Shepherding Brokenness — Matthew 5

0:00 A mock... The mocker. And then the number seven, looked at self centeredness, the miser as described in Proverbs 23. And we tried to to center on self self focus because it it has this... It's sort of this...

0:19 Well, it's the middle letter of sin. It's it's I. It's the ungodly, unholy trinity of me, myself, and I. And what I found in a lot of discussions like elders or recognition of deacons or whatever term you want to use, what I found is that, the meism dominates in in a greater capacity than you'd like to realize. And so as you go through these discussions, there will be moments of raw exposure.

0:53 Moments where you'll have to ask hard questions. And this is where conflict can begin to erupt. And so before you start, I I wanna sort of say, now listen, brothers and sisters, be willing to look at yourself honestly. And truthfully, if there's a real problem and somebody asks you about it, well, this is the time not to cover up, it's the time to confess, Forsake or repent, confess, forsake. And so don't don't don't feel like you're being singled out.

1:29 Defensiveness is not the way to go. When such things as me ism or I is is being revealed by the spirit of God, then let's deal with it and get it right. That's that's a sin that that can be put to death. And so I encourage you as we look at some of these hard issues and topics that that you have and the... Tonight's title is brokenness.

1:55 You see, one of the the next key element when it comes to dealing with conflict is to have a heart of brokenness. Now brokenness as, I'm gonna define it in just a second, but I want to introduce it by two things. It is necessary that the assembly deal with these conflicts. It is... It's vital.

2:22 And here's what the scripture says. It's in Matthew five twenty three, and you can turn there if you'd like. I can read it to you. I have it pulled up. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there, so you're already there.

2:36 This is just... And there, remember that your brother has something against you. Go and first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Now, is he saying here? What he's saying is a very age old truth that I know all of us could quote to each other, but in this case, when we talk about dealing with assembly issues, dealing with the recognition of elders, dealing with the recognition of deacons, we have to make a commitment to to resolve the issue and it is absolutely incongruous.

3:11 I mean, it's inconsistent to not solve the issues. That is not the spirit of unity that the that the spirit of God has given. That is not the spirit of love that the Lord Jesus Christ has provided for us. We must deal with the issues. We have to do that.

4:12 Now, when you do this, it is not for the sake of accusation, it is for the sake of resolution. When you go talk to somebody, we can fire darts and stones as if we know the whole story, as if we have the conclusion perfectly arrived and it's ironclad. And the answer to that is always have a sense in which you could be wrong when you have to go talk with someone. Maybe it really is true you didn't know the full story, that there was an emergency that could not be avoided or whatever scenario there is, but have the right spirit. The right spirit is not to be the accuser of the brethren.

4:53 That's Satan's job, and he does it well, does not need any assistance. Our job is to maintain the unity of the spirit that was already been given and that doesn't mean we overlook conflict, that means we are committed to resolve it. So I would like to suggest that when you have these issues, you go ahead and have the right heart that I am committed to get these things resolved. An assembly family that does that grows in their unity and solidarity and we need that to be testimonies of Jesus Christ and his deity. Number two, when you're...

5:29 You you not only are committed to it, that you want to approach it in the right manner. That I want to take heed to myself. Galatians six says this itself. Now you you be careful when you, you know, work with a brother that's having issues because you're subject to to... You're at risk too.

5:48 And so we want to have a healthy sense of our own sort of take heed to our self and our doctrine as Paul told Timothy. Number three, when we do this, we want to do so with a spirit of sensitivity, both the one bringing the issue and the one receiving the issue. Maybe God is really dealing with you and you need to pay attention because you haven't been paying paying attention. And so take it in the right way. Let's let's not...

6:17 Let's get rid of this flesh stuff. And finally, number four, and this is very practical. When we deal with problems where we need to resolve things, for example, the selection of the selection of elders. As you know, we would pray, we would ask the Lord to show us, we will spend time fasting and praying which I heard you've been doing. Praise the Lord.

6:40 I think that's outstanding. And sometimes you'll say, well, I'm thinking about brother Ben, for example, but, you know, I... The other day, I saw his car parked by the casino. Now, what we would tell you is first go to brother Ben and try to... And just figure it out.

7:04 Maybe there was some problem. Maybe you don't know the whole story or maybe he was gambling. Who knows? But go find out. Go to the brother first.

7:15 Don't come to me. Go to the brother first. And if you can't resolve it at that level, then come to us. And that's how we hit... Now, had established elders, that's what we did.

7:26 We're thinking about brother Ben as an elder. We're calling now, after our months of prayer, we're calling the assembly to pray and consider this man before the Lord. And if... And then we told the assembly, now if you have something that you know that's very troublesome to you, first go to the brother and see if it can be resolved. And if you don't, if you can't do that or if you don't get it resolved, then come to us and we'll all go together.

7:55 Alright? That's just following the spirit of Matthew 18. When we've done that and people have obeyed that, we have had no one come to the elders over any issue of a question they had about another brother, whether it be in commendation or whether it be an elder recognition or deacon recognition. But we have a commitment to resolve. That's what's important.

8:47 So I'll turn to... With you to that scripture. If you're wondering where I'm at, I'm at the chapel library. And, it's quiet, but I expect the chapel to fill up here in about the next twenty minutes. Alright.

9:05 Chapter 51 in verse sixteen and seventeen. Now before I read this, you should know that David just committed sin with Bathsheba about a year ago. He not only slept with the woman, she got... He got her pregnant and he not only got her pregnant, he killed the husband. All premeditated, all planned out so that he would look totally innocent.

9:30 He thought it worked until Nathan showed up and he said, you're the man. David... Then so this is now several months into the pregnancy. David does not refute it. He confesses it.

9:47 I have sinned. As a result of this, no doubt probably written after the death of that boy, which would have been nine months plus later, he mourns... Okay. Thanks, Andy. He mourns and he says, he writes two Psalms.

10:05 He writes Psalms 32, which is quoted by Paul in the New Testament as a defense of the... Of salvation by faith, chapter four, and then he writes Psalm 51. It is my personal opinion that when you are working as shepherds and you're looking for the evidences of brokenness, study Psalm 51. Now, when David writes it, he gets to the point in the Psalm where he's gonna make a comparison between the issues of the sacrifices of of the Levitical law versus the singular sacrifice of a broken heart. Now, let's read it.

10:47 For you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. Now, think about it. That's a minimum of two sacrifices per day. Right? Morning and evening sacrifice.

10:58 So that's already 730 sacrifices a year plus all the festivals, which was one a day for the week plus the special things. You're talking somewhere somewhere around perhaps a thousand animal sacrifices a year. I'm making an estimate. Don't hold me to it. But think about that.

11:18 That's a lot. And he says, now God, you would... You don't desire those, if you will, thousand sacrifices a year. If you if you did, I'd gladly do it. But you desire something that only one person can give you.

12:10 Brokenness touches the heart of God. That's why I say it can heal every human wound if it melts the heart of God. Is that not true? Does the logic not flow? And so the assembly, and this is very impassionate for me, the assembly has to have a spirit of brokenness.

12:28 Now, should ask me, thank you for asking, what is the definition of brokenness? Glad you asked. Here it is. The word itself means crushed. It's used in several different ways.

12:44 In Isaiah 53, it's used to describe the... In the language, and it pleased the Lord to bruise him or crush him. It's used of Josiah in the chronicles when he took the idols and he ran them over to the Valley Of Hinan, which is the the Southern Valley, and it says he crushed the idols that had been set up even by his grandmother. Now the idea of crushed is not to break into two different chunks and call it a day. The word crushed in Hebrew, if I know my lexicons correctly, is to crush to the point of being unable to reassemble.

13:28 In other words, to a fine powder. Now I'm the king of super glue in a house of nine children. They bring me everything that they've broken and they think that I can fix it. One day they brought me a dish. It had literally a 100 pieces.

13:44 I can't fix that one. It's in too many parts. I can't put it back together. This is what Josiah did. He crushed the idols so you can't put it back together.

13:54 This is what is being inferred by David's use of the word. I want my heart so crushed that I cannot return to the previously fleshly denial of my sin that I was maintaining for almost a year after I committed the sin with Bathsheba. You see that? Now that attitude comes from a readiness to respond to the word of God no matter what. Now you should ask me, where do you get that concept?

14:18 Glad you asked, Denzel. It's in Isaiah 66 where it says, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool but on this one person I will look. On he who has a broken and contrite heart and wait for it and he who trembles at my word. Saints, in order to work through the conflict, in order to have the desire for resolution, you're gonna have to have a composure, a disposition that will value and obey the word of God no matter what the cost. That's being crushed by the word, crushed by his presence, crushed with a broken heart.

14:58 Now when that is there, you're willing to sacrifice anything, your dignity, your pride, your love, your yourself so that God and his word has preeminence. And when you do that, Christ is preeminent. Now I am talking about a fundamental disposition of a... On a corporate level. The whole body has to see it this way.

15:25 The whole body has to reason this way. But once you see that develop in the saints and as you pray, may I politely suggest that you pray that the Lord would give you a disposition of this nature, of the broken contrition heart that we should have that will take us to obedience, that will take us through the hard steps of conflict and resolution, that will get us to a point where there is absolute unique transparency in the body. That's what we say today. We want a transparent body. We don't want any any hidden things.

16:11 God said it, oh, I can't be doing that. God said that. It's wrong. I won't I won't think that way. Now, what does contrition mean?

16:17 Contrition is interesting. I researched it twice in the last twenty years and wanted to make sure my research was accurate, but it basically can have the idea of the dust that rises from something being broken in pieces, which makes sense. It's the invisible dust particles. That's the idea. You cannot put it back together and you don't want to put back the prideful heart, the, foolish lips, or the stubborn heart, or the selfish heart, or the mockings...

16:52 Or the mocking spirit. You don't want any of those things that cause it to strike. You're not putting those back together ever again, but it takes this brokenness. Now I'm gonna give you one other dimension to brokenness so that we can sort of see the other side of the coin. I've described what it is.

17:08 I'm now going to describe what it looks like. Now, this chapter is in chapter Luke and it's chapter... Or chapter Luke. Luke chapter 18 and it's a very familiar parable. Now, you can see that when the Lord Jesus gave this parable, He was giving it because people trusted in themselves.

17:29 It actually says that in the precursor language in verse 11. Now, when he heard these things, he spoke another parable, Luke 18... Excuse me, wrong chapter. I apologize. Luke 18 and verse 11 beginning in verse nine, and he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.

17:56 So, what does that mean? The opposite of the described parable of brokenness is a prideful heart that they trusted in their own righteousness and looked down upon others. Now, this is how the parable goes. This is the other side of the coin of demonstrating what it is. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

18:21 So I... It's kind of odd, but sometimes I feel like the only person of the butt of every story is the Pharisee by the Lord Jesus. They didn't get along well. And one Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Now the Pharisee stood and prayed, notice this, thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not like other men.

18:45 Can you hear him? It's like he's preaching his preaching voice. Like extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this and he says that. This tax collector, like his eyes are closed and he's pointing at a 45 degree angle to the man that's hidden in the corner. And this guy is pompous.

19:08 Right? He is he is so thinking that he's got it made in the shade with the righteousness of God. He's happy to point out everybody else's sins and therefore he exalts his own righteousness. I fast, what's it say? I fast twice a week, which is more than the law.

19:25 I give tithes of all, that's that Greek word pass, all that I possess, meaning it's way more than what he had to do. And the... And and then he says this, and the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as rate... Don't you love that? Raise his eyes to heaven.

19:44 But it is the pharisee who looked up to heaven but beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me. Now in the New King James, it uses the indefinite article, meaning it could be anybody. But when you use the definite article, which by the way is in the Greek text, which is, the h o in transliteration, the sinner. When you use that, you are identifying yourself as the as the individual, the sinner, the only sinner here. Now think about that.

20:22 Was the Pharisee a sinner? Yeah. He just didn't know it. Was the tax collector a sinner? Yeah.

20:27 But he knew it. And what the tax collector is saying is as far as I'm concerned, I am the only sinner here. There may be a thousand people on this slab of of granite, of sandstone, But as I... As far as it goes between me and God's eyes, I'm the guilty one. No one else.

20:50 Now you hear that attitude? That's brokenness. That's being so crushed under the weight of God that you, for an instant, can see that if no one else sinned in the room, what I did was enough to condemn us all. Now that, my friends, is a posture that the assembly needs to have. Now don't get me wrong.

21:15 I'm not saying you go around and assume others wrongs when they're not yours, but you have a disposition that correctly weighs you before the scales of judicial process in heaven. And you come away with the right perception of your stance before God. And it is not one that I did everything right and you poor people did everything wrong. That's not the right attitude. It's not the attitude that says, well, I'm the spiritually most mature one here and the most knowledgeable one and therefore you should listen to me.

21:47 No. No. No. No. No.

22:35 It is it is the it is the kind of heart that has to permeate every saint involved. I'm not talking about some poor self image garbage out of the psychology world. I'm talking about recognizing what it is to be before a holy God. See, when Isaiah was in the throne room, no one else's name is mentioned, and there were a lot of names that could be mentioned. Think of the kings who were alive.

23:05 Isaiah said, woe is me. I am undone. When you're before the presence of God, everyone else seems to get lost out of your vision and you see what you are before a holy God. Now that... That's a good reminder for us as we go through this process that we have a heart that is happy and willing to be directly accountable to the Lord as we look at the problem.

23:34 So let me give you an illustration so that we can seal... Close this discussion. So as we go through a problem, and I'm sorry to tell you this, it's from my own life. Okay? We were in a meeting in which there was three of us and I I must have offended this fellow pretty badly And there was some power plays in the assembly and I was being accused of of wanting to be the next pastor.

24:07 Quite honestly, that was the farthest thing from my mind and and yet it was being touted as ironclad conclusion. So this one brother one night who we had been praying with, I'd been praying with about oversight, he just reared back and and began to yell at me for two hours. It was on a Wednesday and it went from 04:00 to 06:00. And he waved his finger in my face and told me all the things that I was doing and he identified my motives and he identified my heart and he was totally right and that was that. Now, I have to tell you that it made me, and I...

24:53 And maybe you understand this, but you know that thing about wrath? Well, I had the corner on the market. Okay? And I really wanted to... For the first time in my life, I wanted punch the guy in the mouth, you know, and here I am a Christian.

25:08 Imagine that. And so I was very angry and very upset, and and I did not go to meeting that night. The first meeting I had missed in about eight years. And so, I I I just... I didn't know what to do.

25:26 And the Lord taught me about brokenness, and he says, now, Steve, that brother may be wrong in what he said to you, but do you have this part... Is is... Are are you this way in this area of your life has a little bit of pride in it too? And I said, well, yeah. But I'm not I'm not as bad as what he said.

25:50 And that's where the Lord... And I I wasn't an audible conversation. I'm just giving you the summary. That's where the Lord was able to say, you know, if you were really my man, you could see that even that small, quote, small sin, unquote, in your life is causing problems. Maybe not the kind of problems he sees, but it's causing problems with me.

26:16 Now that alone should make you like a tax collector. And when I began to see that and humble myself, not because of what the gentleman said, but because of what the Lord said. Totally changed my viewpoint. Totally changed my opinion, how I presented myself, how I thought about things. Now, was that man right or wrong?

26:41 Well, that's that's between him and the Lord. The Lord will talk with him about that, not me. But what does it matter? The Lord had a conversation with me and that's what I needed to hear. Now, brothers and sisters, as you go forward, you're gonna have more...

27:36 And when you see it in that light, it's really hard to be mad at someone else. Okay. I've probably talked long enough, and you've been very kind to me. I should turn the meeting back over to the brothers leading it, and thank you for your patience.

27:57 Thank you, Steve. Who's leading? Well, I guess we're gonna move on with with prayer. And... Yeah.

28:25 Yeah. That's for sure. And also pray for VBS too. Let me... I mean, group over here.

28:40 So maybe we'll... Sure we're safe. We have bridge here here

28:52 so people can get in front of the Zoom mic here. It's just... Get close to the...

29:02 But if if other people would like to jump in, feel free to unmute yourself.

29:21 Father, we would, we would just start by, thanking you for our brother's thoughts and that which you've laid on his heart. Lord, we... We're very thankful for that your your servant, Steve, has chosen to be courageous and to be strong and to to to put those very important concepts before us, conflict and brokenness. And, Lord, these are not easy things to deliver. These are not easy things to talk about, but they require a spirit of obedience.

29:59 And and so we just praise you for the brother. We would ask you to to protect him because we know that as a as a good word and a good work goes out, the enemy is sure to sure to respond. So so we would ask you for protection for Steve, build a hedge around him as it were, and and help him to continue to happily and be in a a joyful way serving you. We do pray for those that he's gonna be with tonight, and we we ask you for blessing for him and them as they come together. Lord, as we consider this idea of brokenness, we we do ask you, Lord, that that you would you would break us.

30:46 Lord, we we know that you you do that in a way that, is not meant to it's not meant to to belittle us, but it's meant to correct us. It's not meant to to put us away. It's meant to bring us back. It's not meant to separate us from you. It's meant to bring us closer to you, Lord.

31:11 And we pray that that those things that are in our lives might might be evident and, that that we might be, willing to see them for what they are. Lord, we we do pray as we we move forward that, there will be transparency. I appreciate that word. In the process that we're undergoing that the issues that there are to address would would be addressed, that no matter how they come up, that we might respond to them appropriately, and we might be prepared to address them one by one, individual by individual, and and before the whole assembly as well. We pray these things and and and ask for your continued guidance as we go forward.

32:03 It's in your son's name that we do pray. Amen. Amen.

32:20 Oh, Lord, I I thank you that the Lord Jesus had such a humble heart. I cannot only imagine what kind of humility he expressed and showed on a moment by moment basis to the disciples. He never rushed to the front of the line. He would always allow, I'm sure, his disciples to go first. He would never seek to to promote himself.

32:43 He would never seek to brag about himself. He'd never thought he was more righteous although he was than anyone else. He he so had a humble heart. And and, Lord, I think that humility is what we need. As best I can tell, it warms you so much that you just lavish grace upon that person.

33:02 And perhaps, father, it's possible... If that's possible with the individual, would you make it possible for the assembly? Allow the spirit of God to bring across Westlake this this real simple thing of humbling oneself, being humble before you so that you might bathe them and immerse them in your great grace and use that great grace to rear up the right leadership, the right deaconship, and the right servanthood among the entire populace there. Oh, father, this is such a need. I'm afraid that we, as assemblies, have had a history of of of the opposite of brokenness.

33:39 I'm afraid we have boasted about many things. I think we have looked down upon others because we trusted in ourselves, oh father. I condemn no one. I confess that I've been the part and parcel of the problem. I...

33:54 Be merciful to me, thus sinner, I pray. Father, I pray that you would help the assembly here in this way, preparing their hearts and necessary steps to obey you. Father, I see this as one of those necessary steps. We can't obey you with arrogance, it's sabotage to the whole process. We can't obey you with a sense of self exaltation.

34:21 It's it's sabotage. It's espionage to the whole process. Our hearts and souls when we've been arrogant or prideful even in the subtlest of ways, and you still accomplished your work, but we sure made it hard. Father, no. Don't let us do that anymore.

34:38 For once in our lives before the Lord Jesus, may we be a people that obey you. Father, I know my own heart is bent. It's wired to rebel. It's it's... And it's like my my my favorite method of of my spare time.

34:59 I I don't want that, Lord. I wanna be your servant in only yours. Please help us, Father. I pray for Shani tonight for Westlake, oh, Father. Give the body this filling of your spirit, I pray.

35:13 I pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.