Brokeness

September 09, 2005
Pastor Chris Abernathy
Columbus, Georgia




Turn in your Bibles with me tonight to the book of First Thessalonians chapter five. If you don’t have your Word with you, please go next to someone that has their Word. Or if you have your Word and you see other people that are around that don’t have their Word, please share. Please share your Word tonight.

We’re going to be teaching tonight (amen) about broken-ness. We’re going to be teaching about broken-ness. Amen. Will you please stand for the reading of God’s holy Word tonight? I’m just going to take one Scripture out of First Thessalonians chapter five. And I promise you I won’t keep you long tonight. But we’ve got to get the Word of the Lord. Somebody say, “Amen. In First Thessalonians chapter five and verse twenty-three it says:

23. And the very God of peace (somebody say, “The God of peace) sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m going to read that again.

23. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.

Father, we thank You tonight for who You are and for what You do. Master, hide Your son behind the cross, that Your people would see and hear You only, and not me. And dear Lord, as I decrease I humbly ask that You would increase. And let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. In Jesus’ Name.

And all that agreed said amen. You may be seated in the house of the Lord.

Tonight we’re talking and speaking from the topic of broken-ness. Somebody say, “Broken-ness.” The apostle Paul describes man in this passage, in this text, as being spirit, soul, and body. You see, in God’s original design for man, man was supposed to have God in his spirit. God was to be able to dwell in man’s spirit. That was going to be God’s home. Amen, somebody. It was going to be God’s home so that the Holy Spirit, by making His union with the human spirit was to be able to govern our soul. Somebody say, “My soul.” Glory to God. So that then the spirit through the soul with you the body as the means of expressing God’s light and purpose in the earth. Amen.

So in other words, God was going to be inside of man’s spirit, so that the Spirit in man would lead man’s soul, that man (glory to God) would be able to walk out into the things that God has called man to walk out into. Somebody say amen.

I’m giving you a foundation tonight. Because God has been ministering to me about the body of Christ and how He has called us to be broken, and that the situations and the circumstances that we have been going through are not there to make us of a hard heart, but they are there that we may be what? Broken. Glory to God.

Now, listen. Anyone who serves God will discover sooner or later that the great hindrance he has in doing the Lord’s work is not in the people that are around him, but it’s in him himself. Amen, somebody. He will discover that the outward man, being the soul, is not in harmony with his spirit. Glory to God. And see, both tend to go in the opposite directions, because the spirit desires to praise God, where the soul desires to do it’s own thing. Am I talking to anybody in this house? My soul desires to have its way. My soul desires to have its will. Am I the only one in this house whose soul desires to do whatever it wants to do?

So Paul is speaking (amen) to us. And he’s telling us tonight (glory to God) that it’s not our outward man, being this flesh, that is supposed to lead us. It is not our outward man, being our soul or intellect, that is supposed to lead us, but it is our spirit on the inside of us that is supposed to lead is in a direction that God wants us to go in. Somebody say amen.

It’s our soul that needs to be broken.

Now, go with me tonight to the book of John. Saint John chapter twenty-four. Saint John chapter twelve, and verse twenty-four. Glory to God. When you have it say amen. Jesus said:

24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

This is nature’s way of breaking. You see, there is a hard shell that is surrounding that corn, that grain of corn. And in order for it to produce much fruit, the outer casing has got to be split. It’s got to be broken.

You see, in order for you and I to produce fruit in our lives for God, this outer shell, being our soul, has got to be broken. And the reason why we’re going through the situation and the circumstances that we’re going through continually is because we are not truly broken yet. Oh, I’m not going to get a lot of amens there. We’re not broken. We have not come yet to that place where God can say whatever He wants to say or that God can do whatever He wants to do, and we will follow God regardless of what it seems like or what it looks like. Amen, somebody.

Now, as long as the shell is not split open, that wheat cannot sprout and grow. As long as you are not broken, you cannot sprout, and you cannot grown. Come on, somebody. How many saints in here tonight are looking just for a word, or how many of you are looking to grow? I’m looking to grow. I’m looking to grow.

The Word said except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die . . . What is death? It is the cracking open of that shell through the temperature and humidity working together in the soil. We’re still talking about nature’s way. Glory to God. Now should the outward remain unbroken, the inward would never be able to come forth.

Unless you get into a place where God breaks you, that what is in the inside of you can never truly come forth. You see, it’s not just about studying different doctrines and studying different pieces of literature to try to do God’s work. It doesn’t work like that. You’ll never accomplish the real meaning that God has for you, until you’re really broken. Somebody say, “I need to be broken.”

I don’t want to just be another statistic. I don’t just want to be another man in the pulpit. I don’t want to just be another prophet with a hardened heart. I want to be a broken man of God that God can use how He pleases to you. Somebody say, “I need to be broken.” Oh, it’s not a comfortable place. It’s not a place that feels good.

Go with me to Mark chapter fourteen. In Mark fourteen. When you have it say amen. Look at your Word. Look at verse three. It said:

3. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.

4. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?

5. For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

6. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.

7. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.

Here the Bible speaks of that alabaster vial (oh, my God) of this costly perfume. But notice it’s a pure (glory to God) ointment. It is pure. So when the Bible starts talking about something being pure, it’s talking about it from a spiritual standpoint. Glory to God.

Now, if that alabaster box is not broken, then the pure spikenard would not be able to flow out of it. Amen, somebody. But if it is broken, then that thing with that aroma and fragrance that is pleasing will be able to flow from it. The reason why a lot of times we come among one another in the body of Christ at large, and we don’t smell the fragrance of the Holy Ghost, is because we have not been broken. We count this (oh, my God) busts more higher than we count what the treasure is on the inside.

We look at what’s on the outside more than what we want to look at and smell what’s on the inside. Do you hear what I’m saying tonight? In other words we count this outward shell more valuable that what’s on the inside of us. Somebody say, “I need to be broken.” I need to be broken. I need to be broken because I’m not smelling nothing yet. I need to be broken because every now and then there’s a stench coming from me. Oh, you don’t want to hear that. I need to be broken because sometimes I want to do it my way. I need to be broken because I don’t put God in every equation of my life. I need to be broken, because I want to do the will of the Father that sent me. Give God praise in this house.

They got upset. They got angry, because they counted the box more costly than what was inside.

Those that try to gain their life shall lose it. But those that lose their lives for His sake will gain it. So why are we so impressed with ourselves more than we are impressed with the One that’s inside of us? We are so impressed with ourselves. Hello, somebody. We’re so impressed with our cleverness. We’re so impressed, you know, with our knowledge. But how many of you know, even all of those things need to be broken? All of those things need to be submitted unto God.

He’s speaking to some folks tonight. He’s speaking to us. Because we’ve been so impressed with our gifts. Hello, somebody. We’ve been so impressed with our singing and our dancing and our prophesying. We’ve been so impressed with ourselves that we don’t have enough time to be broken, as long as what we’re doing looks good, as long as how we’re singing sounds good. We’re so impressed with ourselves.

And sometimes we could care less whether the Anointing of God is flowing, as long as we’re showing our . . . Oh, my God. Showcasing what we have. When we showcase ourselves, we’re not broken. When we want the glory for ourselves, we’re not broken. We’re not broken. When we want people to know our names we’re not broken. When we want the spotlight we’re not broken. When we can’t get down on our knees and pray, we’re not broken. When we can’t fast and read our Bibles, we’re not broken.

Somebody say, “I need to be broken.” Don’t say it if you don’t mean it, because God is about to break you. I know I need to be broken. Yes, I’ve been through the fire. Yes, I’ve walked through the flood. But evidently there’s some places in me that are not broken, because on a consistent basis there’s always trouble, trouble all around me.

He’s breaking you. He’s breaking you. He’s going to have His way by any means necessary. Because you belong to Him. And whatever He needs to allow in your life to get you on your knees, He will allow it. Somebody say, “I need to be broken.” You don’t say it like you mean it now. It’s kind of died down. Somebody say, “I need to be broken.”

The outward man, sometimes we deem him more precious than that inward man. But the Bible tells us in Second Corinthians chapter four, verse seven, that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. The treasure’s not that outer man. The treasure is on the inside. The treasure is your spirit man. The treasure’s on the inside of you.

When I come to you I want to smell the aroma of the sweet perfume of the Holy Ghost coming from your spirit. I want to get past your perfume. I want to get past your cologne. I want to get past your soap. I want to smell your spirit. Because if God is in your spirit, then I’m going to smell God. Somebody say, “I need to be broken.”

Go in your Bibles with me to Saint John. Saint John chapter nineteen. When you have Saint John, say amen. Look at verse seventeen. It said:

17. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:

18. Where they crucified him, and two others with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.

19. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.

20. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

21. Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.

22. Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.

When we look at the cross (glory to God), the cross is a place of the breaking of the outward man. Because when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, the outward man had to be broken. Because He said, “If this cup could pass from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Thy will be done.” It was a place (glory to God) of breaking.

You see, when you’re bearing this cross in your life, the cross is there that it may break you. Come on. It may break your will. It may break you, that you would say, “Lord, not my will, but Thy will be done.” Give God praise tonight.

All that have received Jesus have a cross that they must bear. You’ve got to carry your cross. You can’t expect somebody else to carry your cross. Once you meet this Man from Galilee named Jesus, you’ve got to start learning how to bear your own cross. Come one, somebody.

You have a cross to bear. And that cross that you are bearing is there that it might break you. That it might break you. You don’t want it, but you’ve got to have it. You don’t want it but you’ve got to receive it. Stop trying to give your cross away to somebody else. Start bearing your own cross. Because what the cross does is split open this human shell. That’s what it does, that what’s on the inside may come forth.

We have to be broken, people of God. This is the season that God is breaking His people all over again. And you and I don’t like it, but it has to be done, that the will of God may be done in our lives. He wants us to get rid of our ways. That’s why He’s allowing these things to happen, because can’t nothing happen except God allows it. Hallelujah. Can’t nothing happen except God allows it to happen. But He’s breaking us. He’s breaking us.

If you’re in here tonight, and you’re in the process of being broken, just lift up your hands. You know you’re being broken. Then stop blaming everybody else. It’s God. God is allowing these things to happen. He’s allowing it, that you and I would submit to Him.

There was a time in my life that I had a mouth on me. I mean, a serious mouth. But when Jesus got a hold on me, He turned that thing around. As soon as you said something, I came right back. I had something to say. Am I the only one in here? But God broke me. Now sometimes folks say stuff and I just be quiet. Because I’ve learned that a quiet answer, a soft answer turneth away wrath.

He said be slow to speak, slow to wrath, and quick to hear. When you get to those places, that’s when you’re really broken. And I’m not talking about just not saying nothing because you’re scared to say something. I’m talking about not saying nothing because you know with whom you have to do, because you’ve been broken in that area.

There’s some areas that you’ve been broken in, but there’s some other areas that God is going to continue to break you. Let Him break you. Don’t kick against the prick. Let Him break you. Let Him break you, pastor. Let Him break you, minister. Don’t talk to nobody else. Let Him break you. Let Him break you.

It’s not comfortable. I’m being broken. Somebody lift up your hand and say, “Father, Your will is best for me. So wherever I’m not broken, break me, that You may use me for Your glory.” In Jesus Name. Somebody say amen. Give the Lord a handclap of praise tonight.





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