(To download an mp3 file of this message, click on the title above. To listen online, click on the play button of the audio player here.)
This is a sermon based on the last phrase in Genesis 6:6, "He was grieved in his heart." The message describes the basis for a broken heart, which is love then explores the reasons God heart is broken. It ends with comments about how we can delight God's heart rather than break it.
Written Excerpts:
Genesis 6:6 (NKJV) And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
(NLT) So the LORD
was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.
(CEB) The
LORD regretted making human beings on the earth, and he was heartbroken.
Introduction:
G. K. Chesterton — The
Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably
because they are generally the same people. (Today's Best Illustrations – Vols 1-4)
Catherine Voss — I teach
Kids' Club at my church. Arriving home after one rough evening, my husband
asked me how things had gone.
"Our lesson was on loving your neighbor, and two girls kept
bothering each other."
"Which ones were the problem?" he asked.
"Faith and Charity!" (Today's Best Illustrations – Vols 1-4)
Love is a wonderful part of life. Most of us have known what it is to
deeply love someone and to be loved in the same degree. I’d venture to say that nearly everyone has also experienced what it is
like to be hurt deeply by the one you loved so deeply. There are very few experiences in life that rival the joy of loving and
being loved, and few experiences rival the sadness and sorrow of being deeply
offended by the one you love. Love involves risk.
C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves – To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will
certainly be wrung and possibly be broken… (sermonillustrations.com)
Leo Buscaglia, Loving Each Other ―
“When we give ourselves in love we
become our most vulnerable. We are never safe. We become open to disappointment
and hurt.” (goodreads.com/quotes)
Gladys Bagg Taber, Harvest at Stillmeadow
― “Well, any love makes us
vulnerable. Whatever we love will give the gift of pain somewhere along the
road. But who would live sealed in spiritual cellophane just to keep from ever
being hurt? There are a few people like that. I'm sorry for them. I think they
are as good as dead.” (goodreads.com/quotes)
The sermon today is titled, “Broken-Hearted God.” The idea for the message came from a devotional I receive each week by
email and written by Dr. John Oswalt. I’ll share a few quotes from that devotional a little later.
The quotes I read a few moments ago provide support for the fact that
the experience of a broken heart is directly related to the depth of love for
the person who committed the painful offense. So, for a little while I want to speak to you about the Love of God for
humanity, how we have broken His heart, and how we can bring him delight.
I. God is love.
The Bible is full of references about the love of God for all humanity.
Exodus 34:6 (NKJV)
And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD
God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and
truth,
This verse is very significant because just two chapters earlier God is ready to wipe the people of Israel out
because of their idolatry and debauchery while Moses was up on the mountain. That dialog expresses God's holy anger, while this present verse reveals His holy love.
Isaiah 54:8 (NKJV)
With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting
kindness I will have mercy on you," Says the LORD, your Redeemer.
1 John 4:16 “God is love; and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”
The Apostle John states a simple fact: God is love. Love isn’t something that God HAS; it’s what He IS. Love is the essential characteristic of God’s perfection. His love is
absolutely perfect. It is intense. It is infinite. There is no weakness or imperfection about His love.
A.W. Tozer — God wants us
to worship Him. He doesn't need us, for He couldn't be a self-sufficient God
and need anything or anybody, but He wants us. When Adam sinned, it was not he
who cried, "God, where art Thou?" It was God who cried, "Adam,
where art thou?" (Today's Best Illustrations – Vols 1-4)
God’s love is universal.
John 3:16 “For God
so loved the world that
He gave…”
2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV)
The Lord is … not willing that any should perish but that all
should come to repentance.
That means you! And, it means me!
God’s love is unconditional.
Romans 5:8 (NKJV)
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us.
We are not required to get ourselves into a condition of being
desirable or lovable. We do not have to get ourselves all cleaned up and straightened up in
order to get God to look our way and love us.
Henri Nouwen — God wants
me to be with him, not to do things to prove I'm valuable. (Today's Best Illustrations – Vols 1-4)
His love is costly.
God’s love cost Him the death of His one and only eternal Son.
Refer back to two verses we’ve already mentioned: John 3:16 “God so loved… that He gave His only begotten son.” Rom. 5:8 “God demonstrates His love… Christ died for us.”
There is nothing wishy-washy about God’s love. It cost Him the dearest
price imaginable. I think it was a professor from Asbury Seminary that said something
like this: “God has a poverty when it comes to sons. He only had one Son to offer
and that was who He gave.” (Dongell)
Oswald Chambers — In the
Cross we may see the dimensions of Divine love. The Cross is not the cross of a
man, but the exhibition of the heart of God. At the back of the wall of the
world stands God with His arms outstretched, and every man driven there is
driven into the arms of God. The Cross of Jesus is the supreme evidence of the
love of God. (Today's Best
Illustrations – Vols 1-4)
God’s love is a jealous love.
Exodus 34:14 “(for
you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is
Jealous, is a jealous God)”
In the context of this verse, the Lord warns against intermarrying with
the Canaanites and adopting their worship of idols and pagan gods. As He gives
this warning, the sin of idol worship is described as “playing the harlot” –
terminology used to describe marital / sexual unfaithfulness. God's pure, holy jealousy prevents Him from tolerating competing affections.
Deuteronomy 4:24 (NKJV)
For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
We tend to think of jealousy as a negative quality; a trait that has
negative connotations or meanings. Yet, the Bible is describing God as a
jealous God. If you stop and think about it, it makes complete sense. If there was
no level of jealousy at all then there would be a positive reason to question
the amount of love the person has.
II. God’s heart has been
broken.
Genesis 6:6 (NKJV)
And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in
His heart.
(CEB) The
LORD regretted making human beings on the earth, and he was heartbroken. (NLT)
…It broke his heart.
I want to share a couple of thoughts from the devotional I mentioned
earlier.
(John Oswalt) The vocabulary and the verb form in this verse stress the
idea of causing hurt or pain over and over, thus “’broke his heart’ catches the
point precisely.”
(Oswalt) Does our sin
anger him? Of course. There are plenty of places in the Bible where we are told
that. And well it should. He made us for something better than this! But this
passage tells us something deeper about God. He made us for love! He made us to
walk with him in unbroken, fruitful fellowship. But we have turned and slapped
him in the face [over and over], and he is heart-broken.
See also:
Psalm 78:40 (NKJV)
How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in
the desert!
Mark 3:5 (NKJV)
And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the
hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."
…
There is a time for anger because his love is a jealous love and He will
not tolerate any competing affections. But these verses emphasize the fact that
our sin, our hardened hearts, and all the expressions of that in our conduct
break the heart of a loving God.
Picture in your mind a weeping father. Weeping over the many times we have insisted on having our own way;
weeping over the times we have turned our backs on him and walked “arm in arm
with some momentary passion in direct disobedience to His revealed desires and
will for us.
III. God’s heart can be
delighted.
(Oswalt) There is another
side to this thought: if we can break his heart, we can also delight him…. When
you gladly say yes to his invitation to walk with him, and to walk as he walks,
in love, can you feel his arm around your shoulder and see his smile?
Proverbs 11:20 (NKJV)
Those who are of a perverse heart are an abomination to the LORD,
But the blameless in their ways are His delight.
Psalm 37:23 (NKJV)
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He
delights in his way.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NKJV)
Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let
not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory
in his riches; 24 But let him who glories glory in this, That
he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising
lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I
delight," says the LORD.
Conclusion:
Every one of us have been guilty of breaking the heart of a loving
heavenly Father, who loved us with an infinite love. We’ve rebelled, we’ve repeatedly disobeyed, and we’ve insisted on
having our own way.
I am assuming that many of us have also come to the place of prayer
with deep sorrow and repentance seeking His mercy and forgiveness. If we have, we are most grateful for the wonderful, matchless grace of
God who forgave us.
I do not have the ability to see inside your hearts, but I wonder if
there is anyone here today who recognizes that you have been breaking the heart
of God, and you have felt so ashamed and unworthy that you have neglected to
seek His grace and forgiveness. I want to shout to you this morning, “Come to Jesus!” “Run to Jesus!”
He’s weeping over you, but He loves you and wants to save you!
Song: Softly and Tenderly
No comments:
Post a Comment