broken may rejoice.

And of course, it's a metaphor, all his bones weren't broken, but that's how he felt. And that's why I have such a passion for this area, because I see people living this way in sin and unrepentant sin for years. And it literally wastes you away from the inside out.

There's a poison about it, I think. There's chemically and even the toxins as far as the hormones that are released and the cortisol and the adrenaline always and the anger, and most cardiologists will tell you that angry anger can really damage the heart and these emotions, and he said, just Lord, purge me, wash me, cleanse me. Let joy return.

He asked God for help. Well, that's a novel idea. Ask God for help.

Lord, he's saying, now he goes on, verse nine, hide your face from my sin, but not from me. I added that part. Hide your face from my sin and blot out my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart. I've had this dirty, do you remember that shame and guilt? Maybe some of you are living in that now. Completely surrender to God.

And I remember in my 20s, this is my life. Shame and guilt, and I didn't want to go to church because I mean, you just didn't want to go where God's presence was. And you get up the next morning and feel guilty and shame and you have to start over the cycle of destructive relationships and destructive addictions again because you're dealing with the shame and the guilt.

There's never freedom in that life. That's why I said create a clean heart within me, oh God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Clean equals forgiven. Basically reestablish a firm foundation in my heart and in my life. That's one good thing.

When you come back to the Lord, when you repent, it feels like not only are you a new person, but now there's a firm foundation. You're on solid ground. I know where my steps are going.

I have certainty about life. I feel good about things. And he said, do not cast me away from your presence in verse 11.

Do not cast me away from your presence, oh God, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit. Instead of God's presence literally withdrawing, Christians can quench and grieve the Spirit.

So here's what they would call the study of pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament, the Holy, I can't even imagine this. Oh my goodness.

Can you imagine? Just think if that still happened. You start sinning against God and the Holy Spirit is completely withdrawn. Talk about scary.

Because at least with the quenching and grieving, that conviction's still there, right? You still see that, you feel that fire burning. I feel that fire burning. I'm quenching it right now, but I feel it.

I feel it. That conviction, the hound of heaven, the Spurgeon called the Holy Spirit the hound of heaven, and that now we can grieve and quench the Spirit. Quench His fire.

Don't quench His fire. Grieving the Spirit and quenching His fire takes away so much from the Christian life. Guys, think about this.

Isn't this what it boils down to? When we're quenching and grieving the Spirit, continually, I mean, we all do it periodically, but when we live there, that's not a very productive life as a Christian. That's why the Bible encourages re-alight that fire again. Return to your first love.

Deep repentance. And I've noticed too that sometimes the people who need the repentance don't think they do. They forget that we have to repent of unforgiveness.

Bitterness. Anybody bitter? Oh, there's a few yeses. Okay.

I can become bitter, offended, bitter. And then you get into besetting sin and things like that. Of course, it can weigh us down.

And he said, when the joy of your salvation returns to me, Lord, then I will teach sinners your ways and they will be converted to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed. Oh God, the God of my salvation, in my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

He shall sing of God's righteousness. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall flow forth praise. I wonder if David was quiet in church.

Don't get too carried away. That's emotionalism. All these guys seem pretty emotional to me.

I don't know. Maybe I'm reading into the Bible a little bit, but oh God, create in me a clean heart. Restore right spirit in me.

Oh God, Isaiah, rend the heavens. Oh God, wake up your people. There's emotional engagement.

There's excitement. There's urgency. For you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it to you.

You do not delight in burnt offerings. The irony is David probably brought burnt offerings and he probably did sacrifices with the high priest during that time, but that wasn't enough to get rid of the conviction. It was a temporary covering of his sin, no doubt, but he said the sacrifices of God, this is the only thing we can give God.

You can actually give God this as well. This is amazing. We can actually give God.

It's like a little, we're this little speck of dust on this little blue planet and we can give God something. The sacrifices, what God desires are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. These, oh God, you will not despise.

He will not despise. When the Bible says that, believe it. We don't have these, but I just threw them in here this morning.

Signs that you are not yet broken. Number one, a lack of compassion and empathy. Do you lack compassion? I don't care.

No empathy, big deal. It's all about me, me, me, me. You're not quick to listen, but you're quick to speak.

You're demanding and you're demeaning. You're worried about what people think, the appearance of having it all together. And then finally, selfish and self-focused.

That type of person needs to break and to humble themselves. And often it doesn't come naturally. It comes supernaturally.

So you have to acknowledge it and say, God, I need to be more broken. God, please humble me in that way. David was strong enough to break.

So I want to ask this question tonight. If God was trying to humble a person and break them, how would He go about doing it? What could it be? We get hurt, offended. If God's trying to break a person, often He'll also take what they thought was important and smash it.

He'll crush their idols. Because what we're trusting in, this is what I'm trusting in, and that falls apart in order for you to break. And when we get offended or we get hurt by people, and sometimes that offense and that hurt is good.

If it's right and God's using it to break you and to humble you. If you hear from people, you're too abrasive. You're too this.

You're too controlling and angry and abrasive. And what do you do with that? That hurts, I'm upset at that. Well, maybe God's using that to break you and to humble you.

Ulterior motives get crushed when God begins to change our plans. You ever go into something thinking you're going to succeed and you come out failing? Broken, broken. It's a beautiful thing.

It's a beautiful thing. Such a desperate need right now for pride to be crushed. Pride to be crushed.

To become tender and teachable and relatable. You are bold, but you're not abrasive. Big difference.

And this was David's breaking point. This was David's breaking point. Did you know that Moses was broken many times? Remember he thought he was something special until he killed a man and they knew it was him and then he had to go hide in the desert for 40 years and then even that, trying to get the children of Israel into the promised land.

He wanted to die. He wanted to give up. I mean, this poor guy, man, he went through it.

Breaking and breaking and breaking, but the best leaders, the best leaders are those who have been broken, crushed, overwhelmed, overpowered, and shattered in a good sense. Their pride, not becoming a doormat, not becoming unable to do anything, but the best leaders have had their pride broken and crushed. They've been overwhelmed by their sinful condition, overpowered by God and their dreams shattered and replaced with God's dreams.

Because when somebody really leads, they've got to be able to have empathy and relate to people and be teachable and listening. God, thank God for that brokenness. Isaiah said, I am undone.

Jeremiah said, I am mourning. Astonishment has taken hold of me. Nehemiah said, why should I not be sad when the place of my father's tombs lies in waste? All these great biblical heroes, you see times of brokenness and desperation.

If we had time for Abraham, if we had time for Jacob, if we had, did Samson get broken? This mighty man of God, Samson, because of his pride, ended up being taken by the Philistines. And the Bible says they gorged out his eyes. What? What? Hello? The Old Testament's brutal.

And now he's there making sport. They're poking fun at him. Dagon, our God has won, has beat this Philistine.

Look at him now, he's lost his strength. But the Bible says when his hair begin to grow back, through that brokenness, no doubt, that brokenness, that pride being broken out of him, that anointing begin to grow back, that strength begin to grow, it broke him, completely broke him. No doubt he's pushing this, he's pushing this thing, he's actually grinding the wheat, and he's pushing it around.

And you think he's praying? You think he's repenting? And through that, the strength came back, and the Bible records that he put his hands on those pillars and he pushed, and this Colosseum-type building came down on the Philistines. And it's interesting that the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. He finished well.

He conquered that enemy when all was said and done. What about the disciples? No doubt were completely broken and humbled at the crucifixion. Oh my goodness, here's our Savior.

He's gonna conquer Rome. Yay, we can get behind Him, and then everybody flees. Can you imagine they see Him up on the cross? This is over.

This is completely over. We were fooled. What were we thinking? Oh, and complete humiliation and brokenness.

But a couple days later, and guys, as much as I don't like what's going on in our nation, our state, could God be using it to break us? You've heard me say this for about five years or so. Oh boy, we're angry. But are we broken? We're upset, but are we humble? Again, I'm against the assembly bills.

I'm against, man, I'm getting like, Lord, are we in the twilight zone? What is going on here? But is that producing a desperation in you and a brokenness in you to seek God with all your heart and strength? Or is it producing a bitter, arrogant spirit, a confrontational, argumentative, tit-for-tat type of spirit? And that's one of my issues with those in the conservative movement. A lot of them, they're just doing the same name calling, the same this, it's just like, boom, it's like tennis. I'll slam you with this meme, I'll slam you with that meme.

You're doing this, the Senate's doing this, Chucky Schumer's doing this, and now Mike Johnson, and then the shutdown, and then everybody's just going back, it's just like name calling, name calling. Obama's the worst ever, Trump's the worst ever. Like you guys, it needs to lead to brokenness and humility and the spirit of revival.

And then from that, pushing the weight of society, from all of that comes out the strength of someone filled with the Spirit of God. Filled with boldness and love and compassion. But instead of breaking, many people flee.

Instead of humbling themselves, we become disgruntled. Isn't this challenging? Hey, I'm not up here going, guys, here's how you master it. I got this all mastered.

No, I become disgruntled. And like, just, if you don't take those thoughts captive, they will take you captive, and you'll become a very bitter, angry, arrogant person. You can have the right principles, but the wrong heart.

Just because you're on a certain side of the political aisle doesn't mean you're on God's side. Lincoln was famous for saying that, wasn't he? We don't know if God's on our side, we want to be on God's side. Instead of dealing with arrogance, we become argumentative.

Following God often results in disappointment and discouragement, but let it break you in order to reshape you. Guys, it's been a tough, since COVID, really, hasn't it? I mean, a lot of different things in California. And I've went through, we wrote about, I went through seasons of big disappointments and discouragements.

And I can tell when it started to make me bitter and upset, you gotta repent of that and be broken in order to be filled. This type of brokenness will fill you. It's a beautiful brokenness.

But you will miss the blessing of brokenness if you become bitter and resentful. There's so much to be thankful for. I mean, just look at God.

Look at God. I don't know how many of you know this, but David eventually married Bathsheba. The baby died.

But then another baby was born by the name of Solomon. Did you know that Jesus, if you look at His lineage, you guys ready? Are you sure you're ready for this? He's got prostitutes. Rahab, Tamar, what? Look at what God does with humility.

He rebuilds the broken. He upholds the downcast. A broken and contrite heart, He will in no way, really the literal translation is, He will not push it away, push it back at you.

In other words, you give Him this, He says, no, I don't want it. A broken and contrite heart, He will not do that to. He welcomes that.

He will revive those who are barren. He will revive those who are truly humble and broken to repent of wrong attitudes. So it does beg the question tonight, are you strong enough to break? Are you strong enough to break? It's a play on words, because you have to be strong enough to say, maybe if the shoe fits, wear it, right? As they say, strong enough to say, you know what, Lord, I do need to own some things.

I do need to repent of some things. This conflict, this issue, this situation, God, I need to own it. I'm pretty sure nobody has done what David's done.

Maybe some have listening later, I don't know, in the prisons. But guys, even the smallest sin can keep us distant from God. Those things we think are no big deal, God is wanting to work on those things.

Wanting us to really take those to Him and repent to them. We have to be strong enough to break.