Brokenness, A Prerequisite To Answered Prayer — Mark Greening

And if mark comes up. There's gonna be some more this evening. So don't leave too early.

We believe God may have some special blessing father. You bless each of us and love each of us.

And Lord just hearing the pain That has happened on others That we heard here this evening and then watching you bless and feeling the love that you pour down. Is something that? We can take away with us.

But you have brought our brother here With a word. Yes a word for each of us. And I pray father that you would indeed bless him As he brings this word to us that it would go deep into each of us into our inner being.

And that we would just feel your presence Learn from you And be strengthened and blessed. So father be with our brother. Be with his words and his heart.

For we ask it in Christ's name. Amen, I've entitled my message tonight if it ain't broke.

Break it. We're gonna be talking about brokenness tonight. It's close to the heart of God. It should be close to ours Psalm 65 to we read. Oh you who hear prayer to you all men will come. We know this to be true.

Brokenness and the Answer to Prayer

People everywhere pray to God, especially when they're in trouble. We've all heard that saying there is there are no atheists and foxholes. But the question is not whether we come to God but whether he will come to us.

We've heard wonderful stories these past days of God coming to his people in response to their prayers. And any student of revival knows that prayer is at the heart of every move of God beginning in the book of Acts where we find that for ten days 120 disciples met alone in a room and They prayed until the glory of God fell.

And in between chapters 2 and 4 of Acts We find 5 ,000 people being swept into the kingdom of God. In 1932 what began in Shantung China as a movement of holiness and prayer? Resulted in thousands and thousands of people coming to faith in Christ in the most dramatic of ways.

It was said during that revival that at the peak of the revival with all of the praise and worship going on. They would have just praise services. Sometimes they would bring possessed people into that service and in the midst of that praise It was said that no demon could last more than an hour before the person was delivered set free and saved.

Many of us are familiar about the 1972 revival in Saskatoon where brother Bill McLeod Prayed as I recall from his testimony for about two years specifically for that move of God among others and other pastors and then God came and We know many of the stories that come from that time in Canadian history.

But tonight I do not want to talk about the need to pray or techniques of prayer or the discipline of prayer. Because we all know about these if we've been Christians for any length of time. I Want to talk about the necessity of brokenness in Prayer as a matter of fact to teach about prayer without teaching about brokenness will produce fleshly powerless results.

We will learn from God's Word tonight that the Lord answers the prayers of broken people. Are you broken yet? Far too much of our church efforts and even prayer are done in the powerlessness of the flesh.

Jesus said flesh gives birth to flesh but spirit to spirit. I remember years ago in my first pastorate I Was a little disappointed because only eight people were coming to prayer meetings on Wednesday.

And of course the solution to that is to preach a real barn burner and so I preached a sermon entitled my house shall be called a house of prayer and Boy, did I you could smell the fire and brimstone and the sulfur.

I really let him have it. Boy, I let him have it and face is the substance of things hoped for that the essence of things not seen and of course I By faith that Wednesday I went and I got extra chairs and put it around because I figured there just be standing room only at that prayer meeting and We went.

I waited and 730 came and we went from eight people to nine people. Yep, one more person joined us nine people and that poor brow-beaten sister. Who came number nine? She didn't show up for months. Maybe a couple years after that until God moved Touched us in a real way.

You see the problem was I preached about conviction in prayer, but not contrition in prayer. And so it had little effect to burden the hearts of my people. Was then I realized that something was missing and the Lord convicted me about a lack of brokenness in my own life.

And I remember I began to come before the Lord and he began to break me about my own sin. Jesus said That what comes out of a man's Life is not just the actions that defile him. It's what comes out. It's what's in the heart.

And so he began convicted me of motives and attitudes in my heart. And he began to convict me about my lack of compassion and A sorrow for the lost all around me. And I began to weep and pray and then I pray.

Lord Burdened my men to pray and to be broken. Two more elders got broken before God. They began to weep before God. I remember we would get together in this verse. I think I heard Lucifer a preach on it once and I looked through my concordance that finally found it and this was a theme.

That we prayed that God would just break in and it was in Deuteronomy 28 23 and it says the sky over your head will be bronze and the ground beneath you iron. And we prayed Oh Lord our prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling unless you do something.

And we were tilling the ground and some of you as pastors know what it's like to till the ground in a church. And it's like trying to put a pickaxe pickaxe through iron. Nothing happens. We began to say God if you don't put a split if you don't break through this Sky of bronze and come down and save in our city.

Nothing will happen. Remember reading Malachi chapter 3 verse 2 you see we thought Oh Lord. This will be wonderful. We'll begin to pray. And we'll get broken and then you'll come. And the Lord warned us in Malachi 3, but who can endure the day of his coming?

Who can stand when he appears for he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap? We began to see what it was like for the Lord to burn the dross of sin and indifference Off in our lives and it was painful and we spent nights weeping before God.

Then the good news in Isaiah 1 18 God said to us come now. Let us reason together says the Lord though your sins are like scarlet. They shall be as white as snow. Though they are red as crimson. They shall be like wool.

We came and we reasoned with the Lord and the Lord is gracious and Compassionate and slow to anger and we found that he did not treat us as our sins deserve. Or repay us according to our iniquities as far as the east is from the west so far.

He removed their sins from us and he taught us that if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. What a merciful God he was. And then we read Hosea 6 1 come let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us.

He has injured us, but he will bind up our wounds. After two days, he will revive us and on the third day. He will restore us that we may live in his presence. You know, it's very interesting that we have been here now.

This is the third day. And if by faith we believe what his word says one of the seven thousand four hundred eighty seven promises in his word. We can be revived in our hearts tonight, even if it's just one person.

But I know it will be more than one tonight. He could revive You he can revive this church. He can revive your church. He can revive your family. He can revive your neighborhood. He can revive this city and we began praying like this and after six months God appeared.

He began saving people every week for 14 weeks straight. This was a direct response to the effectual fervent prayers of God's people. People who came to God on his terms which resulted in him coming to us based on his promises.

I shall never forget those days. I Will always remember coming into the sanctuary and sensing as the ancients called it the mysterium Tremendum the manifest presence of God in the service. Oh. Up until that time there was a lot of chatter a lot of noise.

We would come into the service and you could hear a pin drop. The messages were no different. I Didn't preach any better than I always preached. And yet God would move in the hearts of people. Sometimes I would say I'm in and I'd sit down and I thought I have to get up and tell that and dismiss them because they Just sat there.

No one would move. People as I mentioned the other day when I preach sometimes they'd come in and we'd say why are you here today? They said we don't know. God woke us up and told us to come and they get saved.

We found that the presence of God we had been praying you see we didn't hadn't read much about revival. We just heard a few sermons from Lucifer when he came to Kingston back in Believe it was the early 80s.

But we believed he believed what he was preaching. So I said must be true because the Bible says it too. If my people will then I will then it must be true. God can revive us and. And we had prayed Lord not just don't revive the church we pray would you break through this the sky of bronze?

Would you put these fissures and cracks in it? Would you come down and would you begin saving all over this city? You know, we had we had done evangelism the hard way, you know I with a team we'd visit about 5 ,000 homes in the area.

We never saw one convert doesn't. I'm not saying there's no fruit. I'm not saying God won't honor it or bless it. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying it's hard work. It's hard work. We're to do the work of an evangelist Paul told Timothy.

But oh when God came I remember a brother. Saying once I believe he worked with CRF and I was on a crusade with him. And he said this I was working for God, but who was working for me. You ever do that?

You just work for God. It's really nice when God works for you. And I remember the sense of the presence of God it not only hung over the church. It would go outside of the church into the city and sometimes the neighboring cities.

I remember people would come under conviction and and and they would if they were near a Christian they would go to a Christian say they begin weeping and they'd say We need help and that Christian would come to our church and say come my next-door neighbors under conviction.

I remember one lady. I I'd never heard of her before. I'd never seen her and These these folks who had attended our church to see pastor. Please come there's someone they're under deep conviction. I walk into their apartment, and they were crying and I said what's wrong.

They said we don't know. I said tell me your background. Well, I've just moved from Singapore, and I said well What do you believe and she said this mix of syncretism that all this hodgepodge cobbled together of everything and anything.

I? Couldn't figure out what she believed. But she says when I was a little girl I had a dream and I was a little lamb and I'd fallen off the cliff and in my dream I saw this shepherd with a long crook and he reached down his crook to me, and I couldn't reach it.

She says what's the dream about I? I said oh Let's turn to John chapter 10. And as she read John chapter 10 tears streamed down her face, and she fell to the ground. She says I saw him. That's who I saw that's what the dream was about and she came to Christ.

I Remember and I mentioned again the other day that the ladies came. Is this a wonderful thing when the ladies come and say you know What we want to pray and learn to pray like our husbands because they've left us in the dust spiritually.

And so my wife started a prayer group, and we're gonna try to find that journal. It's got lost in about five moves, but it's down in our bowels or basement somewhere, but in that journal. My wife had page after page after page of prayer requests and page after page after page of answers on every line.

While the ladies would pray on their knees. I remember one man. We didn't even know who he was did Toronto. We were about 20 miles away. And and we were they were praying for him and then as they were praying for him the man gets saved in his apartment not Watching TV listening to radio with no tracks nothing.

He just comes under condition gets saved. I Remember one man in the church. This meant the first prayer God has to raise up. Prayer warriors in a church. I would say it's the most important ministry in the church but I'll tell you it's often the most unrecognized and sometimes the most threatening for pastors and leaders if they're not surrendered to the Lord because God the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him and it's quite something when God speaks to someone.

Often a lady or a man who's been unschooled and ordinary. God tells them things that convict us. We had one lady by the name of K like that she got saved about 40 years of age and She was she was just a firecracker and She said Lord, what is I don't I'm too old to do anything I can't preach.

I'm not very talented or gifted. What kind of gift are you gonna give me? And She said mark, you're not gonna believe it and she talked it across. She said you're not gonna believe what he did to me. He told me K.

You're going to you're gonna pray. And this dear old woman who was 80 plus. She said I got up on my bed and I started jumping up and down saying yippee. She told me that She was so excited that she could pray and she would pray and God would answer her prayer.

She was amazing prayer warrior, but God in order to keep her broken and humble He gave her Oh a thorn in the flesh called a husband. Oh Was he a thorn in the flesh? I'd get along with most anyone he was a challenge to me.

We had something in common. He was from Montreal. He spoke French so I could go and I talked to my witness to him in French and so we I got along with him a little bit better than most pastors because you know, I could probably be with him and You know, we share a few clean jokes in French.

I'm not that I have to be careful how he got going. He was this guy was was brutal. I mean, he was hard-living hard-drinking and everything else that goes along with him people had prayed for him. They had prayer meetings.

Specifically for him. They prayed for years for I think it was 30 years. They prayed for him and nothing well. When God came I remember the day I thought well Lord, we're gonna make. We're gonna make hey, well the sun shines you're moving.

I went up to his apartment people were praying and as was our practice we would just open the Word of God to wherever the Holy Spirit led us and I think I opened it to. I am the way the truth and the life and I quoted in French to him and I held gave him the Bible and I said read this.

He only read one verse and I remember him sitting there and his hands began shaking. But I didn't say anything. I just sat there for five, you know. Sometimes we don't like silences, you know what to do leaders and counselors.

And then mothers and fight when we're when the Holy Spirit's we just don't say anything. Just be quiet be still and let them know that he is God. And he shook there for the longest time and I looked and there she was looking around she was going up and down like this.

Looking around the corner. She was so good because she knew that the Holy Spirit was on him. And ten minutes later, he wept his way into the kingdom and God ushered him into glory three months later. He died.

The Holy Spirit, Brokenness, and Spirit-Led Prayer

Jesus said flesh gives birth to flesh but spirit to spirit. So unless the Holy Spirit does something to bring us to that place of brokenness in our lives. Then we cannot pray as we ought. Is this not what Romans 8 teaches us?

In verse 26 in the same way the spirit helps us in our weakness. We don't know what we ought to pray for now, I want to stop there. What is the weakness there? You know what? Most people will say the weakness is we don't know what to pray.

That's what the rest of the verse says. No, no, no. The Holy Spirit helps us to pray when we understand in our weakness our brokenness our contriteness our humility our acknowledgement of Our inability before God then when we acknowledge and come to him in brokenness.

We don't know what we ought to pray for but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. Have you ever experienced this in your prayer life being carried along by the Holy Spirit to pray things?

You didn't even know how to pray for what to pray about and sometimes you don't even know. All you can do is groan. Do you know that the Lord Jesus Christ even had to groan in prayer? Oh. We know about him groaning and weeping and travailing in the Garden of Gethsemane but when He was called to the grave of Lazarus remember in John 11 the shortest verse Jesus wept.

Just a few verses later. We read Jesus again groaning in his spirit if Jesus the Son of God the Savior of the world. Needed to groan so that a man who was going to heaven Anyways who had died could be resurrected to life again if he needed to groan for that person.

How much more do we need to groan and weep and be broken for the lost or going into eternal hell? Oh, we don't know how to pray but when we're broken then the Holy Spirit comes on us and he teaches us what to pray for and Sometimes it's just weeping and groaning and sometimes it's only one sentence.

Sometimes it's only one word help. Jeremiah 33 3 says call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and Unsearchable things you do not know. Oh. It's a wonderful thing Brothers and sisters to get to the place where we can say God.

I just don't know. Because then he says I'm gonna show you things. I want to pause here for a moment because this brings up a point. In our modern churches.

Counseling, you know, we really don't know.

But to tell people we pretend we do we go and we pay for a shingle in Bible College or some secular University and we call ourselves counselors. You know, I love the look on people's face when they sit down or they call me up and they say can you help me With this problem.

No. Well, I thought you're supposed to know these things well, I I don't know but I I know someone who does okay. They come see me and they'll say well I got this problem. What do I? What do I need to do or how do I get out of this problem?

Or is what how do I get out of this or why is this happening? There's another one. Why is this happening to me? I always I always tell them honest. I don't know. And they look at me and they say you're supposed to know these things and I say to them I Have no idea but I know someone who does we're gonna pray about this now.

Let's think of this is this is a little humorous. The Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked who can know it. Do you know you are deceitful and desperately wicked in your heart?

Just like I am. Do you know that? And you know what a definition of counseling is without the Holy Spirit. It's to deceive people trying to figure out the truth about a problem. You know, the best thing that we can do is counselors and pastors and Christian mothers and fathers and friends.

Pointing People to the Wonderful Counselor

Is to point people? To the counselor. Into the Lord Jesus Christ who alone can help them. Some time ago a woman came. She says there's all kinds of demonic activity in my home, and I can't sleep. All right.

Counselors, what's the answer? I said, I don't know. I Said let's tell the Lord honestly, we don't know and I had another lady there with me. I said, let's pray and here's what we're gonna pray. Holy Spirit.

We don't know. But you know, would you please tell me or this woman or this other lady helping me here the sister what the problem is? We'll pray silently until you speak to us we prayed silently and the Lord laid on my heart what the problem was, but I wasn't sure and So I said amen and then I looked at the other sister.

I said did the Holy Spirit tell you she says I wasn't gonna Say anything unless you asked me first, but yes, this is what the Holy Spirit told me. It was the same thing. The Holy Spirit told me so we looked at her and we told her and that was the problem.

Well, it's not good for repeat business. It is really not. But I'll tell you you get time With your family and to do other things that are important. I remember One man had been counseled for five years.

No one could help him. Bless his soul. And I said Lord if you you know what Moses said, he said Lord if you don't go with me, I'm not going. And I said on a Thursday night Lord if you don't speak to me and tell me what this problem is, I'm not going.

And I got down on my knees and the Lord laid on my heart what the problem was. I jumped right up. I said I'm not telling him that it's impossible. I said can't be that. I said Lord If this is what the problem is.

Then you must explain to me how I'm going to explain this to him and the Lord did. We went to that place the next day and in front of his wife. I said I have a message from God for you. This is what the Lord has laid on my heart.

And that dear brother sat there. I Gotta rephrase that he wasn't a brother yet, even though he's a teacher in the church. But this dear soul sat there. Got down on his knees and wept under conviction of the Holy Spirit and came to Christ now.

It's not good for repeat business. Do you know what it you know what concerns me? I'm gonna really step on toes, but I can go back to Toronto and you won't see me again so I can pull a Pin on this remember what Jesus said he said in Matthew 23.

But you're not to be called rabbi for you only have one master and you're all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth father for you have one father and he's in heaven. Nor are you to be called teacher for you have one teacher the Christ the greatest among you will be your servant.

For whoever exalts himself like calling himself by these names and titles will be humbled and whoever humbles himself Will be exalted now. If I call myself counselor, what do we call? The Holy Spirit who is called the wonderful counselor.

I may counsel people, but I am NOT a counselor. Your job and my job is the point people. To the wonderful counselor our job, you know, Jesus didn't put in here, you know, the Greek word for pastors poimane Means shepherd.

The only reason Jesus didn't put it in there is there was no one really called shepherds and pastors. Then I Understand the role of pastors. But if we take it too personally and we like it too much We ought to be careful because Peter says in first Peter that great shepherd of the sheep referring to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our role. John says I am NOT him but one. Coming after me is greater than I. The latches of his shoes. I'm not worthy to untie he pointed people to Jesus. Our role as Christians is the point our children and our friends and our family and our congregations to the Lord Jesus Christ and the wonderful counselor the Prince of Peace everlasting father.

I Digress and I get into trouble but Getting back to my message. How can we experience this kind of spirit led prayer? That reaches the throne room of God and causes God to come down and meet us in our deepest need or on behalf of others and their deepest needs or for revival.

The answer is found in Isaiah 57 14 where we read and it will be said build up build up. Prepare the road remove the obstacles out of the way of my people. We'll talk about these obstacles in a few minutes.

For this is what the high and lofty one says he who lives forever whose name is holy. I live in a high and holy place but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirits of the Lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Where does God live? In a high and holy place. But he dwells with those who are contrite and lowly in spirit to revive us. And scripture says will you not revive us again brothers and sisters? It's an event as well as a process.

I Can get unrevived as fast as I can get revived if I'm humble with God and if I backslide we have to be revived. Will you not revive us again? It's not good enough that we got revived last month last year ten years ago.

We need to be revived on a daily basis. We need to be surrendering and humbling ourselves before God daily. That his spirit and power might rest on us. Psalm 65 to that. I read at the beginning. Oh you who hear prayer to you all men will come.

This is what prayer is all about not just us coming to God. But him coming to us when we're humble and contrite and broken in spirit. We read this sign Emmanuel God with us. I was thinking I should I would have I would have gotten in trouble take a stencil and write the word when Emmanuel God is with us when when We're humble and contrite in spirit lowly and contrite.

That's when he's with us. Brothers and sisters, it's not about our prayer techniques. It's not about how sincere we are how correct our theology is. Although that's important. But it is about whether I'm contrite and broken and humble before Almighty God.

That word contrite means ground to pieces. It's the utter awareness of our spiritual bankruptcy. It's the opposite of what the Laodiceans thought in their church where Christ said of them you say I am rich.

I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. I'd like to add something that you say I am smart and I have acquired knowledge. Let me add something else. I am hard-working and have acquired success.

But you do not realize that you are wretched pitiful poor blind and naked. God doesn't need our money. He doesn't need our words or our intellect or even our actions alone. He wants our hearts. Isn't this what Jesus meant when he said these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Proverbs says my son give me your heart. And it's not just any old heart that he wants us to give him tonight. He wants you to give him a heart that is crushed and broken and smashed to smithereens. Crushed of our pride and our self and our plans and our desires and our everything else that we think that we ought to be that is contrary to the image of Christ and a potter would take that broken pottery and He would smash it in a type of mortar and pestle as it were to completely crush that to powder so that he could mold That into something that was a value.

And if we will come to the Lord and allow him and we will humble ourselves and allow him to break our hearts by showing Us our hearts and our sin and our complacency and everything else that we'll look at in a minute.

Then he can take that finely ground powder and he can mold us into the image of Christ. Do we need proof that the Lord wants broken hearts? Oh, let's look at some proof. Psalm 5116. You do not 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 contrite heart. Oh God you will not despise. Do we need more proof. Proverbs 34 6 this poor man cried.

Why did he cry? He's broken. He cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all. Not some all of his troubles. What keeps you awake at night? God says if you will be broken, he will deliver you from all your troubles.

We continue in Psalm 34 17 the righteous cry out and the Lord hears them. He delivers them from all their troubles. Why does he deliver them verse 18 explains? Why the Lord is close to who the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in?

Spirit. A Righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. When does the Lord deliver us from all our troubles when we are crushed and broken and humble in spirit. The greatest barrier to getting to the place of prayer let alone answered prayer is a lack of brokenness in our lives.

Four Sins That Block Brokenness

But how do we get to this place of brokenness if this is what God requires when we pray? How do we come to that place of contriteness and humility? Brokenness will come once we recognize our sin the way God sees it.

In Isaiah 66 2 we read. This is the one I esteem He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. Why do we tremble at God's Word? Because God's Word warns us of sin that will keep us from being broken and able to pray and see answers to prayer.

There's a number of sins that keep us from brokenness. Some have been preached on already at this conference. We don't have time to look at them all but there is four that the Lord impressed on my heart just to talk about tonight.

We'll try to be brief on some of them. But there's disobedience and rebellion against God. That's one secondly pride or self-sufficiency. Thirdly complacency or indifference not sensing a need or having a desire to pray.

And fourth Idolatry putting someone or something else ahead of the Lord. Let's look at these one by one. Disobedience or rebellion against God doing out now right what we know to be wrong. In Proverbs 28 9 we read if anyone turns a deaf ear to the law even his prayers are detestable.

We think all the Lord wants discipline. He says no, it's detestable if you're not obeying me. Proverbs 66 18 if I had regarded sin in my heart, the Lord would not have heard me. Isaiah 113 stop bringing meaningless offerings.

When you spread out your hands in prayer I will hide my eyes from you. Even if you offer many prayers I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight.

Stop doing wrong. Learn to do right. You see Disobedience and rebellion Keeps us from that place of praying and brokenness in prayer. We think that God Wants us to pray and just desires just prayer for the sake of well, he wants prayer, but not any old prayer.

You know that God stopped a prayer meeting in the Old Testament. You remember in Joshua chapter 7 The Israelites had gone and had this great victory at Jericho and then they go to this little podunk town AI and they get beat real bad and they get number of them get killed and they come back and they're just Broken and and Joshua is down on his face as he's down on his face.

Let's pick up the story. Joshua is down on his face and in verse 10. God says the Lord said to Joshua stand up. What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned. They have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep.

They have taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen. They have lied. They have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies. They turn their backs and run because they have made liable to destruction.