0:00 Verse In verses 4 and 6, you'll see this phrase, "Your father who sees in secret. Your father who sees in secret." And that's what Jesus was showing in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7. Through it all, as he was inaugurating the new 0:17 covenant, as it were, he was trying to emphasize one thing. You have a heavenly father. He dwells in heaven. He's on your side, but he's looking in secret. He's looking in the secret areas of your life. And like I said about 3 weeks ago 0:31 in my message, I believe that we live in an age where the secret spaces are being compromised. We live in an age where if somebody does something, they want to post it on Instagram or on Facebook. If somebody has a thought, a revelation from God, 0:46 the automatic uh reaction to that is to tweet about it. And whether it's whether it's spiritual or or related to the earth, everybody wants to present in front of everybody what's going on. Now, I'm Again, I'm I have nothing 1:02 against those things. I use all of those things, actually. But it's it's it's important for us to be mindful of the spirit of the world, which is contrary to the spirit of God in every area. In every area that the that the world has a 1:17 spirit, God is exactly the opposite of that. And as much as the world wants you to just put everything out there and um just just share everything and just be open and just uh put it out there in order to impress people. I 1:30 mean, you'll never show the bad stuff, obviously. But show all the good things and all these fancy thoughts I have because I want to impress people. God, I think is calling us into the secret place. I think there's a reason 1:41 that God showed him first showed himself first of all as behind a thick veil. The most holy place, God dwelt there, which meant that if you really wanted a relationship with God, you have to get away from the crowd, which is outside 1:55 the court, and the crowd that's in the courtyard, and the priests that are doing service, and come where it's just you and God. And God might say something to you. And I, as far as I know, the priests, the high priest, didn't say 2:08 much about what was going on behind the veil. Because it was them and God. There was a sense of, "This is almighty God that I'm dealing with." And there's a holiness and a reverence that came out of that. And this is the 2:20 God who's who the your father who sees in secret. That's the phrase that I the Lord has been underlining in my heart. And it's because Christians are taken up with the external that when you think about Jesus and what what all he did, 2:33 most people think about following Jesus this way. Like, uh, giving food to a bunch of hungry people miraculously. Raising that Lazarus from the dead after he'd been dead for 4 days. Uh, most Christians are taken up with 2:48 the outward external manifestation of the life of Jesus and miss the reality of what he was actually like inside. And I believe that if you really if they are really to be consistent with being taken up with the way Jesus lived, 3:01 helping the poor and and doing all this and doing all these external things, then we ought to go and live exactly like he lived. Lived like he did 2,000 years ago in Israel and walk the same paths that he walked and live in the 3:14 kind of houses that he lived and do everything else that he did outward outwardly. But you know, we can't do that. And that's why the calling for us is to follow Jesus by taking up our cross inwardly, where nobody else can see it. 3:28 Nobody else None of you, honestly, knows whether I'm taking up my cross in secret or not. Now, there are some people that think, "Well, to take up my cross, I'm going to actually carry a physical cross." I've seen people do that. And I 3:40 I've seen pictures of people doing that. They think that I'm going to be like Jesus, so I'm going to take a physical cross, maybe on Good Friday or something like that, and walk 10 miles or however long and retrace Jesus' steps. Is that 3:51 how you're taking up your cross seeking to follow Jesus in a physical way in an external way? No, you know we're not doing that. We're taking up crosses in secret. Likewise with the Holy Spirit. Most people are taken up with the 4:03 external manifestations of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit like gifts of tongues and prophecy and all these other things. But the primary purpose of the of the Holy Spirit, the main reason Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, 4:15 let me show that to you in John chapter 16. Why should you and I seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit at all times? The third person of the Trinity, why should we earnestly desire for God to fill us with the Holy Spirit, to plant 4:30 that seed of the Holy Spirit first of all when we're born again, but for it to not stop there? That's just the seed. The Holy Spirit has come like a seed now when we're born again and after that the Lord God wants to fill up our entire 4:43 being with that same seed. That seed has got to multiply so that our whole being is full of the Holy Spirit. And it's not so that you can speak in tongues. It's not so that you can prophesy. It is for that, but that's secondary. 4:56 The main reason, the primary reason that God wants to fill us with the Holy Spirit is here in John chapter 16. He said in verse 7 that when I go, the helper, that is the Holy Spirit, will come. I will send him to you. And then he says in verse 20 in in verse 5:12 12, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you." In other words, he will tell you these many more things that Jesus couldn't tell us 5:25 when he was here on this earth. You know that the life of Jesus is recorded in detail from the age of 30 to 33 and 1/2, those 3 and 1/2 years. We know a lot about it. I mean, almost there's a lot. We have a pretty good idea about what 5:38 his life was like for those 3 and 1/2 years. But the first 30 years, when he was in secret living with his parents, obeying his dad and mom just like our children have to, just like we had to when we were children. When he was there 5:52 as an 18, 20-year-old, 22-year-old working like a carpenter. Do you know about that? I believe those are these many more things that Jesus wants you to know because you're many of you are not most of you are not carpenters. Most of 6:07 you may not do the outward things that Jesus did. It is those things that he did in secret when nobody was watching. And that's why we don't know about it. When nobody was watching and he didn't even reveal it. That's how private it 6:19 was. Do you know that in his relationship with his parents, Jesus never once talked about it. He never once said, "You know how my brothers used to tease me? And then I had to do this for my mom and I knew she was wrong 6:30 and then" He could have said all kinds of stories about what his life was like and the secret breaking that the father was putting him through for those 30 years. I believe Jesus experienced breaking primarily during those 30 years and 6:45 that's why he didn't talk about it. And you know that you're really being broken and accomplishing the purpose for that breaking. That's the That's the title of this series. Essentially, it's brokenness. You know that you're really 6:55 being broken and God is accomplishing that purpose when you don't say a word about it for the most part. Now, I'm not trying to preach a law here. I'm not saying that you should never reveal the tri- trials that you walk through. But I 7:06 believe that the deepest, most uh the deepest aspect of our breaking we will be silent about because we're interested in what God wants to accomplish through us. And if if it if in certain circumstances God wants us to share 7:18 about it, he will prompt us. But it's exactly the opposite of the world that wants even if we're going to be broken. You see how the devil wants to corrupt even your willingness to be broken? You could be willing to be broken and the 7:29 devil sees, "Oh, he's being broken. Let me see if I can corrupt that. Let me get him to go and put on a sad face and all, you know, I've been broken. God's breaking me." And people feel sorry for you and the effect of that brokenness is 7:41 lost because God wanted you to be broken in there in secret, crushed to a powder, and then come out of that veil looking with your face washed and happy and cheerful, not putting on a pretense, but not living before the face of people so 7:56 that they would think, "Oh, he's a holy man. He's being broken." Your father who sees in secret. It's the same principle that he says with fasting. When you fast, don't do it so that people will be impressed by your fasting. When you 8:09 fast, do your best to cover up the fact that you're fasting because you're not doing it to be seen by man. Your father who sees in secret, he will bring you forth at the right time. So, Jesus had this secret life and um 8:25 we'll skip down to the to the third point. Actually, I've I've gone through most of this already. What we've been looking at also is the reason why God wants to break us. What does God want to accomplish through that breaking? And I'll just touch on 8:39 this very briefly. If you look at the story of David, we looked already at um the breaking of Joseph, how God broke him through those years and and and crushed him and it seemed like anytime he he had a difficult life, he would get 8:52 out of that life only to get into a worse life. I mean, his brothers treated him pretty badly and they taunted him and teased him and he got out of that situation into a worse situation. He was a slave in Potiphar's house. 9:04 And then he got harassed by Potiphar's wife and he got out of that situation into a worse situation, into jail. And then he was sitting there and then he he tries to help this uh cupbearer of the Pharaoh and then that cupbearer forgets about him. His life is 9:20 just going on from bad to worse. So, that he can become the prime minister of Egypt. You see, that's God's way. He was breaking him and breaking him and breaking him. And when you feel like you're going out of the uh how do they say it? Out of the fire 9:33 pan and onto the stove, you know, You know, from a from uh a rock and a hard place. These phrases that say when it seems like life was really bad and then you prayed and said, "Lord, I love you. I want you to accomplish your purpose 9:43 through my life." And then it got worse. God is breaking you. God is doing a Joseph experience in your life. We saw that in Moses as well, that when God was uh had him there in the in the in the in the palace of Pharaoh and then he took 9:56 him out of that situation. Why? Because of his zeal for God's people and sent him to live with his father-in-law in in Midian. And there he was for 40 years. And we heard about this a little bit last week as well that Moses, an 10:07 eloquent man, at the end of 40 years says, "I don't even know how to speak. I'm a stammerer." He's so crushed that he can't even speak. We see this in David. Turn with me to uh 1 Samuel chapter 16. See, long before that David was the 10:23 chosen king of Israel and uh the people had chosen Saul, but God, before the foundations of the world, had chosen David. And God said the reasons why he had chosen David because he was a man after God's own heart. And along comes Samuel to look for this 10:41 next king. And David, and again, I'm what I'm trying to find out is these hidden verses that show us that these men and women, you'll see women like that, too, uh but it the men that we're looking at were crushed by God in secret in little 10:55 areas. And if you read between the lines and you put yourself in their situation, you'll understand what it must have been like to be in their shoes. So, here's David. Samuel comes and says, "Jesse, David's father is Jesse." And he says, "One of 11:09 Jesse's sons is going to be the next king of Israel." And so, of course, Jesse calls all his sons. Um Uh verse 6. Then it came about when they entered. Uh let's read verse 5. He said, "I've come in peace. I've come to sacrifice to 11:28 the Lord. Consecrate yourself." He's speaking to Jesse here. "And come with me to the sacrifice, and he also consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. Now, the impression you get when you read that 11:39 verses, that's all of Jesse's sons. So, it came about, verse 6, when they entered that they looked that Samuel was looking for which of these sons. He assumes that Jesse has brought all his sons, and he looks at Eliab, and he 11:51 thought, "Surely this is the Lord's anointed is Surely the Lord's anointed is before him." But, the Lord said to Samuel, "This guy's handsome, he's talented, he's got all the attributes for a king, but he's not broken." 12:04 Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. So then, the next son comes. Jesse calls Abinadab and 12:17 made him pass before Samuel, and God said, "Neither has chosen has has the Lord chosen this one." Then, Jesse made Shammah pass by him, and he said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one." Thus, Jesse made seven of his sons pass 12:31 before Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, "I didn't get a confirmation that any of these sons was the was to be the king of Israel." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are these all the children?" And then, Jesse, as an afterthought, 12:43 remembers, "Oh, yeah, I do have an eighth son." Do you Do you know that that's a breaking experience? When people will think about everybody else but forget about you. Now, it may be in a different circumstance, but you know how you could 12:56 be in a group of people and they they remember to thank so-and-so, they remember to thank so-and-so, they greet so-and-so, but they forget to greet you. What is God trying to do? Do you think it's by accident? Yeah, maybe the person 13:06 who forgot to greet you accidentally forgot about you, but God was watching over it. I don't think Jesse intentionally forgot about David, but David was so much of an afterthought, and God was testing David through this. 13:18 David had been through this experience of being the afterthought child, the one that everybody else forgets about, and God says, "I'm watching you. I'm watching how you'll react in those circumstances when people forget about 13:30 you and you're unimportant that nobody thinks about you and I'm going to choose you to be my leader." And they And Jesse said, "Well, yeah, there's this youngest guy. He likes to hang out with the sheep." Behold, he's tending the sheep. And 13:43 Samuel said to Jesse, "Bring him. Send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here." So, he sent and brought him. Now, he was ruddy with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance and THE LORD SAID, "ARISE, 13:56 ANOINT HIM. THIS FORGOTTEN son of Jesse is to be the next king of Israel." Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel 14:08 arose and went to Ramah. Skip down a few chapters to chapter 18, 1 Samuel chapter 18. Now, Saul finds out that David is to be the next king and he's jealous of of David. And right after David had won a great victory for Israel by killing Goliath, 14:27 the giant, you see here in the chapter 18 verse 7, after there's a big parade and here's Saul taking credit for David's victory because he's the king of Israel. And there's David behind him in his chariot and it happened, verse 6, as 14:42 they were coming when David returned from killing the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. And the women 14:52 sang as they played and said, "Saul has slain his thousands and David his 10,000s." And in a moment, this David who was This Saul who was so proud of David says, he became very angry. Saul became very angry for this saying 15:05 displeased him and he said, "They have ascribed to David 10,000s, but to me they have ascribed thousands. Now, what more can he have but the kingdom?" And if you read the rest of the chapter, Saul makes it his life's ambition to get 15:18 rid of David. I mean, he tries at least three times, I think, recorded in the scripture to throw a spear at David while David is with a few feet away from him. There's David right by Paul's side by Saul's side playing the harp, and three times, 15:34 three different occasions, Saul tries to get rid of David by throwing the spear at him, and you know what? He missed. Now, it's not that Saul's aim was bad, but God had a purpose for David. God was not going to allow this man who was 15:46 trying to crush David to accomplish anything except God's purpose for him. And when you find that people are after you, speaking evil of you, throwing their javelins at you, throwing their swords at you, maligning you, speaking evil of you, no matter what 16:01 they're doing, don't fear their javelins because God is on your side. God was protecting David. Now, the reason that God was protecting David, the reason that God was allowing David to be crushed through this, you'll see here, this is the the main story 16:16 that I want you to show want you to see in 1 Kings 20 1 Kings chapter 1 Samuel chapter 24. A few pages down. Now, David is on the run. He spends his whole life. I don't know if you know this that from the time that God anointed him to be the leader 16:30 at the age of 17 or so until the age of 30, for the next 13 years after God had promised that he would be the king, David was on the run. On the run, on the run, living in caves, barely getting enough to eat, always fearing if Saul 16:42 was going to catch up with him. And one day, God allows Saul to be at the mercy of David. And this is where you see David's brokenness coming out. Verse chapter 24 verse 1, "When it came about when Saul returned from pursuing 16:56 the Philistines, he was told, 'Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi.'" Um and so, we'll skip down to verse 3. "He came to the sheep folds on the way where there was a cave." Saul is chasing after David. "And Saul went in to relieve himself." 17:11 Now, David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. I mean, is it coincidence that of all the caves that Saul should choose to come into, he comes into the very one where David and his men are hiding in 17:22 the back. Saul doesn't know it. God is watching over this. He is trying to break David, to test David. And the men of David said to him, "Behold, this is the day of which the Lord has said to you, here is Saul with his back turned to David. David's got a 17:35 knife in his hand and a sword." And he says, "Yes, Lord, I knew you gave me the throne. Here I am, I'm going to take it." Here is this enemy that's standing between me and the promise you have given me. I'll kill him, Lord, and 17:47 you'll be able to fulfill your promise in my life. I will grab that which I think is rightfully mine. God is looking for people who will who to use, who refuse to grab even that which is rightfully theirs. Jacob, the grabber, 18:05 had to be broken so much living with his father-in-law and working 14 years for his wife that he was so broken that he refused to grab anymore. His name was changed to Israel. And David, God was testing, "Are you a grabber, David, or are you a man after 18:19 my own heart? Will you refuse to grab?" And so, the men of David said that the other men, they were grabbers. That's why they didn't weren't qualified to be the king of Israel. The other men were grabbers and say they said, "Listen, 18:32 this is the day of the of which the Lord said to you, behold, I'm about to give you your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as seems good to you." So, David arose and went up to Saul and the Lord spoke to him and says, 18:46 "Are you on my side? Are you going to take vengeance? Are you going to treat Saul the way he treats you? Are you going to speak to that person the way they speak to you?" So, all he does is he cuts the edge of Saul's robe secretly. 18:58 And even that, he didn't harm Saul at all, but even that bothered Saul David's conscience and he said, "Afterward, David's conscience bothered him because he'd even touched the edge of Saul's robe." So, he said to him to his men, "Far be 19:12 it from me because of the Lord that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the Lord's anointed?" And David persuaded his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up 19:24 against Saul, and Saul rose and left the cave and went on his way. And afterward, David says, "Saul, do you see this? I had the opportunity to take get back at you for what you did to me, but I refused to do it. These are the 19:37 experience experiences by which God breaks us. And God is looking for people who are willing to break, who refuse to take revenge." The same thing happens again. You'll skip down to chapter 26. I mean, Saul didn't learn his lesson. I 19:51 think he kind of felt bad for David after that, and so he let him go, but then he got incited to chase after him again. So here we go in verse in chapter 26, the same thing happens. Rather than read the whole thing, I'm 20:06 going to try to find the worst verse where we um Yeah, here we go. In verse six. David answered and said to Abimelech the Hittite and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, saying, "Who will go down with me to Saul in the 20:20 camp?" And Abishai said, "I'll go with you." So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and Saul lay sleeping inside the circle of the camp with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the people were lying around him. All of 20:34 these enemies of of of David are asleep there, and he creeps in. And he has the opportunity to again exact revenge. I mean, this The reason David is on the run, the reason David is not on the throne is because of this man, who's 20:48 there at his mercy. Then Abishai said to David, "Today God Again, Abishai, an unbroken man, not qualified to be the king, cuz he's unbroken. And then there's David. Abishai said to David, "Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Now 21:02 therefore, please, David, if you don't want to do it, I'll do it for you. Let me strike him with the spear to the ground with one stroke and I will not strike him the second time. One shot will be enough." And David said to Abishai, "Do not 21:14 destroy him. For who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed?" What did David see when he was looking at his enemy? He saw the Lord. What will you see when you interact with that enemy, with that person who 21:26 harasses you, that person who you think it takes advantage of you? What will you see? Will you see your enemy? If you see your enemy, you will speak back. You will fight back. You will take advantage and you will say, "Aha, here's my 21:37 chance." David saw the Lord. He says, "He know He saw Saul lying there fast asleep, but he saw the hand of the Lord above him. He says, "The Lord has not given it to me yet. I will not usurp. I will not grab." And he refused to let him go. He took 21:52 his water jug and his spear and later on showed it. Saul, "I had the chance to kill you." And after that, Saul stopped chasing David as as seriously. Now, this is the example of Christ. Let me show you in Philippians chapter 2. 22:05 Jesus is the greatest example in all of these things. God is looking for those who will never grab for themselves. These are the kind of people God wants to use in his kingdom. But whether you're called to serve in the church or 22:18 in the home as a father, as a mother, as a husband, a wife, as a child. Dear children, do you know that it's very important for you to learn at a young age not to grab, not to fight. If somebody takes something even that's 22:29 yours, don't grab it back from them because it's the spirit of the world. It's the spirit that's exactly the opposite of Jesus, who refused to grab. Look at what it says here in verse 5. Philippians 2:5. "Have this attitude in yourselves which 22:42 was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped or grabbed." I mean, there was Jesus. It says he was equal with God the Father. Jesus, the Son of God, was there receiving all the 23:01 adoration of the angels. And he saw that the only way that you and I would have a way of salvation was if he let go of that which was rightly his, and he said, "I'm not going to grab it. I'm going to let go of it." Why? So that 23:14 I can come down to this earth and make myself a little bit lower than the angels. It says about Jesus in Hebrews. He He was made a little bit lower than the angels. And therefore God has highly exalted and and returned him back to the 23:26 right hand of the Father. But you know it began by Jesus himself saying, "As the Son of God, I refuse to hold on to my authority. I refuse to hold on to my position." God is looking for such. Will you grab and will you say, you know, your 23:40 reputation for instance. Are you concerned about your reputation, what people will think about you, and you try to preserve it? Let it go. Let it go. God is looking for those who refuse to grab. On the next slide, I I'm not going to go 23:53 through this in detail because actually interestingly Zach spoke about it last week. One other way that God breaks us is through failure. And I believe that's one of the ways that God has broken me the most in my life for my 24:04 personal testimony, through my falling into sin repeatedly and being defeated and crying out to God, not not taking it lightly, not not just saying, "Oh oh well, we're all like that. We're all flesh. We're all We're all bound to 24:16 sin." No. But being grieved over it, over the the wretchedness in my flesh after I was born again, and seeing the corruption in my heart, seeing the corruption in my thoughts, even though everybody else had a wonderful opinion of me and thought, 24:30 "Oh, that's a good Christian brother." And they had no idea what was going on in my thoughts. And I said, "Lord, I'm sick of being this hypocrite. I want you to help me." And it's through those failures and through those times of 24:40 failing that God has done the most breaking in my life. And my dear brother, dear sister, if you're failing, if you're struggling and you're struggling to survive and to be triumphant, like we say, we're we're more than just surviving, we're 24:54 thriving. And if you're struggling to be a thriving Christian and you find yourself falling over and over again in different areas, whether it's with lust, whether it's with anger, whether it's with uh gossip, whether it's with uh judging 25:07 others, if you find yourself falling over and over again, seek the Lord and continue to seek him, but remember, he can use even that time of failure, even that breaking experience that you are going through to make you like Jesus. 25:21 Make you compassionate. See the um the the story of Peter, again, you can use those references, but Zach spoke on it so powerfully last Sunday, so I don't have to do it again. But Peter, I believe that God allowed him to fall 25:33 worse than any of the other disciples. This was Peter who said, "Lord, I will Everybody else will leave you, but I'm never going to." I picture myself hanging next to you, Jesus, when they crucify you. If they're going to kill 25:43 you, they're going to kill me first. And Peter meant every word of it. And then when they actually came to take Jesus, he ran like a coward with his tail between his legs. But for a little servant girl, he was afraid and he 25:54 denied Jesus. And then Jesus looks at him. And I I too have thought about what that look must have been like. But Jesus' words came back to Peter and says, "Peter, Satan has demanded permission to sift you, but I'm praying 26:07 for you. Don't let your faith fail. Don't give up on me, Peter. I have a purpose for you. I know you feel like this is the end of the world, that you're not qualified anymore. I know that you feel broken and helpless. I 26:16 know you look at your past." And that same Peter writes this. Second Peter chapter 1. Peter was then called to be an elder in the church, an apostle, and plant churches. And as he came across in these churches, I'm sure he came across people 26:34 who were struggling in sin and defeated, people who were discouraged, worldly people, carnal people. How do you think Peter the elder, Peter the apostle, interacted with these carnally minded people, these people who were struggling 26:45 in sin? Second Peter 1. Verse 5. Now, for this very reason also applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence knowledge and in your knowledge self-control and in your self-control 27:04 perseverance and perseverance godliness and in your godliness brotherly kindness and in your brotherly kindness love. He says the climax of it all is that you love others. If God has taken you through an experience whether it's good or bad, if 27:18 you've been preserved from falling into serious sin, that's great. But even if you have or have not, let the the goal is love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true 27:34 knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then listen to what he says in verse 9. For he who lacks these qualities, especially love, but all the things that he listed before that, is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from 27:48 his former sins. And I picture Peter as he's writing these words to the saints thinking about his former sin. And the fact that he never forgot. And the way God uses people today is not that they've never done anything wrong 28:03 and there's nobody like that on the earth. But it's especially not that they cover it up and pretend TO OTHERS, "HOW CAN YOU be like that?" Pretending like they've never struggled in those things. No, I'm not saying that we all have to 28:12 struggle in the same sins. But we must all remember that we have been purified from our former sins. If you forget that, when you see a brother do something so carnal and so worldly and you think, "How could he possibly do 28:26 that?" Peter, the broken Peter, says, "Don't forget who you were when God picked you up and put his life in you. You think you were better than this person right now? Now, love them. Don't allow them to remain in their sin. 28:40 Don't compromise on sin, but love them. For he who lacks these things is blind or short-sighted having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make be to make certain 28:54 about his calling and choosing you. For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. Now, in the remaining time I I thought I should finish the series on brokenness by talking about why I believe God crushes 29:06 us. It's very important for us to understand that. There was a point of time when I was going through This was I think in my early 20s when I was going through what I see now was a crushing experience. I look back now and I see that God was doing 29:19 something beautiful through that and teaching me, making me like Christ through that, molding me. It was It was horrible. It was painful. And I'll give you a picture that I had in my mind at that time, in my flesh. I felt like I 29:30 was like a rag doll in the hand of God and that he was just banging my head into the ground over and over again, day after day. Just pounding my head into the ground. Pounding and then tomorrow you get back up and the same thing. 29:41 That's actually how I felt. Now, it's not the truth. It's That's not the reality of it, but that's how I felt. And um And but today I look back on that and I and I I I'm so thankful that the Lord allowed me to be so crushed and helpless 29:56 during that time. But I want you to know that the Lord does not get pleasure in crushing in itself. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 53. It says in Isaiah 53:10 that the Lord 30:16 was pleased to crush him. It's talking about the Father crushing Jesus. The Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. And I used to think about that verse. It says, "Lord, do you just get a morbid pleasure? Do you Are you just 30:30 like a sadist that gets a pleasure about seeing me going through this difficulty?" And you may find yourself, if you're honest, you may find yourself asking that question of the Lord. Lord, do you really get a pleasure out of 30:42 allowing me to just have this sickness when you could heal me? When you know that God could give you the physical answer to your prayer, but does not, your natural man is going to have this response. I think so. That's the natural 30:53 response. Any man would be Lord, why are you doing this to me? What pleasure do you get about allowing me to go through this? Okay, 1 week, but you really for years? And that's how I felt. And this verse I would think about this 31:07 verse that it pleased the Lord to crush him. But I want you to know that that's not the God we believe in and there's a reason. What God takes pleasure in and it's very clear. It's not the crushing itself. If there was another way for us 31:18 to make us like Christ, he wouldn't crush us, but that is the only way. The only way that he can make us like Jesus is to crush us because what? Jesus himself was crushed. But I want you to know that God doesn't take pleasure in the crushing itself. 31:31 You know what it is that pleases God? Hebrews 11:6. Let's look at that verse. Yes, God God does take See, it it pleases him to crush us, but it's not the crushing that pleases him. He sees that it's a means to an end. That by crushing us, he can do something 31:47 in us and it says, "Okay, I don't mind my son going through this, my daughter going through this crushing because it gives me pleasure that I can do that. I can make them like my son Jesus. I can conform them perfectly into the image of 32:01 my son and no matter how long it takes to go through this crushing, he will do it." And he he he sees us suffering. For instance, let me give you an example. When I see uh when when my children were young and learning to walk, I would 32:14 watch them try to walk. And they'd get up and and take a little step and they'd fall. I mean, not even a step, but just barely stand up and they'd fall. And then they'd try and they'd and I'd see I'd watch my my son and my daughters do that 32:28 as they learn to walk and then they'd try to climb up again and little shakely and they'd fall. And they'd cry when they He But you know what I felt in in my heart as I watched them crying over their falling, I smiled. I knew that the longer they continued to 32:44 get up and try to walk, get up, try to walk, get up, try to walk, one day they would run. I could barely keep up with them now. That's what was giving me pleasure. I mean, if you look if you came into that situation in that 32:57 snapshot in time and saw my child crying his eyes out and me laugh smiling, what would you have thought? You would have thought, do you get a pleasure in this? Do you get a pleasure in watching your son child in your son your son cry, your 33:12 daughter cry? And I said, "No. No." And if we can get the eternal perspective, see I have a longer term perspective for my children that I want them to run. And I know the only way they're going to get them to run to run 33:24 is if they themselves learn to strengthen their legs. But, if every time they fell, I picked them up and coddled them and never let them walk again, they would never walk. I'd still be holding my 6-year-old. I'd still be 33:34 holding my 20-year-old daughter when she gets to be that age because I refused to allow them to be crushed and be broken and to try and fail and try and fail and try and fail until the day when they could walk and run and fly spiritually. 33:49 And God is looking for the eternal purpose in your life. That's why stick it out with him, dear brothers and sisters. He's not done with you. If he feels like you are and if you feel like you failed in the same sin for 10, 34:01 20 years, ask God to give you his eternal perspective so that you'll fly one day. This is what pleases God. Hebrews 11:6. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. So, what is God looking for as he sees us being crushed? He's 34:16 looking for faith. He's looking that in the midst of that trial, in the midst of that crushing, my son has faith. In the midst of that trial, in the midst of that crushing, my daughter has faith. And he beams with joy when he sees our 34:31 faith. See, faith is not tested if life is hunky-dory. Everything's going well in life. My faith's not really tested in those moments, but it's in the moments when I think I have no hope at all and I'm never going to make it that he says, 34:43 "Will you show me your faith in that trial? I am pleased." Faith pleases God more than anything else. I don't think we realize this, dear brothers and sisters, how much joy it brings God. More than even our victory over sin is our faith. It I 34:58 never read anywhere in the Bible that if you overcome sin, you please God. It is pleasing to God, but if you overcome sin in your own strength, that's a filthy rag, God says. But if you overcome sin by faith in him, putting your faith in him, 35:12 believing and confessing with your mouth, saying, "Lord, I put my trust in you." And so you may wonder, what is faith? Because I often used to hear when I was a young man, "Just have faith. If you have faith, you'll overcome." Here I was 35:23 defeated in my teenage years with lust and anger and loving the world and friends and all that stuff and people would just say, "You just need to have faith." And I thought, "Well, I want faith. How do I get it?" Continue reading in Hebrews 11. He shows 35:36 us the examples of faith. By faith. By faith. By faith, Moses parted the Red Sea. By faith, Joshua brought down the walls of Jericho. By faith, Daniel shut the mouths of lions. And then he gets to verse 39 after talking about all these great men and 35:52 women of faith and he says this about these men and women of faith. All these having gained approval through their faith, still did not receive what was promised. I don't know about you, but that means that I missed that that there's 36:06 something more than what these men of faith had. They did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for who? Oh, come on, let me hear you. For who? For us. God has something better for you, my 36:21 dear brother, dear sister, than bringing down the walls of Jericho, than parting the Red Sea, than shutting the mouths of lions, then getting healing from that cancer or that terminal disease, from getting an answer to that prayer, from solving that 36:34 financial problem, from healing that EMOTIONAL RELATIONSHIP. GOD HAS SOMETHING BETTER FOR YOU. I mean, if that's all we got, we are still in the Hebrews 11 category. God is answering outward things. I love the Lord because 36:46 he gave me a job and he gave me money and he gave me health and thank you for all your many blessings. These are the majority of prayers that Christians are praying and God is looking for the few who are following Jesus on a narrow way. 36:57 They say, "Thank you, Lord, that you're crushing me because I know you're pleased by my faith. It has nothing to do with how much is in the bank account. It has nothing to do with whether I'm sick today or not. It has nothing to do 37:07 with whether I've got to battle this arthritis and this migraine year after year after year because my faith is in you." He says, "So, continuing on in chapter 12, you read about Jesus." See, I look at Moses and David and and 37:24 Joshua and Daniel and all as some percentage of faith. Yeah, it is by faith and let's not knock them for it. They They accomplished it by faith, but that's like maybe 50% faith, 20% faith, 75% faith. Don't settle for that. 37:37 Do you want 100% faith, perfect faith? He talks about it in verse two of chapter 12, the perfect faith. The perfector of faith is Jesus. Who did what? By faith Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead after he was dead for four days. Is that what it 37:53 says? By faith Jesus, when there were 5,000 men hungry and they didn't have any food, he took five loaves of two fish and broke it. Is that what it says? By faith Jesus, when he wanted to cross from one side of the lake to the other, 38:05 didn't have a boat, he just walked on THE WATER. IS THAT the Jesus you're following? Then you're in still in Hebrews chapter 11. It says, "By faith Jesus, who for the joy set before him endured the cross." By faith Jesus took up his cross every 38:19 day and did It didn't matter if not a single other person around him knew that he was being crushed by taking up that cross and he took it up day after day after day and never said one word about it. Until he was up in heaven. And now 38:31 through the Holy Spirit, he wants to disclose these many more things to you and I about the daily crushing that he went through and he says, "Will you follow me?" If anyone wants to follow me, let him take up his cross and follow me. 38:47 One of the greatest expressions of faith, I believe this is essentially faith. Um is I believe found here in Luke chapter 23. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, this is faith. Do you want a definition of faith? Let me give you one. It's new 39:01 to me and I'm not saying I invented it. It's from God's word. But if it blesses you in some way, I I pray that it will. This is faith. Faith is to say, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." Father, into your hands I commend my 39:16 spirit. It says that by faith, our example of faith is Jesus who endured the cross. How did he do it? By saying, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Uh um uh if if the if the Father should had ordained that he should not die on that 39:30 particular day, he would have said, "That's great, Lord. Take me down from this cross. I I don't want to necessarily hang on this cross." God Jesus did not get a satisfaction about hanging there on the cross just for the 39:39 sake of it, feeling like a martyr. And many Christians who have been broken are hanging there on their crosses feeling like martyrs. That's not faith. You'll get people to feel sorry for you. But then there's Jesus whose perfect 39:51 faith who says, "Here I am hanging on the cross. I don't care what people think about me. I don't care about the fact that I'm hanging here half naked, but I'm care about the fact that I'm committed my spirit into the hand of my 40:01 Father. And I want to be pleasing to him. I know that faith pleases my Father and if he will be pleased by my just placing myself in his hand and saying, 'Father, into your hand I commit my spirit,' that will be pleasing to my 40:13 Father." He says, "I only came to this earth to please my Father anyway." John 6:38, I came down from heaven not to do my will, but to put myself into the hand of my father and say, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." 40:26 And he didn't just say that on the cross of Calvary. The cross of Calvary was the last of many crosses that Jesus took up. Day by day by day. It was the same cross actually. They're all called a cross. The outward expression of it was just 40:40 Calvary. That was the end of it. But in secret, he didn't talk about it much. He's revealing it to us now through the Holy Spirit. He took up his cross and every day he said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. What should I 40:51 do? Go home and wash the dishes, you son of God." He said, "Yes, into your hands I commend my spirit. Go home and live in subjection to your imperfect father and mother who are not even born again. Father, into your hands I commend my 41:02 spirit. Go and make tables, you son of God who created the universe, and work hard by the sweat of your brow to make those tables. Father, into your hand I commend my spirit." Are you willing to take up this cross, my dear brothers and sisters? This is 41:15 the cross that results in the resurrection life. And the devil will do anything within his power to get us to avoid that cross because he knows what we will get on the other side of it. When you take up your cross and fall into the ground and die 41:29 like a grain of wheat, you have God's word, not mine. John 12:24, you have God's word that you will bear much fruit. But this is the only way you can bear fruit. There is no resurrection without taking up your cross. There is 41:42 no triumph over your circumstance unless you're taking up your cross, unless I'm taking up my cross every day in secret. Turn back a page in Luke chapter 22. It was Jesus 42:01 in the hand of his father all his life. That's why he was safe. And the Lord crushed him. Crushed him for those 33 and 1/2 years. Crushed him. And it was his own father. Imagine watching the hand this I don't think we can ever really fathom it. What 42:15 it was like for Jesus as the son of God experiencing perfect love and fellowship for all eternity to watch the same hand of his father that he'd enjoyed fellowship with come and crush him for those 33 and a half years that he was 42:28 here on this earth. And now he says come and follow me. And that's why in Hebrews 12 he says listen, you think you're having a bad life? You have not resisted until the point of blood. Now I used to think that was the blood of Calvary. I actually think it's 42:40 it's before that. The blood that he shed in Gethsemane when he was crushed. It says in uh 22, Luke 22 verse 41. He withdrew from them from Peter, James, and John who were off there sleeping. And the most of the breaking I find 42:56 happens when others are having a comfortable snooze around you and God is breaking. You can't sleep at night. You're in turmoil because God is crushing you and everything else around you is at rest and seems like life's 43:06 going on like normal, but God doesn't let you rest. He wakes you up in the middle of the night with conviction through his Holy Spirit and says listen, set this matter right. And while they're sleeping he knelt down and began to pray and says, 43:18 "Father, you're giving me this cup. If thou art willing, remove this cup from me. Please, Father, I don't I don't I don't want to go through this. Please. But not my will but thine." Here I am, Father, and it's okay to ask. 43:33 Jesus asked, he showed that. It's okay to ask that the Lord should heal us or take us out of a situation of turmoil, but we ended by saying Father I I have asked you for an answer to that prayer. I've asked you to solve that financial 43:43 problem. I've asked you to to heal that sickness. I've asked you to take care of that problem, but at the end of it all I am in your hands. I have committed my spirit into your hands and I'm going to rest there. Not my will but thine. 43:58 And the Father's will at that moment was you have to drink this cup. I'm going to crush you. The picture of crushing I get is like a grape or grapes. Think of your your yourself, your life like grape like a grape in the hand of 44:12 the Father. And the new covenant life, the life of Christ is pictured like the wine that comes from crush crushing these grapes. And a lot of people are trying to manufacture the wine and it's just water. You don't have to crush anything 44:24 to get water, it just flows. You want wine. You want the new covenant life, the life that comes from living like Jesus where it's coming from inside. It's not a manufactured life that you put on for everybody else to see. It's not a certain way of speaking 44:37 or a certain way of talking and have a reputation in front of others that you're a holy Christian. IT'S A LIFE THAT COMES OUT FROM WITHIN, but how do we get it? Into your hands I commit my spirit and the Father crushes that grape. 44:49 You can't you there's no doubting the fact that wine will come out when you crush that grape. When the Lord crushes you because you're a child of God and he's put his spirit within you, what will come out will be the wine of the new covenant life. And 45:02 I'll tell you this, my brothers and sisters, it will flow like a river of living water. That's why I think the first miracle that Jesus did when he came to this earth showing what the new covenant life was like. He said, "Let there be wine. 45:17 Let there be an abundance of it and let it be the best yet." My dear brothers and sisters, you have the best life yet ahead of you if the Lord is crushing you. If you're resisting the crushing and you're refusing to take up the cross, 45:30 you'll have the best life yet that the rest of the world is talking about and some of Christendom as well. Which means a lot of money, a lot of wealth, uh maybe even a godly home and a good outward appearance of holiness. But if 45:43 you want the life of Christ that overcomes Satan, that has authority over Satan, where you know that you have nothing to hide because your thought life is pure and your motives are pure and your attitudes are pure, it comes by 45:53 God's crushing. This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. This kind of faith that says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Yeah. 46:11 Amen.
