Eight Steps to True Happiness

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Eight Steps toTrue Happiness

• Step 2 The Law of Brokenness Intro.

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Step 2 Law of Brokenness - Intro

• Each study builds on the previous one
• Discipleship
• Attitudes
• Dependence on God
• We now look at
• The Law of Brokenness

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Eight Steps toTrue Happiness

• Step 1 The Law of Brokenness

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• Matthew 54
• Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be
  comforted. NIV

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• How could Jesus consider someone enviably
  happy (Amplified Bible) who was experiencing the
  trauma of bereavement?
• As with all of the Beatitudes, we must
  understand the spiritual interpretation.

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• Jesus is speaking of a spiritual mourning
• It is when our heart becomes grieved with what
  grieves the heart of God.

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• Matthew 54
• How happy are those who know what sorrow means,
  for they will be given courage and comfort. JBP

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• This is an attitude in which we are sensitive to,
  and devastated by, the loss that we ourselves or
  others may be suffering.
• It is having the heart of God on an issue, seeing
  something as a clear violation of the revealed
  will of God.
• Kittel describes to mourn as Passionate grief
  which leads to corresponding action

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• Mourning in countries of the Middle East
• A visible and expressive experience involving
  loud weeping, wailing, deep groaning.
• Accompanied by external signs of grief
• Tearing of clothes and wearing sackcloth
• Sprinkling of ashes on the head
• Sitting among ashes
• Shaving of the head

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• Examples from Scripture
• Ex 37-10 Israels cry for deliverance
• Ex 1230 Death of the Firstborn in Egypt
• 2 Kings 212 Elishas cry of anguish
• Deut 2223-27 Cry of a woman being raped
• Ex 174 Moses cry for Gods help
• Gen 2734 Cry of Esau losing his blessing
• 1 Sam 414 Cry of Israels loss of the ark

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to
  salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly
  sorrow brings death.
• 2 Cor 710 NIV

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• According to Pauls letter to the Corinthians
  Godly sorrow has four main ingredients
• Eagerness to see the wrong corrected
• Indignation of a violation of Gods revealed will
• Zeal to do Gods will
• Readiness to do whatever to put things right

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• This brokenness is not only fundamental to our
  New Birth but also plays a key role in our
  ongoing Kingdom Lifestyle.
• It not only changes our thinking but our
  lifestyle too!

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• Brokenness precedes revival
• There is much talk of the need for revival
• Revival starts with brokenness
• Charles Finney struggled, groaned and agonised
  before God
• Evan Roberts convulsed with grief calling on
  his audience to pray

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• God specialises in taking the broken to
  demonstrate His eternal purpose.
• Broken vessels Jdg 719-20
• Broken axe 2 Kin 61-6
• Broken bone Jdg 1514-17, 2 Kin 1321
• Broken ground Hos 1012
• Broken bottle Mk 143
• Broken bread Matt 2626

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• We must maintain our spiritual sensitivity
  otherwise our hearts become hardened being
  separated from the life of God losing all
  sensitivity.
• (See Ephesians 418-19)

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• Who Cares?
• Homelessness
• Single Parent Families
• AIDS
• Poverty
• Drug Addiction
• Teenage Binge Drinking
• Is todays church in touch with reality?

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• Is it that the church has to get down off her
  high horse, regain her spiritual sensitivity
  and begin to pour in the oil of social justice
  and the wine of practical care?

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• It is possible to lose our spiritual sensitivity
  and our hearts become hardened.
• Once the heart becomes callous, insensitive,
  harsh and exacting, our whole life will produce
  such fruits affecting those we come into contact
  with.
• Zig Ziglar call this Hardening of the attitudes
  caused by Stinkin Thinkin.

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• Mourning for What?
• Hannah mourned for a son
• Ezra grieved for Gods unfaithful people
• Nehemiah mourned for a city
• Daniel mourned for understanding
• Jesus mourned and wept over Jerusalem
• Grief is an emotion felt by the person of the
  Holy Spirit

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Step The Law of Brokenness

• God has a university. Its a small school.
  Few enrol, even fewer graduate. Very, very few
  indeed. God has this school, because He does not
  have broken men. Instead, He has several other
  types of men. He has men who claim to be Gods
  authority and arent men who claim to be
  broken and arent. And men who are Gods
  authority, but unbroken. And He has regretfully a
  mixture of everything in between, but broken men,
  hardly at all.

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Eight Steps toTrue Happiness

• Step 2 Blessing
• Divine Assistance

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Divine Assistance

• Matthew 54
• How happy are those who know what sorrow means
• for they will be given courage and comfort. JBP

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Divine Assistance

• Jesus assured His disciples that the coming Holy
  Spirit would be their Comforter
• John 1416,26
• The word Comforter or Counsellor is from a
  Greek word meaning one who comes alongside to
  help

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Divine Assistance

• As we mourn the loss of our standing before a
  righteous God through true brokenness we
  acknowledge
• Our deficiency
• Our need for One who is all sufficient
• It is then that the Holy Spirit reciprocates by
  drawing alongside to help.

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Divine Assistance

• The Sufficiency of one makes up the Deficiency
  in the other

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Divine Assistance

• This principle is characterised in James 46
• God opposes the proud but
• Gives grace to the humble
• Submit yourselves, then to God
• Resist the devil, and he will flee from you
• Come near to God and
• He will come near to you
• Humble yourselves before the Lord and
• He will lift you up (James 46-10)

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Divine Assistance

• Some people try to find solace in ways other
  than mourning
• They find false comfort in trying to forget, or
  by ignoring or excusing their spiritual crisis

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Divine Assistance

• False Comfort Instead of Brokenness
• I couldnt help it
• Ive done nothing wrong
• It wasnt my fault
• We cover up with sophisticated names for sin
• Lust becomes admiration
• Offence becomes hurt
• Lies become exaggeration

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Divine Assistance

• True and False Comfort
• The Upper Room Jesus to His disciples
• One of you is a devil (Judas)
• One of you will betray me (Peter)
• Judas returned to the priests for comfort
• Peter was broken and wept bitterly
• Judas turned to religion and found nothing
• Peter turned to God through true repentance and
  found true comfort

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Divine Assistance

• True brokenness
• Wash your hands, you sinners purify your
  hearts, you hypocrites. Let there be tears for
  the wrong things you have done. Let there be
  sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness
  instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.
  When you bow down before the Lord and admit your
  dependence on him, he will lift you up and give
  you honour.
• James 48-10 NLT

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Divine Assistance

• We have to be broken before God can use us
• God chose the foolish things of the world to
  shame the wise
• God chose the weak things of the world to shame
  the strong.
• He chose the lowly things of this world and the
  despised things and the things that are not
  to nullify the things that are,
• so that no-one may boast before him.
• 1 Corinthians 127-29 NIV

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Divine Assistance

• Out of mourning comes the promise of comfort
• Not mere sympathy but the powerful assistance of
  the indwelling Holy Spirit
• With the help of the Comforter we are equipped to
  raise up a glorious testimony to God and His
  kingdom
• Expressed through a people who feel acutely what
  God feels

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Eight Steps toTrue Happiness

• Step 2 The Challenge

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The Challenge

• What is grieving the heart of God today?
• Is your heart spiritually sensitive?
• Or do you have a hardened heart?
• Have you known true brokenness before God?
• Or do you have a proud or calloused heart?
• When was the last time you wept in true
  brokenness before a righteous God?

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The Challenge

• There is much talk of the need for revival
• We have to face up to the blunt facts concerning
  our own spiritual condition!
• Revival starts with you and I
• We will never know true revival until we know
  true brokenness and true repentance
• You can know revival at any time if you are
  prepared to pay the price C. G. Finney
• Are you am I prepared to pay the price?

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The Challenge

• Our prayer must be
• Let my heart be broken with the things that
  break the heart of God. Help me to stay
  spiritually sensitive, to grieve with what
  grieves the Holy Spirit.
• Change my often callous heart, hardened after
  years of bitter experiences, to be always
  sensitive to You.

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The Challenge

• Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me
• Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me
• Break me
• Melt me
• Mould me
• Fill me
• Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me

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