The Breakthrough Of Brokenness

This weekend I began a new message series at ZBC. I've been hearing a lot lately about the need for revival in America. However, what I actually hear people talking about & praying for is not revival. What they're recognizing the need for is another great gospel awakening in America. Sadly, many church members & believers pray desperately for an awakening in this nation, yet we're often unwilling to confess our own part in the problem of sin. See, revival is necessary, but it's not for the lost. Revival is for those of us who follow Jesus. According to Scripture when we come into this world, we're spiritually still-born. There is no life in us. You can't revive that. Revival is for the one who once was living but has become unconscious. When God supernaturally invades the lives of His people & renews them spiritually for Kingdom ministry, then revival happens. God does a work of of renewal in us so that we are reinvigorated & released to take the Gospel to a lost world. In fact, when you look back through history the great gospel awakenings of history were sparked by revival in the lives of God's people. In addition to that, the revival among God's people was sparked when they came to grips with their sin & were broken over it.

"In Order For Revival To Break Out,

We Must First Be Broken Over Our Sin."

We see this principle radically on display in the life of David as he cries out to God for mercy in Psalm 51. David had been confronted with his sin with Bathsheba, & he was genuinely broken over his sin. He cried out to God for mercy not based on his past goodness but because of God's unfailing, covenant love. He knew he needed to confess his sin, not try to manage it. He knew that the only hope he had was for God, in His grace & mercy, to expunge his record & to restore David to Himself. Before David could be used by God, he had to be reconciled to God, & only God could bring about that reconciliation.

The same is true today for God's people. If we want to see the lost come to faith in Christ, then we must take the Gospel to them. However, if we want to be used by God to reach the lost, we must walk in fellowship with Him, & the thing that will keep us out of fellowship with God is our sin. It's only when we're hit with the depth of our sin & are broken over our sin that we can truly repent of it. Our sin is an assault on God & an attempt to usurp His authority, yet in His grace He has made a way to forgive the rebellious usurpers.

Walking through the valley of brokenness is the first step to climbing the mountaintop of revival. We are all wrestling with self & sin. We have a simple choice: to be broken over our sin or broken by our sin. When we allow the Holy Spirit to convict us & break us over our sin, we are renewed & revived, but when we run from God's conviction we will eventually be broken by our sin & its consequences.