http://youtu.be/0vdLi8h-xdI - Dependence - Jamie Slocum
Psalm 51:15-17
Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
Have you ever been broken by your sins?
That's what God is looking for. He wants us to understand that we need His help to live honorably.
I've cried many tears over my sins. I have felt "broken", like I could never be whole again because of the things I've done that hurt people I loved the most. I thought that's what "broken" meant. And I do think God wants me to be very aware of the times I fail to live my best life. But HE doesn't want me to wallow in shame and regret. He wants me to learn from my past so I can look to Him for help to do better the next time.
Listen to this excerpt from Jennifer Kennedy Dean's He Restores My Soul:
"The Scriptures call your human nature, when it is acting on it's own power, your flesh. The flesh must be broken so the Spirit of God in you can surface. Your old patterns of thinking and acting have to be broken so that the real power can emerge. Your old nature, your flesh, is a hindrance to you. Paul called it a dead weight, like a dead body you have to drag around.
What a wretched man I am? Who will rescue me from this body of flesh?" Romans 7:24.
Dead weight slows you down. God wants to free you from the dead weight of your flesh. Brokenness is the way to that freedom.
The psalmist expressed that God loves a broken heart, that He desires a broken heart. "A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise" Psalm 51:17
- The term broken heart does not mean sadness. It means a soul whose self-life has been exposed and its hold broken by the Spirit's power.
- Brokenness does not mean great sorrow. A person can be sorrowful without being broken. Brokenness does not mean humiliation. A person can be humiliated and not be broken.
- Brokenness does not mean discouragement. A person can be discouraged and still not be broken.
Brokenness is an ongoing process. Daily the Spirit of God is revealing elements of the old nature still in operation. He is bringing out into the open fleshly ways of thinking and acting so He can break their hold over you, leaving you free to experience the victorious life of Christ in you.
True brokenness means losing all faith in your own abilities, abandoning all dependence on human resources, and disavowing all outward pretensions of righteousness to cling to the Spirit of God as if to a lifeline. The broken person - the person wholly dependent upon that indwelling life - will find that all of the resources of heaven and all of the Spirit's power are now at his disposal and, unless heaven's riches can be exhausted or the Spirit's power can be found wanting, he cannot come up short.
A broken person knows that God is the only worthwhile goal. A broken person stands before God as a living offering and declares,
"You are my one desire."
Brokenness awakes us to our need for God. I cannot do this life on my own. My ways lead to destruction and heartache. But praise God! I am broken! I know who I am and that's not so encouraging. BUT, I know the answer to my brokenness. Christ Jesus!!!
Romans 7:17-8:5
New International Version (NIV)
17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Life Through the Spirit
8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.Thank You, Lord Jesus, for making a way when there seems to be no way. Thank You for being so faithful and merciful, to me, a sinner. Take my life, renew a right spirit in me. Help me to give You full reign in everything I think, say or do. My life I give as a living sacrifice to You.
Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
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