I. Introduction

A. How many of us have seen that show on PBS called “Antiques Road Show”? What do people do on that show? They bring stuff that they’ve found in their attics or garages or even in their living rooms that they think might be valuable. They’re all hoping that they have some secret, long-lost treasure that will make them rich.

B. There was such a time in ancient Judah. The country had undergone fifty-seven years of evil leadership under kings Manasseh and Amon. In fact, they were so evil that Amon’s own servants murdered him after only two years of rule. Worship of God was nominal or non-existent. The country was spiritually dead.

C. Things were different with Josiah, Amon’s son whom they made king in his place. Let’s read about him in 2 Kings 22. Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. 2 He did right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the way of his father David, nor did he turn aside to the right or to the left. 3 Now in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam the scribe, to the house of the Lord says, 4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest that he may count the money brought in to the house of the Lord which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people. 5 Let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen who have oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are in the house of the Lord to repair the damages of the house, 6 to the carpenters and the builders and the masons and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house. 7 Only no accounting shall be made with them for the money delivered into their hands, for they deal faithfully.” 8 Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan who read it. 9 Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought back word to the king and said, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” 10 Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. 11 When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. 12 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant saying, 13 “Go, inquire of the Lord for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

D. Did you notice the pattern here? Judah was just cruising along, thinking that they were doing okay, looking the other way so they didn’t have to deal with the evil in them, doing worship the way that pleased them. And yet what they were doing was so displeasing to God that He was ready to destroy them. One man had a heart after God, even if he wasn’t sure what that looked like. Josiah ordered some housekeeping and maintenance for the centuries-old Temple. Digging through the garbage and the rubble a treasure was found – God’s Word – the Law, the first five books of the Bible.

E. Digging through the junk they came across a special old book. Now I’ve got a fair number of old books in my office. I collect them. I even have one that’s about two hundred years old. Some of them are pretty special to me, especially the 1822 Swedish psalm book that came from my granddad. But none are as special as the book the Jews found in the garbage filled Temple. So they put it on display. Wrong! They read the book, God’s holy word, and they did more than read it – they allowed what was written to touch their hearts and change them. They mourned over their ungodliness and that of their ancestors. They moved swiftly to renew their covenant with God. They changed, and revival came to Judah.

F. What is revival? To be revived means to be brought back to life. I’ll never forget the words of Bob Cryder when he preached at Summer Conference several years ago – “in order to be revived, you have to have been alive in the first place.” The Jews had been spiritually alive earlier in their history. But a series of really bad choices left them spiritually dead. Not all of them, but most of them. But finally they began to make some good choices. Josiah was a godly man, limited in what he knew of God but willing to follow God his whole life. God led him to clean house, to get rid of all the junk in the Temple that was making true worship difficult. But Josiah had no clue about the real housecleaning God had in mind. When the book of the law was found, God’s Spirit moved Shaphan to read it. Then the Spirit moved him to read it to Josiah. What was their response? Brokenness and mourning. Listen to the message God gave to Josiah: “Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,” declares the Lord. They were broken hearted and mourned over their sin and over their future. They allowed God’s Spirit to change them because they were broken and mourning. Brokenness and mourning are precursors and predictors of revival.

G. When I went down to the pastors prayer summit last week, I knew I was hurting bad. I knew I was broken. I mourned over what could have been and what could be. But I wasn’t quite broken enough. God used His Spirit and His word to break my heart even more. You see, I had areas in my heart where I wouldn’t trust God to work, because I didn’t want to take a chance on hurting that way again. I was like the ancient Jews. And even when God took me down to the bottom, I thought I could just confess to Him, mourn privately with Him, and He would change me. Not a chance. On two occasions, once with the whole group and once with the Lebanon pastors there, I was a crying fool and confessed my need and asked for prayer. That’s when God began to change me. That’s when God began to bring revival to my soul.

H. All of us struggle with sin. And our sins have some different and some of the same names as those the Jews struggled with. We can classify all sin under one title and have it covered pretty well. Sin is idolatry, placing someone or something other than God in His place in our hearts and lives. The Jews worshipped idols, they sacrificed to them, they even burned their children alive to those idols. Maybe we haven’t done anything quite that bad, but sin is sin in God’s eyes. All sin separates us from relationship with God. All sin takes the place of God in our hearts and lives. The Jews were idolaters, and God broke their hearts about it. If you were to keep reading in 2 Kings 23 you’d see that they went through the whole country and destroyed idols, altars to idols and eliminated all who had led worship of idols. They knew that they were deserving of God’s worst punishment and that it would eventually come, but they returned to God and placed Him first in their lives. Their brokenness and mourning changed them during the lifetime of Josiah. Listen to what 2 Kings 23:25 says about him: Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him. What a great epitaph. Brokenness and mourning brought joy and celebration – in fact, the Jews celebrated the Passover like it had never been celebrated. True brokenness and mourning bring new life.

I. Brothers and sisters, we are in the same situation Judah was in. We need revival. We need to be brought back to life spiritually. We need to allow God to break our hearts and to bring us to the point where we confess and repent of our sin to our brothers and sisters here. It isn’t enough to just confess in our hearts and repent in our hearts. God has always called for us to confess that we are sinners who need Him and to repent publicly. I believe that’s because, if we don’t do it before our fellow believers, we won’t allow Him to follow through. We allow pride to get in the way of true confession. We don’t want to look bad in front of each other – forgetting that we’re all in the same boat – we’re all sinners who need to confess and repent. We all have a need to be broken and mourning with one another because of what we’ve missed out on and what we’ve done. We have to deal with those two issues before we can focus on what God is going to do. Every single revival that has ever come, whether in the Bible or in later times, has started with brokenness and mourning over sin. Every single one. We have to allow God’s Spirit to break us to the point where we’re willing to allow Him to do whatever He wants to with us.

J. What’s keeping us from revival? Sin. Pride. Selfishness. Arrogance. A feeling of spiritual superiority. A lack of brokenness and mourning. All these and more that are common to man, and yet an even greater element is missing – love. The Jews were revived because they returned to a radical love of God. The church in Ephesus was warned to return to their first love of God, but didn’t and no longer exists. They didn’t return to their first acts of devotion. The Jews did. They loved God and showed it in their changed behavior. Two weeks ago we talked about being sanctified, allowing God to fill us with His love to overflowing so that we can love Him with all we are and love others with His love. God’s love always changes the way we act toward Him and toward each other. God’s love is both here with us now and is waiting in even greater measure when revival hits.

K. God wants to revive us. To be honest, I don’t know what that looks like. Each revival in history has looked a little different from the others. But the common thread has always been brokenness and mourning over sin and a return to a radical love for God and for others. We need to be revived, to be brought to life again. I know we’re all wounded. All I wanted to do when I went to the prayer summit was to crawl into my little emotional cave and defend my wounds to the bitter death. I did not want to hurt the same way again. I did not want to be vulnerable to being hurt again. All I wanted was to pretend everything was okay and repel any challengers. But I’m here to tell you today that the only way to new life and healing is brokenness and mourning. You have to hurt a bit more before you can heal. God has to break your heart before He can make it anew.

L. Right now I am before you as a man who in some respects is more broken that I’ve been in quite a while, but at the same time who is more healed than I’ve been in years. I’m not totally there yet, but God is working in me. God is filling me with His love. He is helping me to maintain brokenness before Him while at the same time rejoicing in Him and what He’s doing in me. God is longing to revive you. Are you longing to be revived?

II. Conclusion

A. If you are willing to allow God to break your heart so that you can be revived, there is one simple step of obedience to start with. If you are willing to allow God to break your heart so that you can be revived, swallow your pride, come forward and begin to receive what God has for you. As Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Come forward now.