The School of Brokenness

Hi, this is Pastor Daniel Bracken. You're listening to Kings Alaska podcast. I hope the Word encourages you and you get a touch from God that brings transformation and equips you to experience life with people, power and purpose. Thank you for joining us. Enjoy the Word.

Second Samuel Studies in the Life of David it's been a minute since we've been looking at David. We're going to take up the text found in 2nd Samuel 15, but let me just give you a little backstory. And before we read that, I'm going to read from the new King James in review, but not, not too long in review because we'll never get to the new content. It is worth going and listening to the series Studies in the Life of David. My media team, if you would be sure to categorize that if you can on YouTube.

It's really the best place probably to watch that. We have nearing a hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube, which is a miracle and we'll hope that you would go and subscribe to that and then, then you can just get that notifications that come when there's a new message that come up. Was so blessed by your preaching on Wednesday, Minister Eric I just thought, my God, isn't the Lord amazing? God's amazing. We have the same hair.

Hair stylist Bic is his name.

So we've been studying the life of David. There's more verses of scripture about David in the Old Testament than anybody else. There's more written about David, more chapters on David than anyone else in the whole Old Testament. The man after God's own heart. The young ruddy shepherd boy chosen by God when he was there with the harp in the field, with the lion, the bear that he dropped and God just put favor on him.

God rejected Saul and you see the next king of Israel chosen. Really one of the main purposes of David's life is to finish. Listen closely. The subjugation of the land. That which was started by Joshua but was not finished.

David finished it. And he is of course in the, in the lineage of Jesus. And he really is a Christ type in scripture, even though he has many parts of his life that are not Christ like. He's a beautiful picture of what it is to follow the Lord. Also a man after God's own heart that lies.

That's not why he's a man after God's own heart. He's a man after God's own heart. Because you'll find that you study his life. He's constantly coming back to saying, oh God, oh God. He Reminds me of some of you.

Me. Reminds me of me.

You say, well, my name's not David. No, Davina, maybe to this point in David's life he is, he's king. It took him quite a long time for that prophetic word to come to pass. And when he got the first part of it, he only got 1:12, he got Judah and he was coronated in Hebron and he ruled for seven and a half years and there was civil war and then he became king over all of Israel, fulfilling the prophetic word of Samuel. And, you know, the promise over your life and the timing of its fulfillment are two things, separate issues.

Say that with me. The prophetic promise over my life and the timing of its fulfillment and the timing of its fulfillment are two separate issues. I remember the first prophetic word I ever got. I was an up country Christian fellowship in Maui, Hawaii, and my mother brought me there. It was some guest prophetess lady, she seemed a little weird to me.

And I was sitting in the back and she pointed at me and said, young man, they brought me up and gave me Jeremiah 29:11, and then said, not many days from now. I remember the word. It was just like lightning in my soul. Not many days from now, the power of the Holy Spirit's going to come on you and God's going to greatly use you. I thought, whoo, not me.

And that was 30 plus years ago. And I'm still believing for that to happen. How many of you still believe it? So has it happened already? No, there's progression, there's, there's.

For whatever level you're walking in right now, there's a whole, there's a whole nother place. You might be ankle deep, you can go deep. There's no toxic levels. There's no toxic levels in God. You can't OD on the Holy Spirit.

So you see David fulfilling the prophetic word from Samuel and he had a lot of, a lot of challenges, a lot of tests, and we come to this place in his life where he has a utterly blown it. I preached a message not long ago called the sword in the house from Second Samuel, Chapter 12. And it was how David sinned with Bathsheba and the consequences of that. And you know, it's a beautiful thing to be forgiven, but it sure is challenging to have consequences.

I don't really like consequences, but, you know, consequences are a real gift. In fact, in studying 2nd Samuel chapter 12 and looking at the consequences of David, I found myself weeping with my wife. I was weeping now. I was weeping because of the consequences that I have in my life, even to this day, from not walking with the lord in my 20s. So I'm like 60.

That's a. That's a long time, that thing.

60 feels good. I wouldn't go back to 20 something for nothing unless I could have everything. I know now and then go back and then I would take it. But something, I just feel great in my 20s. I made horrible choices, painful decisions.

I was hurting, I was broken. And the consequences of that is loss of family. I was. I was married before I was born again. Got divorced, two daughters.

They still don't talk to me. But one day it'll change. I said, one day it'll change.

That's consequences. And you say, well, what are you weeping about? Were you sorry for yourself? No, I'm long past that. I did pity parties early on.

I'm all done with pity parties. No, I began to see the incredible joy of long lasting consequences. You said you're sick, Pastor. What are you talking about? Would you rather have that restored?

Of course I would, of course. But you know what it's done for me? It put grit on the inside of me. I know what the word says and it's just. It's given me a deep hatred for rebellion and disobedience and sin.

I hate it. And if you think about your life and all the pain that you have in your life, it's all a result of sin. So when I see the consequences that I'm still walking out now that I'm 60, I mean, I know people that have killed people and have more rights with their children than I have. And I've been serving God for 30 years, so I. How is that 30 longer than 30.

I allowed it. Somehow it worked in me to give me a deep hatred for sin. That's a gift. No, you listen. Think about it.

Close your eyes. I'm not going to bring you on some spiritual guidance tour. I'm just going to ask you to recall the difficult things in your life is a result of sin, whether it be from the fallenness of mankind, your ex wife, your ex husband, your. Your mom, your dad. I don't know what you went through.

You don't have to keep your eyes closed. But let that sink in. Let it give you a hatred for sin so that you don't do it. David.

David sinned. Murdered.

And the prophetic word from Nathan the prophet is basically, the sword is never going to leave your house. And we see this play out in his life and it's. It's profound. It really is. Stand upon your feet.

2nd Samuel 15.

I'm calling this the School of Brokenness.

It's not a school I want to register in, but I am a graduate of. And I don't know what other things I might have to suffer and walk through. I'm believing for God's. Come on. Suffering is kind of.

That happens. There is death, there is grieving. If you don't know, learn to be a good student. Being a. Be an A plus student in the school of Brokenness.

That's even a better title. Be an A plus student in the School of Brokenness. Let's go. Second Samuel 15 from verse one. After this it happened that Absalom provided himself with chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him.

Now Absalom would rise early and stand by the way of the gate. So it was that when whenever anyone who had a lawsuit came to the king for a decision, that Absalom would call to him and say, what city are you from? So he's taking all of this authority. I want you to go to. Verse 13, please.

Second Samuel, verse 13. Now messenger came to David saying, the hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom. So David said to his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, arise and let us flee. We shall not escape from Absalom. Make haste and depart, lest he overtake us suddenly and bring disaster upon us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.

Verse 15. And the king's servants said to the king, we are your servants, ready to do what my Lord king commands. Verse 16. When the king went out with all his household after him, but the king left ten women and concubines to keep the house. Verse 17.

When the king went out with all the people after him, he stopped at the outskirts and all of his servants passed by before him.

Let's pray. Lord, thank youk for your amazing grace and for your goodness in our lives. Teach us from the life of David and this painful, dangerous season of his 40 year reign. Move in power in Jesus name. Amen.

All right, I'm gonna try to put as much sugar and cinnamon on it as I can, but it's a pretty intense part. He said, well, I want to hear a happy message. It is a happy message.

Judgment, discipline. Those whom the Lord loves. He, he disciplines. You know, our. We disciplined our children.

We, we had to, we trained them. Amen. We had to give them consequences, you know, consequences. Give training. David is in the midst of the chastisement of the Lord.

Those whom the Lord loves, He chastises. And the thing that I've found in most Christian circles now is that when somebody's out in the, in the, the divine woodshed. Do you know what the woodshed is? Come on. In Alaska, you.

That is when somebody's, when somebody's getting the, the discipline of God, they blame the devil.

I can't believe the devil. No, you're the one.

Or perhaps you're connected with one, but it's, it's affected you. And he's, he's being corrected. And, you know, everything's not all bad when you're being corrected. I think about the challenging times of training our children, especially when they were teenagers. But, you know, it's beautiful.

They got trained.

Obviously you never had teenagers.

Training teenagers is a thing. I remember having a friend of mine. Oh, it's Pastor Vince. Pastor Vince says to me, pastor, hold the line, hold the line, hold the line. You pray for world changers, you pray for leaders.

Usually what you get is strong willed kids and then you have to shape them. Come on, you want to have a strong willed kid, you don't want to raise a limp noodle.

I prayed for leaders, so when you pray for leaders, you get strong people. You don't get people that are just easily run over yet. If you don't shape them, you'll make someone who's strong in rebellion. You have to shape them. David is being shaped through all these things that he's, that he goes through.

Correction's good. Some people think when they're being corrected that God's angry at you. Please hear me. It's a sign of his love. Nice to see you.

It's a sign of his great love for you. It doesn't feel like it. Didn't your father or your mother discipline you? I didn't know my dad. Okay, maybe that was part of the problem.

You can get healed of that. You can get set free. I will never forget a long time ago, I got in trouble with Dr. Morocco. And I won't go into the whole story, but the Lord showed me that I needed to repent. And so I thought, okay, I'm going to wait till I see him and I'll do it person, face to face.

I got the word repent about a week before I was going to see him. So I called him, told him, I said, I got to talk to you, I've got a problem. I said, tell me what? I said, I'd rather just tell you. Don't worry, it's not a giant disqualification thing.

I'm not, I'm not in sin. There's no crazy. It's something crazy. He said, okay, Daniel, Pastor Daniel, we'll talk when you get here. And so I remember sitting down with him and he, if it wasn't for him, I, I wouldn't be alive.

I, I wouldn't be in ministry. I, I, Pastor Karen and I wouldn't be married. We wouldn't have any kids. I, I'm gonna, I, like, really, I owe him a debt of love, which I will, I will play out even in the next generation. I will, I will serve and, and, and pay back that debt of love.

And so as I sat with him, I told him what I needed to repent of, and I will never forget. He hung his head and he shook his head. He said, oh, Pastor Daniel. And he looked at me and said, there's consequences for that. I said, okay.

I started crying because I had never let my spiritual father down until that day, which is 20 plus 20 years ago or so.

And I'll never forget as I was crying, feeling like the whole world was caving in as I'm getting rebuked by my pastor and I'm going to get consequences. And I love how he did it. He said, I'm not sure what they are. I need to pray for three days. I'll let you know.

So for three days I get to hang and figure out what that was. I will never forget. As I was weeping, he put his hand on my, on my leg and he said, daniel. And I looked at him, he said, I love you. No question.

There's consequences. That's a picture of how God is. So when you're going through training and you're out in the divine woodshed and you're reaping the rewards of your rebellion or your lack of obedience or whatever. Now David's situation's huge. I mean, you see how this plays out.

Bathsheba's the grandfather who was like an oracle of God, the verses say, comes on the side of Absalom. And everything that was prophesied by Nathan comes to pass. And David's response is one that, that we need to have. First of all, don't do the Bathsheba thing. But if you find yourself in a place of correction in, it's not God hating you, it's God loving you profoundly.

Why does he just comfort me? Because you make a little that way. He wants you to learn. He's teaching you to rule and reign. So there's consequences.

And I've learned. Well, I mean, I don't want them.

But I've learned to. To. To see consequences as a sign of God to teach me, don't do that again. Come on, somebody say, don't do that again. One of my very dear friends who's most likely going to see this.

And so Dr. Michael Gannon and now Dr. Michelle Gannon. Congratulations. I watched Dr. Michael Gannon for years, and he would come into that, that. That core meeting that we had in the green room there in Maui with Dr. Morocco, and everybody would be there. That guy got in more trouble.

And I remember sitting there going, don't do that. That's it. I'm never doing that. He was just a marvelous example of what not to do.

Again. I want to encourage you to read the Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. It fits so well right here.

The second half of second Samuel 15 sets forth this combination of sorrow and blessing. There's blessing even when you're going through difficulty. Look for it. Look for the blessing. I remember a pastor telling me as I was struggling with something, I mean, I don't know, I was 25 years old.

And he's telling me, well, you get to see another side of God's grace. I'm like, I don't want to see another side of God's grace. Well, you're going to get to see it anyway.

I want a heart like that. You want a heart like that. That when you're going through things and you're corrected, you don't raise your fist at God and get angry at God and then rebellion and play the whole thing over. And, you know, messages like this are really not taught. Now, here's where the rub is.

It's hard to know actually what. What. What am I getting disciplined for? And actually what is somebody else's sin or I that needs to change. Or, you know, it's sometimes hard to know which is the cause of the difficulty.

There's reasons for difficulty in life. Your stupidness could be one. How many of you ever made a bad choice? Okay, great. How many?

Somebody else made a bad choice and you got affected by it. Oh, nice. I don't like that so much. How about. How about the devil?

Yeah, the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, certainly. And he does use people.

How about creation? There can be things that happen that it's just because of the fallenness of creation, we're going to go through difficulties. And in the midst of it, you have to say, lord, is this. Which one is this? Because if it's the devil, you rebuke him.

You take authority over him. But if it's God singing to the woodshed, Jonah, it's going to be pretty hard for you to, you know, rebuke God. Rebuking God doesn't work. Bump your neighbor and say rebuking God does not work.

Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves, but at the wind and the waves in Jonah's day, it couldn't be rebuked. They couldn't be appeased until they threw the boy into the sea. He was running from a city of a hundred thousand that he would preach to. And what happens here is that Absalom wins the heart of the people and he positions himself to become king. And it's a whole strategy.

And he becomes the king, he usurps his father. And this is all part of the judgment that comes down upon, upon David. And what David did, verse 16 and 7, 16 through 18, is he quickly leaves the city, which is, it's, it's amazing.

I think one of the things that astounds me is that David doesn't get offended at Israel. How come the people of Israel don't love me? I'm the king. I'm King David. I'm the one that dropped Goliath.

I'm the one, I'm the prophesied one. Israel's heart goes with his son. And you never see David like angry about that. He just decides, you know something, I, I better go. Well why?

Because if I don't go there's going to be bloodshed everywhere. And I, I mean I'm reading into it a little bit. I love the people, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna kick against this thing. I'm out. And if you read Gene Edwards book the the Tale of the Three Kings, he talks about says, well, the Lord brought me to be king and if he wants to replace me, he can.

I've been in that place. That's a good place to be. It's a good place where God establishes you. And if you try to fight to keep that establishment, you will end up in the most gut wrenching, striving, man pleasing. Listen, if, when God establishes you, nobody can take that.

When God really puts you in a place of leadership, he really puts you in a place of leading. He really puts you in a place of favor. When God establishes you, no one can take you down until, well you can. Which, which David did, he sinned. But if you have to fight to keep the kingdom, then you'll always have to fight to keep the kingdom.

And David wasn't going to strive he wasn't going to be a man pleaser. He just yielded. He's like, man, I'm a murderer. I slept with Bathsheba. Peace out as a military sad.

He popped smoke. He's gone.

Verse 16. All the king and all his household left. We left 10 women there. And then you see these group of men, there's 600 of them that that are with him. So it's not the whole nation, but he leaves.

This second group that's committed to David is Zadok and Abathar. Do you remember who Abathar is? Abathar is that one priest that got away from Nob.

He's still faithful to David.

Look at verse 25 of 2nd Samuel 15. We're just taking snapshots here and bringing some lessons in the school of brokenness. Because that's what David's in and some of you are in it right now.

Oh, I got born again. I was broken, broken, broken, broken. Apparently brain damaged. But I didn't know that. They say I was brain damaged.

I told them I wasn't brain damaged. But all the staff, all the OGs, now they agree you were brain damaged.

So when I came in and I prayed and I received Jesus, I was on every altar call. I told you about the 18 inch rule. So if it's a word of knowledge for someone's head, I knew I had a heart problem. So I answered. And God would touch me, you know, he'll touch you in direct proportion to the hunger that you have.

If you're not hungry for God to heal you and help you and set you free, then there's something wrong. You get hungry, you get thirsty. And Pastor Karen and I ended up in all those altar calls. We were messed up. We were toe up from the flow up.

We were broken people. We did not know how to think, we didn't know how to. We didn't know how to love. Right. We were selfish.

Well, especially may not hurt so much. Narcissistic. I didn't know how to handle my money. I didn't know how to handle my emotions. I lived a roller coaster life which is just like fully elated.

And then the next minute, I mean, just, I mean, drama to the max. Always something wrong. Accidents, challenges at work. I mean, it was like a curse was in operation. And the more I came, the more I began to realize, wait a minute, there's actually a life without the curse.

Actually there's a life of peace and joy and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self control. I mean, I'm kind of teeing off on your message on Wednesday. I mean, God will take you and he'll heal you. God will take you and he'll set you free. God will take you and he'll correct you.

And you got to renew your mind. You got to change the way that you think. You got to understand who you are in God. That process is sanctification. How many of you are here Wednesday night?

If you're not here Wednesday night, go listen to it. It's a process of sanctification. So you give your heart to Jesus. You repent. You believe that he died on a cross and he rose again from the grave, and you repent and you receive him.

You ask him to forgive you. Yes. Boom. He comes into your life and you're justified. Sunday night.

Pardon me. Sunday night ministry. Eric. Just as if I never sinned. You're justified.

Justice is served. You deserve death. Jesus died in your place. So. Second Colossians.

There's no second Colossians. Headmaster. Susie. Jesus, help me. Colossians 2, verse 20.

I'm crucified with Christ. It's no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. What does that mean? That means that your old life is gone. It's flushed.

It's dead. And you have to realize that that is absolutely the truth. Galatians. That's what I meant. I'm just making sure you guys are paying attention.

Everybody say Galatians. Told you I was jet lag. Thank you, Pastor Karen. Galatians, all the Pharisees online that give me a one star. You can stick it.

I got somebody that. Yeah, somebody, some. Some rabba kalala bar Shanda.

I got a one star review. I'm on the airplane and I read that we gave us one star and it doesn't say anything. I thought, what a chicken you're gonna say. You're gonna say that you're lame and you're gonna affect the. The.

The results of our reviews on Google, which I don't care. We're reviewed from God first and foremost, and we'll all stand before him. But don't even give me a chance to fix it. Don't give me a chance to say anything. I think you have one star and you need to be set free.

Come on, somebody say Amen. Lift your hands to Jesus. There's a jet lag kicking in. Galatians. Don't ask me to spell it.

It does start with amen.

Just kidding. I know it's a G. Gosh. What do you think I can't spell or something?

Lift Your hands to heaven. Say Lord, come on, I won't trick you. It's going to be righteous and scriptural. Say, lord, help me when I'm receiving chastisement to see your love in it. When I'm in the school of brokenness, I would respond rightly.

Come on, someone say amen. So it's a beautiful thing to know that you've been crucified with Christ. But your mind, you have to change the way you think. You must change the way you think. You've got to renew your mind.

You've got to start to think away that God thinks about you. And he spoke to me so many years ago and he said, son, you can't afford to have a thought. Listen closely. You can't afford to have a thought in your head that I don't have towards you. And I thought what that means you have thoughts in your head that he doesn't have towards you.

Those are thoughts that are maybe carnal thoughts or thoughts that are not scriptural. Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verses 3 through 6. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty. The God of the pulling down of stronghold. There are places in your mind that if you don't get them removed, then you will be subject to tripping over that stronghold, held captive by your whole life.

And I have found in my own life, there were certain major ones that really needed to go. And then I got to the place where, like, I could have a functioning good Christian life. That's fantastic. Except that's not what God wants. God wants you to become more and more like him.

So you got to keep tearing down the other strongholds that you have that maybe don't control you. Maybe you're not smoking weed anymore. Come on, somebody say amen. Okay, so you got got rid of the Pharmakia, and maybe you're not fornicating anymore, but you still allow for that stronghold of anger because you're still miserable at your father, who maybe didn't come through for you in your perceived way of what coming through is. And so then you're broken in your heart about that, or your mom or your cousin or.

Or the church. I'm church hurt.

You ever been bar hurt? How about being bar hurt? How many of you don't raise your hand? But I mean, how many of you got hurt when you went to the bar? You listen, people hurt people and stuff happens.

Look at everything like a. Like a. Just a beautiful way of changing you to become more like Jesus.

So it's a process look at verse 25.

Jesus.

Anybody ever played sports had to compete for anything.

Come on. Even if you're like competing for raising the most beautiful forget me nots. I mean, am I right, Mary? You. How about, how about fair winning tomatoes, Tomatoes that win the national fair.

Now I'd imagine I'm not much of a tomato raiser, but correct me if I'm wrong, the soil has to be right. Can't be like too much sand or what? I mean, I'm not like a soil guy, but I do understand it spiritually. They have to probably be. They have to have the right amount of light.

Can't put them out too early. Are they out now? Yep, they're out. Okay. And.

And you got to have the right, you got to have the right soil. You got maybe have a greenhouse. You got to have the right fertilizer. You got to maybe prune them. Do you have to prune them and do stuff to them?

Yeah, I mean, to make an award winning tomato. I mean, you got to do some stuff. How. Why is it that you think that you could be a world changing believer and not actually renew your mind and not actually have a. My God, I'm preaching better.

I'm going to preach to the cameras because I can't hear the congregation right now. Come on. God wants you to be a champion, a spiritual champion. You've got to get the word and you've got to change the soil of your heart. You gotta, you gotta get fertilized by prayer and fasting.

Yes. You gotta learn the Word, Word and rightly divided. You have to learn how to live above off fence and turn the other cheek and then the other cheek and then, and then the other one and the other one and then start over.

And then you could be. Listen, champions are made through being tested. How many of you want to be a champion for the kingdom of God? Welcome to the school of brokenness. You're going to have to go through it.

Buck up. But belt up. Quit belly aching.

It's becoming more like Christ.

David was aware that of much more than Absalom's rebellion of what was happening more than political conflict. He realized he was in being disciplined. And I love this how he refused. Look at this. White.

Carry the ark back to the city. Why? How come? Because I'm not going to use God. I'm not going to use the anointing, I'm not going to use.

I'm not going to use God in his presence as a. As something that protects me when God is completely in control and I am being dis. This is the prophetic word of Nathan coming to pass. He sends the ark back. What an honorable thing to do.

It's amazing.

David entrusted himself to God's favor.

It's in this context that David writes Psalm 41 and would you go there? Psalm 41 and Psalm 55.

The context of Psalm 41 and Psalm 55, according to scholars, is this betrayal of Ahithophel. Ahithophel. And this will most likely be my last point in this section.

Psalm 41. Ahithophel was the grandfather of Bathsheba. And it is said of Ahithophel that he had the counsel like the counsel of God. That's how wise he was. He was the most trusted counselor of David.

And Ahithophel had a son who is the husband of Bathsheba. And his name was husband of Bathsheba. Come on, Uriah. Thank you. So Ahithophel, is that right?

Was there one more generation in there? I'm so sorry. It's that jet lag kicking in. But David had to step over all of those relationships to commit that sin.

And Ahithophel went with Absalom. Why? If anybody messed with your granddaughter, you wouldn't be backing him for too long either. In the natural, we chose the wrong team. How painful is that for a grandfather?

Murder.

It says in Psalm 41, verse 4. I said, Lord, be merciful to me and heal my soul, for I've sinned against you. Verse sin. It's a psalm of David, most likely about this exact moment in David's life. All who hate you whisper together against me.

Against me they devise my hurt. An evil disease. Verse 8, they say clings to him. Verse 9. Even my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

Do you know where else that fits? Because Scripture is multifaceted. Where else does that fit? It fits with Judas. It fits with Judas.

Judas also. So it's a diverse. It could be about Judas.

Verse 10. But you, Lord, have merciful to me. But verse 11, by this that I know that you're well pleased with me, because my enemy does not triumph over me.

David expressed pain in this betrayal in verse, in chapter Psalm 55.

And you can read through that. Verse 12, verse 13. Pardon me, but it was you. My companion again. Could very well be talking about Judas.

Could very well be talking about it. The hither fell in the school of brokenness. You will go through times where people misjudge you. You'll go through things and you See these different ones, Shimei and cursing.

It's really a profound passage of scripture. All of us are being trained, and that's what you see in this life of David. Lift your hands to Jesus.

God, Thank you. For an example, we'll look to see how horrible it is for those who rebel against God's anointed and chosen one. Because Absalom, who is in love with his hair, gets hung from a tree and God fixes everything.

Sort of that generational thing gets into Solomon. Solomon has a thousand wives. David had a lust problem. Solomon had a thousand times the problem. When you go through difficulty, draw close to God.

Let me just give you a couple points of what to do when you're. When you're in the woodshed. Well, again, it's hard to know whether you're actually in the woodshed. So when you go through stuff, ask God to say, what. What part of what responsibility do I have in this?

What. What do I need to do? Lord, show me the wisdom out of this trial right now. And again. God works all things together for good, for those that love God under the called, according to his purpose.

Romans 8.

And he'll anoint you. He'll. He'll put oil on you. David is eventually restored to his position, but the consequences of his sin play out.

And I think he learns by it. Have you learned from your brokenness? One of the things that was difficult for me was I wanted everything to turn around now, I mean, right away. And so I received Jesus. I knew.

I knew I was born again. I mean, just incredible impact of God's power in my life, but all the nasty, ugly consequences everywhere. I'm like, lord, just, just get rid of all that. And he did. But some of the things took place decades.

So when you just come to. If you come to Jesus, great. I'm so glad. He will release power upon you and joy, and he can restore and he can redeem and he can do all of that.

I wouldn't put a timestamp on it. Just go after God and love him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. Answer altar calls. Be in worship. Read the word God, grow.

I was going to give you some points of how to. How to get an A in the school of brokenness. Draw near God. Write that down. Jeremiah 30:3.

Three, call upon me, and I will answer thee. And I will show you great and mighty things that thou knowest not. You call on him. He will stalk to you. One of the things that kept me going was I would just keep coming to church.

I Don't know how people actually go to church once a week. I would. I. I mean, if you do it, I'm glad. Go for it. But we, we just.

I just couldn't keep away from the place. I mean, it's like the biggest party in town. So, I mean, when's the next service? I mean, we're just constantly going, just love Jesus, love the Word. I'm not saying that people that go once a week don't love Jesus.

Of course they do. But for me, we just needed high test. We needed a lot of. A lot of healing. And so we were in service after service, after service, after service.

I mean, within the span of a week, we already got a month of Sundays. Not saying anything great about us. I'm just saying that we were hungry. We just didn't want to stay broken anymore. I would hear messages on.

On divine healing and hear messages on learning how to handle your finances and hear messages on marriage and hear messages on raising kids and hear messages on renewing your mind and spiritual warfare and getting baptized in the Holy Ghost and messages on the consummates under the age and the eminent return of Christ. And I just, just would just hear all of the things from God's Word that just affected us. And then we would be. We'd be listening to worship on the way home and listening to worship at home and would wake up, I would fall asleep with the word of my. My favorite thing to do is I would read.

We should get back to this. We should do this. We're doing it tonight. What are you doing tonight? This.

I would have my Bible. I would have it on my pillow, and I would read to Pastor Karen until she was like.

Then I'd read a little bit more and it'd be like, duh. My face would hit the pillow and be like, oh, I love you, Jesus. And I just go out. What a great. Somebody said, I can't go to sleep.

Try that.

So draw close to God. Have a life of prayer. Have a life of prayer. More than just blessing your food. Have a lot.

Have a time when you go and you pray. Have a life of prayer. Learn how to pray. Learn how to lay hold of God's promises and speak them and declare them and stand on them and pray them. The third thing I think that's very key is make sure you have relationships.

Yeah. I was so blessed to see you came over and gave me a big hug right as I walked in. I love you. I've known you. I've known you a long time.

Now. Have relationships. With people that will call you out and love you and care for you and stand with you when it's difficult.

Come pray for you, Samuel. I'll see you back there. You can stay in your seat.

These guys have gone through a lot of sickness, and to know them is to love them. They have suffered.

Pastor Karen, join me back here, please.

Gracious, awesome, mighty God, release your healing power right now.

All pain leave your body.

People that will stand with you.

If you don't have relationships here, you know you won't be here for long. Not. Not that I want you to leave. I don't want you to leave, but it's just how it is. People don't stay in churches because of great worship.

As great as it was tonight, people don't stay in churches because of great preaching. And I, you know, I'm not going to call this some great message, but the word of God is great. Come on, somebody say the word of God is great. Now. People stay in church because of that.

They say in church because of religion, relationships. They stay in church because of covenant relationships, one with another, praying for each other, agreeing. I had somebody say our church is too big. No, you just haven't gotten to know people. You're.

You get to know people.

So where are we?

Pray. Learn the word. Pray the word. Fasting, serving God, how to get an A in the. The school of brokenness.

Throw yourself on the everlasting arms of Jesus. Let him carry you to come in. And God's power just. Just going through all kinds of difficulty all those years ago that God's power would come on me. I'm like, oh, he still loves me, even though I'm like, got so many issues.

Like, yes, he loves you. He loves you. God loves you. He loves you. He's got a plan for your life.

And it's not to destroy you. It's to raise you up. The discipline, the training that you're in, it's for a season. It's just for a moment. Learn.

As soon as you learn, you'll be amazing how you can be brought right on out of that thing. And you know how you learned it.

You don't have to learn it again. I've had lessons where I'm like, man, I'm gonna. I thought I knew this. Well, apparently I didn't. Come on, lift your hands to Jesus.

Well, I hope you were encouraged by God's word. Thank you again for listening to Kings Alaska podcast. God bless you. For more great content, go to kcalaska.com and may God face shine upon you and give you peace.