Psalm
31:12 says, “I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a
broken vessel.”
That
describes all of us as we come into the world; we are broken. What is broken
about us?
First
the world we live in is broken.
Isaiah
24:19 says, “The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth
is violently shaken.”
We
live in a world that is broken. We can see that in the wars and conflicts that
have characterized the world since Cain killed Abel. The institutions of the
world such as government, education, business, and even the church have a
brokenness about them.
Our
relationship as humans with God is broken.
God
created us as human in His image so He could have a relationship with us. We
find that broken when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They hid from God as He
sought them out.
Our
relationship with each other as humans is broken.
Ephesians
2:14 says, “For He Himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken
down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility.”
Humans
have erected walls that separate us from each other. Barriers like race, ethnic
background, language, cultural preferences, and political views. These things
have created dividing walls of hostility between humans.
Our
relationship with ourselves is broken.
James
4:1-2 says, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not
this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so
you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have,
because you do not ask.”
Our
passions fight within us and cause us to not only fight with others, but we also
fight within ourselves. Jesus tells us that we are to love our neighbor like we
love ourselves, but if we don’t have a positive and healthy view of ourselves,
we cannot love others in a godly way.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging the brokenness of our world
and our relationship with God and our relationship with others and our
relationship with ourselves.
So,
what has caused this brokenness? The answer is simply sin.
Romans
3:23 reveals to us that all of us have sinned. That means we are all broken,
and it does not matter how broken we are or the way we are broken.
Romans
6:23 and James 1:15 reveal to us that sin always leads to death. If we don’t
get the brokenness caused by sin fixed, it will lead to death.
Death
to relationships
Death
to Hope
Death
to Joy
Death
to Peace
Death
to Love
Death
to Know and Experience God in Our Lives
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging that the sin caused our
brokenness will lead to death if it is not fixed.
How
do we fix our brokenness?
We
look to Jesus. Jesus is our source and model for how to fix our brokenness so
that it does not lead to death.
In
Luke 4:18-19 Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has
anointed Me, to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim
liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
We
let Jesus be our good news to fix the fact that we are bankrupt spiritually.
We
let Jesus be our freedom to not be captives of sin.
We
let Jesus give us sight so we can see and understand truth.
We
let Jesus set us free from spiritual oppression.
We
receive all of these from the grace of Jesus.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing Jesus to fix our brokenness
through His grace and sharing that grace-based fixing with others.
Jesus Fixing our
Brokenness by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
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