Busted Or Broken

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. To be busted means predominantly in our culture that you got caught. We'll use the word man you got busted. To be busted means that you know what you're doing is wrong but you're not willing to stop it and even though that you now have just been busted you still might be thinking about ways in the future. I had to pull it off next time more discreetly so that you don't get busted. Are you with me? When you're broken? Oh that's completely different. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. Today if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. Listen are you broken or are you busted? And this is something that we deal with in life all the time. By setting this up everybody going to ask you to consider these verses. And by the way it's only in Christianity as I mentioned a moment ago that being broken is a good thing. In Matthew chapter 21 verse 44 Jesus says something that is quite shocking and you don't usually hear sermons preached on this. In Matthew 21 44 Jesus said whoever falls on this stone will be broken but whoever it falls it will grind him to powder translation. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees. He's exposing them because they got busted but they're covering up their sins. Jesus announces regarding himself. He's saying that he's the stone and here's the difference between being busted or broken. Whoever falls on this stone they're going to be broken. That's a good thing. Fall on him for mercy. Fall on him for grace. But on whomever it falls what falls the stone? Whoever the stone falls upon when Christ has to fall upon you it's because you've got busted. You won't repent. You won't turn away and you won't be honest with yourself and with God. And so you're covering up your story and Jesus said you know what your life is going to end eternally being ground to powder and it doesn't need to be that way. So church families we look at this today I think it'd be good as I've put down in the notes that we need to be reminded of what is known as the Romans road right out of this great epistle. Are you ready? It's search in Romans chapter 3 verse 23. Romans 3 23 says for all of sin and false short of the glory of God guess what the word in the Greek all means. Very good. It means all. All of us have sinned and false short of the glory of God meaning every human being cannot meet the standard that God has set for us to enter into heaven. We can't make it. You might say oh man I'm busted. And you're going to try to cover up and make some legal excuse as to why you're better than the person next to you or you hear that and you say I'm broken. That just breaks me. I have nothing. The next verse is this in Romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Wow. Next verse Romans 5 8 but God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners that's amazing Christ died for us in the mind of God which is eternal even though Jesus died 2,000 years ago according to biblical theology because it was God on the cross not some superhuman it was God at the cross he had you on his mind whoever you are every single one of you I don't know only God can do this but he had you on his mind and it was for good by the way he was nailed to the cross for you because you and I are guilty of our sins and to benefit from that don't say you're busted but be broken by this beautiful reality next verse Romans chapter 10 verse 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved boy is there any kind of doubt about that statement there none whatsoever none whatsoever and then finally it's Romans 10 13 for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be what saved listen my friends who are involved in cults you need to read the Romans road it's right there you can't save yourself you can't be good enough you've got to be broken I could say a lot of things about the difference between being involved in religion and being a Christ follower but one thing I will say the Christ follower is happy to be broken happy to understand that we come with all of our spiritual needs and every need for that matter to be met by God we can't do it on our own and so when you hear those verses of the Romans road how do you respond to that you're in your mind are you thinking of excuses to every verse I read a moment ago if you find yourself making up excuses or justifications it's because the Holy Spirit is busting you but if you're saying thank God for that verse thank you Lord for that then you're broken number one market down church busted or broken it's our first argument an installment of this point today and it is this coming to the end of yourself coming to the end of yourself according to the Bible is a great thing it's what you and I need to know now listen I understand that what I'm saying here today in the 21st century flies in the face of every motivational speaker that's out there today I understand that what I'm saying today is probably going going to go against many sermons that are being preached in American churches today but I'm telling you right now according to God's word that we need to come to the end of ourselves if we're going to succeed as believers and he's gonna walk us through that and so get ready this is strong but it's healthy number one is this we need to come to the end of self-defense will you write that down please we find that in verse 14 bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse now church write this down or remember it please that is impossible I want all of you to know this bless those who persecute you that is humanly impossible you say I think I can do it Jack I think I can do it persecuted listen all of us can handle a few words spoken at us that are ill but can you can you bless your persecutors if they're removing your fingernails of pliers can you do what the Christians did in Libya who when their Muslim killers took the sword to their throat they began to sing the praises of God it's easy to say in our self-reliance yeah I'm being persecuted somebody at work stole my eryser verses now today this day this Sunday morning being a Christian in Kenya and in Nigeria will get you killed today and the Bible are you kidding me the Bible tells me to bless those who persecute me yes it does but I you we cannot do that in and of ourselves you want to know why there's too much of us that exist even though we are redeemed by the blood of the lamb and we're on our way to heaven there's still this flesh that seeks its comfort does it not and when push comes to shove and when it gets bad enough according to the word of God this is the power of the Holy Spirit that will work in and through you that when your persecutor is persecuting you you can bless them because you and I do not have that in and of ourselves we cannot do it well pastor I baked the differ because I really bake a really great pie and I give it to everyone of my enemies again that is sweet keep doing that but we're going deeper in this we're going deeper to bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse the only way that we can do that is that for you and I to come to the end of ourselves and understand that I cannot live my Christian life without God living it through me and that means I need to stop defending myself I need to stop defending myself and my rights so to speak I guess I should say this up front when I say the end of self-defense I am not talking about you providing defense for your home for your family I'm not talking about becoming a doormat do you understand what I'm saying this is something different than that the Bible says by the way if you do not protect your home against an assailant you're worse than an unbeliever you understand that I'm kind of hitting around you know I'm saying if somebody comes into your home in the middle of the night to kill you you don't say well I'm just gonna trust the Lord and I'm gonna stand here and you know I'm gonna turn the other cheek that's not what that means if somebody comes into your home to destroy your family and to pillage or to rape your wife the Bible says that you are to provide for your family and if you don't you're worse than a non-believer so we're not talking about being passive we are talking about in the sense of someone persecuting us persecuting you and you get all upset about it you get all defensive about it and your feelings get hurt this is one of the great indicators that we're not in the spirit on this one is that when somebody says oh man you know you're a Christian and something something and you get your feelings that hurts your feelings listen your feelings should not get hurt your feelings listen your feelings will lie to you every single time and most often feelings will panic feelings are prone to panic why do they not like you it's because whatever you've said or whatever you're doing or however you're living is reminding that hostile audience of Jesus they see Jesus in your life and they can't stand it and because you're a follower of Jesus your life being lived for his glory makes them look bad I remember being I think in junior high or maybe I was in the ninth grade and I went to my first party and I was never into drugs never into drinking it just wasn't my thing and I remember I remember a friend of mine and I we didn't want to do what the world was doing at that party but we didn't want to look like idiots either so what we did was we were so desperate to blend in that we poured out a can of beer each we poured the beer out and we literally put Coca-Cola or Pepsi in the can and then listen so carnal but I was not a Christian but the moments I had the beer in my hand that wasn't really a beer right I'm sending the message I'm just like all you guys I'm fine what was I doing I was caving to peer pressure I was caving to the audience that I didn't even even know but I wanted to be accepted so I pulled off this charade my friend and I did and I remember again I was not a Christian but I remember thinking man this is weird if they only knew that Coca-Cola was in this beer can they'd probably beat us up but I'm making this part up now right but so I don't suffer persecution this is what I will look like right now I'll make them think I'm holding a beer can and make sure they never know I've got Pepsi inside that beer can we'll do anything to justify ourselves to look good in front of the world and God says don't do that the fear of man is a snare and you need to understand that as long as you yourself are trying to look good for self gain and self promotion and self defense the Holy Spirit's power will not be present it's when you and I come before God and we are weak and I don't mean to be funny about this whatsoever I've just learned to embrace it over the decades and that is I'm weak pretty much all the time and I kind of try to keep myself in a weak position meaning I can't do what I'm being invited to do I can't do what I'm being asked to do and I love so to speak living on the edge well I like living where I don't have the power to pull it off but God does and when he does it I get to go woo thank you Lord and he shows up he's never not shown up and I want to encourage you especially some of you young people young people today are suffering social suicide because their lives have no challenge there's no there's no white knuckle moment in their lives there's something that they're they're not living on the edge I tell you what you want to live you want to really feel your blood pumping I see people you do you see people jumping off a bridge with a with a rubber band on their ankle and then you ask them why are you doing that how did it get a rush man it's living you want to live become a follower of Jesus for real and live listen you can do it every day and you won't even have to have a rubber band tied to your ankle it's a thrilling way to live and God shows up when we're weak and so He says bless those who persecute you in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 the Bible says Jesus said it but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be witnesses you have to circle that word witnesses to me and Jerusalem and all Judean Samaria and to the end of the earth because that word witness is the Greek word martyrs it's where we get the word martyr Jesus said you'll go and be my martyr you said wouldn't it Jesus wants us to go to the go out to the end of the world and get killed no he's saying every day that you live live for me not for you and that's how God would have us to live the persecution church families just part of Christian life and I know that in the west we have gotten away with it for several centuries here in America and I think it's pretty evident if you look around that those days are evaporating our world is getting more hostile and more dark and more mean and listen it doesn't mean that God slipped off his throne that means that God is getting his people ready all around the world for his great return and in the meantime we are to live for him and we're to live for him in such a way that we do not have to defend our position we can say this the Bible says well why did you do it why do you say and why do you the Bible says you don't have to defend yourself you simply say the Bible says why do you have this particular view about that particular thing because the Bible says and that's not deflecting that's not haunting off the persecution under the Bible no that is exact opposite it's standing on the Bible you're representing the Word of God and you're saying I am no longer the one who's in charge here it's not about me it's about God I'm representing the Word of God by quoting the Word of God to you and my friend listen the Bible tells you that you shall not commit adultery and God loves you and you should stop that now he wants you to repent and come into his kingdom and people will hate you for that they will hate you for that we need not defend ourselves stand for the Word of truth and when he says bless the means it means this it means to speak well of your persecutors that's what the word means speak well of them really that doesn't I don't know about you it doesn't come natural to me I first have my thoughts and then I have to repent of them and then say Lord I need your thoughts to value them it's a remarkable thing and then also this the word persecute means this if we're going to be persecuted as believers and we shall be and we may be right now is that it means to be having the cause to flee or to run there's a reason it means to be put to flight it means to be ostracized or marginalized so are you a Christian and are you listen are you standing for Jesus and are you walking in the spirit and you know the word of God and you're you're doing your best to follow Christ but there are those maybe even in your own family that can't stand you because of your association with Jesus and the Bible says that when they persecute you they're going to be giving you the opportunity so to speak by their persecution that it's time to flee that it's time to run and sometimes it is the Bible says in first Peter chapter 2 verse 20 and what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults and you take it patiently well I mean that's people get beaten for their faults in this world but when you do good and suffer for you take it patiently this is commendable before God for to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow his steps wow you know this kind of talk will thin this church out if you're not a Bible student of God's word this is strong stuff you might say we'll pass through I brought my friend here to get saved today trust God because listen we're all going to die for something in this life I'd rather live and die for Jesus verse 22 who committed no sin that's Jesus never sinned nor was deceit found in his mouth who when he was reviled did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but committed himself to him who judges righteously another words Jesus in the flesh showed us how God the father comes through when we call upon him and when the Bible here says don't curse them the word means here it is wow okay this is conflicting am I busted or am I broken when I hear this the word do not curse them means do not bring a curse down upon them or listen do not speak in such a way that you damn them a word by word or speak in any way against them to misrepresent the kingdom of God man again this is us being completely dependent upon the power of God for us to deal with this is to have God so present in our lives and so much in control of us that there's a supernatural moment that the Lord takes over in our lives that we do not curse those who are attacking us is it even possible yes it is possible then it happens all the time and Matthew chapter 10 verse 34 this is a shuckaroo and Matthew 10 34 people read this they like what this is Jesus speaking he says do not think that I came to bring peace on earth so what I did not come to bring peace but a sword watch this so what is this this is not the Jesus I know of let me keep reading he's not talking about pulling out a knife or a sword he's talking about division for I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's enemies will be those of his own household in context of that chapter 10 what does this mean Jesus says when the gospel is preached to all people including those within the same house some of them will accept me some will reject me the moment that happens there will be a supernatural split that takes place in that and he said the mother-in-law the daughter-in-law will be completely divided they once maybe even got along before but all of a sudden because of me they'll be divided Jesus is saying there'll be those a father and a son everything's tracking fine in life and then the son accepts Christ and all of a sudden the father can't stand the son and all of this division takes place and yet in the midst of it all the believer in the equation is to bless those who are his enemies this Jack Hibbs podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listeners supported will you consider partnering with us through a special gift go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected get that mx gold card ready i'm way too tired to cook tonight you read my mind with the gold card we can get up to 120 dollars a year in statement credits are you feeling the cheesecake factory five guys either of those sound good yes which one both pay with 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