Break Me - Part 2
Dangerous Prayers • Sermon • Submitted
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Last week we started talking about this idea of praying the dangerous prayer of break me. It’s a prayer that doesn’t sound pleasant and certainly doesn’t sound fun, but instead painful or at the very least uncomfortable.
Turn with me to:
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
We spent time last week digging in to the idea that God doesn’t want to break us just to break us, but that there is a specific purpose to the breaking that God wants to do in our lives. He wants to break us of the things that are inconsistent with his character and inconsistent with how we are to live our lives as disciples. If he doesn’t break us of these things, it will be extremely difficult to live into the call of God in our lives.
We looked at two examples from Jesus’ ministry that I want to remind of us this week.
First, we looked at the prostitute in Mark 14:3-9. Here we have a woman who was a prostitute. She wasn’t that because she wanted to be, but likely because she had no other choice. She brings in this jar of expensive perfume, a year’s wages. Imagine what you make in a year and pouring it out in just an instant on a single act of worship. We probably all shuttered a bit at that suggestion.
Jesus showed her love, respect, and compassion. He defended her breaking this jar of perfume when she was rebuked by those in the room. However, perfume was not an everyday thing then as it is today. Some theologians believe that those who did wear it were sending a clear message - I’m available, for a price. So in her breaking open this jar of perfume open, she was giving up her former life, giving all of herself in worship to Jesus.
In the act of breaking this perfume, she released all of herself, surrendered her life to Jesus.
Second, we looked at the last supper and how there might have been more meaning for us to observe that sacrament than just bread and juice. You might remember that I said that if you wondered what this has to do with our being broken, my answer was everything. Jesus by taking the bread and the cup was explaining to the disciples just what would happen to him. When his own life would be broken and poured out for all. Did you catch that last word? ALL!
Like the bread, Jesus’ body would be broken. The wine represented his blood. He knew that very soon his blood would be spilled and poured out for the sins of all people.
Why is that word all important? Well here are a couple of examples:
Jesus knew Peter was going to deny him - he served him anyway.
Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him - he served him anyway.
When we see the command to “do this in remembrance of me” in Luke 22:19, the do this means more than just observe Holy Communion from time to time. I believe it goes deeper than that - to the way we live our lives day in and day out. Our lives should look like we are pouring out of ourselves to serve others, just like Jesus did.
This process of being broken - of being poured out like Jesus is really a reminder to us that we need to die to ourselves - our carnal desires, our selfish wants, our very comfort, our resources - in order to live for Jesus as a disciple.
You see, our lives are to be lived for Christ and Christ alone. Jesus is not inviting us to live a life of comfort and ease as disciples, but instead one of surrender and sacrifice.
What is it that breaks our hearts? Is it the things that break God’s or is it things that really do not line up with God’s desires and God’s mission? How do we see others - as unworthy or as people who need a relationship with Jesus just like we do? I pray that we see people the same way Jesus did - whether it was the prostitute or by serving Peter and Judas even though he knew what the would do.
This morning, we are going to look just a bit deeper into this prayer of break me.
This breaking is probably not a one time thing. There are likely many things that are in the way of us looking more and more like Jesus. He might break us of one thing and then before we know it he breaks us of something else. This breaking that we ask the Lord to do in our lives will likely feel a bit like a yo-yo, break then not, break then not. Like we have talked, it likely won’t be a pleasant process, but it is a necessary process in order for us to continue to be transformed by God himself and in order for us to truly live into our callings as disciples of Jesus.
I want us to consider this idea of break me a bit different this morning. What if instead of looking at it as a fearful, uncomfortable, and painful process, we looked at what might come out of that process in our lives. What if we were to look at this as a blessing as part of our continual transformational relationship with Jesus Christ. What if we were to look at this anticipating what might come after this breaking in our lives?
James Dobson wrote this about Stephen Hawking - He was an astrophysicist at Cambridge University and perhaps the most intelligent man on earth. He has advanced the general theory of relativity farther than any person since Albert Einstein. Unfortunately, Hawking was afflicted with ALS Syndrome (Lou Gehrig's disease) which took his life. He had been confined to a wheelchair for years, where he can do little more than sit and think. Hawking has lost the ability even to speak, and now he communicates by means of a computer that is operated from the tiniest movement of his fingertips.
Quoting from an Omni magazine article: "He is too weak to write, feed himself, comb his hair, fix his classes--all this must be done for him. Yet this most dependent of all men has escaped invalid status. His personality shines through the messy details of his existence."
Hawking said that before he became ill, he had very little interest in life. He called it a "pointless existence" resulting from sheer boredom. He drank too much and did very little work. Then he learned he had ALS Syndrome and was not expected to live more than two years. The ultimate effect of that diagnosis, beyond its initial shock, was extremely positive. He claimed to have been happier after he was afflicted than before. How can that be understood? Hawking provided the answer.
"When one's expectations are reduced to zero," he said, "one really appreciates everything that one does have." Stated another way: contentment in life is determined in part by what a person anticipates from it. To a man like Hawking who thought he would soon die quickly, everything takes on meaning--a sunrise or a walk in a park or the laughter of children. Suddenly, each small pleasure becomes precious. By contrast, those who believe life owes them a free ride are often discontent with its finest gifts.
James Dobson, New Man, October, 1994, p. 36.
What if we were to look at the breaking that God needs to do in us and the pain, suffering, and uncomfortableness that may accompany it the way Stephen Hawking looked at life after his diagnosis? Stephen Hawking didn’t believe in Jesus and if he could have that outlook how much more should we be able to having faith in Jesus Christ!
Another thing for us to remember about being broken. We need to realize and remember that no matter what we do we are not enough. We cannot be enough on our own, we need Jesus’s transforming grace in our lives. And when that breaking happens, we will need each other to lean on - to love on each other - and something else will happen - we will realize that we need even more of the God that we love and serve and our passion will grow even deeper! We will also grow closer together in our moments of brokenness and weakness than in moments of triumph and showing our strength. Have you ever heard the saying you will know who your friends are when times get tough by who sticks around? We learn so much about each other and how we can love each other during times of brokenness, weakness, and suffering.
Turn with me to:
5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.
6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say,
7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Talk about text - Paul’s begging, pleading, petitioning to take it away, but God said no. Point out how he thanks God even though it is difficult to endure.
On the other side of fully trusting God and allowing him to break us brings a blessing that cannot be found in comfort and ease. When we allow God to break us, we allow him to use us, as we will be more dependent on him as we are called to be - also something that doesn’t come with the life of comfort and ease that many of us in the west enjoy on a daily basis.
True brokenness before God is a daily decision. It is a daily decision to die to pride, destroy lust and selfishness. It is a daily decision to die to ourselves and to live fully for him.
Most of the Psalms were born in difficulty. Most of the Epistles were written in prisons. Most of the greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers of all time had to pass through the fire. Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress from jail. Florence Nightingale, too ill to move from her bed, reorganized the hospitals of England. Semiparalyzed and under the constant menace of apoplexy, Pasteur was tireless in his attack on disease. During the greater part of his life, American historian Francis Parkman suffered so acutely that he could not work for more than five minutes as a time. His eyesight was so wretched that he could scrawl only a few gigantic words on a manuscript, yet he contrived to write twenty magnificent volumes of history.
Sometimes it seems that when God is about to make preeminent use of a man, he puts him through the fire.
Tim Hansel, You Gotta Keep Dancin', David C. Cook, 1985, p. 87.
Brokenness is one of the parts of basic Christianity. The gospel is an invitation to come and die to ourselves - die to our sins, our past, our flesh and our fears.
My question for us this morning is this - are you ready to glorify God with your life and truly die to yourself? Then go for it. Pray this prayer of break me and be ready to live broken and poured out, just like the jar of perfume the prostitute broke on Jesus’s feet. It’s a dangerous prayer, it is not safe and it takes faith, but there are intense and intimate blessings on the other side as we grow deeper in our relationship with Jesus.
PRAY - invite people to pray this dangerous prayer - to die to self - to live broken and poured out
RITUAL
The Communion Supper, instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a sacrament, which proclaims His life, His sufferings, His sacrificial death, and resurrection, and the hope of His coming again. It shows forth the Lord’s death until His return.
The Supper is a means of grace in which Christ is present by the Spirit. It is to be received in reverent appreciation and gratefulness for the work of Christ.
All those who are truly repentant, forsaking their sins, and believing in Christ for salvation are invited to participate in the death and resurrection of Christ. We come to the table that we may be renewed in life and salvation and be made one by the Spirit.
In unity with the Church, we confess our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. And so we pray:
PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND SUPPLICATION:
Holy God,
We gather at this, your table, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who by your Spirit was anointed to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, set at liberty those who are oppressed. Christ healed the sick, fed the hungry, ate with sinners, and established the new covenant for forgiveness of sins. We live in the hope of His coming again.
On the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to His disciples, and said: “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
Likewise, when the supper was over, He took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to His disciples, and said: “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.” Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
And so, we gather as the Body of Christ to offer ourselves to you in praise and thanksgiving. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these your gifts. Make them by the power of your Spirit to be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the Body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.
By your Spirit make us one in Christ, one with each other, and one in the ministry of Christ to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.
EXPLAIN ELEMENTS
The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.
The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.
CONCLUDING PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING AND COMMITMENT
And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, let us pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.