A Future For The Fractured | Pastor Paul McGee

Hallelujah. Aren't you glad you met him one

day? Changed, altered your life,

Amen. Completely.

I'm not him, but I know who he is.

Amen. They came to John the Baptist,

said art art thou the Christ? Should we look for another?

He says I am not the Christ, that I know who you're talking

about, Amen. And I'm point you in that

direction today, Amen. What a great Amen, opportunity

to be in the House of the Lord this morning.

So glad to have each one of you, Amen, with us, Amen, Today in

the House of the Lord, we appreciate you, Amen, being

here. We do miss the Mason family.

We love and appreciate them, but we're glad to have the champion

family, Amen, in their stead this morning.

Thank you for their sacrifice and being here.

Hey man, I was going to talk to their pastor at camp and then he

wasn't at camp and so I called him while I was at camp or

gotten a hold of him and seeing if we could use them and then

had a conversation with a champion.

This has been a busy week for them.

They as a church, they have a couple of booths at the fair

this week and so they work every night.

He's a contractor, so he's working during the day, they

work during the day, work at night.

Today they're going to do 3 services.

They're going to be here. They have their 3:00 service

back in Sullivan and they're coming back tonight.

And so they're sacrificing, Amen, for the Kingdom.

Amen. I appreciate that.

And they're not here to perform. They're here to worship, as you

can tell. Amen.

We're thankful for their diligence.

So glad to have each one of you. Kevin, it's good to see you back

there this morning. Amen.

Good to see you back there today.

And we have special guests, Aiden and Emma.

They're not out here right now. They went to class, Aiden and

Emma, Amen. Sure.

Amen, here today. And so we're so glad to have

them, Amen, as well, in the House of the Lord.

We're going to be turning to the book of Isaiah chapter #30 this

morning. We have our, our Ignite youth

with us this morning here in the sanctuary, Amen.

And we're grateful for them. Hallelujah, Isaiah chapter #30

I'm going to read just one verse of Scripture.

Just one verse. I know it's hard to believe in

that, but one verse of Scripture today in the House of the Lord.

Thank you for all of our media, staff and team that may be

taking up slack or so on and so forth today.

Thank you, Amen, for that. Amen.

Those take care of the live stream and such, and we

appreciate that. Isaiah chapter #30 and I'm going

to read verse #1 the Bible says, and he shall break it.

Speaking of a nation, and he shall break it as the breaking

of the Potter's vessel that is broken in pieces, he shall not

spare, so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a

Shard to take fire from the earth or to take water with all

out of the pit. He's basically saying for this

particular nation that going to break them so severely, it's

going to be like a pulverizing leaving but dust and ash, and to

understand the completeness of that brokenness unlike it would

normally be, he said. There's not even going to be any

fragments or pieces big enough to use for any other purpose or

any other method for a little while today with the help of the

Lord and, and please, I, I, I'm a strong believer whenever you

minister and preach and teach, keep the, the, the context of

the text. But my focus isn't so much the

context today as it is what you set up as a comparison that

Isaiah did here in Scripture. I want to minister this, this

morning in the House of the Lord, a future for the

fractured, a future for the fractured.

Can we lift our voices one more time in prayer and ask the Lord

to help us today? Father, we come to you this

morning. We're thankful, God, for another

opportunity to be in your house. We're thankful today, God, for

the songs of Zion, Lord, that has went heavenward, Lord, as

we've entered worship, God, and we praise Lord with our lips,

Lord, these songs. I pray God that you're able to

touch us now, Lord, with a fresh touch.

Lord of your anointing. God let your word go forth and

do that which it was sent to accomplish in our hearts and our

lives and failed to thank you and praise you for what you

accomplish in this service today.

And the lovely name of the Lord Jesus Christ that I pray Amen

and Amen of the church say Amen, Amen.

You may be seated this morning in Jesus name.

We Live Today in what is notably known as the throwaway

generation. We have as time went on and has

marched on, become more of a throwaway society.

We tend to dispose of items rather than repair them or we

dispose of them rather than reuse them or or or repurpose

them. Several factors in our world

today attribute or contribute to that.

We are conditioned more as a society for this, this approach

in our modern day because we live in an era of constant

consumption. People are buying and then they

buy again what they bought before it's constant

consumption. Items even are marketed today

with limited lifespans as part of the marketing strategy that

will encourage then a consumer for a repeat purchase.

You, you go and buy a new set of tires today, say, well, you want

60,000 mile tires or 70,000 mile tires.

They're, they're letting you know that you're probably going

to get about that much, that much work or that much out of

those particular set of tires. Even if you just go buy a light

bulb, you're standing there. Of course you got, you know,

half a million different ones that you can choose from.

But even before you, you know, they're all graded, you know,

well, this is about suitable for 1000 hours of use.

So it, it has a lifespan that is connected to it.

And also with all of the technological advances, you

know, people are in the mindset, why in the world would you even

want to fix something that's owed when you can get something

that's newer and you know, better?

The most recent model has all the bells and whistles and horns

and switches. Why in the world would you even

want to go with something old? I've, I've heard my dad speak

many a times, you know, he keeps his own vehicles because you can

work on them and, and even just simple things, you know,

starters and things like that. You know, used to they, they

would rebuild those type of things, but now they got them

all sealed up where you can't even unscrew them.

It's a permanent thing on there. You're just going to throw it

away and you're going to get a new one.

You can't repurpose it because the mindset today is it's easier

to get something new than to take time to fix something

that's owed or, or to be inventive or to even repurpose

what was owed. The more inexpensive the broken

product or item is, the greater probability someone's just going

to dispose of that. They're not going to take the

time or the energy that may be required.

And as a result of that, we've really conditioned ourself in a

place where there's fewer that even possess the skills to

repair since we don't repair anymore if you're possessed the

skills to repair. And there's others that just

don't want to take the time to repurpose because that just

takes time and investment. And so all of this shift in

society is valuing the new, valuing the the novel over

what's old or worn or maybe broken, though yet still yet

maybe functional or have a purpose, but broken.

And so we live in a cast aside mindset.

And that is the tempo of today. But it's not always been that

way. It's not always been that type

of mentality. Generations before us prided

themselves on how long a product would last.

You know, I, I've had this me, it's with 250,000 miles, you

know, or, or I've had that washing machine for 25 years,

you know, and we had a 10 year warranty.

But you know, we've prided themselves for how long a

product could last. It it was the mark almost of a

skilled, intelligent person who could repair or even be

inventive and repurpose a broken item.

In ancient times, ancient, ancient times, survival hinged

on what a person did with the broken things in their lives.

Many of the tools and the utensils of ages ago where the

products of a Potter after the clay has went through the firing

of a kilner, it kept its shape. And so there's bows and jugs and

jars and spoons and all types of different instrumentation that

were made from clay that a Potter had made.

And so that piece of pottery in many senses became very

enduring. And what that meant was this is

that it could break, but it would not disintegrate.

That's the reason why archaeologists today can find

these mounds of, of layers and layers because cities would

build up on the ruins of other cities.

And so they do their excavations and they find in many places

broken pieces of pottery. They've they've not deteriorated

or went back to the earth biologically in any form because

they're there, they're durable. Amen.

And there's just the broken pieces of what once was.

They could be broken, but they would not go back to just a

disintegration. As a matter of fact, they were

impervious to decay. They they were impervious to

corrosion. They could be broken, but they

couldn't just totally disappear. And so archaeologists depend

have depended upon those types of things.

Pots heard if they're called or just pieces of pottery, broken

pieces, ancient pottery from almost every time period a

person can imagine they they have found from years and years

ago linking people to they pass and linking them to whatever the

idea of the purpose of that piece of pottery was, the shape

or design. Maybe they would find a partial

rim or a partial base or a partial handle, and from that

they could date about what time that was made according to its

design, according to its purpose.

Whole pots and whole jugs have been discovered several times,

but most of the time it's just pieces.

The prophet Isaiah, stay with me this morning just for a little

bit. The prophet Isaiah delivers a

warning in our verse in our text today.

It is a warning and it is also a judgement message to Judah

because they are in a position that they are rebellious people

at this time. In our text, the Bible says that

they have refused and rejected the law of God or the word of

God. They were speaking to their

prophets and their seers in that generation.

And they're basically telling them, please don't speak a

prophecy of truth to us. We would rather you tickle our

ears. We, we would rather you as a

prophet or a seer to say something that was pleasing to

us. We would rather hear lies from

you than truth from you. And the Bible then describes as

a result of the rebellion that their iniquity, it's making

metaphors. Their iniquity was like a breach

in a wall or a bowl in a wall. You ever seen a brick that was

stuck out of a of a wall? That was a brick wall.

Over time, because of the pressure and the stress up on

that, that's only going to get worse.

It's not going to get better. That bulge is going to become

worse and may even turn into a breach.

He said your iniquity is like a breach or a bulge in a wall and

it's just going to progressively get worse until it collapsed.

And then he begins to describe God's judgement against them for

where they were. And he begins to liken God's

judgement to as when one breaks a Potter's vessel.

And he says this breaking will not leave.

And this is what Isaiah says. He says the breaking that God

does will not leave any pieces for use.

God will not spare any of them for any type of purpose or

utility in their brokenness. God, he says what God's going to

do, He's going to pulverize them.

He's going to crush them to dust.

He's going to be unmerciful in his ruling.

But I told you this morning, my context isn't as important as

realizing the extent of this nation's and people's

brokenness, that this pulverizing to dust, this, this

reducing to ashes is in most cases outside the bounds of a

typical broken vessel. A typical broken vessel doesn't

go to ash. A typical broken vessel doesn't

go to pulverize. Amen.

Unable to be assembled pieces. Only God can do that.

But naturally brokenness doesn't take place like that.

Someone say man, if a vessel of pottery would just drop or fall,

it's not normally reduced to power powder.

The only way it would be powder or dust is if it was an act of

God. So what I'm saying is this.

Most broken vessels do not get reduced to powder.

Most broken vessels do not get reduced to dust.

Most broken vessels are not in such a way that they can't be

assembled or used. Someone say man Isaiah, what

Isaiah is doing here in this verse with his few words, he is

underscoring the unlikelihood of what is happening.

He really is because he says it's going to be pulverized.

It's going to be crushed, he says, so that there shall not be

found in the bursting of assured to take fire from the earth or

to take water with all out of the pit.

The home and Christian study Bible says it like this, that no

fragment will be large enough for either of these things of

carrying fire or water. It will not be large enough.

In other words, Isaiah was one to picture.

It's going to be so shattered that no sizeable piece could be

found for any type of practical use.

And Isaiah is illustrating this to show how conclusive God's

judgment will be for them if they don't change.

But he's shown how conclusive it will be by showing what God does

will be an uncommon happening for normal pottery.

Because normally a pot that falls is not obliberated as an

earthen vessel. Someone say man.

Throughout scripture we have the comparison, We have the likeness

in scripture that we are spoken of as earthen, clay or pottery

vessels. And yes, throughout scripture

they are depicted as vessels that are easily broken.

In reality they're common and they are fragile, and they have

a easiness. Amen.

As far as being broken, the Psalm is said in Psalms 2 and 9.

Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potter's vessel.

The psalmist used some imagery of a broken vessel whenever he

wanted to express his feelings that he was being and felt like

he was being ignored and felt like he was being neglected.

When he said in Psalms 31 and 12, he said I am forgotten as a

dead man out of my mind. He says I am like a broken

vessel because many would just discount broken vessels.

Some of those pieces were just discarded and forgotten about.

The archaeological hills that they discover of broken vessels

is proof enough that some were discounted and some were

disregarded. But in Scripture there isn't a

more compelling picture of God as the Potter and we as the clay

be informed. Then when we read in the Book of

Beginnings, Genesis chapter two and seven, where God formed

mankind from the dust of the ground with His very hands

there, there isn't a more compelling picture than that in

the beginning of the master Potter having his hands on the

clay as it were, forming and shaping you and I.

The apostle Paul picks up on the same symbolism in 2nd

Corinthians 4 when God compares us there and Paul says, but we

have this treasure Speaking of the power of the Holy Ghost and

the Spirit. We have this treasure in earthen

vessels. Know ye not that ye are the

temple of the Holy Ghost? But it's in a earthen vessel, a

vessel that is easily broken. Someone say man.

The likelihood of a pottery vessel breaking into pieces

beyond use is almost naturally impossible.

That's the reason why Isaiah illustrated it happening as

being God's doings to get to such a minute dust powder like

place. In other words, Isaiah want us

to know that's not natural and that's not nature.

God threatened to do it to a nation.

But can I tell you as a vessel this morning that I've yet to

see an ordinary person? I need to say it again.

I've yet to see an ordinary person, saved or unsaved, to

experience such brokenness that they are useless.

What does that mean? That means everybody earned the

sound of my voice this morning. There's still purpose in your

life. There's still purpose in your

journey. There's still purpose in your

path. There's there's purpose, Brother

Fred. I've broken a few ceramic

things. Sorry mom, if you're watching,

I've broken a few ceramic things and I've noticed that whenever I

broke that little figurine and I was fumbling with with my

fingers and it hit the floor and it hit the ground and pieces

went. I've noticed that that thing

does not break in equal sized pieces.

I'm noticed sometimes when we're trying to find the pieces that

there's some large unavoidable pieces that broke off, and then

there's other minute little things that maybe your feet only

find later. When it breaks, it just doesn't

break equally. They're small, minute, but

there's also larger pieces that break as well or that are part

of the brokenness. I've never hand on the Bible,

I've never accidentally broken a ceramic item that the moment it

made impact with the tile floor, it went to ash.

I'm just telling you and all of my 46 years, I've never had

anything like that hit the ground.

And then it's it's just dust. Never.

I believe the Apostle Paul could understand the message that I'm

attempting to preach here today because while he did in 2nd

Corinthians 4 compare us to earthen vessels, he also then

described some things that those people earthen vessels would be

subjected to. And he said in verse eight, he

said we, but he just called us earthen vessels.

So he's talking about in that line of thought.

We as earthen vessels are troubled on every side, yet not

distressed. We are perplexed, but not in

despair. Persecuted but not forsaken, but

watch it cast down, but not. I believe somebody might have

experienced some brokenness today, but it's not over.

You're not destroyed. The last, the last sentence in

your life has not been written. There's not a period for it's

just a comma. There's still future for the

fracture. There's someone say glory

Hallelujah. Sometimes we're living under the

cloud. A man of a misconception that

says I'm broken. I don't have anything to offer.

I'm broken. I don't have no purpose.

I'm broken. I don't have no use.

I come to combat today. It doesn't matter where life has

served or what life has served. There's still utility, there's

still purpose. There's there's still a future,

though you may have been fractured.

We love you, we love you, he says.

We're cast down, but not destroyed.

Paul understood something that the ancients knew.

I believe he grasped what I'm attempting to relate today, that

even broken vessels have their use.

Someone say man broken does not mean obliterated.

Cast down does not mean destroyed.

Brokenness does not equal uselessness.

You can be seated. Isaiah said What he said because

he understood that use him He said what he said, that I won't

leave them where there's a piece large enough for carrying fire.

What he said what he said because he knew culturally the

custom that use him broken pieces was a familiar practice.

He was calling like he did to show how different it was from

the typical and the different would only be God's doings.

But any other typical way. This is how it usually is.

There's something left for use. The familiar practice was there

was still yet something that could be employed because if

there was a large ton of peace of that pottery fragment.

He says history says that they could be used to carry hot coals

from the earth and water from a cistern.

This is not listen. This is not let me be like the

apostle. This is not some cunnily divides

fable that we are, you know, speaking here today.

All right, This is not a fable story where we come preaching

from the word of the Lord. This is true.

This is this is actual happenings, but if you need

something else to kind of smash up against that, years and years

ago the ancient city of Pompeii was buried by the eruption of

Mount Vesuvius in 79AD and the city sudden burial under all

this volcanic ash. It preserved many aspects of

their daily life, providing a little bit of a snapshot when

they begin to pilfer and dig into that later what the Roman

society in the 1st century AD may have been like.

And in their unearthing of this they unearthed.

Among the ruins are numerous examples of how broken pottery

was repurposed this practice. Of course, we can read through

history that this is not just unique to Pompeii.

It was a common practice in the ancient cultures of the world to

repurpose broken pottery. One of the fascinating uses of

these pieces of pottery is, as Isaiah alludes to in our text,

broken pieces of pottery could be used to transport fire.

Before there were matches, before there were modern

lighters. Keeping the fire going was

absolutely critical and crucial. They had fires in the hearse

that were maintained continuously, but yet the fire

went out somewhere and needed to be restarted.

Somebody was searching around for a broken piece of pottery to

scoop up some hot God almighty. I'm about ready to have a fit to

pick up some hot coals and carry the live coals to another place

where a fire needed to. You know why they did that,

Brother Reese? Because that is a piece of

pottery and that piece of pottery has already went through

a kiln. That piece of pottery has

already went through a fire. So the fire is not going to

bother it because it's endured the fire one time already.

So I can use that because it's already endured the fire to pick

up some more fire to restart another fire.

Because it's already, I'm telling somebody today, it's not

over, honey. It just might be beginning.

They're just, if we may, just just practical tools for

ensuring the fire doesn't go out.

Someone say, man, you know what I read?

They said the story of Pompeii. They said it could be used

either to transfer the fire to another place of their home.

I love this. Or if their neighbour's fire had

went out, that broken piece of pottery could be used to scoop

some hot coals from their house and convey it to their

neighbour's house because they didn't want anybody in their

vicinity to be without the fire. Only whole jugs and whole jars

can have a witness wrong the broken have a testimony that

somebody next door needs to experience the heat of someone

Say man, you can be seated. It was used in not just the fire

management, but also the water management.

Sometimes when there were large broken pieces of pottery, they

would serve as makeshift scoops or ladles.

Archaeologists have even found evidence of such practices in

the ruins of Pompeii. They have found this is just

whatever. I'm a preacher, so it's just

like, overwhelming to me. They have found broken pieces of

pottery with wear patterns on them, indicating that thing's

been used to scoop up water and poured out in the where the side

it's typically poured on. A little groove has been worn

over time as the water's been poured out, indicating that

thing. This is just not a discard.

This isn't a discarded broken piece that we've come and found.

This is a purposeful piece. This is a purposeful piece.

I'm here to tell you someday, we're going to meet rapture

someday and stand before God. And I'll tell you, most of us

are going to stand before him, broken, broken pieces, but he's

going to look at our life and on our lives will be the

indications of our purpose. The grooves, the worn marks,

they indicate they didn't stop, they didn't give up.

They seen they still had something to offer the Kingdom.

Two things those societies would have daily need of fire and

water and partially to the discretion of the broken.

They would have it pieces, shards, pots, herds cast down

but not destroyed. Someone say Amen.

I realize. I realize we're the reefs.

We all come to those places and some maybe perhaps more than

others, we feel beyond use due to our fracturedness or our

brokenness. Some of us have been similar to

Mephibosheth and we've been dropped by somebody else.

Our our brokenness is the result of the mishandling of somebody

else. But there's others of us that's

like the demoniac of Gadera or even the prophets of bail that

we've cut ourselves. Hey man, and our brokenness is

is equal or associated with our doing and our actions.

But my message to you today is whether you are the cause of

your brokenness or whether somebody else is the cause of

your brokenness. Even broken vessels and pieces

can be used and have a future. I understand when I broke those

ceramic items that were there were some minute pieces that

maybe maybe was going to be lost forever.

I get that, particularly when me as a human being was trying to

put it back together before mom knew about it.

Add up the Super glue that at times didn't seem as super as I

wanted to be. It needed a tape on that bottle

and you're you see that little slither?

It's like, I mean, I had it good, but there's this little

and I never could find that thing.

But when it comes to our story, it's not about that.

There may be some things that are just lost forever.

But my question is, do you have a large enough peace?

Do you have an A large a large enough peace to transport some

fire? Do you have a large enough peace

to carry some water to your home, to your neighbor?

Can can what's left be a carrier of some live codes?

I'm confident this morning in this house there is, because

it's naturally impossible to reduce you to uselessness.

Hear me again. It's impossible to reduce you to

uselessness. Amen.

Someone say glory. Let me tell you something about

First Apostolic Church. This should be any church, but

I'm going to speak for our church.

First Apostolic Church isn't in the throwaway business.

We're not in the throwaway business.

We're in the restoration and repurposing business.

Listen, God compares us to earth and vessels.

Hear me well. God compares us to earth and

vessels. Not because we're easily broken,

but because if we are broken we still have a purpose.

Let me let me show you you said there there is just no benefit

in the broken. Let's think from NBC to y'all

got to stand here a little later and lead us in another song.

So you Fred, brother Fred. I take a jug, a whole complete

jug or pot to get embers or water.

I can fill that thing up quite full because of the size of

whatever my container is. And that's my trip.

But if I just have Is this yours, Mariah?

This could be my broken piece of pottery.

God, love it. Oh, it's so just jagged.

Look at it. I'd like to try to fit that back

together. But if I have a broken piece

large enough, I'm going to get some colds, and I can't get as

many of colds as I would if this was a complete vessel.

So do you know what that means? More trips to where the fire is.

My brokenness in a moment has increased my frequency with the

fire. If I had a whole jug, I can dip

that thing in the cistern and bring out a sizable amount of

water. Maybe it would be sufficient.

But if I just got a piece, I got to keep going to the whale, I

got to keep going to the water. I it increases my frequency.

And that's because of my broke. Some people, I just don't

understand why that person's always in the altar.

Always in the altar. I'll tell you why.

While they are there and you're sitting in your seat, you still

have wholeness. They've been broken.

So they make frequent trips to the fire and to the water

because it's necessary, but God still uses them, and God has a

purpose for them. Just if you want to take more

notes, I don't know, you write this down.

I joke. In addition to what I've

mentioned. Yeah, that don't work too well,

does it? I got a lot of skills, but

that's not one of them. In addition to the things I

mentioned to the things that Isaiah mentioned for for

scooping water or or transporting fire, These are

other things historically that broken pottery, pieces of

pottery been used for. They've been used for a riding

medium. Not the whole, but the broken.

It's like archaic post it notes. I don't know how sticky the

word, probably according to what was in them, but archaic that

you could write on Broken. They would keep broken pieces to

write things on, either with ink or with the engraving of

something sharp. They would write on them.

And it wasn't just like, honey, I'll be home, you know, for

dinner once the sun falls over the West Mountain.

No important things historically, I've read that.

Important messages have been left on broken pieces of

pottery. There's things called the Lakish

letters, which were the first hand accounts of the Babylonian

siege during the fall of Judah that we have the account of in

the Bible. That that Hope first hound first

hand account. You know what was written on a

bunch of pieces of broken pottery?

Important messages. Pieces were used.

Pieces were used to cut. Pieces were used to scrape

various materials. Pieces were used to smooth out

surfaces. Pieces were used as building

materials. Broken pieces were used in

walls. Broken pieces were used in

floors. Broken pieces were used in

pavements. Broken pieces was even used in

the mortar between the joints. Broken pieces help repair roofs

and flooring. They were used.

Broken pieces were used to maintain heat.

You've seen it, you've done all your reels and your you know to

do it and your house gets cold. And put a light up and put one

of those clay pots over it and it'll bring warmth to the room

because that clay pots been in a kiln of fire.

It can handle the heat, and it knows how to radiate heat.

They were used to maintain heat. Amen in places, and this is one

of my favourites. All right, write it down.

Broken pieces could be used to mend other broken pottery items

by filling the gaps and reinforcing the weak spots of

something else that was broken. Your brokenness could be

somebody else's healing. Your brokenness, your weakness,

might become the strength that somebody else needs.

There is a purpose. There is a use, folks.

I know When I understand that I know I have a purpose, When I

understand that my broken pieces may help fill in the gaps of

somebody else's brokenness, and when I understand that I

understand Paul McGee has a high purpose.

I understand that Paul McGee has a noble purpose.

If it is a use that could not, it is A use for that broken

piece of pottery that could not be accomplished by it being

whole. That can only be used like that

if it's broken. Someone say man, there's a

future for the fractured. Someone say there's a future for

the fractured. Moses killed in an Egyptian 40

years broken on the backside of a desert.

He comes home broken to Egypt and he delivers a nation.

David committed adultery and murder and other things broken.

The Scripture records him as Israel's greatest king, and he

finds himself as an ancestor in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus

Christ. Peter denied Jesus three times.

I don't know the man person flailing his arms.

I don't know the man. I don't know who he is broken.

But on the day of Pentecost, when 120 was gathered in the

upper room, it was his voice sounding the gospel message that

brought conviction and change and alteration to lives broken.

Paul was a persecutor of Christians going to houses and

apprehending them here and there broken.

But that same broken man was instrumental in spreading the

gospel. Many and most Gentiles in the

New Testament Scripture, the Old Testament, Rahab was a

prostitute, broken, but she exercised faith and through that

faith joined the ancestors of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jonah ran away, he disobeyed and he struggled spiritually broken.

But that broken man got a second chance and he went and preached.

Amen. A message to the sparing of the

city of Nineveh. Hannah was barren and childless

broken. But God opened her womb and she

gave birth to the greatest prophet and judge, Samuel.

There is a future for the fractured.

We don't throw away the broken. We understand.

We gather the broken. Why?

Because there are walls to be built, there's repairs to be

made, there's heat to be maintained, there's weak spots

to be reinforced from the pieces.

Can I say then even today that there are some broken pieces

that have a message scrawled on them?

Some of them had important mess. There's some here today broken

pieces that have a message scrawled on you that future

generations need to hear, and they're only going to hear it

through your brokenness. If you understand with me today,

I won't hold you much longer. So when a generation when broken

things are discarded without a second thought, God's Word

reminds us of the intrinsic value even in our brokenness.

If old civilizations could find some type of essential use for

shattered pottery, then can we not in the church find purposes

and strengths through our fractures and through our flaws?

We're not. We're not in the business of

casting aside church, restoring, repurposing, finding the beauty

in the utility of the broken. So what do you say this morning,

Brother McGee, if we bow our heads all across this place?

What I say is this is that I urge you to reconsider the

fragments of your life. I ask you to reconsider the

fragments of your life that you may have even deemed and

considered useless. I challenge you this morning to

embrace your brokenness as an opportunity for God to use you

in unique and powerful ways. Let your brokenness connect you

more frequently to the divine fire in the water, so to speak.

What transforming us as broken vessels into a vessel of God's

purpose and God's grace? This morning I challenge you as

we walk out these double doors. I challenge you to leave here

with conviction that my brokenness, it's sum total, is

not going to be a mark of failure.

You hear me? It's sum total is not going to

be a mark of failure. But I'm going to, I'm going to

repurpose it to be a testament to my resilience and my

usefulness in the hands of a gracious God.

This morning. You might need to search your

life. We might need to search the

church. We might need to gather our

broken pieces and one of you may need to help fill the gap in

another individual's void area of their life right now with

your brokenness, build a stronger, if you will, more

compassionate church community and family.

By each of the Bible said that if one had surplus and the other

lacked that the surplus gave to the one that lacked.

The Bible says so that there would be equality in the body.

You know what that is in essence, brother Pastor Bishop

McGee, It's taken the brokenness of one supplying strength to the

weak area of another. So there's equality, quality in

the church. So what's your mandate?

My mandate is this this morning. Go on, Sir.

Go on, ma'am. Knowing that you are not

disposable, but you are invaluable.

You've been crafted by the ultimate Potter, and it's an

impossibility for a natural fall to cause you to be pulverized to

powder. There's a Peace 123.

There's some pieces still with some use.

There's a future for the fractured.

These altars are open today. There there may be anyone.

Because I I, I, I am convinced that whenever this thing is all

said and done, there's not one of us that stands before God ho

we are broken in many regards throughout life through our own

doing again or the doing of somebody else.

We stand before him broken. There's just pieces.

But when it's all said and done, it's been a piece that's

transported fire. It's been a piece that's aided

in water. It's been a piece with a message

on it for somebody else. It's been a piece to support, a

piece to reinforce, a piece to rebuild, a piece to bring

structure of a wall. If you've been, if you've been

size down to pieces, I guarantee you there's some pieces that

still have some use and purpose and vitality for the Kingdom and

God's interested in that. God's repurposing.

There is a future for the fractured.

As we begin to pray, If you're not here praying at the altar,

you can pray in your Pew today. You can bow your head, close

your eyes, you can lift up your voice right where you're sitting

or you're standing. Let God minister to you today.

Let God minister to you today. We're not sweeping up just

ashes. And no, no, no, no.

There's some viable pieces here. There's some useful pieces here.

There's some no worthy pieces here that God still wants to

employ, that God still wants to use.

Can we cry out to him today as the Champions comes?