I was recently walking through the parking lot of a shopping mall with my wife when I spotted a car that caught my attention. Have you ever seen one of these cars? You can’t miss them! The entire car appeared to be held together by duct tape! The car was running OK, but I had to wonder what would happen if it ever hit a speed bump...That car was BROKEN! And I thought to myself, “Aren’t we like this as Christians sometimes?”

 

We hear of tragedies happening all over the world. Recently it’s been about terrorism, scandals of abuse, and then retaliation. Do you know that God had placed within the heart of every person an intuitive sense of what is right and what is wrong...even in the heart of terrorists? Isn’t that what retaliation is all about? Reacting to a perceived wrong?

 

If we look closely we can spot that a big part of the problem is that neither side wants to be accountable for the injustices done. As human beings we want to do what we know is wrong, but we don’t want to experience the consequences of our wrong-doing. Much like that broken car we are broken by sin. We don’t want to acknowledge God’s ways of right and wrong even when we know it in our hearts. And often we remain broken because we don’t want to deal with the consequences of the sin in our lives. We too want to use duct tape to keep life running.

 

The Bible tells us that ‘the wage of sin is death.’ In other words, there are big consequences to sin! I’m not talking about sin as a ‘religious thing.’ I’m talking about missing the mark that God has set for us -- the mark He set when we were created by Him – rules for living according to His design. God made us so that we won’t function well in sin. He passionately longs to protect us from messing up our lives and the lives of other people.

 

Maybe you’re thinking, “Who is this God person anyway? He just wants to run my life and make me miserable.”  Hold on! Where does this mentality come from? Because God doesn’t want to ‘run our lives’, He wants to FULFILL our lives!

 

In order to understand this skewed way of thinking we have to go back to the beginning, to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They lived in a perfect world without sin. However, God created two trees instead of just one -- The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Have you ever wondered why? It’s because God loves us SO MUCH that He wanted to give us the freedom of CHOICE. God didn’t want to have a relationship with ‘androids’ :-) God wanted a relationship with humans who have hearts that choose Him and His ways.

 

In Genesis 3 we see Eve in the Garden standing before that one tree, the one God said not to eat of its fruit. Satan was right there with her saying, “Go ahead, Eve! You really won’t die! God knows that when you eat of this fruit that your eyes will be opened and that you will be like Him!” In other words, “THERE WON’T BE ANY CONSEQUENCES TO YOUR SIN. And! You won’t need God to tell you right from wrong anymore. You can decide that for yourself! You can become God! No more absolutes!” We know that Eve ate the fruit, and then shared it with Adam. Sadly mankind has been falling for the same deception ever since this first sin...

 

Evidently Adam and Eve’s conscience let them know that they had done something dreadfully wrong...“They heard the sound of the LORD walking in the garden, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD” (Gen.3:8). Previously they would have run to God; now they ran FROM Him. Yet God, how does He respond to their sin? He pursues them! 

 

I’ve heard a man say, “Sin doesn’t destroy people, unresolved sin destroys people.” This is so true! Sin ‘breaks’ us. And this broken part affects everything about our lives. 

 

Q1: What is your immediate response to the word, “sin”? What comes to mind? A list of rules that have been broken? Have you ever considered that the ‘bad’ things that we see in the world are due to consequences of sin?

Q2: Wow, the devil tempted Eve the same way he tempts us? To believe that there are no consequences to sin? Have you ever thought that sin ‘breaks’ us? 

 

You know, we live in a society that discards broken things. And often, when we are honest and see the broken parts inside of us, we throw away our own lives. But how God responds to Adam and Eve, and all of mankind, shows us that broken people aren’t ‘throw aways’, in fact,

 

 

1.  BROKEN PEOPLE HAVE GOD’S ATTENTION.

 

Isaiah 61:1 tells us “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted...”  This means that looking for broken people is God’s assignment. We are broken by past mistakes or poor decisions and the God of the Universe sends out invitations, stirs up our conscience, agitates our hearts and chases us down. Why does He do this? It’s because “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ...” (2 Cor.5:18). He wants us to be reconciled to Himself. He misses having that intimate relationship with us that was broken by sin.

 

Often we see the consequences of our sin as ‘the problem’. We work to solve ‘the problem.’ God doesn’t work like that. Before He works on the problem He wants to work to heal the person. So the first step to solving life’s problems is to be reconciled with God, always. In relationships with friends, spouses, children, we might make a pact or truce as a way of dealing with problems. However, we won’t know abiding peace until we are each reconciled with God.

 

Q3: God has an ‘assignment’? His heart is to pursue people who are broken by sin and it’s consequences? When you hear that God pursues us to heal our hearts instead of to punish us for our sin how do feel? What does reconciliation mean to you?

 

You might be thinking, “Wayne, I hear you telling me that God wants to heal broken people by first reconciling them to Himself. But, doesn’t the Bible tell us that God wants for us to be broken?” What I am saying is that…

 

·        BROKENNESS IS NOT THE SAME AS BEING BROKEN.

 

When God is talking about broken-ness He means a readiness to repent, a willingness to be corrected, and a refusal to shift blame or make excuses. In fact, Psalm 51:17 tells us“...a broken and a contrite heart–these, O God, You will not despise” This is a heart that feels genuine sorrow over doing something wrong. On the other hand we read that“...God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty had of God” (1 Pet.5:5, 6). Broken people who want healing capture God’s attention because of their genuine humility and contrite hearts. On the other hand ‘broken’ people remain ‘broken’ because of proud hearts. A proud heart doesn’t want to admit that there is something broken on the inside. A proud heart prefers to use duct tape to keep life running rather than humbling itself to receive healing from God.

 

Q4: Take a moment here to sit before Jesus. He’s waiting for you. Ask Him to show you the condition of your heart. We live in a sin filled world. Every heart is broken in some way. How is your heart broken? Have you asked God to heal you in your broken places? Are you willing to be corrected by God? To be healed? Talk with Him now and hear what He longs to share with you.

 

God knows when we are broken and the Lord longs to heal broken people, those who have been wounded on the inside by other’s sin because…

 

 

2.  HEALED PEOPLE BECOME HEALERS.

 

When we know the blessing of being reconciled with our Father and experience His healing of our hearts then we actually receive a ministry. “[God] gave us the ministry of reconciliation...not counting their trespasses against them. He has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor.5:18-19). We get to partner with God to bring healing to other broken people. When we know that we are broken on the inside and experience the healing that only Jesus can give our hearts will overflow with compassion for other broken people. As healed people we won’t ‘count their trespasses.’ Consider Jesus as He hung on the Cross, “Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves” (Luke 23:24). (See Gal. 2:4). Jesus knew He had the ministry of reconciliation and did not count ‘their trespasses’ against those who nailed Him to the Cross. And we are to follow Him.

 

It’s our natural tendency to look for ‘broken’ parts in other people. This is because there are so many Christians who are still broken on the inside and not healed.

 

Much like a whole piece of paper scrunched up into a ball, the world compresses us. We come to Christ but we are crumpled. We need to be restored to look like that fresh uncrumpled piece of paper. Day by day God pulls us, not enough to rip us, but just enough to stretch us. He’s very careful. Do you know that in every church people are at different stages? We might not see it, but God is at work and they are ALL being restored.

 

Often the stretching process is uncomfortable. Some people might get half way restored and then begin to resist God.  They are saved but still broken, resorting to duct tape to keep life running. This is often when we see

 

·        BROKEN PEOPLE BECOME SELF-RIGHTEOUS.

 

And self-righteous people sit in harsh judgment over other people’s lives. How can they see clearly? It’s like a person who can’t draw painting a picture of a beautiful girl and then saying, “Look how ugly she is!!” No!! The art doesn’t reflect the beauty of the girl; it reflects the lack of talent in the painter! “Do not be excessively righteous, and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?” (Eccl. 7:16).

 

Why does this happen? Why do broken people who resist God’s healing become harsh and judgmental in the very area of their own struggle? Somehow a broken person will take their own spirit of fear and put it on anybody who gets near what they are afraid of. They are actually revealing their own areas of woundedness and they are fearful of being exposed.

 

So we see that when we are broken and resist healing, much like the miserable artist, we fail to represent people accurately. Instead we reveal our own wounds. And sadly, in the church, this is especially true of how we represent the Lord Jesus.

 

When Jesus lived in Israel He was very aware that His Father wasn’t represented accurately to God’s own people, the Jews. He spoke to this heart issue in a parable:

 

“The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a

sinner like everyone else...I never cheat, I don’t sin, I don’t commit adultery...and I

give you a tithe of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance...saying, ‘O God,

be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned

home justified before God. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be

honored” (Luke 18:11-14).

 

Of all the people in Israel the Pharisees should have accurately represented God. They could read the Old Testament books and they had the privilege of serving in the Temple. Yet, they had proud hearts and did not represent the heart of God to God’s own people. They were broken and didn’t know it.

 

In Israel today the Pharisees can be recognized in a crowd. Their dress and appearance sets them apart. But in our own churches the Pharisees aren’t so easy to recognize. And there are still many Pharisees who ‘paint’ the Lord poorly. They might believe that their ‘ministry’ is not one of reconciliation, but one of ‘counting trespasses’ and being sure to point them out!

 

Q5: Can you identify individuals in your life who have helped you to ‘heal’ in broken places in your own life? Have they shared their own stories with you, of how they once struggled with the same problems and were healed? On the other hand, have you met a ‘Pharisee’ that counted your trespasses against you? Which person are you?