This Sermon was preached by Pastor Jack Foster on August 17th, 2010 here at VFO, Miss. This is reprinted per request. BE BLESSED!

“Broken in All the Right Pieces”.

In Psalm 51:7, notice what the writer says: Make me to hear joy and gladness;

Have you ever been in such a predicament that you could not hear anything but the negative, the dark, the oppressed, the lies of hell, the shame, the confusion…

That’s why God leads us to lie down in green pastures, there are times when God has to make us hear joy and gladness.

• Notice what he says, “that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.”

• Now remember he’s talking to the Lord here; that the bones thou hast broken may rejoice.

There’s a flight museum in Ohio, and they take you on a tour and they tell you all the technical stuff and the history of flying. At one point they will tell you about the forefathers of flight, Orville and Wilbur Wright, and they will tell explain to you an interesting fact about the first plane that flew for the first time.

• They will tell you that the plane had no new parts in it.

Orville and Wilbur had failed so many times that each time they kept the parts that worked from the past failures—they took the tail rudder that worked the time before last—the wing that worked the last time—they went back and took pieces of their broken failures, and the one that finally flew  was just a bunch of broken pieces put together in the right places.

When I heard that, I felt the wind of the Holy Ghost say, “Some glad morning, when this life is o’er, I’ll fly away.”

My life consists of ups and downs, highs and lows, times of sorrow and times of rejoicing, and there may be broken areas in my life, but I’ve come to tell the enemy, I’m broken in all the right pieces.

• Take a prayer from over here, take a song from over here, take a worship from over here; take a praise from over there; I’m not perfect, but I AM forgiven.

• And somebody needs to understand the equation of God’s grace.

• My failures plus God’s grace equals a ministry.

• My mess plus God’s grace equals a miracle.

• My trouble plus God’s grace equals victory.

• My weakness plus God’s grace equals strength.

• My sickness plus God’s grace equals healing.

If you’re here tonight and have survived an attack of the devil, there is something in you that God can use.  

You would not have the testimony God wants you to have if you had not lived through the mess you’ve lived through.

You would not have the anointing Gold wants you to have if you had not lived through the trouble you’ve lived through.

• There’d be no Moses without a murderer.

• There’d be no David without a Bathsheba.

• There’d be no Peter without a denial.

• There’d be no Joseph without a pit.

These ministries, these testimonies, these lights would never have been able to shine if they had not lived through the troubles, the trials, and the tests that they lived through.

• Yes, they were broken, but they were broken in all the right pieces.

A lot of people want to make fun of Naomi, Ruth’s Mother-in-law; people want to condemn her, say that she left the house of bread, following her husband into a barren land. Basically, she backslid, but what I want you to see is that if she had not done so, she would never have met Ruth, and destiny would not have borne the eternal Throne of David.

• If Naomi had not met Ruth, Ruth never would have met Boaz, her future husband.

• If Ruth had never met Boaz, there never would have been a David.

• And if there had never been a David, there would never have been a Jesus.

• And if there had never been a Jesus, there would not have been another name given under heaven whereby men must be saved; That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

• Yes, Naomi had a mess, but she turned her mess into a miracle.

• I want to tell somebody, God wants to turn your mess into a miracle.

• God wants to change your failures into your future.

• Because your failures are not final but your failures have been equated into your success.

About restoration:

Yes, Naomi had been punished, yes she had lost all that she loved. Am I preaching to anybody, you’ve already paid the price, you don’t need anybody to condemn you.

• You don’t need a preacher to beat you up; you need somebody to build you up.

• You don’t need somebody to put you down; you need somebody to lift you up.

• Let me tell you something about Naomi, when she decided to come back home, destiny followed her.

Let me remind you again, just because you’ve been through some junk, just because you’ve sailed some troubled seas, just because you’ve acted like the devil at one point in your life, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have a destiny!

When Naomi came to her senses and came back to the house of bread, destiny followed her.

• She said, “I’m going back”, but destiny said, “I’m not going to leave you.”

• But she did not join herself with her destiny until she stood up in her failure and said, “I know I made a mistake, but I’m not going to let my mistake keep me in Moab.

• I’m not going to die in my mistake.

Destiny went with Naomi when she stood up and said she was going home.

• “Where you go, I’ll go – where you lodge, I’ll lodge – your people will be my people.”  Ruth was the future; Ruth was the womb of the future.

• Out of the womb of Ruth came the King of Israel and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

• Out of the womb of Ruth came this mighty army of spiritual priesthood believers.

• But yet she could not have joined herself with Naomi if she had not survived Moab.

• I want to tell somebody in here right now, there is a spirit of destiny that wants to join itself to you.

• There is an anointing, there is a ministry, there is a breakthrough for your family, but if you don’t survive Moab, if you don’t survive the trial, if you don’t survive the trouble it will never happen; you’ll never see it.

• And if God allowed it to happen, He’ll use it for your good, so that the bones that He has broken may rejoice.

What about the man Jonah?

• Was Jonah called of God? Yep.

• Was Jonah a prophet of God? Yep.

• Did God speak to Jonah? Yep.

• Did Jonah rebel? Yep.

• Did Jonah go in the opposite direction that God told him to go? Yep.

• Did God turn it around for his will? Yep.

See what we need to understand is that God knows what we’re going to do before we do it.

• God knew my failures when He called me.

• God knew my problems when he proclaimed me.

• God knew my troubles when he touched me.

• God knew my mess when he planned my miracle.

• You see, I may be broken, but I’m broken in all the right pieces.

• And I’ve come to tell my adversary, “rejoice not against me, mine enemy, for when I fall I shall arise and when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall shine a light about me.”

• And if God has ever told you something don’t you stop in the middle of that thing you’re facing because he’s already equated your mess into your miracle and he knows that it’s going to take your trouble to give you a testimony.

• And when you get to the end of the road you’ll know that you would never have made it if it had not been for the Hand of God.

• But where hell destroys us is the middle of the process.

• When the enemy tricks you into laying down before you get the testimony, before you get the miracle, before you receive the ministry, before you get the anointing…

Jonah messed up; Jonah got tossed overboard.

• And the bible said that God had prepared a great fish.

• God knew before they threw him overboard what they were going to do.

--God knew you were going to slam that door and cuss before you did it.

--God knew you were going to be tempted by that good looking devil before you were.

--But He’s already made a way to escape but the problem is that some of us look at the escape hatch of God as a trial.

• Listen, that fish wasn’t a trial, the belly of that fish kept Jonah alive.

• And what you’re going through may not look good, it may not smell good, it may not feel good but at least you’re still alive.

• Some of you, you’ve got seaweed wrapped around your head, you’re sitting in sewage water up to your neck and you’re wondering, “Why does God have me going through this?”

• Why is God allowing this thing in my life?

• He’s saving your life is what He’s doing.

And so, what you need to do is just shout anyway, with the seaweed wrapped around your neck because when you don’t understand what he’s doing, lean not unto thine own understanding, but in all of thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths.

• You may not understand but God does and when your bones have been broken he makes them rejoice because God doesn’t break you just to break you, but when God breaks you, you’re broken in all the right pieces.

Here we have Jonah in the belly of this great fish that God prepared.

• Now, if you will study Ninevah, you will learn that Ninevah existed before the Philistines.

• You will learn that the book of Jonah is one of the oldest books of the Bible.

• You will learn that Ninevah had a god by the name of Dagon.

• Later on, when the Philistines came along and captured Ninevah they adopted the god of Ninevah as their god Dagon.

• And you will learn later on in scripture that Dagon was half man and half fish.

But if you will study in Ninevah before it was perverted by the Philistines, Ninevah did not worship Dagon as half man, half fish.

But the god of Ninevah was a big golden fish on a golden rod in the middle of the city.

Their god was a big fish.

And when God got ready to use his servant, he said “I’m going to put you in the belly of their god.”

• And what you think was a mistake I’m gonna make a miracle out of it.

• What you think was sent to destroy you is going to create you.

• What you sent to devour you is going to set you free.

• What you think was sent to tear you down is going to build you up.

For at least 500 years this religious order of the worship of Dagon had been set up before Jonah showed up.

• God operates in infinity and omniscience.

• Which means He knew how they worshipped before Jonah ever rebelled.

--That’s why he prepared a fish and not an octopus.

--That’s why he prepared a fish and not a seahorse.

Their god was a fish.

• They even offered human sacrifices; they had never seen this god, they just worshipped him with all kinds of magic and sorcery.

• And when God got ready to cause this city to repent, Jonah thinks it’s about him, but God’s trying to tell him it’s not about you, it’s about me.

• Can I tell you right now, quit thinking you’ve got to be perfect for God to use you.

--Quit thinking you’ve got to get your ducks in a row for God to turn the world upside down.

--He may have put you in a mess so that all you’ve got to do is come out of the mess and you’ll have a ministry.

• If you age through the mess, you’ll have a message.

• If you survive this test, you’ll have a testimony

• Just surviving may be all that God asks you to do.

Can you imagine this young apprentice priest in Ninevah…

·       He’s walking along the walls of Ninevah.

·       Ever since he was knee-high to a grasshopper he’s worshipped Dagon, this fish god.

--He’s never seen him, he’s never felt him, he’s never heard him.

·       But all of a sudden, he sees the reflection of the sun off the scales of something in the sea.

·       And as he turns his gaze to the sea he sees this mammoth fish, he sees this thing that he has worshipped all his life begin to manifest itself.

·       I never did understand how Ninevah repented over one old seaweed, water-soaked prophet saying, “Repent!”

·       You see, it wasn’t over the prophet, it was over the thing that brought the prophet there.

·       And I can tell you it’s not about you, it’s about the vehicle that’s going to bring you here.

--It’s about how bad the sin was that bound you.

How horrible the disease was that held you.

How terrible the situation was that was afflicting you.

It’s going to bring you into the presence of god and you’re going to step out of that thing saying, he that the son hath set free is free indeed.

Okay, all the Bible says is that Jonah said repent and the entire country repented, the king heard and they even put their animals on a fast!

·       Let me tell you why:  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

·       They blew the trumpet and the whole city knew that their god had manifested itself.

·       And when they went to the seashore to see the great fish…

·       When the great fish opened his mouth, out of the mouth of their god came a delivered preacher, saying, “repent, because this fish is not God, but the Jehovah God that I serve is God and he’s tired of your sin and He said repent.”

·       And when they saw that Jonah’s God was big enough to use their God as a cargo pit, they said, my Lord, his god is real I think we’ll repent.

·       And when the world sees you walk out of  the mess and the trouble and the torment that you’ve been held in, the Psalmist put it like this: “I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.”

You see, God showed them that the god that they worshipped was submitted to His power.

·       And I want you to know that the god that they worshipped was submitted to His power.

·       Drug addiction is in submission under the Name of Jesus Christ.

·       Alcoholism is in submission under the Name of Jesus Christ.

·       Suicide is in submission under the Name of Jesus Christ.

·       Depression is in submission under the Name of Jesus Christ.

·       I’m telling you that you may be broken but through the hand of God you’re broken in all the right pieces and all things work together for good to them that love God.

I heard a true story of a little girl whose mother was a cocaine prostitute.

·       And when she was born her mother died, but they saved her, and her face was horribly disfigured and deformed.

·       From the time she was born until she was three years old, she had survived 16 surgeries.

·       And when this girl was about 12 years old, the doctors said that they were about to complete some major surgeries to correct the distorted, deformed, disfigured face of this precious girl.

·       And the doctors said what we’re about to do is break ever bone in her face.

·       And the question was asked why they didn’t do this when she was younger.

·       And the doctor said her bone structure had to mature.

·       The doctor said what she was born with is not what she will die with, but we could not change it until the bones matured.

·       She has had to grow to where her face is as big of structure as it will be.

·       And now that her growth has matured, we’re going to be able to break the bones and make them how they ought to be.

If God had started to do in your life what he’s trying to do right now, when you first got saved you would have never made it through the process.