"A Bruised Reed" - The Apostolic Connection

We want to welcome you to the Apostolic Connection, the daily televised service of the First Apostolic Church here in Maryville, Tennessee. We'd like to welcome you and choir, would you give our viewing audience a great big hand, church family? We're so glad to have you watching and worshipping by way of television and by way of the worldwide web. facttv.org is there on the screen. You can You can watch our services Every service here is webcast and archived. You can join us and we would love to minister to you by way of the internet. If you have your Bibles and just for a few moments, if you would turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter number 12, and we'll read one verse about the nature, personality of Jesus Christ. A bruised reed shall he not break and a smoking flax shall he not quench till he send forth judgment unto victory. You may be seated this morning. I want to preach to you about our savior today. I want to preach to you about what he's like. The 12th chapter of Matthew is interesting. Has several things in it that um are the direct opposite of the personality of the Lord Jesus. When you put the Lord Jesus up against the religious system of his day, the religious system did everything that it could to make it difficult on man. While Jesus did everything possible to help man. The Pharisees were mad, complaining, grumbling, that they had witnessed Jesus' disciples walking through a cornfield on the Sabbath day. They got hungry and they plucked ears of corn and they ate. That upset the Pharisees because they viewed that rubbing their hands together and making the corn loose and warm was work and that they had broken the Sabbath. Well, they travel on and Jesus tries to tell them that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Well, he goes on and he enters the synagogue and there on the Sabbath day a man who had a withered hand was there and they all watched Jesus to see what he would do and Jesus gave them a little Bible lesson about if one of them had an ox or a donkey that would fall in a pit on the Sabbath day, you would go down and you would get that animal out of the pit on the Sabbath day. So, I say to the man with the withered hand, "Stretch forth your hand." And it was made whole. They dismissed synagogue that day, the scripture tells us, they closed the synagogue and they immediately held a Pharisee board. They got the Pharisees together and they simply said, "We must kill Jesus." That got rumored that they were planning to kill him and Jesus withdrew himself into the wilderness. And there a great multitude followed him and he began to say, "They're upset with me, but they need to read the scriptures about me. That a bruised reed, a bruised reed, I I will not break." Now, a reed was a small instrument that a shepherd would play in his downtime at night, mornings, anytime that he had a little downtime, the shepherd could entertain himself with a small flute-type instrument made from a reed. It has been said, and commentators have said that many of these reeds had more sentimental value than anything else. You could buy another one easy, you could cut down another one easy, but shepherds seem to get very attached to these reeds. In the fighting of bears and the running the sheep, it was very easy for the reed to be sat on or to be bruised or to be crushed. And many shepherds would simply throw the bruised reed away and cut him down another one and have another instrument. BUT IT IS SAID about the Lord Jesus that he that that he would work with a bruised reed. That he would not break a bruised reed. He would not discard a bruised reed. Now, we know he's not talking about instruments, church. We know he's talking about the lives of humanity. And the bruise, a bruise is a wound that is under the surface. When you see a bruise, you know that something happened under the surface that's caused this discoloration of of the blood. BUT JESUS SAID THAT I WILL NOT BREAK a bruised reed. I will work with this bruised reed. I will work until once again I have it playing the beautiful sound that it once did. It is said that shepherds would do THIS BY WORKING EVER so gently with the bruised reed. That shepherds would take thread out of their own garments. They would take thread out and that they would take thread and weave it in and out of the bruised reed until they reinforced the weak part of that re- reed with his own thread until it could play again. I have come this morning to pronounce good news. I have come to tell someone who has a wound under surface that's held you back long enough. WE HAVE A SAVIOR, PRAISE GOD, WHO'S WILLING TO WORK WITH YOUR LIFE. YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN BRUISED BY DEATH. YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN BRUISED BY DIVORCE. YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN BRUISED BY DEBT. BUT IN THE NAME OF JESUS, HE'S WILLING TO WORK with your bruised reed today. He who was rich became poor so that we who were poor could become rich. He who was without bruise came to this earth, robed himself in humanity, and took the threads of that humanity, and said, "BY MY STRIPES, YOU ARE HEALED." HE DOESN'T want to throw YOU AWAY TODAY. HE DOESN'T WANT TO discard you today. Take courage, SAINT OF GOD. TAKE COURAGE, SINNER MAN. THE AISLES ARE BEING WALKED BY THE GALILEAN TODAY THAT WANTS TO COME BY YOUR BRUISED WAY, AND HE WANTS TO HELP YOU. WOULD you give him praise and glory and honor in this house? You cannot get any more bruised than the woman of the fourth chapter of John. A Samaritan. She has two strikes against her by her very birth. She is a Samaritan. She will not be trained in the ways of God. She will not be trained to know the commandments. She will be a Samaritan, and she will follow the path of the vileness of the Samaritans. But, thank God John 4:4 says these words about Jesus. And he must needs go through Samaria. It didn't say he must needs go through Rome. It didn't say he must needs go through the vacation areas of Judea. He said, "I must go through Samaria." Because there's bruised people in Samaria. And did he ever find one? He sat on a well and waited. Noon came, and there appeared a woman. More than likely, she came to the well at noon time because she was an outcast. More than likely, she made her way at noon so that she didn't have to hear the whispering of the other women who whispered about her vile lifestyle. But I can only imagine in her mind that morning or that that afternoon, excuse me. Here she thought, "Oh, no. Someone's at the well." And as she got closer, she sees it's a man. But as she got even closer, she saw that it was one of those despicable, judgmental, walk on the other side of the street, never eat, never talk Jews. Boy, what a day. Did not pick a lousy day to come to the well. But as she starts toward the well, the voice of the stranger makes a request. "Woman, give me a drink." That's all she could take. She says to the man, "How is it that you're a Jew, and the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans? I know you're a Jew by the tassels on your garment. I I know you're a Jew BY YOUR PRESSURE. I KNOW YOU'RE A JEW BY WHAT you look like. How is it in her exact words were, "How is it that a Jew would have a conversation with me?" THAT JEW SPOKE UP. AND THAT JEW SAID IN VERSE 10, "IF THOU KNEWEST THE GIFT OF GOD, and who it is that saith to thee, Woman, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, AND HE WOULD HAVE GIVEN thee aha living waters." Now, something strange happens HERE BECAUSE THIS MAN ACTUALLY IS NOT JUST ASKING for something. He is IN RETURN SAYING, "I WILL GIVE YOU SOME I I'VE NEVER met a Jew that was going to give me something other than a hard time. I'VE NEVER MET A JEW THAT WAS GOING TO GIVE me something called water, AND NOT JUST WATER, BUT living water." Listen to what the woman says. THE WOMAN SAYETH unto him, VERSE 11, "SIR." HAVE YOU NOTICED THIS? If we will start OFFERING THE BRUISED reed something, they begin to change their view of us. BECAUSE AT FIRST ALL SHE can see is A JEW WITH HIS TASSELS AND HIS HAIR AND THE CORNERS OF HIS HAIR, ALL SHE CAN SEE IS THE EXTERNAL, BUT WHEN THAT JEW OFFERS HER SOMETHING, SHE DOES NOT ADDRESS him again as Jew. She addresses him as sir. Now, sir is a title of respect. Sir is something that you give someone that you respect, and she in return, I'm telling you something. There are bruised reeds all over our congregation and all over our city and state and world that all they need is for somebody to give them a little attention and tell them they're worth saving. Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle? And Jesus answered and said, "Whosoever drinketh this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of of water springing up into everlasting life." The woman sayeth unto him, "Sir." Calls him sir again. "Give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." Listen, "Would you please give ME THIS LIFE-GIVING WATER? I WANT THIS life-giving water. That I wouldn't have to come here again." Jesus said it unto her, "Go call thy husband and come hither." Now, can I tell you something here? Sometimes when we have to deal with the bruised reed, we do have to weave the savior's thread through areas of your life that become uncomfortable. Jesus knew what he was doing. He knew what he was doing when he said, "YOU WANT THE WATER? Call your husband." He was knew that I had just entered into a bruised area of your life. Can I tell you some of you have shut doors of bruisedness to your life, and you're letting no one in? You don't even want to go there yourself, but it is there, and you need to unlock that door this Sunday morning and let the savior weave some of his with you. "Call your husband come hither." Verse 16. The woman answered and said, "Sir, I have no husband." Now, now she lied. She lied. But bruised people many times lie to avoid the hurt of their life. When asking a man one time, and he really made sense to me, when asking a man one time why why he would work five days a week and work eight hours, 10 hours a day, and go on Friday night to the bar, and by the wee hours of Saturday morning be broke. And the answer came back, "When I'm not drinking, I hurt so bad. But the only time I don't hurt is when I'm drinking." Can I tell that person today Can I tell them once again that if we will open up consistently and let the savior come in, "Jesus, take my hurt. Jesus, take my hurt. You don't have to lie anymore. I I don't have a husband. I I don't have a husband. Jesus said, "You have answered me well. You have hast had five husbands. And he whom thou now hast is not thine husband. In that thou sayest truly." You realize what Jesus just exposed about her? He just exposed that bruised area of her life and said, "You know what? You're right. You don't have a husband. But you've had five. And you're currently with a man that's not yours. You see, don't let people tell you that if a man wants to go to your bruised area, he doesn't love you. Jesus knows if I'm going TO HELP YOU, I'VE GOT TO GO TO YOUR HURT. WHAT CAUSED YOU TO GET ON DRUGS? WHAT CAUSED YOU TO BE AN ALCOHOLIC? WHAT CAUSED YOU TO BECOME PERVERTED? WHAT CAUSED YOU TO DO THESE THINGS? I'M TELLING YOU TODAY, WE HAVE GOT TO RUN THE THREAD BACK TO WHATEVER UNDER THE SURFACE WOUND WE RECEIVED SO THAT THE MASTER JESUS CAN come and heal us. I I I I Oh, you you have five. You've had five. And one you're with is not your own. And listen to what the woman says. And the woman said, "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Jesus saith unto her, "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain nor at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship you know not what. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. You know what the woman tried to do? When the woman she went from him calling him a Jew to calling him a sir to saying you're a prophet and then she got into some kind of religious difference about the Samaritan said you worship God over there on that mountain and the Jews say in JERUSALEM AND SHE GOT IN SOME RELIGIOUS difference to try to explain away her lifestyle. Can I tell you today denominationalism is not going to save you. You're listening today to a church. We are Pentecostal in our experience. We are apostolic IN OUR DOCTRINE AND WE ARE HOLINESS IN OUR LIFESTYLE, but all of THAT IS THE PRODUCT OF LETTING A GOD HEAL OUR BRUISED LIVES. WE WERE ALL BEFORE WE WERE PENTECOSTAL BRUISED. BEFORE WE WERE APOSTOLIC, WE WERE BRUISED. BEFORE WE WERE HOLINESS PEOPLE, WE WERE BRUISED. ALL WHAT THE ALCOHOLIC NEEDS TO DO IS WORSHIP JESUS UNTIL HE GETS IN THE SPIRIT AND GOD WILL DELIVER HIM. WHAT THE DRUG ADDICT NEEDS TO DO IS WORSHIP JESUS UNTIL HE GETS IN THE SPIRIT AND GOD WILL DELIVER THEM.