Daily Program

Brokenness: The Heart God Revives, Part 1

Series: Brokenness: The Heart God Revives

Leslie Basham: We often think that when something's broken we can't use it anymore. That's not how God looks at us. In fact, He won't use us until we are broken. Here's Nancy DeMoss.

Nancy DeMoss: "Blessed," happy, to be envied "are those who mourn: for they," those who mourn over their sin, those who grieve over that which grieves the heart of God, "they will experience the comfort that only God can give" (Matthew 5:4 paraphrased). We hear those verses and think of many others like them in the Scripture. What is the kind of heart that God revives? The heart that God revives is the broken, the contrite, the humble heart.

Leslie Basham: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss for Monday, July 22. When something's broken, you either fix it or throw it away. But as we approach God, we don't need to fix ourselves. We need to come to Him just as we are, broken and needy, to let His power be seen in us. Today, Nancy will help us understand what it means to approach God with a broken spirit. To introduce today's message, we have a special guest in the studio. Here's Bob Lepine from FamilyLife Today.

Bob Lepine: I know it's a little unusual to hear a man's voice at the beginning of Revive Our Hearts, but I am thrilled to have the opportunity today to introduce a message that I first heard a number of years ago. In fact, it was the first time I ever heard Nancy Leigh DeMoss speak. This message entitled, "What Kind of Heart Does God Revive?" was presented at the Campus Crusade for Christ staff training in the summer of 1995.

Nancy powerfully dealt with themes of humility and brokenness. And following her message, hundreds of people responded. There was confession of sin, repentance and forgiveness extended. This is a powerful, dynamic message. Here's Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Nancy DeMoss: What kind of heart does God revive? And what does it take in my heart to experience ongoing, continual revival? Listen if you would to these scriptures. Then I think the answer will be plain. "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabited eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." (Isaiah 57:15)

"The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." (Psalm 34:18) "You do not take delight in sacrifice or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise." (Psalm 51:16,17) And then the Lord said, "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." (Isaiah 66:2)

Then we hear the words of the Lord Jesus. "Blessed," to be envied, happy "are those who are poor in spirit:" those who are bankrupt, those who are poverty stricken, those who are destitute, those who have no resources of their own, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "And blessed," happy, to be envied "are those who mourn: for they," those who mourn over their sin, those who grieve over that which grieves the heart of God, "they will experience the comfort that only God can give."

If we hear those verses and think of many others like them in the Scripture, what is the kind of heart that God revives? The heart that God revives is the broken, the contrite, the humble heart. We tend to think of revival as primarily a time of joy and blessing and fullness and abundance and excitement and enthusiasm and wonder and overflowing abundance. And so at the right time, it will be.

But the ways of God are that the way up is down. And we're reminded by one of the leaders of the revival in Borneo in 1973 that revivals do not begin happily with everyone having a good time. They start with a broken and a contrite heart. You see, we will never meet God in revival, until we have first met Him in brokenness.

The epistle of James reminds us. He calls us to "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." But there is a process. First, "Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness." (James 4:8-9) First, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and then He will lift you up.

Now there are some who don't care much for the thought of brokenness. And I think that's perhaps because we have some misconceptions about what brokenness really is. You see, our idea of brokenness and God's idea of brokenness may be two different things. We tend to think of brokenness, for example, as being sad and gloomy and downcast--never smiling, never laughing. Or as being morbidly introspective, always trying to dig up some new sin to confess. Some have the image of brokenness as a sort of a false humility, where we are continually putting ourselves down.

For some, the word brokenness conjures up images of deeply emotional experiences and shedding of many tears. But I want to say this morning that there may be many tears without brokenness, as there may be in some cases genuine brokenness apart from the shedding of tears. There are those who equate brokenness with deeply hurtful circumstances in their lives. But I would say again, that it is possible to have experienced deep hurts and tragedies and yet never to have experienced genuine brokenness.

You see, brokenness is not a feeling. It is not an emotion. It is a choice that I make. It is an act of my will. And brokenness is not primarily a one-time experience or a crisis experience in my life, though there may be those.

Brokenness is rather a continuous on-going lifestyle. It's a lifestyle of agreeing with God about the true condition of my heart and my life as He alone can see it. It's a life style of unconditional, absolute surrender of my will to God. Even as the horse that has been broken. It's surrendered and sensitive to the direction and the wishes of its rider. It's a life style of saying, "Yes, Lord, not my will, but yours be done."

Brokenness is the shattering of my self-will so that the life, the spirit, the fragrance, the life of Jesus may be released through me. Brokenness is the lifestyle of responding in humility and obedience to the conviction of God's Spirit and the conviction of His Word. And as His conviction is continuous, so my brokenness must be continual.

Brokenness is a lifestyle that takes me in two directions. It's a lifestyle vertically of living, so to speak, with the roof off in my relationship toward God, as I walk in the light in transparent honesty and humility before Him. But it's a lifestyle that requires also that I live with the walls down, in my relationships toward others.

There are some wonderful illustrations in the Scripture of broken people. And frequently those illustrations are set in contrast to the lives of those who were not broken. Think for example of two Old Testament kings who sat on the same throne. One committed egregious sins against the heart of God. He committed adultery. He lied; committed murder to cover up his sin and then lived for an extended period of time in covering up his treacherous, traitorous sin against God and against His nation. And yet in the Scripture, we're told that King David was a man after God's own heart.

Then we think of the king who preceded him. King Saul's sin, by comparison, as we would measure it, does not begin to be as great as that of King David. All that Saul was guilty of, from the seeing of the eye, was incomplete obedience. And yet, in response to his sin, he lost his kingdom. His family was destroyed and he came under the wrath and the judgment of God.

Why the difference? Both men were confronted by prophets over their sin. And both men said verbally, "I have sinned." But you see, when King Saul confessed his sin, his confession was in the context of blaming the people, defending himself, giving and making excuses, rationalizing, justifying himself. And he revealed the true condition of his heart when in the same breath of saying, "I have sinned," he also said, "Please don't tell the people."

He covered up, whereas King David, when confronted with his sin, fell on his face before God in confession. And the evidence of that contrite and broken heart was that he penned for all the world to see those Psalms of contrition that we have in our Scriptures today. You see, a broken person doesn't care who knows. God was not as concerned about the nature of the sin itself as He was about the heart attitude and response of these men when confronted with their sin.

Leslie Basham: I think that many of us have been confronted with our sins today. We need to respond with a spirit of brokenness. We've been listening to a part of a message given by Nancy DeMoss at a Campus Crusade for Christ staff conference in 1994. We'll be hearing this message all this week. I hope you'll call us to get a copy on cassette. This is the type of message that we need to return to, over and over, and make sure we're cultivating a lifestyle of brokenness.

You can order the cassette from our resource center for a suggested donation of $5. You can also get a copy of Nancy's new book called Brokenness, the Heart God Revives. It's available for a $10 suggested donation. And when you order the tape and book together, you can get a discount. For more information, call us at 1-800-569-5959 or order on-line at ReviveOurHearts.com. When you contact us, we hope you'll consider giving to the ministry of Revive Our Hearts. We're passionate about sharing the kind of challenging, yet hopeful message that you've heard today.

If you share our burden to reach women with the truth of God's Word, please pray for this program. And would you help us continue by providing a financial contribution? You can send your donation to Revive Our Hearts. Thank you for your support of Revive Our Hearts. Well, tomorrow, we hope you can be back. Nancy will show us how Jesus responded to proud people and to broken people. We hope you can be here for Revive Our Hearts.

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