Broken but Not Unfixable

Happy fifth day of the feast! Too many F's. Thank you. Good morning to you, too. Let me start over. Happy feast! Thank you. It is wonderful to be here celebrating God's Feast of Tabernacles with you. I do owe everyone an apology. First of all, let me thank the choir. That was fantastic. That song will beautifully fit with the sermon today. Thank you for all of your effort. Thank you to all the musicians, the ensemble, the pianists, and everybody. It's all such a beautiful compliment to our ability to worship and praise God. Thank you for that and for all that's involved. But again, I do owe you an apology. I'm the crazy guy that's been running around here with my hair on fire all week, squeezing through the doorways, running by with a quick wave and hello with a very serious and focused look on my face. So I hope I haven't offended anyone. I hope I haven't ran anyone over. If I did, you can talk to the coordinator and let him know about that. I apologize to one of my friends because I told her that I have this very serious look as I feel bad because I'm running around with this serious look, not really smiling. And she said, don't worry about it. Your eyes smile for you. I know. I thought that was really nice. I'm like, wow, nobody's ever said that to me. So I hope that helps. I hope it is my eyes. But thank you for your patience with me. Thank you for everything that you have done to help support us and just make our job easier. And I thank our sound crew for everything that they've been doing to support everything going on here. It's been a great feast for us and we're happy to be serving you in this way. I did want to also bring a new greeting that I learned for the first time this year at the feast. One of my family members was talking with another one of us and they thought they heard someone say, nice to nice to meast you, meast you, which is a combination of meet you and feast, right? Meet you at the feast or meast you. And I started laughing. I thought it was a funny... I love it. And so I want us to now add this to our language, our part of our traditions of keeping the feast of tabernacles. And so I'm going to say it to you and you, if you feel like it, can say it back to me. But it's nice to meast you. Thank you. I had to do that. It was fun. We were laughing about it. And I said, okay, you know, I get the microphone for a little bit during the feast. And so I get to embarrass one of my family members.

When my brother-in-law, Glenn, came into our family, I was eight years old. Our family of six, I have a mom and dad, of course, and four siblings, I thought was perfect. My oldest sibling, Rhonda, met a great guy at the Feast of Tabernacles, and they started dating. I was a little guy, and when Rhonda... when I was born, Rhonda was 11 years old. So she became a second mom to me. And she would take me to the mall with her. She would take me to Kings Island, an amusement park. First time I ever went to an amusement park, she took me. And she was part of my life that was extremely important to me. My brother, Dwayne, the second oldest, I'm number three of four, I liked to push his buttons. And there were times that I would, just being a little brother, bug him enough where he gets up and now he's chasing me down. And I would run to Rhonda's room, blow open her door, jump on her bed, and she would tell him to get out. Loved it. Loved it. But I knew I now had to hang out with her for about 30 minutes because he was not going to just be okay with me if I just walked right back out. There's a story, I don't remember it, but when Rhonda and Gwen were dating, they were sitting on the couch, and like couples do, and I went up and wiggled my way in between them, put my arm around Rhonda, and then just glared at Gwen. And like, she was mine first.

But Gwen grew on us, and he became a huge and wonderful blessing to our family as we went from a family of six to a family of seven. Gwen was a fixer of things. He had a beautiful talent and gift of being able to work on cars, to work on projects around the house, to repair things that broke. And that was just not something that my dad was ever really taught. My dad had a lot of other gifts, but he was never really taught by his father or family members how to repair things or how to fix things. And so Gwen came into our family, and as the story goes, I don't remember being there. I was, again, a little guy. But my dad was sharing, Gwen was there, about how my dad was going to take one of our cars into the shop to have an oil change. And supposedly, Gwen almost fell out of his chair. Because for anybody who works on cars and maintains things, that's one of the easiest things we can do ourselves in our driveway or in our garage. Do an oil change on the car, and it saves a ton of money. And so I don't remember when it was after that, but one day I remember playing in the yard, going out through the front door, and our driveway was right by the house. And I looked out, and I see Gwen's feet sticking out of our car, and my dad's feet sticking out of our car. And I had never seen that before. Gwen was underneath the car, teaching my dad how to do an oil change. It was like something really neat to see, like, huh, dad's now working on our car. He'd never seen that. Gwen taught my dad how to do some basic repairs around the house and working on the car. He was a fixer of things. And he taught my dad how to also become a fixer of things. And then as time went on, my older brother, Dwayne, he started driving, and he started working on cars, and Gwen would show him a few things. And I'm like, huh, now more family members are learning how to do these things around the house, to fix cars, to repair certain things when they go funny. Like, one time we lived in an old home that had gas lights at one point. Not in my generation. Just so the teens in the room know I'm not that old.

But we had gas lights. The house was designed with gas lights. And one day, my mom or somebody was replacing a ceiling fan. They took a cap off one of them, and gas started coming out. So she puts a cap back on real fast, called Gwen, and he comes over, and he shuts off and cuts the gas and in the basement to where it comes in the house and would go through all the lights. And so he was always helping, always fixing things. And I have my fair share of times where I was underneath a car with Gwen. He replaced water heaters in our home. He helped get our furnace running again when the blower went out. He's added Freon to the air conditioner. He's done all of these things for us because he was a fixer, and he showed us how to do things.

Having someone who can fix things in your life is an amazing blessing. They can help save a ton of money. They can encourage others, also, like Gwen did with me, to fix our own problems and our own challenges that we have sometimes.

They can give guidance. They can give us pointers on how to do things. It's at this time that we're in right now that we often think about and relate to the items in this world that needs fixing. If we've started just chatting casually about that list of items, we would be here till the dance tonight, right? Maybe even tomorrow, the next day, talking about all the items that need to be fixed in this world that we're part of. The list goes on and on and on. And we're here talking about who's going to fix them.

God. We talk about how Jesus Christ is going to return to this earth with the power and the might to make changes that we have been hoping for and desiring in our life since we became old enough to really realize the brokenness that we see around us.

And so, as we celebrate this future time when the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords will return to this earth and establish His kingdom to reign over all the governments of the world, we also recognize how wonderful it'll be when His power, when His might, when He will come with His strength to let those who think that they're mighty, who think that they know better how to manage and run themselves, He will teach them how to, how we're supposed to rule, how man is supposed to interact with one another. He will bring with Him a sense in the right type of justice and equality that this world has never seen or experienced.

He will bring balance back to the lives of men and show that there's a right way to live among men and to live with their God. And unlike us and our Fix It projects today, as Christ begins to fix the world, His solutions will work flawlessly. How many times have you tried to fix something on a car or in your house only to have it break again? More times than I can count. How many times have we tried to use duct tape and bailing wire? That's an old term for the teens in the room. Duct tape and bailing wire to fix projects around the house, right?

That's a temporary fix. And when we do it, we know it's going to fail again. It's not permanent. We have tried time and time again to fix things in our lives only to have them fail us again. This is not going to be the way that Christ fixes the world. He will bring with Him solutions that will work for society and the world. And He will show the world the solutions to their problems.

Our Lord and Savior will be the fixer of the world. So I'd like to explore how God is fixing the world today, how He will fix the world in the millennium, and our role in helping Him fix this world.

If you like titles for your messages, this message is entitled, Broken, but Not Unfixable. When Jesus Christ returns, He will inherit a world desperately in need of repair. There will be broken systems, broken communities, broken relationships, and most importantly, hurting and broken people. As those called to serve with Christ, we have the extraordinary opportunity to help restore a world and help its people learn a better way of life. But God is not waiting until the millennium to begin this work.

He is fixing the world right now, one person at a time. And that work begins with us. I'm not sure I always understood that growing up. I would come to the feast. I would hear sermons about the millennium, and that's when the fix and change is going to happen. But then I started learning a few things about my own life. I started experiencing life. I started growing. I started making my own decisions.

I started making bad decisions. And I started recognizing my own brokenness that needed to be fixed. And so I would try to fix it myself. I don't know. Can I see a show of hands who've tried to fix your own brokenness? I think it's pretty much all of us, right? I remember thinking I can't get baptized until I fix myself. Because I know too much to go into this relationship with God with the problems I have.

I've sat through too many sermons, too many Sabbaths, too many feasts of tabernacles, too many holy days to still have the problems that I have in my life. So I have to fix myself, then I can go to God in my clean clothing, my white suit, and accept Christ's sacrifice. I fought myself for a lot of years trying to fix myself.

Some of you may be in a similar situation to where I was, thinking that I have to do this myself. And it wasn't until God finally let me walk that journey far enough that I realized it's a vain job, a vain thing that I'm trying to do. Because I can't fix myself. God has to fix me. And it starts when we surrender and we give our life to Him. And for me, that was baptism. And so we live in a world where people are trying to fix things, people are repairing things with temporary fixes that are going to fail, and people are trying to fix society and the governments, people are trying to fix our roads. If you live in Michigan, which I think I might be, we may be the only Michiganders here, I'm not sure, but the roads are really bad in Michigan, and as much as they continue to try to fix them, they continue to fail again. We try to fix things, and we can't. And this is the beauty of what God is going to do. And He's starting this fix right now, today, one person at a time. Me. You. Those that are going to listen to this message later, those who are keeping the feast at other sites. One person at a time, Christ is beginning to fix the world. This summer, I had the pleasure and joy of attending teen camp again, as I do most summers, and I was able to share with the teens at Camp Pinecrest the beautiful theme of Follow Me. That was our theme this summer, Follow Me. Now, of course, all of us recognize these two words, because they are prominently mentioned and noted in our Bibles, because Jesus said them Himself, many times. Two very simple words, follow me, but two words that you and I will forever work hard at trying to implement to heed and to follow in our Christian journey. Words that seem relatively simple, but a principle that can be hard to heed at times. Along with the phrase, Follow Me, we also see Jesus sharing other invitations, and one such invitation appears in Matthew 11, beginning in verse 28.

Matthew 11, verse 28. As we begin reading here, notice the personal and intimate way that Jesus speaks and invites the listener to find help for their life. These are not just words of wisdom, things to consider or think about, but it's an invitation. It's an invitation from Jesus Christ Himself, Matthew 11, verse 28. Jesus says, Come to Me. Come to Me. How many times have we said that to other people? Like, do you want to come over to our house or to a child? Come here. Christ is saying, Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me. This concept is sometimes hard to wrap our minds around because yoke we usually think about in a term of work, a term of a burden, a term of something heavy that we put on ourselves. It's not something that we think is like, Yay! I want to carry your yoke. I want to put a yoke on me. The animals that we yoke to maybe work on our farm, they're probably not super happy when they wake up that day and they see the farmer carrying a yoke over to them, right? It means we're working. It's going to be hard. It might not be fun all the times. Jesus says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me. But notice what He says, For I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

You will find rest for your souls. He says, For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus is not inviting us to come and flip our lives upside down ourselves. To sacrifice everything that we are doing in this life or working on, or to just be so humble that we can't enjoy food or we can't enjoy fellowship. He's not saying, I want you to just be pressed down and beat down and just destroyed with this heavy burden, this heavy yoke. He's saying, Come to Me as a perfect father, a perfect brother, a perfect aunt, a perfect uncle. And He's saying, I will carry this load for you. I will give you an easier way to walk. I'll help you. I'll fix you. Come to Me. Three basic words that we don't need a lexicon or Bible dictionary to understand, but three words that can transform a Christian's life and three words that can bring healing to broken lives. One of my favorite analogies and illustrations from the Bible and from life is that of a lighthouse. In Michigan, we have a lot of lighthouses because we have Lake Huron on our east coast and Lake Michigan on our west coast. And per, I think, state capitol, we have the most lighthouses as any state in the nation. It's kind of phenomenal when you look at a map and you see how many lighthouses there are. Lighthouses are a unique item that we have in our world. And I had to do some Google research from Google. They've been around for about 2,300 years. They started as bonfires on a coast to help illuminate a direction that ships on great bodies of water could navigate. And then over years in time, they became actual buildings and devices that would light a path home. And what's neat about a lighthouse is they don't move. They stay stationary. They're permanent. And they cast a light that just shines through the darkness. Now, I want you to go on a journey with me. We're going to be somebody who's in a boat, maybe a ship out on the water. And as we're sailors and as we're working on this ship, maybe you're the captain, maybe you're the person in the engine room. All of a sudden, a storm appears. The waves are just crashing against this boat. You can't see from the tip of the boat beyond, the ship beyond that. And you're wanting to go home. You have family, you have your wife, your spouse at home. You have children there. Maybe your parents that you continue to care for and look after. They're all on the coast at home wanting you to make it home, too. And then the boat gets tossed. You're not sure. Are we going to make it out of this storm? Maybe which direction to go? All navigation has gone out. We're not sure northeast. We know there's rocks. There's some dangers if we're not careful as we continue to proceed home.

And then in the midst of this darkness, in the midst of the rain splashing us in the face, in the midst of getting knocked back and forth and just hanging on, in the midst of not knowing, are we going to make it? That light shines through.

How do you feel? What emotions would you tell your family about later?

What are you going to write in the story of your book or in the book of your the story of your life and a book about this moment?

That moment when the light shone through the darkness, you felt like I have a direction to go. I now know where home's at. I think I'm going to be okay.

The imagery of a lighthouse and when you start comparing it to the life of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us and what God has done for us is a beautiful analogy. God is that light that shines in the darkness of our lives. When we have been lost before coming to God's church, before understanding the words as deeply as we do in our Bibles, we were lost. We may not have realized we were lost, but we were. We were caught in darkness. We didn't know east from west. People had warned us of other dangers and we're like, we'll be okay. And then God started showing us a direction to go and suddenly his word, his spirit, his life became a light to our life.

Jesus says, come to me. Those three words are like that beacon of a lighthouse that is shining through the darkness. Because when he said this, and I'm sure that wasn't the only time, there's many times he probably shared a phrase like this that we don't even have recorded because we don't have everything that he did recorded here. When he saw someone who was struggling or who was lost or who needed a way to go, he invited them to come to me. And I can only imagine in their brokenness, in their hurt, in their frustrations, in their sorrow, in not knowing up from down and left from right, when he said that knowing who he was and the power in which he lived his life and would have shared this with them, they probably would have just stopped in their tracks for a moment and stared at him right in his face. There might have been a sense of calm or peace that came over them, and there might have been a way that they're like, I didn't realize that's the way to go. Jesus extends this invitation, three basic words, come to me, and when we respond, he begins a lifelong process of shaping, repairing, teaching, and transforming us. Paul reminds us that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. That's from Ephesians 2 and verse 10. We are not finished products. We are God's workmanship, people that he is actively preparing for a purpose. In other words, before God uses us to help fix a broken world, Christ is performing his transforming work in us. So Jesus again invites us, come to me, because he wants us to live abundant lives. He knows we live in a world where lies abound, where truth is hard to find, and problems exist on our left and on our right. So in a sense, he says to us, I can give you the words of life. I can give you the bread of life. I can give you real life.

Come to me. Jesus understands our troubles because he lived and experienced physical life. He suffered unjustly. He was made fun of. He suffered loss for following God. And people turned their backs on him and didn't want to be around him. All of these things and many others naturally hurt our heart. We like to feel good. We like to be loved. We hope that we have good relationships in our lives, ones that build us up and where we can build up others. But these things that Jesus suffered himself, they hurt. And at times, they create brokenness in our own lives. And I wanted to find what I mean by broken, because we can miss this if we're not careful. We live in a society and a world today where we throw a lot of things when they break into the trash can. It's not repairable. It's made of plastic. My father-in-law hates plastic. He grew up in a generation where everything was metal, right? Metal gears, metal outsides, metal covers, metal... And he's like, he hates plastic. I'm sure some of you guys do, too. Plastic breaks, and it's pretty much impossible to repair it.

And when that happens, and when the toaster fails, and you try to take it into the toaster repairman...

Do you guys know of one? I don't. And if you find him, he says, oh, I can fix this. It's going to be $200. And I do the math real quick in my head. I said, I saw one at Walmart for, I think, $19.99?

All right. Where's that toaster go? In the trash. We live in a society, and we live a lot of our lives throwing things that are broken in the trash. And that's what we do. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, per se. But when we talk about brokenness as it relates to you and to me, that's not what we're destined for. We're not destined for the trash heap. We're not destined to be cast out. We're not viewed as unuseful or a waste anymore. Our brokenness can be fixed if we come to God. If we stop trying to fix it ourselves and invite God into our lives to carry part of our burden and carry part of our brokenness and to place us on a better path. We're not trash. We're God's people. We're humanity. We're the only creation made in God's own image. And nowhere does he view us as a waste.

God gets us. Jesus gets us. They get what we're going through. They understand our troubles. They want to help. They want to encourage us, and they want to bring us peace. We just have to do what? Come to him with our brokenness. While all of our brokenness is personal because it's ours. It belongs to us. Many of us have been impacted by other people's brokenness really close to us. It could be a parent's brokenness, a sibling's brokenness, a spouse's brokenness, or even our children's brokenness. And then that impacts us because we have these relationships. And sometimes their brokenness becomes our brokenness passed along through things that we have witnessed them do and it then impacts us. Or their behavior ends up hurting us. And then we now have brokenness in our own lives. Maybe even a close friend. Maybe someone in your congregation who hurts us because they are broken.

This is that personal nature and the impact of brokenness. Let's turn with me to Luke 4 in verse 16. Luke 4 and verse 16.

We find a similar passage to this in the book of Isaiah because we're going to see in a moment this is what Christ read from. In this passage here. Luke 4 verse 16. It's the so they count goes Jesus. So he came to Nazareth, speaking of Jesus, where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah and when he had opened the book he found the place where it was written. No, to the poor, right? He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. This is not a fun, positive group of people, right? This is not who we would say are the rulers and the powerful and the celebrities and the best athletes in our society today, right?

These are the poor, brokenhearted, captives, blind, oppressed.

And who was Jesus sent to? This group of people. Why? They're broken. They need help. And verse 19 says, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And then he closed the book and he gave it back to the attendant and he sat down and all the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

This prophecy is dual in meaning because we know Jesus came to this earth. He lived as man and he did all the things we just read, ultimately giving his life so those who follow him can live renewed lives. But a time is also coming which we are celebrating right now this week when Jesus will return and bring with him the fixes that need to happen in this world. He will bring to more fully the limited scope of his ability to live. He couldn't fix the world at that time. He didn't have the freedom to travel everywhere around the world. He couldn't fix everybody's problems. He was limited as man when he was here on this earth. And it won't be that way when he returns. When he returns, a much greater group of humanity will have the opportunity to live renewed lives. And with Satan's influence removed and with true justice, equality, and righteousness filling this earth, Jesus will begin fixing lives much broader than he can do today.

Let's look at another passage in Isaiah 2, verse 1. I believe we read this passage from the book of Micah, chapter 4, earlier in the feast, but this is a second location, where almost the identical passage is shared here in Isaiah 2, verse 1.

Isaiah 2, verse 1 says the word of that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. He shares, Now it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Every year I visualize getting ready to leave for the fall holy days and the Feast of Tabernacles. How awesome would it be if all of our neighbors are packing and getting ready and taking time off and getting their house in order to leave for the feast? Could you imagine the buzz in your community, in your neighborhood, if everybody together was collectively getting ready to do what we did right here? I mean, the excitement that would be in the air, the high fives, the where are you going, the I'll see you in Lake Juneau Luska here in just a couple days. The kids who are neighbors and playing together will then show up at the feast and play together. I can't wait for this day and for this to be fulfilled when they all say, come, or when all nations shall flow to Jerusalem. In verse 3, many people shall come and say, come and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. This is the fix that the world has desperately been waiting for. He shall judge, in verse 4, between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord.

This is why opening our lives to God to be fixed is so important. The lessons that we learn today, the character that we build, the compassion that we develop, and the ability to gain understanding and to work with people that we are being prepared to work with, both for today and tomorrow, is so important. This isn't just for us individually. This is for us collectively and for society and the world as a whole. God is developing future fixers, people who can meet others where they are and patiently help them move forward towards where God wants them to be. The Apostle Paul understood this. Rather than expecting everyone to meet him where he was at, Paul learned how to meet people where they were. He described his approach as becoming all things to all men so that he might reach and help them. That's in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 22. If we are going to help Christ restore a broken world tomorrow, we must allow him to teach us how to reach broken people today.

There's been several times over the last five years that things have broken in my house or in my car or in my life, and I wanted to pick up the phone and call Glenn.

Sadly, in 2021, we lost him in the midst of COVID.

And when things around me have broken, there's been moments where my first reaction, because it had been with me for so long, was to pick up the phone and give him a call. Because he could guide me, he could teach me, he could show me, he could give me pointers, he could give me a little couple tips and maybe point me in the right direction.

And I've talked to my nephews, it was their father, and they've wished they could do the same thing. But what I had to do was lean on what he had already taught me over those years, to lean on the resources that he had shown me, and then to dig deeper and to be resourceful myself. And while I've wished I could call him at times and get some help, I've been able to fix things without him. This is what God is doing in our own lives today. He is helping us learn things about ourselves.

He's helping us to learn things about our brokenness. He's helping us to learn and say, hey, have you tried this? And we're like, I haven't tried that. Let me try it now. And, huh, that worked pretty well. Thank you, Father, in heaven for that guidance. And he's doing that so that we can build a toolbox of skills, so that we can be resourceful as we continue forward in this life and in the millennium. So that when we encounter people who are broken later on, we don't have to run back to Jesus and back to the Father and say, hey, I got this unique situation over here.

Can you help me? He's going to say, remember when that was you? Remember when that was your brokenness? How did I help you? And you're like, yeah, I remember. Thank you. But we won't have to run back because when we see that brokenness in the millennium as fixtures along with Jesus Christ, we'll be able to just say, hey, have you considered God and where he's at in your life? Have you considered that your brokenness is yours and you keep trying to push it off on everybody else and you point the finger of whose fault it is that you're this way and that your life and the decisions you're making that somebody else's fault?

Have you considered that it's yours, that you need to take ownership of this? You can't undo your past, you can't undo your brokenness, but you can make a decision today to start going in a new direction? And why would we know that? Because that's what we're doing today. As we continue to live life and as we continue to come face to face with our brokenness, we really have two choices, right? We either try to fix it ourselves and we pretty much know how that's going to go. Or we surrender and we give it to God. And this is the hardest part, right? Giving Him our brokenness because then we go on life and we feel better and we get up off our knees and we go on with life and then what do I do?

I find that box that I put my brokenness in and I try to take it back from God because I need to fix myself, right? I can do this. That's not how it works. We have to give it to God. We have to surrender our brokenness to Him and then say, will you fix me?

I think it's the most intimate and the most precious thing that we can do in God's sight. Because when Jesus says, follow me, when He says, come to me, He's offering an invitation to be fixed. And there's joy in their heart because they are the fixture. They know how to help us. And that is what's so precious. Why He is working this in us today. Why He's fixing us today and starting this process so that we can help Him fix the world.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that coming to Jesus is always a simple thing to do. Some people have, again, had parents who didn't show them how a parent is supposed to love them as children. Some of us have had spouses that didn't treat us the way that we needed to be treated as a husband or a wife. Some of us have been affected by abuses, by drug abuses, by alcoholism, that has created brokenness inside us. And so, getting to the core of some of our brokenness, I'm not standing here before you and it's like, oh, it's easy.

Just bring it to God and give it to Him and everything will be better. Some of it's not easy to begin healing from. But we have a God who loves us so deeply and so intimately, and He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our past. He knows the hurts that have occurred in our lives. He knows the things we have done to ourselves at times.

He knows the full story of our life. And He still says, come to me. And He still wants to help us in our brokenness. The reality is that God wants to begin fixing us right now, today. He has a plan for us to serve alongside Jesus Christ in the Millennium and to help bring healing and restoration to a world that desperately needs it. But how can we do this in the future if we don't first begin opening up our brokenness to God today? I really appreciated the work that went into the continuing the conversation questions that are out on the information table.

There's two sheets. The first one is for the first half of the feast and the messages. Of course, being one of the men speaking, I had to go and say, okay, what was written about my sermon? Because we sent a summary of our message. And what was written about mine was to discuss, if you had to choose one type of brokenness to fix in the world, what would it be and why?

I love that question. That was not mine. I love that question. I read it and I'm like, oh, I got to work that into the sermon. This is beautiful. What would be that brokenness that you would want to see fixed in the world?

The other question was, who is God calling you to reach in their brokenness today? That one hit kind of home for me. I'm like, who is that? Is it someone who has been, and it goes on to say, specifically placed in your life? A group of people? What abilities do you need from God to be most effective in this role?

Who is that? Who is someone that you can help today? Because again, I go back to being a kid on a blanket at the Feast of Tabernacles, and I thought, we're going to do that in the Millennium. Way down the road, someplace way off in the distance.

But the reality is, God is inviting us to do it today as we continue to walk alongside one another. As we continue to walk along and help others, we continue to encourage others. So much of Jesus' ministry and his time on this earth focused on those who were hurt, troubled, and stuck in their sins. He focused on those who needed his healing and help to overcome their struggles, and he knew there was no way that humanity could fix its own lives. You and I obviously cannot fix our problems. We need to be fixed from the inside out. We need our healers' help. We need the great physician to mend our hearts, and we need God to forgive our sins, change our hearts, and help us to live according to his truth. This is what we will bring to humanity through our work in the millennium. What we learn today will benefit our service tomorrow.

Turn with me to John 14 in verse 1.

John 14 in verse 1. This passage notes some of the work that we're going to do. This is part of what we are tasked with to do today and in the millennium.

Notice Jesus says, John 14, verse 1, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. Are there troubles in people's lives today? Absolutely, right? Troubles in my life today. And then Jesus says, I go in a prayer place for you. I'm going to paraphrase some of this because I want to begin moving towards the end of the message. And he talks about how he was going to go away, and Thomas is confused and said, Lord, we don't know where you're going to go. We don't know the way. Can you tell us? Verse 6, Jesus said to him, and this is what we'll say to other people as we direct them to God. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you want to start helping people today, point them to Jesus. Point them to the Father. Point them to who? Who? Point them to the one who is the way. Point them to the one who is the truth and who is the life. Now, this is the hard part. Because we can do that, but then they have to make a choice, right? That's something that's hard. When you see somebody struggling, you see somebody stuck spinning their wheels, you see somebody in their brokenness, and you're like, have you given this to God? And they're like, I want you to help me. I want you to fix me. I can't. I can't even fix myself. If I should be able to fix anybody, I should be able to start with me, right? I know me, I know my problems, I know my attitude, I know my weaknesses, I know my temptations. So I know myself better than anybody else. I should be able to start fixing myself. And if I can't fix myself, how can I fix anyone else?

This is what we will do. We'll point them to the one who can fix them, the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. We looked at previously Matthew 11 and verse 29, where Jesus says, Come to me and you will find rest for your souls. You and I have been able to enter into this rest as we have given our burdens and our sins to God for Him to remove and fix in our lives. We know how this feels. We know what it feels like to live a fixed life, not perfect, but maybe in that area of our life to live a fixed life, to have the guilt and the shame disappear, to no longer carry the burdens of our words and our actions and how they impact other people when we've allowed that area to be fixed by God. How wonderful does that feel when He helps and when we start putting part of our past to bed, truly to bed, to not carry that burden, not carry that weight, not carry that guilt, not carry the shame anymore. We know what that feels like and we know how freeing that is. We will have an opportunity to point others to Jesus so that they can help release some of their burdens to Him and He can fix their life as well. But again, it's not just for tomorrow. We don't have to wait until the millennium to start doing this. We can do it right now, today. If we want to find a broken person in the Bible, it's not difficult.

Who comes to mind when you think of brokenness in the Bible? We don't have enough time again to start going through that list, right? It's pretty much everybody, right? Everybody that we see in Scripture lived broken lives.

But I want to dive into the Apostle Paul for a moment because in everything he did to serve God, he still struggled with his own brokenness. Why? Because he was like you and me. He was human. I referenced a passage from 1 Corinthians 9 earlier, but let's turn there. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 19. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 19.

And if Paul was going to wait until his brokenness was all fixed, until his life was fully put together, until he had all the problems worked out in his life before he started preaching Christ and turning people to God, he would have did zero work. He would have accomplished nothing.

But he knew that it wasn't to wait until he was all repaired, all fixed, all perfect. Now I can help God. Now I can serve his people. Paul did this even with the parts of his brokenness that he carried with him forward and the parts that he was still working to give to God more fully. Knowing the parts that he had overcome through God's help, but also knowing he still had areas that needed work, he went anyway to serve God and to serve humanity. Verse 19, 1 Corinthians 9, 19, he says, He says, So how can we apply this passage today in our lives? Just a few ideas that maybe you can jot down in your notes if you like to take notes. Paul, and we could also add in Jesus' name here, met people where they were at in their life.

They didn't build expectations on people that they had to come to them, come to Paul or come to Jesus with these perfect lives all figured out. Perfect dress, perfect attitude, perfect hair, perfect understanding of the Bible. They didn't expect perfection in those that they went towards and those that they wanted to walk towards them. They saw them for who they were, and more importantly, they saw them for how God saw them. Broken people that needed a physician's help. That's how Paul lived this passage. Another aspect, Paul, and again Jesus, we could put his name in here, adjusted how he interacted with others so that they would listen to him. It was not a one-size-fits-all approach, but rather a customized approach to each person that Paul worked with. Now, obviously, this takes time on our part, right? But isn't this what God has done in each of our own lives?

Isn't this what Christ came and gave his life for, so that you and I could have an intimate, one-on-one relationship with the Father? And to begin fixing our life the way that they know we need fixing?

God does not try to fix you the same way that he has fixed me, and he's not trying to fix me the same way that he is working to fix you. That's the beauty of this personal relationship that we have with God. And so, in that same way, we have to have a customized approach as much as we are able and as much as God puts into our heart to work with each other on a one-on-one basis.

Continuing another aspect, Paul adjusted. But as Paul adjusted to meet others, he did not compromise God's Word, and he held firm in teaching what Jesus taught.

He did not change his core beliefs, his morals, or the messaging of the coming kingdom of God. His foundation remained secure on the truth of God and on the teachings of Jesus Christ. So we don't have to compromise these aspects either as we continue to help and encourage and guide others to Christ. Paul worked also on a fourth aspect. He worked to have empathy. He worked to put himself in other people's shoes and to consider what would they need on this journey towards Christ. He considered their background. He considered what they were going through. And then he said, what would I need if I were in their shoes? This is a critical aspect for us today. Because sometimes as a guy, I naturally want to fix things. That's why I love working with sound and NIT. I can fix it. I can make it better. But if I'm not understanding the problem, then I can't fix anything. And this is where when we're empathetic, when we place ourselves in someone else's shoes and say, okay, I don't know all the aspects of their life, but I know they've had a bad past. I know they've had bad marriages. I know they've had bad parenting. I know there's been addictions in their life. So if that was me, what would I need right now? If that was part of my life story, what could help them maybe try God a little bit more? Paul did this, and he did a fifth thing. He put aside his personal freedoms, his comfort, and his pride to treat others with respect. In Jesus' interactions with others who needed his help or guidance, he was always kind, always caring, always loving. He was constantly humble, and he served them in the way that they needed to be served. Not in the way that I wanted to serve them, not in the way that I thought I could fix them, but to humble myself and recognize my brokenness is no greater or no worse than their brokenness. If God loves me and has treated me with kindness, with compassion, with patience, with long suffering, then all of these qualities and characteristics I also need to put on my heart and treat others with as well. Paul's main goal, and the reason he did all of this was for one primary reason. To build trust, to remove unnecessary barriers, and to share the message of the Gospel so that others might come to know Christ. That's why he did everything that he did. That's why he traveled on the ships. That's why he put his life into perilous situations. That's why he wrote the messages and the letters he did to the different churches. Because he wanted to point that group of people or that person back to Christ.

If you remember, as we begin to close, if you remember anything from today's message, remember that God has invited you right now today to assist him in fixing the world. I'm not, again, saying that you and I can go out of here right now and start fixing all the problems, right? We're not the fixer. God is the fixer. And there are so many problems, kind of like Christ, when he was physically man on this earth. He couldn't run around the entirety of the earth and fix and heal everybody. You and I have limitations today. But rather, God has invited us to begin his training program, to lead us and to teach us the tools that we'll someday be able to use as we join him in fixing the world's problems. These feast days again show the time when our Lord and Savior will return to the earth and set up a new kingdom and begin His rule on this planet. And with Him, He will bring His helpers, His assistants, who will serve alongside Him and begin to fix the world.

Don't ever lose sight of this important fact and the reason God has called you to His family right now today. Not later. You weren't called in the millennium, but right now. Let's turn to our closing passage in Romans 8 and verse 18.

Romans 8 and verse 18.

Romans 8 and verse 18.

For the creation was subjected to futility.

Paul is saying in a nutshell that through logic and reason that you and I have, we can tell that this life is not all what it's cracked up to be. This is not real life.

We are a product of our own nature and we desperately need to be fixed. Paul is getting at here. We recognize that and we see it in ourselves. This is why we have hope that a better time is coming when Christ returns and we will be delivered from the limits of our physical mind and body that hold us back today. He goes on in verse 22.

This is what we wait and hope for. A true renewal and fixing of our lives to the degree that we become spiritual children of God. Perfect. Complete. And this world needs us to let God begin fixing our brokenness right now. Are we allowing God to fix us right now the way that God wants to fix us? Or am I living my own life, my own way, creating my own righteousness? And we got to put that in quotes, right? My own righteousness. The truth is we just can't do this on our own. Don't lose sight of the reason for your calling and the opportunity that God is presenting to you and to me right now today. This is a tremendous opportunity to help Jesus Christ fix the world. And speaking of God's saints, the firstfruits that will be resurrected, this collection of a family that we are already part of and that we want to see ourselves in in the future, as we heard, when death comes to us all and our eyes come to a close, that our hope remains steadfast, that in that next waking moment, we will join Christ in the air and we will see Him and be complete and be made perfect. That is the hope that we hang on to, because our Lord and Savior will return to this earth in the future, but this time with might and power to humble the mighty who think that they're strong and that they have strength. But He will also come with compassion and healing and help for a broken world. And so we look forward to the day that God will invite us to assist Him in the millennium, and we wait for the return of our Lord and Savior when all the world will be fixed.