No. 5 - BROKENNESS—THE PURPOSE

Exodus 2-4

Everybody wants a blessed life, nobody wants the blessed life the way God gives it—through a broken life. But before God can thoroughly bless a person He must thoroughly break that person from his own self-reliance.

· The understanding of the necessity of brokenness before blessedness was seen in our Savior’s purchase of redemption through brokenness, as is personal salvation and restoration.

· The pattern of brokenness is seen through various Bible illustrations and in real-life demonstrations. God has been in the “breaking business” all through the Bible.

· We saw that in Jacob, who after being broken, became Israel.

· The path of brokenness begins with the birth, followed by the death, but the eventual resurrection of God’s desires and intentions. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David...all took this path.

In this study I want us to look now at the “Purpose of Brokenness.” This answers the “why” of brokenness. God has two primary purposes for putting us through brokenness. (1) To bring us to spiritual maturity and (2) to allow us to engage us in maximum ministry. God wants to grow us up spiritually so we can function with unction! God has ever intention of developing our character so we can progress in our conduct with convictions and courage and consistency.

Let’s see what God has to show us about brokenness in the life of Moses. What do we know about Moses who is touted to be “the greatest leader in the history of the Jews”? Keep in mind that chapter 2 covers a period of 40 years in the life of Moses.

1. Providentially protected, 2:1-6. Pharaoh’s order to kill all the boy babies born to the Israelites wasn’t in God’s plans. Thank God for godly parents.

2. Raised in Pharaoh’s palace as the prince, 2:7-10. Moses’ own mother ended up caring for him...and getting paid to do it. Moses’ pampers were paid out of the devil’s treasury. What irony!

3. Educated in Egypt, Acts 7:22. “Learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds.” These were the people who built the pyramids before heavy equipment.

4. High hopes of helping his Jewish people, 2:11-14. Moses took on the task by himself, but the highest hopes and the best intentions inspired this missionary to become a murderer. And Ian Thomas said, “When Moses tried to take on the job, he could not even bury one Egyptian successfully. Maybe he left his toes sticking out of the sand! When God tackled the same job, He buried the whole lot of them in the Red Sea!” After realizing his crime has been witnessed, he “got out of Dodge,” going nowhere as fast as he could.

5. Enrolled in the University of Hard Knocks on the backside of the desert, 2:15-3:1. A man whom God specifically raised up for this task, took things into his own hands and mess them up—big time. So for 40 long, hot, cold, difficult, perplexing years Moses tended somebody else’s sheep. You talk about a downer! Desert...backside...sheep...father-in-law’s. “Honey, when are you going to get a real job so we can leave home?” his wife might have asked many times.

It seems pretty clear that Moses was in the breaking process. But, how many know this? You can be in the process of being broken and still not be broken.

I love Charles Stanley’s definition of brokenness.

“Brokenness is the condition whereby our will is brought into full submission to His will so that when He speaks, we put up no argument, make no rationalizations, offer no excuses, and register no blame, but instead, instantly obey the leading of the Holy Spirit as He guides us.”

Moses had to move from self-reliance to total reliance on God.

Q; Why did God wait year years before getting on with his purpose to lead Israel out of Egypt?

A: Moses put up 40 years of resistance. It took 40 years of de-programming, 40 years of unlearning.

Our lives are on such a hurried pace we can’t imagine 40 days of breaking, let alone 40 years. We would much prefer a 40 minute breaking. Let’s do it and get it over, is our attitude.

What was God doing? He was breaking the outward life of Moses, the old Moses, to get to the inner most man, the spirit.

So what is the purpose of brokenness as seen in the life of Moses. There are four.

1. Brokenness Reveals our Wickedness, vs. 1-6

In the breaking process we will be touched with a shocking awareness of our unholiness, our wickedness. Verse 5, “Moses, before we begin, take off your sandals, you are on holy ground.” A sense of awe and worship must consume us.

Others to whom God made Himself known.

· Isaiah 6:5 “Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips…”

· Daniel 10:8 “My comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength…”

· Luke 5:8 “When Simon Peter saw it, he fellow down at Jesus’ knee, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man.”

· Romans 7:18a,24 “For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing...O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death.”

Do you know what Jeremiah 17:9-10 says? “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord searcheth the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” Do we really believe this? About ourselves? Only God fully knows our heart.

2. Brokenness Reveals God’s Worthiness, v. 6b.

“And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.”

If we could but catch a glimpse of the majesty and might and mercy of God it would crush us.

It is the view of God’s supreme worthiness that brings to light our own wickedness and weakness.

3. Brokenness Reveals God’s Will.

Exodus 3:7-10 “And the Lord said, I have seen their afflictions...heard their cry..I know their sorrows...I am come down to deliver them...to bring them up out of that land unto a good land..Come now...I will send thee.”

He only things that matters supremely is God’s will. What does God want from me? And no one is fully ready to do God’s will until them are broken.

And there was going to be nothing easy about this for Moses. The life of Moses makes up some good Bible stories for children, but it was a terribly tough assignment all the way through. Millions of unwilling people...all but two of them were perpetually backslidden...gripping about everything...water and food shortages...idolaters in a matter of days...always questions his leadership.

When people are broken and receive God’s will as their life’s assignment, there are really very few choices.

The only choice is, “How will is respond to my brokenness? Will I be angry, bitter, resentful? Will I chaff against my circumstances? Will I strike out against those God puts in my life that remind me of my stubbornness and self-reliance?”

And, “Will I joyfully, faithfully do God’s will after the brokenness?”

4. Brokenness Reveals our Weakness, v. 11.

Think about it. If God would not use Moses as he was—trained in Egypt’s best schools, eloquent, wealthy, all of his human talent, experience, knowledge—if God took 40 years to get Moses ready—who in the world do we think we are that we have anything to offer God!

God wants to show us our weaknesses, not our strengths.

God doesn’t need any of us. “But, look at my talent, my gifts, my abilities.”

One by one He took them from me, All the things I valued most;

Until I was empty handed. Every flittering toy was lost.

And I walked earth’s lonely highways In my rags and poverty;

Till I heard His voice entreating, “Lift your empty hands to me.”

Empty hands I lifted heavenward And He filled them with a store

Of His own transcendent riches Till my hands could hold no more.

And at last I comprehended, with my mind so slow and dull,

That God could not pout out His riches, Into hands already full.

God doesn’t need any of us, but all of us desperately need God. John 15:5 should be the confession of those who are thoroughly broken. “Without Jesus I can do nothing.” Its not, we can do some things or a few things, but nothing without the presence and power of the indwelling Christ.

Do you see what God was doing? God was not building Moses up. “Come on, boy, you can do it. Moses, get out there. The longer you do it, the easier it will be. Moses, Moses, you’re our man, if you can’t do it, nobody can.” God wasn’t building Moses up; He was tearing Moses down.

Isn’t it ridiculous that we can somehow impress God with our resume? “God’s here is what I have to offer you. I have gained, I have gathered, I have accumulated, I have assimilated, I have amassed. I am on this committee, I have this honor, I serve on this board.” How could any of that impress God?

Through brokenness God strips us until we stand naked and empty before him and confess, “All that I am and all that I have is God’s.”

Remember, God has two primary purposes for putting us through brokenness. (1) To bring us to spiritual maturity and (2) to allow us to enjoy maximum ministry.

Now, Moses was ready for ministry, which was simply “service” to others in the name of God. We do what we do for the glory of God. Admittedly, Moses made some initial excuses, “God, you’ve got the wrong man,” but finally Moses surrendered to God. I’m not sure people should “surrender to ministry.” If we surrender to God, God will take care of the ministry.

And for Moses is was a life-time of reliance on God. His assignment was so big he had no other choice. But remember, in Exodus 3:8 God said “I am come down..to bring them up out of that land unto a good land” and Moses “I will send thee,” v. 10.

Have you come to the place where you have presented yourself for what you are—nothing—to be filled with what He is—everything—and to step out into the area of God’s work conscious that the eternal God, the great “I AM” is all you need for all His will for all your life?

Turn for a final verse to Psalm 90:17. Before reading this verse look at the heading, “A prayer of Moses the man of God.”

“And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.”

“And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us…” That’s maturity.

“...And establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” That’s ministry.

From a practical standpoint, the very places Moses had been in the desert for 40 years would be the places Moses would lead Israel later for 40 years during the years of wilderness wandering.

And the ultimate end of all of this was so we would have a “Jewish Savior.” The Jews were not going to be exterminated in Egypt. God who raise up and break and use whomever to accomplish His eternal purpose of redemption.