This is a sermon that was given on May 3, 2020. The service was conducted in our church parking lot because of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on public gatherings. Attendees were able to hear the speaking and music via FM radio in their individual vehicles. The sermon was based on 2 Chronicles 7:14 regarding the Lord's promise to respond to prayers of repentance.
Written Excerpts:
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV)
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray
and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from
heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Introduction:
If I were to choose one verse of Scripture that captures the point of
my message today, it would be:
Ephesians 5:14 (NKJV) Therefore He says: "Awake,
you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light."
Before I state why I quote that verse, let me share some of the
thoughts that have been on my mind lately. Ever since we have been in this government-mandated shutdown of our
society, I have purposely tried not to focus on it in my sermons. I think the first Sunday after we quit meeting for worship services I did
speak on a topic related to the quarantine and the virus, simply as a reminder
that God is still in control in spite of how much our world had been turned
upside down. But with Palm Sunday, Easter and the two Sundays since Easter I have
intentionally tried to steer away from the circumstances in order to focus on timeless
truths of the Gospel – resurrection and its implications, as well as the return
of Christ.
Today I want to share with you a burden that has been on my heart for
the last several weeks that is related to our current circumstances. A number of God’s people have been praying for a revival to break out
in our nation and bring about a true spiritual awakening and return to the
moral values of God’s Word as a result. But even more than praying for a return
to traditional moral values, it’s a prayer for hundreds and thousands of people
to come to genuine faith in Jesus.
I am going to say to each of us this morning, “If these circumstances
that we have been experiencing haven’t awakened us to the need to be ready for Christ's
return, then we truly are sound asleep spiritually. We definitely need to “awake
from sleep and arise from the dead” as Paul said to the Ephesians.
I have stated to a few people recently that our world has taken huge
leaps toward the kind of conditions that I believe will usher in the days of Christ's
return. The kind of world we live in today is not the same as it was 8 weeks
ago. It wasn’t a gradual change, it was a drastic change. If that hasn’t
grabbed our spiritual attention, then we are sound asleep or spiritually dead. We must realize that we need to be praying for revival harder than ever,
with more passion and desperation than ever before. We must seek the Lord for a
fresh outpouring of His holy Spirit so the church can be what He intended us to
be.
Therefore, I want to draw our attention today to this familiar passage
of Scripture in 2 Chronicles, which I read earlier. With the help of the Lord, I
want to consider several observations about the passage and make applications
to our current need for revival prayers.
The focus of our thoughts will be on verse 14, which is a classic text
for revival prayer.
1. The context of this revival promise includes:
1 & 2 Chronicles provide a religious history of the Davidic dynasty
from a priestly and spiritual perspective. (2 Samuel/Kings give a political history from a prophetic and moral
perspective.)
Chronicles was probably written by Ezra the priest after the Jewish
exiles had returned to Israel. It retraces the whole story of Israel’s history
up to the return from captivity in order to give the returned remnant a divine
perspective on the developments of their past. For these returning Jews, it was important to be reminded of the kinds
of warnings and promises that God made years and years earlier before they were
taken into exile.
The immediate context:
A. the prayer of Solomon for the dedication of the temple.
2 Chr. 6:1-11 – King Solomon blesses the people and gives a brief
history of God’s blessing to his father David and enabling the building of the
temple.
2 Chr. 6:12-42 – Solomon’s prayer of dedication including: God’s attributes
of omnipotence and omnipresence “Heaven of heavens cannot contain you;”
Hear the prayers of those who have sinned and pray; times of national
sins, drought, famine, plagues and pestilence, defeat from foreign armies,
exile, etc. etc. In all these situations when people pray – Hear them oh Lord!
B. God’s response to Solomon’s prayer.
7:1ff – God honors the prayer by sending fire from heaven to consume
the sacrifices, followed by description of the sacrifices and festival
observances.
(7:12-22) In this section God confirms that He has “chosen and
sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My
heart will be there perpetually.”
He confirms that He will hear the prayers prayed toward this place, but
He will send drought, pestilence and exile if His people forsake His law and His
ways.
In the midst of these warnings, God says, “If my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and
pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from
heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Notice that this promise is specifically given for the day and the time
that the people of God have turned away from Him and forsaken His law and His
will. It is a promise for times when circumstances are bad.
Now, I want us to notice these elements of the promise.
2. Elements of the Revival Promise
A. My people, called by my name.
His possession; identified by His character and nature.
This description clearly refers to the nation of Israel, God’s chosen
people, the children of Abraham. These are the people He has guided and
defended and provided for all through the generations.
The very reason they are in the situation they’re in is precisely
because they have abandoned their privilege and responsibility to identify with
His character and His nature.
Although this is specifically directed to the people of Israel, it can
be applied in a spiritual sense to all people of God.
B. Humility
Humility is a necessary approach to prayer. It requires humility to
even acknowledge the need for God’s help and it requires a spirit of humility
to acquire His help. God still does and always will “resists the proud and gives grace to
the humble.” (Jas. 4:6)
The conditions which the Jews were facing after their departure from God’s
Word were more than enough to drive them to their knees in humility.
The conditions that have been developing in our society for quite some
time along with the huge leap toward moral bankruptcy we have taken in recent
time ought to drive everyone of us to our knees in humility. We cannot solve our own problems. We must have divine intervention.
C. Pray and seek His face
An acknowledgement of dependence upon God and desire for His presence.
Seek His face implies seeking Him – not His gifts and blessings.
Praying and seeking presumes God’s existence and implies a passionate
desire for God’s response. Praying and seeking implies more than a casual prayer for the Lord to “bless
me today.” This kind of seeking, I’m convinced, involves some true soul-searching
and passionate longing for God. (Moses: “Show me thy glory!” – Spoken by a man
who had already been on the mountain talking with God.)
“A revival may be expected
when Christians have a spirit of prayer for a revival. That is, when they pray
as if their hearts were set upon it. When Christians have the spirit of prayer
for a revival. When they go about groaning out their hearts desire. When they
have real travail of soul.” ― Charles Finney (www.goodreads.com/quotes)
Our motive for revival prayer must
always be to know God and bring our own lives into greater harmony and alignment
with His nature. It must not be for the sake of making life more convenient and
pleasant.
“God will not be used as a
convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to
make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of heaven
as a shortcut to the nearest chemist's shop.” ― C.S. Lewis
D. Repentance (turn from wicked [sinful] ways)
“Sodom, which had no Bible,
no preachers, no tracts, no prayer meetings, no churches, perished. How then
will America and England be spared from the wrath of the Almighty, think you?
We have millions of Bibles, scores of thousands of churches, endless preachers—and
yet what sin!” ― Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries: A
Classic on Revival
God has always responded with judgment to those who turn away from Him
and engage their attention and their lives in evil and wickedness.
On the other hand, He has always responded with mercy and grace to
those who turn away from their wicked, sinful ways and return to Him and His instructions
for life.
God makes seeking and turning the preconditions for His response.
In my years of ministry, many times I have noticed people trying to
seek the Lord and pleading for His response to the undesirable conditions in their
lives, but they hadn’t turned from their sin.
I must remind all of us again today that God doesn’t respond to the
prayers and desires of people who persist in their sin. If we continue living
in direct disobedience to God and the principles He has given us in His Word,
then we cannot expect God to hear from heaven and provide the deliverance we
request.
It is useless to pray and ask God for His deliverance if we are
unwilling to turn away from the practices He has defined as sin.
E. Then, God will answer.
“I will hear from heaven”
With Forgiveness
With Healing (national meaning, spiritual application)
Conclusion:
I’ve never claimed to be a prophet, and I have always been reluctant to
make any predictions about the future. (I remember when I was growing up hearing many preachers predicting the
communists taking over America or any number of catastrophes.)
But I can’t get it out of my mind how fast we have moved in the last
8-10 weeks toward a world and a society we thought would never come in our
lifetime. So many natural disasters; this pandemic (even if you are of the
opinion that it has been blown way out of proportion); the rapid usurping of
power and control by governmental leaders; the exponential movement toward
national fiscal bankruptcy; etc. etc.
We need to be on our knees seeking God. We need to be confessing and
repenting from our own sins as well as our national sins.
Many of the things people have used as excuses to shut the Lord and His
work out of their lives – sports; work; pleasure; etc. has all been shut down
(at least temporarily). We need to take this as a clear “wake up!” call from God.
It is time to get serious about revival and seeking the Lord.
Closing Song: All for Jesus
