"Broken Beyond Repair" - Jimmy Toney

Genesis chapter number 32. Always good to be to be in Marville and uh kind of our home away from home and to be with brother and sister Carpenter whom we love very much and to be with Nolan and so proud of him and Chad and Fallon are awesome and Zach is great and we put up with Lauren and uh so I saw her in the lobby. She said she was leaving now. So par for course thank you for making all that possible to getting us here. Genesis chapter 32 the Bible says in Jacob verse 24 and Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh. And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. 2 Samuel 4:4, just one verse there, and then I'm going to go to Psalms chapter 31. 2 Samuel 4:4. And Jonathan Saul's son had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezrael. And his nurse took him up and fled. And it came to pass as she made haste to flee that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mphibicheth. One more. Psalms chapter 31. We'll start at verse 11. I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and a fear to mine acquaintance. They that did see me without fled from me. I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind. I am like a broken vessel. For I've heard the slander of many. Fear was on every side. While they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life. In Genesis chapter 32, Jacob wrestled with the Lord and was out of joint. In 2 Samuel chapter 4, Mphibicheth was dropped and was lame on his feet. David said in Psalms chapter 31, "I am just a broken vessel." I want to preach tonight, and it's not going to sound encouraging, but I I want it to be encouraging, but I want to preach on this thought. Broken beyond repair. Broken beyond repair. If you going to help me preach for a little bit, shout amen. God bless. You may be seated. Let me clarify just a couple of remarks uh here at the beginning because I don't want my title to scare you, nor do I do I want to make it make you think there's there's no hope. But the stark reality is this. Brokenness is a real situation in our world. And we can put on our nice church clothes and we can look Pentecostal from head to toe. But if we were to get honest, there are some broken people in this room right now. Real issues, things in life that have broken us. And sometimes brokenness is brought to us by the hand of God. At other times it's a freak accident, like just being in the wrong spot at the wrong time. and and finally it may come at the hands of others who have malice in their heart to bring about harm and damage. But regardless of the origin, broken is broken is broken. I see Sister Norris back there. It's so good to see you. She's a famous person. So that's great. Can you sign my Bible after church? I would appreciate that very, very much. Sometimes I think as a preacher we want to always walk to the pull pit and give hope regardless of the situation. We want to give hope even at the expense of possibly giving false hope because we believe and we preach wholeheartedly that God can heal anything and anybody. We believe that. We preach that. We embrace that. and we're going to continue to preach that like we should. However, the other side of that supernatural coin is the fact that there's some pain and there's some situations and there are some hurts that are so deep that we might need to hear painful truth that would help us more than a polished lie that hurts. And so tonight, I'm going to try my best to to make something that appears so negative your brokenness. And with the help of the Holy Ghost, I'm going to talk about how God can still take that brokenness. And even though it may never be repaired, what we would call repair, he can still take it and use it for his glory and for his for his will to be accomplished in your life, in my life, and in the life of the church. It's been said before that there are no atheist in the foxholes. Once they start shooting at you, we all believe in God. Even if someone has never paid much attention to God, once tragedy comes, let something happen in our nation and you think we're not a Christian nation, let tragedy hit tomorrow and see if the church houses don't swing open the door and there's not a revival of prayer because when tragic hap tragedy happens, we turn to God. principle is laid out beautifully in 2 Samuel. Abselon sent for Joab to come to the king, but he wouldn't come. He sent for a second time, but he still wouldn't come. And so Abselon told his servant said, "Go find Joab's barley fields and set them on fire." And when he did, immediately Joab came to the king. Because sometimes hurts and tragedies can get us in the presence of the king much quicker than blessings and triumphs. And so let me remind you tonight, God knows where every one of our barley fields are. He knows what is precious to us and he knows how to get our attention. Even if that means breaking us to the point that we will have to come limping to him. He would rather us limp to him than to run away from the truth. Oh, I feel the Holy Ghost. And and let me just reiterate, there are many broken people. As a matter of fact, there's broken people here tonight. You may be facing a health problem and unless God intervenes, there's no hope. Perhaps it's a serious marital or family problem, a financial situation or a desperate need for work. It may be a personal problem such as loneliness or guilt or anger, bitterness or anxiety. It could be some life dominating sin. And maybe you've even tried to hide it up like some crazy addiction or alcoholism or tobacco, pornography or gambling. But whatever the problem, you just look over your life and all you see is brokenness and desperation. In Genesis chapter 32, Jacob faced a crisis. He was returning to Canaan in obedience to God. But that meant he would have to face his brother, Esau. The same brother that he cheated 20 years before. Let me just pause right here and tell you that we're going to all have to face when we want to become obedient to the Lord. We're going to all have to face our mistakes that we made even if they're 20 years ago. See, that's a problem with Pentecostals is we want to be able to come to the altar, say a quick little repentance prayer, which is probably isn't a repentance prayer because a repentance prayer means I'm not going to walk back down that road again. What we want to say is, I'm sorry I got caught prayer and then we expect God just to wipe everything clean and we never have to face a consequence or we never have to deal with that's not how it works. Go ahead, Jacob. Cheat your brother out. Lie to your brother. steal from your brother. But before I can change you and make you who you really going to have to be, I'm going to have to put you right face to face with your brother again. And that's why some of you have never tapped into the real forgiveness and power of God because you want God to come down and supernaturally touch you, but you don't want to have to deal with some of the mistakes that you made 20 years ago that God says, "Wait a minute. before I can bless you and before I can change your name and before I can give you an opportunity like you've never had, you're going to have to fix it with brother so and so and you're going to have to fix it with mom and daddy and you're going to have to let some things go. Somebody shout amen. That's good preaching all by itself right there. I'm I've took over Jeff Arnold's church. Don't make don't let that mantle follow me tonight. My god, you bunch of dead heads. That's good preaching right there. I'll buy my own tape. Hey, that's a great church in Gainesville. I'm thankful thankful God's opened those doors. And Jacob didn't know how Esau would receive him. And then when it really got dicey, Jacob with Jacob's messengers came back and said, "Hey, Esau's coming to meet you, but he's got about 400 men with him." And it was like Jacob froze with fear. And Jacob started praying in Genesis chapter 32:11, "Deld deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and smite me and the mother with the children." And then you get down to verse 24. And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. Before God could reveal himself to Jacob, he had to get Jacob where he was all by himself. Before God could ever be physically engaged with Jacob, he had to get Jacob to the place where he was alone. Now, most of us hate the lonely period. It starts when we're about 16. We hate being alone. We want to get married by 18. We want to get married by 20. And the same thing in our spiritual life. We hate being by ourselves. And therefore, we ever have an we hardly ever have an encounter with God because we hate being by ourselves. Someone once said that solitude is the audience chamber of God. When we are alone, we can't escape other people's we can't escape into other people's thoughts or we can't allow other people to distract us when we're all by ourselves. When we're all by ourselves, we have to deal with some stuff. But here's the good news. God meets us at whatever level he finds us in in order to take us to where he needs us to be. To Abraham the pilgrim, God came as a traveler. To Joshua the general, he came as a soldier. Jacob had spent most of his life wrestling with people, Isaac and Esau and Laban, even his own wife. So God came to Jacob as a wrestler. But what Jacob didn't know, and what most of us don't realize in situations like this is how God goes through helping us through situations that are actually hurtful to us. So, I'm going to be that preacher today that highlights the hurtful situations that you've been through, but I'm going to tell you that God can take those same situations and he can bring about help and he can bring about hope through your hurt. So, it is possible for the hurt to bring about the help. However, what we usually want, what we usually have in mind is that God would somehow remove our problem, make our enemy go away, take away all the pain and the brokenness, but God doesn't always do it that way. Now, he can heal you tonight, and he can't touch you tonight, but sometimes he's not going to do that. And he still wants you to live for him, and he still wants you to love him, and he still wants you to trust him. God answered Jacob's prayer for protection from Esau by wrestling with Jacob until he left him limping and broken as he approached his brother. Now, this is significant because if you'll remember, Jacob was a trickster. He was smart. He was always one step ahead of everybody. So, his plan was according to Genesis 32 and:7, he said, "We'll divide the people that was with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels. And if Esau came to one company, then then the other company can escape. His plan had been that if if Esau was there to fight and attacked one camp, then Jacob in the other camp could run away and escape. But now he couldn't run from Esau even if he tried because he's broken. And God refused to repair him. He said, 'I'm going to leave that limp so you'll quit running from everything you need to face. And because of that, he now had to become dependent on the Lord and he now had to face his past. God didn't knock his thigh out of joint just because he wanted to show him who was strong. He didn't knock his thigh out of the joint just so he could laugh at the way he walked. He said, "I'm sick of you running from everything that you need to stand face to face to. So, I'm going to take away your ability to run from it. I'm going to break you so that you have to get to the place that you're 100% dependent upon me because your little tricks is not going to get you any further. And your little schemes are not going to get you any further. And your little lies and manipulation's not going to pull you out of this. So, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to break some things in you. and I'm not going to repair them, but it's going to be so you quit running and you'll have to come face TO FACE WITH WHAT I need in your life. Somebody shout, "Amen." Amen. So, I want to preach to somebody tonight and tell you that if God breaks you, then most likely he's not going to turn around the next day and repair you because he broke you for a reason. And so what some of us need to do tonight is just go ahead and embrace the break and trust that God knows exactly what he is doing in your life. You see, Jacob, God wants to do more than just change your name. He also wants to change your walk. He wants to do more than just give you a better life. He wants to give you a better limp. and we'll stand in line for somebody to lay hands on us if we think it can give us a better life. But nobody's in the line saying, "God, give me a better limb." But if you'll let God break you, uh you may not do what you wanted to do. And you may not BE ABLE TO HANDLE THINGS like you would handle them, but you can take what God is breaking in your life. And God says, "Now I can use you. I'd have never been able to call you Israel if you were still able to walk like you used to walk. But now that you got that little limp and you don't move as fast and I've humbled you a little bit NOW JACOB, LET ME CALL YOU ISRAEL. I DON'T KNOW WHO I'M PREACHING TO, BUT GOD'S BEEN TRYING TO GET YOUR ATTENTION. And he says, "Oh, YOU KNOW WHAT? I'M TIRED. I'm wasting time. Let me go ahead and break you, and I'm not going to repair you, but I'm still going to use you IN A WAY I COULD HAVE NEVER USED YOU." Somebody clap your hands and give the Lord praise. I wish some broken people would praise the Lord right now. You don't you don't have to wait till you're healed to praise him. Go ahead and clap your hands and praise him right now. I WISH SOME FOLKS THAT'S BEEN THROUGH HELL and been through a valley would clap THEIR HANDS AND SHOUT WITH THE VOICE OF TRIUMPH right now. I WISH SOME BROKEN people would praise the Lord right now. GOD CAN STILL ANOINT YOUR BROKENNESS. GOD CAN STILL HELP YOUR I KNOW IT LOOKS LIKE YOUR FAMILY is going to NEVER BE RESTORED BUT GO AHEAD AND CLAP YOUR HANDS ANYHOW. GO AHEAD AND GIVE GOD PRAISE in it. WOO! HALLELUJAH. Come on, clap your hands and let's give him praise. Maybe some of you NEED TO QUIT PRAYING FOR GOD TO TAKE THE LIMP AWAY AND START SAYING, "GOD, I embrace MY NEW DESTINY. I'M NOT going to run from YOU ANYMORE. I'M NOT going to run from my past anymore. Everybody shout, "Amen." Many times our problem like Jacob's is that is that we want to use God and his blessings to further our ends. We say we're depending on God. We're using God. All of Jacob's life, he used God and he used people to get what he wanted for himself. But now God brings Jacob to the realization and revelation that you cannot continue to use me for your own means. I'm going to break you in so much that all you can do now is submit. And when Jacob submitted, God blessed him and changed him and anointed him and his name is on the map because he was broken beyond repair. But if he blessed us before the breaking, then we would think we did it. If he blessed us, let me tell you something. Some of the worst thing that can h Can I just meddle for a moment? Some of the worst things that can happen to a Pentecostal is for us to have be involved in secret sins and then come to church and feel goosebumps. Because what we'll do is we'll justify our sin that well it must not have been that bad because I felt God tonight tell you something about secret. I don't know why I'm on this. Secrecy breeds sin. That's why there shouldn't boy I feel like I'm pastoring now. That's why there shouldn't be one parent in here that doesn't have the code or the passcode to get into your kid's cell phone. I I wish a parent would tell me, "Well, I don't know their code." Well, you better kick them in the mouth until you figure out their code because secrecy breeds sin. Go ahead. I don't know if God's breaking you, let him accomplish what he wants to accomplish. Because before God can use any of us in a great way, he must break us. because we have this builtin propensity to trust in ourselves. And if God doesn't break us and we can prop up the move of God with carnality or with shows or with lights and fog and and other things that make it look like, you know what, there's a lot of churches it looks like they're having a move of God, but you remove all the junk and it's just a bunch of hollowess. Oh my word. In the temple in the Old Testament, I don't this is not in my notes. This is going through my I can't remember, but I think it was Jeremiah who said that the pillars, the pillars look great at the temple. They even had some lily work at the top. But he said the inside of them was hollow. That reminds me of a lot of Pentecostals today. We look tall. We look strong. We even got some lily work. We got a little holiness working on the outside. We look pretty. But if we were to really shine a light on the inside, we are hollow. But if you'll just go ahead and let God break you and quit trying to put on a facade and quit trying to act like everything is good and just say, "Come on, God. I'm tired of playing these games. I'm tired of trying to manipulate. I'm tired." You need to understand tonight, there are just some things that are not going to happen for you without a break. I wish somebody would shout, "Give me a break." Say it with a little attitude. Give me a break. You thought your miracle was going to come through your healing. Give me a break. You thought you couldn't be happy until you got whole. Give me a break. He's about to teach you THAT WHATEVER STATE YOU find yourself in. Therewith be content. Somebody shout, "Give me a break." Because if you can handle the break and if you can handle the pain and if you can endure THE SUFFERING, THEN GOD'S GOT BLESSINGS AND ANOINTINGS on the other side. HE ENDURED THE CROSS FOR THE JOY THAT WAS SET ON THE OTHER SIDE. GO AHEAD AND BREAK ME AT CALVARY. BUT THERE'S A RESURRECTION THREE DAYS LATER. DESTROY THIS TEMPLE NOW, BUT IN THREE DAYS, GOD will raise it up. I don't know why on this first night I felt led to preach ON THIS, BUT I'M TELLING YOU, GO AHEAD AND LET GOD BREAK YOU. BECAUSE IF HE CAN BREAK YOU NOW AND YOU CAN'T PROP YOURSELF UP ANYMORE, AND EVERYBODY'S GOING TO KNOW, OH, GOD got a hold of them at that revival. THEY DON'T WALK LIKE THEY USED TO WALK. THEY DON'T TALK LIKE THEY USED TO TALK. YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR WORLD THEN, BUT GOD'S TIRED OF PRIDE AND GOD'S TIRED OF ARROGANCY and flesh TRYING TO COME INTO THE HOUSE OF GOD. HE'S LOOKING FOR BROKEN PEOPLE because broken people can exhibit anointing like nobody else. Somebody shout amen. We are all like Jacob. We think that the enemy the problem is out there. You know the problem the problem is my wife and if I just had a new wife and the problem is my husband if I can just get rid of my husband. problem is my parents and my boss and but the enemy or problem isn't out there. The problem is me in my flesh. So God has to reveal to me that the power of my flesh, how powerful my flesh is before he can break me away from it. And then he breaks me. We need to get to the place so we can pray like it's written in Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. You see, Jacob was broken by God. Sometimes we have to admit that the devil didn't do this. God did this. Anytime we see somebody with some issue, we immediately think the devil did it. Disciples run up on a guy that was blind. And immediately they said, "Who did sin? This man or his parents?" And Jesus said, "Nobody sinned. The works of God's about to be made manifest in his life. I've allowed this to happen so my glory could be made manifest in his life. What you're going through right now, if if we truly believe that the steps of a good man are ordered to the Lord, if we truly believe that he's the author and the finisher of our faith, then we have to believe that God is in control. Jacob was broken by God and God refused to repair him, but yet he still used him. And then there's Mphibicheth. Mphibicheth was broken at a young age because of a freak accident. His nurse took him up and dropped him according to 2 Samuel chapter 4 and verse4. And and at at 5 years old and because of that because of somebody else dropping him, he became lame. He was the grandson to the king. Yet he is broken beyond repair. Let me tell you something about brokenness. Let me tell you something about tragedy. It doesn't order your It doesn't order your ancestry, your family tree from ancestors.com to see what kind of lineage you come from before it shows up. Brokenness doesn't log on to 23 and me and see exactly where you came from. Brokenness is not afraid to cross bloodlines, color lines, or family lines. The grandson of the king is dropped. And that drop broke him. And he was lame on his feet all of his life. It wasn't his fault. He had nothing to do with it. He's got royalty flowing through his veins. And yet God never healed him. He was broken beyond repair. Since he was five years old, he never walked or ran again. Broken. I know it's easy for us to judge broken people and for us to write them off. But the reason why we don't need to be judgmental toward broken people is because we don't know that tomorrow we might not take a fall as well. And if you just look at Mphibicheth when he's 30 years old, you'll be wondering, well, what's going on? Wonder who sinned in his life? What kind of issues he got? Why can't he just get his life together? Well, what you don't understand is something out of his control happened to him and it broke him. And we need to be very careful when God starts sending us brand new people through these doors and he starts filling this thing up with brand new people because there's a lot of folks out there, they're dropped and they're broken and they didn't want to do it. They didn't want to be born into a family like that. They didn't want to be born into a family where the daddy beat them. And they don't want to be born into a family where mama was hooked on crack and now they got this little crazy addiction themselves and they were dropped and they're broken. We better be very careful Pentecostals because I'm telling you, some of us need to remember that we were dropped. We were all born in sin and shapen in iniquity. But somehow God's mercy reached down and picked us up. And we need to be very careful that we're not too harsh and TOO JUDGMENTAL ON PEOPLE WHO ARE DROPPED BECAUSE WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM 20 years ago. But I'm here to tell you just because you're broken Mphibicheth doesn't mean you don't have a place at the king's table. And it doesn't mean you don't have a place. And when you come TO THE KING'S TABLE, YOU'RE GOING TO PUT YOUR PROBLEM. You're going to put your lameness under the king's table. I don't know what you're lame in. BUT WHEN YOU COME TO THE ALTAR, THE BLOOD OF JESUS IS ABLE TO COVER. WHEN YOU SIT AT THE TABLE WITH THE FAMILY OF GOD, HE'S ABLE TO cover what's been keeping you out. And it wasn't his fault. He was dropped. He was dropped. It was an accident. I feel in the Holy Ghost right now that some of you are here and you just think I'm an accident. That's out of my control. I didn't want it to happen like this. I never wanted to go through that divorce. I never ever wanted my kids to have to share weekends. I never ever planned on doing that. I wanted to keep those vows. But but it's broken now. And I listen, you can remain in obscurity if you want to. But God is making a call tonight for even broken people to come on to the king's house. You've been obscure. You've been in obscurity long enough. You've been pushed in the shadows long enough. I want to preach to somebody today and tell you that if you can get in the presence of the king, he may not heal you and you may never run the aisles, but if you you're still welcome to come at the table and eat for the rest of your life. I don't care how broken you are. His blood can wash you and it can cleanse you and you can sit at the king's table and all of your brokenness be heed in his Oh, I feel the Holy Ghost right now. Don't let your brokenness keep you away from the king's table. Don't let something that happened to you, Don't let something that happened to you when you was 5 years old keep you out of the grace and mercy of God Almighty. The devil is a lie. Come on back TO THE KING'S TABLE. COME ON BACK TO THE KING'S HOUSE and let God do something in your life. Somebody shout, "Amen." I know. Listen, y'all got Nolan Carpenter that can preach, and y'all got Chad Ericson that can do anything and preach. I watched Zach preached the other night when he had the goat. My god, that was a phenomenal sermon. Like, what in the world? You got like the prince of preacher sitting over there, Brother Carpenter 2.0, Oh, the new version. He makes us fat preachers feel bad. But I'm keeping a standard now. Y'all may get skinny in the ALJC, but we UPC preachers still believe the fat belongs to the Lord. Man, I know y'all got the best of the best preaching. I get that. I feel like that little piece of I don't even know what you call it. What do you call that little piece of green grass on your steak plate? Raw parsley. What' you say? Part I feel like that little piece of green grass on it. Nobody's going to ever really eat it. It doesn't really have any function. It just kind of sitting there beside the steak. That's what I feel like tonight. I'm just that little piece of green grass sitting here by this 16 ounce, 24 ouncez, 32 ounce, 6 oz. I appreciate y'all having your your your your week this week to I know y'all call it revival, but I know deep that's what y'all told me, but deep down it's feels sorry for UPC preacher week. And so I appreciate that Jacob was broken by God and God didn't repair him, but God used him. Mphibicheth was broken because somebody dropped him. And God didn't heal him, but God allowed him to sit at the king's table. I'm trying to encourage somebody tonight that if he never heals that brokenness, you still have a place. And then that brings me to my third point. David said in our text that he was being attacked by an enemy. He said, "I've got enemies all around me." Verse 11 in Psalms chapter 31. and I was a reproach with all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors. He said, "I'm forgotten as a dead man. I am like a broken vessel. It's just broken. I've heard the slander of many. Fear was on every side. They took counsel against me. I heard people talking about me. They were after me. They didn't think I was in the room next door, but I was in the room next door and I heard what they were saying and they were trying to kill me and they were trying to break me." See, it's not God doing the breaking now. And it's not an accident. that was out of your control and somebody else breaking you. Now you're intentionally being targeted by somebody that's probably jealous of where you are. And he said, "I am a broken vessel." And the enemy would love to make us think that the story ends with verse number 12 where he's just a broken vessel. But the unique thing about the Bible is you got to keep reading it. You can't just stop reading. If you ever have a question reading the Bible, let me tell you the best way to answer it. Just keep reading. Just keep reading. So, let's keep reading. Psalms 31:16. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. Save me for thy mercy's sake. Let me not be ashamed, oh Lord, for I have called upon thee. Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak grievious things proudly and contentuously against the righteous. Oh, how great is thy good. They're trying to kill me, Lord. I am broken. I just feel like my whole life is broken. But how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men. Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence, from the pride of men. Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion, from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord, for he hath showed me his marvelous kindness in a strong city. For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before the Sometimes we'll start looking around and we'll start thinking, oh my word, everybody's against me. And we will say in our haste, man, I'm cut off. I'm broken. Verse 23, oh love the Lord, all ye his saints. For the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. In other words, you may have people intentionally attacking you. You may feel like a broken vessel on this Sunday night. You might even be broken beyond repair, but God can still use you, David, in that very situation. Just because people are shooting at you doesn't mean that God isn't leading and guiding you. I want you to leave tonight with this revelation that God will always bless, help, and anoint the broken. As a matter of fact, he said, "A broken heart and a contrite spirit. I can I can't even help myself. I've got to go help them." When they get to that broken point, that's where I come in. Because when you are weak, the olive oil, which is symbolic to the anointing, the process required to get that oil is painful and intense. First, the trunk of the olive tree must be shaken harshly, causing the olives to fall to the ground. Then the olives must be beaten and smashed until the liquid runs out. The oil is used to both dress wounds and in Jewish tradition tru Jewish traditions anoint objects or vessels that are earmarked to be used for the glory of God. The process by which we are anointed for God's service is not much different. If we seek the anointing, we must expect to be shaken because all that can be shaken will be shaken. And then we must understand that once we're shaken, if we're still there, then we'll be crushed, trials and temptations will beat every bit of life out of us. Whether it be from God, whether it be an accident, or whether it be from our enemy, we will all be broken and at times broken beyond repair. But if we persevere with an attitude of love and humility and thankfulness and do not become bitter, the oil, the anointing, the power, the spirit of almighty God will flow out of us and broken people can minister to broken people better than anybody else. It's not easy, but it's necessary. It's painful, but it's part of the process. So the next time you see a truly anointed person, the next time your pastor stands up here and preaches under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, you rest assured that didn't come because of good things that's happening. You understand, you're seeing more than just a talented person. You're seeing somebody that has been shaken, somebody that has been beaten, somebody that has been smashed, somebody that has been broken, but somebody that still said, "This is the day the Lord hath made. I will rejoice." What you see when you see somebody really anointed, I don't just mean talent and ability and charisma. I'm talking about real anointing. What you're seeing is the is the end result of brokenness. and God probably never came back and fixed it, but they learned how to minister through their brokenness. To be broken beyond repair means to to such an extent that repair is not possible because if it was, that's what we would want. And yet that's exactly where God is wanting to get some of us because then and only then can he anoint us to where we step back and say, "Look what the Lord has done." The only way to make sure that the anointing filled the room was for the lady with the alabaster box to break it beyond repair. You can't hang on to your little alabaster box and not let God break it. The anointing can be dripped out, but it can never be released out. This sermon was birthed out of a newspaper article that a friend of mine sent me. He said, "Hey, I think you might could preach this." The USA Today said, "There's a musician in Oklahoma by the name of Kyle Dillingham. The classically trained violinist said that he walked past the discarded instruments numerous times and thought nothing of them, just broken instruments. Then one day he stopped and he really looked at the at the violins, dusty, disabled, and done. The article said, "I saw them as junk. But then my vision shifted. I believe it was a divine appointment when I happened to be in front of that box and God said, "Pick one of them up." The violinist said he took the broken instruments with him, convinced that they could still create music even in their broken state, no matter how they appeared on the outside. He said, "We're living in a broken world, and we all have some brokenness. The question is not what we see, but what does God see?" And the Oklahoma City musician said the instruments didn't sound like anything he'd ever played. And certainly nothing like the expensive violins he had played before. And he said he had played one that cost $16 million. Yet the music they emitted had a graceful sound, he said, all of its own. And so he takes these broken instruments and now he allows new music to fill the room. one of the broken beyond repair violins he used. He said the the fingerboard and bridge was missing. Plus the sound post which adjusts the tone of the violin is loose and can be heard rattling around. Several cracks in the peg box complete the instrument's state of disrepair. Dillingham admitted that the sounds made by the violins are intriguing. I want you to listen to what he said. When I put the bow on the string, it is it going to be what I thought it would be? I don't ever know. He said, "These violins are so inconsistent, so fragile, so vulnerable. They wouldn't hold their tuning, and the slightest change in weather or bump could change everything." He said, "From a performer standpoint, it's a nightmare, but it certainly keeps things fresh." She said, "The violins create layers of sounds in their own way." And now you can go and download a a a CD with these violins on a project called Broken Beyond Repair. And every song on there is music made from a broken instrument. He said, ' Do they make the sounds that a $16 million violin makes? Nope, they do not. He said, 'But I realized that the $16 million violin is not better. It's just different. You look at some people in the church and you think, I could never make sounds like they make because they've been saved from and they haven't had to go through. You hear me? You may not be able to make their sound, but God's given you a sound. I want us to stand all over this place, broken beyond repair. So, I'm not going to give you false hope. God may not heal you, but he can still use you. He may not fix the limp, but you can reach people now that you'd have never been able to reach before. And I know you may be here tonight and you're hurting and you're broken and you probably got more questions than answers, but you hear me when I tell you you're still able to provide some music. You may not sound like I sound, and you may not sound like the choir sounds. You may not sound like the piano sounds. And your brokenness brings about its own distinct sound. But when you begin to make your noise, somebody on the other side of the church that's broken just like you, they will hear that and go, "Oop, that's the key I sing in. That sounds like me." And now you're giving hope to somebody else that if they can make music and if they can sing and if they can worship, surely Surely God, even though I'm broken, woo, I feel the Holy Ghost. I want you to slip your hands up all over this place. I'm not going to Paul said, "I prayed three times for God to take something from me." God said, "I'm not going to take it from you." He said, "My grace is sufficient. My strength is made perfect in your weakness." I just wonder tonight if there's some people at First Apostolic Church, you feel like you've been broken and you've been you've been praying for God to heal you, but for whatever reason, he hasn't he hasn't restored you and you've you've you've been trying to hide the limp and you've been trying to hide the fact that somebody dropped you and you've been trying to hide the fact that you got enemies that's trying to kill you. But but I I come here tonight with I think a word from the Lord to tell you you may be broken and and you may not be completely healed like you want to be healed, but there's still a song in you and there's still some music in you and you need to shake off what happened yesterday and come onto this altar and let God confront you and let God help you and create in me a clean heart. Oh God, renew a right spirit. Jacob was broken by God. But Fibbeeth was broken by an