When we began Times Square Church in 1987, we quickly realized we were pastoring in a modern-day Corinth, one of the most carnal areas in the world in New Testament times. Therefore, we had to preach a convicting message that would awaken hearts. When we first opened our doors, our services were attended by many Christians who worked in the entertainment industry on stage and in television and film. Some had chosen to stay in careers that clearly dishonored the Lord.
I believe that deep, abiding joy is largely missing in much of the church today. I have heard Christians say, “We prayed down a revival in our church.” Yet revival cannot happen by prayer alone. There cannot be any such awakening unless people hunger diligently for God’s Word. And they must wholly commit their lives to being governed by the Scriptures. We cannot obtain heaven’s joy until the pure Word has convicted us of our backslidings.
“The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). At the time these words were proclaimed, the Israelites had just returned from captivity in Babylon. Under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, the people had rebuilt Jerusalem’s ruined walls. Now they set their sights on reestablishing the temple and restoring the nation.
As Christians we know Jesus is the only hope for the world.
Paul speaks of this hope when he writes: “Remember . . . that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens . . . strangers from the covenants of promise, having NO HOPE and without God in the world. But now . . . you . . . have been brought near by the blood of Christ. FOR HE HIMSELF IS OUR PEACE” (Ephesians 2:11-14, my caps).
Brokenness is to give up all hope of attaining heaven by any measure of personal goodness. It is to lay down all trust in our own efforts. It is turning wholly to the victory of the cross of Christ, believing he is the only way. Finally, it means trusting him to empower us through his Spirit to live up to his claim on our lives.
We need brokenness and humility to keep walking in faith: “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18).
Jesus was resurrected as our only righteousness — our only way to please God.
The Father said of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). The apostle Paul reminds us of this again and again throughout his epistles, teaching that Christ alone is our righteousness in God’s eyes.
In obedience to God, Abraham took his son Isaac to a mountain to offer a sacrifice. Along the way Isaac asked his father, “Where is the lamb for sacrifice?” Abraham answered with faith: “My son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8). And God did, leading Abraham to find a ram caught in a brush.
Abraham’s faith speaks clearly to us today, just as it spoke to Isaac: “If only you had been looking, you would see God provide for the sacrifice.”
David often wrote about brokenness in his psalms. He spoke of God’s nearness to those who are broken: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit” (34:18).
What incredible promises our Lord has given to those who are broken in spirit. He pledges to dwell with all who have been broken and revive their hearts.
When Paul appeared in court he heard outlandish charges leveled against him: “This man is a political zealot. He’s a troublemaker, stirring up the Jewish population worldwide. And he is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes and provokes great crowds against Rome. He is guilty of sedition!”
This was all a trap set by his opponents, yet Paul saw an even bigger trap: Satan himself was trying to get him off his central message of Jesus.
Paul wrote, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
He lived in a time when factions in the church abounded on the left and right, and they fought bitterly. Paul responded to the conflict by saying, “I have nothing to do with this. I am here for one purpose: to live and preach Christ crucified and risen. As a servant of the Lord, I refuse to get entangled in such things.”