If It Isn't Fixed Don't Break It

In the material world, the world we live in, with physical things, there is a certain perspective, there's a certain philosophy that works quite well in general. We have a saying that expresses this philosophy or this perspective, and you'll recognize it because it's one I've heard all my life. If it isn't broke, don't fix it.

It's a common saying, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. And you know, as a general rule in life with physical things, that works pretty well. And in the realm of material things, it works probably best for the most part. Obviously, there are exceptions, but as a whole, it holds up pretty good. But what about in the realm of roles and relationships and dealings with others? The realm of how we deal with others.

We all have roles, we have relationships, we have responsibilities, and our contact with others and our connections and influences on others. Then we really apply this philosophy of, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. And if we can't apply it, then why can't we? The simple reality is that in the realm of relationships and roles and dealings with others in human life itself, this does not work best because all are broken to some degree.

Period. Nothing and no one is fully fixed. And you want to add to the repairing. You want to add to the healing, not to further or add to the damages or the breakage. So, in truly godly spiritual operation, not physical operation, the spiritual operation, you want to reverse this statement, if it isn't fixed, don't break it. Don't break it. Don't do further damage. If it isn't fixed, don't break it. That's a good title.

That's a good title. That's the subject. I'm going to build it around that. If it isn't fixed, don't break it. This is a godly perspective in Christian philosophy of life that I can live with. I've tried to live with it a long, long time, and I find it's the best approach to take. But I find also that it is a philosophy of perspective that's validated by Scripture. So again, if it isn't fixed, don't break it.

Seven simple, succinct words to capture a concept. And to start with, let's begin with Hebrews 12, verses 12 through 14. Hebrews 12, verses 12 through 14, because here, I believe, such a philosophy is found and validated. Let's read this segment and then break it down. Hebrews 12, verses 12 through 14. Wherefore, Paul says here to the church, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Verse 14, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

So let's break it down. Lift up the hands that hang down. Why do hands hang down? We're not talking about just the fact that your arms are made on the sides of your body, you know, so to speak. The shoulders and the arms just naturally hang down, you know, not lifted up in the sky. They're hanging down. No, the implication is more the arms that sag, the arms that hang down, that sag.

You ever seen somebody walking along, and you could tell they're in a pretty heavy time of their life because their shoulders are sag. We even speak of that. The shoulders sag down, the hands hang low, the body language. And body language is a big part of communication. Their chin's not up, their shoulders aren't squared back, their shoulders are sagging, their arms are sagging with the load of life, the slumped shoulders, body language. Okay? The spag with the... lift up the hands that hang down. The sag with the load of life. Share the burden off their shoulders. Share that burden.

Help lighten that load. Verses. Don't climb up on the load. Oh, you've got a load on your shoulders. They're really sagging. Let's see if we can get them to sag more. Let me climb up on that load. Now, you keep your finger here. I'm coming back, but I'm going to read Romans 15 verses 1 through 3. Because again, lift up the hands that hang down. In other words, how do you help to lift up the hands?

You have to take some of the load off. You share by sharing the load. Not becoming part of the load, but sharing the load. Romans 15 verses 1 through 3. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. It shouldn't be about just pleasing ourselves. It should also be about, if we're given strengths, to use those to help with those who are weak.

Let every one of us please this neighbor for his good, for his dedication, for his building up, for even Christ, please, not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached you, fell on me. Now, back in Hebrews, strengthen the feeble knees. Strengthen the feeble knees.

It doesn't necessarily say you remove the feeble knees, because you don't always have the power to remove feeble knees from somebody. Now, obviously, there's physical analogy here to spiritual situations. It's an approach. It's a philosophy. It's a perspective. Strengthen the feeble knees. In other words, be a crutch for them. Be a cane. Be a walker. Be a staff. Be a brace. Be something that helps the feeble knees.

To be able to function better, even though they're feeble, just like someone physically who has feeble knees is going to usually use a crutch, or a walker, a staff, or a brace. There are times when I have to put a certain wrapped brace on my right knee and wear it for a time, because it acts up. I injured it back in 1988. I know when I injured it, and I know where I injured it, and I know why I injured it. It has never, ever completely, fully gotten well.

But it works well, and most of the time I don't have to wear any kind of wrapped brace on it, but sometimes I do. Then it says, make even. If you have a margin, when it talks about finding a place here, make straight paths for your feet.

That also could have been translated, make even paths, or what we might say, level paths for your feet. I grew up in a country of hills and hollows, and paths could be crooked, and paths could be very uneven, and paths could have roots and all. It could be very easy to trip up on them and turn an ankle, twist a knee, whatever. Make even or level paths for your feet. You know, you think about weak knees don't need any surprises or jokes.

And again, my right knee, one of the things I'm careful with is never to give it a joke, never to do something that my left knee might handle, but my right knee won't. And then it's going to act up for a while, be weak for a while again, and I've got to wear a brace again for a while. But good, level, walking ground. You know, and you think about this physical analogy, putting down as much as you can level ground for people to walk on, assisting their weakness with your strength and attention, being concerned with the level playing field.

Have you noticed in the history of this world, 6,000 years, that life at large, life in general, is not a level playing field? Simply as not. Now, I don't know how many of you had the wonderful experience of playing softball on a rocky hillside, because there's no other place to really play it, and you wanted to play softball. Or an acal pasture. Of course, an acal pasture is not rocks you're trying to dodge as you're out there chasing the ball. But on a rocky hillside, it's rocks.

But life, many times, is like playing softball on a rocky hillside. It's fraught with opportunity for injury and damage and breakage and all of that. The thing is, our effort, because we all have energy, and we all can make efforts, but it's our effort to tilt that field even more, or to bring more rocks, or to clear the field of rocks and try to level it out. There are fields in Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia, Tennessee, and other places I could name, where they say these fields grow rocks. A guy goes out and plows his field, gets it ready for planting, and he says, I know there's more rocks in this field this time. I plowed up more rocks than I did last year. It's like they're growing and coming to this purpose. And in rocky country, that's what it seems like sometimes, whether it is or it isn't. But that's what it seems like. And they'll use that expression, you know, these fields grow rocks, where they have to constantly try to haul them out, clear them, try to level the fields. And sometimes in leveling fields, leveling is done in a sense by terracing them. Of course, we think of the Incas, and we think of the N.D.s and their terraced slopes up high. But here's the question. Do we bring more rocks into the field?

You know, I grew up in an area where there were a lot of fields and woods, little valleys, streams, creeks. And where the fields were, you know, you might come out of a patch of woods and you're at the edge of a field, and you walk across the field under the woods on the other side. As you walk across the field, it's just just by way of making kind of a mental image of what you do, or you don't do, or could do, or you don't do. And I apply this spiritually in our roles and relationships, not to the physical fields themselves, but it does make the point.

As you start to go into the field, do you pick up a rock from the edge of the woods and drop it in the field as you go across it? Or do you go across the field, start across with empty hands, and you fill those hands with the rock that you pick up and take to the other side of the field and drop it out of the field? A small act. One adds to the load and the damage, the rockiness. The other act actually has the effect of lessening it, just a little, but it does lessening. And I have known of people who lived in real rocky places where, of course, obviously, they'd have to spend time going out there and clearing fields, taking the rocks out. But again, do we bring more rocks, or do we take some out every time we cross the field? Make straight, that is, even or level past, lest the lane be turned out of the way. And Paul is not putting this in here with it in his mind, the perspective only, that he's talking about just the physical. He is not talking about just the physical. Does the physical apply? Yes. But he is using the physical to make a spiritual analogy of a spiritual perspective and philosophy that is the godly way. Lest the lane be turned out of the way and the lane turn an already weak ankle.

I've known basketball players who either broke their ankle or chronically sprained it, chronically twisted it in a game. And maybe for the rest of their lives, whenever they'd play basketball, they would have to make sure they wrapped it or just be careful because once it had, you know, ligaments had been stretched, once an ankle was messed up, even though it, quote, got well, it was much more susceptible to that happening again. Or the way to simply be, look, too rocky to even try to walk or come through it. And then that part there, verse 14, follow peace with all men. Now, men's in italics, that means it's not in the original. And it doesn't change the meaning to put men in there. But if somebody just focused on the word men and left kids out and women out, then it would limit what Paul did not want limited.

Follow peace with all. You know, think about it just a moment. To follow peace with everyone that you can. That's a challenge because look at all the variety of personalities and likes and dislikes and look at all of the tremendous variety of human beings and look at the so many different levels and types of just plain pure carnality. And some people, as they say, you have to love them at an arm's length. That's the only way you can love them. And some people don't want to be loved. And they'll do everything in their regards to try to make it impossible for you to love them. And as we say, you might have to love them at arm's length. But the challenge is, follow peace with all. Do your best to follow peace with all. Again, it's a mindset. It's an outlook. It's an outreach. See, I know, and I've used this example before, I pull up to, I'll go to Gatsun after services. And if I'm on a four-lane and I pull up to a traffic line that's red, I know. I know for a fact that the guy that's sitting behind me, if I just glance over his way and glance away, no problem. I know how human nature works. But if I look at him, and he just glances at me and looks away, and then he looks back, and I'm still staring at him, then he looks back again, and I'm still staring at him, his temperature starts rising. You can make a person mad by just staring at him. You know that, so why do it? At least you want to fight, and if you want to fight, that's not very Christian anyway. You know, there are a lot of dogs. You can't look in the eye and hold their gaze. They'll start growling. Their hair will rise on their neck.

The things we know that set people off, why do it? Avoid it. It's an outlook. It's an outreach. It's a focus. It's a perspective that generates a velocity of life and through it all, seek, as it says, seek the holiness of God. Follow peace with all and holiness. You know, you seek that, the holiness, that of God. To be able to stand in His sight clean and clear and spotless, to stand in His good graces, to bring a smile to His face, to give the eternal pleasure, to stand in the favor of the Father. That's a good positioning to be in. Due to ceasing to cast a wrong reflection, but casting a right reflection of Him upon our surroundings by living His way.

Living His way before others in a healing manner. A healing way with a healing spirit of mine, a healing outlook. Let me ask you something.

These following three things, of these three things, which is most valid, which has a future?

Number one, pending judgment. Is there judgment pending on this world? Yes. Is there judgment pending on Israel? Is there judgment pending on America and Great Britain and other modern day nations of Israel? Yes. Is there judgment pending on the whole world according to the Holy Spirit? Yes. Is there judgment pending on the whole world? Yes. Is there judgment pending on the whole world calling the day of the Lord someday? Yes.

It's very valid. We know that. It's going to happen.

Number two, warn in Israel the absolute directives and the prophecies to warn the modern day nations of Israel. Totally valid. Totally valid. Nothing invalid about it. Number three, the way of life. The way of life. Totally valid because if we don't learn and love and live God's way of life, how do we become like God? How do we grow in Christ?

How does Christ be formed in us, which has been made possible through His sacrifice and God's Spirit, if we don't practice, if we don't live and love, learn, live and love the way of life?

Now, those three things, pending judgment, warning Israel, God's way of life, they're all valid, all for the moment. Guess what? The pending judgment upon Israel, for instance, and the pending judgment upon the world will be carried out in due time. And guess what happens when it becomes carried out? There's no longer pending judgment. The pending has been accomplished. And there's no more judgment. No longer judgment. It's been finished and completed. It's history now. It'll be history. That which is going to come when it comes and is processed, then it becomes history. It's no longer something that is pending and you're looking forward to. It's now behind you. It's been accomplished. Right? Right. Number two, warning Israel, the time will come that has been accomplished, and then it becomes history.

At what point in time, now or the future, will the way of life be history and no longer ahead of us and practice? Never.

The way the holy angels live, the way God the Father and Jesus Christ live, and the way you and I are learning to live has unlimited future. There is limited future on pending judgment. There is limited future on warning Israel. There is no limited timeframe on the way of life. We're learning a way that is eternal, that will never go out of style. And a million years from now, or a trillion, trillion eons of ages from now, the way of life will still be God's way of life.

But you look at those three things and you think, which would really get a person's attention?

Which would have the most chance to enthuse a person generally? Which would have the lasting value, the greatest value or longevity? Which would affect each of us the most positively? Which would produce the most positive long-range fruits? Well, it should be number three, right? Right. Which of those requires the most attention and effort on my part and your part?

Pending judgment doesn't. I mean, you can hear a sermon, messages on that, you can reach scriptures about it and say, yep, that's going to be. I'm in total agreement that, yeah, that's going to happen. Warning Israel? Yeah, that needs to be, and that's going to happen. Yeah. The way of life?

You can't just read about it. You can't just hear about it. You've got to become it.

You've got to become it. It takes the most attention and effort on our part. And which is going to be the most challenging for us to apply, to carry out in our life as an individual creation of God? It's going to be the way of life. Now, the first two, yes, again, taking nothing away from their value, their timing and their value. But without progressing to a certain point, guess what those first two can be? Those first two can be fear, religion, pending judgment is coming, warning Israel, wow, I don't want to be caught in that. I'll do whatever it takes to escape that. And you can be motivated by fear. It can be a fear mentality. It can be a fear that fuels all of you. I know because, again, I've lived my life from a child all the way to an old age. Not yet feeble old age, but old age. And I have seen people that were escape artists who came along because of fear. Oh, the Great Tribulation is going to occur. There's judgment coming. I've got to save my skin. And their motivation was just simply to physically save their physical skin. And when they realized, well, it's not coming right now, it may be quite a way to solve future. It might even be past my lifetime. Hey, I'm out of here. Bye-bye. I've seen that.

And that kind of mentality can't or won't get it, not for long. And it won't produce the product God is looking for, but a way of life will. And God's way of life is going to generate a special philosophy, again, to live by. And you know what? That allows for healing. It allows for healing. It's a philosophy that stimulates health and strength and growth. It's something you can steer your way by, your way through life. And it's a perspective and philosophy that others will learn to lean on. Because they learn who adds to their breakage. And they learn who adds to their strengthening. People aren't done. And they may be a person who would be very, very carnal. But they're not necessarily unaware of your effect on them or others. If you're one who adds to the breakage, they know that. They know their load gets heavier through you. If you're the one that adds to their strengthening and help. And people will lean on those. It's one reason why Christ told Peter, when you are converted, strengthen your brethren. Strengthen them. When you are converted. Because he had the kind of makeup that once God's Spirit was there and he was truly converted, that he would be one that others would draw strength from. He would help to lighten their loads because of his impact with them. But again, it's a philosophy that builds up, that supports, that adds. And in Paul's words, in Philippians 2.4, Philippians 2, and verse 4, King James says, Look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. And obviously, it maybe could have been worded a little bit better, a little more clarity. But I think it's pretty obvious what he's saying. Don't look every man just on his own welfare, his own things, his own welfare. But every man also, and I would say include the welfare of others. Because love your neighbor as yourself. God doesn't want you to go beat up your neighbor. He doesn't want you to beat yourself up. And properly taking care of yourself, that's okay. But don't just be concerned about that. Have this outgoing concern towards others. One reason scriptures of this nature are put in the Bible, and especially for us in this day and age of man as magnified by Satan, one reason is God puts this here to counter against man's view of, you got it. Hey, son, it's a dog-eat-dog world. Nobody. Nobody's going to look out for you. You got to do it yourself.

You take care of number one. You let everybody else do the same. If they hang, let them hang.

I know there have been many have taught their children that kind of philosophy, dog-eat-dog world, which it is. And it gives credibility to the statement because it is a dog-eat-dog world. Sorry, that's just the way Satan's world is. And too many times, there have been too many times when people use you. They don't look out for you. They're not out for your good, always. Too many times, usually, there's too many users or abusers and losers in this world. There are too many abusers, losers, and users. And so, it's real easy to fall into the trap of the view that you let others take care of themselves. If they hang, they hang. You just take care of number one. Let everybody else do the same. That's too much the philosophy of this world. And I understand it. I don't have any problem understanding it. It's a struggle for survival.

Because so much of this world has been reduced to that. But you know what? That generates a crushing, grinding gear of life that a lot of people get chewed up in.

Life chews them up, and life spits them out. And yet, that kind of setting becomes and presents a tremendous backdrop for contrasting God's true Christian and the vigorous activity of living a godly life. And in such, there is also the power of opportunity. Through such, God can shine His healing light. Light shows the path.

Light shows the way. Ever notice how your body coordination, the eye-hand-furret coordination, goes up in conjunction with light to avoid stumbling? It definitely does help. Light allows for a measure of healing to take place. And I find it interesting that one of the prime sources of Vitamin D is sunlight. Getting sun, the sunlight helps to form in your skin Vitamin D, which is interesting, which we need. It's a very essential vitamin. And light leads to the healer, God. It points to him. Humanity has become a broken species. No getting around it. A broken species, a wounded species. And his past and his future is fraught with failure, frustration, and that's going to continue for quite some time, and it's going to come to a head. And what he has made life to be wounds him and everyone else around. I mean, you think about the horrendous wound, first classic horrendous wound when Adam and Eve learned that the first child born to them, their first son Cain had just killed, slaughtered their son Abel, Cain's brother. And it's been downhill ever since. It ran downhill to the point that by the time of the Noetian flood, God had to wipe out all humanity and start over with one family. And we're rapidly headed in this toboggan slide downhill to that same kind of positioning again.

It can be said that to one degree or another, all, no exceptions, are wounded soldiers of life.

That we're all wounded soldiers of life. That's the way of this world. I like to refer to it as the walking wounded. And as a result, all could use a little kindness, a smile, a hand, a little comfort. Let's consider something for a moment. Saul, before he was the Apostle Paul, Saul had been very successful in the Sanhedrin, the ruling Jewish body. He was a rising star.

He was brilliant. He was being given responsibilities and all at a much younger age than was probably normal for them. But he was brilliant. He was a rising star.

And I want you to think about pre-conversion, what that would have done to him.

Rising star, a certain amount of fame, a certain amount of popularity. He was an achiever. He was an accomplisher. He got things done. And you know the story about him leading up to the time of his conversion. And then he was struck down and he was converted. And obviously, there were major changes that took place in him overnight. I mean some major changes that took place. There's no doubt about that. But is it a stretch to think in his early years of conversion, his first years of conversion, his early years of conversion? Maybe he didn't initially have the measure of empathy that he needed, but later had. Go with me to Acts 12, verses 24 and 25.

Acts 12, verses 24 and 25.

Start Acts 15. Acts 15, verses 36 through 41. Acts 15, beginning in verse 36. And some days after Paul, now he's being called Paul, you know, switched from Saul to Paul. A little bit later on. But some days after Paul said to Barnabas, let's go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they do. And Barnabas determined to take with him John, whose surname was Mark. He wanted to take John Mark again. But Paul thought not good to take him with him. Paul didn't want to take John Mark, who departed from them from Pamphylia and went not with him to the work. And the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder from one to the other. They decided at that point, I'm going over there to be doing, you know, God's work in that area, and the other one, I'm going over here to do God's work in that area.

So Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. Same work, same church, no split there, you know, just two men that couldn't see eye to eye on who they take. And Paul chose Silas and departed, being recommended by the brethren to the grace of God, and he went through Syria and Silesia, confirming the churches. Now, verse 38, Paul thought not good to take with him, thought it not good to take John Mark, who departed from them, deserted or abandoned, left them from Phrymphylia and went not with them to the work. John Mark messed up. It doesn't tell us why, but he did mess up. But what I want to point out are the reactions of Paul and of Barnabas.

Paul's reaction basically amounted to, he's a washout. He's a washout.

Barnabas's reaction was, well, let's give him another chance. He'll pan out. Now, let's put it in simple terms. Paul didn't want to take him because he didn't want to take him, be dependent on him, and John Mark pulled the same stunt again and leave them and go back home, wherever, you know, he went. Barnabas's reaction was, well, you know, let's give him another chance. He's young. He'll pan out. Now, something interesting about Barnabas, if you were to look at Acts 4 in verse 36, Acts 4 in verse 36, and Joseph's, that was his real name, given name, and Joseph's, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas. It was the apostles that gave him the name Barnabas. Why? Because this is what his reputation was. This is what he was recognized for, which is being interpreted as the son of consolation, or that is comfort, the son of comfort, a Levite and of a country a Cyprus, the son of comfort. Barnabas was a comforter. That was his reputation. I do not think that this with John Mark was a one-time thing on Barnabas's part. I think it was the way of life with him. He had a name for it. It was his reputation, part of his character. And this is why the other apostles, who so readily recognized that, named him Barnabas. It was a way of life. It was a philosophy. It was him. Comfort, encouragement, consolation. He needs another chance. Acts 9 verses 26 and 27. Remember, Barnabas was the one who stood with Paul, or Saul, stood with Paul when everybody else wanted to basically run and hide from him, because they just weren't sure of him, sure of his conversion. It was Barnabas who shouldered the load with Paul.

Verse 26. And when Saul was to come to Jerusalem, he has tried to join himself to the disciples. He tried to get with them. But they were all afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple. This was a ruse to find out who we all are and then haul us into court, so to speak. Put us in prison. They just didn't believe it. But notice who came to the rescue, so to speak.

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and stood for him and stood with him.

And declared to them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly Damascus in the name of Jesus. That's interesting, isn't it?

Like I said, it was more a way of life with him.

If it isn't fixed, if there is fixing that is needed, if you can acknowledge that, yeah, there is some breakage. It isn't fixed. There's some fixing that is needed, yes.

But let's not break it. Let's not further break it. Let's not add extra breakage to the breakage that's already there. But instead, let's look for a chance to heal. What I'm speaking will make consents to those who are letting God's Spirit work in their minds and work with them. It doesn't make sense to the carnal in this doggy world, but it makes sense to us because God is plugging into us through Jesus Christ with His Spirit. You look for a chance to heal. You look for a chance to support. You look for a chance to brace up. You look to see how you can splint or support or supply or brace up. When I lived in Amarillo, Texas, I had the opportunity with the youth group to go down to San Antonio. And you don't go to San Antonio on some kind of a youth trip and not go visit the Alamo. Now, I don't know what the condition is now because that was back probably right at the beginning of the 1990s when I went down there. But there were some trees. I remember one particular tree. No telling how old that tree was. Huge tree there on the grounds that were set aside historically with the Alamo. But this tree had such huge, widespreading limbs. They were too heavy to support themselves. So they had put braces under any number of the limbs to just brace and hold the limb up because without the bracing, the limbs would just snap. They would break.

You see a lot of lessons, things in life that serve as spiritual lessons. And I thought about how that so many times, again, something can get so heavy that without support from something else or someone else, it's going to snap and break when the load gets too heavy. Galatians 6.2.

I love God's creation. I don't know any better way to say it. I love it.

I love all that's in the creation. I love the human beings. Don't love everything they do.

I love the trees. I love the forest. I love the fields, the streams, the hills, the flowers, the skies. Enjoy being out in all of that, out and about, always have.

But one of the things I learned years ago is that God, in making the creation, has ingrained lesson after lesson after lesson in the way things function in the physical creation. And those lessons are there to learn from. And some people are just oblivious to them.

But the more that I think we find ourselves being guided and directed in the spiritual principles of God, the more we tend to pick out, isolate, and see those lessons.

Galatians 6.2, bear, you won another's burdens.

Like the support under those big limbs, they were too heavy to just hang there on that tree by themselves. Some of them were going to snap and break and then be opened up to disease and write and parasites and all of that. Bear, you won another's burdens.

Burdens are heavy. Sometimes burdens can get so overwhelmingly heavy, they can almost just simply be too much for a person. But others who help to bear them can make the difference.

Notice, bear you one another's burdens, and so are therefore and so doing.

You are feeling full the law of Christ. What's the law of Christ? Law of love.

It's the law of love. So when you look at a scripture like this, it's talking about not adding more to the load, but helping to lighten the load.

It speaks to a way of life which is driven by perspectives and approaches.

Obviously, to bear which is fulfilling the law of Christ, which is love, is to help prevent the weak from crashing and burning.

But to help, along with that, to help people, and especially your own self who's helping, you know, you're practicing that, to grow and be more like your Father in Heaven and outlooking outreach.

You know, people get broken bones, and they're sometimes stress fractures.

Sometimes the bone is not totally separated. Now, if it's totally separated, if it's compound, you've got to have surgery to fix it. But if it's not a compound fracture, but the bone is very clearly and totally separated, you've got to realign it, and then you've got to put, you know, a cast on it to hold it in place while it heals. What do you do with a stress fracture?

Well, a stress fracture is not a bone that is completely or totally broken in two, but it has the potential to just go ahead and break into under too much pressure.

You at least put some kind of splint on it, some kind of brace or splint to help keep it solid until that stress can heal over. It allows for healing to take place.

When you truly apply and live by the spiritual philosophy of, if it isn't fixed, don't break it, you know what you generate? Trust. You generate, report, people start trusting you. They start having a report with you. There's a bond of endurement that occurs and develops. There's the spirit of brotherhood. You know what that does? That cements the church. That cements the church, the body of Christ together. And you know what it makes the church? It makes it a healing, comforting force to the world around. It doesn't matter whether they understand us or not. It doesn't even matter fully the impact we have on them because we're still doing what we're supposed to be doing. It's interesting that the Holy Spirit is called the Comforter. It's one of the names of it and it serves as that from the Father to us. And it's to generate that kind of reflection around us, in us, through us. God wants us to be comforters.

You know, I never want God to look at me and be having a discussion with Christ about how that I'm out there causing more breakage. I'm not having any effect on healing to take place. I'm just having the effect of more breakage being done. I don't want to be known for that.

Things that aren't fixed are more susceptible to breakage. And the greater the susceptibility, the greater the need for the soft, caring touch. The body of Christ, the church, I'll put it like this, in the body of Christ, in the church, or not. You know what life is full of?

The bruised, the impaired, and the dysfunctional.

We open our eyes. We open our ears. In the church. I'm working with three congregations. I'm working with somewhere around 150 to 170 people who have all their connections to their families.

And I can tell you, in the church and in the world around us, life is full of the bruised, the battered, the impaired, and the dysfunctional. Life is filled with those who carry the stress fractures of life. Luke 14. I'm sorry, Luke 4. Luke 4, verses 17 and 18.

Luke 4, verses 17 and 18. And there was delivered to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He's in Nazareth, in the Son of God, in this book, the scroll of Isaiah.

And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering a sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.

You know, it's interesting as a side note that God has not restricted His calling to the fully functional. I've been a pastor now for a long, long time, and I can tell you for a fact, I can second that statement that God has not restricted His calling to the fully functional.

He simply has not. He's called the bruised. He's called battered people. He's called broken people. He's called messed up people. He's called very dysfunctional people.

He has not restricted His activity to the healthy and the whole.

Brokenhearted, bruised, crushed, damaged goods. I want to go back to Isaiah, where this was taken from, Isaiah 61.

The messages I give, I don't give them just to fulfill an assignment.

I don't give them just to tie up an hour or so.

I give them because they're the truths of God.

They're the things that can help us really to become like God and attend to our spiritual responsibilities.

They can help us to attain to the kingdom of God.

Isaiah 61, verses 1 and 2, and maybe 3.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the present to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the Spirit of heavenness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. This section here is a promise to help. And think about it if you read it carefully, especially with emotional difficulties and such. Bind up indicates a kind of process to comfort those who mourn or grieve. The phrase, beauty for ashes, because so many's lives have crashed and burned and become a pile of ashes. We're all, excuse me, I'm sorry, but we're all, yes, you too, and me, we're all, yes, to some degree, dysfunctional. We've all crashed and burned, to some degree, some lesser than others, some more than others. We've all come short of the glory and intention and desire of God, and we're all paying the consequences to one degree or another in one form or another. Sorry. That is reality. And God knows this, and His touch is gentle.

Boy, what if it weren't? His touch is gentle because His approach is a special philosophy, His philosophy. And this is where I got it. This is where I got this subject. This is where I got this I'm talking about. It's His philosophy. If it isn't fixed, don't break it.

Look in Isaiah 42 and verse 3. Look at the philosophy here, the perspective of God, as illustrated through Jesus Christ.

42, verse 3. Look at what it says. Verse 3, A bruised reed shall he not break.

And the smoking flax, and the smoking flax.

Margin can be dimly, dimly, not brightly, dimly burning. Shall he not quench?

I know what a bruised reed is. I've seen many of them in my life. I'm talking physical bruised reeds. You've got reeds that are not bruised, that are straight and strong. And if you're wading through a, you know, a pun's edge or whatever to fish, you can just kind of push them aside, be okay. But you've got some that have been bruised. Something has partially broken them, bruised them. They're weaker. You push them with the same amount of force you do on a healthy one, and they finish breaking. A bruised reed shall he not break. It's a way of expressing his touch, his approach. And the smoking flax, dimly burning, just dimly, but he's not going to put out the spark that's there. He's not going to quench it. He's not going to quench that spark. See, what you're reading right here is the philosophy that God lives by with us. It's the philosophy within which we will be saved. And likewise, and as a reflection, it's a philosophy we can live with, that we can practice in our lives, that we can fulfill our Christian calling through.

It is a philosophy that helps us come to our fullness, our recovery, even as we also help others toward their recovery. We can park our lives by it.

The healings of God that are needed are so many times for the physical body.

The physical breakdowns are obvious.

The physical breakdowns are obvious. And I needed the physical healing with the pancreatic cancer so that I could even be alive to this day and be able to be here and be able to keep going and doing. And I pray for quite a few more years yet. I'll do my part.

The rest is obviously in the bottom line is in God's hands.

But the greatest healings needed are not of the body. If I died last summer, I fully expected to wake up hearing the seventh trumpet and rising to meet the returning Christ.

But the greatest healings needed are not of the body. And God doesn't guarantee that He will remove all physical problems from us in this life. In fact, God doesn't guarantee that at all.

You know what God guarantees? I'm talking about guarantee. Now healing is part of what God will bless us with according to His timing and His will. But here's what God guarantees. You live faithfully before God and you're guaranteed to be in the resurrection and have eternal life. That's what's guaranteed. And that's the bottom line. That's the most important. But just as far as healings go, the greatest healings needed are those of the mind, of the spirit, of the psyche. Because when those healings take place sufficiently, a person can be in eternal life someday.

God could heal a person over and over physically who never has those other healings taken care of.

And they won't be in the resurrection. God must help us and heal us of the greatest healings that are needed, which are of the mind, the spirit, the psyche. Because that's where the greatest damage has been done, where the deepest wounds are. Those taken care of, He can do whatever in whatever terms He chooses because of the comprehensive sacrifice of Jesus Christ with the physical. But the greatest need lies in the arena of the mind, the spirit, the greatest gaps, the greatest breaches, the greatest chasms. They're of the mind. Now I think of what Solomon said, and I'm not going to turn back there, but in Ecclesiastes 1 and verse 15, Solomon acknowledged this there in Ecclesiastes 1 verse 15. He said, that which is crooked, or that is, that which is defective cannot be numbered. Crooked paths, crooked situations, crooked people, a world full of the crooked, the bruised, the battered, the broken. As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.

We have a world full of that. And just as broken bones have to be set and splinted and now time to grow back properly, people have to have time to learn to walk and walk in the right way, and such doesn't happen overnight. It didn't happen with you that way, and it didn't happen with me that way. Oh, very quickly you can switch over to God's Sabbath very quickly. You can come out of certain wrong customs very quickly. You can quit doing this or that, but to really switch over into the heart and core of your own being and mind and motives and everything, and healings that need to take place there, well, that takes time. But this philosophy that I'm talking about, which really is in God's Word, has a healing effect. It doesn't further the damage. It's a personal translation of active Christianity, and it comes from capturing a spiritual vision that's not exclusive, that's not reserved for some, not just a few, and not others. It's a philosophy inclusive of all, and it drives our dealings with people. It should drive my dealings with God's people, my brothers and sisters in Christ, and it should drive my dealings with the people of the world whom God loves. He doesn't love what all they're caught up in, but it should drive my dealings with them because God loves them, and someday they're going to be given their opportunity. Just a couple more things I want to touch upon as I wrap this up.

I want to go back to John Mark.

John Mark wasn't totally broken. Some breakage, but he wasn't broken or totally broken, but he obviously wasn't fixed either. There was some kind of a bruise or distraction or something, and we can speculate. We don't know why he deserted them, abandoned them, went back home.

We don't know if he had a girlfriend back there, or if he had a fear of what might lie ahead in terms of persecution as he traveled. We don't know, but there was a gap.

But, Barnabas stepped in, and Barnabas helped close that gap.

And you know, the future turned out bright and profitable for John Mark. Right there in your Bibles, you have the Gospel he was inspired to write. The Gospel of Mark is written by John Mark. And a little bit later on time, Paul said, Paul said, send John Mark to me, for he is profitable to me.

He grew, he matured, whatever. Check all the Bible passages and references to tolerance, to gentleness, to kindness, to patience. When you put it all together, you come up with a composite that translates into, if it isn't fixed, don't break it. It is the perspective for healing, and it's something that is deeply needed now. It will be deeply needed, especially in the last great day. It will be very useful and needed in the world tomorrow. I want God to see me as a healer, not as a breaker. And let me illustrate. I said I wanted to cover a couple of things as I wrap this up. You may have heard the story, I don't know if it comes from Aesop's Fables or what, but the sun and the wind got into an argument one day about who was stronger, the sun and the wind. And they knew they needed a test to prove which one was stronger.

And so they picked a man walking down the road with his coat on to use as the test of which one was stronger. So the wind went first, and the wind tried to blow the coat off through force.

And the harder the wind blew to blow the coat off, the more the guy wrapped himself in his coat. And the wind blew strong enough to even roll him down the road, but he stayed wrapped in his coat.

When the wind was exhausted, the sun just simply warmed it off his back.

Warmth. Light. Most people have been taken one way or the other. Most have been trampled by life. They resist anything akin to force. God's light is light, and light is warmth. And God's way warms life. And we are not talking about compromise.

We're not talking about that. We're talking about compassion.

And this way that I'm expressing today, I can live with. I've lived with it a long, long time. I plan to continue living with it all the way right up until I no longer live physically, whether that's my death or the return of Jesus Christ. It's a good way to live. It's a compassionate way to live. And the more you live it, the more you do become like your Father in Heaven and your elder brother, Jesus Christ. It's a life-giving view.

And there really is no replacing it with its efficiency and all for growth and development.

And warmth can be felt no matter how thick the darkness is. You're going to deal sometimes with very thick darkness, but warmth can be felt no matter how thick the darkness is.

If it's not fixed, don't break it.