Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Sermon on the Mount (The power of brokenness)

• Godly sorrow leads to salvation
• The reason why we sin and relapse again and again or struggle with the sin is because there is no godly sorrow.
• Only godly sorrow leads to deep remorse, genuine repentance and then to salvation......

Pst Kong shared about the 'C's leads to salvation:

1. Conviction

• Both King Saul and King david sinned against God...but the difference between them was that David knew how to get back to God.
• Mt 5:4 - Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
• "Blessed" here does not mean happy, it means to be approved.
• Ps51:4 - Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight—That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.
• David was convicted - he was strongly convinced that he has sinned against God.
• If we are not strongly convinced that we have sinned and be truly repentant, we will relapse into our old lifestyle.

2. Contrition

• Deep remorse
• Ps 51:17 - The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.
• Do we repent with hearts that are not broken?
• We need to examine our hearts again - do we repent as if God has no choice but to forgive us? Of cos, it can never be that God has no choice but to forgive.....but sometimes we have that rotten attitude that thinks this way.
• a heart of brokenness is different from a broken heart - a heart of brokenness is a heart broken by God (whereas broken heart is one broken by hurts, satan etc)
• without brokenness, we can't release the the presence of God within us.

• Jhn 12:1-3 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
• Only when the flask was broken, could the fragrance of the bottle come out...
• there is the treasure of God inside everyone of us....but it (the anointing and presence of God) can only come out when we are broken.
• All of us have an outward shell, and that is our outward man (which is our hardened attitude of pride, rebellion, self sufficiency and self centredness)
• so what if one knows a lot of the bible, have many degrees in theology etc, but somehow can't bring ppl to God, can't heal or touch ppl or when he/she prays, nothing happens....
• why? because the outward shell is not broken!
• we can't be touched by God if we're not broken; inwardly we feel cold for God....
• then one becomes full of his opinion about everything, very critical, focussing on the outside, outward things...rather than understanding the things of God or the move of God.
• How much we respect those that have contributed to where our church is today (Pst Phil, Pst Ulf, Dr Bernard, Dr Ed Cole and the leaders etc) will determine whether we are going to be approved by God or not.
• We can receive something from the messages even if we heard it many times!
• even if it's the worst service..lousy preaching, lousy praise and worship, we can still receive something, cos' we're in tune with God..rather than becoming fault finding and focusing on the wrong things.

• A great e.g. is the woman with the issue of blood (Mk 5)
• This woman is a rich lady, a socialite! Yet that day when she wanted to touch Jesus, she crawled between the legs of the crowd.
• She had such humility and brokenness to do such a thing cos' the outward shell of pride is broken...!

• Jonah 2:3-7 3 For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ 5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. 7 “ When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple.
• Jonah was acting religious, angry and sulking..
• He tried to score points with God, make some faith confessions but nothing happened. He remained in the fish's belly.
• It was only when he came to himself, stop getting angry with God and pitying himself and humbly offered his service (v9 - But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.)
• there was no face to save, no personal agenda! (even if misunderstood or criticized)

Gen 32: Jacob wrestled with God (encountered and touched God).

• He came to the end of himself - that's when he came to close contact with God
• He leaned on God (he limped on his hip)
• God changed his name to Israel, and till now, the fame of his name still lingers.

*Food for thought:

1. Is the strength of our will so loud that we drown the voice of God? (He speaks in a still small voice).
2. Do we choose to die to our self (our own achievements, dreams, ambitions, intellect) ESPECIALLY when we're gifted, talented, intelligent and can do many things on our own? (Lk 14:27 - And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.)
3. Are we willing to break our self and give it all to Him?
4. When God wants to bring about brokenness in our lives, He allows some things to happen.
5. Are we willing to recognise the chastening of the Lord?
6. Do we hold back cos of self love? loving ourselves too much that we're unwilling to embrace God..
7. Are u willing to go thru the breaking process?

*My prayer is that all of us will.......Let us break ourselves before the Almighty.

Disciples in the making

On 8/06/2008 09:35:00 PM, Sharlene Teo Junrong let go.