Brokenness by Alan Barley — Alan Bartley

Prayer for Cleansing, Redemption, and the Presence of God

I let you now together in prayer and seek the Lord. Our gracious Father, we come before thy throne of grace again this evening and draw nigh unto thee, Lord, through the precious, precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank thee, Lord, that we have been singing and reminded from experience that that blood of eels for me, Lord, to know experimentally that that blood has cleansed. We have known the release, Lord, from the penalty of sin and, Lord, known what it was to be lifted from the guilt and shame that accompanied sin.

O Father, we thank thee there's power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb. And our Father, as we draw near to thee, we come, Lord, solely upon the merit of that blood. Nothing in our hand we bring, simply to the cross we cling, naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace, foul we to the fountain fly, wash us, Savior, or we die.

We thank you, Lord, for the remedy for sin. We thank you, Father, that you didn't leave us, Father, in the darkness under the terrible tyranny of Satan. You didn't leave us, Lord, with the hopelessness of the ungodly to go out into a Christless eternity to be held in chains, Lord, O God, and thrown to the lake of fire.

But in your great mercy, Lord, you stepped in and you provided, Lord, a sacrifice, a sacrifice that would, Lord, pain thee and yet please thee, for thy word says it pleased the Lord to bruise him, who was the very delight of thy heart, Lord, who was ever before thee and ever brought joy to thy heart.

And, O God, we thank thee that thou didst not spare him, but delivered him up for us all. And we thank you, Lord, how shall you not also freely with him? Give him, give us all things. We thank you, Lord, that you've given us an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and feed us not away.

Lord, we see men in the world running, striving, agonizing to get something, Lord, that will pass away, something that's fleeting, it's temporal, it's transient. But O God, we thank you that you have, Lord, supplied and granted something that is permanent, something that will endure whenever, Lord, all the earth and its treasures have melted and gone away.

O Father, we thank you tonight, Lord, that you have redeemed us and the redemption is so great, so magnificent, so beyond our comprehension, Lord, that thou hast redeemed our soul, that thou hast, Lord, prepared a home in heaven, thou hast things for us to do on earth and thou hast, Lord, a work for us in eternity.

O God, we bless thee. Love so amazing, so divine, demands our soul, our life, our all. We pray somehow, Lord, by the power of thy Spirit, that thou would open us and open our understanding and open the understanding of our soul, Father, to grasp a little more of the wonder of God and his salvation.

We pray, O God, that thou would warm our heart. We pray, Lord, that you'd melt the frost of our soul and, O God, that we would feel as, Lord, we remember it used to be sang, Lord, to bring back the springtime to the soul.

O God, we pray tonight that thou would, Lord, remember us in this sanctuary. You know our needs, Lord, tonight. There's not one gathered, but you know us all together. You know, Lord, disappointments, discouragements, failures, Lord, victories, you know all about them and, Father, yet despite where we may be, Lord, your arms are toward us.

We thank you, Father. Now you want to draw us, Lord, with cords of love. You didn't bring us this far, Lord, to bury us. You didn't bring us over so much, Lord, to let us down and to abandon us when you've taken us over a sea of iniquity to drop us, Lord, in some puddle somewhere.

Oh, we bless you, Lord, and we pray that we might be recipients tonight of the grace of God and, Father, that we might sense that the Lord is here. Remember again our land, Father, again. Father, we pray it every week.

We pray it, and we know many of the folk here pray it, and, Lord, we thank you for many others in the land who pray it, and we believe in other continents who pray it. Lord, we pray for Ireland, Lord.

We pray for the supernatural working of God the Holy Ghost in Ireland. Father, we hold on to you afresh and remind you, Lord, of your covenants. Oh, Father, we dare to believe you, Lord, for multitudes of souls.

Father, that you will bring them into your kingdom, not by might nor power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, this mountain shall be removed. Father, we thank you, Lord. The alcoholic is not a problem to you.

Lord, those who are engaging in various lifestyles that displease thee, Lord, by the might of your spirit, you can turn them, Lord. You can turn them, and, Father, we dare to believe you tonight, for Lord Ireland, from Cork, Lord, right up to Coleraine, Father, from Dublin right across to Donegal, Father, that this island would become ablaze with the movings of the Spirit of God, that, oh, Father, this land, Father, would be, Lord, brought together in unity under the Spirit of God.

Oh, God, we look to thee. It's our desire. It's our longing, Lord. You've put it in our soul. Nothing less will satisfy us but a movement of thy divine spirit, Lord. Oh, God, so we bless thee, and we look to thee, that thou would usher in that day and prepare our lives, Lord, so that in some measure, Lord, we will be involved in the work of the kingdom, that we will become instruments in the hand of an almighty God.

Oh, Father, hear us tonight. Hear us tonight. Grant us afresh, Lord, the renewal in our soul to know our calling in God. Father, whether it's a ministry in prayer or helping or preaching or whatever it is, and yet, Father, we pray that if our hearts are not warmed toward thee, Lord, all these ministries, they are nothing, they're vain, they're empty, they're useless, but, oh, God, warm the heart.

Warm the heart. Oh, Father, we pray tonight that your name would be glorified in our midst. Heavenly Father, we pray as we often hear it, but, Lord, we really mean it, let none be seen. Save Jesus only.

Father, in your own unique way, so eclipse the preacher and the message that the Lord will be seen and that each soul will revel in the wonder of Jesus. Oh, God, hear us. Again, Lord, we give you thanks for all your blessings.

We pray again for those in the mission field. Remember Gilbert and Margaret. Remember the Agnews tonight, Lord. So many that we know, and, Lord, it would take us all night to name them. We thank thee for our brethren with us from the faith mission, and we pray that you will bless them in their labors, Lord, attempting to win the lost in a very difficult and trying, Lord, land and a climate that is ungodly.

Father, we pray that you will minister to them and bless them in their souls. And, oh, God, we ask again tonight that you receive our thanks for all your goodness to us, Lord, blessings of food and clothing and family, health.

Lord, you've been so good to us. Eyes to see and ears to hear. Lord, we bless thee. We pray for those infirm tonight that you'll minister to them with illness in their body, concerned about their health.

Oh, God, draw near to them and put thine arm upon them and help them to know that thou art the Lord that heals, and thou art their comforter and their strength, and thou art the giver of life. So, Father, we commit all to thee, asking your blessing and the deepening sense of your presence to be with us in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen. We'll give you a very warm welcome in the Lord's name. We're grateful for you coming tonight. Can I give you the announcements briefly, God willing? Thursday night, prayer meeting is at 8 p .m.

The open air at 2 .30 on Saturday. And then, next Lord's Day evening, I hope to be along to minister God's word. As far as I remember from the diary, there's a lady coming to give a little report about labour.

It's a new work that's commenced over in England, and it's relating to reaching children with the gospel. It integrates into Northern Ireland. And I have invited this lady to come along and give a short report on that work, how they're attempting to win the children through various means for the Lord.

So I trust that... I'm sorry I haven't written down her name, but she'll be here, God willing, next week to give a little word initially for... I hope to bring the closer word. Now, can I say also, God willing, next Saturday, after the open air, for those who are at the open air, I have a little job for you.

God willing, when the open air is concluded, we will be coming to do a little bit of work at the hall here and try and tidy it up and hoover and clean and so on. So if you can remember that, please do.

And also, for those who maybe would like to come along, and you're maybe not at open air but you want to help us with tidying up, we'll be here probably from about 4 o 'clock, around there onwards. So you'd be very welcome.

But if you don't come, I don't know whether there's any point in telling you to pray for us for cleaning up, but nevertheless, you can remember us anyway at the open air. I think that's all the announcements.

Other than to say again, let me remind you, there's a number of these here, videos, DVDs, that our brother Paul has given to us. There's one here, Hidden Dangers of Halloween in the Yacht Club, and it's by Clifford Wallace.

And that one is five pounds. CD. And is there a DVD? Ten. Ten pounds. Five pounds for the Hidden Dangers of Halloween in the Yacht Club, Clifford Wallace, and then ten pounds for DVD. And I'll also mention this one here.

I've said on other occasions, but maybe you're new in tonight. But these are a set of tapes. This is a CD set, but you can get the DVD, is it 30 and 35? 30 and 35. 35 per CD set, and there's seven discs, and DVD is 35.

And these are lectures by the late Jimmy Winning. Pastor Jimmy Winning was a unique character. And we had invited Jimmy to come and speak here in the hall, but that particular evening he wasn't able to come, and I didn't realize at that stage that cancer was right through his whole body virtually, and yet he was attempting with all his might to come, and that would have been the last meeting, but he wasn't able to make it.

And he apologized profusely, but the Lord had a job done for Jimmy, and he was to go on to be with him. But he had an amazing insight into the world of demonology and the occult. And these are seven lectures, much of a personal experience, obviously, with a biblical base.

Very misunderstood subject, and a subject today that some people get involved in it, and they shouldn't. They shouldn't be in it, and shouldn't be near it, because you really need to be called by the Lord to go specifically into it and deal with it on a full-time basis.

But Brother Winning had a unique ministry, and it's most enlightening as to discover how God gave insight and how that God can help you and I. You know, sometimes when we read the scriptures, God says, don't do a thing.

And I often, in my inquisitive nature, say, I wonder why. I wonder why God says that. Why did I not do that? And, well, often the reason why God says don't do it is because there's not only sometimes the natural implications that it could be harmful, but there's always a spiritual implication.

And that comes through so clearly when we come to the realm of the demonic. Because when we let sin into our lives, it opens an avenue for the enemy to come to our lives and get a hold on them. And what starts as an innocent thing becomes a stronghold in the life.

And only the power of the blood of Christ can break it and set us free. Wonderful ministry, and I commend it to you. Now, it's lovely to have our brethren from the Faith Mission with us, Alan and Andre.

And I don't think they expected to be doing anything tonight other than just coming. But I'm going to ask Andre to come up and give a few minutes to tell us just what he's doing and where he's laboring and so on.

So, Brother, come ahead. You're very welcome, both of you.

Thank you very much, Alan. And it's nice to be along with you here this evening. And I promised Alan that I wouldn't take up much of his time. He said that he would soon get me down if I went over a few minutes.

But we do appreciate your prayerful remembrance for us as we have been laboring, Alan MacDonald and myself, around the area over the past number of weeks. During the month of October, we had a three-week gospel campaign in Broomhedge.

I'm sure you all know where that is out between Lisburn here and Moirai. And we felt that it was quite a difficult and hard area and a place certainly where there is great darkness. And there was a little sign in the middle of it that I saw one of the first days when we were going out visiting and it simply said, Broomhedge still says no.

Now, that might be true in the political sense, but it certainly, sadly, was true in the spiritual realm. And many of the homes which we visited and which we gave invitations to, they didn't respond to the gospel.

And certainly, as the scripture reminds us, they knew not the day of their visitation. But nonetheless, we trust the Lord that he will bless the seed which was sown for the onsaved who came to the meetings from the locality, a few of them, and those who received gospel tracts through their doors, that he might work and draw these souls to himself.

And we pray on for that district. And we ask you to pray for us as we are currently engaged in preparing for a mission in Canaan, starting now, God willing, this day week, for a fortnight. We are visiting for that.

And Trevor Matthews will be the speaker at most of those meetings in Canaan Mission Hall, running, as I say, from the 12th to the 26th of November. Pray for us as we go around the homes that we might have meaningful contacts with people, that hearts would be opened, as Lydia of Old had her heart opened to the gospel, that precious souls might come to find Christ.

And even as the meetings are held night by night, that God, by his Spirit, would bring in people and see them. And pray for us too, Alan and I, as we plan a week of Christian meetings up in Bali Hill the last week of November, that God would go before and lead and guide and bless the ministry of his Word to his children there.

So we do appreciate your prayers and ask you to continue to pray for us. Thanks, Alan.

That was very good, Andrew. You kept well to time. We have been doing something in the open air. We've started, instead of just giving a free-for-all for everybody, we say, you have five minutes to give your testimony.

And some of them were saying, well, that's really hard to do that. I couldn't give my testimony in five minutes. In the faith mission, we had to do it in two minutes. And I think one afternoon, Colin was giving his testimony.

I was saying to Stephen Haffey afterwards, whenever the five minutes was up, I said, he's only got a conviction at the minute. He should have been saved and the whole job over by now, but he's only on the conviction at the minute.

So we try to get everybody to participate, and it's good. And, well, we appreciate all those who are coming to share. We're going to turn in our hymn books again to hymn number 199. 199. I am thy whole Lord, I have heard thy voice, and have told thy law to me.

And we're going to sing the first and second verse only of 199. And we'll rise to sing, please. Just the first two and second verse, please. We were up this morning, and what Andrew said about the mission, I was asking the chief elder up there in the church, the Raphael Darius Church, about the mission they've had recently, and he said, we had a tremendous time, great sense of God in the services, and yet not a soul that they knew would come to them.

And in the church this morning, there was such a lovely sense of the presence of God in the church. And we live in lean times. I think we all realize and appreciate that. Mark chapter 11, verse 1,. And when they came now to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage in Bethany, at the Mount of Olives he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Move your way into the village over against you, and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a cold tide, whereon there her man shall loose him, and bring him.

And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? Ye say that the Lord hath need of him. Straightway he will send him together. And they went their way, and found the cold tide by the door, without any place for two with men.

And they loosed him. And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loosing the coat? And they said unto them, Even as Jesus hath commanded. And they let them go. And they brought the coat to Jesus, and cast their garments on him.

And he sat upon him, and many spread their garments in the way, and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way. And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna!

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Amen. Our gracious Father, we come to Thee tonight with a heart's desire to hear from Thee, to, Lord, hear Thy voice, to hear, Lord, Thee inner spirit.

And Father, I realize I am unable to do that. So afresh I come to Thee, Lord, and I give Thee all that I am and have. And I claim Thy cleansing and sanctifying power on my spirit, soul, and body. I take authority in the name of Jesus over every demonic activity, every wicked spirit.

I pray that there would be such an anointing of Your Spirit upon the little gathering that the enemy, Lord, will have no desire to be near it. I pray, Lord, that You would put a wall of fire round about, and Thy glory would reside in the midst.

To this end, Lord, and for the extension of Your eternal kingdom, I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost. To fill me to the uttermost, I take, and I thank Thee that He, the Holy Spirit, will undertake in Jesus' name.

Amen. The Lord Jesus, when Paul writing to the church at Corinth, he said, and I quote one of the verses in chapter 11, he said, The same night that the Lord was betrayed, he took bread and said, This is my body, which is broken for you.

This do in remembrance of me. The Lord Jesus, when speaking to the disciples, said to them, Except a grain of wheat or a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. I want to speak to you for a little time this evening on the subject of brokenness.

Brokenness as Indispensable to Christian Service

Is brokenness indispensable? Can you do without brokenness in your Christian life? Can you come to your full potential? Can the Spirit of God who is ultimately the one who performs the work of God through a yielded vessel, can he perform that work through a non broken vessel?

Well, according to the example of the Lord Jesus, the answer is no. For Jesus, who was the master and is the master, said, This is my body, which is broken for you. He said to the disciples of his day, He said, Except unless the corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abideth alone.

It is unproductive. When Jesus spoke of a broken body, when he spoke of the corn of wheat, he was speaking of death. He was speaking of brokenness. Brokenness. I believe with all my heart, scripturally, that brokenness is absolutely indispensable.

It is one of the reasons why that the church of Jesus Christ is so shallow. It is one of the reasons why in our sanctuaries, our meetings are so dry and dead in our evangelical churches. It is one of the reasons why our prayer meetings are so mundane and repetitive because the beauty of brokenness has not been attained.

It is an absolute necessity, brokenness. I want to show you some instances of brokenness that the Lord has laid on my heart during the week. I was speaking to Brother Willie Honeyman. I know some of you pray for Willie as he does missions up around Turon.

Brother Willie was talking to me on the phone and he was reminding me of a sermon that was preached by the late Stanley Banks, who was his mentor. He said one little thing just about that sermon and it went right into my soul.

It has just been alive in there ever since. So I come to you tonight with a message from the Lord. And the message is that brokenness is a necessity. You see in Mark 11 we have a cult. Now I want you to notice some things about the cult.

The Unbroken Colt and Submission to Christ

First of all, being a cult being held and retained by an owner, this cult was not dying, but quite the contrary it was a healthy strong cult. The cult was useful that's the reason why it was owned they didn't have tractors they didn't have machinery, they had cattle, cults for assisting them.

It was a strong beast it was a useful beast it was a beast that had potential. It was gifted. But the Bible says in verse 2 that he said they entered into it, the Lord said, ye shall find a colt tied, listen to it, whereon never man sat.

It was unbroken. It was unbroken. Never had a man sat on it. You know the colt or the ass or the mule is a stubborn thing. And you can only imagine the reaction would be whenever a person would put its leg over to subject this beast.

And the Lord specifically said that it's a beast that man has never sat on, it has never been broken. And you know brothers and sisters, so often today as we've said before in the church of Christ men see other who's come to Christ and they say he's gifted.

He's got music in him, he's got the gift of the God. He could be a preacher he could be a teacher, he can think methodically and they've got it all sussed out and they're gifted and strong and useful and potential but unbroken.

This colt as far as the Lord was concerned couldn't be used with all its gift until it was brought to the Lord. And when the Lord touched that colt I don't believe that that colt reacted the way it would have today.

That that colt instantly came under the subjection of its creator Christ. Now I want to tell you tonight that brokenness is something that only Christ can do in the life of the Christian. It cannot be done merely by discipline by the reading of scripture or saying prayers or attempting to be holy.

It is something that God by his spirit does in the life and the spirit of an individual Christian. It's an absolute necessity, it was absolutely essential that this colt was broken by the Lord. What was the result?

Well the result was that it exalted the Saviour. You see the Lord Jesus was lifted up and the people saw the Lord coming on this colt subjected to the Saviour and under submission to the Saviour and as it was coming the people were breaking the branches and crying Hosanna.

And you see this old donkey was lifting up the Saviour and dear friend whenever your spirit has been broken by the Lord, the Holy Spirit through you will enable you by his power to lift up the Saviour.

It's not something you will consciously do. It's not something that you are attempting to do. It is something that as you are submitted and yielded to the Lord that God does by his sanctifying grace wherein he lifts the Saviour.

It says in John 16 and 14 that the Holy Spirit when the Lord spoke of him he said he shall glorify me. There's so many today talk of experiences of the Holy Spirit. There's much emphasis today in the church upon gifts, upon various wonderful experiences and so forth related to the Spirit but primarily the very heart of it the Lord Jesus didn't talk of these things that happen on the periphery of the Christian life that are not actually the heart of it but the Lord exclaimed the heart of it.

He said the heart of a spiritual life, the heart of a person who's under the control of the Holy Ghost is that he shall glorify me. The life will glorify the Lord. Glorify the Lord in the home. Glorify the Lord in relationships.

Glorify the Lord in private. Glorify the Lord in finances. He the Holy Spirit shall glorify the Saviour. He lift up the Saviour. But you see brokenness must take place because the problem that we have when we come to the Lord and when we're saved, this is the general experience of the saint, is that when we come to the Lord a spark of grace is placed within.

We are born again of the Spirit but the flesh is there. And often in our naivety we believe that because we are saved by the grace of God that all areas where Satan could have touched us are all gone.

That everything has just sorted itself out. That everything's clear and clean and it's all sorted out but often it's not. And many find that their lives are still plagued with great defeat. Find that they're involved in things secretly that they should not.

Because this undercurrent of the old self and flesh is operating. You see in the scripture we find that the method for God to bring the saint to brokenness is found in Psalm 51 and verse 17 A broken and a contrite spirit O God thou wilt not despise.

Now that word contrition or contrite is closely related to brokenness. It actually means in the original Hebrew it means broken or beaten to pieces. It means sorely broken. It means to be crouched. It's the picture of a person who has lost all confidence in self.

You see I have said before the late Leonard Ravenhill said and many of his predecessors said that it takes 20 years for the Holy Spirit to make a man and prepare him for the ministry that God has shaped him for.

20 years approximately. Took 40 years for God to make Moses. The first 40 Moses is displaying his own ability. He's displaying what he can do by the power of Egypt, the world. All that the world has poured into him he has taught and learned in all the wisdom of Egypt and the next 40 God takes that 40 years to strip him of it all.

As one has said to deprogram him. And you know the more I go on with the Lord I find that the more I go on and submit myself to God and the teaching of God's spirit and his word and to be taught by the Lord is that the Lord is constantly deprogramming me.

The Lord is constantly arresting my mind and saying you don't do it like that. In my economy we don't do it the way the church is doing it. We don't do it logically the way that the church think that they imitate the world and that's the way it's done to get people into the kingdom.

God said there's a way and my ways are not the world's ways. And we do well in the church and we do well to let the church hear and by the spirit of God that the way to win the lost is by means of returning to the old fountains that were dug by our fathers.

Whether people find them mundane or not. The point is that the method that our fathers used were the message were the methods that struck the spring and got the water. And we need to retrace those paths we don't need to imitate those men we don't need to do what they did we don't need to try and capture their personalities or their styles or their methods of of service but what we do need to do is to capture the spiritual truths that they discovered and they're very simple.

Contrition. The Lord says in Isaiah 57 he said I the most high he said I dwell in the high and holy place and he said who do I dwell with? He said I dwell with them in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit somehow this contrite this broken spirit draws us up to God.

God says I dwell in the high and holy place with him. You see we are seated in Christ positionally we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus but the Lord said the holy one the one who is humble and contrite he said they dwell with me and he said I with him also that is of contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the heart of the contrite ones God is attracted to contrition.

There's something about true contrition that draws the God of heaven. You see this brokenness is so essential because like with you even in the work of God we can have our own will we can have our own agenda, we can have our own plans we can have our own desires, we can have our own ambitions and you see God not only wears what we do, God wears the motives that others have, the motives God wears and so as God examines our heart and as God throws light in upon us and we realize my motives are so impure so wrong before God despite what I'm doing, despite what people perceive me to be my motives are wrong before God you see God wants us to realize what we are and where we are in relation to him so that God can bring us to a nearer place with himself.

God desires that the will which often becomes the great barrier to spiritual progress, our own will, our own desires, our own agenda even in our spiritual life, even in the doctrines we retain doctrines you know are good, they're essential but sometimes you can get doctrines passed on from men and the Lord never teaches you and they can become hard old things and rather than using them to get you further on to God you can use them just to batter other's skins but when you're taught them by God you never use them for that, never you see friends the will which is the problem God intends through brokenness to make it subject to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit indwells the spirit of the believer that's where he comes primarily to reside, that's where he speaks to us. God speaks to us in our spirit, that's where we sense if God is present or absent that is where intuition comes from.

We know God supernaturally speaking to us, just as I've related to you in getting a message from the Lord and preparing it, so God can come and insert something that is attained by the spirit the spirit reads it it is not something that's done in the soul that is in your intellect or your emotions or your own will.

So the Lord talking of brokenness is speaking of the spirit, the Holy Spirit residing in our spirit, he can be held there, he can be prevented from breaking out. The Bible says, either your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water, this speak he of the spirit but there are many Christians and there's no river and there's no river flowing because of the simple reason that within their spirit they have never been broken.

There's never been the breaking of the will to let the spirit through, through whom the Holy Spirit is mightily ministering and coming through and you'll find, you see whenever you're contrite, whenever you're brought to a place of contrition it undermines all spiritual legal strongholds, what do you mean by that?

What I've said about these tapes there are many Christians who have come to a genuine saving knowledge of the Lord but their hearts are dominated by jealousy pride hatred prejudice past things in their life that were never ever broken and there are strongholds legal strongholds.

They have never earnestly repented over these issues they have never seen them before and the light has never got in upon them sufficiently, they have never waited on God, they have never called on God, they have never humbled themselves before God sufficiently for the Spirit of God to throw light in on that area for them to repent and therefore there are legal in the spirit world.

It is a legal world and so the devil has the right to keep control of that area of the life of that Christian and he creates a stronghold, it becomes an area of his spiritual advance in preventing the Christian being anything like what God had saved him to be.

To never enjoy liberty or freedom in the gospel to never experience the fullness and the freedom that the Holy Ghost gives. You see it's an absolute necessity. Brokenness. Listen there is a price involved, turn with me to Mark chapter 1 Mark chapter 14 Mark chapter 14 and verse 4.

The Alabaster Box and Costly Surrender

Now we have looked at this before together but you remember the story Mark chapter 14 and verse 3 and being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper Jesus sat at meat and there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment very precious and she break the box and poured it on his head and there was some that had indignation within themselves and said what was the waste of the ointment made for it might have been sold and more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor and they murmured against her and Jesus said let her alone.

Why trouble you her. She hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always and when so ever ye will ye may do good them. But me ye have not always. She hath done what she could. She is come before hand to anoint my body to the burying.

This is an instance where she broke it. The Lord broke the ass but she broke the box. You see there is there is a wonderful truth and there is a great danger in going down to extremes in any doctrine and that is that yes the Lord does a wonderful work in breaking that donkey.