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.