Brokenness - The Source of Maintaining our First Love | Keith Collins

Amen. Praise God. Well, you can be seated if you like. Amen. Praise God.

Just a beautiful move of God's love and spirit here tonight. I'm just encouraged, so blessed to be back with you for week three. And it's awesome, really. I'm in so many different places on the weekends. That is so good to be in my home church on Wednesday nights and these last couple of weeks.

And tonight, just a blessing to be able to be with some of our church family here. And I'm just. Thank you so much for opening your heart. And I, I pray tonight that you'll be encouraged and challenged. As Pastor Craig said, we've been talking about first love, what that means.

So the first week I kind of tried to bring some definition by the help of the Lord as far as what is a biblical paradigm or picture of first love, and tried to open that up some. Then last week, little different. Just felt to really deal with some of the primary challenges that really hinder that first love relationship with the Lord. So we got into some challenging areas, but areas that we all need to be reminded of in our lives, and I pray you are encouraged and challenged by that. Tonight is the same vein and again as each week.

Our, our text for the entire series has been, you know, Revelation chapter two, and primarily where it talks about how the church of Ephesus, they forsook or they left their first love and the Lord said repent and do your first works over. So that's kind of been our primary text for the entirety of the series. Tonight we're going to go across really different direction. However, this plays so much into first love. And it might sound a little paradoxical or, you know, in other words, it might sound like two opposite meanings when you talk about brokenness and first love.

You know, unless you understand what that means, that can sound kind of challenging. But I believe that there's some great scriptural references that deal with this and some great examples throughout the Bible that kind of give proper context. And I'm convinced that this is a very important source of maintaining or sustaining our first love, to be a people of brokenness. Another good word for this is meekness or humility. Right?

We know there's a brokenness that comes through a life of sin. That's not really the brokenness I'm talking about tonight. Even though there is some maybe, you know, things that kind of fall into that a little bit that I might share it towards the end. But, but really that's not the, the, the context that I'm really dealing with tonight, tonight, I want to deal with a different level of brokenness. And I believe every believer, every follower of Jesus, every one that professes Jesus Christ as Lord, we should all have this, this understanding as well as this experience in our life.

And it keeps us grounded, it keeps us focused, it keeps us from thinking way too much of ourselves, and it keeps us really focused on Jesus tonight. So let's look at a few verses of Scripture, and then I'll share some points that I'll teach on tonight. Number one, let's go to Isaiah, the 57th chapter, Isaiah 57:15 tonight. Isaiah 57:15. Isaiah said, for thus says the one who is high and lifted up, I dwell in the high and holy place.

We know that God dwells in a high and holy place. But I want you to look at this next statement here and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Now, one famous passage of scripture that many of us know is Psalm 51, where David enters this penitential psalm or prayer really before the Lord, and he's asking God to restore his salvation, renew the joy of his salvation. I mentioned this a little bit in the first week, but again, he talks about the fact that God is not interested in sacrifices and offerings, even though of course, God, through Moses, instituted the sacrificial system in the tabernacle and then of course, the temple. But David said, lord, it's not that that you're interested in.

What you want is a broken spirit, a contrite heart. In other words, you want a people who acknowledge that they are in desperate need of you. And of course, a sinner, someone that is away from God, or maybe someone that has known the Lord and fallen back into a pattern or lifestyle of sin. Of course they need to come to a place of brokenness, humility, contrition, and repentance. Right?

And so that's one thing. And again, just kind of keep in the back of your mind, because that's not really what I want to focus on. But I want to say that I believe that brokenness should be a commonplace for the believer. Now, there's some scholarly debate on this, and I've kind of studied it as much as I can over the years. I've heard it spoken on and taught on different ways, and I've kind of taught both sides of this because it could mean both things.

But Paul mentions this one time. He says, I am the chief among all sinners. Anybody ever heard him say that? In other words, I am the leader of sinners, is what he's saying. Now, we know at this time in the Apostle Paul's life, he was not living a life of sin.

He was a man sold out to God. He was a man that had paid the price to be a Christian. He bore scars in his body. We shared that last week, I think. But he said, I'm the chief among sinners.

Now, a lot of scholars, and I do believe there's some credence to this, a lot of scholars would say that Paul is referring to the fact that before he encountered the Lord on the road to Damascus, when he was carrying papers from the priest to bring persecution against this new movement called initially the Way, they weren't called Christians at first, they were called the Way, he was bringing persecution against this group of people that were following Jesus Christ of Nazareth and his teachings. And a lot of people think that he's referring to the fact that he was one that actually oversaw the first martyrdom of the church, Stephen, where Stephen was stoned to death. And so some believe that he's referring to that. Another thought, and again, I think it could be both another thought, and I kind of lean into this a little bit, is the sense that Paul had this progressive revelation of the beauty, the holiness, the supremacy, the glory of Jesus Christ. And even though he was a man that was born again of the Spirit of God, as Isaiah was a prophet of God before the sixth chapter, when he said, woe is me.

I'm a man of. He was already prophesying to Judah, to Jerusalem. He was already bringing prophetic exhortation and speaking to kings and to the political establishment, as well as the condition of the religious world of the hour. In Isaiah 6, he beholds the Lord high and exalted, and his train fills the temple. We know the narrative.

I might read that a little bit. But he says, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell among a people of unclean lips. So I believe there is something that is healthy.

This is not condemnation. This is not having to get saved. Every service we come to, you understand? This is not beating you of the head because you made a mistake this week. This has nothing to do with this.

But I believe true brokenness, true humility, true meekness comes through the ongoing revelation of who Jesus really is, how beautiful he is, how merciful he is, how holy he is, how perfect he is. And it brings us to this place where we are needy in a good way of Him. I want to be needy and greedy. I want all that God has. I'm greedy in a godly way, and I'm needy.

I need Him. We can't pray without Him. We can't preach without Him. We can't live without Him. We can't go to our jobs.

We can't do anything without Him. And as that becomes real to us, it brings us into a healthy place of brokenness, to where we don't think so much of ourselves, but we think everything of Him. So Isaiah said that, listen, he dwells in this high and lifted place, but he's also among those that are contrite, that are broken, that are humble, that are meek. Matthew 5:3. 5.

Of course, the Beatitudes here, probably the greatest message ever preached or ever taught, as the Lord gives the Sermon on the Mount here. And in verse three, he said, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Now, let me just say this. Being poor in spirit does not mean you can't pay your mortgage payment this month.

Has nothing to do with that. Some people might need a miracle there, and we can pray for that tonight, too. But that's not what that means. When the Lord says that those that are poor in spirit, they are blessed, what he's saying is they have understanding and revelation that they bring nothing to the table in and of themselves, that there is nothing in their humanity that equips them to do ministry, to live life effectively, to be productive in society. They live with this understanding that we need Jesus, that we're poor in spirit.

And that understanding brings us again to that place of humility and meekness. It brings us to the place to where we love others the way that we should love others. And of course, we love the Lord, which is the greatest commandment to love the Lord your God, with all your heart, mind, soul, and then love your brothers, your sisters, as yourselves. Right? You see this?

Being poor in spirit equips us to live with the fruit of the Spirit activated in our life. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, goodness, temperance, meekness, all those things. It equips us to walk in this first love dynamic with the Lord, to where his nature and his spirit just oozes out of us. Why we realize God, I need you today. Thank God for yesterday.

Thank God for all the great experiences that we've had with the Lord. Thank God that Darla and I, we thank God we were a part of the Brownsville Revival for almost the entire revival there for hundreds of meetings and all. But I can't live on 1995 through 2000 in Pensacola, Florida. I need Jesus. I'm poor in spirit.

I'm not in sin. I mean, I'm in love with Jesus. And I thank God for my history and all that I've been through. But in every day when I wake up, I wake up poor in spirit. I wake up realizing that what happened yesterday is not what I need for today.

I need an encounter with Jesus today. I need to get in his word today. I need to be in his presence today. I need to be with his people today. In other words, there has to be this understanding that we never arrive in the kingdom of God.

And if you think you do, my friend, you are sorely deceived. You know one thing I found out, there's no end to Jesus. Pastor Craig, he doesn't end.

In other words, he said, if you seek me, you will find me. The Word says, well, can I tell you something? The seeking is every day, every month, every week, every month, every year. In other words, it never ends. Even to the point to where Paul, as an old man, says that I want to know him.

I mentioned this a little bit two weeks ago as an listen, Paul said, I still want to know. Well, Paul, you know him already. But no, there's so much more of him to experience.

These reservoirs of intimacy that come through our first love, provide this supernatural stimulus to our spirits to where we maintain this hunger and thirst for the Lord. It doesn't mean we don't go through challenges. It doesn't mean we don't go through sadness or grief, or we don't go through challenges even in our minds, or we don't go through situations where we're having to deal with people and circumstances that challenge us. But whenever we are poor in spirit and when brokenness becomes our native air, there is something that happens in our lives. We learn to lean into the Lord.

We learn to rely on the Lord. We. We learn, again, the simple truth that. That listen, those that realize that we have to have him even in the smallest areas of our lives. Not only are we set free from the devil and set free from sin, but we're set free from ourselves.

And he begins to live his life through us. And we can understand and have understanding of Paul in Galatians 2:20, when he says, I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But now it's Christ that lives in well, Paul was walking. He said, the life I live, I Live by faith. The Son of God who loved me and gave his love, he lived as a man.

But he'd come to a place of humility and brokenness and dependence upon the Lord. And being poor in spirit, that it set him free from just living as a human. And the Spirit of God empowered him because he accepted the fact that he was weak. But the Lord is strong. And even in our weakness, the Bible says he becomes our strength.

Friend. That's. That's brokenness. That listen, that creates an environment of intimacy with the Lord that we can come to the place where Paul came to where he said, what shall separate me from the love of God? Your principalities, powers.

He said, nothing can separate me from the love of God. Not persecution, not betrayal, not losing spiritual sons and daughters that demons left me for the love of this pres. Nothing can separate me from the love of Jesus. Why? Because I am a man that is completely dependent upon him.

And no matter what I go through, he's with me through every season of my life. See, this is not. This is not new. But sometimes it needs to be renewed, right? It's not a. I mean.

I mean, people could probably teach on this a lot better than I can, but it's not a new thing. But we have to be renewed in our mind. That's why the word of God is so important that we listen. Paul said in one place to listen to this. He said to put on Christ.

I don't have time to teach on that a lot. Cause that's a whole nother ball of wax to teach on. But in other words, Paul was saying there is a place of knowing him where you can become so intimate with the Lord. Lord, that his nature just becomes the thing that people see when they see your life. Doesn't mean you're not there.

And you don't become deity by no way, shape or form. However, the spirit of the Lord begins to flow through your life and move through your life. And it sets you free, my friend. You see, humility and meekness and brokenness is about living free.

People that always feel like they've got to make themselves known. You ever been around anybody like that? It's because they're insecure. And it's because they don't really have that intimate experience with the Lord. There's a man some of you probably heard of, Leonard Ravenhill.

Leonard Ravenhill said, famous quote. Men who are intimate with God are not intimidated by other men.

Men who are intimate with God are not intimidated by other men. Of course, women. But you know, mankind Those that know the Lord, other people, other men, other circumstances do not intimidate them. They do not cause them to live in a certain way. Why?

They are confident in their reliance upon the Lord and they're confident in their relationship with the Lord. Their first love experience empowers them to be more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. You see, this is this deeper place that oftentimes the deep part of us cries out for and all the Lord is wanting oftentimes is just for us to surrender. We sang it. Thank you for singing that song.

I don't know you were singing that tonight, but it's this place of just surrender. Lord, I can't do this anymore. I can't me. I can't do this ministry anymore. Listen, we got way too much going on around the world for me to even think I could even come close to doing.

I don't have any. There's no way. I have to surrender to the Lord. Fathers as fathers. We're looking at Father's Day in a few days.

We'll all be here together to celebrate that. And, you know, listen to Pastor J and it'll be an amazing Sunday. But listen, friend, as fathers, we need intimacy with Jesus to be real fathers. Amen. As mothers, you need the same thing as fellow church family members.

How many of you know? We need each other and we need each other to know Jesus effectively. We need a people that are humble and meek and broken, that are dependent upon the Lord and friend. Through that, we can see an entire city transformed. We could see a county or a region touched by the glory of God when people live in that deeper place of intimacy and brokenness with the Lord.

Listen, brokenness as meekness and humility often means surrendering self will, pride or self sufficiency, recognizing our limits and trusting God fully. I've said that, but there you go. That's the little nutshell. It can arise from suffering and trials. That is a form of brokenness and even sin, as I've mentioned, producing dependence that God honors and uses.

It can also arise through ongoing revelation of God's holiness, his love, his glory and his overall nature. We cannot behold Jesus as he is and not be broken. Let me give you an example. How many of you know that Jesus had many disciples? Many.

I mean, I mentioned 71 time. Of course, we know he had 12. And we know the story of Judas Iscariot, who was pretty much a devil, the Bible says, full of a demon, that whole story. But anyway, Jesus really poured his life into those 12 men. And they ate together and spent so much time together.

Then among that 12, he seemed to have three. Peter, James, and John. And then among that three, he seemed to have one that was John. He even said, he's the one that I love. There was a very close connection between him and the heart of John.

Even so that he was the one that the Lord said to pretty much take care of my mother, right? And when he was being crucified, in other words, there was something there. But it's interesting that when John beholds Jesus on the island of Patmos, he don't run up to him and give him a high five and say, what's up, brother? Now, the Bible said he falls like a dead man as he beheld the Lord glorified, his face shining like the sun, a sword protruding out of his mouth, his hair flowing white like wool, his eyes burning with fire, that when John saw him, humility struck him and he was in awe in the presence of the living God. And he fell on the ground, the Bible said, like he was dead.

See, there is something about seeing Jesus, my friend. You know, we hear a lot. I've heard a lot over the last few years, maybe five to 10 years. And again, I'm not. Don't.

I'm not trying to criticize or judge anything, but there's so many people that go into heaven and they sit down with Jesus and read books and. I mean, I've heard all these stories, right? Maybe. So I'm not judging that. But the experiences that I have had with.

As matter of fact, some I don't even really like to talk about in public. But these experiences that I've had with the weighty presence of the holiness of the Lord. It didn't drive me to a platform or a TV show to tell everybody what happened. It drove me almost to be mute about it because it was so precious and so holy and so real. It's interesting that John in the natural seemed to be the closest to Jesus.

But when he sees him in his glorified state, he can't even stand on his own two feet. You see, there is this brokenness and this humility that comes when the church really realizes who's in our midst. Tonight, it's not about a preacher. It's not about a worship team. It's not about your neighbor sitting beside you.

He's here tonight, friend. He's in our midst and he's high and he's lifted up. He's beautiful. He's perfect in every way. There's no variance or shadow of turning with him, there's no wondering, is he good or no friend?

He's altogether perfect and holy and just and wonderful. And he's brought us into this eternal family called the family of God. And one day we will experience that final consummation where we put off mortality and we take on immortality. And all of us, along with those that have gone before us, we're in the presence of the Lord forever. But he is in the midst of his church now.

His glory is in this place now. And he calls out for that deeper experience with each of us. That's the amazing thing. And listen, sometimes I know we can be a little off when we read the entirety of the Scripture as if it's just written to us. However, so much of it pertains to our walk with God a lot.

Like, if you read Ephesians, it's really written to the church, and most of the Bible is. At the same time, we also know that there's a deep part of us that should be calling out to the deep part of God and that the more we cry out to him, the more we experience him, the more we are near him and he's near us. Then, my friend, we get more humble and more weak and more hungry and more thirsty and more passionate. Let me tell you something that happens through humility and brokenness, friend. You become more useful in the kingdom of God.

Listen, and Darla can confirm this. Would you stand and confirm this, honey? Just kidding. Darla can confirm this. We've seen through the years, 40 years of ministry, and especially, you know, overseeing the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry.

And then, of course, we were here 10 years directing fire School of Ministry together, her and I. We've seen a lot of ability come through the door. A lot of. Potential is a better word. A lot of potential come through the door.

And sometimes the ones that. If you were just. Like, if you were to take. If you went to grade a pitcher and you were recruiting a pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, I mean, there's certain things that you would look at, trying to make sure that if you're gonna, you know, give this guy, what, $5 million a year, that he's really the right one. Well, listen, if you could.

And that's carnal in a certain way, but if you could grade certain people. I mean, her and I more than once have looked at one or two or three people during an entirety of a semester or maybe a calendar year at school and said, man, that. That brother or that sister, man, they're going to change the world. And oftentimes they knew it, too. And there the trouble came in because they became so in love with their gift and their anointing that they thought they were this vessel and this tool that God was going to use to do something that none of us had ever even heard of or done before.

And even though you try to, you know, reign them in, bring them in, some of them just go out. And there was one guy. I won't give his name, but unfortunately, and I know these guys would acknowledge this now, this was during the Brownsville revival, probably around 1998. This young person who I grew up with, matter of fact, before I was saved, I did drugs with he and his brother. Years and years ago, he gets saved in the revival, comes to the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry.

And he had a natural gift just to stand up and speak. And they would have him get up on the platform because his testimony was so out there. And so, I mean, people loved to hear him, so they would want him to speak. And all of a sudden, pastors even. I mean, I remember.

I won't give the name of the church, but you would know it. Probably a very large church in Jacksonville, Florida, a very known pastor, and they've got multiple churches they planted around the country. I mean, they came and heard this guy, a church of like 4,000 people, and the next Sunday, he was speaking at their church. The guy's been saved, like, a month.

And all of a sudden, he got so spiritual and so gifted that I remember the day he came to my brother, and I said, hey, man, I'm done with school. We were like, maybe eight good weeks into the first semester. But he had so much confidence in the gift of God upon his life. And it was a gift. However, a gift without character, seasoned through brokenness, will be a train wreck eventually.

And we've seen some of that even in our. In the last several years in our nation, and even some local. In other words, you can be gifted and have a talent, whether it be a preaching gift or a singing gift or, you know, a gift of prophecy, whatever that gift might be, and it might even be a legitimate gift. But I'm gonna tell you something. If you're not broken and humble.

Humble, and if you don't have people around you that can deal with you in love because they're broken and they're humble and they've got history with the Lord, then I promise you, you will be a train wreck. And what happens with train wrecks is collateral damage takes place, and you hurt a lot of other people. You See, there has to be that willingness to become vessels of honor in the house of the Lord. How do we do that, friend? We gotta die to ourselves.

We've gotta humble ourselves. We've gotta behold the holiness of Jesus. We've gotta realize that, friend, it's his anointing, it's his gift. It's his church, it's his people. We have no business spouting our own or putting our own.

Listen, we come in the name of the Lord, and we're not ashamed. If God's called you to be a pastor, then praise God, or an event, whatever that calling might be. Thank God for that. But, friend, it's not about your title. It's about the condition of your heart before the Lord and before his people.

So this deeper understanding. Let me read this to you. This is something that we've all read many times, probably. Philippians 2, 1, 11. If there is ever a picture of brokenness and humility and meekness, it's in Jesus, the Son of Man.

He was the Son of God. We know that. But he was also the Son of Man, right? He had to be for the sacrifice to be perfect, so that we might be ransomed or born again even tonight. Philippians 2.

I want to read 1 through 11 because it's just important for us to hear this again. Paul said so. If there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility. And you could replace the word brokenness in humility or meekness or brokenness.

Count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourself which is yours in Christ Jesus who listen. Who, though he was in the form of God, he was God the Son. In the Trinity, right did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

But he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming a obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. If there's ever a picture of humility and brokenness.

A perfect picture. It's the Son of man, the Son of God. God the Son, taking on human form, being birthed through a virgin's womb and living as you and I. Hebrews says that we have not an high priest which cannot be touched by the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. Listen. He knew temptation.

He knew betrayal. He knew what it was for that moment when his humanity for the first time was separated from the spirit of his Father when he cried, elo, elo le ma sabachtanai. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He knew separation from the Father as the Son of man. He knew pain and his friend.

He knew all these things, but he took that upon himself. He said, no man takes my life. I lay it down. The perfect picture of brokenness and humility. Listen, until we see that level of brokenness, we'll scratch our heads and wonder how we get.

Friend, the way we become broken before the Lord is beholding his willingness to be fully broken for you and me, that opens, that slams wide the door of first love and intimacy with him. And when you realize the price that he paid tonight to set us free, to set us even in this position in an amazing church. But we're not here because we deserve to be here. We're here because he made a way for us to be here.

Amazing people that love the Lord and love their community. Friend, this is why Jesus died. To prepare, equip and awaken a people through first love. To do the works of Jesus in our generation. For fueled by intimacy with him, to bring about the kingdom of God to bear on our generation.

That's brokenness and first. That's what it's all about. Yeah, it's about your personal walk with Jesus. But beyond that, it's about you and I in this small little increment called time that we have fulfilling the purposes of Jesus upon our lives that are revealed to us, especially when we get humble before him. You see, when you're humble, I heard Ronald Reagan say many years ago, remember him?

He was a president way back in the last century. I remember Ronald Reagan said 1. Ronald Reagan said one time, if we are not concerned who gets the credit, we can get a lot more done.

That's so true in the kingdom. Friend. Listen, I've pastored churches. I feel sorry sometimes for pastors. I feel sorry for my pastor.

I mean, there are so many people that come into churches that man, the first day they're there man, they are there just to transform the whole place. You ever met them? But strange enough, they've been to, like, 13 churches in the last 14 months, and they went to those churches to do the same thing. They're not broken, they're not humble. They're not intimate with Jesus.

They're there to be served and not to serve. They're there to be recognized and not to be humble. You see, when brokenness and humility become the air that we breathe, friend, then we begin to prefer one another above ourself.

Then we fall into a place of building up the body of Christ to do what God has called us to do in this hour, in this generation. So this willingness Jesus to become sin, the Bible said he knew no sin, but he allowed himself to become the perpetuation for sin.

Laying his life down, his willingly becoming sin and laying his life down on a cross. It was the ultimate picture of brokenness. Not only brokenness, but as the Son of man. This is. I can't get into this long because this is a whole other teaching.

There's also a deep place of trust, knowing that the Father would have to raise him back to life. You see, friend, when you live broken, you enter into a place of trusting God for everything. Can I tell you something? My responsibility is the cross. Jesus said, if you're gonna be my disciple, you pick up your cross.

He didn't say, my cross, your cross, and you follow me. My responsibility is the cross. His responsibility is the resurrection. And let me tell you something. Those that humble themselves under the hand of Almighty God, God will exalt them in due season when their heart is conditioned through intimacy with Jesus, even to do signs and wonders and miracles.

Those people. Listen, let me give you a story. I'll never forget the first time I went to India. It was back in 1997. We were there with a group of like 50 people and a couple of the leaders from the Brownshield Revival.

And we got there. So far from. It's actually my first missionary trip. I went all the way to India, and I jumped off the deep end the first day, the first time. So we went to India.

We were there 24 days. Darla remembers. When I got home, I wasn't sick at all in India, but when I came home, I thought I was going to meet Jesus. I was sick for a season, some type of all. They said, well, you got a tropical parasite.

What does that mean? Well, it about killed me is what it meant. But anyhow, the Lord brought me through that. About 40 pounds lighter, but he brought me through it. But anyhow, I'll never forget.

We got there and, you know, you get. And number one, I'll never forget the airplane that we're on from Mumbai or Bombay to Vishakhapatnam, the airport we flew into. So we flew into Mumbai on Delta. Then we got on Air India. And, you know, I think that plane was like a plane that maybe they used, maybe Pan Am, Remember Pan Am?

Or one of these other used, like in 1965 here or something. I mean, there was like duct tape holding the table in. I mean, literally. I mean, it was just like. I mean, it was pretty.

And I remember just taking off and the whole thing was just shaking. Like, one of the overhead things opened and, you know, a bag fell out, like, oh, my gosh. You know. So anyway, we. And then we start to land and I'm looking down at what they said was an airport.

I really don't even think it was like real concrete. It looked like just hard red clay or something. And we hit that Runway and, I mean, it just about knocked us out of the seat. It was so intense. But anyway, we made it through that.

We start deplaning and then they start getting our suitcases off and they bring them around to the front of this little terminal. And there's a group of little brothers there and Indian guys, and they begin to take our suitcases and tie them on the top of a bus and all this kind of stuff. And this one brother, I just noticed him, he was just working so hard. I mean, just climbing up and throwing suitcases up. They got all of our luggage there, and then we went to the place that we were staying for the time that we were there.

A friend of mine, Yaesu Potom Loving Care Ministries. And we get there and the first thing that happens, they sit us down on these white plastic chairs and they begin to bring, like a stainless steel bowl with water in it. And I remember this brother comes and he begins to. And I was like, please don't do that. He begins to wash my hands, like himself was washing my hands, like, I can do this.

They said, no, he really wants to serve you guys. So this one guy was just standing out to me and really stood out to me throughout the entirety of the time that we were there. Just such a servant. Well, a few days before I left, I was talking to a guy named. An Indian brother named Raju.

And I was asking about that brother. I said, has he worked for y' all long? He said, oh, no, he doesn't work for Us, So he's just serving here. I said, really? What does he do?

So that man has planted over 300 churches throughout India. Not only that, but he has so many documented signs and wonders and miracles in his ministry that oftentimes people will come just to be in his presence because he's so humble, but there's such a glory around his life. And I thought to myself, I mean, this guy was serving us more than anybody else there. But to me, it was a picture, a beautiful picture of a man who was humble and broken. A man that had so much love for even us, he didn't even know us.

But he was there to make sure that everything was right and everything was good. And I heard that story and I never forgot it. And his ministry, as far as I know, it's still going on. But his, his influence in the nation of India was so powerful. But again, this man was like the Lord.

He took on the form of a servant. You see, friend, that's the picture of brokenness. That we are willing to give our lives for the betterment of others. That out of our walk with Jesus, out of that intimate place with him that the Lord can use, and not only use, but he can trust us with his glory. He can trust us with his glory.

Let me give you a few more thoughts and then I do have three closing points. Tonight, due to the work of the Cross in our hearts, we become sons and daughters. And it is in this place of joyful brokenness that God can begin his process of godly promotion as our dreams and his eternal purposes for us begin to weld together. Friend, this. This is a trustwalk.

Listen, I would say some of you have had promises maybe that the Lord has given you and you're still waiting though, waiting for those to transpire or to come to pass. Friend, listen. Pour yourself deeper into your walk with the Lord. I told students for years, quit grasping for ministry, cling to Jesus, be obedient, and let him walk you through the doors that he has prepared for your life. This is the trust.

What brokenness brings you to trust. Because brokenness rescues you from self sufficiency and it brings you into that place to where, okay, God, and we still have a part. We have to pray. We have to get in the word. We have to, you know, do.

I'm not saying you don't do anything, but I'm talking about the purposes of God upon your life are not brought about because of your gifts and self sufficiency. Now, it's not wrong to prepare yourself in certain ways. But listen to me. Everything has to come through that place of intimacy with the Lord and that place of humility and meekness, recognizing by being poor in spirit that the Lord is the one that opens the door. Can I tell you something?

If you're the one that opens the door, you're the one that's got to keep it open. And that's hard to do.

I've said this for years. Gifting, anointing can open a door. But eventually you show up.

You understand? I mean, gifting can open a lot of doors for people, a lot of platforms for people. But watch somebody's life, eventually, if they're not broken and humble and meek in the presence of the Lord, eventually they show up and they take center stage and Jesus becomes a mascot and not a Lord and a Savior in their lives just to validate the fact that they think they're called to ministry. See, brokenness and humility keeps us dependent upon the Lord. Saves us from self sufficiency, saves us from pride and arrogance.

I'll be honest with you. When you've done this as long as I have, and even I know, Pastor J, I know that I have enough experience that I can live the rest of my ministry just by experience. You understand what I'm saying? And the word of God will not return void. But my greatest challenge in life is not preaching.

I don't. People ask me, do you ever have fear standing in front of crowds? And we've preached. I'll preach to a church of. I'll still go to church with 20 people in it.

If they're hungry for Jesus, I'll go. God opens the door. I preach to 10,000 people at a time. It's not about that. But.

But listen to me. I don't have a fear of the size of a crowd or anything, but I do have a fear every time I preach in the sense that I don't want to just come and just get a rehearse something that I know. I said, God, I want your heart to be revealed. I remember I was sitting with a man, some of you maybe know him, but he's with the Lord now, a guy named Bob Phillips. Bob was the associate pastor at Times Square Church under David Wilkerson for years.

And Bob worked with me at the Brownsville Revival School of Ministries, one of our instructors, and helped me in pastoral care. He was the director. Actually, I was the dean of students under him, a dean of men. But I remember I asked Bob one time, I said, bob, if there was any advice you would give a Young preacher at the time, I was very young. I was like 30.

30. He said, well, Keith, he said, I believe if you're really called of God and God's really on your life every time you minister, people should be more hungry for Jesus than they were before you ministered. So my purpose tonight is not to make us feel good, not for you to like me more. My purpose is that we would leave this place, say, I gotta have more Jesus, Lord, if there's areas in my life that I need to surrender more fully God, so that first love and brokenness will become the place I live and abiding God, and I'm speaking to myself right now too, then, Lord, whatever it takes, Lord God. In other words, you know, when you're 58, I mean, if you look at 58 years, you're 116.

So I mean, I realize I don't have, like, I'm not in my third. In other words, you get to a place in your life to where you begin to weigh out your days. And we should do that at every stage of our lives. But you gotta come to a place to where you're willing, as we sang, to surrender. To what?

To that first love experience with the Lord. Why? Because true surrender brings true freedom and kingdom effectiveness. This is what brokenness is all about. This is what it has to do with our first love.

So we in turn, when we see the cross, the price that Jesus paid, we un. Hear this unconsciously begin to cry out and ask for what God actually wants. We are not just servants, but we enter into sonship by knowing and experiencing the secret places of the heart of Jesus. He makes his ways known to us. Therefore we seek the kingdom and his righteousness and all things are added.

But listen to me, as followers and even some leaders, you know, and we're all leaders in a certain way. We're not all pastors, but we all remember, we all should be leading people to Jesus and we all should be discipling somebody, right? So on a certain level we're all called to lead in a certain level, some in different ways. But listen to me. I believe that we have to embrace the challenge of life and ministry.

And listen, the challenge is not to focus on the things that God gives us, but the glorious giver of the things. This constitutes brokenness and meekness. Peter said it this way. 1 Peter 5:6. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that the proper time he may exalt you or promote you.

Listen, brokenness is this vital purpose of God. Let me Just share this, and then we're gonna go real quick. We're not too long here before we finish, but we're gonna go to Matthew 5:3 in just a minute. You can put that on the screen if you have it, but let me just share this with you real quick.

Again. Brokenness brings you to use. Brokenness creates capacity. This is what I wrote. This.

I hadn't thought of this, but I wrote this this afternoon. It creates capacity. God's goal is not to leave us crushed, but to make us usable for his glory. So listen, listen. There are necessary, what I'll refer to as shatterings of the Lord.

Matter of fact, in Matthew 15, the whole, you know, the whole narrative about abiding in the Lord. I'm sorry, John 15, abiding in the vine. The whole narrative there has to do with the fact that without him we are nothing. There's nothing we can do. But listen, when it comes to capacity and usefulness, what does the Lord says?

Those that are bearing fruit, he cuts or he prunes them. He removes the parts that are no longer useful. Maybe the parts that were so glorious five years ago that you want to hold on to because that's what you were known for. But God says, you know what? Clip gone.

Why does he do that? So that we might bear more fruit. You see, capacity comes through pruning or shattering or brokenness. The ability to produce fruit is not in. And again, the danger is the anointing.

And the talent and the gift can be so good, whether that be in preaching or business, whatever or whatever it might be. And that gift might be so good. But listen, God's not gonna listen. God's so awesome. He's not gonna share his glory with any man or woman.

I'm gonna tell you something else. God is faithful to his own glory in every generation. So much so that if he has to raise up a child and speak to him to bring a generation to the awareness of who he is, he'll do that, friend. But when we come to that place, it's where we say, lord, prune me.

Remove more of Keith, especially the part that you used five, four, two, one year ago. But now it's become an idol that I want people to see and think how anointed and gifted I am. God cut it off so that I might have more capacity to bring forth the love and the glory and the beauty of Jesus into my generation. Whatever that takes, Lord. Whatever that looks like tonight.

So brokenness is what happens when the glory of God collides with the illusion of self sufficiency. Brokenness is what happens when the holiness and the glory of God collides or crashes with self sufficiency. It's a beautiful thing. A little painful at times because sometimes a little pain is necessary to set us more free so that we can be more effective. Right?

Alrighty. I'm going to give you three points so that I can close by eight. Praise God.

Three dynamics real quickly of brokenness or meekness. Number one, and I've mentioned this, but I'll just kind of bring this to a close quickly. Brokenness brings us or we come to the end of ourselves. Coming to the end of ourselves. Again, that doesn't mean that you don't have your own identity.

You don't have. Don't misunderstand me. It doesn't mean you just never acknowledge. No, I mean there's a healthy confidence that God gives us. It's in him.

And God gives you gifts and he'll. Don't misunderstand me. But you gotta come to the end of yourselves in the sense that you realize it's only for. From him and through him, Period. It's not the letters behind your name or after your name, Right?

So listen to me. Brokenness constitutes a death to our personal attempts at self, life and survival and identifies or catapults us into an identity as sons and daughters of God. It demands that we acknowledge our absolute dependence upon the Lord. I'll tell you what it does. It polarizes or brings to light the poverty of self.

You can really think you got it going on, man. I mean, you're bringing it home and then all of a sudden the glory and the holiness of Jesus and you're like, oh my God, help me Lord, Woe is me. Right? That's a healthy place because it equips you to do greater things in the Lord because you realize that it's all him. You see, coming to the end of ourselves does not only come through self denial or discipline.

Those are important. It is primarily brought about through the Lord, bringing us to the end of our own strengths, abilities and resources. God literally, the Bible even talks about this, has a pattern of hemming his children in the reality of God's divine pressure will produce deep brokenness and dependence. In the life of a true child of God, you cannot behold Jesus and not be broken. Number two.

Beholding and treasuring the sufferings of Christ. I've already talked about this, but listen. Philippians 3, 10 and 11. I'll just report that I may. Paul said, know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

I Wish I had 30 more minutes just to talk about fellowship and his sufferings. But let me just say this, maybe another time we can come back to this. What is Paul talking about? But I want to fellowship him in his suffering. Listen, Paul was not masochistic, right?

He wasn't some weird guy that just wanted to self mutilate and self. I mean, he wasn't a masochist. But Paul realized that there is a very, very distinct connection between persecution and the glory of Jesus. And Paul was a man who, he said, listen, even our outer bodies are decaying, right? But he said, inwardly we're being renewed.

He said. He said, listen, I've said it already tonight. He said, I bear scar. Can you imagine? Paul was beat five times with 39 lashes.

And if you know anything about a scourge or a cat of nine tails, they would put pieces of bone, maybe metal, they said. And can you imagine, like if Paul walked in here without his shirt? I mean, just the scar he bore scars in his body, friend, he understood all these type of things. And he's not saying that any of us will go through that. But he said, we have to be understanding to the things that Jesus went through.

And I'm gonna tell you right now, until the horror and the beauty of Calvary's bloody cross becomes a reality to us. Not just a place we visit when we get saved, but a place that conditions us through humility and thanksgiving unto our great and mighty and beautiful King of Kings who gave himself. Until we are willing to fellowship him in his sufferings, even by the Spirit and by our walk with Jesus, we. We are not safe to handle the glory of God. It is this fellowshipping of the sufferings of the Lord that conditions us for the kingdom that conditions us with his glory, that prepares us to be who God has called us to be.

And one more and we're going to pray. I'm going to have Pastor Craig come back. The glory that breaks us also remakes us. The glory that brings brokenness also brings restoration. Friend, listen.

Isaiah 61:5. I won't read it all, but again I already quoted this. But Isaiah beholds the Lord high and lifted up his immediate response. God, woe is me. I'm lost.

I'm a man of unclean lips. His brokenness was not rooted in personal sin. He was already a prophet. But it was rooted in the fact of finite Humanity responding to the glory of the Creator of the universe. It was rooted in the revelation that no matter how much a woman prays or how much we preach, how long we live for Jesus, how much we accomplish, how much we do for the poor, and all those things are great.

We should all be doing as much as we can. But all of that compared to the glory of God is squat, finite humanity. Our efforts, our religious displays, our outward external things that are so evident, our religious masks that sometimes we put on, compared to the glory of the Lord, they're nothing, friend. You see, the Lord broke Isaiah, who was already a prophet, and he remade him as a prophet that was safer in his hands and became even a greater mouthpiece for the glory of God. The glory, the holiness, the beauty of Jesus that breaks us is the same glory that remakes us and causes us to live in this incessant place of awe and wonder of who we are serving tonight.

Would you bow your heads and your heart before the Lord Jesus? You are ultimate in every way. There is none like you, Lord. Your ways are beyond description, Lord. Your truths never wane.

Your cross, your blood continues to prophesy that you are worthy of it all. Tonight, Father, as your people, we ask, Lord, for you to help us to be broken, Lord, in the sense that we we come to the greater revelation and understanding of our dire need for more and more and more of you, Lord. I believe our native cry tonight has got to be. There's got to be more. More of your love, Jesus.

More of your anointing. More of your beauty. More of your glory and your holiness. More of your long suffering. More of your mercy, God.

All these things that compose your nature, God. More of your fire. More of your spirit, Father, we pray for a fresh baptism of fire upon your people tonight to do the works of Jesus in this generation, Father. Burn away dullness, Burn away compromise. Burn away even secret hidden sins, Lord God, may your glory and your holiness just burn those things away.

As we surrender to you and as we behold you in your glory, Jesus. Father, we ask that you would have your way now. Come, Lord Jesus, and do what only you can do now, Lord, in Jesus name. Pastor Craig, thank you.