Fixing Brokenness By Brokenness

Romans 3:23
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

We are all broken.

We are all in the same boat. No one of us is better than the rest.

This make be sick, but that brings me great comfort. That means that people like Billy Graham, Francis Chan, David Platt, and Beth Moore are sinners just like me. They are broken and flawed just like me. They need Jesus to fix them just like I need Jesus to fix me.

So how does Jesus fix broken and flawed people?

Jesus does it through brokenness.

In Leviticus 6 God gives Moses instructions for the various offerings. In verses 20-21 God tells Moses how Aaron and sons are to bring the grain offering when they are anointed as priests. God says, “This is the offering Aaron and his sons are to bring to the Lord on the day he is anointed: a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a regular grain offering, half in the morning and half in the evening. Prepare it with oil on a griddle; bring it well-mixed and present the grain offering broken in pieces as an aroma pleasing to the Lord.”

Aaron as he came to be anointed as high priest was to bring an offering that was broken. This symbolized that Aaron came broken, surrendered to the Lord.

If we are to be fixed, we have to come broken and submit our lives completely to the Lord. We have to surrender everything to Him with nothing held back.

Then we see a similar thing in Matthew 26 when Jesus takes the bread of the Passover meal and uses it to show what will happen to Him. In verse 26 it says, “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is My body.’”

The broken bread symbolizes Jesus’ body which was broken on the cross for our sin.

It is through Jesus’ death and resurrection that we are fixed and made new.

Jesus knows that we are all broken. He wants to fix the brokenness in our lives caused by sin by having us be broken in Him.

In Psalm 51:17 David writes, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

The word contrite means crushed.

God wants are our spirit, our old nature broken. He wants our hearts, our wills broken and crushed. If we hang on to our old nature and our own wills then we can never experience the renewing work of God’s Spirit in our lives.

Our old nature has to be broken so the new nature, God’s nature, can fill us. Our wills have to be broken and crushed so that God’s will can become our will.

In Isaiah 57:15 we are told where God lives. It says, “For this is what the high and lofty One says - He who lives forever, Whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and lofty place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the heart of the contrite.’”

God lives with those who have been crushed and are spiritually humbled. He does that so He can revive their hearts.

1 Peter 5:5-7 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”

God wants us to humble ourselves under His authority so He can lift us up and so we can learn to trust Him and put all our worries on Him.

In Isaiah 66:2 God says, “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My word.”

God has high regard for those who have humbled, surrendered spirits and who live in awe of God’s word.

In our culture we value and have high regard for the strong and the independent. God values and has high regard for the humble, those who depend on Him.

In Matthew 5:3 Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The word poor in this verse means bankrupt. We are blessed when we know that spiritual we are bankrupt, broke, have absolutely nothing to offer God but our broken lives. When we realize that, we will come seeking Jesus in humility. We will not build ourselves up, we will come to Jesus and let Him build us up.

As long as I believe that I have something to offer Jesus, as long as I believe that I can give Jesus something in return for Him fixing me - I will depend on what I have.

When I realize that I have nothing, that I am broke, then I can come to Jesus based on His mercy and grace.

Then I will be fixed.

In Romans 6:23 we are told that the wages of sin is death. The best I can hope to earn is death because in my brokenness I cannot meet God’s standard. But that the gift God is giving me is eternal life by Jesus’ grace and mercy.

According to Ephesians 2:8 we are saved, fixed, made new by God’s grace. That grace is made real in our lives by putting our faith, our complete trust in Jesus. And both the grace and the faith are gifts from God. Ephesians 2:9 tells us that God does it as a gift so that no person can boast about themselves; we all have to praise Jesus.

Jesus was condemned so we can be lifted up.
Jesus was rejected so we can be accepted.
Jesus was abandoned and left all alone so we would never be alone.
Jesus was broken so we could be fixed.

We are all broken.
We are all flawed.
We are all hurt.
We are all needy.

Jesus is the carpenter who will fix our brokenness.
Jesus is the artist who will remove our flaws.
Jesus is the physician who will heal our hurts.
Jesus is the master who will meet our every need.

Jesus fixes our brokenness by becoming broken for us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about acknowledging our brokenness.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about humbly coming to Jesus.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about receiving the gift of being renewed, restored and redeemed from the mercy and grace of Jesus.

Psalm 107:5-6
They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.

In Brokenness Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe