"The Paradox Of Brokeness" Mike Chance BOTT 2000

this pastor would you welcome for the mic chance well let's give honor to the Lord Jesus hallelujah praise God sister Mannion it is why I've always called you one of my heroes because you always managed to help me get refocused and what a beautiful service can we give God a hand for this service today hallelujah praise God I did not know when I came here why it was that God persisted in turning my thoughts to this direction and now I understand why and I am going to do my best to share something with you that the Holy Ghost is laid in my heart Luke chapter 4 verse 18 quick reading of the scripture the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted everybody say the brokenhearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised and I want to read one other passage in job chapter 16 verse 11 and 12 God hath delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over into the hands of the wicked I was at ease but he hath broken me asunder I was at ease but he hath broken me asunder he hath also taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark I feel a handprint of God on my neck this morning is there anybody here can feel what I'm talking about hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah amen I want to preach to you for a little while here this morning on the paradox of brokenness everybody say that with me the paradox our brokenness said one more time the paradox our brokenness Amen Jesus in your name we thank you for all you've done continue your work in our hearts today in Jesus name and everybody said amen you may be seated I stand today before the greatest assemblage in the universe men and women in this room are greater than the gatherings of great world political leaders greater than the assembling of world philanthropist greater than the greatest entrepreneurs and financial wizards in this room is the assemblage of people greater than those with the genius of science or of education this is a gathering that is more noble than monarchs our Emperor's our dictators our princes our kings I stand today and thankful I am to stand here among the company of the called the chosen and the faithful a stand in the presence and I say this today with more reverence than I've ever said it before I stand in the presence of the ministry pastors teachers evangelists apostles prophets men and women upon whom the mantle of God's anointing has graced their lives people who are living the lives of those who are gifted and called of God ladies and gentlemen we are privileged to be a part of the ministry of the Church of the Living God hallelujah would you clap your hands if you believe that with me today I would love to be able to declare to you that by virtue of being in this ministry that all of us would be candidates for the first half of Hebrews 11 that we would without question enter into some renowned ministerial Hall of Fame I wish I could tell you that it was that easy that the first half of Hebrews 11 is the record of an exciting and successful finish two powerful sensational lives and ministries did I find elders obtaining good reports excellent sacrifices and God testifying of a man's gifts painless translations men who please God easy passages on dry land through red seas and walls falling to the sound of marching feet heavenly music and voices that shout until walls come tumbling down it is the record of men and ministry that subdued kingdoms it's in the world 11 of Hebrews 33 through 35 subdued kingdoms they wrought righteousness in this ministry near obtained their promises they stopped the mouths of lions they were those who quenched the violence of fire and escaped the edge of the sword out of their weakness they were made strong they were valiant in their fight they turned to flight the armies of the aliens and their women received their dead to life raised up again by the power and the authority are behind the life that they lived that thrust them into this Hall of Fame but I have to hasten on to tell you about those ministries that are listed in the second half for the last half of Hebrews 11 they had the same calling they had the same God they had the same power they had the same anointing on their lives but their record reads and records that they went through some terrible times our brokenness they walked a different road into what might not be called the Hall of Fame but could well be called the Hall of pain they made it but they didn't travel the same road they got there but they didn't do it like those that are listed in the first half of that chapter I read of torture I read about cruel mockings I read about scourging Barnes and I read about imprisonments and they were stoned and sawn asunder the Bible said they were tempted they were slain with a sword they were destitute they were afflicted and they were tormented and yet these are people that made it just like those who walked in with a sensational ending to a successful ministry and a successful life there are people in this building this morning I knew about you in the wee hours this morning when God finally convinced me of what he wanted to say there are people in this building who are feel familiar in fact more familiar with the second half of the book of Hebrews chapter 11 than you are of the first half thank God for ministries that enjoy sudden and Swift victories thank God for lives that have timely interventions of the supernatural thank God for those who see Satan stopped in his tracks who see instant provision and have angel visitations and decisive victories in their life but I am preaching to some people here in spite of all that we have already shouted and wept and cried and danced and praised I am preaching to some ministries of the second half of the book of Hebrews chapter 11 I'm preaching to some people I know where you are on this road of ministry sometimes the Lions devour on this road that the walls don't always come falling down and the Giants are resistant on this road the meal barrel turns empty on this road mountains resist removal and disease takes a toll and there's not always a quick visitation of angels or a quick demonstration of the power of God on this road sometimes a Lazarus doesn't come forth and Caleb's don't take the mountain and Abraham and Sarah never get their child and C's don't roll back and the son won't stand still and lions refuse to die it sounds to me like a road of brokenness it sounds to me like a life of brokenness I haven't come to preach a negative message to you I want to preach the paradox to you I want to talk to you that hey who walked here like my friend brother Kirk binning Hoffa I wept and repented a few moments ago living 75 miles away why haven't I been more sensitive to a man who is hurting in a home mission church listen God never explains why some enjoy the excitement and some enjoy the miraculous and some enjoy the sensational or why some have trouble with their kingdoms and their lions and their Giants and those who don't have a angel Vince's visitations and translations and supernatural strength but there's one thing rollatini he does say these all obtained a good report these all obtained a good report can somebody thank God with me today for the paradox a brokenness hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah I am preaching two ministries right now who are going through a season of brokenness I'm preaching the men and families who were experiencing the cruelty and the mocking and the scourging you're going through the destitution and the affliction and the torture and the torment Oh it'll be so easy after such a glorious visitation of the Holy Ghost just to walk away from this message and turn to something with which we could dance but God whispered to me sitting in the corner there's still some broken men that are here in this place nineteen ninety nine preachers was a year of victory it was a year of success but when our place pasted on smile it's gone and our handshakes and hugs and I'm doing great is over with I've got to tell you I've heard it over and over and over it was the hardest year of my ministry I've heard them say I don't deny the great power of God's revival North Awakening that's happening around the world I thank God for it but there's some people whose Giants aren't falling there's some people whose lions keep getting up there's some people who know what cruelty and scourging and mocking is I never thought but the Mangan that I'd see the day in my own church where uniformed me and would be stationed at the door with orders to shut us down if we didn't comply with the wishes of one wicked leader in the city I never dreamed I'd see it but I saw it in ninety nine where government officials would walk into our services to check our compliance wear padlocks were put on some of the doors and only a lawyer and the threat of litigation could open that door again where fire trucks with lights parked in front of the doors of the church and would not move so that people would see that they were represented their service after service after service we would be threatened I never dreamed that I would be frightened with physical violence if I didn't comply with the wishes of a local city council and some of you in this building don't know what I'm talking about but others of you are walking through the second half of Hebrews 11 and you know what I'm talking about that you know what it is to face those things I'm not asking you to feel sorry for me I'm not trying to preach my sermon or my story but I've come to tell you that God knows that there's been some broken places in the last few months and he's come to tell somebody about the other side a brokenness I'm preaching to some preachers today who had people you never dreamed would do it turn on you and walk out of your church I'm preaching to people today whose family came under attack not from the world around them are their high schools or their junior High's are their elementary or the teacher or the godless new-age world but they came under attack your family your precious family from within your charge I'm preaching to me and today brother man I hope this is not negative please stay with me like get where I'm going I'm preaching them in today who've had finances that have been adequate and stable suddenly dissipate and falter and fall away I'm preaching to somebody today who had a rash of backsliding break out in your church and a few days ago I felt in my own prayer and spirit there's a lot of people that's preaching about the endtime revival and the massive move of the Holy Ghost but I read my Bible and it says that there's also going to be a great falling away at the same time that there's a great revival and some men are experiencing that in this building today I'm preaching to churches that moral problems have broken out and threatened to ruin families that you loved dearly I'm preaching about churches where elders and influential people board members etc became power-hungry and undermined your leadership I couldn't preach this in a local church conference but I'm talking to me and who know what I'm talking about I'm preaching to somebody today that somebody you meant mentored and nurtured and helped to grow and get started in this great calling hurt you deeply and you can't recover I'm preaching to somebody today who had the brokenness of a sudden split that came out of nowhere and brought depression that you can't shake and you wear it like a cloak every morning until night and you go to bed wishing the morning would never come I'm preaching to somebody who's holiness preaching was challenged the way you preach it in your own local assembly and you don't understand where you missed the target or how it went wrong because you're only trying to fulfill the wishes of calabria I preached it to somebody that for the first time lingering health problems have come into your life when you used to have all the energy in the world when you have the won't to and the drive and the zeal and you don't know whether it's burnout or it really is that you're sick but there's lingering problems that have slowed your productivity to a standstill and you don't know how to live with it and you don't know how to put up with it I'm preaching to somebody whose children that you raised in the fear of God have brought grief and shame to your ministry and your heart and you don't know how to recover from it and you don't want to walk among your peers because of the shame that you feel I know it I knew it was going to get quiet but please hear me I'm just telling the truth about us I'm just telling the truth about where we are I'm preaching to somebody the zip is gone the fire is low apathy is wrapping its tentacles around the once excited mind that sermon seemed impossible to define and where oh where is the flow of the anointing that was there in those days when the altars were full and the whole ghost was falling and the church was running over with people I'm preaching about people today listen to me who were walking through the second half of the chapter of 11 of Hebrews your Giants aren't going down easy and your lions are getting up and your mountains have become sullen and stubborn and refused to go into the sea but they stand there as a monument of defiance and they look you in the eye and say you'll never move me your best is over you'll never have it again it's not coming back you had your day it's all worth for you in your city in your church can I tell you Satan is a liar can I tell you that hell is a lie please hear me dear precious preacher friend I want to tell you today that there is a method to what seems to be madness it is the ministry everybody say the ministry it is the ministry a brokenness it is the beautiful side a brokenness I need to say this prophetically to someone I didn't know who you would be but I felt that through something this morning but a man can I wrote it in my notes prophetically I speak to someone this morning this thing is not about seeing in your life this is not about Satan provoking you and attacking you you're pointing in the wrong direction if you think the enemy has bested you in this war this is not about God abandoning you and turning you over to the adversary what you're going through is the Ministry the god-sent ministry brokenness and there's a paradox in it if I hadn't been there I would know see it with me in the word this paradox didn't he say by the 10 a and Isaiah 61 he would bind up the broken heart didn't he say he would give beauty for Ashes then they say he would give the oil of joy for mourning didn't he say that he would give the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness but it seems like we just can't unwrap the garments the spirit of heaviness and the morning in the ashes yet I hear the weeping voice even though God said that's what he was i hear the weeping loss of job saying god that delivered me hear me it was Satan who asked that he might attack job but job in his understanding made a statement we need to understand he said it's gone that delivered me to the ungodly turning me over to the hand of the wicked the problem was I was at ease but he had broken me he had taken me by my leg and he has shaken me lift our hands and love him one time hallelujah I'm talking about ladies and gentlemen job of whom the Bible confesses was upright of whom the Bible says fear God I'm not talking about a lousy loser I'm not talking about somebody that's indifferent I'm not talking about somebody that don't care I'm not talking about punishment for wrongdoing I'm not talking about somebody who loved evil and hated truth job who shunned evil who worshipped regularly who gave continually who was a good father to his children who was a good husband to his wife job who was trying a job who was giving it his best but 16 chapters later this same good man who had no glaring sin nor no faults that one could see who seemed righteous and who seems so stable he is experiencing multiple death in his family here he is suffering the loss of all of his material goods here he is with his home attacked and his children taken here he is with his body racked and struck down with disease I don't know if I'm getting across what I'm trying to say but his closest friends turned on him and it makes me ask it made me ask who is this God is he the God who gives the oil of joy for mourning is he the God who gives the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness and who binds up the brokenhearted or is he a God who breaks good men and reduces them to a shell it seems there's a contradiction here but I declare to this wonderful group it is the paradox a brokenness a proposition that seems to be contradictory and yet it expresses a great truth God uses the broken road to repair the deficits in God uses the broken road when what we have is not enough and he sees yet greater things in our future but what we are is not ready for what we were he will do and what we are it's not sufficient to the task that is ahead and so God sends us down the road of cruelty and mocking and he sends us down the road of all kinds of affliction and he does it because He loves us God uses the broken road to repair deficits in us we need to get our attention off the devil he don't have the power anyway he's not our problem anyway we need to get our blame off of him and look back to where it really is God what is it that you're trying to build in me to get me sufficient to the day at hand God creates out of nothing God creates out of nothing therefore until a man is nothing God can make nothing out of him can I say that again God creates out of nothing what did he have in his hands when he created this world what did he have when he formed man and breathe breath in his life what substance did he have when at the breasts of the breath of his knocks nostrils the foundations of the world over for he had nothing he creates out of nothing he makes out of nothing he doesn't need my talent he doesn't need my ego he doesn't need my personality he doesn't need all the things I think I am he's got to break me down to nothing and when he gets me to a place I'm nothing only then can he make something out of me God will never plant the seed of greatness upon the soil of a hard and unbroken spirit he will only plant the seed of greatness where the conviction of the Holy Ghost has broken us I knelt but affected of all me in our movement I look at you to be the holiest and the highest and if a man like that can stand and say I haven't done anything and I feel so broken by God and where am I because the seed of greatness can only come where conviction of the Spirit has broken a man to the point he knows he has nothing when the soul of the soul has been watered through the tears of repentance when the divine surgeon has to be allowed to use his word as a sharpen scalpel to cut and to cleanse and to break thank you sister man you're not once not twice but my whole life from a little boy every time I see you cut and you cleanse and you break with the word listen to me I don't know if I'm getting through to that one soul I told God I'll give up the masses who have already been blessed if I can find that home missionary or that evangelist or that discouraged pastor who needs to have up something in his spirit that gives him hope for tomorrow let me just say to somebody spiritual surgery is more painful than physical surgery God doesn't use anesthetics he wants us to feel the brokenness he won't just a feel the pain the sharpness of the two-edged sword has got to bring a pain to our being and the second thing I want to tell you is God like physical surgery doesn't do his work while you're asleep he wants us to see how broken we are he wants us to see what can be and should be he wants us to come to meetings like this and find out that it really is there and somebody's doing it and somebody's got a hold of it but I've got to work on you son I've got to perform spiritual surgery and it's worse than physical surgery because I'm gonna let you feel it I'm gonna do it while you're wide awake you're gonna see it and you're gonna know that you're broken and you're gonna know that you're not that but when I get through breaking you I'm gonna do something in you and with you that I have never done before in your ministry job saw he saw it coming I was at ease he had drifted please relate he had drifted to a state of unmotivated ease he had gotten to a place where his relationship with God and his personal devotion was taken for granted he had gotten to the place though he was good he had fallen into a routine of life he had gotten to the place where the fire was not burning in his being as it once burned his goodness please hear me his goodness had become a way of life he didn't know anything else it was what he did it was what he was it was a way of life and it lost its sacred specialness to him so he said I was it easy God hasn't wronged me God hasn't done anything bad to me God hasn't forsaken me God hasn't turned his back on me God has a pool revival out of my city I turned my church over to the to the trash heap on the side of the road the hash being the Forgotten ones who had at one time but don't have it anymore he said the whole deal is a I am the one whose bilities my god has had to take me by the neck and shake me and break me because I want this to be more than just a way of life would you pray with me one more time the Holy Ghost please talk to somebody here today hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah all I know that is that after the breaking he became passionate again after the breaking there was a new zeal and a fire about him I picked up the word and I read where job says now he knoweth the way that I take and when he has tried me I shall come forth let's go when he gets through breaking me there's gonna be a bounce in my step there's gonna be fire in my eye there's gonna be something balling on the inside of me desire is going to come back he's gonna do something in me that's gonna give me a ministry like I had when I was just a boy oh let's worship him for a moment the heart has to send brokenness when I'm at ease I'm gonna say it again God has to send me brokenness when my ministry is flagging God has to break you and I when our prayer life is lacking when we're so busy with the necessary when we're so busy with the need for that we forget the imperative and we leave it aside when our confort zone has become our way of life and we move up and down this Pentecostal Road at ease because we know how to do it we've learned how to do it it's our way of life but God has to break me in meetings like this until he reminds me that I'm still holding a cup that I still have a mission and there's a message that I've got to deliver that a nun regenerated person can't deliver and those who don't know that name can't give it and those who don't wear this power of anointing cannot share it with the world it's up to you and it's up to me it was so good to David he was so good to him God has been good to us he had let David smite Gath and take take it from the Philistines he had slit him smite Moab and Moabites became his servants and brought him gifts and laid him down at his feet he gave David dominion over head ariza and sober and and in that conflict he took a thousand chance and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand footmen everybody say success everybody say renown he was famous he was a legend he was unbelievable his name was on the lips of everybody he had slain twenty-two thousand Syrians and defeated 32000 M Anaya he was blessed and he was protected God was with him he was chosen success was coming his way good things were happening his name were in the lights if you please he was in every publication he had it all going here his group his church his Dominion his kingdom was known far and wide the future was bright with promise and power was all over him but David's pride and his ego began to grow what is it that when God's good we can't handle it his pride and his ego he allowed some feelings to come in where the Mangan he shouldn't have had it was then that he got arrogant enough to number Israel it was the thing about ego it was a thing about pride he had gotten so big he wanted to sit and gloat over it and look at he had become so successful he wanted to know just what great things had been done at his hand he got so wonderful in his own eyes no wonder that I read this in Scripture I read it and I I hope others here can relate I could relate he said he has lifted me up and he does if there's anything he gave it if there's anything done he did it if there's any results he's the one that gave it if there's any anointing he poured it out if there's any power it's because of him Calvary gave it to us Jesus Christ invested it in us David said he hath lifted me up and he have cast me down it's the paradox a brokenness yes he heals the broken but if he has to he'll break it yes he lifts you and he's good to you but if he has to he'll break yea thou has lifted me up and you have cast me down and that's the paradox ur a brokenness God had to break him God had to cast him down because his ego and his pride were about to destroy him I hope I'm alright here today his ego his pride my god did you break such a prominent man why did you break such a man as David because he lost the wonder of his humanity I was drawn to him when he was singing songs and Jesse's field I was drawn to him when he was writing poetry giving me the glory of the honor I was drawn to him when his fingers flew over the instrument and his sweet voice lifted up and glad refrain to the God that had created him I was drawn to him when he was humble when he was nothing when he was small I'm not through with him yet there's more I've got for him there's some other things I want to do through him there's more success in his future but he can't handle it right now I've got to break him so I can get him to the place where I can do the rest of the things that I want to do in his life so he went to work on David he didn't take him to the Hall of Fame he took him to the Hall of pain he sent pestilence and what ministry can stand to see people around him destroyed 70,000 he lost a destroying angel God sent not the devil God sent a destroying angel to Jerusalem the place that David loved where he wanted to build something for God the place that was his city listen to me folks I know it was a city because only four times in Scripture is it called the City of God but 46 or 42 times it's called the City of David the reason was because at one time there burned and David a passion for that city that said Jeff besides you've had it long enough I don't care if the greatest among us has tried and failed I'm gonna come and take that city out of your hand and the Bible said he took it in spite of everything he took it the city was in his heart the city was in his mind the city was everything that he wanted and it was because of that that it was called the city of David could i pause right here and say that God can never own my city until he first owns me until it becomes my city it can't be God's City until it becomes personal with me it can't belong to God until it indice me and marks me until it stands in my face and twisted my guts until I can't stand a ride down the street and see the lost around me I can't expect God to love it if I don't love it and how can I love hair and let he'll love it more than I love it and how can I say let's Satan make more of an investment in it that I'm gonna make it is a fun preaching it has to become mine before it can become God's and so and so David had gotten to the place that it absolutely had left him and the angel was destroy and what he loved did you hear me the angel from God was destroying the thing that he loved and all of a sudden God saw David begin to go back in his mind in his heart and he began to reverse himself an ego went sliding out one door and pride without another and the humility comes rushing back into David's eyes and suddenly he was that shepherd boy singing with hands uplifted that tender sweet hearted spirit that sanderfoot it lad who loved God with all of his heart and when God saw that he put out his hand just a man good and he said that's a knife angel if you want to stop some of this brokenness that's going on in your church in your life in your city all throughout everything that you touch and are you about part out if you want to see that broken if you want to see that stopped then we gotta get rid of all those things gone it's trying to take out of us and let him take us back up to the place where he found us when he got through when he got through and stopped the you know where David was he was on or Nan's threshing floor at an altar he had freshly built with his arms wrapped around and said I refuse anything that didn't cost me something that I refused its god I gotta invest in this he was back at an altar oh the beauty of brokenness he sins destroying I don't know who I'm preaching to today I'm not qualified nor worthy I'm the least among everyone I mean that for my heart but God wants somebody to know in this building today that if he has sent a destroying angel he'll tell that angel it's enough when he gets our pride in check and our ego comes out of us and he gets us to quit thinking in terms of our own success and our own goodness and our own growth and helps us to understand that we still hold a cup in our hand and what he called us for is what he's trying to do maybe just maybe all those things that have come our way our God sent brokenness roy campanella great athlete in history said this I asked God for strength that I might achieve but I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey I asked for help that I might do great things I was given infirmity that I might do better things I asked for instance that I might be happy I was given poverty that I might be wise I asked for power that I might have the praise of men but I was given weakness that I might feel my need of God I asked for all things that I might enjoy life I was given life that I might enjoy all things I got nothing I asked but everything I had hoped for and despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered I am among men most richly blessed what are you talking about Roy Campanella I'm talking about the brokenness of life that I didn't count on the things I didn't ask for that gave me everything I had ever hoped is said in his later years that Beethoven would spend hours playing a broken harpsichord the instrument was a worthless piece of junk the keys were missing the strings were broken it was out of tune it was hard on the ears but they wrote and recorded that this great pianist would play until tears ran down his cheeks and look at him you would think that the music he was hearing was heavenly and sublime and it was because he was deaf Beethoven was hearing the sound the instrument should make not the sound that it did make it break me God you know what I'm supposed to be you know what you had in mind for my ministry in my life you know what you wanted when you call me to San Antonio you know what you wanted out every life in this building you had a reason for it all I don't know why he keeps playing broken harpsichords strings missing the instrument that's worthless I don't know why he keeps on finding joy in broken people but all I know is that he's hearing the sound the instruments should make and not the sound that it does make hires love chokeboys this morning saying wherefore I desire Ephesians 3:13 I desire that you faint knock at my tribulations for you it's not the devil I cinema it's not your sin in your failure I sent it and it's not the reason you thought it was it's because I got greater things for you than you ever dreamed of I've got things that in store for you that your city's never seen in your ministry has never seen but you're not in the shape old wineskins brother Tina you talked about it cannot take new wine there's something got to happen rotini told us in meeting the other night there has to be all rub there has to be an application of the spirit there has to be a spirit of brokenness ahead there has to be something that comes over us God has to adjust and twist and God has to work on the deficits and God has to get it all in place because when he has in mind may seem like tribulation now but he said don't feign to hang in there until this part of it is over you ain't seen nothing yet so what I'm gonna do in your life in your city in your church for our light affliction brother Arnold witness which is but a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day I hear someone's cry today in this building it's the cry of the man and the storm in mark chapter 4 he's more afraid than he's ever been he's never felt like this before he's never faced a storm like this before he's never been through an experience like this before and finally he can't take it anymore and he ran somewhere to the bottom of the ship and screamed master don't you even care that I'm dying don't you even care that I perish he let the storm rage and he slept on because he knows when the storm has done its work and he knows when the time for peace be still is coming he knew that they needed the storm because they had lost their faith please hear me go read it for yourself when he finally decided to do something he turned to them and he said why are you so fearful how is it that you have no faith he was letting the storm get them to a place where they had to trust him he was letting the storm take them to a place where they had to renew their faith it was either renew their faith in their trust or died in the storm I'm preaching to somebody who's backed up in a storm and you're buffeted in your torn and the cruelty in the mocking in the affliction and all that it seems too much but hey he does care not your parish how do I know that he never left them he never abandoned them I'm almost through he never abandoned them he never left them true he slept and he let the storm rage but at just the moment of his choosing when he knew faith had come back to their heart he stood in the face of the storm and took care of the problem it is said that in some countries trees will grow but they will not bear fruit because there is no winter time it takes the violence of winter it takes the changes in the metamorphosis of winter it takes those seasons brother ro you preached about here it takes those times in order for there to be fruit trees can grow but fruit can't come without winter we hate the dark moments whether we're in large churches are small we hate the darkness the dark season but listen to me the Holy Ghost whispered and said it's the nighttime that reveals to you the Stars there's beauty in the night that can only be revealed at night it can't be revealed in the daytime it can't come when things are going well the good and great things of God that he wants you to know some of it can only be given at night I stood last night permit me brother man I stood last night with tears streaming down my face as I listened to my son minister to be Gaius I relived with him those awful days of overcoming terrible obstacles just so he could preach he never told me what he told those kids that he felt like a nothing that he became quiet and backed in a corner because he didn't feel like he was any good but tonight he got the Holy Ghost he told god I want to preach more than I want anything in the world I remember those twisted legs they said would never walk I remember his mother weeping silently in a bed and singing softly to me a song I've learned to revere whatever it takes to draw closer to you God that's what I be willing to do whatever it takes to be more like you that's what I'll be willing to do and I remember I remember brethren if you'll just put it up here for me I remember the doctor who took an instrument and broke those legs I remember whenever he surgically performed osteotomies on Shane Shane are you up here close son or yet please permit me hurry up your son just stand with me because God wants to illustrate the paradox of brokenness through this child this young man today amen there it is the doctors did that brother Megan they put those scars there they broke that leg amen those of you that are looking on that screen I remember the pain from that scar I remember the cries in the night I remember the agony I remember the twisted legs but the doctor broke those legs time and again throughout his young life Shane would go back there were bilateral media releases every nerve and ligament cut loose and realigned there was the alizarin holes drilled in bones through and through rods put through beneath the cut that was that severed the bone instruments with adjustments that the doctor said was like breaking his leg every day all over again as they would adjust that instrument to try to lengthen that leg horrible horrible pain mom and dad you were there intense pain brokenness in the legs of a baby and I couldn't stand it and I asked God a million times why why God why why why but only because those legs were broken 22 years ago could he have the strength in them because they said he had never walked and without those scars without that strengthening moment 22 years ago for the man that he couldn't have walked to that pulpit and preach the kids about how to overcome obstacles please if you don't remember anything else I've said just stand with me and bow your head close your eyes and hear these last statements I'm gonna make to you that doctor I will always love for the tinny because he did something I did never I had never seen a doctor do before the same hands that broke those legs when his day was over in countless visits to countless bedsides were made and it was late into the night I watched him night after night come in and put on a mask in a gown reach his hand into that little 2-pound body and lift it up and hold it and set down in a rocking chair and the same hands that broke him and held him until the pain subsided I want to tell you preacher the same hands that are breaking you I'm gonna put his arms around you and he's going to hold you until the storm is gone and the hurtings over until the child comes home and the finances get right and the church board prays through and the church split is forgotten in the face of massive revival and souls by the hundreds are falling in altars and conversions are the new trend of the day and victory is established in flags waving and choirs sing and people shout and dance at the same hands that broken are gonna hold you until the pain is gone ladies and gentlemen it is the paradox of brokenness

Channel: Because of the Times

Views: 11,174

Rating: 4.8321676 out of 5

Keywords: Because of thre Times, BOTT, Mike Chance

Id: 0cxgljE5uiw

Length: 56min 21sec (3381 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 01 2015