Back To Basics: Brokenness

[Music] good morning north lake family glad to have you guys here this morning for those online and those in person i want to start off our service in the waters of baptism so i'm going to pass it up to pastor danny well i also welcome the house of the lord so good to see you here today and again it's wonderful when you can begin a service in the waters of baptism and as it means the lord is continuing to work among us and call people to himself and people are saying yes and so we pray that the same thing happens in our worship service today our candidate for baptism is annabelle day annabelle do you trust jesus christ as your savior and lord yes well upon that profession of faith in him and in obedience to command of our lord and savior jesus christ i baptize you my sister in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit let's go the lord in prayer father we have done as you have said in your great commission still there are room for others we pray today as we've gathered in this place to offer prayers before you to sing songs of praise before you and to open your word and allow you to speak to us by the holy spirit who inspired that word that today someone else may say yes and follow you through believer's baptism all the way into the kingdom of heaven we pray a special prayer for annabelle today because we realize that even jesus christ after he was baptized was immediately tempted and we know she will be too so pray lord that you protect her from the evil one and help her to grow up and be the godly lay that you called her to be bless us now as we continue to worship you in jesus name amen all right what an awesome time seems like we're doing this all the time now we're grateful to see the lord working here at north lake um first thing i want to do is acknowledge any guests or visitors first time here first time in a while we do have some gift bags by the door going out so if you'll grab one of those there'll be a card stapled to the outside if you'll fill that out and drop in the offering plate that's back there we'd love to be able to contact you later see how you enjoyed the service and that kind of thing i'm as you'll notice i'm not pastor matt because pastor matt was at united weekend and he has the uh he's lost his voice sounds like a bullfrog this morning so i did want to take a moment though to acknowledge all of our students so if all of our students that were at united weekend would just stand for just a second if we can clap for these folks right you can be seated you're good thanks guys so they had a great weekend of discipleship uh used to be called d now now it's called united weekend in our area um but be praying for them in their ongoing faith journeys but also for the leaders who made an investment in them this weekend both the leaders at the county level and our leaders of our groups and that god would continue to use them in the lives of these students as they grow closer to jesus next i also want to call up derek to say a bit about the choir real quick good morning you've heard that phrase hey guys we're getting the band back together right well hey guys we're getting the choir back together uh [Music] yes praise the lord for that and so uh we start rehearsal tonight at five o'clock are you ready polly are you sure okay just want to be sure uh there's a little bit of excitement over on that side so um but yeah we're excited about that so come tonight uh we would love to have you be a part and uh join our time of fellowship uh 5 p.m we'll meet here in the sanctuary and uh be in our first rehearsal we'll have to work on how we space everybody out so just uh we'll try to work through that and rehearse a couple of things a couple of housekeeping items just for those of you that have been in the choir in the past this is a period of amnesty no questions asked but if you have any music that you've stored at home this would be the time to bring it in so we can make sure we have enough copies for everybody but we look forward to you being here uh invite our new folks to come and join us as well choir is open to those in seventh grade on up till jesus calls you home okay so that's how we'll word that uh and this is great practice for that heavenly choir so we do want you to come and be a part of our uh music ministry here and find a way to serve here at north lake we look forward to seeing you at five o'clock this evening if you have any questions come see me i'll be down front after the service yeah so you can be in our choir until you go to the choir in the sky you know so if you will open up your bulletins look at a couple of announcements i'm also tonight at 6 30 after the choir gets finished and we'll actually take this space to do a new member class here in the sanctuary as well so if you're a new member that you've joined recently or you're considering joining and just want to know more about north lake join us in here at 6 30 tonight and we'll have the new member orientation a couple other notes you'll notice a couple inserts one is the spring event the women's ministry bible study intensive that's coming up it'll be a weekend saturday at april 24th so just one day not a weekend don't want to over commit you but 8 am 3 45 if you need more info you can scan the qr code with your phone on the bottom there just open up the little camera zoom over it and it'll take you right to the url at the website there to get some more info and you can register that way as well if you're interested the other insert you'll see is a note about our discipleship groups here at north lake as our groups are able to start meeting together in person and feel comfortable doing that i wanted to enable everyone to know what our groups were small groups are an essential part of christian discipleship as essential as meeting together and worshipping here you need a community that you know well to study the bible with if you're going to grow faithfully in jesus for the years of your life there will be times where you'll struggle alone and you'll need others in the faith to help you to help you grow in jesus and walk forward so i encourage you to find a group that you can be a part of our sunday school groups and small groups those meet every week every sunday morning and on the back we have our other weekday groups that meet seasonally and some of them are are all through the year as well like our wednesday night services but those other bible studies pay attention to which group you can be involved in you need that community read hebrews 10 through 12. you need the community of believers for your faith so i encourage you to find a group to be a part of if you're not already i mean there's more information for that on our website as well you can go under sunday school and adult groups also note that daylight savings time starts next i guess saturday night into sunday so you'll want to spring your clocks forward right so i know we're all really excited about losing an hour of sleep all right but that's not an excuse okay just try to go to bed earlier easier said than done i know but change that clock so you're able to worship with us next sunday as well we look forward to seeing you then i believe that's all of our announcements major announcements for this morning i want to begin our service now with a couple verses of scripture in prayer john chapter 1 verses 1 through 4 in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god he was in the beginning with god all things came into being through him and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being in him was life and the life was the light of man and the light shines in the darkness the darkness does not overcome it let us pray father this morning we know that as we sit here stand here to worship you together that you're worthy of it that you deserve every bit of praise that we could give you and then some more so lord this morning expand our hearts to love you more than we did before that as we look around and see each other and fellowship here worshiping you our hearts would be filled in the same way that our students who this weekend got to worship with many of their peers for two or three nights in a row god that you would do the same for us this morning and jesus as we know that you are god as well and we know that you died on the cross to save us in spirit as you were the one that indwells us help us to know this morning we're connected to you we have access to you by your blood so lord give us confidence in our worship give us comfort and peace in relationship with you and fear at the greatness of your strength that we might walk in obedience in peace sword this morning give us a worshipful heart and it's in christ's name that we pray amen amen well great is the lord worthy is his praise so let's stand together this evening or this morning and let's sing joyful joyful we adore thee joyful joyful we adore the god of glory lord of love hearts unfold like flowers before thee to the sun above melt the clouds of sin and sadness drive the dark of doubt a week of immortal gladness fill us with the light of day all thy works with joyce around the earth and heaven reflect thy race stars and angels sing around unbroken [Music] us to fountains in thee thou art giving and forgiving have a blessing everlast well spring of the joy of living ocean death of happy rest thou our father christ our brother all who live in love are thy teach us how to love each other lived us to the joy of divine you know i love that second verse because it goes through a lot of the things that give god glory and honor and praise and i hope you take a moment each and every day to think about those things around you that god has created and that you're willing to give him praise but i do know there are times and aspects in our own life that we find it difficult to do that we're so focused on maybe things that have taken place in our life or where we are at this exact moment and we question lord i i don't even know if you're there next to me sometimes i don't feel your presence sometimes it's just a difficult time and a difficult walk but i want to remind you today that god is very real and he cares very much about you and i want to share with you this morning from psalm chapter 145 now this particular psalm has a couple of neat aspects don't know if you study old testament history a whole lot and understand or look at that but what's interesting with this this is one of the last songs psalms that is penned by david that we're aware of in the book of psalms and then also and corbin can come and give us a lesson on the hebrew alphabet but if you break this psalm down and you look at it from the hebrew alphabet standpoint each particular stanza begins with each letter of the hebrew alphabet now one of the reasons that david did that is to show that everything belongs and is here to honor god no matter what and so that's what we're here to do this morning and particularly when you look at some verses in this particular psalm i'm going to start at verse 3 it says great is the lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable one generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts i will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on the on your wondrous works men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts and i will declare your greatness they shall utter the memory of your great goodness and i shall sing of your righteousness the lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and great in mercy the lord is good to all and his tender mercies are all over his works all your works shall praise you o lord and your saints shall bless you they shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and will talk of your power they make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom for your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations wants to sing about that this morning and sing about our time of worship and all that the lord has done for us and how we owe him all the praise of our life [Music] light of the world you step down into darkness open my eyes let me see beauty that made this heart adore you oh so here i am to worship here i am to bow down here i am to say that you're my god you're all together lovely all together worthy all together wandered to me [Music] of old days oh so highly exalted glorious in heaven above humbly you came to the earth you created oh full of sick became cool so here i am to worship here i am to bow down here i am just say that you're my god you're all together lovely all together worthy all together wonderful to me and i'll never know how much it costs to see my side upon that cross i'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that crawl oh to jesus i surrender full to him i freely i will ever love and trust him in his presence daily live all i surrender on [Music] [Laughter] oh jesus [Music] worldly pleasures all forsaken me jesus take me now i surrender i [Music] all old to jesus i surrender lord i give myself to thee fill me with thy love and power let thy blessings fall on me i surrender all i [Music] surrender [Music] so here i am to worship here i am to bow down here i am to say that you're my god you're all together lovely all together worthy all together wonderful to me [Music] let's sing there is none like you as it's proclaimed in psalm 86 there is none there is not like you no one else can touch my heart like you do i can search for all eternity law and find there is none like you sing that again there is none like you no one else can touch my heart like you do and i can search for all eternity long and fine there is none like you your mercy flows like a river and healing comes from your hands suffering children are safe in your arms there is none like you there is none like no one else can touch my heart like you do and i can search for all eternity long and find there is none like you your mercy flows like a river wide and healing comes from your hands suffering children are safe in your arms there is none like you [Music] there is none like you no one else can touch my heart like you do i can search long and fine there is none like you i could search for all eternity long and fine there is none like you there is none like you amen you may be seated love to hear you sing sounds like a foretaste of heaven if you have your bulletins look at the back page at our prayer list our prayer verse today comes from john 15. if you abide in me if you stay in me if you live in me if you have a close personal relationship with me and my words abide in you you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you what an introduction and an invitation for us to pray start off with some praises today i think i heard y'all already cheer for united weekend we do praise the lord for what he's done in the life of our students and we're glad to have them up front this morning normally they're in the overflow i don't know why maybe for some reason but anyhow they're with us they're with us this morning and we're excited about having them in here today and of course we praise the lord for annabelle being baptized and for miss francis steedly being back in georgia after suffering a fall in north carolina and being away from us from for about two months we continue to pray for those in our circle of influence who are in need of salvation that the lord may save them and use us to do that you see church family listed there second name there shirley grant she's in still ccu northeast georgia medical center with sepsis so we're praying that she recovers quickly and soon also one you need to add is carol menendorf i think she's with us here today but she sustained a fall a little over a week ago and broke some ribs so we pray for her to recover quickly we pray for our parents expecting children also underextended family and friends you see the list there christina anderson that's paul and vicky wingo's daughter has been diagnosed with melanoma the good news is they discovered it's still stage 1a and so she's planning to have some surgery before the end of the month so pray for her and for all the family there i want to pray for those in long-term care we've got some good news on tom henderson he's our 100 year old member and they weren't giving him but a couple of days to live but he's had a recovery and so they took him out of hospice rooms and put him back to his room and so he's been able to set up so we we pray the the lord continues to bless brother tom with life i want to pray for missionaries today who are serving around the world the baptist theological seminary in malawi which is a southern part of africa has still not been able to restart because of the covet epidemic there and the fact that they don't have the medical care and things that we do so they ask us to pray for the students there who are having to do all their learning remotely i also want to pray for our grieving families miss ethelene hooper's funeral was yesterday and one we need to add there is for some of our lumpkin county dahlonega folks alan grizzl a friend to many up that way in his funerals this afternoon at cabernet creek baptist church at 4 so remember that family as we go the lord in prayer father we do thank you for this day that you blessed us with a beautiful spring day outside and lord being able to feel your holy spirit on the inside what a blessing i pray lord that you bless us as we've gathered as brothers and sisters christ to worship you the true and living god we pray for someone here today that's never yet received christ as their savior today is the day that they would be saved and also be willing to do like annabelle's done earlier and that is to follow you in believer's baptism as they begin their walk with you into the kingdom of heaven lord i pray that you bless those on our prayer list that need a special touch so many there to pray over and also so many that are not on the list just a little too private to put on this list but are being offered up now by your people both here in the building and those who are watching online lord i pray that you answer according to your good will and purpose and we'll praise you for it and give you glory in jesus name amen there is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of god a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of god oh jesus blessed redeemer sent from the heart of god hold those who wait before thee near to the heart of god there is a place of comfort sweet near to the heart of god a place where we are save your meat near to the heart of oh god bless redeemer sent from the heart of god oh those who wait before thee near to the heart of god [Music] near to the heart of god well thank you rachel uh for being able to get up and sing a song that introduces what we're talking about if you have your bibles open and head to matthew chapter five we're in the beatitudes and again these are not the things you have to do to get saved these are actions and attitudes that you have after you are saved and that keep you near to the heart of god as she just shared with us and we do praise the lord that the lord protected her this weekend she has an automobile accident we weren't sure she was going to be able to be here today but we praise the lord that she is able to be here and lead us in worship matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 1 and seeing the multitudes he went up on a mountain and when he was seated his disciples came to him then he opened his mouth and taught them saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven that's what we talked about last week and today blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted matthew 5 through 7 is of course the sermon on the mount and we're calling it the back to basics series what does it mean to be a christian last week we looked at blessed are the poor in spirit that means having humility to realize that you're a sinner and that you're lost in your desperate need of a savior and once you are saved it also means having the humility to realize that we need jesus every hour every moment of every day without him we are nothing but i can do all things through christ who strengthens me this week we're looking at blessed are those who mourn blessed are those who are broken blessed are those who are contrite now that's not heard very often in our post-modern pulpits today i think congregations want to hear more about the power of positive thinking and the prosperity gospel and name it and claim it and if you can believe it then you can receive it and all the people said yeah yeah that'll get you going there but that's not what the bible teaches by the way still the bible teaches it before god can bless us then there must be some brokenness psalm 34 18 the lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves those who have a contrite spirit that's why jesus said to those who would be his disciples blessed are those who mourn now i know some people say i don't mourn i'm just not a very emotional person but you know that's wrong uh everybody is emotional about things that are important to them if you ever notice we have emotional cheering going on for winning important things when you graduate from high school or college or whatever people who formally are not emotional they take off those square hats and throw them up in the air they get so excited about finishing something when you get that new job when she says yes i will marry you when the doctor says you have a healthy baby when publishers clearing house said you just want a million dollars see i can hear the excitement in here right now but we also we see emotional tears when we lose things when the stock market bottoms out and our 401k becomes a 201k when the boss lays you off when the boyfriend says i don't love you anymore when the house burns when somebody near and dear to you dies yes i know around the church on sunday morning people left to sit here sophisticated dignified and unemotional but some of the same folks we take them just a few miles down the road to athens university of georgia and they bark like a bunch of bulldogs whenever the dogs are winning and they drag around all depressed when the dogs lose we're all emotional about the things that are important to us the question of the morning is are the things of god important enough for you to make you emotional do you praise the lord whenever he answers our prayers and gives us the victory and do you ever weep because we're born with a sinful nature that separates us from a holy god who made us does that ever move you to tears to remorse to repentance we cry when our friends are sick but do you ever cry when your friends are sin-sick when we see our friends and our classmates co-workers family members living in sin dying and going to hell does that ever break our heart does it ever crush our spirit they ever drive us to our knees and yes i'm aware there's a lot of crying going on in the world today but not all crying is mourning of the blessed that we're reading about today people cry for a lot of reasons and not all of our tears bring us closer to god second corinthians chapter 7 verse 10 it summarizes what i'm going to try to say this morning says godly sorrow produces repentance it leads to salvation and that's not to be regretted but the sorrow of the world produces death so there's two kinds of sorrow there's worldly sorrow and then there's godly sorrow you want to begin with the worst first we'll start with worldly sorrow all kinds of worldly sorrow there's i'm sorry i didn't get my way have you ever seen that one before you ever experienced that one before it's the poor old me pity party kind of sorrow we get an example from that hebrews chapter 12 you remember the old testament character esau the brother of jacob it says he for one morsel of food sold his birthright and you know that afterward when he wanted to inherit the blessing he was rejected even though he found no place of repentance though he sought it diligently with tears so you see esau was sorry but he was not sorry that he was rejected by god he's not sorry that he didn't get the blessing of god what he was upset about is he didn't get the firstborn portion of his father's inheritance that's what you call worldly sorrow also we're going to read a little bit later on about the rich young ruler and luke chapter 18 records a story of how he turned down jesus offer for eternal life he said master what must i do to inherit eternal life and jesus told him and it said he walked away sorrowful why he was sorrowful because he didn't get his way he wanted all the pleasures of the world and also be able to go to heaven when he died and jesus said it doesn't work that way so he went away sorrowful there's another kind of world he saw it's called i'm sorry i got caught anybody ever done that one before i'm so sorry i got caught i weep i cry i pretend to faint anything in order to avoid the consequences i'm sorry you know for my actions and they're also known as alligator tears and also known as jailhouse religion i remember when laura and i were living in macon years ago i just had become a new deacon and the deacons had a prison ministry at one of the state prisons outside of macon there and it was my time to bring the devotion and share with them of course since i was new i never been out there many times before it's kind of unnerving to have to sign your life away and say if i go in this prison and they kill me it's my fault you know it's not the stage so anyhow i'm already a little apprehensive but i went in there and i started uh preaching about my little message and all of a sudden these inmates wanted to stay and they wanted to pray and he wanted to get saved and i was excited i thought i was the next billy graham in the making here until the prison chaplain got with me and said look they all want to get saved when they're up for parole well that kind of poked a hole in my little bubble there so that was one of those they were all sorry that they got caught you know children do this not just for inmates children cried to get out of trouble with their parents parents cried and tried to get out of trouble with the bosses bosses cried to try to get out of trouble with the government you know we all we all pretend to be sorry to get off the hook to get out of trouble there's another kind of world he saw it's what i call the sorrow is my life these are what i call professional mourners they left a list of all their problems all you gotta do is ask them how you're doing and then how do you remember old enough to remember hee-haw remember those guys saying gloom despair and agony on me i mean they start pouring it all out all of my troubles and all the troubles for everybody that i know and they're being really sentimentally sorry but you can tell they kind of enjoy it another variation of this when i was an army i served with a female lieutenant and she had what i call a heartache hobby she'd go from one love affair to another she was always falling in and out of love and she was breaking up in order to make up she was always weeping bitter tears and she'd come into the office and replay her story and cry about all of her sorrowful life with all the sordid details that went with it but the problem is those three worldly kinds of sorrow don't bring you any closer to god but the bible tells us here jesus tells us in this sermon that there is a sorrow that moves you to repent and find comfort in god and that's what we call godly sorrow well how do we do that how do we mourn in a way that brings comfort and blessing well again it's a work of the holy spirit the holy spirit is the one who brings conviction to our heart causes us to realize that we are poor in spirit and that we need a savior we also brings contrition that is brokenness our mourning over sin the holy spirit reveals to us the price of our sinfulness as it says in romans 6 23 the wages or the price or the consequences of our sin is death and that should bring some tears the holy spirit helps us to see sin as john saw it back in revelation chapter five if you remember we were there just a couple of months ago you had the vision of the scroll with the seven seals and we understood that to be the title deed to the garden of eden to paradise to heaven to having access to god if you remember we lost that because of the sin of adam and he and we lost that deed we lost the right we lost the ability the access to enter the kingdom of heaven and none of adam's children were ever holy enough or pure enough or perfect enough in order to buy it back and in revelation chapter 5 verse 3 it says john wept because he said no man in heaven or earth was able to open the book that's talking about that i mean you mean nobody nobody in the history of the world no human being has been able to buy back our access to heaven what about moses moses were told the greatest lawyer that ever lived matter of fact a lot of the laws that's on the books today uh before the socialists took over being how the law laws on the books today were based on the laws of moses from the old testament greatest lawyer ever lived but no he wasn't qualified for you remember he broke the law he committed murder then he got sampson sampson was the strongest man to ever live surely he ought to be able to climb into the kingdom of heaven but no it turns out he was too weak to control his own passions and then there was david he was the greatest warrior that we read about in the old testament but he couldn't win the battle over his inner temptations and then we got solomon solomon the bible tells us why is this man who ever lived but he got outsmarted by his what it says outlandish women that he brought in regardless of the superlatives whether we're the biggest the best the greatest the smartest no one's qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven on their own nor can they lead anybody else there all of us are flawed by sin in one way or another well what about the apostle john john himself i mean he's the writer of the gospel of john first second third john also the book of the revelation surely he could get in there if anybody else could i mean after how many of y'all remember he was a teacher's pet remember the other disciples call him john the beloved you know jesus loves him more he loves the rest of us surely surely he ought to be able to get in there but you know and he gets really good reviews from the bible but even he's not good enough revelation 5 4 john himself says i wept much because no man was found worthy to open the book so john hears mourning over the predicament of sin in humanity how it separates us from god how it prevents us from entering into heaven how it destroys our souls but jesus comes preaching saying blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted well how can we be comforted when sin has ruined our lives and nobody's able to help well the good news is i heard it in an old gospel song one time it says once i was straying you want me to sing it in sin's dark valley no hope within could i see but they searched through heaven and found the savior to save a poor lost soul like me somebody's saying oh what a savior yeah that's it that's the good news they we're able to find somebody we'll find one man jesus christ a sinless son of god the son of man son of god fully man fully god jesus christ was qualified able willing to buy back our entrance into heaven and that's why in revelation 5 5 it says do not weep behold the lion of the tribe of judah the root of david talking about jesus has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals and they sing a new song saying you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and have redeemed us to god by your own blood out of every tribe and every tongue and every people and every nation blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted see godly sorrow is a mixture of mourning and comfort see the world don't understand this in the world you can have mourning over loss or you can have comfort over gain but you can't have both but for the christian our mourning and our comfort are wrapped into a single event and that event is the cross of christ the cross should make us mourn over the sins of the world jesus did jesus wept over the sins of jerusalem if you remember before he went to the cross jesus wept over the wages of sin which is death he did that at the funeral of lazarus and jesus wept in the garden of gethsemane over how sin separates us from our heavenly father for your paul tells us in second corinthians 5 21 that he made him to be sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him so that was jesus reason jesus was crying at gethsemane is not so much he's going to die but the fact that he's going to be separated from his heavenly father for the few moments that he was on the cross when's the last time you wept over that sometimes i think we can go days and months weeks without being in a close relationship with god but jesus just the idea that the six hours he was on the cross he'd actually be separated from his heavenly father while he carried our sins that terrified him and that's what caused him to mourn it should bring tears to us whenever we realize at the cross of christ that jesus was on that cross in our place he was taking our punishment he was purchasing our forgiveness in our eternal life isaiah chapter 53 5 says he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed so we see pictures of jesus how many of y'all got pictures of jesus in your home portrayed by the dutch masters as the happy hippie bottom line is we have no idea what jesus looked like and that's a good thing because when you look at the cross you don't need to be looking at the man on the cross you need to look and see yourself because that's why he's there when you see the cross you need to see yourself there because that's what jesus is doing there he's hanging there for you for our sins is why he is hanging there and what kind of sin gives us some long lists but i'll give you the short list short list comes from proverbs chapter 6 and verse 16. these six things does the lord hate yea seven is an abomination to him a proud look a lying tongue hands that are shed innocent blood a heart that devises wicked plans feet that are swift and running to evil a false witness who speaks lies and he who sows discord among the brethren does that list of sins that god hates ever cause us to mourn or have we become comfortable with sin the sin no longer touches remember back in 1999 former secretary of education william bennett wrote a book called the death of outrage where he makes the case that we as americans have become so comfortable with sin that nothing touches us anymore nothing shocks us nothing shakes us nothing moves us no outrage of course what he's describing there is kind of old hat we've had a bunch of scandals since then but he was talking about the scandals in the administration of president clinton and he said we've become so desensitized to sin that we're like the proverbial frog in the kettle in case you hadn't heard of the proverbial frog in the kettle that's where you take this basic frog and you throw him into boiling water and what will he try to do he will try to get out but if you put him into a kettle that's got room temperature water he will sit there and swim around and you can crank it up a degree at a time until he boils and he will not struggle and i think that's what's happened to us rather than weeping over crime in america we watch crime as entertainment on tv rather than mourning over profanity in our culture we listen to profanity in our music and in our movies even our talk shows rather than mourning over drugs and alcohol in our culture we have many church members that drink and use drugs rather than being outraged over the immoral behavior of the celebrities in our culture sin has become so normal in our society our churches our families even in us we don't even notice anymore rather than you know we we don't get outraged at all we don't get outraged over sexuality in the fashion community christians allow our sons and daughters to dress as provocatively lost the ability to mourn over the exceeding sinfulness of sin the 20th century evangelist vance havner used to say the churches got so subnormal that if it ever got back to new testament normal the whole church would seem to be abnormal and i think that's about where we are we've just kind of let it go we don't worry about it anymore i think the reason christians have lost the ability to mourn is we spend our time trying to blend in with the world rather than standing up standing up for jesus and remembering what he did for us on the cross see we forget that list of sins that hung jesus on the cross that proud look the lying tongues the hands that shed innocent blood the heart that devised wicked imaginations feet that are swift and running to evil the false witness who speaks lies and one who sows discord among the brethren we forget about that every time we look at the cross we should be reminded of that because you see jesus on the cross it seems like we've forgotten that crown of thorns that judged our proud look we've forgotten the vinegar soaked sponge that judged our lying tongue we've forgotten about the roman spikes that judged our hands that shed innocent blood we've forgotten about the spear that judged our heart that devises wicked imaginations we've forgotten the illegal trial that jesus had to go through that judged our false witnesses our lies and our deceit and we've forgotten the crowd chanting crucify him that judged our sin of sowing discord among the brethren sin should make us mourn when we see what it does to our lord until we get a hold on this we're going to be very little use to the lord himself psalm 51 16 says for you do not desire sacrifice or else i would give it no the sacrifices of god are a broken spirit a broken and a contract heart these o god you will not despise now i'm going to ask the finance committee not to pay attention to what i'm fixing to say but what it's saying here is the lord does not accept our tithes our offerings our service or our sacrifice as worship until our hearts are broken from the mold of the world and we get conformed to the image of god's son can somebody say amen i mean a lot of times i think with our offerings what we do is we pay off our conscience we know we're not living right so we come to church and we drop a check in all of a sudden that pays us up for next that's not how it works it's supposed to give offerings out of the love that we have for the lord but the sacrifice is when we give up our life to the lord jesus christ you know i just broken this lesson i had to learn this one the hard way it was a hard lesson i didn't cry from the time i was 13 until i was 33 years old in my teen years i worked on a farm and on that farm big boys don't cry so even if the cow runs over you you stand up you dust off and you don't let them see you because if you cry guess what they tease you and make fun of you somehow another you're less than a man big boys don't cry i moved from my teen years to the college years i went to north georgia it was a college then now it's a university but it was a college back in those days and of course it was a military college and they were preparing us to be military officers to have that stiff upper lift lip we're supposed to be tough guys we're supposed to be train killers we're supposed to control our emotions and keep your military bearing no matter what happened but i was never able to surrender to preach the lord broke my heart and restored my tears that's the way it works i'd love to tell you there was another way but it requires some brokenness lord can't use you until you're broken until you reach the end of yourself until you realize that you need him until you are fully surrendered to him is the only way that the lord can use you it's kind of like that old-fashioned hymn that we sung just a little bit earlier i surrender all written by a guy named judson deventer who was an art teacher he really loved art that's what he wanted to do for life but more and more he felt like the lord leading him to be an evangelist and so he preached and taught and sung at a few evangelism conferences a few revivals a long way and thought that was good enough but the lord continued to lean on him that that was not what his life work was supposed to be and he says after five years he finally came to the decision where he said i surrender all i surrender all all to thee my blessed savior i surrender all and that's what it boils down to you got to be there have you surrendered does the lord have all areas of your life all the corners of your life all the aspects of your life all the rooms in your life are there some rooms that you still don't want the lord in lord i'll let you have my sunday room but i think i'll take care of the rest of the rooms and i said no it don't work that way you see the lord cannot fill you with his spirit until you are empty of you the lord can't use you until you are empty of you and then he can fill you with his spirit a few years ago i saw a poem i'm not much of a poetry person but this was called treasures by a woman named martha schnell nicholson she said one by one he took them from me all the things i valued most until i was empty-handed every glittering toy was lost i walked earth's highway grieving in my rags in poverty till i heard his voice in biting saying lift those empty hands to me so i held my hands toward heaven and he filled me with a store of his own transcendent riches till i could contain no more and at last i comprehended with my stupid mind and dull that god could not pour out his riches into hands already full see that's why we got to have brokenness you got to reach the end of being what you want to be when you grow up so that you can be what god wants you to be when you grow up that's what it boils down to he can't fill you with his spirit as long as you're filled with the spirit of the world you've got to let the thing go so the lord can do that for you in order to become a christian there must be mourning there must be brokenness and if we plan to remain effective as a christian there must be mourning there must be brokenness i remember reading about the work of bob pierce who founded samaritan's purse ministry back in the 1970s it turns out before then he was on a trip to visit some suffering children he was preaching in korea but found out that there was a plague going on there were some suffering children in one of the islands of korea and after he ministered to those children he went back to his room and he wrote this prayer that he's famous for in his bible and it said let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of god is that your prayer let my heart be touched by the things that touch the heart of god that my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of god blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted not only should the cross make us mourn the cross should also bring us comfort from god because in the cross god looked down on our sin our suffering and our death and provided a way through the death burial and resurrection of our lord and savior jesus christ in order to bring us comfort that's why the lord had the prophet isaiah write in isaiah chapter 40. he says comfort yes comfort my people says the lord well what kind of comfort can he provide glad you asked isaiah in chapter 61 gives us the mission statement of the christ the messiah and it goes like this the spirit of the lord god is upon me because the lord has anointed me to preach good tidings good news to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to proclaim the liberty to the captives and to the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the lord in the day of the vengeance of our god to comfort all who mourn to console those who mourn inside well what kind of comfort is this for the person who repents and believes and receives jesus christ we have the comfort of knowing romans 8 28 that all things both good things and bad things work together for good to those who are the called according to god's purpose not everything that you're going to happen in your life you're going to take is good they're going to be a lot of things you take as bad but you have the comfort of knowing if you're a child of god that god is working both of those things together for good to those who love him also he goes on to romans 8 38 and says he knows that neither death nor life nor angels and our principalities and our powers and our things present or things to come they're heightened or depth or any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord and brothers and sisters that's the comfort i guarantee you i wouldn't be in this business if i did not have that comfort to be able to share with people when they go through some of the hardest times of their life godly sorrow is where mourning for sin and comforting god come together they come together at the cross at the cross at the cross where i first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there by faith i received my sight and now i am happy now i am blessed all the day blessed are the poor in spirit i think that's why i think that's why the psalmist wrote in psalm chapter 30 weeping may endure for night but joy comes in the morning how many of you are believers and know that joy is going to come in the morning we may have some weeping here but one of these days the joy of the lord is coming so everybody mourns amen everybody cries about something but what do you cry about when you think about that as we come to a close here do you mourn like the world do you mourn cause you don't get your way you mourn when you get caught do you mourn just because you're a depressing person and left to mourn well those things do you no good do you mourn in sorrow over sin how it separates us from god how hung jesus christ on the cross and how it brings suffering sorrow death hail to the human beings does your morning move you to forsake yourself from sin and find the comfort in the holy spirit blessed are those who mourn there is comfort in christ if you're here today and you've never trusted jesus christ your savior the only way you're going to get a clue about what i talked about this morning is when you reach in the brokenness of your heart and ask jesus christ to come in and heal you to come in and change it to come in and mend your broken heart that's the only way that happens maybe this morning you're saved but you become cold and complacent and desensitized to sin pray for the lord to restore to you that tears that had to happen to me before i could get into this ministry here say lord restore the brokenness to me help me not to get so desensitized to what's going on in the world that no longer moves me or draw me back closer to you draw me nearer to you only then can we know the comfort and blessing of our lord jesus christ let's go to the lord in prayer father i thank you for your word i thank you for sending jesus to teach us these beatitudes as part of his sermon on the mount lord help us today to look at our hearts see if there's someone here that doesn't yet know you as savior and lord lord we pray that by the power of your holy spirit that you bring that brokenness that you bring the mourning so that they can also find the comfort in coming to jesus christ and lord for those of us who already know you as savior and lord the world makes it it's a chore in order to change our hearts to where we're cold and calloused and nothing bothers us anymore lord restore our brokenness so that we can serve you and we'll pray this in jesus name amen now is our time of invitation our altar is open if you need to come and pray anything that the lord has on your heart if you've never trusted jesus christ your savior i'll be standing down front and i'd love to pray with you maybe you've already prayed and asked jesus to come in your heart and be saved but you've never taken that next step of believers baptism and joining the church won't you do that today maybe today you've already been saved and baptized and your church membership is somewhere else and you're not sure and you feel like the lord is leading you to find your place of service here so once you join our church today i'll be standing down front to greet you listen to the voice of the holy spirit as he speaks to us as we stand together and sing won't you come i hear the same you'll see my strength [Music] a indeed of weakness watch and pray find in he thine all in all jesus painted all sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white has snowed lord now indeed i find thy power and vine alone can change the [Music] jesus paid a crimson stain he washed it white has snored for nothing good have i whereby thy grace to claim i'll wash my garments wide in the blood of calvary's land jesus paid it all to him sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white and snow and then before the throne i stand in him complete jesus died my soul to save my lips shall still repeat jesus paid it more sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white has snored all right hazel come here and stand with me mom and dad can come too amen can y'all tell that she's excited about coming to faith in jesus christ uh i think she made the decision a couple of wednesday nights ago during iwana and it was flowing that night too and she couldn't wait to come and join the church and be baptized so all y'all who rejoice in hazel's decision say amen amen that sounds like everybody so we ask him to stay up here and as y'all take the opportunity to come by and welcome her into our church family and we look forward to baptizing her real soon thank you for being here today for your attention for your prayers i'm going to ask brother harry if he will to dismiss us in prayer let's pray almost gracious heavenly father thank you for your word and your message today thank you for decisions that have been made we love you lord and we thank you for loving us thank you for letting us meet together today and enjoy christian fellowship and hear the truth spoken in your house be with those who are sick and unable to attend and those who are undergoing medical procedures comfort those who have lost loved ones help us remember that you are our very present help and trouble and comfort and in jesus christ's name we pray amen

Channel: Northlake Baptist Church

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Length: 65min 10sec (3910 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021