Brokenness — Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Well, what a special week this has been and how privileged I feel to have shared it with you. I've had many reminders over these past several days of how much I owe to this ministry. For as long as I can remember, I have felt nurtured by the love and encouragement and prayers of Bill and Bonette and others on the staff.

As a little girl growing up in our home, the oldest of seven children, many of our role models were Campus Crusade staff members who came in and out of our home, some of whom are even in this auditorium today.

And how my heart was stirred and impacted as a young girl attending various Crusade conferences, somehow I managed to get into some of the college Christmas conferences as a young junior high school student.

And I know Bonette was always concerned that you shouldn't be doing things too young, but how God shaped my values and heart and passion for him and for his work in the world through many of those conferences.

And in more ways than I can express today, my life, my heart had been shaped by a lifetime of exposure to godly lives of Campus Crusade staff members. So I thank you and have a real sense of being unworthy to stand before you today, who taught me so much and from whom I still have so very much to learn.

During these days, we've been encouraged, stirred by the wonderful reports of what God is doing, the stirrings that God has been sending on many college campuses and the stirrings that he's been sending to many of those in this room during the ministry days, the recent moving of his spirit.

And even during these days together, I've heard some wonderful reports of how God has been touching heart after heart in very specific ways by the power of his spirit. Steve and Dr. Bright started at our time Friday morning by saying that we were believing God to visit with us, not only during these days, but as a movement and a ministry in the days ahead and how we need and long for that fresh, continuing visitation of the spirit of God.

The Broken Heart God Revives

And I felt directed by the Lord, I believe, to touch this morning on one of the most crucial ingredients of experiencing that visitation of the spirit of God, not only this week, but in an ongoing way in the days ahead.

And so we asked the question, 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, and I think the answer will be plain.

For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth 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 heart of the humble and to revive the spirit of the contrite ones.

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. 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, O God, you will not despise. And then the Lord says, to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word.

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.

As 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're tempted 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. We want a painless revival. We want, so to speak, a laughing revival. 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 and 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. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.

Brokenness as a Continual Lifestyle

First humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and then he will lift you up. Now, there are some who don't care, 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 false humility where we're continually putting ourselves down. For some, the word brokenness conjures up images of deeply emotional experiences and the 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, ongoing 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 lifestyle of unconditional, absolute surrender of my will to God.

Even as the horse that has been broken is surrendered and sensitive to the direction and the wishes of its rider, it's a lifestyle 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 a 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.

David, Saul, and the Response to Sin

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, whose 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 was, 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, 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 hard attitude and response of these men when confronted with their sin.

The Pharisee and the Sinful Woman

Then the Gospel of Luke gives us three wonderful illustrations of the contrast between a broken person and a proud, unbroken person. You remember the parable that Jesus told, and the scripture tells us that he told this parable to those who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else.

And he told about two men who came into the temple to pray. Remember this in Luke chapter 18. The one was a Pharisee, and as he stood to pray, the scripture says he prayed to himself. And his prayer consisted of looking around at all the adulterers and the thieves and the murderers that he knew, and then at this lowly tax collector by his side and saying, oh God, I thank you that I compare favorably to all these other sinners that I know.

Proud people compare themselves to others. So he justified himself, he protested his own innocence, and there by his side was a lowly, despised tax collector who could not even lift his eyes to heaven.

But in the presence of the holiness of God, he smote his breast and said, oh God, the only thing I can ask you for is to have mercy, for I am a sinner. You see, he refused to justify himself, rather he justified God.

In Luke chapter 7, we read the story of Jesus being invited for dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee. The scripture tells us that there was a woman who had lived a sinful lifestyle in that town, apparently it was widely known.

And when she heard that Jesus had come to the home of Simon the Pharisee for dinner, she came into that home, presumably uninvited, bearing with her an alabaster box of perfume. She went immediately to the feet of Jesus as he lay there reclining at dinner.

The scripture says she stood behind him at his feet. You'll notice that everything this sinner woman did was at the feet of Jesus. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, a picture I believe of the brokenness and the repentance of her heart before she even came into that place.

And then as her tears began to fall on the feet of Jesus, she lowered herself to wipe the tears off his feet with her hair, I believe a picture of the forgiveness that she had experienced as Jesus had wiped her sinful heart clean.

And then in the freedom of her heart, regardless of anyone else around or what they thought, she kneeled further to kiss the feet of Jesus, to worship him, to love him, and then took that alabaster jar and poured the perfume, the ointment, on the feet of Jesus.

As if she were oblivious to everyone else in the room, all that mattered to her was Jesus, and she cast herself in a broken, contrite spirit before him. Now Simon the Pharisee is a picture to us of a proud, unbroken man who was incensed by all of this and said within himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is, that she is a sinner.

Well not only did Jesus know what kind of woman she was, but Jesus also knew what kind of sinner he was. And so Jesus spoke to him, as you remember, and said, Simon, I have something to tell you. Tell me, teacher, he said.

And Jesus, you remember, told the story of two men who owed a moneylender amounts of money. One owed an extravagant amount and the other just a paltry amount, but neither had anything to pay. So the moneylender forgave them both their debts.

And Jesus said to Simon, now which of them will love this man more? And Simon said, the one, I suppose, who had the bigger debt canceled. Jesus said, you understand that correctly, but there's something that you haven't understood about me.

He turned to the woman and he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I came into your house, you did not give me any water for your feet, for my feet, just a common courtesy. But she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

Simon, you didn't give me a kiss, a handshake of greeting. But this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.

Therefore I tell you, her sins, her many sins, have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little, loves little. Do you suppose that Simon had less to be forgiven than did this woman of the street?

I think not. They were both sinners. The only difference was that she knew she was. And Simon, in the blindness and pride of his heart, could not see himself to be a needy sinner. One more illustration in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15.

The Prodigal Son and the Elder Brother

Jesus gave three parables. And we're told in the first verse who was in his audience. There were two groups of people in that audience. There were the publicans and sinners, the tax collectors and sinners, and we're told they came to hear Jesus.

They eagerly hung on his every word. They needed him and they knew they needed him. Then there was another group over on the sideline, the Pharisees and the scribes, the teacher of the law, teachers of the law, and they were doing their typical, ordinary thing.

They were muttering and murmuring and criticizing. Can you believe this man welcomes sinners and eats with them? Aren't you glad? So Jesus told three parables, speaking to the two segments of his audience.

And I would say in this audience today, every one of us in our hearts falls into one of these two categories. He spoke first of the lost sheep, then of the lost coin, and then of the lost son. Told of the two brothers and how the younger of them, with a proud, rebellious, stubborn, wayward heart, took his share of the inheritance and went off into a far land where he wasted it all in riotous living.

But after he had spent everything, he began to be in need. It's often our need that leads us to the pathway of brokenness and repentance. And finally, having no more resources of his own, having tried everything possible to make a living himself, now destitute and poverty stricken, the scripture says this young man became broken.

And in his brokenness, it says he came to his senses, he came to himself, he became honest in acknowledging what was his true condition. He said, I will arise, I will go to my father. This is a step of repentance, turning from going my own way and going in the way to the father.

And then he's determined to make appropriate confession. I will say to my father, I have sinned against heaven and I have sinned against you. And then he determined to say to his father, though his father never gave him the chance to say the words, I am not worthy to be your son.

Just let me be one of your hired servants. You see, that's the hard attitude of the broken one. The humble person is the heart of I am not worthy that you should extend your grace to me, oh God, just let me be one of your servants.

And you know how the father welcomed the son, embraced him. The father heart of God reaches out to, longs for, welcomes and embraces broken hearted sinners. Put the best cloak on him, the sandals, the ring, let's have a party, let's celebrate.

I think, however, we're not as familiar with the latter half of the story. There was another brother, the elder brother, and the scripture tells us in the 25th verse of Luke 15 that the older son, meanwhile, was out in the field.

He was the good boy. He was out there doing what he was supposed to do, being faithful, working hard. He'd never been wayward. He'd never been rebellious outwardly. He was faithful and hardworking. And could I say, by the way, just out of my own heart and walk with the Lord and pilgrimage with him, that years of tenure and a hidden desire for recognition and unfulfilled expectations can set us up to become 20th century Pharisees.

Here is this faithful, hardworking son out in the field and he comes near the house and he hears music and dancing. And rather than going to the source to find out what's really happening, he goes to a servant and says, what's happening?

The servant tells him the facts, but not the truth. And proud, unbroken people don't want the truth. The servant said, your rotten brother came home and your father's got a party going for him. He didn't say, your brother, you remember how he left so high and mighty and haughty?

He's come back, but he's not the same person. He's broken. He's humble and he's repentant. He hadn't had a good meal for ages. He's at the end of everything, but his heart is broken and your father's forgiven him and it's time to celebrate.

Elder brother heard that the younger brother had come home and he couldn't rejoice in the boy's return. The father, hearing of the anger of the elder brother, left the party and I'm told that in a Jewish family that when the father left that the party had to stop while the father went out to deal with the proud, unbroken elder brother.

And isn't that like so many of our ministries and churches and fellowships today? There's no celebration going on, no joy because they're having to deal with all the proud and broken, angry, resentful, ripped off people.

So look at this elder brother. I'm reminded that the higher up we go in terms of influence and leadership and responsibility and faithfulness of service, the easier it is to become proud and blinded to the real condition of our hearts, to become self-deceived, to think that we don't need to be broken and it becomes more difficult for us to be broken for after all we have more to lose in terms of our reputation.

Contrasting Proud and Broken Hearts

Well as we think about these different comparisons, let me ask which ones do you identify with? You find yourself identifying with proud King Saul, with the Pharisees, with the elder brother, or you find yourself identifying with adulterous David, the broken, sinful tax collector, the sinner woman, the prodigal son, you say, well I don't think of myself as those people.

You see in each of these comparisons both parties had sinned. The only difference was in their response to that sin, whether they were proud and unbroken or humbled and broken before God, aware of their sin.

You see God is more offended I believe by the arched back, the stiff neck, the haughty eyes, and the unteachable spirit than he is by the sodomite, the prostitute, the adulterer, the murderer, or the abortionist.

Because frequently those who are so wrapped up in sins of the flesh know that they are sinful, but those of us who are the elder brothers, the respectable leaders, the Pharisees, the ones who have it all together, so often find it difficult to acknowledge the real need of our hearts.

In recent weeks I have found God searching my own heart, and I've gone before him many times and said, oh God show me what it means to be a broken person, to live a lifestyle of brokenness. And what are some of the characteristics, the evidences of a proud unbroken spirit?

Let me just share with you some that have come to my own heart as I've waited on the Lord. Proud people focus on the failures of others, but broken people are overwhelmed with a sense of their own spiritual need.

Proud people are self-righteous, they have a critical fault-finding spirit, they look at everyone else's faults with a microscope but their own with a telescope, and they look down on others. But broken people are compassionate, they can forgive much because they know how much they've been forgiven.

They think the best of others, and they esteem all others better than themselves. Proud people have an independent, self-sufficient spirit, but broken people have a dependent spirit and recognize their need for others.

Proud people have to prove that they are right, but broken people are willing to yield the right to be right. Proud people claim rights and have a demanding spirit, but broken people yield their rights and have a meek spirit.

Proud people are self-protective of their time, their rights, and their reputation, but broken people are self-denying. Proud people desire to be served, but broken people are motivated to serve others.

Proud people desire to be a success, but broken people are motivated to be faithful and to make others a success. Proud people desire for self-advancement, but broken people desire to promote others.

Proud people have a drive to be recognized, to be appreciated. They're wounded when others are promoted, and they are overlooked. But broken people have a sense of their own unworthiness. They're thrilled that God would use them at all in any ministry.

They're eager for others to get the credit, and they rejoice when others are lifted up. Proud people have a subconscious feeling, this ministry is privileged to have me and my gifts. They think of what they can do for God, but broken people have that hard attitude that says I don't deserve to have any part in this ministry, and they know that they have nothing to offer God except the life of Jesus flowing through their broken lives.

Proud people feel confident in how much they know, but broken people are humbled by how very much they have to learn. Proud people are self-conscious, but broken people are not concerned with self at all.

Proud people keep others at arm's length, but broken people are willing to risk getting close to others and to take the risks of loving intimately. Proud people are quick to blame others, but broken people accept personal responsibility and can see where they were wrong in the situation.

Proud people are unapproachable, but broken people are easy to be entreated. Proud people are defensive when criticized, but broken people receive criticism with a humble, open spirit. Proud people are concerned with being respectable.

They're concerned with what others think, and they're working to protect their own image and reputation, but broken people are concerned with being real. What they care about and what matters to them is not what others think, but what God knows, and they're willing to die to their own reputation.

Proud people find it difficult to share their spiritual needs with others, but broken people are willing to be open and transparent with others as God directs. Proud people, when they have sinned, want to be sure that no one finds out.

Their instinct is to cover up, but broken people, once they've been broken, they don't care who knows who finds out, are willing to be exposed because they have nothing to lose. Proud people have a hard time saying, I was wrong.

Will you please forgive me? But broken people are quick to admit their failure and to seek forgiveness when necessary. When confessing their sin, proud people tend to deal in generalities, but broken people are able to deal under the conviction of God's Spirit to acknowledge specifics.

Proud people are concerned about the consequences of their sin, but broken people are grieved over the cause, the root of their sin. Proud people are remorseful over their sin, sorry that they got found out or caught, but broken people are truly and genuinely repentant over their sin, which is evidenced in the fact that they forsake that sin.

When there's a misunderstanding or a conflict in relationships, proud people wait for the other to come and ask forgiveness. But broken people take the initiative to be reconciled. They race to the cross.

They see if they can get there first, no matter how wrong the other may have been. Proud people compare themselves with others and feel worthy of honor, but broken people compare themselves to the holiness of God and feel a desperate need for His mercy.

Proud people are blind to their real heart condition, but broken people walk in the light. Proud people don't think they have anything to repent of, but broken people realize that they have need of a continual hard attitude of repentance.

And proud, unbroken people don't think they need revival, but they're sure that everyone else does, whereas humble, broken people continually sense their need for a fresh encounter with God, for a fresh filling of His Holy Spirit.

The Blessings of Brokenness

Now why would, with that long list, why would anyone want to be broken? Any more than we would want to sign up for suffering or surgery? Well, we learn from the scripture that brokenness brings blessedness.

Brokenness brings blessedness. Jesus said, blessed are the broken ones, those who are poor in spirit. What kind of blessings does brokenness bring? Well, we heard from the verse that Chuck read earlier that God draws near to the broken.

He lifts up those who are humbled. We're told that God stiff arms the proud. He resists them. He keeps them at a distance, but He comes close to even as the father of that prodigal son drew that repentant, broken son to his chest and embraced him.

We find that our heavenly Father draws near to the heart of those who are broken. You want to get close to God? God draws near to the place of brokenness. We find that brokenness brings the blessing of new life being released.

Jesus said, if that grain of wheat does not fall into the ground and its outer shell is not broken, if it does not die, it will abide alone. Listen, loneliness I have found in my own life is often an evidence of unbrokenness.

Because when I am willing for that hard outer shell to be broken, then the life of Jesus can be released through me and there is reproduction, there is fruit produced in the lives of others. Of course, the ultimate picture of that brokenness is the Lord Jesus, who we have worshipped this morning, as He said, this is my body which is broken for you.

On that cross, as He experienced and endured the brokenness of fellowship with His heavenly Father from whom He had never known a moment's separation, and as He took upon Himself the full weight of our sin and was broken on our behalf, His death released eternal life for us.

And so when we are willing to be broken, His abundant life flows through us to others. Brokenness will bring to us an increased capacity for love and worship. I think back to that sinner woman in Luke chapter 7.

She had been forgiven much, so she was able to love much. I see in that woman an abandon in her relationship with Jesus that I desire for myself. She was oblivious to the rejection or the thoughts or the disapproval of anyone around her.

All that mattered to her was Jesus, and in her worship and in her love there was such a lavishness and extravagance of freedom. That's because there's a cycle in the ways of God that brokenness leads to genuine repentance.

Genuine repentance leads to forgiveness. Forgiveness will produce in my life freedom from the guilt, freedom from the bondage of myself and my sin. And when there is that new freedom burst through brokenness and repentance and forgiveness, that freedom will produce a new capacity for love and worship.

Capacity to love others, to love the unlovable, to love God, to worship God. And of course that worship and that love of God lead us always back to new levels of brokenness, leading to greater and deeper repentance, to new forgiveness, to newfound freedom and increased capacity for love and for worship.

We heard Dr. Bright speak yesterday out of his heart about his love for Jesus. I wonder if some of you with me sat there and felt, oh, how I would love to love Jesus in that way. And we long for a greater capacity to love, to worship, to love the people we work with, to love the people we live with.

Why is our capacity so limited? Perhaps it's because we are not living in brokenness. For brokenness yields that wonderful fruit of increased capacity for love and worship. And then brokenness brings increased fruitfulness.

Brokenness and God's Power

For you see, God uses things and people that are broken. There's so many wonderful illustrations of this in the scripture. It's when Jacob's natural strength was broken at Peniel that God was able to clothe him with true spiritual power.

It's when the rock at Horeb was struck and broken by Moses' rod that the water flowed out to quench the thirst of the people. It's when Gideon's 300 soldiers broke their lanterns, their pitchers, that the light of the lanterns within shone forth.

It's when the little boy's five loaves were broken. And I'll tell you, I had a picture of this yesterday driving by the picnic. And I said, this had to look like something of the feeding of the 5 ,000.

And I imagined Jesus taking those five loaves, but when they were broken in the hands of the master, they were sufficiently multiplied to feed the multitudes with abundance leftover. Brokenness brings increased fruitfulness.

It's when Mary's alabaster box was broken that the fragrance was released and filled the whole house. And as we have said, it's when Jesus' body was broken on Calvary that eternal life was released for the salvation of the world.

And then the fruit of brokenness is to be seen in revival. That for which we have longed and prayed is really nothing more than the release of God's spirit through broken lives. You see this so much in the history of revival, and we'll be sharing more about some of these illustrations in the seminars tomorrow and Wednesday.

But let me just highlight a few moments where God used brokenness to bring about revival. We've read about, and Mrs. Bright has shared with us about, the Welsh revival in 1905. The song that was sung throughout the Welsh revival, sung through lips that represented broken and contrite hearts, was that chorus, bend me lower, lower, down at Jesus' feet.

And through that brokenness, God released a great flood tide of his spirit that encompassed that whole land and brought untold revival blessing to the world. You've read perhaps about the Shantung revival in the late 1920s and early 1930s there in China.

I read about that again recently, and told by Dr. C .L. Culpepper, who was the director of the Southern Baptist Mission Agency in that province. He tells the story of how there was a group that had been praying for revival, a group of leaders, missionaries.

He told one night how he went to his own home after the prayer meeting, and he got before the Lord and he sensed need and dryness, but couldn't put his finger on what it was, and said into the late hours of the night, oh God, what is it in me?

After he had met with God that night, he came back to the prayer meeting in the morning and confessed to his fellow missionaries and leaders the sins of spiritual pretense, of spiritual impotence. He confessed that their praise of him being a good missionary had caused him to be proud and to steal glory from God.

He said, my heart was so broken, I didn't believe I could live any longer. And out of that brokenness, God brought brokenness to that assembled group of missionaries and national pastors and Christian leaders and resulted in an unbelievable outpouring of conviction of God's Spirit, conviction of His holiness, conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment, which resulted in confession of sin and a great outpouring of God's Spirit throughout that province.

You've heard perhaps of the Lewis revival in 1949 and 50 on the island of Lewis, the largest isle of the Outer Hebrides just off the coast of Scotland. We'll talk more about that in the session tomorrow.

But there was a group of deacons of the church there who had met for months, three nights a week for 18 months at night in a barn to pray for spiritual awakening and revival. And they prayed as much as intensely and fervently as they could without seeing any results.

And then the story is told of how one night a young deacon rose to his feet and quoted from Psalm 24, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands and a pure heart, he shall receive blessing from the Lord.

And he looked at the assembled group of deacons there and he says, gentlemen, it seems to me to be foolishness for us to be praying for revival as we are if we ourselves are not right with God. And there on the straw, the men knelt and confessed their sins to God.

And out of that brokenness was released a revival throughout the island of Lewis that is still spoken of in Scotland today as a great moving of God's Spirit. You've heard, I know, the story of how God brought revival to the little nation of Romania in the mid -70s, which ultimately led, I believe, to the revolution there.

But perhaps you may not have heard how that revival actually started. A pastor of one of the largest evangelical churches in the country went before his people. Now it helps to understand that in Romania, at least in those days, believers of all denominations were referred to as repenters.

And this pastor stood before his people in that Second Baptist Church of Oradea and said, it is time for the repenters to repent. And he called his people to join him in repenting of specific sins that if I named them to you, we in our Western world would think, how insignificant.

But broken over their sin, the repenters began to repent, and through their brokenness was unleashed and released the reviving power of God through that little nation. You see, God says, I dwell in the high and holy place, but I also dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the heart of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.