I am thinking this morning of a young man who was born in a Christian home, attended
a rather strict fundamentalist church as a child and teenager, who professed faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ at the age of six or seven. He grew to be a handsome, popular young
man with high ideals, coming from a family with high expectations on the part of the
parents for the children. Both of the parents have Ph.D.s and teach at a state university.
But apparently somewhere something was missing in this young man's life, even his Christian
experience. And as he got out of high school and began to be involved in a career, he became
involved in a situation that was compromising his high standards which he had grown up with.
He was eating him up inside. He didn't know how to handle it. So he sought the counsel
of pastors and several friends at work. On several occasions he joked with his friends
and his fellow employees about dying. He even laughed with one of them when he said that
he would probably be the one to find his body. Now I know that sounds a little weird, and
yet in the context of that particular conversation, it wasn't necessarily out of place. Last Wednesday
this young man did not show up for work. His friends called, but there was no response
on the telephone. They contacted the young lady he had been dating. She said that she
had driven by the night before, had seen his light on one time and off another. She knew
that he had been there then. One of the employees said, well I saw his car at the apartment.
Thursday morning again he did not show up for work, and this time his employer began
to worry. He had suffered from a bleeding ulcer. They were concerned he might be very,
very ill. So the word supervisor sent three young men from the office. Among those was
the young man who had joked with this fellow a few days before about being the one to find
his body. The three of them were led into his apartment, and that one young man went
in to the bedroom, and there he found this young man dead, 25 or 26 years of age. He
had put a shotgun under his chin and pulled the trigger. What happened to this young man,
who at six or seven had trusted Jesus Christ? Did God fail him somewhere? Why was his discouragement
so great in his Christian experience that he could not look to the Lord in that time?
For none of us is at such a critical point in our own experience in life, and yet with
many of us today there is a nagging awareness behind that smile, behind that praise the
Lord, a nagging awareness even while singing the hymn of faith, that somehow our own Christian
life just isn't quite making it. There is discouragement regarding this thing called
the Christian life. Why is that? I think it is because there are some who see the Christian
life as little more than an ethic. There are others who see it only as a set of rules that
have to be obeyed to please God. And yet in its essence, the Christian life is simply
living out eternal life. Eternal life is a quality of living as much as it is a duration,
perhaps even more so. Eternal life is the life of the eternal one himself. God wants
us to enjoy and experience his own life. Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish. But a few chapters later in John he says, and this is eternal life,
they might know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. So how did Jesus define eternal
life? Is it to live forever in heaven? It is that, but eternal life is more than that.
Eternal life is to know God through his son, Jesus Christ. I would submit that one of the
key reasons for so much frustration and discouragement among Christians is the fact that we have
a misconception of what the Christian life really is. We think of it too often as a legalistic
code rather than as a living communion with the living God. We are growing in our knowledge
about God in our church. We are unapologetically a Bible teaching church. We intend for the
Bible to be the focus of all that we do, for that is God's revelation, God's communication
to us. But dear people, it is insufficient that we grow in our knowledge about God. We
must grow in our knowledge of God himself. It is not enough that we learn theological
words and facts. It is not enough that we are able to outline books. We must come to
know the God who is revealed in this book. If we would come into a more intimate knowledge
of God, we must draw near to God. And to draw near to God, we must pass through a miserable
experience. That is what James tells us. In chapter 4 verse 7, submit therefore to God,
resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to
you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be
miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you. If we would draw near
to God, this is the miserable experience that we must pass through. We must examine ourselves
in the light of God's holiness. We must see ourselves in relation to God. We must see
ourselves as God sees us. And when we do, there is but one response we can make, and
that is repentance and brokenness. We need to be broken before God, beloved. There is
probably not a greater need in your life and in mine than that we should know the continuous
experience of brokenness before him. Turn back with me to the book of Isaiah for a moment
and review what is probably a familiar passage to many of you in the sixth chapter. The word
of the Lord came to Isaiah, and God delivered his message through this great prophet. But
in the sixth chapter, Isaiah tells us about a personal experience that he had with God
and his knowledge about God became real to him. And it was that which qualified him to
speak for God. It was his commissioning. He says, In the year of King Isaiah's death,
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling
the temple. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings. With two he covered his
face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another
and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.
Isaiah observed that the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who
called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, he relates, Woe is me,
for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean
lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. I don't know what kind of a
man Isaiah was before this day. I don't think anybody does. We have no reason to believe
that Isaiah was necessarily a perfect man. Indeed, we know he was not perfect. But we
would assume him to have been a godly man. And yet when this man saw the Lord, his one
response was not, How beautiful is your holiness! How glorious is your name! But his response
was Woe is me, I am ruined. I am a man of unclean lips, he confesses, and I dwell among
a similar people. It was repentance. It was brokenness. And will you please note that
it was that brokenness that then qualified him to say to the Lord, Here am I, send me.
I am not fit to stand in this pulpit. You are not fit to teach a Sunday school class,
to usher, to sing in the choir, to witness to a neighbor, until we have come to the place
of brokenness before God. Turn over a few pages to Job, the 42nd chapter. Through this
book that relates to us, Job's Sufferings, Job sees no sin in himself that would have
caused all of this. He questioned God. He received some miserable comforters who came
to him with certain answers that did not satisfy. And finally God reveals himself to Job. And
in those chapters God magnificently expresses his omnipotence as well as his care for his
creation. And after God had revealed himself to Job, he responds, notice chapter 42 verse
1. Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do all things, and that no
purpose of thine can be thwarted. You see, that's his theology. Who is this that hides
counsel without knowledge? Therefore he says, I have declared that which I did not understand,
was too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear now, and I will speak. I will
ask thee, and do thou instruct me. Look at verse 5. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now, now my eye sees thee. Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust
and ashes. Here's the statement of a man who knew God by the hearing of the ear, after
he had come to be broken before God. May I suggest to us today that there are many of
us who know God by the hearing of the ear. We have read our Bibles, we have outlined
our books, we have memorized our verses, we have studied our theology. We have not yet
entered into that personal communion with the living God, and the reason is that we
have not been broken before him. James says that if we're going to draw near to God,
we must be a miserable people first. And yet we are a people desiring to hear about God
making us happy, prosperous, healthy, and successful. We want to hear about God making
us feel good about ourselves. We want someone to tell us that we can make it. You see, we
are a self-sufficient, independent, rich, busy, materialistic, sensual, flabby, and
grubby bunch of 20th century Christians. We do not want our sins exposed, our shallowness
revealed, our cold hearts made apparent. No, we want to laugh, we want to be happy, we
want to fit in and be accepted in our society. We want to enjoy an occasional sin without
having to feel guilty for it. That's us. And God patiently, silently, longingly waits.
Waits for our attention, waits for our affection, waits for our worship. And yet some of us
say, I'll get to you, God. Just hang in there. You'll have to wait your turn. You see, life
is passing by so quickly. Lord, I haven't really forgotten you. I just have to get some
things done. I have to get into my vocation. I have to raise my family. I have to pay off
my home. I have to stick a little away for retirement. Lord, we've been wanting to make
that dream trip for so long. Surely, Lord, you understand, don't you? Just be patient
a little longer. I'll get around to you. Is it any wonder that our 20th century brand
of Christianity is so flat, unattractive, and impotent? I submit to you that the great
need of this hour in our world is for the brokenness of Christians before God. And it
is nowhere more urgently needed than in Grace Church, Roseville. There are several dimensions
where this brokenness needs to occur. I will be only suggestive in mentioning some of them.
But I believe the primary place that we need to start is brokenness regarding ourself.
Now realize that there is a proper place for self-love or self-esteem. That is part of
a healthy self-image. I'm not talking about that. What I'm talking about is the egocentric
lifestyle in which so many of us are caught up. You see, it is a part of our world. It
is accepted and encouraged in our world. And it has flowed into the Church. We have adopted
it. And somehow we have forgotten Jesus' words when he said, If any man wishes to come
after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Yet we live for ourselves.
We want to realize ourselves, to experience ourselves. But Jesus says, deny yourself.
Now there is, I think, technically a difference between self-denial and a denial of self.
Self-denial can degenerate into nothing more than an ascetic way of living. Living by rules
and regulations which amounts only to will worship. I am talking about denying ourself.
Saying, Lord, all that I am, all of my potential, all of my dreams, all of my abilities, all
of my accomplishments, I lay at the cross. We need brokenness starting there. We need
brokenness regarding our attitude toward possessions, too. Aren't we a clinging people? We grasp
and we store up and we possess. And like the pagan world around us, we think that is the
essence of life, having things. And yet did not our Lord say, What shall a prophet a man
do if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? We need to be broken regarding the things,
the attitude that we have toward the things we possess. We must see all that we have is
belonging to God. And as radical as it sounds, we need to begin learning to live as simply
as possible and to resist the temptation to hoard, accumulate, and waste. We are so talented
in those areas. Do you possess your things or do your things possess you? We need to
be broken as well regarding our attitude toward authority. Our day is something like the day
of ancient Israel. One of the times the judges said, Every man did that which was right in
his own eyes. We are all becoming our own authority. And it makes no difference what
our parents say, it makes no difference what the government says, it makes no difference
what the church says, it makes no difference what the college we may be going to says.
We are the final authority. Nobody is going to tell me what to do. So there is this attitude
of rebellion and stubbornness and resistance. And that needs to be broken. We need to come
to the place that we see that God has ordained authority and submit to the authority that
he puts into our lives as submitting unto Christ himself. We need to be broken in our
attitude toward some of the relationships that we have in life. There are some marriages
in homes represented here today that are more like hell than heaven. There are some husbands
who take their wives for granted. She will always be there. I want to do this tonight.
I want to go there this weekend with the boys. And the wife is left at home alone. On the
other hand there may be wives who know very well how to manipulate and control the husband
and the real harsh desires to be the head of the home. Because of these kinds of attitudes
and scores of others, marriages are in turmoil and upset. If people really knew what the
marriage was like, how embarrassed we would be. Therefore how careful we are at disguising
what's going on inside our homes. There are husbands here today who need to be broken.
And there are wives who need to be broken regarding your attitude toward your mate.
There are some children here who need to be broken in your attitude toward your parents.
Disobedient, rebellious you are. Or perhaps you are an older child and your parent is
aged and you neglect your parents. You take that parent for granted. That needs to be
broken. What about some roommates? Some of your career people who live together. You
need to be broken regarding your relationships to one another. What about the attitude that
we have toward our personal rights? I have a right to be successful. I have a right to
be popular. Don't I have a right for a good reputation? I have a right to be married.
I have a right to have a family. I have a right to have a home. I have a right for an
easy retirement. And our world is filled with that. It is the source of so much strife and
turmoil in the workforce. My rights. And yet those are the rights that need to be brought
to the cross and broken. And we lay our rights at Jesus' feet and say, Lord, I have no rights.
They're yours. You say that sounds like a miserable thing to do. It's exactly right.
Such brokenness that we are talking about is miserable. But it also brings cleansing
and a drawing near to God so that we can know him. Such brokenness will bring a breath of
God upon us. My friend, God's purpose in your life right now is the breaking of the self-life
of outward men, which Watchman Nee talks about, so that the inner man, the life of Christ
himself, may flow from you to minister and to bless and to glorify God. Some of us are
frustrated and worn out in Christian service because we are serving God in our own fleshly
strength. What God wants to do is to break that outer so that the inner can flow. And
then how fruitful would be that service, how joyful? Did not Jacob learn something about
this? Jacob's name means supplanter, deceiver. It was he who grasped the heel of his brother
as they were born. They had struggled before that in the womb. Jacob was a scheming and
deceitful person. With the help and even suggestion of his mother, the birthright was stolen from
his brother Esau. He had to flee from home. For 20 years he was cheated by Laban, his
father-in-law. Rachel, the one of his love, died prematurely. Joseph, his beloved son,
was taken away. He thought dead. Benjamin was ultimately held prisoner in Egypt. Misfortune
after tragedy after heartache struck at Jacob, whom God had chosen, the eye of his love.
What was God doing in all of this? God was working. God was transforming. When he died
at 147, it says in the book of Hebrews that as he was dying, he leaned upon his staff,
he blessed his sons, and in those blessings gave great insight and great transparency,
and he worshipped. You see, God was breaking Jacob systematically. That's what God's doing
in your life today. Will you let him have his way? Are you weary of striving in your
Christian experience? Are you hungering and thirsting for God? Do you long for a new touch
from the Lord? Do you want your knowledge about God to become the knowledge of God?
Then seek brokenness. Humble yourself before God. He will not withhold himself from you,
if you will. Let's pray. With our heads bowed and as the Spirit of God applies this to our
lives, I've asked Mike McCowan to sing a soul. I want you to hear the words. I want you to
respond within your own spirit to God as he sings.