From Broken to Restored

Jonathan Barker

Before and After • Sermon • Submitted 3 months ago • Presented 3 months ago

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Intentional 30-60 seconds for guests

2 weeks from today we will be giving you a full look at all that is foundations and help you know how to get registered to be a part of it in April, and in the meantime we want to keep you wondering a little bit so we can build some anticipation.

If you want to find your way to a text today we will start in Psalm 34 verse 15

We’re in the 3rd week of our series before and after, where we are discussing the tension between some ideas that seem to change when Jesus gets involved in our lives and this week we are going to talk about the movement from broken to restored, and I thought we would open this morning by asking what was the last thing in your life that you would consider broken?

For me it was the passengers side mirror of my Honda Civic

PICTURES OF TWO TORNADOS

I was going to use a tornado story from 2018 this morning but God said you gotta use something fresh so he sent another tornado this week.

This week’s tornado took me back to 2018 when I was at Grove City Church of the Nazarene, meeting with a few other pastors and an F1 tornado came through, and I can give you a first-person account. Electricity goes out, tornado sirens, glass on front of the church breaks, security alarm, kids crying, a worship leader hiding under a pool table, but as the tornado reaches the church, the cloud lifts and God protects us, it was really a pretty awesome experience. After we find out it’s safe to go outside, we walk out in the parking lot and there is one car that has a window busted out, who does the car belong to? That’s right, this guy. As I stood there and peered inside the interior of my car, I thought sin does not just break us, sin shatters us. I’ve worked around some incredible auto repair technicians in my life, and I’ve known a lot of great handymen. I have to know them, because I certainly am not one. But I’ve never met one that looked at a shattered car window and said I have just the tool for that. Why? Because it was broken beyond repair. And in the same way, I am here to tell you today that the effects of sin will leave us broken beyond repair.

Compare broken mirror vs glass, one maybe i can fix the other not so much, MORE ON THIS LATER, END STORY

How do things end up broken,

Sometimes its just part of living in this world, tornado. It could be a blown tire because of obstacles created by others, sometimes things just wear out, negligence, sometimes someone hurts you on purpose, unfortunately sometimes we hurt ourselves…

The bottomline is brokenness is a reality in our lives. We will be damaged, deflated, worn out, attacked, and just flat out broken.

I wonder what your story might be today? Many of us can relate to the idea of feeling broken. In fact, I would dare say that all of us today have either realized brokenness in our life, or we are suppressing it because it is too much for us to deal with. The brokenness of sin produces a sense of hopelessness that grows stronger and stronger as the sin remains in our life. While we are sharing a message today that communicates that you can find a new relationship in Jesus Christ when you ask Him to restore you from your brokenness, I’m not a stranger to the fact that there are far too many Christians sitting in services just like this today that are struggling with brokenness and sin.

Let me share some stats about Church attenders and Christians which include all of us, at least for this morning since you are in the building.

38% of regular church attenders have been through a divorce

41% of practicing Christians believe in having sex before marriage, and over 90% do it even though they believe it’s wrong

70% of women who get an abortion identify as Christians

50% of men, and 20% of women in the church admit to viewing pornography on a regular basis.

The scarier part about stats like these are that it would be highly unlikely that everyone answering in these polls are being fully honest about the struggle, meaning the stats are perhaps even worse than what we have stated this morning. Beyond these stats we could talk about neglect, physical abuse, verbal abuse, gossip, backbiting, and estranged relationships that result from an unwillingness to forgive. As a pastor in today’s world my heart is broken because I feel that it is easy to get lost in these statistics and forget that there is a hurting individual attached to every single one of them, and just because more people are struggling with these painful circumstances it does not mean that the hurt that is caused is any less real for each one going through it. Let’s look at a our text and then talk about some good news this morning if you are feeling broken.

Psalm 34:15–19 “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears are toward their cry for help. The face of the Lord is against evildoers, To eliminate the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears And rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit. The afflictions of the righteous are many, But the Lord rescues him from them all.”

If you are looking for God, look for broken people

We can take hope in the fact that our passage today says that God is near the brokenhearted and He is saving those who’s spirit is crushed.

In the tensions that exists in our series title before and after, I came to the realization that God is interested in our before story. He doesn’t wait until you get to the after part, he meets you in the before, and brings you into the after. People come to church to find God, some might go on a pilgrimage to find Him, but in Christianity we believe God is always moving towards the broken person.

If the truth be known many of us tend to shy away from those who are broken, and those who carry burdens. They might be a liability, they might be needy, maybe they don’t fit into our social circles, they might not be able to add any value to us.

Jesus was never worried about how people could bring value to Him. He was always looking to bring value to others. Think of His invitation in Matthew 11 where He says come to me, all who are weary and burdened, I want to take your burdens from you, I want to lighten your load!

As Christians, we are all in one of two places, we could do more to move closer to the broken, or we need to recognize and acknowledge our own brokenness. One of the challenges of being restored by God is that in the times that we should run to him, we run from him. Let’s look at another Psalm by King David, Psalm 32. Let’s give attention to the tension he presents between hiding from and running to God.

Look at Psalm 32:3–7 “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality failed as with the dry heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, And I did not hide my guilt; I said, “I will confess my wrongdoings to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Certainly in a flood of great waters, they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; You keep me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.

Verse 7 says He is our hiding place. In our time of brokenness, when we are vulnerable and wounded, we should not run and hide from God, but we should run to the God who hides us and keeps us from all harm.

Transition: Not only is God near to the broken, but He is seeking you out. Our second main thought today emphasizes this…

God is on a rescue mission

In the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned, their guilt and shame drove them from the only one who could heal them. While they were hiding, God called for them. This is because God is always seeking out those who flee from His presence so that He can restore fellowship with them. While Genesis chapter 3 does include consequences for their actions, there’s something incredible that happens in verse 21 that I don’t often see highlighted by most when preaching this story. In their shameful and exposed state recognizing their nakedness the Lord himself made clothes for them and dressed them. Let’s look at a few more verses from the Psalms in Psalm 139, Psalm 139 and verse 7

Psalm 139:7–12 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take up the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will take hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.”

Ancient Hebrew writers say that while King David wrote Psalm 139 and certainly experienced these depths of God’s presence, that the themes in this chapter referred to Adam. Adam tried to play hide and seek with God, but we know who wins that game every time. Adam walked and knew the earth from its origin, overseeing God’s creation in the earliest of days. He knew the God who separated the light and the darkness and knew that the same God ruled over both of them.

Whether we give consideration to Adam’s story of the first sin, or David’s story that was marked my murder and adultery, I feel like both of them could have just thrown up their hands and said WOW God just keeps on pursuing me. I knew He was good when I’m good, but even in my brokenness He is as well. I love this thought this morning so I want to lean in just a little more. We never truly understand the measure of someone’s love until it is tested. Does that make sense? The Bible says something about the heathen treating each other good, as long as that treatment is reciprocated. But we truly experience the depth of God’s love when we see that it remains unchanging in spite of our sin, our less than behaviors, and maybe even our hatred or bitterness towards him. Remember that Romans chapter 5 teaches us that when we were at our worst, God gave His very best.

The enemy would have you believe that your situation is broken beyond repair, but I believe one of God’s greatest joys is overcoming the lies of the devil in your life.

In our original text today Psalm 34, it says that God is for you and against your enemy. And in 2 different places it says He has rescued you.

Why does anyone ever need rescued? 3 words come to mind: Captured, endangered, abandoned. In our world today when someone has been captured, is endangered, or has been abandoned they need to be rescued. And one overarching idea that is typically true of any rescue story is that the person being rescued could not rescue themselves.

The work of the devil takes our natural limitation and transforms it into an unnatural inclination. We can understand from the teachings of scripture that sin occurs in three steps which are very straightforward. The first step begins with a spark of misplaced desire that in turn is inflamed by enticement and finally consumed by the will. Desire, enticement, and the will. REPEAT Our God-given desires have nothing to do with why temptation seems to be so strong or how God has made us. Every man, woman and child wants to do what’s right on his or her own terms. These are the steps to imprisoning the heart. First the desire, then the deception, and finally, the decision. And once we have entered into the decision of sin, we have began the process of disqualifying ourselves from being capable of getting ourselves back on track. And now the only proper reference point comes from the Holy Spirit of God speaking into our lives.

Sin can cause us to believe that we are broken beyond repair, and without the cross of Jesus that is absolutely the case. When we fall into areas of sin in our life we try to find a way out on our own only to find that the cost of sin can never be satisfied in all of our striving and belief that we are good enough to pull ourselves out on our own. The Bible even speaks of the fact that the demons that have haunted our life will find ways to come back stronger when we are not living Spirit-filled lives that are doing the works of Jesus. But the Bible also speaks of the fact that we have this hope as an anchor for our soul that is sure and steadfast, and that Jesus has went before us and is ever interceding on our behalf.

So while this message might be challenging to us this morning as we begin to come to terms with some or much of the brokenness in our life, we can know that God is near, we can know that He is on mission to rescue us from those ideas that are causing our brokenness and hopelessness, and then here’s the really cool part of the story today. He doesn’t just heal our brokenness, He restores to us a place that was better than our previous state.

Transition: God will cause you to be…

Restored beyond your brokenness

The Lord is Restoring You to be Better than Before. You aren’t being restored to the exact moment in which you failed, or the moment you were weak. You are being restored better than ever. The increase is coming. The advancement is coming. The Lord is Restoring You for His Glory, His Purpose, and His Honor. You get the benefits, the upgrades, and the seat at the table prepared by The Lord. (psalm23)

Illustration here? Randys cars. 69 camaro, not just to original state but with upgrades. over 2 years!

The restoration of the car took time, resources, and patience, in the same way..

If we sincerely desire to see God restore our soul, we need to make time to rest, reflect, and replenish. We cannot expect to live with a fresh sense of God’s presence in our lives if we constantly rush from one issue to the next. To be restored takes time, focused on God and His greatness, to renew us with hope and joy regarding this life and anticipation for eternity.

RESPONSE (INVITE TEAM)

Back to my tornado magnet, 2015 Honda Civic. I can remember (7 YEAR WESLEY DIDN’T LIKE IT) Something about the destruction bothered him, maybe all the glass in the car, maybe all the circles from the hail damage painted on there by the insurance adjuster. Many of us don’t like to look at the damage. But not looking at it, or ignoring it, won’t make it go away.

The auto repair shop couldn’t piece the glass back together, but instead they had to replace it with a new window. In the same fashion Jesus doesn't fix brokenness, he replaces it with something new, new life. It's amazing what God can do with a broken life when we turn it over to Him.

He did not come just come to repair what was broken, He came to replace what was shattered.

When we believe we are beyond repair, Jesus restores beyond expectation.

If you are broken today, you’re in good company

Recognize you are broken - You can’t keep moving forward. Like a broken bone, continual movement will cause further damage.

Rest in Him - stop trying to fix it on your own, He can’t begin the work when you won’t give Him control

Receive His Healing - He will provide new pathways to healing but it means accepting what He has for you and letting go of what He does not

Know that you will never escape or outrun his love. We referenced Psalm 139 earlier and the reality that there’s no where we can go from His presence. You can know today that we have a God that loves us when we are lost, and then he loves us UNTIL WE ARE FOUND. He sees our mess, our mistakes and still He loves us?

What is your story? What is your brokenness? How do you want to be healed? mended? restored? Will you tell him? Tom taught us this, say it out loud today.

STAND AND READ TOGETHER

Psalm 51:10–12 “Create in me a clean heart, God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And sustain me with a willing spirit.”

Christian, this can be a prayer that you can pray at any time, and with a sincere heart God will restore you. If you’ve yet to make him your Lord and Savior, remember that God is drawn to your weakness and your brokenness, and the more helpless or impossible you believe your situation to be, the greater work He will do in your life, when you invite Him in.

PRAYER: Lord, I’m thankful that when i was broken you were my healing,